To the afore-said Letter, John Wilkinson returned this ensuing Answer.
George Fox;
I Received thy Lines, in which thou say'st, This is the Word of the Lord to you, John Wilkinson and John Story, and your Company, to call in all your Papers, which you have given forth in your Separation, &c. I judge, thou meanest not, that that is a Separation, that all Friends meet not Outwardly together. Truly, George, we might have expected, thou would have told us in Love, what the Separation thou speakest of consisted in; whether we are separated from the Light within, the Doctrine of Truth; or have builded again that which we have once destroyed; or what we have left undone, that God’s Truth in our hearts requires of us; and what Papers we have given forth against the Light Within: When the Word through thee, concerning this Matter, enters our hearts, and give Light to us that the Light of Truth manifests us guilty of a Separation from God’s Truth, and Giving out Papers against it; we shall readily confess it, and Repent. But till we know it, the Word of the Lord, that is as a Hammer, and thy Prophesies be to them, who are in the Separation, and in Strife {Fourth Part 43} causing Divisions, viz. with Articles of Accusations, disquieting Friends Minds with a New Form, and Way of Proceeding, carried on with a Profession of Church-Authority, and great Help; which indeed, was seldom wanted in a Separation from Truth, when the Apostasy entred. And truly, there is a great Cause of Jealousie, what will be the End of these Things. Thou shouldst have told us, what new Things we have brought in, as bad as the old Opposers, James Naylor, and his Company, and John Perot, and Pennyman, &c. before thou hadst told us, The Lord God would blast your spirit and Work. And if Jame’s Naylor’s Opposition consisted in Not Reproving his Company, when they bowed to him, and cryed Hosanna, let it be a Warning to thee, and Reprove thy Company when they give thee the Titles and Honour due to the Highest; lest they that love Preheminance and Rule out-live thy Time, and render thy Weakness to others, as thou has done his, when thou are Dead, and in the grave, turned to Dust. Therefore, be Humble, as a Member of the Heavenly Body, under Christ the Head, who Ruleth in his Church and People, whose Right it is. And remember the word to Moses, with the time and place of his Death, who sanctified not God in the sight of Israel his people. Oh! well may Friends be called Apostates in their Day, and be First of Men when they are Dead, whose Condemnations are left on record by others to Posterity, in the Churches Books; seeing James Naylor by thee is called an Old Opposer, who confest his Weakness, Repented and Dyed in Truth, and Peace with God: But, George, we might have been perswaded that thy Counsel, and Advice thou gavest to the Churches in writing, is greatly abused; and we cannot Judge, how thou couldst intend Force, or such a way of proceeding with Friends about them. {Fourth Part 44} That which I see at present tending to Unity is, for thee to Manifest, what thou intendedst by them if thou intendeth no force with them (which thou couldst not do in Truth; for that would let thee see Divisions would be the effect of them) then manifest the Abuse they have done to thee, and thy Counsel to Friends, by their proceedings about them, that we may know that thou art the same in Principle, in Doctrine, and Practice, as in the beginning (when thy Testimony was recommended to the Witness of God in all Consciences) that thou mayst clear thy self, that thou approveth of no Force about Religion but the Force and Effect of the Word delivered; that the encrease may be of God, and we all, unto whom Gods Love hath been large, may have Unity in Truth, as in the Beginning.
The 9_th M_th 76.
From thy Friend,
John Wilkinson.
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