{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_57926/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_57926","id":"gutenberg_57926","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57926","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Fox, George, 1624-1691","Society of Friends -- Doctrines"],"text":"Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, Jens Sadowski, Princeton\nUniversity, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team\nat http://www.pgdp.net. This book was produced from images\nmade available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n RELIGION OF LIFE SERIES.\n\n GLEANINGS FROM GEORGE FOX.\n\n\n UNIFORM VOLUMES IN\n Religion of Life Series.\n\n CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.\n ISAAC PENINGTON.\n GEORGE FOX.\n SIR THOMAS BROWNE.\n THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.\n WILLIAM PENN.\n\n Cloth, 1s. net. Leather, 2s.\n net.\n\n\n\n\n GLEANINGS\n FROM THE WORKS OF\n GEORGE FOX\n\n\n BY\n DOROTHY M. RICHARDSON\n AUTHOR OF\n \"THE QUAKERS: PAST & PRESENT.\"\n\n\n LONDON:\n HEADLEY BROTHERS,\n BISHOPSGATE, E.C.\n\n\n\n\n Contents.\n\n\n PAGE\n INTRODUCTION 7-14\n\n PART I.\n NARRATIVE PASSAGES 17-28\n\n PART II.\n SPECIAL TESTIMONIES 31-90\n 1. BUSINESS LIFE 31\n 2. THE INWARD LIGHT 35\n 3. JUSTICE 41\n 4. MEETINGS AND MINISTRY 46\n 5. OATHS 64\n 6. RESPECTING PERSONS 66\n 7. THE SCRIPTURES 69\n 8. SIN 74\n 9. SLAVERY 81\n 10. WAR 82\n 11. WOMEN 84\n\n PART III.\n SOCIAL LIFE 93-109\n 1. SOCIAL LIFE 93\n 2. GENERAL EXHORTATIONS 103\n\n\n\n\n Introduction.\n\n\n I.\n\nGeorge Fox may be variously described. If we look at him from the\nstandpoint of orthodox Catholicism we shall see a heretical genius, a\nman who tried to re-organise the church and succeeded in establishing a\nsect--in defiance of the fact of the rarity of the religious and the\nstill greater rarity of the mystical temperament--upon a basis of\nmystical opportunism, in a condition of divorce from sacraments, culture\nand tradition.\n\nFrom the Protestant point of view he becomes the man who made a\ntemporarily successful attempt to undermine the authority of the\nScriptures; his failure being attested by the return of the majority of\nthe Quakers, from the third generation onwards, to biblicism--their\ntacit throwing up of their earlier position with regard to the inward\nlight.\n\nThe \"free\" churches find in Fox the collector and organizer of a type of\nChristian believers whose shining record has so fully justified his\nessential soundness and unity with the main purpose of Christendom that\nminor differences may be ignored.\n\nStudents of mysticism, Christian mysticism in particular, seeing Fox as\none in the long line of those who have adventured into the undivided\ntruth they find stirring within their own souls, have placed him amongst\nthe grand \"actives\" of European mysticism.\n\nHere and there an attempt has been made to disentangle the essential\ndistinction of the man himself from his relation to groups and abstract\nideas, and to show that distinctive character working itself out in his\nlife and writings, and in the varying history of the church he founded.\n\n\n II.\n\nTo the present writer George Fox appeals not only by the inherent\nstrength of his mystical genius, not only because amongst his fellows in\nthe mystical family he is, characteristically, the practical western\nlayman, the market-place witness for the spiritual consciousness in\nevery man, but also because he is, essentially, the English\nmystic--because he represents, at the height of its first blossoming,\nthe peculiar genius of the English \"temperament.\" He is English\nparticularism, English independency and individualism expressed in terms\nof religion, and offering its challenge, for the first time, in the open\nto all the world. This is his unique contribution to the evolution of\nChristendom.\n\nHis fellows and predecessors, the German mystics of the fourteenth and\nseventeenth centuries, brought, it is true, the same message, the same\naccount of the pathway to reality as did Fox, but they brought it in a\nrestricted form. They were largely dominated by tradition, they\nremained, most of them, within the official church, and those who did\nnot met secretly and laboured behind closed doors. It was in George Fox\nthat religious particularism, the outcome of the civilization whose\ncradle was the little isolated homesteads upon the Scandinavian fiords,\nreached its full flower. With him there re-appears in the form of an\nexperiment in everyday life, in the heart of the modern state, the truth\nthat dawned in Palestine sixteen hundred years before, the truth that\nwas side-tracked but never quite lost amidst the policies, expediencies\nand jealousies of the official church, that has been clearing and\nelaborating itself with increasing steadiness ever since the seventeenth\ncentury, the truth that only in individuality carried to its full term\ncan we find the basis of unity. Unity amongst Fox and his followers is\nthe fruit and fulfilment of separateness. In order truly to love his\nneighbour, a man must first love himself. He must achieve singleness of\nsoul, must discover that within him which is of God; that which \"speaks\"\nwith him only in the solitude of his inner being.\n\nThe unit, with Fox, is never, except incidentally, the group; never,\nexcept incidentally, the family; but the single human soul faced with\nits individual consciousness, the germ of truth, goodness, beauty,\nlight, love, God, it bears within itself, the seed of God present in all\nhuman kind.\n\nHe stands for liberty, for trust and toleration in a day of unchallenged\nreligious and civil antagonisms and authoritarianisms. He stands for\nlove, for the essential harmony of the creation in a day when warfare\nwas the unquestioned and \"divinely-appointed\" method of settling\ninternational differences, and litigation and debate the accepted\nsteersmen of private relationships.\n\n\n III.\n\nThis particularist genius and his fellows represent the keenest moment\nin one of those periods in its religious experience when humanity\nbecomes aware of the wider life to which it belongs, when working on,\nGod-led and God-inspired, part blind, part seeing, making in dark and\ndesert places the uttermost venture of faith, suddenly, on an instant,\nit finds God.\n\nA subsequent enormously enhanced fruitfulness, the amazing development\nof \"thought\" and \"science,\" our long sojourn amidst the great desert of\n\"facts,\" the final well-nigh despairing state of spiritual aridity that\nsynchronised with the neo-Darwinian mechanistic definitions of life, is\nnow once more in our day giving place to a home-coming, a new phase of\nspiritual realization.\n\nIt is just at this turning moment, in the dawn-light of this new\nliberating contact, world-wide this time, free altogether from the\nswathing bands of cloister and cult that we begin to have a clearer\nunderstanding of the message of the mystics in general and in particular\nof the challenge of our own George Fox.\n\n\n IV.\n\nFox's message found instant response from the heart of the most vital\nreligious life of his day. From the midst of the small isolated groups\nwho--surrounded by the institutional and doctrinal confusion following\nimmediately upon the decentralization of authority in the art and\nscience of the religious life, and persisting throughout the\npost-reformation century--were feeling their own way to God, his\nfollowers came forth. They, these friends of truth as they called\nthemselves, were to live out the first phase of the liberation of the\nreligious life. Dispensing with symbols and observances, they strove to\nsink the whole personal life into the divine life and love they felt\nstirring within them, to seek this perpetually, to let it flow out and\nthrough all the circumstances of their daily commerce, to seek and\nappeal to this alone, in all mankind.\n\n\n V.\n\nIf Fox had been only the liberator of the mystical forces moving and\nquickening under the drying crust of official and authoritarian\ntheology, he would have left on the outward form of the religious life\nof his country as little mark as did his great brother Boehme on his.\nBut he was more than liberator. He was also steersman. It was his\norganizing genius that laid the foundation of a new religious culture; a\nculture in which sacraments and symbols, politics and authoritarianism\nshould play no part--a culture which took no account of \"persons,\"\n\"notions,\" or \"theories,\" which put being before \"knowing,\" intuition\nbefore intellection, which dared to trust in and enquire of women, not\nin name only, but in fact.\n\nThe vitality of the society he founded is the test of the organizing\ngenius of this \"madman.\"\n\nIt has had its critical period. At the beginning of the eighteenth\ncentury it sank into Quietism, and thence back to a pre-Quaker pietist\nbiblicism, in which the nature of Fox's contribution to religion--his\nrestatement, both in life and in church method of the immediacy, the\n\"originality\" of the Christ-life, the life of God in man--was almost\nlost to view. But the culture-ground, the means of grace, the Quaker\n\"method\" of quiet waiting on God, the unflinching faith, remained\nuntouched, the little church survived and in due time revival took\nplace. To-day, in spite of the strong leaven of biblicism, the Quaker\nchurch serves (as I have pointed out elsewhere)[1] as a sorting-house\nfor mystics and persons of the mystical type, and lies a radiating\ncentre of divine common-sense, of practical loving wisdom at the heart\nof English religious life.\n\n\n VI.\n\nWhat Fox did with the unconsciousness of genius, modern thought is\nelaborating and explaining. \"Experts\" in all departments of knowledge\nare at the confessional declaring their bankruptcy. Science admits her\nhelplessness to do more than collect and describe phenomena, and begs\nimplicitly to rank as a servant rather than a guide (thereby,\nincidentally coming for the first time to her full height and value).\n\n[Footnote 1: \"The Quakers; Past and Present.\" Constable & Co.]\n\nMetaphysic, come out at last from her academic seclusion to the light of\ncommon day, points the way to the threshold of reality, declares that we\nmay possess and be possessed by it, not _via_ the intellect, but\ndirectly by intuition. This reality that we ignorantly worship the\nmystics have declared to us as goodness, beauty and truth. Fox called it\nGod in man, the life, the seed, the divine light latent in every son of\nman, and once in the life of this planet fully and completely informing\na human frame.\n\n\n\n\n PART I.\n NARRATIVE PASSAGES.\n\n\n NOTE.\n\n The reference \"C.J.\" indicates the Cambridge edition of\n Fox's _Journal_, compiled from original MSS. (Cambs.\n Univ. Press. 1911); \"Works,\" refer to the Philadelphia\n edition of Fox's printed works. Punctuation, which\n varies in the different editions and is almost lacking\n in MSS. and of course in literal transcripts, has been\n altered or inserted by the compiler, as seemed needful.\n\n\n Narrative Passages.\n\n\nSelf-Revelation.\n\nThen the Lord gently led me along, and let me see His love, which was\nendless and eternal, surpassing all the knowledge men have in the\nnatural state or can obtain from history or books, and that love let me\nsee myself as I was without him. I was afraid of all company, for I saw\nthem perfectly where they were, through the love of God which let me see\nmyself. I had not fellowship with any people, priests or professors or\nany sort of separated people, but with Christ, who hath the key, and\nopened the door of Light and Life unto me. I was afraid of all carnal\ntalk and talkers, for I could see nothing but corruptions and the life\nlay under the burthen of corruptions. When I myself was in the deep,\nshut up under all, I could not believe that I should ever overcome, my\ntroubles, my sorrows, and my temptations were so great, that I thought\nmany times I should have despaired I was so tempted.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 12.)\n\n\nThe Inner Light.\n\nNow the Lord opened to me by His invisible power that every man was\nenlightened by the divine light of Christ; and I saw it shine through\nall; and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the\nlight of life and became the children of it; but they that hated it and\ndid not believe in it were condemned by it, though they made a\nprofession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the light\nwithout the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in\nthe Scriptures, though afterwards searching the Scriptures I found it.\nFor I saw in that light and spirit which was before the Scriptures were\ngiven forth and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that\nall must come to that Spirit, if they would know God or Christ or the\nScripture aright which they that gave him forth were led and taught by.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., Vol. I., p. 35.)\n\n\nA New Creation.\n\nNow I was come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise\nof God. All things were new and all the creation gave another smell unto\nme beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness and\ninnocency and righteousness.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 28.)\n\n\nThe Vision from the Hill-top.\n\nAnd so we passed on warning people as we met them of the day of the Lord\nthat was coming upon them, and as we went I spied a great hill called\nPendle Hill, and I went on the top of it with much ado it was so steep.\nBut I was moved of the Lord to get atop of it. And when I came atop of\nit I saw Lancashire sea (and there atop of the hill I was moved to sound\nthe day of the Lord), and the Lord let me see atop of the hill in what\nplaces he had a great people, and so on the hill's side I found a spring\nof water and refreshed myself, for I had eaten little and drunk little\nfor several days.\n\n (C. J., 1652, p. 40.)\n\n\nA Blow from a Bible.\n\nAnd I went out of the meeting to the steeple-house and the priest and\nmost of the heads of the parish was got up into the chancel and so I\nwent up to them and when I began to speak they fell upon me and the\nclerk up with his Bible as I was speaking and hit me in the face that my\nface gushed out with blood, that I bled exceedingly in the\nsteeple-house, and so the people cried, \"Let's have him out of the\nchurch\" (as they called it) and when they had me out they exceedingly\nbeat me and threw me down and threw me over a hedge and after dragged me\nthrough a house into the street stoning and beating me, and they got my\nhat from me which I never got again and I was all over besmeared with\nblood.\n\n (C. J., 1652, p. 36.)\n\n\nA Mobbing.\n\nA company of rude fellows as fishermen and the like with their fishing\npoles and the like fell upon me as soon as I was come to land, and beat\nme down to the ground and bruised my body and head and all over my\nshoulders and back that when I was sensible again I looked up and a man\nwas lying over my shoulders and a woman was throwing stones at my face\nso I got up and I could hardly tell whether my head was cloven to pieces\nit was so bruised. Nevertheless I was raised up by the power of God and\nthey beat me with their fishing-poles into the sea and thrust me into\nthe sea a great depth and thought to have sunk me down into the water;\nand so I thrust up amongst them again and then they tumbled me in a\nboat, and James Lancaster went with me and carried me over the water and\nwhen I came to the town where the man had bound himself with an oath to\nshoot me all the town rose up against me, some with muck forks and some\nwith flayles and forks and cried knock him on the head, I should not go\nthrough the town and they called for a cart to carry me to the graveyard\nand cried, Knock him on the head, but they did not, but guarded me a\ngreat way with their weapons but did not much abuse me and after a while\nleft me, so when I came to some water I washed me. I was very dirty and\nmuch bruised.\n\n (_Short Journal_, pp. 41, 42.)\n\n\nA Night Among the Furze Bushes.\n\nAnd after a while I went to an inn and desired them to let me have a\nlodging and they would not, and desired them to let me have a little\nmeat and milk and I would pay them for it but they would not. So I\nwalked out of the town and a company of fellows followed me and asked me\nwhat news, and I bid them repent and fear the Lord. And after I was\npassed a pretty way out of the town I came to another house and desired\nthem to let me have a little meat and drink and lodging for my money but\nthey would not neither, but denied me. And I came to another house and\ndesired the same, but they refused me also, and then it grew so dark\nthat I could not see the high way and I discovered a ditch and got a\nlittle water and refreshed myself and got over the ditch and sat amongst\nthe furze bushes, being weary with travelling, till it was day.\n\n (C. J., (I.), p. 30.)\n\n\nA Long Cold Winter.\n\nAnd so they committed me again to close prison, and Colonel Kirby gave\norder to the goaler that no flesh alive must come at me for I was not\nfit to be discoursed with by men. So I was put up in a smoky tower where\nthe smoke of the other rooms came up and stood as a dew upon the walls,\nwhere it rained in also upon my bed. And the smoke was so thick as I\ncould hardly see a candle sometimes, and many times locked under three\nlocks. And the under-goaler would hardly come up to unlock one of the\nupper doors; the smoke was so thick that I almost smothered with smoke\nand so starved with cold and rain that my body was almost numbed, and my\nbody swelled with the cold.\n\n (C. J., II, p. 83.)\n\n\nA Tortured Body.\n\nAnd I went to bed but I was so weak with bruises I was not able to turn\nme and the next day they hearing of it at Swarthmore they sent a horse\nfor me and as I was riding the horse knocked his foot against a stone\nand stumbled that it shook me and pained me as it seemed worse to me\nthan all my blows my body was so tortured; so I came to Swarthmore and\nmy body was exceedingly bruised....\n\nAnd Judge Fell asked me to give him a relation of my persecution and I\ntold him they could do no otherwise they were in such a spirit, and they\nmanifested their priests fruits and profession and religion.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 61.)\n\n\nA Meeting in a Steeple-house.\n\nHe began to oppose me, and I told him his glass was gone, his time was\nout, the place was as free for me as for him, and he accused me that I\nhad broken the law in speaking to him in his time in the morning and I\ntold him he had broken the law, then, in speaking in my time. And so I\ncalled all people to the true teacher out of the hirelings, such as\nteach for the fleece and makes a prey upon the people, for the Lord was\ncome to teach his people himself by his spirit and Christ saith, Learn\nof me I am the way which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the\nworld, that all through him might believe, and so to learn of him who\nhad enlightened them, who was the light, and so had a brave meeting in\nthe steeple-house and the priest of the parish foamed like a pig through\nrage and madness but the truth and the power of the Lord came over all\ntheir heads.\n\n (_Short Journal_, p. 45.)\n\n\nA Vision.\n\nAnd I saw a vision a man and two mastiff dogs and a bear and I passed by\nthem and they smiled upon me.\n\n (_Short Journal_, p. 71).\n\n\nThe Power of Truth.\n\nThe justices whispered together and bid the goaler take us away and so\nthe goaler brought us away and almost all the people followed us out of\nthe court and it was a mighty day for the truth. And so when I came into\nthe goaler's house the goaler said, Gentlemen, you are all set at\nliberty and you know I must have my fees, but give me what you will,\nwhich a great service to the truth it was. And the sessions was just\nlike a meeting, truth had such an operation in people's hearts.\n\n (_Short Journal_, p. 106.)\n\n\nA Consistent Sheriff.\n\nIn the evening I was brought to the sheriff's house and the sheriff's\nwife said that salvation was come to her house and all their family was\nwrought upon by the power of the Lord and they believed in the truth and\nthis being the first day of the week the next seventh day the sheriff\nhimself spake the truth in a pair of slippers in the market amongst the\npeople.\n\n (_Short Journal_, p. 2.)\n\n\nUnity with the Creation.\n\nAnd so after the meeting was done I passed away to John Audlands and\nthere came John Story to me and lighted his pipe of tobacco and, said\nhe, will you take a pipe of tobacco saying come, all is ours. And I\nlooked upon him to be a forward bold lad and tobacco I did not take, but\nit came into my mind that the lad might think I had not unity with the\ncreation. For I saw he had a flashy empty notion of religion. So I took\nhis pipe and put it to my mouth and gave it to him again to stop him\nlest his rude tongue should say I had not unity with the creation....\n\nOne Cocks met me in the street and would have given me a roll of tobacco\n... so I accepted of his love but denied it.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 44-45.)\n\n\nAn Airy Damsel.\n\nAnd the next morning there was a lady sent for me and she had a teacher\nat her house.\n\nAnd they was both very light, airy, people and was too light to receive\nthe weighty things of God. And in her lightness she came and asked me\nwhether she should cut my hair. And I was moved to reprove her and bid\nher cut down the corruptions in her with the sword of the spirit of God.\nAnd so after I had admonished her we passed away; and, after, she made\nher boast in her frothy mind that she came behind me and cut off a lock\nof my hair, which was a lie.\n\n (C. J., p. 285.)\n\n\nA Fat and Merry Captain.\n\nAnd this captain was the fattest, merriest, cheerfullest man and the\nmost given to laughter that I ever met with so that I several times was\nmoved of the Lord to speak to him in the dreadful power of the Lord and\nyet still he would presently after laugh at anything that he saw; and I\nstill admonished him to sobriety and the fear of the Lord and sincerity.\nAnd we lay at an inn at night and the next morning I was moved to speak\nto him again, and then he parted from us the next morning. But he\nconfessed next time I saw him that the power of the Lord had so amazed\nhim that before he got home he was serious enough and left his laughing.\nAnd the man came to be convinced and become a serious and good man and\ndied in the truth.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 203.)\n\n\nA Highnotionist.\n\nAnd after the meeting was done the pastor came and asked me what must be\ndamned, being a highnotionist and a flashy man. And I was moved of a\nsudden to tell him that which spoke in him was to be damned, which\nstopped the pastor's mouth. And the witness of God was raised up in him.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 114.)\n\n\nBurning a Witch.\n\nAnd from thence we went to Edinburgh again and many thousands of people\nwas gathered there and abundance of priests about burning of a witch and\nI was moved to declare the day of the Lord amongst them and so went from\nthence to the meeting and a many rude people and baptists came in and\nthere the baptists began with their logic and syllogisms but I was moved\nin the Lord's power to thresh their chaffy light minds; and showed the\npeople after that manner of light discoursing they might make white\nblack and black white.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 297.)\n\n\nDiscerners of Spirits.\n\nAnd there came another company that pretended they were triers of\nspirits; and I asked them a question: what was the first step to peace,\nand what it was by which a man might see his salvation? And they was up\nin the air and said I was mad. So such came to try spirits as did not\nknow themselves nor their own spirits.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 11.)\n\n\nPrisoners Spreading the Truth.\n\nAnd when friends was got among the watches it would be a fortnight or\nthree weeks before they could get out of them again for no sooner had\none party taken them and carried them before the justices and they had\ndischarged them but then another would take them up and carry them\nbefore other justices which put the country to a great deal of needless\ncost and charges. And that which they thought to have stopped the truth\nby was the means to spread it so much the more. For then friends was\ncontinually moved to speak to one constable and to the other officer and\njustice and this caused the truth to spread the more amongst them in all\ntheir parishes.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 231.)\n\n\nA Veiled Condition.\n\nWhen at any time my condition was veiled, my secret belief was stayed\nfirm, and hope underneath held me, as an anchor in the bottom of the sea\nand anchored my immortal soul to its Bishop causing it to swim above the\nsea, the world, where all the raging waves, foul weather, tempests and\ntemptations are. But O! then did I see my troubles trials and\ntemptations more clearly than ever I had done. As the light appeared,\nall appeared that is out of the light; darkness, death, temptations, the\nunrighteous, the ungodly; all was manifest and seen in the light.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 14).\n\n\n\n\n PART II.\n SPECIAL TESTIMONIES.\n\n\n I.\n Business Life.\n\n\nPrices.\n\nAnd is it not more savoury to ask no more than you will have for your\ncommodity[2]; to keep yea and nay in your communication, and here will\nbe an equal balancing of things and a consideration before you utter\nwords and a using of this world as though you used it not; and a\npossessing as though you possessed not.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 100, slightly condensed.)\n\n\nHonesty in Business.\n\nBut at the first convincement when friends could not put off their hats\nto people nor say you to a particular but thee and thou, and could not\nbow nor use the world's salutations, nor fashions, nor customs. And many\nfriends being tradesmen of several sorts, they lost their custom at the\nfirst. For the people would not trade with them nor trust them; and for\na time people that were tradesmen could hardly get money enough to buy\nbread. But afterwards when people came to see friends, honesty and\ntruthfulness and yea and nay at a word in their dealing and their lifes\nand conversations did preach and reach to the witness of God in all\npeople and they knew and saw that they would not cozen and cheat them\nfor conscience sake toward God; and that at last they might send any\nchild and be as well used as themselves at any of their shops.\n\n[Footnote 2: Bargaining was, hitherto, the universal practice.]\n\n (C.J., I., p. 138.)\n\n\nThe Reputation of Friends.\n\nNow that Friends are become a good savour in the hearts of all people,\nlose it not but rather increase it in the life. For at first ye know\nthat many could not take so much money in your trade as to buy bread\nwith. All people stood aloof from you, when you stood upright and gave\nthem the plain language and were at a word. But now that through the\nlife you come to answer that of God in all they say that they will trust\nyou before their own people, knowing that you will not cheat, nor wrong,\nnor cozen nor oppress them. For the cry is now where is there a Quaker\nof such and such a trade? O, therefore, Friends, who have purchased this\nthrough great sufferings lose not through great favour which God hath\ngiven unto you.\n\nAnd now, Friends, if there be any oppression, exaction or defrauding by\nmaking a prize, through the freedom which God hath given you the world\nwill say, The Quakers are not as they were; therefore such should be\nexhorted to equity and truth.\n\n (_Epistle_, p. 231.)\n\n\nAbsorption in Trade.\n\nFor when ye were faithful at the first, the world would refrain from you\nand not have commerce with you; but after when they saw ye were faithful\nand just in things and righteous and honest in your tradings and\ndealings then they came to have commerce and trade with you, the more\nbecause they knew ye will not cozen them nor cheat them. Then ye came to\nhave greater trading, double than ever ye had and more than the world.\nBut there is the danger and temptation to you of drawing your minds into\nyour business and clogging them with it, so that ye can hardly do\nanything to the service of God, but there will be crying my business, my\nbusiness! and your minds will go into the things and not over the\nthings.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 126.)\n\n\nDebt.\n\nAnd all, of what trade or calling soever, keep out of debts; owe to no\nman anything but love. Go not beyond your estates, lest ye bring\nyourselves to trouble and cumber and a snare; keep low and down in all\nthings ye act. For a man that would be great and goes beyond his estate,\nlifts himself up, runs into debt and lives highly of other men's means;\nhe is a waster of other men's, and a destroyer. He is not serviceable to\nthe creation, but a destroyer of the creation and creatures and\ncumbereth himself and troubleth others and is lifted up, who would\nappear to be somebody; but being from the honest, the just, the good,\nfalls into shame.\n\n (_Works_, VII., pp. 194-5.)\n\n\nIn All Husbandry.\n\nSo in all husbandry speak truth, act truth, doing justly and uprightly\nin all your actions, in all your practices, in all your words, in all\nyour dealings, buyings, sellings, changings, and commerce with people,\nlet truth be the head and practice it.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 193.)\n\n\n II.\n The Inward Light.\n\n\nEvery Man.\n\nGod hath dealt to every man a measure of faith.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 68.)\n\nLet everyone keep his habitation and stand in his lot, the seed.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 30.)\n\n\nThe First Step.\n\nThe first step of peace is to stand still in the light.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 16.)\n\nOh wait upon God for his power, for there is a seed of God in thee. Oh\ntake heed of thy own wisdom, for that thou wilt find to be an enemy, or\nthe comprehending the things of God in thy mind.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 98.)\n\n\nWaiting for the Light.\n\nNow if thou waitest in Christ and mindest him in thee (and then waitest\nfor his appearing) and keepest within and dost not follow Lo, here's\nChrist, Lo, there's Christ, without thee, thou wilt have peace presently\nand witness him, who is the substance of the prophets and apostles and\nthe Scriptures, made manifest in thee to guide to the father, the Lord\nGod of heaven and earth; and waiting for the spirit of the Lord within\nthee to guide thy mind thou wilt find thy strength daily renewed.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 95.)\n\n\nThe Cleansing Light.\n\nYe are sanctified through the obedience of the spirit.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 95.)\n\nThis spirit circumciseth and puts off the body of sin.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\nTo that which doth command all these spirits where heats and burnings\ncome in, in that wait which cleans them down and cools.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 320.)\n\n\nThe Revealing Light.\n\nWho art thou that queriest in thy mind what is that which I feel that\ncondemneth me when I do evil and justifieth me when I do well, what is\nit? I will tell thee. Lo! He that formeth the mountains and created the\nwinds and declareth unto man what is his thoughts, that maketh the\nmorning darkness and tradeth upon high places of the earth. The Lord,\nthe God of Hosts is his name.\n\n (_Journal Friends' Hist. Soc._, Vol. IX., p. 80, from a MS.)\n\nThough you see little and know little and have little, and see your\nnakedness and barrenness and unfruitfulness and see the hardness of your\nhearts and your own unworthiness it is the Light that discovers all this\nand the love of God to you and it is that which is immediate, but the\ndark understanding cannot comprehend it.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 24.)\n\n\nThe Regulating Light.\n\nTherefore have salt in yourselves and be low in heart. The light is low\nin you and it will teach you to be low and to learn that lesson of Jesus\nChrist to the plucking down all high thoughts and imaginations.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 90.)\n\n\nThe Discerning Light.\n\nMind every one that which is of God in you, to teach you to walk to God\nand before him; and as it teacheth you and enlightens your\nunderstandings it will teach you how to direct others and so to judge of\nthings eternal so far as that is borne up in your understandings which\nis eternal, and as everyone hath a measure, so every one to prove his\ntalent and not limit God to learned men (as hath long been) which have\nlearned but their natural languages, so their original ground and\nreligion is external, their word and light is external and their gifts\nand preachings is an external gift and they go to you magistrates who\nhath an external law to uphold them in their external ministry. For your\nlaw doth alter and exchange, which is external. Now that which is\nexternal, with it to judge things eternal cannot be, (but limit God).\nFor he that hath the first gift of God hath that which is perfect and\nthat which is perfect is eternal, and such hath a discerning to know the\ngift of God from the gift of man.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 96, 97.)\n\nWalking in this light it enlightens your consciences and understandings,\nwalking in it you have union one with another. For the light is but one\nwhich will discover all imagined light, false worships, ways and\nchurches and draw you up to the church in God the fountain of light.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 97.)\n\n\nHating the Light.\n\nWait all in the light which Christ Jesus hath enlightened you withal,\nthat with the light you may see Christ Jesus from whence it comes and\nmay receive power from Christ who hath all power in heaven and earth\ngiven to him which if ye have the light and do not believe in it which\nye are enlightened withal which light lets you see, mark, the light lets\nyou see your deeds whether they be wrought in God or no ... but hating\nthis light, which lets see it, will be your condemnation.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 83.)\n\n\nDwelling in the Light.\n\nKeep down, keep low, that nothing may rule nor reign but life itself.\n\n (C. J., Vol. I., p. 322.)\n\nAll friends to be kept cool and quiet in the power of the Lord God and\nall that is contrary will be subjected, the lamb hath the victory, the\nseed is the patience.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\nOh therefore let not the mind go forth from God; for if it do it will be\nstained, venomed and corrupted. If the mind go forth from the Lord it is\nhard to bring it in again; therefore take heed of the enemy, and keep in\nthe faith of Christ. To live and walk in the spirit of God is joy and\npeace and life; but the mind going forth into the creatures or into any\nvisible things from the Lord, this bringeth death.\n\nNow when the mind is got into the flesh and into death, the accuser gets\nwithin and the law of sin and death gets into the flesh. Then the life\nsuffers under the law of sin and death, and then there is straightness\nand failings.\n\nTake heed of conforming to the world, and of reasoning with flesh and\nblood, for that bringeth disobedience. But the obedience of faith\ndestroyeth imaginations and questionings and all the temptations in the\nflesh and buffettings and lookings forth and fetching up things that are\npast.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., Vol. I., pp. 60-61, condensed.)\n\nAnd dwelling in the light, there is no occasion at all of stumbling, for\nall things are discovered with the light. Thou that lovest it, here is\nthy teacher. When thou art walking abroad it is present with thee in thy\nbosom. Thou needest not to say lo, here, or, lo, there; and as thou\nliest in thy bed it is present to teach thee and judge thy wandering\nmind which wanders abroad, and thy high thoughts and imaginations and\nmakes them subject. For following thy thoughts thou art quickly lost.\nBut dwelling in this light it will discover to thee the body of sin and\nthy corruptions and fallen estate where thou art.\n\nIn that light which shows thee all this, stand. Neither go to the right\nhand nor to the left. Here is patience exercised, here is thy will\nsubjected. Here thou wilt see the mercies of God made manifest in death.\nHere thou wilt see the drinking of the waters of Shiloah, which run\nsoftly.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 17.)\n\nSo the son of God within riseth through death to destroy death in man.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 98.)\n\n\n III.\n Justice.\n\n\nLaws against God.\n\nNow if a law be made over the conscience that is pure, that law is\nagainst God.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 96.)\n\n\nAn Unjust Judge.\n\nHow hast thou strengthened the hands of the evil doers and been a praise\nto them and not to them that do well. How like a mad man and a blind man\ndidst thou turn thy sword backward against the saints, against whom\nthere is no law. How wilt thou be gnawed and burned one day when thou\nfeels the flame, and hast the plagues of God poured upon thee, when thou\nbeginnest to gnaw thy tongue for the pain, because of the plague. Thou\nshalt have thy reward according to thy work. Thou canst not escape. The\nLord's righteous judgments shall find thee out the witness in thy\nconscience shall answer it.\n\n (C. J., I., _Letter to Justice Sawrey_, 1652, p. 78.)\n\n\nTrue Justice.\n\nNone is worthy to have the name of a magistrate that is proud, peevish,\nselfish, crabbed; or that is wilful or wicked or that is heady or\nhigh-minded; for the higher power is to chain such from their intents\nand mischievous ends that they would do and wrong the innocent with\ntheir unrighteous intents; and such as touching judgment are blind, that\nbe perverse and full of ambition and pride, such forgets God and he is\nnot in their thoughts, these feel not the burden that the innocent bears\nand groans under; for such as be there be in that nature that burdens\nthe just in particular and in the general; before whose eyes the fear of\nGod is not, who makes a prey upon the just....\n\nSo as ye all, magistrates, be kept in the fear of God and in the higher\npower, in the true understanding and true wisdom which is pure, gentle,\nfrom above, easy to be entreated. It will bring you to the true\ninstructions and there, being in them, it will bring you to instruct all\nothers wherever you come.\n\n (C. J., I., _Letter to the Long Parliament_, pp. 84, 85.)\n\n\nCoercion.\n\nTO THE CHIEF MAGISTRATES, RULERS, ETC.\n\nAnd now I do in humility desire you to consider did ever Christ and His\napostles force any to be of his true religion and worship, and if that\nthey would not then to give forth orders to take away their goods and\ntheir very beds and their corn which should make them bread, their\ncattle which should help to maintain them and their cows which should\ngive them milk, their clothes they should wear to keep them warm and\ntheir tools they should work withal to get their living? Did not Christ\non the contrary exhort Christians _to love one another_ and _to love\nenemies_?\n\n (_Works_, VI., p. 272, 3.)\n\nWhile there is prejudice in the officers, judges, justices or rulers,\nwhilst he is passionate, out of the humbleness and humility, out of the\nmercy, out of the patience, in the wilfulness, in the stubbornness,\nsturdiness, highmindedness, minding the persons respecting that--under\nthis doth the just groan and under this doth the just feel the weight\nwhich feels the want of the true measure and cries for the true measure\nand puts up petitions to the lord who hears and answers the cries of the\noppressed and removes the oppressor and brings him to shame and contempt\nthough for a time he hath a day of honour and glory, but such, the Lord\nof glory their day doth shorten, often in turning them out and cutting\nthem off bringing his righteous judgments upon them who rightly hath not\njudged. Such, God measures their ways, God gives to them measure and\njust weight according to their works. Therefore, all the rulers of the\nearth be awakened with the measure of God, be awakened to righteousness\nand to the measure of God. All take heed to give your minds up to God\nwhereby ye may stand all in God's counsel, to receive that from God\nwhich shall never be shaken, whereby with it ye may answer that of God\nin every man and be to the Lord a praise and a terror to the nations\nabout you; for true justice and judgment being set up and being in the\nhands of such as have the true measure to reach that of God in every\nman, then that of God in every man shall answer his measure and having\nthe true weight to weigh things aright that of God in every man shall\nwitness his weight to be just and his measure not too short, for he\ngives to every man his due....\n\nI am moved to charge all to be meek, to be humble, to be patient and not\nto be rash nor to be heady nor to be fierce, but to be gentle and fear\nbefore the Lord God whereby you may receive his wisdom.\n\n (C. J., I., _To the Long Parliament_, pp. 80, 81.)\n\n\nSpeedy Justice.\n\nAnd I also wrote to the judges what a sore thing it was that prisoners\nshould lie so long in goal, and how they learned badness one of another\nin talking of their bad things and therefore speedy justice should have\nbeen done. For I was a tender youth in the fear of God and I was grieved\nto hear their bad language and was made often to reprove them for their\nwords and bad carriage each towards other.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 14.)\n\n\n IV.\n Meetings and Ministry.\n\n\nSilent Ministry.\n\nMy dear friends, keep your meetings, and ye will feel the seed to arise,\nthough never a word be spoken amongst you.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 115.)\n\n\nJoining a Silent Meeting.\n\nSo, friends, the word of the Lord to you all in all meetings you come\ninto when they are sitting silent. They are many times in their own. Now\na man when he is come out of the world he cometh out of the dirt, then\nhe must not be rash, for now when he cometh into a silent meeting, that\nis another state; then he must come and feel his own spirit how it is\nwhen he cometh to them that sit silent, for if he be rash then they will\njudge him. When he had been in the world and among the world the heat is\nnot out of him for he may come in the heat of his spirit out of the\nworld. Now the other is still and cool, so his condition in that is not\nto theirs, he may rather do them hurt, beget them out of the cool state\ninto the heating state if he be not in that which commands his own\nspirit and gives him to know it.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 318.)\n\n\nSilent Waiting.\n\nIt is good for a man to bear the iniquity of his youth, he sitteth alone\nand keepeth silence because he hath borne it upon him, now that which\nhath acted iniquity might come into the silence before the just which\ncomes out of the iniquity doth come to reign and have dominion ... the\nearnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the\nson of God, ... and is come to that condition that they do not know what\nthey should pray for but in spirit make intercession with sighs and\ngroans.\n\n (_Barclay MSS._, Vol. I, p. 110, slightly condensed.)\n\n\nStand Up.\n\nStand up ye prophets of the Lord for the truth upon the earth; quench\nnot your prophecy, neither heed them that despise it.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 43).\n\n\nThe True Balance.\n\nDespise not the prophecy ... neither be lifted up in your openings, lest\nye depart from that which opened.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 43.)\n\n\nSitting Down Without Speaking.\n\nWe had a general meeting of many thousands of people atop of a hill.\nHeavenly and glorious it was. And the glory of the Lord did shine over\nall. And there was as many as one could well speak over, there was such\na multitude. And their eyes were kept to Christ their teacher and they\ncame to sit under their vine, that a friend, afterwards Francis Howgill\nin the ministry, went amongst them, and when he was moved to stand up\namongst them, he saw they had no need of words. For they was all sitting\ndown under their teacher Christ Jesus, so he was moved to sit down again\namongst them without speaking anything.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 137.)\n\n\nMove Abroad in the Spirit of Obedience.\n\nNow when anyone shall be moved to go to speak in a steeple-house or\nmarket, turn in that which moves and be obedient to it. Now that which\nwould not go must be kept down, for that same that would not go will get\nup. And take heed that the lavishing part do not get up. For it is a bad\nsavour and must be kept down and be kept subject.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 321.)\n\n\nQuenching the Spirit.\n\nThough many have run out and gone beyond their measures yet many more\nhave quenched the measure of the spirit of God and after become dead and\ndull and questioned through a false fear; and so there hath been hurt\nboth ways.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 19.)\n\nBelief in the power keeps the spring open, and none to despise prophecy,\nneither to quench the spirit, so that all may be kept open to the\nspring, that every one's cup may run over.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\n\nBe Neither Hasty nor Backward.\n\nSo every one stand in the power of the Lord that reacheth the seed of\nGod which is the heir of the promise of life without end, and none to be\nhasty to speak for you have time enough. For with an eye you may reach\nthe witness. And none to be backward when you are moved, for that brings\ndestruction.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 320.)\n\n\nMissing the Moment.\n\nNow none must ever go forth into words after they have moved and\nquenched that which moved them.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 322.)\n\n\nDanger of Impulsive Testimony.\n\nNow when the seed is up in every particular then there is no danger. But\nnow when there is an opening and prophecy and the power stirs before the\nseed comes up, then there is something that will rash out and run out.\nThere is the danger and there must be the fear and the patience.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 321.)\n\n\nBorrowed Testimony.\n\nLet no Friends go beyond their own measure given them of God, nor\nrejoice in another man's line made ready to their hands.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 115.)\n\n\nConcerning Judging in Meetings.\n\nFriends, do not judge one another in meetings, ye that do minister in\nthe meetings; for your so doing hath hurt the people both within and\nwithout and yourselves under their judgment ye have brought. And your\njudging one another in the meetings hath emboldened others to quarrel\nand judge you also in the meetings. And this hath been all out of order\nand the church order also. Now if you have anything to say to any, stay\ntill the meeting be done, and then speak to them in private between\nyourselves, and do not lay open another's weakness. For that is weakness\nand not wisdom to do so. For your judging one another in meetings hath\nalmost destroyed some Friends and distracted them. And this for want of\nlove that beareth all things; and therefore let it be amended. No more,\nbut my love.\n\n (_Works_, VII., pp. 114, 115.)\n\n\nRecrimination.\n\nFriends, go not into the aggravating part to strive with it, lest ye do\nhurt to your souls and run into the same nature. For patience must get\nthe victory and answers to that of God in every one which will bring\nevery one from the contrary.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 109.)\n\n\nStrife and Debate.\n\nWhere any goeth into the contention he is from the pure. For where any\ngoeth into the contention if anything by him before hath been begotten\nthen that doth get atop and spoil that which was begotten and quench his\nown prophesy. So if he be not subjected with the power in the particular\nwhich would arise into the strife, that is dangerous.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 319.)\n\n\nBoasting and Vapouring.\n\nNone must be light, out, wild. For the seed of God that is weighty and\nbrings solid and into the wisdom of God by which is the wisdom of the\ncreation known. Now that which runs into the imaginations and that part\nstanding in which the imaginations come up, the pure not quite come up\nthrough to rule and reign, then that will run out, then that will glory;\nand so he hath spoiled that which opened to him and will boast and\nvapour, which is for condemnation.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 319, 320.)\n\n\nHeady Stuff.\n\nWith the heart man doth believe, and with the mouth confession is made\nunto salvation; first, he has it in his heart, before it comes out of\nhis mouth, and this is beyond that brain-beaten--heady stuff which man\nhas long studied, about the saints' words which holy men of God spake\nforth as they were moved by the holy ghost: so the holy ghost moved them\nbefore they came forth and spake them.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 19.)\n\n\nHypocrisy.\n\nFor many are crept in unawares, who are self-ended, slow-bellies, who\nlove this world more than the cross of Christ, who are got high in the\nform and have great swelling words which they can utter for their\nadvantage in earthly things, deceiving the simple therewith.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 60.)\n\n\nSaying and Doing.\n\nFor there are children of darkness that will talk of the light and of\nthe truth and not walk in it.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., I., p. 60.)\n\nAll they which preached faith and made shipwreck of faith, were and are\nstill, denied. All such as preach the light and walk in darkness, and\npreach the spirit (the fruits of which are love and peace) and are in\nenmity, were never owned by God, nor Christ, nor good men, though they\nmay be called Christians. All such as cry, Lord, Lord, and preach\nChrist, Christ, and do not his will, enter not into his kingdom\nthemselves, and into it they can bring none. They are deceivers of their\nown souls and they may deceive others with their good words; but such\ncannot be reconciled to God, neither can they bring others to\nreconciliation with God.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 139, condensed.)\n\n\nKeep down all Uncleanness.\n\nKeep your meetings in the power of the Lord God ... that all uncleanness\nwhatsoever may, by the power of the Lord, be brought down and rooted\nout; and that such have no rule nor authority amongst you, though they\nbe never so fair or excellent of speech.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 128.)\n\n\nThey had Spoken Themselves Dry.\n\nNow they had had great meetings. So I told them that after they had had\nsuch meetings they did not wait upon God to feel his power to gather\ntheir minds together, to feel his presence and power and therein to sit\nto wait upon him, for they had spoken themselves dry and spent their\nportions and not lived in that which they spoke, and now they were dry.\nThey had some kind of meetings but took tobacco and drunk ale in them\nand so grew light and loose.\n\nBut my message unto them was from the Lord that they might all come\ntogether again and wait to feel the Lord's power and spirit in\nthemselves to gather them to Christ, and to be taught of him who says,\nlearn of me.\n\nFor after when they had declared that which the Lord had opened to them\nthen the people was to receive it, and the speakers, and they was to\nlive in that themselves.\n\nBut when they had no more to declare but to go to seek forms without\nlife, that made themselves dry and barren, and the people. And thence\ncame all their loss. For the Lord renews his mercies, and his strength\nif they would wait upon him. But the heads of them all came to nothing.\nBut most of the people came to be convinced.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 22, 23.)\n\n\nBefore Utterance.\n\nLet all live in the seed and wisdom and fear, and consider before they\nutter, that the light be up whereby all may be settled and they\nthemselves be washed.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 129.)\n\n\nAfter Utterance.\n\nSo if anyone have a moving to any place and have spoken what they were\nmoved of the Lord, return to their habitation again and live in the pure\nlife of God and fear of the Lord. And so will you in the life and in the\nsober and seasoned spirit be kept and preach as well in life as with\nwords.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 319.)\n\nAnd when any have spoken forth the things of the Lord by his power and\nspirit, let them keep in the power and spirit, that keeps them in the\nhumility that when they have spoken forth the things of God they are\nneither higher nor lower, but still keep in the power, before and after.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 21.)\n\n\nElders.\n\nAnd ye that are led forth to exhort or to reprove, do it with all\ndiligence, taking all opportunities, reproving that which devours the\ncreation and thereby destroys the very human reason. For the truth doth\npreserve every thing in its place.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 52.)\n\n\nSimple-hearted Ones.\n\nAnd beware of discouraging any in the work of God. The labourers are few\nthat are faithful to God. Take heed of hurting the gift which God hath\ngiven to profit withal, whereby ye have received life through death and\na measure of peace by the destruction of evil.\n\nAnd all take heed to your spirits. That which is hasty discerns not the\ngood seed. Take heed of being corrupted by flatteries. They that know\ntheir God shall be strong. But take heed of labouring to turn aside the\njust for a thing of naught, but know the precious from the vile, the\nclean from the unclean. \"These shall be as my mouth\" saith the Lord, for\nhis work is great and his gifts diverse. And therefore all mind your\ngift, mind your measure, mind your calling and your work. Some speak to\nthe conscience, some plough and break the clods, some weed out and some\nsow, some wait that fowls devour not the seed. But wait all for the\ngathering of the simple-hearted ones.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 18.)\n\n\nTender Bubblings.\n\nAll my dear friends in the noble seed of God who have known his power,\nlife, and presence among you, let it be your joy to hear or see the\nsprings of life break forth in any in which you have all unity in the\nsame feeling, life and power. And above all things take heed of judging,\never, anyone openly in your meeting except they be openly profane,\nrebellious, such as be out of the truth, that by power and life and\nwisdom you may stand over them, and by it answer the witness of God in\nthe world, that such is none of you whom you bear your testimony\nagainst. So that there in the truth stand clear and single. But such as\nare tender, if they should be moved to bubble forth a few words and\nspeak in the seed and lamb's power, suffer and bear that that is the\ntender. And if they should go beyond their measure bear it in the\nmeeting for peace sake and order, that the spirits of the world be not\nmoved against you, but that when the meeting is done then if any thing\nshould be moved of anyone to speak to them between yourselves or one or\ntwo of you that feel it in the life and the love and wisdom that is pure\n... so in this you have order, you have edification.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 222, 223.)\n\n\nConcerns to Travel Abroad.\n\nNow there is a great danger in travelling abroad in the world, the same\npower that moves them is it must keep them. For it is the greatest\ndanger to go abroad except a man be moved of the Lord, by the power of\nthe Lord; for then he, keeping in the power, is kept in his journey and\nin his work and it will preserve him to answer the transgressed and keep\nabove the transgressor. So now everyone feeling the danger to his own\nparticular in travelling abroad there the pure fear of the Lord will be\nplaced. For now though one may have openings when they are abroad to\nminister to others, but as for their own particular growth is to dwell\nin the life which doth open. And it will keep down that which will\nboast; for the minister comes into the death to that which is in the\ndeath and in prison, and to return up again into the life and into the\npower and into the wisdom to preserve him clean.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 319.)\n\n\nPaid Ministry.\n\nNow as concerning priests and teachers who will not preach without a sum\nof money ... such the higher power silenceth that useth their tongue,\nwhose doubts is for outward maintenance and taking thought for that,\nsuch are in the state of the Gentiles, the Kingdoms of the world and\nseeking for that and not for the Kingdom of God, and the righteousness\nof it first, which the other things follow. If this were found and a\nword from the Lord received and his counsel stood in, people would be\nturned from their evil ways, there would be no want for outward things.\nBut if they be priests and readers of the law to the people, then they\nmust have their pulpit of wood and a thing made ready to their hand and\nboast in other men's labours. But this was not the practice of the\napostles.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 85.)\n\n\nConsecrated Ground.\n\nSo I declared to the people that I came not to hold up their idols,\ntemple, tithes nor priests but to declare against them and opened to the\npeople all their traditions and that piece of ground was no more holy\nthan another piece of ground and that they should know that their bodies\nwere to be the temples of God and Christ and so to bring them off all\nthe world's hireling teachers to Christ their free teacher and directing\nthem to the spirit and grace, and the light of Jesus that they might\nknow both God and Christ and the Scriptures.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 27.)\n\n\nBusiness Meetings.\n\nLet all be careful to speak shortly and pertinently to matters, in a\nChristian spirit and dispatch business quickly and keep out of long\ndebates and heats; and with the Spirit of God keep that down which is\ndoating about questions and strife of words that tend to parties and\ncontention. In the church of God there is no such custom to be allowed.\nAnd let not more than one speak at a time; nor any in a fierce way, for\nthat is not to be allowed in any society, either natural or spiritual.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 309.)\n\nFriends ... keep to your proper, sound, plain language.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 85.)\n\nNow dear Friends I have sent an answer to that which William Rogers hath\nwrote together full of lies calumnies and false reports under pretence\nof queries, but are charges from his rattle head to please rattle\nchildren with.\n\n (_Bristol MSS._, Vol. 20.)\n\nAll Friends everywhere take heed of printing anything more than ye are\nrequired of the Lord God. And all Friends everywhere take heed of\nwandering up and down about needless occasions for there is danger of\ngetting into the careless words out of seriousness weightiness and\nsavouriness.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 128.)\n\n\nRepresentatives.\n\nNow concerning those that do go to the Quarterly Meeting as\nrepresentatives, they must be substantial friends that can give a\ntestimony of your sufferings and how things are amongst you in every\nparticular meeting. So that none that are raw or weak, that are not able\nto give a testimony of the affairs of the church and truth may go on\nbehalf of the particular meetings to the quarterly meetings, but may be\nnursed up in your monthly meetings and there fitted for the Lord's\nservice.\n\n (_Epistles_, No. 264, 1669.)\n\n\nMeeting Days.\n\nThat is a creeping spirit that would go to alter the usual and constant\nmeeting days under pretence to prevent people from the corruptions of\nobserving a constant day.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 81.)\n\n\nTo all the Children of God in all Places in the World.\n\nKeep all your meetings in the name of the Lord Jesus that be gathered in\nhis name by his light, grace, truth, power and spirit, by which you will\nfeel his blessed and refreshing presence among you, and in you to your\ncomfort and God's glory.\n\nAnd now all friends, all your meetings, you do know that you have felt\nboth His power and spirit and wisdom and blessed refreshing presence\namong you and in you to his praise and glory and your comfort so that\nyou have been a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.\n\nAnd although many loose and unruly spirits have risen betimes to oppose\nyou and them both in print and other ways, but you have seen how they\nhave come to nought.\n\nAnd therefore all to stand steadfast in Christ Jesus your head, in whom\nyou are all one, male and female and knoweth his government, and the\nincrease of his government and peace there shall be no end.\n\nAnd let no man live to self, but to the Lord, as they will die in him\nand seek the peace of the church of Christ, and the peace of all men in\nhim, for blessed are the peacemakers. And dwell in the pure peaceable\nheavenly wisdom of God that is gentle and easy to be entreated, that is\nfull of mercy; all striving to be of one mind, heart, soul and judgment\nin Christ, having his mind and spirit dwelling in you, building up one\nanother in the love of God.\n\nAnd Christ is not divided, for in him there is peace. Christ saith, in\nme you have peace and he is from above and not of this world. But in the\nworld below, in the spirit of it there is trouble. Therefore keep in\nChrist and walk in him. Amen.\n\n (C. J., II., pp. 367-369, condensed.)\n\n\nInterdependence.\n\nAnd the least member in the church hath an office and is serviceable and\nevery member hath need of another.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 347.)\n\n\n V.\n Oaths.\n\n\nOaths.\n\nDear friends and brethren in all your words, in all your business and\nemployment, have a care of breaking your words and promises to any\npeople; but that you may consider beforehand, whether you may be able to\nperform and fulfil both your words and promises, that your yea be yea,\nand nay, nay in all things; which Christ hath set up instead of an oath\nand swearing.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 219.)\n\nFor swearing by Baal and swearing by the temple or swearing by the altar\nor by the gift that was offered thereon; or swearing by the heavens or\nby the earth or swearing by the head, these were all inventions. Christ\ndid not come to fulfil those vain and frivolous oaths that men\ncommanded, and practised but the oath which God had commanded, and cried\nwoe against them that were in the practice of those oaths which God\nnever commanded ... and so you may see all along it was the command of\nthe Lord and by His law and prophets that people were to swear by the\nLord and perform their oath unto him which was the true oath and\nswearing which Christ forbad much more all other oaths....\n\nSo though swearing was lawful in the time of the law as other things and\nofferings, in the time of the gospel is forbidden.... So we desire that\nour testimony may be taken in truth and righteousness, without swearing.\n\n (_Works_, V., pp. 165, _et seq._, condensed.)\n\nSo this is the word of the Lord God to you all, feel that you stand in\nthe presence of the Lord God. For every man's word shall be his burden.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 319.)\n\n\n VI.\n Respecting Persons.\n\n\nHonour and Glory.\n\nAnd so as you honour God, with God shall you be honoured. But seek it as\neagerly as you will without him it will fly from you. Through flattery\nyou may obtain which will corrupt your judgment and let in upon you\neverlasting dishonour. Wherefore turn to the Lord with your whole hearts\nand seek his glory alone.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 134.)\n\n\nFlattery.\n\nTake heed of being corrupted by flatteries. They that know their God\nshall be strong.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 18.)\n\nBe not carried away by good words and fair speeches, nor the\naffectionate part which is taken with them; but everyone have hold of\nthe truth in yourselves.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 155.)\n\n\nTime-Serving.\n\nThat selfish man-pleasing and daubing spirit must be put down with the\nspirit and condemned with the light, else ye will presently be\nridiculous to the world and to all men and they will say ye are not as\nye were in the beginning.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 182.)\n\n\nHonour.\n\nSo you that are in place to rule and seek for honour, seek first that\nwhich is honourable and none can hold you from honour. And know it is\nthe gift of God only to such as honour him and not themselves. Seek that\nglory and honour that hath immortality and eternal life, which is\nobtained of God by continuance in well-doing. Seek humility that goes\nbefore honour, exalt justice, set up righteousness and truth in\njudgment. Hold forth God's sword to all people under you and not your\nown wills.... Seek first the Kingdom of God that he may rule in your own\nhearts over your pride, over your passion, over lust, over covetousness,\nover respect of persons and over all unrighteousness. So shall you set\nup the higher power in you for every soul to be subject to, which that\nof God in every conscience shall answer to.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 132-133.)\n\nBoast not yourselves, none of you, but be watchful and meek and learn\nthe true humility which goes before the honour. For it is an honour for\na King to find out a matter and search it out. And let there not be an\neye in none of you nor an ear amongst none of you that will respect\npersons or have persons respected. For in such cases there will be a\nwill that is brittle, earthly, changeable, wanting the patience to judge\nrightly, selfish; and stubbornness and prejudice and siding to parties\nmore than to truth. And right judgment is blinded in these and the true\nmeasure is wanting and the true weight to weigh withal.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 80.)\n\n\nHat Honour.\n\nSo I asked him (if) he were the Governor and wherefore he cast the\nfriend into prison, and he said for standing with his hat upon his head\nwhen the minister and the people sung. And I told him had not the priest\ntwo caps upon his head, and if the friend should cut off the brim of his\nhat then he would have but one; for the brim was to save the rain off\nhis neck and shoulders, and he cried, Away with these frivolous things\nand then I asked him why he imprisoned the friend for frivolous things.\n\n (_Short Journal_, pp. 78, 79.)\n\n\n VII.\n The Scriptures.\n\n\nThe Word.\n\nIn the beginning was the word and none knows this word but who are come\nto the beginning. Now, all people and priests, who can witness this? Who\nare come hither? Who are come hither into the beginning? What our hands\nhave handled and what our eyes have seen what was from the beginning.\nThe word of life this declare we unto you. Who know this word are pure\nare made clean through the word, are washed by the word, are sanctified\nby the word, are cut to pieces by the word and are divided asunder by\nthe word; and this word is a hammer beating down everything, that the\nseed of God may rise up and come to the beginning; and all who know this\nword are come into the beginning. It is as a fire burning up all\ncorruptions and this is the word that is nigh thee in thy heart; and\nthis is the word which all the prophets spoke from; and this is the word\nthat became flesh and dwelt among us (saith the Saints); and this is the\nword of life which the apostles preached, the substance of all figures,\ntypes and shadows and this is the word which makes all the Saints one,\nthat reconciles their hearts together to the Lord; this is the word by\nwhich all things stand and remain, and are upheld by his word and power\nand this is the word which doth endure forever; all who are born again\nof the immortal seed witness this word with me. And now the word is made\nmanifest the same as ever was, which gathers together the hearts of\npeople, which divides asunder the precious and the vile and of twain\nhath made one, and this is the word that lets see that all flesh is\ngrass and this is the word which was before any letter was written, and\nall who have not this word put the letter for the word and are in Cain's\nnature, envying and murdering running on swiftly to evil; and Cain's\nsacrifice God doth not accept, and all the preaching and all the praying\nand all your reading and all your singing and all your expounding and\nall your churches and all your worships and all your teachers and all\nyour baptisms, which are invented from the letter, the carnal mind\ninvents them. All this is for the fire. Your profession must be gathered\ntogether in bundles and cast into the fire, for they are the works of\nthe flesh proceeding from the first nature. And all you who live in the\nfirst nature not knowing the word of God but only the letter, ye crucify\nthe just and yet get up into the just's place, quenching the light\nwithin you. Now I witness it by the same word as ever was. They draw\npeople unto the letter and tell them it is the word and to hearken to\nthem who speak their vain imaginations of it. So they bear rule by their\nmeans over the poor people, which the Lord was ever against. For God is\nfree and will have his people so and his gospel is a free gospel and his\nmercies are free and his grace is free. His gospel is free to every\ncreature and his grace is free to every creature. His grace is not the\nletter, his gospel is not the letter, his glad tidings is not the\nletter, for many poor troubled souls may be under death and condemnation\nand have the letter and these teachers of the letter, and there lie\nwounded but no peace.\n\nSo all people consider and see if you can witness your souls raised out\nof death and you brought into the everlasting covenant. So who can\nwitness their souls brought out of death are come into the beginning,\nbut thou that hast nothing but the letter and art spending thy money and\nthy labour and not satisfied, thou art following the greedy dumb dog\nwhich can never have enough.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 72-75, condensed.)\n\n\nJangling about the Scriptures.\n\nNone upon the earth comes to witness the spirit of wisdom and of\nunderstanding and a sound mind, but who first comes down to the witness\nof God in him, the spirit of God which gave forth the scriptures, with\nwhich he comes to have unity with God and scriptures and one another\nwith which spirit they worship him and all evil doers and transgressors\nupon the earth go from the spirit of God in them and the light.\n\nAnd all janglings about religion upon the earth, and differences about\nscriptures which the higher power goes upon, given forth from the spirit\nof God, amongst teachers, professors and people and churches is that\nthey be out of the spirit of Christ the prophets and apostles were in,\nthat gave forth the scriptures, and the servants of God in which spirit\nthey had unity. For the fellowship is in the light, and the unity is in\nthe spirit, and that is the bond of peace amongst people. But people out\nof that professing the scriptures and every one being exalted from the\nmeasure of the spirit of God in him and boasts of other men's lives and\nlabours, are from the bond of peace which is in the spirit and so are in\nthe confusion.\n\n (C. J., 656, pp. 218-219.)\n\n\nKnowing the Scriptures.\n\nAnd you that have the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations yet you\nknow them not with your natural spirit of understanding, nor by all the\ntongues and languages since Babel; for none knew them but by the spirit\nof inspiration that gave them forth.\n\n (_Works_, V., p. 246.)\n\nHe that hath the son of God he hath life eternal; and he that had not\nthe son of God let him profess all the Scriptures from Genesis to\nRevelation he had not life.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 136.)\n\n\nPossessing the Scriptures.\n\nAnd ye are sanctified through the obedience of the spirit, and so come\nto witness the scriptures pure and clear as they are without any mixture\nas holy men possessed them and gave them forth, so holy men possess them\nand give them forth again and witness them again. Oh, do not read these\nthings without, nor look at them to be hard, but at the love of God to\nthee in showing thee thy condition. For all the scriptures were given\nforth from an inward principle.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 96.)\n\n\n VIII.\n Sin.\n\n\nPleading for Unholiness.\n\nWhen I was in prison, diverse professors came to discourse with me; and\nI had a sense, before they spoke, that they came to plead for sin and\nimperfection. I asked them, Whether they were believers and had faith?\nAnd they said Yes. I asked them, In whom? And they said, In Christ. I\nreplied, If ye are true believers in Christ, you are passed from death\nto life and if passed from death, then from sin that bringeth death. And\nif your faith be true, it will give you victory over sin and the devil;\nfor they said they could not believe that any could be free from sin on\nthis side the grave. I bid them give over babbling about the Scriptures\nwhich were holy men's words, whilst they pleaded for unholiness.\n\n (_Journal_, 8th ed., II., p. 56.)\n\n\nPerfection.\n\nThere came a priest and some people with him to me and he asked me if I\nwas grown up to perfection and I said I was what I was by the grace of\nGod; and the common-prayer priest said it was a civil answer and he said\nthat if we do say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us; what did\nI say to this? And I said if we say that we have not sinned we make him\na liar who came to destroy sin and take away sin and so there is a time\nto see that people have sinned and that they have sin and to confess\ntheir sin and to forsake it; and the blood of Christ to cleanse from all\nsin. And it was asked him whether Adam was not perfect before he fell,\nand all God's works were they not perfect? And the priest said yes. But\nthe priest said we might always be striving and this was a sad striving\nand never overcome. But I told him that Paul that cried out against the\nbody of death after thanked God, through Jesus Christ who gave him the\nvictory; and there was no condemnation to them that was in Christ Jesus.\nSo there was a time of crying out and a time of praising. And the priest\nsaid there might be a perfection as Adam and a falling from it and I\nsaid there was a perfection in Christ beyond Adam and should never fall;\nand it was the work of the ministers of Christ to present every man\nperfect in Christ and for the perfecting of them they had their gifts\nfrom Christ and they that denied perfection they denied the work of ...\n(illegible) the gifts of Christ who was for that end for the perfecting,\nbroken.\n\n (_Journal Friends' Hist. Soc._, Vol. V., p. 170, from a Fox\n autograph.)\n\n\nA Customary Word.\n\nAnd to all ye that say, God give us grace and we shall refrain from our\nsin, there ye have got a tempting customary word, for the free grace of\nGod hath appeared to all men and this is the grace of God hath appeared\nto all men and this is the grace of God which shows the ungodliness and\nworldly lusts.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 21.)\n\n\nTemptation.\n\nWhatever ye are addicted to, the tempter will come in that thing; and\nwhen he can trouble you then he gets advantage over you, and then ye are\ngone. Stand still in that which is pure after ye see yourselves, and\nthen mercy comes in. After thou seest thy thoughts and the temptations\ndo not think but submit, and then power comes. Stand still in that which\nshows and discovers, and there doth strength immediately come. And stand\nstill in the light, and submit to it and the other will be hushed and\ngone, and then content comes. And when temptations and troubles appear\nsink down in that which is pure and all will be hushed and fly away.\nYour strength is to stand still after ye see yourselves. Whatsoever ye\nsee yourselves addicted to, temptations, corruption, uncleanness, etc.,\nthen ye think ye shall never overcome. And earthly reason will tell you\nwhat ye shall love; hearken not to that but stand still in the light\nthat shows them to you and then strength comes from the Lord and help,\ncontrary to your expectation. Then ye grow up in peace and no trouble\nshall move you.\n\n (_Works_, VII., pp. 20, 21.)\n\nNever heed the wicked's tempest, storm nor hail, nor his instruments of\ncruelty. Let not the back and the hair the cheek and the shoulder be\never turned from him.\n\n * * * * *\n\nLook (over all the wicked's prisons) at the seed of God, Christ, which\nwas before they were, and will stand when they are all gone.\n\n * * * * *\n\nLet all haste and run for their lives into Adam that never fell, out of\nAdam that fell.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 271.)\n\n\nTo All that be in the Fall.\n\nAnd I was moved to declare to the people how all people in the fall were\nfrom the image of God and righteousness and holiness, and they was as\nwells without the water of life, clouds without the heavenly rain, trees\nwithout the heavenly fruit and in the nature of beasts and serpents, and\ntall cedars and oaks, and bulls and heifers, so they might read this\nnature within as the prophet described to people that were out of truth,\nand how that they was in the nature of dogs and swine biting and\nrending, and the nature of briars, thistles and thorns, and like the\nowls and dragons in the night, and like the wild asses and horses\nsnuffing up, and like the mountains and rocks and crooked and rough\nways, so I exhorted them to read these without and within in their\nnature and the wandering stars, read them without and look within all\nthat was come to the bright and morning star, so as their fallow ground\nmust be ploughed up before it beared seed to them, so must the fallow\nground of their heart be ploughed up before they bear seed to God. So\nall these names were spoken to man and woman since they fell from the\nimage of God. And as they do come to be renewed again up into the image\nof God they come out of the nature and so out of the name.\n\n (C. J., 1652, pp. 53, 54.)\n\nA place of repentance ye cannot find, though ye wash your altar with\ntears, being in the stained life.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 211.)\n\nThe Lord is coming upon the wicked in his thundering power, for they are\nripe.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 273.)\n\n\nDiscouragement.\n\nAnd, friends, though you may have tasted of the power and been convinced\nand have felt the light; yet, afterwards, you may feel a winter storm,\ntempest, hail (and be frozen), frost and cold and wilderness and\ntemptations, be patient and still in the power and still in the light\nthat doth convince you. Keep your minds unto God, in that be quiet that\nyou may come to the summer, that your flight be not in the winter. For\nif you sit still in the patience which overcomes in the power of God\nthere will be no flying. For the husbandman after he hath sown his seed\nhe is patient, for by the power and by the light you will come to see\nthrough and feel over winter storms tempests and all the coldness\nbarrenness, emptiness; and the same light and power will go over the\ntempter's head which power and light was before he was. And so in the\nlight standing still you will see your salvation, you will see the\nLord's strength, you will feel the small rain, you will feel the fresh\nsprings.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 224-225.)\n\n\nDespair.\n\nNow to all you who are convinced and have your understandings\nenlightened. Beware ye enter not in the temptation to lust after the\ncreature and give not way to the lazy dreaming mind for it enters into\nthe temptations. So there thou wilt be polluted with the pollutions of\nthe world; then thou wilt be tempted to despair and the devil there gets\npower upon thee.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 56.)\n\n\nThe End of Sin.\n\nThis spirit baptiseth into the one body and this spirit is the unity of\nthe saints though they be absent in body, yet present in spirit all\nbeing made to drink into one spirit. And this spirit circumciseth and\nputs off the body of sin.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 95.)\n\n\n IX.\n Slavery.\n\n\nEnslaved Races.\n\nI am moved to write these things to you in all the plantations. God that\nmade the world and all things therein and giveth life and breath to all\nis the God of spirits of all flesh and is no respecter of persons. He\nhath made all nations of one blood. And he doth enlighten every man that\ncometh into the world. And the gospel is preached to every creature\nunder heaven, which is the power that giveth liberty and freedom and is\nglad tidings to every captivated creature under the whole heavens.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 144, condensed.)\n\n\n X.\n War.\n\nSo the keeper of the house of correction was commanded to bring me up\nbefore the commissioners and soldiers in the market-place and there they\nproffered me perferment because of my virtue as they said, with many\nother compliments, and asked me if I would not take up arms for the\nCommonwealth against the King. But I told them I lived in the virtue of\nthat life and power that took away the occasion of all wars; and I knew\nfrom whence all wars did rise; from the lust according to James his\ndoctrine. And still they courted me to accept of their offer, and\nthought that I did but compliment with them, but I told them I was come\ninto the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes was. And\nthey said they offered it in love and kindness to me because of my\nvirtue and such like, and I told them if that were their love and\nkindness I trampled it under my feet.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 11, 12.)\n\n\nStrife.\n\nCome out of the bustlings you that are bustling and in strife one\nagainst another, whose spirits are not quieted, but are fighting with\nwords, whose hearts burn against each other with a mad blind zeal, who\nare up in your wantonness, lightness and pleasures who set the whole\ncourse of nature on fire, among whom the way of peace and that which is\nperfect is not known.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 124.)\n\nThere is no one strikes his fellow servants but first he is gone from\nthe pure in his own particular. He goeth from the light he is\nenlightened withal when he strikes. Then he hath his reward.\n\n (C. J., I., p. 318.)\n\nPeace.\n\nSeek the peace of all men.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 62.)\n\n\n XI.\n Concerning Women.\n\n\nMarriage.\n\nFor man and woman were helps-meet in the image of God and in\nrighteousness and holiness, in the dominion before they fell; but after\nthe fall in the transgression the man was to rule over his wife; but in\nthe restoration by Christ into the image of God and his righteousness\nand holiness again in that they are helps-meet, man and woman, as they\nwere before the fall.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 39.)\n\nAnd there was a great marriage of two friends the next day, and there\ncame some hundreds of beggars. And friends refreshed them instead of the\nrich. And in the meeting before the marriage I was moved to open to the\npeople the state of our marriages, how the people of God took one\nanother in the assemblies of the elders, and how God did join man and\nwoman together before the fall, and man had joined in the fall, but it\nwas God's joining again in the restoration and never from Genesis to the\nRevelation did ever any priests marry any.\n\n (C. J., II., pp. 106-7.)\n\nDEAR RICHARD,\n\nWith my love to thee and to thy wife and to all the rest of Friends in\nthe holy seed of life, now dear Richard Richardson I desire that thou\nwould search all the libraries concerning marriages, and what they do\nsay of them; and the Fathers and how they did before the monkish sort\ncame in in the Britons' time and when marrying with the priest came in.\nSo search histories and laws and see what thou canst bring out both good\nand bad and which maketh a marriage and do what thou canst in this\nthing, for it hath been upon me some time to write to thee of this thing\nand did receive thy letter by R. Bartlett which I did let Thomas Lowson\nsee. It is a notable thing, so in haste with my love\n\n gff.\n\nSwarthmore, 8 mo., 16, 1679.\n\n (_Journal Friends' Hist. Soc._, Vol. I., p. 63, from MSS.)\n\n\nMan, born of Woman.\n\nAnd some men may say man must have the power and superiority over the\nwoman, because God says, \"The man must rule over his wife\" and that \"man\nis not of the woman, but the woman is of the man.\"\n\nIndeed, after man fell, that command was; but before man fell there was\nno such command. For they were both meet-helps and they were both to\nhave dominion over all that God made. And, as the apostle saith, \"for as\nthe woman is of the man,\" his next words are, \"so is the man also by the\nwoman; but all things are of God.\"\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 69.)\n\nWhat spirit is this that would exercise lordship over the faith of any?\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 97.)\n\nWomen are heirs of life as well as men ... they must all give an account\nof their stewardship and are to be possessors of life and light and\ngrace and the gospel of Christ, and to labour in it and to keep their\nliberty and freedom in it as well as the men.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\n\nA Churlish Husband.\n\nYou may see Abigail, that honourable woman's wisdom, how she saved her\nfamily and her house from destruction. Yet she did not go to ask her\nhusband (old churlish Nabal) at home, but she who was innocent and wise,\ntook it upon herself; and you may see what a brave sermon she preached\nto David, who heard her patiently.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 100.)\n\n\nUnregenerate Sociology.\n\nAnd when the apostle spake to the Corinthians how that he would have\nthem to know that God was the head of Christ, and Christ was the head of\nthe man and the man was the head of the woman, and the woman was made\nfor the man and not the man for the woman and he is the image and glory\nof God and she is the glory of the man, this the apostle spake to the\nCorinthians who were not come to the state of Adam and Eve before they\nfell.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 190.)\n\n\nWomen and Dish-washing.\n\nNow Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders, did not say to those\nassemblies of the women, We can do our work ourselves and you are more\nfit to be at home to wash the dishes, or such-like expressions; but they\ndid encourage them in the work and service of God, in those things which\nGod had commanded them in the time of the law.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 93.)\n\n\nRestoration of Womankind.\n\nBut this Coleman and others in their opposition asked me whether it was\nnot the command of God that a man must rule over his wife, and he would\nrule over his wife; and did not the apostle say I permit not a woman to\nteach, and where did we read of women elders and women disciples? and it\nwas an abuse to the elders to set up a women's meeting.\n\nBut I told him and them that he and they was but an elder in the fall,\nruling over their wives in the fall; but he nor they must not rule over\nwidows and young women and other men's wives. And I showed him that\nDorcas was a disciple and the apostle commands that the elder women\nshould be teachers of good things to the younger, and though the apostle\nsaid, I permit not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, as\nalso saith the law, for Eve was first in transgression and such teaching\nas Eve taught her husband and usurped authority over the man is\nforbidden.\n\nBut the apostle also says that daughters and handmaids should prophesy\nwhich they did both in the time of the law and gospel and man and woman\nwas meet helps before they fell, in the image of God and righteousness\nand holiness; and so they are to be again in the restoration by Christ\nJesus.\n\nAnd thy ruling over thy wife and eldership is in the fall for thou art\nin the transgression and not an elder in the image of God and\nrighteousness and holiness before transgression and the fall was, nor in\nthe restoration where they are helps meet in the righteousness and image\nof God and in the dominion over all that God made.\n\n (C. J., II., pp. 262, 263.)\n\nNow, you women, though you have been under reproach, because Eve was\nfirst in transgression, the promise was \"The seed of the woman should\nbruise the serpent's head.\" And this promise of God is fulfilled.... Now\nhere comes the reproach to be taken off women.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 141.)\n\n\nThe Testimony of Women.\n\nLet your women learn in silence, with all subjection; I suffer not a\nwoman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but ask her husband\nat home. That which usurps authority the law takes hold of, but if you\nbe led by the spirit, then you are not under the law. Christ in the male\nand in the female is one which makes free from the law. \"I will pour out\nmy spirit upon sons and daughters and they shall prophesy\" and if they\nwill learn anything let them ask their husbands at home for it is a\nshame for a woman to speak in the church which the law forbids; it is a\nshame to suffer them to speak in the church. What? Came the word of God\nout from you or came it unto you only?\n\nPaul, according to the measure given to him, in all his epistles\nspeaking in them of things of which some are hard to be understood,\nwhich they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own\ndestruction.\n\n * * * * *\n\nYou that cannot own the prophesying of the daughters, the\nwomen-labourers in the gospel, you are such as the apostle speaks of in\nthe same chapter, which serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own\nbellies, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the\nsimple.\n\nBe ashamed for ever and let all your mouths be stopped for ever that\ndespise the spirit of prophecy in the daughters, and do cast them into\nprison and do hinder the women-labourers in the gospel.\n\n (_Works_, IV., p. 104, _et seq._, condensed.)\n\n\nMothers in the Church.\n\nAnd the elder women in the truth were not only called elders, but\nmothers. Now a mother in the church of Christ and a mother in Israel is\none that gives suck and nourishes and feeds and washes and rules, and is\na teacher in the church and in the Israel of God and an admonisher an\ninstructor and exhorter.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 41.)\n\n\n\n\n PART III.\n SOCIAL LIFE.\n\n\n I.\n Social Life.\n\n\nBringing up Children.\n\nSome among you breed up your children not as when you were in a\nprofession only, in such a rude, heady way that when they grow up they\ndo not matter you nor care for you.... In many things they are worse\nthan many of the world's, more loose, stubborn and disobedient ... so\nthat when they come to be set to prentice many times they run quite out\ninto the world.... Therefore while they are young restrain them ... in\nall things keep your authority which is given to you of God.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 23.)\n\n\nYouth.\n\nYouth if they be let loose are like wild asses and wild heifers, and\nsuch many times bring a great dishonour to God by running into\nlooseness; which are more fit to be under rule and order than to rule;\nand through a foolish pity of some they let up a great deal of airiness\nand wildness.\n\n * * * * *\n\nYouth should be kept under a bridle and restraint and be nurtured and\ntrained up in the fear and wisdom of God, that the power of God and\nGod's truth may have its passage through all and over all, and all\nlightness frothiness wildness and looseness may be kept down.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., pp. 24, 25.)\n\n\nBehaviour of School-children.\n\nIf any mar their books and blot their books through carelessness, let\nthem sit without the table as disorderly children. And if any one turns\nfrom these things and mendeth and doeth so no more and then if any do\naccuse them of their former action after they be amended, the same\npenalty shall be laid upon them as upon them that is mended from his\nformer doings. And if any be known to steal let him write without the\ntable and say his lesson and show his copy without the bar. And all must\nbe meek, sober and gentle and quiet and loving and not give one another\nbad word no time in the school nor out of it least.\n\nThat they be made to say their lesson or show their copy-book to the\nmaster at the bar and all is to mind their lessons and be diligent in\ntheir writings. And to lay up their books when they go from the school\nand their pens and ink-horns and to keep them so, else they must be\nlooked upon as careless and slovens, and so you must keep all things\nclean, sweet and neat and handsome.\n\n (_Swarthmore MSS._, II., 2,123, Fox autograph.)\n\n\nApprentices.\n\nAll the legacies that are given to the men's or women's meetings let\nthem be kept as a public stock for the setting forth of apprentices and\nsetting them up.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 343.)\n\n\nThe Children of the Poor.\n\nNow all you that do murmur against people that have many children and do\ncomplain and say that they do fill your towns, cities and countries with\nchildren; and many times you that do so complain have few or no\nchildren, and you are afraid that they should come to want and then you\nmust be fain to relieve their necessities. And what then? What you do\ngive to the poor you lend to the Lord, and he will repay it to you\nagain, if they cannot. And this wanting mind is for want of faith in God\nwho gives the increase of all and is rich unto all that call upon him.\nAnd the Lord would have you to take notice that children are the\nheritage of the Lord. The Lord that doth increase the children of his\nheritage he will take care for his heritage whether that murmuring,\ncomplaining mind against poor people of having so many children, you\nrelieving them or no, he will take care for his heritage.\n\nBlessed be his name for ever.\n\nAnd that will be a happy day when they come to nurse Christ's chickens,\ndoves, lambs, babes and little children.\n\n (_Works_, VI., p. 204, _et seq._, condensed.)\n\n\nHomeless Women.\n\nFriends to have and provide a house or houses where a hundred may have\nrooms to work in and shops of all sorts of things to sell, and where\nwidows and young women might work and live.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 343.)\n\n\nCare of the Aged.\n\nHave an alms-house or hospital for all poor friends that are past work.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\n\nCare of the Mentally Deranged.\n\nFriends to have and provide a house for them that be distempered and not\nto go to the world.\n\n (_Ibid._)\n\n\nDangers of Ease and Plenty.\n\nAnd so, now you that are settled in those parts, who have had a\ntestimony from the Lord to bear to people of the truth, you should\nspread abroad God's eternal truth; and have meetings (as I said before)\nwith the Indian Kings and people; so that all the earth may come to look\nunto the Lord for salvation. For if ye should settle down in the earth\nand have plenty and be full, and at ease for a time and not keep in the\npower and service and spirit of God, you would quickly come to lose your\ncondition, as some did in Rhode Island when settled down in the earth\nafter a while, and then turned to jangling about it, and some ran out\none way and some another.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 306.)\n\n\nBeware of Worldly Entanglements.\n\nO Friends, do not die from the good through the wantonness of fleshly\nlusts, neither be choked with the cares of this life, nor fear the\nshearers, neither let the heat scorch your green blade; but dwell under\nthe shadow of the Almighty who will shade you from the heat and cold.\nNeither be cumbered nor surfeited with the riches of this world, nor\nbound, nor straitened with them, nor married to them.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 152.)\n\nEvery one strive to be rich in the life and in the Kingdom, and things\nof the world that hath no end.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 197.)\n\n\nRiches and Poverty.\n\nAnd in the old parliament's days many people that used to wear ribbons\nand lace and costly apparel and followed junkettings and feasting with\npriests and professors came to leave it off when they came to be\nconvinced of God's eternal truth and to walk and serve God in the spirit\nas the apostle did, they left off their curious apparel and ribbons and\nlace and their sporting and feasting with priests and professors and\nwould not go to wakes nor plays nor shows as they formerly had used to\ndo and would not wear gold nor silver nor lace nor ribbons nor make\nthem.\n\nAnd then the priests and professors raged exceedingly against us and\nprinted books against us and said that our religion lay in not wearing\nfine clothes and lace and ribbons and in not eating good cheer, .... And\nwe told them that when they went to their sports and games and plays and\nthe like that they had better serve God than spend their time so vainly;\nand that costly apparel with lace that we formerly had hung upon our\nbacks that kept us not warm, with that we could maintain a company of\npoor people that had no clothes.\n\nAnd so our religion lay not in meats and drinks, nor clothes, nor thee\nnor thou, nor putting off hats nor making curtseys at which they were\ngreatly offended because we thee'd and thou'd them and could not put off\nour hats nor bow to them. And therefore they said our religion lay in\nsuch things but our answer was, nay, for though the spirit of God led\ninto that which was comely and decent and from chambering and wantonness\nand from sporting and pastimes and feasting as in the day of slaughter\nand from wearing costly apparel as the apostle commands and from the\nworld's honour fashions and customs. But our religion lies in that which\nbrings to visit the poor and fatherless and widows and keeps from the\nspots of the world, which religion is pure and undefiled before God, and\nthis is the religion which we own which the apostles was in above 1600\nyears since, and do deny all vain religions got up since which are not\nonly spotted with the world but pleads for a body of sin and death to\nthe grave, and their widows and fatherless lies begging up and down the\nstreet and countries.\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 285-286.)\n\n\nRelationships.\n\nKnowledge and familiarity is as grass that withers; but the word of the\nLord endureth for ever.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 45.)\n\n\nIdleness.\n\nNone may stand idle out of the vineyard, and out of the service and out\nof their duty; for such will talk and tattle and judge with evil\nthoughts of what they in the vineyard say and do.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 283.)\n\n\nScattered Minds.\n\nOh friends, look not out; for he that doth is darkened. And take heed of\nlightness. Take heed of the world and of busying your mind with things\nnot serviceable. A wise man's eye is in his head, but a fool's eye is\ngazing up and down.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 72.)\n\nPeople must not be always talking and hearing.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 45.)\n\n\nEvil Humours.\n\nFor all distractions, distempers, unruliness, and confusion is in the\ntransgression which transgression must be brought down before the\nprinciple of God.\n\n (_Swarthmore Transcripts_, Vol. VII., p. 123.)\n\n\nJudgments.\n\nTake heed of judging the measures of others, but everyone mind your own,\nand there ye famish the busy minds and high conceits, and so peace\nsprings up among you and division is judged.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 60.)\n\n\nDifferences.\n\nAll differences to be made up speedily that they do not fly abroad to\ncorrupt people's minds.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 328.)\n\n\nScandal.\n\nLet all reports be stopped that tend to the defaming one of another.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 328.)\n\n\nSingleness.\n\nKeep single unto God and single-hearted to man and plain in all things,\nand low.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 304.)\n\n\nLove.\n\nLive in peace and love and patience with one another, for that doth\nedify the body and strife doth not, but doth eat out the good. For the\nbody doth edify itself in love, in which there is nourishment and virtue\nand life.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 22.)\n\n\nUnity.\n\nMind the light, that all may be refreshed one in another and all in one.\nAnd the God of power and love keep all friends in power, in love, that\nthere be no surmisings, but pure refreshings in the unlimited love of\nGod, which makes one another known in the conscience to read one\nanother's hearts; being comprehended into this love, it is inseparable\nand all are here one. And keep in the oneness and note them that cause\ndissension contrary to the gospel ye have received, that one pure faith\nmay be held in all, to guide and preserve all in the unity of the spirit\nand bond of peace; all one family of love, children of one father and of\nthe household of God.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 19.)\n\n\n II.\n General Exhortations.\n\nThe dead make dead ways for the dead to walk in.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 28.)\n\nHardness of heart is worse than an outward plague.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 274.)\n\nThe hard-hearted are not sensible.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 116.)\n\nThe throne of iniquity must be brought down, and the chamber of imagery\nin every heart, for the Lord must have the heart.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 275.)\n\nLeave off all your bustling and come to Christ.\n\n (_Works_, V., p. 171.)\n\nReason not with flesh and blood that shall never enter, take not counsel\nwith that which lies in thy bosom for that draweth thee nearer to carnal\nthings, and draws thee to consult with reason and so draws thy eye and\nmind to visible things, and so wanders from going on thy journey.\n\n (_Swarthmore Transcripts_, IV., p. 566.)\n\nMan's pride is not the higher power. In humility we find a power above\npride, higher than oppression, higher than men's wills, higher than the\nlusts of the eye, yea, higher than all that in man would exalt against\nit. So we deny the lower that we may subject our souls to that which\nexcelleth and which is ordained of God.\n\nAnd to every ordinance of man we are subject for the Lord's sake. But\nshould we bow to the spirit of pride we should betray the Lord and give\nhis honour to another and that is not for the Lord's sake. So what we\nsee for the Lord and of him in every ordinance of man we subject to for\nthe Lord's sake, and what is against him for his sake we deny and with\nhim suffer under it as witnesses for him against it.... Is there\nanything honourable in man but the image of God?\n\n (C. J., I., pp. 131, 132.)\n\nAnd so the Lord arm friends with his light and shield of faith that they\nmay stand in the daylight of the son of God and keep their first\nhabitation and hold Christ their head by which the body is united\ntogether by bands and joints, from whom they receive their nourishment\nand the love of God which edifies the body and unites it to Christ their\nheavenly head, which all the apostate Christians being several bodies\nwithout this head and not owning his light, grace and truth that comes\nfrom him the head by which they should be joined and united. And\ntherefore are they like so many monstrous bodies without the heavenly\nhead, but what they have of their own making; so often their heads go\noff their bodies.\n\n (_Bristol MSS._, V., p. 20.)\n\nKeep in the power of the Lord which will bring you over all to the fine\nlinen, the righteousness of the saints.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 239.)\n\nPray to the Lord to give you dominion over all, and that in his power\nand life and seed ye may live and reign. And all friends submit\nyourselves to one another in the fear of God and be one with the witness\nof God in all and look at that and that will keep you down from looking\nat the bad, but looking at the good keepeth your minds over the bad,\nwith the Lord.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 75.)\n\nThe saved will not suffer anything to rule that destroys.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 272.)\n\nFear not the face of man, but fear and dread the Lord God, then his\npresence and wisdom and counsel thou shalt have to throw down the\nrubbish and quell all the bad spirits under thy dominion and fear them\nabout thee. Live in the Lord's power and life, then to thee he will give\nwisdom and the pure feeling thou wilt come into whereby thy soul will be\nrefreshed.... Things all will be made plain before thee, for thee and to\nthee from the Lord God. In what thou doth for the Lord God thou shalt\nhave peace and the blessing; and in that so doing all the sober\ntrue-hearted people will be one with thee in all travails, sorrows and\npains.... And the helping arm and hand that stretcheth over all the\nnations in the world thou wilt feel it.\n\n (Slightly condensed from a letter to Oliver Cromwell, C. J., I.,\n pp. 163, 164.)\n\nChurch faith changeth, directory changeth, common prayer changes and\nmass changes and here is the four religions got up since the apostles\ndays which they have fought for and killed one another about, but the\npure religion doth not change.\n\n (C. J., VI., p. 331.)\n\nThe hireling is fled and flies because he was an hireling, whose\nreligion was for the summer; whilst the sun shined; but in a storm, a\ntempest, a mist, or the sun clouded, their religion they flee from; his\nflight is in the winter. So the day manifests all things. Our religion\nis in the power of God before winter storms and tempests were; mists,\nfogs or clouds. In the light which shines over them all is our religion\nthat does not change, in which there is fruit borne in the winter; by\nwhich power of God all their religions are seen, which must have an end\nand will have an end, which people run into. But in the power of God and\nhis righteousness and holiness which was before the fall was, live;\nwhich power of God never alters nor changes in which is both life and\npeace which remains for ever.\n\n (_Works_, VII., p. 225.)\n\nAnd so every one is to have oil in your lamps from the heavenly olive\ntree, that your lamps may burn always both night and day in your\ntabernacles, looking to your high priest who will feed your lamps with\nheavenly oil.\n\nAnd every one have heavenly salt in yourselves to savour withal what is\nearthly and what is heavenly, and what is from below and what is from\nabove and what is out of the truth and what is in the truth.\n\nAnd that everyone may keep their own vine in their own garden and their\nown lily in their own field or orchard, which lily doth exceed Solomon\nin all his glory. And every one have the word of faith in their hearts\nand mouths to obey and do, which will sanctify and make you holy and\nreconcile you to God. And every one have the anointing or unction within\nyou which you have from the Father or Holy One so that in it you may\ncontinue in the Father and in the Son.\n\nAnd every one continue in the grace of God which will teach you how to\nlive and what to deny and will bring your salvation and establish you\nupon Christ the rock and foundation from whence the grace does come. And\nevery one abide in the holy divine and precious faith which you do hold\nin a pure conscience by which faith you do live and have the victory\nover that which displeaseth God, and in this faith you do please God,\nwhich Jesus Christ, the Lord from heaven, is the author and finisher of.\n\nAnd every one that hath digged deep and found the pearl of great price\nand hath sold all and purchased the field, then the field and pearl is\nyour own, such do know a thorough redemption.\n\nAnd all you believers in the light (which is the life in Christ) that\nare become the children of light, walk in the light, and in Christ, as\nye have received Him.\n\nAnd every one mind the heavenly leaven that will leaven you into a new\nlump. And every one keep the feast of Christ our passover, with his\nheavenly unleavened bread in sincerity and truth.\n\nAnd every one mind the light that God hath commanded to shine out of\ndarkness and hath shined into your hearts, \"to give you the light of the\nknowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, (your\nsaviour) that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of\nyourselves,\" in this you are sensible of His heavenly treasure in your\nearthly vessels. And every one have water in your wells and cisterns,\nand heavenly fruit on your trees which God hath planted.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 209.)\n\nChrist saith to his disciples, go, teach all nations and go into all\nnations to preach the gospel.... And God would have all men to be saved.\nMark, all men.\n\n (C. J., II., p. 149.)\n\nNo true peace but in Christ.\n\n (_Works_, VIII., p. 224.)\n\n\n Headley Brothers, Printers, Bishopsgate, E.C., and Ashford, Kent.\n\n\n RELIGION OF LIFE SERIES\n\n Edited by\n RUFUS M. JONES, M.A., D.LITT.\n\n Other volumes in this series:\n\n A Little Book of Selections from the Children of the Light. By\n RUFUS M. JONES, M.A., D.LITT.\n\n Isaac Penington: Selections from his Writings and Letters. By\n HENRY BRYAN BINNS.\n\n William Penn: Selections from his Writings. By ISAAC\n SHARPLESS.\n\n Sir Thomas Browne. Selections from his Writings. By LEWIS\n TOWNSEND.\n\n Clement of Alexandria: Selection from his Writings. By RUFUS\n M. JONES, M.A., D.LITT.\n\n Cloth, 1s. net. Leather, 2s. net.\n\n\n LONDON:\n HEADLEY BROTHERS,\n BISHOPSGATE, E.C.\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber's Notes\n\n\nThe original spelling and punctuation were mostly preserved. In\npartcular, \"gaol\" is consistently spelled as \"goal\", which was not\nchanged. A few obvious typographical and formatting errors were silently\ncorrected.","title":"Gleanings from the Works of George Fox","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":19607}