Dear friends, with my love to you, and all the rest of the faithful Friends in bonds; and my desire is to the Lord, that ye all may stand faithful and valiant for his glorious name, and his holy peaceable truth, now in this day of storm and tempest, that none may turn their backs on the Lord in this day of trial, and none may be ashamed of confessing of Christ before the adulterous generation [Mat 12:39], as Christ said, lest Christ be ashamed of them before his Father, and before his holy angels [Luke 9:26]. And therefore now is the time and day of your trial; for the Lord is just; though I know that the faithful and innocent, just, and righteous must stand it out. And therefore mind the Lord in all your sufferings, and keep all low, and in the humility of heart, and there you will feel that he that inhabits eternity, dwells with an humble heart [Isa 57:15], and he will be your shield and buckler [Psa 91:4], and defender in time of trouble. And the Lord hath promised to deliver his people in the six troubles, yea, in the seventh [Job 5:19], the perfection of troubles; and therefore do not think time long, and your sufferings long, for the Lord will lay no more upon you but what you are able to bear [1 Cor 10:13]; yea, upon his faithful people. I know it, and am a witness for God in all my sufferings and imprisonments, and haling before magistrates about sixty times, about these thirty-six years. And so, friends, when you are tried, you may come forth more precious than gold that is tried in the fire [1 Pet 1:7]; and keep the word of patience [Rev 3:10], and it will keep you from the temptations that come upon the world to try them; for the word of God was before the world was. And though you be in outward bonds from your wives, families, houses, and relations, yet the word of God is not bound [2 Tim 2:9], neither can they bind the word of God; it is at liberty, it abides and endures for ever [1 Pet 1:23]; it will make you all rich, though they think to make you poor with their bonds, and cast you into prisons; but, I tell you, the word of God will make you rich [Col 3:16?], for the word of God was before the wicked and his bonds were; for in the beginning was the word [John 1:1], but since the beginning was the devil, who had cast some into prison, spoken of in Revelations: that ten days [Rev 2:10] might be a longer time than ten natural days. ‘For they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution [2 Tim 3:12]’ by the ungodly; for it was the just that suffered by the unjust [1 Pet 3:18] in all ages; and Christ said to Saul, ‘Why persecutest thou me?’ [Acts 9:4] So they that stood in Christ, and were in Christ Jesus, it was Christ that was persecuted [Mat 25:42-45], as well as they in whom he reigned. And do not you understand, and know, the sufferings and trials the holy men of God [2 Pet 1:21] went through; and how by faith they subdued the mountains [Mat 17:2, 1 Cor 13:2]; and consider the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the faith of Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and the faith <216> of Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets, and the faith of Daniel, and the three children, and the faith of all the apostles, what sufferings and imprisonments they went through; and consider all the martyrs since the apostles' days, consider what sufferings they have gone through [Heb 11]; and God and Christ is the same to uphold you, that are given up in his spirit, power, and faith, to stand for his glory; and be valiant for his truth and name upon the earth [Jer 9:3]. And therefore keep in your sanctuary, Christ Jesus, who destroys the destroyer, and bruises the serpent's head [Gen 3:15]; and so in Christ Jesus, your sanctuary, you all are in safety, in whom you have all life, and salvation, and peace with God, in him you may all triumph and rejoice with exceeding great joy, and say, ‘What shall separate us from the love of God which we have in Christ Jesus?’ And the apostle said to the saints in their days, that ‘there was not any thing able to separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus [Rom 8:38f];’ you feeling the same love, you feeling the same faith to dwell in you, and walk by; ‘for the just shall live by faith [Rom 1:17],’ which is his victory [1 Jn 5:4], and hath access to God [Rom 5:2], in which he pleases God [Heb 11:6]. And so with my love to you all in Christ Jesus, who was before the devil was, that makes you to suffer, and will be when he is gone. In Christ you have heavenly peace, that none can take away from you; in him dwell and live. Amen. POSTSCRIPT. And all be faithful in their testimony of life, against riches, and all those things which have come up in this night of apostacy, from the light, life, and power of Christ and God, against all looseness whatsoever, that the heavenly camp of God may be kept holy, clean, and pure [Deut 23:14]. And all Friends, look at the Lord above all your sufferings, and trust in him, who with his eternal power hath preserved you to this day; and the Lord in his glorious power was with us in all our assemblies, at this Yearly Meeting; he over all hath the dominion, and over all evil spirits gave dominion to his people. Glory to his name for ever. Amen. And therefore let your faith be in the gospel, the power of God [Rom 1:16], which hath brought life and immortality to light [2 Tim 1:10] in you. G. F.