CHAPTER X (8)

At this time there was a great drought; and after this general meeting was ended, there fell so great a rain, that Friends said, they thought we could not travel, the waters would be so risen. But I believed the rain had not extended so far, as they had come that day to the meeting. Next day in the afternoon, when we turned back into some parts of Wales again, the roads were dusty, and no rain had fallen there.

When Oliver Cromwell sent forth a proclamation for a fast throughout the nation, for rain, when there was a very great drought, it was observed, that as far as truth had spread in the north, there were pleasant showers and rain enough, when in the south, in many places, they were almost spoiled for want of rain. At that time I was moved to write an answer to the Protector’s proclamation, wherein I told him, “if he had come to own God’s truth, he should have had rain; and that drought was a sign unto them of their barrenness, and want of the water of life.” About the same time was written the following paper, to distinguish between true and false fasts:—

“To all you that are keeping fasts, who ‘smite with the fist of wickedness, and fast for strife and debate;’ against you hath a voice cried aloud, like a trumpet, that you may come to know the true fast, which is accepted; and the fast, which is in the strife and the debate, and smiting with the fists of wickedness; which fast is not required of the Lord. ‘Behold, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold (mark, take notice), ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast, as ye do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it such a fast, that I have chosen, saith the Lord, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?’

“Consider all you that fast, see, if it be not ‘hanging down the head for a day, like a bulrush;’ and fasting for ‘strife and debate,’ and to ‘smite with the fists of wickedness, to make your voice be heard on high?’ But this fast is not accepted of the Lord: but that which leads you from strife, from debate, from wickedness; which is not to ‘bow down the head, as a bulrush for a day,’ and yet live in exacting and pleasure; this is not accepted of the Lord: but that which separates from all these before-mentioned. That which separates from ‘wickedness, debate, strife, pleasures, smiting with the fist of wickedness,’ brings to know the true fast, which ‘breaks the bonds of iniquity, and deals bread to the hungry; brings the poor that are cast out to his own house, and when he sees any naked, he covers them, and hides not himself from his own flesh.’ Here is the true fast, which separates from them, where the bonds of iniquity are standing, and the heavy burthens of the oppressed remaining, and the yoke not broken; who deal not bread to the hungry, and bring not the poor to their own house; who see the naked, but let him go unclothed, and hide themselves from their own flesh. Yet such will make their voice to be heard on high, as Christ speaks of the Pharisees, who ‘sounded a trumpet before them, and disfigured their faces,’ to appear to men to fast; but the bonds of iniquity were standing, strife and debate were standing, striking with the fists of wickedness standing; these made their voice heard on high, who had their reward.

“But that which brings to the true fast, which appears not to men to fast, but unto the Father ‘who seeth in secret; the Father that seeth in secret, shall reward this openly.’ This fast separates from the Pharisees’ fast, and them that bow the head for a day, like a bulrush. This is it which brings ‘to deal bread to the hungry, and clothe thine own flesh when thou seest them naked; to bring the poor to thine house, and to loose the bonds of wickedness;’ mark, this is the fast; and ‘to undo every heavy burthen (mark again), and to let the oppressed go free;’ this is the fast: and ‘to break every yoke.’ When thou observest this fast, ‘then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rere-ward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am: if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light arise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day.’ The light brings to know this fast; and walking in it this fast is kept; and he that believeth in the light, abides not in darkness. And again; ‘the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not,’ Isa. lviii. 11. These are they that are guided by the light which comes from Christ, where the springs are.

“And again; ‘they that shall be of thee (that keep this fast,) shall build the old waste places, and thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of the paths to dwell in,’ Isa. lviii. 12. Now that which gives to see the foundations of many generations, is the light which separates from all, which is out of the light: and they that go out of the light, though they may pretend a fast, and bow down the head for a time, yet they are far from this fast, that doth raise up the foundations of many generations, and is the repairer of the breach, and restorer of the paths to dwell in. That which doth give to see these foundations of many generations, and these breaches that are to be repaired and restored, and paths to dwell in, is the light which brings to know the true fast; and where this fast is known, which is from wickedness, debate, strife, pleasures, from exacting, from the voice that is heard on high, from the speaking of vanity, from the bonds of iniquity, which breaks every yoke, and lets the oppressed go free; here the health grows; here the morning is known, and righteousness goes forth; the glory of the Lord is the rere-ward, and the light riseth; the soul is drawn out to the hungry, and satisfies the afflicted soul; and the springs of living water are known and felt. The waters fail not here; the Lord guides continually, and the foundations of many generations come to be seen and raised up: The repairer of breaches is here witnessed, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

“But all such as are out of the light which the prophets were in, with which they saw Christ, and such as are in fasts, where was strife, wickedness, debate, and bowing down the head like a bulrush for a day, lifting their voice on high, and the bonds of wickedness yet standing, and the burthens unloosed, and the oppressed not let go free, and the yoke not broken, the nakedness not clothed, the bread not dealt to the hungry, and these foundations of many generations not raised up; until these things before-mentioned, be broken down,—on such the light breaks not forth as the morning, and the Lord hears them not. Such have their reward; their iniquities have separated them from their God, their sins have hid his face from them, that he will not hear: their hands are defiled with blood, and their fingers with iniquity, whose lips have spoken lies, and tongues muttered perverseness. ‘None calleth for justice, nor do any plead for truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice-eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs, dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper: their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works.’ Observe; ‘their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands: their feet run to do evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths; the way of peace they know not, and there is no judgment in their doings. They have made them a crooked path; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace:’ mark; such go from the light, therefore is judgment far off; neither doth justice overtake. Here is obscurity, walking in darkness; groping like blind men, as though they had no eyes, and stumbling at noon-day in desolate places, like blind men. Here is the roaring like bears, and mourning sorely like doves; here judgment is looked for, but there is none, and salvation is put far off: for the light is denied, which gives to see it. But here are the multiplying of transgression, and their sins testifying against them; the transgression that was within them, and their iniquities, which they knew in transgressing and lying against the Lord, speaking the things they should not, when they knew by that of God in them, that they should not speak it. So departing from the way of God, speaking oppression, revolting, conceiving and uttering forth from the heart words of falsehood; here judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off; truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him. These are such as are in the fast, which God doth not accept; not in the true fast, whose ‘light breaks forth as the morning:’ but these are such as are in the false fast, who grope, like blind men.

“That which gives to know the true fast, and the false fast, is the Light, which gives the eye to see each fast, where the true judgment is, and the iniquity standeth not, nor the transgressor, nor the speaker of lies; but that is judged and condemned with the Light, which makes it manifest. And when they who are in this fast call upon the Lord, the Lord will answer them, Here am I. Here truth is pleaded for, and falsehood flies away.

“But they who are out of this fast, in the perverseness, whose tongues utter perverse things, who are stumbling and groping like blind men, out of the light, in the iniquity which separates from God, who hides his face from them that he will not hear;—these going from the light, go from the Lord and his face. So this is it which must be fasted from; for it separates from God; and here comes the reward openly, which condemns all that is contrary to the light; injustice, iniquity, transgression, vanity, and that which bringeth forth mischief, which hatcheth the cockatrice-eggs, and weaves the spider’s web: he that eateth of these eggs dies. Mark, ‘that which is crushed breaks out into a viper;’ mark again, ‘their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works of vanity; acts of violence are in their hands.’ This is all out of the light, in the wickedness. ‘Their feet run to do evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of vanity; wasting and destruction are in their path.’ This is all far from the light. Again, ‘the way of peace they know not, there is no judgment in their goings; they have made them crooked paths, whosoever go therein, shall not know peace.’peace.’ Mark; who go in their way, that know not the way of peace, shall they know peace? ‘Whose path is crooked, where there is no judgment in their goings;’ take notice, ‘no judgment in their goings;’ this is all from the light, which manifesteth that which is to be judged; where the covenant of peace is known, where all that which is contrary to it is kept out. All who live in those things contrary to the light, in the false fast, stumbling and groping like blind men, may mark their path, and behold their reward. They that are in the true fast, are separated from all these; from their words and actions, their fruits, and their fast: but of those whose fast breaks the bonds of iniquity, whom the Lord hears, and to whom righteousness springs forth, and goes before them, the glory of the Lord is the rere-ward.”