Epiftles to Friends.

655

cause or provocation on our parts, only because we fear, and love, and obey our God, according as he hath taught us, and because he hath put this resolution into our hearts, that we will abide in fubjection to him, and ftand to the holy teftimony which he hath given us to bear, whatever befalls us. And what shall separate us from his love, or come between us and his care over us, who is able to bear us up in all, and carry us over all (in the holy dominion and ftrength of his feed) that can fet upon us, and strive to turn us out of the way, or to make us faint in the way?

"

Dear friends, In my bonds I remember you, and pray for your profperity. Do ye also remember me in your daily addreffes and approaches to God, that I may receive increase of virtue and strength from the Lord, by the help of your prayers; and, oh! feel the afflictions of the afflicted, and breathe for them day by day, that the whole body may receive the flowings in of life, help, and ftrength daily, from the pure breatheings of life in every member of the body every day.

So the God of love and mercies be with, and do good to, his whole he sitage; and fill you (with the reft of his children) from the pure fountain of life, with fresh ftreams of life day by day, Amen. This is the hearty defire of

Reading Goal, the 9th of the Sixth Month, 1670.

Your friend, brother, and companion in the faith and patience of the faints, who have had a fhare in the afflictions which be fall his children and chosen ones, for his name's fake,

I. P..

And truly friends,, it is not grievous, but rather joy to me, to undergo the several afflictions and temptations, which my tender Father, in his tender love and good-will, orders for me. Yea, all that can tafte, tell. me, is it not greater riches, and far fweeter, in this our day, to bear the reproach of Chrift, and to fuffer for the teftimony of his precious. truth, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin and glory of this world, which are but for a season ?

EPISTLE

To Friends in Truth, in Chalfont, and thereabouts.

Dear friends (whom I love in the Lord, and whofe prosperity and growth in the truth I greatly defire), this fenfe is on my heart, in reference to you at this time.

THE

HE Lord's foul travaileth for you (having visited you in tender mercy, and with great loving-kindness, and he defireth to enjoy and poffefs you, as an inheritance for himself, to delight in and to do good unto continually; and I know there are many among you, who have alfo defired and travailed after the Lord, and have been burthened and grieved with that which hath in any measure hindered your fouls enjoying the Lord, and your faithful ferving him, and his delight and pleasure in you. Now friends, this is my prefent defire and breatheing for you, even that ye may be joined further and clofer in the everlasting covenant of life and peace with the Lord, which must never be forgotten on your parts, as it cannot be on his; wherein to help all the tender and faithful-hearted among you, this advice fprang in my heart to you this morning.

Mind and watch to that which quickens and enlivens the foul towards God, and watch against that which flats and deadens it; for they are both near, and they both feck after you, the one for your good, the other for your hurt. I need not tell you what these are, nor where or how they appear (ye have been abundantly, and as ye wait on the Lord, are daily intructed therein, bleffed be the name of the Lord), but in continual watching to the one, and against the other, is the diligence and care of your fpirits daily to be exerciled. Oh! at no time let your fpirits be loofe and careless! For the enemy waits to do hurt, and the Lord waits to be gracious, and to do your fouls good. Watch, therefore, and pray, that ye enter not into the temptation of the enemy, nor mifs of the tender mercies and loving-kindneffes of the Lord, which are fure to the feed (and to all that are of and abide in the feed) for ever.

Oh! who would mifs of the quickening virtue of our God, of being anointed with his holy oil, and of having the flames of life kindled further in him? Who would be captivated and brought into fubjection to fin, Satan, vanity, and the fpirit of this world again, who hath witneffed any proportion of deliverance there-from? Ye know that ye can do nothing of yourfelves: Oh! what need have fuch to watch to that, which is able to work mightily in the heart, and to bring forth the fruits and effects of righteousness,

righteousness, and to bring under, and keep under, kill and flay that power of unrighteousness, and to root out and bury the dead, out of the fight and remembrance of the living. Glorious things are teftified (truly teftified) concerning the power of the Lord, and his mighty operation inwardly in the hearts of his children, in this day of the preaching of the everlasting gofpel again, after the long night of darkness. Let none be content, without witneffing and experiencing a measure thereof in their own particular. Oh! dwell not with death, vanity, nor corruption! Oh! my dear friends, let not vain or earthly thoughts lodge in any of your hearts! but dwell with him who is pure, who is living, and gives life to your fouls; and also gives peace, and brings it home to you, leaving upon your fpirits that ·peace which paffeth all the understanding and comprehenfion of man, and who maketh his called, chofen, and faithful ones glad with his deliverance from the power and temptation of the enemy, and with the flowings in of life and redeeming virtue, from the fountain thereof. Judea (the city) is known among the living, whofe walls are falvation, and all the gates and entrance into it praife.

And, my dear friends, mind your meetings together, to wait upon your God with great feriousness and intention of fpirit, every one watching to feel life up in your own fpirits. Oh! fit down (yea, breathe earnestly to the Lord to give you to fit down) in the filence of flesh, and in the ftillnefs of your spirits, waiting for the prefence, appearance, and power of your God to be revealed in the midst of you, that your hearts may be searched more and more, and the pure judgment revealed against whatever would appear or rife up contrary to the holy nature and will of God, and that which is for death, brought into death more and more, and fo the bread and water of life given to that which is to be nourished up in life, that all that is impure may be kept down, and that which is pure (the plants and trees of righteoufnefs) may thrive, flourish, and spread more and more, and you fit down under the fhadow of your own vine and olive-tree, partaking of the fap and fatnefs thereof.

Oh! that every one of you, in all your meetings together, might witness that scripture fulfilled in you; They fhall be abundantly fatisfied with the fatness of thy houfe, and thou shalt give them, or make them to drink, of the rivers of thy pleasure.

And I beseech you, in the bowels of tender love, take heed of fluggishnefs, or careleffness, or deadness of spirit in your meetings; these things in no-wife become the Lord's people, nor your profeffions of waiting upon the living God; ye are to look up, to watch, wait, and breathe for the Lord, to be exercised by his Spirit, to have to do with him before whom all things are naked and bare, to offer up that acceptable facrifice of a broken heart, of pure praifes, of love, life, humility, thanksgiving, &c. and to receive what the Father of mercies stands ready (in and through the Lord Jefus Chrift, the Son of his love) to give forth unto you. Can you VOL. II.

PPPP

be

be thus exercised, while in a drowfy, fluggish, careless fpirit? Do not fuch dishonour the Lord, whofe name ye fhould honour? And is not the jealous God provoked and grieved by fuch things as thefe, whom ye fhould walk in all humility, tenderness of fpirit, and well-pleafingness before?

I beseech you, therefore, watch againft all things of this nature, and be diligent, that ye may witness the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus making you free, and fencing you against all things of this kind, that ye may be a chofen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, a temple of living ftones, wherein the living God may dwell and walk, and fup with you, and give unto you to fup with him, where ye fhall eat the pure bread life, and drink the wine of the kingdom, which will glad your hearts exceedingly, and the joy of the Lord will become your ftrength; which ftrength will carry you above the ftrength of the enemy, and cause you to bring forth the fruits of life, and righteoufnefs, naturally to the Lord; and fo you fhall fhine as lights in your feveral places, and fhew forth the praifes of him, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; for it is a marvellous light indeed, which the Lord hath caused to shine in the fpirits of his children, whom in this day of his power he hath begotten to himself, and the life eternal is wrapped up in it; and they that truly know it, know it to be no less than the light of life, even the light which came from the pure life of the Son, and leads to the habitation and dwelling-place of the Father.

There is one thing yet remains with me, which I would fain have you grow in a true, fenfible, and experimental understanding of, which is this; to wit, What it is, not to touch the unclean thing. The enemy will be stirring up and cafting in that which is unclean, upon the veffels which God is purifying and preferving from all pollution. But there is a starting back from, and efchewing the evil, a forfaking of the vain earthly mind and thoughts, and a receiving in fuch temptations and fuggeftions no more. Oh! that ye might all experimentally know and witness what this is! I know many of you do in fome measure, bleffed be the God of our mercies, bleffed be our Saviour and Redeemer, for ever and ever! But oh! more, more, more of this knowledge, more of this experience, my heart livingly breathes for, for myself and you, that we may witnefs the fcripture abundantly fulfilled in our hearts from the Lord: Whosoever is born of God detb not commit fin; for his feed remains in him, and he cannot fin, because he is born of God. Oh! feel the weight of this fcripture, in that which gives the underftanding of it! The Lord hath made a new covenant, and a living covenant, and prepared a new and living way for the ranfomed to walk in without erring, that he might amend all (in this new people) which was amifs in thofe under the firft covenant.

Oh! let the Lord enjoy the defign of his heart, and his people fo wait upon him, that they may all be renewed in the fpirit of their minds, and the Lord may have a generation of Calebs and Joshuas, who may fully

follow

follow after him in all things, and who may witness his power and presence still with them, and the holy, tender, merciful God may never be provoked by them, to caufe him to withdraw his good Spirit from them, and fo to leave them and forfake them; for if any draw back from the Lord, and from the holy commandment of life, the Lord's foul can have no pleasure in fuch. Oh! that, therefore, there may be none among you drawing back to perdition! and take heed of deadnefs, drow finefs, fluggishness of spirit, earthliness, fleshly wisdom, unbelief, &c. for that is a degree thereof, and leadeth thitherwards), but all to grow in faith, with diligence, towards the faving of your fouls (which is far nearer than when you firft believed), which ye fhall be fure in due time to reap even the falvation ye wait for, if ye faint not, nor grow weary in your minds, but abide in the faith and patience, unto the end of your trials, both inward and outward, which are measured out by the Spirit and wisdom of the Lord, and not by the wiles of your enemies, whom the Lord ftops and chains at his pleasure.

The grace, mercy, love, and peace of God our Father, and of our Lord Jefus Christ, be multiplied unto you, and fill your hearts from day to day, according to your several capacities, and enlarge your capacities, and bring you more and more into the heavenly fellowship, that your joy therein may abound, and ye may daily rejoice in the goodness of the Lord, and in his exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

Reading Goal, the zzd

of the Third Month,
1671.

This is from your brother and companion in the afflictions, and alfo in the joy and glory of this day of the falvation of our God, which is further to be revealed and enjoyed by those who meekly and patiently wait for it,

I. P.

And all my dear friends, who have known what it is to be uncovered and stripped of your own righteousness (and of all fleshly robes and garments), and to put on the Lord Jefus Chrift, even the innocency and righteoufs of his nature and Spirit, and fo to appear before the Lord, and walk with him in the garment which he puts upon you; oh! friends, keep this garment about you, that ye be not stripped and robbed of that wherewith God once cloathed you, and fo your nakedness appear, and men fee your shame; and instead of being an honour, ye become (any of you) a reproach to the name and truth of the Lord, which is very honourable, and should be honoured in and by us all.