AN EPISTLE TO FRIENDS

Charles Marshall

The Life of Charles Marshall. In: Evans, William and Evans, Thomas, eds. Friends' Library. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Rakestraw, 1840, Vol. IV, page 161.

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Dear Friends and brethren,

That are suffering for your meeting together, in answer to the requirings of the Spirit of Jesus; my love in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ salutes you, breathing to the God of the spirits of all flesh for you, that the grace that brings salvation, the mercy that comforts, the peace that is as a refreshing river, may be multiplied in you, and amongst you, to your satisfaction and rejoicing in the Lord. Lift up your heads in the light of the Lord, behold and livingly remember what the Lord, the jealous God, hath done for you these many years; who hath in unutterable kindness visited you with his dayspring from on high, and with his excellent,powerful arm hath saved and wrought for us, time after time; and beyond all expression hat wonderfully turned back the enemy of our souls. He hath indeed bound the seas as with swaddling bands, and said to the proud waves of persecution, hithertio shall you come and no further; whose arm hath brought out of bond and set at liberty, and hath bebuked, as in the midst of a storm, and brought a sweel calm; we have seen what his powe hath done, and have been deeply engaged unto him, and bowed in the sense of his unspeakable love.

And now, dear friends and brethren, keep your meetings in the name, power, and authority of the living God, and let all be gathered in tothe name of Jesus, the immaculate Lamb of God, who will then be known to be in the midst of you. Wait diligently with the loins of you minds girded with the Truth, in the fear and awe of the mighty Jehovah, wgise fear will keep out the fear of man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and his life every moment at the disposal of the great Creator. Let none reason with flish and blood, not take counself of him that moved to say, Master save thyself; but overcome all such reasonings of the earthly wisdom, and walk in the Seed immortal, whose life will make all your meetings sweet and refreshing, and terrible tol the workers of iniquity. So, dear friends, in the weighty sense of the honour and dignity of the precious Truth, which you are concerned in, before the eyes of many that are upon you, let the increase of it have wieght with you over all your interests, and eye the Lord, who can give and take away, whose are the cattle on a thousand hills. Look not at the thkings that are seen, which are carnal, but at those which are not seen with the visible eye, which are eternal, and no more suffering shall come to you who keep resigned to the Lord and his counsel, than shall be to honour, and in the end over all, you shall be comforted and feilled with joy, when your enemies shall feel the tribulation and anguish which the Lord in rendering to the workers of iniquity. So, into his arm do I commit you,m and to the word of his patience that keeps in the hour of temptation; and may the Lord arise among you in the glory of his own power, and in the excellency of his own brightness, to the astonishment of the wicked, and to the refreshing and comforting of you all; i whose name I send this counself amongst you, who am,

Your brother in labour and trvail in the Gospel of life and salvation,

CHARLES MARSHALL.

Titherton, the 20th of the Second month, 1677.