from this time forward as to what Places he went so with whom he conversed and whom he should shun and when he found there were some who laid in wait for him to trepan him and hale him to Prison he immediately hastened away He did also moreover advise his Party by his Letters and Pamphlets that all of them should make it their business and endeavour to do nothing against the King's Authority and the Common-weal and allow of nothing in that kind which might be avoided by them Besides this Fox proceeded to write many things even against their Adversaries but in such a manner as not to set forth so much what his own Sentiments were as what he wrote and in what place he wrote it Which sort of Life Fox from thence forward led even to his Death that all his Actions both in the middle and last part of his Life might be like unto those he had practised in the beginning so that I judge it needless to say many more words concerning Fox in this Treatise unless something that is altogether new and strange should occur And thus did almost all the Quakers behave themselves now more cautiously and circumspectly among their Adversaries neither did they so often and constantly make a noise in the Churches and Publick places neither did they Act those Fooleries where there was a Concourse of People and utter such ridiculous Bablings neither when they were brought before the Magistrate did they talk so uncivilly abruptly and foreign to the purpose as they had been wont to do neither did they Answer when the Judges asked them what their Name was what Country-men they were where they lived that they were of the Land of Canaan and that they lived in God so that as the Time even so their Manners changed yea from henceforward these Men wrote and published in England not only Pamphlets but Books in which they handled the Heads of things not at large only and confusedly but curiously and distinctly and did Argue in them first against the Opinions and Tenets of the Principal Episcoparians and then against those of other Dissenters which they did not approve of and this in a neat and orderly way of Argumentation not by wrangling but examining every Proposition and coming up to the Merit of the Cause and by admirable Skill arriving at their designed Conclusion neither did they urge those things which they taught and believed by a rude and disjointed way of Reasoning but clearly and openly and explicated the same at large and strenuously defended it Which Method was vigorously pursued by Samuel Fisher who was the chief Man and the Ornament of the whole Sect. Moreover some of them were not afraid to Discourse Argue and Dispute with the Adverse Party yea and when need required with the very Ministers of the Publick Church concerning their own and the others Doctrine and Concerns Which sort of Disputation was held this very first Year at Hereford between two City Ministers and three Preaching Quakers Howgil Burroughs and Cross wherefore from henceforward these People the Quakers began gradually and by little and little to stand up and to increase in number and strength and to be reckoned and used as one of the Sects of the Christian Religion Things were at the same pass with these Men in Scotland saving that their Affairs did not thrive so fast there until the arrival of two Men of great Fame and Reputation amongst all the Quakers Geroge Keith and Robert Barclay by Name by whose Labour Toyl and Industry the whole Doctrine of the Quakers especially their chief Dogms Principles and Fundamentals were very much illustrated and confirmed and because this is the first place where we meet with the Names of these Men and that hereafter mention will be made of them upon various Accounts we shall in a few words acquaint those who do not know it what sort of Men these are they were both of them Scots but there is only one of them to wit Keith that is yet alive Barclay the other being dead George Keith was at first of the Reformed Religion and a Student of Philosophy and Divinity as soon as he commenced Master of Arts and was more especially had in esteem for a good Mathematician he did afterward become a Chaplain or Minister of God's Word in a certain Noble Family But seeing that he was always transported with a desire of searching after and learning somewhat that was new and alighted upon these late Sectaries he did in a short time embrace their Doctrine and arrived to be one of the chief Speakers and Holders forth amongst them This Man after many Toyls Wanderings and Perambulations went at last into that part of America which from the Owner thereof is called Pensylvania and there in their Church and Latin School of Philadelphia exercised the Office of a Teacher Robert Barclay was a Gentleman of Scotland the Son of that same David Barclay whose Book we have made mention of a little before his Father had sent him to the City of Paris the Capital of France and there was brought up in good Literature and after a manner that suited to his Quality and those Noble Youths that were his Fellow-Students But this Young Man had an Uncle in that City that was Principal of the Scotch Popish College there to whose Precepts when Barclay had for some time attended he leaves the Reformed Religion and turns Papist which when his Father came to know he sends for him home and as he himself in the mean time was turned Quaker he also endeavours to induce his Son to embrace the same way but he seeing he had in all other things been Observant to his Father refuses and says he could not in so great and weighty a thing as that was hearken to him But when he had not long after come to one of the Meetings of the Quakers he suddenly turns about and becomes throughly one of them being now Eighteen Years of Age and from thence forward for a great part of his Life was as it were the Legate or Messenger of the Quakers in their weightiest Affairs it 's also said that he was descended from John Barclay that notable Writer of Heroick Verse and Satyr and whose Name it 's enough to mention Keith wrote many things in English wherein he does clearly Teach Explain and Confirm those chief Points of their Doctrine which Fox and others had neither so distinctly handled nor so artificially and dexterously propounded and vindicates the same from the Objections and Exceptions of their Adversaries which afterward all the rest of the Quakers greedily snatched at and would appropriate and reckon among the Opinions of the Quakers excepting two or three Articles which they left alone as peculiar to himself He was indeed the first of them all who taught polished and perfected those Principles concerning the Seed and Light within immediate Revelation the Eternal Divine and Spiritual Filiation of Jesus Christ for so do all
satisfaction for any Dammages sustained This was done first in the Synod of Rotterdam An. 57. It happen'd at Goud that one William Tick a Man much addicted to the Quaker's opinions and ways call'd a Council or Assembly of some of his own Gang which the Magistrate looking upon as a Company of Infidels and sending for Tick he would neither declare what his intention was or in the least uncover his head so he was sent into an House of Correction There was a Town not far from Goud in the way to Rotterdam In which Ames had drawn a certain Cooper one Martin's Son into his Society and here this Man also one time inviting Ames to his house gets together there some of his Neighbours to discourse of the Things of Faith and the good ordering of their Lives News of this being brought to the Minister of the Place and known to others they ran from every side to this house crying out That there was a Conventicle of seditious wicked men assembled there Which Tumult roused up Ames so that he walks out in a Calm Mood and very leisurely paces it along but all of a suddain they fall a reproaching him with a thousand opprobrious terms and handle him so at last that if he had not betook himself to his heels he had run in danger of his Life But a little while after these same Men nothing fearing the violence of the Mob reassembling in the same place again some run away and told the Burgomaster what they were a doing And when they had told him what these Men had done heretofore and so being induc'd to believe that these Meetings were Conspiracies against the Common Weal and the peace and security of the State he sent Sergeants and Officers to take Ames and his Landlord and carry them to Rotterdam and there put them in the Bethlem-house I made mention of not long ago Which coming to be known in the City some of the Ministers both of the reformed Church and the Remonstrants too go to Ames to see him and talk with him And they discourse much with him of many points both of his Doctrine and Religion and that several times but he handling things so obscurely and perplexedly to any Man's apprehension that other people could scarcely tell what he would have and they on all occasions starting such objections as he either could not tell how or declin'd to give a plain answer to this Discourse was to no purpose at all Ames published a little book not long after in which he proposes to the Ministers of our reformed Churches 83 questions of several Articles of Faith for them to solve To these Answers James Coleman then a youth and then also of a happy wit and Eloquent Tongue as also one of known piety and probity integrity and uprightness both in life and manners for all those that were any ways considerable for Age or Learning despis'd and pass'd by in silence as things not worth the minding those little triffling questions of this Quaker propos'd onely for ostentation and shew and that lest these people should boast themselves as if we were silent and refus'd to answer them in despair of the Victory And he answered them not with a youthful heat but with moderation and wisdom And this young Man in like manner proposed 60 questions to Ames and the rest of his Brethren the Quakers that they might have whereon to exercise themselves and shew their wit and parts Now whilest Ames was consined to this solitary place he spent his time principally in Writing And so besides several Letters to his friends he makes and publishes a reply to Coleman's Answers not forreign indeed from the purpose but bitter and not to be suffered in those that so much reprehend the same fault in others But as to the Questions that Coleman proposed to the Quakers those not Ames but Higgins Answers but so as not onely partly declining that wherein the State of the Case lay partly improperly and absurdly partly obscurely and in dark terms but also roughtly and with ill Language he mannages and if it were but by this alone betrays his cause Ames at last being set at liberty from this place comes to Leyden and there also going on with the same work as before he was cast into such another like place full of Spiders and Cobwebs and there he was kept till the Burgomaster weary of his Idleness or Misery and Sickness sent him away from thence Then away he travels into other provinces of Holland 'T is a wonder he being a Man than whom there was scarce any of those people more forward and travelling over so many Towns and Places understanding both Languages very well both English and Dutch and bestowing so much labour and pains amongst all sorts of People that there were no more that joyned themselves with him and the Quakers not even in the most populous Cities where there were so many Inhabitants English and all sorts and kinds of Men and some very near the Quakers in a great many things But as the coming and motion of these Men had rais'd these little Disturbances here and there and greater troubles and confusions were fear'd in other places these things principally stir'd up the Carefulness and Diligence of the Clergy every where as there was occasion to be on the watch and look out least they should cause any inconvenience or do any damage to their flock And so this gave occasion to the Synod of Goud An. 59. To make this decree that all Pastors should take a diligent observation of these Quaker's Meetings and the books they should disperse and apply themselves to the Magistrates by their Authority to suppress these things and that if these Men should any where give any Trouble to our People the Ministers of the word should well confirm the minds of their Auditors in their Sermons Catechisings and Visitations After this there was little heard of the Quakers For it was a long while before the people knew what the Quakers were Whence at first they were look'd upon as a poor sort of people without a Name or place of habitation as a kind of Fools and Madmen Then as an unquiet and troublesome sort of people For which reasons they were cast into Bonds and Prisons And at last they were accounted for bringers up of some new Sects of Religion which wanted a new place of residence And therefore now as defiled persons they seem'd fit to be removed a far off Some therefore in their progress sate down amongst the Anabaptists or Mennonites an unquiet sort of people alwaies hunting after Novelties Others are believ'd to have gone over to the Socinians a pestilent deceitful sort of Hereticks from whom nevertheless they are so far off that except the Papists there 's none they are more averse from It happen'd that in the year 64 the Socinians of which there was a great Number in those Countries every day grew more and more and made some
THE General History OF THE QUAKERS CONTAINING The Lives Tenents Sufferings Tryals Speeches and Letters Of all the most Eminent Quakers Both Men and Women From the first Rise of that SECT down to this present Time Collected from Manuscripts c. A Work never attempted before in English Being Written Originally in Latin By GERARD CROESE To which is added A LETTER writ by George Keith and sent by him to the Author of this Book Containing a Vindication of himself and several Remarks on this History LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at the Raven in Jewen-street 1696. TO THE Truly Noble and Honourable NICHOLAS WITSEN Burgomaster and Senator of Amsterdam c. THOSE two very things Right Noble and Honourable Sir to wit the greatness of your Name and the smallness of this Work which might disswade me from such an Application do both of them invite and in some sort engage me to adventure not only to make a Present of this Book but also a particular Dedication thereof unto you And seeing that it is a thing most certain and that the very sight of the Book doth immediately shew it that what I here offer is a Piece that is altogether new but yet neither over bulky nor prolix I was perswaded that this my Undertaking would not prove unpleasing to you because that as the Great are very much taken with the Novelty of other things even so they are of Books and as a conciseness in speaking is very agreeable to them a short and compendious way of Writing is found to be no less so which has given occasion to that old Proverbial Adage Little things are pretty To this I may add that this Book briefly treats of things transacted up and down and for some time in that Nation where in the Name of the Renowned States you have been first Envoy to the Most Potent and most Serene Princes King William and Queen Mary to that great and glorious Queen alas lately ravished from Earth by inexorable Fate of whose Vertues there are at this time so many Testimonies in the funebrous Orations of great and most Eloquent Men who for all that had they never so much exhausted their brains and been profuse of their Abilities in declaring and magnifying the Excellencies of this Queen had yet nee'r been able to form a true Idea of them in their Thoughts much less represent them as they ought to be to their Auditors than which nothing more can be said of Man and after that for some time Resident there where you were to Congratulate Their Royal Majesties Accession to the Throne and the Deliverance of so many Countries and People as also to confirm that Ancient League and Amity that was between both Nations In which Time and Place seeing that perhaps some but not all these things came within the Verge of your Knowledge this new and small Treatise but Pardon the Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may gratifie that desire which your Honour and even most Men have who have lived or come from abroad of having a perfect Knowledge of such Transactions as have happened in those places during their time or near unto it by exhibiting as in a little table-Table-Book the first Rise Progress and End of all these doings But yet this is not all the Reason I had for such an Undertaking I must confess Illustrious Sir that as to the matter of this Work it is such as may seem to them that are not very curious needless and unnecessary and that it is such a way or method as may easily induce some who are not over-skilful but given to scoff and chatter to look upon it as very mean and contemptible because that having regard only to the single Relation of Things and to Truth I treat thereof in a Style and Language that is plain and ordinary free from all manner of Affectation and do not which is a thing very common and much approved of and prevalent among the Vulgar either ridicule or proudly scoff at and prosecute in Writing those things which 〈…〉 the Religion and Manners of those Men who are treated of herâ—en Neither do I though there may be some among those very Persons who look with an evil Eye upon and bear ill will unto us for that Reason retribute the same and make the like return unto them as some are pleased to do who think such reciprocal doings ought always to be But seeing that it many times so happens that they who write with such Moderation are liable to fall under I know not what Suspicion of crack'd Credit from these Men so as that I found my self under a necessity of seeking out for some Patronage and Refuge-place upon this Account I was fully satisfied I could meet with that principally in you Great Sir who know as well as any Man alive what amongst such a multitude of Writers and itch of Writing is most fit to be writ what an Historian's scope ought to be in such a Work as this is and over and above that what on the one hand Religion and what in the mean time also Nature and the Power of Humanity require and call for And because I have fallen upon this Head I earnestly wish the Temper of the present Times was not such that this were not the sad distinguishing mark of the Age we live in as that there should be so many Men such strangers to and devoid of Charity and Modesty and hurried with that unruliness and outrageousness of Mind that as soon as they discern any Heterodox Opinion in matters of Religion and especially if any Heresie be smelt in the case they immediately suppose that it is the Property of Religion to scoff at persecute and afflict such Men some going so far as to urge there ought to be a precision or a cutting off of the same by violent Methods Fire and Sword Imprisonment and Bonds Racks and Torments and even by the most dreadful and cruel Deaths For the Good and Peace of the Church and State for so they Argue cannot otherwise be preserved nor the Christian Faith and Humane Obligations subsist Were it not for this we should not see against so many Reformed Churches so many Hundred Thousand Christians such and so great and nefandous Violences contrived and offered such lamentable yea unheard-of Calamities and Slaughters and even if they could make entire Extirpation Rulne and Destruction by those who go by the Names of Christians and Catholicks but are in truth the most bitter and implacable Enemies of the True Religion I 'll go yet further I heartily wish there were not sometimes amongst others and even among them who have withdrawn themselves from the Papacy that immoderation of Spirit that even where there is no manner of Heresie no Fundamental Error yea not the least difference but in words and way of Expression only mens Minds become forthwith divided thereupon an Interruption of Fellowship and at last a sâ—â—â—ssion into Parties doth ensue And that those who lay
before and after think upon the Mortal state of all Men and every one of his own in particular and how in a short time every one must enter upon that Journey unto Eternity from which there is no returning and commit this to their Heart and Memory and excite one another to the study of an Honest and Pious Life that his Death may be answerable thereunto And that I may add this further which is not to be omitted but not therefore to be extended to many It 's a wonder how much hatred also the odd and different way of managing and carrying their Funerals and what storms of Reproaches and Trouble it brought upon the Quakers they themselves Report that the dead Carkasses of their Friends were dug up again and buryed in other places and all this lasted till the next Year after this wherein that Memorable Plague raged and when the Quakers had free Liberty to Bury in their own Places and perform their Funeral Rites as they themselves pleased And seeing I have said thus much concerning the Burials of these Men I shall take the Liberty to add this one passage more concerning them There was a certain Man whose Name was Oliver Atharton of the Parish of Ormskirk who because he would not pay Tythes was put into the Common Goal of Derby by the Countess of Derby where after a long Imprisonment the Man died the Quakers having Liberty granted them carry the Corps away and passing through some Streets into the place where he had dwelt there bury him and in the mean time set up pieces of Paper on Poles in all those places with this written thereon whereby they extolled Oliver as a Martyr but defamed the Countess as being guilty of Murder This is Olliver Atharton of Ormskirk persecuted to Death by the Countess of Derby because he would not pay her Tythes After which when that the Countess in a few days after died in like manner and was carryed the same way to be buried the Quakers made also a Miracle of this her Death as if it had been the Effect of Divine Vengeance and Displeasure as all are prone to Judge of the sudden unexpected and heavy Misfortunes of their Enemies This Year a new and odd Persecution attended these Men which here we shall a little largely insist upon It happened in the City of Colchester I have given an Account in the First Book how the Quakers first came into this City but by this time having much increased in Number they met together daily and could by no means be diverted from that their Practice and Custom at which things the Mayor of the City did at first wink but afterward finding them proceed in their ways he began to look upon this Connivance as a disgrace unto him and therefore bethought himself what he ought and what he could do in that matter and at last seeing that they still persisted therein he was much grieved and inflamed with Anger and fully determined with himself to Prosecute them severely It 's a fearful thing to have an angry and an armed Enemy It happened on the 25th day of October being the Lord's Day that many of the Quakers were met together in a House to Worship God according to their way which when the Mayor came to hear being eager with a desire to Punish them he hasted thither with his Officers breaks open the House rushes in and in harsh Words but with a grave Authority said he came according to the King's Laws for to disturb this their Cabal and Conventicle and immediately without delay charges his Followers to Apprehend some of them and lead them to Prison and at the same time Commands the other Quakers to follow their Companions into the same place which they quickly and readily did not in conformity to his Command but of their own will and inclination After this the same Officers on the Nine and Twentieth Day of the same Month in pursuance to their Master's Command return and repeat the same thing with great Care and Diligence But when the Quakers on the First day of the next Month and Week met together again the same Officer advises what to do and does himself with his Guard undertake the same thing as before invades and sets upon the House where many Quakers again not expecting his Command knowing already what his Will was go away into the same Prisons and because that the rest of them did for all this meet again together on the Tenth Day of the said Month there came either by the Command or certainly by the Permission of the Governour part of the County Troop and these violently rush upon the Assembly take some of them and conduct them to Prison beat and thump others and besides ransacked the Place rent and pull down the Seats Windows and every thing else besides the Walls and Rafters when this was done the Governour set one of the Gang that lived not far from the House where the Quakers met together at the Door for to hinder them with Words and Threats for to Meet there if they were not minded to fall from one Calamity unto another whom when they would not resist they all stood in the Yard in the open Air and pursue their Worship quietly according to their usual manner the Porter and Keeper does the same thing on the following days and these same Men did the same as they had done before not caring to what Inconveniencies of Air they were exposed nor to what Injuries and Reproaches of their Enemies nor with what Danger they were beset by lyers in wait for them and not knowing what great Evil and Misery was a brewing for them at this very time for their Obstinacy and Perseverance For seeing they would not desist from their Method and Purpose it came to pass as if the Law and Civil Power were too weak and feeble that they had recourse to the Law of the Sword and the Force of Arms there were Forty Horsemen well mounted with choice Horse made ready and these being furnished with Swords Carabines and Pistols as they are wont to be they drew nigh that if so be they should again attempt any such thing they were forthwith to fall upon them and put them under Military Execution so as that they did not kill them outright The Quakers come again together on the Fifth of December upon which this Troop approach and seeing the Quakers did immediately with drawn Swords like stout Soldiers as if they assaulted armed Men but such as few of them had ever done gallop up with full speed unto them and then crying aloud as if that were the Signal What a Devil do you do here They set upon them beat knock and wound some of them with their Swords and Muskets sparing neither the tender Age nor Female Sex nor the grey and wrinkled and drove them from one place into another and some that met them even far from the place and whom they took to be Quakers were
that the Quakers had reason to esteem their own Englishmen Enemies and take those wild Men for Benefactors and Friends Among these strangers Mary Clarke was the first that adventur'd to intreat the Judges at Boston not to persist to vex and afflict the innocent but rather wholly to forbear to grieve and persecute 'em tho she did not insist or reflect on the Judges yet they gave themselves so over to rage that they commanded her to be whipt and cast into Prison So scandalous a reproach that matter was reputed Their whip is made of a small rope or cord with three grains and several knots upon each of 'em fastesn'd to a staff of such a length that when the Executioner wou'd inflict the lashes he must often employ both his hands to perform it the sufferer being often left worse than half dead Cristoph Holder and John Copelan being once expell'd the City was afterward treated as the woman had been before At a little Sea Town not far from Boston having both entred into the publick Church after Service and Sermon was ended Holder began to discourse to the people They presently dragg'd him and Copelan out by the hair dashing their very faces on the ground stopping one of their mouths with a sleeve and hankerchief pulling 'em out of the Church they carry them to Boston where they were both lash'd with such cruel stripes that some of the Spectators swoon'd away at the sight of it After that they were thrown into Prison and there compell'd to lie without either meat or drink three days and three nights and nine weeks in the middle of Winter were forc'd to remain in so cold an habitation Holder the year following returning to Boston to seek a Ship to carry him back to Old England was again Imprison'd without any reason Whereunto this piece of severity was Annex'd There liv'd at Salem a little from Boston Lawrence and Cassandra Southikes dear and loving Yoke-fellows accounted most faithful and honest Church Members These two I have spoken of when they came into Salem they receiv'd willingly and entertain'd kindly their Hostess taking the freedom to tell 'em that the books they had with 'em were not unpleasing to her was presented with some of s'em as a Resentment of her favour For this fault the two the Man and his Wife were carried to Boston and there Imprison'd and she fin'd in an hundred florens and more Moreover some that were true enough Children of the Church being averse to such severity not only to the Quakers but even such who from tenderness shew'd 'em any kindness did therefore withdraw themselves from the Church's Communion and accordingly were sure to be fin'd and Imprison'd The Southikes with their Son Josia were the first of this kind and for being the first were brought back unto Boston and condemn'd to be fin'd Imprison'd and whipt tho the parents were old weakly and infirm in a very cold and Winterly season they were all shut up and detained in Goal These parents had also two Children more a Son Daniel and a Daughter Prardeda who were so far from being terrify'd with what their parents had suffer'd that they were incited by their example to relinguish and abandon the fellowship of the Church and adjoyn themselve to the Quakers Society They were thereupon sentenc'd to the same punishment with their parents a pecuniary Mulct being laid upon both which if they did not pay 't was order'd they shou'd Compense it by their Work and Labour among the Chained and Slaves Being insolvent and yet as unwilling as unable to endure that hard and most cruel toil it was order'd by an Act of the Senate at Salem and afterward ratify'd by the Parliament at Boston that the boys shou'd go to the English that were trading in Virginia and Barmuda's and the charge hereof was given to Edward Rutter one of the then Officers of the Treasury It had been effected had it not been for the Seamen who approv'd the cruelty of that butcherly hangman that took pleasure in the yelling and howling of the Boys and extenuated the Barbarity or these bitter Men even while they Remembred the youthful innocence of the others A cruelty so unheard of that it was unlawful in Israel of old unless they had been guilty of theft or out of the Number of the Israelites These divine Laws of the Religious Zealots in Correcting faults and inflicting punishments I wou'd not give my self the trouble to Repeat had they not been so plainly and manifestly known that they became the Subject talk of almost every Tongue One Sam. Sattor who had gone to the Quakers Meeting at Salem at that Croud in the publick Church when the handkerchief was thrust into Christoph Holder's mouth to stop his throat and prevent his speaking for pulling it out for fear it shou'd choak him was presently cast into Prison at Boston Another William Sattor for declining to go to Church was admonish'd of his crime by a certain number of Lashes and after Correction put in the same Goal The Law that was formerly made against Quakers was now in this manner inlarged and amplify'd 〈◊〉 that if any inhabitant did happen to understand 〈◊〉 Quaker to be any where within these Territories he shou'd presently acquaint the Governour of the Sea ports who were order'd if the Quaker did not immediately go thence to cause him be whipt and driven out of that Countrey If by means of any person a Quaker were brought there he was to forfeit 100 l. sterl to the Exchequer and be kept in Custody till the summ shou'd be pay'd If any receiv'd a Quaker into his house and did not at the same instant go out of it himself for the first fault he was to pay 25 l. and for every hour he retain'd him longer he was fin'd in fourty shillings but if otherwise he was detain'd till he pay'd the 100 l. If any Quaker shou'd come there from far or any of that place shou'd embrace Quakerism at first if they were Males their Ear was to be cut off and then the other if they promis'd not to renounce it both times they were closely to be shut up in Goal till they went into Banishment at their own proper Charges If Females they were twice severely to be whipt and then to undergo the same sentence with the Men If either Male or Female offended the third time their Tongue was bored with a Red hot Iron and they shut up in Goal in like manner as before This Law being made Richard Donden from Old England had the ill fortune to come here Ignorantly who since he knew not the Law was only punish'd by Whipping and Banishment having a threatning annex'd that if e're he return'd the loss of his Ears shou'd compleat his suffering But the women Sara Gibbens and Dorohty Wangie were treated with greater Cruelty and Rigour who for three days after Imprisonment were deny'd all Victuals and in this famishing and fainting Condition were whipt
of themselves are very tender and nice and their Families live deliciously and they esteem nothing more honourable and desirable than this On the other hand their Enemies lay a long Catalogue of foul Errors to their Charge and send them up and down every where and so recount them all and confute them in the Chairs and Auditories of the Universities and Churcheâ— before the Students and People who at least are of themselves inclined and when there is so great a stress laid upon it to run altogether head-long thereunto so as to take all things in a perverted Sence and to entertain a most ill Opinion of those Men. And that the Sect might be the better known and a summary given of their Errors and the greatness and horridness of their Faults they gave those Men the Name of Pietists and the Sect it self they dignified with the Appellation of Pietism which name those Men in the mean time looked upon to be their Honour and Glory these their Enemies put upon them as a mark of their Crime and a term of Ignominy and Reproach as if they thought all Vices were to be couched under this one alone And the Envy and Rage of some proceeded so far that if any one explained who those Pietests were and how this name might rightly and properly be taken they inveighed also against this as a most horrid Wickedness and a capital Crime An Example where you have in these four Verses written in the German Tongue but turned for your better Information into Latin and are as followeth Quum nomen Pictesta omnem sic personat orbeâ—â— Quis Pictista Studens noscere verba Dei Et Juxta hanc normam vi am emendare laborans Illius at quantum hoc Christianumque decus But that these Men might be distinguish'd by their proper Forms and Characters they called them also by the Names of the Illuminate Cathari Puritans c. as being those who were full of their own most proud but vain Conceit or boasted themselves to be the only Persons that had the Light when in the mean time they had not a spark of Knowledge and Truth and in their whole life seemed to be so pure and perfect when as in truth there was an Ulcer within them which in time would break out that in publick continually carried a counterfeit face of Goodness but did in the mean time defile themselves secretly and in their Recesses with the most notorious Vices This was the common Opinion By-Word and Laughing-stock of all that these Men were Imitators of the old Enthusiasts and the Inventors of new That they were like the Quakers and that they followed their Doctrine and Discipline throughout when at the same time all or the most part of them scarce knew what the Opinions Constitutions and Heresies of the Quakers were which thing is evident from Spener's Book in the German Tongue wherein that Person defending his own Cause and as to Quakerism going about to remove that suspicion Men had of him upon that account while he quotes the Opinions of the Quakers he alledged them in such a manner that he to whom the Opinion of the Quakers was known understood at the first Reading of them saving the Man's Honour that he had not known what the Quakers meant And so grievously were these Men dealt with after they had thus loaded them with these obnoxious Names that those Students who would not leave these ways and who from their Dependencies were called the Elector's Scholars were deprived of their Stipends others of all hopes of Preferment by Men of their own Functions who most of them betook themselves to the Territories of the Elector of Brandenburg who granted these Distressed Men not only a place of Refuge but also whatever they had occasion for and did moreover assign to their principal Doctors a place in the University of Halen that every one might instruct his Pupils as he pleased Now Horbius upon the French War if that may be called a War wherein there has been such unheard of Devastations made and Barbarities committed went from Trarback to Wishenheim upon the Neckar and from thence to Hamburg and there was made Minister of St. Nicholas's Church where according to his wonted manner he applied himself to instruct his hearers in true Piety and particularly in his Catechisings to instil his Principles into the Youth and even young Children but soon after the Fame and Dignity of Horbius stirred his two Colleagues whose Eyes and Ears he had offended above the rest of the People to Envy and Cavil at him as if Horbius brought hither also these odious Precepts and Opinions of Enthusiasts and Quakers which accusation 't is strange too believe how it increased after that Horbius had distributed a little Book among those that were Catechised by him not written by himself but by another concerning the Rudiments of Christian Education for when the elder of the two Colleagues aforesaid who became Horbius's Adversaries there is no occasion to name his Name seeing its common in the Mouths of all Men had concluded with himself that the Book was Writ by a Pietist he immediately proscribes it as an Heretical Book and sets Horbius forth to his Auditors and by his Rhetorical Flourishes as if he were an Heretical Doctor a Quaker and such an one as ought to be expelled out of the City And as there is nothing so easily given out and harder stopped nothing nearer received and further spread then Lies and Mens Evil Reports concerning their Guides and Rulers so the same report in the twinkling as it were of an Eye without any more ado did so dilate it self not only through the whole City but all the Country over so as that Horbius was known by no other Name than the Quaker-Doctor Moreover the rude multitude and the most abject sort of Men some of them through a stupid Ignorance as being not able to distinguish the first Principles of the Christian Doctrine others partly through Ignorance and partly through an uncertain Authority and blind Guidance of other Men as if they were Slaves or Brute-Beasts Some seeing themselves unable to try the thing it self and being very much afraid of the Evil least that also should fall upon them so referring the first beginning thereof to one which they much suspected And lastly others through a blinded prejudice and accustomed to raillery and to do ill turns received Horbius every where with Hissing and Reproaches railed at him and did really persecute the Man so as that unless his Life had been preserved through the faithfulness of honest Men and they his Friends too he had through the fury and violence of those his Enemies been certainly deprived of it Wherefore when Horbius saw that his hopes was over-born by the Malice and Envy of so many Men and that there was nothing now left for him but Dangers he chose rather to forsake his Ministry and the City and by giving way rather than by resisting to break