The Journal of George Fox
1656-1657
“On to Scotland”

“There were two Independent churches in Scotland, in one of which many were convinced; but the pastor of the other was in a great rage against truth and Friends. They had their elders, who sometimes would exercise their gifts among the church members, and were sometimes pretty tender; but their pastor speaking so much against the light, and us, the friends of Christ, he darkened his hearers; so that they grew blind and dry, and lost their tenderness. He continued preaching against Friends, and against the light of Christ Jesus, calling it natural; at last one day in his preaching he cursed the light, and fell down as dead in his pulpit. The people carried him out, laid him upon a grave stone, and poured strong waters into him, which fetched him to life again; and they carried him home, but he was, spiritless. After awhile he stripped off his clothes, put on a Scotch plaid, and went into the country among the dairy-women. When he had stayed there about two weeks he came home, and went into the pulpit again. Upon which the people expected some great manifestation or revelation from him; but, instead of that, he began to tell them what entertainment he had met with; how one woman gave him skimmed milk, another buttermilk, and another good milk. So the people were obliged to take him out of the pulpit again, and carry him home. He that gave me this report, was Andrew Robinson, one of his chief hearers, who came afterwards to be convinced, and received the truth. He said he never heard that he recovered his senses again. By this people may see what came upon him that cursed the light, which light is the life in Christ, the word; and it may be a warning to all others that speak evil against the light of Christ.”

–George Fox

The Journal of George Fox
1655-1656
“Further Ministry and Lancaster Jail”

“While I was in prison here, the Baptists and fifth-monarchy-men prophesied, that this year Christ should come, and reign upon earth a thousand years. And they looked upon this reign to be outward; when he had come inwardly in the hearts of his people to reign and rule; these believers would not receive him in their hearts. So they failed in their prophecy and expectation, and did not have the possession of him. But Christ has come, and does dwell and reign in the hearts of his people. Thousands, at the door of whose hearts he has been knocking, have opened to him; and he has come in, and does sup with them, and they with him; the heavenly supper with the heavenly and spiritual man. So many of these Baptists and monarchy-people became the greatest enemies to the followers of Christ, but he reigns in the hearts of his saints over all their envy.”

–George Fox

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In the Old Testament, Zion was a hill just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel.

In the New Testament, Zion is the Presence of God.  The Lord rules in Zion, the Lord rules in the Presence of God.  If His people are purified, the Lord rules in His people through the Presence of God.  Glory to God in the Highest!

Psalm 110: 2:  “The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

Micah 4: 7:  “And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.”

Hebrews 12: 22:  “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.”

Zion is My Home
Upon Mount Zion Shall Be Deliverance
Jacob will remain Jacob until he is Broken
Wearing a Rough Garment
The Babylonish Church
The Fire of the Lord

“Gallows” by Jess Ray

Esther 7: 9-10:  “Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.”

Psalm 7: 15-16:  “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”

Fifty Cubits High

English Counties and Towns visited by George Fox

George Fox:  An Autobiography
Edited by Rufus M. Jones

Chapter XIV
“Labors, Dangers and Sufferings”
1661-1662

“Many ways were these professors* warned, by word, by writing, and by signs; but they would believe none till it was too late. William Sympson was moved of the Lord to go at several times for three years naked and barefooted before them, as a sign to them, in markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests’ houses, and to great men’s houses, telling them, ‘So shall ye be stripped naked as I am stripped naked!’ And sometimes he was moved to put on hair-sackcloth, and to besmear his face, and to tell them, ‘So will the Lord God besmear all your religion as I am besmeared.’

“Great sufferings did that poor man undergo, sore whippings with horse-whips and coach-whips on his bare body, grievous stoning and imprisonments, in three years’ time, before the King came in, that they might have taken warning; but they would not, and rewarded his love with cruel usage. Only the mayor of Cambridge did nobly to him, for he put his gown about him and took him into his house.

“Another Friend, Robert Huntingdon, was moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle steeple-house with a white sheet about him, amongst the great Presbyterians and Independents there, to show them that the surplice was coming up again; and he put an halter about his neck to show them that an halter was coming upon them; which was fulfilled upon some of our persecutors not long after.”

“About this time we had an account that John Love, a Friend that was moved to go and bear testimony against the idolatry of the Papists, was dead in prison at Rome; it was suspected he was privately put to death. Also before this time we received account from New England that the government there had made a law to banish the Quakers out of their colonies, upon pain of death in case they returned; that several of our Friends, having been so banished and returning, were thereupon taken and actually hanged, and that diverse more were in prison, in danger of the like sentence being executed upon them. When those were put to death I was in prison at Lancaster, and had a perfect sense of their sufferings as though it had been myself, and as though the halter had been put about my own neck, though we had not at that time heard of it.”

“But I told them that the whore was alive in them, and was not burned with God’s fire, nor judged in them with the same power and Spirit the Apostles were in; and that their looking for Christ’s coming outwardly to set up His kingdom was like the Pharisees’ ‘Lo here,’ and ‘Lo there.’ But Christ was come, and had set up His kingdom above sixteen hundred years ago, according to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s prophecy, and He had dashed to pieces the four monarchies, the great image, with its head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and its feet part of iron part of clay; and they were all blown away with God’s wind, as the chaff in the summer threshing-floor.”

* people who professed faith in Jesus Christ

The Journal of George Fox
Naked and Barefoot
Gleanings from George Fox
The Second Coming
Glorified in His Saints

This is from the blog Dover Beach:

“If you put something fragrant on to burning coals, you motivate those who approach to come back again and to stay near, but if instead you put on something with an unpleasant, oppressive smell, you repel them and drive them away. It is the same with the mind. If your attention is occupied with what is holy, you make yourself worthy of being visited by God, since this is the sweet savour which God catches scent of. On the other hand, if you nurture evil, foul and earthly thoughts within you, you remove yourself from God’s supervision and unfortunately make yourself worthy of His aversion.”

–St. Gregory Palamas, The Homilies