The journal of George Fox, vol. 1 of 2 : $b Being an historical account of his life, travels, sufferings, and Christian experiences.Fox, George
Religion
The journal of George Fox, vol. 1 of 2 : $b Being an historical account of his life, travels, sufferings, and Christian experiences.
Fox, George
Fox, George, 1624-1691
Then I heard of a great meeting to be at LEICESTER, for a dispute,
wherein Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Common-prayer-men
were said to be all concerned. The meeting was in a steeple-house; and
thither I was moved by the Lord God to go, and be amongst them. I heard
their discourse and reasonings, some being in pews, and the priest in
the pulpit; abundance of people being gathered together. At last one
woman asked a question out of Peter, What that birth was, viz., a being
born again of incorruptible seed, by the Word of God, that liveth and
abideth for ever? And the priest said to her, “I permit not a woman to
speak in the church;” though he had before given liberty for any to
speak. Whereupon I was wrapped up, as in a rapture, in the Lord’s power;
and I stepped up and asked the priest, “Dost thou call this (the
steeple-house) a church? Or dost thou call this mixed multitude a
church?” For the woman asking a question, he ought to have answered it,
having given liberty for any to speak. But, instead of answering me, he
asked me what a church was? I told him, “The church was the pillar and
ground of truth, made up of living stones, living members, a spiritual
household, which Christ was the head of: but he was not the head of a
mixed multitude, or of an old house made up of lime, stones, and wood.”
This set them all on fire: the priest came down out of his pulpit, and
others out of their pews, and the dispute there was marred. But I went
to a great inn, and there disputed the thing with the priests and
professors of all sorts; and they were all on a fire. But I maintained
the true church, and the true head thereof, over the heads of them all,
till they all gave out and fled away. One man seemed loving, and
appeared for a while to join with me; but he soon turned against me, and
joined with a priest, in pleading for infants’ baptism, though he
himself had been a Baptist before; and so left me alone. Howbeit, there
were several convinced that day; and the woman that asked the question
was convinced, and her family; and the Lord’s power and glory shone over
all.
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