was so forcibly incens'd that they could be broken by no Violence or Reproaches thinking then themselves to be truly happy when they were counted worthy to suffer Affliction for their Religion yea Death tho never so Ignominious and Cruel hence it comes that each Sect has its Martyrs This they also ambition'd as a holy sight running to embrace Death as the Crown of their Religion sign of faith Mark of Society witness of Communion Monument of their Name matter of perpetual fame and not only end of this Temporary life but also beginning of that which is Eternal Thus the Senate of Boston after many debates being unwilling to conclude of Leaders affair regarding the Actions not the words of the Criminal at length order'd him to be Indicted of Treason and pronounc'd him a Man whom they Judg'd and Declar'd to deserve to be sever'd from among the Number of the Living which sentence was accordingly executed upon the 14th day of March Then his head was lifted up on high on an unhappy Gibbet and he ended his life without any fear having spoken these words before some friends my God to thee I commend my just Soul After him the Court 's first enquiry was on Wenlock who seem'd to them to have drawn all severity on himself When no body doubted but Wenlock wou'd fall a victim to appease the Judges fury when he came to be tryed he disputed long and the Judges differ'd in their Thoughts and Intentions whereupon Wenlock did so much urge the Equity and Justice of discussing the affair according to the Rules of the English Laws arguing that those Laws were only made against Jesuits and not Quakers who might very justly expect Impunity altho they err'd in the sight of Men The Judges were at length so Inveigl'd and Entangled that they return'd to the old form of proceeding and committed the whole weight of the cause to the Judgment of twelve Sworn Jury-Men But they also having long delay'd Wenlock at length brought him in guilty of Death This was done on the 13th day of the 1st month of the Summer Season but the Execution of the sentence was some days delay'd John Currier an inhabitant of Boston having been whipt through three Towns before return'd by the same places to Boston to his Wife and Children whom he had left there being again whipt about the same round he was detain'd in Prison at Boston where he had resid'd In the opinion of himself and other Men he was to be branded with a burning Iron in the shoulder and there mark'd with the Letter R. to design him according to the English and Roman Laws that which we call a Rogue There were 28 more Prisoners there One of 'em condemn'd for all his life to remain in the Prison where he then was the rest were uncertain what shou'd become of 'em seeing themselves daily detain'd and delay'd As many things unexpected and unlook'd for in the life of Man falls oftner out than when we have hopes and expectations of the matter so while the Judges were so often remiss and the Quakers punishment so frequently delay'd and yet nothing was seen to retard it suddenly and beyond all Expectation it was appointed by the Magistrates Command that a new Law shou'd immediately take place to release Wenlock and the rest of the Prisoners from any punishment they were liable to by the old so that they might when they pleas'd be free'd from the Prison and for that purpose the doors were set open The signal being given they went out without Loitering Only Peter Pearson and Judith Brown were contrary to their hopes detain'd and whipt at a Cart. The cause of so unexpected a change was suppos'd to be the fear of the Magistrates foreseeing that the King and Nobles in Old England wou'd not well resent such Rigour and Cruelty and wou'd therefore take care to prevent it for the future Not long after King Charles being inform'd how the Quakers were treated in new-New-England by Rumors Messengers and their own complaints given in by Petition to the King and Parliament and that not only once but often sent immediately to the Governour of Boston and the rest of the fellow rulers of these Countreys and Colonies a Letter concerning the Imprison'd Quakers giving it to be carried by Sam. Sattoc a Quaker who had been an Inhabitant there but was thence banish'd as I mention'd already and now return'd there in a Ship commanded by one of his own perswasion The Letter was as follows C. R. to his dear and faithful Subjects since we 've Learn'd that many of our Subjects among you call'd Quakers to have been some Imprison'd others kill'd the rest as we 're told remaining fall in danger we thought good to signify our will and pleasure to you concerning that affair for the future Our will is therefore that if there be any Quakers among you whose Death Corporal punishment or Imprisonment you have order'd or may for the future have occasion to determine that you proceed no further in that affair but forthwith send 'em whether they be Condemn'd or bound into our Kingdom of England with an account of their particular Tryals and Faults that they may here be dealt withal according to our Laws and their Merits Herein this letter shall be your warrant Given from our Court at VVhitehall the 10th of Sept. 1661 the 13th year of our Reign By the Kings command William Morris This Epistle of the King so stay'd their Persecution that it was no Crime to be reckon'd a Quaker The Magistracy of Boston fearing the Kings displeasure for what they had done sent three into Old England Temple an Officer a Magistrate and Norton a Minister to acquaint the King with what they had done But Jurisdiction and Judgment was not therefore wholly stopt or taken away But being forbidden to inflict a final severity and punishment they compens'd it by the heavier Temporary torment making some by their Chastisement rather wish to die than endure so great and many Evils so often Tho I cou'd instance many examples of this I 'll only relate one or two partly to avoid Prolixity and partly because by one we may guess of the rest That year Ann Cotton a woman of sixty came with a design to live at Boston but was so far from being admitted that she was thrown into Goal Being at length wearied of her they took her to a Wood and after many wandrings she found occasion to go for England There she obtain'd a pattent from the K. allowing her to reside at Boston She renew'd her Journey and came boldly back to Boston But neither was she then admitted She went therefore to Cambridge where she was thrown into a dark Deu thrice lash'd then carry'd to a Remote and Desolate place where from wild Beasts she might be in daily danger of her life But returning by the same ways she went out she was also whipt as she had been before The following year being scarce expir'd Ann
the same time the Quakers put out a Pamphlet wherein they recounted what every Minister of the Publick Church throughout England had done against every one of their Society how they had handled them with the Name and Sirname of every one of them at what time George Monk General of all the Armies of Britain put an end to this Evil by a Proclamation that none should injure the Quakers provided they demeaned themselves dutifully towards the Common-wealth I have given an Account of the Afflictions and Persecutions of these Men in England and have produced various Instances of every kind concerning their Troubles and now these Quakers shew themselves in Scotland behaving themselves here as in all other places where they came being often-times very vexatious and troublesom in the Publick Meetings and Conversations of Men in the Markets in the Churches and that either before or after or while they were at their Solemn Prayers and Preaching neither did they only confound Speakers and Hearers and made them dissatisfied with their Meeting together or exercise of their Religion but as often as they were taken and did not beg Pardon for the fault committed they were handled in the same manner as they had been in England many of them being Imprisoned some whipped and others banished This was a thing very singular and strange in this Country and among this Nation there was a Law made at Glascow in the General Assembly that no Quaker should be cherished and relieved by any Member of the Reformed Church and that no Person should have any Commerce with them or make use of their Labour and Employ them under the Penalty of being Excommunicated and by this means these wretched People were forced to seek for other though uncertain Abodes or else to perish through extream want Notwithstanding which Law which the Quakers cryed was by no means made with a Christian Temper but was a barbarous Rite and the Effects of Cruelty when their Affairs seemed to have been brought to the utmost danger they did so struggle with these Difficulties that they even increased in Number day by day Neither must we pass over in silence that those two Men John Swinton and David Barclay did at this time go off to the Quakers who because both of them were very Famous and Renowned first among all the Scots and afterwards among the Quakers I cannot pass it over but must here insist a little upon it John Swinton was of a good Family and at first well deserving of the Common-wealth having his Name from the Place whereof he was Lord when King Charles the Second fled from England and was received and crowned by the Scots this Swinton was a Member of the General Assembly then as also of the Parliament and then it was that the said King Solemnly swore he would preserve the Church of Scotland as then established inviolable but when the King afterward changed his Faith and endeavoured to promote the Function and Rule of Bishops and that now both Nations were at deadly and Intestine Wars one with another and that the Members in Parliament took into Deliberation what they should do with the King Swinton said it was his Opinion that they should reject the King's Interest and be at Peace and Amity with the English by which Speech when Swinton found that he had much exasperated the Minds of all of them and being afraid of the Danger withdraws from the Parliament and with all Expedition flies to his Estate in the Country which was not far from the Frontiers of England and cunningly contrives it that he had fallen into the hands of the English Soldiers these carry him to London when the English had overcome the Scots the English Parliament appoint this Man that was so Faithful to their Church and Country together with others to Govern the Affairs of Scotland But while Swinton tarryed at London he contracted Acquaintance and Familiarity with the Quakers and afterward became of their Society When the King was restored and come over Swinton who was then at London though he was not ignorant how angry the King was with him yet he staid there trusting to a good Conscience that he had discharged his Duty to the Publick without any private Enmity against the King There the King Commands him to be seized and carryed into Scotland to the end that he might be put to Death when he was brought before the Parliament and being allowed the freedom to defend himself he did so Plead his own Case and by his Eloquence allay the Anger and Fury of all the Members that they did acquit him from his Capital Crime and only confined him Prisoner to the Castle of Edenburgh where he continued for some Years David Barclay was a Gentleman of Scotland and descended from the Ancient and Illustrious Family of the Barclays of which these Men have not only reported of themselves but it has also been asserted by others that they have not only proceeded from so Noble Great and Ancient a Stock but also that they were a-kin to the Royal Family this same Gentleman using his Nobleness not for a Veil to Sloath and Idleness but as fewel and an incitative to Industry and Vertue after he had from his Childhood given himself up to the Exercise of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and finding that in the doubtful Affairs of his Country he could not find room for his Studies he betook himself to the German Wars and was first a Captain in the Swedish Army and in some time came to be a Colonel but after that the English had enforced their Government in Scotland he returns to his own Country and he is together with Swinton and other Nobles appointed for the Governance of it and is sent for to London that he might be present at the making and establishing of the League between both Kingdoms but in process of time when King Charles was restored he is committed Prisoner to the Castle of Edenburgh to his old Friend Swinton and not long after gave himself over in Company with Swinton to the Sect of the Quakers this David Barclay was the Father of Robert Barclay who if not the only yet was the most memorable of the Latin Writers amongst all the Quakers In Ireland Howgil and Burroughs the fore-runners of this Sect were sent back from Cork into England by the Command of Henry Cromwel who then governed that Kingdom by the Title of Lord-Deputy and when after they were gone Ames took upon him to propagate Quakerism in that City he was also thrown into Prison from whence being afterwards set at Liberty and seeing he could not forbear but must speak openly in the Church against the Preacher he was again clap'd up in the same place from which place when he wrote a Letter to Colonel Henry Ingoldsby who was Governour of that same City and under whom he was a Soldier and endeavoured to make his Defence and procure his Liberty he was indeed brought before him
Life neither do they always avail to the happiness of living for not a few among these Men may be found that have too great a propension to vices of that nature The Masters and Observers of behaviour omitted not to reprove such faults very smartly and some of them who had also committed 'em forbore not to invey sharply against themselves Examples hereof I 'll designedly pass by tho some without Calumny and Reproach I cou'd insert lest they that are concerned may be somewhat displeas'd at the ripping of that which may rub upon themselves Yet one I shall mention which London resounded with lest fame report it otherwise than perhaps it was done There was a very sincere Quaker free from all suspicion of this kind who being scorch'd with the flames of Love that the Charms of his Mistress's face had kindled convers'd with her with too much weakness and frequency but upon Remorse and Knowledge of his Guilt being pierc'd with Shame and Sorrow for his sin he makes a publick Confession of his fault to the Church submitting himself to the Censure and Correction of his friends yea further for deviating from Honesty and Modesty so far that he might not fall into that snare again or for the future repeat the like wickedness with his own hand he Chastises himself by a present cutting off the delinquent Member Tho all this time they enjoy'd so much liberty yet they neither were nor are wholly free from all sort of Commotion and Disturbance Neither when the Oath of fidelity that great invitation to oppression was taken away were other pretences of Oaths wanting that might prove Incitements to bring on Persecution For from that day to this many instances may be seen of these Men whose inheritance for refusing an Oath has been forfeited some having their goods wholly taken from 'em others beside the loss of their goods being cast into Prison And since as yet as well as before the wilfulness of the one party in exacting and of the other in refusing the payment of Tythes is not at all impair'd or abated a time cou'd very seldom be pitch'd on wherein there was none of 'em to be found in Custody That the grudge of ancient and levity of new Enemies are the efficients of this and not the supreme Power and Authority every one will easily own who considers that Kings have many Eyes Ears and Hands but yet must be always long-suffering and patient but not able at all times to effect what they wou'd nor always willing to do what they can and shou'd The End of the Second Book THE General History OF THE QUAKERS BOOK III. The Contents The Quakers going to New England in America The coming of Quaker-Women to New England How they were receiv'd The Laws of the Cities against Quakers The various Persecution of 'em some were whipt some had their Ears cut off others were hang'd A writing of the Magistracy of Boston concerning those that were hang'd Edict of King Charles to his Governours in those Countries to forbear Persecution What happen'd in New Holland Virginia Barmuda's and other places Pensylvania a Countrey for Quakers In it was given liberty to men of all Religions The various and mix'd multitude of men in that Countrey From hence flows a confus'd and various Doctrine and Conversation among the Quakers themselves Hence came that sharp Debate of Keith and his Adherents against their Adversaries chiefly concerning Christ internally and externally and a great confusion and disturbance of affairs thereupon This Disputation awaken'd such Dissention Commotion and Distraction of minds not unlike to a mutiney and Civil War that it was scattered from Pensylvania into England especially London whereas yet it remains to this very day Some of the Quakers took Voyage for the East Indies Others went into Africa The Quakers travelling into Neighboâ—ring and Forreign Countries What was done by them in Holland and Friezeland A short History of the Labadists The Departure and Death of Anna Maria Schurman The Endeavours of some Quakers among men of that Sect. What the Quakers did at Emdin a Town in East Friezeland There at length liberty was offer'd 'em by the chief of the City The Endeavours of Ames and Penn in the Palatinate on the Rhine Fox's Letter to Elizabeth Prineess Palatine and the Princes 's Answer to him Penn's Sermon before that Princess The Quakers Affairs in Alsace and at Gedan Fox's wonderful Letter to the King of Poland The History of the Petists as they call them in Germany The great wanderings of some of them The Excursion of others into Pensylvania the Countrey so fertile of Quakers What Quakers went into France and with what success Who of 'em went iuto Italy What happen'd to Love and Perrot at Rome George Robinson's wonderful Fortune at Jerusalem The Suffering of Two Quaker-women in the Island Melita by reason of the Inquisition The Rarity of Mary Fishers Journey to and Return from the Emperour of the Turks I Have already shewn in the former Books the State of the Quakers from their beginning to this preseut time in Brittain their Mother-Countrey and Nurse I shall now give as short a Narrative as I can of their Affairs also in other Regions In treating hereof some Places in America subjected to the Sway of the English Government especially New England in the North towards the Sea seem first to present themselves to our View Hither many from Old England flying from the Imperious and Cruel Regency of Licentious Kings and Proud Bishops retired and fixed their Residence here Purchasing for themselves a peculiar Inheritance which the Quakers among the first â—ent to hoping therefore among their Friends whom not only one Neighbourhood but also cause of abandoning their Countrey did now conjoyn and unite in one Society they might promote and advance their present Interest and Peace with more liberty and safety than they had in Old England The first that went with that Design to these new uncultivated and Desart Places leaving the Pleasant and Fortunate Island of Brittain being destinâ—d and sent there to bud forth the blooming blossoms of a Religious Spring were John Burniat a man more Famous than Learned call'd out to the Ministry in the Year Fifty Three Robert Hosben Joseph Nicholson and several others of the Masculine Order Ann Austin a Woman stricken in Years Mother of some Children Mary Fisher a Maid whose Intellectual Faculties was greatly adorn'd by the Graviâ—y of her Deportment afterwards married to William Baily a Famous Preacher and others also of the Female Rank This fell out in the Year Fifty Five Of those Burniat survives in our present Memory as yet I suppose a Preacher in Ireland Many of those made their way for Virginia Maryland the Caribes Barmuda's Barbadoes and other adjacent Islands Of these having found little worth our Observation I shall discourse in the last place if Occasion offers But the Women Ann Austin and Mary Fisher travell'd into New England and were shortly
was about the time that the Persecution against these people began to rage in New-England Another Town in the like Condition belonging indeed to the English but under the Jurisdiction of the Hollandew was Gravesend And there a Noble Lady the. Countess of Mordee who was a Puritan was turn'd Quaker and resided chiefly at this place gave the remaining people of this Society the liberty of Meeting in her house but mannaged it with that prudence and observance of time and place as gave no offence to any stranger or person of another Religion than her own and so she and her people remained free from all Molestation and Disturbance And because we have made mention of this Lady and her Company in this place I 'll relate a memorable story There was the Son of certain English Clergyman arriv'd at years of Discretion and of very honest Conversation Who being often in the house of this Lady and Entertaining her many times with discourses upon Religious Subjects she invites him to come to their Meeting and hear their Preaching at least for once He answer'd her again and again for she was very earnest with him that he should be always very ready to obey her Ladyship in any other thing but in this humbly begg'd her Ladyships excuse This young Gentlewoman continuing obstinate and the Lady by how much more she persisted in the thing by so much the greater was the grief of her Disappointment at last he did that of his own accord which he neither would or could upon her Prayers and Intreaties He fancied to himself one night in his sleep that he heard and saw many things of the Quakers and when he was awaked and thought nothing had put a deceit upon his senses he heard as it were a voice and went and came to a Company of those sort of people of whom he had form'd in his mind so many representations when he was asleep He approving of his Oraculous Dream the day following goes to a Meeting of the Quakers where he was so taken with their Discourses that he was Transported beyond himself And his mind was continually running on going thither again But before he did he Communicates his Intention to several of his Friends who mightily dehorted him therefrom Considering therefore their reasons on the one hand and on the other the Continual Idea of his Night Vision never going out of his mind and that not devised or fancied but real discourse of theirs was always turmoiâ—ing him so that with the horrible Agonies of his mind not knowing which way to turn or what to do he fell into a greivous and dangerous fit of Sickness From which being recover'd he not onely Estranged himself wholly from that sort of People but also imputed what had happen'd to him among that people to the Effects of Incantation and said the Devil wrought amongst them Of the truth of this I have a very worthy Gentleman a witness who is now a faithful Minister of the Word of God in our Countrey to whom the young Man has often related this story Sometimes there has been of these sort of People who before a Magistrate have said they could not say or do any thing with them without their hats on These there was no better way to deal with than by severely reprimanding them and sending them away unheard and soundly rated at There were some women which in the high ways others tho but few who in the middle of the Sermon or Prayers of our people would break out either into an Extempore or Praemiditated Noise or Singing These Women were Commanded or Compelled to go away or carried away and taken into Custody till they were discharged And so if their crime was no greater they were no further punish'd Now to speak a little of the other Plantations of the English Virginia Bermudas c. I have said already in the beginning who they were that first Voyaged hither but who they were that first went to those places I can't so certainly tell It seems George Wilson came to Virginia in the year 56 and there died in Bâ—â—â—s Henry Fell went to Barmudas the same year and not long after return'd again In those parts also the Religion of the Quakers began to appear abroad sensibly and shew its face As for these Men till the year 60 I don't find any punishment inflicted on them only some Fines were laid upon them because they us'd to entertain one another in their houses or refus'd to take an Oath or be uncover'd before a Magistrate or to undertake any Military Services Altho these fines were often so great that even for one default onely the third part or more of their goods were taken away they not having much Money as the generality of them were of the meaner sort of people This I find that in Mariland a province joyning to Virginia this year Thomas Thurston was cast into Prison and the Officer desiring one John Holland to assist him in this business who refusing and saying it was unreasonable Thurston should be us'd so and that he could not assist him in the taking of a Man Prisoner who was his Friend and old Acquaintance to be any ways assistant to the said Office which the Laws of England will no ways excuse not even among those that are of the first Degree and Quality he himself was put in Prison too and afterwards severely whipt Then in the year 60 and that following as the Spirit and Courage of these people began to increase with their Numbers and these Friends to set up their Meetings and at last they went on Cheerfully in their ways then both for the reasons aforesaid And especially on the account of these Meetings they were prosecuted with Imprisonments Whippings Banishments Transportations into wild Woods and Desolate places till at length this excessive severity began to abate and this Sect of People to rest and be confirm'd and that especially by reason of the Kings Interposition and an order sent like that I spake of before to the Governour of new-New-England Those who are acquainted with that part of America which is under the English Jurisdiction know Pensilvania the Propriety and Government of which vacant by the Death of William Pen from whom the said Countrey takes its Denomination descended to his Son William Penn that famous Patron and Head of the Quakers And he being heir to this Countrey it became as it were the Inheritance and Portion of the Quakers especially since the year 82 at which time Penn going to his Government order'd all things to his own mind and appointed all his Officers and Agents their proper places Omitting therefore to speak of the political Order and Government of this Countrey and its legal Establishment and of the Benefits and Advantages these Quaker-people enjoy both throughout the whole Province and especially in the Town which from their mutual Love to one another they have call'd Philadelphia these people at that time were induc'd with such
taken in as members of it Which being a thing of no small moment and laying a firm foundation for hatred and envy disagreement and Contention among these People even to this very day it is much to be feared that unless they agree better among themselves it may come to pass one day that their domestick Quarrels invite their Barbarous Neighbours or other forreign foes to set upon them in an hostile manner and put a speedy period to their Government and longer continuance there And we may know also that whereas the War between the French and English is carried into these parts of the World also and altho these people can tell how to fight well enough with words yet they 'll have nothing to do with War or Armies either for offence or defence and consequently lye an easy Conquest for an Enemy who very quietly and without any danger at all to themselves might soon overcome them King William of England has sent 'em over a Governour one of the Church of England with Orders That if occasion be he should take care to defend them against any Armed Enemy better than otherwise they would themselves Now since we are at present upon this Country of the Quakers and have but now made mention of the great dissentions and distractions amongst them it would not be suitable to this Relation and the design of this Work if I should omit that great and very memorable Case that within these few years has happen'd among them in those Parts which because know'n to few I will relate and deduce down to this very time when as yet none knows what the end of it will be I have shewn in the former Book concerning George Keith that famous Teacher amongst the Quakers how the Quakers his Friends and Acquaintaince in England ascribed to him certain Errors or Forms of speaking which they did not approve of but which of their good will towards him they attributed to his singular Learning This man came over into these parts and residing a while in some Islands near Pensylvania in the year 89 remov'd thence to Philadelphia being invited by some who not only desired him for their Preacher but also to be Tutor to their Children When he came thither he undertook both Offices and to shew his Modesty takes the place of an Usher to teach Boys and discharges it very commendably And at the same time exercising his Preaching Faculty among an unlearned and Ignorant company of People as for the most part their Preachers were he excell'd 'em all appearing as a bright Luminary and out-shining all the rest of that Order among them And by his opportune diligence and industry in all the parts of his Ministerial Office he render'd himself belov'd of 'em all especially the more inferiour sort of People And it had been well indeed if so it had continued But a short time produc'd a great alteration in the state of Affairs For soon after there arose some that oppos'd Keith him and charg'd him with many not only Errors in Doctrine but also high and unpardonable Crimes For Keith did not forbear over and over again to inculcate and instruct all his Auditors in the Doctrines of the two-fold Nature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Divine and Human and of the Human the one part Heavenly Spiritual and Eternal the other Earthly and Corporeal conceiv'd in time of his Mother Mary Then his second Tenent was this which he often repeated to them all That Christ as Born of Mary was uninted with the Divine Nature and so was present with his Light and Life in all the Children of God It was difficult for him to keep the Conception of his mind to himself without divulging them especially because when a man rightly comprehends a thing himself it is nothing unless another be made acquainted with it too Wherefore Keith altho he a good while smother'd in silence the Opinions which he had long entertain'd Of the Transmigration of Souls after Death Of the last Judgment and State of the Deceased and end of the World as being unsafe and less acceptable to be disclosed yet he could not so contain himself but that now and then he gave an inckling in his Discourses of what his inward conceptions of these things were and sometimes he was not able to forbear betraying in his words what his true sense of those things was and what he principally aim'd at in them whence it came to pass that those that lov'd Keith and favour'd his Doctrine greedily entertain'd these Principles And yet for the most part those that were the greatest followers of his Doctrins and Admirers of his Skill and Parts whom Keith indeed for his own Credit 's sake either found or made thorough pac'd in his Principles embrac'd these Notions so heartily that they relyed more upon his Authority and Precepts than their own Judgment and thought it enough to say that he knew and said so and so and that with them was Demonstration And so his Exact and Nice and Subtle Judgment in these matters was a subterfuge to cover their Ignorance Against these Tenents of Keith and those of his Party there were others that set themselves and especially against that Article of the Divine and Human Nature of Christ which Article Keith openly acknowledged he held and professed and that it was no new thing by him devised but antiently and always taught by the whole Society Against which Article they objected that of one he made two Christs Of these Adversaries the Head and chief was an Elderly Minister one W. Stockade by Name a man indeed not unlearned but in the Opinion of himself and many more unlearned and ignorant People a man of vast Parts and Learning and the Champion and Defender of the Antient and Pure Religion of these People Keith stretched his Opinion and Belief of this Article so far and made it so necessary to be known and believed as that thereupon Christianity it self depended and that the denial of that Article was the same as to deny the Passion and Death of Christ yea Christ himself Moreover that they who persisted in the denying of this Article the sin of such denial was so great that it gave just cause to those that held it to fly to Extremity and separate themselves from those who obstinately deny it At last when this question had been Controverted a long while and no end like to be put to it Keith and those of his Party grew to that heighth and were so peremptory in this Controversy that they said God had called 'em to separate themselves from those sort of Infidels In the mean while as this good Company were so disgusted at the Opinions of the other acuter Men they entertain'd and published such kind of Notions about the same Articles as Keith and his followers no less delested and were averse from then they cry'd out the Denial of their Opinions was no less than a renouncing of the
and these Exiles of Emden now residing in other places without fear or care Transacted in their affairs with good success and therefore return'd their very hearty thanks to the Magistrate and professed themselves to have forgotten all former Injuries and that they should ever retain a grateful sense of the present favour Nevertheless that they should more willingly choose to remain in the present repose and haven wherein they were now settled than to return back from whence they came There are no Quakers at this day in East Friesland save four or five Families at Embden Ames one of those Quakers who came first into our Provinces thought fit to go from thence to Germany and pass through the Palatinate of the Rhine as being one who was not only sufficiently versed in his own Countrey Language and ours but also in the German Tongue And here he first makes his Application to his Electoral Highness who having had some Account of these sort of men and being very desirous both to see and discourse with some of them as 't is the Genius of those Great Men often to hear learn and attain to the Knowledge of many Things he sends for Ames to come to him and after he had seriously discoursed with him dismiss'd him kindly When Ames had left the Court and City he wanders over the Countrey and there makes several Essays to promote his Design but it came to nothing and therefore he returns to Holland But having afterwards taken Two of his Companions along with him to wit Bat and Higginson he goes again for the Palatinate and addrest himself to the Prince offering both to him and to his Courtiers the books of his Sect designing thereby to engage the Favour and Good Will of the Prince towards himself and his Labourers But the Prince was not so readily taken therewith and besides that the Princes Eyes and Ears were intent upon those Affairs that concern Religion The Ecclesiastical Orders were also in the way who informed the Prince of the Nature of these Mens Institutions and ways and advised him that he should rather silence them as Men bent to raise Storms and Tempests in his Country and keep them off and send them away parting before they did any mischief So they went their ways elsewhere but yet kept in this part of the Countrey and followed their design and after many windings and turnings found some Countrymen at Kircheim near Wormes whom after they had for some time heard them they brought over to their way and this was all they could after all their indefatigable Labour and Toil effect and bring about In pursuance to these mens Practices William Penn Barclay and Keith at that time they came with Fox into Holland steered their Course for these Parts but being ignorant in the German Tongue they took some of the Natives of the Country along with them to be their Interpreters but there was nothing done by them that is worthy of mentioning But those few Quakers who I have said lived in these places did afterwards increase to Seven or Eight Families who after they had by little and little united Men and Associated together they declined to go to the publick Churches and refused to pay for the subsistance of the Clergy and therefore as well the Rectors and Pastors of the Churches thereabouts as also the Priests of the Territories of Wormes looked with an evil Eye upon them and so going on from one thing to another began to accuse and sue them and when they could not be satisfied in their demands which the others would not comply with alledging the unlawfulness of paying such Tythes and Products from their Lands they did instead of the Money due upon the account take what they pleased from among their Sheep Swine and other Cattle whereas those Men did in the mean time by their diligence as it were singular Providence bear up still against their losses and poverty so as that they had yearly wherewithal both to subsist upon and for fear of trouble or greater constraint and violence to satisfy their Adversaries but after they had for some years lived in this manner they did that very year that preceded the German War wherein all that Fruitful and Delicious Countrey was wasted with Fire and Sword by those Men who shewed themselves so much more skillful and ready to Destroy then to Conqer especially these late years of their own accord and in a considerate manner so as if they had foreseen so great a War and been affraid of such an impending Calamity forsake their Native Countrey those Villages and Cottages which they could scarce bear up with props and stakes and entred into a voluntary and perpetual Banishment so passed over into Pensilvania being that part of English America that I have before described in which part of the world each of them having Land Distributed and Assigned unto them by the Proprietor of that part William Penn they live now in the greatest Freedom and plentifully enough I have a little before spoken of Penn and some other of his Companions Travelling from Holland into Germany to those People that were of their Sect at the same time Isabel Fell Fox's Daughter in Law and Wife to Keith together with a certain Dutch Woman went from Amsterdam to Herword in Westphalia there to speak with the Princess Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Frederick once King of Bohemia and Elector Palatine a Lady truly renowned and famous for her wit Learning and Piety and if so be the endowments of the mind are to be looked upon and esteemed of themselves without the goods of Fortune a Princess the most happy and famous of any of her Age with a design by their Conversation and Pamphlets to work somewhat upon her that might tend to the use and benefit of their Religion and Society Fox who thought that the Fame of his Name was no less known to this Princess than it was in England his Native Country delivers these Women a Letter for them to carry in his Name to the Princess that they might by that means have easier access unto her and their Discourses be of more weight with her in which Epistle Fox addrest himself unto her in a little more neat and civil manner than he was wont to do laying aside that fusty harshness and Rusticity he was accustom'd to whereby he made no distinction between Persons of high Birth and Quality and the meanest Gar-men and Porters but now he carresses and saluteth the Princess in the most engaging manner and highly extolls her Piety and Modesty as being Vertues worthy of a Princess and sets forth how much all mankind at this time receed from these offices and duties incumbent upon them and as the State of the Church stood at this present time there was more need then ever to keep fast to them and at last exhorts the Princes that as she had been engaged in the work she should go on more and more When these women
these things to Heart who shun them and who being mindful of Humane Frailty and of their Duty enjoyned them by God and being intent and building upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone bear with such things as are to be born with and study to promote Peace and Unity and hate every Name of Distinction imposed by Man in the Church of God and desire neither to make nor follow Parties are branded as if they were ignorant and slothful having no regard to their own Matters and Concerns so far forth as if to be indifferent and of neither Party were become now as it were a new Sect and that Law of Solon revived who commanded him to be punished who in the time of Sedition joined himself to neither Party Which sort of Men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of themselves puffed up as they are called in Scripture turbid and boyling hot neither is this a Foreign Appellation but such as is also applyed to them in the Sacred Code when they raise more Commotions about a thing of nothing than there are Storms in the Aegean or most boisterous Seas but hereof there is fully enough said to the wise but to you Great Sir too much And this I judge my self obliged further to say that perhaps there may be some who having a just Esteem and right Judgment of this Work would for the further Estimation thereof have me here and there quote and set down in the Margin of the Book the Authorities and Testimonies whereon I ground each Particular to which Persons seeing their Conceptions hereon are not without Reason I make this Answer That if I should not do it I do not thereby swerve from the usage of Historians in all Ages neither is there indeed any need that a Man should gain a belief of what he offers this way when he is not conscious to himself of any falsity and that there is nothing that can derogate from or lessen his Credit therein Neither was I willing in this Work which I was desirous should prove acceptable as much for the Brevity as Truth of it so without ceasing to interrupt and break off the Thread of my Story or to disorder and delay my Reader But yet I do not always omit such sort of Testimonies But otherwise I can be bold to affirm that there is nothing of any moment throughout the whole Work that hath not been done in the face of the Sun that is either in the presence of Men or in Solemn Judicatories even where there has been no exclusion of the Populacy and such as has not been frequent in the mouths of many laid open by the chief Magistrates and Printed for the Knowlege of such as were absent and to perpetuate the same to Posterity as for other things I take but little notice of them and if at any time I recount any such I do it in such a way as may gain certain Credit But no more of this to return therefore to you Right Noble and Great Sir As to the Reason that induced me to Present and Dedicate this my Treatise to Your Honour it was this That there might remain some sort of Testimony upon Record not so much of the knowledge I have had of you which is as far backwards as I can remember as of the Favour you have always shewed me and of those Benefits you have made it your Business to heap upon me both at home and abroad and which I have deemed both Just and Honourable for me to accept being freely offered and by no means to reject and withal of the Gratitude Propensity and Devotedness of my Mind towards you And though I have here a great Opportunity offered to me to Celebrate your Vertues yet I shall forbear lest I should incur the censure either of being unskilful in Praises or what is base the Name of Flatterer besides that your Name has long since gained such Esteem and is so Famous among all that it has no need of any Encomiums and Embellishments of mine the things themselves bespeak it For to say nothing of the Endowments of your Mind as being such though most rare especially in so propitious and agreeable a Fortune as are not conspicuous to all Men and are more private those Famous Monuments that you have partly published even in your blooming Years and which do yet in part lie hid within the more secret and inner recesses of your Study which all of the Republick of Learning that have seen or known them have so approved of as to judge them no ways inferiour to what hath been extant of yours but to deserve as much you to the Protection of the Almighty praying to him that while you Rule in his Name submit to and obey the Divine Majesty he would heap upon you more and more all manner of Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly things in Christ Jesus and beg leave to subscribe my self Your Honour 's Most Humble And most devoted Servant Gerard Croese Reverendo admodum Viro GERARDO CROESIO Cum Historiam quam vocat Quakerianam luci exponeret O Insularum gloria plurimas Experta turbas O variantibus Subjecta fatis tremendi Tot furiis agitata belli Britanna tellus dissidiis quoque Sanctam tuorum dilacerans fidem Vt volvit incertosque longè Oceanus glomerat furores Vicinas acri turbine fluctuum Versas frequenter fluxa subit vicâ—â— Exempla non vanis supersunt Indiciis Memoret vetustas Inscripta fastis Relligio gemet Divulsa Sectis En specimen recens En callidos Foxi sequaces Quos Tremulos patrio vocavit Sermone Index Derbraicae Domus Enthusiasticas insolito genus Quod spiritu raptum piorum Christiadum stupuere turmae Horum involutas narrat origines Qui jure primas Croesius hic tenet Latéque divisum disertis Prosequitur populum papyris Vel digna tanto saecla Saturnia O si redirent illa forent viro Vel dignior natas recenter Croesius incoluisse terras Adrianus Reeland The Contents of the First BOOK THE beginning and scope of the whole Work The Name of the Quakers as also of Enthusiasts What Antiquity these Men assume to themselves Their Opinion concerning the Doctrine of the Fathers and of the Reformation of the Church England their Country G Fox their first Author and Leader His condition when a Boy His Youthful Studies Fox a Shooemaker Fox his love to the Holy Scripture A Voice to him from Heaven His Endeavours He is raised up with the hopes of becoming a Minister His Expostulating continually with the Preachers of the Word He enters upon the Office of Preaching People flock to hear him He is put into Prison at Nottingham The Miracles of the growing Church of the Quakers Their meanness Fox thrust into the Correction House at Derby There the Name of Quakers was given to the Sect Fox is sollicited to enter into the Wars His Speech upon that occasion Fox his perseverance in Preaching His first Letter of the many he wrote
to his Party Elizabeth Hooton the first Woman that preached Who were Fox his first Disciples and Colleagues What sort of Men did more especially joyn themselves to the Quakers Fell Fox his Patron Whose Wife having afterwards married Fox did with her whole Family turn Quakers Others of Fox's Scholars The Quakers Sect dispersed through the Northern Parts Some others of Fox his Companions The rare History of ap John Burroughs goes to London His engaging with the London Champions his Speech unto them and the event thereof Fox brought before Cromwel Cromwel's Affection towards the Quakers The Circumspection of the Quakers among themselves Fox his new Companions The going of the Quakers into Ireland And into Scotland The causes of so many Progresses The Quakers hatred to the Episcopal Men and to the Presbyterians To others To the Ministers of the Word Their Judgment concerning all Protestants The Doctrine and particular Opinions Life and Conversation of the Quakers Why so many Men joyned with them How the People came to envy aud disturb them â—he ways whereby they were persecuted Singular Examples The strange Boldness and Impudence of some Quakers and hence Men became enraged against them Naylor's History These things pursued till Gromwel's Death New Instances of Persecutions The Quakers Affairs in Scotland In Ireland THE General HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS From their first beginning down to this present Time BOOK I. AMongst the many and great Conflicts of the Church while sojourning here on Earth there is none more usual and withal more difficult and hazardous than that she is engaged in for Vindicating the Truth of her Religion from the False Doctrines of her Insulting and Impudent Adversaries The Reason of all which cannot be unknown to any who considers that those who are lovers of and zealous for the Truth delivered by God neither ought nor can conceal and hide the same but make it known to the Praise and Glory of God whereas others who are fond of Falshoods that they may the better compass whatever seems good to their own Appetites or conducive to their Interest do not usually fail to propagate and defend their own Inventions and to accuse and condemn the more Pious and Honest Doctrines of others as being too opposite to them and their Designs It is likewise manifest that the Truth being of it self clear and evident is content with a simple discovery dealing candidly and openly with all whereas Lyes and Falshoods as having no solidity or weight in themselves must be adorn'd with a multitude of fair and boasting Expressions using a hundred little Tricks and Cheats for ensnaring the unskilful and unwary in which they are oft-times so successful that even the wiser sort of People and those who on other occasions are circumspect enough do sometimes chance to be entangled and do find it a matter of difficulty to extricate themselves from the same Moreover though it be Natural for Mankind still to complain of the Iniquity of their own Times insomuch that all Men are ready to fly out in Panegyricks upon the Ages past while they condemn that they live in yet I can scarce think that there are any who are not convinc'd that the days in which our Lot is fallen are such as in them all manner of Errors and Falshoods are broke in upon Religion all sorts of mad and unheard of Heresies the most terrible and foulest Blasphemies have over-run and as it were delug'd the Church Insomuch that she is now oblig'd not only to encounter Profane and Wicked Men for the defence of the Truth and Integrity of her Religion but to oppose her self to the Arms of her Bloody and Cruel Enemies for the maintenance of her Liberty and Freedom It is not sufficient for her to engage with Men but she is constrained to fight even with Beasts But there is no Affliction can overtake the Church of the Living God that does not admit of some Relief and Comfort Wherefore since this is now the condition of the Church in these evil days it is likewise her great Happiness that so many able and skilful Men have in these same very days bestirr'd themselves on her behalf for opposing and confuting the Erroneous Sentiments of wicked Men occasion'd partly by Ignorance and Folly partly by a resolute and furious Madness and thus assisting the distressed Church have successfully employ'd both their Tongues and Pens furnishing her not only with means of Knowledge and Spiritual Weapons for instructing and confirming her self against the Assaults of her Enemies but even for gaining convincing and vanquishing the same In prosecuting this their laudable Design some have contented themselves with the bare mentioning the horrible and monstrous Assertions vented by those cunning contrivers as accounting it a sufficient Confutation to have nam'd them which bewray their weakness at the first view But I cannot guess at the Reason why so very few have for so long a time made mention of the Quakers whose rise is dated from a little before the middle of this present Century and have since that time wonderfully increased in number of Proselytes beyond what is commonly thought of these Men I say accounted by some Superstitious and followers of Old Wives Fables by others the worst sort of Fanaticks and in the next degree to Lunaticks and Madmen have been quite past over in silence by most Writers so that not so much as the History of their Rise and Progress is yet on Publick Record at least wise if any there be that have touch'd upon this Sect they have done it in so slight and transitory a manner that they would rather seem to have made Publick their own Ignorance than to have left on Record the Actions Doctrine and Religion of these Men Unless perhaps this may be imagin'd for a Reason of the silence of Writers that they account of these Men so little as that they think it fitter to pass them in a negligent and disdainful silence than to spend words or time upon them Others there are indeed who have wrote something of them but to no purpose who being themselves altogether ignorant what manner of Men they be and having only heard of them by Report as being Prodigies and Monsters of Mankind chose rather to put in Print whatever they heard than to have just nothing to say of 'em reckoning the danger not to be great whether the Relation prov'd true or false for if true it is well if false it falls upon such a Tribe of Men think they of whom nothing can be said so ill that would not Quadrate to them My Judgment upon the matter is this that while I consider that England the Native Country of these Men Scotland and Ireland abounds so much with those called Quakers since their number in those Countries does daily increase nay and elsewhere they have propagated their Doctrines making and gaining Proselytes for that it is they bend all their force to having for this purpose for a long time publish'd
Vicissitudes and Events befalling them The Original Mother and Nurse of the Quakers is England a Country once Famous for banishing and extirpating Heresie now the Seat and Centre of all manner of Errors The Quakers themselves Date their first Rise from the Forty Ninth Year of this present Century and 't was say they in the Fifty Second they began to increase to a considerable number from which time unto this day they and their Party have daily acquired more strength For while that Kingdom before the middle of this Century was engaged in an Intestine War occasioned by the Differences of Church-Government in that confused and dismal Juncture when both Church and State were miserably shatter'd and rent and Religion and Discipline were quite overturn'd innumerable multitudes of Men did on all hands separate from the Church and afterwards when their greatest Eye-sore and the imaginary Source of all their Evils the Episcopal Government of the Church was abolished and the Presbyterian Form of Church-Government which was what they so impatiently wish'd for and grounded all their hopes of Comfort and Peace upon was establish'd in its place yet even there were some whom nothing would satisfie that divided themselves into an innumerable Company of Sects and Factions of which this of the Quakers was one The first Ringleader Author and Propagater of Quakerism was one George Fox Some of that Party have not stood to give that Man after his Death the Title of The first and glorious Instrument of this Work and this Society the great and blessed Apostle So that as the Disciples and Followers of any Sect derive their Names from their Masters so might we call these Men Foxonians were it not unbecoming Christians to denominate themselves or others professing the Name of Christ from the Names of Men. I have many Accounts of George Fox in Writing in my hands partly dictated from his own Mouth to his Amanuensis a little before his Death partly obtain'd from his Friends and Followers and partly from others that were strangers both to George Fox and all his Society Which because they differ among themselves I shall only pick out what seems to be most probable and generally attested for it is difficult in such a case to distinguish between what is true what false George Fox was Born in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty Four in a Village called Dreton in Leicestershire His Father Christopher Fox and his Mother Mary Lago were of no considerable Fortune but gain'd their Living by Weaving They lived devoutly and piously were of the Reformed Religion and great Zealots for the Presbyterian Party which then obtain'd in England And this their Zeal for Religion was accounted Hereditary to the Family especially on the Mother's side whose Ancestors had in the days of Queen Mary given Publick Testimony to their constant and unmoveable Zeal for the Truth and Purity of Religion not only in giving their Goods and Possessions to be confiscated and patiently undergoing the loss of the same but in yielding their Lives for a Sacrifice to the flames of devouring Fire preferring the undefiled and lasting Crown of Martyrdom to a sinful Life This George Fox while yet a Child discovered a singular Temper not coveting to Play with his Brethren or Equals nor giving himself to any of those things that take with Children but shunning their Company and disdaining their Childish Customs he loved to be much alone spoke but little or if at any time he chanc'd to speak both his Countenance and Speech bewray'd a sadness of Spirit his words were more Interrogatory shewing a great deal of Attention and Consideration and making many Observations unto all which was added Modesty in all his Actions and a diligent pursuit of the early Rudiments of Piety and Devotion so that even in his Infancy his Actions and Demeanor seemed to presignifie those Qualities of Mind which in progress of time he discover'd on the Publick Stage of the World Having spent his Infancy at home he was then sent to School to learn to Read Englâ—sh and to Write In which Study he succeeded as the other Country Boys and those of the meaner sort use to do having attained so much as that he could read Print pretty well but Writing he could read but little of neither could he write except very rudely And this was the only Piece of Learning the attain'd to all his Life long For neither then nor any time after when arriv'd at greater Maturity of Years did he ever apply himself to any Liberal Study So that he not only knew no other Language save his Mother-Tongue but even in that he was so little expert and so ill qualified either for speaking or writing all the whole course of his Life that what he understood perfectly well he could not explain or enlarge upon in any tolerable good English and far less could he deliver it in Writing in so much that he oft-times made use of Amanuenses and others who being well acquainted with his Thoughts and greater Masters of Language might put them into a better Dress And this I thought worth the Remarking because a great many Books are extant in George Fox's Name writ not only in terse English but also in Latin and interlarded with Sentences of many other Languages which are but little known to the Learned World the Names of the Interpreters or Methodizers being concealed Which whether it was an effect of great Simplicity in him or of his Ambition and Ostentation I shall not determine only it is plain that he had not the gift of Tongues George Fox having spent this part of his Life at School began then to look out for some way of Living and providing for the future part of his Life and accordingly concluded to betake himself to some Mechanick Trade that being necessary for the use and accommodation of Man could never be wanted and consquently never fail of answering the end he undertook it for such as making the Ornaments and cloathing of Humane Bodies Amongst which he chose to himself the Making of Shooes applying himself to that Art the remaining part of his Life in Nottingham the chief Town of the County of Nottingham bordering upon Leicestershire the place of his Nativity He being then a Young Man did behave himself Honestly and Modestly amongst Men walking devoutly towards God keeping close to that sense of Religion and Worship taught him by his Parents He dwelt much upon the Scriptures and when at leisure from the Exercise of his Trade as also when about it taking this advantage of his sedentary Work he Meditated upon ruminated in his Mind and recollected what he had read He had an Infallible Memory for retaining any thing he knew especially what he read in the Bible never slip'd out of his remembrance And having thus incessantly continued in the Study of the Scriptures from his Infancy to his latter end he became so exactly versed in them that there was no Remarkable Saying
him and joyned to the Quakers upon which being forsaken he followed after them and became of the same Profession with them And now both in Cumberland Northumberland and the Bishoprick of Durham a great many of all Ranks and Degrees embraced this New Religion So that having thus over-run all the North of England it began to spread it self towards Scotland But as the multitudes of their Followers increased the Envy and Malice of their Adversaries was spurred up the more against them For they were not only laugh'd at and derided every where but many Reproaches and Calumnies were also thrown upon them and many Wicked and Impious Principles and Practices imputed to them In some places Orders were given to the Constables and Officers to detain Fox or any other Quaker in firm Custody whenever they could meet with them or else to hinder them access into their Precincts Accordingly Naylor and Howgil of Appleby are taken and put in Prison As also Fox is apprehended and imprisoned at Carlisle in Cumberland whom they looked upon as an Heretical Blasphemous Arch-Impostor and Deceiver the Head and Ring-leader of this deceitful Crew And it was confidently reported that the Judges were consulting among themselves whether they should put this Man to Death for his incessant Frauds and Enormities But it happened quite otherwise for Fox was absolved and dismissed without any other Affront or note of Ignominy save that they severely check'd and reprov'd him William Caton and John Stubs were whipp'd at Maidston in Kent In Lancashire their Meetings were opposed with great violence At length because the Doctrine and Sect of the Quakers was not yet known in the other Parts of England especially in London the chief Seat and Compend of the whole Kingdom where they knew nothing of this New Religion save what they heard by the wandring Reports that were murmured about Those who were the principal Administrators and Managers of that Church thought fit to select some of their Number that excelled for dexterity of Speaking and Teaching who should go into these other Parts of the Kingdom and perform the Office of Converting and Convincing the People These were the Evangelists and Apostles of the New Church who were sent out in the Year Fifty Four Accordingly they directed their course first into Wales first North-Wales then South-Wales and the adjacent Countries and at length to London the Capital City though far distant from the places of their first Pilgrimage from whence as from the Head they might diffuse their Doctrines through all the Members and infect the whole Body of the Kingdom with their Religious Tincture Howgil and Burrough were at that time Men of great Authority and Esteem among them These were the two chief Ministers appointed to Preach their Doctrines in Wales and at London though Burrough went afterwards to London alone being invited so to do by a strong itch and desire he had to be there When they came together to Wales and had begun to sow the Seeds of their Doctrine they found some who received them readily Among those who embraced their Religion in that Country and even among the first were several Justices of Peace particularly one Peter Price a Famous Preacher among them from that time to this very day Moreover there happened a very wonderful Conversion of one John Vp-John a Member of an Independant Congregation who was sent by his Pastor Morgan Lloyd into the North to inform himself both by seeing and hearing what sort of a Man Fox was who was then in those Countries what for People the Quakers might be and what were the Doctrines they Taught and to bring him certain word of the same for he had heard many things of them which he doubted to be false He performs the Journey and returns possessed with their Principles and shortly thereafter undertakes the Office of a Preacher among them opposing himself vehemently to his Ancient Pastor and Doctor and to all the Congregation reproving and accusing them and their Religion exhorting all to follow him and perswaded many to separate from them Some few Years after he travelled through all Wales Preaching and teaching every where he came to in Towns in the Fields in the Publick Roads and Streets Market-places Inns c. exhorting Men to Repent sometimes he had Fox for a Companion and Witness of his Actions And though he was sometimes cast into Prison yet when released again he set about his old Trade as vigorously as ever Howgil stays in that Country for some considerable time but in the mean time that he is Preaching there and the other Evangelists busie at the same work at their respective Posts in the several places of the Kingdom Burrough goes for London where few of his Sect had gone before him that being the place he loved and longed mightily to see The time of his abode there though he went sometimes to other places and returned again yet he mostly confin'd himself to the City till at length in the Year Sixty Two when block'd up in Prison and having patiently and constantly grappled with many Tormenting Evils that surrounded him and with a Grievous and Mortal Disease he yielded up the Ghost While he was in London he bended all his Thoughts and Cares how to be most Serviceable to that Interest and so to discharge his Office that he might not disappoint the Hopes and Expectations which his Associates had conceived of his Success And because he could not always meet with fit and opportune Places and Occasions of Preaching he sometimes promiscuously improved every occasion whether seasonable or not to that effect thinking no time or place unseasonable or improper for promoting the Salvation of Mankind of which I subjoyn one Example All that are acquainted with the City of London cannot but know that vulgar and frequent Custom among the meaner Tradesmen Shooe-makers Taylors c. their Apprentices and Journeymen of getting together into some by-place where they struggle and wrestle with one another till either by pulling them down or tripping them up they throw them Burrough accidentally passes by the place where a whole Band of them were at this Exercise He draws near looks on and waits to see what the issue of the Spectacle would be At length a lusty Young Fellow and dextrous Wrestler appears in the Field who throws them all round first one then another and at length a third yet even then he unwearied challenges any fourth to encounter him The whole Company stands amazed at the boldness and dexterity of the Fellow none of them daring to enter the Field save Burrough who steps into the Ring and moves towards the Triumphant Victor who was insulting over all the rest He thinking Burrough meant also to try his Skill in Wrestling makes ready to receive him But Burrough looking austerely and gravely upon him in some few severe words checks his Fury and Fortitude so that both his Courage and Strength were overcome and vanquished Then turning himself to
fell out so contrary to his Will and Design at leastwise it is repugnant to the Natures Customs and Practices of these Men. His Parents had designed him for a Minister to the Church of England and kept him while a Boy at Schools and Colleges in which his Diligence and Progress was so great that he surmounted most of his Fellows His Mind led him mostly to the Study of Eloquence Rhetorick and Poetry which were the Sciences he put the greatest Value upon so that as the Roman Orators used to say he kept Commerce with all the Muses that is he read and perused all Orators and Poets Having ended this Academick Course he was made a Presbyter of the Church of England and became Pastor to a Church in the House of some Nobleman who was likewise a Man of Eminent Piety and Vertue He demean'd himself in this Function so well that the Report of his Fame invited those who knew how to Judge of his Ability and Skill for greater things to advance him higher to some more dignified Place accordingly he obtains a Living in Kent of five hundred Pounds a year While he lives there one of his own Acquaintance and Friends called Howard solicits and disturbs him frequently about his Religion and Profession and many Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church This made Fisher begin to doubt and fluctuate within himself what he should make of his Hearers There came to him much about the same time a Baptist a Man of no Learning at least what is properly accounted Learning but of a sternly Countenance and supercilious Looks of a ready but flattering and deceitful Tongue which knew how to brand all the World besides with an infinity of Vices but to conceal or disguise those of his own Society extolling and commending all their Actions gilding over their Errours and Delusions with counterfeit Glosses who seeing him waver and fluctuate in his Mind accosts him with many fair and specious Words and those frequently turning over the same Crambe till at length he could endure his Discourses no longer as we see it frequently fall out that when Men cannot enervate the Objections of their Adversaries or discover their Fallacy they yield to them and forsake the Truth and accordingly he cast off his Religion divests himself of his Office and returns to the Bishop Diploma which he had got for to confirm his undertaken Office and joyns to the Church of the Baptists becoming a Diphabus or true baptiz'd believing That the only true Means to be incorporated into the City of God and numbred among his peculiar People Being thus destitute of so good a Living he contented himself with a little he had of his own and Farm'd a little piece of Ground in the Neighbourhood by which he had enough to live upon exercising this innocent and pleasant Trade of Life till at length he became a Baptist Minister About which time Caton and Stubs came to that Country and went to visit Fisher who receiv'd them in his House very kindly treating them as his Friends and Intimates though he had scarce known them before But they did not press him much to comply with their Desires for this first time lest by their preposterous Haste they had seem'd to encroach upon his Liberty yet when they returned again a second time they inculcated and repeated more vehemently and frequently what they had spoke to him before Upon this he began to waver and consulted his Collegue Hammond upon the Matter who was much wrath with him expostulating the Matter very sharply before the whole Congregation At length Fisher forsakes both the Baptists Society and the Office he was cloath'd withal becoming in a short time not only a Professor but a Preacher and a zealous Propagator of Quakerism He wrote many Books in Defence of that Religion among which is a noted one entituled The Country-man to the Vniversity-Scholar in which he refutes the Arguments of his Adversaries with many pretty and cunning Expressions So much for this Man But because I have already spoke of the Writings of this Man it is to be remark'd that all these Men I have hitherto mention'd from the beginning of this Treatise did write many Books nay great Volumes if they were all gathered together which were published after their Deaths For it is a Custom among the Quakers that when any famous Writer dies they pick up all his Writings and print them together prefixing for a Preface the Testimony of some noted Men of their Society of the Integrity and Worth of the dead Authors that so those who are bereav'd of their Natural Life may still live in the Memories of their Followers These new Ministers and many others not mentioned divided themselves into several Provinces some of them going up and down England others travelling into Foreign Countries all diligently solliciting and inviting Men to be Converted while in the mean time Fox the Head and Prince of that Society was incessantly proceeding in the Exercise of his Ministry in England not daunted or discouraged by all the Evils he grapled with He had a Custom when he designed a Visit for any City Town or Village to premonish and advertise them by Letters and Emissaries of the Time of his coming and Place of abode that all who had a mind to hear him might have timous Advertisement to resort thither In the Years fifty six and fifty seven he traversed Somersetshire Wiltshire Dorsetshire Devonshire and the neighbouring Counties At Bristol in Somersetshire there was at one time a Meeting of above a Thousand of the Inhabitants and Neighbours of that Place in some Woody Place near-by A little thereafter above Two Thousand assembled in one Place in Wiltshire So much Footing had this Sect taken in these Countries and so many Followers and Adherents had Fox in all the Countries he had been in among whom were many not ordinary or mean Persons but noted and conspicuous Men some of them Men of Authority and Trust in the Nation who shook off that Dignity and the Honour that attended it and part of whom became Ministers to the Sect. And the more Resistance or Opposition was offered to them in their Meeting and Congregating the more resolute they were in pursuing their wonted Course So some were ordered to watch and observe them keeping Watches and Guards in the Streets and Roads near to the Houses and Places where they used to assemble and as many as were catch'd were imprison'd insomuch that the Number of the Prisoners and Captive Quakers was seldom under a Thousand By this time Fox had purpos'd to go for London and communicate the Light of his Doctrine to the great Crowds and Confluence of People in that great and populous City thinking that the most probable way of promoting his Design And in his Journey thither stay'd some time upon the Road losing no Opportunity of propagating his Religion taking Advantage in the Inns and Taverns to apply himself to the other Lodgers admonishing
and other things which same if any alike were not yet some in gathering of those Profits were so severe and hard-hearted that they reduced the poorer sort to beggery such as were able and not willing and whom they could not bring to Reason they subdued by Force of whom they said they were driven thereunto from the only desire of Lucre and Gain and so lived upon their Ministry worse than Porters Watermen and such sort of rough Fellows and that they were always craving and that they went as often as they could to other Assemblies of Men and to them especially from whom they hoped to receive most Advantage Another thing against which these Men were very Angry and highly complained was this That there was and is still such among those Men who some of them cannot endure some of their own People and Citizens differing from them in Matters of Religion though very docible and upon better Information ready to obey but throw them out and eject them others they vexed tormented and fined and those same Persons did this who for such severity had themselves called upon God and Men to bear Witness and when they were able shook off that Yoke from their Necks and esteemed and do still esteem this Liberty as a great Blessing of God of which two things the Quakers did so much the more complain because they were at this time most touched and afflicted therewith To this came to be added afterwards the Complaint and Lamentation of their Fellows and Companions in new-New-England That there were Brownists there who injured them various ways and put some of them to Death These being the same things which these Men did more particularly discommend and so much charge upon the Churches of England their Native Country But those things which they generally and universally blamed as well in these same as in other Protestants abroad were these That this indeed is the Doctrine Faith and Profession of all those who are called by this specious Name and love and take delight to be so called that upon the differences being taken away by the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the bright appearance of the Gospel that was between the beloved Nation of the Jews and the rest of Mankind whom by way of singularity and distinction they called Gentiles the Grace of God hath shined upon all Men and that this coming of Christ and those desireable and saving Tydings ought now to be preached throughout the whole World and that this one thing was proposed unto all Men who are made partakers of Christ and of the Gospel that as much as lies in them both by Words and good and pious Works they gain over and present unto Jesus Christ and to God and bring into a salvable state all those who are yet Christless And moreover that all would have and teach this that Circumcision being taken away from among the People of God by Christ Jesus which was of Old observed by the Jewish Nation and that the External Worship of that Nation being overthrown to which this same Circumcision was annext that now these are circumcised who have that which Circumcision did then prefigure and typifie and that which External Worship did represent and that which all the Law and the Prophets did presignifie and promise should be brought to pass and accomplished by Jesus Christ and that there must needs have been those then who were true and real Jews and such as were in Covenant with God and that there are even now true Jews that do heartily and sincerely Worship God and that these are truly Christians chosen by Christ and made one with those Ancient Jews that were so united to God and therefore accepted with him who serve God in the Spirit and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the Flesh and that this now is pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father to bridle the Tongue so as to speak ill of vilifie ruine no Man but charitably to Teach Edifie and Help ones Neighbour and besides this to visit the Fatherless and Widows and to help as much as may be the poor miserable and distressed and over and above to keep ones self undefiled from the World But here did these Men interpose and raise a clamour and noise saying That the Protestants did nothing less than any one of these things neither did they stick to say that all that Multitude was a dead Body or a living Carcase bearing only the name of Christians and this they said they would demonstrate thus pretending That all Protestants their Rulers each Member of their Churches were so little concerned about that Grace of God that was brought in by Jesus Christ and is daily offered by him in the Gospel that they had scarce one serious thought of their own and not at all of the Salvation of others and that they either declined to do any thing or did what they could most slightly towards the Instructing of their own People confuting of others convincing of Strangers and enlightning of Foreign and Remote Countries and Nations where a gross Ignorance of Mind and a debauched Life caused hideous Darkness and for delivering of them out of the Jaws of Death for the destroying of the Kingdom of Satan and promoting of the Kingdom of Christ in all the Parts of the Earth as if the name of a Christian which they avouch were enough and that that Happy Life were granted and tyed to them by a certain private and sure Law and that others were to look unto themselves Moreover that all of them did follow in those things which belong to the Knowledge and Observation of Divine things not the Holy Spirit who is the true and genuine Master and Guide whom indeed they knew not but their own and others Instructions or their own Vnderstanding and Sense drawn if it happen so well with them from the single and bare Reading of the Scriptures moreover that they did herein flatter themselves that they bare in their Mouths the Name of Christ held Communion with him and partaked of his Benefits but were therein miserably mistaken in that they knew not who this Christ is what it was to have Communion with him and what his Benefits were or that they by no means spake from their hearts those things they talked of neither were they actuated in those things that were done by them or which befel them from an inward Principle Motion and Instinct and moreover that they put their trust in Ceremonies External Rites Sacraments and bodily Exercise Publick and Private which profiteth nothing and that so they embraced a Shadow neglecting the Thing it self Lastly That all of them laying aside the Love they owed one to another and passing by that Pity and Concern which they ought to have for the adverse and troublesome Concerns of their Brethren and Friends they were so divided and distracted among themselves as well privately with wranglings Strifes and Contentions and that often-times
there among some of their own Friends of their Religion some whereof had been there for Two Years and longer because that they also refused to pay Tythes and to Swear the Jaylor put such thick and heavy Fetters of Iron upon these two Men that their Feet were wounded with them which when they desired might be taken off the Keeper of the Prison demanded Money of them for so doing they did not shew themselves very forward to do that whereupon he thrusts them into a filthy and noisom place where they had nothing either to sit or lie upon besides dirt and so they desire they might have a little Straw allowed them and here the same Mercenary Wretch promised he would give them some if they gave him Four Pounds in Money which when they despised and rejected the Keeper's Wife who was even more wretchedly Covetous than her Husband and far more greedy of Prey as often as she came to them would rail and revile them bitterly pulling and haling of them violently at her pleasure In some time they were both ordered to appear at the Assizes of Oxford where when they were accused of various things and that nothing could be found against them that was worthy of Punishment they were again asked as before to take the Oath of Allegiance which when they now also said they could not do it they are remanded back into the same Prison among the same Thieves and Cut-Throats that were kept there which before it was done Goodrey asked whether the Judges did Command them to be laid in Irons The Chief Judge made Answer That the Keeper of the Prison might do as he pleased because they were Persons out of the King's Protection There does the Keeper put them again amongst those Villains and profligate Wretches and gives those wicked Men leave if they wanted any Cloaths to take off theirs I mean these two Innocent mens Apparel at which one of the vilest amongst the whole Crew made Answer That he had rather go altogether naked than take any thing away from these Men And so it was that while the Law was silent at the Bar of Justice and no Fence against Injuries in Prison and Darkness these wretched Men suffered all Violence and Cruelty These few Instances from among many may serve but because the first Parliament under this King was yet sitting the Quakers supposing the Tribunals to be every where set against them so as that there was no hopes of Justice for them they prefer their Supplications to the King and Parliament as being Supream Magistrates and the Authors and Defenders of Liberty Right and Judgment highly complain of the great and many Injuries Violences and Troubles that they suffered from their own Country-men and Neighbours and implore their Help and Assistance and that they might affect them the more they produce a great Commentary or rather Catalogue in Writing containing how that during the time of the two Cromwels there were no less than Three Thousand One Hundred and Seventy Nine of their Society that had been Imprisoned in England Scotland and Ireland and other Countries beyond the Seas Subject to the King's Dominion and that of them Thirty Two were dead And in the close thereof they add That from the King 's Coming in to the present time there had been and were still kept in Prison Three Hundred and Seventeen of them They name every place of their Imprisonment and give the Names of most of the People and did also set forth the Afflictions that most of them had suffered before for what Causes and what those are also for which they were still Imprisoned they did moreover the next Year Present a Writing to the King and Parliament wherein they set forth that their Number was now so increased who since the King's Return had been thrown into Prison that they were no less than Five Hundred Fifty and Two many of whom had also even before their Imprisonment sustained many Afflictions in their own Congregations and did even now undergo many Miseries in the places where they were detained they did in that Writing confirm the Matter with Examples and Testimonies that the Magistrates themselves in some places came to them and carryed them away that in other places they left them to the management of Soldiers and elsewhere that the Commonalty and Rabble who had neither Fortune nor Good Name set upon them with Swords and Staves haled them away and after many blows threw them into Prison Moreover that many Ministers of Churches in several Countries seeing there were some of the Quakers who had not paid Tythes and refused to pay any that came and took out of their Houses and Fields for these Tythes much more than they ought to have done neither did they afterward restore the Over-plus yea that some of them were so choused of their Money that they had rendred them uncapable of paying any more and needed take no further care of exacting the same from them This Writing which was full of Truth was partly neglected and partly despised both by the King and whole Assembly For which there seems to be more than one cause for when the King who was not yet well confirmed in his Kingdom minded his own and other Publick Affairs he did indeed think that these mens Affairs were not yet seasonable and worthy of his Cognizance and Judgment and had entirely forgot all that he had promised to these Men which they thought they had fixt in his Memory with a Ship-nail But as to the Senate of the Kingdom they did indeed seem not yet to have laid aside their Hatred and Enmity against these Men at leastwise the greatest part of them They acknowledged indeed the freedom of Religion given to them but they thought that under that Pretence and Cloak all wicked and abominable Sects and Opinions would creep in and that this Sect of the Quakers was of that sort moreover although the former Endeavours of the Quakers and their Insolent Attempts and such as seemingly were Turbulent were now over and that no Crime could be laid to their charge that tended to the disturbance of the Publick Peace yet as the good as well as the bad of such as are once envied are always hated and that to those who are afraid even false things are true such an Opinion of them did continue and could not be removed that the Quakers were still Men of the same Spirit and Temper and that all their doings tended to Discords and Disturbances Lastly this Affair of the Quakers seemed to have been so often adjudged and decided by so many Judgments that it were unworthy to be brought upon the Stage again So that these calamitous Men were hereby deprived of the benefit of all Judgment of every Suit and Complaint there being no room left for the same And so those who were imprisoned were like to be so always and kept in greatest want and misery neither had any of them the least hopes of their
Freedom unless they would comply with the wills and terms of such as were in Authority over them and would agree to pay Money for to be suffered to depart Of which Number there was not one to be found that would do so though the King being not long after asked and urged by some That he should not suffer any such thing which did so much wrong to his Subjects when there did appear no such Fact no not so much as an Attempt or Endeavour in them to do that for which these Men were so much accused and whereby so much infamy was cast upon them but that he should by reason of his Royal Word given them use them kindly he did at length Answer That he would be Gracious and Merciful to the Quakers provided they did nothing that was against the King's Honour and Safety and did again give his Royal Word for it It 's indeed manifest that Richard Hubberthorn one of the chief Quakers was at this time admitted to talk with the King in the presence of some Noblemen in which Conference when the King with some of his Courtiers asked Hubberthorn several close Questions concerning the Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers and that he made Answer to every thing that was asked the King and those same Persons that had Interrogated him said ever and anon It is so indeed as thou sayest and turning themselves about or to one another they said He offers nothing but the Truth And when the King proceeded to speak among other things he used these words to Hubberthorn I do assure thee that none of you shall suffer any thing for your Opinions and Religion provided ye live Peaceably you have the Word and Promise of a King for it and I will take care by a Proclamation to prevent any further Prosecution of you But seeing there were some Men who put an ill Construction upon this Conference Hubberthorn himself did in a little while after publish it in Print and did therein explain the whole Matter to all But how the King did afterward perform these many Promises in many of his Actions the Event will soon shew Neither must we pass over in this place that upbraiding Letter that was written and sent to the King by a Quaker then lying in Prison George Fox was this Quaker not he that was the first beginner and Founder of the Society of the Quakers who was indeed no ways related or a-kin to that same though most like and near unto him in Nature and Manners but one that had lately been a Trooper under O. Cromwel or in the Common-wealth's Army wherefore that he might distinguish himself from the other and older George Fox he called himself who was not so old Fox the Younger His Letter was to this effect O King he who is King of Kings sees and observes all thy Actions in the midst of Darkness and seeing that they proceed from thence even thy most hidden Counsels can by no means escape the sight of God so that there remain no lurking places for thy specious and pretended words and therefore hath he freely observed all thy Wiles and Treacheries laid for those who did no hurt and hath also manifested them unto all Men and that at the very time when thou didst make those great and fictitious Promises and only didst play the Hypocrite wherefore thou hast angred God when at the time thou didst promise Liberty unto us thou didst then suffer that outrage to be done us and the Imprisonment of so many Men for the Testimony of a good Conscience Alas how has the Pride and Impiety as well of thy House as of thy Government sadded thee for as often as I revolve within my self upon the Vnjustice Cruelty and publick Persecutions of this Country and as often as I think upon their Wickednesses that are committed in Secret so often is my Spirit grieved and in anguish and my Heart distracted by reason of the fierce wrath of the great God against all Men. And I have had it often in my thoughts both before and after thy Restauration to the Kingdom when I have considered the fixt and established Idolatry of this Land that it had been better for thee that thou hadst never come hither because I find it has been to thy Ruin and I have often prayed to God that thou wouldst become of that Mind as to depart again out of the Kingdom that while thou hast Life left thee and space to Repent thou mayest Repent of thine Iniquities do not O King suffer any one to flatter thee God will not be mocked what any Man shall sow that shall he also reap consider with thy self how thy Brother the Duke of Gloucester was so suddenly and unexpectedly cut off who might have survived after thy Death and do not imagine that thou canst be preserved by Men when God sets upon thee and God's Will shall stand that his Kingdom may extend over all Ah! what shall I say as to what appertains to thy Salvation God is burning with Anger and will shorten the days of his Enemies for his Elect sake and Oh that thou mayest be saved in the day of the Lord for my Soul is even under Horror and Amazement at the sight of the inevitable Destruction that attends thee These things that I write are true and I would have thee to know that I write these things both godlily and lovingly as for my own part though I suffer many Miseries from without yet I have that inward Peace with God that exceeds all Earthly Crowns It was said that while the King was reading this Letter his Brother the Duke of York stood by him and that he after he had read it also advised the King to order the Quaker to be hanged but that the King had answered That it were better that they themselves should have a regard to their own good and amend their Lives and Manners that there is no Understanding so great but that many times is overtaken with Error and sometimes Folly About this time came forth a Book written in English marked in every Page with the form or note of a Child's Tablet such as Children use in England as also in our own Country out of which they learn to pronounce their Letters in Alphabetical Order This Book did in every Page shew that it was in use throughout the World in all and every Language whereof there were no less than Thirty Languages recounted and set forth and each of them distinguished into its proper Table that when any one spoke to a single Person to call him Thou and not You which the English used if they talked with a Man that they respected The Work was neatly and ingeniously done with much Cost by John Subbs and Benjamin Furley but Fox who besides the English Tongue understood none of these Thirty was so desirous to seem to be the Author of this Work and that whatever it contained of Industry and Praise-worthiness had its Original
kept and that in a gentle and kind manner but into one common Prison called Newgate the Receptacle of Thieves Rogues Highway-men and Cut-throats as if they had been their Companions and Associates in their Villainies and Impieties and the Scum and Off-scouring of the People where they were crouded up like Beasts ready to be stifled and languishing with the Infection of such a place Whence some of them being so streightned and terrified with the place and their pernicious and profligate Company that they might enjoy a freer Air and the sight of the Heavens stood Night and Day either guarded in the Yard or else got up to the top of the place where being not sufficiently clad were very much incommoded by the Cold and sharpness of the Air and so many of them them through the Inconveniencies Troubles Fatigues and Stench they were exposed to were much weakened and fell sick some were wasted throughout in such a manner as that they seemed to be meer Sceletons and lead a Life more intolerable than Death it self and others that could not endure the Misery died whose Corps when their Friends and Kindred desired they might have to bury though in vain were privily Interred by the Keepers Some of them being sick and discharged therefore out of Prison soon after their Distempers increasing more and more upon them died Of whom there were two whose Corps in the dead of the Night soon after their Decease and when their Friends had scarce lamented their Death comforted one another and gone to thier Rest were taken away by Guards and Servants having broke open the Doors for that end sent by some of the Magistrates and against their Friends consent gave them a Christian Burial and this induces me designing otherwise to use not many Examples to add this one notwithstanding especially because of the oddness of the thing and not unworthy to be known Some Quakers at Scarborough in the Isle of Wight met together in the House of John Bishop one of their own Communion and Society some of the Townsmen set upon them and take several of the Quakers and upon this Condition would grant them to depart freely that every one of them should pay Half a Crown for his Offence which Money when all of them refused to pay not for the Money which was not much but because that in so doing they might seem to incur such a Penalty and so acknowledge themselves to have been justly amerced they were all put into Custody and seeing the Man's Name was Bishop in whose House they met together there was from thence a Story raised in England and from thence dispersed into other Foreign Countries that the Quakers in that Island had pulled down the Bishop's House to whom belong'd the Administration of all Matters in Ecclesiastical Affairs there There was one Priscilla Moe by Name present in this Company aforesaid a Widow Woman of whom Money being demanded as of the rest and she at the same and in like manner looking not so much upon the Sum it self as that she should seem to make her self Criminal if she parted with it upon such an Account and so did stedfastly as all her Friends had done reject their Demand she was with them thrown into Prison though she was very weak and infirm where not long after she died Next day her Friends the Quakers prepare to carry away the Corps and to bury it in their own Burying-place they had purchased for that purpose but the Governour of the Town would not suffer it and so Commanding them to leave that to him he takes care to have her buryed in a Christian manner to the great regret and sore against the will of those Men for the Quakers did not reprehend this that they buryed their own Dead so but this they took very hainously and troubled them much that they were not entrusted with the Affairs of their Dead whose Lives and all their Concerns were within their Care and that they durst not discharge that last Office of Piety towards them according to their own Will and Mode and that their Enemies carryed their Friends Corps with so many Ceremonies and Circumstances of their own Prayers and other Acts of such like Devotion into hallowed and consecrated Ground which they then call a Christin Burial and the just Funeral Solemnities of a Christian which concernedness and anxiety of theirs is indeed very strange as if the Quakers themselves did believe that their Chast and Holy Bodies were defiled with these Rites and in these Places and they so abhorred the Superstition of others as to favour another Superstition for according to their own Confession the Dead have no sense or feeling neither is it any matter where they rot These Men moreover did more especially take ill and grievously complain of this that seeing their Adversaries did so shun their Friends that died before for their Religion Faith Manners and Actions and detested some of them and that now they were dead they persisted in the same Temper to the last gasp of their breath and died so yet that there were some of them who when they gave them Christian Burial as they called it did not only judge them worthy of the Name but also of the Honour and Memory of Christians yea and in the reciting of their Funeral Rites and Solemnities praised them as Members of their own and the Christian Church And this has suggested another matter of which I shall mention this from the very first rise of these Men has seemed to them to be altogether unfit and unbecoming honest and sincere Persons and especially Christians to make such splendid Preparations in the Celebration of their Funeral Obsequies that they seemed to be more like unto the Pomps of fine Shews and Triumphs than Funerals wherein together with Life all Worldly Glory passeth away and namely that they are often set off with so much Ornament and Company with such Ostentation and Semblance of Face and Habit implying Sorrow whenas they in the mean time rejoice in their Bosoms and sometimes when they return Rejoice and Revel and that others who take Pleasure to see such days as these follow the rest yea some Sots and Gluttons and such as have had no Invitation come and glut themselves and very often poor needy People who are in extream want of Money indulge themselves upon such occasions and spend the remainder of their Substance Whereas on the contrary these Men have used and do still use to demean themselves modestly in providing for the Funerals of their Friends to wit in conveying the Corps into such places as are convenient and adapted for that purpose not into consecrated Ground left they should be thought to partake of the Superstition of their Ashes in the least neither have they any Ornaments nor any Ensigns of Lamentation or Mourning nor do they wear any balck Claths besides what they are daily wont to do neither do they use any Junkettings but only both
and scandalous Action to inflict upon her such a Punishment which she never deserv'd fot that she was only standing at the Doors of the House where the Quakers her Friends and Neighbours were assembled and had not yet entred in when the Sergeants and Officers laying violent Hands upon her drew her into the House Upon which one of the Quakers turning himself to the Jurymen for they are upon Oath when they give Judgment and greater caution is to be us'd after the taking of an Oath accosts them thus That they would think upon God the supreme Judge Omnipresent and Omniscient and on Conscience the Judge within them And not imagine to themselves that the times or the necessity of doing so or so would be a solid excuse for 'em or to take Encouragement from any other respect whatsoever Which injected some terror and scruple into their minds some of them answering that things were now come to that length that they could not help what they did At this time they condemn'd twenty to the same punishment Another Court was held in January in which also Judge Hide presided for all this affair was totally devolv'd upon him as being the ablest and expertest of his function in England They condemn'd thirty two after the same manner as the former to be sever'd from their Friends possessions and all Commerce with their native Country by being banish'd into these remoter Plantations In February there ensued two more onely Counsellor Wachlon presiding in the first and Windham in the latter The former condem'd twenty four the latter ten Men and Women both to undergo the above-mention'd proscription There was some among them who alledg'd that at that time when the Conventicle was kept at which they were accus'd and said to have been present they were in places far distant from it but all Defences and Allegations were in vain So that in this one City the Principal of the whole Kingdom so many of this Society as were Charg'd to be seditious wicked and tumultuating were not allowed to breath in their native Air of which they were said to be unworthy and confin'd to these Solitary distant Colonies of the New World to be there hardly us'd and oblig'd to truckle with the native Barbarians to all manner of servile work this being accounted the most effectual way for allaying their fury and quelling the restless Commotions of their Spirits The Quakers relate that in some of these Courts there happen'd a Remarkable instance as at Hereford that while they read over the sentence given against the Quakers they did it with so much Consternation Hesitation and Slowness of Speech that of all the multitude standing by there was none could tell what was read They tell likewise of the first witness or informer against them at these Courts that from that time that he appear'd against them he never enjoy'd either peace of mind or health of body but losing all appetite to meat shortly afterwards pin'd away and Died. All these observables are accounted by the Quakers to be a signification of the Divine wrath against them It being usual for Men when in Adversity to make curious Observations and Reflections upon those things that in Prosperity might have past without being taken notice of which they then interpret favourably for themselves as tending to their comfort and support and signifying the wrath and anger of the Almighty against the Actions of their Adversaries I have not inserted the Names of these persecuted Quakers because it would have been tedious to mention all their Names and also invidious to name some of 'em whether they place their Glory or their shame in this their affliction This severe and intollerable Affliction had that effect upon them As all afflictions have even upon Children the most rude and unskilful of Eloquence that those who formerly were mute and uncapable to say any thing to the purpose in their Defence now became talkaâ—ive and ready in their discourses Insomuch that both the Afflicted themselves and also their Friends and Relations who were touch'd with pity and brotherly Compassion for their hard lot were heard frequently to express themselves after this Manner That it was just for Evil doers to be ill treated But they who offended no Man were injur'd by all that what all other People praise and applaud themselves in was imputed to them as a superlative Crime what they accounted vertuous and worthy of a Reward in themselves they had severely punish'd and persecuted in them viz. Constancy in Religion and Faith This seems say they to be such a Metamorphosis and Renversement of things as cannot but prove matter of Wonder and Astonishment to all good and wise Men that what of old was deem'd for a hainous Crime should now be Crown'd with the Testimony of vertue what of old was branded as Contrary to all Divine and Humane Laws should now be establish'd and enacted in a Law By this Law it is that such Numbers of Mâ—n are accus'd examin'd try'd and condemn'd by Witnesses Jurymen and Judges all fill'd with Passion and Revenge excepting only a few who while they plainly insinuate that such unaccountable procedure is contrary to their mind yet would not openly disclose their thoughts or oppose the rest of their angry and passionate Companions Moderate punishments are moderately endur'd but this of theirs was so intollerable and grievous that is surpassâ—d the tortures of Hangmen insomuch that Death it self even the cruellest would be welcome to them and accounted a favour That what God and Nature had most sweetly and strictly Conjoyn'd and Cemented together could be sever'd and torn asunder without the most ineffable pain of Torment That of this nature were the Enjoyments they were bereav'd of and despair'd ever to Recover That the dearest and most loving Friends were separated from one another cast out and banish'd their Country their Houses Families and the Society of their Friends Relations and Acquaintances Nay the Wives were Ravish'd from their Husbands the Parents from their Children the Infants were snatch'd from the Bosom and Embraces of their Parents and Sucklings pull'd from the Breasts of their Mothers That free Christian Men were reduced to Slavery and Bondage and thrust out among the Barbarous and cruel Indians who were estrang'd from all Religion towards God or Humanity towards Man So that the Common liberty purchas'd with so much labour and pains with the Blood and Lives of our Ancesters and deliver'd to us their posterity as a most precious and invaluable depositum not to be parted with but with the loss of our Lives is now violated and trampl'd under in these very Lands which boast of their happiness in enjoying more freedom and liberty than other Nations And thus it decays a pace lessening by degrees and changing its face every day so that there is just ground to suspect that what now is their lot may afterwards befall the whole Nation and that those who now rejoyce and exult secure of
their own Liberty may afterwards come to bemoan the loss of the same when it is too late But since I have already given you a taste of their Condemnation it will not be amiss to trace their sentence to its Execution and take a view of the events that ensu'd thereupon The first of all the Quakers adjudged to be banish'd their livings fortunes and Country and order'd forthwith to receive the Execution of this their sentence were the seven Condemn'd at Hereford from whence they were carried Prisoners to London to embark in a Ship lying in the Thames bound for Barbadoes But when they came to bargain with the Master of the Ship about their Transportation he believing the Men to be innocent thought it not safe for him to carry away his own Countrymen against their wills and therefore deny'd to do it This his rufusal was so heavily resented that he was forthwith cast into Prison But afterwards being releas'd and respecting more the misery and Affliction of the poor innocent Men than his own disadvantage or Detriment he again refus'd to do such an inhumane thing especially that reflected so much upon the fame and honour of his native Country But the owners of the Ship having engag'd to carry them off and thinking themselves oblig'd to fulfil their promise depos'd the Master from his Office Upon which some other Merchants when they saw these Men so insens'd against the Master that they had remov'd him from his place and thinking he had done as became a good and faithful Man in refusing to Transport his innocent Countrymen made him Master of another Ship better than what he had before However a new Master being put in his place the Quakers are deliver'd to him to be carried to Barbadoes But this New Master bethinking himself afterwards what manner of men they were began to repent of what he had done especially considering that he could gain nothing by their Transportation but a Reproach and Scandal east upon his Name and in fine sets them at liberty giving them a Testimonial under his hand that they had not privily fled away but were freely dismiss'd by him The Quakers presently sets straight homewards and when they arriv'd their Friends were so overjoy'd that they not only beat their Breasts with their hands but likewise toll'd the Bell which Alarm'd the Magistrates of the place who having met together and understanding what the matter was sent for one of the seven to appear before them who told them the whole series of the story upon which they sent for all the seven ordering them to be carried to London and deliver'd to another Master who was bound the same course who after having set to Sea began to consider with himself that the Men he had on board were Transported against their wills being Captives and Prisoners The same consideration began to move the Seamen who are a sort of Men more merciful and compassionate than others and more exorable and ready to assist and relieve the miserable and oppressed which does not flow from their natural Inclination or Education but from the frequent use of encountring many dangers and being accustom'd to hardships They began all to call to Remembrance what they had often heard in England that there is a Law against exporting any Man from his native Country without his consent imposing a considerable fine upon any who should Adventure to do the same as also that in Barbadoes there is a Law enacting that if any Man imported an Englishman into that Island against his consent he should be liable to what punishment the Governour pleas'd to inflict Wherefore they all refus'd to be Accessory to any such Crime which was Repugnant to the dictates of their Consciences and liable to the â—orce of both Laws in England and Barbadoes It happen'd likewise that the wind prov'd contrary and every thing cross as they were upon the Sea for a long time Which Alarm'd the Seamen mightily inclining them to believe that it was a certain sign of Divine wrath against them for exporting their Countrymen as the ignorant Vulgar are always ready to presage some fatal men from the appearance of any thing that is strange or unusual in so much that they assur'd the Master of the Ship that unless he would let these Men go they would not manage the Ship nor perform the Voyage And accordingly as soon as they came to the Isle of Wight they took Counsel together to set them at Liberty there And that their design in dismissing them and the manner of the same might the better appear they wrote a Letter signifying the Reasons that mov'd 'em to let 'em go and withal Testifying that they were men of unblamable Conversation in every thing as also that they did not flee away from them by stealth but were freely dismiss'd which Letter was subscribed by some and delivered to the Quakers who came straight away for London not going near their own Houses where they were brought before the Council as Fugitives to be punished by the Pains of Death for such is the penalty of that crime but they showing their Letters which testified the contrary were order'd to be kept Prisoners till another opportunity offer'd of sending them to America Next to these seven other three at Bristol were put on Board a Ship for the same end but the Seamen considering their case and doleful condition and being mov'd with that affection call'd mercy which is Grief of Heart for the misery of others and also scar'd by the Laws against any such Exportations set them at Liberty again giving them a Letter or Certificate to remove all suspicion of their being Fugitives These accidents were wonderful and accounted by the Quakers to be Miracles Altho all these and many others who had receiv'd the same Sentence of Transportation were put all together into one Ship that was strongly enough guarded and secur'd from the lash of the Law This Ship when set to Sea was taken by a Dutch Privateer in the time of War between Holland and England and the Captive Quakers were set a shoar in Holland which accident whatever construction the Quakers may put upon it is a memorable instance of the vicissitudes of Human Affairs Some of these Quakers return'd again to their own Habitations as being afraid of nothing and desiring resolutely to undergo all manner of Afflictions for the defence of their Religion Others fix'd their Residence in Holland making that place a Refuge and Receptacle of the Miserable and thinking it safer to hear of the miseries of their Countrymen than to see them with their Eyes and be the feeling Subjects of the same themselves Some of these men Now Pilgrims in a strange Land had but very little to maintain themselves withal but they acquiesc'd in their Poverty very patiently choosing rather to live a secure tho mean life in a strange Country than to try the uncertain Events of dubious Fortune in their own Some in the
Society of Quakers This Man being born in Holland of English Parentage went over into England where he finish'd his Philosophical and Theological course in the University of Cambridge that Nursery of Learning which boasts so much of her integrity that she never emitted any Disciples that prov'd corrupt or unsound in Religious matters He afterwards became Minister to a Church in that Country being ordain'd by Reynolds Bishop of Norwich but he had not long exercis'd this function when he made defection to Quakerism at the same very time that he was most busy in confirming and fortifying himself and his hearers against the influences of that sect There was a young Virgin among the Quakers fam'd for her dexterity and skill in Preaching whom many of the people us'd to follow Coughen having understood that she was to preach in a certain place goes thither himself in his Canonical Robes in order to preserve his hearers from being seduc'd by her discourses But so soon as he came to hear her he was so mov'd and affected that he not only not oppos'd her or her Doctrine but appear'd for its defence and spoke publickly for it at that same occasion and returning home abandon'd his Ecclesiastick habit joyning himself to be a member of their Society in which he afterwards became a Doctor and Preacher and was much caress'd and applauded by them But not long after this he return'd to Holland again and meeting at Harlem with Edward Richardson Minister to the English Church in that place and discoursing with him about Religion he was so influenc'd by his company that he forsook the Quakers and their Society betaking himself to Leyden when he pursued the study of Medicine Which where he had finish'd he returns to England and professes that Art of administring medicine to the sick sequestrating himself all along from that Society till at length some three years thereafter he attempts to introduce a new Model of Doctrine and Discipline which had been so often endeavour'd by so many and so great Men of obliging all Christians to concentrate in one common faith and interpose their interest and power for reconciling the differences of Religion amongst all who profess'd the Name of Christ All this while Fox was not Remembred or talk'd of except amongst those of his own Profession and Society for he had been detain'd Captive for three successive years together one half of that time in Lancashire and the other half in Yorkshire he was first Imprison'd for his frequent Conventicles and also for refusing his Oath of fidelity so oft as it was requir'd of him During the whole course of his Captivity the Judges order'd and decreed many injurious and rough sentences against him The chiefest of his fellow Prisoners was Margaret Fell whom he afterwards made consort of his marriage-bed both of them were mutually assistant to each other in all duties of Religion affording one another such help and comfort as people so intimately conjoyn'd both in Friendship and Religion generally expect from one another But after this he was shut up in a Dungeon full of filth and nastiness and standing stagnating water where he underwent much misery being forc'd sometimes to pass the night without having whereupon to sup upon which he was taken very ill and was now but slowly recovering his former strength I have already told what havock that merciless plague had made both in London and the Neighbouring Countries But upon the back of this evil there succeeded another in the ensuing year sixty six viz. That terrible fire which did not indeed reach the whole Country but burn'd and wasted almost all that noble and populous City of London so that to this day all England has not been able to forget it nor shall succeeding ages ever obliterate such a dismalâ— account of their Remembrance Having given you an account of the many hard and miserable conditions of these Men I shall now adorn this treatise with some pleasing variety to divert and refresh the mind of my Reader perhaps now wearied with reading It will not be amiss therefore to take a view of what the Quakers wrote for these four years by way of Prophecy and Prediction concerning the future State of the Kingdom and both these memorable afflictions of the City of London for such kind of Histories do much delight and charm the ears of Men I shall only select those that are most memorable and worth observation The predictions of Men do generally run upon some great and wonderful revolutions and changes tho they seldom come to light till the event be past These people were so certainly persuaded that some of their faction had so distinctly and clearly foretold the future scenes of affairs and both these Calamities of London that whoever misbeliev'd 'em was concluded by them to have shaken off all manner of faith and belief A certain Quaker call'd Serles a Weaver in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty two saw these words wrote in legible Characters upon the Circumference of a Kettle hanging over the fire Wo to England for poysoning of Charles the 2d Cardinal I understand Moloch Twenty Nations with him Englands misery cometh The Man being affraid at the sight calls the Neighbours to come and see it who coming were ravish'd with admiration to behold that wonder which they could not guess from whence it came The writing appear'd legible for a whole hour together and then evanish'd on its own accord Many of the people and those of considerable note who were not Quakers attested the verity of this wonder I my self have seen and read both the story and the same very words mark'd by John Coughen whom I formerly mention'd in his Note-book that same year which book was kept in the Closet of a certain great Man in this Country from that year till two years after King Charles's Death all which time it was kept secret from any other body so that no doubt is to be made of the Authentickness of that Annotation But what the Quakers would have meant by these words or that sight and how they Accommodated it to the manner of K. Charles's Death and to the changes of Religion and Miseries to come after many years and how the future event of things happening about the King Charles's Death that were told reported known and seen through all England did agree with these words is not needful to be determin'd in this place The Quakers affirm'd that one of their Captives at London did clearly foretell the pestilence that was to overtake that City saying that in a short time the streets which then were replenish'd with Men and resorted to by many should be seen cover'd with grass and wanting Men to tread uponâ— them But I shall not extend this presage any further lest I seem to recede from the design'd order and brevity of this treatise This they relate of the fire of London that there was a Quaker at Hereford who before the burning of
every Countrey of Europe desiring 'em to examine and return them an Answer The next year he wrote and publish'd his Apology a work greater and better known than that I need give account of it He sent two Copies of this book to every Princes Ambassadour at Niâ—iguen that met to treat of the Common peace that they might weigh and send it to their Prince for their Cognizance and Inquiry into the matter To each he added a double Letter of advice that as the burden of the Christian world was laid upon them so they might with all care and diligence endeavour according to their Incumbent duty to procure the rest and safety of Christians Nic. Arnold professor of the Theology in the College of Frizeland oppos'd a Theological Exercitation to these Theses wherein he bassles Barclay's opinion To this treatise Barclay answer'd by another piece shewing that Arnold did only repeat what has been often said by a changed expression A little after Tho. Brown a Scot Barclay's Country-Man one of the Preachers of the word of God who to the Number of 2000 were depriv'd of their Benefices for not submitting to the Regency of the Prelates wrote a thick and large Volume in English against the great treatise of Barclay in which Barclay taking him to mistake their meaning and therefore too much to expatiate and wander from the purpose answers him in the same Language putting neither more nor less in his book than what he thought necessary Afterward Joh. G. Bajerus Doctor and Professor of Theology at Jena a Lutheran publish'd the Doctrine concerning the beginning of the true and saving knowledge of God against Barclay's dissertation in his Theses and Apology who carping at some Expressions of Barclay as not proper but absurd and obscure from which no body could gather what Barclay did mean was answer'd by G. Keith Barclay being then taken up with other affairs a Man most skillful in Philosophy and Argument who against Bajer did plainly unfold the sence and meaning of his friend's words and in this reply so handled the whole Argument that afterward Bajer made never any return Lastly Joh. Chr. Holthusius a pastor addicted to the Ausburg Confession wrote a large treatise in the German Tongue worthy to be stil'd the Antibarclaian German since the Quakers has not hitherto answer'd it In this year 75 at Rome Mich. Molin a Spaniard a Priest and Doctor of Theology publish'd his book in the Italian Tongue to which he gave the Title of the Spiritual Captain In which book he reviv'd the Mystick Theology as they call it which for many years had lain Dormant in the Papacy who was Tutor and Pedagogue to a Number of Men for advancing that Doctrine of study and life The Sect was call'd Quietism and the followers Quietists from their singular Discipline which prescribes the laying aside External helps of coming to God meditation and reasoning by things outwardly Consider'd and Compar'd which are the first Elements that belong to these who begin to enter into Eternal Life and making only use of Divine Contemplation and the simplicity of faith Those who have made or desire to make great progress in the Celestial way must employ themselves intently with a ready will and ardent Love to receive and perceive God in themselves and suffer him to work in them by his Spirit while they wait for him with a quiet silence I shall add no more of this Man's Doctrine or its success as being known to the Learned Historians of our Age As ever since the Quakers name had its rise nothing among Christians in Religion Behaviour and Conversation scem'd to be hatch'd or invented with greater care or more resin'd and remov'd from the custom of the Vulgar but what was presently father'd on the Quakers Authority fellowship and patronage Thus in Italy and elsewhere many made the Quakers in England with their Creatures and Confederates the Sole cause and Original of this Sect and all the opinions thereupon following In like manner in England the Quakers were Reckon'd among the Religious crew which they call Mysticks and Branches of the Quietists drawing their common nature and temper from the same Root with one another This rumor and suspicion was the more increas'd that the Quakers especially Barclay in his Apology extraordinarily commended these ancient Mysticâ—s and not long after that Keith in his book call'd the way to the City of God which he publish'd in English did so teach confirm and advance that Theology that he seem'd to joyn with and strengthen the hands of the Quietists Because this opinion before was and as yet is so infix'd in the minds of many that the Quakers are of the flock of the Mysticks or that the Quietists and they don't much differ I shall pick out especially from Keith's book a short Summary of that Doctrine adding as little of my own as I can except where I 'm forc'd to put my own words for his without Impairing his meaning at all We ought says he to withdraw our selves from every vain thought earthly purely intellectual yea even Divine which are subjected to such words and propositions as fall under the force of Argumenting and Reasoning which draw their being from another original When God manifests himself in Man in the Seed of God which is in Man and hereby conveys himself into the mind of Man Man must betake and apply himself to God in the Seed of God 'twixt the influence and operation of God in him and only to give himself the leisure to wait for these feelings of the mind that proceed from God viz. The seeing hearing smelling touching tasting of the Spirit of the power the light and Life of God in Christ in that Seed And so it is agreeable to Man when he has thus converted himself unto God to persist and continue in that State with much patience tranquillity and silence before he fall to the use and exercise or daily business of his Lawful vocation When this happens In a little time the mind in some measure approaches to an holy and Divine life the beginnings of Spiritual Death Regeneration and Active operation It 's not then sit to do any thing without the certain Conscience and clear knowledge of faith but what the internal Guide and Spiritual Counseller and Instructor teacheth without that apparent assurance that the Spirit is arisen or raiseth himself in us and makes us inwardly to feel leave and liberty to do what the Spirit commands or suffers to be done And so it 's convenient at first to Act faith only by receiving and then exercising it as the Cion when first graffed into the stock first receives juice then grows and fructifies In these things that the rest of the Quakers both did and do agree it s scarce to be doubted Tho it sufficiently appears from what has been said that these Mysticks Molinists and Quakers do not so far differ in this Doctrine and Study as that one of 'em does either fear
unprejudiced 'T was then said of them as it 's now of the Browâ—ists that they conspir'd all with one mouth and mind by a mutual Consent Counsel Aid and Endeavour to ingross their Region and Religion to themselves The Magistrates often advis'd with the Ministers and the Ministers in their Meetings consulted with the Magistrates so that for the most part there was but one assembly of 'em both Hence what pleas'd the Magistrates the Clergy approv'd of and what the Ministers took upon 'em to determine the Magistrates by their Authority did confirm And what proceeded from both the two never miss'd of a grateful wellcome from the people But yet all the Magistrates and Rulers in chief of the Cities and Preachers of the word did not so willingly and equally consent to infest afflict and persecute the Quakers Nay some of 'em were not only against it in their Judgment but oppos'd it by their words as far as they cou'd Among the Rulers against persecuting the Quakers they place and praise John Winthoepius a very great and excellent Man and also those Men whose names are subjoyn'd among the better sort of Citizens was William Coddington at that time a Merchant in Boston very considerable for his wealth and prudence who the Quakers testify did so behave themselves both at home and wherever they went as those that must shortly give an account of all their Actions done in the Body Among the Preachers John Cotton Minister at Boston famous for knowledge Administring his Office and Piety in behaving himself towards God and Men They own he was always uncorrupted and untainted and averse to this sort of Rigour and Cruelty The people of New England as yet wanted one piece of severity to suppress the Quakers viz. To take 'em out of the way by Death whom they thought they cou'd not otherwise restrain This Law obtain'd in New as well as Old England that no Criminal shou'd be sentenc'd to Death till the matter be duely known and consider'd by twelve extraordinary Inquirers whom they call Jury Men because they are sworn to determine nothing till they 've diligently search'd and narrowly weigh'd the affair as has been elsewhere shewn on another occasion Since this Law withstood and obstructed the inflicting the punishment of Death upon Quakers they began to consult and greedily endeavour to Abrogate this Law by an Act of the Senate Whereupon 12 voted that it shou'd be retain'd and 13 that it shou'd be rescinded and thus the odd vote carry'd it The matter being known one of the Senators Wozely esteem'd a quiet just and equitable Man was then unhappily forc'd to be absent being hinder'd and detain'd by a bodily indisposition taking it ill that such an Act had pass'd so knowing that if he had been there the design had been frustrated he was reported to have said that had he but known that they were consulting and deliberating of that notwithstanding the bodily sickness he labour'd under he wou'd have crept there on his hands and his feet to oppose the Injustice of so unreasonable an Act. By this Council the matter is brought into the sole power and hand of the ordinary Judges or the supream Court of the province There was now therefore so much Zeal and Eagerness in most of the Rulers of Cities and Provinces in afflicting and puisuing the Quakers to the utmost that if any did not revile and reproach 'em or stopt and retarded the violence of others against 'em especially if any defended and excus'd 'em he was esteem'd a Quaker himself and at least depriv'd of his place and office if he had not great interest at hand There 's a Letter of one of 'em James Cudworth yet extant who was then one of the Magistrates of Boston but for this cause divested of that honour written at that time and sent from Boston to a certain friend of his in Old England which Letter since written in English I shall not here trouble the Reader with but content my self to resume some words of it which were express'd to this effect The State of Affairs are here sad The Antichristian SpiSpirit is wedded to persecution Who declines to persecute and afflict these Men that differ from us in matter of Religion is withdrawn from his place and not permitted to execute any Office in the Government Thus Hatherly and I have been treated Thus they us'd me for no other reason than taking in certain Quakers to my house which I did that I might inquire of 'em more narrowly concerning the foundations of their perswasion this I took always to be more reasonable than to condemn those with the blind World whose Doctrine and Principles we 're utterly ignorant of And tho I declar'd before that I herded not with Quakers and that I was as far from agreeing with 'em in many things as I was from persecuting 'em yet these two years they 've so estrang'd themselves from me that at length they 've unchair'd me from my office in the Magistracy what future event the Teeming womb of such furious Actions will produce time will declare when the birth is disclos'd farewell This kind of Judging being push'd out of Doors a Law was made that if any Quakers did irreclaimably and obstinately persist and cou'd not be otherwise repress'd or restrain'd they shou'd suffer the desert of their Contumacy and end their obstinate life with a halter Soon after Samuel Gorton was try'd for his life but in Judgment 't was carry'd he shou'd be clear'd and that only by one Vote Which decision one of the Ministers whose name I again designedly conceal a Man of a Copious torrent of Knowledge Subtilty and Eloquence digested so heinously that publickly in the Pulpit he broke out in those words by whom to whom and on what occasion they were utter'd is I suppose not unknown to the Learn'd Because thou has let go the accursed Man thy life shall therefore answer for his After this two Quakers were Arraign'd before the same Judges William Robbinson a Merchant in London and Marmadue Stevenson a Countreyman of Yorkshire in Old England Of their Imprisonment Trial and Punishment the Quakers give a large and true account as matters so clear and known in that Countrey that the noise of their fame is not yet quite extinguish'd They came both here knowingly and designedly for no other end than to preach the Gospel to which they had apply'd themselves in their own Countrey before After Robbinson for some time had continu'd at Rhodes and Stevenson at Barmuda's in the year fifty nine they came to Boston in New England Here they were no sooner arriv'd than without either Informer or Witness upon their own betraying of themselves they 're thrown into the Solitary Darkness of a Prison there they find Mary Dyer who was Banish'd from Boston as has already been said and yet return'd thither again as is sometimes their way and Nicholas David These all being brought before the Judges and accordingly charg'd
with Sedition and Rebellion Robbinson purges himself and his Companions in Misery from the least shaddow of that suspicion But they presently disregarding such defence stopt his mouth by thrusting an Handkerchief in his throat and seeing he yet endeavour'd to speak they that were present raging with fury and the officer likewise more hasty than prudent made ready his lash knowing well how to use it and chastis'd his back for his Tongues excuse and defence The cause being consider'd they were all order'd to depart thence to a present exile By a customary patience and suffering of evils they were now so inur'd and harden'd to troubles that they resolv'd rather than forsake their faith to make a Noble retreat into their Grave Mary Dyer and Nicho. David thought it then their duty to leave that Countrey but in a very short Interval of time Mary being recall'd by a new impulse had the Courage yet to return unto Boston and came to Prison to talk with her Brethren and Sisters and at the same time was seiz'd and shut up so that now she had power and liberty enough to surfeit herself with their Company and Conference for in all things constant and daily plenty nauseats the fancy and cloys the Appetite On the other hand Robbinson and Stevenson thought it necessary to forsake Boston but not the whole Countrey and therefore within a very few days they go to some places about Salem and there takes occasion to declare their Doctrine But they were no better dealt with than others When they for some time had been thus inclos'd within the verge of those little Walls the Judges began to consult among themselves what they must needs do with 'em at length And seeing 'em so obdur'd in their obstinacy that they despair'd of reducing 'em to dread of fear and that they did not regard what way they took if they cou'd but render themselves Masters of their desires they resolv'd to put an end to their life and proceedings Yet this was not so obscurely contriv'd but Robbinson and Stevenson easily forseeing what the Judges had designed to do the day before they had fix'd this purpose each of 'em wrote a Letter to the Senate of Boston whose Theme and Scope was almost the same containing the motives that induc'd 'em both to come and visit these Corners of the Earth Robbinson wrote that he did not come there to gratify at all his own Curiosity but only by the Judgment and Pleasure of God while he abode at Rhodes and about noon tide when he was resolving to go elsewhere an heavenly Command revers'd his Resolution injoyning him to take Journey for Boston and there to finish his Course and lay down his life and have no worse reward for his service than what God had there appointed for him That his Soul at last after many wandrings through the vain Theatre of this wearisom world might be receiv'd to a fix'd possession and there rest in an Eternal Mansion Stevenson also wrote that while he was in his Countrey in England in his own Farm Plowing a field upon a certain day he felt his Breast kindled with the flame of Divine Love and the word of the Lord came unto him thus I 've appointed thee tho thou be a Plowman to become a Preacher and Teacher of Nations At the same moment being mov'd Extraordinarily that tho he was married and Father of some Children to leave his dear wife his Mate and Companion of Life and Affairs and as it were his other self and this sweet and tender off-spring these intire Bonds of Love and Ties of Friendship being untouch'd with the sense of so many Domestick concerns to take Journey presently for the Island of Barmuda's not doubting to leave all to the Providential care and Disposal of God And that accordingly he went to that Island and from thence to Rhodes and at length came to Boston and that now for his Religion and Testimony for God he was ready to take farewell of this troublesom Life The day of Arraignment was the 20th of October Being all three brought into Prison attainted and convicted of a Capital crime without any previous Trial or defence they were found guilty of Death and Sentenc'd to be hang'd Robbinson mov'd the Judge of the Court that that Letter might be read I spoke of before asserting it to all be matter of Fact without inquiring into the occasion thereof this he desir'd e're sentence shou'd pass but the Judge thought the letter unworthy to be perus'd Whereupon Stevenson putting up his Epistle after the sentence was actually pronounc'd answer'd with the same courage of mind and expression In the day when you that wou'd be reckon'd Judges shall kill the true Servants of God know ye you shall answer to him who is the only true Judge and the day of your visitation shall come upon you and Eternal destuction shall fall on your heads Upon the 27th in the Afternoon the day appointed for their Execution two Companies of Souldiers were order'd to be there The condemn'd persons were plac'd in the front and all the Drummers were set round about 'em who beat incessantly to drown the sound of their words that what they said might not be heard by the people The fellow sufferers march'd all in a rank Mary in the middle having each other by the hand all of a cheerful Countenance and ready Tongue tho the beating of the Drums rendred their discourse useless to others Their friends follow'd with a sad silence When they came to the Gibbet having so long kiss'd and embrac'd each other with such affection that they cou'd scarce be pull'd asunder they wish'd all happiness to one another at last when the unavoidable necessity of departure oblig'd 'em to put an end to their caresses letting one another unwillingly go they took all their Eternal and Mutual farewell Robbinson first got up beginning and ending with words to this purpose We are not here Citizens to suffer as wicked or evil doers whose Consciences before did vex and torment 'em but as those who being stirr'd up by God â—ear witness to the truth But perhaps this may seem little at present as what concerns you not much to hear That we may not therefore contend what we have acted to have been Lawful our duty and necessary to be done we wou'd have you to know that this is your day wherein God has visited you leaving you yet occasion and opportunity to shun and escape the destruction of your Souls but if you go on to hedge up and obstruct that way to turn Gods wrath and procure your own salvation if your Rebellion and Arrogance be increas'd and harden'd this is the day wherein God is arisen to take vengeance of all his Enemies with an Omnipotent Arm and you shall groan with one voice under the weight of his wrath You 've at this time made it very apparent and manifest what you are by your hatred against us wherefore while the
and fearful of appearing Criminal not only now don't stand as Criminals but themselves sit and act as Judges in their own Cause and as such pass Sentances as their own private Animosities and prejudice and desire of revenge which they have been now along while Hatching and Consulting amongst themselves promp't them to And what such great Crime is there Committed that should occasion so great disputes and strife Isaias that great and excellent Prophet cries out that there are those who make a Man guilty for a word and lay a stumbling block for him that is ready to fall in the gate And lately into what Snares what Streights have I been brought and all for a word which besides that it was spoken hastily and not stood in if it were examined to the bottom and might receive a true proper and fair Interpretation or if taken in the best sense which alwaies ought to be follow'd would not onely have been pardoned but brought me Commendation too now for the like cause of Truth and Virtue are I and my Companians arraigned as Criminals For here we are charged with Sedition Dishonouring the Magistrates Treason Yea as if we were almost all guilty of every of these Crimes who are so far from them as we study nothing more than obedience to lawful Power and Authority But what Conviction is there of this What the least proof of it Or what that bears the least Resemblance of it For if to accuse alone be enough neither any of you or any Man living will be innocent and there will be no need to fear those punishments that these Men deserve But here lies the Conviction and proof of the Crime because we have spoken somewhat tartly against some of your order and have us'd sharp Language We hear it After a hostile manner No this your modesty will not give you leave to say tho all the rest you affirm with a geeat deal of Confidence But we have written and spoken a great many Scandalous things against them Whom Those who were and as yet are of our order Who tho they are Ecclesiasticks Doctors Ministers now at this time lay aside those Characters and take upon them to be Magistrates and Judges But what are these Scandalous things Are they such as both they and we do mutually exhort one another to and if that be not enough such as our places and duties oblige us publickly to admonish those that are Committed to our charge Is there any thing more than this That the Printers Name is not prefixt to the Book But what harm is there in that What necessity or Law Custom or Example is there for that I appeal to you O my Companions who have published so many famous books in England and the most Illustrious Penn the Lord and chief Governour of this Countrey of whom there are so many Monuments extant not bearing thy Name or the Names of those that Printed them Which since it is so let all Honest and Impartial people see and Judge who in this place principally are to be esteemed innocent and who guilty whereof the one do not in any wise refuse to stand before their Judges and to have their whole cause plainly determined The others fly from Justice and mock their Judges Now see and consider ye what ye have to determine that it may be that against Truth and Probability falsity and fraud which Tempests and Impure breaths are against the Sun and that it may come to pass if not at present yet that at last oppressed truth may have a Glorious resurrection and light up her head and slighted and injur'd vertue shine forth spendidly as the Suns raies break out so much the more Illustrious after the Gloomy Clouds are dispelled and at last that happy time may come in which the allwise incorrupt and Almighty Judge shall lay open and make manifest those things that are at present obscur'd in an abyss of Darkness and shall reveal the thoughts and counsels of the Heart and every one shall receive their reward from God After a long Quarrelsome and Confus'd disputing of the Case pro and con in which some of 'em so thought their Tongues to be their own as they said what they pleased the Judges having concluded and all people a-gape to hear the sentences They laid upon Keith and Bud the penalty of five pounds each Bradford's Tryal was put off till the next Sessions That which with these Men seems unjust they call the Judiciary Court of the whole province What these Judges seem to think of themselves as if from them there could be no appeal they don't allow of King Charles had reserved to himself in the assignment he had made of the Countrey to W. Penn in the Grand Charter or Grant he gave him the final Decision of such Cases wherein the Inhabitants of the Countrey themselves injured in the highest Tribunal of that Countrey and no other redress was to be had Therefore these Men appeal to the Cognizance of the King and Queen in England and to stand by their Decision And this was denied them by a bold and strong power than which nothing is more formidable or pernicious Wherefore these Men yeilding to their pleasure and the present time reserved their own right to themselves till another time There came in this time of great streights and trouble of mind and dejection these Men lay under two of these kind of people from England who advised Keith out of the ancient Friendship nearness and dearness which he had enter'd into with them and the whole Society that as much as in him lay and as Much as he could and should forego his own private Inconvenience for the sake of the publick and follow peace and avoid the scandal of such a Discension and so great a Distraction And that thereunto they would lend him their advice Which advice of thens Keith liked and approv'd of very well and altho he knew how uncertain a thing it was and full of Danger and that it was no part of a wise Man to follow that that he could not overtake yet that a dubious probability of good was better than an uncertain Evil. And so weighing all things well first he proposes to his Adversaries several Terms of Accommodation by Letters sent to them But they things succeeding now according to their wishes and their hearts being harden'd with inveterate hatred Interpreted this Change of his for an inconstancy unbecoming wise Men and were angry at him for requesting this at their hands Wherefore the Keithians seeing that neither so could this business be brought about and considering that it would be labour in vain and to no purpose but rather hurtful to make any further overtures of peace or if they should obtain any thing that it would not be peace but a Slavish kind of Agreement therefore they kept themselves to themselves and within the bounds of their own Confession which Keith and some others in his own Name and of those
Commotions again and again and also here and there began to raise Disturbances Nor must I pass over in silence that among the principal Asserters and Defenders of the Socinian cause there was one especially who as a Cock can Crow best upon his own Dunghil who not onely upon all occasions rail'd furiously against the Quakers and not onely thwarted their Councils and Designs in some parts of these provinces but also could not restrain the force of his anger before he had done Considerable dammages to some of them Now this I find by the Acts of the Synod of Woerd held the year aforementioned that our people then also were afraid of the Quakers and took care lest by any means any dammage should accrew to their Churches by them And moreover the Quakers to be Enumerated with the Socinians Hence a Decree was made in that Synod That care should be taken that the Interdict of the States should be put in Execution by which they had cautiously provided a few years before That none should bring the Socinian Errors or Books into these Countreys or keep any such sort of Meetings or Conventicles under the Penalty That if any one should do any such thing for the first time as a Blasphemer against the Divine Name and Disturber of the Peace he should be banish'd out of the Province and for the second Offence should be punished for so great a Crime at the Will and Pleasure of his Judges Then Two years afterwards the Legates of the Synod of Dort presented a supplicatory Treatise to the States in which they pray the order I before mentioned may be put in Execution The States refer that treatise to the Session of their senate The senate by reason of other grave and difficult businesses of the common Weal which they had in hand protract and delay the Cognizance of this affair Afterwards the Treatise was not to be found The Legates write it over again and tender it De novo And yet for all that could get no Answer So now three whole years were run on Wherefore in the year 69. In the Synod of Goud and that other of Schonhove since the Legates had been for so long time imployed in this affair to no purpose at all and every one easily saw what it was that caus'd this delay the further Prosecution of this affair was quite left off But Ames and his first Companions departing out of these Countreys the Quaker's affairs in Holland were principally promoted by the Council and Assistance of one Benjamin Furley an English Merchant first at Amsterdam then at Rotterdam who together with his Merchandize had addicted himself to the study of Learning and in the favour of these Men wrote several little Tracts in Divers Languages But yet refrain'd himself from exercising the office of a Teacher or Minister amongst them alledging this reason for it that he could safely enough be taught at all times but could scarce be a Teacher himself without danger Altho as time and age teach Men many things this same Man afterwards found fault with and went off from many things in the Doctrine and Manners of the Quakers From hence it appears what the Number of the Quakers might be in Holland and after what manner at this Day it is included in a few familys there are not so many as that the Number of familyes can equallize that of the Citys throughout the whole Province And so long as they used all manner of moderation in their way of Living and only took care about their own Religion without concerning themselves with that of others they enjoy'd as much Liberty as themselves could wish for While these things were doing in Holland in Zealand in the City of Middleburgh Christopher Bertrad an English Seaman the same Man who caused such a Disturbance in the Church at Bristol in England and carried himself so insolenty before the Magistrate as we took notice of in the First Book in an Assembly of the Church of England in Prayer-time he made such a noise with his Discourse and Clamours and angred them to such a degree that they thrust him out of the Church Whither he presently runing in again they sent for Officers who conducted him to Prison Where when he had remained for a year and a half there came to him moved at his long Confinement and affected with a like Sense of his Griefs Caton who assoon as 't was known who he was was put into the same place Then both of them at the request of the States Ambassadour to the Commonwealth of England at Newport were sent and put into a Man of War and carried over into England being jeered reproach'd and vex'd all the way by the Seamen and Soldiers Now Ames who was always the chief man in action as long as he remained in these Parts Considering that things did not go to his mind in Holland and that Caton had reap'd such fruits of his Labour in Zealand he undertakes a journey into Gelderland and from thence to Overyssell and goe's thro' almost all the Meetings of the Mennonites in both those Provinces trying if he could bring over any of these people who seem'd better affected to his party and indeed were pretty near the Quakers if not in all yet at least in many Opinions and Customes But here neither Ames could make any advantage or do any thing worth the speaking of After this he and Caton who was now come back out of England took a journey into Friesland to try the Mennonites there who in that Province more than in any other part of these Countryes not only in their Institutions but also in their Country Customes and the Nature of the people were harmless temperate precise and came nearer the Discipline of the ancient Anabaptists not that which of late dayes has prevailed amongst that sort of People But here these men onely shew themselves and go away again as wise as they went without any good or hurt done But after these men were gone there were not a few that embrac'd the very same Doctrine that these men came to declare and join'd themselves to them with the same ninds and desires These Mennonites and a pareel of Socinians that shrouded themselves under their Meetings and that sort of Men the Family of Love who are full of Love and Humanity cross to none open and free to all who hold this Notion of God and herein their Worship of God lyes That God is not Evil and that they themselves are not so nither nor would do any ill to any body Which sort of men increasing every day more and more and now coming abroad and meeting together both publickly and privately and holding their general Assemblys for publck Worship and constantly observing their meetings and by this meanes making way for the comission of many other penicious and ill things the Mennonites being a more Religious and strict sort of People began to look upon them with evill Eyes and be displeased
imaginable Readiness to comply with the Magistrates desire herein and to render an Account of their Faith and Actions before these men The Quakers made their appearance and stood with their Hats on to plead their own Cause and First the Magistrates began to reprove them not only for refusing to obey their Order but also that they had so far cast of all manner of Obedience to them to whom by the Laws of the City they were subject and the Confession of their Life and Faith they left to them to declare to those who with so much mildness attended their Answer as to these things Then both those Ministers began with a great deal of Modesty and Simplicity to ask them their Opinion of the several chief Heads of Divinity and the Christian Religion and where they Esteem'd them to lye under any Error to instruct them To whom the Quakers opposing their Answers both Parties entered into a Dispute amongst themselves and in the Disputation the Quakers at last grew so far out of patience that they inveighed against the Preachers and Ministers of the Word and term'd their Examination a Spanish-Inquisition and them Hireling Ministers and thereupon cry'd out That they would have nothing to do with them with which immoderation the Magistrate being moved against forbid them to Meet under the same Penalty And tells them withal that if yet they would so do that he would take Order that they should depart the City and his Jurisdiction This was done in full Senate But yet this Threatning was so far from deterring them that presently after in the very same place they held their Meetings again The number of the Quakers was found to be about 10 or at the most not above 12 Families Therefore the Magistrate supposing that so far he might possibly give License to their obstinacy but their Confidence increasing that it would be a troublesome thing always to Contest with People of this sort of Temper and that therefore it would not be Proper to defer the Punishing of them any longer but to Inflict it as far as his Power and the Condition of the City requir'd it so he calls the Quakers afore him again and they continuing still to be in their former tune and Refractory as before by his Edict and Command he orders them within 3 days to depart the City and his whole Jurisdiction and if they would not Obey they were to expect a severe Sentence to be passed upon them and this interdict they despise and again reiterate their Facts and meet together nevertheless This was told again to the Magistrate and the Penalty they had incurr'd was found and read So they together being ten in number both Men and Women as being Disobedient to the Laws of the City were sent aboard a Ship and carried out of the jurisdiction of the City with Charge that they should never in their whole life-time return into the Province again So the Magistrate unwillingly and contrary to his Nature and Custom dealt the more sharply with these Men only to set an example before other stubborn Persons and those that might be ready to do ill Deeds as not unless compell'd we cut of a Limb of the Body least it should infect the rest and bring the whole to Destruction But they being sent away scarce tarried one day before they came back again Then they were all committed to Prison which was a Cellar under the Burgo-master's House and had nothing else allow'd them for Food but only Bread and Water and were denied the priviledge of having their Friends come to see them or bringing any better Provision for their Accommodation But if any of them was not well he had the liberty granted him of going home to his House and there remaining till he was recovered A little while after they were again sent out of the Country all but Haasbaard And though they had undergone so many Hardships yet resolved to lose their very lives rather than give over their Enterprizes they return back again Being provok'd now after the usual manner and as it were made a joke and â—aughing-stock they were clapt into the same Prison again and afterwards transported in a Ship out of the City and all the Province except Haasbaard again upon whom as the Ringleader of the rest the Indignation and Anger of the Magistrates principally fell And the Quakers complained and wrote that some of the Magistrates especially the Consuls they give you both the Deeds and Names of them I only which is enough for my purpose shall take notice of the thing it self at this time were very vehement against their Friends and especially very high in their Words They added also that the Ministers of the Word were also more hard and rigid against them except one of whom they said and wrote that in a publick Sermon he had declaim'd against the Persecution of the Quakers They pass over his Name I shall speak both of the Name and Passage what was told me by Reverend Men who both at this day are Pastors and Elders of the Church of Embden and chief Men in the Ecclesiastical Assembly of that Tract to wit That there was none of the Ministers and Pastors of the Church who besides Refuting the Opinions of the Quakers in Words did any thing more And amongst those Ministers there was then one Herman Holthuse now of Pious Memory of whom I remember that he was a Man both of great strictness as to other things and also as to his Life and Conversation joyned with the highest lenity and goodness towards all other Men who deeply Commiserating the Case and Afflictions of the Quakers thought and said that they were too too severely prosecuted but this in his private Discourses never abroad and in the Pulpit Now an ill Omen follow'd there was an Order issued out to the Chamberlain to confiscate the Goods of the Captives and Exiles When neither Haasbaard nor his Mother being called upon would lay down the Fine his Goods were all Sealed up in the House and he again driven into Exile from whence nevertheless he quickly returns with the fresher and more eager heat because of his loss by Death of the dearer part of himself his Wife and his little Children left behind the Mother now out of her Goods fallen to her paying the Chamberlain the Sum of 200 Imperials The Goods of another a banished Maid were sold by publick Outcry Moreover about the end of the year there was an Order set out That no body should let his House to a Quaker or take any of them for Lodgers Now return back as I said before all the expelled Quakers But all of them are again thrust into the same place and also a Woman with Child but not so near her time as the Quakers thought As also that was too great a glory of Martyrdom which the Quakers told of a certain Quakers Child of 3 years old or scarce so much which upon a disturbance made in the
therefore easily stuck to their Precepts and became themselves like unto them but also among many others who yet while they were carried with a desire alone to attain to Godliness were called by the only Name of Pietists and ingenuously took upon them to follow the Party of Horbius and Spener insomuch that now upon the Rhine and where the river Lippe discharges her self into the same at Wesel and the places adjacent towards Cleve many even of our Churches did also so embrace this mystical Theology some according to the Weigelian some the Tentonick mode and did so vigorously promote it cherish such as received it with so much Ardency that they began to unite and gather together so as that our Divines had no small task upon them for to instruct and teach them better that they might not withdraw from our Churches And there is no occasion here to relate how much vexation and trouble their Ministers and other good Men had in Holland both from the old Weigelian family and from this new brood of Teutonicks seeing this is so well known there and in every bodies mouth but this is not to be past over so far as it has relation to the affairs of the Quakers among these new mystical Men there was one John Jacob Zimmerman Pastor of the Lutheran Church in the Dutehy of Wirtemburg a Man skilled in Mathematicks and saving what he had Contracted of these erroneous opinions had all other excellent endowments of mind to which may be added the temperance of his Life wherein he was inferior to none and who was of considerable fame in the world Who when he saw there was nothing but great danger like to hang over himself and his Friends he invites and stirs up through his own hope about sixteen or seaventeen Families of these sort of Men to prefer also an hope of better things tho it were dubious before the present danger and forsaking their Country which they through the most precipitous and utmost danger tho they suffered Death for the same could not help and relieve as they supposed and leaving their Inheritance which they could not carry along with them to depart and betake themselves into other parts of the world even to Pensilvania the Quakers Country and there divide all the good and the evil that befall them between themselves and learn the Languages of that People and Endeavour to inspire Faith and Piety into the same Inhabitants by their words and examples which they could not do to these Christians here These agree to it at least so far as to try and sound the way and if things did not go ill to fortify and fit themselves for the same Zimmerman having yet N. Koster for his Colleague who was also a famous Man and of such severe manners that few could equal him writes to a certain Quaker in Holland who was a Man of no mean Learning and very wealthy very bountiful and liberal towards all the poor pious and good That as he and his followers and friends designed They are the very words of the Letter which is now in my Custody To depart from these Babilonish Coasts to those American Plantations being led thereunto by the guidance of the Divine Spirit and that seeing that all of them wanted wordly substance that they would not leâ— them want Friends but assist them herein that they might have a good Ship well provided for them to carry them into those places wherein they might mind this one thing to wit to shew with unanimous consent their Faith and Love in the Spirit in converting of People but at the same time to sustain their bodies by their daily Labour So great was the desire inclination and affection of this Man towards them that he forthwith promised them all manner of assistance and performed it and fitted them with a Ship for their purpose and did out of that large Portion of Land he had in Pensilvania assign unto them a matter of two thousand and four hundred Acres for ever of such Land as it was but such as might be manured imposing yearly to be paid a very small matter of rent upon every Acre and gave freely of his own and what he got from his friends as much as paid their Charge and Passage amounting to an hundred and thirty pounds sterling a very great gift and so much the more strange that that same Quaker should be so liberal and yet would not have his name mentioned or known in the matter But when these Men came into Holland they Sailed from thence directly for Pensilvania Zimmerman seasonably dies but surely it was unseasonable for them but yet not so but that they all did chearfully pursue their Voyage and while I am writing hereof I receive an account that they arrived at the place they aimed at and that they all lived in the same house and had a publick Meeting three times every week and that they took much pains to teach the blind people to become like unto themselves and to conform to their examples This Commotion and Disturbance made among the Lutherans has been not only noted here for a Commemoration of the present time but for a perpetual memorial of that people and I shall return to the Quakers and briefly say something of their passing into other Countries and the most remote parts of Europe and so shall conclude this book and the whole work therewith and this we must not and ought the lest to pass over because they also wonderfully extol but in words and Writing the doing of these Travellers and Itinerants almost beyond belief not indeed untruly but yet with so flattering an Estimation of these mens Labours and Troubles which they suffered for their Religion and had returned unto them for those Benefits and Rewards to wit for the Propagating of their Religion and the increase of it in those Countries and unless I mistake I confess I may mistake I see that in process of time as these men are very fond of their own Glory of whom some notwithstanding their external Plainness and Modesty swell with the leaven of Spiritual Pride that they will esteem all the sayings of their Predecessors as Oracles and their Actions Miracles and so Enhance and Magnify them as such and Boast and Glory that the same have done very great things every where and memorable to all Posterity A little before those first Emisaries went into Holland and the Adjacent Countries Edward Burroughs and Sam. Fisher went to Dunkirk a Sea-port Town in French Flanders to shew there to the People the Ignorance and Superstition of the Papacy But when they found none upon whom they thought they might work any thing they shortly without any delay return for England again flying from the Storm which they saw hanging over their Heads and seeing that they could do no good for the promotion of their Religion they were aâ—raid to do the same an injury in other things by their own misfortunes sufferings and