the certain ruine of his Soul and to the latter a risk of losing his Life but my Fighting is to abstain from all these Quarrels Wars and Arms nay not only to abstain from them but to conquer and subjugate those Passions and Lusts from whence they arise I am a Soldier waging War and fighting but so as to provide for the Peace and Safety of my self of you and all Men both here in this Humane Society and also with God Which Practice would to God both ye and all the World would study to imitate Wherefore I desire of you that ye give me no more trouble of this Nature and that ye be aware of running your selves into a worse condition than ye are in already lest by indulging your selves this liberty of sinning against God the Emperor of the World his wrath be kindled against you and when the time for Vengeance shall come and the Door of Mercy shut up ye perish for ever This Discourse was so far from putting a stop to the fury of his Adversaries that it spurr'd on their fierceness and cruelty the more which they express'd not in Imprisoning him as before but in casting him into a nasty stinking Dungeon digged under Ground where Thieves and Malefactors were kept But after other six Months he got out from thence also And this Affliction did not in the least scare him from prosecuting his Design but he still became bolder and brisker Propagating his Doctrine not only in the Counties of Nottingham Darby and Leicester which were the Theatre and Stage where this great Engine did first appear but through all York-shire Lancaster and the vast Tract of Lands called Westmorland in all which places he unweariedly preached his Doctrine and Discipline being followed by vast numbers of the People This is certain that none of all the Quakers ever preached or discoursed so often and unto so many different Hearers as George Fox and he himself never made so many Discourses as in these places and at this time But because he could not be present every where to speak Face to Face he now began to write Letters to several Societies and likewise to particular Men Instructing and Admonishing them in what he imagined most necessary to be known and practised And to this day are to be seen in many peoples hands whole bundles of Letters wrote by him to the same Persons Though he did not express any great strength of Discourse or Reasoning in these his Letters for that he both wrote such Characters as were not easie to be read and also in so rude and simple a Style sometimes most difficult and intricate that it is a wonder any Man so much exercised in speaking and discoursing should have been the Author of them The first Letter he wrote was in the Year Fifty to his Friends which I shall here insert It was wrote Originally in English and is translated from the Original into Latin which done from the Latin into English again for the Original is not in our hands runs thus The Lord is King over all the Earth wherefore all ye Nations praise and magnifie your King in true Obedience purity of Holiness and Sincerity O! consider in true Obedience how ye should know the Lord with Vnderstanding mark and consider in silence in submission of Mind and ye shall hear the Lord speaking to you in your Minds His Voice is sweet and pleasant His Sheep hear his voice and will give ear to no other And when they hear his voice they rejoyce and obey and also sing for joy O! their hearts are filled with Eternal Triumphs They sing forth and praise the Eternal God in Zion Their Joy shall none take from them Glory be to the Lord for ever G. F. In this same Fiftieth Year Elizabeth Hooton born and living in Nottingham a Woman pretty far advanced in Years was the first of her Sex among the Quakers who attempted to imitate Men and Preach which she now in this Year commenced After her Example many of her Sex had the confidence to undertake the same Office This Woman afterwards went with George Fox into New-England where she wholly devoted her self to this Work and after having suffered many Affronts from that People went into Jamaica and there finished her Life But I return again to Fox While he thus continued so forward and zealous for Preaching his Doctrines his condition was very various strange Events and Accidents falling out of which I think it convenient to give you a short Account It happened in Yorkshire in a Town towards the East Part of it called Beverlar that he went into the Church being mightily mov'd in Spirit where he first kept himself silent till the Minister had finish'd his Sermon then before all the People he thunder'd out his extemporary and reviling Harangues and presently convey'd himself away thus he escaped safe and unpunish'd Some few days after that at Crantsick as the Minister had just read the Text of his ensuing Discourse being a Man of considerable Worth and Fame he fell upon him with a Discourse the only purport of which was to express his contempt of the Dignity Order and Religion of this worthy Divine Which Action might have brought him into extream danger for every body almost accounted it a signal of so great Impudence and Insolence that they thought no Vengeance too great nor no Resentment too high for so villainous and injurious a Crime yet he escap'd unpunish'd But I come to give you a larger Account of a certain Sermon of his Being in Leicester his Native Country he had occasion to Travel in that Country with some of his Friends He spyes from afar a certain Town not knowing which it was but having asked of his Friends comes to understand that it was Lichfield Thither he presently resolves to go and pronounce Curses against all the Citizens high or low or of whatever degree for they were all equally unknown to him While I call to remembrance the Ancient Annals of the British Affairs it comes into my Mind that at this very Town in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour there was a great many Christian Martyrs miserably afflicted and tortured with all manner of exquisite Torments And then in the Reign of Henry the Sixth King of England there was a Battel fought betwixt the King and the Earl of Salisbury near to this place in which great numbers of Men were slain on both sides and the King's Army almost totally routed So that on both these occasions this Ground was covered with the Blood of so many Men. And besides in Fox's own time while that Fatal Civil War was raging in England betwixt the King and the People in the same Fields and this very same Town there was a great deal of Humane Blood shed all which Fox was not ignorant of Thither I say did he presently direct his course and because he did not know the right Road for he had now parted from his Friends being impatient
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
from him that he even here and there subscribed his Name to every Page and confirmed by his Testimony that it contained and taught every Language by which Work and Labour Fox now shewed plainly the thing not to Boys but to all Men that were like Boys in Ignorance herein and untaught them that wicked way of speaking But when some objected against Fox his Ignorance in these Languages and that he was upbraided herewith as if he were mad he wiped it off thus with this new Joke That he knew only as much of Languages as was sufficient for him The Year Sixty Two was Remarkable for the Commotion and Change of many things to the great Inconveniency Trouble and Incommoding of the Quakers and went so far in the Times that followed that the Ruine of the whole Party and Race of them seemed to be at hand for the Solemn League and Covenant between the King and People of Britain and between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland than which League there was nothing before looked upon to be more Holy Just and Desirable no greater Foundation both of the Regal Dignity and the Peoples Liberty nor a greater Bond to gather and unite together the whole Body of the Church and to establish the Religion of both Kingdoms was now looked upon as it were an Antichristian piece of Work and the Spring of all Evil and there was the preceding Year even by the Parliament's Command rased out of all the Publick Records both in Church and State and at London in several places burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman This Year was the Episcopal Order and Authority which had always been the Spring and Original of many Brawls and Calamities was every where set up and establish'd there being some even of the Presbyterians who now were desirous of this Power and Glory which they had before withstood or when offered them did not reject them upon this Consideration that seeing they would endeavour to be good Men in the discharge of this Office they were afraid if they did refuse the same lest such should be preferred who would not carry themselves in that Station with that Moderation required of them The King now which had been the fear of good Men a long time and what was now looked upon as a new Prognostick and sad Omen upon the Kingdom contracted a Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal a Lady so given up and devoted to the Religion and Ceremonies of the Popish Church that she was inferiour to none of the Queens or Princesses of the Age for that Superstition At last the King after he thought he had established his House and Kingdom and made all things sure did more and more instead of the Care Labour and Continency he ought to have exercised give himself up to Ease and Luxury and left the Management of most things to his Counsellors and Ministers of State especially to those who were mostly his Familiars and Companions all which change wrought no small Perturbation Trouble Fear and Trembling in the Minds of all those whose Religion differed from the Religion and Constitution that were now thus revived again he who had persecuted another did even now persecute himself and whom many were before afraid of was not now without his own fears and had need to take care of himself and therefore from such a Commotion as this others became also afraid who were otherwise more to be feared and from this their Fear arose a Suspicion and hence Discourses and at last a Rumor that there was a multitude of Enemies and Conspirators in the City and elsewhere who laid in wait for the King and were ready utterly to overturn the whole frame of this new Government Though many did believe this to be an Evil Report cunningly contrived by those who looked upon such a Report to be the best way for them to arrive at that which they could not hope to obtain in Peaceable Times Now as there was nothing transacted by wicked and profligate Men of which the Quakers were not esteemed either the Authors Promoters Parties or knew of it or consented to it so here also these Men came to be suspected of this Crime when at the same time there was no certain sign of any Conspiracy or Sedition contrived by any sort of Men and not the least Foot-steps of it by the Quakers and so there was a Report quickly spread abroad that these were such Men as had embrued themselves in such great Wickednesses and that they had associated themselves and daily met together to that purpose Of which things when they did not of their own accord clear and vindicate themselves which they thought they ought not to do without certain Accusers nor could do without some Prejudice thence the same Suspicion and Report increased and by this means the People who were not indeed called to answer at the Bar because that would be done upon too slight a Conjecture contracted the real hatred of all and became in great danger and were impunedly troubled all manner of ways by them who because they were not hindred thought they were allowed so to do Now the King had commanded that the Quakers of London and Middlesex should take the Oath which seemed to be the strictest tye for the Testifying of their Affection and engaging their Faithfulness towards the King and Kingdom and that the Judges should shew favour to none But if the Quakers would not Swear in pursuance to his Proclamation they should hold their Meetings no where then follows another Law for the prevention of Seditious Assemblies That no Meeting should be held under a shew and pretence of Divine Worship that was not approved and ratified by the Liturgy of the Church of England nor more Persons meet together at one place than five But and if any above the Age of Sixteen Years and upwards did transgress herein and being a Subject of the Kingdom such an one should be punished for the same This Law seemed to have been enacted for the restraint of all Sects but did more especially appertain to the Quakers and none could but understand that it was a Snare for them and rended to Shipwrack their Affairs So that it came hereby to pass that such of these Men as were now imprisoned were for this reason more closely kept and used more severely by the Gaolers even by those who before seemed kind unto them As for the rest of them they had one Tryal and Affliction upon another and the same were every where openly not only when they were met together in the streets entertained with all manner of Ignominy and Reproach but were also enforced to abstain from their Religious Assemblies and when notwithstanding all they proceeded they were harrassed by Soldiers and fined sometimes entertained with more than an Hostile Fury and thrown into Prison and being required to Swear were upon their refusal detained in Prison or thrust into Working-Houses among wicked and profligate wretches who had
to the greatest they seem'd to be harden'd and confirm'd against the greatest punishments whatsoever as if all their misfortunes and disasters had been means rather to excite and encourage their boldness than to enfeeble or repress the same So that now there was no remedy left to restrain them save close imprisonment But because it was difficult and hard to detain them all in perpetual prison It was at last resolv'd that they should not only be banisâ—'d from their houses and livings but from the whole kingdom and commanded to the American Colonies subject to the English where they should be condemn'd to the same service and slavery that the barbarous natives of that Country are who are a people so stiffneck'd and stubborn that neither levity of treatment can break them nor severity of punishment scare from their barbarous customs so that by an inveterate and immoveable despair they break all the bounds of Temperance and Reverence among the Christians Accordingly there were several decrees made in several Courts and Judicatories at one and the same time about the Captive Quakers that is those of them that were refractory and obstinate wheâ— neither imprisonment nor any other manner oâ— punishment could move to desist from their disallowable practices for there were some of 'em that after having been three four or five several times dismiss'd and set at liberty still returned to their former vomit that they should be sever'd from the rest of the English World by being transported to Barbado's and Jamaica where the Garrisons and Forts were strong enough to oppose them and stiffle their designs and where there was no great fear of any danger that could arise from their commotions And that they might be depriv'd of any support or comfort from conjugal love or fellowship they order'd the women and men to be separated and transported to separate Colonies But the term of their banishment did not exceed seven years And this favour was likewise indulg'd them that whoever would pay one hundred pounds English for his offence should redeem himself from being transported But it was never heard that any of them attempted this manner of redemption I shall here mention only two examples the one remarkable for insolence the other for the place and manner of Judgment The first Was in Hereford Town where one and twenty of 'em were kept in Prison of which sixteen were Married Persons and very comfortably match'd to loving consorts because of their frequent meetings and Religious â—â—onventicles who had been before try'd and condemn'd in a Convention of the County and were afterwards sentenc'd to suffer the aforesaid Exportation by a Court held in every respective County The Quakers relate that all things were done very superficially in the latter nothing of tryal being made sure only for fashon sake as if they would not repine or reverse the Sentences formerly cast against them in other Courts or as if the matter had been so plain that there was no further place left for the guilty to put up defences so that all things were ready for passing Sentence The Witnesses that had been Examin'd before depon'd that they saw the Quakers assembled together at that place from whence they were brought to Prison and that in this their assembly they were sitting quiet and mute without any speaker The Quakers made no dispute upon the matter only replied That as they us'd to do at all other times they had then met together not tumultuously nor after any unhandsom manner However this was accounted a Crime sufficient to demerit such a punishment The Quakers say That when the President of the Court Henry Chany was pronouncing Sentence of Transportation against them his Countenance bewray'd great trouble of mind and the words he spoke were very faint and languid as if the Injustice of the Sentence had struck him with fear and confusion This they observ'd and indeed they are men very apt and ready to make their Observations and commemorate the same for infallible Truths However this Judg having pronounced Sentence interrogates them all if they were willing to redeem themselves at the price set allowing them the next night to consider upon it Which night as they write themselves they spent not in consulting one with another what Answer to give but in secure and profound sleep as being conscious to themselves of no evil thing they had done which self conscious innocence devoided them of fear and encourag'd them readily and chearfully to undergo all the Afflictions that might befal them In the Morning being call'd before 〈◊〉 Judicatory to give answer to the question put to them the preceeding day they reply'd to the Judge interrogating them a fresh that they would pay nothing and tho they had a hundred lives they would not redeem them for a hundred pence so far were they from offering or promising so many pounds Some few days after that two Courts were held at London about the same business which may be accounted the Metropolitans of all the others held on this account as London is of that Kingdom The Decisions and Judgments of these Councils were very various as the exit testify'd The Quakers being 〈◊〉 up in Prison for having congregated themselves in publick Crowds and obstinately persisting in the same irregularity were arraign'd before the Court and accus'd of having transgress'd the Laws in meeting and preaching to more than five at a time in contempt of the King and the Laws of the Realm that tho they met together for worshipping God yet their manner of worship was dissonant from the Liturgy and Canons of the Church of England and that tho they design'd to advance mutual concord among themselves by their frequent Conventicles yet they tended to raise discord sedition amongst the People The informers and delaters against them were mostly the Magistrates Servants and Officers or the Keepers of Prisons and suchlike who yet testified nothing against them save that they found them assembled together tho they did not hear any speaking amongst them or that they were deliver'd to them by the Messengers who apprehended 'em or that they saw them brought into Prison Unto which the Quakers reply'd that they did not deny their being together but that they desir'd it might be proved that their Congregating together was upon any such wicked design as to shew contempt of the King and Government which was the crime laid to their Charge and upon which they were then call'd in question They added likewise that they did not deny their meeting together in greater numbers than five which if it was contrary to the King's commands was excusable in them since they were bound to obey the Commands of God and give ear to his voice alone tho Kings and all Men on Earth should Countermand the same And as to the Liturgy of England they reply'd that if it contain'd any thing contrary to the Divine Will it was to be put in the same ballance with the Kings
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
affirmatively he immediately pull'd off the Cataplasms and she was forthwith restored to her Health Both himself and his Followers do likewise pretend that on some occasions he performed the like Miracles by the simple touch of his hand But besides Miracles the Quakers did after this time pretend to Visions and Prophecies which they said was a singular Gift vouchsafed only to them Yet they were more sparing in their Discourses on this Subject and except one or two Examples which are very special and depending on the distinction of Places Times and Persons they alledge nothing but General Examples which therefore cannot be of any certain Authority so as to merit our belief and I do not find their special Instances of such weight as to be worth our inserting Nay this I choose rather to say That the Quakers who succeeded these first beginners do not make so much noise either of Miracles or Visions nor do they willingly speak or write of those of their Sect that preceded them unless very cautiously and warily acknowledging and owning that since the old Gospel preached by Christ and his Apostles was sufficiently confirmed with Miracles and Predictions this new Gospel which they now advance being in substance the same with that of old does not need these Helps and Miracles That they do not make their Religion depend upon them that they neither hope nor wish for Praise and Glory from Men nor expect to procure a favourable Reception from them upon any such account So that it seems this is their intention to boast of some of the Signs of the Primitive and Apostolick Church but withal to take care lest if these Signs be not clear and manifest to all they should come to be despised and laugh'd at Unless they propose to themselves the Example of our Saviour who sometimes took pains to conceal his Miracles and Prophecies The Quakers commemorate it that their Sect did so multiply and increase after this Year and maintain'd so much Concord and Unity among themselves that now they became an orderly and settled Church conspicuous not for external Splendor and Magnificence but for eminent Innocence and Simplicity And whereas most of them had heretofore continued still Members of the Churches they were formerly joyned to or if at any time they went aside to follow their New Model of Worship it was very privately and with a few Companions but now they separated from them in great numbers and with open and undaunted boldness joyning into one Body among themselves with one Voice and one Mind professing themselves to be all incorporated into one common Society entring into an Ecclesiastical Covenant one with another that as oft and in whatever place as an Opportunity offered it self they should joyn and assemble together for going about Religious Matters And all their Religionary Confessions were of this Nature that they insisted more on the received Tenets of other Churches which they were to reject and condemn than in delivering positively what Articles they were to believe and maintain As to other things their Doctrines were short and plain They contain'd few necessary Articles of Faith none of them related to the contemplation and speculation of abstruse and difficult things which are more curious than useful to Piety and Goodness they were all concerning the Light which shines in every Man's Soul and the Word of God within them of inward Communion with God of the Reverence Love and Obedience due to him and his revealed Will and of the Relative Duties of Men one to another When they assembled together for Divine Worship their manner of Worshipping and all sort of Sacred Exercises were free from any External Accoutrements Rites or Ceremonies all was wrapt up in a deep silence and tacit waiting upon the Spirit till it raised them up to speak and when they spoke their Discourses were Exhorting of every Man to Self-Examination and a serious consideration of the Operations of the Spirit the Light within them and the Word of God which was in their Hearts admonishing them to study to deny themselves subject themselves to God and endeavour to Repent and amend their Lives to be Modest Temperate True and Constant in their Words and Actions and to be diligent and chearful in performing all such Actions as became Men to do and were fit for reconciling Men to one another and advancing Peace and Concord in the World And so far as could be observed by the strictest Enquirer they seemed to lead Lives conform to their Principles for both in their promiscuous Conversation and likewise in one anothers Company their Moderation and Temperance was such as that it became their Character whereby they were distinguished from all others In the Management of Commerce and Trade with the rest of the World they were Meek Mild and Moderate in their Countenances severe and slow in speech they were but mean in their Cloathing and their Houses not richly furnished though there was among them Men of large Substances The most conspicuous Vertue of all was a diligent Love Care and Watchfulness over those of their Faction especially as to their Religious Concerns for they narrowly enquired how every one behaved himself in Religious Matters As to the ordinary Actions of Humane Life they were free from Pride or Ostentation Affable Familiar Bountiful to those of an inferiour Station so that it was no singular or new thing among them to see the Rich and Powerful Courting and Caressing the Poor They were Merciful Liberal and Compassionate to the Miserable and Afflicted either in Body or Mind every one helped another either with his Substance Counsel or Assistance as his Capacity allow'd and the Necessity of his Neighbour requir'd so that none of them wanted for any thing Their chiefest care and business was so to accommodate all their Actions as that they might seem not to introduce any new upstart Religion but to resemble the Ancient Primitive Church imitating their Simplicity Gravity and Vertuous Demeanor By all which it came to pass that many were added to them every body being astonish'd at the singularity of their Carriage I my self am acquainted with a very learned worthy Man who having heard such great things of them had the Curiosity to undertake a Voyage to England in order to satisfie himself of the verity of what was reported and after having arrived there and conversed with them and seen their Actions which far surpass'd his expectation he was so much taken with them that he forthwith yielded himself a Member of their Society But the rest of the World who did not joyn with them abhorred them and all their Actions believing all their fair Pretences to be but vain shews disguised with smooth countenances and deceitful words insomuch that they would not hear nor be witnesses to any of their doings of which they could not entertain the least favourable thought nay they inveigh'd against them with the most reviling Expressions spreading this Report of their Life and
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
particularly what has been the Cause Occasion and Original wherefore so many Men should so suddenly which is a very hard thing fall away every one from his own Church and Religion to that of these Quakers The Principal Reason hereof seems to be in that Men among whom there were really many who were desirous to live Piously and Religiously and to lead a truly Christian Life did imagine that they saw so much Corruption every where if not in Doctrine yet in Rites and most assuredly in the Manners of all Societies that would be accounted and called Christians and even Protestants that if any one persisted in Communion with any of them he might very well diffide and despair of his Salvation and that indeed there was at this time either no Church or that this Church which these new Teachers pretended was that wherein a Man might and ought to render his self secure and come into a saveable state And though many who joyned themselves to this new Sect did not give such exact Accounts of their Thoughts and Affections yet they who were found to be more wise and intelligent than the rest judged they were able to give such Reasons as were most valid for this their departure and new Confederacy And seeing that those who had never been without the Bounds of their own Native Country entertained so ill an Opinion chiefly of the English Churches those who also passed into and travelled Foreign Nations passed the same Judgment upon the rest of those other Churches therefore did these chiefly and in the first place charge the English Churches with such great depravedness and corruption and of these they did more especially reprehend those that to this time under the Kingly Government did prevail by Publick Authority which from the Bishops their Authors and Rectors they called Episcopal that is they did so blame and revile this Hierarchy or Spiritual Power Order and Degree Rule and Lordly Jurisdiction yea their Harshness and Tyranny towards those who dissented from their Religion or seemed to be in the wrong who yet out of no Obstinacy but only from a tender Conscience could not joyn with them the Magnificence and Pomp gross Idleness Remissness and Delicacy both of their Prelates and all the rest of their Clergy or Ministers of the Word that were under them moreover such a bundle of Ceremonies or Rites in their Churches and Sacred Communions and Collection of Lessons Singings and Prayers the forms whereof to be so strictly followed with the Observation of Holy Days Lastly besides this the Sloth Incontinency and Lasciviousness of the whole People in words and deeds that from hence it came that not only the Quakers now at length but many other Societies of Men long before the Quakers were born or known separated themselves from the Communion of that Publick Church And thus did they heap up as much suspicion of Corruption upon that Church as they could and stirred all Men to Envy and implacably to hate her Now as these Men did chiefly by this blot and censorious Discourse vilifie the Episcopal Churches and so fiercely and violently inveigh and bellow against them so did they next fall upon accusing of them called by the name of Presbyterians in as severe and harsh a manner who notwithstanding had not only long since withdrawn themselves from under the Government Order Rites and Methods of the Episcoparians but also sharply opposed them and were now after the Abolition of Episcopacy and the taking away of all that Ceremonious Worship and after the beheading of the King and almost an entire extinction of the Regal Name intensly bent upon the Reformation of the whole Church These from the first beginning of their Church they did own to be no bad Christians and that some of them did excel and continued to be such as all ought always to be both in the Faith and Rule of Life but that afterwards they became by degrees more and more changed and that for some time neither that Care and Attention to God's Spirit no nor to the Word which they professed to have was to be met with amongst them but that they were found to be puffed up with much confidence hope and assurance in their own even External Performances and that many of them had more the shadow than real Vertues of Christians and more Vices under a shew of Vertues Now though among all the Parties they entertained the most esteem for those Independants which they call Brownists yea and for those whom they call Baptists yet they objected against these that they had indeed great Love and Affection for their Religion but that they were very much wanting in a Spiritual and true Love to God and in Unanimity and Agreement amongst themselves and that they were very rash and morose towards such as dissented from them and sometimes full of Cruelty and Harshness For as to those others who also would be accounted Independants them they looked upon as Hypocrites who had a shew of Religion in their Countenances and at their Tongues ends and who while they saw many Vices with great clearness and resented them in others with much clamour and a scornful contempt were themselves inwardly full of the most secret and worst of Vices Moreover as the Quakers did censure so hard of the Churches of England they did most grievously inveigh against those whom these Churches looked upon as their Guides Teachers and Pastors and did conclude that the Original Stock and Seed of all that Calamity did arise from them to wit that while they profest it to be their business to discharge that Office of Teaching and of Guiding-Men in their Spiritual Concerns and seemed to give up themselves entirely thereunto did some of them desert their Work others were slothful and negligent others did indeed publickly discharge their Office and many times with a loud Voice but had privately no regard to their Work but only consulted their own Profit and served their own Turn preferring the same before the Common Good of the whole Church and that so indeed they fed their Peoples Ears with words but in like manner to stick to their Manners and to that which comes to pass by their Examples this they thought by the same Doctrine to be honest and not unlawful There were more especially two things which these Men could not bear in those Rulers and Ministers of the Publick Churches one of which was this In that they in lieu of their Labours in Preaching of the Gospel and discharging of their Office amongst their People did not only receive a Reward which they did indeed bear with but such an one as was certain and by Compact almost always a great sometimes a greater now and then the greatest Sum not only from the Publick Annual Profits but also from the Incomes of Private Persons and that even of such who had scarce of their own whereon to set their Foot from the Fruits Cattle Services Annual Profits Marriages Christenings Funerals
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
did that which was contrary thereunto and others of the same Kidney did every where in their Sermons and Libels cast all manner of Reproaches upon those Magistrates before all Men and imprecated all Evils upon them and did as it were pronounce them by the Command of God forgetting the Monitor and Author of that saying That in such a case we should not delay to confess all our own failings and also love our Enemies and bless and do good unto them and so be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect whence it came to pass that not only they who were thus deservedly committed by the Judges but also such as thus maintained their Obstinacy were laden with more and greater Evils and the same thing sometimes fell upon the Heads of the whole Multitude But those who were of a more moderate Temper blamed the immoderation of these Men but the Quakers were never universally troubled and persecuted at any time during the Interregnum and Cromwel's Protectorship in England Scotland and Ireland and there was no particular Persecution of them by the appointment of Publick Authority unless it were that these Men proceeded to Assemble together in too unwary and audacious a manner or to disturb the Publick Assemblies of others with their chatterings or lessen the Reputation of them by their invidious Speeches Invectives and Writings or did some such thing by speech or gesture Neither was there any of them punished or put to Death either by Publick Authority or Tumultuously by the Multitude but such indeed otherwise was the severity of the following Times and the calamity of these Men that all were commanded every where to abstain from their Meetings and when they urged that they could not do that for Conscience sake and that therefore they would do it in no wise then there was a very heavy Persecution and not of one sort raised as much as might be against all of them in general and in other places against each in particular as began to be turbulent and introduced any Novelty in the Churches And this afterward became an accessional Crime in that they would not Swear before a Magistrate pay Tythes nor do and suffer many more things by reason of scruple of Mind and fear of God by which Practice of theirs though none of the Quakers were at any time put to Death publickly or privately by Officers Sergeants and Executioners by the Magistrate's Command yet many of them were so handled in Prisons and so injured with Stripes and Wounds by wicked and villainous Men that they died miserably thereof yea and seeing the boldness and constancy of these Men was such that whatever they begun that they would go through with and omit nothing of such things as I have spoken of before and the more they were chastised the more obstinate they would be against such as censured and chastised them This was their daily Fate that some of them were committed publickly to Prison by the Magistrates some fined some banished and reproached sufficiently by the Common People and were cuffed kicked cudgelled and stoned out of the places where they were Neither were there any of the Teachers and Guides of the People who was not some where or other imprisoned and many times while they were gathered together they had Information given against them and thereupon Officers Guards and the like Men were sent who under the colour of their Office fell upon beat and carried away all that were present Again there were many Private Persons and of the meaner and vulgar sort born brought up and trained to Mischief and Rapine that either came under such Leaders as these now spoken of whither also without doubt their own greediness had led them without this or alone and of their own accord like Theives and Robbers and broke in where they hoped to gain most Pillage and Plunder and forced the Doors open and first of all laid hold on stripped and beat the People with their Hands and Sticks and scattered and dissipated all of them and whatever they could not carry away they wasted and spoiled the rest they stole away and every one carryed his Booty to his own House by which furious doings those mad and wicked Men did oftentimes in a moment deprive as well the Poor as the Rich of all their Substance which they had been gathering for many Years and of all the Houshold-stuff they had and to that degree that they did not leave the poor People as much as their Tools and Utensils which they made use of for to gain their Livelihood Sometimes it so happened while these Men did not meet covertly that these Villains all of a sudden rushed into the midst of the Assembly put out the Candle and of those they caught some of them they dragged by the Hair of the Head others tyed Hand and Foot they carryed into the Fields and there left them where the People continued all Night to the endangering of their Lives and thus many of them did at last perish both in Prisons by Sickness and the want of Necessaries Stench and other Inconveniencies as also in their own Houses because of the Miseries they sustained through the rage and violence of the People neither yet did these things alone at once seize upon these People but by degrees and one after another in the mean time the Quakers suffered and endured all these things from the very beginning with so much Patience and Resolution of Mind that they not only wearied many of their Enemies but also excited and enclined many People to become of their Communion thus judging with themselves that Men neither would nor could undergo and sustain such intolerable Troubles and Miseries unless they were very well assured in their Consciences of the truth of those things for which they suffered even as the Quakers themselves pretended that this their Patience for their Faith which they turned to the Glory of Martyrdom joyned with their singular way of Life and Manners was the principal Seed of their Church both then and at all times Yea I have heard some of them Preach that it would certainly come to pass that their Religion would be a new Reformation and Instauration of the World but that this would be very unlike unto that Reformation which happened in the Age before as being partly supported by an Arm of Flesh whereas this would be the only Property of theirs to be perfected and accomplished by Faith alone and the Patience and Long-suffering of the Espousers thereof In the mean time the Quakers complained very much of the Ministers of the Publick Churches as also of the Independants but more especially of the Baptists to which Baptists themselves there was at that time granted great freedom both to speak and act what they pleased that they above all others were injurious to them called upon the Magistrates and stirred up also the People to hasten their Ruine by reason that they lessened their Number and Dignity by shaking
but he was forthwith and without any delay in the presence of all that were there according to the Military Practice of some Men so beaten and kick'd by the Colonel himself because he ought above any other to have desisted from such doings and practices as he had then taken upon him that he made him bleed and then was sent back to his old Prison and tyed Neck and Heels there But as there were many of Ames's fellow Soldiers and also other Soldiers who by little and little became of the Quakers Sect several of them having taken Counsel together and allotted their Work did either use their babling Interruptions in the Publick Assemblies while they were at Prayer or Preaching or fell a Trembling there or shewed some such idle and foolish Prank this Example was followed by many others both of the one and of the other Sex wherefore they were ever and anon one after another fined driven to Prisons and in some places miserably harrassed some of them were severely lashed but the Soldiers more than any until the Year Fifty Six when Colonel Ingoldsby the Governour commanded all upon a very severe Penalty to give no manner of Entertainment to any Quaker whatsoever and not suffer them to come within their Doors and that whoever did to the contrary should be expelled out of the City But it was to no purpose some indeed were driven away but their Number did even then and by that means increase and so by degrees came to hold their Assemblies Officers were sent to break open their Doors and to interrupt and disturb them some they fined others were banished but yet for all this they increased and multiplyed more and more this happened at Limerick Cork Waterford Kingsale and other places And thus did this Sect of the Quakers about the time of their rise and first Progress struggle in the time of the Common-wealth under the two Cromwels Father and Son Protectors under the many Afflictions they were put to by their Enemies and to the great hazzard both of their Religion and People The End of the First Book BOOK II. PART I. The Contents of the Second BOOK THE Endeavours of the Quakers upon the King's Restauration G. Keith R. Barclay The Quakers vain hopes concerning the King The Oath of Allegiance an inexplicable Snare to these Men. Tythes also The Cruelty of Keepers towards them Instances The King and Parliament's Disposition towards them A Letter of Fox the Younger to the King Fox his Book of many Languages concerning the Pronoun Thou Several Laws against the Quakers Hence their various Tryals Hubberthorn Burroughs and Howgil die in Prison A vain Suspicion that the Quakers cherished Popery Their Persecution at London The fall of Priscilla Mo The Burials of the Quakers The Persecuting of them at Colchester A Council held concerning Transplanting of the Quakers into the American Islands This transacted and handled several times The various and strange haps and Adventures of such as suffered this Penalty The Ecclesiastical Court The Law De Excommunicato capiendo Several Examples made upon their refusing to pay Tythes The Death of Fisher in Prison Fox's Three Years Imprisonment The Prophecy of a certain Quaker concerning the Burning of London The Troubles of the Quakers in Scotland and Ireland Keith's Doctrine of Christ being in Man Helmont concerning the Revolution of Souls rejected by the Quakers William Pen's turning Quaker A full Description thereof His singular Opinion concerning a Toleration of all Religions The Ecclefiastical state of the Quakers The Order of their Teachers A Meeting of their Teachers together Synods Liturgies or Sacred Duties How they observe the Lord's Day Their Complaint concerning the Protestants study of Divinity Their Opinion concerning a knowledge of Languages and Philosophy Of the Sallary of the Ministers of God's Word What the Call of Ministers is among them Their Discipline Their Solemnizing of Marriages Keith's Imprisonment Pen's Imprisonment at London Solomon Eccles's Fooleries and mad Pranks in several places Fox's Marriage A great Persecution of the Quakers throughout England accompanied with the greatest baseness Green's Fall Pen again and Mead with him Imprisoned at London They are Tryed Pen's Speech to the Judges A great Persecution in Southwark The notable Zeal of these Men in keeping their Assemblies A short respite from the Persecution G. Fox goes to the English Colonies in America His Imprisonment in Worcester and what was done at that time He writes several Letters more elaborately than profitably A Conference between the Quakers and Baptists R. Barclay's Apology for the Christian Theology variously received A Comparison between the Quietists and Quakers Several Persecutions of the Quakers in England The Assaulting of them in Scotland All manner of Slanders put upon the Quakers Doctrine and Life The Persecution of Bristol Of London The Quakers state under King James the Second W. Pen's Diligence for the Quakers The Quakers Affairs under King William Pen's Default Freedom and Liberty given to the Quakers by the Parliament Pen's second Default The Death of Fox The great Book written by him A Description of Fox The great Dissention between the Quakers themselves The present state of them I Have brought down the History of the Quakers to the Time of King Charles II. in whose Reign and even in the very beginning thereof as great changes happened not only in the State every thing being abrogated and taken away that had been Obstacles to the Kingly Power and Dignity or that might be so for the future but also in the Ecclesiastical Constitution for that Equality and Conjunction that ought to be between the Brethren Friends and Disciples of Christ was taken away whilst the Government thereof reverted to a few and for the most part to the King himself so there was among those Persons who were not dissatisfied with the Name Splendor and Authority of a King but with that turn in the Church no small commotion of Mind no light Care and Diligence not only that they might defend their own Churches with the Orders and Constitutions of them lest they should suffer any damage any other way but also that they might further vindicate all their Practices from the Envy of their Adversaries confirm and trim up the same and recommend them unto others Therefore this Study and Concern also seemed to be among all Persons who had as well departed from that same pitch of Religion as from that publick Religion in the very same manner did George Fox and his Colleagues and all of that Herd even every one according to his Place and Station diligently and industriously apply themselves to this Affair wherefore Fox according to his wonted manner began his Peregrination in England to visit his Friends to Preach amongst them but did not take upon him as formerly to talk in the Publick Churches Markets and Streets and there to stir up the People and seeing that he had before this attempted many things more earnestly than successfully he took diligent heed
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
to escape whither soever they could But then the Horsemen spur'd after them with their Horses and running upon the Men and Women as they were scatter'd and also upon those that abode in their place insulting over the young and feeble they struck them upon their bodies and faces with their Pistols as furiously as they could The footmen pouring themselves out of the house upon the people thus ensnar'd and invergl'd follow'd after and beat them with their Musquets and Pikes so violently that some of them flew in peices out of their hands Neither did they forbear retreat or withdraw till more than twenty of the poor Quakers were wounded Eight days after the Quakers again met and must likewise by a new force of Horse and Foot be assaulted ejected and put to flight surrounded and oppress'd and the ground fructify'd by the effusion of their blood here there were twice as many wounded as before That day seven-night the Quakers not leaving of their assembling a party of foot and horse came up to the house One of them going in with a pale full of dirt and Excrements maliciously emptied it upon the Innocent Multitude not content with this putting them from their House and Meeting they follow'd and loaded them with so many wounds that they were within a little of having rob'd 'em of their life Some of the Countrey people being mov'd with Compassion at the sad Countenance Lamentation and tears of Men they had always found both harmless and blameless did succour and shelter them with the sanctuary of their houses But those Malignant rakes finding the way even thither broke in and pull'd 'em out and threatning some holding their Weapons o're their heads and cutting the womens Cloaths handled them with a detestable Impudence and obscenity There was one woman with Child taken as she fled whom a Souldier rudely smote twice on the belly and once on the breast with his Musquet and another threw dirt in her mouth whereby she was so frighted that afterwards she miscary'd But the Zeal of the Quakers in Meeting or Souldiers in persecuting was not as yet chill'd For they no sooner return'd to their usual Meeting than the Souldiers follow'd them as they had done formerly afflicting them with their wonted Rudeness so that the very Earth was re-sprinkled with their Blood and Twenty or more of them were inhumanely wounded which a certain Countrey Officer seeing and being troubled at a Man very discreet for his office or at least not always so rough and rigid advis'd the Souldiers not to persist in such wild rigour and unreasonable rudeness hoping he might easily obtain what he desired The Souldiers were so far from regarding his request they fell upon him so forcibly that they almost broke his pate There were more examples of cruelty done at this time in several places elsewhere yet the Quakers never assembled at night nor in a Solitary place lest they should seem to attempt any thing unworthy of Light and whereof they should be affraid yet they met sometimes more cautiously and timerously and with as little stir as they possibly could not because they were disrespected Vilified and Calamitously treated but sometimes by reason of the greatness of the danger they forbore the times and places of their Assembling Sometimes they were deny'd the use of their own houses where they us'd to conveen frequently and numerously the Magistrate commanding the Doors and Entrances to be clos'd up with brick and morter to prevent their admission But they thinking themselves Masters of their own houses open'd 'em without Command or Counsel of any other and went into their Meetings as they formerly had done The Qnakers observed this Year that there was above Eight Thousand of their Sect made Prisoners since the King's Return whereof Six Hundred were as yet detain'd Things being in this condition about the Year Seventy Two a Remarkable War happen'd betwixt the Confederate Kings of Brittain and France and the States of the United Provinces in which War the Dutch had the better as 't was thought both by Sea and Land not only by withstanding so great Armies of two such potent Kings and two Bishops more intent on the destruction than preservation of Men but also snatch'd a considerable victory from 'em both King Charles fearing lest the War abroad might create some matter of sedition at home that he might preserve ease and concord amongst his subjects granted not only protection to Men of all Religions and consequently to the Quakers Papists being only excepted but also the free exercise of their several perswasions whereby the Quakers from a tempestuous storm were brought into a safe Haven The Remembrance of the past pleasure of the present and hope of the future time induc'd them to compose restore and accomplish the common concern of their neglected affairs But this rest and tranquillity was of no greater Continuance than till matters were adjusted twixt the Dutch and English for in two year's space the war being ended the Jars twixt ancient friends and brethren easily kindled and quickly quenched did not only serve to wash away the strife but renew and confirm their former love So the Quakers were toss'd with new dangers again as when another storm suddenly falls upon those that anchor'd in the safety of an happy Haven and drives 'em from the hopes of the expected shore into the great and dangerous roarings of the deep Having hitherto related concerning these Men almost all things I thought worthy to be read or repeated since nothing follows much differing from what we 've heard I shall run through what remains as orderly as briefly Geo. Fox having now travers'd England more than one and thinking he had spent study and Labour enough in endeavouring to declare and advance his Religion not contenting himself to work only at home began to think upon going further abroad there to commence and carry on the same design In the year 71 passing over the wide Sea he went to New-England in America to visit friends of the same Doctrine and Discipline encouraging and confirming 'em to retain and preserve the faith they had receiv'd piously and inviosably Then he went in to the Barmuda's Islands from thence to Jamaica Merry-Land Virginia Nova-Cesarea Insula-Longa and to the ouâ—most Rhodes from which last Island in the year 72 4th month and 19th day he wrote a journal in form of an Epistle and sent it here to his friends in England whereof I have a Copy But I and nothing else written there but the Climates Seasons Tracts Borders and Regions upon which they went out where they found or formâ—d Societies of their persuasion whom they met every where especially in Virginia and Rhodes how cheerfully and kindly they discours'd and entertain'd him In Virginia he speaks of one or two of the Rulers of that Wild and Barbarous people who came to a certain assembly of the Quakers and tho much unacquainted with the English Language behaved themselves to
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
or despise to follow and imitate the others Example yet betwixt 'em both there 's a very great difference and jarr as the Molinists adhere to the Rectors of Conscience sacred orders and very many rites and the Quakers reject all these Rules and Principles which being neither abstruse nor hard to be known I shall not now inlarge on with any further addition England being now at leisure from War and Peace with the Dutch again establish'd the long-gather'd grudge against the Quakers and the anger that sometime was restrain'd and forborn began to be now reviv'd and strengthen'd in order to renew the War against ' em Fox as yet thinking himself most concern'd yea to have the oversight of the Quakers affairs went on preaching with such boldness confidence and care of their business that he run himself into many dangers So also did Keith and Penn. Whether with a design to avoid the danger or because they suppos'd that they could and ought to deserve well by their Counsel and Authority at the hands of their friends that were living elsewhere it 's not known In the year 77 they went together into Holland and part of Germany to visit some few friends they had in those Countreys In which Voyage what was done by them I shall endeavour to shew in the following book In the mean time the daily encrease of evil started reproach and oppression against many There was afterward a great persecution begun in the County of Nottingham which being also diffus'd into other Provinces and at length in the year 80 through the whole Land run through the people with an exceeding violence This affair that year Penn and Mead did accurately describe and many others whose fellowship with those that suffer'd Calamities was such that what they endur'd they thought done to themselves and therefore they sent their desires to King and Parliament to inform them of the Injuries done to their friends and intreat at length a remedy and help against those evils of so long Continuance Tho I could insert Innumerable examples of their troubles that I may not excur without the bounds of my intended brevity I shall content my self to repeat two of 'em mention'd by those whom I have already nam'd so far I suppose from being unknown that tho they have been kept silent their truth may be attested by the memory of many as yet for I write nothing but what I am assured of W. Godrig of Banwal in Somerset-shire being desir'd to give light to somewhat by his Oath knowing certainly that he would religiously refuse it upon his refusal was dragg'd into Jayl and despoil'd of all his goods and movables to the value of 244 lib. ster and also Immovables whose yearly value was suppos'd to amount to 60 lib. or thereabout at last after thirteen years Imprisonment all his Estate was publickly Confiscated Mich. Renald a wealthy and monyed Man in the County of Bark-shire owed the Tythes of his Land for one year to about the summ of 10 lib. which he refusing to pay was summoned by the Creditor being also so unwilling to follow such a suit that he rather would have sustain'd any greater detriment the cause was so ordered in Judgment and the tryal given in the plaintiff's favour that the Collectors for a fine out of his Cattel or stuff should instead of ten take 60 lib. wherewith these fellows being cunning severe and hot for their gain were scarce contented they took away to the value of 97 lib. besides being their own Officers they take as their wages out of the shaves of Corn about the worth of 12 lib. more About this time the Quakers counted 243 that were dead by wounds and strokes received at their Meetings While these things were done in England in Scotland also especially the Northern part much trouble was raised against the Quakers and that by reason of their publick Preachings some were greatly sined others refusing to pay them had their goods taken from them and that to the double of what was laid on Some were miserably kept in Custody amongst whom was Barclay's father mention'd in the former book and Alexander Skein once famous amongst the Magistrates of Aberdeen yet amongst all the Calamities and Sorrows they suffer'd they had no greater grief torment nor sorrow than to see and understand their Religion Behaviour and Actions to be so execrably and malitiously defam'd'd and revil'd For so they were every where in Libels and Verses Base and Reproachful pictures describ'd and design'd and that often by the vilest sort of Men. So in familiar Conference eatings and drinkings there was scarce a talkative prattling or babling fellow that lov'd to talk or act Comically but he must reduce his discourse and gesture to traduce the sincerity and simplicity of the Quakers There were no â—ordid Vagrants Quacks Juglers or Gamesters that had a mind to please the people or make themselves be laught at but must bring in the Quakers in their Gesticulation and Buffoonry Yea the Theatres and shows in Plays and Comedys which are wholly exploded when void of wantonness and not Arm'd with the follies and Madness of such words and Actions These must assign the Quakers their Acts Speeches and Motions and so lay open to the view of the world they profess'd themselves Masters to know and display the Lives and Actions of all sorts of Men. Yea in the Courts of Kings and Princes their Fools and Pleasants which they kept to relax them from grief and pensiveness could not show themselves more dexterously ridiculous than by representing the Quakers or aping the motions of their mouth voice gesture and countenance I heard a pleasant story from them Helen which the English for shortness calls Nell at London a most noted Dancer at the Play-house afterward a miss of King Cha. II. tho she could imitate all the Actors by any gesture of her body yet she could not by her out-most effort and endeavour even before the King and Courtiers whom she often pleas'd with such ludicrous Actions Act the Quaker so to the life as to draw out compress and remit the Spirit and so to ape their praying and holding forth without betraying force and affectation and how unhappy she was in Imitating those Actions which she could never have knowledge of by any Conjecture I was told the like of one of the Kings fools by those that were Eye-Witnesses of the matter The Quakers were also greatly afflicted in Leicester and Somerset-shire in the year 81 and 82. There is a Village in Leicester not far distant from the chief City of the whole province thither many of the Quakers are conveen'd and assembled which was not pleasing to some Inhabitants and especially Ministers of Churches that liv'd in those places Some young Men and Boys watch'd to disturb their Meeting and at other times Men with silence and constancy when they met they Immediately assault them unawares take 'em pull the Men's hats and womens upper coats from
with the Authority of a General assembly of that perswasion about the end of the year ensuing I long sought it with great Industry and after much pains it came at length to my hand but not till the whole work was almost finished and a part of it already receiv'd from the Printer I perceive by that book some things we 've related concerning Fox to be there omitted but what we 've said in ours of Fox doth for the main agree with what there is recorded I made some Remarks from thence of Fox which tho I knew not before I adventur'd to make use of relying on his own Credit and Testimony I may take the liberty to say further of that great book of Fox that it contains but few Historical Narratives consisting chiefly 〈◊〉 Enumerating places he Travell'd to all the days of his Life and the disputes he there maintain'd with several sorts of Men and the almost innumerable Orations and Epistles he wrote Fox was a Man alike famous for the temper and disposition of his body and mind of a very solid and succulent body and a mind fitly attemper'd thereto of a great Memory and tho not at all dull yet not Extraordinarily quick and acute Always more ready to think than to talk and yet more forward to speak than to write Unacquainted with no Doctrine or Art tho ne're so Vulgar not Curious yet sometimes taking pleasure to divert himself by playing with the cheats of the Learned Laborious and diligent tho 't were of little or nothing in all the minutes of his Common leisure Indefatigable even when strugling with the greatest of troubles Much given to watching making the measure shorter than that of the Night So given to frugality both for Health and Religion that he once fasted ten days as he testifies of himself being equally temperate in all the parts of his Life Bold and always of a constant patience doing all things so openly as not fearing to make 'em known so enduring all things as if the sole suffering and not the Cause or Action were glorious so ambitioning the Title of a Martyr as if he had thought the Name alone to be sufficient He was moreover couragious tenacious of his Opinion and morose so much considing in his Person Pains and Advice that he thought nothing could be done rightly or perfected without him being deâ—irous every where to be present and preside and what happen'd to be done well he laid claim to the glory of it pretending Title to the Reward of the Praise of it from all and yet all this under colour of Simplicity and Humility Pleasant and Bountiful to those that lov'd him but bitter against others that were not of his Society not only hurting 'em verbally but really as fer as he cou'd and that sometimes not only imprudently but even immodestly and impudently too One of his ancient friends and acquaintances writes in a certain Letter of Fox that he was according to the measure of his Capacity devoted greatly to the worship of God and promoting of Piety among Men meek in Conversation yet tainted with this which almost all teachers labour under in a new Sect or Discipline that he was too harsh 'mongst the Quakers themselves especially those that wou'd not receive such forms as he had conceiv'd or constituted He left many books which some of his followers do but faintly praise yet others extoll 'em to the Skies few touch 'em that are not of their perswasion and no body reads 'em that loaths repetition of the same thing in various dress of words and expressions or dislikes treating a theme with that Prolixity as not to regard what 's sufficient but how much can be said While Fox was alive the Quakers lived with a Brotherly Concord though there always were some that differ'd in some Article beside others that fell off from their Fellowship but Fox as their supreme Master being remov'd whose sayings and doings they regarded as a Law the Bond of Union being now broken though hitherto they seem'd to be led and govern'd only by his Mind and Desire a great Discord arose in England especially among those who tho they were not much wiser than the Vulgar arrogated more Wit and Accuracy to themselves The Subject of this Controversie was the Humanity of Christ first kindled some Years ago in Pensylvania and now toss'd 'twixt Keith and his Friends and others with their Followers puff'd up with some Knowledge I shall treat of this Controversie in the following book They 've Disputed in England concerning that Article almost to the losing of all Society He that pursues the Life of an Enemy neglects the use of no sort of Weapon but he that studies to rob him of his Fame forbears to revile him with no sort of Reproach That Controversie was so invidious divisive and troublesome and persu'd with so much eagerness of mind that men being flush'd with the Desire of Overcoming were not content to contend with words nor only to load one another with many Suspicions but also to spread an ill Report of their Antagonists to hunt after and wound one another with Calumnies openly denouncing Enmity Division and Schism Upon this it 's almost a wonder to think what Ignominy the Quakers did every where incur what Reports were in all places dispers'd of 'em for their so great desire of strife and contention that their whole Church seem'd infected with that Itch and Contagion And since the division of their parties was such there was little Conjunction Peace and Brotherly affection to be expected nay rather the time seem'd to draw nigh when the Sect and its Name must dwindle into nothing and that by the force of its own endeavour There were some concern'd in this Controversy who tho they managed it not by force and violence but hidden Engines not by open blows but private Lashes yet certainly contributed to their downfall and destruction There were General Councils of 'em held yearly at London from ninety two to the year ninety four In this year Keith came from Pensilvania to London and was called by the Council of that year as the principal head and adviser of the whole affair After he came and was long heard even that Council cou'd not compose these strifes nor so much as a little decide the difference So that the mischief as yet remains with Reproach and Disgrace Such is the stiffness and vehemency of these Men while now Iull'd with the soft Gale of Prosperity and Ease that there was never the least shadow of the like before while they wrestled with the rough wind of Adversity But of this I 'll speak more fully in the following Book lest this be swell'd beyond its bounds and there the matter comes in in its more proper place And now this and many other signs give some no small occasion to affirm that liberty case and External Tranquillity do Minister to discord slothfulness wantonness and Intemperance which are all dangerous to
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
followed by others of both Sexes Neither were the Actions of these very memorable their Power being abridged by the Sufferings they were forced to endure which indeed may be reckon'd so great and so many that they are not unworthy to be noticed and obserued Of all the Tract of the New England Common-wealth Boston is the Metropolis and Judiciary Seat At that time John Endicot was Rector or Governour of the whole Province one that from a very low condition was gradually mounted to this Honour and Dignity Of whose Temper Behaviour and Government which was then variously thought and talk'd of and whereof there were afterwards on both sides Witnesses I shall content my self wholly to be silent Next to him was Richard Bellingham whose manner of Life and Nature I also pass by At this time there was no where any thing like a Law enacted against the Quakers A Ship then arriv'd at Boston and was no sooner Anchor'd than a rumor was spread that 2 Quaker women were come in the Ship The Governour being absent he that was depute immediately sent order for seizing these women sealing up and keeping their Hampers Boxes and Chests and bringing the Books of their Sect whereof they had great store into the City where they were publickly burnt by the hand of the Hangman Then the women themselves were brought into Town and soon after before the Judges who presently as soon as they sat down on the Bench pronounc'd the women to be certainly Quakers for giving the singular title of thou to the Judge and not the more Courteous compellation of you contrary to the custom of almost all the English The Judges thinking this to be a sure enough sign and the matter to be clear and evident of it self their office rendring 'em best Advocates for themselves order'd the women to be taken and thrown into Goal and have nothing of the goods they had left in the Ship not so much as their Tools and Instruments of Writing lest they shou'd write of the Condition to which they were reduc'd or something of their New Religion and Doctrine The Goaler to compleat what the Judges had begun had the manners Irreligiously to rob 'em of their Bibles 'T was also decreed that none shou'd go speak or carry any meat to them Being kept in so strait and narrow a place having scarce any thing to eat sleep or lie upon till after some days something of their own was suffer'd to be brought 'em from the Ship which Nichol. Vpshal a Citizen of Boston and Member of the Church there privately agreed for a summ with the Goal-Keeper to let in and also to give 'em what sustenance was sufficient They complain'd further of their treatment as being reproach'd and revil'd as Whores who scruple not to expose and defile themselves and upon pretence of searching the truth of the matter of their being most basely and rudely strip'd naked and not only view'd contrary to Chastity and Shame Fac'dness but even handled with wicked and immodest hands without regarding those secrets of nature which modest Men wou'd shun the seeing or touching of These things being so Villanous to Act and scarce modest to name the women were rather forc'd to sit with and endure than betray their own shame without any Redress or expose their Disgrace without Sympathy or Compassion The women abode for five weeks shut up in this lonely and poor habitation Then the Captain of the Ship with whom they came before he set Sail had leave from the Judges at his own proper provision and charges to carry them back from whence he had brought ' em They being driven back in a little time after Sara Gibbens Mary Wartherhad Mary Prince Dorothy Wangre also Christopher Holder Thomas Thunton William Brent and John Copelan coming there met with such Treatment as the women had done before Upon this occasion there was a Law establish'd that no Ship-Master shou'd presume to bring a Quaker there and if any Quaker shou'd Adventure to come upon their Territories he was presently to be rewarded with the Confinement of a Prison Nichol Vpshal whose civility to the Imprison'd women I spoke of inquiring more narrowly into the Quakers Religion began to withdraw from his own Church and betake himself to the Quakers fellowship and oppose and exclaim against the Legislators Constitutions for establishing a humane sanction or Law contrary to the Rule of Divine precepts warning and advising 'em all to take care lest by a willful fighting against God they pull down his wrath and Judgment on themselves The Judges minds were hereby so Exasperated that resolving to make so new a danger Exemplary they first fin'd him in a hundred Crowns sentenc'd him to Goal and last of all to Banishment There was in the Western part of the province in sight of the Countrey an Island call'd Rhodes Here some Quakers did live hither went Vpshal to joyn with his cause Whither when he came 't was commonly reported that the Barbarous Indian Governour finding him gave him an Invitation to reside in his Countrey and Precincts promising him a seat in his indigency and exile and also to Accommodate him with a suitable habitation adding those words What sort of God have the English who deal so with others that worship their own After the others were put to the flight Ann Burden a widdow of London in Old England having some years ago liv'd with her Husband at Boston came there now for some Money that was due to her with Mary Dyer wife to William Dyer being both ignorant of what was establish'd by Law and what mischief here did threaten the Quakers These women were presently seiz'd and kept in Prison untill the husband did succour the one and good and Compassionate people the other Ann Burden was so acquitted that she was particularly prohibited to import these Warrs others had brought in her name and account for summs and Moneys due by some debtors tho they cou'd have been sold dearer there than in old England she was forc'd again to Transport 'em over the Sea not without being clipt by the Customers and Officers who were Artists sufficient in meddling with her goods and dividing a considerable part among themselves In 75 the year following and matters were stretch'd to such a pitch that all advice and assistance to that sort of Men seem'd so fruitless that they afforded but matter of Accusation and Calumny Since they cou'd not by Sea they did therefore by Land travel through strange and desolate places even such Woods Forests and Solitudes as none before 'em ever pass'd over not knowing or having wherewith to sustain themselves except what they carry'd along in a bag but when that fail'd being in utter want they sometimes met with help and supply from the Indians tho otherwise the most Barbarous of all Mortals who not only shewâ—d 'em the way but things needful for life and use yea such as these Countries take for Rarities and Delicacies so
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
duly consider'd finding their obsticy cou'd not otherwise be restrain'd we made a Law according to the Model of that which was settled in England against the Jesuits that such sort of Men shou'd be put to Death The making this Law did not hinder their return and disdainful continuance within our Territories even after the time for their departure was expir'd They were therefore justly thrown into Goal and confessing themselves to be those we had driven from among us before by the Court's order according to the sentence of that Law they forfeited their Life except Mary Dyer to whom at her Sons humble intercession We with an equality of Mercy and Clemency granted the Liberty to be gone from among us within two days which she promis'd to observe The Contemplation of that gradual progress we made in the whole series of that affair will confute all Clamours and Accusations of our cruelty since our own just and necessary defence did not only invite but also injoyn us to show the edge of so sharp a Law to Men of such stiffness and obstinacy which as these Men opposed with Contumacious violence they freely and willingly murder'd themselves It was always our wish that they had not done it and that the supream Law the peoples safety might be kept intire from all danger and detriment Our Antodating their danger that was to ensue and granting of pardon to Mary Dyer are evident Demonstrations that we were more desirous to preserve their lives than take 'em away Moreover tho so great punishment was provided against Quakers by Law especially those who being ejected did return yet there were not a few so rash as to come not only those who had not been here before but also who had been expell'd and banâ—sh'd ready to suffer any torment that cou'd happen yea to welcome death it self tho never so cruel A chief instance of boldness and obstinacy was very Conspicuous in the same Mary Dyer who as it was known tho she was on the Ladder and her neck in the Rope upon the very Borders of her last breath Yet after she had been once expell'd she return'd and yet was dismiss'd on this Condition that she wou'd no more repeat the same crime Notwithstanding all this she return'd once more persisting in the same purpose and mind that she must either have liberty for her self and Companions that Law of ejecting and murdering Quakers being Abrogated to rest in ease safely and quietly or if she cou'd not obtain it she wou'd seal with her Death her constant confidence in her Religion and thereby accuse the wickedness and insatiable cruelty of these Judges and convince them in the presence of all Men to be guilty of doing the highest of Injuries She came therefore undaunted from Rhodes to Boston in the year following which was the 60th the 31 day of the month of May. She was seiz'd and immediately the next day brought before the Judge the Court being throng who having told what charge had been formerly given her as the same time gave sentence of Death that to morrow she shou'd be hang'd by the neck till she dy'd that they might make sure to prevent her return for the future and give her no more occasion to be guilty of the like The next day accordingly she 's taken out of the Town guarded with Souldiers before and behind with their Drums beating round about her she came to the Gibbet with Courage in her Breast and very great Chearfulness in her face from whence she knew she shou'd not return any more having there spoken a great many words that show'd both the greatness of her mind and certain hope she had placed in Heaven she gave up her Spirit and so fell asleep The Quakers that either knew this Woman or had it from others Testimony of her say in her praise that she was a person of no mean Extract and Parentage of an Estate pretty plentiful of a comely Stature and Countenance of a piercing knowledge in many things of a wonderful sweet and pleasant Discourse so sit for great affairs that she wanted nothing that was Manly except only the Name and the Sex William Leadre was another instance of such constancy He being also upon pain of Death ejected and forbidden to see Boston again as I show'd before notwithstanding the year following viz. sixty two return'd thither prepar'd to expect and endure the same that these who had gone before had already suffer'd to offer his Blood for his Religion to those who he knew were thirsty enough to drink it When the report of his arrival was spread abroad and had also reach'd the Ears of the Judges they order'd the Man that thus contemn'd all threats of judicial punishment to be seiz'd and hurried headlong to Goal and all the cold season of the Winter to be kept in great hunger and want fasten'd to a thick and heavy log so that he scarce cou'd move himself out of his place being only as a dead trunk of a Man Having at length consider'd what to do with him they accus'd him heinously for daring to return he answer'd as the cause of expelling him was injust he thought he had just occasion to return They set the danger of his life before him because neither threatnings nor fear cou'd restrain him He answer'd that were he so easily to be frighted he would never have had the boldness again to return Being ask'd at another time if he would go into England he answer'd he had no business there afterward they endeavour'd earnestly to perswade him to renounce his Errors and Conform to the Church of England He reply'd then with greater vehemency that if he own'd his own confession to be false he must deny and reject God himself If he should herd with those of the Church of Englands Communion he must joyn with Notorious Murderers and Cut-Throats They again threatned him with an Infamous Death to which he answer'd he would Everlastingly rejoyce to suffer any thing for his Faith and Religion and that he was not at all afraid of Death so much as of the just Judgment of God yea that he would not decline any sort of Death since the just cause why he suffer'd it was absent and that that punishment they blazon'd with the threatning Colours of Death seem'd to him the way of Life and Eternal felicity so this discourse was not long continued But while they thâ—s lingred doubting what to do and could not come to a certain Conclusion other Quakers to the Number of five who had all been banish'd and prohibited to return upon the same penalty of losing their Life did yet without prudence or fear return Whereof one Wenlock Christyson understanding what they design'd to determine of Leader went straight way to the Court and told 'em that it was his sole errand to come to warn 'em to shed no more Innocent blood But his admonition was no worse rewarded than with a Goal Most of 'em at this time
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
of her Glory turn'd aside to this By-Way and having run through part of her life in that very House on which she had with those prodigious Endowments of Mind bestow'd so much Cost she was forsaken of all those that gap'd after her Estate and all her Family and left all alone but only not forsaken of God or abandoned to Desperation and so in her mournful Seat she breath'd out her Soul when she had first recommended it to God in Christ Of this excellent Maid to add this by the by What was mortal and perishing was repos'd not in the Sepulchral Monument or Tomb belonging to the Family of the Waltars erected in the Church as it might have been but without in the Church-yard or Ground lying about it in the common Earth amongst the rest of her Brothers and Sisters according to her own desire leaving that Monument out of Modesty that Familiarizer and Governess of all other Virtues of which this Lady in her life-time was always the perfect Pattern But since what the Doctrine of these People was what their Religion and how their way of Living what their Intention and what their aims and enterprises about the Church and other Men were may be fully known by their Writings which several Men among them yea and some Women too have published concerning themselues and many of our Learned Men of them I shall not now stay to Recapitulate But because all this Relation tends to this end to shew what Agreement there was between the Quakers of whom alone in this Work we treat and these Labadists I call them so because I know no better name to call them by in Doctrine and what Institution to one and the same purpose and lastly what intentions they had to joyn in Friendships and contract Acquaintances I will shortly and in few words relate it As to their Doctrine although these Men at first introduced little or nothing which was different from our Faith yet in process of time they brought in divers Innovations about the use of the Holy Scriptures and the guidance and operations of the Holy Spirit and Prayers and the remaining parts of Worship and the Sacraments and Discipline of the Church so that they came nearer to the Opinions of the Quakers in these things than to our Doctrine Now it appears that these Men no less than the Quakers reprehended and found fault with many things in our Churches and those of all Protestants that they were all so corrupt and deprav'd that no effect no fruit of the Spirit of God appeared amongst them nor no Worship of God but only a carnal and external One no mutual attention no conjunction of Minds no love no will no endeavours for the good one of another or the common good that was to be seen Lastly That no one's Life and Manners answered what they all profess'd or the Example and Precepts of Christ And as this was the complaint and quarrel of the Quakers so in like manner was it of these People too that with these vices above others were infected those that were the Prelates and Preachers of the Word and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Lastly these People thought thus that they were the Men from whom the beginning and first Examples of the Restitution of the Church was to be expected who also were wholly intent upon the famous work of this Reformation Just as the Quakers thought that this was chiefly reserv'd for them and that they were in a special manner obliged to go on with this Work of Reformation So great was the Fame of this Society that there was scarce any place in these Countries where there was not a great talk talk about these Teachers and Workers so that in Foreign Countries there was scarce any where unless it were among such People who have no regard to what is done abroad who had not heard something of them Therefore when these Reports were gone over into England and Scotland at first indeed there were some of these Men who being averse from the State of the Church as under the Bishops contained themselves within their own Churches which were more remote from external rites and splendor and a worldly and delicate polite as they call it and elegant Life and Conversation who also undertook the Ministerial Function At last also the Quakers who as soon as ever they heard of this sort of Men and their plain Religion and way of Life that they followed they began to think in good earnest of this Society of People and to be better acquainted with them and to consider ways and means amongst themselves how they should come to enter into Consultation with them I know that there was one of those Ministers of the Gospel so averse from the Episcopal way and addicted to Presbyterial Churches who not only himself writes to this Society but also communicates his thoughts upon this subject to an eminent Quaker which Man when after that time he foresaw many things from the face of the Kingdom which tho not altogether true indeed yet seeming very probable and likely to come to pass at that time he was not such a fearer of Episcopacy but that one might read in his Countenance and since he was a Man that one time or another it would come to pass as afterwards it happen'd that he was made a Bishop The first of the Quakers that came from Scotland to the Labadists to Amsterdam was George Keith a Man both very skillful in and much us'd to Controversie and Disputes After him comes out of England R. Barclay a Man likewise of great Experience and well seen in the Defence of his Religion These Men one after another treat about this matter with Labadee and the rest of them on whom the Government of the Society lay But when the Quakers opened their Mind briefly and in a common Style but they on the other hand us'd such deep and far fetch'd Speeches and those so round about the bush and turning and winding and so much Eloquence or endless Talkativeness that the Quakers knew not what these Men would say or how to know or find out and discern their Opinions Institutions and Intentions or where to have them which also had often happen'd to our People enquiring of these Men about these things and now began to suspect that they were not such a pure sort of People and were either bordering upon some Errors or privately entertain'd and bred some monstrous Opinion And when the Quakers tried again at another time to see further if by any means they could bring things to a Consent and Agreement and a conjunction together that they might act in common Concert the Labadists not only drew back but also resented it ill and were so angry that they thought it would be to no purpose to try any farther Conclusions with them And either upon the occasion of these Meetings together or from the designs of some of their Adversaries to reproach them it came to pass
perhaps destruction The same year did William Cotton go to Calaiâ— 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 aâ—â—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 itâ—s certain it was Translated and believed to have been much increased and published bâ— another hand And it 's no crime to think seeing the Style is so like unto that way of wâ—iâ—ing used by Peâ—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 anâ— 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
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 thâ— 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
his much esteemed John Calvin in his Writings hath called the Papists filthy Dogs and yet many of them were in an eminent degree of the Magistracy But I speak not this to justifie my self or any other when by human Infirmity we may be carried with too great heat of Mind in reproving the Errors and Faults of others But it was most loathsome Hypocrisie in my Adversaries to blame my heat with so great a noise and to make nothing of their own Iniquity and Impiety yea Blasphemy against both God and Christ and who in the heat of Mind and in hard Words did far exceed me P. 440. So that to them to wit the People called Quakers all are Christians to wit Jews Mahometans Painims in whom any good Seed of Religion appeareth and which they say is from Christ yea is Christ himself The Annot. He may well indeed affirm this of many of them and especially of George Whitehead who earnestly contendeth in that late Book called The Christian Doctrine c. cited by the Author Pag 467. that these Heathens or Gentiles who are obedient to the Light within who are without all Knowledg and Faith of Christ without are Christians wherein I have much differed from them and do at present differ For although I contend with all good Christians That Christ as he is that essential Word is in all Men yet it doth not suffice to our Eternal Salvation to know only and believe that Christ is the Word but that we both know him and believe in him as he took Flesh Died for our Sins and Rose again c. and how in that respect he is our Saviour as he is the intire Christ God-Man P. 452. Neither could this whole Deified Senate reconcile these two men The Annot. Whither the Author calleth that Senate Deified by way of scorn or otherwise I do not determine But if by the word Entheatus he meaneth Deified or Godded as to say made God or equal to God certainly some of the Quakers have so affirmed that who have the Spirit of God are equal to God but I never had any such madness nor have P. 474. Pen and Whitehead could so little rule their Minds and Tongues and Keith also could so little contain himself c. The Annot. I was indeed pressed with such grief of Soul and warmed with such heat of Mind against their Injustice and Hypocrisie that I confess I could not contain but sharply reprove their Faults and however I might have exceeded with respect to the inward frame of my mind yet I said nothing that was false when on the other side they did cast out many false and unjust things against me And William Penn in that very Meeting did justifie his false Accusation against me when in the publick Meeting at Ratcliff he called me Apostate saying He did it not in any Passion but he was so transported out of himself by the glorious Power of God that he did not at all know whether he was Standing Sitting or Kneeling which many who heard him so falsely accuse me knew well enough was a most shameful Falshood Pag. 113. For neither is the Scripture to them viz. the Quakers as we understand that word the perpetual and absolutely necessary Mean and the only and intire Form and Rule of Faith and Manners The Annot. I deny not but that it is true what this Author saith of the most and especially of many Ministers and Preachers among them But as to me when I was enough in favour with that People and to use their Phrase when I was in Unity with the Body of Friends I did affirm both by Word and Writ that the Holy Scripture to wit not the bare Letter but the Doctrine of the Scripture whether delivered by Voice or VVriting in God's ordinary way was the perpetual and necessary Mean and continueth so to be of our obtaining the Faith of Christ Crucified the Holy Spirit working together with the Doctrine in Men's Hearts which doth plainly appear out of my Answer to W. Bayer Professor of Theology at Jeninge in Germany first published in Latin and sent to him and then in English for Robert Barclay which Answer I suppose this Author has read for he maketh mention of it in this his History and doth relate the general Contents of it fairly enough And let the Author read again if he pleaseth that Answer or let any other read it and they will find especially if they read the Chap. 5th and 3d if they well weigh what I there delivered in that matter that either the difference is none or but small betwixt my Faith and the Faith of the more sound Protestants any where in that particular P. 114. Hence that God hath given to all men a new Birth c. The Annot. The Author I judge doth not well ascribe this to the People called Quakers viz. That God hath given to all Men a new Birth But this they say That God hath given to every Man an inward Light or a certain Seed of the New Birth which yet in many Men cometh not to a New Birth And although in this I aggree with them That God hath given to every Man an inward Light as a certain Seed yet in this I greatly differ from many of them that many yea the most or rather indeed almost all the Ministers among them very few excepted do affirm that this inward Light is sufficient to bring forth the New Birth and to give Eternal Salvation without any thing without us that is without the Man-Christ that was outwardly Born and Crucified and Rose again whom some of their Ministers in my hearing have called an outside thing a shell a husk that doth little or nothing profit us and the Faith of which doth nothing profit us And William Penn in that Meeting at Ratcliff where he falsely called me an Apostate did publickly proclaim after this manner Friends said he see no great need of Preaching the Faith of Christs Death and Suffenings for all England and all Christendom have that Faith and it doth not profit them But the Faith which profitteth Men is the Faith of Christ within and this Friends Preach Let now the Author judge or any other intelligent Person professing Christianity whither William Penn hath not sufficiently by these words proved himself an Apostate from the Christian Faith And mark the necessary consequence of these words All England and all Christendom have the Faith of Christ's Death and Suffering and it doth not profit them therefore there is no necessity of Preaching it but it were best that that Faith were wholly forgot and buried in Oblivion Is not this manner of Preaching enough not only to prove him that so Preacheth an Apostate but that it is the way with open face to bring in Anti-Christianism into the VVorld But although it must be granted that too many in Christendom have no other but a dead and hypocritical Faith concerning Christ and his Death and Sufferings for which
dead and hypocritical Faith I never did contend with any nor do I at present Yet this doth not hinder but that many both in England and throughout Christendom consisting of divers Professions under the common name of Christians have a sincere and living Faith of Christs Death and Sufferings c. which doth greatly profit them to Eternal Salvation P. 115. Which when it is brought to pass viz. the New Birth Christ who is altogether Holy and Righteous doth exist live and work in that Man and by that the same Man becometh just by the righteousness of Christ existing in that Man The Annot. He doth truly enough here relate what is the judgment of many yea the greatest part of the Ministers of that People who do not distinguish betwixt the Righteousness of Justification whereof a great part is Forgiveness of Sins by and for Christs Sake and for his Merits Sake apprehended by a sincere and effectual Faith and the Righteousness of Sanctification whereby the Faithful are made inwardly Holy and Righteous by the inward Virtue and Life of Christ and of the Holy Spirit inwardly working in the Hearts of the Saints which sanctifying Virtue and Power only true Believers in Christ Crucified do feel and experience and in this I differ from them and in many other things as I have heretofore done P. 116. And so indeed they did admit and receive a Ministry of the Gospel but such as every Christian ought to undergo although in a distinct degree by the alone impulse of the Holy Spirit without the Call of Men. The Annot. Yea not only without the Call of Men but without all Examination or Trial whether they who profess they are moved by the impulse of the Holy Spirit to the Ministry are able and qualified to undergo that Office being instructed and endued with Spiritual Gifts of Knowledge and Doctrine Whereby it comes to pass that very many both Males and Females among that People are suffered to exercise the Office of Preaching in their publick Meetings who are very sottish and miserably ignorant in the first Elements and Rudiments of the Christian Doctrine And this most vile Error and Practice hath brought in so great Ignorance and Blindness among them which men but meanly instructed in the matters of Christian Doctrine and Faith can scarce enough admire George Keith Some other short Annotations correcting some mistakes in the Author of this History with respect to some other particulars and one or two Observations Pag. 273. That the Quaker that foretold the burning of the City of London lived at Hereford The Annot. This I think is a mistake he belonged I suppose to Huntingtonshire P. 321. Afterwards Solomon Eccles went into New England where in a certain Speech with a vehement contention of Wrath he pronounced a certain judgment to come upon a particular Person as if he had been commanded of God to do it which Oracle when it failed c. The Annot. This is a great mistake as to the place which was not New England for he was then in old England somewhere in the West towards Bristol the sentence or false Prophecy being by him pronounced against John Story an ancient Preacher among that People who never was in New England The great and only offence that Solomon Eccles and his Party had against him being that he did not agree in all Points to some Orders and Methods of Church Discipline given out by G. Fox especially about Womens Government in the Church which John Story and many others did think the other party did extend too far and did too severely and rigidly impose upon their Brethren But after the time of this false Prophecy was expired John Story lived some years against whom nothing was ever justly objected either as to his Doctrine or manner of Conversation And though what the Author writes in true that Solomon Eccles aferwards when he had the experience that his Prophecy was vain and false did by a publick Writing confess his Error yet too many of his party greatly sought to extenuate his Crime by alledging that it was true as to substance though it failed as to the circumstance of time and I did not hear that for any time Solomon Eccles was put to Silence and a stop put to his Ministry for that trespass though it was very great for if Men but flatter their Ministry great Trespasses will be connived at but if any deal plainly and roundly with them and tell them their Faults it shall be esteemed next degree to impardonable Sin P. 438. The Propriety and Government of Pensilvania being void by the Death of William Penn the Elder from whom also the possessive name of that Country together with the Propriety and Government of it passed to his Son William Penn. The Annot. This is also a mistake for though William Penn had a considerable Estate that came to him by his Father yet his Father was never in the possession of either the Propriety or Government of Pensilvania but it came to him wholly after his Fathers Death as is known to many and the name of Pensilvania took its Rise from the Son and not from the Father which name as was commonly reported was given to the Country by King Charles II. who gave him the Country and its Government P. 570. That Esther Biddel said She was by the Instigation of God moved to pray the French King that he would make Peace with God and with the Nations c. The Annot. How is it probable that God would send a Message to the French King by such an ignorant Person and so great an Unbeliever in Christ Crucified unless we could suppose that such a Miracle was wrought as when God opened the Mouth of the Ass to reprove the madness of Balaam the said Esther Biddel being heard by many in a publick Meeting of the Quakers on a first day at the Savoy a little before her pretended Message to the French King so to Preach Friends Keep in your minds to Christ the Light in you and let not your minds go forth to a Christ without you for in the beginning Friends did not direct us to Christ without us but to the glorious Light of Christ within us in which Anti-Christian Doctrine another in that same Meeting did oppose her Note Some very small Additions are put in by the Author of the Letter betwixt by way of Explanation to make some things in the Letter more plain Something Added in Behalf of the People called Quakers both with respect to the Historian and also G. Keith ANd therefore after the perusal of this History and George Keith's Letter added it 's desired this may seriously be considered it being mostly taken out of a Book of George Keith's printed by him Anno 1692 Intituled A Serious Appeal Wherein he takes notice of Directions for weak and disâ—empered Christians and saith may be of some service to that Injured People called in Scorn Quakers p. 1. From my own