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
for things of no moment and often by reason of the difference of ones Opinions as Publickly with Wars and Devastations and that many times for Trifles and now and then because of the Diversity of Religions and that they gaped after and strove to accommodate themselves for the attaining all Honours Riches Pleasures and such sorts of Vanities and were at the least so conform to the Fashion of the Men of this World that they could not be acknowledged to be the true Disciples and sincere Followers of Jesus Christ And these things they said were so clear and manifest that if any one was conversant among such sort of Men he should presently find work to interrogate his Eyes and Ears thereupon Moreover they did blame and lay this to their Charge That there was scarce any foot-steps left among these Protestants of that Ancient Ecclesiastical Discipline as well in respect to the Rulers and Ministers of the Church as to the whole Church her self and so from the Practice thereof they have all swerved to depraved disuse of such Discipline so that now any Teacher that Publickly in his Pulpit does that work not altogether negligently and undecently is reputed a good Pastor as to the rest as long as any one owns his Religion with his Mouth and serves the Shadows and Images of Godliness though he be given to worldly and vain Lusts and Desires this same is accounted to be a good Member of the Church and is easily admitted to participate of all the Mysteries thereof From hence they went on to Doctrinals and when they had particularly reproved many things in single Persons this came generally to be reprehended in all as if it were a common and received Opinion That Christ did all things for Man and that this only is to be done by Man That when any one sins most in the course of his Life he must lay hold on Christ as a Mediator and Saviour and lay claim to him without Works and do his endeavour to follow the Command and Example of Christ in his Conversation according to the measure of his strength and that thus it shall be well always with every one and when Death cometh that the Bands of the Body must be loosened there is a way opened for him into Heaven wherein he shall enjoy Life Everlasting where are all things and that now is fully consummate which was that very moment to be consummated Finally these Men went up higher and came to the Schools and Universities those Seminaries of the Church-Ministry and future Props of the Church of all which this was their Complaint That these Places were as vitious as might be and that this was almost the common Practice of all Students that they either did nothing or but very little of those things that conduced thereto and that they either alone or one with another as much as they could pursue Pleasures or that they who endeavoured to excel the rest were only taken up with more remote and subtil Meditations and Disputes and with the Methods and Arts of declaiming and exercised their Minds therein and did not improve the domestick Knowledge and Discipline of their own Minds and cultivate their Thoughts and their Affections with the true and absolute Knowledge and Vse of Godliness and a Spiritual Life but that by such Methods and Occupations as these are some were set at nought and looked upon to be Foreign from such Studies and Scholastical Documents and beneath the cares of such Wits and more Learned and Eminent Places And that from hence some apply themselves to Ecclesiastical Offices and attain thereto others come in by begging of Suffrages others by other Methods whose Promotion is rendred difficult through the dulness of their Vnderstandings and want of Elocution Others who have a distinct Voice and the knack of speaking and are furnished with Oratorical Sentences though they have no other Commendable Quality do prevail and so the People are indeed taught some things yea sometimes many things but not such or but very carelesly and negligently as ought mostly to be insisted upon as appertain to the Faith it self tend to the amending of Life and to Holiness and so the People are as it were thus defrauded of their just Right But though the Quakers accused and condemned all Protestants of Theft and such sorts of Vices yet they granted that the first of them of whatever Profession were the best of all of them as being such as were more upright than the rest and set themselves in Opposition to those Corruptions and did most prudently and gently advise and warn their Friends and Brethren and studied to amend and heal so great a Disease and Contagion as was crept into the Church and for this purpose gave in their Help Counsel and Assistance But they said that this Diligence Intention and Study fell but to the share of a few and that the multitude resisted and forthwith made a noise and gainsaid gave them an ill name and endangered their Esteem Business and Fortune and were so beset and hemmed in that all their Labour was in vain and they neither could nor durst stir further So things came now to that pass that Men could easier and sooner bear Vices and all manner of Evils than Remedies for the same and there was no way left then that those who were concerned for the Good and Salvation of their Souls seeing there was so great insuperable and deadly a Plague withdraw themselves and depart from hence therefore sprung these Quakers Grief hence their Tears first by reason of the English Churches and especially of the Episcopal then of other Reformed ones and this chiefly because of the Rule Order and Discipline and the Lives and Manners of the Men not so much by reason of Doctrine yet so as that they themselves acknowledged that there were in these same Churches many Teachers who reproved beâ—ailed and endeavoured to amend some things which the Quakers so much carped at so as that the thing which the Quakers wished for was not to be despaired of And this was the occasion of the Schism of these Men or their withdrawing from the Church and from an hatred sprung-up heat and burning against the whole Church of England and afterward against the rest of the Reformed Churches and at length against all Protestants which cause they so laid hold on not that every one should continue in his Church no not in those whom they confest to be less corrupted than the rest and their endeavour to set things to rights as stated Reformers who ought and knew would and durst as being of a great Capacity and most patient of Labour and also of Injuries but that they should forthwith forsake all the Churches and as it were pluck down such as they could not change and renew and leave nothing for Charity Hope and Patience as a persevering Good often overcomes the Evil. But and after they had thus forsaken those Churches many of them did not
Year following George Fox and Edward Pyot who had been a Captain before and a Person well skilled in the Law of the Land and could Argue well and William Sault underwent an hard and troublesom Imprisonment at Lanceston in Cornwal because they had dispersed some Pamphlets concerning the Religion and Discipline of their Sect For when at every Quarter Sessions they refused to uncover their Heads and to Swear Allegiance to the present Government though they said they embraced the same in their Minds and did not shun to declare it in naked works out of a scrupulous and meerly an anxious care of Conscience the Judges for these slight matters commanded them as often to be detained till the next Quarter Sessions The Prisoners made grievous Complaints of the Injuries done them by the Justices of that Country by whose Commands they were brought into that place aggravating their words and deeds above measure by their captiousness calumny and wresting of the same In the mean time as if Prison had not been appointed for to confine Men but to punish them the Gaoler a merciless and inhumane Wretch that never was taught Humanity and alway conversant among Thieves and for that reason stigmatized than whom there was no one fitter for such a Servile Office did treat and entertain these his Prisoners all the time in a barbarous and wicked manner for he did not only defraud them of Food and hinder their Friends to come to them lest they should bring them any Victuals which might seem to be the same thing as if he designed to destroy them but also when he was swoln and frantick with Drink would in a Rage fall upon them with his Hands inveigh insult give them blows and threaten to kill them There were many other Quakers confined to this Prison some because they came to Visit their Friends that were detained and confined in this place others because they carryed their own Prohibited Books either about them or gave them to others some because they would not pull off their Hats with their own hands before the Magistrates for some of them were brought to that pass but what did little agree with their Doctrine and Discipline seeing it matters not whether a Person does that himself or suffers another to do it that when they did themselves refuse to uncover their Heads they did suffer the Officers Sergeants and others to do it And these Quakers were used by this same Keeper in the same manner as the rest of them But when these Men complained to the Magistrates of their Usage and made known unto them the wrongs that were done them and that the Keeper did not only deny the whole thing but brought a quite contrary Accusation against them as if the Prisoners studied to oppress and kill him and his whole Family It was he and not they that was believed and so he went free and unpunished but these were more strictly confined and afflicted with more stripes so that some of them besides what they might have done through want the stench and filthiness of other nasty and unclean Prisoners for it was a Common Prison full of such Nastiness as is not to be named without saving your Reverence and had not been emptied for a Year's space contracted Sickness through these new Miseries and one of them called John Iagram fell so ill that at length he died there At last when the Quakers complained that the Minds of the Magistrates were so prejudiced that there was no room left for their Lamentations no entrance for Truth and that that Tormentor the Gaoler dealt with them as he pleased General Desborough by this Name alone do the Quakers who have composed this History at large distinguish and notifie the Man being herein a little subtil or civil and officious in that they have not rendred the Name of a Person that was most kind to them and one of their Patrons more explicitly and at large interposes himself for the decision of the Cause and Controversie in hand and having searched into all Matters relating thereunto he so unravelled the business that it was ordered the Quakers should not be injured nor wronged and that they should have greater Enlargement and Freedom and not long after this they were freed from their Bonds and Misery But notwithstanding the remembrance hereof among so great a multitude of People there were not some wanting who through their Levity and Fooleries contracted to themselves and the whole Society of them great Envy Trouble and Affliction For at London on the Morning of a certain day there were some of them but such as were of the meaner and more abject sort that went half naked and only clad with a Shirt and preached to the People from whence arose the Suspicion Fame Discourse and Accusation that the Quakers were all of them such a sort of wandring naked fantastical People like unto the Old Anabaptists of Munster and this gave cause and occasion for their being handled severely more than once as such uneasie and turbulent Persons Moreover seeing there was in these Times not a few besides the Quakers that expected though they scarce knew what that Fifth Monarchy and the new Reign of Christ alone was which should destroy all the Kingdoms of Men and made themselves ready for it and who had their Arms in a readiness for to Invade this Kingdom which sort of Men even our Country of Holland and Church hath seen to spring up from it self and we do very well know and remember it there were also some found among the Quakers who whether knowingly or unwittingly began some such thing as looked like such an Imperious Mode from whence the Quakers were again brought under Suspicion that they also were such a sort of Men and hence they came to be called if not universally yet many of them by the Name of Monarchical Men and if any such thing happened amongst them they were severely used for it And that I may say this by the by it 's most certain that the most learned Men in our Provinces have attributed and ascribed such Errors as these the Quakers and could not be driven from it notwithstanding all the Endeavours of the Quakers by word and writing to divert them from harbouring such an Opinion concerning them but because I would pass over such Instances of the Matter in hand as are of lesser note I would give you a Narration of the true History of James Naylor which some have related not as an History but as a Fable being used to lay hold on every twig and to make a story of the matter The business happened in the Year Fifty Six and thus it was Naylor had been first a Foot Soldier and afterward an Horseman in the Parliament's Army when he was weary of this sort of Life he began to look about for an easier way of Living and so retiring to his Native City he betook himself to the Communion and Fellowship of the Quakers wherein when
and to lay down his Life When he came to London he presently goes to their Meeting and there Preaches esteeming he could not otherwise satisfie his Conscience discharge his Duty and use the Gift which he had received which as soon as it was told the Mayor who was the same before mentioned away goes he with some of his Officers and Followers and lest he should do the same again which is not very much commendable in a Magistrate he Commands them to hale away the Man and forthwith thrust him into Prison which they do and put him into an horrid place full of filth and stench and so narrow that he could not well stand there with which Miseries after Eight Months he falls sick and his Disease increasing upon him daily he at length dies as he had lived supporting and comforting himself and his Friends who were not hindred access to him and so were present at all times with many words the sum and substance whereof was this I have hitherto preached the Gospel in this City freely and not to the burden of any and have often spent my Life therein and now in the midst of my Labours part with my Life for it and how true it is that I have truly and sincerely both acted and dealt in this matter is known to him who knoweth all things And thou O God hast then loved me when I was yet shut up in my Mother's Womb and I have loved them from my Cradle and have served thee from my Childhood and Youth to this very time to some good purpose and that with the greatest Fidelity and though this Body of mine returns unto the Dust yet I am conscious to my self and assuredly know that my Soul shall return from whence it came and that that Spirit which hath lived in me wrought in me ruled me and hath ruled in all will be diffused into Thousands I pray unto God that he would Pardon if it be his will the Sins and evil Practices of my Enemies And when he died winking as it were with both his Eyes he said Now my Soul resteth in her own Centre Fisher doth describe this Man 's untimely Death in a lofty style and according to his way in a Rhetorical and Tragical manner The Persecution of these Men was very hot the Year following in the City of Worcester Several Quakers were met together in the House of Rupert Smyth not for to Preach but to the intent they might Advise together concerning four Children the Death of whose Father had left them destitute of Sustenance and Education they chiefly considered what might be done lest the Children should come upon the Parish and that then as the Parish should have the charge of bringing them up so it would also take care to have them instructed in the Religion and Discipline of the same Presently upon this some Soldiers get together and having given no sign of their being sent rush upon them as upon a Rabble withstanding or despising the Government and with much Clamour and great Violence take Twenty Four of the Company and carry them to the places where they were wont to be put amongst Bawdy-house haunters for this now was come in fashion Ruffians Thieves and such sort of vitious notorious Offenders after some Weeks Smyth and a few other are brought before the Magistrates and examined they ask them whether they had taken the Oath of Allegiance And when they said they had not they ask them again whether they would now Swear according to their usual way of Interrogating of them in these Times They Answer That they could not swear for Conscience-sake and affirm a thing according to their forms and in such a manner but that otherwise they could sincerely affirm that they would discharge all their Duty towards the King and Government neither would they attempt any thing which tended to their dishonour and Incommodity neither would they do any thing for which they might justly be blamed But whilst that in this hearing there was no dispute about the Thing but the Mode and Circumstance thereof was only controverted and that the Quakers in the mean time held to their own way and stood covered the Magistrates laying aside the Dispute about Swearing they take up the matter of these mens wearing their Hats before them and urge that to stand covered before the Magistrate as it did here manifestly appear was a great derogation from the King's Honour and such and so great an Offence that it ought to be punished and that severely by the Court. To which Smyth wittily replyed Seeing that there was not only any appearance of no Crime no nor the least suspicion against them that they had lessened the Reputation of this King his Name Rule and Government in words or deeds it was a very trivial thing for them to urge that as a mark of it and seeing that the Hat is a Covering to the Head and that each part of the Body has his Covering and that none in his approach to others though they be Magistrates uncovers any other part of his Body and that his not doing so is not for all that taken as a mark of Contumacy and Disobedience it 's most strange Men should be bound by this Law and Religion about the Bonnet After this Reply there was Sentence pronounced against all of them that they should be detained in Prison because they refused to obey and be observant towards the King and irreverent towards the Judges As for Smyth they adjudged him to be out of the King's Protection to have his Goods Confiscate and brought to the Exchequer after this the rest of them were accused and partly because of their Meeting together and partly because they refused to Swear adjudged also to Prison the thing from a Hearing came to a Tryal the Evidence Swear to the Matter in the absence of the Criminals but the Witnesses disagreed very much one with another the whole Action of which the Accusation and Case was made up is found to be far otherwise than was thought to be the Judges hereupon were somewhat concerned what clear Answer they should give and what to determine concerning the Men at last they adjudge them to be carryed back to Prison At this time Francis Howgil a diligent Teacher among these People was taken from the Market-place where he attended his business by a Traveller and carryed before the Justices of the Peace that were met together in the next Inn These look askew upon the Man hesitate question him and at last come to that which they designed and require him to take the Oath of Allegiance he did at first in like manner delay as knowing their Tricks made no Excuse lest his going about to purge him of a fault might be esteemed as a fault but he afterward goes on whither they desired him and denyed that he could with a safe Conscience take the Oath And so was committed to Prison whence being brought before the Judges to
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
to his Party Elizabeth Hooton the first Woman that preached Who were Fox his first Disciples and Colleagues What sort of Men did more especially joyn themselves to the Quakers Fell Fox his Patron Whose Wife having afterwards married Fox did with her whole Family turn Quakers Others of Fox's Scholars The Quakers Sect dispersed through the Northern Parts Some others of Fox his Companions The rare History of ap John Burroughs goes to London His engaging with the London Champions his Speech unto them and the event thereof Fox brought before Cromwel Cromwel's Affection towards the Quakers The Circumspection of the Quakers among themselves Fox his new Companions The going of the Quakers into Ireland And into Scotland The causes of so many Progresses The Quakers hatred to the Episcopal Men and to the Presbyterians To others To the Ministers of the Word Their Judgment concerning all Protestants The Doctrine and particular Opinions Life and Conversation of the Quakers Why so many Men joyned with them How the People came to envy aud disturb them â—he ways whereby they were persecuted Singular Examples The strange Boldness and Impudence of some Quakers and hence Men became enraged against them Naylor's History These things pursued till Gromwel's Death New Instances of Persecutions The Quakers Affairs in Scotland In Ireland THE General HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS From their first beginning down to this present Time BOOK I. AMongst the many and great Conflicts of the Church while sojourning here on Earth there is none more usual and withal more difficult and hazardous than that she is engaged in for Vindicating the Truth of her Religion from the False Doctrines of her Insulting and Impudent Adversaries The Reason of all which cannot be unknown to any who considers that those who are lovers of and zealous for the Truth delivered by God neither ought nor can conceal and hide the same but make it known to the Praise and Glory of God whereas others who are fond of Falshoods that they may the better compass whatever seems good to their own Appetites or conducive to their Interest do not usually fail to propagate and defend their own Inventions and to accuse and condemn the more Pious and Honest Doctrines of others as being too opposite to them and their Designs It is likewise manifest that the Truth being of it self clear and evident is content with a simple discovery dealing candidly and openly with all whereas Lyes and Falshoods as having no solidity or weight in themselves must be adorn'd with a multitude of fair and boasting Expressions using a hundred little Tricks and Cheats for ensnaring the unskilful and unwary in which they are oft-times so successful that even the wiser sort of People and those who on other occasions are circumspect enough do sometimes chance to be entangled and do find it a matter of difficulty to extricate themselves from the same Moreover though it be Natural for Mankind still to complain of the Iniquity of their own Times insomuch that all Men are ready to fly out in Panegyricks upon the Ages past while they condemn that they live in yet I can scarce think that there are any who are not convinc'd that the days in which our Lot is fallen are such as in them all manner of Errors and Falshoods are broke in upon Religion all sorts of mad and unheard of Heresies the most terrible and foulest Blasphemies have over-run and as it were delug'd the Church Insomuch that she is now oblig'd not only to encounter Profane and Wicked Men for the defence of the Truth and Integrity of her Religion but to oppose her self to the Arms of her Bloody and Cruel Enemies for the maintenance of her Liberty and Freedom It is not sufficient for her to engage with Men but she is constrained to fight even with Beasts But there is no Affliction can overtake the Church of the Living God that does not admit of some Relief and Comfort Wherefore since this is now the condition of the Church in these evil days it is likewise her great Happiness that so many able and skilful Men have in these same very days bestirr'd themselves on her behalf for opposing and confuting the Erroneous Sentiments of wicked Men occasion'd partly by Ignorance and Folly partly by a resolute and furious Madness and thus assisting the distressed Church have successfully employ'd both their Tongues and Pens furnishing her not only with means of Knowledge and Spiritual Weapons for instructing and confirming her self against the Assaults of her Enemies but even for gaining convincing and vanquishing the same In prosecuting this their laudable Design some have contented themselves with the bare mentioning the horrible and monstrous Assertions vented by those cunning contrivers as accounting it a sufficient Confutation to have nam'd them which bewray their weakness at the first view But I cannot guess at the Reason why so very few have for so long a time made mention of the Quakers whose rise is dated from a little before the middle of this present Century and have since that time wonderfully increased in number of Proselytes beyond what is commonly thought of these Men I say accounted by some Superstitious and followers of Old Wives Fables by others the worst sort of Fanaticks and in the next degree to Lunaticks and Madmen have been quite past over in silence by most Writers so that not so much as the History of their Rise and Progress is yet on Publick Record at least wise if any there be that have touch'd upon this Sect they have done it in so slight and transitory a manner that they would rather seem to have made Publick their own Ignorance than to have left on Record the Actions Doctrine and Religion of these Men Unless perhaps this may be imagin'd for a Reason of the silence of Writers that they account of these Men so little as that they think it fitter to pass them in a negligent and disdainful silence than to spend words or time upon them Others there are indeed who have wrote something of them but to no purpose who being themselves altogether ignorant what manner of Men they be and having only heard of them by Report as being Prodigies and Monsters of Mankind chose rather to put in Print whatever they heard than to have just nothing to say of 'em reckoning the danger not to be great whether the Relation prov'd true or false for if true it is well if false it falls upon such a Tribe of Men think they of whom nothing can be said so ill that would not Quadrate to them My Judgment upon the matter is this that while I consider that England the Native Country of these Men Scotland and Ireland abounds so much with those called Quakers since their number in those Countries does daily increase nay and elsewhere they have propagated their Doctrines making and gaining Proselytes for that it is they bend all their force to having for this purpose for a long time publish'd
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
be seen going about and Preaching up this New Doctrine either severally or collectively in one Body These Accessory Preachers made it their business first to Preach unto those who had already made defection from the Church and afterwards to them who continued embody'd in the same whose Religion and Manners were more oppugnant to and different from theirs which made them testifie their abhorrence of that Church both in words and deeds But they unanimously purposed among themselves that they should endeavour to perswade all Men that all Christian Churches were long ago quite overturn'd that nothing either of Doctrine Discipline Life or Manners was uncorrupted or sound and that therefore a new Church was to be rear'd up from the Foundation according to the Model and Platform carved out by them This they all set about taking all occasions of speaking with the People talking of these matters complaining of and expressing their grief for the Corruptions of Religion tatling this and that privily into the ears of the Vulgar nay when their number increased they became bolder going into Peoples Houses when not invited intruding themselves into Companies either of more or fewer and presently without any Introduction beginning some new Discourse either advancing something new or opposing the Sayings and Discourses of others litigiously starting Controversies without any preceding dissention or any previous Enquiry into the state of the Question thus would they under the pretence of discovering and vindicating the Truth beleh out ignominious Reproaches and Slanders against the Religions of Men and especially the Ministers of the Church Others there were who only mov'd Questions in Company and affirmed nothing themselves or of a sudden turned the Discourse another way cunningly designing by their tedious repetitions turnings and windings and frequent interruptions of Discourse by bringing in a new Subject to irritate their Antagonists that when they through Passion should chance to speak roughly and loudly they themselves might continue calm and moderate with a slow severity as it oft-times happens and is easily compassed which might occasion their Adversaries either not to speak last or to be passionately silent at their Obstinacy from whence they conclude themselves Victors and amongst the Ignorant pass for such And now would they publickly appear on the High-ways standing in the Market-places or any place where multitudes of People use to assemble together promiscuously Admonishing and Exhorting all they met by-standers and others to a Religious pursuit of Repentance Frugality Justice and Equity Nay they came to that length that they did not stick at entring into the Churches not only of those who dissented from the Publick Church-Establishment but even of them who were conform'd to it some of 'em casually falling into the Church and appearing as if afraid others designedly and boldly went into them finding fault with the Discourses and Prayers of the Ministers disparaging and defaming both them and their Actions with all manner of Insolence and Impudence These were the first beginnings But in the subsequent part of this Book I shall shew that many nay most of 'em have afterwards by degrees omitted changed or reformed many of these Initiatory Principles Fox as he was the first Author of this Sect so was he the chief Actor Counsellor and Conductor of others in all Affairs relating to the same His first Success was in the Town of Nottingham from whence his Doctrine did issue forth into all corners of that County and afterwards the whole Kingdom For having confidently appear'd in the Church and boldly vindicated his Doctrines in Face of the whole Assembly he was thereupon cast into Prison but was not so closely confin'd but that Liberty was given to his Friends to visit and converse with him So that many of the Citizens went frequently to Prison to Discourse him and among the rest John Reccles Mayor of the Town with his Wife and whole Family with whom George did sharply Expostulate treating them with some severity of words however they became his Proselytes associated themselves to his Sect and began publickly to Preach his Doctrines among their own People and Neighbours This Imprisonment of George Fox was of a very short continuance This was in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Nine in the Five and Twentieth Year of his Age. Which Year was Sacred to him for that in the same he both commenc'd the state of a Man being come to perfect Age and also the Office of the Ministry This same Year was also Memorable amongst the Quakers for being the Year of the Nativity of their Church which now began to increase and be confirm'd And from this Year it is that they commence all the Miracles of the New-born Church Fox remain'd yet a while longer in Nottinghamshire and resided for some time at Mansfield where having entred an Hospital he spy'd a Woman who besides the distraction of her Mind was miserably tormented with intolerable Pains The Physician ordered her a Vein to be open'd that by taking away some of her Blood her pain might be abated for which end her hands were bound up Fox opportunely draws nigh views the Woman and what they were about to do to her presently affirms and maintains that she was afflicted with an Evil Spirit which he did not say as the Vulgar use to do who when they are ignorant of the cause of any Evil assign the Devil for its Author He continues stedfast in affirming what he had said and orders the Woman to be unty'd which being accordingly done and she being over-wearied with the Torment and Resistance she had made he desires her to Rest and be still She obeys recovers her lost Reason and is restor'd to her former and so long interrupted Temperature of Body Upon this Fox Taught that the Sick were cur'd and unclean Spirits cast out by that Divine Vertue which works in his People His followers who were as Rattles and Cymbals to blaze about his Fame disguis'd the matter thus That the Woman was possess'd with a Devil who had troubled her for the space of Two and Thirty Years that being brought unto him after many hideous shrieks and outcries and motions like to the bellowing of a Cow and a most noisome stink breath'd from her mouth she was freed of that Malignant Spirit in presence of a great multitude of People Fox did likewise boast that he cured a certain Man in a Village called Trikossio in Leicestershire after he had been given over by the Physicians only by uttering some few words to him and stretching forth his hand to Heaven His Friends added yet another that having ended his Discourse to the People he happen'd once to meet with a Woman accompany'd by her Husband all over Scabby Ulcerous and covered round with Cataplasms upon which he enquired of the Husband if he had the Faith of Miracles but while he was hesitating and delaying to answer he asked the same Question of the Woman and she having answered
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
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
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
embrace that Religion which they loath and shun and if they will do neither of these to torment oppress and destroy and not to allow them a being among Men for another thing is if there are some who cease not to be troublesome unto others but are busie to deceive them to speak ill of their Religion and Ordinances to disturb and infest them and to ruine and destroy their Churches and these if they be restrained and corrected which not to do and to tolerate such especially if they be such who suppose this to belong to their own Religion and Church for to overthrow the Religion and Churches amongst which they live were the same thing as knowingly and wittingly to ensnare themselves and to make way for and run headlong into their own voluntary destruction and a great many People in former times in these Kingdoms have felt the smart of such a Persecution and an innumerable Company of the best of Christians have felt the same from those very Persons who had before undergone themselves that severe Tyranny from others but in reference to the manner how this befel the Quakers in these Countries from the initiation of their Religion Ways and Manners and by what right or wrong these Men did afterward so bewail their hard usage we shall take upon us a little more distinctly to set forth For as the Doctrine of these Men was so opposite to the Doctrine of others hence the same was every where charged with divers Accusations and Reproaches as also Calumnies especially by them who as it usually happens followed only vulgar Reports and were in the mean time ignorant of the Doctrine that these Men held And since their manner of Living was so directly opposite to the Custom and Manners of all and more especially in that they appeared very sad both in gate and countenance in the Streets and in Company and that some of them were very nasty in their Habit and all of them silent or of few words and when they spake used many other unusual Expressions and them delivered slowly and by piecemeals and as it were by points and especially if they treated of any serious matters they made use of such sort of Protractions Hesitations and Delays and expressed every word by syllables and did not only not salute Men in the Streets but utterly disused Salutation both in their approaches to and departures from Men by which things being as it were the Ensigns of this Sect they were commonly known hence it was that they were envied and hated of all that had to do with them The Principal thing which drew upon them much Envy and great Calamities was their first Violence and fierce Incursions both in their words and writings against the Doctrine and Faith of others especially of them who were within the Communion of the Publick Church even because of certain names and words that were used by the whole Church and that for a long time which if not literally contained in the Scripture yet did agree in the thing and were consonant to other words and names in the Scriptures but such indeed as seemed to be foolish unto them Another thing was their rashness and boldness in Judging Condemning Sadding and Cursing of all and singular Persons who did not agree with them in their matters and such besides who were unknown had not been heard made no defence and so innocent as to any Injury done them in the doing whereof they were most forward who held the first Rank amongst this Sect of Quakers but besides these there were divers others but of a different condition and who had this Property to have little Wit and to be thoughtful of nothing but furnished with Imprudence and Impudence that began some sort of Discourse in Publick Places where there were most People in a kind of clamorous manner but with a very unpleasing Noise and even stood in the Churches which now the Quakers in general called Steeple-houses by way of Reproach while Divine Service was performed with their Hats on sometimes during the Sermons of the Ministers and Common-Prayers but such as they called Divinations disagreeing with themselves and not knowing what they said and sometimes after they were ended suddenly uttered some uncouth words and without shewing any previous Reasons reprehended the doings of the former yea and detested them as if they were wicked and accurst and thus did they do those things themselves which they had blamed so much in other Men. There were some who in a Mimical and Fool 's Habit and Gesture of Body did as it were either describe the Actions of Men in the open Market-places or deride them or did take upon them to fore-tell the Fate that should attend them These were commonly such as were of meaner Parts and Fortune than the rest and more especially of the Female kind and even they who did these things said they did them by the Instinct of the Holy Ghost and according to the Example of the Prophets and of Christ and his Apostles whom they contended to have been accustomed to have done such things openly in crouds of People in the Temple and other places from whence the Fame thereof might pass into all places and that there never was any Law made in England that did forbid such things thus over and above defending themselves with their Quibbles and also Law-Sophistry to which also others of them even their Leaders added their Consent there were others who neither approved of this Practice nor blamed it But this in process of time they all left and avoided and hence it was that all Persons were not only alienated in their Affections from these Men but also most enraged against them and as often as they durst do any such thing they were assaulted and had violence offered unto them Though they notwithstanding all were by no means deterred from it but did continuedly repeat the same having this their Opinion as a Brazen Wall unto them neither regarding herein the words and deeds of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of those Holy Men that we should beware of Men and should not provoke them but so admit of those things which we may avoid and run our selves into danger Now when the Quakers were brought into Courts of Justice and put upon answering for themselves they would not off with their Hats nor call the Judges by Names suitable to their station which Honours they thought unlawful to bestow upon Men and that it was a Worship that appertained to God alone and when they were asked some things as solemnly descreetly and mildly as might be many of them shifted backwards and forwards and made such Answers as were no ways to the purpose and when thâ—s without any further hearing of the Cause than this they have been often thrust into Prisons the same Persons have slighted and blamed their Judges to their faces as the framers of such Laws whereby they omitted what God and a good Conscience dictated to them or
did that which was contrary thereunto and others of the same Kidney did every where in their Sermons and Libels cast all manner of Reproaches upon those Magistrates before all Men and imprecated all Evils upon them and did as it were pronounce them by the Command of God forgetting the Monitor and Author of that saying That in such a case we should not delay to confess all our own failings and also love our Enemies and bless and do good unto them and so be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect whence it came to pass that not only they who were thus deservedly committed by the Judges but also such as thus maintained their Obstinacy were laden with more and greater Evils and the same thing sometimes fell upon the Heads of the whole Multitude But those who were of a more moderate Temper blamed the immoderation of these Men but the Quakers were never universally troubled and persecuted at any time during the Interregnum and Cromwel's Protectorship in England Scotland and Ireland and there was no particular Persecution of them by the appointment of Publick Authority unless it were that these Men proceeded to Assemble together in too unwary and audacious a manner or to disturb the Publick Assemblies of others with their chatterings or lessen the Reputation of them by their invidious Speeches Invectives and Writings or did some such thing by speech or gesture Neither was there any of them punished or put to Death either by Publick Authority or Tumultuously by the Multitude but such indeed otherwise was the severity of the following Times and the calamity of these Men that all were commanded every where to abstain from their Meetings and when they urged that they could not do that for Conscience sake and that therefore they would do it in no wise then there was a very heavy Persecution and not of one sort raised as much as might be against all of them in general and in other places against each in particular as began to be turbulent and introduced any Novelty in the Churches And this afterward became an accessional Crime in that they would not Swear before a Magistrate pay Tythes nor do and suffer many more things by reason of scruple of Mind and fear of God by which Practice of theirs though none of the Quakers were at any time put to Death publickly or privately by Officers Sergeants and Executioners by the Magistrate's Command yet many of them were so handled in Prisons and so injured with Stripes and Wounds by wicked and villainous Men that they died miserably thereof yea and seeing the boldness and constancy of these Men was such that whatever they begun that they would go through with and omit nothing of such things as I have spoken of before and the more they were chastised the more obstinate they would be against such as censured and chastised them This was their daily Fate that some of them were committed publickly to Prison by the Magistrates some fined some banished and reproached sufficiently by the Common People and were cuffed kicked cudgelled and stoned out of the places where they were Neither were there any of the Teachers and Guides of the People who was not some where or other imprisoned and many times while they were gathered together they had Information given against them and thereupon Officers Guards and the like Men were sent who under the colour of their Office fell upon beat and carried away all that were present Again there were many Private Persons and of the meaner and vulgar sort born brought up and trained to Mischief and Rapine that either came under such Leaders as these now spoken of whither also without doubt their own greediness had led them without this or alone and of their own accord like Theives and Robbers and broke in where they hoped to gain most Pillage and Plunder and forced the Doors open and first of all laid hold on stripped and beat the People with their Hands and Sticks and scattered and dissipated all of them and whatever they could not carry away they wasted and spoiled the rest they stole away and every one carryed his Booty to his own House by which furious doings those mad and wicked Men did oftentimes in a moment deprive as well the Poor as the Rich of all their Substance which they had been gathering for many Years and of all the Houshold-stuff they had and to that degree that they did not leave the poor People as much as their Tools and Utensils which they made use of for to gain their Livelihood Sometimes it so happened while these Men did not meet covertly that these Villains all of a sudden rushed into the midst of the Assembly put out the Candle and of those they caught some of them they dragged by the Hair of the Head others tyed Hand and Foot they carryed into the Fields and there left them where the People continued all Night to the endangering of their Lives and thus many of them did at last perish both in Prisons by Sickness and the want of Necessaries Stench and other Inconveniencies as also in their own Houses because of the Miseries they sustained through the rage and violence of the People neither yet did these things alone at once seize upon these People but by degrees and one after another in the mean time the Quakers suffered and endured all these things from the very beginning with so much Patience and Resolution of Mind that they not only wearied many of their Enemies but also excited and enclined many People to become of their Communion thus judging with themselves that Men neither would nor could undergo and sustain such intolerable Troubles and Miseries unless they were very well assured in their Consciences of the truth of those things for which they suffered even as the Quakers themselves pretended that this their Patience for their Faith which they turned to the Glory of Martyrdom joyned with their singular way of Life and Manners was the principal Seed of their Church both then and at all times Yea I have heard some of them Preach that it would certainly come to pass that their Religion would be a new Reformation and Instauration of the World but that this would be very unlike unto that Reformation which happened in the Age before as being partly supported by an Arm of Flesh whereas this would be the only Property of theirs to be perfected and accomplished by Faith alone and the Patience and Long-suffering of the Espousers thereof In the mean time the Quakers complained very much of the Ministers of the Publick Churches as also of the Independants but more especially of the Baptists to which Baptists themselves there was at that time granted great freedom both to speak and act what they pleased that they above all others were injurious to them called upon the Magistrates and stirred up also the People to hasten their Ruine by reason that they lessened their Number and Dignity by shaking
the same time the Quakers put out a Pamphlet wherein they recounted what every Minister of the Publick Church throughout England had done against every one of their Society how they had handled them with the Name and Sirname of every one of them at what time George Monk General of all the Armies of Britain put an end to this Evil by a Proclamation that none should injure the Quakers provided they demeaned themselves dutifully towards the Common-wealth I have given an Account of the Afflictions and Persecutions of these Men in England and have produced various Instances of every kind concerning their Troubles and now these Quakers shew themselves in Scotland behaving themselves here as in all other places where they came being often-times very vexatious and troublesom in the Publick Meetings and Conversations of Men in the Markets in the Churches and that either before or after or while they were at their Solemn Prayers and Preaching neither did they only confound Speakers and Hearers and made them dissatisfied with their Meeting together or exercise of their Religion but as often as they were taken and did not beg Pardon for the fault committed they were handled in the same manner as they had been in England many of them being Imprisoned some whipped and others banished This was a thing very singular and strange in this Country and among this Nation there was a Law made at Glascow in the General Assembly that no Quaker should be cherished and relieved by any Member of the Reformed Church and that no Person should have any Commerce with them or make use of their Labour and Employ them under the Penalty of being Excommunicated and by this means these wretched People were forced to seek for other though uncertain Abodes or else to perish through extream want Notwithstanding which Law which the Quakers cryed was by no means made with a Christian Temper but was a barbarous Rite and the Effects of Cruelty when their Affairs seemed to have been brought to the utmost danger they did so struggle with these Difficulties that they even increased in Number day by day Neither must we pass over in silence that those two Men John Swinton and David Barclay did at this time go off to the Quakers who because both of them were very Famous and Renowned first among all the Scots and afterwards among the Quakers I cannot pass it over but must here insist a little upon it John Swinton was of a good Family and at first well deserving of the Common-wealth having his Name from the Place whereof he was Lord when King Charles the Second fled from England and was received and crowned by the Scots this Swinton was a Member of the General Assembly then as also of the Parliament and then it was that the said King Solemnly swore he would preserve the Church of Scotland as then established inviolable but when the King afterward changed his Faith and endeavoured to promote the Function and Rule of Bishops and that now both Nations were at deadly and Intestine Wars one with another and that the Members in Parliament took into Deliberation what they should do with the King Swinton said it was his Opinion that they should reject the King's Interest and be at Peace and Amity with the English by which Speech when Swinton found that he had much exasperated the Minds of all of them and being afraid of the Danger withdraws from the Parliament and with all Expedition flies to his Estate in the Country which was not far from the Frontiers of England and cunningly contrives it that he had fallen into the hands of the English Soldiers these carry him to London when the English had overcome the Scots the English Parliament appoint this Man that was so Faithful to their Church and Country together with others to Govern the Affairs of Scotland But while Swinton tarryed at London he contracted Acquaintance and Familiarity with the Quakers and afterward became of their Society When the King was restored and come over Swinton who was then at London though he was not ignorant how angry the King was with him yet he staid there trusting to a good Conscience that he had discharged his Duty to the Publick without any private Enmity against the King There the King Commands him to be seized and carryed into Scotland to the end that he might be put to Death when he was brought before the Parliament and being allowed the freedom to defend himself he did so Plead his own Case and by his Eloquence allay the Anger and Fury of all the Members that they did acquit him from his Capital Crime and only confined him Prisoner to the Castle of Edenburgh where he continued for some Years David Barclay was a Gentleman of Scotland and descended from the Ancient and Illustrious Family of the Barclays of which these Men have not only reported of themselves but it has also been asserted by others that they have not only proceeded from so Noble Great and Ancient a Stock but also that they were a-kin to the Royal Family this same Gentleman using his Nobleness not for a Veil to Sloath and Idleness but as fewel and an incitative to Industry and Vertue after he had from his Childhood given himself up to the Exercise of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and finding that in the doubtful Affairs of his Country he could not find room for his Studies he betook himself to the German Wars and was first a Captain in the Swedish Army and in some time came to be a Colonel but after that the English had enforced their Government in Scotland he returns to his own Country and he is together with Swinton and other Nobles appointed for the Governance of it and is sent for to London that he might be present at the making and establishing of the League between both Kingdoms but in process of time when King Charles was restored he is committed Prisoner to the Castle of Edenburgh to his old Friend Swinton and not long after gave himself over in Company with Swinton to the Sect of the Quakers this David Barclay was the Father of Robert Barclay who if not the only yet was the most memorable of the Latin Writers amongst all the Quakers In Ireland Howgil and Burroughs the fore-runners of this Sect were sent back from Cork into England by the Command of Henry Cromwel who then governed that Kingdom by the Title of Lord-Deputy and when after they were gone Ames took upon him to propagate Quakerism in that City he was also thrown into Prison from whence being afterwards set at Liberty and seeing he could not forbear but must speak openly in the Church against the Preacher he was again clap'd up in the same place from which place when he wrote a Letter to Colonel Henry Ingoldsby who was Governour of that same City and under whom he was a Soldier and endeavoured to make his Defence and procure his Liberty he was indeed brought before him
from him that he even here and there subscribed his Name to every Page and confirmed by his Testimony that it contained and taught every Language by which Work and Labour Fox now shewed plainly the thing not to Boys but to all Men that were like Boys in Ignorance herein and untaught them that wicked way of speaking But when some objected against Fox his Ignorance in these Languages and that he was upbraided herewith as if he were mad he wiped it off thus with this new Joke That he knew only as much of Languages as was sufficient for him The Year Sixty Two was Remarkable for the Commotion and Change of many things to the great Inconveniency Trouble and Incommoding of the Quakers and went so far in the Times that followed that the Ruine of the whole Party and Race of them seemed to be at hand for the Solemn League and Covenant between the King and People of Britain and between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland than which League there was nothing before looked upon to be more Holy Just and Desirable no greater Foundation both of the Regal Dignity and the Peoples Liberty nor a greater Bond to gather and unite together the whole Body of the Church and to establish the Religion of both Kingdoms was now looked upon as it were an Antichristian piece of Work and the Spring of all Evil and there was the preceding Year even by the Parliament's Command rased out of all the Publick Records both in Church and State and at London in several places burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman This Year was the Episcopal Order and Authority which had always been the Spring and Original of many Brawls and Calamities was every where set up and establish'd there being some even of the Presbyterians who now were desirous of this Power and Glory which they had before withstood or when offered them did not reject them upon this Consideration that seeing they would endeavour to be good Men in the discharge of this Office they were afraid if they did refuse the same lest such should be preferred who would not carry themselves in that Station with that Moderation required of them The King now which had been the fear of good Men a long time and what was now looked upon as a new Prognostick and sad Omen upon the Kingdom contracted a Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal a Lady so given up and devoted to the Religion and Ceremonies of the Popish Church that she was inferiour to none of the Queens or Princesses of the Age for that Superstition At last the King after he thought he had established his House and Kingdom and made all things sure did more and more instead of the Care Labour and Continency he ought to have exercised give himself up to Ease and Luxury and left the Management of most things to his Counsellors and Ministers of State especially to those who were mostly his Familiars and Companions all which change wrought no small Perturbation Trouble Fear and Trembling in the Minds of all those whose Religion differed from the Religion and Constitution that were now thus revived again he who had persecuted another did even now persecute himself and whom many were before afraid of was not now without his own fears and had need to take care of himself and therefore from such a Commotion as this others became also afraid who were otherwise more to be feared and from this their Fear arose a Suspicion and hence Discourses and at last a Rumor that there was a multitude of Enemies and Conspirators in the City and elsewhere who laid in wait for the King and were ready utterly to overturn the whole frame of this new Government Though many did believe this to be an Evil Report cunningly contrived by those who looked upon such a Report to be the best way for them to arrive at that which they could not hope to obtain in Peaceable Times Now as there was nothing transacted by wicked and profligate Men of which the Quakers were not esteemed either the Authors Promoters Parties or knew of it or consented to it so here also these Men came to be suspected of this Crime when at the same time there was no certain sign of any Conspiracy or Sedition contrived by any sort of Men and not the least Foot-steps of it by the Quakers and so there was a Report quickly spread abroad that these were such Men as had embrued themselves in such great Wickednesses and that they had associated themselves and daily met together to that purpose Of which things when they did not of their own accord clear and vindicate themselves which they thought they ought not to do without certain Accusers nor could do without some Prejudice thence the same Suspicion and Report increased and by this means the People who were not indeed called to answer at the Bar because that would be done upon too slight a Conjecture contracted the real hatred of all and became in great danger and were impunedly troubled all manner of ways by them who because they were not hindred thought they were allowed so to do Now the King had commanded that the Quakers of London and Middlesex should take the Oath which seemed to be the strictest tye for the Testifying of their Affection and engaging their Faithfulness towards the King and Kingdom and that the Judges should shew favour to none But if the Quakers would not Swear in pursuance to his Proclamation they should hold their Meetings no where then follows another Law for the prevention of Seditious Assemblies That no Meeting should be held under a shew and pretence of Divine Worship that was not approved and ratified by the Liturgy of the Church of England nor more Persons meet together at one place than five But and if any above the Age of Sixteen Years and upwards did transgress herein and being a Subject of the Kingdom such an one should be punished for the same This Law seemed to have been enacted for the restraint of all Sects but did more especially appertain to the Quakers and none could but understand that it was a Snare for them and rended to Shipwrack their Affairs So that it came hereby to pass that such of these Men as were now imprisoned were for this reason more closely kept and used more severely by the Gaolers even by those who before seemed kind unto them As for the rest of them they had one Tryal and Affliction upon another and the same were every where openly not only when they were met together in the streets entertained with all manner of Ignominy and Reproach but were also enforced to abstain from their Religious Assemblies and when notwithstanding all they proceeded they were harrassed by Soldiers and fined sometimes entertained with more than an Hostile Fury and thrown into Prison and being required to Swear were upon their refusal detained in Prison or thrust into Working-Houses among wicked and profligate wretches who had
Laws when of the same strain and so could not be urg'd upon them as a rule to walk by Besides that the Liturgy did not forbid nay commanded to Worship God after the same manner that they did viz. In Spirit and in Truth The Jurymen after having understood the whole matter how it stood did not all so freely tell their minds as they might have done nor were they all equally forward and ready to decide the matter some pleading that it being an intricate case they were doubtful and uncertain how to determine it others refusing positively to Judge of it as being a most important and momentous affair But all the Judges unanimously concentred in this sentence that such Religious Meetings as were not conform to the Modes of the Church of England or exceeded the number of five were unlawful and that these Quakers whatsoever was their design in Meeting be it good oâ— ill had celebrated such unlawful Meetings and persisted to do the same still which they openly and Judicially acknowledged so that no place was left for attenuating the crime or alleviating the punishment wherefore they were all guilty of a Capital crime And whereas some of these Quakers were married others were single persons in some Courts the sentence was that the former should pay a fine of so many pounds or suffer a years Imprisonment and the latter be Transported to the American Islands to do slavery in the English Colonies there In other Courts they were all promiscuously order'd to be Transported Yet so as in some Courts Liberty was given to those that had receiv'd sentence of Banishment in some places to them all but elsewhere only to the Boys and Girls to choose whether they would rather be Transported or stay in England and frequent the publick Churches to hear Sermon which they all unanimously rejected some of 'em returning this answer that they wondred how the Judges should propose such an offer since they all knew very well that if any of the Quakers came that length as to embrace their Proposal it would not be from a sincere love to the Church or their Sermons but through Hypocrisy and Dissimulation which in Religious matters is the most heinous and superlative crime that can be Committed In fine since the Quakers continued so obstinate in rejecting all offers made by the Judges they likewise continued stedfast in ordering their sentence to be put in Execution against them The first Court that took this affair into Cognisance was held about the middle of October William Proctor being chosen president The Jurymen were unwilling and refractory to meddle with it which Created a great deal of trouble to the Judges At this time there were twelve receiv'd sentence of Transportation partly Men of which some very ancient some very young partly women among whom was one Girl under sixteen years of Age. Another Court was held the same very month to which Robert Hide presided Differences arose betwixt the Judges and Jurymen for that the latter were slow and backward to decide the matter At length after they had reason'd and debated among themselves about the nature of the Crime the matter of fact and the tenor of the Law they with one voice gave in this Resolution that these men were guilty of having kept Conventicles but that they could not determine whether they kept such Conventicles as here repugnant to the rites and customs of the Church or what was their intention in so doing By which sentence they thought they freed themselves from any further trouble in the affair But the Judges began to debate with some of them about the Religion of the Quakers and at last to threaten them openly and cited six of the twelve to appear before the King to give an account of what they had done the six were not at all affraid persisting in their opinion in favour of the Quakers which they thought it their duty not to revoke from Upon which the Court was dismiss'd for that occasion and the matter left undecided yet it sate again that same very day but Judge Hide did not sit the Lord Mayor supplying his place and then it was determin'd nemine contra dicente that they were guilty of most heinous Crimes unworthy to live in their Country and therefore to be banish'd to the outmost bounds of the Remorter Earth Among them was a Boy in Coats being so very young who being ask'd if he would not swear that he was not sixteen years old had not the Ripeness enough of Judgment to give a grave and pertinent Answer but reply'd that no Man could Remember the Day of his Birth and that he was not born for nor train'd up in Swearing On this occasion Eighteen were condemn'd to the same punishment of being Transported The next Court was held in December Hide presiding in which without any dissention or variety of Opinions they condemn'd Two and Thirty to be turn'd out of all their Possessions and Enjoyments and banish'd their Countrey One of these Two and Thirty boldly desir'd leave of the Judges to ask One Question which being granted he tells them That they were constituted Judges to resolve him and others about dubious matters which they acknowledg'd to be true Then he asks of them since the cause of his Condemnation was his frequenting the Meetings of the Quakers and absenting from the Publick Churches and since the Commands of God enjoyn'd the former and the Laws of Men constrain'd the latter which would they have him obey or what would they advise him to do The Judges gave no answer either because they durst not answer contrary to their own Consciences or because they would not seem by their Judgment to overturn a Law establish'd and confirm'd by so many Judgments pass'd upon the same Affair Some of these condemn'd both in this and other Courts demanded by their Solicitors as well as themselves to have a Copy of the Judges Sentenco that they might consider it and answer distinctly to each Article of the same but it was denied them lest by protracting and pretending this for an Excuse of further Delay they should seem to elude the Law Wherefore some of them as soon as they open'd their mouths in their own defence were instantly carried away Another Court was held upon this account that same month Judge Hide presiding in which the Judgment was summary and compendious For since the Accused did not deny their congregaâ—ing together the confession of this was accounted an acknowledgment of the Crime and without any further Enquiry or Proof they were forthwith adjudg'd to undergo the same punishment There was a Widow among the rest a Mother of Three Children who while the rest were alledging That they were not found guilty of any Illegality in the manner and design of their assembling for the Act it self they did not deny cry'd out That she was most unjustly accus'd not only of the Crime but of the Fact it self and that it would be a wicked
Society of Quakers This Man being born in Holland of English Parentage went over into England where he finish'd his Philosophical and Theological course in the University of Cambridge that Nursery of Learning which boasts so much of her integrity that she never emitted any Disciples that prov'd corrupt or unsound in Religious matters He afterwards became Minister to a Church in that Country being ordain'd by Reynolds Bishop of Norwich but he had not long exercis'd this function when he made defection to Quakerism at the same very time that he was most busy in confirming and fortifying himself and his hearers against the influences of that sect There was a young Virgin among the Quakers fam'd for her dexterity and skill in Preaching whom many of the people us'd to follow Coughen having understood that she was to preach in a certain place goes thither himself in his Canonical Robes in order to preserve his hearers from being seduc'd by her discourses But so soon as he came to hear her he was so mov'd and affected that he not only not oppos'd her or her Doctrine but appear'd for its defence and spoke publickly for it at that same occasion and returning home abandon'd his Ecclesiastick habit joyning himself to be a member of their Society in which he afterwards became a Doctor and Preacher and was much caress'd and applauded by them But not long after this he return'd to Holland again and meeting at Harlem with Edward Richardson Minister to the English Church in that place and discoursing with him about Religion he was so influenc'd by his company that he forsook the Quakers and their Society betaking himself to Leyden when he pursued the study of Medicine Which where he had finish'd he returns to England and professes that Art of administring medicine to the sick sequestrating himself all along from that Society till at length some three years thereafter he attempts to introduce a new Model of Doctrine and Discipline which had been so often endeavour'd by so many and so great Men of obliging all Christians to concentrate in one common faith and interpose their interest and power for reconciling the differences of Religion amongst all who profess'd the Name of Christ All this while Fox was not Remembred or talk'd of except amongst those of his own Profession and Society for he had been detain'd Captive for three successive years together one half of that time in Lancashire and the other half in Yorkshire he was first Imprison'd for his frequent Conventicles and also for refusing his Oath of fidelity so oft as it was requir'd of him During the whole course of his Captivity the Judges order'd and decreed many injurious and rough sentences against him The chiefest of his fellow Prisoners was Margaret Fell whom he afterwards made consort of his marriage-bed both of them were mutually assistant to each other in all duties of Religion affording one another such help and comfort as people so intimately conjoyn'd both in Friendship and Religion generally expect from one another But after this he was shut up in a Dungeon full of filth and nastiness and standing stagnating water where he underwent much misery being forc'd sometimes to pass the night without having whereupon to sup upon which he was taken very ill and was now but slowly recovering his former strength I have already told what havock that merciless plague had made both in London and the Neighbouring Countries But upon the back of this evil there succeeded another in the ensuing year sixty six viz. That terrible fire which did not indeed reach the whole Country but burn'd and wasted almost all that noble and populous City of London so that to this day all England has not been able to forget it nor shall succeeding ages ever obliterate such a dismalâ— account of their Remembrance Having given you an account of the many hard and miserable conditions of these Men I shall now adorn this treatise with some pleasing variety to divert and refresh the mind of my Reader perhaps now wearied with reading It will not be amiss therefore to take a view of what the Quakers wrote for these four years by way of Prophecy and Prediction concerning the future State of the Kingdom and both these memorable afflictions of the City of London for such kind of Histories do much delight and charm the ears of Men I shall only select those that are most memorable and worth observation The predictions of Men do generally run upon some great and wonderful revolutions and changes tho they seldom come to light till the event be past These people were so certainly persuaded that some of their faction had so distinctly and clearly foretold the future scenes of affairs and both these Calamities of London that whoever misbeliev'd 'em was concluded by them to have shaken off all manner of faith and belief A certain Quaker call'd Serles a Weaver in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty two saw these words wrote in legible Characters upon the Circumference of a Kettle hanging over the fire Wo to England for poysoning of Charles the 2d Cardinal I understand Moloch Twenty Nations with him Englands misery cometh The Man being affraid at the sight calls the Neighbours to come and see it who coming were ravish'd with admiration to behold that wonder which they could not guess from whence it came The writing appear'd legible for a whole hour together and then evanish'd on its own accord Many of the people and those of considerable note who were not Quakers attested the verity of this wonder I my self have seen and read both the story and the same very words mark'd by John Coughen whom I formerly mention'd in his Note-book that same year which book was kept in the Closet of a certain great Man in this Country from that year till two years after King Charles's Death all which time it was kept secret from any other body so that no doubt is to be made of the Authentickness of that Annotation But what the Quakers would have meant by these words or that sight and how they Accommodated it to the manner of K. Charles's Death and to the changes of Religion and Miseries to come after many years and how the future event of things happening about the King Charles's Death that were told reported known and seen through all England did agree with these words is not needful to be determin'd in this place The Quakers affirm'd that one of their Captives at London did clearly foretell the pestilence that was to overtake that City saying that in a short time the streets which then were replenish'd with Men and resorted to by many should be seen cover'd with grass and wanting Men to tread uponâ— them But I shall not extend this presage any further lest I seem to recede from the design'd order and brevity of this treatise This they relate of the fire of London that there was a Quaker at Hereford who before the burning of
admirer of Knowledge and Learning and to reason with her out of the Book of Plato concerning this Platonical Doctrine and came that length with her that both he and she embrac'd the same opinion for a truth and because Keith was oftimes present at their Conferences they bring him in also to take share in the same opinion Which being made known to the Quakers Helmont who was a stiff Defender of his own Opinions which they look'd upon some of them as Dangerous Innovations others as foolish Errors and Distracted Notions became suspected and hated by them upon which he bids farewell to them and all their Society proceeding not only to Vindicate his Opinion but because he thought it yet rude and unpolish'd to refine and adorn the same instructing himself again and again out of the Jewish Writings of what might be serviceable to his Design digesting his Thoughts into this Form which I give you a Draught of in as few words as possibly I may Before the Souls are united to their Bodies they exist in another World after they are united to the Bodies each of them has its day of the Divine Visitation after One Thousand Years given to it for this End that by absolute Holiness and Sanctification it may prepare for Eternal Felicity But if it abuse the Goodness of God that it may expect to be condemn'd to that long and terrible Punishment which God hath prepared for them at the expiring of this their set Time But this Space of a Thousand Years is not continued and undivided but distinguish'd and circumscribed by Twelve Revolutions or Circnits of the Soul into the same Body except unto some of the Saints who are purg'd and sanctified enough in the first or second Cireuit And these Returns happen after Three Hundred Thirty Three Years and Four Months But while they are out of the Body they do not advance or proceed in Piety therefore if they be good it goes well with them if ill they fare the worse Those Souls which before the Death of Christ were translated from this Life and were not saved when they return to their Bodies may obtain Salvation through the Gospel of Christ But those since the Death of Christ to the End of the World that have not heard of the Gospel shall return again to their Bodies all at one time and in one place and then shall hear with their Ears the Tidings of the Gospel and obtain Salvation if they believe After that the Saints return to the Earth the First Resurrection shall be and all the Saints shall live upon Earth a Thousand Years without any Sin even as Adam in the State of Innocence and after the Example of Adam they shall be born of Virgins being begot of God their Father Then the Second Resurrection shall follow when the Saints shall after the Example of Christ the Second Adam be made perfect and consummated in their Heavenly Bodies And lastly The Felicity and Bliss of the Godly shall be Eternal but the Punishment of the Wicked shall be Finite and at length terminate in an End But I return to Keith I am firmly perswaded that Keith receives and entertains these Positions if not all yet at least the chiefest and most material of them though he would not discover his Mind in these Points unto any save those that are his Secretaries and Trustees or that seem a little wiser than the rest But he is not the only Favourite of these Doctrines there be others among them that are as fond of them as he tho very few so that they are far from being universally receiv'd by all the Society Nay the Quakers shall not long tolerate any Abertors of such Principles to continue of their Society if it be true what I have oftimes heard from some of their principal Members I have taken occasion to express my self more largely upon this point not only for sake of the Quakers but also of those who when they hear or read of these propositions and the books that treat of the same as not a few are curious to do are ignorant what is the original and beginning of these opinions and thus are ready to Judge of the whole matter amiss After this time William Penn joyn'd himself to the Society of the Quakers who after his fathers Death becaine Governour of Pensilvania a Man famous all over England and renown'd even among forreigners that are not quite ignorant of the English affairs by whose accession to that party counsel assistance diligence and activity the interest of the Quakers was much enlarg'd and amplified not indeed all of a sudden but by degrees It shall not therefore be improper according to my method of describing these great Men which we have follow'd from the beginning to subjoyn an account of the occasion and manner of his Conversion to this Religion his Love and Zeal for it and of his Wit and Conversation William Penn his father was Vice-Admiral to the English Navy a prudent and grave Man who behav'd himself so in the midst of the Distractions and Dissensions in the Government that according to the Divine Religion he was faithful and honest to his Neighbour This father having design'd his Son who was not born to him but to his Country and to the Common-wealth for some publick Remarkable Station in managing publick concerns not for being merely intent upon raising and encreasing his private fortune took care to have him well instructed in all Divine and humane Offices and sent him afterwards to the University of Oxford that among the rest of the young Gentlemen of that place he might exercise his mind with the study of Learning and liberal Arts. Then afterwards he went to France and staying sometime at Paris appear'd frequently at the French Court. At this time being yet very young he gave great testimony both of his stoutness and continency defending his Life boldly from the assault of an Enemy and a Fencer who sought to slay him but withal sparing the Life of this his Adversary when it was in his power to have kill'd him Having return'd to his own Country he went into Ireland where he heard many things of the Quakers and not being altogether an Enemy to their Doctrines and Conversations he freequented their Meetings This was the year sixty six and of his Age twenty two It happen'd that when he was present at their Meeting the Magistrate of the place came and took both him and the rest of the company Prisoners But he was so far from being frighten'd by this sudden and unexpected accident or from being tempted to withdraw from their party and profession that even in Prison he applied his mind more eagerly to their opinions after having understood of them more fully what were the peculiar properties of these Men either in Doctrine of Conversation The father was ravish'd with Admiration and not a little angry at his Son who was the only hope and comfort of his parents and who
on the other hand pay'd the greatest respect and reverence to them imaginable who was thus become the disgrace of his family for ever and the reproach of all his kindred and express'd his violent and severe resentment both in words and deeds and when after all he saw it impossible to reclaim him he discharg'd him his house threatning to disinherit him Unto this his fathers anger were added the reproaches revilings and enmity of his fathers Domesticks and his ancient Companions both at Court and else where with whom he was Educated and had Convers'd much before and also of the Ecclesiasticks who formerly render'd him all manner of Love and Friendship Unto all which disadvantages Penn oppos'd this one remedy the integrity of his Life as opposite to the ill reports that were scattered abroad of him and the constancy of his mind and body to counterballance that weight of afflictions that surrounded him And by these two properties he brought his affairs to that pass that his father not only receiv'd him into favour again and became as fond of and kind to him as ever he had been disgusted at him comforting and refreshing his afflicted and humbled Son but also in his Will left him heir of all his Riches and Enjoyments encouraging and commending his singular piety and fortitude of mind exhorting him to persist in the same Moreover when the father observ'd what heaps of envy and hatred his Son had drawn upon himself what evils were yet impending upon him and what difficulties he might come to grapple with he when lying upon a bed of sickness and looking for certain death sent to the Duke of York High Admiral who as Penn was by place next to him was in dignity next to the King himself and if he surviv'd his brother would undoubtedly succeed him since destitute of a lawful off-spring he sends I say some of his Friends to this Duke to desire of him in his Name that he would recommend his Son to his brother the King and that he himself would preserve and defend him who had already suffer'd so much from what persecutions and oppressions might attend him and unto which both he and all the train of his Associates were so subject to Which both the Duke and his Royal Brother the King granted him because of his great merits towards his Country tho they could not so defend his Son always as to prevent his Imprisonment at sometimes But it is not here to be omitted that Penn the father lying upon his Death-bed and when drawing near to his last exit which he certainly knew to approach took leave of his Son in these his last words My Son remember to serve God the Omnipotent King so constantly and to prefer the same to the service of Earthly Kings and all things besides Which if ye do and if you and your Friends persevere in your simple and innocent way of preaching and living verily ye shall make an end of all the preachers to the end of the World Which words of the dying old Man do not obscurely insinuate what his opinion was of these Men and how great affection he had for their sect Now as to what was the Wit and Spirit of William Penn the son from his youth what promptness and dexterity of discoursing attended the acuteness of his wit what knowledge of Tongues such as are usual among the Learned and of things what Temper and Conversation of life he was of I had rather the Quakers or any body else should give you an account than I. For I know well how difficult and troublesome it is for any Man to interpose his Judgment of a matter in which the Judgments of other Men are so various But certainly tho my pen were silent of him his own Writings will speak him forth to be the most eminent member of all that Society for while in his Writings he studies to Accommodate all to the capacity and understanding of the Vulgar yet the variety and abundance of things therein contain'd his language and style especially the gravity of words and sentences which when he writes of Theological subjects are connected and intermix'd with whole chains of quotations from the Holy Scriptures do so evidently testify of him that unless one be malitiously envious of the vertue and praise of another he must acknowledge that he is an eloquent and well spoken Author The Quakers fed themselves with so great hopes of him that presently they allow'd him to do the part of a teacher among them and their esteem of him was so great that they did not doubt to call him the perfectest of them all Nor is there any among them who do's not acknowledge that there was always an exact consension and agreement betwixt him and all the rest of the Quakers about all the Articles of their Religion This was singular in him that he always esteem'd more slightly of these things which pertain to the knowledge and speculation of sacred and divine matters and chiefly oppos'd himself to the forcing and constraining Mens Consciences to any Religion or persecuting them upon a religious account than which indeed there can be no greater cruelty and oppression us'd pleading for a toleration and liberty to all Religions so that he would not only have the Quakers tolerated the exercise of their Religion but likewise all Men at least that are accounted Christians to be admitted to places of Authority and trust in the Government not excepting the Socinians with their wanton little tricks nay nor the Papists a people so inveterate against that his Religion and all other Religions different from their own so bloody cruel and thirsty of Christian blood that when they have exerted their utmost and cruellest efforts are yet never satiated And Penn was so sensible of the ill demerits of these Men and so well acquainted with their temper that he us'd to say That the Quakers had reason to fear none so much as the Socinians and Papists who would be last of all in the field against them tho they had vanquish'd all other Religions It seems Penn had a design to shew himself an Abettor of all Religions whatsoever or to encourage that opinion of him which then possess'd every Mans mind that he was deceitful and in his heart a Socinian or as others believ'd that he was a Papist and not only so but a Jesuit The Quakers did not agree with Penn about these Libertine Principles His notions of the Christian faith was that in order to the maintaining of that there was no more necessary than in general to believe the Scriptures and love them as the word of God and believe all the fundamental Articles contain'd in the same By these fundamental Articles a term much in use among Divines he understood such propositions as are expresly and in explicite terms deliver'd in the Scriptures or so evidently attested by them that all Men who are honest and sincere-minded cannot but discern and comprehend the meaning of
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
unprejudiced 'T was then said of them as it 's now of the Browâ—ists that they conspir'd all with one mouth and mind by a mutual Consent Counsel Aid and Endeavour to ingross their Region and Religion to themselves The Magistrates often advis'd with the Ministers and the Ministers in their Meetings consulted with the Magistrates so that for the most part there was but one assembly of 'em both Hence what pleas'd the Magistrates the Clergy approv'd of and what the Ministers took upon 'em to determine the Magistrates by their Authority did confirm And what proceeded from both the two never miss'd of a grateful wellcome from the people But yet all the Magistrates and Rulers in chief of the Cities and Preachers of the word did not so willingly and equally consent to infest afflict and persecute the Quakers Nay some of 'em were not only against it in their Judgment but oppos'd it by their words as far as they cou'd Among the Rulers against persecuting the Quakers they place and praise John Winthoepius a very great and excellent Man and also those Men whose names are subjoyn'd among the better sort of Citizens was William Coddington at that time a Merchant in Boston very considerable for his wealth and prudence who the Quakers testify did so behave themselves both at home and wherever they went as those that must shortly give an account of all their Actions done in the Body Among the Preachers John Cotton Minister at Boston famous for knowledge Administring his Office and Piety in behaving himself towards God and Men They own he was always uncorrupted and untainted and averse to this sort of Rigour and Cruelty The people of New England as yet wanted one piece of severity to suppress the Quakers viz. To take 'em out of the way by Death whom they thought they cou'd not otherwise restrain This Law obtain'd in New as well as Old England that no Criminal shou'd be sentenc'd to Death till the matter be duely known and consider'd by twelve extraordinary Inquirers whom they call Jury Men because they are sworn to determine nothing till they 've diligently search'd and narrowly weigh'd the affair as has been elsewhere shewn on another occasion Since this Law withstood and obstructed the inflicting the punishment of Death upon Quakers they began to consult and greedily endeavour to Abrogate this Law by an Act of the Senate Whereupon 12 voted that it shou'd be retain'd and 13 that it shou'd be rescinded and thus the odd vote carry'd it The matter being known one of the Senators Wozely esteem'd a quiet just and equitable Man was then unhappily forc'd to be absent being hinder'd and detain'd by a bodily indisposition taking it ill that such an Act had pass'd so knowing that if he had been there the design had been frustrated he was reported to have said that had he but known that they were consulting and deliberating of that notwithstanding the bodily sickness he labour'd under he wou'd have crept there on his hands and his feet to oppose the Injustice of so unreasonable an Act. By this Council the matter is brought into the sole power and hand of the ordinary Judges or the supream Court of the province There was now therefore so much Zeal and Eagerness in most of the Rulers of Cities and Provinces in afflicting and puisuing the Quakers to the utmost that if any did not revile and reproach 'em or stopt and retarded the violence of others against 'em especially if any defended and excus'd 'em he was esteem'd a Quaker himself and at least depriv'd of his place and office if he had not great interest at hand There 's a Letter of one of 'em James Cudworth yet extant who was then one of the Magistrates of Boston but for this cause divested of that honour written at that time and sent from Boston to a certain friend of his in Old England which Letter since written in English I shall not here trouble the Reader with but content my self to resume some words of it which were express'd to this effect The State of Affairs are here sad The Antichristian SpiSpirit is wedded to persecution Who declines to persecute and afflict these Men that differ from us in matter of Religion is withdrawn from his place and not permitted to execute any Office in the Government Thus Hatherly and I have been treated Thus they us'd me for no other reason than taking in certain Quakers to my house which I did that I might inquire of 'em more narrowly concerning the foundations of their perswasion this I took always to be more reasonable than to condemn those with the blind World whose Doctrine and Principles we 're utterly ignorant of And tho I declar'd before that I herded not with Quakers and that I was as far from agreeing with 'em in many things as I was from persecuting 'em yet these two years they 've so estrang'd themselves from me that at length they 've unchair'd me from my office in the Magistracy what future event the Teeming womb of such furious Actions will produce time will declare when the birth is disclos'd farewell This kind of Judging being push'd out of Doors a Law was made that if any Quakers did irreclaimably and obstinately persist and cou'd not be otherwise repress'd or restrain'd they shou'd suffer the desert of their Contumacy and end their obstinate life with a halter Soon after Samuel Gorton was try'd for his life but in Judgment 't was carry'd he shou'd be clear'd and that only by one Vote Which decision one of the Ministers whose name I again designedly conceal a Man of a Copious torrent of Knowledge Subtilty and Eloquence digested so heinously that publickly in the Pulpit he broke out in those words by whom to whom and on what occasion they were utter'd is I suppose not unknown to the Learn'd Because thou has let go the accursed Man thy life shall therefore answer for his After this two Quakers were Arraign'd before the same Judges William Robbinson a Merchant in London and Marmadue Stevenson a Countreyman of Yorkshire in Old England Of their Imprisonment Trial and Punishment the Quakers give a large and true account as matters so clear and known in that Countrey that the noise of their fame is not yet quite extinguish'd They came both here knowingly and designedly for no other end than to preach the Gospel to which they had apply'd themselves in their own Countrey before After Robbinson for some time had continu'd at Rhodes and Stevenson at Barmuda's in the year fifty nine they came to Boston in New England Here they were no sooner arriv'd than without either Informer or Witness upon their own betraying of themselves they 're thrown into the Solitary Darkness of a Prison there they find Mary Dyer who was Banish'd from Boston as has already been said and yet return'd thither again as is sometimes their way and Nicholas David These all being brought before the Judges and accordingly charg'd
duly consider'd finding their obsticy cou'd not otherwise be restrain'd we made a Law according to the Model of that which was settled in England against the Jesuits that such sort of Men shou'd be put to Death The making this Law did not hinder their return and disdainful continuance within our Territories even after the time for their departure was expir'd They were therefore justly thrown into Goal and confessing themselves to be those we had driven from among us before by the Court's order according to the sentence of that Law they forfeited their Life except Mary Dyer to whom at her Sons humble intercession We with an equality of Mercy and Clemency granted the Liberty to be gone from among us within two days which she promis'd to observe The Contemplation of that gradual progress we made in the whole series of that affair will confute all Clamours and Accusations of our cruelty since our own just and necessary defence did not only invite but also injoyn us to show the edge of so sharp a Law to Men of such stiffness and obstinacy which as these Men opposed with Contumacious violence they freely and willingly murder'd themselves It was always our wish that they had not done it and that the supream Law the peoples safety might be kept intire from all danger and detriment Our Antodating their danger that was to ensue and granting of pardon to Mary Dyer are evident Demonstrations that we were more desirous to preserve their lives than take 'em away Moreover tho so great punishment was provided against Quakers by Law especially those who being ejected did return yet there were not a few so rash as to come not only those who had not been here before but also who had been expell'd and banâ—sh'd ready to suffer any torment that cou'd happen yea to welcome death it self tho never so cruel A chief instance of boldness and obstinacy was very Conspicuous in the same Mary Dyer who as it was known tho she was on the Ladder and her neck in the Rope upon the very Borders of her last breath Yet after she had been once expell'd she return'd and yet was dismiss'd on this Condition that she wou'd no more repeat the same crime Notwithstanding all this she return'd once more persisting in the same purpose and mind that she must either have liberty for her self and Companions that Law of ejecting and murdering Quakers being Abrogated to rest in ease safely and quietly or if she cou'd not obtain it she wou'd seal with her Death her constant confidence in her Religion and thereby accuse the wickedness and insatiable cruelty of these Judges and convince them in the presence of all Men to be guilty of doing the highest of Injuries She came therefore undaunted from Rhodes to Boston in the year following which was the 60th the 31 day of the month of May. She was seiz'd and immediately the next day brought before the Judge the Court being throng who having told what charge had been formerly given her as the same time gave sentence of Death that to morrow she shou'd be hang'd by the neck till she dy'd that they might make sure to prevent her return for the future and give her no more occasion to be guilty of the like The next day accordingly she 's taken out of the Town guarded with Souldiers before and behind with their Drums beating round about her she came to the Gibbet with Courage in her Breast and very great Chearfulness in her face from whence she knew she shou'd not return any more having there spoken a great many words that show'd both the greatness of her mind and certain hope she had placed in Heaven she gave up her Spirit and so fell asleep The Quakers that either knew this Woman or had it from others Testimony of her say in her praise that she was a person of no mean Extract and Parentage of an Estate pretty plentiful of a comely Stature and Countenance of a piercing knowledge in many things of a wonderful sweet and pleasant Discourse so sit for great affairs that she wanted nothing that was Manly except only the Name and the Sex William Leadre was another instance of such constancy He being also upon pain of Death ejected and forbidden to see Boston again as I show'd before notwithstanding the year following viz. sixty two return'd thither prepar'd to expect and endure the same that these who had gone before had already suffer'd to offer his Blood for his Religion to those who he knew were thirsty enough to drink it When the report of his arrival was spread abroad and had also reach'd the Ears of the Judges they order'd the Man that thus contemn'd all threats of judicial punishment to be seiz'd and hurried headlong to Goal and all the cold season of the Winter to be kept in great hunger and want fasten'd to a thick and heavy log so that he scarce cou'd move himself out of his place being only as a dead trunk of a Man Having at length consider'd what to do with him they accus'd him heinously for daring to return he answer'd as the cause of expelling him was injust he thought he had just occasion to return They set the danger of his life before him because neither threatnings nor fear cou'd restrain him He answer'd that were he so easily to be frighted he would never have had the boldness again to return Being ask'd at another time if he would go into England he answer'd he had no business there afterward they endeavour'd earnestly to perswade him to renounce his Errors and Conform to the Church of England He reply'd then with greater vehemency that if he own'd his own confession to be false he must deny and reject God himself If he should herd with those of the Church of Englands Communion he must joyn with Notorious Murderers and Cut-Throats They again threatned him with an Infamous Death to which he answer'd he would Everlastingly rejoyce to suffer any thing for his Faith and Religion and that he was not at all afraid of Death so much as of the just Judgment of God yea that he would not decline any sort of Death since the just cause why he suffer'd it was absent and that that punishment they blazon'd with the threatning Colours of Death seem'd to him the way of Life and Eternal felicity so this discourse was not long continued But while they thâ—s lingred doubting what to do and could not come to a certain Conclusion other Quakers to the Number of five who had all been banish'd and prohibited to return upon the same penalty of losing their Life did yet without prudence or fear return Whereof one Wenlock Christyson understanding what they design'd to determine of Leader went straight way to the Court and told 'em that it was his sole errand to come to warn 'em to shed no more Innocent blood But his admonition was no worse rewarded than with a Goal Most of 'em at this time
it were distributed by John Comb which so soon as it was known the Magistrates pronounces them all guilty as breakers of the Peace and disturbers of the Government and sends the Mayor Wyth who seizes the Printer and Publisher and carries them from their Houses into Prison and withal as if he had been in his own Possession or Estate takes out of their Work-houses what Tools or Utensils he pleases and carries them away The next day the Magistrate orders the Mayor to lay his Action against Keith and his Companions and partners in his Crime joyning for help two of the Colledge of the Magistrates who were not Quakers namely Lucius Coke a Lutheran and John Holmes a Baptist who as being of a different Perswasion and partial to neither side might pass for upright Judges But these Gentlemen declin'd the Office for this reason because the thing which these Men were accus'd of arose from Religion and Tending thereunto had nothing of concern with the civil Government and therefore was more proper to be decided by those Men from whom it came and who were concern'd in it To which they added that since neither Humane nor Divine Laws allow'd that any one should be Condemned without being first heard it was just and right that Keith before any Judgment pass'd upon him should be heard This was an answer that did not please those whose designs seem'd not to aim at the quieting of the present Disorders but rather to the increase of them and raising of new And so they go on with their Intention and without hearing of Keith proceed to sentence They give Judgment for Keith's Condemnation in a long Writing of which these were the heads That the Governours have declared Keith to be a wicked Man an ill Citizen a Teacher ill Principled and Disaffected to the Government King and Queen And this they order the Cryer to publish in the Court before a great Concourse of People In the Ecclesiastical Convention where the debate between Keith and his Adversaries was handled the Governour and other of the Magistracy being present there happen'd a dispute between Keith and the Governour himself about a place which the Governour had quoted out of a book formerly written by Keith Which place when Keith had said it made nothing to the purpose nor was it rightly cited by the Governour he went on and added that the Governour was also one of those who had not cited him to the hearing of the cause but had Condemned him unheard This slipt from Keith in his heat and suddain transport of mind and by a slip of the Tongue which often happens in hot disputes that the Governour was an Impuâ—ent Man and his Name would rot Which words tho the Governour had more than once said that he would not take notice of as spoken upon such a time and occasion yet now he lays to Keiths charge as an Egregious reproach to Magistracy not to be pass'd by without punishment It was added that Keith at the same time Reproached the Governour as a person not capable for the due discharge of his Office But as to that Keith says that he neither said nor thought so In the said sentence of Condemnation also it is contained that Keith should call another of the Magistrates by a Name which in English Signifies one or all of these viz. Scolder Quareller wrody deceiver Sordid fellow Seoundel Knave Which accusation Keith thus wip'd off Not denying the fact he said he call'd that Man by that Name as being one who indeed was not of the Magistracy and yet notwithstanding sate in that assembly that Condemned Keith and as such concurred with them in the same sentence and subscribed his Condemnation Amongst these Disputes and Wranglings there was a New Court of Judicature held at Philadelphia for the passing an Impartial Sentence upon these three Men who had lain under so much prejudice Jenings was President and Cook one of the Judges who I have both said before were Quaker Ministers Now hither were cited to plead their own Cause Keith Bradford Combe Bud Buss and others of the Keithians who all came all and every of them were Indicted of this Crime of Writing Uttering and Devising a Book intituled an Appeal being a very Seditious Scandalous Book and full of a great many Lies in which particularly Jennings the President of this Assembly was Charged as a proud imperious Man and insolent in his Discourse and Demeanour and the said book did Print concealing the Printers Name Buss whose Christian Name was Peter was charged over and above the rest to have said many other things of Jennings more than was contained in the book Wonderful this The case with Jennings the president and the whole Senate was whether they that were brought afore them as Criminals or Jennings himself were guilty he an untainted and unblamable person or they foul Detractors worthy the highest punishment The Court was full of Scolding and Quarrelling Whatsoever they alledged had been said or written against Jennings was not against him as a Magistrate but an Ecclesiastical person a Preacher and if he pleased his Colleague not with an intent to reproach or accuse him but for his Correction and to try all things as brethren us'd or ought to do And these Criminals prov'd by good Witnesses and Evidences that they who complained so much of the Calumnies laid to their Charge were worse than the Objections against them insinuated Namely that they were not onely Proud and Imperious persons but so far from having the Command of themselves that they could scarce contain themselves within any bounds of their Lusts and Pleasures In this troublesome assembly Keith made many grave Speeches whereof this was the sense and sum Will there never an end be put to these sort of Controversies and Quarrels or will these Latentions be always continued which whether we be Victors or Vanquished are so Shameful and Commentable to us and wish'd for and laughed at by those who once seeming desirous of our Friendship and Amity now are turn'd our Haters and Enemies and curse us And as if in this Case we had lost all our wisdom and there was no further place left for a remedy to this mischief which if it remains and spreads farther will not onely reflect an Eternal Disgrace upon our Truth but also will so afflict and spoil it especially in these parts amongst these Barbarians as will at last bring on it all manner of Ruine and Destruction to its utter Subversion The State of the Case lies here While those whose province it is to take care of the safety of this Country and Religion find it a difficult task to please all parties but much more so to set themselves openly against all hence comes there to be called so many Concurâ—ions and so many various and different events till it s come to that pass by the setting up a few bold Men against all Laws that some narrow Soul'd people terrified in Conscience
satisfaction for any Dammages sustained This was done first in the Synod of Rotterdam An. 57. It happen'd at Goud that one William Tick a Man much addicted to the Quaker's opinions and ways call'd a Council or Assembly of some of his own Gang which the Magistrate looking upon as a Company of Infidels and sending for Tick he would neither declare what his intention was or in the least uncover his head so he was sent into an House of Correction There was a Town not far from Goud in the way to Rotterdam In which Ames had drawn a certain Cooper one Martin's Son into his Society and here this Man also one time inviting Ames to his house gets together there some of his Neighbours to discourse of the Things of Faith and the good ordering of their Lives News of this being brought to the Minister of the Place and known to others they ran from every side to this house crying out That there was a Conventicle of seditious wicked men assembled there Which Tumult roused up Ames so that he walks out in a Calm Mood and very leisurely paces it along but all of a suddain they fall a reproaching him with a thousand opprobrious terms and handle him so at last that if he had not betook himself to his heels he had run in danger of his Life But a little while after these same Men nothing fearing the violence of the Mob reassembling in the same place again some run away and told the Burgomaster what they were a doing And when they had told him what these Men had done heretofore and so being induc'd to believe that these Meetings were Conspiracies against the Common Weal and the peace and security of the State he sent Sergeants and Officers to take Ames and his Landlord and carry them to Rotterdam and there put them in the Bethlem-house I made mention of not long ago Which coming to be known in the City some of the Ministers both of the reformed Church and the Remonstrants too go to Ames to see him and talk with him And they discourse much with him of many points both of his Doctrine and Religion and that several times but he handling things so obscurely and perplexedly to any Man's apprehension that other people could scarcely tell what he would have and they on all occasions starting such objections as he either could not tell how or declin'd to give a plain answer to this Discourse was to no purpose at all Ames published a little book not long after in which he proposes to the Ministers of our reformed Churches 83 questions of several Articles of Faith for them to solve To these Answers James Coleman then a youth and then also of a happy wit and Eloquent Tongue as also one of known piety and probity integrity and uprightness both in life and manners for all those that were any ways considerable for Age or Learning despis'd and pass'd by in silence as things not worth the minding those little triffling questions of this Quaker propos'd onely for ostentation and shew and that lest these people should boast themselves as if we were silent and refus'd to answer them in despair of the Victory And he answered them not with a youthful heat but with moderation and wisdom And this young Man in like manner proposed 60 questions to Ames and the rest of his Brethren the Quakers that they might have whereon to exercise themselves and shew their wit and parts Now whilest Ames was consined to this solitary place he spent his time principally in Writing And so besides several Letters to his friends he makes and publishes a reply to Coleman's Answers not forreign indeed from the purpose but bitter and not to be suffered in those that so much reprehend the same fault in others But as to the Questions that Coleman proposed to the Quakers those not Ames but Higgins Answers but so as not onely partly declining that wherein the State of the Case lay partly improperly and absurdly partly obscurely and in dark terms but also roughtly and with ill Language he mannages and if it were but by this alone betrays his cause Ames at last being set at liberty from this place comes to Leyden and there also going on with the same work as before he was cast into such another like place full of Spiders and Cobwebs and there he was kept till the Burgomaster weary of his Idleness or Misery and Sickness sent him away from thence Then away he travels into other provinces of Holland 'T is a wonder he being a Man than whom there was scarce any of those people more forward and travelling over so many Towns and Places understanding both Languages very well both English and Dutch and bestowing so much labour and pains amongst all sorts of People that there were no more that joyned themselves with him and the Quakers not even in the most populous Cities where there were so many Inhabitants English and all sorts and kinds of Men and some very near the Quakers in a great many things But as the coming and motion of these Men had rais'd these little Disturbances here and there and greater troubles and confusions were fear'd in other places these things principally stir'd up the Carefulness and Diligence of the Clergy every where as there was occasion to be on the watch and look out least they should cause any inconvenience or do any damage to their flock And so this gave occasion to the Synod of Goud An. 59. To make this decree that all Pastors should take a diligent observation of these Quaker's Meetings and the books they should disperse and apply themselves to the Magistrates by their Authority to suppress these things and that if these Men should any where give any Trouble to our People the Ministers of the word should well confirm the minds of their Auditors in their Sermons Catechisings and Visitations After this there was little heard of the Quakers For it was a long while before the people knew what the Quakers were Whence at first they were look'd upon as a poor sort of people without a Name or place of habitation as a kind of Fools and Madmen Then as an unquiet and troublesome sort of people For which reasons they were cast into Bonds and Prisons And at last they were accounted for bringers up of some new Sects of Religion which wanted a new place of residence And therefore now as defiled persons they seem'd fit to be removed a far off Some therefore in their progress sate down amongst the Anabaptists or Mennonites an unquiet sort of people alwaies hunting after Novelties Others are believ'd to have gone over to the Socinians a pestilent deceitful sort of Hereticks from whom nevertheless they are so far off that except the Papists there 's none they are more averse from It happen'd that in the year 64 the Socinians of which there was a great Number in those Countries every day grew more and more and made some
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
that from that time the Labadists came to be call'd Quakers which name followed them from Amsterdam to Hereford and there accompanied them so that Men all abroad not only call'd them by the Name of Quakers which to them appeared as a horrible Title but also oftentimes us'd to throw Stones at them To avoid which reproach and withal to shew how much they hated both Name and Thing they out of their Printing-Office which they carried about with 'em publish'd a Writing by the Title shewing what the Argument of the Book was An Examination and Confutation of the Quakers Nevertheless after this there went to these Labadists in Friesland William Penn that most famous Man amongst the Quakers A Man of such Spirit and Wit as was both willing and able to encounter with all their Adversaries But the end of all was the same To which I will add this Relation That William Penn at this time being so near the Wood the Summer Residence of that Illustrious Lady the Princess of of whom as indeed she was and is a Princess who has a peculiar Talent of Wisdom and Piety and Greatness of Soul in asserting and promoting the Interest of Religion he had heard much talk and this Princess being now there present it comes in his mind and he intreats it as an extraordinary Favour that he may have the Liberty of Access to wait upon her Highness And she her self too having heard much of Penn admits him but so as what she had heard many say runs in her highness's mind that Penn was not the Man that he desired to be taken for but was either a Jesuit or else an Emissary of his King 's sent to sound the minds of the People and Grandees of this Country and therefore she fore-armes her self against him But when this Princess had admitted Penn to her Speech and he composes his Speech not with those Artificial Elegancies and Courtly Niceties which his former Inclination Education and Customs had enabled him to but with the highest gravity and as far as Religion would permit in the most exquisite terms he could devise and thinking this discourse might not be displeasing to the Princess at the end of it he begs leave to make a Sermon before her Highness To which the Princess to make short with him Answers that she had very good Preachers of her own whom he might hear and she had not far off David Fluda Giffen a Preacher worthy of such a Princess as who besides his natural parts Learning and sweetness of Conversation 〈◊〉 with Probity of Life and endued with a singular gift in Preaching was now the worthy pastor of the Church at Dort a Man to us well known and our very great friend Which Answer Penn taking in the stead of a civil Refusal with a chearful Countenance and in kind terms asks her Highness if in any other respect he might be serviceable to her and so takes his leave of her Highness Now from Friesland a province of our Belgium which is simply called Friesland I go on to that they call East-Friesland In that Countrey in the chief City call'd Embden in the 74th year of this Century there were a few Quakers that appear'd there of whom the Principal or chief Men were John William Haasbaard a Doctor of Physick John Borsome and Cornelius Andrews These Men began first to hold their Meetings privately afterwards more openly then to publish books of their Tenets to allure and invite the more to their Communion Which being known and growing publick to the Magistrates convened most of the Quakers before them into their Courts They appear there By the Magistrates order there came thither two of their Ministers one the Presidents of the Meeting of East-Friesland and another next to him Frederic Vlderic and John Alardin The Senate has under Deliberation that whereas as yet they did not rightly understand other than by Relations from other hands what the sentiments of these Men was what they did or what they aim'd at and pretended to that therefore it would be their best way to hear and understand these things from themselves least they should seem to pass a sentence upon people before they had heard or known what their Cause was and on the other hand if they were indeed found to be such as fame reported them that they might in due time obviate and prevent their attempts and mix them as it were in the bud before they grew to greater strength But when these Quakers appeared before the Magistrates they stood with their hats on and would not pull them off altho they were ordered so to do not out of Pride or from Innation or Contempt of them but because it was the Custom and Fashion of those of their opinion and they thought that such sort of honours were not due to Men. A great deal of Dispute there was about this business between the Quakers and those Ecclesiastical persons Which Discourse being drawn out to a great length and nothing brought to the purpose that was intended the Magistrate Haasbaard as being the principal and most skillful mannager of this affair that 2 days afterwards he should appear before a Convention of the Pastors and Synod of the Church and there before them state the Case of his Religion under the penalty of 10 Imperials Haasbaard refus'd this Meeting and appears not at the Stated day But the Quakers however go on and in the mean while and afterwards meet in Haasbaard's house Wherefore the Magistrate lays a fine upon them of 100 Imperials a time as often as they met together after that manner They take no notice of that neither So the Magistrate taking this as an affront to his Authority and Dispising of his gentle Government and Clemency concluded to take another course with this People Which yet before he would do he thought fit once again to try if he could pick out of 〈◊〉 Men what their Intentions desires and aimes were therefore the next day he causes them to be call'd into Court before him and together with them the two Ministers before mentioned were order'd to be present that they might Examine them about these things and maturely deliberate upon them For they thus thought that it was absolutely belonging to the Duty and Business of the Political and Ecclesiastical Order to look after and enquire what was done in the City and in the Church and with all Care and Diligence to provide and take Order that no Disturbance Faction Tumult or any pernicious Error Deceit or Seduction should arise and spread about among the People and that the Quakers themselves in this case ought not only to pay their Obedience to the Magistrates but also themselves of their own accord and free will by the impulse of their Religion and monitions of our Lord Christ and the Motions of the Holy Spirit not to decline the Exposition of what it was they insisted on and the Principles they so much Gloried in but with all
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
thought it to be their Prudence to provide in that manner least their Mariners who are so serviceable to their Countries but a ruffling sort of Men and prone to all impetuous and saucy Actions should offer any violence to the Churches and Porches of the Turks and demean themselves insolently upon that account and that so from that foreign Evil another worse Evil arise and befall the whole Nation therefore that they might bring this young Man into the utmost peril of his Life they by their cunning Machinations order the matter so as that he entred into one of their Mosques or Churches There the Turks seize him and having got an Interpreter which sort of Men who are of the Greek Nation is never wanting they threaten him that unless he would change his Religion and forsake his Christianity and embrace the Mahometan Way they would burn him alive upon Camels Dung He chooses to Die they prepare for it but a Turkish Officer comes up to them with great speed who had found out by what Methods Cunning and Craft they had trappan'd the young Man and crys to them that they should be quiet stop and see what they did he shews them the whole matter and so frees the young Man who was ready to Die and almost Breathless from the very Jaws of Death and after that brought him to his own House cherished and succoured him and does as it were hug and adore for some time as 't is the manner of the Turks to love venerate and esteem such worthy of eternal Monuments for undergoing such a Death as to be Martyrs for their Religion and at last commanded those Papists and bald Monks who had not an Hair of Humanity to conduct this young Man but one who was endued with a manly Nature and Fortitude into a place of Safety unless they were minded to incur the like danger or some other vindictive displeasure for the same These manly Examples were imitated by some of the Female Sex both Wives and Virgins not out of a Womanly precipitancy and boldness but upon a determinate Advice taking good resolution of Mind and raising up the Fortitude of their Bodies contemning the danger of their lives changing as it were their Sex or being transmuted from Women to Men which says Pliny's credit in reference to a Transmutation of this Kind of which sort L. Mutianu's shewed a Boy at Smyrna which he had seen For so did they steer their Course towards those same Places and studied to obtain the same Glory and Praise for the Preaching and Propagating of their Religion Of these Women the first two were Catherine Evans and Sarah Chevench who in the year 61 went by Sea from London to Italy to the intent they might get a Ship to go from thence to Scanderooâ— and so on to Judeae which VVomen while that the Ship as they sailed touched upon Malta went out of the Ship and drew near the Island There they forthwith deliver their Pamphlets to such as they met with and in the mean time beholding and abhorring so many Signs of an Idolatrous People seeing they could not by their Tongue and Language express the Sence they had of it to these men for they use partly the Italian partly the Turkish and partly a mixt and medley Speech as having been Conquered and the place inhabited by both People several times they did it to them by Signs and Nods and other Gestures being afterwards brought to the Inquisitors and having an Interpreter assigned them they refuse to do what the Papists would have them Dispute against them and at last reject and so despise their their Worship Adoration and Religion that the Malteses seized upon these chattering Women and threw them into Prison and there kept them about two years and then at last thrust them out of their Island There were two other Maidens who were also English Women one of which was afterward Married to a Citizen and eminent Merchant of Amsterdam for there is no need of naming her or her Companion that even as these Women had done did with the same design go by Sea as far as Scanderoon but being there not permitted to go any further by the English Consul they did at length with much Grief and Sorrow return to their own Country I shall add another Example of the strange and ardent Resolution of Women which is almost too great and therefore the less Credible and therefore every one may make Judgment thereof as he pleases but it 's such as that the Quakers who have received it and delivered the same unto me do so attest that for all they have no other Testimony of the Truth of the thing no manner of witness none conscious or judge of the same besides the Woman her self they say they doubt so little thereof as if the thing had been done in their Sight She was an English Maiden her name Mary Fisher who would not be at rest before she went in Person to the great Emperor of the Turks and inform'd him concerning the Errors of his Religion and the Truth of hers It was the same Emperor who in my time and long after governed that Empire called by the name of Mahomet Han the 4th of the Name a Monster of a Man a Deformed sight both in Body and Mind as if one strove with the other how to offend of a black Complexion with a flat broad Nose and Mouth stupid logger-headed cruel fierce as to his Aspect and besides other marks upon his Body had a Scar beneath his Eye-lid on the upper part of his Cheek which came from a wound and cruel Cut given him by his Brother's Guards and Followers a Testimony of his Boisterous and Cruel Disposition because that upon his Brother's Accession to that Throne he attempted to take him off and cut off his Head with his own hands Tho others have given a diffent Relation of this matter to wit that this Mahomet's Father because he had understood by signs and Prophesies that the Son should expel the Father from the Throne had endeavoured to cut off this his Son and that in the mean time while the Son was kept from falling into the hands of his Father in this manner he gave him this mark of the mischief he designed for him This passage has been interlac'd here not that there is any great connexion between the matter in hand and it but for curiosity's sake upon the account of them who are desirous of Novelties and that this Maiden might come to the sight of this Man speak with him and put him in mind of the Justice of her cause she goes on board an English Ship and Sails for Smyrna but when the English Consul at Smyrna came to know her design he advises the young Woman by all means to forbear but she persists in her Resolution so the Consul not enduring that she should expose her self to so many and such great hazards and rash undertakings and being not able to divert