*

travel, as I have done. And it was hard for me to come this jour but I was moved of the Lord to come.

ney:

Now what have I suffered for? (I cannot but declare it.—) The God of heaven knows my heart. My suffering hath been against, [Popery,] and for not joining with the relics of Popery. Things which have not come from Christ. And what have friends suffered for? For not paying of tithes. Did Christ set up these things? or the Pope?

Wilt thou swear, thou schismatic?-Wilt thou not sprinkle thy children, with [the sign of] the cross, thou heretic? Wilt 'thou not marry with a priest? Where had you these things from? from Moses? from Christ? or from the Pope? Search the Scriptures, like the noble Bereans, and see what you can find there, for these things.-Marriage by a priest and ring, this is not an ordinance of God, but of Man. And when the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he gave them a charge not to follow the customs and manners of the Egyptians, and Canaanites.

Now that which you have suffered for, in the former power's [Oliver Cromwell's] days, and in this, [Charles the Second's,] hath been as I said before against the relics of Popery. So if any say we are Popishly affected, we are true protestants, and follow the practice of our forefathers and mothers, the holy men and women; and we have Scripture on our side.

Let all friends be careful to keep in the holy chaste life.-Now they that profess the truth, they should know virtue and dominion, and keep themselves clean till the day of their marriage, and [to the] time of their death, that all may be kept in chasteness and purity, to God's glory.

And now in your proceedings to marriage-Let all be done to the glory and praise of God. If the young woman have a father, or mother, or guardian, go to them first, and lay the matter before them, that it may go on with their consent, and approbation.-And when all things are clear before all parties lay it before the

women's meetings, and before the men's, that all may be clear, in the sight of God and man.

But here is another objection*" the men being in one room, "and the women in another," this is "a separation," say they.No. For saith the apostle "though we be absent in body, yet we "are present in spirit," enjoying and beholding your spiritual order. So this spiritual light beholds the heavenly order and communion, and “the steadfastness of your faith," (which faith was heavenly-received from the heavenly man.) So this is no separation for men to be in one room and women in another, because they are present in spirit. One may be here, and another in Jamaica, in Scotland, or Ireland, or in any nation of the world, “absent "in body, yet present in spirit," but to have men's and women's meetings, but not in the spirit but separated from the spirit, in Cain and Korah's way, where envy and prejudice appears, there is "separation." And there it began, in the apostles' days. when they went from the spirit of God, then they began to separate, and persecute and kill, about religion, and so the apostacy entered. And then got up the priests of Balaam, and preached for reward.

For

Now as ye come into the new covenant, and into the order of the glorious gospel, there is a coming up again from the apostacy, and beholding one another's comely order in the gospel of life and salvation. Though absent [in body, yet present in spirit,] this re

* Some connecting link seems to be missing here, in the manuscript-no objection having been previously suggested.-But it is known that the women's meetings had been opposed from their first institution, which was at the time of the distresses brought on by the plague of London; when, the care of the poor becoming too heavy for the men, they authorized the women to undertake this service. It was objected to the meetings for discipline, or church government generally, that "There were not any in the beginning, and yet they had lived in peace and unity; that "such meetings were therefore needless; and that Every one ought to be guided by the Spirit of God " in his own mind; and not be governed by rules of man's making."—" Hence" says Shewell," rose "a schism; first in the north of England, where some began to keep meetings by themselves, and, 68 so to leave their former friends; though they pretended to agree with them in matters of doc66 trine.-For this was now become the common saying of these people: That every one having re“ceived a measure of the Spirit of God, ought to regard that leader, without minding any rules pre. "scribed by others." See Shewell's Hist, p. 444 (date 1665) and 561 (date 1683.)—Editor.

ligion is pure and undefiled, and keeps from the spots of the world (into which the Devil cannot get.) Had all kept in this pure religion, they had never thought of nor invented a purgatory. So all walk in the wisdom of God.

But in the new covenant we are of the Son's house: 66 Whose "House are ye." Here every one keeps on the spiritual armour, "the sword of the Spirit, the helmet of salvation," that keeps and preserves the head; so here every one is shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The outward Jews shoes did not wax old, nor wear out, so these shoes wherewith the Jews inward are shod, they wax not old. Here thou mayest trample upon all the rocks, and briars, and brambles. You need not fear pricking your feet.

So here you see the Son's house, in which you are to be shod, in your spiritual travel, towards the land of rest. As in the Old Jerusalem, the trumpet sounded, so in the New Jerusalem, the trumpet sounds out of Sion, which gives a certain sound. So let all come to have a sense betwixt the house of Moses, the servant, and the house of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The substance which abolished the old [shadows] and so makes all things new. All the shadows being done away in him.

So here thou art a true protestant, therefore protest against tithes, and swearing, that is not from Jesus Christ the heavenly Head. The law in the Old Testament came from Mount Sinai, but the law of the New Testament comes out of Sion. Which law` is not written on tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart, according to the promise of the new covenant! "I will "write my law in their hearts." In the Old Testament the Lord poured out of his spirit upon the Jews, but in the New Testament he saith "I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh" so that none can escape the spirit of burning. And in the Old Testament God spake to the fathers, by the prophets, but in the New Testament, the apostle saith, “God hath spoken to us by his Son," who is the one Head and Speaker to his people, to whom all are to keep.