departure of a beloved relation or friend, should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss, and the love they had to them, and remembrance of them, to be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those they have left behind them, and their love of that they loved. Which conduct of theirs, though unmodish or unfashionable, leaves nothing of the substance of things neglected or undone; and as they aim at no more, so that simplicity of life is what they observe with great satisfaction, though it sometimes happens not to be without the mockeries of the vain world they live in.

These things to be sure gave them a rough and disagreeable appearance with the generality; who thought them turners of the world upside down, as indeed in some sense they were; but in no other than that wherein Paul was so charged, viz. to bring things back into their primitive and right order again. For these and such like practices of theirs were not the result of humour, as some have fancied, but a fruit of inward sense, which God, through his fear, had begotten in them. They did not consider how to contradict the world, or distinguish themselves; being none of their business, as it was not their interest, no, it was not the result of their consultation, or a framed design to declare or recommend schism or novelty. But God having given them a sight of themselves, they saw the whole world in the same glass of truth; and sensibly discerned the affections and passions of men, and the rise and tendency of things: what gratified the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which are not of the Father, but of the world.' And from thence sprang, in that night of darkness and apostacy which hath been over people, through their degeneracy from the light and spirit of God, these and many other vain customs; which are seen by the heavenly day of Christ, which dawns in the soul, to be, either wrong in their original, or, by time or abuse, hurtful in their practice. And though these things seemed trivial to some, and rendered this people stingy and conceited in such persons' opinions, there was and is more in them than they were aware of. It was not very easy to our primitive Friends to make themselves sights and spectacles, and the scorn and derision of the world; which they easily foresaw must be the consequence of so unfashionable a conversation in it. But herein was the wisdom of God seen, in the foolishness of these things. First, That they discovered the satisfaction and concern that people had in and for the fashions of this world, notwithstanding their pre-. tences to another; in that any disappointment about them came so very near them, that the greatest honesty, virtue, wisdom, and ability, were unwelcome without them. Secondly, It seasonably and profitably divided conversation; for making their society uneasy to their relations and acquaintance, it gave them the opportunity of more retirement VOL. I.

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and solitude, wherein they met with better company, even the Lord God their redeemer, and grew strong in his love, power, and wisdom, and were thereby better qualified for his service; and the success abundantly showed it; blessed be the name of the Lord.

And though they were not great and learned in the esteem of this world, (for then they had not wanted followers upon their own credit and authority,) yet they were generally of the most sober of the several persuasions they were in, and of the most repute for religion; and many of them of good capacity, substance, and account among men.

And also some among them neither wanted for parts, learning, nor estate; though then, as of old, not many wise, nor noble, &c. were called, or at least received the heavenly call; because of the cross that attended the profession of it in sincerity. But neither do parts nor learning make men the better christians, though the better orators and disputants; and it is the ignorance of people about the divine gift, that causes that vulgar and mischievous mistake. Theory and practice, speculation and enjoyment, words and life, are two things. Oh! it is the penitent, the reformed, the lowly, the watchful, the self-denying and holy soul that is the christian; and that frame is the fruit and work of the spirit, which is the life of Jesus; whose life, though hid, in the fulness of it, in God the Father, is shed abroad in the hearts of them that truly believe. Oh! that people did but know this to cleanse them, to circumcise them, to quicken them, and to make them new creatures indeed! recreatedor regenerated after Christ Jesus unto good works; that they might live to God, and not to themselves; and offer up living prayers, and living praises, to the living God, through his own living spirit, in which he is only to be worshipped in this gospel day. Oh! that they that read me could but feel me; for my heart is affected with this merciful visitation of the Father of lights and spirits to this poor nation, and the whole world, through the same testimony. Why should the inhabitants thereof reject it? Why should they lose the blessed benefit of it? Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their hearts, and say from the heart, Speak, Lord, for now thy poor servants hear? Oh! that thy will may be done, thy great, thy good and holy will, in earth as it is in heaven! Do it in us, do it upon us, do what thou wilt with us; for we are thine, and desire to glorify thee our Creator, both for that, and because thou art our redeemer, for thou art redeeming us from the earth, from the vanities and pollutions of it, to be a peculiar people unto thee. Oh! this were a brave day for England, if so she could say in truth. But alas, the case is otherwise; for which some of thine inhabitants, O land of my nativity! have mourned over thee with bitter wailing and lamentation. Their heads have been indeed as waters, and their eyes as fountains of tears, because of thy transgressions and

stiffneckedness; because thou wilt not hear, and fear, and return to the rock, even thy rock, O England! from whence thou wert hewn. But be thou warned, O land of great profession! to receive him into thy heart. Behold, at that door it is he hath stood so long knocking, but thou wilt yet have none of him. Oh! be thou awakened, lest Jerusalem's judgments do swiftly overtake thee, because of Jerusalem's sins that abound in thee. For she abounded in formality, but made void the weighty things of God's law, as thou daily dost.

She withstood the son of God in the flesh, and thou resistest the son of God in the spirit. He would have gathered her, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and she would not! so would he have gathered thee out of thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to inherit substance, to have known his power and kingdom, for which he often knocked within, by his grace and spirit, and without, by his servants and witnesses; but thou wouldst not be gathered. But, on the contrary, as Jerusalem of old persecuted the manifestation of the son of God in the flesh, and crucified him, and whipped and imprisoned his servants, so hast thou, O land! crucified to thyself afresh the Lord of life and glory, and done despite to his spirit of grace; slighting the fatherly visitation, and persecuting the blessed dispensers of it by thy laws and magistrates; though they have early and late pleaded with thee in the power and spirit of the Lord, in love and meekness, that thou mightest know the Lord, and serve him, and become the glory of all lands.

But thou hast evilly entreated and requited them. Thou hast set at nought all their counsel, and wouldst have none of their reproof, as thou shouldst have had. Their appearance was too strait, and their qualifications were too mean for thee to receive them, who like the Jews of old, that cried, 'Is not this the carpenter's son? and are not his brethren among us? which of the scribes, of the learned (the orthodox) believe in him?' Prophesying their fall in a year or two, and making and executing of severe laws to bring it to pass, by endeavouring to terrify them out of their holy way, or destroying them for abiding faithful to it. But thou hast seen how many governments that rose against them, and determined their downfall, have been overturned and extinguished, and that they are still preserved, and become a great and a considerable people among the middle sort of thy numerous inhabitants. And notwithstanding the many difficulties, without and within, which they have laboured under, since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them, they are an increasing people, the Lord still adding unto them, in divers parts, such as shall be saved, if they persevere to the end. And to thee O England! were they and are they lifted up as a standard, and as a city set upon a hill, and to the nations round about

thee, that in their light thou mayst come to see light, even in Christ Jesus, the light of the world; and therefore thy light and life too, if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways, and receive and obey it. For in the light of the lamb must the nations of them that are saved walk,' as the scriptures testify.

Remember, O nation of great profession! how the Lord has waited upon thee since the days of reformation, and the many mercies and judgments with which he has pleaded with thee; and awake and arise out of thy deep sleep, and yet hear his word in thy heart, that thou mayst live.

Let not this thy day of visitation pass over thy head, nor neglect thou so great salvation as is this which is come to thy house, O England! For why shouldst thou die, O land that God desires to bless? Be assured it is he that has been in the midst of this people, in the midst of thee; and not a delusion, as thy mistaken teachers have made thee believe. And this thou shalt find by their marks and fruits, if thou wilt consider them in the spirit of moderation. For,

I. They were changed men themselves before they went about to change others. Their hearts were rent as well as their garments changed, and they knew the power and work of God upon them. This was seen by the great alteration it made, and their stricter course of life, and more godly conversation, that immediately followed upon it.

II. They went not forth or preached in their own time or will, but in the will of God, and spoke not their own studied matter, but as they were opened and moved of his spirit, with which they were well acquainted in their own conversion; which cannot be expressed to carnal men so as to give them any intelligible account; for to such it is, as Christ said, 'like the blowing of the wind, which no man knows whence it cometh, or whither it goeth:' yet this proof and seal went along with their ministry, that many were turned from their lifeless professions, and the evil of their ways, to an inward and experimental knowledge of God and an holy life, as thousands can witness. And as they freely received what they had to say from the Lord, so they freely administered it to others.

III. The bent and stress of their ministry was conversion to God, regeneration, and holiness; not schemes of doctrines and verbal creeds, or new forms of worship; but a leaving off in religion the superfluous, and reducing the ceremonious and formal part, and pressing earnestly the substantial, the necessary, and profitable part to the soul; as all upon a serious reflection must and do acknowledge.

IV. They directed people to a principle, by which all that they asserted, preached, and exhorted others to, might be wrought in them, and known, through experience, to them to be true; which is a high and distinguishing mark of the truth of their ministry; both that they

knew what they said, and were not afraid of coming to the test. For as they were bold from certainty, so they required conformity upon no human authority, but upon conviction, and the conviction of this principle, which they asserted was in them that they preached unto, and unto that directed them, that they might examine and prove the reality of those things which they had affirmed of it, as to its manifestation and work in man. And this is more than the many ministries in the world pretend to. They declare of religion; say many things true in words, of God, Christ, and the spirit; of holiness and heaven; that all men should repent and mend their lives, or they will go to hell, &c. but which of them all pretend to speak of their own knowledge and experience? or ever directed men to a divine principle or agent, placed of God in man, to help him? and how to know it, and wait to feel its power to work that good and acceptable will of God in them?

Some of them indeed have spoken of the spirit, and the operations of it to sanctification, and performance of worship to God; but where and how to find it, and wait in it to perform our duty to God, was yet as a mystery reserved for this further degree of reformation. So that this people did not only in words more than equally press repentance, conversion, and holiness, but did it knowingly and experimentally; and directed those to whom they preached to a sufficient principle, and told them where it was, and by what tokens they might know it, and which way they might experience the power and efficacy of it to their soul's happiness: which is more than theory and speculation, upon which most other ministries depend; for here is certainty; a bottom upon which man may boldly appear before God in the great day of account.

V. They reached to the inward state and condition of people, which is an evidence of the virtue of their principle, and of their ministering from it, and not in their own imaginations, glosses, or comments upon scripture. For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart, or pierces the conscience but what comes from a living conscience; insomuch, as it hath often happened, where people have under secrecy revealed their state or condition to some choice friends for advice or ease, they have been so particularly directed in the ministry of this people, that they have challenged their friends with discovering their secrets, and telling the preachers their cases; yea, the very thoughts and purposes of the hearts of many have been so plainly detected, that they have, like Nathaniel, cried out of this inward appearance of Christ, Thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel.' And those that have embraced this divine principle, have found this mark of its truth and divinity, that the woman of Samaria did of Christ when in the flesh, to be the Messiah, viz. it had told them all that ever they had done;' showed them their insides, the most inward secrets of their hearts,