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Spence MS — The ‘Long Journal’ |
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This part of the edition is for those readers who find the original seventeenth-century spelling and its contemporary corrections distracting, and want to read Fox's own words as a continuous narrative. The notes and other material are accessed from the text in the same way as in the more detailed versions: click on a link to bring up more information. You can go to the manuscript images and original text at any time by clicking on the page references which appear in this version. This will bring up a smaller window in which you can see the original version and the image of the manuscript page, and will take you through to other choices. The narrative is divided into sections with headings. These are not in the original manuscript. You can go to a particular part of the narrative by clicking on the index below. |
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Arnside: the Curing of Richard Myer Haltcliff Hall, Wigton, ?Caldbeck Meetings in Cumberland & Westmorland County Durham and Northumberland Growth & Good Reputation of the Movement
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[fol. 29v] ... the Lord came to me, ‘Eat not thy bread with such as has an evil eye’: and I got up from the table; and so ate nothing — and the woman was a Baptist — and after I had admonished her and the people to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and hearken to him their teacher, I passed away. And so we passed through the Country preaching repentance to the people, and came into a market town on the market day: and there was a lecture. And I went into the steeplehouse where there was a many priests and professors and people: and the priest took his text out of Jeremiah the 5th, the latter part of the Chapter: ‘The people love to have it so’, and left out the other part of the verse, ‘The priests bear rule by their means: and the people love to have it so’. And so I showed to the people his deceit, and directed them to Christ, their true teacher, & warned them of the day of the Lord, and that God was come to teach his people himself and to bring them off all the world’s teachers and hirelings, and that they might come to receive freely from him. And so I passed away from there without much persecution; and at night we came to a Country house; and there was no alehouse near, but they desired us to stay all night, where we had a good service there for the Lord, declaring his truth amongst them. And the next day we passed on: for the Lord had said unto me, if that I did but set up one in the same spirit that the prophets and Apostles was in that gave forth the scripture, he or she should shake all the country in their profession for ten miles about them. [fol. 30r] And if they did own God and Christ and his prophets and Apostles, they must own him or her: for all people had the Scriptures but was not in that same light & power & spirit that they was in that gave forth the Scriptures, and so they neither knew God nor Christ nor the prophets nor the Apostles nor the Scriptures, neither had they unity one with another: being out of the power and spirit of God. And so we passed on, warning people as we met them of the day of the Lord was coming upon them. and as we went I spied a great high hill called Pendle Hill: And I went on the top of it with much ado, it was so steep; but I was moved of the Lord to go atop of it; and when I came atop of it I saw Lancashire sea; and there atop of the hill I was moved to sound the day of the Lord. And the Lord let me see atop of the hill in what places he had a great people; and so on the hill’s side I found a spring of water and refreshed myself. for I had eaten little and drunk little for several days. And so at night we came to an inn, and declared much to the man of the house, and writ a paper to the priests and professors concerning the day of the Lord, and how God and Christ was come to teach people himself by his power and spirit, and to bring them off all the world’s ways and teachers, to his own free teaching who had bought them and was their Saviour. And the man of the house did spread the paper up & down and was mightily affected with truth. And the Lord opened to me at that place, and let me see a great people in white-raiment by a river’s side coming [fol. 30v] to the Lord: and the place was near John Blaikling’s where Richard Robinson lived. And the next day we passed on; and at night we got a little ferns or brackens & lay upon a common; & the next morning went to a town, and so there Richard Farnsworth parted with me, and then I was alone again. So I came up Wensleydale: and at the market town in that dale there was a lecture on the market day, so I went into the steeplehouse, and after the priest had done I declared the day of the Lord to the priests & people, & turned them from the darkness to the light, & from the power of Satan unto God, that they might come to God and Christ’s teaching freely; and declared freely and largely the word of life to the people; and had not much persecution. And after passed up the Dales, warning people to fear God, and declaring his truth to them; and at last I came to a great house where there was a schoolmaster, and they got me into the house, and I declared the truth to them, and asking them questions about their religions and worships. And they had me into a parlour and locked me in, and said I was a young man that was mad, and was got away from my relations, and they would keep me till they could send to my relations: but I convinced them of that, and they let me forth. And they would have had me to have stayed, but I was not to stay, but admonished them and turned them to the light of Christ, by which they might come to see their salvation. So in the night I came to a little alehouse where there was a company drinking, and because I would not drink with them they got up clubs: and was [fol. 31r] striking at me in a rage; and when I had cooled them and warned them, I walked out upon the common in the night, and one of the fellows came out with a batch of knives by his side and under pretence that he would have whispered with me; but I kept him off and warned him to repent; so the Lord preserved me by his power from him, and he went into the house again. And the next morning I passed away, and came through other Dales, and warned and exhorted people to repent and turn to the Lord; and several was convinced. And I came to a house, a kinsman of John Blaykling’s, and he would have given me money, but I would not receive it. So I came through the Dales to Major Bousfield’s, where he and several more received me there, and some was convinced, and stands to this day. And I passed through Grisedale, and several other of those dales, where some was convinced. But before I came to Major Bousfield’s, I came to a man's house, one Tennant’s, and I was moved to speak to them; and as I was turning away from them, I was moved again to turn again and to declare God’s everlasting truth to him; and he was convinced, and his family, and lived [and] died in the truth. And after this I went into Dent where many was convinced also. And from Major Bousfield’s I came to Richard Robinson’s; and as I was passing along the way, I asked a man ‘which was Richard Robinson’s?’, and he asked me from whence I came, and I told him, ‘from the Lord’. And so when I came in to Richard Robinson’s I declared the everlasting truth to him; and then a dark jealousy riz up in him after I was gone to bed, that I might be somebody that was come to rob his house; and he locked all his doors fast. And the next day I went to a Separate meeting at Justice Benson’s, where the people was generally convinced; and this was the place that I had seen a people [fol. 31v] coming forth in white raiment; and a mighty meeting there was and is to this day near Sedbergh which I gathered in the name of Jesus. And in the weekday there was a great fair for hiri[ng] *servants;* and I went to the fair and declared through the fair the day of the Lord; and after I had done I went into the steeplehouse yard, and most of the people of the faire came to me, and abundance of priests and professors; and there I declared the everlasting truth of the Lord and the word of life for several hours, and that the Lord and Christ Jesus was come to teach his people himself, and to bring them off all the world’s ways and teachers to Christ their way to God; and laid open all their teachers and set up the true teacher Christ Jesus; and how they was judged by the prophets, Christ, and the Apostles; and to bring them off the temples made with hands, that they themselves might know they was the temples of God, and never a priest had power to open his mouth. But at last a Captain said, why would I not go into the church? (and I said unto him I denied their church), for ‘that was a fit place to preach in ’, he said. And there stood up a Separate preacher, one Francis Howgill, that had not seen me before; and so he began to dispute with the Captain, but he held his peace. And then said Francis Howgill, ‘This man speaks with authority and not as the scribes’. And so I opened to the people that that ground and house was no holier than another place; and that house was not the church, but the people, which Christ is the head of; and so after a while that I had made a stand amongst the people, the priests came up to me, and I warned them to repent. And one of them said I was mad; and so [fol. 32r] they turned away: but many people was glad at th[e] hearing of the truth declared unto them that day, which they received gladly; & so I passed away. And I came into a house, & there came in one Captain Ward; & he said my very eyes pierced through him. And he was convinced of God’s everlasting truth, & lived [and] died in it; and many more was convinced there at that time. And the next First Day I came to Firbank Chapel, where Francis Howgill and John Audland had been preaching in the morning; and John Blaykling and others came to me, and desired me not to reprove them publicly, for they was not parish teachers but pretty sober men; but I would not tell them whether I would or no, though I had little in me to declare publicly against them; but told them they must leave me to the Lord’s movings. And the Chapel was full of people and many could not get in; and Francis Howgill said he thought I looked into the Chapel – but I did not – and that I might have killed him with a crab-apple, the Lord's power had so surprised him. So they had quickly done with their preaching to the people at that time, and they and the people went to their dinners, and abundance stayed till they came again. And I went to a brook and got me a little water; and so I came and sat me down on top of a rock — for the word of the Lord came to me, I must go and set down upon the rock in the mountain even as Christ had done before. And in the afternoon the people gathered about me with several Separate teachers, where it was judged there was above a thousand people, and all these several Separate teachers were convinced of God’s everlasting truth that day; amongst whom I declared freely and largely God’s everlasting truth and word of life, about 3 hours. [fol. 32v] & there was many old people that went into the chapel & looked out of the windows, & thought it a strange thing to see a man to preach on a hill or mountain & not in their church, as they called it: so that I was made to open to the people that the steeplehouse & that ground on which it stood was no more holier than that mountain; & those temples & dreadful houses of God, as they called them, was not set up by the command of God nor Christ nor their priests as Aaron’s priesthood & their temple was, nor their tithes as theirs was, but Christ was come who ended the temple & the priests & the tithes & Christ said, ‘Learn of me’, & God said, ‘This is my beloved Son, learn ye him’, for the Lord had sent me with his everlasting gospel to preach & his word of life to bring them off all these temples, tithes, priests & rudiments of the world that had gotten up since the Apostles’ days, & had been set up by such who had erred from the spirit & power the Apostles was in, so that they might all come to know Christ their teacher, their Counsellor, their shepherd to feed them, & their bishop to ouersee them, & their prophet to open to them, & to know their bodies to be the temples of God & Christ for them to dwell in, And so I opened the prophets & the figures & shadows & turned them to Christ the substance; & then opened the parables of Christ & the things that had been hid from the beginning; & showed them the estate of the Epistles, how they was written to the elect: & the state of the Apostacy that has been since the Apostles’ days & how the priests had gotten the scripture & are not in that spirit which gaue them forth: who makes a trade of their words, & have put them into chapter & verse; & how that the teachers & priests now was found in the steps both of the false prophets, chief priests scribes & pharisees, such as both the prophets, Christ, & his Apostles cried against: & so are judged by the prophets, Christ, & the Apostles’ spirit & all that was in it could not own them. And so turning the people to the spirit of God & from the darkness to the light, that they might believe in it & become children of the light & turning them from the power of Satan which they had been under to God, & that with the spirit of truth they might be led into all the truth of the prophets, Christ, & the Apostles’ words. And so, after the meeting was done, I passed away to John Audland’s; and there came John Story to me: and lighted his pipe of tobacco: and, said he, ‘Will you take a pipe of tobacco?’ saying, ‘Come, all is ours’ - and I looked upon him to be a forward bold lad - and tobacco I did not take, but it came into my mind that the lad might think I had not unity with the creation; for I saw he had a flashy empty notion of religion; so I took his pipe and put it to my mouth and gave it to him again to stop him lest his rude tongue should say I had not unity with the creation. And from thence I came to Preston Patrick Chapel: where there was a great meeting appointed, and I went into it and had a large meeting amongst the people; and declared the word of life and the everlasting truth to them, and showed them that the end of my coming into that place was not to hold it up, no more than the Apostles going into the Jewish synagogues and temples was - and Diana’s - but to bring them off all such things, as they did - for the Apostles brought the saints off the true temple and Aaron’s priesthood and after, they met in houses - and told them that their bodies was the temples of God and that Christ was their teacher. And so from thence I came to Kendal where a meeting was appointed in the Town Hall; and when I had declared the truth and word of life to them and showed them how they might know Christ and the scriptures and what would be their teacher and what would be their condemnation, I passed away, after I had stayed a while in the town; and several was convinced there; so one Cocks met me in the street and would have given me a roll of tobacco (for people was much given to smoking tobacco): so I accepted of his love, but denied it. From thence I came to Underbarrow, to one Miles Bateman’s, and as I came on the way several people came along with me and great disputings I had with them, especially with Edward Burrough; and at night the priest came, and a many professors, to Miles Bateman’s, and a great deal of disputing I had with them. And supper being provided for the priest, and the rest, I was not to eat with them, but told them if they would appoint a meeting [fol. 33v] the next day at the steeplehouse and acquaint the people with it, I might met with them: and a great deal of reasoning they had about it; and some was for it and some was against it. And in the morning I walked out after I had told them concern- ing the meeting, and they was in much reasoning and doubting of it and me; and as I was walking upon the top of the bank there came several poor people, travellers, that I saw was in necessity; and they gave them nothing, but said they was cheats; but when they was gone in to their breakfast, it grieved me to see such hardheartedness amongst professors that I run after the poor people a matter of a quarter of a mile and gave them some money. And they came out again, and seeing me a quarter of a mile off, they said, I could not have gone so far in such an instant except I had wings; and then the meeting was stopped, they was so filled with strange thoughts; and that quite put the meetings out of their | minds, and they was against it, for they could not believe I could have gone so far In such a short space. And then came Miles and Stephen Hubbersty, more simple-hearted men, and they would have the meeting; and I told them I ran after those poor people to give them money, and I was grieved at their hardheartedness that gave them nothing; so I went to the steeplehouse or chapel at Underbarrow, and the priest came, and a great meeting there was; and after a while the priest fled away; and many of Crook and Underbarrow was convinced that day and received the word of life and stands to this day, under Christ’s and God’s teaching. And so after I had declared the truth to them some hours, and the meeting was done, the chief constable and some other professors fell a-reasoning with me in the steeplehouse yard; and I took a Bible and showed and opened to them the scriptures, and showed them chapter and verse; and dealt with them as one would deal with a child in swaddling clothes; for they that was in the light of Christ and spirit of God did know when I spoke scripture though I did not mention chapter and verse after the priests’ form unto them. The Cartmel Peninsula and the Road West to Ulverston [fol. 34r] And from thence I passed with an old man, James Dickson’s, that was convinced of the truth that day — and died in the truth — to his house; and from thence I came to James Taylor’s, of Newton in Cartmel in Lancashire; and on the first day I went to one priest Camelford’s Chapel, and after he had done I began to speak the word of life to them; and Camelford was in such a rage and such a fret and so peevish that he had no patience to hear, but stirred up the rude multitude, and they very rudely haled me out and struck me and punched me and took me and threw me headlong over a stone wall: but blessed bee the Lord his power preserved me (the Kirk Warden was one John Knipe, whom the Lord after cut off, who threw me down headlong over the wall). And there was a youth that was writing after the priest, and I was moved to speak to him, and he came to bee convinced: and became a fine minister of the Gospel, whose name was John Braithwaite. And so I went up to an alehouse where many people resorted betwixt the time of their preaching, and had a great deal of reasoning with them, and showed unto them, how that God was come to teach his people himself and to bring them off such teachers as was judged by the prophets, Christ, and the Apostles: and many received the word of life that time and stands to this day. And the afternoon I went about 2 or 3 miles to another steeple house or chapel called Lindale, and when the priest had done I spoke to him and the people what the Lord commanded me; and there was great opposers — and they after came to be convinced — and after, I came to one Captain Sands, which he and his wife, if they could have had the world and truth, they would have received it: but they was hypocrites, and he a very chaffy light man, and the way was too strait for them. And when I had admonished him of his lightness and of his jesting, how it was not seemly for a great professor as he was, he answered and said he had a son on his death bed did also reprove and warn him of it: but he neither obeyed the admonishment of his son nor of the spirit of God in himself. And from thence I came to Ulverston, and so to Swarthmoor to Judge Fell’s. And there came up priest Lampitt, which I perceived had been and was still a Ranter in his mind, and I had a great deal of reasoning with him: for he could talk of high notions and perfection, and thereby deceived the people: and he would have owned me, but I could not own him nor join with him, [fol. 34v] he was so full of filth. For he said he was above John: and made as though he knew all things; but I told him how that death reigned from Adam to Moses, and he was under that death and knew not Moses: for Moses saw the paradise of God, and so he neither knew Moses nor the prophets nor John, for that crooked nature stood in him and the rough and the mountain of sins and corruptions. And the way was not prepared in him for the Lord, so he confessed he had been under a cross in things but now he could sing Psalms, and doe any thing; and I told him now he could see a thief and join hand in hand with him; and he could not preach Moses, nor the prophets, nor Christ, nor John, except he was in the same Spirit as they was in. And so Margaret Fell had been abroad, and at night when she came home, her children told her that priest Lampitt and I disagreed; and it struck something at her because she was in a profession with him, though he hid his dirty actions from them; so at night we had a great deal of reasoning, and I declared the truth to she and her family. And the next day Lampitt came again and I had a great deal of discourse with him before Margaret Fell, who soon then discerned the priest clearly; and a convincement came upon her and her family of the Lord’s truth; and there was a humiliation day shortly after within a day or two kept at Ulverston, and Margaret Fell asked me to go to the steeplehouse with her (for she was not wholly come off) and I said, ‘I must do as I am ordered of the Lord’; but I walked in the fields, and then the word of the Lord came to me to go to the steeplehouse after them; and when I came the priest Lampitt was singing with his people and his spirit and his stuff was so foul that I was moved of the Lord to speak to him and the people, after they had done singing, and the word of the Lord was to them: ‘He was not a Jew that: is one outward: but he was a Jew that is one inward whose praise was not of man but of God’ [Rom 2: 28-9]: and how that God was come to teach his people by his spirit, and to bring them off all their old ways, religions, churches, and worships; for all their religions and worships and ways was but talking of others men’s words, but they was out of the life and spirit that they was in, that gave them forth. And one Justice Sawrey cried, ‘Take him away’; and Judge Fell’s wife said to the officers, ‘Let him alone: why may not he speak as well as any other?’ and Lampitt said, in deceit, ‘Let him speak’; and so at last, when I had declared a pretty while, the constable put me out. [fol. 35r] And this Justice John Sawrey, a rotten professor who was very full of hypocrisy and deceit and envy, he caused me to be put out of the steeplehouse; and I spoke to the people in the steeplehouse yard; and after came up to Swarthmoor Hall; and upon the first day after, I was moved to go to Aldingham steeple house, and when the priest had done, I spoke to the priest (but he got away) and I declared to the people the word of life and warned them to return to the Lord and after I had declared the truth and the word of life to them, I passed to Rampside; and there was a chapel in which one Thomas Lawson used to preach, that was a high priest: and he very lovingly spoke in the morning to his people of my coming in the afternoon; and when I was come, all the country gathered thereaways; and so I saw there was no place more convenient to declare to the people there than in the chapel; and so I went into the chapel, and all was quiet, and the priest, Thomas Lawson, went not up into his pulpit, but left all to me; and the everlasting truth was largely declared that day, which reached and entered into the hearts of people; and the everlasting day of the eternal God was proclaimed; and all was quiet and received the truth in the love of it; and this priest came to be convinced, and stands in truth, and grew in the wisdom of God mightily, and remains to this day mighty serviceable in his place; and threw off his preaching for hire and his Chapel, and came to preach the Lord Jesus and his kingdom freely. And after that, some rude people thought to have done him a mischief and cast scandals upon him, but he was carried over all. And after I returned back to Swarthmoor again; and the next first day, I went to Dalton Steeplehouse; and after the priest had done, I declared the word of life to the people, turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, and bringing them off their superstitious ways and their teachers made of man to Christ their way, and to be taught of him. And from thence I went into the Island of Walney, and after the priest had done, I spoke to him (who got away), and I spoke to the people the truth as it was in Jesus and the people [fol. 35v] were something rude. And so I went to look for the priest at his house; and he would not be seen, but the people said he went to hide himself in the hay mow: and they went to look for him there, but could not find him there; and then they said, he was gone to hide himself amongst the standing corn; but after they had looked for him there, they could not find him there neither: so I came to James Lancaster’s, who was convinced in that island, and from there I returned to Swarthmoor again, where the Lord’s power seized upon Margaret and her daughter Sarah and several of them; and then I went to Baycliff where Leonard Fell was convinced, and he became a good minister, and several others was convinced there, and came into truth; and the people could not tell how to dispute, as they said, but would fain have put on some other to hold a talk with me; but I bid them fear the Lord, and not in a light way to hold a talk of the Lord’s words, but practise them. And as I was walking I heard old people and workpeople to say, ‘He is such a man as never was: he knows people’s thoughts’, for I turned them to the divine light of Christ and his spirit that let them see all their thoughts, words, and actions that was evil, that they had thought or acted: with which light they might see their sins, and with the same light they might see their saviour Christ Jesus to save them from their sins; and that there was their first step to peace, to stand still in the light that showed their sin and transgressions; and showed them how they were strangers to the covenant of promise, without God in the world, and in the fall of old Adam, and in the darkness and death; and with the same light they may see Christ that died for them, who is their way to God and their redeemer and saviour. And after this I went to a Chapel beyond Gleaston, which was built but never priest had preached in it, where all the country up and down came; and a quiet peaceable meeting it was: where the word of life was declared amongst them; and many was convinced about Gleaston; and from thence I returned to Swarthmoor again. And after I had stayed there a few days, and most of all the family was convinced, I went from thence back again into Westmoreland.
[fol. 36r] Thou was the Beginner of all the persecution in the north. Thou was the
Beginner and the Maker of all the people tumultuous. Thou was the first stirrer of
them up against the righteous seed, the truth of God, and was the first strengthener
of the hands of evil doers against the innocent and harmless; and thou shalt not
prosper. Thou was the first stirrer-up of strikers, stoners, persecutors, stockers, mockers
and imprisoners in the North, and of revilers, slanderers, railers, and false accusers
and scandalers. This was thy work, and this thou stirredest up, so thy fruits declares thy spirit.
What is stirred up? that before-mentioned, instead of stirring up the pure
minds in people, thou hast stirred up the wicked, malicious, and envious, and taken hand
with the wicked; thou hast made the people’s minds envious, up and down the Country.
This was thy work; but God hath shortened thy days, and limited thee, and set thy bands
and broken thy jaws, and discovered thy religion to the simple and babes, and brought
thy deeds to the light. How is thy habitation fallen, and become the habitation of
devils, & how is thy beauty lost, & thy glory withered, how hast thou showed thy end,
that thou hast but served God with thy lips, and thy heart far from him, and thou in
the hypocrisy; how hath the form of thy teaching declared itself to be the marks
of the false prophets, whose fruits declares itself - by their fruits they are known;
how are the wise men turned backward. Read thy days, and take notice with whom thou
hast taken part withal that in thy conscience will tell thee (the Ancient of days).
This consider: how hath thy zeal appeared to be the blind zeal; a persecutor, which
Christ and his apostles gave no such command to his to follow. How hast thou strengthened
the hands of the evil doers, & been a praise to them, & not to them that do well; how like
a mad man and a blind man didst thou turn thy sword backwards against the saints,
against whom there is no law; how wilt thou be gnawed and burned one day when thou
feels the flame, & hast the plagues of God poured upon thee, when thou beginnest to
gnaw thy tongue for the pain, because of the plague. Thou shalt have thy Reward
according to thy work; thou canst not escape; the Lord’s righteous judgments shall find
thee out, the witness in thy conscience shall answer it. How hast thou caused the
heathen to blaspheme and gone on with the multitude to do evil, & joined hand in
hand with the wicked; how is thy latter end worse then thy beginning, that art come
with the dog to bite and devour; thou art turned a wolf to devour the Lambs. How
hast thou discovered thyself to be a man more fit to be in a place
to be nurtured, than to be put in a place to nurture; how was thou exalted & puffed
up with pride & now how art thou fallen down with shame, that thou comes to be covered
with that which thou stirred up & brought forth. Let not John Sawrey take the words of God
in his mouth till he be reformed; let him not take His name in his mouth till
he depart from iniquity; let him not make a profession (he and his teacher) of the
Saints’ words, except they do intend at the Market Cross to proclaim themselves
hypocrites, whose lives show another than the Saints, who is proclaimed there and
everywhere; whose Church did make itself manifest to be a cage of unclean
birds, that they have the form of godliness, and not the power; who have made
them that be in the power their derision, your by-word and your talk at your feasts;
& so the unsavour the country about have smelled, & the unchristian carriage; of
whom all that fear God have been ashamed, & to them thou hast been a grief.
In the day of account thou shalt know it; in the day of condemnation, thou was mounted
up; and set thy net on high, but never got higher than the
fowls, & now art run with the foxes & fallen into the earth, that earthliness
and covetousness hath swallowed thee up, and thy conceitedness would not
carry thee through, in whom was found the selfish principle: he hath blinded thy eye
and thy back must be bowed down always, thy table is become a snare:/________________ [Fol. 36v - dorse of letter - Fox's autograph] G F to Friends G. F. to John Sawrey the greatest persecutor in in the North of England: this was sent to him 1652 who after was drowned This is to be [?]written [in a later hand] (1) done [fol. 38r] And Priest Lampitt had been amongst the professors at Kendall side and mightily had incensed them against me, and told them I held many strange things: and so I met with them that he had incensed, and sat up all night with them at James Dixon’s house, and answered all their objections; and then they was thoroughly satisfied both with the truth that I had declared and dissatisfied with Lampitt’s lies that he had divulged, so that he clearly lost the best of his hearers and followers; and they came to see his deceit and to forsake him. And so I passed on to John Audland’s and Gervase Benson’s, and had great meetings amongst those people that was convinced before; and to John Blaykling’s and Richard Robinson’s, and had mighty great meetings there; and so up towards Grisedale. And after this Judge Fell was come home, and Margaret sent for me to return thither, and so I came through the country back to Swarthmoor again: and the priests and professors and that Justice Sawrey had incensed Judge Fell and Captain Sandys much against the truth with their lies; and after dinner I answered him all his objections, and satisfied him by Scripture, so as he was thoroughly satisfied and convinced in his judgment, [fol. 37r] And he said, ‘Art thou that George Fox that Justice Luke Robinson aforesaid spoke so much in commendation of amongst many of the Parliament men?’, for he had said that all the priests and professors in the nation was nothing to him. And I told him I had been with Justice Robinson and Justice Hotham in Yorkshire, who were very loving and civil to me, and were convinced in their judgements by the spirit of God: and they did see over the priests of the nation, so that he and many others now came to be wiser than their teachers, and came to be taught of God and Christ, and so outstripped their teachers. And then Judge Fell was satisfied that I was the man; and he came also to see by the spirit of God in his heart over all the priests and teachers of the world himself and did not go to hear them for some years before he died: for he knew it was the truth, and that Christ was the teacher of his people and their Saviour, [fol. 38r] and he wished that I was a while with Judge Bradshaw to convince him; and there came over that Captain Sandys, a wicked man, to incense him, and he was full of envy against me, and yet he could use the Apostle’s words, and say ‘Behold, I make all things new’: and I told him, then he must have a new God, for his God was his belly. And then that envious Justice Sawrey, he came to Swarthmoor also, and I told him his heart was rotten and he was full of hypocrisy to the brim; and several people came also, and I discerned their conditions and spoke unto them; and Richard Farnsworth and James Naylor was come to Swarthmoor also to see me and the family. And James Naylor was under a fast 14 days, and Judge Fell, for all their opposition, let the meeting be kept at his house; and a great meeting was settled there in the Lord’s power to the tor|menting of the priests and professors, which has remained above 20 years to this day, he being satisfied of the truth; and after I had stayed a while, and the meeting was settled, I went to Underbarrow and had a great meeting there, and from thence to Kellet and had a great meeting at Robert Withers’, and many was convinced there, where several came from Lancaster and some from York. And there was a Captain stood up after the meeting was done, and asked me, ‘Where my leather breeches was?’, and I let the man run on a while [fol. 38v] and at last I held up my coat, and said, ‘Here is my leather breeches which frightens all your priests and professors’. And Margaret Fell had a vision of a man in a white hat that should come and confound the priests, before my coming into those parts; and a great dread there was amongst the priests and professors concerning the | man in leather breeches And another man had a vision of me, that a man in leather breeches should come and confound the priests: and this man’s priest was the first that was confounded and convinced. And on the first day I went to Lancaster and had a great meeting in the street of soldiers and people, and declared the word of life and the everlasting truth to them, and showed them their teacher Christ Jesus; and all the traditions that they had lived in, and all their worships and religions, and that their profession was good for nothing that lived out of the life and power of them that gave forth the Scriptures; and so turned them to the light of Christ, the heavenly man, and to the spirit of God in their own hearts, and where they might find God and Christ and his kingdom and know him their teacher. And so in the afternoon I went up to the steeplehouse at Lancaster: and when I had declared the truth to both priest and people and showed them the deceits they lived in, and the power and spirit of God that they wanted, they haled me out and stoned me along the streets till I came to John Lawson’s house. And on the market day before, I spoke through the market in the dreadful power of God, and declared the day of the Lord to them, and against all their deceitful merchandise, and preached righteousness and truth which they should all walk and live in and follow after; and where they might find the spirit of God to guide them to it; and several people came to my lodging, and many was convinced there and stands to this day; a meeting there was settled in the power of God which stands to this day. And another first day I went to another steeplehouse by the water’s side to one priest Whitehead, and declared the truth to the priest and people in the dreadful power of God; and there was a doctor came to me who was so full of envy, and said he could find in his heart to run me through with [fol. 40r] his rapier, though he was hanged for it the next day: yet this man came to be convinced afterwards, and was loving to Friends; and some people was convinced that way and stood faithful to God and Christ and his teaching. And so I returned back Into Westmorland again, and spoke through Kendal upon a market day in the dreadful power of God, that people flew like chaff before me into their houses; and warned them of the mighty day of the Lord, and how that the Lord God was come to teach his people himself. And many people took my part, and several was convinced; and some people at last fell to fighting about me, and I went and spoke to them, and they parted again. And the first day after I had a mighty meeting at Miles Bateman’s aforesaid where many was convinced. [fol. 39r] And I was moved to declare to the people how all people in the Fall were from the image of God and righteousness and holiness; and they was as wells without the water of life, clouds without the heavenly rain, trees without the heavenly fruit, and in the nature of beasts, and serpents, and tall cedars, and oaks, and bulls, and heifers; so they might read this nature within as the prophet described to people that were out of truth; and how that they was in the nature of dogs and swine biting and rending; and the nature of briars, thistles, and thorns; and like the owls and dragons in the night, and like the wild asses and horses snuffing up; and like the mountains and rocks and crooked and rough ways: so I exhorted them to read these without and within in their nature; and the wandering stars: read them without and look within all that was come to the bright and morning star: so, as their fallow ground must be ploughed up before it beared seed to them, so must the fallow ground of their heart be ploughed up before they bear seed to God.
So all these names were spoken to man and woman since they fell from the image of God: and as they do come to be renewed again up into the image of God, they come out of the nature, and so out of the name, &c. And many more things of this nature was declared to them, and they turned to the light of Christ, by which they was turned to Christ, by which they might see him their substance and their way, salvation, and free teacher. [fol. 40r after insert] And James Naylor, he travailed up and down in many places amongst people that was convinced; and at last he and Francis Howgill were cast into prison by the malicious priests and magistrates, into Appleby jail. And after I had travailed up and down in those countries, and had great meetings, I came to Swarthmoor again. And after I had visited Friends a while in those parts, I heard of a great meeting of priests at Ulverston at a lecture day, and went down, and went into the steeplehouse in the dread and power of the Lord; and when the priest had done, I spoke amongst them the word of the Lord, which was as a hammer and a fire amongst them; and though Lampitt had been at variance with most of the priests before, yet against the truth he and they all joined together, and the mighty power of the Lord was so over all, that Priest Bennett said the steeplehouse shook, and he was afraid, and trembled, and thought that the steeplehouse would fall on his head, and went his ways out for fear, speaking a few confused words: and the Lords power was over them all though there was a many priests; and they had no power as yet to persecute. And after, I came up to Swarthmoor, and there came up 4 or 5 priests, and I asked them, ‘Whether any of them could say they ever had a word from the Lord to go and speak to such or such a people’; and none of them durst say so; but one of them burst out into a passion, and said, ‘He could speak his experiences as well as I’; but I told him, ‘Experience was one thing: but to go with a message and a word from the Lord as the prophets and the Apostles had and did, and as I had [fol. 40v] done to them, was another thing; and could any of them say they had a such command or word from the Lord at any time?’ but none of them could answer to it. But I told them the false prophets and false Apostles and Antichrist could use the words and speak of other men’s experiences, that never knew or heard the voice of God and Christ, and such as they might get the good words and experience of others. And at another time, there were several priests at Judge Fell’s, and he was by; and I asked them the same question, whether ever they had heard the voice of God or Christ to bid them go to such or such a people to declare his word or message unto them: for any that could but read might declare the experiences of the Prophets and Apostles. And Thomas Taylor, an ancient priest, did ingenuously confess before Judge Fell that he never heard the voice of God nor Christ, to send him to any people: but he spoke his experiences, and the experiences of the saints, and preached that — which did astonish Judge Fell, for he and all people did look that they were sent from God and Christ. And so this Thomas Taylor came to be convinced at that time, and travelled with me into Westmorland; And we came to Crosland steeplehouse; and there the people was gathered, and they would have had me gone into the steeplehouse, and I said it was no matter. And there came another priest and a high Constable, and this was the second day after Thomas Taylor was convinced: and the Lord opened his mouth there amongst the people, that he began to declare how he had been before he was convinced, and like the Pharisee that was converted to the Kingdom, brought forth things new and old to the people, and told them how the priests was out of the way, which did torment the other priests: and some little discourse I had with them, but they fled away; and a precious meeting there was, and the Lord’s power was over all, and people was turned to God by his spirit, with which they came to know Christ and God and the Scriptures. And so I passed to several meetings, visiting Friends, and had mighty meetings in Westmorland; and about this time the priests began to prophesy that within a month we [fol. 41r] should be all scattered again; and come to nothing. And about this time Christopher Taylor, another minister, Thomas Taylor’s brother, was convinced also of truth; and they both became ministers of the Gospel and great sufferers they were; and they came to know the word of the Lord, and was commanded to go to many steeplehouses and markets and places, and preach Christ freely. And about this time John Audland and Francis Howgill: and John Camm came forth to be faithful ministers and Edward Burrough and Richard Hubberthorne, and Miles and Stephen Hubbersty and so continued till their deaths, and Miles Hallhead [and] several others. And Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough died prisoners for the Lord’s truth. And multitudes was turned to the Lord and so after a time I returned into Lancashire again: and went to Ulverston and though Lampitt had preached and said that there was a people that did own the teachings of God: and that men and women should come to declare the Gospel; and after when it came to be fulfilled he persecuted it and them; and I went to Lampitt’s house where there was abundance of priests and professors gathered after their lecture: and there I had great disputings with them concerning Christ and the Scriptures which they were loath to let that trade go down which they made of Christ’s and the Apostles’ and prophets’ words: but the Lord’s power went over the heads of them all; and his word of life was held forth though many of them was exceeding devilish and envious. And many priests and professors came to me far and nigh: which the simple-minded and innocent was satisfied and sent away refreshed, but the fat and full was fed with Judgement and sent empty away. And that was the word of the Lord to be divided to them; and then Lampitt began to rage when meetings was set up and we met in houses, and said we forsook the temple, and went to Jeroboam’s calf’s houses so that many professors began to see how he was degenerated from that which he formerly held and preached. And it was declared both to professors, priests, and people how that their houses, called churches, was more like Jeroboam’s calf-houses which they had set up in the dark times of popery which they held up, which God never commanded: for that temple which God had commanded at Jerusalem, Christ came to end. [fol. 41v] And they that believed in him, their bodies came to be the temples of God and Christ and the Holy Ghost: for them to dwell in them, and walk in them: and all such was gathered Into the name of Jesus, whose name was above every name; and there was no salvation by any other name under the whole heaven but by the name of Jesus: and these met together in several dwelling houses, which was not called ‘the Temple’, nor ‘the Church’: but their bodies was the temples of God and the believers was the Church, which Christ was the head of: so Christ was not called the head of an old house which was made by men’s hands: neither did he come to purchase and sanctify and redeem with his blood an old house which they called their ‘church’, but the people: which he is the head of. For a great deal of work had I with priests and people with their old houses which they called their ‘Churches’ which was made by men’s hands; for the priests had persuaded people that it was the house of God; and the Apostle said Christ purchased his Church with his own blood; and Christ calls his church, his Spouse and his bride, the Lamb’s wife: so this title ‘church’ and ‘Spouse’ was not given to an old house, but to his church, that was his people and true believers and the Apostle saith whose house we are; so ‘the people are God’s house and dwelling’. And after this of a lecture day: I was moved to go to Ulverston steeplehouse where there was abundance of professors and priests and people: And I went up near to Lampitt who was blustering on in his preaching: and one John Sawrey, a Justice of Peace, came to me after the Lord had opened my mouth to speak: and said, ‘If I would speak according to the scriptures I should speak’; and I stranged at him for speaking so to me. And I told him I would speak according to the scriptures and bring the scriptures to prove what I had to say: for I had something to speak to Lampitt, and them; and then this Sawrey said ‘I should not speak’; contradicting his own saying [fol. 42r] before, who said I should speak if I would speak according to scriptures. So of a sudden, all the people in the steeplehouse was in an outrage and an uproar, that they fell upon me in the steeplehouse before his face, and knocked me down and kicked me and trampled upon me before his face, and people tumbled over their seats for fear, and at last, he came and took me from amongst the people again, and led me out of the steeplehouse, and put me into the hands of the Constables and other officers’ hands, and bid them whip me and put me out of the town; and there they led me about a quarter of a mile, some taking hold by my collar, and some by the arms and shoulders, and shook and dragged me; and some got hedge stakes, and holm bushes, and other staves; and many friendly people that was come to the market (and some came into the steeplehouse to hear me), many of them they knocked down and broke their heads also: and the blood ran down several people so as I never saw the like in my life, as I looked at them when they was dragging me along. And Judge Fell’s son running after to see what they would do with me, they threw him Into a ditch of water and cried, ‘Knock out the teeth of his head!’ And when they had led me to the common moss, and a multitude of people following, there they fell upon me with their staves and hedge-stakes; and the constables and officers gave me some blows over my back with their willow rods, and so thrust me amongst the rude multitude, and they then fell upon me as aforesaid with their staves and clubs, and beat me on my head and arms and shoulders till they had mazed me; and at last I fell down upon the wet common; and when I recovered my self again, and saw myself lying on a watery common and all the people standing about me, I lay a little still; and the power of the Lord sprang through me, and the eternal refreshings refreshed me that I stood up again in the eternal [fol. 42v] power of God and stretched out my arms amongst them all and said again with a loud voice, ‘Strike again: here is my arms, my head, and my cheeks’; and there was a mason, a rude fellow, a professor called, he gave me a blow with all his might just atop of my hand as it was stretched out with his walking rule-staff: and my hand and arm was so numbed and bruised that I could not draw it in unto me again: so as the people cried out, ‘He hath spoiled his hand for ever having any use of it more’: and I looked at it in the love of God, and I was in the love of God to them all that had persecuted me. And after a while the Lord’s power sprang through me again and through my hand and arm that in a minute I recovered my hand and arm and strength in the face and sight of them all. And then they began to fall out amongst themselves: and some of them came to me and said if I would give them money, they would secure me from the rest; but I was moved of the Lord to declare unto them the word of life; and showed them their false Christianity and the fruits of their priests, and how they were more like heathens and the Jews, and not like Christians. And so I was moved of the Lord to come on up again through them and up into Ulverston market; and there meets me a man with a sword, a soldier: ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘I am ashamed that you should be thus abused: for you are a man’, said he — he was so grieved — and said he would assist me in what he could: and I told him that it was no matter, the Lord’s power was over all. And so as I walked through the people in the market there was none of them had power to touch me. And this man with his sword walking after me, and some of the market people abusing some Friends in the market, and I turned me about: and saw the soldier amongst them with his naked rapier: and I run amongst them and catched hold of his hand that his rapier was in and bid him put up his sword again if he would come along with me: and so he came to the town’s end with me and I came up to Swarthmoor again; [fol. 43r] and there they was dressing the heads and hands of Friends and friendly people that was broken that day by the professors and hearers of priest Lampitt. And my body and arms was yellow, black, and blue with the blows and bruises that I received amongst them that day. And within a few days after, seven men fell upon this soldier aforesaid and beat him cruelly because he had taken my parte; for it was the custom of this Country to run 20 or 40 people upon one man: and they fell so upon Friends in many places that they could hardly pass the high ways, stoning, and beating, and breaking their heads. And then the priests began to prophesy again that within a half year we should be all put down and gone. [and] And about a fortnight after I went into Walney: and James Naylor went with me and we stayed overnight at a little town on this side called [Cocken] and had a meeting: where there was one convinced; and after a while there comes a man called [ ] with a pistol. and the people ran out of doors and he called for me; and I went out to him and he snapped his pistol at me but it would not go off; and there was a great bustle with the people about him, and some people took hold on him to prevent him from doing mischief; and I was moved in the Lord’s power to speak to him; and he was so struck with the Lord’s power that he went and hid himself in a cellar, and trembled for fear. And so the Lord’s power came over them all: though there was a great rage in the country. And the next morning I went over in a boat to James Lancaster’s, and as soon as I came to land, there rushed out about 40 men with staves, clubs, and fishing poles, and fell upon me with them beating, punching, and thrust me backward into the sea: and when they had thrust me almost into the sea, and I saw they would have knocked me down there in the sea, I stood up and went up into the middle of them again; but they all laid at me again, and knocked me down and mazed me. And when I was down and came to myself, I looked up and I saw James Lancaster’s [fol. 43v] wife throwing stones at my face, and James Lancaster her husband was lying a-top of me to save the blows and the stones off me: So at last, I got up in the power of God over them all, and they beat me down into the boat; and so James Lancaster came into the boat to me, and so he set me over the water. And James Naylor we saw afterwards that they was beating of him; for whilst they was beating of me he walked up into a field, and they never minded him till I was gone; and then they fell upon him and all their cry was, ‘Kill him, kill him!’ And when I came on the other side of the water to the town again, all the town rose up with pitchforks, flails, and staves, and muck-hooks, to keep me out of the town, and cried, ‘Kill him, knock him in the head; bring the cart and carry him away to the graveyard’. And so they abused me and guarded me with all these weapons a pretty way off out of the town; and then at last the Lord’s power being over them all, they left me. And then James Lancaster went back again to look after James Naylor, so I was alone; and came to a ditch of water and washed me, for they had all dirtied me, and wet and mired my clothes, face, and hands. So I walked a matter of three miles to Thomas Hutton’s where Thomas Lawson the priest lodged that was convinced: and I could hardly speak to them when I came in, I was so bruised. And so I told them where I left James Nailor, and they went and took each of them a horse; and went, and brought him thither that night. And I went to bed, but I was so weak with bruises I was not able to turn me: and ye next day they [fol. 44r] hearing of it at Swarthmoor they sent a horse for me, and as I was riding the horse knocked his foot against a stone and stumbled that it shook me so and pained me: as it seemed worse to me than all my blows, my body was so tortured. So I came to Swarthmoor: and my body was exceedingly bruised. And Justice Sawrey and Justice Thompson of Lancaster granted forth a warrant for me: but Judge Fell coming home they did not serve it upon me, for he was out of the country all this time that I was thus abused and cruelly used. And so he sent forth warrants into Walney to the Constables to apprehend all those riotous persons; and some of them fled the country; and destruction is come upon many of them since; and James Lancaster’s wife came after to be convinced, and many of those bitter persecutors; also and the Judgements of God fell upon some of the persecutors. And Judge Fell asked me to give him a relation of my persecution, and I told him they could do no otherwise, they was in such a spirit: and they manifested their priest’s fruits and profession and religion: and so he told his wife that I made nothing of it and spoke as a man that had not been concerned.
But the Lord’s power healed me again, and I went to Yealand, where there was a great meeting: and there came a priest in the evening with his pistol in his hand under a pretence to light a pipe of tobacco: and the maid told her master and he claps his hands on both sides the door posts and told him he should not come in there: and he looks up and spies a great company of men over the wall, and spies one with a musket, and others with stakes, But the Lord God prevented their bloody design, that they went their ways and did no harm. And after this I went to Lancaster with Judge Fell, to the Sessions where John Sawrey aforesaid and Justice Tompson had given forth a warrant to apprehend me: so I appeared at the Sessions upon the hearing of it: but was never apprehended by their warrant: and there met with Colonel West, another Justice. And there appeared against me 40 priests: and they chose one Priest Marshall of Lancaster to be their orator: for two priests’ sons [fol. 44v] and a priest had sworn against me that I had spoken Blasphemy: But as I was going along to Lancaster with Judge Fell, he said to me he had never such a matter brought before him before, and he could not tell well what to do in the business: and then I said unto him, ‘When Paul was brought before the rulers, and the Jews and priests came down to accuse him, and laid many false charges against him, Paul stood still all that while: and when they had done, the governor Festus and King Agrippa beckoned to him to speak for himself: Which Paul did, and cleared himself of all those false accusations’: and so he might do by me. And so when they were set in their Sessions they heard all that the priests could say: and charge against me, and their orator that sat by, and explained their sayings. And when they examined the one of them upon his oath, then they examined another: and he was so confounded that he could not answer directly, but said the other could say it; which made the Justices say: ‘Have you sworn it upon your oath, and now say that he can say it? It seems you did not hear those words spoken yourself, though you have sworn to it’; and and so these witnesses was confounded amongst themselves; as in the following relation may more fully appear. [fol. 46r] Several plots and snares the priests laid against me; and some of the Justices that were in office and many sought after my life and lay in wait to have murdered me. And at last these priests and priests’ sons forged these things against me. which here is some of them that was taken out of an old torn book at a Sessions held at Lancaster, 1652. The following documents are, as Fox says, taken out of an old torn book. The first surviving folio (45r and v) is merely a stub, and it is difficult to see where it comes from. We start this with fol. 47r, which the amanuesis captions as if it were the beginning of the hearing, though it clearly starts in the middle of a discussion. See a video dramatisation of a part of this transcript of the trial. Written vertically in margin (Fox's autograph): G.F. trial at Lancaster / the trial 1652 [pa.... of ...r] My father
The Examination of George Fox at the Sessions at Lancaster
Colonel West: Are you [a] Scholar, and so irrational as to say, that ‘We were talking,
W: If he had had power, he said that he would have made him to have
Smith: I deny that I said that I would have taken away his life; but he Colonel West: Did he say, ‘I, George Fox, am the Judge of the World’?
Rowland Penney to Smith: Thou said to me, little didst thou think Thomas Lawson: He said, if he had had him in his power, he would have taken
Judge Fell: First ye say that he was equal with God,
and then ye say, ‘he let Judge Fell: To the second Question, ‘That God taught deceit’.
Robert Withers He spoke against all teachers but God himself, that teacheth Smith: We were speaking of the Bible, and I affirmed it to be the word of God, Judge Fell: That you confessed God’s spirit doth witness, but where doth it witness? Smith: Upon that he said God taught deceit — Judge Fell: He might say, ‘Thou holds out deceit’. Justice Sawrey: It was taken notice of by Robert Withers, that he said God taught deceit. Robert Withers: I heard no such word, as I am a Christian. Smith: George spoke these words, and Robert put forth his hand and Judge Fell: It is not probable that any such words should follow.
Question: What say you to the third (3) Question: That the Scripture[s was Antichrist?]
Question: That he was the Judge of the world.
[Que]stion: That he was as upright as Christ.
Answer: As he is, so are we in this present World, that the Saints are made Judge Fell: He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are one, they are united. Colonel West: All this is not to say that he is equal with God George Fox: The Father and the Son are one.
Michael Altham: I believe that he will say that he is sanctified, and then he is equal
Judge Fell: The words charged are not proved but by a single witness; here was George Fox: As he is, so are we in this present World. [D]octor Marshall: Art thou equal with God? George Fox: ‘My Father and I are one’; and as he is, so are we in this present World. [Note by Lower: and is not this scripture speaking of Christ, for if he be in his James Nayler: Dost thou ask him as a Creature, or as Christ dwelling in him? Doctor Marshall: I am sorry that it is not involved within the Act,
for ’tis blasphemy:
Colonel West: God hath the Rule within himself, and we must judge
according to
Doctor Marshall: I professe before ye entered into any Examinations,
if these things George Fox: I have that spirit dwelling in me of the father which speaks to you:
[Note by Lower: many more words were spoken
which are lost and torn out
Doctor Mars[hall]: [.
w]ith[ ] rs George Fox:
[fol. 48v] James Nayler: Friend is there anything sanctifies but the Son?
and if nothing Doctor Marshall: That is but one Christ. James Nayler: And that one Christ is in all his Saints. Justice Sawrey: I conceive these words are proved.
Judge Fell: If they were, consider if they bee within the Act;
if you have committed
Colonel West:
The Law is expressly: in causes of crimination, that the examination
Judge Fell: First go to the point of the witness, whether there be any more Justice Sawrey: Will you supersede the Warrant?
Judge Fell: ’Tis to be understood that you would conform to act according
oath of two or more witnesses. I conceive you may consider
Nineteenth-century hand This seems to be part of an examination of G fox for blasphemy before Judge Fell & others part cut out — who by? The following document appears to be Fox's own notes on his answers to the charges brought against him. It is in his characteristic handwriting and spelling, and the modern spelling version does not give the full flavour: have a look at the original. First, that he did affirm that he had the divinity essentially in him ______ Answer 2. Both baptism and the Lord’s supper are unlawful ______________________ Answer 3. He did dissuade men from reading the Scriptures telling them that it was
Carnal. 1 that he was equal with God. _____________________________________________ 2: That God taught deceit______________________________________________ 3 That the Scriptures was Antichrist________________________________ Answer: That is foolish, and was never spoken by me; but they which profess the Scriptures’ spirit, and live not in the [spirit?] and power of them, as they did which gave them forth: that I witness to be Antichrist. 4 That he was the Judge of the world__________________________________ Answer: The saints shall judge the world, the Scripture doth witness, whereof I am one; and I witness the Scripture ful[fil]led. 5. That he was as upright as Christ_______ When once you deny the truth, then you are given over to believe lies and speak evil of them which lieveth in the trouth, and your envying and lies lay upon them the righteous, whose minds are envious and sows the seed of envy and makes others envious; therefor tremble before the Lord ye hypocrites, and mind the light of god in you, which shows you the deceit of your hearts, and obey that ther your teacher disobeying that there is your condemnation; hating that light, you hate Christ. Lower's handwriting And about this time G. F. gave forth a paper concerning the Word, and another to them that profess the Scriptures to be their rule, as followeth: We are still working on these documents. We pick up the narrative again in the middle of of fol. 44v: it then jumps to fol. 64r, after the interpolated papers.
[fol. 44v] And Colonel West stood up who had long been weak and blessed the Lord and said he never saw so many sober people and good faces together all the days of his life; and said that the Lord had healed him that day; and said, ‘George, if thou hast anything [fol. 64r] to say to the people thou mayst freely declare it in the open Sessions. And so I was moved of the Lord to speak; and as soon as I began, priest Marshall their orator goes his ways; and this I was moved to declare: that the Scriptures was given forth by the spirit of God and all people must first come to the spirit of God in themselves by which they might know God and Christ, of whom the prophets and the Apostles learned; and by the same spirit they might know the holy Scriptures and the spirit which was in them that gave them forth. So the spirit of God must be in them that comes to know them again, by which spirit they might have fellowship with the Son and the Father and with the Scriptures and one with another; and without it they cannot know neither God, nor Christ, nor the Scriptures, nor have fellowship one with another. And I had no sooner spoken these words but there was 6 priests burst out into a passion (that stood behind my back), and there was one priest Jacques said that the letter and the Spirit was inseparable. And I said, ‘If so, then every one that has the letter has the spirit; and they may then buy the Spirit with the letter of the scriptures. Upon this Judge Fell and Colonel West reproved the priests, seeing their darkness; and told them, that then they might carry the Spirit in their pockets as they did the Scriptures: and then all the priests rushed out in a rage against the Justices, because they could not have their bloody ends upon me, seeing they was so confounded. And then Judge Fell spoke to Justice Sawrey and Thompson aforesaid and superseded their warrant, and showed them the errors of it as followeth: A large X in the lefthand margin suggests an insert here. It might be a reference to the report of the trial proceedings above, but is probably the following, from fol. 66r. The chronology, however, is difficutlt to follow: [fol. 66r] And when the Justices had been in a rage against me at Lancaster and several petitions they had drawn up both in Westmoreland and Lancashire, and sent to the Parliament, as you may see in the book entitled Truth’s Defence, and the Answer to the Westmorland petitions, and in Saul’s errand to Damascus. with his packet of letters. But when the priests saw that they was overthrown at the sessions at Lancaster, as aforesaid, some of the priests and envious Justices informed the Judge, Windham, against me: and in the open court the Judge made a speech against me at Lancaster Assizes: and Colonel West being Clerk of the Assizes, the Judge commanded him to grant out a warrant for me: and he spoke to the Judge boldly of my innocency: and the Judge commanded him again either to write a warrant or go off his seat; and he told the Judge plainly he would not do it: he should do it himself if he would; and he would offer up all his estate and his body for me: so he stopped the Judge, and the Lord’s power came over all: and stopped the envy both in priests and Justices And at night I, coming into Lancaster at the Assizes and hearing of a warrant that was to be granted out for me, I judged it better to proffer myself than they to seek me. I went to Judge Fell’s and Colonel West’s chamber: and as soon as I came in, they smiled at me; and Colonel West said, what! was I come Into the Dragon’s mouth? So I walked up and down the Town, and no one questioned me nor meddled with me; and stayed there till the Judge went out of town. And thus the Lord’s blessed power that is over all carried me [fol. 66v] over all, and gave me dominion over all in his glorious work and service for his great name’s sake. Comment by Lower: And about this time G. F. gave forth a paper to the Long Parliament and the officers of the army, and another to the General and officers of the army, and heads of the nation; and another to the world; and another to Priest Tatham and others, as followeth: These Epistles follow on fols 67r-74v. [fol. 64r] And multitudes of people praised God that day, for it was a joyfull Day; and there was Justice Benson there out of Westmoreland, who was convinced; and Major Rippon who was Mayor of the town of Lancaster, who was convinced also; and it was a day of everlasting| salvation to hundreds of people: for the Lord Jesus Christ, the way and free teacher, was set up, and his everlasting Gospel and word of life preached over the heads of the priests and such money-preachers. And so the Sessions broke up: and several friendly people and professors spoke to the priests in their inns and in the streets; and the Lord opened that day abundance of mouths to speak his Word of Life unto them. [fol. 64v] And they fell like an old rotten house; and the cry was amongst all people, far and nigh, that the Quakers had got the day, and that the priests was fallen. And many was made ministers of the everlasting [word] of life and of the Gospel at that time and they preached it freely. And Thomas Briggs was convinced that day, and declared against his priest Jacques: for before that time he had discoursed with a Friend concerning truth: which Friend, one John Lawson, held perfection: and Thomas Briggs said unto him, ‘Dost thou hold perfection?’ and he up with his hand and would have struck the Friend a box in the ear: but at this day this Thomas Briggs came to be convinced : and became after a faithful minister of the Gospel and stands to this day. And I was in a fast this time and I was not to eat until this work of God was accomplished; and so the Lord’s power was wonderfully set over all: and gave me dominion over all to his glory; and his Gospel was freely preached that day over the heads of 40 hireling priests; and I stayed two or 3 days in Lancaster afterwards, and had some meetings: but the rude and baser sort [of] people plotted together to have drawn me out of the house and to have thrown me ov[er] Lancaster bridge; but the Lord prevented them. And then they invented another stratagem: after a meeting was done in Lancaster, they brought down a distracted m[an] in his waistcoat, and another man in his waistcoat with a c[om]pany of birch rods bound together like besoms for them to have whipp[ed] me with them; but I was moved to speak to them in the Lord’[s] mighty power which chained him and them: which brought him lik[e] a lamb, and I bid him throw his rods Into the fire and burn them and he did; and I made him confess to truth and the light of Christ Jesus: and so the Lord’s power came over all, so as we parted in love and peace. And this persecuting John Sawrey at last was drowned; and the vengeance of God overtook the other Justice, Thompson, that he was struck with the dead palsy upon the bench and carried away off his seat, and died. And from Lancaster I returned to Robert Withers: and from thence I went to Thomas Lepers to a meeting in the evening; and after the meeting was done which was a very blessed meeting. [fol. 65r] In the evening I walked out on foot to Robert Withers’; and I was no sooner gone but there came in a company of disguised men to Thomas Leper’s with swords and pistols, cutting and hacking amongst the people off the house, and put out all the candles, and the people held up the chairs before them to save themselves; and after a while they drove all the people of the house out of the house in the night and searched and looked for me, who was the person only they looked for, and laid wait in the high ways which I should have come in, if I had ridden to Robert Withers’. And so when the meeting was done they came in and thought to have found me in the house: but the Lord prevented them as abovesaid. And so when I was come to Rob Withers, some Friends came from the town where Thomas Leper lived, and gave us the relation of this: and they were afraid least they should come to search Robert Withers’ house also for me to do me mischief: but they came not. And Friends perceived they was some of them Frenchmen, and Sir Robert Bindloss’s servants: for some of them said in their nation they used to tie the Protestants to trees, and whip them and destroy them: and these used often to abuse Friends in their meetings, and going from their meetings: for they took Richard Hubberthorne and several others out of the meeting and carried them a good way off in the fields, and there bound them, and left them bound in the winter season. And one of his servants came to F. Flemming’s house and thrust his naked rapier in at his door, and at his windows: and there came a cousin of F. Flemming’s with a cudgel in his hand which was no Friend: and he bid him put up his rapier; but he would not, but vapoured with it at him and was rude: and he up with his staff and knocked him down so as he made him sprawl on the ground, and he took his rapier from him; and had it not been for Friends he would have run him through with it: and so Friends preserved his life that would have destroyed theirs. And after this I went to see Justice West and Richard Hubberthorne was with me: and we rid up the sands where never no man rid before, a very dangerous place, and swimmed over the water, not knowing the way nor the danger of the sands, and came to West’s house: and when we were come in, he said to us, ‘Did you not see two men riding over the sands? I shall have their clothes anon, for I am the Crowner; for they cannot escape drowning ’; and we told him that we was the men, and he was astonished at it and wondered how we escaped drowning. And then the priests and professors raised a report and a slander upon me that neither water could drown me, nor could they draw blood of me, and that surely I was a witch: for when they beat me with great staves, they did not much draw blood, but bruised my head and body: and thus the Lord’s power carried me over their bloody murderous spirits, in whom the [fol. 65v] ground of witchcraft was that kept them from God and Christ. But all these slanders were nothing to me, as knowing that their forefathers the Apostate Jews called the master of the house Beelzebub, and these apostate Christians from the life and power of God could do no less to his seed; so it was no strange thing for them to say so of the members of Christ who was heirs of him: And about this time Richard Hubberthorne was in a great fast, and after was very weak, insomuch as people thought he was dead, and it was reported that he was dead; and several Friends was sent for; and before they got to him the Lord’s power had so raised him up, that they met him with a bottle going for water to drink, so that Friends did admire at the wonderful power and work of God therein. And so I came back to Swarthmore and visited Friends thataways: and brought the Lord’s power over all the persecutors th[..] And after this I went into Westmorland, where a company of men laid wait for me with pikes and staves at a bridge, and they light off some Friends and missed me, but after they came to the meeting with their pikes and staves; but Justice Benson being there and [ma]ny considerable people: they was prevented from doing that mischief they intended and the Lord’s power stopped them; so and that they went away and did no hurt but raged much. And so I came to Grayrigg, where the priest came to the meeting at Alexander Dickson’s house, which priest was a Baptist and a parish priest, and the Lord confounded him with his power and some of his people stood upon the side of the house and tumbled down some milking pails, the house being so crammed: but after a while the priest and his company went away, being confounded, and raised a slander and said the Devil frightened him, and took a side of the house down where we was in the meeting, which was all lies, but such as served the priests’ and professors’ turn to feed upon, and they printed it in a book. And another time this priest came to another meeting a-top of the hill and fell a-jangling: first he said the Scriptures was the Word of God, and I told him, they was the words of God, but not Christ the Word, and bid him prove it by Scripture, what he said; and then he said, it was not the Scripture; and so set his foot upon the Bible, and said it was but copies bound up together, [and] a great deal of unsavoury words came from him, not worth mentioning: so we had a blessed meeting afterwards and the Lord’s power and presence was felt amongst us, and he went his ways; and then after, he sent me a challenge, to meet him at Kendal, and I sent him word I would meet him in his own parish, and he need not [fol. 75r] go as far as Kendal: so we set the hour and met; and abundance of rude people was gathered to it; and some of his members baptised people, and they intended to have done mischief that day, but God prevented them. And when we met I declared the day of the Lord to them and turned them to Christ Jesus: and he out with his Bible and said, it was the word of God; and I told him it was the words of God but not God the Word; his answer was he would prove the Scriptures to be the God before all the people: so I had a man that could write to take down both what he said and what I said, as may be larger seen in my Book of Letters. But when he had spoken a great while, and could not prove it (for I kept him to the Scripture for chapter and verse for it, and keeping him to prove that one thing he had asserted), and in going to prove that one error he ran into 20, and the people gnashed their teeth and said he would have me anon. But when he could not prove it: then he said he would prove it a god; and thus the Baptist priest teened himself till he sweat and broiled himself and his company, all being full of wrath; and I heaped his assertions on the head of him and them all, so that at last they went away confounded and could prove nothing that they asserted. For I told them what the Scriptures said of themselves: they was the words of God but Christ was the Word. And so the Lord’s power came over all and confounded their mischief which they intended against me and Friends was established in Christ, and the people saw the folly of their teacher that were his followers. And after this I came through the country visiting Friends, and priest Bennett of Cartmel had sent a challenge to dispute with me: and upon the first day I came to his steeplehouse and there found him preaching; and when he had done I spoke to him and his people, but the priest would not stand to trial but went his ways; and a great deal of discourse I had with the people, and when I came forth Into the steeplehouse yard, and was discoursing with the professors and declaring of the truth unto them, one of them sets his foot behind me [fol. 75v] and two of them ran against my breast and threw me down against a grave stone wickedly and maliciously seeking to have spoiled me: but I got up again and was moved of the Lorde to speak to them; and there was one Roper one of the bitterest professors the priest had was very fierce and zealous in his contention, and so I went up to the priest’s house and a many people followed after me and I desired him to come forth seeing he had challenged me but he would not at all come out or be seen. And this Roper after came to be convinced of Gods eternal truth, and became a fine minister and continued faithful to his death: so the Lord’s power came over them all, which was very great. [1653] So I came to Swarthmoor again and went to a meeting at Gleaston and there was another professor, and he challenged a dispute; but I went to the house where he was and called him forth, but he durst not meddle: so the Lord’s power came over him also. And so after a while I visited many meetings in Lancashire: and th[en] James Milner and Richard Myer went out into imaginations and a company followed them; and they sent for me, and I was moved of the Lord to show them their goings forth; and they came in again, and dyed in truth. And about this time I was in a fast about 10 days: and as Judge Fell and Colonel Benson was in Swarthmoor Hall, I was moved to tell them as they was talking of the news in the news book of the Parliament, and that before that day fortnight the Long Parliament should be broken up and the Speaker should be plucked out of his chair. And that day fortnight Colonel Benson came again and was speaking to Judge Fell, and said that now he saw George was a true prophet, for Oliver had broken up the Parliament by that time. And many openings I had of several things which would be large to utter. And James Milner and some of his company had true openings at the first, but after got up Into pride and so ran out but they after [fol. 76r] came to see their folly and condemned it. Arnside: the Curing of Richard Myer And after I went to a meeting at Arnside where there was a many people: and I was moved of the Lorde to say to Richard Myer amongst all the people, ‘Prophet Myer, stand up upon thy legs’, for he was sitting down: and he stood up and stretched out his arm which had been lame a long time, and said, ‘Be it known unto you all people and to all nations that this day I am healed’. And after the meeting was done his father and mother could hardly believe it was made whole, and had him Into an house and took off his doublet, and then they saw it was true, and he came to Swarthmoor meeting and there declared how the Lord had healed him. And after the Lord commanded him to go to York with a message from him: but he disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord struck him again so as he died about 3 quarters of a year after. And great threatenings there was in Cumberland that if ever I came there they would take away my life; but when I heard of it I went into Cumberland to one Miles W[enn]ington’s into the same parish but they had not power to touch me. And also about this time Anthony Pearson, that great persecutor of Friends at Appleby, he was convinced (over whose head they carried a sword when he went to the Bench); and coming over to Swarthmoor, I being at Colonel West’s, they sent for me: and I came (and Colonel West said, ‘Go, George, for it may be of great service to the man’) and the Lord’s power reached him; and about this time the Lord opened several mouths to declare the Truth to priests and people, so that several was cast into prison. And after this I went again into Cumberland: and Anthony Pearson and his wife and several Friends went along with me to Bootle. And upon the first day I went into the steeplehouse, and Anthony Pearson went on to Carlisle Sessions, for he was a Justice of Peace in three counties; and so when the priest had [fol. 76v] done, I began to speak: but the people was exceeding rude, and struck and beat me, and in the steeplehouse yard one gave me a very great blow over the wrist with his full strength, so that people thought he had broken my hand to pieces; and so the Constable was very serviceable to keep the peace, and would have set some them that struck me by the heels; so I went to Joseph Nicholson’s house, and the Constable went a little way with us to keep the rude multitude off us; and in the afternoon I went up again, and the priest had got another high priest that came from London to help him. But before I went Into the steeplehouse, I sat a little upon the Cross, and Friends with me, who were all moved of the Lord to go in to the steeplehouse, and after a while I went in after them. And there stayed till the priest had done: who gathered up all the Scriptures that spoke of the false prophets and Antichrists and deceivers, and threw upon us; but when he had done, I recollected all those Scriptures again and brought them back upon him; and the people fell upon me in a rude manner, and the constable charged them to keep the peace, and then all was quiet; but the priest began to rage, and said, I must not speak there; and then I told him, he had his hourglass by which he had preached, and having done, the time was free for me as well as for him, for he was but a stranger. And so I opened the Scriptures to them, and let them see that those Scriptures described them and their generations, that spoke of the false Prophets and Antichrists and deceivers, which belonged to them that were found walking in their steps and bringing forth their fruits, and not unto us; and how they were out of the steps of the true Prophets and the Apostles; and so showed it clear by the fruits and marks and steps, that they were of those that those Scriptures spoke of, and not us, and all was quiet whilst I declared the truth and the Word of Life to the people, and I directed them to Christ their teacher. So when I had done, I came forth: and both the priests were in such a fret and rage that they foamed at the mouth for anger against me, [fol. 77r] but the Lord’s power came over them all, and I went down again to Joseph Nicholson’s house; and the next day there was a rude wicked man would have done violence to a Friend, but the Lord’s power stopped him. And I was moved to send James Lancaster to appoint a meeting at one John Wilkinson’s steeplehouse, who had three parishes under him, and was a priest in great repute and esteem; and so I stayed at Bootle in Millom till he came back again. And some of the gentry In that country had made a plot against me, and as I was in the field, they came to the house where I came from and they lighted on James Lancaster but did not much abuse him; but they came to one Joseph Nicholson’s house, and had given a little boy a rapier, and he should have done the mischief; but I being in the fields and they not finding me in the house, after a while they went their ways. And so I walked up and down in the fields that night and did not go to bed as very often I used to do; and the next morning we passed away; and the next day, we came to the steeple house where James Lancaster had appointed the meeting and there was a dozen soldiers and their wives which was come from Carlisle, and all the country people came in like as to a fair, and I lying short at a house sent all Friends before me; and there was some wicked women in a field hard by the house, and I saw they was witches, and I was moved to go unto them and declare unto them their conditions and that they were in the spirit of witchcraft. And then I walked down towards the steeplehouse, where I found James Lancaster speaking under an yew tree, and it was full of people so as I feared they would break it down. And I looked up and down for a place to stand upon to speak unto the people, for they lay like people at a leaguer, all up and down; and after a while that I was discovered, and I saw that there was no place convenient to speak to the people from, a professor came to me and asked me whether I would go into the church, and I told him, ‘Yes’. [fol. 77v] And so the people rushed in after me: and when I came in, the pulpit and house was so full of people that I had much todo to get in; but they that could not get in stood about the walls. And when the people was settled, I stood up; and the Lord opened my mouth to declare his everlasting truth and his everlasting day, and to lay open all their teachers and their rudiments, traditions, and inventions, that they had been in [in] the night of Apostacy since the Apostles’ days; and to turn them to Christ their teacher, and to sett up and direct them to his worship, and where to find the spirit and truth that they might worship God in; and opened Christ’s parables to them and directed them to the spirit of God in them that would open the Scriptures and parables to them, and how all might come to know their Saviour and sit under his teaching, and come to be heirs of the kingdom of God; and largely did I declare the Word of Life to them for about 3 hours’ time; and all was still and quiet and satisfied, turning them from the darkness to the light and the power of Satan unto God. So that every one might come to know who their teacher was, Christ Jesus and the Lord God, as the Prophets and the Apostles and the True Church did, and so to know both God and Christ’s voice by which they might see all the false shepherds and teachers they had been under, and see the true Shepherd, Priest, Bishop, and Prophet, Christ Jesus, whom God commande[d] them to hear. And after I had more fully declared the Word of Life to them than is here mentioned, I walked forth from amongst the people, and the people passed away mightily satisfied; and Anthony Pearson was at the meeting which was come from the Sessions; and there was a professor following of me and praising and commending of me, and his words was like [fol. 78r] a thistle to me and at last I turned about and bid him fear the Lord; and there was 4 priests gathered together which came after the meeting was done, and one priest Larkham said, ‘Sir, why do you judge so?’, said he, ‘you must not judge’, and I turned to him and said, ‘Friend, does not thou discern an exhortation from a judgement?’ (for I admonished him to fear God), ‘and dost thou say, I judge him?’ And so I manifested him in discourse with him to be amongst the false prophets and covetous hirelings, and he and the two priests got soon away and several people was moved to speak to them. And then priest Wilki[n]son that was priest of that parish and two other parishes in Cumberland, when they was gone, he began to dispute against his own conscience: several hours till generally the people turned against him: and he thought to have tired me out but the Lord’s power tired him out and the Lord’s truth came over all: and many hundreds was convinced that day and received the Lord Jesus Christ’s free teaching with gladness: and many stands to this day and has died in truth under Christ’s teaching. And the soldiers was convinced and their wives and continue[d] with me till the First Day: and on the First Day, I went to Cockermouth steeplehouse where the priest Larkham, the priest that first opposed me as aforesaid, lived: and when the priest had done I began to speak and the people began to be rude: and the soldiers told them we had broken no law and then they was quiet. So I began to speak to the priest, and laid him open amongst the false prophets and hirelings; at which word the priest goed his ways, and said, ‘He calls me “hireling”’, which was true enough, for all the people knew it. And some of the great men of the town came to me and said, ‘Sir, we have no learned men to dispute with you’: I told them I came not to dispute but to declare [fol. 78v] the way of salvation and the way of everlasting life: and so I declared largely the way of life and truth to them and directed them to their teacher, that had dyed for them and had bought them with his blood; and when I had done, I passed away about 2 miles to another great steeplehouse of Wilki[n]son’s that stood in a field, and the people was mightily affected, and would have putt my horse in the steeplehouse yard; and I said, ‘No, the priest claims that; carry him to an inn’. And when I came into the steeplehouse yard I saw people coming as to a fair; and abundance was already gathered in the lanes and about the steeplehouse; and being very thirsty, I walked about a quarter of a mile to a brook and got a little water and refreshed myself. And as I came up again, I met the priest Wilki[n]son; and as I was going by him, ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘will you preach to day? If you will,’ says he, ‘I will not oppose you, not in word or thought’; but I said, ‘Oppose if thou wilt, I have something to speak to the people: and thou carried thyself foolishly the other day and spokest against thy conscience and reason, so as thy hearers cried out against thee’: so I went away and left him, for he saw it was in vain to oppose, the people was so affected with the Lord’s truth . So I came into the steeplehouse yard, and not seeing any convenient place to speak over to the people, and a professor came again and asked if I would not go into the church (as he called it); and I saw that would be the convenientest place to speak unto the people from, so I went in, and stood up in a seat after the people was settled; and the priest came in but did not go up into his pulpit; and so I declared God’s everlasting truth and Word of Life for about 3 hours to the people, and all was quiet, and brought them all to the spirit of God in themselves by which [fol. 79r] they might know God and Christ and the Scriptures, and to have heavenly fellowship in the spirit; and showed them how every one that comes into the world was enlightened by Christ the Life, with which light they might see their sins, and Christ their saviour who was come to save them from their sin; with which light they might see Christ, their priest that died for them, their shepherd to feed them, and their great prophet to open to them; so with the light of Christ they might see Christ always present with them, who was the author of their faith and the finisher thereof. So opening the First Covenant and showing them the types and the substance, and bringing them to Christ the Second Covenant, and how they had been in the night of Apostacy since the Apostles’ days, but now the everlasting Gospel was preached again that brought life and immortality to light, and the day of the Lord was come, and Christ was come to teach his people himself by his light, grace, power, and spirit. And many hundreds was convinced that day. And after I went to a village, and many people accompanied me, and I was sitting in a house full of people and declaring the Word of Life unto them, I cast my eye upon an unclean woman and told her she was a witch; and I was moved in the Lord’s power to speak sharply to her, and so she went out of the room; and people told me that I had discovered a great thing, and all the country looked upon her to be a witch. And also at another time there came in such an one into Swarthmoor Hall in the meeting, and I was moved to speak sharply to her, and told her she was a witch also, and the people confessed to the same thing, and said all the country looked upon her to bee such an one also. And there came in another woman and stood a little off from me, and I cast my eye upon her, and I said she [fol. 79v] had been an harlot: for I perfectly saw the condition and life of the woman: and the woman answered and said, many could tell her of her outward sins but none could tell her of her inward; but I told her, her heart was not right before the Lord; and from the inward came the outward. But after, this woman came to be convinced of God’s truth: and remained a Friend. Haltcliff Hall, Wigton, ?Caldbeck So from that village we came up to Thomas Bewley’s; but when night came, I walked out, and laid out all night; and from thence, having some service there for the Lord, I passed to a market town where I had a meeting at the Cross, and all was pretty quiet; and when I had declared the truth unto them, and turned them to Christ their teacher, we passed away and had another meeting upon the Borders in a steeplehouse yard, where many professors and contenders came, but the Lords power was over all; but after the Word of Life was declared some received the truth there, and at the market town aforesaid; and from thence we passed into Carlisle. And the pastor of the Baptists came to me there to the Abbey with most of his hearers, where I had a meeting and declared the Word of Life amongst them; and many of the Baptists and soldiers was convinced. And after the meeting was done, the pastor came and asked me, ‘What must be damned?’, being a high-notionist and a flashy man: and I was moved of a sudden to tell him that which spoke in him was to be damned, which stopped the pastor’s mouth; and the witness of God was raised up in him, and I opened to him the state of election and reprobation, that he said he never heard the like in his life. And after I went up to the Castle amongst the soldiers, and they beat a drum and called them together; and I turned them [fol. 80r] to the Lord Jesus Christ their teacher, and warned them of doing any violence to any man, and that they might show forth a Christian’s life, and turned them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan unto God; and I let them see what was their teacher and what would he their condemnation, and had no opposition but from the sergeant who afterwards came to he convinced. And on the market day, I went up into the market to the Cross and the magistrates had threatened and sent their sergeants and the magistrates’ wives said that if I came there, how they would pluck the hair off my head, and that the sergeants should take me up; yet nevertheless I obeyed the Lord God and went upon the Cross, and there declared unto them that the day of the Lord was coming upon all their deceitful ways and doings and deceitful merchandise and that they was to lay away all cozening and cheating and keep to yea and nay, and speak the truth one to another; so I set the truth and the power of God over them: and the people being throng, the sergeants could not get to me so I passed away quietly after I had declared the word of life to the people: and many people and soldiers came to me and some Baptists that were bitter contenders; that one of their deacons cried out, the Lord’s power being over them: and I set my eyes upon him and spoke sharply to him in the power of the Lord and he cried, ‘Don’t pierce me so with thy eyes, keep thy eyes off me!’ And on the first day: after I went into the steeplehouse, and after the priest had done I spoke the truth to them and declared the word of life amongst the people; and the magistrates desired me to go out of the steeplehouse but the priest got away, but I still declared and told them, I came to speak the word of life and salvation from the Lord amongst them, and a dreadful power of the Lord there was amongst them in the steeplehouse, [fol. 80v] that the people trembled and shook, and they thought the steeplehouse shook, and thought it would have fallen down, that the magistrates wives was in a rage, and tore and rent to have been at me; but the soldiers and friendly people stood thick about me; at last the rude people of the city rose and came with staffs into the steeplehouse, and cried, ‘Down with these roundheaded rogues!’ and threw stones; but the governor sent a file or two of musketeers into the steeplehouse and commanded the soldiers all out, and the soldiers took me by the hand very friendly and said they would have me along with them then; and so when we were in the street all the town was of an uproar. And the governor came down, and the soldiers, for standing against the townspeople, some of them was cast into prison, and for standing by and for me. So there came the Lieutenant that had been convinced, and had me to his house where there was a Baptists’ meeting, and there Friends came also; and we had a very quiet meeting, and they heard the Word of Life gladly and received it. And the next day, I went to a Baptist’s house and the officers and Justices and magistrates of the town was gathered together at the Hall, and they granted a warrant for me, and sent for me, and I went up to the Town Hall to them where a many was gathered, and many rude people there was that had sworn strange things against me; and a great deal of discourse I had with them, and showed them the fruits of their priests’ preaching, and how void they were of Christianity, though such great professors, but without possession. And so after a long examination they sent me to prison, as the circumstances and farther relation thereof hereafter followeth. And the two Gaolers were like two bear-herds; and when the head gaoler had me up into a great chamber, and told me I should have what I would in that room; but I told him he should not expect any money from me, and that I would not lie in none of his beds nor eat none of his victuals. There follows another group of interpolated documents relating to Fox's imprisonment in Carlisle. [fol. 86r] And then he put me into another room where I got a thing to lie on after a while. And the Assizes came on, and all the news was and cry in the country that I was to be hanged; and the High Sheriff said, one Sir Winfred Lawson, that he would guard me to my execution, and stirred them much up to take away my life; and they was all in a black dark rage, and they set 3 musketeers upon me, one at my chamber door and another at the stair’s foot and another at the street doors, and would let none come at me except one to bring me some necessary things. And at nights they would let up priests; about 10 o’clock at night they would bring in droves of them, and exceeding rude and devilish they were; but the Lord in his power gave me dominion over them all, and I let them see both their fruits and their spirits. And great ladies and countesses came to see a man that they said was to die; and the priests would temptingly ask, ‘What, must I die for their sins?’: which manifested that they was in the nature of them that crucified Him that died for the sins of the world; and there was a company of bitter Scotch priests and Presbyterians made up of envy and malice who were not fit to speak of the things of God, they were so foul-mouthed. And so when they was contriving, both Judge, Sheriff, and Justices, of putting me to death, the Judge’s Clerk started a question to them that confounded them all, after which they had not power to call me out before the Judges; but they continued in their rage and gave order that I should be put in the dungeon amongst the moss troopers, and so they did; where men and women was put together and never a house of office, in a nasty and very uncivil manner which was a shame to Christianity; but the prisoners was made, all of them, very loving to me, and some of them were convinced, as the publicans and harlots of old were, so that they were able to confound a priest that might come to the grates to dispute. And Justice Benson’s wife was moved of the Lord to come to visit [fol. 86v] me and to eat no meat but what she ate with me at the bars of the dungeon window, a good honest woman, who after was imprisoned herself at York for speaking to a priest, when she was great with child and had [the] child in prison, and she continued a good Friend till she died. And whilst I was in the dungeon a little boy, one James Parnell, about 15 years old, came to me and he was convinced and came to be a very fine minister of the Word of Life and turned many to Christ: and at last he was imprisoned himself in Colchester and the gaoler was cruel with him and made him climb up and down for his victuals into a place called ‘Little Ease’ or ‘The Oven’, where they kept him and he fell down, the rope breaking, and broke his head, so as he died; and then the wicked Independent priests made a book of it and said he fasted himself to death, which was all lies. But I continued in the dungeon amongst the prisoners who were exceeding lousy: and the Little Parliament hearing that a young man was to die for religion at Carlisle, they wrote down to the Sheriff and magistrates. But the gaoler continued exceeding cruel: so that he beat Friends and Friendly people exceedingly with great cudgels, as if he had been beating a pack of wool. And as I could get up to the grate, where sometimes I took my meat and the gaoler was offended and came in a rage with his great staff, and he fell a-beating of me, though I was not at the window at that time, and cried, ‘Come out of the window’, though I was far enough off it: and as he struck me, I was made to sing in the Lord’s power, and that made him rage the more: and then he fetched a fiddler and brought into the dungeon and set him to play: and when he played I was moved in the everlasting power [fol. 87r] of the Lord God to sing: and my voice drowned them and struck them and confounded them, that made them give over fiddling and go their ways. And the governor and Justice Anthony Pearson came down; and it was was such an ill savour and a shame to the magistrates that the gaoler should do such things, that they called for the gaolers into the dungeon; and they came down into the dungeon to me, and they bid the gaolers find sureties for the good behaviour, and so they put the undergaoler into the dungeon with me amongst the moss-troopers, who had been such a cruel fellow. And many priests that came to me would be asking questions and saying the Scriptures was the Word: and I asked them, how many Gods there was?, and they said, ‘One’, and I asked them whether that God was not the Word? and they would say, ‘Yes’: and so I let them see how they did confound themselves, for there was not a prisoner but was able to confute them. So after a while I was set at liberty by the Justices and the Lord’s power came over them all. And then after a time I went to Thomas Bewley’s and there came a Baptist teacher to oppose me, who was convinced, and Robert Withers being with me was moved to go to Caldbeck steeplehouse, and the Baptist teacher went along with him the same day, and they almost killed Robert Withers and took the Baptist’s sword from him, and beat him sorely, and they sent Robert Withers to Carlisle gaol; and the Baptist aforesaid had the inheritance of an impropriation, but he went home and gave it up, and William Dewsbury went to another steeplehouse hard by, and they almost killed him, they beat him so; but the Lord’s power was over all and healed them again, and Robert Withers after a while was set at liberty also. Meetings in Cumberland and Westmorland And so I went into the country, and had mighty meetings; and the everlasting Gospel and the Word of the Lord flourished, and thousands was turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his teaching. And several that took tithes as Impropriators denied the receiving of them, and delivered them up to the parishioners; and so I came up into Westmorland, and at Strickland Head I had a large meeting, and at other places, where a Justice of Peace out of Bishopric, one Henry Draper, came up, and a many contenders, and that day many Friends went to the steeplehouses to declare the truth to the priests and people and the Lord’s power was over all. And so I came through Friends, visiting the meetings till I came to Swarthmoor again, and then I heard that the [fol. 87v] Baptists, and professors in Scotland had sent to me to have a dispute and I sent to them that I would meet them in Cumberland at Thomas Bewley’s, where I went but none came. [fol. 88r] And another time as we was passing from a meeting and going through Wigton on a market day, there was a guard set with pitchforks and there was some of the neighbours with us; and they kept us out of the town, and would not let us pass through the town under a pretence of preventing the sickness, when there was no occasion for any such thing, and so they fell upon us and had like to have spoiled us and our horses; but the Lord did prevent them that they did not much hurt; and so we passed away. And another time as I was passing betwixt old Thomas Bewley’s and John Slee’s, some rude fellows lay in wait in a lane and exceedingly stoned and abused us: but at the last through the Lord’s power we got through them: and had not much hurt: but this was the fruits of the priest’s teaching which shamed Christianity. County Durham and Northumberland And after I had visited that country and Friends, I went through the countries into Bishopric, and had large meetings; and had a very large meeting at Justice Pearson’s house where many was convinced; and so I passed through Northumberland to Derwent Water, where there was great meetings, and the priests threatened to come but none came, and the everlasting Word of Life was freely preached and freely received, and many hundreds were turned to Christ their teacher. And there came many to dispute in Northumberland, and pleaded against perfection, but I declared unto them that Adam and Eve was perfect before they fell, and all that God made was perfect, and the imperfection came by the Devil and the Fall, and Christ, that came to destroy the Devil, said, ‘Be ye perfect’: but one of the professors said, that Job said, ‘What, shall mortal man be more pure than his maker? the heavens are not clear in his sight. God charged his angels with folly’: but I showed him his mistake, that it was not Job which said so, but those which contended against Job: for Job stood for perfection and his Integrity, and they was called ‘miserable comforters’, and they said the outward body was the body of death and sin, but I let them see their mistakes, and how that Adam and Eve had a body before the body of death and sin got into them. And man and woman would have a body when the body of sin and death was put off again when they were renewed up into the image of God again by Christ Jesus, as they was in before they fell. So many glorious meetings we had in the Lord’s power, and so we passed to Hexham, where we had [fol. 89r] a great meeting a top of a hill where the priest came no[t] though he had threatened, and all was quiet; and the everlasting day and renowned truth of the everlasting God was sounded over those dark countries, and his Son sett over all. And all that had made a profession of the Son of God, now the day was come they might receive him, and as many as did receive him to them he would give power to become the sons of God, as he had done to me: and he that had the Son of God, he had life eternal; and he that had not the son of God, let him profess all the scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations, he had not life. And after that all was turned to the light of Christ, by which they might see him and receive him and know where their teacher was; and the everlasting truth largely declared, we passed away through Hexham peaceably, and so came into Gilsland, where some in that country were very thievish; where a Friend spied the priest and went to speak to him, and he came down to our inn and the townspeople came about us; and so the priest said he would prove us deceivers out of the Bible, but could not find no Scripture for his purpose, so he went into the Inn, and after a while came out, and brought that Scripture,‘the doctrines and commandments of men, touch them not and taste them not; for they perish with the using’: which, poor man, was his own condition, for we was persecuted because we would not taste nor touch nor handle their doctrines which we knew perished with the using. So I asked him what he called the steeplehouse: ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘the dreadful house of God, the temple of God’, and I let him and the poor dark people see that their bodies should be the temples of God; and Christ never commanded these temples, but had ended that temple at Jerusalem which God had commanded; and so the priest got away, and the people began to tell us that they feared we would take their purses or steal their horses, and judged us like themselves, who are naturally given to thieving; and the next day we came through that country into Cumberland again, [fol. 89v] where we had a general meeting of many thousands of people a-top of a hill, heavenly and glorious it was, and the glory of the Lord did shine over all: and there was as many as one could well speak over, there was such a multitude, and their eyes were kept to Christ their teacher, and they came to sit under their vine, that a Friend afterwards, Francis Howgill, in the ministry, went amongst them; and when he was moved to stand up amongst them, he saw they had no need of words, for they was all sitting down under their teacher Christ Jesus, so he was moved to sit down again amongst them without speaking anything. And so great a convincement there was in Cumberland, Bishopric, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, and Westmorland, and Lancashire, and the plants of God grew and flourished so by the heavenly rain, and God’s glory shined upon them, that many mouths the Lord opened to His praise, yea, to babes and sucklings He ordained strength. And after I was put out of Carlisle prison, I was moved to go to Priest Wilkinson’s steeplehouse again, and was in the steeplehouse before him, and when he came in I was declaring the truth to the people; and we had a meeting hard by where one Thomas Stubbs was declaring the Word of Life to them, that there was not many people in the steeplehouse, for the best and most of his hearers were turned to Christ’s free teaching; and the priest came in and opposed me, and there did we stay all the day: for when I began he opposed me, and (so if any law was broken, he broke it), and he thought to have wearied me out; and he shamed when his people was haling me out that we might see his fruits which Christ spoke of, ‘They shall hale you out of the synagogues’, and then they would leave me alone; and there did he stand till it was almost night, jangling and opposing of me, and would not go to his dinner; but at last the Lord’s power and truth came so over him that he packed away with his people. Growth and Good Reputation of the Movement [fol. 90r] And the priests and the professors they prophesied mightily against us about this time, for before they prophesied we should be all knocked down within a month, as aforesaid, and then after they prophesied within half a year: and then, their prophecies not coming to pass, they prophesied that we would eat one another out (for many times after the meetings many tender people that had a great way to go, and the houses not having beds, they stayed at the houses and lay in the hay mows and Cain’s fear possessed them), that, when we had eaten one another out, that we should all come to be maintained of the parishes and that ere long, they would be troubled with us. But after this, when they saw that the Lord blessed and Increased Friends as he did Abraham, both in the field and in the basket, and at their goings forth and comings in, risings up and lyings down; and that all things began to be blessed unto them, then they saw the failings of all these their prophecies, and that it was in vain to curse where God had blessed. But at the first convincement, when Friends could not put off their hats to people, nor say ‘you’ to a particular, but ‘thee’ and ‘thou ’, and could not bow nor use the world’s salutations nor fashions nor customs; and many Friends being tradesmen of several sorts, they lost their custom at the first: for the people would not trade with them nor trust them, and for a time people that were tradesmen could hardly get money enough to buy bread; but afterwards, when people came to see Friends’ honesty and truthfulness, and ‘yea‘ and ‘nay’ at a word in their dealing [fol. 90v] and their lives and conversations did preach and reach to the witness of God in all people; and they knew and saw that they would not cozen and cheat them for conscience sake towards God; and that at last they might send any child and be as well used as themselves at any of their shops. So then the things altered so, that all the enquiry was where was a draper, or shopkeeper, or tailor, or shoemaker, or any other tradesman that was a Quaker: then that was all the cry. Insomuch that Friends had double the trade beyond any of their neighbours, and if there was any trading, they had it; insomuch that then the cry was of all the professors and others, ‘If we let these people alone, they will take the trading of the nation out of our hands’. And this hath been the Lord’s doings to His people, which my desire is that all may be kept in His power and spirit faithful to God and man: first to God in obeying Him in all things, and secondly in doing unto all men that which is just and righteous, true and holy, and honest to all men and women in all things that they have to do with or to deal withal with them, that the Lord God may be glorified in their practising truth, holiness, godliness, and righteousness amongst them in all their lives and conversations. The next folio is a nineteenth-century list of the contents of this part of the manuscript. [fol. 92r] And so the Lord’s power and truth came over them all, and after, I went to Friends that was turned to the Lord into their meeting; and about this time many of the steeplehouses was empty, for such multitudes of people came to Christ’s free teaching, and knew their bodies the temples of God. And so after the great meeting in Cumberland as aforesaid, I passed out of Cumberland through the countries, where I had great meetings with Friends and of the world’s people, and I established them upon Christ the Rock and foundation of the true Prophets and Apostles, but not of the false. And after I came out of Carlisle prison aforesaid, I went Into the Abbey chamber, and there came in a mad woman that sometimes was very desperate, and she fell down of her knees, and cried, ‘Put off your hats, for grace, grace hangs about thy neck’: and so the Lord’s power ran through her that she was sensible of her condition, and after came and confessed it to Friends. And I came to another place In Cumberland: where a man’s wife was distracted, and very desperate, attempting at times to kill her children and her husband; but I was moved of the Lord God to speak to her, and she kneeled down of her bare knees, and cried, and said she would work off her bare knees if she might go with me: and the Lord’s power wrought through her, and she went home well. And in Bishopric, whilst I was there, they brought a woman tied behind a man that could neither eat nor speak and had been so a great while: and they brought her into the house to me to Anthony Pearson’s, and I was moved of the Lord God to speak to her, that she ate and spoke and was well, and got up behind her husband without any help, and went away well. And as I came out of Cumberland one time, I came to Hawkshead, and lighted at a Friend’s house: and there was young Margaret Fell with me, and William Caton, and it being a very cold season, [fol. 92v] we lighted and the lass made us a fire, her master and dame being gone to the market, and there was a boy lying in the cradle which they rocked, about 11 years old, and he was grown almost double: and I cast my eye upon the boy, and seeing he was dirty, I bid the lass wash his face and his hands and get him up and bring him unto me. So she brought him to me and I bid her take him and wash him again, for she had not washed him clean; then I was moved of the Lord God to lay my hands upon him and speak to him, and so bid the lass take him again and put on his clothes: and after, we passed away. And sometime after, I called at the house, and I met his mother, but did not light: ‘Oh stay,’ says she, ‘and have a meeting at our house, for all the country is convinced by the great miracle that was done’ [by me] ‘upon my son; for wee had carried him to wells and the bath, and all doctors had given him over, for his grandfather and father feared he would have died, and their name have gone out, having but that son; but presently after you was gone’ says she, ‘we came home and found our son playine in the streets: therefore’ said she, all the country would come to hear if I would come back again, and have a meeting there: and this was about 3 years after that, she told me of it, and he was grown to be a straight full youth then, and so the Lord have the praise. But as we was turning from the house and coming towards Swarthmoor, we overtook many rude market people who did stone us and abuse us: but the Lord’s power carried us over them all, so as we had no harm. And so when the Churches was settled in the North, and the Lord had raised up many and sent forth many into his vineyard to preach his everlasting gospel, as Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough to London, John Camm and John Audland to Bristol through the countries, Richard Hubberthorne and George Whitehead towards Norwich, and Thomas Holmes into Wales: that a matter of 70 ministers did the Lord raise up and sent abroad out of the North countries. The leaves in the next section of the manuscript have been reversed, so that the next page in the sequence is fol. 94v. Fols 93r to 94r deal with events in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, which are out of the scope of the Project. They have therefore been omitted. [fol. 94v] And there was a priest at Wrexham in Wales, one Floyd: he sent two of his preachers into the North to try vs, and see what a manner of people we was: but they were convinced, both, by the power of the Lord and turned to Christ, and they stayed a time and went back again, and one of stands a fine minister for Christ to this day — one John ap John — but the other did not continue a Friend. And the priests began to be in a mighty rage at Newcastle and at Kendal, and up and down in most countries: and one Gilpin had sometimes come amongst vs at Kendal, who run out and which the priests made use of at times against us, but the Lord’s power confounded them all. And about this time Oliver Protector’s oath was to be tendered to the soldiers when the Long Parliament was turned out: and many of the soldiers was turned out because in obedience to Christ they could not swear, a John Stubbs for one, who was convinced when I was in Carlisle prison, who became a faithful minister, and travailed much in the service of the Lord, in Holland, Ireland, Scotland, Leghorn, Rome, Egypt, America; and the Lord’s power preserved him over the heads of the Papists, though many times he was in great danger of the Inquisitions. And the rest of the soldiers that had been convinced in their Judgements, but coming not into obedience, they took Oliver Protector’s oath and they went into Scotland to a garrison: and the garrison thought they had been their enemies and they shot at them and killed many of them, which was a sad Judgement. And the Lord God cut off two of those persecuting Justices at Carlisle, and the other after a time was turned out of his place and went out of the town. And so after when I had visited the churches in the North and all was settled under God’s teaching, and the glory of the Lord shined over them, I passed from Swarthmoor to Lancaster, and so through the countries, visiting Friends, till I came to Sunderland Green, [added in margin: ‘1654 ’] where there was a meeting appointed 3 weeks before: and so left the North fresh and green under Christ their teacher, where this following paper was given forth to Friends in the ministry. |
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Here Fox leaves the North West and proceeds to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The letter To Friends in the Ministry does not follow immediately after this in the manuscript. |