George Whitehead, who was convinced when about seventeen years old, became a valiant minister for about sixty-eight years, till the time of his decease, which took place, in great peace, after an illness of some weeks. He waited, patiently resigned to the will of God, desiring to be dissolved and be with Christ; saying, “he felt the sting of death to be taken away.” He was a preacher of the gospel in life and power, and turned many from darkness to light, being a chief instrument in gathering a people to the Lord in and about Norwich. At one meeting he had in those parts, it is recorded that “nearly the whole congregation was convinced by the mighty power of God, through his lively and piercing testimony and prayer.” He suffered great hardships, long and sore imprisonments, and severe whipping for his testimony to the truth, much of which is recorded in his published Journal, with his travels and other services, to which the reader is referred. Footnote 34: Thomas Holmes was serviceable in his day and generation, suffering imprisonment on Truth’s account. In 1656, he was in jail, at Chester, with seven or eight other Friends. Some of his services in Wales are related, in a letter from him (probably to George Fox,) in Barclay’s _Letters of Early Friends_, p. 222. 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. Many such false prophets have risen up against me, but the Lord hath blasted them, and will blast all who rise against the blessed Seed, and me in that. My confidence is in the Lord; for I saw their end, and how the Lord would confound them, before he sent me forth.