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
occasions which the Quakers were very refractory to do That they sent not their Children to School to be taught by the Parish School-masters who otherwise were straiten'd for a livelyhood for the Quakers had School-masters of their own profession to whom they committed the Education of their Children that they refus'd to pay their quota for repairing the Churches and keeping them in order that they omitted to give the Easter-Offerings or such other gifts as ought and us'd to be given to the Curates or Minsters of their Parish and lastly that they refus'd to pay the Tithes of their Cattel Lands Trees Honey c. to the Minister this say the Quakers the Clergy look'd upon as their greatest Calamity accounting it their cloros as they us'd to taunt them or the loss and rottenness of their honeycombs and the product of their Bees Thus the Quakers both in their gestures Speeches and Writings sometimes cunningly insinuated such â—art buâ—ter Reflections Liberty was given the Quakers before the sentence of Excommunication was pronounc'd against 'em to propose their Defences and Apologies for themselves before the Bishops and Magistrates But because they were not allow'd to do it themselves but only by Procurators and Sollicitors which could not be done without giving Money they declin'd appearing before them for they thus reason'd with themselves that if their business succeeded favourably it was well if not it would be the multiplying expences upon expences in vain and besides they bethought themselves that no faith would be had to their Allegations without interposing their Oaths which they were very a verse to nay so resolute that they would rather run the hazard of the greatest persecutions whatsoever So that none of them obtain'd any favour Nor were they excus'd who pretended to be sick and so unable to attend the Court for this their pretended sickness was interpreted to be feign'd and not real So that one after another great numbers of them were Condemn'd apprehended and put in Prison some Rich some Poor some Citizens some Country-Peasants several of the latter being Imprison'd for a very small summ not exceeding ten or six pence Which small summs they all refus'd to advance not that they were so poor as that they could not or so pinching and niggardly that they would not part with so much but that they thought the pursuers had no right to them And the pursuers were so eager and strict that they would not forgive such little summs nor abate the least farthing of their due lest others should have taken Encouragement from such a precedent to expect the like immunity So they were all promiscuously Imprison'd In the mean while the fomenters of the Action while they pretended to recover what was owing them took by force from their houses what as they said would amount to the summ pillaging their houses Embezzeling and Spoiling their Barns Stacks Harvest Vintage taking their Horses Cows and all other possessions they could be Masters of so that they recover'd their Money with Interest destroying all that the diligent Men had scrap'd together by the sweat of their brows and living sparingly and leaving nothing almost for the sustenance of their families Yet the Quakers continued still stedfast and unmoveable resolving to suffer to the last extremity rather than recede from the course they had begun so that some of them were cast into common Goals some into Castles and Places of strength some into stinking noysom Dungeons where dogs could not live being forc'd to live at the Discretion and Arbitrement of their Keepers and expos'd for a ridicule to the basest and meanest of the Vulgar Servants some were put in among the profligate and debauch'd who had liv'd in all manner of wickedness and villany and were justly punish'd for their evil deeds who yet even then could not abstain from their perverse and wicked courses nor refrain from calumniating and vexing their fellow Prisoners and lastly some of them were banish'd into so distant Countrys from their Wives and Children and all other Enjoyments that were dear or comfortable to them which one Affliction crush'd some of them to Death being overwhelm'd with anguish and sorrow for the loss of their endeared consorts Many of them died by the noysome smell and other inconveniences of the Prison or through grief or being wearied out and oppress'd with long and tedious diseases arising from such causes Some came sooner to this unhappy end some later but others endow'd with more strength and firmness of Body wrestled out for a long time There were some of them set at liberty and freed from this insupportable weight of misery through the intercession and entreaties of their Friends with the Magistrates who likewise were mov'd with pity and compassion towards them but were afterwards remitted to their old miserable habitation not for any new debt or crime but for that same they were Imprison'd for before where they continued till Death alleviated their sorrows Some few years after this the Quakers divulg'd all this severe usage to the World by writings which they presented to the King and Parliament In which they run thorough all the several Countries of the Kingdoms amassing together all the instances of the cruelty and barbarity us'd towards them But I shall here content my self with two of their most Remarkable Examples adding unto them a third which tho omitted by them upon what account I know not is as memorable and worthy to be remarked as any The year that first affords us these Examples is the year sixty four The first is this There liv'd a Blacksmith in a little Village in Hampshire by name Thomas Penford who was Imprison'd at Worcester in the common Goal by an edict of Excommunication because he would not pay three pence for Reparation of the Church which he obstinately refus'd to do so that after three years and a half Imprisonment he died in Goal The next is Thomas Rennes a Country Farmer in some little Village in Oxfordshire was Imprison'd at Oxford by an Edict of Excommunication for not paying the Tithes which he was aversâ— to do While he was detain'd Captive the Minister goes and seizes on his Horses which were much more valuable than the summ he wanted yet the poor Man continu'd in Prison a long time and ends his days upon the place The third Example which is a Complex and Image as it were of all the rest was after this manner One Thomas Dobson liv'd at a little Village call'd Brichtnel in Berkshire where he maintain'd himself and his Family very honestly by a Farm he kept and some small substance he had scrap'd together by his labour and diligence He refus'd to pay the Tithes not that he was so straitned for Money that he could not make up the summ but that he could not do it because of the dictates of his Conscience disallowing the same There was one Radulph Wistler who bought the Tithes and had an Eye for a long time upon this Man's
substance and was fond of an occasion to terrify the rest from doing the like he caus'd this Man to be hal'd to Prison where he smarted for his contumacy by fifteen weeks Captivity during which time and likewise after that Dobson was releas'd and return'd to his own house he pillag'd and harass'd his house and possessions taking off his Horses Kine and other possessions which were priz'd and sold for his benefit till he made about forty pounds English And afterwards in the year sixty six and sixty seven when the poor Man was secure fearing nothing he attacks him again takes from him his Horse four Kine and all the Cattle he had of whatever sort all the furnishing of his house and the very beds they lay upon so distressing and empoverishing the poor Man that he and his Family scarce had wherewithal to cloath themselves But some time after when he had almost overcome this disafter having purchas'd two kine which gave Milk out of which and the cheese made of it he sustain'd his Family without any other food the Minister of the Parish Church whose name I choose rather to conceal pursues him with an Edict of Excommunication insomuch that not only this small remnant he had for maintenance of his family was taken from him but himself thus poor and empty was cast into Prison which was done in the same year from which time he remain'd captive till the year Seventy two when he was set at liberty by the King 's special Command at length having return'd to his former dwelling place and beginning to improve his small fortune a little by labouring the ground and diligent working this same Tithe-master I have already nam'd so well vers'd in his exactory Discipline that no office of humanity withheld him from the same falls upon him again and takes all the possessions he now enjoy'd leaving him nothing so that the value and price of what he took from him was reckon'd to be eightly pounds English which is eight hundred and fifty eight Dutch Gilders And moreover to give a farther instance of his unparallel'd Barbarity he caused him to be cast into Prison in the year seventy five where he was shut up among Thieves and Robbers and those who were not only guilty of such Enormous Crimes but even of Whoring and Revelling the Botches and Exulcerations arising from their intemperate Venery being yet running upon their bodies creating a most noysome and grievous smell and all the whole Members of their body being infected and corrupted with the same But Dobson's greatest comfort was that he found in Prison Men of his own Society who were kept Captive upon the same account that he was Sometime after when one of these miserable pocky wretches had rotted unto Death through the Corruption of that blackest and foulest disease the Keeper of the Prison a Man inferior to none for wickedness and excess of Rudeness and Inhumanity who dealt so with these Quakers his Prisoners that he shew'd to the World that his humor and constitution was fitted for tormenting mankind gather'd up the straw upon which this Corrupted and Loathsome carkass was laid bringing it into that place where Dobson with his fellow Quakers and also the rest of these flagitive miscreants were throng'd up where he burnt it in a fire to testify that burning hatred and malice against the Quakers which rag'd and flam'd within his Breast And from the flames of this burning straw there proceeded such Exhalations and Contagious fumes that the Quakers were all taken ill of a most grievous and dangerous disease which in a short time put a period to the lives of some of them Dobson recover'd of this Distemper but continu'd under the same miserable Captivity till the wellcome day of his Death which happen'd in the last day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred seventy and seven The Quakers therefore being griev'd in soul for this insupportable affliction of their Brethren and apprehensive of the like Events about to befall themselves could not contain themselves from expressing the Estuations and Boylings of their incensed Minds nor restrain their extravagant Tongues and Pens from complaining and lamenting every where publishing Books and Writings Exaggerating the misery of their Condition and demonstrating unto the World what for Men these Evangelical Reform'd Protestants as they call'd 'em Evidenc'd themselves to be Those who in ancient Times cry'd out against Persecution for Religion's sake pretending that none but God had Power to call their Religion and Conscience to account and yet in these days are so fierce and cruel with their own Countreymen upon the same Religious Account sighting against them with carnal Weapons and oppressing them to such an high degree that tho they spar'd their Lives yet inâ—licted Evils far worse than Death it self introducing the same Tyranny that was us'd against the Church oâ— Old but with a New Face and Name The Quakers relate and also some of the Chroniclers or these Times record That in the Time of that fatal and bloody Plague which Rag'd so severely both in London and many parts of that Realm the Bishops besought the King and boldly counsell'd him That in Order to avert and appease the Weath of God which then so heavily afflicted them he would free and cleanse the Kingdom from that Pâ—st of Quakers and other Fanaticks the Banishment and Extirpation of whom would be an acceptable and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the Land But the moderation of the King was too great to give Ear to such Counsels for though he would not countenance or assist these men yet he was not willing to use such inhumane Cruelty against them and accordingly chose rather that the Old Punishment should be continued against them than a New One of that Nature take place This Year which was so fatal unto many places destroying both the Quakers and their Enemies promisouously did likewise give the same deadly stroke to Samuel Fisher whose Fame among the Quakers Acuteness of Wit Learning and Neat Polite Way of Writing I have already mentioned He died in Prison The Quakers mightily lamented his Death being sensible what a great Doctor and what a Skillful and dexterous Defender of them and their Religion they had lost Their Enemies and Ministers of the Church on the contrary rejoyc'd and congratulated his Death who had given them so much trouble while alive being educated in the same Colledges with themselves and having been one of their own Tribe taught the same manner of learning and invested with the same office and well acquainted with all their writings â—â—trigues methods and Ecclesiastical Policy so that he was more capable to use their own Weapons and Arguments against themselves which he did very dexterously At this same very time they were likewise bereav'd of John Coughen so fam'd and renown'd among the Quakers who tho he was not taken out of the World yet deserted his Station and separated himself from the
admirer of Knowledge and Learning and to reason with her out of the Book of Plato concerning this Platonical Doctrine and came that length with her that both he and she embrac'd the same opinion for a truth and because Keith was oftimes present at their Conferences they bring him in also to take share in the same opinion Which being made known to the Quakers Helmont who was a stiff Defender of his own Opinions which they look'd upon some of them as Dangerous Innovations others as foolish Errors and Distracted Notions became suspected and hated by them upon which he bids farewell to them and all their Society proceeding not only to Vindicate his Opinion but because he thought it yet rude and unpolish'd to refine and adorn the same instructing himself again and again out of the Jewish Writings of what might be serviceable to his Design digesting his Thoughts into this Form which I give you a Draught of in as few words as possibly I may Before the Souls are united to their Bodies they exist in another World after they are united to the Bodies each of them has its day of the Divine Visitation after One Thousand Years given to it for this End that by absolute Holiness and Sanctification it may prepare for Eternal Felicity But if it abuse the Goodness of God that it may expect to be condemn'd to that long and terrible Punishment which God hath prepared for them at the expiring of this their set Time But this Space of a Thousand Years is not continued and undivided but distinguish'd and circumscribed by Twelve Revolutions or Circnits of the Soul into the same Body except unto some of the Saints who are purg'd and sanctified enough in the first or second Cireuit And these Returns happen after Three Hundred Thirty Three Years and Four Months But while they are out of the Body they do not advance or proceed in Piety therefore if they be good it goes well with them if ill they fare the worse Those Souls which before the Death of Christ were translated from this Life and were not saved when they return to their Bodies may obtain Salvation through the Gospel of Christ But those since the Death of Christ to the End of the World that have not heard of the Gospel shall return again to their Bodies all at one time and in one place and then shall hear with their Ears the Tidings of the Gospel and obtain Salvation if they believe After that the Saints return to the Earth the First Resurrection shall be and all the Saints shall live upon Earth a Thousand Years without any Sin even as Adam in the State of Innocence and after the Example of Adam they shall be born of Virgins being begot of God their Father Then the Second Resurrection shall follow when the Saints shall after the Example of Christ the Second Adam be made perfect and consummated in their Heavenly Bodies And lastly The Felicity and Bliss of the Godly shall be Eternal but the Punishment of the Wicked shall be Finite and at length terminate in an End But I return to Keith I am firmly perswaded that Keith receives and entertains these Positions if not all yet at least the chiefest and most material of them though he would not discover his Mind in these Points unto any save those that are his Secretaries and Trustees or that seem a little wiser than the rest But he is not the only Favourite of these Doctrines there be others among them that are as fond of them as he tho very few so that they are far from being universally receiv'd by all the Society Nay the Quakers shall not long tolerate any Abertors of such Principles to continue of their Society if it be true what I have oftimes heard from some of their principal Members I have taken occasion to express my self more largely upon this point not only for sake of the Quakers but also of those who when they hear or read of these propositions and the books that treat of the same as not a few are curious to do are ignorant what is the original and beginning of these opinions and thus are ready to Judge of the whole matter amiss After this time William Penn joyn'd himself to the Society of the Quakers who after his fathers Death becaine Governour of Pensilvania a Man famous all over England and renown'd even among forreigners that are not quite ignorant of the English affairs by whose accession to that party counsel assistance diligence and activity the interest of the Quakers was much enlarg'd and amplified not indeed all of a sudden but by degrees It shall not therefore be improper according to my method of describing these great Men which we have follow'd from the beginning to subjoyn an account of the occasion and manner of his Conversion to this Religion his Love and Zeal for it and of his Wit and Conversation William Penn his father was Vice-Admiral to the English Navy a prudent and grave Man who behav'd himself so in the midst of the Distractions and Dissensions in the Government that according to the Divine Religion he was faithful and honest to his Neighbour This father having design'd his Son who was not born to him but to his Country and to the Common-wealth for some publick Remarkable Station in managing publick concerns not for being merely intent upon raising and encreasing his private fortune took care to have him well instructed in all Divine and humane Offices and sent him afterwards to the University of Oxford that among the rest of the young Gentlemen of that place he might exercise his mind with the study of Learning and liberal Arts. Then afterwards he went to France and staying sometime at Paris appear'd frequently at the French Court. At this time being yet very young he gave great testimony both of his stoutness and continency defending his Life boldly from the assault of an Enemy and a Fencer who sought to slay him but withal sparing the Life of this his Adversary when it was in his power to have kill'd him Having return'd to his own Country he went into Ireland where he heard many things of the Quakers and not being altogether an Enemy to their Doctrines and Conversations he freequented their Meetings This was the year sixty six and of his Age twenty two It happen'd that when he was present at their Meeting the Magistrate of the place came and took both him and the rest of the company Prisoners But he was so far from being frighten'd by this sudden and unexpected accident or from being tempted to withdraw from their party and profession that even in Prison he applied his mind more eagerly to their opinions after having understood of them more fully what were the peculiar properties of these Men either in Doctrine of Conversation The father was ravish'd with Admiration and not a little angry at his Son who was the only hope and comfort of his parents and who
taken in as members of it Which being a thing of no small moment and laying a firm foundation for hatred and envy disagreement and Contention among these People even to this very day it is much to be feared that unless they agree better among themselves it may come to pass one day that their domestick Quarrels invite their Barbarous Neighbours or other forreign foes to set upon them in an hostile manner and put a speedy period to their Government and longer continuance there And we may know also that whereas the War between the French and English is carried into these parts of the World also and altho these people can tell how to fight well enough with words yet they 'll have nothing to do with War or Armies either for offence or defence and consequently lye an easy Conquest for an Enemy who very quietly and without any danger at all to themselves might soon overcome them King William of England has sent 'em over a Governour one of the Church of England with Orders That if occasion be he should take care to defend them against any Armed Enemy better than otherwise they would themselves Now since we are at present upon this Country of the Quakers and have but now made mention of the great dissentions and distractions amongst them it would not be suitable to this Relation and the design of this Work if I should omit that great and very memorable Case that within these few years has happen'd among them in those Parts which because know'n to few I will relate and deduce down to this very time when as yet none knows what the end of it will be I have shewn in the former Book concerning George Keith that famous Teacher amongst the Quakers how the Quakers his Friends and Acquaintaince in England ascribed to him certain Errors or Forms of speaking which they did not approve of but which of their good will towards him they attributed to his singular Learning This man came over into these parts and residing a while in some Islands near Pensylvania in the year 89 remov'd thence to Philadelphia being invited by some who not only desired him for their Preacher but also to be Tutor to their Children When he came thither he undertook both Offices and to shew his Modesty takes the place of an Usher to teach Boys and discharges it very commendably And at the same time exercising his Preaching Faculty among an unlearned and Ignorant company of People as for the most part their Preachers were he excell'd 'em all appearing as a bright Luminary and out-shining all the rest of that Order among them And by his opportune diligence and industry in all the parts of his Ministerial Office he render'd himself belov'd of 'em all especially the more inferiour sort of People And it had been well indeed if so it had continued But a short time produc'd a great alteration in the state of Affairs For soon after there arose some that oppos'd Keith him and charg'd him with many not only Errors in Doctrine but also high and unpardonable Crimes For Keith did not forbear over and over again to inculcate and instruct all his Auditors in the Doctrines of the two-fold Nature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Divine and Human and of the Human the one part Heavenly Spiritual and Eternal the other Earthly and Corporeal conceiv'd in time of his Mother Mary Then his second Tenent was this which he often repeated to them all That Christ as Born of Mary was uninted with the Divine Nature and so was present with his Light and Life in all the Children of God It was difficult for him to keep the Conception of his mind to himself without divulging them especially because when a man rightly comprehends a thing himself it is nothing unless another be made acquainted with it too Wherefore Keith altho he a good while smother'd in silence the Opinions which he had long entertain'd Of the Transmigration of Souls after Death Of the last Judgment and State of the Deceased and end of the World as being unsafe and less acceptable to be disclosed yet he could not so contain himself but that now and then he gave an inckling in his Discourses of what his inward conceptions of these things were and sometimes he was not able to forbear betraying in his words what his true sense of those things was and what he principally aim'd at in them whence it came to pass that those that lov'd Keith and favour'd his Doctrine greedily entertain'd these Principles And yet for the most part those that were the greatest followers of his Doctrins and Admirers of his Skill and Parts whom Keith indeed for his own Credit 's sake either found or made thorough pac'd in his Principles embrac'd these Notions so heartily that they relyed more upon his Authority and Precepts than their own Judgment and thought it enough to say that he knew and said so and so and that with them was Demonstration And so his Exact and Nice and Subtle Judgment in these matters was a subterfuge to cover their Ignorance Against these Tenents of Keith and those of his Party there were others that set themselves and especially against that Article of the Divine and Human Nature of Christ which Article Keith openly acknowledged he held and professed and that it was no new thing by him devised but antiently and always taught by the whole Society Against which Article they objected that of one he made two Christs Of these Adversaries the Head and chief was an Elderly Minister one W. Stockade by Name a man indeed not unlearned but in the Opinion of himself and many more unlearned and ignorant People a man of vast Parts and Learning and the Champion and Defender of the Antient and Pure Religion of these People Keith stretched his Opinion and Belief of this Article so far and made it so necessary to be known and believed as that thereupon Christianity it self depended and that the denial of that Article was the same as to deny the Passion and Death of Christ yea Christ himself Moreover that they who persisted in the denying of this Article the sin of such denial was so great that it gave just cause to those that held it to fly to Extremity and separate themselves from those who obstinately deny it At last when this question had been Controverted a long while and no end like to be put to it Keith and those of his Party grew to that heighth and were so peremptory in this Controversy that they said God had called 'em to separate themselves from those sort of Infidels In the mean while as this good Company were so disgusted at the Opinions of the other acuter Men they entertain'd and published such kind of Notions about the same Articles as Keith and his followers no less delested and were averse from then they cry'd out the Denial of their Opinions was no less than a renouncing of the
therefore easily stuck to their Precepts and became themselves like unto them but also among many others who yet while they were carried with a desire alone to attain to Godliness were called by the only Name of Pietists and ingenuously took upon them to follow the Party of Horbius and Spener insomuch that now upon the Rhine and where the river Lippe discharges her self into the same at Wesel and the places adjacent towards Cleve many even of our Churches did also so embrace this mystical Theology some according to the Weigelian some the Tentonick mode and did so vigorously promote it cherish such as received it with so much Ardency that they began to unite and gather together so as that our Divines had no small task upon them for to instruct and teach them better that they might not withdraw from our Churches And there is no occasion here to relate how much vexation and trouble their Ministers and other good Men had in Holland both from the old Weigelian family and from this new brood of Teutonicks seeing this is so well known there and in every bodies mouth but this is not to be past over so far as it has relation to the affairs of the Quakers among these new mystical Men there was one John Jacob Zimmerman Pastor of the Lutheran Church in the Dutehy of Wirtemburg a Man skilled in Mathematicks and saving what he had Contracted of these erroneous opinions had all other excellent endowments of mind to which may be added the temperance of his Life wherein he was inferior to none and who was of considerable fame in the world Who when he saw there was nothing but great danger like to hang over himself and his Friends he invites and stirs up through his own hope about sixteen or seaventeen Families of these sort of Men to prefer also an hope of better things tho it were dubious before the present danger and forsaking their Country which they through the most precipitous and utmost danger tho they suffered Death for the same could not help and relieve as they supposed and leaving their Inheritance which they could not carry along with them to depart and betake themselves into other parts of the world even to Pensilvania the Quakers Country and there divide all the good and the evil that befall them between themselves and learn the Languages of that People and Endeavour to inspire Faith and Piety into the same Inhabitants by their words and examples which they could not do to these Christians here These agree to it at least so far as to try and sound the way and if things did not go ill to fortify and fit themselves for the same Zimmerman having yet N. Koster for his Colleague who was also a famous Man and of such severe manners that few could equal him writes to a certain Quaker in Holland who was a Man of no mean Learning and very wealthy very bountiful and liberal towards all the poor pious and good That as he and his followers and friends designed They are the very words of the Letter which is now in my Custody To depart from these Babilonish Coasts to those American Plantations being led thereunto by the guidance of the Divine Spirit and that seeing that all of them wanted wordly substance that they would not leâ— them want Friends but assist them herein that they might have a good Ship well provided for them to carry them into those places wherein they might mind this one thing to wit to shew with unanimous consent their Faith and Love in the Spirit in converting of People but at the same time to sustain their bodies by their daily Labour So great was the desire inclination and affection of this Man towards them that he forthwith promised them all manner of assistance and performed it and fitted them with a Ship for their purpose and did out of that large Portion of Land he had in Pensilvania assign unto them a matter of two thousand and four hundred Acres for ever of such Land as it was but such as might be manured imposing yearly to be paid a very small matter of rent upon every Acre and gave freely of his own and what he got from his friends as much as paid their Charge and Passage amounting to an hundred and thirty pounds sterling a very great gift and so much the more strange that that same Quaker should be so liberal and yet would not have his name mentioned or known in the matter But when these Men came into Holland they Sailed from thence directly for Pensilvania Zimmerman seasonably dies but surely it was unseasonable for them but yet not so but that they all did chearfully pursue their Voyage and while I am writing hereof I receive an account that they arrived at the place they aimed at and that they all lived in the same house and had a publick Meeting three times every week and that they took much pains to teach the blind people to become like unto themselves and to conform to their examples This Commotion and Disturbance made among the Lutherans has been not only noted here for a Commemoration of the present time but for a perpetual memorial of that people and I shall return to the Quakers and briefly say something of their passing into other Countries and the most remote parts of Europe and so shall conclude this book and the whole work therewith and this we must not and ought the lest to pass over because they also wonderfully extol but in words and Writing the doing of these Travellers and Itinerants almost beyond belief not indeed untruly but yet with so flattering an Estimation of these mens Labours and Troubles which they suffered for their Religion and had returned unto them for those Benefits and Rewards to wit for the Propagating of their Religion and the increase of it in those Countries and unless I mistake I confess I may mistake I see that in process of time as these men are very fond of their own Glory of whom some notwithstanding their external Plainness and Modesty swell with the leaven of Spiritual Pride that they will esteem all the sayings of their Predecessors as Oracles and their Actions Miracles and so Enhance and Magnify them as such and Boast and Glory that the same have done very great things every where and memorable to all Posterity A little before those first Emisaries went into Holland and the Adjacent Countries Edward Burroughs and Sam. Fisher went to Dunkirk a Sea-port Town in French Flanders to shew there to the People the Ignorance and Superstition of the Papacy But when they found none upon whom they thought they might work any thing they shortly without any delay return for England again flying from the Storm which they saw hanging over their Heads and seeing that they could do no good for the promotion of their Religion they were aâ—raid to do the same an injury in other things by their own misfortunes sufferings and