CHAPTER II.

1647-1649. Falls into a trance-Religious exercises in the Vale of Bevor, and farther spiritual openings from whence arose his peculiar viewsConsiderations upon some of these.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."-Acts ii. 17. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”—Matt. v. 8.

The singularity of the character of Fox, and the novelty of many of his doctrines having now spread far about, and having attracted the attention of great numbers, often led him into religious discussions with teachers and professors of all denominations. And as he was accounted, a young man of a discerning spirit," he was heard with much attention by many, who afterwards still more spread his fame. Some of these professors however were greatly enraged as soon as they perceived that many of their followers were led over to his principles; they more particularly attacked his doctrine of perfection, in which he maintained that the redeeming power of Christ is over all sin, and enables us, by faith in him, to overcome it and to be freed from its yoke, the sense of which freedom and perfection in the heart, is unto us a witness of redemption. This doctrine they could not endure, nor would they admit that a holy and sinless life was attainable in this world; and, on the contrary, they taught in their discourses that it was useless for men to strive after it.

It was about this period of his life that he laid, in a kind of trance, for the space of fourteen days; and many who came to see him during that time, "wondered" to see his countenance so much changed; for he not only had the appearance of a dead man, but seemed to them to be really dead. His journal gives us no particulars of this uncommon attack, and although the account does not positively call it a trance, still from the following passages, it seems to infer as much. After his recovery, he

says, his mind was greatly relieved of its load of sorrows, "so that he could have wept night and day with tears of joy, in brokenness of heart."

The exercise of his mind during this interval of bodily inanition, he describes as follows, "I saw into that which was without end, and things which cannot be uttered; and of the greatness and infiniteness and love of God, which cannot be expressed by words, for I had been brought through the very ocean of darkness and death, and through and over the power of Satan; by the eternal, glorious power of Christ: even through all that darkness was I brought which covered all the world, and which chained down all and shut up all in death. all in death. And the same eternal power of God, which brought me through those things, was that which afterwards shook nation, priests, professors, and people. Then could I say, I had been in spiritual Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, and the grave; but by the eternal power of God, I was come out of it, and was brought over it, and the power of it, into the power of Christ. And I saw the harvest white, and the seed of God lying thick in the ground, as ever wheat did, that was sown outwardly, and none to gather it and for that I mourned with tears."

1648. We are now come to the most important passage of his life, for taking up his abode for some weeks, in this year, in the vale of Bevor in Nottinghamshire, (where he had already found many people in unity with his own sentiments) his mind was brought into deep religious exercise. Here, at the time of his retirement in the fields and solitary haunts, for the purpose of religious contemplation and worship, the mission which he was sent forth to preach to all men, was inwardly and clearly revealed to him; and feeling himself to be especially called to this labour, from henceforth he devoted his whole life to the fulfilment of a duty that he regarded in the light of a divine command; sending him forth into the world, that appeared to his mind "like a briery, thorny, wilderness."

The propagation of the peculiar views of the gospel precepts as unfolded to him by this mission, formed the sole absorbing object of his future life; we shall therefore give his own account of it at large.

"It was opened to me," he begins, "how people read the scriptures without a right sense of them, and without duly apply

ing them to their own states. For when they read, that death reigned from Adam to Moses; that the law and the prophets were until John; and that the least in the kingdom is greater than John; they read these things outwardly, and apply them to others, (and the things are true of others) but they did not turn inwards to find the truth of these things in themselves.—I saw plainly that none could read Moses aright without Moses's spirit, by which he saw how man was in the image of God, in paradise, how he fell, how death caine over him, and how all men have been under this death. I saw that none could read John's words aright, and with a true understanding of them, but in and with the same Divine Spirit by which John spake them, and by his burning shining light which is sent from God. For by that Spirit their crooked nature might be made straight, their rough natures smooth, and the extortioner and violent doer in them might be cast out; and those that had been hypocrites, might come to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and their mountain of sin and earthliness might be laid low, and their valley exalted in them, and that there might be a way prepared for the Lord in them; then the least in the kingdom is greater than John. I saw they could not know the spiritual meaning of Moses, the prophets, and John's words, unless they had the Spirit and light of Jesus; nor could they know the words of Christ and the apostles without his Spirit to guide them.

Moreover, the Lord let me see, when I was brought up into his image in righteousness and holiness, and into the paradise of God, the state how Adam was made a living soul; and also the stature of Christ, the mystery, that had been hid from ages and generations, which things are hard to be uttered, and cannot be borne by many.

For of all the sects of christendom, with whom I discoursed, I found none that could bear to be told, that they should come to Adam's perfection, into that image of God, that righteousness and holiness that Adam was in before he fell. Therefore, how should they be able to bear being told, that any should grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, when they cannot bear to hear that any shall come, whilst upon earth, into the same power and spirit that the prophets and apostles

were in? Though it be a certain truth, that none can understand these writings aright, without the aid of the same Spirit by which they were written.

"The Lord God opened to me by his invisible power, how every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ.' I saw it shine through all, and that they who believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life, and became the children of it; but they that hated it and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made profession of Christ." "This I saw in the pure openings of the light, without the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in the scriptures, though afterwards searching the scriptures, I found it. For I saw in the Light and Spirit, which was before the scriptures were given forth, and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that all must come to that Spirit if they would know God, or Christ, or the scriptures aright, which Spirit they that gave them forth were led and taught by.

"I was sent to turn people from darkness to the light, that they might receive Christ Jesus; for to as many as should receive Him in his light, I saw He would give power to become the sons of God, which I had obtained by receiving Christ. I was to direct people to the Spirit that gave forth the scriptures, by which they might be led unto all truth, and up to Christ and God, as those had been who gave them forth. I was to turn them to the grace of God, and to the truth in the heart, which came by Jesus; that by this grace they might be taught what would bring them salvation, that their hearts might be established by it, their words might be seasoned, and all might come to know their salvation nigh. I saw Christ died for all men, was a propitiation for all, and enlightened all men and women by his divine and saving light, and that none could be true believers, but those that believed therein. I saw that the grace of God which brings salvation, had appeared to all men, and that the manifestation of the Spirit of God, was given to every man, to profit withal. These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the letter; but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immediate Spirit and power, as did the holy

men of God, by whom the Scriptures were written. Yet I had no slight esteem of the holy scriptures, they were very precious to me, for I was in that Spirit by which they had been given. forth, and what the Lord opened in me, I afterwards found was agreeable to them. I could speak much of those things, and many volumes might be written, but all would prove too short to set forth the infinite love, wisdom, and power of God, in preparing, fitting, and furnishing me for the service he had appointed me to; letting me see the depths of Satan on one hand, and opening to me on the other hand, the divine mysteries of his own everlasting kingdom.

"When the Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ sent me forth into the world, to preach his everlasting gospel and kingdom, I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light, spirit, and grace, by which all might know their salvation and their way to God; even that divine Spirit, which would lead them into all truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any."

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From these impressions originated one of the most striking features of the Quaker tenets-That the christian religion is wholly and solely a spiritual religion-an affair between the soul of man and his Maker, who has declared that He will not be mocked by forms and ceremonies, but will be worshipped spirit and in truth," and thus they abolished all ceremonies, and nearly all forms from their system of worship, and made it to consist simply of an humble and patient waiting in silence, for the assistance and guidance of God's Holy Spirit in their hearts; even their preachers never presuming to break in upon this solemn silence, unless they feel empowered by that Spirit to address the congregation. G. Fox further tells us, "But with and by this divine power, and Spirit of God, and the Light of Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, to Christ the new and living way; from their churches which men had made and gathered to the Church of God, the general assembly written in heaven, which Christ is the head of; and off from the world's teachers made by men, to learn of Christ, who is the way, the Truth, and the life, of whom the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him ;" and off from