fell out so contrary to his Will and Design at leastwise it is repugnant to the Natures Customs and Practices of these Men. His Parents had designed him for a Minister to the Church of England and kept him while a Boy at Schools and Colleges in which his Diligence and Progress was so great that he surmounted most of his Fellows His Mind led him mostly to the Study of Eloquence Rhetorick and Poetry which were the Sciences he put the greatest Value upon so that as the Roman Orators used to say he kept Commerce with all the Muses that is he read and perused all Orators and Poets Having ended this Academick Course he was made a Presbyter of the Church of England and became Pastor to a Church in the House of some Nobleman who was likewise a Man of Eminent Piety and Vertue He demean'd himself in this Function so well that the Report of his Fame invited those who knew how to Judge of his Ability and Skill for greater things to advance him higher to some more dignified Place accordingly he obtains a Living in Kent of five hundred Pounds a year While he lives there one of his own Acquaintance and Friends called Howard solicits and disturbs him frequently about his Religion and Profession and many Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church This made Fisher begin to doubt and fluctuate within himself what he should make of his Hearers There came to him much about the same time a Baptist a Man of no Learning at least what is properly accounted Learning but of a sternly Countenance and supercilious Looks of a ready but flattering and deceitful Tongue which knew how to brand all the World besides with an infinity of Vices but to conceal or disguise those of his own Society extolling and commending all their Actions gilding over their Errours and Delusions with counterfeit Glosses who seeing him waver and fluctuate in his Mind accosts him with many fair and specious Words and those frequently turning over the same Crambe till at length he could endure his Discourses no longer as we see it frequently fall out that when Men cannot enervate the Objections of their Adversaries or discover their Fallacy they yield to them and forsake the Truth and accordingly he cast off his Religion divests himself of his Office and returns to the Bishop Diploma which he had got for to confirm his undertaken Office and joyns to the Church of the Baptists becoming a Diphabus or true baptiz'd believing That the only true Means to be incorporated into the City of God and numbred among his peculiar People Being thus destitute of so good a Living he contented himself with a little he had of his own and Farm'd a little piece of Ground in the Neighbourhood by which he had enough to live upon exercising this innocent and pleasant Trade of Life till at length he became a Baptist Minister About which time Caton and Stubs came to that Country and went to visit Fisher who receiv'd them in his House very kindly treating them as his Friends and Intimates though he had scarce known them before But they did not press him much to comply with their Desires for this first time lest by their preposterous Haste they had seem'd to encroach upon his Liberty yet when they returned again a second time they inculcated and repeated more vehemently and frequently what they had spoke to him before Upon this he began to waver and consulted his Collegue Hammond upon the Matter who was much wrath with him expostulating the Matter very sharply before the whole Congregation At length Fisher forsakes both the Baptists Society and the Office he was cloath'd withal becoming in a short time not only a Professor but a Preacher and a zealous Propagator of Quakerism He wrote many Books in Defence of that Religion among which is a noted one entituled The Country-man to the Vniversity-Scholar in which he refutes the Arguments of his Adversaries with many pretty and cunning Expressions So much for this Man But because I have already spoke of the Writings of this Man it is to be remark'd that all these Men I have hitherto mention'd from the beginning of this Treatise did write many Books nay great Volumes if they were all gathered together which were published after their Deaths For it is a Custom among the Quakers that when any famous Writer dies they pick up all his Writings and print them together prefixing for a Preface the Testimony of some noted Men of their Society of the Integrity and Worth of the dead Authors that so those who are bereav'd of their Natural Life may still live in the Memories of their Followers These new Ministers and many others not mentioned divided themselves into several Provinces some of them going up and down England others travelling into Foreign Countries all diligently solliciting and inviting Men to be Converted while in the mean time Fox the Head and Prince of that Society was incessantly proceeding in the Exercise of his Ministry in England not daunted or discouraged by all the Evils he grapled with He had a Custom when he designed a Visit for any City Town or Village to premonish and advertise them by Letters and Emissaries of the Time of his coming and Place of abode that all who had a mind to hear him might have timous Advertisement to resort thither In the Years fifty six and fifty seven he traversed Somersetshire Wiltshire Dorsetshire Devonshire and the neighbouring Counties At Bristol in Somersetshire there was at one time a Meeting of above a Thousand of the Inhabitants and Neighbours of that Place in some Woody Place near-by A little thereafter above Two Thousand assembled in one Place in Wiltshire So much Footing had this Sect taken in these Countries and so many Followers and Adherents had Fox in all the Countries he had been in among whom were many not ordinary or mean Persons but noted and conspicuous Men some of them Men of Authority and Trust in the Nation who shook off that Dignity and the Honour that attended it and part of whom became Ministers to the Sect. And the more Resistance or Opposition was offered to them in their Meeting and Congregating the more resolute they were in pursuing their wonted Course So some were ordered to watch and observe them keeping Watches and Guards in the Streets and Roads near to the Houses and Places where they used to assemble and as many as were catch'd were imprison'd insomuch that the Number of the Prisoners and Captive Quakers was seldom under a Thousand By this time Fox had purpos'd to go for London and communicate the Light of his Doctrine to the great Crowds and Confluence of People in that great and populous City thinking that the most probable way of promoting his Design And in his Journey thither stay'd some time upon the Road losing no Opportunity of propagating his Religion taking Advantage in the Inns and Taverns to apply himself to the other Lodgers admonishing
Divines and not the Quakers alone speak as often as Latin words fail them his Humanity and the Presence or Existence of him as of the Seed and Light and his Manifestation and Operation in Men hitherto either unknown or but very obscurely delivered Barclay betook himself to Write a long time after Keith and at last came out a large Treatise of his written in Latin Entituled Apologia Theologiae vere Christianae Presented to King Charles II. A Book highly praised by those Men and very common among all that are curious of the Writings of those Men of which Book I shall elsewhere more particularly speak so that as the Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers owes its Original and Increase to England so it does its Perfection and Completion to Scotland And now even in this Kingdom of Scotland these Quakers especially Keith had many Contests with the Presbyterians there concerning the causes of their Separation and Secession from those Churches with which they had till this time firmly united and concerning their new Articles of Faith which they were said to have obtruded upon those Old Professors and that by Conferences Disputations and Writings which gave occasion to Keith to write those Books wherein by examining seriously all that was objected against them and often ruminating upon and digesting all that he had before published or spoke he brought forth his Meditations in that Method and Form before spoken of These Men did in the mean time grow here also by degrees more moderate and leave off their rude and audacious ways that had gained them much Hatred and many Evils and so by degrees being accustomed to the sight of their Adversaries they began to live more safely and also to increase in number Their Affairs went on in Ireland but slowly where they who presided as it were over the rest took their advantage in promoting their Doctrine and Religion from the Institutions and Manners of their Friends in England and Scotland And so from this time forward was the Sect of the Quakers brought into form and their Doctrine and Faith consummated to which this may be further added Seeing that a Publick Confession of Faith made by all is a great Bond for the uniting of their Souls together and an apt Symbol of Communion and Fellowship Keith did at a certain time propose this unto them That it would be a most useful thing if such a Book were composed in the Name of all the People called Quakers by worthy and choice Men with clear Words and Sentences which might be an Abridgment and Publick Confession of all their Doctrine and Faith and that the same were Subscribed by all even each one in his particular Church who for the future should be received into the Society of the Quakers and joyn themselves unto them But their Friends were not pleased with this Advice by reason that they thought it to be a thing on the one side that carried in it too much Authority between Equals and on the other side an Obligation of Servitude in a free Affair and that they should be very cautious lest they should be brought under any Inconveniency in that kind for the avoiding of which they had all hitherto gathered together and lived in the greatest Union as they had done in the greatest Freedom imaginable But to return to the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Second and Record the Facts of these Men and what befel unto them Their Study and Endeavours did indeed appear to comply with the Government of this King as did those of other Sects and Dissenters from the Publick Worship if not from their Judgment yet better by their yielding and giving way and that because of the disposition of the King to be Easie and Indulgent Besides this King himself with all his Followers seemed to have sufferd for so long a time so many and such great Injuries and Calamities and so must be mindful of the Lot and uncertain state of Man that he would at length grant Rest to these Men from the many Troubles which they had been exposed to To this may be added that the King at that time when they were debating in Parliament concerning the Restauration of him he himself being then at Breda in the Court of the Prince of Orange his Nephew by his Sister writes very lovingly and tenderly of his own accord to that Supream Council as also to the City of London That he would give to and preserve the Liberty of Tender Consciences and Opinions in Religion provided it were without endangering the Publick Peace Which thing was again repeated by the King after he was Solemnly established in his Throne Wherefore the Quakers upon the King's Restauration conceived great hopes concerning their Affairs At last when in the beginning of the King's Reign some of the Quakers full of good will towards the King and of a good Opinion of his kindness towards them went to the King and implored his Favour Protection and Help against the Injuries and Cruelty of their Enemies The King grants them all they desired and it 's not to be doubted but that he did it of his own accord for he suffered them at first to live and act according to their own Way and Mode as also to Meet to perform their Religious Worship and so also did he sometime Promise that for the future he would not only not obstruct but also promote their Liberty therefore these Men from the very beginning of the change of the Government did most Industriously proceed in their Affairs and Exercises for the Common Good neither did they do it unknown to their Adversaries but openly and in their sight as it were not by the tacit but express consent and also Command of the King But it will not be long ere all this matter shall fall out much otherwise than this and the Event deceive all the Hope and Opinion of these Men. Yea indeed it so happened as if this Letter the Name Power of the King did not avail for the Liberty and Ease but Ruine of these Men that even from the first Decree of the Parliament concerning the King's Restauration in all that Interval till the King did apply himself to the Administration of the Government they who were the Quakers Adversaries amongst other Pretences which they made use of for to repress and ensnare these Men they turned the Edict Name and Dignity of the King to their Molestation and Destruction Therefore as often as they met together to Celebrate their Worship they were apprehended and carryed away as disturbers of the Peace and though they had not the least Weapon that might give any Offence they were treated as if they had been armed Men and like Enemies and Cut-Throats and stirred up one another and other Peaceable Subjects to Rebellion and to offer Violence to the Common-wealth This I will say to those who do not so well know what the Oath of Fidelity among the English means which they
of these Men which are Fundamental to all the rest were after this time taken into task by George Keith and in various Writings partly handled and exprest more distinctly and politely partly chang'd and represented after the Image of the Idea's of the Ancient Philosophers not in that new Dress which the Quakers at first affected designing afterwards to give account of George Barcley in his own time and place Keith first apply'd his Mind to Write in the year Sixty Five and continued in that exercise for many years all his writings were originally in English except some few sheets He having observ'd that the Quakers wrote but very obscurely and perplexedly of that Divine light which is in every Man and of Christ dwelling in him which they place for the principle and foundation of all their Religion and Doctrine and being a Man of a subtile and acute Wit has accurately represented what they had but rudely and lamely begun concerning that Doctrine displaying it in this manner God has given a light unto every Man which he plac'd within him Which cannot be the mind or humane reason for that is innate whereas the light is adventitious and given to him from without to command and govern his Reason This same light is the Seed of God or Instrument whereby Men fallen and corrupted through sin are born again of God And this is a substance a part of that invisible and spiritual substance of Jesus Christ the Son of God that divine invisible spiritual and heavenly Man For Christ is so the Son of God that he is made to be such a Man by a Divine vertue proceeding from God So Christ and by him God dwells and is implanted in every Man nay in every Creature But since Men have made defection from God corrupting and depraving themselves altogether Christ and God is dead and extinguish'd in them but not totally So that Christ being mov'd with pity and compassion towards Men and remaining in some measure within them do's so help and assist their miserable impotency that he moves from within incites and admonishes every Man that they would give ear to and follow Christ their light and that laying aside their wicked manners and evil opinions they would submit themselves to Christ embracing and adhering to him thus expecting his divine vertue within them proposing him for their guide and conducter in going about duties and maintaining the same imitating him in every thing as their Master Which if they do Christ revives and lives within them establishing and renewing an Union and Communion with them and becoming righteousness and salvation unto them So Christ becomes meat heavenly and spiritual food unto Men. And thus in all Ages the Godly did eat the flesh and drink the Blood of Christ And so indeed Christ is in the ungodly tho hiddenly and as if he were quite away from whence it is that the Scriptures sometimes say that Christ is not in them But he is so far within them that when they are selling and enslavening themselves to sin he suffers and is afflicted by the same and through the infamy and piercing of his own Body which ensues from this their wickedness he is oppress'd with grief and anguish as if he were again fastened to the Cross This Christ is to be ador'd and worshiped as being that Divine heavenly and spiritual Man not as being an External Man born of Mary This opinion of Keith concerning these Articles was first invented and publish'd to the World by Men of no good Name which Keith was not ignorant of Hereticks and such as were addicted to the Schools and Discipline of the Gentile Philosophers especially the Platonicks but it was only scatter'd here and there by parcels in their writings not Collected into one entire system till in the last Century William Postell a Frenchman publish'd it openly in the same entire form that Keith has done tho I have certainly inform'd my self that Keith knew nothing of it in a particular book set out on that occasion but it was accounted so foolish and silly by the Learned World that none of them thought it worth their while to write against or confute him and his writings And these were the positions so long invented and retain'd before Keith that this same Keith was advancing and proposing in several books wrote by him vindicating them from what objections were either obvious to himself or mov'd to him by others But he took care that these his books should be Printed without the knowledge or advice of those of his own Society and therefore sent them to Holland to be Printed lest any of the English should come to know it Now there being two principal parts of this Keithian Doctrine the first concerning the presence of God and Christ not only in Men but in all his Creatures the second concerning the indwelling and operation of Christ within Men there was none found among all the initiatory Apostles of this Society who either maintain'd taught or publickly mention'd that former branch of his Doctrine Yet none of the Quakers wrote against him neither did those who assembled among themselves upon such like occasions condemn that principle being tender of his name and fame and judging it reasonable that this one errour should be past over in silence because of his other good Endowments and Accomplishments But as to the latter part of his sentiments there was none among all those who profess'd themselves Quakers that did not embrace it for his own opinion subscribing to it as the singular and peculiar Doctrine of their Church except some few insignificant thick scull'd fellows that liv'd in some remote and hidden Corner of the other Western World There was yet another Tenet which Keith was not averse to but he was unwilling to obtrude it upon any for that those of that Society did not desire it should be receiv'd or entertain'd for their common Principle it was that of the perpetuity of Souls and of their Transmigration and Variation through several bodies which proceeded at first from Empedocles Pythagoras and Plato and was afterwards variously trimm'd and furbish'd about some hundred years ago by those pratling Jewish Masters call'd Rabbius who not only tell but write when awake whatever they have dream'd upon that subject while asleep particularly by R. Jitzhakus Loriensis in a tractate wrote in Hebrew and in these our days is reviv'd by Baron van Helmont who hath deck'd it with all the necessary Ornaments fit to procure it Reception an Author famous for the splendour of his Nobility and his insatiable desires after Knowledge and Learning which he accounted the most comely and laudable Enjoyments he could be Master of who because he lives well and has not whereupon is deem'd by his friends to have found out the Philosophers Stone This Man living in England at that time conversing among the Quakers as one of their Society had occasion frequently to converse with a Noble Countess that was a great
those impetuous Spirits For seeing that all the rest except those two Colleagues aforesaid stuck to Horbius's side there was at that time very great Dissention and Strife between those Pastors who stood in opposition to Horbius and those that were on his part and that by Sermons Pamphlets and Letters every one according to his Faculty in Speaking or Writing putting forth his utmost in defence of his side and in opposition to his Enemies and placing the victory in the last action untill at length the matter was brought to that pass by the Interposition and Authority of the Senate Magistrates and Supream Power of the City a special and principal Remedy for such sort of divided Men and Assemblies that all the quarrel and difference in Words and Writings was taken off by an Amnesty as they call it or General Act of Indemnity and each of them were to forgive what was past as much as all good Men hoped it would be so It 's sad to consider what a vast number of things have been written all this time through all Germany that is of the Lutheran Religion not in the Latin Tongue save a very few but in the German Language that so now the whole Dispute which so many Learned Men could not find an end to should be equally committed to the Judgment of the Learned and Unlearned and especially be the entertainment of the vulgar and abject sort of Mankind whose Judgment they who thus contended are so far from expecting that they even Despise and desire not to have them named with them In the mean time we must pretermit that the Quakers abiding elsewhere and very well knowing and retaining an account and the particulars of all their own Conveniences neglected nothing wherein they thought there was any thing to their Advantage that might be done in this Commotion and Division of these Men. They had certainly in those places at this time a certain Hope wrought in them and their Spirits were raised with some joy that it might come thereby to pass that there should be such Persons that would Judge more favourably of the Doctrine of the Quakers and that perhaps they would apply their Minds to them the Words of their Epistle in an Anniversary Meeting at London the preceeding year writ to all the Churches of the Quakers bear witness hereunto which were to this purpose That they had Thoughts and some Hopes that the falling out of the Lutherans in those places amongst themselves might tend to a farther Discovery and Promotion of the Truth in those Parts Moreover there was in Germany as it were three sorts of Pietists pardon the expression One which I have described consists of those who sought and pressed nothing else but sincere Religion and true Piety and the greatest part of those are among the Learned and better sort of men through Saxony and all Germany Another sort of them was that cryed That the Church was much Corrupted and loved Piety but such who themselves on the other hand stagger not a little in the Faith and True Religion and these same are commonly less moderate and more violent in Celebrating their Assemblies together These came near the Weiglian Sect and such sort of Fanatical People that sprung up about an hundred year ago and not dead in all that intermediate time in Misnia and other Countries about who imagined as if it had been an Opinion not yet received in the Church and yet necessarily to be delivered That there is one certain Divine Seed in all Men and that God and Christ do so infuse themselves into Men that they are one Moreover That man becomes God and Christ and that so he ought to Worship God and Christ in himself and a great deal more of such stuff Which Tenents seeing they were of themselves very obscure and incomprehensible or only an empty sound without any Sence they by their winding cants did yet further involve and make more intricate and these men dreamt of I know not what Millenary Kingdom and Golden Age and continued watching among all who should be no longer Mortal in which Kingdom all things should be restored to their former state and condition and the Blessed abound with all Spiritual and Corporal Pleasures and Delights and should be satisfied at a Thought in what they desired or Wished from the Divine and Celestial Affluence of the Holy Spirit wherefore seeing that they now thought the same time was at hand They so settled their Rules that laying aside all Controversies among Christians they now with one mind by mutual instructions and exhortations looked to that Kingdom prepared themselves for it and invited other men unto it and made it their business so to do The Third sort of them was that which may be called Behmists or Teutonists these called back as it were Jacob Behman the Shoemaker of Garlingen in Silesia from the Dead who was called Tutonick and did both Broach those Opinions which had been really delivered by him as also those Errors that had been falsly laid upon him and ascribed to him yea and horrid and hellish Blasphemy and cried them up as worthy of all Esteem and Glory But before I give the particulars hereof I do not think it absur'd to say somewhat concerning the Doctrine and Writings of this Behman and the rather because of the great variety of Opinions and Observations of Learned and famous Men concerning them He had wrote and published in the German Tongue some Books or rather Pamphlets wherein as he would perswade himself he discovered many things necessary to be known or the Foundations of true Religion and Piety in dark words disjoyned from the usual and known names and such as he that would could not perceive and apprehend producing some of his own and adding as his own invention some other things which he had heard or road else where But when it came to pass as it often happens that those Germans especially the Lutherans who Assumed to themselves the Appellation of Learned Men and who were eager in a search after Knowledg Science and Truth and durst attempt any thing and were already puffed up with their own and other mens Opinions concerning the Excellency of their Learning alight upon these Notions these as coming nigh unto Behman's Principles but looking upon them yet to be ruder and as it were but rough drawn as being what he had only begun they go on to compleat them and from the Store-house of their own Wisdom build up and heap together many Opinions but such as were Monstrous and Horrid and digest them into books and Publish them and render the Behman Name well known in Germany Holland and England by their writing in those several Languages Some things also they Publish'd in Latin and they prove and extol the whole with a wondrous Character as if they were Golden Books and to be got all by Heart by those who followed the Christian Religion and loved their own Everlasting Salvation In the
of a long time he had bended his Mind upon the same Design that he had undertaken and that now he was so mov'd with his Discourses that he wholly gave up himself to be his Disciple Upon which Fox and he consulted seriously together about their Design A little while after Densbury became a Preacher performing the Office of a Trumpeter of the new Doctrines to this new Church with a great deal of Applause And though he spent the best part of his succeeding Life in Prison because of his Boldness and Confidence in sounding this Religious Trumpet yet this Affliction he patiently endured not suffering Trouble or Anguish to invade his Mind but continuing constant and chearful in receiving the Injuries he suffered for the sake of a good Conscience and of that Holy Office he had undertaken for the Salvation of Mankind His very Enemies acknowledge that he was Eloquent and every way fit for managing what relates to that Society The next that followed him in this Office was James Naylor once a Country Boor not far from Wakefield afterwards a Soldier in the Parliament's Army who not long after he had undertaken this Office met with wonderful Accidents as I shall relate when I come to that Period of Time After him followed Thomas Aldham who oft-times coveted the Company of Ecclesiastical Men for to Discourse and Dispute with them nay he affected also to converse with the Politicians and Cromwel the Protector himself whom he went to partly to manifest his Learning and Knowledge and partly to obtain his Consent and Belief to their Articles so great Confidence and Hope he placed in that Man Next to him was Philip Scafey Minister of a Publick Church at a little Village in this same County near to Whitby called Robin Hood's Bay upon the Sea-side In Lancashire the first that apply'd himself to Fox and his Society was Richard Hubberthorn born in the Northern Parts of that County of good Parentage and liberally Educated who was at that time a Captain in the Parliament's Army and so over-Religious that oft-times at the Head of his Company he would make Discourses to them as if he had been a Preacher And not long after he became a Preacher among the Quakers which Office he discharged so well in their Eyes that they all unanimously gave him a very high Testimony His Writings left behind do testifie him to have been no contemptible Disputant but too violent and tart and sometimes bitter and reviling Next were Thomas Taylor and his Brother Christopher Taylor both Publick Ministers in that Country Next was Richard Farnsworth Author of a Book which treats of the Pronouns Tu and Vos or Thou and Ye wherein he proves by Examples pick'd out of the Holy Writings that it is unlawful in our particular Discourses one with another to use any other compellation than Thou In Westmorland the first that joyn'd to this Society and became Preacher among them was John Adlance then Francis Howgil formerly a Taylor at Appleby at that time a Sectary Preacher to an Independant Congregation who returned the Money he had formerly received of his Congregation for a Reward of his Service a Man of Learning and as well qualified as many of that Sect. After them came Edward Burrough a Young Rustick Fellow of Sixteen or Seventeen Years but equall'd to a Man and designed for great things Last of all I shall mention one George Whitehead who at this time joyned himself to this Sect taking upon him also the Office of a Teacher he was then Minister to the Church of Lancaster talked of among the Learned for his skill in both Tongues his Piety and Modesty and Famous at this very day though stricken in Years for his dexterity of Disputing and Managing Controversies both with Tongue and Pen. I omit the Names of others But it is material here to Remark that the chiefest and greatest part of those who engaged in this Society were such as were either Members of Presbyterian Churches or Independants or Brownists or Baptists of which latter a great many bore Arms for Cromwel and the Parliament for the most part of their Army consisted of such kind of Men And not only these Sectaries themselves gave themselves to this Society but even their Doctors and Teachers whose Example and Influence induced many of their Congregations to do the like So that the first Congregation of Quakers was a multitude of People not so extravagant or faulty in their Manners as fluctuating and unsettled in their Religions which were very various and discrepant one from another and of which England had now great store Those of them that were better accommodated than others fitted their Houses and other Private places for receiving their Assemblies when congregated for Divine Worship They did not exclude even those who were not of their Party if they came in Peaceably only to hear and see without intermedling with any thing unless they suspected or understood 'em to be Spies coming upon some ill Design to trap them or hatch some Mischief against them Fox was very diligent in insinuating himself and his Doctrines into the Affections of those who were Men of Dignity and Power who though they were not fitter to Judge of his Design yet were more capable to advance and propagate that Interest and he gain'd not a few of them Among whom were some Magistrates greater or lesser who like Loadstones drew many of their underling Inferiours after them But there happened likewise at this time a memorable Instance of the Progress and Advancement of Fox and his Adherents in Lancashire which is not here to be omitted There lived in Lancashire Thomas Fell one of the Judges who with his Wife Margaret Fell were famous and renown'd for Religion and Piety Fox having made himself acquainted with them became so Familiar in their House that it was always open to him when he pleased to come there and all things in it at his Service But the Husband continued still steadfast to the Reformed Church being a true Lover and sincere Practiser of the Reformed Religion all his Life long so that he was not fond of Fox's Church-Conventicles nor would he joyn himself to his Society yet he was not so averse from it but that he thought it should be suffer'd and enjoy its Liberty so that he resolved to defend and vindicate the same from all Injury And afterwards when Fox was accused by many Ministers of the Church before the Judges at Lancaster for having used some horrible Expressions in his Discourses to the People such as That God taught Lyes and Fallacies and that his Word the Holy Scriptures contained many Lyes this Judge with some others defended him asserting all these Slanders to be injuriously affix'd upon him and maliciously feign'd without any ground Thus he relieved him not only from the danger of his Life he had otherwise been in but also from all fear and apprehension and after this time he always appeared a great
that from that time the Labadists came to be call'd Quakers which name followed them from Amsterdam to Hereford and there accompanied them so that Men all abroad not only call'd them by the Name of Quakers which to them appeared as a horrible Title but also oftentimes us'd to throw Stones at them To avoid which reproach and withal to shew how much they hated both Name and Thing they out of their Printing-Office which they carried about with 'em publish'd a Writing by the Title shewing what the Argument of the Book was An Examination and Confutation of the Quakers Nevertheless after this there went to these Labadists in Friesland William Penn that most famous Man amongst the Quakers A Man of such Spirit and Wit as was both willing and able to encounter with all their Adversaries But the end of all was the same To which I will add this Relation That William Penn at this time being so near the Wood the Summer Residence of that Illustrious Lady the Princess of of whom as indeed she was and is a Princess who has a peculiar Talent of Wisdom and Piety and Greatness of Soul in asserting and promoting the Interest of Religion he had heard much talk and this Princess being now there present it comes in his mind and he intreats it as an extraordinary Favour that he may have the Liberty of Access to wait upon her Highness And she her self too having heard much of Penn admits him but so as what she had heard many say runs in her highness's mind that Penn was not the Man that he desired to be taken for but was either a Jesuit or else an Emissary of his King 's sent to sound the minds of the People and Grandees of this Country and therefore she fore-armes her self against him But when this Princess had admitted Penn to her Speech and he composes his Speech not with those Artificial Elegancies and Courtly Niceties which his former Inclination Education and Customs had enabled him to but with the highest gravity and as far as Religion would permit in the most exquisite terms he could devise and thinking this discourse might not be displeasing to the Princess at the end of it he begs leave to make a Sermon before her Highness To which the Princess to make short with him Answers that she had very good Preachers of her own whom he might hear and she had not far off David Fluda Giffen a Preacher worthy of such a Princess as who besides his natural parts Learning and sweetness of Conversation 〈◊〉 with Probity of Life and endued with a singular gift in Preaching was now the worthy pastor of the Church at Dort a Man to us well known and our very great friend Which Answer Penn taking in the stead of a civil Refusal with a chearful Countenance and in kind terms asks her Highness if in any other respect he might be serviceable to her and so takes his leave of her Highness Now from Friesland a province of our Belgium which is simply called Friesland I go on to that they call East-Friesland In that Countrey in the chief City call'd Embden in the 74th year of this Century there were a few Quakers that appear'd there of whom the Principal or chief Men were John William Haasbaard a Doctor of Physick John Borsome and Cornelius Andrews These Men began first to hold their Meetings privately afterwards more openly then to publish books of their Tenets to allure and invite the more to their Communion Which being known and growing publick to the Magistrates convened most of the Quakers before them into their Courts They appear there By the Magistrates order there came thither two of their Ministers one the Presidents of the Meeting of East-Friesland and another next to him Frederic Vlderic and John Alardin The Senate has under Deliberation that whereas as yet they did not rightly understand other than by Relations from other hands what the sentiments of these Men was what they did or what they aim'd at and pretended to that therefore it would be their best way to hear and understand these things from themselves least they should seem to pass a sentence upon people before they had heard or known what their Cause was and on the other hand if they were indeed found to be such as fame reported them that they might in due time obviate and prevent their attempts and mix them as it were in the bud before they grew to greater strength But when these Quakers appeared before the Magistrates they stood with their hats on and would not pull them off altho they were ordered so to do not out of Pride or from Innation or Contempt of them but because it was the Custom and Fashion of those of their opinion and they thought that such sort of honours were not due to Men. A great deal of Dispute there was about this business between the Quakers and those Ecclesiastical persons Which Discourse being drawn out to a great length and nothing brought to the purpose that was intended the Magistrate Haasbaard as being the principal and most skillful mannager of this affair that 2 days afterwards he should appear before a Convention of the Pastors and Synod of the Church and there before them state the Case of his Religion under the penalty of 10 Imperials Haasbaard refus'd this Meeting and appears not at the Stated day But the Quakers however go on and in the mean while and afterwards meet in Haasbaard's house Wherefore the Magistrate lays a fine upon them of 100 Imperials a time as often as they met together after that manner They take no notice of that neither So the Magistrate taking this as an affront to his Authority and Dispising of his gentle Government and Clemency concluded to take another course with this People Which yet before he would do he thought fit once again to try if he could pick out of 〈◊〉 Men what their Intentions desires and aimes were therefore the next day he causes them to be call'd into Court before him and together with them the two Ministers before mentioned were order'd to be present that they might Examine them about these things and maturely deliberate upon them For they thus thought that it was absolutely belonging to the Duty and Business of the Political and Ecclesiastical Order to look after and enquire what was done in the City and in the Church and with all Care and Diligence to provide and take Order that no Disturbance Faction Tumult or any pernicious Error Deceit or Seduction should arise and spread about among the People and that the Quakers themselves in this case ought not only to pay their Obedience to the Magistrates but also themselves of their own accord and free will by the impulse of their Religion and monitions of our Lord Christ and the Motions of the Holy Spirit not to decline the Exposition of what it was they insisted on and the Principles they so much Gloried in but with all
mean as every Man has his Freedom to Judg there were various Judgments made concerning the Writings of Jacob Behman himself some thinking moderately concerning them and tho there were some Light things and mistakes in them yet they adjudged there was no Heresy contained in them but others again determined otherwise that they were very Heretical Writings to which some added also that they had been all written by a Man who if he was not stark Mad was yet highly disturbed in his Mind and Understanding and that he himself had afterwards confest the same thing when he came to his right Mind and so at length by confessing and bewailing his own Temerity and unconsiderateness as indeed it was highly to be Rejected as being foolish and unfruitful as to any good yet his Offence pardoned by his Country-men the Silesians wherein because the Fame of the Man has certainly been injured I do not think it impertinent to declare in a few words what his case was and how terminated as to the Event thereof therefore seeing there were such various Opinions concerning this Man made by the World the Elector of Saxeny caused him to come to Drâ—sâ—â—â—â— and there to present himself and be Examined and stand to the Judgment of certain Divines who after they had seriously and attentively Examined him and tryed his Sentiments also as to every Article of faith and what he meant in his Books which he had Published they not only Absolved him of Heresy but did moreover acknowledg he had in him some singular gift from God and dismist him in Peace which Examination and Matter of Fact when Anthony Wock who kept the Princess Archicus about 15 years ago took â—otice of in his History of Dresden and that he transmitted the same Work to Noremburg to be printed and Published there the Censors of Books who were better pleased that this passage concerning Behman should not be known and that the Work of Dishonour already put upon him might remain quite struck out this Part of the History that related to Behman's Examination and the event thereof But 〈◊〉 that in the great Dissention and Contention between the Ministers of Hamburg those Men would not also leave Behman alone but condemned him as an Heretick Ph. J. Spener who judged more favourably concerning him consulting the Man's Credit and fearing least an Error once seising upon the Minds of Men should by continuance attain to a suspicion of Truth and utterly take away the Man 's good Name which was hitherto in suspence did in a certain Writing of his in opposition to the Hamburgers shew the whole matter as it was transacted at Dresden according to what Wâ—ck had wrote and affirm the same as having seen and read the Original Writing himself taken out of the Elector's Archives and who indeed is a Person worthy of Commendation and Credit But Behman returning into his own Native City when after an hard Sickness he drew near unto his last end he had the Lord's Supper Administred to him by the Minister of the place according to the manner of the Lutheran Church and when he had there paid his last Debt to Nature he was by the Magistrates command honourably Buried and a Funeral Sermon Preach'd for him And now to return to the matter I was upon the Results of these mens Inventions and Toyl some of them interpreting Behman's Writings one way some another way and while in the mean time they endeavoured to increase and also to amend them basely depraving of them was this as to the Substance thereof for there is no need to relate the singular Distinctions therein as there is no occasion to seâ— down this stuff it self but for these mens sakes who cease not to blab it out and to breath it into and infect the unwary with their stinking breath and for them who are not aware of it but when once they discern it will hate and shun the same for ever that God is one Essence but a Threefold Principle in a Successive Order That he is the Spring of and doth influence all things to wit a fire wherein there is the Light Understanding and Wisdom of God which is the Son of God and Oyl wherein that Light of God burns which is the holy Spirit And that in this manner all and singular things are for God of his own proper Nature and that of Three Principles which Three Principles are in Nature called by the Name of Sulphur Salt and Water Moreover That God created all Things in Number Weight and Measure which so again consist in various Divine Delicacies especially in the Rational Creatures as being those in whom God hath as it were created himself so as to divide a Particle of his own certain Quality into New Creatures Lastly That Man restored shall enjoy the Element of Gracious Light which Element is Christ himself and that the holy Spirit shall rest upon him for his further Vivification It 's needless to add the rest These same Sentiments of these Men which I believe they acquired by revealing upon but not understanding the Platonick Writings by polishing and mixing of them they heaped up together into a Book And this which is not Christian Theology but is uttered by men that think themselves in their Right Wits rather a War of the Giants against Heaven and in reference to the matter thereof not only unconceivable and horrible but so as to the words also was esteemed by these men among whom tho there were some who tho their Noddles were not souud altogether yet there were certainly others of sound Understanding and in their right Wits yea active learned and industrious laying aside these Sentiments and Speeches as some very subâ—il and sublime Contemplation and Knowledge of God if any such could be in the World This they called Mystical Theology they made so much account thereof that unless any one had attain'd to it held it and profest it he knew nothing of Divine Matters If any denied it they adjudged him by no means capable of Salvation On the other hand their Adversaries looked upon this their Theology to be so gastly and even terrible to be uttered and upon all the Writings which these Teutonicks put forth with so hard 〈◊〉 Censure as if written not with Ink but with a Peâ— dipped in the bitterest Gall and guided by the Devil and so as if they contained nothing else but a Collection of the most vile foolish and base things with idle words and dotages and they adjudged him that agreed thereunto and approved of them worthy to be expelled and far enough removed from all Christian Community seeing they forbad their people to read or as much as to look upon those Writings and so there was not so much as place allowed these men in these provinces The Principal Leaders and Ensign-bearers of these new Pietists were certain Doctors of Wirtemburg whose Doctrine was scattered not only among their Scholars who constantly heard them and followed them and
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