the men were in disguise, yet the friends perceived some of them to be Frenchmen, and supposed them to be servants belonging to one called Sir Robert Bindlas; for some of them had said that in their nation they used to tie the protestants to trees, and whip them, and destroy them. And his servants used often to abuse friends, both in their meetings, and going to and from their meetings. They once took Richard Hubberthorn and several others out of the meeting, and carried them a good way off into the fields; and there bound them, and left them bound in the winter season. And at another time one of his servants came to Francis Flemming's house, and thrust his naked rapier in at the door and windows; but there being at the house a kinsman of Francis Flemming's, one who was not a friend, he came with a cudgel in his hand, and bid the serving-man put up his rapier; which when the other would not, but vapoured at him with it, and was rude, he knocked him down with his cudgel, and took his rapier from him; and had it not been for friends, he would have run him through with it. So the friends preserved his life, that would have destroyed theirs.

From Robert Withers's I went to visit justice West, Richard Hubberthorn accompanying me; and not knowing the way, nor the danger of the sands, we rode where (as we were afterwards told) no man ever rode before, swimming our horses over a very dangerous place. When we were come in, justice West asked us if we did not see two men riding over the sands: I shall have their clothes anon,' said he, for they cannot escape drowning, and I am the coroner.' But when we told him that we were the men, he was astonished at it, and wondered how we escaped drowning. Upon this the envious priests and professors raised a slanderous report concerning me, that neither water could drown me, nor could they draw blood of me; and that therefore surely I was a witch (for indeed, sometimes when they beat me with great staves, they did not much draw my blood, though they bruised my body oft-times very sorely). But all these slanders were nothing to me with respect to myself (though I was concerned on the truth's behalf, which, I saw, they endeavoured by these means to prejudice people against), for I considered that their forefathers, the apostate Jews, called the master of the house Beelzebub; and these apostate Christians from the life and power of God, could do no less to his seed. But the Lord's power carried me over their slanderous tongues, and their bloody murderous spirits, who had the

ground of witchcraft in themselves, which kept them from coming to God and to Christ.

Having visited justice West, I went to Swarthmore, visiting friends thereaways; and the Lord's power was over all the persecutors there. And I was moved to write several letters to the magistrates, priests, and professors, thereabouts, who had raised persecution before; that which I sent to justice Sawrey was after this manner :

‹ Friend,

Thou wast the first beginner of all the persecution in the north; thou wast the beginner and the maker of the people tumultuous; thou wast the first stirrer of them up against the righteous seed, and against the truth of God; and wast the first strengthener of the hands of evil doers against the innocent and harmless; and thou shalt not prosper. Thou wast the first stirrer up of strikers, stoners, persecuters, stockers, mockers, and imprisoners in the north, and of revilers, slanderers, railers, and false accusers, and scandal raisers: this was thy work, and this thou stirredst up! so thy fruits declare thy spirit. Instead of stirring up the pure mind in people, thou hast stirred up the wicked, malicious, and envious, and taken hand with the wicked. Thou hast made the people's minds envious up and down the country; this was thy work: but God hath shortened thy days, and limited thee, and set thy bounds, and broken thy jaws, and discovered thy religion to the simple and babes, and brought thy deeds to light. How is thy habitation fallen, and become the habitation of devils! how is thy beauty lost, and thy glory withered! how hast thou shewed thy end, that thou hast served God but with thy lips, and thy heart far from him, and thou in the hypocrisy! how hath the form of thy teaching declared itself to be the mark of the false prophets, whose fruit declares itself! for by their fruits they are known. are the wise men turned backward! view thy ways, and take notice with whom thou hast taken part. That of God in thy conscience will tell thee; the Ancient of Days will reprove thee. How hath thy zeal appeared to be the blind zeal, a persecutor, which Christ and his apostles forbad Christians to follow! how hast thou strengthened the hands of evil doers, and been a praise to them, and not to them that do well! how like a madman and blind man, didst thou turn thy sword backward against the saints, against whom there is no law! how wilt thou be gnawed and burned one day, when thou shalt feel the flame and have

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the plagues of God poured upon thee, and thou begin to gnaw thy tongue for pain, because of the plagues! thou shalt have thy reward according to thy works; thou canst not escape, the Lord's righteous judgment will find thee out, and the witness of God in thy conscience shall answer it. How hast thou caused the heathen to blaspheme, and gone on with the multitude to do evil, and joined hand in hand with the wicked! how is thy latter end worse than thy beginning, who art come with the dog to bite, and art turned as a wolf, to devour the lambs! how hast thou discovered thyself to be a man more fit to be kept in a place to be nurtured, than to be set in a place to nurture! how wast thou exalted and puffed up with pride! and now art thou fallen down with shame, that thou comest to be covered with that which thou stirredst up and broughtest forth. Let not John Sawrey take the words of God into his mouth till he be reformed; let him not take his name into his mouth till he depart from iniquity; let not him and his teacher make a profession of the saints' words, except they intend to proclaim themselves hypocrites, whose lives are so contrary to the lives of the saints; whose church hath made itself manifest to be a cage of unclean birds. You, having a form of godliness, but not the power, have made them that be in the power your derision, your by-word, and your talk at your feasts. Thy ill savour, John Sawrey, the country about have smelled, and of thy unchristian carriage all that fear God have been ashamed; and to them thou hast been a grief: in the day of account thou shalt know it, even in the day of thy condemnation. Thou wast mounted up, and hadst set thy nest on high, but never gottest higher than the fowls of the air; but now thou art run amongst the beasts of prey, and art fallen into the earth, so that earthliness and covetousness hath swallowed thee up; and thy conceitedness would not carry thee through, in whom was found the selfish principle, which hath blinded thy eye. Thy back must be bowed down always, for thy table is already become thy snare.'

G. F.

This justice Sawrey, who was the first persecutor in that country, was afterwards drowned.

I wrote also to William Lampitt, who was the priest of Ulverstone; and thus it was upon me to write unto him :

The word of the Lord to thee, O Lampitt! who art a deceiver, surfeited and drunk with the earthly spirit,

rambling up and down in the scriptures, and blending thy spirit amongst the saints' conditions: who hadst a prophecy, as thy father Balaam had, but art erred from it, as thy father did; one whose fruit hath withered (of which I am a witness), and many who have known thy fruit, have seen the end of it, that it is withered; and do see where thou art in the blind world, a blind leader of the blind; a beast wallowing and tumbling in the earth, and in the lust, one that is erred from the spirit of the Lord; who art of old ordained for condemnation; who art in the seat of the Pharisees, art called of men master, standest praying in the synagogues, and hast the chief seat in the assemblies; a right hypocrite in the steps of the Pharisees, and in the way of thy fathers, the hypocrites, which our Lord Jesus Christ cried woe against. Such with the light thou art seen to be, and by the light art comprehended; which is thy condemnation, who hatest it, and will be so eternally, except thou repent. To thee this is the word of God: for in Christ's way thou art not, but in the Pharisees, as thou mayest read, Mat. xxiii. and all that own Christ's words may see thee there. Christ, who died at Jerusalem, cried woe against such as thou art; and Christ is the same yesterday, to-day and for ever. The woe remains upon thee, and from under it thou canst never come, but through judg ment, condemnation, and true repentance. To thee this is the word of God: to that of God in thy conscience I do speak, which will witness the truth of what I write, and will condemn thee. And when thou art in thy torment (though now thou swellest in thy vanity, and livest in wickedness), remember thou was warned in thy life-time; when the eternal condemnation is stretched over thee, thou shalt witness this to be the word of the Lord God unto thee. And if ever thy eye should see repentance, thou wouldest witness me to have been a friend of thy soul.'

G. F.

Having thus cleared my conscience to the justice, and to the priest of Ulverstone, who had raised the first persecution in that country, it was upon me to send this warning in writing to the people of Ulverstone in general.

Consider, O people! who be within the parish of Ulverstone; I was moved of the Lord to come into your public places to speak among you, being sent of God to direct your minds to God, that you might know where you might find your teacher; that your minds might be stayed

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alone upon God, and you might not gad abroad without you for a teacher; for the Lord God alone will teach his people, and he is coming to teach them, and to gather his people from idols' temples, and from the customary worships, which all the world is trained up in. And God hath given to every one of you a measure of his spirit, according to your capacity; liars, drunkards, whoremongers, and thieves, and who follow filthy pleasures, you all have this measure in you. And this is the measure of the Spirit of God, that shews you sin, and shews you evil, and shews you deceit; which lets you see lying is sin, theft, drunkenness, and uncleanness, all these to be the works of darkness. Therefore mind your measure, (for nothing that is unclean shall enter into the kingdom of God,) and prize your time while you have it, lest the time come that you say with sorrow, we had time, but it is past. Oh, why will ye die! why will ye chuse your own ways! why will ye follow the course of the world! and why will ye follow envy, malice, drunkenness, and foolish pleasures! know ye not in your consciences that all these are evil and sin, and that such as act such things shall never enter into the kingdom of God. Oh that ye would consider, and see how you have spent your time, and mind how ye do spend your time, and observe whom you do serve, for the wages of sin is death. Do not ye know that whatsoever is more than yea and nay, cometh of evil? Oh ye drunkards, who live in drunkenness, do ye think to escape the fire and the judg ment of God! though ye swell in venom, and live in lust for a while, yet God will find you out, and bring you to judgment. Therefore love the light, which Christ hath enlightened you withal, who saith, I am the light of the world, and who doth enlighten every one that cometh into the world. One loves the light, and brings his works to the light, and there is no occasion at all of stumbling; the other hates the light, because his deeds are evil, and the light will reprove him. Thou that hatest this light, thou hast it: thou knowest lying is evil, drunkenness is evil, swearing is evil, whoredom, theft, and all ungodliness, and all unrighteousness, is evil: Christ Jesus hath given thee light enough to let thee see this is evil. And this light (if thou lovest it) will teach thee holiness and righteousness, without which none shall see God; but if thou hatest this light, it is thy condemnation. And thus are Christ's words found to be true, and fulfilled among you: you that hate this light, set up hirelings, and idols' temples, and such priests as bear rule by their means; and such shepherds as hold up such things, and such as are called of men masters,