A SHORT EPISTLE to FRIENDS To keep in the Power of GOD in their Peaceable Habitations, Over the TROUBLES of the WORLD.

ALL my dear Friends and Brethren, who are gathered by the Light, Grace, and Truth, and Power, and Spirit of Jesus Christ, to him the head over all, by whom were all things created, so the First­born of every Creature, and the First begotten from the dead; follow him in his Resurrection, that you all may be partakers of it and Life ever­lasting, and may sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, who is over all, the First and Last, and in him you have peace, who is not of this World, for in this World there is trouble; and the World did and doth hate Christ, yea and his Light, Grace, Truth, Power and Spirit; and therefore it is no marvel if the World do hate Christs Members that do follow him in his Light, Grace, Truth, Power and Spirit, and so with it receive him in them their Life and Salvation, and so he that hath the Son of God hath Life; who is the Fountain that filleth all that wait upon him, with his heavenly blessings and riches of Life from Christ the Rock and Foundation, that cannot be shaken, though the rocks and foundations of the World may be shaken, and cloven in pieces, and the Pillars of the Earth may reel and stagger, and all Hypocrites and Sinners may fear, but they that fear the Lord, and wait upon him, shall be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed, for the Lords Power is over all, by which he keeps his People to the day of Salvation.

And therefore all you that have this Keeper, the Power of the Lord through Faith unto the day of Life and Salvation, need none of the slum­bering Keepers or Watchers; for the Lord was the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbered nor slept, till Israel forsook the Lord, and then they set up slumbering and sleepy Watchers and Keepers, like the apostate Christians, who have forsaken the Power of God to keep them, and then they are soon shaken.

And therefore, Friends, you that do know the Power of God, in which the Kingdom of God stands, you know your Keeper, through the Faith which Jesus Christ is the Author of, which stands in his Power, and not in words; and so your Faith standing in this Power it will keep you out of the words of mens wisdom and above them.

And the golden Lamp in your Tabernacle all is to have to burn with the heavenly Oyl, which you have from Christ your high Priest, being returned to him, the great Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, who will bring you, his Sheep, into his safe Fold, who gives unto his Sheep eternal Life, and his Sheep shall not perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. Though men may pluck Hypocrites and Apostates one from another, but Christ saith no man is able to pluck his Sheep out of his Fa­thers hand. And therefore all feel the Hand that hath brought you out of spiritual Egypt where Christ hath been crucified, to Christ, and in his new Covenant of Light and Life, as the Jews were brought out of Egypt in the old Covenant, which Christ hath abolished, and makes all things new; so that all may be grounded on him who was the Foundation of all the ho­ly Prophets and Apostles, and of all the holy men of God to this day.

And therefore consider who it is that abides in the Tabernacle of God, and dwels in his holy Hill, it is the Faithful and the Upright, which holy Hill is a safe place for all the Upright.

As the Lord said, In the last dayes the Mountain of the Lords House should be established on the tops of the Mountains, and should be exalted above the Hills, and all Nations should flow unto this stablished House: And here the Lord does teach his people that comes up to the Mountain of the House of the God of Jacob; so all Mountains, Houses, Hills and Teaching will be shaken, but the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the last dayes, as the Prophet said, which is the dayes of Christ.

Is not this the Stone that became a great Mountain, and fills the whole Earth, which smote and broke to pieces the Iron, Clay, the Brass, Sil­ver and Gold which were as Mountains? And this Stone which becomes a great Mountain, and sets up a Kingdom which shall never have an end, Is not this the Kingdom of Christ, which Christ saith, Except a man be born again he can neither see the Kingdom of God nor enter into it?

And therefore, Friends, all you that do know his Kingdom that stands in Power, in Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost, over the power of the evil, and all the unclean Ghosts which keep them in their first birth, and lead them into all evil, as the holy Ghost leads them into all Truth.

And so dear Friends and Brethren, that know this Rock, this Stone, this Foundation, the House of God, that is stablished upon the Lords Mountain, above all other houses, hills, mountains and teachings in the World, where God doth teach his People, and stablish them upon Christ Jesus the living Rock and Foundation and living Way: And so though there may be troubles without, and troubles within, yet if you wait upon the Lord he will renew your strength.

And the Children of God they are set for Signs and Wonders; for as it is said, Lo the Children that thou hast given me they are for Signs and Wonders.

And therefore, Friends, keep your Habitation in Christ Jesus, in whom you have Peace; for all the rude Talkers, and vain Disputers and Janglers, which cankers and rusts, goes out of the peaceable Truth; and that that is torn, and will dye of it self, must not be fed upon, but the Life must be fed upon, and that which gives you Life eternal.

And the Lord did not build his Zion, and his outward Jerusalem with Blood, in the old Covenant, for they that did build their Zion and Jeru­salem with Blood, made their Zion a Field, and their Jerusalem an Heap; so if this practice was forbidden in the old Covenant, much more in the new, who think to build Zion and Jerusalem with Blood and Iniquity, for such has not been Zions Children, nor Jerusalems that is above, who shed mens Blood concerning Religion Church and Worship; for Christ re­buked such that would have had mens lives destroyed, and told them, They knew not what Spirit they were of; so they that do not know what Spirit they are of, they are not like to build up Gods Zion and Jerusalem.

For Christ said, he came to save mens Lives, and not to destroy them; for the Worlds God was the destroyer of mens Lives, which Christ came to destroy him and his works, and to save mens Lives and Souls also. And so, dear Friends, let the love of God which is shed abroad in your hearts, cast out all fear; and keep in the Name of Jesus, in which you are gathered, which is above every name under the whole Heaven, in whom you have all Life and Salvation, and his Presence among you, whose Name is a strong Tower, and Christ is a Rock to hide your selves in, and his Spirit to cover you, which is a Covering sufficient enough for you, and wo will be to them that are covered, but not with his Spirit, they may fly to the Rocks and Mountains to cover, and hide them, which will not be Sufficient, for the Rocks will rend, and the Mountains will be re­moved, such may run down into spiritual Egypt for strength, where Christ was crucified, like the Jews in the old Covenant that ran into outward Egypt from his Spirit, but all was in vain.

And therefore trust in the Lord, who has preserved you by his glorious Light and Power to this day, that you may be settled upon the Seed Christ Jesus, which is over all that within and without that is contrary to it, and bruiseth the head of the Serpent, that hath been between you and God, so that in Christ the Seed you have Peace with the Lord God, life and dominion, and Election, and Salvation, who Redeems out of the Curse, and fear of men, or that makes the Arm of flesh his strength, and not the Arm of God; and therefore the Arm of the Lord being your strength, Christ your Rock and Salvation, then you need not fear what man can do unto you; for all Gods Children are dear and tender to him, whom he hath begotten again by the Word of God to be Heirs of his Kingdom, he feeds them with Life eternal, and the Milk of his Word, which Word lives and abides and endures forever, and is alwayes full and plentious of Milk to nurse and nourish up all God's Children to eternal Life, to inherit his Kingdom, and the World which is everlasting, which Christ is the Ruler of, the heavenly spiritual man; and therefore they that be in him, must be New Creatures; for all the Old Creatures are in old Adam.

And therefore my Desires are, that you may all be settled in Christ Je­sus, who was dead, and is alive again, and lives for evermore, a Prophet, Councillor, a Priest, Bishop and Shepherd, a Circumciser and Baptizer, a living Rock and Foundation forevermore, the Beginning and Ending, the First and Last, the Amen; sit down in him, and he in you, in whom you have peace with God;

Amen.

G. F.

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