[GEORGE FOX THE QUAKER (1654).]
Source.—Journal of George Fox. London, 1694. Vol. i., pp. 136-138.
After this I went into the country, and had several Meetings, and came to Swannington where the soldiers came again, but the Meeting was quiet, and the Lord's power was over all, and the soldiers did not meddle. Then I went to Leicester, and from Leicester to Whetstone. But before the meeting began, there came about seventeen troopers of Colonel Hacker's regiment, with his Marshal, and they took me up before the meeting, though Friends were beginning to gather together, for there were several Friends come out of several parts. I told the Marshal, "He might let all the Friends go, I would answer for them all;" whereupon he took me and let all the Friends go; only Alexander Parker went along with me. At night they had me before Col. Hacker and his Major, and Captains, a great company of them; and a great deal of discourse we had about the priests, and about meetings (for at this time there was a noise of a plot against O. Cromwell).... Then Col. Hacker asked me again "If I would go home and stay at home?" I told him "If I should promise him so, that would manifest that I was guilty of something, to go home and make my home a prison. And if I went to Meetings, they would say I broke their Order." Therefore I told them I should go to Meetings as the Lord should order me; and therefore could not submit to their requirings; but I said we were a peaceable people. "Well then," said Colonel Hacker, "I will send you to-morrow morning by six o'clock to my Lord Protector by Captain Drury, one of his life guard." That night I was kept a prisoner at the Marshalsea; and the next morning by the sixth hour I was ready, and delivered to Captain Drury. I desired he would let me speak with Col. Hacker before I went, and he had me to his bedside. Col. Hacker at me presently again "To go home and keep no more Meetings." I told him I could not submit to that.... "Then," said he, "you must go before the Protector." Whereupon I kneeled on his Bedside and besought the Lord to forgive him, for he was as Pilate, though he would wash his hands; and when the day of his misery and trial should come upon him, I bid him then remember what I had said to him.... Afterwards when this Col. Hacker was in prison in London, a day or two before he was executed, he was put in mind of what he had done against the innocent....
Now was I carried up a prisoner by Captain Drury aforesaid from Leicester.... So he brought me to London, and lodged me at the Mermaid over against the Mews at Charing Cross. And on the way as we travelled I was moved of the Lord to warn people at the inns and places where I came of the day of the Lord that was coming upon them. And William Dewsbury and Marmaduke Stor being in prison at Northampton, he let me go and visit them.
After Captain Drury had lodged me at the Mermaid, he left me there and went to give the protector an account of me. And when he came to me again, he told me the Protector did require that I should promise not to take up a carnal sword or weapon against him or the government as it then was, and that I should write it, in what words I saw good, and set my hand to it. I said little in reply to Captain Drury. But the next morning, I was moved of the Lord to write a paper "to the Protector by the name of Oliver Cromwell," wherein I did in the presence of God declare that I did deny the wearing and drawing of a carnal sword, or any other outward weapon against him or any man. And that I was sent of God to stand a witness against all violence and against the works of Darkness, to turn the people from Darkness to Light and to bring them from the occasion of war and fighting to the peaceable Gospel.... When I had written what the Lord had given me to write, I set my name to it and gave it to Captain Drury to give to O. Cromwell, which he did.
Then after some time Captain Drury brought me before the Protector himself at Whitehall. It was in a morning before he was dressed.... When I came in, I was moved to say "Peace be in this House," and I bid him keep in the fear of God that he might receive wisdom from him.... I spake much to him of Truth, and a great deal of Discourse I had with him about Religion; wherein he carried himself very moderately. But he said we quarrelled with the priests whom he called Ministers. I said we did not quarrel with them, but they quarrelled with me and my friends. "But," I said, "if we own the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles, we cannot hold up such teachers, prophets and shepherds, as the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles declared against...." As I spake, he would several times say it was very good, and it was truth. I told him that all Christendom (so-called) had the Scriptures, but they wanted the power and spirit that they had which gave forth the Scriptures.... Many more words I had with him; but people coming in, I drew a little back. And as I was turning, he catched me by the hand and with tears in his eyes, said "Come again to my House, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer one to the other," adding, that he wished me no more ill than he did to his own soul. I told him; if he did, he wronged his own soul. And I bid him hearken to God's voice, ... and if he did not hear God's voice, his heart would be hardened. And he said: it was true. Then went I out. And when Captain Drury came out after me, he told me his Lord Protector said, I was at liberty, and might go whither I would. Then I was brought into a great Hall where the Protector's gentlemen were to dine, and I asked them what they did bring me thither for. They said it was by the Protector's order that I might dine with them. I bid them let the Protector know I would not eat a bit of his bread nor drink a sup of his drink. When he heard this he said: "Now I see there is a people risen and come up, that I cannot win either with gifts, honours, offices or places: but all other sects and people I can." But it was told him again, that we had forsook our own and were not like to look for such things from him.
Now I, being set at liberty, went up to the Inn again, where Captain Drury had at first lodged me. This Captain Drury, though he sometimes carried fairly, was an enemy to me and to truth and opposed it ... and would scoff at trembling and call us Quakers, as the Presbyterians and Independents had nicknamed us before. But afterwards he came on a time and told me, that as he was lying on his bed to rest himself in the daytime, a sudden trembling seized on him that his joints knocked together ... and he was so shaken that he had not strength enough to rise. But he felt the power of the Lord was upon him and he tumbled off his bed and cried to the Lord and said, he would never speak against the Quakers more, such as trembled at the word of God.
[KILLING NO MURDER (1657).]
(Preface.)