CHAPTER VII (4)

In the interim I went into the country, and had meetings, and came thither again that day week. Against that time this priest had got seven priests to help him: for priest Stephens had given notice at a lecture on a market-day at Atherstone, that such a day there would be a meeting and a dispute with me. I knew nothing of it; but had only said, I should be in town that day week again. These eight priests had gathered several hundreds of people, even most of the country thereabouts, and they would have had me into the steeple-house; but I would not go in, but got on a hill and there spoke to them and the people. There were with me Thomas Taylor, who had been a priest, James Parnell, and several other Friends. The priests thought that day to trample down truth; but the truth came over them. Then they grew light, and the people rude; and the priests would not stand trial with me; but would be contending here and there a little, with one Friend or other. At last one of the priests brought his son to dispute with me; but his mouth was soon stopped. When he could not tell how to answer, he would ask his father: and his father was confounded also, when he came to answer for his son. So, after they had toiled themselves, they went away in a rage to priest Stephens’ house to drink. As they went away, I said, “I never came to a place where so many priests together would not stand the trial with me.” Whereupon they and some of their wives came about me, laid hold of me, and fawningly said, “what might I have been, if it had not been for the Quakers!” Then they began to push Friends to and fro, to thrust them from me, and to pluck me to themselves. After a while several lusty fellows came, took me up in their arms, and carried me into the steeple-house porch, intending to carry me into the steeple-house by force; but the door being locked, they fell down on a heap, having me under them. As soon as I could, I got up from under them, and went to the hill again: then they took me from that place to the steeple-house wall, and set me on something like a footstool; and all the priests being come back, stood under with the people. The priests cried, “Come, to argument, to argument:” I said, “I denied all their voices, for they were the voices of hirelings and strangers.” And they cried, “Prove it, prove it.” Then I directed them to the tenth of John, where they might see what Christ said of such; he declared, “he was the true shepherd that laid down his life for his sheep, and his sheep heard his voice, and followed him; but the hireling would fly, when the wolf came, because he was a hireling.” I offered to prove that they were such hirelings. Then the priests plucked me off from the stool again; and they themselves got all upon footstools under the steeple-house wall.

Then I felt the mighty power of God arise over all, and told them, “if they would but give audience, and hear me quietly, I would show them by the Scriptures, why I denied those eight priests or teachers, that stood before me; and all the hireling teachers of the world whatsoever; and I would give them Scriptures for what I said.” Whereupon both priests and people consented. Then I showed them out of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Malachi, and others, that they were in the steps of such as God sent his true prophets to cry against; for, said I, “You are such as the prophet Jeremiah cried against, chap. v. when he said, ‘The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means;’ which he called an astonishing and horrible thing. You are such as they that used their tongues and said, Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord never spoke to them: and such as followed their own spirits, and saw nothing; but spoke forth a divination of their own brain; and by their lies and their lightness had caused the people to err, Jer. xiv. You are such as they were, that sought for their gain from their quarter; that were as greedy, dumb dogs, that could never have enough, whom the Lord sent his prophet Isaiah to cry against, Isaiah lvi. You are such, as they were, who taught for handfuls of barley, and pieces of bread; who sewed pillows under people’s arm-holes, that they might lie soft in their sins, Ezek. xiii. You are such as they that taught for the fleece, and the wool, and made a prey of the people, Ezek. xxxiv. But the Lord is gathering his sheep from your mouths, and from off your barren mountains; and is bringing them to Christ, the one Shepherd, whom he hath set over his flocks; as by his prophet Ezekiel he then declared he would do. You are such as they that divined for money, and preached for hire; and if a man did not put into their mouths, they prepared war against him, as the prophet Micah complained, chap. iii.” Thus I went through the prophets, too largely to be here repeated. Then coming to the New Testament, I showed from thence, “that they were like the chief priests, and scribes, and Pharisees of old, such as Christ cried woe against, Matt, xxiii. And that they were such false apostles, as the true apostles cried against, such as taught for filthy lucre; such antichrists and deceivers, as they cried against, that minded earthly things, and served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies: for they that served Christ gave freely, and preached freely, as he commanded them. But they that will not preach without hire, tithes, or outward means, serve their own bellies, and not Christ; and through the good words of the Scriptures, and feigned words of their own, they made merchandise of the people then, as (said I) ye do now.”

So when I had largely quoted the Scriptures, and showed them, wherein they were like the Pharisees, loving to be called of men masters, and to go in long robes, and to stand praying in the synagogues, and to have the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the like; and when I had thrown them out in the sight of the people amongst the false prophets, deceivers, scribes, and Pharisees, and showed at large, how such as they were judged and condemned by the true prophets, by Christ, and by the apostles, “I directed them to the light of Christ Jesus, who enlightens every man that cometh into the world; that by it they might see, whether these things were not true, as had been spoken.” When I appealed to that of God in their consciences, the light of Christ Jesus in them, they could not bear to hear of it; they were all quiet till then; but then a professor said, “George, what! wilt thou never have done?” I told him, I should have done shortly. So I went on a little longer, and cleared myself of them in the Lord’s power. When I had done, all the priests and people stood silent for a time: at last one of the priests said, they would read the Scriptures that I had quoted. I told them, with all my heart. They began to read the 23rd of Jeremiah, and there they saw the marks of the false prophets, that he cried against. When they had read a verse or two, I said, “Take notice, people:” but the priests said, “Hold thy tongue, George.” I bid them read the whole chapter throughout; for it was all against them: then they stopped, and would read no further; but asked me a question. I told them, I would answer their question, the matter being first granted that I had charged them with, viz., that they were false prophets, false teachers, antichrists, and deceivers, such as the true prophets, Christ, and the apostles cried against. A professor said Nay to that; but I said, “Yea; for you leaving the matter, and going to another thing, seem to consent to the proof of the former charge.” Then I answered their question, which was this; Seeing those false prophets were adulterated, whether I did judge Stephens to be an adulterer? To which I answered, he was adulterated from God in his practice, like those false prophets and the Jews. They would not stand to vindicate him, but broke up the meeting. Then the priests whispered together; and priest Stephens came to me, and desired that my father and brother and I might go aside with him, that he might speak to me in private; and the rest of the priests should keep the people from coming to us. I was very loath to go aside with him; but the people cried, “Go, George; do, George, go aside with him.” I was afraid, if I did not go, they would say, I was disobedient to my parents; so I went, and the rest of the priests were to keep the people off; but they could not, for the people being willing to hear, drew close to us. I asked the priest what he had to say; and he said, “if he was out of the way, I should pray for him: and if I was out of the way he would pray for me: and he would give me a form of words to pray for him by.” I replied, “It seems thou dost not know whether thou art in the right way, or not; neither dost thou know whether I am in the right way, or not; but I know that I am in the everlasting way, Christ Jesus, which thou art out of. And thou wouldest give me a form of words to pray by, and yet thou deniest the Common Prayer-Book to pray by, as well as I; and I deny thy form of words, as well as it. If thou wouldst have me pray for thee by a form of words, is not this to deny the apostle’s doctrine and practice of praying by the Spirit, as it gave words and utterance?” Here the people fell a laughing: but I was moved to speak more to him. And when I had cleared myself to him and them, we parted, after I had told them, that I should (God willing) be in the town that day week again. So the priests packed away, and many people were convinced; for the Lord’s power came over all. Though they thought to have confounded truth that day, many were convinced of it; and many that were convinced before, were by that day’s work confirmed in the truth, and abode in it; and a great shake it gave to the priests. My father, though he was a hearer and follower of the priest, was so well satisfied, that he struck his cane upon the ground, and said, “Truly, I see, he that will but stand to the truth, it will carry him out.”

I passed about in the country till that day week, and then came again; for we had appointed a meeting at my relations’ house. Now priest Stephens having had notice beforehand thereof, had got another priest to him; and they had a company of troopers with them, and sent for me to come to them. But I sent them word our meeting was appointed, and they might come to it, if they would. The priests came not; but the troopers came, and many rude people. They had laid their plot, that the troopers should take every one’s name, and then command them to go home; and such as would not go, they should take, and carry them away with them. Accordingly they began, and took several names, charging them to go home; but when they came to take my name, my relations told them, I was at home already: so they could not take me away that time. Nevertheless they took my name: but the Lord’s power was over them, and they went away, both professors and troopers, crossed and vexed, because they obtained not their end. But several were convinced that day, and admired the love and power of God. This was that priest Stephens, who once said of me, “never was such a plant bred in England:” yet afterwards he reported, “that I was carried up into the clouds, and found again full of gold and silver;” and many lies, and false reports he raised respecting me: but the Lord swept them all away. The reason why I would not go into their steeple-house was, because I was to bear my testimony against it, and to bring all off from such places, to the Spirit of God; that they might know their bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost; and to bring them off from all the hireling teachers, to Christ their free teacher, who died for them, and purchased them with his blood.