The LETTER SENT BY Robert rich TO WILLIAM BAYLY and MARY FISHER, called his Wife; AND To the rest of the QUAKERS HEARERS and FOLLOWERS.  
LONDON, Printed for Richard Lowndes at the White-Lyon in Duck-Lane. MDCLXIX.   

To William Bayly and Mary Fisher, called thy Wife, and to the rest of your Hearers and Followers, that so much judged and condemned Robert rich, in your general Assembly held June 4. 1668.  
HErewith I present you the Receipt given under the hand of John Bolton, Amos Stoddard and Gerard Roberts, for the 30 l. received by them, which Receipt is expressed in these words, viz. Received the 9th of the eleventh Month called January, 1667. of John reins of London, the Sum of 30 l. by the order and appointment of Robert rich of Barbadoes signior, which he ordered to be disposed to the Poor amongst Us. We say received by us John Bolton, Amos Stoddard, Gerard Roberts. that thou William Bayly mayst see and remember with what boldness and confidence you did defend a most notorious and evident falsehood, affirming, with others, in the face of a great Congregation, That the money was not received by you, nor any others, whom you owned for Quakers, for that they all denied both me and my gift; notwithstanding I  told thee the names of those persons that received the money, whom thou ownest for good friends, yet still thou didst aver, that thou wert sure that they never received any money, as from me to distribute amongst them, and if I had any such Receipt, it was counterfeit and forged; adding, that thou hadst spoken with those friends since my Letter was out in print, a little before thou leftest England, and wert sure( as thou saidst) that they had not received it, neither would; and yet it doth appear, by the Receipt, to be received the 9th of January, which was more then two Months before; which confident assertion of thine, was also seconded with this solemn declaration, viz. That thou wouldst disown all such, whosoever they were, that should receive from me, to such an end; forasmuch as long since I had been denied amongst you. But what evil have I done in this thing? For were it not much more reasonable, that they whom thou judgest should witness against thee, and disown thee, as an enemy to Innocency, to Charity, and to the Poor amongst you; to see what Spirit acts thee herein, and first learn to judge thyself before thou condemnest the Innocent. Now as touching the gift itself, although thy Wife did much reproach me, saying, That I had blown a Trumpet, in that I had printed my Letter, and had therein called Gyles Calvert's Wife Whore; and also Thomas Rouse the elder, said, he had known me do many mad acts, yet none so foolish as this, to give away so much money so vainly, &c. and divers others of your Proselytes with the like or worse imputations; which made me to cry out, saying, That many good Works I had done-amongst you, for which of them was it that you did ston me. Yet all this I leave to the witness of God, to judge between you and me in these matters. And though ignorance may have so far blinded your judgments, as to mistake my Charity, yet why your rash presumption or enmity should led you so far, as to make Lies your refuge, I know no reason, unless because the Spirit of Truth is departed from you, and an evil Spirit from the Lord is come upon you. And as touching the Receipt of the money, by these persons, it is verily believed by many of your own people, to whom I have shewed the Receipt, that the money is received by them, and the Receipt true and honest; which makes me to wonder what ground Thomas Hart had to say, he did believe the money was received by friends, as he called them but also believed that they were surprised therein; and how they came to be trapped into so great a snare, as to give their signal to a forgery, as thou saist, I cannot imagine, but of this I am most certain, that it hath discovered a great deal of deceit and falsehood, yea a bitter lying and persecuting Spirit to inhabit your Tents; which Ba●ylonish Garment hath been long seen to lye hide amongst your Tribe called the Ministry, the Teachers and Leaders of the Quakers, even such spiritual wickedness, which if practised amongst the Presbyterians, Independents, or others whom you disown, and can see nothing good and acceptable in them, they would abhor themselves therein; which you, as with a whores forehead, boldly maintain and defend; and the day is at hand, even at your very door, which win discover, preach and reveal, as on the house top, many and great abominations which yet lye hide amongst you, that so you may be judged according to your works done; in which all your smooth and gilded words of Light and Love will not hid you, neither yet your flourishing Profession and high esteem you have of yourselves, and the low esteem you have of others, will not cover you from being seen the golden head of that Image whereof others are the iron, led, and day, yea, the very name in which you have Prophesied and Prayed, when innocent, and in which you have cast out Divels and wrought wonders, shall now reject you, saying, Depart from me, &c. Indeed I have long since seen abomination that maketh desolate, stand amongst the Quakers, ever since that time that G. F. did judge J. N. and invited his friends so to do, without showing the least ground or reason of his censure, even as thou thy-self hast lately done in a printed paper against J. P. Wherefore hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and People of Gomo●rah, 'tis this Spirit that hath encompassed your Jerusalem about as with Armies, and is now in bondage with her children, by which we know that the destruction thereof draweth nigh. Finally, 'tis this Spirit of Wickedness in the form of Righteousness that hath already torn the crown from off your heads, and discovered your secret parts, so that the scab of Contention and Strife is seen, which will never leave nor cease to divide you, till the name Quakers become a hiss and a scorn amongst the Nations; and you shall leave your name for a Curse unto my Chosen, saith the Lord God everlasting, who will slay thee and call his Servants by another name, it may be by Hallel●jahs which ye have so much defamed; and you that for the vast numbers of your Tribes, have seemed to magnify yourselves in your increase of Children, Woe be to you that give suck; for, behold, in one day loss of Children and Widowhood shall come upon you, yea, a voice as in that of Ramah shall be heard amongst you, Lamenting your Children because they are not. So I am clear from the blood of all men, in that I have not ceased, both by words and writing, to forewarn of the coming in or this Antichrist among the Quakers, who for more than ten years past have been that poor Ass speaking as with mans voice, reproving and withstanding the madness of this lying, wrathful bitter persecuting Spirit, as knowing right well when it entered; and you thereby come to reject the Lord, that he should not reign over you, but choose to yourselves a King, like other Sects and Nations, to judge and rule you, who was not the Unction, nor Anointed of the Lord, nor the Olive, Fig, nor Vine; that could rejoice, heal, nor bind you; but the Bramble, who is the King of the bottonles Pit, who shall so rend, tare, and devour, till one ston be not left upon another; which thing tell G. F. that F. your King. Alas! what are all your smooth words of Light, Love and Truth, whilst the spirit of falsehood, Envy, Bitterness is found in your Paths and-Practices? For what is it to speak with the tongue of Men and Angels, to have the gift of prophesy, and to open all Mysteries, to have all Faith that would remove Mountains; and yet have no Love or Charity? What will all this avail you? Are you better herein than Balam was? I tell you nay, for he knew as much as you do; nay more, for he knew not only the difference between the two Seeds of God, the beginning, progress, and end of it, yea and more he owned it, and would speak nothing but Truth, and what the Lord put into his mouth that only would he say; but ye utter Lies and falsehood with great confidence, even what the devil suggesteth: Thus having left your first Love, and having forsaken the Faith once delivered to the Saints, you are now like that evil Spirit cast out, running too and fro, walking through the dry places of your Elders Tradition, the footsteps of Amaleck, the first of the Nations, those whom ye call good old friends, seeking rest; but ye shall never find it so long as that Balack and Balam, that bitter Spirit, leads to Curse those whom God will surely Bless, and bring it over you; for ye must fall with Haman and Herod, be ensnared and taken in the same Pit of cruel deceit which you have digged for your innocent Brethren, and herein for sometime will the Faith and Patience of the Saints be exercised. You greatly cry out and call upon others to fear and dread the Lord, yet you yourselves are ignorant of that Lesson, that ye blindly run on to judge the Innocent and condemn the Truth; yea to smite the Apple of Gods Eye, and irreverently reach at the Signet on his Right-Hand, speaking evil of the things ye know not, which doth sufficiently demonstrate that ye are out of the pure Fear, that keepeth the heart clean and clear from these abominations: For my part, although my spirit is oftentimes seized with a powful, sweet, and aweful enjoyment of Gods presence, yet I am not afraid of him, for I have not received again the spirit of Bondage to fear, as when I was one of you, but the spirit of Peace and Love; in which I receive him as a Father, rejoicing at his reproaches, and do not fear him as an enemy that would take an advantage against me; I do well know the difference between the Seed of the Serpent and the free Leadings of Grace, as what it is to act towards God, for fear of his Wrath, Plagues and Judgements, which thou threatenest my death-bed withal; and what it is to do the Will of my Father, as my Meat and Drink; and long since I have known the difference between the first and second Covenant, betwixt those that think they can keep themselves in the Light and Love of God, as Peter did presume, but fell notoriously, and those that feel the Lord their Shepherd, and depend upon him for their daily sustenance, who rightly see their own weakness, and deny themselves as not being able to watch one hour, neither preserve themselves one minute in the love and favour of God, these being born again of the innocent seed and Love, and that abiding in them preserveth them from sin, and falling away; also I have known a dispensation which indeed is glorious; but there is a state of justification, which exceeds in glory: Under the former is comprehended Mount Sinai, at the foot of which I have seen the Quakers and their Leaders, standing with Moses and Israel, after the flesh, filled with fear and trembling from the presence of the Lord; which was a glorious administration: But the latter shows forth Mount Zion with its Inhabitants, even the whole number of the 14000, those faithful chosen and sealed Ones, who stand before the Lord in his presence rejoicing, and without fear singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb, who witness full redemption by his Blood, Life and Spirit, out of Kindreds, Nations, Tongues and People, Children that cannot lie, neither falsely accuse and persecute the Innocent; in the first the Heirs differ nothing from Servants, though Lord of all, whilst they lye under the hard impositions of Tutors and Governours, such as thou thyself art, which enjoin to dread and fear the Lord, to watch and keep to the Light, a life which yourselves are out of, which made you so angry with me for saying the Lord was my Shepherd and Keeper. You are those that bind heavy burdens upon others, which in the least you will not bear yourselves; nor will you yet deny yourselves, that ye may enter the Kingdom of Grace, neither will you suffer others that would to enter, who are poor and naked, hungry and thirsty, without money or desert; but the second Covenant speaketh otherwise, being established upon better promises, and having a more sure foundation than mans self-righteousness, to wit, the eternal word of Faith and Love  shed abroad in our hearts, the seal of our Sonship, having Christ Jesus in us, our joy, our crown and glory, even that full assurance of that perfect Love which casteth out fear, and those that are here will need no other tutor and teacher save Love only, and have past from the voice of the Trumpet and sound of words under which ye are held, whether that of the letters teaching, or that of mans preaching; Let Sinai therefore quake, and the Earth be moved; let the Mountains melt at his presence, yet we will not fear, for God is in the midst of us, as a King and a mighty man of arms, that teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to fight, the terror of whose presence is our consolation; let the hypocrites in Sion fear and be afraid, we are not come to the Mountain that might not be touched, where horror, fear, and trembling is felt, but to the Mountain of Gods Love and free Grace, the New Jerusalem and City of joy, peace, and rest, whose Walls are Salvation, and whose Gates are made of Praises and Hallelujahs, yea to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; this I see clearly to be a state, a dispensation, a kingdom yet to come with thee, and with many who are so hotly contending about the body of Moses, striving about some carnal fleshly appearance, some bodily exercise or outward observation which profiteth not; and whilst you are busied about these things, the veil is still over your hearts, and the great and weighty matters of the Law neglected; so that the power of Love that leads into unity and amity with God, in that which is good in all his Creations ye are strangers unto; and all your Worship and Service, all your Holiness, Knowledge and Righteousness, being voided of Charity, what is it worth whilst your hands are so full of the blood of your innocent Brethren? It is no better than cutting off of a dogs neck, or the slaying of a man. By all this that hath been said, it is evident in what state you at present stand, and that there is much more attainable, which as yet you are ignorant of; for there are three states or stages by which God doth led his people into rest and peace, besides the state of the Heathen that know not God, notwithstanding he is in them, lives, moves, and is their Being; to wit, Sinai and the Law, Golgotha and the across, Jerusalem and the Crown; in the first you have been and are still exercised, under dread and horror, being bound to strict observations, thereby working out your Salvation with fear and trembling, all which the Son of man fulfilled in the daies of his flesh, being born under the Law, and having learned obedience by the things he suffered; and here you stand with him to your fleshly testimony; the seco●● is a state of death, which as yet you know little of, not having learned to to deny and condemn yourselves, nor yet to cease from all your own works as he did from his, red Mark 10. and 17. John 5. and 30. Heb. 5.1, 2. to be crucified with Christ and to die with the Lord; not only to put off the body of sin, and to account your own righteousness as filthy and menstruous, but even the innocency and righteousness of the Son, a Seed of the Promise must be nailed to the across and offered up; which middle state may be truly called Purgatory or Limbo Patrum, through which all that attain blessedness must needs pass, that so they may receive the better resurrection, red Gen. 22, 16. this death or purgation but few witness among you, who while you exalt yourselves in your carnal privileges, and the blamelessness of your legal righteousness, cannot resign unto death, and count all your righteousness as loss and dung in comparison of free Grace, and the leading thereof, neither have I seen many besides J. N. J. P. who by their fellowship with Christ in his death, have denied and made themselves of no reputation, that so they might have their part in the best resurrection, being freed from all that shameful reproach wherein you have buried them, in their obedience to the Father of Spirits, to which he will give such a name, mark, better than that of Sons and Daughters: The third and most glorious state is to be risen with Christ, and to sit down in the New Jerusalem, in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, which is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, a new Heaven which remains when the old passeth away, a fixed and sure habitation whose Inhabitants are ever singing praises, and drinking new wine in the Fathers Kingdom, the heirs and injoyers whereof ye are most bitter enemies to, calling them Ranters, Winebibbers and gluttonous persons, where all things are passed away, yea the Elders Traditions, &c. and all things are beautyfied with Spirits, Light and Leading, and nothing represented in the oldness of the letter, nor do such follow old good friends, as ye call them, but the Light only, where all tears are wiped away from our eyes, we shut not our gates at all by day, fearing no surprisal, nor have we any night as the Prophets had, for the Lord God is risen in us as a shield and a Sun that no more goeth down, for Christ being once dead and risen again dies no more, but leads captivity captive, by giving up all to the free Grace of the Father, where Death and Hell is swallowed up in Victory, that God the eternal Principle of Love may be all in all; go and learn what this meaneth. Had you been baptized with the Love that thinks no ill, you would not have so much condemned me for an innocent word, for calling one of my friends by way of falute Raschal, at which he took no offence, and why should eyes be evil in this thing, it being a word I use to sucking Children, and am not convinced of the least evil therein; may not all men now see you that evil Generation that makes a man an offender for a word, and when you had for a long time judged and condemned me as one guilty of all manner of evil in general, yet proving no one in particular; accusing me indeed as a proud person, a wine-bibber, a friend of public sinners, wherein the witness of God did not condemn me, and therefore said, that it was a small matter for me to be condemned by man in those things wherein I was justified by God; thus you having called the good man of the house, or the Leadings of the Spirit, beelzeebub, it matters not what you call them of his household; which made me cry out amongst you all, saying, Judge yourselves, who so easily can see and spy a more in anothers eye, but not the beam in your own; this counsel ye also rejected, crying out against it as a deceit and a lie, which so came to pass that the Scriptures might be fulfilled upon you, which saith, The time shall come that they will not endure sound Doctrine. And, why were you so angry with me, for saying Man doth not live by words only, but by the words of Grace and Love  shed abroad in our hearts, the bread of Life which sustains the Soul in peace and rest; this also ye called deceit, and denied my voice therein; after all which I called you Friends, at which likewise you were exceeding wrath, crying out against me saying I lied, and asked me, how I could call you Friends? to which I answered, That in truth I had unity with those that could love their enemies, as with him that called Judas Friend; thus I having returned you those things as your own money into your own sacks, that so you may see and know what manner of Spirit it is that leads you herein; and till I hear of thy, and your public repentance, as you have publicly appeared against the Truth and innocent defenders thereof, I shall esteem you no better than Judas, or Infidels and Heathens, who have denied the Truth and Faith once delivered to the Saints, which to maintain, some have hazarded the loss of all things, and suffered great shane and reproach amongst you; but, blessed be God, that which ye indeed intended for evil, that hath the Lord my God turned for good, for which my soul doth bless and magnify his Name, whilst I am, and when I am no more,  
Robert rich.  
For 

G. F.  
J. N.  
J. P.   red 

George Fox.  
James Nailor.  
John Parrot.     

POSTCRIPT.  
I Am  told by some of your People, to whom I have shewed the Receipt, that the 30 l. was received by you from me, but it is again returned; thou saidst it was never received at all, others say, if it be not returned, it shall be: Thus is Babel built amongst you, and the City of Quakers become Confusion. For my part, if it be not received, kept, and distributed amongst the poor of your People, by the same Spirit of Loving-Kindness I gave it, and that you think good to return it, I shall not refnse to receive it again, and not doubt of finding those more worthy than yourselves, though in the High-ways and Hedges, scracht, torn, and cast out by you, that will receive the same, and not reproachfully despise me for my love, as you have done.  
R. R.  
FINIS.