Now as concerning priests and teachers who will not preach without a sum of money ... such the higher power silenceth that useth their tongue, whose doubts is for outward maintenanceand taking thought for that, such are in the state of the Gentiles, the Kingdoms of the world and seeking for that and not for the Kingdom of God, and the righteousness of it first, which the other things follow. If this were found and a word from the Lord received and his counsel stood in, people would be turned from their evil ways, there would be no want for outward things. But if they be priests and readers of the law to the people, then they must have their pulpit of wood and a thing made ready to their hand and boast in other men’s labours. But this was not the practice of the apostles.
(C. J., I., p. 85.)
So I declared to the people that I came not to hold up their idols, temple, tithes nor priests but to declare against them and opened to the people all their traditions and that piece of ground was no more holy than another piece of ground and that they should know that their bodies were to be the temples of God and Christ and so to bring them off all the world’s hireling teachers to Christ their free teacher and directing them to the spirit and grace, and the light of Jesus that they might know both God and Christ and the Scriptures.
(C. J., I., p. 27.)
Let all be careful to speak shortly and pertinently to matters, in a Christian spirit and dispatch business quickly and keep out of long debates and heats; and with the Spirit of God keep that down which is doating about questions and strife of words that tend to parties and contention. In the church of God there is no such custom to be allowed. And let not more than one speak at a time; nor any in a fierce way, for that is not to be allowed in any society, either natural or spiritual.
(Works, VIII., p. 309.)
Friends ... keep to your proper, sound, plain language.
(Works, VIII., p. 85.)
Now dear Friends I have sent an answer to that which William Rogers hath wrote together full of lies calumnies and false reports under pretence of queries, but are charges from his rattle head to please rattle children with.
(Bristol MSS., Vol. 20.)
All Friends everywhere take heed of printing anything more than ye are required of the Lord God. And all Friends everywhere take heed of wandering up and down about needless occasions for there is danger of getting into the careless words out of seriousness weightiness and savouriness.
(Works, VII., p. 128.)
Now concerning those that do go to the Quarterly Meeting as representatives, they must be substantial friends that can give a testimony of your sufferings and how things are amongst you in every particular meeting. So that none that are raw or weak, that are not able to give a testimony of the affairs of the church and truth may go on behalf of the particular meetings to the quarterly meetings, but may be nursed up in your monthly meetings and there fitted for the Lord’s service.
(Epistles, No. 264, 1669.)
That is a creeping spirit that would go to alter the usual and constant meeting days under pretence to prevent people from the corruptions of observing a constant day.
(Works, VIII., p. 81.)
Keep all your meetings in the name of the Lord Jesus that be gathered in his name by his light, grace, truth, power and spirit, by which you will feel his blessed and refreshing presence among you, and in you to your comfort and God’s glory.
And now all friends, all your meetings, you do know that you have felt both His power and spirit and wisdom and blessed refreshing presence among you and in you to his praise and glory and your comfort so that you have been a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.
And although many loose and unruly spirits have risen betimes to oppose you and them both in print and other ways, but you have seen how they have come to nought.
And therefore all to stand steadfast in Christ Jesus your head, in whom you are all one, male and female and knoweth his government, and the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.
And let no man live to self, but to the Lord, as they will die in him and seek the peace of the church of Christ, and the peace of all men in him, for blessed are the peacemakers. And dwell in the pure peaceable heavenly wisdom of God that is gentle and easy to be entreated, that is full of mercy; all striving to be of one mind, heart, soul and judgment in Christ, having his mind and spirit dwelling in you, building up one another in the love of God.
And Christ is not divided, for in him there is peace. Christ saith, in me you have peace and he is from above and not of this world. Butin the world below, in the spirit of it there is trouble. Therefore keep in Christ and walk in him. Amen.
(C. J., II., pp. 367-369, condensed.)
And the least member in the church hath an office and is serviceable and every member hath need of another.
(Works, VII., p. 347.)
Dear friends and brethren in all your words, in all your business and employment, have a care of breaking your words and promises to any people; but that you may consider beforehand, whether you may be able to perform and fulfil both your words and promises, that your yea be yea, and nay, nay in all things; which Christ hath set up instead of an oath and swearing.
(Works, VIII., p. 219.)
For swearing by Baal and swearing by the temple or swearing by the altar or by the gift that was offered thereon; or swearing by the heavens or by the earth or swearing by the head, these were all inventions. Christ did not come to fulfil those vain and frivolous oaths that men commanded, and practised but the oath which God had commanded, and cried woe against them that were in the practice of those oaths which God never commanded ... and so you may see all along it was the command of theLord and by His law and prophets that people were to swear by the Lord and perform their oath unto him which was the true oath and swearing which Christ forbad much more all other oaths....
So though swearing was lawful in the time of the law as other things and offerings, in the time of the gospel is forbidden.... So we desire that our testimony may be taken in truth and righteousness, without swearing.
(Works, V., pp. 165,et seq., condensed.)
So this is the word of the Lord God to you all, feel that you stand in the presence of the Lord God. For every man’s word shall be his burden.
(C. J., I., p. 319.)
And so as you honour God, with God shall you be honoured. But seek it as eagerly as you will without him it will fly from you. Through flattery you may obtain which will corrupt your judgment and let in upon you everlasting dishonour. Wherefore turn to the Lord with your whole hearts and seek his glory alone.
(C. J., I., p. 134.)
Take heed of being corrupted by flatteries. They that know their God shall be strong.
(Works, VII., p. 18.)
Be not carried away by good words and fair speeches, nor the affectionate part which is taken with them; but everyone have hold of the truth in yourselves.
(Works, VII., p. 155.)
That selfish man-pleasing and daubing spirit must be put down with the spirit and condemnedwith the light, else ye will presently be ridiculous to the world and to all men and they will say ye are not as ye were in the beginning.
(Works, VII., p. 182.)
So you that are in place to rule and seek for honour, seek first that which is honourable and none can hold you from honour. And know it is the gift of God only to such as honour him and not themselves. Seek that glory and honour that hath immortality and eternal life, which is obtained of God by continuance in well-doing. Seek humility that goes before honour, exalt justice, set up righteousness and truth in judgment. Hold forth God’s sword to all people under you and not your own wills.... Seek first the Kingdom of God that he may rule in your own hearts over your pride, over your passion, over lust, over covetousness, over respect of persons and over all unrighteousness. So shall you set up the higher power in you for every soul to be subject to, which that of God in every conscience shall answer to.
(C. J., I., pp. 132-133.)
Boast not yourselves, none of you, but be watchful and meek and learn the true humility which goes before the honour. For it is an honour for a King to find out a matter andsearch it out. And let there not be an eye in none of you nor an ear amongst none of you that will respect persons or have persons respected. For in such cases there will be a will that is brittle, earthly, changeable, wanting the patience to judge rightly, selfish; and stubbornness and prejudice and siding to parties more than to truth. And right judgment is blinded in these and the true measure is wanting and the true weight to weigh withal.
(C. J., I., p. 80.)
So I asked him (if) he were the Governor and wherefore he cast the friend into prison, and he said for standing with his hat upon his head when the minister and the people sung. And I told him had not the priest two caps upon his head, and if the friend should cut off the brim of his hat then he would have but one; for the brim was to save the rain off his neck and shoulders, and he cried, Away with these frivolous things and then I asked him why he imprisoned the friend for frivolous things.
(Short Journal, pp. 78, 79.)
In the beginning was the word and none knows this word but who are come to the beginning. Now, all people and priests, who can witness this? Who are come hither? Who are come hither into the beginning? What our hands have handled and what our eyes have seen what was from the beginning. The word of life this declare we unto you. Who know this word are pure are made clean through the word, are washed by the word, are sanctified by the word, are cut to pieces by the word and are divided asunder by the word; and this word is a hammer beating down everything, that the seed of God may rise up and come to the beginning; and all who know this word are come into the beginning. It is as a fire burning up all corruptions and this is the word that is nigh thee in thy heart; and this is the word which all the prophets spoke from; and this is the word that became flesh and dwelt among us (saith the Saints); and this is the word of lifewhich the apostles preached, the substance of all figures, types and shadows and this is the word which makes all the Saints one, that reconciles their hearts together to the Lord; this is the word by which all things stand and remain, and are upheld by his word and power and this is the word which doth endure forever; all who are born again of the immortal seed witness this word with me. And now the word is made manifest the same as ever was, which gathers together the hearts of people, which divides asunder the precious and the vile and of twain hath made one, and this is the word that lets see that all flesh is grass and this is the word which was before any letter was written, and all who have not this word put the letter for the word and are in Cain’s nature, envying and murdering running on swiftly to evil; and Cain’s sacrifice God doth not accept, and all the preaching and all the praying and all your reading and all your singing and all your expounding and all your churches and all your worships and all your teachers and all your baptisms, which are invented from the letter, the carnal mind invents them. All this is for the fire. Your profession must be gathered together in bundles and cast into the fire, for they are the works of the flesh proceedingfrom the first nature. And all you who live in the first nature not knowing the word of God but only the letter, ye crucify the just and yet get up into the just’s place, quenching the light within you. Now I witness it by the same word as ever was. They draw people unto the letter and tell them it is the word and to hearken to them who speak their vain imaginations of it. So they bear rule by their means over the poor people, which the Lord was ever against. For God is free and will have his people so and his gospel is a free gospel and his mercies are free and his grace is free. His gospel is free to every creature and his grace is free to every creature. His grace is not the letter, his gospel is not the letter, his glad tidings is not the letter, for many poor troubled souls may be under death and condemnation and have the letter and these teachers of the letter, and there lie wounded but no peace.
So all people consider and see if you can witness your souls raised out of death and you brought into the everlasting covenant. So who can witness their souls brought out of death are come into the beginning, but thou that hast nothing but the letter and art spending thy money and thy labour and not satisfied, thouart following the greedy dumb dog which can never have enough.
(C. J., I., pp. 72-75, condensed.)
None upon the earth comes to witness the spirit of wisdom and of understanding and a sound mind, but who first comes down to the witness of God in him, the spirit of God which gave forth the scriptures, with which he comes to have unity with God and scriptures and one another with which spirit they worship him and all evil doers and transgressors upon the earth go from the spirit of God in them and the light.
And all janglings about religion upon the earth, and differences about scriptures which the higher power goes upon, given forth from the spirit of God, amongst teachers, professors and people and churches is that they be out of the spirit of Christ the prophets and apostles were in, that gave forth the scriptures, and the servants of God in which spirit they had unity. For the fellowship is in the light, and the unity is in the spirit, and that is the bond of peace amongst people. But people out of that professing the scriptures and every one being exalted from the measure of the spirit of God in him andboasts of other men’s lives and labours, are from the bond of peace which is in the spirit and so are in the confusion.
(C. J., 656, pp. 218-219.)
And you that have the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations yet you know them not with your natural spirit of understanding, nor by all the tongues and languages since Babel; for none knew them but by the spirit of inspiration that gave them forth.
(Works, V., p. 246.)
He that hath the son of God he hath life eternal; and he that had not the son of God let him profess all the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation he had not life.
(C. J., I., p. 136.)
And ye are sanctified through the obedience of the spirit, and so come to witness the scriptures pure and clear as they are without any mixture as holy men possessed them and gave them forth, so holy men possess them and give them forth again and witness them again. Oh, do not read these things without, nor look at them to be hard, but at the love of God to thee in showing thee thy condition. For all the scriptures were given forth from an inward principle.
(C. J., I., p. 96.)
When I was in prison, diverse professors came to discourse with me; and I had a sense, before they spoke, that they came to plead for sin and imperfection. I asked them, Whether they were believers and had faith? And they said Yes. I asked them, In whom? And they said, In Christ. I replied, If ye are true believers in Christ, you are passed from death to life and if passed from death, then from sin that bringeth death. And if your faith be true, it will give you victory over sin and the devil; for they said they could not believe that any could be free from sin on this side the grave. I bid them give over babbling about the Scriptures which were holy men’s words, whilst they pleaded for unholiness.
(Journal, 8th ed., II., p. 56.)
There came a priest and some people with him to me and he asked me if I was grown up to perfectionand I said I was what I was by the grace of God; and the common-prayer priest said it was a civil answer and he said that if we do say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us; what did I say to this? And I said if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar who came to destroy sin and take away sin and so there is a time to see that people have sinned and that they have sin and to confess their sin and to forsake it; and the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin. And it was asked him whether Adam was not perfect before he fell, and all God’s works were they not perfect? And the priest said yes. But the priest said we might always be striving and this was a sad striving and never overcome. But I told him that Paul that cried out against the body of death after thanked God, through Jesus Christ who gave him the victory; and there was no condemnation to them that was in Christ Jesus. So there was a time of crying out and a time of praising. And the priest said there might be a perfection as Adam and a falling from it and I said there was a perfection in Christ beyond Adam and should never fall; and it was the work of the ministers of Christ to present every man perfect in Christ and for the perfecting of them they had their gifts from Christ and they that denied perfection theydenied the work of ... (illegible) the gifts of Christ who was for that end for the perfecting, broken.
(Journal Friends’ Hist. Soc., Vol. V., p. 170, from a Fox autograph.)
And to all ye that say, God give us grace and we shall refrain from our sin, there ye have got a tempting customary word, for the free grace of God hath appeared to all men and this is the grace of God hath appeared to all men and this is the grace of God which shows the ungodliness and worldly lusts.
(Works, IV., p. 21.)
Whatever ye are addicted to, the tempter will come in that thing; and when he can trouble you then he gets advantage over you, and then ye are gone. Stand still in that which is pure after ye see yourselves, and then mercy comes in. After thou seest thy thoughts and the temptations do not think but submit, and then power comes. Stand still in that which shows and discovers, and there doth strength immediately come. And stand still in the light, and submit to it and the other will be hushed and gone, and then content comes. And when temptations and troubles appear sink down in that which is pure and all will be hushed andfly away. Your strength is to stand still after ye see yourselves. Whatsoever ye see yourselves addicted to, temptations, corruption, uncleanness, etc., then ye think ye shall never overcome. And earthly reason will tell you what ye shall love; hearken not to that but stand still in the light that shows them to you and then strength comes from the Lord and help, contrary to your expectation. Then ye grow up in peace and no trouble shall move you.
(Works, VII., pp. 20, 21.)
Never heed the wicked’s tempest, storm nor hail, nor his instruments of cruelty. Let not the back and the hair the cheek and the shoulder be ever turned from him.
* * * * *
Look (over all the wicked’s prisons) at the seed of God, Christ, which was before they were, and will stand when they are all gone.
* * * * *
Let all haste and run for their lives into Adam that never fell, out of Adam that fell.
(Works, VII., p. 271.)
And I was moved to declare to the people how all people in the fall were from the image of God and righteousness and holiness, and they was as wells without the water of life, cloudswithout the heavenly rain, trees without the heavenly fruit and in the nature of beasts and serpents, and tall cedars and oaks, and bulls and heifers, so they might read this nature within as the prophet described to people that were out of truth, and how that they was in the nature of dogs and swine biting and rending, and the nature of briars, thistles and thorns, and like the owls and dragons in the night, and like the wild asses and horses snuffing up, and like the mountains and rocks and crooked and rough ways, so I exhorted them to read these without and within in their nature and the wandering stars, read them without and look within all that was come to the bright and morning star, so as their fallow ground must be ploughed up before it beared seed to them, so must the fallow ground of their heart be ploughed up before they bear seed to God. So all these names were spoken to man and woman since they fell from the image of God. And as they do come to be renewed again up into the image of God they come out of the nature and so out of the name.
(C. J., 1652, pp. 53, 54.)
A place of repentance ye cannot find, though ye wash your altar with tears, being in the stained life.
(Works, VII., p. 211.)
The Lord is coming upon the wicked in his thundering power, for they are ripe.
(Works, VII., p. 273.)
And, friends, though you may have tasted of the power and been convinced and have felt the light; yet, afterwards, you may feel a winter storm, tempest, hail (and be frozen), frost and cold and wilderness and temptations, be patient and still in the power and still in the light that doth convince you. Keep your minds unto God, in that be quiet that you may come to the summer, that your flight be not in the winter. For if you sit still in the patience which overcomes in the power of God there will be no flying. For the husbandman after he hath sown his seed he is patient, for by the power and by the light you will come to see through and feel over winter storms tempests and all the coldness barrenness, emptiness; and the same light and power will go over the tempter’s head which power and light was before he was. And so in the light standing still you will see your salvation, you will see the Lord’s strength, you will feel the small rain, you will feel the fresh springs.
(C. J., I., pp. 224-225.)
Now to all you who are convinced and have your understandings enlightened. Beware ye enter not in the temptation to lust after the creature and give not way to the lazy dreaming mind for it enters into the temptations. So there thou wilt be polluted with the pollutions of the world; then thou wilt be tempted to despair and the devil there gets power upon thee.
(Works, VII., p. 56.)
This spirit baptiseth into the one body and this spirit is the unity of the saints though they be absent in body, yet present in spirit all being made to drink into one spirit. And this spirit circumciseth and puts off the body of sin.
(C. J., I., p. 95.)
I am moved to write these things to you in all the plantations. God that made the world and all things therein and giveth life and breath to all is the God of spirits of all flesh and is no respecter of persons. He hath made all nations of one blood. And he doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world. And the gospel is preached to every creature under heaven, which is the power that giveth liberty and freedom and is glad tidings to every captivated creature under the whole heavens.
(Works, VII., p. 144, condensed.)
So the keeper of the house of correction was commanded to bring me up before the commissioners and soldiers in the market-place and there they proffered me perferment because of my virtue as they said, with many other compliments, and asked me if I would not take up arms for the Commonwealth against the King. But I told them I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars; and I knew from whence all wars did rise; from the lust according to James his doctrine. And still they courted me to accept of their offer, and thought that I did but compliment with them, but I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes was. And they said they offered it in love and kindness to me because of my virtue and such like, and I told them if that were their love and kindness I trampled it under my feet.
(C. J., I., pp. 11, 12.)
Come out of the bustlings you that are bustling and in strife one against another, whose spirits are not quieted, but are fighting with words, whose hearts burn against each other with a mad blind zeal, who are up in your wantonness, lightness and pleasures who set the whole course of nature on fire, among whom the way of peace and that which is perfect is not known.
(Works, IV., p. 124.)
There is no one strikes his fellow servants but first he is gone from the pure in his own particular. He goeth from the light he is enlightened withal when he strikes. Then he hath his reward.
(C. J., I., p. 318.)
Peace.
Seek the peace of all men.
(Works, VIII., p. 62.)
For man and woman were helps-meet in the image of God and in righteousness and holiness, in the dominion before they fell; but after the fall in the transgression the man was to rule over his wife; but in the restoration by Christ into the image of God and his righteousness and holiness again in that they are helps-meet, man and woman, as they were before the fall.
(Works, VIII., p. 39.)
And there was a great marriage of two friends the next day, and there came some hundreds of beggars. And friends refreshed them instead of the rich. And in the meeting before the marriage I was moved to open to the people the state of our marriages, how the people of God took one another in the assemblies of the elders, and how God did join man and woman together before the fall, and man had joined in the fall, but it was God’s joining again in the restoration and never from Genesis to the Revelation did ever any priests marry any.
(C. J., II., pp. 106-7.)
DEAR RICHARD,With my love to thee and to thy wife and to all the rest of Friends in the holy seed of life, now dear Richard Richardson I desire that thou would search all the libraries concerning marriages, and what they do say of them; and the Fathers and how they did before the monkish sort came in in the Britons’ time and when marrying with the priest came in. So search histories and laws and see what thou canst bring out both good and bad and which maketh a marriage and do what thou canst in this thing, for it hath been upon me some time to write to thee of this thing and did receive thy letter by R. Bartlett which I did let Thomas Lowson see. It is a notable thing, so in haste with my lovegff.Swarthmore, 8 mo., 16, 1679.(Journal Friends’ Hist. Soc., Vol. I., p. 63, from MSS.)
DEAR RICHARD,
With my love to thee and to thy wife and to all the rest of Friends in the holy seed of life, now dear Richard Richardson I desire that thou would search all the libraries concerning marriages, and what they do say of them; and the Fathers and how they did before the monkish sort came in in the Britons’ time and when marrying with the priest came in. So search histories and laws and see what thou canst bring out both good and bad and which maketh a marriage and do what thou canst in this thing, for it hath been upon me some time to write to thee of this thing and did receive thy letter by R. Bartlett which I did let Thomas Lowson see. It is a notable thing, so in haste with my love
gff.
Swarthmore, 8 mo., 16, 1679.
(Journal Friends’ Hist. Soc., Vol. I., p. 63, from MSS.)
And some men may say man must have the power and superiority over the woman, because God says, “The man must rule over his wife” and that “man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man.”
Indeed, after man fell, that command was; but before man fell there was no such command.For they were both meet-helps and they were both to have dominion over all that God made. And, as the apostle saith, “for as the woman is of the man,” his next words are, “so is the man also by the woman; but all things are of God.”
(Works, VIII., p. 69.)
What spirit is this that would exercise lordship over the faith of any?
(Works, VIII., p. 97.)
Women are heirs of life as well as men ... they must all give an account of their stewardship and are to be possessors of life and light and grace and the gospel of Christ, and to labour in it and to keep their liberty and freedom in it as well as the men.
(Ibid.)
You may see Abigail, that honourable woman’s wisdom, how she saved her family and her house from destruction. Yet she did not go to ask her husband (old churlish Nabal) at home, but she who was innocent and wise, took it upon herself; and you may see what a brave sermon she preached to David, who heard her patiently.
(Works, VIII., p. 100.)
And when the apostle spake to the Corinthians how that he would have them to know that Godwas the head of Christ, and Christ was the head of the man and the man was the head of the woman, and the woman was made for the man and not the man for the woman and he is the image and glory of God and she is the glory of the man, this the apostle spake to the Corinthians who were not come to the state of Adam and Eve before they fell.
(Works, VII., p. 190.)
Now Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders, did not say to those assemblies of the women, We can do our work ourselves and you are more fit to be at home to wash the dishes, or such-like expressions; but they did encourage them in the work and service of God, in those things which God had commanded them in the time of the law.
(Works, VIII., p. 93.)
But this Coleman and others in their opposition asked me whether it was not the command of God that a man must rule over his wife, and he would rule over his wife; and did not the apostle say I permit not a woman to teach, and where did we read of women elders and women disciples? and it was an abuse to the elders to set up a women’s meeting.
But I told him and them that he and they was but an elder in the fall, ruling over their wives in the fall; but he nor they must not rule over widows and young women and other men’s wives. And I showed him that Dorcas was a disciple and the apostle commands that the elder women should be teachers of good things to the younger, and though the apostle said, I permit not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, as also saith the law, for Eve was first in transgression and such teaching as Eve taught her husband and usurped authority over the man is forbidden.
But the apostle also says that daughters and handmaids should prophesy which they did both in the time of the law and gospel and man and woman was meet helps before they fell, in the image of God and righteousness and holiness; and so they are to be again in the restoration by Christ Jesus.
And thy ruling over thy wife and eldership is in the fall for thou art in the transgression and not an elder in the image of God and righteousness and holiness before transgression and the fall was, nor in the restoration where they are helps meet in the righteousness and image of God and in the dominion over all that God made.
(C. J., II., pp. 262, 263.)
Now, you women, though you have been under reproach, because Eve was first in transgression, the promise was “The seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.” And this promise of God is fulfilled.... Now here comes the reproach to be taken off women.
(Works, VIII., p. 141.)
Let your women learn in silence, with all subjection; I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but ask her husband at home. That which usurps authority the law takes hold of, but if you be led by the spirit, then you are not under the law. Christ in the male and in the female is one which makes free from the law. “I will pour out my spirit upon sons and daughters and they shall prophesy” and if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church which the law forbids; it is a shame to suffer them to speak in the church. What? Came the word of God out from you or came it unto you only?
Paul, according to the measure given to him, in all his epistles speaking in them of things of which some are hard to be understood, whichthey that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction.
* * * * *
You that cannot own the prophesying of the daughters, the women-labourers in the gospel, you are such as the apostle speaks of in the same chapter, which serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own bellies, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Be ashamed for ever and let all your mouths be stopped for ever that despise the spirit of prophecy in the daughters, and do cast them into prison and do hinder the women-labourers in the gospel.
(Works, IV., p. 104,et seq., condensed.)
And the elder women in the truth were not only called elders, but mothers. Now a mother in the church of Christ and a mother in Israel is one that gives suck and nourishes and feeds and washes and rules, and is a teacher in the church and in the Israel of God and an admonisher an instructor and exhorter.
(Works, VIII., p. 41.)
Some among you breed up your children not as when you were in a profession only, in such a rude, heady way that when they grow up they do not matter you nor care for you.... In many things they are worse than many of the world’s, more loose, stubborn and disobedient ... so that when they come to be set to prentice many times they run quite out into the world.... Therefore while they are young restrain them ... in all things keep your authority which is given to you of God.
(Works, VIII., p. 23.)
Youth if they be let loose are like wild asses and wild heifers, and such many times bring a great dishonour to God by running into looseness; which are more fit to be under rule and order than to rule; and through a foolish pity of some they let up a great deal of airiness and wildness.
* * * * *
Youth should be kept under a bridle and restraint and be nurtured and trained up in the fear and wisdom of God, that the power of God and God’s truth may have its passage through all and over all, and all lightness frothiness wildness and looseness may be kept down.
(Works, VIII., pp. 24, 25.)
If any mar their books and blot their books through carelessness, let them sit without the table as disorderly children. And if any one turns from these things and mendeth and doeth so no more and then if any do accuse them of their former action after they be amended, the same penalty shall be laid upon them as upon them that is mended from his former doings. And if any be known to steal let him write without the table and say his lesson and show his copy without the bar. And all must be meek, sober and gentle and quiet and loving and not give one another bad word no time in the school nor out of it least.
That they be made to say their lesson or show their copy-book to the master at the bar and all is to mind their lessons and be diligent in their writings. And to lay up their books when they go from the school and their pens and ink-horns and to keep them so, else they must be lookedupon as careless and slovens, and so you must keep all things clean, sweet and neat and handsome.
(Swarthmore MSS., II., 2,123, Fox autograph.)
All the legacies that are given to the men’s or women’s meetings let them be kept as a public stock for the setting forth of apprentices and setting them up.
(Works, VII., p. 343.)
Now all you that do murmur against people that have many children and do complain and say that they do fill your towns, cities and countries with children; and many times you that do so complain have few or no children, and you are afraid that they should come to want and then you must be fain to relieve their necessities. And what then? What you do give to the poor you lend to the Lord, and he will repay it to you again, if they cannot. And this wanting mind is for want of faith in God who gives the increase of all and is rich unto all that call upon him. And the Lord would have you to take notice that children are the heritage of the Lord. The Lord that doth increase the children of his heritage he will take care for his heritage whether that murmuring, complainingmind against poor people of having so many children, you relieving them or no, he will take care for his heritage.
Blessed be his name for ever.
And that will be a happy day when they come to nurse Christ’s chickens, doves, lambs, babes and little children.
(Works, VI., p. 204,et seq., condensed.)
Friends to have and provide a house or houses where a hundred may have rooms to work in and shops of all sorts of things to sell, and where widows and young women might work and live.
(Works, VII., p. 343.)
Have an alms-house or hospital for all poor friends that are past work.
(Ibid.)
Friends to have and provide a house for them that be distempered and not to go to the world.
(Ibid.)
And so, now you that are settled in those parts, who have had a testimony from the Lord to bear to people of the truth, you should spread abroadGod’s eternal truth; and have meetings (as I said before) with the Indian Kings and people; so that all the earth may come to look unto the Lord for salvation. For if ye should settle down in the earth and have plenty and be full, and at ease for a time and not keep in the power and service and spirit of God, you would quickly come to lose your condition, as some did in Rhode Island when settled down in the earth after a while, and then turned to jangling about it, and some ran out one way and some another.
(Works, VIII., p. 306.)
O Friends, do not die from the good through the wantonness of fleshly lusts, neither be choked with the cares of this life, nor fear the shearers, neither let the heat scorch your green blade; but dwell under the shadow of the Almighty who will shade you from the heat and cold. Neither be cumbered nor surfeited with the riches of this world, nor bound, nor straitened with them, nor married to them.
(Works, VII., p. 152.)
Every one strive to be rich in the life and in the Kingdom, and things of the world that hath no end.
(Works, VII., p. 197.)
And in the old parliament’s days many people that used to wear ribbons and lace and costly apparel and followed junkettings and feasting with priests and professors came to leave it off when they came to be convinced of God’s eternal truth and to walk and serve God in the spirit as the apostle did, they left off their curious apparel and ribbons and lace and their sporting and feasting with priests and professors and would not go to wakes nor plays nor shows as they formerly had used to do and would not wear gold nor silver nor lace nor ribbons nor make them.
And then the priests and professors raged exceedingly against us and printed books against us and said that our religion lay in not wearing fine clothes and lace and ribbons and in not eating good cheer, .... And we told them that when they went to their sports and games and plays and the like that they had better serve God than spend their time so vainly; and that costly apparel with lace that we formerly had hung upon our backs that kept us not warm, with that we could maintain a company of poor people that had no clothes.
And so our religion lay not in meats and drinks, nor clothes, nor thee nor thou, norputting off hats nor making curtseys at which they were greatly offended because we thee’d and thou’d them and could not put off our hats nor bow to them. And therefore they said our religion lay in such things but our answer was, nay, for though the spirit of God led into that which was comely and decent and from chambering and wantonness and from sporting and pastimes and feasting as in the day of slaughter and from wearing costly apparel as the apostle commands and from the world’s honour fashions and customs. But our religion lies in that which brings to visit the poor and fatherless and widows and keeps from the spots of the world, which religion is pure and undefiled before God, and this is the religion which we own which the apostles was in above 1600 years since, and do deny all vain religions got up since which are not only spotted with the world but pleads for a body of sin and death to the grave, and their widows and fatherless lies begging up and down the street and countries.
(C. J., I., pp. 285-286.)
Knowledge and familiarity is as grass that withers; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
(Works, VIII., p. 45.)
None may stand idle out of the vineyard, and out of the service and out of their duty; for such will talk and tattle and judge with evil thoughts of what they in the vineyard say and do.
(Works, VII., p. 283.)
Oh friends, look not out; for he that doth is darkened. And take heed of lightness. Take heed of the world and of busying your mind with things not serviceable. A wise man’s eye is in his head, but a fool’s eye is gazing up and down.
(Works, VII., p. 72.)
People must not be always talking and hearing.
(Works, VIII., p. 45.)
For all distractions, distempers, unruliness, and confusion is in the transgression which transgression must be brought down before the principle of God.
(Swarthmore Transcripts, Vol. VII., p. 123.)
Take heed of judging the measures of others, but everyone mind your own, and there ye famish the busy minds and high conceits, and so peace springs up among you and division is judged.
(Works, VII., p. 60.)
All differences to be made up speedily that they do not fly abroad to corrupt people’s minds.
(Works, VII., p. 328.)
Let all reports be stopped that tend to the defaming one of another.
(Works, VII., p. 328.)
Keep single unto God and single-hearted to man and plain in all things, and low.
(Works, VII., p. 304.)
Live in peace and love and patience with one another, for that doth edify the body and strife doth not, but doth eat out the good. For the body doth edify itself in love, in which there is nourishment and virtue and life.
(Works, VIII., p. 22.)
Mind the light, that all may be refreshed one in another and all in one. And the God of power and love keep all friends in power, in love, that there be no surmisings, but pure refreshings in the unlimited love of God, which makes one another known in the conscience to read one another’s hearts; being comprehended intothis love, it is inseparable and all are here one. And keep in the oneness and note them that cause dissension contrary to the gospel ye have received, that one pure faith may be held in all, to guide and preserve all in the unity of the spirit and bond of peace; all one family of love, children of one father and of the household of God.
(Works, VII., p. 19.)
The dead make dead ways for the dead to walk in.
(Works, VIII., p. 28.)
Hardness of heart is worse than an outward plague.
(Works, VII., p. 274.)
The hard-hearted are not sensible.
(Works, VIII., p. 116.)
The throne of iniquity must be brought down, and the chamber of imagery in every heart, for the Lord must have the heart.
(Works, VII., p. 275.)
Leave off all your bustling and come to Christ.
(Works, V., p. 171.)
Reason not with flesh and blood that shall never enter, take not counsel with that which lies in thy bosom for that draweth thee nearer to carnal things, and draws thee to consult with reason and so draws thy eye and mind to visible things, and so wanders from going on thy journey.
(Swarthmore Transcripts, IV., p. 566.)
Man’s pride is not the higher power. In humility we find a power above pride, higher than oppression, higher than men’s wills, higher than the lusts of the eye, yea, higher than all that in man would exalt against it. So we deny the lower that we may subject our souls to that which excelleth and which is ordained of God.
And to every ordinance of man we are subject for the Lord’s sake. But should we bow to the spirit of pride we should betray the Lord and give his honour to another and that is not for the Lord’s sake. So what we see for the Lord and of him in every ordinance of man we subject to for the Lord’s sake, and what is against him for his sake we deny and with him suffer under it as witnesses for him against it.... Is there anything honourable in man but the image of God?
(C. J., I., pp. 131, 132.)
And so the Lord arm friends with his light and shield of faith that they may stand in the daylight of the son of God and keep their first habitation and hold Christ their head by which the body is united together by bands and joints, from whom they receive their nourishment and the love of God which edifies the body and unites it to Christ their heavenlyhead, which all the apostate Christians being several bodies without this head and not owning his light, grace and truth that comes from him the head by which they should be joined and united. And therefore are they like so many monstrous bodies without the heavenly head, but what they have of their own making; so often their heads go off their bodies.
(Bristol MSS., V., p. 20.)
Keep in the power of the Lord which will bring you over all to the fine linen, the righteousness of the saints.
(Works, VII., p. 239.)
Pray to the Lord to give you dominion over all, and that in his power and life and seed ye may live and reign. And all friends submit yourselves to one another in the fear of God and be one with the witness of God in all and look at that and that will keep you down from looking at the bad, but looking at the good keepeth your minds over the bad, with the Lord.
(Works, VII., p. 75.)
The saved will not suffer anything to rule that destroys.
(Works, VII., p. 272.)
Fear not the face of man, but fear and dread the Lord God, then his presence and wisdomand counsel thou shalt have to throw down the rubbish and quell all the bad spirits under thy dominion and fear them about thee. Live in the Lord’s power and life, then to thee he will give wisdom and the pure feeling thou wilt come into whereby thy soul will be refreshed.... Things all will be made plain before thee, for thee and to thee from the Lord God. In what thou doth for the Lord God thou shalt have peace and the blessing; and in that so doing all the sober true-hearted people will be one with thee in all travails, sorrows and pains.... And the helping arm and hand that stretcheth over all the nations in the world thou wilt feel it.
(Slightly condensed from a letter to Oliver Cromwell, C. J., I., pp. 163, 164.)
Church faith changeth, directory changeth, common prayer changes and mass changes and here is the four religions got up since the apostles days which they have fought for and killed one another about, but the pure religion doth not change.
(C. J., VI., p. 331.)
The hireling is fled and flies because he was an hireling, whose religion was for the summer; whilst the sun shined; but in a storm, a tempest, a mist, or the sun clouded, their religion they flee from; his flight is in the winter. So theday manifests all things. Our religion is in the power of God before winter storms and tempests were; mists, fogs or clouds. In the light which shines over them all is our religion that does not change, in which there is fruit borne in the winter; by which power of God all their religions are seen, which must have an end and will have an end, which people run into. But in the power of God and his righteousness and holiness which was before the fall was, live; which power of God never alters nor changes in which is both life and peace which remains for ever.
(Works, VII., p. 225.)
And so every one is to have oil in your lamps from the heavenly olive tree, that your lamps may burn always both night and day in your tabernacles, looking to your high priest who will feed your lamps with heavenly oil.
And every one have heavenly salt in yourselves to savour withal what is earthly and what is heavenly, and what is from below and what is from above and what is out of the truth and what is in the truth.
And that everyone may keep their own vine in their own garden and their own lily in their own field or orchard, which lily doth exceed Solomon in all his glory. And every one have the word of faith in their hearts and mouths toobey and do, which will sanctify and make you holy and reconcile you to God. And every one have the anointing or unction within you which you have from the Father or Holy One so that in it you may continue in the Father and in the Son.
And every one continue in the grace of God which will teach you how to live and what to deny and will bring your salvation and establish you upon Christ the rock and foundation from whence the grace does come. And every one abide in the holy divine and precious faith which you do hold in a pure conscience by which faith you do live and have the victory over that which displeaseth God, and in this faith you do please God, which Jesus Christ, the Lord from heaven, is the author and finisher of.
And every one that hath digged deep and found the pearl of great price and hath sold all and purchased the field, then the field and pearl is your own, such do know a thorough redemption.
And all you believers in the light (which is the life in Christ) that are become the children of light, walk in the light, and in Christ, as ye have received Him.
And every one mind the heavenly leaven that will leaven you into a new lump. And every one keep the feast of Christ our passover, withhis heavenly unleavened bread in sincerity and truth.
And every one mind the light that God hath commanded to shine out of darkness and hath shined into your hearts, “to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, (your saviour) that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of yourselves,” in this you are sensible of His heavenly treasure in your earthly vessels. And every one have water in your wells and cisterns, and heavenly fruit on your trees which God hath planted.
(Works, VIII., p. 209.)
Christ saith to his disciples, go, teach all nations and go into all nations to preach the gospel.... And God would have all men to be saved. Mark, all men.
(C. J., II., p. 149.)
No true peace but in Christ.
(Works, VIII., p. 224.)