apprehension: thereby Friends will be preserved in that sweetness of spirit, that is, and will be the bond of true peace, throughout all the churches of Christ.

And, dear friends, the Friends of this meeting, to whom the inspection of the accounts was referred, made report, that having perused the same, they found the stock to be near expended; whereupon this meeting thinks it necessary to recommend unto you, that a general and free contribution be made in every county, and that what shall be thereupon collected, be sent up to the respective correspondents.

Finally, dear Friends and brethren, be careful to walk unblameable in love and peace among yourselves, and towards all men in Christian charity, and be humbly thankful to the Lord our most gracious God, for the favour he hath given us in the eyes of the king and civil government, in the peaceable enjoyment of our religious and Christian liberties under them; and the God of peace, we trust, will be with you to the end.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Amen.

'Signed in, and on the behalf, and by the order of
this meeting,
BY BENJAMIN BEALING.'

From this epistle may be judged in some degree of the others, which are sent from the yearly meeting of the people called Quakers, to the particular meetings of their society every where. We see by it, that they give notice of the state of their particular churches, and that they earnestly recommend love and unity among their brethren, with other Christian virtues, and especially a good education of their children, besides other matters which they judge to be meet and necessary. With this epistle here inserted, I will finish this work, as having performed my design and intention, viz. the giving of a plain and circumstantial account and relation of the rise of this religious society, which, as we have seen, sprung from mean beginnings, to a great increase and progress, and extended itself far, notwithstanding the violent opposition, and most

grievous severity, for suppressing and rooting them out, so often put in practice, and committed by their enemies, but all in vain. And they now enjoy an undisturbed liberty to perform the public exercise of their worship to God, since their religon is permitted by law; which liberty they in no wise have obtained by making resistance, but by a long-suffering patience, a peaceable deportment, and a dutiful fidelity to the government set over them: so that now they see clearly, that God doth not forsake those that do not forsake him, according to what the prophet Azariah formerly said to king Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, 2 Chron. xv. 2. "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you: but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you." Having thus performed what I intended with this historical relation, I conclude it, to the praise and glory of the Most High, who hath afforded me lifetime and ability, after a long and difficult labour, to bring this history to a suitable end.

ADDENDA.

THE Author towards the conclusion of this history, having given some account of the principles of the people called Quakers, thought fit, in the Dutch Appendix, among other things, to add the following treatise in Latin, concerning the Light, written about the year 1662. And since in this English translation the subject matters contained in the said Appendix are inserted in the body of the history, in those places to which they properly belong, and no reference being made to this, but as mentioned in the preface, it is thought fit to subjoin it here, with the following words of the Author prefixed to the same.

In the preface to this history, mention is made of a certain book, intitled 'The Light upon the Candlestick,' published in the name, as many supposed, of William Ames, yet no ways written by him, though it contains his doctrine, but by a certain learned man, unwilling to be known publicly, and as it seems to me, written originally in Latin; which, though printed, being but in few hands, I have thought fit to reprint.

And the original in Latin, soon after the first publication, being translated into English by B. F. was printed in the year 1663, from which translation take it as follows, viz.

THE LIGHT UPON THE CANDLESTICK.

THINGS are not for words, but words for things; if therefore we understand things aright, and as they ought, by words, it must be by such as are fit to imprint the things themselves in those to whom they should occur, and then it were enough, (to make known our thoughts to others as we conceive them,) only to make use of such words.

But forasmuch as we find the matter in this case far otherwise, and that two men speaking or writing the same words, may nevertheless have different, yea, contrary thoughts, the disability of performing this fitly by words or discourse, is clearly inferred. Nor may we at all wonder at it, seeing we know to what a perpetual change languages are subject, even such, that the very words may be changed from their pristine signification. And the imperfection is so great, that whosoever should have invented them, such as now they are in use, we should certainly believe that he had little or no knowledge of those things that are thereby intended to be signified. So that if we would better express things unto another by words and speeches, we had need find new words, and consequently a whole new language: but that would be a toil and labour indeed.

In the meanwhile we see what a sea of confusion flows from hence upon all mankind: for although there should be none, who sometimes through ignorance, and sometimes by subtilty or wickedness, might wrest or pervert words contrary to the mind of the speaker or writer, in such manner as themselves, that so do, should think best for their own ends, from whence consequently all this deceit, slandering, contention, and the like proceeds; yet, so it is, that how uprightly or prudently soever a man goes to work in this matter, he nevertheless finds himself liable to mislead, or to be misled.