This work brings back into circulation a Quaker text that has not been published since its origination in London in 1658. Sarah Blackborow wrote as part of a flood of women writers seeking—possibly for the first time in recorded history—to enact social change through writing and civil disobedience. Included is an annotated transcription of the text from a PDF facimile of the manuscript, and an introduction to Sarah Blackborow, her writing and the culture in which she lived. The original resides in the British Library, accessed through ProQuest's Early English Books Online.

It is my hope that this edition represents a significant, if small, contribution to scholarship in the field of English language and literature. I have designed it for publication on the World Wide Web, and engineered it to print according to Modern Language Association style. By publishing in this medium, I may assist other scholars in finding this information and incorporating it into their research.

This page can currently be found at http://faculty-staffpages.alma.edu/~cannon/undergrad/sb/.

A Visit to the Spirit in Prison: Resurrecting Sarah Blackborow

Ryan Cannon
14 December 2004

This work is, as far as my research can attest, the first edition of Sarah Blackborow's A Visit to the Spirit in Prison since its initial publication on or around 10 June 1658. Blackborow, or Saraah Blackborow, as her name appears on A Visit to the Spirit in Prison, has garnered passing mention in writing on religious history and literary circles. Biographical data remains sparse; yet a formal reading of the text, combined with explication from historical detail may resurrect the lost Sarah Blackborow.

By creating this edition I am not advocating Sarah Blackborow be enshrined in the canon of great contributors to English literature. As a piece of writing, A Visit to the Spirit in Prison could not stand with the great writers of its time in beauty, content or complexity, and has many peers packed into forgotten shelves of the British Museum Library. Instead, Blackborow's essay and her personal history illuminate a forgotten corner of literary history increasingly being uncovered by projects such as the Women Writers project and facilitated by the enhanced searchablility of electronic resources such as Early English Books Online1.

Many of the women writers of this period have received very little individual attention, earning instead mention in sweeping analyses of common themes, their writing congealed into a comprehensible picture of social and religious history. These writers' differences, and not their similarities, we may begin to understand the people behind the history. While Blackborow's writing may be only one of hundreds of unstudied manuscripts from this period, it contains great utility for a larger understanding of the time period. By examining its nuances and profundities, the scholarly community can gain an intimate understanding of one wave in a great tide of work and generate a more keen understanding of the humanity behind a collection of assorted footnotes.

Blackborow is also a fairly significant figure in the history of women's writing not because of who she was, but in who she was not, and whom she was like. Although I do not question her chastity, she was by no means silent and obedient. Blackborow, and possibly hundreds of women like her, began to find their voices in a time when small precedence existed for women to take up the pen, or indeed become important agents in any social movement. While women of the court, such as Lady Mary Wroth and Anne Locke, had been published centuries earlier, the mid-seventeenth century saw the rise of a middle-class group of women writers. Of this new generation, I assert that Sarah Blackborow establishes herself as a paragon, through both her personal leadership and ability as a writer.

Blackborow engages in the pamphlet warfare described by Nigel Smith during the interregnum. Smith places writers as central agents for social and political change2, and, by extension, so was the new breed of women writers. The fifteen-page A Visit to the Spirit in Prison was printed in London in 1658 and probably distributed amongst London Quakers and probably (somewhat unwillingly) to local preachers. Quite active for a short time, between 1658 And 1663 Blackborow published the following five tracts3;

• Herein is held forth the gift. 1659, B3063.
• The just and equal balance discovered. 1660, B3064.
• The oppressed prisoners complaint. 1662, B3064A.
• A visit to the spirit in prison. 1658, B3065.
• “Dear friends.” Part of Richard Hubberthorne, A collection. 1663, H3216.

She also appears in the preface to a tract by the Quaker leader James Naylor4. Blackborow rages against what she sees as greed and hypocrisy amongst preachers collecting tithes. She also claims to be personally directed by God, and attempts to convince her reader to embrace Christ.

London in the 1650s

Blackborow lived and wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century. A Visit to the Spirit in Prison, her first work, appears in 1658. She would publish almost once every year until her death in 1665. London at this time was immersed in political and religious upheaval. At the same time, the sudden availability of the printing presses allowed many writers from all walks of life to find a voice, and to be able to spread their message to others. Women also found themselves with heretofore-unknown power. Indeed, in small, radical religious groups, able-bodied and -minded women garnered some of the organizational leadership previously denied them in other movements, and Quakerism was no different.

An egalitarian movement

The Quakers, with whom Blackborow aligned, were one of many religious groups rebelling against the control of epistocratic rule under Cromwell. Barry Reay describes the Quakers as a linking of advanced Protestant separatists into a loose kind of church fellowship with a coherent ideology and a developing code of ethics (9). Unlike many of the smaller religious sects, emerging at the time, Quakerism exploded into England during the 1650s. From 1653-7, Quakers published 500 tracts and published that number again between 1658-60, and after only a decade of existence were as numerous as Catholics, more numerous than either Fifth Monarchists or Baptists (Reay 11).

Quakers railed against the corruption they saw within churches. They opposed the charging of tithes to the church and the imprisonment of those who did not pay. They gathered donations to help assist the poor and the imprisoned. They crusaded for social and institutional reform concerning worship and religious teaching. Quakers often targeted Presbyterian and Independent churches for hypocrisy in their teachings.

Quakers were also a passionate and exuberant group, and their name derives from the tendency to shudder or quake while listening to sermons (Reay 35). At times, their conviction that individuals could achieve perfect sinlessness led some practitioners to extended abstinence, fasting, and even self-mutilation in the name of God. The Quakers brought this extremism to their preaching and writing as well.

A favorite Quaker tactic was to interrupt services, standing and witnessing to the congregation, arguing or castigating the preacher. This civil disobedience often landed them in prison, and many of their tracts were written from prison (Barbour 139). Their manner in these demonstrations was so extreme that, as Ludlow observes, As special objects of Quaker verbal abuse, Presbyterian and Independent ministers sometimes lost all self-control, and flinging Christian charity aside, flew at the Quaker gadflies with fists and feet, and occasionally with cudgels and staves (273-4). Quakers, and Blackborow in particular, also channeled this angst into words.

Although the highest leaders were men, the Quaker movement was largely egalitarian in terms of gender. Both women and men met to raise funds, published tracts and performed the necessary civil disobedience. Reay notes that between 1654 and 1659 women comprised thirty-four percent of the Quakers persecuted for disrupting ministers (26). Quakers refused to accept the power structures implicit in British society. Women taking power, causing distruptions preaching and writing may have further strengthened the Quaker cause due to the shocking reversal of the female role5.

Not always militant and aggressive, much Quaker work involved supporting the poor and imprisoned. Women often ministered to prisoners, wrote persuasive tracts and helped raise money. It is in this vein that Sarah Blackborow took a pivotal role in utilizing women to assist the Quaker cause.

Preacher and prophetess

Sarah Blackborow has remained fairly obscure in history, earning only a footnote's mention in most texts about the seventeenth century. She has appeared under at least three similar names: Blackborrow, Blackbury, Blackberry, and Blackbourne. While several scholars recognize multiple surnames attributed to the same woman, they do not assign any meaning to the phenomenon. The surname Blackborow appears in all of her published writing, and no manuscripts have surfaced bylined Blackbury or Blackbourne in the same time period (Mack 416). William Crouch remembers Sarah Blackberry as one of the first to bear witness to the truth now made known (85). Citations about Blackborow, however, are largely derived from George Fox's Great Journal, the earliest version transcribed by Thomas Ellwood in 1693, which was revised by the Quaker community at a general meeting and re-published in 1694. Quaker historian William C. Braithwaite relied upon a 1911 Cambridge edition of the revised text. He notes that he has changed the spelling of Blackborow's name in Fox's text to reflect the later revision. Presumably Fox originally wrote Blackbourne in his journals, which the Quaker community revised to Blackbury. Mack, Ludlow, and Bonnelynn Young Kunze work from Braithwaite and/or texts relying on the Cambridge edition. Auguste Jorns refers to her as Blackbourne from the Ellwood text, and Ludlow seems to have arbitrarily added a second ‘r’ to Blackborow6. Out of respect for the author's manuscript, I have chosen to retain her self-described original spelling.

Although details vary, Mack, Jorns, and Hugh Barbour agree that Blackborow helped arrange regular meetings of women to help provide for poor and persecuted Friends7. Blackborow's women's groups became a country-wide network of Quaker women, responsible for circulating a petition which received thousands of signatures. Fox describes this process:

And when I came to Ger. Roberts' house, about eight in the morning, there came in Sarah Blackbury to complain to me of the poor, and how many poor Friends were in want; and the Lord had showed me, what I should do, in his eternal power and wisdom. So I spoke to her to bid about sixty women to meet me about the first hour in the afternoon, at the Sign of Helmet, at a Friend's house: And they did do accordingly, such as were sensible women of the Lord's truth, and fearing God8. (147-8)

Blackborow gathered sixty women in a few hours, creating a group of formidable social power, and by so doing established herself as a female leader during the Quaker movement.

Blackborow's Style

A Visit to the Spirit in Prison follows a very cogent structure, which illustrates Blackborow's ability as writer. Her focus begins quite narrow: you, who own your selves to be ministers and teachers of the people who preach for hire, and persecute, and throw into prison if you have it not (2) and broadens to the same people, who yet do forbear to cast into prison (4). She then interludes with a personal witness, lending her authority to offer God to the general audience in the next section. In her efforts to convert unbelievers, she he transforms her argument into a warning to believers who write, express their ideas through God, before addressing again a general reader advocating his or her union with Christ.

In first section, she castigates the practice of imprisoning those who refuse to pay tithes. Her tone is angry and sharp, asking, how have you made your selves … Divine for money and preach for reward, and seek for your gain from you quarters, and prepare war if they put not into your mouthes? (3-4). She insists that they blush, and when she says they serve another master demands they go learn what this means (4). The Blackborow, these ministers represent the reprehensible; she, in the light of the Lord stands witnesse against what she considers the false Prophet (4).

By broadening her attack to ministers who collect tithes but do not imprison recalcitrant members of the congregation, Blackborow moves to the less obvious problems she sees in churches. She labels these preachers greedy, stating that they are guided by one spirit and tis your own (4). She challenges these preachers for not allowing any children of the Lord … to come into your Steeple-houses to ask you a question, or to declare what they can witnesse (4-5). Here she sets the Quaker practice of disrupting services as a normal, acceptable event, consciously understating this practice, which by her own admission, generates chaos within the church. This section also demonstrates Blackborow's matronly character that Mack alludes to: she is firm but loving, addressing the section From a lover of your souls but a Witnesse against your deceits. While speaking to an adversarial audience, Blackborow uses this section to align herself with the Quaker beliefs and defending specific Quaker practices and plights.

Having stated her main argument, Blackborow must now establish herself as credible to write about God's word and will. In order to do this, she makes a thematic break to italicized text, and describes her background as a preacher and prophet. Her diction here provides very specific keywords that establish her authority. She first describes thirsting after (5) the Lord, demonstrating preparedness and conscious acceptance of Gods message. When God does speak to her, He checks her—she does not establish herself as superior or perfect. Similarly, she admits to God's mystery, saying she did not know in the least which nature it stood in (5). She then accepts God's word and He reveals to her that He has always been working within her, and this is the course to which she is destined. Now, as a witness directly from God, she has authority to speak regarding practice and worship.

She begins her evangelizing with those like her—with those who thirst after your beloved (6). This message is meant for those Quakers who may be afraid to be publicly active, or who feel God's pull without acting on it. Like the beginning of her essay, she keeps a narrow focus at first, ever broadening her reach as she continues.

The following section is by far the longest, and presents the reader with a solid wall of words. Blackborow here addresses the general population, those fairly neutral in her eyes. Ever playing the mother, Blackborow engages in a constant, circular method—attacking, and then offering a positive alternative in Jesus. She begins this cycle with questions, asking how can you strive against God? Hath and done so and prospered? Then directly attacking: Oh the indignation of the Lord its hot and terrible, all the while not distancing herself from the reader, continuing I have felt it and therefore I am in sorrow for all you who are laying up fuel for it (8). Her message continually alternates between condemnations of the unbeliever's current path, explanations of the anger and terrors that await them, and then reinstates the positive. She encourages her reading, stating [your acts] is which keeps you from your Teacher within you (7b). By framing her argument in this light, she does not separate the goodness of God from her reader, persuading them that they have the potential for glory and are merely deluded.

Blackborow alters her tone as she broadens her message to those more hostile to God. To these people who are boasting in other mens lines above the cross she speaks much more gently, as she understands it is easier to turn away those who already believe you are wrong. In this short section, she insists they are deceived, and holds that judgment awaits them, compassionately inviting them to come down to the Witness, that you may see what is good and what is evil (10). She considers this group as ignorant that their actions are wrong.

Her next paragraph broadens her reach still further, to all people on the face of the whole Earth (10). Her message now, to all of her audience, is utterly positive: Love is His Name, Love is His Nature (11). She has so far in this essay portrayed the current lives of unbelievers as leading to torture and destruction. She cannot end with that negativity—she throws out a life raft in obedience to God. Where she claims that even death is not an ending. She concludes the essay extending this message of peace and wondrous potential.

Although it seems like a rambling tirade, this structure is actually much more advanced than some of her other writings. In Herein is held forth, Blackborow creates a subsection for her injunction against government officials who imprison the religious for gathering and protesting. It does not, however, have the same smooth and artistic transitions. Similarly, the set of couplets in The Oppressed Prisoners Complaint blindly wander from questioning to evangelism without transitioning or denoting a change.

A unique facet of Blackborow's writing is her reference to the Muses in A Visit to the Spirit in Prison. Not only does a radical Protestant allude to a pagan myth, but she also puts the image in parallel structure with two biblical references. As noted within the text, Blackborow also uses a phrase Reverend Peter Sterry—chaplain to Oliver Cromwell—utilizes in his England's Deliverance9. Unlike most Protestants who stress the sole authority of the Bible, Sterry believed pagan myths—especially Ovid—could be used to explicate Christianity. Sterry, a Caimbridge fellow, preached in London and in front of Parliament. Blackborow may have heard sermons by the high-profile clergyman, but it seems unlikely she would have accepted his teachings as inspired.

Blackborow may have intended her metaphor literally. Blackborow presents herself as a witness. She states, between eight and nine years of age, did Gods witnesse strive with me, and chekt me, and convinced me of sin, and sometimes gave me power over it (5); Barbour also says that most Quaker tracts were written from prison (193). Blackborow's writing, which she claims comes not from herself but from God (7b), may in fact be her witnessing from prison. Blackborow signs The Oppressed Prisoners Complaint, Written by S.B. a Prisoner for the Testimony of Jesus (1). Her experience quite possibly influenced her metaphor: through her writing she is visiting her kindred spirits in prison.

In addition, she incorporates an image of the unconverted as an imprisoned spirit, and is moved to salute and to visit the spirit in prison in you all (7). All of Blackborow's writings concern evangelism; an imprisoned spirit to her would be one who had not yet been opened to Jesus. Blackborow displays her proficiency as a writer by translating a personal experience into a metaphor with which she can help reach her target audience.

Perhaps neither the writer nor the reader is the prisoner mentioned in the title and this image. Quaker leader George Fox writes in 1656, to the Magistrates that doe cast Christ into prison (1), and Blackborow corroborates two years later, stating [Your savior] lyes oppressed under that which cries peace to you & in you (8). The ignorant person imprisoned as is Christ when man does not recognize him. Blackborow and Fox's depiction of Jesus as fallible and weak may seem jarring, but it puts him on the same level of their target audience. Not only is the person who does not know Christ a prisoner, but also is the unrecognized deity. Acceptance of Christ presents itself as the natural solution to both of their troubles.

These three layers of meaning in Blackborow's title image testify to her skill as rhetorician. She can take a personal experience, analyze it, synthesize a meaning for those facing a similar problem, and sell that message to her reader.

Blackborow's use of biblical allusions is also of note. Many women writers of the time seemingly wrote with a bible next to their page. Mary Pope, for example, quotes the Bible directly, italicizing the verses interspersed with her own words. Similarly, in The trumpet of the Lord sounded forth and A Warning from the Lord God of life and power, Ester Biddle either capitalizes or italicizes her references to the Bible, consciously not amalgamating them into her own writing. Blackborow, however, integrates biblical passages into her sentences, at times italicizing words, but—with a singular exception—never directly quoting passages. By so doing, she illustrates her command of the bible's stories, images and ideas, not simply their verbage.

Blackborow's manipulation of verse displays her understanding of the deeper meaning of its message. She describes a visible Ministrie, which hath been but as sounding brass, and as a tincling Symbele (A Visit to the Spirit in Prison 7b); instead of copying 1 Corinthians outright10, she instead mentions only the noisemakers—implying that her readers' current ministry lacks proper spirit. Blackborow does this as well when comparing her readers to the darkness of Cain (10) and as well when she contrasts the negative Tower of Babel with Jesus the cornerstone (9). In stark contrast, preacher and prophet Mary Pope writes in 1648:

Yet God himself is pleased to hold forth himself with the head Magistrate on Earth, and that in these words: My Sonne feare thou Lord and the King, and meddle not with those that are given to change. Prov.24.21. and in the 2 Pet.17. This particular place of Scripture is an exemplary to the King, and holdeth forth unto us Gods unchangeablenesse in his laws: Now seeing the Lord is pleased to hold forth the Kings Prerogative by his own example as in these words: Where the word of a King is there is power? And who shall say unto him, What dost thou? (2)

Pope's method of including verse indicates a two-step process in understanding the verse. She must first learn the verse elsewhere, then recall said verse while writing. She makes does not incorporate the language into her own, nor does she demonstrate any understanding of the meaning behind the verse: it is merely a reproduction. Blackborow's tactic, however, illustrates a five-step process in incorporating her biblical message: (1) Hearing, reading or learning the passage; (2) Understanding of its connotative and denotative meanings; (3) Recognizing the key terms, icons and images that signify that verse's meaning; (4) Recalling the verse at the time of writing, and (5) Amalgamating the verse's meaning into the prose through incorporation of those terms icons and images. By manipulating the verses in this way, Blackborow establishes herself as a having a cogent and thorough understanding of the Bible and its message.

A note on the text

This edition is the first modern publication of Sarah Blackborow's work, intended for a modern, English-speaking audience. The English language in 1658—the probable date of publication for A Visit to the Spirit in Prison—looked and sounded much different than the language of the second millennium anno domini, and as a tribute to the time I have let the antiquated spelling and diction remain, with a few exceptions to assist modern readers.

This edition has been designed for publication on the Internet, and changes have been made to the text to facilitate display and reference on the internet. Published characters must conform to the latin ISO 8859-1 character set; for this reason, the lower case s has been exchanged for every instance of . In order to improve the searchability of the document and to facilitate the use of non-graphical browsers (i.e. those for the visually-impaired), double-V (vv) has been changed to w and, in one instance u has become v. These changes have been made solely because of the different medium and should not affect word meaning. Every page within a document also contains, beneath the final line, a single word or syllable that also appears on the first line of the following page. In the page-less digital medium these words have also been omitted.

As the Internet is a pageless medium, page-numbered citations in this introduction refer to the original manuscript, a reproduction of which has been included for completeness. Two of the pages have been misnumbered; pages 9 and 10 have been numbered 7 and 8, and pages thereafter follow the logical continuum. Page six has actually been inverted to appear like a nine. Luckily, the last syllable or two of each page is repeated at the top of the following page, allowing a reader to deduce the proper page order. Citations follow the original page numbering, with references to the repeated pages as 7b and 8b respectively.

Notes

1. Early English Books Online - Electronic resources were integral to the completion of this project. Without them, Blackborow's tracts and many like them would be buried in the British Museum and other libraries, inaccessible without significant travel and research costs. Not only does the electronic medium provide for access and reproduction of these texts, but it also allows one to search for related works based on keywords, phrases or time periods. This method is as yet imperfect, limited only by the implementation of better technology and techniques. Although I will avoid a longer discussion here, further inquiry needs be made into the potential for a deeper and broader survey of literature through electronic and Internet media.
2. Central agents … political change - “It is … my contention that literature was part of the crisis and revolution, and was at its epicenter. Never before in English history had written and printed literature played such a predominant role in public affairs, and never before had it been felt by contemporaries to be of such importance…” (1).
3. Five tracts - Short-title catalog references are to Donald Wing, comp., Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America and of English Books Printed in Other Countries 1641-1700, 3 vols. (New York, 1945–51); Donald Wing, comp., Short-Title Catalogue … 1641–1700, 2nd ed., vols. 1 and 2 only, vol. 2 rev. and ed. Timothy J. Crist (New York, 1972–82).
4. Tract by James Naylor - Naylor, James. How Sin Is Strengthened and How It Is Overcome. London, 1657.
5. The female role - Suzanne Hull describes the century-and-a-half of literature for women leading up to the British civil war as defining the female role as apolitical and inferior as well as reinforcing the class structure. However, women were becoming increasingly voracious readers, displaying some influencing into the evolution of British fiction and drama. By so doing, they were establishing an independent power-base of knowledge, and the emergence of women writers and preachers seems a logical outcome, given the catalyst of radicalism during the interregnum.
6. Second ‘r’ to Blackborow - Ludlow cites Blackborow's five printed works all under the surname “Blackborrow”.
7. Poor and persecuted Friends - Interestingly, Braithwaite (and as a result Kunze), proclaims the beginnings of these women's meetings as fueled by Fox's genius instead of being instigated by Blackborow. Fox does claim to have started the Women's Meeting, but instead he “was moved of the Lord God to set up and establish five Monthly Meetings of men and women in the city of London, besides the Women's Meeting and the Quarterly Meeting, to admonish, and exhort such as walked disorderly or carelessly, and not according to Truth” (511, emphasis mine). Fox's other references to the Women's Meeting only mention their occurrence. John Nickalls mentions that the meetings were “initiated by Fox” (717), and makes no reference to Blackborow at all. See Fox, George The Journal of George Fox ed. John L. Nickalls. Cambridge: UP, 1952.
8. And when I came … fearing God - According to Barbour and Roberts, this passage came from an early fragment of Fox's writings that were included in the 1911 edition of his Journals, although they were not originally part of the text. A similar citation appears in Braithwaite 341. Braithwaite also includes an enigmatic note on Blackborow: “One of the first women ministers in London. For her association with Naylor and other facts about her, see note in [the 1911 edition of Fox's Journals] ii. 484. Further details about her may only be available from this text.
9. England's Deliverance The phrase is “bowels earned” (7). Sterry regularly used pagan mythology, especially Ovid, in his sermons and was known to carry Aquinas, Boehme, Shakespeare and Ovid with him when he traveled. He believed one could reconcile pagan mythology with Christianity, a seemlingly odd belief for radical Puritans of the time. While similar phrasing does not prove a connection between Blackborow and Sterry, presuming that she had read or heard Sterry speak would explain Blackborow's reference to the Muses later in the essay. For more research on Sterry, Puritanism and mythology see Matar, N.I. “Peter Sterry and the Puritan Defense of Ovid in Restoration England” Studies in Philology 88 no. 1 (Winter 1991) pp. 110-131.
10. copying 1 Corinthians outright - “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

A
Visit
to the
Spirit
in
Prison;
and

An Invitation to all people to come
to Christ the light of the World, in whom is life,
and doth enlighten every one that cometh
into the World,

and

A Warning to all people to take
heed how they joine any longer with that
which turns them from him.

By Saraah Blackborow

London1,
Printed for Thomas Simmons2, at the Bull and Mouth neer Aldersgate, 1658.

Unto all you, who own3 your selves to be
ministers
And
teachers
OF THE
people

Who preach for hire, and persecute, and throw into
prison if you have it not: this following is;

A Witnesse hath the Lord God in you, which is faithful and true, if ever you know the day the unstoping of your deaf eare4, and the eye which the God of this Elementary5 world hath made blind, again to see; then shall you confess it had been much better for you that you had laboured with your hands, doing the things which is honest, then to have coveted the wages of unrighteousness6, or beene fed with the bread of deceit7; how have you made your selves manifest to be of that generation, amongst whom the horrible thing is found, who Divine for money and preach for reward, and seek for your gain from your quarters8, and prepare war if they put not into your mouthes? What a work is this you are found in, to cast the children of the Lord into prison, because they cannot deny the witnesse of God in their consciences, which testifies against all such cursed practices? Was ever any of the servants of the Lord found in such a work as you are? let the righteous witnesse of God in your consciences Judge you, that you may be ashamed: Oh blush that ever your names should be mentioned, or you found owning such a work as this; either deny your work, or owne your selves to be of that generation, who is doing the work of their father, who abode not in the truth, who was a murderer from the beginning; and remember now you are warned to turn into the light, and own Gods witness which would teach you to deny both your work & your wages, & let you see that you should serve another Master; so go learn what this means; the goods of the wicked is laid up for the just, they that can receive it let them. From one who in the light of the Lord stands witnesse against the Beast and the false Prophet9

And unto all you who own your selves to be Ministers and Teachers of the people, who preach for money, and though yee have it not, yet do forbear10 to cast into prison; yet it is plainly made minifest, you both are guided by one spirit and tis your own, and while you are following on in that to know, you can know nothing, and the woe is pronounced against it; you are all bound up together in one, who is the earthly, and his work you bring forth, and his wisdom you are in, and it appears by your practices, for if any of the children of the Lord, be moved to come into your Steeple-houses to ask you a question, or to declare what they can witnesse of that which leads to Christ, how wrathful are you and impatient, and cry to the people, carry them away,11 or suffer the people to hail them away without reproveing them? this is far from that spirit which should be ready to give an answer to every one that asketh or that which can bear all things, that spirit which is impatient and wrathful scatters and not gathers any to God; neither can it seek after that which is driven away and lost; the Lord is delivering his people out of your hands, that they may no longer be made a prey to the heathen, for among a poor despised people, who suffers whipings; stockings, imprisonmens, scoffings, hath the Lord appeared in power and great glory, and in them hath raised up a plant of renown, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger, nor beare the shame of the heathen any more; and these are the people who some of you have been heard to call giddy-braind12 people; I say own it your selves, for that in your brain is what you have to boast of; be ashamed and put your mouthes in the dust13, and never open them any more: From a lover of your souls, but a Witnesse against your deceits.

A Love there is which doth not cease, to the seed of God in you all, and therefore doth invite you every one Priest and people to return into it, that into Wisdoms house you may come, where there is a feast provided of all things well refined14, and the living bread of God is known and fed upon, and the fruit of the Vine is drunk of, then the purity in the Spirit witnessed the well beloved of the Father is here, and this is he who is the fairest of ten thousand, there is no spot nor wrinkle in him15; long did my soul thirst after him; between eight and nine years of age, did Gods witnesse strive with me, and chekt16 me, and convinced me of sin, and sometimes gave me power over it, though I knew not what it was, nor knew not that it was given me to lead me to God, neither did I know in the least what nature it stood in; or that it was sufficient of it self without any other help to be my teacher, or to open the mysteries of the everlasting kingdom to me, which I now witnesse to be, living praises to God the Father of mercies; notwithstanding all my profession, I never witnessed a seperation between the light and the darknesse, nor never so much as heard that such a thing was to be, for when it was spoken to me by the Servants of the living God, who declared unto me the way to life, & spake of Gods witnesse and its workings in the Creature, the same in me witnessed to them, and in that I knew that their testimony and declaration was of, in, and by the life and power of God, and none shall witnesse truly to the ministery, while their minds are abroad in the visible; for this I know, that though there be words spoke, yet it is the testimony of Jesus, and himself who is eternal, and therefore hath power in it to turn the mind in, out of the visible, down to the eternall seed, & as it is reached it witnesseth to them, and this I found the first time they spake to me, & my understanding was opened, and then I knew that that was Gods witnesse which had been working in me from my child-hood, and had begotten pure breathings and desires, and thirstings after God.17

Now all you who thirst after your beloved, come into Wisdoms house, though I spake it before, its not greivous to me to speake it again: Oh every one that will come; all people come to my beloved; come freely, you shall part with nothing for him that hath either price or value in it; therefore delay not but come to Christ Jesus who is the light of the world, his breathings are sweet & his shinings are pure: Oh that the Sonns and Daughters of men knew him! then would your hearts pant18 after him, and your souls life breath forth it self to him; righteousnesse is with him, and as a river it flowes forth from him; deare and precious are his counsells: Oh that the nations could hear him and obey him! and willingly give up, all that which hath and yet doth blind the eye, so that they cannot see him, the ever-lasting, counseller Prince of peace19, he is a broad river, his streams makes glad the City of God; his depths none but in eternity can find, his heights who can ascend unto? the bredth and length of his love there's no end of it.

Having known the terrors of the Lord, and the indignation of the Almighty against all ungodlynesse, and that nature from whence it springs; and now being made partaker of his everlasting love, in which my bowels earnes20, and my heart is enlarged exceedingly in love to you all, Neighbors, Kindreds and People; and therefore am moved to salute and to visit the spirit in prison in you all: From a moveing of the same love, and to warn you in plainnesse and in singlenesse to fear the living God, and to mind his witnesse which you have long turned from, and his spirit hath long been, and still is grieved and quenched by your ungodlynesse; Will you take Gods name in your mouthes and hate to be reformed? Why do you talke of the fear of the Lord and depart not from your iniquity? Will words serve you? Or are you a redeemed people? see and consider I beseech you: Oh how my soul is grieved to see and behold your abominations! its high time for you to mind that which calls your minds into that which strives with you, and would give light to you, in which you might see all you have been and are a doing, is in the ungodly nature, even your best works stands there, and that of God in all your consciences shall witnesse to me, in the day when you shall receive condemnation for them; and then you will see that you are to be striped naked, as in the day you were born, your covering of words will be too narrow for you, and your bed of adulteries will be too short, you will then find no ease there; there are who with fear & dread cry often to the Lord for you21, whose souls travels for your Salvation; they that dwell in the silent life whose eye is opened by the power of the Lord and in the light of Jesus dwels and abides, sees even your secret workings, the ground you act in and from, bless not your selves while you are adding sin to sin, and drunkennesse to thirst, living in pride and all manner of ungodlynesse, suffering every spirit which proceeds from that nature which is accursed, to act and bring forth its fruits in you, the pure spirit of the Lord which is light and life by all these lyes covered, and the seed of the kingdom buried, and the begotten of the Father of life eternall, strangled, and the Lamb of God slaying, and in some slain; and there his spirit shall no longer strive: Oh woe is me for your souls! a lamentation there is which cannot cease, what may I do that you may know your Saviour? he is neer you waiteing to be gracious to you; and this is he who under all, lyes in you all, that down all might come to him, and when that eye which the God of this world hath blinded is opened again; then shall you see and be ashamed; he lyes oppressed under that which cries peace to you & in you it is the Hipocrite & the lyer which cries peace to you while you are unsaved from your sins, but are in the liberty in which you are acting wickednesse, of every kind, Scoffers, Mockers, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more then God, not subject to the Government of Christs spirit, the eternall God of life bow you hearts and minds by his mighty power: Why will you strive against God? Hath any done so, and prospered? that which strives is that which rebells against his witnesse, which is faithful and true, and will not lye, and as you obey it you will come to see and know it, to be the beginning of the creation of God in you again, that which turns you from it turns you from your Saviour, and drives you from the presence of the Lord, into the earthly nature and carnall mind which is changeable, and there the enemy of your souls keeps you doing, and seeking to know God but cannot, and all its seekings actings and workings are for eternal burnings; are not22 you able to dwell with it? Oh the indignation of the Lord its hot and terrible! I have felt it; and therefore am I in sorrow for all you who are laying up fuell for it, yea verily I could be contented to be accursed again for your sakes; every one while you have time, prise it, and be you warned to wait to feel the Witness which God hath placed in your consciences to let you see what is good, and what is evil; the careless mind shall never witness to it; Gods Witness leads to Christ the Redeemer; but that mind which is above leads you to the destroyer, and layes you under his Power; and here Christ reigns not, but many Lords rules, and a King reigns that's not the Lamb, and the body of Christ lies dead, and death reigns over you, and the all the Works that stands there, you are to know repentance from; the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement, is yet a mystery to you whose souls are in the Grave, and feet stuck fast in the mire, and no wayes can you be holpen23 out, how24 whilest you flye from that which checks and reproves you in secret, you love it not, because your deeds are evil, you dare not bring them to the light, for that would discover them of what sort they are; and because you love them more then that which judges them, therefore do you turn from the one, and embrace the other: Wisdom hath uttered forth her voice to you, but the eye and ear which is abroad, waiting upon a sound of words without you, is that which keeps you from your Teacher within you; & this is the reason that in all your seekings you have found nothing; such as your seeking is, such is your finding; if in the changeable you find that is so, and that perisheth with the using; if in the eternal you find that which is eternal, and that's everlasting, life and death is set before you; as you love the one, you must hate the other; the resurrection of the life, is the death of the death, and takes away its sting, & gives victorie over the grave; Death, Hell and the Grave must give up their dead when the voice is heard, obeyed, and believed in which gives life; What I have seen and known, heard and felt, that declare I unto you, and my witness is true; if I bore witness of my self, it were not true; but my Witness stands in him, and is of him who is the light of the World25: Therefore dear hearts, you who are in the pantings and thirst, whose hearts are breathing after the living God, in whom desires have been begotten by the eternal spirit, and have been betrayed by entering into visibles, and by a visible Ministrie, which hath been but as sounding brass, and as a tincling Symbele26, which hath never turned to God, nor from the powers of darkness, but hath begotten an imaginary27 in you, likenesses of all sorts and kinds, both of things in heaven, and of things in Earth, and under the Earth; I say, Go not forth after them; that which carries you forth, is that which betraies your life, and leads you into the adultery from it; there's many green Trees in Babel28, worship not under them, nor bow not down to anie likeness, but come to Gods Witness, it will abide with you; and as you abide with it, you will know its power and its leadings; be not afraid, but come to it, there's no other way to life eternal; if it bring you into trouble, it will bring you out again; it will pass through the fire, and through the water; though many Waters may pass over you, and floods seek to devour you, yet shall you be preserved; it will be with you in six troubles, and also in seven29; covet nothing else, you will need no more; there's a sufficiency in it, flie not from it, it will never leave You nor forsake You; it will lay You in the arms of your beloved, it will lead You gently, and lay You in his bosome, where the Well-springs of life30 flows forth continuallie; it will make You inherit durable substance, and cause shadows to flie away; it will lead you out of all that which stands in time, and its begettings: Therefore love it, its of an eternal nature, and leads into it, out of the sorrow, out of the curse: Therefore take heed how you deny it, it sets open the door of the Kingdom, it separates from that which would keep You from entering; your unclean natures offer it up to the death of the cross, for it hath pierced your Saviour; and all that ever you have offered in it, or by it, hath never made You perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; though You should offer Year by Year, and Daie by Daie, your sacrifice will not avail You31; the Lord is wearie of it, his soul loaths it, he is prest under it as a Cart with sheaves32; therefore cease from it, and come out of Your manie things; there's but one thing needful, keep to it, and wander no more as You have done, nor seek not for another, for all the hopes that you shall have in anie other thing but this will prove the hope of the hypocrite, which perisheth, and will set You wandering up and down in the Earthly, & that's in Satans path; the ginne, and the snare, and the pit you will meet with there, it's not the equal Way, you will lose your measure which God hath given to you to measure your selves withall, and then you run further and further from the Lord, and lie liable to be deceived by Babylons Marchants33, who will make a prey of you, and set you a seeking your Saviour upon the Mountains that's covered with darkness it matters not what Name You bear, or what fellowship you are of while you are out of the fellowship of the Father and the Son34, and turned from that which should lead you thither, and out of the cross, which is the power of God, which would crucifie you to the World, and the World unto you: I say, What are you more then they who never bore any of those Names? So be not deceived, for God will not be mocked; the light of Christ will deceive none of you, but if you are out of it, it matters not how high your sights, your notions, your airy imaginations are, they are to little purpose, it may join you to the more refined builders of Babel35 which are talking of the Corner-stone36, but reject it as well as others, and make up a building without it, a Tower which you think must reach up to Heaven, strongly fenced and Walled, but not the Wall nor the Fence which God hath made, or ever appointed; and if ever to the light You return again, it will let you see that in that building lives the swearer, the liar, the thief, and the adulterer. Your Chamber of Imagery is there, in which all your Images are hid; your garments which you have stole in the night is laid up there; Your confused Languages, and all your stuff which proceeds out of the vessels which are dishonorable, that's your store-house, the curse is entered into the midst of it, and will consume the timber thereof, and the stones thereof, the materials; the fire must consume your fenced Wall, and your high Tower is for a throwing down; I have seen it, and therefore in truth can witness it, the very ground it stands on must know a remove; your high things have deceived the simple, and You also; they that live in the day, see You and your building; its Babel, that's not Sion37 whose Walls and Bulwarks are Salvation; and this I affirm and witness, That none shall ever see the glorious City, but as they witness the Walls and Bulwarks.

Now all you who are boasting in other mens lines above the cross, you of all other people like not to stand in it, and so notwithstanding all your high words, you are out of the power, in the alienation, out from the life of God, in the lying Wonders; for what some of you saw when you were waiting in the light, you are now bringing forth in your wills, and the Word of the Lord is betrayed by your subtilty & by your airie minds, which hath carryed you so far above the light, that you see not what it is that betraies you, and you are lying down at ease in a habitation which is not eternal, but are Vagrants, having no habitation in God: What's become of the righteous Seed? the blood of it cryes up in the ear of the Lord; many of you are darker then Cain was when he had slain his Brother38; it were well if you could bow down to that which would bring you to a sence of your condition, and leave teaching of others, and looking out for a high appearance, you are deceived, and deceiving others, your expectations are all in the vanity; it's the little thing that's under all this, must restore you; so wait and watch if you can suffer with it, and wait to know whether your faces be turned toward Sion or no, and to hear the voice of the Lord calling every one in the particular, Where art thou? Alack for you! they that know the just and equal ballance39, find you too light; you are to be singled out one by one to judgement, for thither must you come again if ever that be cast off which is above; you will find it hard to that mind which is so high, to bow down to it; Muses40, and the Prophets, & John41 hath been, & is too low a thing for your eye to look after; but had you been faithful to the least of these, you had not lost your measure; the patient long suffering of God let it lead you to repentance, and so come down to the Witness, that you may see what is good, & what is evil, that you may no more be deceived nor deceive, with a seeming good, that hath a certain evil in it.

So the light of Christ I commend you and all people upon the face of the whole Earth, that in it you may see the devourer and the murtherer, and what it is that talks of life, and yet is slaying of it: Oh! love truth and its Testimony, whether its Witness be to you, or against you, love it, that into my Mothers house you all may come, and into the Chamber of her that conceived me, where you may embrace, and be embraced of my dearly beloved one, Love is his Name, Love is his Nature, Love is his life, surelie he is the dearest and the fairest; the fool hath said in his heart he is not, he can neither see him, nor know him; the wise mans Wisdom is in enmity against him; the rich are too full, there's no room for him; the Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have Nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head42; the strong man offers violence against him; readie are all sorts of people to receive the fame of him, but few love his reprovings, turn in to him, and believe in him: Oh thou beloved of my Father, that art descended under all, that thou maist gather in all! how art thou become light in darkness, strength in and through weakness43, Wisdom in and through foolishness; life in death, that through death life again may be witnessed among the sons and daughters of men: And I bring in my Testimony, That he is the true light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world:44 Love that Spirit that brings to lye at his feet, that with it you may return into his bosome, which is the desire of my heart to the mighty God of Jacob for you all.

Man looking forth after a beautiful thing which was likely to make him wise, (seemingly good for Food) thus came to lose his innocent state; Man feeding upon the forbidden food, in the day that he eat thereof, died, is now driven from the presence of the Lord, and the Tree of life he may not touch; the flaming Sword stands to cut him down which way soever he turns, and the eye being made blind which should let him see his state, he is become wholly miserable, and death reigns over him;45 and having lost his Guide, he is turned into a path in which he is running further and further from the Lord, into the earthlie, and there he abides captivated, and under strong bonds fettered: Yet doth the Lord so love the World, that he hath given his only begotten, that all men through him might believe: And now every one having received a measure of his life, this stands an everlasting Witness for God in man, and this God hath given him to profit withal, but the sloathful hides it in the Earth, and makes no improvement of it, and so remains ignorant of Gods gift, and of the Waie that should lead him back again to God; and though the light shines in the darkness, the darkness comprehends it not, and the ear remains stopped which should hear the voice that calls to him to return again, and would let him know, that as through death he went forth, so through death to that death he must return again; that which shines in darkness to him, would soon let him see his lost estate if minded; it is one thing to talk of it, and another thing to see it; death may talk of it, but it is the shining light that shows it, through which alone man must come to be convinced; and as it is loved, believed in, and obeyed, man will come to know it to be his Leader, and a Light to him, in which he may see the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent46, and their several natures and workings, and to see what birth each of these bring forth; the Wombs they are conceived in, which it is that bears, and which it is that is barren; which it is that is to be made to bear again, and which is to be made barren again; for though these two Seeds be in man, yet have they their several natures and opperations; the one brings forth to the earthly, and begets into the death, the other into the heavenly, and begets to life.

Now every one minding their measure of light, shall come to know as they are known, and to see as they are seen; and here a separation comes to be witnessed, and man begins to see what stands in death, and what in life eternal; for having a light which makes all manifest, thus man comes to see how all likenesses is come in, and now man being convinced and checked when any thing is wrought or acted in that nature wherein death reigns, then Gods Witness which stands in the divine nature, checks and reproves: And man running from this turns into the other, and so joins with the transgressor, and then will be making promises of being better, and complains that he wants power, and so tempts the Lord, this nature may bring forth a likeness of all Graces, and of all Gifts, and give up the body to be burnt, but it avails him nothing. Now every one who loves Gods Witness, and is joined to it, shall know the power of God which gives dominion over the sinful nature, and leads into a Saviour, and here man shall see Christ Jesus as near him, to save him, as the Devil is near to tempt him, and shall come to know every motion and thought of his heart, from whence it springs and to know certainly where his hope stands, and how he comes by it, and the faith of the Son of God, and when it was delivered, and how to contend for it, and to see all his Works, and where they stand, and be made able to discern of spirits, whether good or evil, and to judge of them, and so grow up in the light, unto that state which once was witnessed, and beyond it: Therefore every one prise that which leads to it.

The End

Notes:

1. London Hand-written before the word London is June 10th, the assumed date of publication.
2. Thomas Simmons The printers [of Quaker tracts] (especially Thomas Simmonds and Giles Calvert), also handled the largest proportion of tracts from the Levellers, Winstanley's Diggers, Jakob Boehme, and the Family of Love, as well as the Quakers. Calvert's sister Martha, wife of Simmonds, was a leading supporter of James Naylor ... although neither printer was a Quaker (Barbor 193).
3. Own To have as one's function or business (OED).
4. unstoping of your deaf eare Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. (Isaiah 35:5)
5. Elementary Of or pertaining to the four elements or any one of them , but possibly also Of the nature of elements or rudiments; rudimentary, introductory. (OED).
6. the wages of unrighteousness 2 Peter 2:15
7. bread of deceit Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. (Proverbs 20:17).
8. quarters The fourth part of some usual measure or standard. (OED). Blackborrow chastises preachers for profitting from donations to the church.
9. A Witnesse ... Prophet I have encountered no evidence to suggest why this initial paragraph has been indented in the original manuscript, but I have left it this way. The ommission of a period at the end of the section may or may not be a corruption of the original text.
10. forbear To abstain or refrain from (OED). This section is devoted to those ministers and teachers who, although they preach for hire, do not cast their debtors into prison.
11. carry them away, Quotation marks have been added for clarity.
12. giddy-braind something that revolves with giddy rapidity, esp. a 'merry-go-round' or 'roundabout' (OED).
13. put your mouthes in the dust It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. (Lamentations 3:26-9). Throughout the bible, dust symbolizes both humility and the temporary nature of the physical body in contrast to the eternal spirit (for examples see Isaiah 47:1 and Ecclesiastes 12:7).
14. a feast ... well refined And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. (Isaiah 25:6) The word all has been struck through in the manuscript. Magnified analysis and contextual evidence suggests all the most probable choice.
15. the living bread ... in him These references refer to Jesus Christ, and are amalgamations of several biblical verses. In John 6 Jesus says, the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.(John 6:33), and I am the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51). Saint Paul tells the Ephesians, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, ... not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-7).
16. chekt Checked: To rebuke, reprove, reprimand (OED).
17. A love ... God. This thematic break possibly points to some sort of biographical affirmation. It establishes Blackborrow as a prophet during her extreme youth.
18. pant To throb or heave violently or rapidly; to palpitate, pulsate, beat: said of the heart, bosom (OED).
19. Prince of peace Jesus (Isaiah 9:6).
20. bowels earnes bowels: The interior of anything; heart, centre (OED). earn: To be affected with poignant grief or compassion (OED). 1651 P. STERRY England's Deliverance (1652) 26, I do..with bowels tenderly Earning, warn and intreat, etc. (OED). Reverend Peter Sterry, a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, regularly used pagan mythology, especially Ovid, in his sermons and was known to carry Aquinas, Boehme, Shakespeare and Ovid with him when he traveled. He believed one could reconcile pagan mythology with Christianity, a seemlingly odd belief for radical Puritans of the time. While similar phrasing does not prove a connection between Blackborow and Sterry, presuming that she had read or heard Sterry speak would explain Blackborow's reference to the Muses later in the essay. For more research on Sterry, Puritanism and mythology see Matar, N.I. Peter Sterry and the Puritan Defense of Ovid in Restoration England Studies in Philology 88 no. 1 (Winter 1991) pp. 110-131.
21. you Probable spelling error: yon in original manuscript.
22. not Deleted by hand: not in original manuscript.
23. holpen Helped. Possible reference to Jeremiah 38:21-23: But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me: And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.
24. how Deleted by hand:"how" in original manuscript.
25. What I ... the World This self-effacing testimony is common among Quaker women preaching and prophesying. By claiming their message comes from God and not from themselves, they circumvent any claims against women preachers. See Mack, Phyllis. Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England. Los Angeles: UCP, 1992 pp 235.
26. sounding brass ... Symbele Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1).
27. imaginary An imagination; a fancy. (OED). This usage of imaginary as a noun predates the first documented usage by 51 years.
28. green tree This phrase appears 13 times in the old testament and once in the new... Babel
29. six troubles, and also in seven He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. (Job 5:19).
30. Well-springs of life Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly. (Proverbs 16:22).
31. though ... avail You For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (Hebrews 10:1). This verse, and Blackborrow's reference to it, conflicts directly with Nehemiah 10:34-35 which describes sacrifices year by year, and both Exodus 29:38 and Numbers 28:3 which call for a continual, day by day sacrifice.
32. a Cart with sheaves Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. (Amos 2:13).
33. Babylons Marchants Babylon's Merchants: A metropolis of the ancient near east, Jean-Claude Mangueron calls Babylon undoubtedly ... the most famous eastern city in antiquity (Freedman vol. 1 pp. 565). Duane F. Watson notes that New Testament writers equated Babylon with Rome as they were both symbols of idolatry, and worldliness under the temporary control of Satan, a worldliness in opposition to the people and work of God (Freedman vol. 1 pp. 566). Babylon's Merchants attempt to sell this worldliness to otherwise good people, and, Blackborrow says, will make a prey of you, and set you a seeking your Saviour upon the Mountains that's covered with darkness.
34. Son An unintelligble character exists before the comma in original manuscript.
35. Babel A legendary fortress city, possibly the capital of the ancient Babylonian empire. In Akkadian, the language of that empire, babel means gate of god, whereas in Hebrew it means confused (Freedman vol. 1 pp. 562). Genesis 11:1-9 tells of a time when only one language existed, and the people built a great city and a great tower with its top in the heavens. God, seeing this, realizes that for these people nothing is impossible and so he destroys their tower and scatters, across the lands and confuses their languages. This event contrasts with the New Testament's pentecost, as Frank Anthony Spina explains: At Babel, God transformed a single language into many, creating confusion; at Jerusalem the Holy Spirit made it possible for many languages to be understood as one, creating unity (Freedman vol. 1 pp. 562). Here, Blackborrow warns her readers against having the hubris of those who built a tower to rival God.
36. Corner-stone Jesus (Psalms 118:22, Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, 1 Peter 2:7).
37. Sion Zion. According to Jon D. Levenson, Zion transformed from the name of a ridge southeast of Jerusalem to a blanket term for that holy city, its temple, the hill outside the city on which the temple stands, the residents of the city and the entire population of Israel (Freedman vol. 6). He adds that Zion symbolizes a group elect by God, and that the paradoxical consequence of [God]'s great victory at this holy city is an end to the weapons of war and the inauguration of a reign of peace (Freedman vol. 6 pp. 1100). Blackborrow uses this image as a utopia, one with walls and bulwarks making it difficult to enter.
38. Cain ... slain his Brother Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve, Cain killed his younger brother, jealous that God favored him.
39. just and equal ballance A just weight and balance are the LORD's: all the weights of the bag are his work. (Proverbs 16:11).
40. Muses In Greek Mythology, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Frequently alluded to by writers and artists, the muses were known to give inspiration. Interesting here is not only that Blackborow makes a classical reference, but also that she parallels them with the Prophets and John.
41. John Probably either John the Baptist, who came out of the desert prophesying the eminent birth of Jesus, or John the Apostle, who wrote many books of the new testament.
42. Foxes have ... his head Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58
43. weakness Illegible marginallia occurs on this part of the page in the original manuscript.
44. That ... into the world John 1:9, verbatim.
45. Man looking ... over him Genesis 2-3 depicts the story of Adam and Eve, whom God created and placed within a garden. God tells them they may eat anything in the garden except for the fruit of the Tree of Life, which the serpent convinces Eve to eat which she then gives to Adam. As punishment, God ejected the two from the garden, set a flaming sword to guard it. The two would also suffer death as a result of their enlightenment. Blackborow describes this first disobediance as having innocent motives but leading to greater sin.
46. Seed of the Woman ... Serpent And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15).

Biboliography

Barbour, Hugh. The Quakers in Puritan England. New Haven: Yale UP, 1965.

Biddle, Esther. The trumpet of the Lord sounded forth. London, 1662. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest. 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:18176791>.

Biddle, Esther. A warning from the Lord God of life and power. London: Robert Wilson, 1660. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest. 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:16204287>.

Blackborow, Sarah. Herein is held forth the gift and good-will of God to the world and how it is tendered. London: Thomas Simmons, 1659. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest. 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:104508:1>.

Blackborow, Sarah (S.B.). The Oppressed Prisoner's Complaint in Smith, J. Friends' Books CD-ROM. London, 1996. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest. 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:137239:1>.

Blackborow, Sarah. A Visit to the Spirit in Prison. London: Thomas Simmons, 1658. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:118876:1>.

Braithwaite, William C. The Beginnings of Quakerism. Ed. Henry J. Cadbury. Cambridge: UP, 1970.

Crouch William. Posthuma Christiana. Early Quaker Writings 1650-1700. Ed. Hugh Barbour and Arthur O. Roberts. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973. 83-90.

Freedman, David Noel, ed. Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Fox, George. Concering the First Spreading of the Truth, and How that Many Were Imprisoned, & c. Early Quaker Writings 1650-1700. Ed. Hugh Barbour and Arthur O. Roberts. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973. 145-148.

Fox, George. A discovery of some fruits of the [brace] profession, religion, ministry, government of this nation. London: Thomas Simmons, 1656. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:104484:1>.

Fox, George. The Journal of George Fox. Ed. John L. Nickalls. Cambridge: UP, 1952.

Hill, Christopher. The Experience of Defeat: Milton and Some Contemporaries. New York: Penguin, 1984.

Hull, Suzanne. Chaste, Silent, and Obedient: English books for Women 1475-1640. San Marino: Huntington, 1982.

Jorns, Auguste. The Quakers as Pioneers in Social Work. Trans. by Thomas Kite Brown. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1969.

Kunze, Bonnelynn Young. Margaret Fell and the Rise of Quakerism. Stanford, CA: UP, 1994.

Ludlow, Dorothy Paula. "Arise and be doing": English 'preaching' women, 1640-1660. Indiana UP, 1978. Facsimile by University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI, 1980.

Mack, Phyllis. Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England. Los Angeles: UCP, 1992.

Matar, N.I. "Peter Sterry and the Puritan Defense of Ovid in Restoration England." Studies in Philology 88.1 (Winter 1991): 110-131.

Naylor, James. How sin is strengthened and how it is overcome. Intro. S.B. London: Thomas Simmons, 1657. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest 14 June 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:48857:1>.

Otten, Charlotte F. English Women's Voices, 1540-1700. Gainsville, FL: S. Florida UP, 1992.

Pope, Mary. Behold, here is a word. Rpt. in Early English Books Online. ProQuest. 12 Dec. 2004 <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003& res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99865015>.

Reay, Barry. The Quakers and the English Revolution. New York: St. Martin's, 1985.

Rose, H.J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. New York: Dutton, 1929.

Smith, Nigel. Literature and Revolution in England, 1640-1660. New Haven: Yale UP, 1994.

Trill, Suzanne. Religion and the construction of femininity. Women and Literature in Britain 1500-1700. Ed. Helen Wilcox. Cambridge: UP, 1996. 30-55.