George Fox: An Autobiography

67

This James Nayler, who left his Independent church to become a Quaker had a future history of pathetic interest. He was a powerful minister, and his very success led to his downfall, which will be recorded in the proper place later on.

68

"All the country in their profession" means "all the people throughout the country who are mere nominal Christians."

69

This spring is still called "George Fox's well."

70

No part of Fox's life is more remarkable than these few months of service that follow in Westmoreland – "in and about Wensleydale and Sedbergh." Here he gathers about himself a band of preachers only slightly less gifted than himself. He wins the support of the Fells of Swarthmore Hall, which becomes henceforth a sort of headquarters to the movement, and he gains the incalculable assistance of Margaret Fell, – for many years a wise and faithful friend, and finally his wife.

71

Richard Farnsworth was "convinced" at Balby in 1651, and became one of George Fox's most valuable helpers.

72

Howgill and Audland became two of the little band of powerful ministers who gave their lives to the proclamation of the truth as Fox interpreted it.

73

Edward Burrough has been called the Whitefield of Quakerism. He possessed a trained mind and unusual original power. He was a vigorous writer, and his ministry was remarkably effective. "Son of thunder and consolation," he was named. He was one of the early martyrs to the truth, dying in a London prison in 1662. Just before his death he said: "Now my soul and spirit is entered into its own being with God, and this form of person must return whence it was taken."

74

The superstitions everywhere existent among the people should be noted.

75

In the Furness district.

76

Of no other minister has Fox spoken so harshly as of this man Lampitt. There is every reason for believing that the picture which he gives of Lampitt is correct, though in Calamy's "Ejected Ministers" he is spoken of as "a warm and lively preacher."

77

During the Commonwealth period it was no violation of law or custom for a person in the congregation to stand up and speak or object after the minister had finished his sermon. In most cases, where Fox spoke in the churches, he was exercising a right which was well-established. Occasionally he interrupted, which was contrary to good order, but he justified it by an appeal to the call of the Spirit, which he could not resist. (See page 110.) Justices of the Peace had authority to forbid any person to speak.

78

Most wholesome words these, for that period of endless dispute, when religion too often meant the acceptance of some verbal statement.

79

"Speaking to their conditions" meant describing their inward state.

This meeting-house, erected near Swarthmore Hall in 1690, the gift of George Fox, is still standing, and contains many objects of interest.

80

Justice Fell never became an avowed Friend. He, however, had much sympathy with the movement, and used his influence and authority to protect the Friends. He put no hindrance in the way of his wife, who did join them. Swarthmore Hall was always open to travelling ministers, and there is good reason to believe that substantial assistance went from Swarthmore Hall to those who were labouring throughout the kingdom. Margaret Fell was a great-granddaughter of Anne Askew, who was burned at the stake in 1545. Judge Fell was member for Parliament in 1645.

81

This Thomas Taylor was educated at Oxford, and was a man of profound insight. He became a valiant supporter of Fox and a convincing minister.

82

A writ or order from the Court setting aside or staying the execution of the original writ.

83

Cromwell ejected the "Rump" Parliament April 20th, 1653. There is no contemporary authentification of this prophecy, but there is no reason to doubt the correctness of this account. Such cases of specific fore-seeing have been common throughout the entire history of Friends. They have received some slight investigation by the London branch of the Society for Psychical Research, though they have never received the careful investigation which they deserve.

84

This case of healing belongs in the inexhaustible list of cases of healing by faith. There are many forms of mental healing and of faith healing, and the researches of modern psychology have given us a principle of explanation for all cures of this sort. All such remarkable events seemed to George Fox to partake of the miraculous and most naturally gave him the impression that he was a peculiarly-chosen instrument of the Lord.

85

In Cumberland.

86

This passage throws interesting light on the church customs of the time. After the minister has preached his hour by the hour glass there is then liberty for any one to speak. George Fox himself evidently did not observe the hour glass.

87

This indicates that he had seen besieging armies during the Civil War.

88

It must be remembered that Fox uses here the language and the popular ideas of the time, as we should expect him to do.

89

This is an interesting testimony to the power of George Fox's eyes. The same remark is made on several occasions during his life. This power of the eye undoubtedly was a considerable element in his commanding influence over others.

90

As in Derby, the charge is blasphemy, under the Act of 1648. The report, spoken of later, that he would be put to death, was not mere rumor, for it was a real possibility under this Act.

91

Justice Anthony Pearson pointed out to the judges of the Carlisle courts that there was no evidence to support the charges against the prisoner, and that he was illegally held. He was finally dismissed without formal trial. The release of Fox was, however, hastened by an urgent letter from Parliament (the famous Barebones Parliament), requesting that he be set free.

92

A kind of freebooter.

93

This is one of the saddest stories in the annals of Quaker martyrology. James Parnell was well trained mentally, and held successful discussions with the Cambridge students. The dungeon in Colchester Castle, where this brief holy life came to an end, is still visited by tourists.

94

That is, reach with the voice.

95

This record of the effect of Quaker honesty is supported by impartial contemporary testimony. A curious confirmation of the business successes of the Quaker traders is found in a satiric ballad of the times, called "Wickham Wakened; or, the Quakers Madrigall in Rime Dogerell," published in Ebsworth's "Choyce Drollery." The Rhymster tells how the Quaker is settling down to "great thrift," his period of "tipling being done," i.e., his days of ranting being over, and those who come into competition with him wish him back in the ranting stage.

"O be drunk again, Quaker,

Take thy canniken and shake her,

For thou art the worse for thy mending."

96

This was the beginning of the movement in Wales. In 1657, George Fox travelled and laboured extensively in Wales, where many followers were gathered.

97

Nothing caused Friends so much trouble as their absolute refusal to take any kind of an oath.

98

Ranters.

99

At the end of six years of ministry these sixty ministers had been gathered to the work which now absorbed George Fox. It was a remarkable group of men, – young, vigorous, ready speakers, eager for the hard service, welcoming persecution and undaunted by any dangers or difficulties. They so completely caught the idea of Fox that they practically all spoke the same religious language.

To them George Fox addressed a quaint, but strikingly spiritual, epistle of advice as they went out to begin their labours. Here are a few sentences from it:

"All Friends everywhere, Know the Seed of God, which bruiseth the seed of the serpent, and is atop of the seed of the serpent: which Seed sins not, but bruiseth the serpent's head that doth sin, and that tempts to sin: to which Seed is God's promise and blessing; and which Seed is one in the male and in the female…

"This is the Word of the Lord to you all: Every one in the measure of life wait, that with it all your minds may be guided up to the Father of life, the Father of spirits: to receive power from Him, and wisdom, that with it you may be ordered to His glory: to whom be all glory forever! All keep in the Light and Life, that judgeth down that which is contrary to the Light and Life. So the Lord God Almighty be with you all…

"All Friends that speak in public, see that it be in the life of God; for that begets to God; the fruits of that shall never wither. This sows to the Spirit which is in prison, and of the Spirit reaps life; and the other sows to the flesh, and of the flesh reaps corruption. This you may see all the world over amongst these seeds-men, – that which may be reaped in the field, that is the world. Therefore wait in the Spirit of the Lord, which cuts down and casts out all this, the root and branches of it. So in that wait to receive power, and the Lord God Almighty preserve you in it; whereby you may come to feel the Light, that comprehends time and the world, and fathoms it: which, believed in, gives you victory over the world. Here the power of the Lord is received, which subdues all the contrary, and puts off the garments that will stain and pollute."

100

This is the only indication of the extent of "Righteous Christer's" sympathy with his son's somewhat revolutionary message.

101

Colonel Hacker and his regiment superintended the execution of Charles I., and held back the threatening crowd of London citizens. He apparently now suspected that Fox and the Quakers were in a plot to bring in Charles II. Cromwell had for about six months been Lord Protector. Gerard and Vowel's plot was discovered about this time.

102

This is the minister of Drayton, who said "there was never such a plant bred in England" as George Fox.

103

This was not the famous "Mermaid" of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

104

Cromwell and Fox were at this period the two most striking men in England. Cromwell's greatest work was already done; Fox, now thirty years old, was only getting well under way with his earthly mission. He never comprehended the greatness of Cromwell's work, nor did he appreciate the complex tangle which the Protector had to unravel. He was so sun-clear and ingenuous himself that he could not fathom a man who skillfully zigzagged toward the ends which he could not reach by perfectly direct steps. Carlyle gives a happy paraphrase of this passage in the Journal: "'I exhorted him,' writes George, 'to keep in the fear of God,' whereby he might 'receive Wisdom from God,' which would be a useful guidance for any sovereign person. In fact, I had 'much discourse' with him; explaining what I and Friends had been led to think 'Concerning Christ and His Apostles' of old time, and His Priests and Ministers of new; concerning Life and concerning Death; concerning the Unfathomable Universe in general, and the Light in it from Above and the Darkness in it that is from Below: to all which the Protector 'carried himself with much moderation.' Yes, George; this Protector has a sympathy with the Perennial; and feels it across the Temporary: no hulls, leathern or other, can entirely hide it from the sense of him." Carlyle's "Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches." (Centenary Edition.) Vol. III., p. 225.

105

This implies that the nickname was given because the Friends trembled when they spoke.

106

During this same year, 1654, a remarkable work was done in London by Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill. It is estimated that not less than 10,000 adherents were gathered in the city during these early years of Friends' ministry.

107

A cheap metal made to imitate gold.

108

This paper to the Protector was published in 1656. The paper mentioned just before was "A Warning from the Lord to the Pope and to all his Train of Idolatries." Published "at the Black-Spread Eagle" in 1656. He wrote many more letters at this period. Among them was a long letter to all professors of Christianity. Here is a characteristic passage from it:

"Let us be glad, and rejoice for ever! Singleness of heart is come; pureness of heart is come; joy and gladness is come. The glorious God is exalting Himself; Truth hath been talked of, but now it is possessed. Christ hath been talked of; but now He is come and possessed. The glory hath been talked of; but now it is possessed, and the glory of man is defacing. The Son of God hath been talked of; but now He is come, and hath given us an understanding. Unity hath been talked of; but now it is come. Virgins have been talked of; but now they are come with oil in their lamps."

109

John Crook was Justice of the Peace in Bedford County. He became an eminent minister among the Friends and suffered many imprisonments.

110

The wife of this mayor of Cambridge had been to a great meeting which Fox held the day before near the Isle of Ely. James Parnell had already labored in Cambridge before this visit of George Fox. One gets here an interesting glimpse at the students of two hundred and fifty years ago. It is an interesting fact that they failed to unhorse Fox. The struggle between Fox and the students is the subject of one of Robert Spence's etchings.

111

This William Edmundson was one of the first persons to espouse and proclaim the principles of the Quakers in Ireland. He had been a soldier in Cromwell's army, and he carried the spirit and courage of an Ironside into the new service. He had strange and unspeakably difficult experiences to endure in those trying days of unsettlement in Ireland, but he was enabled to do a great work for the cause which he served. He also had large and valuable service in America.

112

These cases are further illustration of Fox's power to deal with sickness and with desperate persons. He always felt himself equal to any emergency which confronted him.

113

James Nayler's fall, which is here felt in dim forecast, became very soon only too sadly real.

114

A paper which George Fox had written to the seven parishes of Land's End.

115

Major-General Desborough was one of Cromwell's favorite generals, who received many places of honour from the Protector. In 1655 he received his commission as major-general, in charge of Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire and Cornwall, and in the main he proved an able administrator in this office.

116

Provender for their horses.

117

This was Puritan England, and an appeal to Old Testament precedents was not out of place.

118

This description of Doomsdale is far from pleasant reading, but it is a true and faithful picture of a dungeon in the seventeenth century, and because of its historic importance it is left exactly as it was written. It is no wonder the Quakers became prison reformers.

119

This has the ring of one of Luther's utterances.

120

The 14th of May, 1656, Edward Pyot, Fox's fellow prisoner, wrote a long letter to John Glyn, Chief Justice of England, in which he showed that they were suffering contrary to law. George Fox himself, as his custom was, spent much of his time of imprisonment writing letters and religious epistles. Here is a sound word of advice from his Epistle to "Friends": "Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your life and conduct may preach among all sorts of people and to them."

121

It will be found interesting to compare this brief comment on the views of the "Fifth-monarchy men" with Cromwell's treatment of them. See Speech II., in First Parliament. Carlyle's "Oliver Cromwell," Centenary Edition, Vol. III., p. 113. The modern reader will also find it interesting to compare this passage with the present-day teachings of the "Second Coming."

122

This Thomas Lower married Judge Fell's daughter, Mary.

123

This, however, was not the last of the cheese. After their release they revisited Launceston, as this extract will show:

124

Both Edward Pyot and George Fox had written letters to Major-General Desborough, showing that they were innocent, law-abiding men, doing the Lord's work in the world, and that they could not promise to go home, it being the free right of an Englishman to go where his duty or his business carried him.

"From Thomas Mounce's we passed to Launceston again, and visited that little remnant of Friends that had been raised up there while we were in prison. The Lord's plants grew finely, and were established on Christ, their rock and foundation. As we were going out of town again, the constable of Launceston came running to us with the cheese that had been taken from Edward Pyot; which they had kept from us all this while, and were tormented with it. But being now set at liberty, we would not receive it."

125

Poor James Nayler proved unable to stand the strain of this strenuous work. A fanatical group got about him and in a period of evident aberration he allowed these flattering followers to give him a Triumphal Entry into Bristol, as Christ, returned in the flesh. Here is Carlyle's account: "In the month of October, 1655, there was seen a strange sight at Bristol in the West. A procession of eight persons: one a man on horseback, riding single; the others, men and women, partly riding double, partly on foot, in the muddiest highway, in the wettest weather; singing, all but the single-rider, at whose bridle splash and walk two women: 'Hosannah! Holy, holy! Lord God of Sabaoth!'… The single-rider is a raw-boned male figure, 'with lank hair reaching below his cheeks'; hat drawn close over his brows; of abstruse 'down look' and large, dangerous jaws, strictly closed; he sings not; sits there covered, and is sung to by the others, bare. Amid pouring deluges and mud knee-deep: 'so that the rain ran in at their necks, and they vented it at their hose and breeches,' a spectacle to the west of England and posterity! Singing as above; answering no questions except in song. At the High Cross, they are laid hold of by the Authorities; turn out to be James Nayler and Company." (Carlyle's "Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches." Vol. III., pp. 223, 224.) What he needed was mental treatment. What he received was the harshest punishment Parliament could devise. He missed the death penalty by a vote of 82 to 96. His sentence, passed by Parliament December 16th, 1656, was to be pilloried for two hours, to be whipped by the hangman through the streets from Westminster to the Old Exchange in the city, to be pilloried again after two days for two hours more, to have his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron, and to be branded in the forehead with the letter B, to be again flogged through the streets of Bristol, and then to be committed to prison with solitary confinement and hard labor during the pleasure of Parliament. Poor James Nayler! His fall did the Quakers almost irreparable injury in public estimation. Fox had already had an intimation of this trouble. As he left James Nayler in London he wrote: "As I passed him I cast my eye upon him and a fear struck me concerning him."

126

His death came not long after his awful punishment, and just before the end of life he wrote these words:

"There is a spirit which I feel, which delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong; but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all temptations; as it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thought to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring is the mercy and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness; its life is everlasting love unfeigned. It takes its kingdom with entreaty, and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else regard it, or can own its life. It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoiceth, but through sufferings; for with the world's joy it is murdered. I found it alone; being forsaken. I have fellowship therein, with those who lived in dens and desolate places in the earth; who through death obtained this resurrection, and eternal, holy life!"

See also "James Nayler's answer to the Fanatick History as far as it relates to him."

The wild extreme to which Nayler went had a very sobering effect on the Friends themselves.

127

In Wales.

128

A besieging army.

129

Great numbers of these Welsh Friends migrated to Pennsylvania and settled Montgomery County. Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Merion and Radnor are some of the historic townships whose names were transferred to the new world by these followers of Fox.

130

Counties.

131

This was very characteristic of the man.

132

Beaumaris is in Anglesey, so that they were to cross Beaumaris Bay to the mainland.

133

This "curl" is two or three times mentioned. He always wore his hair long and apparently had a long curling lock behind.

134

While waiting at Swarthmore, between the labors in Wales and the visit to Scotland, George Fox wrote several epistles. Here is a beautiful little Postscript to his epistle "to Friends":

"Postscript – And, Friends, be careful how ye set your feet among the tender plants, that are springing up out of God's earth; lest ye tread upon them, hurt, bruise, or crush them in God's vineyard."

135

This was a great general meeting at Langlands, in Cumberland.

136

In this discussion the Scripture arguments were gone over, and George Fox offset the proof-texts on election with passages showing man's responsibility.

137

The Friends always refused to keep the First Day as though it were a continuation of the Jewish Sabbath. For them it was a day set apart for man's high spiritual use.

138

The reference is to the logical definition of man as "an unfeathered biped," which is as old as Plato.

139

Here is more of the Luther spirit. He is reported to have said: "I would go to Leipsic if it rained Duke Georges nine days running."

140

This passage has suggested the idea which finds beautiful expression in the closing stanzas of Whittier's "Barclay of Ury":

"Knowing this, that never yetShare of truth was vainly setIn the world's wide fallow;After hands shall sow the seed,After hands from mill and meadReap the harvests yellow."Thus with somewhat of the seerMust the moral pioneerFrom the future borrow;Clothe the waste with dreams of grain,And, on midnight's sky of rainPaint the golden morrow."

141

There were few novel experiences on the way from Scotland to Bedfordshire. At Nottingham he had a controversy with Rice Jones, an opposer of the earlier visit. He pointed out that many of Rice Jones's followers "were become the greatest foot-ball players and wrestlers in the whole country," which is an interesting comment on the ministry of Rice Jones!