After this we came to another water. Finding it to be very deep, and
it being in the night, we hired two men to help us through, who put
cords to the wagon to hold it by, that the force of the water might
not drive it from the way. But when we came into it, the stream
was so strong that it took one of the horses off his legs, and was
carrying him down the stream. I called to the wagoner to pluck him to
him by his reins, which he did, and the horse recovered his legs; and
with much difficulty we got over the bridge, and went to Bremerhaven,
the town where the wagoner lived.
It was the last day of the Sixth month that we escaped these
dangers; and it being about eleven at night when we came in here,
we got some fresh straw, and lay upon it until about four in the
morning. Then, getting up, we set forward again towards Bremen, by
wagon and boat.
On the way I had good opportunities to publish Truth among the
people, especially at a market-town, where we stayed to change our
passage. Here I declared the Truth to the people, warning them of the
day of the Lord, that was coming upon all flesh; and exhorting them
to righteousness, telling them that God was come to teach His people
Himself, and that they should turn to the Lord, and hearken to the
teachings of His Spirit in their own hearts.
[While the work was going forward in these fresh fields, trouble
was increasing at home, as this brief letter shows:]
Next day, feeling a concern upon my mind with relation to those
seducing spirits that made division among Friends, and being sensible
that they endeavoured to insinuate themselves into the affectionate
part, I was moved to write a few lines to Friends concerning them, as
follows:
"All these that set up themselves in the affections of the people,
set up themselves, and the affections of the people, and not
Christ. But Friends, your peaceable habitation in the Truth, which
is everlasting, and changes not, will outlast all the habitations
of those that are out of the Truth, be they ever so full of words.
So they that are so keen for John Story and John Wilkinson, let
them take them, and the separation; and you that have given your
testimony against that spirit, stand in your testimony, till they
answer by condemnation. Do not strive, nor make bargains with that
which is out of the Truth; nor save that alive to be a sacrifice for
God, which should be slain, lest you lose your kingdom.
"G. F.
"Amsterdam, the 14th of the Seventh month, 1677."
After some time George Keith and William Penn came back from
Germany[BF] to Amsterdam, and had a dispute with one Galenus Abrahams
(one of the most noted Baptists in Holland), at which many professors
were present; but not having time to finish the dispute then, they
met again, two days after, and the Baptist was much confounded, and
Truth gained ground.[178]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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