important a point as is that of your immortal souls. If you have true faith in Christ, your faith will make you clean, it will sanctify you; for the saints' faith was their victory. By this they overcame sin within, and sinful men without. And if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are manifest. Yea, thou art a new creature, new made, new fashioned after God's will and mould; old things are done away, and, behold, all things are become new; new love, desires, will, affections, and practices. It is not any longer thou that livest, thou disobedient, carnal, worldly one; but it is Christ that liveth in thee; and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal gain; because thou art assured, that "thy corruptible shall put on incorruption, and thy mortal, immortality;" and that thou hast a glorious house, eternal in the heavens, that will never wax old or pass away. All this follows being in Christ, as heat

follows fire, and light the sun.

Therefore have a care how you presume to rely upon such a notion, as that you are in Christ, whilst in your old fallen nature. For what communion hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial? Hear what the beloved disciple tells you; "If we say we have fellowship with God, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." That is, if we go on in a sinful way, are captivated by our carnal affections, and are not converted to God, we walk in darkness, and cannot possibly have any fellow. ship with God. Christ clothes them with his righteousness, that receive his grace in their hearts, and deny themselves, and take up his cross daily, and follow him. Christ's righteousness makes men inwardly holy, of holy minds, wills, and practices. It is nevertheless Christ's, because we have it; for it is ours, not by nature, but by faith and adoption. It is the gift of God. But still, though not ours, as of or from ourselves, for in that sense it is Christ's, for it is of and from him; yet it is ours, and must be ours in possession, efficacy, and enjoyment, to do us any good, or Christ's righteousness will profit us nothing. It was after this manner that he was made to the primitive Christians, righteousness, sanctification, justification, and redemption; and if ever you will have the comfort, kernel, and marrow of the Christian religion, thus you must come to learn and obtain it.

Now, my friends, by what you have read, and will read in what follows, you may perceive that God has visited a poor people among you with this saving knowledge and testimony; whom he has upheld and increased to this day, notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal. Despise not the meanness of this appearance; it was, and yet is (we know) a day of small things, and of small account with too many; and many hard and ill names are given to it; but it is of God; it came from Him because it leads to Him. This we know, but we cannot make another know it, as

know it that we took They pray for power, If you would know God, ard you must come to the means he Some seek it in books, some in

we know it, unless he will take the same way to The world talks of God; but what do they do? but reject the principle in which it is. worship and serve God as you should do, has ordained and given for that purpose. learned men, but what they look for is in themselves, yet they overlook it. The voice is too still, the Seed too small, and the Light shineth in darkness. They are abroad, and so cannot divide the spoil; but the woman that lost her silver, found it at home, after she had lighted her candle and swept her house. Do you so too, and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know, viz., Truth.

Where is

there you "Seek and

The Light of Christ within, who is the Light of the world (and so a light to you, that tells you the truth of your condition), leads all that take heed unto it, out of darkness into God's marvellous light; for light grows upon the obedient. It is sown for the righteous, and their way is a shining light, that shines forth more and more to the perfect day. Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I beseech you! the poison, there is the antidote; there you want Christ, and must find him; and, blessed be God, there you may find him. you shall find," I testify for God; but then you must seek aright, with your whole heart, as men that seek for their lives, yea, for their eternal lives; diligently, humbly, patiently, as those that can taste no pleasure, comfort, or satisfaction in anything else, unless you find him whom your souls want, and desire to know and love above all. O, it is a travail, a spiritual travail! let the carnal, profane world think and say as it will. And through this path you must walk to the city of God, that has eternal foundations, if ever you will come there.

And what does this blessed Light do for you? 1. It sets all your sins in order before you; it detects the spirit of this world in all its baits and allurements, and shows how man came to fall from God, and the fallen estate he is in. 2. It begets a sense and sorrow, in such as believe in it, for this fearful lapse. You will then see Him distinctly whom you have pierced, and all the blows and wounds you have given him by your disobedience; and how you have made him to serve with your sins, and you will weep and mourn for it, and your sorrow will be a godly sorrow. 3. After this it will bring you to the holy watch, to take care that you do so no more, that the enemy surprise you not again. Then thoughts as well as words and works, will come to judgment, which is the way of holiness, in which the redeemed of the Lord do walk. Here you will come to love God above all, and your neighbours as yourselves. Nothing hurts, nothing harms, nothing makes afraid on this holy mountain; now you come to be

Christ's indeed, for you are his in nature and spirit, and not your own. And when you are thus Christ's, then Christ is yours, and not before; and here communion with the Father and with the Son you will know, and the efficacy of the blood of cleansing, even the blood of Jesus Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel, and which cleanseth from all sin the consciences of those that, through the living faith, come to be sprinkled with it from dead works to serve the living God.

To conclude; behold the testimony and doctrine of the people called Quakers! Behold their practice and discipline! and behold the blessed man and men that were sent of God in this excellent work and service! all which will be more particularly expressed in the ensuing annals of the man of God; which I do heartily recommend to my reader's most serious perusal, and beseech Almighty God, that his blessing may go along with it, to the convincing of many, as yet strangers to this holy dispensation, and also to the edification of the church of God in general; who, for his manifold and repeated mercies and blessings to his people, in this day of his great love, is worthy ever to have the glory, honour, thanksgiving, and renown; and be it rendered and ascribed, with fear and reverence, through Him in whom he is well pleased, his beloved Son and Lamb, our Light and Life, that sits with him upon the throne, world without end. Amen, Says one whom God has long since mercifully favoured with his fatherly visitation, and who was not disobedient to the heavenly vision and call; to whom the way of Truth is more lovely and precious than ever, and who knowing the beauty and benefit of it above all worldly treasure, has chosen it for his chiefest joy; and therefore recommends it to thy love and choice, because he is with great sincerity and affection thy soul's friend,

WILLIAM PENN.

[For the Testimonies respecting George Fox, which were here inserted in the last edition of this work, see Appendix at the conclusion of Vol. II.]

JOURNAL

OF GEORGE FOX.

CHAPTER I.

1624-1647.-George Fox's birth and parentage-his gravity and piety in youth. Apprenticed to a shoemaker, who is also a grazier, &c.-his integrity in dealing. Refuses to drink healths-his exercises of mind commence-he lives retired-is tempted to despair. His sorrows continue for some years-has a sense of Christ's sufferings. Confutes a people who held women to be devoid of souls-begins to travel on Truth's account-meets with Elizabeth Hooton-fasts often, and retires to solitary places with his Bible-his exercises intermit. Sees why none but Christ could speak to his condition. Visits a woman who had fasted twenty-two days-first declares the Truth at Duckingfield and Manchester. Preaches

at a great meeting at Broughton. His troubles wear off, and he weeps for joy -sees things which cannot be uttered-is reported to have a discerning spiritovercomes his temptations through the power of Christ.

THAT all may know the dealings of the Lord with me, and the various exercises, trials, and troubles through which he led me, in order to prepare and fit me for the work unto which he had appointed me, and may thereby be drawn to admire and glorify his infinite wisdom and goodness, I think fit (before I proceed to set forth my public travels in the service of Truth) briefly to mention how it was with me in my youth, and how the work of the Lord was begun, and gradually carried on in me, even from my childhood.

I was born in the month called July, 1624, at DRAYTON-IN-THE-CLAY, in LEICESTERSHIRE. My father's name was Christopher Fox: he was by profession a weaver, an honest man; and there was a seed of God in him. The neighbours called him Righteous Christer. My mother was an upright woman; her maiden name was Mary Lago, of the family of the Lagos, and of the stock of the martyrs.

In my very young years I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit, not usual in children; insomuch, that when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly towards each other, I had a dislike thereof raised in my heart, and said within myself, "If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton."

When I came to eleven years of age, I knew pureness and righteousness; for while a child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful in all things, and to act faithfully two ways, viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man; and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things. For the Lord showed me, that though the people of the