on and that many Afflictions and Exercises would attend us and that many People being possest with great Fears fled for England at which time many Testimonies came from Friends of sundry Meetings for all to mind the Lord's preserving Power and not to let Fears take hold of them as it did of others who knew not the Lord Our Dear Friend though he had an Opportunity had no Freedom to go for England but gave himself up to stay with Friends here and bear a part of the Sufferings that might attend us In which time he was a pretious Instrument in the Lord's Hand for the Comforting his People in the time of great Afflictions and Calamities for he was a Chearful Encourager of us He was a Dear Friend a True Brother a Diligent Over-seer and Tender Father a Perfect and Upright Man in his day who feared God and eschewed evil And though he sought the Salvation of all yet could not bear with Deceitful Men and Evil Workers who profest the Truth yet brought Dishonour to it against such he had a Iust Indignation and Godly Zeal Oh! the Remembrance of his Fatherly Care over God's Heritage in keeping things in good Order is not to be forgotten For his Care was great that the Professors of Truth might walk answerable to it in a Chast Life and Blameless Conversation And in all his Travels into whose House he entred he was Content with what things were set before him were they never so mean which was great Satisfaction to many poor honest Friends amongst whom his Lot was cast He would not usurp Authority over his Brethren but was of a healing Spirit and Lamb-like Nature and of a good Report in all his Travels Our Dear Friend and Brother did greatly delight to Read the Holy Scriptures and would often and with great Earnestness Advise Friends frequently to read the same and the Young and Tender in years more especially as also Friends Books wherein the Principles of Truth were Treated of that so none might be Ignorant of the Principles of the true Christian Religion now again preached and clearly held forth He was at our Province-Meeting at Rosean-Allies a little before his Decease where he bore a Living Fresh Testimony amongst Friends to our great Comfort and Exhorted Friends to Faithfulness From thence he went to Montroth and had a Meeting there and from thence to Ballinakill and had a Meeting there So he came to the Monthly-Meeting at New-Garden where many heard him bear a living sweet Testimony in the Opening of the Word of Life to the Refreshing of their Souls After Meeting he came home with our Friend John Watson to his House and feeling himself not well took his Bed and was visited with a Fever and continued sick for the space of Twelve days All which time he was preserved in his Senses and in a sweet Frame of Spirit and did often say he was sine at Ease and quiet in his Spirit The Lord did Attend him with his heavenly Power and Presence to his Comfort and our great Satisfaction He said to John Watson That he ever loved the Lord and the Lord loved him from his Youth and that he felt his Love He was wonderfully preserved in a sensible Condition to the Last and on the Eleventh day of the Seventh Month 1690 about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon he quietly and peaceably Departed this Life about the 59th Year of his Age and is gone to his Rest with the Lord and his Works follow him And as he honoured the Lord in his Day so he was honoured with the Company of many Antient Friends from several Parts of our Province to Accompany him to his Grave at New-Garden where he was Decently Interred the Fourteenth day of the same Month and there we had a good Meeting to the great satisfaction of many Friends and others And now surely If David did well in Sorrowing for Absolom we have Reason greatly to Lament the Loss of so Dear Tender and Upright-hearted a Friend whose Labour and Travel was great both in Body and Spirit faithfully to serve the Lord his Church and People and to Exalt his Glorious Name and propagate his Living Truth in the Earth and to preserve Unity and Peace in the Churches of Christ. But believing 't is the Lord's Will that 's done concerning him in a Holy and Reverend Resignation and Submission thereunto we ought to be Content knowing 't is his unspeakable Gain to be Absent from the Body and at home with Christ. And thus Dear Friends We that yet remain do see how the Lord is pleased to Remove from among us many of our Antient Friends and Faithful Labourers in the Gospel of Peace who have been serviceable in this Day for the Gathering and Confirming of many in the Truth that we may walk therein And Friends we that are yet behind are the more immediately concerned for to Labour in the Heavenly Gift of his Divine Grace the Lord in his Love hath bestowed upon us that so we may come up in this gospel-Gospel-day to succeed them that are gone before us to their Rest in the Lord in bearing a Faithful Testimony to the blessed Truth that our Memorial may live to Ages to come as this our Dear Friend and Elder Brother's doth amongst God's People this day who having Faithfully finisht his Course here in great Patience and an humble and holy Subjection to the Will of God hath now received a Crown of Immortal Glory which is laid up for all the Faithful Followers of the Lamb and Lovers of the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom and the Father through him be Glory and Honour both now and for ever Amen Dated in Dublin the 22th of the Second Month 1691. Anthony Sharp Roger Roberts Amos Strettel John Watson Henry Hillary John Haukes An Account of John Burnyeat's Convincement Together with a Iournal of his Travels IN the Year 1653. it pleased the Lord in his Love and Mercy to send his faithful Servant George Fox with others of his faithful Servants and Messengers of the Gospel of Peace and Glad-tidings whom he furnished with the eternal power of his Word in the wisdom and power of which he proclaimed the Day of the Lord unto us in this County of Cumberland and the Northern Parts of England and discovered the right Path of Life unto thousands that was in Error seeking the Lord but knew not where to find him nor how to come acquainted with him although he was not far from us But this blessed man G. F. one of a thousand may many say and chosen before many thousands was sent amongst us in the power of the most High filled with the strength of his Word in the wisdom whereof he directed thousands unto the Light and Appearance of Christ Jesus their Saviour in their own hearts that he might come to know him and the Glory of the Father through him in his Appearance and so come to believe in him with the
old as may be read Isa. 1. and Isa. 66. 3. where the Lord told Iudah their killing an Ox their sacrificing a Lamb their offering an Oblation and burning Incense was as the slaying of a Man cutting off a Dogs neck offering Swines blood blessing an Idol And thus we saw for want of Righteousness and keeping the Commandments of the Lord and forsaking of our own ways and that which was evil our Religion was loathed by the Lord and we rejected in all our doings and left in desolation and barrenness for whatever we might pretend that true saying must stand A good Tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor a bad Tree good fruit the Tree is known by its fruit And thus things opened wonderfully in us and we saw not only common sins which all consess so to be though they live in them but also the hypocrisie and sinfulness of the Professors of Religion even in their Religion which was performed out of the true Spirit of Grace and Life which in the Mystery is the Salt that every Gospel Sacrifice is to be seasoned withal according to the Example in the Figure and therefore were we commanded to withdraw and be separated in our Worship and wait to have our Hearts sanctified and the Spirit of our Minds renewed that we might come before him with prepared Vessels for we soon learned to see this that it must be true in the Substance as in the Figure all the Vessels of the Tabernacle was to be sanctified consecrated or made holy and therefore did we come out from among such in their Worship that lived in Uncleanness and pleaded for Sin which made unholy and met together and waited together in silence may be some times not a word in our Meetings for Months but every one that was faithful waiting upon the living Word in our own Hearts to know Sanctification thereby and a through cleansing and renewing of our Hearts and inward Man and being cleansed and made meet we came to have a great delight in waiting upon the Word in our Hearts for the Milk thereof which Peter speaks of 1 Pet. 2. 2. in our so waiting we did receive the Milk or Vertue thereof and grew thereby and was sed with the heavenly Food that rightly nourished our Souls and so we came to receive more and more of the Spirit of Grace and Life from Christ our Saviour who is full of it in whom the Fulness dwells and in the Power thereof we did worship the Father who is a Spirit and waited upon the Teachings of his Grace in our Hearts and he taught us thereby to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously godlily and soberly in this present evil World And so we came to know the true Teacher which the Saints of old did witness as saith the Apostle Titus 2. 12. and therefore wanted not a Teacher nor true Divine Instructions though we had left the Hireling-Priests and also other high-flown Notionists and sat down together in silence for that was our desire to have all Flesh silenc'd before the Lord and his Power both in our own Hearts and from without And as we thus came into true silence and inward stilness we began to hear the Voice of him who said he was the Resurrection and the Life and he said unto us Live and gave unto our Souls Life and this holy Gift which he hath given has been in us as a Well springing up unto eternal Life according to his promise and therefore hath it been our delight all along to wait upon it and draw nigh with our Spirits unto it both in our Meetings and also at other Times that we might both be taught and saved by it for by it the Saints were saved through Faith c. as Paul wrote unto them Ephes. 2. 8. Now from the Year 1653. as before hinted in which Year I was convinced of the blessed Truth and Way of Life Eternal unto the Year 1657. I was not much concerned abroad in Travels upon the account of the Truth save only to visit Friends that were Prisoners for the Truths Testimony but being mostly at home following my outward Calling I was very diligent to keep to our Meetings being given up in my Heart thereunto for I found great delight therein and many times when one Meeting was over and I at my outward Labour in which I was very diligent also I did in my Spirit long for the next meeting-Meeting-day that I might get to the Meeting to wait upon the Lord with the rest of his People And I can also with safety say that when I was there I was not sloathful but in true diligence set my Heart to wait upon the Lord for a Visitation from him by the Revelation of his Power in my Soul and as I waited in the Diligence Patience and Faith I can say this for the Lord and on his behalf with many more Witnesses we did not wait in vain he suffered not our Expectation to fail everlasting Glory and Honour and Praise to his worthy and honourable Name for ever The very remembrance of his Goodness and glorious Power in those days revealed and renewed overcomes my Soul And so then in diligence waiting and the Lord so in mercy visiting by his power in our Hearts my Soul was daily more and more affected with the Glory and Excellency and Sweetness of it and with the holy Dread with which it filled my Heart for that became pleasant and then my Spirit was bent to keep near unto it and to dwell in that holy Fear which the Father thereby placed in my Heart And then I came to see what David exhorted unto in the Second Psalm when he bid the Kings and Judges of the Earth be wise and. learned and further said Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling O the bowings of my Soul O the pleasant dread that dwelt upon my Spirit and the reverent tremblings that came over my Heart which filled it with living Joy as with marrow and fatness And then could I say in my heart with David will wash my hands in innocency and compass thine Altar O Lord. O the pleasant drawing near unto the Altar of the Lord and that not unprepared by many whose Hearts were filled and their Souls and Spirits anointed with the true anointing from the holy One which Iohn speaks off in his first Epistle which is the substance of what was figured out in that Ointment Moses was commanded to make Exod. 30. 25. which all the Vessels of the Tabernacle were to be anointed withal Now when my Heart was thus fitted filled and furnished as it was many a time in our holy Assemblies with many more I know that sat under the same dread and power with me for our Temple and Tabernacle in which we worshipped that were Children of the New Ierusalem was but one even the Lord God and the Lamb as Iohn saw Rev. 21 22. And so it was in this Power that we sat
we took our Journey towards Swanzey and Cardiff and had several pretious Meetings in Glamorganshire and then went over into Monmouthshire And after we had visited Friends Iohn went with me to the Ferry and stayed to see me take Boat and then returned And I went that same day to Bristol and stayed some Meetings there And then went down into Somersetshire and did visit Friends there and had many blessed Meetings And returned back to Bristol and stayed some Meetings there And then went up into Wiltshire and so into Glocestershire and through Barkshire and into Oxfordshire and so into Worcestershire as far as Worcester and visited Friends and had many pretious Meetings through those Counties And from Worcester returned again down through Glocestershire and had several Meetings And came again to Bristol and from thence took my Journey through several Counties visiting Friends And so came to London and stayed there some time in the Service and Work of the Gospel And being clear I took my Journey for the North and did not make much stay at any place till I came into Cumberland And the reason of my so travelling was because of a Meeting that was agreed upon by Friends to be at Draw-well in Sedber-Parish about the former Difference that had been heard at Powbank that was among Friends in Westmorland chiefly occasioned by the aforesaid Iohn Story and I. Wilkinson and a lose sort of People that they did countenance in a Liberty that the Truth would not allow and therefore could not be born with by such tender Friends as were zealous for the Truth who kept their first love and therein delighted to uphold that Antient Testimony for the Lord against the Priests and their Tithes Hire and Maintenance with other things that were to be born Witness against through Sufferings as also for Meeting together to worship God which from the beginning had been our practice against such there being divers Statutes with Penalties upon us for so doing for fear of which the aforesaid I. S. and I. W. with such as had let in the same fear through fleshly Reasoning did shrink and hide and so let fall the Nobility of that Testimony which we had received and were raised up to stand for in the beginning And so because of a failure in divers things and a pleading for a Liberty from under the exercise of the Cross that the Offence thereof might cease the Faithful became concerned to stand up against that Spirit that thus was like to weaken or overthrow the Faith and Testimony of many through its subtil Workings in and through divers who like them the Apostle writes against in his Epistle to the Galatians that to avoid Persecution endeavoured to bring the Believers under Circumcision that so the Offence of the Cross might cease or Sufferings for the Gospel might be avoided Now this Difference still continuing and they abiding obstinate and not willing to receive Advice nor bear the Iudgment in the Truth placed upon them Friends in condescension to see if they could be gained appointed a Meeting at Draw-well near Sedber that they might have another opportunity and be heard what they could further say And then the Matters were fully gone through before many antient faithful Brethren that were there then assembled who spent four days in hearing and going through the Matters relating to that Difference that was then occasioned through their Opposition to the blessed Order of the Truth who withstood Friends godly Care for the Preservation of the Dominion thereof in Righteousness And when all things were heard and gone through by the Brethren the Iudgment was again given in the Power of the Lord upon that Spirit that they had let in whereby they had been led into a Separation and Division and Opposition to the Truth and the holy Order and Testimony thereof and they in the same Power and Love with great Bowels and Tenderness sought to return back again unto that Spirit of Love and Peace wherein the Unity and Fellowship of the true Body doth consist But alas many of them would not be wrought upon nor prevailed with but in that hardness the Enemy had wrought their Hearts into did persist until they became open Enemies to the Truth and the faithful Witnesses of it even to the Writing and Printing publickly against them and what the Truth doth lead into and so are become such as the Apostles write of that greatly withstood their words and slighted them of which both Paul Peter Iohn and Iude write This Meeting at Draw-well was in the second Month 1676. From thence after Friends had done what could be done at that time with holy Endeavours for the reconciling and gathering into the Heavenly Unity and making up of the Breach I returned again into Cumberland with several Brethren to wit I. T. I. B. Hugh Tickhill Thomas Laythes Iohn Steel and so spent a little time in Cumberland and then I took my Journey with Iohn Tiffin towards London And in our Journey we came into Westmorland to visit Friends there where we met with some of those with whom we had to do at Draw-well and then they were grown hard through resisting the Counsel of the Lord and had set up a Separate Meeting and so run into the Self-Separation and grown more into the Enmity and stronger in the Opposition through Resisting the love of God that so richly was reached forth unto them in the Heavenly Bowels that by the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ were opened in the Brethren at the aforesaid Meeting at Draw-well For then did the Power of the Eternal God in great Majesty appear and in a weighty Dread was Iudgment set and sealed upon that Spirit by which they had been betrayed and by the same Power and Word of Life was a Door opened unto them that had been betrayed and an entrance in the same set before them and they with much brokenness and tenderness in the Power of Love were sought to return and be reconciled unto God and unto his People But this great Visitation by them being rejected they grew harder and harder until they grew many of them as before said Enemies unto the Cross of Christ and so withered as to their Spiritual State and so did become as some of old whom the Apostle wrote of as Trees twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots And then from Westmorland I went over into Yorkshire had a Meeting at Sedber and went through the Dales to Massom and visited Friends there-aways And then I. T. and I with Robert Lodge took our Journey to York and from thence towards London visiting Friends by the way and so came to the Yearly Metting in the Year 1676. where there were many faithful Brethren assembled together there from most Parts of the Nation Amongst many things of Concern relating to the Truth and the Churches of Christ that Division in Westmorland was laid before the Meeting and how they were hardened and had set
up a Separate Meeting and so had withdrawn themselves from the rest of their Brethren and broken the Christian Fellowship which thing when understood by the Brethren there assembled was a grief unto them And thefore under the sence thereof and in that Brotherly Love with which their Hearts were filled towards them were there Two Epistles writ from the Meeting one to I. S. and I. W. warning and advising them as Heads and Leaders in that Sedition and Schism to endeavour to break up that Separate Meeting and to be Reconciled unto their Brethren before they did go abroad to offer their Gift And the other was writ to the Meeting as Advice unto them to Return to their former Fellowship with Friends and lay that Separate Meeting down and joyn with their Brethren in the Unity of the Truth c. But all this did not prevail with them but still they grew higher and harder and went on in the strong Resolutions of their Wills Only there were divers Particulars that were for a time concerned in that Opposition and Separation whose Understandings the Lord opened so that they did see the Snare of the Enemy and returned and under a sense of the Lord's Iudgments did give forth divers Testimonies in Writing against that Spirit by which they had been Seduced with a Confession of the Errour they were led into and so returned into the true Fellowship and Unity with the Church of Christ and were received with Gladness Glory to the Lord who is the Saviour and Healer of his People who now heals and saves by his Word as he did of old I. Burnyeate A Paper of John Burnyeat's that came to hand since his Works were Printed The 27th Day of the 8th Month 1677. IN the Morning as I was Laying upon my Bed and my Soul greatly Afflicted under the View and Consideration of the State of things as it was among Friends in the City of Bristol and some parts adjacent because of the great Contention and Opposition and when I was under the Exercise and my Life appeared Grieved even until my Soul was brought into sore Anguish at times and Grief to see how Hard some were and Unruly and Obstinate In this Travel of Spirit my Heart being bowed I said within my self and before the Lord and unto him I matter not what I be nor how much I be Abased For we must pass through good and bad Report as the Faithful in former times did And then when I was thus gone down into the Grave of Self-denial where I thought I could Lye and be Troden upon the Lord God signified unto me by his Holy Spirit on this wise Though thou be willing so to be yet will not I be Troden under and further said There are some of them that are as Dead Men before me because they have lifted up their Heel against me and have rejected my Word and slighted or set at naught my Reproof And further the Lord God signified unto me That the Spirit of Core and Balaam had entred which would shut Truth out of Doors and pluck Christ from his Throne and lead away the Minds of People after their own Inventions to worship the Works of their own Hands And He further signified unto me how that the Plague of Leprosy and sore Judgment of Hardness of Heart was upon them and they had lost their Beauty and were not sit to come nigh the Altar of the Lord nor to be in the Lord's Congregation and that he would Decide the matter And further he signified to my Comfort There was a Priest to stand between the Living and the Dead with a Holy Censer and pure Incense to make an Atonement and the Eyes of all the Tender and Sensible were to be towards him that they might Receive the Law from his Mouth and that his Lips might preserve their Knowledge And further there was something also of the Spirit of Cain which did appear had Entred even that which did Envy Abel's Acceptance When I had seen these things from the Lord and it was shewed me I should speak forth the Matter unto the People my Heart was wonderfully broken within me And I cried and said Wo is me must I be the Messenger to carry this Message unto this People And when I was under this Exercise the Lord did signifie unto me If I Delivered his Word Faithfully then should I Deliver my own Soul but if not I should Die for it my Life should go for theirs Then did the Dread of the Lord's Word and his Majesty strike me down and made me willing to be given up without any more Reasoning Blessed be the Lord for ever who both gives the Word and Power to Deliver it J. B. AN ABSTRACT Of some of Iohn Burnyeat HIS LETTERS TO HIS Brother T. A. of LONDON Which is a Continuation of his Travels for the last Eight Years of his Life being all his own Hand-writing Dublin the 28th of the 8th Month 1682. I Am arrived here safe from Cumberland and was at all those Meetings I had appointed in Westmorland viz. I had a large Meeting at Camsgill on the third day of the Week it being the General Meeting it was a most pleasant day the Meeting out of doors very large Friends so generally came in And indeed the Lord's Power was with us my Heart greatly enlarged unto Friends The fourth day following I was at Sedber the Meeting without Doors by the Meeting-House the Doors being shut up by the Officers but quiet and large The fifth day I was at Grayrig sixth day at the Hight first day at Swartmore and on the third day at Hawkes-head and had a blessed Meeting my Heart was comforted The fourth day we had a great Flood hindred me from getting home that day but got to Keswick in Cumberland and fifth day got home to our Meeting at Pardsay and was also there the first day where the Lord enlarged my Heart to clear my self heartily that day The third day I was at the Mens-Meeting where the Lord was richly with us Everlasting Glory be to him for ever The fourth day early I came down to Whitehaven several Friends came with me but the Ship being ready could not stay So went on Board and the next day in the Evening arrived safe here at Dublin where all is well I left all our Friends well in Cumberland Dublin the 13th of the 9th Month 1682. It greatly pleases me to hear of Friends in England and how it is with them this Trying day For as we love the Truth and one another therein we have a Concern upon us for one another and for the Truth in General And therefore I delight in the Truth 's prevailing and in Friends prospering therein The Lord stir up all concerned in their Places to be Faithful that none may shrink in the Day of Trial c. Last Week was our Half-Years-Meeting many Friends here and a blessed Season we had through the enriching Vertue of the Lord's
and was a Peace-maker and he preacht in his Life and Conversation as well as his Words And he travelled with me from Maryland through the Wilderness and through many Rivers and Desperate Bogs where they said never English Man nor Horse had Travelled before where we lay out at Nights and sometimes in Indian Houses and many times were very hard put to it for Provisions but the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power did support us and carry us through all Dangers Blessed be his Name for ever And he was an Elder and a Pillar in the House of God and the Name of the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance but the Name of the Wicked will Rot. He was a Man Endued much with the Wisdom of God and in it had a Care of the Welfare of the Church of Christ to keep in Peace out of Strife and Contention and laboured with the Apostates and Back-sliders to turn them to Christ and his peaceable Truth So that they might Study to be Quiet and keep in the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's Peace And much more I might write concerning our Dear Brother in the Lord I knowing him very well and his Travels and Service in the Lord's Power and Truth and so doth the Church of Christ among whom he will be missed But he is gone to his Rest and the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power is able to Raise up others in his place The 13th of the 9th Month 1690. G. F. The Testimony of Friends in Cumberland COncerning that Faitful Servant of the Lord John Burnyeat belonging formerly to Pardsay-Meeting in Cumberland he was born at Crabtreebeck in the Parish of Lows-water in the said County his Parents were of good Repute and his Education was according to his Parentage The Lord visited him in his young and tender Years and inclined his heart after good things whereupon he gave himself to Reading the Scriptures that thereby he might be informed of those things that made for his Soul's Peace and going from one Man to another who were counted Men of Experience yet found no true Satisfaction until it pleased the Lord to send his Ministers to turn his Mind to the Invisible Word of Life which he gladly received into his heart and came to Wait in Humiliation to feel the Operation of it So that he was brought forth Early in the Day of the breaking forth of God's Light and Power in our Age when it pleased God to Visit many People in divers Nations of the World and to make known his Everlasting Truth in the North-Country which Day of Light and Truth and Grace many waited for and were in a readiness to Receive with Ioy and Gladness of Heart amongst whom this our Dear Friend J. B. being called by Grace to the Knowledge of the Lord his Truth and Power and receiving the same in Love Faith and Obedience he came to Witness the Effectual working thereof to his Sanctification and so became a Vessel of Honour fitted for his Master's Use even Christ and learned to Rule his own House well in washing first the Inside and the Outside appearing clean also Then his Light began to shine before Men to the Glory of God that called him And this being first done in him and for him to his particular peace and satisfaction in the Lord 's Eternal Truth then the Lord opened his Mouth in a few words in much tenderness which tended greatly to the comforting of his People he always being careful to wait for the Motion of the Word and to keep close with it whereby he grew in his Gift and was drawn forth to visit Friends in this County where we dearly loved him He was faithful in the discharge of his Duty when called to give Testimony against the Hireling-Priests in the Steeple-Houses to gather People from the Mouths of those Greedy Shepheards that feed themselves and not the Flock and did not profit the People at all And for these things he suffer'd Imprisonment a long time under a severe Goaler in a close nasty place For the Lord sent him forth in his joyful opening Power and Spirit to preach glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ Iesus sometimes to the Spirits in Prison and to them coming out of Prison and entring into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and to them who walked stedfastly in that Glorious pure Liberty he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear whereby he was a blessed Instrument in the Hand of the Lord both for Convincing and Converting to God and for the Refreshing Comforting and Strengthening of them in the Faith Grace and Truth that they might be built on the Rock Christ the Foundation for all the Chosen of God in him throughout all Generations that Man might answer the End for which he was made even to Glorify God who is worthy of Glory and Praise for ever He was a Man of an Excellent Spirit and of deep Experience in the things of God and Mysteries of his Kingdom which were richly made manifest unto him And it was his Delight to be Meditating therein whereby his Experience was daily increased unto the Conclusion of his Days He was a Man tender of God's Glory and Earnestly sought the spreading and propagating of the Truth The Lord made his Travels successful and he saw the Fruit of his Labour and the Lord blessed him with the Fruits of his holy Spirit whereby he became well qualified for the Work of the Ministry a Nursing Father lending a hand of help to the feeble of the Flock and comforting the Mourners in Sion For his Doctrine did drop as the Dew and his Speech as the small Rain He was a Pattern of Righteousness to the Young Generation over whom he was very Tender and to the Aged he could give Counsel so that God made him a strong Pillar in his Church and cloathed him with Divine Wisdom that he was capable of speaking a Word in Season to all which was as a Nail fastned in a sure place He was one of the Lord's Worthies in his day of a quick Sight and clear Discerning of a strong Arm and skilful Hand whose Bow abode in strength and carried the Arrows to the Mark aimed at like as the Men of Benjamin that could sling Stones to a Hair's breadth so he fixed Judgment upon the head of the Transgressor And his Arrows returned not in vain particularly against that Wicked Spirit of Separation where-ever he met with it He was often concerned in Testimony against those that profess the Truth and Way of God and yet did incline to suit themselves to the vain Fashions and Customs of the World as Inlets to a wrong Spirit and became evil Precedents to others especially Young People that are too much employed in their Minds with foolish Dresses and Fashions that never knew the weighty Work of Truth and Power of God in their Hearts to work a Change
Heart and with the Mouth confess him unto Salvation and blessed be the Lord and the Day of Mercy in which he visited he was pleased to make his Labour of Love effectual unto thousands in which he sent his Servants to labour amongst whom it pleased the Lord to grant me that favour to keep a share of the benefit of this blessed Visitation whereby I came to be informed concerning the right way of the Lord and directed unto the true Light which the Apostle was sent to turn People unto in his Day and so from the Darkness and from the Power of Satan unto God and his blessed Power which in my waiting in the Light I received through which deep Judgment did spring in my Soul and great Affliction did grow in my Heart by which I was brought into great Tribulation and Sorrow such as I had never known before in all my Profession of Religion so that I might say in Spirit it was the Day of Iacob's Trouble for the God of Heaven by the Light of his blessed Son which he had lighted me withal which shined in my heart let me see the body of Death and power of Sin which reigned in me and brought me to feel the Guilt of it upon my Conscience so that I could say he made me even as it were to possess the sins of my Youth and for all my high profession of an Imputative Righteousness and that though I lived in the act of sin the guilt of it should not be charged upon me but imputed it to Christ and his Righteousness imputed to me I found it otherwise when I was turned unto the Light which did manifest all reproved things then I came to see that the guilt remained while the body of death remained and through the power thereof was led into the act of sin then I saw there was need of a Saviour to save from sin as well as the Blood of a Sacrificed Christ to blot out Sin or Faith in his Name for the remission of Sins past then began the warfare of true striving to enter the Kingdom then Paul's state seen to will was present but to do many times power was wanting then was that cry known O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death and free from the prevailing power of the Law which remained in the Members warring against the Law of my Mind which brought into Captivity to the Law of Sin then when this War was truly begun all my high conceit in my invented Notional Faith and my pretence and hopes of Justification thereby was overthrown so that all that I had builded for several years in my Profession after the days of my Youth in which tender stirrings was in me after acquaintance with the Lord and the knowledge of him and peace with him was seen to be but a Babel-Tower which God brought Confusion upon and so that which could never be perfected to reach to Heaven being out of the Faith of his Covenant and that which never could bring truly to trust in his Word and rely thereupon but led out into the Invention willing and self-acting though another thing talked of and then seeing all my Works confounded by the visitations of God and by the springing of the day from on high which discovered things as they were seeing them all end at Babel and the God of Heaven bringing Confusion upon them I was amazed and fear beset me on every side and I began sometimes to fear I was undone for ever for that had entred my heart that had turned the fruitful Field into a Wilderness and made that which I thought had been as the Garden of Eden a Forest and so the Day of God discovered all to be Desolation Driness and a Heath and so brought my Soul to a deep Lamentation to the beginning of such Sorrows as had never been known by me before then did I lament and bewail my self many a time and wish my self in a Wilderness where I might neither meet with Temptation nor Provocation from without my weakness was such to withstand in my spirit for all my Notion I had to talk of my Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ being but my own which by his Spirit I had no seal for and so but a Presumption I saw clearly it was my own Invention and so but like Adam's Fig-leave Apron in which he could not abide God's coming O the wo that overtook me O the distress that seized O the horrour and terrour that sprung in my Bosom O the poverty and want that my Soul saw it self in through the springings of the discovering Light towards which the Eye thereof was turned And as this Light did spring which the Apostle of old had wrote of it manifested all things not only the want that I was in but also the reproved things and then sin became exceeding sinful and the load and burthen of it became exceeding grievous and all the pleasure of it was taken away from me and many more in that day and then we began to mourn after a Saviour and look for a Deliverer and cry for a Helper and a Healer for the day of the Lord that made desolate had overtaken us and the Fire and Sword that Christ brings upon the Earth by which he takes away Peace had reached unto us and yet we knew not from whence it came though the Burning and the Judgment thereby was begun by which the Filth was to be taken away And now in this Distress deep was our Groanings and our Cries unto the Lord which reached unto him and he was pleased to hear and shew mercy for we often assembled together as the Lord's Messengers whom he sent amongst us had exorted us and minded the Light of Christ in our Hearts and what that discovered and in our spirits through its assistance warred and watched against the evil seen therein and according to that understanding received waited therein upon the Lord to see what he would further manifest with a holy Resolution to obey his will so far as we were able whatsoever it cost us for this I know was the Condition of many in that day we valued not the World nor any Glory nor Pleasure therein in comparison of our Souls redemption out of that state and freedom from that horrour and terrour under the Indignation of the Lord we were in because of the guilt of sin that was upon us and so being given up to bear the Indignation of the Lord because we had sinned we endeavoured to wait till the Indignation would be over and the Lord in mercy would blot out the guilt which remained that occasioned wrath and sprinkle our Hearts from an evil Conscience and wash us with pure water that we might draw near with a true Heart in a full assurance of Faith as the Christians of old did Hebr. 10. 22. but alas we had not boldness for the living Faith was wanting and a true heart we had not
and so taught of the Lord according to that New Covenant promise They shall be all taught of the Lord Isa. 54. 13. Iohn 6. 4 5. Then was our Hearts inclined to hearken unto the Lord and our Ears which he had opened to hear was bent to hear what the Spirit 's Teaching was and what he said unto the Church who was the chief Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul And thus were we gathered into a right Gospel Exercise and Gospel Worship by him and through whose Name we had received Remission of Sins past and whose Blood had sprinkled our Hearts from an evil Conscience and who gave the pure Water that washed and made clean so that with true Hearts many began to draw nigh unto God in the full assurance of Faith as the ancient Saints did and was accepted and had access by that one Spirit by which we came to be baptized in one Body and so came to drink into one Spirit and was refreshed and greatly comforted and grew up together in the Mystery of the Gospel fellowship and so worshipped God who is a Spirit in the Spirit received from him which is the Gospel Worship according to Christ's appointment Iohn 4. 24. And then we came to see over all the Worships in the World which were set up either by Imitation or man's Invention and saw it to be in vain to worship God and teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men as our Lord had said Matth. 15. 9. and therefore were we constrained to withdraw from them and also many of us to go and bear witness against them in their invented and traditional Worships where they were ignorant of the Life and Power of God And thus being gathered by the Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls we became his Sheep and did learn to know his Voice and to follow him and he gave unto us Eternal Life and manifested the Riches of his Grace in our Hearts by which we were saved through Faith and delivered from that wrath fear and terrour which had been so weighty upon our Souls and in measure from the power of that Death that had reigned and made us miserable and wretched and came to partake of that Life wherein the blessedness doth consist and so then the Lord becoming our Shepherd he taught us and led us forth into green Pastures where we did feed and rest together with great delight O the Joy the Pleasure and the great Delight that our Hearts was overcome with many times in our reverent and holy Assemblies how was our Hearts melted as Wax and our Souls poured out as Water before the Lord and our Spirits as Oyl Frankincense and Myrrhe offered up unto the Lord as sweet Incense when not a word outwardly in all our Assembly has been uttered And then did the Lord delight to come down into his Garden and walk in the midst of the Beds of Spices and he caused the North-wind to awake and the South-wind to blow upon his Garden and the pleasant Showers to descend for the refreshing of his tender Plants that they might grow still more and more And now unto them that had known the Night of Sorrow was the joyful Morning come according to that ancient experience of David Psal. 30. 5. and such as had been in the foregoing deep Afflictions Tossings and Distresses came to witness the fulfilling of that great Gospel Promise O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires and I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant Stones and all thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children In righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terrour for it shall not come near thee Isa. 54. 11 12 13 14. Thus then came we by him to be gathered into Covenant with God and to witness the fulfilling of the Promises of God in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen and so come to sit together in heavenly places in him and so come to feed upon the heavenly food the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven which Christ the heavenly Shepherd did give unto us who had gathered us from amongst the Shepherds that fed themselves with Temporal Things from the Flock but knew not how to feed the Flock with Spiritual Food for they had it not And now we coming to be acquainted with the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our Hearts became great Lovers of it and Delighters in the Enjoyment thereof having already counted all things but as Dross and Dung in comparison of the Excellency that we saw therein and therefore was willing to suffer the loss of all that we might win him as it was with the Apostle of old and blessed be the Lord many obtained their desire they found their Beloved met with their Saviour witnessed his Saving health by which their Souls was healed and so became his Flock and Family or Houshold of Faith And thus then as his Children and blessed Family we still did continue to meet together twice in the Week or oftner and in his Name and holy Fear being gathered together his Promise we did witness according to Matth. 18. 20. he was in the midst of us and did honour our Assemblies with his heavenly Power and Presence and that was our great delight and the sweetness of it did wonderfully engage our Souls to love him and our Hearts to wait upon him for we did find the ancient experience of the Church true as testified in the Scripture because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee And growing thus into this Experience of the Goodness of the Lord and of the Sweetness Glory and Excellency of his Power in our Assemblies we grew in Strength and Zeal for our Meetings more and more and valued the benefit thereof more than any worldly Gain yea it was unto some more then our appointed Food And thus continuing we grew more and more into an understanding of Divine Things and Heavenly Mysteries through the Openings of the Power that was daily amongst us and wrought sweetly in our Hearts which still united us more and more unto God and knit us together in the perfect Bond of Love of Fellowship and Membership so that we became a Body compact made up of many Members whereof Christ himself became the Head who was with us and did rule over us and so further gave Gifts unto us by which we still came to be enlarged and further opened that we might answer the end for which he had raised us up and so far blessed us and sanctified us through his Word that dwelt in our Souls and so we keeping still in our Zeal and unto our first Love and
and worshipped I say when my heart was thus fitted and filled then did I endeavour to keep down my Spirit to the meltings of it and great was the care of my Soul that I might no ways miss nor abuse this Power nor let up a wrong thing into my Mind to be betrayed thereby and then I knew if I kept all that was wrong down sound Wisdom and a true Understanding would be grown into even of those Mysteries that the World was ignorant of for the Son of God being come it was he that did give the Understanding to know him that was true as Iohn said of old in his first Epistle and he was made Wisdom as Paul said 1 Cor. 1. 30. So I often observed and that with great care and diligence in those blessed and pleasant Seasons wherein the Lord did so wonderfully appear amongst us and filled our Hearts with the glorious Majesty of his Power how it was with my own Spirit and whether that was subject as it ought or no for I clearly saw the Enemy might beguile and lead up into the hights and unnecessary pride and vain-glorying in that which the Soul might soon be deprived of if it kept not humble for it 's the humble the Lord teacheth and the meek he guides in Judgment And thus in the greatest Enjoyments I saw there was need of care and fear to be kept in for as those that grew sluggish idle and careless in waiting in a Meeting for the Power did sit without the sense of it in a dead dry barren state even so such as weer not diligent to mind to keep low humble and tender and so to mind the Nature of the working of the Power and the Nature of their own Spirits under the Powers exercise and also to watch against the Enemies subtilty who lay in wait to betray might easily be led aside out of the Powers way by the Stranger even while the Power was a working and Joy was in the Heart And thus for want of true Fear and Care might the Soul come into a loss e're it be aware and I believe some have so done and can scarcely find the reason of it Great is the Mystery of Godliness it may truly be said even the great Mystery which Paul writes of in Colossians the first Christ in us the hope of glory c. And as he is there great is the Mystery of his working by his Spirit to the opening and clearing of the Understandings of all that rightly wait upon him and it is the Soul in the Sanctification and Oneness with the Life the true Unction that comes to be a Priest and so of the Royal Priesthood chosen and elected in God's Covenant that comes rightly and lawfully to eat of those holy things and so to partake of the sanctified holy Food This I did observe and therefore the Stranger is not to come nigh this was in the Figure signified the Stranger was not to eat of the Passover Exod. 12. 43. and the Command of God was to Aaron by Moses that no Stranger should eat of the holy things c. Lev. 22. 10. And Solomon saith The heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy Prov. 14. 10. Much might be said but this is the matter its Wisdom for the Heart that hath known his own bitterness in the Judgment and Distress and through it is come to this Peace and Joy to keep it and not to let that which would have no share with it there come to intermeddle with the Joy for if it do it will soon overthrow the Joy of the Soul and bring to another state and then have no more pity in the Day of Distress than the Iews had of Iudas when they bad him look to it what was that to them when he had betrayed his Master And thus I continued as I have said before for these four Years mostly following my outward Calling and attending and waiting upon the Lord in the workings of his holy Power in my Heart both in Meetings and at other times where-ever I was or whatever I had to do for I found that as my Heart was kept near the Power it kept me tender soft and living And besides I found as I was diligent in eying of it there was a constant sweet Stream that run softly in my Soul of Divine Peace Pleasure and Joy which far exceeded all other Delights and Satisfactions and this became the great Engager of my Soul to watch with such diligence for I did find the love of God to constrain And furthermore I did observe that if I neglected or let my Mind out after any thing else more than I ought and so forgot this I began to be like a Stranger and saw that I soon might lose my Interest in these Riches and Treasure and true Common-wealth of God's Spiritual Israel which Christ had purchased for me and given me the earnest of to inherit And thus being mindful of the opening Wisdom of God which was from above and heavenly and not from below earthly I was preserved and helped and succoured in the needful time and because of the Blessings and rich Mercies of the Lord that my Soul enjoyed I was willing to serve him in what I might and willingly received upon me a share of that Concern that became proper for me with others to take upon us in the Church that I might be helpful in all necessary things And thus I went on in the holy Fellowship of the Gospel of Life and Salvation with the rest of my Brethren and Sisters and many joyful Day we had together in the Power of the Holy Ghost that was richly and graciously continued amongst us and daily poured out upon us so that we still grew in favour with God and unity one with another and received daily strength from the Lord and an increase of his Divine Wisdom and Spirit which did greatly comfort us And in this our pleasant state I do well remember my Heart was satisfied and setled into a content where I was willing to abide but the Lord that had so dealt by me in Mercy as I have said began to stir in my Heart by his Spirit to arise and go forth in the strength of his Word and declare against the Hirelings that feed themselves and not the People and kept the People ignorant of those good things that he had made me and others Witnesses of And when the Word of the Lord came unto me with this Message it became a great Exercise unto me and I would willingly have shunned it and have dwelt in that Ease Peace and Pleasure the Lord had brought me into but there was none but in obeying the Lord and giving up to do his Will that I soon came to know for I was sure it was the Word of the Lord and then I yielded in Spirit and longed for the Day that I might clear my self and be eased of the Charge that was upon
I spake something in Exhortation unto Friends and prayed unto the Lord as he enlarged my Heart that we might be comforted and edified together the Magistrates were offended and sent the Under-Goaler to take me away and put me in the Dungeon from among my Fellow-Prisoners who came at three several times and every time haled me from my knees when I was at Prayer and put me in the Dungeon a little dark Room where I was one time two days and nights another time three days and nights and the last time seven days and nights There was a Bowling-Alley before the Prison-door where several of the Magistrates and others did use to come to their Game and hearing my voice were offended and so sent to take me away So after fourteen Weeks I was set at liberty and in some little time I had freedom to return home and then did as at other times follow my outward Calling and kept to our Meetings at home but when I was moved to go forth to visit Friends sometimes in our own Country and sometimes into Yorkshire and Bishoprick and would sometimes be Two Months away or thereabouts and then return home to my Calling or Trade and so thus continued till about the fore-end of Summer in the Year 1664. And then that which had been opened unto me four years before began again to arise in my Heart in that Word which lives for ever and the living motion of it began to press upon my Spirit towards the fulfilling thereof and then I saw the Time drew near and the Season was coming upon me wherein the Lord would have me go and fulfil his Word that I had yielded unto in Spirit so long ago And then I began to prepare and set my Heart to leave all things behind and give up all things else that I might follow him and so his Power wrought my Spirit into a right frame that I could easily leave all things and then he gave me time to settle and order my outward Concerns and leave all things clear And then that Summer I took shipping for Ireland and passed through most Friends and did visit them And about the Seventh Month 1664. I took shipping at Galloway in Ireland for the Barbadoes and was seven weeks and two days in sailing to the Barbadoes and I stayed there about three or four Months and did visit Friends and travelled and laboured in the Work of the Gospel both for the Confirmation of those that were gathered and for the gathering of others unto the Truth that they might partake with us of the like precious Faith And there I met with many that had been hurt by Iohn Parrot and carried away with his Imaginations who lead out of the Power and from the true Cross into high Notions and vain Conceits and so into a fleshly Liberty and ease therein from the true Spiritual Travel and right Exercise both in Spirit and outwardly pretending to be against Forms and under that pretence led out of the faithful and diligent practice which Friends had been gathered into as to their meeting together and waiting upon the Lord counting that a Form which he did lead into a slight of and so caused many both there and in Virginia and other places to neglect or in a great measure to forsake the Assembling of themselves together contrary to Friends practice and the Counsel and Advice of the faithful Labourers who first laboured amongst us as also contrary to the Advice of the Apostle Hebr. 10. 25. And also he in his new Notion led many to keep on their Hats in the time of Prayer when any Friend prayed and condemned our reverend practice of putting off our Hats at such times and so in many things led such as were taken with his Notion out of true Order into Loosness and such a Liberty that the Cross in most things was laid down by them and their own Wills followed and Truth 's Testimony let fall But he ran out of the Truth so far at last that many began to see him and what his Spirit led to and so came to see their own loss and returned back unto their first love and the Power of the Lord went over that dark Spirit with all the vain Imaginations they had been led into thereby and so Friends were gathered into their former Unity Now because of the prevalency of this Spirit I had the greater travel and exercise among Friends in that Island and in other places of America both in withstanding such as were high and hard and also to gather back and preserve such as had in some measure been betrayed and yet were more innocent and tender And so when I had travelled and laboured as I said before about three or four Months in that Island and was clear I took shipping for Maryland about the latter end of the first Month and landed there about the latter end of the second Month 1665. and so I travelled and laboured in the Work of the Gospel in that Province that Summer and large Meetings we had and the Lord's Power was with us and Friends greatly comforted and several Convinced But a sore Exercise I had with one Tho. Thurston and a Party he drew after him for a while so that both I and faithful Friends were greatly grieved not only with his Wickedness but also his Opposition that he made against us and the Disturbance that he brought upon us in our Meetings and great was the exercise and travel that was upon my Spirit both Day and Night both upon the Truth 's account that suffered by him and also for the People that were betrayed by him to their hurt who were under a great mistake But through much labour and travel in the Lord's Wisdom and Power that both I and other faithful Friends of that Province had to search things out and to clear things to their Understandings both as to what related to the Truth and also Matter of Fact which he was guilty of it pleased the Lord so to assist us and bless our endeavours in manifesting the Wickedness and Wrongness of the Heart and Spirit of the Man that most of the People came to see him and in the love of God to be restored into the Unity of the Truth again to our great comfort Truth 's honour and their Everlasting happiness But he himself was lost as to the Truth and became a Vagabond and Fugitive as to his Spiritual Condition and little otherwise as to the outward So in the Winter following I went down to Virginia and when I came there Friends there the greatest part of them were led aside by Iohn Parrot who had led them into his Notions as before is related and they had quite forsaken their Meetings and did not meet together once in a Year and had lost the very form and language of the Truth many of them and were become loose and careless and much one with the World in many things so that the Cross of
from the Town and we hired one and so began our Journey early next Morning to travel through that Country which now is called New Iersey and we did suppose that we travelled that day near forty Miles And at the Evening we got to a few Indian Wigwams that is their Houses for we saw no Man nor Woman House nor Dwelling that day for there dwelt no English in that Country then We lodged that Night in an Indian Wigwam and lay upon the Ground as themselves did and next day we travelled through several of their Towns and they were kind to us and helped us over the Creeks with their Canowes and we made our Horses swim at the sides of the Canowes and so travelled on And towards the Evening we got to an Indian Town and when we had put our Horses to Grass we went up to the King's House who received us kindly and shewed us very civil Respect But alas he was so poorly provided having got so little that Day that most of us could neither get to eat nor drink in his Wigwam but it was because he had it not So we lay as well as he that was upon the Ground only a Matt under us and a piece of Wood or any such thing under our Heads So next Morning early we took Horse and travelled through several Indian Towns and that day at Night we lodged in the Woods And so the next day being the fourth day we got to an English Plantation to a Town called Middle-Town in East-Iersey where there was a Plantation of English and several Friends and so we came down with a Friend to his House near the Water-side and he carried us over in his Boat and our Horses also to Long-Island And we got to Friends at Gravesand that Evening and next day we took our Journey to Flushing on Long-Island And the next day being the seventh day of the Week we took our Journey to Oyster-Bay and came there that Evening and several Friends from Gravesand and Flushing with us for the next day their Half-years-Meeting did begin which was the cause of our so hard travelling And besides we did understand that those that had been so troublesome the Half-years-Meeting before when I was there in opposing the Order of Truth and reflecting so upon G. F. would then be an Exercise to Friends therefore George Fox did endeavour the more to get to the Meeting Which we did very seasonably and it was of great Service to the Truth and great Comfort to Friends for they were greatly under when we were come and some of the chief of them began to fawn upon G. F. So we had our Meetings very comfortably first and second days publick for Worship third day for our Mens and Womens-Meetings for Business about the Affairs of the Church as usually before Then on the fourth day we had a Meeting with those dissatisfied People for G. F. would not suffer the Service of our Men and Womens-Meetings to be hindered by such a matter And so on the fourth day as many Friends as had a desire to be there did come and the Lord's Power went over them and Friends were much satisfied And he that was the chief Instigator of that Mischief to wit George Dennis who came from London and his Wife not being well owned there by Friends he now began to disown the matter and would have cast it upon others and have willingly appeared clear to G. F. but that I did prove under his own Hand that he was a chief Actor at the Half-years-Meeting before and read the Book in our Meeting whether we would or no. And so things being fastened upon him the Lord's Power went over his deceitful Spirit and they were all bowed and the Truth exalted over all Glory to the Lord for ever Amen Then after this we stayed a little upon the Island and did go back to have some Meetings and returned again to Oyster-Bay and there set Sail for Road-Island the 29 th of the third Month and arrived at Road-Island the thirtieth of the same and there stayed till the Yearly-Meeting which began the eighth day of the fourth Month which was the sixth day of the next Week following and at that General Meeting there were many Friends from most Places in New-England where Friends dwelt and abundance of other People came into our Publick Meetings And we had Meetings for eight days together every day a Meeting some publick and others Men and Womens-Meetings for setling the Affairs of the Churches in the Order of the Truth that all things might be kept sweet clean and well And when all was over and the Service of the Meetings finished I took my Journey Eastward to go through the Meetings in the Eastern Parts of New-England and with me went Iohn Cartwright and George Pattison and several other Friends to accompany us and we left G. F. upon the Island and he went to Providence and the Narraganset Country So we took our Journey towards Sandwich where we had a blessed Meeting and were comforted and richly refreshed in the blessed Presence of the Lord 's holy and blessed Power that was with us and did open and enlarge our hearts And when we had spent some time with Friends there we left them and travelled on by Plymouth and Duxbury and had a Meeting at Marshfield and another at Scituate and the Lord was blessedly with us And at Scituate some of the Elders of their Church came to our Meeting where were abundance of People in an Orchard and stood up and made opposition so I ceased speaking to the People and joyned with them in Dispute But the People were so displeased at the Interruption they made that they signified their dislike and would have them have stayed till I had done upon which they said they would forbear then and come again So they went away and after their own Meeting was over they came again and several Friends stayed with me and a great Company of People came with them And then we went into our Meeting-house which before would not hold the Multitude and there began to Dispute and after some time spent they always endeavouring to make Friends appear to be in the Errour I said unto them before the People If I must be disputed with as an Heretick and your Church esteemed as a true Church I am willing we should come to the Rule Christ hath left and thereby be tried and that is by our Fruits and if you can prove the Fruits of your Church to be agreeable to the Fruits of any antient true Christian Church I shall yield otherwise I must hold my Testimony against it as a false Church c. But they were mighty unwilling to joyn with me in that Discourse But I urged the proof of our Practice by Scripture especially in such a great Point as that and so went on to reckon up the Fruits of their Church which was to fine and take away Goods for not coming to
into this Country again Graysouthen the 19 th of the 6 th Month. Between two or three Weeks time I hope to be as far as Edenborrough Leith the 6th of the 8th Month 1684. I have had a very peaceable and prosperous Journey since I came into Scotland hitherto I came to Edenburgh at the time appointed and stayed here one first day and then took my Journey into the North and I. H. and I. T. with me and spent about three weeks there and in my Journey had Meetings while I was there almost every day and a blessed open Service through the Lord's Power amongst Friends For there is an open tender-hearted People and they were glad of my coming for there had not been any English Friend among them of a long time And being clear I. T. and I came away this day a Week and left I. H. there we got to this Town the fourth day of the last Week and was at Edenburgh the fifth day at their Meeting and yesterday had a blessed Meeting there in the Fore-noon and here the Afternoon and to morrow we intend to take our Journey for the West and do hope to be clear this day a Week to go for England and hope to be in Cumberland to morrow a Week if the Lord will Hitherto all hath been very quiet where I have been and I hear nothing but Friends Meetings are quiet all over Scotland and Friends are suffered to be quiet but in some places they are very busie with some other People Here hath been a pretty deal a-do about a Plot but of these things we know nothing nor in such doings have no hand and therefore about it desire not to meddle Though others doings may bring Sufferings upon us yet still our Happiness is to be kept Innocent that if we suffer it may not be for evil-doing and then it will be well Eaglesfield the 12th of the 9th Month 1684. And truly in this Trying day wherein we are all of us like to have our Faith and Love to God Tried our greatest Concern always is to be in our hearts truly and wisely given up and resigned into the Will of God that we may therein rest in and under whatsoever the Lord may order for us or call us unto and then may we have peace in every Exercise and have Dominion in our Spirits over every Opposition which are many that the true Travelling Israel of God doth meet withal in this Age. I got very well through the West of Scotland met with no Disturbance All was quiet when I was there Our Meetings are quiet in Cumberland I suppose I may stay yet about two weeks here Stockton the 11th of the 10th Month 1684. I came out of Cumberland about two Weeks ago and was at Strickland-head and then came on into Bishoprick and thought I should but have touched at Darnton and this Town and so on into Yorkshire But when I was at Darnton it came upon me to give Friends a visit further in this County And so I went to Durham and had a blessed Meeting there and did visit the Prisoners And then went to Sunderland had a Meeting there And then to Shields and to T. F. had a Meeting there And so returned to Shâ—tton and so to this Town and had a blessed Meeting in the Evening yesternight it being their Meeting-time They are usually kept out of their Meeting-House here but yesternight we got in and the Meeting was full and peaceable and so have all the Meetings where I have been And now I am ready to go over into Yorkshire and do hope to be at York in about two Weeks time I suppose I may be there first day come two Weeks Grayrig the 26th of the 11th Month 1684 5. I have had a very comfortable and peaceable Journey and came through Cleveland and the Moors to Whitby and from thence up to Molton and to York Meetings have been quiet all along where I have been Yesterday a Fortnight a Constable was at the Meeting-House before I came and stood in the way to speak with the Friend that I came along with it being just before the Sessions He had a Warrant and was to give his Return at Sessions and therefore threatned that if we would not forbear to meet that day he must carry us before a Iustice. However after we had Reasoned a while with him we parted and went into the Meeting and he went away and did not come into the Meeting So we had a blessed Meeting and parted in Peace and the Lord's Power was over all to our great Joy This was all the Appearance of Molestation I have yet met with And I have had a very good Season and abundance of Meetings since I left York In Yorkshire I was at Robert Lodge's House and had his Company a pretty time out of Yorkshire I went to Lancaster and when I had visited Friends I came into Westmorland to Preston-Meeting and yesterday was at Sedberge We had a peaceable Meeting but out of the Meeting-House in the Street the Meeting-House being locked up from Friends I intend some Meetings in this County and so down to Swartmore and on into Cumberland as the Lord makes way Eaglesfield the 25th of the 12th Month 1684. I have had a very peaceable Journey and did visit Friends Meetings very fully in Westmorland and all quiet And since I came into Cumberland I was down at Carlisle and the Border And now my Service seems to be over and I am preparing to go home And was at Workinton this day and to morrow I intend to go to Whitehaven and to take the first Opportunity for Dublin Thus far I have been preserved very well through all my Travels and now I hope I shall get home Dublin the 25th of the first Month 1685. I got well here last Night but was put ashore in the North in Strangford-River about seventy Miles from Dublin and about four and twenty from Lisnagarvy And being put ashore there I found an Openness in my Heart to give Friends a Visit in the North and so spent near two Weeks among them and had many good Meetings I am very glad and my heart is truly Thankful unto the Lord for his preservation through this last Journey so safe and clear and ordered my way so comfortably home where I hope I may be of Service in my place and a Comfort to Friends The Lord our God is to be minded by us in all things I find things amongst Friends generally pretty well as formerly and Meetings very large and peaceable here and in the North. I am intended out of Town to the Province-Meeting Dublin the 16th of the 3d Month 1685. This Half-Years-Meeting we had a very great Appearance of Friends out of the Country many say they have not seen so many ever before And to our publick Meetings abundance of other People came even far more than could get into our House and they were very sober so that the Truth
goodness and exceeding pretious is the Fountain of endless mercies which he hath opened in this day for the refreshing of his own dear Children whose whole trust and confidence is in him alone Therefore let none again incline in their minds after the things in this Creation or desire further to enjoy it or any thing in it then you may enjoy them in the Covenant of God This my dear Friends is truly in my Heart from the Lord to lay it before you and to warn you of in his Name and Fear I say Friends that ye who have tasted of the Lord's goodness in any measure and have felt the working of his heavenly Power to the redeeming of your minds out of all visible things and to give you an entrance into the Inheritance that never fades away That ye may not look back again into the Glory of the things of this Creation now in this day of Trial of your Faith but that all may be offered freely into the Will of the Lord that whatsoever you enjoy it may be in his Covenant that his blessing may richly be felt in your inward parts and his peace sweetly enjoyed in your Hearts Or else truly otherwise if any seek in the declining mind to hold any thing out of his Covenant and pure fear the blessing will not be upon that heart but it will be unto them as the spoil which the Children of Israel fell upon contrary to the Word of the Lord and like unto Achan's wedge of Gold which became a Curse in the Camp of Israel Therefore let all with their all be freely offered up unto the Lord in Righteousness with an upright heart which is but a Service reasonable in this day from us who have so largely been made partakers of the richness of his Loving-kindness and Mercies that so every heart may stand open purely waiting for the heavenly vertue and for the renewing of the heavenly gift that every one may be strengthened by the same in the inward man that so we may all together with one heart truly rejoyce in the Salvation and Consolation of the Lord our God which we feel and enjoy in Spirit And furthermore my dear Friends that you all who feel your hearts and all freely given up unto the Lord both you and yours into his Will Mind the Power which hath made you willing and dwell and abide in the sensible feeling of that continually that so every mind may be kept low and humble before the Lord sensible of the Rock of their Salvation and of the Arm of their strength and preservation that so all fleshly boasting and glorying may for ever be excluded out of the Salvation Preservation and Keeping of all the Redeemed of the Lord that he alone who is the Salvation of his People and the Keeper of Israel may have the Honour and Glory and the Praise from the Work of his own Hands who is God over all blessed for ever and ever whose Works will for ever praise him in all his Children From me your Brother who is now Prisoner in the Dungeon in Rippon Common-Goal where I am separated from having Liberty to be amongst the rest of my Fellow-Prisoners only because the Lord opened my Mouth among them in our Meeting when we were together waiting upon the Lord. Iohn Burnyeat Written the fourth day of the sixth Month 1662. Barbadoes the third day of the first Month 1665. Dearly Beloved UNto whom the pure love of my heart in the Covenant of Life doth plentiously flow forth at this time my Soul dearly Salutes you all who are faithful unto the Lord without respect of Persons whose Minds are kept faithful unto the unchangeable Power of Life and Vertue wherein your Souls have been refreshed and by which you have been gathered into the belief of the Truth and to the Acknowledgment of the same which in a good degree hath been made manifest in and among you My Exhortation as a Brother in the Bowels of Love unfeigned unto you whom my Soul dearly loves is That as the Lord hath appeared and made manifest his Power in your Hearts even so wait ye that your dwelling ye may come to witness to be in the same For Friends ye know that it is not sufficient only to know that he hath Appeared but that ye feel your Dwelling to be in the Power and so in the daily sense of the renewing of his appearing in your Hearts that by it your Hearts may be kept open unto him and so you from day to day may know the renewing of his Presence and the Vertue of his own Life in you O! my dear Friends this is that by which every heart may be kept sweet and living and vertuous and open unto the Lord so that the Issues of his Love will become as a Refreshing River unto every Soul that keeps faithful unto him Therefore Friends all mind your standing and your dwelling in the Power and wait for the Inward Operation of it in your Hearts that by its dwelling in you and living in you your Hearts may be kept tender and contrite and broken before the Lord. And Friands beware of hardness of heart I warn you in God's Fear for therein the deceitful Worker gets advantage and Unbelief comes to enter and so such will come short of the Rest that God hath prepared for his People who through the deceitfulness of sin come to be hardned And so Friends least this should come upon any one of you and so ye fall short of the Rest Watch in the Fear of God and keep down to the tender Principle of Life every one of you in your own particulars by which your hearts may be kept out of the hardness in the tender and brokenness of heart in which state the Lord is witnessed to dwell with man and in man according to his promise And so will you know the growing of the holy Seed in you into the pure Dominion by which that which would darken or harden will be subjected and kept in the subjection and so your Souls kept in the freedom of the Seed in God's Covenant where life and peace is witnessed and so Heirs of the Promise and of the Blessing being come into the promised Seed Children of the Promise and so of Abraham through Faith unto whom the Promise was made and so blessed with him who is the Father of all the Faithful through which we come to be Heirs of the Kingdom and so in it according to the promise come to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in this day of the Gathering of the Gentiles and bringing home of the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Therefore Friends mind your standing in the Seed Christ the true Vine that you may have life abundantly and know its abounding in you For whosoever goes from him the Life the Seed the Vine Christ Iesus the Power of God shall wither and decay and die and in the end be fit for nothing but the
blood and he that burned Incense as if he blessed an Idol and all this was because they chose their own ways and their Souls did delight in their Abominations as you may read Isaiah 66. 3 4. And therefore were all their Performances rejected of the Lord and he brought their fear upon them because when he called they would not answer when he spoke they would not hear but did Evil before his Eyes and chose that in which he delighted not So that all along you may see in the Scripture that it was not that which People did do as upon the account of the Worship of God that did at all please him or appease his Wrath while they did Evil before him and chose that in which he delighted not as is very evident from the Scriptures of Truth in divers Testimonies therein to this purpose Time would fail to mention all and what was written afore-time was written for our Learning and that we should take warning by their Example who sinned and continued therein till the day of Mercy was over Rom. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 10. 11. And therefore since the Lord hath stirred in you to take notice of his Judgments and of his Hand upon the People of this Island prepare your Hearts to seek the Lord in his own way and before you do pretend to draw nigh unto him that is Holy or to Worship him or to offer an Offering or to keep a Day unto him forsake your Sins Put away the evil of your doing from before his Eyes and learn to do well that your Prayers may be heard and that you may keep the Day holy unto the Lord and so observe the Fast which the Lord hath chosen which is To loose the bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burthens and to let the oppressed go free and to break every Yoke to deal thy Bread to the hungry with such like Works of Righteousness And then the Lord hath promised that such their Light shall break forth as the Morning and their Health shall spring forth speedily and their Righteousness shall go before them and the Glory of the Lord shall be their Reward And then may such cry and the Lord will answer and say Here am I when there is a taking away from the midst of you the Yoke the putting forth of the Finger and the speaking of Vanity c. Isa. 58. 6 7 8 9. And therefore try your ways and your doings and let none think that the Lord is like a Man that he will be satisfied with fair Words or Pretences where his Voice is not hearkned unto and obeyed but Sin lived in and the Fast kept which the Scripture condemns which the Lord hath not chosen as you may read Isa. 58. 2 3 4 5 verses for you may see there how that that People did seek him daily and had a delight to know his ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They asked me the Ordinances of Justice saith the Lord and they take delight in approaching unto God and then cryed Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge The Lord gives the reason Behold saith he In the Day of your Fast ye find Pleasure and exact all your Labours Behold saith he 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 saith the Lord. Is it such a Fast that I have chosen a Day for a Man to afflict his Soul and bow down his Head as a Bulrush and to spread Sackcloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord saith the Prophet Nay as I have shewed before this is not it and therefore let every one consider how they are prepared to keep the Fast that God hath chosen that the Fruits thereof may be brought forth by every one that pretends unto it or else their cry will not be heard on high for the Lord knows every ones intent and takes notice of their doings so that it is not every one that saith Lord Lord that shall enter and be accepted but he that doth the Will of God So here you may see there is two Fasts the one chosen and the other rejected and the Fruits of both manifested whereby they may be known who are the true Fasters and who are not agreeable to what Christ hath said every Tree shall be known by its Fruit And so let all mind what they do and what they bring forth for they that fast for strife and debate and do smite with the Fist of Wickedness they do not fast to the Lord their Voice he will not hear according to the Scripture And such who instead of setting the oppressed free of undoing the heavy Burthens and of breaking every Yoke do bring under Oppression and lay heavy Burthens and make Yokes instead of breaking them such are not the People the Lord will accept in their Fasts nor whose Prayers he will hear Because they walk not in the equal way of the Lord but love to wander and have not restrained their feet therefore saith Ieremiah The Lord doth not accept them but will remember their Iniquity and visit their Sins and therefore the Lord commanded the Prophet that he should not pray for that People for their good for said God When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer Burnt-offerings and an Oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ier. 14. 10 11 12. So you may see all along the Lord doth not regard all that Man can do or may do so long as he wandereth from God and doth not restrain his feet from walking in the evil way Thus hath it been in all Dispensations of the Scripture before and therefore much more under this last and most glorious Ministration of the Gospel of Christ Jesus which is professed by you wherein the former comes to be fulfilled and finished or perfected where Christ himself is the great Law giver who gives out his Ordinances and Precepts unto all his People who according to the promise of the Father gives unto them the Spirit and writes his Law in the Hearts of all the Children of the new Covenant Ier. 31. 33. which they are to observe and to walk after and if any one do otherwise he ought to be dealt withall according to the command of this great Law-giver Mat. 18. 15 16 17. First to be spoke to and see if he will hear either a Brother two or three or the Church And if he will not hear nor be gained then saith Christ Let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican But he gives no Commission unto Christians to persecute to put in Prison to take away Goods to pull down their Houses
you may grow in and be guided by it in your further Travels in the Heavenly Journey towards the blessed Heavenly Canaan which is still before you as the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And therefore observe the true Mark and still press forward towards the same as the Apostles and ancient Saints did And take heed I intreat you unto your selves and the exercise of your Minds lest your Eye inwardly be drawn forth to look at another Mark for if you do then will not the Price be the same that was theirs who was faithful unto Death and so continued unto the end and obtained the Crown Therefore be you all watchful to keep the Enemy of your Souls out of your Hearts that he may reign who is your Friend for ever who seeks your good and brings Life and Peace unto your Souls under whose Government and peaceable Dominion you will find Rest and Pleasure for your inward Man And now my dear Friends since it is the Lord's Truth you have received and his Holy Power that you have felt in these Countries even as his People in other parts dwell you with it and in it with careful Minds that you may therein live unto God as such that have a part in the first Resurrection that you may reign for ever and ever over the Power of the Second Death And all take heed of the mysterious Workings of the wicked one who works in Deceit by Guile in every transformed Appearance to draw the Mind out of the pure Center in the true Power to the Likeness and Image which hath no Life in it where there can be no stedfastness nor true reigning over the Will that is unruly and foolish Therefore my dear Friends keep your Watch every one in your own Hearts continually that you may not be betrayed from that pure Life that yields vertue unto your Souls and nourisheth up to Eternal Life For I know that the wicked one in his deceitful Workings you have been acquainted with and his evil Design the Lord by his Power in his Light hath discovered unto many of you so that you by the same have escaped his hurtful Snares and yet lives in that which must reign at last over all And therefore keep your Habitation in the Power that is unchangeable wherein you may live for ever without fading for the Power fades not but abides in its Glory for ever so that the first is the last the Root and Off-spring Blessed are they that have kept their first Love and have stayed in their Righteous Habitation into which the Power did redeem them they do still witness a growing from Grace to Grace from Strength to Strength and from one degree of Holiness unto another until they come to be purely like him who is their Redeemer who shall change them and bring them from Glory to Glory till they bear the Image of the Heavenly Man and be like him that is altogether glorious who is putting of his Glory richly upon his Church which is his People in this Day And therefore you that have received the Spirit of the Lord and are acquainted with it do you follow it in all its pure leadings with faithful Hearts for it will certainly lead all the Faithful to know an increase of Glory And take heed of the Spirit of the World which is not of God but leads from him that Spirit where it prevails causeth to wither and sade and brings Barrenness upon the Soul and Darkness and Death and then the Glory is lost and the Image of the Heavenly then is not born nor no Man in that is Heir of the Heavenly Inheritance Therefore it doth behoove all to look to their standing in that wherein the Heirship is that none may come short of that Crown which Paul said was laid for him and all them that loved the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the God of Love and Peace keep you all in his Love Fear and Wisdom that your Dwellings for ever may be in his Peace which the World cannot take away nor rob you of that so with the rest of his Heritage you may shine in the Light of his Glory and dwell in the Richness of his Kingdom for ever and ever Amen Bristol the 9th of the 10th Month 1675. This is the Desire of my Soul for you all whom I truly love and in the Life Salute wherein I am your Friend and Brother J. B. Taunton the 7th of the 2d Month 1677. My dear Friends in Cumberland UNto you my Love and Life reaches and purely flows forth in that which Lives for ever wherein I do in the Innoceney and Life of Righteousness truly Salute you all whom the Lord hath raised and called to be a part of the first Fruits unto himself in this day of ours wherein the Glory of his hidden Life he hath Revealed unto a Remnant even that which from the Wise and Prudent of this World is still hid and from such as turn back into that Wisdom it comes again to be Vailed so that the Light of the Glory of it they lose again though they had a view thereof And therefore blessed are all who keep their Habitation in that Power which never Changeth nor Decays the Glory of the Heavenly things will be still in their view by which their Hearts will be enlarged towards the Lord both in Love unto him and a Living People to his Honour in all things that his Name may be Exalted and the Testimony of his Truth in its own pure Nature in every thing kept up according to its Brightness and Glory as by the power thereof we were raised up in the beginning as the life of Holiness grew in us dear Friends that which quickned and raised us from the Dead in years past through which we Live unto God and as we keep in the same we shall for ever be accepted by him and be well pleasing in his sight but out of that you know none shall be regarded by him though ye might do much for he did not regard them in the days of old for all they could do that did not keep in the Life of Righteousness though they might go far even to the covering of the Altar with Tears And therefore as I said that by which you were first quickned and raised is that in which for ever we must be accepted so that every one is to mind and wait for an increase and by experience of the growth of that wherein there is a coming upwards from a Child's State to a farther growth and still it is in the same Nature without degeneration from that which was first and so the first is witnessed to be last and ye grow more and more into the fulness of Christ in whom all fulness dwells And therefore my dearly Beloved in all your Meetings upon the Truth 's account have an eye unto and wait for an Injoyment of his Blessed and Heavenly and Heart-breaking Power
Friends in quietness sitting still only one who reasoned the matter with him he at last went out and all his Company to the Stable and there took all the Horses and Friends Horses all they could find in the Town But after Meeting we got them again they being then taken without any colour of Law But the next day being the 3 d day of the 10 th Month the said Informer went to one William Pugh of Mathauern a Justice of Peace so called who came along with him and met Iohn Burnyeat and Thomas Ellis upon the Road and stopt them both and caused them to turn back to an Ale-house where this Informer and another Man which was William Pugh's Bayliff Swore against them for Preaching at the aforesaid Meeting for which the Justice Fined them and wrote a Warrant and sent for a Constable who by that Warrant seised upon Iohn Burnyeat's Mare and Thomas Ellis's Horse with Saddles and Bridles and so they were constrained to Travel on their Way on Foot till they could get to an Ale-house to get Lodging This Reward the Lord's Servants Received at their Hands for their Love and Good will to the Souls of People Iohn Burnyeat's Mare was worth about 8 l. Thomas Ellis's Horse about 3 l. 10 s. Iohn Burnyeat's Mare Dyed within an hour and an half after Seizure and the other Friends took the Mange and Dyed in the Informer's Hands within six Months time J. B. Dear and Well-beloved in the Lord WITH you my Soul hath Precious Unity in the Spiritual Fellowship and Nearness and Heavenly Oneness which stands in that Life by which we were first Quickened in which we Live and in the Increase of which we grow into a Heavenly Understanding and true Soundness in Discerning and Judgment whereby the Faithful come to be more and more accomplished for their Places and fitted for every good Work that so they may answer their Office and Membership in the true Body whereof Christ Jesus is the Head of which Body we are made living Members through his Love who hath called us and in his Son chosen us to be Heirs of Life Dear Friends your selves know that he who through his Bounty hath blessed us with Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus so that we are made Stewards of his Manifold Graces who now doth require answerable Service from us all according to our gifts received from him and whosoever is found Faithful to their Gifts and Places shall certainly witness an Increase and so grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and so come more and more into true soundness and to the Spirit of a sound Mind For you know how richly the Power of Christ was Manifested in us and among us in the beginning and how wonderful it did work for the Redeeming of our Hearts out of the World the Vanity and Pleasures of it that we might Love and Affect Heavenly things and delight in the glory of that which comes from Heaven And in that day you may remember the glorious and Heavenly Raptures we many times were raised up into and with admiration were ready to turn about and say We will Behold this Wonder the Bush which Burns and is not Consumed But since that time many have been the Exercises and weighty have been the Tryals that have been met with in our Spiritual Progress through which the Lord hath led us and many Temptations hath the Lord delivered us from and led us out of and many Weaknesses hath he passed by and Trespasses hath he in his great Mercy forgiven so that to this day we remain and that in covenant with him Therefore have we cause to Praise him and to Sing unto him Now our present state and capacity to which he hath brought us is to be minded and our duty therein for now many are come to be Free from being Servants or Slaves unto the old Task-masters and though but in our Journey yet there is something to be done which was truly Figured out in Israel's Travel they were to fit the Tabernacle with all the Services and Ornaments belonging thereunto though in the Wilderness in their Travel and the Men and Women were both concerned as you may read in the work to prepare for the Fitting of the Tabernacle according to the Command of the Lord. And this was after the Lord had appeared unto Moses shewed his Wonders in Egypt wrought that great Salvation at the Red Sea and manifested his dreadful Presence upon Mount Sinai and given forth his Holy Law and his Manifestations by which he Taught Israel to do his Will so that in the observation of which they were blessed a lively Figure of what our Souls are Witnesses of in the Heavenly Substance So that now we are not to be negligent for it would not have been well in Israel to have answered Moses when according to the Command of God he put the People upon it both Men and Women to Work for the Fitting of the Tabernacle We had no such thing when we came out of Egypt we had no such thing put upon us when we began our Iourney we will do as we did in the beginning This would have been Rebellion against him that by the Hand of Moses brought them out of Egypt and freed them out of Bondage And you know what Judgments and Destruction he brought upon them that did rebel and gainsay as Corah and his Company who withstood the Ordinance of God Oh! my dear Friends methinks I am as if I were talking with you of the Lord's Mercies and former Loving Kindnesses and Dealings with us and being also under a present sense of our present state and capacities to which he hath brought us my Bowels within me are even Melted with a Holy Love and Tenderness towards you and in that Love I send these Lines as the Salutation of my Soul in that which Lives for ever and as a signification of that entire love which in my Heart lives towards you Wherein I desire that both you and I forever may so mind our present state and our growth and the increase of the Mercies of our God unto us as to answer them by a Faithful Serving of him and one another in that love which thinks no Evil and is never weary of doing good and yet will not vaunt it self Now this is that which lives in my view the Power of Christ which was so Richly Manifested in the beginning did then Work to the preparing of us to be a People fit to do his Will and so it wrought unto a Cleansing Washing and Sanctifying of us that we might be Holy Vessels fit for his use Now being Prepared the same power in the Faithful works mightily to the Fitting and Furnishing of us unto every Good Work that we might be to the praise of his grace who hath called us and if we so be to his praise we must grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ And if we grow in the Knowledg of him as we have known him to save us from Sin and to destroy the evil one and so to be our Sanctification and Redemption even so we must Wait to know him to be made of God unto us Wisdom that he may be our Wisdom and the Fountain of it unto us may be the gift of his Holy Power in our Hearts And so then as it did mightily work in our Hearts to Prepare us even so will the same Gift be felt to work mightily to furnish us with Wisdom and to enable for every Good Work and so you will know him to be made of God Wisdom unto you For the Holy dread of the Power upon the Heart in Righteousness being felt guides him or her in Wisdom that Speaks the same Holy Fear and Dread upon the Heart guides him in Silence that in Silence sitteth whose mouth is not opened and so he is made still and Christ your Head who is one in the Man and in the Woman Wisdom unto you and so here all will be kept in your places as you keep in Subjection unto him who is the Head the Husband of the true Wife And dear Friends mind his Heavenly Power and keep under a Holy Reverence unto it and that will keep you Savoury and Reverent in your Meetings and clear and in a good understanding and Subject one unto another and so you will be Co workers together and helpers one of another and so you will come to have the benefit one of anothers gifts And thus as Members will you supply in a Blessed Unity every one your Office in the Body And therefore my Counsel as a Brother in Love unto you is Let all be Subject None in whom the tender Life in a Heavenly Reverence doth move for Counsel Advice or otherwise to quench it or to stop the Service for in so doing others may be wronged as well as the particular unto whom the Lord intends benefit by thy gift For it is not good to Stop only let all take heed that their own Spirits may be Subject that Christ may be head in all and he may be your Wisdom And be open and ready in your Hearts to Receive Counsel Help and Instruction one from another and keep down the forward heady and rash Spirit that would run without Reverence and speak without the true Fear from that none will rightly understand nor have a true sense of the Weight of the Service of this Day O! it is fresh in my Heart the Dread the Reverence the Fear that our Hearts were filled with in the beginning in which we went about Truth 's Concern this same is still to be Felt and Minded and then all will be kept Savoury and in this will all your Meetings your Care and Labour of Love be a sweet Smelling Sacrifice unto the Lord. And Friends let your Monthly and Quarterly-Meetings be kept orderly for the Service determined and aimed at that you may be retired from the World and such not concerned in the Service Proposed for such Meetings that so all that come may be either Capable of doing Service in a Reverent Mind or to Learn that which may be for Truths Honour their own Good and your Comfort and then will all you who are concerned get into your Service without Straitness and so will be a help one unto another in your particular gifts and the Spring of Life will be opened among you and your Meetings will be Delightful unto you and you in that will be a Delight one to another and then with one Consent in the Pleasant Unity you will do the Lord's Work together as his Servants and Hand-maids and a part of his pleasant Heritage which he hath Chosen and upon whom he rains down his 〈◊〉 daily And so the God of Peace and Love fill your Assemblies with his Presence Life and Love that you may Flourish as the Plants of his Right-hand-planting and be faithful through your whole Day is the desire of my Heart and Soul who Remain Your Brother in the Lord Jesus Christ I. B. To the Women's Meetings in Cumberland From London 20 th of the 4 th Month 1678. Dear Friends YOU whom the Lord hath visited and reached unto by his own holy Arm of Heavenly Power for that blessed end for which he hath visited many Nations and appeared unto many People that he might shew Glory again unto Mankind which through Sin they were fallen short of that so in his Visitation he might renew that Heavenly Image whereby he might be glorified again among the Sons of Men and now in this great Day of Visitation which hath dawned upon the Nations you in these Countries have been visited and reached unto and graciously saved and delivered from the Snares of Death and opened unto the way of Life so that you have both seen into that hidden Glory and tasted of and been enjoyers of the power of that Life which hath no end And now that care which always ought to dwell upon your Hearts is this that you may keep in possession that which you have received That as was said of old None may take your Crown from you nor none may fall short of that Rest which is prepared for the visited and redeemed of the Lord. The way you have known God hath shewed it unto you and called you to walk therein and the mark you have seen the Lord hath set that before you that you might press towards it as the antient Christians did for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And now dear Friends that which I desire all may be concerned in is how there is a pressing forward towards the Mark and a going on in this way which the Lord hath cast up or revealed and called you to walk in for it is he that travels on that shall come to the blessed End and obtain the Crown of Glory and not such as lingers or sits down by the way either to take up a Rest or look for another Inheritance besides what God hath promised shall be the possession after the War is over and the Conquest obtained For Iordan must be gone through and the Canaanites utterly subdued before any Man of War sit down in his Inheritance Therefore those Tribes that had their Lots on the other side of Iordan were to go through Iordan and continue in the War till all was subdued And thus is the saying true He that continues unto the end shall be saved and he that 's faithful unto Death shall have the Crown of Life And therefore let a concern be always upon your Minds in this weighty matter that you may see how it is with you and whether you are still in your Journey upon your Travel towards the Mark for the Price And as you must mind whether you are in your Travel pressing forwards or no even so you must mind also that you press forwards toward the Mark or else you
may come short of the Price the blessed Inheritance and so be such as Iames speaks of that ask and receive not because they ask amiss For the Heavenly Wisdom is to be sought after and waited for that comes down from above which teacheth and guideth in the Heavenly Way the Heavenly Path of Life and Salvation where every ones steps will be sure and their goings will be established and their understandings will grow For the Iust Man's Path will be as the shining Light that shines more and more unto the perfect Day Here none will be like those that beat the Air or run at an uncertainty the Apostle said they were not such yet there may be such whose Pains and Travels may be great Therefore still I say let your pressing be towards the Mark in the sense of the Lord's power which is the true Guide and the true Cross that mortifies and crucifies the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts and keeps Self down in the Death out of the Reputation for there is none due unto it For whosoever gives and seeks Reputation to it which ought to be made of no Reputation such can never rightly seek God's Honour nor work his Work nor obtain the right Price nor attain the Crown but must fall short at last For it is in him that crucifies Self and makes it of no Reputation that the Election stands and in whom the Heirship is for ever And therefore dear Friends wait all to feel his power in your Hearts and diligently mind the blessed working thereof that you may feel how it purgeth your Consciences from dead Works and cleanseth your Hearts from Sin for Sin defileth the Heart that it is not prepared for the Lord he will not dwell therein Therefore it must be washed and dead Works must be purged away for no Man can serve the living God therein it must be the living Works in the living Power wherein we must be accepted And so let all mind the living Power which is the living Guide which doth guide in the living Way and keeps alive unto God and so you will all be kept a living People and grow up in the living Wisdom that is from above which is inwardly taught by the living Gift that is received from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning And as you grow up in this Wisdom you will be constant there will be an establishing and such will shew out of a good Conversation their Works with Meekness and Wisdom But saith the Apostle if there be bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts glory not and lie not against the Truth this Wisdom descendeth not from above but is Earthly Sensual and Devilish For where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil Work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits c. And the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace so you may see the Fruits brought forth manifest the Wisdom from whence it comes The Heavenly peaceable Wisdom brings forth the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness and is full of Mercy gentle and easie to be intreated and full of good Works but the Earthly brings forth the contrary Therefore saith the Apostle If there be bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts glory not and lie not against the Truth Say not thou art in the Heavenly Wisdom while this lodgeth in thee for this Wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly and sensual and therefore can never establish but bring Confusion because he is the Author of it that can never work good And therefore dear Friends let your Hearts be always kept in subjection unto that Power that bridles your Wills and crosses them and keeps you lowly humble and gentle where the daily dying which the Apostle was in may be witnessed and so you will see the true pressing forward towards the Mark and the true growing into Dominion over him that would hinder and then as Iames saith Swift to hear slow to speak slow to Wrath for the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Yet this I have often observed Man in a heat of Wrath would be working for God but in that he cannot work the Righteousness of God Therefore well said Iames Swift to hear slow to speak slow to Wrath And you know that he whom we ought to hear saith Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart And so as every one learns of him and minds the leadings of his Power and the teachings of his spirit of Grace in their Hearts they will grow more and more like him and come into his Nature and healing Spirit and so in his Grace and Life be Healers and Saviours And therefore was it said by the Prophet they should be as Saviours upon Mount Zion Now Friends every one mind this saving healing power in your selves and bow in your Hearts unto it and be still in your Minds and calm and you shall see how it will sweeten you level your Spirits and bring down that which is high and losty and hard and you shall see how the Mountains will melt at the prefence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Iacob and you shall see how the Winds and Seas obey your Saviour and into what calmness he will bring your Spirits and then when all is still your Ear being opened which is the first Work of the Word you will be swift to hear and hearing your Souls will live And you will come down out of all the noises floatings and swellings into the calmness and stillness where you will admire your Saviour and say What manner of Man is this that even the Winds and Seas obey him And you will see that though Iordan over-flow her Banks yet at the leadings on of our Ioshuah and at the entrance of the feet of our High Priest it must be driven back that the Ransomed of the Lord may pass over dry-shod Much of this nature in Spirit may be read as there is a hearkning and keeping low but the forward rash and hasty are often tossed upon the Waters and very uncertain in their ways and doings and therefore do produce unto themselves much affliction of Soul and Spirit for to them the promise doth not belong where it is said He will keep them in perfect Peace whose Minds are stayed upon him because they trusted in him Now Friends methinks the Way is plain if every one would be careful to attend upon the power and its openings and give way thereunto and be humble for its the humble he teacheth his Ways and the meek he will guide in Iudgment and the willing and obedient he will feed for the Promise is They shall eat of the good of the Land And therefore I do beseech all be mindful be you all careful keep your Hearts out of the World and the
the Rock Christ Iesus which by the Storms and Winds cannot be thrown down For the sure Foundation being kept unto you will abide and endure and the Lord will bless you with inward Peace in your Souls and true Pleasure in your Hearts and you will enjoy the true Riches and Heavenly Treasure and learn as you keep to the power of God in your Hearts to lay up this true Treasure in Heaven through the true Faith where the Thief cannot come to steal nor the Moth to waste or corrupt And then your Riches and Treasure that you trust and delight in being thus laid up in Safety your Hearts will be at quiet and in ease and setled in the Kingdom in Heaven where the Treasure is and then Christ's Words will be witnessed Where the Treasure is there will the Heart be also Oh my dear Friends how true are these things Happy are they that grow up into the experience thereof through the working operation and openings of the true living Heavenly Power in their Hearts such their Minds are kept free from that which would entangle and their Feet at liberty that they may run chearfully the Race that is set before them For the Riches the Price that their Hearts are upon being before them and the Mark also that they look at this draws them to look forward and press forward so that they are not of them that draw back to Perdition And thus Friends you may see where and in what your profitable Exercise is through your Day and where the lasting Gain Riches and Treasure is to be got that will endure and be your Portion when the Enemy and all his Instruments have done what they can And this made David say he would not fear what Man could do unto him for the Lord was his Shepherd he said and the Lord was the Portion of his Cup and the Lot of his Inheritance c. And therefore keep your Hearts out of the World and the Riches thereof which are uncertain and also above the delighting in the Glory thereof and let your delight be in the Lord and in the sweet and pleasant Enjoyment of his righteous peaceable Power all the Day long that you may still feel a Habitation therein and a place of Safety to fly unto in every needful time And wait you upon its holy springings in your Hearts that your Souls thereby being united unto God you may dwell in his Covenant and so in Unity with him and his blessed Son and so feel the Fellowship which is a Mystery held in a pure Conscience And dearly Beloved live at Peace among your selves and wait for the Spirit of Love and Concord to spring in all your Souls that the true Mark of Christ's Disciples may appear among you Remember what he said unto his of old By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another And consider what the Apostle said He that dwells in God dwells in Love c. And therefore I intreat you wait for the power of it in your Hearts that you therein may serve one another and so the whole Body may be edified the weak strengthned the faint-hearted encouraged and the lame not turned out of the way but all helpt forward on their way And you all being thus in the righteous holy Power exercised for good which is that it will lead unto you will be a Strength and Comfort and Crown of Rejoycing one unto another and so helpers forward of one anothers Joy in the Lord Surely this is needful in this Day wherein Zion hath so many Enemies she had need to be as a City that 's at Peace within her self So the God of Peace keep you all in the Dominion of his Life that therein you may reign over every hurtful Thing and so dwell in the holy Mount of Safety where the Destroyer cannot come and upon the holy Hill of Zion about which he hath appointed Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks That so you may all witness Peace to be within her Walls and Prosperity within her Palaces And so you may every Day witness high Praises in your Hearts and Mouths unto her King who is King of Kings and reigns over all who only hath Immortality and dwells in the Light To whom be Glory and Eternal Praises saith my Soul for ever and for evermore Amen From your Friend and one that truly loves you in the Truth J. B. Dear R. S. UNTO thee with thy Dear Wife C. H. R. U. and theirs with the rest of Friends there in Prison with you doth the living sincere Love of my Heart truly reach and livingly flow forth for I can say of a truth that you are often near my Soul and livingly in my Heart and that in my nearest approach unto the Lord when my Life opens and my Spirit is let forth through the Power thereof and poured forth into his Bosom as blessed be his Name he gives us access by his own Spirit even then are you many times fresh in my Heart and Livingly before me as if I were present in Body with you and with great delight do I put up my Supplications upon your account unto the Lord our God rejoycing to feel the Lord so concerned for you that by his own Spirit he so often stirs up a remembrance of you in my Soul and that upon such Holy occasions Oh! blessed be his Name he is the Keeper of Israel that neither Slumbers nor Sleeps but remembers his People and his Eye is open to see their Afflictions and his Ear is open to hear their Complaints and tender Groanings and no doubt but he will arise in his own due time to work Deliverance and Salvation and they shall glorify him Oh! my dear Friends how is my Soul overcome in the weighty Love of God at this time unto you all who Suffer or are given up to Suffer for his Name 's sake that hath Loved you and values your Testimony above all things and so are of that number that love not your Lives unto Death but are given up to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Oh! my Heart is affected with you in your Testimony and can say as Debora of old My Heart is towards you who offer your selves willingly among the People now to Suffer in the Lambs Battle as they did to War in the outward War for that 's the way the Lamb and his followers do overcome he was made Perfect through Suffering And the Promise still is The Lamb shall have the Victory everlasting Glory and Honour and Praise to the Living God that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb who is worthy for ever more And therefore my dear Friends look not out look not back but to the Lord your Rock and Strength look for Help and for Deliverance for you know that its from him that Salvation comes and not from the Hills and Mountains for he is the God of the whole Earth and the Mountains shall Melt at his
Presence and before him shall the Hills Fly yea the Sea also shall Fly and Iordan shall be Driven back that his Ransomed may pass on his Redeemed People may Enter into their Rest. Oh! theresore let us Cleave unto the Lord our Saviour and so sollow Christ our Redeemer who can cut a passage through the great Deep let us not be dismayed at any thing that may rise up in our way to oppose us so long as our Leader is with us and our blessed Rock attends us and we feel our dwelling within the Munition thereof our Bread will be sure and our Water will not fail and our Hearts will not be barren nor our Souls will not be faint but we shall grow through the blessing of Israel's God and Live when with all their cunning the enemies of the Truth have contrived our overthrow For there is nothing can hurt us more in the Trying Day than want of Faith in God's Power and Arm of strength which never failed them that put their trust therein And therefore my dearly Beloved with whom my Soul is bound up in the Covenant of Life wherein I have Unity with you and can say although you bear the Burden yet my Heart is concerned for you and also with you in your Godly concern and Testimony for which you Suffer and therefore cannot you be forgotten by me For as we Love the Truth and the Holy Testimony thereof for which you Suffer and are in Bonds in Spirit we are often as Bound with you and fellow-feelers of your Burthens And furthermore we cannot propose to our selves any other than e're long to be Sharers with you to be Partakers of the like Sufferings Trials and Exercises and therefore still it is our safety to be Prepared in our Hearts and into the Will of God to be given up to Do or Suffer for his Name 's sake For our days do seem to be like the Days of Old wherein the Apostle said they were Killed all the Day long and accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter If we look into the Scriptures we have a Cloud of Witnesses and so through what was Written aforetime which was Written for our Learning we may have Comfort and our hope Strengthened and so be Encouraged to Trust in the Lord our Strength and in whom our Hope is And now it is still to be our care as Lambs or Sheep to Live in Innocency and so as Lambs to Suffer for our Innocency and for our Testimony which we are called unto and surely I often consider what more Innocent Practice can we ever be found in than in our Peaceable Meetings to Wait upon the Living God and to Worship him in his peaceable Spirit by which our Hearts come to be cleansed of all Evil and our Spirits gathered into the Peace and Love of God in which we Love God again and not only so but have our hearts filled with Love and Good will towards all Men in the Peace and Sweetness of which we are enabled to Pray for the Good of All even our Enemies And if this must be misinterpreted and our Righteous and Godly Intents counted a Transgression of the Law and a Breach of the Peace I do not know what such who so do can call Innocency For surely every one whose Heart is rightly Exercised in this Godly Duty which the Living God calls us unto must needs be Innocent before God and in that Frame of Spirit wherein we cannot nay dare not desire the Hurt of any but as the Truth ariseth Pray for all Men both for Rulers and People Thus I know under the Exercise of the Righteous Power of Christ in our Meetings are our Hearts qualified and then if we must Suffer for Well doing under the name of Evil-doers we shall be happy and may satisfy our selves with what Christ of old said The Servant is not greater than his Lord For if they accounted him a Blasphemer and said he had a Devil and so Persecuted him we may well look unto him and Comfort our selves in following such an Example And therefore be ye Comforted you Faithful Sufferers with Christ and for him and Comfort your Hearts in the Recompence of Reward which is with God for you and wait for the Spirit of God and of Glory that it may rest upon you And never look out for your Cause is Good it is that which God hath called you unto and you are happy in your Nobility and Valour and whosoever shrinks from their Innocent Testimony in this matter will suffer Loss in their Inward Condition for if any draw back such shall know the Lord will not go with them nor have any Pleasure in them nor be their Comforter but Reprover And therefore my Soul desires that all may be Valiant for the Truth and stand in the Power thereof unto what the Lord hath called unto that so you may be together as a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid For though the Foxes have Holes and the Fowls of the Air have Nests yet remember what Christ said to the Man that said he would follow him And so the Lord give you all Valour and Strength and Enrich you with true Patience which the Tribulation worketh into in the right Exercise that so you may all grow up into the true Experience and so into the Hope which makes not ashamed that the Love of God may be shed abroad in your Hearts every day by his Spirit which he hath given you And then will you all feel a dwelling in his Covenant and in his Peace And so in this Covenant Peace and Love I very dearly Salute you all and in it do I still remain Your Friend and Brother I. B. Castle-Salem in the West of Ireland the 30th of the 10th Month 1682. J. B's Epistle to Friends in Glocester-Prison Dear Friends UNTO you who are Faithful Sufferers in that City with the rest of the Faithful in that City and Country who in your Hearts are given up to Suffer for the holy Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour who hath Called and Redeemed Chosen and given you Hearts not only to believe but also to suffer for his Name 's sake and thus hath counted you worthy as Vessels of his Choice unto you all I say in the Name and Love of Christ Jesus our Lord I send Greeting and with-all the tender Salutation of my Soul and Spirit in that near Affection and holy Union into which by the power of the Holy Ghost we have been gathered and united So that as Members of that one Body into which we have been Baptized by that one Spirit wherein the true access unto God doth stand we have our Fellowship together and so drink together into that one Spirit and are refreshed with the Water that flows from the living Rock that followed Israel of Old who is the Rock of our Age the stay of the Generation of the Righteous in this Day that upon which we have our sure standing so
God that ye may reign in the dominion of the same over all the evil Lusts of the Flesh which would arise in your hearts to war against the Spirit of Holiness and so would hinder your Sanctification This of a truth Friends you ought to take heed unto even the Spirit of Holiness and Power of the Lord our God which in this latter Age he hath largely manifested for to sanctifie his People that so your hearts may be kept clean and preserved according to Christ's Command out of the surfeiting with the Cares of this Life and from being overcome with and drowned in the Pleasures and Vanities of this World that you may never lose the excellency and glory of these heavenly things which God the Father in the bountifulness of his loving kindness hath been pleased to manifest with which all the glory of this present World is not to be compared And so my Dear Friends you that feel the Lord and his goodness in your hearts Walk Circumspectly as before him with Reverence and Godly Fear in the holy Awe that you may not provoke him at any time nor grieve his holy Spirit by which you are Sealed but with tenderness of heart and pureness of mind wait upon him at all times So will your Peace spring up as a River and your Righteousness be multiplied as the Waves of the Sea and so over all the choaking Cares of this Life and drowning Pleasures of this present vain World you will be preserved to have a being in the power of that life which is without end In which as there is a dwelling faithfully you will all grow and increase in the dominion over all hurtful Lusts that war against the Soul in your own particulars And also there will be a growing over all hurtful Spirits that have entred since the beginning whose Life is in the Fall and not in the pure Redemption nor in the redeeming Power that brings out of the Fall And so to the Lord God Friends be ye all faithful in your places that you may be a blessing in your Generation in those Countries and Places where ye dwell that the Nations may be seasoned that your savory life may sweeten the People And Friends have an eye to the Glory of God and the Honour of his Truth in all your undertakings I even command you in his fear it being upon me by his Spirit that the Lord's name may not be blasphemed among the Heathen through your unfaithfulness For truly my love being great towards you I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie and therefore am constrained to use great plainness as having a sense of your state And therefore be ye provoked unto Love and to good Works in a faithful obedience and serving of the power for it s in that that all accepted And lay aside all Wrath and Clamour and evil Speaking with all bitterness and receive with meekness the ingrafted Word which is able to save your Souls And in the power of that dwell and it will divide aright between the Pretious and the Vile and so will cut off all that is not of God not regarding what may be professed where the living vertue is wanting This pure living Word is your Preserver that keep faithful in it and will keep you from all deceiveableness and lying Spirits which are not of the Father but of the World and from the God of the same in the dark power beguiling the unstable Soul through his lying Signs and Wonders in the power of darkness without living vertue And this Word which you have received will live in your hearts and minister daily of its own vertue into your Souls for their refreshment if you keep faithful unto the same But if the Thorny Cares of this life and the choaking Pleasures of this vain World take root and place in your hearts then the freshness is lost the issue of living vertue is stopt the ministring word and power is with-drawn the Fountain again is sealed up and the dry Winds and the scorching heat comes and dries up and causes to wither the green Blade before the Corn comes to perfection So that the harvest and time of gathering never comes Therefore O my Friends be faithful unto the Lord and be not drawn aside from the stedfastness of the Gospel neither on the one hand nor on the other but step in the straight path of Life Peace and Salvation which the Lord hath prepared for your feet that the Weak may be strengthned and the Lame recovered and none turned out of the way For truly there is much upon you I feel it in this matter even you that feel the Lord in any measure that you all be vigilant and diligent in your places that you may be a strength unto the Weak And therefore am I moved once more to warn you now you even you that know the Lord To take heed unto the power of the Lord God in your hearts and with that keep down the earthly worldly Spirit that so you live over it in the Spirit and Power of the Lord may draw more unto you or else I feel it you will not only be guilty of your own Blood but the Blood of others also which stumble at your unfaithfulness who have been call'd and accounted as the first Fruits unto God and unto the Lamb in those parts of the World in this blessed day of the Lord in which he hath appeared and gathered by his power and also doth preserve and nourish by the vertue of the same all that he hath gathered whose trust and confidence is in him And so My Friends this may give you to understand that I am safely arrived in England and am perfectly well every way And Friends here are generally well Meetings very large and the Truth in good esteem among many People who are not yet of us And great openness in all places where I have been in the hearts of all People and great desires to hear the Truth for it is of good Report This from Me who remain Your Friend and Brother J. B. The END 1671. In our going down to Virginia we were in great danger and had like to have been Castaway with a North-west Storm 1672. 1673. 1674. 1675. 1676. * * The Earl of Arran This was Amos Strettel's Marriage As at large may be seen in George Bishop's two Books entituled New-England judged * * Iohn Smith Witness Thomas Smith Iohn Kelson Thomas Cole
to shine For he was an Instrument of Good to many making a Difference saving some with Fear pulling them out of the Fire hating even the Garment spotted by the Flesh being found in that pure and undefiled Religion of Visiting the Fatherless and widows in their Affliction and through the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ keeping himself Unspotted from the World and therefore knew how to Save upon Mount Zion and Judge upon Mount Esau. Much might be written concerning him for we know the very Desire of his Heart and Bent of his Spirit was that God through his Son might Reign in the House of Jacob and the Kingdom might be the Lord's He abhorred the Appearance of Gathering to himself and had Self of no Reputation therefore the Lord honour'd him with his Divine Presence and made his Company althô dreadful to the Back-sliders yet very desirable unto many especially those who knew his Integrity and Zeal for the Exaltation of the Name and Truth of God in whose Hearts he was highly esteemed for his Works sake which shall follow him althô he be at Rest from his Labour being got to his desired Haven where the Wicked cease from troubling where the Weary be at Rest. And there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the Voice of the Oppressor for the Accuser of the Brethren is cast down Temptations cannot prevail an Over-coming is known by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their Testimony who have not loved their Lives unto Death And To him that overcomes saith Christ Iesus will I grant to sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne he shall not be hurt of the Second Death but with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and with all the Faithful in the Kingdom of God without ceasing sing Praises unto him who sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever-more who is Worthy O the great Loss we have of him How can we but Lament Yet it is his Everlasting Gain For he shall never Return to us but we may go to him And that Word of Life in which his Life was hid yet remains for our support which as we are careful to keep to will preserve us as it has done him to Enter into that Mansion of Glory the Lord hath in store for all the Faithful He was Dear unto us in the Lord with whom our Souls were bound up in God's Everlasting Covenant And thô his Body is gone to the Dust yet our Souls rejoice with many more in that we enjoy his Spirit and are come to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of Sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel where our Ioy is full and our Spirits bowed and subjected to the Will of God where our Peace flows and the Life arises that fills our Hearts with Praises that Ascend as sweet Incense to the Lord God and to the Lamb who is blessed for evermore The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way Psal. 37. 23. And they that be Wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. Broughton in Cumberland the 22th of the 2d Month 1691. Margaret Fawcet Jane Wilson Margaret Head Jane Hall Mary Wilson Mary Bowman Sarah Fallowfield An Account by Way of Testimony concerning our Dear Friend and Brother Iohn Burnyeat WE will leave to others the Account of his Birth and Convincement that were his Neighbours and Kindred and shall speak of him only as some of us knew him from an Intimate Fellowship in divers Services for above Twenty Years He was a Choice and Seasoned Vessel of Christ the special Workmanship of his Power and Wisdom by which he was effectually qualified for the Ministry of his Everlasting Gospel throughly furnished may We say to every good Word and Work God called him unto Deep and Large in his Gift reaching what was seasonable to every State in Judgment sound free in Utterance Zealous for Holiness severe against Unsound and Dividing Spirits Most tender to Penitents and returning Prodigals affectionate to the Brethren und careful over the Flock of God that they might Answer their Heavenly Call and grow in the Truth Of a grave and steady Temper yet sweet Hardy in his Constitution and Undaunted and Unwearied in Mind He was the Father of many Children in Christ who through his Ministry were begot again to a Living Hope and the Builder up of more through the same in the pretious Faith of God's Elect. For this he often Travelled through this Nation and sometimes Scotland and the Plantations in America but Ireland in a more peculiar manner both at his first Entrance upon his Ministry and of latter Years where he Married and chiefly resided and where he laid down his Head in Peace with God and Love to his People and good Will to all men being about the 59th Year of his Age and is entred into Eternal Habitations to praise the God of his Mercies in the Living Family of the Spirits of the Just for ever He was indeed a Man of an Excellent Spirit and Divine Understanding from God and deep in the Knowledge of the Heavenly Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and also of the Depths Wiles and Subtil Workings of Satan wherein he lies in wait to beguile the Children of Men and the Lord many times opened him in his Heavenly Wisdom to declare of them that those who had regard to God and the Peace of their own Souls might be preserved out of Satan's Snares He was an able and powerful Minister of the Gospel of Salvation a Strengthener of the Weak and an Incourager of the Upright and Sincere-hearted to continue to the end But he was indeed dreadful to the Hypocrites and Rebellious and all the Opposers and Gainsayers of the Truth A skilful Marks-Man yea one of the Lord's Worthies of Israel a Valiant in the Camp of the Lord and an Undaunted Warrier in his Holy Host and his Bow abode in strength and Wisdom was given him to direct his Arrows to the very Mark so that the Sturdy were wounded the Meek were comforted the Tender in Spirit refreshed And was by the Lord made Instrumental to wound that Self-separating and Dividing Spirit thad had for want of Watchfulness in the Divine Light and Faithfulness to God's Spirit and Truth in the inward parts prevailed over some who notwithstanding in a disguise and under specious pretences endeavour to sow the Seeds of Dissension Discord Separation and Division among the Gathered of God And the Lord blessed his Labours greatly and so preserved him in a Holy Conversation and in a meek tender bearing healing Spirit that he promoted both
by Doctrine and Practice that holy Truth he professed and was a Preacher of and made full proofs of his Ministry in many Lands and Countries and at the great City of London where he was made Instrumental to the Good and Comfort Refreshment and Edification of many and was Valiant there as in other places in the time of Trials Sufferings Storms and Persecution And he was also a great Incourager of the Good in Young and Old and as a tender Father and loving Brother to those who were young in their Testimonies for the Truth and would rather help a Young Branch to strengthen it in its growth than to bruise or hurt it in any measure This short Testimony we Dedicate to his Memorial that shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance for his Name is Written in the Lamb's Book of Life where none can blot it out Our Brother our Friend and our beloved Companion in the Heavenly Fellowship with whom some of us have some-times Travelled in England and Ireland upon divers Services for the Truth 's sake and Blessed was our Labour of Love together He was an Apostle among the Chnrches of Christ and he is a fixed and bright Star in the Firmament of God's Heavenly Power and Kingdom for ever O Friends you that knew him know the Loss of him in the Church of Christ with other Faithful Brethren since departed worthy of double honor concerning which sad Providence we have this to say to you It points plainly to us the Evil that is to come upon the Wicked and Unfaithful and the great Calamities that are at the Door The Lord fit us all for them that we may find an Interest and Sanctuary in the Truth above the Reach of this Evil World which they will want that do not prefer it above the chiefest Ioy. London the 10th of the 11th Month 1690 1. Stephen Crisp. Charles Marshall William Bingley John Field Francis Stamper Jasper Batt William Penn. Benjamin Antrobus John Vaughton Benjamin Bangs Samuel Waldenfield John Butcher A Testimony of several Friends in Ireland in whose Hearts it sprung and who gave it forth in the behalf of our Dear Brother Iohn Burnyeat AS for our Dear Friend and Worthy Brother in the Lord John Burnyeat late of Dublin deceased whom some of us have known many years we have this Testimony in the Truth concerning him viz. That he has been steadfast in the Lord's Work an able Minister of the Gospel and faithful Lobourer who had a Word in Season to Minister to the several Conditions of Friends and People dividing the Word aright a Strengthener of the Weak and a free Feeder of Christ's Lambs and Sheep with the Food he had freely received to the Comforting many His Testimony for the Power of Truth and Righteousness was clear many were Convinced by him His Conversation was so heavenly and becoming the Principle of Truth he was a Preacher of that we know no one that can truly Charge him with any thing that might spot his Profession or Ministry He was a Man excellently well qualified for the Work whereunto he was called of God the Lord having endued him with a large Measure of his Spirit He had great Openings and Discoveries of the Mysteries of God's Kingdom he had also the Tongue of the Learned and was fitted for every good Word and Work the Lord employed him in His Qualifications were beyond many and thô little in himself yet in the Lord a Mighty Man of Valour In all times of Suffering and Exercise he failed not to be in the Front he was a Valiant in Israel and a Pillar in the House of God He did Sympathise with the Afflicted seeking the good of others and above all the Honour and Prosperity of Truth was in his Eye When he took his Wife amongst us how Careful and Circumspect was he of Truth 's Honour and the Concord and Unity of Friends and Brethren And where he came among Friends he would not be Idle but did often Visit the Sick and Comfort those that were in Distress or Affliction For indeed he was a true Servant to all honest Friends as well the Poor as Rich and would freely Administer of his outward Substance to such as stood in need He was meek and gentle and of a healing Spirit and it was the unspeakable Love and Mercy of God to us in this Nation and particularly this City of Dublin to order his outward Abode and Settlement amongst us By whom many were Convinced of the Truth and turned from the Evil of their Ways and the Peace of the Church the Unity and Fellowship of Friends Increased He was one of the Archers of Israel who could shoot to an Hairs-breadth to the wounding of the Hairy Scalp of the Wicked one and the putting of the Lord's Enemies to Silence He was a Messenger of Glad Tidings and directed us to the blessed Light that God had caused to shine in our Hearts when we were Strangers to it yea then did it Appear as a Witness for the Lord against all Ungodly Practices It was a Day of Glad Tidings to many when the Lord made him one of his Trumpets to us to sound his Gospel to the reaching God's Witness in our Hearts Oh! that it may not be forgotten by any of us who have been turned to God! He had a true Love for all Tender-Hearted Friends and travelled for their Growth and Prosperity in the blessed Truth not only in these Three Nations but also in the Western Islands and America to the turning many to the blessed Way of Life and Salvation as by following Accounts will appear He was a true Pattern of Godliness and Piety in an humble meek and in-offensive Conversation Apt to Teach Ready to give heavenly Advice and Instruction a good Example in all things An Early Comer to Meetings and a diligent Waiter therein Many times he would sit a pretty while in Silence not being forward to speak Reverently waiting upon the Opening of the heavenly Life like the good Housholder spoken of to bring forth of his Treasury things both New and Old He was deeply Experienced in the Work and Service of the Lord and was a great Comfort and Support to many in their great Sufferings and hard Exercises and did mightily Strengthen and Encourage Friends in their several places of Abode Twice during the late Troubles he visited Friends in Munster and in this Province of Lynster unto whom he was very open and had large Meetings for in many places the World's Teachers were fled and left their Flocks Many times in the Publick Meetings he would bear a faithful plain and clear Testimony against Superstition and Idolatry and against that Loose Wicked Blasphemous and Unclean Spirit that many gave up to be led by As soon as the way was open to the North he visited Friends there Now after the Death of his Wife he had some Intentions to go for England and sent his Son thither but seeing the Troubles of Wars coming
keeping our Meetings and not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the manner of some was of old whose Example the Apostle exhorted the Saints not to follow the Lord's Power still continued with us and was renewed daily in our Meetings by the Openings of which our Understandings was still more enlarged into the Mysteries of Life and hidden things of God so that many through the favour of God grew in their Gifts and had their Mouths opened and so became Instruments in the Lord's hand to bear witness unto the World of the Day of the Lord that was broken forth again even of the great and notable Day that Ioel had prophesied of and Peter bore witness unto and also they were sent to bear witness against the World and its evil Deeds with all the false Religions with which Mankind had covered themselves withal in the Darkness and Apostasie which had spread over them and now was seen and discovered by the Light and Day of God And thus the Truth grew and the Faithful in it and many was turned unto God and his Name and Fame and Glory and Power spread abroad and the Enemies Work and Kingdom was discovered and struck at by the Lamb and his Followers which made him begin to rage and stir up his Instruments to oppose the Lord's Work and with all subtilty to hinder People from following the Lamb or believing in his Light and so with Pen and Tongue and Hands also the Beast and his Followers began to war and to whipping and scourging and prisoning and spoiling of Goods with reproaching belying and slandering the way of Truth and all that they could do to hinder the Exaltation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ blaspheming his Light and his Power calling his Light natural insufficient false Guide with many reproachful Names and calling his Power Diabolical and the operation and blessed work of it which was both to the renewing of the Spirit of the Mind and also to the reformation of the Conversation from Debauchery Wickedness Unrighteousness and Witchcraft even like them of old who said Christ cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince thereof But by this time they that kept faithful to the Lord and his Light and Spirit in their Hearts who had come forth through the deep Tribulation as before related was confirmed setled and satisfied and in the Life that was manifested established in which they saw over Death and all mens profession in it and where they were and what they sed upon that cried out so against the Light and Power of Christ that was thus with us and wrought thus in us in our Meetings and how they were but mocking at the same that those mocked at spoken of in the second of the Acts when they thought the Apostles were full of new Wine and so drunk for the high Professors of our days being ignorant of the Holy Ghost through their resisting of it blasphemed the Life and Power and in the Death at the best did but feed upon the Tree of Knowledge For this I still right-well remember that in my waiting upon the Lord in the deep Distress and weighty Judgment that was upon my Soul to see if he would appear and break through and open and give relief from under that which kept me down as Bars of Iron that I could not arise nor asscend nor have access although out of the Deep I cried unto him for deliverance I say I can remember that in the first notable inbreaking of the Power of God upon my Soul or pouring forth of the Holy Ghost upon me the first opening in the same unto me thereby was a true discovery of the Tree of Knowledge in the Mystery upon which I saw I had been feeding and all the Carnal Professors of Religion and how we had made a Profession of that which we had no possession of but our Souls in the Death feeding upon the Talk of that which the Saints of old did enjoy and then I saw there was no getting to the Tree of Life that our Souls might be healed by the Leaves of it and so feed upon the Fruit thereof that we might live for ever But as there was a coming under the wounding slaying Sword that Christ brings by which the Life of the Old man comes to be destroyed who would still live in sin and serve that and yet profess Faith in Christ and to be his Servant which is impossible according to Christ's own saying No man can serve two Masters c. Matth. 6. 24. and therefore I saw there was no remedy either I must be buried by that fiery Baptism of Christ's with him into Death or else there could be no rising with him into newness of Life there might be a rising into newness of Profession Notion and Words but that would not do it was newness of Life I must come to the other I had tried over and over I saw I must dye with him or be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that is dye unto sin if ever I came to be planted with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and so live unto God according to Romans the sixth Then when things thus opened in me I clearly saw we had all been deceived thinking while we did live in the Flesh and after the Flesh and so in the Death feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge which was forbidden for Food we might make such a Profession as might bring us to reap Life everlasting but I soon saw such as a man lived after such as a man sowed such should he reap and not what a man professed or what he talked of and then I was willing to bow to the Cross and come under the fiery Baptism of the Spirit and let that which was consumable be destroyed that my Soul might be saved and come to possess that which would endure and abide and could not be shaken Thus were the Heavens shaken also as well as the Earth that that which was not shakeable might remain according to Hebr. 12. 27. and so that which condemned the evil Fruits of the Flesh as they were owned by us so to be in our Profession both in our loose Conversation and also in the desires of our Hearts and fleshly Lusts that therein sprang unto the Judgment of which we did assent even so did that same Light and true Witness discover and condemn our fleshly Profession of Religion in that same Nature and Mind which brought forth Evil or in which Evil did dwell and Rule and so came our Heaven to be shaken and our Covering and Garment to be taken away and we left comfortless and naked destitute and without a Habitation and then we saw our sacrificing and our sinning to be alike in the sight of God for our Prayers was rejected and all loathed because both was done in one Nature and from one and the same Seed and corrupt Heart and therefore it came to be with us as with Iudah of
me for weighty was the Dread and Majesty of the Power of the Word of Life that lived and as a Fire burned in my Heart that I could not stay And when the first day of the Week came in Obedience unto the word of the Lord I went to Aspetry the Place which the Lord set before me to speak to one Warwick a Priest who when I came was preaching in their Bell-house who soon after I came in with a Friend with me began to put forth some subtil Questions to provoke us to speak that he might have an opportunity to cause us to be haled out and sent to Prison but I resolved not to mind his Temptation but to wait upon the Lord and when he could not prevail with his Questions to get his end upon us he spoke to the Constable to put us forth who answering bid him go on and said They do not disturb us c. Then the Priest went on with his Sermon and finished And when he had done I began to speak to the People and the Priest he got away and the People hurried me out and kept me and the Priest asunder so that I got not to speak to him that Fore-noon So I came away with my Friend and thought to have returned home but immediately after I was got out of the Town the wrath and displeasure of the Lord in his Word sprung dreadfully in my Heart and a dreadful Cry was in me from the same Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. And then I saw how I had let in a Fear upon me in which I had shunned the Priest and spared him for fear I should be sent to Prison for speaking to him the Law being such at that day That whosoever did disturb a Minister as they termed it should be sent to Prison c. And when I found out my Weakness in this that I had spoke to the People and spared the Priest that I was sent to cry against then was I sore afraid and my Heart filled with horrour and a sore cry in me still Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. then I knew not what to do for the wrath of God was upon me and another Cry from the same Word was sounded in my Heart saying Babylon hath sinned all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no Arrows for she hath sinned c. Now when it was thus with me and I saw that I had not been faithful but had mist my Service after I had come so far as the Common above Plumland I sate me down and there I mourned before the Lord whom I had so grieved and humbly desired of the Lord that he would but grant me liberty to go again to clear my self that I might come into Peace with him again and then let Life or Liberty outwards go I did not value So waiting upon him in this humble bowed frame of Spirit the Word of Life rose in me again and opened my Heart and sealed to me I might go Then I arose with boldness and went with speed till I came there at the Worship house and the Priest was preaching again in the After-noon and I went in and stood before him till he had done and then was my Heart filled with Peace and I resolved in the Name of the Lord not to spare but speak the Word of the Lord faithfully whatever I might suffer for it for in comparison thereof I valued neither Life nor Liberty So when he had done I spoke unto him what the Lord put in my Mouth He immediately got away and gave me no Answer But I followed him so quick and cried out after him so that he turned again to me in the Grave-yard and then I did clear my Conscience to him and a great Dispute we had for I did not spare him At last he went away and would stay no longer Then I spoke to the People and did clear my Conscience amongst them and then I came away in peace and my Heart was filled with unspeakable Joy and my Soul with Gladness Then I saw it was good to be faithful unto the Lord and to trust in him and to obey his Voice and then I came to feel and see more and more the woful and dreadful state that the Priests and Hirelings were in who for their own earthly gain made Merchandise of People although they were defended by the Laws of Men yet I found the Laws of God they were in the transgression of and so were in Cain's Corah's and Baalam's way in Envy and Gainsayers of the Truth and Lovers of the Wages of Unrighteousness and so such as Peter and Iude wrote of 2 Peter 2. 15. and Iude cried Wo against Iude 10 11 12. Then some time after I was moved by the Spirit of the Lord to go to Lorton to speak to one Fogoe a Priest who was preaching to the People in their Worship-house and I stayed till he had done and there he did affirm in his preaching to the People that both he and they was without the Life of both the Law and the Gospel And then I spoke to him and questioned him what he had to preach or to pray that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But after a few words he fell into a rage and stirred up the People and they fell upon me and haled me out of the House and did beat me and the Priest did threaten to put me in the Stocks So I came away and that day two Weeks I was moved to go again to speak to the same Priest at Louswater the Parish where I did then dwell and when I came in the People beginning to look at me and take notice the Priest bid them let me alone if I would be quiet he would discourse with me when he had done So I stood still and quiet waiting upon the Lord the Priest he prepared to go to Prayer but when he saw that I did not put off my Hat for I could not so do because I could not joyn with him in his dead lifeless Prayers Then instead of going to Prayer he fell a railing against me and said I should not stand there in that posture At last I spoke to him and did ask him What he had to pray with that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But he continued calling out to the People to take me away so that at last my Father being there and displeased with me for troubling their Minister came himself and haled me out of the House and was very angry with me Then I stayed in the Grave-yard till the Priest and People came out and then I got to him and spoke to him again but he soon began to be in a rage and to threaten me with the Stocks and got away And then I cleared my Conscience to the People of what I had to say and so came away in great peace with the Lord.
did visit Friends And then took shipping at Whitehaven for Ireland and landed at Belfast in the North and spent that Winter in Ireland in the travels and labour of the Gospel and had blessed Service for the Lord and his People in that Nation and was richly comforted and refreshed amongst them in the gracious presence of the Lord that was with us who is the Recompencer and rich Rewarder of all that are given up in Faithfulness to serve him So that now none doth lose their Reward under the Ministration of the Gospel no more then they did under the Law in the Figure when he said Who is thère among you that would shut the Doors for nought neither do you kindle fire on mine Altar for nought Mal. 1. 10. To him be Glory and Honour and Praise over all for ever for he is worthy And when I was clear of that Nation I took shipping at Dublin and landed at Whitehaven in Cumberland and stayed a little time in Cumberland and then took my Journey for London to the yearly Meeting that was in the Spring of the Year 1670. and so spent a part of that Summer in London and thereabouts in the Service of the Truth until I could have a Conveniency to go for Barbadoes that being upon me And in the fifth Month all things being ready I and William Simpson went down to Gravesend with many Friends from London that did accompany us and staying there but a few days we set Sail from Gravesend the eighth day of the fifth Month 1670. and came to the Downs and stayed there some days and then set Sail from the Downs the twentieth day of the same Month and because of contrary Winds we put in at Falmouth and stayed two Nights there and then put to Sea again and so set Sail for the Barbadoes and arrived there the thirtieth day of the seventh Month so that we were twelve Weeks from Gravesend e're we got Barbadoes And then I stayed in the Barbadoes six Months and had great and weighty Service in that Island before I could be clear And my dear Companion William Simpson after he had been there was taken sick of a violent Fever that was very much among People at that time and very many died he was sick but about six days and then was taken away At his Death a very little before his Departure he gave a living heavenly Testimony unto the Truth with wholesome Advice unto them that were about him and departed in the Peace and Joy of the Lord an Account whereof may be further seen in a Book writ by one that was with him from his beginning to be sick until he departed I was with him very much but sometimes was constrained to leave him for the Service sake that was upon me He was a very Innocent man and full of fear and reverence and ordinarily very open in his Testimony and very sweet and pleasant we walked in great love and unity together for he was a humble man and had very low thoughts of himself and always under dread He had gone through great Sufferings and Afflictions and cruel Persecutions for his Testimony and Service sake that he was called unto he likewise had met with hard Buffetings from Satan's Messenger and sore Temptations by which he had been wounded and sore hurt through the wiles of Satan and his cunning slights of which he would be often speaking to me in our brotherly Fellowship and Communication wherein we would open our hearts and states one unto another and in the remembrance of things he was kept very low and tender and near the Lord and took great delight in his Power by which he had been redeemed and his Soul delivered and he raised up into a good degree of Dominion in which he reigned at the last and with great triumph departed this Life and is blessed for ever My Heart is well satisfied that it is even so and when he was taken away from me my Heart was broken within me my Spirit was bowed down greatly in the sense of my loss and I could not but mourn though not as such that have no hope for my hope was firm concerning his well-being and gain that he had obtained but great was my loss for I was left as one alone as I had been often before to bear the burthen my self which was very weighty upon me at that time considering the state of the Church in that Island and the care of it was upon me but the Lord was with me and his Power did assist me to go through my Charge and clear my self and free my self from the Blood of all Men and Women And so through all being guided by his Spirit in his Wisdom the Lord's Children and People were comforted and my Soul and Spirit refreshed and revived and so in peace clearness and gladness I came away and took shipping for New-England and set Sail the first of the second Month 1671. and arrived at New-York the 27 th day of the same Month and so did go from New-York unto Long-Island and did visit Friends on the Island and other places there-aways and was with them at their Half-years-Meeting at Oyster-Bay And so being clear of those Parts took shipping for Road-Island and was there at their Yearly-Meeting in 1671. which begins the ninth of the fourth Month every Year and continues for much of a Week and is a General Meeting once a year for all Friends in New-England And after that Meeting when I was clear of those Parts I took my Journey towards Sandwich and so did visit Friends all along at Tewkesbury Marshfield and Cittuate and so on to Boston and there had a Meeting and so on to Salem and Hampton and Piscataway all along visiting Friends and had many pretious Meetings and the Lord was with us and his Power was over all And from Piscatoway I returned back again the same way and had blessed Service and so through I came to Road-Island again and there I spent some time and went up to Providence and did visit Friends there and so returned again And when I was clear of those Parts I took shipping back again for Long-Island and landed at Oyster-Bay and had some Meetings and then went down to Flushing and so to Gravesand and had some Meetings And then went over to East-Iersey to visit Friends there and had some Meetings and then returned back again to Gravesand and from thence went back again to Oyster-Bay and was there at their Half-years-Meeting which began about the eighth day of the eighth Month and had a blessed time But in our Meeting for Business we had an Exercise with several that rose up in a wrong Spirit against the blessed Order of the Truth which by the Power of God Friends were gathered into and sweetly setling in And chiefly their Envy and Bitterness was against George Fox and his Papers of Wholsome Advice which he in the Love of God had sent amongst Friends and in
me to interrupt me but when he saw that he could not stop me then he drove the People away And when I saw the People most of them gone I stept down and thought to have gone forth after them but he got to the Door and shut the Door to keep me in Then I went round an Alley to get to a second Door but he got over the Seats and shut that Then I made for a third Door he also got to that before me and shut that and so made their Meeting-house a Prison and kept us in with a very few People that got not away till the People was gone and then let us forth So we came to our Inn again And after some time several of their Elders came to us to dispute with us on purpose to keep the younger People away as some of them confessed and when we came to Discourse with them they would seem to charge us with breach of the Sabbath in coming to their Meeting that day We took the Bible to us and said Come first prove a Sabbath-day under the Gospel-Dispensation and then prove our practice this day to be a breach of it if you can and vindicate Paul who disputed every Sabbath-day in the Synagogue c. and then prove by Scriptures your practice this day and shew Where any Christians drove the People away from hearing the Truth for they had granted we spoke nothing but Truth and made their Meeting-house a Prison And so we shut them behind the unbelieving Iews who gave liberty to Paul and Silas And they were confounded and could not tell how to vindicate their doings and so went away Then after they were gone came into our Chamber many younger People and we opened many things to them relating to the Way of Truth and cleared things up from the Scriptures and they were mightily satisfied And when the old dry Professors saw that the younger People were affected they sent in a Constable to Command all to depart but they answered and said They were House-keepers many of them and therefore he had nothing to do with them so they would not go So we continued still opening the Scriptures unto them and they were affected Then the Inn-keeper being one of their Elders came and took the Candle away that we might not see to read in the Scriptures and so left us in the dark then the People went away being displeased So the next Morning I. S. and I took our Journey Westward and our Friends that came to Accompany us returned home to Road-Island And we went from Hartford to New-haven then to Milford and then to Stratford and to Fairfield and to Norwich then to Stanford and so to Greenwich where we met with Friends and there we appointed a Meeting The Priest of that Town in his Pulpit had preached against Friends and often had boasted how he would Dispute with the Quakers if any came there so when the Meeting was appointed the People came with a great expectation of what the Priest would do But in the Morning he rode away to Stanford to a Magistrate and sent a Constable with a Warrant to apprehend us who came at the beginning of our Meeting and took us and carried us away to the Magistrate at Stanford The People being displeased many of them followed after us to Stanford and our Friends also to see what they would do and when we came there many People was gathered about the House for it was but two miles between the Towns but after a little time we were called into an inner Room where the Magistrate lay upon his Bed he not being very well And when we came in there was none with him but two Priests the Priest of Greenwich and the Priest of Stanford nor none was to be suffered to come in but the Constable and one man of Stanford that was a Merchant as they said he went in and out when he pleased So the Magistrate asked us many Questions and we answered him and he discoursed with us long in many things and we answered him for he was very moderate Then after a long time one of the Priests put in a Question then I said If we must Discourse of Divine Things we did desire to be more publick for the People were without desirous to hear Then the Magistrate said to the Priests Master Iones and Master Bishop I desire you to go into the Publick Meeting-House with these men and there Discourse with them before the People for said he they are sober rational men So we accepted kindly of the proffer and rose up and went forth and the Priests came after us displeased But when we were forth of the Door among the People we called upon the Priests to go up with us as they were desired and so we went up and they and the People also And when we were setled in their Meeting-House and many People then the Priests put it upon us to begin and so we began with them first about their Wages and so went on to our Call which they put upon us And so about the Light which they denied and so about Election and Reprobation and free Grace They affirmed the Grace of God had not appeared to all men and that Christ did not dye for all men Several hours we spent but the Discourse is drawn up in a Book in Manuscript and therefore shall forbear it here for it is large And so the next day we had a Meeting at Greenwich but the Priest came and we had a great Discourse which is in the said Book And the first day following we had a Meeting about six Miles from thence and then being clear of these Parts We took Boat and went over unto Long-Island to Oyster-Bay and met with Iohn Cartwright and so did visit Friends upon the Island I. W. and I went over to East-Iersey and did visit Friends there and had several blessed Meetings And returned back again to Long-Island and had several Meeings And then being clear of those Parts Iohn Cartwright and I came to New-York in order to get a Passage for Maryland and we set Sail from New-York the first day of the ninth Month 1672. but set Sail at Sandy-hook out to the Sea the third day of the same and met with rough Weather but the sixth day of the same we got in at the Capes of Virginia and on the ninth of the same Month we came to Anchor in Pertuxon-River in the Province of Maryland and so got up within a day or two to Iames Prestons but the North-west-wind blew so hard that we could not get up the first day And then we did go through Friends in that Province as the Lord made way And G. F. and Friends that were with him who came over Land together were gone down to Virginia and he also did travel over Land to North-Carolina and there found some Friends and returned back again over Land to Virginia and so came up the Bay again to Maryland
then I took my Journey into the Country and went down into Buckinghamshire through their Meetings and so on into Oxfordshire to Worcestershire and Glocestershire and to Bristol and then back again and so through to Shrewsbury and on as far as Wrexham in Wales visiting the Churches of Christ and the good Presence of the Lord in his heavenly Power accompanying we were often refreshed and sweetly comforted together to his Praise and our Joy who is our God for evermore And so from Wrexham in North-Wales I took my Journey with Iohn ap Iohn who accompanied me towards South Wales and we did visit Friends and had many Meetings as we went along in Montgomeryshire Merionethshire and Cardiganshire and so we passed on by the West-Sea into Pembrokeshire and there visited the Lord's People and spent some time amongst them there And then we took our Journey through Carmarthenshire to Swanzey and having a Meeting or two we passed on towards Cardiff visiting Friends in Glamorganshire and then into Monmouthshire and having visited Friends in that County we parted he returned home and I passed over the Water into Glocestershire and so to Bristol And so continued travelling through several Counties visiting the Churches and so to London spent some time there and then went down into Essex and visited Friends in that Country and returned again to London to the Yearly-Meeting in the Year 1675. And from London I took my Journey to Hartford and so down Northward with Iohn Graves and Iames Hall to York and there we parted And I went from York to Malton and so to Scarborough and Whitby and through Friends in Cleveland and so to Stockdon in Bishoprick visiting Friends and having many pretious Meetings And then passed through several Meetings in that County and being clear I then took my Journey for Cumberland and being there I with several Brethren was desired to come over into Westmorland to a Meeting appointed by Friends at their Quarterly-Meeting in Westmorland which was to be at Powbank So I went thither against the day appointed with Iohn Graves Iohn Tiffin Hugh Tickell and Thomas Laithes where we met with several Brethren that were come out of Yorkshire at the request of the aforesaid Quarterly-Meeting And upon that occasion many Friends of Westmorland were come together who when we were sate together in the Meeting did present unto us several Disorders in many things that were contrary to the Truth by which they had been grieved and sorely exercised for a long time in their Monthly and Quarterly-Meetings so that the Spirits of a lose Company were set at liberty and so much born up and countenanced by Iohn Story and Iohn Wilkinson that the blessed Order of the Truth brought forth amongst us by the Power of God was greatly slighted and endeavoured to be trodden under by that lose Company being thus encouraged by these two men that looked upon themselves to be Elders and so like Diotrephes loved to have the Pre-eminence which brought great grief upon the honest and simple-minded So we hearing what Friends had to say in that matter and observing what was charged and proved we desired Friends to give us another Meeting and let I. S. and I. W. be sent to and desired to meet us that we might hear them face to face although they had been desired from the Quarterly-Meeting and several others to come to this Meeting so appointed by the Quarterly-Meeting and had refused and withal sent us a Letter denying to come and disowning our Meeting Nevertheless we were willing to have another Meeting which Friends of Westmorland freely assented unto and so it was appointed at Milthrop the next day And we to wit six or more of Cumberland and Yorkshire Friends did our selves go to them as Messengers and did intreat them to go with us to the Meeting that we might hear them and the Friends of Westmorland that were agrieved face to face concerning those things that were in charge against them but they were so high and so obstinate that they slighted us all or any Advice we could give And so after some hours discourse with them in which we throughly saw their Spirits to be wrong we left them and went to the Meeting appointed at Milthrop where Friends were waiting for us And after we were setled a little in the Meeting we gave an acccount how we had endeavoured to perswade them to come through all entreaty we could but could not prevail And so we gave a hearing a second time to the Friends and then we of Yorkshire and Cumberland with-drew and amongst our selves viewed the whole matter for it was in writing and opened our Hearts one unto another And waiting upon the Lord there fell a Weighty Concern upon us for the Truth 's sake and the blessed Order thereof with our holy Testimony we had been raised up into which by them had been slighted and scorned and reproached So that we could not pass it by but in the Power of the Lord God that was dreadful amongst us gave Iudgment against that Spirit that was grown so high and lose and fleshly as thus to undervalue the Testimony of God and the bringings forth of his holy Power in the Churches of Christ that thereby all might be kept sweet clear and in good Order And when we had cleared our selves in the rising and springing of the Word of Life and drawn up our Testimony in writing we gave it unto Friends there and so departed Of the Iudgment given I shall say no more here because it is in writing in many places So I went over to Swarthmore and stayed a Meeting there and then returned into Cumberland and stayed there some Weeks and visited Friends And being clear I returned again to Swarthmore in order to go over the Sands towards Wales which was before me And when I was at Swarthmore I was moved to go over first into Westmorland to visit the Meetings there So I went over to Sedber and had a Meeting there and then had a Meeting at Grayrigg and then came to Kendall where I met with Robert Lodge and so we had a blessed Meeting there And the next day we were at Preston-Meeting and then I was clear of that County And so after a little time took my Journey into Wales through Lancashire and Cheshire and so coming to Iohn ap Iohns near Wrexham in North-Wales he did go along with me And in the first place we went to a Quarterly-Meeting that was at Deloberon at Charles Lloyds for two Counties viz. Merionethshire and Mongomeryshire and had a blessed Service for the Truth there among Friends And then went down into Merionethshire and visited the Meetings and then to Mehuntleth and had a Meeting And then returned up into Radnorshire and visited the Meetings there in that County And then took our Journey through Brecknockshire and Carmarthenshire into Pembrokeshire where we spent some time amongst Friends and had several pretious Meetings And being clear
Power and in Love Peace and Concord all was carried on amongst us and so all was sweet and comfortable Here is a Discourse of putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters however if the Lord suffer such a thing to be I believe it will be for his own Glory at last in the manifesting the Approved and trying the Faith of his People But we are yet quiet save some that are in Prison for Tithes Our Meetings are large and full in this Nation and Friends tell me there is an Openness in many places O! that we may be found faithful that we may work with him in his Vineyard and Harvest Dublin the 6th of the 10th Month 1682. The Lord preserve us all in the Faith that gives the Victory and faithful to God in this Trying day wherein it appears the Lord sees it meet to Try his People both in their Faith and Patience that the Approved may be made manifest We have large Meetings in this City and an Openness in divers places in the Country I have been in the Counties of Wicklow and Carlow and the Queens-County and at the Mote and Edenderry And to morrow I intend if the Lord will forth again to the Province-Meeting at Rosen-Allies Cork the 8th of the 11th Month 1682. I have been through these Parts as far as Castle-Salem and had a Meeting there yesterday was a Week and so returned back again to Cork to the Six-Weeks-Meeting where we had a blessed Season the Lord's Power was richly amongst us And after to morrow I think to go toward Toughill and so into the County of Tipperary and then to Castle-Dormant-Meeting and then for ought I know towards Dublin I am comforted in my Service amongst Friends who are generally glad of my coming and of what they have an Expectation of in relation to my Marriage but my Heart is fully satisfied in that I feel the Lord's Goodness towards us and in his Fear I do delight to wait upon him in this as in other things and desire that we may be a good Example And therefore I find it our way not to be hasty The Lord give us wisdom to walk so as that he may be Glorified and Friends in us Comforted This I desire above all Earthly Things Dublin the 30th of the first Month 1683. I am concern'd to hear of the Continued Sufferings of our Friends in England we are yet at Ease here as from those things The Lord work our Hearts more and more into Thankfulness and guide us in Wisdom to walk worthy of these Favours that in displeasure he may never take them from us but when-ever he is pleased to Remove them it may be in his Love for a Trial unto us as I believe it is with many of his Faithful Ones whom my Soul desires he may still preserve in the Faith that gives the Victory I have been in the North and did pass through Friends and had a blessed Service I am intended to go forth of this City to morrow towards Wicklow and so through the County of Wexford to visit Friends there Dublin the 10th of the 3d Month 1683. We have now Accomplisht that Concern of Marriage which we have for some time been under and blessed be the Lord he has been unto us a comfortable Director in our Undertakings in this Matter to the Satisfaction of Friends in the General who were with us And besides the Friends of this City we had many of the Friends of the South-end of the Nation who were come to be at the Half-Years-Meeting and some the sooner upon our Account and abundance of other People We had a blessed Meeting several Brethren with us and the Lord's Power assisting all things were well and we had Peace and Comfort and the Truth was honoured and not only Friends but many sober People were greatly affected with the Management thereof Well the Lord will honour his Name and Way and People if we be but careful to honour him The Lord is good unto us we have Cause to mind his Goodness unto us and truly that which is chiefly in both our Hearts is to seek his Glory and above all things to desire preservation in his Wisdom Dublin the 4th of the 8th Month 1683. I have been a time in the Country and came into the City again but yesterday I went to the Prevince-Meeting at Rosen-Allies and have visited many Meetings I was comforted with Friends in the good presence of the Power that did attend us Things are pretty well among Friends and our Meetings large and full We feel little of those Sufferings that our dear Friends in England have heavy upon them The Lord preserve us Tender Low and Humble that we may be worthy of such a Mercy from the Hand of the Lord. Dublin the 24th of the 5th Month 1683. Here is a Report abroad that Meetings will be disturbed and broken up but nothing done yet It must be Friends here as well as in other Parts that must bear the Burden as to the right part in Suffering and I hope it will be Friends Care to be given up in the Innocency to suffer for that Testimony the Lord hath raised in their Hearts by which we have been kept Innocent and Clear from the beginning under all Governments And so never could touch nor join with that which did seek the hurt of any This must be our Cloak or Covering and that gives Boldness and is and will be the Ease of the Spirits of all the Faithful and that which will answer the Consciences of our Adversaries And I believe if some Suffering do come it will work for good through Trying our Spirits Faith and Patience so that many may come to know themselves and the Lord and his Power also better thereby From the Marshalsee's Prison in Dublin the 9th of the 6th Month 1683. We are very likely to partake in some measure of Sufferings with our Friends and Brethren in England The last first day the Major sent the Marshal to our Meeting in the Forenoon and I being speaking he commanded me to go with him which after some Discourse I did He commanded the Meeting to Disperse but Friends kept quiet in their plaplaces I was carried before the Major with whom I had some Discourse to this effect He asked me Why we did act contrary to the Government having been commanded not to meet I told him We do nothing in Contempt of the Government But said he why do you not obey then I said Because it is Matter of Conscience to us and that which we believe to be our indispensible Duty to Meet together to Worship God To which he Answered You may be misled I told him If we were misled we were willing to be informed if any could do it Then it was urged Other Dissenters had submitted and why would not we I said What they do will be no Plea for us before the Judgment-Seat of the Great God So after some other Discourse the Major committed
me to this Prison The Professors have left their publick Meeting-Places The Bishop of Dublin sent for them and they Consulted together and with Consent returned this Answer That they would forbear The Bishop also sent for A. S. and did to him require the same of Friends but A. S. told him We could not forbear to Meet to Worship God c. So in the end the Bishop said If we would meet we must take what did follow c. However I hope it will work for the honour of Truth The Lord preserve Friends faithful and valiant I hope God has a Remnant that will stand in the Trial Though if Sufferings do come hard it may cause some to turn their Backs Let the Lord order as he pleaseth I know no better way than to endeavour to be prepared for Sufferings Dublin the 9th of the 7th Month 1683. We are satisfied that the Lord's Hand is in all these things and doubtless he hath a purpose to Magnifie his Arm and thereby to Exalt his own Name and pretious Truth in the End and in his so doing his People shall be Comforted and receive the Reward even every One that endures unto the End And truly as our Eye is unto him in our Exercise we feel still a Ground for a sure Hope that abides as an Anchor sure and stedfast by which we are held that we cannot be driven away In this is our Comfort when we seem as to the outward as if we had no surer Place than upon the tossing Waves of the Troubled Tempestuous Sea all uncertain no stedfastness nor stay for Rest unto any in Looking out And therefore I often think I am satisfied it 's God's way thus to blow upon the Nations with the Breath of his Displeasure that all the Waters for the People are Waters may be Tossed together and that they may be made Restless and driven on Heaps and into Confusion and so become a Sea into which Babylon as a great Milstone must fall to make her perpetual End Even that Mystery Babylon spoken of of old that hath so prevailed and made the Nations drunk and gone over Peoples and Languages not one People only and all that partake with her in her Sins must partake with her in her Plagues and Iudgments And therefore is the Lord calling out of her but her Sins her Delights and Delicacies many are unwilling to part with and that 's the Reason why many stay there that do not think themselves within her Borders But the Nations are drunk with her Wine and know not what they are doing for their Understanding is lost O! the sadness of that day my Soul of ten doth view it but the Greatness of their Sin doth draw it down upon them which is come into the View and Remembrance of the dreadful God! And therefore may all the Righteous Rojoyce who truly feel Redemption out of her and are come through Christ the Seed to be Sons and Daughters of Zion and so Heirs of the peaceable Ierusalem that 's built upon the Rock and Foundation that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against We are here still detained Prisoners and have of late writ to the Major but he answered He would not set us at Liberty without an Order from the Deputy Then we wrote to him and A. S. and S. C. did go to him and he was very kind to them and told them He had a greater Love for us than any other Dissenters because he believed that we did mean honestly Dublin the 16th of the 8th Month 1683. I am now clear'd of my Imprisonment we wrote to the Deputy a few Lines which he carried to the Council After which he sent his Secretary to the Recorder of the City with his Order for our Release which was very full and clear without any thing demanded of us I have not heard that Friends in any part of this Nation are medled with We enjoy great Favours at the Hand of the Lord O! that we may walk worthy thereof for ever and be mov'd thereby to a Sense of what our dear Friends in England still suffer and then will the Mercies we live under be rightly valued Dublin the 9th of the 12th Month 1684. I have been through all the Meetings in Ulster and did return home but the third day this Week I had a blessed time amongst Friends and found things in the main very well I had large and peaceable Meetings which is a Mercy I desire the Lord may so sanctifie unto us as that we may walk worthy of them while they are afforded us and when he sees meet to order it otherwise we may be prepared I have been but little at home of late and know nothing but that I may go next Week forth of Town again towards the other end of the Nation Dublin the 17th of the first Month 1683 4. I came home this day I have been through the most of the South and Western Parts and have had a good Journey and Friends generally well and all our Meetings peaceable Dublin the 21th of the first Month 1683 4. In my last I hinted that I was but newly come home from visiting Friends in the South-end of the Nation and so from the Province-Meeting at Castle-Dormant I came home on the second day and an appointed Marriage was to be on the third day which was accordingly and abundance of People there was so that we had a good Opportunity and the People generally well satisfied so that a very great Report of Recommendation is abroad through the City concerning our Order and Method and the Gravity and Solemn Manner of our Accomplishing of it It 's greatly our Comfort when that in all our ways we honour the Truth I have had a busie Winter in Travelling and prosperous and now I see nothing but I shall have Liberty to stay a while at home The Lord is good to us and orders things to our Comfort and we are comforted in him and one in another blessed be his Name for ever Dublin the 9th of the 3d Month 1684. It is just the time of our Half-Years-Meeting and there are many Friends in Town We had a very large Meeting and very quiet and well And things in the general very well amongst Friends as relating to Truth We have Cause to be Thankful to the Lord for his Mercies and Comforts we enjoy who is the Author of all Mercies and Comforts sanctifying all things rightly to them that fear and love him through the sanctifying of their Hearts by his Word that keeps bears up and upholds O! the Lord keep all our Hearts stayed in this and then will all things work together for good according to the antient Saying Crabtreebeck in Cumberland the 12th of the 6th Month 1684. I left Dublin sixth day was a Week I have some intent to go over into Scotland but am not yet certain of the time but do hope if the Lord preserve me in my Liberty to Return
rest quiet under his disposing and ordering Hand by which he will in his Wisdom and Power over-rule all Men and Things who knows best how to Execute Iustice and Iudgment upon all according to their Works or Deserts For before him all things are naked and bare therefore he cannot miss in Iudgment We resting here and waiting upon him it quiets our Spirits and sweetens them and also I can say it makes many bitter things sweet and so sanctified that we meet with Comfort in Tribulation And though it be both Natural unto and Lawful for us in Affliction reverently to pray for and desire Deliverance and also when obtained to rejoyce therein and bless the Lord therefore yet still our Happiness is to mind his Providences and wise Ordering of all things and therewith to be Content without either murmuring at or strugling against what he seems good to bring to pass And so here we shall all rest in one Fold and Covenant and seed in one Pasture together and so have a Fellow-feeling of one anothers Ioy or Sufferings For our Resting-place is but one in the Truth and our Salvation stands therein for ever and therefore we need look at no other Iohn Burnyeat SEVERAL EPISTLES WRITTEN By J. B. to Friends from divers Places Dear Friends IN the dear and tender Bowels of Love and Life do I dearly salute you all who are faithful to the Lord without respect of Persons in whose Life and Love I feel you and enjoy you wherein my Heart is opened towards you my dearly beloved ones with whom I am daily refreshed and comforted in Christ Jesus the Fountain and Well-spring of Life and living Refreshment who is our Rock and daily Refuge unto whom we fly and are safe in the day of storms and tempest when the floods arise and the raging Waves of the Sea do swell and beat yet in the Light have we a safe hiding-place and a sure and peaceable Habitation against which they cannot prevail As faithful to the Lord we abide therein whose Love towards us hath abounded and will abound as we abide in that unto which his Love doth reach which is his own Seed which he hath raised in us by his own Power and outstretched Arm wherein the Issues of Live and Love are known and received Therefore my dear Friends keep to it and feel it continually that fresh and lively and open-hearted ye may always be in the Life that nothing may enter that would vail the Seed and oppress it for that will stop the Issue of the Love of God which is shed abroad and shedding it self abroad in the Hearts of all the Faithful whereof we in the bountifulness of his Love have richly been made partakers of Therefore as one who with you have been partaker of the rich and endless Love of God I do exhort you my dearly beloved ones to continue in his Love and all to abide faithful in the Life that Death again may not pass over any one but that the Life which God hath raised may be felt and that may rule over him that hath the Power of Death in every one of us to his own Praise and Glory who hath redeemed us wherein the comfort strength and refreshment is re-received daily from him who is the Life and Strength of all that wait upon him and who is near to preserve all them that are upright in their Love towards him And herein have we boldness believing that neither Tribulation nor Affliction Persecution nor Distress shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which we enjoy in Christ Iesus although he may suffer great things to come upon us as it is at this day to try us nor yet to separate us one from another nor to break our Unity in the Spirit wherein we feel and enjoy one another In which my dear Friends I feel you and have you often in my remembrance to my great Joy and Gladness of heart for ye in the Lord are my Ioy and Rejoycing many times when all other Comforts are taken from me but only that in which I feel and enjoy you wherein our Unity Life and Love doth stand wherein I remain Your Brother in my measure received J. Burnyeat Postscript Dear Friends I Wrote a Letter in the Eleventh Month before I went out of these Parts and sent with one who did intend to pass through Cumberland but I hear it was left in Yorkshire which did something trouble me because that I did not obtain an Opportunity to send again so soon as I could have desired in regard we travelled into the West towards Galloway and Cork But at Dublin when I was there I wrote a Letter which I partly believe may be come to you So being in haste I cannot give you an account as I would desire only Times are very troublesome in regard of the Distractions of the People in this Nation We were taken Prisoners after we came from Dublin at Ardmagh and kept three days It is very hard to Travel in this Nation for us but for the Seed's sake we are freely given up into the Will of God Clanbrasel in the County of Ardmagh in Ireland the fourth day of the fourth Month 1660. Dear and well-beloved Friends in Cumberland BRethren and Sisters in the holy Covenant of Life with you is my life bound up in the unspeakable Bond of perfect Unity and unfeigned Love wherein I feelingly reach unto you in this day of weighty Trial wherein every ones Faith and Patience must come to be tried and every ones Foundation made manifest whereon he stands blessed are they whose Foundation and standing is in the Power of Christ Jesus the Rock of Ages and Foundation of many Generations such shall stand immoveable on the Rock in the day of Tempest and shall be at Peace and kept in Safety in the Power in the hour of Temptation and time of trial Therefore my dear Friends as if I were present with you my Bowels are opened towards you and my Life reacheth unto you in pure love even desiring that every one of you may truly feel and abide in the feeling of the pretious Life and pure invisible Power of the blessed God which he hath made manifest in your Hearts whereby every mind of them that hath been faithful to the Lord is changed and renewed and redeemed and made pure and sweet through the vertue and goodness of the same whereby our Souls continually are refreshed as we abide in the sensible seeling of the Lord's Presence O! therefore my dear Friends ye who have tasted of the Lord's goodness and have been nourished by his mercies inwardly who have felt the weight of his love and the value of his truth in your inward parts Mind that as your chiefest treasure my dear Friends that the sweet Consolation and the pretious Spring of the Father's love ye may feel opened in your Hearts from day unto day and from time to time For truly Friends large is the Lord's
fire And that shall such know who in the day of the Lord 's Gathering and tender Visiting in Mercy and Loving-kindness will not be won and gained into Faithfulness but slight the Day of their Visitation Therefore my dear Friends be faithful unto the Lord every particular of you in that which you have receiv'd from him and wait to be guided by that in your own hearts And keep low and down to the Principle of Life in your own hearts that you may never become stiff-necked nor hardned in your hearts again For this was Israel's Sin of old whose hearts were hardned and whose neck was become like an Iron sinew that it could not bend unto God's Toke For which he was wroth with his People and cast off his Inheritance in that day so that their Enemies had power over them and laid their Dwellings desolate Those things are left unto us for an Example that we might not fall after the same manner of Unbelief but fear lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest we should fall short through Unbelief and so loose the Inheritance and so by the Enemy have our Habitations luid desolate and so be carried Captives out of our Dwelling-place These things my Friends and Brethren I lay before you in the fear and love of God which is weigty in my heart towards you all and so desire that the Lord may preserve you all faithful unto himself in the feeling of his life and good presence by which your hearts may be kept open unto him and so open in true Love one towards another that as a Family in the love of God you may dwell together In which love my Soul dearly Salutes you all and so in it remain To my dear Friends in the North of Ireland about Kilmore Lurgan and that way Your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Patience of Christ Jesus I. B. Bristol the 25th day of the 11th Month 1667. Dearly Beloved WIth whom in the Covenant of Life Light and Peace I am one wherein I am with you and in Spirit do reach unto you in that love which many waters cannot quench in which my Soul at this time doth very dearly salute you all ye Children of the Covenant which have been born again of the Word Immortal and in the life of the true Seed remain unto you all without respect of Persons doth the love of my Soul reach with the Salutation of my life in the power that is endless In which my desire is that the Lord may preserve you all that as living Plants in the Vineyard of God you may flourish and bring forth righteous Fruits and so be a honour unto the Lord in your generation and then you need not doubt but the Lord will honour you in the glory of his Kingdom that is without end And therefore Friends the life of Righteousness in the power that is without end do you all mind to live in that fruits of holiness in a godly conversation may be brought forth by you all by which the Gospel of Peace and Salvation comes te be adorned and so the effects of Righteousness you will all come to know which is peace and assurance for ever Which is that you ought all to be mindful of that the evidence of peace by the testimony of the living Spirit in all your hearts ye may feel renewed daily which will not be without an abiding and living in the life of Righteousness whatsoever Notion of Profession may be held in the wrong mind and not in the power and life of Righteousness For this Testimony is true and living searching narrowly under all Coverings and breaking through all Vails entring into the inner Court and breaking through into the Secret Chambers to see what may have a being there or be worshipped So that in vain it is to cover any thing in this day wherein the searcher of all hearts hath appeared and he is come whose Fan is in his hand who sits as Resiners fire and as Fullers sope to cleanse and to purifie his chosen Tribe that they may be a peculiar People a chosen Generation and a Royal Priesthood to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light And therefore My dear Friends with open hearts and nakedness of Spirit do you all walk before the Lord not seeking any Covering but that of the Spirit in the life of Righteousness that its Testimony and witness you may all have in your hearts to bear witness with you unto Justification that so ye may be cloathed with the white Robe of Righteousness in the power of the Lamb and so become Kings and Priests unto God reigning over that in the power of the Lamb's Spirit which can never offer a Sacrifice acceptable before which the hearkening and obedience hath acceptance and so will the life of the true Priest be known to spring in you in which you are accepted and so in the life of him that is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck according to the word of the promise and of the oath you will be a Royal Priest-hood offering up an acceptable Sacrifice unto the Lord. And so my dearly beloved unto whom my heart in pure love is opened keep your habitations in the Life of the Son in the Life of the Priest that lives for ever that you may never be rejected in him is the Father well pleased in him are all our Offerings accepted and without him ye can do nothing All Coverings and Robes without him are but as filthy Rags and all Garments without his power and life of righteousness are no better than a Menstruous Cloath and abomination in the sight of the Lord. And therefore keep your Garments clean your hearts pure before the Lord that the acceptance you may never lose and mind the living of the power in your hearts and your living in it unto God the Father that as we have been quickened together in the Resurrection of the Life even so in the same we may worship the Father for evermore And so in this Friends doth my heart's love reach unto you all in which my Soul doth once more very dearly salute you all ye Children of the Covenant and of the blessed day of God Almighty who walk in the Light my heart is ravished with pure love in the Remembrance of you O ye dearly beloved of my Soul I have not forgotten you neither have I been unmindful of you though outwardly we have been separated but the antient love hath lived in my heart yea and doth live towards you all which draws forth strong desires in me unto the Lord that in his Will I might see your faces which I hope will be answered in his time and until then I am freely given up into his Will to stand out of time being satisfied with the invisible union and fellowship in the Spirit that I have with you which time nor distance of places can never
wear out because that life and power which is eternal is known and that love which changes not is injoyed in which I am one with you and remain Your Brother in the Covenant where Sin is blotted out and Everlasting Righteousness is brought forth in which we worship the Father acceptably I. Burnyeat Barbadoes the 30th of the 11th Month 1670. Dear Friends I Have had a great Exercise upon my Spirit concerning this late Observation of a Day or Fast which was set forth and pretended unto and seeing the pride and vanity that people was in not like true Mourners and Fasters and such as would have the Iudgment removed and also seeing the bitter Cruelty that appeared as a part of the fruits of it and furthermore seeing the difference that did seem to appear in Friends minds about the owning or not owning of it by submitting unto their Requirings or doing to the contrary as a testimony against it after I had passed under a deep Exercise in Spirit for some time at last the Lord God by his Eternal Word raised up my Spirit in the zeal thereof and did smite against all such Mockeries and then in a heavenly Revelation my Understanding being opened and closing with the Word he shewed unto me that it was to be Witnessed against by all that stood in the Testimony of God and that those that would weaken the Spirits of any in their Testimony in this or other things wherein Friends have a Testimony for God it was plainly shewed me from the Lord how they would draw a vail over the pure in themselves and in others and in a cowardly underly Spirit by the corrupted sallen wisdom would put the Candle that God hath lighted under a Bushel or under a Bed and so cover it for a while until at last it would be put out so that we like other Professors at last by this Spirit would be led to yield to any thing rather than suffer and so then the offence of the Cross might cease And then also there was another thing which had been very long under my consideration of which I was not hasty to judge or meddle wherein Friends have somewhat differed but at this time was not minded by me because of the other that was upon me But when the Lord had cleared the other to me he brought up this also before my mind which is about Sending Men Horse and Arms to the Training Trooping or Playing which is folly as to us for which many that could not send have suffered the spoiling of their Goods And the Lord then plainly satisfied me that it was his Testimony wherein Friends were to stand and that they that bore another Testimony either in words or action it was from that Spirit and in that Wisdom that would put a bushel over the lighted Candle and by degrees would put it out and would lead us to crouch to the Spirit of the World until its large wing of Darkness would over-shadow us and become our Covering and then we should be like others that have lost their Testimony And then when the Lord had thus done oh how my Soul was filled with heavenly divine love towards all the willing Sufferers for the Lord's Testimony So that I can say it was with me as it was with Deborah when she said her heart was towards the Governours of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people and then I could not but praise the Lord. And so this is the Testimony that the Lord did put into my heart which I am moved of him to give forth for the comfort and satisfaction of all that desire to serve the Lord in their Generation and to keep their Consciences pure and their Garments unspotted And therefore Friends keep in the first for he is the last and shall stand when all others shall fail And reason not with flesh and blood but wait for the power that it may open you and as you are kept open thereby the wonderful things of God in it will be made known unto you and the depths of Satan will be seen also and there will be a growing in righteousness For in the power is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith by which the just lives which cannot be witnessed where the Testimony is let fall and the Light covered and the Talent laid in the earth though it may be tied in a white Napkin of fair Profession For the Gift or Talent is neither to be hid in the Earth nor bound by any in any thing but to have its liberty until by its own power all be subjected unto it self that God may be all in us all This is the Testimony that I am to leave with you in these matters and so being eased in Spirit in the lasting love of God I remain Your Brother Iohn Burnyeat Salem in New-England the 30th of the 4th Month 1671. Dear and Well-beloved YOU whom the Lord hath called to believe and to be partakers of his Divine Nature and of his manifold Mercies that through the strength thereof you might bear witness to his Name and testifie to his Truth in your Day for which the God of Wisdom suffers you to be tried and your faith to be proved as it hath been his way in all Ages for the proof of his people that their hearts might be tried and their Love appear how weighty it is to him that hath loved them whereby the Glory of the Truth and the Excellency of it might be made manifest And now my Friends this is your day and hour of your Trial wherein the Lord by you I believe shall be honour'd and you rewarded with that good Reward which shall out-ballance all the present Sufferings unto which the Glory of the present World is not to be compared And though from you it is my Lot to be separated and so in the like kind not to suffer among you yet I cannot say but that I suffer with you for my Spirit is not without a feeling of your sufferings O! you dear Lambs of the Shepherd's fold is it so that the Wolf seeks to devour and is the Lion and devouring Bear let loose that would snatch up the Lambs Fear not though in his Mouth We have a Shepherd that will deliver and like David will save from the power of the Destroyer so that your Life shall not come under his power For God is on Israel's side to preserve though they would swallow up quick And therefore let your Trust be in the Arm of his strength for ever and you shall know that he is able to make up all to you again Dearly beloved My very Heart and Soul salutes you all in the Reach of that Life which by nothing that is visible can be stopped and in the sense and enjoyment of that I am spiritually with you wherein I may say I do partake with you both of the Sufferings and Tribulations and also of the Ioy and Consolation that abounds in your
to put their Feet in the Stocks to root them out of the World Root and Branch no nor to wish it so to be done unto them But if any do he will reprove such as he did the Disciples when he told them They knew not what Spirit they were of when they desired Fire to come from Heaven for he came not to destroy but to save as you may read Luke 9. 54 55 56. And you may see what the Apostle Paul saith who was a wise Master Builder he saith One Man esteemeth one day above another another he esteemeth every day alike but between them he saith Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind So you may see here is no forcing upon any Man in those things that appertain to the Worship of God but as Christ over-rules the Conscience and perswades the Heart and brings Man into a belief that it is according to the will of God so that it may be done in the Faith without which none can please God for saith the Apostle Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14. 5 and 23. Verses And therefore as the Gospel is professed let Christ's commands be observed and the Example of the Primitive Christians followed who were blessed in their Day and had the witness of acceptance with God who were persecuted but never persecuted any nor sought to trouble any as upon a bodily or outward account for their Conscience though they did reprove them sharply that turned away from the power of Truth and became Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose Belly was their God who gloried in their shame and minded earthly things and so served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies Phil. 3. 18 19. Now such the Apostle did bear Testimony against or any others that did unrighteously but we do not read that he either did or desired to have it so that they that did not serve the Lord Jesus Christ should be put in Prison or in the Stocks or any such like bodily Punishment but left them to the righteous Judgments of the Lord at his coming having warned them and so not to have fellowship with them as Brethren but according to Christ's command let them be as Heathens or Publicans And so all may see very clearly that will read the Scripture with a single Eye that it is not of Christ nor according to the Primitive Example of the Church in her best State to inforce the Conscience of any to do any thing as a Duty to God which they themselves had not a perswasion unto though they did very sharply reprove and very zealously bear Testimony against all such who made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and turned from the guidance and leading of the Grace of God into Lasciviousness Wantonness and fleshly Liberty And therefore I cannot but desire that all that profess Christianity may follow the Example of them that were the first and wisest Builders of Christianity who laid the Foundation so that another cannot be laid And he that would build upon this that is already laid otherwise than they builded must suffer loss in the Day when his Works come to be tryed And therefore if any see the Lord's Rod and his Judgments in these things that is upon the People of this Island let all such humble themselves under the mighty Hand of God and wait to feel his mighty Power to subdue the Man of Sin and to bring under that which hath oppressed the Soul that through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the oppressed may be set free and every Yoke may be broken that it may be witnessed which was spoken by him Ioh. 8. 36. If the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed and so then People do come to the Fast that the Lord hath chosen and that Fast cannot be accompanied with Cruelty nor there is no smiting with the Fist of Wickedness nor bringing Oppression over the Just where Christ is owned and followed as the Lord hath appointed as a Witness a Leader and a Commander for which he is given to the People as you may read in Isaiah 55. 4. But where these Evils are brought forth as the fruits of any Fast by those that appoint a Fast or pretend to keep a Fast is it not like unto Iezabel's Fast that she caused the Elders and Nobles of the City to proclaim where the just Man was witnessed against condemned and stoned to Death for nothing but because he could not give nor sell his Inheritance away which the Lord had given him And so we desire the good of all Men and that every one may take notice of his own ways how he walks before the Lord and do unto others as he would be done unto and that all may be free upon the account of things that appertain to God and so left to the Judgment of him that knows all Hearts that from him they may receive Reward And as for those things wherein Man is concerned if any Man do wrong or injury to another in Person or Estate we say let such be punished according to the Law which was made for the Transgressor and let Judgment run down as Waters and Righteousness as a mighty Stream Amos 5. 24. This is the way the Scripture largely testifies wherein Man may come to be accepted and the Wrath of God appeased and his Judgments removed and so the right Desire answered From a Lover of Peace and Rigteousness who truly seeks the good of all Men John Burnyeat Written in Barbadoes about the 29 th of the 11 th Month 1670. upon the Occasion of a Fast that was pretended to by the People of the Island because of a great Sickness that was upon them whereof many died of which my Companion William Simson then died Dearly Beloved WHom the Lord hath called and Sanctified and chosen in the Son of his Love through whom he hath visited you in this Generation as he did the People and the Gentiles in ancient Days that you might pertake of his Salvation and of the Power of his Life and of the Glory of his Kingdom with those that are gone before you I say for this end hath the God of Wisdom in his Love reached unto you in that Country with the rest in this Age that have waited for his Salvation and have sought the rich things of his Kingdom in his own way And now I am satisfied that many of you in your measures can seal to the Truth of Christ's Words who said Seek and you shall find for as he is faithful that hath promised even so we have found his Words sure and true And now my Friends being its certainly so as many can witness that they have found that which is Eternal which belongs to Eternal Life having been guided by that which the Cloud and Pillar of Fire in the Wilderness was a figure of every one with all diligence hold that fast which you have received that
of the Lord God among you that your Hearts may be broken thereby and your Spirits melted into true Love and Contriteness and you preserved in that state and then will your Hearts be inlarged in the Heavenly Wisdom that is Pure Peaceable Gentle and Easy to be Intreated and in that Wisdom and Power in you all in the same will all your works stand to the Honour of God and Comfort one of another and your Eys will be always to the Promotion of Truth in Righteousness keeping up your ancient Testimony into which God raised you by his Power in years past and in the Life and Power of God you will keep under and weaken that which would arise to trample his Holy Testimony under Foot and so keep the House and Family of God in Order and keep to the Cross to that which would be out in a Fleshly Liberty to make void the Cross of Christ by which we were Crucified to the World and the World to us for that which would be from under the Cross is the same that would lead into the World again and so would make shipwrack of Faith and a tender Conscience and lead into headiness hardness stubornness and looseness again and then do they Apostatise from the Life of God that is in them and become Reprobates concerning the Faith and so through forsaking their first Love lose their Reward at last And therefore the true Elders Elder Men and Elder Women ought to have this Care upon them over the younger that all may be preserved in the first Love and first Zeal that none may lose that nor draw back into a fleshly Liberty down into the Wisdom that is from below which hath not its Spring in nor from that Heavenly Gift which cannot keep the Hearts pure as the Heavenly doth and you know it was the Gift of the Heavenly Power that first Quickned us and made us to Live to God and you know it is the same that keeps our Hearts Tender and Lively by which we Live for ever For our Life that we now Live is by Faith in him who is the Power of God and we Feed upon him and his Flesh is Bread according to his own Words for he is the Living Bread that came down from God and still comes down therefore mind it wait for it and stand up for it and be not starved again upon the barren Mountains of your own Imaginations where this Bread of Life is not to be found And dear Friends keep your Men and Womens Meetings in the Lord's Fear and Power and keep in the Holy Care where you may have a sense of your concern in the Body and feel your Place and Charge every one of you and be Zealous for Righteousness in the particular and in the general and the Lord will be with you as he hath been I am witness For none no longer dwells in the Truth and Love than they dwell in Righteousness though they may make a profession And be not at all discouraged in your works for the Lord and his Truth by that Spirit that would bring a light esteem upon your Holy Care and Godly Order in the Truth for it is the same in Nature that in all ages endeavoured to lay wast God's Heritage and obstruct his Work and layed stumbling blocks in the way of God's Traveling People to cause them to fall and to turn back again the Lord will blast every desire that those go about in this matter who let in this Spirit and bring his Life over it and preserve his People therein that in this Life and Heavenly Liberty they may Serve him and Praise him who Lives for Ever who is Everlastingly Worthy to whom be glory and Dominion World without End Dear Hearts you being Living in my Remembrance as also the Heavenly Seasons we had together when I was last with you my Heart is filled with Love towards you and in that I send these few Lines as a Salutation and tender Greeting unto you that you may know you rest in my Remembrance as I believe I do in yours So the God of Love and Peace keep you all in his Love and Fear unto the End that your Portion may be with him in his Eternal Kingdom where there shall be no Sorrow but you may dwell in Pleasure for ever and for evermore From your Friend and Brother in the Fellowship of the Gospel J. B. Dear and Well-beloved UNto you who are the called of God in those parts unto whom the visitation of his Day hath reached and upon whose Hearts the Heaven'y Light thereof hath shined in its pure spiritual breakings forth so that you are become the Children thereof and do walk therein unto you all doth the tender Salutation of my Soul reach in the love of God and in the Fellowship which is a Mystery which is held in a pure Conscience and continued as we walk and abide in the Light in which we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son and also one with another and so are of one Family and Houshold partakers of that one Bread which all the sanctified in all Ages did feed upon which is that which we are to wait for in this Day that we may live thereby unto God and grow through the Divine Nourishment thereof up into his Nature and into his Strength wherein we may triumph over the Adversary as the Antients did of old and rejoyce in the God of our Salvation who is our Strength and Tower of Safety for ever Dear Friends Great and large hath the Love and Kindness of our God been unto us who were Strangers Aliens and Enemies in our minds unto him in this that he hath called and chosen us to be his People and to bear witness unto his appearance and the shinings forth of his Light and of the Glory of his Presence whereby he hath richly comforted our Souls and lifted up our Heads above all sorrow even when the Enemy hath thought to sink us down into the Pit Thus hath the Lord dealt bountifully with our Souls and been a ready help in the needful time to him be the Honour and Glory for ever and ever So that now it behooves all after so many Deliverances Favours and Mercies to stick close unto the Lord and seek his Glory above all and that with all their strength that so he who is the good Husband-man may be glorified through every ones bringing forth of Fruit according to Christ's command Now my Friends this all observe that none can bring forth Fruit unto God's Glory but as they abide in Christ the living Vine from him is the Life received by which every one lives unto God and it is by the vertue of that Life that every one must act to his Praise And therefore see that you all retain it in its own Purity and live in subjection thereunto through your whole Day that you may be as fruitful Branches abiding in the right Nature and bearing holy Fruit
drowning surfeiting Cares and Pleasures of it that you may neither be choaked nor surfeited with the excess of that nor so led up into the worldly Pleasures and Liberty out of the Truth which that draws into as thereby and therein to forget the Lord and overlook your inward State For if any so do they lose the Glory the Beauty and Sweetness of their Heavenly condition and then they grow weary of the Way of the Lord and ready to say as some of old What profit is there in serving of God or in keeping of his Ordinances And therefore the God of Life stir you up and awaken all unto Watchfulness and Diligence that you may grow rich in the inward Man and be replenished with the Vertues and Graces of God that you may be a fruitful People in those parts of the World to the Honour and Glory of him who hath called and visited you who is Worthy of all Glory and Honour Praise and Dominion for ever And dear Friends my Heart's love reacheth unto you all who love and fear the Lord and in the Love of God I dearly salute you all and send this as a Testimony of that Love that still lives in my Heart unto you and therein I remain London 1680. Your Friend and Brother I. B. Dear Friends THE Love of my Heart and Soul is richly extended forth unto you and surely my Heart is affected with you in the Exercise you are under and do endure in this Day wherein the Lord seems to be pleased to try you as in a Furnace of Affliction and to prove your Faith and Patience that you may come to know the value of it even of that which is more precious than Gold that perisheth And truly my Heart believes that the Lord doth not suffer it to come upon you to destroy you but to try you and when his good Will is fulfilled in that and they have filled up their measure whose Hearts are hardened in their Cruelty he will find a way to deliver and bring forth his tryed and proved People whose Hearts are right before him and whose Souls are wisely set to seek him unto such shall all things be rightly sanctified and the Blessing and the Peace and Glory shall rest upon their inward Man with the richness of that Life which comes from Heaven for which you suffer for it is your innocent suffering for this as you have the Witness thereof in your selves that brings the Crown and Diademe of Glory to be put upon the Head of your inward Man So that the saying of the Apostle comes to be witnessed The Spirit of God and of Glory shall rest upon you Oh my most dearly beloved Friends How is my Soul melted into tenderness and my Heart broken within me in the meltings of the love of God towards you and in the sense of your long and weighty Trials that you have endured and gone through and yet for all must they seem as if they were but beginning Is the strength of the hard-hearted such that they are resolved to make a full end or to try what the Lord can do Will they prove their Arm to the utmost Well the Lord in his own time will manifest that it is but Flesh and not Spirit and therefore that which must decay and wither and be dried up and so prove weak at last when the unseen Arm of the Lord which they see not nor know not shall be revealed and stretched out and made bare which you that look not at things that are seen have a Faith in which Faith is that by which you live and in which you have your Victory and in which your Hope doth fasten as an Anchor both sure and stedfast So that though the Winds do blow and the raging Waves do swell high yet you are preserved and kept from being overthrown and destroyed Dearly Beloved methinks I find a Word of sweet Exhortation in my Heart unto you whom my Soul loves who may be or are tryed in this exercising Day with Bonds or Imprisonments In the first place get into a quiet frame of Spirit and Mind within your selves every one and into a resignedness freely up into the Will of God out of time looking as little at that as you can for if you do it will make your Exercises worse and harder For this I have experienced that when a Man is freeliest resigned into the Will of God and in a right Spirit most given up to suffer for him he is fittest to have his Liberty and most commonly it is the nearest unto him Dear Lambs I know there is sometimes a Travel in Spirit to get into a right place with the inward Man when the outward Man is in Bonds but when the Heart once gets thither all things are made easie and comfortable by him who said his Yoke was easie and his Burthen light And now be all concerned thus to get through in your Spirits and then you will feel that the Word of God is not bound but free and your Souls will be free in it and its holy Power and so be fed by the Milk of it that your Souls will draw spiritually from the blessed Breasts thereof by which you have been born again And being thus in your inward Man renewed unto God and up into his Life where the Habitation of Peace and Quietness is for your Souls that they cannot reach to bring a Disturbance to and there feeling your Ease Joy Peace and Pleasure to be such that you can in your Prison-House sing joyful Praises unto the Lord then my Friends be vvatchful tender and kind one unto another and over one another that Love Peace and Joy may be maintained among you all who suffer rightly and innocently for the Truth of our God that so you may be one anothers Ioy and Crown of Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ your Life and Strength And dear Friends where there is innocency and simplicity bear one with another and help one another that in your sufferings you may have fellowship one with another and so keep in the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus Christ where all may be humble and tender that so while others are striving to provoke you to come out of your places and to offend the Lord you may not provoke one another nor be an occasion unto any one to go out of their place in the Truth and so to lose their Peace with the Lord and in his Spirit For I have observed that there is a care to be amongst Friends at such times and in such conditions when they are kept up together that all things may be kept sweet and pleasant and that they may even join together in bearing the Burthen that is laid upon them and those that are more grown and deeper in their experience of what they are called unto may help the weak and so fulfil the Law of Love And dear Friends let not unprofitable Discourse be gone into for that may lead into
a striving that may hurt the unity that should be kept in the Light and hath sometimes grown into a Heat which hath set some Spirits against one another which should have been one and kept in the Unity where the love and comfort is And so all watching in the Light and waiting to feel the healing Power and Life in your Souls there will be a sweetness and Heavenly oiliness over your Hearts in which you will have a delight one in another and in one anothers good and this will help you all and so the strong comforted in the innocent and reverent care of the weak and the weak comforted in the Love Care Gentleness and Kindness of such that are strong And this preserves as a pleasant Family to the Honour of the great Lord and Father And so then shall you see how he will delight in you and appear among you and enrich you and bless you every one with a Portion from himself out of his Heavenly Bounty and Divine rich Treasure that none will want Bread nor refreshing Wine to nourish you in the inward Man but the holy Gift in you will be as a Well springing up unto Eternal Life And so you dear suffering Children of the Lord God Allmighty my Heart and Soul most dearly salutes you all and in the Love of God I have Unity with you in your blessed Testimony for which you suffer in which the God of all Grace and Truth comfort your Hearts and bear up your Heads over all your Hardships and deep Sufferings which as I understand are renewed and increased upon you That through him for whom you suffer who is your God and the great Lord of Heaven and Earth you may be strong to endure and abide to the end to his Glory and Honour who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for ever Amen London the 20th of the 3d Monh 1682. From your Friend and Brother in that which shall out-live all Hardship in which we have believed J. B. A Copy of an Epistle written to Friends at Bristol in the time of their Sufferings Dear Friends UNTO you whom God hath Visited in his Love and Mercy and unto whom he hath shewed Kindness through his Son our Saviour whom he hath given for Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth unto you I say doth the real Love of my Heart reach forth and for you in my Heart there Dwels a Care that as God in the exceeding Riches of his Love and Mercy hath Visited you and called you to be Saints through the Sanctification of the Word and Purifying through Faith that you being made Holy might become Heirs of Eternal Life through his Son Christ Jesus and of that Eternal Kingdom into which no Unholy thing must Enter And now being you are called with this Holy Calling thus to be Heirs through Faith in the Seed in whom the Election and Heirship doth stand for ever do you all mind the Heavenly Rule and Government of this Holy Seed in all your Hearts that your Spirits may be kept in their Places in Subjection and Reverence unto him whom the Father hath Anointed and whose Spirit the Father hath sent forth into your Hearts to lead you into all Truth even into him who said I am the Truth in whom the Fulness Dwells that you might be in him that is True even in the Son in whom the Heirship is That so you may be Heirs yea joint-Heirs with him that is True and Holy for ever And now my Friends being the Lord in Mercy hath called you unto this high and honourable Calling to be Saints and Heirs in Christ mind your Calling and what you are called unto and be careful to keep in him and walk in him as you have received him and to sit together in him in Heavenly places as the Saints of Old did for the Heavenly Places are in him the safe dwelling and he is the Way and in him is the safe Walking and therefore did the Apostle exhort the Saints to Walk in him as they had received him Now my dear Friends all learn to know what it is to walk in Christ the Power and Righteousness of God and then your steps will be sure For he is the Light and Day where there is no occasion of stumbling And you are to mind your Sitting together in Heavenly places in Christ not a-sunder not out of the Unity but together in him who is but one in all and holds all in Oneness in Life and Fellowship that abide in him For he cannot be divided his Coat was without Seam that was the Figure and so is his Spirit that is the Covering of his Body now which he hath Purchased with his own Blood it hath no Division or Seam in it but is One although it differs in Manifestation or Gifts as to degree or operation because of the many Offices proper to the distinct Members of one and the same Body whereof Christ is the Head yet the Life through the whole Body by which every Member is supplied with ability to answer its place is but One and thereby is the Body kept in Unity For the Life doth rule the Members of the true Body and therefore that Member that goes from under the Government of the Life must needs Die Death comes over it and the Power of Death rules it and hence comes the Breach of Unity and the Discord and the Strife and the Contention And therefore let all your Hearts be kept in the Sense of the true Life and Power of God and in subjection thereunto in true Love Lowliness of Mind and Humility of Spirit and then in this right frame of Spirit you will be ready to serve one another in Love and not to rule over one another in Lordship for that is not proper no nor it is not Natural unto the Living Members of the Living Body unto whom Christ is the Head and over whom he Rules And so dear Friends you all keeping in the Power and that ruling in your Hearts that keeps tender and lowly you will be full of an holy Care and the living Zeal for the Lord's honour and for the preservation of his People in Righteousness that the Truth may be kept a top and Righteousness Lived in by all that do make a Profession of that honourable Name and Truth in which we have believed and through which we have been Saved and Sanctified and made holy and then will Unity Love and Peace spring and grow among you and you will be a Joy and Comfort one unto another and strengthners and helpers one of another in this great Work and Day of God And thus the Faithful keeping their Places and their Care in every Meeting and minding the Order and Government of Truth in themselves to be kept in Humility and the holy Tenderness in their own Hearts there will be that Sweetness and peaceable Reverence that will be Savoury and Comely in the Eyes of all And in and under the Government
of this peaceable Spirit you Living and Walking you may then come to be rightly concerned to God's glory in the Blessed Order which the Truth hath led into and by the Power of God is now set up in the Churches of Christ for the keeping of all out and down that are unclean unruly and unholy and preserving of the Camp of God in that Purity that is proper for it that he that is holy may delight to dwell there and abide in the midst thereof And dear Friends all you that keep your habitations in the Lord's Power neglect not your Gifts received from Christ but be you all concerned in your places and according to your abilities for the Honour of Truth that every thing that would bring Dishonour to that worthy name by which ye have been called and give Occasion of stumbling unto the weak may be removed in the Wisdom of God or at least by the tender power of God Judged out from among you that the Camp may be kept clean and Righteousness may run down and the glory of the Lord break forth upon you and you therein may shine to his Praise and Glory for ever more Dear Friends I also was willing to let you know that our Meeting this year at London was very quiet and peaceable and blessed Unity and comfortable Fellowship in the Power and Love of God was Witnessed among us and we gathered up in that together into that care and concern which the state of the Churches of Christ in this trying day did require For many of our Friends in divers places of this Nation are under great Sufferings for their Testimony But otherwise the Truth doth prevail and gain upon many Hearts and through these Tryals God will Magnifie his Power in the end and Crown his People with Dominion for through Sufferings will the Lamb and his Humble and Faithful Followers have the Victory We had also account from divers Countries of the Prosperity of Truth and the State of Friends at the Yearly Meeting now lately over as Holland and the Country that way and from Ireland and Scotland and so had an account in Letters to the Yearly Meeting of the state of things and the affairs of Truth to our great Comfort And therefore it is desired that if the Lord should so order that we may Meet together as hitherto we have done and intend if he permit to do that you in America would endeavour to send over against that time from your several Countries an account of the Prosperity of Truth and how it is among you as to the Affairs thereof that at that Meeting Friends may have an account from you as we have from other Parts And for this end it was desired by Dear G. F. whom many of you know hath a general Care upon him for the good of the whole Body that at your Half-years-Meeting in the latter part of the year you might draw up an Epistle which might be sent to be at London at the Yearly Meeting every year and so from your Half-years-Meeting in every place there may be an account given yearly which will be a refreshment and comfort to Friends And therefore it is desired that if this come in time to your Half-years-Meeting you would be mindful of it and answer the desire of Friends and let Copies of this be sent to Virginia Maryland Pensylvania and New-Iersey and to Long-Island and Road-Island and to Sandwich and where there may be a Service or to Scituate if the Half-years-Meeting be there and to Barbadoes or the Leeward-Islands So with my Love to you all in that wherein all the Faithful have Fellowship I conclude and remain Your Friend and Brother in the Truth I. B. Hartford the 19th of the 4th Month 1682. An Epistle to Friends of Bristol Directed to C. J. Dear C. J. IN that everlasting Truth and Seed of Life through which the God of Truth hath reached us and visited us is the living Love and true endeared Affection of my Heart and Spirit Richly and Sweetly let forth and extended unto thee with thy dear Wife and your Children as also unto the Faithful and true-Hearted to the Lord in that City who in this Trying day are given up unto God both to Do and Suffer for his Name 's sake My Soul I can still say is deeply Affected with your Suffering state and be sure you are many times livingly in my Remembrance and that in the near Approaches of my Spirit unto the Lord for in that in which the access and the true drawing nigh unto him is experienced do you live upon my Heart and are brought very often into my view together with your Suffering State under which it is the Pleasure of your Heavenly Father to Try you and to prove your Faith and Confidence and to let you know the preciousness thereof in the time of need And now my dearly Beloved see all of you that you keep in the Faith that gives the Victory and truly saves and defends and know that ancient saying true for ever The very hairs of your Head are all numbered and not one shall fall to the ground without your Father's Providence And therefore let your Eyes be unto him both for Salvation and Preservation and know that he both can and will deliver when he sees good for you know him that is the living God that reigns and will reign over all and in due time make all know that he can do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and in the Earth And therefore mind your acquaintance with him and your knowledg of him in that which may be known of him in your Hearts and your Unity with his Life in your Souls that you may all feel the Peace thereof and the Holy Spring therein which Man by all his Cruelty cannot reach to put a stop unto But when they that seek to destroy you and to take all Comfort from you have done all they can this Spring being open in your Hearts you have Comfort Peace and Joy that they neither know of nor can keep from you Oh! you dear Suffering Children and tender Babes of the Almighty who are called unto this day and hour of Temptation or Trial how doth my Soul Love you how is my very Heart's Love let forth unto you at this time as at many other times The Lord the God of Strength be with you and strengthen and fill your tender Souls with the Glory of his Life and the sweetness of his Presence that your Spirits with gladness may Praise him in the midst of all these Exercises with which you are compassed And now my dear Friends you being so in my Heart with a living Sense of your Trials that are upon you methinks I see the Wall with which the God of Israel doth compass you about over which the Adversary cannot shoot an Arrow tho his Boasting may be great what he will do as of Old it was Oh! happy are they that abide within the compass of it
and so retire and spread their Cause before the Lord who is the living God Remember the King of Old who commanded silence and said Answer him not a Word and so returned to the Temple and to the Altar of the Lord and spread the Cause before him and confessed the weakness of the Daughter of Sion to bring forth and also his Faith in the sufficiency of God's Power when he said Thou art able to Save c. Oh! my dear Friends Live up to the Lord in your Spirits and be Faithful and keep your Peace with him in the inner-Man and mind your Unity with his Spirit and take heed of that which would obstruct your Fellowship with his Life let no Fair Pretences over you Prevail that may have any tendency to bring your Spirits into Bondage or any straitness over your Hearts for that Bondage will prove the greatest Slavery and this I do believe you right well know And now my Dear Friends all of you minding your inward Freedom and your Spiritual Ease in the Freedom and Liberty given you of God through Christ your Saviour you will have a Dwelling and Habitation filled with Glory Riches and Comfort over which the Enemies Cloud cannot come and in that you will see through to the end of all that would either Darken or bring Distress And so you will see how good it is to trust in the Lord and to rely upon his Power and be given up freely into his Will And so dear Hearts my Love is truly unto you all and in the Love with which I have anciently Loved you and in which I Love you as much as ever do I very dearly Salute you all you tender Suffering Children and with my Soul and Spirit desire that God in Mercy and Kindness may bless you with Spiritual Blessing in Christ Jesus and enrich your Souls with the Divine Fatness of his House and Pleasure of his Life that you may have Joy every day and delight every Morning in your Bosoms that so your Strength may be renewed and your Ability so encreased that you may be able to bear what is upon you till the Lord see good to Work your Deliverance and case you of the yoak and Burthen that you bear Which the Lord in Mercy take off if it be his pleasure is the desire of Your Friend and Brother in the Fellowship of the Sufferings and Tribulation and also of the Consolation which we are called unto through Christ Jesus our Lord. I. B. The Copy of an Epistle sent to Friends at Bristol in the time of their Sufferings Written at Eaglesfield in Cumberland the 1st of the 6th Month 1682. Cork the 25th of the 10th Month 1682. Dear Friends IN the Everlasting Covenant of Life and Peace and in the pure spring of Divine Love in the same do I remember you and in Spirit reach unto you and very dearly salute you all who in the Faith that gives the Victory do remain and stand stedfast and so keep your Habitations and Dwellings in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus your Redeemer who hath redeemed you out of the Wickedness that is in the World unto himself and so into his own Power and Nature which is righteous that you might become the Righteousness of God in him and so be restored into the Image Nature and State in which Man was Created by him that made all things good and Man in his own Image that he might delight in Man and that Man might honour and glorifie him Now this Work of Restauration you know God hath sent his Son to effect and accomplish in Man and for Man that again Man might honour his Creator and become the delight of his Maker whose delight is to dwell in the Habitable parts of the Earth even among the Sons of Men. And therefore that you may be his Delight and that he may take Pleasure in you do you all keep in that which hath Renewed or doth Renew and change the Heart and Spirit of the mind that in the Newness thereof you may serve and honour and glorifie him from whom the renewing Power and Word doth come that so the new Creation the new Heavens and Earth may be known wherein Righteousness doth dwell and that you may have your Conversation there and so shine as Lights among this crooked and perverse Generation in whose Heaven and Earth Unrighteousness doth dwell And therefore will the Lord as the Apostle said not only shake the Earth but the Heavens also that that which cannot be shaken may remain And truly I do believe that many ones Heaven will be shaken before this searching winnowing trying Day be over that 's growing on upon the Nations and People for the Heavens of many are grown over and covered with Darkness and thick Clouds and the Glory thereof is gone and the brightness and stedfastness thereof is lost not a Star to be seen except a Wanderer out of its course out of the Covenant that hath greatly lost its Light and so in the Clouds of Darkness driven to and fro by the variable uncertain Winds that are and may be suffered to blow to shake that which is shakable and remove that which will not endure that that which cannot be shaken may remain and the Glory of that may appear which will endure Dear Friends God hath manifested that which is sure for ever and will endure and stand and last and you have known the power of it and as you keep in the holy sense thereof you will be stedfast constant and firm in your Minds and not soon shaken nor removed from your Habitation and stedfastness in the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord which is the power of God which is above all Powers Thrones and Dominions and will stand and cannot be shaken For it s above Iohn's Ministration the Gospel Power and Kingdom is and he that 's least there is greater than Iohn and is come to that which is surer than a Reed that may be shaken with the Wind though it be not broken yet it may be shaken And therefore they that would dwell there and not come on to Christ the Rock that cannot be shaken their Dwelling is not safe their Habitation will be thrown down and their House made a Desolation Methinks I see it so in our Days upon such that have sitten down short of the Eternal Substance that ended all Shadows Iohn's as well as those that were before him And therefore dearly Beloved you that have known the Eternal Substance the living Power of the Lord Iesus Christ manifested in your Hearts by which you have been quickned raised up and made alive unto God keep to the Power in your Souls and mind its living in you that you therein may live unto God and so abide a living People through your Age God's living Witnesses in your Day without Alteration and so be such as have not only been Hearers of the Word but Doers also and so such whose House is built upon
not your Reward your Crown nor your Peace cannot reach to take it a way and that is our Joy that we have a Crown and Inheritance that is out of their sight and so out of their reach Oh therefore let all take heed that through carelesness or looseness of Spirit or any other thing you be not beguiled or betrayed from that to the losing of it while you are suffering for it You know my Friends it is possible such things have been even in our Age that while some have been suffering for the Truth they have been betrayed from the Truth and the Innocency and Simplicity of it in their Hearts and so have lost the Truth even that for which they were called to suffer For you know it is an inward thing and must be held in the inward unity of the Mind in a spiritual Fellowship and if there be not a care even while we are in one thing doing for the Truth in the outward in the inward we may lose it and our Justification by it and then whither shall we go for our Peace and Recompence The God of my Life give you all Wisdom and Fear and fill you with holy Reverence that you may still stand in awe before him and be watchful over your spiritual Path and the Feet of your Souls and Minds that you may invisibly tread in the invisible way of Peace and Righteousness And Dear Friends live in Peace and Love together amongst your selves and in a holy solid Life before all Men keeping out of the Spirit of the World in all things that as it is upon a Religious Account that you suffer you may appear in all other things to be Religious Men or otherwise you know the Truth cannot be honoured by your suffering For if Men that suffer for or upon the account of Religion appear not to be Religious Men this overthrows the Glory and Beauty of their Religion and brings it into Dis-esteem amongst Men And therefore did Christ command that our Light should shine before Men by their seeing of our good Works c. And Dear Friends have a care of provoking one another unto any thing that is Evil but endeavour to stir up and provoke one another unto Love and good Works that you may build up one another therein and so help to bear one anothers Burthen and fulfill the Law of Christ that you may all be kept up together in the Iustification and Peace And so Dear Friends my Heart's Love being unto you I send these few lines as a Testimony thereof by which you may know you are in my remembrance in the Love of God and my Heart hath an honourable Esteem of your Testimony and your Sufferings in Righteousness for the same I desire to be remembred to Friends in the Country both below Carlisle and above and Friends in the City to Io. Carlisle and Family with the rest My Wife 's dear Love is to you all My Love is with you Farewell From your Friend I. B. Dublin the 12 th of the 8 th Month 1685. Dear Friends IN the universal Spirit of Life and Truth and of Righteousness and Peace doth the tender Affection and pure Love of my Heart flow forth and reach unto you all who are true Lovers of the Power and the Holiness of the same wherein alone it is that we bear the Image of him whose Name is Holiness and his Nature and Being is Purity so that in that only we do draw and may draw near unto him and have Fellowship with him and enjoy his Presence who is our God our Life and Salvation And therefore in the Unity of that whereby we have been quickened and through which we Live unto him that hath quickned us do I exhort and beseech you all to mind with Reverence his secret and sweet Visitations by his Holy Power upon your Spirits in your Hearts that you feel that to appear there and so through the brightness of its appearing to destroy him whose coming is after the Working of Satan with all Power c. and with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness in them that Perish And not only to appear and destroy him and his Works but also to abide with you and dwell in you and so make you his dwelling-place And then you being Watchful shall not Watch in vain because the Lord then will be your keeper and then as one said of old He keeping the City the Watch-man watcheth not in vain Thus you may see it fulfilled in your own Hearts unto your own Souls and so have Comfort and Confidence with Holy David and with him Live above the fear of Evil though you might walk through the Shadow of Death as he said because of the Lord 's being with you And therefore Friends see that you all be mindful of him in his Appearing by his Power and Spirit of Grace in your Hearts and let him have Room there and not to be straitned or thronged up or oppressed for he delights to dwell alone there and have the whole Heart to himself and at his own disposing that he may Fill it with that which he takes Pleasure in and in which he only may be Glorified and Honoured And therefore doth he require the Heart saying My Son give me thy Heart And Christ Commands That we should Love him with all our Hearts c. So as I said let him have room in your Hearts and take heed that with this World the Spirit of it Nature of it and Love to the things therein your Hearts be not filled and so taken up that there be not room for him whose coming is with such Glory and Fulness that he fitls all that are rightly poor and empty with that Fulness Richness and Glory that there can be no want to them that have him for their Portion and Inheritance and so keep single in their Hearts before him But where the Heart is filled with Delight in or desire after other things out of the Covenant of God which is out of his Favour there the Lord will not have delight to Dwell there is not room nay he will not have delight to appear there because it will be his Grief and an Oppression unto him Was it not so of old when he took up his Complaint against both Iudah and Israel As you may see Amos 2. how the Lord pleads with them and threatens them what he would bring upon them for their Sins that he reckons up against them and withall to aggravate their Crimes as he might justly do he also reckons up and tells them what he had done for them how he had destroyed the Amorites for their sakes brought them out of the Land of Egypt led them in the Wilderness given them the Land of the Amorites to Possess raised of their Sons to be Prophets and their young Men to be Nazarites But saith he unto them Ye gave my Nazarites Wine to Drink and commanded my Prophets saying Prophesy not behold I am pressed under
you as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves saith he Hence it may be understood that when he hath been at work and hath done good by his glorious Power who worketh wonderfully for them and now in them also that believe in his Power if there be a going from him and a letting in of other things into the Heart where he should Rule and have his Dwelling in Man and so with Man it becomes a Grief and an Oppression unto him and so a Provocation that he will not always bear it nor spare Man though he is long-suffering as may be seen very fully in that Prophesy of Amos and more at large through the Scripture which was written for our Learning that we might be warned and thereby be stirred up unto that diligence care and watchfulness which may tend to our preservation And now considering these things that were of old and observing how that in our Age the Lord hath made known his wonted goodness unto us even that which doth far exceed the outward Priviledges of outward Israel for that which he blesseth us withall is a Possession and Enjoyment of a degree of his own Life who is the Creator by which he Created all things which is more than the Enjoyment of the Creature the Loss of which was the great penalty laid upon Adam if he broke the Command which he having lost is again restored unto us through Christ Iesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven which we having received do thereby live unto God and therein serve him And so Dear Friends the thing that is chiefly in my mind unto you in the reach of the Heavenly Bowels is To intreat and beseech you all To be tender in your Hearts and careful over your Spirits that you may not let in nor join with any thing that will bring Grief or Oppression upon your Life or lead you into the Transgression of the Law thereof Mind the Exhortation of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit by which you are Sealed c. And so as you are careful watchful and wise to take heed unto the Holy Conduct and Blessed Leadings and Direction of this Spirit and the Law thereof your Souls will dwell in Peace and your Feet will tread in a safe Path even the Path of Peace and your Steps will not Slide but you will witness what David said of old to be true The Righteous shall inherit the Land and dwell therein forever for saith he The mouth of the Righteous speaketh Wisdom and his Tongue talks of Iudgment The Law of his God is in his Heart none of his steps shall slide So here you see what it is that keeps from Sliding the Law of God which is in the Heart this preserved David for it was as a Lanthorn to his Feet and a Light unto his Paths Oh! my Dear Friends you may be happy yea we may all be happy if we be as careful as we ought to walk by this Rule Oh! the Sweetness Peace and Glory that he fills the Hearts of all his People with that take heed unto his Law the Spirit is not grieved the Life of the Soul is not Oppressed the Soul Life or Spirit of Man is at ease and so in the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and so in that state where it can Sing unto the Lord and Praise him And therefore all of you mind your Dwelling and inward Liberty and Spiritual Freedom from all the Corruptions of the World and of the Flesh both inwardly in your selves and all Temptations from without that you may reign in the Dominion of the Seed Christ Iesus for ever and so with him be Co-heirs of that Heavenly Inheritance and Possession which he hath Purchased for you And so in the Unity of that Life which reigns over all do I very dearly Salute you all who Love the Truth and in that do I desire that the God of Life may bear up your Spirits by his Power over and a top of all that would Defile or Oppress that you may be preserved to remain the Sons and Daughters of God without Rebuke in and among this Crooked and Perverse Generation amongst whom do you Shine as Lights to the Glory of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his Marvellous Light who over all is worthy of Glory and Honour and Dominion World without End From Your Friend and Brother in the Truth I. B. Dublin the 23 d of the 11 th Month 1685. Dear R. R. IN the Love and Unity of the Blessed Truth which lives and abides for Ever do I very dearly Salute thee and thy Wife and therein is my Heart's desire for you unto the Lord that by his blessed Hand and Power you may be born up and supported under all Exercises that may attend and in your minds Preserved with an invisible Eye unto the Lord taking notice of his Orderings as it is his Hand that brings to pass what he sees Good and then in his Fear and Love there will be a Reverent Submitting unto his Will without Murmuring or Repining at what the Lord doth Though Nature in the True and Natural Affection which good Men and Women cannot be without may be broken and greatly bowed down yet as long as the mind is preserved from Murmuring at what the Lord doth it will be well there will be a Heart Capable of giving him his due as it was with Iob. Dear R. I must needs say my Heart is concerned for you both upon thy own Account having heard of thy great Weakness there and Affliction thou hast been under and also because of the Loss of thy Dear and Tender Daughter who in your Absence is taken away both from you and us But what shall I say It is so and the Lord hath done it and it is not safe to Dispute the Case with him or say Why hath he done so But tenderly submit unto his Will and bless him that gives and takes away as he sees good However this I think I may say to thee and thy Wife with safety you need not sorrow as such who have no Hope because of the ground God hath given for a sure Hope of her Eternal Well-being which is the Mark we are all Pressing towards and they are happy that do obtain it For I was with her that same day that she Dyed in the Afternoon and had a serious weighty season with her She sent for me and told me as soon as I came to her That now she was satisfied she must Die and her Heart was wholly set after her Assurance of Peace with the Lord and her desires to us to wit her Husband and me was That the Doctor might not trouble her or meddle with her for she was not willing to be molested or hindred from a quiet Departure For her Heart was set after a peaceable Departure out of this World as was evident from her words several times And she was very sensible and did speak to me with
speak the Word and it shall not stand for God is with us For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong Hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this People saying Say ye not A Confederacy to all them to whom this People shall say A Confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Isa. 8. 10 11 12 13. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER Christian Reader ANother Letter coming to our Hands subscribed J. T. the tendency thereof being to beget a dislike in R. L. to whom it was Writ to the Principles of Truth as professed by us the truly Reformed Christians called Quakers and to prevent the writing of more such occasion'd our making thus publick the following Answer to Priest Potts ' s Letter and the rather understanding the said J. T. saw it and takes no notice thereof in his although it Answers the substance thereof excepting in these following particulars 1. His accounting it an Errour in us Not to Swear Ans. We in short say we have Christ's Command for not Swearing Matt. 5. 3 4. Swear not at all And seconded by the Apostle James 5. 12. which we believe ought to be observed by all Christians 2. He charges us with Denying the Trinity as he terms it Ans. We do really own the Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One Iohn 5. 7. And we also own the Three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these Three agree in One as verse 8. and so we do and always did believe according to the Holy Scriptures 3. He charges us with Denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God Ans. We believe the Scriptures to be what they call themselves a Testimony or Declaration as in Luke 1. 1. John 5. 39. But Christ we own and believe to be the Word of God according to John 1. and Rev. 19. 13. So we own the Word of the Lord that came unto the Prophets saying as in Ezek. 7. 1. and in divers other places and we own and believe the Sayings of the Word as recorded in the Holy Scriptures So the Word that came unto the Prophets was the Sayer or that which spake unto them and the Scriptures are the Words or Sayings which the Word or Spirit of Christ spake unto and through the Prophets as is evident from the Testimony of the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Dublin the 12th of the 9th Month 1688. J. B. J. W. The Holy Truth and its Professors Defended c. Lawrence Potts WE having met with a Paper of thine and finding our selves and others of the People called Quakers concerned therein with our Christian Religion and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which we are called to bear witness unto and contend for were not willing to let it pass without taking notice of thy false Charges upon Us and our Religion together with thy weak Vindication of thy self with the rest of the Clergy of your Church in those things which thou hast yet to prove And we find our selves the more concerned because of thy Challenge in thy Paper where thou say'st It dos become your Teachers to make this plainly appear to you and me from whom they have drawn you and therefore if they can make it out I again challenge it of them and you By the way we would have thee take notice of this that Robert Lacky in his Letter to thee doth acquaint thee that it was the Light or Grace of God that let him see the Evil or Defects in himself and others and so meerly the Love of God that prevailed in his Heart so that it was not Man that drew him from thee and thy Teachings but the Lord Iesus Christ the true Shepherd whom the Father promised that by his Spirit of Light and Grace did draw him and so fulfilled the Promise of the Father in Ezek. 34. 10. where he saith He would deliver his Flock from the mouth of such as fed themselves that they might not be Meat for them c. In the first place we observe thou blamest him for saying If he or any other through the Light of God's Grace in the Heart do see Defects in themselves or others that profess that Religion wherein they were bred he does not understand how he incurs Damnation by forsaking it c. And so in thy Answer blamest him for confounding Religion as thou say'st with the Carriage of its Professors c. Answer It 's true there may be wicked Men Professors of a most holy and pure Religion and therefore for some particulars being of an evil carriage to condemn a Religion is not proper But when a Man finds and understands that in the Exercise of his Religion he receives not power against Sin and Temptation in himself nor yet sees the effect of such a power in others it may be not in the very Teachers but that is lived in which answers not the Law of God nor the Life of a true Christian and yet here is no dis-membring of such or excluding them from their Church-Fellowship This may justly give ground to suspect a Defect in that Religion And therefore it may be warrantable for a Man under these Observations both concerning himself and others to enquire and seek after a Religion wherein Power may be enjoyed from Christ to overcome Sin and withstand Temptation And we do believe thou thy self art not ignorant how that not only many of the People of your Church are of a loose Conversation but diverse of your Clergy also and yet they suffered to abide in their Places and Offices without either being excluded or silenced though the Apostle exhorts To withdraw from every Brother that walks disorderly And again 1 Cor. 5. 11. He writes unto the Church not to keep company with any called a Brother that was a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner such thou mayst see were to be denied Fellowship in the Church But we have often observed how that in your Church there have been and still are both Swearers Liars Drunkards and Men given to other profaneness and yet little zeal appearing to Excommunicate or exclude them But when any for Conscience sake could not pay the Priest his Wages though it were but some small matter oftentimes such a one should soon be prosecuted and Excommunicated so that by your practices what-ever you may profess in words you are more zealous for your Gain and Interest than for excluding Evil and promoting Righteousness in your Church and so like them the Apostle speaks of who minded earthly things whose end he said was Destruction Phil. 3. 19. Now such practices are no marks of the Church of Christ but of a false Church where there is want of zeal for Righteousness Whereby it is manifest that you
steal my Words every one from his Neighbour And the Apostle speaking of Deceivers Rom. 16. 18. saith That by good words and fair speeches they deceive the Hearts of the simple So that it is evident these false Prophets and Deceivers had good words for God said they had Stoln his Words from their Neighbours c. and they had fair Speeches but were inwardly Ravening from whence evil Fruits were brought forth But that by Fruits there is not meant their Doctrine as thou say'st Observe further what Christ saith in that Chapter Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Even so every good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit But a corrupt Tree bringeth forth evil Fruit c. Wherefore by their Fruits ye shall know them ver 20. And in the following verses it is most clear that by Fruits he means their Deeds and particular Actions for his words are Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven so the Fruits here meant are Doings not sayings Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name c. and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Here the Working of Iniquity was the cause of their exclusion from him And further speaking of the Wise and Foolish Builders he saith He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise Man c. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not shall be likened unto a foolish Man c. So that all along it doth appear that the Particular Actions are the Fruits whereby Christ declares they may be known and accordingly may be judged though Thou say'st Many Hereticks men who have embraced vile Doctrines as thou affirmest the Quakers do have been of good Lives First As to thy affirming That the Quakers do embrace vile Doctrines that is false and we turn it back upon thee as a wicked slander and challenge thee to bring them forth that we may know what they are that thou accounts so and whether they be ours or not In the next place where dost thou read in all the Scriptures of Men that held vile Doctrines that were of Good Lives The next matter thou takest in hand to defend in thy Paper is Your Tithes your great Delilah For it 's evident that it is your Tithes and other Revenues that is the very cause for which the most of you did become Ministers otherwise we are perswaded we had not had One of an Hundred in those Offices at this day of you For it 's the Trade as it 's made by you whereby you get your Rich Gain that is chiefly in the Eye of those concerned in the preferring of Youth into the Schools and we think it is as much in the eye of the Ministers in their coming out of the Schools and going into the Nations to be Teachers as your practice doth manifest So that Christ and his Gospel is the least of your concern in the ground of your design whatever may be pretended For in all things Mens ways and Actions are a more sure Evidence to Demonstrate what they are than their Words therefore Christ saith by their Fruits ye shall know them So that we do not wonder to find thee so concerned to plead Worldly Gain But to come to the matter thy business is To prove Tithes of Divine Institution now under the Gospel Dispensation which if thou do then we will confess it is no defect in your Religion Thou say'st It will be no hard matter to do but thou hast not done it And if it be so easie to do thou should'st have done it to have convinced him that scruples its Lawfulness However it may be supposed thou hast brought thy chief Proof in quoting Christ's Words in Matth. 23. 23. and Luke 11. 42. Where he speaks of the Pharisees paying Tithes of Mint Anise Cummin c. and tells them These things ye ought to have done And then thou say'st Nothing can be plainer to them that are not desirous to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction So by thy own Words this is thy chief proof being as thou sayst nothing can be plainer But as plain as thou wouldst make the simple believe it is all that are wise do clearly see that this has no relation to the Gospel-Dispensation but to the first Covenant and Priesthood And saith the Apostle Hebrews 7. 12. For the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law And in the 8th chap. thou may'st see how he proves the Lawchanged and gives the Reason for the Lord 's giving a New Covenant or Testament and making the first Old So it 's plain the Priesthood that received Tithes and the Law that made them of Divine Right to the Priesthood are both changed and both a New Law or Covenant and Priesthood set up and established by the Oath and Promise of God which are the two immutable things by which God shews the Immutability of his Counsel abundantly unto the Heirs of Promise for the strengthening of their Consolation through Christ that is made an High Priest for ever as thou mayst read Heb. 6. Now thy work is To prove Tithes of Divine Institution in the New Covenant and then to prove and shew the Priesthood that is to Receive them for thou mayst see both the Law that gave them and the Priesthood that received them are changed And though Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees they ought to have done it that was according to the Law of the First Covenant which was not then dis-annulled Christ not being offered up but he himself under it for it is said He was made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law Gal. 4. 4 5. and so he taught People to observe it as when he had cleansed the Leper in Matth. 8. he bid him shew himself to the Priest and offer the Gift that Moses commanded for a Testimony unto them and so while under the Law he was for observing the Law But now that being ended in him his Law is to be observed and what he has ordained we are to be subject to But before we speak to that we are willing to take a little observation of the difference between your Priesthood that now takes Tithes and God's Priesthood that received Tithes by his Law in his first Covenant First Levi's Line that was to receive Tithes of Israel had not their Inheritance of Land among their Brethren this the Lord ordered to be their Inheritance to wit Tithes and Offerings which they were to have from the rest of the Tribes as thou mayst see in Numb 18. And likewise when they had received the Tithes which was all the Inheritance they had among the Children of Israel they were not to have it only
the Scripture where is the Divine Right either for Tithes or the other great Revenues you Clergy-men Compel the Nations to pay you It is not from Christ's Command nor the Apostles nor from any of their Examples neither Apostles Bishops Pastors nor Teachers You are without Warrant from the Scripture you have neither Precept nor Precedent for your Practices either as in respect to your great Revenues that you seek after and enjoy nor your manner of forcing People to pay you All we see in Christ's Ordination that was to be done to them that would not receive them and relieve them was they were to shake off the Dust of their Feet as a Witness against them And then Christ shews the danger of their rejecting but refers it to the day of Judgment But this will not serve you though ye pretend to be spiritual Men yet it plainly appears you are for your carnal Ends you cannot trust your selves under Christ's Care to live of the Gospel and what that freely produceth in the Hearts of the People as Christ's Ministers did And you may see what they answered when he questioned them as in Luke 22. 35. And he said unto them when I sent you without Purse and Scrip and Shooes lacked ye any thing and they answered Nothing So here is Faith and Obedience and the Effects also of the Faith and Obedience of Christ's Ministers set before us for an Example But it 's evident you do no more love to follow the Example of the Primitive Ministers than you love to submit to what Christ hath ordained as appears by the great bustle thou makest and the many shuffling Arguments thou usest to invalidate the good Example of the Apostle in that godly Care that was upon him that he might not make the Gospel chargeable which is no more than the real duty of every true Minister of Christ although you make it not your concern as is evident from your practices And what if the Apostle had Power and asserted his Power Thou seest what Power he asserts in these Words Have we not power to eat and to drink and again Have we not power to forbear working c as in 1 Cor. 9. So thou may'st still see that he pretended to no power above his Master's Commission who said They might Eat such things as were set before them The Labourer was worthy of his Meat So still this makes nothing for thee and thy Brethren his Power you will not be content with no more than his Example for then you know you must not live in Pride Highth Fulness and Idleness as ye do And so being his Power will not answer your Ends you fly from his Power which was the Gospel which they that Preached it were to live by to Man's Power and Law for your Maintenance and by that Force and Compel People to pay you for whom you do no Work and to whom you cannot say as he did 1 Cor. 9. 1. Are not you my Work in the Lord But alas how many Thousands do you Compel in Ireland to pay you that are not your Work in this sense he speaks of You have no concern in their Conversion if they be Converted but whether they be or not you matter not you will have your Revenue from among them But thou tellest him He does not consider that the Gospel of Christ was but in its Infancy Paul was but then planting it endeavouring to make it the established Religion of the Nations as now it is Answer That Paul was planting it we grant but that the Religion which he endeavoured to establish is now the Established Religion of the Nations we deny For first there is no such Unity Nationally in Religion as he endeavoured to establish as in 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no Division among you that ye be perfectly joined together in the same Mind and in the same Iudgment Secondly They are not established in Holiness and that Perfection which he laboured to establish and present them in as Col. 1. 28. Warning every Man and teaching every Man in all Wisdom that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Iesus And likewise in Ephes. 4. we read that he gave Ministers and Gifts for the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. till they all come in the Unity of the Faith to a perfect Man c. And 2 Corinth chap. 7. verse 1. His Labour was To bring them to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God This is the Religion Paul and others endeavoured to Establish in the Nations and to Establish People in and for this end Peter exhorts the Believers To be holy in all manner of Conversation that as he which had called them was holy so they might be holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Here is that which they laboured to make the Established Religion of the Nations viz. Unity Perfection and Holiness in all manner of Conversation Thou affirmest That now it is made as he to wit Paul endeavoured to make it If this were true then the Nations would be gathered into Righteousness and Holiness Unity and Peace Love and Good will But alas there appears no such Fruits of the true Religion amongst the generality of the People of the Nations which doth demonstrate that there is no such Establishment of it as thou hast asserted what-ever may be professed in words We take notice how much thou art offended at his telling thee That the Ministers wrought with their Hands and takest occasion at the Word Ministers as if he had said All laboured and then affirmest it 's very false whereas he only saith Ministers in the plural Number not All which is proved true by the Scripture and thy own Confession who grantest That Paul and his Fellow-travelling Apostles did labour with their Hands And then when thou hast Asserted it to be false thou challengest him to shew another Apostle besides them in the New Testament that wrought For sayst thou They for sook their Boats their Nets their Trades for his sake and the Gospel and the New Testament doth not inform us that they ever returned to these Trades again for a Livelihood Answ. We read Iohn 23. that Peter above three years after he was called by Christ with several other Disciples after they had so forsaken their Boats c. went a Fishing and that Peter then had his Fisher's Coat not a long Gown as those called Ministers now wear and we do not believe they went for Pleasure but to get Fish From whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in Preaching the Gospel And we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First Day of the Week or calling it the Lord's Day We say
we Meet together on the First Day of the Week for to Meet is our Duty and also upon other Days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example The Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lord's and He that regardeth a Day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the Day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such Days as you observe which are called such and such Saints Days Thou sayst Thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou mayst consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such Covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against And for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity's sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the Words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Ier. 5. 30 31. Ezek. 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Ioh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Iud. 11 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou sayst Our Teachers have no lawful Call to Preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostle's saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they Preach except they be sent That is sayst thou how can they Preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they Preach except they be sent c But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to Preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst For we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they Preach and their Ability from him For the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they Preached and Ability to Preach it from him and not from Men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. And in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith They were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the foregoing verse he saith Our sufficiency is of God And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares That he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any Man Minister let him do it as of the Ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his Eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our Ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be Glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is And prove your way of being bred up at Schools and Learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then setling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for Greater Gain and Preferment And while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have Liberty to Speak or Preach but such as are so Ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this Method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the Primitive Ministers That this is your Practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was Ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle Ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christ's Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Man's Ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you a right have reason enough to forsake you and your Church And as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others They make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said He would be with them c. doth not say They should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Iudas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by Lot So here was the Lord's Lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said They Ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou sayst We have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby People are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthned and preserved in it Ans. First We demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper Signification of it We are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And Secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for that which thou callest Baptism by which thou sayst People are admitted into the Christian Church viz. Sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it For we never read in all the Scriptures of either Baptising or Sprinkling Infants There is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted Therefore thou
art in a great mistake in charging this to be a defect in the Quaker's Religion not to have such a Practice which is an unwarrantable human Invention And it is a great Defect in your Religion to perswade people that when you have Sprinkled a little Water on the Head or Face of a Child and signed it with the sign of the Cross it is thereby admitted into the Christian Church and call it Baptism when it is but Sprinkling and therefore a Defect throughout But thy Charge upon the Quakers Religion that we deny that of Baptism by which People are admitted into the Christian Church we affirm to be false For we own that Baptism according to what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all Baptised into one Body whether we be Iews or Gentiles c. This we own to be Christ's Baptism And we also own Iohn's Ministration of Water to have been God's Ordinance in its day But yours we leave for thee to prove from whence you had it Secondly Thou sayst Nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. Let all that are wise in Heart consider whether that which thou callest a Sacrament which you take hath such a great effect in it as to strengthen and preserve in the Christian Church which is Christ's Church For the Protestants do account it no more than a Sign of an inward Spiritual Grace But we are satisfied concerning what Christ did as in that Scripture thou quotest Luke 22. For he had regard to the fulfilling of the Law and his time drawing near that he was to be Sacrificed and so the true Passover as Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 7. For even Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us had a desire to eat the Figurative Passover with his Disciples before he suffered as thou mayst see Luke 22. and in eating the Passover he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and bid them divide it among themselves and likewise took Bread and brake it and gave it to them And after Supper again he took the Cup and gave them And thou mayst see what he said both of the Bread and the Cup the One was his Body which was given for us the other was the Cup of the New Testament in his Blood which was shed for us Which words import that his Body which is broken for us is the substance of that Unleavened Typical Bread and his Blood which was shed is the substance of that Cup. Not that the Bread and Wine was his Body and Blood for that was but Typical though some do ignorantly imagine that he meant the outward Bread and Wine was his real Body and Blood As the Iews thought he had meant the Temple made with hands when he spake of the Temple of his Body For we read that when the Passover was instituted they were to have a Lamb without blemish and unleavened Bread and the Door-Posts were to be sprinkled with the Blood of the Lamb which Passover was certainly a Type of Christ the immaculate Lamb whose Body is the true Bread that nourishes the Soul to Life eternal and his Blood sprinkles the Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God This is that we have an eye to that which was broken for us and shed for us and we think by thy Writing thou art not of the Papists mind for the Real Presence And if not then consider what that Bread and Drink was that was broken and shed for us which he spake of though he was then eating the Passover with his Disciples and then come on and see what the Apostle saith to the Mystery of it which was that which he preferred in the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 10. there he tells them of the Fathers viz. the Church in the Wilderness and saith They did all eat of the same spiritual Meat and did all Drink of the same spiritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. So here thou mayst see the Meat was Spiritual and the Drink was Spiritual and the Rock was Spiritual that they drank of and that was Christ. So the Apostle speaking to Wise Men bids them judge what he saith as in ver 15. and in ver 16. saith he The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ And ver 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread The Iudgment of this thou seest the Apostle referred to Wise Men and we know Wise Men will Iudge that it is this Spiritual Meat and Drink that strengthens and preserves in the Church of Christ what-ever thou may'st say to the contrary And so thou wrongest the Quakers in saying That we have not the Lora's Supper administred in our Religion for we greatly delight in the Lord's Supper to eat and drink that which strengthens and preserves us in the Church of Christ. And for your Practice that you use in your Church we demand your Example for it and whence it did arise For thou may'st see that Christ in the Figure did eat the Passover with his Disciples according to the Law and gave them the Cup both before and after Supper as a foresaid Thou pretendest Thou hast other notorious defects in our Religion but forbearest to bring them forth only one thou say'st thou canst not omit which is so great a one that it renders the generality of the Quakers almost no Christians at all And thou say'st Most of us are guilty and that is a defect in the very badg and mark of a Christian Disciple which say'st thou is Love and Charity and so quotest Christ's words John 13. 35. By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another Ans. Thou dost in this as thou hast done in other things before charge us to be Guilty but dost not bring one Proof or Argument to prove the Guilt upon us from matter of fact unless thy saying It is so be either Proof or Argument which no wise Man will understand to be so Thou say'st Perhaps we have charity among our selves we love one the other who are of our Perswasion However that is well so far it answers this Text of Scripture which thou hast quoted we wish we might say in truth so much for all of your Perswasion But thou goest on to shew how we should love Enemies c. and tellest us what Iohn says That God is Love and the more a Man hath of Love the nearer he doth approach to the Nature of God and so tellest us what Paul saith of Charity c. But what doth all this towards the proving us to be defective in this great badg and mark of a Christian Disciple That this is both your and our Duty we
which he doubts not but we will make good upon occasion Thou in answer say'st Thou knowest our Practice well enough Which if true and if so bad as thou endeavourest to make People believe of us why hast thou brought none of them to make good thy Charges against us And as for our Principles thou say'st Thou never heard'st we had any Then thou must needs be ignorant of our Way and Religion And therefore in thy speaking evil of it thou speakest evil of things thou understandest not and so art of that Generation spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 12. And as for our Faith and Principles they have been published to the World both by Words and Writing they have not been hid in a corner so that any that had a mind to concern themselves against us and yet as wise Men would not judge without an understanding lest like thee they should speak evil of the things they did not understand might easily be informed what our Principles are However we are a People that believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and that the Father sent him into the World to lay down his Life a Ransom for all Men that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have Eternal Life That he was Crucified without the Gates of Ierusalem and so became a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World And that after he had suffered and was buried God the Father Raised him again by his Eternal Spirit after which he shewed himself unto many Witnesses and then Ascended into Heaven and is Glorified with the Father with that Glory he had with him before the World was made And we further believe that he is the Light of the World and that he ought to be followed according to his own words Iohn 8. 12. and That he lighteth every Man that cometh into the World according to Iohn 1. 9. and that this Light wherewith he lighteth every Man all ought to believe in that they may be Children of the Light according to Iohn 12. 36. And so we believe in his spiritual Appearance according to his Promise who said He would pray the Father and he should send them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth according to Iohn 14. 16 17. and this was his own Spirit for he is the Truth and of this the Saints were Witnesses as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father And thus was Christ in the Saints the Hope of Glory according to Col. 1. 7. And thus believing and witnessing the Truth of the Scripture we wait upon God for his Spirit that we may worship him therein according to the Institution of his Son Christ Jesus as in Iohn 4. 23 24. and that we may pray with the Spirit and sing with it according to 1 Cor. 14. 15. For the Apostle exhorted the Saints To be filled mith the Spirit Eph. 5. 18. and the Saints were to Pray in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. So our Faith stands in the Power of God which is that the Apostle laboured that the Saints Faith might stand in as thou may'st see 1 Corinth 2. 5. believing that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation according to Iohn 5. 29. Here we have given thee some account in short of our Faith Principles and Practice and proved them to be according to the Scripture whereby thou may'st see if Prejudice and Self-Interest do not blind thine Eye that Robert Lacky in turning from thy Teaching to Christ the true Light and his Teaching according to God's Promise under the New Covenant who said They shall be all taught of the Lord which according to our Principle we direct People to wait for it 's no unsafe way to Heaven nor as thou falsly accusest us a pursuing such ways as are directly contrary to holy Scripture which thou in some measure promisest thou wilt make appear but hast it yet to do Thou say'st Because thou art fully satisfied we cannot make this out therefore thou wilt shew him how he has incurred not only the Displeasure of God for the present but the Damnation of his Soul hereafter unless he repent and return by this his departure from the Religion he was bred in Ans. Thou may'st see thy Satisfaction is without ground as also thy confident presumption in thy passing such a Sentence upon him concerning his present and Eternal Estate And surely thy Iudgment herein is groundless rash and vain as all may see who have any true Christian understanding and discerning and do but observe what is brought forth under your Teaching in your Religion For we understand no Reason thou assignest for thy Iudgment but His leaving of your Religion which we have before proved he had good reason so to do And therefore neither he nor any other need be afraid of thy Threatning upon this account because from what is before written it is clear that there are great Defects in the Principles and Exercise of the Religion he was bred in if he was bred in yours and so not according to Christ's Institution as may be seen if compared with the Scripture and that there are no such Defects in the Religion he now embraceth but proved in the Principles and Exercise of it to be of Christ's Institution according to the Scripture And herein thy Challenge we have answered and endeavoured to make it appear both to thee and him according to thy demand But if thou hatest to be Informed it shall lie at thy own door and thou shalt answer for it thy self So it is plain he may have changed out of a Principle of Conscience and pure Love to God and his Soul and not out of Interest Humour Passion or Prejudice as thou seemest to accuse him And as for thy Assuring him upon thy Word that it is not for any temporal advantage that thou seekest to reduce him but only in love to his Soul as thou hast to all Mens as thou say'st Ans. We think he hath no reason to believe that thou and the rest of your Clergy have such a Love to the Souls of all Men as to be the only Reason of your coming amongst them to be their Teachers for your Practice which is a surer evidence than your Words speaks the quite contrary in that you do leave any People where you are to go to another place for an Augmentation and higher Preferment So that it 's evident it is not the good of People's Souls nor the Glory of God that chiefly moves you in this concern what-ever may be pretended to And so to the Consciences and Understandings of Wise Men we refer these things to be considered of with our Hearts desire to God for you all that he would open your Understandings and let you see the Errour of you Ways and
bring you to a Reformation that the People you may lead in Errour no longer We conclude and remain Desirers of the Good of all Men. Dated the 13th of the 4th Month 1688. Iohn Burnyeat Iohn Watson An Addition of two Epistles of Iohn Burnyeat's to Friends in Long-Island and Barbadoes which came to Hand since the Printing of the former Long-Island the 23d of the 5th Month 1666. Dearly Beloved WHO are called to be Saints and to believe in the only Begotten of God the Father which he hath raised to be the Horn of Salvation in the House of his Servant David to rule over the Redeemed in Israel for ever unto you are my Bowels opened in pure unfained Love and in the plentiful flowing of the same at this time doth my Soul dearly salute you all who keep faithful unto the Beloved and live in the power of his Salvation over all the fallen Spirits which are in the World which brings into bondage With you my Soul hath Unity in the Life which was before Transgression and the Fall was and in that My Friends are you written in my heart and often in my remembrance even when my Supplication is poured forth unto the Lord in the behalf of his People that you in that place among the rest of his heavenly Flock and Sheep of his own Pasture may be safely kept by the right hand of his power from the Devourer and from the deceitful Snares of the Enemy which are laid as Traps by the cunning flight of Satan to ensnare the Simple and betray the Innocent from the simplicity of the Gospel which ye have received in Christ Jesus our Lord in which as ye have believed ye have found Salvation and Peace and Rest unto your Immortal Souls I even as a Brother and one that entirely loves you with that unfeigned love which thinks no evil do at this time beseech you all in the fear of God to see that ye Walk Circumspectly answerable unto the Gospel of Christ Iesus in which ye have believed that ye may adorn the same in your Lives and Conversations as Children of the Light and of the Day bringing forth the Fruits of the Spirit in Righteousness and true Holiness and not the Fruits of the Flesh in the night and in the darkness in which they walk who follow not the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore My Friends stand fast in your Liberty in which Christ Jesus hath made you free and be not entangled with the Yoak of Bondage but mind purely the operation of the Eternal Spirit and invisible power of the everlasting God which he hath made manifest and revealed in your hearts by which you have in measure known Liberty from the Bondage of Corruption the corruptible Bond and have tasted of the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God in which your Souls have found pleasure I say Friends mind all its lively Operation in your hearts and wait upon it with diligence that your hearts may be kept clear and the eye of your Understandings single that you may purely distinguish and put a difference between the pretious and the vile between that in which the Lord is to be Worshipped and that in which there is no Acceptance with God And so will you come more and more to know how to chuse the good and refuse the evil And Friends in the freedom of God's Spirit and in his fear I warn you all Take heed of a fleshly Liberty beyond or above the pure fear which keeps the heart clean for that will let in Pollutions and bring the Just into Bondage and your Souls into death again where there will be a want of the pure presence of God to refresh them although the Boaster may boast of liberty and promise it as they did in the Apostles days who themselves were the Servants of Corruption And so My Dear Friends whom my Soul loves with the heavenly love that seeks the good of all you who have tasted of the love of God and of the power of the World which is to come and of the power of that life which is without end Keep Constant in the Faith unto the Beloved of your Soul and gad not abroad to change your way like her whose Feet abides not in her house but runs out after other Lovers and so lose the first Love For this the Lord reproved the Church in the days of the entrance of the Apostacy when they begun to decline from the purity of the Gospel And therefore as ye have received that which is unchangeable live in it that your Souls may never die from the sense of God's Love and the feeling of his vertuous presence that in the joy and peace that is unspeakable and full of glory you may abide and for ever live where your Souls may be refreshed from day unto day and from time unto time through the multiplying of his numberless Mercies by which he nourisheth all them that fear him and wait upon him And so will you all keep lively and vertuous in a growing and flourishing Condition fruitful bringing forth fruit to his praise who hath called you And as you keep unto the power of God which is the Cross unto that part which would be out and dwell in it your mind will be setled and stayed and kept clear and the understanding open whereby you may behold the Glory of God and be kept in Covenant with him and so feed upon his Mercies with all his Lambs and Children and lye down in the fold of Rest and Safety with the Sheep of his pasture in Covenant with him for evermore In which I remain Your Friend and Brother J. B. For Friends in the Barbadoes New-England Virginia and Maryland the Signification of my purest Love unto you all amongst whom I have travel'd in those parts Friends IN the eternal Truth and Power of the Lord God dwell and keep your Habitations in that which changes not in the power of an endless life where there is no shadow of turning All you that have known the Lord and have been sensible of the Word of his Eternal Power in your hearts by which you have been quickned unto him so that with the rest of his beloved ones you have been made Partakers of that heavenly treasure of Life and Vertue which is in him and through his Son is manifested unto us by whom Life and Immortality is brought to Light unto you all without respect of Persons doth the Love of my Soul reach and the Salutation of my Life at this time having you fresh in my Rememberance In the Bowels of true Love is my Heart opened and my Spirit drawn forth in this word of Exhortation unto you all who have tasted that the Lord is gracious That you all take heed of turning from the Grace of God into Wantonness Laciviousness or any vanity whatsoever by which your Hearts may be defiled But that ye all watch unto the Truth and wait upon the preserving power of the Lord
So Robert Lodge and I became concerned in one Work Service and Travel together and were truly united in Spirit in the Unity of the Faith and Life of Christ in which blessed Unity and Fellowship of the Gospel of the Son of God we laboured and travelled in that Nation of Ireland for Twelve Months after we met together not often parting but sometimes we were moved to part for the Service's sake for a little time and came together again and the Lord gave us sweet Concord and Peace in all our Travels for I do not remember that we ever were angry or grieved one at the other in all that time And so we went down to Londonderry together and when we came there were soon discovered what we were and then the People were unwilling to receive us or let us have Lodging for our Money We were at their great Steeple-house on the first day and had a large time among the People to declare the Truth but at last the Major sent his Officers who would not suffer us to stay any longer but forced us out of the City and down to the Boat and commanded the Boat-man to carry us over and not to bring us back again So being clear we took our Journey towards Coalraine and then to the Grange and so to Antrim and so up to Lorgan and so through Friends in the North. And then after some time we took our Journey into the South and did travel through a great part of the Nation as to Dublin Mountmeleck and to Arthlone and Galloway Limmerick Cork and Bandon and so through the South and again into the North. And thus we spent our time with diligent Labour and hard Travel often in cold hunger and hardships in that County which then was in many Parts uninhabited And in Prison several times once in Armagh once in Dublin twice in Cork besides other Abuses we received from many because of our Testimony which we had to bear for the Lord in their Towns and in their Steeple-houses and against their Hireling-Priests which sought their Rewards and loved the Wages of Unrighteousness like Baalam and worse then he forces it from the People like the Sons of Eli whose Sin was very great 1 Sam. 2. 16 17. And thus having travelled and laboured in the Gospel together for Twelve Months and many being Convinced and gathered to the Truth we were clear of our Service there and in the Seventh Month 1660. we took shipping at Carrickfergus and intended for Whitehaven in England but by contrary Wind were driven to Kirkowbry in Scotland and from thence came over Land into Cumberland and to Cockermouth and then I again returned to my outward Calling and followed that and kept diligently to Meetings for it was still my Delight so to do and there to be diligent in waiting upon the Lord for I always found that therein I received an increase of Strength Life and Wisdom from the Lord. And as I found any motion upon me from the Lord to go to any Meeting abroad either in our Country or any other I went and cleared my self as the Lord gave Ability and so did return again to my Calling and so to our own Meeting where I did delight to wait in Silence upon the Lord for I loved that much because I found an inward growth thereby through the Teachings and Openings of his Spirit in my Heart and when something did open in me for that end to speak in our Meeting I gave up for the most part sometimes ready to quench through backwardness but that was hurtful but I grew over it by degrees and increased in Faith and holy Confidence more and more Now from the Seventh Month 1660. unto about the First or Second Month 1662. I was very much at home at my Calling and then I was moved of the Lord to go to London to see George Fox and others of the Elders and to acquaint him with what was upon me from the Lord to go to America which came weightily upon me in Ireland when I was there so that I had a great travel in Spirit and deep Exercise in Mind before I gave up But when I had given up in belief that it was the Word of the Lord and so gone through it in my Spirit and submitted unto his Will the weight and exercise was removed and I with my former Openness again restored into my Service and no more of that remained but a remembrance of the Prophecy or Opening which I had received and Faith in the Word which I was satisfied was sure for ever And therein I rested as to that matter until the time aforesaid that it came upon me to go and and acquaint G. F. as also Ed. Burrough who were then at London and Richard Hubberthorn for I loved to have the Counsel and Countenance of my elder Brethren who were in Christ before me And then I did return through Yorkshire home and had some Meetings as I came along and stayed at home but a little time and was moved to go again into Yorkshire and went through divers Meetings to visit Friends And being as I thought clear to return home I came to Rippon to see some Friends that were then Prisoners for meeting together to worship God and going into Prison to see them and in the Love of God speaking some words of Exhortation unto them the Goaler took me and had me to a House in the Town where the Major and the Chancellor and several of the Aldermen were together and there the Chancellor chiefly took in hand to examine me and sought to ensnare me that he might get occasion to Commit me to Prison And first he would have my going to Prison to my Friends to have been an Offence but I pleaded in so doing I had broken no Law Then he said I spoke in Prison I answered There was no Law that forbid us to speak to our Friends when we came to visit them Then he asked me when I was at Church and when I took the Sacrament according to the Laws of England I answered I knew no Law I had broken nor no evil I had done to any man if any man had evil against me let him bear witness of the evil Then he began to be in a rage and said He would have an Answer e're we had done c. But when he could not get an Advantage that way he reached for a Book and asked me if I would take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy And when I answered Not in Contempt to the King or his Authority but in Obedience to Christ's Command I could not swear Then he commanded the Clerk to write a Mittimus and sent me to the Prison to the rest of my Friends who were four and twenty before and there I was kept Prisoner fourteen Weeks And because when we sate down to wait upon the Lord for we fate down once every day together and many times Friends with us that came to see us