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into our meetings, and have brought in drums beating, and kettles, to make noises with, that the truth might not be heard; and among these, the priests as rude as any: as may be seen in the book of the fighting priests, wherein a list is given of some of the priests that had actually beaten and abused friends.

Many also of our friends were brought up to London prisoners, to be tried before the committee, where Henry Vane being chairman, would not suffer friends to come in, except they would put off their hats: but at last the Lord's power came over him, so that, through the mediation of some others that persuaded him, they were admitted. Now many of us having been imprisoned upon contempts (as they called them) for not putting off our hats, it was not a likely thing that friends, who had suffered so long for it from others, should put off their hats to him. But the Lord's power came over them all, and wrought so, that several friends were set at liberty by them. Now inasmuch as sufferings grew very sharp, I was moved of the Lord to write a few lines, and send abroad amongst friends, to encourage them to go on faithfully and boldly, through the exercises of the day; of which a copy here follows:

My dear friends every where abroad scattered, in prison or out of prison, fear not, because of the reports of sufferings; let not the evil spies of the good land make you afraid, if they tell you the walls are high, and that there be Anakims in the land; for at the blowing of the rams' horns did the walls of Jericho fall down; and they that brought the evil report perished in the wilderness. But dwell ye in the faith, patience, and hope, having the Word of Life to keep you, which is beyond the law; and having the oath of God, his covenant, Christ Jesus, which divides the waters asunder, and makes them to run all on heaps; in that stand and ye will see all things work together for good, to them that love God. And in that triumph, when sufferings come, whatever they may be. Your faith, your shield, your helmet, your armour, you have on; ye are ready to skip over a mountain, or a wall, or an hill, and to walk through the deep waters, though they be heaps upon heaps. For the evil spies of the good land may preach up hardness; but Caleb, which signifies an heart, and Joshua, a Saviour, triumph over all.'

G. F.

Now after awhile I passed into the country, and went to Reading, and was there under great sufferings and exer

cises, and in a great travail in my spirit for about ten weeks time; for I saw there was great confusion and distraction amongst the people, and that the powers were plucking each other to pieces. And I saw how many men were destroying the simplicity, and betraying the truth, and a great deal of hypocrisy, and deceit, and strife, were got uppermost in the people, so that they were ready to sheath their swords in one another's bowels. There had been a tenderness in many of them formerly, when they were low, but when they were got up, and had killed, and taken possession, they came to be as bad as others; so that we had much to do with them about our hats, and saying thou and thee to them. For they turned their profession of patience and moderation into rage and madness; and many of them would be like distracted men for this hat-honour. For they had hardened themselves by persecuting the innocent, and were at this time crucifying the Seed, Christ, both in themselves and others; till at last they fell a biting and dvouring one another, until they were consumed one of another; who had turned against, and judged, that which God had wrought in them, and shewed unto them. So shortly after God overthrew them, and turned them upside down, and brought the king over them, who were often surmising that the Quakers met together to bring in king Charles, (when as friends did not concern themselves with the outward powers, or government). But at last the Lord brought him in, and many of them (when they saw he would be brought in) voted for the bringing him in. So with heart and voice praise the name of the Lord, to whom it doth belong; who over all hath the supremacy, and who will rock the nations, for he is over them. Now I had a sight and sense of the king's return a good while before, and so had some others. I writ to Oliver several times, and let him know that while he was persecuting God's people, they whom he accounted his enemies were preparing to come upon him. And when some forward spirits that came amongst us would have bought Somerset-house, that we might have meetings in it, I forbad them to do so: for I did then foresee the king's coming in again. Besides, there came a woman to me in the Strand, who had a prophesy concerning king Charles's coming in, three years before he came; and she told me, she must go to him to declare it. I advised her to wait upon the Lord, and keep it to herself; for if it uld be known that she went on such a message, they uld look upon it to be treason: but she said she must and tell him that he should be brought into England

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again. I saw her prophesy was true, and that a great stroke must come upon them in power; for they that had then gotten possession were so exceeding high, and such great persecution was acted by them, who called themselves saints, that they would take from friends their copyholdlands, because they could not swear in their courts. And sometimes when we laid these sufferings before Oliver Cromwell, he would not believe it. Wherefore Thomas Aldam and Anthony Pearson were moved to go through all the jails in England, and to get copies of friends commitments under the jailers' hands, that they might lay the weight of friend's sufferings upon Oliver Cromwell. And when he would not give order for the releasing of them, Thomas Aldam was moved to take his cap from off his head, and to rend it in pieces before him, and to say unto him, 'So shall thy government be rent from thee and thy house.' Another friend also, a woman, was moved to go to the parliament (that was envious against friends) with a pitcher in her hand, which she brake into pieces before them, and told them, so should they be broken to pieces; which came to pass shortly after. And in my great suffering and travail of spirit for the nation, being grievously burdened, and almost choaked with their hypocrisy, treachery and falseness, I saw God would bring that a top of them, which they had been a top of; and that all must be brought down to that which did convince them, before they could get over that bad spirit within and without: for it is the pure invisible spirit, that doth and only can work down all deceit in people.

Now while I was under that sore travail at Reading, by reason of grief and sorrow of mind, and the great exercise that was upon my spirit, my countenance was altered, and I looked poor and thin; and there came a company of unclean spirits to me, and told me the plagues of God were upon me; but I told them, it was the same spirit spake that in them, that said so of Christ when he was stricken and smitten, they hid their face from him. But when I had travailed with the witness of God, which they had quenched, and had gotten through with it, and over all that hypocrisy which the outside professors were run into, and saw how that would be brought down and turned under, and that life would rise over it, I came to have ease, and the light, power and Spirit shined over all. And then having recovered, and got through my travails and sufferings, my body and face swelled when I came abroad into the air; and then the bad spirits said I was grown fat, and they envied at that also: so I saw, that no con

dition nor state would please that spirit of theirs. But the Lord preserved me by his power and Spirit through and over all, and in the Lord's power I came to London again.

Now was there a great pudder made about the image or effigies of Oliver Cromwell lying in state, men standing and sounding with trumpets over his image after he was dead. At this my spirit was greatly grieved, and the Lord I found was highly offended. Then did 1 write the following lines unto them, and sent among them to reprove their wickedness, and warn them to repent:

'Oh friends, what are ye doing! and what mean ye to sound before an image! Will not all sober people think ye are like mad people? Oh, how am I grieved with your abominations! Oh, how am I wearied! My soul is wearied with you, saith the Lord: will I not be avenged of you, think ye, for your abominations? Oh, how have ye

plucked down and set up! Oh, how are your hearts made whole and not rent! And how are ye turned to fooleries! Which things in times past, ye stood over; therefore, how have ye left my dread, saith the Lord! O, therefore fear and repent, lest the snare and the pit take you all. The great day of the Lord is come upon all your abominations, and the swift hand of the Lord is turned against them all. The sober people in the nations stand amazed at your doings, and are ashamed, as if ye would bring in popery.'

G. F.

About this time great stirs were in the nation, the minds of people being unsettled, and much plotting and contriving there was by the several factions, to carry on their several interests. And a great care being upon me, lest any young or raw people, that might sometimes come amongst us, should be drawn into that snare, I was moved to give forth the following epistle as a warning unto all such :

'All friends every where, keep out of plots and bustling, and the arm of flesh, for all that is amongst Adam's sons in the fall, where they are destroying men's lives like dogs, and beasts, and swine, goaring, rending, and biting one another, and destroying one another, and wrestling with flesh and blood. From whence arise wars and killing but from the lusts? Now all this is in Adam in the fall, out of Adam that never fell, in whom there is peace and life. Ye are called to peace, therefore follow it; and that

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peace is in Christ, not in Adam in the fall. All that pretend to fight for Christ they are deceived, for his kingdom is not of this world, therefore his servants do not fight. Therefore fighters are not of Christ's kingdom, but are without Christ's kingdom, for his kingdom stands in peace and righteousness; but fighters are in the lust, and all that would destroy men's lives are not of Christ's mind, who came to save men's lives. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, it is peaceable; and all that be in strife are not of his kingdom and all that pretend to fight for the gospel are deceived; for the gospel is the power of God, which was before the devil or fall of man was, and the gospel of peace was before fighting was. Therefore they that pretend fighting and talk of fighting so, are ignorant of the gospel; and all that talk of fighting for Sion are in darkness, for Sion needs no such helpers and all such as profess themselves to be ministers of Christ, or Christians, and go about to beat down the whore with outward carnal weapons, the flesh and the whore are got up in themselves, and they are in a blind zeal; for the whore got up by the inward ravening from the Spirit of God, and the beating down of the whore must be by the inward stroke of the sword of the Spirit within. All such as pretend Christ Jesus and confess him, and yet run into the use of carnal weapons, wrestling with flesh and blood, throw away the spiritual weapons. They that would be wrestlers with flesh and blood throw away Christ's doctrine, and flesh is got upon them, and they are weary of their sufferings and such as would revenge themselves be out of Christ's doctrine: and such as being stricken on the one cheek would not turn the other, be out of Christ's doctrine and such as do not love one another and love enemies, be out of Christ's doctrine. Therefore ye that be heirs of the blessings of God, which were before the curse and the fall was, come to inherit your portions; and ye that be heirs of the gospel of peace, which was before the devil was, live in the gospel of peace, seeking the peace of all men, and the good of all men; and live in Christ, who came to save men's lives out of Adam in the fall, where they destroy men's lives and live not in him. For the Jews' sword outwardly, by which they cut down the heathen, was a type of the Spirit of God within, which cuts down the heathenish nature within. So live in the peaceable kingdom of Christ Jesus, and live in the peace of God, and not in the lusts, from whence wars arise, and live in Christ, the Prince of Peace, the way of God, who is the second Adam, that never fell; but live not in Adam

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