against, and forbids our other meetings;-are in the same spirit of the world, that hath been, and is against women's speaking in meetings, and say, 'they must be silent,' &c., though the same apostle commands, that men should keep silence as well as the women,' if there were not an interpreter. Therefore, you may see that the spirit of the world hath entered such opposers, though they come under another colour; for they would not have us to meet at all. And these are against the women's meetings, and some of them against the men's also, and say, 'they see no service for them;' then they may hold their tongues, and not oppose them that do see their service for God in these meetings.

"Therefore, all you that feel the power of God, and your service for God in them, both men and women, keep your meetings in the power of God, the authority of them, as they were settled in it; then ye will be preserved both over this spirit that opposes them, and over the spirit of the world that opposes your other meetings; for it is all one in the ground, and would bring you into bondage. Such are out of the peaceable gospel, who oppose its order; out of the faith that works by love; out of the wisdom that is gentle, easy, and peaceable, &c., and out of the kingdom that stands in peace and joy. Therefore, keep over that spirit that sows discord or dissension, and would draw habitation and posyou from your session in the order of the gospel; for it is the same spirit that deceived Adam and Eve, by which they lost their habitation in righteousness and holiness, and their dominion; so that spirit got over them; and so it would get over you. One while it will tell you, it sees no service for your meetings,' and another time oppose you. But I say, this is the blind spirit, which is out of the power of God, and which the power of God is over. Therefore, keep in the power, that ye may stand up for your liberty in Christ Jesus, males and females, heirs of him and of his-gospel, and his order. Stand up for your liberty in the gospel, and in the faith, which Christ Jesus hath been the author of; for if ye lose it, and let another spirit get over you, ye will not soon regain it. I knew the devil would bestir himself in his instruments, when men's and women's meetings came to be set up in the power, light, and truth, and the heirs of the gospel, to take their possession of it in every county and city, therein to walk, and to watch one over another, to take care of God's glory and honour, and his precious truth; and to see that all walk in the truth, and as becomes the gospel, and that nothing be lacking; and so to exhort all whatsoever is decent, modest, virtuous, lovely, comely, righteous, and of good report, to follow after; to admonish all that are not faithful, and to rebuke all that do evil. I knew this would give such a check to all loose speakers, talkers, and walkers, that there would be an opposition against such meetings. But never heed, truth will come over them all, and is over them all, and faith must have the victory; for the gospel and its order is everlasting; the Seed (Christ) is the beginning and the ending, and will outlast all; the Amen, in whom ye have peace. I say all that oppose the men's and women's meetings, or that marriages should be laid before them, or the recording of condemnations of sin and evil, or admonishing or exhorting such as walk not in the truth, are of a loose spirit, and their spirits tend to looseness.

Let those take them that will; truth will not have them, nor any of their sacrifice; for nothing is accepted of God, but what is done in truth, and in his Spirit, which is peaceable. The authority of our men's and women's meetings is the power of God; and all the heirs of the gospel are heirs of that authority and dignity; this is of God, and shall answer the witness of God in all. The greatest opposers of this practice and work, are such as have been convinced of God's truth, but have not lived in it. Such were the greatest troublers of the church in Moses' day, and in the days of the apostles; but mark their end, and read what became of them all. And therefore, all keep your habitation in the truth, and therein ye may see what has become of all the opposers of it for twenty years past; they are all gone, and the truth lives and reigns; the Seed is over all, and all are one in it, in rest, peace, and life everlasting; and therein they sit down together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, the Amen.”

Swarthmore, the 5th of the 8th Month, 1676.

G. F.

Narrative of the spreading of Truth, and of the opposition thereto.

"THE truth sprang up first to us, so as to be a people to the Lord, in Leicestershire in 1644, in Warwickshire in 1645, in Nottinghamshire in 1646, in Derbyshire in 1647, and in the adjacent counties in 1648, 1649, and 1650; in Yorkshire in 1651, in Lancashire and Westmorland in 1652; in Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland in 1653; in London, and most of the other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in 1654.

"In 1655 many went beyond sea, where truth also sprang up, and in 1656 it broke forth in America and many other places.

"In the authority of this divine truth, Friends stood all the cruelties and sufferings that were inflicted upon them by the Long Parliament; to the spoiling of goods, imprisonment, and death, and over all reproaches, lies, and slanders; as well as those in Oliver Cromwell's time, and all the acts made by him and his parliament; his son Richard after him, and the Committee of Safety; and afterwards withstood and outlasted all the acts and proclamations since 1660, that the king came in.

"Friends never feared their acts, prisons, jails, houses of correction, banishment, nor spoiling of goods, nay, nor the loss of life itself; nor was there ever any persecution that came, but we saw in the event it would be productive of good; nor were there ever any prisons that I was in, or sufferings, but it was for the bringing multitudes out of prison; though they who imprisoned the truth, and quenched the Spirit in themselves, would imprison and quench it without them; so that there was a time when so many were in prison, that it became as a by-word, 'truth is scarce anywhere to be found but in jails.'

“And after the king came in, divers Friends suffered much, because they would not drink his health, and say, 'God bless the king;' so that many Friends were in danger of their lives from rude persons, who were ready to run them through with their swords for refusing it, until the king gave forth a proclamation against drinking healths; for we were and are against drinking any healths, and all excess, both before his coming in and after; and we desire the king's good, and that the blessing of God might

come upon him and all his subjects, and all people upon the face of the earth; but we desired people not to drink the king's health, but let him have his health, and all people else; and to drink for their own health and necessity only; for that way of drinking healths, and to excess, was not for the king's health, nor their own, nor any others'; which excess often brought forth quarrelling and destroying one another; for they destroyed the creation and one another; and this was not for the king's wealth, nor health, nor honour, but might grieve him to have the creatures and his subjects destroyed; and so the Lord's power gave us dominion over that also, and all our other sufferings. But,

"O! the number of sufferers in the Commonwealth's and Oliver Cromwell's days, and since; especially those who were haled before the courts for not paying tithes, refusing to swear on their juries, not putting off their hats, and for going to meetings on the First-days; under pretence of breaking the Sabbath; and to meetings on other days of the weck; who were abused both in meetings and on the highways.

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O! how great were the sufferings we then sustained upon these accounts! for sometimes they would drive Friends by droves into the prisonhouses like penfolds, confine them on the First-days, and take their horses from them, and keep them for pretended breach of their Sabbath, though they would ride in their coaches and upon their fat horses to the steeplehouses themselves, and yet punish others. And many Friends were turned out of their copyholds and customary tenements, because, in obedience to the command of Christ and his apostle, they could not swear; and as they went to meetings, they have been stoned through the streets, and otherwise cruelly abused. Many were fined with great fines, and lay long in prison for not putting off their hats, which fines Friends could never pay, though they kept them in prison till they had satisfied their own wills, and at last turned them out, after keeping them a year or more in prison.

"Many books I gave forth against tithes, showing how the priesthood was changed that took them; and that Christ sent forth his twelve, and afterwards seventy disciples, saying unto them, 'Freely ye have received, freely give.' So all who do not obey the doctrine and command of Christ therein, we cannot receive them.

"I was also moved to give forth several books against swearing, and that our Yea and Nay might be taken instead of an oath, which, if we broke, let us suffer the same punishment as they who broke their oaths. And in Jamaica the governor and the assembly granted the thing; it is also granted in some other places; and several of the parliament-men in England have acknowledged the reasonableness thereof. The magistrates, after some time, when they saw our faithfulness in Yea and Nay, they who were moderate, both before and since the king came in, would put Friends into offices without an oath; but the cruel and envious would fine Friends to get money off them, though they could not pay them any.

"Thus the Lord's power hath carried us through all, and over all, to his everlasting glory and praise; for God's power hath been our hedge, our wall and our keeper (the preserver of his plants and vineyard), who have not had the magistrates' sword and staff to help us, nor ever trusted in the

arm of flesh, but have gone without these, or Judas' bag, to preach the Word of life, which was in the beginning before they were; which reconciles to God. And thousands have received this Word of reconciliation, and are born again of the immortal Seed, by the Word of God; and are feeding upon the milk of the Word, which lives and abides for ever.

Many have suffered death for their testimony, in England and beyond the seas, both before and since the king came in; which may be seen in an account given to the king and both houses of parliament; being 'A brief, plain, and true relation of the late and sad sufferings of the people of God in scorn called Quakers, for worshipping and exercising a good conscience towards God and man.'

"By reason whereof eighty-nine have suffered till death; thirty-two of whom died before the king came into England, and fifty-seven since, by hard imprisonment and cruel usage. Forty-three have died in the city of London and Southwark since the Act made against meetings, &c., about 1661, of which a more particular account was given, with the names of the sufferers, to the king and parliament, about 1663.

"And though divers laws were designed against us, yet never could any of them justly touch us, being wrested and misapplied in their execution by our adversaries, which some have been made to confess. All those laws that were made, and the oath which they imprisoned us for, because, in obedience to the command of Christ Jesus, we could not swear at all, were not originally intended against us; and yet we suffered by the several powers, and their laws, both spoiling of goods and imprisonment, even to death. And the governor of Dover castle, when the king asked him if he had dispersed all the sectaries' meetings? said, that he had; but the Quakers, the devil himself could not; for if he did imprison them, and break up their meetings, they would meet again; and if he should beat them or knock them down, or kill some of them, all was one, they would meet, and not resist again.' Thus the Lord's power supported and kept them over their persecutors, and made them to justify our patience and lamb-like nature. This was about 1671.

"Since the king came in, three acts have been made against us, besides the proclamations, by which many have suffered imprisonment and banishment, and many to death. And yet for all these acts and proclamations, persecutions, sufferings, banishments, faithful Friends are as fresh as ever in the Lord's power, and valiant for his name and truth.

"Some weak ones there were, when the king came in, who took the oath; but after they had so done, they were sore troubled for disobeying the command of Christ and the apostle, and went to the magistrates, condemned themselves, and offered to go to prison.

"Thus the Lord, in his everlasting power, hath been the support and stay of his people; and still his Seed reigns, his truth is over all, and exceedingly spreads unto this year 1676.

In 1676, while I was at Swarthmore, died William Lampitt, the old priest of Ulverstone (which parish Swarthmore is in). He was an old deceiver, a perverter of the right way of the Lord, and a persecutor of the

people of God. Much contest I had with him, when I first came into those parts. He had been an old false prophet; for in 1652 he prophesied (and said he would wage his life upon it), "that the Quakers would all vanish, and come to nought within half a year:" but he came to nought himself. For he continued in his lying and false accusing of God's people, till a little before he died, and then he cried for a little rest. To one of his hearers that came to visit him before he died, he said, "I have been a preacher a long time, and thought I had lived well; but I did not think it had been so hard a thing to die."

After I had finished the services which lay upon me then to do, feeling my spirit drawn again towards the south (though I was yet but weakly, and not able to travel far in a day), I left Swarthmore the 26th of the 1st Month, 1677, and went to Thomas Pearson's at POOBANK, in WESTMORLAND, where I had a meeting the next day; and thence to Thomas Camm's,* at CAM'S-GILL, where Robert Widders with his wife, and several other Friends came to see me before I left the country, and to attend the meeting there next day, which was very large, and in which I was largely drawn forth in testimony to the truth. I had much discourse with some of that meeting, who were not in unity with the quarterly meeting they belonged to; but afterwards several of them that were somewhat tender, came to see their error, and gave forth condemnations against themselves. Next day John Blakelin came to Thomas Camm's, to bring me to his house at DRAWell in SEDBERGH, whither I went with him, visiting Friends in the way. I stayed at Drawell two or three nights, having meetings there and thereabouts; for while I was there the men's and women's meetings were held there, which were very large and precious. The First-day following I had a meeting at BRIGFLATS, to which came most of the Friends from the several meetings round about, and a great concourse of others also; it was

* Thomas Camm, of Camsgill, in Westmorland, was born in 1641, and had a good education. He was from childhood inclined to be religious, was early convinced of Friends' principles, and after some time called to the work of the ministry. He counted nothing too near or dear to part with for truth's sake, but left all to follow the Lord, and, with his whole strength and substance, was given up to serve him. He was an able preacher, diligent and laborious in the work of the Lord, and instrumental to convince and establish many in the way of truth. His doctrine was sound, and his delivery in the demonstration of that Divine power which reached the witness of God in the hearts of his hearers.

Great and many were the sufferings he met with and went through, as, imprisonments, spoiling of goods, mockings and scoffings from those without, and suffering among false brethren; in all which, he stood firm and faithful, approving himself a true follower of Jesus Christ, suffering joyfully for his name's sake, who had counted him worthy not only to believe, but suffer for him. During an illness of some continuance, many were the weighty expressions that fell from him, often magnifying the Lord to the tendering of all hearts present. When grown very weak, being asked how he felt, he would say, "Weak of body, but strong in the Lord;' saying also, "In Abraham's bosom there is sweet repose." Seeming to be faint, a friend gave him a little wine, thinking it might refresh him, but his stomach could not bear it; then looking at him he said, "Thou seest these things will not do; but one cup of new wine in the heavenly kingdom, with my dear and blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, will make up all."-For further particulars, see Piety Promoted, vol. ii., p. 101-108.

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