dows, and directed them to Christ, the Substance. Then I opened
the Parables and Sayings of Christ, and things that had been long
hid; shewing the intent and scope of the Apostles Writings, how
that their Epistles were written to the Elect. And when I had
opened that State, I shewed also the State of the Apostacy, that hath
been since the Apostles days; how the Priests have gotten the Scri-
pture (but are not in that Spirit, which gave them forth) and have
put them into Chapter and Verse, to make a Trade of the Holy Mens
Words: And how that the Teachers and Priests now are found in the
steps of the false Prophets, Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees of
old, and are such, as the true Prophets, Christ and his Apostles cried
against, and so are judged and condemned by the Spirit of the true
Prophets, and of Christ, and of his Apostles; and that none, who
was in that Spirit, and guided by it now, could own them. Now
there were many old People, who went into the Chappel, and looked
out at the Windows; thinking it a strange thing, to see a Man preach
on an Hill or Mountain, and not in their Church (as they called it;)
whereupon I was moved to open to the People, ‘That the Steeple-
‘house (and the Ground whereon it stood,) was no more holy, than
‘that Mountain; and that those Temples, which they called the
‘dreadful Houses of God, were not set up by the Command of God
‘and of Christ; nor their Priests called, as Aaron‘s Priesthood was;
‘nor their Tithes appointed by God, as those amongst the Jews were:
‘but that Christ was come, who ended both the Temple and its Wor-
‘ship, and the Priests and their Tithes; and all now should hearken
‘unto him: for he said, Learn of me; and God said of him, This is
‘my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. So I de-
‘clared unto them, that the Lord God had sent me to preach the
‘Everlasting Gospel and Word of Life amongst them; and to bring
‘them off from all these Temples, Tithes, Priests and Rudiments of
‘the World, which had gotten up since the Apostles days, and had
‘been set up by such, as had erred from the Spirit and Power, that
‘the Apostles were in. Very largely was I opened at this Meeting,
and the Lord’s Convincing Power accompanied my Ministry, and
reached home unto the Hearts of the People; whereby many were
Convinced that day, and all the Teachers of that Congregation
(who were many) were Convinced of God‘s everlasting Truth that
day.

After the Meeting was over, I went to John Audland’s, and from
thence to Preston-Patrick-Chappel, where a great Meeting was ap-
pointed; to which I went, and had a large opportunity amongst the
People, to preach the Everlasting Gospel to them, opening to them
(as to others on the like occasion) that the End of my coming into
that Place, was not to hold it up; no more than the Apostles going
into the Jewish Synagogues and Temple was, to uphold those: But to
bring them off from all such things (as the Apostles brought the
Saints of old from off the Jewish Temple and Aaron’s Priesthood) that
they might come to witness their Bodies to be the Temples of God, and
Christ in them to be their Teacher.
                                                                                    From

London: Library of the Society of Friends, George Fox Journal (1694) page 75
© Image copyright of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain