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kings' heavenly peace. In that you are all bound to good behaviour, to keep peace among yourselves, to seek the peace of all men; and to show forth the heavenly, gentle, and peaceable wisdom to all, in righteousness and truth, answering the good in all people in your lives and conversations (for the Lord is glorified in your bringing forth spiritual fruit), that ye may eye and behold the Lord in all your actions; that his blessings ye may all feel to rest upon you. Whether ye be the Lord's prisoners for his name and truth's sake, or at liberty, in all things labour to be content, for that is a continual feast; and let no trouble move you; then ye will be as Mount Sion, that cannot be removed. In all things exercise the word of patience, which word will sanctify all things to you. Study to be quiet, and do the Lord's business that he requires of you, and your own, in truth and righteousness and whatsoever ye do, let it be done to the praise and glory of God in the name of Jesus Christ. All they that make God's people suffer, make the Seed suffer in their own particulars, and imprison the Just there. Such will not visit the Seed in themselves, but cast it into prison in others, and not visit it in prison. You may read that Christ saith, such must go into everlasting punishment. That is a sad punishment and prison. All such as become apostates and backsliders, that crucify to themselves Christ afresh, put him to open shame, and trample under feet the blood of the Son of God, by which they were cleansed, and come to be unclean; such grieve, vex, quench, and rebel against, the Spirit of God in themselves; and then rebel against them that walk in it. Such are unfaithful to God and man, and are enemies to every good work and service of God: but their end will be according to their works; who are like unto the earth, that hath often received rain, but brings forth briars and thorns, which are to be rejected, and are for the fire. Therefore, dear Friends, in all your sufferings feel the Lord's eternal arm and power, which hath supported you to this day, and will to the end, as your faith stands in it, and as you are settled upon the rock and foundation Christ Jesus, that cannot be removed; in whom ye have life and peace with God. The Lord God Almighty in him give you dominion, and preserve you all to his glory; that in all your sufferings ye may feel his presence: and that, when ye have finished your testimony, ye may receive the crown of glory, which God hath laid up for them that fear and serve him. Amen." The 15th of the 7th Month, 1685.

G. F.

Having spent about a week in the country, I returned to LONDON, where I continued about two months, visiting meetings, and labouring to get relief for Friends from their sufferings, which yet lay heavy upon them in many parts of the nation. Several papers also I wrote relating to the service of truth, one of which was concerning order in the church of God, which some that were gone out of the unity of Friends much opposed. It was as follows::

"AMONG all societies, families, or nations of people in the world, there exists some sort of order. There was the order of Aaron in the Old Testament; and the order of Melchizedeck before that, after whose order Christ Jesus came; and he did not despise that order. God is a God of

order in his whole creation, and in his church: and all believers in the light, the life in Christ, that pass from death to life, are in the order of the Holy Spirit, power, light, life, and government of Christ Jesus, of the increase whereof there is no end. This is a mystery to all those disorderly people, who have written and printed so much against the order which the Lord's power and Spirit hath brought forth among his people. And you that cry so much against order, is it not manifest that you are gone into a land of darkness, and of the shadow of death, into disorder, and where the light is as darkness? Is not this your condition seen by all them that live and walk in the truth, whose conversations are according to the gospel of life and salvation?

"The devil, Satan, dragon, the first and second beast, the whore and false prophets, and their worshippers and followers, are all out of the truth, abode not in it, nor in the order of it; and the truth is over them all. In Salem is God's tabernacle; and his tabernacle is in Shiloh; these are far beyond the tabernacles of Ham (Ps. lxxvi. and lxxviii.).

“All the figures and shadows were and are comprehended in time; but Christ the substance is the beginning and the ending. And all trials, troubles, persecutions, and temptations, came up in time; but the Lord's power which is everlasting, is over all such things; in which is safety.

"The black world of darkness lieth in wickedness, and by its wisdom knoweth not God, that made the world and all things therein; for the god of the world and prince of the air ruleth in the hearts of all that disobey the living God that made them. So the God of this wicked world hath blinded the eyes of the infidels or heathen; so that by their wisdom they know not the living God.

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In the Old Testament the Lord said, 'With all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt,' Lev. ii. 13. And Christ saith in his new covenant, 'Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will you season it? Have salt in yourselves; and have peace one with another,' Mark ix. 49, 50.

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"We have received the earnest of the Spirit, which is the earnest of the inheritance, that fadeth not away. For God poureth out of his Spirit upon all flesh. It is God's Spirit which is above our natural spirit, by which alone we do not know God; for it is by the Spirit of God that we know the things of God. And the Spirit of God doth witness to our souls and spirits, that this Spirit of God is the earnest of an eternal inheritance. God opens his people's ears to discipline, and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure; but if they obey him not they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge,' Job xxxvi. 10-12. So the disobedient that do not turn from their iniquity have not this prosperity and pleasure, but die without the knowledge of God; and their ears are shut to this discipline, which God opens to his people."

G. F.

When I had been about two months in London, I was sent for to my

son Rous's at KINGSTON, to visit a daughter of his, who at that time lay very sick; but recovered. Whilst I stayed there I had several meetings with Friends; and returning by HAMMERSMITH, stayed the First-day meeting there, which was large and peaceable. Having visited Friends thereabouts, I came back to LONDON again, being very intent upon the business of getting redress for suffering Friends. In this and other services I continued at London, till the latter end of the 11th month; save that I went to visit an ancient Friend at BETHNAL-GREEN, with whom I tarried three or four days. While I was there, I was much exercised in the sense of the enemy's working, to draw from the holy way of truth into a false liberty, and so into the world's ways and worships again. And the example of the backsliding Jews coming before me, I was moved to write the following as a warning to all such :

"You may see, when the Jews rebelled against the good Spirit of God, which he gave to instruct them, they forsook him and his law, way, and worship, and went a whoring after Balaam's ways, and became like the wild ass's colt, snuffing up the wind, as in Jer. ii. 24. And in Jer. iii., see how Judah played the harlot under every green tree, and upon every high mountain; and therefore the Lord divorced Judah, as he had divorced Israel, when she forsook his way and followed the ways of the heathen. Though the Lord had fed them to the full, yet they forsook him, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves together in harlots' houses.' Jer. v. 7. 'And with their whoredom they defiled the land, and committed adultery with stocks and stones.' Jer. iii. 9. Here you may see, when they forsook the living eternal God, they followed the religions and worships of other nations, whose gods were made of stocks and stones, which the Jews worshipped, and committed adultery withal. When they forsook the living God, and his way and worship, they forsook the worship at the temple at Jerusalem, and followed the heathen's worships in the mountains and fields; so it was called adultery and whoredom to join with other religions and forsake God; as in Jer. xiii. 27.

"And now, if the children of New Jerusalem that is above, should forsake the worship, that Christ in his New Testament set up (which is in Spirit and in truth) and follow the worships of nations, which men have set up, will not they that do so, commit adultery with them, in forsaking God's worship, and Christ, the new and living way?

"In Jer. xliv., ye may see how the children of Judah provoked the Lord against them, by worshipping the works of their own hands, and following the gods of the land of Egypt. In this they committed adultery, forsaking the living God, their husband, and his worship; and there ye may see God's judgments pronounced against them to their destruction. And what will become of those that forsake the worship in Spirit and in truth, which Christ set up, and worship the works of their own hands in spiritual Egypt, and follow spiritual Egypt's will-worship, which they invented? may not this be called whoredom in them that forsake Christ, the new and living way, and his pure religion, and his worship, that he hath set up? And they that forsake the Lord's way, and his worship that he set up, and follow the world's ways and worships that they set up, do not they, whose

way they follow, become at last their enemies? as in Lam. i. See how the Jews forsook the Lord's way and worship, and doted on their lovers (the Assyrians, &c.), and with all their idols they were defiled; and how they did not leave the whoredoms brought from Egypt, and how they were polluted with the Babylonians' bed; as ye may read in Ezek. xxiii. When they forsook the Lord, his way and worship, and followed the way and worship of the heathen; then it was said they went a whoring after other lovers, and committed adultery with them.

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Ye may see in Ezek. xvi. the state of the Jews was likened unto that of their sister Sodom, and how they had played the harlot with the Assyrians, and committed fornication with the Egyptians, and had increased their whoredoms in following their abominable idols. And therefore the Lord carried away the two tribes that forsook him into Babylon; as you may see in Ezek. xvii. 20. And they that forsake Christ, the new and living Way, and the worship of God in Spirit and in truth, which Christ set up in his New Testament, go into captivity in spiritual Babylon.

"In Hosea ii., see how he discovers the whoredoms and idolatry of the Jews, who forsook the Lord, and compares them to a harlot. And in chap. viii., the destruction threatened against the Jews, for their impiety and idolatry. In chap. ix. also, the distress and captivity of the Jews is threatened for their sins and idolatry. And again they are reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry, Hos. x. This was for forsaking the Lord and his way, and following the ways of their own inventions, and the ways of the heathen.

"Doth not Isaiah say, 'That the Lord would visit Tyre, and that she should commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth;' and therefore the Lord threatened destruction upon her, chap. xxiii. And in chap. lvii. see how the Lord reproved the Jews for their whorish idolatry, and said, 'Upon a high and lofty mountain hast thou set thy bed; even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifices. Thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed, where thou sawest it.' This was a joining to the heathen's religions, altars, and sacrifices, and a forsaking of the Lord's altar and sacrifices, which he commanded in the law; and therefore that was committing whoredom with the heathen, and going into their beds from the living God that made them. And now in the New Testament God having 'poured his Spirit upon all flesh,' that by his Spirit all might come to be a royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ;' all that err from the Spirit of God and rebel against it, are not like to offer spiritual sacrifices to God; the sacrifice of such God doth not accept, no more than he did that of the heathens, or of the Jews, who rebelled against his good Spirit, that he gave to instruct them.

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And ye may see in the xviith, xviiith, and xixth chapters of the Revelations, the punishment of the great whore, Babylon, the mother of harlots; and the victory of the Lamb, and how he calleth God's people out of Babylon; for in her was found the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.' There ye may read her judgment and her downfall. This whore are they, that are whored from

the Spirit of God, and so from God and from his holy worship in spirit and in truth, from the pure, undefiled religion, that keeps from the spots of the world, and from the new and living way, Christ Jesus; these are whored from the Spirit of God into false religions, ways, and worships, and so have corrupted the earth with her abominations. But her judgment and downfall are seen, over whom Christ hath the victory; and the marriage of the Lamb is come, glory to the Lord for ever! And God's pure religion, and pure worship in Spirit and in truth Christ hath set up, as it was in the apostles' days. Hallelujah!" G. F.

I soon returned to LONDON, but made no long stay there, my body not being able to bear the closeness of the city long together. While I was in town, besides the usual services of visiting Friends, and looking after their sufferings to get them eased, I assisted Friends of the city in distributing certain sums of money, which our Friends of Ireland had charitably and very liberally raised, and sent over for the relief of their brethren, who suffered for the testimony of a good conscience; which money was distributed amongst poor, suffering Friends in the several counties, in proportion as we understood their need.

Before I left the city, I heard of a great doctor lately come from Poland; whom I invited to my lodging, and had much discourse with him. After I had informed myself by him of such things as I had a desire to know, I wrote a letter to the King of Poland on behalf of Friends at Dantzic, who had long been under grievous sufferings. A copy whereof follows:

"To John the Third, King of Poland, great Duke of Lithuania, Russia, and Prussia, Defender of the city of Dantzic, &c. Concerning the innocent and afflicted people, in scorn called Quakers, who are now fed with bread and water in Bridewell of the aforesaid city, under close confinement, where their friends, wives, and children, are hardly suffered to come to see them.

"O KING!

"The magistrates of the city of Dantzic say, that it is thy order and command, that these innocent and afflicted people should suffer such oppression. Now this punishment is inflicted upon them only because they come together in the name of Jesus Christ, their Redeemer and Saviour, who died for their sins, and is risen from the dead for their justification; who is their Prophet, whom God hath raised up like unto Moses; whom they ought to hear in all things in this day of the gospel and new covenant; who went astray like scattered sheep, but now are returned to the chief Shepherd and Bishop of their souls, 1 Pet. ii. 25. 'Who has given his life for his sheep, and they hear his voice and follow him;' who leads them into his 'pastures of life,' John x.

"Now, O King! I understand that thou openly professest Christianity, and the great and mighty name of Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, to whom is given all power in heaven and in earth, who rules all nations with a rod of iron. Therefore, O king, it seems hard to

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