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A35020 The general history of the Quakers containing the lives, tenents, sufferings, tryals, speeches and letters of the most eminent Quakers, both men and women : from the first rise of that sect down to this present time / being written originally in Latin by Gerard Croese ; to which is added a letter writ by George Keith ... Croese, Gerardus, 1642-1710.; Keith, George, 1639?-1716. 1696 (1696) Wing C6965; ESTC R31312 344,579 528

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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
perhaps destruction The same year did William Cotton go to Calai● a City on the Sea-coast of France six miles distant from Dunkirk with the same design as the other two had before-mentioned but not so skilful in the Language of the Country where entring into the great Church and viewing all things frowningly but holding his Peace he said at last that he was a sort of a new Guest and when after some time he was known to be an English-man he was led to the House of a certain Noble Scotch-man and being asked what he was he did not deny but that he was so and so There when the foresaid Scotch-man made himself to be his Interpreter to the People Cotten speaks a few words concerning the Idolatry and Corrupt Manners of the People which when he had done and that they contrived to do him an Injury he no sooner came to hear of it but bethinking himself he ought to take heed and to reserve his life for another necessity of dying as his Friends before had done he suddenly and without any manner of delay that he might disappoint the Consultations and Contrivances of his Enemies flies and makes the best of his way back again into England George Ball was the only person that penetrared into France and so that he never returned thence again and so it 's uncertain and unknown what he did or what became of him The Quakers think he perished somewhere in Prison None other after thesemen went on this design into France St. Crisp tryed this Experiment in that horrid and more than barbarous Persecution of the whole Reformed Churches in that Kingdom and in the dispersion of so many Thousands of men through other Reformed Countries of which we have not yet seen an end that he wrote a book and took care to send and deliver it to those men to try whether he could a●●ect some of them so as to entertain a good Opinion of the Quakers Religion and joyn themselves to their Sect. It 's not to be doubted but that Book had its first beginning from Crisp but because it was written in French as it was to the French and that Crisp was ignorant of that Language or not well skilled therein it●s certain it was Translated and believed to have been much increased and published b● another hand And it 's no crime to think seeing the Style is so like unto that way of w●i●ing used by Pe●n who is still the choicest Writer amongst the Quakers that he was that same Artificer It contains in it nothing concerning Religion It only puts those French in mind to consider with themselves wherefore God suffered such Calamities to befal them whether they were not the Consequent of their Soft and Depraved Education and Love to Earthly things and blind Obedience towards those to whose care they commited the Direction of their Consciences then that they should weigh what Good what Progress in Sanctity of Life those Calamities wrought in them which they endured with so much Lamentation Lastly That not contenting themselves with that Reformation which hitherto was instituted amongst them they should go on and do their endeavour to Finish and Consummate this begun Work But the Book was writ both in Respect to the Sentences Phrases and words very different from the English Mode and not only from that of the Quakers and to Conform to the Method and way of Writing in the French Tongue at this day when that Language is Arrived to its highest Maturity that there could be nothing in my Judgment writ more neatly and more congruous to the Genius and Temper of those People This Book the Quakers distributed gratis every where through the Countries where those French Refugees had Fled and in some places as the People were coming out of their Churches But there was not one found that we have heard of or came to understand that was induced by this Book to fall in with the Quakers Hester Bidley relates this Passage to have happened to her self a little before this time which every one is at liberty to believe as he pleases She went to the late Q. of England of happy memory and complains to her That it was very great grief of Heart to her as she was a Woman and a Christian that so great and tedious a War was waged between Christians and such great Calamities and Slaughters of Men which happened every day pierced her Heart and therefore she Exhorted the Queen to endeavour at least to bend her study this way for to end this War that Peace may be made and so gain great respect and affection from all The Queen who was of a most free and good Temper having given her her Answer she further desires That the Queen would grant her leave to go over into France saying she would advise and speak to the French King about the same affair and would have a Letter from the Queen to the same effect This the Queen refused and diswades her from the said enterprise urging that such a Journey and Business would be very difficult and dangerous yet for all this the woman through her importunity and earnest sollicitation got a pass from the said Queen's Secretary and seeing that a short space of time is tedious to a longing person she forthwith sets out and after various traverses comes into France and goes to Versailles and there coming to know that the late King of England was there she at first applies her self unto him as to one to whom he had been some years before known upon the like occasion and delivers unto him the Letter written by her to the French King the substance whereof was this That she being stirred by God the Supreme King of all that Illuminates this World pray'd the King to make his Peace with God and with the Nations he was at War with and put a stop to such an over-flowing and Rivulet of Blood that was shed King James having seen the Epistle sends the Woman to the Duke of Orleance to whom when she had come she delivered the Letter and said withal that she must speak with the King the Duke agrees to deliver the Letter but said she must not speak with the King whereupon the Woman full of Grief and Lamentation and with shedding many Tears did at last break forth into these words Am I permitted to speak with the King of Kings an● may not I speak with Man Should I tell this to our People in England they would believe what they are all of them already perswaded of that the King of France is so high and proud that none can speak with him Which passage when the King came to understand he in about three days after grants her liberty to come to his Presence the Room was full of Princes and Princesses Prelates and great Men the King Enters the same and having seen the Woman speaks to her with his Hat under his Arm whereupon she asked whether he was the King the King
unprejudiced 'T was then said of them as it 's now of the Brow●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
answers yes Then said she What is the meaning that the King is bare it 's not the fashion of the Kings of England Upon this the King puts on his Hat so the Woman run over briefly what she had before written in the Letter in the King's Presence to whom the King with a Kingly Gravity and Brevity replyed But Woman I desire Peace and seek Peace and would have Peace and tell the Prince of Orange so So in envy and spight do they in France call William King of great Brittain to this very time wherein now for fear they begin to acknowledg and own his Regal Majesty in their pompous words and names this K. I say a K. so constituted according to all Divine and Human Laws that if any one would decipher a Lawful and Just K. he can do it no better than by defining of it under the name of this when as at the same time that name of Prince of Orange has been throughout this Age and before throughout the World as Glorions and Venerable as that of King and as much feared by Enemies At these words the K. went his ways and so did the Woman likewise and having got Passes from the King goes to Holland and from thence returns for England having with all her endeavours effected nothing and so far is the Woman's Account of her self whom the Quakers think ought not to be mistrusted herein because related by her self of whose Sinceriry and Honesty they make no manner of of doubt but others think it a thing more to be heeded because the Woman did shew the Letters delivered to her before the one signed by the Queen's Secretary and the other by the King's Command and with his own Hand Strange are the things which these Men relate and some Write concerning the Travels of Samuel Fisher John Stubbs John Perrot and John Love Ministers of their Church into Italy and from thence to Ionia the Lesser Asia and Smyrna as also of others and of some Womens Journeys into those remote parts as I know not through what difficult places and what great pains they took for the propagation of their Religion and how many Expeditions they went upon as if they would view and enlighten throughly all those Countries and Nations I shall only persue these Men's Relations as they refer to that same expedition of mine formerly from Italy into Ionia and what is worth Remembrance shall be taken notice of briefly and so calling to remembrance my former Journey and that same City I mean Smyrna I lived for some time in my younger days and was Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord for so pleasant and delightful are our past Labours and the most pleasant thing most unpleasant if we may not some times speak of it or at least remember it Those four Men which we have already named arrived in Italy by Sea and came ashore at the Port of Leghorne as 't is now called but formerly Portus Herculeus c. There they delivered some of their Pamphlets to the Governor who delivered the same to the Inquisitors and Censors of Matters that appertain to Religion who when they found nothing in them that belonged to the Popish Religion and that they had done nothing for which by right they ought to be dissatisfied with them they dismiss them They go forwards and get to Venice and there offer their Pamphlets to the Doge who holds the Chief Dignity in th● Republick and from thence without stop go to Rome the compendium of the whole Papacy and there see slightly and hastily the vast heap and mass of so many things that are to be seen in that place and having viewed them leave them as an evil Omen and return without any delay to Venice from whence they came Then Perrote and Love take Shipping at this place and go for Smirna touching all the way no Land no Port nor so much as any Shore where when they were arrived because they had an intention to go for Constantinople when the English Consul came to hear of it and had wisely considered the Life and rough Demeanours of those Men who knew not how to forbear and to serve the times and so fearing least they should act somewhat rashly towards the Emperor that might tend not only to their own Inconveniency but to the Disadvantage of the English Nation he sends them against their Wills back again into Italy And so when they arrived there they returned to Rome while they were at Rome Love and Perrote being Men not able to hide their Disposition and moderate the same for some time and in the place they were and to the Men they came amongst and not willing to dissemble and form Lies when by this their Carriage they came to be known what they were and what their Design was they are by the Inquisitors thrown into Prison Love died under his Confinement as some Monks declared by Starving himself to Death but as afterwards some of the Nuns reported so hard a thing it is to keep a secret most difficult when once blabbed out to suppress for the more 't is concealed the more it 's discovered he was Murdered in the night Perrote continued some time in Prison and was afterwards set at liberty About the occasion of which Enlargement there was at first various Opinions but afterwards there was no vain Suspicion that he being shut up in this place chose rather to go backward than forward in his Work seeing that after his return into England he forsook the Quakers and set himself directly against them drawing others also off along with him and engaging of them to embrace his new Opinions and Precepts The other two being struck with fear fled away And here I shall subjoin the Example of a London Youth one George Robinson by name He when he had sailed from England in a Merchant Ship to the end of the Mediterranean and arrived at Scanderoon and from thence as 't is the way of many that Travel those parts as being a shorter and easier way continued his Journey towards the place which they call Jerusalem with a design to see if he could behold or effect any thing there that might be advantageous to his Religion Here he many ways discovered himself to be a Quaker the which when it came to the Monks and Popish Priests Ears they in their Monastery which is as it were the Store-House and Treasury of all manner of Villany take Counsel together whereby to bring him to such a danger from which there should be no escape and so put this villanous trick upon him There was such a Law among the Turks formerly tho' not many years past made That if any Christian enter into any of their Churches he is put to Death unless he redeem his Life with the change of his Religion which Law was made not by the invention of the Turks themselves but by the instinct of Ambassadors and European Consuls on those Coasts who