‘And therefore all stand steadfast in Christ Jesus your head, in whom you are all one, male and female, and know his government, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; but there will be an end of the devil’s, and of all them that be out of Christ, and do oppose it and him, whose judgment doth not linger, and their damnation doth not slumber: and therefore in God’s and Christ’s light, life, spirit and power live and walk, that is over all, (and the seed of it,) in love and in innocency, and in simplicity; and righteousness and holiness dwell, and in his power and Holy Ghost, in which God’s kingdom doth stand. All children of new and heavenly Jerusalem, that is from above, and is free, with all her holy, spiritual children, to her keep your eyes.
‘And as for this spirit of rebellion and opposition, that hath risen formerly and lately; it is out of the kingdom of God and heavenly Jerusalem; and is for judgment and condemnation, with all its books, words and works. And therefore friends are to live and walk in the power and spirit of God, that is over it, and in the seed, that will bruise and break it to pieces: in which seed you have joy and peace with God, and power and authority to judge it; and your unity is in the power and spirit of God, that doth judge it; and all God’s witnesses in his tabernacle go out against it, and always have and will.
‘And let no man live to self, but to the Lord, as they will die in him; and seek the peace of the church of Christ, and the peace of all men in him: for blessed are the peace-makers. And dwell in the pure, peaceable, heavenly wisdom of God, that is gentle and easy to be intreated, that is full of mercy; all striving to be of one mind, heart, soul, and judgment in Christ, having his mind and spirit dwelling in you, building up one another in the love of God, which doth edify the body of Christ, his church, who is the holy head thereof. So glory to God through Christ, in this age, and all other ages, who is the rock and foundation, and the Immanuel, God with us, Amen, over all, the beginning and the ending; in him live and walk, in whom you have life eternal, in whom you will feel me, and I you.
‘All children of new Jerusalem, that descends from above, the holy city, which the Lord and the Lamb is the light thereof, and is the temple: in it they are born again of the spirit: so Jerusalem that is above is the mother of them that are born of the spirit. And so they that come, and are come, to heavenly Jerusalem, are them that receive Christ; and he giveth them power to become the sons of God, and are born again of the spirit: so Jerusalem that is above, is their mother. And such do come to heavenly mount Sion, and the innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and are come to the church of the living God, written in heaven, and have the name of God, and the city of God written upon them: so here is a new mother, that bringeth forth a heavenly and a spiritual generation.
‘There is no schism, nor division, nor contention, nor strife, in heavenly Jerusalem, nor in the body of Christ, which is made up of living stones, a spiritual house. And Christ is not divided, for in him there is peace. Christ saith, in me you have peace. And he is from above, and not of this world; but in the world below, in the spirit of it, there is trouble: therefore keep in Christ, and walk in him, Amen.
G. F.’
‘Jerusalem was the mother of all true Christians before the apostacy; and since, the outward Christians are broken into many sects, and they have gotten many mothers; but all they that are come out of the apostacy by the power and spirit of Christ, Jerusalem that is above, is their mother, and none below her; who doth nourish all her spiritual children.
G. F.’
Read at the Yearly Meeting in London, 1691.
This year I find that William Goodridge, of Banwell, in Somersetshire, was released from prison, where he had been confined about thirteen years. He had been premunired for refusing to take the oath: and his goods, whereof the moveables were rated at about two hundred and forty-four pounds, and the real estate counted worth sixty pounds per annum, were confiscated. Thus to suffer spoil of goods hath been the lot of many others, and among these was Benjamin Brown, an ancient man, of Brownish in Suffolk, who also, for not taking the oath, was stripped of all, so that his wife and child were fain to lie on the floor without a bed.