The First Years of Ministry
1648-1649.
After this[M] I went to Mansfield, where was a great meeting of
professors and people. Here I was moved to pray; and the Lord's
power was so great that the house seemed to be shaken. When I had
done, some of the professors said it was now as in the days of the
apostles, when the house was shaken where they were.[22] After I had
prayed, one of the professors would pray, which brought deadness and
a veil over them; and others of the professors were grieved at him
and told him it was a temptation upon him. Then he came to me, and
desired that I would pray again; but I could not pray in man's will.
[M] In the year 1648.
[22] William Penn gives the following testimony to Fox's power in
prayer:
"But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight
of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and
behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words, have often
struck, even strangers, with admiration, as they used to reach
others with consolation. The most awful, living, reverent frame I
ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer. And truly it
was a testimony he knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other
men."--Preface to George Fox's "Journal."
Soon after there was another great meeting of professors, and a
captain, whose name was Amor Stoddard, came in. They were discoursing
of the blood of Christ; and as they were discoursing of it, I saw,
through the immediate opening of the invisible Spirit, the blood of
Christ. And I cried out among them, and said, "Do ye not see the
blood of Christ? See it in your hearts, to sprinkle your hearts and
consciences from dead works, to serve the living God"; for I saw it,
the blood of the New Covenant, how it came into the heart.[23]
[23] This is a characteristic illustration of the way Fox
passed beyond theories and doctrines, and demanded practical
_life-results_.
This startled the professors, who would have the blood only without
them, and not in them. But Captain Stoddard was reached, and said,
"Let the youth speak; hear the youth speak"; when he saw they
endeavoured to bear me down with many words.
There was also a company of priests, that were looked upon to be
tender; one of their names was Kellett; and several people that were
tender went to hear them. I was moved to go after them, and bid them
mind the Lord's teaching in their inward parts. That priest Kellett
was against parsonages then; but afterwards he got a great one, and
turned a persecutor.
Now, after I had had some service in these parts, I went through
Derbyshire into my own county. Leicestershire, again, and several
tender people were convinced.
Passing thence, I met with a great company of professors in
Warwickshire, who were praying, and expounding the Scriptures in
the fields. They gave the Bible to me, and I opened it on the fifth
of Matthew, where Christ expounded the law; and I opened the inward
state to them, and the outward state; upon which they fell into a
fierce contention, and so parted; but the Lord's power got ground.
Then I heard of a great meeting to be at Leicester, for a
dispute, wherein Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists and
Common-prayer-men[N] were said to be all concerned. The meeting was
in a steeple-house; and thither I was moved by the Lord God to go,
and be amongst them. I heard their discourse and reasonings, some
being in pews, and the priest in the pulpit; abundance of people
being gathered together.
[N] That is, members of the English or Episcopal Church.
At last one woman asked a question out of Peter, What that birth
was, viz., a being born again of incorruptible seed, by the Word of
God, that liveth and abideth for ever? And the priest said to her,
"I permit not a woman to speak in the church"; though he had before
given liberty for any to speak. Whereupon I was wrapped up, as in a
rapture, in the Lord's power; and I stepped up and asked the priest,
"Dost thou call this (the steeple-house) a church? Or dost thou call
this mixed multitude a church?" For the woman asking a question, he
ought to have answered it, having given liberty for any to speak.
But, instead of answering me, he asked me what a church was? I told
him the church was the pillar and ground of truth, made up of living
stones, living members, a spiritual household, which Christ was the
head of; but he was not the head of a mixed multitude, or of an old
house made up of lime, stones and wood.[24]
[24] The Friends from the time of Fox until the present have
been careful to use the word "church" only for the community of
spiritual believers. The cathedrals and churches were called
"steeple-houses," and their own places of worship were called
"meeting-houses."
This set them all on fire. The priest came down from his pulpit, and
others out of their pews, and the dispute there was marred. I went
to a great inn, and there disputed the thing with the priests and
professors, who were all on fire. But I maintained the true church,
and the true head thereof, over their heads, till they all gave out
and fled away. One man seemed loving, and appeared for a while to
join with me; but he soon turned against me, and joined with a priest
in pleading for infant-baptism, though himself had been a Baptist
before; so he left me alone. Howbeit, there were several convinced
that day; the woman that asked the question was convinced, and her
family; and the Lord's power and glory shone over all.
After this I returned into Nottinghamshire again, and went into the
Vale of Beavor.[25] As I went, I preached repentance to the people.
There were many convinced in the Vale of Beavor, in many towns; for I
stayed some weeks amongst them.
[25] A beautiful valley southwest of Nottingham, near the edge of
the counties of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, just west of
Bardon Hills.
One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over
me, and a temptation beset me; and I sat still. It was said, "All
things come by nature"; and the elements and stars came over me, so
that I was in a manner quite clouded with it. But as I sat still and
said nothing, the people of the house perceived nothing. And as I sat
still under it and let it alone, a living hope and a true voice arose
in me, which said, "There is a living God who made all things."[26]
Immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose
over it all; my heart was glad, and I praised the living God.
[26] See Whittier's poem, "Revelation."
After some time I met with some people who had a notion that there
was no God, but that all things come by nature. I had a great dispute
with them, and overturned them, and made some of them confess that
there is a living God. Then I saw that it was good that I had gone
through that exercise.[O] We had great meetings in those parts;
for the power of the Lord broke through in that side of the country.
[O] He means experience.
Returning into Nottinghamshire, I found there a company of shattered
Baptists, and others. The Lord's power wrought mightily, and gathered
many of them. Afterwards I went to Mansfield and thereaway, where
the Lord's power was wonderfully manifested both at Mansfield and
other towns thereabouts.
In Derbyshire the mighty power of God wrought in a wonderful manner.
At Eton, a town near Derby, there was a meeting of Friends,[27] where
appeared such a mighty power of God that they were greatly shaken,
and many mouths were opened in the power of the Lord God. Many were
moved by the Lord to go to steeple-houses, to the priests and people,
to declare the everlasting truth unto them.
[27] There is no account of the origin of this meeting, which
seems to have been in existence before Fox came to Eton. There
seems to have been considerable definite work done which is
not detailed in the "Journal." [See "Epistles," Vol. I., page
2, "Truth sprang up (to us as to be a people of the Lord) in
Derbyshire in 1647."] Eton is in Derbyshire.
At a certain time, when I was at Mansfield, there was a sitting of
the justices about hiring of servants; and it was upon me from the
Lord to go and speak to the justices, that they should not oppress
the servants in their wages. So I walked towards the inn where they
sat; but finding a company of fiddlers there, I did not go in, but
thought to come in the morning, when I might have a more serious
opportunity to discourse with them.
But when I came in the morning, they were gone, and I was struck
even blind, that I could not see. I inquired of the innkeeper where
the justices were to sit that day; and he told me, at a town eight
miles off. My sight began to come to me again; and I went and ran
thitherward as fast as I could. When I was come to the house where
they were, and many servants with them, I exhorted the justices not
to oppress the servants in their wages, but to do that which was
right and just to them; and I exhorted the servants to do their
duties, and serve honestly.[28] They all received my exhortation
kindly; for I was moved of the Lord therein.
[28] This is an interesting illustration of Fox's sensitiveness
to wrong social conditions and of the practical character of his
religion.
Moreover, I was moved to go to several courts and steeple-houses at
Mansfield, and other places, to warn them to leave off oppression
and oaths, and to turn from deceit to the Lord, and to do justly.
Particularly at Mansfield, after I had been at a court there, I
was moved to go and speak to one of the most wicked men in the
country, one who was a common drunkard, a noted whore-master, and a
rhyme-maker; and I reproved him in the dread of the mighty God, for
his evil courses.
When I had done speaking, and left him, he came after me, and told me
that he was so smitten when I spoke to him, that he had scarcely any
strength left in him. So this man was convinced, and turned from his
wickedness, and remained an honest, sober man, to the astonishment of
the people who had known him before.
Thus the work of the Lord went forward, and many were turned from
the darkness to the light, within the compass of these three years,
1646, 1647 and 1648. Divers meetings of Friends, in several places,
were then gathered to God's teaching, by his light, Spirit, and
power; for the Lord's power broke forth more and more wonderfully.
Now I was come up in spirit through the flaming sword, into the
paradise of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave unto
me another smell than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew
nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness; being renewed
into the image of God by Christ Jesus, to the state of Adam, which
he was in before he fell. The creation was opened to me; and it was
showed me how all things had their names given them according to
their nature and virtue.
I was at a stand in my mind whether I should practise physic for the
good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of things were so
opened to me by the Lord. But I was immediately taken up in spirit to
see into another or more steadfast state than Adam's innocency, even
into a state in Christ Jesus that should never fall. And the Lord
showed me that such as were faithful to Him, in the power and light
of Christ, should come up into that state in which Adam was before he
fell; in which the admirable works of the creation, and the virtues
thereof, may be known, through the openings of that divine Word of
wisdom and power by which they were made.
Great things did the Lord lead me into, and wonderful depths were
opened unto me, beyond what can by words be declared; but as people
come into subjection to the Spirit of God, and grow up in the image
and power of the Almighty, they may receive the Word of wisdom that
opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal
Being.[29]
[29] This passage which records a striking personal experience is
undated. It is strangely like an experience of the great German
mystic, Jacob Boehme, whose works were published in England
about the time Fox was beginning his missionary labors. He, too,
had all nature opened to him, so that he says he saw the true
significance and essence of things. See Jacob Boehme, "Signatura
Rerum," which was published in English in 1649. Muggleton, in his
"Looking Glass for G. Fox" (second edition, 1756, page 10), says
that the writings of Boehme are the "chief books" bought by the
followers of Fox.
Thus I travelled on in the Lord's service, as He led me. When I came
to Nottingham, the mighty power of God was there among Friends.[30]
From thence I went to Clawson, in Leicestershire, in the Vale of
Beavor; and the mighty power of God appeared there also, in several
towns and villages where Friends were gathered.
[30] The name "Friends" is apparently used as formerly on page 77
to designate the gatherings of persons who sympathized with Fox's
message and who _afterwards_ were called "Friends."
While I was there the Lord opened to me three things relating to
those three great professions in the world,--law, physic, and
divinity (so called). He showed me that the physicians were out of
the wisdom of God, by which the creatures were made; and knew not
the virtues of the creatures, because they were out of the Word of
wisdom, by which they were made. He showed me that the priests were
out of the true faith, of which Christ is the author,--the faith
which purifies, gives victory and brings people to have access to
God, by which they please God; the mystery of which faith is held in
a pure conscience. He showed me also that the lawyers were out of the
equity, out of the true justice, and out of the law of God, which
went over the first transgression, and over all sin, and answered
the Spirit of God that was grieved and transgressed in man; and that
these three,--the physicians, the priests, and the lawyers,--ruled
the world out of the wisdom, out of the faith, and out of the equity
and law of God; one pretending the cure of the body, another the cure
of the soul, and the third the protection of the property of the
people. But I saw they were all out of the wisdom, out of the faith,
out of the equity and perfect law of God.
And as the Lord opened these things unto me I felt that His power
went forth over all, by which all might be reformed if they
would receive and bow unto it. The priests might be reformed and
brought into the true faith, which is the gift of God. The lawyers
might be reformed and brought into the law of God, which answers
that [indwelling Spirit] of God[31] which is [in every one, is]
transgressed in every one, and [which yet, if heeded] brings one to
love his neighbour as himself. This lets man see that if he wrongs
his neighbour, he wrongs himself; and teaches him to do unto others
as he would they should do unto him. The physicians might be reformed
and brought into the wisdom of God, by which all things were made and
created; that they might receive a right knowledge of the creatures,
and understand their virtues, which the Word of wisdom, by which they
were made and are upheld, hath given them.
[31] One could wish that this important account of Fox's
practical mission to the world were more clearly expressed than
is here done in his phraseology, which needs translation into
modern terms. There is, he means to say, a universal Divine
principle or law of life which finds expression or voice in every
soul. "That of God" in the individual "answers" or corresponds
with the universal Divine principle. But, unfortunately, this
Divine Light within is disobeyed, and thus men are astray--out of
their true life and function. Fox's mission is to call all such
to obedience to "that of God" within them.
Abundance was opened concerning these things; how all lay out of the
wisdom of God, and out of the righteousness and holiness that man at
the first was made in. But as all believe in the Light, and walk in
the Light,--that Light with which Christ hath enlightened every man
that cometh into the world,--and become children of the Light, and of
the day of Christ, all things, visible and invisible, are seen, by
the divine Light of Christ, the spiritual heavenly man, by whom all
things were created.
Moreover, when I was brought up into His image in righteousness
and holiness, and into the paradise of God He let me see how Adam
was made a living soul; and also the stature of Christ, the mystery
that had been hid from ages and generations: which things are
hard to be uttered, and cannot be borne by many. For of all the
sects in Christendom (so called) that I discoursed with, I found
none who could bear to be told that any should come to Adam's
perfection,--into that image of God, that righteousness and holiness,
that Adam was in before he fell; to be clean and pure, without sin,
as he was. Therefore how shall they be able to bear being told that
any shall grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ, when they cannot bear to hear that any shall come, whilst
upon earth, into the same power and Spirit that the prophets and
apostles were in?--though it be a certain truth that none can
understand their writings aright without the same Spirit by which
they were written.
Now the Lord God opened to me by His invisible power that every man
was enlightened by the divine Light of Christ,[32] and I saw it
shine through all; and that they that believed in it came out of
condemnation to the Light of life, and became the children of it;
but they that hated it, and did not believe in it, were condemned by
it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure
openings of the Light without the help of any man; neither did I then
know where to find it in the Scriptures; though afterwards, searching
the Scriptures, I found it. For I saw, in that Light and Spirit which
was before the Scriptures were given forth, and which led the holy
men of God to give them forth, that all, if they would know God or
Christ, or the Scriptures aright, must come to that Spirit by which
they that gave them forth were led and taught.
[32] This is the central teaching of George Fox. Everything else
comes out of this elemental truth. It is, as he says, clearly
enough taught in the Scriptures, but he now saw the truth as an
immediate revelation--as a primary fact of experience.
On a certain time, as I was walking in the fields, the Lord said unto
me, "Thy name is written in the Lamb's book of life, which was before
the foundation of the world": and as the Lord spoke it, I believed,
and saw in it the new birth. Some time after the Lord commanded me to
go abroad into the world, which was like a briery, thorny wilderness.
When I came in the Lord's mighty power with the Word of life into
the world, the world swelled, and made a noise like the great raging
waves of the sea. Priests and professors, magistrates and people,
were all like a sea when I came to proclaim the day of the Lord
amongst them, and to preach repentance to them.
I was sent to turn people from darkness to the Light, that they might
receive Christ Jesus; for to as many as should receive Him in His
light, I saw He would give power to become the sons of God; which
power I had obtained by receiving Christ. I was to direct people to
the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures, by which they might be led
into all truth, and up to Christ and God, as those had been who gave
them forth.
Yet I had no slight esteem of the holy Scriptures. They were very
precious to me; for I was in that Spirit by which they were given
forth; and what the Lord opened in me I afterwards found was
agreeable to them. I could speak much of these things, and many
volumes might be written upon them; but all would prove too short to
set forth the infinite love, wisdom, and power of God, in preparing,
fitting, and furnishing me for the service to which He had appointed
me; letting me see the depths of Satan on the one hand, and opening
to me, on the other hand, the divine mysteries of His own everlasting
kingdom.
When the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ sent me forth into the
world to preach His everlasting gospel and kingdom, I was glad that I
was commanded to turn people to that inward Light, Spirit, and Grace,
by which all might know their salvation and their way to God; even
that Divine Spirit which would lead them into all truth, and which I
infallibly knew would never deceive any.[33]
[33] The soul's own assurance of salvation was well proclaimed
by Luther, but the high and joyous experience was well-nigh lost
in Calvinistic England. Fox reaffirms the privilege of this
experience. He proclaims no man's infallibility, but rather the
infallibility of the Spirit, in union with which a man may know
that he pleases God.
But with and by this divine power and Spirit of God, and the Light of
Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, to Christ,
the new and living way; and from their churches, which men had made
and gathered, to the Church in God, the general assembly written in
heaven, of which Christ is the head. And I was to bring them off from
the world's teachers, made by men, to learn of Christ, who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, of whom the Father said, "This is my
beloved Son, hear ye Him"; and off from all the world's worships, to
know the Spirit of Truth in the inward parts, and to be led thereby;
that in it they might worship the Father of spirits, who seeks such
to worship Him. And I saw that they that worshipped not in the Spirit
of Truth, knew not what they worshipped.
And I was to bring people off from all the world's religions, which
are vain, that they might know the pure religion; might visit the
fatherless, the widows, and the strangers, and keep themselves from
the spots of the world. Then there would not be so many beggars,
the sight of whom often grieved my heart, as it denoted so much
hard-heartedness amongst them that professed the name of Christ.
I was to bring them off from all the world's fellowships, and
prayings, and singings, which stood in forms without power; that
their fellowship might be in the Holy Ghost, and in the Eternal
Spirit of God; that they might pray in the Holy Ghost, and sing in
the Spirit and with the grace that comes by Jesus; making melody in
their hearts to the Lord, who hath sent His beloved Son to be their
Saviour, and hath caused His heavenly sun to shine upon all the
world, and His heavenly rain to fall upon the just and the unjust,
as His outward rain doth, fall, and His outward sun doth shine on all.
I was to bring people off from Jewish ceremonies, and from heathenish
fables,[34] and from men's inventions and worldly doctrines, by which
they blew the people about this way and the other, from sect to
sect; and from all their beggarly rudiments, with their schools and
colleges for making ministers of Christ,--who are indeed ministers
of their own making, but not of Christ's; and from all their images,
and crosses, and sprinkling of infants, with all their holy-days (so
called), and all their vain traditions, which they had instituted
since the Apostles' days, against all of which the Lord's power was
set: in the dread and authority of which power I was moved to declare
against them all, and against all that preached and not freely, as
being such as had not received freely from Christ.
[34] By a clear spiritual insight Fox saw how large a
contribution both Judaism and Paganism had made to the historic
church. He went to work to carry the reformation to its logical
conclusion. To re-instate primitive Christianity was his aim.
Moreover, when the Lord sent me forth into the world, He forbade me
to put off my hat to any, high or low; and I was required to Thee and
Thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or
small.[35] And as I travelled up and down I was not to bid people
Good morrow, or Good evening; neither might I bow or scrape with my
leg to any one; and this made the sects and professions to rage. But
the Lord's power carried me over all to His glory, and many came to
be turned to God in a little time; for the heavenly day of the Lord
sprung from on high, and broke forth apace, by the light of which
many came to see where they were.
[35] The real principles here involved were simplicity of life,
equal respect for _all_ men alike, and strict sincerity. It must
be confessed that these principles have sometimes been lost sight
of, and dress and language have sometimes become a form to those
who opposed all forms.
Oh, the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments that we
underwent for not putting off our hats to men! Some had their hats
violently plucked off and thrown away, so that they quite lost them.
The bad language and evil usage we received on this account are hard
to be expressed, besides the danger we were sometimes in of losing
our lives for this matter; and that by the great professors of
Christianity, who thereby discovered they were not true believers.
And though it was but a small thing in the eye of man, yet a
wonderful confusion it brought among all professors and priests;
but, blessed be the Lord, many came to see the vanity of that custom
of putting off the hat to men, and felt the weight of Truth's
testimony[P] against it.
[P] That is, the testimony of the Spirit.
About this time I was sorely exercised in going to their courts to
cry for justice, in speaking and writing to judges and justices to
do justly; in warning such as kept public houses for entertainment
that they should not let people have more drink than would do them
good; in testifying against wakes, feasts, May-games, sports, plays,
and shows, which trained up people to vanity and looseness, and led
them from the fear of God; and the days set forth for holidays were
usually the times wherein they most dishonoured God by these things.
In fairs, also, and in markets, I was made to declare against their
deceitful merchandise, cheating, and cozening; warning all to deal
justly, to speak the truth, to let their yea be yea, and their nay be
nay, and to do unto others as they would have others do unto them;
forewarning them of the great and terrible day of the Lord, which
would come upon them all.
I was moved, also, to cry against all sorts of music, and against
the mountebanks playing tricks on their stages; for they burthened
the pure life, and stirred up people's minds to vanity. I was
much exercised, too, with school-masters and school-mistresses,
warning them to teach children sobriety in the fear of the Lord,
that they might not be nursed and trained up in lightness, vanity,
and wantonness. I was made to warn masters and mistresses, fathers
and mothers in private families, to take care that their children
and servants might be trained up in the fear of the Lord, and that
themselves should be therein examples and patterns of sobriety and
virtue to them.
The earthly spirit of the priests wounded my life; and when I heard
the bell toll to call people together to the steeple-house, it struck
at my life; for it was just like a market-bell, to gather people
together, that the priest might set forth his ware for sale. Oh, the
vast sums of money that are gotten by the trade they make of selling
the Scriptures, and by their preaching, from the highest bishop to
the lowest priest! What one trade else in the world is comparable
to it? notwithstanding the Scriptures were given forth freely, and
Christ commanded His ministers to preach freely, and the prophets
and apostles denounced judgment against all covetous hirelings and
diviners for money.
But in this free Spirit of the Lord Jesus was I sent forth to declare
the Word of life and reconciliation freely, that all might come to
Christ, who gives freely, and who renews up into the image of God,
which man and woman were in before they fell, that they might sit
down in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.