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THE PREFACE;

BEING

A SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF THE DIVERS DISPENSATIONS OF GOD TO MEN,

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THAT OF OUR PRESENT AGE, BY THE MINISTRY AND TESTIMONY OF HIS FAITHFUL SERVANT, GEORGE FOX, AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ENSUING JOURNAL.

DIVERS have been the dispensations of God since the creation of the world unto the sons of men; but the great end of all of them has been the renown of his own excellent name in the creation and restoration of man: man, the emblem of himself, as a God on earth, and the glory of all his works. The world began with innocency: all was then good that the good God had made and as he blessed the works of his hands, so their natures and harmony magnified Him their Creator. Then the morning stars sang together for joy, and all parts of his works said Amen to his law; not a jar in the whole frame, but man in paradise, the beasts in the field, the fowl in the air, the fish in the sea, the lights in the heavens, the fruits of the earth; yea the air, the earth, the water, and fire worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness! O holy sabbath! O holy day to the Lord.

But this happy state lasted not long: for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity; and so fell below it, lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in. By which, being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and residence, and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beasts.

Yet God that made him, had pity on him; for He seeing he was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent (that had first fallen from his own state), and by the mediation of the woman, man's own nature and companion (whom the serpent had first deluded), in his infinite goodness and wisdom

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found out a way to repair the breach, recover the loss, and restore fallen man again by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; that as by means of a woman the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman also He should come into the world, who would prevail against him and bruise his head, and deliver man from his power; and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was personally and fully accomplished by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer.

But his power was not limited, in the manifestation of it, to that time; for both before and since his blessed manifestation in the flesh, He has been the light and life, the rock and strength of all that ever feared God: present with them in their temptations, He followed them in their travels and afflictions, and supported and carried them through and over the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, Seth obtained the pre-eminence, and Enoch walked with God. It was this that strove with the old world, and which they rebelled against, and which sanctified and instructed Noah to salvation.

But the outward dispensation that followed the benighted state of man, after his fall, especially among the patriarchs, was generally that of angels; as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express, as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Moses, which was also delivered by angels, as the apostle tells us. This dispensation was much outward, and suited to a low and servile state; called therefore that of a schoolmaster, to point out and prepare that people to look and long for the Messiah, who would deliver them from the servitude of a ceremonious and imperfect dispensation, by knowing the realities of those mysterious representations in themselves. In this time the law was written on stone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood, and external rites and ceremonies, that were shadows of the good things that were to come, and were only to serve till the Seed came, or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ, to whom was the promise, and to all men only in him, in whom it was Yea and Amen; even life from death, immortality and eternal life.

This the prophets foresaw, and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it; which was the height of the Mosaical dispensation, and which ended in John's ministry, the forerunner of the Messiah, as John's was finished in him, the fulness of all. And God, that at sundry times and in divers manners, had spoken to the fathers by his servants the prophets, spoke then by his Son Christ Jesus, who is heir of all things; being the gospel day, which is the dispensation of sonship; bringing in thereby

a nearer testament and a better hope; even the beginning of the glory of the latter days, and of the restitution of all things; yea, the restoration of the kingdom unto Israel.

Now, the Spirit, that was more sparingly communicated in former dispensations, began to be "poured forth upon all flesh," according to the prophet Joel; and the light that shined in darkness, or but dimly before, the most gracious God caused to shine out of darkness: and the day-star began to arise in the hearts of believers, giving unto them the knowledge of God in the face (or appearance) of his Son Christ Jesus.

Now, the poor in spirit, the meek, the true mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righteousness, the peace-makers, the pure in heart, the merciful, and the persecuted, came more especially in remembrance before the Lord, and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd. Old Jerusalem with her children grew out of date, and the New Jerusalem into request, the mother of the sons of the gospel day. Wherefore no more at old Jerusalem, nor at the mountain of Samaria, will God be worshipped, above other places; for, behold, he is declared and preached a Spirit, and he will be known as such, and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth. He will come nearer than of old time, and he will write his law in the heart, and put his fear and Spirit in the inward parts, according to his promise. Then signs, types, and shadows flew away, the day having discovered their insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of the conscience; and all elementary services were expired in and by Him that is the substance of all.

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And to this great and blessed end of the dispensation of the Son of God, did the apostles testify, whom he had chosen and appointed by his Spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice and superstition, and the Gentiles from their vanity and idolatry, to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them; that they might be quickened from the sins and trespasses in which they were dead, to serve the living God in the newness of the Spirit of life, and walk as children of the light, and of the day, even the day of holiness: for such "put on Christ," the light of the world," and make no more provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." So that the Light, Spirit, and Grace that comes by Christ, and appears in man, was what the apostles ministered from, and turned people's minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the churches of Christ in their day. For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit, but wait for the Spirit, and speak by the Spirit, and pray by the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit too, as that which approved them the truly begotten children of God; "born, not of flesh and blood, or of the will of man, but of the will of God;" by doing his will, and denying their own; by drinking

of Christ's cup, and being baptized with his baptism of self-denial : the way and path that all the heirs of life have trod to blessedness. But alas! even in the apostles' days, those bright stars of the first magnitude of the Gospel light, some clouds, foretelling an eclipse of this primitive glory, began to appear, and several of them gave early caution of it to the Christians of their time; that even then there was, and yet would be more and more, a falling away from the power of godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dispensation, by such as sought to make a fair show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased: yet with this comfortable conclusion, that they saw beyond it a more glorious time than ever, to the true church. Their sight was true, and what they foretold to the churches, gathered by them in the name and power of Jesus, came so to pass: for Christians degenerated apace into outsides, as days, and meats, and divers other ceremonies. And which was worse, they fell into strife and contention about them, separating one from another, then envying, and, as they had power, persecuting one another, to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity, and grievous stumbling and offence of the heathen, among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them. And having got at last the worldly power into their hands, by kings and emperors embracing the Christian profession, they changed what they could, the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, into a worldly kingdom; or at least styled the worldly kingdom that was in their hands the kingdom of Christ, and so they became worldly, and not true Christians. Then human inventions and novelties, both in doctrine and worship, crowded fast into the church; a door being opened thereunto by the grossness and carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians; who had long since left the guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit, and given themselves up to superstition, will-worship, and voluntary humility. And as superstition is blind, so it is heady and furious; for all must stoop to its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it: in the name of the Spirit, persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others, and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves, viz., the Light, Grace, and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; but always under the notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some such plausible name. Though Christianity allows of no name or pretence whatever for persecuting any man for matters of mere religion; religion being in its very nature, meek, gentle, and forbearing; and consists of faith, hope, and charity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he remains a persecutor; in that a man cannot believe well, or hope well, or have a charitable or tender regard to another, whilst he would violate his mind or persecute his body for matters of faith or worship towards lis God.

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