RELIGION OF LIFE SERIES.

GLEANINGS FROM GEORGE FOX.

UNIFORM VOLUMES IN
Religion of Life Series.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
ISAAC PENINGTON.
GEORGE FOX.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE.
THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.
WILLIAM PENN.

Cloth, 1s. net. Leather, 2s. net.

GLEANINGS
FROM THE WORKS OF
GEORGE FOX

BY
DOROTHY M. RICHARDSON
AUTHOR OF
“The Quakers: Past & Present.”

LONDON:
HEADLEY BROTHERS,
BISHOPSGATE, E.C.

Contents.

Introduction.

I.

George Fox may be variously described. If we look at him from the standpoint of orthodox Catholicism we shall see a heretical genius, a man who tried to re-organise the church and succeeded in establishing a sect—in defiance of the fact of the rarity of the religious and the still greater rarity of the mystical temperament—upon a basis of mystical opportunism, in a condition of divorce from sacraments, culture and tradition.

From the Protestant point of view he becomes the man who made a temporarily successful attempt to undermine the authority of the Scriptures; his failure being attested by the return of the majority of the Quakers, from the third generation onwards, to biblicism—their tacit throwing up of their earlier position with regard to the inward light.

The “free” churches find in Fox the collector and organizer of a type of Christian believers whose shining record has so fully justified his essential soundness and unity with the main purpose of Christendom that minor differences may be ignored.

Students of mysticism, Christian mysticism in particular, seeing Fox as one in the long line of those who have adventured into the undivided truth they find stirring within their own souls, have placed him amongst the grand “actives” of European mysticism.

Here and there an attempt has been made to disentangle the essential distinction of the man himself from his relation to groups and abstract ideas, and to show that distinctive character working itself out in his life and writings, and in the varying history of the church he founded.

II.

To the present writer George Fox appeals not only by the inherent strength of his mystical genius, not only because amongst his fellows in the mystical family he is, characteristically, the practical western layman, the market-place witness for the spiritual consciousness in every man, but also because he is, essentially, the English mystic—because he represents, at the height of its first blossoming, the peculiar genius of the English “temperament.” He is English particularism, English independency and individualism expressed in terms of religion, and offering its challenge, for the first time, in the open to all the world. This is his unique contribution to the evolution of Christendom.

His fellows and predecessors, the German mystics of the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, brought, it is true, the same message, the same account of the pathway to reality as did Fox, but they brought it in a restricted form. They were largely dominated by tradition, they remained, most of them, within the official church, and those who did not met secretly and laboured behind closed doors. It was in George Fox that religious particularism, the outcome of the civilization whose cradle was the little isolated homesteads upon the Scandinavian fiords, reached its full flower. With him there re-appears in the form of an experiment in everyday life, in the heart of the modern state, the truth that dawned in Palestine sixteen hundred years before, the truth that was side-tracked but never quite lost amidst the policies, expediencies and jealousies of the official church, that has been clearing and elaborating itself with increasing steadiness ever since the seventeenth century, the truth that only in individuality carried to its full term can we find the basis of unity. Unity amongst Fox and his followers is the fruit and fulfilment of separateness. In order truly to love his neighbour, a man must first love himself. He must achieve singleness of soul, must discover that within him which is of God; that which “speaks” with him only in the solitude of his inner being.

The unit, with Fox, is never, except incidentally, the group; never, except incidentally, the family; but the single human soul faced with its individual consciousness, the germ of truth, goodness, beauty, light, love, God, it bears within itself, the seed of God present in all human kind.

He stands for liberty, for trust and toleration in a day of unchallenged religious and civil antagonisms and authoritarianisms. He stands for love, for the essential harmony of the creation in a day when warfare was the unquestioned and “divinely-appointed” method of settling international differences, and litigation and debate the accepted steersmen of private relationships.

III.

This particularist genius and his fellows represent the keenest moment in one of those periods in its religious experience when humanity becomes aware of the wider life to which it belongs, when working on, God-led and God-inspired, part blind, part seeing, making in dark and desert places the uttermost venture of faith, suddenly, on an instant, it finds God.

A subsequent enormously enhanced fruitfulness, the amazing development of “thought” and “science,” our long sojourn amidst the great desert of “facts,” the final well-nigh despairing state of spiritual aridity that synchronised with the neo-Darwinian mechanistic definitions of life, is now once more in our day giving place to a home-coming, a new phase of spiritual realization.

It is just at this turning moment, in the dawn-light of this new liberating contact, world-wide this time, free altogether from the swathing bands of cloister and cult that we begin to have a clearer understanding of the message of the mystics in general and in particular of the challenge of our own George Fox.

IV.

Fox’s message found instant response from the heart of the most vital religious life of his day. From the midst of the small isolated groups who—surrounded by the institutional and doctrinal confusion following immediately upon the decentralization of authority in the art and science of the religious life, and persisting throughout the post-reformation century—were feeling their own way to God, his followers came forth. They, these friends of truth as they called themselves, were to live out the first phase of the liberation of the religious life. Dispensing with symbols and observances, they strove to sink the whole personal life into the divine life and love they felt stirring within them, to seek this perpetually, to let it flow out and through all the circumstances of their daily commerce, to seek and appeal to this alone, in all mankind.

V.

If Fox had been only the liberator of the mystical forces moving and quickening under the drying crust of official and authoritarian theology, he would have left on the outward form of the religious life of his country as little mark as did his great brother Boehme on his. But he was more than liberator. He was also steersman. It was his organizing genius that laid the foundation of a new religious culture; a culture in which sacraments and symbols, politics and authoritarianism should play no part—a culture which took no account of “persons,” “notions,” or “theories,” which put being before “knowing,” intuition before intellection, which dared to trust in and enquire of women, not in name only, but in fact.

The vitality of the society he founded is the test of the organizing genius of this “madman.”

It has had its critical period. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it sank into Quietism, and thence back to a pre-Quaker pietist biblicism, in which the nature of Fox’s contribution to religion—his restatement, both in life and in church method of the immediacy, the “originality” of the Christ-life, the life of God in man—was almost lost to view. But the culture-ground, the means of grace, the Quaker “method” of quiet waiting on God, the unflinching faith, remained untouched, the little church survived and in due time revival took place. To-day, in spite of the strong leaven of biblicism, the Quaker church serves (as I have pointed out elsewhere)[1] as a sorting-house for mystics and persons of the mystical type, and lies a radiating centre of divine common-sense, of practical loving wisdom at the heart of English religious life.

VI.

What Fox did with the unconsciousness of genius, modern thought is elaborating and explaining. “Experts” in all departments of knowledge are at the confessional declaring their bankruptcy. Science admits her helplessness to do more than collect and describe phenomena, and begs implicitly to rank as a servant rather than a guide (thereby, incidentally coming for the first time to her full height and value).

Metaphysic, come out at last from her academic seclusion to the light of common day, points the way to the threshold of reality, declares that we may possess and be possessed by it, not via the intellect, but directly by intuition. This reality that we ignorantly worship the mystics have declared to us as goodness, beauty and truth. Fox called it God in man, the life, the seed, the divine light latent in every son of man, and once in the life of this planet fully and completely informing a human frame.

PART I.
NARRATIVE PASSAGES.

NOTE.

The reference “C.J.” indicates the Cambridge edition of Fox’s Journal, compiled from original MSS. (Cambs. Univ. Press. 1911); “Works,” refer to the Philadelphia edition of Fox’s printed works. Punctuation, which varies in the different editions and is almost lacking in MSS. and of course in literal transcripts, has been altered or inserted by the compiler, as seemed needful.

Narrative Passages.

Self-Revelation.

Then the Lord gently led me along, and let me see His love, which was endless and eternal, surpassing all the knowledge men have in the natural state or can obtain from history or books, and that love let me see myself as I was without him. I was afraid of all company, for I saw them perfectly where they were, through the love of God which let me see myself. I had not fellowship with any people, priests or professors or any sort of separated people, but with Christ, who hath the key, and opened the door of Light and Life unto me. I was afraid of all carnal talk and talkers, for I could see nothing but corruptions and the life lay under the burthen of corruptions. When I myself was in the deep, shut up under all, I could not believe that I should ever overcome, my troubles, my sorrows, and my temptations were so great, that I thought many times I should have despaired I was so tempted.

(Journal, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 12.)

The Inner Light.

Now the Lord opened to me by His invisible power that every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ; and I saw it shine through all; and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life and became the children of it; but they that hated it and did not believe in it were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the light without the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures, though afterwards searching the Scriptures I found it. For I saw in that light and spirit which was before the Scriptures were given forth and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that all must come to that Spirit, if they would know God or Christ or the Scripture aright which they that gave him forth were led and taught by.

(Journal, 8th ed., Vol. I., p. 35.)

A New Creation.

Now I was come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new and all the creation gave another smell unto me beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness and innocency and righteousness.

(Journal, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 28.)

The Vision from the Hill-top.

And so we passed on warning people as we met them of the day of the Lord that was coming upon them, and as we went I spied a great hill called Pendle Hill, and I went on the top of it with much ado it was so steep. But I was moved of the Lord to get atop of it. And when I came atop of it I saw Lancashire sea (and there atop of the hill I was moved to sound the day of the Lord), and the Lord let me see atop of the hill in what places he had a great people, and so on the hill’s side I found a spring of water and refreshed myself, for I had eaten little and drunk little for several days.

(C. J., 1652, p. 40.)

A Blow from a Bible.

And I went out of the meeting to the steeple-house and the priest and most of the heads of the parish was got up into the chancel and so I went up to them and when I began to speak they fell upon me and the clerk up with his Bible as I was speaking and hit me in the face that my face gushed out with blood, that I bled exceedingly in the steeple-house, and so the people cried, “Let’s have him out of the church” (as they called it) and when they had me out they exceedingly beat me and threw me down and threw me over a hedge and after dragged me through a house into the street stoning and beating me, and they got my hat from me which I never got again and I was all over besmeared with blood.

(C. J., 1652, p. 36.)

A Mobbing.

A company of rude fellows as fishermen and the like with their fishing poles and the like fell upon me as soon as I was come to land, and beat me down to the ground and bruised my body and head and all over my shoulders and back that when I was sensible again I looked up and a man was lying over my shoulders and a woman was throwing stones at my face so I got up and I could hardly tell whether my head was cloven to pieces it was so bruised. Nevertheless I was raised up by the power of God and they beat me with their fishing-poles into the sea and thrust me into the sea a great depth and thought to have sunk me down into the water; and so I thrust up amongst them again and then they tumbled me in a boat, and James Lancaster went with me and carried me over the water and when I came to the town where the man had bound himself with an oath to shoot me all the town rose up against me, some with muck forks and some with flayles and forks and cried knock him on the head, I should not go through the town and they called for a cart to carry me to the graveyard and cried, Knock him on the head, but they did not, but guarded me a great way with their weapons but did not much abuse me and after a while left me, so when I came to some water I washed me. I was very dirty and much bruised.

(Short Journal, pp. 41, 42.)

A Night Among the Furze Bushes.

And after a while I went to an inn and desired them to let me have a lodging and they would not, and desired them to let me have a little meat and milk and I would pay them for it but they would not. So I walked out of the town and a company of fellows followed me and asked me what news, and I bid them repent and fear the Lord. And after I was passed a pretty way out of the town I came to another house and desired them to let me have a little meat and drink and lodging for my money but they would not neither, but denied me. And I came to another house and desired the same, but they refused me also, and then it grew so dark that I could not see the high way and I discovered a ditch and got a little water and refreshed myself and got over the ditch and sat amongst the furze bushes, being weary with travelling, till it was day.

(C. J., (I.), p. 30.)

A Long Cold Winter.

And so they committed me again to close prison, and Colonel Kirby gave order to the goaler that no flesh alive must come at me for I was not fit to be discoursed with by men. So I was put up in a smoky tower where the smoke of the other rooms came up and stood as a dew upon the walls, where it rained in also upon my bed. And the smoke was so thick as I could hardly see a candle sometimes, and many times locked under three locks. And the under-goaler would hardly come up to unlock one of the upper doors; the smoke was so thick that I almost smothered with smoke and so starved with cold and rain that my body was almost numbed, and my body swelled with the cold.

(C. J., II, p. 83.)

A Tortured Body.

And I went to bed but I was so weak with bruises I was not able to turn me and the next day they hearing of it at Swarthmore they sent a horse for me and as I was riding the horse knocked his foot against a stone and stumbled that it shook me and pained me as it seemed worse to me than all my blows my body was so tortured; so I came to Swarthmore and my body was exceedingly bruised....

And Judge Fell asked me to give him a relation of my persecution and I told him they could do no otherwise they were in such a spirit, and they manifested their priests fruits and profession and religion.

(C. J., I., p. 61.)

A Meeting in a Steeple-house.

He began to oppose me, and I told him his glass was gone, his time was out, the place was as free for me as for him, and he accused me that I had broken the law in speaking to him in his time in the morning and I told him he had broken the law, then, in speaking in my time. And so I called all people to the true teacher out of the hirelings, such as teach for the fleece and makes a prey upon the people, for the Lord was come to teach his people himself by his spirit and Christ saith, Learn of me I am the way which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world, that all through him might believe, and so to learn of him who had enlightened them, who was the light, and so had a brave meeting in the steeple-house and the priest of the parish foamed like a pig through rage and madness but the truth and the power of the Lord came over all their heads.

(Short Journal, p. 45.)

A Vision.

And I saw a vision a man and two mastiff dogs and a bear and I passed by them and they smiled upon me.

(Short Journal, p. 71).

The Power of Truth.

The justices whispered together and bid the goaler take us away and so the goaler brought us away and almost all the people followed us out of the court and it was a mighty day for the truth. And so when I came into the goaler’s house the goaler said, Gentlemen, you are all set at liberty and you know I must have my fees, but give me what you will, which a great service to the truth it was. And the sessions was just like a meeting, truth had such an operation in people’s hearts.

(Short Journal, p. 106.)

A Consistent Sheriff.

In the evening I was brought to the sheriff’s house and the sheriff’s wife said that salvation was come to her house and all their family was wrought upon by the power of the Lord and they believed in the truth and this being the first day of the week the next seventh day the sheriff himself spake the truth in a pair of slippers in the market amongst the people.

(Short Journal, p. 2.)

Unity with the Creation.

And so after the meeting was done I passed away to John Audlands and there came John Story to me and lighted his pipe of tobacco and, said he, will you take a pipe of tobacco saying come, all is ours. And I looked upon him to be a forward bold lad and tobacco I did not take, but it came into my mind that the lad might think I had not unity with the creation. For I saw he had a flashy empty notion of religion. So I took his pipe and put it to my mouth and gave it to him again to stop him lest his rude tongue should say I had not unity with the creation....

One Cocks met me in the street and would have given me a roll of tobacco ... so I accepted of his love but denied it.

(C. J., I., pp. 44-45.)

An Airy Damsel.

And the next morning there was a lady sent for me and she had a teacher at her house.

And they was both very light, airy, people and was too light to receive the weighty things of God. And in her lightness she came and asked me whether she should cut my hair. And I was moved to reprove her and bid her cut down the corruptions in her with the sword of the spirit of God. And so after I had admonished her we passed away; and, after, she made her boast in her frothy mind that she came behind me and cut off a lock of my hair, which was a lie.

(C. J., p. 285.)

A Fat and Merry Captain.

And this captain was the fattest, merriest, cheerfullest man and the most given to laughter that I ever met with so that I several times was moved of the Lord to speak to him in the dreadful power of the Lord and yet still he would presently after laugh at anything that he saw; and I still admonished him to sobriety and the fear of the Lord and sincerity. And we lay at an inn at night and the next morning I was moved to speak to him again, and then he parted from us the next morning. But he confessed next time I saw him that the power of the Lord had so amazed him that before he got home he was serious enough and left his laughing. And the man came to be convinced and become a serious and good man and died in the truth.

(C. J., I., p. 203.)

A Highnotionist.

And after the meeting was done the pastor came and asked me what must be damned, being a highnotionist and a flashy man. And I was moved of a sudden to tell him that which spoke in him was to be damned, which stopped the pastor’s mouth. And the witness of God was raised up in him.

(C. J., I., p. 114.)

Burning a Witch.

And from thence we went to Edinburgh again and many thousands of people was gathered there and abundance of priests about burning of a witch and I was moved to declare the day of the Lord amongst them and so went from thence to the meeting and a many rude people and baptists came in and there the baptists began with their logic and syllogisms but I was moved in the Lord’s power to thresh their chaffy light minds; and showed the people after that manner of light discoursing they might make white black and black white.

(C. J., I., p. 297.)

Discerners of Spirits.

And there came another company that pretended they were triers of spirits; and I asked them a question: what was the first step to peace, and what it was by which a man might see his salvation? And they was up in the air and said I was mad. So such came to try spirits as did not know themselves nor their own spirits.

(C. J., I., p. 11.)

Prisoners Spreading the Truth.

And when friends was got among the watches it would be a fortnight or three weeks before they could get out of them again for no sooner had one party taken them and carried them before the justices and they had discharged them but then another would take them up and carry them before other justices which put the country to a great deal of needless cost and charges. And that which they thought to have stopped the truth by was the means to spread it so much the more. For then friends was continually moved to speak to one constable and to the other officer and justice and this caused the truth to spread the more amongst them in all their parishes.

(C. J., I., p. 231.)

A Veiled Condition.

When at any time my condition was veiled, my secret belief was stayed firm, and hope underneath held me, as an anchor in the bottom of the sea and anchored my immortal soul to its Bishop causing it to swim above the sea, the world, where all the raging waves, foul weather, tempests and temptations are. But O! then did I see my troubles trials and temptations more clearly than ever I had done. As the light appeared, all appeared that is out of the light; darkness, death, temptations, the unrighteous, the ungodly; all was manifest and seen in the light.

(Journal, 8th ed., Vol. I, p. 14).

PART II.
SPECIAL TESTIMONIES.

I.
Business Life.

Prices.

And is it not more savoury to ask no more than you will have for your commodity[2]; to keep yea and nay in your communication, and here will be an equal balancing of things and a consideration before you utter words and a using of this world as though you used it not; and a possessing as though you possessed not.

(Works, IV., p. 100, slightly condensed.)

Honesty in Business.

But at the first convincement when friends could not put off their hats to people nor say you to a particular but thee and thou, and could not bow nor use the world’s salutations, nor fashions, nor customs. And many friends being tradesmen of several sorts, they lost their custom at the first. For the people would not trade with them nor trust them; and for a time people that were tradesmen could hardly get money enough to buy bread. But afterwards when people came to see friends, honesty and truthfulness and yea and nay at a word in their dealing and their lifes and conversations did preach and reach to the witness of God in all people and they knew and saw that they would not cozen and cheat them for conscience sake toward God; and that at last they might send any child and be as well used as themselves at any of their shops.

(C.J., I., p. 138.)

The Reputation of Friends.

Now that Friends are become a good savour in the hearts of all people, lose it not but rather increase it in the life. For at first ye know that many could not take so much money in your trade as to buy bread with. All people stood aloof from you, when you stood upright and gave them the plain language and were at a word. But now that through the life you come to answer that of God in all they say that they will trust you before their own people, knowing that you will not cheat, nor wrong, nor cozen nor oppress them. For the cry is now where is there a Quaker of such and such a trade? O, therefore, Friends, who have purchased this through great sufferings lose not through great favour which God hath given unto you.

And now, Friends, if there be any oppression, exaction or defrauding by making a prize, through the freedom which God hath given you the world will say, The Quakers are not as they were; therefore such should be exhorted to equity and truth.

(Epistle, p. 231.)

Absorption in Trade.

For when ye were faithful at the first, the world would refrain from you and not have commerce with you; but after when they saw ye were faithful and just in things and righteous and honest in your tradings and dealings then they came to have commerce and trade with you, the more because they knew ye will not cozen them nor cheat them. Then ye came to have greater trading, double than ever ye had and more than the world. But there is the danger and temptation to you of drawing your minds into your business and clogging them with it, so that ye can hardly do anything to the service of God, but there will be crying my business, my business! and your minds will go into the things and not over the things.

(Works, VII., p. 126.)

Debt.

And all, of what trade or calling soever, keep out of debts; owe to no man anything but love. Go not beyond your estates, lest ye bring yourselves to trouble and cumber and a snare; keep low and down in all things ye act. For a man that would be great and goes beyond his estate, lifts himself up, runs into debt and lives highly of other men’s means; he is a waster of other men’s, and a destroyer. He is not serviceable to the creation, but a destroyer of the creation and creatures and cumbereth himself and troubleth others and is lifted up, who would appear to be somebody; but being from the honest, the just, the good, falls into shame.

(Works, VII., pp. 194-5.)

In All Husbandry.

So in all husbandry speak truth, act truth, doing justly and uprightly in all your actions, in all your practices, in all your words, in all your dealings, buyings, sellings, changings, and commerce with people, let truth be the head and practice it.

(Works, VII., p. 193.)

II.
The Inward Light.

Every Man.

God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith.

(Works, VIII., p. 68.)

Let everyone keep his habitation and stand in his lot, the seed.

(Works, VIII., p. 30.)

The First Step.

The first step of peace is to stand still in the light.

(Works, IV., p. 16.)

Oh wait upon God for his power, for there is a seed of God in thee. Oh take heed of thy own wisdom, for that thou wilt find to be an enemy, or the comprehending the things of God in thy mind.

(C. J., I., p. 98.)

Waiting for the Light.

Now if thou waitest in Christ and mindest him in thee (and then waitest for his appearing) and keepest within and dost not follow Lo, here’s Christ, Lo, there’s Christ, without thee, thou wilt have peace presently and witness him, who is the substance of the prophets and apostles and the Scriptures, made manifest in thee to guide to the father, the Lord God of heaven and earth; and waiting for the spirit of the Lord within thee to guide thy mind thou wilt find thy strength daily renewed.

(C. J., I., p. 95.)

The Cleansing Light.

Ye are sanctified through the obedience of the spirit.

(C. J., I., p. 95.)

This spirit circumciseth and puts off the body of sin.

(Ibid.)

To that which doth command all these spirits where heats and burnings come in, in that wait which cleans them down and cools.

(C. J., I., p. 320.)

The Revealing Light.

Who art thou that queriest in thy mind what is that which I feel that condemneth me when I do evil and justifieth me when I do well, what is it? I will tell thee. Lo! He that formeth the mountains and created the winds and declareth unto man what is his thoughts, that maketh the morning darkness and tradeth upon high places of the earth. The Lord, the God of Hosts is his name.

(Journal Friends’ Hist. Soc., Vol. IX., p. 80, from a MS.)

Though you see little and know little and have little, and see your nakedness and barrenness and unfruitfulness and see the hardness of your hearts and your own unworthiness it is the Light that discovers all this and the love of God to you and it is that which is immediate, but the dark understanding cannot comprehend it.

(Works, VII., p. 24.)

The Regulating Light.

Therefore have salt in yourselves and be low in heart. The light is low in you and it will teach you to be low and to learn that lesson of Jesus Christ to the plucking down all high thoughts and imaginations.

(Works, VII., p. 90.)

The Discerning Light.

Mind every one that which is of God in you, to teach you to walk to God and before him; and as it teacheth you and enlightens your understandings it will teach you how to direct others and so to judge of things eternal so far as that is borne up in your understandings which is eternal, and as everyone hath a measure, so every one to prove his talent and not limit God to learned men (as hath long been) which have learned but their natural languages, so their original ground and religion is external, their word and light is external and their gifts and preachings is an external gift and they go to you magistrates who hath an external law to uphold them in their external ministry. For your law doth alter and exchange, which is external. Now that which is external, with it to judge things eternal cannot be, (but limit God). For he that hath the first gift of God hath that which is perfect and that which is perfect is eternal, and such hath a discerning to know the gift of God from the gift of man.

(C. J., I., pp. 96, 97.)

Walking in this light it enlightens your consciences and understandings, walking in it you have union one with another. For the light is but one which will discover all imagined light, false worships, ways and churches and draw you up to the church in God the fountain of light.

(C. J., I., p. 97.)

Hating the Light.

Wait all in the light which Christ Jesus hath enlightened you withal, that with the light you may see Christ Jesus from whence it comes and may receive power from Christ who hath all power in heaven and earth given to him which if ye have the light and do not believe in it which ye are enlightened withal which light lets you see, mark, the light lets you see your deeds whether they be wrought in God or no ... but hating this light, which lets see it, will be your condemnation.

(C. J., I., p. 83.)

Dwelling in the Light.

Keep down, keep low, that nothing may rule nor reign but life itself.

(C. J., Vol. I., p. 322.)

All friends to be kept cool and quiet in the power of the Lord God and all that is contrary will be subjected, the lamb hath the victory, the seed is the patience.

(Ibid.)

Oh therefore let not the mind go forth from God; for if it do it will be stained, venomed and corrupted. If the mind go forth from the Lord it is hard to bring it in again; therefore take heed of the enemy, and keep in the faith of Christ. To live and walk in the spirit of God is joy and peace and life; but the mind going forth into the creatures or into any visible things from the Lord, this bringeth death.

Now when the mind is got into the flesh and into death, the accuser gets within and the law of sin and death gets into the flesh. Then the life suffers under the law of sin and death, and then there is straightness and failings.

Take heed of conforming to the world, and of reasoning with flesh and blood, for that bringeth disobedience. But the obedience of faith destroyeth imaginations and questionings and all the temptations in the flesh and buffettings and lookings forth and fetching up things that are past.

(Journal, 8th ed., Vol. I., pp. 60-61, condensed.)

And dwelling in the light, there is no occasion at all of stumbling, for all things are discovered with the light. Thou that lovest it, here is thy teacher. When thou art walking abroad it is present with thee in thy bosom. Thou needest not to say lo, here, or, lo, there; and as thou liest in thy bed it is present to teach thee and judge thy wandering mind which wanders abroad, and thy high thoughts and imaginations and makes them subject. For following thy thoughts thou art quickly lost. But dwelling in this light it will discover to thee the body of sin and thy corruptions and fallen estate where thou art.

In that light which shows thee all this, stand. Neither go to the right hand nor to the left. Here is patience exercised, here is thy will subjected. Here thou wilt see the mercies of God made manifest in death. Here thou wilt see the drinking of the waters of Shiloah, which run softly.

(Works, IV., p. 17.)

So the son of God within riseth through death to destroy death in man.

(C. J., I., p. 98.)

III.
Justice.

Laws against God.

Now if a law be made over the conscience that is pure, that law is against God.

(C. J., I., p. 96.)

An Unjust Judge.

How hast thou strengthened the hands of the evil doers and been a praise to them and not to them that do well. How like a mad man and a blind man didst thou turn thy sword backward against the saints, against whom there is no law. How wilt thou be gnawed and burned one day when thou feels the flame, and hast the plagues of God poured upon thee, when thou beginnest to gnaw thy tongue for the pain, because of the plague. Thou shalt have thy reward according to thy work. Thou canst not escape. The Lord’s righteous judgments shall find thee out the witness in thy conscience shall answer it.

(C. J., I., Letter to Justice Sawrey, 1652, p. 78.)

True Justice.

None is worthy to have the name of a magistrate that is proud, peevish, selfish, crabbed; or that is wilful or wicked or that is heady or high-minded; for the higher power is to chain such from their intents and mischievous ends that they would do and wrong the innocent with their unrighteous intents; and such as touching judgment are blind, that be perverse and full of ambition and pride, such forgets God and he is not in their thoughts, these feel not the burden that the innocent bears and groans under; for such as be there be in that nature that burdens the just in particular and in the general; before whose eyes the fear of God is not, who makes a prey upon the just....

So as ye all, magistrates, be kept in the fear of God and in the higher power, in the true understanding and true wisdom which is pure, gentle, from above, easy to be entreated. It will bring you to the true instructions and there, being in them, it will bring you to instruct all others wherever you come.

(C. J., I., Letter to the Long Parliament, pp. 84, 85.)

Coercion.

To the Chief Magistrates, Rulers, etc.

And now I do in humility desire you to consider did ever Christ and His apostles force any to be of his true religion and worship, and if that they would not then to give forth orders to take away their goods and their very beds and their corn which should make them bread, their cattle which should help to maintain them and their cows which should give them milk, their clothes they should wear to keep them warm and their tools they should work withal to get their living? Did not Christ on the contrary exhort Christians to love one another and to love enemies?

(Works, VI., p. 272, 3.)

While there is prejudice in the officers, judges, justices or rulers, whilst he is passionate, out of the humbleness and humility, out of the mercy, out of the patience, in the wilfulness, in the stubbornness, sturdiness, highmindedness, minding the persons respecting that—under this doth the just groan and under this doth the just feel the weight which feels the want of the true measure and cries for the true measure and puts up petitions to the lord who hears and answers the cries of the oppressed and removes the oppressor and brings him to shame and contempt though for a time he hath a day of honour and glory, but such, the Lord of glory their day doth shorten, often in turning them out and cutting them off bringing his righteous judgments upon them who rightly hath not judged. Such, God measures their ways, God gives to them measure and just weight according to their works. Therefore, all the rulers of the earth be awakened with the measure of God, be awakened to righteousness and to the measure of God. All take heed to give your minds up to God whereby ye may stand all in God’s counsel, to receive that from God which shall never be shaken, whereby with it ye may answer that of God in every man and be to the Lord a praise and a terror to the nations about you; for true justice and judgment being set up and being in the hands of such as have the true measure to reach that of God in every man, then that of God in every man shall answer his measure and having the true weight to weigh things aright that of God in every man shall witness his weight to be just and his measure not too short, for he gives to every man his due....

I am moved to charge all to be meek, to be humble, to be patient and not to be rash nor to be heady nor to be fierce, but to be gentle and fear before the Lord God whereby you may receive his wisdom.

(C. J., I., To the Long Parliament, pp. 80, 81.)

Speedy Justice.

And I also wrote to the judges what a sore thing it was that prisoners should lie so long in goal, and how they learned badness one of another in talking of their bad things and therefore speedy justice should have been done. For I was a tender youth in the fear of God and I was grieved to hear their bad language and was made often to reprove them for their words and bad carriage each towards other.

(C. J., I., p. 14.)

IV.
Meetings and Ministry.

Silent Ministry.

My dear friends, keep your meetings, and ye will feel the seed to arise, though never a word be spoken amongst you.

(Works, VII., p. 115.)

Joining a Silent Meeting.

So, friends, the word of the Lord to you all in all meetings you come into when they are sitting silent. They are many times in their own. Now a man when he is come out of the world he cometh out of the dirt, then he must not be rash, for now when he cometh into a silent meeting, that is another state; then he must come and feel his own spirit how it is when he cometh to them that sit silent, for if he be rash then they will judge him. When he had been in the world and among the world the heat is not out of him for he may come in the heat of his spirit out of the world. Now the other is still and cool, so his condition in that is not to theirs, he may rather do them hurt, beget them out of the cool state into the heating state if he be not in that which commands his own spirit and gives him to know it.

(C. J., I., p. 318.)

Silent Waiting.

It is good for a man to bear the iniquity of his youth, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath borne it upon him, now that which hath acted iniquity might come into the silence before the just which comes out of the iniquity doth come to reign and have dominion ... the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the son of God, ... and is come to that condition that they do not know what they should pray for but in spirit make intercession with sighs and groans.

(Barclay MSS., Vol. I, p. 110, slightly condensed.)

Stand Up.

Stand up ye prophets of the Lord for the truth upon the earth; quench not your prophecy, neither heed them that despise it.

(Works, VII., p. 43).

The True Balance.

Despise not the prophecy ... neither be lifted up in your openings, lest ye depart from that which opened.

(Works, VII., p. 43.)

Sitting Down Without Speaking.

We had a general meeting of many thousands of people atop of a hill. Heavenly and glorious it was. And the glory of the Lord did shine over all. And there was as many as one could well speak over, there was such a multitude. And their eyes were kept to Christ their teacher and they came to sit under their vine, that a friend, afterwards Francis Howgill in the ministry, went amongst them, and when he was moved to stand up amongst them, he saw they had no need of words. For they was all sitting down under their teacher Christ Jesus, so he was moved to sit down again amongst them without speaking anything.

(C. J., I., p. 137.)

Move Abroad in the Spirit of Obedience.

Now when anyone shall be moved to go to speak in a steeple-house or market, turn in that which moves and be obedient to it. Now that which would not go must be kept down, for that same that would not go will get up. And take heed that the lavishing part do not get up. For it is a bad savour and must be kept down and be kept subject.

(C. J., I., p. 321.)

Quenching the Spirit.

Though many have run out and gone beyond their measures yet many more have quenched the measure of the spirit of God and after become dead and dull and questioned through a false fear; and so there hath been hurt both ways.

(Works, VIII., p. 19.)

Belief in the power keeps the spring open, and none to despise prophecy, neither to quench the spirit, so that all may be kept open to the spring, that every one’s cup may run over.

(Ibid.)

Be Neither Hasty nor Backward.

So every one stand in the power of the Lord that reacheth the seed of God which is the heir of the promise of life without end, and none to be hasty to speak for you have time enough. For with an eye you may reach the witness. And none to be backward when you are moved, for that brings destruction.

(C. J., I., p. 320.)

Missing the Moment.

Now none must ever go forth into words after they have moved and quenched that which moved them.

(C. J., I., p. 322.)

Danger of Impulsive Testimony.

Now when the seed is up in every particular then there is no danger. But now when there is an opening and prophecy and the power stirs before the seed comes up, then there is something that will rash out and run out. There is the danger and there must be the fear and the patience.

(C. J., I., p. 321.)

Borrowed Testimony.

Let no Friends go beyond their own measure given them of God, nor rejoice in another man’s line made ready to their hands.

(Works, VII., p. 115.)

Concerning Judging in Meetings.

Friends, do not judge one another in meetings, ye that do minister in the meetings; for your so doing hath hurt the people both within and without and yourselves under their judgment ye have brought. And your judging one another in the meetings hath emboldened others to quarrel and judge you also in the meetings. And this hath been all out of order and the church order also. Now if you have anything to say to any, stay till the meeting be done, and then speak to them in private between yourselves, and do not lay open another’s weakness. For that is weakness and not wisdom to do so. For your judging one another in meetings hath almost destroyed some Friends and distracted them. And this for want of love that beareth all things; and therefore let it be amended. No more, but my love.

(Works, VII., pp. 114, 115.)

Recrimination.

Friends, go not into the aggravating part to strive with it, lest ye do hurt to your souls and run into the same nature. For patience must get the victory and answers to that of God in every one which will bring every one from the contrary.

(Works, VII., p. 109.)

Strife and Debate.

Where any goeth into the contention he is from the pure. For where any goeth into the contention if anything by him before hath been begotten then that doth get atop and spoil that which was begotten and quench his own prophesy. So if he be not subjected with the power in the particular which would arise into the strife, that is dangerous.

(C. J., I., p. 319.)

Boasting and Vapouring.

None must be light, out, wild. For the seed of God that is weighty and brings solid and into the wisdom of God by which is the wisdom of the creation known. Now that which runs into the imaginations and that part standing in which the imaginations come up, the pure not quite come up through to rule and reign, then that will run out, then that will glory; and so he hath spoiled that which opened to him and will boast and vapour, which is for condemnation.

(C. J., I., pp. 319, 320.)

Heady Stuff.

With the heart man doth believe, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; first, he has it in his heart, before it comes out of his mouth, and this is beyond that brain-beaten—heady stuff which man has long studied, about the saints’ words which holy men of God spake forth as they were moved by the holy ghost: so the holy ghost moved them before they came forth and spake them.

(Works, VIII., p. 19.)

Hypocrisy.

For many are crept in unawares, who are self-ended, slow-bellies, who love this world more than the cross of Christ, who are got high in the form and have great swelling words which they can utter for their advantage in earthly things, deceiving the simple therewith.

(Works, VII., p. 60.)

Saying and Doing.

For there are children of darkness that will talk of the light and of the truth and not walk in it.

(Journal, 8th ed., I., p. 60.)

All they which preached faith and made shipwreck of faith, were and are still, denied. All such as preach the light and walk in darkness, and preach the spirit (the fruits of which are love and peace) and are in enmity, were never owned by God, nor Christ, nor good men, though they may be called Christians. All such as cry, Lord, Lord, and preach Christ, Christ, and do not his will, enter not into his kingdom themselves, and into it they can bring none. They are deceivers of their own souls and they may deceive others with their good words; but such cannot be reconciled to God, neither can they bring others to reconciliation with God.

(Works, VIII., p. 139, condensed.)

Keep down all Uncleanness.

Keep your meetings in the power of the Lord God ... that all uncleanness whatsoever may, by the power of the Lord, be brought down and rooted out; and that such have no rule nor authority amongst you, though they be never so fair or excellent of speech.

(Works, VII., p. 128.)

They had Spoken Themselves Dry.

Now they had had great meetings. So I told them that after they had had such meetings they did not wait upon God to feel his power to gather their minds together, to feel his presence and power and therein to sit to wait upon him, for they had spoken themselves dry and spent their portions and not lived in that which they spoke, and now they were dry. They had some kind of meetings but took tobacco and drunk ale in them and so grew light and loose.

But my message unto them was from the Lord that they might all come together again and wait to feel the Lord’s power and spirit in themselves to gather them to Christ, and to be taught of him who says, learn of me.

For after when they had declared that which the Lord had opened to them then the people was to receive it, and the speakers, and they was to live in that themselves.

But when they had no more to declare but to go to seek forms without life, that made themselves dry and barren, and the people. And thence came all their loss. For the Lord renews his mercies, and his strength if they would wait upon him. But the heads of them all came to nothing. But most of the people came to be convinced.

(C. J., I., pp. 22, 23.)

Before Utterance.

Let all live in the seed and wisdom and fear, and consider before they utter, that the light be up whereby all may be settled and they themselves be washed.

(Works, VII., p. 129.)

After Utterance.

So if anyone have a moving to any place and have spoken what they were moved of the Lord, return to their habitation again and live in the pure life of God and fear of the Lord. And so will you in the life and in the sober and seasoned spirit be kept and preach as well in life as with words.

(C. J., I., p. 319.)

And when any have spoken forth the things of the Lord by his power and spirit, let them keep in the power and spirit, that keeps them in the humility that when they have spoken forth the things of God they are neither higher nor lower, but still keep in the power, before and after.

(Works, VIII., p. 21.)

Elders.

And ye that are led forth to exhort or to reprove, do it with all diligence, taking all opportunities, reproving that which devours the creation and thereby destroys the very human reason. For the truth doth preserve every thing in its place.

(Works, VII., p. 52.)

Simple-hearted Ones.

And beware of discouraging any in the work of God. The labourers are few that are faithful to God. Take heed of hurting the gift which God hath given to profit withal, whereby ye have received life through death and a measure of peace by the destruction of evil.

And all take heed to your spirits. That which is hasty discerns not the good seed. Take heed of being corrupted by flatteries. They that know their God shall be strong. But take heed of labouring to turn aside the just for a thing of naught, but know the precious from the vile, the clean from the unclean. “These shall be as my mouth” saith the Lord, for his work is great and his gifts diverse. And therefore all mind your gift, mind your measure, mind your calling and your work. Some speak to the conscience, some plough and break the clods, some weed out and some sow, some wait that fowls devour not the seed. But wait all for the gathering of the simple-hearted ones.

(Works, VII., p. 18.)

Tender Bubblings.

All my dear friends in the noble seed of God who have known his power, life, and presence among you, let it be your joy to hear or see the springs of life break forth in any in which you have all unity in the same feeling, life and power. And above all things take heed of judging, ever, anyone openly in your meeting except they be openly profane, rebellious, such as be out of the truth, that by power and life and wisdom you may stand over them, and by it answer the witness of God in the world, that such is none of you whom you bear your testimony against. So that there in the truth stand clear and single. But such as are tender, if they should be moved to bubble forth a few words and speak in the seed and lamb’s power, suffer and bear that that is the tender. And if they should go beyond their measure bear it in the meeting for peace sake and order, that the spirits of the world be not moved against you, but that when the meeting is done then if any thing should be moved of anyone to speak to them between yourselves or one or two of you that feel it in the life and the love and wisdom that is pure ... so in this you have order, you have edification.

(C. J., I., pp. 222, 223.)

Concerns to Travel Abroad.

Now there is a great danger in travelling abroad in the world, the same power that moves them is it must keep them. For it is the greatest danger to go abroad except a man be moved of the Lord, by the power of the Lord; for then he, keeping in the power, is kept in his journey and in his work and it will preserve him to answer the transgressed and keep above the transgressor. So now everyone feeling the danger to his own particular in travelling abroad there the pure fear of the Lord will be placed. For now though one may have openings when they are abroad to minister to others, but as for their own particular growth is to dwell in the life which doth open. And it will keep down that which will boast; for the minister comes into the death to that which is in the death and in prison, and to return up again into the life and into the power and into the wisdom to preserve him clean.

(C. J., I., p. 319.)

Paid Ministry.

Now as concerning priests and teachers who will not preach without a sum of money ... such the higher power silenceth that useth their tongue, whose doubts is for outward maintenance and taking thought for that, such are in the state of the Gentiles, the Kingdoms of the world and seeking for that and not for the Kingdom of God, and the righteousness of it first, which the other things follow. If this were found and a word from the Lord received and his counsel stood in, people would be turned from their evil ways, there would be no want for outward things. But if they be priests and readers of the law to the people, then they must have their pulpit of wood and a thing made ready to their hand and boast in other men’s labours. But this was not the practice of the apostles.

(C. J., I., p. 85.)

Consecrated Ground.

So I declared to the people that I came not to hold up their idols, temple, tithes nor priests but to declare against them and opened to the people all their traditions and that piece of ground was no more holy than another piece of ground and that they should know that their bodies were to be the temples of God and Christ and so to bring them off all the world’s hireling teachers to Christ their free teacher and directing them to the spirit and grace, and the light of Jesus that they might know both God and Christ and the Scriptures.

(C. J., I., p. 27.)

Business Meetings.

Let all be careful to speak shortly and pertinently to matters, in a Christian spirit and dispatch business quickly and keep out of long debates and heats; and with the Spirit of God keep that down which is doating about questions and strife of words that tend to parties and contention. In the church of God there is no such custom to be allowed. And let not more than one speak at a time; nor any in a fierce way, for that is not to be allowed in any society, either natural or spiritual.