be servants of it, then ye are judged and tormented by the spirit; but if ye join to the spirit, and serve God in it, ye have liberty and victory over the flesh and its works. Therefore, keep in the daily cross, the power of God, by which ye may witness all that to be crucified which is contrary to the will of God, and which shall not come into his kingdom. These things are here mentioned and opened for information, exhortation, and comfort to others, as the Lord opened them unto me in that day. In that day I wondered that the children of Israel should murmur for water and victuals, for I could have fasted long without murmuring or minding victuals. But I was judged at other times, that I was not contented to be sometimes without the water and bread of life, that I might learn to know how to want, and how to abound.

I heard of a woman in Lancashire, who had fasted two and twenty days, and I travelled to see her; but when I came to her, I saw she was under a temptation. When I had spoken to her what I had from the Lord, I left her, her father being high in profession. Passing on, I went among the professors at Duckenfield and Manchester, where I staid awhile and declared truth among them. There were some convinced, who received the Lord's teaching, by which they were confirmed, and stood in the truth. The professors were in a rage, all pleading for sin and imperfection; and could not endure to hear talk of perfection, or of a holy and sinless life. But the Lord's power was over all; though they were chained under darkness and sin, which they pleaded for, and quenched the tender thing in them.

About this time there was a great meeting of the Baptists at Broughton, in Leicestershire, with some that had separated from them; and people of other notions went thither, and I went also. Not many of the Baptists came, but abundance of other people were there; and the Lord opened my mouth, and his everlasting truth was declared amongst them, and the power of the Lord was over them all. In that day the Lord's power began to spring; I had great openings in the scriptures, and several were convinced in those parts, and were turned from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God: his power they did receive, and by it many were raised up to praise God. When I reasoned with professors and other people, some were convinced, and did stand. Yet I was under great temptations sometimes, and my inward sufferings were heavy; but I could find none to open my condition to but the Lord alone, unto whom I cried night and day. I went back into Nottinghamshire, where the Lord showed me, that the natures of those things which were hurtful without, were within in the hearts and minds of wicked men. The natures of dogs, swine, vipers, of Sodom, and Egypt, Pharaoh, Cain, Ishmael, Esau, &c. The natures of these I saw within, though people had been looking without. I cried to the

Lord, saying, 'Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils?' And the Lord answered, 'It was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions?" In this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw also, that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings. As I was walking by the steeple-house side in the town of Mansfield, the Lord said unto me, That which people trample upon must be thy food.' And as the Lord spake he opened to me, that people and professors trampled upon the life, even the life of Christ was trampled upon; they fed upon words, and fed one another with words, but trampled upon the life, and trampled under foot the blood of the son of God, which blood was my life; and they lived in their airy notions talking of him. It seemed strange to me at the first, that I should feed on that which the high professors trampled upon; but the Lord opened it clearly to me by his eternal spirit and power.

Then came people from far and near to see me: and I was fearful of being drawn out by them; yet I was made to open things to them. One Brown had great prophecies and sights upon his death-bed of me. He spoke openly, of what I should be made instrumental by the Lord to bring forth. And of others he spoke, that they should come to nothing; which was fulfilled on some, who then were something in show. When this man was buried, a great work of the Lord fell upon me, to the admiration of many, who thought I had been dead; and many came to see me about fourteen days. For I was very much altered in countenance and person, as if my body had been new-moulded or changed. While I was in that condition, I had a sense and discerning given me by the Lord, through which I saw plainly, that when many people talked of God and of Christ, &c. the serpent spoke in them; but this was hard to be borne. Yet the work of the Lord went on in some, and my sorrows and troubles began to wear off, and tears of joy dropped from me, so that I could have wept night and day with tears of joy to the Lord, in humility and brokenness of heart. I saw into that which was without end, things which cannot be uttered, and of the greatness and infiniteness of the love of God, which cannot be expressed by words. For I had been brought through the very ocean of darkness and death, and through and over the power of satan, by the eternal glorious power of Christ; even through that darkness was I brought which covered over all the world, which chained down all, and shut up all in the death. The same eternal power of God which brought me through these things, was that which afterwards shook the nations, priests, professors, and people. Then could I say, I had been in spiritual Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, and the grave; but by the eternal power of God I was come

out of it, was brought over it, and the power of it into the power of Christ. And I saw the harvest white, and the seed of God lying thick in the ground, as ever did wheat that was sown outwardly, and none to gather it; for this I mourned with tears. A report went abroad of me, that I was a young man who had a discerning spirit; whereupon many came to me from far and near, professors, priests, and people. The Lord's power broke forth, and I had great openings and prophecies, and spoke unto them of the things of God, which they heard with attention and silence, and went away and spread the fame thereof. Then came the tempter and set upon me again, charging me, that I had sinned against the holy ghost; but I could not tell in what. Then Paul's condition came before me, how after he had been taken up into the third heavens, and seen things not lawful to be uttered, a messenger of satan was sent to buffet him. Thus by the power of Christ I got over that temptation also.

In the year 1648, as I was sitting in a Friend's house in Nottinghamshire, (for by this time the power of God had opened the hearts of some to receive the word of life and reconciliation,) I saw there was a great crack to go throughout the earth, and a great smoke to go as the crack went, and that after the crack there should be a great shaking. This was the earth in people's hearts, which was to be shaken before the seed of God was raised out of the earth. And it was so; for the Lord's power began to shake them, and great meetings we began to have, and a mighty power and work of God there was amongst people, to the astonishment of both people and priests.

There was a meeting of priests and professors at a justice's house, and I went among them. Here they discoursed how Paul said, 'he had not known sin but by the law, which said, thou shalt not lust:' and they held that to be spoken of the outward law. But I told them, Paul spoke that after he was convinced; for he had the outward law before, and was bred up in it, when he was in the lust of persecution; but this was the law of God in his mind which he served, which the law in his members warred against: for that which he thought had been life to him, proved death. So the more sober of the priests and professors yielded, and consented that it was not the outward law, but the inward, which showed the inward lust which Paul spake of after he was convinced; for the outward law took hold of the outward action, but the inward law of the inward lust.

After this I went again to Mansfield, where was a great meeting of professors and people: and I was moved to pray; and the Lord's power was so great, that the house seemed to be shaken. When I had done, some of the professors said, It was now as in the days of the apostles, when the house was shaken where they were.' After I had prayed,

one of the professors would pray; which brought deadness and a veil over them. Others of the professors were grieved at him, and told him, 'it was a temptation upon him.' Then he came to me, and desired that I would pray again; but I could not pray in man's will.

Soon after there was another great meeting of professors, and a captain named Amor Stoddard came in. They were discoursing of the blood of Christ. And as they were discoursing of it, I saw through the immediate opening of the invisible spirit, the blood of Christ; and I cried out among them, saying, 'Do ye not see the blood of Christ? See it in your hearts, to sprinkle your hearts and consciences from dead works, to serve the living God.' For I saw it, the blood of the new covenant, how it came into the heart. This startled the professors, who would have the blood only without them, and not in them. But captain Stoddard was reached, and said, 'Let the youth speak, hear the youth speak;' when he saw they endeavoured to bear me down with many words.

There were also a company of priests, that were looked upon to be tender; one of their names was Kellet, and several tender people went to hear them. I was moved to go after them, and bid them mind the Lord's teaching in their inward parts. That priest Kellet was against parsonages then: but afterwards he got a great one, and turned a per

secutor.

Now after I had some service in these parts, I went through Derbyshire into my own country Leicestershire again, and several tender people were convinced. Passing thence, I met with a great company of professors in Warwickshire, who were praying and expounding the scriptures in the fields. They gave the bible to me, and I opened it on the fifth of Matthew, where Christ expounded the law; and I opened the inward state to them, and outward state; upon which they fell into a fierce contention, and parted: but the Lord's power got ground.

Then I heard of a great meeting to be at Leicester for a dispute, wherein Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and common-prayermen, were said to be all concerned. The meeting was in a steeplehouse; and thither I was moved by the Lord God to go, and be amongst them. I heard their discourse and reasonings, some being in pews, and the priest in the pulpit, abundance of people being gathered together. At last one woman asked a question out of Peter, what that birth was, viz. a being born again of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, that liveth and abideth for ever? The priest said to her, 'I permit not a woman to speak in the church;' though he had before given liberty for any to speak. Whereupon I was wrapt up as in a rapture, in the Lord's power; and I stepped up, and asked the priest, Dost thou call this place (the steeple-house) a church? or dost thou call this mixed

multitude a church? For the woman asking a question, he ought to have answered it, having given liberty for any to speak. But instead of answering me, he asked me, what a church was? I told him, the church was the pillar and ground of truth, made up of living stones, living members, a spiritual household, which Christ was the head of: but he was not the head of a mixed multitude, or of an old house made up of lime, stones, and wood. This set them all on fire. The priest came down from his pulpit, and others out of their pews, and the dispute there was marred. But I went to a great inn and there disputed the thing with the priests and professors of all sorts, and they were all on fire. But I maintained the true church, and the true head thereof, over the heads of them all, till they all gave out and fled away. One man seemed loving, and appeared for awhile to join with me; but he soon turned against me, and joined with a priest, in pleading for infant baptism, though he himself had been a Baptist before; so he left me alone. Howbeit, there were several convinced that day; and the woman that asked the question was convinced, and her family: and the Lord's power and glory shined over all.

After this I returned into Nottinghamshire again, and went into the Vale of Beavor. As I went, I preached repentance to the people: and there were many convinced in the Vale of Beavor in many towns; for I staid some weeks amongst them. One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me; and I sat still. And it was said, All things come by nature.' And the elements and stars came over me, so that I was in a manner quite clouded with it. But as I sat still and said nothing, the people of the house perceived nothing. And as I sat still under it and let it alone, a living hope and a true voice arose in me, which said, 'There is a living God who made all things.' Immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose over it all; my heart was glad, and I praised the living God. After some time I met with some people who had such a notion that there was no God, but that all things come by nature. And I had a great dispute with them, and overturned them, and made some of them confess, that there is a living God. Then I saw that it was good that I had gone through that exercise. We had great meetings in those parts; for the power of the Lord broke through in that side of the country. Returning into Nottinghamshire, I found there a company of shattered Baptists, and others. The Lord's power wrought mightily, and gathered many of them. Afterwards I went to Mansfield and thereaway; where the Lord's power was wonderfully manifested both at Mansfield, and other towns thereabouts. In Derbyshire the mighty power of God wrought in a wonderful manner. At Eton, a town near Derby, there was a meeting of Friends, where appeared such a mighty VOL. I.

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