guile found, who doth oversee us in his pasture of life, that we do not go astray out of his fold? who hath any thing against our priest, Christ Jesus, made higher than the heavens, who gives us freely, and commands us to give freely? who hath any thing to say against our leader and counsellor, Christ Jesus, who never sinned, but is holy, harmless, and separate from sinners? God hath commanded us to hear him, and he saith, "Learn of me;" and if we should disobey God's and Christ's command, we should be like our father Adam and mother Eve, who disobeyed God's command, and hearkened to the serpent's teaching. Man commands, and would force us to hear the hirelings, who plead for sin and the body of death to the grave; which doctrine savours of the devil's teaching, not of Christ's; but we resolve to hear the Son, as both the Father and he command; and in hearing the Son, we hear the Father also, as the scripture testifies. For the author to the Hebrews says, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son:" mark that, God hath spoken unto us (his apostles, disciples, and church,) by his Son. And whereas, some have objected, "That although Christ did speak both to his disciples and to the Jews in the days of his flesh, yet since his resurrection and ascension he doth not speak now;" the answer is, as God did then speak by his Son in the days of his flesh, so the Son, Christ Jesus, doth now speak by his spirit. Wherefore, John saith in the Revelations, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches." Rev. ii." And Christ is said to speak from heaven." Heb. xii. 25. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." They that resisted Moses' law (who spake on earth,) died for it without mercy, which was a natural death; but they that refuse him that speaks from heaven, neglect and slight their own salvation, and so die a spiritual death through unbelief and hardness of heart. Therefore was the exhortation given of old, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation," &c. Heb. iii. 15, &c. They, who neglect or refuse to hear the voice of Christ now speaking from heaven in this his gospel-day, harden their hearts. Therefore let all mark well these three states and teachers: the God of truth was the first teacher, while man was in paradise and in innocence. The serpent was the second teacher, the false teacher, who by his false teaching came to be the god of the world which lies in wickedness. Christ Jesus, that bruises the serpent's head, is the third teacher, who saith, "Learn of me;" of whom God saith, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him;" and of whom the testimony of the saints of old was, " That God hath in these last days spoken unto us

by his Son." Thus they, that come to be renewed up again into the divine heavenly image in which man was at first made, will know the same God, that was the first teacher of Adam and Eve in paradise, to speak to them now by his Son, who changes not; glory be to his name for ever!'

Many deep and precious things were opened in those meetings by the eternal spirit which searcheth and revealeth the deep things of God. After I had finished my service for the Lord in that city, I departed into Gloucestershire, where we had many large and precious meetings; and the Lord's everlasting power flowed over all. From Gloucestershire I passed into Wiltshire, where also we had many blessed meetings. At Slattenford in Wiltshire we had a very good meeting, though we met with much opposition from some, who had set themselves against women's meetings; which I was moved of the Lord to recommend to Friends, for the benefit of the church of Christ. That faithful women, called to the belief of the truth, made partakers of the same precious faith, and heirs of the same everlasting gospel of life and salvation as the men are, might in like manner come into the possession and practice of the gospelorder, and therein be meet helps unto the men in the restoration, in the service of truth, in the affairs of the church, as they are outwardly in civil or temporal things. That so all the family of God, women as well as men, might know, possess, perform, and discharge their offices and services in the house of God, whereby the poor might be the better taken care of; the younger sort instructed, informed, and taught in the way of God; the loose and disorderly reproved and admonished in the fear of the Lord; the clearness of persons proposing marriage, more closely and strictly enquired into in the wisdom of God; and all the members of the spiritual body the church might watch over and be helpful to each other in love. After these opposers had run into much contention and wrangling, the power of the Lord struck down one of the chief of them, so that his spirit sunk, and he came to be sensible of the evil he had done, in opposing God's heavenly power, confessed his error before Friends and afterwards gave forth a paper of condemnation, wherein he declared, That he did wilfully oppose (although I often warned him to take heed,) until the fire of the Lord did burn within him, and he saw the angel of the Lord with his sword drawn in his hand, ready to cut him off,' &c.

Notwithstanding the opposition was made at the meeting, yet a very good and serviceable meeting it was; for occasion was thereby administered to answer their objections and cavils, and to open the services of women in and for the church. At this meeting the women's meetings for that county were established in the blessed power of God. After this I went to Marlborough, and had a meeting there, to which some of the magistrates came, and were civil and moderate.

Then

passing to Bartholomew Maylin's, I had a very precious meeting there. From thence went a little beyond Ore, where we had a blessed meeting, and very large, as we had also soon after upon the border of Hampshire, Then turning into Oxfordshire, we visited Friends there; then went to Reading where we had a large meeting. From thence passing into Buckinghamshire, we had many precious meetings in that county. After which we visited Friends till we came to Kingston upon Thames, where my wife and her daughter Rachel met me.

I made no long stay at Kingston, but went to London, where I found the Baptists and Socinians, with some old apostates, grown very rude, having printed many books against us: so I had a great travail in the Lord's power, before I could get clear of that city. But blessed be the Lord, his power came over them, and all their lying, wicked, scandalous books were answered. I made a short journey into some parts of Essex and Middlesex, visiting Friends at their meetings, and their children at the schools, and returned soon to London. After some service there among Friends, I went to Kingston, and from thence to Stephen Smith's in Surrey, where was a very large meeting, many hundreds of people attending it. I staid in those parts till I had cleared myself of the service the Lord had given me to do there, and then returned by Kingston to London, whither I felt my spirit drawn; having heard that many Friends were taken before the magistrates, and divers imprisoned, both in London and in other parts of the nation, for opening their shop-windows upon holy days and fast days (as they are called,) and for bearing testimony against all such observation of days. Which Friends could not but do, knowing that the true christians did not observe the Jews' holydays in the apostles' times, neither could we observe the Heathens' and Papists' holydays (so called,) which have been set up amongst those called christians since the apostles' days. For we were redeemed out of days by Christ Jesus, and brought into the day which hath sprung from on high, and are come into him, who is Lord of the Jewish Sabbath, and the substance of the Jews' signs.

After I had staid some time in London, labouring for some relief and ease to Friends in this case, I went with my wife, and her daughter Rachel, to Hendon, in Middlesex, and from thence to William Penn's at Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire, whither Thomas Lower, who married another of my wife's daughters, came the next day to accompany us in our journey northward. After we had visited Friends thereabouts, we passed to a Friend's house near Aylesbury; and from thence to Bray Doily's at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire, where, on first-day, we had a large and precious meeting. Truth being well spread, and Friends in those parts much increased in number, two or three new meetings were then set up thereabouts.

VOL. II.

19

At night, as I was sitting at supper, I felt I was taken; yet I said nothing to any body of it then. But getting out next morning, we travelled into Worcestershire, and went to John Halford's at Armscot, in Tredington parish; where we had a very large and precious meeting in his barn, the Lord's powerful presence being eminently with and amongst us. After the meeting, Friends being most of them gone, as I was sitting in the parlour, discoursing with some Friends, Henry Parker, a justice, came to the house, and with him Rowland Hains, a priest of Hunniton, in Warwickshire. This justice came to know of the meeting by means of a woman Friend, who, being nurse to a child of his, asked leave of her mistress to go to the meeting to see me; and she speaking of it to her husband, he and the priest plotted together to break up the meeting, and apprehend me. But by means of their sitting long at dinner, it being the day on which his child was sprinkled, they came not till the meeting was over, and Friends mostly gone. But though there was no meeting when they came, yet I being in the house, who was the person they aimed at, Henry Parker took me, and Thomas Lower for company with me, and though he had nothing to lay to our charge, sent us both to Worcester gaol, by a strange sort of mittimus; a copy of which here followeth :

To the constables of Tredington, in the said county of Worcester, and to all constables and tithing-men of the several townships and villages within the said parish of Tredington, and to the keeper of the gaol for the county of Worcester.

'COMPLAINT being made to me, being one of his majesty's justices of the peace for the said county of Worcester, that within the said parish of Tredington, in the said county, there has of late been several meetings of divers persons, to the number of four hundred persons and upwards at a time, upon pretence of exercise of religion, otherwise than what is established by the laws of England. And many of the said persons, some of them were teachers, and came from the north, and others from the remote parts of the kingdom, which tends to the prejudice of the reformed and established religion, and may prove prejudicial to the public peace. And it appearing to me, that there was this present day such a meeting as aforesaid, to the number of two hundred or thereabouts, at Armscot, in the said parish of Tredington; and that George Fox of London, and Thomas Lower, of the parish of Creed, in the county of Cornwall, were present at the said meeting; and the said George Fox was teacher or speaker of the said meeting; and no satisfactory account of their settlement or place of habitation appearing to me; and forasmuch as the said George Fox and Thomas Lower refused to give sureties to appear at the next sessions of the peace to be holden for the

said county, to answer the breach of the common laws of England, and what other matters should be objected against them: These are therefore, in his majesty's name, to will and require you or either of you forthwith to convey the bodies of the said George Fox and Thomas Lower to the county gaol of Worcester aforesaid, and there safely to be kept until they shall be from thence delivered by due course of law: for which this shall be your sufficient warrant in that behalf. Dated the 17th day of December, in the 25th year of his majesty's reign over England, &c. HENRY PARKER.'

Being thus made prisoners, without any probable appearance of being released before the quarter sessions at soonest, we got some Friends to accompany my wife and her daughter into the north, and we were conveyed to Worcester gaol. From whence, by that time I thought my wife could be got home, I wrote her the following letter.

'DEAR HEART,-Thou seemedst to be a little grieved when I was speaking of prisons, and when I was taken. Be content with the will of the Lord God. For when I was at John Rouse's at Kingston, I had a sight of my being taken prisoner; and when I was at Bray Doily's, in Oxfordshire, as I sat at supper, I saw I was taken, and I saw I had a suffering to undergo. But the Lord's power is over all; blessed be his holy name for ever!

G. F.'

When we had been some time in the gaol, we thought fit to lay our case before the lord Windsor, lord-lieutenant of Worcestershire, and be fore the deputy-lieutenants, and other magistrates; which we did by the following letter:

THESE are to inform you, the lord-lieutenant, (so called,) the deputylieutenants, and the justices of the county of Worcestershire, how unchristianly and inhumanly we have been dealt withal by Henry Parker, a justice, (so called,) in our journey towards the north. We coming to our friend John Halford's, the seventeenth of the tenth month, 1673, some Friends bringing us on the way, and others coming to visit us there; towards night came the aforesaid justice, and a priest called Rowland Hains, of Hunniton, in Warwickshire, and demanded our names and places of abode. And though we were not in any meeting, but were discoursing together when they came in, he made a mittimus to send us to Worcester gaol. Now whereas he says in his mittimus, "That complaint had been made to him of several by-past meetings of many hundreds at a time;" we know nothing of that, nor do we think that concerns us. And whereas he says further, "That no satisfactory account of our