“Friends,

“The Lord, by his eternal power, hath opened the heart of the king to open the prison doors, by which about fifteen or sixteen hundred are set at liberty, and hath given a check to the informers; so that in many places our meetings are pretty quiet. My desires are, that both liberty and sufferings may be sanctified to his people, that Friends may prize the mercies of the Lord in all things, and to him be thankful, who stilleth the raging waves of the seas, allayeth the storms and tempests, and maketh a calm. Therefore it is good to trust in the Lord, and cast your care upon him, who careth for you. For when ye were in jails and prisons, the Lord did, by his eternal arm and power, uphold you, and sanctified them to you (and unto some he made them as a sanctuary), and tried his people as in a furnace of affliction, both in prisons and spoiling of goods. In all this the Lord was with his people, and taught them to know that ‘the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof;’ and that he was in all places; ‘who crowneth the year with his goodness,’ Psal. lxv.

Therefore let all God’s people be diligent, and careful to keep the camp of God holy, pure, and clean, and to serve God and Christ, and one another in the glorious, peaceable gospel of life and salvation, which glory shines over God’s camp; and his great Prophet, Bishop, and Shepherd is among, or in the midst of them, exercising his heavenly offices in them; so that you his people may rejoice in Christ Jesus, through whom you have peace with God. For he that destroyeth the devil and his work, and bruises the serpent’s head, is all God’s people’s heavenly Foundation and Rock to build upon; which was the holy prophets’ and apostles’ Rock in days past, and is now the Rock of our age; which Rock and Foundation of God standeth sure. Upon this the Lord God establish all his people. Amen.”

London, the 25th of the 7th Month, 1686.

“In whom ye have all peace and life, and in whom there is no division, schism, rent, strife, nor separation; for Christ is not divided: there can be no separation in the truth, nor in the light, grace, faith, and Holy Ghost, but unity, fellowship, and communion. For the devil was the first that went out of the truth, separated from it, and tempted man and woman to disobey God, and to go from the truth into a false liberty, to do that which God forbade. So it is the serpent now that leads men and women into a false liberty, even the God of the world, from which man and woman must be separated by the truth; that Christ the Truth may make them free, and then they are free indeed. Then they are to stand fast in that liberty, in which Christ hath made them free, and in Him there is no division, schism, rent, or separation; but peace, life, and reconciliation to God, and to one another. So in Christ, male and female are all one; for whether they be male or female, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, they are all one in Christ. And there can be no schism, rent, or division in Him; nor in the worship of God, in his Holy Spirit and truth; nor in the pure and undefiled religion, that keeps from the spots of the world; nor in the love of God that beareth and endureth all things; nor in the Word of God’s grace, for it is pure and endureth for ever.

“Many, you see, have lost the Word of patience and the Word of wisdom, that is pure, and peaceable, and gentle, and easy to be entreated: then they run into the wisdom that is below, that is ‘earthly, sensual, and devilish,’ and very uneasy to be entreated. They go from the love of God that beareth all things, endureth all things, thinketh no evil, and doth not behave itself unseemly: then they cannot bear, but grow brittle, and are easily provoked, run into unseemly things, and are in that, that vaunteth itself, are puffed up, rash, heady, high-minded, and fierce, and become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; but this is contrary to the nature of the love of God. Therefore, dear Friends and brethren, dwell in the love of God; for they who dwell in love, dwell in God, and God in them. Keep in the Word of wisdom, that is gentle, pure, and peaceable, and in the Word of patience, that endureth and beareth all things; which Word of patience the devil, and the world, and all his instruments can never wear out; it will wear them all out; for it was before they were, and will be, when they are gone, the pure, holy Word of God, by which all God’s children are born again, feed on the milk thereof, and live and grow by it. My desires are, that ye may all be of one heart, mind, soul, and spirit in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

“My dear Friends in the Lord Jesus Christ!

“All you, that are gathered in his holy name, know, that your meetings for worship, your quarterly, monthly and other meetings are set up by the power and Spirit of the Lord God, and witnessed by his Spirit and power in your hearts; and by the Spirit and power of the Lord God they are established to you, and in the power and Spirit of the Lord God you are established in them. The Lord God hath with his Spirit sealed to you, that your meetings are of his ordering and gathering, and he hath owned them, by honouring you with his blessed presence in them; and you have had great experience of his furnishing you with his wisdom, life, and power, and heavenly riches from his treasure and fountain, by which many thanks and praises have been returned in your meetings to his holy, glorious name. He hath sealed your meetings by his Spirit to you, and that your gathering together hath been by the Lord, to Christ his Son, and in his name: and not by man. So the Lord hath the glory and praise of them and in them, who hath upheld you and them, by the arm of his power, against all opposers and backsliders, and their slanderous books and tongues. For the Lord’s power and Seed doth reign over them all, in which he doth preserve his sons and daughters to his glory, by his eternal arm and power, in his work and service, as a willing people in the day of his power, without being weary or fainting, but strong in the Lord, and valiant for his glorious name and precious truth, and his pure religion; that ye may serve the Lord in Christ Jesus, your Rock and Foundation, in your age and generation. Amen.”

London, the 3rd of 11th Month, 1686-7.

“They are living members, living stones, built up a spiritual household, children of the promise, and of the Seed and flesh of Christ; and as the apostle saith, ‘Flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone.’ They are the good seed, the children of the everlasting kingdom written in heaven; and have put on the Lord Jesus Christ. They sit together in heavenly places in Christ, are clothed with the Sun of Righteousness, Christ Jesus, and have the moon under their feet, as Rev. xii. So all changeable things, that are in the world, all changeable religions, worships, ways, fellowships, churches, and teachers in the world, are as the moon; for the moon changes, but the sun doth not change. The Sun of Righteousness never changeth, nor goes down; but all the ways, religions, worships, fellowships of the world, and the teachers thereof, change like the moon.

“The true church, which Christ is the head of, which is in God, the Father, is called ‘the pillar and ground of truth,’ whose conversation is in heaven; this church is clothed with the Sun, Christ Jesus, her head, who doth not change, and hath all changeable things under her feet. These are the living members, born again of the Immortal Seed, by the Word of God, who feed upon the immortal milk, and live and grow by it. Such are the new creatures in Christ Jesus, who makes all things new, and sees the old things pass away. His church and all his members, which are clothed with the Sun, their worship is in Spirit, and in truth, which doth not change; which truth the devil, the foul, unclean spirit, is out of, and cannot get into this worship in Spirit and in truth. Their religion is pure and undefiled before God, that keeps from the spots of the world, &c., and their way is the new and living way, Christ Jesus. So the church of Christ, that is clothed with the Sun, that hath the moon and all changeable religions and ways under her feet, hath an unchangeable worship, religion, and way, an unchangeable Rock and Foundation, Christ Jesus, and an unchangeable High Priest; and so are children of the New Testament, and in the everlasting Covenant of Light and Life.

“Now all, that profess the Scriptures both of the New and Old Testament, and are not in Christ Jesus, the apostle tells them, they are ‘reprobates, if Christ be not in them.’ Therefore these, that are not in Christ, cannot be clothed with Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, that never changes. They are under the changeable moon, in the world, in the changeable things, changeable religions, ways, worships, teachers, rocks, and foundations. But Christ, the Son of God, and Sun of Righteousness, doth not change; in whom his people are gathered, and sit together in heavenly places in him, clothed with Christ Jesus, the Sun, who is the mountain, that filleth the whole earth with his divine power and light. So all his people see him, and feel him both by sea and land. He is in all places of the earth, felt and seen of all his. And Christ Jesus saith to the outward professors, the Jews, ‘I am from above,’ ye are from below, ‘ye are of this world.’ So their religions, worships, ways, teachers, faiths, beliefs, and creeds are made by men, and are below, of this world that changeth like the moon. You may see their religions, ways, worships, and teachers, are all changeable, like the moon; but Christ, the Sun, with which the church is clothed, doth not change, nor his church; for they are spiritually minded, and their way, worship, and religion is spiritual, from Christ, who is from above, and not of this world. Christ hath redeemed his people from the world, and its changeable rudiments, elements, and old things, and from its changeable teachers, faiths, and beliefs. For Christ is the author and finisher of his church’s faith, who is from above, and saith, ‘Believe in the light, that ye may become children of light;’ and it is given them not only to believe, but to suffer for his name. So this faith and belief is above all faiths and beliefs, which change, like the moon. God’s people are a holy nation, a peculiar people, a spiritual household, and royal priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifice to God, by Jesus Christ; and are zealous of righteous, godly, good works; and their zeal is for that which is of God, against the evil which is not of God.

“Christ took upon him the seed of Abraham; he doth not say, the corrupt seed of the Gentiles: so, according to the flesh, he was of the holy seed of Abraham and of David; and his holy body and blood was an offering and a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, as a lamb without blemish, whose flesh saw no corruption. By the one offering of himself in the New Testament or New Covenant, he has put an end to all the offerings and sacrifices amongst the Jews in the Old Testament. Christ, the holy Seed, was crucified, dead, and buried, according to the flesh, and raised again the third day; and his flesh saw no corruption. Though he was crucified in the flesh, yet he was quickened again by the Spirit, and is alive, and liveth for evermore; he hath all power in heaven and in earth given to him, and reigneth over all; and is the one Mediator between God and man, even the man Christ Jesus.

“Christ said, ‘He gave his flesh for the life of the world:’ and the apostle says, ‘His flesh saw no corruption:’ so that which saw no corruption he gave for the life of the corrupt world, to bring them out of corruption. Christ said again, ‘He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him.’ He that eats not his flesh and drinks not his blood, which is the life of the flesh, hath not eternal life. As the apostle saith, all died in Adam; then all are dead. Now all coming spiritually to eat the flesh of Christ, the second Adam, and drink his blood, his blood and flesh gives all the dead in Adam, life, and quickens them out of their sins and trespasses, in which they were dead; so they come to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, living members of the church of Christ, that he is the head of; are clothed with the Sun of Righteousness, the Son of God, that never changes, and have the changeable moon under their feet, and all changeable, worldly things and inventions, and works of men’s hands. These see the people, how they change from one worship to another, from one religion to another, from one way to another, and from one church to another; and yet their hearts are not changed. The letter of Scripture is read by the Christians like the Jews; but the mystery is hid: they have the sheep’s clothing, the outside, but are inwardly ravened from the Spirit, which should bring them into the Lamb’s and Sheep’s nature. The Scripture saith, ‘All the uncircumcised must go down into the pit:’ and therefore all must be circumcised with the Spirit of God, which puts off the body of death, and sins of the flesh, that came into man and woman by their disobedience, and transgressing of God’s commands. I say, all must be circumcised with the Spirit, which puts off the body of death and sins of the flesh, before they come up into Christ, their Rest, that never fell, and be clothed with Him, the Sun of Righteousness.”

“The apostle saith that there must be ‘a falling away’ first, before the wicked one, that man of sin, the son of perdition, be revealed, which betrayeth Christ within, as the son of perdition betrayed Christ without; and they that betray Christ within, crucify to themselves Christ afresh, and put him to open shame. Before the apostles died, this man of sin, the son of perdition, was revealed: for they saw antichrist come, and false prophets, false apostles, and deceivers come, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. They saw the wolves dressed in the sheep’s clothing, and such as went in Cain’s, Korah’s, and Balaam’s way, and Jezebel’s; and the whore of Babylon, the whore of confusion, the mother of harlots, and such as were enemies to the cross of Christ, that served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies. These Christ saw should come, and said, ‘If it were possible, they should deceive the elect;’ and commanded his followers not to go after them. The apostle said, ‘Turn away from such;’ and Christ and his apostles warned the church of Christ of such.

“And now, in this day of Christ and his gospel, after the long night of apostasy from the light, grace, truth, life, and Spirit of Christ Jesus, the son of perdition, the wicked one, the man of sin, is revealed again; and the inwardly ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing, and the spirit of Cain, Korah, Balaam, Jezebel, the antichrists, false prophets, and false apostles, and such as are enemies to the cross of Christ, who serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own bellies; and crucify Christ to themselves, and put him to open shame. This spirit have we seen in this gospel-day of Christ; but Christ will consume them with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy them with the brightness of his coming. But God’s people, whom he hath chosen unto salvation in Christ from the beginning, ‘through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,’ stand stedfast in Christ Jesus; and are thankful to God, by and through his Son, their rock and salvation, who is their happiness and eternal inheritance.

“The apostle saith, ‘Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.’ So when people are returned to Christ, their Shepherd, they know his voice, and follow him; and are returned to the Bishop of their souls: then they believe in him, and receive wisdom and understanding from him, who is from above, heavenly and spiritual. Then they act like spiritual and holy men and women; and come to be members of the church of Christ. Then a spiritual care cometh upon the elders in Christ, that all the members walk in Christ, in his light, grace, Spirit, and truth, that they may adorn their profession of Christ; and see that all walk in the order of the Holy Spirit, and the everlasting gospel of peace, life, and salvation. This order keeps out of confusion; for the gospel of peace, the power of God, was before confusion was. And all the heirs of the gospel are heirs of its order, and are in this gospel, which brings life and immortality to light in them; by which all may see their work and service in it, to look after the poor, widows, and fatherless, and to see that nothing be lacking; and that all honour the Lord in their lives and conversations.

“When the whole house of Israel were in their graves and sepulchres, and were called ‘the scattered dry bones,’ yet they could speak, and say, ‘their bones were dry, their hope was lost,’ or they were without hope, ‘and they were cut off.’ They were alive outwardly, and could speak outwardly. So that which is called Christendom may very well be called ‘the scattered dry bones,’ and they may be said to be in their graves and sepulchres, dead from the heavenly breath of life, the Spirit and Word of life, that gathereth to God. Though they can speak, and are alive outwardly, yet they remain in the congregations or churches of the dead, that want the virtue of life. For the Jews, whom God poured his Spirit upon, and gave them his law, when they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and turned from God and his law, came to be dry scattered bones, and were turned into their graves and sepulchres. So Christendom, that is turned from the grace, truth, and light of Christ, and the Spirit, that God poureth upon all flesh, they are become the scattered dry bones, are in their graves and sepulchres, and are the congregations or churches of the dead, though they can speak, and are alive outwardly.

“Christ saith, ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ He gave his flesh for the life of the world. And he saith, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’; and, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ Christ is the quickening Spirit. All being dead in Adam, are to be quickened and made alive by Christ, the second Adam. And when they are quickened and made alive by him, they meet together in the name of Jesus Christ their Saviour, who died for their sins, and is risen for their justification; who was dead and is alive again, and liveth for evermore. All whom he hath quickened and made alive (even all the living) meet in the name of Jesus, who is alive, and He, their living Prophet, Shepherd, and Bishop, is in the midst of them; and is their living Rock and Foundation, and a living Mediator between them and the living God. So the living praise the living God through Jesus Christ, through whom they have peace with God. All the living have rest in Christ, their life. He is their sanctification, their righteousness, their treasure of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, which is spiritual and heavenly. He is the spiritual tree and root, which all the believers in the light, the life in Christ, that pass from the death in Adam to the life in Christ, and overcome the world, and are born of God, are grafted into; even Christ, the heavenly tree, which beareth all the spiritual branches or grafts. These meet in his name, are gathered in him, and sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, their life, who hath quickened and made them alive. So all the living worship the living God in his Holy Spirit and truth, in which they live and walk. Into this worship, the foul, unclean spirit, the devil, cannot get; for the Holy Spirit and truth is over him, and he is out of it. This is the standing worship, which Christ set up in his new covenant. And they that are quickened by Christ are the living stones, living members, and spiritual household and church, or congregation of Christ, who is the living head and husband. They that are made alive by Christ are a living church, have a living head, and are come from the congregations or churches of the dead in Adam, where death and destruction talk of God, and of his prophets and apostles, in their wisdom that is below, earthly and devilish; in the knowledge that is brutish, and in the understanding that comes to naught. For what they know is natural, by their natural tongues, arts, sciences; in which they corrupt themselves. This is the state of the dead in Adam: but the quickened, they that are made alive by Christ, discern between the living and the dead.”

Kingston-upon-Thames, the 12th Month, 1686-7.

“Noah and his family were called into the ark, before the old world was destroyed with the flood. And all the faithful generation, that lived before, were taken away, and died in the faith, before that flood of destruction came upon the wicked old world.

“The Lord called Lot out of Sodom, before he destroyed and consumed it, and the wicked there.

“Christ said, ‘It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem:’ and he said, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings! and ye would not,’ Luke xiii. 33, 34. And he said to the Jews, ‘Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute; that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation,’ Luke xi. 49-51. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate,’ Matt. xxiii. 34, &c. Christ told his disciples, that the temple at Jerusalem should be thrown down, and there should not be one stone left upon another, that should not be thrown down, Matt. xxiv. 2. Also, that he must go to Jerusalem, and ‘suffer many things of the Jews, elders, and chief priests, and be killed, and raised again the third day,’ Matt. xvi. 21. And Christ said, ‘When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know the desolation thereof is nigh.’ He foretold, that the Jews should fall by the edge of the sword, and should be led away ‘captive into all nations; and Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles,’ Luke xxi. 20, 24.

“Here you may see, how Jerusalem was often warned by Christ, and how often he would have ‘gathered them, but they would not,’ before they were scattered over or into all nations, their houses left desolate, and their temple and Jerusalem besieged with armies, destroyed, and thrown down. And though the disciples and apostles of Christ did meet, with the elders and church, at Jerusalem, after Christ was risen, yet Eusebius reports in his Ecclesiastical History, that the Christians at Jerusalem had a vision, or a revelation to depart out of Jerusalem. Being forewarned also by Christ, that when they should see Jerusalem compassed with armies, its desolation was nigh; and that the temple should be thrown down, and not one stone left upon another; it is said, that the Christians did depart out of bloody Jerusalem, before it and the temple were destroyed by Titus, the emperor, who besieged it with his armies. He was of the Gentiles, and destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, as Christ had fore-spoken to his disciples, because of the wickedness of the Jews, and the innocent blood that they had shed in it. So the Lord called his people out of bloody Jerusalem, before he destroyed it.

“And it is said, that Titus destroyed the temple and Jerusalem about forty-two years after Christ was crucified, and risen again; and that with so great a destruction, that the Jews never built the city again, nor the temple (as Sodom was never built again, nor the cities of the old world.) But the Jews for above these thousand years have been, and are a scattered people in all nations to this day; and Christ (whom they crucified) and his doctrine, is preached, and set over them; and the Gentiles, whom they hated, have received, and do receive him and his doctrine, and praise God for it through Jesus Christ. Amen.

“God called his people out of Egypt, after he had poured out his ten plagues upon the Egyptians; when he had destroyed the first-born of Egypt, then the Lord brought his people out of Egypt. And after the Lord had clearly brought his people out, he destroyed Pharaoh, and all his hosts and chariots.

“John says, he heard a voice, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, (to wit, out of Babylon, the false church), that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,’ Rev. xviii. 4, 5, Here ye may see that God called his people out of spiritual Babylon, before he destroyed her, and cast her down, to be utterly burnt with fire, ver. 8, 9, 21.

“Was not Nebuchadnezzar’s empire thrown down and ended by Cyrus and Darius, who were of the seed of the Medes, before Cyrus and Darius gave forth their proclamation for all the Jews to go into their own land, out of Babylon’s captivity? And was there not a prophecy of Cyrus, ‘that he should subdue nations, and that the Lord would loose the loins of kings before him, and break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron, and open the two-leaved gates; and that the gates should not be shut?’ And the Lord said, ‘This is for Jacob, my servant’s sake, and for Israel mine elect,’ Isa. xlv. Was not this fulfilled in Cyrus’s and Darius’s time? For did not then the Jews go out of captivity into their own land,land, Ezra i. 2-4; vi. 1, 12; Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 13. Was not this prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled when the children of Israel came out of Babylon? Were not the Assyrians, that carried away the ten tribes, subdued? and the Babylonians, that carried away the two tribes, were they not subdued in the days of Cyrus and Darius, in whose days the ‘loins of kings were loosed, and the two-leaved gates of brass and iron were opened?’ and had not Israel and Jacob their liberty by them in their days, to go into their own land?

“And here in England, was it not observed, that most of the honest and sober people were turned out of the army, and their commissions, offices, and places taken from them, because they could not join with others in their cruelty and persecuting? And others laid down their commissions themselves, and came out from amongst those persecutors, before they were overthrown and brought to confusion. All that are wise, see these things, and learn by such examples and way-marks to shun such bogs. The righteous are safe, that keep in Christ, their everlasting sanctuary, that changes not in whom they have rest and peace with God. Amen.”

Kingston, the 29th of the 12th Month, 1686-7.