them an example to all that after should live ungodly. Mark, ye ungodly ones, who are as natural brute beasts, who speak great swelling words of vanity, alluring through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day-time, sporting yourselves with your own deceivings; ye shall receive the reward of unrighteousness. Ye are as dogs and swine turned to the vomit, and wallowing in the mire, speaking evil of things that ye know not; and unless ye repent, ye shall utterly perish in your own corruptions, Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter: ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. Go to, weep and howl, for the misery that is coming upon you. She that liveth in pleasures, is dead while she liveth. God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example to all those that after should live ungodly, in the wicked, filthy conversation: mark, here is your example. Hear this, ye that are given to pleasures, and read your examples." G. F.

Another paper, upon my taking notice of the bowlers that came to sport themselves in the Castle-Green, was as follows :

"The word of the Lord to all you vain and idle-minded people, who are lovers of sports, pleasures, foolish exercises, and recreations, as you call them; consider of your ways, what it is you are doing. Was this the end of your creation? Did God make all things for you, and you to serve your lusts and pleasures? Did not the Lord make all things for you, and you for himself, to fear and worship him in spirit and in truth, in righteousness and true holiness? But where is your service of God, so long as your hearts run after lusts and pleasures? Ye cannot serve God, and the foolish pleasures of the world, as bowling, drinking, hunting, hawking, and the like if these have your hearts, God will not have your lips: consider, for it is true. Therefore from the Lord must you all witness woe and misery, tribulation and wrath, who continue in the love and practice of your vain sports, lusts, and pleasures. Now is the day, when all everywhere are exhorted to repentance. O foolish people, wicked and slow of heart to believe the threatenings of the great Jehovah against the wicked! What will ye do in the day of the Lord's fierce wrath, that makes haste to come upon the world of ungodly men! What good have your foolish sports and delights done you now they are past? Or what good will they do you, when the Lord calls for your souls? Therefore all now awake from sleep, and see where you are: and let the light of Jesus Christ, that shines in every one of your consciences, search you thoroughly; and it will let you clearly see, for all your profession of God, Christ, and the Scriptures, you are ignorant of them, and enemies to them all, and your own souls also and being found living in pleasures, you are dead while you live. Therefore doth the Lord by many messengers forewarn you, and call you to repentance and deep humiliation, that you may forsake the evil of your doings, own this day of your visitation, and while you have time, prize it; lest the things which belong to your peace be hid from your eyes, for your disobedience and rebellion against the Holy One. And then had it

:

been good that you never had been born. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: again I say, repent!"

To the Bowlers in the Green.

Given forth in Launceston Jail, in Cornwall.

Being released from our imprisonment we got horses and rode towards Humphrey Lower's, and met him on the road. He told us, "he was much troubled in his mind concerning us, and could not rest at home, but was going to Colonel Bennet to seek our liberty." When we told him, "we were set at liberty, and were going to his house," he was exceedingly glad. To his house we went, and had a fine precious meeting; many were convinced, and turned by the Spirit of the Lord to Christ's teaching.

From his house we went to Loveday Hambley's, where we also had a fine large meeting. The Lord's power was over all; many were convinced there also, and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, their teacher.

After we had tarried there two or three days, we came to Thomas Mounce's, where we had a general meeting for the whole county; which, being very large, was held in his orchard. Friends from Plymouth were there, and from many places. The Lord's power was over all; and a great convincement there was in many parts of the county. Their watches were down, and all was plain and open; for the Lord had let me see, before I was set at liberty, that he would make all the country plain before us. Thomas and Ann Curtis, with an alderman of Reading, who was convinced, had come to Launceston to see us while I was a prisoner: and when Ann, and the other man returned, Thomas Curtis stayed behind in Cornwall, and had good service for the Lord at that time.*

From Thomas Mounce's we passed to LAUNCESTON again, and visited that little remnant of Friends that had been raised up there while we were in prison; and the Lord's plants grew finely, and were established on Christ, their rock and foundation. As we were going out of town again, the constable of Launceston came running to us with the cheese that had been taken from Edward Pyot; which they had kept from us all this while, and were tormented with it. But being now set at liberty, we would not receive it.

From Launceston we came to OKINGTON [Oakhampton], and lodged at an inn, which the mayor of the town kept. He had stopped and taken up several Friends, but was very civil to us; and was convinced in his judg ment.

From thence we came to EXETER, where many Friends were in prison; and amongst the rest James Naylor. For a little before we were set at liberty, James had run out into imaginations, and a company with him; which raised up a great darkness in the nation. He came to Bristol, and

*Thomas Curtis became a faithful minister, and sufferer for Christ's sake. In 1666, he is mentioned in a letter from Alexander Parker to Margaret Fell as being a prisoner with thirty-two or thirty-three others. His wife, Ann Curtis, was a daughter of a sheriff of Bristol. See a letter of T. Curtis to George Fox, in Letters of Early Friends, p. 240.

+ James Naylor was a monument of human frailty. His gift in the ministry was

made a disturbance there: and from thence he was coming to Launceston to see me; but was stopped by the way, and imprisoned at Exeter; as were also several others; one of whom, an honest tender man, died in prison there, whose blood lieth on the heads of his persecutors.

The night we came to Exeter, I spoke with James Naylor; for I saw he was out and wrong; and so was his company. Next day, being Firstday, we went to visit the prisoners, and had a meeting with them in the prison; but James Naylor and some of them could not stay the meeting. There came a corporal of horse into the meeting, and was convined, and remained a very good Friend. The next day I spoke to James Naylor again; and he slighted what I said, and was dark, and much out; yet he would have come and kissed me. But I said, "since he had turned against the power of God, I could not receive his show of kindness;" the Lord moved me to slight him, and to "set the power of God over him." So after I had been warring with the world, there was now a wicked spirit risen up amongst Friends to war against. I admonished him and his company. When he was come to London, his resisting the power of God in me, and the truth that was declared to him by me, became one of his greatest burdens. But he came to see his out-going, and to condemn it; and after some time he returned to truth again; as in the printed relation of his repentance, condemnation, and recovery, may be more fully seen.

We passed from Exeter through COLLUMPTON and TAUNTON, visiting Friends; and had meetings amongst them. From thence we came to PUDDIMOOR, to William Beaton's; where on the First-day we had a very

eminent; his experience in divine things truly great. He fell through unwatchfulness, but was restored through deep sufferings and unfeigned repentance. His own writings are the most clear and lively description of the various dispensations he underwent; some of them deserve to be transmitted to the latest posterity. His address to his brethren bespeaks the real repentance of his heart; in that he says, "My heart is broken this day for the offence I have occasioned to God's truth and people,-I beseech you, forgive wherein I evilly requited your love in that day. God knows my sorrow for it!" &c. A few hours before his death, he spoke in the presence of several witnesses the following remarkable words :

"There is a spirit which I feel, that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong; but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all temptations; as it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thought to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring is the mercy and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness; its life is everlasting love unfeigned. It takes its kingdom with entreaty, and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else regard it, or can own its life. It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoiceth, but through sufferings; for with the world's joy it is murdered. I found it alone; being forsaken. I have fellowship therein, with those who lived in dens and desolate places in the earth; who through death obtained this resurrection, and eternal, holy life!"

Such was the end of James Nayler; who, in his forty-fourth year, chastened, but not killed-cast down, but not destroyed "-through much tribulation, entered, we may humbly hope, "into the kingdom of God."—(For full particulars, see his Life by Joseph Gurney Bevan.)

large meeting. A great convincement there was all through that country; many meetings we had, and the Lord's power was over all; many were turned, by the power and Spirit of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for them, and came to sit under his free teaching.

From thence we went to John Dander's, where we had another precious meeting. The Lord's power was over all, and many were convinced of God's eternal truth. Contention was raised by professors and Baptists in some places, but the Lord's power came over them. From thence we came to Edward Pyot's house near Bristol. It was the Seventh-day at night that we came thither; and it was quickly noised over the town that I was come. I had never been there before.

On First-day morning I went to the meeting in Broadmead at BRISTOL; which was large and quiet. Notice was given of a meeting to be in the afternoon in the orchard. There was at Bristol a rude Baptist, named Paul Gwin, who had before made great disturbance in our meetings, being encouraged and set on by the mayor, who, it was reported, would sometimes give him his dinner to encourage him. Such multitudes of rude people he gathered after him, that it was thought there had been sometimes ten thousand people at our meeting in the orchard. As I was going into the orchard, the people told me, that Paul Gwin, the rude jangling Baptist, was going to the meeting. "I bid them never heed, it was nothing to me who went to it." When I was come into the orchard, I stood upon the stone that Friends used to stand on when they spoke; and I was moved of the Lord to put off my hat, and to stand a pretty while, and let the people look at me; for some thousands of people were there. While I thus stood silent, this rude Baptist began to find fault with my hair; but I said nothing to him. Then he ran on into words; and at last, "Ye wise men of Bristol," said he, "I strange at you, that you will stand here, and hear a man speak and affirm that which he cannot make good." Then the Lord opened my mouth (for as yet I had not spoken a word), and I asked the people, "whether they ever heard me speak; or ever saw me before" and I bid them "take notice what kind of man this was amongst them that should so impudently say, that I spoke and affirmed that which I could not make good; and yet neither he nor they had ever heard me or seen me before. Therefore that was a lying, envious, malicious spirit, that spoke in him; and it was of the Devil, and not of God. I charged him in the dread and power of the Lord to be silent: and the mighty power of God came over him, and all his company. Then a glorious, peaceable meeting we had, and the word of life was divided amongst them; and they were turned from darkness to the light,—to Jesus their Saviour. The Scriptures were largely opened to them; and the traditions, rudiments, ways, and doctrines of men were laid open before the people; and they were turned to the light of Christ, that with it they might see them, and see him to lead them out of them. I opened also to them the types, figures, and shadows of Christ in the time of the law; and showed them that Christ was come, and had ended the types, shadows, tithes, and oaths, and put down swearing; and had set up yea and nay instead of it, and a free ministry; for he was now come to teach people himself, and his heavenly

day was springing from on high." For many hours did I declare the word of life amongst them in the eternal power of God, that by him they might come up into the beginning, and be reconciled to him. And having turned them to the Spirit of God in themselves, that would lead into all truth, I was moved to pray in the mighty power of God; and the Lord's power came over all When I had done, this fellow began to babble again; and John Audland was moved to bid him repent, and fear God. So his own people and followers being ashamed of him, he passed away, and never came again to disturb the meeting. The meeting broke up quietly, and the Lord's power and glory shone over all: a blessed day it was, and the Lord had the praise. After a while this Paul Gwin went beyond the seas; many years after I met with him again at Barbadoes: of which in its place.

From Bristol we returned to Edward Pyot's, where we had a great meeting. The Lord's power was over all, truth was declared and spread abroad, and many were turned to Christ Jesus, their life, their prophet to teach them, their shepherd to feed them, and their bishop to oversee them. After the meeting, I had reasoning with some professors; and the Lord's truth and power came over them.

From Edward Pyot's we passed to SLATTENFORD, where we had a very large meeting (Edward Pyot and another Friend being still with me); great turning of people there was to the Lord Jesus Christ, their teacher: and people were glad that they were brought to know their way, their free teacher, and their Saviour, Christ Jesus.

The First-day following we went to Nathaniel Crips's house, who had been a justice of peace in Wiltshire, where it was supposed there were between two and three thousand people at a meeting; and all was quiet. The mighty power of God was manifest, and people were turned to the grace and truth in their hearts, that came by Jesus Christ, which taught them to deny all ungodliness and worldly lust, and to live soberly and godly in this present world; so that every man and woman might know the grace of God, which had appeared to all men, and which was saving, and sufficient to bring their salvation. This teacher, the grace of God, would teach them how to live, what to do, and what to deny; it would season their words, and establish their hearts. This was a free teacher to every one of them; that they might come to be heirs of this grace, and of Christ, by whom it came; who hath ended the prophets, and the priests that took tithes, and the Jewish temple. And as for the hireling priests that take tithes now, and their temples (which priests were made at schools and colleges of man's setting up, and not by Christ), they, with all their inventions, were to be denied. For the apostles denied the true priesthood and temple, which God had commanded, after Christ had put an end thereto. The Scriptures, and the truths therein contained, were largely opened, and the people turned to the Spirit of God in their hearts; that by it they might be led into all truth, and understand the Scriptures, and know God and Christ, and come to have unity with them, and one with another in the same Spirit. They went away generally satisfied, and were glad that they were turned to Christ Jesus, their teacher and Saviour.

Next day we went to MARLBOROUGH, where we had a little meeting.