Burroughs was now the first Man that introduced these Opinions into Scotland who a little while after was followed by Alexander Parker who before he took upon him this new Function exercised the Trade of a Butcher which came to pass in the Year fifty four but by the Means of these Guides and Teachers there appeared a greater Concourse of People in Scotland that espoused the Quakers Cause and consequently frequenter Meetings of them whom when the Nobility and Magistrates who from the disposition and usage of the Nation do not easily admit of a strange Religion opposed them they did the more firmly and intensly hold to it until at length a Persecution ensued and that Persons were ordered into their Houses to disturb their Meetings and hale the Men to Prisons and some they detained and handled severely for a long time but for Brevity's sake I shall add no more hereof But of Fox I have this further to say in the year fifty seven he lived in Cumberland upon the Borders of Scotland and so went thither who though he were ignorant of the Tongue yet knowing and confiding in his Companions which he took along with him and whom he was about to meet with there he made use of them for his Interpreters this man with his Friends have frequent Conferences in Houses about the Unity of Religion often preaches amongst them and goes about all Places seeking to find out or to make known if he could more of his Mind The which he endeavoured to effect with much Labour and Toyl yet he failed of his purpose for when he sometimes sent out his Messengers to invite Men to hear him Preach and appointed both Time and Place for that purpose it so happened now and then that there was not one Man came near him Besides this he made it his business here and there in the Streets where he found a concourse of People to allure Men to him but with the like success Fox also with a few Followers directed his Course to the Highlanders of Scotland who are Men of rude and unpolished Natures which when they came to hear they came down from the Hills to meet them and drove them back with their Weapons Upon this Fox goes to Edinburgh the Capital City of the Kingdom which when the Council came to know who were not ignorant of Fox's Methods and foreseeing he would not be wanting there also to play his usual and giddy Pranks they cite him to appear before them and gently require him if he had no Business in those Parts thence to depart Fox withdraws but very slowly visiting in the mean time other Towns and Places and trying to bring over Men to his Party but as I said to no effect Fox and his Companions during the time of his sojourning in Scotland endeavoured both by Libels which Fox together with his Followers and Associates wrote and by their Railleries to render the Doctrine and Articles of Faith of the Scotish Church as odious and hateful to Men as possibly they could Wherein they so demeaned themselves that the Scots thought nothing enough to be said concerning the Impudence Revilings and Cheats of those Men for they charged the Ministers of that Church and perswaded their Followers that that Church taught such Articles of Faith particularly concerning Divine Election and Reprobation and the Providence of God concerning the sins of Men according to their ungrounded Opinions and fardled Consequences as that Church not only never taught but such also as she abhorred Moreover as the Scots as well as the English and also divers of the Reformed Churches called the Lord's Day whereon Christians abstaining from their daily Labours give up themselves to the Worship of God as 't is vulgarly phrased the sabbath-Sabbath-day or day of Rest according to the Appellation of the Ancient Sabbath of the Jews and seeing it did manifestly appear that all the Scotch Churches did strictly observe that day and during the whole time abstained from their Labours and demeaned themselves as reverently and decently as they could Fox and his Companions wrote and preach'd every where that the Scots did wickedly Profane the Sabbath-day by keeping of Fairs and doing of many other momentous things appertaining to their daily Labour and Business the which when they were enforced to explain themselves they did it in this manner That the Scots did those Works on the last day of the Week but that that day was truly the Sabbath-day according to God's Command delivered to the Jews Moreover Fox had this up in the whole course of his Ministry and Peregrination even to this time in what place at what time and part soever of the day he sate any where and discoursed with Men of his own Sect though there were but two or three present and that they only saluted one another this he called to have had to have found an Assembly as it were of Men for the Professing of their Religion and that the number of their People had so much increased But if there were any of his Auditors who did not cry out against them but were attentive to what was delivered and took any thing under consideration them he called convinced Persons and Associates and when it happened that at any time he met with some who prest him with some ingenious and sharp Answer or Question or Argument when he was not able to make Answer again or resolve the Question or enervate their Arguments he went his ways or thus put off the matter That it was a weighty and dangerous Disquisition that there were some Persons who made it their business to wrangle that it was a thing he did not care for and that he was very unwilling to Discourse with such Men And whereas there were not a few of the number of those that joyned with Fox and the Quakers who were part of that vast multitude that dissented from the Publick Church of England and such also as exercised the Functions of Preachers and that some of these Men were of scandalous Lives Tiplers and Alehouse-keepers Fox when he acquainted his Party with his Progresses among Men all these without any distinction did he call by one and the same name of Professors Presbyters Teachers and by such other names as were commonly used to be given to the Members and Ministers of the Publick Church thereby drawing no small Envy and Scandal upon that Church And all this Fox hath carefully set down in his Journal-Books and wrote to his Friends who believed approved and published it all Moreover Fox as often as he made mention of any business that was transacted conjoyntly by himself and Friends if any thing was well managed therein there was no Name so much celebrated as his own and he was more especially a great Publisher of his own Affairs but these things I shall not pursue at large nor the History of Fox as studying brevity the Order both of the Thing and the Time requires that I should shew more
coming of the Spirit till at length they be mov'd or stir'd up to hold forth and then they pray preach or sing according to the Spirit 's sudden impulse In like manner the rest sits still to hear For while they stay in the place where they worship bending their thoughts inwardly with regard to the Spirit they look what he does or Dictates within and where they perceive the speaker to be thither they direct their minds and attentions searching themselves they bring all home to their own Conscience And thus while the Spirit delays his coming each of 'em prays inwardly unto God for himself sighing and groaning now and then deeply for great striving and contrary affections They sometimes move themselves or are moved so far as issues in a great trembling of the body not only of some but of most or all of ' em This 't is said does often fall out by the resistance of 〈◊〉 secret insinuations I was told by one worthy to be believ'd at a certain time they fell all so a trembling he himself being one that the place was shaken as 't were with an Earth-quake If it happen that none of 'em obtain the presence of the Spirit when he is not pleas'd to move 'em to speak they sometimes all go away as they came without uttering a word among ' em But even then they say they lose not their labour for every one carries away some advantage for himself and while one prays for another thence also some profit does result to the rest yea while they pray for them who come only to look on laugh sport or scoff they say such receive a wonderful virtue to better their Life and hasten their Conversion Thus they do in their common and publick exercises They worship God by praying praising or preaching according to the various Agitation of the Spirit Sometimes they worship in all three kinds not promiscuously but one by one unless it happen they sing all together But their chief and solemn exercise is the preaching of the word This principally consists in proposing a certain theme for Edification or exhortation to some duty And because they think the power of the preacher is not placed in words or bodily motions unless the composure of his Voice and Countenance be suitably managed with simplicity and gravity but only in the worth or weight of things they affect not form or Method taken from Rules of Art but make use of plain and obvious words not intending to gratify the itching of the Ear but to express the interior feeling of the Soul and make an Impression upon the hearer's mind with an active Air not of gesture but of face and utterance They sharply censure Theologues for becoming Ethologues or Mimicks whose Eloquence does wholly consist in Gesticulation Their prayers are mostly doleful Lamentations the lower they be they esteem 'em more dutiful They sing and praise not by a regular pronunciation of words or musical Melody far less by the Numbers of metre or verse which sort of singing is never lawful with them but when one of 'em has an extemporary faculty to compose but in the collision sound and stretching of the voice almost as the Spaniards or Moors in Afric if you have ever heard 'em as I have 'em both frequently singing in their own Countreys And thus not only one or two but all that are present do sing with a sweet and pleasant voice In such exercises the Ministers are the most frequent and chief Actors tho none of the rest are excluded but those that are foolish troublesome or strangers They don't only take heed what any of 'em says but also what forms or words he uses As many if not all things among 'em are singular so they agree to no other Communion but their ownâ— hence if a Cunning or Insnaring mocker come in and begin to ape their discourse or carriage with their words and looks they mark him as a scoffer and then forbids him or else thrusts him out And this is their publick worship In private they spend much time and pains in meditating praying reading especially the word of God in teaching their Servants and Children both in those Arts and Manners that concern civil Society and also in the worship of God and Christian Conversation with a lively instruction which they call Catechizing to which use they have books very properly adapted Moreover it 's also their custom in their houses never to express a Religious duty with an outward voice as praying to God craving his blessing e're they take meat or go to bed till they feel the excitation or impulsion of the Spirit while they want this they 're content to think with themselves what they esteem convenient and agreeable and talk silently with their own mind without External or vocal expression From whence arises the mistake of some and malicious calumny of others that the Quakers never pray unto God but like beasts rush upon every thing inconsiderately Which they wou'd bear more patiently came it only from the Rabble that 's ready to swallow up the belief of any thing and not from a seeming better sort of Men that pretend to digest speak or write nothing but what they 've put to the touch-stone for Confirmation Tho they 're greatly devoted to the Publick Worship of God yet they 're very averse to all Superstition which none but the unfortunate unwise or irreligious do ordinarily pursue Thus they often meet for the service of God For that they 've their Houses in some places very fair and large Out of these now you 'll seldom hear 'em disputing or discoursing with others of those things they 're willing to teach concerning their Religion or Duties of Christians though formerly in the Streets Markets and other's Churches they forbore not to declaim their petty preachings When I ask'd the Cause of their discontinuing that practice the same Necessity and Occasion remaining they gave no other Answer than That it is not now the Holy Ghost's Will They agree with some Protestants in owning no Holy-Days but they disagree in this a little wherein some Protestants also herd with 'em being displeas'd that the First Day of the Week is observ'd which from our Lord Jesus Christ we call the Lord's Day and that by the Force of the Fourth Command They indeed acknowledge it very necessary that a time be set a part for assembling to worship God in publick and that then Christians shou'd refrain from working and that the Lord's day is very proper for that purpose wherein the Apostles and Primitive Christians met in one place Therefore on this and other days they have publick Meetings as occasion offers In great and Populous Cities as London they often assemble almost every other day and that with such a confluence of people that when there can't so many be crowded together so as one may have way for another to get out some of 'em in the throng are taken with a â—unting
the Old Laws and the Primitive Religion and Christian Faith did complain so much of the hard dealings of those whom they looked upon as their Enemies and Adversaries and as they could not deny but that many of their own People did often-times so demean and carry themselves towards them who esteemed them also in like manner to be their Enemies of whom they so far complained as that if their Complaint were not unjust even that Complaint which their Adversaries made against them was just and right also and seeing that those Men would be esteemed as altogether Innocent they gave occasion for Persons to believe that there were wicked ones amongst them who practised Evil Arts and who intimated they would do any Mischief if they had Power to their Will Examples hereof were these to wit some of them cast Scandals and many vile Reproaches upon the Ministers of the Gospel and their whole Churches at the very time wherein they were performing their most Religious Duties and so endeavoured to stir up against them yea the whole Society the Resentments of the Magistrate the Rage of the People and the ill Will and Persecutions of both so that now those few Persons might deservedly be accounted the Tormentors of all the rest and the Betrayers of the whole Multitude of which outragious doings seeing they who were Authors and Actors thereof or doubtless their Friends and Favourers have in their Libels published by them given us Examples glorying in such their Actions there is no doubt to be made but that those which I shall gather and pick out of them are such as that there cannot be had the least suspicion concerning them One Boswel Middleton a Shooe-maker in the City of York was the first that cut out and as it were fenced the way for the rest of them crying out against Edward Bowles while he was Preaching in the midst of his Sermon to the People and in the hearing of all Thou art the Servant of Antichrist and so is thy Flock for which words he was forthwith put in Chains The like bold and impudent Example we have in the same Year done at Oxford by two Women Elizabeth Havens and Elizabeth Fletcher these did first chatter and talk in their way of Cant to the Students in the Streets and then in the Publick Churches and last of all in the Universities but with more hazard and greater danger than they imagined and yet they might easily have done it For these Persons being as it were taken with such Polite Conceits as these gave them forth with a more pleasant Entertainment or that I may be in earnest and tell the truth as these Waggs are more especially exceeding arch and wanton they draw them into their Colleges Pump them and throw them into the Privy and did again afterward take one of them to wit Elizabeth Fletcher and threw her into a Grave that was opened for the burying of a dead Corps with such violence that she received such hurt by her fall that she afterwards died thereof But when they were got free from this hardship they go again to the Church and while one was silent the other spoke there openly so that both of them were taken away and thrown into Prison amongst Rogues and Burglars and afterward when they were brought to a Tryal before the Mayor and that he had turned them over to some other Magistrates of the City and to the Vice-Chancellor they were by their Command thrust out of the City as Vagabonds but seeing we have many of these strange Examples and them done not in one place nor at one time it will not be improper to set forth what have been done by these sort of Men all this time in the City of Bristol and which has been recorded by their own Companions and real Defenders as being famous and worthy Performances and the rather because that in this Relation some other things like unto these do offer themselves unto us and others also are not to be omitted and past over This City after these mens Dogms and Opinions were broached in that Country was as it were the Seminary Receptacle and Refuge-place of these Sectaries and as it were the Theatre of those things which was proper and peculiar for these Men both to do and to suffer Which thing did very much nettle all Men of all Religions wherewith the City was full And though these same Men dissented one from another in respect to their various Religions and many other businesses and were at very great and almost deadly Enmity among themselves yet they all agreed in this one thing for to oppose and resist the Quakers At this time came John Audland and John Camie and soon after them Francis Howgil and Edward Burroughs Names that were well known and dear there into the City Audland and Camie in a short time after departed but the other two tarryed and were cited before the Magistrates they appeared the Magistrate commands them to depart out of the City they refuse and added that if the Magistrate would exercise Power they would not resist whatever was imposed upon them Upon this the whole City was so chafed agitated and exasperated against the Quakers that where ever they saw them especially when they were gathered together and as they went to the place and departed from thence all People almost of all degrees kind and Age derided mocked threw dirt upon them thumped kicked and cast stones at them But notwithstanding all this the Quakers were not repressed and diverted from their Undertakings but some of them even as if they were intent upon that very thing for to increase and heighten the Anger and Rage of Men against them and all their Party undertook also some new ways and Methods from which they could not only hope for and procure no good but from which they might easily know it might conduce further to their hurt for Elizabeth Marshal during the time that the Minister of the Church Rodolph Farmer and the whole Church were met together to preach and hear the Word of God to pray to him and to celebrate the Lord's Supper stood all the while over against Farmer and when he was going about to Administer the Lord's Supper she cryed out Wo Wo Wo hangs over thy Head from the Lord O Farmer who takest the Word of the Lord into thy mouth when the Lord never sent thee at which words all the People being in an Uproar and many of them enraged against her they fell violently upon her and thrust out the Woman dragging her headlong out of the Church and the Boys without threw stones at her and pursued her until she got into and saved her self in her own Habitation and there remained secure from more Outrages This Fact might have been severely punished by the Magistrates but they chose rather to forget or to defer it to another time But she as if she had done a good deed undertakes the same thing on the next Lord's
Day and in the same Church spoke these words against John Knowles the Preacher after he had pronounced the Blessing upon the People This is the Word of God to thee Knowles I command thee to Repent for what thou hast done and to hearken to the Light of Conscience that is within thee and so being again punished with many blows and thrown out of the Church she was first confined by the Watch of the City and afterward committed by the Mayor into the Common Prison and had no heavier Punishment inflicted upon her From whence almost all sorts of Citizens grew enraged and cryed out that these Men sought nothing else by their Inventions and Undertakings but occasions of Reproaches Disturbances and Confusions as also matter of Enmities and Revenge against them Now Audland and his Companion were returned into the City who when they were a going out of the City towards a place where the Quakers intended to keep a Meeting they were like to be in great danger from the Boys that assaulted them and it s very like they had perished if they had not been saved by the Care and Industry of some of the chief Men of the Place Which when the Common People and such like unto them came to know and supposing those Principal Citizens had not done their Duty as they ought they broke out against them and some threatned the Magistrates and made a Clamour That this new base and partly flagitious and wicked People the Quakers had passed over the Bounds of Modesty and proceeded so far that they could not arrive to a greater Audacity and Impudence than they were come to and that the Magistrate saw and bore with all this to whose care it was committed to maintain the Honour and Dignity of the Common-wealth whom they represented and to take heed lest the whole People should at last be endangered in their Religion so that seeing now when so great a matter is in agitation the Laws are silent Judgments dumb Punishments ceased all things both Divine and Humane lie unregarded and the extream Fate of the Religion and Liberty of the City was at hand it was high time that the People themselves should watch and upon the neglect of the Magistrate those whom it most concerns are to be Magistrates to themselves and must seek after their own safety which they cannot otherwise procure This though it may not be Lawful at another time yet at such a time as this is it 's both right and just and ought and there is need it should be done but before they would enter upon it they desired that an Account of the whole matter might be transmitted to Cromwel who was the defender of the Common Law and Liberty The which was done without delay for there were some who transmitted their desires forthwith in this matter to Cromwel And so while these Men thought that they acted the part of Citizens bravely yea that they like so many Viceroys imagined they discharged the Office of Judges well the Magistracy winked hereat or contemned it especially because things were brought to that pass that the Guard of Soldiers that was placed in the City did no ways deter them therefrom This Tumult lasted for the space of two days and then was appeased of it self But lo while the Magistrates were studying to aslay this great outragiousness of the Times by reason of such Insolence in their own People and upon this Consideration did not afterwards call the heads of the Rioters to an Account for such their doings another Quaker Henry Warren by Name had rather exasperate the matter and was as it were the poisoned Nail in this Altar of the City for he had such a Lust as I may say for it and proceeded to such a height of boldness that in the Church and that even when there was a very great Assembly he spake these words to the face of the Minister after he had made an end of his Office and Work The Prayers of the Wicked are an abomination to the Lord with which opprobrious speech than which nothing could be more contemptible all were stirred up and provoked so as that they violently drave the Man from the Church and lead him before the Mayor and Sheriffs of the City who that they might not go unpunished commanded them to be thrust into Prison but such was the intenseness and desire of these Men to talk at this rate in these places and they were so much tickled with the Glory which they placed therein that they seemed to deliberate one with another and to determine with Judgment for to pursue this matter whatever Hatred Trouble or Mischief befel them and their Companions therefore it was not only one but many of them broke out in this manner who were ever and anon assaulted and violently beaten for it and indeed wounded in the croud until they were thrust into Prison At last the Magistrate calls all these Prisoners to an Account for their doings which till then by reason of the Times and other necessary Circumstances was omitted but so even as now things stood their Examination was done in a mild tender and gentle manner the Magistrate supposing that many harsh things might be alleviated by gentle Animadversion and Forbearance but those Prisoners made their Answers to the Magistrate not at all more submissively but in a sharper manner and as often as their Crime was laid to their charge they would acknowledge and confess no Crime and stifly vindicated what they had done as what was Lawful and decent and that they did not do them things of their own will but according to the Will of God and the Instinct and Admonition of his Divine Spirit and the Examples of Holy Men insomuch that the Obstinacy and Obdurateness of these Men prevailed wherefore the Judges commanded them to be kept in Bonds by reason of their causing these Molestations and Disturbances and for their perverse Manners and Obstinacy and not for any other causes as these Men by way of Complaint did alledge Moreover the People were generally so irritated and exasperated with hatred wrath and rage against them that they set upon the Quakers every where laid hands on them beat knock'd and kick'd them and that so far that some of them rushed into their Houses and haled Men out from thence ransacked all that was therein and omitted nothing that might gratifie their incensed Minds Of them that were at this time in this City were Audland and Camie Howgil and Burroughs and Naylor and Fox whom we ought to have named first as being always the first and with the foremost as if there had been a Council called here and that this were done about most weighty Affairs which when the Magistrates came to know because there was a Report made unto them and that some had made Oath of it that there were certain Franciscan Fryars come from Rome to London who concealed themselves under the name of Quakers and deluded simple Men
of these Students they flew thither and halâ—d and thrust the Men out of Doors and there tossed them backward and forward and tormented them all the ways they could but if they could not conveniently get in they broke the Doors and Windows but when they could not or would not do that they stood about the House and there received them as they came out as before and this also was a small matter with them there were some of them who were furnished with Pipes and Tobacco an Herb well known and so called from him who first shewed the use of it and Ale of which they themselves did not only sip often but also reached the same to the Quakers and upon their refusing thereof yea saying nothing at all to the matter and as it were silently sipping up and digesting all that Affliction they poured the Drink down the Throats of the People and upon their Cloaths struck them pulled them by the Nose and tore their Beards that they might force them to speak something to them But these vile doings were yet but little in their Eyes there were some of them who run upon and trod them under their Feet who discharged Muskets at them and threw Squibs and Serpents as they call them which flew and burnt their Cloaths where ever they touched them others brought Mastiff Dogs with them and set them on not only to bark at the People but to fly at them and bite them some of them when they went away took the mens Goods along with them and when the Quakers made Complaint of these Mischiefs and Injuries done them to their Tutors and Professors they were deaf to them and took them but as so many Tales told them And indeed they suffered such great and so many Evils that unless these Men had written concerning the same openly to the World and that none did ever refel and confute what was written by them hereupon they could not be believed Such things also as these they complained were done unto them by the Students in Cambridge and this they set forth in Print While these things were transacted Oliver Cromwel died being the Year One Thousand Six Hundred Fifty and Eight on the Third Day of September at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon of a Tertian Ague after he had had a severe Fit of it This Man had the boldness to arrogate to himself so great a Power in all the three Kingdoms that of Old were esteemed to be another World that all things were governed and managed according to his Pleasure alone having rejected the Name of King and assuming that of Protector that he himself might be the more protected from all Hatred and Envy Under the Government of whose Son Richard which was but very short and not managed with that Industry as his Father had done nor administred with that Moderation that he shewed so as that neither his Authority had lessened the Peoples Love to him nor the Favour of the People his Gravity the Quakers Affairs begun daily to grow worse and worse while both on the one side and the other the Quakers were hurried on with greater boldness and those who opposed with greater Cruelty And seeing there are very many Instances extant and such as are very memorable yet because we would shun satiety and that I find the same creeping on I shall dispatch the matter in a few words Seeing there were now more Persons among the Quakers than before who uttered their vain Ribaldry and Bablings even in the Churches and while the Ministers were in the midst of their Sermons so there were also other Men that were more animated and forward to do nothing with Deliberation so that the Quakers for that reason were much more severely punished especially in Wales and some parts of Pembrokeshire There was at London a certain Man whose Name was Solomon Eccles a Man void not of Understanding but of all Shame and Fear who began such a deed that it 's very strange that the same Quaker himself should be willing to Record it and put the matter beyond all doubt and maintain it besides in the very same Pamphlet and thereby shew that no Fact can be feigned be it never so foolish and rash which some would not at least do and not commend as a right and laudable thing to be committed against those whom they so much complained of in respect to the wrongs and injuries done unto them I shall take the thing from the beginning This Man was a Musician and could Sing and Play very well having been Instructed in this Art and Science by his Father and Grandfather and did by it maintain both himself and his Family very genteelly and plentifully It was believed he could Yearly by Teaching of others and by Playing get no less than Two Hundred Pounds Sterling But he had a mind to change this sort of Life and to get into the Fellowship of the Quakers and so experience another way of Living and so he first sells his Books and all his Musical Instruments at a great rate as being now useless and noxious to him but afterwards bethinking himself that they might be hurtful to others as well as to him and that he ought not if he could avoid it suffer any to be injured at the expence of his Profit and Conveniency he buys them back again of those to whom he had Sold them for the same Money and when he had so done he gathered them all together and goes with them directly to Tower-Hill and having there set up a Pile of Wood and fired it at Noon day he does in the sight of many People commit to the Flames and burn all these Excellent and Precious Instruments and Books altogether as being a means to draw Men to be idle to promote a Lascivious Life and as stings to their Lusts and commands all Men to take Pattern by him and shun and curse all such vain and profane Arts. So great was the Zeal of this Man for his new Religion and so great was his Anger and the fervour of his Mind against the Publick Religion of the Kingdom that he could not forbear but must go upon every new bold and rash Act whereof above others this is a most memorable Instance When the People were met together in Aldermanbury Church for to Celebrate the Lord's Supper this Man came thither having furnished himself first with a Sack full of Shooe-maker's Ware so that now from a Musician he was turned Shooe-maker and partly a Cobler to that end that he might go into the Church and there in the croud before that the Minister had got into the Pulpit might Act somewhat of the part of a Shooe-maker And so that he might not be put out he had taken care to get very timely and secretly into the Church and hid himself there in some place Afterward when they were singing of Psalms he rushes up and draws nigh unto the Table and stood with his Hat on
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
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
the Quakers was at this time very rife every where in Germany and that the same especially with the rude multitude and men of the most abject Condition who catch hold of all things without any distinction of Truth or Falshood was much envied and hated and not free from danger There was a certain Person of some note at Hamburg for the thing may be said without nameing his Name though of no great fame as to his Learning and of an immoderate and proud Disposition and full of words who was so transported with Rage against Muller that he accused him and laid to his charge That he was not only guilty of other Errors but more especially of Quakerism and thus by stirring up the People did as it were enforce the Laws with Menaces that he should desist and proceed no further which matters Muller though he was willing but not able to bring about to his designed purpose yet he was desirous to be freed from the scandal cast upon him and to remove the ignominy â—â—rging That he introduced no perverse or strange Doctrine and was not the man his Enemy represented him to be which he brought so about that having got the clear Testimonies of several Professors in the Universities of his Orthodoxy and of Doctors in Churches he Published the same in his Apology and set them in opposition to the Reflections and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies Now Philip James Spener Minister at Francford upon the Mease of a Church Constituted according to the same Augustine Confession did within a few years prosecute the Foot-steps of these Men as also John Heariâ—k Harby Minister of a Church of the same Confession at Trarback on the Mosel both of them men of that Industry and Conversation as to be able easily to keep up the Fame of their great Learning and Probity and not be thought to seek after the Favour and Glory of Men herein these Men did in their Publick Sermons Discourses and Private Exercises bend all their Endeavours this way that they might extirpate and root up these Evil Weeds and Thistles from Mens minds Spener began his Work with those things which did more immediately incuâ— into the Senses of Men and which seemed to imitate and have relation to Popery that was so hateful to the Lutherans by reason of the dull foolish and profane Rites and Ceremonies that are therein and such as are not barely estranged from true Worship and Sanctity to wit in their Churches and Publick Assemblies and particularly in their Pompous Tables Organs Altars Priestly Garments c. And from hence he proceeds to other things which men do measure by use alone and meer handling so as that a pretty number of People in a short space of time did by his means not only Loath all that Pompousness in their Churches but also laying aside many other external Rites applyed themselves to Exercise the true Faith and Life of Christians But this was not all but they did often times meet together in their Houses and so did instruct and exhort one another every one as well as they were enabled out of the Holy Scripture to follow the same Sincere Life and Faith and to do all the Duties incumbent upon them towards Men Hereby also in the same manner by his Instructions did so stir up and affect the Minds and Consciences of his Hearers that very many of them in those places and adjacent to the Rhine did often times meet together in one place and this they did assume as a common Rule and constant Practice among them that laying aside those Discourses which concerned Questions and Disputes or idle and unnecessary Enquiries which were more fit for the Schools than for the Formation of Manners they only imployed themselves herein that having come to know and discern Christian Truths without which Faith and a Christian Life cannot be they insisted upon the ways and means how to attain to this Life and Faith and Instructed and Exhorted one another in shewing and exercising of the Same Spener is called from Francford to Drosden into the Elector's Court there to exercise the Office of Chief Preacher and seeing there were many things to be Corrected and Amended in the Court and that this could not be done by gentleness and pleasant Artifice but by a Tragick Gravity and severity and that there was not besides this such a number and choice of then for the purpose which withal required one endued with much Religion and Goodness in the mean time there were some Students in the University of Lipsick designed and appointed for the Ministerial Office they were only two at first that began to stir in this matter and this they made the chief exercise of their capacities this was the bent of their studies that being themselves stored with this knowledge and exercised in this sort of Life they might afterwards teach their Auditors committed to their care the like documents and stir them up to the same and therefore they daily instructed their people and held their Assemblies and did not only urge their Discourses from the Scripture-Authority but did draw out from the proper and Genuine Fountain of Divine writ 〈◊〉 excellent order the meaning of one or more places and the mind of the Holy Spirit and the Energy of Faith and true Piety and adopted them to the certain uses and cases of Men every one according to the Conscience and Experience he had in such a thing and setting this for a rule in these words to be observed by all That the sacred Books of the Old and New Testament are to be read expounded and converted to various uses to the glory of the sacred Trinity to the increase of the New Man of holy Instruction and exegetical Divinity as also to an example of an holy Couversation They were termed the Philobiblick Colledges These Students Endeavours and Studies were some time after imitated by others and even by such as were of greater years and Masters themselves so that some of them handled the same with the Professors Consent in the Publick Auditories in their Academical Lectures the Chief whereof were Augustus H. Francus the Disciple and Companion for a long time of Spener and John L' Schadeus Francus's Chamberber-Fellow both of them Masters of Art and Learned and Eloquent There was moreover a new Accession of Citizens and of women too to these Collegiates who also encouraged their Pastors and Guides in Divine Things to the same work but as for the most part it happens in such Assemblies there was in process of time so great a desire in some to frequent these Colledges that some Students declined to go to the Publick and Private Schools some of the People would not go to the Churches some despised them others went thither to partake only of the Lord's Supper sparingly and some disregarded all other ordinances and institutions in comparison of these Congregations and Meetings But these Students were for the most part persons