“O friends, I was sent unto you to tell you, that if you had received the gospel freely, you would minister it freely without money or price: but you make a trade and sale of what the prophets and the apostles have spoken; and so you corrupt the truth. And you are the men that lead silly women captive, who are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; you have a form of godliness, but you deny the power. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do you resist the truth, being men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But you shall proceed no further; for your folly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs was. Moreover, the Lord sent me to tell you, that he doth look for fruits. You asked me, if Scripture was my rule? but it is not your rule, to rule your lives by, but to talk of in words. You are the men that live in pleasures, pride, and wantonness, in fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness: see if this be not the sin of Sodom. Lot received the angels, but Sodom was envious. You show forth the vain nature; you stand in the steps of them that crucified MY SAVIOUR, and mocked him; you are their children; you show forth their fruit. They had the chief place in the assemblies, and so have you; they loved to be called Rabbi, and so do you.” G. F. I wrote to the magistrates who committed me to this effect:— “FRIENDS, “I am forced, in tender love unto your souls, to write unto you, and beseech you to consider what you do, and what the commands of God call for. He requires justice and mercy, to break every yoke, and to let the oppressed go free. But who calleth for justice, or loveth mercy, or contendeth for the truth? Is not judgment turned backward, and doth not justice stand afar off? Is not truth silenced in the streets, or can equity enter? And do not they that depart from evil make themselves a prey? Oh! consider what ye do in time, and take heed whom ye imprison; for the magistrate is set for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well. Now, I entreat you, in time take heed what you do; for surely the Lord will come, and will make manifest both the builders and the work. If it be of man, it will fail; but if it be of God, nothing will overthrow it. Therefore I desire and pray, that you would take heed, and beware what you do, lest ye be found fighters against God.” G. F. Now, after I had thus far cleared my conscience to them, I waited in holy patience, leaving the event to God, in whose will I stood. After some time I was moved to write again to the justices that had committed me, to lay their evils before them, that they might repent. One of them, Nathaniel Barton, was a colonel, a justice, and a preacher. “FRIENDS,