George Fox having by his Paper, dated London the 4th Month, 1678. proposed many Queryes, and caused them to be read in our Mens Meeting of Friends in the City of Bristol, it is now with me (being present in the said Meeting at the reading thereof) to write something in Answer thereto, {Fifth Part 26} to be read in the said Mens-Meeting; and as his was ordered to be sent to Naylsworth, I desire that this also may be sent thither, to be read amongst Friends, and also sent to G.F. that so he may Answer the Queryes I now propose.
The above-recited Paper I take to be wholly made up of Queries to all those who do make away their Estates, for fear of the Spoilers, in time of Persecution, excepting this one sentence of Exhortation, viz. Do not distrust and despair of God Almighty his protecting and delivering you with his Almighty Power.
The queries being contracted amounts to thus much.
Are you sensible the Earth is the Lords, and that he giveth the Encrease, and that how he may try you, whether your Minds are in the Creatures, or with the Creator, and whether it is not a greater thing to give up the Life and to dye for the Lord Jesus, than to give up Goods and Estates; whether those that cannot suffer Spoiling of Goods for Christ’s sake can give up their Lives; whether those that make away their Estates, lest they should lose them for the worship of God, do not distrust God of keeping them, and have more Belief and Trust in the World than God, and whether this Spirit, that doth so, is not the Spirit of the World, that doth lust to Envy, and not the Spirit of God and his Wisdom, but that which is below, which is Earthly, Sensual, and Devilish, that would have its Liberty?
Ans. To the Exhortation I say, ‘tis in itself good, but would have much better become the Mouth of G.F. if when the Persecutors came up one pair of Stairs in our Meeting=Room in Broadmead, whilst he was speaking, he had not been of such a Spirit (which some may term Distrustful and Despairing) {Fifth Part 27} as on a sudden to step down, and hasten out of the Meeting at a Back pair of Stairs, which he once did, and of which my Eyes, (with many more) were witnesses: Besides, I query of G.F. whether he doth not remember, that when the Souldiers of some other Persecutors came to a Meeting, in or near London, at a certain time when he was there, he did not go out of the Meeting, and betook himself to an upper Room or Cock=loft? For so have I been informed he did, and that by a person of known Credit and Repute then present at the Meeting, who, as he said, had discourses with him at that time and place, near half an hour; and if Report be true, this is but very little of what might at large be manifested to prove one of the great Fleers and Shifters in time of Persecution, that ever I knew professing the Truth, and esteemed by other a faithful Friend.
As to the queries, I have this to say, that the Earth is the Lord’s, that he giveth the Encrease; that ‘tis a nearer thing to part with Life than Estate, rather than to depart from his Testimony for the Truth, when the Lords call for it: I am also sensible, there is a Spirit that Lusteth to Envy dwelling in such, that would lay heavy Burthens on others, but not touch them with their little Fingers themselves; and that this is not the Spirit of God, nor his Wisdom; but that which is Earthly, Sensual, and that would have its Liberty: I am also sensible, that this very Spirit hath lately, and yet doth dwell in G.F. if God hath not given him Repentance. And therefore if any of you, unto whom these Lines may come, may think, that this my sense of G.F. be not true, I desire such (for the Truths sake) to use their Endeavour, that G.F. may Answer these following Queries, viz.
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