A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 1 | Page 6

in his own mind. For in the
vale of Beevor he conceived himself to have been informed of the
various doctrines, which it became his duty to teach, and, on this
occasion, to have had an insight of the places where he was to spread
them.
To go over his life, even in the concise way, in which I have hitherto
attempted it, would be to swell this introduction into a volume. I shall
therefore, from this great period of his ministry, make only the
following simple statement concerning it.
He continued his labours, as a minister of the gospel, and even
preached, within two days of his death.
During this time he had settled meetings in most parts of the kingdom,
and had given to these the foundation of that beautiful system of
discipline, which I shall explain in this volume, and which exists
among the Quakers at the present day.
He had travelled over England, Scotland, and Wales. He had been in
Ireland. He had visited the British West-Indies, and America. He had
extended his travels to Holland, and part of Germany.
He had written, in this interval, several religious books, and had
addressed letters to kings, princes, magistrates, and people, as he felt
impressions on his mind, which convinced him, that it become his duty
to do it.
He had experienced also, during this interval, great bodily sufferings.
He had been long and repeatedly confined in different gaols of the
kingdom. The state of the gaols, in these times, is not easily to be

conceived. That of Doomsdale at Launceston in Cornwall, has never
been exceeded for filth and pestilential noisomeness, nor those of
Lancaster and Scarborough-castles for exposure to the inclemency of
the elements. In the two latter he was scarcely ever dry for two years;
for the rain used to beat into them, and to run down upon the floor. This
exposure to the severity of the weather occasioned his body and limbs
to be benumbed, and to swell to a painful size, and laid the foundation,
by injuring his health, for future occasional sufferings during the
remainder of his life.
With respect to the religious doctrines, which George Fox inculcated
during his ministry, it is not necessary to speak of them here, as they
will be detailed in their proper places. I must observe, however, that he
laid a stress upon many things, which the world considered to be of
little moment, but which his followers thought to be entirely worthy of
his spiritual calling. He forbade all the modes and gestures, which are
used as tokens of obeisance, or flattery, or honour, among men. He
insisted on the necessity of plain speech or language. He declaimed
against all sorts of music. He protested against the exhibitions of the
theatre, and many of the accustomary diversions of the times. The early
Quakers, who followed him in all these points, were considered by
some as turning the world upside down; but they contended in reply,
that they were only restoring it to its pure and primitive state; and that
they had more weighty arguments for acting up to their principles in
these respects, than others had for condemning them for so doing.
But whatever were the doctrines, whether civil, or moral, or religious,
which George Fox promulgated, he believed that he had a divine
commission for teaching them, and that he was to be the RESTORER
of Christianity; that is, that he was to bring people from Jewish
ceremonies and Pagan-fables, with which it had been intermixed, and
also from worldly customs, to a religion which was to consist of
spiritual feeling. I know not how the world will receive the idea, that he
conceived himself to have had a revelation for these purposes. But
nothing is more usual than for pious people, who have succeeded in
any ordinary work of goodness, to say, that they were providentially
led to it, and this expression is usually considered among Christians to
be accurate. But I cannot always find the difference between a man
being providentially led into a course of virtues and successful action,

and his having an internal revelation for it. For if we admit that men
may be providentially led upon such occasions, they must be led by the
impressions upon their minds. But what are these internal impressions,
but the dictates of an internal voice to those who follow them? But if
pious men would believe themselves to have been thus providentially
led, or acted upon, in any ordinary case of virtue, if it had been
crowned with success, George Fox would have had equal reason to
believe, from the success that attended his own particular undertaking,
that he had been called upon to engage in it. For at a very early age he
had