FRIENDS' LIBRARY, CONSISTING PRINCIPALLY OF JOURNALS AND Extracts from Journals and other Writings OF MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. VOL. VI. LIND FIELD: PRINTED AT THE SCHOOLS OF INDUSTRY, AND SOLD BY LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON A. ARCH, CORNHILL; W. DARTON, HOLBORN; EDMUND 1833. THE HISTORY OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. THE FIFTH BOOK. THE year now being come to an end, I return again to G. Fox, whom we left at Newcastle. Whilst he was there, he, with Anthony Pearson visited some of the aldermen; and among these one Ledger, who as well as the priests, had said, the Quakers would not come into any great towns, but lived in the fields like butterflies. G. Fox desired to have a meeting amongst them; but they would not yield to it. He therefore asked Ledger, whether they had not called his friends butterflies, and said, they would not come into any great towns? "But," said he, now we are come into your town, you will not come to us: who are the butterflies now?" Then Ledger began to plead for the sabbath day; which made G. Fox say, they kept markets on that which was the sab 66 bath day, for that was the seventh day of the week; whereas that day which the professed Christians now meet on, and call their sabbath, was the first day of the week. No leave for a public meeting being obtained, G. Fox got a little meeting among his friends, and some friendly people, at Gateside. Travelling from thence, and passing through Northumberland, and Bishoprick, he came to Durham, where was a man come down from London to set up a college there, to make ministers of Christ, as they said. G. Fox entering into discourse with this man said, that to teach men Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and the seven arts, was not the way to make them ministers of Christ; for the languages began at Babel; and to the Greeks that spake Greek as their mother tongue, the preaching of the cross of Christ was foolishness; and to the Jews that spake Hebrew as their mother tongue, Christ was a stumbling-block. And as for the Romans who spake Latin, they persecuted the Christians; and Pilate, one of the Roman governors, set Hebrew, Greek, and Latin a top of Christ when he crucified him. Thus the languages, which began at Babel, had been set above Christ, the word And John the Divine, who preached the word, that was in the beginning, said that the beast and the whore had power over tongues and languages, and they were as waters, and in the mystery Babylon, for they began at Babel; and the persecutors of Christ set them over him, when he was crucified by them. "Dost thou think," said G. Fox to the man, "to make ministers of Christ by these natural confused languages, which sprang from Babel, are admired in Babylon, and set a top of Christ, the life, by a persecutor?" the man puzzled a little by this, confest to many things spoken by G. Fox. Then it was shewed him farther, that Christ made his ministers himself, and gave gifts unto them, and bid them pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send forth labourers that Peter and John, though unlearned and ignorant as to school-learning, preached Christ the word, which was in the beginning before Babel was: and that Paul also was made an apostle, not of man, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, who is the same now, and so is his gospel, as it was at that day. This discourse had such effect upon the man, that he became very loving, and having considered the matter farther he never set up his intended college. From Durham G. Fox passed to Nottingham, where he gathered again a scattered people, that having about eight years before been convinced of the truth, had been led aside by one Rice Jones. From hence he went into Warwickshire, and passing through Northamptonshire, and |
