CHAPTER V (4)

The First-day after, I was moved to go to Aldingham steeple-house; and when the priest had done, I spoke to him; but he got away. Then I declared the word of life to the people, and warned them to turn to the Lord.

From thence I passed to Rampside, where was a chapel, in which Thomas Lawson used to preach, who was an eminent priest. He very lovingly acquainted his people in the morning of my coming in the afternoon; by which means very many people were gathered together. When I came, I saw there was no place so convenient as the chapel; so I went into it, and all was quiet. Thomas Lawson went not up into his pulpit, but left all the time to me. The everlasting day of the eternal God was proclaimed that day, and the everlasting truth was largely declared, which reached and entered into the hearts of people, and many received the truth in the love of it. This priest came to be convinced, left his chapel, threw off his preaching for hire, and came to preach the Lord Jesus and his kingdom freely. After that some rude people cast scandals upon him, and thought to have done him a mischief; but he was preserved over all, grew in the wisdom of God mightily, and proved very serviceable in his place.

I returned to Swarthmore again, and on the next First-day went to Dalton steeple-house; where, after the priest had done, I declared the word of life to the people, that they might be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, and might come off from their superstitious ways, and from their teachers made by man, to Christ, the true and living way, to be taught of him.

From thence I went into the island of Walney; and after the priest had done, I spoke to him, but he got away. Then I declared the truth to the people, but they were rude. I went to speak with the priest at his house, but he would not be seen. The people said he went to hide himself in the haymow; and they went to look for him there, but could not find him. Then they said he was gone to hide himself in the standing corn, but they could not find him there either. So I went to James Lancaster’s, who was convinced in the island; and thence I returned to Swarthmore, where the Lord’s power came upon Margaret Fell and her daughter Sarah, and several others.

Then I went to Baycliff, where Leonard Fell was convinced, and became a minister of the everlasting gospel. Several others were convinced there, and came into obedience to the truth. Here the people said, they could not dispute, and would fain have put some other to converse with me; but I bid them “fear the Lord, and not in a light way talk of the Lord’s words, but put the things in practice.” I directed them to the divine light of Christ and his Spirit in their hearts, which would discover to them all the evil thoughts, words and actions, they had thought, spoken, and acted; by which light they might see their sin, and also their Saviour, Christ Jesus, to save them from their sins. This, I told them, “was their first step to peace, even to stand still in the light that showed them their sins and transgressions; by which they might come to see how they were in the fall of old Adam, in darkness and death, strangers to the covenant of promise, and without God in the world; and by the same light they might see Christ, that died for them, to be their Redeemer and Saviour, and their way to God.”

After this I went to a chapel beyond Gleaston, which was built, but no priest had ever preached in it. Thither the country people came, and a quiet, peaceable meeting it was, in which the word of life was declared, and many were convinced of the truth about Gleaston.

From thence I returned to Swarthmore. After I had stayed a few days, and most of the family were convinced, I went again into Westmorland, where priest Lampitt had been amongst the professors on Kendal side, and had mightily incensed them against me; telling them I held many strange things; I met with those he had so incensed, and sat up all night with them at James Dickinson’s, and answered all their objections. They were both thoroughly satisfied with the truth that I had declared, and dissatisfied with him and his lies, so that he clearly lost the best of his hearers and followers, who thus came to see his deceit, and forsook him.

I passed on to John Audland’s and Gervase Benson’s, and had great meetings amongst those people that had been convinced before; then to John Blakelin’s[18] and Richard Robinson’s, and had mighty meetings there; and so up towards Grisdale.

Soon after, Judge Fell being come home, Margaret Fell his wife sent to me, desiring me to return thither; and, feeling freedom from the Lord so to do, I went back to Swarthmore. I found the priests and professors, and that envious Justice Sawrey, had much incensed Judge Fell and Captain Sands against the truth by their lies; but when I came to speak with him, I answered all his objections; and so thoroughly satisfied him by the Scriptures, that he was convinced in his judgment. He asked me if I was that George Fox, whom Justice Robinson spoke so much in commendation of amongst many of the parliament men. I told him, I had been with Justice Robinson, and with Justice Hotham in Yorkshire, who were very civil and loving to me, and that they were convinced in their judgment by the Spirit of God, that the principle which I bore testimony to, was the truth, and they saw over and beyond the priests of the nation; so that they, and many others, were now come to be wiser than their teachers. After we had discoursed some time together, Judge Fell himself was satisfied also, and came to see, by the openings of the Spirit of God in his heart, over all the priests and teachers of the world, and did not go to hear them for some years before he died; for he knew it was the truth that I declared, and that Christ was the teacher of his people, and their Saviour. He sometimes wished that I were a while with Judge Bradshaw to discourse with him. There came to Judge Fell’s, Captain Sands before-mentioned, endeavouring to incense the judge against me; for he was an evil-minded man, and full of envy against me; and yet he could speak high things, and use the Scripture words, and say, “Behold, I make all things new.” But I told him, then he must have a new God, for his God was his belly. Besides him, came also that envious justice, John Sawrey. I told him “his heart was rotten, and he was full of hypocrisy to the brim.” Several other people also came, whose states the Lord gave me a discerning of; and I spoke to their conditions. While I was in those parts, Richard Farnsworth and James Naylor came to see me and the family; and Judge Fell, being satisfied that it was the way of truth, notwithstanding all their opposition, suffered the meeting to be kept at his house; and a great meeting was settled there in the Lord’s power, which continued near forty years, until the year 1690, that a new meeting-house was erected near it.

After I had stayed a while, and the meeting there was well settled, I went to Underbarrow, where I had a great meeting. From thence to Kellet, and had a great meeting at Robert Widders’s, to which several came from Lancaster, and some from York; and many were convinced there. On the market-day I went to Lancaster, and spoke through the market in the dreadful power of God, declaring the day of the Lord to the people, and crying out against all their deceitful merchandise. I preached righteousness and truth unto them, which they should all follow after, and walk and live in; directing them how and where they might find and receive the Spirit of God to guide them thereinto. After I had cleared myself in the market, I went to my lodging, whither several people came, and many were convinced, who have stood faithful to the truth.

On the First-day following, in the forenoon, I had a great meeting in the street at Lancaster, amongst the soldiers and people, unto whom I declared the word of life, and the everlasting truth. I opened unto them, “that all the traditions they had lived in, and all their worships and religions, and the profession they made of the Scriptures, were good for nothing, while they lived out of the life and power which they were in who gave forth the Scriptures. I directed them to the light of Christ, the heavenly Man, and to the Spirit of God in their own hearts, that they might come to be acquainted with God and with Christ, receive him for their teacher, and know his kingdom set up in them.”

In the afternoon I went to the steeple-house at Lancaster, and declared the truth both to the priest and people; laying open before them the deceits they lived in, and directing them to the power and Spirit of God, which they wanted. But they haled me out, and stoned me along the street, till I came to John Lawson’s house.

Another First-day I went to a steeple-house by the water side, where one Whitehead was priest, to whom, and to the people, I declared the truth in the dreadful power of God. There came to me a doctor, who was so full of envy, that he said he could find in his heart to run me through with his rapier, though he should be hung for it the next day; yet this man came afterwards to be convinced of the truth, so far as to be loving to Friends. Some people were convinced thereabouts, who willingly sat down under the ministry of Christ their teacher: and a meeting was settled there in the power of God, which has continued to this day.

After this I returned into Westmorland, and spoke through Kendal, on a market-day. So dreadful was the power of God upon me, that people flew like chaff before me into their houses. I warned them of the mighty day of the Lord, and exhorted them to hearken to the voice of God in their own hearts, who was now come to teach his people Himself. When some opposed, many others took my part, insomuch that at last some of the people fell to fighting about me; but I went and spoke to them, and they parted again. Several were convinced.

On the First-day after, I had a very large meeting in Underbarrow, at Miles Bateman’s house, where I was moved to declare, “that all people in the fall were gone from the image of God, righteousness, and holiness, and were become as wells without the water of life, as clouds without the heavenly rain, as trees without the heavenly fruit, and were degenerated into the nature of beasts, and of serpents, and of tall cedars, and of oaks, and of bulls, and of heifers: so that they might read the natures of these creatures within, as the prophet described them to the people of old that were out of truth. I opened to them how some were in the nature of dogs and swine, biting and rending; some in the nature of briars, thistles, and thorns; some like the owls and dragons in the night; some like wild asses and horses, snuffing up the wind; and some like mountains and rocks, and crooked and rough ways. Wherefore I exhorted them to read these things within, in their own natures, as well as without; and that, when they read without of the wandering stars, they should look within, and see how they wandered from the bright and morning star. And they should consider, that as the fallow ground in their fields must be ploughed up, before it would bear seed to them, so must the fallow ground of their hearts be ploughed up, before they could bear seed to God. Now all these names and things I showed them, were spoken of, and to man and woman, since they fell from the image of God; but as they come to be renewed again into the image of God, they come out of the natures of these things, and so out of the names thereof.” Many more such things were declared to them, and they were turned to the light of Christ, by which they might come to know Christ, to receive him, and to witness him to be their substance and their way, their salvation and true teacher. Many were convinced at that time.

After I had travelled up and down in those countries, and had had great meetings, I came to Swarthmore again. And when I had visited Friends in those parts, I heard of a great meeting the priests were to have at Ulverstone, on a lecture-day. I went to it, and into the steeple-house in the dread and power of the Lord. When the priest had done, I spoke among them the word of the Lord, which was as a hammer, and as a fire amongst them. And though Lampitt, the priest of the place, had been at variance with most of the priests before, yet against the truth they all joined together. But the mighty power of the Lord was over all; and so wonderful was the appearance thereof, that priest Bennett said “the church shook,” insomuch that he was afraid and trembled. And when he had spoken a few confused words, he hastened out, for fear it should fall on his head. Many priests got together there; but they had no power as yet to persecute.