imaginable Readiness to comply with the Magistrates desire herein and to render an Account of their Faith and Actions before these men The Quakers made their appearance and stood with their Hats on to plead their own Cause and First the Magistrates began to reprove them not only for refusing to obey their Order but also that they had so far cast of all manner of Obedience to them to whom by the Laws of the City they were subject and the Confession of their Life and Faith they left to them to declare to those who with so much mildness attended their Answer as to these things Then both those Ministers began with a great deal of Modesty and Simplicity to ask them their Opinion of the several chief Heads of Divinity and the Christian Religion and where they Esteem'd them to lye under any Error to instruct them To whom the Quakers opposing their Answers both Parties entered into a Dispute amongst themselves and in the Disputation the Quakers at last grew so far out of patience that they inveighed against the Preachers and Ministers of the Word and term'd their Examination a Spanish-Inquisition and them Hireling Ministers and thereupon cry'd out That they would have nothing to do with them with which immoderation the Magistrate being moved against forbid them to Meet under the same Penalty And tells them withal that if yet they would so do that he would take Order that they should depart the City and his Jurisdiction This was done in full Senate But yet this Threatning was so far from deterring them that presently after in the very same place they held their Meetings again The number of the Quakers was found to be about 10 or at the most not above 12 Families Therefore the Magistrate supposing that so far he might possibly give License to their obstinacy but their Confidence increasing that it would be a troublesome thing always to Contest with People of this sort of Temper and that therefore it would not be Proper to defer the Punishing of them any longer but to Inflict it as far as his Power and the Condition of the City requir'd it so he calls the Quakers afore him again and they continuing still to be in their former tune and Refractory as before by his Edict and Command he orders them within 3 days to depart the City and his whole Jurisdiction and if they would not Obey they were to expect a severe Sentence to be passed upon them and this interdict they despise and again reiterate their Facts and meet together nevertheless This was told again to the Magistrate and the Penalty they had incurr'd was found and read So they together being ten in number both Men and Women as being Disobedient to the Laws of the City were sent aboard a Ship and carried out of the jurisdiction of the City with Charge that they should never in their whole life-time return into the Province again So the Magistrate unwillingly and contrary to his Nature and Custom dealt the more sharply with these Men only to set an example before other stubborn Persons and those that might be ready to do ill Deeds as not unless compell'd we cut of a Limb of the Body least it should infect the rest and bring the whole to Destruction But they being sent away scarce tarried one day before they came back again Then they were all committed to Prison which was a Cellar under the Burgo-master's House and had nothing else allow'd them for Food but only Bread and Water and were denied the priviledge of having their Friends come to see them or bringing any better Provision for their Accommodation But if any of them was not well he had the liberty granted him of going home to his House and there remaining till he was recovered A little while after they were again sent out of the Country all but Haasbaard And though they had undergone so many Hardships yet resolved to lose their very lives rather than give over their Enterprizes they return back again Being provok'd now after the usual manner and as it were made a joke and â—aughing-stock they were clapt into the same Prison again and afterwards transported in a Ship out of the City and all the Province except Haasbaard again upon whom as the Ringleader of the rest the Indignation and Anger of the Magistrates principally fell And the Quakers complained and wrote that some of the Magistrates especially the Consuls they give you both the Deeds and Names of them I only which is enough for my purpose shall take notice of the thing it self at this time were very vehement against their Friends and especially very high in their Words They added also that the Ministers of the Word were also more hard and rigid against them except one of whom they said and wrote that in a publick Sermon he had declaim'd against the Persecution of the Quakers They pass over his Name I shall speak both of the Name and Passage what was told me by Reverend Men who both at this day are Pastors and Elders of the Church of Embden and chief Men in the Ecclesiastical Assembly of that Tract to wit That there was none of the Ministers and Pastors of the Church who besides Refuting the Opinions of the Quakers in Words did any thing more And amongst those Ministers there was then one Herman Holthuse now of Pious Memory of whom I remember that he was a Man both of great strictness as to other things and also as to his Life and Conversation joyned with the highest lenity and goodness towards all other Men who deeply Commiserating the Case and Afflictions of the Quakers thought and said that they were too too severely prosecuted but this in his private Discourses never abroad and in the Pulpit Now an ill Omen follow'd there was an Order issued out to the Chamberlain to confiscate the Goods of the Captives and Exiles When neither Haasbaard nor his Mother being called upon would lay down the Fine his Goods were all Sealed up in the House and he again driven into Exile from whence nevertheless he quickly returns with the fresher and more eager heat because of his loss by Death of the dearer part of himself his Wife and his little Children left behind the Mother now out of her Goods fallen to her paying the Chamberlain the Sum of 200 Imperials The Goods of another a banished Maid were sold by publick Outcry Moreover about the end of the year there was an Order set out That no body should let his House to a Quaker or take any of them for Lodgers Now return back as I said before all the expelled Quakers But all of them are again thrust into the same place and also a Woman with Child but not so near her time as the Quakers thought As also that was too great a glory of Martyrdom which the Quakers told of a certain Quakers Child of 3 years old or scarce so much which upon a disturbance made in the
Doctrine Religion and way of Living from God himself whom his own Infallible Oracles term The Ancient of Days and from his Word first delivered from Heaven and then committed to Writing by the inspired Men of God which is the only Rule and Ground of all Truth They likewise Appeal to the Ancient Fathers or to the Testimony of those Books that we hold for true unanimously consenting to and asserting the same very things that they with the Holy Scriptures maintain When I say Fathers I speak after our way of speaking not after the manner of the Quakers who admit no such Names But by those called by us Fathers they understand the Writers who lived in the first and second Centuries after Christ For they conceive those who lived nighest to the Times of the Primitive Apostles that compiled the Holy Writings to have deliver'd their Doctrine with more Integrity than those who lived later who the further distant they be from the Times of the Apostles the more is their Sincerity and Integrity to be called in question like Water that the further it runs from its Fountain the more muddy it grows And therefore it is that they pay but little deference to those who lived in the later Ages of the Church freely acknowledging many things to be contain'd in their Writings that are justly to be rejected nor do they ever quote their Testimony except it be very conducive to the establishment of what they advance If therefore at any time others who are unacquainted with their Doctrines and Conversations or possess'd with Prejudice Envy or Hatred against them do at any time go about to brand them with these ignominious and opprobrious Names they if called to give a distinct Account of themselves do assume the Names of Christians Evangelick Apostolick Catholiek Men as if the Doctrine and Religion preached by them were the same as was delivered at first by Christ himself to the Apostles publish'd throughout the whole World by the Ministry of these his Apostles and embrac'd and retain'd by all the Faithful and Godly of all Ages whom Custom has term'd Catholick And upon this Account in all Debates they recur to the Scriptures not declining the Comparison of their Tenets with those of the Ancienter Fathers nay nor those of later times It follows next that unto what I have said I should subjoin some Account of the Sect that these Men so much follow inviting all Christians to do the same Their Sentiments therefore run in this strain That since the Doctrines and Manners of all Christians as also and consequently of those called Protestants likewise have been for so long a time corrupted and perverted it would seem that Apostacy and Defection from the Apostolick Doctrine and Discipline had its first beginnings in the Times of the Apostles themselves and from thenceforth did by degrees increase till it came to its perfect height in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries and from that time forth having confirm'd and harden'd it self through the firm and constant continuance for so many Ages so that no hope of its removal was remaining did so continue till this very Age we now live in Though add they in all this Series of Time there was always one or other in every Century that appear'd and declar'd against this their General Defection but without any Success as also to their own disadvantage and detriment And thus do they imagine of those great Men called by us the Reformers that all their Endeavours for the Restauration of Religion and Purity tended indeed to overthrow the Falshood Lightness and Vanity of Men but not to establish Truth or introduce Gravity of Life and Manners by restoring these Vertues to their Primitive Lustre and Splendor much like unto those that throw down their old Habitation and never think of building up a new one Moreover their Opinion of those who came after the First Reformers is that while they imagin'd to themselves that what they did tended to the advancement of a Reformation it proved diametrically opposite to the same for that in lieu of the Vices and Errors which polluted and defiled the Church that were corrected and rooted out by them they introduced other new ones of their own Invention like Men cleansing a House that cast out the Filth so as to let more come in So that these Men Preach up their Religion for the ancientest as having flourish'd in the first Golden Age of the Church which was afterwards from the very first rise of the Christian Name even unto this our Age miserably mangled and corrupted and in fine quite demolish'd until at length it was retriev'd and restor'd to its Ancient Purity by them being incited and raised up by the Divine Spirit to recover fallen Religion for the Salvation of all Men. Wherefore 't is that in all their Writings this is distinctly treated of having prefix'd as a Title to their Chapters that They as the Servants of Jesus Christ are called and raised up by God for dispensing the Gospel which after so long and dark a Night of Apostacy is now again come to light to be preach'd unto all Nations And thus do they Accuse Condemn and set at nought the Doctrines manner of Worship Rites Ceremonies nay the whole Life and Conversation not only of all these general Christians but of the Protestants who boast so much of their departing from that great Apostacy and cleansing themselves from the Babylonish and Papal Deâ—ilements Unto whom they oppose their Doctrine Worship and way of Life which indeed are such that their Doctrine is for a great part of it new or taken from some Ancient Opinions condemn'd and rejected by the Church which having lain so long dormant are revived anew by them and as to the rest 't is a Medley or Hotch-potch of the several Opinions of Protestants though not radically agreeing with them their Worship is diametrically Opposite to that of ours and their manner of Life so singular that between their Conversation and that not only of Protestants but of all Christians there is as vast a difference as possibly can be And these are the Tenets they have so busily spread abroad both at their first rise and in the further progress of the Sect and all of 'em that are capable either of speaking or writing Publickly do diligently apply themselves in all places to the Explaining Defending and Propagating their Doctrines inveighing and railing against the contrary Opinions of others with as bitter and reviling Expressions as they can invent and such their Accusatory Libels are dispersed abroad into all Countries especially those where they expect to meet with ready Compliants with their Doctrine and Way or at least such as would be fond of new Reformations and Changes in Religion being thus in some measure predisposed to receive and entertain their Advances Having thus spoken in General of the Conditions of these Men I come next to give a more particular Account of their Rise Progress various
Temper and dissolute in his Life he betakes himself to the Soldiery that common Refuge for Sluggards and Covert to all manner of Wickedness joyning himself unto the King's Army which in those days was the most debauch'd and wicked Crew upon Earth He first serv'd therefore in the King's Army till the Death of King Charles I. Then he becomes a Marine Soldier under Prince Rupert in the Admiral 's own Ship in which were many Dutchmen by whose Converse he acquir'd Knowledge of that Language In the mean time he begins to return to his right Wits and repent of his by-past Actions and manner of Life But because he was not capable of exercising any other Trade for purchasing a Livelihood than that of being a Soldier though he now despis'd a Military Life as being liable to many Inconveniencies yet he continued in the same Condition of Life still even after his Mind was thus alter'd joyning himself to the Parliament's Army then in Ireland in which he was made Serjeant to a Company of Foot in one Ingoldsby's Regiment He preferred being in this Army than elsewhere because he thought there was many good Pious Men in it and Military Discipline better observ'd Moreover many in that Army both of Officers and Centinels were of the Sect called Baptists who do not differ from the Presbyterians save only in this one Point that they do not Baptize the Members of their Church till they give publick Confession of their Faith and engage for their own behaviour of whom Ames entertain'd very favourable Thoughts and having joyn'd himself to their Church became first an Elder and then a Minister in the same It happened that while Ames was residing at Waterford a Town in Munster Francis Howgil and Edward Burrough came into Ireland and to that same very Town in order to meet and converse with the Baptists whom they they thought of all Men the most accommodated and disposed for reception of their Religion and accordingly came into their Meetings and discours'd unto them of those Matters Ames gave great Ear to all their Discourses for his Mind was yet fluctuating and unsettled in his own Religion the Cares and Thoughts of his by-past Life afflicting and distracting his Mind and in a short time apostatizes from his own Church to the Quakers among whom he became a Preacher discharging that Function to the great Satisfaction and Contentment of that Party He wrote a Tractate entituled A true Declaration of the Witness of God in Man in which he relates and explains what Sense he had of the Divine Light within him from his Infancy to his Conversion and what Resistance he gave to the same Contemporary with him was Stephen Crisp an acute and polite Meeter who if he had added the Study of those Arts and Sciences call'd Liberal to the Promptness and Agility of his Wit he had given wonderful Specimens of Learning He lived in Colchester in Essex a Weaver by Trade he serv'd in the Parliament's Army some Years having abandoned his Trade not so much for love of a Military Post as for the Defence of his Liberty and Religion so that he did not suffer himself to be tainted with the Vices of Soldiers but lived honestly and devoutly at length wearied with Fatigue and Labour he returns again to his old Trade having professed himself a Baptist at which time James Parnel came to this Town he was the first of the Quakers that preached their Doctrine in this Place where he taught and disputed publickly Crisp and his Father hearing him and being moved with his Discourses turn Quakers but the Son becomes a Preacher He died at London in September 1694. Contemporary with them was Thomas Green in his youth a Coachman but now a Dealer in Merchandize at London and John Higgins a Cobler at Dover both Men of brisk Ingenies and much esteem'd by their Associates Also John Crosby a Gentleman of Bedfordshire and Justice of the Peace famous for all manner of Learning an eloquent neat and accurate Man both in his Discourses and Writings Also Josiah Coaly of Bristol a Gentleman who in his youth having come with his other Companions to a Quakers Meeting to ridicule and mock them was so taken with their Discourses that he forsook that Course and was afterwards so much affected and mov'd by the Counsel and Advice he received from two of their Preachers that he incorporated into their Family undertaking the same Office with them of teaching others while he was yet but twenty Years of Age It is said of him that in Prayer and Supplication he did it with so much Efficacy with such a Grace and Mode of Speech tho' without Affectation that he infinitely surpassed many of his Brethren He spent most part of his Life in Travels extending his Doctrine to several parts of the New-World resolutely encountering all Dangers even that of his Life it self Another Contemporary was Isaac Pennington the younger a Gentleman also of good Birth whose Father was Mayor of London and a Man of eminent Vertue civil and humane to all and much beloved of the Citizens had not he by his Consent embru'd his hands in the Blood of the King His Son had added to the Splendor and Nobility of his Birth a diligent Study of all Liberal Arts and was much exercised in Learning not that he might gain or live by it for he had whereupon to live with a handsome and magnificent Port but that he might adorn and beautifie himself and be capable to help and assist his Brethren He spent not his Youth as many do whose Fortunes and Expectations are lâ—rge and magnificent in Idleness and Debauchery or in pampering his Belly and living intemperately but in pursuing eagerly and diligently his Studies exercising his Ingeny with such Exercises as might be profitable both to himself and others He had wrote and published many Books full of Learning and Eloquence before the Name of a Quaker was so much as heard of After he became a Quaker he wrote several Theological Tractates in a grave plain Scriptural Style The last I shall mention that liv'd about this time was Charles Marshal of Bristol a noted Physician then at London These were the Men that have over-run all Britain and the Netherlands not as Emissaries but as Ringleaders and Heads of the Party I forbear to mention the Carews the Bailzies the Smiths and many others I have selected these not as the Periods and Order of Time conjoyn'd them but as they were noted and famous both among the Quakers and others But I cannot pass by Samuel Fisher whom they all extoll for the Credit and Pillar of their Church and never speak of but with the greatest Panegyricks a Man singularly learned and wonderfully eloquent because of his accurate Knowledge of the Greek and Latin Antiquities which stuck so to him even after he changed his Religion and Life that the Writings which he published since that time relish much of the same though I believe it
and scandalous Action to inflict upon her such a Punishment which she never deserv'd fot that she was only standing at the Doors of the House where the Quakers her Friends and Neighbours were assembled and had not yet entred in when the Sergeants and Officers laying violent Hands upon her drew her into the House Upon which one of the Quakers turning himself to the Jurymen for they are upon Oath when they give Judgment and greater caution is to be us'd after the taking of an Oath accosts them thus That they would think upon God the supreme Judge Omnipresent and Omniscient and on Conscience the Judge within them And not imagine to themselves that the times or the necessity of doing so or so would be a solid excuse for 'em or to take Encouragement from any other respect whatsoever Which injected some terror and scruple into their minds some of them answering that things were now come to that length that they could not help what they did At this time they condemn'd twenty to the same punishment Another Court was held in January in which also Judge Hide presided for all this affair was totally devolv'd upon him as being the ablest and expertest of his function in England They condemn'd thirty two after the same manner as the former to be sever'd from their Friends possessions and all Commerce with their native Country by being banish'd into these remoter Plantations In February there ensued two more onely Counsellor Wachlon presiding in the first and Windham in the latter The former condem'd twenty four the latter ten Men and Women both to undergo the above-mention'd proscription There was some among them who alledg'd that at that time when the Conventicle was kept at which they were accus'd and said to have been present they were in places far distant from it but all Defences and Allegations were in vain So that in this one City the Principal of the whole Kingdom so many of this Society as were Charg'd to be seditious wicked and tumultuating were not allowed to breath in their native Air of which they were said to be unworthy and confin'd to these Solitary distant Colonies of the New World to be there hardly us'd and oblig'd to truckle with the native Barbarians to all manner of servile work this being accounted the most effectual way for allaying their fury and quelling the restless Commotions of their Spirits The Quakers relate that in some of these Courts there happen'd a Remarkable instance as at Hereford that while they read over the sentence given against the Quakers they did it with so much Consternation Hesitation and Slowness of Speech that of all the multitude standing by there was none could tell what was read They tell likewise of the first witness or informer against them at these Courts that from that time that he appear'd against them he never enjoy'd either peace of mind or health of body but losing all appetite to meat shortly afterwards pin'd away and Died. All these observables are accounted by the Quakers to be a signification of the Divine wrath against them It being usual for Men when in Adversity to make curious Observations and Reflections upon those things that in Prosperity might have past without being taken notice of which they then interpret favourably for themselves as tending to their comfort and support and signifying the wrath and anger of the Almighty against the Actions of their Adversaries I have not inserted the Names of these persecuted Quakers because it would have been tedious to mention all their Names and also invidious to name some of 'em whether they place their Glory or their shame in this their affliction This severe and intollerable Affliction had that effect upon them As all afflictions have even upon Children the most rude and unskilful of Eloquence that those who formerly were mute and uncapable to say any thing to the purpose in their Defence now became talkaâ—ive and ready in their discourses Insomuch that both the Afflicted themselves and also their Friends and Relations who were touch'd with pity and brotherly Compassion for their hard lot were heard frequently to express themselves after this Manner That it was just for Evil doers to be ill treated But they who offended no Man were injur'd by all that what all other People praise and applaud themselves in was imputed to them as a superlative Crime what they accounted vertuous and worthy of a Reward in themselves they had severely punish'd and persecuted in them viz. Constancy in Religion and Faith This seems say they to be such a Metamorphosis and Renversement of things as cannot but prove matter of Wonder and Astonishment to all good and wise Men that what of old was deem'd for a hainous Crime should now be Crown'd with the Testimony of vertue what of old was branded as Contrary to all Divine and Humane Laws should now be establish'd and enacted in a Law By this Law it is that such Numbers of Mâ—n are accus'd examin'd try'd and condemn'd by Witnesses Jurymen and Judges all fill'd with Passion and Revenge excepting only a few who while they plainly insinuate that such unaccountable procedure is contrary to their mind yet would not openly disclose their thoughts or oppose the rest of their angry and passionate Companions Moderate punishments are moderately endur'd but this of theirs was so intollerable and grievous that is surpassâ—d the tortures of Hangmen insomuch that Death it self even the cruellest would be welcome to them and accounted a favour That what God and Nature had most sweetly and strictly Conjoyn'd and Cemented together could be sever'd and torn asunder without the most ineffable pain of Torment That of this nature were the Enjoyments they were bereav'd of and despair'd ever to Recover That the dearest and most loving Friends were separated from one another cast out and banish'd their Country their Houses Families and the Society of their Friends Relations and Acquaintances Nay the Wives were Ravish'd from their Husbands the Parents from their Children the Infants were snatch'd from the Bosom and Embraces of their Parents and Sucklings pull'd from the Breasts of their Mothers That free Christian Men were reduced to Slavery and Bondage and thrust out among the Barbarous and cruel Indians who were estrang'd from all Religion towards God or Humanity towards Man So that the Common liberty purchas'd with so much labour and pains with the Blood and Lives of our Ancesters and deliver'd to us their posterity as a most precious and invaluable depositum not to be parted with but with the loss of our Lives is now violated and trampl'd under in these very Lands which boast of their happiness in enjoying more freedom and liberty than other Nations And thus it decays a pace lessening by degrees and changing its face every day so that there is just ground to suspect that what now is their lot may afterwards befall the whole Nation and that those who now rejoyce and exult secure of
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
of a long time he had bended his Mind upon the same Design that he had undertaken and that now he was so mov'd with his Discourses that he wholly gave up himself to be his Disciple Upon which Fox and he consulted seriously together about their Design A little while after Densbury became a Preacher performing the Office of a Trumpeter of the new Doctrines to this new Church with a great deal of Applause And though he spent the best part of his succeeding Life in Prison because of his Boldness and Confidence in sounding this Religious Trumpet yet this Affliction he patiently endured not suffering Trouble or Anguish to invade his Mind but continuing constant and chearful in receiving the Injuries he suffered for the sake of a good Conscience and of that Holy Office he had undertaken for the Salvation of Mankind His very Enemies acknowledge that he was Eloquent and every way fit for managing what relates to that Society The next that followed him in this Office was James Naylor once a Country Boor not far from Wakefield afterwards a Soldier in the Parliament's Army who not long after he had undertaken this Office met with wonderful Accidents as I shall relate when I come to that Period of Time After him followed Thomas Aldham who oft-times coveted the Company of Ecclesiastical Men for to Discourse and Dispute with them nay he affected also to converse with the Politicians and Cromwel the Protector himself whom he went to partly to manifest his Learning and Knowledge and partly to obtain his Consent and Belief to their Articles so great Confidence and Hope he placed in that Man Next to him was Philip Scafey Minister of a Publick Church at a little Village in this same County near to Whitby called Robin Hood's Bay upon the Sea-side In Lancashire the first that apply'd himself to Fox and his Society was Richard Hubberthorn born in the Northern Parts of that County of good Parentage and liberally Educated who was at that time a Captain in the Parliament's Army and so over-Religious that oft-times at the Head of his Company he would make Discourses to them as if he had been a Preacher And not long after he became a Preacher among the Quakers which Office he discharged so well in their Eyes that they all unanimously gave him a very high Testimony His Writings left behind do testifie him to have been no contemptible Disputant but too violent and tart and sometimes bitter and reviling Next were Thomas Taylor and his Brother Christopher Taylor both Publick Ministers in that Country Next was Richard Farnsworth Author of a Book which treats of the Pronouns Tu and Vos or Thou and Ye wherein he proves by Examples pick'd out of the Holy Writings that it is unlawful in our particular Discourses one with another to use any other compellation than Thou In Westmorland the first that joyn'd to this Society and became Preacher among them was John Adlance then Francis Howgil formerly a Taylor at Appleby at that time a Sectary Preacher to an Independant Congregation who returned the Money he had formerly received of his Congregation for a Reward of his Service a Man of Learning and as well qualified as many of that Sect. After them came Edward Burrough a Young Rustick Fellow of Sixteen or Seventeen Years but equall'd to a Man and designed for great things Last of all I shall mention one George Whitehead who at this time joyned himself to this Sect taking upon him also the Office of a Teacher he was then Minister to the Church of Lancaster talked of among the Learned for his skill in both Tongues his Piety and Modesty and Famous at this very day though stricken in Years for his dexterity of Disputing and Managing Controversies both with Tongue and Pen. I omit the Names of others But it is material here to Remark that the chiefest and greatest part of those who engaged in this Society were such as were either Members of Presbyterian Churches or Independants or Brownists or Baptists of which latter a great many bore Arms for Cromwel and the Parliament for the most part of their Army consisted of such kind of Men And not only these Sectaries themselves gave themselves to this Society but even their Doctors and Teachers whose Example and Influence induced many of their Congregations to do the like So that the first Congregation of Quakers was a multitude of People not so extravagant or faulty in their Manners as fluctuating and unsettled in their Religions which were very various and discrepant one from another and of which England had now great store Those of them that were better accommodated than others fitted their Houses and other Private places for receiving their Assemblies when congregated for Divine Worship They did not exclude even those who were not of their Party if they came in Peaceably only to hear and see without intermedling with any thing unless they suspected or understood 'em to be Spies coming upon some ill Design to trap them or hatch some Mischief against them Fox was very diligent in insinuating himself and his Doctrines into the Affections of those who were Men of Dignity and Power who though they were not fitter to Judge of his Design yet were more capable to advance and propagate that Interest and he gain'd not a few of them Among whom were some Magistrates greater or lesser who like Loadstones drew many of their underling Inferiours after them But there happened likewise at this time a memorable Instance of the Progress and Advancement of Fox and his Adherents in Lancashire which is not here to be omitted There lived in Lancashire Thomas Fell one of the Judges who with his Wife Margaret Fell were famous and renown'd for Religion and Piety Fox having made himself acquainted with them became so Familiar in their House that it was always open to him when he pleased to come there and all things in it at his Service But the Husband continued still steadfast to the Reformed Church being a true Lover and sincere Practiser of the Reformed Religion all his Life long so that he was not fond of Fox's Church-Conventicles nor would he joyn himself to his Society yet he was not so averse from it but that he thought it should be suffer'd and enjoy its Liberty so that he resolved to defend and vindicate the same from all Injury And afterwards when Fox was accused by many Ministers of the Church before the Judges at Lancaster for having used some horrible Expressions in his Discourses to the People such as That God taught Lyes and Fallacies and that his Word the Holy Scriptures contained many Lyes this Judge with some others defended him asserting all these Slanders to be injuriously affix'd upon him and maliciously feign'd without any ground Thus he relieved him not only from the danger of his Life he had otherwise been in but also from all fear and apprehension and after this time he always appeared a great
Enemy to the Opposers of Fox and his Society rendring all their Efforts against him ineffectual But when the Hatred and Envy of Fox's Antagonists grew to so great a height that he could no longer restrain them and fearing they should become his Enemies likewise he seldom went to the Publick Meetings shunning to hear their Voices whose different Manners Designs and Contrivances he so much abhorr'd So much for the Husband But as to the Wife she totally forsook the Reformed Churches dedicating her self entirely to be a Member of the Quakers Society and spending all her time in their Company Her Husband loved her exceedingly and was much taken with her Piety so that she could easily obtain of him this favour that her House might be a Receptacle for Fox and his Colleagues and also a place of Meeting for all the Society to Assemble in together as oft as they would for the Publick Performance of Sacred Duties as indeed it was and continued so after his death till the death of Fox her second Husband Not long after her Conversion to this new Religion she began to abandon her Distaff and Womanly Instruments betaking her self to Preach and Teach Instructing the People not only Viva Voce but by several Books wrote and published by her by which means she gained many Proselytes And after this time her House and Family became as it were a School and Nursery for all that Sect both Hearers Preachers and Students of both Sexes and accordingly sent out about this time one William Caton a Young Man of Pregnant Parts conspicuous for his Modesty and Learning whom Judge Fell had taken into his Family for a Companion to his Eldest Son that by his good Example he might Encourage and Conduct him to a Vertuous Behaviour This worthy Young Man became afterwards very Famous and Renown'd for his great Accomplishments both at home and abroad in Holland But this was not all Leonard Fell a Son of the Family followed his Example as one Comrade imitates another or a Disciple traces the foot-steps of his Master being fondly loved and caressed by his Father for that he introduced into his Family that Sacred Office of a Minister His Brother Henry Fell imitated his Elder Brother They both became Great and Famous Teachers and tenacious defenders of that Sect. After the Males of the Family followed Sarah Fell their Sister undertaking the same Office whom these People do so much extol that they say she was not only Beautiful and Lovely to a high degree but wonderfully Happy in Ingeny and Memory so stupendiously Eloquent in Discoursing and Preaching and so effectual and fervent in her Addresses and Supplications to God that she ravish'd all her beholders and hearers with Admiration and Wonder She apply'd her self to the study of the Hebrew Tongue that she might be more prompt and ready in defending and proving their Doctrine and Principles from the Holy Scriptures and in this study the Progress she made was so great that she wrote Books of her Religion in that Language This is that Family which Fox came afterwards to be a Member of when upon the Death of Fell the Husband he married Margaret his Widow of which I shall have occasion to speak afterwards I now return to the Order of Times and Places that corresponds to the Actions of Fox and his Colleagues While Fox is propagating his Doctrine in the Countries above-mentioned in the Year Fifty Two of a sudden there appeared some in Cambridgeshire a place considerably distant from the Countries where Fox was now residing who owned themselves Members of this New Church Among whom excelled James Parnel a Youth of Fifteen Years of Age well skilled in the Tongues and of no obscure Birth or Condition Because the History of this Youth's Life and Actions is but short I shall here insert the same in one perpetual thread of Discourse This Young Man having so boldly adventur'd in so tender an Age on such an Enterprize was disown'd disinherited rejected and shut out of Doors by his Parents Friends and Relations all upon this Account Being thus forsaken and left to himself and receiving but sorry assistance from his new Friends he was obliged to live sparingly and meanly yet nevertheless he continued steadfast and eager in pursuing the same Design And after having frequently debated with his Condisciples and others concerning their Religion and his own and in this condition of Life spent two Years he comes into the County of Essex and Cloaths himself with the Office of a Preacher which accordingly he performed in the Fields Then in the Year Fifty Five he goes to Colchester and the next day after his arrival Preaches there and entertains many Disputations and Dialogues with the Doctor and Reader to that Church both publickly in the Church and in his own Lodgings and elsewhere by which one day's work he converted many to his Religion Having staid here some few days he goes to Cogshall where he went to Church and heard the Minister Preach a Sermon against the Quakers upon which when Sermon was ended he answered and resuted him in Publick Church Then retiring from Church he was caught and brought to Colchester and there put into a Castle or strong Prison Afterwards he was taken to Chelmsford to appear before the Judges but they because they could not finish and conclude the Business remitted him back to Colchester where he was block'd up in a Cave in some high craggy place where having endured Hunger want of Sleep and Cold for a long time becoming benumb'd in this nasty Dungeon and at length misfortunately falling and bruising his whole Body he finished his unhappy days notwithstanding all the Complaints and Addresses he made himself and all the Entreaties and Sollicitations made to the Magistrate by his Friends for relieving him out of all these Miseries It is reported that before his Death he sometimes was heard to say One hour's sleep shall put an end to all my Troubles When Death approached he said Now I go away then he fell asleep and about an hour thereafter he awaked and yielded up the Ghost His Body was tumbled away to the place where Malefactors are executed and interred In this same Year this Doctrine and Scheme began to diffuse it self beyond the Countries where Fox was now making his Terms with the Neighbouring County of Cumberland in which great numbers associated themselves to this Party Amongst the more Remarkable of these new Converts the first was one Thomas Lawson at that time Publick Minister to a Church at a Village called Ramside in Westmorland afterwards he continued both the Exercise of this Function among these People and likewise gave himself to the study of Herbs and after he came to London became the most noted Herbalist in England Next after him followed John Wilkinson Pastor to a Church at Embleton in Cumberland who afterwards proved a Famous Preacher among the Quakers both in Scotland and Ireland All his Hearers had deserted
the Circle of the By-standers addresses himself to them thus It is a barbarous and cruel Spectacle to see Men delight so much in this Exercise fitter for and more becoming Brutes than Men which the wildest of the irrational Creatures abstain from unless provoked and irritated to the same We have another Conflict to mind which is more consonant to our Natures and allowed of God nay which both the Law of Nature and the Common Law implanted within us by God and his Divine Word revealed from above do Approve Command and Encourage I mean that fight wherein we are all engaged as being the Soldiers of Jesus Christ and fellow-soldiers one with another striving with all the endeavours of our Souls and Bodies to encourage and invite one another to pursue this fight of Faith and Piety that at length we may become Victors and obtain Eternal Life Which being spoke though most of the Multitude gave little heed to what he said yet some of them being moved with a sudden heat of Reverence and Fear of God and afterwards bethinking themselves more diligently of these words began to understand their Duty aright and abstain from such vain Exercises and Spectacles altering the whole Scene of their Lives and afterwards conforming to the Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers incorporating themselves into their Society Thus was it that Burrough by his indefatigable diligence pick'd up so many Followers and Adherents both in City and Country The number of the Proselytes at London was afterwards much increased when Fox came to that City For he was the Man among them all who pursued his business with the greatest Application and Diligence maugre all the Difficulties and Dangers stood in his way I may freely say that there is not one Church in any County Fox came into from the beginning of his Ministry to this very time nor any place of Religious Worship frequented either by those of our Profession or others that he did not visit taking occasion there to disprove the received Principles and advance his own not one day on which they used to Congregate for Religious Service that he did not punctually observe betaking himself to some Congregation or other and disturbing their Services with his Accusatory Libels Nor did he refrain from using the same Importunacy with the Military Men among whom though the greatest part of them differed vastly from our Common Soldiers since they only carried Arms for the Liberty and Religion of their Country and lived innocent and harmless Lives yet there were many light vain Fellows dissolute and corrupted in their Conversation who loved rather to be enjoying themselves in Taverns or Alehouses than hearing Religious Discourses Fox used to be running among them boldly and freely reproving them to their faces not only for what he found faulty in their Religion but for the Vices of their private Lives So that by his courage and boldness he overcame all that stood in his way neither did he take it ill to be called bold and forward but rather gloried in being such Nay he came to that length that oftner than once or twice in midst of great crouds he would brand some Women that he had never seen in his life before for being Witches and Sorceresses which he pretended to do by a discretive Spirit within him But in all these his Accusations I do not find that ever there was any Experiment made of the Art of these Women or any Tryal made of it or any Credit given to him unless by some that were prepossess'd with the same Fancy of the Women before Wherefore it is no wonder that he met with such Indignities and Affronts every where insomuch that sometimes several of the People would joyn together and Assault him openly others would lie in wait to take Advantage of him It is much more wonderful that he who was so oft sought after apprehended imprisoned and delivered into the hands of his Enemies should have escaped so oft or survived so great and many Troubles However he always acknowledged and returned thanks to the Almighty for that Divine Assistance which he said he never wanted in time of his bitterest and severest Afflictions nay which appeared so oft in his behalf taking Vengeance after a wonderful manner of his Injurious Enemies and such as contrived or executed such Wickedness against him Among many Examples which might be adduced I know none more wonderful and worthy to be related than this following which he used so often to make mention of among his Brethren and confirm with many words At Olican in Yorkshire a Band of Men had combined together to kill him and for that end came rushing into the Convention where Fox was but so soon as they cast their Eyes upon him they were all so astonish'd and filled with Fear and Confusion that none durst to move or attempt any thing Not long thereafter one of these Men happened to kill another Man and was seized as guilty of Murder Another of them who used as he passed by the Quakers to put out his Tongue and ridicule them exposing both himself and the Quakers to the Derision and Laughter of the Multitude had his Tongue swell'd so big that it hang'd out of his Mouth and he could not draw it in which new sort of Disease in a short time cut the Thread of his miserable Life But I return to speak of Fox's coming to London There happened a Memorable Accident both at Weston in Leicestershire and at London Fox was yet remaining in that Country and chanced to be in that place where he was in a Congregation of his Brethren going about Sacred Service when in the mean time some Ministers to Independant and Presbyterian Congregations Address Francis Hacker an Officer in the Army desiring of him that he would send of his Soldiers to suppress that irregular Meeting accordingly the Soldiers are sent and Apprehend Fox in the middle of the Assembly bringing him Captive to the Officer who having examined him sends him away Prisoner for London to be Judged there and undergo the condign Punishment of his Offences After some Years Hacker acknowledged that he did this by the Instigation and Influence of these Ministers which Confession he made the very day before he was hang'd having been found guilty of the Murder of the King Fox arriving at London is laid up in Prison and after having lain some time there is carried to Court to appear before Cromwel then Protector Cromwel after having entertained long Discourses with him backwards and forwards and given many Evidences of his Benevolence and Good-will towards him and his Faction absolves him ordering him to go into a large spacious Closet whither he sent some of his Domesticks to entertain him with Discourse and to invite him in the Protector 's Name to Sup with him But he refuses and as having now obtained all the Liberty he sought after went away Unworthy he was to have such an Opportunity put into his hands of
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
with Grief and Compassion discover those Vices neither did they as became Christians gently and discreetly advise the wandring and such as were out of the way and bring them kindly back again but did most bitterly and invidiously relate all things and cast all manner of Reproaches upon those Churches and as it were set upon the Men in an Hostile manner and drew together and united into a Mutual Confederacy in this War though no ways injured nor provoked nor indeed entertained with an hard word and this in such a manner as that all were frightned by them from the Community of such Churches and from the entrances into them and set them such Examples as were much to be shunned that there is no doubt to be made as concerning them who thus raged but that they acted more from a desire and study of Novelty and Glory than from a sincere and pious Mind so that that Man who blames the Works of another ought to take heed lest he be deceived himself and to see 〈◊〉 while he is applying of Remedies for one Evil other Evils arise therefrom thus it was with the Brownists and Independants many years before who first separated themselves from the Church of England because of the many Defects and Abases therein and afterwards from the rest of the Reformed Churches by reason also of the unworthiness and want of Diligence which they imagined they saw in them and even so now the Quakers supposing they had the same Causes and Reasons for what they did undertook the same thing and that in such a manner that supposing those fore-runners had not done enough they began a new Schism and did altogether constitute and pursue a new Doctrine among themselves a new way of Living and a new Church these they testified to be the causes they had whenever they spake of their Undertakings or conferred with others or appeared before the Magistrates and that in plain and direct words and upon this Head did many of them write Books and Pamphlets which upon such an occasion are much more efficacious and prevalent than larger Tracts among which the most remarkable were published by Fox the Inventor and Introducer of these things and Howgil Pennington and Whitehead which last three were however more moderate in their Writings than Fox was to say nothing of the rest of them These Pieces they also translated into other Languages and dispersed through other Countries Now I am come to that which has occasioned me to dwell so largely upon this Subject And because I have spoken of that Religion and course of Life which these Men went about to overthrow I have also deemed it seasonable and necessary distinctly to set forth what manner of Life and Doctrine that was which they after that they were increased to a Multitude and so much polished and instructed under so many Masters and Teachers then set up and which is now maintained by all their Followers For the Tenour of their Doctrine was the same as that of others that they who framed it should in process of time from smaller beginnings polish and reduce the same into a greater Decorum and Order Especially in that they were more intent at first upon the destroying of the Religion of others than upon erecting any new one of their own and that they were at this time more given to an Active than a Contemplative Life or than to that which consists in much Meditation Enquiry and strength of Understanding thus judging with themselves that to be a Christian was not to understand profound things nor to speak of great Matters but to live from whence as in former times so also now these Men can no otherwise be compared than with most Professors of Religion be it what it will that they are endued with greater Love and Zeal for their Religion than a knowledge of it and even many Teachers of the Quakers themselves not excepted But yet there were some from the beginning as there are many at this day that gave a good Account of their Religion and explained it Now the Doctrine of these Men consisted chiefly of four kinds the first whereof was the Principle of Religion another the Subject of the Divine Benefits the third the embracing of them the fourth and last the way and manner of Communion The first sort therefore was that which belonged to the Principle and Foundation of true and saving Knowledge this with them was a clear and distinct Revelation of the Holy Ghost either without the written Word to wit by Speech or some Apparition or Dreams or by the written Word and either this or that which we call the Holy Scriptures or by some other or else some certain way which is equivalent to the Word For the Holy Scriptures as we take that Word is not to them a perpetual Medium and such as is absolutely necessary and the only and compleat Rule and Form of Faith and Manners and here you may easily see how far they differ from those who while they own the Scripture take away the Spirit and substitute Reason in the room thereof and how much from those who acknowledge the Scripture as the only necessary Instrument and the sole Rule of Faith and Manners And that the Assistance of the Spirit is required towards our having a certain knowledge of the Divine Will and performing of the same The Second Head contained the Subject on which the Divine Benefits are bestowed concerning which they thus judged and determined That all Mankind by the Sin and Fall of Adam were utterly depraved and lost so destitute of strength and in so desperate and forlorn a condition as that they were unable to think of that which is good but that God did so universally love Mankind as that he gave his Son Jesus Christ and constituted him to be a Peace-maker between God and Man Hence God bestowed upon all Men a new Birth Himself his Son his Holy Spirit the Light and Word within and did by the same so stir up their Minds even every one of them in his true Way and peculiar Measure so as to understand and perceive their Misery and did so excite them as that they at length sought God and were converted unto him which Light was yet effected sometimes by the Word from without and lively Preaching but then it was they said that that Light and Word was to be received of Men when they did not resist the Divine Operation but received it and being stirred up by God they gave way to his Impulse and Incitement but here seeing there was none to whom the Doctrine of the purer Protestants upon this Head was known and to whom the Opinions of such as savoured of Pelagianism or in some part inclined to them were not unknown who did not think that the Quakers also pursued and imitated some such thing as these last mentioned the Quakers hereupon cryed out that they were much in the wrong since indeed their meaning was that either the
and medling with them more than other Men. I have spoken of these things in general I come now to particular Instances as being them alone wherein the Proof Testimony and Truth of things do lie for the Quakers did not deny but did Object that there were many things which they reprehended in the Doctrine and Religion of others insomuch that they harped much upon this string That there were many and great Scandals and Reproaches cast upon their Doctrine and Conversation by many and that from hence it was that great Injuries were offered unto them every where The Quakers did indeed Muster up several Petitions offered by the Publick Priesthood let me make use of the publick words of that People who were in Publick Power which tended to the expelling and banishing of the Quakers for those Reasons which if they had been true they themselves did confess that they deserved having thus carried it in respect to the Christian Religion not only to be thrust out of one Province or the whole Kingdom but from the face of the Earth and the number of the Living if as these Men did deny it was Lawful for any Humane Power to inflict so severe and violent a Punishment upon any for any wickedness whatsoever Such an Humble Petition as this if I mistake not was presented in the Year Fifty One by several Pastors of Churches and Citizens and Inhabitants of the County of Westmorland to the Justices of the Peace for that County wherein they desired That James Naylor and George Fox and Francis Howgil and the rest of their Companions which Men they said were generally unknown unto them from whence they came where they dwelt what their business was and whom they said came by their own Authority into these Places and did miserably distract all sorts of Men and set them at dissention and together by the Ears and had wickedly seduced many People with great Efficacy from the true Religion into dangerous pernicious horrible and damnable Ways and Errors and brought things to such a pass as that they perverted and disturbed all Peace and Order in the Common-wealth when in the mean time they are notwithstanding any egregious and even Divine Reasons offered by them to the contrary wicked Men Impostors the Ministers of Satan wherefore they pray they may be driven away and commanded to go into their own Countries and confine themselves within those bounds to their own Occupations and Employments The Effect and Prevalency of which Petition was this that Naylor and Howgil were thrust into Prison though one of the Magistrates to wit Gervase Benson did bear open Testimony against his Brethren that Naylor did not deserve to be censured for what he had done as if he were guilty of Blasphemy and that he as a Criminal should be admonished and laid under such a Punishment for violating of the Law against such Persons and so great Villains To which this must be added that the same Justice Gervase Benson and Anthony Pearson another that was Judge in that matter did afterward turn Quakers and wrote several things for those Men Another Example of this Petitioning was One two Years after presented to the Council of State so they call'd it by many Noblemen Iustices of the Peace Ministers and Citizens of Lancashire in which Petition you have these words That G. Fox and James Naylor and their Associates and Companions did not cease both to dissolve the Bond and Vnity that was between all sorts and ranks of Men as also between the People and God and brought their own Followers to such a pass that all of them Men Women Children and little Ones were in their Conventicles agitated with strange and ridiculous motions trembled foamed swole with their Bellies and that some of their Teachers did not stick to say of themselves besides other abominable Heresies that they were equal to God To this Petition was subjoyned a Catalogue of their Heresies with the Witnesses hands to it in these words That George Fox confess'd and did persist therein That he was equal to God the only Judge of the World Christ the Way the Truth and the Life and so if that any one took upon him in his Sermon to the People to explain any Text of Scripture be was an Enchanter and his Preaching an Enchantment and that the Scripture was carnal that James Melver confessed that he was God and Christ and that the same Man gave out these Prophecies that the Day of Judgment was at hand and farther that there should be no more a Judge in Lancashire and that he would shortly pull up the great Assembly of Parliament by the Roots that Leonard Fell professed that Christ never had any other Body but the Church that R. Hubberthorn had said that the coming of Christ in the flesh was only a Type and Figure But though the Quakers did thus determine among themselves that these things which were laid to their charge were such that even the thing if they held their peace would totter of it self but yet as they left nothing that was objected against them without some Answer so did they also confute this in their Writings in such a manner and with such Reasons that it was very apparent that they were wicked Men who invented these things and that those who believed them were Fools excepting the Prophecies of Melver the Vanity of whose words they willingly acknowledged and reproved yea and seeing it was the Fate of these Men in all Judgments to have many Actions and Opinions full of Scandal and Disgrace laid to their charge besides their Doctrine and way of Living they answered and overthrew these charges not in one Pamphlet only and set forth what they had expounded concerning any matter what their Opinion was and whose it was but they also sent these Pamphlets to all the Judges and also to the Protector Cromwel and did moreover Publish them among the People so that all and every Person might be throughly acquainted with their Doctrine and Life with the causes thereof and plainly weigh those things that might come to be controverted and if any suspicion insinuated it self into the Minds of some Persons they might remove it and that they might no longer lie under such false Accusations as these but whether it came to pass from such an imputed Crime or from Resisting and Opposing in an over violent manner or rather wickedly and imprudently impugning the Doctrine and Fame of the Ministers of God's Word Hubberthorn from this time forward did not sustain one only Imprisonment at Chester but was also confined in Norwich and that to the Year Fifty Five but of this briefly and by the way Let 's go on there are some Instances of these Men being accused by their Adversaries falsly even then when they went to them for to clear themselves of that Ignominy either they challenged them to set themselves in some place and to hear how these Accusers proved and made the thing good after
from this time forward as to what Places he went so with whom he conversed and whom he should shun and when he found there were some who laid in wait for him to trepan him and hale him to Prison he immediately hastened away He did also moreover advise his Party by his Letters and Pamphlets that all of them should make it their business and endeavour to do nothing against the King's Authority and the Common-weal and allow of nothing in that kind which might be avoided by them Besides this Fox proceeded to write many things even against their Adversaries but in such a manner as not to set forth so much what his own Sentiments were as what he wrote and in what place he wrote it Which sort of Life Fox from thence forward led even to his Death that all his Actions both in the middle and last part of his Life might be like unto those he had practised in the beginning so that I judge it needless to say many more words concerning Fox in this Treatise unless something that is altogether new and strange should occur And thus did almost all the Quakers behave themselves now more cautiously and circumspectly among their Adversaries neither did they so often and constantly make a noise in the Churches and Publick places neither did they Act those Fooleries where there was a Concourse of People and utter such ridiculous Bablings neither when they were brought before the Magistrate did they talk so uncivilly abruptly and foreign to the purpose as they had been wont to do neither did they Answer when the Judges asked them what their Name was what Country-men they were where they lived that they were of the Land of Canaan and that they lived in God so that as the Time even so their Manners changed yea from henceforward these Men wrote and published in England not only Pamphlets but Books in which they handled the Heads of things not at large only and confusedly but curiously and distinctly and did Argue in them first against the Opinions and Tenets of the Principal Episcoparians and then against those of other Dissenters which they did not approve of and this in a neat and orderly way of Argumentation not by wrangling but examining every Proposition and coming up to the Merit of the Cause and by admirable Skill arriving at their designed Conclusion neither did they urge those things which they taught and believed by a rude and disjointed way of Reasoning but clearly and openly and explicated the same at large and strenuously defended it Which Method was vigorously pursued by Samuel Fisher who was the chief Man and the Ornament of the whole Sect. Moreover some of them were not afraid to Discourse Argue and Dispute with the Adverse Party yea and when need required with the very Ministers of the Publick Church concerning their own and the others Doctrine and Concerns Which sort of Disputation was held this very first Year at Hereford between two City Ministers and three Preaching Quakers Howgil Burroughs and Cross wherefore from henceforward these People the Quakers began gradually and by little and little to stand up and to increase in number and strength and to be reckoned and used as one of the Sects of the Christian Religion Things were at the same pass with these Men in Scotland saving that their Affairs did not thrive so fast there until the arrival of two Men of great Fame and Reputation amongst all the Quakers Geroge Keith and Robert Barclay by Name by whose Labour Toyl and Industry the whole Doctrine of the Quakers especially their chief Dogms Principles and Fundamentals were very much illustrated and confirmed and because this is the first place where we meet with the Names of these Men and that hereafter mention will be made of them upon various Accounts we shall in a few words acquaint those who do not know it what sort of Men these are they were both of them Scots but there is only one of them to wit Keith that is yet alive Barclay the other being dead George Keith was at first of the Reformed Religion and a Student of Philosophy and Divinity as soon as he commenced Master of Arts and was more especially had in esteem for a good Mathematician he did afterward become a Chaplain or Minister of God's Word in a certain Noble Family But seeing that he was always transported with a desire of searching after and learning somewhat that was new and alighted upon these late Sectaries he did in a short time embrace their Doctrine and arrived to be one of the chief Speakers and Holders forth amongst them This Man after many Toyls Wanderings and Perambulations went at last into that part of America which from the Owner thereof is called Pensylvania and there in their Church and Latin School of Philadelphia exercised the Office of a Teacher Robert Barclay was a Gentleman of Scotland the Son of that same David Barclay whose Book we have made mention of a little before his Father had sent him to the City of Paris the Capital of France and there was brought up in good Literature and after a manner that suited to his Quality and those Noble Youths that were his Fellow-Students But this Young Man had an Uncle in that City that was Principal of the Scotch Popish College there to whose Precepts when Barclay had for some time attended he leaves the Reformed Religion and turns Papist which when his Father came to know he sends for him home and as he himself in the mean time was turned Quaker he also endeavours to induce his Son to embrace the same way but he seeing he had in all other things been Observant to his Father refuses and says he could not in so great and weighty a thing as that was hearken to him But when he had not long after come to one of the Meetings of the Quakers he suddenly turns about and becomes throughly one of them being now Eighteen Years of Age and from thence forward for a great part of his Life was as it were the Legate or Messenger of the Quakers in their weightiest Affairs it 's also said that he was descended from John Barclay that notable Writer of Heroick Verse and Satyr and whose Name it 's enough to mention Keith wrote many things in English wherein he does clearly Teach Explain and Confirm those chief Points of their Doctrine which Fox and others had neither so distinctly handled nor so artificially and dexterously propounded and vindicates the same from the Objections and Exceptions of their Adversaries which afterward all the rest of the Quakers greedily snatched at and would appropriate and reckon among the Opinions of the Quakers excepting two or three Articles which they left alone as peculiar to himself He was indeed the first of them all who taught polished and perfected those Principles concerning the Seed and Light within immediate Revelation the Eternal Divine and Spiritual Filiation of Jesus Christ for so do all
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
those who conceal and are asham'd to own their poverty of the Orphans widdows old people the afflicted and miserable and the sick unto whom they are to afford what is necessary for their sustenance and relief for which end the Quakers say they make Contributions of Money putting it into chests and distributing it as they have occasion These Men are also to allot every one their particular offices and functions which they are severally and distinctly to perform Stephen Crisp wrote a monitory Epistle to all Churches concerning these offices which is very well worth any Man's reading All the Quakers when ask'd about these matters do mightily extoll and magnify the diligence liberality and bounty of their Associates one to another However these Elders and the Ministers do frequently convâ—â—n among themselves for deliberating about the affairs of their Sect and the necessities of their Church which Conventions are somewhat like to what the English and Dutch call Presbyteries and Synods and the French Consistories There were of them in Holland who because no Society could be laudable and permanent without Government and Laws propos'd to have an Ecclesiastical senate constituted in every Church consisting of the ancient Elderly Men and such as were married excluding Batchellours who should have the Government lodg'd in their hands and order every thing according to certain Rules and Laws laid down by them But others oppos'd it pretending that it would introduce a new Hierarchy and interrupt their Community and restrain and suppress the gifts of the Spirit They have likewise Meetings like to those we call Classes and provincial and national Synods or Councils These conventions are Celebrated oftner or Seldomer as the number and variety of their Churches is but so as to Allot each Sex Men and Women their distinct and particular Meetings Wherefore if the Churches be more numerous or large the Seniors or Elders with the Ministers meet frequently chiefly on the first days of the weeks and also on other days at which time after having Communicated their thoughts one to another they confer and consult together what is to be every Man's task what part of the charge he is to undertake and what is incumbent upon him to do Other Meetings are appointed every fourth week in which they deliberate of the affairs common to the Church Others every three months in which they consider of their provincial affairs and such as are remitted to them by appeal In these they inspect into and Recognize all Books that are Printed after they have been perus'd and approv'd by the Censors appointed for that purpose The Acts of these assemblies are put into Registers of which some are very curiously and Elegantly done They have Anniversary Synods in every considerable Kingdom to whom belongs the care and administration of all the affairs of that Kingdom In England they have a fix'd Anniversary Synod on the 3d. day of Pentecost according to the English calculation which they pitch'd upon not out of any superstition for they are as averse and estranged from Religious observation of days as any people in the World but that the time might be determin'd and every one have sufficient information of the same This Synod continues sitting for three or four days only unless some extraordinary business be tabled before them which requires much debate and is hard to be decided as it happen'd in the year ninety four in the case of Keith when it fate whole twelve days together Delegates also come to this Synod from the Churches in all other Countries or places where the Quakers obtain any footing but these must be such as are in the Ministry At their first Meeting together liberty is given for all manner of people to come in and be present which time is spent in Preaching Praying and Thanksgiving After which the Delegates retire all into one room They have no president to their Meeting which place they say is supplied by the Holy Ghost but they have a Clerk who marks down every thing that is mov'd before the Assembly It would be tedious and needless here to insert any further account of their Councils for there be stories enough flying about of them only I shall here remark what are the subjects mostly treated of by them when thus solemnly conveen'd They take into consideration all that may pertain to the general good of all the Churches They lay before the whole assembly the State of every particular Church especially if there be any thing memorable or worthy their consideration They make a Catalogue of the sufferers for Religion describing what their sufferings were or for what causes they were inflicted They examine all singular or rare events and accidents They decide all Controversies and Differences They enquire into the Lives and Conversations of their Ministers and check those who perform their tasks negligently or remissly or who through officiousness and impertinency affect to be Ministers of the word forsaking the offices that become them better and are more indispensably requir'd at their hands than this which they usurp to themselves without invitation or call running up and down as invested with this pretended function and turning it to their private lucre and gain They admonish and exhort one another to be careful and diligent in the tasks alloted them and to conform themselves to the dignity and gravity of their respective offices They settle a standard for these things which relate to Domestick cares of Christians in their Families especially to the education of Children endeavouring and exhorting by all means to be aware of these two destructive Evils which are more Consequential than all others viz. Indulging their Children too great liberty and decking and adorning their bodies too gaudily lest by so doing they occasion sin and contract infamy to themselves They take care also for the redemption of Captives and relief of the poor such of them as are known to be well and virtuously dispos'd and consult of many other things for giving mutual assistance to one another When the Synod is dismiss'd all their Acts and Decisions are enregistred by the publick Authority of the Synod which are afterwards copy'd from the Records and Printed in order to be sent to all the Synods of their Associates throughout the World or to any particular Country Associated with them of which Prints I have several Examples by me As not a few before in England so the Quakers did always invey against the Liturgy which was laid aside in Cromwell's a directory being substituted in its place and again restor'd in K. Charles's Reign as stuffed with the fopperies of Popish Darkness superstitious and ill placed Lessons and Prayers Ornaments Dresses bodily Actions and Gestures and many rites of observing holy days These the Quakers did vigorously oppose preferring the simple Exercises in their Meetings When they meet after a long silence and quiet Recollecting of their thoughts they make it their whole care and business earnestly to wait for the
aspersions Penn being drown'd with such Cares and Businesses esteeming it his duty to look to his own affairs lest by the Continuance of such liberality he should dry up the Fountains of his paternal Inheritance he did not wholly abandon his Beâ—evolence and Diligence but did so by degrees Moderate and rule 'em that he gave â—o occasion of an inviâ—ious Complaint Penn having laid down this certain Conclusion that there must needs be one Society of Christians the common safety and advantage Requiring that every one worship God freely without any Impediment and Hinderance providing only he liv'd peaceably and submissively to the power and honour of the Magistrate and since this Kingdom was deny'd that Priviledge having the way to that liberty obstructed by an Oath which every one by Law was required to take and by other penalties laid upon Dissenters Penn treated with the King of these two who was also desirous to have 'em remov'd and therefore receiv'd the address more willingly Penn so defended and confirm'd the Kings Edict which was now emitted to this purpose in a certain Book he publish'd for that end that â—e incurr'd the hatred bitterness and anger of the Protestant party Universally and Implacably some of the Quakers also were â—o displeas'd that they did not love him and extol him as before others wholly avoided and abandon'd him The Protestants exclaim'd that Penn as well as the King aim'd at Popery with his outmost endeavour calling him not only a Papist but also a Jesuit an order that 's equally crafty and hated The Quakers thought it not at all amiss to have the penal Laws wholly Abiegated which the Quaker subjects most of all were expos'd to but lik'd not to have the Law concerning the Oath repeaâ—'d lest the Papists thereby being let into the Government might quickly renew these sanguinary Laws and by means thereof take weary drive out and kill the Protestants and especially the Quakers according to the custom of their Tenets and Religion as if they had only been absolv'd from former Constitutions to be condemn'd more cruelly to severer punishment Thus they fear'd the snare cheifly to be laid for themselves While many were thus hurried in their minds Penn so proved himself in another book not to be addicted to but an hater of Popery by the Testimony of his word his Conscience which is a thousand Witnesses and of God than whom none can be greater that if the words of Man may ever be believ'd every one may credit Penn not to speak false blazing it with any Colour of subtility but that he wrote truth with Candour and Sincerity Tho Penn cou'd not by that book change the opinion that many had received of him yet he so fully convinced the Quakers that from them he retriev'd his ancient praise for some time intermitted so that they own'd him for one constant to their Religion and yet left him to the singularity of his own opinion So the Quakers under this King liv'd quietly and easily except a few that were somewhat troubled by the ensnaring Tricks of some deceitful men but the Time of New Trouble and Change of all was at hand For now the King weary of waiting thinking his Designs not capable of being defeated by any introduc'd Popery not hiddenly but openly Not to mention others these of the Highest Dignity even Bishops and Archbishops that withstood his Intentions were some of 'em brought over to his Cause by Bribes and others put into the Tower of London These being Resolute and Couragious in their honourable cause found by experience how far it was necessary and yet how hard to suffer for the liberty of their Conscience And since my discourse has led me hither I can't but add what was said by the Quakers themselves When the Bishops of England were now thus Stated some of the Quakers took the Freedom to tell 'em that same mischief return'd now on themselves that formerly came out from them upon the Quakers When it came to their Ears they resented it ill that such words shou'd be spoken and scatter'd of them by the Quakers Robert Barclay understanding this went presently to the Tower and told 'em all modestly that was done against the Quakers both by the command and permission of the Bishops to which narrative they cou'd make no other reply but that of silence But after 3 years K. James's Reign expir'd and was succeeded by K. William the Third of Nassaw hereditary State-holder of Holland Son in Law and Nephew to James by his Sister who in all the series and course of his Life shew'd himself the best of Princes and Generals equally adorn'd with Civil and Warlick virtue and withal Arm'd with Christian Piety a like useful to Church and State both by his Inclination and Education in his own Countrey which tho it hath no Kings yet produces and fits 'em for other Nations Upon his first taking up the Reins of Government he beliav'd himself to all with that Moderation that it was manifest he desir'd rather to be lov'd then fear'd and to bereave none of Liberty of Conscience in Religion so that all justly esteem'd him a most prudent and moderate Prince equal to the best King that e're preceeded him He granted Freedom and Indulgence to all but only the Papists whose infidelity he suspected those he treated with a mixture of Grace and Severity making always the former the greatest Ingredient The Quakers also cou'd not but love him and embrace him as their most effectual defender being suffer'd to perform their Religious exercises without the hinderance of fear and molestation This Royal benevolence was enhanced by the Parliament which the King called after his Inanguration according to the ancient Custom of Kings who us'd to have a Parliament in the beginning of their Reign that if any former Law were to be chang'd or Abolish'd it might be legally done with consent of the house This Parliament ratify'd a Liberty in Religion giving immunity to all from the force and severity that formerly resulted from any penal Act excepting yet the Papists who were reckoned such Enemies that no peace cou'd be establish'd with them and granting liberty to them wou'd be taking it from our selves and so to raise war against our own safety Excepting also Socinians and those of the like stamp who either openly or by Clandestine practices Aim'd at subverting the Foundations of the Christian faith Thus the Quakers had liberty but since it 's a matter of some moment to know the Rights and Privileges given 'em by King and Parliament and inserted in Acts of Liberty in Religion it will not be fruitless to handle it more largely if it were but for that French Authors sake whom I mention'd before not to his praise a base unconstant and Roguish fellow who after many turnings and windings in Religion as both strangers and they that know him assure me by Letters plays now strenuously the Papist at Paris However it 's certain he treats of
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
with Sedition and Rebellion Robbinson purges himself and his Companions in Misery from the least shaddow of that suspicion But they presently disregarding such defence stopt his mouth by thrusting an Handkerchief in his throat and seeing he yet endeavour'd to speak they that were present raging with fury and the officer likewise more hasty than prudent made ready his lash knowing well how to use it and chastis'd his back for his Tongues excuse and defence The cause being consider'd they were all order'd to depart thence to a present exile By a customary patience and suffering of evils they were now so inur'd and harden'd to troubles that they resolv'd rather than forsake their faith to make a Noble retreat into their Grave Mary Dyer and Nicho. David thought it then their duty to leave that Countrey but in a very short Interval of time Mary being recall'd by a new impulse had the Courage yet to return unto Boston and came to Prison to talk with her Brethren and Sisters and at the same time was seiz'd and shut up so that now she had power and liberty enough to surfeit herself with their Company and Conference for in all things constant and daily plenty nauseats the fancy and cloys the Appetite On the other hand Robbinson and Stevenson thought it necessary to forsake Boston but not the whole Countrey and therefore within a very few days they go to some places about Salem and there takes occasion to declare their Doctrine But they were no better dealt with than others When they for some time had been thus inclos'd within the verge of those little Walls the Judges began to consult among themselves what they must needs do with 'em at length And seeing 'em so obdur'd in their obstinacy that they despair'd of reducing 'em to dread of fear and that they did not regard what way they took if they cou'd but render themselves Masters of their desires they resolv'd to put an end to their life and proceedings Yet this was not so obscurely contriv'd but Robbinson and Stevenson easily forseeing what the Judges had designed to do the day before they had fix'd this purpose each of 'em wrote a Letter to the Senate of Boston whose Theme and Scope was almost the same containing the motives that induc'd 'em both to come and visit these Corners of the Earth Robbinson wrote that he did not come there to gratify at all his own Curiosity but only by the Judgment and Pleasure of God while he abode at Rhodes and about noon tide when he was resolving to go elsewhere an heavenly Command revers'd his Resolution injoyning him to take Journey for Boston and there to finish his Course and lay down his life and have no worse reward for his service than what God had there appointed for him That his Soul at last after many wandrings through the vain Theatre of this wearisom world might be receiv'd to a fix'd possession and there rest in an Eternal Mansion Stevenson also wrote that while he was in his Countrey in England in his own Farm Plowing a field upon a certain day he felt his Breast kindled with the flame of Divine Love and the word of the Lord came unto him thus I 've appointed thee tho thou be a Plowman to become a Preacher and Teacher of Nations At the same moment being mov'd Extraordinarily that tho he was married and Father of some Children to leave his dear wife his Mate and Companion of Life and Affairs and as it were his other self and this sweet and tender off-spring these intire Bonds of Love and Ties of Friendship being untouch'd with the sense of so many Domestick concerns to take Journey presently for the Island of Barmuda's not doubting to leave all to the Providential care and Disposal of God And that accordingly he went to that Island and from thence to Rhodes and at length came to Boston and that now for his Religion and Testimony for God he was ready to take farewell of this troublesom Life The day of Arraignment was the 20th of October Being all three brought into Prison attainted and convicted of a Capital crime without any previous Trial or defence they were found guilty of Death and Sentenc'd to be hang'd Robbinson mov'd the Judge of the Court that that Letter might be read I spoke of before asserting it to all be matter of Fact without inquiring into the occasion thereof this he desir'd e're sentence shou'd pass but the Judge thought the letter unworthy to be perus'd Whereupon Stevenson putting up his Epistle after the sentence was actually pronounc'd answer'd with the same courage of mind and expression In the day when you that wou'd be reckon'd Judges shall kill the true Servants of God know ye you shall answer to him who is the only true Judge and the day of your visitation shall come upon you and Eternal destuction shall fall on your heads Upon the 27th in the Afternoon the day appointed for their Execution two Companies of Souldiers were order'd to be there The condemn'd persons were plac'd in the front and all the Drummers were set round about 'em who beat incessantly to drown the sound of their words that what they said might not be heard by the people The fellow sufferers march'd all in a rank Mary in the middle having each other by the hand all of a cheerful Countenance and ready Tongue tho the beating of the Drums rendred their discourse useless to others Their friends follow'd with a sad silence When they came to the Gibbet having so long kiss'd and embrac'd each other with such affection that they cou'd scarce be pull'd asunder they wish'd all happiness to one another at last when the unavoidable necessity of departure oblig'd 'em to put an end to their caresses letting one another unwillingly go they took all their Eternal and Mutual farewell Robbinson first got up beginning and ending with words to this purpose We are not here Citizens to suffer as wicked or evil doers whose Consciences before did vex and torment 'em but as those who being stirr'd up by God â—ear witness to the truth But perhaps this may seem little at present as what concerns you not much to hear That we may not therefore contend what we have acted to have been Lawful our duty and necessary to be done we wou'd have you to know that this is your day wherein God has visited you leaving you yet occasion and opportunity to shun and escape the destruction of your Souls but if you go on to hedge up and obstruct that way to turn Gods wrath and procure your own salvation if your Rebellion and Arrogance be increas'd and harden'd this is the day wherein God is arisen to take vengeance of all his Enemies with an Omnipotent Arm and you shall groan with one voice under the weight of his wrath You 've at this time made it very apparent and manifest what you are by your hatred against us wherefore while the
was so forcibly incens'd that they could be broken by no Violence or Reproaches thinking then themselves to be truly happy when they were counted worthy to suffer Affliction for their Religion yea Death tho never so Ignominious and Cruel hence it comes that each Sect has its Martyrs This they also ambition'd as a holy sight running to embrace Death as the Crown of their Religion sign of faith Mark of Society witness of Communion Monument of their Name matter of perpetual fame and not only end of this Temporary life but also beginning of that which is Eternal Thus the Senate of Boston after many debates being unwilling to conclude of Leaders affair regarding the Actions not the words of the Criminal at length order'd him to be Indicted of Treason and pronounc'd him a Man whom they Judg'd and Declar'd to deserve to be sever'd from among the Number of the Living which sentence was accordingly executed upon the 14th day of March Then his head was lifted up on high on an unhappy Gibbet and he ended his life without any fear having spoken these words before some friends my God to thee I commend my just Soul After him the Court 's first enquiry was on Wenlock who seem'd to them to have drawn all severity on himself When no body doubted but Wenlock wou'd fall a victim to appease the Judges fury when he came to be tryed he disputed long and the Judges differ'd in their Thoughts and Intentions whereupon Wenlock did so much urge the Equity and Justice of discussing the affair according to the Rules of the English Laws arguing that those Laws were only made against Jesuits and not Quakers who might very justly expect Impunity altho they err'd in the sight of Men The Judges were at length so Inveigl'd and Entangled that they return'd to the old form of proceeding and committed the whole weight of the cause to the Judgment of twelve Sworn Jury-Men But they also having long delay'd Wenlock at length brought him in guilty of Death This was done on the 13th day of the 1st month of the Summer Season but the Execution of the sentence was some days delay'd John Currier an inhabitant of Boston having been whipt through three Towns before return'd by the same places to Boston to his Wife and Children whom he had left there being again whipt about the same round he was detain'd in Prison at Boston where he had resid'd In the opinion of himself and other Men he was to be branded with a burning Iron in the shoulder and there mark'd with the Letter R. to design him according to the English and Roman Laws that which we call a Rogue There were 28 more Prisoners there One of 'em condemn'd for all his life to remain in the Prison where he then was the rest were uncertain what shou'd become of 'em seeing themselves daily detain'd and delay'd As many things unexpected and unlook'd for in the life of Man falls oftner out than when we have hopes and expectations of the matter so while the Judges were so often remiss and the Quakers punishment so frequently delay'd and yet nothing was seen to retard it suddenly and beyond all Expectation it was appointed by the Magistrates Command that a new Law shou'd immediately take place to release Wenlock and the rest of the Prisoners from any punishment they were liable to by the old so that they might when they pleas'd be free'd from the Prison and for that purpose the doors were set open The signal being given they went out without Loitering Only Peter Pearson and Judith Brown were contrary to their hopes detain'd and whipt at a Cart. The cause of so unexpected a change was suppos'd to be the fear of the Magistrates foreseeing that the King and Nobles in Old England wou'd not well resent such Rigour and Cruelty and wou'd therefore take care to prevent it for the future Not long after King Charles being inform'd how the Quakers were treated in New-England by Rumors Messengers and their own complaints given in by Petition to the King and Parliament and that not only once but often sent immediately to the Governour of Boston and the rest of the fellow rulers of these Countreys and Colonies a Letter concerning the Imprison'd Quakers giving it to be carried by Sam. Sattoc a Quaker who had been an Inhabitant there but was thence banish'd as I mention'd already and now return'd there in a Ship commanded by one of his own perswasion The Letter was as follows C. R. to his dear and faithful Subjects since we 've Learn'd that many of our Subjects among you call'd Quakers to have been some Imprison'd others kill'd the rest as we 're told remaining fall in danger we thought good to signify our will and pleasure to you concerning that affair for the future Our will is therefore that if there be any Quakers among you whose Death Corporal punishment or Imprisonment you have order'd or may for the future have occasion to determine that you proceed no further in that affair but forthwith send 'em whether they be Condemn'd or bound into our Kingdom of England with an account of their particular Tryals and Faults that they may here be dealt withal according to our Laws and their Merits Herein this letter shall be your warrant Given from our Court at VVhitehall the 10th of Sept. 1661 the 13th year of our Reign By the Kings command William Morris This Epistle of the King so stay'd their Persecution that it was no Crime to be reckon'd a Quaker The Magistracy of Boston fearing the Kings displeasure for what they had done sent three into Old England Temple an Officer a Magistrate and Norton a Minister to acquaint the King with what they had done But Jurisdiction and Judgment was not therefore wholly stopt or taken away But being forbidden to inflict a final severity and punishment they compens'd it by the heavier Temporary torment making some by their Chastisement rather wish to die than endure so great and many Evils so often Tho I cou'd instance many examples of this I 'll only relate one or two partly to avoid Prolixity and partly because by one we may guess of the rest That year Ann Cotton a woman of sixty came with a design to live at Boston but was so far from being admitted that she was thrown into Goal Being at length wearied of her they took her to a Wood and after many wandrings she found occasion to go for England There she obtain'd a pattent from the K. allowing her to reside at Boston She renew'd her Journey and came boldly back to Boston But neither was she then admitted She went therefore to Cambridge where she was thrown into a dark Deu thrice lash'd then carry'd to a Remote and Desolate place where from wild Beasts she might be in daily danger of her life But returning by the same ways she went out she was also whipt as she had been before The following year being scarce expir'd Ann
Assembly's Trouble and and at last there seem'd to be more need for doing something than further consulting the major part of the Meeting and those of the greatest Anthority concluded upon and determined this Sentence And having considered the Case since there was no hopes now of a Reconciliation That Keith should acknowledge himself to have very much burthened the Church and take upon himself the Occasion of this so great Disturbance and beg pardon for this miscarriage and moreover leave off the maintaining and dispersing of and forsake his Opinions Novelties and Sophisms whereby he has so much either adulrerated the Church or despoiled her of her former splendor and enfeebled her and that he should follow after this to consult the Honour and Interest of the whole Society and defend and promote that Which Sentence struck this man with such a sudden and vehement Impulse as made him break out into a Speech in these Terms That nothing could be better entertain'd by him than this Endeavour of the Meeting as it relates to the Establishing a mutual Peace and Concord and that there was nothing that he would more willingly perform than Obedience to this Assembly and to have the happiness to be serviceable to them and all theirs And therefore that he did in no respect decline the Authority and Decision of this so great assembly but so While these things consist with Equity and Reason and he may without prejudice to himself and them But now since he is free from Error and no fault or Crime is found in him he has nothing to excuse himself for or ask pardon of and that it was not he that is liable to blame or had involv'd himself in guilt but they which do not Comprehend what he had taught and presently and rashly believe and spread about reports of things that they do not rightly understand And so that they deserve most to be blam'd that they may not go on so to insult over the name and fame of otherâ— and those their Brethren and to set the whole Church in an uproar that every one of them may receive such a sentence as they have deserv'd Lastly since that it had happen'd so that his Adversaries would not forsake their private Animosities and Singular Opinions as for their own so for the peace and profit of the publick but lay the faults which belong to themselves at his door that he relying upon the justice and innocency of his Cause and resting satisfied with the Testimony of the Spirit and Witness of his Conscience whatsoever should happen so long as he was not Culpable he would moderately bear and in the mean while he would unburthen himself and do what became a good Christian to defend his reputation and good Name least seeming regardless of that he should seem not to value and betray his Religion and Honesty So since there was no hopes of a peace the Meeting being ended after it had held so long Keith appears abroad again and defends his Speech and excuses himself in the best terms he could both by speaking in his Sermons and publishing Books in Print and altho he confesses that thro' mistake not wilful culpability he had formerly written some things which now a-days were not approv'd of yet that as for his Doctrine of the humanity of Christ being what he had the greatest reason himself to approve of and being indeed most justly approvable and a principal Article and foundation of the Doctrine and Faith of Christians he would to his utmost power Preach it abroad On the other hand his Adversaries also with equal Zeal go on to observe Keith in the Meetings to refute his opinions and inveigh against him with hard Speeches Amongst which the chief were Dan. Whirley and W. Penn which Penn as Keith was in the middle of his Discourse before the whole Meeting could not forbear more than once to call him Apostate and an open Enemy to the truth and the whole Society Others as Tho. Ellwood and John Pennington not onely by their books impugned the Tenents of this Man and refelled his Arguments but also traduc'd his person rendred him infamous So at last some began to find fault with others and use a greater liberty in accusing them and to hate them and provoke them to anger and fury as it were and euery one strove to bring others to his own party and inspire them with Enmity against the others These things lasted till the late General Meeting held at Lonâ— this year 95. Which as soon as it began to be held Keith came hither with an Intention to lay all things clearly open in hopes to find more Equitable Treatment from his Judges But when he came to the door which he did the first day he was stop't by the Door-Keepers who knew aforehand what his mind and Intentions were but the day after tho 't were late first getting admittance he came before his Adversaries who he knew were within and whose Intentions against him he was sensible of beforehand and not Viva voâ—â— which would have had more of a forcible Energy in it but in Writing the more carefully and moderately to Express himself he deliver'd a Speech to this purpose That he was never convinc'd either by any assembly or by that which was held in that place the year before of any Errour of his either in Doctrine or Life tho he don't pretend to exempt himself from Errour being a frailty incident to all Men and not forreign to himself but he Confessed himself to have said and written several things heretofore in which at this time he acknowledges his frailty And because no assembly of those people who are commonly called Quakers lawfully and rightly conveen'd has condemned him of them as by the silence of them all on that account appears he therefore looks upon himself as free from all Errour That he well knows the Council the last Meeting gave him but since that was onely Counsel which obliges no Man and infers no necessity equal to a Command that he was at his own liberty either to follow it or let it alone But that he had omitted it because he thought he had done all that was his duty to do in this business and that there was none of the Brethren of the Society who if they would but consider the deeds both of him and his Adversaries without prejudice or being byass'd by others opinions or making a rash Determination of things and weigh them in the Ballance of the sacred Scriptures and right reason but what would approve of his doings and condemn theirs This 〈◊〉 was searce read but it rais'd a mighty commotion in the minds of them all But the principal adversaries of Keith and speakers in this Contention were W. Penn W. Bingley G. Withale J. Vaughton J. Feild and J. Waldenfield And Penn and Withade had so little Command of their minds and tongues as Keith also was so unable to contain himself by which you may see the
with them and lay many things to their charge and fill their Sermons with them And the Ministers and Overseers of our Churche complain'd much of this new sort of People and painted them in all their Colours and accus'd them of being the worst of Hereticks guilty of all maner of Vices and admonished their Auditors in long and Earnest Discourses that they should by all meanes have a care of them Moreover there were Councils and Synods held to Consider of the best ways and meanes to Suppress and Extinguish in the bud this growing mischief and it was Ordained that they should be debarr'd both from their private Consultations and also their publick meetings Whereupon the Delegates of the Synod present a Writing to the Counselors or Delegates of the States we call both the one and the other Deputies in which they grievously complain That there were to be found in these Provinces both elsewhere and in Friesland several of the impious sect of the Quakers and they desire of them that the States would maturely advise about it and take care to put a stop to the farther Spreading of those diabolical Errours Whereupon the States of Friâ—sland make this Law That no Socinians Quakers or Dippers for what other Name to give them I cannot tell should come within those Territories or if they did should be shut up in a Bride-well and there kept Constantly to hard Labour with a reward moreover of 25 Gelders of Friesland for any Person that should discover any of these People This fell out in the Year 62. After this Order Friesland enjoyed peace and quiet from these People either they keept themselves close within their own houses or the Government was not very inqusitive after them and thought they had a sufficient awe upon them And now also in the rest of the Provinces after this time there was no great account made of these People both by reason of the smal numbers there was of them and that they themselves grew more moderate Wherefore tho at the first they were had in Contempt of all People every where and in their Meetings and goings in and out and at their funeral Solemnities and Burials the Boys and Mob often us'd to abuse them to a high degree yet afterwards they growing more cautious and circumspect in their Actions in some things and omitting others even this insolence of the People against them was left of by degrees Nor must we pass over how that for a long time a great many Pamphlets written not so much for the instruction of others as the Ostentation of their own Sect and besides a great many of those bolted-out-Extempore ill-composed rash tumultuous weak triffling unfit not only to be Read again but also to be look'd upon came out of these men's Shops and little Libels of Questions were put out in favour or for the defence of that Sect or for the exalting that and depression of other Religions although some of these Libels and Pamphlets were made and writ by ill Men and with a base design father'd upon the Quakers Afterwards this kind of Writing and that plenty of Writers was displeasing to the wiser men among the Quakers and they concluded that these foolish Triffles and the multitudes of them had done more hurt than good to their Doctrine and People and procured them more disgrace than Credit Then by degrees there arose others who treated of their Affairs with a finer Wit and more polite Judgment using more cogent Arguments and a more exact style of Discourse with easie and fluent Language not like the former Scriblers And these took of the ill-will and aversion which some had entertained against them and reconcil'd them to a better Opinion of their Religion making it appear more Weighty and Momentous There came over in the year 1670. into Holland one James Park and from thence he went on into Friesland to Harling And in that City observing many things that he dislik'd both amongst the Reformed and amongst the Mennonites Of which two sort of People almost all the whole City confisted He returned back again into Holland and coming to Amsterdam writes a Letter to the People of both those Churches 'T was a tart Letter and full of contumelious Accusations and Reproofs as if the Religion of them both were only a barren Profession and their Lives the heigth of all manner of Hipocrisie and Impiety and a Denial of God concluding with a denunciation of Threats and Execrations against them as if it were in the Name and by the Command of the Divine Being himself This Letter was sent to Harling by Cornelius Rudolph and James and Isaac Buylard the Father and Son all of them Citizens of Amsterdam and formerly Mennonites but now turn'd Quakers So to Harling they all go They purposed first to Read the Letter in one of the Mennonite's Meetings and then send it to the Ministers of the Reformed Churches in Friesland for them to Read Moreover they concluded to send and disperse several Pamphlets treating of their Opinions up and down the Country and to possess People's Minds as much as they could and try all ways and means that they could possibly think of to promote the interest of their Society throughout Friseland For which thing the Buylards seem'd the most proper Instruments both by reason of their long Dealing and Commerce and Acquaintance and Familiarity with many in those parts With these designs therefore and hopes they all three together go directly to Harling the entrance and gate of that Province Cornelius Rudolph it being an Holiday goes presently into one of the Mennonite's Meetings the Buylards staying in the mean while in their Inn to rest themselves and after all the Exercises were over draws the Letter out of his Bosom and the Chief of them not seeming averse to it tho' many of the People were against it yet at least he reads it over to them all that they might all know what they were to be accounted of who they were that corrected and took such care of them This almost all of them resent as a very hainous thing and set upon him with great clamour and violence Not to make more Words of it they fetch the Beadle of the City and he carries Rudolph away into a secret place Then the Buylards are fetch out of their Inn and carried thither too And thence two days after to render their Undertaking the more contemptible to some and inspire others with the greater Aversion against them they are tied together by night and because they would not go of themselves are carried to Leeweward the Capital City of the Province and put into the Bridewell there Where at their first coming they were kindly received and civilly entertained by the Governors of the place who did for them what they would that they might go into the Conclave which they would have them Afterwards when they were grieved to accept the offer'd civility they thrust them into such a kind of
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
House fell into such a Fit of Trembling with Convulsions of the whole Body that that day prov'd to it the last of its Life But not to repeat the same thing so often over and over again and to reduce our discourse to a narrower compass this sending out and coming back expulsion again and return was made about 20 times in this and the ensuing year For it seem'd hard to the Magistrate to enact any thing so grievous against his own Citizens against whom there could no other Charge be laid than Constancy in their Religion and to the Quakers so to forsake their Native Country and Houses and whatsoever else that was dear to them and not endeavour to regain their old Seats and way of Life and Religion and the exercise hereof and without which it cannot consist The Quakers writ boldly and amply of this to the Magistracy of Embden as well the Dutch as English in the Sentences and grave Language of Fox Green Crocius and Penn. The subject and scope of them all was he same What fury possess'd their Spirits or what weakness their Minds that had enraged them to such a Degree against those People that had never done any thing that could merit their Just Displeasure or in the least diminish their Rights For that they loved their Houses and were ready on all occasions to return to the City and to their Families and to their Native Soil and preferr'd this before the Will of the Magistrates the Magistrates might easily know the Cause of that unless that being impatient of the Truth by prejudice against these mens Discourse they hindred their Defence and themselves a right Judgment For that was not their Principle to think themselves exempt from all Laws subject to no Government or touch'd with no fears or any Expectation of Evil. That they were not so lame or faultring in their Duties nor had so put off the Sense of all common Humanity But they were of another Opinion That it was God and the guidance of the Spirit and their Conscience which carried them on and that there was a Religion which they had from God in which the first principle head Strength and Defence was Liberty and that not only private but open publick and common That we should not abstain from the Presence or Companies of Men or sight and speech of friends and acquaintance or be behindhand in the daily performance of Good Offices and Turns one for another which things they that deny or take away totally subvert not only Liberty but also all Religion Wherefore also this thing ought not to be esteemed as a Disgrace to these Men or a Crime but rather in their praise as a good Action that they might estimate them by themselves if they re-call'd to mind that if any humane Affection or any desire of a glorious shew had put them upon these Thoughts that they might if they travell'd elsewhere live a quiet and honest Life remote from these Storms of Contentions and Ignominy whereas they chose rather to undergo so many Miseries and Calamities And that that they could affirm which they said without Arrogance or Pride That if the Magistrates were resolv'd to go on as they had begun that their Friends also were determin'd rather than forsake their Places or forego their Religion they would suffer the last Extremities and not only endure and undergo the most continual Torments but even the cruellest Deaths that could be inflicted Also Haasbaard sent a Leter to the Senate out of Prison whose last words at the End of it are memorable That he long'd for the time wherein God would open the Eyes of Men that they might see how that himself and the Quakers were injuriously and falsly accused and to that Judge they committed their integrity In the time following the Edict against the Reception of the Quakers was put in Execution upon those who were thereof convicted as the Mother of Haasbaard for receiving her said Son in her house was fined 50 Imperials and a certain woman a member of the Reformed Church because she did not deny her Husband who was a Quaker to lodge bed and board with her was mulcted 50 Golden Florens In the mean time Haasbard besides his Exile being oppressed with so many Cares and Griefs which lead to Distempers and Death was over-taken by his last Day and dies Who being dead when the persecution seem'd to die too it reviv'd again a little after in his 3 Sisters whereof two were unmarried and one Married but who at this time did not Co-habit with her husband For when these women and likewise 6 Men of their Acquaintance met together to see one another and for mutual Exhortation's sake by and by the Sergeants and Souldiers come in unto them and run upon them and carry them away to Prison and take away out of the Womens pockets Money and Silver Cases and a watch of great Value which they wear not out of Pride or for Ornament or Ostentations sake but for use and while these Varlets spend one part of their prey and suppress another part the rest they carry to the Burgomaster Yet these people some daies after were dismissed instead of a fine which they would not pay the things that they had taken from the Women being detain'd The last assault was in the year 79 Then the hatred began by degrees to grow less and less and to wax old when it was better seen and known That the Quakers were not such a sort of people as the Magistrates and Citizens had taken them for A Wonder this but yet neither new nor unknown Charles King of England dying and James succeeding him some rich Quakers flying out of England came hither to Embden These the Senate were so far from repelling that they receiv'd them very kindly and not onely granted them houses but also the Exercise of their Religion and access to it and leave to build a publick Meeting place and proffer'd them ground to build it upon hoping that that would now tend to the Increase and Riches and Splendor of their City and Nevertheless without any Detriment or Disgrace to their Religion Moreover the year following after that a Quaker-woman a Citizen of Embden a woman of eminent Condition and some other Rich and Honest Citizens who had been against the Persecution had well prepar'd the Matter the Senate that had been so severe against the banish'd Citizens do now no less Hospitably invite them home than formerly they had in hostile manner expell'd them and permit them the free Exercise of their Religion and promise and engage themselves to Protect and Defend them therein and Confirm the same by a Decree of which I have had the liberty of Perusal Altho this Liberality and Beneficence of theirs was now in vain and too late for these English afterwards having heard that William Prince of Orange was made King whose alone Name allur'd the minds of these Men to return home to their former Seats
and unlearned Man and who besides the common English Books had ne're looked into any other nor could he Read them would by no means have it thought or doubted that this weighty Epistle â—o full of Learning and compos'd and written in so Elaborate a manner and with so much Pains and Study was not Written by him and his own Production and that he was not the Man who had daily perused all those Books and made them his own or that it was thus Written by a Multitude or whole Society of Men yet so as that they should leave it to the Judgment of one Fox an ignorant Fellow and upon his Approbation look upon it to be firm and good and he to approve of the same by the greatness and Authority of his Name affixed to it And hence it 's apparent that there is no mind so Humble but is apt to be carried away with the Air of Glory yea many times Glory and Applause is mostly coveted by those who most contemn it and endeavour to introduce a Contempt thereof glorying and taking Pride herein in that they despised all manner of Glory so much But however it were the Letter pleased the King and the Matter of it was very grateful to him insomuch that the King either by his own Authority or other Engagements brought it so about that they ceased to persecute them But the same Persecution was in a short time after revived and introduced upon them When Fox writes a new Epistle to the King and deprecates the Injuries and Dangers brought upon those People his Friends interceding with the King thereby on their behalf discovering now in this his Letter himself entirely as he was and not as before hand over head without all manner of shame and blushing Arrogating to himself the Work of other Men and a false praise But this Letter did not please the King so well so as either to purge them from what was laid to their Charge or to free them from their Sufferings These Quakers are even to the present time a prey and a laughing-stock to almost all the Inhabitants and they had long since been utterly ruined and destroyed all of them had it not been for a few among them that had some small Substance who out of their own Necessities have sustained them under their oppressive Poverty And had it not been also for those Quakers in Holland who are superiour to these in Fortunes and Estates And now that I may pass over nothing that may appertain to the State and Concerns of the Quakers before I depart from these Men in Germany It will not be impertinent to insert the short History of those Men lately sprung up in Germany and who still coverse and are scattered up and down in divers parts of the same Country which are called by the name of Pretists and whom many look upon as the Brood and Offspring of the Quakers or Enthusiasts sprung up again in these times and being as it were lopped off grow again and bud out from the old Stock concerning which Men there are many who have taken upon them to write who have discovered themselves to have heard and imagined more things concerning them than they really know but I shall not take in all herein but will leave out the larger passages and only take notice of the Principal Heads For seeing that in so great a multitude of Christians as well else where as in Germany who declare themselves to be the Disciples of blessed Luther and to follow his Doctrine and way of Living most of them all were indeed affected with a great desire of and love to their Religion but yet retained through great Ignorance and intollerable superstition the observance of some Rites and Ceremonies and which in very deed had little or nothing in common with some Religion Piety and Holiness and this was not so abstruse but that it was apparent to all so as that they might behold it with their Eyes and handle it with their Hands yea and the same was now consined and as it were â—ealed by examples and manners some Godly Men zealous towards God and for the good of Men and such as were also both Learned and Experienced bethought themselves that it was every ones duty with the utmost care and Diligence to heal or cut off this Malady or Pestilence in the Church which crept dayly more and more into Men's Lives and Conversations Among these in the Year sixty one one Theophilus Brosgeband a Deacon of the Lutheran Church in the City of Rostock in the Duchy ef Mâ—chelenburg sets up in Opposition to these Practices and so in a book written by him in the German Tongue sets forth and notes the various Errors that the Lutherans were conscious of and at the same time speaks moderately and gently concerning the Controversies that were between the Lutherans and other Reformed concerning the Lord's Supper and sets down his own Opinion in the matter with his Reasons for the same He was indeed a man that studied and was a lover of Concord and Peace between Friends who held the same Faith which is very good and the very name delectable but he got little Praise and Thanks for his Pains nay this his labour and endeavour went scarce unpunished for there were many Persons that forthwith fell at variance with him hereupon reviled him were very bitter against and troublesome to him which he by his long-suffering and patience wore out and diverted After this Henry Muller became one of this number who in the same City was Teacher and Professor of Divinity in the Church and University and a Person of exquisite Learning and Piety and who about five or six years after Brosgeband did in like manner reprove those of his own Religion concerning their Errors and Lives and Conversations that were unsuitable to Religion and especially in a book written also in the German Tongue that it might come into the hands of all those to whom it did more peculiarly belong handling that Passage of the Apostle Paul which is in his First Epistle to the Corinthians 12. c. 2. v. in which place the Holy Apostle that he might make way for to shew to those Men how much they were now Honoured and Enrich'd by the Spirit of God puts them in mind how in times past they were carried away to dumb Idols led and driven thereunto by unclean Spirits he wrote that Christians now a-days had not left their dumb Idols whereunto they cleaved to whom they attributed all things neglecting true Religion and setting true Godliness at naught to wit The Pulpit from whence they Preach to the People The Baptismal Font The Confessor's Tribunal and the Altar By which words many that were of the same Function with him took themselves to be much Inspired and so lookt upon him to be their Enemy and did not only content themselves with injuring of him in his fame and the esteem had of him and seeing that the Name of
those impetuous Spirits For seeing that all the rest except those two Colleagues aforesaid stuck to Horbius's side there was at that time very great Dissention and Strife between those Pastors who stood in opposition to Horbius and those that were on his part and that by Sermons Pamphlets and Letters every one according to his Faculty in Speaking or Writing putting forth his utmost in defence of his side and in opposition to his Enemies and placing the victory in the last action untill at length the matter was brought to that pass by the Interposition and Authority of the Senate Magistrates and Supream Power of the City a special and principal Remedy for such sort of divided Men and Assemblies that all the quarrel and difference in Words and Writings was taken off by an Amnesty as they call it or General Act of Indemnity and each of them were to forgive what was past as much as all good Men hoped it would be so It 's sad to consider what a vast number of things have been written all this time through all Germany that is of the Lutheran Religion not in the Latin Tongue save a very few but in the German Language that so now the whole Dispute which so many Learned Men could not find an end to should be equally committed to the Judgment of the Learned and Unlearned and especially be the entertainment of the vulgar and abject sort of Mankind whose Judgment they who thus contended are so far from expecting that they even Despise and desire not to have them named with them In the mean time we must pretermit that the Quakers abiding elsewhere and very well knowing and retaining an account and the particulars of all their own Conveniences neglected nothing wherein they thought there was any thing to their Advantage that might be done in this Commotion and Division of these Men. They had certainly in those places at this time a certain Hope wrought in them and their Spirits were raised with some joy that it might come thereby to pass that there should be such Persons that would Judge more favourably of the Doctrine of the Quakers and that perhaps they would apply their Minds to them the Words of their Epistle in an Anniversary Meeting at London the preceeding year writ to all the Churches of the Quakers bear witness hereunto which were to this purpose That they had Thoughts and some Hopes that the falling out of the Lutherans in those places amongst themselves might tend to a farther Discovery and Promotion of the Truth in those Parts Moreover there was in Germany as it were three sorts of Pietists pardon the expression One which I have described consists of those who sought and pressed nothing else but sincere Religion and true Piety and the greatest part of those are among the Learned and better sort of men through Saxony and all Germany Another sort of them was that cryed That the Church was much Corrupted and loved Piety but such who themselves on the other hand stagger not a little in the Faith and True Religion and these same are commonly less moderate and more violent in Celebrating their Assemblies together These came near the Weiglian Sect and such sort of Fanatical People that sprung up about an hundred year ago and not dead in all that intermediate time in Misnia and other Countries about who imagined as if it had been an Opinion not yet received in the Church and yet necessarily to be delivered That there is one certain Divine Seed in all Men and that God and Christ do so infuse themselves into Men that they are one Moreover That man becomes God and Christ and that so he ought to Worship God and Christ in himself and a great deal more of such stuff Which Tenents seeing they were of themselves very obscure and incomprehensible or only an empty sound without any Sence they by their winding cants did yet further involve and make more intricate and these men dreamt of I know not what Millenary Kingdom and Golden Age and continued watching among all who should be no longer Mortal in which Kingdom all things should be restored to their former state and condition and the Blessed abound with all Spiritual and Corporal Pleasures and Delights and should be satisfied at a Thought in what they desired or Wished from the Divine and Celestial Affluence of the Holy Spirit wherefore seeing that they now thought the same time was at hand They so settled their Rules that laying aside all Controversies among Christians they now with one mind by mutual instructions and exhortations looked to that Kingdom prepared themselves for it and invited other men unto it and made it their business so to do The Third sort of them was that which may be called Behmists or Teutonists these called back as it were Jacob Behman the Shoemaker of Garlingen in Silesia from the Dead who was called Tutonick and did both Broach those Opinions which had been really delivered by him as also those Errors that had been falsly laid upon him and ascribed to him yea and horrid and hellish Blasphemy and cried them up as worthy of all Esteem and Glory But before I give the particulars hereof I do not think it absur'd to say somewhat concerning the Doctrine and Writings of this Behman and the rather because of the great variety of Opinions and Observations of Learned and famous Men concerning them He had wrote and published in the German Tongue some Books or rather Pamphlets wherein as he would perswade himself he discovered many things necessary to be known or the Foundations of true Religion and Piety in dark words disjoyned from the usual and known names and such as he that would could not perceive and apprehend producing some of his own and adding as his own invention some other things which he had heard or road else where But when it came to pass as it often happens that those Germans especially the Lutherans who Assumed to themselves the Appellation of Learned Men and who were eager in a search after Knowledg Science and Truth and durst attempt any thing and were already puffed up with their own and other mens Opinions concerning the Excellency of their Learning alight upon these Notions these as coming nigh unto Behman's Principles but looking upon them yet to be ruder and as it were but rough drawn as being what he had only begun they go on to compleat them and from the Store-house of their own Wisdom build up and heap together many Opinions but such as were Monstrous and Horrid and digest them into books and Publish them and render the Behman Name well known in Germany Holland and England by their writing in those several Languages Some things also they Publish'd in Latin and they prove and extol the whole with a wondrous Character as if they were Golden Books and to be got all by Heart by those who followed the Christian Religion and loved their own Everlasting Salvation In the
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
of the rending asunder or laceration of Christ's Body in Men for laceration implyeth division or separation of the parts asunder which cannot happen to the life of Christ in men Nor did or do I understand Christ to have Flesh or a Body in the Saints but only in an Allegorical and Figurative sence as when that of Christ which the Faithful perceive in them which they tast and which is to their Souls Meat and Drink whereby they are Spiritually refreshed and nourished is called in Scripture Milk Honey Bread Wine Oyl Fatness and the like all which are Names of a Bodily substance and therefore cannot be applyed to this Mystery but by way of Allegory and that for the defect of proper words P. The same Such a Dogma as this of Keith was entertained by Hereticks and published by Gul. Postellus a Frenchman of which Keith was not ignorant The Annot. Altho in some words and phrases I may seem to agree to these in this Author's esteem or others yet I no-wise agree in sense with them nor have I followed their words but the words and phrases of Scripture which the Hereticks used but wrested to a forraign and contrary sense to the Truth as if by the presence and inhabitation of God and Christ in Men these Men were deifyed and made God and Christ and the same honour were due to them as to God and Christ which never came into my mind yea I always abhorred such sort of Doctrine as not only Heretical but Mad and only proper to Men demented And as concerning Gulielmus Postellus I saw but little of his Writings at any time and what I saw I did not well understand for the obscurity of his stile and diverse things in him did not please me But what I have Writ concerning the Birth or Begetting and Formation of Christ in the Faithful I would not be understood to mean it in the sense of Hereticks but in the sense of Scripture Gal. 4. 19. which speaketh after this manner And in the sence of Augustine and Erasmus who both have Writ If Mary had not conceived Christ in her heart or Soul although she did bear him according to the Flesh she could not have been Saved by him Nor did I ever dream there was such an Union betwixt Christ and the Faithful as to make up one Person as the Soul and Body of Man make up one Man But such an Union I did and do understand betwixt Christ and the Faithful and betwixt God and the Faithful by Christ as is by the sincere Faith and Love of the Faithful begot and wrought in them by the Spirit of God Moreover that I have Writ some things of the Incarnate Word in the Faithful in my Book called The Way Cast Vp. I meant it no otherwise than Allegorically for I never thought that our corruptible flesh which we carry about is the Flesh of the Word but in an Allegorical sence I understand it as Origâ—n and other Ancient Writers by the Flesh of the Word of God Mystically speaking they understood the inward Life and Virtue of Christ which feedeth the Souls of the Faithful as the flesh of a Lamb or Calf feedeth the Bodies and by the like Allegory the same Life of Christ in the Faithful is called Bread but there is a shortness and disparity and that great in all these Similitudes which Life of Christ in the Saints is a certain influence or efflux from the Man Christ or from that fullness of life and Grace in him as he is without the Saints Glorified with the Father in Heaven But this efflux or influence flowing from the Person of Christ without the Saints into the hearts of the Saints too few Christian Teachers do acknowledge They confess indeed that Grace is given us of God for Christ's Merits and so they affirm that the Man Christ is the Moral Cause of the Grace which we have of God which is true But that the Man Christ sendeth down from Heaven the Influences of Grace the Divine Rain and Dew of Grace out of his fullness to few acknowledge for they understand the Grace of Christ to be nothing else than a certain quality after the manner of an accident inherent in the Soul And because it is the very being of an accident to be inherent in its subject therefore they will not own that it comes down from Christ out of Heaven In which I acknowledge I much differ from them in my Perswasion P. 280. Towards the end And these Books he took care to get Printed not in England but in Holland not consulting the Society of his Profâ—ssion nor letting them know it that they might not refuse their Consent The Annot. In this also he doth not well relate the matter of Fact I procured indeed two Books of mine to be Printed in Holland the one called The Way Cast up the other called The Way to the City of God not consulting the English Quakers I not being an Englishman nor living then in England nor the 2d days Weekly Meeting at London but I consulted the Scots Friends where I lived And notwithstanding that some London-Quakers of the Ministry accused both these Books to contain False Doctrine in some Articles yet George Whitehead recommended the first in Print and both George Whitehead and William Pen at a Solemn Meeting of the Ministry held at London about the year 1678. defended it against the gainsaying of Three Ministers of Note among the Quakers diverse beside the Ministry and my self being present tho of late the same two men have risen up against me after a most offensive manner for my standing up to defend the same Heads of Christian Religion contained in these Books and generally confessed by all True Christians against these most ignorant men who opposed them in Pensilvania The which doth plainly demonstrate the great Hypocrise of these two men The Heads of Doctrine were chiefly Three on which these three Ministers above-mentioned accused my Book and me being the Author of it The first was that in my Book I had affirm'd That the same Body of Christ which was Nailed to the Cross and was Crucified and Buried Rose again and afterwards was taken up into Heaven The Second was That it is the Duty of all Christians to Pray to the same Jesus Christ who was then Crucified and to Worship and Adore him and by him our alone Mediator to Worship Adore and Pray unto God the Father The Third was That the most Holy Men in their highest Attainments of Holiness are to approach unto God with Prayer and Thanksgiving by the Mediation of the Man Christ Jesus But these three men above-mention'd who had divers others even of the Ministry who favoured their Errors did openly and boldly in that Solemn Meeting deny these Three Heads of Doctrine above specified and my other Book called The Way to the City of God cited by the Author in this History some of the People called Quakers when I was absent in