1648-1649.—Begins to have great meetings—at Mansfield he is moved to
pray—the Lord’s power so great the house is shaken—cannot pray in
his own will—a temptation besets him that there is no God, which is
dissipated by an inward voice—he afterwards disputes with and
confounds some Atheists—goes to courts and steeple-houses, &c., to
warn against oppression and oaths—reproves a notorious drunkard, who
is reformed—sees who are the greatest deceivers—shows how people
read and understand the Scriptures—various mysteries are revealed to
him—he is sent to turn people to the Inward Light, Spirit, and
Grace, the Divine Spirit which he infallibly knew would not
deceive—priests and professors rage at these innovations—he cries
for justice in courts and against various wrong things—denounces the
trade of preaching—is sent to preach freely.
In the year 1648, as I was sitting in a friend’s house in
Nottinghamshire (for by this time the power of God had opened the hearts
of some to receive the word of life and reconciliation,) I saw there was
a great crack to go throughout the earth, and a great smoke to go as the
crack went; and that after the crack there should be a great shaking:
this was the earth in people’s hearts, which was to be shaken before the
seed of God was raised out of the earth. And it was so; for the Lord’s
power began to shake them, and great meetings we begun to have, and a
mighty power and work of God there was amongst people, to the
astonishment of both people and priests.
And there was a meeting of priests and professors at a justice’s house,
and I went among them. Here they discoursed how Paul said, “He had not
known sin, but by the law, which said, Thou shalt not lust:” and they
held that to be spoken of the outward law. But I told them, Paul spoke
that after he was convinced; for he had the outward law before, and was
brought up in it, when he was in the lust of persecution; but this was
the law of God in his mind, which he served, and which the law in his
members warred against; for that which he thought had been life to him,
proved death. So the more sober of the priests and professors yielded,
and consented that it was not the outward law, but the inward, which
showed the inward lust which Paul spoke of after he was convinced: for
the outward law took hold upon the outward action; but the inward law
upon the inward lust.
After this I went again 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. 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.
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. 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
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. 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.”
This set them all on fire: the priest came down out of his pulpit, and
others out of their pews, and the dispute there was marred. But I went
to a great inn, and there disputed the thing with the priests and
professors of all sorts; and they were all on a fire. But I maintained
the true church, and the true head thereof, over the heads of them all,
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 infants’ baptism, though he
himself had been a Baptist before; and so left me alone. Howbeit, there
were several convinced that day; and 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, and went into the VALE OF
BEAVOR. As I went, I preached repentance to the people; and there were
many convinced in the Vale of Beavor, in many towns; for I stayed some
weeks amongst them. One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, a great
cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me; but I sat still. And 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 silent, the people of the house perceived nothing. And as I
sat still under it, and let it alone, a living hope arose in me, and a
true voice, which said, “There _is_ a living God who made all things.”
And immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose
over it all; my heart was glad, and I praised the living God. After some
time, I met with some people who had a notion that there was no God, but
that all things came 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.
We had great meetings in those parts, for the power of the Lord broke
through in that part of the country. Returning into NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, I
found there a company of shattered Baptists, and others; and 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 neighbouring towns. In Derbyshire
the mighty power of God wrought in a wonderful manner. At EATON, a town
near Derby, there was a meeting of Friends, where there was 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 to the people, to declare the
everlasting truth unto them.
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, not thinking that a seasonable time. But when I came again 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, &c. They all received my
exhortation kindly; for I was moved of the Lord therein.
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 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 was I come up in Spirit through the flaming sword, into the paradise
of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave another smell
unto me 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 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.
Thus I travelled on in the Lord’s service, as the Lord led me. And when
I came to NOTTINGHAM, the mighty power of God was there among Friends.
From thence I went to CLAWSON in Leicestershire, in the VALE of BEAVOR,
and the mighty power of God was there also, in several towns and
villages where Friends were gathered. While I was there, the Lord opened
to me three things, relating to those three great professions in the
world, physic, divinity (so called), and law. He showed me that the
physicians were out of the wisdom of God, by which the creatures were
made; and so knew not their virtues, 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, which Christ is the author of; the faith which
purifies and gives victory, and brings people to have access to God, by
which they please God; which mystery of faith is held in a pure
conscience. He showed me also, that the lawyers were out of the equity,
and 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; the one
pretending the cure of the body, the other the cure of the soul, and the
third the property of the people. But I saw they were all out of 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 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
was the gift of God. The lawyers might be reformed, and brought into the
law of God, which answers that of God, which is transgressed, in every
one, and brings to love one’s neighbour as himself. This lets man see,
if he wrongs his neighbour he wrongs himself; and this 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 them, and
understand their virtues, which the Word of Wisdom, by which they were
made and are upheld, hath given 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, which Christ hath
enlightened every man that cometh into the world withal, and so become
children of the light, and of the day of Christ; in his day all things
are seen, visible and invisible, by the divine light of Christ, the
spiritual, heavenly man, by whom all things were made and created.
Then I saw concerning the priests, that although they stood in deceit,
and acted by the dark power, which both they and their people were kept
under; yet they were not the greatest deceivers spoken of in the
Scriptures; for these were not come so far as many of them had come. But
the Lord opened to me who the greatest deceivers were, and how far they
might come; even such as came as far as Cain, to hear the voice of God;
and such as came out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea, and to praise
God on the banks of the sea-shore; such as could speak by experience of
God’s miracles and wonders; such as were come as far as Korah and
Dathan, and their company; such as were come as far as Balaam, who could
speak the word of the Lord, who heard his voice and knew it, and knew
his Spirit, and could see the star of Jacob, and the goodliness of
Israel’s tent; the second birth, which no enchantment could prevail
against: these that could speak so much of their experiences of God, and
yet turned from the Spirit and the Word, and went into the gainsaying;
these were, and would be, the great deceivers, far beyond the priests.
Likewise among the Christians, such as should preach in Christ’s name,
and should work miracles, cast out devils, and go as far as a Cain, a
Korah, and a Balaam, in the gospel times, these were and would be the
great deceivers. They that could speak some experiences of Christ and
God, but lived not in the life: these were they that led the world after
them, who got the form of godliness, but denied the power; who inwardly
ravened from the Spirit, and brought people into the form, but
persecuted them that were in the power, as Cain did; and ran greedily
after the error of Balaam, through covetousness, loving the wages of
unrighteousness, as Balaam did. These followers of Cain, Korah, and
Balaam have brought the world, since the apostles’ days, to be like a
sea. And such as these, I saw, might deceive now, as they had in former
ages: but it is impossible for them to deceive the elect, who are chosen
in Christ, who was before the world began, and before the deceiver was;
though others may be deceived in their openings and prophecies, not
keeping their minds to the Lord Jesus Christ, who doth open and reveal
to his.
I saw the state of those, both priests and people, who, in reading the
Scriptures, cry out much against Cain, Esau, and Judas, and other wicked
men of former times, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures; but do not see
the nature of Cain, of Esau, of Judas, and those others, in themselves.
These said, it was they, they, they, that were the bad people; putting
it off from themselves: but when some of these came, with the light and
Spirit of truth, to see into themselves, then they came to say, I, I, I,
it is I myself that have been the Ishmael, and the Esau, &c. For then
they came to see the nature of wild Ishmael in themselves; the nature of
Cain, of Esau, of Korah, of Balaam, and of the son of perdition in
themselves, sitting above all that is called God in them. Thus I saw it
was the fallen man that was got up into the Scriptures, and was finding
fault with those before mentioned; and, with the backsliding Jews,
calling them the sturdy oaks, and tall cedars, and fat bulls of Bashan,
wild heifers, vipers, serpents, &c.; and charging them that it was they
that closed their eyes, and stopped their ears, and hardened their
hearts, and were dull of hearing: that it was they that hated the light
and rebelled against it; that quenched the Spirit, and vexed, and
grieved it; that walked despitefully against the Spirit of grace, and
turned the grace of God into wantonness; and that it was they that
resisted the Holy Ghost, that got the form of godliness, and turned
against the power: and they were the inwardly ravening wolves, that had
got the sheep’s clothing; they were the wells without water, and clouds
without rain, and trees without fruit, &c. But when these, who were so
much taken up with finding fault with others, and thought themselves
clear from these things, came to look into themselves, and with the
light of Christ thoroughly to search themselves, they might see enough
of this in themselves; and then the cry could not be, it is he, or they,
as before; but I and we are found in these conditions.
I saw also, how people read the Scriptures without a right sense of
them, and without duly applying them to their own states. For, when they
read that death reigned from Adam to Moses; that the law and the
prophets were until John; and that the least in the kingdom is greater
than John; they read these things and applied them to others, but they
did not turn in to find the truth of these things in themselves. As
these things came to be opened in me, I saw death reigned over them from
Adam to Moses; from the entrance into transgression, till they came to
the ministration of condemnation, which restrains people from sin that
brings death. Then, when the ministration of Moses is passed through,
the ministry of the prophets comes to be read and understood, which
reaches through the figures, types, and shadows unto John, the greatest
prophet born of a woman; whose ministration prepares the way of the
Lord, by bringing down the exalted mountains, and making straight paths.
And as this ministration is passed through, an entrance comes to be
known into the everlasting kingdom. Thus I saw plainly that none could
read Moses aright, without Moses’ spirit, by which Moses saw how man was
in the image of God in Paradise, and how he fell, how death came over
him, and how all men have been under this death. I saw how Moses
received the pure law, that went over all transgressors; and how the
clean beasts, which were figures and types, were offered up, when the
people were come into the righteous law that went over the first
transgression. Both Moses and the prophets saw through the types and
figures and beyond them, and saw Christ, the great prophet, that was to
come to fulfil them. I saw that none could read John’s words aright, and
with a true understanding of them, but in and with the same divine
Spirit by which John spoke them; and by his burning, shining light,
which is sent from God. For by that Spirit their crooked natures might
be made straight, and their rough natures smooth, and the exacter and
violent doer in them might be cast out; and they that had been
hypocrites might come to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and
their mountain of sin and earthliness might be laid low, and their
valley exalted in them, that there might be a way prepared for the Lord
in them: then the least of the kingdom is greater than John. But all
must first know the voice crying in the wilderness, in their hearts,
which through transgression, were become a wilderness. Thus I saw it was
an easy matter to say death reigned from Adam to Moses; and that the law
and the prophets were until John; and that the least in the kingdom is
greater than John; but none could know _how_ death reigned from Adam to
Moses, &c., but by the same Holy Spirit that Moses, the prophets, and
John were in. They could not know the spiritual meaning of Moses’, the
prophets’, and John’s words, nor see their path and travels, much less
see through them, and to the end of them into the kingdom, unless they
had the Spirit and light of Jesus; nor could they know the words of
Christ, and of his apostles, without his Spirit. But as man comes
through by the Spirit and power of God, to Christ, who fulfils the
types, figures, shadows, promises, and prophecies that were of him, and
is led by the Holy Ghost into the truth and substance of the Scriptures,
sitting down in him who is the author and end of them; then are they
read, and understood with profit and great delight.
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 withal, I found none that could bear to be
told that any should come to Adam’s perfection, into the image of God,
that righteousness and holiness that Adam was in before he fell; to be
clear and pure without sin, as he was. Therefore how should they be able
to bear being told that any should grow up to the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ, when they cannot bear to hear that any should
come, whilst upon earth, into the same power and Spirit that the
prophets and apostles were in? Though it is 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;” 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 must come to that Spirit, if they would know God, or Christ, or the
Scriptures aright, which they that gave them forth were led and taught
by.
But I observed a dulness and drowsy heaviness upon people, which I
wondered at: for sometimes when I would set myself to sleep, my mind
went over all to the beginning, in that which is from everlasting to
everlasting. I saw death was to pass over this sleepy heavy state; and I
told people they must come to witness death to that sleepy, heavy
nature, and a cross to it in the power of God, that their minds and
hearts might be on things above.
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 it in the new birth. Then, some time after, the Lord commanded me to
go abroad into the world, which was like a briery thorny wilderness; and
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 that he would give power to become the sons of God; which 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 so up to Christ and God, as they had been who gave them
forth. I was to turn them to the grace of God, and to the truth in the
heart, which came by Jesus; that by this grace they might be taught,
which would bring them salvation, that their hearts might be established
by it, and their words might be seasoned, and all might come to know
their salvation nigh. I saw that Christ died for all men, and was a
propitiation for all; and enlightened all men and women with his divine
and saving light; and that none could be a true believer, but who
believed in it. I saw that the grace of God, which bringeth salvation,
had appeared to all men, and that the manifestation of the Spirit of God
was given to every man, to profit withal. These things I did not see by
the help of man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the
letter, but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his
immediate Spirit and power, as did the holy men of God, by whom the Holy
Scriptures were written. Yet I had no slight esteem of the holy
Scriptures, but 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, 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 he had appointed me to;
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.
Now, 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.
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
which Christ is the head of: and 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; which Spirit they that
worshipped not in, 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 caused his heavenly sun to shine upon all the world,
and through them all, 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), which is God’s unspeakable love to the world. I was to
bring people off from Jewish ceremonies, and from heathenish fables, and
from men’s inventions and windy doctrines, by which they blew the people
about this way and the other way, 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, which
the Lord’s power was against: in the dread and authority of which, 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.
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.
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.
But O! the rage that then was in the priests, magistrates, professors,
and people of all sorts; but especially in priests and professors! for,
though Thou, to a single person, was according to their own learning,
their accidence, and grammar rules, and according to the Bible, yet they
could not bear to hear it: and as to the hat-honour, because I could not
put off my hat to them, it set them all into a rage. But the Lord showed
me that it was an honour below, which he would lay in the dust, and
stain;—an honour which proud flesh looked for, but sought not the honour
which came from God only;—an honour invented by men in the fall, and in
the alienation from God, who were offended if it were not given them;
and yet they would be looked upon as saints, church-members and great
Christians: but Christ saith, “How can ye believe, who receive honour
one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” “And
I (saith Christ) receive not honour of men:” showing that men have an
honour, which men will receive and give; but Christ will have none of
it. This is the honour which Christ will not receive, and which must be
laid in the dust. O! the rage and scorn, the heat and fury that arose!
O! the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments that we underwent,
for not putting off our hats to men! for that soon tried all men’s
patience and sobriety what it was. 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 evinced
that 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 against it.
About this time I was sorely exercised in going to their courts to cry
for justice, and 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; and
in testifying against their wakes or 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 they had set forth for holy-days were
usually the times wherein they most dishonoured God by these things.[7]
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 their children sobriety in the fear of the Lord, that they
might not be nursed and trained up in lightness, vanity, and wantonness.
Likewise 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 they themselves should
be therein examples and patterns of sobriety and virtue to them. For I
saw that as the Jews were to teach their children the law of God and the
old covenant, and to train them up in it, and their servants, yea, the
very strangers were to keep the Sabbath amongst them, and be
circumcised, before they might eat of their sacrifices; so all
Christians, and all that made a profession of Christianity, ought to
train up their children and servants in the new covenant of light,
Christ Jesus, who is God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, that all
may know their salvation: and they ought to train them up in the law of
life, the law of the Spirit, the law of love and of faith; that they
might be made free from the law of sin and death. And all Christians
ought to be circumcised by the Spirit, which puts off the body of the
sins of the flesh, that they may come to eat of the heavenly sacrifice,
Christ Jesus, that true spiritual food, which none can rightly feed upon
but they that are circumcised by the Spirit. Likewise, I was exercised
about the star-gazers, who drew people’s minds from Christ, the bright
and the morning star; and from the Sun of righteousness, by whom the
sun, and moon, and stars, and all things else were made, who is the
wisdom of God, and from whom the right knowledge of all things is
received.
Footnote 7:
By a royal proclamation of James I., issued in 1618 (for Lancashire),
these pastimes were made lawful recreations for the First-day of the
week, provided they did not interfere with the times appointed for
worship. Many of the clergy at first refused to promulgate the
proclamation, though by so doing they acted contrary to their
canonical obedience, and laid themselves open to penalties. In the
seventh year of Charles I., this proclamation, at the instigation of
Archbishop Laud, was revived, and extended to the whole nation, and
was enjoined to be published and advocated from the pulpit by all
ministers, to their disgrace. By the revival of this offensive
proclamation, these disorderly revels had arrived to such a height of
licentious depravity, that some well-disposed justices, in the county
of Somerset, petitioned the judges on the western circuit, Sir Thomas
Richardson, Lord Chief Justice, and Baron Denham, to suppress them.
For so doing, they were summoned before the King and Council, by
Archbishop Laud, for illegally interfering with the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, and the council rescinded the prohibitions, and
cashiered the judges.—(See Fuller’s _Church Hist._, Book x., p. 74:
and Book xi., p. 147).
But 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 to sale. O! 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.