sustained and received from the hands of their Rulers and those instruments that are imployed in the execution of their Law last made for that purpose being the progress of thirteen months or upward in the execution of it and it is little taken notice of by our Persecutors how many Widdows and fatherless Children they have made by this their cruel work in this time But now the Lord is retaliating into their bosomes and is measureing unto you as you have measured unto us and many widdows and fatherless will he make for our sakes yea for our sakes therefore be not deceived our innocency is assuredly come before the Lord and our cryes are heard and he is recompencing of your works into your hands that you have wrought these many years and what will you say it is the great God that pleads with you O London London thou maist remember a few years since thou was sporting thy self and making merry thy Inhabitants was even distracted with vain joy Remember thy wasting of Gods good Creatures upon thy lust and drunkenness thy Bonfires thy Rosteing of good meat in the street and basting it with kenel dirt and water the worst morsel of which thousands and ten thousands would be glad of and many for want of these things perish now and remember thy vain shews erected in the high places of thee when no less then about 600. of the servants of the Lord were in prison in and about thee looking through the Grates of thy Prisons and even panting for very air In that very day the servants of the Lord did bear that burthen of all your ungodliness under which many walked up and down more like to shadowes then men even to see what would become of your wayes in which you were posting and gadding like wild Cattle what think you was God served therein or the Devil By this time many thousands in thee are sensible of the provocations wherewith you provoked the Lord in that day but in all those actions the mighty God beheld you and also his servants who had done no injury to any of you at all notwithstanding that all must be cooped up in your Prisons till you had offered your wicked heathenish sacrifice unto your lusts in that day you were told by many of the day that hath now overtaken thee O London and thou did'st not believe it but however now thou both seest it and feelest it to be true and now instead of healths which thou vainly drunk to men in thy Bowles and Cups thou hast sickness from the hand of the Almighty and instead of thy mad joy thou hast handed to thee a cup of deep sorrow and them thou dâ—ified O City in that day and for whom these things were wrought hath now left thee in the very middest of thy misery And now consider O London is it not better to trust the Lord than man whose breath is in his Nostrils some put their trust in Princes some in Horses but it is good to trust the Lord and had'st thou considered this in thy former day well had it been with thee and as for those that did help to promp on thy ungodlyness in that day those they were that by their Oaths execrations and all abominable wretched practises in whoring and drunkenness and what not in their Feathers and strange fashions have these relinquished thee also it had been well thou hadst never known them but however this memorial they have left behind them even their shameful spewings yea their shameful spewings in every corner of thy Streets And for all this the servants of the Lord undergoes more cruelties from Thee and thy Rulers then ever what do ye account we were born and brought forth as Men and Women to be destroyed was this the end the Lord gave us life for think yee and do you think it is our portion to spend our dayes in your Prisons what because the thing hath been continued and is common therefore you look upon it it is but right it should so be and so from the Womb unto the Tomb this is our portion from your hands And thus we have been all along and are made the very Prey of a company of Rapine fowle and Fleshcrowes who teareth our flesh from our bones and drinks our bloods in your stinking Jakes and Prisons But dear God it is for thy dear truths sake that we undergo these things from the Men of this Generation O glorifie glorifie thy self holy Father in all these things that have been suffered to befall thy Saints and servants in this age we know holy God it is because they know not thee they do these things unto thine for did they know thee they would fear thee and if they did fear thee then they would love thee and if they did love thee then would they love thine Righteous God because they know not thee therefore they know not us for thou hast made known thy self in us and so come we to bear thy Heavenly Image O magnifie thy name great God and let all confess unto thee unto thy mercies unto thy Judgments unto thy Righteousness unto thy forbearance and mighty patience unto thy loving kindness unto thy truth for thou art God most mighty even God of Heaven and Earth and there is none besides thee in Earth or Heaven the Gods of the Earth are not able to stand in thy judgment O powerful God make thy power more and more known amongst the Sons and Daughters of Men that they may learn thy fear that Atheism and unbelief may be rooted up in this Nation and that plant of ungodliness O Lord pluck up by thy mighty power that it be no more and for thine holy God who for thy truth sake are drove into exile let thy sweet peace which is a portion beyond utterance answer all the wants they may in their body sustain and increase thy love in them so will they love one another and Righteous God be with all thine whom thou hast gathered into thee either in bonds or at liberty for all thine are one flesh and one bone in faithfulness let all persevere thy great name magnifie O God exalt thy truth above all National inventions which they frame and constitute unto thee O spiritual God for worship thou art a Spirit therefore by art thou art not worshipped and though men chuseth it and orderest it for thee it is because they know thee not and imagines thee to be like themselves Arts and inventions may please Men but thou art not pleased with them thou chusest thy worship thy self thou seekest thy Worshippers holy God out of all visible things is thy Worship in the invisible thou art both known and seen and all that comes to know thee and to see thee must come into the invisible and when they come there then shall we be known of them as we are known of thee and then no more Persecution but Love which is thy begotten which is thy express Image
which they were drove for Banishment after their long Imprisonment in that Jaques or stinking Cell in which they were held is the thing intended at this time And the first that entred the List of this Conflict and sore Trial for their holy Testimonies are these three Worthyes of the Lord Edward Brush Robert Hayes and James Harding who on the 24th of the Month called March 6 5 4. was very betimes in the morning without any warning scarce given unto them hurried down to Black Friers Staires by some of the Serviles of Newgate where they were put into a Boate and so rowed down to Graves end and there they were forced on Board for Banishment the former of which was very aged and his grey Haires might have wrought compassion in the hearts of his Persecuters besides the testimony of his life amongst whom he lived for he was well known to some Aldermen in this place but the Lord hath drawn out his life unto this time and God hath honoured him in his old age to scale his testimony unto his truth by Cruell Banishment who for his sake only and alone left Wife Child Estate and what ever was neer and deer unto him The second was Robert Hayes as abovesaid who being taken out of the Prison having received no sustenance and his body being very weak he until that very morning having been in a Course of purging Physick and for any thing I know it might not have done operating with him was in this Case carried forth upon the Water and the morning being exceeding cold and no refreshment afforded unto him between that and Graves end within a short time after he was forced a board he dyed and his body was brought up to London which was interred amongst his Brethren and so he sealed his Testimony for God's Truth with his blood and his name is added to the number of the slaughtered Sheep of God in this Generation who have been slain in England he was a Man as to his yeares and according to natures course had it not as I may say been for that inhumane and barbarous useage he sustained that might have lived many yeares So deer Edward Brush and his companion in Tribulation James Harding was the first in England that have tasted the fruit of exile from their native Land in which they were born and out of that City in which their Privileges and Franchises are as ample as the Chief Magistrate himself setting his Office aside but this we know that Pretious in the sight of God are the death of his Saints And thus hath God suffer'd these things to befall these three faithful servants of his in whom his Name is magnified and his truth exalted Praises praises living praises to him be given for ever Yet nevertheless God who loved them was not long before he visited this City with a rebuke and that they might take notice of it within a few doors of that faithful Man's house E. B. a house was shut up as was said of the Plague and indeed it was the first that I ever heard of in the City so the president of your wrath was attended with an example of judgment and that from the hand of the Lord and an entrance being made into this work not withstanding the wrath and fury of the Lord did hang over this City like a Cloud over-burdened with rain and ready to pour forth and having by cruel threats overcome the Shipmasters to make them the Executioners of their cruel edict or Law and taking this advantage by an Embargoe laid upon all Merchants Ships out-bound except a pass from under the hand of the Admiral obtained none might pass forth of the River and many Shipmasters having layn long in hopes of an accomplishment of their intended Voyages were now frustrate for a pass they must go and that would not be granted except they would embarquesome Quakers aboard each of them to be scattered into the several Islands into which they were bound and though several of the Shipmasters did withstand the thing using many good Arguments to avoid the execution of the cruel penalty urging the Law made commanded not them and that there is a Law in England unrepealed that prohibites the transporting of any person out of this Nation without his or her proper consent and as some of these Shipmasters knows and have been given to know the last executive Officer is the Sheriffe and that he is to contract with any Shipmaster for their Transportation but I find not in the Law that the Sheriffe hath power to compell any man to bargain with him no more than any Tradesman hath power to compell any Chapman whatever to buy or sell with him the Shipmaster is left free in all and every such case but all these things must not serve the servants of the Lord must be banished and they must carry them law or not law else they must loose their Voyages the Rulers wills must be done and where a deficiency in Law is or that it answer not fully their ends then high words and threatning speeches of imprisonment and the like must answer all defects and so having wrought upon the extremities of these men and they having consulted their losses if they answer not their wills and also having respect to their private gain more then answering a good Conscience to God an agreement is made and so comes the servants of the Lord to be banished from their native Country the great God permitting it so to be and haveing come over the Shipmasters as is said again they enterprize the sending of seven more of the servants of the most High into Exile and upon the 18. of the 2d month 1665. was it suffered to be done and by the serviles of Newgate whose deligence in those things have been long experienced their Names are Tho. Gibson John Tysce John Terry Edward Maletrat John Goodwin John Hardin Edward Boycot and from the Prison in the morning were six of there faithful Servants of the Lord drove down and led by the Newgate Instruments unto Black-fryars Stairs where a Barge was ready to receive them which was accordingly done but Thomas Gibson refusing to yield an active complyance unto them they prepared a Coach and so fetched him out of Prison into it and carried him down to Tower-Wharfe where the Barge waited to receive him and so he was put into the Barge amongst his Brethren who were from thence carried to Gravesend and forced aboard in order to their Banishment And dear Thomas Gibson whose life with the rest and their faithfulness in their testimonies unto Gods living truth will be a pretious savour in Generations to come and when their lives and sufferings with all their tryals and faithfulness therein comes to be read and compared with the measure they have met withal and received from their Persecuters of this Generation in which they lived and did the will of God surely surely praises praises will be given unto
God by them that are yet unborn and will bless God for this day and so these seven faithful Lambs are gone by the permission of God into exile and have for truths sake parted with Wives Children and Estates to fulfill the Holy will of God who is blessed for ever Not many dayes after the embarquing of these faithful Brethren the Lord shewed another notable example by cuting off that grand Instrument Iudge Hyde by sudden death who the Lord knoweth wrought much yea very much of our detriment both in our imprisonments our tryals and in expediating our Banishment But he is gone to his place and the fruits of the deeds in his life is his food to eternity and so I shall not particularize his several carriages to us in our imprisonments and tryals but leave it to others to read over the lines of his life which is written with a point of an Adamant And about that time the Lord began to pour out his plagues in some of the out parts of the City and then Weekly-bills began to declare the Judgements of a just God and in a manner as in his fear I may speak it as they began to banish in small numbers first 3. then 7. and afterwards greater numbers as may by and by be declared even so hath the Judgments of God traced that malicious spirit first in small numbers and so with greater as any that will make the observation upon the weekly-bills of Mortality may find it so just and righteous O dreadful God are thy judgments who hast judged thus And not many weeks passed but another experiment must be made by sending away for Banishment now eight malice encreasing one in number the Names of these faithful innocent Lambs are Rob. Allin Tho. Kent John Raunce Tho. Hodg Tho. Robins John Johnson Tho. Parker Rich. Poulton all which were on the 26. of the 3d. month 1665. by those emesaries of Newgate forced out of Prison and carried to the old place Black-fryars Stairs and there was a Barge prepared for them into which they were pulled and so from thence to Gravesend were carried where they were by violence put aboard in order to banishment and after some dayes lying in the River they were cleared at the Blockhouse which would not be done till the Shipmaster made appear to the Searchers that he had the Quakers aboard and so in the will of God have these all born a â—â—â—thful testimony unto Gods holy truth and have set their seales unto it by giving up freely both Wives Children and their all and rather then transgress the way of God have chosen to receive their lots with their Brethren into what place soever the Lord shall permit them to be cast and have committed the truth of their cause unto a just God who is now come to plead their innocency with their and his adversaries and he will render vengeance upon the heads of them and will smite hip and thigh the whole host of the Vncircumcised and they shall know by his Judgments he is God and not another and though these simple sheep when before your Courts of judgment so called might not have liberty to plead the truth of their cause unto you but with ironical scoffing jeering and taunting language have dispenced your wills unto them which is reckoned by you good law but the righteous Judge hath looked down and beheld all these things and when any one have but spoken a sentence of Scripture in defence of their just cause you have retorted unto them these unsavory ungodly unchristianlike sayings hold your canting sirrah hold your canting sirrah I even I have been both eye and ear witness of these things even to the grief of my very soul that ever men that should sit in Court to execute the Lawes of this Nation should drop such expressions from their mouths and in publique But what shall I say in an acceptable time is the Lord arisen to plead with the men of this Generation when I have heard such language given by old grey hair'd men that hath sate there to judge I have said in my heart where are we arrived in this day what the Scriptures of truth called canting a language learned under Hedges by Rogues and Vagabonds ah woe is me is this the reverence you have to the holy record of Scripture to call it canting and in your Courts of Judicature ah miserable men what an example is this to them that comes to hear your wisdoms and may not young men by your examples turn meer heathen and atheists but the Lord will awaken you yea he will awaken you to the confession of him and likewise that Records of truth spoken forth through his Servants by the Spirit of God in their day and Generation who received such measure from the Judges and Rulers then in being as we now do from you in this Nation But now I return unto my Relation to observe the dealings with my Brethren and Sisters in the pestiferous Jakes and Prison of Newgate well though notwithstanding the fury of the Lord smoaks in this City and his wrath is come up to the number Thousands and he is cuting off in all parts and his Judgments have even circumâ—fered and beleagured it and seeing it is the will of the Lord it shall be so what saith the envious spirit I will double and treble the number of those that are under my hand and will drive them into exile and in order thereunto a Shipmaster a fit servile for such an employment is found who as it is said of him will banish his neerest Relations for moneys and a contract is drove with him for no less then 60. innocent men and women or thereabouts to receive them into his Ship to dispose of them whetherto he is bound and there to leave them to starve and perish O mercyless Rulers is this your Retaliation for the return out of your distress the Lord if it be his will shew you more mercy then you shew unto his people and a day is ordered for the dispatching of this poor flock away out of their Country and so as aforesaid in a morning with very short warning was these friends about some 56. or 58. by the old serviles of Newgate taken forth and carried down to the same place by 10.8 and sometimes more in a company through the streets some drove and some led to the Waterside untill they had got the number spoken into the Barge prepared for them and so away they were rowed down to a place called Bugbeys Hole beyond Greenwich where the Ship rode and when they came unto the Ship these Instruments of Newgate did not find all things so ready to their hands nor they in the Ship so willing as themselves were to do their masters drudgery the Seamen being some of them more considerate refused to lay hands on them except they were willing and these poor sheep declared their unwillingness to yield any active complyance unto them so a
O mighty God honour thy Self Glorify thy Self Magnifie thy Self and advance and exalt thy deer Truth over all O thou art worthy of all praise from thee in thine Blessed to Eternity POSTSCRIPT NOtwithstanding the sore Calamity that is by the hand of a most righteous God inflicted upon this City and that the last weeks Bill declared 3014. yet for all this and in this time they seized our Meeting in Joneses at the Peele and took away the most of Men friends amounting to the number of about 25. and carried them to be examined before George Monck called Duke of Albema le who after one nights been there their names being taken but not being brought before him was disposed of to Prison some to the Gate-house and some to Newgate where they remain Prisoners for the testimony of Gods holy Truth and though they had sent fifty five of the Servants of the Lord into cruel exile last week as it were to make an experiment of these actions and as I have heard it reported that some should say that if the Quakers were sent out of the Land it would be the onely expedient of stopping the Plague but behold what an effect it hath wrought and how the Lord hath dealt in this cause that this week since this hath been done 1016. is increased in the Judgement in this Bill for no less then 4030. is cut off which this Weeks Bill declares and so such Diviners if it were so spoken by them are falce and lyars for they see a contrary effect and those that causeth these our cruel and unjust sufferings may well observe the hand of a retaliating God upon you and except they intend to take vengeance upon the most High I am yet to learn their intentions in this matter O poor Mortals that thus striveth against the God of Heaven what shall I say a Lamentation a Lamentation yea a bitter Lamentation is to be taken up for you ENGLAND'S sad Estate and Condition lamented in this just Complaint taken up against the greatest part of her Inhabitants Because of their great Abominations and Treacherous Dealings both with God and Man For which cause the Terrible and Righteous Judgments of the Lord are coming upon them and the Land Wherein is also contained some PROPHESIES and EXHORTATIONS OH ENGLAND England The Abominations of the greatest part of thy Inhabitants who can declare them They have reached Heaven so as they are come up before the Lord the Jealous God and Wo unto that part of thy Inhabitants who have sinned out the Day of their Visitation and have wholly slighted the Day of God's patience and long Forbearance and would have none of his Reproof but have altogether rejected the same and have made a mock at Sin have sported themselves with their own Deceivings and Lusts and have gone a Whoring from under the God of their Lives Wherefore thus saith the Lord the onely God I will make such become a Hissing and Reproach and my Anger they shall not be able to Escape because of their provoking Abominations and Treacherous Dealings both with Me and Man Oh England England How have and yet do a great part of thy Inhabitants Rush into Idolatry and all manner of Profaness and grievous Abominations even as the Horse and Mighty Rush into the Battel How do they drink in Iniquity even as the Ox or Parched Ground drinketh in Water Oh! What manner of Lamentation shall I make for thee my Native Countrey Or What manner of Complaint may I take up against a great part of thine Inhabitants who have long Sought and yet seek thy Ruine and Destruction Verily their Actions have Declared them to be like the Inhabitants of Sodom Yea their sins have rendred them to be as â—â—d as those of Gomorrah O they have Vexed the Righteous Soul Yea and they have Grieved the Spirit of the Lord from Day to Day with their Vnjust Conversations They have multiplied their Transgressions and heaped up their Iniquities till they are become as the Sand on the Sea-shore without Number Oh! The Lord hath long striven with them yea He hath also long born their Iniquities He would have gathered them to himself out of their Abominations Yea he would oft have healed them but they would not but they have stiffned their Necks and hardned their Hearts against the Lord and his Counsel day after day and have chosen their own way and works even to their own hurt and would by no means be reclaimed for when the Lord hath reproved them by the Light of his Son in their own consciences and set their sins in order before their eyes they have stopped their Eares and closed their Eyes and willfully Rebelled against the Power of God and trampled upon his Witness the Light in them as a thing of nought counting it not worth the taking Notice of And when the Lord hath raised up Prophets Children and Servants and sent them out Commanding them to lift up their Voyces like Trumpets to shew the People their Transgression and to Preach Repentance and Amendment of Life Yea to warn and exhort them to turn from their Sins to God and to lay before them their great abominations and to Prophesie what should come upon them if they would not turn from the evil of their Doings Oh! how have a great part of thy Inhabitants Scorned and Derided these Yea how have many of thine Inhabitants Beaten Whipt Stock't Stoned and Imprisoned some of these till Death for bearing their Testimony for the Lord against a Crooked and Perverse Generation who hate such as speak uprightly and abhor such as reprove Sin in the Gate that so it is even thus come to pass in thee O England That he that departeth from Iniquity maketh himsef a Prey to this Generation of Evil doers whose hearts are set upon their Lusts Idolatry and grievous Abominations and the Lord hath beheld it and it pleaseth him because there is no true Judgment for these evil doers are all gone out of the way yea there is none of them that regard to do the thing that 's Just and Good any further than it may be advantagious to their own Corrupt Designes Oh England England How oft hath the Lord God smote thy Rulers and Mighty and Proud Men how oft hath he laid their Honour in the Dust Yea How oft hath he Overturned and Confounded thy Mighty Men even thy Men of War with thy Princes Nobles and Captaines of Thousands Hundreds and Fifties Oh how oft hath he Overturned thy Governments and Changed thy Governours But how few of them have so regarded the Out-goings of the Lord in all these things as they ought to have done And how few of them have rightly Weighed and Considered the Causes for which the Lord hath brought or suffered so many Changes in the Land Or have those who saw the causes that provoked the Lord of hosts thus to Act laboured so to remove them as they ought to do or might have done Nay