1724.

Water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the wKingdom of God, or of Heaven, Matt: iii. 5. This

divers will have to be a Mixture of the Element Water, and of the Spirit; but Chrift fays, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the Flefb profiteth nothing: The Words that I fpeak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life, John vi. 63. And that which is born of the Flesh is Flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, John iii. 6. According to which Doctrine, I have Faith to believe, that outward, fleshly, or elementary Water - Baptifm, profits little or nothing to the Soul. Again, Why fhould the Water in that Place be understood of the Element, any more than the Fire in the other, viz. To be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire? Since Christ faid, My Words they are Spirit and Life. Remem⚫ber the Well of Water that fprings up to eternal Life in the Believers: Remember the Water that Chrift gave, whofoever drank of it was never to thirst more. This is all fpiritual, which the car⚫nal Mind cannot comprehend or enjoy, but is witneffed by the fpiritual Man. And further, if we confider what Confufion there is in the World about this Water-Baptifm, it may well put a tender-feeking Soul upon further Search into the Nature of holy, faving Baptifm. The Papifts have one Way; the Lutherans and Calvinists another; the Baptifts, they have another; and all differ fo widely, that, generally speaking, they will not worship together; neither are they ever like to be reconciled, except they come to the holy Spirit and divine Power of Jefus, the good Saviour and precious Guide of Souls. That Saying of his hath often been a Comfort to me in deep Exercifes and Diftreffes of Mind, when he faid to his Difciples, It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter • will not come; but if I go away, I will pray to the Father, and he will fend the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, in my Name, and when he is come, he fall

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• lead you, and guide you into all Truth; he shall take of 1724. mine, and give it unto you, and fhall bring all Things to your Remembrance, that I have spoken unto you. And that he was to convince the World of Sin; and that he shall abide with you for ever. May the precious Gift of the Spirit be given to thee, and to all true Seekers of God, his Chrift and Kingdom, is my real Defire, and humble Prayer to the most High. [See the four Evangelifts for the Promife, they • not wording it alike.]

Having answered the most of thy Letter, I would add a few Lines more, viz. I have known fome who could not be fatisfied with Words about • this Point of Baptifm with Water, until Chrift had by his Spirit given them Satisfaction in themselves; and as thou comes more and more into clofe Communion with his Grace and Spirit in thy own Soul, I hope thou alfo wilt have better Satisfaction than that of Words only. I have known fome of the People called Baptifts, who have been convinced of the Truth, according to our Way and Principle, to whom all the Writing, and Difputing, and Reading, and Preaching, about this Point, could never give ample Satisfaction, until they had it inwardly and immediately from Chrift, manifefted to them by his holy Spirit in their Hearts, as aforefaid. Tho' I would not be understood to be against fatisfying one another as much as lieth in our Power, and as we find Opennefs in the Love of God and • Chrift. And further, I never understood that any of our Society were abfolutely against fuch practifing of it, who could fee no further, or did really think in their Confciences it was their Duty fo to do: • But we believe, that we fee beyond the Figure or Shadow, and are come to the Subftance, for the Reasons mentioned, and many more which might be given. Several Treatifes have been written upon this Subject, one of which is very full (before we

1724. were a People) by William Dell, a wife and learned Man, and one who had a large Senfe of the Power of God: And among us Barclay's Apology, and a Treatife by John Gratton, who was a Baptift Preacher, and one by Jofeph Pike: And alfo here is a little Book of Thomas Upfher's (a Baptift Preacher before he came to join with us) which I fend thee, with whom I was well acquainted, as alfo with • thofe Men who fubfcribed it. If thou applies thyfelf to Richard Smith, of Burlington, he is as likely as any I know to help thee to thofe Books, all which are larger on the Subject, and have given Satisfaction to Thousands about it; tho' fome, as I have faid, could never be satisfied with Words. In reading the latter Part of thy Letter, I was tenderly affected, and my Prayers to the Almighty were, that he would pleafe to direct thee by his Power and Spirit, and the Grace of his dear Son, who hath 6 faid, He that cometh unto me, I will in no wife caft off. Now, tender Friend, Chrift is the true Light, that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World, by which Light thou muft walk to the Kingdom and City of God. He is the Door into the true Sheepfold: He is the Truth, in whom thou must believe: He is the divine Life and Light of the Soul: He is the true Chriftian's All in all : And as the Kingdom is within (as faid Chrift) fo the King is alfo within, and without alfo. He is God Omnipotent, Omnifcient, Omniprefent, the immortal Jehovah, and is God over all, bleffed for ever. And as a Servant of his, I recommend thee, with my own Soul, unto him for Prefervation and divine Direction; for it is the great Work of Chrift's true • Minifters and Servants, to direct the feeking, travelling Souls to him; to whom, with the Father, and the eternal Spirit, be Glory, now, and evermore. Amen.From thy affured Friend in Christ.

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T. C.

The Perfon to whom I wrote this Letter, fome Time 1724. after informed me, it gave him great Satisfaction.

kỹ

After I had stay'd at Home fome Time, and pretty well recovered of the Hurt I had by my Fall, I vifited fome Meetings about Home, as Philadelphia, Philadel Abington, and German town. In feveral of those Meet- phia, && ings I was concerned to exhort Friends, as our Meetings and Worship was, in this Province of Penfylvania, a kind of national Worship, to beware that they did not indulge themselves in the Sins of the Nations, but to be careful to keep to the holy, felf-denying Life of Jesus.

On the 5th of the Sixth Month, between the Hours of nine and ten in the Night, there was an Earthquake, which divers People were very fenfible of; and about this Time divers People were taken off with a violent Fever; and I was concerned in feveral Meetings to put the People in mind of their Mortality, and Shortnefs of Time here; and alfo of the Uncertainty of it, and the Neceffity of speedy Preparation for their final Change and future Well-being. In the aforefaid Month I was at our Youths Meeting in Philadelphia, where I was concerned to advise Parents to do juftly to their Children, in the divers Relations of a Child's State; to be juft in Correction, and to be sure to give them Learning, and train them up in Reading of the holy Scriptures, they being able, through Faith in Christ, to make us wife to Salvation. I alfo was earnest in Exhortation to the Youth, to obey and honour their Parents, and to have a Care not to be disobedient to their Fathers and Mothers. I had a Concern alfo to remind that large Congregation, that the Almighty had ftretched out his Arm of Power, with his Rod, and had given the People of this Land three Strokes therewith, as a gentle Admonition towards Heartpreparation, to meet him, and to prepare for their latter End, or final Diffolution: Which was First, A Sickness, or peftilential Fever, which carried off

many

1724 many of the People. Secondly, An Earthquake, of which divers in Town and Country were very fenfible. Thirdly, A terrible Whirlwind, fuch as we never before heard of in this Land, that I remember. They were admonished to take particular and special Notice of thofe gentle Strokes of the divine Hand, for if he pleafed he could as foon take away many by Sickness, as a few, and if he pleafed he could have made us a Defolation, as well as the Country about Mount Etna, or Port-Royal in Jamaica, not very far from us ; and he could alfo blow us away with a Whirlwind of his Wrath, and could as eafily have blown down all our City, as thofe few Houfes in the Country.

Chefter
County.

Fair Hill.

Next Day after this Meeting I went with John Rodman to the Quarterly General-meeting of Worship in the County of Chester, which was large and fatisfactory. The 25th of the Sixth Month I was at the Burial of the Wife of Richard Waln, a virtuous and good Woman. Some of her laft Words were, "Some Mens "Sins go before-hand to Judgment, and fome follow after them; and that her Sins were gone before, which was a great Comfort to her, now fhe was going to leave the World." It was a large Meeting, and a seasonable Opportunity that we had at the Frankfort, Funeral. The People were called upon to work, while it was called. To day, Because, as our Saviour faid, the Night cometh, wherein no Man can work.

In this and the foregoing Year I met with various Trials and Exercifes: As Firft, Great inward Poverty and Want. Secondly, Great Loffes in outward Affairs. And Thirdly, The evil Spirits of divers ftirred up against me, to report Falfhoods concerning me, with many other fore Exercifes both inward and outward. As to the First, I had often been try'd that Way, and found by Experience, that I must wait upon God my Saviour, for fresh and renewed Vifitations from above; in which Exercife, I had always in the Lord's Time, Comfort from him, as by the fame

Exercile