and trembling and lose not that sweet and precious Sense that the Lord hath begotten in thee it is soon lost at least weakened but hard to recover wherefore let not the Spirit of the World in any of its appearances vain Company unnecessary Discourse or Words or worldly Affairs prevail upon the civility of thy Nature for they will oppress the innocent Life and bring grievous weights and burdens upon thy Soul and prolong the coming of the Lord whom thou lookest for and put the Day of thy Redemption a far off O beware of this compliance Let me put thee in mind of that sensible resolution so frequently and so passionately repeated Il faut que je rompe Il faut que je rompe Ah this speaketh a weight this weight a sense and this sense a strong Conviction Now be assured that till Obedience be yielded to that present manifestation and conviction the good things desired and thirsted after can never be Enjoyed Wherefore my dear Friend be faithful and watch against the Workings oâ— the Spirit of this World in thy self that the Nature and Image of it in all things may be crucified that thou mayst know an entire Translation with holy Enoch and walk with God Jesus the holy Light is this Cross and Power of God that killeth and maketh alive and 〈◊〉 is the heavenly Vine too if thou abideâ—â— in him thou wilt bring forth fruit bâ—â— if thou abidest not in him thou wilt noâ— bring forth that fruit in which his heavenly Father only can be glorified O see what the mind dayly abideth in O my Soul is even ravisht with the sence of that holy and quiet habitation In me saith he you shall have peace but in the World trouble however be of good cheer I have overcome the world I am not of the World as if he had said I am not of the Worlds ways Worships Customs nor Fashions for what ever is of the nature and spirit of this World hath no part in me and as I am not of this World neither are you of this world for I have chosen you out of the world out of the invention out of the worships and fashions â—f the world you are to leave them all to come out of them all and live and walk as Pilgrims in the world that is strangers To what To the life and practice of the World not using but renouncing the vain Customs and Ceremonies yea the whole Conversation of the World remembring that the friendship of this World is Enmity with God and what if the World hate you it hated me first and the Disciple is not greater than his Master nor the Servant than his Lord if you were of the World the World would love you and not reproach and persecute you for the World loveth its own O my dear Friend mayst thou be perfectly sensible what it is not to be of this World But there is yet a farther mystery in these Words not discerned even of many in whom some tenderness and inquiry is begotten much less of the worldly Christians This World hath a false Earth and a false Heaven a false Foundation and a false Ioy not only gross Wickedness but Iniquity in a Mystery inwardly and outwardly The Whore false Prophet and Dragon and all their Off-spring are here concerned This is their World that must be burnt with fire that Christ is not of nor his true Disciples O the Light of Jesus discovereth it And he is that spiritual Solomon that giveth true judgment and that saveth the living Child the true Birth giving it to the right Mother and not to the false pretender And all that hear his voice and follow him shall receive true Light discerning and Judgment to whom all Judgment is given They shall know his Voice from Man's There are two Trees of differing Natures have contrary Fruits and Leaves the one is the Tree of Life that is Christ the other the Tree of Death and that is Satan the fruit of the one giveth life the fruit of the other bringeth Death the leaves of the first Heal the leaves of the last Poison many that discern the Tree cannot clearly distinguish the Branches And those that see many Arms and Branches cannot distinctly behold the fruit much less the leaves this cometh by the gradual Discoveries and Revelations of the Light of Jesus the Word of God as it is daily received and daily obeyed yea and that Word is the Ax and Sword of the Almighty to cut it down daily feel the strokes of this eternal searching Light and Word at the very root of this corrupt Tree this evil one and his corrupt Nature Works and Effects for which end Jesus Christ is come and therefore is called a Saviour which is little known in truth to the Christians of this World Ah my dear Friend thou knowest this Word yea thou hast felâ— it O hide it in thy heart Treasure it up it up in thy Soul and love it and abide with it for ever Alas Whether shouldst thou go This hath and is the the Word of Eternal Life daily therefore watch and wait that thou mayest be grafted more and more into it that thou mayest live and grow by the virtue and life of it and that it may grow in thy heart as it grew among the first Christians the holy followers of the persecuted Jesus and when it searcheth thy Wound and cutteth away thy dead flesh yea when it separateth between the Soul and the Spirit of this World and divideth between Joints and Marrow when it cutteth off the right hand and plucketh out the right eye O watch unto Prayer and pray that thou mayest endure O keep the holy patience of this pure and living Word and this very Word will keep thee in the hour of thy sharpest Trials and sorest Tribulations O all virtue is in it O 't is a tried Word a sure refuge the staff and strength of the Righteous in all Ages 'T was David's Teacher and Buckler a Light to his feet and a Lamhorn to his Paths Walk thou in the Light thereof and thou shalt not stumble in this word is life as in the root and this life is the Light of Men They that receive and love the Light of it will therein receive divine Life from it to live to God this is the bread of God that cometh from God and seedeth and leadeth up to God by this only that which is born of God liveth and is nourished this is that Carcass to which the wise Eagles gather see thou gatherest to no other nor feâ—dest on no other This is that hidden Manna that cometh from heaven that feedeth God's Israel the World hath a Manna but it perisheth but this endureth for ever for 't is not of Man nor from Man but immortal and from God hid from the knowledge of all the vain Christians in the World So that the Israel of God can say to the Children of this World and that in Truth and
Jesus said Fear not for it is my Father's good pleasure to give you a Kingdom And to be of this Flock you must become as Sheep and to be as Sheep you must become harmless and to become harmless you must hear and follow the Lamb of God as he is that blessed Light which discovereth and condemneth all the unfruitful Works of Darkness and maketh harmless as a Dove which word All leaveth not one Piccadillo or Circumstance undiscovered or unjudged and the word Darkness taketh in the whole Night of Apostacy and the word Vnfruitful is a plain Judgment against all those dark Works Wherefore out of them all come and be you separated and God will give you a Crown of Life which shall never fade away O! the lowness and meanness of those Spirits that despise or neglect the Joys and Glories of Immortality for the sake of the things which are â—een that are but Temporal debasing â—he Nobility of their Souls abandoning the Government of the Divine Spirit and embracing with all ardency of Affection the sensual Pleasures of this Life but such as persevere therein shall not enter into God's Rest for ever But this is not all that hindereth and obstructeth in the holy Way of Blessedness for there is the World's Fear as well as the World's Joy that obstructeth many or else Christ had not said Fear not to his little Flock The Shame of the Cross is a Yoke too uneasy and a Burden too heavy for Flesh and Blood to bear 't is true but therefore shall Flesh and Blood never enter into the Kingdom of God And not to them that are born of the Flesh but to those that are born of the Spirit through the Word of Regeneration is appointed the Kingdom and that Throne which shall judg the twelve Tribes of Israel and all the World The Lord perfect what he hath begun in you and give you Dominion over the Love and Fear of this World And my Friends if you would profit in the Way of God despise noâ— the Day of small things in youâ— selves Know this that to desire anâ— sincerely to breathe after the Lord iâ— a blessed State you must seek beforâ— you find Do you believe make noâ— haste extinguish not those small Beginnings by an over-earnest or impatient desire of Victory God's time is the best time be you faithful and your Conflict shall end with Glory to God and the Reward of Peace to your own Souls Therefore love the Judgment and love the Fire start not aside neither flinch from the scorchings of it for it will purify and refine you as Gold seven times tried then cometh the Stamp and Seal of the Lord upon his own Vessel Holiness to him for ever which he never gave nor will give to reprobate Silver the state of the Religious Worshippers of the World And herein be comforted that Sion shall be redeemed through Judgment and her Converts through Righteousness and after the appointed time of Mourning is over the Lord will give Beauty for Ashes the Oil of Joy for Mourning and the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness then shall you be able to say Who is he that condemneth us God hath justified us there is no Condemnation to us that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Wherefore my dear Friends walk not only not after the fleshly Lusts but also not after the fleshly Religions and Worships of the World for that that is not born of the Spirit is Flesh and all Flesh shall wither as the Grass and the Beauty of it shall fade away as the Flower of the Field before God's Sun that is risen and rising but the Word of the Lord in which is Life and that Life the Light of Men shall endure for ever and give Life Eternal to them that love and walk in the Light And I entreat you by the Love you have for Jesus have a care how you touch with fleshly Births or say Amen by Word or Practice to that which is not born of the Spirit for God is not to be found of that in your selves or others that calleth him Father and he hath never begotten it in them that Latitude and Conformity is not of God but secretly grieveth his Spirit and obstructeth the growth of the Soul in its Acquaintance and intimate Communion with the Lord. Without me saith Jesus you can do nothing and all that came before me are Thieves and Robbers If so O what are they that Pray Preach and Sing without Jesus and follow not him in those Duties but even in them crucify him O that I may find in you an Ear to hear and an Heart to perceive and embrace these Truths of Jesus And I can say I have great cause to hope and patiently to wait till the Salvation of God be further revealed to you and the whole Family with whom I must acknowledg I was abundantly refreshed and comforted in that God in measure made known the Riches of his Grace and Operation of his Celestial Power to you and his Witness shall dwell with you if we never see you more that God magnified his own Strength in our Weakness With him we leave our Travels affectionately recommending you to his holy Spirit of Grace that you may be conformed to the Image of his own dear Son who is able and ready to preserve you O stay your Minds upon him and he will keep you in perfect Peace and abide with you for ever The Almighty take you into his holy Protection now and for ever I am Your true Friend ready to serve you with fervent Love in the Will of God William Penn. My dear Companions G. K. and B.F. do with me give you the dear Salutation of unfeigned Love and those in the Family that love and desire to follow the Lord Jesus in Sincerity and Truth without wavering P. S. We are this Evening bound towards Manheim the Court of the Prince Palatine and travell'd about twelve English Miles on foot That Night we lodged at Franckenthall and goâ— the next Morning being the seventh Day of the Week to Manheim but were disappointed of our Design which was to speak with the Prince for he was gone the Day before to Heydelbâ—rgh his chief City about fifteen English Miles from that Place and considering that by reason of the Meeting next Day with Friends at Crisheim already appointed we could neither go forward nor stay till he returned and yet being not clear to come away as if we had never endeavoured to visit him it was upon me to write him this following Letter to let him know we had been there and briefly our End in coming To the Prince Elector Palatine of Heydelbergh Great Prince IT would seem strange that I both a Stranger and a Subject should use this freedom of Address to a Prince were he not one whose Actions shew him to be of a free Disposition and easy Access to all
with the Joy of his Salvation giving us to remember and to speak one unto another of his blessed Witnesses in the Days past who wandred up and down like poor Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth their Eye being to a City in the Heavens whose Builder and Maker is God Betwixt nine and ten we reached the Walls of Duysburgh but the Gates were shut and there being no Houses without the Walls we laid us down together in a Field receiving both natural and spiritual Refreshment blessed be the Lord. About three in the Morning we rose sanctifying God in our hearts that had kept us that Night and walked till five often speaking one to another of the great and notable Day of the Lord dawning upon Germany and of several Places of that Land that were almost ripe unto Harvest Soon after the Clock had struck five they opened the Gates of the City and we had not long got to our Inn but it came upon me with a sweet yet fervent Power to visit this prosecuted Countess with a Salutation from the Love and Life of Jesus and to open unto her more plainly the Way of the Lord which I did in this following Epistle And then followeth a Letter to her Father the Graef of Bruch and Falckensteyn To the Countess of Falckensteyn and Bruch at Mulheim My dear Friend JESUS the Immaculate Lamb of God grieved and crucified by all the Workers of Iniquity illuminate thy Understanding bless and be with thy Spirit for ever Tho unknown yet art thou much beloved for the sake of thy Desires and Breathings of Soul after the living God The Report whereof from some in the same State hath made deep impressions of true Kindness upon my Spirit and raised in me a very singular and fervent inclination to visit thee and the rather because of that Suffering and Tribulation thou hast begun to endure for the sake of thy Zeal towards God my self having from my Childhood been both a Seeker after the Lord and a great Sufferer for that Cause from Parents Relations Companions and the Magistrates of this World the remembrance whereof hath so much the more endeared thy Condition unto me and my Soul hath often in the sweet Sense and Feeling of the holy Presence of God and the precious Life of his dear Son in my Heart with great tenderness implored his Divine Assistance unto thee that thou mayst both be illuminated to do and made willing to suffer for his Name 's sake that the Spirit of God and of Glory may rest upon thy Soul And truly I can say I felt the good Will of God his holy Care and heavenly Visitations of Love to extend unto thee But one thing more especially lay upon my Spirit to have communicated unto thee which made me the more pressing for an Opportunity to speak with thee and that was this That thou shouldest have a true right and distinct Knowledg of thy own State and what that is which hath visited thee and in what thy Faith Patience Hope and Salvation stand where to wait and how to find the Lord and distinguish between that which is born of God and that which is not both with respect to thy self in all the Motions and Conceptions of thy Heart and with respect to others in their Religious Worships and Performances to the end that thou mayest not be deceived about the things relating to God's Kingdom and thy Eternal Peace this is of greatest weight Now know certainly that which hath discovered unto thee the Vanities of this World the Emptiness and the Fading of all earthly Glory the Blessedness of the Righteous and the Joy of the World that is to come is the Light of Christ Jesus wherewith he hath enlightned thy Soul for in him was Life and that Life is the Light of Mankind John 1.4 9. Thus God promiseth by the Prophet Isaiah to give him viz. for a Light to lighten the Gentiles and for his Salvation to the ends of the Earth So that Christ the Light is God's Gift and eternal Life is hid in him yea all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who is the Light of the Gospel-Temple true Believers Rev. 21. And all that receive this Light into their Hearts and bring their Deed to it to see in what ground they are wrought whether in God or in the evil One and make this Blessed Light the Guide of their Life fearing with a holy Fear to do any thing that this Light manifests to be evil waiting and watching with a godly Care to be preserved blameless before the Lord I say all such become Children of Light and Witnesses of the Life of Jesus O blessed wilt thou be for ever if in the way of this Holy Light thy Mind walks to the end Let this that hath visited thee lead thee this Seed of Light and Life which is the Seed of the Kingdom yea 't is Christ the true and only Seed of God that visited my Soul even in my young Years that spread my Sins in order before me reproved me and brought godly Sorrow upon me making me often to weep in solitary Places saying within my Soul O that I knew the Lord as I ought to know him O that I served him as I ought to serve him yea often was there a great Concern upon my Spirit about my eternal State mournfully desiring that the Lord would give my Soul rest in the great Day of Trouble Now was all the Glory of the World as a Bubble yea nothing was dear to me that I might win Christ for the Love Friendship and Pleasure of this World was a Burden unto my Soul And in this seeking-state I was directed to the Testimony of Jesus in my own Conscience as the true shining Light giving me to discern the Thoughts and Intents of my own Heart and no fooner was I turned unto it but I found it to be that which from my Childhood had visited me though I distinctly knew it not and when I received it in the Love of it it shewed me all that ever I did and reproved all the unfruitful Works of Darkness judging me as a Man in the Flesh and laying Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet in me And as by the brightness of his coming into my Soul he discovered the Man of Sin there upon his Throne so by the Breath of his Mouth which is the two-edged Sword of his Spirit he destroyeth his Power and Kingdom and having made me a Witness of that Death of the Cross he hath also made me Witness of his Resurrection So that in good measure my Soul can now say I am justified in the Spirit and though the State of Condemnation unto Death was glorious yet Justification unto Life was and is more glorious In this state of the new Man all is new behold new Heavens and a new Earth old things come to be done away the old Man with his Deeds put off Now new Thoughts new
that should fall upon them as a Milstone and grind them to Powder Therefore let Christ have his honour let him preach and speak among you and in you and you in him and by him only to sigh groan pray preach sing and not otherwise least Death come over you for thereby the Apostacy came in by their going before Christ instead of Christ going before them And wait in the Light and Spirit of Judgment that hath visited you that all may be wrought out that is not born of God so will you come to be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever That you may be a holy Priâ—sthood that offers up a living Sacrifice with God's heavenly fire that God may have his honour in you all and through you all by Christ Jesus And turning my self towards the Somerdikes with a serious and tender Spirit I thus exprest my self That you should be Pilgrims in the Inheritance of your Father I have a deep and reverent sense of O that you might dwell with him for ever and exalt him that hath so visited you with whom are the Rewards of Eternal Blessedness So I left the blessing and peace of Jesus among them departing in the love and peace of God and I must needs say they were beyond expectation tender and respectfull to us all of them coming with us but the ancient A. M. S. who is not able to walk to the outward Door giving us their Hands in a friendly manner expressing their great satisfaction in our Visit and being come by the Porch and meeting several persons of the Family I was moved to turn about and to exhort them in the presence of the rest to keep to Christ that had given them a sense of the Spirit of this World and had raised desires in them to be delivered from it and to know no Man after the Flesh but to have their Fellowship in Christ Union and Communion with God and one with another that all their Worship and Performances might stand in him that he might be all in all desiring that the Lord might keep them in his fear all the days of their appointed time that so they might serve him in their generation in his own universal Spirit to his glory who is blessed for ever The two Pastors and the Doctor came with us a Field's length where we took Waggon and the chiefest of them took occasion to ask me If the Truth rose not first amongst a poor illiterate and simple sort of people I told him yes that was our comfort and that we owed it not to the Learning of this World Then said he let not the Learning of this World be used to defend that which the Spirit of God hath brought forth for Scholars now coming among you will be apt to mix School-learning amongst your simpler and purer Language and thereby obscure the brightness of the Testimony I told him it was good for us all to have a care of our own Spirits Words and Works confessing what he said had weight in it telling him it was our care to write and speak according to the divine Sense and no humane Invention The Lord comforted my Soul in this service yea all that is within me magnified his holy Name because of his blessed Presence that was with us O let my Soul trust in the Lord and confide in him for ever O let me dwell and abide with him that is faithfull and true and blessed for ever-more So in a very sober and serious manner we parted being about the 12th hour at noon This night about ten we got to Lippenhusen where there is a little Meeting of Friends being about 25 English Miles The next morning we had a blessed Meeting among Friends many of the World came in were very serious and well-affected one whereof was a Magistrate of the Place The Lord pleads his own Cause and crowns his own Testimony with his own Power There is like to be a fine Gathering in that place After Dinner we took Waggon for the City of Groningen where we arrived at eight at night being about 25 English Miles The next morning we had a Meeting among Friends of that City whether resorted both Collegiant and Calvinist Students who behaved themselves soberly the Lord's Power was over all and his Testimony stands When Meeting was ended they went out and as I was concluding an Exhortation to Friends came in a flock of Students to have had some Conference with us but having set the time of our leaving the City we recommended them to the Universal love of God promising them some Books of our Principles with which they exprest themselves satisfied and civilly parted from us After Dinner we took Boat for Delfzyl and came there about six at night The next morning about seven we took Boat for Embden which is about three Leagues On Board of that Vessel it came upon me to write a Letter to Friends in England concerning the present Separatists and their Spirit of Separation which hath several times been opened unto me and had remained some days upon my spirit The Letter followeth This came upon me in the Ship between Delfzyl and Embden upon the the 16th of the 7th Month 1677 to send amongst you To Friends every where concerning the present Separatists and their Spirit of Separation Friends and Brethren BY a mighty Hand and by an out-stretched Arm hath the Lord God everlasting gathered us to be a People and in his own Power and Life hath he preserved us a People unto this Day and praises be to his Eternal Name no weapon that hath yet been formed against us either from without or from within hath prospered Now this I say unto you and that in his Counsel that hath visited us whoever goeth out of the Unity with their Brethren are first gone out of Unity with the Power and Life of God in themselves in which the Unity of the Brethren standeth and the Member of the Body in the Unity standeth on the top of them and hath a Judgment against them unto which Judgment of both great and small amongst the living Family that in the Unity are preserved they must bow before they can come into the Unity again yea this they will readily do if they are come into Unity with the Life and Power of God in themselves which is the holy Root that beareth the Tree the Fruit and the Leaves all receiving Life and Virtue from it and thereby are nourished unto God's praise And let all have a care how they weaken that or bring that under their exaltation and high imagination that it is revealed against For I feel that unruly Spirit is tormented under the stroke and judgment of the Power and in its subtilty is seeking occasion against the Instruments by whom the Power gave it forth Let all have a care how they touch with this Spirit in those Workings for by
shall fall out lay down the Money and give in an Account at the next Quarterly Meeting in Order to their Relief if it appear that they are thereby overcharged and let all things be done without Favour Affection Relation or any respect to Persons even for the Lord's Sake and his blessed Everlasting Truth that God may bless and prosper his People And let all things be written down both as to your monthly and quarterly meeting Collections what you Receive what you Disburse that all may be fair and clear to the satisfaction of all that desire to see and Examine the Books And the Lord's Fear and Life and Power was over all in which the Lord God preserve his for ever The next day being the Seventh day of the Week was imploied in visiting of Friends and preparing our selves for a further Journey that is to say G. K. R. B. B. F. and My self Finding Letters here from the Friends of Dantzick complaining of their heavy Sufferings they underwent informing us also that the King of Poland was there asking advice about an Address to Him it fell upon me to write the following Letter in the Name of the Friends of Dantzick TO THE KING OF POLAND Great Prince ACtions of Justice Mercy and Truth are worthy of all Men but in a most excellent manner of the serious consideration of Kings and Princes We certain Inhabitants of the City of Dantzick have been long great Sufferers not for any Wickedness committed against the Royal Law of God or any Breach of those Civil Laws of this City that relate to the well Government of it in all Natural and Civil things but purely and only for the cause of our Tender Consciences towards God This severity being by us represented to the Magistrates of this City we could not as yet receive from them any Relief some expressing as if easing the Burthen of our Oppressions should give thee O King an occasion of Dissatisfaction against them who art our acknowleged Protector Being thus necessitated and in a manner driven to make this address unto Thee take it not amiss that we with that Humility and Patience that becometh the Servants and followers of Jesus and with all manner of Christian respect and sincerity of Mind briefly relate to Thee the most Fundamental Principles most surely believed by us which we hope Thou wilt believe deserve not those Punishments that are inflicted upon us as evil doers 1. We do reverently believe that there is one God and Father one Lord Jesus Christ and one Holy Spirit and these three are one Eph. 4.6 2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to have been given forth by Divine Inspiration and that they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16. 3. That these Holy Scriptures are not to be understood but by the Discoveries Teachings and Operations of that Eternal Spirit from whence they came 4. We beleive that all Mankind through Disobedience to the Spirit of God are fallen short of the Glory of God and in that State are under Condemnation but that God out of his infinite Goodness and Kindness hath sent his Son a Light into the World that whosoever believeth and obeyeth this Light should not abide in Darkness but have the Light of Eternal Life 5. We believe this Gift of Light and Grace through Jesus Christ to be Vniversal and that there is not a Man or Woman upon Earth that hath not a sufficient measure of this Light and to whom this Grace hath not appeared to reprove their ungodly Works of Darkness and to lead them that obey it to Eternal Salvation And this is the great Condemnation of the World at this Day under all their great professions of God Christ Spirit and Scriptures that though Christ hath enlightned them yet they will not bring their Deeds to the Light but hate the Light and love their dark Customs and Practices rather than the Light because their Deeds are Evil. 6. We do believe in the Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord and that he laid down his Life for the Vngodly not to continue so but that they should deny their Wickedness and Vngodliness and live Soberly Righteously and Godlikely in this present evil World as the Saints of old did that were redeemed from the Earth and sat in Heavenly places 7. We do believe that as the Devil through Man's Disobedience brought sin into Man's Heart so Christ Jesus through Man's Belief in and Obedience to his Holy Spirit Light and Grace cleanseth the Heart of Sin destroyeth the Works of the Devil finisheth Transgression and bringeth in everlasting Righteousness that as the Devil hath had his Kingdom of Darkness in Man so Christ may have his Kingdom of Light Life Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost in the Heart of Man and not that Christ Jesus saveth Men from Wrath and not from-Sin for the Wages of Sin is Death in whose heart soever it liveth but the Gift of God is Eternal Life to all that believe and obey through Jesus Christ 8. We do believe that all true Ministry and Worship only stand in the experimental Sense Operations and Leadings of this Holy Light Spirit or Grace that is shed abroad in the Hearts of Men and Women to conduct them in the Holy way of Regeneration unto Life Eternal this was the Ancient Apostolical Doctrine they spoke what they had seen Tasted and Handled of the Word of God And this is our Faith Doctrine and Practice in this day And be not displeased with us O King we intreat thee if we give this for the reason of our absenting our selves from the publick and common Ministry or Worship Namely that we have no Taste or Relish no Sense or Evidence that their Ministry and Worship are Authorized and performed by the Apostolical Power and Spirit of Jesus but rather that they are the Inventions Studies and Powers of Man's Nature all which are but strange Fire and therefore cannot kindle a true and acceptable Sacrifice to God for it is not Man's Spirit and degenerate Nature Speaking and Professing the Words of God's Spirit that giveth acceptance with the Lord or adminstreth Heavenly Edification to Men nor can we believe that where Envy Passion Wrath Malice Persecution Envy and Strife Lusts Vanity Wantonness and Worldly Mindedness have such Sway and Power that the true Christian Spirit Life and Doctrine can be heartily received and followed And as this is the Reason in the sight and presence of that God that made Heaven and Earth and will Judge the Quick and Dead wherefore we cannot join in the common and publick Worship of these parts so doth the same Light and Spirit of God lay an Holy necessity upon us with a Meek and Quiet Spirit to come together after the
through a very dark Country to that place yet I felt not so great a weight and suffering in my Spirit as six Years ago when I went through the same places At Osnabrug we had a little time with the Man of the Inn where we lay and left him several good Books of Friends in the Low and High Dutch Tongues to Read and to dispose of The next morning being the fifth day of the Week we set forward to Herwerden and came thither at Night This is the City where the Princess Elizabeth Palatine hath her Court whom and the Countess in Company with her it was especially upon us to Visit and that upon several Accompts 1. In that they are Persons seeking after the best things 2. That they are actually Lovers and Favourers of those that separate themselves from the World for the sake of Righteousness For the Princess is not only a private supporter of such but gave protection to De Labadie himself and his Company yea when they went under the reproachfull Name of Quakers about seven Years since This Man was a Frenchman that dissatisfied with the loosness and deadness of the French Protestants even at Geneva it self left them and came for Holland and so vehemently declaimed against the Apostacy of the Priests and People there that the Clergy were inraged and stir'd up the Magistrates against him and the rather because many followed him and several Women of great Quality Upon this the Princess giveth them an invitation and they came and were protected by her but since some miscarriages falling out in that place she thereupon in good measure withdrew her Favour from them and they removed into another place I was moved to Visit this Man and his Company six years ago and did see him and his two great Disciples but they would not suffer me to see the People which I laboured for I in that day saw the airiness and unstableness of the Man's Spirit and that a Sect-master was his Name and it was upon me both by Word of Mouth and Writing to let them know that the Enemy would prevail against them to draw them into inconvenient things if they came not to be stay'd in the Light of Jesus Christ and to know the Holy Silence and that at last they would come to fall out one with another and moulder away which is in some measure come to pass as I fear'd for I clearly perceived that though they had received some Divine Touches a danger there was they would run out with them and spend them like Prodigals not knowing then where to stay their Minds for daily Bread yea though they were something Angelical and like to the Celestial Bodies yet if they kept not their Station they would prove fallen Stars they moved not in the motion of him that had visited them but were fill'd with gross Mixtures and thereby brought forth mixt Births That is to say things not Natural but Monstrous In fine they were Shy of us they knew us not yet I believed well of some of the People for a good thing was stirring in them and in this Case was the Countess commendable in that she left all to have joined with a People that had a pretence at least to more Spirituality and Self-denial than was found in the National Religion she was bred up in for God had reacht her as she told me about Nine Years ago and that by an extraordinary way Now it seemed great pity to us that Persons of their Quality in the World should so willingly expose themselves for the false Quaker the reprobate Silver the Mixtures and that they should not be acquainted with the Life and Testimony of the true Quakers Now about a Year since R.B. and B.F. took that City in the way from Frederickstadt to Amsterdam and gave them a Visit in which they informed them somewhat of Friends Principles and recommended the Testimony of Truth to them as both a nearer and more certain thing than the utmost of De Labadie's Doctrine They left tender and loving Soon after this Getrueydt Dircks and Elizabeth Hendricks from Amsterdam visited them and obtained a Meeting with them improving that little way God by his Providence had made more closely to press the Testimony and though they especially the Countess made some Objections in relation to the Ordinances and certain Practices of Friends yet she seemed to receive at that time satisfaction from them These Visits have occasioned a Correspondence by way of Letter betwixt them and several of us wherein the Mistery of Truth hath been more clearly opened to their Understandings and they have been brought nearer into a waiting Frame by those Heavenly Directions they have frequently receiv'd by way of Epistles from several of us This Digression from the present History I thought not altogether unnessary or unpleasing But to Return being arrived at that City part of which is under her Government we gave her to understand it desiring to know what time next day would be most proper for us to Visit her She sent us word she was glad that we were come and should be ready to receive us the next Morning about the Seventh Hour The next morning being come which was the sixth day of the week we went about the time she had appointed us and found both her and the Countess ready to receive us which they did with a more than ordinary Expression of Kindness I can truly say it and that in God's fear I was very deeply and reverently affected with the Sense that was upon my Spirit of the great and notable day of the Lord and the breakings in of his Eternal Power upon all Nations and of the raising of the slain Witness to judge the World who is the Treasure of Life and Peace of Wisdom and Glory to all that receive him in the Hour of his Judgments and abide with him The Sense of this deep and sure Foundation which God is laying as the Hope of Eternal Life and Glory for all to Build upon fill'd my Soul with an Holy Testimony to them which in a living Sense was followed by my Brethren and so the Meeting ended about the Eleventh Hour The Princess intreated us to stay and Dine with her but with due regard both to our Testimony and to her at that time we refused it desiring if she pleased another opportunity that day which she with all chearfulness yielded to She her self appointing the Second Hour So we went to our Quarters and some time after we had Dined we returned The Meeting soon began there were several present besides the Princess and Countess it was at this Meeting that the Lord in a more eminent manner began to appear the Eternal Word shewed it self a Hammer at this day yea sharper than a two edged Sword dividing asunder between the Soul and the Spirit the Joints and the Marrow yea this day was all Flesh Humbled before the Lord it amazed one struck another broke another
made our usual Inquiry viz. who was worthy in the City and found some that tenderly and lovingly received us to whom we declared the Visitation of the Light and Love of God Among the rest was Dureus our Countryman a Man of Seventy Seven Years of Age who had learned in good Measure to forget his Learning School Divinity and Priest's Craft and for his approaches towards an inward Principle is reproachfully saluted by some with the honest Title of Quaker 't is much better than Papist Lutheran or Calvinist who are not only ignorant of but Enemies to Quaking and Trembling at the Word of the Lord as Moses and others did Upon the Sixth day of the same week about Noon we set out towards Franckfort having left several Books behind us which hath been our Practice in our Journey At Franckfort we Arrived the Second day about Noon being just a Week from Herwerden and having from thence and Cassel made known our intentions of coming to that City two considerable Persons came and met us about half a German Mile from the City informing us of several well affected in that Town upon which we told them the end of our coming and desired to have a Meeting with them in the Afternoon which we easily obtained at the House of a Merchant one of the two that met us The persons that resorted thither were generally People of considerable Note both of Calvinists and Lutherans and we can say they received us with gladness of Heart and embraced our Testimony with a broken and reverent Spirit thanking God for our coming amongst them and praying that he would prosper this work in our Hands this ingaged our hearts to make some longer stay in this City We therefore desired another Meeting the next day which they cheerfully assented to where several came that were not with us the day before and the Lord that sent us into the Land was with us and by his Power reached to them insomuch that they confessed to the Truth of our Testimony Of these Persons there were two Women one a Virgin the other a Widow both Noble of Birth who had a deep Sense of that power and presence of God that accompanied our Testimony and their hearts yearned strongly towards us the Virgin giving us a particular invitation to her House the next Morning where we had the most blessed Opportunity of the three for the Lord's power so eminently appeared that not only those that had been with us before were most effectually reacht but a certain Student residing in the House of a Lutheran Minister sent for by that Young Woman was broken to pieces and magnified that blessed power which appeared Also there accidentally came in a Doctor of Physick who unexpectedly was affected and confessed to the Truth praying God to prosper us This was the blessed Issue of our Visit to Franckfort But there is one thing more not unfit to be mentioned Among some of those that have Inclinations after God a fearful Spirit together with the shame of the Cross hath entred against which our Testimony in part striking we took Notice it was as Life to these noble Women for that was it as they told us which had long opprest them and obstructed the work of the Lord amongst them Therefore said the Young Virginour Quarters are free for you let all come that will come and lift up your Voices without fear for said she it will never be well with us till Persecution come and some of us be lodged in the Stadthouse that is the Prison We left the Peace of Jesus with them and the same Afternoon we departed out of that City being the fourth day of the week Here I writ an Epistle to the Churches of Jesus TO THE CHURCHES OF JESUS Throughout the WORLD Gathered and settled in his Eternal Light Power and Spirit to be one Holy Flock Family and Houshold to the Lord who hath Redeemed them from among all the Kindreds of the Earth Godly Zeal Wisdom Power Perseverance and Victory with all Heavenly Blessings be multiplied among you in the Name of the Lord. William Penn. Printed in the Year 1677. TO THE CHURCHES OF JESUS Throughout the VVORLD Gathered and settled in his Eternal Light Power and Spirit to be One Holy Flock Family and Houshold to the Lord c. Dear Friends and Brethren WHO have been visited with the Fatherly Visitation from on High and have received God's Eternal Word and Testament in your Hearts by which you have been gathered home to Christ Jesus the true Shepherd from all the Idol-Shepherds and their barren Mountains and unprofitable Hills where you have been scattered in the Dark and Gloomy Day of Apostacy and by hiâ— Light Spirit and Power have been convinced of Sin Righteousness and Judgment and can say The Prince of thiâ— World is judged by his Holy Righteous and powerful Appearance in you untâ— whom all Judgment in Heaven and Earth is committed who is the blessed Lamâ— of God the Light and Saviour of the World who is King of Salem and Prince of Peace My Soul loves you with everlasting Love even with the Love with which my God and your God my Father and your Father hath loved me and visited my Soul and your Souls in this do I dearly salute and embrace you all in this the day of the fullfilling of his glorious Promises to his Church in the Wilderness and Witnesses in Sack-cloth And O magmagnified be his Name and everlastingly praised and renowned be his holy Power and Arm by which he hath reached unto us and brought Salvation near us For he hath found us out and hath heard our Solitary Cries the deep and mournful Supplications of our bowed Spirits when we were as the â—ittle silly Dove without its Mate and â—he lonely Pelican in the Wilderness when we were ready to cry out Is â—here none to save is there none to help O when shall the Time and Times and half a Time be finisht when shall the One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days be accomplisht and when shall the Abomination that stands in the Holy Place â—â—e cast out when shall the Captivity of the People be turned back O when shall Babylon come into Remembrance before God the Dragon Beast and False Prophet be cast into the Lake And when shall the Law go forth out of Sion and the Word of the Lord out of Jerusalem When shall Sion become the Joy and Jerusalem the Praise of the whole Earth And when shall the Earth be covered with the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waâ—ers cover the Sea Friends The Lord of Heaven and Earth hath heard our Cries and the full time is come yea the appointed time is come and the Voice of the Eâ—ernal Spirit in our Hearts hath been And Friends let it never pass out of our remembrance what our God hath done for us since he hath made us a People Hath any Weapon formed against us prospered hath he
called us and not protected us hath he given Power to conceive and not to bring forth hath he not sheltered us in many a Storm did he ever leave us under the Reproaches and Contradictions of Men nay hath he not spoken Peace to us were we ever cast out by Men and he forsook us No the Lord hath taken us up Were we ever in Prison and he visited us not hungry and he fed us not naked and he clothed us not or have we been sick and he came not to see us When were the Jails so close that he could not come in and the Dungeons so dark that he caused not his Light to shine upon us O nay he hath never left us nor forsaken us yea he hath provided richly for us he hath brought us into the Wilderness not to starve us but to try us yet not above our measure For he fed us with Manna from on high with pure Honey and Water out of the Rock and gave his good Spirit to sustain us By Night he was a Pillar of Fire to us to comfort us and by Day a Pillar of Cloud to hide and shelter us He was a Shadow of a mighty Rock that followed us and we never wanted a Brook by the way to refresh us Was God good to Israel outward Much more hath he abounded to his spiritual Israel the proper Seed and Off-spring of himself O the noble Deeds and valiant Acts that he hath wrought in our Day for our Deliverance He hath caused One to chase Ten and Ten an Hundred and an Hundred a Thousand many a Time None hath been able to snatch us out of his Hands who abode in his Truth For though the Winds have blown and the Sea hath raged yet hath he rebuked the Winds and the Sea for his Seed's sake He hath said to the Winds Be still and to the Sea Thus far shalt thou come and no further He hath cast up a high Way for his Ransomed to walk in so plain that though a Fool he shall not err therein This is the Light in which all Nations of them that are saved must walk for ever And therefore Friends let us stay our Minds in the Light of the Lord for ever and let the Awe Fear and Dread of the Almighty dwell in us and let his Holy Spirit be known to be a Covering to us that from the Spirit of this World we may be chastly kept and preserved unto God in the holy Light and Self-denying Life of Jesus who hath offered up himself once for all leaving us an Example that we should also follow his Steps that as he our dear Lord and Master so we his Servants and Friends and Children might by the eternal Spirit offer up our selves to God in Body in Soul and in Spirit which are his that we may be his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works to the Praise of him that hath called us which Calling is an high and an holy Calling by the eternal Light and Spirit in our Consciences O that it might for ever remain in high Estimation with us and that it may be the daily Watch and Travel of us all in the Presence of the Holy and Living God that hath called us to make our great Call and Election sure which many have neglected to do who have been convinced by the blessed Light and Truth of Christ Jesus revealed in their Hearts and who for a time have walked among us have been overcome by the Spirit of this World and turned their Hands from the Plough and deserted the Camp of the Lord and gone back into Egypt again whereby the Heathens have blasphemed and the Way and People of the Lord greatly have suffered Therefore O my dear Friends and Brethren in the Sense of that Life and Power that God from Heaven so gloriously hath dispensed among us and by which he hath given us multiplied Assurances of his Loving-kindness unto us and crowned us together with heavenly Dominion and in which my Spirit is at this time broken before the Lord do I most earnestly entreat you to watch continually lest any of you that have tasted of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come fall by Temptation and by Carelesness and Neglect tempt the living God to withdraw his fatherly Visitation from any of you and finally to desert such for the Lord our God is a jealous God and he will not give his Glory unto another He hath given to Man all but Man himself and him he hath reserved for his own peculiar Service to build him up a glorious Temple to himself so that we are bought with a Price and we are not our own Therefore let us continually watch and stand in awe that we grieve not his Holy Spirit nor turn his Grace into Wantonness But all of us let us wait and that in a holy travail of Spirit to know our selves sealed by the Spirit of Adoption unto the Day of our compleat Redemption when not only all our Sins but all Sorrows Sighings and Tears shall be wiped away from our Eyes and everlasting Songs of Joy and Thanksgivings shall melodiously fill our Hearts to God that sits upon the Throne and to his blessed immaculate Lamb who by his most precious Blood shall have compleatly redeemed us from the Earth and written our Names in the Book of Life Friends The Spirit of the Lord hath often brought you into my Remembrance since I have been in this desolate Land and with Joy unutterable have I had sweet and precious Fellowship with you in the Faith of Jesus that overcometh the World For though absent in Body yet present in him that is Omnipresent And I can truly say you are very near and very dear unto me and the Love that God hath raised in my Heart unto you surpasses the Love of Women And our Testimony I am well satisfied is sealed up together And I am well assured that all that love the Light shall endure to the End throughout all Tribulations and in the End obtain Eternal Salvation And now Friends as I have been travelling in this dark and solitary Land the great Work of the Lord in the Earth has been often presented unto my view and the Day of the Lord hath been deeply upon me and my Soul and Spirit hath frequently been possessed with an holy and weighty Concern for the Glory of the Name of the Lord and the spreading of his everlasting Truth and the Prosperity of it through all Nations that the very Ends of the Earth may look to him and may know Christ the Light to be given to them for their Salvation And when the Sense of these things hath been deeply upon me an holy and strong Cry God hath raised in my Soul to him That we who have known this fatherly Visitation from on High and who have beheld the Day of the Lord the Rising of the Sun of Righteousness who is full of Grace and full of Truth
and have beheld his Glory and confessed it to be the Glory of the only begotten Son of God and who by Obedience to his appearance are become the Children of Light and of the Day and as the First-Fruits to God after this long Night of Apostacy might for ever walk and dwell in his holy Covenant Christ Jesus the Light of the World because in him we have always Peace but out of him comes all the Trouble And whilst this heavenly Sense rested with me the Lord God that made me and called me by his Grace unto Salvation laid it upon me to visit you in an holy Exhortation And it is the Exhortation of my Life at this time in the earnest and fervent Motion of the Power and Spirit of Jesus to beseech you all who are turned to the Light of Christ that shineth in your Hearts and believe in it That you carefully and faithfully walk in it in the same Dread Awe and Fear in which you began that that holy Poverty of Spirit that is precious in the Eyes of the Lord and was in the Days of your first Love may dwell and rest with you that you may daily feel the same heavenly Hunger and Thirst the same Lowliness and Humility of Mind the same Zeal and Tenderness and the same Sincerity and Love unfeigned that God may fill you out of his heavenly Treasure with the Riches of Life and crown you with holy Victory and Dominion over the God and Spirit of this World That your Alpha may be your Omega and your Author your Finisher and your first Love your last Love that so none may make Shipwrack of Faith and of a good Conscience nor faint by the Way And as in this State we are kept in holy Watchfulness to God as in the beginning the Table which our heavenly Father spreads and the Blessings with which he compasseth us about shall not become a Snare unto us nor shall we turn the Grace and Mercies of the Lord into Wantonness but we shall eat and drink in an holy Fear apparel our selves in Fear buy and sell in Fear visit one another in Fear keep Meetings and there wait upon the Lord in Fear yea whatsoever we take in hand to do it shall be in the holy Fear of God and with an holy Tenderness of his Glory and Regard to the Prosperity of his Truth yea we shall deny our selves not only in the unlawful things but in the things that are even lawful to us for the Sake of the many Millions that are unconverted to God For my Friends and Brethren God hath laid upon us whom he hath honoured with the beginning of his great Work in the World the Care both of this Age and of the Ages to come that they may walk as they have us for Examples yea the Lord God hath chosen you to place his Name in you the Lord hath entrusted you with his Glory that you might hold it forth to all Nations and that the Generations unborn may call you Blessed Therefore let none be Treacherous to the Lord nor reward him Evil for Good nor betray his Cause directly by wilful Wickedness nor indirectly by Negligence and Unfaithfulness But be zealous and valiant for Truth on Earth let none be slothful or careless O remember the slothful Servant's State And let the loving-kindness of the Lord overcome every Soul to Faithfulness For with him are Riches and Honour and every good thing And whither should any go he hath the words of Eternal Life O let none loose their Testimony but hold it up for God let thy Gift be never so small thy Testimony never so little Through thy whole Conversation bear it for God and be true to what thou art convinced of And wait all upon the Lord that you may grow in your heavenly Testimony that Life may fill your Hearts your Houses and your Meetings that you may daily wait to know and to receive Power to do the Will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven And O! that the Cross of Jesus may be in high and honourable Esteem with every one that the Liberty of all may stand in the Cross which alone preserveth for it is the Power of God that crucifieth us to the World and the World to us And through Death way is made unto Life and Immortality which by this blessed Cross the Gospel the Power is brought to Light So shall the Seed of Life that God hath sown in our Hearts grow and in that Seed shall we all come to be Blessed unto whom God hath appointed the Dominion over us and it is good for all to live under the Holy Government of it for the Ways of it are the Ways of Pleasantness and all its Paths are Peace and all that are born of it can say Thy Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousness And O! That all Friends every where may continually bow unto his righteous Scepter and keep to his holy Law which is written in their Hearts that it may be a Light to their Feet and a Lanthorn to their Paths So shall they come to witness that holy Promise made good unto them That the Spirit which I have given unto him the Seed and the Words which I have put into his Mouth shall not depart from him nor from his Seed nor from his Seed's Seed unto all Generations Wherefore Friends redeem the Time because the Days are Evil God hath given you to see they are so and be ye separated more and more yea perfectly disentangled from the Cares of this World And be ye not cumbred with the many things but stand loose from the things that are seen which are Temporal And you that are Poor murmur not but be Patient and trust in the Lord and submit to his Providence and he will provide for you that which is convenient for you the Days of your appointed Time And you that are Rich keep in the Moderation and strive not to multiply earthly Treasure nor to heap up uncertain Riches to your selves but what God hath given you more than what is convenient for your own Use wait for his Wisdom to employ it for his Glory that you may be faithful Stewards of this World 's Mammon and the Lord God shall reward you into your Bosoms of the Riches of that Kingdom that shall never have an End O my Friends and Brethren whether Rich or Poor in Bonds or at Liberty in whatsoever State you are the Salutation of the universal Life of Jesus is to you And the Exhortation is to bow to what is made known unto you and in the Light by which ye have received in measure the Knowledg of God watch and wait diligently to the farther Revelation of the Mind and Will of God unto you that ye may be endued from on High with Power and Might in your inward Man to answer the call and requirings of the Lord that ye may be enabled to make known to the Nations what is the Riches
of the Glory of this blessed Mystery in the Gentiles which is Christ Jesus the Light of the World in you the Hope of Glory For this I have to tell you in the Vision of the Almighty that the Day of the breaking up of the Nations about you and of the sounding of the Gospel-Trumpet unto the Inhabitants of the Earth is just at the Door And they that are worthy who have kept their Habitation from the beginning and have dwelt in the Unity of the Faith that overcometh the World and have kept the Bond of Peace The Lord God will impower and spirit you to go forth with his Everlasting Word and Testament to awaken and gather Kindreds Languages and People to the Glory of the rising of the Gentiles Light who is God's Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth And I must tell you that there is a Breathing Hungering Seeking People solitarily scattered up and down this great Land of Germany where the Lord hath sent me and â— believe it is the like in other Nations And as the Lord hath laid it upon me with my Companions to seeâ— some of them out so have we founâ— several in divers Places And wâ— have had many blessed Opportunities amongst them wherein our Hearts have greatly rejoiced having been made deeply sensible of the Love of God towards them and of the great openness and tenderness of Spirit in them to receive the Testimony of Light and Life through us And we have a stedfast belief that the Lord will carry on his Work in this Land effectually and that he will raise up those that shall be as Ministers of his eternal Testament amongst them And O! our desire is that God would put it into the Hearts of many of his faithful Witnesses to visit the Inhabitants of this Country where God hath a great Seed of People to be gathered that his Work may go on in the Earth till the whole Earth be filled with his Glory And it is under the deep and weighty Sense of this approaching Work that the Lord God hath laid it upon me to write to you to wait for the farther pourings out of the Power and Spirit of the Lord that nothing that is Careless Sleepy Earthly or Exalted may get up whereby to displease the Lord and cause him to withdraw his sweet and preserving Presence from any that know him But let all keep the King of Righteousness his Peace and walk in the Steps of the Flocks of the Companions For Withering and Destruction shall come upon all such as desert the Camp of the Lord or with their murmuring Spirit disquiet the Heritage of God for they are greater Enemies to Sion's Glory and Jerusalem's Peace than the open Armies of the Aliens And it is a Warning to all that make mention of the Name of the Lord in this Dispensation he hath brought us to That they have a care how they let out their Minds in any wise to please the Lusts of the Eye the Lusts of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but of this World lest any be exalted in a Liberty that maketh the Cross of Jesus of none effect and the Offence thereof to cease for such will become as Salt that hath lost its Savour and at last will be trod under the Feet of God and Men. For the Lord will withdraw his daily Presence and the Fountain will come to be sealed up and the Well of Salvation be stopped again Therefore as all would rejoice in the Joy of God's Salvation let them wait for the saving Power and dwell in it that knowing the Mystery of the Work of Regeneration Christ formed in them the Hope of their Glory they may be able in the motion of him that hath begotten them through Death to Life to go forth and declare the Way of Life and Salvation And all you that are young convinced of the Eternal Truth come into it and then you will feel the Virtue of it And so you will be Witnesses otherwise Vain Talkers Wells without Water Clouds without Rain for which State is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Minds and be sober and tempt not God but receive the Day of your Visitation and walk worthy of so great Love and delight to retain God in your Knowledg and grieve not his Holy Spirit but join to it and be led by it that it may be an Earnest to you of an Eternal Inheritance And take up your daily Cross and follow Christ and not the Spirit of this World He was meek and lowly he was humble and plain he was few in Words but mighty in Deeds He loved not his Life unto Death even the reproachful Death of the Cross but laid down his Life and became of no Reputation and that for the Rebellious O the Height and the Depth the Length and the Breadth yea the Vnsearchableness of the Love of God in Christ Jesus Wherefore while it is to Day hearken to his Voice and harden not your Hearts and make no Bargains for your Self neither consult with Flesh and Blood But let the Lord be your Light and your Salvation let him be the Strength of your Life and the Length of your Days And this know assuredly that none ever trusted to the Lord and were confounded Wherefore hold up your Testimony for God as ye would enjoy the Increasings of his Life and Love And let your Light shine and confess him before the whole World Smother not his Appearance neither hide thy Candle God hath lighted in thee under a Bushel for Christ walketh among his Candlesticks of pure and tried Gold Wherefore set thy Light upon a Candlestick and shew forth thy good Conversation in Meekness and godly Fear that thou mayest become a good Example and others beholding thy good Works may glorify God But for the Rebellious the Fearful and the Unbelieving the Day hastens upon such that the things that belong to their Eternal Peace shall be hid from their Eyes for ever And all you my dear Friends and Brethren who are in Sufferings for the Testimony of Jesus and a good Conscience look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of your Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is sat down at the Right Hand of the Father in the heavenly Place into which if you faint not you shall all be received after the Days of your Pilgrimage shall be at an End with a Well done good and faithful Servant And though these Afflictions seem not joyous but grievous for the present yet a far more exceeding weight of Glory stands at the Door Wherefore count it all Joy you fall into these Trials and persevere to the End knowing that he that shall come will come and will not tarry and that his Reward is with him Remember the Martyrs of Jesus that loved not their Lives to the Death for his
Name's-sake that had called them And Jesus himself that made a good Confession before Pontius Pilate who hath consecrated through his Blood a new and living Way for all that come unto God by him who is made a high Priest higher than the Heavens one that can be touched and moved and is daily touched and moved with our Weakness and Infirmity that through him we may be made strong in the Lord and more than Conquerors through him that hath loved us Wherefore let it not seem as if some strange thing had happened to you for all these things are for the Trial of your Faith which is more precious than the Gold that perisheth 'T is the old Quarrel Children of this World against the Children of the Lord those that are born after the Flesh warring against those that are born after the Spirit Cain against Abel the Old World against Noah Sodomites against Lot Hagar against Sarah Ishmael against Isaac Esau against Jacob Egyptians against Israelites the false Prophets against the true Prophets as Isaiah Jeremiah c. the Jews under the Profession of the Letter of the Law against Christ that came to fulfil the Law and all his spiritual Followers and Disciples And all the false Apostate Christians against the true and Spiriritual Christians and Martyrs of Jesus So your Conflict is for the Spiritual Appearance of Christ Jesus against those that profess him in Words but in Works and Conversations every day deny him doing Despight to the Spirit of Grace in themselves and those that are led by it But though Gog and Magog shall gather themselves together to lay waste the City of God yet the Lord hath determined their Destruction and he will bring it to pass Wherefore rejoyce O thou little Hill of God and clap thy Hands for Joy for he that is Faithful and True Just and Righteous and able to deliver thee dwells in the midst of thee Who will cause thee to grow and increase till thou becomest a great Mountain till thou becomest the Praise of the whole Earth and the whole Earth be filled with thy Glory And to you all who are the followers of the Lamb of God who was dead but is alive and lives for evermore who is risen in your Hearts as a bright shining Light and is leading you out of the Nature and Spirit of this World in the Path of Regeneration I have this to say by way of holy Encouragement unto you all the Lord God Eternal that was and is and is to come hath reserved for you the Glories of the last Days and if so be that the Followers and Martyrs of Jesus in Ages past when the Church was going into the Wilderness and his Witnesses into Sackcloth were notwithstanding so Noble and Valiant for the Truth on Earth that they loved not their Lives unto the Death and suffered joyfully the Spoiling of their Goods for the Testimony of Jesus how much more ought you all to be encouraged unto Faithfulness who are come to the Resurrection of the Day which shall never more be eclipsed in which the Bride-groom is to come to fetch you his Spouse out of the WILDERNESS to give you Beauty for Ashes and the Garment of Praise for the SPIRIT of HEAVINESS who will cover you with his Spirit and adorn you with his fine Linen the Righteousness of the Saints Lean upon his Breast for ever and know your joyning in an Everlasting Covenant with him that he may lift up the Light of his Countenance upon you and delight to do you Good that in blessing he may bless you increase you and multiply you in all spiritual Blessings now and for ever that to God through him you may live all the Days of your appointed Time to whom be Glory and Honour Praises and Thanksgivings in the Church throughout all Ages and for ever I am In the Faith Patience Tribulation and Hope of the Kingdom of Jesus your Friend and Brother William Penn. My Companions in the Labour and Travel of the Testimony of Jesus G. Keith and B. Furley salute you all in the Love of our God We have passed through several Cities of Germany and are now at Franckfort where the Lord hath given us Three blessed Opportunities with a serious and seeking People whereof as in other places of this Country many of them are Persons of great Worldly Quality Blessed be the Name of the Lord to whom be Glory be for ever W.P. Franckfort the 22d of the 6th Month 1677. The fifth Day we arrived by the way of Worms at Crisheim in the Paltzgrave's Country where we found to our great Joy a Meeting of tender and faithful People But it seems the Inspector of the Calvinists hath injoined the Vooght or chief Officer not to suffer any preaching to be among our Friends who poor Man fearing the Indignation of the Clergy came next Day to desire Friends not to suffer any preaching to be amongst them lest he should be turned out of his Place To whom we desired Friends to say that if he pleased he might apprehend us and carry us to the Prince before whom we should give an Account of our Testimony But blessed be the Lord we enjoyed our Meeting quietly and comfortably of which a Coachful from Worms made a part amongst whom was a Governour of the Country and one of the chief Lutheran Priests It came upon me in this Place to salute the Princess and Countess with this following Epistle A Salutation to Elizabeth Princess Palatine and Anna Maria dâ— Hornes Countess of Hornes at Herwerden in Germany My worthy Friends SUCH as I have such I give unto you the dear and tender Salutation of Light Life Peace and Salvation by Jesus Christ the blessed Lamb of God with the unspeakable Joy of which he hath replenished my Soul at this time that my Cup overfloweth which is the Reward of them that chearfully drink his Cup of Tribulations that love the Cross and triumph in all the Shame Reproaches and Contradictions of the World that do attend it My God take you by the Hand and gently lead you through all the Difficulties of Regeneration and as you have begun to know and love his sweet and tender Drawings so resign the whole Conduct of your Lives to him dispute not away the precious Sense that you have of him be it as small as a Grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of all Seeds there is Power in it if you do but believe to remove the greatest Mountains of Opposition O pretious is this Faith yea more pretious than the Glory and Honour of this World that perish It will give Courage go with Christ before Caiaphas and Pilate yea to bear his Cross without the Camp and to be crucified with him knowing that the Spirit of God and of Glory shall rest upon them to the Inheritors of this Faith is reserved the eternal Kingdom of Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost O be you of that little Flock unto whom
Christian Worship Upon which I forsook the University and resolved to be one of this Family and this I can say in the fear of the Lord. P. Ivon concludeth This is what we have to say concerning the Work of God amongst us All this while I minded not so much their Words as I felt and had Unity with a measure of divine Sense that was upon them Certainly the Lord hath been amongst them yea I had a living Sense in my heart that somewhat of the Breath of Life had breathed upon them and though they were in great mixtures yet that God's love was towards them After some silence I began on this wise I come not to judge you but to visit you not to quarrel or dispute but to speak of the things of God's Kingdom and I have no prejudice but great love and regard in my heart towards you Wherefore hear me with Christian patience and tenderness I do confess and believe that God hath touched your hearts with his divine finger and that his work is amongst you that it was his Spirit that gave you a sight of the vanity and folly of this World and that hath made you sensible of the dead Religions that are in it 'T is this Sense I love and honour and I am so far from undervaluing or opposing this tender sense I feel upon you that this is it I am come to visit and you for the love of it And as for the reproaches that may attend you on the score of your separation with all the Reports that therefore go concerning you they are what I respect you for being well acquainted with the nature and practise of this World towards those that retire out of it Now since I have with patience and I can truly say with great satisfaction heard your account of your Experiences give me the like Christian freedome to tell you mine to the end you may have some sense of the Work of God in me For those who are come to any measure of a divine Sense they are as looking-glasses to each other seeing themselves in each other as face answereth face in a glass Here I began to let them know how and when the Lord first appeared unto me which was about the 12th Year of my Age Anno 1656. How at times betwixt that and 15 the Lord visited me and the divine Impressions he gave me of himself Of my Persecution at Oxford how the Lord sustained me in the midst of that hellish darkness and debauchery of my being banisht the College the bitter Usage I underwent when I returned to my Father whipping beating and turning out of doors in 1662 of the Lord's dealings with me in France and in the time of the great Plague in London In fine the deep sense he gave me of the Vanity of this World of the Irreligiousness of the Religions of it Then of my Mournful and Bitter Cries to him that he would show me his own way of Life and Salvation and my Resolutions to follow him whatever Reproaches or Sufferings should attend me and that with great reverence and brokenness of Spirit How after all this the glory of the world over-took me and I was even ready to give up my self unto it seeing no such thing as the Primitive Spirit and Church on the Earth and being ready to faint concerning my hope of the restitution of all things and that it was at this time that the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testimony of his eternal Word through one of those the World calls a Quaker I related to them the bitter Mockings and Scornings that fell upon me the Displeasure of my Parents the Invectiveness and Cruelty of the Priests the strangeness of all my Companions what a Sign and Wonder they made of me but above all that great Cross of resisting and watching against my own Inward vain Affections and Thoughts Here I had a fine opportunity to speak of the Mystery of Iniquity and Ungodliness in the Root and ground and to give them an account of the Power and Presence of God which attended us in our publick Testimonies and Sufferings after an indirect manner censuring their Weaknesses by declaring and commending the contrary practises among Friends too large to be here related And notwithstanding all my Sufferings and Tryals by Magistrates Parents Companions and above all from the Priests of the false Religions in the World the Lord hath preserved me to this day and hath given me an hundred fold in this World as well as the assurance of Life everlasting Informing them of the tenderness of my Father to me before and at his death and how through patience and long-suffering all opposition was conquered Then beginning my Exhortation unto them which was on this wise That therefore since God had given me and them a divine Sense of him our Eye might be to him and not to Man that we might come more into a silence of our selves and a growth into that heavenly Sense That this was the Work of the true Ministry not to keep People to themselves ever teaching them but to turn them to God the new Covenant-teacher and to Christ the great Gospel-teacher Thus John did and thought it no dishonour that they left him to go to Christ Behold the Lamb of God saith he that taketh away the Sins of the World And even John's Disciples left him to follow Christ Nay John testifies of himself That he was to decrease and Christ was to encrease Wherefore I prest them to have their eye to Christ that taketh away the Sin that is from Heaven heavenly to see that he increase in them Yea that henceforward they should know no Man after the Flesh no not Christ himself That their knowledge of and regard and fellowship one with another would stand in the Revelation of the Son of God in them which is God's great Prophet by whom God speaketh in these latter days And if their Ministers be true Ministers they will count it their glory to give way to Christ and that they decrease and Christ encrease that the instrument giveth way to him that useth it the Servant to the Lord which though it seemeth to detract from the Ministers yet it was and is the glory of a true Minister that God and Christ should be all in all and that his Will should be fulfilled For the day of the Lord God was come and all People must look to him for Salvation That all People must now come to keep God's great Sabbath to rest from meer Man and the Spirit of Man and all Men's thoughts words and works and that if they were true Believers they were at least entring into their rest I closely recommended that to them that they might not be of those that begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh for that those that should do so and thereby break God's Sabbath-day should be stoned to death by the Stone which is cut out of the Mountain without hands yea
therefore laid aside so shall it Vindicate us in Due Time in the Eyes of all Nations and present us a People owned beloved and protected of God in whom we have firmly believed Nor is this Presumption as some may think who being not so well acquainted with that Entire Resignation and Supreme Faith of which Jesus is the Author that removes Mountains into the Sea conclude from meer Natural and Human Considerations against us yet we know him in whom we have believed and the same that hath Cured us of our Diseases the same said unto us Arise and Walk in this Way of Faith Trust in me and not in another And truly this is much of that Wonder which Men shall have in their Minds and Mouths about us in those Latter Days In Troubles not to be dejected and in Jeopardies not to be concerned to make to our selves Defences but as the Lillies that neither toil nor spin yet feed and grow so we may both be preserved and become Victorious without Worldly Force or Projections For we must shew our selves to be that Little City and Hill of God that hath only his Salvation for our Walls and Bulwarks by whom he will renown his Arm and magnifie his Power above the Arts and Contrivances of Men. Our Weapons and our Armour is Spiritual it hath prevailed and it will prevail if we keep in the Faith which was first delivered to us a blessed Shield by which the Just live And therefore My Dear Friends let us be Careful not to mingle with the Crowd lest their Spirit enter us instead of our Spirit entering them and we thereby come to fall into the same Temptations they are liable to of Fear and Flying to the Hills and Mountains to protect them confiding in the Arm of Flesh to deliver them no no! they must come to us we must not go to them Yet can we not be Unsensible of their Infirmities as well as we shall not be free from some of their Sufferings we must make their Case as our own and travail alike in Spirit for them as for our selves Let us stand in the Counsel of our God and he will make us Preachers-forth to them of the Works of his Divine Power and the Virtue of that Faith which comes from Heaven yea he will make us as Saviours to the People that they may come to know the Holy Law and Word of the Lord their Creator in their Hearts and have their Minds and Souls turned to him and stay'd upon them that Iniquity may no more abound nor Ungodliness find a place but that in Truth Righteousness and Peace they may be establisht and the Land keep its SABBATH to the Lord for ever Then shall God lift up the Light of his Countenance upon us and water us from Heaven and bless us with all Temporal and Spirital Blessings and we shall be yet called THE ISLAND SAVED BY THE LORD Amen Amen! This was upon my Soul from God to you I could not Visit you all with a Distinct Message upon many Accounts besides the Time is Short and the Confusion appears to me to be at hand Therefore have I sent it by way of Epistle with the Brotherly Salutation of Unfeigned and Unalterable Love to you all in your Respective Meetings and Families And the Lord God of our Visitation and Redemption stir you up to these things and keep us all in his Holy Fear Wisdom Love and Patience through all those Travails and Exercises to the End of our Days that having finisht our Testimonies our Heads may go down to our Graves in Peace and our Souls be received into the Rest which is reserved for the Righteous with God and with his Blessed Lamb forever I am Your Brother and Companion through the many Tribulations of our Day and Testimony William Penn. Worminghurst in Sussex the 4th of the 9th Month 1678. I desire that this Epistle may be read in the Fear of the Lord in your several Meetings 22d 5. Month. London 2â—d Essex 24th Colchester 25th Harwich 26th â— Month. 27th 2â—th Briel Rotterdam 2â—th 30th 5 Month. 31st Leyden 1st 6 Month. Haerlem Amsterdam 12th 6 Month. 13th 6 Month. 14th 6 Month. 15th 6. Month. 16th Naerden 18th Osnabrug 19th 6 Month. Herwerden 10th 20th 6 Month. 11th 12th â— Month. 12th 22th 6 Month. 13th 23th 6 Month. Paderborne 14th 24th 6 Month. 15th 25th Cassel 16th 26th 17th 27th 6 Month. Frankfort 21st 31st 6 Month. 22 1 6 Mon. Isa 59.21 5.23 6 Month. Crisheim Franckenthall 7.25 6 th Month. Manheim 1.26 6th Month. Worms Crisheim 2.27 6 th Month. Worms 3.28 Mentz Frankfort 4.29 6 th Month. Mentz Hampack 5.30 6 th Month. Tresy 6.31 Cullen 7.1 7 th Month. 1.2 7 th Month. Duysburgh Mulheim 2.3 7 th Month. Duysburgh Holton 7th Month. 3.4 Wesel 7 th Month. 4.5 Rees Emrick Cleve 7th Month. 5.6 Nimwegen Utrecht 7 th Month 6.7 Amsterdam 7 th Month 7.8 7 th Month. 1.9 Horn. 7 th Month. 2.10 Enckhuysen Workum Harlingen 7 th Month. 3.11 Wesel Leeuwaerden Wiewart 7 th Month. 5.13 Lippenhusen 7 th Month. 6.14 Groningen 7.15 Delfzyl 7 th Month. 1.16 Embden Lier 17 th 2. Bremen 7th Month. 3.18 7th Month. Herwerdâ—n 7.22 7 th Month. 8.23 7 th Month. 2. â—4 7 th Month. 3.25.4.26 27 7th Month. Wesel 28th Duysburgh 29th Dusseldorp 8.30 Ceulen 2.1 8th Month. Dusseldorp 3.2 Duysburgh 3. 8th Month. Wesel 5.4 8th Month. 6.5 Cleve 8th Month. 7.6 Utrecht 1.7 Amsterdam 2.8.5 3.9 8 th Month. 4.10 5.11 Leyden 8 th Month. 6.12 Hague Delft Rotterdam 8 th Month. 7.13 8 th Month. 1.14 2.15 8th Month. Nortwyck 8th Month. 4.17 Hague Delft Rotterdam 8th Month. 5.18 6.19 8 th Month. 7.20 Briel 8 th Month. 1.21 2.22 3.23 Harwich 4.24 Colchester 8 th Month. 5.25 6.26 London 9th Month. 5.1 Worminghurst Hague