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of ordinances, triumphs over them, and ascends above all principalities and powers. Now he that hath the spirit of Jesus sees this; and here is the love of God received, that doth not rejoice in iniquity, but leads to repent of it. So this is the word of the Lord God to you all, friends every where abroad scattered, know the power of God in one another, and in that rejoice; for then you rejoice in the cross of Christ, who is not of the world; which cross is the power of God to all them that are saved. So you, that know the power, and feel the power, you feel the cross of Christ, you feel the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Now, he that believes in the light, believes in the everlasting covenant, in the one offering, comes to the life of the prophets and Moses, comes to see Christ the hope, the mystery, which hope perisheth not, but lets you see the hope that perisheth, which is not that mystery; and the expectation in that perishing hope fades. And where this neverfailing hope is witnessed, the Lord comes to be sanctified in the heart, and you come to the beginning, to Christ the hope, which perisheth not; but the other hope, and the other expectation that perisheth. So all of you know the perishing of the other, and the failing of the expectation therein; and know that which perisheth not; that you may be ready to give a reason of this hope with meekness and fear, to every man that asketh you. Christ the hope, the mystery, that perisheth not; the end of all perishing things, the end of all changeable things, the end of the decaying covenant, the end of that which waxeth old and doth decay; the end of the first covenant of Moses and of the prophets; the righteousness of God, Christ Jesus the Son: his throne ye will know, heirs with him ye will be; who makes his children kings and priests to him, and brings them to know his throne and his power. There is no justification out of the light, out of Christ: justification is in the light in Christ: here is the doer of the will of God, here is the entering into the kingdom. He that believes in the light, becomes a child of light; and here the wisdom is received that is justified of her children. Here believing in the light, you shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life; and come every one to witness the light that shines in your hearts, which light will give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. With which light you will see him reign, who is the prince of life and of peace; which light turns from him, that is out of the truth, and abode not in it; where the true peace is not.

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'Friends, be not hasty; for he that believes in the light, makes not haste. Here the grace is received, by which you come to be saved; the election is known, which obtains the promise: the will is seen that wills, the mind is known that runs, which obtains not; but stops and dulls. Now, that with the light being seen, and judged, and stopped, the patience is here known, which obtains the crown; and the immortality is come to light. So all they now that act contrary to the light, and do not believe in it, they do not come to justification. And all friends, if you go from the light, from wanting to have the promise of God fulfilled to the seed, whereby you may know Christ reign, you thereby bring on yourselves changeable garments, and come to wear the changeable garments, and the strange flesh, which leads to adultery, which the law goes upon, which shuts out of the kingdom: and out of this will doth proceed the work or building, that is for the fire; whereby you may come to suffer loss. Therefore the light love, which doth that condemn, and receive the power from the Lord, with which you stand over that, and do it condemn; feeling and seeing that which gives you the victory over the world, and to see out of time to before time. And again, friends, know Abraham, that must obey the voice of Sarah, that bears seed; which casts forth the bond-woman and her son: do not go forth, there will the wildness lodge. Know that which bears the wild son, and its mother, who is not Sarah: for the promise is to the seed, not of many, but one, which seed is Christ and this seed now you come to witness stand on the top of all, yea, on the head of the serpent. And so all (as I said before) who this come to feel and witness, come to the beginning; and this to all the seed of God, the church, that it you all may come to know, where there is no blemish, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing; which is that which is purchased by the blood of Jesus, and to the Father presented out of all that does defile; which is the pillar and ground of truth. And none comes to this, but such who come to the light, which doth come from Christ, who purchased this church. They who go from the light are shut out and condemned, though they profess all the scriptures declared forth from it. Therefore walk in the light, that you may have fellowship with the Son, and with the Father; and come all to witness his image, and his power, and his law, which is his light, which hath converted your souls, and brought them to submit to the higher power, above that which is out of the truth that you may know here the mercy and truth, and the faith

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that works by love, which Christ is the author of, who lighteth every one of you; which faith gives the victory. Now that which gives the victory is perfect; and that which the ministers of God received from God, is that which is perfect; and that which they are to minister is for the perfecting of the saints, till they all come in the unity of the faith unto a perfect man. So this is the word of the Lord God to you all; every one in the measure of life wait, that with it all your minds may be guided up to the Father of Life, the Father of Spirits; all to receive power from him, and wisdom, that with it you may be ordered to his glory; to whom be all glory for ever! All keep in the light and life, that judgeth down that which is contrary to the light and life. So the Lord God Almighty be with you all. And keep your meetings every where, being guided by that of God; by that you may see the Lord God among you, even him who lighteth every man that cometh into the world: by whom the world was made; that men, that be come into the world, might believe. He that believeth not, the light condemns him he that believeth, cometh out of condemnation. So this light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, which they that hate it stumble at, this is the light of men. All friends, that speak abroad, see that it be in the life of God; for that begets to God: the fruits of that shall never wither. And this sows to the spirit, which is in prison; and of the spirit reaps life (to you this is the word of the Lord God) and the other sows to the flesh, and of the flesh reaps corruption. And this you may see all the world over, amongst these seeds-men, what may be reaped in the field, that is, the world. Therefore in the spirit of the Lord God wait, which cuts down and casts out all this, the root and branches of it. So in that wait to receive power, and the Lord God Almighty preserve you in it; whereby you may come to feel the light, that comprehends time, and the world, and fathoms it; which believed in, gives you the victory over the world. And here the power of the Lord is received, which subdues all the contrary, and puts off the garments that will stain and pollute. With which light you come to reach the light in every man, which Christ enlightens every man, that cometh into the world, withal: and here the things of Christ come to he known, and the voice of Christ heard. Therefore keep in the light, the covenant of peace; and walk in the covenant of life. There is that which maketh merry over the witness of God; and there is that which maketh merry in the Lord; which rejoiceth over that which hath made

merry over it: of that take notice, you who be in the light. Such the Lord doth beautify, whose trust is in his strength and the Lord doth see such, and them that be in his light. But such as be from the light, whose eyes be after their abominations and idols, their eyes are to be blinded; and their beautiful idols, and their abominations to be destroyed, and by the light condemned, which they have made from the life, in their own strength; which with the light is seen, and overthrown by the power of God. If you can change my covenant, saith the Lord, which keeps the day in its season, and the night in its season (mark, my covenant, the light); if you can change this, then may you change the covenant of God with his seed. So all friends, that be turned to the light, which cometh from him, by whom the world was made, who was, before it was made, Christ Jesus, the Saviour of your souls; abide in the light, and you will see your salvation to be walls and bulwarks against that, which the light discovers to be contrary to it. Waiting in the light, you will receive the power of God, which is the gospel of peace; that you may be shod with it. And know that in one another, which raiseth up the seed of God, and sets it over the world and the earth, and crucifies the affections and lusts and then the truth comes to reign, which is the girdle.'

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G. F.

About this time Rice Jones of Nottingham (who had been a baptist, and was turned ranter; the same that came to me in Derby jail) he and his company began to prophecy against me, giving out that I was then at the highest, and that after that time I should fall down as fast. And he sent a bundle of railing papers from Nottingham to Mansfield, Clauson, and the towns thereabouts, judging friends for declaring the truth in the markets and in the steeplehouses, which papers I answered. But his and his company's prophecies came upon themselves; for soon after they fell to pieces, and many of his followers came to be friends, and continued so. And through the Lord's blessed power, truth and friends have increased, and do increase in the increase of God: and I by the same power have been and am preserved, and kept in the everlasting seed, that never fell, nor changes. But Rice Jones took the oaths that were put to him, and so disobeyed the command of Christ. Many such false prophets have risen up against me, but the Lord hath blasted them, and will blast them all who rise against the blessed seed, and me in that. My

confidence is in the Lord; for whosoever did, I saw their end, and how the Lord would confound them, before the Lord sent me forth.

Now was I at Synder-hill-Green, where I had had a large meeting in the day time; and at night we had a great meeting again in Thomas Stacy's house; for people came from far, and could not soon depart. The high sheriff of the county told captain Bradford, that he intended to have come up with half a dozen of his troopers to the meeting; but the Lord prevented him, and stopped him. When I had stayed some meetings thereabouts, I travelled up and down in Yorkshire, as far as Holderness, and to the land's end that way, visiting friends and the churches of Christ; which were finely settled under Christ's teaching. At length I came to captain Bradford's house, whither many ranters came from York to wrangle; but they were confounded, and stopped. Thither came she also, who was called the lady Montague, who was then convinced, and lived and died in the truth.

Then I came again to Thomas Taylor's, within three miles of Halifax, where there was a large meeting of about two hundred people; amongst which were many rude people, and divers butchers, several of whom had bound themselves with an oath before they came out, that they would kill me (as I was told): one of those butchers had been accused for killing a man and a woman. They came in a very rude manner, and made a great disturbance in the meeting. The meeting being in a close, Thomas Taylor stood up, and said unto them, If you will be civil, you may stay, but if not, I charge you to be gone from off my ground. But they were the worse, and said they would make it like a common; and they yelled, and made such a noise, as if they had been come to a bear-baiting. And they thrust friends up and down; and friends being peaceable, the Lord's power came over them. Several times they thrust me off from the place I stood on, by the crowding of the people together against me; but still I was moved of the Lord to stand up again, as I was thrust down. At last I was moved of the Lord to say unto them, if they would discourse of the things of God, let them come up to me one by one; and if they had any thing to say, or to object, I would answer them all, one after another: then they were all silent, and had nothing to say. And then the Lord's power came so over them all, and answered the witness of God in them, that they were bound by the power of God; and a glorious powerful meeting we had, and his power went over all, and the minds of

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