To them George Fox addressed a quaint, but strikingly spiritual,
epistle of advice as they went out to begin their labours. Here
are a few sentences from it:
"All Friends everywhere, Know the Seed of God, which bruiseth
the seed of the serpent, and is atop of the seed of the serpent:
which Seed sins not, but bruiseth the serpent's head that doth
sin, and that tempts to sin: to which Seed is God's promise and
blessing; and which Seed is one in the male and in the female....
"This is the Word of the Lord 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: to receive power
from Him, and wisdom, that with it you may be ordered to His
glory: to whom be all glory forever! 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....
"All Friends that speak in public, see that it be in the life
of God; for that begets to God; the fruits of that shall never
wither. This sows to the Spirit which is in prison, and of the
Spirit reaps life; and the other sows to the flesh, and of the
flesh reaps corruption. This you may see all the world over
amongst these seeds-men,--that which may be reaped in the field,
that is the world. Therefore wait in the Spirit of the Lord,
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 victory over the world. Here the power of the Lord
is received, which subdues all the contrary, and puts off the
garments that will stain and pollute."
About this time Rice Jones, of Nottingham, (who had been a Baptist,
and was turned Ranter), and his company, began to prophesy against
me; giving out that I was then at the highest, and that after that
time I should fall down as fast. He sent a bundle of railing papers
from Nottingham to Mansfield, Clawson, and the towns thereabouts,
judging Friends for declaring the Truth in the markets and in
steeple-houses; 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 became 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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