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
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
Freedom unless they would comply with the wills and terms of such as were in Authority over them and would agree to pay Money for to be suffered to depart Of which Number there was not one to be found that would do so though the King being not long after asked and urged by some That he should not suffer any such thing which did so much wrong to his Subjects when there did appear no such Fact no not so much as an Attempt or Endeavour in them to do that for which these Men were so much accused and whereby so much infamy was cast upon them but that he should by reason of his Royal Word given them use them kindly he did at length Answer That he would be Gracious and Merciful to the Quakers provided they did nothing that was against the King's Honour and Safety and did again give his Royal Word for it It 's indeed manifest that Richard Hubberthorn one of the chief Quakers was at this time admitted to talk with the King in the presence of some Noblemen in which Conference when the King with some of his Courtiers asked Hubberthorn several close Questions concerning the Doctrine and Religion of the Quakers and that he made Answer to every thing that was asked the King and those same Persons that had Interrogated him said ever and anon It is so indeed as thou sayest and turning themselves about or to one another they said He offers nothing but the Truth And when the King proceeded to speak among other things he used these words to Hubberthorn I do assure thee that none of you shall suffer any thing for your Opinions and Religion provided ye live Peaceably you have the Word and Promise of a King for it and I will take care by a Proclamation to prevent any further Prosecution of you But seeing there were some Men who put an ill Construction upon this Conference Hubberthorn himself did in a little while after publish it in Print and did therein explain the whole Matter to all But how the King did afterward perform these many Promises in many of his Actions the Event will soon shew Neither must we pass over in this place that upbraiding Letter that was written and sent to the King by a Quaker then lying in Prison George Fox was this Quaker not he that was the first beginner and Founder of the Society of the Quakers who was indeed no ways related or a-kin to that same though most like and near unto him in Nature and Manners but one that had lately been a Trooper under O. Cromwel or in the Common-wealth's Army wherefore that he might distinguish himself from the other and older George Fox he called himself who was not so old Fox the Younger His Letter was to this effect O King he who is King of Kings sees and observes all thy Actions in the midst of Darkness and seeing that they proceed from thence even thy most hidden Counsels can by no means escape the sight of God so that there remain no lurking places for thy specious and pretended words and therefore hath he freely observed all thy Wiles and Treacheries laid for those who did no hurt and hath also manifested them unto all Men and that at the very time when thou didst make those great and fictitious Promises and only didst play the Hypocrite wherefore thou hast angred God when at the time thou didst promise Liberty unto us thou didst then suffer that outrage to be done us and the Imprisonment of so many Men for the Testimony of a good Conscience Alas how has the Pride and Impiety as well of thy House as of thy Government sadded thee for as often as I revolve within my self upon the Vnjustice Cruelty and publick Persecutions of this Country and as often as I think upon their Wickednesses that are committed in Secret so often is my Spirit grieved and in anguish and my Heart distracted by reason of the fierce wrath of the great God against all Men. And I have had it often in my thoughts both before and after thy Restauration to the Kingdom when I have considered the fixt and established Idolatry of this Land that it had been better for thee that thou hadst never come hither because I find it has been to thy Ruin and I have often prayed to God that thou wouldst become of that Mind as to depart again out of the Kingdom that while thou hast Life left thee and space to Repent thou mayest Repent of thine Iniquities do not O King suffer any one to flatter thee God will not be mocked what any Man shall sow that shall he also reap consider with thy self how thy Brother the Duke of Gloucester was so suddenly and unexpectedly cut off who might have survived after thy Death and do not imagine that thou canst be preserved by Men when God sets upon thee and God's Will shall stand that his Kingdom may extend over all Ah! what shall I say as to what appertains to thy Salvation God is burning with Anger and will shorten the days of his Enemies for his Elect sake and Oh that thou mayest be saved in the day of the Lord for my Soul is even under Horror and Amazement at the sight of the inevitable Destruction that attends thee These things that I write are true and I would have thee to know that I write these things both godlily and lovingly as for my own part though I suffer many Miseries from without yet I have that inward Peace with God that exceeds all Earthly Crowns It was said that while the King was reading this Letter his Brother the Duke of York stood by him and that he after he had read it also advised the King to order the Quaker to be hanged but that the King had answered That it were better that they themselves should have a regard to their own good and amend their Lives and Manners that there is no Understanding so great but that many times is overtaken with Error and sometimes Folly About this time came forth a Book written in English marked in every Page with the form or note of a Child's Tablet such as Children use in England as also in our own Country out of which they learn to pronounce their Letters in Alphabetical Order This Book did in every Page shew that it was in use throughout the World in all and every Language whereof there were no less than Thirty Languages recounted and set forth and each of them distinguished into its proper Table that when any one spoke to a single Person to call him Thou and not You which the English used if they talked with a Man that they respected The Work was neatly and ingeniously done with much Cost by John Subbs and Benjamin Furley but Fox who besides the English Tongue understood none of these Thirty was so desirous to seem to be the Author of this Work and that whatever it contained of Industry and Praise-worthiness had its Original
wasted their Substance in Drinking Gaming and Brothel-Houses and among Thieves and Cut-Throats as if they were their Associates or alike infected with them and so being in those places enforced to Labour very hard and thereby sustain their Lives which when they endeavoured to do some of them at length being in that manner opprest with many Miseries and Calamities were freed therefrom by Death This was done in London Worcester and in other places Some of them in other places whom either the Circumstances of Life or the Clamour of many Persons did more especially expose to Envy were seized and taken out of their Beds at Midnight and carryed into Prison by reason of which Practices and seeing there was no likelihood of any end of these things the Quakers did again Present an Humble Petition to the King and did therein set forth in what Trouble and under what great Calamities they all lived and proved that from the King's Restauration to this time there were Four Thousand and Five Hundred of them imprisoned and that Fifty Six were dead through the Hardships and Difficulties they underwent But as to what effect this Petition had it will appear from hence that he who wrote it obtained from the King for his Reward a place where those Persons were imprisoned concerning whom he made his Complaint in that same Petition so that that very thing was looked upon as a Crime in that they deplored and deprecated their own Miseries But at length after that the King had found nothing by Deeds or Witnesses whereby it did appear that the Quakers were desicient in their Loyalty towards him or that they had done any thing whereby he might gather that the Crime of Rebellion was not far from their Disposition and Manners and that also the Accusation and Clamour of the People as being the most easie and lightest things vanished of their own accord and that Time had allayed the Envy of the People towards them in respect to their ways the King suffered this sting of Severity to be removed from his Heart and seeing that hitherto he had been forgetful of his Promise made to this People he now calls it to mind and so orders his Officers and other Magistrates that they should no further vex these People and set those that were imprisoned at Liberty notwithstanding which Command such was the Severity and Hardness of some of these Magistrates that though they did not reject the King's Authority openly yet they did indeed fulfil it either not in earnest or but slowly Which thing even the Gaolers in some places did not stick to maintain when they offered that they were willing to loose and free the Prisoners at last if so be they would lay down Money either of themselves or others for them to be delivered from their Imprisonment the which when they affirmed they would never do and that they would choose rather to rot there and perish and held stoutly to it and seeing that indeed some of them were so harrassed with dangerous Diseases contracted from the stench of the place that they died thereof and that the Cries and Lamentations of these Men did reach the Court and even the King's Ears while they were treated in this manner the King at length Commands all of them to be set at Liberty without any Money and Terms whatsoever In this Persecution of the Year Sixty Two the Quakers recount several Examples of their severe Usage and great Constancy of these Men. I shall only mention two Richard Payton at Duley in Worcestershire was thrown into Prison because he would not take the Oath of Allegiance all his Goods were confiscated and he himself so long to remain in that place as the King pleased Thomas Stourdey of Moorhouse a Gentleman of Cumberland was brought before a Magistrate and the Oath of Allegiance put to him which he refusing to take but at the same time affirming that he was otherwise one of them who without Swearing would obey the King more than many that had swore to him was condemned by John Lowther a Man in Authority in that County to have all his Goods confiscated and himself to perpetual Imprisonment who being thus shut up not as the rest that were afterwards set at Liberty by the King's Favour but detained till the Year Eighty Four about the end of the same ended his Miseries by Death in the same place Moreover these Men do more especially in this Year commomorate the Death of two of their chiefest Leaders who departed this Life at London as upon the score of Religion so as being a very glorious and happy Departure and Guides to Heaven and to God One of them was Hubberthorn who we have said a little before was in esteem with the King and so received into his Favour that even in him the welfare of all his Friends might seem to be safe and secured from all Molestation and Trouble this Man resided in London and on a certain day having got the People together he began to Preach which when the Lord Mayor came to know whose Name there is no need to mention the Quakers know it well enough he sent with as much immoderation of Power as he had extensiveness of Authority to fetch Hubberthorn away from that Assembly and so was brought before him who when the Man would not put off his Hat before him according to the usage of the Quakers in that regard he used him as if he had been the greatest Villain and seditious Fellow and taken openly in the greatest Wickedness beat him with his own hands haled him by the hair of the Head and threw him upon the Ground and after that Commands him to be put into Prison among Rogues and Malefactors in which place Hubberthorn obtained that Favour that a Criminal desires most of the Attorney that his Cause might be transferred to another Court and seeing there was no Cognizance taken of the Man's Religion they now bent all their Accusations against his Morosity Irreverence and Contempt of the Magistrate and required he might be severly punished for the same Hubberthorn after he had lain in this sad and doleful place two Months falls very sick and weak and in a short time after died leaving this Memorial of himself with his Friends That he had born whatever befel him with an even Mind and always ready to maintain his Religion and chose rather to die for the same than to live The other was Burroughs who also in the City of London stood firm to his Religion and died for it in Prison and whom the Quakers were wont to esteem as the Apostle of the Londoners Of him they say when a little before he had resided at Bristol that upon his departure from thence towards London he took his leave of his Friends with these words as a Presage of his approaching Destiny That now he was directing his Course for London that he might there together with his Brethren suffer for the sake of the Gospel
before and after think upon the Mortal state of all Men and every one of his own in particular and how in a short time every one must enter upon that Journey unto Eternity from which there is no returning and commit this to their Heart and Memory and excite one another to the study of an Honest and Pious Life that his Death may be answerable thereunto And that I may add this further which is not to be omitted but not therefore to be extended to many It 's a wonder how much hatred also the odd and different way of managing and carrying their Funerals and what storms of Reproaches and Trouble it brought upon the Quakers they themselves Report that the dead Carkasses of their Friends were dug up again and buryed in other places and all this lasted till the next Year after this wherein that Memorable Plague raged and when the Quakers had free Liberty to Bury in their own Places and perform their Funeral Rites as they themselves pleased And seeing I have said thus much concerning the Burials of these Men I shall take the Liberty to add this one passage more concerning them There was a certain Man whose Name was Oliver Atharton of the Parish of Ormskirk who because he would not pay Tythes was put into the Common Goal of Derby by the Countess of Derby where after a long Imprisonment the Man died the Quakers having Liberty granted them carry the Corps away and passing through some Streets into the place where he had dwelt there bury him and in the mean time set up pieces of Paper on Poles in all those places with this written thereon whereby they extolled Oliver as a Martyr but defamed the Countess as being guilty of Murder This is Olliver Atharton of Ormskirk persecuted to Death by the Countess of Derby because he would not pay her Tythes After which when that the Countess in a few days after died in like manner and was carryed the same way to be buried the Quakers made also a Miracle of this her Death as if it had been the Effect of Divine Vengeance and Displeasure as all are prone to Judge of the sudden unexpected and heavy Misfortunes of their Enemies This Year a new and odd Persecution attended these Men which here we shall a little largely insist upon It happened in the City of Colchester I have given an Account in the First Book how the Quakers first came into this City but by this time having much increased in Number they met together daily and could by no means be diverted from that their Practice and Custom at which things the Mayor of the City did at first wink but afterward finding them proceed in their ways he began to look upon this Connivance as a disgrace unto him and therefore bethought himself what he ought and what he could do in that matter and at last seeing that they still persisted therein he was much grieved and inflamed with Anger and fully determined with himself to Prosecute them severely It 's a fearful thing to have an angry and an armed Enemy It happened on the 25th day of October being the Lord's Day that many of the Quakers were met together in a House to Worship God according to their way which when the Mayor came to hear being eager with a desire to Punish them he hasted thither with his Officers breaks open the House rushes in and in harsh Words but with a grave Authority said he came according to the King's Laws for to disturb this their Cabal and Conventicle and immediately without delay charges his Followers to Apprehend some of them and lead them to Prison and at the same time Commands the other Quakers to follow their Companions into the same place which they quickly and readily did not in conformity to his Command but of their own will and inclination After this the same Officers on the Nine and Twentieth Day of the same Month in pursuance to their Master's Command return and repeat the same thing with great Care and Diligence But when the Quakers on the First day of the next Month and Week met together again the same Officer advises what to do and does himself with his Guard undertake the same thing as before invades and sets upon the House where many Quakers again not expecting his Command knowing already what his Will was go away into the same Prisons and because that the rest of them did for all this meet again together on the Tenth Day of the said Month there came either by the Command or certainly by the Permission of the Governour part of the County Troop and these violently rush upon the Assembly take some of them and conduct them to Prison beat and thump others and besides ransacked the Place rent and pull down the Seats Windows and every thing else besides the Walls and Rafters when this was done the Governour set one of the Gang that lived not far from the House where the Quakers met together at the Door for to hinder them with Words and Threats for to Meet there if they were not minded to fall from one Calamity unto another whom when they would not resist they all stood in the Yard in the open Air and pursue their Worship quietly according to their usual manner the Porter and Keeper does the same thing on the following days and these same Men did the same as they had done before not caring to what Inconveniencies of Air they were exposed nor to what Injuries and Reproaches of their Enemies nor with what Danger they were beset by lyers in wait for them and not knowing what great Evil and Misery was a brewing for them at this very time for their Obstinacy and Perseverance For seeing they would not desist from their Method and Purpose it came to pass as if the Law and Civil Power were too weak and feeble that they had recourse to the Law of the Sword and the Force of Arms there were Forty Horsemen well mounted with choice Horse made ready and these being furnished with Swords Carabines and Pistols as they are wont to be they drew nigh that if so be they should again attempt any such thing they were forthwith to fall upon them and put them under Military Execution so as that they did not kill them outright The Quakers come again together on the Fifth of December upon which this Troop approach and seeing the Quakers did immediately with drawn Swords like stout Soldiers as if they assaulted armed Men but such as few of them had ever done gallop up with full speed unto them and then crying aloud as if that were the Signal What a Devil do you do here They set upon them beat knock and wound some of them with their Swords and Muskets sparing neither the tender Age nor Female Sex nor the grey and wrinkled and drove them from one place into another and some that met them even far from the place and whom they took to be Quakers were
Laws when of the same strain and so could not be urg'd upon them as a rule to walk by Besides that the Liturgy did not forbid nay commanded to Worship God after the same manner that they did viz. In Spirit and in Truth The Jurymen after having understood the whole matter how it stood did not all so freely tell their minds as they might have done nor were they all equally forward and ready to decide the matter some pleading that it being an intricate case they were doubtful and uncertain how to determine it others refusing positively to Judge of it as being a most important and momentous affair But all the Judges unanimously concentred in this sentence that such Religious Meetings as were not conform to the Modes of the Church of England or exceeded the number of five were unlawful and that these Quakers whatsoever was their design in Meeting be it good oâ— ill had celebrated such unlawful Meetings and persisted to do the same still which they openly and Judicially acknowledged so that no place was left for attenuating the crime or alleviating the punishment wherefore they were all guilty of a Capital crime And whereas some of these Quakers were married others were single persons in some Courts the sentence was that the former should pay a fine of so many pounds or suffer a years Imprisonment and the latter be Transported to the American Islands to do slavery in the English Colonies there In other Courts they were all promiscuously order'd to be Transported Yet so as in some Courts Liberty was given to those that had receiv'd sentence of Banishment in some places to them all but elsewhere only to the Boys and Girls to choose whether they would rather be Transported or stay in England and frequent the publick Churches to hear Sermon which they all unanimously rejected some of 'em returning this answer that they wondred how the Judges should propose such an offer since they all knew very well that if any of the Quakers came that length as to embrace their Proposal it would not be from a sincere love to the Church or their Sermons but through Hypocrisy and Dissimulation which in Religious matters is the most heinous and superlative crime that can be Committed In fine since the Quakers continued so obstinate in rejecting all offers made by the Judges they likewise continued stedfast in ordering their sentence to be put in Execution against them The first Court that took this affair into Cognisance was held about the middle of October William Proctor being chosen president The Jurymen were unwilling and refractory to meddle with it which Created a great deal of trouble to the Judges At this time there were twelve receiv'd sentence of Transportation partly Men of which some very ancient some very young partly women among whom was one Girl under sixteen years of Age. Another Court was held the same very month to which Robert Hide presided Differences arose betwixt the Judges and Jurymen for that the latter were slow and backward to decide the matter At length after they had reason'd and debated among themselves about the nature of the Crime the matter of fact and the tenor of the Law they with one voice gave in this Resolution that these men were guilty of having kept Conventicles but that they could not determine whether they kept such Conventicles as here repugnant to the rites and customs of the Church or what was their intention in so doing By which sentence they thought they freed themselves from any further trouble in the affair But the Judges began to debate with some of them about the Religion of the Quakers and at last to threaten them openly and cited six of the twelve to appear before the King to give an account of what they had done the six were not at all affraid persisting in their opinion in favour of the Quakers which they thought it their duty not to revoke from Upon which the Court was dismiss'd for that occasion and the matter left undecided yet it sate again that same very day but Judge Hide did not sit the Lord Mayor supplying his place and then it was determin'd nemine contra dicente that they were guilty of most heinous Crimes unworthy to live in their Country and therefore to be banish'd to the outmost bounds of the Remorter Earth Among them was a Boy in Coats being so very young who being ask'd if he would not swear that he was not sixteen years old had not the Ripeness enough of Judgment to give a grave and pertinent Answer but reply'd that no Man could Remember the Day of his Birth and that he was not born for nor train'd up in Swearing On this occasion Eighteen were condemn'd to the same punishment of being Transported The next Court was held in December Hide presiding in which without any dissention or variety of Opinions they condemn'd Two and Thirty to be turn'd out of all their Possessions and Enjoyments and banish'd their Countrey One of these Two and Thirty boldly desir'd leave of the Judges to ask One Question which being granted he tells them That they were constituted Judges to resolve him and others about dubious matters which they acknowledg'd to be true Then he asks of them since the cause of his Condemnation was his frequenting the Meetings of the Quakers and absenting from the Publick Churches and since the Commands of God enjoyn'd the former and the Laws of Men constrain'd the latter which would they have him obey or what would they advise him to do The Judges gave no answer either because they durst not answer contrary to their own Consciences or because they would not seem by their Judgment to overturn a Law establish'd and confirm'd by so many Judgments pass'd upon the same Affair Some of these condemn'd both in this and other Courts demanded by their Solicitors as well as themselves to have a Copy of the Judges Sentenco that they might consider it and answer distinctly to each Article of the same but it was denied them lest by protracting and pretending this for an Excuse of further Delay they should seem to elude the Law Wherefore some of them as soon as they open'd their mouths in their own defence were instantly carried away Another Court was held upon this account that same month Judge Hide presiding in which the Judgment was summary and compendious For since the Accused did not deny their congregaâ—ing together the confession of this was accounted an acknowledgment of the Crime and without any further Enquiry or Proof they were forthwith adjudg'd to undergo the same punishment There was a Widow among the rest a Mother of Three Children who while the rest were alledging That they were not found guilty of any Illegality in the manner and design of their assembling for the Act it self they did not deny cry'd out That she was most unjustly accus'd not only of the Crime but of the Fact it self and that it would be a wicked
substance and was fond of an occasion to terrify the rest from doing the like he caus'd this Man to be hal'd to Prison where he smarted for his contumacy by fifteen weeks Captivity during which time and likewise after that Dobson was releas'd and return'd to his own house he pillag'd and harass'd his house and possessions taking off his Horses Kine and other possessions which were priz'd and sold for his benefit till he made about forty pounds English And afterwards in the year sixty six and sixty seven when the poor Man was secure fearing nothing he attacks him again takes from him his Horse four Kine and all the Cattle he had of whatever sort all the furnishing of his house and the very beds they lay upon so distressing and empoverishing the poor Man that he and his Family scarce had wherewithal to cloath themselves But some time after when he had almost overcome this disafter having purchas'd two kine which gave Milk out of which and the cheese made of it he sustain'd his Family without any other food the Minister of the Parish Church whose name I choose rather to conceal pursues him with an Edict of Excommunication insomuch that not only this small remnant he had for maintenance of his family was taken from him but himself thus poor and empty was cast into Prison which was done in the same year from which time he remain'd captive till the year Seventy two when he was set at liberty by the King 's special Command at length having return'd to his former dwelling place and beginning to improve his small fortune a little by labouring the ground and diligent working this same Tithe-master I have already nam'd so well vers'd in his exactory Discipline that no office of humanity withheld him from the same falls upon him again and takes all the possessions he now enjoy'd leaving him nothing so that the value and price of what he took from him was reckon'd to be eightly pounds English which is eight hundred and fifty eight Dutch Gilders And moreover to give a farther instance of his unparallel'd Barbarity he caused him to be cast into Prison in the year seventy five where he was shut up among Thieves and Robbers and those who were not only guilty of such Enormous Crimes but even of Whoring and Revelling the Botches and Exulcerations arising from their intemperate Venery being yet running upon their bodies creating a most noysome and grievous smell and all the whole Members of their body being infected and corrupted with the same But Dobson's greatest comfort was that he found in Prison Men of his own Society who were kept Captive upon the same account that he was Sometime after when one of these miserable pocky wretches had rotted unto Death through the Corruption of that blackest and foulest disease the Keeper of the Prison a Man inferior to none for wickedness and excess of Rudeness and Inhumanity who dealt so with these Quakers his Prisoners that he shew'd to the World that his humor and constitution was fitted for tormenting mankind gather'd up the straw upon which this Corrupted and Loathsome carkass was laid bringing it into that place where Dobson with his fellow Quakers and also the rest of these flagitive miscreants were throng'd up where he burnt it in a fire to testify that burning hatred and malice against the Quakers which rag'd and flam'd within his Breast And from the flames of this burning straw there proceeded such Exhalations and Contagious fumes that the Quakers were all taken ill of a most grievous and dangerous disease which in a short time put a period to the lives of some of them Dobson recover'd of this Distemper but continu'd under the same miserable Captivity till the wellcome day of his Death which happen'd in the last day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred seventy and seven The Quakers therefore being griev'd in soul for this insupportable affliction of their Brethren and apprehensive of the like Events about to befall themselves could not contain themselves from expressing the Estuations and Boylings of their incensed Minds nor restrain their extravagant Tongues and Pens from complaining and lamenting every where publishing Books and Writings Exaggerating the misery of their Condition and demonstrating unto the World what for Men these Evangelical Reform'd Protestants as they call'd 'em Evidenc'd themselves to be Those who in ancient Times cry'd out against Persecution for Religion's sake pretending that none but God had Power to call their Religion and Conscience to account and yet in these days are so fierce and cruel with their own Countreymen upon the same Religious Account sighting against them with carnal Weapons and oppressing them to such an high degree that tho they spar'd their Lives yet inâ—licted Evils far worse than Death it self introducing the same Tyranny that was us'd against the Church oâ— Old but with a New Face and Name The Quakers relate and also some of the Chroniclers or these Times record That in the Time of that fatal and bloody Plague which Rag'd so severely both in London and many parts of that Realm the Bishops besought the King and boldly counsell'd him That in Order to avert and appease the Weath of God which then so heavily afflicted them he would free and cleanse the Kingdom from that Pâ—st of Quakers and other Fanaticks the Banishment and Extirpation of whom would be an acceptable and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the Land But the moderation of the King was too great to give Ear to such Counsels for though he would not countenance or assist these men yet he was not willing to use such inhumane Cruelty against them and accordingly chose rather that the Old Punishment should be continued against them than a New One of that Nature take place This Year which was so fatal unto many places destroying both the Quakers and their Enemies promisouously did likewise give the same deadly stroke to Samuel Fisher whose Fame among the Quakers Acuteness of Wit Learning and Neat Polite Way of Writing I have already mentioned He died in Prison The Quakers mightily lamented his Death being sensible what a great Doctor and what a Skillful and dexterous Defender of them and their Religion they had lost Their Enemies and Ministers of the Church on the contrary rejoyc'd and congratulated his Death who had given them so much trouble while alive being educated in the same Colledges with themselves and having been one of their own Tribe taught the same manner of learning and invested with the same office and well acquainted with all their writings â—â—trigues methods and Ecclesiastical Policy so that he was more capable to use their own Weapons and Arguments against themselves which he did very dexterously At this same very time they were likewise bereav'd of John Coughen so fam'd and renown'd among the Quakers who tho he was not taken out of the World yet deserted his Station and separated himself from the
with Sedition and Rebellion Robbinson purges himself and his Companions in Misery from the least shaddow of that suspicion But they presently disregarding such defence stopt his mouth by thrusting an Handkerchief in his throat and seeing he yet endeavour'd to speak they that were present raging with fury and the officer likewise more hasty than prudent made ready his lash knowing well how to use it and chastis'd his back for his Tongues excuse and defence The cause being consider'd they were all order'd to depart thence to a present exile By a customary patience and suffering of evils they were now so inur'd and harden'd to troubles that they resolv'd rather than forsake their faith to make a Noble retreat into their Grave Mary Dyer and Nicho. David thought it then their duty to leave that Countrey but in a very short Interval of time Mary being recall'd by a new impulse had the Courage yet to return unto Boston and came to Prison to talk with her Brethren and Sisters and at the same time was seiz'd and shut up so that now she had power and liberty enough to surfeit herself with their Company and Conference for in all things constant and daily plenty nauseats the fancy and cloys the Appetite On the other hand Robbinson and Stevenson thought it necessary to forsake Boston but not the whole Countrey and therefore within a very few days they go to some places about Salem and there takes occasion to declare their Doctrine But they were no better dealt with than others When they for some time had been thus inclos'd within the verge of those little Walls the Judges began to consult among themselves what they must needs do with 'em at length And seeing 'em so obdur'd in their obstinacy that they despair'd of reducing 'em to dread of fear and that they did not regard what way they took if they cou'd but render themselves Masters of their desires they resolv'd to put an end to their life and proceedings Yet this was not so obscurely contriv'd but Robbinson and Stevenson easily forseeing what the Judges had designed to do the day before they had fix'd this purpose each of 'em wrote a Letter to the Senate of Boston whose Theme and Scope was almost the same containing the motives that induc'd 'em both to come and visit these Corners of the Earth Robbinson wrote that he did not come there to gratify at all his own Curiosity but only by the Judgment and Pleasure of God while he abode at Rhodes and about noon tide when he was resolving to go elsewhere an heavenly Command revers'd his Resolution injoyning him to take Journey for Boston and there to finish his Course and lay down his life and have no worse reward for his service than what God had there appointed for him That his Soul at last after many wandrings through the vain Theatre of this wearisom world might be receiv'd to a fix'd possession and there rest in an Eternal Mansion Stevenson also wrote that while he was in his Countrey in England in his own Farm Plowing a field upon a certain day he felt his Breast kindled with the flame of Divine Love and the word of the Lord came unto him thus I 've appointed thee tho thou be a Plowman to become a Preacher and Teacher of Nations At the same moment being mov'd Extraordinarily that tho he was married and Father of some Children to leave his dear wife his Mate and Companion of Life and Affairs and as it were his other self and this sweet and tender off-spring these intire Bonds of Love and Ties of Friendship being untouch'd with the sense of so many Domestick concerns to take Journey presently for the Island of Barmuda's not doubting to leave all to the Providential care and Disposal of God And that accordingly he went to that Island and from thence to Rhodes and at length came to Boston and that now for his Religion and Testimony for God he was ready to take farewell of this troublesom Life The day of Arraignment was the 20th of October Being all three brought into Prison attainted and convicted of a Capital crime without any previous Trial or defence they were found guilty of Death and Sentenc'd to be hang'd Robbinson mov'd the Judge of the Court that that Letter might be read I spoke of before asserting it to all be matter of Fact without inquiring into the occasion thereof this he desir'd e're sentence shou'd pass but the Judge thought the letter unworthy to be perus'd Whereupon Stevenson putting up his Epistle after the sentence was actually pronounc'd answer'd with the same courage of mind and expression In the day when you that wou'd be reckon'd Judges shall kill the true Servants of God know ye you shall answer to him who is the only true Judge and the day of your visitation shall come upon you and Eternal destuction shall fall on your heads Upon the 27th in the Afternoon the day appointed for their Execution two Companies of Souldiers were order'd to be there The condemn'd persons were plac'd in the front and all the Drummers were set round about 'em who beat incessantly to drown the sound of their words that what they said might not be heard by the people The fellow sufferers march'd all in a rank Mary in the middle having each other by the hand all of a cheerful Countenance and ready Tongue tho the beating of the Drums rendred their discourse useless to others Their friends follow'd with a sad silence When they came to the Gibbet having so long kiss'd and embrac'd each other with such affection that they cou'd scarce be pull'd asunder they wish'd all happiness to one another at last when the unavoidable necessity of departure oblig'd 'em to put an end to their caresses letting one another unwillingly go they took all their Eternal and Mutual farewell Robbinson first got up beginning and ending with words to this purpose We are not here Citizens to suffer as wicked or evil doers whose Consciences before did vex and torment 'em but as those who being stirr'd up by God â—ear witness to the truth But perhaps this may seem little at present as what concerns you not much to hear That we may not therefore contend what we have acted to have been Lawful our duty and necessary to be done we wou'd have you to know that this is your day wherein God has visited you leaving you yet occasion and opportunity to shun and escape the destruction of your Souls but if you go on to hedge up and obstruct that way to turn Gods wrath and procure your own salvation if your Rebellion and Arrogance be increas'd and harden'd this is the day wherein God is arisen to take vengeance of all his Enemies with an Omnipotent Arm and you shall groan with one voice under the weight of his wrath You 've at this time made it very apparent and manifest what you are by your hatred against us wherefore while the
great Hereticks when as they onely differed from them in Church Government and some Eternal Rites and Modes and otherwise held the same true and Catholick Faith and Doctrine with these Men but also because all those penal Laws which were made and ordained before the time of the Reformation against Hereticks as they call'd them stood still in force and none of them was repealed not so much as that De Comburendo Haeretico or for burning the Heretick so that if at any time any one of Eminent power had a mind he might by Virtue of that Law Arraign any one and bring him to that dismal and horrid punishment and have it Executed upon him Which appears by the Examples of two Men under the Reign of K. James the 1st in the 11th year of this Century Which because it has not of a long while been taken notice of by most Writers and yet it is not amiss to be known especially at this time I shall briefly relate One of these Men was Bartholmew Legate of the County of Essex a Man of an unblamable Life ready wit and well read in the H. Scriptures but disliking the Nicene Creed and denying the plurality of persons in the God-head and the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ after he had been for some time kept in Prison at London and being enlarged again more boldly defended his impious Errors and could not be brought to desist from it even by these reasons the King himself brought at last in an Assembly of Bishops was Condemned of Contumacious and Irreclaimable Heresy and delivered over to the secular Judges and by the Kings command according to the Act de haeretico comburendo the 18. day of March about Noon was publickly burn't and Consumed to Ashes The other was one R. Wightman of the Town of Burton near the River Trent who was Condemned by the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield of several Heresies the first was that he was an Ebionite the last an Anabaptist and burn't at Litchfield the 11th day of Ap. 'T is true indeed that this Law for burning the Heretick as also for putting him to Death in any wise was repeal'd in the Reign of Charles the Second but this is true also that that repeal was not made without a great deal of Difficulty and Repugnance of some Men and it was so done too that tho the Clergy had this power of Life and Death taken away from them and yet still out of this power they had so much Authority left them as to Excommunicate as they call it those that they should account Hereticks and thereupon to deprive them of their Liberty and take away their goods and the Consequences which follow thereupon Which thing I have thought fit to take notice as being not well known and yet worth the while to know This repeal was made in the 29th year of his Reign and 77th of the Century in that memorable Parliament Which was continued from the year 61 by several Propagations down to that time There was a certain Man of the Country of Middlesex whose Name was Taylor who had defil'd himself with so many and great Crimes and Vices that he had no fear notice or Apprehension of God wherefore he was sent to London and brought before the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Court. In which Court as they were deliberating what to Determine about a Man so very impious or rather an impure beast one of the younger Bishops being more vehement and hot in his Censures than the rest gave his Judgment that this Man should be Exterminated from humane Society by burning and alledges that Law for the Burning of Hereticks with fire Which seeming somewhat harsh to others of the Bishops and some giving their opinion one way others another The Earl of Hall the next day in Parliament in the House of Lords proposes and perswades that that Law for the Burning of Hereticks might be Abolished for as long as that Law was not yet taken away and repeal'd it might come to pass that what Religion or Sect soever came uppermost the professors of that by Virtue of this Law might put to Death by burning all those that they should count Hereticks The Bishops opposed and cried out against this Petition But when it came to the Vote the present Earl of Hallefax and likewise the Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Shaftsbury and other great Men Considering that at that time things look'd with a fearful aspect and that it was often seen in the Course of Nature that many times things which had been hindred and delayed might break out again as in that cursed Popish Plot and the preparations of the Papists for the Destruction of the reformed Religion at that time was easily to be seen and that that Law particularly might one day be signally Injurious and Destructive they so perswade the rest and make it out so plain by force of Argument that the repeal of that Law is concluded upon and decreed contrary to the mind and will of the Bishops which Bill being carried down to the House of Commons some Excellent Men among which the principal was W. Russell a great Lover of his Countrey and Religion and a Man worthy of immortal honour presently Vote for it and procured the Bill to pass And so by Authority of the King and both Houses of Parliament this ancient Law was Abrogated and Repealed by this Act That from henceforth by Authority of the King and Parliament the writ de heretico comburendo or for burning Hereticks and all Capital punishments following upon any Ecclesiastical Censures should be taken off Not taking away nevertheless or diminishing the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Arch-Bishops or Bishops or any other Ecclesiastical Court to punish Atheism Blasphemy Heresy or Schism or any other Damnable Doctrines or Opinions So that Nevertheless it shall and may be lawful to them to punish such Men according to the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws by Excommunication Deprivation Deposition and other Censures not Extending to Death What but also how fraudulent a Liberty to all Religions was granted by K. James the 2d and what care the Bishops most of them but not all took to oppose it is not necessary now to be insisted on But to return from whence I have digressed Now because these Quakers had made no inconsiderable progress in their Affairs in America that new and to the Ancients unknown part of the World there were some of them who thought it might be a work worth the while to attempt the like all over this part of the World which we inhabit and of which for the most part we have a more ancient knowledge of and that not onely in the European Countreys where we have great dealings but also in Asia it self and Africa among the remotest Nations Destitute of the right knowledge of God and brought up in the profoundest Ignorance of the truth and true Religion with a design to enlighten them and by their Arguments and Sollicitations
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