The journal of George Fox, vol. 2 of 2 : $b Being an historical account of his life, travels, sufferings, and Christian experiences.Fox, George
Religion
The journal of George Fox, vol. 2 of 2 : $b Being an historical account of his life, travels, sufferings, and Christian experiences.
Fox, George
Fox, George, 1624-1691
After I was gone, the judge asked the jury, “if they were agreed?” They
said, “yes,” and found for the king against me as I was told. But I was
never called to hear sentence given, nor was any given against me, that
I could hear of. I understood that when they had looked more narrowly
into the indictment, they saw it was not good: and the judge having
sworn the officers of the court, that the oath was tendered me at the
assize before, such a day, according as was set in the indictment, and
that being the wrong day, I should have proved the officers of the court
forsworn men again, if the judge would have suffered me to plead to the
indictment; which was thought to be the reason why he hurried me away so
soon. The judge had passed sentence of premunire upon Margaret Fell,
before I was brought in; and it seems, when I was hurried away, they
recorded me as a premunired person, though I was never brought to hear
the sentence or knew of it; which was very illegal. For they ought not
only to have had me present to hear the sentence given, but also to have
asked me first, “what I could say why sentence should not be given
against me?” But they knew I had so much to say, that they could not
give sentence, if they heard it.
While I was prisoner in Lancaster castle, there was a great noise and
talk of the Turk’s overspreading Christendom, and great fears entered
many. But one day as I was walking in my prison chamber, “I saw the
Lord’s power turn against him, and that he was turning back again.” And
I declared to some what the Lord had let me see, when there were such
fears of his over-running Christendom; and within a month after the news
came, that they had given him a defeat.
Another time, as I was walking in my chamber, with my eye to the Lord,
“I saw the angel of the Lord with a glittering drawn sword stretched
southward, as though the court had been all on fire.” Not long after the
wars broke out with Holland, the sickness broke forth, and afterwards
the fire of London; so the Lord’s sword was drawn indeed.
By reason of my long and close imprisonment in so bad a place, I was
become very weak in body; but the Lord’s power was over all, supported
me through all, and enabled me to do service for him, and for his truth
and people, as the place would admit. For while I was in Lancaster
prison, I answered several books, as the _Mass_, the _Common-Prayer_,
the _Directory_, and the _Church Faith_; which are the four chief
religions that are got up since the apostles’ days. And there being
several Friends in prison at Lancaster and other prisons for not paying
tithes, I was moved to give forth the following lines:—
_Concerning Tithes._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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