An epistle for the strengthening and confirming of friends in their most holy faith Fell, Leonard, 1624-1700 or 1701. 1670 Approx. 11 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 4 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41047 Wing F624 ESTC R17853 13164497 ocm 13164497 98214 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41047) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98214) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 417:2) An epistle for the strengthening and confirming of friends in their most holy faith Fell, Leonard, 1624-1700 or 1701. 6 p. s.n., [London : 1670] Caption title. Signed: Leonard Fell. Place and date of publication from Wing. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Society of Friends. 2006-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-01 Celeste Ng Sampled and proofread 2007-01 Celeste Ng Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion An EPISTLE FOR THE Strengthening and Confirming OF FRIENDS , in their Most Holy Faith. FRIENDS , ALL abroad every where , think it not strange concerning the fiery Tryal , which is but to try you ; for is it not written , Every man's work must be try'd ? neither think the time long ; neither look at Sufferings , nor at the Potentness of those that cause you to suffer ; but look to the Lord , that is able to deliver : Did the Lord ever leave or forsake his People in a suffering Condition , that stood for his Name , or gave up themselves freely to whatever the Persecutors could do : For there were Informers , and Laws , and Decrees made in Ahasuerus's time , but the Lord frustrated them ; & those that stood for the Name of the Lord came over all at last , when the Lord saw their Faithfulness , and the tryal of their Faith. Haman was an Informer , and said unto King Ahasuerus , There is a certain People scatter'd abroad , and dispis'd among the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom , and their Laws are divers from all people's , neither keep they the King's Laws , therefore it is no● for the King's profit to suffer them so ; if it please the King let them be destroy'd , and he would give so much Money , as you may read in Esther 3. 9. and this was but for want of poor Mordecai's bowing to him : So the King granted this great Informer's Request , to destroy all the seed of the Jews that were within his Provinces : But read on in the third and fourth Chapters of Esther , and see what came to pass in a little time ; the Jews were deliver'd , and the Informer went to the Gallows : Now if Haman had been quiet , it is a question , if he had been destroy'd , or not ; for the Adversaries lifting up themselves against the Lord's Remnant never lengthens their dayes : For when the Faithfulness of his People , and Uprightness of their Hearts to him are seen , he soon brings Deliverance ; they need not find the Lord a way out to deliver . Therefore all Friends every where , give up all you are and have , and wait to find a Godly Resolution springing up within you ; and say , The God whom we serve is able to deliver us ; if not , we are resolv'd to Serve and Worship the Lord. In Nebuchadnezer's time ( as you may read in the 3d of Daniel ) how there were Informers ; in the 8th verse , Certain Caldeans came to accuse the Jews : in the 10th verse , Thou , O King , made a Decree , That they that would not fall down and worship the Image , at the sound of the Musick , should be cast into the Burning-Fiery-Furnace ; and so they go on , and tell the King , There were such three Men , which regarded him not , neither served his Gods , nor worshipped the Image that he had set up : Then the King , in his Rage aud Fury , commanded the men to be brought before him ; and he asked , If these things were true , That they serv'd not his Gods , nor worshipp'd the Golden Image which he had set up ; now if so be they would be ready at the sound of the Musick , to fall down and worship the said Image that he had made ; but if not , in the same Hour they should be cast into the mid'st of the Burning-Fiery Furnace : Now their Answer was , The God whom they serv'd was able to deliver them ; but if not , we will not Bow : And he did d●liver them to his own Praise and Glory , but they that cast them into the Fire were slain with the Flame ; but Shadrah , M●shach , and Abednego came out of the Furnace without harm , which did astonish the King ; and he blessed the God of Shadrach , Meshech , and Abednego . Now Friends , if such a Work should be brought forth through your Faithfulness , would it not make your hearts glad , that God should be so honour'd by your Faithfulness ? For if these men had shrunk and bow'd , the Lord's Power had not been so manifested : For the Faithfulness of Friends puts an opportunity into the Lord's Hand to make his Power known . For , Did not the Lord raise up Pharoah to make his Power known ; when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt . Pharo●h with his Host follow'd in great haste , and pursu'd them to the Red-Sea , thinking to have destroy'd them ●ll ; and some began to Murmer against Moses , why he would bring them thither , to be destroy'd ; yet Moses his Faith was in God , and he bid them but Stand still , and see the Salvation of God , and the Egyptians , whom they had seen that day , they should never see again : and so it came to pass ; for Israel had a Way through the Sea , but Pharoah and his Host were drown'd , and not a man escap'd . Now Friends , if those that were with Moses should have drawn back to Pharoah in this seeming Distress , thinking to go to Moses again when the Danger was over , had they not run from their Safety to their Destruction ? So now Friends , none to draw back again , neither to be slack in keeping your Meetings ; For he that draws back , the Lords Soul has no Pleasure in him ; and the Back-slider in heart shall be fill'd with his own wayes : And therefore Friends , be of a Noble Mind , and Valliant for the Truth upon the Earth ; the Noble Seed brings to be of a Noble Mind . And Friends , it is convenient that Tryals come , that the Chaff may be seperated from the Wheat , for they who are of this noble Seed will not be Treacherous nor False-hearted , but have a faithful Respect to the Honour of God forever . And observe in Daniel's day , how that they could not bring him to suffer , but concerning the Worship of his God ( so they can find nothing against us but concerning the Worship of our God , for which Blessed be the Name of the Lord forever ) so a Decree was made , that whosoever ask'd a Petition either of God or Man , for thirty dayes , save of the King , should be cast into the Den of Lyons ; and Daniel was constant to pray to the Lord three times a day , with his Window open towards Jerusalem , as his manner was : Now Daniel might have shut his Window , and forbore to pray to his God for so many dayes ; but then how could the Lord have appear'd in his Deliverance , if he had not kept to his Worship as his manner was , by which the Name of the Lord came to be exalted : And he that made the Decree , Commanded all to call upon the God of Daniel . So that you may see alwayes it was Faithfulness and Constancy that brought Honour to God , and Deliverance to themselves , and Destruction upon the Adversaries . So Friends , stand in the Fear and Dread of God , and you will become a Dread to all Nations : what need you fear any but the Lord God , that made Heaven and Earth ? What , will a Living Man be afraid of a Dead Man ? So you th●t are alive in Christ Jesus , what need you fear them that are dead in Adam , in Sin and Transgression , a body of Sin and a body of Death ? What need a living Body be afraid of a dead Body ? So F●iends , be of a valliant Mind ; they who are of the noble Birth , will be of a valliant Mind , and I know will give their Appearance for God , who hath appear'd for us , and in us , and among us : Many comfortable and peaceable Meetings we have enjoy'd , wherein we have been refreshed together , and satisfied together , and our Hearts made glad together ▪ in the en●oyment of the Goodness of our God ; which is ( I know ) not wanting in this suffe●ing Time. Now in the consideration of these things Friends , hold up your heads ; for God he will be our Deliverer : I dare be bold to speak in the Name of the Lord , That the Lord will bring a Calm ; for , was the Old World so rude and cruel as this Generation ? they let Noah build the Ark , and did not go about to make a Spoil of his Work , though they were against him , and call'd him , Old Fool , yet they let him alone with his Work. But this Generation will not let the Lord's People work the Works of God , nor Worship Him whom the Ark was a Type of . And if the Lord overthrew the old World for their Wickedness , and their slighting of Noah's warning of them ; what will he do to this Generation , that not only rejects the Warnings of them that are call'd and chosen of God to work his Works , but seek to destroy them ? I say , how can the Lord hold his Hand , but let it fall heavy upon those that have dealt thus cruelly with his People ; seeing he overthrew those that never dealt so cruelly ? So Friends , let your confidence be in the Lord God that made Heaven and Earth ; trust in his Arm ; let him be your Shield ; he will set up a Standard for you , that all Nations of the Earth shall never be able to pull down ; for the Lord never leaves nor forsakes his Heritage : Or where was there ever any that suffer'd for God , but their Enemies fell before them ? Though they sought to ruin the Lord's People , yet the Pit they had digg'd for others , themselves fell in●o it ; and it wi●l never fall otherwise to them that think to destroy the Lord's Heritage . Friends , let none think that the Beast's worship shall spread again , neither shall People wonder after him , as they have done ; neither shall the great Whore spread her Skirts over Nations , as she has done , neither sh●ll she be heard to make her boast ; for the Lord hath and will confound her , with those that have committed Fornication with her : And his own Name , and Power , and Kingdom he will set up over all the Names and Kingdoms upon the Earth . Two things the great Whore has boasted should never come upon her , yet she shall meet with them both ; that is , loss of Children , and Widdowhood . It is observed in the North part of the Nation , what sort of men they are that are Infomers , the most part of them are either High-way-men , or such as have been a raigned for Fellony , or such as are come out of Goals , or idle Fellows that have spent their Estates , if they had any ; and now would live upon the spoil of other honest Men's Estates : Now it is thought strange , that Justices of Peace and Wise men of the Country , should disobliege the sober People , to gratifie such men as are here mentioned ; it is not for their Honour I am sure . Written the 10th of the 11th Moneth 1670. Leonard Fell THE END .