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can do unto you; or, what the Lord may try you withal. So, let your faith be in the invisible God and his son, who is able to succour you, and save you to the uttermost; who is over all, King immortal, invisible, the only wise God, blessed for ever. Amen.

So, God Almighty establish you all upon this holy rock and foundation, Christ Jesus, who is the same to-day as yesterday, and so for ever, who was all the holy men and women's foundation, who is the first and the last, the beginning and ending, the saints' mediator and peacemaker between them and God. Their joy and rejoicing is in him, their everlasting joy, the Amen, blessed for ever. So, with my love in the Lord Jesus Christ unto you all, in whom I have laboured, (and) among you.

Swarthmore, the 19th of the 12th month, 1676.

CCCXL.-To Friends in New Jersey in America.

'G. F.

My dear friends, in New Jersey, and you that go to New Jersey, my desire is, that you may all be kept in the fear of God, and that you may have the Lord in your eye, in all your undertakings. For many eyes of other governments or colonies will be upon you; yea, the Indians, to see how you order your lives and conversations. And therefore, let your lives, and words, and conversations be as becomes the gospel, that you may adorn the truth, and honour the Lord in all your undertakings. Let that only be in your eye, and then you will have the Lord's blessing and increase, both in basket, and field, and storehouse; and at your lyings down you will feel him, and at your goings forth, and comings in. So that you may answer the light, and the truth, in all people, both by your godly lives and conversations. Serving the Lord, and with a joyful heart, being valiant for his truth, upon the earth, and the glorious name, in whom you have salvation.

And keep up your meetings for worship, and your men and women's meetings for the affairs of truth, both Monthly and Quarterly. And, after you are settled, you may join together and build a meeting-house. And do not strive about outward things; but dwell in the love of God, for that will unite you together, and make you kind and gentle one towards another; and to seek one another's good and welfare, and to be helpful one to another; and see that nothing be lacking among you, then all will be well. And let temperance, and patience, and kindness, and brotherly love be exercised among you, so that you may abound. in virtue, and the true humility; living in peace, showing forth the nature of christianity, that you may all live as a family, and the church of God, holding Christ your heavenly head, and he exercising his offices among you, and in you; and hold him, the head, by his light, power,

and spirit; and that will keep your minds over the earthly spirit, up to God; for the earth, and the sea, and all things therein, are his, and he gives the increase thereof.

And therefore be not over eager after outward things, but keep above them in the Lord's power, and seed Christ Jesus, that is over all; in whom you have all life, election, and salvation.

And write over yearly, from your meetings, how you are settled, and how your affairs go in the truth, and how your men and women's meetings are settled.

And my desires are, that we may hear that you are a good savour to God, in those countries. So that the Lord may crown all your actions with his glory. So with my love to all.

Swarthmore, the 4th of the 1st month, 1676.

CCCXLI.

G. F.

My friends,-All you that do know God and Christ your teacher, and are come to be the sons and daughters of the Lord God, and are in his new covenant; in which you all do know the Lord, and need not any man to say unto you, know the Lord. And are heirs of the gospel of peace and salvation, that hath brought life and immortality to light; and that by the power of God, the gospel, you do see over him, the adversary and the destroyer, that hath darkened you. And so do know, that the power of God is the authority of your men's and women's meetings; in it keep them, and all other meetings. And all such as be heirs of grace, and heirs of life, and heirs of the gospel, keep your men's and women's meetings in the power of God, the authority of them; and they that cry against them, or you, strive not with them, for they will in God's time die of themselves, and wither away; but keep your testimony of the life, and of grace, and of the gospel, and of the order of it, and your faith in him, your teacher, who bruises the head of the serpent, the author of all disorder and ill government; even Christ, of the increase of whose government (in his truth, and power, and righteousness) there is no end. Glory to the Lord God for ever.

And so all strive to be of one mind, and heart, and soul, and spirit, and faith, living together in unity, and in the love of God, all drinking into one spirit, by which you are baptized into one body, having one head, who is heavenly and spiritual; and in the one spirit, by which you are circumcised, which putteth off the body of the sins of the flesh. So as you do keep to the spirit of Christ, it will keep you to be one body, and to him the one head, Christ Jesus, the Amen. G. F.

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CCCXLII.

My dear friends and brethren,-That faith, which is the gift of God, which all the saints lived in, (and by which they pleased God, and had victory, by which they had access to God, and by and in which faith they did walk and all the just, in all ages and generations, did live by the same faith,) do you all live and walk now in your age. I say, walk in that faith by which Enoch (the seventh from Adam) was translated, and by which he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

And also keep in that faith by which Noah built his ark, wherein he and his family were preserved, when the old world, that grieved God, and his good spirit, were drowned.

And also walk in that faith by which Abraham forsook his father's house, and native country, and their idolatrous religion.

And live in that faith, by which Moses forsook Egypt, and refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose rather to suffer ' affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of the * world for a season.' And by this faith (which is the gift of God) he saw God, who is invisible.

And by this faith was Rahab the harlot saved, and her family. And by this faith the walls of Jericho fell down, without any outward instrument of war.

And by this faith Jacob went down into Egypt, and his children; and by this faith he knew they should return again. And the Jews that did not keep in this faith, their carcases fell in the wilderness; but they that kept in this faith entered into the land of promise. And by this faith had all the valiants of God the victory, and his holy prophets and prophetesses, as you may read all along in the scriptures. And by this faith were they kept in the fire, and by it the violence of the fire was quenched; and by it the mouths of the lions were stopped. So by this faith they had the victory.

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And by this faith was Elijah taken up to heaven. And so as Christ Jesus saith, faith saves, and makes whole.' And all are to look unto Jesus, the heavenly and the spiritual man, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, by whom all things were made and created, who is the first and the last, to be both the author and finisher of their faith.

Now Christ said, 'When the son of man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? For all, both Jews and Gentiles, were concluded under sin and unbelief; so sin and unbelief were over them, and they shut up under it. So whosoever hath this true, saving, and justifying faith, Christ Jesus hath been the author of it, and is the finisher of this divine and precious faith. So all eyes must look unto him, for he is both the

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author and finisher of this living, precious, and divine faith. And this is the faith of God's elect; by which faith they have access to God, and know their election; by which faith they are translated from death to life, and from the darkness to the light, and from the power of satan unto the power of God, and from the corruption to the incorruption, and from the mortal to the immortal, and from the natural to the spiritual.

And by this faith, the devil, the destroyer, is resisted, who abode not in the truth; and by this faith the fiery darts are quenched, of satan, (the adversary of man,) and he thereby is overcome. So by this faith you come to know the partition wall broken down, that hath been betwixt you and God. So in this faith are all the household of faith to build upon Christ Jesus, (who bruises the serpent's head,) who is the author and finisher of faith; and this is called the holy faith, and the one faith, and by this one faith, which Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of, (by whom all things were made and created,) by it we do understand the worlds were made, [by the word of God,] and this is the faith which all the household of faith are to contend for, this one faith which Christ Jesus is the author of; which faith is the gift of God, and is held in a pure conscience. And it is called the mystery of faith; for no natural men, with all the arts, languages, and wisdom upon the earth, can find it out, or know this mystery, nor make it; for Christ Jesus, the heavenly and spiritual man, is the author and finisher of it; and no natural man, though he may have all the languages that began at Babel, and yet he may not know the mystery of this one faith, which Christ Jesus is the author of. For Pilate, that set Hebrew, Greek, and Latin atop of Christ, who was the author and finisher of faith; he was so ignorant of the mystery of faith, that he asked Christ, what is truth?' And the Greeks, that spoke natural Greek, and the Hebrews, that spoke natural Hebrew, the preaching of Christ, the author and finisher of the true faith, was a stumbling block and foolishness to them.

So I do conclude, that no man or woman hath true faith only by the natural knowledge, reading, or understanding of the original tongue and language of the New Testament, no more than the natural Jews had by the reading or knowing of the natural tongue of the Old Testament; nor can any in the whole world have true faith, except Jesus Christ be the author and finisher of it.

Now those that do say, that the tongues are the original, and that by them the orthodox men and divines (so called) are qualified, (which tongues began at Babel,) and these are the preachers that make faiths for people, who have gotten scriptures in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. But I must tell you, that Pilate, and Herod, and the Jews, and the chief priests, and the Grecians, and others that could speak Latin, and Greek,

and Hebrew naturally, knew not Christ, nor this one faith, which is the gift of God, which Christ is the author of. No more can they, with all their natural knowledge of all the tongues, until Christ Jesus, the author of the true and saving faith, give it unto them; by which one faith was Enoch translated before the many languages were; and by which faith Abel's sacrifice was accepted, and by which faith Noah built the ark, and by which faith he was saved; and by which faith now all the household of faith are saved from the wrath, by which God will destroy the wicked world, which is reserved in store by the same word unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men; which word will hammer down all, and burn up all, and cut down all the ungodly; and by which word all things were made; by which word of life and wisdom his people are reconciled to God; and therefore they love the word Christ, who doth fulfil the mind of God. G. F.

CCCXLIII.

Friends, in the power and image and truth and wisdom of God, who are come under God and Christ's teaching, (the heavenly and spiritual man,) do not you strive about men, like the carnal Corinthians, that cried, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos. And they that do so, leave them to themselves, after you have admonished them to keep to the light, grace, and faith that comes from Christ; if they will not hear it, nor him, nor you, then I say, they must be left to themselves. And you, whose faith stands not in men, but in Christ, the author of it, and in his gospel of salvation, by which you are saved; which gospel is the power of God, your keeper. Keep ye in the order of the gospel, (the power of God,) all ye that are heirs of it; and in this power of God keep your men and women's meetings, the power of God being the author and authority of them; by which power of God, the gospel, you are saved, and have your liberty; and in it you are over him that would destroy you, and darken you, and keep you in bondage. In which power of God, (the gospel,) you see life and immortality brought to light. So it is the gospel that hath brought it to light, and keeps life, and immortality, and an understanding up in you, above him that has darkened you from it. Now this is an everlasting and invisible power, in which you are all help-meets in the restoration, by Christ the heavenly and spiritual man, whereby you are brought into the image, likeness, righteousness, holiness, and power of God, that man and woman were in before they fell. And now the same spirit that drew Adam and Eve from the image and likeness of God, and his power, and righteousness, and holiness, under pretence to feed upon that which God had forbidden them.

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