A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers | Page 7

other jeopardies that attended them for his
blessed name's sake.
And, truly, they were very many, and very great; so that in all human
probability they must have been swallowed up quick of the proud and
boisterous waves that swelled and beat against them, but that the God
of all their tender mercies was with them in his glorious authority; so
that the hills often fled, and the mountains melted before the power that
filled them; working mightily for them, as well as in them; one ever
following the other. By which they saw plainly, to their exceeding great
confirmation and comfort, that all things were possible with him with
whom they had to do. And that the more that which God required
seemed to cross man's wisdom, and expose them to man's wrath, the
more God appeared to help and carry them through all to his glory.
Insomuch, that if ever any people could say in truth, Thou art our sun
and our shield, our rock and sanctuary; and by thee we have leaped
over a wall, and by thee we have run through a troop, and by thee we
have put the armies of the aliens to flight; these people had a right to
say it. And as God had delivered their souls of the wearisome burdens
of sin and vanity, and enriched their poverty of spirit, and satisfied their
great hunger and thirst after eternal righteousness, and filled them with
the good things of his own house, and made them stewards of his
manifold gifts; so they went forth to all quarters of these nations, to
declare to the inhabitants thereof, what God had done for them; what
they had found, and where and how they had found it, viz.--The way to
peace with God: inviting all to come and see, and taste for themselves,
the truth of what they declared unto them.
And as their testimony was to the principle of God in man, the precious
pearl and leaven of the kingdom, as the only blessed means appointed
of God to quicken, convince, and sanctify man; so they opened to them
what it was in itself, and what it was given to them for; how they might
know it from their own spirit, and that of the subtle appearance of the
evil one: and what it would do for all those whose minds should be
turned off from the vanity of the world, and its lifeless ways and
teachers, and adhere to his blessed light in themselves, which discovers

and condemns sin in all its appearances, and shows how to overcome it,
if minded and obeyed in its holy manifestations and convictions: giving
power to such, to avoid and resist those things that do not please God,
and to grow strong in love, faith, and good works. That so man, whom
sin hath made as a wilderness, over-run with briers and thorns, might
become as the garden of God, cultivated by his divine power, and
replenished with the most virtuous and beautiful plants of God's own
right-hand planting, to his eternal praise.
But these experimental preachers of glad tidings of God's truth and
kingdom could not run when they list, or pray or preach when they
pleased, but as Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his
own blessed Spirit, for which they waited in their services and meetings,
and spoke as that gave them utterance; and which was as those having
authority, and not like the dry, and formal Pharisees. And so it plainly
appeared to the serious-minded, whose spiritual eye the Lord Jesus had
in any measure opened: so that to one was given the word of
exhortation, to another the word of reproof, to another the word of
consolation, and all by the same Spirit, and in the good order thereof, to
the convincing and edifying of many.
And, truly, they waxed strong and bold through faithfulness; and by the
power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very fruitful; thousands, in a
short time, being turned to the truth in the inward parts, through their
testimony in ministry and sufferings: insomuch as, in most counties,
and many of the considerable towns of England, meetings were settled;
and daily there were added such as should be saved. For they were
diligent to plant and to water, and the Lord blessed their labours with
an exceeding great increase; notwithstanding all the opposition made to
their blessed progress, by false rumours, calumnies, and bitter
persecutions; not only from the powers of the earth, but from every one
that listed to injure and abuse them: so that they seemed, indeed, to be
as poor sheep appointed to the slaughter, and as a people killed all the
day long.
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