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
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
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
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
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
there but were too apt to look out at others These things he did often testify against as one having Authority being himself Redeemed out of those things by the Power of God His Innocent Deportment and blameless Conversation preached where-ever he came Gravity and Patience was with him Moderation in Meat Drink and Apparel having laid aside all superfluity of Naughtiness and received with meekness the Ingrafted Word all which were as Ornaments upon him and preached for the Truth abundantly as also did the many Living Testimonies he bore that flowed through him as Showers upon the tender Grass He was a True Labourer who spared not his Life unto Death and was willing to spend and be spent that he might gain upon the Sons and Daughters of Men to turn them from Darkness unto the true Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Oh! what shall we say of him He was a faithful Preacher of the Gospel not only in Words but in Life and Practice and his Memory shall Live for ever For his Labour and Travel both at home and abroad in Prison and at Liberty hath been such as cannot easily be forgotten by many who have reaped the benefit thereof For the Lord was pleased wonderfully to appear by him and sound through him to the awakening many to Righteousness and greatly encouraging all the Faithful amongst God's People In Sickness and other deep Exercises he was as a skilful Physitian to Apply that which was sutable unto all yea he was quick sharp and nimble on the one hand to Search as on the other hand to Cure heal bind up and comfort but unto the Hypocrites he was Dreadful and Terrible though he was a Man of large Bowels of Compassion Many an untrodden Path he travelled and passed through great Dangers both by Sea and Land in visiting Friends not only in England but also in Scotland Ireland Barbadoes New-England with thé Islands adjacent passing through Wilderness-places and dangerous Waters Through all which the Lord in a most wonderful manner preserved him with the rest of his Servants and from the hands of Wicked and Unreasonable Men who was ever near him for his Preservation both inwardly and outwardly And the Lord Cloathed him with Humility before all as became the Gospel he preached which he preached freely counting nothing near nor dear unto him to be parted with suffered or to be done but a willingness was wrought in him through the mighty Power of God who always strengthened him to do to suffer and to undergo all things whatsoever for his worthy Name 's sake And thô the Lord had bestowed eminent Gifts on him yet he would Condescend to the weak Capacities of all to reach to the Good in all that he might lay a Foundation to build upon He had the Word of Reconciliation committed unto him whereby he was made Instrumental to Reconcile many to God by Iesus Christ and one unto another And the Lord caused him to Triumph in Christ and made manifest the Savour of his Knowledge in many Places and his Ministry is sealed in the Hearts of many who are satisfied of his Faithfulness unto God who hath received him into his Rest. Now althô his Body be gone to the Dust yet his Spirit lives and that Word of Life which was his pleasure remains for our Comfort who are yet behind in that Pilgrimage which he hath past through and may be attended with the Temptations which he is deliver'd from who hath finisht his Days-work Whom the Lord raised up to shine forth as a Glorious Star in several parts of the Northern and Western World And his Mild and Grave Deportment did so well become his deliberate Ministry that it greatly hightned his Esteem amongst his Neighbours so that he was not without honour in his own Country And when at any time he came into Cumberland where he was born and educated his Neighbours would abundantly flock to the Meeting to hear him Yet he was far from Glorying in his Gift or desiring to be popular but would rather Restrain such who would applaud him he having Self in no Reputation He may be truly numbred among the Righteous who sought God's Glory and the Peace and Unity Flourishing and Prosperity of his Church which Christ is the Head of Much more might we say concerning him but shall attribute nothing to him but to the Lord ' s Power that did support him And now if Samuel had cause to Mourn for Saul and the Children of Israel wept thirty days for Moses much more cause have many now to mourn for the loss of so dear a Friend But though our Loss be great his Gain is beyond utterance who hath received the blessed Recompence of Reward for his Labours and Travels for all his Service and Suffering And having finished his Course and Time in this World is entred into Life and Happiness everlasting in the World to come And we pray the Lord of the Harvest to raise up other Labourers both in his Room and also in the place of others that have finished their Testimonies for God and Christ that God over all through Iesus Christ may have the Honor Glory and Praise from Generation to Generation who is blessed for ever Amen! Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal. 37. 37. Broughton in Cumberland the 22d of the 2d mon. 1691. Philip Burnyeat John Tiffin John Bancks Tho. Laythes Tho. Dockwray Chr. Wilson Tho. Fletcher Rich. Head Chr. Story Peter Fearon Jonathan Bowman John Bowstead Thomas Wilson Ja. Dickinson The Testimony of several Women-Friends in Cumberland IN brokenness of Heart and tenderness of our Spirits we have this Testimony concerning our Dear Friend and Brother John Burnyeat That he was one of the Lord's Worthies chosen and fitted by him for his Work and Service and it was his whole Delight to do the Will of God so he came more and more to know of his Doctrine whereby he was made a good Instrument in the Hand of God for the Converting many from the Error of their ways to the way of Truth and Righteousness He was one on whom that Prophecy came to be fulfilled That Saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau and the Kingdom shall be the Lord's For he well knew how to Divide the Word of God aright which dwelt plentifully in him as Deep Waters and the Well-spring of Wisdom as a flowing Brook so that he was often as Clouds full of Rain emptying himself at the Lord's Command causing the Seed of Life to spring whereby God's Inheritance was confirmed He was a Man of a Thousand clothed with Innocency and beautified with Humility Words are too short to set forth the Excellency of that Spirit by which he was guided Neither can we express fully what is in our Hearts concerning him Yet shall we Attribute nothing to him but to the Lord's Power that wrought effectually in him to the making him
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-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
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
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-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
when we partly pressed that they would answer little but held back some of them who like Diotrephes of old who loved to have the Pre-eminence and so withstood the Apostle did keep off in their Minds being of that Spirit I wrote of before in Virginia who pretended to be against Forms And while we sate waiting upon the Lord and staying to see what they would come to and George Pattison labouring to bring them to a Sense of the Service and so to come into the Practice and they not being willing to say any thing my Spirit being very low the Word of the Lord came unto me and the dread of his Power fell upon me so that after some time I opened my Mouth with a Lamentation and said I was sorry or grieved that I had that to say that I must declare unto them and that was That while they stood in that Spirit they were in they could not act in Unity with the Body in honour to the Head c. and therefore after that our Exhortation was unto them to Condemn that Spirit by which they had been led aside and wait for the Universal Spirit of Life or to this effect and so we left them and they were greatly concerned So the next day we had a publick Meeting amongst them and after meeting came away towards Boston Then their Consciences being troubled we had to do with several of the Chief of them who laboured to have Reversed that I had spoken and said It was very hard c. But I told them I could not do it the Power had sealed it and it must stand it was they must come to Repentance and Condemn that Spirit which had deceived or to that effect And so we left it upon them according to the Word of the Lord And since some of them have seen it and Condemned that Spirit and given a Testimony in writing against it blessed be the Lord who shews Mercy and restores out of the Snares of Satan And so being clear of all those Parts we came away strait to Road-Island and there we met with G. F. who was preparing to go Westward towards Long-Island So he went away and Robert Withers Iames Lancaster and George Pattison with him And from Long-Island they went over to East-Iersey and so over Land back again to Maryland and Iohn Stubbs and I were left at Road-Island Iohn Cartwright we left at Piscattaway he went further Eastward and after some time came to Iohn Stubbs and me at Road-Island I. S. and I went up to Providence had a Meeting there and as we returned we had a Meeting at Warwick where none had been before and several were Convinced and did own the Truth And there we had to do with one Gorton and his Company who were by other People there called Gortonians but they called themselves Generalists They were of Opinion All should be saved But they were in reality Ranters for in our Discourse they would maintain and say No Creaturely Actions could be Sin and would have no Whoredom nor Drunkenness nor the like to be Sin but what was spiritual the Outward action was but creaturely And thus in their filthy unclean Spirits they like the old Ranters made merry over the reproof of God's Spirit So from thence we came down again to Road-Island and there we spent some time and had a long Dispute with one Roger Williams that sent us a Challenge from Providence with fourteen Propositions as he called them but they were Charges and he engaged to maintain them against all Comers the first Seaven to be disputed on at Road-Island and the latter Seven at Providence We spent in Dispute with him three days at Road-Island but he could not make any proof of his Charges to the satisfaction of the Auditory for there was a great Congregation every day it would be tedious here to insert the Discourse if I were able but I cannot remember it There is a Book in Manuscript of what was taken in Short-hand of the Discourse at that present besides there is a Book in print entituled New-England-Fire-Brand quenched c. which is an Answer to a Book of the said R. Williams which gives some relation of some part of the Dispute to which I refer the Reader William Edmondson came from Virginia and was also with us at the same Dispute W. E. and I. Stubbs went up to Providence and spent one day with him there about the latter Seven and so cleared themselves to the People and came away when they had done with him So after some time together upon the Island Iohn Stubbs and I went over with several Friends that did accompany us to Narraganset and there we had a Meeting the four and twentieth of the sixth Month at one Richard Smith's and next day took our Journey towards Hartford We came first to New-London and from thence to Norwich and so to Hartford and stayed there one day and several of the Professors came in to us to Dispute with us And the next day we rode to a Town called Westfield near thirty Miles which was within the Massachuset's Colony And there was a Man and his Wife that received us and we appointed a Meeting But when they heard of it some of their Officers came to us and commanded that we should have no Meeting and so affrighted the People that none durst come to us We had a little Discourse with their Officers or Elders that came to us but they would not stay but cried out against our Religion We asked them If they knew our Principles that they so condemned Some of them answered and said Nay they knew them not nor did not desire to know them We asked them How they could judge of them and withal told them They were such as the Scripture did speak of who spoke evil of the things they knew not and they were confounded and went away and so scared the People that none durst come near us So we came away to Hartford again on the sixth day of the Week and on the seventh day several came to us and discoursed with us and we desired that we might speak with the Priest and they had promised that we should but when we desired him to come he or they for him made an Excuse he could not that day come from his Study So the next day being the first day of the Week we did go to their Meeting and the Fore-noon stayed without till they had done And when they had done and came forth we spoke to the People but they got away as if they had been afraid of us and none would stay So we returned to the Inn and stayed there till the After-noon And then we did go into their Meeting-house and stayed till the Priest had done And then I stood up and called unto the People and desired their patience a little to hear I had a word of Exhortation to them and so began to speak But immediately the Sexton came to
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
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
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
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
And then will you feel the holy Dew abide upon your Spirits throughout your Age that will preserve you from withering your Leaf from fading and so your Fruit shall be ripe in due season and not be untimely brought forth in that which will not endure For that in which we have believed will endure for ever The Heavenly Power which God hath revealed in our Hearts and made manifest for a standing Foundation that 's sure for ever upon which as you all abide stedfast the Gates of Hell with all the power of Darkness shall not prevail against you but you shall be able to withstand him and keep your Habitations in the Dominion thereof and dwell in Peace upon the Rock of safety in the midst of all Storms and sing for joy of Heart when those that forsake this Rock shall howl and lament for vexation of Spirit For the Lord God will bring his Day and his Power over all and upon all that fly to any shelter or seek any other defence that have once known his Truth and he will be unto such as a Moth and as Rottenness and their Strength he will waste and their Garment and Clothing he will destroy and their Beauty and Glory he will cause to fade though they have been as a beautiful Flower in the head of the fat Valley yet will fading come upon them even dryness at the Root and withering and decaying upon the beauty of their Blossoms And therefore let all keep unto that and in that which will not decay come to nothing nor never be turned into Darkness but abide in its vertue and glory in and by which the Lord hath visited you and through which his Day hath dawned upon your Souls the Morning whereof you have known bright and clear as without Clouds in which you have seen the Son in his Glory to appear unto your Souls with his Heavenly healing warmness and vertue Now Friends this is that which for ever is to be kept too that the Day may be known to increase in the light and glory of it in its own clearness without mixture not mixing with it your own Wisdom Thoughts or carnal Imaginations which do prove such Clouds where they are suffered to arise that they bring Darkness over the understanding and make the Day cloudy and dark and so occasion wandering and to some turn the very Eye-lids of the Morning into the Shadow of Death And through such things hath the Enemy so prevailed over some that he hath brought them again into the Night of Everlasting Darkness and Confusion ere they have been aware whither he would lead and thus as a Man void of Understanding over whom the Whorish Woman hath prevailed and so led down to the Chambers of Death have many followed those Steps that have taken hold on Hell where Misery is sure to be met withall Dear Friends that which preserves from these Dangers is that Arm and Power which God revealed in the beginning by which as we are Witnesses he redeemed our Souls out of many afflictions And therefore let it be every ones care to wait for a clear and sensible feeling of that same Power in its own pure Nature to spring in all your Hearts every Day and then will your delight be so in it and your acquaintance in a clear Understanding will be so with it that you will never be deceived so as to take any other for it Then to your comfort will your Heavenly Peace spring under the Power and Government of him that is the Prince of true Peace and so will your Hearts be made truly glad and weighty and ponderous and not to be carried about with every Wind For in this is the true and sure Establishment of the Soul with Grace in the Covenant of Life for ever and these are they whose Peace is of a standing nature who are not given to change But this I have always observed that where there is an uncertain Spirit or Mind though in some states into which at times they may come they may have Peace and feel some Refreshment yet for want of constancy and stedfastness which is preserved through a true watchful and diligent attendance upon that which doth not change which is sure for ever they lose their Habitation and their state of Peace and come to be tossed in their Minds and afflicted in their Spirits and also are the occasion of tossing affliction and distress unto others who not being aware may sometimes be in danger to suffer with them when they fly from the Word that should uphold as it was with Ionah in the days of old And therefore it is good for every one to have their Hearts established with Grace and in the Grace wait for a settlement that under the pure teachings thereof they may be preserved from going into those things that will procure Woe and so shall every ones State in that which is good be more and more constant and then will there be a growing and going forward and not backward For that which doth occasion any to linger or draw back is Carelesness Unbelief and Disobedience and in such the Lord's Soul doth take no pleasure And therefore in that which doth not change all live by which all changeable and mutable Thoughts and Imaginations and Desires will be judged down and the spring of Life over all will slow and the First will be the last for in that the Beauty and Glory doth stand for ever And all that abide not in it to grow in the vertue thereof whatever they have been at the best will be but as a fading Flower in the head of the fat Valley as it was with Ephraim the Lord will take no delight in them but reject them and cast them out as such whose Beauty is gone whose Gold is become dim and whose Wine is mixt with Water And so as reprobate Silver shall they be esteemed even of Men because the Lord hath rejected them So the Lord God keep and preserve you all in that which was from the beginning and will endure unto the end that in that ye may flourish and grow as the Lilly of the Valley and the Tree by the Rivers of Water This is the desire of my Soul for you all who truly love you in the love of God wherein I remain one with you and am London the 10th of the 3d Month 1677. Your Brother in the Truth J. B. Let Copies of this be sent to New-England Virginia Maryland and Barbados Upon the 2d of the 10th Month 1677. ONE Oliver Morross an Informer came into a Meeting in Mahuntleth in Mountgomery in Wales where Iohn Burnyeat in the fear of God was speaking unto the People and Preaching the Gospel of Peace and Salvation unto them for their good as he had received from the Lord the said Oliver Morross Informer with several Constables and many other Rude People came twice into the Meeting to break up the Meeting and made a great disturbance But
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
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
that we cannot easily be moved Though the Winds do blow and the Waters swell and toss and the unestablished be driven to and fro and so afflicted in their Spirits yet this Rock abides for a Habitation and Being of Safety unto all them that keep firm thereunto and so do abide near in their Spirit unto the holy Power thereof they find the living Spring of that Grace from the same in their Souls that the World cannot take away whose Treasure the Thief cannot steal nor the Moth waste for its Heavenly and kept by a Heavenly Hand And such who mind this will be ready to offer up their Earthly Substance and also themselves into his Hand and Will out of which no Man is able to pluck And surely in this Day there is no true Rest nor Satisfaction to the Souls or Spirits of Friends but as they get hither in the Faith with their Hearts and Spirits And when we are here spiritually oh this holy Shield how doth it defend Oh the holy Rock how do we sit under the shadow of it Oh the holy Ioy that the Dwellers upon this do feel in their Spirits though the Tempest be great Oh the God of Heaven keep us all in the holy sense of this that our Spirits may be born up from sinking under our Exercises in the Trial that so we may all glorify him in our Day Dearly Beloved you tender suffering Children whose Hearts are tender of God's Glory and therefore are willing to give up your selves and your all for his Name 's sake that you may be of that number who following the Lamb whithersoever he goes and not loving your Lives unto Death that may stand with him upon Mount Sion My Heart and Soul is knit unto you and you are near me and in the unity of the antient Life I feeling Love abundantly to flow unto you you have had a proof of the sincerity of my Love of old unto you And truly you that stand in your innocent Testimony faithfully do ingage my Heart still more and more in Love unto you Oh the tender meltings of my Spirit in the sweetness of the Love of God in which I reach you and rejoyce with you in your Ioy which all the Wrath of Man cannot put a stop unto I know your Hearts are at ease and your Spirits free and the Weights and Burdens from off you who are freely given up to suffer though in these Bonds outwardly But there can be no such spiritual Portion received by any that shrink from their Testimony in this Day of Trial. For the Word is true for ever They that suffer with him shall reign with him He the Captain was made perfect through Sufferings he must be followed by all that come in the fulness to pertake with him of his Glory And such who draw back and would find a place of Safety for themselves to escape their Sufferings for their Testimony though they should fly to the uttermost parts of the Earth the Lord's hand will find them out and there will not only be a holding back of the Portion but a spiritual Pain will overtake where the Heart is tender and because thereof uneasie will every ones place be unto their Spirits And therefore my dear Friends keep in the Faith and Word that Iustifies and then will you reign in the Seed that 's heir for ever wherein you will Overcome and Inherit and be Conquerors and so Triumph with the Lamb that must have the Victory before whose Feet the Crowns of all the Mighty must be laid down unto whom the Kings of the Earth and all Flesh must bow in him we trust his Heavenly Kingdom we wait for and pray for the coming of that even such as are our Enemies by the power thereof may be Converted unto God and so have an Inheritance with us in that Kingdom that hath no End That so Mankind might rest together in that Hope that makes not ashamed where the Love of God might be shed abroad in all Hearts by his Spirit Thus God is filling the Hearts of his Children with good Will towards all The Lord keep us therein for ever Dear Friends by this know that I am well and am now come to have a share with you of the Sufferings that attend for the Gospel's sake I have been three Weeks a Prisoner here in the Marshalsee of Dublin So in the true Fellowship of the Gospel am a Partaker with you both of the Sufferings and Consolation that attend us for the Testimony thereof I remain From the Marshals in the City of Dublin the 25 th of the 6 th Month 1683. Your Brother I. B. Dublin the 19th of the 6th Month 1685. Dear J. Banck UNTO thee with thy fellow-Prisoners who suffer for the blessed Testimony of that precious Truth in which we have believed doth the real and tender Affection and Love of my Heart and Soul flow forth at this time and in the sweetness and peaceableness of that which is our Life do I dearly salute you and in the unity thereof tenderly greet you all whose Hearts are kept up in that and under the holy conduct of it for which you suffer In this have we our unity which in it self lives and reigns over all and shall reign in its own pure Dominion and Dignity even the Power of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom Principalities and Thrones and Dominions must be subject It is for the Testimony of him you know that you suffer to wit the Testimony of Iesus which you have received from him by his Spirit and thereby have it sealed in your Hearts Though many do not understand the weight and certainty of your Testimony for which you suffer and therefore may look lightly upon it yet you who are enjoyers of the Power and so have received the Spirit of Iesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy and so his Testimony therein you feel the Weight of it and know the Certainty of the Testimony for which you suffer and so in your Sufferings have your Peace and Iustification And therefore my dearly Beloved in the Lord see that you all hold that fast in all your Hearts in the inward rich Possession of it for which you suffer that you may feel your Reward with you and your Comforter in you to bear up your Spirits over all your Sufferings and so you will have a Satisfaction in your selves that whatever others say or may think of your Sufferings and the reason thereof you know within your selves that it is for the Truth and its Testimony that you suffer and for the keeping of your Consciences clear in the sight of God And so in the hidden Man of the Heart you rest in quietness in that hidden Life which you receive from Christ and here is your Peace and Comfort which no Man can take from you no nor Man knows of it but such as are in Fellowship with you who live in and love the same Testimony And therefore those that know
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
his Church did charge it to be Blasphemy for any to say That Man could do contrary to the Will of God and when it was offered to be proved in an hundred places of Scripture and more where the Will of God was manifest and that Men did contrary to it for if it were not so we should not have Sin committed for in the Scripture all sorts of Sin are forbidden After this was offered he still affirm'd it And further discoursing of what benefit the Reprobate could have by the coming of Christ he said the Devil had a benefit by it but being much desired to shew wherein he could make nothing out Iames Barry makes a Boast of his Hearers most of them being in a state of Grace but if they be not founded upon better Principles than these they are far from being in a state of Grace and Happiness Therefore in Charity we desire they may look to their standing and not to be setled upon such unsound Principles as Iames Barry the Independent Minister as he calls himself labours to settle them in which is opposite to God's Free Grace which brings Salvation Iames Barry also with some of his Hearers did account it an Errour in the Quakers to own Immediate Revelation and said they did disown it Now seeing it is so that the immediate Spirit of Christ and its Immediate Revelation is denied by him we demand of him how he came to be a Minister and whence he hath his Ability and that Knowledge of God he pretendeth to have and from whom he hath received his Gospel that he Preacheth It s evident enough not from Christ for indeed it is not like his nor him who would have gathered the Children of Jerusalem as a Hen gathereth her Chickens and they would not therefore were they rejected because they would not be gathered The Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 6. They were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and verse 5. saith Their sufficiency was of God and Gal. 1. 11 12. the Gospel which Paul Preached It was not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was taught it but by the Revelation of Iesus Christ Eph. 3. 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. Now how is this Ability received from God if not by his Spirit and therefore he gave different Gifts of the Spirit for the work of the Ministry and by that they were opened and inlarged and made able But Iames Barry denying this from whom hath he his Call and whence hath he his Gospel and Ability If he saith from God We desire to know how he received it being not by the Spirit he having denied that and if it be not by the Spirit it cannot be from God For what a Man receives of Spiritual Benefit it must be by the Spirit either immediately or mediately by its working through an Instrument Therefore let him make out how he comes by his Call Ability and that Necessity he pretends to be upon him for the Divine Spirit being denied it must be from Man or else from his own corrupt Heart for Self-interest which is most probable that he might get Gain and live upon the People For it is evident his Necessity is not the same that was upon the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 16. He owns not his way of receiving it nor doth follow his Example in Preaching it And to his Hearers this Advice we give Consider well your State and whether you profit under his Ministry or no For of old they that ran and the Lord did not send them did not profit the People for he denying Revelation by which the Father and the Son is savingly known no other Knowledge is come to without it but by Hear-say which is not that Knowledge Christ speaks of which is Life Eternal And for your satisfaction read the following Scriptures Mat. 11. 27. Christ saith Neither knoweth any Man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him So Christ is positive that no Man knows God but by his Revelation Mat. 16. 17. Christ saith it was the Father that Revealed him unto Peter and Gal. 1. 15 16. There you may see the Father Revealed his Son in Paul 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Apostle speaking of the great things God had prepared for them that love him saith God hath Revealed them unto us by his Spirit and in Eph. 1. 17. you may see how the Apostle prayed for the Saints That God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of the Son and 1 Cor. 14. 30. he saith If any thing be Revealed to another that sits by let the first hold his Peace Here you may see that from the Testimony of the Holy Scripture which your Minister said should be the Standard to try every thing by in the true Church Revelation was expected and to be given way to in the Church and by the Apostle was prayed for that God would give the Spirit and Revelation unto the Church for he knew they could not Worship Pray Preach nor Sing aright without it And what Is this accounted an Error now by your Minister or you Where is your Standard Will you not come to the Scriptures nor to the Spirit neither Where is your Bottom and Foundation that you Build upon What 's your Root that bears you You have got a foolish Builder he will not follow the Example of Paul a wise Master-Builder 1 Cor. 14. 15. Paul said He would pray with the Spirit c. and sing with the Spirit c. Eph. 5. 18. There the Apostle exhorts them To be filled with the Spirit and Rom 8. 26. he saith They knew not what to pray for as they ought but the Spirit helped their Infirmities c. And Christ in the 4 th of Iohn saith That God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and Truth and such doth the Father seek to Worship him Now let your Minister clear these things up to you how in your Church or Families either he and you denying Revelation can Worship aright Preach Pray or Sing aright and by what you have Ability and know what to Pray for without the Spirits help What! are you so strong of your selves in your Self-Ability that you do not need that which the Apostles and all true Christians sought the help of and could not do without Nay it was that by which they knew what to Pray for and therefore they waited for its Assistance And Paul said he would Pray with
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
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