perhaps destruction The same year did William Cotton go to Calaiâ— a City on the Sea-coast of France six miles distant from Dunkirk with the same design as the other two had before-mentioned but not so skilful in the Language of the Country where entring into the great Church and viewing all things frowningly but holding his Peace he said at last that he was a sort of a new Guest and when after some time he was known to be an English-man he was led to the House of a certain Noble Scotch-man and being asked what he was he did not deny but that he was so and so There when the foresaid Scotch-man made himself to be his Interpreter to the People Cotten speaks a few words concerning the Idolatry and Corrupt Manners of the People which when he had done and that they contrived to do him an Injury he no sooner came to hear of it but bethinking himself he ought to take heed and to reserve his life for another necessity of dying as his Friends before had done he suddenly and without any manner of delay that he might disappoint the Consultations and Contrivances of his Enemies flies and makes the best of his way back again into England George Ball was the only person that penetrared into France and so that he never returned thence again and so it 's uncertain and unknown what he did or what became of him The Quakers think he perished somewhere in Prison None other after thesemen went on this design into France St. Crisp tryed this Experiment in that horrid and more than barbarous Persecution of the whole Reformed Churches in that Kingdom and in the dispersion of so many Thousands of men through other Reformed Countries of which we have not yet seen an end that he wrote a book and took care to send and deliver it to those men to try whether he could aâ—â—ect some of them so as to entertain a good Opinion of the Quakers Religion and joyn themselves to their Sect. It 's not to be doubted but that Book had its first beginning from Crisp but because it was written in French as it was to the French and that Crisp was ignorant of that Language or not well skilled therein itâ—s certain it was Translated and believed to have been much increased and published bâ— another hand And it 's no crime to think seeing the Style is so like unto that way of wâ—iâ—ing used by Peâ—n who is still the choicest Writer amongst the Quakers that he was that same Artificer It contains in it nothing concerning Religion It only puts those French in mind to consider with themselves wherefore God suffered such Calamities to befal them whether they were not the Consequent of their Soft and Depraved Education and Love to Earthly things and blind Obedience towards those to whose care they commited the Direction of their Consciences then that they should weigh what Good what Progress in Sanctity of Life those Calamities wrought in them which they endured with so much Lamentation Lastly That not contenting themselves with that Reformation which hitherto was instituted amongst them they should go on and do their endeavour to Finish and Consummate this begun Work But the Book was writ both in Respect to the Sentences Phrases and words very different from the English Mode and not only from that of the Quakers and to Conform to the Method and way of Writing in the French Tongue at this day when that Language is Arrived to its highest Maturity that there could be nothing in my Judgment writ more neatly and more congruous to the Genius and Temper of those People This Book the Quakers distributed gratis every where through the Countries where those French Refugees had Fled and in some places as the People were coming out of their Churches But there was not one found that we have heard of or came to understand that was induced by this Book to fall in with the Quakers Hester Bidley relates this Passage to have happened to her self a little before this time which every one is at liberty to believe as he pleases She went to the late Q. of England of happy memory and complains to her That it was very great grief of Heart to her as she was a Woman and a Christian that so great and tedious a War was waged between Christians and such great Calamities and Slaughters of Men which happened every day pierced her Heart and therefore she Exhorted the Queen to endeavour at least to bend her study this way for to end this War that Peace may be made and so gain great respect and affection from all The Queen who was of a most free and good Temper having given her her Answer she further desires That the Queen would grant her leave to go over into France saying she would advise and speak to the French King about the same affair and would have a Letter from the Queen to the same effect This the Queen refused and diswades her from the said enterprise urging that such a Journey and Business would be very difficult and dangerous yet for all this the woman through her importunity and earnest sollicitation got a pass from the said Queen's Secretary and seeing that a short space of time is tedious to a longing person she forthwith sets out and after various traverses comes into France and goes to Versailles and there coming to know that the late King of England was there she at first applies her self unto him as to one to whom he had been some years before known upon the like occasion and delivers unto him the Letter written by her to the French King the substance whereof was this That she being stirred by God the Supreme King of all that Illuminates this World pray'd the King to make his Peace with God and with the Nations he was at War with and put a stop to such an over-flowing and Rivulet of Blood that was shed King James having seen the Epistle sends the Woman to the Duke of Orleance to whom when she had come she delivered the Letter and said withal that she must speak with the King the Duke agrees to deliver the Letter but said she must not speak with the King whereupon the Woman full of Grief and Lamentation and with shedding many Tears did at last break forth into these words Am I permitted to speak with the King of Kings anâ— may not I speak with Man Should I tell this to our People in England they would believe what they are all of them already perswaded of that the King of France is so high and proud that none can speak with him Which passage when the King came to understand he in about three days after grants her liberty to come to his Presence the Room was full of Princes and Princesses Prelates and great Men the King Enters the same and having seen the Woman speaks to her with his Hat under his Arm whereupon she asked whether he was the King the King
was so forcibly incens'd that they could be broken by no Violence or Reproaches thinking then themselves to be truly happy when they were counted worthy to suffer Affliction for their Religion yea Death tho never so Ignominious and Cruel hence it comes that each Sect has its Martyrs This they also ambition'd as a holy sight running to embrace Death as the Crown of their Religion sign of faith Mark of Society witness of Communion Monument of their Name matter of perpetual fame and not only end of this Temporary life but also beginning of that which is Eternal Thus the Senate of Boston after many debates being unwilling to conclude of Leaders affair regarding the Actions not the words of the Criminal at length order'd him to be Indicted of Treason and pronounc'd him a Man whom they Judg'd and Declar'd to deserve to be sever'd from among the Number of the Living which sentence was accordingly executed upon the 14th day of March Then his head was lifted up on high on an unhappy Gibbet and he ended his life without any fear having spoken these words before some friends my God to thee I commend my just Soul After him the Court 's first enquiry was on Wenlock who seem'd to them to have drawn all severity on himself When no body doubted but Wenlock wou'd fall a victim to appease the Judges fury when he came to be tryed he disputed long and the Judges differ'd in their Thoughts and Intentions whereupon Wenlock did so much urge the Equity and Justice of discussing the affair according to the Rules of the English Laws arguing that those Laws were only made against Jesuits and not Quakers who might very justly expect Impunity altho they err'd in the sight of Men The Judges were at length so Inveigl'd and Entangled that they return'd to the old form of proceeding and committed the whole weight of the cause to the Judgment of twelve Sworn Jury-Men But they also having long delay'd Wenlock at length brought him in guilty of Death This was done on the 13th day of the 1st month of the Summer Season but the Execution of the sentence was some days delay'd John Currier an inhabitant of Boston having been whipt through three Towns before return'd by the same places to Boston to his Wife and Children whom he had left there being again whipt about the same round he was detain'd in Prison at Boston where he had resid'd In the opinion of himself and other Men he was to be branded with a burning Iron in the shoulder and there mark'd with the Letter R. to design him according to the English and Roman Laws that which we call a Rogue There were 28 more Prisoners there One of 'em condemn'd for all his life to remain in the Prison where he then was the rest were uncertain what shou'd become of 'em seeing themselves daily detain'd and delay'd As many things unexpected and unlook'd for in the life of Man falls oftner out than when we have hopes and expectations of the matter so while the Judges were so often remiss and the Quakers punishment so frequently delay'd and yet nothing was seen to retard it suddenly and beyond all Expectation it was appointed by the Magistrates Command that a new Law shou'd immediately take place to release Wenlock and the rest of the Prisoners from any punishment they were liable to by the old so that they might when they pleas'd be free'd from the Prison and for that purpose the doors were set open The signal being given they went out without Loitering Only Peter Pearson and Judith Brown were contrary to their hopes detain'd and whipt at a Cart. The cause of so unexpected a change was suppos'd to be the fear of the Magistrates foreseeing that the King and Nobles in Old England wou'd not well resent such Rigour and Cruelty and wou'd therefore take care to prevent it for the future Not long after King Charles being inform'd how the Quakers were treated in New-England by Rumors Messengers and their own complaints given in by Petition to the King and Parliament and that not only once but often sent immediately to the Governour of Boston and the rest of the fellow rulers of these Countreys and Colonies a Letter concerning the Imprison'd Quakers giving it to be carried by Sam. Sattoc a Quaker who had been an Inhabitant there but was thence banish'd as I mention'd already and now return'd there in a Ship commanded by one of his own perswasion The Letter was as follows C. R. to his dear and faithful Subjects since we 've Learn'd that many of our Subjects among you call'd Quakers to have been some Imprison'd others kill'd the rest as we 're told remaining fall in danger we thought good to signify our will and pleasure to you concerning that affair for the future Our will is therefore that if there be any Quakers among you whose Death Corporal punishment or Imprisonment you have order'd or may for the future have occasion to determine that you proceed no further in that affair but forthwith send 'em whether they be Condemn'd or bound into our Kingdom of England with an account of their particular Tryals and Faults that they may here be dealt withal according to our Laws and their Merits Herein this letter shall be your warrant Given from our Court at VVhitehall the 10th of Sept. 1661 the 13th year of our Reign By the Kings command William Morris This Epistle of the King so stay'd their Persecution that it was no Crime to be reckon'd a Quaker The Magistracy of Boston fearing the Kings displeasure for what they had done sent three into Old England Temple an Officer a Magistrate and Norton a Minister to acquaint the King with what they had done But Jurisdiction and Judgment was not therefore wholly stopt or taken away But being forbidden to inflict a final severity and punishment they compens'd it by the heavier Temporary torment making some by their Chastisement rather wish to die than endure so great and many Evils so often Tho I cou'd instance many examples of this I 'll only relate one or two partly to avoid Prolixity and partly because by one we may guess of the rest That year Ann Cotton a woman of sixty came with a design to live at Boston but was so far from being admitted that she was thrown into Goal Being at length wearied of her they took her to a Wood and after many wandrings she found occasion to go for England There she obtain'd a pattent from the K. allowing her to reside at Boston She renew'd her Journey and came boldly back to Boston But neither was she then admitted She went therefore to Cambridge where she was thrown into a dark Deu thrice lash'd then carry'd to a Remote and Desolate place where from wild Beasts she might be in daily danger of her life But returning by the same ways she went out she was also whipt as she had been before The following year being scarce expir'd Ann
Vicissitudes and Events befalling them The Original Mother and Nurse of the Quakers is England a Country once Famous for banishing and extirpating Heresie now the Seat and Centre of all manner of Errors The Quakers themselves Date their first Rise from the Forty Ninth Year of this present Century and 't was say they in the Fifty Second they began to increase to a considerable number from which time unto this day they and their Party have daily acquired more strength For while that Kingdom before the middle of this Century was engaged in an Intestine War occasioned by the Differences of Church-Government in that confused and dismal Juncture when both Church and State were miserably shatter'd and rent and Religion and Discipline were quite overturn'd innumerable multitudes of Men did on all hands separate from the Church and afterwards when their greatest Eye-sore and the imaginary Source of all their Evils the Episcopal Government of the Church was abolished and the Presbyterian Form of Church-Government which was what they so impatiently wish'd for and grounded all their hopes of Comfort and Peace upon was establish'd in its place yet even there were some whom nothing would satisfie that divided themselves into an innumerable Company of Sects and Factions of which this of the Quakers was one The first Ringleader Author and Propagater of Quakerism was one George Fox Some of that Party have not stood to give that Man after his Death the Title of The first and glorious Instrument of this Work and this Society the great and blessed Apostle So that as the Disciples and Followers of any Sect derive their Names from their Masters so might we call these Men Foxonians were it not unbecoming Christians to denominate themselves or others professing the Name of Christ from the Names of Men. I have many Accounts of George Fox in Writing in my hands partly dictated from his own Mouth to his Amanuensis a little before his Death partly obtain'd from his Friends and Followers and partly from others that were strangers both to George Fox and all his Society Which because they differ among themselves I shall only pick out what seems to be most probable and generally attested for it is difficult in such a case to distinguish between what is true what false George Fox was Born in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty Four in a Village called Dreton in Leicestershire His Father Christopher Fox and his Mother Mary Lago were of no considerable Fortune but gain'd their Living by Weaving They lived devoutly and piously were of the Reformed Religion and great Zealots for the Presbyterian Party which then obtain'd in England And this their Zeal for Religion was accounted Hereditary to the Family especially on the Mother's side whose Ancestors had in the days of Queen Mary given Publick Testimony to their constant and unmoveable Zeal for the Truth and Purity of Religion not only in giving their Goods and Possessions to be confiscated and patiently undergoing the loss of the same but in yielding their Lives for a Sacrifice to the flames of devouring Fire preferring the undefiled and lasting Crown of Martyrdom to a sinful Life This George Fox while yet a Child discovered a singular Temper not coveting to Play with his Brethren or Equals nor giving himself to any of those things that take with Children but shunning their Company and disdaining their Childish Customs he loved to be much alone spoke but little or if at any time he chanc'd to speak both his Countenance and Speech bewray'd a sadness of Spirit his words were more Interrogatory shewing a great deal of Attention and Consideration and making many Observations unto all which was added Modesty in all his Actions and a diligent pursuit of the early Rudiments of Piety and Devotion so that even in his Infancy his Actions and Demeanor seemed to presignifie those Qualities of Mind which in progress of time he discover'd on the Publick Stage of the World Having spent his Infancy at home he was then sent to School to learn to Read Englâ—sh and to Write In which Study he succeeded as the other Country Boys and those of the meaner sort use to do having attained so much as that he could read Print pretty well but Writing he could read but little of neither could he write except very rudely And this was the only Piece of Learning the attain'd to all his Life long For neither then nor any time after when arriv'd at greater Maturity of Years did he ever apply himself to any Liberal Study So that he not only knew no other Language save his Mother-Tongue but even in that he was so little expert and so ill qualified either for speaking or writing all the whole course of his Life that what he understood perfectly well he could not explain or enlarge upon in any tolerable good English and far less could he deliver it in Writing in so much that he oft-times made use of Amanuenses and others who being well acquainted with his Thoughts and greater Masters of Language might put them into a better Dress And this I thought worth the Remarking because a great many Books are extant in George Fox's Name writ not only in terse English but also in Latin and interlarded with Sentences of many other Languages which are but little known to the Learned World the Names of the Interpreters or Methodizers being concealed Which whether it was an effect of great Simplicity in him or of his Ambition and Ostentation I shall not determine only it is plain that he had not the gift of Tongues George Fox having spent this part of his Life at School began then to look out for some way of Living and providing for the future part of his Life and accordingly concluded to betake himself to some Mechanick Trade that being necessary for the use and accommodation of Man could never be wanted and consquently never fail of answering the end he undertook it for such as making the Ornaments and cloathing of Humane Bodies Amongst which he chose to himself the Making of Shooes applying himself to that Art the remaining part of his Life in Nottingham the chief Town of the County of Nottingham bordering upon Leicestershire the place of his Nativity He being then a Young Man did behave himself Honestly and Modestly amongst Men walking devoutly towards God keeping close to that sense of Religion and Worship taught him by his Parents He dwelt much upon the Scriptures and when at leisure from the Exercise of his Trade as also when about it taking this advantage of his sedentary Work he Meditated upon ruminated in his Mind and recollected what he had read He had an Infallible Memory for retaining any thing he knew especially what he read in the Bible never slip'd out of his remembrance And having thus incessantly continued in the Study of the Scriptures from his Infancy to his latter end he became so exactly versed in them that there was no Remarkable Saying
the certain ruine of his Soul and to the latter a risk of losing his Life but my Fighting is to abstain from all these Quarrels Wars and Arms nay not only to abstain from them but to conquer and subjugate those Passions and Lusts from whence they arise I am a Soldier waging War and fighting but so as to provide for the Peace and Safety of my self of you and all Men both here in this Humane Society and also with God Which Practice would to God both ye and all the World would study to imitate Wherefore I desire of you that ye give me no more trouble of this Nature and that ye be aware of running your selves into a worse condition than ye are in already lest by indulging your selves this liberty of sinning against God the Emperor of the World his wrath be kindled against you and when the time for Vengeance shall come and the Door of Mercy shut up ye perish for ever This Discourse was so far from putting a stop to the fury of his Adversaries that it spurr'd on their fierceness and cruelty the more which they express'd not in Imprisoning him as before but in casting him into a nasty stinking Dungeon digged under Ground where Thieves and Malefactors were kept But after other six Months he got out from thence also And this Affliction did not in the least scare him from prosecuting his Design but he still became bolder and brisker Propagating his Doctrine not only in the Counties of Nottingham Darby and Leicester which were the Theatre and Stage where this great Engine did first appear but through all York-shire Lancaster and the vast Tract of Lands called Westmorland in all which places he unweariedly preached his Doctrine and Discipline being followed by vast numbers of the People This is certain that none of all the Quakers ever preached or discoursed so often and unto so many different Hearers as George Fox and he himself never made so many Discourses as in these places and at this time But because he could not be present every where to speak Face to Face he now began to write Letters to several Societies and likewise to particular Men Instructing and Admonishing them in what he imagined most necessary to be known and practised And to this day are to be seen in many peoples hands whole bundles of Letters wrote by him to the same Persons Though he did not express any great strength of Discourse or Reasoning in these his Letters for that he both wrote such Characters as were not easie to be read and also in so rude and simple a Style sometimes most difficult and intricate that it is a wonder any Man so much exercised in speaking and discoursing should have been the Author of them The first Letter he wrote was in the Year Fifty to his Friends which I shall here insert It was wrote Originally in English and is translated from the Original into Latin which done from the Latin into English again for the Original is not in our hands runs thus The Lord is King over all the Earth wherefore all ye Nations praise and magnifie your King in true Obedience purity of Holiness and Sincerity O! consider in true Obedience how ye should know the Lord with Vnderstanding mark and consider in silence in submission of Mind and ye shall hear the Lord speaking to you in your Minds His Voice is sweet and pleasant His Sheep hear his voice and will give ear to no other And when they hear his voice they rejoyce and obey and also sing for joy O! their hearts are filled with Eternal Triumphs They sing forth and praise the Eternal God in Zion Their Joy shall none take from them Glory be to the Lord for ever G. F. In this same Fiftieth Year Elizabeth Hooton born and living in Nottingham a Woman pretty far advanced in Years was the first of her Sex among the Quakers who attempted to imitate Men and Preach which she now in this Year commenced After her Example many of her Sex had the confidence to undertake the same Office This Woman afterwards went with George Fox into new-New-England where she wholly devoted her self to this Work and after having suffered many Affronts from that People went into Jamaica and there finished her Life But I return again to Fox While he thus continued so forward and zealous for Preaching his Doctrines his condition was very various strange Events and Accidents falling out of which I think it convenient to give you a short Account It happened in Yorkshire in a Town towards the East Part of it called Beverlar that he went into the Church being mightily mov'd in Spirit where he first kept himself silent till the Minister had finish'd his Sermon then before all the People he thunder'd out his extemporary and reviling Harangues and presently convey'd himself away thus he escaped safe and unpunish'd Some few days after that at Crantsick as the Minister had just read the Text of his ensuing Discourse being a Man of considerable Worth and Fame he fell upon him with a Discourse the only purport of which was to express his contempt of the Dignity Order and Religion of this worthy Divine Which Action might have brought him into extream danger for every body almost accounted it a signal of so great Impudence and Insolence that they thought no Vengeance too great nor no Resentment too high for so villainous and injurious a Crime yet he escap'd unpunish'd But I come to give you a larger Account of a certain Sermon of his Being in Leicester his Native Country he had occasion to Travel in that Country with some of his Friends He spyes from afar a certain Town not knowing which it was but having asked of his Friends comes to understand that it was Lichfield Thither he presently resolves to go and pronounce Curses against all the Citizens high or low or of whatever degree for they were all equally unknown to him While I call to remembrance the Ancient Annals of the British Affairs it comes into my Mind that at this very Town in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour there was a great many Christian Martyrs miserably afflicted and tortured with all manner of exquisite Torments And then in the Reign of Henry the Sixth King of England there was a Battel fought betwixt the King and the Earl of Salisbury near to this place in which great numbers of Men were slain on both sides and the King's Army almost totally routed So that on both these occasions this Ground was covered with the Blood of so many Men. And besides in Fox's own time while that Fatal Civil War was raging in England betwixt the King and the People in the same Fields and this very same Town there was a great deal of Humane Blood shed all which Fox was not ignorant of Thither I say did he presently direct his course and because he did not know the right Road for he had now parted from his Friends being impatient
them to take good heed what Religion they profess also to send hither and thither to invite all that feared God to come into the Inn and hear him speak or dispute about religious Matters In which Course he gave the People Occasion of putting Tricks upon him and was several times so serv'd as the following Examples can Testifie which I should have taken for Fabulous and thought unworthy to be here inserted were they not confirm'd not only by the Relations of People that were present but by his own Mouth to his Followers and handed down to Posterity by his own Writings as memorable and true At Farnham after having preach'd somewhere in that Town he retires to an Inn desiring the Master of the Inn if he knew of any pious good People to give them Advertisement to come to him in the Inn Accordingly many came some Men of Honesty and Religion others more subtile and cunning than good or religious They all heard him preach and express himself with a great multitude of Words After he had ended most of them go away and some few stay desiring the Master of the Inn to cause a Fire to be made in the very same Room where he had preach'd for it was now cold Weather and to bring them something to drink In fine they sate there drinking all the rest of the day notwithstanding all the Entreaties and Solicitations Fox us'd to perswade them to be gone and demean themselves as good and sober Men and at length went away without paying their Reckoning which they left upon Fox who had invited them thither The Tapster came and call'd for the Reckoning from Fox who declin'd such an unjust thing using many Reasons to the contrary The Man who minded his Money most pressed him the more to pay it At length Fox seeing that he could not perswade him to desist paid the whole Sum writing a Letter to the Magistrates full of Wrath and Indignation warning them to take notice what manner of Citizens they had and to take some Measures for reclaiming them from the like Insolencies The next day he lights at an Inn in Lemnan which he found full of Stage-players Musicians and Quack-doctors After he and his Companions had put up their Horses and refresh'd themselves they agreed upon some Problems among themselves of the Natures of Diseases and the use of Medicine and towards the Evening presented the same to that Company in order to be consider'd upon and answer'd while they lodged in the House They rejected their Proposal flouting at them for Mad-men but Fox and his Companions took this ill and caused the Theses to be stuck upon the Mercat-Cross to be subjected to publick View after they were gone At London Fox was not so forward as elsewhere for he did not disturb the Publick Churches nor raise any Tumult or Crowd in any place but behaved himself more cautiously than he used or desired to do Before his coming thither many of great Note had been converted by the Ministry and Influence of Burrough And these frequently assembled together with Fox who had many Discourses among them and to the People but after all his utmost Efforts he gain'd but very few new Proselites which was much contrary to his Expectation having fill'd himself with great hopes of the Success of this Journey However he contents himself to stay a while longer in this City where he could see and hear so many things and be inform'd of every thing done in the whole Kingdom as also see and observe what opinions Men entertain'd concerning the Progress and State of his Religion all over the World At length having view'd enough of that City and satisfied himself he makes for the Country There was about this time a great Multitude of People in Wales who being of an unsettled and fluctuating Temper and fond of every thing New or Singular abandon'd their former Religion and professed Quakerism which Conversion was chiefly wrought by Howgil Vp-John Wilkinson and others Thither did Fox direct his Course though quite ignorant of the Welsh Language At first when he came and happened to preach separately from his brethren his Labour was all or most part in vain since so many of his Auditors either understood not his Dialect or were quite ignorant of his Language for his Mother-Tongue was the only Language he knew But afterwards when he took into his Society some of the Natives of that Country all the Progress he could make was that he preached sometimes among those of his own Perswasion and those of his Associates that understood English explained it in Welsh to the rest So that these his Interpreters were more Instrumental in propagating this Interest than he among whom the chiefest was Vp-John who had for a long time resided in this Country applying himself diligently to the Conversion of those People of whom he perswaded not a few to be Quakers These Interpreters were Fox's Predecessors in this Country who being back'd by him run up and down in the Country the Cities the Streets the High-Roads c. inviting and exhorting all Men to repent and these their clamorous Harangues had so much effect upon these People that no Country in England was so fertile of New Converts to Quakerism as Wales And thus did the Sect Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers in so short a time spread over all England to the year one thousand six hundred and fifty eight in which Year these Men proceeded to that height of boldness that they appointed a General Assembly out of the whole Realm to be held in the House of John Cross being a Place that was large and capacious for that purpose in the County of Bedford thereby as it were shewing and upbraiding their Enemies to what increase both of Number and Strength they were now arrived and seeing that they had not before despaired of the Progress and Improvement of their Affairs that they were also now full of hopes to bring them to perfection and altogether assured thereof There did the Messengers of each particular Congregation meet being accompanied with a great number of others who came not to speak but to see only Here were such Matters transacted as referred to their spiritual Laws and tended to the upholding of their Communities and the Council was celebrated for three whole Days I have said a little before how Howgil and Burroughs were the first that brought the Opinions of the Quakers into Ireland and particularly to Waterford This was done in the Year fifty five In the very same Year were these Men followed towards the carrying on the same Work by one Man whose Name was Lancelot Wardal and three Women Rebecca Ward Elizabeth Fletcher and Elizabeth Marshal But those for a long time made so little Progress in their Affairs that the Religion of the Quakers was universally unknown there that the very Name it self came not or at leastwise nothing but the Name within the Verge of their Knowledge The foresaid
looking about to see how he might get up into the Pulpit but when he could not find a way to it he determines with himself to get up to the top of the Altar and there to do his business but as the croud was also here in his way and obstructed him and that he in the mean time was diligently considering of every thing about him and standing all the time with his Hat on while all the rest were singing some of them when the Psalm was ended take his Hat off his Head and deliver it into his Hand He put it on again another pulls him by the Hair and takes it off a second time then comes the Clerk and notwithstanding his Refractoriness and Contempt of Religious things leads him away gently but he believing and being much assured that the Spirit of God would have him do this he had contrived and projected seeing he had failed of his purpose this day returns thither the next Lord's Day fully animated as he thought with Divine and Heavenly Zeal and when he was now come nigh and that the Minister was going up into the Pulpit he drives forwards and being as it were stung with Fury rushed headlong over the Peoples Seats and briskly gets up into the Pulpit pulls out his Shooe-maker's Tools and begins to sow Upon which comes up a strong hardy Man and thrusts the Beast down where being received by many below better than he deserved does notwithstanding struggle and endeavour to get up again into the same place until at length being driven out of the Church after he had been sufficiently insulted over by the Boys and received some blows he was carryed before the Lord Mayor who orders him as being an Instrument of such notorious Impieties and come not from the dregs of the People but from an Hog-stye and fit for such a place into such another and as being unworthy the use of the Light there to be kept in Chains and Darkness I shall say more of this Man in another place And now seeing that in the City of London and every where else the Quakers Meetings were forbid and constantly hindered as is wont to be done to such Conventicles the Soldiers did many times being accompanied with the next Neighbours between whom otherwise there is no strict Union and Conjunction commonly in England break into the Quakers Houses even when they were gathered together in a Religious manner and without fraud and took and carryed away some of them spoiled others of their Cloaths others they punched beat and dragged by the hair of the Head and handled some of them in such a manner that they seemed to be left for dead by them A great many Men with a multitude of Boys got together at a place called Sabridford in Heresordshire and twice set upon the Quakers while they were peaceably attending at their Devotion and besides the opprobrious words they used to them added all the Obscenity and Wickedness almost that could be For they broke the Windows Walls and Posts of the Door laid hold on the Men threw Stones at them stinking rotten Eggs Dirt and even Humane Excrements which Men do not care to see much less to handle risted them and rent and tore their Cloaths and tormented them other ways And when the Quakers alledged these things and made them plainly to appear before the Magistrates they complained that there were none of those Rioters either called much less made an Example of Such things might be daily seen not only in some but in all Counties but while these things were doing these Men supposing that their Complaints would be to no purpose before these Inferiour Magistrates they Address themselves to the Supream Assembly of the Nation and set forth in their Petitions That for six Years last past there were within the Kingdom of England above a Thousand and Nine Hundred Persons of their Society shut up in Prisons and that there were yet this Year an Hundred and Forty of them so confined and that One and Twenty had died there adding the Names of each of them withal the places where they suffered and the causes for which every one suffered in demonstrating of which they could not yet leave off their old way of Accusation as well by concealing the greater Crimes and more notorious Offences that had brought many of them under such Confinements as by aggravating and exaggerating too much the many lighter Evils which they suffered and often-times taking and amplifying a light Scratch a Pinch and blue Spot for a grievous Torment and bloody Wound which two things seem to me may be well observed in most of the Monuments which these Men have left of their Sufferings for indeed I cannot allow that these Authors have been so often used by their Adversaries as they say so as that they were left for half dead for no Example can be produced by them of any of their Death 's the same moment or in a short time after and when all of them even then when they are at best seem to be half dead and without their Senses nor this that they should so often speak loosely and ambiguously and use those Forms to which their Cases and Law-Suits are accommodated which they themselves also understand to be the Gins and Snares of the Fact and Law and which George Fox in such cases as these calls huge Monsters whose Mouths are as wide as Hell It is a much greater sign of Community and Communion to make the Misfortunes of our Enemies one with our own and to look upon their Calamities as if they befel our selves but seeing that in time some out of such a Number of the Quakers as were shut up in Prisons by reason of the languishing of their Bodies could not hold out as they would and others grew very sick and besides very low in their Spirits when this came to be known among all the other Quakers every one began to look upon and take care not so much of himself as of another and the whole Society and so every one offered himself if it might be allowed to go and Ransom those sick and infirm Friends and Companions from that wretched place and to become Prisoners in their room and having at a certain time resolved hereupon an Hundred and Sixty Four of these Men of their own accord and without being stirred thereunto by other Exhortations go all together to the Parliament and Present this Humble Petition unto them drawn by George Fox who was not yet himself one of these Sureties in this rude style many of them at the same time speaking to him against it and desiring that some Words and Sentences therein might be amended which was told me by a Principal Man among and one that was of the number of those Sureties and after it was written down as he dictated they subscribed every one their Names to it Friends You that are called the Parliament of this Nation we out of the Love we bear to our
from him that he even here and there subscribed his Name to every Page and confirmed by his Testimony that it contained and taught every Language by which Work and Labour Fox now shewed plainly the thing not to Boys but to all Men that were like Boys in Ignorance herein and untaught them that wicked way of speaking But when some objected against Fox his Ignorance in these Languages and that he was upbraided herewith as if he were mad he wiped it off thus with this new Joke That he knew only as much of Languages as was sufficient for him The Year Sixty Two was Remarkable for the Commotion and Change of many things to the great Inconveniency Trouble and Incommoding of the Quakers and went so far in the Times that followed that the Ruine of the whole Party and Race of them seemed to be at hand for the Solemn League and Covenant between the King and People of Britain and between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland than which League there was nothing before looked upon to be more Holy Just and Desirable no greater Foundation both of the Regal Dignity and the Peoples Liberty nor a greater Bond to gather and unite together the whole Body of the Church and to establish the Religion of both Kingdoms was now looked upon as it were an Antichristian piece of Work and the Spring of all Evil and there was the preceding Year even by the Parliament's Command rased out of all the Publick Records both in Church and State and at London in several places burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman This Year was the Episcopal Order and Authority which had always been the Spring and Original of many Brawls and Calamities was every where set up and establish'd there being some even of the Presbyterians who now were desirous of this Power and Glory which they had before withstood or when offered them did not reject them upon this Consideration that seeing they would endeavour to be good Men in the discharge of this Office they were afraid if they did refuse the same lest such should be preferred who would not carry themselves in that Station with that Moderation required of them The King now which had been the fear of good Men a long time and what was now looked upon as a new Prognostick and sad Omen upon the Kingdom contracted a Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal a Lady so given up and devoted to the Religion and Ceremonies of the Popish Church that she was inferiour to none of the Queens or Princesses of the Age for that Superstition At last the King after he thought he had established his House and Kingdom and made all things sure did more and more instead of the Care Labour and Continency he ought to have exercised give himself up to Ease and Luxury and left the Management of most things to his Counsellors and Ministers of State especially to those who were mostly his Familiars and Companions all which change wrought no small Perturbation Trouble Fear and Trembling in the Minds of all those whose Religion differed from the Religion and Constitution that were now thus revived again he who had persecuted another did even now persecute himself and whom many were before afraid of was not now without his own fears and had need to take care of himself and therefore from such a Commotion as this others became also afraid who were otherwise more to be feared and from this their Fear arose a Suspicion and hence Discourses and at last a Rumor that there was a multitude of Enemies and Conspirators in the City and elsewhere who laid in wait for the King and were ready utterly to overturn the whole frame of this new Government Though many did believe this to be an Evil Report cunningly contrived by those who looked upon such a Report to be the best way for them to arrive at that which they could not hope to obtain in Peaceable Times Now as there was nothing transacted by wicked and profligate Men of which the Quakers were not esteemed either the Authors Promoters Parties or knew of it or consented to it so here also these Men came to be suspected of this Crime when at the same time there was no certain sign of any Conspiracy or Sedition contrived by any sort of Men and not the least Foot-steps of it by the Quakers and so there was a Report quickly spread abroad that these were such Men as had embrued themselves in such great Wickednesses and that they had associated themselves and daily met together to that purpose Of which things when they did not of their own accord clear and vindicate themselves which they thought they ought not to do without certain Accusers nor could do without some Prejudice thence the same Suspicion and Report increased and by this means the People who were not indeed called to answer at the Bar because that would be done upon too slight a Conjecture contracted the real hatred of all and became in great danger and were impunedly troubled all manner of ways by them who because they were not hindred thought they were allowed so to do Now the King had commanded that the Quakers of London and Middlesex should take the Oath which seemed to be the strictest tye for the Testifying of their Affection and engaging their Faithfulness towards the King and Kingdom and that the Judges should shew favour to none But if the Quakers would not Swear in pursuance to his Proclamation they should hold their Meetings no where then follows another Law for the prevention of Seditious Assemblies That no Meeting should be held under a shew and pretence of Divine Worship that was not approved and ratified by the Liturgy of the Church of England nor more Persons meet together at one place than five But and if any above the Age of Sixteen Years and upwards did transgress herein and being a Subject of the Kingdom such an one should be punished for the same This Law seemed to have been enacted for the restraint of all Sects but did more especially appertain to the Quakers and none could but understand that it was a Snare for them and rended to Shipwrack their Affairs So that it came hereby to pass that such of these Men as were now imprisoned were for this reason more closely kept and used more severely by the Gaolers even by those who before seemed kind unto them As for the rest of them they had one Tryal and Affliction upon another and the same were every where openly not only when they were met together in the streets entertained with all manner of Ignominy and Reproach but were also enforced to abstain from their Religious Assemblies and when notwithstanding all they proceeded they were harrassed by Soldiers and fined sometimes entertained with more than an Hostile Fury and thrown into Prison and being required to Swear were upon their refusal detained in Prison or thrust into Working-Houses among wicked and profligate wretches who had
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
into and continued in Prison at Aberdeen for many months He then wrote a book of the immediate Revelation of Christ in Man which is a Summary of all their Doctrine the next year W. Penn on the same score was put in Custody at London Penn and some of his Companions had a Conference with the Presbyterians touching their Doctrine of the Trinity and Justification of Sins wherein neither party could convince the other by Argument Nay at last not so much as hear each other speak When this had given rise to a great Confusion Penn being firm to his purpose and restless till he had effected it betakes himself to a Retirement for Writing Shortly after he publishes a book shaking these three Presbyterian Doctrines pretending to fight with the Testimonies of Scripture and Reason Implanted into the knowledge and understanding of Men viz. That there is one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons that there 's no Remission of sins without full Satisfaction and that Men are Justified by imputed Righteousness I make choice of those words which Penn does in English as suited to the proper Idiom of that Tongue which now others when they speak of Theological Subjects do use These words I suppose he the rather pitch'd upon because the Presbyterians snarl'd at his former expreâ—â—ions about the first Article concerning the separate persons in the Trinity as if Penn had been more verbal than real in his Controversies This did not only inspire the Presbyterians but also the English Clergy with anger and hatred which broke out into Reproaches that his book show'd his mind and what he was viz. A denier of the Trinity and so not at all to be suffer'd amongst Christians Upon these Clamours Penn was Imprisoned where he wrote a book call'd The Crown not without the Cross handling the Actions of Life and not Articles of Religion not barren of things or swell'd with words but fruitful of matter ponderous and sententious for its phrases and polish'd with the Ornaments of orat'ry so that his Enemies Scruple not to praise his skill and industry Penn was set free by the Kings desire who also because danger seem'd to threaten his fortune which he had Considerably in England and Ireland by the endeavouring of some so to shorten his wings that they might ne're again grow did so protect him as to prevent the seizure and confiscation of his goods About this time by his Rashness Boldness and Impudence Salomon Eccles felt the smart of what he drew on himself which he might have avoided This Zealot whom in the former book from a Musician we made Quaker so Contemn'd the sweeter Children of the Muses as to expose their Instruments to the cruelty of the flames He was no sooner made Preacher than he Acted his part with such eagerness as answer'd the expectation of his own Party and fill'd the Ears and Tongues of the contrary In the year 67 he wrote a Dialogue concerning the excellency and use of the Art of Musick betwixt himself as opponent and the Defendents of that Art whom he brings in speaking and so silenc'd as to raise himself Trophies of Praise and Victory The next year he published a Challenge daring Presbyterians Independents Baptists Papists and all other Doctors and Pastors to try by this Experiment with him who were the true Worshippers of God That without either meat or drink for seven Days and Nights they might devout themselves to watching and praying and they on whom Celestial fire should fall down might be esteem'd to receive that Eternal Testimony for the true Religion that 's acceptable to God But there was none found so frothy or vain as to enter the Lists with so foolish a Challenger tho these words pass'd unresented what followed the next year had not the same success For Eccles in a town of Galloway in Scotland knowing of a Popish Meeting at some distance puts a Chassing-dish with fire and brimstone on his head and goes to their assembly with three of his Associates and giving the fire to his Friends who received it on their knees on the blazing of the flame he denounces to all the sudden danger of being devour'd with fire if they did not presently forsake their Idolatry Returning from thence into the City and repeating his famous precept and sign that they might also learn the wisdom to amend who rewarded his Sermon and sign no better than with blows and ill words and then with a Jayl upon his Enlargement and return to London he Commences the like Admonition in Bartholomew-fair to the whole Croud in the Ring of the Rabble but a sharp Man attacking him had disarm'd him of his shield and given him a mark to put him in mind of that time and place had not another of some note and honesty defended Eccles with his naked Sword and deliver'd him from the hands of the enraged Multitude The Quakers themselves take such Actions to be unwarrantable and inconsiderate not long after Eccles went to Ireland and at Cork in the great Church the service being ended he thunders that solemn Scripture some so often abuse The Prayers of the Wicked are an Abomination to the Lord. Whence being dragg'd into Prison and then whipt through all the streets by the common Hangman he was thrown out of the City as a Vagabond and factious fellow whose deprav'd mind ill custom and foolish humour stir'd him up to pervert and trouble the people Afterward Eccles went into New England where at a Sermon being greatly mov'd with anger he Prophesied a Judgment as ordain'd by God to fall on a certain person within a time he prefix'd but the falsehood of his Oracle giving him experience of his vanity and afterward to confess by a publick writing the folly and error or his own Rashness having at length imitated an Ingenuous Man in this for as it 's best to do nothing to be repented of so it's next best by Repentance to repair what 's done amiss Whilst the Don 's of the Quakers were thus punished In England Scotland and especially in Ireland their whole Society met likeways with great opposition for refusing to forbear their assemblies which having mention'd already what I find to be observable I shall here content my self barely to Name Fox this year went into Ireland yet did little there but visit his friends and advise each of 'em to what he Judg'd for their Advantage Fox having thence return'd in England and till then by reason of troublesome Incumbrances been oblig'd to lead a single life having now got some liberty and ease grew weary of the lonelyness of a Solitary bed tho otherways free and pleasant in it self and in this mind he addrest himself to Margaret the Widdow of L. Fell his old Friend with whom he had lodg'd and afterward by the advice of both their Friends he marry'd her neither to supply the beggery of the one nor gratify the lust of the other and therefore they were less
to escape whither soever they could But then the Horsemen spur'd after them with their Horses and running upon the Men and Women as they were scatter'd and also upon those that abode in their place insulting over the young and feeble they struck them upon their bodies and faces with their Pistols as furiously as they could The footmen pouring themselves out of the house upon the people thus ensnar'd and invergl'd follow'd after and beat them with their Musquets and Pikes so violently that some of them flew in peices out of their hands Neither did they forbear retreat or withdraw till more than twenty of the poor Quakers were wounded Eight days after the Quakers again met and must likewise by a new force of Horse and Foot be assaulted ejected and put to flight surrounded and oppress'd and the ground fructify'd by the effusion of their blood here there were twice as many wounded as before That day seven-night the Quakers not leaving of their assembling a party of foot and horse came up to the house One of them going in with a pale full of dirt and Excrements maliciously emptied it upon the Innocent Multitude not content with this putting them from their House and Meeting they follow'd and loaded them with so many wounds that they were within a little of having rob'd 'em of their life Some of the Countrey people being mov'd with Compassion at the sad Countenance Lamentation and tears of Men they had always found both harmless and blameless did succour and shelter them with the sanctuary of their houses But those Malignant rakes finding the way even thither broke in and pull'd 'em out and threatning some holding their Weapons o're their heads and cutting the womens Cloaths handled them with a detestable Impudence and obscenity There was one woman with Child taken as she fled whom a Souldier rudely smote twice on the belly and once on the breast with his Musquet and another threw dirt in her mouth whereby she was so frighted that afterwards she miscary'd But the Zeal of the Quakers in Meeting or Souldiers in persecuting was not as yet chill'd For they no sooner return'd to their usual Meeting than the Souldiers follow'd them as they had done formerly afflicting them with their wonted Rudeness so that the very Earth was re-sprinkled with their Blood and Twenty or more of them were inhumanely wounded which a certain Countrey Officer seeing and being troubled at a Man very discreet for his office or at least not always so rough and rigid advis'd the Souldiers not to persist in such wild rigour and unreasonable rudeness hoping he might easily obtain what he desired The Souldiers were so far from regarding his request they fell upon him so forcibly that they almost broke his pate There were more examples of cruelty done at this time in several places elsewhere yet the Quakers never assembled at night nor in a Solitary place lest they should seem to attempt any thing unworthy of Light and whereof they should be affraid yet they met sometimes more cautiously and timerously and with as little stir as they possibly could not because they were disrespected Vilified and Calamitously treated but sometimes by reason of the greatness of the danger they forbore the times and places of their Assembling Sometimes they were deny'd the use of their own houses where they us'd to conveen frequently and numerously the Magistrate commanding the Doors and Entrances to be clos'd up with brick and morter to prevent their admission But they thinking themselves Masters of their own houses open'd 'em without Command or Counsel of any other and went into their Meetings as they formerly had done The Qnakers observed this Year that there was above Eight Thousand of their Sect made Prisoners since the King's Return whereof Six Hundred were as yet detain'd Things being in this condition about the Year Seventy Two a Remarkable War happen'd betwixt the Confederate Kings of Brittain and France and the States of the United Provinces in which War the Dutch had the better as 't was thought both by Sea and Land not only by withstanding so great Armies of two such potent Kings and two Bishops more intent on the destruction than preservation of Men but also snatch'd a considerable victory from 'em both King Charles fearing lest the War abroad might create some matter of sedition at home that he might preserve ease and concord amongst his subjects granted not only protection to Men of all Religions and consequently to the Quakers Papists being only excepted but also the free exercise of their several perswasions whereby the Quakers from a tempestuous storm were brought into a safe Haven The Remembrance of the past pleasure of the present and hope of the future time induc'd them to compose restore and accomplish the common concern of their neglected affairs But this rest and tranquillity was of no greater Continuance than till matters were adjusted twixt the Dutch and English for in two year's space the war being ended the Jars twixt ancient friends and brethren easily kindled and quickly quenched did not only serve to wash away the strife but renew and confirm their former love So the Quakers were toss'd with new dangers again as when another storm suddenly falls upon those that anchor'd in the safety of an happy Haven and drives 'em from the hopes of the expected shore into the great and dangerous roarings of the deep Having hitherto related concerning these Men almost all things I thought worthy to be read or repeated since nothing follows much differing from what we 've heard I shall run through what remains as orderly as briefly Geo. Fox having now travers'd England more than one and thinking he had spent study and Labour enough in endeavouring to declare and advance his Religion not contenting himself to work only at home began to think upon going further abroad there to commence and carry on the same design In the year 71 passing over the wide Sea he went to New-England in America to visit friends of the same Doctrine and Discipline encouraging and confirming 'em to retain and preserve the faith they had receiv'd piously and inviosably Then he went in to the Barmuda's Islands from thence to Jamaica Merry-Land Virginia Nova-Cesarea Insula-Longa and to the ouâ—most Rhodes from which last Island in the year 72 4th month and 19th day he wrote a journal in form of an Epistle and sent it here to his friends in England whereof I have a Copy But I and nothing else written there but the Climates Seasons Tracts Borders and Regions upon which they went out where they found or formâ—d Societies of their persuasion whom they met every where especially in Virginia and Rhodes how cheerfully and kindly they discours'd and entertain'd him In Virginia he speaks of one or two of the Rulers of that Wild and Barbarous people who came to a certain assembly of the Quakers and tho much unacquainted with the English Language behaved themselves to
faithful account how the whole matter was manag'd Thus the Quakers were remitted to Goal and more Barbarously treated by the Keepers them formerly there being no Room left for Prayer or price to obtain the least bodily Convenience The Quakers not being fully content to have these affairs known only to those of their own City did in many writings publish and divulge 'em to the Perusal and Remembrance of the rest of the Nation About this time many Quakers at London for not forbearing their publick Meetings and refusing to pay the sines they ow'd on that score were thrown into Prison and forc'd there to remain In the mean time the sharping crew of Informers took away their goods wheresoever they could light on 'em not according to the summ was laid on but as they pleas'd to value them which was at little enough Among the Prisoners there were two Quaker Preachers W. Bringly and Fr. Stamper from the latter was taken 49 lib. ster and more At Wortham in Suffolk Jo. Bishop a Countreyman owed the Parish Minister 8 lib. for two years Tythes which when he did not pay the Minister got out a Judgment for 76 lib. to be Levy'd out of his Horses Sheep Cows and Oxen. While the Kingdom was in this State toss'd with the storms of Persecution and trouble King Cha. II. dyed and Ja. the D. of York succeeded in his stead The 7th of that Name In the year 1685 being install'd into the Throne the first thing he Levelled the force of his desires at was the Introducing and advancing the Popish Religion that he might open the way for and abate the envy of others against it he granted a Common Priviledge to all to exercise their Religion according to their pleasures all being tickled with the specious Allurement that were formerly hated because of their perswasion ran as it were upon the first Allarum to Congratulate by their special and particular Addresses the tenderness of his Majesties grace and favour and throw themselves into his Protection and Patronage The Quakers also all tho less Courtly and more rustick in a certain writing very Civil and Complaisant emitted by the order of a General Meeting gave him thanks and gratefully laid hold of his Benevolence About that time were detain'd in the Prisons of England 1460 Quakers these all by the coming out of the Kings Edict had Liberty to go out and live as they pleased and afterward when 200 and more were thrown into Prison In the year following they had the same impunity and liberty Moreover that the King might avoid all suspicion of severity and attain the Popular praise of Benignity he gave in charge to his Courtiers and Servants that none of 'em should dare to trouble a Quaker tho he stood or pass'd by the King without being discovered Nay more he us'd sometimes to come to them when he knew they desir'd to see and speak with him finding them asham'd or affraid to approach he prevented and Anticipated the subject of their desire A thing seldom to be met with in the Court It was pleasant and facetious when a certain Quaker drew nigh to the King who tho the Quaker was covered yet discovered himself he desir'd the King not to do it but was answer'd wherever there is the person of a King there must of neceâ—â—ty always one be discovered Thus the King was ingraciated into the Quakers favours having extraordinarily kindled their Love and Affection Yet some thought their reason was therefore bestow'd that they might be so wise as to look further then they cou'd see with their Eyes did not prize the Kings bounty and facility so highly putting a great difference betwixt the effect of a free and unbyass'd Inclination and Product of a self-seeking Contrivance and Design and knowing the measure of the Kings endeavour took all his indulgence as an ill Omen and sign of a storm to follow a Clam W. Penn was greatly in favour with the K. the Quakers sole Paâ—ron at Court on whom the hateful Eyes of his Enemies were intent the K. loved him as a singular and intire Friend and imparted to him many of his Secrets and Counsels The K. often honour'd him with his audience in private discoursing with him of various affairs and that not for one but many hours together delaying to hear the best of his peers who at the same time were attending in the presence Chamber or some other nigh by to meet with the King One of 'em being envious and impatient of delay taking it as an affront to see Penn more regarded then he adventur'd to take the freedom to tell the K. that when he met with Penn he regarded not his Nobility The K. made no other Answer then that Penn talk'd Ingeniously and he heard him willingly Penn being so highly favour'd by the K. acquir'd thereby a Number of Friends These also that formerly were e're acquainted with him when they had any thing to be done or desired of the K. came to Courted and Intreated Penn to promote their business by his favour with the K. He was especially thus importun'd by the Quakers Penn refus'd none of his friends any Office he cou'd do for any of 'em with the K. but was principally ready to serve the Quakers especially wherever their Religion was concern'd It 's usually thought when you do me one favour readily you thereby encourage me to expect a second Thus they run to Penn without Intermission as their alone Pillar and Support who always caress'd and received 'em cheerfully and effected their business by his Interest and Eloquence Hence his house and Gates were daily throng'd by a Numerous train of Clients and Suppliants desiring him to present their addresses to his Majesty There were sometimes there 200 and more When the carrying on these affairs required expences at Court for Writings and drawing out of things into Acts Coppyings Fees and other Moneys which are due or at least are usually payed Penn so discreetly managed matters that out of his own which he had in abundance he liberally discharged all emergent expences Tho he did thus yet could he not decline the virulent Lashes of Malicious Tongnes and these of the lower as well as the higher sort which came to his Ears but did not much affect him that he was not so Active in his friends concerns so much from the freedom of a willing Inclination as the Mercenary expectation of profit and advantage that all that confluence of People that Courted him and Industrious Administration of their affairs was not for nothing if it were put to the Test but rewarded with more then what was expended This reproach Penn only repuls'd with some by silence the best avenger of Calumny But with the King who was desirous to know what truth was in it he so cleared and acquitted himself that he judg'd him not only Blameless but them also tardy who had the vanity to think or folly to assert Penn to be guilty of such Malicious
with the Authority of a General assembly of that perswasion about the end of the year ensuing I long sought it with great Industry and after much pains it came at length to my hand but not till the whole work was almost finished and a part of it already receiv'd from the Printer I perceive by that book some things we 've related concerning Fox to be there omitted but what we 've said in ours of Fox doth for the main agree with what there is recorded I made some Remarks from thence of Fox which tho I knew not before I adventur'd to make use of relying on his own Credit and Testimony I may take the liberty to say further of that great book of Fox that it contains but few Historical Narratives consisting chiefly 〈◊〉 Enumerating places he Travell'd to all the days of his Life and the disputes he there maintain'd with several sorts of Men and the almost innumerable Orations and Epistles he wrote Fox was a Man alike famous for the temper and disposition of his body and mind of a very solid and succulent body and a mind fitly attemper'd thereto of a great Memory and tho not at all dull yet not Extraordinarily quick and acute Always more ready to think than to talk and yet more forward to speak than to write Unacquainted with no Doctrine or Art tho ne're so Vulgar not Curious yet sometimes taking pleasure to divert himself by playing with the cheats of the Learned Laborious and diligent tho 't were of little or nothing in all the minutes of his Common leisure Indefatigable even when strugling with the greatest of troubles Much given to watching making the measure shorter than that of the Night So given to frugality both for Health and Religion that he once fasted ten days as he testifies of himself being equally temperate in all the parts of his Life Bold and always of a constant patience doing all things so openly as not fearing to make 'em known so enduring all things as if the sole suffering and not the Cause or Action were glorious so ambitioning the Title of a Martyr as if he had thought the Name alone to be sufficient He was moreover couragious tenacious of his Opinion and morose so much considing in his Person Pains and Advice that he thought nothing could be done rightly or perfected without him being deâ—irous every where to be present and preside and what happen'd to be done well he laid claim to the glory of it pretending Title to the Reward of the Praise of it from all and yet all this under colour of Simplicity and Humility Pleasant and Bountiful to those that lov'd him but bitter against others that were not of his Society not only hurting 'em verbally but really as fer as he cou'd and that sometimes not only imprudently but even immodestly and impudently too One of his ancient friends and acquaintances writes in a certain Letter of Fox that he was according to the measure of his Capacity devoted greatly to the worship of God and promoting of Piety among Men meek in Conversation yet tainted with this which almost all teachers labour under in a new Sect or Discipline that he was too harsh 'mongst the Quakers themselves especially those that wou'd not receive such forms as he had conceiv'd or constituted He left many books which some of his followers do but faintly praise yet others extoll 'em to the Skies few touch 'em that are not of their perswasion and no body reads 'em that loaths repetition of the same thing in various dress of words and expressions or dislikes treating a theme with that Prolixity as not to regard what 's sufficient but how much can be said While Fox was alive the Quakers lived with a Brotherly Concord though there always were some that differ'd in some Article beside others that fell off from their Fellowship but Fox as their supreme Master being remov'd whose sayings and doings they regarded as a Law the Bond of Union being now broken though hitherto they seem'd to be led and govern'd only by his Mind and Desire a great Discord arose in England especially among those who tho they were not much wiser than the Vulgar arrogated more Wit and Accuracy to themselves The Subject of this Controversie was the Humanity of Christ first kindled some Years ago in Pensylvania and now toss'd 'twixt Keith and his Friends and others with their Followers puff'd up with some Knowledge I shall treat of this Controversie in the following book They 've Disputed in England concerning that Article almost to the losing of all Society He that pursues the Life of an Enemy neglects the use of no sort of Weapon but he that studies to rob him of his Fame forbears to revile him with no sort of Reproach That Controversie was so invidious divisive and troublesome and persu'd with so much eagerness of mind that men being flush'd with the Desire of Overcoming were not content to contend with words nor only to load one another with many Suspicions but also to spread an ill Report of their Antagonists to hunt after and wound one another with Calumnies openly denouncing Enmity Division and Schism Upon this it 's almost a wonder to think what Ignominy the Quakers did every where incur what Reports were in all places dispers'd of 'em for their so great desire of strife and contention that their whole Church seem'd infected with that Itch and Contagion And since the division of their parties was such there was little Conjunction Peace and Brotherly affection to be expected nay rather the time seem'd to draw nigh when the Sect and its Name must dwindle into nothing and that by the force of its own endeavour There were some concern'd in this Controversy who tho they managed it not by force and violence but hidden Engines not by open blows but private Lashes yet certainly contributed to their downfall and destruction There were General Councils of 'em held yearly at London from ninety two to the year ninety four In this year Keith came from Pensilvania to London and was called by the Council of that year as the principal head and adviser of the whole affair After he came and was long heard even that Council cou'd not compose these strifes nor so much as a little decide the difference So that the mischief as yet remains with Reproach and Disgrace Such is the stiffness and vehemency of these Men while now Iull'd with the soft Gale of Prosperity and Ease that there was never the least shadow of the like before while they wrestled with the rough wind of Adversity But of this I 'll speak more fully in the following Book lest this be swell'd beyond its bounds and there the matter comes in in its more proper place And now this and many other signs give some no small occasion to affirm that liberty case and External Tranquillity do Minister to discord slothfulness wantonness and Intemperance which are all dangerous to
Life neither do they always avail to the happiness of living for not a few among these Men may be found that have too great a propension to vices of that nature The Masters and Observers of behaviour omitted not to reprove such faults very smartly and some of them who had also committed 'em forbore not to invey sharply against themselves Examples hereof I 'll designedly pass by tho some without Calumny and Reproach I cou'd insert lest they that are concerned may be somewhat displeas'd at the ripping of that which may rub upon themselves Yet one I shall mention which London resounded with lest fame report it otherwise than perhaps it was done There was a very sincere Quaker free from all suspicion of this kind who being scorch'd with the flames of Love that the Charms of his Mistress's face had kindled convers'd with her with too much weakness and frequency but upon Remorse and Knowledge of his Guilt being pierc'd with Shame and Sorrow for his sin he makes a publick Confession of his fault to the Church submitting himself to the Censure and Correction of his friends yea further for deviating from Honesty and Modesty so far that he might not fall into that snare again or for the future repeat the like wickedness with his own hand he Chastises himself by a present cutting off the delinquent Member Tho all this time they enjoy'd so much liberty yet they neither were nor are wholly free from all sort of Commotion and Disturbance Neither when the Oath of fidelity that great invitation to oppression was taken away were other pretences of Oaths wanting that might prove Incitements to bring on Persecution For from that day to this many instances may be seen of these Men whose inheritance for refusing an Oath has been forfeited some having their goods wholly taken from 'em others beside the loss of their goods being cast into Prison And since as yet as well as before the wilfulness of the one party in exacting and of the other in refusing the payment of Tythes is not at all impair'd or abated a time cou'd very seldom be pitch'd on wherein there was none of 'em to be found in Custody That the grudge of ancient and levity of new Enemies are the efficients of this and not the supreme Power and Authority every one will easily own who considers that Kings have many Eyes Ears and Hands but yet must be always long-suffering and patient but not able at all times to effect what they wou'd nor always willing to do what they can and shou'd The End of the Second Book THE General History OF THE QUAKERS BOOK III. The Contents The Quakers going to New England in America The coming of quaker-Quaker-Women to New England How they were receiv'd The Laws of the Cities against Quakers The various Persecution of 'em some were whipt some had their Ears cut off others were hang'd A writing of the Magistracy of Boston concerning those that were hang'd Edict of King Charles to his Governours in those Countries to forbear Persecution What happen'd in New Holland Virginia Barmuda's and other places Pensylvania a Countrey for Quakers In it was given liberty to men of all Religions The various and mix'd multitude of men in that Countrey From hence flows a confus'd and various Doctrine and Conversation among the Quakers themselves Hence came that sharp Debate of Keith and his Adherents against their Adversaries chiefly concerning Christ internally and externally and a great confusion and disturbance of affairs thereupon This Disputation awaken'd such Dissention Commotion and Distraction of minds not unlike to a mutiney and Civil War that it was scattered from Pensylvania into England especially London whereas yet it remains to this very day Some of the Quakers took Voyage for the East Indies Others went into Africa The Quakers travelling into Neighboâ—ring and Forreign Countries What was done by them in Holland and Friezeland A short History of the Labadists The Departure and Death of Anna Maria Schurman The Endeavours of some Quakers among men of that Sect. What the Quakers did at Emdin a Town in East Friezeland There at length liberty was offer'd 'em by the chief of the City The Endeavours of Ames and Penn in the Palatinate on the Rhine Fox's Letter to Elizabeth Prineess Palatine and the Princes 's Answer to him Penn's Sermon before that Princess The Quakers Affairs in Alsace and at Gedan Fox's wonderful Letter to the King of Poland The History of the Petists as they call them in Germany The great wanderings of some of them The Excursion of others into Pensylvania the Countrey so fertile of Quakers What Quakers went into France and with what success Who of 'em went iuto Italy What happen'd to Love and Perrot at Rome George Robinson's wonderful Fortune at Jerusalem The Suffering of Two Quaker-women in the Island Melita by reason of the Inquisition The Rarity of Mary Fishers Journey to and Return from the Emperour of the Turks I Have already shewn in the former Books the State of the Quakers from their beginning to this preseut time in Brittain their Mother-Countrey and Nurse I shall now give as short a Narrative as I can of their Affairs also in other Regions In treating hereof some Places in America subjected to the Sway of the English Government especially New England in the North towards the Sea seem first to present themselves to our View Hither many from Old England flying from the Imperious and Cruel Regency of Licentious Kings and Proud Bishops retired and fixed their Residence here Purchasing for themselves a peculiar Inheritance which the Quakers among the first â—ent to hoping therefore among their Friends whom not only one Neighbourhood but also cause of abandoning their Countrey did now conjoyn and unite in one Society they might promote and advance their present Interest and Peace with more liberty and safety than they had in Old England The first that went with that Design to these new uncultivated and Desart Places leaving the Pleasant and Fortunate Island of Brittain being destinâ—d and sent there to bud forth the blooming blossoms of a Religious Spring were John Burniat a man more Famous than Learned call'd out to the Ministry in the Year Fifty Three Robert Hosben Joseph Nicholson and several others of the Masculine Order Ann Austin a Woman stricken in Years Mother of some Children Mary Fisher a Maid whose Intellectual Faculties was greatly adorn'd by the Graviâ—y of her Deportment afterwards married to William Baily a Famous Preacher and others also of the Female Rank This fell out in the Year Fifty Five Of those Burniat survives in our present Memory as yet I suppose a Preacher in Ireland Many of those made their way for Virginia Maryland the Caribes Barmuda's Barbadoes and other adjacent Islands Of these having found little worth our Observation I shall discourse in the last place if Occasion offers But the Women Ann Austin and Mary Fisher travell'd into New England and were shortly
followed by others of both Sexes Neither were the Actions of these very memorable their Power being abridged by the Sufferings they were forced to endure which indeed may be reckon'd so great and so many that they are not unworthy to be noticed and obserued Of all the Tract of the New England Common-wealth Boston is the Metropolis and Judiciary Seat At that time John Endicot was Rector or Governour of the whole Province one that from a very low condition was gradually mounted to this Honour and Dignity Of whose Temper Behaviour and Government which was then variously thought and talk'd of and whereof there were afterwards on both sides Witnesses I shall content my self wholly to be silent Next to him was Richard Bellingham whose manner of Life and Nature I also pass by At this time there was no where any thing like a Law enacted against the Quakers A Ship then arriv'd at Boston and was no sooner Anchor'd than a rumor was spread that 2 Quaker women were come in the Ship The Governour being absent he that was depute immediately sent order for seizing these women sealing up and keeping their Hampers Boxes and Chests and bringing the Books of their Sect whereof they had great store into the City where they were publickly burnt by the hand of the Hangman Then the women themselves were brought into Town and soon after before the Judges who presently as soon as they sat down on the Bench pronounc'd the women to be certainly Quakers for giving the singular title of thou to the Judge and not the more Courteous compellation of you contrary to the custom of almost all the English The Judges thinking this to be a sure enough sign and the matter to be clear and evident of it self their office rendring 'em best Advocates for themselves order'd the women to be taken and thrown into Goal and have nothing of the goods they had left in the Ship not so much as their Tools and Instruments of Writing lest they shou'd write of the Condition to which they were reduc'd or something of their New Religion and Doctrine The Goaler to compleat what the Judges had begun had the manners Irreligiously to rob 'em of their Bibles 'T was also decreed that none shou'd go speak or carry any meat to them Being kept in so strait and narrow a place having scarce any thing to eat sleep or lie upon till after some days something of their own was suffer'd to be brought 'em from the Ship which Nichol. Vpshal a Citizen of Boston and Member of the Church there privately agreed for a summ with the Goal-Keeper to let in and also to give 'em what sustenance was sufficient They complain'd further of their treatment as being reproach'd and revil'd as Whores who scruple not to expose and defile themselves and upon pretence of searching the truth of the matter of their being most basely and rudely strip'd naked and not only view'd contrary to Chastity and Shame Fac'dness but even handled with wicked and immodest hands without regarding those secrets of nature which modest Men wou'd shun the seeing or touching of These things being so Villanous to Act and scarce modest to name the women were rather forc'd to sit with and endure than betray their own shame without any Redress or expose their Disgrace without Sympathy or Compassion The women abode for five weeks shut up in this lonely and poor habitation Then the Captain of the Ship with whom they came before he set Sail had leave from the Judges at his own proper provision and charges to carry them back from whence he had brought ' em They being driven back in a little time after Sara Gibbens Mary Wartherhad Mary Prince Dorothy Wangre also Christopher Holder Thomas Thunton William Brent and John Copelan coming there met with such Treatment as the women had done before Upon this occasion there was a Law establish'd that no Ship-Master shou'd presume to bring a Quaker there and if any Quaker shou'd Adventure to come upon their Territories he was presently to be rewarded with the Confinement of a Prison Nichol Vpshal whose civility to the Imprison'd women I spoke of inquiring more narrowly into the Quakers Religion began to withdraw from his own Church and betake himself to the Quakers fellowship and oppose and exclaim against the Legislators Constitutions for establishing a humane sanction or Law contrary to the Rule of Divine precepts warning and advising 'em all to take care lest by a willful fighting against God they pull down his wrath and Judgment on themselves The Judges minds were hereby so Exasperated that resolving to make so new a danger Exemplary they first fin'd him in a hundred Crowns sentenc'd him to Goal and last of all to Banishment There was in the Western part of the province in sight of the Countrey an Island call'd Rhodes Here some Quakers did live hither went Vpshal to joyn with his cause Whither when he came 't was commonly reported that the Barbarous Indian Governour finding him gave him an Invitation to reside in his Countrey and Precincts promising him a seat in his indigency and exile and also to Accommodate him with a suitable habitation adding those words What sort of God have the English who deal so with others that worship their own After the others were put to the flight Ann Burden a widdow of London in Old England having some years ago liv'd with her Husband at Boston came there now for some Money that was due to her with Mary Dyer wife to William Dyer being both ignorant of what was establish'd by Law and what mischief here did threaten the Quakers These women were presently seiz'd and kept in Prison untill the husband did succour the one and good and Compassionate people the other Ann Burden was so acquitted that she was particularly prohibited to import these Warrs others had brought in her name and account for summs and Moneys due by some debtors tho they cou'd have been sold dearer there than in old England she was forc'd again to Transport 'em over the Sea not without being clipt by the Customers and Officers who were Artists sufficient in meddling with her goods and dividing a considerable part among themselves In 75 the year following and matters were stretch'd to such a pitch that all advice and assistance to that sort of Men seem'd so fruitless that they afforded but matter of Accusation and Calumny Since they cou'd not by Sea they did therefore by Land travel through strange and desolate places even such Woods Forests and Solitudes as none before 'em ever pass'd over not knowing or having wherewith to sustain themselves except what they carry'd along in a bag but when that fail'd being in utter want they sometimes met with help and supply from the Indians tho otherwise the most Barbarous of all Mortals who not only shewâ—d 'em the way but things needful for life and use yea such as these Countries take for Rarities and Delicacies so
was about the time that the Persecution against these people began to rage in New-England Another Town in the like Condition belonging indeed to the English but under the Jurisdiction of the Hollandew was Gravesend And there a Noble Lady the. Countess of Mordee who was a Puritan was turn'd Quaker and resided chiefly at this place gave the remaining people of this Society the liberty of Meeting in her house but mannaged it with that prudence and observance of time and place as gave no offence to any stranger or person of another Religion than her own and so she and her people remained free from all Molestation and Disturbance And because we have made mention of this Lady and her Company in this place I 'll relate a memorable story There was the Son of certain English Clergyman arriv'd at years of Discretion and of very honest Conversation Who being often in the house of this Lady and Entertaining her many times with discourses upon Religious Subjects she invites him to come to their Meeting and hear their Preaching at least for once He answer'd her again and again for she was very earnest with him that he should be always very ready to obey her Ladyship in any other thing but in this humbly begg'd her Ladyships excuse This young Gentlewoman continuing obstinate and the Lady by how much more she persisted in the thing by so much the greater was the grief of her Disappointment at last he did that of his own accord which he neither would or could upon her Prayers and Intreaties He fancied to himself one night in his sleep that he heard and saw many things of the Quakers and when he was awaked and thought nothing had put a deceit upon his senses he heard as it were a voice and went and came to a Company of those sort of people of whom he had form'd in his mind so many representations when he was asleep He approving of his Oraculous Dream the day following goes to a Meeting of the Quakers where he was so taken with their Discourses that he was Transported beyond himself And his mind was continually running on going thither again But before he did he Communicates his Intention to several of his Friends who mightily dehorted him therefrom Considering therefore their reasons on the one hand and on the other the Continual Idea of his Night Vision never going out of his mind and that not devised or fancied but real discourse of theirs was always turmoiâ—ing him so that with the horrible Agonies of his mind not knowing which way to turn or what to do he fell into a greivous and dangerous fit of Sickness From which being recover'd he not onely Estranged himself wholly from that sort of People but also imputed what had happen'd to him among that people to the Effects of Incantation and said the Devil wrought amongst them Of the truth of this I have a very worthy Gentleman a witness who is now a faithful Minister of the Word of God in our Countrey to whom the young Man has often related this story Sometimes there has been of these sort of People who before a Magistrate have said they could not say or do any thing with them without their hats on These there was no better way to deal with than by severely reprimanding them and sending them away unheard and soundly rated at There were some women which in the high ways others tho but few who in the middle of the Sermon or Prayers of our people would break out either into an Extempore or Praemiditated Noise or Singing These Women were Commanded or Compelled to go away or carried away and taken into Custody till they were discharged And so if their crime was no greater they were no further punish'd Now to speak a little of the other Plantations of the English Virginia Bermudas c. I have said already in the beginning who they were that first Voyaged hither but who they were that first went to those places I can't so certainly tell It seems George Wilson came to Virginia in the year 56 and there died in Bâ—â—â—s Henry Fell went to Barmudas the same year and not long after return'd again In those parts also the Religion of the Quakers began to appear abroad sensibly and shew its face As for these Men till the year 60 I don't find any punishment inflicted on them only some Fines were laid upon them because they us'd to entertain one another in their houses or refus'd to take an Oath or be uncover'd before a Magistrate or to undertake any Military Services Altho these fines were often so great that even for one default onely the third part or more of their goods were taken away they not having much Money as the generality of them were of the meaner sort of people This I find that in Mariland a province joyning to Virginia this year Thomas Thurston was cast into Prison and the Officer desiring one John Holland to assist him in this business who refusing and saying it was unreasonable Thurston should be us'd so and that he could not assist him in the taking of a Man Prisoner who was his Friend and old Acquaintance to be any ways assistant to the said Office which the Laws of England will no ways excuse not even among those that are of the first Degree and Quality he himself was put in Prison too and afterwards severely whipt Then in the year 60 and that following as the Spirit and Courage of these people began to increase with their Numbers and these Friends to set up their Meetings and at last they went on Cheerfully in their ways then both for the reasons aforesaid And especially on the account of these Meetings they were prosecuted with Imprisonments Whippings Banishments Transportations into wild Woods and Desolate places till at length this excessive severity began to abate and this Sect of People to rest and be confirm'd and that especially by reason of the Kings Interposition and an order sent like that I spake of before to the Governour of New-England Those who are acquainted with that part of America which is under the English Jurisdiction know Pensilvania the Propriety and Government of which vacant by the Death of William Pen from whom the said Countrey takes its Denomination descended to his Son William Penn that famous Patron and Head of the Quakers And he being heir to this Countrey it became as it were the Inheritance and Portion of the Quakers especially since the year 82 at which time Penn going to his Government order'd all things to his own mind and appointed all his Officers and Agents their proper places Omitting therefore to speak of the political Order and Government of this Countrey and its legal Establishment and of the Benefits and Advantages these Quaker-people enjoy both throughout the whole Province and especially in the Town which from their mutual Love to one another they have call'd Philadelphia these people at that time were induc'd with such
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
of his party signed And so much for the passages in Philadelphia till towards the end of the year 93. But when the News of all these things was sent into England and to London it is hard to say what a great Grief and Trouble these things were to these Friendly People and gave Occasion to their Enemies to inveigh against and insuit over the whole Sect hitting them in the Teeth that now they plainly saw what they had long suspected of their distinction and difference of Religion and now they both heard and saw what they profess'd themselves and what they practised This was no ways pleasing to the Quakers in these parts nay it was very grievous and intolerable for them to hear of And they laboured might and main to wipe off all Suspicion from themselves and shewed That if any where or at any time there should be such an unwary disagreement in Doctrine and Manners amongst those of their Sect That these Objections therefore did not lie against them all and that they in England and these parts did agree very well together and were consonant in Faith and Prayer and kept up the ancient Glory of their People But they were so far from beating any body off of this Opinion by their Speeches and protestations that they encreas'd it the more For in a short time there arose amongst the Quakers themselves some that so engaged themselves in this Difference every one taking his side and so prosecuted one another with Hatred Ignominy and Reproaches that at last they began to talk of dissenting and departing from one another and making Schisms So that there was no body of any Parts or Sense who did not see that that Excuse was not only very useless but also extreamly vain and ridiculous Things going thus there were nevertheless some of these People of the greatest Name and Place amongst them towards the ending as I said of this Year who gave in charge to some of the Leading Men of the Church at London and those of the most ancient Professors Whitehead Park Marshal and Eight more that in the Name of the Society they should write subscribe and publish a Confession of the Faith of them all in their own English Tongue as an Answer to their Adversaries Objections Which work they perform entituling their book The Christian Doctrine and Society of the People called Quakers Vindicated from the Reproach of the late Division of some in some parts of America as being unjustly charged upon the body of the said People either here or elsewhere And when they come to declare and profess their mind and belief of the several Articles of their Faith in that Article that treats of Christ they deny that to preach Christ within and Christ without is to preach Two Christs But when they treat of Christ's Resurrection and Ascension and of Heaven and Hell they oppose themselves to the others New Doctrines At last in the end of the Work they reject the Notion of the Transmigration of Souls after the Death of their Bodies into New Bodies and declare they know none who say that God has revealed any such thing to them In these things they make mention of no Mens Names and before they conclude the Work they take occasion to exhort all to sound Faith Peace and Charity In the mean while divers Complaints both of the Keithians and their Adversaries were at several times sent over to London to the General Yearly Meeting This Meeting which was thereupon first held considering what a disgrace and prejudice this Dissension would be to their People not only in these Parts but also all the World over and that if they should delay the time and go slowly to work to remedy this Inconvenience it would be in vain to bring help afterwards if they would they leave no stone unturn'd to avert this Mischief and Danger Yet this Meeting lost all their labour And that was not all neither For now at London and elsewhere and all England over there were some of the Quakers that interessed themselves in this Dispute and growing sharp upon it while some of them could not or would not without Passion refute the others they stood stiffly to their own Opinions and would not be refuted Hence Hatred and at last Faction arising they were distracted among themselves and some strive to dissolve the Society altogether These indeed at first were not many but as sometimes a little Cloud raises a great Tempest so this insolence and Vehemence of a few stirred up greater Concussions and Motion amongst many Wherefore the next Year's General Meeting who easily might see that such Dissentions and Strifes could have no other end than their mutual destruction being very desirous of Peace and Amity were so much the more intent upon this to bring things to that pass That all laying aside their Controuersies and Enmities and Quarrels the Event of which was so dubious and no advantage or next to none could redound to the Victors but the detriment would be mortal and perpetual should study to preserve Peace and without any fraud desist from such Wars and sice what they had hitherto done in accusing one another and quarrelling together could not be helpt that they should not go on so to do and blot out the memory of all things said and done that were past by a perpetual Oblivion of 'em and thereupon shake hands together in Token of Faith and Amity But neither could this Meeting altho they imploy'd all the Vigour both of their Minds and Discourse to this purpose decide the Controversie or put an end to this business and bring the Contending Parties to an Agreement But they were so far from leaving off the thing they had attempted that though they heard these Parties as Brethren and Judges yet the strife did but increase and the longer it continued the sharper it was The time of the last Meeting or of the last Year 94. came on And now Keith was come back from Pensilvania into England to London he on whose account all this Difference had risen Therefore it second good to the Meeting held that Year that in so great and long continued motions of their distracted People the Heads and Chieftains of the contending Parties and likewise Keith should be present and plead their own Causes before this whole Assembly So in the first place there were read several Letters writ and sent from Pensilvania to this Assembly upon this Occasion Then the Parties were heard and every one had the liberty of Defending and Proving But here the Dissention and Vehemence of some of them was so greet and they were so provoking and contentious in their Language that the more the matter was debated the farther off still they were This Meeting lasted for Twelve Days whereas never any before had been above Four Days So after a long while since the aforementioned Order for Oblivion signified nothing and there was no End made of contending no Cessation of the
Commotions again and again and also here and there began to raise Disturbances Nor must I pass over in silence that among the principal Asserters and Defenders of the Socinian cause there was one especially who as a Cock can Crow best upon his own Dunghil who not onely upon all occasions rail'd furiously against the Quakers and not onely thwarted their Councils and Designs in some parts of these provinces but also could not restrain the force of his anger before he had done Considerable dammages to some of them Now this I find by the Acts of the Synod of Woerd held the year aforementioned that our people then also were afraid of the Quakers and took care lest by any means any dammage should accrew to their Churches by them And moreover the Quakers to be Enumerated with the Socinians Hence a Decree was made in that Synod That care should be taken that the Interdict of the States should be put in Execution by which they had cautiously provided a few years before That none should bring the Socinian Errors or Books into these Countreys or keep any such sort of Meetings or Conventicles under the Penalty That if any one should do any such thing for the first time as a Blasphemer against the Divine Name and Disturber of the Peace he should be banish'd out of the Province and for the second Offence should be punished for so great a Crime at the Will and Pleasure of his Judges Then Two years afterwards the Legates of the Synod of Dort presented a supplicatory Treatise to the States in which they pray the order I before mentioned may be put in Execution The States refer that treatise to the Session of their senate The senate by reason of other grave and difficult businesses of the common Weal which they had in hand protract and delay the Cognizance of this affair Afterwards the Treatise was not to be found The Legates write it over again and tender it De novo And yet for all that could get no Answer So now three whole years were run on Wherefore in the year 69. In the Synod of Goud and that other of Schonhove since the Legates had been for so long time imployed in this affair to no purpose at all and every one easily saw what it was that caus'd this delay the further Prosecution of this affair was quite left off But Ames and his first Companions departing out of these Countreys the Quaker's affairs in Holland were principally promoted by the Council and Assistance of one Benjamin Furley an English Merchant first at Amsterdam then at Rotterdam who together with his Merchandize had addicted himself to the study of Learning and in the favour of these Men wrote several little Tracts in Divers Languages But yet refrain'd himself from exercising the office of a Teacher or Minister amongst them alledging this reason for it that he could safely enough be taught at all times but could scarce be a Teacher himself without danger Altho as time and age teach Men many things this same Man afterwards found fault with and went off from many things in the Doctrine and Manners of the Quakers From hence it appears what the Number of the Quakers might be in Holland and after what manner at this Day it is included in a few familys there are not so many as that the Number of familyes can equallize that of the Citys throughout the whole Province And so long as they used all manner of moderation in their way of Living and only took care about their own Religion without concerning themselves with that of others they enjoy'd as much Liberty as themselves could wish for While these things were doing in Holland in Zealand in the City of Middleburgh Christopher Bertrad an English Seaman the same Man who caused such a Disturbance in the Church at Bristol in England and carried himself so insolenty before the Magistrate as we took notice of in the First Book in an Assembly of the Church of England in Prayer-time he made such a noise with his Discourse and Clamours and angred them to such a degree that they thrust him out of the Church Whither he presently runing in again they sent for Officers who conducted him to Prison Where when he had remained for a year and a half there came to him moved at his long Confinement and affected with a like Sense of his Griefs Caton who assoon as 't was known who he was was put into the same place Then both of them at the request of the States Ambassadour to the Commonwealth of England at Newport were sent and put into a Man of War and carried over into England being jeered reproach'd and vex'd all the way by the Seamen and Soldiers Now Ames who was always the chief man in action as long as he remained in these Parts Considering that things did not go to his mind in Holland and that Caton had reap'd such fruits of his Labour in Zealand he undertakes a journey into Gelderland and from thence to Overyssell and goe's thro' almost all the Meetings of the Mennonites in both those Provinces trying if he could bring over any of these people who seem'd better affected to his party and indeed were pretty near the Quakers if not in all yet at least in many Opinions and Customes But here neither Ames could make any advantage or do any thing worth the speaking of After this he and Caton who was now come back out of England took a journey into Friesland to try the Mennonites there who in that Province more than in any other part of these Countryes not only in their Institutions but also in their Country Customes and the Nature of the people were harmless temperate precise and came nearer the Discipline of the ancient Anabaptists not that which of late dayes has prevailed amongst that sort of People But here these men onely shew themselves and go away again as wise as they went without any good or hurt done But after these men were gone there were not a few that embrac'd the very same Doctrine that these men came to declare and join'd themselves to them with the same ninds and desires These Mennonites and a pareel of Socinians that shrouded themselves under their Meetings and that sort of Men the Family of Love who are full of Love and Humanity cross to none open and free to all who hold this Notion of God and herein their Worship of God lyes That God is not Evil and that they themselves are not so nither nor would do any ill to any body Which sort of men increasing every day more and more and now coming abroad and meeting together both publickly and privately and holding their general Assemblys for publck Worship and constantly observing their meetings and by this meanes making way for the comission of many other penicious and ill things the Mennonites being a more Religious and strict sort of People began to look upon them with evill Eyes and be displeased
answers yes Then said she What is the meaning that the King is bare it 's not the fashion of the Kings of England Upon this the King puts on his Hat so the Woman run over briefly what she had before written in the Letter in the King's Presence to whom the King with a Kingly Gravity and Brevity replyed But Woman I desire Peace and seek Peace and would have Peace and tell the Prince of Orange so So in envy and spight do they in France call William King of great Brittain to this very time wherein now for fear they begin to acknowledg and own his Regal Majesty in their pompous words and names this K. I say a K. so constituted according to all Divine and Human Laws that if any one would decipher a Lawful and Just K. he can do it no better than by defining of it under the name of this when as at the same time that name of Prince of Orange has been throughout this Age and before throughout the World as Glorions and Venerable as that of King and as much feared by Enemies At these words the K. went his ways and so did the Woman likewise and having got Passes from the King goes to Holland and from thence returns for England having with all her endeavours effected nothing and so far is the Woman's Account of her self whom the Quakers think ought not to be mistrusted herein because related by her self of whose Sinceriry and Honesty they make no manner of of doubt but others think it a thing more to be heeded because the Woman did shew the Letters delivered to her before the one signed by the Queen's Secretary and the other by the King's Command and with his own Hand Strange are the things which these Men relate and some Write concerning the Travels of Samuel Fisher John Stubbs John Perrot and John Love Ministers of their Church into Italy and from thence to Ionia the Lesser Asia and Smyrna as also of others and of some Womens Journeys into those remote parts as I know not through what difficult places and what great pains they took for the propagation of their Religion and how many Expeditions they went upon as if they would view and enlighten throughly all those Countries and Nations I shall only persue these Men's Relations as they refer to that same expedition of mine formerly from Italy into Ionia and what is worth Remembrance shall be taken notice of briefly and so calling to remembrance my former Journey and that same City I mean Smyrna I lived for some time in my younger days and was Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord for so pleasant and delightful are our past Labours and the most pleasant thing most unpleasant if we may not some times speak of it or at least remember it Those four Men which we have already named arrived in Italy by Sea and came ashore at the Port of Leghorne as 't is now called but formerly Portus Herculeus c. There they delivered some of their Pamphlets to the Governor who delivered the same to the Inquisitors and Censors of Matters that appertain to Religion who when they found nothing in them that belonged to the Popish Religion and that they had done nothing for which by right they ought to be dissatisfied with them they dismiss them They go forwards and get to Venice and there offer their Pamphlets to the Doge who holds the Chief Dignity in thâ— Republick and from thence without stop go to Rome the compendium of the whole Papacy and there see slightly and hastily the vast heap and mass of so many things that are to be seen in that place and having viewed them leave them as an evil Omen and return without any delay to Venice from whence they came Then Perrote and Love take Shipping at this place and go for Smirna touching all the way no Land no Port nor so much as any Shore where when they were arrived because they had an intention to go for Constantinople when the English Consul came to hear of it and had wisely considered the Life and rough Demeanours of those Men who knew not how to forbear and to serve the times and so fearing least they should act somewhat rashly towards the Emperor that might tend not only to their own Inconveniency but to the Disadvantage of the English Nation he sends them against their Wills back again into Italy And so when they arrived there they returned to Rome while they were at Rome Love and Perrote being Men not able to hide their Disposition and moderate the same for some time and in the place they were and to the Men they came amongst and not willing to dissemble and form Lies when by this their Carriage they came to be known what they were and what their Design was they are by the Inquisitors thrown into Prison Love died under his Confinement as some Monks declared by Starving himself to Death but as afterwards some of the Nuns reported so hard a thing it is to keep a secret most difficult when once blabbed out to suppress for the more 't is concealed the more it 's discovered he was Murdered in the night Perrote continued some time in Prison and was afterwards set at liberty About the occasion of which Enlargement there was at first various Opinions but afterwards there was no vain Suspicion that he being shut up in this place chose rather to go backward than forward in his Work seeing that after his return into England he forsook the Quakers and set himself directly against them drawing others also off along with him and engaging of them to embrace his new Opinions and Precepts The other two being struck with fear fled away And here I shall subjoin the Example of a London Youth one George Robinson by name He when he had sailed from England in a Merchant Ship to the end of the Mediterranean and arrived at Scanderoon and from thence as 't is the way of many that Travel those parts as being a shorter and easier way continued his Journey towards the place which they call Jerusalem with a design to see if he could behold or effect any thing there that might be advantageous to his Religion Here he many ways discovered himself to be a Quaker the which when it came to the Monks and Popish Priests Ears they in their Monastery which is as it were the Store-House and Treasury of all manner of Villany take Counsel together whereby to bring him to such a danger from which there should be no escape and so put this villanous trick upon him There was such a Law among the Turks formerly tho' not many years past made That if any Christian enter into any of their Churches he is put to Death unless he redeem his Life with the change of his Religion which Law was made not by the invention of the Turks themselves but by the instinct of Ambassadors and European Consuls on those Coasts who
her any other way from her purpose he puts her on board a Ship go her Convey'd to Venice She having lost the opportunity but not the will she had to accomplish her design after that she had sailed up as high as Peloponesus or the Morea she made them put her a shore on the next Land There having got this freedom and regarding neither the circumstances of Nature nor the weakness of her Sex being all alone and ignorant of the Way and the Language that she might avoid the danger of falling into the hands of Thieves she Travails on Foot all along the Shoar and Sea-Coast of the Morea Greece and Macedon and from thence over the Mountains and craggy places of Romania or Thrace as far as the River Mariza came to Adrianople where the Emperor did then continually reside because he was very much hated by those of Constantinople and so he in like manner shunned the presence and sight of them There was a vast Retinue and Concourse of People attending the Emperor besides his Army which lay there so as that there was scarce room enough to containâ— such a multitude The Woman was lucky tho' she did not know it to alight upon such Men who tho' they are called by the name of Turks came not short in their Kindnesses to Strangers of any other Nation especially the nobler and better sort of them which I my self have not so much understood as experienced yea do so respect and esteem Women-kind that if any injure them in VVords or Actions he runs in danger of his Life It was a very difficult thing to come to and speak with the Emperor but as there is nothing pleasant to a Lover but what is sought after and hard to be obtained she trys every way looks about her narrowly follows closely her Business and after many Sollicitations and Traverses backwards and forwards through many places at last she found one who spoke for her to the Grand Visier who is the chief Man in Authority next the Emperor and acquaints him that there was an English VVoman who had some good Counsel to give the Emperor in the Name of the Great God This Visier was Achmet Bassa very Renowned among the Turks because he succeeded his Father in that great Office which Honour none ever before him attained to in that kind The Visier speaks to the Emperor on the Womans behalf the Emperor grants her Liberty to come to him She came accompanied with the Dragmans or Emperors Interpreters but I could never learn what it was the Woman said to him The Emperor after he had given her Audience commands her to withdraw and ordered her to be conveyed to Constantinople that she might from thence return to her own Country This is that which the Woman after her return was wont to relate to the Quakers and none able to confirm or confute it and this is that same person who together with Anne Austin was the first of all the Women that went to Preach their Religion in New England and who for her great Endowments not only of mind and wit but also for her great dexterity and experience was by William Ball a Preacher of no small fame among the Quakers thought worthy to make him a VVife as I have said in the beginning of this Book that so that which was the beginning of this Book is also the end of the same and of the whole work AN APPENDIX CONTAINING The True Copy of a Latine Letter Writ by George â—eith and sent by him to Gerard Croes Translated out of his Latine Manuscript into English Some Annotations upon diverse things related in the Latine Book called The Quakerian History of Gerard Croes concerning me G. K. and some Opinions or Sentiments not well by him alledged to be mine with an Emendation and Correction of those things which the Author through Mistake hath unduely fixed on me As also concerning some other things respecting some Sentiments of many called Quakers and our late Controversies in matters of Faith and Religion IN the Epist Dedicat. Who hate every humane Name in the Church The Annotation It is well said I wish the Reformed so called did endeavour so to do As to my part it is very odious to me that such among the People called Quakers professing the same Christian Faith with me should be called Keithians For if the Name of Calvinist be odious to him Why should not the Name of Keithian be equally odious to me and to my Brethren professing the same Faith of Christ with me the which Name this Author useth in divers places of his History In the Epist Dedic There is not any thing of any moment in the whole work that was not done in publick view The Annot. The Author doth relate most things in a good degree candidly and moderately but in some things that are no less matters of Fact than Articles of Doctrine which he imputeth to me he hath missed the Mark but as I believe unwillingly he not being in all things well informed that did concern my Affairs in Religious Controversies Page 192. of the History Being a Chaplain in a certain Noble Family was adapted a Minister of the Divine Word The Annot. I acknowledge I did live for some time in a certain rich Family giving Education to some Children belonging to that Family using frequent Prayer and other Exercises of Religion in the same but before I had the Profession of a Quaker I was never adapted a Minister of the Divine Word Page 194. Thus the Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers oweth its birth and growth to England its Accomplishment and Perfection to Scotland The Annot. Here he seemeth too much to favour Robert Barclay and Me being both Scotch-men for certain Writings and Labours of ours in Explaining the People called Quakers their Principles and so they seemed unto us But that I may confess the thing as it it By too great experience for some years past I have learned having more inward Conversation with some Ministers of the first rank among them than formerly I had and more intently Reading some of their Books which before I did little Read and such of them as I had Read I had not so carefully and accurately considered what I did Read in them that many of the Principles and Dogma's deliver'd and explain'd by me in the Name of the Quakers were not so according to the sense of most of the Ministry among that People as according to my sense given to me by the Grace of God and I do ingeniously confess that therein I was greatly mistaken P. 178. And concerning Christ dwelling in every Mâ—â—â— The Annot. Here he doth not relate aright the distinction at least wise as by me explained betwixt the Existence or in-being of Christ in Man and his In-dwelling Christ indeed is in every Man as he is the Word that hath proceeded or emanated from God but he dwelleth only in the Saints The Inhabitation of God and Christ in
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