[77] 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.
[78] A cheap metal made to imitate gold.
[79] 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."
[80] John Crook was Justice of the Peace in Bedford County. He became an eminent minister among the Friends and suffered many imprisonments.
[81] 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.
[82] 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.
[83] 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.
[84] James Nayler's fall, which is here felt in dim forecast, became very soon only too sadly real.
[AD] A paper which George Fox had written to the seven parishes of Land's End.