themselves call the Oath of Allegiance After the Discovery of the Gun-powder Treason formed by the Papists against King James the First and all the Royal Family and all the Peers of the Realm such a Law was made by the said King James and his Parliament to wit That for the restraining of such Papists who had much rather that the Pope should be Supream Lord of the Kingdom than the King and were easily induced to Offer such mad and abominable Sacrifices as these that are not to be named and that they might be known from other Men that as God should help him every one should Acknowledge Profess Testifie and Swear that the Pope had no Power to Depose the King or to stir up his Subjects to Rebel against him and that the same would perform all due Obedience and Fidelity towards the King and withstand all Plots and Contrivances against the Regal Authority There was moreover an Oath long since in use to this King's Predecessors called the Oath of Supremacy first begun by King Henry VIII whereby every one did Swear That the King alone was Supream Governour of this Kingdom in all things and causes whatsoever as well in Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as in Civil These Oaths from the beginning of this New Revolution being put to the Quakers by the Royallists they proposed to them when they were taken to Swear to these words positively that they might try how they stood affected towards the King But seeing they refused to Swear at all as holding it an unlawful Act and not that only of the Abjuration of the Pope and their Affection towards the King and that in the mean time they were always ready in clear and distinct words truly to Affirm in the Presence of God that they were such Persons as did abominate and loath the Pope and that Church and the Power of those Men and their Tenets as also their Pride and Treachery against Kings and that the King could fear no Danger and Inconveniency so little from any sort of Men as from them nor desire more Love Obedience and Good-will from any as towards their Lawful King and that they were ready if they proved false herein to undergo such Punishments as they who have violated their Oath after they have sworn in direct words yet this Oath was always objected against them as an inexplicable Snare wherewith to ensnare whom they were minded to catch for whether they did altogether refuse this Oath or with this same Exception that they might give their Opinion concerning it or the thing it self and spoke of their willingness to Promise Solemnly to be Faithful and did not refuse to Subscribe the same with their hands they were presently looked upon as Men either unfaithful or wavering or treacherous in their Obedience to the King and to be deprived of all the Protection and Favour that the King could give them And as a Superaddition to the rest when they to whom Tythes of the Fruits of the Earth and the like were allotted for their Labours and especially the Farmers of these Tythes were very sharp upon them for their Returns and Profits and the Quakers denyed that they ought to pay them they were very severely and hardly used every where Moreover when they were shut up in Prisons had little or no Relief from without those that served them used them for the most part as they pleased neither was there any thing whereby they might defend themselves Of which things as there are very memorable Instances and almost without Number I shall give one only Specimen of every sort and that briefly At Sherborn in Dorsetshire there were Thirty Quakers got together into an House for to Worship God in an innocent harmless manner who as if they had been a knot of Men come together for to Drink Revel Rebel and Conspire against the Government were haled out by the Townsmen Officers and School-Master of the place followed with many Swords and Clubs and entertained with Curses and Blows were carried before the Magistrate who blamed sentenced and condemned them as vile Persons bent upon Rioting and while they were met together did only contrive and rashly machinate Innovations and this they did without any Proof Judgment and Defence the Quakers at the same time however crying out that there was not one Person that could make any such thing good against them or that they met upon such an Account and urging the King's Promise in vain that while they were only met together to Celebrate their Worship to God that none should suffer any Injury because of his Religion Some of the Quakers were shut up in Dorchester Gaol from the sight of all Men and even from the common Light others of them meeting the Danger make their Appearance at the next Quarter Assizes where when nothing that had been urged against them could by any means be proved but that these Men did now appear before the Court with their Hats on this was now objected as a Crime unto them and looked upon as a certain diminution of the King's Majesty and so they were fined for their Punishment to pay great Sums of Money which when they did not forthwith pay they were all adjudged by the Court to be shut up in the same Prison of Dorchester upon Condition they should not be released from thence till such time as they had paid the said Sum. In the Town of Shrewsbury which is the head Town and finest in that County when the Quakers were at their Meeting several Soldiers break open the Doors and rush into the House and take away and hurry into Prison One and Twenty of them The Judges when they did not and could not Accuse them of having done any Villany or Wrong require them to take the Oath of Allegiance which when they refused to do the same as it were condemning themselves by this their silence as if they had been guilty of Treason they are forced to remain shut up in the same Prison Edward Noell a Country-man of Kent had taken from him of his Flock to the value of an Hundred Pounds for the Tythes of Twenty Pounds for which he had not paid the Money and when he according to his Country Rhetorick and Truth had made a noise about it and sufficiently stung the Ears and Hearts of the Tythes-men and Magistrates he was commanded away to Prison and there kept a Year and an half One Thomas Goodrey at a place in Oxfordshire called Chadlington and a Man of a good Nature and Disposition having travelled through many Parts of the Kingdom turns in to see his Friend Benjamin Staples This Man the very next Night after he came was together with his Landlord carryed away and led before the Justices they tender to them the Oath of Allegiance which when they refused to take so as that there was no way left for them to make any Defence they are led away and committed to the Common Gaol of Oxford and were shut up
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
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
Appleby and when they also required him to Swear and that he could not be brought to do so he is led back to his former Prison He was again the Year following brought before the same Court and the same Question put to him where he declares with great Constancy but in much Modesty That he as to what belongs to the substance and matter of the Oath did not refuse to Declare and Promise the performance of it yea and to subscribe it but that he could not affirm the same by an Oath neither was that Lawful for a Christian nor Advantageous to Men seeing that such an Asseveration would neither impose a greater Obligation upon good Men in the preserving of their Faith nor take away fear from the wicked and that the same was only an Encouragement to Rashness and Temerity in all false hearted Men and a Cloak for Evil and sometimes for the most notorious Villanies By which speech and moderation in speaking Howgil was so far from being freed from the Prosecution and Envy of his Judges that for all that he was adjudged Guilty and adjudged as being guilty of Disloyalty to have all his Lands forfeited as long as he lived and Moveables for ever returned to the Exchequer and that he himself was out of the King's Protection and ordered to be shut up and detained in perpetual Imprisonment and so it came to pass that the Man continued in that Prison for five Years when at length he fell very sick and shortly after ended his Miseries by Death between the Arms and Lamentations of his Wife and many Friends who were the Witnesses of his Exit and of their own sorrow for the loss of a Man who was not only dear and delightful to them but to all of their Society at his Death he called God and Men to Witness That he died of thut Religion for which he had suffered so many Afflictions While the Quakers were thus disturbed harrassed and molested the Parliament made yet a more rigid Law That the Quakers should in direct words before the Magistrates take the Oath of Allegiance to the King and own him for the Supream Head of the Church But and if upon any Account they could not be brought to do this it was Enacted That within a Year's space they should leave the Kingdom as refractary and rebellious Persons that acknowledged no Authority of Rule and rejected and laid aside all Bands of Humane Societies By which Law they seemed now as if they did not only raise up Arms and Proclaim War against them openly and simply but design their utter Ruine and Destruction Now by this Law there was an increase of these Peoples Misfortunes the following Year in that it made them to be much more suspected and hated by the People but it 's uncertain whether this proceeded from the Opinion and from thence the Rumour of such sort of Men who think what they do not comprehend and say what they think or from them who believed cunningly enough that this was the best way and manner for them to be quickly and readily rid of these Men. Or lastly from them who hoped that they might in these troublesome Times gain some Profit and Advantage to themselves the Mischief was this These Men were more and more blamed that they cherished Papists and even Jesuits that certainly lurked amongst them which same Persons were so hateful to the People and which took upon them their Names and Persons and preached amongst them that sometimes one and the same Teacher on one and the same day did first Celebrate Mass among the Papists and afterward Preached in the Congregation of the Quakers either without Hair or with a Peruke on neither was there any Notable Preachment at any time had among the Quakers the Author whereof was not esteemed to be a Jesuit and this was so rooted in the Thoughts and Imaginations of most Men that if any one knew it not he was looked upon as ignorant of the Publick Affairs if he denyed it as Impudent or a Papist or Jesuit himself born to Lye and to Cheat And they offer this as an Argument of such Practices which made the same find a more easie belief to wit that the Papists did so as well because that hereby they might avoid Swearing as the Quakers were most averse to such Oaths and so should swear nothing against the Honour and Interest of their Religion as that so they might catch and allure the unwary by their Artificial and cunning Speeches I remember I have heard a long time after being in Company with some Englishmen and amongst some Quakers these Men complaining that even then such Discourses were bandied about concerning the Jesuits mixing with the Quakers and that they durst not contradict them I 'll go a little further some time after some I know not who according to their Jesuitical way and disposition that wrote Foxes and Fire-brands urging that there was a certain Jesuit that had lurked and taught among the Quakers for Twenty Years together but as often as I have put this thing to the Quakers they have answered That there could be nothing upon this Head found more falsly or more foolishly and that they could never find any thing that was like it or smelled of it but yet it is strange how much Envy and Hatred this Opinion contracted to these Men who followed this Sect and Constitution and certainly there is no Year so Memorable and Note-worthy for the Persecution of these Men than this of Sixty Four for seeing that neither those who were in Prison that they might be set free nor those at Liberty that they might prevent their Imprisonment could be brought of that Mind as to be willing to Swear and that those who were free would by no means cease to hold their Assemblies and that in greater Numbers than the Law allowed and that many times they went so far that they left their homes and went out of the Bounds of the Kingdom They were indeed in some places very severely handled and in other places over and above their hard Treatment seeing that all places were filled with Prisoners they ordered them into Banishment and drove them as the noisom and horrible Pest of the Kingdom into the uttermost Parts of the Earth The City of London had none of the least share in this Persecution where besides the Oppressions and daily Violences offered by the meaner sort and scum of the People as well as by the Soldiery who strenuously rejoyced in such doings and as having no regard of their own so did more lightly set by other Mens Lives and who every where waited for them in their Meetings and did ever and anon by the Magistrate's Command hale away many of them yea sometimes an Hundred together and drive them before them like a Flock of Sheep and throw them into Prisons but not into those that were next at hand and more at large wherein however they might have been safe enough
occasions which the Quakers were very refractory to do That they sent not their Children to School to be taught by the Parish School-masters who otherwise were straiten'd for a livelyhood for the Quakers had School-masters of their own profession to whom they committed the Education of their Children that they refus'd to pay their quota for repairing the Churches and keeping them in order that they omitted to give the Easter-Offerings or such other gifts as ought and us'd to be given to the Curates or Minsters of their Parish and lastly that they refus'd to pay the Tithes of their Cattel Lands Trees Honey c. to the Minister this say the Quakers the Clergy look'd upon as their greatest Calamity accounting it their cloros as they us'd to taunt them or the loss and rottenness of their honeycombs and the product of their Bees Thus the Quakers both in their gestures Speeches and Writings sometimes cunningly insinuated such â—art buâ—ter Reflections Liberty was given the Quakers before the sentence of Excommunication was pronounc'd against 'em to propose their Defences and Apologies for themselves before the Bishops and Magistrates But because they were not allow'd to do it themselves but only by Procurators and Sollicitors which could not be done without giving Money they declin'd appearing before them for they thus reason'd with themselves that if their business succeeded favourably it was well if not it would be the multiplying expences upon expences in vain and besides they bethought themselves that no faith would be had to their Allegations without interposing their Oaths which they were very a verse to nay so resolute that they would rather run the hazard of the greatest persecutions whatsoever So that none of them obtain'd any favour Nor were they excus'd who pretended to be sick and so unable to attend the Court for this their pretended sickness was interpreted to be feign'd and not real So that one after another great numbers of them were Condemn'd apprehended and put in Prison some Rich some Poor some Citizens some Country-Peasants several of the latter being Imprison'd for a very small summ not exceeding ten or six pence Which small summs they all refus'd to advance not that they were so poor as that they could not or so pinching and niggardly that they would not part with so much but that they thought the pursuers had no right to them And the pursuers were so eager and strict that they would not forgive such little summs nor abate the least farthing of their due lest others should have taken Encouragement from such a precedent to expect the like immunity So they were all promiscuously Imprison'd In the mean while the fomenters of the Action while they pretended to recover what was owing them took by force from their houses what as they said would amount to the summ pillaging their houses Embezzeling and Spoiling their Barns Stacks Harvest Vintage taking their Horses Cows and all other possessions they could be Masters of so that they recover'd their Money with Interest destroying all that the diligent Men had scrap'd together by the sweat of their brows and living sparingly and leaving nothing almost for the sustenance of their families Yet the Quakers continued still stedfast and unmoveable resolving to suffer to the last extremity rather than recede from the course they had begun so that some of them were cast into common Goals some into Castles and Places of strength some into stinking noysom Dungeons where dogs could not live being forc'd to live at the Discretion and Arbitrement of their Keepers and expos'd for a ridicule to the basest and meanest of the Vulgar Servants some were put in among the profligate and debauch'd who had liv'd in all manner of wickedness and villany and were justly punish'd for their evil deeds who yet even then could not abstain from their perverse and wicked courses nor refrain from calumniating and vexing their fellow Prisoners and lastly some of them were banish'd into so distant Countrys from their Wives and Children and all other Enjoyments that were dear or comfortable to them which one Affliction crush'd some of them to Death being overwhelm'd with anguish and sorrow for the loss of their endeared consorts Many of them died by the noysome smell and other inconveniences of the Prison or through grief or being wearied out and oppress'd with long and tedious diseases arising from such causes Some came sooner to this unhappy end some later but others endow'd with more strength and firmness of Body wrestled out for a long time There were some of them set at liberty and freed from this insupportable weight of misery through the intercession and entreaties of their Friends with the Magistrates who likewise were mov'd with pity and compassion towards them but were afterwards remitted to their old miserable habitation not for any new debt or crime but for that same they were Imprison'd for before where they continued till Death alleviated their sorrows Some few years after this the Quakers divulg'd all this severe usage to the World by writings which they presented to the King and Parliament In which they run thorough all the several Countries of the Kingdoms amassing together all the instances of the cruelty and barbarity us'd towards them But I shall here content my self with two of their most Remarkable Examples adding unto them a third which tho omitted by them upon what account I know not is as memorable and worthy to be remarked as any The year that first affords us these Examples is the year sixty four The first is this There liv'd a Blacksmith in a little Village in Hampshire by name Thomas Penford who was Imprison'd at Worcester in the common Goal by an edict of Excommunication because he would not pay three pence for Reparation of the Church which he obstinately refus'd to do so that after three years and a half Imprisonment he died in Goal The next is Thomas Rennes a Country Farmer in some little Village in Oxfordshire was Imprison'd at Oxford by an Edict of Excommunication for not paying the Tithes which he was aversâ— to do While he was detain'd Captive the Minister goes and seizes on his Horses which were much more valuable than the summ he wanted yet the poor Man continu'd in Prison a long time and ends his days upon the place The third Example which is a Complex and Image as it were of all the rest was after this manner One Thomas Dobson liv'd at a little Village call'd Brichtnel in Berkshire where he maintain'd himself and his Family very honestly by a Farm he kept and some small substance he had scrap'd together by his labour and diligence He refus'd to pay the Tithes not that he was so straitned for Money that he could not make up the summ but that he could not do it because of the dictates of his Conscience disallowing the same There was one Radulph Wistler who bought the Tithes and had an Eye for a long time upon this Man's
substance and was fond of an occasion to terrify the rest from doing the like he caus'd this Man to be hal'd to Prison where he smarted for his contumacy by fifteen weeks Captivity during which time and likewise after that Dobson was releas'd and return'd to his own house he pillag'd and harass'd his house and possessions taking off his Horses Kine and other possessions which were priz'd and sold for his benefit till he made about forty pounds English And afterwards in the year sixty six and sixty seven when the poor Man was secure fearing nothing he attacks him again takes from him his Horse four Kine and all the Cattle he had of whatever sort all the furnishing of his house and the very beds they lay upon so distressing and empoverishing the poor Man that he and his Family scarce had wherewithal to cloath themselves But some time after when he had almost overcome this disafter having purchas'd two kine which gave Milk out of which and the cheese made of it he sustain'd his Family without any other food the Minister of the Parish Church whose name I choose rather to conceal pursues him with an Edict of Excommunication insomuch that not only this small remnant he had for maintenance of his family was taken from him but himself thus poor and empty was cast into Prison which was done in the same year from which time he remain'd captive till the year Seventy two when he was set at liberty by the King 's special Command at length having return'd to his former dwelling place and beginning to improve his small fortune a little by labouring the ground and diligent working this same Tithe-master I have already nam'd so well vers'd in his exactory Discipline that no office of humanity withheld him from the same falls upon him again and takes all the possessions he now enjoy'd leaving him nothing so that the value and price of what he took from him was reckon'd to be eightly pounds English which is eight hundred and fifty eight Dutch Gilders And moreover to give a farther instance of his unparallel'd Barbarity he caused him to be cast into Prison in the year seventy five where he was shut up among Thieves and Robbers and those who were not only guilty of such Enormous Crimes but even of Whoring and Revelling the Botches and Exulcerations arising from their intemperate Venery being yet running upon their bodies creating a most noysome and grievous smell and all the whole Members of their body being infected and corrupted with the same But Dobson's greatest comfort was that he found in Prison Men of his own Society who were kept Captive upon the same account that he was Sometime after when one of these miserable pocky wretches had rotted unto Death through the Corruption of that blackest and foulest disease the Keeper of the Prison a Man inferior to none for wickedness and excess of Rudeness and Inhumanity who dealt so with these Quakers his Prisoners that he shew'd to the World that his humor and constitution was fitted for tormenting mankind gather'd up the straw upon which this Corrupted and Loathsome carkass was laid bringing it into that place where Dobson with his fellow Quakers and also the rest of these flagitive miscreants were throng'd up where he burnt it in a fire to testify that burning hatred and malice against the Quakers which rag'd and flam'd within his Breast And from the flames of this burning straw there proceeded such Exhalations and Contagious fumes that the Quakers were all taken ill of a most grievous and dangerous disease which in a short time put a period to the lives of some of them Dobson recover'd of this Distemper but continu'd under the same miserable Captivity till the wellcome day of his Death which happen'd in the last day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred seventy and seven The Quakers therefore being griev'd in soul for this insupportable affliction of their Brethren and apprehensive of the like Events about to befall themselves could not contain themselves from expressing the Estuations and Boylings of their incensed Minds nor restrain their extravagant Tongues and Pens from complaining and lamenting every where publishing Books and Writings Exaggerating the misery of their Condition and demonstrating unto the World what for Men these Evangelical Reform'd Protestants as they call'd 'em Evidenc'd themselves to be Those who in ancient Times cry'd out against Persecution for Religion's sake pretending that none but God had Power to call their Religion and Conscience to account and yet in these days are so fierce and cruel with their own Countreymen upon the same Religious Account sighting against them with carnal Weapons and oppressing them to such an high degree that tho they spar'd their Lives yet inâ—licted Evils far worse than Death it self introducing the same Tyranny that was us'd against the Church oâ— Old but with a New Face and Name The Quakers relate and also some of the Chroniclers or these Times record That in the Time of that fatal and bloody Plague which Rag'd so severely both in London and many parts of that Realm the Bishops besought the King and boldly counsell'd him That in Order to avert and appease the Weath of God which then so heavily afflicted them he would free and cleanse the Kingdom from that Pâ—st of Quakers and other Fanaticks the Banishment and Extirpation of whom would be an acceptable and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the Land But the moderation of the King was too great to give Ear to such Counsels for though he would not countenance or assist these men yet he was not willing to use such inhumane Cruelty against them and accordingly chose rather that the Old Punishment should be continued against them than a New One of that Nature take place This Year which was so fatal unto many places destroying both the Quakers and their Enemies promisouously did likewise give the same deadly stroke to Samuel Fisher whose Fame among the Quakers Acuteness of Wit Learning and Neat Polite Way of Writing I have already mentioned He died in Prison The Quakers mightily lamented his Death being sensible what a great Doctor and what a Skillful and dexterous Defender of them and their Religion they had lost Their Enemies and Ministers of the Church on the contrary rejoyc'd and congratulated his Death who had given them so much trouble while alive being educated in the same Colledges with themselves and having been one of their own Tribe taught the same manner of learning and invested with the same office and well acquainted with all their writings â—â—trigues methods and Ecclesiastical Policy so that he was more capable to use their own Weapons and Arguments against themselves which he did very dexterously At this same very time they were likewise bereav'd of John Coughen so fam'd and renown'd among the Quakers who tho he was not taken out of the World yet deserted his Station and separated himself from the
this theme as if he had aim'd at no other design then to bring in some and play upon others with a few frothy flowrishes of words This is the matter of fact The Parliament made it their purpose and endeavour to give Liberty of Conscience to such as I have Nam'd A Committee of a select number of the house was order'd to treat of this affair They when doubting of the Quakers Doctrine and saith concerning the sacred Scripture and mystery of the holy Trinity because they use not to call the Scripture the word of God thinking that name to be proper only to Christ or to the internal word of God under which sense external Letters can never fall nor to term the Father Son and Spirit three persons that being a word not used in Scripture ordered their Articles and opinion to be presently inquired into Two famous Quakers at that time Geo. Withad and John Virughton treated of these matters with Sir Tho. Clargy a member of the house He advis'd 〈◊〉 with Kindness and Candour to publish their mind fully and fairly concerning these two Articles that were doubted of They without delay write and subscribe their Thoughts and willingly presented 'em to that honourable Man from whom as they had received a wholsom Advice they now also expect a seasonable assistance The form of each of 'em for himself was to this purpose I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth the sacred Scriptures to be Divine left us by Men Inspir'd of God as an exact rule of our faith and behaviour and I profess to believe in one only God who is the father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son very God and very Man and in the Holy Spirit one and the same God with the Father and Son blessed for evermore This confession having pleas'd Clargy was given to be read to the rest of the Members who thought fit to call in some nine or ten Quakers that were ready at hand for such a design to question 'em if that were their faith and perswasion Upon their owning it the day following the matter was presented by the Committee to the whole house and thus it was agreed that the Quakers shou'd have liberty and order'd it shou'd be recorded and drawn out into an Act. While publick affairs were thus changed W. Penn was not so regarded and respected by King and Court as he was formerly by King James partly because of his intimacy with King James and partly for adhering to his old opinion concerning the Oath of fidelity which was now mitigated but not abrogated Besides this it was suspected that Penn Corresponded with the late King now Lurking in France under the umbrage and protection of the French King an enemy justly and equally odious to the Brittish King and united Provinces 'twixt whom there was now an inveterate War This suspicion was follow'd and also encreas'd by a Letter intercepted from King James to Penn desiring Penn to come to his assistance in the present State and Condition he was in and express the Resentments of his favour and benevolence Upon this Penn being cited to appear was ask'd why King James wrote unto him he answer'd he cou'd not hinder such a thing being further question'd what Resentments these were which the late King seem'd to desire of him he answer'd he knew not but said he supposed King James wou'd have him to endeavour his Restitution and that tho he cou'd not decline the suspicion yet he cou'd avoid the guilt and since he had loved King James in his prosperity he shou'd not hate him in his adversity yea he lov'd him as yet for many favours he had conferr'd on him tho he wou'd not joyn with him in what concern'd the State of the Kingdom He own'd he had been much oblig'd to King James and that he wou'd reward his kindness by any private office as far as he cou'd observing inviolably and intirely that duty to the publick and Government which was equally Incumbent upon all Subjects and therefore that he had never the vanity to think of endeavouring to restore him that Crown which was fallen from his head so that nothing in that Letter cou'd at all seem to fix guilt upon him From that time Penn withdrew himself more and more from business and at length at London in his own house confin'd himself as it were to a voluntary exile from the converse fellowship and conference of others employing himself only in his Domestick affairs that he might be devoted more to Meditation and Spiritual exercises In the year Ninety three two books of his came out in English the one of a Solitary life the other a Key to understand the Articles of the Quakers faith This year Penn went out of his voluntary Prison compensing the leisure of his lonely life by the comfort of Marriage which he now entred into and the greater toil he took on himself in managing all his business and affairs Geo. Fox also after many changes and viciâ—â—itudes having seen various chances and dangers after he had often been Anxious concerning the progress and continuance of his life now not doubting to Consummate and end his Labours in the beginning of Ninety one resign'd up his Life After his Death his Widdow Margaret an old woman of about 76 years who had shar'd with him in the office of preaching wrote thus to a General Meeting of women held at London that same year Most Dear Friends and Sisters in the Lord I Did not scruple to write unto you from the Sense of that which was from the beginning which now is and for ever shall be and that for your great Love and care of me and the half of my self my Husband as long as he labour'd among you for the Lord. Since he 's now entred into Rest and heavenly Glory if we 'll regard what he said while he was alive let 's fix our constant Dependance upon God Neither doubt I if we walk with that Spirit of Life and Strength he had but we shall be preserv'd even unto the end In the mean time growing up and bearing fruit unto the Lord we shall become Trees Justice to the praise and Glory of God Wherefore I do earnestly warn and exhort you to abide constantly in the service of God for ye shall certainly reap the reward of much Consolation in this World and of an eternal Recompence in that which is to come Farewell and joyn with me in praising of God Fox not long before he died by the Interposal of certain Friends and Amanuenses's wrote a large book in English only with reference to what concern'd himself during the time he labour'd among his friends in the Ministry and provided by his latter will it shou'd be carefully Printed and a Coppy of it sent to all the yearly and Quarterly Meetings of his Friends wherever gather'd together throughout the whole World in Remembrance of him and for their particular Advantage The book was publish'd being strengthen'd