LIFE OF GEORGE FOX.

CHAPTER I.

1024 to 1641-G. F.'s Birth, Parentage, and Religious Dispo sition-His Serious Thoughts, Secret Exercises and Views of various Points of Christian Doctrine and Practice-His early Travels and first appearance as a Minister-with the Subjects of his Mission.

GEORGE FOX was born in the year 1624, at Drayton in the Clay, in Leicestershire. This place I suppose to be the same as is called Fenny Drayton in our modern maps. He was the son of Christopher and Mary Fox, both of whom appear to have been virtuous characters; and his father was so much esteemed by his neighbours as to be called "Righteous Christer." They would, no doubt, instruct their children in the principles of religion; but it does not appear that they gave their son much learning; yet such was the gravity of his spirit, and the purity of his manners whilst a child, that some of his relations were desirous of his being educated for the ministry. To this some of his friends objecting, he was put apprentice to a shoemaker, who was also a grazier and a dealer*

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in wool; but it seems George was principally employed in country business, and particularly in the care of sheep, an employment suitable to his retired disposition, and as William Penn observes, *a just figure of his after ministry and service.” In this station he discharged his duties with great fidelity, and was remarkable for his veracity, and sobriety; but his tender spirit was often oppressed with the inconsistent conduct of many religious professors, and great was the trouble of his innocent mind on this account. He was at this time frequently engaged in fervent prayer, and received, as he informs us, this divine intimation: "Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth: thou must forsake all, young and old; keep out of all, and be as a stranger to all."

About the twentieth year of his age, the exercise of his mind increased upon him so much, that he travelled to various parts of the country, with the hope of finding, among religious professors, some relief to his afflicted state; but for a time his conflicts of spirit continued, and he was tempted almost to despair. It does not however appear that this temptation was of long duration, though he was, in other respects, much tried and tempted for two or three years. In the course of his travels he came by Lutterworth, Northampton, Newport-Pagnel, and Barnet, to London, where he

was much affected with the general state of different religious societies, with none of whom he could freely unite. Here he heard that his relations were uneasy with his absence from home, which induced him to return to them. They seem to have been much strangers to the nature of his religious exercise; some of them proposing marriage, and others a military life, to remove that deep thoughtfulness which attended him on account of his soul's welfare, and those things which relate to the kingdom of God. During this time of sore conflict, he applied to several ministers in different places for advice and assistance, but none of them afforded any relief to his tribulated spirit.

Whilst his mind was thus exercised, he received many precious openings of divine truths, and of the nature of Christ's kingdom; one proof of which he gave in his reply to the priest of Drayton, who asked him, why Christ cried out on the cross, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and why he said, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but thine be done." To this George replied: "At that time the sins of all mankind were upon Christ, and their iniquities and transgressions with which he was wounded, which he was to bear and to be an offering for, as he was man, but died not as he was God; so in that he died for all men, tasting death for every man, he was an offering for the sins of the whole world." This an

swer greatly pleased the priest, who, at that time, highly applauded George Fox, and would frequently make use of his observations in composing his This man, however, afterwards be

own sermons.

came one of his persecutors.

Other subjects, connected with the spirituality of the gospel dispensation, were, about this time, presented to his understanding; particularly that human learning was not only insufficient, but unnetessary, for making a minister of Christ; and that there was no extraordinary holiness in those places of religious worship, called churches, which were superstitiously regarded as "dreadful places, holy ground, and the temples of God." The great importance which was then, and has since been attached to human learning, he justly considered to be a means of preventing the free ministry of the gospel of Christ. The maintenance of the priests, which was forced from the people, whether hearers or not, appeared, to his understanding, not only inconsistent with the nature of gospel ministry, and the direction of its Author, who said to his disciples, "freely ye have received, freely give ;" but he also considered it injurious to the cause of religion, by exciting in its ministers those feelings of ambition and avarice, by which their ministerial labours are often rendered fruitless, if not contemptible. But though he had great openings on these and other subjects, yet he was still liable to many temptations