634 ’ F O 
at other times in attending meetings, which he occa¬ 
sionally heard of among the various profeffors of the 
times. But he was diiTatisfied with the private advice 
which he received, and with all the public teachers on 
whom he attended ; and after lofing all hope of Spiritual 
help from l'uch Sources, imagined that he heard a voice 
which Said, “ There is one, even Chrifl JeSus, that can 
Speak to thy condition.” He had now given up all public 
attendance in the churches, and entertained a conviction 
that a learned education in the univerfities was no quali¬ 
fication for a minifler; that the maintenance of Separate 
minifters was not warranted by the precepts or example of 
Chrift and his apofiles ; that God who made the world 
did not dwell in temples made with hands ; and that 
people (hou'd receive the inward divine teaching of the 
Lord, and take that for their rule. Towards the end of 
the year 1647, he conceived himfelf called to propagate 
the opinions which he had embraced, and commenced 
public teacher in the neighbourhood of Duckenfield and 
Manchefier, infilling on the certainty and efficacy of ex¬ 
periencing the coming of Chrift in the heart, as a light to 
difcover error and duty, accompanied with power, to 
enable thofe who believe in it, to avoid the one, and to 
purfue the other. Afterwards he travelled through the 
counties of Leicefler, Northampton, and Derby, addreffing 
the people in the market-places, &c. enforcing the prin¬ 
ciples which he had adopted, and inveighing again!! in¬ 
justice, drunkennefs, and the other prevalent vices of the 
age. About this time he apprehended that the Lord had 
forbidden him to take off his hat to any one, high or low ; 
that he was alfo required to Speak to the people without 
diftinCtion in the language of thou and thee ; that he was 
not to bid people good-morrow, or good-night ; nor to 
bend his knee to the chief magiflrate in the nation, nor to 
take an oath on the molt Solemn occafion. In 1649 he 
Suffered much Severe and cruel treatment. In a church 
at Nottingham, while the minifler was inftruCting the 
people in his Sermon that they were to try all doCtrines, 
opinions, and religions, by the holy Scriptures; Fox 
flood up, and Said, “ Oh, no ! it is not the Scripture, but 
it is tire Holy Spirit, by which opinions and religions are 
to be tried ; for it was the Spirit that led people into all 
truth, and gave them the knowledge of it.” As he con¬ 
tinued his Speech, the officers were directed to turn him 
out of the church, and put him’in prifon. In that pffice 
he was detained, during the pleafure of the magifirates, 
without being brought to any trial, and afterwards re¬ 
leased. After this he Spoke to the minifler and people of 
Mansfield, in the time of divine Service; .upon which a 
ihameful riot took place in the church, and Fox, inftead 
of being quietly taken away by the officers, was violently 
affaulted, beaten with (ticks, and dragged to the (locks, in 
which he was confined for Some hours. Afterwards he 
was taken before a magiftrate, who, perceiving what he 
had already Suffered through the effervefcence of popular 
fury', Set him at liberty; but without protection againft: 
the rude multitude, who purfued him out of the town 
with a (bower of (tones. He met with a Similar treatment 
in Several other towns, where it is not improbable but that 
his imprudent zeal led him to behave in a manner which, 
though indefenfible, ffiould not have expofed him to any 
barbarous and inhuman ufage. In the following year, 
after the Service was over at a leCture in Derby, Fox got 
up andaddreffed the congregation without being molefted 
till he had finiihed his harangue ; but when he had done 
he was taken into cuftody, arid carried before the magi¬ 
firates. Having examined him as to his Sentiments, they 
arbitrarily committed him fur fix months to the houfe of 
correction, under the pretence of his having uttered divers 
blafphemous opinions ; and when at the expiration of 
that period he refufed to enlift as a foldier, h,e was or¬ 
dered into the dungeon ; a place without a bed, infefted 
with vermin and (tench, in which were thirty felons, with 
whom he was confined for near fix months more. It was at 
Derby that the denomination of Quakers was firft applied 
X. 
to Fox and his followers, as a term of Scorn, either on ac¬ 
count of the great agitation and trembling with which the 
delivery of his addreffes is faid to have been ufually at¬ 
tended, or becaule that, when brought before the magi¬ 
firates, he exhorted them, and the other perfons prefent, 
to tremble at the name of the Lord. After he was fet at 
liberty, he continued his travels, and public declarations 
as lie termed them, through different parts of the north 
of England. In Lancafhire he became acquainted in the 
family of Thomas Fell, of Swarthmore, a Welfh judge, 
whofe wife became a convert to his opinions. In 1652 he 
was accufed at the feffions at Lancafter of blafphemy ; 
but the charge not being proved, he was acquitted with 
reputation. In the following year he was feized at Car- 
lifle, while he was preaching, and committed by the 
magifirates to prifon, as a biafphemer, heretic, and fe* 
ducer. In this inftance he was not allowed the privilege 
of a trial, but by the foie authority of the magifirates 
confined in a more loathfome dungeon than that at Derby, 
among the word malefaCtors; where for fix months he 
buffered much indignity and cruel ufage, till he was re¬ 
leafed in confequence of an enquiry which was inftituted 
in parliament concerning his Situation. In 1655 he came 
back to his native town of Drayton, where he went on 
holding conferences, disputing, and preaching, till he 
was Sent a prifoner by the noted colonel Hacker to 
Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell contented himfelf with de¬ 
manding and readily obtaining from him a written pro¬ 
mise, that he would not take up arms againft him or the 
exifting government ; and, after entering into conversa¬ 
tion with him on the Subject of his peculiar principles, 
in which he treated him with much moderation and mild- 
nefs, ordered him to be Set at liberty. 
Fox now commenced his minifterial labours at London, 
whence he made a progrefs through the eaftern and mid¬ 
land counties ; and he was about this time much employed 
in publidling his principles from the prefs, and in anfwer- 
ing the pamphlets which began to appear againft the 
Society which he had been the means of gathering, and 
which in many places was become an objeCt of public 
notice. Fie next proceeded towards the weft of Eng¬ 
land, where he was committed to Launcefton gaol, under 
a charge of having difperfed papers tending to the dif- 
turbance of the public peace, and refufing to give bail. 
At the affizes, when nothing criminal could be found 
againft him, he was fined twenty marks for not having 
pulled off his hat in court, and ordered to lie in prifon 
till the fine (hould be paid. As he fcrtinled to pay a fine 
impofed upon him for what he confidered to bean adhe¬ 
rence to his duty, he was ordered into a noifome hole, 
appropriated to condemned malefactors, where, in the 
midft of the mod difgufting filth, he was not allowed a 
bed, or even draw. Upon an appeal to the feffions at 
Bodinin, the feverity of his confinement was in forne 
meafure mitigated ; and after he had been a prifoner about 
eight months, in confequence of applications made to 
Cromwell he obtained his difcharge. Upon his return to 
London in 1656, he took occafion to lay before Cromwell 
the fufferings of his friends, which he again recommended 
to his attention in a conference to which he was admitted 
at Whitehall; but without obtaining the relief for which 
he applied. By this time the principles of the quakers 
were much dilfeminated throughout the nation ; and with 
their prevalence, had attracted not only perfecution to 
thofe who avowed them, but increafing oppofition from 
the prefs and from the pulpit. On this account Fox 
conceived it to be his duty to travel over the nation, in 
order to obviate the prejudices railed againft them and 
their opinions. In the courfe of his progrefs he vilited 
Edinburgh, where he was fummoned to appear before the 
council, and ordered to leave the kingdom in a week’s 
time. Yet he continued his travels in that country with¬ 
out being molefted, and on his return to London he dis¬ 
puted with a Jefuit, who had accompanied the Spanifh 
ambaffador to England. The account which he has given 
