Then, coming to Derby, I lay at the house of a doctor, whose wife was
convinced; and so were several more in the town. As I was walking in
my chamber, the [steeple-house] bell rang, and it struck at my life
at the very hearing of it; so I asked the woman of the house what
the bell rang for. She said there was to be a great lecture there
that day, and many of the officers of the army, and priests, and
preachers were to be there, and a colonel, that was a preacher.
Then was I moved of the Lord to go up to them; and when they had
done I spoke to them what the Lord commanded me, and they were
pretty quiet. But there came an officer and took me by the hand, and
said that I and the other two that were with me must go before the
magistrates. It was about the first hour after noon that we came
before them.
They asked me why we came thither. I said God moved us so to do; and
I told them, "God dwells not in temples made with hands." I told them
also that all their preaching, baptism and sacrifices would never
sanctify them, and bade them look unto Christ within them, and not
unto men; for it is Christ that sanctifies. Then they ran into many
words; but I told them they were not to dispute of God and Christ,
but to obey Him.[39]
[39] No single sentence better sums up George Fox's whole
theology than this: "I told them they were not to dispute of God
and Christ, _but to obey Him_."
The power of God thundered among them, and they did fly like chaff
before it. They put me in and out of the room often, hurrying me
backward and forward, for they were from the first hour till the
ninth at night in examining me. Sometimes they would tell me in a
deriding manner that I was taken up in raptures.
At last they asked me whether I was sanctified. I answered, "Yes; for
I am in the paradise of God." Then they asked me if I had no sin. I
answered, "Christ my Saviour has taken away my sin; and in Him there
is no sin." They asked how we knew that Christ did abide in us. I
said, "By His Spirit, that He hath given us." They temptingly asked
if any of us were Christ. I answered, "Nay; we are nothing; Christ
is all." They said, "If a man steal, is it no sin?" I answered, "All
unrighteousness is sin."[40]
[40] These answers sufficiently differentiate George Fox from the
"Ranters."
When they had wearied themselves in examining me, they committed me
and one other man to the house of correction in Derby for six months,
as blasphemers,[41] as may appear by the mittimus, a copy whereof
here followeth:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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