they will be an honour to God, and a praise one to another, both ruler and ruled.

Now the Lord said unto Moses, Judges and officers shalt thou make in all thy gates, (so they were not to be made in corners,) which the Lord giveth thee in all the tribes; and they shall judge the people with just judgment. (Mark! just judgment.) Thou shalt not wrest judgment, thou shalt not respect persons; thou shalt take no gift. For the gift blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor in any case. Keep thee far from a false matter. The innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked. That which is altogether just, shalt thou follow, that thou mayst live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.' Now a people following and doing that which is not just, is the cause they do not live and inherit the land. Deut. xvi. 18, 19, 20. Exod. xxiii. 6. And therefore do that which is just, that you may inherit Christ and your spiritual land. Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, seeing you were strangers; nor vex the widows and fatherless.' And the Lord saith, You shall be holy men unto me.' Again, the Lord says, Thou shalt not raise a false report, &c. Put not thy hand with the wicked to an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to decline after many, to wrest judgment.' Exod. xxiii. 1, 2.

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Again, the Lord saith, 'Ye shall not do unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty. But in righteousness thou shalt judge thy neighbour.' Levit. xix. 15. And Deut. i. 16, 17. and Josh. vii. 24. 'I charged your judges,' (says Moses,) saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.' So let all the strangers that are with you have righteous judgment, as well as those among yourselves. And again he saith, ‘Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's.' So long as ye judge righteously.

And therefore, now, friends, my desire is, that you all may be kept in the power and spirit of God and Christ in humility, and in that you will have a sense of all things, that whatever you act, it may be done in the spirit and power of Jesus Christ, to the praise of God the Father, who is over all, from everlasting to everlasting, who beholds and sees all your words and actions; that you may behold and see with his spirit, his and his son's divine majesty among you. Amen, G. F.

Read this in your assembly, and in your meetings.

CCCLXVIII. To suffering Friends at Horsham in Sussex.

Dear friends, who suffer for your testimony, and to all the rest in your county, I am glad to hear of your faithfulness, and of your standing for the church which Christ is the head of, which is in God, and are become his living members; and therefore wheresoever ye are in prison, or out of prison, where two or three are gathered in his name, there is a church, and Christ the living head in the midst of them; a prophet, to open to his church the things of his kingdom; and a bishop, to oversee his living members, that they be preserved in his light, grace, truth, spirit, and gospel; and he is a shepherd to feed them with heavenly food, who gives life eternal to his sheep, which he hath purchased with his own blood; and a priest who has offered up himself a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, who cleanses, and washes, and purifies his church, his people; a high priest, made higher than the heavens. Heb. vii. And no priest made below the heavens will become Christ's church; and therefore feel and see Christ exercising his prophetical, priestly, and kingly offices, and his ruling in your hearts. And all that will know the right way, or highway, or path to the church in God, (2 Thess. i.) must walk in the light, which is the life in Christ, and that will guide them to Christ, the way to God, the head of the church, the rock and foundation of God that stands sure.

And now, dear friends, my desires are, that you may all live in the love of God, and in the unity of his spirit, which is the bond of peace, in which you will be all kind and courteous one to another; and so the God of all peace and power support you, and strengthen you, and uphold you, throughout all your trials and sufferings, that he may be glorified in you all, who is over all, from everlasting to everlasting, blessed for ever; from whom ye have blessing and life. G. F. London, the 20th of the 12th month, 1681.

CCCLXIX. To the flock of Jesus Christ every where, to be read in their assemblies.

Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied among you all from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all: and God, who hath called you by his grace, and gathered you to be a people by his power and spirit, to his son Christ Jesus, your holy, heavenly, spiritual head, life, rock, and foundation. Now that you may all walk in Christ Jesus, and abide in him your vine, and in him you will all bring forth heavenly fruit to the praise and glory of God.

Christ saith, In me ye have peace, in the world ye have trouble;'

and therefore keep out of the spirit of the world; let not the spirit of the world come into you; for if ye do, ye go into trouble both inwardly and outwardly but if ye keep in Christ, who is not of the world, you keep in your heavenly place and region: for, He that hath the son of God, hath life;' and therefore keep in the life in Christ; and he that hath not the son of God, is in old Adam, in death, without life.

And, without me (says Christ) ye can do nothing;' without his grace, his light, his truth, his gospel, his power, his spirit, his faith, ye can do nothing; and, if Christ be not in you, ye are reprobates;' and if he be in you, and you in him, you are in the election, and in the seed, in which all nations are blessed.

And therefore, my friends and brethren, both males and females, keep and walk in the seed, in which all nations are blessed, which bruises the head of the serpent, and destroys the devil and his works, which brought misery and the curse upon all nations. So that in this holy seed, you all may be the children of the kingdom of God that stands in righteousness, and power, and joy in the holy ghost: I say, in the righteousness of Christ, which was before unrighteousness was; and in the power of God, which was before the power of satan and dragon were; and in the peace of God, that passes all the understanding of the world, and was before the god of the world was; and in the holy ghost, which was before the unclean ghost got into man and woman.

And so that you may all come to walk in the new covenant of light, which was before the prince of darkness was, and life, that is over death, and was before death was. Here in this you will have your heavenly religion to walk in, which will keep you out of all the world's unruly ways and actions, and ungracious words and languages, that all your words be seasoned with the grace of God, that hath brought you salvation, that you may edify the hearers, and your conversation may be in heaven.

And keep in the cross of Christ, the power of God, that keeps you crucified to the world; that is, dead to the world, and the world dead and crucified to you: for if you do not keep in this power of God, which was before the world and its god was, to keep you crucified to the world, but let in the spirit of the world, you let in its god, which will crucify the good in you, and you will come to crucify to yourselves the son of God afresh, and put him to open shame. Therefore keep that crucified with the power of God, the cross of Christ, which did and would crucify the just; and then you will keep alive in the power of God, and live in Christ Jesus, and he is alive in you, and you in him. And now, all friends and brethren, let your meekness, your temperance, and your gentleness and sobriety, and tenderness and modera

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tion appear to all men, that your light may so shine, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’

And ye being the salt of the earth, you will make all savoury; therefore take heed of losing your salt, lest you be trodden under the feet of

men.

And keep out of the restless, discontented, disquieted spirit of the world about the government: for you know it has been always our way to seek the good of all, and to live peaceably under the government, and to seek their eternal good, peace, and happiness in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to lay our innocent sufferings before them, who have suffered as lambs and sheep, and made no resistance, but have prayed for them that persecuted us, and despitefully used us, and hated us,' ac cording to the command of Christ.

'For ye were as sheep gone astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls: for hitherto ye are called; because Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. And he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from speaking evil, and his lips that he speak no guile.' 2 Pet. ii.

The 21st of the 9th month, 1681.

CCCLXX. To suffering Friends in Leicester.

G. F.

Dear friends, that are in prison, and all Friends and sufferers that are in the county, to whom is my love in the Lord's eternal power, and seed of life, that reigns over all, in whom you have peace with God, and riches that are everlasting.

Now, dear friends, your sufferings have been long in that county, and great have been your trials, and spoiling of your goods, through your adversaries' and persecutors' rage against you; but the Lord's secret hand and power is that which hath upheld you through all to himself; and therefore we may say, 'What shall separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus? Shall tribulations, persecutions, powers, or principalities, thrones or dominions? Nay, there is not any thing able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,' whom you have chosen: a priest that is from above, not from below, who has offered up himself to God for you, who is not like, the Jews' priests, that had the tithes of the people for offering up their outward offerings, and such like services. So you have a priest from heaven, that is made higher than the heavens, and is the prophet that God has raised up

like Moses, whom you are to hear in his light, grace, and truth. And he is your shepherd from heaven, who has laid down his life for his sheep, who is above all the earthly shepherds below; and this shepherd will feed you with that which is heavenly. And he is your bishop from heaven, to oversee you, that you may be kept from sitting down in any earthly place with your minds, spirits, and souls, but only to sit down in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, who is the heavenly and spiritual bishop, who lives for evermore, the first and last, the beginning and ending, who is the first-born of every creature, and the first begotten from the dead, who does quicken, and makes alive, and begets from the death, and makes them to sit together (whom he has made alive) in the heavenly places in himself.

And now, dear friends, I do feel the Lord's eternal power present with you in all your sufferings, how it hath and doth support you; and therefore let your faith be steadfast in the power of God, which will keep you all unto the day of salvation. And that you may all be valiant and faithful for God's truth upon the earth in this day of trial and persecution, from both teachers, professors, and profane, which are below, whose persecuting spirit will have but a time. And therefore be of good faith; for a sparrow shall not fall to the ground without the will of the Father; and ye are of more value than many sparrows. And Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.' For so the old persecutors persecuted the prophets and apostles before you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; for the spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you, who are railed upon, and suffer for his name sake. And though he is evil spoken of by your persecutors, but on your part he is glorified, that suffer for his name. And therefore let none be ashamed to suffer as a christian, but let him glorify God in his sufferings, who doth support him.

And so, dear friends, live in love and unity, and be kind, and courteous, and tender hearted one towards another; yea, and to all your persecutors, that you may heap coals of fire upon their heads; and so overcome evil with good. And so the God of all peace establish you all upon his heavenly rock and foundation of life, (Christ Jesus,) which standeth sure, and cannot be moved. And so with my love to you all in the holy seed, in which all nations are blest. And in this seed, the Lord God Almighty keep and preserve you, which bruises the head of the evil seed, that makes you to suffer. And the Lord God Almighty arm you with his armour, and strengthen you, that you may be able to