Under these intestine troubles, the minds of many people came to be fitted to receive a nearer way and doctrine of godliness, and it was in the year 1648, that several persons, seeking the Lord, were become fellow-believers, and entered into society with George Fox; insomuch that they began to have great meetings in Nottinghamshire, which were visited by many. About that time there was a meeting of priests and professors at a justice’s house, and George Fox went among them and heard them discourse concerning what the Apostle Paul said, He had not known sin, but by the law, which said, thou shalt not lust. And since they held that to be spoken of the outward law, George Fox told them, Paul spoke that after he was convinced; for he had the outward law before, and was bred up in it, when he was in the lust of persecution: but it was the law of God in his mind, which he served, and which the law in his members warred against. This saying found so much entrance, that those of the priests and professors, that were most moderate, yielded, and consented that it was not the outward law, but the inward, that showed the inward lust, which the Apostle spoke of. After this, he went again to Mansfield, where was a great meeting of professors and other people; and being among them, and moved to pray, such an extraordinary power appeared, and seized on the hearts of some in so eminent a manner, that even the house seemed to be shaken: and after prayer, some of the auditory began to say, ‘That this resembled that in the days of the Apostles, when on the day of Pentecost, the house where they were met was shaken.’ Not long after this, there was another great meeting of professors, where G. Fox came also, who hearing them discourse about the blood of Christ, he cried out among them: ‘Do ye not see the blood of Christ? Ye must see it in your hearts, to sprinkle your hearts and consciences from dead works, to serve the living God.’ This was a doctrine which startled these professors, who would have the blood of Christ only without them, not thinking that it was to be felt inwardly. But a certain captain, whose name was Amos Stoddard, was so reached, that seeing how they endeavoured to bear G. Fox down with many words, he said, ‘Let the youth speak, hear the youth speak;’ and coming afterwards to be more acquainted with G. Fox, he had an opportunity to be further instructed in the way of godliness, of which he came to be a faithful follower.