After some time I met with some people who had a notion that there
was no God, but that all things come by nature. I had a great dispute
with them, and overturned them, and made some of them confess that
there is a living God. Then I saw that it was good that I had gone
through that exercise.[O] We had great meetings in those parts;
for the power of the Lord broke through in that side of the country.
[O] He means experience.
Returning into Nottinghamshire, I found there a company of shattered
Baptists, and others. The Lord's power wrought mightily, and gathered
many of them. Afterwards I went to Mansfield and thereaway, where
the Lord's power was wonderfully manifested both at Mansfield and
other towns thereabouts.
In Derbyshire the mighty power of God wrought in a wonderful manner.
At Eton, a town near Derby, there was a meeting of Friends,[27] where
appeared such a mighty power of God that they were greatly shaken,
and many mouths were opened in the power of the Lord God. Many were
moved by the Lord to go to steeple-houses, to the priests and people,
to declare the everlasting truth unto them.
[27] There is no account of the origin of this meeting, which
seems to have been in existence before Fox came to Eton. There
seems to have been considerable definite work done which is
not detailed in the "Journal." [See "Epistles," Vol. I., page
2, "Truth sprang up (to us as to be a people of the Lord) in
Derbyshire in 1647."] Eton is in Derbyshire.
At a certain time, when I was at Mansfield, there was a sitting of
the justices about hiring of servants; and it was upon me from the
Lord to go and speak to the justices, that they should not oppress
the servants in their wages. So I walked towards the inn where they
sat; but finding a company of fiddlers there, I did not go in, but
thought to come in the morning, when I might have a more serious
opportunity to discourse with them.
But when I came in the morning, they were gone, and I was struck
even blind, that I could not see. I inquired of the innkeeper where
the justices were to sit that day; and he told me, at a town eight
miles off. My sight began to come to me again; and I went and ran
thitherward as fast as I could. When I was come to the house where
they were, and many servants with them, I exhorted the justices not
to oppress the servants in their wages, but to do that which was
right and just to them; and I exhorted the servants to do their
duties, and serve honestly.[28] They all received my exhortation
kindly; for I was moved of the Lord therein.
[28] This is an interesting illustration of Fox's sensitiveness
to wrong social conditions and of the practical character of his
religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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