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A40209 A journal or historical account of the life, travels, sufferings, Christian experiences and labour of love in the work of the ministry, of ... George Fox, who departed this life in great peace with the Lord, the 13th of the 11th month, 1690, the first volume. Fox, George, 1624-1691.; Penn, William, 1644-1718.; Fox, Margaret Askew Fell, 1614-1702. 1694 (1694) Wing F1854; ESTC R3344 917,676 824

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and Mortality put off yet we believe he has a Building with God Eternally in the Heavens and is entred into Rest as a Reward to those great Labours hard Sufferings and sore Trials he patiently endured for God and his Truth Of which Truth he was made an Able Minister and One if not the First Promulgator of it in our Age who though of no great Literature nor seeming much Learned as to the outward being hid from the Wisdom of this World yet he had the Tongue of the Learned and could speak a Word in due Season to the Conditions and Capacities of most especially to them that were weary and wanted Soul's Rest being deep in the Divine Mysteries of the Kingdom of God And the Word of Life and Salvation through him reached unto many Souls whereby many were Convinced of their great Duty of inward Retiring to Wait upon God and as they became diligent in the Performance of that Service were also raised up to be Preachers of the same Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Glad Tidings to others who are as Seals to his Ministry both in this and other Nations and may possibly give a more full Account thereof Howbeit we knowing his unwearied Diligence not Sparing but Spending himself in the Work and Service whereunto he was Chosen and Called of God could not but give this short Testimony of his Faithfulness therein and likewise of his tender Love and Care towards us who as a tender Father to Children in which Capacity we stood being so Related unto him he never failed to give us his wholesome Counsel and Advice And not only so but as a Father in Christ he took Care of the whole Family and Houshold of Faith which the Lord had made him an Eminent Overseer of and endued him with such an Excellent Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding to propose and direct Helps and Advantages to the Well-ordering and Establishing of Affairs and Government in the Church as now are found very serviceable thereunto and have greatly disappointed and prevented the false loose and libertine Spirit in some who to their own Confusion have endeavoured by Separation and Division to disturb the Church's Peace And although many of that sort have at sundry times shot their poisonous Darts at him publickly in Print and privately other ways yet he has been always preserved by the Heavenly Power of God out of the Reach of their Envy and all Perils and Difficulties that attended on their Account Who as a Fixed Star in the Firmament of God's Power did constantly abide and held his Integrity to the last being of a sweet savoury Life and as to Conversation kept his Garments clean And though outwardly dead yet liveth and his Memory is right precious unto us as it is and will be to all that abide in the Love of Truth and have not declined the Way of it For he was one of the Lord's Worthies Valiant for the Truth upon Earth not turning his Back in the Day of Battle but his Bow still abiding in its Strength he through many Hardships brought Gladness and Refreshment to Israel's Camp being assisted by the Might of that Power that always put the Armies of Aliens and Enemies to Flight And now having finished his Course is removed from us into a Glorious State of Immortality and Bliss and is gathered unto the Lord as a Shock of Corn in its full Season and to that Habitation of Safety where the Wicked cease from troubling and the Weary be at Rest John Rous. William Meade Thomas Lower William Ingram Daniel Abraham Abraham Morrice Margaret Rous. Sarah Meade Mary Lower Susanna Ingram Rachel Abraham Isabel Morrice An Epistle by Way of Testimony to Friends and Brethren of the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England Wales and elsewhere concerning the Decease of our Faithful Brother GEORGE FOX From our Second-Days Morning Meeting in London the 26th of the 11th Month 1690. DEar and truly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters in Christ Jesus our Blessed Lord and Saviour we sincerely and tenderly salute you all in his free and tender Love wherewith he hath graciously visited us and largely shed it abroad in our Hearts and Souls to our own unspeakable Comfort and Consolation and towards his whole Heritage and Royal Off-spring blessed be his pure and powerful Name for Evermore And our Souls do truly and fervently desire and breathe unto the God of all our Mercies that you all may be preserved and kept truly faithful and diligent in his Work and Service according to your Heavenly Calling and Endowments with his Light Grace and Truth unto the End of your Days as being livingly engaged thereby all your appointed Time to serve him and to wait till your Change come That none may neglect that true Improvement of your Times and Talents that God has afforded you here for your Eternal Advantage hereafter in that Inheritance and Life Immortal that never fades away And that the whole Flock and Heritage of Christ Jesus which he has purchased and bought for himself with a Price incorruptible may always be so preserved in his own pure Love and Life as to grow increase and prosper in the same and thereby be kept in Love Vnity and Peace with one another as becomes his true and faithful Followers is that which our very Hearts and Souls desire being often truly comforted and enlarged in the living sense and feeling of the Encrease and Aboundings thereof among faithful Friends and Brethren And Dear Brethren and Sisters unto this our Tender Salutation We are concerned in Brotherly Love and true Tender-heartedness to add and impart unto you some Account of the Decease of our Dear and Elder Brother in Christ namely his and his Church's true and faithful Servant and Minister George Fox whom it hath pleased the Lord to take unto himself as he hath divers others of his faithful Servants and Ministers of late Time who have faithfully served out their Generation and finished their Testimony and Course with Joy and Peace Howbeit O Dear Brethren and Friends that so many Worthies in Israel and serviceable Instruments in the Lord's Hand are of late taken away and removed from us so soon one after another appears a Dispensation that deeply and sorrowfully affects us and many more whose Hearts are upright and tender toward God and one to another in the Truth The Consideration of the Depth Weight and Meaning thereof is very weighty upon our Spirits though their precious Life and Testimony lives with us as being of that same Body united to one Head even Christ Jesus in which we still and hope ever shall have secret Comfort and Union with them whom the Lord has removed and taken to himself out of their Earthly Tabernacles and Houses into their Heavenly and Everlasting Mansions This our said Dear Brother George Fox was enabled by the Lord's Power to Preach the Truth fully and effectually in our Publick Meeting in White-Hart-Court by Grace-Church-street London on the Eleventh
know How long I had lain in Prison and for what and he did so And when he came down again he told me that Esq Marsh said He would go an Hundred Miles bare-foot for my Liberty he knew me so well And several others he said spake well of me From which time the Governour was very Loving to me There were amongst the Prisoners that were there Two very bad Men that would often sit drinking with the Officers and Souldiers and because I would not sit and drink with them too that made them the worse against me One time when these Two Prisoners were drunk one of them whose Name was William Wilkinson who was a Presbyterian and had been a Captain came to me and challenged me to fight with him I seeing what Condition he was in got out of his way and next Morning when he was grown more sober told him How unmanly a thing it was in him to challenge a Man to fight whose Principle he knew it was not to strike but if he was stricken on one Ear to turn the other And I told him If he had a mind to fight he should have challenged some of the Souldiers that could have answered him in his own way But however I told him seeing he had Challenged me I was now come to Answer him with my Hands in my Pockets and reaching my Head towards him Here said I here is my Hair here are my Cheeks here is my Back With that he skipt away from me and went into another Room At which the Souldiers fell a laughing and one of the Officers said You are a happy Man that can bear such things Thus he was Conquered without a Blow But after a while he took the Oath and gave Bond and got out of Prison and not long after the Lord cut him off There were great Imprisonments in this and the former Years while I was Prisoner at Lancaster and Scarborough At London many Friends were crowded into Newgate and other Prisons where the Sickness was and many Friends died in Prison Many Friends also were Banished and several sent on Ship-board by the King's Order Some Masters of Ships would not carry them but set them on Shore again yet some were sent to Barbados and to Jamaica and to Mevis and the Lord blessed them there There was one Master of a Ship was very wicked and cruel to Friends that were put on Board his Ship for he kept the Friends down under Decks though the Sickness was amongst them so that many died of it But the Lord plagued him for his Wickedness for he lost most of his Sea-men by the Plague and lay several Months crossed with Contrary Winds though other Ships went out and made their Voyages At last he came before Plimouth and there the Governour and Magistrates would not suffer him nor any of his Men to come ashore though he wanted many Necessaries for his Voyage but Thomas Lower and Arthur Cotton and John Light and some other Friends went to the Ship's-side and carried Necessaries for the Friends that were Prisoners on Board The Master being thus crost and plagued and vext he cursed them that put him upon this Freight and said He hoped he should not go far before be was taken And the Vessel was but a little while gone out of sight of Plimouth but she was taken by a Dutch-man of War and carried into Holland When they came into Holland the States there sent the Banished Friends back to England with a Letter of Pasport and a Certificate That they had not made an Escape but were sent back by them But in time the Lord's Power wrought over this Storm and many of our Persecutors were Confounded and put to shame After I had lain Prisoner above a Year in Scarborough-Castle I sent a Letter to the King in which I gave him an Account of my Imprisonment and the bad Vsage I had had in Prison and also that I was Informed no Man could deliver me but he After this John Whitehead being at London and having Acquaintance also with him that was called Esq Marsh he went to Visit him and spake to him about me And he undertook if John Whitehead would get the State of my Case drawn up to deliver it to the Master of Requests whom he called Sir John Birkenhead he would endeavour to get a Release for me So John Whitehead and Ellis Hookes drew up a Relation of my Imprisonment and Sufferings and carried it to Marsh and he went with it to the Master of Requests who procured an Order from the King for my Release The Substance of the Order was That the King being certainly Informed that I was a Man principled against Plotting and Fighting and had been ready at all times to discover Plots rather than to make any c. that therefore his Royal Pleasure was that I should be discharged from my Imprisonment c. As soon as this Order was obtained John Whitehead came down to Scarborough with it and delivered it to the Governour Who upon Receipt thereof gathered the Officers together and without requiring Bond or Sureties for my peaceable Living being satisfied that I was a Man of a peaceable Life he discharged me freely and gave me the following Pasport PErmit the Bearer hereof George Fox late a Prisoner here and now discharged by His Majesty's Order quietly to pass about his Lawful Occasions without any Molestation Given under my hand at Scarborough-Castle this First Day of September 1666. JORDAN CROSLANDS Governour of Scarborough-Castle After I was Released I would have given the Governour something Scarborough for the Civility and Kindness he had of late shewed me but he would not receive any thing but said Whatever Good he could do for me and my Friends he would do it and never do them any hurt And afterwards if at any time the Mayor of the Town sent to him for Souldiers to break up Friends Meetings if he sent any down he would privately give them a Charge Not to meddle and so he continued Loving to his Dying-Day The Officers also and the Souldiers were mightily changed and grown very Respectful to me and when they had occasion to speak of me they would say He is as stiff as a Tree and as pure as a Bell for we could never bow him The very next day after I was Released from Scarborough-Prison the Fire brake out at London and the Report of it came quickly down into the Country Then I saw the Lord God was true and just in his Word which he had shewed me before in Lancaster-Jail when I saw the Angel of the Lord with a glittering drawn Sword Southward as is before expressed And the People of London were forewarned of this Fire yet few laid it to Heart or believed it but rather grew more Wicked and higher in Pride For we had a Friend that was moved to come out of Huntington-shire a little before the Fire and to scatter his Money up and down the
Considerable Men and the Truth was powerfully declared amongst them and the Scriptures wonderfully opened and the Parables and Sayings of Christ were expounded and the State of the Church in the Apostles Days was plainly set forth and the Apostacy since from that State discovered And the Truth had great Dominion that Day so that those Great Men that were present did generally Confess to it saying They believed that this Principle must go over the whole World There were at this Meeting James Naylor Thomas Goodyear and William Dewsbury who had been Convinced the Year before and Richard Farnsworth also And the Constable stay'd with Thomas Aldam till the Meeting was over And then went towards York-prison but did not meddle with me Wakefield From hence I went to Wakefield and on the First Day after I went to a Steeple-house where James Naylor had been a Member of an Independent-Church but upon his receiving Truth he was Excommunicated When I came in and the Priest had done the People called upon me to come up to the Priest which I did But when I began to declare the Word of Life to them and to lay open the Deceit of the Priest they rushed upon me on a suddain and thrust me out at the other Door and fell a punching and beating me and Cried Let us have him to the Stocks But the Lord's Power was over them and restrained them that they were not suffered to put me in So I passed away to the Meeting where were a great many Professors and friendly People gathered and a great Convincement there was that Day For the People were mightily satisfied that they were directed to the Lord 's Teaching in themselves Here we got some Lodging for Four of us had lain abroad under an Hedge the Night before there being then few Friends in that Place The same Day Richard Farnsworth went to another great Steeple-house belonging to a great High-priest and declared the Word of Truth unto the People and a great Service he had amongst them For the Lord 's Dread and Power was mightily over all The Priest of that Church which James Naylor had been a Member of whose Name mas Marshal raised many Wicked Slanders upon me as That I carried Bottles about with me and made People drink of my Bottles and that made them follow me And That I rid upon a great Black Horse and was seen in one Country upon my Black Horse in one Hour and in the same Hour in another Country Threescore Miles off and That I should give a Fellow Money to follow me when I was on my Black Horse With these Hellish Lies he fed his People to make them think Evil of the Truth which I had declared amongst them But by these Lies of his he preached many of his Hearers away from him For I was then on Foot and travelled on foot and had no Horse at that Time and that the People generally knew But the Lord soon after met with this Envious Priest 1652. High-town and Cut him off in his Wickedness After this I came to a Town called High-Town where dwelt a Woman who had been Convinced a little before and we went to her House and had a Meeting and the Towns-people gathered together and we declared the Truth to them and had some Service for the Lord amongst them and they passed away again peaceably But there was a Widow-woman in the Town whose Name was Green who being filled with Envy went to one that was called a Gentleman in the Town who was reported to have killed Two Men and One Woman and Informed him against us though he was no Officer The next Morning we drew up some Queries to be sent to the Priest And when we had done and were just going away some of the Friendly People of the Town came running up to the House where we were and told us That this Murdering Man had sharpened a Pike to stab us and was coming up with his Sword by his Side We were just passing away and so missed him But we were no sooner gone but he came to the House where we had been and the People generally Concluded If we had not been gone he would have murdered some of us That Night we lay in a Wood and were very Wet for it Rained exceedingly In the Morning I was moved to come back to that Town again and then they gave us a full Relation of this wicked Man From hence we passed to Bradford and came to an House Bradford where we met with Richard Farnsworth again from whom we had parted a little before When we came in they set Meat before us but as I was going to Eat the Word of the Lord came to me saying Eat not the Bread of such as have an Evil Eye Immediately I arose from the Table and ate nothing The Woman of the House was a Baptist So after I had exhorted the Family To turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and hearken to his Teachings in their own Hearts We departed thence And as we travelled through the Country preaching Repentance to the People we came into a Market-town on the Market-day and there was a Lecture there that Day And I went into the Steeple-house where were many Priests and Professors and People The Priest that preached took for his Text those Words of Jeremiah Chap. 5. ver 31. My People love to have it so Leaving out the foregoing Words viz. The Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their Means So I shewed the People his Deceit and directed them to Christ the true Teacher within declaring unto them that God was come to Teach his People himself and to bring them off from all the World's Teachers and Hirelings that they might come to receive freely from him Then warning them of the Day of the Lord that was coming upon all Flesh I passed from thence without much Opposition At Night we came to a Country-house and there was no Ale-house near They desired us to stay there all Night which we did and had good Service for the Lord declaring his Truth amongst them 1652. Yorkshire The next Day we passed on For the Lord had said unto me If but one Man or Woman were Raised up by his Power to stand and live in the same Spirit that the Prophets and Apostles were in who gave forth the Scriptures ☞ that Man or Woman should shake all the Country in their Profession for Ten Miles round For People had the Scriptures but were not in that same Light and Power and Spirit which they were in that gave forth the Scriptures and so they neither knew God nor Christ nor the Scriptures aright nor had they Vnity one with another being out of the Power and Spirit of God Therefore as we passed along we Warned all People where-ever we met them of the Day of the Lord that was coming upon them Pendle-hill As we travelled on we came near a very great and high
of answering me the Judge told the Jury They might go out Some of the Jury were not satisfied whereupon the Judge told them They had heard a Man Swear that the Oath was tendered to me the last Sessions and then he told them what they should do I told him He should leave the Jury to their own Consciences However the Jury being put on by him went forth and soon after came in again and found me Guilty I spake to the Jury and asked them How they could satisfie themselves to find me Guilty upon that Indictment which was laid so false and had so many Errors in it They could make but little Answer yet one who seemed to be the Worst of them would have taken me by the Hand But I put him by saying How now Judas hast thou betrayed me and dost thou now come with a Kiss 1674. Worcester Sessions So I bid him and them Repent Then the Judge began to tell me How favourable the Court had been to me I asked him How he could say so Was ever any man worse dealt with than I had been in this Case who was stopped in my Journey being travelling upon my lawful Occasions and then Imprisoned without Cause and now had the Oaths put to me only for a Snare And I desired him to Answer me in the Presence of the Lord in whose Presence we all are Whether this Oath was not tendered me in Envy He would not answer that but said Would you had never come here to trouble us and the Country I told him I came not thither of my self but was brought being stopped in my Travel on my Journey and I did not trouble them but they had brought Trouble upon themselves Then the Judge told me What a sad Sentence he had to tell me I asked him Whether what he was going to speak was by way of passing Sentence or by way of Information For I told him I had many things to say and more Errors to Assign in the Indictment besides those I had already mentioned to stop him from giving Sentence against me upon that Indictment He said He was going to shew me the danger of a Premunire which was the Loss of my Liberty and of all my Goods and Chattels and to endure Imprisonment during Life But he said He did not deliver this as the Sentence of the Court upon me but as an Admonition to me and then he bid the Jailer Take me away I expected to have been called again to hear the Sentence but when I was gone the Clerk of the Peace whose Name was Twittey asked him as I was informed Whether that which he had spoken to me should stand for Sentence And he consulting with some of the Justices told him Yes that was the Sentence and should stand This was done behind my Back to save himself from Shame in the Face of the Country Many of the Justices and the generality of the People were moderate and civil and there was one John Ashley a Lawyer was very friendly both the time before and now speaking on my behalf and pleading the Errors of the Indictment for me But Justice Street who was Judge of the Court would not regard but over-ruled all This Justice Street said to some Friends in the Morning before my Trial That if he had been upon the Bench the first Sessions he would not have tendered me the Oath but if I had been Convicted of being at a Conventicle he would have proceeded against me according to that Law and that he was sorry that ever I came before him And yet he maliciously tendered the Oath to me in the Court again when I was to have Tried my Traverse upon the Indictment But the Lord pleaded my Cause and met with both him and Justice Simpson who first ensnared me with the Oath at the first Sessions For Simpson's Son was Arraigned not long after at the same Bar for Murder And Street who as he came down from London after the Judges had returned me back from the King's-Bench to Worcester said Now I was returned to them I should lie in Prison and rot had his Daughter whom he so doted on that she was called his Idol brought down dead from London in an Hearse to the same Inn where he spake those Words and brought to Worcester to be buried within a few days after And People took notice of the Hand of God 1674. Worcester Prison how sudden it was upon him but it rather hardned than tendered him as his Carriage afterwards shewed After I was carried back to Prison several came to see me and amongst others the Earl of Salisbury's Son who was very loving and troubled that they had dealt so badly by me He stayed about two Hours with me and took a Copy of the Errors in the Indictment himself in Writing The Sessions being now over and I fixt in Prison by a Premunire my Wife came up to me out of the North to be with me And the Assizes coming on soon after in the Sixth Month the State of my Case being drawn up in Writing She and Thomas Lower delivered it to Judge Wild. In it was set forth the Occasion of my Journey the Manner of my being Taken and Imprisoned the Proceedings of the several Sessions against me and the Errors in the Indictment by which I was Premunired which having had Occasion to mention often before I forbear to repeat here When the Judge had read it he shook his Head and said We might Trie the Validity or Invalidity of the Errors if we would And that was all they could get from him While thus I lay in Prison it came upon me to state our Principle to the King not with particular Relation to my own Sufferings but for his better Information concerning our Principle and us as a People It was thus and thus Directed To the KING THe Principle of the Quakers is the Spirit of Christ who Died for us and is Risen for our Justification by which we know we are his and he dwelleth in us by his Spirit and by the Spirit of Christ we are led out of Vnrighteousness and Vngodliness It brings us to deny all Plottings and Contrivings against the King or any Man And the Spirit of Christ brings us to deny all manner of Ungodliness as Lying Theft Murder Adultery Fornication and all Vncleanness and Debauchery Malice and Hatred Deceit Cousening and Cheating whatsoever and the Devil and his Works And the Spirit of Christ brings us to seek the Peace and Good of all Men and to live peaceably and leads us from such Evil Works and Actions as the Magistrate's Sword takes hold upon And our Desire and Labour is that all who profess themselves Christians may walk in the Spirit of Christ that they through the Spirit may mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh and by the Sword of the Spirit may cut down Sin and Evil in themselves Then the Judges and other Magistrates would not have so much Work in