aspersions Penn being drown'd with such Cares and Businesses esteeming it his duty to look to his own affairs lest by the Continuance of such liberality he should dry up the Fountains of his paternal Inheritance he did not wholly abandon his Beâ—evolence and Diligence but did so by degrees Moderate and rule 'em that he gave â—o occasion of an inviâ—ious Complaint Penn having laid down this certain Conclusion that there must needs be one Society of Christians the common safety and advantage Requiring that every one worship God freely without any Impediment and Hinderance providing only he liv'd peaceably and submissively to the power and honour of the Magistrate and since this Kingdom was deny'd that Priviledge having the way to that liberty obstructed by an Oath which every one by Law was required to take and by other penalties laid upon Dissenters Penn treated with the King of these two who was also desirous to have 'em remov'd and therefore receiv'd the address more willingly Penn so defended and confirm'd the Kings Edict which was now emitted to this purpose in a certain Book he publish'd for that end that â—e incurr'd the hatred bitterness and anger of the Protestant party Universally and Implacably some of the Quakers also were â—o displeas'd that they did not love him and extol him as before others wholly avoided and abandon'd him The Protestants exclaim'd that Penn as well as the King aim'd at Popery with his outmost endeavour calling him not only a Papist but also a Jesuit an order that 's equally crafty and hated The Quakers thought it not at all amiss to have the penal Laws wholly Abiegated which the Quaker subjects most of all were expos'd to but lik'd not to have the Law concerning the Oath repeaâ—'d lest the Papists thereby being let into the Government might quickly renew these sanguinary Laws and by means thereof take weary drive out and kill the Protestants and especially the Quakers according to the custom of their Tenets and Religion as if they had only been absolv'd from former Constitutions to be condemn'd more cruelly to severer punishment Thus they fear'd the snare cheifly to be laid for themselves While many were thus hurried in their minds Penn so proved himself in another book not to be addicted to but an hater of Popery by the Testimony of his word his Conscience which is a thousand Witnesses and of God than whom none can be greater that if the words of Man may ever be believ'd every one may credit Penn not to speak false blazing it with any Colour of subtility but that he wrote truth with Candour and Sincerity Tho Penn cou'd not by that book change the opinion that many had received of him yet he so fully convinced the Quakers that from them he retriev'd his ancient praise for some time intermitted so that they own'd him for one constant to their Religion and yet left him to the singularity of his own opinion So the Quakers under this King liv'd quietly and easily except a few that were somewhat troubled by the ensnaring Tricks of some deceitful men but the Time of New Trouble and Change of all was at hand For now the King weary of waiting thinking his Designs not capable of being defeated by any introduc'd Popery not hiddenly but openly Not to mention others these of the Highest Dignity even Bishops and Archbishops that withstood his Intentions were some of 'em brought over to his Cause by Bribes and others put into the Tower of London These being Resolute and Couragious in their honourable cause found by experience how far it was necessary and yet how hard to suffer for the liberty of their Conscience And since my discourse has led me hither I can't but add what was said by the Quakers themselves When the Bishops of England were now thus Stated some of the Quakers took the Freedom to tell 'em that same mischief return'd now on themselves that formerly came out from them upon the Quakers When it came to their Ears they resented it ill that such words shou'd be spoken and scatter'd of them by the Quakers Robert Barclay understanding this went presently to the Tower and told 'em all modestly that was done against the Quakers both by the command and permission of the Bishops to which narrative they cou'd make no other reply but that of silence But after 3 years K. James's Reign expir'd and was succeeded by K. William the Third of Nassaw hereditary State-holder of Holland Son in Law and Nephew to James by his Sister who in all the series and course of his Life shew'd himself the best of Princes and Generals equally adorn'd with Civil and Warlick virtue and withal Arm'd with Christian Piety a like useful to Church and State both by his Inclination and Education in his own Countrey which tho it hath no Kings yet produces and fits 'em for other Nations Upon his first taking up the Reins of Government he beliav'd himself to all with that Moderation that it was manifest he desir'd rather to be lov'd then fear'd and to bereave none of Liberty of Conscience in Religion so that all justly esteem'd him a most prudent and moderate Prince equal to the best King that e're preceeded him He granted Freedom and Indulgence to all but only the Papists whose infidelity he suspected those he treated with a mixture of Grace and Severity making always the former the greatest Ingredient The Quakers also cou'd not but love him and embrace him as their most effectual defender being suffer'd to perform their Religious exercises without the hinderance of fear and molestation This Royal benevolence was enhanced by the Parliament which the King called after his Inanguration according to the ancient Custom of Kings who us'd to have a Parliament in the beginning of their Reign that if any former Law were to be chang'd or Abolish'd it might be legally done with consent of the house This Parliament ratify'd a Liberty in Religion giving immunity to all from the force and severity that formerly resulted from any penal Act excepting yet the Papists who were reckoned such Enemies that no peace cou'd be establish'd with them and granting liberty to them wou'd be taking it from our selves and so to raise war against our own safety Excepting also Socinians and those of the like stamp who either openly or by Clandestine practices Aim'd at subverting the Foundations of the Christian faith Thus the Quakers had liberty but since it 's a matter of some moment to know the Rights and Privileges given 'em by King and Parliament and inserted in Acts of Liberty in Religion it will not be fruitless to handle it more largely if it were but for that French Authors sake whom I mention'd before not to his praise a base unconstant and Roguish fellow who after many turnings and windings in Religion as both strangers and they that know him assure me by Letters plays now strenuously the Papist at Paris However it 's certain he treats of
great Hereticks when as they onely differed from them in Church Government and some Eternal Rites and Modes and otherwise held the same true and Catholick Faith and Doctrine with these Men but also because all those penal Laws which were made and ordained before the time of the Reformation against Hereticks as they call'd them stood still in force and none of them was repealed not so much as that De Comburendo Haeretico or for burning the Heretick so that if at any time any one of Eminent power had a mind he might by Virtue of that Law Arraign any one and bring him to that dismal and horrid punishment and have it Executed upon him Which appears by the Examples of two Men under the Reign of K. James the 1st in the 11th year of this Century Which because it has not of a long while been taken notice of by most Writers and yet it is not amiss to be known especially at this time I shall briefly relate One of these Men was Bartholmew Legate of the County of Essex a Man of an unblamable Life ready wit and well read in the H. Scriptures but disliking the Nicene Creed and denying the plurality of persons in the God-head and the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ after he had been for some time kept in Prison at London and being enlarged again more boldly defended his impious Errors and could not be brought to desist from it even by these reasons the King himself brought at last in an Assembly of Bishops was Condemned of Contumacious and Irreclaimable Heresy and delivered over to the secular Judges and by the Kings command according to the Act de haeretico comburendo the 18. day of March about Noon was publickly burn't and Consumed to Ashes The other was one R. Wightman of the Town of Burton near the River Trent who was Condemned by the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield of several Heresies the first was that he was an Ebionite the last an Anabaptist and burn't at Litchfield the 11th day of Ap. 'T is true indeed that this Law for burning the Heretick as also for putting him to Death in any wise was repeal'd in the Reign of Charles the Second but this is true also that that repeal was not made without a great deal of Difficulty and Repugnance of some Men and it was so done too that tho the Clergy had this power of Life and Death taken away from them and yet still out of this power they had so much Authority left them as to Excommunicate as they call it those that they should account Hereticks and thereupon to deprive them of their Liberty and take away their goods and the Consequences which follow thereupon Which thing I have thought fit to take notice as being not well known and yet worth the while to know This repeal was made in the 29th year of his Reign and 77th of the Century in that memorable Parliament Which was continued from the year 61 by several Propagations down to that time There was a certain Man of the Country of Middlesex whose Name was Taylor who had defil'd himself with so many and great Crimes and Vices that he had no fear notice or Apprehension of God wherefore he was sent to London and brought before the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Court. In which Court as they were deliberating what to Determine about a Man so very impious or rather an impure beast one of the younger Bishops being more vehement and hot in his Censures than the rest gave his Judgment that this Man should be Exterminated from humane Society by burning and alledges that Law for the Burning of Hereticks with fire Which seeming somewhat harsh to others of the Bishops and some giving their opinion one way others another The Earl of Hall the next day in Parliament in the House of Lords proposes and perswades that that Law for the Burning of Hereticks might be Abolished for as long as that Law was not yet taken away and repeal'd it might come to pass that what Religion or Sect soever came uppermost the professors of that by Virtue of this Law might put to Death by burning all those that they should count Hereticks The Bishops opposed and cried out against this Petition But when it came to the Vote the present Earl of Hallefax and likewise the Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Shaftsbury and other great Men Considering that at that time things look'd with a fearful aspect and that it was often seen in the Course of Nature that many times things which had been hindred and delayed might break out again as in that cursed Popish Plot and the preparations of the Papists for the Destruction of the reformed Religion at that time was easily to be seen and that that Law particularly might one day be signally Injurious and Destructive they so perswade the rest and make it out so plain by force of Argument that the repeal of that Law is concluded upon and decreed contrary to the mind and will of the Bishops which Bill being carried down to the House of Commons some Excellent Men among which the principal was W. Russell a great Lover of his Countrey and Religion and a Man worthy of immortal honour presently Vote for it and procured the Bill to pass And so by Authority of the King and both Houses of Parliament this ancient Law was Abrogated and Repealed by this Act That from henceforth by Authority of the King and Parliament the writ de heretico comburendo or for burning Hereticks and all Capital punishments following upon any Ecclesiastical Censures should be taken off Not taking away nevertheless or diminishing the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Arch-Bishops or Bishops or any other Ecclesiastical Court to punish Atheism Blasphemy Heresy or Schism or any other Damnable Doctrines or Opinions So that Nevertheless it shall and may be lawful to them to punish such Men according to the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws by Excommunication Deprivation Deposition and other Censures not Extending to Death What but also how fraudulent a Liberty to all Religions was granted by K. James the 2d and what care the Bishops most of them but not all took to oppose it is not necessary now to be insisted on But to return from whence I have digressed Now because these Quakers had made no inconsiderable progress in their Affairs in America that new and to the Ancients unknown part of the World there were some of them who thought it might be a work worth the while to attempt the like all over this part of the World which we inhabit and of which for the most part we have a more ancient knowledge of and that not onely in the European Countreys where we have great dealings but also in Asia it self and Africa among the remotest Nations Destitute of the right knowledge of God and brought up in the profoundest Ignorance of the truth and true Religion with a design to enlighten them and by their Arguments and Sollicitations
put on neither by us nor at our pleasure but your own Command how unjust and ridiculous is it that a fine should be laid on us and not rather on your selves But we answer'd not fully to all their questions a crime exceeding all possible excuse that can be brought to palliate our viloated duty being ask'd many things we answer'd some tho not all sometimes restraining our selves not contrary to Law you know what each of these amounts to Certainly he that speaks nothing does not affirm neither indeed does he therefore deny It 's then expedient for the defendent to speak when his own silence would wrong his cause but he that defends himself when not so much as ask'd gives occasion of suspicion reproach and calumny Truly no Man is oblig'd to accuse himself If any rash or precipitant word drop'd out this is nothing but a humane weakness that few are strangers to it being hard in this as in other matters to keep a measure when the mind is mov'd with extraordinary anguish But I suppose we are known to be none of those who are offensive to others by the Intemperance of our Tongues neither are we as yet conscious of our pretended guilt that we have hitherto defended our selves with any Impertinency but this this is our crime to day why both here and every where we are drag'd into Judgment because we seldom deprecate our charge or Court favour by throwing our selves at your feet or using guilded expressions to ensnare your Ears if not our own minds also which would if not at present yet certainly hereafter prove detrimental to us and our common cause If it be an accusing and reproving of others to reject the falsehood of their unjust Accusation and Modestly and Ingenuously show what they do amiss let us bear that Name which only the sence and glory of well doing gives us tittle to But this is or at least should be the sole and proper question what is this crime which we have done that you esteem so hainous Since no Law forbids it no Man can doubt the Lawfulness of our doing it and injustice of your reprehending it For where there is no Law there is no Transgression As to the council's Allegation of a Common and general Law as the Foundation and strength of the whole Accusation when a general saying is generally to be understood things common cannot oblige without a special statute so long as he applies not his rule to the matter in hand whereupon the subject of our discourse is hinged truly his citation is to little purpose and his talk is fruitless for the wise and ancient Kings that made those Laws and the skillful and ingenious Lawyers of our Countrey who interpreted them did ever take 'em in no other meaning than applicable to certain persons things times and Circumstances wherefore thus to wrest Controversy to Law is to disjoyn it from it self Moreover no Law can be just which forbids what the divine Law Commands and reason Dictates or Commands what God and nature forbids and denies even where the reverence and worship of God is concerned Is this their Justice and Equity with whom we have to do to bid shut our mouths or carry us to punishment when we speak against injustice in our own defence Since by the common Law it s provided that he that may do that which is more should not be deny'd liberty to do that which is less what hinders us when Religion the greatest good is at the stake to which other things tho never so valuable have no proportion to be allow'd the common privilege of gain-saying Then we must be rob'd of our whole liberty our Wives and Children dragg'd into slavery our Families scatter'd our Estates seiz'd and carry'd away into triumph for our own Conscience sake by the accusation of every beggar and Malitious informer craftily waiting for our Ruine and Destruction Let the Lord of Sea and Land Judge betwixt us in this matter The Judgement of twelve Men was always much regarded by the Patricij of old the Nobles and Optimates who being sworn Assessors after hearing the cause and evidence brought in their sentence according to the equity of the matter That book has also hitherto been highly honour'd which contain the Rights of King Parliament and People which is call'd Magna Charta What reverence Judges pay unto these who Arrogate the intire power and sole decision of the Tryal to themselves and that with so much passion and prejudice as they are so unhappy neither to be able to govern or conceal it let the Judges themselves declare Impartially It appears plainly the Magna Charta is become a nose of wax since it 's so often hammer'd out into every form If things run in this Channel the times will come soon when we may bid farewel to Religion to all Society yea right and property too if all Tryals and Judges be like this in whose mind so much of the Popish inquisition is ingrain'd As for us since we were not accus'd we could not be condemn'd yea since we 're absolv'd by the Jury we desire our liberty As for you the most just and great God will Judge the Justice of all your proceedings When Penn and Mead persisted in their purpose not to pay that Money which they were amers'd in being thrown into Jail Penn's father pay'd it for them both and deliver'd 'em from their Imprisonment a severe and warlick exploit follow'd done upon the Quakers in the County of Surrey In certain places Captains with their Souldiers only by their own Power and Authority broke in upon Quakers houses without any occasion Colouring the Injustice of their Action with a pretence that they searched for hidden and conceal'd Arms and other Instruments of Sedition and Rebellion thus they perceiv'd what they had in their houses and afterward came upon them at their pleasure and spoiled them This use and custom did so overflow and prevail that Military Men of that sort and size both foot and horse without any Command assaulted those people while at their Religious exercises and Proclaim'd and made War without any Enemy with so much vehemency fierceness Clamour and Execution as if they would fright heav'n it self with the thundering of their words and thrusting 'em out of the houses where they were met if they stood nigh by or spoke but a word which you may suppose they often if not always did they dragg'd some of 'em immediately into fetters and smote others most cruelly with their Military Weapons this was a common custom in Harsly-down The house being full of Quakers at their worship many Souldiers and Horsemen with Swords Pikes and Fire-Arms fly's thither the Footmen goes in and presently running upon them thrusts them all out of doors being put out into the street the Horsemen rides them down seeing their only hope of safety to be plac'd in the swiftness of their feet by flight they betook themselves to that remedy and endeavour'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
the Old Laws and the Primitive Religion and Christian Faith did complain so much of the hard dealings of those whom they looked upon as their Enemies and Adversaries and as they could not deny but that many of their own People did often-times so demean and carry themselves towards them who esteemed them also in like manner to be their Enemies of whom they so far complained as that if their Complaint were not unjust even that Complaint which their Adversaries made against them was just and right also and seeing that those Men would be esteemed as altogether Innocent they gave occasion for Persons to believe that there were wicked ones amongst them who practised Evil Arts and who intimated they would do any Mischief if they had Power to their Will Examples hereof were these to wit some of them cast Scandals and many vile Reproaches upon the Ministers of the Gospel and their whole Churches at the very time wherein they were performing their most Religious Duties and so endeavoured to stir up against them yea the whole Society the Resentments of the Magistrate the Rage of the People and the ill Will and Persecutions of both so that now those few Persons might deservedly be accounted the Tormentors of all the rest and the Betrayers of the whole Multitude of which outragious doings seeing they who were Authors and Actors thereof or doubtless their Friends and Favourers have in their Libels published by them given us Examples glorying in such their Actions there is no doubt to be made but that those which I shall gather and pick out of them are such as that there cannot be had the least suspicion concerning them One Boswel Middleton a Shooe-maker in the City of York was the first that cut out and as it were fenced the way for the rest of them crying out against Edward Bowles while he was Preaching in the midst of his Sermon to the People and in the hearing of all Thou art the Servant of Antichrist and so is thy Flock for which words he was forthwith put in Chains The like bold and impudent Example we have in the same Year done at Oxford by two Women Elizabeth Havens and Elizabeth Fletcher these did first chatter and talk in their way of Cant to the Students in the Streets and then in the Publick Churches and last of all in the Universities but with more hazard and greater danger than they imagined and yet they might easily have done it For these Persons being as it were taken with such Polite Conceits as these gave them forth with a more pleasant Entertainment or that I may be in earnest and tell the truth as these Waggs are more especially exceeding arch and wanton they draw them into their Colleges Pump them and throw them into the Privy and did again afterward take one of them to wit Elizabeth Fletcher and threw her into a Grave that was opened for the burying of a dead Corps with such violence that she received such hurt by her fall that she afterwards died thereof But when they were got free from this hardship they go again to the Church and while one was silent the other spoke there openly so that both of them were taken away and thrown into Prison amongst Rogues and Burglars and afterward when they were brought to a Tryal before the Mayor and that he had turned them over to some other Magistrates of the City and to the Vice-Chancellor they were by their Command thrust out of the City as Vagabonds but seeing we have many of these strange Examples and them done not in one place nor at one time it will not be improper to set forth what have been done by these sort of Men all this time in the City of Bristol and which has been recorded by their own Companions and real Defenders as being famous and worthy Performances and the rather because that in this Relation some other things like unto these do offer themselves unto us and others also are not to be omitted and past over This City after these mens Dogms and Opinions were broached in that Country was as it were the Seminary Receptacle and Refuge-place of these Sectaries and as it were the Theatre of those things which was proper and peculiar for these Men both to do and to suffer Which thing did very much nettle all Men of all Religions wherewith the City was full And though these same Men dissented one from another in respect to their various Religions and many other businesses and were at very great and almost deadly Enmity among themselves yet they all agreed in this one thing for to oppose and resist the Quakers At this time came John Audland and John Camie and soon after them Francis Howgil and Edward Burroughs Names that were well known and dear there into the City Audland and Camie in a short time after departed but the other two tarryed and were cited before the Magistrates they appeared the Magistrate commands them to depart out of the City they refuse and added that if the Magistrate would exercise Power they would not resist whatever was imposed upon them Upon this the whole City was so chafed agitated and exasperated against the Quakers that where ever they saw them especially when they were gathered together and as they went to the place and departed from thence all People almost of all degrees kind and Age derided mocked threw dirt upon them thumped kicked and cast stones at them But notwithstanding all this the Quakers were not repressed and diverted from their Undertakings but some of them even as if they were intent upon that very thing for to increase and heighten the Anger and Rage of Men against them and all their Party undertook also some new ways and Methods from which they could not only hope for and procure no good but from which they might easily know it might conduce further to their hurt for Elizabeth Marshal during the time that the Minister of the Church Rodolph Farmer and the whole Church were met together to preach and hear the Word of God to pray to him and to celebrate the Lord's Supper stood all the while over against Farmer and when he was going about to Administer the Lord's Supper she cryed out Wo Wo Wo hangs over thy Head from the Lord O Farmer who takest the Word of the Lord into thy mouth when the Lord never sent thee at which words all the People being in an Uproar and many of them enraged against her they fell violently upon her and thrust out the Woman dragging her headlong out of the Church and the Boys without threw stones at her and pursued her until she got into and saved her self in her own Habitation and there remained secure from more Outrages This Fact might have been severely punished by the Magistrates but they chose rather to forget or to defer it to another time But she as if she had done a good deed undertakes the same thing on the next Lord's
Day and in the same Church spoke these words against John Knowles the Preacher after he had pronounced the Blessing upon the People This is the Word of God to thee Knowles I command thee to Repent for what thou hast done and to hearken to the Light of Conscience that is within thee and so being again punished with many blows and thrown out of the Church she was first confined by the Watch of the City and afterward committed by the Mayor into the Common Prison and had no heavier Punishment inflicted upon her From whence almost all sorts of Citizens grew enraged and cryed out that these Men sought nothing else by their Inventions and Undertakings but occasions of Reproaches Disturbances and Confusions as also matter of Enmities and Revenge against them Now Audland and his Companion were returned into the City who when they were a going out of the City towards a place where the Quakers intended to keep a Meeting they were like to be in great danger from the Boys that assaulted them and it s very like they had perished if they had not been saved by the Care and Industry of some of the chief Men of the Place Which when the Common People and such like unto them came to know and supposing those Principal Citizens had not done their Duty as they ought they broke out against them and some threatned the Magistrates and made a Clamour That this new base and partly flagitious and wicked People the Quakers had passed over the Bounds of Modesty and proceeded so far that they could not arrive to a greater Audacity and Impudence than they were come to and that the Magistrate saw and bore with all this to whose care it was committed to maintain the Honour and Dignity of the Common-wealth whom they represented and to take heed lest the whole People should at last be endangered in their Religion so that seeing now when so great a matter is in agitation the Laws are silent Judgments dumb Punishments ceased all things both Divine and Humane lie unregarded and the extream Fate of the Religion and Liberty of the City was at hand it was high time that the People themselves should watch and upon the neglect of the Magistrate those whom it most concerns are to be Magistrates to themselves and must seek after their own safety which they cannot otherwise procure This though it may not be Lawful at another time yet at such a time as this is it 's both right and just and ought and there is need it should be done but before they would enter upon it they desired that an Account of the whole matter might be transmitted to Cromwel who was the defender of the Common Law and Liberty The which was done without delay for there were some who transmitted their desires forthwith in this matter to Cromwel And so while these Men thought that they acted the part of Citizens bravely yea that they like so many Viceroys imagined they discharged the Office of Judges well the Magistracy winked hereat or contemned it especially because things were brought to that pass that the Guard of Soldiers that was placed in the City did no ways deter them therefrom This Tumult lasted for the space of two days and then was appeased of it self But lo while the Magistrates were studying to aslay this great outragiousness of the Times by reason of such Insolence in their own People and upon this Consideration did not afterwards call the heads of the Rioters to an Account for such their doings another Quaker Henry Warren by Name had rather exasperate the matter and was as it were the poisoned Nail in this Altar of the City for he had such a Lust as I may say for it and proceeded to such a height of boldness that in the Church and that even when there was a very great Assembly he spake these words to the face of the Minister after he had made an end of his Office and Work The Prayers of the Wicked are an abomination to the Lord with which opprobrious speech than which nothing could be more contemptible all were stirred up and provoked so as that they violently drave the Man from the Church and lead him before the Mayor and Sheriffs of the City who that they might not go unpunished commanded them to be thrust into Prison but such was the intenseness and desire of these Men to talk at this rate in these places and they were so much tickled with the Glory which they placed therein that they seemed to deliberate one with another and to determine with Judgment for to pursue this matter whatever Hatred Trouble or Mischief befel them and their Companions therefore it was not only one but many of them broke out in this manner who were ever and anon assaulted and violently beaten for it and indeed wounded in the croud until they were thrust into Prison At last the Magistrate calls all these Prisoners to an Account for their doings which till then by reason of the Times and other necessary Circumstances was omitted but so even as now things stood their Examination was done in a mild tender and gentle manner the Magistrate supposing that many harsh things might be alleviated by gentle Animadversion and Forbearance but those Prisoners made their Answers to the Magistrate not at all more submissively but in a sharper manner and as often as their Crime was laid to their charge they would acknowledge and confess no Crime and stifly vindicated what they had done as what was Lawful and decent and that they did not do them things of their own will but according to the Will of God and the Instinct and Admonition of his Divine Spirit and the Examples of Holy Men insomuch that the Obstinacy and Obdurateness of these Men prevailed wherefore the Judges commanded them to be kept in Bonds by reason of their causing these Molestations and Disturbances and for their perverse Manners and Obstinacy and not for any other causes as these Men by way of Complaint did alledge Moreover the People were generally so irritated and exasperated with hatred wrath and rage against them that they set upon the Quakers every where laid hands on them beat knock'd and kick'd them and that so far that some of them rushed into their Houses and haled Men out from thence ransacked all that was therein and omitted nothing that might gratifie their incensed Minds Of them that were at this time in this City were Audland and Camie Howgil and Burroughs and Naylor and Fox whom we ought to have named first as being always the first and with the foremost as if there had been a Council called here and that this were done about most weighty Affairs which when the Magistrates came to know because there was a Report made unto them and that some had made Oath of it that there were certain Franciscan Fryars come from Rome to London who concealed themselves under the name of Quakers and deluded simple Men
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
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
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
Appleby and when they also required him to Swear and that he could not be brought to do so he is led back to his former Prison He was again the Year following brought before the same Court and the same Question put to him where he declares with great Constancy but in much Modesty That he as to what belongs to the substance and matter of the Oath did not refuse to Declare and Promise the performance of it yea and to subscribe it but that he could not affirm the same by an Oath neither was that Lawful for a Christian nor Advantageous to Men seeing that such an Asseveration would neither impose a greater Obligation upon good Men in the preserving of their Faith nor take away fear from the wicked and that the same was only an Encouragement to Rashness and Temerity in all false hearted Men and a Cloak for Evil and sometimes for the most notorious Villanies By which speech and moderation in speaking Howgil was so far from being freed from the Prosecution and Envy of his Judges that for all that he was adjudged Guilty and adjudged as being guilty of Disloyalty to have all his Lands forfeited as long as he lived and Moveables for ever returned to the Exchequer and that he himself was out of the King's Protection and ordered to be shut up and detained in perpetual Imprisonment and so it came to pass that the Man continued in that Prison for five Years when at length he fell very sick and shortly after ended his Miseries by Death between the Arms and Lamentations of his Wife and many Friends who were the Witnesses of his Exit and of their own sorrow for the loss of a Man who was not only dear and delightful to them but to all of their Society at his Death he called God and Men to Witness That he died of thut Religion for which he had suffered so many Afflictions While the Quakers were thus disturbed harrassed and molested the Parliament made yet a more rigid Law That the Quakers should in direct words before the Magistrates take the Oath of Allegiance to the King and own him for the Supream Head of the Church But and if upon any Account they could not be brought to do this it was Enacted That within a Year's space they should leave the Kingdom as refractary and rebellious Persons that acknowledged no Authority of Rule and rejected and laid aside all Bands of Humane Societies By which Law they seemed now as if they did not only raise up Arms and Proclaim War against them openly and simply but design their utter Ruine and Destruction Now by this Law there was an increase of these Peoples Misfortunes the following Year in that it made them to be much more suspected and hated by the People but it 's uncertain whether this proceeded from the Opinion and from thence the Rumour of such sort of Men who think what they do not comprehend and say what they think or from them who believed cunningly enough that this was the best way and manner for them to be quickly and readily rid of these Men. Or lastly from them who hoped that they might in these troublesome Times gain some Profit and Advantage to themselves the Mischief was this These Men were more and more blamed that they cherished Papists and even Jesuits that certainly lurked amongst them which same Persons were so hateful to the People and which took upon them their Names and Persons and preached amongst them that sometimes one and the same Teacher on one and the same day did first Celebrate Mass among the Papists and afterward Preached in the Congregation of the Quakers either without Hair or with a Peruke on neither was there any Notable Preachment at any time had among the Quakers the Author whereof was not esteemed to be a Jesuit and this was so rooted in the Thoughts and Imaginations of most Men that if any one knew it not he was looked upon as ignorant of the Publick Affairs if he denyed it as Impudent or a Papist or Jesuit himself born to Lye and to Cheat And they offer this as an Argument of such Practices which made the same find a more easie belief to wit that the Papists did so as well because that hereby they might avoid Swearing as the Quakers were most averse to such Oaths and so should swear nothing against the Honour and Interest of their Religion as that so they might catch and allure the unwary by their Artificial and cunning Speeches I remember I have heard a long time after being in Company with some Englishmen and amongst some Quakers these Men complaining that even then such Discourses were bandied about concerning the Jesuits mixing with the Quakers and that they durst not contradict them I 'll go a little further some time after some I know not who according to their Jesuitical way and disposition that wrote Foxes and Fire-brands urging that there was a certain Jesuit that had lurked and taught among the Quakers for Twenty Years together but as often as I have put this thing to the Quakers they have answered That there could be nothing upon this Head found more falsly or more foolishly and that they could never find any thing that was like it or smelled of it but yet it is strange how much Envy and Hatred this Opinion contracted to these Men who followed this Sect and Constitution and certainly there is no Year so Memorable and Note-worthy for the Persecution of these Men than this of Sixty Four for seeing that neither those who were in Prison that they might be set free nor those at Liberty that they might prevent their Imprisonment could be brought of that Mind as to be willing to Swear and that those who were free would by no means cease to hold their Assemblies and that in greater Numbers than the Law allowed and that many times they went so far that they left their homes and went out of the Bounds of the Kingdom They were indeed in some places very severely handled and in other places over and above their hard Treatment seeing that all places were filled with Prisoners they ordered them into Banishment and drove them as the noisom and horrible Pest of the Kingdom into the uttermost Parts of the Earth The City of London had none of the least share in this Persecution where besides the Oppressions and daily Violences offered by the meaner sort and scum of the People as well as by the Soldiery who strenuously rejoyced in such doings and as having no regard of their own so did more lightly set by other Mens Lives and who every where waited for them in their Meetings and did ever and anon by the Magistrate's Command hale away many of them yea sometimes an Hundred together and drive them before them like a Flock of Sheep and throw them into Prisons but not into those that were next at hand and more at large wherein however they might have been safe enough
followed by others of both Sexes Neither were the Actions of these very memorable their Power being abridged by the Sufferings they were forced to endure which indeed may be reckon'd so great and so many that they are not unworthy to be noticed and obserued Of all the Tract of the New England Common-wealth Boston is the Metropolis and Judiciary Seat At that time John Endicot was Rector or Governour of the whole Province one that from a very low condition was gradually mounted to this Honour and Dignity Of whose Temper Behaviour and Government which was then variously thought and talk'd of and whereof there were afterwards on both sides Witnesses I shall content my self wholly to be silent Next to him was Richard Bellingham whose manner of Life and Nature I also pass by At this time there was no where any thing like a Law enacted against the Quakers A Ship then arriv'd at Boston and was no sooner Anchor'd than a rumor was spread that 2 Quaker women were come in the Ship The Governour being absent he that was depute immediately sent order for seizing these women sealing up and keeping their Hampers Boxes and Chests and bringing the Books of their Sect whereof they had great store into the City where they were publickly burnt by the hand of the Hangman Then the women themselves were brought into Town and soon after before the Judges who presently as soon as they sat down on the Bench pronounc'd the women to be certainly Quakers for giving the singular title of thou to the Judge and not the more Courteous compellation of you contrary to the custom of almost all the English The Judges thinking this to be a sure enough sign and the matter to be clear and evident of it self their office rendring 'em best Advocates for themselves order'd the women to be taken and thrown into Goal and have nothing of the goods they had left in the Ship not so much as their Tools and Instruments of Writing lest they shou'd write of the Condition to which they were reduc'd or something of their New Religion and Doctrine The Goaler to compleat what the Judges had begun had the manners Irreligiously to rob 'em of their Bibles 'T was also decreed that none shou'd go speak or carry any meat to them Being kept in so strait and narrow a place having scarce any thing to eat sleep or lie upon till after some days something of their own was suffer'd to be brought 'em from the Ship which Nichol. Vpshal a Citizen of Boston and Member of the Church there privately agreed for a summ with the Goal-Keeper to let in and also to give 'em what sustenance was sufficient They complain'd further of their treatment as being reproach'd and revil'd as Whores who scruple not to expose and defile themselves and upon pretence of searching the truth of the matter of their being most basely and rudely strip'd naked and not only view'd contrary to Chastity and Shame Fac'dness but even handled with wicked and immodest hands without regarding those secrets of nature which modest Men wou'd shun the seeing or touching of These things being so Villanous to Act and scarce modest to name the women were rather forc'd to sit with and endure than betray their own shame without any Redress or expose their Disgrace without Sympathy or Compassion The women abode for five weeks shut up in this lonely and poor habitation Then the Captain of the Ship with whom they came before he set Sail had leave from the Judges at his own proper provision and charges to carry them back from whence he had brought ' em They being driven back in a little time after Sara Gibbens Mary Wartherhad Mary Prince Dorothy Wangre also Christopher Holder Thomas Thunton William Brent and John Copelan coming there met with such Treatment as the women had done before Upon this occasion there was a Law establish'd that no Ship-Master shou'd presume to bring a Quaker there and if any Quaker shou'd Adventure to come upon their Territories he was presently to be rewarded with the Confinement of a Prison Nichol Vpshal whose civility to the Imprison'd women I spoke of inquiring more narrowly into the Quakers Religion began to withdraw from his own Church and betake himself to the Quakers fellowship and oppose and exclaim against the Legislators Constitutions for establishing a humane sanction or Law contrary to the Rule of Divine precepts warning and advising 'em all to take care lest by a willful fighting against God they pull down his wrath and Judgment on themselves The Judges minds were hereby so Exasperated that resolving to make so new a danger Exemplary they first fin'd him in a hundred Crowns sentenc'd him to Goal and last of all to Banishment There was in the Western part of the province in sight of the Countrey an Island call'd Rhodes Here some Quakers did live hither went Vpshal to joyn with his cause Whither when he came 't was commonly reported that the Barbarous Indian Governour finding him gave him an Invitation to reside in his Countrey and Precincts promising him a seat in his indigency and exile and also to Accommodate him with a suitable habitation adding those words What sort of God have the English who deal so with others that worship their own After the others were put to the flight Ann Burden a widdow of London in Old England having some years ago liv'd with her Husband at Boston came there now for some Money that was due to her with Mary Dyer wife to William Dyer being both ignorant of what was establish'd by Law and what mischief here did threaten the Quakers These women were presently seiz'd and kept in Prison untill the husband did succour the one and good and Compassionate people the other Ann Burden was so acquitted that she was particularly prohibited to import these Warrs others had brought in her name and account for summs and Moneys due by some debtors tho they cou'd have been sold dearer there than in old England she was forc'd again to Transport 'em over the Sea not without being clipt by the Customers and Officers who were Artists sufficient in meddling with her goods and dividing a considerable part among themselves In 75 the year following and matters were stretch'd to such a pitch that all advice and assistance to that sort of Men seem'd so fruitless that they afforded but matter of Accusation and Calumny Since they cou'd not by Sea they did therefore by Land travel through strange and desolate places even such Woods Forests and Solitudes as none before 'em ever pass'd over not knowing or having wherewith to sustain themselves except what they carry'd along in a bag but when that fail'd being in utter want they sometimes met with help and supply from the Indians tho otherwise the most Barbarous of all Mortals who not only shewâ—d 'em the way but things needful for life and use yea such as these Countries take for Rarities and Delicacies so
light of Christ doth shine we as yet continue to admonish and warn you to take heed to that light while you may For my part I have liv'd unto Christ and do die for Christ taking him now for my Life and My all Then Stevenson follow'd speaking such like words Be it known unto you we suffer not now for any Evil by us Committed but only for doing of these good deâ—ds which our Conscience always taught us to be our Duty And as your Consciences in the day that 's to came shall toss and terrify you with perpetual Anguish so we being this day releas'd from all care shall rest free from Anxiety and trouble and instead of that frail and fading Life shall have unceasing and perfect happiness with God With these words he ended These two Men being dead their naked bodies were thrown into a Ditch and cover'd up by the way side where they ended their Life And now Mary goes up the Ladder with her hands bound her Coats ty'd down and face cover'd in present readiness to wellcome her end being already forestall'd with apprehensions of Death But the Judges among themselves had granted Mary a pardon being humbly petition'd by a Son of hers This was only design'd to terrify and affright her but being taken down and greatly in suspense looking up to understand what the matter did mean at last before she went down from the Ladder with a deep sigh she broke out in these words that there was no delay in her to go with her Brethren and receive that certain fruit of her Labours and reward of all her Dangers and Evils as the glorious Trophies of her Courage and Constancy that she might also imbalm her Religion with her blood if the Rulers wou'd not annull that wicked Law When taken away from the Ladder she was first shut up in the place whence she came and two days after carry'd out of the Town When this was done it can't easily be told how the Quakers minds and mouths were Irritated both here and in other places So that every where their doleful Mournings and Exclamations were heard that now these Mens thoughts and Designs did shew themselves leaving no further room for doubt who were these pure and upright in Life who at all times did so cry out that there was no living without Religion and no Religion without Godliness and neither cou'd be without Liberty of Conscience who therefore in their own Countrey in England did so decry that violent Tyranny and because of the injury done to them there fled from it as a thing not sufferable and leaving their own native Soul came into this utmost Region of the Earth surrounded on all hands with Barbarous Nations That this was so plain that they must be inconsiderate who doubt of it since they behav'd themselves so to their own Countreymen and those who when under affliction and trouble had fled unto them for refuge and comfort but met with nothing among them but the utmost cruelty That it further appear'd from the Savage fierceness they us'd towards Men that were altogether innocent bereaving 'em not only of their Goods and Estates but even of their Reputation Blood Bones and Life it self There were not a few Complaints of others also who were not at all of the family of the Quakers who spoke their Abhorrence against that new sort of Judgment that was hitherto among Protestants unheard of thinking it unreasonable thus to rage ' gainst those whom they reckon'd just honest and blameless or at least to be guilty of inconsiderable faults or had they deserv'd some notable punishment yet they thought it Disgraceful for themselves to be the Authors of inflicting it These and the like were some matter of trouble to the Magistracy of Boston who cou'd as little deny the cause as what they had acted that they might against all Complaints and Calumnies shield the fame of their Name and Religion and if any thing of the like nature shou'd happen for the future more excusably repeat what they had already done and seize them that said any thing to the contrary they caus'd this Apologetical Pamphlet to be emitted in English by their own Clerk Edward Rawson Tho the equity of our proceedings with William Robbinson Marmaduc Stevenson and Mary Dyer being fortify'd by the Authority of our Court and according to the Laws both of Cod and our Countrey do's induce us rather reasonably to expect Commendation and Praise from all good and wise Men than dispose us to think it at all necessary to make any Defence and Apology for our selves Notwithstanding because some of a shallow Capacity from perhaps a Principle of Pity and Compassion which as it is indeed a Christian vertue so it 's justly intitl'd to deserved praise except where it too easily turns it self putting on false and pernicious dresses for want of a Judgment better inform'd are desirous of some satisfaction in the matter and because those Men that are of ill principles and practices may unjustly accuse us and take us for Men of very Bloody and cruel Inclinations we therefore thought fit to satisfy the one and stop the Mouths and Clamours of the others to order the publishing of this Declaration 'T is almost three years since some Men who profess'd themselves openly Quakers after we understood being inform'd by Letters sent us from the English by the way of Berbado's how pernicious their opinions and endeavours had been took the boldness also to come unto Boston We only then committed them to Prison till we cou'd find occasion to send 'em from among us without using any further severity against ' em And tho their discipline and turbulent behaviour troublesome to the people and reproachful to the Magistrate call'd loudly for a greater punishment without the least shadow of Injustice yet the Court was rather willing to shew their prudence in preserving and defend-ing our own peace and the Government that was establish'd among us against the Quakers utmost efforts who aim'd at the subversion of our Laws and Statutes and final overthrow of our Religion also This we 're too well acquainted with to be ignorant of both by what our experience taught us of them and what Specimens their Ancestors the Papists have left us We therefore made and promulg'd a Law that no Master of a Ship whatsoever shou'd bring a Quaker into our Precincts and Territories if they did otherwise they were to be Imprisoned untill they cou'd be banish'd and remov'd from among us But since yet these Men did constantly return through many secret ways and wandrings neither cou'd any punishment or threatning be invented to stop their impudent and rash coming back tho we endeavour'd to prevent it by increasing the punishment to the cutting off the returner's earâ—â— yet that it self did not avail to withstand their mad and unweary'd fury we were therefore forc'd to take another course to maintain the publick Peace and Tranquillity Upon this all things being
a Courage and Fortitude of mind and opinion of their own Constitutions Government Unanimity and good Agreement that they ventured to invite all the Barbarous Americans and indeed all Men in whom there was the least spark of Religion Moral Honesty or Quietness of Temper to come and live among them promising them upon their good behaviour the like Advantages themselves enjoy'd and the free exercise of their own Religion Which the better to understand it will be worth while to set down their Decree Which runs thus We give a General general liberty of Conscience to all who acknowledge one God omnipotent the Creator Preserver and Governour of the World and hold themselves oblig'd in Conscience to live quietly and justly under Government To that degree that none shall have any thing to do as to Religious matters and opinions at any time to compell or force another to any sort of Religious Worship to which he is averse or to Contribute any thing towards the Maintenance of Preachers or to places set apart for Religious Worship And that every one shall have the full use of his Christian liberty without sustaining any detriment for the same And if any one abuse another or mock him for being of a different perswasion from him in religious matters he shall be accounted a Disturber of the publick peace and punished accordingly Now tho I have hitherto onely recited this Writing and all those things I have yet treated on without pretending to interpret or give the mind or sense of these people in them yet here I can't forbear taking notice that they call this liberty Christian when as they extend it to all Men who onely acknowledge one God Now if these Men will agree with themselves they must necessarily take all those for Christians in whom there appears any Principle or Religion or Piety as being what they say is from Christ yea is Christ But as the Inhabitants of this Countrey were for the most part Quakers so because of the Conveniency of the Countrey and this liberty of Religion confirm'd by the Edict aforesaid More Quakers at several times came thither from Divers other parts of America And not onely those of this perswasion but also others of other Principles and Opinions in Religion and several of none or slender fortunes came and fix't themselves in those remote parts of the World hoping for a blessing from Heaven and a bettering of their Condition For seldom those that have any Estate or hopes of one in their own Countrey travel into strange and unknown Countreys leaving all their Friends and Acquaintance behind them Moreover W. Penn the Lord and Governour of the Countrey a little before the breaking out of the Mortal War which still rages between the French of th' one side and the English and their Confederates of the higher and lower Germany on th' other incited thither several people both English and our Countrey folks and some of the Palatinate of the Rhene who having nothing of their own to loose at home and hearing of the plenty of all things in America were got into several parts thereabouts and having entertain'd a good opinion of him many of them were drawn thither in hopes of getting a good livelyhood by their handy works And so all these people addicted themselves to Agriculture and preparing and enlarging that part of the Countrey which was before uninhabited and uncultivated and withal of their own proper concerns And all things succeeded well and happily to them they being indefatigably Diligent and Industrious So the whole Countrey became well manured and Laws were made for the better distribution of the Lands Alloting to every one their particular part And these strangers had an equal priviledge of exercising what Religion they would and living according to their own fashion with those of their own Company And moreover they were made capable of all honours and beâ—â—ing any office or dignity in the Magistracy either in City or Countrey Altho this was the Prerogative of the Quakers not that they had Arrogated it to themselves by any Law but by reason of the Multitude of them and their all agreeing together and being Ambitious to possess the first and best places in the Government Whence it came to pass that there were some of whom there 's no great question to be made but that onely for profit and advantage sake dissembling their own opinions they went out to the Quakers and tack'd about as the wind turn'd Now as we see that for the most part fortune follows the diligent the Ingenious and Industrious So the greatest part almost of these people being religious Men and Men of Integrity but unexpert and not well verst in the Affairs of the World the rest not onely ignorant and unexperienc'd in affairs but also wild and licentious in Discourse and Conversation And amongst the rest of them were some of the Quakers In process of time these grave and serious Men hanging of a knot together diligently aiming at what they had always seem'd to despise and affected to get into all the Courts and Offices of Judicature and mightily to busy themselves about those Employs And when they were chosen Magistrates and Judges they behav'd them-excellently in the said Offices and oftentimes carried themselves roughly and proudly to their Clients and Suitours and in their sentences and decisions of suits and punishing of Malefactours they fitted themselves with such a kind of Juridical Actions as always bred disgust and when the Case required that any thing was to be Solemnly affirmed or denied they caus'd the Witnesses to swear or at least use such a kind of assertion as little differs from an Oath as I speak and promise it in the presence of God or as true as God's in Heaven or which at least was no less than an Oath amongst God's ancient people the Jews As the Lord liveth Moreover they also who aimed at the Ministerial offices in the Church and Arriv'd at such like Degrees of Honour were chosen and appointed by them or delayed by them who had most influence upon the Senate whose minds they fill'd with a belief that they took a great deal of care of the weal-publick and the Laws and would be very mindful of them in their places of Authority and Accommodate themselves in the Offices of Justice according to former customs and presidents But besides these there were agreat many of the Quakers both Men and Women who took upon them the liberty to Preach and Exercised the same without any or any just at least warrant for so doing after that manner intruding themselves without producing any just Testimony either of their Ability or good Conversation And there are some of the Quakers themselves who assert that among these there were some who for their profound ignorance of the very first Principles of Religion were so far unfit to bear the Office of Teachers or Ministers in the Church that they did not deserve so much as to be
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