of your souls: for hitherto ye are called; because Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. And he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from speaking evil, and his lips that he speak no guile," 2 Peter, ii.

Your sufferings have been long in that county, and great have been your trials, and spoiling of your goods, through your adversaries and persecutors' rage against you; but the Lord's secret hand and power is that which hath upheld you through all to Him self; and therefore we may say :—What shall separate us from the love of God, that we have

in Christ Jesus? Shall tribulations, persecutions, powers or principalities, thrones or dominions? Nay, there is not any thing able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, whom you have chosen; a Priest that is from above, not from below, who has offered up Himself to God for you, who is not like the Jews' priests, that had the tithes of the people for offering up their outward offerings, and such like services. So you

have a Priest from heaven, who is made higher than the heavens, and is the Prophet that God has raised up like Moses, whom ye are to hear, in his light, grace, and truth. And He is your Shepherd from heaven, who has laid down his life for his sheep, who is above all the earthly shepherds below; and this Shepherd will feed you with that which is heavenly. And He is your Bishop from heaven, to oversee you, that you may be kept from sitting down in any earthly place, with your minds, spirits, and souls, but only to sit down "in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," who is the heavenly and spiritual Bishop, who lives for evermore, the First and Last, the Beginning and Ending, who is the first born of every creature, and the first begotten from the dead, who does quicken

and makes alive, and begets from the death, and makes them whom He has made alive to sit together in the heavenly places in Himself.

And now, dear friends, I do feel the Lord's eternal power present with you, in all your sufferings, how it hath and doth support you; and therefore let your faith be steadfast in the power of God, which will keep you all unto the day of salvation. And that you may all be valiant and faithful for God's truth upon the earth, in this day of trial and persecution, from teachers, professors, and profane, which are below, whose persecuting spirit will have but a time; and therefore be of good faith; for "a sparrow shall not fall to the ground without the will of the Father; and ye are of more value than many sparrows." And "Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: and blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake: rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven." For so the old persecutors persecuted the prophets

and apostles before you. "But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you," who are railed upon, and suffer for his Name's sake. And though He is evil spoken of by your persecutors, yet on your part He is glorified, that suffer for his Name. And therefore let none be ashamed to suffer as a Christian, but let him glorify God in his sufferings, who doth support him.

And so, dear friends, live in love and unity, and be kind, and courteous, and tender-hearted one towards another; yea, and to all your persecutors, that you may heap coals of fire upon their heads, and so overcome evil with good. And so the God of all peace establish you all upon his heavenly Rock and Foundation of life, Christ Jesus, which standeth sure, and cannot be moved. The Lord God Almighty keep and preserve you all, in the holy Seed in which all nations are blessed: which bruises the head of the evil seed, that makes you to suffer. And the Lord God Almighty arm you with his armour, and strengthen you, that you may be able to stand to his glory

It hath been often in my mind, from a sense of the Spirit of the Lord, to lay before you, and commend it to the witness of God in all your consciences; to have once in a year a Yearly Meeting, as they have in Holland, Germany, and Friezland, and at Rhode Island, and in England, and elsewhere, which are and have been of great service; by friends seeing one another, and knowing how the affairs of Truth prosper, and how friends do grow in the Truth of God, to the comfort and joy of one another in it; in which the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted: and if there should be any difference among friends which they cannot settle, it may be