wisdom, and power of God, in preparing, fitting, and furnishing me, for the service he had appointed me to; letting me see the depths of Satan on the one hand, and opening to me on the other hand, the divine mysteries of his own everlasting kingdom.

Now when the Lord God and his son Jesus Christ did send me forth into the world, to preach his everlasting gospel and kingdom, I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light, spirit and grace, by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God; even that divine spirit which would lead them into all truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive

any.

But with and by this divine power and Spirit of God, and the light of Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, to Christ the new and living way; and from their churches (which men had made and gathered) to the church of God, the general assembly written in heaven, which Christ is the head of; and off from the world's teachers, made by men, to learn of Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, of whom the Father said, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him; and off from all the world's worships, to know the spirit of truth in the inward parts, and to be led thereby; that in it they might worship the Father of spirits, who seeks such to worship him which spirit they that worshipped not in, knew not what they worshipped. And I was to bring people off from all the world's religions, which are vain, that they might know the pure religion, and might visit the fatherless, the widows, and the strangers, and keep themselves from the spots of the world: and then there would not be so many beggars, the sight of whom often grieved my heart, to see so much hard-heartedness amongst them that professed the name of Christ. And I was to bring them off from all the world's fellowships, and prayings, and singings, which stood in forms without power; that their fellowships might be in the Holy Ghost, and in the Eternal Spirit of God; that they might pray in the Holy Ghost, and sing in the spirit and with the grace that comes by Jesus; making melody in their hearts to the Lord, who hath sent his beloved Son to be their Saviour, and caused his heavenly sun to shine upon all the world, and through them all, and his heavenly rain to fall upon the just and the unjust (as his outward rain doth fall, and his outward sun doth shine on all) which is God's unspeakable love to the world. And I was to bring people off from Jewish ceremonies, and from heathenish fables, and from mens' in

ventions and worldly doctrines, by which they blowed the people about this way and the other way, from sect to sect; and all their beggarly rudiments, with their schools and colleges for making ministers of Christ, who are indeed ministers of their own making, but not of Christ's. And all their images and crosses, and sprinkling of infants, with all their holy-days (so called) and all their vain traditions which they had gotten up since the apostles' days, which the Lord's power was against; and in the dread and authority thereof was I moved to declare against them all, and against all that preached, and not freely, as being such as had not received freely from Christ.

Moreover when the Lord sent me forth into the world, he forbad me to put off my hat to any, high or low. And I was required to Thee and Thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. And as I travelled up and down, I was not to bid people good morrow, or good evening; neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one; and this made the sects and professions to rage. But the Lord's power carried me over all to his glory, and many came to be turned to God in a little time; for the heavenly day of the Lord sprang from on high, and brake forth apace, by the light of which many came to see where they were.

But oh, the rage that then was in the priests, magistrates, professors, and people of all sorts, but especially in priests and professors; for, though Thou to a single person was according to their own learning, their accidence. and grammar rules, and according to the bible, yet they could not bear to hear it: and the hat-honour, because I could not put off my hat to them, it set them all into a rage. But the Lord shewed me that it was an honour below, which he would lay in the dust, and stain it; an honour which proud flesh looked for, but sought not the honour which came from God only: that it was an honour invented by men in the fall, and in the alienation from God, who were offended if it were not given them, and yet would be looked upon as saints, church members, and great Christians: but Christ saith, "How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" "And I (saith Christ) receive not honour of men:" shewing that men have an honour, which men will receive and give; but Christ will have none of it. This is the honour which Christ will not receive, and which must be laid in the dust. Oh, the rage and scorn, the heat and fury that arose. Oh, the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments that we

underwent, for not putting off our hats to men: for that soon tried all men's patience and sobriety what it was. Some had their hats violently plucked off, and thrown away, so that they quite lost them. The bad language and evil usage we received on this account is hard to be expressed, besides the danger we were sometimes in of losing our lives for this matter, and that by the great professors of Christianity, who thereby discovered that they were not true believers. And though it was but a small thing in the eye of man, yet a wonderful confusion it brought among all professors and priests: but blessed be the Lord, many came to see the vanity of that custom of putting off the hat to men, and felt the weight of Truth's testimony against it.

:

About this time I was sorely exercised in going to their courts to cry for justice, and in speaking and writing to judges and justices to do justly, and in warning such as kept public houses for entertainment, that they should not let people have more drink than would do them good; and in testifying against their wakes or feasts, their Maygames, sports, plays, and shews, which trained up people to vanity and fooseness, and led them from the fear of God; and the days they had set forth for holy-days were usually the times wherein they most dishonoured God by these things. In fairs also, and in markets, I was made to declare against their deceitful merchandize, and cheating, and cozening; warning all to deal justly and to speak the truth, and to let their yea be yea, and their nay be nay; and to do unto others as they would have others do unto them and forewarning them of the great and terrible day of the Lord, which would come upon them all. I was moved also to cry against all sorts of music, and against the mountebanks playing tricks on their stages, for they burthened the pure life, and stirred up people's minds to vanity. I was much exercised too with schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, warning them to teach their children sobriety in the fear of the Lord, that they might not be nursed and trained up in lightness, vanity, and wantonness. Likewise I was made to warn masters and mistresses, fathers and mothers in private families, to take care that their children and servants might be trained up in the fear of the Lord; and that they themselves should be therein examples and patterns of sobriety and virtue to them. For I saw that as the Jews were to teach their children the law of God and the old covenant, and to train them up in it, and their servants, yea the very strangers were to keep the sabbath amongst them, and be circumcised, be

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fore they eat of their sacrifices, so all Christians, and all that made a profession of Christianity, ought to train up their children and servants in the new covenant of light, Christ Jesus, who is God's salvation to the ends of the earth, that all may know their salvation: and they ought to train them up in the law of life, the law of the spirit, the law of love and of faith; that they might be made free from the law of sin and death. And all Christians ought to be circumcised by the Spirit, which puts off the body of the sins of the flesh, that they may come to eat of the heavenly sacrifice, Christ Jesus, that true spiritual food, which none can rightly feed upon, but they that are circumcised by the Spirit. Likewise, I was exercised about the star gazers, who drew people's minds from Christ, the bright and the morning star; and from the sun of righteousness, by whom the sun, and moon, and stars, and all things else were made, who is the wisdom of God, and from whom the right knowledge of all things is received.

But the black earthly spirit of the priest wounded my life: and when I heard the bell toll to call people together to the steeple-house, it struck at my life: for it was just like a market bell, to gather people together, that the priest might set forth his ware to sale. O the vast sums of money that are gotten by the trade they make of selling the Scriptures, and by their preaching, from the highest bishop to the lowest priest. What one trade else in the world is comparable to it? notwithstanding that the Scriptures were given forth freely, and Christ commanded his ministers to preach freely, and the prophets and apostles denounced judgment against all covetous hirelings and diviners for money. But in this free spirit of the Lord Jesus was I sent forth, to declare the word of life and reconciliation freely, that all might come up to Christ, who gives freely, and who renews up into the image of God, which man and woman were in before they fell, that they might sit down in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Now as I went towards Nottingham on a first-day in the morning, with friends to a meeting there, when I came on top of a hill in sight of the town, I espied the great steeple-house, and the Lord said unto me, thou must go cry against yonder great idol, and against the worshippers therein. So I said nothing of this to the friends that were with me, but went on with them to the meeting, where the mighty power of the Lord was amongst us; in which I left friends sitting in the meeting, and I went away to the steeple-house; and when came there all the people

looked like fallow ground, and the priest (like a great lump of earth) stood in his pulpit above. And he took for his text these words of Peter, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." And he told the people that this was the Scriptures by which they were to try all doctrines, religions, and opinions. Now the Lord's power was so mighty upon me, and so strong in me, that I could not hold, but was made to cry out and say, 'Oh no, it is not the Scriptures' but I told them what it was, namely, the Holy Spirit, by which the holy men of God gave forth the Scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments were to be tried: for it led into all truth, and so gave the knowledge of all truth; for the Jews had the Scriptures, and yet resisted the Holy Ghost, and rejected Christ, the bright morning star, and persecuted Christ and his apostles, and took upon them to try their doctrines by the Scriptures, but erred in judgment, and did not try them aright, because they tried without the Holy Ghost. Now as I spake thus amongst them, the officers came and took me away, and put me into a nasty stinking prison, the smell whereof got so into my nose and throat that it very much annoyed me. But that day the Lord's power sounded so in their ears, that they were amazed at the voice, and could not get it out of their ears for some time after, they were so reached by the Lord's power in the steeple-house. At night they took me out of prison, and had me before the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of the town; and when I was brought before them, the mayor was in a peevish, fretful temper, but the Lord's power allayed him. Then they examined me at large, and I told them how the Lord had moved me to come. Then, after some discourse had passed between them and me, they sent me back to prison again; but sometime after the head sheriff, whose name was John Reckless, sent for me to his house; and when I came in his wife met me in the hall, and said, 'Salvation is come to our house.' And she took me by the hand, and was much wrought upon by the power of the Lord God: and her husband, and children, and servants were much changed, for the power of the Lord wrought upon them; and I lodged at the sheriff's house, and great meetings we had in his house; and some persons of considerable condition in the world came to them, and the Lord's power appeared eminently amongst them. And this sheriff sent for the other sheriff, and for a woman they