strong wall or a bulwark against that spirit that would lead you further into the fall from God, into those things which the fallen man and woman delight in, to beautify, or adorn themselves with. Therefore, all that profess the truth, be circumspect, sincere, and fervent, following the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not of this world; in whom ye have life and peace with God.

'South-street, the 24th of the 4th month, 1685.'

G. F.

After some weeks I returned to London. Among other services that I found there, one was to assist in drawing up a testimony to clear our friends of being concerned in the late rebellion in the west, and from all plots against the government; which accordingly was done, and delivered to the chief justice, who was then to go into the west with commission to try prisoners.

I tarried some time in London, visiting meetings, and labouring among Friends in the service of truth. But finding my health much impaired for want of fresh air, I went to Charles Bathurst's country-house at Epping-forest, where I staid a few days. There it came upon me to write the following epistle to Friends:

DEAR FRIENDS,-Who are called, chosen and faithful in this day of trial, temptations, and sufferings, whom the Lord by his right hand hath upholden in all your sufferings (and some to death) for the Lord and his truth's sake. Christ saith, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world; in me ye have peace, but in the world ye have trouble." The children of the seed, which be heirs of the kingdom, know this is true. And though ye have trials by false brethren, Judases, and sons of perdition, that are got into the temple of God, and exalted above all that is called God, whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming; and though ye be tried by powers and principalities, yet there is nothing able to separate you from the love of God which ye have in Christ Jesus. In that love dwell, which bears all things, and fulfils the law; in which edify one another, and be courteous, kind, and humble; for to such God giveth his grace plentifully, such he teacheth. And pray in the holy ghost, which proceeds from the Father and the Son; in it keep your holy communion and unity in the spirit, in the bond of peace, which is the King of kings' heavenly peace. In that you are all bound to good behaviour, to keep peace among yourselves, to seek the peace of all men, and to show forth the heavenly, gentle, and peaceable wisdom to all, in righteousness and truth, answering the good in all people in your lives and conversations (for the Lord is glorified in your bringing forth spiritual fruit:) that ye may eye and behold the Lord in all your actions, that the blessings of the Lord ye

may all feel to rest upon you. Whether ye be the Lord's prisoners for his name and truth's sake, or at liberty, in all things labour to be content, for that is a continual feast; and let no trouble move you; then ye will be as mount Sion, that cannot be removed. In all things exercise the word of patience, which word will sanctify all things to you. Study to be quiet, and do the Lord's business that he requires of you, and your own, in truth and righteousness. Whatsoever ye do, let it be done to the praise and glory of God in the name of Jesus Christ. All that make God's people suffer, make the seed suffer in their own particulars, and imprison the just there. Such will not visit the seed in themselves, but cast it into prison in others, and not visit it in prison. You may read that Christ saith, "such must go into everlasting punishment." That is a sad punishment and prison. All such as are become apostates and backsliders, that crucify to themselves Christ afresh, put him to open shame, trample under feet the blood of the Son of God by which they were cleansed, and come to be unclean; such grieve, vex, quench, and rebel against the spirit of God in themselves, and then such rebel against them that walk in the spirit of God. Such are unfaithful to God and man, and are enemies to every good work and service of God; but their end will be according to their works, who are like the earth that hath often received rain, but brings forth briers and thorns, which are to be rejected, and are for the fire. Therefore, dear friends, in all your sufferings feel the Lord's eternal arm and power, which hath supported you to this day, and will to the end, as your faith stands in it, and as you are settled upon the rock and foundation Christ Jesus, that cannot be removed, in whom ye have life and peace with God. The Lord God Almighty, in him, give you dominion, and preserve you all to his glory, that in all your sufferings ye may feel his presence, and that, when ye have finished your testimony, ye may receive the crown of glory which God hath laid up for them that fear and serve him, Amen. G. F. The 15th of the 7th month, 1685.'

Having spent about a week in the country I returned to London; where I continued about two months, visiting meetings, and labouring to get relief for Friends from their sufferings, which yet lay heavy upon them in many parts of the nation. I also wrote several papers relating to the service of truth, one of which was concerning order in the church of God, which some that were gone out of the unity of Friends did much oppose. It was as followeth :

'AMONG all societies, or families, or nations of people in the world, they have among them some sort of order. There was the order of Aaron in the Old Testament, and there was the order of Melchisedek before

that, after whose order Christ Jesus came, and he did not despise that order. God is a God of order in his whole creation, and in his church; and all believers in the light, the life in Christ, that pass from death to life, are in the order of the holy spirit, power, light, life, and government of Christ Jesus, of the increase whereof there is no end. This is a mystery to all those disorderly people, who have written and printed so much against order, which the Lord's power and spirit hath brought forth among his people. And you that cry so much against order, is it not manifest that you are gone into a land of darkness, thick as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, into disorder, and where the light is as darkness? is not this your condition seen by all them that live and walk in the truth, and whose conversations are according to the gospel of life and salvation?

The devil, satan, dragon, the first and second beast, the whore and false prophets, and their worshippers and followers, all are out of the truth, abode not in it, nor in the order of it: and the truth is over them all. In Salem is God's tabernacle; and his tabernacle is in Shiloh : these are far beyond the tabernacles of Ham. Psalm lxxvi. lxxviii.

All the figures and shadows were and are comprehended in time; but Christ the substance is the beginning and the ending. And all trials, troubles, persecutions, and temptations came up in time: but the Lord's power, which is everlasting, is over all such things; in which is safety.

'The black world of darkness lieth in wickedness, and by their wisdom know not God that made the world and all things therein: for the god of the world and prince of the air ruleth in the hearts of all that disobey the living God who made them. So the god of this wicked world hath blinded the eyes of the infidels or heathen; so that this wicked world by their wisdom doth not know the living God.

In the Old Testament the Lord said, "With all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt." Levit. ii. 13. And Christ saith in his new covenant, "Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will you season it? have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." Mark ix. 48, 49, 50.

'We have received the earnest of the spirit, which is the earnest of the inheritance that fadeth not away. For God poureth out of his spirit upon all flesh. It is God's spirit, which is above our natural spirit (by which alone we do not know God ;) for it is by the spirit of God that we know the things of God. And the spirit of God doth witness to our souls and spirits, that itself is the earnest of an eternal inheritance. "God opens his people's ears to discipline, and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days

in prosperity, and their years in pleasure: but if they obey him not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge." Job xxxvi. 10, 11, 12. So the disobedient, that do not turn from their iniquity, have not this prosperity and pleasure; but die without the knowledge of God; and their ears are shut to this discipline, which God opens to his people. G. F.'

When I had been about two months in London, I was sent for to my son Rouse's at Kingston, to visit a daughter of his, who at that time lay very sick; but recovered. Whilst I staid there, I had several meetings with Friends: and returning by Hammersmith, staid the first-day meeting there, which was large and peaceable. Having visited Friends thereabouts, I came back to London again; being very intent upon the business of getting redress for suffering Friends. In this and other services I continued at London till the latter end of the eleventh month; save that I went to visit an ancient Friend at Bethnal-Green, with whom I tarried three or four days. While I was there, I was much exercised in the sense of the enemies working, to draw from the holy way of truth into a false liberty, and so into the world's ways and worships again. And the example of the backsliding Jews coming before me, I was moved to write the following, as a warning to all such:

'You may see, when the Jews rebelled against the good spirit of God which he gave to instruct them, they forsook him and his law, way, and worship, went a whoring after Balaam's ways, and became like the "wild ass's colt, snuffing up the wind." Jer. ii. 24. In Jer. iii. see how Judah played the harlot under every green tree, and upon every high mountain; therefore the Lord divorced Judah, as he had divorced Israel when she forsook his way, and followed the ways of the heathen. Though the Lord had fed them to the full, yet they "forsook him, committed adultery, and assembled themselves together in harlots' houses." Jer. v. 7. "And with their whoredom they defiled the land, and committed adultery with stocks and stones." Jer. iii. 9. Here you may see, when they forsook the living, eternal God, they followed the religions and worships of other nations, whose gods were made of stocks and stones, which the Jews worshipped, and committed adultery withal. When they forsook the living God, and his way and worship, they forsook the worship at Jerusalem at the temple, and followed the heathen's worships in the mountains and fields: so it was called adultery and whoredom, to join with other religions, and forsake God. Jer. xiii. 27.

'And now, if the children of the New Jerusalem that is above would forsake the worship that Christ in his New Testament set up, (which is

in spirit and in truth,) and follow the worship of nations, which men have set up; will not they commit adultery with them, in forsaking God's worship, and Christ the new and living way?'

'In Jer. xliv. ye may see how the children of Judah provoked the Lord against them by worshipping the works of their own hands, and following the gods of the land of Egypt. In this they committed adultery, forsaking the living God, their husband, and his worship; and there ye may see God's judgments pronounced against them to their destruction. What will become of those that forsake the worship in spirit and truth, which Christ set up; and worship the works of their own hands in spiritual Egypt, and follow spiritual Egypt's will-worship, which they invented? may not this be called whoredom in them that forsake Christ, the new and living way, his pure religion, and the worship that he hath set up? and they that forsake the Lord's way and his worship, and follow the world's ways and worships, do not they, whose way they follow, become at last their enemies? as in Lament. i. See how the Jews forsook the Lord's way and worship, and doted on other lovers, (the Assyrians, &c.) and with all their idols were defiled; and how they retained the whoredoms brought from Egypt, and were polluted with the Babylonian's bed: read Ezek. xxiii. When they forsook the Lord, his way and worship, and followed the way and worship of the heathen; then it was said, they went a whoring after others, and committed adultery with them." 'Ye may see Ezek. xvi. the state of the Jews was likened to that of their sister Sodom, which had played the harlot with the Assyrians, committed fornication with the Egyptians, and increased their whoredoms, in following their abominable idols; therefore the Lord carried away the two tribes, that forsook him, into Babylon; see Ezek. xvii. 20. And they that forsake Christ, the new and living way, and the worship of God in spirit and truth, which Christ set up in his New Testament, go into captivity in spiritual Babylon.

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'Hosea ii. You may see how the prophet discovers the whoredoms and idolatry of the Jews who forsook the Lord, and compares them to an harlot. And in chap. iii. ye may see the destruction threatened against the Jews for their impiety and idolatry. In chap. ix. also the distress and captivity of the Jews is threatened for their sins and idolatry; and again they are reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry. Hos. x. This was for forsaking the Lord and his way, and following the ways of their own inventions, and the ways of the heathen.

'Doth not Isaiah say, "that the Lord would visit Tyre, and that she should commit fornication with all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth?" therefore, the Lord threatened destruction upon her, chap. xxiii. In chap. lvii. you may see how the Lord reproved the Jews for their whorish idolatry, saying, "upon an high and lofty mountain hast thou