Society of Quakers This Man being born in Holland of English Parentage went over into England where he finish'd his Philosophical and Theological course in the University of Cambridge that Nursery of Learning which boasts so much of her integrity that she never emitted any Disciples that prov'd corrupt or unsound in Religious matters He afterwards became Minister to a Church in that Country being ordain'd by Reynolds Bishop of Norwich but he had not long exercis'd this function when he made defection to Quakerism at the same very time that he was most busy in confirming and fortifying himself and his hearers against the influences of that sect There was a young Virgin among the Quakers fam'd for her dexterity and skill in Preaching whom many of the people us'd to follow Coughen having understood that she was to preach in a certain place goes thither himself in his Canonical Robes in order to preserve his hearers from being seduc'd by her discourses But so soon as he came to hear her he was so mov'd and affected that he not only not oppos'd her or her Doctrine but appear'd for its defence and spoke publickly for it at that same occasion and returning home abandon'd his Ecclesiastick habit joyning himself to be a member of their Society in which he afterwards became a Doctor and Preacher and was much caress'd and applauded by them But not long after this he return'd to Holland again and meeting at Harlem with Edward Richardson Minister to the English Church in that place and discoursing with him about Religion he was so influenc'd by his company that he forsook the Quakers and their Society betaking himself to Leyden when he pursued the study of Medicine Which where he had finish'd he returns to England and professes that Art of administring medicine to the sick sequestrating himself all along from that Society till at length some three years thereafter he attempts to introduce a new Model of Doctrine and Discipline which had been so often endeavour'd by so many and so great Men of obliging all Christians to concentrate in one common faith and interpose their interest and power for reconciling the differences of Religion amongst all who profess'd the Name of Christ All this while Fox was not Remembred or talk'd of except amongst those of his own Profession and Society for he had been detain'd Captive for three successive years together one half of that time in Lancashire and the other half in Yorkshire he was first Imprison'd for his frequent Conventicles and also for refusing his Oath of fidelity so oft as it was requir'd of him During the whole course of his Captivity the Judges order'd and decreed many injurious and rough sentences against him The chiefest of his fellow Prisoners was Margaret Fell whom he afterwards made consort of his marriage-bed both of them were mutually assistant to each other in all duties of Religion affording one another such help and comfort as people so intimately conjoyn'd both in Friendship and Religion generally expect from one another But after this he was shut up in a Dungeon full of filth and nastiness and standing stagnating water where he underwent much misery being forc'd sometimes to pass the night without having whereupon to sup upon which he was taken very ill and was now but slowly recovering his former strength I have already told what havock that merciless plague had made both in London and the Neighbouring Countries But upon the back of this evil there succeeded another in the ensuing year sixty six viz. That terrible fire which did not indeed reach the whole Country but burn'd and wasted almost all that noble and populous City of London so that to this day all England has not been able to forget it nor shall succeeding ages ever obliterate such a dismalâ— account of their Remembrance Having given you an account of the many hard and miserable conditions of these Men I shall now adorn this treatise with some pleasing variety to divert and refresh the mind of my Reader perhaps now wearied with reading It will not be amiss therefore to take a view of what the Quakers wrote for these four years by way of Prophecy and Prediction concerning the future State of the Kingdom and both these memorable afflictions of the City of London for such kind of Histories do much delight and charm the ears of Men I shall only select those that are most memorable and worth observation The predictions of Men do generally run upon some great and wonderful revolutions and changes tho they seldom come to light till the event be past These people were so certainly persuaded that some of their faction had so distinctly and clearly foretold the future scenes of affairs and both these Calamities of London that whoever misbeliev'd 'em was concluded by them to have shaken off all manner of faith and belief A certain Quaker call'd Serles a Weaver in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty two saw these words wrote in legible Characters upon the Circumference of a Kettle hanging over the fire Wo to England for poysoning of Charles the 2d Cardinal I understand Moloch Twenty Nations with him Englands misery cometh The Man being affraid at the sight calls the Neighbours to come and see it who coming were ravish'd with admiration to behold that wonder which they could not guess from whence it came The writing appear'd legible for a whole hour together and then evanish'd on its own accord Many of the people and those of considerable note who were not Quakers attested the verity of this wonder I my self have seen and read both the story and the same very words mark'd by John Coughen whom I formerly mention'd in his Note-book that same year which book was kept in the Closet of a certain great Man in this Country from that year till two years after King Charles's Death all which time it was kept secret from any other body so that no doubt is to be made of the Authentickness of that Annotation But what the Quakers would have meant by these words or that sight and how they Accommodated it to the manner of K. Charles's Death and to the changes of Religion and Miseries to come after many years and how the future event of things happening about the King Charles's Death that were told reported known and seen through all England did agree with these words is not needful to be determin'd in this place The Quakers affirm'd that one of their Captives at London did clearly foretell the pestilence that was to overtake that City saying that in a short time the streets which then were replenish'd with Men and resorted to by many should be seen cover'd with grass and wanting Men to tread uponâ— them But I shall not extend this presage any further lest I seem to recede from the design'd order and brevity of this treatise This they relate of the fire of London that there was a Quaker at Hereford who before the burning of
every Countrey of Europe desiring 'em to examine and return them an Answer The next year he wrote and publish'd his Apology a work greater and better known than that I need give account of it He sent two Copies of this book to every Princes Ambassadour at Niâ—iguen that met to treat of the Common peace that they might weigh and send it to their Prince for their Cognizance and Inquiry into the matter To each he added a double Letter of advice that as the burden of the Christian world was laid upon them so they might with all care and diligence endeavour according to their Incumbent duty to procure the rest and safety of Christians Nic. Arnold professor of the Theology in the College of Frizeland oppos'd a Theological Exercitation to these Theses wherein he bassles Barclay's opinion To this treatise Barclay answer'd by another piece shewing that Arnold did only repeat what has been often said by a changed expression A little after Tho. Brown a Scot Barclay's Country-Man one of the Preachers of the word of God who to the Number of 2000 were depriv'd of their Benefices for not submitting to the Regency of the Prelates wrote a thick and large Volume in English against the great treatise of Barclay in which Barclay taking him to mistake their meaning and therefore too much to expatiate and wander from the purpose answers him in the same Language putting neither more nor less in his book than what he thought necessary Afterward Joh. G. Bajerus Doctor and Professor of Theology at Jena a Lutheran publish'd the Doctrine concerning the beginning of the true and saving knowledge of God against Barclay's dissertation in his Theses and Apology who carping at some Expressions of Barclay as not proper but absurd and obscure from which no body could gather what Barclay did mean was answer'd by G. Keith Barclay being then taken up with other affairs a Man most skillful in Philosophy and Argument who against Bajer did plainly unfold the sence and meaning of his friend's words and in this reply so handled the whole Argument that afterward Bajer made never any return Lastly Joh. Chr. Holthusius a pastor addicted to the Ausburg Confession wrote a large treatise in the German Tongue worthy to be stil'd the Antibarclaian German since the Quakers has not hitherto answer'd it In this year 75 at Rome Mich. Molin a Spaniard a Priest and Doctor of Theology publish'd his book in the Italian Tongue to which he gave the Title of the Spiritual Captain In which book he reviv'd the Mystick Theology as they call it which for many years had lain Dormant in the Papacy who was Tutor and Pedagogue to a Number of Men for advancing that Doctrine of study and life The Sect was call'd Quietism and the followers Quietists from their singular Discipline which prescribes the laying aside External helps of coming to God meditation and reasoning by things outwardly Consider'd and Compar'd which are the first Elements that belong to these who begin to enter into Eternal Life and making only use of Divine Contemplation and the simplicity of faith Those who have made or desire to make great progress in the Celestial way must employ themselves intently with a ready will and ardent Love to receive and perceive God in themselves and suffer him to work in them by his Spirit while they wait for him with a quiet silence I shall add no more of this Man's Doctrine or its success as being known to the Learned Historians of our Age As ever since the Quakers name had its rise nothing among Christians in Religion Behaviour and Conversation scem'd to be hatch'd or invented with greater care or more resin'd and remov'd from the custom of the Vulgar but what was presently father'd on the Quakers Authority fellowship and patronage Thus in Italy and elsewhere many made the Quakers in England with their Creatures and Confederates the Sole cause and Original of this Sect and all the opinions thereupon following In like manner in England the Quakers were Reckon'd among the Religious crew which they call Mysticks and Branches of the Quietists drawing their common nature and temper from the same Root with one another This rumor and suspicion was the more increas'd that the Quakers especially Barclay in his Apology extraordinarily commended these ancient Mysticâ—s and not long after that Keith in his book call'd the way to the City of God which he publish'd in English did so teach confirm and advance that Theology that he seem'd to joyn with and strengthen the hands of the Quietists Because this opinion before was and as yet is so infix'd in the minds of many that the Quakers are of the flock of the Mysticks or that the Quietists and they don't much differ I shall pick out especially from Keith's book a short Summary of that Doctrine adding as little of my own as I can except where I 'm forc'd to put my own words for his without Impairing his meaning at all We ought says he to withdraw our selves from every vain thought earthly purely intellectual yea even Divine which are subjected to such words and propositions as fall under the force of Argumenting and Reasoning which draw their being from another original When God manifests himself in Man in the Seed of God which is in Man and hereby conveys himself into the mind of Man Man must betake and apply himself to God in the Seed of God 'twixt the influence and operation of God in him and only to give himself the leisure to wait for these feelings of the mind that proceed from God viz. The seeing hearing smelling touching tasting of the Spirit of the power the light and Life of God in Christ in that Seed And so it is agreeable to Man when he has thus converted himself unto God to persist and continue in that State with much patience tranquillity and silence before he fall to the use and exercise or daily business of his Lawful vocation When this happens In a little time the mind in some measure approaches to an holy and Divine life the beginnings of Spiritual Death Regeneration and Active operation It 's not then sit to do any thing without the certain Conscience and clear knowledge of faith but what the internal Guide and Spiritual Counseller and Instructor teacheth without that apparent assurance that the Spirit is arisen or raiseth himself in us and makes us inwardly to feel leave and liberty to do what the Spirit commands or suffers to be done And so it 's convenient at first to Act faith only by receiving and then exercising it as the Cion when first graffed into the stock first receives juice then grows and fructifies In these things that the rest of the Quakers both did and do agree it s scarce to be doubted Tho it sufficiently appears from what has been said that these Mysticks Molinists and Quakers do not so far differ in this Doctrine and Study as that one of 'em does either fear
observation which with a grieved Soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any Factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the Party that he is against for though there be good and eredible Persons of most Parties you shall find that Passion and Partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease and that ehe Envious Zeal which is described James cap. 3. doth make them think they do God service first in believing false Reports and then in venting them against those that their Zeal or Faction doth call the Enemies of Truth which Directions G. K. quotes out of Richard Baxter And G. K. saith p. 1 2. of the Serious Appeal And it is a thing generally acknowledged by all Protestants that where any Man or Society of Men err not in a Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith we ought to have Charity towards them as our Christian Brethren if in some other things they are under some Mistakes and that their Conversation and Practice be free of Scandal And that we do not err in any Fundamental Article of Christian Faith hear G. K. further in our behalf Serious Appeal p. 6. And notwithstanding of Cotton Matther's strong Asseverations against us as if We deny'd almost all or most of the Fundamental Articles of the Christian and Protestant Faith yet he shall never be able to prove it That we are guilty of this his so extreamly rash and uncharitable charge either as in respect of the Body of that People called in scorn Quakers or in respect of any particular Writers or Publishers of our Doctrines and Principles and Preachers among us generally owned and approved by Vs as Men of a sound judgment and understanding And as for his Citations out of Quakers printed Books and â—reatises I would have you to consider that most of them all are borrowed and taken not from our own Books but from our professed Adversaries men known well enough to be possessed with Prejudice against us such as Tho. Hicks and John Faldo and others whom our Friends in Old England and particularly Geo. Whitehead and William Pen have largely answered yea I do here solemnly charge C. M. to give us but one single Instance of any one Fundamental Article of Chaistian Faith denyed by us as a People or by any one of our Writers or Preachers generally owned and approved by Vs. Serious Appeal p. 7. G. K. saith Farther it sufficeth to me and I hope doth to many others that according to the best knowledge I have of the People called Quakers and those most generally owned by them as Preachers and Publishers of their Faith of unquestioned esteem among them and worthy of double honour as many such there are I know none that are guilty of any one of such Heresies and Blasphemies And G. K. further saith in the same Page They who best know them the Quakers ought to be allowed to give their sence of them as I have done saith he in the sincerity of my heart according to my best understanding and knowledge of them and I think I should know and do know these called Quakers and their Principles Note He had then been among us about 28 years and a Preacher the greatest part thereof and may well therefore be suposed to know onr Doctrines and the Defection he would now Insinuate must needs be very sudden were we so degenerated in Fundamentals since 1692. when his Book here cited was published as his Prejudice or Enmity doth now represent But if the Reader inspect the State of the Case as Explained by Sam. Jennings Truth Defended c. by Tho. Ellwood A Modest Account from Pensilvania by Caleb Pusey And The Apostate Exposed by John Pennington it will evidently appear the Defection is in himself Serious Appeal p. 10. G. K. Vindicates William Penn arguing about the Trinity or Three Persons saying â—e i. e. William Penn only Argueth against the invented Names Persons as Calvin doth acknowledge them which in all proper Languages doth signifie Substances and not 〈◊〉 Properties or relative Attributes which W. P. will not deny to be in God In the Book above p. 11. In the Name of the People called Quakers saith G. K. We Zealously believe that the Man Christ is in Heaven without us in his Glorified Body of Man the same for being he had on Earth but wonderfully changed in manner and condition But yet we cannot approve of the Two Carnal Conceptions of many Carnal and Ignorant Professors Book forecited p. 61. G. K. saith The least Babes in the Truth are not without frequent Prayer both in their Houses and at their Tables although not so very frequent vocally yet sometimes vocally as God is pleased to give an utterance and at other times only with our hearts which God accepts for vocal and external words of Prayer are not so essential to Prayer but that true Prayer may be and is most frequently without it Thus hath G. K. justified these and many other of our Doctrines and Practices after 28 years conversation among us as aforesaid though now in his late Books since he is gone out from us he joyns with this Historian against us and it may be of both said in G. K's own Quotation p. 1. of the Book above-cited that Passion and Partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity and that the Envious Zeal described James c. 3. doth make them think they do God service the one in venting and both in falsly reporting against those that their Zeal or Faction doth call the Enemies of Truth But let the Reader seriously peruse the following Testimony of our Friends in Pensilvania and it s hoped it wiâ—â— manifest that we are sound in those Christian Doctrines briefly therein asserted And as to our particular Remarks we shall refer the Reader to what may in some short time be Published part thereof being Writ in Latine and is already publick in Holland and may be Translated into English with farther Remarks on divers things and passages in the fore-going History and Appendix and which when made publick will more fully and particularly detect the Historian and George Keith And whereas the Historian hath wrongly stated the Difference between the yearly Meeting and G. K. as also given a wrong Relation of Passages and things therein the Impartial Reader at present is referr'd to A true account of the Proceedings Sence and Advice of the People called Quakers at the Yearly Meeting of Faithful Friends and Brethren began in London 1694. Published by Robert Hannoy in a Pamphlet so intituled as above OUR Antient Testimony RENEWED Concerning our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND THE Resurrection Occasioned at this time by several Unjust Charges published against us and our Truly Christian Profession by G. Keith who hath
Doctrine Religion and way of Living from God himself whom his own Infallible Oracles term The Ancient of Days and from his Word first delivered from Heaven and then committed to Writing by the inspired Men of God which is the only Rule and Ground of all Truth They likewise Appeal to the Ancient Fathers or to the Testimony of those Books that we hold for true unanimously consenting to and asserting the same very things that they with the Holy Scriptures maintain When I say Fathers I speak after our way of speaking not after the manner of the Quakers who admit no such Names But by those called by us Fathers they understand the Writers who lived in the first and second Centuries after Christ For they conceive those who lived nighest to the Times of the Primitive Apostles that compiled the Holy Writings to have deliver'd their Doctrine with more Integrity than those who lived later who the further distant they be from the Times of the Apostles the more is their Sincerity and Integrity to be called in question like Water that the further it runs from its Fountain the more muddy it grows And therefore it is that they pay but little deference to those who lived in the later Ages of the Church freely acknowledging many things to be contain'd in their Writings that are justly to be rejected nor do they ever quote their Testimony except it be very conducive to the establishment of what they advance If therefore at any time others who are unacquainted with their Doctrines and Conversations or possess'd with Prejudice Envy or Hatred against them do at any time go about to brand them with these ignominious and opprobrious Names they if called to give a distinct Account of themselves do assume the Names of Christians Evangelick Apostolick Catholiek Men as if the Doctrine and Religion preached by them were the same as was delivered at first by Christ himself to the Apostles publish'd throughout the whole World by the Ministry of these his Apostles and embrac'd and retain'd by all the Faithful and Godly of all Ages whom Custom has term'd Catholick And upon this Account in all Debates they recur to the Scriptures not declining the Comparison of their Tenets with those of the Ancienter Fathers nay nor those of later times It follows next that unto what I have said I should subjoin some Account of the Sect that these Men so much follow inviting all Christians to do the same Their Sentiments therefore run in this strain That since the Doctrines and Manners of all Christians as also and consequently of those called Protestants likewise have been for so long a time corrupted and perverted it would seem that Apostacy and Defection from the Apostolick Doctrine and Discipline had its first beginnings in the Times of the Apostles themselves and from thenceforth did by degrees increase till it came to its perfect height in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries and from that time forth having confirm'd and harden'd it self through the firm and constant continuance for so many Ages so that no hope of its removal was remaining did so continue till this very Age we now live in Though add they in all this Series of Time there was always one or other in every Century that appear'd and declar'd against this their General Defection but without any Success as also to their own disadvantage and detriment And thus do they imagine of those great Men called by us the Reformers that all their Endeavours for the Restauration of Religion and Purity tended indeed to overthrow the Falshood Lightness and Vanity of Men but not to establish Truth or introduce Gravity of Life and Manners by restoring these Vertues to their Primitive Lustre and Splendor much like unto those that throw down their old Habitation and never think of building up a new one Moreover their Opinion of those who came after the First Reformers is that while they imagin'd to themselves that what they did tended to the advancement of a Reformation it proved diametrically opposite to the same for that in lieu of the Vices and Errors which polluted and defiled the Church that were corrected and rooted out by them they introduced other new ones of their own Invention like Men cleansing a House that cast out the Filth so as to let more come in So that these Men Preach up their Religion for the ancientest as having flourish'd in the first Golden Age of the Church which was afterwards from the very first rise of the Christian Name even unto this our Age miserably mangled and corrupted and in fine quite demolish'd until at length it was retriev'd and restor'd to its Ancient Purity by them being incited and raised up by the Divine Spirit to recover fallen Religion for the Salvation of all Men. Wherefore 't is that in all their Writings this is distinctly treated of having prefix'd as a Title to their Chapters that They as the Servants of Jesus Christ are called and raised up by God for dispensing the Gospel which after so long and dark a Night of Apostacy is now again come to light to be preach'd unto all Nations And thus do they Accuse Condemn and set at nought the Doctrines manner of Worship Rites Ceremonies nay the whole Life and Conversation not only of all these general Christians but of the Protestants who boast so much of their departing from that great Apostacy and cleansing themselves from the Babylonish and Papal Deâ—ilements Unto whom they oppose their Doctrine Worship and way of Life which indeed are such that their Doctrine is for a great part of it new or taken from some Ancient Opinions condemn'd and rejected by the Church which having lain so long dormant are revived anew by them and as to the rest 't is a Medley or Hotch-potch of the several Opinions of Protestants though not radically agreeing with them their Worship is diametrically Opposite to that of ours and their manner of Life so singular that between their Conversation and that not only of Protestants but of all Christians there is as vast a difference as possibly can be And these are the Tenets they have so busily spread abroad both at their first rise and in the further progress of the Sect and all of 'em that are capable either of speaking or writing Publickly do diligently apply themselves in all places to the Explaining Defending and Propagating their Doctrines inveighing and railing against the contrary Opinions of others with as bitter and reviling Expressions as they can invent and such their Accusatory Libels are dispersed abroad into all Countries especially those where they expect to meet with ready Compliants with their Doctrine and Way or at least such as would be fond of new Reformations and Changes in Religion being thus in some measure predisposed to receive and entertain their Advances Having thus spoken in General of the Conditions of these Men I come next to give a more particular Account of their Rise Progress various
Enemy to the Opposers of Fox and his Society rendring all their Efforts against him ineffectual But when the Hatred and Envy of Fox's Antagonists grew to so great a height that he could no longer restrain them and fearing they should become his Enemies likewise he seldom went to the Publick Meetings shunning to hear their Voices whose different Manners Designs and Contrivances he so much abhorr'd So much for the Husband But as to the Wife she totally forsook the Reformed Churches dedicating her self entirely to be a Member of the Quakers Society and spending all her time in their Company Her Husband loved her exceedingly and was much taken with her Piety so that she could easily obtain of him this favour that her House might be a Receptacle for Fox and his Colleagues and also a place of Meeting for all the Society to Assemble in together as oft as they would for the Publick Performance of Sacred Duties as indeed it was and continued so after his death till the death of Fox her second Husband Not long after her Conversion to this new Religion she began to abandon her Distaff and Womanly Instruments betaking her self to Preach and Teach Instructing the People not only Viva Voce but by several Books wrote and published by her by which means she gained many Proselytes And after this time her House and Family became as it were a School and Nursery for all that Sect both Hearers Preachers and Students of both Sexes and accordingly sent out about this time one William Caton a Young Man of Pregnant Parts conspicuous for his Modesty and Learning whom Judge Fell had taken into his Family for a Companion to his Eldest Son that by his good Example he might Encourage and Conduct him to a Vertuous Behaviour This worthy Young Man became afterwards very Famous and Renown'd for his great Accomplishments both at home and abroad in Holland But this was not all Leonard Fell a Son of the Family followed his Example as one Comrade imitates another or a Disciple traces the foot-steps of his Master being fondly loved and caressed by his Father for that he introduced into his Family that Sacred Office of a Minister His Brother Henry Fell imitated his Elder Brother They both became Great and Famous Teachers and tenacious defenders of that Sect. After the Males of the Family followed Sarah Fell their Sister undertaking the same Office whom these People do so much extol that they say she was not only Beautiful and Lovely to a high degree but wonderfully Happy in Ingeny and Memory so stupendiously Eloquent in Discoursing and Preaching and so effectual and fervent in her Addresses and Supplications to God that she ravish'd all her beholders and hearers with Admiration and Wonder She apply'd her self to the study of the Hebrew Tongue that she might be more prompt and ready in defending and proving their Doctrine and Principles from the Holy Scriptures and in this study the Progress she made was so great that she wrote Books of her Religion in that Language This is that Family which Fox came afterwards to be a Member of when upon the Death of Fell the Husband he married Margaret his Widow of which I shall have occasion to speak afterwards I now return to the Order of Times and Places that corresponds to the Actions of Fox and his Colleagues While Fox is propagating his Doctrine in the Countries above-mentioned in the Year Fifty Two of a sudden there appeared some in Cambridgeshire a place considerably distant from the Countries where Fox was now residing who owned themselves Members of this New Church Among whom excelled James Parnel a Youth of Fifteen Years of Age well skilled in the Tongues and of no obscure Birth or Condition Because the History of this Youth's Life and Actions is but short I shall here insert the same in one perpetual thread of Discourse This Young Man having so boldly adventur'd in so tender an Age on such an Enterprize was disown'd disinherited rejected and shut out of Doors by his Parents Friends and Relations all upon this Account Being thus forsaken and left to himself and receiving but sorry assistance from his new Friends he was obliged to live sparingly and meanly yet nevertheless he continued steadfast and eager in pursuing the same Design And after having frequently debated with his Condisciples and others concerning their Religion and his own and in this condition of Life spent two Years he comes into the County of Essex and Cloaths himself with the Office of a Preacher which accordingly he performed in the Fields Then in the Year Fifty Five he goes to Colchester and the next day after his arrival Preaches there and entertains many Disputations and Dialogues with the Doctor and Reader to that Church both publickly in the Church and in his own Lodgings and elsewhere by which one day's work he converted many to his Religion Having staid here some few days he goes to Cogshall where he went to Church and heard the Minister Preach a Sermon against the Quakers upon which when Sermon was ended he answered and resuted him in Publick Church Then retiring from Church he was caught and brought to Colchester and there put into a Castle or strong Prison Afterwards he was taken to Chelmsford to appear before the Judges but they because they could not finish and conclude the Business remitted him back to Colchester where he was block'd up in a Cave in some high craggy place where having endured Hunger want of Sleep and Cold for a long time becoming benumb'd in this nasty Dungeon and at length misfortunately falling and bruising his whole Body he finished his unhappy days notwithstanding all the Complaints and Addresses he made himself and all the Entreaties and Sollicitations made to the Magistrate by his Friends for relieving him out of all these Miseries It is reported that before his Death he sometimes was heard to say One hour's sleep shall put an end to all my Troubles When Death approached he said Now I go away then he fell asleep and about an hour thereafter he awaked and yielded up the Ghost His Body was tumbled away to the place where Malefactors are executed and interred In this same Year this Doctrine and Scheme began to diffuse it self beyond the Countries where Fox was now making his Terms with the Neighbouring County of Cumberland in which great numbers associated themselves to this Party Amongst the more Remarkable of these new Converts the first was one Thomas Lawson at that time Publick Minister to a Church at a Village called Ramside in Westmorland afterwards he continued both the Exercise of this Function among these People and likewise gave himself to the study of Herbs and after he came to London became the most noted Herbalist in England Next after him followed John Wilkinson Pastor to a Church at Embleton in Cumberland who afterwards proved a Famous Preacher among the Quakers both in Scotland and Ireland All his Hearers had deserted
with Grief and Compassion discover those Vices neither did they as became Christians gently and discreetly advise the wandring and such as were out of the way and bring them kindly back again but did most bitterly and invidiously relate all things and cast all manner of Reproaches upon those Churches and as it were set upon the Men in an Hostile manner and drew together and united into a Mutual Confederacy in this War though no ways injured nor provoked nor indeed entertained with an hard word and this in such a manner as that all were frightned by them from the Community of such Churches and from the entrances into them and set them such Examples as were much to be shunned that there is no doubt to be made as concerning them who thus raged but that they acted more from a desire and study of Novelty and Glory than from a sincere and pious Mind so that that Man who blames the Works of another ought to take heed lest he be deceived himself and to see 〈◊〉 while he is applying of Remedies for one Evil other Evils arise therefrom thus it was with the Brownists and Independants many years before who first separated themselves from the Church of England because of the many Defects and Abases therein and afterwards from the rest of the Reformed Churches by reason also of the unworthiness and want of Diligence which they imagined they saw in them and even so now the Quakers supposing they had the same Causes and Reasons for what they did undertook the same thing and that in such a manner that supposing those fore-runners had not done enough they began a new Schism and did altogether constitute and pursue a new Doctrine among themselves a new way of Living and a new Church these they testified to be the causes they had whenever they spake of their Undertakings or conferred with others or appeared before the Magistrates and that in plain and direct words and upon this Head did many of them write Books and Pamphlets which upon such an occasion are much more efficacious and prevalent than larger Tracts among which the most remarkable were published by Fox the Inventor and Introducer of these things and Howgil Pennington and Whitehead which last three were however more moderate in their Writings than Fox was to say nothing of the rest of them These Pieces they also translated into other Languages and dispersed through other Countries Now I am come to that which has occasioned me to dwell so largely upon this Subject And because I have spoken of that Religion and course of Life which these Men went about to overthrow I have also deemed it seasonable and necessary distinctly to set forth what manner of Life and Doctrine that was which they after that they were increased to a Multitude and so much polished and instructed under so many Masters and Teachers then set up and which is now maintained by all their Followers For the Tenour of their Doctrine was the same as that of others that they who framed it should in process of time from smaller beginnings polish and reduce the same into a greater Decorum and Order Especially in that they were more intent at first upon the destroying of the Religion of others than upon erecting any new one of their own and that they were at this time more given to an Active than a Contemplative Life or than to that which consists in much Meditation Enquiry and strength of Understanding thus judging with themselves that to be a Christian was not to understand profound things nor to speak of great Matters but to live from whence as in former times so also now these Men can no otherwise be compared than with most Professors of Religion be it what it will that they are endued with greater Love and Zeal for their Religion than a knowledge of it and even many Teachers of the Quakers themselves not excepted But yet there were some from the beginning as there are many at this day that gave a good Account of their Religion and explained it Now the Doctrine of these Men consisted chiefly of four kinds the first whereof was the Principle of Religion another the Subject of the Divine Benefits the third the embracing of them the fourth and last the way and manner of Communion The first sort therefore was that which belonged to the Principle and Foundation of true and saving Knowledge this with them was a clear and distinct Revelation of the Holy Ghost either without the written Word to wit by Speech or some Apparition or Dreams or by the written Word and either this or that which we call the Holy Scriptures or by some other or else some certain way which is equivalent to the Word For the Holy Scriptures as we take that Word is not to them a perpetual Medium and such as is absolutely necessary and the only and compleat Rule and Form of Faith and Manners and here you may easily see how far they differ from those who while they own the Scripture take away the Spirit and substitute Reason in the room thereof and how much from those who acknowledge the Scripture as the only necessary Instrument and the sole Rule of Faith and Manners And that the Assistance of the Spirit is required towards our having a certain knowledge of the Divine Will and performing of the same The Second Head contained the Subject on which the Divine Benefits are bestowed concerning which they thus judged and determined That all Mankind by the Sin and Fall of Adam were utterly depraved and lost so destitute of strength and in so desperate and forlorn a condition as that they were unable to think of that which is good but that God did so universally love Mankind as that he gave his Son Jesus Christ and constituted him to be a Peace-maker between God and Man Hence God bestowed upon all Men a new Birth Himself his Son his Holy Spirit the Light and Word within and did by the same so stir up their Minds even every one of them in his true Way and peculiar Measure so as to understand and perceive their Misery and did so excite them as that they at length sought God and were converted unto him which Light was yet effected sometimes by the Word from without and lively Preaching but then it was they said that that Light and Word was to be received of Men when they did not resist the Divine Operation but received it and being stirred up by God they gave way to his Impulse and Incitement but here seeing there was none to whom the Doctrine of the purer Protestants upon this Head was known and to whom the Opinions of such as savoured of Pelagianism or in some part inclined to them were not unknown who did not think that the Quakers also pursued and imitated some such thing as these last mentioned the Quakers hereupon cryed out that they were much in the wrong since indeed their meaning was that either the
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
coming of the Spirit till at length they be mov'd or stir'd up to hold forth and then they pray preach or sing according to the Spirit 's sudden impulse In like manner the rest sits still to hear For while they stay in the place where they worship bending their thoughts inwardly with regard to the Spirit they look what he does or Dictates within and where they perceive the speaker to be thither they direct their minds and attentions searching themselves they bring all home to their own Conscience And thus while the Spirit delays his coming each of 'em prays inwardly unto God for himself sighing and groaning now and then deeply for great striving and contrary affections They sometimes move themselves or are moved so far as issues in a great trembling of the body not only of some but of most or all of ' em This 't is said does often fall out by the resistance of 〈◊〉 secret insinuations I was told by one worthy to be believ'd at a certain time they fell all so a trembling he himself being one that the place was shaken as 't were with an Earth-quake If it happen that none of 'em obtain the presence of the Spirit when he is not pleas'd to move 'em to speak they sometimes all go away as they came without uttering a word among ' em But even then they say they lose not their labour for every one carries away some advantage for himself and while one prays for another thence also some profit does result to the rest yea while they pray for them who come only to look on laugh sport or scoff they say such receive a wonderful virtue to better their Life and hasten their Conversion Thus they do in their common and publick exercises They worship God by praying praising or preaching according to the various Agitation of the Spirit Sometimes they worship in all three kinds not promiscuously but one by one unless it happen they sing all together But their chief and solemn exercise is the preaching of the word This principally consists in proposing a certain theme for Edification or exhortation to some duty And because they think the power of the preacher is not placed in words or bodily motions unless the composure of his Voice and Countenance be suitably managed with simplicity and gravity but only in the worth or weight of things they affect not form or Method taken from Rules of Art but make use of plain and obvious words not intending to gratify the itching of the Ear but to express the interior feeling of the Soul and make an Impression upon the hearer's mind with an active Air not of gesture but of face and utterance They sharply censure Theologues for becoming Ethologues or Mimicks whose Eloquence does wholly consist in Gesticulation Their prayers are mostly doleful Lamentations the lower they be they esteem 'em more dutiful They sing and praise not by a regular pronunciation of words or musical Melody far less by the Numbers of metre or verse which sort of singing is never lawful with them but when one of 'em has an extemporary faculty to compose but in the collision sound and stretching of the voice almost as the Spaniards or Moors in Afric if you have ever heard 'em as I have 'em both frequently singing in their own Countreys And thus not only one or two but all that are present do sing with a sweet and pleasant voice In such exercises the Ministers are the most frequent and chief Actors tho none of the rest are excluded but those that are foolish troublesome or strangers They don't only take heed what any of 'em says but also what forms or words he uses As many if not all things among 'em are singular so they agree to no other Communion but their ownâ— hence if a Cunning or Insnaring mocker come in and begin to ape their discourse or carriage with their words and looks they mark him as a scoffer and then forbids him or else thrusts him out And this is their publick worship In private they spend much time and pains in meditating praying reading especially the word of God in teaching their Servants and Children both in those Arts and Manners that concern civil Society and also in the worship of God and Christian Conversation with a lively instruction which they call Catechizing to which use they have books very properly adapted Moreover it 's also their custom in their houses never to express a Religious duty with an outward voice as praying to God craving his blessing e're they take meat or go to bed till they feel the excitation or impulsion of the Spirit while they want this they 're content to think with themselves what they esteem convenient and agreeable and talk silently with their own mind without External or vocal expression From whence arises the mistake of some and malicious calumny of others that the Quakers never pray unto God but like beasts rush upon every thing inconsiderately Which they wou'd bear more patiently came it only from the Rabble that 's ready to swallow up the belief of any thing and not from a seeming better sort of Men that pretend to digest speak or write nothing but what they 've put to the touch-stone for Confirmation Tho they 're greatly devoted to the Publick Worship of God yet they 're very averse to all Superstition which none but the unfortunate unwise or irreligious do ordinarily pursue Thus they often meet for the service of God For that they 've their Houses in some places very fair and large Out of these now you 'll seldom hear 'em disputing or discoursing with others of those things they 're willing to teach concerning their Religion or Duties of Christians though formerly in the Streets Markets and other's Churches they forbore not to declaim their petty preachings When I ask'd the Cause of their discontinuing that practice the same Necessity and Occasion remaining they gave no other Answer than That it is not now the Holy Ghost's Will They agree with some Protestants in owning no Holy-Days but they disagree in this a little wherein some Protestants also herd with 'em being displeas'd that the First Day of the Week is observ'd which from our Lord Jesus Christ we call the Lord's Day and that by the Force of the Fourth Command They indeed acknowledge it very necessary that a time be set a part for assembling to worship God in publick and that then Christians shou'd refrain from working and that the Lord's day is very proper for that purpose wherein the Apostles and Primitive Christians met in one place Therefore on this and other days they have publick Meetings as occasion offers In great and Populous Cities as London they often assemble almost every other day and that with such a confluence of people that when there can't so many be crowded together so as one may have way for another to get out some of 'em in the throng are taken with a â—unting
the Quakers with respect and civility whilst Fox with his friends went further into the Countrey and there had the fortune to light upon others of 'em they entertain'd him and his friends Discreetly and Courteously This Journey of two years space being ended a few months after Fox in Vigornia by Judge Parker's command for their frequent Meetings was put in Custody in the Country-Jail There he continued for a year and more being sometimes brought to a judicial appearance When nothing could be made out he was remanded into Jayl or so delay'd to a certain season upon his promise of another appearance wherein Fox did always satisfy the Judges observing his promise with a Religious tenderness The strife and Controversy was levell'd at this to make Fox take the Oath of fidelity to the Government Fox denyed to make Corporal Oath or swear in express words not that he refus'd to undertake or affirm the thing for he was ready to give a written bill to the Judges tying himself to the performance of all that was requir'd thinking they could expect or demand no more from him he defended his cause at all occasions with many sounding and sententious Arguments and such as are thought to be deriv'd from the sacred fountain of the word of God but to no purpose for the Judges regarded all the Allegations brought by that sort of Men as nothing but base and contemptible pretences How Fox spent his time whilst kept here in prison the many books written by him do declare especially that containing the Confession of the faith of Jesus Christ enrich'd and Interwoven with Scriptural places cull'd out of the New Testament by a singular order he had also Divers Conferences with Learned Men while he enjoy'd the leisure the prison afforded him in which he often show'd the disparity of the encounter betwixt the Learned in the Dialectick Art and those that are wholly Rude and Artless whereof I have this Example He had a Disputation with Dr. Crowder prebendary of Worcester concerning an Oath as it was lawful or forbidden under Gospel or Law In which debate when Crowder concluded that as an Oath was of old Lawful under the Law so now it was not unlawful under the Gospel In like manner as Adultery and other vices forbidden by the Law are also prohibited under the Gospel Fox being offended by so Ignorant a Consequence began to be in a passion but before he had liberty to reply to what was said all that were present contested and exclaim'd and rais'd this groundless report aginst him that he affirm'd and taught as Orthodox that Swearing Adultery Drunkenness and other vices of that nature were Lawful notwithstanding the fruitless resistance of Crowder and that he had broke out in obscene cursing and lying who only defended a Nod might be a certain pledge of fidelity and one word fill the place of an Oath another Clergy-Man disputing with Fox concerning the perfection of Saints in this Life forming an induction from the word of God wherein he thought great force of Argument to be couch'd came to Fox and ask'd him what he thought of himself pressing him more than ordinarily to answer ingenuously Fox scarce knowng what such a question was design'd for at length made no other return than this By the grace of God I am what I am Thereby neither expresly affirming nor denying and yet obscurely hinting what he thought at length Fox after many disappointments by the coming of the Governour Alesius was dismist after so long absence returning to his House and Wife he liv'd there with her for some time so quietly that there was not a Syllable spoken of Fox in the mean time he wrote and sent many Letters Suasory Hortatory and of other sorts concerning such things as he thought his labour and pains might not be lost on but be useful and advantagious He wrote also to the Jews at Amsterdam and to the Papists yea and to the Pope himself as also to the rulers of the lesser Africa and even to the Emperour of the Turks accosting him with this very Inscription and Title of the great Turk a name horrid and unsavoury enough especially in that Nation and Language Fox wrote and caus'd all those Letters to be Printed in his Mother-Tongue the English Language but they were not Translated and sent as they were Inscrib'd So that they rather prov'd tokens of a laborious Confident and Arrogant mind than in any measure profitable and advantagious At London in the year 74 on the 9th and 16th days of October there was a Conference held in a Meeting house of the Baptists 'twixt the Quakers and them concerning the person of Christ the speakers on the Quakers side were G. Withad and S. Crisp G. Keith and W. Penn for the Baptists T. Hicky Jer. Joes W. Kiffin T. Planty all preachers in their own perswasion the cause of the debate was a book publish'd by Hicky in which he branded the Quakers with the reproach of being disintituled to the Character of Christians teaching Christ to be no person without us but that the Internal light of every Man's mind is Christ The Quakers desired them to prove their challenge by showing which of them had ever taught such Doctrine or else that the reproacher might be punished by his fellowship according to the due desert of his delinquency The first day they handled the Quakers opinion the Baptists alledging such words to have been written by the Quakers in a certain book that Christ was never seen with bodily eyes by any Man By which words the Baptists did not yet make out the weight of their charge against the Quakers for they explained the words thus that tho it be certain as Christ was Man he was Externally seen by Men but as he is God that he is Invisible doth sufficiently comport with the Analogy of Scripture That when we speak of Christ's being known loved or worshiped 't is evident we mean not of Corporeal vision but mental Intuition At the next Meeting the Baptists took another Argument to prove the Quakers to be no Christians because they taught Divine Revelation to be the Immediate Rule of Faith and Life which Argument when the Quakers had shown to be weak and childish the Baptists having few more Topicks to lean upon turn'd aside to what concern'd not the Controversy But being unable by Windings and Circumlocutions to defend themselves and taking it ill to be worsted and confuted began to place their victory in Reproach and Loquacity filling all with Tumult and Noise The Quakers who all this time sat still with an equality of fixedness sedateness and constancy receiv'd their assaults as the swelling floods are broken and beat of by the Rocks Thus they parted so far from adjusting the matter that they were more exasperated by the Conference they had enjoy'd The next year Rob. Barclay wrote his Theological Theses and sent them to the Doctors Professors and Students of Theology Popish and Protestant in
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
the Quakers was at this time very rife every where in Germany and that the same especially with the rude multitude and men of the most abject Condition who catch hold of all things without any distinction of Truth or Falshood was much envied and hated and not free from danger There was a certain Person of some note at Hamburg for the thing may be said without nameing his Name though of no great fame as to his Learning and of an immoderate and proud Disposition and full of words who was so transported with Rage against Muller that he accused him and laid to his charge That he was not only guilty of other Errors but more especially of Quakerism and thus by stirring up the People did as it were enforce the Laws with Menaces that he should desist and proceed no further which matters Muller though he was willing but not able to bring about to his designed purpose yet he was desirous to be freed from the scandal cast upon him and to remove the ignominy â—â—rging That he introduced no perverse or strange Doctrine and was not the man his Enemy represented him to be which he brought so about that having got the clear Testimonies of several Professors in the Universities of his Orthodoxy and of Doctors in Churches he Published the same in his Apology and set them in opposition to the Reflections and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies Now Philip James Spener Minister at Francford upon the Mease of a Church Constituted according to the same Augustine Confession did within a few years prosecute the Foot-steps of these Men as also John Heariâ—k Harby Minister of a Church of the same Confession at Trarback on the Mosel both of them men of that Industry and Conversation as to be able easily to keep up the Fame of their great Learning and Probity and not be thought to seek after the Favour and Glory of Men herein these Men did in their Publick Sermons Discourses and Private Exercises bend all their Endeavours this way that they might extirpate and root up these Evil Weeds and Thistles from Mens minds Spener began his Work with those things which did more immediately incuâ— into the Senses of Men and which seemed to imitate and have relation to Popery that was so hateful to the Lutherans by reason of the dull foolish and profane Rites and Ceremonies that are therein and such as are not barely estranged from true Worship and Sanctity to wit in their Churches and Publick Assemblies and particularly in their Pompous Tables Organs Altars Priestly Garments c. And from hence he proceeds to other things which men do measure by use alone and meer handling so as that a pretty number of People in a short space of time did by his means not only Loath all that Pompousness in their Churches but also laying aside many other external Rites applyed themselves to Exercise the true Faith and Life of Christians But this was not all but they did often times meet together in their Houses and so did instruct and exhort one another every one as well as they were enabled out of the Holy Scripture to follow the same Sincere Life and Faith and to do all the Duties incumbent upon them towards Men Hereby also in the same manner by his Instructions did so stir up and affect the Minds and Consciences of his Hearers that very many of them in those places and adjacent to the Rhine did often times meet together in one place and this they did assume as a common Rule and constant Practice among them that laying aside those Discourses which concerned Questions and Disputes or idle and unnecessary Enquiries which were more fit for the Schools than for the Formation of Manners they only imployed themselves herein that having come to know and discern Christian Truths without which Faith and a Christian Life cannot be they insisted upon the ways and means how to attain to this Life and Faith and Instructed and Exhorted one another in shewing and exercising of the Same Spener is called from Francford to Drosden into the Elector's Court there to exercise the Office of Chief Preacher and seeing there were many things to be Corrected and Amended in the Court and that this could not be done by gentleness and pleasant Artifice but by a Tragick Gravity and severity and that there was not besides this such a number and choice of then for the purpose which withal required one endued with much Religion and Goodness in the mean time there were some Students in the University of Lipsick designed and appointed for the Ministerial Office they were only two at first that began to stir in this matter and this they made the chief exercise of their capacities this was the bent of their studies that being themselves stored with this knowledge and exercised in this sort of Life they might afterwards teach their Auditors committed to their care the like documents and stir them up to the same and therefore they daily instructed their people and held their Assemblies and did not only urge their Discourses from the Scripture-Authority but did draw out from the proper and Genuine Fountain of Divine writ 〈◊〉 excellent order the meaning of one or more places and the mind of the Holy Spirit and the Energy of Faith and true Piety and adopted them to the certain uses and cases of Men every one according to the Conscience and Experience he had in such a thing and setting this for a rule in these words to be observed by all That the sacred Books of the Old and New Testament are to be read expounded and converted to various uses to the glory of the sacred Trinity to the increase of the New Man of holy Instruction and exegetical Divinity as also to an example of an holy Couversation They were termed the Philobiblick Colledges These Students Endeavours and Studies were some time after imitated by others and even by such as were of greater years and Masters themselves so that some of them handled the same with the Professors Consent in the Publick Auditories in their Academical Lectures the Chief whereof were Augustus H. Francus the Disciple and Companion for a long time of Spener and John L' Schadeus Francus's Chamberber-Fellow both of them Masters of Art and Learned and Eloquent There was moreover a new Accession of Citizens and of women too to these Collegiates who also encouraged their Pastors and Guides in Divine Things to the same work but as for the most part it happens in such Assemblies there was in process of time so great a desire in some to frequent these Colledges that some Students declined to go to the Publick and Private Schools some of the People would not go to the Churches some despised them others went thither to partake only of the Lord's Supper sparingly and some disregarded all other ordinances and institutions in comparison of these Congregations and Meetings But these Students were for the most part persons
of the rending asunder or laceration of Christ's Body in Men for laceration implyeth division or separation of the parts asunder which cannot happen to the life of Christ in men Nor did or do I understand Christ to have Flesh or a Body in the Saints but only in an Allegorical and Figurative sence as when that of Christ which the Faithful perceive in them which they tast and which is to their Souls Meat and Drink whereby they are Spiritually refreshed and nourished is called in Scripture Milk Honey Bread Wine Oyl Fatness and the like all which are Names of a Bodily substance and therefore cannot be applyed to this Mystery but by way of Allegory and that for the defect of proper words P. The same Such a Dogma as this of Keith was entertained by Hereticks and published by Gul. Postellus a Frenchman of which Keith was not ignorant The Annot. Altho in some words and phrases I may seem to agree to these in this Author's esteem or others yet I no-wise agree in sense with them nor have I followed their words but the words and phrases of Scripture which the Hereticks used but wrested to a forraign and contrary sense to the Truth as if by the presence and inhabitation of God and Christ in Men these Men were deifyed and made God and Christ and the same honour were due to them as to God and Christ which never came into my mind yea I always abhorred such sort of Doctrine as not only Heretical but Mad and only proper to Men demented And as concerning Gulielmus Postellus I saw but little of his Writings at any time and what I saw I did not well understand for the obscurity of his stile and diverse things in him did not please me But what I have Writ concerning the Birth or Begetting and Formation of Christ in the Faithful I would not be understood to mean it in the sense of Hereticks but in the sense of Scripture Gal. 4. 19. which speaketh after this manner And in the sence of Augustine and Erasmus who both have Writ If Mary had not conceived Christ in her heart or Soul although she did bear him according to the Flesh she could not have been Saved by him Nor did I ever dream there was such an Union betwixt Christ and the Faithful as to make up one Person as the Soul and Body of Man make up one Man But such an Union I did and do understand betwixt Christ and the Faithful and betwixt God and the Faithful by Christ as is by the sincere Faith and Love of the Faithful begot and wrought in them by the Spirit of God Moreover that I have Writ some things of the Incarnate Word in the Faithful in my Book called The Way Cast Vp. I meant it no otherwise than Allegorically for I never thought that our corruptible flesh which we carry about is the Flesh of the Word but in an Allegorical sence I understand it as Origâ—n and other Ancient Writers by the Flesh of the Word of God Mystically speaking they understood the inward Life and Virtue of Christ which feedeth the Souls of the Faithful as the flesh of a Lamb or Calf feedeth the Bodies and by the like Allegory the same Life of Christ in the Faithful is called Bread but there is a shortness and disparity and that great in all these Similitudes which Life of Christ in the Saints is a certain influence or efflux from the Man Christ or from that fullness of life and Grace in him as he is without the Saints Glorified with the Father in Heaven But this efflux or influence flowing from the Person of Christ without the Saints into the hearts of the Saints too few Christian Teachers do acknowledge They confess indeed that Grace is given us of God for Christ's Merits and so they affirm that the Man Christ is the Moral Cause of the Grace which we have of God which is true But that the Man Christ sendeth down from Heaven the Influences of Grace the Divine Rain and Dew of Grace out of his fullness to few acknowledge for they understand the Grace of Christ to be nothing else than a certain quality after the manner of an accident inherent in the Soul And because it is the very being of an accident to be inherent in its subject therefore they will not own that it comes down from Christ out of Heaven In which I acknowledge I much differ from them in my Perswasion P. 280. Towards the end And these Books he took care to get Printed not in England but in Holland not consulting the Society of his Profâ—ssion nor letting them know it that they might not refuse their Consent The Annot. In this also he doth not well relate the matter of Fact I procured indeed two Books of mine to be Printed in Holland the one called The Way Cast up the other called The Way to the City of God not consulting the English Quakers I not being an Englishman nor living then in England nor the 2d days Weekly Meeting at London but I consulted the Scots Friends where I lived And notwithstanding that some London-Quakers of the Ministry accused both these Books to contain False Doctrine in some Articles yet George Whitehead recommended the first in Print and both George Whitehead and William Pen at a Solemn Meeting of the Ministry held at London about the year 1678. defended it against the gainsaying of Three Ministers of Note among the Quakers diverse beside the Ministry and my self being present tho of late the same two men have risen up against me after a most offensive manner for my standing up to defend the same Heads of Christian Religion contained in these Books and generally confessed by all True Christians against these most ignorant men who opposed them in Pensilvania The which doth plainly demonstrate the great Hypocrise of these two men The Heads of Doctrine were chiefly Three on which these three Ministers above-mentioned accused my Book and me being the Author of it The first was that in my Book I had affirm'd That the same Body of Christ which was Nailed to the Cross and was Crucified and Buried Rose again and afterwards was taken up into Heaven The Second was That it is the Duty of all Christians to Pray to the same Jesus Christ who was then Crucified and to Worship and Adore him and by him our alone Mediator to Worship Adore and Pray unto God the Father The Third was That the most Holy Men in their highest Attainments of Holiness are to approach unto God with Prayer and Thanksgiving by the Mediation of the Man Christ Jesus But these three men above-mention'd who had divers others even of the Ministry who favoured their Errors did openly and boldly in that Solemn Meeting deny these Three Heads of Doctrine above specified and my other Book called The Way to the City of God cited by the Author in this History some of the People called Quakers when I was absent in
America procured it to be Reprinted at London changing nothing at all in it I know that both these Books have much displeased many called Quakers and have pleased many others and doth still please them So that to many that of Virgil may be applyed Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgas S In English thus The wav'ring People divided are From one another asunder far Which their pretended Vnity doth marr P. 450. But when Keith did not so much positively determine as by Hypothesis suppose that which some did attribute to him concerning the Transmigration or Revolution of Souls and their State after Death or did subject it as fit to be examined whether it was true or not that was not made the Question betwixt his Adversaries in Pensilvania and him The Annot. Let the Reader compare what the Author brings in this place concerning the Opinion of the Transmigration c. untruly fixed upon me by some with what he hath said p. 284. in these words To me saith he it is certain as I think that Keith doth earnestly embrace if not all yet the chiefest of these Propositions as mentioned by him in the fore-cited place concerning the Transmigration and collected as I suppose out of the Book called The Two Hundred Queries Surely this Author doth not appear so well to agree with himself in this Affair for in the one place soberly enough and civilly he Writes concerning me not fixing that Opinion on me but in the other he saith it is certain that I earnestly embrace if not all yet the chiefest of these Propositions But I am most certain that he cannot produce any one Witness that did or could certainly inform him that I did any ways embrace all or any of these propositions either as any Article of Faith or as any positive Dogma or Principle in Philosophy And I know not any one that doth positively embrace them all But as concerning the Dogma it self of the revolution of some not all Souls setting aside many Circumstances and casual Propositions not touching the chief Question proposed only by some Christian Writers by way of Hypothesis and not as a positive Conclusion however I might seem to some to favour it as an Hypothesis because sometimes modestly discoursing of it with some very few of my familiar Acquaintance I did bring some Reasons both for and against as in other doubtful matters ingenuous and free-spirited men use to Discourse pro and contra in order to find out the Truth as concerning the Motion of the Earth and the like yet I openly declare that I never embraced it either as an Article of Faith or as any positive Dogma in Philosophy as I do not at present Nor am I asham'd to say as I am not sufficiently able and furnished in all respects to refute it by evident Reasons so nor am I to defend it And I oft call to mind that saying of Plato It is not the part of a wise man to determine of obscure matters and much more that of David I exercise not my self in things too high for me But because I could by no means approve that method of Arguing which some used against that opinion nor the false zeal kindled in some against it that did rise in them from their prejudice against the necessity of Faith in Christ Crucified in any degree either expresly or implicitely in order to eternal Salvation Therefore some leavened with this evil prejudice did make it their business to load me with Reproaches and to spread false Rumors concerning me as holding many absurd things concerning the Transmigration and Revolution of Souls For whereas many did use to bring this Argument against the necessity of Faith in the Crucified Jesus in order to Eternal Salvation If such a necessity of Faith in the Crucified Man Jesus Christ for Eternal Salvation be allowed or granted the Revolution of many Souls must be granted but the last is absurd and therefore is the first absurd also And I in my Answering to this Argument have sometimes said on the Hypothesis that if such a sequel of the Major or first Proposition were admitted it were better to admit or allow that Hypothesis concerning the Revolution of the Souls of some Gentiles dying in pure Gentilisme or Deisme who have in any manner lived Piously towards God and Soberly and Honestly towards Men suppose it be not true then to assert that such Dying in a pure Gentilisme are wholly and finally deprived of Eternal Life On the other hand to affirm that immediately after Death such dying without the least grain of the Knowledge and Faith of Christ Crucified either express or implicite do enter into Eternal Life Let now any Impartial Man Judge in this Case yea let the Author of this History himself Judge whether for my Christian Zeal in standing up for the necessity of the Christian Faith against these Deists lately risen up in these parts and elsewhere and against the Pelagians either rediviving or at least-wise calling back again to life the most filthy Errors of the Old Pelagians who were extreamly bitter Enemies to the necessity of Faith in Christ Crucified my Adversaries have justly accused me of a Crime in this matter Nor do I think that this Author whom I judge to be a sober Man when he hath well weighed the case will joyn himself a Neighbour or Consociate himself to these my Pelagian and Theist-Adversaries Confessing to Christ with the Mouth and Words but really and in the true Sence of Scripture denying him to Accuse me as they do as guilty of a Crime in this thing P. 384. The Cause was the Controversie that arose some few years agoe in Pensilvania and agitated betwixt Keith and his Neighbours concerning the Two-fold Humanity of Christ Annot. I marvel with what reason this Author could affirm that the Controversie about the Two-fold Humanity of Christ was the cause of the Strife betwixt my Adversaries and me in Pensilvania or here in England For I do not remember that I had the least Controversie with my Adversaries either there or here concerning the Two-fold Humanity of Christ but concerning Christ within and Christ without For because I frequently Preached in the Quakers Meetings Faith in Christ being Man without us as well as in Christ the Life the Light the Word in us and that this Faith that respected him both ways was necessary to our Eternal Salvation therefore first William Stockdale accused me of being guilty in Preaching Two Christs and after him Thomas Fitswater publickly in a Monthly Meeting accused me for denying That the Light within us was sufficient to Salvation without something else Now my Adversaries in Pensilvania by Christ within us understood no other thing than the God-head and they had this sense or meaning of Christ within that this only should be called and esteemed Christ which they did feel in their hearts to reprove sin and to refresh them with a certain Joy if at any time they did
well Bnt that in some of my Writings I had said somewhat of the Existence of Christ the Heavenly Man before he assumed Flesh in the Womb of the Virgin I see not by what just manner he would fix it on me that I held a Two-fold Humanity of Christ as if there were Two Men Christs the one Heavenly the other Earthly and Corporeal unless by such a method of Arguing he would infer from the Scripture it self that every Man is Two Men as consisting of a two-fold Humanity Because Paul after a Mystical-way familiar to the Jews Writeth of an inward and outward Man And perhaps by such manner of Arguing one given to quibbles of arguing might study to prove out of Scripture that many men have four Humanities for beside that the Scripture speaketh of our inward and outward Man which are Soul and Body it speaketh also of the Old Man which we are bid put off and the New Man which we are to put on But if this Author or any other charge me with an Error in this point that I hold that the Mediatory Soul or Spirit of Christ did exist before he assumed Flesh it is not enough with bare words to blame me for Error without solid Argument but let them produce solid Arguments if they have any to convince me and solidly answer my Arguments I have brought from Scripture by which I judge I have proved my Assertion Nor am I singular in that case that I believe that Christ the Mediator did exist before he took flesh although not in whole yet in some part and respect even from the Beginning of the World to wit in respect of his Mediatory Celestial Soul and Spirit for diverse Pious men even among Protestants have affirmed the same no less than some Jewish Doctors and also some Gentile Philosophers had the same perswasion for because they did observe that the highest and lowest beings in the Universal Creation were joyned by certain middle Beings hence they concluded very agreeably to Reason that there was some mediatory Being i. e. a Mediator betwixt God that infinite and infinitely high Being and Mortal Men who being compared with God are justly to be esteem'd but as dust and ashes before him as indeed the Saints did express the same and especially that excellent and most humble Man Abrham called in Scripture the Friend of God the Father of the Faithful and Heir of the World did so humble himself before God that he called himself dust and Ashes P. 446. Then according to that Dogma to inculcate this unto all that Christ as he was Born of Mary is united with the Divine Nature and so is present with his Light and with his Life in all the Children of God The Annot. And here also he doth not rightly declare my Faith for by the Presence of Christ in all the Children of God I do not understand that the External Person of Christ or the Body which was Born of Mary is in them nor yet the Soul of Christ in respect of its center or of the fullness of virtue which only and alone dwelleth in the External Person and Body of Christ that was Born of the Virgin But this I say as the like I have said many years ago and have Writ in diverse of my Books published in Print that a certain ray or substantial influence is derived from out of the Man Christ in Heaven and floweth into the hearts of the Faithful after such manner as the Beams of the Sun that are truely substantial come out form the Center of the Sun and pass into the Earth and the Fruits of the Earth to make them grow and come to maturity the which similitude and diverse others the Scripture frequently useth as that of the Vine and Branches the Head and Members of Man's Body P. 455. They publish a Book which they call The Plea of the Innocent against the false Judgment of a Guilty Man The Annot. For a guilty Man read guilty Men for the word guilty is as well Plural as singular and in the Title of our Book we understand the word guilty in the Plural for there were Twenty eight Men guilty in giving forth that false Judgment P. 459. That Keith called another Man of the Magistracy by such a Name that Englishmen doubt of its signification The Annot. Every Englishman almost knoweth what is intended by that Name or Word answering to the Latine word Nebulo or Nequam which word Nebulo is derived from the Hebrew word Neâ—al as those who are skilfull in the Hebrew and Latine affirm which is of the same signification and is given in Scripture to False Teachers and to other bad Men. And let the Impartial Judge whether that Person was not worthy of such an Appellation who though professing himself a Christian did affirme boldly to me before diverse Witnesses that he did not expect to be saved by that which died at Jerusalem to wit the Man Christ that was Crucified at Jerusalem Surely if a Jew had said this it had been more tolerable but that one called a Christian and reckoned of the First Rank among Christians should spue out his Filth so Blasphemously against the Saviour of the World and so wickedly might have moved any Christian having the least grain of true Faith not only to call him so but somewhat more hard And the same Person did vehemently urge me at that same very time I so Named him that I would submit my Self and my Faith to that Meeting wherein I so called him in that Question Whether God was present in all his Creatures Some in that Meeting and these even Ministers openly denying it for so he spoke to me because I refused to submit my Faith and Conscience in that Question to the Determination of that Meeting Will thou not submit to the Church Doth not the Spirit of God speak in the Church Doth the Spirit speak in Trees because I had affirmed that the Spirit was in Trees What more I pray doth the Church of Rome presume yea I know not If she doth presume so much that if she determineth that there is no God or which is the equivalent that God is not every where present her Members must stand to her Determination And because I refused to submit my Faith to the Determination of that Meeting in that Question Whether God be present in all his Creatures that Meeting would not give any Judgment in the case And as I heard afterwards that man was of the Magistracy but obscurely put in and known to few and not at all to me as such nor was he any Magistrate in that place when I spoke that Word And I observe that this very Author in this History P. 376. hath called a certain Frenchman a Papist who had sometime ago writ some false things against the People called Quakers by the like name to wit Nequam impurum hominem A Knave and filthy Man And I doubt not but he doth remember how frequently