George Fox having thus cleared his conscience, continued waiting in
patience, leaving the event to God. And after some time he felt himself
constrained to write to the justices that had committed him to prison,
to lay their doings before them, that so they might come to a due
consideration thereof; one of them, (already mentioned,) was justice
Bennet, the other Nathaniel Barton, both a justice and a colonel, as
also a preacher: to these he wrote as follows:
‘Friends,
‘You did speak of the good old way, which the prophet spake of;
but the prophets cried against the abominations which you hold
up. Had you the power of God, ye would not persecute the good
way. He that spake of the good way was set in the stocks: the
people cried, ‘Away with him to the stocks,’ for speaking the
truth. Ah! foolish people, which have eyes and see not, ears
and hear not, without understanding! ‘Fear not me,’ saith the
Lord, ‘and will ye not tremble at my presence?’ O your pride
and abominations are odious in the eyes of God: you, (that are
preachers,) have the chiefest place in the assemblies, and are
called of men Master; and such were and are against my Saviour
and Maker: and they shut up the kingdom of heaven from men,
neither go in themselves, nor suffer others. Therefore ye shall
receive the greater damnation, who have their places, and walk
in their steps. You may say, if you had been in the days of the
prophets, or Christ, ye would not have persecuted them; wherefore
be ye witnesses against yourselves, that ye are the children of
them, seeing, ye now persecute the way of truth. O consider,
there is a true judge, that will give every one of you a reward
according to your works. O mind where you are, you that hold up
the abominations which the true prophet cried against! O come
down, and sit in the dust! The Lord is coming with power; and he
will throw down every one that is exalted, that he alone may be
exalted.’
Having thus written to them jointly, he after some time, wrote to each
of them apart. That to justice Bennet was thus:
‘Friend,
‘Thou that dost profess God and Christ in words, see how thou
dost follow him. To take off burdens, and to visit them that be
in prison, and show mercy, and clothe thy own flesh, and deal thy
bread to the hungry; these are God’s commandments: to relieve the
fatherless, and to visit the widows in their afflictions, and to
keep thyself unspotted of the world; this is pure religion before
God. But if thou dost profess Christ, and followest covetousness
and greediness, and earthly mindedness, thou deniest him in life,
and deceivest thyself and others, and takest him for a cloak.
Wo be to you greedy men, and rich men, weep and howl for your
misery that shall come. Take heed of covetousness, and extortion;
God doth forbid that. Wo be to the man that coveteth an evil
covetousness, that he may set his nest on high, and cover himself
with thick clay. O do not love that which God forbids: his
servant thou art whom thou dost obey, whether it be of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Think upon Lazarus
and Dives: the one fared sumptuously every day; the other was
a beggar. See, if thou be not Dives. Be not deceived; God is
not mocked with vain words: evil communication corrupteth good
manners. Awake to righteousness and sin not.