I stayed in town three weeks or a month after the Yearly Meeting; and then went to TOTTENHAM-HIGH-CROSS, where was a meeting on Firstday, which I was at; and then went to Edward Man's house, at FORDGREEN, near Winchmore-Hill; and on the First-day following to the meeting at ENFIELD, where the Lord gave me many precious openings to declare to the people. Afterwards moving amongst Friends thereabouts, I visited the meetings at CHESTNUT, WALTHAM ABBEY, ENFIELD, TOTTENHAM, and WINCHMORE-HILL, frequently; the Lord being with me, and opening many deep and weighty truths, divine and heavenly mysteries to his people, through me, to their great refreshment, and my joy. After some time I went to HERTFORD, to visit Friends there; and was at their meeting on a First-day. And having something more particular upon me to the ancient Friends of that place, I had a meeting with some of them the next day, and imparted what the Lord had given me for them. Then passing to WARE, I made a little stay amongst Friends there, and was at their meeting. After which, returning, amongst Friends about EDMONTON side and TOTTENHAM, and taking meetings as I went, I came back to LONDON the end of the seventh month.

I remained at London till the beginning of the ninth month, being continually exercised in the work of the Lord, either in public meetings, opening the way of truth to people, and building up and establishing Friends therein, or in other services relating to the church of God. For the parliament now sitting, and having a bill before them concerning oaths, and another concerning clandestine marriages, several Friends attended the house, to get those bills so worded, that they might not be hurtful to Friends. In this service I also assisted, attending on the parliament, and discoursing the matter with several of the members.

Having stayed more than a month in London, and much spent myself in these services, I went to TOTTENHAM; and some time after to FORDGREEN; at which places I continued several weeks, visiting Friends' meetings round about there, at TOTTENHAM, ENFIELD, and WINCHMOREHILL. In this time several things came upon me to write; one was "an epistle to Friends in the ministry," as follows:

"ALL Friends in the ministry everywhere, to whom God hath given a gift of the ministry, and who travel up and down in it, do not hide your talent, nor put your light under a bushel, nor cumber or entangle yourselves with the affairs of this world.' For the natural soldiers are not to cumber themselves with the world, much less the soldiers of Christ, who are not of this world; but are to mind the riches and glory of the world that is everlasting. Therefore, stir up the gift of God in you, and improve it; do not sit down, Demas-like, and embrace this present world, that will have an end; lest ye become idolaters. Be valiant for God's truth upon the earth, and spread it abroad in the day-light of Christ, you who have sought the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and have received it, and preached it; which stands in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' As able ministers of the Spirit sow to the Spirit, that of the Spirit ye may reap life everlasting. Go on in the Spirit, ploughing with it in the purifying hope; and thrashing, with the power and Spirit of God,

the wheat out of the chaff of corruption, in the same hope. For he that looks back from the spiritual plough into the world, is not fit for the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of God; and is not like to press into it, as the faithful do. Therefore you that are awakened to righteousness, and to the knowledge of the truth, keep yourselves awakened in it; then the enemy cannot sow his tares in your field; for truth and righteousness is over him, and before he was. My desires are, that all may fulfil their ministry, that the Lord Jesus Christ hath committed to them; and then by the blood (or life) and testimony of Jesus you will overcome the enemy that opposes it, within and without. All you that preach the truth, do it as it is in Jesus, in love: and all that are believers in Jesus, and receivers of him, he gives them power to become the sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; whom he calleth brethren; and he gives them the water of life, which shall be a well in them, springing up as a river to eternal life, that they may water the spiritual plants of the living God. So that all may be spiritual planters, and spiritual waterers; and may see with the spiritual eye the everlasting, eternal God, over all to give the increase, who is the infinite fountain. My desires are, that you may be kept out of all the beggarly elements of the world, which are below the spiritual region, to Christ the Head; and may hold Him, who bruiseth the head of enmity, and was before it was; that ye may all be united together in love, in your Head, Christ, and be ordered by his heavenly, gentle, peaceable wisdom, to the glory of God. For all that be in Christ, are in love, peace, and unity. In Him they are strong, and in a full persuasion: and in Him, who is the first and the last, they are in a heavenly resolution and confidence for God's everlasting honour and glory. Amen.

“From him, who is translated into the kingdom of his dear Son, with all his saints, a heavenly salutation. Salute one another with a holy kiss of charity, that never faileth."

Ford-Green, the 25th of the 9th Month, 1690.

G. F.

Another epistle I wrote soon after, more particularly to the Friends in the ministry that were gone into América; after this manner :

"DEAR Friends and Brethren, Ministers, Exhorters, and Admonishers, that are gone into America and the islands thereaway. Stir up the gift of God in you, and the pure mind, and improve your talents, that ye may be the light of the world, a city set upon a hill, that cannot be hid. Let your light shine among the Indians, the Blacks, and the Whites, that ye may answer the truth in them, and bring them to the standard and ensign, that God hath set up, Christ Jesus. For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, God's name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every temple, or sanctified heart, incense shall be offered up to God's name. And have salt in yourselves, that ye may be the salt of the earth, that ye may salt it; that it may be preserved from corruption and putrefaction; so that all sacrifices offered up to the Lord may be seasoned, and be a good savour to God. All grow in the faith and grace of Christ, that ye may not be like dwarfs, for a dwarf shall not come near to offer upon God's altar; though he may eat of God's bread, that he may grow by it.

And Friends, be not negligent, but keep up your negroes' meetings and your family meetings; and have meetings with the Indian kings, and their councils and subjects everywhere, and with others. Bring them all to the baptizing and circumcising Spirit, by which they may know God, and serve and worship Him. And all take heed of having your minds in earthly things, coveting and striving for them; for to be carnally minded brings death, and covetousness is idolatry. There is too much strife and contention about that idol, which makes too many go out of the sense and fear of God; so that some have lost morality, humanity, and true Christian charity. O therefore, be awakened to righteousness, and keep awakened : for the enemy soweth his tares, while men and women sleep in carelessness and security. Therefore so many slothful ones go in their filthy rags, and have not the fine linen, the righteousness of Christ; but are straggling, and ploughing with their ox and their ass, in their woollen and linen garments, mixed stuff, feeding upon torn food that dieth of itself, and drinking of the dregs of their old bottle, and eating the sour, leavened bread, which makes their hearts burn one against another. But all are to keep the feast of Christ, our passover, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This unleavened bread of life from heaven, makes all hearts and souls glad and joyful, lightsome and cheerful, to serve and love God, and to love and serve one another in the peaceable truth, and to keep in the unity of God's Spirit, which is the bond of peace. In this love and peace, God Almighty keep and preserve all his people, and make them valiant for his truth upon the earth, to spread it abroad in doctrine, good life, and conversation. Amen.

"All the members of Christ have need one of another. For the foot hath need of the hand, and the hand of the foot; the ear hath need of the eye, and the eye of the ear. So that all the members are serviceable in the body, which Christ is the head of; and the head sees their service. Therefore, let none despise the least member.

"Have a care to keep down that greedy, earthly mind, that raveneth and coveteth after the riches and things of this world, lest ye fall into the low region, like the Gentiles or heathen, and so lose the kingdom of God, that is everlasting: but seek that first, and God knows what things ye have need of; who takes care for all, both in heaven and in the earth: thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gifts, both temporal and spiritual."

Tottenham, the 11th of the 10th Month, 1690.

G. F.

Not long after I returned to LONDON, and was almost daily with Friends at meetings. When I had been near two weeks in town, the sense of the great hardships and sore sufferings that Friends had been and were under in Ireland,* coming with great weight upon me, I was moved to write the following epistle, as a word of consolation unto them:—

*The sufferings of Friends in Ireland at this time were very great. The havoc and spoil they underwent were enormous, as related by the historians Sewell and Rutty, and more minutely by Besse, in his Collection of Sufferings, to which allusion has been made before, and to which the reader is now finally referred. The loss sus

"DEAR Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Lord by his eternal arm and power hath upheld through your great suffer. ings, exercises, trials, and hardships (more, I believe, than can be uttered), up and down that nation, which I am very sensible of; and the rest of the faithful Friends, who have been partakers with you in your sufferings; and who cannot but suffer with the Lord's people that suffer. My confidence hath been in the Lord, that he would and will support you in all your sufferings; and that he would preserve all the faithful in his wisdom, that they might give no just occasion to one nor other to make them suffer; and if you did suffer wrongfully, or unjustly, that the righteous God would assist and uphold you; and reward them according to their works, that oppressed or wronged you. And now my desire is unto the Lord, that in the same holy and heavenly wisdom, ye may all be preserved to the end of your days, to the glory of God, minding His supporting hand and power, who is God All-sufficient, to strengthen, help, and refresh, in time of need. Let none forget the Lord's mercies and kindnesses, which endure for ever; but always live in the sense of them. And truly, Friends, when I consider the thing, it is the great mercy of the Lord, that ye have not been all swallowed up, seeing with what spirits ye have been compassed about. But the Lord carrieth his lambs in his arms, and they are as tender to him as the apple of his eye; and his power is his hedge about his vineyard of heavenly plants. Therefore it is good for all his children, to be given up to the Lord with their minds and souls, hearts and spirits, who is a faithful keeper, that never slumbers nor sleeps; but is able to preserve and keep you, and to save to the utmost; and none can hurt so much as a hair of your heads, except he suffer it, to try you; for he upholds all things, in heaven and in earth, by the Word of his power; all things were made by Christ, and by Him all things consist (mark, consist), whether they be visible, or invisible, &c. So he hath power over all; for all power in heaven and in earth is given to him; and to you that have received him, he hath given power to become the sons and daughters of God; so living members of Christ, the living head, grafted into Him, in whom ye have eternal life. Christ, the Seed, reigns, and his power is over all; who bruises the serpent's head, and destroys the devil and his works, and was before he was. So all of you live and walk in Christ Jesus; that nothing may be between you and God, but Christ, in whom ye have salvation, life, rest, and peace with God. As for the affairs of truth in this land and abroad, I hear that in Holland and Germany, and thereaway, Friends are in love, unity, and peace;

tained by Friends from persecution in a single year (1689) was estimated at £100,000, many being deprived of all their substance. Great numbers were immured years in prison, and many died there for Christ's sake. Others, when there was a prospect of their being released, because they could not satisfy the unjust demand of fees, as having done no wrong (thus bravely, though passively, asserting their Christian liberty), were either detained, or stripped of their clothes and turned out.

Surrounded as they were with perils on every hand, they placed their confidence in Divine protection; and, in the worst times of trial, when not in prison, they kept up their meetings for worship, as well as discipline; collected at the latter the accounts of the sufferings of their members, and took what care they could for their relief.

and in Jamaica, Barbadoes, Nevis, Antigua, Maryland, and New England, I hear nothing, but Friends are in unity and peace. The Lord preserve them all out of the world (in which there is trouble), in Christ Jesus, in whom there is peace, life, love, and unity. Amen. My love in the Lord Jesus Christ to all Friends everywhere in your land, as though I named them." G. F.

London, the 10th of the 11th Month, 1690.

THUS, reader, thou hast had some account of the life and travels, labours, sufferings, and manifold trials and exercises of this holy man of God, from his youth to almost the time of his death, of which himself kept a journal; out of which the foregoing sheets were transcribed. It remains that an account be added of the time, place, and manner of his death and burial, which were thus:

As

The day after he had written the foregoing epistle to Friends in Ireland, he went to the meeting at Gracechurch Street, which was large, being the First-day of the week; and the Lord enabled him to preach the truth fully and effectually, opening many deep and weighty things with great power and clearness. After which having prayed, and the meeting being ended, he went to Henry Goldney's, in White-Hart-Court, near the meetinghouse; and some Friends going with him there, he told them "he thought he felt the cold strike to his heart, as he came out of the meeting;"" 'yet," he added, "I am glad I was here: now I am clear, I am fully clear." soon as the Friends withdrew, he lay down upon a bed (as he sometimes used to do, through weariness after meeting), but soon rose again; and in a little time lay down again, complaining still of cold. And his strength sensibly decaying, he was soon obliged to go into bed; where he lay in much contentment and peace, and very sensible to the last. And as, in the whole course of his life, his spirit, in the universal love of God, was bent upon the exalting of truth and righteousness, and the making known the way thereof to the nations and people afar of; so now, in the time of his outward weakness, his mind was intent upon, and (as it were) wholly taken up with that; and some particular Friends he sent for, to whom he expressed his mind and desire for the spreading of Friends' books, and truth thereby in the world. Divers Friends came to visit him in his illness; to some of whom he said, "All is well; the Seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself. And though," said he, "I am weak in body, yet the power of God is over all, and the Seed reigns over all disorderly spirits." Thus lying in a heavenly frame of mind, his spirit wholly exercised towards the Lord, he grew weaker and weaker in his natural strength; and on the third day of the week, between the hours of nine and ten in the evening, he quietly departed this life in peace, and sweetly fell asleep in the Lord, whose blessed truth he had livingly and powerfully preached in the meeting but two days before. Thus ended he his day in his faithful testimony, in