World departed Oh! the strippings of all needless Apparel and the forsaking of superfluities in Meats Drinks and in the plain self-denying Path we walked having the fear and dread of God on our Souls that we were afraid of offending in word or deed our Words were few and savory our Apparel and Houses plain being stripped of superfluities our Countenances Grave and Deportments Weighty amongst those we had to do with Indeed we were a plain broken-hearted contrite spirited self-denying people our Souls being in an unexpressible Travel to do all things well-pleasing in the Sight of God for our great concern night and day was to obtain through Jesus Christ the Great work of Salvation and thereby an assurance of the everlasting Rest and Sabboth of our God and in those days Oh! the unexpressible Labour Travels and spending of the Strength of these Servants of the most high God in great Assemblies in that City and Countries round about our Meetings were so large that we were forced to meet without doors and that in Frost and Snow In which Meetings Oh! the extending of Voice of these Servants of God to reach over these great multitudes when several thousands have been assembled together and as the Work of the Lord increased so the Enemy was at work in Priests and People in those dayes who stirred up the Youth of the City into a tumulting like the men of Ephesus and once we had a very great tumult that the Streets were crowded and these two Servants of the Lord were seized upon by the multitude and were in great hazard But the Lord signally delivered them as in dayes past he had done his Servants on such occasions and all came to be quieted and our Meetings peaceable and many grew in Grace and in the Knowledge of God and Christ Jesus which is Eternal Life much more of particulars I might write but affecting brevity for several reasons I say in short such was the effectual working of the Almighty Power of God and makings bare of his Arm of Salvation that attended those Servants of the most High and the great work of our Gospel meeting with the various Trials and exercises that attended them and us that were the fruits of their Labours in the Lord that my Tongue cannot express what I was an eye and ear witness of and a Soul sharer in Therefore to the God of this bright Morning of our day of Visitation ariseth springs up as in Covenant with himself through Christ Jesus holy heavenly high Praises Might Majesty and Dominion is ascribed to the Lord God and the Lamb. So let it be saith my spirit in fear and trembling through Ages and Generation for ever and evermore Ameu And now dear Friends every where but more particularly in and about the City of Bristol who have seen the Morning of the day of God break forth in our Age as aforesaid and by the divine Light thereof have seen the darkness that has covered the people expelled in which darkness people have been Ignorant of the true and living God and his precious work of Salvation in which ignorance they have performed their worship even in the same nature that they are sinning and rebelling and grieving the Good Spirit of God which all ought to be subject too now it pleasing the divine Being in his infinite love and tender pity and compassion to look down upon us whilest in the Land of Egypt and House of Bondage spiritually and to send forth his Light and Truth to give us a sence inwardly of the deplorable states of our Souls in the separation from and depravation of the enjoyments of the Lord which sence and sight begat in us living Breathings and a holy Cry after the knowledge of him we saw our selves ignorant of and he in the fulness of the Dispensation of time visited us as afore mentioned of which dear Friends we were right glad although when the Lord discovered our states he laid Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet and gave to us the Cup of Trembling in which was the Wine of Astonishment which was in mercy to our Poor Souls that could not be redeemed but by Judgment poured on the nature that had separated us from God and on us as joyned thereunto and here although Sin revived we begun to dye to it O Good day and precious season worthy worthy both to be remembred by us and our Off-spring through Generations for although it was the season of the Administration of Condemnation yet was it glorious and in this season the Almighty God by his spiritual Trumpet sounded to us that the end of this his spiritual Appearance was to root out lay waite and utterly destroy the nature of Sin and Iniquity that had divided and separated us from God and hindred the good things from us of his Heavenly power and Kingdom and we were perswaded the set time was come for clensing and sanctifying the Temple and fitting it for the pure immortal God and did not we begin inward as in the day of Hezekiah that the Temple might be clensed throughly in every part for in the outward Temple they clensed first the inward part of the House of the Lord and so came along to the Porch until the Temple was throughly clensed Indeed in the Morning of our precious Day of Visitation the Ax was laid to the Root of the corrupt Tree and the Hammer to the hard Rocky Heart and the spiritual Fire kindled in the Stubble Now dear Friends in the Word of Truth I say unto you search with the holy Light of Christ Jesus how this work has prospered in your Souls see whether you that knew a right beginning first in the inward part have come along faithfully in the work of Sanctifying the Heart and the Temple from the inward part to the outside see whether the Root has not escaped the Ax the rocky Heart the Hammer and the Chaff the Fire for if it has the cause is not in the Lord nor in his Power but in your disobedience and negligence going from the Ax Hammer and Fire and so sparing the best as disobedient Saul and Israel did so the Root of bitterness sprang up against the work of God and bringings forth of his heavenly wisdom To the holy plain speaking Witness of God I speak earnestly desiring and entreating all to have a single regard to that which will duely and rightly apply these things and let all see whether that nature be alive that the holy Power of the Lord did work against in the beginning and if so see the cause which being seen will deeply humble and seize on the spirits of all concerned Oh! what a day have we had how has the good Husbandman been at work in his Vineyard how did he plant in a fruitful Hill with the choicest Vine he digged pruned and gathered out the Stones and Hedged and Walled about and after all he looked for good Fruit but where the unspeakable
largely discourse of things relating to Religion and the Duties thereof in so much that amongst a Society then gathered or separated from the common National way of Worship he became an eminent Teacher and highly esteemed of amongst them and not only so but many times he would have gone to Chappels or the Parish Steeple house where there was some Idle Sottish Priests and there would have Preached and abundance of People was taken and affected with him and in great Multitudes would have flocked after him Now being grown upward of twenty years of Age he took to Wife a Sober Vertuous and Religious Maid of the same Separated Society called Ann Newby of Kendal and the Lord made them a great Comfort and Blessing each to other while they both lived together which was about thirteen years Since the Death of her Husband the Lord by his Providence hath Blessed me with the enjoyment of her being given me to Wife But in the fulness of God's appointed time as aforesaid the Lord sent his Messenger and Servant George Fox and by the Message of Life by him Preached in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ This John Audland was reached the first time that ever he heard him and he received George Fox into his House being fully satisfied that he was one that possessed what he himself had but a notion and profession of and then by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Light of God's eternal day he came to see the emptiness of his great Profession and high flown Notion and that all his own Righteousness was but as filthy Raggs Dross and Dung so that he sat down in silence and astonishment like Job for many daies and great and weighty was the Work of the Lord upon his Spirit being as a Man stript of all his earthly Wisdom and his Profession being confounded and brought to nought under the exercise of the Hand of the Lords Power he did Mourn and Weep bitterly biding adieu adieu to all the World and all the empty Professions therein a great Hunger and Thirst the Lord having raised in his Heart and Soul for a Saviour one of a Thousand that could give a Ransom for his Soul and redeem him from the Pit of Corruption for he saw all his great Profession all his Wisdom and Knowledge could not help him but it was the Lord alone that his Soul Thirsted for who heard his Cries and Mourning in a time acceptable and in a day of great compassion and revealed his saving Health and redeeming Arm of eternal Power in alarge measure by which he raised him up fitting and filling him with all Wisdom and Strength for the performance of that Work and Service that the Lord had predestinated himfor and to be concerned in to the Glory of his eternal Name in gathering home the out-casts of Israel and the dispersed of Jacob who had been held under a strange King in great and most grievous Bondage to which Work the Lord in a short time called him anointing him to Preach and Publish Redemption in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Poor and deliverance to the Captive exile the Year of Jubile And the day of Vengeance upon the Wicked in which Work he was found faithful being filled with power and might from on high and girded with the strength of the Almighty And leaving all outward concerns and enjoyments he faithfully Travelled through many parts of the Nation and the Dread Wisdom and Majesty of the eternal God was with him and the mighty and high exalted ones bowed before the Lord and his Power in all places wherever the Lord called him and many Hundreds were Convinced and turned to God through him as a chosen Vessel and prepared Instrument in the Hand of the Lord of Hosts Glory Glory to God for ever saith my Soul The blessed remembrance of this mighty and notable day of the Lord and the splendant breaking forth of his Glory in the Morning thereof in this Nation often and at this time breaks my Heart and makes my Spirit rejoyce in the God of my Salvation and his eternal Power and Presence that was with this and other of his faithful Servants in the first Publishing of the Gospel in this our day can never be forgotten by many but the great and blessed Work that the Lord hath wrought by the Arm of his holy Power revealed in and through his Servants is greatly to be admired for ever for many thousands of his Israel hath the Lord gathered and brought home that were afar of and hath given them a City with Foundations whose Walls and Bulwarks is Salvation in which Praises waits for him and is sounded sorth unto the Lord and the Lamb that sits upon the Throne Reigns for ever more As he was diligent and laborious in the Work and Service of the Lord in many parts of the Nation so was he furnished for that Service as the effects and Fruits thereof hath abundantly demonstrated in many places where the Lord made him as a Father through the Word of his Power and Spirit to beget and turn many to God but most especially in and about Bristol and several Counties in the West of England where many can speak and bear Testimony to the effectual working of that Word of Reconciliation that God had given him to publish by which they were turned from Darkness to the blessed Light thereof In those Countries and many others his Labours and Travels were great being often accompanied by my Father John Camm as long as he had strength outwardly to Travel their Hearts being firmly knit together as David and Jonathan by the Bond of unspeakable Love their very Lives being endearedly bound up in each other in which Bond of Love their Unity was kept inviolated unto the end whereby their Labours and Travels together were-very comfortable and joyous being perfectly of one heart and spirit and minding the same things the glory of God and the gathering of his Israel in which Service they spent their daies strength After my Father John Camm grew weak of Body and at last was taken away Oh how John Audland would often bemoan the loss of so dear a Companion and faithful Brother he being left behind to bear the Burthen of many weighty Travels and Concerns yet through and over all the Lord assisted him to the end I was from my Child-hood very intimately acquainted with him and loved him with a Brotherly Love before we were brought into the blessed Way and Life of Truth as now revealed after which we became more inwardly acquainted and endearedly bound up together in a more Heavenly and Spiritual relation the Fellowship therein being our Life and Joy and therefore can give a certain account of the Gift and Graces of God by which he was adorned and beautified inwardly and outwardly He was a Man beloved of God and all good Men and esteemed of by most that knew him of a
Mercy and loving Kindness of the Lord has not been answered behold sower Grapes and wilde Fruit was brought forth and what was the consequence of it Was it not the taking away the Hedge through which it was eaten up and breaking down the Wall thereof and it was trodden down Read see feel and consider and the Lord God Almighty visit you in your Habitations and secret Chambers in his holy dread with his searching Life and piercing Word of Power who in his tender infinite Love and Mercy long-Sufferings great Bowels to his Seed and Off-spring visited us in his pure morning aforementioned to give all the sence of their inward states as they are in his sight from whom nothing can be hid And now dear Friends the cause of the hindrance of the prosperity of the work of the Lord in the Souls of any hath not been from any cause in God or deficiency in his Light Power and Wisdom but from the Creatures going out of a capacity of receiving and enjoying the working Power of God in which Salvation is worked out by all that wait for it and joyn with it and cleave to it and not forsake it for I have learned of the Lord through many exercises unexpressible that after the Visitation of the Almighty to any Soul the Lord requires an inward worthy receiving his Love spiritual Watch to be kept in his holy Light in which all the workings and approaches of the destroying Adversary of the Soul is discerned and the enlightned and obedient mind is preserved and through the spiritual fence given in a tender waiting on the Lord in the inward part supplicating breathings ariseth to the living eternal God of Love and Compassion who beholding the want of the Soul descends in his Love and reaches forth his helping Hand to the broken and contrite Hearted and lifts up the bowed down Spirit with the liftings up of his holy spiritual Standard so the Temptation and Assaults of the Enemy is vanquished and overcomse and the Power of God is felt in thoe that descend with it in humility to be working on the Root as an Ax and on the Rocky as a Hammer and Chaffy as a Fire Now Friends when there is an abatement of the inward and spiritual care and a gradual lessening of the inward watchfulness then the mind becomes both unworthy and uncapable of the enjoyments of the Power of the Lord that begun and carryeth on the Work of the Lord so then the Enemy comes as not seen through the minds being out of the holy Watch in the Light the nature that was wounded comes to be healed again and ease given to that which should be destroyed so the Enemy perceiving where the weakness is and how and by what means he has gotten a little enterance he endeavours in all subtilty and vigilency by presenting matters and subjects to lead by degrees out of a watchful state and according to every degree of digression he brings over the once enlightned mind a proportion of darkness and deceiveableness of Understanding and insensibility of Spirit in the in ward feeling part of the subtilty of the Enemy of the Soul who thus works that with the declining there may be a proportion of benuming all the inward sences of Seeing Hearing and Feeling and then again he has Mankind in a state fit to work upon by drawing them out by his Power to act and bring forth that which he sees them most capable of and which there is the greatest inclination in their natures to go into hence Schisms arise in Judgments which the wrathful part in Man getting into he works by the way of a fierce management with a sort of Zeal but not according to Knowledge in which the power of the Enemy works up at last into a Schism and the Enemy is never wanting to present matters to the mind as just for the Creature to be blown up with which ends in dishonouring the Lord and his precious Truth and hurting and harming others until the Enemy has worked his end by such Instruments bringing them into an Alienation from the Life of God into a worse state then the tender day of God's Visitation found them in and so if not humbled under the mighty Hand of God and returning they are exposed to Shame and so dies away under the Wrath of God. Now dear Friends the Enemy of Sions Prosperity works variously according as he sees where he may get an entrance by proportionating his Snares to the inclinations of every one as before is hinted c. Where he sees an inclination in any to be taken with the earthly things there he works subtilly to captivate the mind and draw it out of the watchful tender spiritual state into a false Liberty both to the affections to the things acting and possessed and in the conversation amongst Men others into superfluities in Meat Drink and Apparel on themselves and houses and such their comforts stand most in outward things and by degrees are swallowed up of them and the Pleasures Lust and Delights below and so they dye to an inward Life of watchfulness and freshness which is preserved in fear and dread in keeping the holy Watch and in the spiritual Cross which Crucifies to the World and the World to it Now dear Friends here is our spiritual Incouragement viz. The same that through Death to Sin made us alive to God as we abide under the leadings and teachings of it keeps us alive to him in a growing increasing fresh flourishing state for as we delight in his eternal Law of Life we grow as Willows by the Water-courses of Immortal refreshings and Travel faithfully on in our spiritual Journey until we come to Sion the City of God and then are Enjoyers of the end of all our Tryals and Tribulations having overcome we see an enterance administred and that abundantly into the eternal Rest and Sabboth of our God. The Lord Almighty give all to enjoy this blessed Portion and goodly inheritance and let all see in this Age and the Ages to come all that which lets and hinders them taken out of the Way that the God of all our Mercies in whom is all our fresh Springs may have his Honour and Glory his Church and People through Ages the Comfort and Consolation Amen Amen C. Marshall A Testimony concerning the Precious Unity of the Spirit in Christ Jesus THe Unity of the Spirit is so precious a vertue and glorious a Qualification in all the Churches of Christ Jesus that whilest the people of the Lord did abide therein in every Age they were in a thriving flourishing sweet and glorious station for as long as they truely held the Head Christ Jesus and kept in Unity with him Unity and Amity was preserved amongst them in their several stations and services as Members of one Body c. Of which Unity David speaketh preciously and comprehensively saying Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in
unity it s like the precious Ointment on the head that ran down upon the Beard even Arons Beard and went down to the Skirts of his Garment as the Dew of Hermon and as the Dew that descended upon the Mountains of Sion for there Mark the Lord commanded the blessing even Life everlasting This was the state the holy Power of the great God gathered a people into For concerning them it is left upon record they continued daily in fellowship and that with one accord Now dear Friends we clearlysaw felt and understood in the precious Morning of our tender Visitation that the same ancient Power of the Lord that wrought powerfully first to disunite us from the nature which separated us from God and then to bring us up into unity and fellowship with himself in his dear love and therein one with another For here ever was and is the the Foundation of the true Unity even that of the Spirit in which love the Body edifies it self and is increasing and building up a holy Habitation for God through the Spirit so then all abiding and growing up in the love of God and walking with him in the divine nature Unity encreaseth amongst all the Members and Branches taken out of the wild-Olive and planted into and abiding in the Vine of Life Christ Jesus our Head and Law-giver and here the Church of Christ grew up into a state of being clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her Feet Ah! precious blessed sweet and glorious station But did it always thus continue in the Apostles dayes Ah! no the old Serpent the Enemy of mans welfare wrought powerfully and cunningly first to draw forth from the R oot of Life and out of the holy Love and spiritual subjection to this glorious Power that had gathered them to a daily inward walking with God and to draw out of a spiritual exercise of the Spiritual Cross and holy Watch as before has been demonstrated c. And then fruit from another Root was brought forth as the Reader may note in several Epistles and in John's Testimony to the seven Churches of Asia Then the Power of the Lord that had gathered them moved to exhort to put away bitterness Wrath Anger and Clamour Evil-speakings and Malice Ephes 4. And now dear Friends with your Lamps trimmed and burning look inward searching every corner of your Hearts that clear unto your own understandings every one of your states may appear as it is in the sight of the pure al-seeing God that so all the Enemies darknings and vailings and turnings aside by what way or means soever may be clearly with the Light of the Lamb seen and discovered And tender Friends those that have seen the sweet lovely precious stateof Unity and Concord that the excellent Power of the Lord God Almighty gathered into and was gathering into in the blessed morning of our day and the spiritual advantages comforts joy refreshments and divine Satisfaction that attended the Church of Christ in this true and spiritual Unity with our the Lord Jesus Christ and one with another and on the other hand Head the anxious exerising consequences of the Enemies prevailing to break unity and of the lamentable effects thereof so that all the true hearted sincere spirited to God cannot but on the on Hand admire prize and unexpressibly esteem the precious Unity And on the other hand greatly dread the turnings aside and going out of it For those who have kept their Habitation and lived to God as they have tasted and enjoyed the sweetness and beheld the amiableness of this Unity and Amity so they have felt the sorrows and anguish of the effects of the contrary which have caused them to go many days and months with bowed down Souls crying to the Almighty God of tender compassion Night and Day under the unexpressible weight thereof and the tender God of Love bowed his ear to the cry of the Poor and sighing of the Needy and has arisen in the might of his Power and the Majesty of his Glorious Presence hath relieved and his holy Arm has been made bare through which he hath redeemed his Darling from the Dog and his dear ones from the Devourer and still continues working to bring into this precious unity in the holy Light of Life with God in Christ Jesus and one with another And now dear Friends every where unto you and to the Generation coming after I have this Warning and tender Advice to leave behind me in the Name of my God that hath been with me in my Travels in his Power Work and Labour of the Gospel of Life and Salvation Keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and let none give way to a prejudicing Spirit which leads into secret Whisperings Back-bitings and such like evil and pernicious Fruits the working of which Spirit is like a Moth in a Garment dividing destroying spoyling and eating up for indeed as Sion is a City at Unity with it self under the seamless Garment of Christ Jesus and there all are well and safe growing increasing and flourishing so when the Spirit abovesaid prevails to draw out of Sions Gates and from within her Walls of Salvation Oh! what deplorable work and havock will it make in its Growth and Progress working as I said before of the Moth gradually and secretly first but as it prevaileth and increaseth in its growth and strength it will appear as a roaring devouring Lyon seeking whom it may devour and swallow up Here comes in Pride and haughtiness of Spirit puffed up with the abundance of injoyment of outward things Emulations Heart-risings evil Jelousies Bitter-speakings Detractings and abundance of evil Fruit ariseth from this evil Root of Bitterness which Root and Fruit is to be brought under and sunk down under the eternal Judgment of the holy glorious sweet Power of the Lord. And therefore Friends I say unto you in the Name of the Lord God eternal let none give strength or any incouragement or nourishment any way to this Spirit in any of its murthering workings in any Heart but let it be looked on as a Vagabond and Fugitive in the Earth and so as it is kept out of the Camp of God and from Israels dwellings by the sweet living bright Power of the great God of heaven and earth it will perish under Truths Judgement set up in every soul and so the nature thereof as well as its evil rending and dividing fruits will be worn out and destroyed for ever And then all keeping in the first love pure fear living awe and holy dread fearing to offend our God and tender Father persevering in an inward keeping the holy Watch and abiding in Subjection and Obedience to the spiritual Cross in staidness of Mind soundness of Judgment and clearness in Understanding you see Comprehend and Fathom all the Enemies Devices Temptations and Snares and the Lord God beholding you in a stedfast Habitation of Obedience and spiritual tenderness before him
THE MEMORY OF THE Righteous Revived Being A brief Collection of the Books and written Epistles of John Camm John Audland Those two faithful and honourable Servants of the Lord who were called to the work of the Ministry in the morning of Gods blessed day dawned in this Generation and with other Brethren bore the heat and burden of the day faithfully to the end and finishing of their Course being entered into the joy of their Lord. Together with several Testimonies relating to those two Faithful Labourers Published for the Service of Truth and Friends By Thomas Camm Charles Marshal Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars forever and ever Dan. 12. 3. The memory of the just is blessed Prov. 10. 7. The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Ps 112 9. London Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoredich and at the Three-Keys in Nage-Head-Court in Grace-Church-Street 1689. Thomas Camm's TESTIMONY CONCERNING John Camm and John Audland DEar Friends and Brethren in the fellowship of the eternal Spirit who are born again of the Immortal Seed my Life greets you all in the Lord and in his Love communicates what follows unto you wishing that all Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ may forever be multiplyed upon the whole Israel of God. Several Years it hath lived upoâ— my Spirit to collect and gather 〈◊〉 the Books and Writings togeâ—â—â—â— with some of the Labour◠〈◊〉 Travels of John Camm and John Audland those two eminent faithful and truly honourable Servants of the Lord Jesus in the Work of the Ministry to which they were called and chosen in the morning and breaking forth of that blessed and everlasting day in this our Age and Generation I say this concern hath lived with me though hitherto hath been obstructed partly in hope that some other might have undertaken the same work whereby I might have been excused and partly through the Service and Travels the Lord hath measureably concerned me in on the behalf of his Truth and People in late years But now being it hath fallen to my lot in Truths Testimony to be called to suffer Imprisonment and thereby at present freed from some of the aforesaid Service and Travels and the said concern hitherto resting upon my Spirit I was made willing to set to the Work being partly helped by others as to gather and transcribe their Books and written Epistles so many whereof as we could meet with are inserted hereafter in their proper places so near as we could being several of them without dates As for their Labours unwearied Travels Exercises Fastings Watchings Buffettings Scornings and Perils many ways and upon several occasions in full I cannot relate but shall give the Reader a short hint of some part of them as they may be brought to my remembrance in the following Testimony which lives upon my Spirit to bear for the Lord in the behalf of them as made Instrumental in his hand through the strength of his holy and eternal Arm of Power to and in them revealed to the exalting of his own Glory and the publishing of his everlasting Gospel-glad-tidings to the Poor and Redemption to the Poor and Redemption to the Prisoner of Hope in which blessed Work his Strength girded and his Power supported them in all faithfulness to presevere to the finishing of their Course here and having fought the good Fight they are entred into his everlasting Joy and Rest where they are freed from their many Labours Tryals and Exercises and their Works follow them glory to God for ever John Camm as he was my Father according to the Flesh so was he also a spiritual Father and Instructor of me in the way of Truth and Righteousness the which through the operation of the Word of Life measureably revealed in me in my Childhood became effectually to my Confirmation in that blessed Way for his tender eare was great for the Education of me and the rest of his Children and Family in the Nurture and Fear of the Lord and as he was sharp and severe in reproving every appearance of evil yet with Wisdom Gravity and great Discretion the which appeared also in his encouraging and strengthing every appearance of God in his Children Family and all People being an especial example in his life and conversation The place of his outward Birth was at Camsgil within the Barrony of Kendal in Westmoreland which place hath been possessed by his Ancestors long before him As for his Parentage and Education I shall not say much more then that it was honest and of good report as any of that degree in that par of the Country as many can testfie as also that he from his Childhood was inclined to be Religious and sought after the best things and ever since I can remember he was one that joyned in society with them that were the most strict and upright in the performance of religious Duties and ordered their lives most according to Holiness and Righteousness He having seen beyond the national Priests and their empty lifeless Forms and so separated from them still pressing forward towards a further manifestation and revelation of the Way of Salvation which his Soul hungred and thirsted after and therefore he with many others who were under the same sence of hunger often met together amongst themselves and some openings from the Lord several of them had from which they could have declared excellent things having some sight or comprehension thereof yet wanted the inward possession of the Vertue Life and Power of what they declared of and in this state continued many days But the fulness of time being come wherein the Lord in his everlasting loving-kindness did cause his day to spring from on high and his Light to break out of obscurity and his glorious eternal Gospel to be preached again upon the Earth and particularly in this our Nation having heard the cryes of the Poor and the sighings of the Prisoners in the Pit even then the Lord called and anointed several for his Work and Service to publish this blessed day to bring Glad-tidings and proclaim the Year of Jubile And first and more especially he called forth and made choice of his dear Servant and faithful Messenger to the Nations George Fox and sent him into the North Country and particularly into Westmoreland near Kendal where there was a Field white unto the Harvest a People ripe to be gathered who as abovesaid were separated in measure from the Worlds Worship and empty dry Forms of Religion in many things and met together as aforesaid having several that were become Teachers amongst them but the chiefest John Audland and Francis Howgil
and the voice of a Stranger And by the Spirit of the living God are we gathered up together up to God to worship him in Spirit and in Truth and are of one Heart and of one Mind and of one Soul and have all one Teachers and peak all one thing And we being all taught of the Lord are far from Oppression though we be Oppressed and for the Truths sake was I moved of the Lord to lay this before thee that our Conditions may be known that the Truth may not suffer under the reproach of the Heathen who live after the Flesh and Persecute them who live after the Spirit A word more to clear thy mistake when we spoke unto thee that the Lord would make thee an Instrument in his Hand to establish the Gospel wherein thou apprehendest us that should be established by an outward Law that was not our desire nor we spoke no such thing but we witness the coming of Christ in his Kingdom is not by Might nor Power nor Pomp nor Glory from without nor by any Law which is in the will of Man but our desires were that there should be no Law upon Religion for it needs no Law to defend it for pure Religion and undefiled is this to loose the bands of Wickedness and set the Oppressed free and take off every Yoke And where pure Religion is exercised this is the Fruits and if thou be guided by the pure Light of God shining in thy Conscience and the righteous Law set up in thy Heart and the Spirit of God thy Teacher then there need none â—â— desire thee to take away those Laws that ensnare tender Consciences and so they who pretend Conscience and are not guided by the pure Law of God will be seen by those who dwell in the Spirit to have erroneous Consciences and so this Law will take hold of them and the righteous Law is upon the Transgressor and limits the carnal Mind and fleshly Will but doth not limit the Spirit but is at Unity with it And therefore Friend to thy Conscience I speak and witness this to be true in the Presence of God that as thou art guided by this pure Light in thy Conscience and this Law of the Spirit set up in thy Heart thou canst not deny us for we are none of those which dispise Government and defile the Flesh who pull down others to set up themselves but all unfruitful works of darkness we deny and seek to advance the Government of Jesus Christ alone and love all and have unity with all who are here and honour all Men in the Lord and have fellowship with those whose Conversation is as becomes the Gospel of Christ and they who Rule and Live here cannot suffer any outward Law to take hold on us who stand in obedience to the Commands of Christ for there is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord sets free and commands obedience take heed how thou suffer any Law to limit that Spirit for they who are brought into the obedience of the Spirit are dear unto him as the Apple of his Eye and his care is over them and the Lord will free them from their Oppressors And thus were we pressed in Spirit to lay before thee our conditions and the conditions of our Brethren who are gathered into the eternal Unity where there is no Rent nor Schism that thou might not be ignorant of those things and to shew thee that our desire is not for any outward thing or self-advancing for all self we deny for we came contrary to our own will and we declare this unto thee contrary to our own will and if thou stand not in thy own will thou wilt hear us and own us in advancing the Lord Jesus Christ upon the holy-Hill of Sion that the Law might go out of Sion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem and this we wait to see accomplished and his promise fulfilled in those who govern the Nations that the Kingdoms of the World may become the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ And thus we have laid our selves naked before thee in the Presence of God and cleared our Consciences to thee and leave it to that which is pure in thy Conscience to judge Take heed for he that is in high Places is subject to many Temptations This I was moved of the Lord to Write unto thee who is a Servant of the Lord and a lover of thy Soul called John Camm For E. V. and the rest of the Flock of God in and about Banbury DEarly beloved Friends and Brethren in the eternal everlasting Covenant of Love and Life doth my Soul dearly salute you all who in your Measures keep in the same Love and Life and grows up in your stature which is well pleasing to God Oh my dear Hearts in the Life and Power of God which casts down Sin and slayes the enmity and gives you Victory and Dominion over the World which keeps you and preserves in the hour of Temptation which shall come upon all men upon the Earth to try them but you abiding in the pure Eternal living Measure of God dwelling in his Life and Power which is your Rock and hiding place shall be kept out of the same which the Enemy hath laid to take your Souls and here is your safe dwelling place so the Lord God of Power in his Life and Power keep you all in your dwelling place which is the Lord that with the Measure of him you may be guided which leads up into the Land of Righteousness into the Holy City where the uncircumcised and the careless and disobedient cannot come so with Bowels of dear and tender love unto you all who are Children of my Father and kept in his work I bid you farewel in the Lord and in him I am your dear brother for evermore John Camm My Wife and little Thomas dearly salutes you who are faithful in your places farewel As for my outward health it is much like as it was I grow weaker in the outward man but in the Lord is my strength and my support continually Glory and pure Praises be unto him for evermore Amen J. C. John Camm's Letter the 5th day of the 11th Month 1654. to Friends DEarly beloved in our Head and Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ our dear love in him Salutes you all yea truly the same love runs out unto you all who wait upon the Lord and abide in your Measures that we are loved with all of our Father and we are your Epistles written in your Hearts not with Pen and Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God and then you who are guided by the Light which comes from Christ Jesus may read us daily and truly you are dear and precious unto us as you abide and dwell in your Measures yea truly ye are our very Lines and the Seal of
Thou sayest no man since the fall of Adam can perfectly fulfil the Law of God in this Life and therefore cannot merit except it be wrath Reply For meriting the wrath it s thy own but Christ Jesus since the fall of Adam hath perfectly fulfilled the Law of God and there is Salvation in no other and the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit but by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified for the Commandment which was ordained unto Life wrought Death if thou can here thou may In thy sixth and seventh thou sayst that he that hath received a Ministry should wait on his Ministry and take heed to fulfil it and that every Soul must be subject to the higher Power and yeild obedience to every Ordinance of theirs if not contrary to Gods Word Reply Thou slanders us and rails upon us who hath received a Ministry from God and waits to fulfil it and thou receives such as come in their own Name who are made by the will of man and against such do we bear witness by the Power of God unto which our Souls is subject for Conscience sake and to every ordinance for the Lords sake which is not contrary to Gods Word Thou sayest thou art afraid that the Lord hath a controversie with the Church of England Reply Fearfulness surprizeth the heart of the Hypocrite and a controversie hath the Lord with you because of your iniquities misery is coming upon you fearful ones and unbelievers who are no Church of Christ but a Synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but are a giddy-headed Church as thou confessest Thou sayest Make not the Light within a rule to walk by and yet saith follow the Light within and Teacher within what else Reply The Light discovers thee to be in confusion they that walk in the Light stumbles not and they who love the Light bring their deeds to it and believes in the Light but their deeds are evil who hate it and walk not in it and there is thy condemnation Thou sayest He that entreth not in by the door to wit a true and lawful call but climbeth up some other way the same is a Thief and a Robber and such are the Quakers but he that entreth in by the door is the Shepherd of the Sheep and such are your ancient Divines Reply Here thou as in other places art a false accuser and a perverter of the Scriptures your Divines are not the Shepherd there thou are a Blasphemer who would set up false Christs the true Shepherd laid down his Life for the Sheep and he is the Door and them whom thou slanderest enters in at the Door where no Thief nor no Diviner can enter nor no Hireling which the true Shepherd cryed against And as thou sayest Thou will speak something to our Principles first for judging Reply Thou hast judged us to be Deceivers and Seducers and false Accusations against the Truth thou hast brought and against some in particular naming that John Audland was a Child of the Devil and yet thou hast confessed thou never saw me nor heard me but thou hast not proved wherein which I charge thee to do publikely or own thy condemnation for thy slandring lying and backbiting thy saying that it is so doth not make it to be so and that which thou calls confutation confutes thy self but proves nothing against the Saints judging them whom they saw and discerned to be unlearned for when an Unbeliever came in or one that was unlearned he was judged of all and the thoughts of his heart made manifest and this honour have all the Saints to execute upon the Heathen all the judgments written and the Scripture we own and the Saints Life by which thou art judged and with the Light condemned who judgest and acts against the Saints with that mind that is for judgment The Second is that they are not true Ministers which are called by mans Ministers or by a mediate call from man and this thou goest about to confute by saying that Christ ordained Apostles and Disciples And the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work of the Ministry and that there was Elders ordained in the Church and the like Reply These things proves nothing to thy mediate call or mans Ministry Christ is not born by the will of man and holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and no Prophesie came by the will of man Paul a Minister and Apostle not by the will of man and that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God and there is thy mediate call and mans Ministery which the Scriptures speaks not of what Christ did and the Saints did was by the Power of God and the Holy Ghost spoke to them no Voice of that is heard in thy mediate call or mans Ministry therefore denied by them who are guided by the Spirit of the Lord who receives not the Ministry of man but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ and that 's not mans Ministry The Third is that we are to salute no man. Reply this is thy own and in thy confutatiou thou answerst thy self for the Saints Salutation we own and honour all men in the Lord which is more than the Heathen do but we have learned not to fashion our selves according to the World and to deny the customs of the Heathen and their flattering Titles and vain fashions which is without the fear of God who have mens persons in admiration because of advantage and respects mens persons and commits sin and a difference do we put betwixt the Saints Salutation and the vain fashions and customs of the Heathen which Israel was not to observe The Fourth is that the Scripture oughe not to be expounded and that expounding of Scripture is an adding to Scripture and if we add then God will add to as all the Plagues that are written therein and in thy confutation saith Christ expounded Scripture Reply He that adds the Plagues is to be added to him as it is written but thy other words is false and thy own it is your own Imagination of the Scripture which we deny wresting it as thou hast done and adding with thy Envious Spirit against the Truth but that Christ expounded the Scriptures was never denied by us and that he opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures we own and witness and the Spirit of Christ is one in all his Saints and for the lye let it return upon thy own Head. Thy Fift is That it is not lawful to use the title of Master to any and in thy confutation thou saith Christ was called Master and where it is said Be ye not called Masters for one is your Master even Christ thou sayest the meaning is not that it is unlawful to be called Master Reply thou shews thy self to be none of Christs Servant who
which they ought to have done so are breakers of their Covenants and Vowes made in their Baptism which promised that they would forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh c. And that they would keep Gods holy Will and Commandments c. But now they offend grievously Gods holy Laws and leaves that undone which they should do c. And their Teachers tell them they connot forsake the Devil and all his works but their best Actions and their Prayers are Sin while they live and all Sin is of the evil One Therefore we dare not joyn with them to commit Sin But if it be said these are but humble Confession to God laying our selves low and confessing our Sins which we ought to do when we pray to him Answer either your Confessions are true or a lye If true then you are breakers of your Vows and in the Unconverted state yet therefore not the true Church Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not Inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 4 10 11. Be not deceived neither Idolators nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilars nor Extortioners can Inherit it in that state And said the Apostle to the Saints Such were some of you but you are Washed but you are Sanctified but you are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And if your Confession be a lye then you are also manifest to be a Company of Dissembling Hypocrites and to be of him who was a Lyar from the Beginning and not Members of the Church of Christ Thirdly because the People there met together have no health in them therefore we are not perswaded in our Minds that we ought to joyn with them no health in them Christ is the saving Health of all Nations who believe in him therefore Christ is not in them so Reprobates concerning the Faith and not the Church of Christ nor Congregation of the faithful People but are disorderly out of the order of the Gospel and we are commanded to withdraw from all such as walk disorderly So we meet together in the Fear of God according to the Practice of the Saints and come not to these places which were the old Mass-Houses to Worship amongst those People which have no health in them and these are three Principal things upon which many more things will follow wherefore we do not go to these Places aforenamed J. A. The Coppy of a Letter sent unto two or three Persons in a Family Dear Hearts IN the Light of the Lord wait upon the Lord in his Fear to have your Minds stayed in his Will that you may walk in Obedience Uprightness in the Presence of the Lord to see him amongst you and in his Counsel abide every one faithful in the Calling and Measure which you have received and are called unto that orderly and in order you may wait and walk every one in particular and one towards another in Soberness and Wisdom that in Love you may be preserved and Truth adorned which you profess that God alone may be exalted I warn you and charge you that in Faithfuluess every one of you walk and in Diligence and Love that there be no Disorder Sloathfulness nor Carelessness but every one mind the Presence of him whose Eye is over you before whom all is naked and bare that you may walk in the Light and the pure Fear of God which will keep you Watchful and Sober in all diligence as unto the Lord knowing you must give an account to him And none be high minded but fear and be Low and Humble and take up the Yoke of Christ and learn there And take heed of your own wills which would lead you into the by-Parths But stand single in the Will of God waiting upon him continually that you may receive the living Mercies from him that your Souls may be nourished with the Food that is Immortal and this I lay upon you all that you be faithful and Diligent that all may be kept in Order and Love that the Family may be guided in Wisdom So my Dear Hearts in Love do I Salute you all and I remain your Dear Friend in that which endureth forever John Audland These following Epistles were found in Manuscript after the foregoing Books and Epistles were Printed To which is added George Fox's Testimony concerning John Camm and John Audland Dear Friends BRethren and Sisters Babes and Lambs Plants of my heavenly Fathers Planting my dear Love in that infinite unchangable Love of God doth my Soul Salute you all yea truly my Bowels of tender Love and Compassion unto the Seed of God in you all that you may be kept pure and blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and travel in pain until Christ be formed in you until the Babe be born in you which is Heir of the immortal Inheritance which never fades away Dear Hearts in the pure Light of Christ all dwell and abide which leads up into the pure Life where there is no Death where we shall all meet together and feed together at one Table and all Eat of one Bread of Life and Drink of one Fountain of living Water which nourisheth all up to the Everlasting Life where we shall meet together and sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus where all Sorrow and Sighing shall fly away and there no Thief can come to rob us of our Crown Therefore in the Bowels of tender Love as a Brother I beseech you all to walk worthy of your Calling for holy is he that hath called you and holy is your Calling unto an holy Life and godly Conversation are you called and to a Separation from the World and to a daily dying to it and to a forgetting of all things which are behind and to walk up to those things which are made manifest in you by the Light which comes from Christ which being obedient unto it it leadeth up to Christ your Head and Example in all things and he was obedient unto the Death of the Cross and being faithful to the Light which comes from him it will lead you to the Death upon the Cross and Crucifie you unto the World and wordly things and raise you up into the pure Life to follow the Lamb whether soever he goeth and if you suffer with him you shall reign with him for he was perfect through Sufferings and through Sufferings and many Tribulations must you enter And therefore all come to the Cross and love it and rejoyce in it that you are counted worthy for his Name sake and take heed that none suffer as Evil-doers for there is no Joy for that nor no Crown nor Reward for these suffers not on the Cross and these Sufferings do not Crucifie but the Condemnation upon all such is Just by the Light which never changeth which comprehends all such hasty Spirits which run