MDMD Sailors & Quakers

[Terrance]

"Altho' Dixon is heading off to Sumatra with a member of the Church of
England,-- that is, the Ancestor of Troubles,-- a stranger with whom he
moreover but hours before was carousing exactly like Sailors, shameful
to say, yet, erring upon the side of Conviviality, will he decide to
follow Fox's Advice, and answer, "that of God" in Mason, finding it soon
enough with the Battle on all 'round them, when both face their equal
chances of imminent Death." M&D.38-9


Had they gone to Sumatra what would they have discovered? 

Maybe there is something in the Political/Religious  History of that
Land that is relative to current events. 

What happened to the Buddhists and Hindus when Islam came a conquering?
And what about the factions in the Islamic powers, how they were
weakened, how the Europeans battled for control,  and Companies  formed,
alliances made?  

And

Uncle Le Spark is an arms dealer. 

Boy, if that doesn't get the Blood racing, nothing can. 




George Fox belonged to the Church of England, his parents raised him in
the Church, but Fox began his career as a preacher  agitating against
the Anglican Church, which he believed, remained too close to Roman
Catholicism (and what did the mother of all churches think of the age of
reason, science and modernity?).  He would sometimes attend Anglican
sermons, after which he would stand up and give counter-sermons. He
would preach on the streets. 
He was  thought to be madman or a mystic. He preached against the bible
puritans. He was tossed into Prison. 

Dixon (Wicks and Pynchon) are all quite familiar with his teachings and
his texts. 

So, Dixon here is thinking of Fox's Journal, specifically, his address
to the Ministers.  



Dwell in the power of life and wisdom, and dread of the Lord of life,
and of heaven and earth, that you may be preserved in the wisdom of God
over all, and be a terror and a dread to all the adversaries of God,
answering that of God in them all, spreading the truth abroad, awakening
the witness, confounding the deceit, gathering up out of transgression
into the life, into the covenant of light and peace with God.

       --GEORGE FOX  

Launceston Jail, 1656, To Friends in the Ministry




The basis of George Fox's teaching was the belief that each soul is in
religious matters answerable not to its fellows, but to God alone,
without priestly mediation, because the Holy Spirit is immediately
present in every soul and is thus a direct cause of illumination. From
this central belief flowed two important practical consequences, both
essentially modern; one was complete toleration, the other was complete
equality of human beings before the law.


Fox  felt that the Spirit which had guided the fathers was waiting still
to lead forward their children: that He who spoke through men of old was
not withdrawn from the world but ready in all ages to enter into holy
souls and make them friends of God and prophets.