To all Friends, to keep in the power of God, out of the cares of the world. All Friends, 1656. To that which is pure, take heed that all your minds may be kept up to God, who is pure; that as the lily ye all may grow, and receive wisdom from God, how to use the creatures in their places, to the glory of Him that created them. For woe is unto you, that lay up for the latter day with covetousness; ye act in that nature contrary to the light, taking thought for to morrow, what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, and what ye shall put on. Look at the life, which is more than food, and the body which is more than raiment; and consider the lilies and ravens, and who feedeth them, and clotheth the earth: that ye may stand in the faith, and with it may come to see Him who is invisible. And that keeps down the covetous and the fleshly principle, and that which would run out into the observation of days: and that keeps the life up, out of the earth, and keeps from trusting in the riches, that be uncertain, and brings to trust in God, who is living, who is the condemner of all the gods, who have eyes and see not; who keep people under their dominion from the light. But all, who take heed to the light, see God, who is living, who seeth all things. NUMBER CXXXI. G. F. 1656. Friends every where, dwell in the power of the Lord God, which is without end, in which ye may all have unity. And take heed of striving about earthly things, that with the wisdom of God ye may come to be ordered, and order the creatures by that by which they were made and created, that by it ye may know yourselves to be governed. And after that riches do increase, take heed of setting your hearts upon them, lest they become a curse and a plague to you. For when ye were faithful at the first, the world would refrain from you, and not have commerce with you; you; but after, when they saw ye were faithful and just in things, and righteous and honest in your tradings and dealings, then they came to have commerce and trade with you the more, because they know ye will not cozen them, nor cheat them: then ye came to have greater trading, double than ever ye had, and more than the world. But there is the danger and temptation to you, of drawing your minds into your business, and clogging them with it; so that ye can hardly do any thing to the service of God, but there will be crying, my business, my business! and your. minds will go into the things, and not over the things; and so therein ye do not come into the image of God, in which is dominion. And so, when your minds are got into the riches, and cumbered therewith, ye go back into that ye were in before. And then if the Lord God cross you, and stop you by sea and land, and take your goods and customers from you, that your minds should not be cumbered; then that mind that is cumbered, it will fret, being out of the power of God. And all friends, take heed of jars and strife, let not that harbour in your bosoms, lest it eat out the good in you, and ye come to suffer in your own particulars. Therefore dwell in love and life, and in the power and seed of God, which is the honourable, royal state. And all that speak or preach abroad, see that ye be in the life, and power, and Seed of God, which will edify the body; and not in a brittle, peevish, hasty, fretful mind; but dwell in that which keeps down the contrary, that that may speak, which edifies the body in love. And all take heed of vain words, and tattling idle words, but every where stop such; that love may continue in the body, and that the seed may spread over all, that unity may be kept. And all friends every where, if friends be poor, and in want, or in prison, in wisdom relieve and cherish such. Keep your meetings in the power of the Lord God, that all uncleanness whatsoever may, by the power of the Lord, be brought down and rooted out; and that such have no rule nor authority amongst you, though they be never so fair or excellent of speech: but let all such be brought under by the power of the Lord God, who is to reign over it; that in the sweetness and unity ye all may be brought to be a sweet savour to the Lord God, and in the hearts of one another. And all friends every where, take heed of wronging the world or any one in bargains, or over-reaching them. Take heed of sloth fulness and sleeping in your meetings; for in so doing ye will be bad examples to others, and hurt yourselves and them. And all take beed of going up and down (to minister) but as ye are moved of the Lord God, or to speak in meetings, or any other places; for travelling, to such, is dangerous, to lift them up, going amongst settled meetings. For there is a difference betwixt friends going into the world, and of coming among them that are come to silent meetings, and to feed there; for that which may be seasonable to the world, may not be to them. And in the wisdom of God all dwell, that to Him ye may be a sweet savour, and a blessing in the hearts of all people; that nothing may rule nor reign amongst you, but the seed itself, and the life of God. NUMBER CXXXVIII. 16 7. Friends, 1657. Ye that are the prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ in outward bonds, who witness Him by whom the world was made, who is the King of saints, and who are his, and come under his dominion and government, ye are not your own; but purchased with his blood, |