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HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS: 
 
 COMPILED FROM ITS STANDARD RECORDS, 
 
 AND 
 
 (JDiljer Qlmljeittic Sources. 
 
 /by 
 
 WILLIAM R. WAGSTAFF, M.D. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 NEW YORK & LONDON : 
 WILEY AND PUTNAM. 
 
 1845. 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 
 WILLIAM R. WAGSTAFF, 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 S. W. BENEDICT & CO., 
 Sltmtypcrt and Printm, Jo Spruce street; New York. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 T O 
 
 MY MOTHER. 
 
 W. B. W. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Although Friends have many ably written Records of the rise 
 and progress of their Society, yet they are, as is well known, in a 
 great measure unadapted to general reading, either from their 
 quaintness, or their verbosity of style. This readily accounts for 
 the acknowledged ignorance of the Society, as to its history, and 
 especially the youth, who deem it a severe task, instead of a plea- 
 sure, to ponder over its pages, where they might with advantage 
 reflect on the character and lives of those men, who, though they 
 did not dazzle the eyes of mankind with any brilliant schemes of 
 worldly ambition, ennobled themselves and the human family, by 
 raising and supporting the standard of Christ within, as the bulwark 
 of pure religion. 
 
 After some reflection, I have been induced to suppose that vast 
 benefit would accrue to the Society, if a compendious and modern 
 history of it were published ; incited by this consideration, I was 
 not discouraged by the prospect of the laborious undertaking, from 
 engaging, during the hours of relaxation from an arduous profes- 
 sion, in the task of collecting and digesting the materials necessary 
 tor such a work. 
 
 The authorities and works from which I have selected the mat- 
 ler for this Book, are those of the standard historians and primitive 
 members of the Society. 
 
v i PREFACE. 
 
 It" I have succeeded in my endeavors, and judiciously availed 
 myself of the materials within my reach ; if the work answers the 
 expectations of my friends, and causes satisfaction and profitable 
 reflection to my readers in general, my design in undertaking it 
 will not be altogether unanswered. It will be noticed that this 
 Hook is entirely devoted to transactions on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, it being my design, at some period not very far distant, 
 should my life and health be spared me, to produce another Work 
 similar, and being Part II. of this, containing a full account of the 
 trials and privations to which the Society were subjected in this 
 Western World. W. R. W. 
 
 New York, 2d Mo., 1845. 
 
* 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH PRIOR TO GEORGE FOX. 
 
 The history of the Christian Church, presents the record of 
 a conflict, which, for eighteen centuries, has been waged 
 within her bosom, between two opposing principles. — These 
 antagonistic principles are Spirituality and Formalism ; the 
 one, divine in its origin, and addressing itself to the highest 
 part of our nature ; the other, earthly in its source, and finding 
 an ally and a slave in the gross and sensual propensities of 
 the human soul. 
 
 Heathenism presents a melancholy instance of the work- 
 ings of the formal principle, when the divine and life-giving 
 spirit has become extinct. Those noble religious truths which 
 occasionally shine forth in the writings of some of the early 
 Heathen, are the fragments of a primitive revelation from the 
 Divine Spirit to the souls of those holy men, who lived in the 
 first ages of the world. But their posterity, while they main- 
 tained the forms of worship, ceased to abide in its spirit ; the 
 divine life died within them, and their communication with 
 heaven was soon cut off; and the dim twilight of traditionary 
 knowledge gradually deepening into a profound and starless 
 midnight, they finally sank into all the stupid and debasing 
 practices of an idolatrous superstition. Then came to pass 
 that saying of Paul, " Because when they knew God, they 
 glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imagina- 
 
I 
 
 yjjj INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tions, therefore their foolish hearts were darkened ; profess- 
 ing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and chang- 
 ed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image 
 made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed 
 beasts and creeping things/' This view is supported by the 
 fact that the golden age of heathenism is in the distant past, 
 its progress is a downward one, it waxes worse and worse as 
 we come down from the morning of time ; it is like a body 
 in which the vital principle is extinct, and in which there is 
 nothing to arrest its tendency to corruption and decay. In 
 the moral degradation of heathen lands, we can therefore be- 
 hold a sad exhibition of the complete triumph of dead form 
 over spiritual life. 
 
 In the Christian Church, all the changes which have trans- 
 pired since the days of its founder, may be referred to the 
 temporary predominance of one of these principles over its 
 antagonist ; but as we recede from this day, formalism is seen 
 gradually to triumph, until, at length, the spiritual seed are 
 almost extinct, and the formal principle, personified in the 
 Roman Pontiff, lords it over the debased nations in all the 
 plenitude of priestly despotism. 
 
 A view of some of the principal phases of this conflict will 
 form an appropriate introduction to the history of that people, 
 whom God has raised up in these latter days as witnesses for 
 the truth. Such a sketch must of course be very general and 
 imperfect. Indeed, its object is not so much to inform as to 
 remind ; it simply proposes to conduct the reader through 
 scenes with which he is presumed to be already familiar, and 
 it therefore merely notices some of the more prominent ob- 
 jects, leaving the minuter details associated with them to be 
 called up for their illustration by the reader's memory. 
 
 Before we speak of the Great Author of the new dispen- 
 sation, or follow its first preachers in their widely extended 
 labors, it will be well to glance briefly at some circumstances 
 in the state of^he world at that time, highly favorable to the 
 spread of Christianity, and its general reception. All previ- 
 ous events had doubtless a preparative bearing upon the set- 
 
INTRODUCTION. j x 
 
 ting up of a spiritual kingdom in the fulness of time ; but 
 Divine Providence had especially chosen the Romans as the 
 instruments of preparing the world for the planting of the seed 
 of life. All the ancient monarchies had successively fallen 
 before the irresistible prowess of their victorious legions ; the 
 boundaries of the civilized world had also been greatly ex- 
 tended by the subjugation of many barbarous tribes, so that 
 the city of the Caesars was the metropolis of the nations ; and 
 the many avenues of communication from the centre to the 
 wide circumference of this vast dominion, opened so many 
 highways for the gospel to reach the most distant hamlets of 
 men, with the joyful message of salvation. The Roman 
 conquests had also broken down another obstacle to the 
 spread of truth which might have proved insuperable ; they 
 had in a measure obliterated national partitions, and with 
 them national jealousies ; the word "stranger" had ceased to 
 be the synonym of enemy, and, as members of one universal 
 empire, the nations of the earth began to regard and greet 
 each other as brethren. Another circumstance, highly favor- 
 able to the diffusion of a knowledge of Christianity, was the 
 existence of a language understood more or less over the 
 whole globe ; the Greek tongue was in almost universal use, 
 not only as the language of letters, but also of commerce and 
 familiar conversation. Cicero remarks in one of his orations, 
 that the Greek was read in almost every land — " graaca legun- 
 tur in omnibus fere gentibus ;" and how well the Apostles 
 availed themselves of this fact, appears from the circumstance 
 that all the New Testament scriptures were written in that 
 tongue. 
 
 But Providence had employed Rome not only to give the 
 truth access to the ear of mankind, but also to prepare a way 
 for its cordial and permanent lodgment in their hearts. She 
 had been the unconscious instrument of causing heathenism 
 to lose, in a great measure, its former hold upon the confi- 
 dence and affections of the people ; so that now it depended 
 for the prolongation of its existence almost solely upon the 
 selfish exertions of the priesthood, and its alliance with the 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 state. The religions of the old world were strictly local re- 
 ligions : every state had its own divinities, who watched over 
 its welfare with an exclusive care ; who infused wisdom into 
 its council ; who granted victory to its arms ; and who be- 
 stowed upon the labors of peaceful industry a rich and boun- 
 tiful reward. One very essential element of the religious 
 sentiment was patriotism : they loved their altars for the same 
 reason that they loved their firesides ; they reverenced and 
 propitiated their gods, because they were attached to then- 
 institutions, and the worship of the one was co-terminous 
 with the boundaries of the other. This element of religious 
 feeling was abstracted by Rome, when, breaking down 
 national partitions, and obliterating national prejudices, she 
 brought all the tribes of men within the pale of an universal 
 citizenship. Mankind now began to feel their need of a more 
 universal religion — a religion more congenial with the new 
 relation into which they had been brought with one another 
 — a religion whose claims upon their spirits should rest upon 
 the foundation, and whose spiritual gift and promise should 
 satisfy the wants of their common humanity. Such a re- 
 ligion Rome attempted to fabricate, by amalgamating the 
 various local systems into one, which should be universal. 
 She allowed each nation to retain its own god, but she intro 
 duced beside these those which were foreign. But this at- 
 tempt to prop up heathenism, only accelerated its fall ; for in 
 these different religious systems which, she thus sought to 
 amalgamate, men saw nothing but the contradiction and op- 
 position of conflicting errors. The old national conviction 
 was shaken, and that religious enthusiasm, which had its 
 root in patriotism, became extinct ; and as the nations looked 
 upon the confronted rabble of divinities which filled the 
 Roman Pantheon, it was with scepticism and apathy. 
 
 The more cultivated and reflecting had long before betaken 
 themselves to philosophy, by which they had sought to give 
 a spiritual consistency to the literal absurdities of the popular 
 mythologies. But in the new state of things, these systems 
 were also confronted ; and exhibiting nothing but opposition 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 of sentiments, their adherents, bewildered and lost in their 
 inquiries after truth, began to question its existence. Many 
 therefore sank into a cheerless, heart-freezing atheism; 
 others contented themselves with a shallow, lifeless deism ; 
 while others, who felt in the world an Infinite Spirit, yet 
 questioned his personality, embraced a pantheism, which con- 
 fused the Creator with the works of his hand. 
 
 But man has a religious nature ; and he cannot, for any 
 length of time, stifle that desire for intercourse with heaven 
 which his Maker has implanted in -his bosom, and in the gra- 
 tification of which he can alone find satisfying enjoyment. 
 Truth also is the natural aliment of the soul ; and it is only 
 in the believing apprehension of certain great principles as 
 true, that the moral consciousness of man can find satisfac- 
 tion and repose. 
 
 This led some thinking and single-minded men, as early 
 as the time of Christ, to abandon all the existing systems of 
 philosophy, as systems, and to form a new one, by choosing 
 from all such parts as wore the semblance of truth. This 
 new philosophy obtained, at a later period, the name of 
 Eclectic Platonism, the spiritual doctrines of that great 
 teacher being the basis of the system. This philosophy, by 
 teaching its disciples to recognize and embrace the truth, 
 wherever found, and by exciting and encouraging a more 
 spiritual frame of mind, constituted a very important prepa- 
 ration for the spread of Christianity. It led men to the con- 
 sciousness of possessing a god-like nature akin to the Divin- 
 ity, and it taught them to recognize in this life a state of 
 preparation for a higher existence, where the soul, freed from 
 all moral and intellectual infirmity, should spend its immor- 
 tality in the perfect contemplation and enjoyment of the 
 truth. These indefinite but sincere and ardent desires after 
 spiritual knowledge which it awakened, but was unable fully 
 to satisfy, led its disciples to long for some heavenly revela- 
 tion, which, like Christianity, should be placed beyond all 
 doubt, and which, amid the tempestuous strife of human 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 opinions, might afford a calm and secure resting-place for 
 the weary spirit. 
 
 It is true that the philosopher was slow to recognize such 
 a revelation in the crucified Nazarene. Too often he rejected 
 the spiritual bread for which his soul was famishing, because 
 the hand that proffered it was the hand of an illiterate Jew, 
 The severe and lofty morality of the Gospel also met with a 
 cold reception from his carnal inclinations ; that which he 
 had contemplated and admired, was an intellectual abstrac- 
 tion ; but here was a system which brought his heaven to 
 earth, which reduced his ideal to practice ; which inculcated 
 a life of self-denial and self-mortification, and required him 
 to sit down like a little child at the feet of Christ ; so that too 
 often, he whom his better judgment would have made a con- 
 vert to the new faith, was changed by his pride and passions 
 into its bitter, unrelenting persecutor. Still, there was in 
 Christianity a divine beauty and power which all the pride 
 of human reason, and all the opposition of human depravity, 
 could not long withstand ; so that on the whole those more 
 spiritual views of religion and that deep sense of inward 
 want, which this system had taught and engendered were a 
 real and most important preparation for the final predomi- 
 nance of the Christian faith. 
 
 There is yet another people whose religious state, at the 
 period of which we are speaking, demands our consideration. 
 This is that peculiar people whom the God of heaven had 
 chosen as the medium of that revelation of himself which, in 
 the fulness of time and in a more spiritual form, was to be 
 imparted by them to the Gentiles. In the Jewish religion 
 we find in broad contrast to the debased.tribes of the most 
 enlightened pagan nations, the idea of one holy, almighty, 
 all wise, merciful and independent God, the creator and gov- 
 ernor of the world, to whose glory all things must be sub- 
 servient, and on whom -all things depend. The Jews, in their 
 conceptions of the Divine character, the nature of his worship 
 and the duties of justice and charity, which man, as the 
 creature of God, owes to his fellow man, were as superior to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xiii 
 
 their most cultivated cotemporaries, as in the arts, arms and 
 letters they fell below them. The loftiest purpose of Judaism, 
 however, was to prepare the way for a more perfect and 
 glorious dispensation of truth, which should go forth from its 
 bosom. Toward this last, all its ritual pointed, and from the 
 glimpses of the coming day thus afforded to the eye of faith, 
 the pious Israelite derived all his solace and joy in waiting 
 upon the God of his fathers. The Jewish religion was a 
 shadow, of which Christianity is the substance; it was a pro- 
 mise, of which Christianity is the fulfilment. The law of 
 Moses was designed merely to be a pedagogue to lead men 
 to Jesus Christ. The Church of God then was, as in that 
 stage of its development He intended it to be, a Theocracy ; 
 the Jews guarded the sacred deposit of revelation with a spirit 
 of jealous exclusiveness ; they proudly excluded from a par- 
 ticipation in their birthright, all the other children of Adam, 
 except the few who, by conformity to their national rites, re- 
 ceived a partial adoption into the family of Abraham. This 
 being the case, Judaism in its then existing form was utterly 
 unfit for universal diffusion ; it was essentially a local reli- 
 gion, the material shadow of a better system to come ; and 
 before it could become the faith of all nations, a light to 
 lighten the Gentiles, its pure moral and religious spirit needed 
 to be purged from its Jewish accidents, and to put on a 
 more spiritual and universal form. 
 
 When the founder of. the new dispensation appeared in our 
 world, Judaism exhibited in the persons of its professors all 
 the melancholy symptoms of speedy decay. All that spirit- 
 uality of mind which their fathers had manifested, had 
 departed with them ; and since faith no longer dwelt in the 
 hearts of the worshippers, the worship which they still out- 
 wardly paid, was merely formal, burdensome, and hypocriti- 
 cal. The outward forms of religion, which are always 
 magnified the more as its spirit dies, were indeed kept up 
 with a punctilious and superstitious exactness ; but this robe 
 of external sanctity, in which the degenerate sons of the old 
 prophets paraded themselves before the world, too often 
 
xiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 covered hearts, of which ambition, avarice, sensuality, and 
 even scepticism, were the unclean inhabitants. Josephus, 
 himself a Jew, represents their high priests and rulers as men 
 of abandoned character, who obtained their places by 
 bribery ; and our Saviour likens their religious teachers unto 
 whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful without, 
 but within are filled with dead men's bones and all unclean- 
 ness. 
 
 Passing by the great schism between the worshippers at 
 Jerusalem and Mount Gerizim, the Jews proper were divided 
 into three principal sects, in all of which the formal prin- 
 ciple was predominant, though wearing on each a widely 
 different garb. 
 
 Of these the Pharisees were the most numerous, and from 
 an affectation of superior sanctity, which so often imposes 
 upon the mass, they were by far the most popular. Their 
 religion, however, may well be styled the idolatry of formal- 
 ism. The temple and the ritual, Moses and the Rabbins, 
 seem to have usurped in their minds the place of God. 
 Their piety had its seat, not in the heart, but in the counten- 
 ance. It consisted not in marks of love, and spiritual oneness 
 with their Maker, but in a spurious, lifeless orthodoxy, and 
 an ostentatious round of ceremonial observances. They 
 made long prayers and devoured widows' houses, they tith- 
 ed the very herbs which grew in their gardens, but omitted 
 the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. 
 In opposition to the Sadducees, they indeed held to a spirit- 
 ual interpretation of the sacred writings ; but instead of 
 regarding this as a key to the deep things of the spirit, they 
 only employed it as an instrument for multiplying those 
 frivolous and burdensome superstitions, under which the 
 miserable Hebrew was already bowed to the earth. Not 
 content with even this, they had elevated the glosses and 
 dogmas of their doctors to an authority equal, and even par- 
 amount, to that of the Word of God ; so that their system was 
 a miserable and unseemly patchwork of things new and old, 
 divine and human. " We seem to stand," says John Von 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 Muller, speaking of it, " among the ruins of a palace, in which 
 the old architecture is so defaced by incongruous ornaments, 
 and the huge columns so hidden under capitals of hideous 
 design, that we are obliged to dig in order to bring forth to 
 view the ancient workmanship." 
 
 The Sadducees were composed mostly of the opulent, 
 that class who from the common influence of that luxury 
 which accompanies wealth, so often smother in the enjoy- 
 ment of sense, the higher desires of their nature. Of the 
 Jewish Scriptures, they, like the Samaritan, received the Pen- 
 tateuch alone ; and they adhered so strictly to its letter, that 
 they confined all its teachings to the present world, and even 
 went so far as to maintain that there is no spirit and no future 
 life. The self-invented and burdensome ceremonial of the 
 Pharisees they rejected, but inasmuch as they were equally 
 destitute of religious life, they were as formal in the breach, 
 as their rivals were in their observance. Their system was 
 a negative formalism, which, as all experience shows, is quite 
 as incompatible with a truly religious spirit, as that which is 
 positive. In one point, however, resulting doubtless from 
 their latitudinarian views, they contrast favorably with their 
 more bigoted opponents — they were less exclusive in their 
 feelings, as well as more just and charitable in their actions. 
 
 The Essenes were composed of a very different class, and 
 possessed a very different character. In their habits they 
 were quiet, frugal, and industrious ; and remote from the 
 noise of cities, in distant agricultural communities, they led 
 a chaste, inoffensive, and contemplative life. They seemed 
 to possess a certain inward religious life, and they certainly 
 exhibited in their actions a degree of practical piety ; yet 
 their religion was too plainly of a monkish and mystical cast 
 to be recognized as belonging to the same spiritual family with 
 that of Jesus Christ. With all their excellent qualities, and they 
 had many, there is mixed up an outward asceticism, a proud 
 spirit of separation from the rest of mankind, and an undue 
 attachment to peculiar forms as essential, utterly at variance 
 with the true spirit of inward religion. 
 
xvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The vast multitude of Jews, who then, as now, were scat- 
 tered over the world in the pursuit of gain, seem chiefly to 
 have been Pharisees. There were some, however, and 
 mostly in Egypt, who had imbibed from a long residence 
 abroad, a taste for the literature and philosophy of the 
 Greeks. Some of these Hellenitic Jews were thus led to des- 
 pise and forsake the religion of their fathers ; but others, more 
 penetrating, seeing the immense superiority of Judaism to 
 the systems of Paganism, were yet disposed to retain it, not, 
 however, as a Divine and soul-purifying religion, but only as 
 the embodiment of their philosophic dreams. These last, 
 therefore, degraded God's wisdom into a mere echo of man's 
 carnal reason ; and in these philosophising Jews, the pure 
 truths of the gospel encountered their most bitter and uncom- 
 promising opponents. 
 
 At length, in the fulness of time, the Founder of the new 
 dispensation, the true light that lighteth every man that com- 
 eth into the world, appeared upon our earth. The Word 
 was made flesh, and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. 
 This event forms the culminating point of all history ; it 
 opens a new and more glorious era in #ie annals of the 
 human race. 
 
 Of the early part of the earthly career of Jesus, and the 
 peculiar influences under which his character was formed, 
 much has been conjectured, but little is known. When 
 about thirty years of age he commenced his mission ; he 
 " began to preach," says the Evangelist, " and to say repent, 
 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 
 A few obscure and illiterate men, whose hearts were drawn 
 towards him by the Spirit, became his disciples, and to 
 these he first unfolded the principles of that spiritual king- 
 dom, which he came to establish. The germ of this kingdom 
 is the truth, which finds a response in every bosom, that true 
 religion is a holy state of heart ; and that to obtain it, the 
 natural man must be born again by the renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost, and become spiritually a new creature. In de- 
 veloping this idea to the minds of his humble followers, he 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvii 
 
 sought to convince them of the utter worthlessness of all that 
 merely external righteousness in which holiness of character 
 was then thought to consist. He taught them that accept- 
 ance and communion with God were to be enjoyed, not in 
 the mechanical observance of outward religious forms, but in 
 the sincere exercise of those pure desires and affections which 
 the Father of grace originates in our hearts. " For I say unto 
 you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteous- 
 ness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven." In this manner did he seek to 
 purge religion from its human and Jewish leaven. In this 
 way did he eliminate the divine principle of an inward life, 
 from that mass of sensual observances which had so long 
 buried it from human sight. Thus " the most gracious 
 God," says William Penn, " caused the light to shine out of 
 darkness, and the day-star began to rise in the hearts of 
 believers, giving unto them the knowledge of God in the 
 face of his Son Jesus Christ." " The kingdom of God," 
 said the great teacher, " cometh not with observation." 
 True religion neither consists in nor depends upon anything 
 material or outward. It is, therefore, not to be gone out 
 after. It is not to be sought in the temple, in the ritual, or in 
 the priest. But a man who loves and serves God in the 
 spirit, he is the true worshipper, whether he live the life of 
 an anchorite, in some desert solitude, or ply his busy voca- 
 tion on the mart of some crowded city. " The kingdom of 
 heaven is within you — Behold ! the hour cometh, and now 
 is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship 
 him." And this is the covenant which He will make with 
 them : " I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their 
 minds will I write them ; and their sins and iniquities will I 
 remember no more." 
 
 For more than three years the good Shepherd went about 
 to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
 Patiently and assiduously he labored to instruct his country- 
 men in divine things, and to bring them into that kingdom 
 
 B 
 
xviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 where, guided by the spirit, they might enjoy not only free- 
 dom from the heavy burdens which iheir corrupt priests had 
 imposed upon them, but a purer and more exalted commu- 
 nion with the Father of their spirits. To accomplish this 
 work, which had been assigned him by the Father, he toiled, 
 suffered, and died. Anointed with the Holy Ghost and 
 with power, he unostentatiously went about doing good, 
 proclaiming everywhere the glad tidings of ihe kingdom. 
 He healed the sick, he instructed the ignorant, he reclaimed 
 the erring, he poured the balm of consolation into the hearts 
 of the sorrowful, he preached the gospel to the poor. 
 
 But whilst the light thus shone in darkness, the darkness 
 comprehended it not. The Son of Man was greeted with 
 such a reception as an ignorant and ungrateful world ever 
 gives to its wisest teachers and best benefactors. He came 
 unto his own, and his own received him not. The gentle- 
 ness of his manners, the blamelessness of his life, the rich- 
 ness of his benefactions, and the surpassing purity and sub- 
 limity of his doctrines ; — all this only served to draw down 
 upon him the envious hatred of a bigoted priesthood and the 
 blind fury of a deluded people. The malice of his enemie.- 
 was only satisfied when it had imbrued its guilty hands in 
 his innocent blood. This is the heir, said these wicked hus- 
 bandmen, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 
 
 But God oftentimes causeth the wrath of man to praise 
 him, and he oftentimes employeth the opposition of the wick- 
 ed as a means of accomplishing purposes which they vainly 
 would frustrate. So it came to pass. The death of Christ 
 upon the cross proved the eternal salvation of a lost world. 
 This result he had himself foretold. " Verily I say unto 
 you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abid- 
 eth alone ; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. And I, 
 if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
 
 Little did Jewish priests and heathen rulers think, that in 
 nailing the unoffending object of their envy to the cross, 
 they were taking the most effectual means of spreading his 
 dreaded doctrines, and of procuring their own speedy and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xix 
 
 fearful overthrow! Little did they imagine, that in shedding 
 his blood, they were planting that corn of wheat which 
 should fill a famishing world with the bread of spiritual life ! 
 Yet so the determinate council and foreknowledge of God 
 had appointed. The corn of wheat died, and the death of 
 Jesus proved the life of his people. The Saviour of sinners 
 was lifted up on the cross, and the simple tale of his suffer- 
 ings has such an attractive power over the human heart, 
 that millions, in every age and clime, have been drawn by il 
 to that cross's foot. 
 
 God suffered not his Holy One to see corruption. He 
 burst the cerements of death. He confirmed the hearts of his 
 weeping and bewildered disciples, and directed them to pub- 
 lish his religion to all nations. He graciously assured them 
 of the perpetual guidance and indwelling of the Spirit — and 
 then entering within the veil, he appeared before the Father, 
 as the ever-living High Priest of his peculiar people. 
 
 When Jesus was put to death, his enemies fondly sup- 
 posed that spiritual religion would die with him. But 
 through the mercy and appointment of God it turned out 
 otherwise. His doctrines still lived in the hearts of his fol- 
 lowers. The infant Church, indeed, presented to the eye of 
 man the insignificance of that least of seeds to which its 
 Founder had compared it : but like the mustard-seed, it pos- 
 sessed, in its inward life, such a principle of growth, as caus- 
 ed it, within the lifetime of its first preachers, to overshadow- 
 all lands with its fruitful branches. 
 
 The number of believers, convened at the election of Mal- 
 thias in the place of the unworthy Judas, was only " about a 
 hundred and twenty ;" but so soon as the day of Pentecost, 
 " there were added unto them about three thousand souls." 
 Shortly after this Peter addressed an immense concourse in 
 the porch of Solomon, and we are told that " many of them 
 which heard the word, believed; and the number of the men 
 was about five thousand." Alarmed at the rapid progress of 
 the new faith, the priests and their adherents sought to arrest 
 it by force, but as commonly happens, this only increased the 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 number of converts, " and believers were the more added to 
 the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." At length 
 the Christian community became so large that the daily dis- 
 tribution of alms to its poor members seriously interfering 
 with the more spiritual duties of the Apostles, it was found 
 necessary to appoint seven men to be the almoners of the 
 Churches' charities ; and still, we are informed, "the word of 
 God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in 
 Jerusalem greatly ; and a great company of the priests were 
 obedient to the faith." 
 
 The fires of persecution, which had been so long pent up, 
 now burst forth upon the disciples with increased fury. The 
 Jewish rulers seem hitherto to have adopted the more moderate 
 council of Gamaliel ; but now the sword was unsheathed ; its 
 earliest victim was Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy 
 Ghost, who died, as became the first Christian martyr, pray- 
 ing for his enemies. This ebullition of priestly and popular 
 rage, which took place probably about A. D. 36, was follow- 
 ed by consequences which its authors had not anticipated. 
 It proved the means of disseminating yet more widely the 
 Christian faith. The disciples were dispersed abroad through- 
 out Judea and Samaria, and even travelled as far as Pheni- 
 cia, Cyprus and Antioch ; and " they that were scattered 
 abroad went everywhere preaching the word." 
 
 About a year subsequent to this, the cause of Christ receiv- 
 ed a new impetus, in the conversion of Paul. This man, a 
 learned and eloquent Jew of Tarsus, who, by his virulent en- 
 mity to Christians, had made himself conspicuous in this per- 
 secution, now became the most zealous and successful cham- 
 pion of that faith which he once sought to destroy. From 
 the conversion of Paul we may date the calling of the Gen- 
 tiles. For, although Christ had commanded his disciples to 
 preach the gospel to all nations, yet so strong were their pre- 
 judices as Jews, that the glorious truth, that Christianity was 
 designed for all mankind, does not seem to have taken full 
 possession of their minds, until after this event. The enlarged 
 and more spiritual views of Paul led them finally to perceive 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxi 
 
 the full import of their commission, and to admit the heathen 
 also to a participation in the blessings of the Spirit. The 
 labors of Paul well entitle him to be styled the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles ; his laborious life was spent in efforts for their sal- 
 vation ; and as the fruit of his toils, we behold Christian com- 
 munities planted in most of the principal cities of the civiliz- 
 ed world. Peter probably visited Babylon, Asia Minor, and 
 finally Rome, where he was crucified. Andrew probably 
 labored on the shores of the Black Sea, near the modern 
 Constantinople, and perhaps in Greece. Thomas seems to 
 have travelled eastward to Parthia, Media, Persia and Judea. 
 Bartholomew took, perhaps, a more southern course, and 
 preached in Arabia ; while Matthew is reported to have trav- 
 elled east, and published the gospel in modern Persia.^ 
 John, the beloved disciple, after long laboring in Judea, fin- 
 ished his career at Ephesus, at an advanced age, about A. 
 D. 100. The closing scene of this holy man's life presents a 
 beautiful illustration of the genuine spirit of primitive Chris- 
 tianity. Sensible that death was near, he caused himself to 
 be carried for the last time into the assembly of his brethren ; 
 when looking upon them, he lifted up his hands and said, 
 " Children, as the Lord hath loved us, so I beseech you 
 always to love one another;" and having thus said, he laid 
 down his head and expired.f 
 
 Of the progress of Christianity for some years after the 
 death of the Apostles, little is definitely known ; yet it is pro- 
 bable, from the state of the Church about the commencement 
 of the second century, that their immediate successors were 
 as zealous and indefatigable as themselves. Pliny, the 
 Roman Governor of Pontus and Bithynia, in his well-known 
 letter to the Emperor Trajan, about A. D. 107, represents 
 Christianity as having been embraced by persons of every 
 age and rank, and that, in consequence, the heathen temples 
 in those countries had been forsaken and their sacred solem- 
 nities discontinued. " Nor has the contagion of this super- 
 
 * See Murdock's Mosheim, Vol. t, p. 48; note by translator, 
 t John Von Muller's Universal History, Vol. II., p. 39. 
 
xxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stilion," he adds, " seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, 
 and the open country/' Justin Martyr, in his " Apology for 
 Christians," addressed to Antoninus Pius, about the middle 
 of the second century, says : " There is no race of men, 
 whether barbarian or Greek, or by whatever other name they 
 be designated, whether they wander in wagons, or dwell in 
 tents, amongst whom prayers and thanksgivings are nol 
 offered to the Father and Creator of all, in the name of the 
 crucified Jesus." We learn from Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, 
 about A. D. 178, that the light of the gospel had, at that time? 
 been received in Germany, France, Spain, and Lybia: and 
 Tertullian, a few years later, about A. D. 198, declares that 
 Parthia, Media, Armenia, the Getuli and Moors in Africa, all 
 the borders of Spain, many nations of Gaul, those parts of 
 Britain which were inaccessible to the Romans, the Saima- 
 tians, Dacians, Germans, Scythians, and other nations and 
 islands innumerable, were then subject to the dominion of 
 Christ. " We are but of yesterday," he said, " yet we have 
 tilled your empire, your cities, your islands, your castles, your 
 corporate towns, your assemblies, your very camps, your 
 tribes, your companies, your palace, your senate, your forum ; 
 — your temples alone are left to you." " We constitute," he 
 elsewhere says, " almost the majority of every town."^ 
 Making all due allowance for the natural exaggeration of a 
 fervid rhetoric, it appears from this latter statement, that in 
 little more than a century and a half from the death of its 
 founder, and in spite of all the fierce and bloody opposition 
 it met with from the civil power, the Christian Church em- 
 braced within its membership nearly, or quite half the popu- 
 lation of the Roman Empire : and that it had also succeeded 
 in planting the standard of the cross in lands where the iron 
 legions of the Caesars had never forced their way. " Thus," 
 says Palmer, " was Christianity destined to spring from a 
 small and obscure beginning, and overspread the earth in the 
 luxuriance of its growth. From Judea, the least of the na- 
 tions of the earth, and from twelve of its poorest and most 
 * See Palmer's Ecclesiastical History, Chapter II. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 illiterate children, ' a sound went into all the earth, and words 
 unto the ends of the world.' " 
 
 The primitive Churches present the singular spectacle of hun- 
 dreds of independent communities having no visible confede- 
 rate organization, and yet all constituting together a society 
 possessed of such a real oneness, as the world has never wit- 
 nessed either before or since. This strong yet invisible bond 
 of Christian fellowship was spiritual sympathy, it proceeded 
 from the living bond of each to Christ as the Church's head ; 
 their common relationship to him constituted their common 
 relationship to one another, and this unity of the spirit bound 
 together the most remote portions of Christ's kingdom into 
 one holy and harmonious brotherhood. In this relative 
 state of the primitive Churches as contrasted with that of a 
 subsequent age, we can discern the radical antagonism of 
 those two principles of which we have spoken. So long as 
 the Christian confederacy was purely a spiritual one, the 
 Catholic Church was a real unit ; but when men, dissatisfied 
 with this, sought to establish some outward and material 
 bond, then the spirit of unity departed; and Christ's body, 
 which, while simply united in him, had been, like his ves- 
 lure, seamless, now that it depended on an outward and 
 sensual union, became torn asunder, and its members 
 estranged from each other, by factions and schisms. 
 
 But with each independent body of Christians the case was 
 different. A society, for whatever it is to be formed, cannot 
 exist without laws commonly agreed upon, understood and 
 enforced. Each Church was in the habit of steadily meeting 
 together for religious worship, new members were to be ad- 
 mitted, and unworthy ones admonished or expelled ; hence 
 for the maintenance of order in the Church, some form of gov- 
 ernment must be adopted. In a religious society, however, 
 the form of government must always correspond, more or less, 
 to the nature of the religion it professes. Hence we should 
 naturally expect that the ecclesiastical polity of the Christian 
 church would be conformed as far as practicable to the spir- 
 ituality of its doctrine. " The ministration of the law," says 
 
xxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 John Milton, " consisting of carnal things, drew to it such a 
 ministry as consisted of carnal respects, dignity, precedence, 
 and the like. And such a ministry established in the gospel 
 as is founded upon the points and terms of superiority, and 
 nests itself in worldly honors, will draw to it, and we see it 
 doth, such a religion as runs back again to the old pomp and 
 glory of the flesh ; for doubtless there is a certain attraction 
 and magnetic force betwixt the religion and the ministerial 
 form thereof. If the religion be pure, spiritual, simple, and 
 lowly, as the gospel most truly is, such must the face of the 
 ministry be. And in like manner, if the form of the minis- 
 try be grounded in the worldly degrees of authority, honor, 
 temporal jurisdiction, we see with our eyes, it will turn the 
 inward power and purity of the gospel into the outward 
 carnality of the law ; evaporating and exhaling the internal 
 worship into empty conformities and gay shows."* "We 
 accordingly find, that this essential connection between the 
 religion and its forms of government, was duly observed by 
 the early Christians, and that the order which they introduced 
 into their Churches corresponded in its simple machinery 
 with the pure spirituality of the gospel. " The new Churches," 
 says the learned Gieseler, " everywhere formed themselves 
 on the model of the mother Church at Jerusalem. At the 
 head of each were the elders, all officially of equal rank, 
 though in several instances a peculiar authority seems to have 
 been conceded to some one individual from personal consider- 
 ations. Under the superintendence of the elders were the 
 deacons and deaconesses, and all these (if they needed it) 
 received their support, like the poor, from the free contribu- 
 tions of the Church. It was by no means any part of the 
 duty of the elders to teach, although the apostle wishes that 
 they may be apt to teach. The power of speaking and 
 exhortation was considered the free gift of the Spirit, and 
 was possessed by many of the Christians, though exercised 
 in different ways."f 
 
 The comparative silence of the Scriptures on this subject, 
 
 * The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy. Chap. 3. 
 t Gieselefs Eccles. Hist., Vol. L, pp.56, 59. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXV 
 
 should lead us to believe that the forms of government and 
 worship adopted by the early Christian societies, were such 
 as they had been previously familiar with ; and that for this 
 reason, the Apostles who superintended the formation of such 
 societies deemed the communication of any formal and 
 written instructions on this head to be wholly superfluous. 
 When we remember, moreover, that the first Christians had 
 been Jews, we are naturally led to suppose that the internal 
 arrangements of their congregations would be modeled, as 
 far as consistent, after some corresponding institution in the 
 Jewish Church. With the outward pomp and magnificence 
 of the temple service, the spiritual genius of Christianity had 
 no affinity ; but in the synagogue worship, the disciples of 
 Christ found a more simple and congenial institution. The 
 services of the synagogue were, moreover, identified with all 
 the religious habits and devout associations of the pious 
 Israelite: to the temple his visits were few, and far between; 
 but the synagogue was the place to which he repaired, for 
 the worship of God, every Sabbath day, from infancy to 
 hoary age. That the Jewish synagogues actually furnished 
 the model after which the apostolic congregations were gov- 
 erned, appears from all the scriptural notices of their minis- 
 try and worship : " their entire ecclesiastical polity," says the 
 learned Hugo Grotius, "was strictly conformed to the model 
 of the synagogue." * This is the opinion of all those emi- 
 nent scholars, such as Vitringa, Selden, Lightfoot, Neander, 
 and others equally distinguished, who have made this matter 
 the subject of their investigation. With regard to those of 
 equal learning, who have arrived at a different conclusion, 
 we may fear that they have been too anxious to find prece- 
 dents for their own practice, to look upon primitive usage 
 with an impartial eye. Prelacy, tending as it does to 
 the " old pomp and glory of the flesh," naturally seeks for 
 a counterpart to itself, in the precedence of the Aaronic 
 priesthood, and in the " gay shows " and external splendors 
 of the Mosaic ritual. 
 
 * Comment, on Acts xi. 30. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Such, therefore, was that simple form of administration, 
 sanctioned by the Apostles, and adopted by the primitive 
 Christian form ; a form, which, by its striking contrast, stamps 
 the seal of reprobation upon all those systems of latter times, 
 in which priestly ambition has lorded it over God's heritage, 
 and sought to dazzle the senses of the people rather than to 
 feed their souls with the bread of life. We are not to ima- 
 gine, however, that the particular form of government which 
 was then adopted, is binding in all its details, and without 
 any modification, upon the Christian Church in all ages and 
 under all circumstances. " Neither Christ nor the Apostles," 
 says Neander, " have given any unchangeable law on this 
 subject. Where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name, says Christ, there am I in the midst of them. This 
 coming together in his name, he assures us, alone renders 
 the assembly well pleasing in his sight, whatever be the dif- 
 ferent forms of government under which his people meet. 
 Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, they (the Apostles) 
 gave the Church the particular organization which, while it 
 was best adapted to the circumstances and relations of the 
 Church at that time, was also best suited to the extension of 
 the Churches in their peculiar condition, and for the develop- 
 ment of the inward principles of their communion. But 
 forms may change with every change of circumstances ; and 
 whenever, at a later period, any form of Church government 
 has arisen out of a series of events according to the direction 
 of Divine Providence, and is organized and governed with 
 regard to the Lord's will, he may be said, himself, to have 
 established it, and to operate through it by his Spirit." % 
 
 But while the particular forms of Church government may 
 change, the principles of its organization are at all times, and 
 in every place, one and unchangeable. The great head of 
 the Church has vested in its members a discretionary power, 
 for the use of which they are responsible, to modify its forms 
 to meet their peculiar exigencies, so that what is the best 
 form, having his sanction, is truly a Divine form : yet in 
 * Neanders Introduction to Coleman's Primitive Church, p. 15. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 effecting these modifications, they are required always to 
 keep in view the nature of the Christian Church as a spi- 
 ritual community. They must remember that, "if the 
 religion be pure, spiritual, simple, and lowly, as the Gospel 
 most truly is, such must the face of the ministry be ;" as, in 
 the primitive Churches, all cumbrous and ostentatious forms 
 must therefore be discarded, the government must be as 
 simple as the maintenance of order will allow, and the wor- 
 ship, avoiding all display, must be of such a nature as will 
 best promote the spirituality of the worshippers, and best 
 enable them to hold an immediate and true communion with 
 the invisible Creator. 
 
 Most unhappily, however, this simplicity of organization 
 and of worship, as consonant with the spirituality of the 
 Christian faith, did not long continue. Priestly ambition, 
 the prolific germ of all those monstrous evils, which, like so 
 many loathsome and destructive parasites, have fastened 
 themselves upon the Church, soon began to display itself. It 
 was even discernible as early as the Apostolic times, for 
 Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, speaking 
 prophetically of the Roman Hierarchy, says, "the mystery of 
 iniquity doth already work ; only," he adds, referring to pagan 
 Rome, " he who now hindereth, will hinder, until he be 
 taken out of the way." 
 
 In attempting to trace the gradual development and 
 growth of the formal principle within the bosom of the 
 visible Church, I will not seek so much to chronicle the 
 names of those sects, which, like bubbles on the surface of a 
 stagnant pool, indicated the working of inward corruption, 
 as to speak of what seems to me to have been the chief 
 cause of that corruption — Ecclesiastical or Priestly despotism. 
 For so soon as they whom the Holy Ghost had made the 
 servants of their brethren, began to carry themselves as a 
 distinct and superior caste, and to seek their own aggrandize- 
 ment rather than the welfare of the flock, so soon the lust 
 of power became a corrupting ulcer in Christ's body, 
 exhausting its vital energies for its own foul nourishment, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and covering its surface with the vile and leprous crust of 
 dead formality. 
 
 In speaking of the internal arrangements of the primitive 
 Churches, there is an ambiguity in the use of the term Church, 
 at the present day that requires our notice. When the pre- 
 latist employs the term, he would have you understand it in 
 a diocesan sense ; and he would have you believe that the 
 deacons represent his modern Levites, the presbyters or elders 
 his modern priests, and the elder who was chosen to preside in 
 the council of his brethren, the president or bishop, as he was 
 afterwards called by way of distinction, his modern diocesan 
 prelate. A primitive Church was simply an assembly, a con- 
 gregation, or a meeting of faithful men. These congrega- 
 tions were all independent ; they were bound together by no 
 outward confederate organization, and the only bond which 
 united them, as the members of one spiritual fraternity, was 
 the bond of a common faith. There being nothing answer- 
 ing to a diocesan organization, there was of course no office 
 answering to that of a diocesan superintendant. Even the 
 Apostles who had a general care of the Churches, and to 
 whose extraordinary office it pertained to settle the usages 
 of the Church at large, arrogated to themselves no higher 
 ecclesiastical rank, than that of co-presbyters in each particular 
 Church. The presbyters or bishops, for these terms are inter- 
 changeable and designate the same class of men, constituted 
 the eldership of a single congregation, beyond which, unless 
 through courtesy, or in the founding of new societies, they 
 enjoyed no official prerogative. It was not their special 
 province to teach, which was regarded as the free gift of the 
 Spirit, but to oversee the spiritual affairs of the religious 
 community. To this office they were chosen by the suffrages 
 of the Church, and they were solemnly inducted into it by 
 the imposition of the hands of the elderhood. This last cere- 
 mony, however, unlike modern Episcopal ordination, which 
 professes to convey a spiritual title to the office, was probably 
 nothing more than a public prayer that God would grant 
 grace to the newly elected elder to discharge with faithful- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxix 
 
 ness the duties of his station. The members of the Congre- 
 gational presbytery were all of equal rank and possessed of 
 equal authority; but one of their number was chosen tempo- 
 rarily, and sometimes from personal considerations perma- 
 nently, to preside over their assembly ; this, however, gave 
 the presiding presbyter no official standing over his brethren, 
 he was still a simple elder, and merely " primus inter pares," 
 first among his equals. 
 
 But soon the mystery of iniquity began to work, and the 
 love of power, which is so naturally engendered by its pos- 
 session, began to discover itself in the rulers of the Church. 
 In some irregular way, the title of bishop, which at first was 
 given to all, came to be appropriated to the presiding pres- 
 byter ; and that office which he held by the common con- 
 sent of his brethren, he soon began to claim as his by a Divine 
 right. The privilege of public teaching gradually passed 
 into the hands of the elders, and distinction now began to 
 obtain between the laity and the clergy ; and the presbyters, 
 with the bishop at their head, began to assume the preroga- 
 tives of a class wholly distinct and superior to the common 
 members of the congregation. Now the idea of the Mosaic 
 priesthood began to creep into the Church; the customary 
 form of consecration to the offices began to have a certain 
 mystic influence ; the clergy were regarded as the medium 
 of communication between God and the people ; and the 
 ceremonial pomp of the temple began to supplant, in a mea- 
 sure, the naked simplicity of the synagogue. As the congre- 
 gation enlarged, new congregations would be formed both 
 in the city and surrounding country. Over these the bishop of 
 the parent society would naturally claim and exercise some 
 jurisdiction, and in this way, diocesan episcopacy doubtless 
 took its rise. Soon we find another grade in the Hierarchy 
 gradually obtaining ground, namely, that of provincial pri- 
 mate or metropolitan. Provincial Synods, after the close of 
 the second century, were held in most of the provinces, once 
 or twice every year. As these were commonly convened in 
 the principal city of the province, the bishop of that city of 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 course presided ; and in this way these bishops, hence styled 
 metropolitans, came, first by usage, and then by law, to exer- 
 cise a sort of superintendence over the others. In addition 
 to these we gradually find the bishops of the three great 
 cities of the Roman empire considered as the head of the 
 Church, and assuming the more pompous title of patriarchs ; 
 these were the bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch ; 
 while *the first, the Roman Pontiff, began already, as early as 
 the days of Cyprian, to be tacitly acknowledged as the prince 
 of Patriarchs, the sole earthly head of the Christian Church. 
 
 Early in the fourth century Christianity became the domi- 
 nant religion of the Roman empire, and Constantine the 
 Great openly favored the new faith as early as A. D. 319, 
 but after he became sole emperor by the defeat and banish- 
 ment of his colleague, Licinius, A. D. 322, the union of the 
 Church and state was fully and formally consummated. 
 This union, while it relieved Christians from their civil dis- 
 abilities, proved, as it always does, most disastrous to the 
 internal purity and spirituality of the Church. Caesar 
 usurped the place of Christ ; the Church dwindled into the 
 mere satellite of the temporal power; the highest ecclesiasti- 
 cal preferments were awarded, not to the most deserving, but 
 to the personal favorites of the prince; the people wen- 
 stripped of their ancient rights, and degraded into the men- 
 vassals of a voluptuous, arrogant, and too often, a dissolute 
 clergy ; he, who had hitherto proved a check upon priestly 
 ambition, was now taken out of the way, and the very idea 
 of a spiritual kingdom was now merged and forgotten in 
 that of an outward imperious, domineering hierarchy. Nor 
 was the power of these lords of God's heritage restricted 
 merely to things spiritual ; they also claimed and exercised 
 absolute jurisdiction over the temporal affairs of their down- 
 trodden flocks. The primitive custom of referring their dif- 
 ferences to the arbitration of elders, that they might thus 
 avoid the necessity of going to law before the unbelievers, 
 came in time to be claimed by the clergy, and yielded by 
 the people, as a Divine right, pertaining to the priestly office. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 This claim, so arrogant and unfounded, the Empire ratified 
 by law, so that now the bishops became not only lords spi- 
 ritual, but lords temporal. From ihe decisions of these 
 ecclesiastical tribunals, moreover, there was no appeal ; the 
 civil magistrate was bound to execute their decrees; and 
 while they could overrule the proceedings of the secular 
 courts, their own were not liable to be overruled by any. 
 
 Constantine, as the head of the Church, assumed the right, 
 which, as it tended to their aggrandizement, was easily ac- 
 quiesced in by the clergy, of effecting certain modifications 
 in the outward slructure of the sacerdotal body. " And as 
 he wished, for various reasons, to adapt the ecclesiastical 
 administration to that of the Commonwealth, it became 
 necessary that new grades of honor and pre-eminence 
 should be introduced among the bishops. The princes 
 among the bishops, were those who had before held a pre- 
 eminent rank, namely, the bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and 
 Antioch ; with whom the Bishop of Constantinople was 
 joined, after the imperial residence was transferred to that 
 city. These four prelates answered to the four praetorian 
 prefects created by Constantine, and perhaps even in this 
 century, bore the Jewish title of Patriarchs. Next to these 
 were the exarchs, corresponding with the civil exarchs, and 
 presiding each over several provinces. The Metropolitans 
 came next, who governed only single provinces. After 
 them ranked the Archbishops, who had the inspection only 
 of certain districts of country. The Bishops brought up the 
 rear ; whose territories were not in all countries of the same 
 extent, being in some more extensive, and in others confined 
 to narrower limits."^ A church government so well fitted to 
 foster worldly ambition, and to deaden all the spiritual feel- 
 ings of the clergy, could not fail to exert a most unhappy 
 and corrupting influence upon Christian worship. Augus- 
 tine, towards the close of this century, accordingly observes, 
 that the yoke once laid upon the Jews, was more support- 
 able, than that laid on many Christians in his age. For not 
 * Murdock's Mosheim, Vol. I., p. 232. 
 
xxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 content with an imitation of the Jewish ritual, the rites and 
 institutions of paganism were also adopted into the services 
 of the sanctuary ; the priests hoping by this similarity of 
 forms to induce the heathens to embrace with greater readi- 
 ness the new religion. Christianity soon became, not merely 
 a baptized Judaism, but what was worse, baptized Paganism. 
 The dignitaries of the Church began to assume an outward 
 pomp, corresponding to the greatness of their ghostly author- 
 ity. They began, in imitation of the Aaronic and heathen 
 priesthood, to adopt their robes and crosiers, their mitres and 
 tiaras. The temples, as their churches began to be called 
 (and some of them had formerly been the scenes of pagan 
 solemnities), were adorned with pictures and images, wax 
 tapers, and costly ornaments, in magnificent profusion. 
 While answering to all this, on feast-days and fast-days, 
 which now began to multiply, the senses of the people were 
 dazzled, and their superstitious feelings excited, by the exhi- 
 bitions of an unmeaning but imposing ceremonial. Piety 
 now consisted in mere outward conformities and observ- 
 ances. Celibacy, especially, was regarded as the most an- 
 gelic of virtues ; and multitudes of mistaken men and women 
 rupturing all the ties, and forsaking all the enjoyments and 
 engagements of social life, sought to win the highest crown 
 of moral purity, by dreaming away their days in idleness, 
 amid the silence of some frightful desert. Thus did the 
 gospel, to use the strong language of the great Milton, 
 " through the grossness and blindness of her professors, and 
 the fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards, as to 
 backslide one way into the Jewish beggary of old cast rudi- 
 ments, and stumble forward another way into the new vomit- 
 ed paganism of sensual idolatry ; attributing purity or im- 
 purity to things indifferent, that they might bring the inward 
 acts of the spirit to the outward and customary eye-service of 
 the body, as if they could make God earthly and fleshly, 
 because they could not make themselves heavenly and spi- 
 ritual ; they began to draw down all the divine intercourse 
 betwixt God and the soul, yea, the very shape of God him- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 himself into an exterior and bodily form, urgently pretending 
 a necessity and obligement of joining the body in a formal 
 reverence, and worship circumscribed ; they hallowed it, they 
 fumed it, they sprinkled it, they bedecked it, not in robes of 
 pure innocency, but of pure linen, with other deformed and 
 fantastic dresses, in palls and mitres, gold and gewgaws, 
 fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamen's vestry ; 
 then was the priest set to con his motions and his postures, 
 his liturgies and his lurries, till the soul by this means of 
 overbodying herself, given up justly to fleshly delights, bated 
 her wing apace downward ; and finding the ease she had 
 from her visible and sensuous colleague, the body, in per- 
 formance of religious duties, her pinions now broken and 
 flagging, shifted off from herself the labor of high soaring any 
 more, forgot her heavenly flight, and left the dull and droil- 
 ing carcase to plod on in the old road, and drudging trade of 
 outward conformity."* 
 
 We have seen that the primitive Churches were distinct 
 societies ; and, that while they were all members of one 
 body, they were still united by no bond of a material nature. 
 But when the clergy came to be regarded as a distinct and 
 superior caste, and when the presidents of the primitive con- 
 gregations had assumed the title and authority of diocesan 
 bishops, then there began to prevail in the Church the notion 
 of an outward unity, one which must consist in the relation 
 of each Church, through its bishop, with some visible centre 
 of Catholic unity; and in determining where that centre 
 should be, it was generally agreed to place it in the Church 
 of Rome, or rather in the bishops of that powerful diocese. 
 
 Upon the alleged Apostolic primacy of Peter, in connection 
 with the pretence that he was the first Bishop of Rome, the 
 Roman Bishop appears very early to have grounded a claim 
 to the earthly head of the Christian Church. Either for these 
 reasons, or because Rome, the rich and imperial city, was 
 the centre of political power, this proud title of univer- 
 sal bishop, though without any corresponding jurisdiction, 
 
 * Milton's " Reformation in England," Book i. 
 
 c 
 
xxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 was very generally conceded to the Roman prelaie. From 
 tills early period, doubtless, the growing ambition of these 
 Pontiffs began to indulge itself in those splendid dreams of 
 dominion, which after ages so fulJy realized ; and from this 
 commenced that long series of successful usurpations, which 
 at length changed a simple pastor on the banks of the Tiber, 
 into the mightiest potentate of Christendom. " The Romish 
 system," says Archbishop Whately, " rose insensibly, like a 
 young plant from the seed, making a progress scarcely per- 
 ceptible from year to year, till at length it had fixed its root 
 deeply in the soil, and spread its baleful shade far around." 
 
 The Churches of Asia Minor observed the festival of Eas- 
 ter on a different day from the rest of the Christian world ; 
 and this circumstance furnished Victor, Bishop of Rome, 
 A. D. 190, with a pretext for the exercise of his episcopal 
 authority. Having first addressed to those Churches an im- 
 perious epistle, which they disregarded, he next proceeded to 
 excommunicate them from the Catholic Church. This arro- 
 gant assumption of power was, of course, indignantly and 
 perseveringly resisted ; yet, as we learn from Tertullian, the 
 Romish bishops continued to issue peremptory edicts in 
 ecclesiastical matters, and began already, like their modern 
 successors, to justify their encroachments by appeals to the 
 authority of their predecessors in the Apostolic chair. About 
 the middle of the third century, we find on record another 
 instance of their ambitious pretensions. Two Spanish bish- 
 ops, having been deposed by the provincial Synod, Stephen, 
 Bishop of Rome, reversed the decision and reinstated them 
 in their episcopal office. The Spanish clergy referred the 
 matter to the arbitration of the Synod of North Africa, in 
 whose name Cyprian declared the decision of the Roman 
 Bishop to be invalid. Not at all daunted by this resistance, 
 Stephen shortly after attempted to impose upon this very 
 Church of Africa, in connection with those of Asia Minor, 
 the tradition of his Church with respect to the baptism admi- 
 nistered by heretics. And on their refusing to receive it as 
 a rule, he formally excluded them from his communion, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 forbade the members of his diocese to receive their deputies 
 into their houses. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who was again 
 the organ of remonstrance, stoutly protested against this gross 
 encroachment upon the rights of independent Churches ; he 
 does not indeed deny the primacy of the Roman Bishop, as 
 the successor of Peter, but maintains, that his primacy was 
 one, not of authority, but of simple precedence. 
 
 Thus matters stood when Constantine the Great consti- 
 tuted the Bishops of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Con- 
 stantinople, the four great centres of Catholic unity. The 
 first rank was, however, for several reasons, assigned to the 
 Bishop of Rome. In determining the relative dignity of 
 their bishops, the Churches of the West and East proceeded 
 upon different principles. But both these principles concur- 
 red to give the Roman Patriarch preeminence over his 
 brethren. In the West, where Rome was the only city in 
 which a Church had been founded by an Apostle, the first 
 rank was assigned to an Apostolic Church ; but in the East, 
 where many Churches had been planted by Apostles, the 
 standing of a bishop was determined by the importance of the 
 city in which he presided. While the Western Churches, 
 therefore, placed the Bishop of Rome above all others, as the 
 successors of the two chief Apostles, and as the head of 
 their only Apostolic Church ; the Eastern Churches, also, 
 according to their own principle, could not but concede to him 
 the same rank, as bishop of the first city in the world. 
 
 But Rome was not satisfied with mere titles, she wished 
 to sway the sceptre as well as wear the crown. Accord- 
 ingly the council of Sardica, convened by the pontiff Julius, 
 A D. 344, decreed that all condemned bishops might appeal 
 for a new trial to the Bishop of Rome. This famous decree, 
 which is regarded by Romanists as the first of those steps by 
 which the successors of Peter mounted into the papal throne, 
 is, however, of very doubtful authority ; but even admitting its 
 genuineness, this assembly, called by a Roman bishop, and 
 numbering few from the East among its members, was not a 
 general but a Western council. Indeed this ecclesiastical 
 
xxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 decision seems to have had but little weight at the time, 
 since, some thirty years later, we find the Emperor Gratian, 
 at the instance of the Roman Church, issuing another decree 
 to the same purpose. But what principally served to extend 
 the authority of the Roman pontiffs in the West, was the cus- 
 tom of referring to them as the head of the only Apostolic 
 Church of their region, all questions concerning the Apostolic 
 customs and doctrines. This gave thein an opportunity, 
 which they failed not to improve, to impose their own tradi- 
 tions upon other Churches as the only rule by which all mat- 
 ters of faith and usage were to be definitely settled. Another 
 circumstance which gave great prominence to the patriarch 
 of Rome at this time, bolh in the West and East, was the 
 fact that he was almost the only organ of communication 
 between these two great divisions of the Church. Hence 
 there was no great controversy in the East in which both 
 parties did not seek, by their servile flatteries, to gain the 
 Roman pontiff as the representative of the Western Churches. 
 The influence which he was thus enabled to exert, we can 
 discern in the decision of the Arian question at the council of 
 Nice, A. D. 325; and wc finally behold him, A. D. 451, 
 presiding by his legates over the general council of Chalce- 
 don. The Bishops of Rome also contrived to derive advan- 
 tage from the disputes, which from time to time arose 
 between different prelates as to precedence and jurisdiction. 
 In this way, by promises of their assistance, they adroitly 
 managed to appoint vicars of the Apostolic See in Thessalo- 
 nica, Gaul and Spain, and thus greatly extended the authority 
 of the Roman Church. 
 
 But Rome, with true carnal instinct, always sought to gain 
 her ambitious ends by courting the favor of the temporal 
 power. We have already noticed the edict of Gratian con- 
 firming the decree of the council of Sardica, and now she 
 obtained another from Valentinian the Third, A. D. 445, by 
 which the Roman bishop was made sole head of the whole 
 Western Church. From Justinian she appears to have ob- 
 tained still larger concessions. That emperor, A. D. 533, in 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXVii 
 
 a letter to Pope John the Second (for by this time the Roman 
 bishops had assumed this title as exclusively their own) ad- 
 dresses the pontiff as " the head of all the holy Churches." 
 " For we cannot suffer," he says, " that anything pertaining 
 to the state of the Churches, however manifest and indubita- 
 ble, should be done without the knowledge of your holiness, 
 who is the head of all the holy Churches ; since in all things, 
 as we have said, we desire to promote the honor and author- 
 ity of your See."^ Justinian probably meant all this to be a 
 mere compliment, but the Roman bishop construed it 
 into something far more substantia], and it served most 
 unquestionably greatly to strengthen his title to univer- 
 sal supremacy. Unbounded, therefore, was the indignation 
 of Pope Gregory the Great, and vehement were his protest- 
 ations, when John, patriarch of Constantinople, A. D. 587, 
 with the sanction of the Emperor Mauricius, assumed the 
 title of universal patriarch. And when Mauricius was mur- 
 dered, A. D. 602, by the centurion Phocas, he. hastened to 
 congratulate that execrable and blood-stained usurper as the 
 honored instrument of Providence to avenge the wrongs of 
 St. Peter. Phocas repaid the fulsome flattery of Gregory by 
 granting to his successor Boniface the Third, a decree that 
 the Apostolic See of Peter should henceforth be the head 
 of all the Churches. 
 
 But the time had now come,when the Roman Church ceased 
 to be dependent for its advancement upon the favor of the 
 Eastern emperors. "Already," says Merle d'Aubigne, "the 
 forests of the north had poured forth the most effectual pro- 
 moters of papal power. The barbarians who had invaded the 
 West, and settled themselves therein — but recently converted to 
 Christianity — ignorant of the spiritual character of the Church, 
 and feeling the want of an external pomp of religion, pros-, 
 trated themselves in a half savage and half heathen state of 
 mind, at the feet of the chief priest of Rome. First the 
 Vandals, then the Ostrogoths, a short time after the Burgun- 
 dians and the Alains, then the Visigoths, and at last the 
 * Gieseler's Eccles. Hist. vol. I., sec. 115, note 23. 
 
xxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lombards and the Anglo-Saxons, came bowing the knee to 
 the Roman pontiff. It was the sturdy shoulders of the idol- 
 atrous children of the north which elevated to the supreme 
 throne of Christendom a pastor of the banks of the Tiber."* 
 Rome, in her new position, still sought to rise, by allying 
 herself with princes; and now (A. D. 752) playing the same 
 part with Pepin which she had formerly done with Phocas, 
 she obtained, as the reward of her subserviency, not merely 
 spiritual, but temporal sovereignty. Pepin, mayor of the 
 palace, son of that Charles Martel who, near Tours, had 
 vanquished Abderahman and his Saracens, and saved Europe 
 from the yoke of Mohamed, had usurped the throne of 
 France, by deposing his sovereign, Childeric the Third. Pope 
 Stephen the Third confirmed his usurpation, by giving it the 
 sanction of his Apostolic authority; and Pepin, in return, 
 marched an army into Italy, defeated the Lombards, and 
 bestowed upon Stephen and his successors the exarchate of 
 Ravenna. 
 
 Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin on the throne of 
 France, A. D. 768 ; and difficulties having occurred between 
 the papal see and the Lombards, that sovereign wrested from 
 the king of Lombardy his remaining possessions, and an- 
 nexed Italy to his empire, confirming and enlarging, however, 
 all the gifts of his father to the Roman Church. We again 
 find him, A.D. 779, adding to the plenitude of priestly power, 
 by granting tithes to the clergy, much against the-will of ihe 
 people ; and also by granting lands to each Church, to be 
 held by the religious orders without rent or taxes. Again 
 hastening to Rome, to rescue Pope Leo the Third from the 
 fury of a popular tumult, that pontiff placed upon the king's 
 head, he being present at public worship, the imperial crown, 
 .and proclaimed him, on Christmas-day A. D. 800, Emperor 
 of the West. The pope, whose election by the people was 
 now confirmed by the emperor, was after this invested with 
 the temporal administration of the Roman territory as a fief 
 of the empire. The act of investment ran thus : " By this 
 
 * Hist. Reform. Germany and Switz., vol. L, p. 23. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxix 
 
 our deed of confirmation, we bestow upon the holy Peter, 
 and on the Paschalis, steward of the Apostle, and universal 
 bishop, and on all thy successors in office, the city and the 
 dukedom of Rome, and their domain in hills aad plains, as 
 you have heretofore possessed them, with the reservation of 
 our supreme sovereignty, without prejudice or invasion on 
 our part of the spiritual and temporal constitution."* A. D. 
 816. To obtain this concession, the pope had exhibited to 
 the emperor a forged grant of Constantine, conveying to the 
 papal see Rome and its adjacent territories, which fraud ac- 
 counts, doubtless, for that clause in the act, " as you have 
 heretofore possessed them." 
 
 The popes, by thus prostituting their sacerdotal power to 
 serve the ends of princes, had become temporal sovereigns : 
 still they affected to receive these royal donations, not so 
 much as gifts, as the restoration of their ancient and divine 
 rights. About this time, were forged the pretended decretals 
 of Isidorus — a collection of the alleged decrees of the first 
 popes, which, in that age of ignorance, served greatly to mag- 
 nify the papal chair ; investing it not only with supreme 
 power in spiritual affairs, but also asserting its independence 
 and superiority to all earthly potentates. We accordingly 
 find Pope John the Eighth, A. D. 875, openly claiming and 
 exercising his divine prerogative to bestow crowns and king- 
 doms as the gifts of the Church. On the death of Louis the 
 Second, that pontiff, in opposition to the claims of Lewis of 
 Germany, conferred the imperial crown of Charlemagne 
 upon Charles the Bald. 
 
 Under the pontificate of Nicholas II., A. D. 1059, the papal 
 see advanced another very important step towards absolute 
 power. Making use of the pretext that popular elections 
 gave rise to tumults and riots, the right of choosing the popes 
 was wrested from the people and vested in the college of 
 cardinals; and soon after the imperial confirmation was 
 also dispensed with, and the pope inducted into office, with- 
 out the sanction or even knowledge of his feudal sovereign. 
 
 * Miiller's Univers. Hist, vol. II., p. 156. 
 
xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The originator of these important measures was doubtless 
 the celebrated Hildebrand, a Tuscan monk of extraordinary 
 abilities and boundless ambition, who afterwards wore the 
 tiara himself under the name of Gregory VII. This won- 
 derful man, with intellectual resources equal to the greatest 
 undertakings, and possessed of that inflexible decision of 
 character which always ensures success, spent his whole 
 pontificate in efforts to enlarge the jurisdiction, and augment 
 the opulence of the Roman See. He sought to subject the 
 whole Church to the will of the Pontiff and to deprive tem- 
 poral sovereigns of all interference with the preferments, pro- 
 perty or revenues of the Church ; in a word, to reduce all 
 the sovereignties of the world to fiefs and tributaries of 
 Peter's chair. The iron will of Gregory was able to carry 
 out the schemes of aggrandizement which his towering ambi- 
 tion had projected; and we accordingly behold, A. D. 1077, 
 the Emperor Henry IV. appeasing the displeasure of this 
 imperious pontiff by standing before his castle three days in 
 the depth of winter bare-headed and bare-footed, and by 
 humbly kissing his feet in token of abject submission. Thus 
 " papal Rome improved upon imperial ; she made the tiara 
 stronger than the diadem, and pontiffs more powerful than 
 praetors, and the crosier more victorious than the sword." 
 The principal weapon with which she consummated and 
 maintained her usurpation over the souls and bodies of men, 
 was the power of the Keys ; that awful and tremendous 
 power of cutting men off from all connection with heaven, 
 and from all the charities of social life ; and of consigning 
 them over, laden with her heaviest curses, to the knife of the 
 assassin and the pains of eternal damnation. " No language 
 can describe," says an eloquent writer, " no mind can con- 
 ceive, in this day of light and freedom, how awful and 
 omnipotent Rome was in this one element of superstitious 
 power. If the pope could have stood on the steps of his 
 palace in Rome, and at a wave of his hand could have filled 
 the universal world with grinning, gliding spectres, if he 
 could have called frogs up out of the rivers, if he could have 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Xli 
 
 turned the dust into lice, and the day into midnight dark- 
 ness, he could scarcely have wielded a more tremendous 
 spell of superstition over men's minds."^ From the time of 
 Gregory this tremendous power was unsparingly employed 
 by his successors to maintain the supremacy of the papal 
 throne. Almost every kingdom of Europe, as from time to 
 time they exhibited signs of insubordination, was bombarded 
 into submission by the terrors of the priestly artillery. The 
 popes, as God's vicars, disposed of kingdoms and gave 
 away crowns— refractory monarchs were deposed — their 
 dominions were laid under interdict — their subjects were 
 absolved from their allegiance — the churches were closed — 
 marriages ceased to be solemnized, and even the rites of 
 sepulture were denied the dead — until the royal offender, 
 aghast and trembling at these fearful denunciations, hastened 
 to prostrate himself in humble submission at the feet of his 
 priestly master. This temporal jurisdiction of the pontiff 
 was acknowledged in a most remarkable transaction on the 
 very eve of the great Reformation. " On the third of May, 
 A. D. 1493, Pope Alexander VI., at the humble solicitation 
 of the Spanish sovereigns, ' out of his pure liberality, infalli- 
 ble knowledge, and plenitude of Apostolic power,' as he 
 expressed it, and in consideration of their past service to the 
 Church, gave to them and their heirs, a deed of this new 
 world in the West, then discovered by Christopher Colum- 
 bus."! 
 
 The doctrinal and practical corruptions of the Romish 
 Church kept equal pace with the growth of her hierarchical 
 power. Indeed the whole system of Christianity had been 
 gradually modified, so as to lay a basis in the superstition 
 of the people for the superincumbent structure of priestly 
 dominion. A purely spiritual religion, like that of Jesus 
 Christ, could no more co-exist with such a worldly and 
 sensual hierarchy as that of Rome, than the simple doctrines 
 
 * Cheever's Mixture of Civ. and Eccles. Power, Lecture II., p. 103. 
 t Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. II., Chap. 18. 
 
Xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of republican equality could exist with the grinding yoke of 
 an Eastern despotism. The only wonder is, how the Chris- 
 tianity of the teacher of Nazareth could be changed into the 
 pseudo-christianity of the Roman pontiff. It was by pre- 
 cisely the same process, however, that converted an angel of 
 light into a fiend of the bottomless pit ; it was by the gradual 
 workings of an unhallowed and insatiable ambition. Ever 
 since the " mystery of iniquity" began to work, the bishops of 
 Rome have kept one object steadily in view — their own selfish 
 aggrandizement. To this, everything divine and human has 
 been made to bend ; for this the life-giving doctrines of the 
 gospel have been changed into the monstrous nightmares of 
 superstition ; for this the humble preacher of the truth has 
 been metamorphosed into the priestly magician, and the 
 simple, primitive mode of worship, into the potent spells of 
 an awe-inspiring necromancy; and thus they succeeded, after 
 the lapse of ages, in yoking the enslaved nations of the West 
 to the car of their ungodly triumph. " The Romish corrup- 
 tions," says Whately, " crept in one by one ; originating, for 
 the most part, with an ignorant and depraved people, but 
 connived at, cherished, consecrated, and successfully estab- 
 lished, by a debased and worldly-minded ministry ; and 
 motlified by them just so far as might best favor the views 
 of their profligate ambition."^ 
 
 Daring that dark and dismal age, when the papal see, like 
 some baleful star, was in the zenith of its power, half the 
 wealth of Christendom flowed into the coffers of the Church. 
 The magnificence of the pontifical court outshone that of 
 kings — its sons -were princes, and its servants the nobles of 
 the earth ; it seemed as though the love of luxury and costly 
 display had begun to contend with ambition in the breast of 
 the pontiff. All the machinery of the hierarchy and all the 
 devices of ghostly power were now put in requisition to raise 
 an adequate revenue for the meek successors of the poor fish- 
 erman of Galilee. The pardon of sin and eternal salvation 
 now began to be articles of merchandize ; Europe swarmed 
 
 * Errors of Romanism, Chap. I., Sec. 2. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xliii 
 
 with shaven-crowned hucksters of dispensations and indul- 
 gences ; and the popo everywhere disposed of his paper 
 bill of exchange on heaven, for the golden ducats and florins 
 of the present world. The Inquisition itself, that dark and 
 terrible engine of infernal cruelty, was invented rather as a 
 source of revenue, than from any conscientious desire to pro- 
 mote the faith. The faith ! what cared the priests for the 
 faith, so long as their authority was unquestioned, and their 
 coffers running over! The only uniformity which Rome 
 insisted upon was a uniformity of servile obedience to the 
 ambitious and avaricious edicts of the Church ; provided this 
 was yielded, she had a creed possessed of such chameleon pro- 
 perties, that men of the most diverse and opposite principles 
 might live and die in her communion. " If you were for 
 pomp and glory, their worship could not miss of giving full 
 satisfaction. Their altars were adorned with costly paintings ; 
 hung with images of extraordinary saints ; enriched with gold 
 and pearl, and whatever could charm the spectator's eye : 
 their priests officiated in costly habits ; their churches resound- 
 ed with the choicest music, vocal and instrumental ; and their 
 public processions carried an air of magnificence, every way 
 proper to amuse the minds of superstitious people. If on the 
 other hand you were for severity, they could accommodate 
 you ; they knew how exactly to fall in with that humor. 
 You would hear amongst them many notable harangues in 
 commendation of voluntary poverty, vows of abstinence, pen- 
 ance and mortification, by going barefoot, fasting, wearing 
 sackcloth, and exercising the sharpest discipline towards the 
 body. If you were for strict morals, they had casuists for 
 your purpose, who would talk seraphically, and carry things 
 to an excessive height. If you were for greater liberties in 
 practice, they could turn you to such as would condescend as 
 much as you could desire, that would promise you salvation, 
 though you had no other grace or qualification, but that of 
 subjection and obedience to the Church."* The greatest lax- 
 ity of morals prevailed through all ranks of the hierarchy 
 
 * Cotton's Lacon, Vol II., c. 21, note. 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from the lowest to the highest; and monsters, who disgraced 
 our common humanity, sat in God's temple as vicars of the 
 Most High. Everything could be purchased, and every- 
 thing had its price ; the tiara, the mitre, the lowest benefice 
 — Heaven itself. Provided the authority, the wealth, and the 
 outward unity of the Catholic Church could be maintained, 
 all else was disregarded. 
 
 " But to dwell no longer in characterizing the depravities 
 of the Church," in the noble language of Milton, " and how 
 they sprung and how they took increase ; when I recall to 
 mind at last, after so many dark ages, wherein the huge, over- 
 shadowing n-ain of error had almost swept all the stars out of 
 the firmament of the Church ; — how the bright and blessed 
 Reformation, by Divine power, struck through the black and 
 settled night of ignorance and antichristian tyranny, methinks 
 a sovereign and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom 
 of him that reads or hears ; and the sweet odor of the return- 
 ing gospel imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of heaven. 
 Then was the sacred Bible sought out of the dusty corners, 
 where profane falsehood and neglect had thrown it, the 
 schools opened, divine and human learning raked out of the 
 embers of forgotten tongues, the princes and cities trooping 
 apace to the new erected banner of salvation ; the martyrs, 
 with the irresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers 
 of darkness, and scorning the fiery rage of the old red 
 dragon."^ 
 
 As might have been expected, there were holy and right- 
 minded men in every age of the papal apostasy, who saw 
 with grief the gross departure of the Church from the simple 
 spirit of the gospel. These men either publicly protested, 
 like Claudius of Turin in the ninth century, against this reign 
 of formalism ; or wept in secret over the sad and apparently 
 incurable corruption which everywhere prevailed. These 
 Israelites indeed, were, however, speedily immolated upon 
 the bloody altar of priestly ambition ; and their characters and 
 sentiments, which have been transmitted to us only in the 
 * Reformation in England, Book I. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlv 
 
 monkish chronicles, have been so blackened, as to represent 
 them rather as monsters of depravity, than as, what they 
 doubtless were, saints of the Most High. 
 
 Such a people were the Albigcnses, whose existence, as a 
 Church of God, is traced by some through the ancient Pauli- 
 cians, to the primitive ages of Christianity. They appear 
 from a very early period to have inhabited the summits of 
 the Picdmontese Alps ; and their sentiments spreading over 
 the rich and beautiful districts of Provence and Languedoc, 
 were embraced by all classes, from the great feudal princes 
 down to the cultivators of the soil. Their principles were 
 essentially the same as those of the great reformers of the six- 
 teenth century; and from their proximity with France, Spain, 
 and Italy, it became apparent to the vigilant eye of the pon- 
 tiffs, that unless their progress was checked, they might soon 
 wrest from the Roman sovereign the fairest portions of his 
 patrimony. Pope Innocent the Third, A. D. 1208, accord- 
 ingly published against them a bull of crusade : their lovely 
 valleys were ravaged with fire and sword ; and this harmless 
 people, whose only offence was the spiritual worship of their 
 Maker, were butchered with remorseless cruelty by the armies 
 of the Church.- 
 
 The Waldenses, or the poor men of Lyons, the followers 
 of Peter Waldo, a merchant of that city, were another people 
 raised up by Providence to bear witness against the sins of 
 Rome. Peter, with some pious associates, about A.D. 1180, 
 began to preach the truth, denying that this office belonged 
 to the priests alone. They denied the supremacy of the 
 Roman pontiff: they maintained that the ministers of reli- 
 gion should procure a frugal subsistence by their own labor; 
 they asserted that authority to teach and admonish their bre- 
 thren was, to a certain extent, given to all Christians ; and 
 they sought to exemplify the purity and simplicity of the 
 primitive gospel, by the blamelessness and holiness of their 
 lives. The Church did not suffer them long to remain un- 
 molested. Pope Lucius the Third, A. D. 1183, excommuni- 
 cated them as heretics ; and many of them perished subse- 
 
xlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quently, in the crusade against the Albigenses, with whom, 
 from a similarity of views, they had sought a refuge. The 
 results of this horrible crusade are thus given by the historian 
 Sismondi : " Blood never ceased to How, nor the flames to 
 devour their victims in these provinces, now abandoned to 
 the dark fanaticism of the inquisitors. But that terror which 
 had dispersed the heretics had also scattered sparks through 
 all Europe, by which the torch of truth might again be re- 
 kindled. The proscribed Albigenses, who, far from their 
 country, had found an asylum in the cottage of the peasant, 
 or poor artisan, whose labors they shared in profound ob- 
 scurity, had taught their hosts to read the gospel in common, 
 to pray in their native tongue without the ministry of priests, 
 to praise God, and gratefully submit to the chastisements 
 which his hand inflicted, as the means of their sanctifi- 
 cation." =fc 
 
 In France, Gregory the Ninth formally established the In- 
 quisition at Toulouse, and the fugitives from Piedmont fur- 
 nished it with numerous victims. In Germany, whither 
 many had also fled, the heretics, as they were impiously 
 called, were hunted with new crusades, which threatened 
 them with extermination. But all these efforts to extinguish 
 only served to scatter the sparks of truth still more widely, so 
 that Gregory soon discovered with alarm that even Rome 
 itself was filled with heresy. 
 
 In the following century, John Wickliffe, who has been 
 called the Morning Star of the Reformation, appeared in 
 England ; and this man was emboldened, through Divine aid 
 and guidance, to give a loud and distinct utterance to those 
 solemn and deep convictions which now began to fill the 
 minds of men. He was a man of signal ability, sincere 
 piety, and great learning. While he was divinity professor at 
 Oxford, he published certain conclusions, in which he denied 
 transubstantiation, the pope's infallibility, the supremacy of 
 the pontiff over other Churches ; and maintained that the 
 New Testament is a perfect rule of life, and ought to be 
 * Sismondi's Crusades against the Albigences, Chap. 5. 
 
INTRODUCTION. x \ vl [ 
 
 read by the people. These and some other opinions of his, 
 attacking the grandeur and authority of the prelates, were 
 condemned at Rome, A. D. 1378, by Gregory the Eleventh, 
 in a consistory of twenty-three cardinals. By the favor of 
 King Edward the Third, however, Wickliffe continued to 
 live unmolested, and finally, A. D. 1384, he quietly departed 
 from this world, at the age of sixty. In his retirement at 
 Lutterworth, he made the first translation of the New Tes- 
 tament into English ; he also wrote near two hundred vol- 
 umes, which, together with his bones, were burnt forty-one 
 years after his death, by a decree of the council of Con- 
 stance. His disciples, however, continued to increase, and 
 known by the name of Lollards, they were long the objects 
 of severe and bloody persecution. 
 
 John Huss, a disciple of Wickliffe, and. ihe precursor of 
 Luther, was born, A. D. 1373, at Hupinetz, a small town in 
 the kingdom of Bohemia. He made rapid progress in learn- 
 ing, and the great reputation which he soon gained, led 
 Queen Sophia to select him as her confessor. A young Bo- 
 hemian, on his return from England, brought back with him 
 the writings of Wickliffe. These books were perused by 
 Huss, at first with pious horror ; but afterward studying them 
 with more attention he judged of them more favorably ; and 
 finally he came, on many points, to be the earnest disciple of 
 the great English Reformer. The shameful struggle which 
 was now carried on between the two rival pontiffs, and the 
 gross and scandalous immorality of the clergy, deeply affect- 
 ed his mind ; and led him thenceforth, both in his chapel of 
 Bethlehem, and in the University of Prague, of which he 
 was rector, to contend strenuously for a radical and general 
 reform. This bold course soon drew upon him the ven- 
 geance of the prelates ; he was cited before the council assem- 
 bled at Constance, to answer to the charge of heresy ; and 
 there, after being condemned on specifications which his 
 accusers did not and could not substantiate, he was burned 
 at the stake and his ashes thrown into the Rhine. The real 
 cause of his death is thus stated in an old manuscript copy 
 
xlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of his works : " As long as John Huss merely declaimed 
 against the vices of the seculars, every one said that he was 
 inspired with the Spirit of God ; but as soon as he proceed- 
 ed against ecclesiastics, he became an object of odium, for 
 he then really laid his finger on the sore."* The fire which 
 consumed the body of Huss, wrapt Bohemia in the flames 
 of civil war. The people, roused by the murder of their 
 beloved teacher, everywhere flew to arms to avenge his 
 death, and to defend their religious liberties. The terrible 
 Liska placed himself at their head, and though finally van- 
 quished, they maintained the struggle for more than ten 
 years. But we have a more pleasing evidence of the success 
 of Huss's labors among his courftrymen, in the existence of 
 a religious society of which he was the Apostle — a society 
 which is still known, from Greenland to Caffraria, as the 
 Church of the Moravians, or United Brethren. 
 
 A century after the death of Huss, Martin Luther, a Saxon 
 monk of the order of St. Augustine, stood up under far hap- 
 pier auspices, to renew the struggle for spiritual freedom. 
 The great reformation, to which this wonderful man has giv- 
 en his name, was in truth a very general and simultaneous 
 effort of the European conscience to cast off those galling 
 and oppressive fetters which had been imposed upon it by 
 the Papacy, and which now, both by princes and people, 
 were felt to be intolerable. " The large jurisdiction exercised 
 by the spiritual tribunals of Rome, seemed to be a degrad- 
 ing badge of servitude. The sums, which under a thousand 
 pretexts, were exacted by a distant court, were regarded both 
 as a humiliating and ruinous tribute. The character of that 
 court excited the scorn and disgust of a grave, earnest, de- 
 vout and sincere people." The seed, which had been sown 
 over Europe by the Albigenses, the Waldenses, by Wick- 
 liffe and Huss, and which had been watered by the blood 
 of so many martyrs, now sprang up into an abundant har- 
 vest of resolute and strong-handed resistance to the Papal 
 See. At the same moment, though without any common 
 understanding, the doctrines of religious emancipation were 
 
 * Bpnnechose, Reformers before the Reformation, p. 104. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlix 
 
 proclaimed in France, in the valleys of Switzerland, and the 
 heart of Germany. " The new theology," says Macauley, 
 " spread with a rapidity never known before. All ranks, all 
 varieties of character, joined the ranks of the innovators. 
 Sovereigns, impatient to appropriate to themselves the pre- 
 rogative of the pope — nobles, desirous to share the plunder 
 of abbeys — suitors exasperated by the extortions of the Ro- 
 man Camera — patriots, impatient of a foreign rule — good 
 men, scandalized by the corruptions of the Church — bad 
 men, desirous of the license inseparable from great moral 
 revolutions— wise men, eager in the pursuit of truth — weak 
 men, allured by the glitter of novelty, all were found on one 
 side. In fifty years from the day in which Luther publicly 
 renounced communion with the Church of Rome, and burn- 
 ed the bull of Leo before the gates of Wittenberg, Protest- 
 antism attained its highest ascendency. Hundreds, who 
 could well remember brother Martin a devout Catholic, lived 
 to see the revolution of which he was the chief author, vic- 
 torious in half the States of Europe. In England, Scotland, 
 Denmark, Sweden, Livonia, Prussia, Saxony, Hesse, Wur- 
 temberg, the Palatinate, in several cantons of Switzerland, in 
 the northern Netherlands, the Reformation had completely tri- 
 umphed ; and in all the other countries on this side of the 
 Alps and the Pyrenees, it seemed on the point of triumph- 
 ing."^ 
 
 But the history of the Reformation on the continent has 
 been made so familiar by the many excellent works which 
 have been lately written upon it, that, without dwelling upon 
 it longer, we will proceed briefly to trace its progress in that 
 Island, with the religious condition of which this book is 
 more particularly concerned. 
 
 When the Reformation commenced, the crown of Eng- 
 land was worn by Henry the Eighth, of whom Burnet 
 says, " He is to be numbered among the ill princes," and 
 whose only eulogium, as pronounced by that prelate,]is that 
 he " could not rank him with the worst." Henry was coarse 
 * Review of Ranke. Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1840. 
 
 D 
 
I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 in his manners, impatient of contradiction, grossly sensual 
 in his pleasures, capricious and fickle in his attachments, and 
 perfectly unprincipled in the attainment of his ends. When 
 he first .heard of the movements of the great Saxon reformer, 
 his indignation was unbounded. " Surely it is no other 
 than the devil," he wrote to the Elector Palatine, " who, by 
 the agency of Luther, has kindled this wide-spreading con- 
 flagration — if Luther will not refract,- let himself and his 
 writings be committed to the flames." The works of Luther 
 having found their way into England, and being read with 
 avidity by the followers of Wickliffe, the king proceeded to 
 give vent to his rage by causing hundreds of these unhappy 
 people to be burnt at the stake. But not content with this, 
 he determined to enter the lists with the Monk of Witten- 
 berg himself, and to demonstrate his zeal for the faith, by 
 confuting the errors of the arch-heretic, with his royal pen. 
 Having been designed, had his brother Arthur lived, for the 
 Archbishopric of Canterbury, he had been carefully educated 
 for the Church, so that, according to Burnet, " he was the 
 most learned prince that had been in the world for many 
 ages," and deeming this an excellent opportunity to exhibit 
 his scholastic attainments, he wrote against Luther his " De- 
 fence of the Seven Sacraments." This book, " written," 
 says one, " as it were with his sceptre," created a sensation 
 in the theological world, highly gratifying f to its author's 
 morbid vanity. His flatterers compared it with the works of 
 St Augustine and Pope Leo the Tenth, declaring that it 
 could not have been composed but by the aid of the Holy 
 Ghost, and bestowed upon the king that title, still borne by 
 the sovereigns of England, " Defender of the Faith." Luther 
 replied to this book, and a passage from his reply, as quoted 
 by D'Aubigne, may not be out of place, to show how uncere- 
 moniously the monarch was handled by the Reformer. " As 
 to me," he says, " I do not cease my cry of the Gospel! the 
 Gospel ! Christ ! Christ ! — and my enemies are as ready with 
 their answer — Custom! custom! — Ordinances! ordinances! 
 Fathers ! Fathers !— ' Your faith should not stand in the wis- 
 dom of men, but in the power of God,' says Paul — And the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tl 
 
 Apostle, by this ihunderclap from heaven, at once overturns 
 and disperses, as the wind scatters the dust, all the foolish 
 thoughts of such an one as Henry. Papists !" he exclaims, 
 in conclusion, " will you never have done with your vain 
 attempts ? Do, then, what ye list. Notwithstanding it must 
 still come to pass, that popes, bishops, priests, monks, princes, 
 devils, death, sin, and all that is not Jesus Christ, or in Jesus 
 Christ, must fall and perish before the power of this gospel, 
 which I, Martin Luther, have preached." 
 
 But what sincere love of truth, and conscientious regard 
 for the religious rights of his subjects, should have done tho- 
 roughly, was soon after partially effected by the agency of 
 Henry's own imperious and headstrong passions. He had 
 in early life, by a papal dispensation, married Catharine of 
 Arragon, his brother Arthur's widow, but now professedly 
 from conscientious scruples, but really, doubtless, from his 
 affection for Anne Boleyn, he ^desired the pope to set aside 
 that dispensation, and pronounce the marriage void. The 
 pontiff fearing, if he should do this, the displeasure of 
 Charles the Fifth, Catharine's nephew, and yet not willing to 
 alienate the king by a peremptory refusal, continued, under 
 various pretexts, to delay his decision. At length wearied 
 with protracted negotiations, the king, at the suggestion of 
 Cranmer, resolved to obtain the opinions of the great univer- 
 sities of Christendom on the lawfulness of the union ; these 
 made answer that marriage with a deceased brother's wife 
 was contrary to the law of God, and therefore the king, with- 
 out the pope's sanction, repudiated Catharine, and was pri- 
 vately married to Anne. Henry having thus quarrelled with 
 the pontiff, determined to abolish his supremacy over the 
 English Church; having found means to awe the clergy into 
 submission, that body declared him, in convocation at Can- 
 terbury, A. D. 1531, the Protector and supreme head of the 
 Church and clergy of England ; Parliament also, in the com- 
 mencement of the year 1534, passed a bill abolishing papal 
 supremacy in England, and declaring the king to be supreme 
 head of the English Church. 
 
 Such were the events that burst the fetters which bound 
 
Ill 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 England to papal Rome. It sprung, not from a deep and 
 holy abhorrence of her corruptions and usurpations, but from 
 one of the many shameful amours of this abandoned and 
 self-willed monarch. " And it rendered it at once a matter of 
 impossibility," says Hetherington, " for the Church of Eng- 
 land to prosecute its own reformation, according to the deli- 
 berate judgment of its most enlightened members, whatever 
 might be their opinion of the requirements of the Word of 
 God." The truth of this remark soon became apparent. 
 The Church during Henry's reign, notwithstanding all the 
 efforts of Cranmer and his associates, remained essentially 
 popish. The main difference was, that she had transferred 
 the tiara from the pope abroad to a pope at home. As the 
 supreme head of the Church, Henry was as absolute and 
 despotic as the Roman pontiff; the clergy were quite as 
 worldly, the worship as formal, and the people as debased 
 as they were before. The Bible was, indeed, ordered to be 
 translated, but few of the people could read it, and those who 
 could, were obliged to understand it according to the tradi- 
 tions of the first four centuries, as they might be doled out 
 to them by their priests. The monastic institutions were 
 abolished, it is true, but their wealth flowed into the royal 
 treasury, and was partly employed to create six new prelates 
 to lord it over God's heritage. 
 
 In a convocation of the clergy, A. D. 1536, certain articles 
 of religion were agreed upon and confirmed by the king. 
 By these the people were required to believe that baptism 
 was necessary to salvation, that they must confess and re- 
 ceive absolution from a priest, that Christ's real body was 
 present in the Eucharist, that images were to be worshipped, 
 that saints were to be invoked, and there was a purgatory. 
 Besides this, these articles provided that certain ceremonies 
 should be still continued, such as the wearing of priestly 
 vestments, the sprinkling of holy water, bearing candles on 
 Candlemas-day, giving ashes on Ash-Wednesday, bearing 
 palm on Palm-Sunday, and creeping to the cross on Good 
 Friday.^ After this, A. D. 1539, Parliament passed an act 
 * Burnet, Vol. L, pp. 346, 350. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liii 
 
 setting forth six Articles of Religion, which receiving the 
 royal assent, had the force of a law. These Articles inculcat- 
 ed, 1st, The doctrine of transubstantiation ; 2d, That the 
 cup should be withheld from the laity : 3d, The celibacy of 
 the priests ; 4th, The vows of chastity ; 5th, The continua- 
 tion of private masses; 6th, That auricular confession should 
 be retained. It was moreover humanely provided that all 
 those who should preach, speak or write against the first 
 article, were to be judged heretics and burned ; while those 
 who preached against or disputed the others were only 
 to be judged felons and put to death without benefit of cler- 
 gy. A piece of clemency which resembles that of the merci- 
 ful Inquisitors of Arragon, who having condemned certain 
 victims to have their right hands cut off and then hanged, 
 were graciously pleased to commute the sentence of such as 
 had turned witnesses against their brethren, into being hanged 
 first and having their hands cut off afterwards. Such was 
 the extent of the misnamed reformation effected in England 
 by Henry the Eighth, and this state of things continued until 
 the death of that fierce, capricious, and profligate monarch 
 in the first month of the year 1547. 
 
 He was succeeded by his son Edward the Sixth, when 
 that prince was but nine years of age. Edward having been 
 educated under Protestant tutors, and being surrounded by 
 Protestant advisers, the work of reforming some of the gross- 
 er errors of the Church commenced. Images and relics were 
 removed from the churches, the clergy were permitted to 
 marry,* and the public prayers translated into the English 
 tongue. To remedy the deplorable ignorance which every- 
 where prevailed among the clergy, homilies were prepared 
 for their use, explanatory of the most important doctrines and 
 duties of Christianity. In the year 1552 forty-two Articles of 
 Religion were drawn up chiefly by Cranmer and Ridley, 
 and published by the king's authority. These articles con- 
 tained a system of doctrine, resembling that of the Church of 
 Geneva, and took decided ground against all those Romish 
 errors which had been so pertinaciously retained by Henry 
 the Eighth. Still many of the popish practices and ceremonies 
 
liv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were retained, such as the prelacy and established ritual of 
 worship, and the wearing of priestly vestments. Some in 
 the Church were strenuous for a thorough reform from all 
 departures from primitive spiritual worship. And Edward 
 himself is said to have lamented that he could not restore the 
 discipline of the Church to its primitive simplicity, " because 
 several of the bishops, some through age, some through 
 ignorance, some on account of their ill name and some out 
 of love to popery, were opposed to the design." But this ex- 
 cellent prince, who, had he lived, would doubtless have used 
 his utmost exertion to have completed what had been begun, 
 died A. D. 1553, universally lamented, in the sixteenth year 
 of his age. 
 
 He was succeeded by his sister Mary, the daughter of 
 Henry and Catharine of Arragon. Possessed of all the 
 Spanish bigotry of her mother, she at once restored the Eng- 
 lish Church to its former vassalage to Rome. A most 
 furious persecution was commenced against all who had fa- 
 vored the Reformation, and been instrumental in the rejection 
 of the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, and hundreds of men and women, perished at the 
 stake, while thousands of others, who were fortunate enough 
 to escape, sought in foreign lands an asylum from the mer- 
 ciless fury of their bloody queen. 
 
 The career of this cruel woman was cut short by death ; 
 and on the accession of Elizabeth, A. D. 1558, an Act of 
 Supremacy was soon passed, which again severed the king- 
 dom from the papal see. But it is one of the inevitable and 
 sad consequences of the union of Church and State, that the 
 nature of the doctrines imposed upon the people depends, 
 more or less, upon the worldly caprice of the sovereign. 
 Elizabeth was at heart a papist ; and had the pope acceded 
 to her terms, England would doubtless have remained in 
 the communion of the Roman Church. She believed in 
 transubstantiation, in images, and in the mass ; and was, 
 moreover, inordinately fond of pomp, and show, and cere- 
 mony, in religion. So that instead of carrying on the work 
 of reformation, which her brother Edward had so zealously 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 commenced, she " was rather inclined," as Hume observes, 
 "to bring the public worship still nearer to the Romish 
 ritual." The Forty-two Articles of that prince were, therefore, 
 changed for the worse, into the Thirty-nine of the present 
 English Church. The present system of that hierarchy was 
 then stereotyped for after-ages; and those excellent men, who 
 had imbibed the love of a more simple and spiritual wor- 
 ship, and who now began to establish dissenting congrega- 
 tions in the realm, were persecuted by this haughtiest of the 
 Tudors with remorseless severity. But " while the sovereign 
 authority checked these excesses," as Hume is pleased to 
 style them, " the flame was confined, not extinguished ; and 
 burning fiercer from confinement, it burst out in the succeed- 
 ing reigns, to the destruction of the Church and monarchy." 
 
 In the year 1603, Elizabeth was succeeded in the throne 
 by James of Scotland. James, who was educated a Pres- 
 byterian, used to say before his accession, that " the service 
 of the Episcopal Church was an evil-said mass in English ; 
 that its order of bishops smelled vilely of popish pride ; that 
 the book of common-prayer was an English mass-book ; and 
 that the surplice, copes, and ceremonies, were outward 
 badges of popery." But no sooner was the English crown 
 upon the head of this pedantic and weak-minded king, than 
 a complete revolution was effected in all his sentiments on 
 this subject. Intoxicated with his ecclesiastical supremacy, 
 and captivated by the fawning sycophancy of the English 
 prelates, he soon adopted the well-known motto, " No Bishop, 
 no King." Laws of the severest character were now passed, 
 and rigorously executed against non-conformists. They were 
 incapacitated to sue for their lawful debts ; they were impri- 
 soned for life ; they were denied Christian burial ; and some, 
 even, were burned at the stake : so that multitudes of these 
 oppressed people exiled themselves from their native land, 
 and sought in the Western world what was denied them 
 at home — the privilege of worshipping their Maker in spirit 
 and in truth. 
 
 James was succeeded, A. D. 1625, by his son, Charles the 
 First. The pedantic and vainglorious father was styled by his 
 
Ivi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 flatterers a second Solomon, but his ill-guided and ill-fated 
 successor may well be likened, by the sober pen of his- 
 tory, to the foolish Rehoboam. The language of the British 
 people on his accession to the throne, was that of oppressed 
 Israel, to the youthful Hebrew king : « Thy father made 
 our yoke grievous ; now, therefore, ease thou" somewhat the 
 grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he 
 put upon us, and we will serve thee." But this most infatu- 
 ated and unfortunate of the Stuarts, instead of listening to 
 this earnest remonstrance, " answered them roughly ; saying, 
 my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto ; my 
 father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with 
 scorpions." The extravagant lengths to which he stretched 
 his royal prerogative, and the high-handed despotism with 
 which he invaded the civil and religious rights of his subjects, 
 finally brought his own head to the block, and drove forth 
 his children into a disgraceful exile. It was during this turbu- 
 lent and eventful reign that those people first appeared, whose 
 origin and history form the subject of the present volume. 
 
 Two centuries have since rolled away, and the followers 
 of that George Fox, who was despised by the world as a 
 poor dreaming fanatic, still exist, as a large and respect- 
 ed society, in that very land where their fathers were 
 whipped and imprisoned with the offscourings of the earth. 
 Two centuries have rolled away, and in the western wilder- 
 ness, where the victims of kingly and prelatic rage sought an 
 asylum with the savage and the wild beast, a vast and grow- 
 ing empire of civil and religious freedom has been founded ; 
 and here, too, are the followers of Fox to be seen, in city and 
 in country, remarkable for their simplicity and uprightness, 
 worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth. But though 
 priestcraft has been deprived of her former power, she still 
 watches to regain her dominion. But let us learn wisdom 
 from the lessons of the past. 
 
 " Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
 made you free, and be not again entangled with the yoke of 
 bondage." Remember that vigilance — eternal, unsleeping 
 vigilance, is the only security for civil and religious freedom. 
 
A 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Thomas Cranmer was appointed by King Henry the 
 Eighth Archbishop of the See of Canterbury, and 
 1536. when he assumed the power of that office, used every 
 means to reform the errors of the Church of Rome. He 
 petitioned the king, with whom he stood high in favor, to 
 proceed at once towards reforming the abuses of the Church, 
 and proposed that the following points required immediate 
 investigation, as many persons had suffered death for seem- 
 ing offences, which were soon discovered to be errors. 1st, Is 
 there a purgatory ? 2d, Whether deceased Saints ought to 
 be invocated ? 3d, In what light are images to be regarded ? 
 
 Soon after the above recommendation, Thomas Crom- 
 well, one of the ministers of the kingdom, published some 
 injunctions in the king's name, requiring all churchmen not. 
 to recommend the use of images, relics, or pilgrimages, but 
 to instruct them in their own language, in the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. This was the first 
 great step towards the translation of the Bible ; and Cranmer 
 using his power for that object, the Holy Book was pub- 
 lished the following year. The king's order was imme- 
 1 
 
2 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 diately issued, directing the Clergy to place the Bible in the 
 
 churches, for the benefit of all who desired to read the 
 3539. Scriptures in their native tongue. But Cranmer was 
 
 not satisfied until he gained permission for the gene- 
 ral introduction of the Bible among the people. He was, 
 however, still a believer of the corporeal presence of Christ, 
 in the Sacrament, and remained a zealous advocate of that 
 
 doctrinal point of the existing Church, until the reign 
 1549. of Edward the Sixth, when he was induced by 
 
 Nicholas Ridley, who afterwards suffered martyrdom 
 under Queen Mary, to make inquiry into the truth of the 
 principle, and discover the absurdity of such positions. 
 Cranmer soon became aware of the superstition of the belief, 
 and suppressed it, together with many others of like nature. 
 It is strange that a man possessing such a meek temper, 
 could give his vote for the burning of those whom he consi- 
 dered heretics ; as in the case of John Nicholson, alias Lam- 
 bert, in the reign of Henry VIII., for denying the corporeal 
 presence of Christ, in the Sacrament; Joan Bocher, under 
 Edward VI., for denying that Christ had taken flesh from 
 
 the Virgin Mary ; and George Parr, during the 
 1556. same reign, for not believing in the deity of Christ. 
 
 He exhibited in these actions a wrong zeal for reli- 
 gion, and no doubt came to that conclusion, when he was 
 forced to undergo the same punishment during the bloody 
 reign of Queen Mary. 
 
 The bishops, under Queen Elizabeth, were content with 
 
 the reformations made by Cranmer, yet it pleased God 
 1568. to raise others whose testimony was publicly excited 
 
 against many of the remaining superstitions. Coleman, 
 Burton, Hallingham, and Benson, although imprisoned by 
 the queen's order, succeeded in gaining many followers, 
 who were known by the name of Puritans. About 
 1583. this period, the people were somewhat enlightened in 
 regard to the Church Articles of Faith, through the 
 instrumentality of Robert Brown, a young student of Cam- 
 bridge, and Richard Harrison, a schoolmaster, who jointly 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 3 
 
 published some works, proving that the Church of England 
 was still considerably infected with Romish errors and 
 1593. superstitions. Henry Barrow, John Greenwood, and 
 John Penry, were put to death for maintaining the 
 doctrine they believed to be the truth, more through the 
 instigation of the clergy, than by the desire of the queen. 
 
 When James the First ascended the throne, after the death 
 of Queen Elizabeth, the followers of these men suffered 
 much on account of their separation from the Church. In 
 the reign of Charles the First, many went to New England, 
 to avoid the persecution of the bishops, and afterwards ren- 
 dered themselves notorious as cruel persecutors of pious 
 people who settled amongst them. Thus clearly proving it 
 was not a perfect reformation, though it had not always 
 brought forth the same fruits of bitterness ; the branches of 
 the tree of superstitious institutions were broken, but the 
 trunk remained unshaken. To make a clearer discovery of 
 true religion, it was the will of God to destroy the great 
 obstruction whereby the soul was deprived enjoying perfect 
 peace with its Creator. 
 
 There were many separate societies in England at this 
 time. The Seekers, in the beginning, promised much good, 
 but their subsequent history establishes the fact, that their 
 foundation was not on the Rock of Ages. It was during 
 the latter end of the reign of Charles the First, that those 
 persons, who became aware of a divine conviction in the 
 conscience, and preached the immutable doctrine of an in- 
 ward light, began to increase in numbers, and form a se- 
 parate religious society. They have been accused of many 
 ■exorbitant absurdities, both in life and doctrine, and the 
 name of Quakers was tauntingly imposed on them. 
 
 In their rise and progress, they met with many adversities, 
 which no body of men would have been willing to have 
 withstood, unless they sincerely believed they were right, in 
 the doctrine they so truthfully advocated. They quietly 
 submitted to bitter revilings, scornful mockings, rude abuses, 
 and bloody blows, from their persecutors. Many suffered 
 
1 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 hard imprisonment, banishment, tortures of every kind ; and 
 history speaks of deaths in prison, on the gallows, and at 
 the stake. Amid all these vicissitudes, we have many noble 
 instances of unfeigned godliness, sincere love, extraordinary 
 meekness, singular patience, ardent zeal, undaunted courage, 
 and unshaken steadfastness. No age or period has afforded 
 more powerful examples of virtuous resolution to accom- 
 plish what is right and good. 
 
 George Fox was born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, in the 
 
 seventh month (July). His father, Christopher Fox. 
 1624. was an honest weaver, who led such a virtuous life, 
 
 that his neighbors called him " Righteous Christer." 
 His mother, Mary Lago, was an upright woman, and of the 
 stock of martyrs : both were members of the Church of 
 England. It is said of George Fox, that even in his mi- 
 nority he exhibited a spirit of gravity and staidness of mind 
 seldom observed in children. Although from a child it was 
 plainly seen that his views of religion were different from 
 his brethren, still his parents endeavored to train him up in 
 the common way of worship. At the age of 11, he could 
 read and write, and endeavored to live a pure and righteous 
 life, to be faithful in all things, inwardly to God and out- 
 wardly to man. Thus living and growing in virtue, some 
 of his relations expressed a wish to have him educated for 
 a priest in one of the religious schools ; but this was con- 
 trary to his wish, and he was placed as an apprentice to a 
 shoemaker, who also dealt in wool and cattle. His chief 
 delight in his master's employment was in taking charge of 
 the sheep, and he soon became a successful shepherd, which 
 was, an eminent author has said, " A just emblem of his 
 after-ministry and service." In his dealings he made fre- 
 quent use of the word " verily," and acted so strictly to its 
 meaning, that those who knew him would frequently say, 
 " If George says verily, there is no altering him." 
 
 Throughout all England were exhibited tokens of the be- 
 ginning of a civil war, in which religion was somewhat 
 interested. New forms and ceremonies were introduced at 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 5 
 
 the communion-table, and those preachers who did not, obey 
 them were neglected, while those who promoted rites 
 
 1642. that favored Popery were advanced. This caused an 
 insurrection ; and Charles the First, accused by the 
 
 Parliament of encroaching upon their privileges, raised an 
 army and secured many fortified places. Soon after, a 
 battle was fought between the Royalists and the Parliament, 
 near Edge Hill, in Warwickshire, in which neither party 
 gained much advantage. 
 
 During his nineteenth year, George Fox attended a fair 
 with some of his associates, at which an incident took place, 
 and regarding it as a divine admonition, he resolved to leave 
 his relations, break off all familiar fellowship with 
 
 1643. men, and lead a separate and retired life. On the 9th 
 of the ninth month (September) he went to Lutter- 
 worth, and continued to wander from place to place, 
 
 1644. until he arrived at Barnet in the month of June. 
 After passing through many severe temptations, he 
 
 went to London in a miserable state of mind, hoping to find 
 some relief among the famous professors of that city ; but 
 he found them ignorant in regard to the spiritual welfare of 
 the soul. On hearing that his parents were unhappy during 
 his absence, he returned to Leicestershire. Here he asso- 
 ciated with many priests, and conversed freely on all the 
 subjects of interest for the salvation of the soul. Nathaniel 
 Stevens, then priest of Drayton, once asked him, why Christ 
 cried out on the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me-? " The reply was considered unique : " At 
 that time the sins of all mankind were upon Christ, and their 
 iniquities and transgressions with which he was wounded, 
 which he was to bear, and to be an offering for them, as he 
 was a man ; but died not, as he was God : and so, in that 
 he died for all men, and tasted death for every man, he was 
 an offering for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 During this year George Fox spent much of his time in 
 solitude, waiting patiently on the Lord, whilst he 
 
 1645. became aware of the Iruth of those principles of re- 
 
0 
 
 Q HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ligion, which have since been recognized by the Society of 
 Friends or Quakers. 
 
 England was still in the midst of a revolution. Parlia- 
 ment exerted all its power for the introduction of the Presby- 
 terian Directory, and the expulsion of the Bishops. The 
 King was defeated by an army of untrained bands, near 
 Naseby, and escaped to Scotland, but was delivered to the 
 English soon after. The Churchmen were at variance with 
 each other, and many persons claimed seats in Parliament, 
 who were opposed to the established mode of worship. 
 
 George Fox made a religious tour through Derbyshire, and 
 proceeded to Nottinghamshire, where he met Elizabeth 
 1647. Hooten, a woman whose history will be recorded 
 in the sequel, and held several meetings and re- 
 ligious discourses. In the writings of Gerard Croes, we find 
 that his clothes were made of leather, on account of the sim- 
 plicity of that dress, and travelling from place to place, a 
 stranger, they needed very little mending or repairing. He 
 was a steady reader of holy writ, but kept aloof from all pro- 
 fessions and churches, because he could not bring his mind 
 to see the usefulness of the many forms and ceremonies so 
 entirely disconnected with spiritual religion. The first ser- 
 mons' he preached were short, powerful and full of truth : 
 many were convinced of their errors, and returned to the true 
 light of the Gospel. A person by the name of Brown on 
 his death-bed prophesied many strange occurrences, and 
 amongst the rest, " that George Fox should be made instru- 
 mental by the Lord to the conversion of people." And of 
 some very prominent men of that period, he foretold " that 
 they should come to nothing," which was fulfilled, though he 
 did not live to see it. At this time George Fox had many 
 sorrows and troubles, passed through many temptations, in 
 all of which he was the victor ; but to give an account of his 
 condition we will use his own words. 
 
 " I saw into that which was without end, and things which 
 cannot be uttered ; and of the greatness and infiniteness of 
 the love of God, which cannot be expressed by words ; for I 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS] 
 
 7 
 
 had been brought through the very ocean of darkness and 
 death, and through and over the power of Satan, by the 
 eternal glorious power of Christ ; even through that darkness 
 was I brought which covered the world, and which chained 
 down all, and shut up all in the death. And the same eter- 
 nal power of God, which brought me through those things, 
 was that which afterwards shook the nation, priests, profes- 
 sors and people. Then could I say, I had been in spiritual 
 Babylon, Sodom, Egypt and the grave ; but by the eternal 
 power of God, I was come out of it, and was brought over 
 it, and the power of it unto the power of Christ. And I saw 
 the harvest white, and the seed of God lying thick in the 
 ground, as ever did wheat, that was sown outwardly, and 
 none to gather it : and for this I mourned with tears." 
 
 Towards the latter end of this year, the state affairs of 
 England became more and more unsettled ; the king think- 
 ing himself no longer safe at Hampton Court, withdrew to 
 the Isle of "Wight, whilst Parliament still insisted on the ab- 
 rogation of Episcopacy, and the entire command of the mili- 
 tary forces ; this the king was not willing to grant, and he. 
 was no longer regarded as a sovereign claiming obedience of 
 the Parliament. 
 
 Whilst these intestine troubles were raging with some 
 violence throughout the kingdom, the minds of many 
 1648. were exercised in regard to their future welfare. George 
 Fox attended many meetings of the priests and pro- 
 fessors at different places, and whenever he spoke, the pow- 
 er of the truth of his remarks made many converts. He had 
 an idea of studying medicine, but he felt called on by God to 
 enter into a spiritual labor. He became aware that every 
 man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ, and those 
 who believed it were free from condemnation, and were the 
 children of light. He believed God had given a measure of 
 his spirit to all men, and that with it alone they could truly 
 serve the Lord ; and that his grace, which brings salvation, 
 was able to reconcile them to God. 
 
 He now went forth to preach the everlasting Gospel, and 
 
8 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 use all the good God had given him in endeavoring to reform 
 men of their evil ways and practices. About this time he 
 suffered the anger of some persons high in station, on ac- 
 count of refusing to take off his hat in then- presence. " He 
 believed that the hat-honor was an honor from below, 
 which the Lord would lay in the dust, and stain it ; that it 
 was an honor which the proud look for, without seeking 
 the honor which came from God alone ; that it was an 
 honor invented by men in their fall, who therefore were of- 
 fended if it were not given them ; though they would be 
 looked upon as church members and good Christians ; 
 whereas Christ himself said, ' How can ye believe, who re- 
 ceive honor of one another, and seek not the honor that 
 cometh from God only ?' That it was an honor, which, in 
 relation to the outward ceremony, was the same as was given 
 to God ; so that in the sign of reverence, no distinction was 
 made between the Creator and the creature. The saying of 
 the word you to a single person went a degree farther ; for 
 not only the kings and princes among the Heathens and 
 Jews, had not been offended when they were addressed by 
 the word ' Thee' or ' Thou,' but experience proved that this 
 was the language in which God was spoken to, in all reli- 
 gious assemblies." 
 
 Whilst the king was almost powerless on the Isle of 
 Wight, the Duke of York, his second son, then fourteen years 
 of age, disguised himself in woman's apparel, and fled to 
 Holland, where he joined his eldest brother, the Prince of 
 Wales, who two years before had gone to France. They 
 joined some English men-of-war, whose commanders favor- 
 ed the king, and proceeded to the Downs for the purpose of 
 capturing the ships sailing out of London. On their arrival 
 a negotiation was pending between the king and Parliament, 
 but the treaty was strongly opposed by the army, the great 
 instrument to the downfall of the king. Several members 
 were expelled from Parliament, and they resolved to break 
 off all communication between their body and the sovereign. 
 After a short imprisonment at Windsor, he was arraigned as 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 9 
 
 guilty of high treason, before a number of judges appointed 
 by Parliament for that purpose, among whom was Oliver 
 Cromwell, then Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. The 
 king did not recognize the court a lawful body, and on re- 
 fusing to answer the charges preferred against him, was, on 
 the 27th of January, sentenced to suffer death as an enemy 
 to the Commonwealth. The Prince of Wales applied to the 
 States General of the United Provinces at the Hague for as- 
 sistance, and they sent two Ambassadors to the Parliament, 
 who entreated in vain for the pardon of the king. Parlia- 
 ment declared it treason for any one to endeavor to pro- 
 mote Charles Stuart, Prince of "Wales, or any other person, 
 to be king of England ; the House of Peers was abolished, 
 and they assumed the government of the nation under the 
 title of " The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England." 
 The Prince of Wales was, however, proclaimed by the Socts 
 at Edinburgh to be king of Great Britain, which was a repe- 
 tition of the rule the English had worked in the case of the 
 death of the late king's father in the year 1625. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 George Fox still continued to bear his testimony against 
 all the sins of the times. He testified against wakes, 
 1649. may-games, plays, shows, and all the means by which 
 people were led into vanity, or became forgetful of the 
 fear of God. At one time he attended a meeting of his friends 
 at Nottingham, and seeing from the top of a hill the church 
 of the town, he felt it his duty to preach against that idol 
 temple and its worshippers. The priest selected his text from 
 the following words of the Apostle, 2 Pet. i. 19. " We have 
 also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well 
 who take heed, as unto a fight that shineth in a dark place, 
 until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 
 In explanation he told his hearers that this was the scripture 
 by which they were to try all doctrines, religions and opi- 
 nions. George Fox hearing this, felt the power of God with- 
 in him, directing him to bear testimony against this false doc- 
 trine. He arose amid the congregation, and said, " Oh ! no, 
 it is not the scripture, but it is the Holy Spirit, by which the* 
 holy men of God gave forth the scriptures, whereby opinions, 
 religions, and judgments are to be tried. That was it which 
 led unto all truth, and gave the knowledge thereof. For the 
 Jews had the scriptures, and yet resisted the Holy Ghost, and 
 rejected Christ, the bright morning star, and persecuted him 
 and his Apostles ; though they took upon them to try their 
 docfrine by the scriptures ; but they erred in judgment, and 
 did not try them aright, because they did it without the Holy 
 Ghost." For saying these words the police seized him, and 
 after an examination before the officers of the town, he was 
 cast into an offensive prison. His words at the steeple-house 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 11 
 
 made a deep impression on the hearts of many ; and the high 
 sheriff introduced him in the midst of his family, who were 
 led to examine the truth of his doctrine, and soon became 
 aware of the power of the Lord. He held meetings in the 
 sheriff's mansion, and many eminent persons attended to his 
 warnings. A great change came over the character of Reck- 
 less, the sheriff, and he went forth to preach repentance in 
 the market-places of his native town. The magistrates could 
 endure this no longer, and ordered him back to the common 
 prison, to await his trial at the coming session of the Court 
 of Assizes. The sitting, however, was allowed to pass over 
 without bringing George Fox to the bar of the court ; and 
 after a weary imprisonment of some months, he was again 
 set at liberty. 
 
 In his wanderings he chanced to stop at Mansfield- Wood- 
 house, where, finding a distracted woman under the care of 
 a physician, who had tried in vain to relieve her, he spoke to 
 her in the name of the Lord, and bade her be quiet and still. 
 The effect of these words settled her mind, and on becoming 
 sane she received the doctrine of truth, in the belief of which 
 she continued until death. In this place he also went to the 
 church in order to declare the word of God, but he was beat- 
 en out, placed in the stocks, and at last stoned out of the 
 town. He next went to Leicestershire, accompanied by sev- 
 eral of his friends, and visited a sect of people who were im- 
 prisoned for their religion. He found they were blasphem- 
 ers, who believed they were gods, and after conversing with 
 them in jail for a long time, they were made sensible of their 
 position, and soon after one of them published a book of recan- 
 tation, which action secured their release. At Twy-Cross 
 he addressed the excisemen, and warned them against op- 
 pressing the poor. At this town the physicians had declar- 
 ed a celebrated man to be at the point of death ; George Fox 
 went to his bed-side and entreated the Lord to restore him 
 to health ; and in passing through the town some time after he 
 found the man had regained his strength, and was ever after- 
 wards very affectionate towards the Society of Friends. 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 This year he went to Derby, and learning that one of the colo- 
 nels of the army was to deliver a lecture in the church, 
 1650. he felt himself called upon to speak after the service, 
 but he was arrested by the officers, examined before 
 the magistrates, and committed, together with one of his fol- 
 lowers, to the house of correction for six months, as a blas- 
 phemer. The following is the warrant issued for their im- 
 prisonment : 
 
 To the Master of the House of Correction, in Derby, 
 Greeting: — We have sent you herewithal, the bodies of 
 George Fox, late of Mansfield, in the county of Nottingham ; 
 and John Fretwell, late of Staniesby,in the county of Derby, 
 husbandman, brought before us this present day, and charged 
 with the avowed uttering and broaching of divers blasphe- 
 mous opinions contrary t» the late Act of Parliament, 
 which, upon their examination before us, they have con- 
 fessed. These are therefore to require you, forthwith upon 
 sight hereof, to receive them, the said George Fox and John 
 Fretwell, into your custody, and them therein safely to keep 
 during the space of six months, without bail or mainprize, or 
 until they shall find sufficient security to be of good beha- 
 vior, or be thence delivered by order from ourselves. 
 Hereof you are not to fail. Given under our hands and 
 seals this 30th day of October, 1650. 
 
 Ger. Bennet. 
 Nath. Barton. 
 It was during this term of imprisonment that the Society 
 of Friends received the appellation of Quakers. It origi- 
 nated from the fact of George Fox bidding Gervas Bennett, 
 one of the officers who committed him, and those around 
 him, to tremble at the word of the Lord ! This odd name 
 was sounded not only in England, but throughout the adja- 
 cent kingdoms, giving rise to many foolish and silly stories. 
 Fretwell did not remain true to his faith, and through the 
 intercession of the jailor, procured his liberty. Croes in his 
 history has represented George Fox as entirely too ignorant 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 to be the founder of a religious society. He states, that he 
 could neither write legibly nor express his meaning in writing. 
 This is not true, although he was not distinguished as an 
 elegant writer, yet he always was fortunate enough to render 
 himself understood. His letters to the priests of Derby and 
 the magistrates who committed him, clearly establish that 
 point. He also wrote letters to Nathaniel Barton, Gervas 
 Bennett, and to the bell-ringers of St. Peter's Church, in 
 Derby, against the ringing of bells for joy, because it pro- 
 duces vanity and immorality. 
 
 His relations went before the magistrates, offering to be 
 bound in one hundred pounds each, and many others to the 
 amount of fifty pounds, if they would release him, and he 
 would not give his testimony against the doctrines of the 
 established Church, in that county. When they brought 
 him before the officers, he refused to submit to such an 
 arrangement, believing himself innocent of any misconduct 
 or ill behavior. He was ordered back to prison, but the 
 jailor granted him many liberties, not before enjoyed. His 
 friends were somewhat offended at his conduct, and he wrote 
 them the following letter : 
 
 " Would you have me to be bound to my good behavior 
 from drunkenness, or swearing, or fighting, or adultery, and 
 the like ? The Lord hath redeemed me from all these 
 things ; and the love of God hath brought me to loathe all 
 wantonness, blessed be his name. They who are drunk- 
 ards, and fighters, and swearers, have their liberty without 
 bonds ; and you lay your law upon me, whom neither you. 
 nor any other, can justly accuse of these things, praised be 
 the Lord '. I can look at no man for my liberty, but at the 
 Lord alone ; who hath all men's hearts in his hand." 
 
 To Nathaniel Barton, he soon after wrote another severe 
 letter, placing his conduct in a strange and sinful light. He 
 said that the Saviour told such men as him, " I was sick, and 
 in prison, and ye visited me not ; I was hungry, and ye fed 
 me not ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in." And 
 when they replied, " When saw we thee in prison, and did 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 not come to thee ?" He answered, " Inasmuch as ye did it 
 not to one of these little ones, ye did it not to me." 
 
 In this year Elizabeth Hooten, the first female preacher 
 in the Society of Friends, felt herself called upon to go forth 
 and preach the way of salvation. She was for a long time 
 believed to be the first woman who ever preached in public 
 assemblies, but in the History of the Troubles in England, 
 a Dutch work, published at Dordt, in 1647, it will be found 
 that it was no novelty in London for females to address re- 
 ligious meetings. 
 
 The state affairs of the kingdom were as unsettled as ever. 
 The Scotch sent ambassadors to Holland for the purpose of 
 urging Charles II. to abrogate Episcopacy and uphold the 
 Covenant. The king, seeing no other way to regain his 
 throne, agreed to the establishment of the Presbyterian Cove- 
 nant, and arriving in Scotland, he made his entry into Edin- 
 burgh through the gate on which were placed the quarters of 
 the Earl of Montrose. On the 16th of August the king 
 issued a declaration, in which may be found the following 
 words, which are regarded as an open confession of his 
 father's crimes, and that by his conduct he had wronged and 
 injured the nation. 
 
 " Though his Majesty, as a dutiful son, be obliged to 
 honor the memory of his royal father, and have in estimation 
 the person of his mother, yet doth he desire to be deeply 
 humbled, and afflicted in spirit before God, because of hi* 
 father's hearkening to evil councils, and his opposition to 
 the work of Reformation, and to the solemn League and 
 Covenant (by which so much of the blood of the Lord's 
 people hath been shed in these kingdoms) and for the idola- 
 try of his mother." 
 
 The English did not favor this movement, and General 
 Fairfax was ordered to proceed with his army to Scotland. 
 Fairfax declined, it is generally believed on account of the 
 advice of his wife, with whom the Presbyterian ministers 
 held no small amount of influence. Oliver Cromwell was 
 then created general of the national forces, and immediately 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 15 
 
 marching to Scotland, he defeated the Scottish army 
 1651. near Edinburgh. Notwithstanding their overthrow, 
 the Scots crowned Charles II., in January, after taking 
 a solemn oath to maintain and defend the Covenant. 
 
 During the latter part of George Fox's imprisonment in 
 the Derby House of Correction, the officers who were re- 
 cruiting in the neighborhood, by the advice of the soldiers, 
 offered him a captain's commission in the new army enlisted 
 to take up arms in favor of the Commonwealth, and against 
 Charles Stuart. Although bold and valiant, yet his belief 
 and feelings forbad him pursuing such a course, and in his 
 reply he said : " That he could not do so, knowing, accord- 
 ing to the doctrine of Apostle James, that all wars arise from 
 the lusts, and that he had lived in the virtue of that life 
 and power, that took away the occasion of all wars." For 
 this refusal of what they considered a proffered honor, he 
 was cast into a dungeon among rogues and felons. The 
 laws of England were very severe at this period, and during 
 his confinement George Fox wrote letters to the magistrates, 
 proving that capital punishment was conlrary to the law of 
 God. A young woman was confined in the dungeon for 
 stealing money from her master, and was sentenced to suffer 
 death as a penalty for the offence. He became deeply in- 
 terested in her case, used every exertion to gain a reprieve, 
 and it was only after the grave was dug and when she stood 
 upon the scaffold, that his warning words to the officers pro- 
 cured her pardon. Previous to being set at liberty, he wrote 
 a serious exhortation to the magistrates, calling upon them to 
 take into consideration the offences which those persons 
 committed who were sentenced to suffer imprisonment. The 
 following extract from the letter is to the point. 
 
 " I desire you to consider of these things, and search the 
 Scriptures, and see whether any of the people of God did 
 ever imprison any for religion ; but were themselves impri- 
 soned. I desire you to consider how it is written, that when 
 the Church is met together, they may all prophesy, one by 
 one, that all may hear, and all may learn, and all be com- 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 forted : and then, " If anything be revealed to him that sit- 
 teth by, let the first hold his peace." Thus it was in the true 
 church, and thus it ought to be. But it is not so in your 
 assemblies : but he that teaches for hire may speak, and 
 none may contradict him. Again, consider the liberty that 
 was given to the Apostles, even among the unbelieving 
 Jews : when after the reading the Law and the Prophets, the 
 rulers of the synagogue said unto them, ' Ye men and 
 brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, 
 say on.' I desire you to consider in stillness, and strive not 
 against the Lord, for he is stronger than you." 
 
 After remaining in Derby prison about a year, he was 
 liberated, and immediately started oh a religious tour through 
 the neighboring counties, where he convinced Richard Farns- 
 worth, James Naylor, and William Dewsbury, of the truth 
 of the doctrine he preached so effectually, who in time all 
 became good and upright ministers of the everlasting Gos- 
 pel. At Malton, Boyes, one of the priests, offered him the 
 use of the church. When he arrived at the building, he 
 found one of the priests preaching to eleven hearers ; but 
 when he arose upon a high seat to address them, the church 
 was crowded. He directed them to their inward teacher, 
 Christ Jesus, who would blot out all their sins, and turn 
 them from the error of their ways. He explained many mis- 
 construed passages of the Scripture, and pointed out the 
 Spirit of God within themselves, by which alone they might 
 come to God. 
 
 In the meantime, Charles the Second raised a new army, 
 and marching into England, took Worcester without oppo- 
 sition. In September, however, his forces were defeated by 
 Cromwell, and Charles was forced to seek shelter in a hollow 
 oak, near the scene of combat. Clothed as a servant, he 
 wandered through the country, escaping many hazards, until 
 at last he sailed for the coast of Normandy, in France, where 
 he arrived disheartened and dispirited. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 17 
 
 The priest Boyes accompanied George Fox through several 
 towns, and listened attentively to the words the good 
 1652. man spoke. At one place some persons called upon 
 Boyes to pay some money due for tithes ; but he told 
 them he had enough, and would not take it. This anecdote 
 proves that the preaching of the Word of God had made 
 some impression on his heart. 
 
 Passing one night through the town of Patrington, George 
 Fox applied for lodging at the public-house, but was denied 
 admittance. He slept under a hedge, near the outskirt of 
 the village, and in the morning was molested by some rude 
 persons, who afterwards sought his forgiveness, promising to 
 amend their lives. In this place he met one honest magis- 
 trate, who treated him as a brother and friend, as well as ful- 
 filling his duty as a public officer, in issuing a warrant for 
 the arrest of a professor of religion, for abusing George Fox, 
 whilst standing in the church. So zealous was Justice Ho- 
 tham to keep the peace, that he told George Fox, if he would 
 seek the protection of the law when he was ill-treated, he 
 should be dealt with fairly and honestly. Still he refused to 
 take the benefit of outward power. 
 
 At Gainsbury, some worthless man had accused George 
 Fox of declaring and believing he was Christ. On arriving 
 at that place, crowds of persons attended him to the house 
 of a friend, among whom was his accuser. He told them, 
 in explanation, that Christ was within them, except they 
 were reprobates ; and that it was Christ, the eternal power 
 of God, that spoke through him unto them ; not that he was 
 Christ. He said to his false accuser, that he was a JudasJ 
 and that the end of Judas should be his. This satisfied the 
 people, and they peaceably departed to their homes. Strange 
 as it may appear, this Judas hung himself, and a stake was 
 driven through his body. George F©x now went into York- 
 shire. In Wainsworth he was beaten out of the church ; at 
 Doncaster he went to the church, and afier the priest had 
 finished his sermon, began to address the audience ; but he 
 
 was arrested, taken before the magistrates, and threatened 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 with death, if he should ever undertake to preach in that 
 place again. At Tickhill, whither he went to preach, the 
 clerk struck him violently in the face with his bible, and the 
 people forced him out of the church, and dragged him 
 through the streets. He addressed them mildly, and told 
 them wherein they had dishonored Christianity by their 
 conduct, and prayed that they might repent, and become 
 true believers in the doctrine of Christ and the Gospel. 
 
 So far we have mentioned George Fox as the only preacher, 
 among the Society of Friends. Ere this Thomas Aldam,. 
 Richard Farnsworth and William Dewsbury, had gone forth 
 preaching the same principles of belief as were taught by 
 Christ himself. The priest of Warnsworth procured from 
 the magistrates a warrant for the arrest of George Fox and 
 Thomas Aldam, to be executed in any part of the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire. The constable arrested Aldam, be- 
 cause he knew him, but refused to take George Fox on 
 account of his being a stranger in the neighborhood. Mar- 
 shall, the priest of this place, told some wonderful stories 
 about the eminent founder of the Society of Friends. He 
 says the reason so many people flocked to hear him speak, 
 was because he usually carried bottles of ardent spirits with 
 him, with which he frequently regaled them. Preaching 
 such tales as these had a contrary effect to that which the 
 priest expected, and many of his congregation refused to at- 
 tend the church while he continued its minister. George Fox 
 preached at the fair in Sedburg, and told the people that Christ 
 alone taught them the only true way to God. It was here 
 that Francis Howgill said, " This man speaks with authority, 
 and not as the scribes." At Firbank chapel in Westmore- 
 land, he spoke for several hours to an auditory of more than 
 a thousand people. He directed them to the spirit of God 
 in themselves as the sole guide from error into the path of 
 truth, uprightness and virtue ; that they must become children 
 of light and be led by the power of Christ unto God. He 
 explained the parables and sayings of Christ, and taught the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 19 
 
 true and right meaning of the Apostles' writings and epistles 
 to the elect. 
 
 The power of the word he preached at this place was so 
 effectual as to convince many of his hearers of its truth, 
 amongst whom we find recorded the names of Francis How- 
 gill and John Audland, both ministers of the religious society 
 termed Independents, who, renouncing their former doctrines 
 and refunding the money they had received for preaching to 
 the parish of Colton in Lancashire, embraced those princi- 
 ples of Christ within, and that fundamental element of Chris- 
 tianity the waiting on Christ, not in outward temples, but in 
 the secret of the soul. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 John Audland was a young man, possessing a fine per- 
 sonal appearance, as well as many excellent traits of charac- 
 ter, and a mild and gentle disposition. Gifted with talents 
 of no common order, and having at command an extraordi- 
 nary memory, at the age of eighteen he was a constant reader 
 of the Holy Scriptures, and became very serious on the sub- 
 ject of the salvation of his soul. When he attained his ma- 
 jority, he became an eminent minister among the Independ- 
 ents, and strictly lived according to the doctrines which he 
 then believed to be in unison with the word of God. On 
 hearing George Fox's sermon at Firbank Chapel, he was 
 led to inquire into the validity of the positions which he had 
 assumed, and after a careful examination of his belief, the 
 spirit of God within forced him to renounce it, and go 
 forth preaching the true salvation to all without money and 
 without price. 
 
 Francis Howgill studied for the ministry in the Univer- 
 sity, and connected himself with the Episcopal Church. He 
 was a zealous, upright man ; and after a thorough examin- 
 ation into the follies, ceremonies, and superstitions that still 
 remained attached to the mode of worship in that Church, 
 he resolved to abandon their doctrines, and soon after joined 
 the Independents. Still he was dissatisfied, and finding, 
 notwithstanding all his fasting, praying, and good works, 
 that he continued to remain in sin, he turned to the inward 
 light, and saw the unfruitfulness of all his actions, and be- 
 came aware that he had been blind and ignorant in relation 
 to the true principle of the Gospel. Like a lamb, he was 
 led from darkness to light ; and in due time his heart was 
 filled with joy, and he went forth clothed in an armor of 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 21 
 
 true faith, freely preaching repentance to all. It was not 
 long before those by whom he was once beloved, became 
 his inveterate enemies, and holding some influence over the 
 magistrates, he was imprisoned at Appleby, in Westmore- 
 land, where he remained a long time. 
 
 It was at Under Barrow that George Fox convinced Ed- 
 ward Burrough, that he was living a stranger to God and his 
 holy works. His clear reasoning, the truth and determina- 
 tion in which he expressed the simplicity of the doctrine of 
 Christ, and the confidence he placed in Him alone to redeem 
 mankind from sin, was proved so triumphantly, that Bur- 
 rough was made a convert in the faith, and became an 
 eminent servant in the hands of the living God. He was 
 born in the barony of Kendal in Westmoreland, and re- 
 ceived such an education as the schools of the immediate 
 neighborhood afforded to the children of humble but re- 
 spectable parents. Early marks of genius were discovered 
 whilst he was a boy ; and finding no pleasure in the ordi- 
 nary occupations of youth, his chief delight was reading the 
 Holy Scriptures, in which he was well versed when only 
 twelve years old. His parents were Episcopalians, and he 
 was educated in their belief and mode of worship ; but he 
 frequently attended meetings of the Presbyterians, and pre- 
 ferring their doctrine in 'many things to the established 
 Church, he joined that body, and suffered the displeasure of 
 his parents and friends. At the age of seventeen, he became 
 sensible of his position ; having the Truth in his compre- 
 hension, but wanting the experimental knowledge of its 
 efficacy in the redemption of the soul from sin, and he was 
 almost lost in the belief of " Whom God loves once, he 
 loves for ever." He grew weary of the teachings of the 
 priests, and finding relief in the doctrine preached by George 
 Fox, he became a member of the despised society of 
 Quakers, for which action his father, in a fit of blind zeal, 
 cast him off, and declared him an exile from his native 
 home. During the period of his ministry in the cause of 
 Christ, he suffered many adversities : reviled, despised by 
 
22 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 his former associates ; slandered by the tongue of calumny, 
 and driven from place to place, he only sought relief from 
 the purity of Truth and the consciousness of living in the 
 principles of the disciples of Jesus. Like a hero, and with 
 all the determination of a martyr, he braved every danger, to 
 uphold that belief of Christ within, which had brought joy 
 to his soul, and sent him to preach the light to the people. 
 
 At Swarthmore, George Fox stopped at the house of Tho- 
 mas Fell, a judge in Wales, where he met with a priest, 
 named William Lampitt, who was pastor of the church at 
 Ulverstone. The following day was one appointed by that 
 priest for humiliation and prayer. He went thither, and after 
 their service was finished, he requested permission to speak, 
 which was granted, and he arose and said, " He is not a Jew 
 that is one outwardly ; but he is a Jew that is one inwardly ; 
 and that is circumcision which is of the heart. Christ was 
 the light of the world, and enlightened every man that Com- 
 eth unto the world, and that by this light they might be gather- 
 ed to God. That they were the prophet's words, and Christ's 
 and the Apostles' words ; and that what they spoke, they enjoy- 
 ed and possessed, and had it from the Lord." He asked, 
 " What have any to do with the Scriptures, if they come not to 
 the Spirit that gave them faith ? You will say, Christ saith 
 this, and the Apostles say this ; but what canst thou, O man, 
 say thyself concerning this ? Art thou a child of the light ; 
 dost thou walk in the light ; and what thou speakest, is it in- 
 wardly from God ?" He proved that God would teach his 
 people by his Spirit, and bring them from their outward 
 churches, and religions, and ways of worship. Margaret 
 Fell, wife of the judge, stood in her pew weeping bitterly, 
 her spirit crying to the Lord, 1 We are all thieves ! we 
 are all thieves ! We have taken the Scriptures in words, and 
 know nothing of them in ourselves." George Fox continued 
 preaching against false prophets and their superstitious mode 
 of worship, when John Sawrey, a justice of peace, ordered 
 him to be taken away. Margaret Fell, and the priest also, 
 who wished to please her, bid the officers to let him speak, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 23 
 
 but the constable led him from the church, and he addressed 
 a vast concourse in the graveyard. 
 
 In the evening he addressed Judge Fell's family and ser- 
 vants, and the word he spoke so effectually convinced them, 
 that they embraced the Truth. It was here that William 
 Caton became aware of his position, and enlisted under the 
 humble banner of Christ. 
 
 Thomas Lawson, the eminent priest of Ramside, hearing 
 that George Fox intended to address the inhabitants of that 
 place, freely offered the use of his church, and at a previous 
 meeting informed the people of the fact, and gave them a 
 courteous invitation to attend. Here he declared in the pow- 
 erful words of truth, the doctrine of religion as preached by 
 Christ whilst on earth, and even the priest was so convinced 
 of the error of his ways, that he left off preaching for hire, 
 and in a short time became a follower of the meek and lowly 
 Jesus, and went out among the people, giving what he had 
 received, freely and without price. At this time, Thomas 
 Lawson was the most distinguished botanist that England 
 could boast of, and he continued until death to become more 
 enlightened in this beautiful and useful science. 
 
 After holding meetings, and converting many at Brerecliff 
 and Gleaston, George Fox returned again to Swarthmore, in 
 accordance with his own feelings, and at the request of Marga- 
 ret Fell, who expected some trouble on the arrival of her 
 husband, as some of his friends were going to incense him 
 against the Quakers, and inform him of the conversion of his 
 family to their doctrines. It was a sad message to the judge, 
 and he returned home highly offended ; but George Fox ar- 
 riving in the evening, he spoke of the practice of Christ and 
 the apostles in their day, how apostasy was introduced, and 
 how the modern priests had departed from the true faith. 
 Judge Fell asked him whether he was the man, whose name 
 he had often heard mentioned in parliament, and on being 
 answered in the affirmative, was perfectly satisfied and con- 
 vinced in his own judgment. The Quakers having no 
 place to congregate, he freely gave the use of his hall, until 
 
 ! 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 they built a meeting-house in the year 1690. A few years 
 before his death, his presence was missed from the church ; 
 and although he did not attend the meetings of the Society 
 of Friends, yet he loved them, and was convinced of the sim- 
 plicity and faith of their belief. 
 
 After remaining a few days at the house of Judge Fell, 
 George Fox went to Lancaster and preached in the market- 
 house, but he was dragged out and stoned through the 
 streets. Travelling from place to place, meeting with rude 
 opposition, he returned to Swarthmore, and as several priests 
 were assembled at Judge Fell's residence, he asked them, 
 u Whether any of them ever heard the voice of God or 
 Christ, commanding them to go to any people, and declare 
 the word of the Lord to them/' One said, " I can speak of 
 my experience as much as you." George Fox replied, 
 " That experience was one thing, but to go with a message, 
 and to have the word of the Lord, as the prophets and 
 apostles had, was quite another." Thomas Taylor, an old 
 priest, confessed before Judge Fell, " that he had never 
 heard the voice of God, nor of Christ, but he spake his ex- 
 periences, and the experiences of the Saints in former ages." 
 The old priest was convinced, and accompanied George 
 Fox to Westmoreland, and declared to the people in Cros- 
 land church, how he was converted, and like the good Scribe 
 brought forth new and old things from his treasury, to the 
 people, and showed them how the priests had departed from 
 the faith. 
 
 The priests were greatly offended at the Quakers for 
 preaching without hire, and endeavored to persecute them 
 by every means in their power. Among the Society at this 
 time we find the following list of ministers were zealously 
 preaching the doctrine in churches, market-houses, and at 
 the corners of the streets. Thomas Taylor, John Audland, 
 Francis Howgill, John Cam, Edward Burrough, Richard 
 Hulberthorn, Miles Halhead, and many others, who remain- 
 ed in their native places, frequently teaching the people the 
 way to God. • 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 25 
 
 The priest Lampitt, of Ulverstone, finding that the Quakers 
 held meetings in private houses, said to the people, that they 
 left the temple, and went of Jeroboam's calves-houses. But 
 he was told that the old mass-houses, which were called 
 churches, were more like Jeroboam's calves-house ; though 
 men strove to persuade people that such a building was the 
 house of God ; whereas, Christ was the head of the Church, 
 and not the head of an old house, and that the Apostle, 
 speaking of Christ, said, " Whose house we are." Heb. 
 iii. 6. Some Parliament soldiers observing over a church- 
 door, these words of the Patriarch Jacob, when God had 
 appeared to him in a dream, " This is none other than the 
 house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven," could not en- 
 dure to see the superstition concerning these buildings, and 
 destroyed some of the words, so as to make it read, " This 
 is none other but the House, and this is the gate." 
 
 While George Fox was preaching in the church of Ul- 
 verstone, Justice Sawrey delivered him into the hands of a 
 rude multitude of people, who dragged him out of town, and 
 beat him with staves until he fell apparently dead upon the 
 common ; but strengthened by the Power above, he arose, 
 and stretching out his arms, exclaimed, " Strike again, here 
 are my arms, my head, and my cheeks." A mason imme- 
 diately struck him with his rule on the hand, which so be- 
 numbed his arm, that for a moment he lost control over it, 
 and the people thought he had lost the use of his hand for 
 ever. On recovering his strength, they told him if he would 
 give them some money they would not disturb him. But 
 he showed them their false view of Christianity, and said it 
 was an evidence of the unprofitable ministry of the priests. 
 After returning to Ulverstone, and performing the duty re- 
 quired of him, he went with James Naylor to Walney Island, 
 but on stepping from the boat they were attacked by about 
 forty men, with staves and other weapons, who endeavored 
 to prevent their landing. George Fox was knocked down 
 and stunned, and on recovering his senses, found the wife 
 of one of his followers stoning him, while her- husband. 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 James Lancaster, was striving to prevent his being hurt. 
 The people had persuaded this woman, that George Fox 
 had bewitched her husband, and promised to kill him when 
 he came to the island. But the invisible power of God pre- 
 served him in this case as it had done in many others of a 
 similar character. On arriving at Swarthmore, Justices 
 Sawrey and Thomson issued a warrant for his arrest, but 
 Judge Fell made it void, and sent out warrants for the arrest 
 of the rioters on Walney Island. Some of them left the 
 country, and what is remarkable, James Lancaster's wife re- 
 pented of her evil conduct, and afterward became a member 
 of the Society. 
 
 At a certain meeting George Fox was accused of blasphemy 
 and the priests, to maintain this libel, summoned false wit- 
 nesses to testify to the truth of the assertion before the court. 
 Judge Fell, on his way to attend the sessions, told George 
 Fox, " That such a matter had never been brought before 
 him, and that he did not know what to do in the case." The 
 reply was, " When Paul was brought before the rulers, and 
 the Jews and priests accused him of many false things, he 
 stood still all that while, till they had done ; and when they 
 had done, Felix the Governor beckoned to him to speak for 
 himself, and so thou mayest do by me." About forty priests 
 appeared against him, charging him for having uttered blas- 
 phemy in saying, " That God taught deceit ; and that the 
 Scripture contained nothing but a parcel of lies." To sub- 
 stantiate this charge they brought three young men as wit- 
 nesses, one a priest and the other two sons of priests, who 
 were examined on oath and betrayed their confusion in open 
 court. Several persons declared that they heard one of the 
 witnesses say, " If he had power, he would make Fox deny 
 his profession; and that he would take away his life." The 
 young priest also confessed that he would not have meddled 
 with the trial, but another priest sent for him and requested 
 him to do it. After all the witnesses to sustain the charge of 
 blasphemy were examined, several men of reputation affirm- 
 ed before the court that no such words, as had been sworn 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 27 
 
 against George Fox, were spoken by him at the meeting. 
 Colonel West, one of the judges upon the bench, was so 
 well pleased with the evidence that he gave Fox permission 
 to speak. Rising in the court, he said, " That the Holy 
 Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit of God ; and that 
 all people must first come to the Spirit of God in themselves, 
 by which they might know God and Christ, of whom the 
 Prophets and Apostles learnt, and also know the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. For as the Spirit of God was in them that gave forth 
 the Scriptures, so the same Spirit of God must also be in 
 those that come to know and understand the Scriptures ; by 
 which Spirit they might have fellowship with the Father, 
 and with the Son, and with one another ; and that without 
 that Spirit, they could know neither God, nor Christ, nor the 
 Scriptures, nor have right fellowship with one another." A 
 priest named Jackus rose in a passion and said, " That the 
 Spirit and the letter were inseparable." George Fox an- 
 swered by saying, " Then every one that hath the letter, hath 
 the Spirit; and they might buy the Spirit with the letter of 
 the Scripture." The judges ordered Jackus to prove the 
 position he had assumed, adding, " That according to his 
 reasoning they might carry the Spirit in their pockets as they 
 did the Scriptures." The other priests in attendance en- 
 deavored to disguise the true meaning of his words ; but the 
 judges observing that the testimony of the witnesses was 
 contradictory, discharged the suit. Justice Benson, the Mayor 
 of Lancaster, and Thomas Briggs, who afterwards became 
 a faithful minister of the Gospel, were all convinced during 
 the trial, of the truth as preached by George Fox. 
 
 The number of ministers now in the Society amounted to 
 twenty-five, many of whom met with the same rude opposi- 
 tion and ill-treatment, as was almost daily poured upon their 
 eminent founder. But like Christians and humble followers 
 of Christ, they suffered without resistance ; and nothing could 
 stop the progress of the doctrine they preached to the people 
 in the churches, market-houses and other public places. 
 Many who had once treated them like wolves, afterwards 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 became as gentle as the lambs, and suffered like martyrs to 
 the treatment they themselves had frequently committed. 
 
 The Quakers have often been charged with stubbornness 
 and obstinacy, on account of their patience in surmounting 
 the greatest difficulties, yet there is not a case where they 
 have not meekly resigned to whatever befel them. It appears 
 by what Cyprian, who died a martyr, wrote to Demetrian, 
 that this was the universal practice of the primitive Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 The priests were angry on account of the acquittal of 
 George Fox, and procured the influence of some officers? 
 who laid the case before Judge Windham, at the Lancaster 
 Assizes. He commanded Colonel "West, Clerk of the As- 
 sizes, to issue a warrant for the arrest of George Fox ; but 
 the Colonel speaking boldly in his defence, and avowing he 
 was innocent of the charges brought against him, the Judge 
 became incensed, and ordered him to do it, or leave his seat. 
 The Colonel plainly told him that he would not do it, but 
 would offer up his estate and his body also, if he was not 
 innocent. When George Fox arrived at Lancaster, he heard 
 of the warrant, and presented himself before Judge Fell and 
 Colonel West : " What," exclaimed the Colonel, " are you 
 come into the dragon's mouth ! " After sojourning some 
 days in town, he returned to Swarthmore, and wrote several 
 letters to the magistrates and priests who were foremost in 
 persecution. His letter to Justice Sawrey was very severe, 
 yet truthful. He told him he was the beginner of perse- 
 cution in the north, the first one who raised evil-doers against 
 the innocent and harmless, and that he should not prosper. 
 He called upon him not to take the words of God in his 
 mouth until he reformed, and departed from iniquity. It is 
 remarkable that Justice Sawrey, who was in reality the first 
 persecutor of the north, did not die a natural death, but was 
 drowned. 
 
 At Westmoreland, some foolish persons intended to harm 
 George Fox, but were prevented by Judge Benson and 
 others. He held a large meeting at Grayrigg, where the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 29 
 
 crowd pressed the fence down, and a priest who was present 
 said, " that the devil frightened him, and took away one side 
 of the house." This simple affair was published, and many- 
 were so ignorant as to believe it true. At another meeting, 
 the same priest said, that the Scriptures were the Word of 
 God ; but George Fox replied that they were the words of 
 God, but not Christ, who is the Word. Many of the priest's 
 followers were convinced of the folly of his assertions, and 
 were led to seek God within, and not in the superstitious 
 forms practised in outward temples. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A fierce war was now raging between England and 
 Holland ; and Charles the Second, then in exile, re- 
 1653. quested the Dutch to receive him in their navy, with- 
 out any command, which was courteously refused by 
 the States-General. Oliver Cromwell, in the meantime, was 
 striving for the supreme authority of England, and in April 
 he dissolved the " long Parliament," which had been con- 
 vened nearly thirteen years. On hearing Judge Fell and 
 Justice Benson converse together on the subject of Parlia- 
 ment, strange as it may appear, George Fox told them, 
 " Before that day two weeks, the Parliament should be 
 broken up, and the Speaker plucked out of his chair." At 
 the dissolution of Parliament, the Speaker was unwilling to 
 leave his place, whereon General Harrison took him by the 
 hand, and led him from the chair. 
 
 George Fox hearing that some persons in Cumberland 
 threatened his life, if he visited them again, went there ; but 
 no person venturing to carry the threat into execution, he 
 went to Swarthmore, and the Word he preached convinced 
 Justice Anthony Pearson, who soon after joined the Society, 
 despised as it was at this period. He next visited Bootle, 
 where he found a priest from London preaching about False 
 Prophets, Anti-Christs, and Decei.vers, and attempting to 
 prove these epithets were applicable to the Quakers. George 
 Fox took the same passages of Scripture, and showed how 
 the priests were the false prophets spoken of in Holy Writ, 
 and directed the people to Christ, as the great teacher in 
 spiritual matters. The priest addressed the people in the 
 church -yard, and told them, "That this man hath gotten all 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 31 
 
 the honest men and women in Lancashire to him ; and now 
 he comes here to do the same." George Fox replied, "What 
 wilt thou have left ? And what have the priests left them, but 
 such as themselves ? For if it be the honest that receive 
 the Truth, and are turned to Christ, then it must be the dis- 
 honest that follow thee, and such as thou art." Something 
 was said about tithes ; and the priest was told, " That Christ 
 had ended the tithing-priesthood, and had sent forth his 
 ministers to give freely, as they had received freely." 
 
 At Cockermouth he found James Lancaster preaching to 
 the people under a large tree ; and, going into the church, he 
 spoke for three hours, converting several hundred persons to 
 the doctrine of Truth. He met a woman at Brigham whom 
 he had never seen before, and told her she was living a lewd 
 iife, and her heart was not right before the Lord. She an- 
 swered, that many could tell her of her outward sins, but of 
 her inward, none could." After reasoning with her, she 
 promised reformation, and soon after became a member of 
 the Society. Whilst preaching in the Abbey at Carlisle, a 
 Baptist minister asked him, " What must be damned ?" He 
 answered, " That which spake in him must be damned." 
 Then he examined the doctrine of election and reprobation, 
 and the Baptist minister who had never heard it explained 
 in that manner before was forced to admit the truth of the 
 demonstration. He visited the soldiers at the Castle, and 
 directed them to the measure of the spirit of Christ in them- 
 selves, by which they might be turned from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan to God. Having been threat- 
 ened with rude treatment if he appeared in public places, he 
 showed his willingness to obey God in preference to man, 
 by preaching at the market-house on a market day, declaring 
 that the day of the Lord was coming upon all deceitful ways 
 and doings, and deceitful merchandize ; and that they should 
 put away all cheating, and speak the truth to one another. 
 The first day of the week he went to the church, and after 
 the priest had finished, he arose and said, " He came to speak 
 the Word of Life and salvation from the Lord amongst 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 them." He delivered his message so eloquently that many 
 persons trembled, and imagined the church trembled also. 
 The mob attacked him with stones and staves, but the Gov- 
 ernor sent some soldiers to quell the tumult, who, taking 
 George Fox by the hand, led him to the house of their lieu- 
 tenant, where he had a very quiet meeting. The next day 
 he was submitted to a long examination before the magis- 
 trates, and finally was committed to prison as a blasphemer 
 and heretic. The high-sheriff of the county, "Wilfrey Law- 
 son, was so eager to hang him, that he said he himself 
 would guard him to execution. The prison into which he 
 was cast was a dirty, filthy place, full of thieves, murderers, 
 and lewd women. The under-jailor was a wicked man, and 
 one day finding George Fox at the grate window receiving 
 some food his friends had sent him, he beat the prisoner 
 most unmercifully and brought a fiddler to play, thinking 
 thereby to destroy his meekness and vex him. But while 
 the musician was performing he sang a hymn so loud as 
 to drown the sound of the instrument, and the fiddler left 
 the prison confounded. The wife of Justice Benson refused 
 to eat except with George Fox at the bars of the dungeon 
 window. Afterwards she was imprisoned at York, whilst 
 pregnant, for having spoken her belief before a priest, and at 
 the time of delivery, she was not permitted to leave the 
 prison. James Parnel, a lad about sixteen years old, visited 
 George Fox in the dungeon at Carlisle, and became con- 
 vinced of his teachings ; and notwithstanding his extreme 
 youth the Lord made him an eloquent minister of the 
 gospel; becoming a zealous promoter of religion, he was 
 distinguished for his learning and piety, and suffered many 
 trials and temptations in daily bearing the cross of Christ 
 through life. 
 
 Thomas Briggs was a faithful preacher of repentance, 
 and went through many cities, towns and villages, crying : 
 " Repent, repent, for the mighty, terrible day of the Lord God 
 of Power is appearing, wherein no worker of iniquity shall 
 stand before him, who is of purer eyes than to behold in- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 33 
 
 iquity; for he wiilcth not the death of a sinner; and if ye 
 repent, and turn to him, he will abundantly pardon." Whilst 
 speaking in the church of Warrington in Lancashire, he was 
 violently knocked down, for speaking a few words after the 
 priest had finished his sermon. A minister taking hold of 
 his hair, struck his head against a stone and pulled out a 
 handful, which he threw on the ground, and Briggs, taking 
 it up, said, " Not one hair of my head shall fall without my 
 father's permission." At another time he spoke to the priest 
 of Cheshire, and one of his hearers observing the priest was 
 offended, struck Briggs to the ground ; and upon getting up 
 he was struck again, and so severely that he became weak 
 with the loss of blood. Soon after the man who smote him 
 fell sick, and on his death-bed exclaimed, " Oh ! that I had 
 not smitten the Quaker." Passing through Salisbury, calling 
 the inhabitants to repentance, Briggs was apprehended and 
 the oath proffered under pretence of his being a Jesuit. He 
 said, " He could not swear, because Christ had commanded, 
 Swear not at all ;" for which he was sent to prison and de- 
 tained a month. In the sn-eets of Yarmouth, he proclaimed 
 " The terrible day of the Lord, that all might repent and fear 
 Him, that made heaven and earth, and the sea." The ma- 
 gistrate^ ordered him to be led out of town, which being 
 done, he returned another way and fulfilled his service to his 
 satisfaction. 
 
 At Lynn, his persecutors set a large mastiff dog upon him, 
 but it fawned and allowed him to depart in peace. Thus he 
 went from place to place, passing through many dangers, 
 but still performing his duty joyfully and making many con- 
 verts to his faith. In his pilgrimage he was wonderfully 
 preserved, and after a pious ministry of thirty years, both in 
 England and America, he died in Cheshire at the advanced 
 age of eighty years. 
 
 Miles Halhead was one of the first preachers among the 
 Society of Friends, and the first of that persuasion that was 
 imprisoned at Kendal. Whilst on his way to visit some 
 
 friends, and assist at a meeting to be held in Swarthmore, 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 he met on the road-side the wife of Justice Thomas Pres- 
 ton, and passing her without the ordinary salutation, she- 
 became offended, and sent her servant back to punish him, 
 which order he obeyed. Halhead said, " O thou Jezebel ! 
 Thou proud Jezebel! Canst thou not permit and suffer the 
 servant of the Lord to pass by thee quietly ?" She spit in 
 his face, saying, " I scorn to fall down at thy words." Hal- 
 head replied, " Thou proud Jezebel, thou that hardenest thy 
 heart and brazenest thy face against the Lord, and his ser- 
 vant, the Lord will plead with thee in his own time, and set 
 in order before thee, the things that thou hast done this day 
 to his servant." 
 
 About three months after, Halhead felt a desire to speak 
 with her, went to Houlker-hall, and knocking at the door 
 she came to open it, and he not knowing her, asked, " If 
 she was the woman of the house." She said, " No ; but if 
 you would speak with Mrs. Preston, I will entreat her to 
 come to you." She went in, and returning with another 
 woman, said, " Here is Mrs. Preston." Halhead became 
 aware that the first woman was Mrs. Preston, and said, 
 " Woman, how darest thou lie before the Lord and his ser- 
 vant ? Thou art the woman I came to speak to. Woman, 
 hear what the Lord's servant hath to say unto thee. O, 
 woman ! harden not thy heart against the Lord ; for if thou 
 dost r he will cut thee off in his sore displeasure; therefore 
 take warning in time, and fear the Lord God of heaven 
 and earth, that thou mayst end thy days in peace." Several 
 years after, when George Fox was in prison at Lancaster, 
 she visited him, and among other things told him, " That 
 his tongue should be cut off and he be hanged." She died 
 a stranger to the Lord and his blessed gospel. 
 
 Three years after, Halhead met a person, whilst riding- 
 near Houlker-hall, who stopped him and said, " Friend, I 
 have something to say unto you, which hath lain upon me 
 this long time. I am the man that about three years ago, at 
 the command of my mistress, did beat you very sore, for 
 which I have been very much troubled, more than for any- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 35 
 
 thing that ever I did in all my life. For truly, night and day 
 it hath been often in my heart that I did not well in beating 
 an innocent man, that never did me hurt or harm. I pray 
 you forgive me and desire the Lord to forgive me, that I 
 may be at peace and quiet in my mind." He was freely 
 forgiven, and at the same time some good council was im- 
 parted. He went to Skipton, Bradford, Leeds and Halifax, 
 declaring the gospel, without meeting with much persecution, 
 except at the first named place, where he was severely beaten 
 and left for dead, but in a few hours he recovered from the 
 shock. 
 
 After visiting many other places he returned to his home, 
 at Mountjoy, Underbarrow, in the county of Westmoreland. 
 His wife was exceedingly angry on account of his joining 
 the Friends and going forth to preach the gospel, and would 
 often say, " Would to God I had married a drunkard, then 
 I might have found him at the ale-house ; but now I can't 
 tell where to find my husband." But her child dying, she 
 considered it a token of God's displeasure, and became re- 
 conciled to the society of which her husband was a minister. 
 Intending to preach at Stanley Chapel in Lancashire, he was 
 denied admittance at the door, but waiting until the congre- 
 gation came out for an opportunity to address them, he met 
 with some severe treatment. A Captain William Rawlin- 
 son, and another person, threw him over the churchyard 
 wall, which bruised him so much that he did not regain his 
 strength for many days. Travelling to Furneiss in Lan- 
 cashire, he went to the residence of Captain Adam Sands, 
 where he found many professors and priest Lampitt preach- 
 ing to the people. When he entered Lampitt was silent, and 
 on Captain Sands asking, " What is the matter, are you not 
 well ?" he replied, " I am well, but I shall speak no more as 
 long as this dumb devil is in the house." * " Why," said 
 Sands, u this man is quiet, and saith nothing to you ; I pray 
 you, sir, go on in the name of the Lord, and if he trouble or 
 molest you in my house, I will send him to Lancaster casde." 
 But the priest would not proceed until Captain Sands took 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Halhead by the hand and led him out of the house. After 
 this occurrence Miles Halhead went to Newcastle, and told 
 the officers and priests of that town, " That God's anger was 
 kindled against them, because they had shut the kingdom 
 of Heaven against men, and would not enter themselves, 
 nor suffer them that would." He was imprisoned ; but the 
 mayor and sheriff, thinking it was wrong to cast an innocent 
 man into prison, set him at liberty, and he spoke to the peo- 
 ple at several public places, making many converts to the 
 Lord. 
 
 The new Parliament was now assembled, consisting of 
 a certain number of persons from each county and city in 
 England, Ireland, and Scotland, nominated at Westminster 
 by a council of officers. To this body Cromwell gave an 
 instrument or commission, delivering into their care the su- 
 preme authority of the nation. A statement of the situation 
 of George Fox in the Carlisle dungeon, was laid before this 
 body, and they addressed letters to the magistrates, making 
 inquiry into the case. Aware that he was falsely accused 
 of speaking blasphemous words, he wrote a letter, challeng- 
 ing all who did not believe his doctrine, to contradict it in 
 public, since he was ready to prove any assertion he had 
 ever made. He also wrote to the justices of Carlisle, show- 
 ing the injustice of their actions, and that it was the doctrine 
 of the false church to persecute all who dare oppose their sin- 
 fulness, and mode of worship. Justice Benson and Anthony 
 Pearson having been denied admittance into the dungeon, 
 wrote a letter to the magistrates, priests and people of Car- 
 lisle, describing the wickedness of persecution, and the reward 
 of all persecutors ; that those who imprisoned George Fox 
 were worse than the heathens who cast Paul into prison, 
 because his friends were admitted to see him. However, 
 Pearson went *to the dungeon with the Governor, who, find- 
 ing the miserable condition of the place, required the jailors 
 to give securities for their good behavior, and put the 
 under-jailor, who treated Fox so cruelly, in the prison with 
 him. His persecutors, beginning to feel alarmed on account 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 37 
 
 of Parliament noticing their conduct, gave him his liberty, 
 and he went to Thomas Bewly's, near Coldbeck, in Cum- 
 berland, where he met a Baptist minister, and converted him 
 to his belief in the faith. 
 
 Robert Widders, accompanied by the Baptist minister, 
 went to Coldbeck church, and found a priest named Hutton 
 addressing the people. In attempting to reply to some of 
 his remarks, Widders was dragged into the yard, and hor- 
 ribly mangled by some rude persons, who also took a sword 
 from the Baptist, which weapon he never wore afterwards, 
 and freely gave up his inheritance of the appropriation of 
 tithes. On the same day, Widders went seven miles, to the 
 Ackton church, where he told priest Nichols that he was an 
 enemy to Christ, and that the hand of the Lord was against 
 him. William Briscoe, justice of Crofton, ordered the con- 
 stable to arrest him ; and after submitting to a long examin- 
 ation, the justice issued a warrant to cast him into prison, 
 but feeling that he was doing an innocent man injustice, he 
 recalled the summons, and let Widders go free. 
 
 After visiting many places, and speaking the Word of 
 God in numerous churches, he arrived at Shipton, in York- 
 shire, and in the church reproved priest Webster, for having 
 departed from the doctrine of the inward light, of which he 
 was once convinced. He was arrested, and taken before a 
 justice, who told him, " He had broken the law, by disturbing 
 the minister and the people, and that it was in his power to 
 send him prisoner to York Castle." Widders replied, " Send 
 me to jail thither if thou darest; for I appeal to the witness 
 of God in my conscience." The justice was a very mild 
 man, and taking him by the hand, told him he was free. 
 
 Robert Widders refused to pay tithes, because he believed 
 it was wrong ; and on that account his estate suffered many 
 embarrassments. But this was the portion of many hun- 
 dreds, perhaps thousands, of the members of this Society ; 
 but they suffered it all, believing that they were storing a 
 treasure in a place where the rude hand of persecution 
 could never enter. Many cases, however, are on record, of 
 
38 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the conversion of those who have been cruel persecutors, and 
 afterwards themselves suffered in a similar manner for con- 
 science sake. The ministers in the Society of Friends 
 chiefly visited those churches whose priests they believed to 
 be corrupt and dishonest. Hence Thomas Curtis, who 
 was a captain in Cromwell's army, on becoming a Friend, 
 wrote a letter to Samuel Well, priest of Banbury, in which 
 may be found the following language : " To thy shame, 
 remember, I know thee scandalous. How often hast thou 
 sat evening after evening at cards, and sometimes all nights, 
 playing and sometimes compelling me to play with thee for 
 money ; yet then thou wast called of the world a minister, 
 and now art thou turned persecutor." It was not strange, 
 then, that the Friends called these ministers hirelings, when 
 on the restoration of Charles the Second they preached in 
 favor of Episcopacy and the Liturgy, which they had before 
 denounced as false and idolatrous, and putting on their sur- 
 plice, retained their " livings and benefices." This great 
 change was not effected without leading people to examine 
 into their religion in a serious manner, and many were con- 
 vinced that the ministers were hypocrites, and not fit to be 
 the servants of the Lord. 
 
 At this time, George Fox was travelling through the north 
 of England, holding large meetings, and addressing the peo- 
 ple at every town on his route. Whilst recommending the 
 doctrine of perfection at Derwentwater, in Northumberland, 
 he was contradicted, and to prove his position, he said, 
 " Adam and Eve were perfect before they fell ; and all that 
 God made was perfect ; and that the imperfection came by 
 the devil and the fall ; but that Christ who came to destroy 
 the devil, said, be ye perfect." One of the professors answer- 
 ed, " That Job said, shall mortal man be more pure than his 
 Master? The heavens are not clean in his sight. God 
 charged his angels with folly." The professors were shown 
 " That it was not Job that said so, but one of those that con- 
 tended against him." They replied, " That the outward 
 body was the body of death and sin." George Fox said, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 39 
 
 u That Adam and Eve had each of them an outward body, 
 before the body of death and sin got into them •; and that men 
 would have bodies, when the body of sin and death was put 
 off again, and they were renewed into the image of God 
 again, by Christ Jesus." 
 
 The established Church were afraid that the] hospitality of 
 the Friends would impoverish them, but they were blessed 
 and increased without want. One of the daughters of Judge 
 Fell once told William Sewel, " That her father having been 
 abroad, and coming home with his servants, found the shed 
 so full of the horses of strange guests (for Margaret, his wife, 
 had cleared the stable where they first stood, to make room 
 for her husband's own horses), that he said to his wife, this 
 was the way to be eaten out, and that they themselves should 
 soon be in want of hay." His wife said in a kind manner, 
 " That she did not believe when the year was at an end, 
 they should have the less for that." The proverb was veri- 
 fied, " That charity doth not impoverish ;" for that year they 
 raised a large quantity of hay, and had many tons for sale. 
 
 The truth of this was also experienced by many, for per- 
 sons refused to deal with them on account of usinsr " Thee" 
 and " Thou," when the mass of persons made use of " you." 
 But the Friends became distinguished for their integrity and 
 uprightness, and persons dealt with them in preference to 
 those of their own church. It was an affair of no uncommon 
 nature, to hear persons from the country, when they came to 
 town, ask, " Where dwells a draper, or a tailor, or any other 
 tradesman, that is a Quaker ?" Through the fear of God 
 they were honest in their business, and George Fox wrote, 
 exhorting them to deny themselves, and walk daily beneath 
 the cross of Christ. 
 
 Morgan Floyd, the priest of Wrexham, in Wales, sent two 
 of his congregation to the north of England to inquire what 
 was the true belief of the Quakers. Both of them were 
 convinced of the doctrine of the Society, and one of them, 
 John-ap-John, became a minister of the gospel, but the other 
 afterwards departed from the faith. 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Before the end of thi3 year, Parliament resigned their 
 power into the hands of Cromwell, and his Council of Field 
 Officers declared, " That henceforth the chief rule of the 
 nation should be entrusted to a single person, and that this 
 person should be Oliver Cromwell, Chief General of all the 
 forces of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; that his title 
 should be Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland, and all the dominions belonging 
 thereunto ; who is to have a Council of twenty-one persons 
 to assist him in administering the government." On the 16th 
 of December, the Commissioners of the Great Seal, the Lord 
 Mayor and Aldermen of London, attended Cromwell and 
 his Council at Westminster, where Major-General Lambert 
 presented him with the civic sword, and the first instrument 
 of government was read. It authorized the Protector to call a 
 Parliament every three years, and the first meeting should be 
 on the 13th of September ; that he should not have power to 
 dissolve a parliament before it had been in session five 
 months ; that all bills passed by parliament, and presented to 
 the Protector for his signature, and not returned within 
 twenty days, should become laws ; that his Council should 
 not exceed twenty-one and not be under thirteen ; that after 
 his death the Council should have power to choose another 
 Protector ; that no Protector after him should hold the office 
 of Chief General of the army, and that he alone should have 
 the power to make war or peace. He took the oath, and the 
 Commissioners delivered their seals, and the mayor of Lon- 
 don his sword, which were returned with advice to use them 
 well. He created knights, and was attended with all the pro- 
 digality of royalty, whilst he lived in the same palace from 
 which he and his adherents had driven Charles the First. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 At the beginning of this year, Oliver Cromwell, vested 
 with the supreme authority of the nation, required the 
 1654. oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth to be adminis- 
 tered to all the officers and soldiers of the army. 
 Many persons connected with the army were convinced of 
 the doctrines of Friends, and wished to withdraw from 
 military duty. When the oath was tendered they declared 
 that, in obedience to Christ's command, they were not per- 
 mitted to swear, and the officers disbanded them. John 
 Stubs, a man distinguished for his learning and wisdom, 
 whom George Fox converted when a prisoner at Carlisle, was 
 among them, and after they were disbanded, became a min- 
 ister of the Gospel. George Fox arranging the different 
 meetings in the north, went to Synder-Hill Green, where he 
 addressed an assembly of some thousand persons, convincing 
 many, among whom was Ambrose Rigg, who had been 
 pious from his youth, and now joined the Friends, thereby 
 causing his parents and relations great displeasure at what 
 they were pleased to call his strange conduct. 
 
 The Society of Friends had now sixty ministers in the 
 service of the gospel, and although suffering many abuses 
 and privations, yet they breasted themselves to every storm. 
 Of these, Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough went to 
 London ; John Camra and John Audland to Bristol ; Richard 
 Hubberthorn and George Whitehead, to Norwich ; Thomas 
 Holme3 into Wales, and all the others to different places 
 throughout the kingdom. Well aware they had undertaken 
 a serious and mighty reformation, George Fox wrote an 
 epistle to these ministers, admonishing them to " prudence, 
 and advising them to know the seed of God which bruiseth 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the head of the serpent ; also to know the power of God, 
 and the cross of Christ; to receive wisdom from God by the 
 Light ; and not to be hasty, but exercise patience and pru- 
 dence in all things. 
 
 The first regular meeting in London was held at Eobert 
 Dring's dwelling in Watling street, where Edward Burrough 
 and Antony Pearson addressed the people. It appears, 
 however, that Isabella Buttery circulated some of George 
 Fox's works, and held several meetings in London, previous 
 to the arrival of Burrough. It was a custom during the 
 summer season, for the tradesmen, mechanics and appren- 
 tices, to assemble in the fields during the evening near the 
 outskirts of the city, for the purpose of trying their skill in 
 wrestling, boxing, &c. In passing the place one evening, 
 he observed a crowd of spectators gathered around a strong 
 and dexterous champion, who had been victorious over three 
 others, and was waiting in the ring for a fourth to enter the 
 list ; he stepped into the circle and addressed them on the 
 wickedness generally attendant on such amusements, and 
 pointed out the path from darkness to light, and from the 
 power of Satan to God. Though this was something of a 
 novelty introduced very unexpectedly amid their pleasures, 
 yet it was fraught with much good, and he felt that the work 
 he had done that day was the cause of healing many a 
 broken heart and contrite spirit. A contemporary author gave 
 him the somewhat peculiar cognomen of " a son of thunder ;" 
 and so far as it was applied to his power in speaking faith- 
 fully the word of God, no doubt it was well merited, for it is 
 said " he had a peculiar talent to thunder against sin and 
 iniquity." As an humble minister of the Lord, he w T as blessed 
 with glorious success in healing, with the Oil of Joy, the 
 spirits of the mourner in Zion. The beautiful compliment 
 of Francis Howgill, after his death, was truthfully meritorious, 
 " Shall days, or months, or years wear out thy name, as 
 though thou hadst had no being? Oh, nay. Shall not thy 
 noble and valiant acts and mighty works which thou hast 
 wrought, through the power of Him that separated thee from 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 43 
 
 tlie womb, live in generations to come ? Oh, yes. The 
 children yet unborn shall have thee in their mouths, and thy 
 works shall testify of thee in the generations who yet have 
 no being." 
 
 Oliver Cromwell received a visit from Howgill, also a let- 
 ter relating to his salvation, and concerning some laws passed 
 which tended to crash the Spirit of God at work amongst 
 the people. Although Friends were imprisoned for refusing 
 to swear and not paying tithes to maintain the established 
 Church, yet these laws were made previous to the reign of 
 the Protector ; but many were abrogated under the reign of 
 William and Mary. The first settled meeting in London 
 was held at the house of Sarah Sawyer in Aldersgate street, 
 and the first female preacher that ever spoke at a public 
 meeting in London was Anne Downer, who married a man 
 named Greenwell, and on becoming a widow, united her- 
 self to George Whitehead. 
 
 The Society increasing very rapidly, it was found neces- 
 sary to hold the meeting in different sections of the city ; one 
 was held at a private house in Tower street, and another at 
 Gerard Roberts' in Thomas Apostles. But the houses be- 
 came so crowded that a large hall was rented in the building 
 called the " Bull and Mouth," in Martins' Le Grand, near 
 Aldersgate street. 
 
 The priest and professors of the different sects wrote many 
 books, misrepresenting the doctrines of Friends, and calling 
 their ministers false prophets and blasphemers ; but they 
 were answered and every argument refuted by Edward Bur- 
 rough and Francis Howgill. • 
 
 John Audland and Thomas Airey went to Bristol in the 
 seventh month (July), and spoke with success at several 
 meetings of the Independents and Baptists. After visiting 
 London by way of Plymouth, John Audland returned to 
 Bristol in company with John Camm, where they converted 
 Josiah Cole, George Bishop, Charles Marshall and Barbara 
 Blaugdone. When Howgill and Burrough had completed 
 their arrangement with regard to the London meeting, they 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 went to Bristol, where some tokens of a spirit of persecution 
 were beginning to appear. The magistrates commanded 
 them to leave the city, but they replied, " that they came not 
 in the will of man ; and that when He who moved them to 
 come thither did move them also to depart, they should 
 obey. That if they were guilty of the transgression of any 
 law, they were not unwilling to suffer by it ; that they were 
 free-born Englishmen, being free from the transgression of 
 any law ; and that if by violence they were put out of the 
 city, they were ready to suffer and would not resist." 
 
 John Camm and John Audland, in passing a bridge on 
 their road to Breslenton, where they intended to hold a meet- 
 ing, were attacked by a mob and cruelly beaten back into 
 the city. The officers of the garrison, fearing that the Royal- 
 ists or friends of Charles II. might take the benefit of such 
 an opportunity to raise an insurrection, caused three of the 
 ringleaders of the mob to be arrested ; but the next day five 
 hundred persons assembled at the prison and gained the re- 
 lease of their seditious comrades. Many outrages were 
 committed on the Friends, mostly by apprentices, who were 
 instigated to deeds of violence and tumult by their masters. 
 Riots were the order of the day, and the court of sessions 
 were forced to issue the following order: "That the consta- 
 bles do, once in every fortnight, make diligent search within 
 their several wards, for all strangers and suspicious persons ; 
 and that all people be forewarned not to be present at any 
 tumult, or other unlawful assembly, or gather into companies 
 or multitudes in the streets, on pain of being punished 
 according to law." It plainly appeared that this order was 
 intended to include the meetings of the Society of Friends, 
 and stamp them as "unlawful assemblies." Yet this was 
 contrary to the letter and spirit of the Protector's speech on 
 the ninth month (September), in which occurs the following 
 sentence : 
 
 " Is not liberty of conscience in religion a fundamental ? 
 So long as there is liberty for the supreme magistrate to 
 exercise his conscience in erecting what form of church gov- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 45 
 
 ernment he is satisfied he should set up, why should he not 
 give it to others ? Liberty of conscience is a natural right, 
 and he that would have it ought to give it ; having liberty to 
 settle what he likes for the public. Indeed, that hath been 
 the vanity of our contests. Every sect saith, ' give me lib- 
 erty ;' but give it him, and to his power he will not yield it 
 to anyone else. Where is our ingenuity ? Truly that is a 
 thing that ought to be very reciprocal. The magistrate hath 
 his supremacy, and he may settle religion according to his 
 conscience ; and I may say it to you, and I can say it, all 
 the money in the nation would not have tempted men to 
 fight on such an account as they have engaged, if they had 
 not had hopes of liberty, better than they had from Episco- 
 pacy, or than would have offered them from Scottish Pres- 
 bytery, or an English either, if it had made such steps, or 
 been as sharp and rigid as it threatened when it was first set 
 up. This, I say, is a fundamental : it ought to be so ; it is 
 for us and the generations to come." 
 
 Cromwell would indeed have been a liberal and good 
 man, if he had performed all that was asserted in the above, 
 but he permitted many Friends to be persecuted under his 
 government. In the conclusion of his speech, he said, " That 
 he would sooner be willing to be rolled into his grave, and 
 buried with infamy, than give his consent to the wilful throw- 
 ing away of that government so testified unto in the fundamen- 
 tals of it." He little thought then, that during the reign of 
 Charles II. his corpse would be exhumed and buried with 
 infamy, near a gallows. 
 
 Several Friends were still retained in Bristol prison, among 
 whom was John Worring, charged with having called a 
 priest, Samuel Grimes, a devil. Worring denied this, having 
 merely remarked, " That the priest had said in a meeting, 
 that in all things he did, he sinned ; and if in all things, then 
 as well in his preaching, as in other things ; and he that sin- 
 neth is of the devil. If you will not believe me, believe 
 the Scripture." Elizabeth Marshall was beaten with staves 
 and imprisoned, for telling John Knowls, a priest, " This is 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the word of the Lord to thee : I warn thee to repent and to 
 mind the light of Christ in thy conscience." 
 
 Warrants were issued for the arrest of all the Quaker 
 preachers by the mayor and magistrates of Bristol, one of 
 the magistrates writing his name twice, to make sure it was 
 down. They were branded as " persons of the Franciscan 
 order in Rome," and persecuted as disturbers of the public 
 peace. Thomas Robertson and Josiah Cole were commit- 
 ted to Newgate prison, for attempting to address the people 
 after the priest had finished in Nicholas Church. The mayor 
 and aldermen sent for Jeremy Hignel, and on entering the 
 court, not taking off his hat, the mayor asked, " Whether 
 he knew where he was." He answered, " In the presence 
 of the Lord." " Are you not," said the mayor, " in the 
 presence of the Lord's Justices ? " He replied, " If you be 
 the Lord's Justices, I am." The officers concluded he was 
 a Quaker, and sent him to Newgate, where the keeper re- 
 ceived him without a mittimus, and kept him a close prisoner 
 for nineteen days. Daniel Wastfield received the same 
 treatment from the hands of the mayor, confining him thirty- 
 three days in prison ; and when his child died, he was re- 
 fused permission to see it before the burial. The magis- 
 trates also sent Christopher Birkhead to prison, for standing 
 in Nicholas' Church with his hat on. The priest, Ralph 
 Farmer, asked him, " What he stood there for ? " and he 
 replied " I stand in obedience to the righteous law of God, 
 in my conscience : I have neither offended the law of God, 
 nor the nation. A wonderful and horrible thing is commit- 
 ted in the land." Many others, innocent and harmless, re- 
 ceived like treatment from the magistrates, who were incited 
 to persecution by the arguments and persuasions of the 
 priests. George Bishop and Dennis Hollester, who formerly 
 were members of Parliament, wrote an account of these 
 outrages, and sent them to the magistrates, hoping they 
 would see the evil of persecution ; but this proved vain, and 
 they had an account published, so that Englishmen might 
 see how the officers of Bristol treated the inhabitants. Some 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 47 
 
 author, on reading this account, said, " Was such a tyran- 
 nical iniquity and cruelty ever heard of in this nation ? or 
 would the ministers under King Charles have ventured to 
 do so ? Was not Strafford a mean transgressor in compa- 
 rison to these ? " Though Archbishop Laud was beheaded, 
 it cannot be proved that the Episcopalians were such unre- 
 lenting persecutors as these pretended asserters of liberty of 
 conscience, who having gained power, persecuted more 
 fiercely than those they had driven out. 
 
 We will now turn to Norwich, the field selected for the 
 ministry of Richard Hubberthorn and George Whitehead. 
 The former was imprisoned in the Castle, for addressing the 
 priest in the church-yard, and refusing to take off his hat 
 before the magistrates, where he was kept nearly a year, 
 writing several epistles to his friends, and his companion 
 Whitehead preaching so effectually as to establish a settled 
 meeting in the city before the expiration of the year. A 
 short history of these two extraordinary men would not be 
 uninteresting. Richard Hubberthorn was born in the north 
 of Lancashire ; and descending from respectable parents, he 
 became an officer in the Parliament army. Inclined to piety 
 from his youth, he frequently, whilst on military duty, ex- 
 horted the soldiers to be zealous in godliness ; but on be- 
 coming a member of the Society of Friends, he left the 
 army, and enlisted as an humble soldier under the banner of 
 the Prince of Peace ; not fighting with the outward sword, 
 but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 
 •His sermons were generally mild, and delivered with all that 
 humility which distinguished a follower of the lowly Jesus. 
 George Whitehead was educated for a school teacher, and 
 early convinced of the truth of the Gospel, he trained his 
 scholars in the fear of the Lord. He usually attended the 
 church of Orton, in Westmoreland; but the practice of 
 singing psalms without the spirit, was so repulsive, that he 
 entered into communion with Friends in 1652, when only 
 seventeen years of age, and faithfully preached the living 
 knowledge of God, upholding the Cross of Christ in all 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 trials, and pointing to the straight and narrow way that leads 
 to the Tree of Life. 
 
 Toward the close of the month of June, two women, Eli- 
 zabeth Heavens and Elizabeth Fletcher, went to Oxford, 
 preaching repentance to the people, and exhorting the scho- 
 lars of the college to godliness. They were cruelly and 
 shamefully beaten and maltreated in every manner ; one of 
 them, Elizabeth Fletcher, remained in a painful condition 
 until her death, which took place soon after. They were ar- 
 rested and confined in Bocardo prison, for preaching in the 
 Oxford church after the priest had finished his service. The 
 mayor would not give his consent to the proceeding, saying : 
 " Let those who have committed them, deal with them 
 according to law, if they have transgressed any. I have 
 nothing to say against them, but will provide them with vic- 
 tuals, clothes or money, if they want any." They were exam- 
 ined before Dr. Owen, Chancellor of the University, and 
 charged with having blasphemed the name of God, abusing 
 the Spirit of God, and dishonoring the grace of Christ. 
 Without the consent of the mayor, they were sentenced to 
 be whipped out of the city, which barbarous treatment was 
 inflicted next morning, by an unwilling executioner. 
 
 Barbara Blangdon received the doctrine of Truth through 
 the ministry of John Audland and John Camm, which fact 
 has been previously mentioned. Pious from childhood, she 
 pursued her vocation as a school-teacher, until she became a 
 member of the Society of Friends, when parents refused to 
 send their children to her. She was cast into prison for ex- 
 horting the people to fear God, in the church of Marlborough, 
 and when released she went to Isaac Burges, the magistrate 
 who committed her, and made him admit, " that he knew her 
 doctrine was truth, but he could not take up the cross to 
 walk in that way." She was also imprisoned at Molton, 
 Barnstable, Bedford, and a mastiff dog was let loose to de- 
 stroy her, but it would not harm or touch her. She exhorted 
 the people at the church in Great Torringtown, for which act 
 she was arrested by the constables and taken before the may- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 49 
 
 or, who would not have imprisoned her, but for the instiga- 
 tion of the priests. She was severely beaten by the sheriff", 
 and sent out of town with a company of gipsies, but she re- 
 turned to visit the prisons before she went home to Bristol. 
 Hearing of the imprisonment of Thomas Robinson and Am- 
 brose Rigg at Basingstoke, she carried a letter to them from 
 John Camm, but was denied entrance into the prison until 
 she showed the letter to the mayor, who promised to release 
 them as soon as possible. He faithfully kept his word, and 
 her friends regained their liberty in a few weeks. 
 
 In the first month of this year, Miles Halhead, James Lan- 
 caster, and Miles Bateman, went to Ireland, proclaiming the 
 light of Christ in cities, towns, and villages, in churches and 
 before magistrates, convincing many of their doctrine and the 
 faith of Christ. On their return to England, Halhead and 
 Lancaster went to Scotland, but found Christopher Fell, 
 George Wilson, and John Grave, had been there before them, 
 performing many good acts, and establishing meetings in 
 several places. Nearly a year before any Friends appeared 
 in Scotland, Alexander Hamilton erected a meeting-house, 
 at Drumbourg, and also one at Heads, where the word was 
 preached, and many were convinced. Lancaster and Hal- 
 head visited Dumfries, Edinburgh, Leith, Glasgow, and 
 Stirling, speaking to the people, and exhorting them to turn 
 from their wicked ways. They told the officers, " That the 
 anger of the Lord was kindled against them, because they 
 had not performed their promises, which they made to him 
 in the day of their distresses, when their enemies encom- 
 passed them on every side ; for then the Lord delivered 
 them, and gave them victory": but they had returned Him 
 evil for good, and committed violence against those He sent 
 to declare his word amongst them." 
 
 The first regular meetings of the Society of Friends in 
 
 Scotland were held at Drumbourg and Heads, and not long 
 
 after they were established at Garshore, Edinburgh, and 
 
 Aberdeen. The first Scottish preachers \vere William Os- 
 
 born, Richard Lee. and Alexander Hamilton ; concerning the 
 4 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 latter, is attached a singular circumstance of the judgment of 
 God against the wicked. He formerly belonged to the Inde- 
 pendents, and, on becoming converted to the faith of the 
 Friends, the priest, Thomas Charters, threatened him with 
 excommunication, if he did not return to his old belief. 
 Hamilton warned him to forbear, or he would be visited 
 with the anger of the holy God. Charters persisted, and 
 walking in the churchyard two days before the time appoint- 
 ed, his horse kicked him in the side, and he died in the same 
 hour which he had appointed to perform the service of ex- 
 communication. 
 
 Miles Halhead went to Berwick, in Northumberland, and 
 addressed the mayo* in the following language : " Friend, 
 hear what the servant of the Lord hath to say unto ihee. 
 Give over persecuting the Lord's servants, whom he doth 
 send in love to this town of Berwick, to show you the way 
 that leads to life eternal. I charge thee, O man, touch not 
 the Lord's Anointed, do not his prophets any harm, lest thou 
 procure the anger of the living eternal God against thee." 
 He was sent to prison to await his trial at the Court of Ses- 
 sions. During his trial, one of the priests desired to ask him 
 a question ; to which Miles replied, " The Lord knows thy 
 heart, O man, and at this present, has revealed thy thoughts 
 to his servant; and, therefore, now I know thy heart also, 
 thou high priest, and the question thou wouldst ask me ; 
 and if thou wilt promise me before the court, that if I tell 
 thee the question thou would ask me, thou wilt deal plainly 
 with me, I will not only tell thee thy query, but I will 
 answer it." The priest said he would, and Miles replied : 
 " Thy question is this ; thou wouldst know whether I own 
 Christ that died at Jerusalem, or not ; and according to my 
 promise I will answer it before this court, in the presence of 
 the Lord God of heaven, I own no other Christ than Him 
 that died at Jerusalem, and made a good confession before 
 Pontius Pilate, to be the Light and Way that leads fallen 
 man out of sin and evil, up to God Eternal, blessed for 
 evermore." The priest admitted that was the question, and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 51 
 
 the magistrate commanded the jailor to take him away, but 
 he was soon released. 
 
 When George Fox left Synder- Hill-green, he travelled to 
 Yorkshire, visiting all his friends, and the different meeting- 
 houses, which he found in a flourishing condition. He con- 
 verted the sheriff of Lincoln, who accompanied him to Not- 
 tinghamshire, where several Ranters opposed them at a meet- 
 ing held at the house of Thomas Hammersley. "When he 
 reproved them for swearing, they said, Abraham, Jacob and 
 Joseph swore. George Fox did not deny this, but replied, 
 " Christ (who said, before Abraham was, I am) told his peo- 
 ple to swear not at all. And Christ ends the prophets, as 
 also the old priesthood, and the dispensation of Moses ; and 
 he reigns over the house of Jacob, and of Joseph, and saith, 
 swear not at all. And God, when he bringeth in the first-be- 
 gotten into the world, saith, let all the angels of God worship 
 Him, who saith, swear not at all. And as for the plea that 
 men make for swearing to end their strife, Christ, who says, 
 swear not at all, destroys the Devil and his works, who is the 
 author of strife ; for that is one of his works. And God said, 
 this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye 
 him. So the Son is to be heard, who forbids swearing ; and 
 the Apostle James, who did hear the Son of God, and fol- 
 lowed him, and preached him, forbade also all oaths." Tho- 
 mas Hammersley was summoned on a jury and admitted to 
 serve without an oath, as foreman, and when he brought 
 in the verdict, the judge declared, " That he had been on the 
 bench a number of years, but never heard a more upright 
 verdict than that which the Quaker brought in." 
 
 George Fox visited his relations at his birth-place (Dray- 
 ton), and became engaged in a dispute with Nathaniel Ste- 
 phens and another priest. The priest asked, " Where tithes 
 were forbidden or ended." George Fox showed them in the 
 7th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, that not only tithes, 
 but the priesthood that took tithes, were ended ; and that the 
 law was ended and disannulled, by which the priesthood was 
 made and tithes were commanded to be paid. Knowing 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the priest Stephens' condition, and his manner of preaching, 
 he told him, " That he, like the rest of the priests,, did apply the 
 promises to the first birth, which must die ; whereas the pro- 
 mises were to the seed, not to many seeds, but to one seed, 
 Christ, who was one in male and female ; for all were to be 
 born again, before they could enter into the kingdom of God." 
 The priest said, " He must not judge so." George Fox re- 
 plied, " He that was spiritual, judged all things." The priest 
 confessed, " that this was the full scripture meaning, and al- 
 though Fox had come to the light of the sun, he must not 
 put out my starlight." George Fox said, " That he would 
 not quench the least measure of God in any, much less put 
 out his starlight, if it were true starlight, light from the morn- 
 ing-star ; but that if he had anything from Christ or God, he 
 ought to speak it freely, and not take tithes from the people 
 for preaching ; seeing Christ commanded his ministers to give 
 freely as they had received freely." 
 
 Stephens called him aside, and said, " If he was out of 
 the way, George should pray for him ; and if George was 
 out of the way, he would pray for him ; and that he would 
 give George a form of words to pray by." 
 
 George Fox replied : " It seems thou dost not know whe- 
 ther thou art in the right way, or no ; but I know that I am 
 in the everlasting way, Christ Jesus, which thou art out of. 
 And thou wouldst give me a form of words to pray by, and 
 yet thou denyest the Common-prayer-book to pray by, as 
 well as I. If thou wouldst have me pray for thee by a form 
 of words, is not this to deny the Apostles' doctrine and 
 practice, of praying by the Spirit as it gave words and utter- 
 ance ? " Many were convinced of the truth of this remark, 
 and George Fox's father, who was a follower of the priest, 
 striking his cane upon the ground, said, " Truly I see he 
 that will but stand to the Truth, it will carry him out." 
 Holding a meeting at Whetstone, some of the troopers at- 
 tached to Colonel Hacker's regiment, arrested George Fox, 
 and took him before the officers of the troop. The colonel 
 told him, " He must go home, and keep at home, and not 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 53 
 
 go abroad to meetings." Fox replied, " That he and his 
 friends were innocent people." The colonel sent him to the 
 Protector, in custody of Captain Drury ; and before they 
 started, he went to Hacker's bed-side, praying that the Lord 
 might forgive him, for, according to his judgment, he was a 
 Pilate, and told him when the day of his misery and trial 
 should come upon him, then to remember what he had said 
 to him. On arriving at London, the Protector required that 
 he should promise not to take up a carnal sword or weapon 
 against him, or the government, as it then was ; and that he 
 should write this, and set his hand to it. Fox wrote a letter 
 to Oliver Cromwell, declaring in the presence of God, " That 
 he denied the wearing or drawing of a carnal sword, or any 
 outward weapon, against him or any man ; and that he was 
 sent of God to stand a witness against all violence, and 
 against the work of darkness ; and to turn the people from 
 darkness to light, and to bring them from the occasion of war 
 and fighting to the peaceable Gospel, and from being evil- 
 doers, which the magistrates' swords should be a terror to." 
 Returning to the Mermaid, near Charing-Cross, they went to 
 Whitehall, and Captain Drury took them before the Lord 
 Protector, who asked him : " Why he and his friends quar- 
 relled with the ministers?" Fox replied, " He did not quar- 
 rel with them ; but they quarrelled with him and his friends. 
 But," continued he, " if we own the prophets, Christ and the 
 Apostles, we cannot uphold such teachers, prophets and shep- 
 herds, as the prophets, Christ and the Apostles declared against ; 
 but we must declare against them by the same power and 
 spirit. That the prophets, Christ and his Apostles preached 
 freely, and declared against them that did not declare freely, 
 but preached for filthy lucre, and divined for money, or preach- 
 ed for hire, being covetous and greedy, like the dumb dogs, 
 that could never have enough : and that they who had the 
 same spirit, which Christ, the prophets and the Apostles had, 
 could not but declare against all such now, as they did then. 
 That all Christendom had the scriptures, but they wanted the 
 power and spirit, which they had who gave them forth ; and 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 that was the reason they were not in fellowship with the Son. 
 nor with the Father, nor with the scriptures, nor one with 
 another." Cromwell several times remarked during the deli- 
 very, " It was very good, and it was the truth." As Fox was 
 about to retire, Cromwell took him by the hand, and with 
 tears in his eyes, said, " Come again to my house ; for if thou 
 and I were but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer 
 one to another, and I wish thee no more ill, than I do to my 
 own soul." George Fox replied: " That if he did he wrong- 
 ed his own soul, and bid him hearken to God's voice, that he 
 might stand in his council and obey it : and if he did so, 
 that would keep him from hardness of heart ; but if he did 
 not hear God's voice, his heart would be hardened." The 
 Protector admitted it was true, and granted him liberty 
 to hold meetings among his people at any place within the 
 kingdom. Whilst in the custody of Captain Drury, he was 
 often tauntingly called a Quaker, which name was first given 
 to the Society of Friends by the Independents, but he after- 
 wards came to George Fox, and told him the power of the 
 Lord was upon him for scoffing at the believers of the in- 
 ward light of Christ, and begged his forgiveness for the 
 many injuries he had done their Society. 
 
 George Fox held crowded meetings in every section of 
 London, increasing numbers to the society, and some be- 
 longing to Cromwell's court were also converted. During 
 his sojourn in London he wrote many letters to his friends, 
 and others, against pride, gaudy apparel, and the fashions of 
 the world. He met with little persecution from the magis- 
 trates and priests whilst here, but his friends in other parts 
 of the country, still continued to suffer for the propagation of 
 their belief. Anne, wife of John Audland, was accused of 
 blasphemy in the church of Banbury, and imprisoned in the 
 common jail. 
 
 During this year, Cromwell concluded a 'peace with the 
 United Netherlands, to obviate the trouble existing between 
 England and that country. The Protector, fearful of an in- 
 surrection, stationed a guard at the door of the house of 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 55 
 
 Parliament, refusing admittance to those members who 
 would not sign articles, promising to be faithful to the Lord 
 Protector, and to make no alteration in the government, so 
 long as it was in the hands of a single person, and the Par- 
 liament. This was a violation of the privileges of Parlia- 
 ment, and several members refusing their assent to the writ- 
 ing, were not admitted, and Cromwell dissolved their body 
 after a session of five months. The young king, Charles, 
 who lived in exile, left France and went to Cologne, on the 
 Rhine, where he remained some time. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 George Fox still remained in London, discharging his 
 duty to God, and continually striving to promote the good of 
 his kingdom on earth. To the commissioners who were 
 appointed for the trial of ministers, he wrote a letter, ad- 
 vising them to see whether they were not such whom the 
 prophets, Christ and the Apostles disproved ; and who would 
 admire their persons because of advantage, &c. He continu- 
 ed in the city until 1655, when he went to Bedfordshire, and 
 held a large meeting at the house of John Crook, a justice 
 of the peace, who was discharged from his office on becom- 
 ing a member of the Society. 
 
 William Caton, at the age of fourteen, was placed in 
 Judge Fell's family as a companion for his son. Associat- 
 ing with such good company, he grew up in piety, and in 
 his private devotions would freely pour out his heart before 
 God in prayer. After studying Latin for some time, the 
 judge removed him and his son to a school at Hauxhead, 
 where better advantages were offered than at home. It will 
 be recollected it was in the summer of 1652, that George 
 Fox first came to Swarthmore, and went to Judge Fell's 
 house. Caton became convinced of his doctrine, and at the 
 age of seventeen his heart was full of joy, and he went to 
 places of public worship, and in the streets, warning people 
 to repentance. Judge Fell was unwilling to part with Caton, 
 yet his wife said he was not going to enter the service of any 
 man, but to labor for the Lord in proclaiming his everlasting 
 Gospel. He visited Lancashire, Yorkshire, Norwich, North- 
 amptonshire, and many other places, speaking in churches and 
 public houses, consoling his friends in prison, and converting 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 57 
 
 many persons to the Faith. In the county of Kent, he was 
 joined by John Stubs, and in company they weut to Dover. 
 They addressed the people in the churches, but the mayor 
 commanded the innkeeper, at whose house they lodged, to 
 discharge them or suffer a penalty. Luke Howard, a shoe- 
 maker, who had heard William Caton in London, received 
 them in his house, where they held many meetings, and 
 Hovvard listened with no less satisfaction than Agrippa did 
 to the speech of Apostle Paul, when he said to him, " Almost 
 thou persuadest me to be a Christian." The mayor of the 
 town sent four constables to arrest them, but Howard said 
 the mayor had no lawful authority to have these men dragged 
 out of his house and sent out of town. On leaving Dover, 
 they visited many other towns in Kent, among which they 
 made some stay at Lidd, where they convinced Samuel 
 Fisher, who became a celebrated minister in the service of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Samuel Fisher was educated in the University for the 
 ministry, and unlike most young men in the same study at that 
 period, he was religious, and disliked the many ceremonies 
 and customs practised as part of the worship of God in the 
 schools. When he graduated, he became chaplain in the 
 house of an eminent man, and afterwards procured a living 
 at Lidd, worth about two hundred pounds a year. Thus 
 employed for some time, he became convinced that infant 
 baptism was a human institution, and to preach for wages was 
 unlawful. Before Luke Howard knew the belief of Friends, 
 he was not satisfied that singing the Psalms of David in 
 public worship was the true way to worship God, and his 
 master sent for Samuel Fisher, as a learned minister, to 
 come and discourse with him. Howard told him, " That 
 God was a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and truth, 
 of all those that would worship him acceptably. That it 
 was contrary to truth for a proud man to sing : 
 
 1 He was not puffed in mind, he had no scornful eye, 
 He did not exercise himself in things that were too high,' 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 when he lived in pride, wherein God beheld him afar off. 
 That it was very unbecoming for such an one to sing : 
 
 ' Rivers of tears run down my eyes, 
 
 Because other men keep not Thy laws,' 
 
 when he never knew a true sorrow and repentance for his 
 own sins." This reasoning had some effect on Fisher, 
 and while he remained in the ministry he never gave out those 
 Psalms of David which described his condition alone, for 
 his congregation to sing. Preaching in the church became 
 burdensome to his conscience, and in a short time he deliver- 
 ed to the bishop the commission he had received from him to 
 preach. He rented a farm and turned grazier, by which 
 means he supported his wife and family in ease and con- 
 tentment. He was a teacher of the Baptists when 
 William Caton and John Stubs came to Lidd, but remem- 
 bering the scripture exhortation : " Be not forgetful to enter- 
 tain strangers, for many thereby have entertained angels un- 
 awares," he received them in his house and entertained 
 them during their stay. John Stubs having an opportunity 
 to preach in the Baptist church, declared the word of God 
 so effectually, that when he had finished, Fisher arose and 
 impressed what he had said upon the minds of the people. 
 Another teacher of the Baptists, George Hammond, deliver- 
 ed a sermon reproaching and censuring Friends for their 
 strange belief, to which Fisher replied : " Dear brother, you 
 are very dear and near to me, but the Truth is nearer and 
 dearer ; it is the everlasting Truth and Gospel which they 
 hold forth." In an address of some length lie openly de- 
 fended the Quakers and their faith, believing they were the 
 true and humble disciples of Christ, in the way of salvation. 
 Hammond reviled him, but he submitted to the abuse in a 
 spirit of meekness and forbearance. During his life he 
 wrote a work, called " Rusticus ad Academicos," in which 
 he encountered the priests with their own weapons ; he was 
 not only well educated, but gifted with talents of a superior 
 order, and deeply read in the classics. He sometimes allow- 
 ed himself the freedom of the prophet Elijah against the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 59 
 
 prophets of Baal, in his arguments against the ceremonies of 
 the church of his adversaries. Among his writings we also 
 find a well composed epistle to the Jews, written in Hebrew, 
 a language in which he was thoroughly instructed whilst in 
 the University. 
 
 William Caton and John Stubs left Lidd and went to 
 Maidstone, where they were both arrested, placed in stocks 
 and severely beaten, then imprisoned in the house of correc- 
 tion. Here they were nearly starved, for refusing to work, 
 which demand they believed to be unjust, having committed 
 no violation of the existing laws. A report of this cruelty 
 of the officers excited sympathy in their behalf, and aroused 
 many persons, who demanded their release, which was 
 granted by the magistrate. They were led out of town sepa- 
 rately, but rejoined each other in London, and felt it was the 
 will of God that they should return again to Maidstone, 
 which they did, and declared their message without being 
 molested. 
 
 It was in the summer of this year that Thomas Caton 
 went to Calais, France, and, a Scottish Lord acting as in- 
 terpreter, held several meetings there ; but returned soon after 
 for the purpose of accompanying John Stubs to Holland. 
 They entered a ship at Yarmouth, bound to Flushing in 
 Zealand, where they safely arrived ; and for attempting to 
 address the people, they were forced to leave the church. 
 The same day they went to Middleburgh, and, after the 
 priest had finished his sermon, Caton spoke to the people ; 
 but they would not listen to his words and made him leave 
 their presence. At Rotterdam, in Holland, they held a 
 meeting in an English merchant's house, but their words 
 were not truly interpreted ; and, meeting with no success, 
 they returned again to England. 
 
 About the beginning of December they went in company 
 to Scotland, and Caton addressed the congregation of a 
 church in Berwick on the Tweed, for which he was taken 
 before a magistrate and turned out of town. They travelled 
 to Edinburgh, and finding some disorder in the meeting 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 through the unfaithfulness of some of its members, they 
 made satisfactory arrangements and addressed them with 
 ability and truth. The meeting was held at the house of 
 William Osborn, who had been a lieutenant-colonel in the 
 army, but on convincement, became a zealous minister in 
 the Society at Edinburgh. While there, William Caton 
 went to the church, and after the priest finished his ser- 
 vice, spoke to the people, who forced him out, but a guard 
 of soldiers conducted him back again with drawn swords. 
 John Stubs returned to England, and Caton went to Glas- 
 gow, where he addressed a large assembly in the yard of the 
 Cathedral, the English soldiers guarding him from the abuse 
 of numerous ill-disposed persons who wished to do him 
 personal violence. 
 
 When George Fox left Bedfordshire, he went through 
 
 London to Kent, and in unison with Samuel Fisher, 
 1655. held a large meeting at Romney; from thence he 
 
 went to Reading and addressed a multitude, among 
 whom was George Bishop, of Bristol, a captain in the army, 
 who was that day convinced, and in time became an eminent 
 preacher. 
 
 It will be here necessary to notice the history and cruel 
 suffering of James Parnel. He was born at Retford in 
 Nottinghamshire, and educated in the best schools the 
 country afforded. Before he was sixteen years old he was 
 convinced by George Fox, for which he was rejected and 
 despised by his relations. He was imprisoned at Cambridge 
 for his zealous testimony, and afterwards, like a criminal, ex- 
 pelled from the city ; but he returned and disputed with the 
 students of the university, who treated him rudely, and 
 taunted him with the name of Quaker. At the beginning 
 of this year, when only eighteen years old, he preached at 
 Felsted, Stebben, Witham, Cogshal, Halsted and many 
 other places. In the summer he entered Colchester ; and 
 after the priest had finished his sermon on the first day of 
 the week, he spoke to the congregation and disputed with 
 him in the French school on the same day, where he con- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Gl 
 
 vinced Stephen Crisp who will be mentioned hereafter. While- 
 preaching at Nicholas' church, some one struck him with 
 a cane, saying, " There, take that for Christ's sake ;" he meekly 
 replied, " Friend; I do receive it for Jesus Christ's sake." 
 He remained a few days in Colchester, and then journeyed 
 to Coggeshall, where a fast was proclaimed to be held on the 
 12th of the seventh month [July], to pray for the errors of the 
 Quakers. Parnel went to the Independent church, and the 
 priest, Sammes, having called 'the Quakers disbelievers and 
 deceivers, he felt it his duty to reply, and rising from his seat, 
 he said, " This is the order of the true church, that all may 
 speak one by one ; and if anything be revealed to him that 
 stands by, let the first hold his peace." He addressed the 
 assembly in behalf of those called Quakers, and the priest 
 having said their church was built upon a sandy foundation, 
 he proved it otherwise, and said the priest was a false pro- 
 phet. Some persons remarked, " He believed in no church;" 
 but he replied, " I believe in the church in God." A priest, 
 named Willis, here said, " He spoke nothing but nonsense 
 when he talked about the church in God." Parnel took out 
 his Bible, and read, 1st Thess. i. 1, where the Apostle writes 
 to the Church, which is in God the Father. The priest was 
 astonished, and Parnel told him, he blasphemed, in saying, 
 the church in God was nonsense. Priest Stellum accused 
 Parnel with uttering lies and slanders, and before permitting 
 him to reply, arose in the pulpit and began to pray. The 
 magistrate ordered Parnel to take off his hat, to which he 
 told them to order the priest to put off his cap, and before 
 he would be subject to their wills, he would pass out of the 
 meeting-place, which he did. Justice Dionysius Wakering 
 arrested him in the name of the Lord Protector, and he ap- 
 peared before four justices, and six or seven priests, who 
 committed him to the common jail at Colchester, and would 
 not permit his friends to visit him. When the Court of Ses- 
 sions sat at Chelmsford, a distance of 18 miles, he was chain- 
 ed with felons and murderers, and led thither. Judge Hills 
 was on the bench, and when he appeared before the court, the 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 jailor took offhis hat and cast it on the floor : the clerk read the 
 indictment, and asked him if he was guilty. Parnel replied, 
 " He was not guilty." A jury of twelve men were sum- 
 moned, whose foreman was a drunkard. Priest Willis swore 
 against him, as also did two justices. The accusations were : 
 <; That in a riotous manner he did enter into the parish 
 church at Great Coggeshall ; that he there did stand up, and 
 told the minister he blasphemed and spoke falsely, using 
 many other reproachful words against him ; and that he 
 could not give a good account where he was last settled, or 
 of his life and conversation, appearing to be an idle person : 
 he was also accused with contempt of the magistracy and of 
 the ministry." To these he replied : " That he noways in a 
 riotous manner entered the church, but came thither quietly 
 and alone : for being followed by several boys that would 
 have come in well after him, he had them to go in before, 
 rather than go in disorderly, whereby to occasion any dis- 
 turbance. That he had accused priest Willis of blasphemy 
 when he said the church in God was nonsense; but did not 
 own himself to be a vagabond and idle person. And he 
 did not think it indecent to call an unjust judge, unrighteous ; 
 a persecutor, persecutor ; and a deceiver, deceiver. When 
 the judge charged the jury, he told them, that if they did not 
 find him guilty, the sin would lie upon their heads: thus 
 condemning the prisoner before the jury had time to consi- 
 der the case. After forcing a verdict on the jury, the judge 
 fined him forty pounds for contempt of the magistrates and 
 ministry. Parnel was carried back to the prison, an old ruin- 
 ous castle, built, it is said, in the time of the ancient Ro- 
 mans, where he was to be confined until the fine was paid. 
 The jailor and his wife treated him "with great cruelty; 
 when his friends brought him victuals, she persuaded the 
 other prisoners to take them from him, and would not let 
 him have a bed like the rest, but forced him to sleep upon the 
 stones. Afterwards he was placed in a cell, the entrance of 
 which was twelve feet from the ground ; the ladder was six 
 feet too short, and he had to climb up and down with a rope 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 63 
 
 on the broken wall. Continuing in this moist place, his 
 limbs grew benumbed, and one day, in climbing up to the 
 entrance of his cell, he missed a step and fell, bruising his 
 body severely, and fracturing his head. They put him in a 
 cell below, underneath the other, where he'became excessive- 
 ly weak for want of fresh air. William Talcot and Edward 
 Grant offered their bond of forty pounds to the justice, Henry 
 Barrington, and Thomas Shortland to be hostage for his safe 
 return, if they would grant him leave to go to William Tal- 
 cot's house until he recovered. This was denied, and one 
 day he left his cell to walk in the narrow yard, which so in- 
 censed the jailor, that he locked the door, keeping him in the 
 yard one of the coldest winter nights. Such treatment ruined 
 his constitution, and after an imprisonment of eleven months, 
 he fell sick and died. To Thomas Shortland and Aun Langley , 
 who were with him at the hour of death, he said, " Here I die, 
 innocently," and turning to Shortland, he remarked, " This 
 death I must die, Thomas ; I have seen great things ; don't 
 hold me, but let me go." Then he said again, " Will you 
 hold me ?" To which Ann answered, " No, dear heart, we 
 will not hold thee." He had often said, " that one hour's 
 sleep would cure him of all," and the last words he was 
 heard to utter were, " Now I go," and falling into a gentle 
 sleep he departed from all his miseries. So great was the 
 malice of his persecutors, that in order to cover their guilt 
 and shame, they spread a report among the people, that his 
 death was caused by fasting for long intervals, and then eat- 
 ing immoderately. 
 
 It was in the year 1655, that Edward Burrough and Fran- 
 cis Howgill went to Ireland, and remained more than six 
 months, three of which were spent in Dublin, where they 
 met with generous treatment from the people, and omitted 
 no opportunity to declare their doctrine. They went to 
 Cork, but Henry Cromwell, son of the Protector, who was 
 at that time Lord Deputy of Ireland, ordered them to be 
 brought back to Dublin, and in a short time banished them 
 from the island. During their journey they convinced many, 
 
64 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 among whom was William Ames, a Baptist teacher, and 
 also a military officer, but on joining the Society of Friends 
 he became an eminent minister. 
 
 The same day that Burrongh and Howgill left Ireland, 
 Barbara Blaugdon arrived there in a vessel bound to Cork, 
 but driven by a storm into the harbor of Dublin. The 
 seamen said the reason they were overtaken by a storm in 
 their passage across the Channel, was because they had a 
 Quaker in the ship, and they conspired to cast her overboard. 
 On becoming aware of this plot, she went to the captain and 
 told him, if he permitted such an action, her blood would be 
 required at his hands. During the height of the tempest she 
 went on deck, exhorting the seamen to look to God for sup- 
 port, and prayed that he might avert the danger. The priesl 
 who was on board, was so alarmed, he could say nothing, 
 and the ship's crew said, " They were more beholden to her 
 than to their priest, because she prayed for them ; and he for 
 fear could not open his mouth to speak." At length they ar- 
 rived safe in Dublin, and the captain acknowledged he was 
 never in such a storm before without receiving some damage. 
 Hearing that two Friends were banished the day before, she 
 went to the house of the Lord Deputy, and desired to see 
 him. At first she was not permitted to enter, but the Deputy, 
 learning it was a woman who desired to see him, granted 
 the request She entered the chamber where he was seated, 
 and told him, " To beware that he was not found fighting 
 against God, in opposing the truth and persecuting the inno- 
 cent ; but, like the wise Gamaliel, to let them alone ; for if 
 it was of God, it would stand ; but if of man, it would fall. 
 Further, that the enmity did not lie so much in himself, but 
 he was stirred up to it by evil designing persons ; and that 
 God's people were as dear to Him now, as ever ; and they 
 that touched them, touched the apple of his eye. In the 
 meanwhile, in his name, and by his power, there was much 
 hurt done the people of God, all over the nation, and it would 
 at last lie heavy upon him. Moreover, that the teachers of 
 the people did cause them to err, and that he knew the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 priest's condition." Here the deputy turned to the priest in 
 the room, and said, " That's for you, Mr. Harrison ; what 
 have you to say ?" He replied, " It was all very true, and 
 very good, and he had nothing to say against it, if she spoke 
 as she meant." Then she told the priest, " That the Spirit 
 of God was true, and did speak as it meant, and meant as it 
 .spoke ; but that men of corrupt minds did pervert the Scrip- 
 tures, by putting their own imaginations and conceivings 
 upon it, and so did deceive the people. But the holy men 
 of God wrote, and gave forth the Scriptures, as they were in- 
 spired of the Holy Ghost; and that they were of no private 
 interpretation, and could not be understood but by the same 
 Spirit that gave them forth." After having delivered this 
 message she went to her lodging, the house of Captain Rich, 
 who, coming from the castle, said, " The Deputy was so sad 
 and melancholy, after she had been with him, that he could 
 not go to bowls, or any other pastime." She left Dublin and 
 went to Cork, to see some relations and friends, who resided 
 in that city. In every place she addressed the people, she 
 was imprisoned, and once while speaking in the market- 
 house, a butcher raised his cleaver to strike her, but his arm 
 was caught by a woman behind him, and instantly some sol- 
 diers came and rescued her from danger. From Cork, she 
 went to Bristol, England, but before long, she returned again 
 to Ireland. The ship foundered near the Dungarian shore, 
 two passengers only were lost — the rest, with the captain and 
 crew, were saved by a small boat. When she arrived at 
 Dublin, she went before the court of justice, exhorting the 
 judges to righteousness ; for which act she was cast into a 
 filthy prison. When they arraigned her before the bar of 
 the court for trial, the clerk asking her, " If she was guilty or 
 not guilty," she replied, " That there was no guilt upon any 
 one's conscience for what was done in obedience to the Lord 
 God." Not answering in the form of words required before 
 the court, she was ordered back to prison, where she suffered 
 many privations and hardships. In this prison was an inn- 
 keeper and his family, accused of murder, by the brother of 
 5 
 
\ 
 
 QQ HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the person who had been murdered. The accuser could not 
 enjoy the benefit of an estate unless he proved the murdered 
 brother was dead ; and he brought a man to prison as a wit- 
 ness, who said, he would prove that the man was killed at 
 such an inn, and buried under a wall, and he accused the 
 innkeeper, his wife, their man and maid, and a smith, of being 
 guilty of the murder. Barbara hearing this, went to the wit- 
 ness, and asked him, " How he could conceal this murder so 
 long, when he was, according to law, as guilty of it as any 
 of them, if what he said were true ?" At this question, he 
 trembled and confessed, " That he had never before seen the 
 accused people with his eyes, nor ever was in the place in 
 his life, nor knew anything of it, but he was drawn in by the 
 man who was to have the land, and was persuaded to witness 
 the fact." Other prisoners heard the confession, and Barbara 
 sent to the Deputy, desiring a priest to come and hear this 
 acknowledgment of the innocence of the prisoners. The 
 priest came, and the man confessed the same to him, and also 
 before the judge of the court; but he afterwards denied what 
 he had spoken, and the jailor would not permit Barbara to 
 see him. She wrote a letter to the prisoners, and also to 
 Judge Pepes, telling him, " The day of his death drew nigh, 
 wherein he must give an account of his actions ; and there- 
 fore he ought to take heed he did not condemn innocent 
 people, having but one witness, in whose mouth so many 
 lies were found, the others all saying they were innocent.'' 
 They were, however, all condemned at their trial, and after- 
 wards suffered death. 
 
 Barbara Blaugdon was soon released from prison, through 
 the intercession of her friends, Sir William King, Colonel 
 Fare and Lady Brown, who went before the judge, and 
 after some trouble, obtained his consent to her discharge from 
 prison. On regaining her liberty, she went to the church, 
 where she found the judge ; and she spoke to him, and ad- 
 dressed the people in relation to the injustice of his actions. 
 That night he died, which caused much alarm ; and the 
 people admitted that to him Barbara had been a true pro- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 67 
 
 phetess. She was arrested in Limerick and imprisoned, but 
 was soon released, and returned again to England. On her 
 passage the ship was attacked by a privateer and the passen- 
 gers were robbed of all their money and goods. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, Miles Halhead went to Lon- 
 don, and from thence to the city of Exeter in Devonshire, 
 where he was imprisoned under the following circum- 
 stances. Thomas Salthouse, with whom he travelled, heard 
 that George Brooks, a private belonging to the Nightingale 
 frigate, had remarked after hearing M. Halhead and T. 
 Salthouse preach at Plymouth, " That it was the eternal 
 truth which they had spoken ;" and expressed himself in favor 
 of what they had uttered. T. Sail house told Brooks that he 
 had spoken many good words and fair speeches, but did he 
 live the life he preached ? He entered not by the door, but 
 tried to get to heaven like a thief and a robber. That his 
 praises were no better than those of the damsel, possessed 
 with a spirit of divination, which she spoke concerning Paul 
 and Silas, when she said, " These men are the servants of 
 the most High God, which show unto us the way of salva- 
 tion." Some dispute arose about the Trinity ; hence Miles 
 Halhead and Thomas Salthouse were accused of denying 
 the Holy Three, that are in One. The court were at a loss 
 how to decide the question ; and in order to ensnare, bade 
 them swear a solemn oath of adjuration of the Pope. To 
 this they answered : " In the presence of the Eternal God, 
 and before all these people, we do deny with as much detes- 
 tation as any of you doth, the Pope and his supremacy, and 
 the purgatory, and all that is in the form of the oath men- 
 tioned, we declare freely against ; and we do not refuse to 
 swear because of any guilt that is upon us, but in obedience 
 to the commands of Christ, who saith, ' Swear not at all ;' 
 and we will not come under the condemnation of an oath, 
 for the liberty of the outward man." They were sent back to 
 prison, and the next day were again brought before the bar and 
 asked, " Will you confess that you wronged George Brooks, 
 in calling him a thief, and be sorry for it, and make 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 him satisfaction." Miles Halhead answered, " One of us did 
 not speak one word to him, and therefore I deny to make 
 him satisfaction, or be sorry for it; and what was spoken 
 was no such thing ; therefore we will not lie for our liberty, 
 nor confess we are sorry, for that which we never spoke." 
 The following exUact from the records of the court tells the 
 rest of the story. 
 
 " July 10, 1655. Thomas Salthouse and Miles Halhead, 
 for provoking words against G. Brooks, Clerk, who refused 
 to be tried by the country, fined £5 a piece, committed to 
 Bridewell till payment, and finding sureties for their good 
 behavior." 
 
 That they refused to be fried by the country is not true ; 
 and as to finding sureties, they were offered when they were 
 taken prisoners, but would not be accepted ; yet the mayor, 
 John Page, had the boldness to assert they refused to give 
 security. This conduct of the mayor placed him in an un- 
 enviable position, and he wrote a letter to General Desbo- 
 rough, apologizing for the severity with which he had treated 
 the prisoners. General Desborough was not satisfied with 
 this letter, and let some of his friends have copies of it, by 
 which means Miles Halhead and Thomas Salthouss saw it, 
 and wrote him an answer, contradicting the assertions he 
 had made, and proving they had acted lawfully and conducted 
 themselves like good citizens. As they were fined for using 
 provoking words against George Brooks, it will be well 
 enough to understand who he was. According to the testi- 
 mony of Robert Vessay, John Jeffcry, captain of the Nant- 
 wich frigate, and Richard Potter, captain of the Constant 
 Warwick frigate, he was a drunkard, and always led a disso- 
 lute life. From such evidences as these it appears, that it 
 was not without reason Halhead treated him a little roughly. 
 He continued a prisoner many months before he was re- 
 leased. 
 
 On the 30th of the seventh month [July], George White- 
 head, Richard Clayton and John Harwood, went to Bures 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 69 
 
 in Suffolk. Richard Clayton wrote the following queries, 
 and put them on the church door : 
 
 " Whether by setting up such ministers as seek for their 
 gain from their quarters, such as the Prophets disapprove, 
 Isaiahlvi.il; such as Prophet Jeremiah disapproves Jer. 
 v.; and of whom mention is made also Ezek. xxxiv. and 
 Mic. iii. ; such as are called of men, masters, loving the chief 
 places in the assemblies ; such as Christ disapproved? 
 Matthew xxiii. ; such as the Apostle Peter disapproved, 
 2 Peter 11, and which the Apostle Paul disapproves also, 
 Phil. iii. Or when such were set up that would not suffer 
 another to speak that stands by, when anything is revealed, 
 but send him to prison ; whether this was not the setting up 
 a persecuting spirit, limiting the Spirit of God, and despising 
 prophecies, not daring to try all things ? whether it was expe- 
 dient to give to scoffers, scorners, drunkards, swearers and 
 persecutors, David's condition to sing ? — and if such were 
 set up that took tithes, though the Apostle said the priest- 
 hood was changed, and the law also, Heb. vii. ; whether by 
 the setting up of such, they did not set up such as did not 
 labor in the Lord's vineyard ?" 
 
 A large number of people collecting around the door to 
 read it, George Whitehead exhorted them to turn to the 
 Lord from the vanities and wickedness they lived in. They 
 were arrested, and taken before Halbert Pelham, a justice of 
 the peace ; but he not being able to prove they had trans- 
 gressed any law, sent them to Justice Thomas Walgrave, 
 at Smallbridge, in Suffolk. Pelham and Walgrave held a 
 consultation, and concluded to have Clayton whipped, and 
 the other two imprisoned. 
 
 It was about this time William Dewsbury and several 
 other Friends were put into prison at Northampton. Tho- 
 mas Andrews, a priest, met Dewsbury in the street, and told 
 him to " give over deceiving the people, lest the plagues of 
 God fall on him." Dewsbury replied, "Dost thou say I 
 deceive the people? Make it manifest wherein I deceive 
 them." 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " Thou sayest there is no original sin," said the priest. 
 
 " Didst thou hear me say so ? " returned Dewsbury. The 
 priest was unwilling to answer this question, and went 
 away; but Dewsbury went to the church, and after Andrews 
 had finished his sermon, called on him to prove before the 
 people what he accused him of, " That he had said there 
 was no original sin." But the priest left the church without 
 replying to the question. 
 
 Dewsbury was committed to prison, where he remained 
 six months before they brought him to trial at Northampton. 
 " What is thy name ? " asked the judge. " It is known in 
 the Light, and none can know it but he who hath it ; but 
 the name the world knows me by, is William Dewsbury." 
 
 " What countryman art thou ?" queried the judge. 
 
 « Of the land of Canaan." 
 
 " That's far off," replied the judge. 
 
 " Nay," said Dewsbury, " for all that dwell in God are in 
 the Holy City, New Jerusalem, which comes down from 
 Heaven, where the soul is in rest, and enjoys the love of 
 God in Jesus Christ, in whom the union is with the Father 
 of Light." 
 
 " That is true," returned the judge, " but are you ashamed 
 of your country ? Is it a disparagement to be born in 
 England?" 
 
 " Nay ; I am free to declare that my natural birth was in 
 Yorkshire, nine miles from York," said Dewsbury. 
 
 " You pretend to be extraordinary men, and have an ex- 
 traordinary knowledge of God." 
 
 " We witness the work of regeneration to be an extraor- 
 dinary work, wrought in us by the Spirit of God." 
 
 " But," said the judge, ' k the Apostles wrought with their 
 hands in their callings." 
 
 They had," answered Dewsbury, "callings in the world: 
 some were fishermen ; Paul was a tentmaker ; but when 
 they were called to the ministry of Christ, they left their 
 calling, to follow Christ whither he led them by his Spirit to 
 preach the Word : and I had a calling in the world as they 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 71 
 
 had, and in it did abide, until the Father revealed his Son 
 to me, and called me from my vocation, to preach the eter- 
 nal Word he had made known to me in the great work of 
 regeneration." 
 
 A long conversation took place in regard to religion, and 
 the accusations with which he was charged by those who 
 had imprisoned him. After Robert Guy, the clerk, finished 
 reading the indictment, the judge said, " There is an old 
 law, if any one went from their dwellings to travel in the 
 country without a certificate from some justice, they were 
 to be taken up as wandering persons." 
 
 Dewsbury replied, " If there be any such law, read it to 
 us ; and if there be such a law, thou knowest in thy con- 
 science it is contrary to the Scripture ; for the Apostles and 
 ministers of Christ went to and fro in the country, preaching 
 the Word of eternal life ; and there were added to the Church 
 daily such as should be saved ; and the number of saints 
 and brethren was daily increased. The law that is in force 
 in this nation doth allow all that profess faith in Jesus Christ 
 to have free liberty to walk in the Faith which is according 
 to Scripture." 
 
 The judge then spoke to the prisoners very moderately, 
 but refused to set them at liberty ; and they were taken back 
 to prison, and remained within its walls twenty-nine weeks. 
 One of the prisoners was John Hutchin, and the only charge 
 against him, was standing peaceably in the church at Wel- 
 lingborough. Another was Michael Pattison, who was ar- 
 rested because he said to priest Andrews, after his sermon, 
 " Friend, can'st thou witness this to be the Word of the 
 Lord, that thou hast spoken here before the people ? " The 
 others were deprived of their liberty for actions of* a similar 
 character; and hundreds were treated in alike manner for 
 refusing to pay tithes to the priests. In the year 1652, Tho- 
 mas Aldam was imprisoned at York for two years and a 
 half, for refusing to pay tithes to Thomas Rookby, the 
 established minister of Warnsworth, and besides had thirteen 
 beeves and two horses-.taken from him. 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 We will now turn to George Fox, whom we left at Lon- 
 don, where he held several large meetings previous to going 
 to Colchester, and whilst there visited, after some difficulty, 
 James Parnel, in prison. On his way to Lynn, in company 
 with R. Hubberthorn, they were arrested by the officers and 
 taken before a justice of the peace about five miles distant. 
 A house was broken open and robbed the night before, and 
 the constables believed they were the burglars. When they 
 appeared before the justice, he became angry because they 
 refused to take off their hats in his presence ; but George 
 Fox told him, " he had been before the Lord Protector, and 
 he was not offended at his hat; why then should he be 
 offended, who was but one of his servants ?" After their 
 examination, the justice said, " he believed they were not the 
 men who broke open the house, but he was sorry that he had 
 no more against them." George Fox replied, " He ought 
 not to be sorry for not having done evil against them, but 
 rather to be glad." 
 
 On regaining their liberty they went to Lynn and many 
 other places, holding large meetings. George Fox spoke 
 with such power, that 
 
 " Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, 
 And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray." 
 
 In this year the oath of adjuration against King Charles 
 was introduced, and George Fox wrote to the Protector 
 informing him that many of his Friends, who could not 
 swear for conscience'-sake, suffered much on this account. 
 Edward Burrough also wrote to the Protector, telling him, 
 " That the Lord's controversy was against him, because he 
 had notbifen faithful in the Lord's work, but that he had taken 
 his rest and ease upon a lofty mountain of pride and vain-glory, 
 having set up himself to be worshipped, and exalting his own 
 horn, without giving glory and honor to God. Moreover, 
 that he had not performed his vows made to the Lord in the 
 day of his distress ; and that now he suffered grievous op- 
 pression, cruelty and tyranny, to be acted in his name, by 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 73 
 
 unjust imprisonments, and persecution of the Lord's people. 
 That therefore the Lord would bring his judgments upon 
 him, except he did repent." But Cromwell was a great 
 ' favorite with the Episcopalians, and although he did not 
 become angry at the Friends for writing him rather bold let- 
 ters, yet he allowed them to be persecuted. 
 
 There were many persons who would not admit the right 
 of Cromwell to force members of Parliament to sign articles 
 opposed to any alteration in the government, before permit- 
 ting them to take their seats in that body. Among these 
 were Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburn, who had more than 
 once suffered imprisonment for asserting the liberty of the 
 people, against the arbitrary power exercised by the govern- 
 ment. For writing several books in the year 1649, he was 
 confined in the Tower, and after seven months' imprison- 
 ment was impeached for high treason. In his trial he pleaded 
 his cause so effectually that the jury acquitted him ; but once 
 he was publicly whipped for a crime of which it was alleged 
 he was guilty. When Cromwell assumed the supreme power 
 of the government, Lilburn charged him with falseness and 
 tyranny, and for this he was taken into custody and 
 charged with high treason. At the bar of the court he de- 
 fended his own cause with great success, and boldly answer- 
 ed all the charges preferred against him by the Protector. He 
 said : " That what he had done was not only no high trea- 
 son, but the government was such that no high treason could 
 be committed against it ; and that, therefore, all true English- 
 men were obliged to oppose the tyranny that was exercised. 
 That having been once in favor with Cromwell, he might 
 have attained to great preferment, if he would have been 
 quiet ; but that he, having thought this unlawful, it was now 
 resolved to have his life taken away, which he did not fear, 
 because he asserted a good cause." Notwithstanding the 
 endeavors of the judges to have him found guilty, the juiy 
 returned to the court with a verdict of Not Guilty. Accord- 
 ing to law he should have been set free, but Cromwell kept 
 him prisoner, and had him carried from prison to prison, until 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 at length he was confined in the castle of Dover. Here 
 Luke Howard, who has been mentioned before, visited him, 
 and convinced him of the doctrine of the Society of Friends. 
 Cromwell promised to release him if he would sign a decla- 
 ration that he would never draw a sword against his govern- 
 ment. But Lilburn was not fully convinced that to deny the 
 use of the carnal sword was the duty of the true Christian, 
 and did not perfectly approve that point of self-denial. He 
 continued in the knowledge of what he had already attained, 
 and in a short time became an example of true Christian life. 
 In a confession which he wrote is the following passage : — 
 " By Divine teaching I am now daily taught to die to sin, and 
 led up by it to living power, to be raised up, and enabled to 
 live in a pure measure of righteousness, and by which inward 
 spiritual teachings, I am, I say again, led up into power in 
 Christ, by which I particularly can, and do hereby witness, 
 that I am already dead, or crucified to the very occasions, and 
 real grounds of all outward wars, and carnal sword fightings, 
 and fleshly bustlings and contests ; and that, therefore, confi- 
 dently I now believe, I shall never hereafter be an user of a 
 temporal sword more, nor a joiner with those that do." 
 
 It appears by this, that Lilburn did not think the declara- 
 tion would procure his release, and he was not wrong, for 
 Cromwell died before he was released. When he regained 
 his liberty, he continued steadfast to the doctrine of Truth, 
 and died in London, in the year 1660. 
 
 During the latter part of this year, the royalists formed 
 several plots against Cromwell, and in Nottinghamshire they 
 surprised several places. The young king Charles left Co- 
 logne and went to Zealand, in order to be near his domi- 
 nions, if the attempt of his friends to reinstate him should 
 succeed. But Cromwell soon crushed all their hopes, and 
 Charles returned again to Cologne. The government of the 
 Protector, meeting with favor abroad, he sent a fleet to the 
 West Indies, under the command of Admiral Penn, and 
 another under Admiral Blake, to the Mediterranean. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 About the beginning of this year, George Fox left London 
 and went to Surrey, Chichester, Portsmouth and Poole. 
 1656. At the latter place he convinced many persons, among 
 whom was "William Bailey , a Baptist teacher, who after- 
 wards became a celebrated minister in the Society of Friends. 
 On arriving at Dorchester, George Fox applied for the Baptist 
 Church to preach in, and on receiving a denial, sent word to 
 the congregation, " that they might come to his inn if they 
 pleased." Many of them attended with their minister, and 
 they held a discourse about water baptism. George Fox 
 asked them, " Whether they could say they were sent of God 
 to baptize people, as John was ? And whether they had the 
 same spirit and power that the Apostles had ?" They re- 
 plied, " They had not !" Then inquired George Fox, " How 
 many powers are there? Are there any more than the 
 power of God and the power of the devil ?" They answer- 
 ed, " There was not any power but those two." George 
 Fox now said, " If you have not the power of God, that the 
 Apostles had, then you act by the power of the devil." 
 
 Leaving Dorchester, he went to Weymouth, where, inquir- 
 ing after persons serious upon the subject of their own salva- 
 tion, a number collected at the priest's house, he spoke to 
 them of the divine light, and bid them turn to Jesus Christ. 
 Nearly all present were convinced, among whom was a 
 merry captain, who laughed at everything he saw or heard ; 
 but the next time he saw George Fox he told him, " That 
 when he spoke to him at parting, the power of the Lord so 
 struck him, that before he got home he was serious eno ugh, 
 and had left off his laughing." 
 
76 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 It would be impossible to mention all the places visited 
 by George Fox, and we shall have to omit even the names 
 of towns in which he converted many souls to the everlasting 
 gospel. At Kingsbridge he held a large meeting, and re- 
 turning in the evening to the inn, he found a number of 
 noisy intoxicated persons, and he directed them " to the light 
 which Christ, the heavenly man, had enlightened them withal; 
 by which light they might see all their evil ways, words and 
 deeds ; and by the same light they might also see Christ 
 Jesus their Saviour." This somewhat interfered with the 
 business of the innkeeper, and hearing George Fox speak 
 so much of the Light, said, " Come, here is light for you to 
 go into your chamber." 
 
 George Fox, Edward Pyot, and "William Salt, were 
 taken into custody at Market-Jew, by a guard of horse, and 
 imprisoned at Lancaster. On their way to prison they were 
 treated shamefully both by the soldiers and the inhabitants 
 of the several towns through which they passed. The people 
 for many miles around crowded the streets and court, to see 
 the Quaker prisoners tried. When they entered the court, 
 Judge Glyn, who was then Chief Justice of England, said 
 to the jailor, " What be these you have brought here into the 
 court ? " 
 
 " Prisoners, my lord," said he. 
 
 The judge asked why they did not take off their hats ; 
 but the prisoners remaining silent, the judge angrily said, 
 " The court commands you to put off your hats." 
 
 George Fox replied : " Where did ever any magistrate, 
 king, or judge, from Moses to Daniel, command any to put 
 off their hats when they came before them in their courts, 
 either amongst the Jews (the people of God) or amongst 
 the Heathens ? And if the law of England doth command 
 any such thing, show me that law, either written or printed." 
 
 The judge, evidently offended, said, " I do not carry my 
 law-books on my back." 
 
 " But," rejoined George Fox, " where is it printed in any 
 statute-book, that I may read it ? " 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 77 
 
 " Take him away, prevaricator ; I'll ferk him ; " said the 
 judge. 
 
 They were taken out of court, and cast into prison, among 
 thieves; but the judge soon recalled them, and asked, 
 " Where had they hats from Moses to Daniel ? Come, an- 
 swer me ; I have you fast now." 
 
 George Fox replied : " Thou mayst read in the third of 
 Daniel, that the three children were cast into the fiery fur- 
 nace, by Nebuchadnezzar's command, with their coats, their 
 hose, and their hats on." 
 
 The judge was surprised, and angrily ordered the jailor to 
 take them from his sight. In the afternoon, however, they 
 were again placed at the bar, and George Fox, observing 
 the jury in their seats, handed them a paper written against 
 swearing. It was placed in the judge's hands, who read it, 
 and asked, " Whether he had written that seditious article ?" 
 
 George Fox desired, " That it might be read in open 
 court, so that all might hear it, and judge whether there was 
 sedition in it or not; for if there was, he was willing to 
 suffer for it." 
 
 The clerk of the assizes read it aloud, and George Fox 
 said, " It was his paper, and he would own it ; and so might 
 they too, except they would deny the Scripture ; for was it 
 not Scripture language, and the words and commands of 
 Christ and the Apostles, which all true Christians ought to 
 obey?" 
 
 Here the judge ordered the jailor to take off their hats ; but 
 George Fox asked, " Why they were kept in prison for nine 
 weeks, if nothing was objected against them but what con- 
 cerned their hats : and as for putting off our hats, that was 
 ah honor which God would lay in the dust, though they 
 make so much ado about it. The honor which is of men, 
 and which men seek one of another, is a mark of unbe- 
 lievers. For how can ye believe, saith Christ, who receive 
 honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh 
 from God only ? And Christ saith also : I receive not honor 
 from men. And all true Christians should be of his mind." 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 The judge made a short speech, and told the prisoners he 
 represented the Lord Protector's person, and that he was 
 appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, and was travelling 
 the different circuits for the sake of doing justice. 
 
 " Then," said the prisoners, " we desire justice for the false 
 imprisonment we have suffered for the last nine weeks." 
 
 The clerk read the indictment, and Peter Creely, a justice 
 of the peace and on the bench of the court, said to the judge, 
 " May it please you, my Lord, this man (pointing to George 
 Fox) went aside with me, and told me how serviceable I 
 might be for his design ; that he could raise forty thousand 
 men at an hour's warning, and involve the nation in blood, 
 and so bring in lung Charles; I would have aided him out 
 of the country, but he would not go. And if it please you, 
 my Lord, I have a witness to swear it." He called in a 
 bribed witness, but the judge, knowing the whole matter to 
 be a downright lie, refused to admit his false evidence. 
 
 George Fox desired to hear the mittimus read, in which the 
 charges against him were specified, but the court refusing to 
 do it, one of the prisoners who had a copy of it, read it before 
 the people, and George Fox said to the judge and justices 
 on the bench, " Thou that sayest thou art Chief Justice of 
 England, and you who are justices, ye know, that if I had put 
 in sureties, I might have gone whither I pleased, and have 
 earned on the design, if I had had one, which Major Creely 
 hath charged me with. And if I had spoken those words to 
 him, which he hath here declared, then judge ye. whether bail 
 or mainprise could have been taken in this case." Then 
 speaking 1o Major Creely, he said, " When or where did I 
 take thee aside ? Was not thy house full of rude people, 
 and thou as rude as any of them, at our examination, so that 
 I asked for a constable, or other officer, to keep the people 
 civil ? But, if thou art my accuser, why sittest thou on the 
 bench ? That is not the place for thee to sit in ; for accusers 
 do not sit with the judges ; thou ought to come down, and 
 stand by me, and look me in the face. Besides, I would ask 
 these judges this question, whether or no Major Creely is not 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 79 
 
 guilty of this treason, which he charges against me, in con- 
 cealing it so long as he hath done ? Doth he understand his 
 place either as a soldier or a justice of the peace ? Is he not 
 guilty of the plot and treason, and hath he not made himself 
 a party to it, by desiring me to go out of the country, and de- 
 manding bail of me ; and not charging me with this pretend- 
 ed treason till now, nor discovering it ? But I deny and 
 abhor his words, and am innocent of the design/' 
 
 It was plain to the judge that Creely, instead of ensnaring 
 the prisoner, had committed himself, and so this charge was 
 passed over by the bench. But Creely rose, and said to the 
 judge, " If it please you, my Lord, to hear me ; this man 
 struck me, and gave me such a blow, as I never had in my 
 life." 
 
 George Fox smilingly said, " Major Creely, art thou a jus- 
 tice of the peace, and a major of a troop of horse, and tellest 
 the judge here in the face of the court and country, that I, 
 who am a prisoner, struck thee ? What, art thou not asham- 
 ed? Prithee, where did I strike thee ? And who is thy wit- 
 ness for that? Who was by ?" 
 
 Major Creely replied, " It was in the Caslle-green, and Cap- 
 tain Badden was standing by when I was struck/' 
 
 George Fox turned to Captain Badden, who was in the 
 court, and said, <: Didst thou see me give him such a blow 
 as he saith ?" Badden merely bowed his head, and would 
 not answer the question proposed. " Nay," said George 
 Fox, " speak up, and let the court and country hear, and let 
 not bowing of the head serve thy turn. If I have done so, 
 let the law be inflicted on me : I fear not sufferings or death 
 itself, for I am an innocent man concerning these charges." 
 
 But Badden would not testify to it, and the judge, being 
 perfectly aware that Creely was endeavoring to falsely ensnare 
 the prisoners, ordered the jailor to take them away. He fined 
 them twenty marks apiece for not taking their hats off in the 
 presence of the court, and to be imprisoned until the fine was 
 paid. In the evening, Captain Badden and some justices 
 visited them, and said : " They did not suppose that either 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the judge or any in the court believed those charges made by- 
 Major Creely." 
 
 " Captain Badden," said George Fox, "why didst thou not 
 witness for or against me, seeing Major Creely produced ihee 
 as a witness that I did strike him ? And when I desired thee 
 to speak either for or against me, thou wouldst not speak." 
 
 " Why," replied Badden, " when Creely and I came by 
 you as you were walking in the Castle-green, he put off his 
 hat to you, and said, ' How do you do, Mr. Fox ? Your 
 servant, sir.' Then you said to him, ' Major Creely, take heed 
 of hypocrisy and of a rotten heart ; for when came I to be thy 
 master, or thou my servant ? Do servants use to cast their 
 masters into prison V This was the great blow he meant that 
 you gave him." 
 
 A report of this trial, and the injustice of the sentence, 
 spread rapidly through the country, and many persons visited 
 the prisoners, some of whom were convinced of their princi- 
 ples. The odious treatment which the prisoners received in 
 this filthy prison, was shocking in the extreme ; the jailor and 
 the under-jailor, who were both thieves, and bore the marks 
 of branding on their hands and shoulders, could not have 
 possessed one spark of humanity in their hardened hearts, or 
 they would have revolted at the idea of treating fellow-crea- 
 tures in such a barbarous and cruel manner. They told 
 George Fox, that spirits haunted the dungeon, and many per- 
 sons had died of terror while in prison there ; but he replied : 
 " That if all the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was 
 over them in the power of God, and feared no such thing ; 
 for Christ, their priest, would sanctify the walls and the house 
 to them ; he who bruised the head of the devil ; as the priest 
 was to cleanse the plague out of the wall under the law." 
 
 At the sessions held at Bodmin, the prisoners sent a paper 
 with an account of their manifold sufferings, which induced 
 the justices of the court to order the prison to be cleansed, 
 and gave them permission to buy their own food in the town 
 market. They wrote to London, and Anne Downer, who 
 has been mentioned before, came to Lancaster to attend 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 81 
 
 their wants, and make them comfortable during their im- 
 prisonment. An account of their case was laid before the 
 Protector, who sent an order to the Governor of Pendennis 
 Castle, to make some inquiry in relation to the truth of the 
 charges preferred against them. On this occasion Hugh 
 Peters, one of the Protector's chaplains, told him, that they 
 could not do greater service in spreading George Fox's 
 principles in Cornwall, than by imprisoning him there. This 
 was true; for whilst he and his companions were confined 
 in prison, many persons, excited by curiosity, came to see 
 them, and becoming interested in regard to their future wel- 
 fare, joined the humble Society of which these sufferers 
 were able ministers. A respectable physician of London, 
 Thomas Lower, came to the dungeon, asking many ques- 
 tions concerning religion, and to all he received satisfactory 
 answers from George Fox ; when leaving the prison, he 
 said, " Your words were as a flash of lightning, and I never 
 met such wise men in my life." A member of the Society 
 of Friends went to Oliver Cromwell, and offered himself as 
 hostage, if he would permit George Fox to enjoy his liberty; 
 but the Protector said it would not be lawful ; and, turning 
 to his council, said, " Which of you would do the same for 
 me, if I were in the same condition ? " 
 
 It was several months before George Fox and his friends 
 were released ; and the next year their inhuman jailor was 
 committed to the same dungeon which they had occupied, 
 for perpetrating an atrocious crime, where he unhappily 
 died. 
 
 On the seventeenth of the ninth month [September], 
 Cromwell convened his new Parliament, in the Painted 
 Chamber of Westminster ; and in the opening speech, he 
 said, " That he knew not of any one man that suffered im- 
 prisonment unjustly in all England." When he had finished 
 the delivery of his address, Samuel Fisher, who was pre- 
 sent, requested the liberty to say a few words to the Pro- 
 tector, the Parliament, and the people. We transcribe from 
 his speech the following extract : 
 6 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " The burden of the "Word of the Lord God of Heaven 
 and Earth, as it came unto me on the twenty-second day of 
 last month, and as it now lieth upon me to declare it in His 
 name, even unto thee, Oliver Cromwell, Protector of these 
 three nations, England, Scotland, and Ireland; and also to 
 all you who are chosen out of the several parts thereof to sit 
 in Parliament this day, to consider such things as concern 
 the commonwealth : and likewise to the three nations them- 
 selves, and all the people thereof, whose rulers and represent- 
 atives ye are ; which Word of the Lord, as ye do not deem 
 yourselves too high, or too great, or too good, to be spoken 
 to from the Lord ; and as you will not fall under the guilt of 
 that sin of saying to the seers, see not ; and to the prophets, 
 prophesy not, prophesy not unto us right things, prophesy 
 smooth things, prophesy deceits. I charge you all in the 
 name of the living God, that without interruption or oppo- 
 sition, whether you like it or like it not, you stand still and 
 hear it ; and when I have done, you may do with me as the 
 Lord shall give you leave, or leave me under the power of 
 your hands to do : no law of equity condemning any man 
 before he be heard, especially when he speaks on so high an 
 account as from the God of Heaven himself, though to such 
 as are no less than God's under him here on earth." 
 
 The Protector listened with due attention to the words 
 Fisher spoke ; but he was interrupted by some justices who 
 were standing by, and Cromwell left the room, not wishing 
 to hear the discussion between him and the officers. Thus 
 prohibited from expressing all he wished to say to Crom- 
 well, he published his address, which was very long, and 
 contained strong reproofs of the hypocrisy of those, who, in 
 order to show their godliness, made long prayers in public, 
 and kept fasts, but lived in pride, pomp and luxury; perse- 
 cuting those who were really pious, and committing many 
 other acts contrary to the letter and spirit of the Bible. He 
 warned the Protector to beware of the wicked flatterers who 
 flocked around his throne, or his government would never 
 be established in righteousness. In the introduction to this 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 83 
 
 speech, he said, " That before this burden came upon him, 
 he had prayed God that he might have been excused of this 
 message, thinking that a more unworthy one than himself 
 could not have been selected ; but he was fully resigned to 
 whatever was required of him by the Lord." 
 
 In the tenth month [October], Humphry Smith went to 
 Evesham, in Worcestershire, and held a large meeting, which 
 was disturbed by the mayor, Edward Young, who said, " He 
 would break up the Quaker meetings or his bones should 
 he in the dust." Smith and a number of his friends were 
 cast into a filthy prison, and treated with less indulgence 
 than was shown thieves or murderers. James Wall, one of 
 the prisoners, was a freeman of the town and a shopkeeper ; 
 yet the mayor refused to permit his wife to sell her wares as 
 usual in the market-place. As this was depriving an honest 
 family of their means of support, she went to the mayor, who 
 said, " I hear that your husband doth abuse you ;" and she 
 answered, " My husband did never abuse me ; but as for 
 that judgment which he now holdeth, once I could not own 
 it ; but now, seeing it is so much persecuted, makes me own 
 it, because the way of God was always persecuted." The 
 mayor was offended at this reply, and told her she should 
 not have a stand in the market, even should she pay five 
 pounds. 
 
 About a month after the imprisonment of Smith and his 
 friends, Margaret Newby and Elizabeth Courton came to 
 Evesham, and held a meeting at the house of Edward Pit- 
 ways. In the afternoon they visited the prison ; but for this, 
 the mayor caused them to be placed in the stocks, in which 
 situation they remained fifteen hours, and were then, during 
 a cold night, expelled from the town. 
 
 Alexander Parker was at Radnor in Wales, preaching the 
 doctrine of Truth, and bearing his testimony against the cor- 
 ruptions of the day. Ambrose Rigg and Thomas Robinson 
 were imprisoned at Basingstoke in Hampshire, for refusing to 
 take the oath of abjuration, which the magistrates tendered to 
 them. After suffering many hardships, they were released, 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 and Robinson went to Portsmouth, where his ministry was 
 blessed with many converts. A. Rigg visited the Isle of 
 Wight, but soon returned to Weymouth and Melcomb-regis, 
 where, speaking in the church against the priest, he was ar- 
 rested and cast into a dirty dungeon, with nothing for a bed, 
 but some unclean straw, and a stone for a seat. He could 
 see the people passing in the streets through an opening at 
 the top of his cell, and he preached to the crowd who collect- 
 ed day after day around the aperture, the words of repent- 
 ance and salvation. In his history, Sewel says, he has been 
 a listener to many good and effective sermons, which have 
 been delivered to the people from the subterranean cells by 
 the prisoners who were detained by the bigotry of the magis- 
 trates. When Rigg was released, after an imprisonment of 
 eleven weeks, he went to see some of his friends in prison at 
 Southampton, but the mayor, Peter Seal, not pleased with 
 this visit, caused him to be publicly whipped at the whipping- 
 post in the market-place, and after being severely lashed by 
 the executioner, he was compelled to leave the town, the 
 mayor at the same time telling him if he returned, they would 
 brand him on the shoulder as a rogue. It is somewhat 
 sttange that the mayor died soon after this illegal and inhu- 
 man act was committed. 
 
 After visiting many places in Scotland and England, Wil- 
 liam Eaton went to Holland, and found a few English peo- 
 ple at Amsterdam, who were connected with the Society of 
 Friends. It will be remembered that William Ames and 
 John Stubs were in this country the preceding year. Ames 
 met with good success ; Dr. Galen us Abrahams, the reputed 
 chief of the Socinian Meunists compared him to a musician 
 that played a very melodious tune, and Stubs to a disturber 
 of the harmonious music. But in Holland there were some 
 persons who carried the Quaker belief to an extreme : they 
 published books without capital letters, under the pretence of 
 plainness, &c. The leader of these mistaken people was 
 Isaac Furnier, who lived as another Diogenes, using at the 
 fire a split stick instead of a pair of tongs, and making it part 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 85 
 
 of his profession to be as blunt as possible in his conversation. 
 One day he erased the letters, ' Dr.,' on Doctor Abrahams' 
 door-plate, and when asked why he did it, he replied, " Be- 
 cause the spirit did testify so unto me." The ridiculous say- 
 ing, " My spirit testifieth," which has been used as a weapon 
 against the Society of Friends, originated with this giddy and 
 foolish man, who soon became a papist, and died, after 
 leading a dissolute and debauched life. William Caton did 
 not remain long at Rotterdam, but went to Middleburg, in 
 Zealand, accompanied by a young man, who at one of the 
 meetings was apprehended and cast into prison for some al- 
 leged misdemeanor. Caton went to Visit him, and the offi- 
 cers, seeing he was a companion, arrested him also, and 
 lodged him in prison. It was ordered he should be sent to 
 England, and he was placed in a ship of war, which arrived 
 at London in the eleventh month (November), where he was 
 kindly received by his friends. 
 
 It is with feelings of sorrow we contemplate the noncon- 
 formity of James Nayler's actions with those rules which 
 were selected for their purity, as the guide for all the 
 members of the Society of Friends. He was first reproved 
 by his friends in Bristol, and subsequently by George Fox, 
 while in Exeter prison. To understand the whole affair in 
 detail, it will be necessary to give a true relation of his life. 
 His father was a husbandman of good repute, and during 
 his earlier years was a soldier under Lord Fairfax ; after- 
 wards he became Quarter- Master under Major- General 
 Lambert, but, disabled by sickness in Scotland, he returned 
 to his home, Wakefield Parish, in 1649. James Nayler was 
 born in the parish of Ardcsly, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, 
 in the year 1616 ; like his father, he served in the Parliament 
 army, and was a member of the Independents, but in 1651 
 he connected himself with Friends. Being a man of excel- 
 lent education, he soon distinguished himself as a zealous 
 minister in the Society of his adoption, and in the year 1654 
 or 1655, he went to London and preached at the meeting 
 already established there, through the exertions of Edward 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Burrough and Francis Howgill. He spoke to the congregation 
 with all the eloquence with which he was so eminently gifted, 
 and many esteemed him above his brethren, which gave rise 
 to some differences in the meeting, and one woman, Martha 
 Simmons, became so bold as to dispute with Burrough and 
 Howgill about certain points of belief. These good men 
 gently reproved them for the indiscretion, and in a passion, 
 they went to J. Nayler, in order to incense him against the 
 meeting. Confused and bewildered, he erred in judgment, 
 estranged himself from his best friends, and his example now 
 stands as a warning to all who wish to be exalted above 
 their fellows, that they depend not too much on their own 
 talents, but continue in true humility, which garment alone 
 is the Christian's safe-guard. 
 
 Hannah Stranger, a woman who possessed many natural 
 gifts, wrote him several very extravagant letters, styling him. 
 " The everlasting son of Righteousness — Prince of Peace— 
 The only begotten son of God — The fairest of ten Thou- 
 sand," &c. While Nayler was in Exeter prison, Hannah 
 Stranger, Martha Simmons and Dorcas Erbury, foolishly 
 kissed his feet, and it was rumored at the time that he was 
 guilty of a serious charge, but on inquiry, the accusations 
 were found to be groundless. When released from prison, 
 he went to Bristol, accompanied by his unwise friends, who 
 walked uncovered before him, leading his horse, while others 
 spread scarfs and handkerchiefs in his path, the whole com- 
 pany singing, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of Hosts ? 
 Hosanna in the highest, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of 
 Israel." 
 
 They were arrested, examined by the magistrates, and 
 committed to prison ; soon after, Nayler was taken to Lon- 
 don, tried by the Parliament, and on the 17th of December, 
 the following resolution was introduced : 
 
 " That James Nayler be set on the pillory, with his head 
 on the pillory, in the palace-yard, Westminster, during the 
 space of two hours, on Thursday next, and be whipped by 
 the hangman through the streets, from Westminster to the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 87 
 
 Old Exchange, London, and there likewise be set on the pil- 
 lory, his head in the pillory, for the space of two hours, between 
 the hours of 11 and 1, on Saturday next, in each place wearing 
 a paper containing an inscription of his crimes ; and that at 
 the Old Exchange his tongue be bored through with a hot 
 iron, and that he be there also stigmatized in the forehead, 
 with the letter R. ; and that he be afterwards sent to Bristol, 
 and be conveyed into, and through the said city, on horse- 
 back, with his face backwards ; and there also publicly 
 whipped the next market day after he comes thither, and that 
 from thence he be committed to prison in Bridewell, Lon- 
 don, and there restrained from the society of all people, and 
 there to labor hard till he shall be released by Parliament : 
 and during that time, be debarred the use of pen, ink, and 
 paper, and shall have no relief but what he earns by his daily 
 labor." 
 
 The severity of the sentence excited much sympathy in 
 his behalf, and Parliament received many letters and petitions 
 from persons who believed the crime to be the effect of a de- 
 ranged mind, rather than a wilful intention of evil. Judgment, 
 however, was passed in a few days, and the Speaker author- 
 ized warrants to be issued to the sheriffs of London, Middle- 
 sex, Bristol, and the governor of Bridewell, to have the sen- 
 tence put into execution. It will be well enough to state, 
 that James Nayler repented his fall, and manifested heartfelt 
 sorrow for his mistaken zeal, which blinded him in the sight 
 of God, and led him to commit so many rash and imprudent 
 acts. When brought to the bar to hear his sentence, he asked 
 the Speaker, Sir Thomas Widdrington, " What was his 
 offence ?" 
 
 The Speaker replied, " He should know his offence by the 
 punishment inflicted." 
 
 " I pray God he may not lay it to your charge," said the 
 prisoner. 
 
 On the 18th of the twelfth month [December], the prisoner 
 stood two hours with his head in the pillory, and was 
 whipped from the palace-yard to the Old Exchange, receiv- 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ing three hundred and ten stripes, which lacerated his body 
 so severely, that many doubted he would ever recover from 
 the wounds. The twentieth of the same month was the time 
 appointed for boring his tongue, and branding his forehead 
 with red hot iron, but many kindly disposed persons who 
 knew of the sentence, sent the following petition to Par- 
 liament : 
 
 " Your moderation and clemency in respiting the punish- 
 ment of J. Nayler, in consideration of his illness of body, 
 hath refreshed the hearts of many thousands in these cities, 
 altogether unconcerned in practice : Wherefore, we most 
 humbly beg your pardon, that we are constrained to appear 
 before you in such a suit (not daring to do otherwise), that 
 you would remit the remaining part of your sentence against 
 the said J. Nayler, leaving him to the Lord, and to such gos- 
 pel remedies as he hath sanctified ; and we are persuaded 
 you will find such a course of love and forbearance more 
 effectual to reclaim ; and will leave a zeal of your love and 
 tenderness upon our spirits. 
 
 " And we shall ever pray, &c" 
 
 This petition was presented at the bar of the House by a 
 committee of one hundred persons on behalf of its numerous 
 signers ; and, after being read to Parliament, a long debate 
 followed, by the tone of which the committee concluded 
 their request would not be granted. Their next resource 
 was an address to the Lord Protector ; but the ministers of 
 the established church held such an influence over his mind, 
 that he had not the moral courage to annul the remaining 
 part of the sentence without their consent. Parliament or- 
 dered five of these preachers, namely, Caryl, Manton, Nye, 
 Griffith and Reynolds, to consult with the prisoner concern- 
 ing the charges for which he was to suffer punishment. But 
 as they would not permit any disinterested person to be in 
 the room during the consultation, J. Nayler told them, " That 
 he saw it was their intent to make him suffer, though inno- 
 cent, as an evil-doer, and therefore had denied any to be pre- 
 sent that might be indifferent judges between them and him ; 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 89 
 
 and that therefore he should not say anything, unless what 
 passed was written down, and a copy thereof given him to 
 keep, or left with the jailor, signed by them." 
 
 They consented to this arrangement, and asked him, " If 
 he believed there was a Jesus Christ ?" 
 
 " I believe there is," said Nayler, " and that Jesus hath 
 taken up his dwelling in my heart and spirit ; and for the 
 testimony of him, I now suffer." 
 
 One of the ministers observed, " L, believe in a Jesus' that 
 was never in any man's heart." J. Nayler replied, "I do 
 not know such a Christ ; for the Christ I witness fills heaven 
 and earth, and dwelleth in the hearts of all believers." 
 
 They demanded, " Why he permitted those women to 
 kneel before him in prison ; and desired one instance of 
 Scripture wherein such a practice is held forth." 
 
 The prisoner replied, " What think you of the Shunamite 
 falling down at the feet of Elisha, and bowing before him ? 
 Also of other instances of Scripture, as that of Abigail to 
 David, and that of Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel ?" 
 
 After holding a long debate on questions of belief, in 
 which the reader would be fully convinced that Nayler did 
 not possess a sane mind, the ministers departed ; and on the 
 twenty-seventh of the month, he was placed in the pillory at 
 the old Exchange, where his tongue was boi'ed and his fore- 
 head branded, before thousands of spectators, who deeply 
 sympathized with the sufferer, and stood uncovered before 
 him ; no one offering the least disrespect or violence. From 
 thence he was carried to Bristol, and whipped through the 
 principal streets, and then carried to Bridewell prison, Lon- 
 don, where he was committed for the time specified in the 
 sentence. The Society of Friends did not acknowledge the 
 actions or sayings of J. Nayler to be part of their faith ; and 
 the majority of those persons who interested themselves to 
 procure his acquittal were members of other denominations. 
 The slight disaffection he caused in the meeting at London, 
 was soon healed ; and friendship and good feeling was again 
 restored among the members. During his confinement in 
 
 « 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Bridewell he truly repented, and wrote several able papers, 
 giving an account of his fall and recantation, which were pub- 
 lished in his writings. He also wrote letters to Parliament, 
 the magistrates, ministers, lawyers and the people, acknow- 
 ledging his offence and warning others against the power of 
 Satan, that is always battling against the Spirit of God, lest 
 they, like him, should leave the faith, and stray from the road 
 of Salvation. To his friends he sent the following: 
 
 " My brethren, my he^rt is broken this day, for the offence 
 I have occasioned to God's truth and people, and especially 
 to you, who in dear love followed me, seeking me in faithful- 
 ness to God, which I rejected, being bound, wherein I could 
 not come forth, till God's hand brought me, to whose love I 
 now confess. And I beseech you, forgive wherein I refused 
 your love, and since I see it, God knows my sorrow for it, 
 that ever I should offend Him or reject his council. Unless 
 the Lord himself keep you from me, I beseech you let noth- 
 ing else hinder your coming to me, that I may have your 
 help in the Lord ; in the mercies of Christ Jesus, this I beg 
 of you, as if it was your own case, let me not be forgotten of 
 you. By the power of God, and in the spirit of Christ Jesus, 
 I am willing to confess the offence, that God's love may arise 
 in all hearts, as before, if it be his will, who only can remove 
 what stands in the way ; and nothing thereof do I intend to 
 cover : God is my witness herein." 
 
 James Nayler suffered great humiliation of mind, and as 
 God forgives the transgressions of the penitent, his friends re- 
 ceived him joyfully into communion with the society, and 
 after obtaining his liberty, became a Christian and patiently 
 submitted to the reproach of his former crimes. 
 
 When king Charles the Second ascended the throne, a per- 
 son named Richard Blome published a book, entitled the "Fa- 
 natic History," which was said to have been written with the 
 approbation of the leading ministers of the established Church, 
 and dedicated by the author to the king. This work was an 
 attack on Friends, and teemed with falsehoods and misrep- 
 resentations of every kind, including a garbled account of the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 91 
 
 conduct of James Nayler, who answered it and proved the 
 charges untrue ; but we will give an extract in his own lan- 
 guage : 
 
 " I say thou hast need to ask pardon of king Charles, for 
 the presumption of dedicating such a book to him, being 
 made up of false accusations, gathered up out of books for- 
 merly written against us, which have been disproved by an- 
 swers several times over ; and to these thou hast added some 
 new accusations, as false as the old, %nd spied out of the fail- 
 ings of some few, who have mourned before God, that ever 
 they should sin, and give occasion to the enemy of God so 
 to blaspheme. And many things which were done and spo- 
 ken by others, who are not of us, nor ever were ; of this is 
 thy book made up, as any may see who read it, and our sev- 
 eral answers to the charges therein, many of them of several 
 years' standing, against these false accusations, which have 
 most of them been printed over and over, and presented to 
 the former powers that have risen, and as often answered. 
 Now, discretion will say, that, to make another man the 
 father of such a work, to which he is a stranger (but especially 
 a king), is presumption indeed, rashness and folly, and needs 
 a pardon." 
 
 To the king he says ; " the king that faithfully judges the* 
 poor, his throne shall be established for ever. But, if a ruler 
 hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked," Prov. xxix. 12, 
 14. And to the author of this work he said; " Lay not 
 wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, 
 spoil not his resting-place. For a just man falleth seven 
 times, and riseth up again ; but the wicked shall fall into 
 mischief," Prov. xxiv. 15, 16. 
 
 John Endicol, Governor of Boston, and Richard Belling- 
 ham wrote two letters in defence of the persecution in New 
 England, which were answered by James Nayler on his re- 
 covery, and he also wrote many letters ^vhich have been 
 published in the collection of his works, given to the public a 
 few years after his death. In the latter end of 1660, in the 
 forty-fourth year of his age, he died in Huntingdonshire, and 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 was buried in Thomas Parnel's burying-ground at Kings 
 Rippon. About two hours before his death, he spoke these 
 words in the presence of several witnesses. 
 
 " There is a spirit which I feel, that delights to do no evil, 
 nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, 
 in hope to enjoy its own in the end ; its hope is to outlive all 
 wrath and contentions, and to weary out all exaltation and 
 cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees 
 to the end of all temptations ; as it bears no evil in itself, so it 
 conceives none in thoughts to any other ; if it be betrayed it 
 bears it, for its ground and spring is the mercies and for- 
 giveness of God ; its crown is meekness, its life is everlast- 
 ing love unfeigned, and takes its kingdom with entreaty, and 
 not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind ; in 
 God alone it can rejoice, though none else regards it, or can 
 pity it ; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression ; it never 
 rejoiceth but through sufferings ; for with the world's joy it 
 is murdered ; I found it alone, being forsaken ; I have fel- 
 lowship therein with them who lived in dens and desolate 
 places in the earth, who through death obtained this resurrec- 
 tion and eternal holy life." 
 
 This was James Nayler's last testimony and dying words ; 
 and thus he gave proof, that though he had erred, yet with 
 confidence in the power of God, he hoped to obtain a happy 
 resurrection. 
 
 At Bristol George Fox held a large meeting in an orchard, 
 and the Baptist preacher, Paul Gwyn, who was on the 
 ground, said, " Ye wise men of Bristol, I wonder that ye will 
 stand and hear a man speak and affirm that which he can- 
 not make good." 
 
 George Fox asked the people, " Whether they ever heard 
 him speak before, or ever saw him before ? And he bade 
 them take notice what kind of man this Gwyn was, who so 
 impudently said, that he spoke and affirmed that which he 
 could not make good ; and yet neither Gwyn nor they ever 
 heard him or saw him before ; and that therefore it was a 
 lying, envious, and malicious spirit that spoke in him." 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 93 
 
 Charging Gwyn to be silent, he preached several hours, with- 
 out being disturbed. After passing through Wiltshire, 
 Marlborough, and other places, he returned to London ; and 
 when near Hyde Park, he met the Protector in his carriage, 
 and spoke to him about the sufferings of his friends in the 
 nation, proving how contrary this persecution was to the 
 example of Christ and his Apostles. On parting, at the gate 
 of James' Park, Cromwell desired him to come to the palace, 
 which invitation was accepted by George Fox and Edward 
 Pyot, who went to Whitehall, and spoke about the severe 
 treatment many suffered on account of their religious belief, 
 and directed him to the light of Christ, which enlighteneth 
 every man that cometh into the world. 
 
 " This is a natural light," replied the Protector. 
 
 " Nay," said George Fox, " it is a divine and spiritual, 
 proceeding from Christ, the spiritual and heavenly man." 
 
 After some light and foolish conversation on the part of 
 Cromwell, he became serious ; and when he left them, he 
 told his wife, " That he never parted so from the Quakers, 
 before." 
 
 » 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Parliament which Cromwell convened during the 
 beginning of this year, passed a law, rejecting Charles 
 1657. Stuart's title of king, and granting subsidies to the 
 Protector, by which means the crown was placed in 
 his power; and although he feigned a dislike to become 
 king, yet it was believed he was not altogether averse to the 
 movement. In a conversation with General Fleetwood and 
 Colonel Desborough, he said, the title of monarch was but 
 a feather in a man's cap, and therefore he wondered that 
 men would not please the children, and permit them to enjoy 
 their rattle. They indirectly expressed that this language 
 displeased them ; and told him, that those who wished him 
 to be crowned were not enemies to Charles Stuart, and his 
 acceptance of the crown would most certainly cause his 
 ruin. It is said, Major- General Lambert also gave Crom- 
 well to understand, that if he accepted the crown, he would 
 not pledge the army to support him as king. Of course 
 Cromwell was forced to refuse the title of king, and the 
 Parliament, which consisted of two houses, confirmed him 
 in that of Protector, granting him power to name a suc- 
 cessor. Among the new Parliament, it was generally be- 
 lieved there were over one hundred members opposed to 
 Cromwell ; and the authority of the upper house being 
 called in question, in consequence of the low rank of its 
 members, the Protector dissolved the legislature, and made 
 Major- General Lambert surrender his commission. Ed- 
 ward Burrough frequently corresponded with Cromwell ; 
 and hearing he wished to be king, wrote a kind letter, warn- 
 ing him against the trouble consequent upon the impropriety 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 95 
 
 and inconsistency of such an action, from which we extract 
 the following paragraph : 
 
 " O, that thy heart was opened to see His hands, that thou 
 might live unto him and die in peace. And beware lest 
 hardness of heart possess thee, if thou slight his love, and so 
 be shut up in darkness, and given to the desires of thine 
 enemies, and left to the council of treacherous men, who 
 may seek to exalt thee by flattery, that they may the better 
 cast thee down, destroy thee, and blot out thy name in 
 reproach, and make thy posterity miserable. But now, O 
 consider, and let it enter into thy heart, for thou hast not 
 answered the Lord, but been wanting to him for all this, and 
 hast chosen thy own way and glory, rather than His, and not 
 fulfilled his council in raising thee ; for the bonds of cruelty 
 are not loosed by thee, and the oppressed are not altogether 
 set free ; neither is oppression taken from the poor, nor the 
 laws regulated, nor the liberty of pure consciences altogether 
 allowed. But these dominions are filled with cruel oppres- 
 sions, and the poor groan everywhere under the heavy hand 
 of injustice; the needy are trodden under foot, and the op- 
 pressed cry for deliverance, and are ready to faint under their 
 burdens, for true justice and judgment. The proud exalt 
 themselves against the poor, and the high-minded and rebel- 
 lious continue the meek of the earth. The horn of the un- 
 godly is exalted above the Lord's heritage, and those who 
 have departed from iniquity are become a prey to oppressors ; 
 and the cruel-hearted deal cruelly with the innocent of these 
 nations. Consider, friend, and be awakened to true judg- 
 ment; let the Lord search thy heart, and lay these things to 
 mind, that thou mayest be an instrument to remove every 
 burden, and mayest at last fulfil the will of God. O, be 
 awakened, be awakened, and seek the Lord's glory, and not 
 thine own, lest thou perish before the Lord and men. Nay 5 
 if men would give thee honor, high titles and princely thrones, 
 take it not: for that which would exalt and honor thee in the 
 world, would betray thee to the world, and cast thee down in 
 the sight of the world. And this is God's word to thee ! 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 What! shall the whole nation be perjured men, and thou the 
 cause of it? And wilt thou transgress by building again 
 that which thou hast destroyed ? Give heed unto my word 
 and understand my speech. Be not exalted by men, lest 
 men betray thee. His love, through my heart, breathes unto 
 thee ; he would thy happiness, if thou wilfully contemn it 
 not, by exalting thyself, and seeking thy own glory, and 
 hardening thy heart against the cry of the poor." 
 
 The oppressions spoken of by Burrough in this letter, 
 were in regard to the tithes which the priests extorted from 
 Friends, rendering many of them extremely poor. The 
 enormity of this oppression was not unknown to Cromwell, 
 for previous to a battle near Dunbar, in Scotland, he said in 
 his prayer to God, " That if the Lord would be pleased to 
 deliver him at that time, he would take off the great oppres- 
 sion of tithes;" a promise, however, which he never fulfilled. 
 Cromwell received the letter in the third month, and denied 
 that he was guilty of any persecutions upon the Society of 
 Friends. This denial caused E. Burrough to write again, in 
 which he told him, " To consider what the cause is, that 
 what thou desirest not to be done, is yet done. Is it not that 
 thou mayest please men ? Making it appear that thou art 
 more willing to do the false teachers of this nation and 
 wicked men a pleasure, than own to the people of God in 
 relieving them, and easing them of their cruel burdens and 
 oppressions, laid upon them by august men. For a word of 
 thy mouth, or a show of thy countenance in dislike of these 
 cruel and unjust persecutions, would bind the hands of many 
 bloodthirsty men. 
 
 " The kingdom of Christ is setting up by his own power, 
 and all must bow and become subject thereunto ; he needeth 
 none of thy policy, nor the strength of thy arm to advance it ; 
 yet would he have thee not to prove thyself an open enemy 
 thereof, by doing, or suffering to be done, cruelty and in- 
 justice against them whom the Lord is redeeming out of this 
 world into subjection to that kingdom; lest thou be such a 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 97 
 
 one as will not enter thyself, or suffer others to enter, and so 
 destruction come upon thee. Wherefore, arise as out of 
 sleep, and slumber not in this world's glory and honor ; be 
 not overcome by the pleasures of this world, nor the flatter- 
 ing titles of men ! wink not at the cruelty and oppression 
 acted by some, who shelter under thee, and make thy name 
 a cloak for mischief against the upright." 
 
 He wrote again and stated, " That the good name, Pro- 
 tector, by the great oppression acted under it, was abused 
 and subverted ; and that instead of protection by it, great in- 
 justice was acted under it, and covered with it. Besides, 
 that several justices of the peace, and other officers in trust, 
 under him, when they acknowledged the people called 
 Quakers, had been cast out of their places ; though they had 
 not denied to serve him and the Commonwealth, neither had 
 unfaithfulness been proved against them." 
 
 He also told him, " That he had many enemies, some of 
 which endeavored to destroy him, by any means, without re- 
 garding any danger that might be in the attempt. And that 
 he going on in oppressing through tyranny, or suffering it, per- 
 haps the Lord might raise up the wicked to be a plague to 
 wickedness, and suffer the oppressors to overthrow oppres- 
 sions. How can we mention thee in our prayers to God, 
 except it be to be delivered from thee, who are daily unjustly 
 sufferers by thee, or because of thee ? Or how can we be 
 Friends in that government under which we daily suffer 
 such hard and cruel things, as the loss of our liberty and 
 estates, and are in danger of life also ?" 
 
 About the beginning of this year, Christopher Birkhead 
 went to Rochelle, in France, and was examined before the 
 bishop, and imprisoned for writing and speaking against the 
 Pope and his religion. In February, regaining his liberty, 
 he journeyed to Middleburgh, in Zealand, and entered the 
 English church in that town, where the minister, William 
 Spanke, was preaching. When he had finished, Birkhead 
 rose and addressed the congregation, bvit he was apprehend- 
 ed by order of the magistrates, and examined in the presence 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of several public preachers, who asked him, " what his name 
 was." 
 
 " My name according to the flesh is Christopher Birk- 
 head." 
 
 H Have you no other name ?" asked one of theministers. 
 u Yes, and it is written in the Lamb's Book of Life." 
 « What is that name ?" 
 
 u None knows it, but he that hath it," replied Birkhead. 
 
 Robert Sparke desired to know, " whether his name in 
 the Book of the Lamb was not Jesus ? " 
 
 " No !" said Birkhead, " that is the name of the Lamb." 
 
 Many other foolish questions were asked, but die cunning 
 magistrates could not ensnare him on that point. Birkhead, 
 however, was committed to the house of correction, but was 
 soon released through the intercession of Heer Newport, am- 
 bassador of the States General in England. 
 
 In this year George Baily went to France, and died in 
 prison for having zealously testified against Popery and the 
 worship of images. 
 
 William Ames and Humble Thatcher went to Amster- 
 dam, but the magistrates fearing they would cause a riot, 
 ordered them to depart from the town within twenty-four 
 hours ; but knowing they were innocent of any unlawful in- 
 fringement of the laws, they would not obey the command, 
 and the magistrates placed them in custody. until the police 
 led them one night through the gates of the city. The next 
 day William Ames returned, and passing through the mar- 
 ket-place one of the magistrates said ; " Lo ! there's the 
 Quaker ; if we had a mind to make a martyr here is an op- 
 portunity." It was during this visit of William Ames, that 
 he convinced the parents of that able historian of Friends, 
 William Sewel, Jacob Williamson Sewel, surgeon at Am- 
 sterdam, and his wife Judith Zinspenning, both members of 
 the Flemish Baptist Church, who were among the first mem- 
 bers of the Society of Friends in Amsterdam. William 
 Caton also come to Amsterdam, but before leaving England 
 he held a large meeting in Sussex on the day called Shrove- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 99 
 
 Tuesday, where the people behaved very rude and disres- 
 pectful, disturbing the meeting by beating drums and by 
 other improper conduct. Caton spoke to them with much 
 power, and they silently withdrew in confusion and shame. 
 When he arrived in Holland, he found several persons, whose 
 mistaken zeal blinded them in the true belief, causing disun- 
 ion in the meetings and otherwise disturbing that kind and 
 peaceful brotherhood, which has ever been one of the chief 
 characteristics of the Society. Many evil and malicious re- 
 ports concerning the Quakers were spread over the country ; 
 and to deny these assertions, W. Caton wrote several books 
 which were printed in Amsterdam and circulated among the 
 people. In Zealand he wrote a work entitled, " The Mod- 
 erate Inquirer Resolved," which was published in Latin and 
 English, and soon after translated into Dutch. Meeting with 
 considerable opposition, he returned to London, and found the 
 Society in that city in a prosperous condition, daily adding 
 members to its communion. 
 
 George Fox left London, and travelled through Kent, 
 Sussex, Surrey and Wale?. In the latter place he was ac. 
 companied by Thomas Holmes, the first Friend preacher in 
 Wales, and by John-ap-John, who three years before had 
 been sent to the north by a priest to make inquiry into the 
 belief of Friends. At Brecknock they held a large meeting 
 in the church-yard ; and at Lemster also, where priest Tombs 
 made wme opposition, by saying ; " that the Light, George 
 Fox spoke of, was but a natural light." But George Fox as- 
 serted the contrary, and said ; " That he had spoken of no 
 other light than John bore witness to, namely : The Word 
 which was in the beginning with God, and which word was 
 God ; and that was the true light which enlightened every 
 man that cometh into the world." From this place he went 
 to Tenby, and the first day of the week held a meeting at the 
 house of a justice of the peace, which was attended by the 
 mayor, his wife, and many of the principal inhabitants of 
 the- city. John-ap-John held a meeting in the church -yard, 
 and was arrested and imprisoned by order of the governor, 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 who, on the next morning, sent an officer to bring George Fox 
 to the castle. When he was in the presence of the gover- 
 nor, he asked, " Why he had cast his friend into prison ?" 
 
 " For standing with his hat on in the church," returned 
 the governor. 
 
 " Why," said George Fox, " had not the priest two caps 
 on his head, a black one and a white one ? And if the brim 
 of the hat, which was but to defend from the weather, had 
 been cut off, then my friend would have had but one cap." 
 
 " These are frivolous things," replied the governor. 
 
 " Why then," asked George Fox, " dost thou cast my 
 friend into prison for such frivolous things ?" 
 
 He was then asked, " Whether he owned election and 
 reprobation ?" 
 
 " Yes," said he, " and thou art in the reprobation." 
 
 This incensed the governor so much, that he told George 
 Fox he would send him to prison until he proved it. 
 
 " I'll prove that quickly, if thou wilt confess the truth ;" 
 and he asked him, " Whether wrath, fury, rage, and perse- 
 cution, were not marks of reprobation ? For he that was 
 born of the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit : 
 and Christ and the Apostles never persecuted or imprisoned 
 any." 
 
 This statement of the truth had such an effect upon the 
 governor, that he admitted he had too much wrath, haste, 
 and passion in him ; and George Fox told him Esau the 
 first birth was up in him, and not Jacob the second birth. 
 He was so clearly convinced, that he invited George Fox to 
 dinner, and set his friend free. 
 
 After visiting many places in the north, he went to Scot- 
 land, and met with much rude opposition. An assembly 
 was called, for drawing up articles, or curses, to be read in 
 the different churches, of which the following was the first : 
 " Cursed is he that saith every man hath a light within him 
 sufficient to lead him to salvation. And let all the people 
 say Amen." An Independent pastor ; preaching one day 
 against the Friends and the Light, calling the Light natural, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 101 
 
 cursed it, and fell to all appearances dead in the pulpit. Ap- 
 plying the necessary means for restoration, he slowly recov- 
 ered, but never regained either his sense or bodily health. 
 In the tenth month [October], George Fox went to Edin- 
 burgh, where he was summoned to appear before the Coun- 
 cil, who ordered him to leave Scotland within seven days. 
 After travelling over the northern part of the kingdom, he 
 returned to Leith, where he was informed the Council had 
 granted warrants for his arrest, the seven days having ex- 
 pired; but he heeded them not, and went to Edinburgh again, 
 and received a challenge to meet the Baptist ministers, for 
 the purpose of discussing the subject of religion. The place 
 selected was Dunbar ; but the Baptist failed to appear, and 
 George Fox thought it was a scheme to arrest him, in order 
 to make him leave Scotland. On leaving Dunbar, he went 
 to Newcastle, England, highly pleased with his success 
 amongst the Scots. 
 
 During the summer of this year, a young man named 
 George Robinson embarked in a ship bound to Leghorn, 
 Italy, on his way to Jerusalem. On arriving safely at Leg- 
 horn, he went in a French ship to St. John d'Aca, formerly 
 called Ptolemais, bordering on the Mediterranean, near Pa- 
 lestine, and after remaining eight days in a French mer- 
 chant's house, he sailed in a vessel bound to Japha or Joppe. 
 The friars at Jerusalem having heard that a Quaker was 
 coming to their holy city, gave orders to arrest him, which 
 was done ; but an old Turk of some repute took him to his 
 house, and entertained him courteously. In a few days the 
 friars sent one of their number to propound the following 
 questions to Robinson : 
 
 1st. Whether he would promise, when he came to Jeru- 
 salem, that he would visit the holy places as other pilgrims 
 did? 
 
 2d. That he would pay as much money as pilgrims gene- 
 rally do. 
 
 3d. That he would dress in the usual habit of pilgrims. 
 4th. That he must speak nothing against the Turks' laws. 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 5th. And when he came to Jerusalem, not to speak any- 
 thing about religion. 
 
 Not willing to make these promises, the friar, an Irishman, 
 with a guard of horse and foot, took him back to Japha, and 
 placed him on board a vessel bound to St. John d'Aca, where 
 a French merchant, named Surrubi, invited him to his resi- 
 dence, and kindly entertained him for several weeks. By 
 the aid of this merchant, Robinson found means to return 
 by sea to Jopha ; but on his road from this place to Jerusa- 
 lem, three Turks robbed him of all his goods, and when he 
 was passing through Ramoth, two Mahometans took him to 
 their mosque, and the priests asked him, " Whether he would 
 turn to the Mahometan religion ?" He said, " He could not 
 turn unto them for all the world." He was ordered to be 
 prepared for death ; and an executioner was about to perform 
 the deed, when an old Turk, who seemed to be of a supe- 
 rior class, commanded his servant to conduct Robinson to 
 his dwelling. In a few days a guard of horsemen, hired by 
 the friars, came to carry him to Gaza, informing the Turk it 
 was the Bashaw's orders to bring him there. The Bashaw 
 was informed of the cruel designs of the friars ; and when 
 Robinson was brought before him, he made the friars not 
 only pay a heavy fine for their conduct, but convey the pri- 
 soner safely to Jerusalem. Then he was taken to Jerusalem 
 by his enemies ; and whilst in a convent, one of them said, 
 " There was now an evident sign that he was a good Chris- 
 tian, for he had come through persecution and suffering ? 
 and those things which had been spoken to his prejudice 
 were manifest to be untrue." Robinson told the friar, 8 It 
 was he and his brethren that had been the cause of his suf- 
 ferings, and withstood his coming to Jerusalem." The other 
 replied, " That the Irish friar had misinformed them by his 
 writing, which had caused them to do what they had done ; 
 and therefore they desired he would now pass by those 
 things, seeing he escaped in such a miraculous manner; for 
 it was the Lord's work, thus to carry him through, and he 
 might praise God he was preserved." 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 103 
 
 The next morning the friars wished him to visit their 
 church, the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem, and the other holy 
 places ; but he told them, " At present he had no business 
 to visit them ; and unlike them, he would not go to worship 
 them." 
 
 One said : " How can you be a servant of God, and not 
 go to visit the places where the holy men of God dwelt ?" 
 
 He replied: " That they, under pretence of doing service 
 to God, in visiting the places where holy men dwelt, did 
 oppose that way, and resist that life, which the holy men of 
 God lived and walked in." 
 
 " What do you preach unto us for ?" asked the friars. 
 
 He answered : " That he would have them turn from those 
 evil practices they lived in, else the wrath of the Almighty 
 would be kindled against them." 
 
 They did not like his discourse ; and one said, " If he 
 would not go and visit the aforesaid places, yet he must give 
 twenty-five dollars, as it was usual for the visitors to give that 
 sum." He informed them he would not submit to such un- 
 reasonable terms ; and they took him before an officer of the 
 place, who asked him, " What was the ground of rus 
 coming to Jerusalem ?" He answered, " That it was by the 
 command of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth that he 
 came hither; and that the great and tender love of God was 
 made manifest in visiting them ; his compassionate mercies 
 being such, that he would gather them in this the day of his 
 gathering." The Turks ordered the friars to take him, free 
 of charge, to Ramla : and in the book of travels which 
 he afterwards published, we find, after being preserved 
 through many trials, he safely arrived in England. 
 
 As previously stated, George Fox arrived at New Castle, 
 and, in company with Anthony Pearson, visited some of the 
 aldermen of the city ; among these was one named Ledger, 
 who had said, " The Quakers would not come into any great 
 towns, but live in the fields like butterflies." George Fox de- 
 sired to hold a meeting amongst them, but they refused to grant 
 him the request ; and he then asked Ledger, " Whether they 
 
104 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 had not called his friends, butterflies, and said they would 
 not come into any large towns ? But now we are come 
 unto your town, you will not come to us. Who are the 
 butterflies now ?" Ledger then spoke of the Sabbath day ; 
 for that was the seventh day of the week ; whereas the day 
 the professed Christians now meet on and call their Sabbath, 
 is the first day of the week." As he could not hold a general 
 conversation among the inhabitants, he collected his friends, 
 and held a little meeting at the gate-side. Travelling through 
 Northumberland and Bishopric, he came to Durham, where 
 he met a person who was about to commence a college in 
 that place, for the purpose of educating young men for the 
 ministry. In conversation with this man, he told him, " That 
 to teach men Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and the seven arts, 
 was not the way to make them ministers of Christ ; for the 
 languages began in Babel ; and to the Greeks that spoke 
 Greek as their mother tongue, the preaching of the cross of 
 Christ was foolishness ; and to the Jews that spoke Hebrew 
 as their mother tongue, Christ was a stumbling-block. And 
 as for the Romans, who spoke Latin, they persecuted the 
 Christians ; and Pilate, one of the Roman governors, set 
 Hebrew, Greek and Latin a-top of Christ when he crucified 
 him. Thus the languages which began at Babel, were set' 
 above Christ, the Word ; and John, the Divine, who preach- 
 ed the Word, that was in the beginning, said, 1 that the beast 
 and the whore had power over tongues and languages, and 
 they were as waters, and in the mystery, Babylon ;' for they 
 began at Babel ; and the persecutors of Christ set them over 
 him when he was crucified by them. Dost thou think," he 
 continued, " to make ministers of Christ by these natural 
 confused languages, which sprang from Babel — are admired 
 in Babylon — and set before Christ, the Life, by a persecutor?" 
 He also proved, " That Christ made his own ministers — gave 
 gifts unto them, and bid them pray to the God of the harvest 
 to send forth laborers ; that Peter and John, though unlearn- 
 ed and ignorant, as to school learning, preached Christ the 
 Word, which was in the beginning before Babel was ; and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 105 
 
 that Paul also was made an Apostle, not of man, nor by 
 man, but by Jesus Christ, who is the same now, and so is 
 his gospel as it was in that day." 
 
 The professor became convinced of the foolishness of edu- 
 cating persons for the ministry, and left Durham for London, 
 without starting his intended school. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The first yearly meeting of the Society of Friends in 
 England was held at the residence of John Crook, in 
 1658. Bedfordshire; it lasted three days, and was fully at- 
 tended by members from all parts of the United King- 
 dom. When the meeting dispersed, George Fox went to Lon- 
 don, and was challenged to discuss the truth of the religion of 
 the Friends by a Jesuit who was connected with the diplomatic 
 corps of the Ambassador of Spain. The Jesuit first said he 
 would meet twelve of their wisest men ; but he gradually 
 lowered the number down to three ; and George Fox, Ed- 
 ward Burrough and Nicholas Bond, went to the Earl of 
 Newport's house, the place of meeting, for the purpose of 
 holding the discussion. They began by asking the Jesuit, 
 " Whether the Church of Rome, as it now stood, was not 
 degenerated from the true Church which was in the primitive 
 times, from the life and doctrine, and from the power and 
 spirit that those believers were in ?" 
 
 " The Church of Rome," answered the Jesuit, " is now in 
 the virginity and purity of the primitive Church." 
 
 " Have you the Holy Ghost poured out upon you as the 
 Apostles had?" asked George Fox. 
 
 " No," replied the Jesuit. 
 
 Then said George Fox, " If ye have not the same Holy 
 Ghost poured forth upon you, and the same power and spi- 
 rit that the Apostles had, then ye are degenerated from the 
 power and spirit which the primitive Church was in. What 
 Scripture have you for setting up cloisters for nuns, abbeys 
 and monasteries for men, and for their praying by beads and 
 to images, and for making crosses, for forbidding of meats and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 107 
 
 marriages, and for putting people to death for religion ? If 
 ye are in the practice of the primitive Church, in its purity 
 and virginity, then let us see by Scripture, whether they prac- 
 tised such things." 
 
 It was mutually agreed between the parties, that each 
 should prove by Scripture what they said, and the Jesuit 
 argued there was a written and an unwritten word. George 
 Fox asked him, " What he called the unwritten word ?" 
 
 " The written word is the Scriptures," replied the Jesuit, 
 " and the unwritten word is that which the Apostles spoke by 
 word of mouth, which are all those traditions which we 
 practise." 
 
 " Prove it by Scripture," said the Friends. The Jesuit 
 alleged the words of the apostle, 2 Thess. xi. 5 ; that is, I 
 told you of nunneries and monasteries, of putting to death 
 for religion, and of praying by beads and to images, &c. 
 He then affirmed that the unwritten words of the Apostles 
 which were told them had been continued by tradition up to 
 the present time. 
 
 " Go," replied George Fox, " read thy Scripture again, 
 that thee may see how thou hast perverted the apostle's 
 words, since that which the apostle said there, he had told 
 them before, was not an unwritten word, but was written 
 down ; namely, That the man of sin, the son of perdition, 
 should be revealed before that great and terrible day of 
 Christ, which he was writing of, should come. And, there- 
 fore, this was not telling them any of those things, which the 
 Church of Rome practised. Besides, the apostle in the third 
 chapter of the said epistle, told the Church of some disor- 
 derly persons he heard were amongst them, busybodies, who 
 did not work at all ; concerning whom he had commanded 
 them by his unwritten word, when he was amongst them, 
 that if any would not work, neither should he eat ; which 
 now he commanded them again in the written words of 
 the epistle, 2 Thess. iii." 
 
 The Jesuit, finding no other Scriptural proof for the tradi- 
 tions of the Church of Rome, left that argument and spoke 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of the sacrament of the altar, to prove the reality of which 
 he quoted the words of Christ, " This is my body," and also 
 the words of the apostle to the Corinthians, concluding that 
 after the priest had consecrated the bread and wine, it was 
 immortal and divine, and whoever received it, received Christ. 
 
 George Fox told him, " That the same apostle told the 
 Corinthians, after they had taken the bread and wine in 
 remembrance of Christ's death, that they were reprobates if 
 Christ was not with them. But if the bread they ate was 
 Christ, he must of necessity have been in them. Besides, if 
 the bread and wine which the Corinthians ate and drank, 
 was Christ's body, how then hath Christ a body in Heaven ? 
 And both the disciples at the supper, and the Corinthians 
 afterwards, were to eat the bread and drink the wine in 
 remembrance of Christ, and to show forth his death till he 
 came ; which plainly proved, that the bread and wine which 
 they took, was not his body, For if it had been his real 
 body that they ate, then he was come, and was then present ; 
 and it would have been improper to have done such a thing 
 in remembrance of him, if he was with them ; as he must 
 have been, if that bread and wine, which they ate and drank, 
 had been his real body. And as to the words of Christ, 
 ' This is my body,' why Christ called himself a vine and a 
 door, and in Scripture he is called a rock. Is Christ, there- 
 fore, an outward rock, door or vine ?" 
 
 " O," said the Jesuit, " these words are to be interpreted." 
 
 " So," replied George Fox, " are those words of Christ, 
 1 This is my body.' " 
 
 This silenced the Jesuit, and George Fox made this pro- 
 posal : " That seeing he said the bread and wine was immor- 
 tal and divine, and the very Christ, and that whosoever 
 received it, received the whole Christ ; a meeting might be 
 appointed between some such papists as the Pope and his 
 Cardinals should appoint, and some of those called Quakers. 
 And then let a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread be brought, 
 and divided each into two parts, and let them consecrate 
 which of those parts they will ; and then let the consecrated 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 109 
 
 and unconsecrated bread and wine be set in a safe place, 
 with a sure watch upon it ; and let trial then be made, whe- 
 ther the consecrated bread and wine will not lose its good- 
 ness, the bread grow dry aud mouldy, and the wine turn dead 
 and sour just as soon as that which was unconsecrated; for 
 by this means the truth of this matter may be made mani- 
 fest. And if the consecrated bread and wine change not, 
 but retain their savor and goodness, this may be the means 
 of drawing many to your church. But if they change, de- 
 cay, or lose their goodness, then ought you to confess and 
 forsake your error, and shed no more blood about it, as hath 
 been done, especially in Queen Mary's reign." 
 
 " Take a piece of new cloth," replied the Jesuit, " and cut 
 it into two pieces, and make two garments of it, and put one 
 of them upon king David's back, and the other upon a 
 beggar's, and one garment shall wear away as well as the 
 other." 
 
 " Then," said George Fox, " by this the company may 
 all be satisfied, that your consecrated bread and wine is 
 not Christ. Dost thou not say, that the consecrated bread 
 and wine, which you have told the people was immortal and 
 divine, and the real body and blood of Christ, will wear 
 away or decay as well as the other ? Then T must tell thee, 
 Christ remains the same to day as yesterday, and never de- 
 cays ; but is the saints' heavenly food in all generations, 
 through which they have life." 
 
 After some conversation relative to the persecution of the 
 Church of Rome, the discussion closed, and all present saw 
 the error of the Jesuit, and admired the simplicity of George 
 Fox. The Society of Friends, both in England and Ire- 
 land, were suffering great injustice from many persons in 
 power, and George Fox went to see Cromwell about allevi- 
 ating them, as well as to warn him of the danger of declaring 
 himself king. He also wrote several letters on the subject, 
 the substance of which is as follows : 
 
 " O Protector — Who hast tasted of the power of God, 
 which many generations before thee have not so much since 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the days of apostasy from the Apostles, take heed that thou 
 lose not thy power ; but keep kingship off thy head, which 
 the world would give to thee, and earthly crowns under thy 
 feet, lest with that thou coverest thyself, and so lose the 
 power of God. When the children of Israel went from that 
 of God in them, they would have kings as other nations 
 had, as transgressors had ; and so God gave them one ! 
 And what did they do then ? And when they would have 
 taken Christ, and made him a king, he hid himself from 
 them ; he was hid from that which would have made him a 
 king, he who was the King of the Jews inward. O Oliver, 
 take heed of undoing thyself, by running into things that will 
 fade, the things of this world that will change. Be subject 
 and obedient to the Lord God." 
 
 He also wrote a letter to Cromwell's beloved daughter, 
 Lady Claypole, who was on a bed of sickness, and much 
 troubled about her eternal salvation. He told her to be quiet 
 and still, only look to God for the blessing she might expect, 
 and to his power for the work of salvation. He bid her keep 
 in the fear of the Lord, for the same light which let her 
 see sin and transgression, will also show the covenant of 
 God, that blots out sin and transgression, and brings victory 
 and dominion over it. The letter was read to her and re- 
 ceived kindly, but she did not live many days after ; thus 
 Cromwell met with continual sorrow and trouble from al- 
 most every source. A day of solemn fast and humiliation 
 having been proclaimed by the Protector, on account of the 
 persecution of the Protestants in Lucerne valley, George Fox 
 wrote a letter to the Governors of the nation, showing them 
 what kind of a fast God requires and accepts. It is too long 
 for this work, but the following paragraphs contain the pith 
 of this admirable letter. 
 
 " Now, whereas ye take into your consideration the said 
 persecution, tyranny, and cruelty exercised upon them, whom 
 ye call your Protestant brethren, and do contribute and ad- 
 minister to their wants outwardly ; this is good in its place, 
 and see it good to administer to the necessities of others, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 and to do good to all ; and we who are sufferers by a law 
 derived from the Pope, are willing to join, and to contribute 
 with you, to their outward necessities. For the earth is the 
 Lord's and the fulness thereof; who is good to all, and gra- 
 cious to all, and willing that all should be saved, and come 
 to the knowledge of the truth. But, in the meantime, while 
 ye are doing this, and taking of others, cruelty, tyranny, and 
 persecution, turn your eyes upon yourselves, and see what ye 
 are doing at home. To the light of Christ Jesus, in all your 
 consciences, I speak, which cannot lie, nor cannot en 1 , nor 
 cannot bear false witness ; but doth bear witness for God, 
 and cries foj equity and justice and righteousness to be ex- 
 ecuted. See what ye are doing who profess the Scriptures, 
 which were given forth by the Saints in light, who dwelt in 
 the light, and the life of them. For them who now 
 witness the same light, the same life, and the same power, 
 which gave forth the Scriptures, which ye in words 
 profess, ye persecute and drive them from your synagogues, 
 markets, and public places. Now let that of God in 
 your consciences, which is just and righteous, examine 
 and try, whether ye are an example or precedent, to ex- 
 ercise the persecution, which many in the nation suffer, who 
 are a people harmless and innocent, walking in obedi- 
 ence towards God and man. And though ye account the 
 way of truth they walk in, heresy, yet therein do they exer- 
 cise a conscience void of offence towards God and man, not 
 wronging any man, neither giving any just cause of offence ; 
 only being obedient to the commands of the Lord, to declare 
 as they are moved by the Holy Ghost, and standing for the 
 testimony of a good conscience, speaking the truth in Christ, 
 their consciences bearing them witness that they lie not ; 
 for this do they suffer under you, who, in a word, possess the 
 same thing for which they suffer. Ye profess Jesus Christ, 
 who is the light of the world, that enlightens every one that 
 cometh into the world, and yet persecute them that bear wit- 
 ness, and give testimony to this light. Ye profess that the 
 Word is become flesh, and yet persecute them that witness 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 it so. Ye profess, that whosoever confesseth not that Jesus 
 Christ is eome in the flesh, is an Antichrist, and yet persecute 
 them that do confess him come in the flesh, and call them 
 deceivers. Ye profess that the kingdom of Christ is come, 
 and yet persecute them that witness it has come. Ye pro- 
 fess Christ Jesus, the resurrection and the life, and yet perse- 
 cute them that witness him to be so. If ye say, 1 How shall 
 we know that these people who say they witness these things 
 do so or not ?' . I answer, ' Turn your minds to the light 
 which Christ Jesus hath enlightened you withal, which is 
 one in all ; and if ye walk in the light, ye shall have the light 
 of life, and then ye will know, and see what ye have done, 
 who have persecuted the Lord of Glory (in his people), in 
 whom is life, and the life, the light of men. To no other 
 touchstone shall we turn you, but into your own consciences, 
 and there shall ye find the truth of what we have declared 
 unto you, and of what we bear testimony to, according to 
 the Holy Scriptures. And when the books of consciences 
 are opened, and all judged out of them, then shall ye witness 
 us to be of God, and our testimony to be true, though now 
 you may stop your ears, and harden your hearts, while it is 
 called to-day. But then ye shall know what ye have done, 
 and whom ye have transgressed against, and then ye will see 
 that no persecutors in any age or generation, that ever went 
 before you, did ever transgress against that Light and mea- 
 sure of God made manifest, in such a manner as ye have 
 done. Therefore, to the eternal light of Jesus Christ, the 
 searcher and frier of all hearts, turn your minds, and see what 
 ye are doing, lest ye overturn your foundation whereon ye 
 stand, while ye are professing the Scriptures, and persecuting 
 the life, light, and power, which they were in who gave them 
 forth. For the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, 
 is now striking at the feet of the image, the profession which 
 is set up, and stands in the will of man. Now is that made 
 manifest into which all must answer and appear before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the thing 
 done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 113 
 
 be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, 
 we persuade men ; but we are made manifest unto God, and 
 shall be made manifest in all your consciences, which ye 
 shall witness." 
 
 These fasts were proclaimed several times, and as they were 
 attended generally with some cruelty to Friends, George 
 Fox said they were like Jezebel's, and continued to write 
 against them. He also wrote to Parliament, about the hy- 
 pocrisy of its members, who professed to be religious, and yet 
 committed many offences against the innocent and harmless. 
 
 " O, friends," said he, " do not cloak and cover yourselves ; 
 there is a God that knoweth your hearts and he will uncover 
 them. He seeth your way. Wo be to him that covereth, but not 
 with my spirit, saith the Lord. Do ye contrary to the law, and 
 there put it from you ! Mercy and true judgment ye neglect. 
 Look, what was spoken against such ? My Saviour said ; ' I 
 was sick, and ye visited me not ; I was hungry, and ye fed me 
 not ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; I was in pris- 
 on, and ye visited me not.' But they said, ' When saw we 
 thee in prison, and did not come to thee ? ' ' Inasmuch as 
 ye did it not unto one of these little ones, ye did it not 
 unto me ! ' Friends, ye prison them that be in the life 
 and power of truth, and yet profess to be the ministers 
 of Christ ; but if Christ had sent you, ye would bring out of 
 prison, and out of bondage, and receive strangers. Ye have 
 lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton ; ye have 
 nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter ; ye have 
 condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." 
 
 One day a woman entered Parliament with a pitcher in 
 her hands, which she broke on the floor, at the same time 
 telling them, so should they be broken to pieces, which pre- 
 diction was verified shortly after. Thomas Aldam and 
 Anthony Pearson travelled over England, for the purpose of 
 visiting the different jails, in order to find out the sufferings 
 of those who were imprisoned for the sake of then religious 
 belief; and after collecting all the information they laid the 
 
 subject before ihe Protector ; but he being unwilling to grant 
 
 8 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 their release, Thomas Aldam tore his cap to pieces, and said 
 to him, " so shall thy government be rent from thee and thy 
 house." 
 
 Edward BuiTough wrote several letters to Cromwell, of 
 which the following is the most important. It was delivered 
 to the Protector in the sixth month [June] at Hampton 
 Court. 
 
 " Friend ! know that there is a God that doth whatsoever 
 he will ; all power is in his hand, and he bringeth to pass the 
 counsel of his own heart, and he rules the kingdoms of men, 
 and bringeth down and setteth up ; he killeth and maketh 
 alive ; and he changes times and seasons and governments, 
 and brings to naught the councils of men : for all power in 
 earth and in heaven is in him, and all his doings are right, 
 and his ways are equal ; and thou and all mankind are as 
 clay in the hand of the potter, he can honor and exalt as he 
 pleases, and he can mar, and break to pieces, and dishonor 
 whensoever he will ; wherefore be humble and low in heart 
 before him, for he is the highest power that subdueth all 
 things under his feet. If he wound, who can heal ? And 
 if he kill, there is none can make alive ; and know thou, it is 
 the Lord God Almighty that doeth this, in whose hands aTe 
 the issues of life and death, and he it is who can break thee 
 down and build thee up, who can wound thee and restore 
 thee, and bring to destruction, and say unto thee return ; and 
 to know him that doth this, belongs to thy eternal peace, &c. 
 
 " Be thou faithful in what the Lord calleth thee to, and thou 
 shalt have thy reward ; and seek his honor, and he will honor 
 thee ; and let thy mind be to the Lord in all things, and feel 
 his word, and power, and presence in thee, to quench all 
 that is contrary, and thou wilt be blessed in this life, and in 
 the life to come ; but if thou conlinuest in thy oppression, 
 the Lord will suddenly smite thee." 
 
 Four weeks after the receipt of this letter, the prediction 
 in it was verified, for he died with a disease of the heart, at 
 Hampton Court. Previous to his death, George Fox wrote 
 to him, " That it was not improbable, on account of his 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 11& 
 
 wickedness, God might raise the Royalists against him, to be 
 instruments in executing his wrath, as once he himself had 
 been an instrument to their overthrow." George Fox also 
 went to Hampton Court, to speak to him in relation to the 
 sufferings of his friends ; but the Protector was sick, and 
 Dr. Harvey told him it would not be prudent to let him enter 
 the room. The next day he was seized with a violent fever, 
 and although one of his chaplains assured him of his recov- 
 ery, yet day by day he became worse, till he died. During 
 his illness, E. Burrough wrote a letter to his wife and chil- 
 dren, in which we find the following passage : 
 
 " And though these innocent lambs of Christ suffer thus 
 under this present power, yet are they not enemies to you, 
 but are friends to your persons and families, and pity you, 
 and love you, and desire well for you in the Lord, that you 
 may repent, and be healed, and even that your hearts may 
 be opened to receive refreshments to your souls, and that 
 you may be established in righteousness and truth over all 
 your enemies, and may not be confounded, nor your pos- 
 terity brought into reproach, which is hastening upon you : 
 and though our love be despised, and we accounted hateful 
 in your sight, and looked upon with derision, yet we bear 
 all things in patience, truly desiring your returning and re- 
 pentance, and not your destruction. But if these doleful 
 sufferings of the Lord's poor lambs be continued by the 
 present power, it will destroy you, and break you, and con- 
 found you, and the Lord will not cease to smite you with 
 his rod of sharp rebukes ; and he will make you know his 
 people's cause shall not be unpunished. Oh, did you know 
 how hundreds have and do suffer ! How the bodies of some 
 have been tortured by stocks and cruel whippings ! And 
 how some are rudely treated in prisons, and others suffering 
 sickness in the cold damps of dungeons ! Oh, did but your 
 eyes behold, or your hearts perceive, the greatness of the 
 cruelty which some of the Lord's dear servants, and your 
 faithful friends, undergo, it would make your hearts ache, 
 and your spirits tremble ! And all this is done in the name 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 and under the authority of the Protector : therefore, how 
 should the Lord but lay it to your charge, and afflict him 
 and his family ? He will make you know there is a God 
 that can do whatsoever he will, and that life and death are 
 in his hands, and all creatures are as clay in the hands of the 
 potter ; and he rules in the kingdoms of men, and puts down 
 one, and sets up another, according to his pleasure ; but if 
 the love of God be withholden from you, it is because of 
 disobedience to Him, and your transgression. Wherefore, 
 be obedient to him, and love his ways and judgments, that 
 he may make you more happy with a crown immortal, that 
 never fades away. And remember once more the Lord hath 
 warned you, by a friend unto you in the Lord." 
 
 This letter did not reach his relations until the day before 
 his death, and it was not until within a few hours of the sor- 
 rowful event, that he named his eldest son, Richard, as 
 his successor. His last words were those of remorse, for he 
 knew that men would utter his name with reproach, and 
 trample on his ashes when dead. The day of his death (the 
 third of the ninth month [September]), was remarkable for a 
 severe storm which passed over England, uprooting trees, 
 destroying houses by the violence of the wind, and wreck- 
 ing many ships at sea. A number of persons met to pray in 
 one of the ante-rooms, and when they heard of his decease, a 
 person named Sterry said : " This is good news ; because, 
 if he was of great use to the people of God, when he was 
 amongst us, now he will be much more so, having ascended 
 to heaven, there to intercede for us." If he had been the 
 greatest saint on earth, that power would not have been given 
 to him ; and although once endued with eminent virtues, yet, 
 during the latter part of his reign, he suffered many of his in- 
 nocent people to be abused and maltreated by those who 
 received the grant of their office from his hands, and were 
 responsible alone to him for the manner of discharging then- 
 duties. Edward, Earl of Clarendon, said of Cromwell, that 
 he was one of those persons whom even his enemies could 
 not vilify, without praising. Richard Cromwell was pro- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 claimed Protector of the Commonwealth, and on assuming 
 the duties of that office, E. Burrough wrote him an account 
 of the situation of some of his friends, and in speaking of the 
 rulers, said : 
 
 " As for the magistracy, it was ordained of God to be a 
 dread, terror and limit to evil-doers, and to be a defence and 
 praise to all that do well; to condemn the guilty, and to jus- 
 tify the guiltless ; but the exercise thereof in this day in these 
 nations is degenerated, and some that are in authority are 
 greatly corrupted, and regard not the just and pure law of 
 God, to judge only thereby ; but oppress the poor by injus- 
 tice, and subvert the good laws of God and men, to a wrong 
 end and use, abusing authority, and turning the sword against 
 the just, whereby true judgment is turned backward, and the 
 innocent made to suffer for righteousness' sake, through the 
 corruptions of men ; and didst thou know what we know, it 
 would pierce thy heart. It is frequent amongst the judges 
 and magistrates to commit a man to prison, and impose some 
 great fine upon him, and cast him into a dungeon among 
 thieves and murderers, for no other offence or breach of law, 
 but because he cannot put off his hat to them, and respect 
 their persons by bowing on their knee. And many others 
 who fear God, and for conscience' sake cannot swear upon 
 a book, because Christ saith, swear not at all ; though they 
 deny not to speak and do the truth in all things, as in the 
 presence of God and all men ; and others because they preach 
 against sin, and the iniquities of the times, in teachers, rulers, 
 and the people, in the churches, highways and market-places, 
 as they are moved by God ; and many others, because their 
 conscience will not permit them to pay tithes, nor give 
 money or wages to maintain a priest or false teacher, that 
 they receive no profit by ; or to maintain a church where the 
 world worships in vain traditions, and not in the spirit and 
 power of God ; and many have been taken out of peaceful 
 meetings, where they were waiting upon the Lord, and for 
 these causes, through the envy of wicked men, and without 
 any just conviction of the breach of any law, or any lawful 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 trial or examination, have hundreds of just men been sent to 
 prison, and suffered torments and cruelty of every kind." 
 
 The churchmen had secured the influence of the new Pro- 
 tector, and this remonstrance had not the least effect; he was 
 flattered by the ministers in their pulpits ; and the preachers 
 in Suffolk, to prove their loyalty called him their Joshua, and 
 said, " though our sun is gone down, yet no night ensued. 
 Sol occubuit, nox nulla secuta est." A pamphlet was pub- 
 lished entitled " The Church-Faith," to which George Fox 
 wrote an answer, and so incensed some of the members of 
 Parliament, that one of them told him, he must go to Smith- 
 field. 
 
 " I am over your fires and fear them not," said George 
 Fox. 
 
 While addressing some members of Parliament, Major 
 Wiggan said: " Christ had taken away the guilt of sin, but 
 had left the power of sin remaining in us." George Fox 
 said: " This was a strange doctrine, for Christ came to de- 
 stroy the devil and his works, and the power of sin, and so 
 to cleanse men from sin." 
 
 At this time the Friends suffered many bitter persecutions, 
 their meetings were disturbed by the rabble, who were incit- 
 ed to commit acts of barbarity and indecency by the bigoted 
 priests ; many of their members were cast into prison, and 
 at a meeting near London, about eighty persons were strip- 
 ped of their clothes, tied and cast into ditches and ponds. 
 Parliament appointed a committee to examine all who were 
 imprisoned for their religion, of which Henry Vane Avas 
 chairman. When the prisoners were brought to London, he 
 first refused to let them be heard without they uncovered 
 their heads in his presence, but through the influence of some 
 of his best friends, he granted them an audience without 
 enforcing this bigoted rule, and many defended themselves 
 so ably that they regained their liberty. To encourage his 
 friends, George Fox wrote them the following lines : 
 
 " My dear friends, everywhere scattered abroad, in prison 
 and out of prison, fear not because of the reports of suffer- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 119 
 
 ings ; let not the evil spies of the good land make you afraid, 
 if they tell you the walls are high, and that there are Ana- 
 kims in the land ; for at the blowing of the ram's .horns did 
 the walls of Jericho fall down ; and they that brought the 
 evil report, perished in the wilderness. But dwell ye in the 
 faith, patience and hope, having the word of life to keep you, 
 which is beyond the law ; and having the oath of God, his 
 covenant, Jesus Christ, which divides the waters asunder and 
 makes them run in heaps ; in that stand, and ye will see all 
 things work together for good, to them that love God ; and 
 in that triumph when sufferings come, whatever they be. 
 Your faith, your shield, your helmet, your armor you have on. 
 Ye are ready to skip over a mountain, a hill or a wall, and 
 to walk through the deep waters, though they be heaps upon 
 heaps. For the evil spies of the good land may preach up 
 hardness, but Caleb, which signifies an heart, and Joshua, a 
 Saviour, triumphs over all." 
 
 The body of Cromwell lay in state at Somerset House, 
 until the twenty-third of the eleventh month [November], 
 when a statue of him was placed in the room, which so griev- 
 ed George Fox, that he wrote to the persons who placed it 
 there in the following manner : 
 
 " Oh, friends, what are ye doing ! And what mean ye to 
 sound before an image ? Will not all sober people think 
 ye are mad ?" • " Oh, how am I grieved with your abomi- 
 nations ! Oh, how am I wearied ! My soul is wearied with 
 you, saith the Lord. Will I not be avenged of you, think 
 ye, for your abominations ? Oh, how have ye plucked down 
 and set up ! Oh, how are your hearts made whole, and not 
 rent ! And how ye are turned to fooleries ! Which things in 
 times past ye stood over ; therefore, how have ye left my 
 dread, saith the Lord ! O, therefore, fear, and repent, lest the 
 snare and the pit take you all. The great day of the Lord 
 is come upon all your abominations, and the swift hand of 
 the Lord is turned against them all. The sober people in the 
 nation stand amazed at your doings, and are ashamed, as if 
 you would bring in popery." 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 The pompous State funeral of the Protector took place on 
 the twenty-third of the eleventh month [November], and the 
 streets of London, the windows, the balconies, and even the 
 roofs of houses, were densely crowded with thousands, anx- 
 ious to see the great and magnificent procession in honor to 
 the memory of Oliver Cromwell. " Alas! for him," said 
 Burrough, whilst viewing the procession on horseback, near 
 Charing Cross, " who was once a great instrument in the 
 hands of the Lord to break down idolatrous images! Did 
 not the Lord once stir up his heart against such things ? 
 And did not once his children, officers, soldiers, and army, 
 pull down all images and crosses, and all such like popish 
 affairs, wherever they met with them ? What grievous and 
 abominable work is this ? Have they now made a costly 
 image of him? And are such as were once his soldiers, now 
 guarding it and watching over it, and his children and offi- 
 cers following it, and multitudes of the inhabitants of Lon- 
 don wondering and gazing after an image. What a change 
 is this in so short a time ?" 
 
 His zealous testimony was printed, and the impression it 
 made on the hearts of the people is a more lasting monument 
 to his memory than the statue .erected to Cromwell. The 
 persecution of the Society of Friends, however, did not cease 
 under the government of Richard Cromwell, snd in the 
 twelfth month [December], E. Burrough sent the following to 
 the Protector and his council : 
 
 " The Lord God will shortly make you know that we 
 are his people ; though we be accounted as sheep for the 
 slaughter, yet our King of Righteousness will break you to 
 pieces, if you harden your hearts, and repent not. And 
 though that love will not draw thee, neither the gentle lead- 
 ings of our God have any place in you, yet judgments shall 
 awaken you, and his heavy hand of indignation shall lie 
 upon your consciences, and you will be distracted and scat- 
 tered to pieces." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, England was convulsed 
 with political factions, all anxious and determined to 
 1659. carry out their several ends ; many adhering to the 
 new Protector, whilst a number of the members of the 
 Long Parliament connected themselves with the royalists, 
 and resolved to establish Charles upon the ancient throne of 
 their country. As there were many young and inexperienced 
 persons who had become members of the Society of Friends, 
 George Fox wrote them a letter to beware of plots and trea- 
 son, and telling them their welfare was a spiritual one, 
 fought without the use of carnal weapons. 
 
 William Caton made another visit to Holland, and after 
 holding meetings at the English Alley, Eland's Graff, Ange- 
 lier's Graff, Kuypers Padt, he succeeded in establishing a 
 permanent one at Verwer's Padt, without the city's freedom, 
 where many people flocked to hear the word of God. After 
 making some stay at Amsterdam, he returned to England. 
 
 William Ames went to Germany, and while at Heidel- 
 burg, he visited the court of the Prince Elector, Charles Lo- 
 dowick, who treated him with urbanity and kindness, and 
 took no offence because he did not stand uncovered in his 
 presence. Ames walking by the side of the prince in the 
 garden, with his hat on, some of the courtiers askc 1 if they 
 should request the Quaker to take it off, but the prince 
 said he did not expect him to do that. At another time, the 
 prince requested his chaplain and Ames to dine with him, 
 and it seems for no other purpose than to give Ames a chance 
 to reprove the chaplain, which task he did, to the infinite 
 pleasure of the prince. 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Whilst William Ames was in the Palatine, he convinced 
 a settlement of Baptists at Kriesheim, a town not far from 
 Worms, which afterward emigrated to Pennsylvania, in 
 America, just in time to avoid the desolation of a war, which 
 soon spread itself over this part of Germany, reducing thou- 
 sands to the most abject poverty. 
 
 After Ames had converted a number in Palatine, the ma- 
 gistrates became offended and passed a law, fining all who 
 gave him lodging or entertainment, but the Prince-Elector, 
 being informed of this unjust procedure on the part of his 
 minor officers, took off the fine and rendered the law null. 
 A year after this, Ames came to Palatine with John Higgens, 
 and visiting the Prince-Elector, he understood from the cap- 
 tain of the guard, that the prince was glad of his return. 
 For several years Ames' friends from England visited the 
 Elector, and to his praise be it said, he always treated them 
 with affection and kindness. 
 
 In the first month [January] of this year, W. Ames was 
 at Rotterdam, in Holland, and while there, was confined in 
 Bedlam, which at that time excited some attention among 
 the people, and demands more than a passing notice. At 
 Moordrecht, a village near Gonda, dwelt a man named Mar- 
 tin Martinson, a cooper by trade, who, on becoming convert- 
 ed to the Society of Friends, opened his house for a place of 
 meeting. On going from his lodging to Martinson's house 
 one first-day morning, he was followed by a multitude of 
 riotous persons, who stoned him, and making a great noise, 
 the priest of Gouwerck came to them and asked, 
 
 " Why they made such a sad noise ?" 
 
 " Because the people were not taught better," replied 
 Ames. 
 
 " They are not in the habit of making such a noise against 
 honest people," said the priest ; " but I believe you to be a 
 deceiving wolf, that comes among the sheep to seduce them, 
 and that therefore they cry against you." 
 
 " Prove it," said Ames. 
 
 " I do not know you," replied the priest 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 123 
 
 " Learn, then, better manners, than to call one thou know- 
 est not, a wolf and a deceiver." 
 
 He shortly after wrote from Rotterdam to Martinson, re- 
 questing him to wait on the priest, and ask him to appoint 
 a time to prove he was a deceiving wolf in the flock of the 
 Lord. When Martin went to see the priest, he did not 
 ■wish to meet W. Ames ; but persisting in his demand, the 
 priest appointed the next first-day morning, after he had 
 finished his sermon in the church, where he would publicly 
 prove all he had said, before the people. 
 
 The priest of Gouwerck, however, consulted with his 
 associate at Moordrecht, who advised him not to meet the 
 Quaker ; and they concocted and put into execution a plot 
 to arrest him, and have him imprisoned as a madman in 
 Bedlam. About a week after this, Martin was arrested, and 
 placed in the same room with Ames. They remained about 
 three weeks in Bedlam, when the deputy-governor of the 
 house told them, " If I were in you place, I would go out." 
 
 " Wilt thou suffer us to do so ?" said the prisoners. 
 
 " I will not hinder you," replied the governor. 
 
 " I will not be reputed as one who broke prison," said 
 Ames. 
 
 " Nay," replied the deputy, " why should you be reputed 
 so ? You may go out freely : all is unlocked, and the door 
 will be opened for you ; for the governors do not wish you 
 to stay here." 
 
 On the 28th of the month they left Bedlam ; but Ames 
 told the deputy, " That he intended to go and speak with the 
 dikegrave,^ and if he were displeased at their going out, he 
 might put them in again, for they would not have the name 
 of prison-breakers." The dikegrave sent him back to Bed- 
 lam, where he remained for a month, during which time he 
 wrote a reply to the Answer of Jacob Koelman to eighty- 
 three queries given to the German people by Ames, some 
 time before. On gaining his liberty, he returned to England* 
 
 * A German justice. 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 but soon after went again to Holland, in company with Wil- 
 liam Caton. 
 
 An account of the sufferings of the Society of Friends 
 was published, and delivered to the Speaker of Parliament, 
 Thomas Bampfield, for the purpose of exposing the perse- 
 cution of some of the petty officers under their authority. 
 It contained a list of one hundred and forty persons who 
 were deprived of their possessions, and cruelly impri- 
 soned, for holding religious meetings, refusing to swear, and 
 not paying tithes : of this number, twenty-one died in 
 prison, either from the sickness generated in their filthy 
 abodes, or from the violent abuses inflicted upon them by 
 the rabble and the jailors. Richard Sale, formerly a con- 
 stable near West Chester, was placed in so small a cell, that 
 the compression swelled his body, and he died from pain 
 and suffocation. It is computed that nearly two thousand 
 persons, who by the Word of God became members of his 
 meeting, were forced, during the last six years, to suffer 
 almost every kind of cruelly for the belief they had imbibed 
 from the Fountain of all good. A petition was also sent to 
 Parliament by one hundred and sixty persons, who offered 
 themselves as hostages for their brethren now in prison ; and 
 under their names the following sentence was added : " If 
 we had been of Esau's race, we should have fainted before 
 this time ; and if we had been of Cain's progeny, we should 
 have fought with his weapons : but this never was, neither 
 is it the way of the righteous and chosen, of which we are 
 from the foundation of the world." In the 4th month [April], 
 this was given to Parliament; but they did not accept the 
 offer, nor release the prisoners. 
 
 Edward Burrough published a letter to the rulers of the 
 Commonwealth, predicting that in the next year the Protec- 
 tor should be displaced, and King Charles II. fully established 
 on his throne. 
 
 " Wherefore, all ye rulers," he wrote, " and all ye that have 
 trodden down the heritage of God, and ye that have disre- 
 garded these many warnings that ye have had ; I say unto 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 125 
 
 you all, in the power of the Lord God, in his dominion, and 
 by his spirit, this is once more a warning to you from the 
 Lord, and that these things must surely come to pass, and 
 be fulfilled in their season, and no man shall be able to de- 
 liver his brother ; but every man shall bear his own burden, 
 and drink the cup prepared for him. And though it hath 
 been counted a light thing amongst you, and you have de- 
 spised the reproof, and gone on without fear ; yet, inasmuch 
 as the Lord hath spared you, and not speedily executed 
 judgment upon you, but rather waited for your return ; yet 
 the dealing of the Lord towards you, you have not accepted ; 
 and therefore shall his judgments be greater upon you. For 
 if you do not come to the witness in your own consciences, 
 what evil hath this people done? Whose ox have they 
 taken, or what have they desired of you ? Or what have 
 they sought from you ? Or wherein have they been a bur- 
 den to you ? — saving that they have reproved you for your 
 own iniquities, and desired your redemption ! Would you 
 but now at last come to consider this, and confess the truth 
 in your consciences ; will not that tell you, that they have 
 patiently suffered all things that you have cruelly imposed 
 upon them ? And have they not walked peaceably towards 
 you, and humbly, meekly and justly, among their neighbors ? 
 Have they sought to overthrow the government, or have they 
 sought vengeance against then enemies? Or what injury 
 have they done to any man's person or estate, saving to Sa- 
 tan and his kingdom ? Have they not sought to reform and 
 reclaim the ungodly from their ways ? And have they not 
 pitied and prayed for their enemies ? And have they not in all 
 things walked in good conscience towards the Lord and all 
 men. Yea, my friends, in the day of the Lord, when the 
 witness in your conscience shall not be limited, but shall 
 speak plainly ; and when the impartial Judge shall appear 
 upon his throne, then shall you acknowledge these things. 
 
 " The visitation of the Lord is near an end, when his lov- 
 ing-kindness will be shut from you, and his long suffering 
 turned into fury ; and he will make you know we are his 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 people, with whom you have thus dealt. The time will come 
 when he will crown his people in sight of his enemies; 
 he will crown them with praise, and with righteousness, with 
 honor and majesty, and he will keep them in safety, even 
 when you are surrounded with sorrow ; his mercy and lov- 
 ing-kindness shall extend towards them even when his* 
 wrath and judgments smite you, and confound you. O ! 
 what shall I say unto you ; for the deep sense thereof re- 
 mains in my heart ; when I consider, how in all ages the 
 Lord avenged his people's cause, and when the time of their 
 suffering expired, he broke the bonds of iniquity and set them 
 free. Thus did he with his people Israel of old, and many 
 times it was his way with his people to bring them low by 
 suffering, and then to raise them up again in glory : and he 
 suffered their enemies for a season to glory over them, that 
 he might bring them down. And thus he did in England, in 
 the case between the bishops and their crew of persecutors, 
 and the poor people, in that day called Puritans. And is not 
 he the same, to effect the same work at this very day ? Yea, 
 doubtless, and much more will he do, inasmuch as the mani- 
 festation of truth is more clear than it was in their day ; and 
 inasmuch as the rulers and people of this nation have reject- 
 ed a more clear testimony, than either the papists of Queen 
 Mary's days, or the bishops and prelates in their days, even 
 so much more will the Lord God execute his vengeance with 
 more violence, in a more manifest way ; and all shall know 
 that it is he that doth it, and he will set his people free ; for 
 he hath regarded their sufferings, and hath said it is enough ; 
 he hath tried them and found them faithful ; all this hath been 
 suffered to prove them and not destroy them. And like as 
 he hath preserved them in patience and peace through it all, 
 even so will he give them hearts to walk answeringly to their 
 deliverance ; and as they have abounded in patience in their 
 sufferings, so shall they abound in praises everlasting in the 
 day of their freedom, and the earth shall be glad, and shall 
 yield the increase and blessing ; the heaven and earth shall 
 rejoice, and the hearts of the righteous shall beat with joy ; 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 127 
 
 when the Lord hath broken the yoke of the oppressed, and 
 set his people free, inwardly and outwardly ; and then shall 
 they sing to the Lord, over all their enemies, who shall be 
 tormented and vexed in the Lord's displeasure ; for their re- 
 ward cometh, and their recompense shall be even as their 
 work, and he will give unto them sorrow and anguish, in- 
 stead of rejoicing. 
 
 " Again, when I consider how the Lord raised his people, 
 even out of the dust ; and those who were not a people ; and 
 the Lord hath carried on this work amongst his people, not 
 by anything of man, nor by the arm of flesh, but in pure in- 
 nocence and simplicity hath it been accomplished; not by 
 the wisdom of this world, nor by men in places of honor and 
 of power in the nations ; for all that has been wanting to them ; 
 and what they are, it is through the opposition of all this ; for 
 they have none of the great men of the earth on their side to 
 defend them and establish them, but all have been against 
 them, and even oppression and tyranny executed upon them, 
 rather lhan any approbation, or justification from men in out- 
 ward authority. So that truly it may be said, there hath 
 been nothing of man in this work, but all of the Lord, by his 
 own power, and in a contrary way to all the false sects, and 
 false churches, hath the beginning and carrying on of these 
 things been ; for we know that all the false sects in this na- 
 tion have risen and been established through the countenance 
 of men in place and power, and upon man, and the wisdom 
 of this world, and authority of the powers of earth, hath the 
 rise and fall of all false churches depended. And as the 
 powers of the earth have sided with them, so have they been 
 set up ; and at the displeasure of authority have been cast 
 down. But as for this people, they are raised of the Lord, 
 and established by him, even contrary to all men ; and they 
 have given their power only to God, and they cannot give 
 their power to any mortal man, to stand and fall by an out- 
 ward authority, and to that they cannot seek ; but to the 
 Lord alone, who heareth their cry and will avenge their cause. 
 
 " Wherefore, let all the persecutors bow before the Lord, 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 and let all the saints walk humbly in his sight, and let them 
 continue in that innocent life in which they have begun ; 
 and let them never forget the mercies of the Lord, and what 
 he hath brought to pass, who hath manifested great things, 
 and will do more and more to the confounding of all his 
 enemies, and to the praise of his elect people. And all ye 
 saints upon the earth, have ye the Lord in respect continu- 
 ally, and turn you not unto idols, but let the Lord be your 
 joy for evermore." 
 
 In the fifth month [May], Edward Burrough and Samuel 
 Fisher went to Dover. The deputy-governor of the English 
 castle, Colonel Alsop, not being friendly to the Society of 
 which they were members, sent word to know their business 
 in Dover : the next morning they wrote a letter, stating that 
 their object was to visit the Jesuits, friars, priests, and other 
 papists, and show them the error of their ways. The deputy 
 tokl them it would be dangerous to remain in town, and de- 
 sired them to depart ; but they answered, " If he desired 
 them, they could not receive any such desire ; and if he 
 commanded them, they could not obey his command ; be- 
 cause they could not leave the town but in the will of God, 
 according to which will they came thither. E. Burrough 
 preached to the capuchin friars the next day, and wrote the 
 following queries to them, in Latin : 
 
 " The mighty day of the Lord is come, and coming unto 
 you, and all the world. Awake, awake, ye that sleep in the 
 earth, for the dreadful God is arising to plead with you, and 
 to give unto all the world the cup of his fierce indignation, 
 because of your idolatry, hypocrisy, and abominations, which 
 have corrupted the earth, and are come up before him, and 
 provoked him ; and the cry of the just, who hath been smit- 
 ten, is heard by the Most High; and his sword, which is the 
 word of his mouth, will wound and destroy all his enemies. 
 The day of your visitation is now come, wherein the Lord 
 is searching you, and trying you, that he may recompense. 
 And this is the word of the Lord to you. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 129 
 
 " Wherefore I am moved by the Lord to propound some 
 few queries, for the trial of your spirits and your ways ; to 
 which I demand your answer, that all things may be brought 
 to light and true judgment, and that you may be judged 
 justly, and by the Spirit of the Lord cleared, or condemned 
 according to your deeds." 
 
 During their stay in Dover, they went to the college of 
 Jesuits, and held a conference of about three hours with the 
 chief rector, when he became weary of their reasoning, and 
 left, without promising, as they wished, to meet them at an- 
 other more convenient time. Burrough wrote several pro- 
 positions to the Jesuits, priests, and friars, in which he repre- 
 sented the tyranny of the Church of Rome in its true light : 
 but these letters were not answered. Burrough also wrote 
 to the soldiers of the English garrison, and told them to be 
 faithful to the Lord, and not to seek honor for themselves in 
 the service, but the honor of God. He followed the example 
 of John the Baptist, when he spoke to the soldiers, and 
 showed them in what consisted their military duty : " What 
 do you know but the Lord may have some good work for 
 you to do, if you be faithful to Him ? And since the Lord 
 will one day avenge the innocent blood shed in the Pope's 
 dominions, and appear against Babylon and Rome, the seat 
 of the whore and the kingdom of Anlichrist, it seems not 
 improbable the Lord will make an opening of the way by 
 the English nation. It is the Lord's work, I know, to make 
 men truly religious ; but yet he may work by you to destroy 
 all obstacles that set themselves against Him. If such a 
 work falls to your lot, do not be ambitious, nor vain-glorious, 
 but make it your work to demand the disannulling of the 
 Popish inquisition and cruel laws." He also, charged the 
 officers not to be tyrants and oppressors over the poor sol- 
 diers, but be loving and meek, and examples of goodness 
 unto them. Lest they should think he was in favor of war, 
 and not a friend to the harmlessness of non-resistance, he 
 told them, " That the Lord had a more honorable work for 
 them to perform — to destroy the kingdom of the devil, and 
 
j30 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the ground of all wars ; and they were to lead on to a more 
 honorable victory — the victory over sin." 
 
 The power of the Protector, Richard Cromwell, was 
 gradually declining. The officers of the army advised him 
 to dissolve the existing Parliament, many of whose members 
 it was thought were in favor of the restoration of King 
 Charles to the throne ; and, in accordance with the request 
 of the chief republicans, the Long Parliament was again 
 summoned. It appointed a Committee of Safety for the pur- 
 pose of apprehending all who disturbed the peace, and 
 making such alteration in the military laws as the interest of 
 the commonwealth required. Increasing in power, it selected 
 a council of state, and sent word to Richard Cromwell, who 
 was now deprived of all authority, to remove from White- 
 hall, which order he was forced to obey ; and Parliament 
 granting him two thousand pounds, besides pledging them- 
 selves to pay all debts he contracted for the public good, 
 stripped him of all command, — brought him from power, and 
 placed him as low as the most private citizen. His brother 
 Henry, Lord Deputy of Ireland, was also recalled, and his 
 power wrenched from him by the Parliament. The friends 
 of King Charles raised an insurrection in Cheshire, under 
 the guidance of Sir George Booth, who, having received a 
 commission from the prince, enlisted a number of followers, 
 and seized the city of Chester. Parliament despatched Gen- 
 eral Lambert to the seat of war ; and, after a serious battle, 
 Booth was defeated, — taken prisoner whilst attempting to 
 escape in woman's apparel, — and by an order of the council 
 of state, committed to the Tower. Edward Ludlow was 
 sent to Ireland, and appointed Commander-in-chief of the 
 army in that kingdom. Some rash persons who had con- 
 nected themselves with the Society of Friends, wished to take 
 up arms ; and General Lambert offered them many induce- 
 ments to such a course. But George Fox wrote them a let- 
 ter showing the unlawfulness of wars and fightings, repre- 
 senting it as a work not at all becoming the followers of 
 Christ; and he exhorted his friends not to join with those 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 131 
 
 who took up arms, but to fight only with spiritual, which de- 
 stroyed the occasion for carnal weapons. 
 
 George Fleetwood was commander-in-chief of the army ; 
 and, in connection with the other officers, attempted to wrest 
 the supreme power of the nation from parliament and place 
 it under the control of the army, which caused great division, 
 and met with considerable opposition among the people. 
 The military officers were in favor of the abolishment of 
 tithes, and providing some other maintenance for the minis- 
 ters of the established Church ; they complained of having 
 been deceived by Parliament ; and Colonel Desborough said 
 to that body, " You have not performed any part of the 
 promises you made to the arrny ; you have taken no care 
 to secure liberty of conscience ; and your present inten- 
 tion is to remove the principal officers and put others in 
 their places, who hold different and contrary principles." The 
 council of officers were in favor of calling a new Parliament. 
 They made arrangement with the clergy that the tithes 
 should not be abolished until some other revenue, as ample 
 and certain, should be settled upon them ; they also made 
 some provisions for several other sects who slightly differed 
 in faith and worship from the established Church ; but the 
 Quakers, whose principles, they said, tended to the destruc- 
 tion of civil society, were not to be tolerated. In this fearful 
 dilemma of public affairs, Edward Burrough wrote and pub- 
 lished a paper styled, " A Message to the present rulers of 
 England, whether committee of safety, council of officers, or 
 others whatsoever." Our limits will not permit the introduc- 
 tion of the whole of [this admirable document, but we will 
 endeavor to give the principal arguments and good advice it 
 contains, without wearying the reader with much that would 
 prove uninteresting. He commences by describing the 
 power of God, and praising Him for the many advantages 
 and favors he has at all times granted to the English nation. 
 He says, " God will purify the people in judgment, refine them 
 with the fire of tribulations, set up righteousness, sway the 
 government with his own sceptre, overthrow all oppressors, and 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the kingdoms of this world must become his kingdoms and 
 glorify his name. The late reformation did in some measure 
 free the nation from much tyranny and cruelty in destroying 
 the power of the Pope throughout the kingdom, but the peo- 
 ple have the last few years suffered as much injustice and 
 inhumanity under the succeeding power, as they ever en- 
 dured during the reign of Mary or any other Catholic sover- 
 eign." To the Committee of Safety, he said ; " Your kingdom 
 may prove but small and little and full of uproars and 
 troubles, and little peace and satisfaction to yourselves and 
 the people under you ; confusion will attend you, and you 
 will be compassed with many fears. Something, you may 
 or ought to do, if but to expose the false church with all its 
 guilt and abhorrence, more than your successors have dared 
 to do. You have a price put into your hands, which you 
 may improve to the^Lord's honor, to the nation's good, and 
 to your own happiness ; which if you be faithful to the 
 Lord ; do what he requires of you ; if you become meek 
 and humble men and fear his name, deny yourselves — not 
 seek your own honor, nor any earthly advantage to your- 
 selves ; if you do this, then my Lord will show mercy to you, 
 and you shall not fall into the power of your enemies, 
 though many may rise up against you ; but your days shall 
 be lengthened, that the purpose of the Lord maybe turned to 
 your long continuance and not to your sudden destruction. 
 If you walk in this way, and rule only for the Lord, then 
 shall you be honored as men, if not as an authority ; and the 
 nation will enjoy peace, and you shall not suddenly fall. 
 But if you always be treacherous and disobedient towards 
 him, abuse your power, and trifle away your hour about 
 places of honor, and such self-seeking matters, and the cause 
 of God be neglected by you, and his people continue in 
 suffering, then shall you be cast aside with shameful dis- 
 grace, and the heavy hand of the Lord shall be upon you in 
 judgment, and you shall be smitten more than any one 
 before you ; your estates shall not be spared from the spoiler, 
 nor your souls from the pit,_nor your persons from the vio- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 133 
 
 lence of men ; no ! nor your neck from the axe ; for if you be 
 unfaithful, and continually treacherous to the cause of God, 
 then shall you be left to the will of your enemies, and they 
 shall charge treachery and treason upon you, and your per- 
 sons and estates shall be given for a pay to your enemies ; 
 and you shall not deliver yourselves, neither will the Lord 
 deliver you from the execution of merciless men, for he will 
 leave the cruel-hearted to plead with you." 
 
 Concerning the ministers of the established Church, he 
 uses the following language ; " They are the woful cause of 
 the nation groaning under merciless dealing, and there is upon 
 their account, the guilt of blood, injustice and oppression ; 
 their iniquities cry for vengeance upon their own heads ; for 
 they are full, and the measure thereof is nearly finished, and 
 God's eternal vengeance is their next reward from the eternal 
 God. What shall I say of them but this ? The earth is 
 oppressed by them-— the inhabitants groan under them, and the 
 righteous God is vexed by them. Are these the men that the 
 nation are forced to maintain in their pride and idol- 
 atry ? Is this the ministry that must be encouraged ? 
 I must tell you the hand of the Lord is against them, and 
 whosoever shall seek to defend them, shall not prosper in 
 their doings, because their oppressions, cruelties, deceits, and 
 abominations, are nigh finished and fulfilled. Let this min- 
 istry alone, and join not yourselves to Baal, lest you perish, 
 neither take part with Antichrist any longer, neither be ye 
 fighters against the Lamb and his kingdom ; but free the 
 nation, and let all its inhabitants be freed, from the cruel 
 tasks and yokes of such men, and such a ministry, as afore- 
 said ; uphold it not against the Lord, for if you do, you shall 
 never inherit heaven." 
 
 In speaking of the Society of Friends he says, " The Lord 
 will assuredly honor them, and his hand shall be continued 
 to preserve them and defend them against all their enemies 
 whatsoever ; and he doth reserve them to himself and -for a 
 glorious work ; he hath formed them for himself, and they 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 cannot join with any of the horns of the great beast, neither 
 can a place of honor pervert them from their perfect way." 
 
 The sequel will show how true some of these prophecies 
 were fulfilled, particularly those concerning the rulers of the 
 nation. E. Burrough also wrote several epistles to his 
 friends, exhorting them to faithfulness, and to lay up their 
 treasures in heaven, that they might enjoy a crown of ever- 
 lasting glory. 
 
 Among the eminent preachers of this period, Stephen 
 Crisp was distinguished for his eloquence and power in de- 
 claring the word of God in every town and city in Scotland, 
 during a visit to that part of the kingdom, in the ninth month 
 [September] of this year. In the tenth month [October], 
 George Fox held a large and respectable meeting at Nor- 
 wich, and among his audience were several priests, who 
 accused him of error and blasphemy. They said George 
 Fox asserted, " That people must wait upon God by his 
 power and Spirit, and feel his presence when they did not 
 speak words." 
 
 George Fox asked them, " Whether the Apostles and 
 Holy men of God, did not hear God speak to them in their 
 silence, before they wrote the Scripture ?" 
 
 " David and the Prophets did so," replied the priests. 
 
 When some of the assembly called on the priests to prove 
 wherein George Fox had uttered blasphemy and error, they 
 went away and never after troubled a " Quaker meeting," as 
 they termed it. George Fox, the younger, wrote several let- 
 ters to Parliament, and told them, " That their day was turn- 
 ed into darkness, and their sun had set; that the decree had 
 gone forth, sealed against them, and it could not be recalled." 
 
 The Committee of Safety were the rulers of the nation, but 
 held their power against the will of a majority of the people. 
 Edward Ludlow, Lord Deputy of Ireland, continued to urge 
 the policy of restoring the authority of Parliament ; and 
 General Monk, who commanded the army in Scotland, aim- 
 ing at the restoration of the king, wrote to Lenthal, the 
 Speaker, that he would act for the Parliament, if it was re- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. ^35 
 
 stored ; and in a short time the affairs of the English nation 
 were again under the control of that body. E. Burrough and 
 George Fox, the younger, wrote warnings to Parliament, 
 pointing out the work of the Lord in the many changes of 
 government, and exhorting them to follow the paths of truth 
 and righteousness. 
 
 1 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 General Monk, who was a staunch and unflinching 
 friend to Charles Stuart, although he concealed it, 
 1660. marched part of his army to London, and after dis- 
 charging the officers who were in favor of the Parlia- 
 ment, he promoted those who were friendly to the restoration 
 of the exiled king. Through his influence with many of 
 the members of Parliament, he procured the release of Sir 
 George Booth, who, it will be remembered, was confined in 
 the Tower for leading the insurrection at Chester, and also 
 secured London in such a manner, that his enemies could 
 not seriously oppose his design. He also arrested several of 
 the judges who condemned King Charles the First, who, 
 together with General Lambert, were confined in the Tower. 
 Gradually his power increased, until he again fully estab- 
 lished the House of Lords, which was destroyed in 1648. 
 
 During this excitement, George Fox came to London, and 
 writing a letter to the leaders of the political party whose 
 power was about to expire, he told them, " That the prophe- 
 cies were fulfilled concerning them, and that they who for- 
 merly called the Quakers, giddy, had but too seriously proved 
 themselves heedless and unsteady." 
 
 George Fox left London and went to Somersetshire, 
 where the meetings of Friends were often disturbed by some 
 unruly persons. Whilst he was addressing an assembly of 
 people, a man came in the room dressed in a bear-skin, and 
 placing himself before him, made some sport for his wicked 
 followers, and caused great disturbance in the meeting. This 
 man afterwards met with a fearful judgment ; for in passing a 
 field where there was a bull-baiting, he ventured too near, and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 137 
 
 the bull mangled him in the most horrible manner. George 
 Fox was at Cornwall, when there was a great storm at sea, 
 wrecking many vessels, and driving them on the Land's End 
 of that county. The inhabitants, as usual, instead of endea- 
 voring to save the persons on board, used every exertion to 
 collect all the goods and valuables that were driven on shore. 
 Although many of these wreckers were professed Christians, 
 yet they acted worse than the heathens of Melita, who cour- 
 teously received Paul when he was wrecked on that island. 
 George Fox wrote to the magistrates, priests, and people, 
 showing them the wickedness of robbing those who were 
 exposed to the fierce sea storms, and bidding them repent ; 
 he exhorted them to do unto others as they would have others 
 do unto them. After addressing several meetings in Corn- 
 wall, he went to Bristol, and soothing some disturbances 
 among his friends, he held a large meeting near that city, 
 and convinced many, who heretofore were bitter enemj^> to 
 the Society. 
 
 Complaint having been made at Westminster, to George 
 Monk, that some of his soldiers were in the habit of disturb- 
 ing meetings of the Society, he issued the following order : 
 
 " St. James, March 9th, 1660. 
 " I do require all officers and soldiers, to forbear to disturb 
 the peaceful meetings of the Quakers, they doing nothing 
 prejudicial to the Parliament or Commonwealth of England. 
 
 " George Monk." 
 
 This was manly and upright conduct on the part of Monk, 
 who, although he inserted " Commonwealth," was making 
 efficient arrangements to have the king restored. Charles, 
 for several years, resided at Cologne, but Monk persuaded 
 him to make a voyage to Spain ; and he afterwards went to 
 France, from that to Brussels, then to Breda, where he issued 
 a proclamation, calling upon his friends to acknowledge him 
 and raise his standard throughout the kingdom. This pro- 
 clamation is dated the fourteenth of the fourth month [April], 
 1660, and in it the king says he will consent to any act or 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 acts of Parliament which had been made for the relief of the 
 people, and will satisfy the officers and soldiers under Gen- 
 eral Monk, by settling all arrears that are due. It was sent 
 to the House of Lords, and a duplicate was delivered to the 
 House of Commons, who, on the eighth of May, after serious 
 and mature consideration, proclaimed Charles Stuart rightful 
 sovereign of the kingdom of Great Britain. On his return, 
 the king was invited by the French to come by the way of 
 Calais, and by the Spaniards to pass through Brussels ; but 
 at the request of the States-General of the United Provinces, 
 he went in the States' yacht to Rotterdam, thence by land to 
 Hague, where remaining a few days, he sailed from Scheve- 
 linghen to England, and made his entry into London on the 
 anniversary of his birthday. 
 
 In the fifth month [May], George Fox, the younger, went 
 to Harwich, where he intended holding a meeting, but the 
 may^\ Miles Hubbard, ordered him to be arrested under the 
 pretence of having caused a riot. When the police took 
 him into custody, he said, " If I have done anything worthy 
 of death, or bonds, I shall not refuse either, but I desire you 
 to show me what law I have transgressed ; which you ought 
 to do before you send me to prison, that I may know for 
 what cause I am sent thither." 
 
 i " You shall know that afterwards," replied the mayor. 
 
 Robert Grassingham, a shipwright of the Admiralty, offer- 
 ed to accompany him to his prison, which seemed to please 
 the mayor, who said concerning Grassingham : " If I could 
 get him out of town, I should know what course to take with 
 the other Quaker." Notice of their arrest and imprisonment 
 was sent to Parliament, who, on receiving the information, 
 issued the following order : 
 
 " The House being informed that two Quakers, George 
 Fox and Robert Grassingham, have made a disturbance at 
 Harwich, and that the said George Fox, who pretends to be a 
 preacher, did lately, in his preaching there, speak words reflect- 
 ing on the government and ministry, which tended to pro- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 139 
 
 duce a meeting, is now committed by the mayor and magis- 
 trates of thai place — 
 
 " Ordered, That the said George Fox and Robert Grass- 
 ingham be forthwith brought in custody ; and that the sheriff 
 of the county of Essex do receive them, and give them his 
 assistance for the conveyance of them accordingly, and deli- 
 vering them into the charge of the sergeant-at-arms of this 
 House. 
 
 " Ordered, That the thanks of this House be given to the 
 mayor and magistrates of Harwich for their care in this 
 business." 
 
 By this it appeared the magistrates of Harwich were spe- 
 cial friends of the members of Parliament. George Fox 
 was delivered to the sheriff of Essex, and on their way to 
 London, they met Robert Grassingham, who had been set 
 at liberty, and received an order from the commissioner of 
 the Admiralty and Navy, for refitting one of the king's 
 frigates ; but the sheriff took him in custody, and delivered 
 them both to the sergeant-at-arms, who committed them to 
 Lambeth- House. After remaining three weeks in this 
 place, they wrote a letter to the House of Commons, giving 
 some account of their imprisonment, and desiring that their 
 accusers might be brought face to face before the Parliament, 
 and saying : " That if anything could be proved against them, 
 worthy of punishment, they should not refuse it. But they 
 thought it unjust and unreasonable that a man should be 
 taken out of a peaceable meeting, and sent to prison without 
 being examined, only for declaring against the cursing and 
 wickedness of rude people, and against such as suffered such 
 ungodliness and do not seek to suppress it." 
 
 As it was simply addressed to the " Speaker of the House 
 of Commons," and not to the " Right Honorable, the House 
 of Commons," the Speaker would not deliver it to Parlia- 
 ment, but, by the help of their friends, they had it published, 
 and placed a copy in the hands of every member. It was 
 fourteen weeks after they arrived at Lambeth prison, before 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Parliament took any action on their case, when, on motion of 
 one of the members, the following resolution was passed : 
 
 " Ordered, That George Fox and Robert Grassingham, 
 who, by virtue of a former order of this house, were taken 
 into custody by the sergeant-at-arms for some disturbance at 
 Harwich, be forthwith released, and set at liberty, upon bail 
 first given, to render themselves when they shall be re- 
 quired." 
 
 Shortly after this order was issued, the sergeant-at-arms 
 sent his clerk to demand fifty pounds for fees, and ten shil- 
 lings a week for room rent. But knowing that they had 
 transgressed no law, they determined not to satisfy this un- 
 just demand, yet they offered to pay two shillings and six- 
 pence for the room, although this would be exorbitant, as it 
 was the highest room in a lofty tower, with the windows un- 
 glazed. Their case was left to the king's privy council, and 
 after using every evasion to retain them in custody, they 
 were finally released. 
 
 During his imprisonment, he wrote a small book which 
 was entitled, " A noble salutation to King Charles Stewart," 
 in which he explained the policy of the administration for 
 several years previous. '•' Therefore," said he, " let no man 
 deceive thee, by persuading thee that these things are thus 
 brought to pass, because the kingdom was thy own proper 
 right, and because it was withheld from thee contrary to 
 all right ; or because those called royalists are much more 
 righteous than those who are now fallen under thee. For I 
 plainly declare unto thee, that this kingdom, and all the king- 
 doms of the earth, are properly the Lord's. And this know, 
 that it was the just hand of God, in taking away the kingdom 
 from thy father and thee, and giving it to others ; and also it 
 was the hand of God that took it away from them and again 
 placed it in thy power." 
 
 He exhorted the king to consider, " that his station was not 
 without danger, on account of the instability of the people, 
 many of whom were perfidious, since they once were in favor 
 of a king and parliament, and shortly after swore against a 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 141 
 
 king and the House of Lords, and afterwards again swore to 
 support the government of a single person." 
 
 The author dwells upon the wickedness of the people, in 
 becoming beastly drunk, to show their loyalty to the king ; 
 he relates his having preached at Harwich against the griev- 
 ous wickedness of the people, and also the sufferings of his 
 imprisonment. 
 
 An eminent royalist, since supposed to be Edward, Earl 
 of Clarendon and High Chancellor of England, wrote several 
 queries to the " Quakers," desiring to know if they thought 
 the king's government possessed the essentials for stability, 
 and many others of a similar character. Edward Burrough 
 wrote and published an answer, in which he said : " That in 
 some of their writings it had been signified, that they had 
 some expectation of the king's restoration. That the king's 
 coming to the throne was reasonable and equitable, because 
 it was the will of the Lord. That his reign and government 
 might be blessed or not blessed, according to the manner he 
 swayed his power. If we suffer under the king's govern- 
 ment, it is for the name of Christ ; because nothing can be 
 charged against us in this capacity as we now stand, and in 
 this state unto which we are now gathered and changed, nor 
 in any matter of action or rebellion against the king, nor his 
 father, or that we sought their destruction as men ; but upon 
 sober and reasonable principles, and not for corrupt ends, 
 nor to get honor and riches to ourselves, as some others might 
 do, who went into the war for their own benefit." 
 
 In another place, he says, " But this is not a time to accuse 
 one another, but to forgive one another and so overcome 
 your enemies. When they gained the victory, they did not 
 reform, but became oppressors, as well as others, and be- 
 came cruel to all who would not do as they dictated. And 
 for this cause the Lord hath brought them down, and may 
 justly suffer others to deal with them as they have dealt with 
 others. Yet notwithstanding, I must still say, and it is my 
 judgment, that there was very great oppression and vexation 
 under the government of the late king and bishops under his 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 power, which the Lord was offended with, and many good 
 people oppressed, for which cause the Lord might and did 
 justly raise up some to oppose, and strive against oppression 
 and injustice, and to press after reformation in all things." 
 
 After completely answering each query separately, he 
 concluded with an excellent exhortation to the king, bidding 
 him to walk humbly before the Lord, and fear and reverence 
 his mighty name. 
 
 George Fox, senior, on leaving Bristol, went to Gloucester, 
 Worcester, Drayton, the place of his nativity, and from thence 
 to Yorkshire, where a large yearly meeting was held in an 
 orchard, near Balby. Whilst he was addressing the meeting, 
 a troop of horse arrived from York for the purpose of dis- 
 persing it. The captain, riding up to the stand, commanded 
 George Fox to come down, and also told the people to go 
 quietly to their respective homes. George Fox said, " They 
 are peaceable people, and not met with any hostile inten- 
 tion." 
 
 " But they must be dispersed, for I have come thirty miles 
 to do it," replied the captain. 
 
 " What honor," said George Fox, " would it be to ride 
 with arms of war among so many unarmed men and 
 women ? If the soldiers will be still and quiet, the meeting 
 will disperse of its own accord in a few hours." 
 
 Leaving a few of his company to disperse them within an 
 hour, the captain left the ground ; the soldiers acted very 
 kindly, and permitted the meeting to remain unmolested ; 
 and finally the Friends dispersed it themselves. A general 
 meeting was held at Skipton, in relation to the affairs of the 
 Society throughout England, and to take into consideration 
 the wants of those who were reduced to utter poverty, by the 
 magistrates and collectors of tithes. Some persons endea- 
 vored to disturb the assembly ; but when they saw the be- 
 nevolence and charity manifested for the poor, they were sur- 
 prised, and left the meeting in peace and quietness. 
 
 After holding several meetings in Lancaster, George Fox 
 went to Swarthmore, and was arrested at the house of Mar- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 143 
 
 garet Fell, who was now a widow. They took him to 
 Ulverstone, where he remained guarded all night in the con- 
 stable's house by fifteen men ; and the next morning he was 
 taken to Lancaster and examined before Henry Porter, the 
 magistrate who had granted the warrant for his arrest. He 
 told George Fox, he had received an order to have him ar- 
 rested, but would not let the prisoner see it, and hurried him 
 away to prison. Two Friends, Thomas Green and Thomas 
 Commings, a minister, went to the jailor, to see the mittimus 
 in his possession, and found that it charged George Fox 
 with being a disturber of the peace of the nation, an enemy 
 to the king, and the chief of the Quaker Society. And that 
 he, together with others of the same religious belief, had en- 
 deavored to raise insurrections in different parts of the coun- 
 try and embroil the kingdom in blood. No wonder the jus- 
 tice refused to let George Fox see this paper, when it con- 
 tained so many wilful falsehoods. Margaret Fell wrote the 
 following paper, and sent it abroad for the information of 
 those who were not present, to see the injury she sustained 
 by the searching of her house for a peaceable and upright 
 man. 
 
 " To all magistrates : — T do inform the governors of this 
 nation, that Henry Porter, mayor of Lancaster, sent a war- 
 rant with four constables to my house, for which he had no 
 authority or order. They searched the premises and appre- 
 hended George Fox, who was not guilty of the breach of 
 any law or any offence against any in the nation. After they 
 had taken him, and brought him before Henry Porter, he re- 
 fused to receive bail for his faithful appearance before the 
 court to answer the false charge preferred against him. After 
 sending him to prison, a copy of his mittimus was demanded, 
 which ought not to be denied to any prisoner, that he might 
 see what was against him. But it was denied, because the 
 magistrates were well aware that he was not guilty of all 
 the different specifications. Let the governors consider this 
 matter. I am concerned in this thing, because he was ap- 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 prehended in my house, and if he be guilty, I am guilty also. 
 I desire the truth to be unveiled." 
 
 Margaret Fell determined to go to London, and lay the 
 truth before the king ; and Porter, fearing the result, also 
 went. But as some of the members of the Parliament advised 
 him not to see Charles, on account of his having once 
 taken up arms against him, he returned again to Lan- 
 caster, and endeavored to obtain the release of George Fox. 
 The mayor, however, had said, in the mittimus, " that Fox 
 should be kept a close prisoner until he was delivered to 
 the king or parliament ;" and the jailor, therefore, refused to 
 set him free, without an order from some higher power than 
 the committing magistrate. Anne Curtis, whose father, once 
 sheriff of Bristol, was hung for his loyalty to the king, accom- 
 panied Margaret Fell to London. They were kindly granted 
 an audience, and promised that an order should be immedi- 
 ately sent to have George Fox brought to London. The 
 promise, however, was not fulfilled for two months ; during 
 which time, the prisoner wrote several epistles to his friends, 
 and the following one to the king. 
 
 " Thou earnest not into this nation by sword, nor by a 
 victorious war, but by the power of the Lord ; now if thou 
 dost not live in it, thou wilt not prosper. And if the Lord 
 hath showed thee mercy and forgiven thee, and thou dost not 
 show mercy and forgive, the Lord God will not hear thy 
 prayers, nor them that pray for thee. And if thou dost not 
 stop persecution and persecutors, and destroy all laws that 
 uphold persecution on account of religion ; but if thou dost 
 persist in them and uphold persecution, it will make thee as 
 blind as those that have gone before you ; for persecution hath 
 always blinded those that have committed it, and such God 
 by his power overthrows and brings salvation to the oppress- 
 ed. And if thou dost bear the sword in vain, and permit 
 sin and abominations to contaminate the land, the nations 
 will quickly turn like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord 
 will again overthrow them. Our prayers are for them that 
 are in authority, that under them we may live a godly life, in 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 145 
 
 which we have peace ; and that we may not be brought into 
 ungodliness by them. So hear and consider and do good in 
 thy time, whilst thou hast power ; and be merciful and for- 
 giving, that is the way to overcome, and obtain the Kingdom 
 of Christ." 
 
 The sheriff of Lancaster intended to send a troop of horse 
 to convey him to London, but George Fox pledging his 
 word to appear before the court on a stipulated day, the sher- 
 iff permitted him to be released from prison. He arrived in 
 London, with Richard Hubberthorn and Robert Withers on 
 the same day that some of the judges, who condemned 
 Charles the First, were hung and quartered at Charing Cross, 
 thus fulfilling the prophecy made by Edward Burrough con- 
 cerning them a few years before. In company with a man 
 named Marsh, one of the king's bed-chamber, he went before 
 Lord Chief Justice Foster, who read in open Court charges 
 against him, and on coming to the one relative to em- 
 broiling the nation in blood, George Fox arose and said : " I 
 am the man whom that charge is against, but I am as inno- 
 cent as a child concerning the charge, and know nothing 
 about war. Do ye think, that if I and my friends had been 
 such men as the charge declares, that I would have brought 
 it up myself, against myself ? Or that I should have been 
 suffered to come up with only one or two of my friends 
 with me ? For had I been such a man as this charge sets 
 forth, I had need to have been guarded up witli a troop or 
 two of horse. But the sheriff and magistrates of Lancashire 
 had thought fit to let me and my friends come up by our- 
 selves, almost two hundred miles, without any guard, which 
 they would not have done, if they had looked upon me as 
 such a man." 
 
 As no accuser appeared in court, Marsh arose and told 
 the judges, it was the king's pleasure that George Fox 
 should be set at liberty, and he then read the following order 
 from the king's secretary : 
 
 t: It is His Majesty's pleasure, that you give order for the 
 
 releasing and setting at full liberty, the person of George 
 10 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Fox, late a prisoner in Lancaster jail and commanded hither 
 by an habeas corpus. And this signification of His Majes- 
 ty's pleasure shall be your sufficient warrant. Dated at 
 Whitehall, the 24th of Oct., 1660." 
 
 When this order was delivered to the judges, they forth- 
 with sent the following warrant to the marshal of the king's 
 bench, for the release of the prisoner. 
 
 " By virtue of a warrant which this morning I have re- 
 ceived from the Right Honorable Sir Edward Nicholas, 
 knight, one of His Majesty's principal secretaries, for the 
 releasing and setting at liberty of George Fox, late a prisoner 
 in Lancaster jail, and from thence brought hither by habeas 
 corpus, and yesterday committed unto your custody ; I do 
 hereby require you accordingly to release, and set the said 
 prisoner, George Fox, at liberty ; for which this shall be your 
 warrant and discharge. Given under my hand the 25th day 
 of October, in the year of our Lord God, 1660. 
 
 Thomas Mallet, Judge." ' 
 
 Thus George Fox was honorably acquitted by the king, 
 after being twenty weeks in jail, for which many persuaded 
 him to enter proceedings against Justice Porter, for false im- 
 prisonment, buf he said, " He would leave him to the Lord ; 
 if the Lord forgave him, he should not trouble himself by 
 taking the advantage the law offered." 
 
 By some means, Richard Hubberthorn gained an audience 
 with the king, to whom he gave a relation of the sufferings 
 of his friends, and the king promised that henceforth they 
 should not suffer for their opinions or religion, which promise, 
 however, was not adhered <o. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 It may be well to direct the reader's mind to a few inter- 
 esting incidents which took place without the boundaries of 
 England, as they may prove interesting on account of their 
 novelty and singularity. John Perrot and John Love went 
 to Leghorn, and having been examined by the inquisition of 
 that place, they answered so satisfactorily in the opinion of 
 the judges, that they were discharged. At Venice, Perrot 
 was admitted into the presence of the Doge, and allowed to 
 present him with some books, written and published by 
 some of the leading members of the Society of Friends. 
 From thence he went, with his fellow traveller, to Rome, 
 where they preached in the most public manner against the 
 sin and idolatry of that city, for which they were soon arrest- 
 ed and cast into the prison of the Inquisition. John Love 
 died in their dungeons, but Perrot proved an apostate, and 
 thereby regained his liberty. Samuel Fisher and John 
 Stubs also went to Rome, where they spoke to the cardinals 
 concerning the superstitions of the Popish religion, and gave 
 some books to the Friars, who acknowledged the truth of their 
 contents, but told them it would not do to make their opinion 
 public, or they would be burnt for it. 
 
 Mary Fisher, one of the first of the Society of Friends, on 
 her return from New England, whither she went on a mission, 
 made a voyage to Adrianople, at the time Sultan Mahomet 
 the Fourth was encamped with his army near that city. 
 She went to the camp alone, and sent a soldier to the tent of 
 the Grand Vizier, to tell him that an English woman had a 
 message from the Holy God to the Sultan. The next morning 
 she was admitted into his presence, and through the aid of 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 three interpreters, he told her, to speak the word of the Lord 
 to them, and not to fear, for they possessed good hearts, and 
 could hear it. " Speak the word," said he, " you had to say 
 from the Lord, neither more or less, for we are willing to hear 
 it, be it what it may." 
 
 She then addressed him and his officers for some time, to 
 which the Turks listened with much attention and gravity ; 
 when she finished, she asked the Sultan whether he under- 
 stood what was said, and he replied in the affirmative, at the 
 same time desiring her to remain in that country, for his 
 nation could not but respect one, who came from a great 
 country, with a message to their Sultan from the Lord God. 
 As she was about to travel to Constantinople, the Sultan 
 offered to send a guard with her for protection, but she refused 
 the offer, contented to depend on the Saviour for her safety. 
 When she left the tent some Turks asked her, " What she 
 thought of their Prophet Mahomet ?" 
 
 " I know him not," she replied, " I only know Christ, the 
 true prophet, the Son of God, who is the light of the world, 
 and enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. 
 Concerning Mahomet, you may judge him to be true or false, 
 according to the words and prophecies he spoke. If the 
 word spoken by a prophet come to pass, then you will know 
 that the Lord hath sent him ; but if it come not to pass, then 
 the Lord never sent him." 
 
 The Turks confessed this reasoning to be correct, and 
 Mary departed alone for Constantinople, where she arrived 
 without the least difficulty, and soon after returned safely to 
 England. 
 
 The revolution in the affairs of England brought retribu- 
 tion on those, who, whilst in power, exercised the most vile 
 cruelty and inhumanity upon the innocent and harmless. 
 The ministers of Christ had often warned them of their bar- 
 barous conduct, and told them that God would one day hear 
 the cry of the widows and fatherless, and although they might 
 scorn them now, yet the day would come when they should 
 be cast into the same dungeons, in which they once immured 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 149 
 
 the innocent, on account of worshipping God according to 
 the dictates of the spirit within. Many of the late king's 
 judges were hung and quartered, among whom was Colonel 
 Francis Hacker, who six years before cast George Fox into 
 prison ; it will be remembered that when in his presence, 
 George Fox compared him to Pontius Pilate, and told him, 
 when the day of his misery and trial should come, to remem- 
 ber what he had then said to him. Robert Huntington once went 
 to the church at Brough, near Carlisle, wrapped in a sheet 
 and a halter about his neck, to show the Presbyterians and 
 Independents that the surplice would soon be introduced, and 
 that some of them should not escape the halter. Howsoever 
 mad this prophecy might appear, yet time showed it to be a 
 presage of the impending disaster which shortly overtook 
 these persecutors. 
 
 A few prominent members of the Society of Friends, 
 gained permission to appear before the House of Lords, 
 where they gave reasons for not frequenting the worship of 
 the established Church ; why they could not swear, nor pay 
 tithes ; and at the solicitation of Margaret Fell, the king 
 ordered about seven hundred persons to be set at liberty, who 
 were imprisoned for their religious opinions, during the 
 administrations of Oliver and Richard Cromwell. 
 
 Thus encouraged, they seemed to have a prospect of bet- 
 ter times, than any they had experienced, since they were dis- 
 tinguished as a separate Society ; their meetings were very 
 large and quiet ; multitudes flocked to them from curiosity, 
 or better motives ; many were convinced, and their numbers 
 greatly increased ; but this calm was not of long duration. 
 In the eleventh month [November], the Fifth-monarchy men 
 raised an insurrection under the guidance of a wine-cooper, 
 named Venner, who having appealed to his followers in a 
 passionate harangue, they marched through the streets trium- 
 phantly, everywhere proclaiming King Jesus. With an 
 assembled band of well-trained men the magistrates made 
 an attack upon them, and after defending themselves a short 
 time, they made a retreat to Canewood, near Hampstead, 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 where, taking possession of a house, they defended them- 
 selves against a body of troops until most of their number 
 were killed. The few survivors were taken prisoners, tried, 
 condemned and executed. This unhappy insurrection was 
 made a pretext for the bishops and magistrates to throw a 
 suspicion of disloyalty upon all sects, except the established 
 Church. Violating every principle of justice, mercy and 
 truth, an order of council was issued against meetings of 
 the different dissenting sects, either in great numbers or at 
 unusual times ; and on the tenth of the same month, a pro- 
 clamation was published whereby the king forbad the Ana- 
 baptists, Quakers and Fifth-monarchy-men, to assemble or 
 meet together under pretence of worshipping God, except in 
 private houses. Thus the Society of Friends were again 
 exposed to a fresh and severe persecution, and George Fox 
 was taken prisoner; but his friend, Esquire Marsh, made 
 application for his liberty to Lord Gerard, who authorized the 
 marshal to release him. This persecution was not confined 
 to London, but with the proclamation spread with similar 
 violence over all, or most parts of the nation ; they were tak- 
 en from their meetings, habitations and employments, and 
 without conviction, crimination, or any legal cause, violently 
 carried to prison, till in many places the prisons were so 
 crowded that they were almost suffocated in close, damp, 
 and unhealthy rooms. 
 
 Margaret Fell waited personally on the king several times, 
 to solicit his indulgence and protection ; she told him, "That 
 they were an innocent, peaceable people, who did no injury, 
 and administered no occasion of offence, except in keeping 
 up their religious meetings, for no other purpose but wor- 
 shipping God, in that way they were persuaded was most 
 acceptable to him, and edifying one another in his fear ; 
 which being to them a conscientious matter of duty to God, 
 they could not violate it, in compliance with the ordinances 
 or laws of man, whatever they suffered." 
 
 George Fox wrote a letter of consolation to his suffer- 
 ing friends, and published a declaration against all sedi- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 151 
 
 tion and riot, denying all wars, and proving that the Society 
 consisted of harmless and inoffensive subjects of the king. 
 In consequence of Margaret Fell's application and the above 
 declaration, the king issued a proclamation, forbidding sol- 
 diers to search any house without a constable. When some 
 of the unhappy insurgents were put to death, they confessed 
 the Quakers had no knowledge or participation in their plot, 
 which evidence, together with other of a similar nature, 
 caused the king to issue a declaration authorizing "the 
 Quakers to be set at liberty without paying fees." After the 
 Society of Friends were cleared of this pretence for punish- 
 ing them, it was not long before they were again griev- 
 ously persecuted by the revival of those laws made in the 
 reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth against Popish recusants, 
 but now brought to bear upon a people who had never 
 disturbed the peace of the kingdom. That it may be known 
 what these laws were, it would perhaps be useful to in- 
 sert what is needful to give the reader some knowledge 
 of their unreasonable and unjust punishment. 
 
 In the 27th year of the reign of King Henry VIII., an 
 act was passed against the subtraction of tithes, whereby 
 justices of the peace could commit any one to prison, who 
 refused to pay them, till he should find sufficient security to 
 give due obedience to the decree or sentence of the ecclesias- 
 tical court. 
 
 By this law many persons, who refused to support the esta- 
 blished ministers by paying tithes, were suffered to remain in 
 prison for a long time, and some even died there, rather than 
 uphold what they considered false teaching. 
 
 In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, an act was made for 
 the uniformity of common prayer and church service, enact- 
 ing a forfeiture of one shilling for the use of the poor, on 
 every person who did not resort to the parish or some other 
 church every Sunday or holiday. 
 
 The above law, however, was not strictly obeyed, neither 
 by the papists nor those who were aiming at a more perfect 
 reformation ; and in the twenty-third year of Elizabeth, they 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 established a forfeiture of twenty pounds a month for like 
 default. 
 
 Another act was passed in the twenty-ninth year of the 
 said queen, which enabled her to seize all the goods and two- 
 thirds of the real estate of every such offender, for the sura 
 then due for the fines of twenty pounds per month ; and 
 every year to seize in like manner, for so long a time as they 
 should refuse to come to church. 
 
 In the thirty-fifth year of this queen's reign, the Catholics 
 made an effort to establish their religion, when the following 
 act was passed. 
 
 " If any above sixteen years of age, shall be convicted 
 to have absented themselves above a month from church, 
 without any lawful cause, impugned the queen's authority 
 in causes ecclesiastical, or frequented conventicles, or per- 
 suaded others to do so, under pretence of exercise of religion, 
 they shall be committed to prison, and there remain until they 
 shall conform themselves, and make such open submission 
 as hereafter shall be prescribed ; and if within three months 
 after such conviction, they refuse to conform and submit 
 themselves, being thereunto required by a justice of the peace, 
 they shall, in open assize or sessions, abjure the realm ; and 
 if such abjuration happen to be before a justice of the peace 
 in the sessions, they shall make a certificate thereof at the 
 next assize or gaol-delivery. If such an offender refuse to 
 adjure, or going away accordingly, doth return without the 
 queen's license, he shall be adjudged a felon, and shall not 
 enjoy the benefit of the clergy : but if, before he is required to 
 adjure, he makes submission, the penalties aforesaid shall not 
 be inflicted upon him." 
 
 Although it may be supposed this act was passed against the 
 Papists, yet it bore directly upon Friends, and many suffered 
 imprisonment, loss of estate and even death, through the 
 malevolence of the magistrates. When James the First 
 ascended the throne, the oath of allegiance, afterwards 
 called the " test," was introduced, and as Friends conscien- 
 tiously believed that passage of Scripture, " swear not at all,' ' 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 153 
 
 this oath was made a continual pretence to maltreat and 
 imprison them. 
 
 At the close of this year, Edward Burrough wrote a con- 
 solatory epistle to his fellow-laborers in the ministry of the 
 Gospel, a few extracts of which we will insert to show how 
 heartily he was engaged in the service of Truth. 
 
 " For these eight years and upwards the hand of the Lord 
 hath carried us through great labors and travels in his ser- 
 vice, and many dangers and persecutions and afflictions have 
 attended us all this time ; and ye know that many a time hath 
 the Lord delivered us from the hands of such as would have 
 destroyed us ; and we have been delivered again and again 
 out of dangers and difficulties, and the Lord hath been a 
 present help unto us in the time of our trouble ; for the plot- 
 ting of the wicked and the purpose of ungodly men, hath 
 often been broken for our sakes, even many a time have we 
 been delivered out of the snare that hath been laid for us, and 
 we have seen our enemies fall before us on the right hand 
 and on the left, even the wise in their worldly wisdom, and 
 the foolish in their brutishness, both professors and profane, 
 hath our God often cut short in their desires and endeavors 
 of our destruction : and we have been wonderfully preserved 
 unto this day ; and all this I attribute to the infinite love and 
 power of the Lord God, who is blessed for evermore. 
 
 " Through all these things we are yet alive, and the Lord 
 doth not fail us unto this hour, but he lives and walks in us 
 and with us, and his testimony is with us ; even the seal of his 
 good spirit in our hearts, that we are his sons and servants, 
 and we are confirmed by many tokens that he is our God, 
 and we are his people ; and the great oppression which we 
 have met, hath not restrained us, but through it all we have 
 grown and prospered even to this day. And therefore, breth- 
 ren, let us be in hope and patience, and not be faint-hearted, 
 as though the Lord had forgotten us, or was unmindful of 
 us, or as though he would not perform what he had testified 
 of by us ; for he is not a man that he should he, nor as a man 
 is he given to change ; but lift up your heads, for the Lord is 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 with us, even in our greatest tribulations and afflictions, and 
 he will accomplish his purpose, for he is mighty to save his 
 people, or to destroy his enemies. 
 
 " And I know not anything that remains upon our part at 
 this day, but that we commit ourselves into the hands of the 
 Lord, living in the seed of God, wherein our election is 
 sure before the world was and for ever ; and let us remember 
 one another, and pray for one another ; and let us teach all 
 the children of our Father to faithfulness and patience, while 
 we have time. I say, let us walk to the glory of the Lord, 
 keeping faith and a good conscience to our last end ; our tes- 
 timony shall never die, nor our memories ever perish, when 
 we have ceased to be ; and though we suffer now the loss 
 of life, and all we have, yet the effects thereof will be glorious 
 in ages to come, and our present sufferings will hasten the 
 glory of God's work throughout the world. Receive this as 
 my salutation to all." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, the body of Oliver Crom- 
 well, who had been buried in great state at Westmin- 
 1661. ster Abbey, was disinterred, carried to Tyburn upon 
 a cart, and hung on the gallows. The head was then 
 severed from the trunk, and exposed on the top of Westmin- 
 ster Hall, while the body was buried in a pit a few feet from 
 the gallows. It will be remembered that seven years before, 
 during the delivery of a speech in Parliament, he made use 
 of the following language — " I would rather be cast into my 
 grave and buried with infamy, than give my consent to the 
 sacrifice of one of the fundamentals of that government — the 
 liberty of conscience :" still he permitted persecution to spread 
 over the country without endeavoring to arrest its progress, 
 and this fulfilment of his saying may be looked upon as a 
 remarkable instance of the justice and fearful judgment of 
 God. 
 
 A book was published in London, bearing the title of 
 " Semper Idem, or a Parallel of Fanatics," and although the 
 author concealed his name, yet it was generally believed to 
 be a Jesuit, as many of his pages were devoted to the abuse 
 of those Christian martyrs who suffered death during the 
 reign of "bloody Mary." As it vilified the Society of 
 Friends, they found a champion in Edward Burrough, who 
 wrote an answer refuting the arguments, and telling the au- 
 thor " that his work indicated a desire for the return of the 
 burning of heretics, as they called them." E. Burrough also 
 published another book this year, called " An ti- Christ's Gov- 
 ernment justly detected," which he dedicated to all the rulers, 
 &c, of the Christian world, and with sound arguments 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 proved the unlawfulness and injustice of persecution. In 
 speaking of the punishment of heresy, he says, " Lest some 
 may think I am opposing the duty of the civil magistrate 
 against malefactors, I will state that I believe it only to be 
 an ecclesiastical censure, where the heresy of a man only 
 extends to the hurt of his soul, and against God, and not to 
 the harm of his neighbors' body or estate. But if his heresy 
 extend further than against God, and his own soul, even to 
 outward wrongs, or evils, or violence, or injuring others, then 
 I forjrid not outward punishment to be inflicted upon the 
 person or estate of such a man ; it ought to be done, and that 
 by the laws of man, provided for the same end ; even such 
 a man's error, in his wrong dealing, may justly and lawfully 
 be punished according to the nature of the crime." The 
 author also wrote of the deceit of the government of Anti- 
 Christ, and showed who were the subjects of his kingdom. 
 
 George Fox, Jr., who was in prison, observing a design 
 to establish popery, wrote a letter to the king giving him 
 some good advice, and asking him to consider before he 
 took the unholy and fearful step. 
 
 " Let no man," said he, " deceive thee by feigned words ; 
 God will not be mocked ; such as thou sowest, such must 
 thou reap. Thou canst not hide thyself from the Lord, nor 
 deliver thyself from the strokes of his hand. O, think not 
 men can preserve thee, though all nations promise to help 
 thee ! Yet when the Lord appears against thee, thou must 
 fall ; verily, there is a great desolation near, thy hand cannot 
 stay it ; God hath decreed that he may exalt his own king- 
 dom. 0, the day will be terrible, who may abide it ? The 
 stubble will be consumed, and the chaff shall be burnt ; the 
 ungodly shall be abased, for they cannot stand in judgment; 
 but the seed shall be exalted. O, what shall I say, that might 
 be for thy safety ! Verily, I can say little, the Lord's decree 
 must stand ; the Lord is highly displeased, and his wrath is 
 near to be revealed. O, that thy soul might be saved in the 
 day of the Lord ! My spirit is in suffering for thee, my soul 
 is afflicted within me because the day of thy calamity 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 157 
 
 approaches, from which no man can deliver thee. This is 
 the truth that must stand, and in love to thy soul it is declar- 
 ed, by him who must deal uprightly with all men. Though 
 for it I suffer outwardly, yet I have a witness in my con- 
 science, unto which I am made manifest, and peace with the 
 Lord is my portion, which is better than an earthly crown." 
 
 This letter was delivered to the king, who read it with many 
 sorrowful forebodings ; yet his brother, the Duke of York, 
 was highly displeased with what he termed the audacious 
 assurance of the prisoner, and advised Charles to inflict 
 severe punishment on the " Quaker," but the king replied, " It 
 were better for us to mend our lives." 
 
 While George Fox, Jr., was a prisoner in Lambeth-House, 
 he wrote a small treatise, entitled " England's sad estate and 
 condition lamented." History truly records the fulfilment of 
 many of the predictions in this work, and time proved to the 
 unrighteous that the following concluding sentence of the 
 work was not false : 
 
 " Although these things touching the Holy Remnant shall 
 certainly be fulfilled in their season, yet before they will be fully 
 accomplished, great will be the trials of many of the righteous, 
 and there will be great judgments executed in thee, O Land, 
 by Him who ofttimes makelh a fruitful land barren, because 
 of the wickedness of them that dwell therein." 
 
 After writing this treatise, he wrote a beautiful prayer,' with 
 the language of an upright heart, which we insert without 
 the least alteration. 
 
 " Surely it was Thou, O Lord, that gave bounds unto the 
 sea, that the floods thereof could not overwhelm thy chosen ; 
 Thou canst let forth the winds, and suffer a storm ; and Thou 
 canst make a calm when thou pleasest. Have Thou 
 the glory of all, Thou king of saints — Thou Saviour of 
 Israel. Thou canst do whatever thou pleasest, therefore 
 will we trust in thy name, neither will we feaawhal man can 
 do unto us, because thou wilt not forsake us ; but Thou wilt, 
 plead our cause in the sight of our adversaries, and they shall 
 know that Thou art our God, who art able to save to the 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 uttermost ! O Lord ! our Righteousness ! we will praise 
 thy name, for thy mercies endure for ever ! Our eyes, O 
 God, are unto Thee, for we have no other helper ! Our faith, 
 O'Lord, standeth in Thee, who canst not forget thy people. 
 Thou hast revealed and brought up Jacob, who wrestleth with 
 thee and prevails as a prince, therefore must the blessing 
 come. O Lord — the birth — the birth crieth unto thee — 
 Thine own elect hath long been oppressed ! Thou canst 
 not deny thyself, therefore have we faith and hope, which 
 maketh not ashamed. O Lord, how unsearchable are thy 
 ways ! Thou hast even amazed thy people, with the depth 
 of thy wisdom ; Thou alone wilt have the glory of their deli- 
 verance ; and therefore hast Thou suffered these things to 
 come to pass. O Lord, Thou art righteous in all thy judg- 
 ments ! Only preserve thy people, which thou hast gathered, 
 and wilt gather unto thyself in the day of trial ; that so they 
 may sing of thy power, and magnify thy name in the land 
 of the living." 
 
 Among his many prison papers and epistles was a small 
 book, which was published in London after his death. It 
 was called, " The dread of God's Power, uttering its voice 
 through man, unto the heads of the Nation," in which he 
 exhorted the rulers to deal out justice to rich and poor alike, 
 and said, " I must deal plainly with you in the sight of God, 
 who hath made me a prophet to the nation. I may not flat- 
 ter any of you. My life is in the hand of my Maker, and 
 not one hair of my head can fall to the ground without his 
 providence. He hath redeemed my soul from hell and my 
 mind from the earth ; and he hath given me his good Spirit 
 to lead me. I am henceforth no more my own, but I am 
 the Lord's who hath formed me to his praise, and hath 
 brought me forth that I may speak his all-powerful truth 
 amongst the people. Therefore must I not fear man, neither 
 must I be afrAid of the sons of men." 
 
 On his death-bed he exhorted his friends to live in peace 
 and unity with one another, and let not the many obstacles 
 in their path give rise to a rebellious spirit or cause division 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 159 
 
 in their meetings. On taking his leave of those around his 
 bed-side, he exhorted them to keep their garments unspotted 
 from the world, because the great day of trial was at hand ; 
 then gently falling into a quiet sleep of perfect peace, his 
 spirit departed to the Holy One who gave it. 
 
 With the assistance of John Stubs and Benjamin Furley, 
 George Fox wrote and published rather an unique work, 
 called "The Battledoor, setting forth examples of about 
 thirty languages, showing every language had its par- 
 ticular denomination for the singular and plural numbers ;" 
 and on every page the principles were explained by well- 
 delineated diagrams in the shape of a battledoor. The prin- 
 cipal object of this work was to prove to some very wise 
 men, in their own estimation, that the plain language used 
 by the Society of Friends was not singular, strange or incor- 
 rect At the end of the book he says, " The Pope set up 
 ' you,' for ' one,' in his pride, and it is pride which cannot 
 bear ' Thou,' and 1 Thee,' to one, but would have 1 you,' 
 from the author, their father in their pride, which must not 
 but have the word ' Thou,' which was before their father, 
 the Pope — which was God's language, and will stand when 
 the Pope is no more." In it, J. Stubs and B. Furley wrote 
 directions and rules for those who were studying the Orien- 
 tal languages, and the book well merited the extensive patron- 
 age it received in almost every town and village in the na- 
 tion. Copies of the work were presented to the king and 
 his council ; to the Archbishop of Canterbury ; to the Bishop 
 of London, and also one to each of the Universities. After 
 reading it, the king contested that the distinction between 
 plural and singular in regard to individuals, was correct and 
 proper ; but the Archbishop, when asked his opinion on the 
 subject, was somewhat perplexed, and in the dilemma could 
 neither commend nor entirely disapprove it. 
 
 George Fox went to Colchester, where he held a large 
 meeting, and converted one of his old enemies, a priest of 
 Coggleshall, but was forced to come back to London, on 
 account of the return of John Perrot from Rome, who, accord- 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ing to Thomas Elwood's writings, " was not unfit for the 
 prison in which he was confined, because, during his con- 
 finement, he wrote some epistles to be printed in England, 
 which clearly denoted an unsound mind." If he was vain 
 and conceited before he went abroad, the report of his great 
 sufferings gained him many affectionate and sympathizing 
 friends, which exalted him so highly in his own estimation,- 
 that he thought himself superior to George Fox, and endeav 
 ored to introduce innovations into the Society. He main- 
 tained that the practice of taking off the hat in public prayer 
 was a formality — a common custom of the world, which 
 should not be obeyed by the followers of Christ. The next 
 extravagance he adopted, was to let his beard grow, in which 
 he was followed by several of his partizans. The fondness 
 for novelties, natural to some, gained him many adherents, 
 which introduced confusion and disorder in the different 
 meetings, and the contention was only arrested through the 
 earnest labors of George Fox and his principal followers. 
 Perrot went to America, where he manifested more plainly 
 the error of his spirit and depravity of his heart, by the insta- 
 bility and enormity of his conduct. The following letter, 
 written immediately after he was discharged from prison 
 in Rome, shows the weak traits of his character. 
 
 " O Israel ! the Host of the most High God ! his Majesty 
 hath fulfilled to me the vision of my head, having showed 
 himself to be the Holy One and Just ! He hath lately deliv- 
 ered me from the prison of the city of Rome, besides the two 
 lambs with me, whose faces are turned towards you. For 
 which I beseech you, in the holy spirit of meekness, to bless 
 the name of the Lord God ! Give thanks to him for his pow- 
 er ! The God of life promote you all in the virtue of his 
 mercy and forgiveness, and keep you in the power of his 
 everlasting love unto the end. 
 
 Send this forward and read my life in your meetings. 
 
 John." 
 
 As persecution still continued unabated in England, Ed- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 161 
 
 ward Burrough zealously devoted himself in opposition to 
 this evil, and wrote a small book, entitled, " The case of free 
 Liberty of Conscience in the exercise of Faith and Religion, 
 presented unto the King and both Houses of Parliament." 
 He proved, that to deprive honest and peaceable people of 
 the liberty of conscience in the exercise of worship to God, 
 was unjust—intrenching on God's sovereignty, and a usur- 
 pation of his authority ; advising them to consider the hypo- 
 crisy it would spread through the land, to force men to wor- 
 ship God according to a creed in opposition to their own 
 consciences, and that such a course of policy would inev- 
 itably destroy the happiness of the country. He made 
 use of the words of Dr. Taylor, a bishop in Ireland, and 
 said : " Why are we so zealous against those we call here- 
 tics, and yet great friends with drunkards, and « swearers, 
 and fornicators, and intemperate and idle persons? I am 
 certain a drunkard is as contrary to the laws of Christianity 
 as a heretic ; and I am also sure that I know what drunk- 
 enness is, but I am not so sure that such an opinion is 
 heresy." 
 
 Some malicious persons who wished to see the estates of 
 the Friends confiscated, more than once called in question 
 the legality of their marriage ceremony. A case of some im- 
 portance was tried at the assizes at Nottingham. A member 
 of the Society died, and leaving his wife pregnant, a relative 
 endeavored to prove the child illegitimate, so that he might 
 inherit the estate, and the plaintiff's counsel asserted before 
 the court that the child was illegitimate, because the marriage 
 of its parents was not according to law. Judge Archer, in 
 charging the jury, said : " There was a marriage in Paradise, 
 when Adam and Eve were made man and wife, and it was 
 the mutual consent of the parties that made a marriage : 
 therefore I believe the marriage is lawful and the child the 
 lawful heir. I remember a man who on account of a weak- 
 ness of his body was forced to keep his bed, who, having a 
 desire to marry, did declare in the presence of witnesses that 
 
 he took a certain woman to be his wife, and the woman tak- 
 11 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ing that man to be her husband, they lived together in the 
 holy bonds of matrimony. This marriage was afterwards 
 called in question, but all the bishops, after due consideration, 
 said it was lawful and just." 
 
 The jury immediately gave a verdict in favor of the child, 
 and declared it was legitimate. 
 
 It has been mentioned in the preceding part of this history, 
 that in the year 1650, George Fox was a prisoner in the 
 Derby jail, where the keeper, Thomas Sherman, treated him 
 with the greatest inhumanity and cruelty. This man after- 
 wards became converted to the truth, and wrote George Fox 
 the following excellent letter : 
 
 " Having such a convenient messenger, I could do no less 
 than give thee an account of my present condition, remem- 
 bering thaf it was thee, who first awoke me to a sense of life 
 and the inward principle. Sometimes I am taken with ad- 
 miration, that it should come by such means — that Provi- 
 dence should order thee to be my prisoner so as to give- me 
 my first real sight of the truth. It makes me think of the 
 jailor's conversion by the Apostles. Notwithstanding my 
 outward losses are such, that now I am nothing in the world, 
 yet I hope I shall find, that all these light afflictions, which 
 are but for a moment, will work for me an eternal crown of 
 glory. They have taken all from me ; and now instead of 
 keeping a prison, I expect soon to become a prisoner myself. 
 Pray for me that my faith fail not. I earnestly desire to hear 
 from thee, and of thy condition ; my kind love unto thee and 
 all Christian friends with thee. In haste I rest 
 
 " Thine in Christ Jesus, &c." 
 
 We have mentioned the imprisonment of Catharine Evans 
 and Sarah Cheevers, by the Inquisition of Malta. Feeling a 
 religious concern for the propagation of the doctrine of 
 divine light in the darkest parts of the world, they embarked 
 in a ship bound from London to Leghorn, where after a 
 stormy passage they safely arrived, and during their stay en- 
 deavored to answer the end of their coming by distributing 
 
♦ 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 163 
 
 ooksand explaining the doctrines of the Society of Friends 
 to a number of persons, who from curiosity and other motives 
 flocked around them. From thence they took passage in a 
 Dutch ship for Alexandria, but the captain put into Malta, 
 much against the will of his passengers. In anguish of mind 
 Catharine Evans stood upon the deck of the ship, and looking 
 upon the people on the walls, said in her he^rt," Shall ye des- 
 troy us ? If we give up td the Lord, then he is sufficient to 
 deliver us out of your hands ; but if we disobey our God, all 
 these could not deliver us out of his hands ;" and so they 
 were resigned to whatever might await them. The next day 
 after their arrival, being the first day of the week, they went 
 on shore, and meeting the English consul, he asked them, 
 " What they came there for?" They told him the object of 
 their visit and gave him some books, which he kindly 
 received, and inviting them to his residence, they accepted the 
 invitation. A sister to the governor of the island, who lived 
 in a nunnery, sent word that she desired to see them ; and on 
 hearing the message they went and discussed with the nuns, 
 giving them books which they told them taught the only true 
 doctrine of eternal salvation by the power of the divine light 
 within. A priest took them to the chapel and requested 
 them to bow down before the high altar ; but abhorring 
 idolatry, they refused, and went back to the consul's, where 
 they continued about three months, during which time they 
 were repeatedly examined by the inquisitors concerning their 
 religious principles : yet possessing wisdom and integrity to 
 an eminent degree, they answered the interrogatories in such 
 a manner as not to give the priests the least advantage, nor 
 commit themselves in regard to the doctrine of their belief, by 
 complying with the requisitions of their superstitious and idol- 
 atrous worship. The inquisitors, not daring to take them from 
 the consul's house without his consent, yet desirous to have 
 them in their power, at length prevailed on him by flattery, 
 menaces, and, as was afterwards discovered, by bribery, to 
 violate his duty in withdrawing his protection so far as to 
 suffer them to be arrested by the officers of the Inquisition. 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 I 
 
 They were confined in the consul's house, although the gov- 
 ernor had signified his willingness for them to retain their 
 full liberty, believing, as he did, they were honest women. 
 The consul attempted to conceal his insincere conduct, but 
 they imagining all was not right, hinted their suspicions in 
 his presence, and remarked, " Pilate would willingly do the 
 Jews a pleasure, yet wash his hands in innocency." 
 
 " Give me a sign that you are the messengers of God," 
 said the consul, conscious of his duplicity. 
 
 " This will serve for a token," said they, " it will be well 
 with us, but it shall not go off well with thee." 
 
 Soon after, the consul informed them that they were sent 
 for by the Inquisition, in pursuance of orders from Rome, but 
 he hoped they would pass their examination safely, and be 
 set free. They were taken into custody by the, officers of 
 the Inquisition, and carried before the Lord Inquisitor, whose 
 question was, " Whether they had changed their minds ?" 
 To which they answered, " No ; and we will not change 
 from the truth." 
 
 " What new light is it that you speak so much of?" 
 inquired the inquisitor. 
 
 " It is no new light," they replied, " but the same the 
 Prophets and Apostles bore testimony to." 
 
 Then they were asked, " How came this light to be lost 
 since the primitive times V 
 
 They answered, " It was not lost ; men had it still in 
 them, but men did not know it, because the night of apos- 
 tasy overspread the nations ?" They were now threatened 
 with torture, if they did not alter their opinions, but they 
 merely said, " The will of the Lord be done !" After this, 
 the inquisitor and consul withdrew, and left them to be con- 
 ducted to a close, dark prison, by the attending officers. 
 
 They were again and again examined, but no answer 
 could be extorted from them, which in any manner answered 
 the dastardly purposes of these superstitious and cruel per- 
 secutors. Oue day a magistrate, two friars, a man with a 
 black rod, a scribe, and the keeper of the Inquisition, sum- 
 
 I 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 165 
 
 moned the prisoners to their presence, and requested them to 
 swear ; but they answered that Christ said, as well as the 
 Apostle James, " Swear not at all !" The magistrate then 
 asked them if they would speak the truth, and receiving a 
 reply in the affirmative, he said, " Do you believe in the 
 Creed?" 
 
 " We believe in God," they replied, " and in Jesus Christ, 
 who was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered at Jerusa- 
 lem, under Pontius Pilate, and arose again from the dead the 
 third day, and ascended to his Father, and shall come to 
 judgment, to judge both quick and dead." 
 
 The minute particulars of this long examination would be 
 extremely tedious, bearing principally on doctrinal points of 
 the Roman Catholic religion. The consul, who had been 
 forewarned that his connivance at their apprehension would 
 not result to his advantage, became troubled in his mind, and 
 with tears in his eyes, expressed his sorrow for their deten- 
 tion ; he also offered to refund what he had received for 
 delivering them up, but they would not listen to his entrea- 
 ties, and it is said that during a long life he never enjoyed 
 any peace or comfort. 
 
 For three or four years they patiently endured many suf- 
 ferings and trials ; the monks and friars beset and perplexed 
 them with many impertinences, in order to beguile them into 
 a conformity with their superstitions, but all their efforts were 
 ineffectual. When others of different nations were brought 
 prisoners before the Inquisition, and the judges and friars 
 endeavored to make them acknowledge the supremacy of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, these women would show them 
 the errors of Popery, and declare the doctrine of truth, for 
 which they were willing to suffer death. 
 
 They were put into a room so exceedingly hot and suffo- 
 cating, that it was thought the inquisitors intended to smother 
 them. The heat of the climate was excessive, but to this 
 was added an artificial heat, which parched their skins, 
 caused their hair to fall off, and they frequently fainted for 
 want of fresh air. This inhuman treatment brought a severe 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 attack of sickness on Catharine Evans, who almost desired 
 that her sorrows might be ended by death. The monks 
 bringing a physician to visit her, she asked them, " Whether 
 they did not keep them in that hot room to kill them, and 
 bring a physician to keep them longer alive in torment ?" 
 
 To this they replied, " it was better to keep them there than 
 to kill them." 
 
 They wrote to the inquisitor pleading their innocence, and 
 complaining of the hardships they sustained, adding, " if it 
 was their blood they thirsted after, they might as well take 
 away their lives in some other way as smother them there." 
 The jailor took away their pen, ink and paper, and they were 
 ordered to be separated; but at this time it was found that 
 Catharine was covered by a general eruption from head to 
 foot, and the physician said they must have more air ; this 
 being reported to the inquisitor he ordered the prison door to 
 be opened six hours each day. 
 
 The manner of making converts in those days was some- 
 what singular; and, as a specimen, we will transcribe one of 
 the dialogues out of the many which took place between the 
 prisoners and those persons selected by the Pope for the pur- 
 pose of conducting the inquisition. Once a friar came to 
 Catharine, and told her, "if she would be a Catholic she should 
 say so, otherwise they would use her badly, and she should 
 never see Sarah again ; but she should die by herself and a 
 thousand devils should carry her soul to hell." 
 
 " Art thou the messenger of God to me ?" said Catharine. 
 
 " Yes," replied the friar. 
 
 " Why, what is my sin, or where have I provoked the 
 Lord, that he should send me such a message ?" 
 
 " It is," said he, " because you will not be a Catholic." 
 
 " I deny thee and thy message too," replied Catharine, 
 " and the spirit which speaks in thee also, for the Lord never 
 spoke so." 
 
 He, growing angry, threatened to lay her in a pile of 
 chains, where she could neither see sun nor moon. Trusting 
 in Divine Providence, she said, he could not separate her 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 167 
 
 from the love of God in Jesus Christ, place her where he 
 would. Threatening to give her to the devil, she told him 
 she did not fear him, for the Lord was her keeper ; " the Lord 
 is at my right hand, and the worst you can do is to kill the 
 body ; you can touch my life no more than the devil could 
 Job's." Bursting with rage, he told her she should never go 
 out of that room alive; to which she undauntedly replied. 
 " The Lord is sufficient to deliver me ; but whether he will 
 or not, I will not forsake the living fountain to drink at a 
 broken cistern ; and you have no law to keep me here, but 
 such a law as Ahab had for Naboth's vineyard." Choking 
 with anger, the monk left the apartment, and slamming the 
 door in her face, said " Abide there, member of the devil.'* 
 She calmly replied, " The devil's members are the devil's 
 works, and the plague of the Lord will be upon them for it !" 
 
 An Englishman who lived on the island, having heard that 
 Sarah was in a room, the window of which was near the 
 street, succeeded in climbing up to it, and spoke a few words 
 to her ; but he was instantly dragged from the wall and cast 
 into prison. Sarah immediately wrote a few lines to Catha- 
 rine, informing her of the incident, and hinting that she 
 thought the English friars were their chief persecutors. This 
 grieved Catharine, and in her reply after her salutation to 
 Sarah, she said, " That she might be sure that the friars were 
 the chief actors ; but she believed the Lord would preserve 
 the poor Englishman for his love, and I am made to seek 
 the Lord for him with tears ; and I desire thee to send him 
 something at least once a day, if the keeper will carry it. I 
 am ravished with the love of God in my soul, and my be- 
 loved is the chiefest of ten thousands ; and I do not fear the 
 face of any man, though I may feel his persecutions. I 
 have a prospect for our safe return to England ; take heed 
 and be not tempted." This letter afterwards fell into the 
 hands of the English friars, and caused the prisoners con- 
 siderable trouble. 
 
 A friar once asked Catharine, why she did not work ; but 
 she answered his question by inquiring if he ever worked. 
 
168 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 On replying that he wrote, she said, " Bring me pen, ink and 
 paper, and I will write also." Not willing that she should 
 write, he said, " St. Paul worked at Rome, and by knitting 
 you can make about three half-pence a day." She told him, 
 " If they could have that privilege among them, which Paul 
 had at Rome, under Caesar, a heathen prince, we would have 
 worked and not have been chargeable to any ; for he lived 
 in his own rented house two years preaching the gospel and 
 the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 This silenced the friar, who was well known to be an 
 idle fellow, while they were always engaged mending the 
 garments of the prisoners, and allevinting the pains and sick- 
 ness of those who suffered by the Inquisition. 
 
 They had not only withstood the efforts of the monks to 
 beguile them from their faith, but openly avowed the truth of 
 their doctrine, and condemned the superstitions and idolatry 
 of the Catholic religion. In the faithful discharge of their 
 duty they were supported by resignation to Divine will in 
 the midst of all surrounding dangers, and with an humble 
 confidence on the all-powerful arm of Omnipotence, they 
 looked forward to a safe deliverance. 
 
 A captain of a ship, Francis Stuart of London, in com- 
 pany with an Irish friar, came to Palermo, and endeavored 
 to procure the release of the prisoners by making application 
 to the chief magistrate, inquisitor, friars and officers ; they 
 obtained the consent of all except the inquisitor, who told 
 them he could not set them free, without an order from the 
 Pope. 
 
 The next effort for their liberation was made by Daniel 
 Baker, who feeling a concern for the propagation of religion, 
 went to Leghorn with John Stubs, Henry Fell, and Richard 
 Scostrop, at which place Stubs and Fell took their departure 
 for Alexandria, and Baker and Scostrop went to Smyrna 
 and Constantinople. They declared the word of God with 
 becoming meekness and humility, but their inoffensive 
 deportment was looked upon with contempt and indignation, 
 more by the professors of Christianity, than by the Turks, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 169 
 
 Jews and Greeks. When they arrived at Smyrna, the Eng- 
 lish consul sent them back to Zante, where Richard Scos- 
 trop died. Daniel Baker went again to Leghorn, and from 
 thence took passage for Malta, for the purpose of visiting 
 Catharine Evans and Sarah Cheevers, with whose sufferings 
 he deeply sympathized, for he was engaged in the same holy 
 cause as they. Obtaining access to the inquisitor, he said in 
 Italian, " I am come to demand the just liberty of my friends, 
 the two English women in prison in the Inquisition." The 
 inquisitor asked whether he was related to them as a husband 
 or kinsman ; and whether he came from England on pur- 
 pose to make this application ? He answered, he came from 
 Leghorn for that purpose ! The inquisitor told him, they 
 should stay in prison until they died, if some English mer- 
 chants, or others of sufficient ability, did not give an obliga- 
 tion of three or four thousand dollars., that they should never 
 return to Malta. Before Baker left the island he sent word 
 to the English merchants, entreating them to enter into the 
 engagement, but none appeared willing to become security 
 for so large an amount. 
 
 The prisoners were still treated cruelly, but remained firm 
 in their faith, to the great discomfiture of the inquisitors, who 
 wished to make them forswear their religion and become 
 Catholics. Once they fasted three days, and after the fast 
 expired, Catharine composed the following hymn to God : 
 
 All praise to him that hath not put 
 
 Nor cast me out of mind, 
 Nor yet his mercy from me shut, 
 
 As I could ever find. 
 
 Infinite Glory, laud and praise 
 
 Be given to his name, 
 Who hath made known in these our days, 
 
 His strength and noble fame. 
 
 Oh ! none is like unto the Lamb ! 
 
 Whose beauty shineth bright, 
 0, glorify his holy name, 
 
 His majesty and might. 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 My soul, praise thou the only God, 
 
 A fountain pure and clear, 
 Whose crystal stream spreads all abroad, 
 
 And cleanseth far and near. 
 
 The well-springs of Eternity, 
 Which are so pure and sweet, 
 
 And do arise continually 
 My Bridegroom for to meet. 
 
 My sweet and dear beloved one, 
 
 Whose voice is more to me 
 Than all the glory of the earth, 
 
 Or treasures I can see. 
 
 He is the glory of my life, 
 
 My joy and my delight, 
 Within the bosom of his love 
 
 He closed me day and night. 
 
 He doth preserve me clean and pure 
 
 Within his pavill'on, 
 Where I wilh him should be secure 
 
 And saved from all wrong. 
 
 My soul, praise thou the Lord, I say, 
 Praise him with joy and peace ; 
 
 My spirit and mind both night and day, 
 Praise him and never cease. 
 
 0, magnify his majesty, 
 
 His fame and his renown, 
 Whose dwelling is in Sion high, 
 
 The glory of his crown. 
 
 Oh ! praises, praises to our God, 
 
 Sing praises to our king, 
 0, teach the people all abroad, 
 
 His praises for to sing. 
 
 A Sion song of glory bright, 
 That doth shine out so clear, 
 
 0, manifest it in the sight 
 Of nations far and near ; 
 
 That God may have his glory due, 
 
 His honor and his fame, 
 And all his saints may sing anew 
 
 The praises of his name. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. m 
 
 At last, after these women had endured the severities of 
 their imprisonment upward of three years, George Fox and 
 Gilbert Latey, understanding that Lord D'Aubigny could 
 procure their liberty, applied to him to use his friendly inter- 
 position, by writing to the magistrates of Malta in their favor; 
 which with laudable humanity he promised to do, and his 
 mediation was so successful as to obtain their release. On 
 receiving the letter, the lord inquisitor went to the prison, and 
 asked them, " Whether they would return to England, to 
 their husbands and children ?" They replied, " It was their 
 intent, in the will of God, so to do." The inquisitor told 
 them they were no longer prisoners, and wishing them a pros- 
 'perous voyage to their country, he courteously took his leave. 
 Detaiifed nearly three months in the consul's house before 
 they could secure a passage from thence, Catharine wrote 
 many letters to the rulers and inquisitors of Mala, among 
 which we find the following message, which she wrote and 
 delivered in the name of the Lord : 
 
 " My wrath is kindled against you, and my judgment is 
 set up amongst you for your hard-heartedness and unbelief. 
 I, the Lord, who desire the death of no man, but that all 
 should return unto me and live, have cast my servants among 
 you, contrary to their will, and without their knowledge, to go 
 and forewarn you of the evil that was coming upon you — 
 for all the wicked shall be brought to judgment. I will 
 establish my beloved son upon his throne, and he shall rule 
 in his princely power, and reign in his kingly majesty, 
 whose right is over all ; and his spiritual government shall 
 he set up in all places, righteous rule and pure worship in 
 spirit and in truth. There is nothing that can prevent the 
 Lord, who saith : " If ye will not hear my servant, which 
 speaketh my word, whom ye proved almost these four years, 
 whose life hath been harmless and spotless, in pure inno- 
 cency amongst you, then will I bring wo upon wo, 
 judgment upon judgment, till the living shall not be able to 
 bury the dead. My mouth hath spoken it, and my zeal will 
 perform it ; and every man's hand shall be upon his loins for 
 
« 
 
 172 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 pain ; for the day of recompense is come. But if you will 
 hear my servant, which speaketh in my name, and return to 
 the light in your consciences which convinceth of all evil, and 
 deny all evil thoughts, words and actions, then will I pour 
 out my spirit upon you, and will soon cure you of all 
 diseases and all pains." 
 
 They left Malta in the frigate Sapphire for Leghorn, where 
 the merchants treated them with remarkable kindness. From 
 thence they went to Tangiers, which was given to the king 
 of England on his marriage with the daughter of the king of 
 Portugal. At this time it was besieged by the Moors, yet 
 Catharine and Sarah went into the city and exhorted the 
 people to amend their lives, and live in righteousness ;' 
 paying a visit to the governor, he courteously received 
 their admonitions and offered them money, but they were not 
 willing to receive it, yet they gratefully acknowledged his 
 kindness. From Tangiers they sailed for England, and after 
 a stormy passage arrived in safety, rejoicing in the Lord, and 
 returning praises for their wonderful deliverance. Daniel 
 
 Baker, after travelling over the eastern nations of 
 1662. Europe, returned to England, where being imprisoned 
 
 by his countrymen, he wrote during his confinement 
 a narrative of his travels. 
 
 The inimical disposition of the priests and ruling powers, 
 and their inveterate prejudice against the Society of Friends, 
 still continued to rage with its usual violence in England. 
 Whilst George Fox was holding a meeting in Bristol, it was 
 disturbed, and Alexander Parker, with whom he was travel- 
 ling, was arrested by the officers and taken away. From 
 Bristol he went to Wiltshire and Leicestershire, where, lodg- 
 ing at the house of a widow, he was arrested and taken 
 before Lord Beaumont, who asking him his name, he 
 replied, " My name is George Fox, and I am well known by 
 that name." 
 
 " Ay," said Beaumont, " you are known all the world 
 over." 
 
 One of the officers was ordered to search his pockets and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 173 
 
 see if he had any letters in his possession ; but George Fox 
 said he was not a letter carrier, and protested against being 
 searched by military power, for it was contrary to the kings 
 proclamation. Civil magistrates were sent for, but they 
 refused to take him to jail, yet they secured the services of a poor 
 man, who performed the act for a pittance, to purchase bread 
 in order to sustain life. When they arrived at Leicester jail, 
 George Fox inquired who was the master, the jailor or his 
 wife, and on being informed that his wife, who was so lame 
 as to be obliged to wear crutches, was, he went to her and 
 made arrangements for a good apartment during his captivity. 
 After remaining a few weeks in this place, he was brought 
 before the judges of the sessions, who, as usual, tendered the 
 oaths of supremacy and allegiance ; but George Fox told 
 them, " I never took any oath in my life ; and ye know we 
 cannot swear, because Christ and his Apostle forbids it; and, 
 therefore, this is but a snare, yet if ye can prove, that after 
 Christ and his Apostle forbad swearing, they ever demanded 
 Christians to swear, then I will take these oaths ; otherwise I 
 am resolved to obey Christ's command, and the Apostle's 
 exhortation." 
 
 " You must take the oath to manifest your allegiance to 
 the king," said the judges. 
 
 To show that he was not unfaithful lo the king, he told 
 them that Col. Hacker once sent him from that town to Lon- 
 don, a prisoner, to be tried for holding meetings and plotting, 
 at which time King Charles decided against the magistrates 
 who had arrested him, and he was therefore excused from 
 swearing. Without reading the mittimus to the prisoner, a 
 jury was called, and he was indicted for refusing to take the 
 oaths of allegiance and supremacy. After a short time the 
 jury returned with a verdict of guilty, but Lord Hastings 
 having written a letter to the justices directing them to set 
 him at liberty, they were compelled to obey. George Fox 
 took this letter to Lord Beaumont, who on reading it seemed 
 exceedingly vexed, and threatened, if he held any more meet- 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ings at S Warrington, to disperse them and send him to prison 
 again. 
 
 Thomas Goodair and Benjamin Staples were imprisoned 
 at Oxford, and when they were taken before the court, Sir 
 William Walter on the bench, the oath of allegiance was 
 tendered, but they answered : " We acknowledge the king 
 as supreme ruler in temporal matters, and we are willing to 
 obey him in all just demands. But if King Charles, or those 
 in his authority, request anything contrary to the command of 
 Christ, then we would rather obey Christ than either the king 
 or those under him. It is for our consciences' sake that we 
 cannot swear, though we could gain the whole world there- 
 by ; for Christ hath forbidden it, and said, ' Swear not at all ;' 
 and the Apostle James saith, ' Above all things swear not.' " 
 But this answer proved of no avail, for the justice imme- 
 diately passed the (following sentence upon them: "Hearken 
 to your sentence. You are out of the king's protection. All 
 your lands, real estate and chattels, are forfeited, and shall be 
 seized for the king's use ; and you are to remain prisoners 
 during the king's pleasure." They were taken 'back to pri- 
 son, and although the time of their release is a mystery, yet 
 it has been asserted by Whiting, that they were discharged 
 at the next general jail delivery. 
 
 In the summer of this year, Sir Henry Vane and John 
 Lambert, both distinguished for their hostility against Charles 
 the First, were brought to trial for treason. To what extent 
 this charge was true, we do not pretend to say, but Vane was 
 found guilty, and soon afterwards beheaded on Tower-hill. 
 It is said he was a man of great knowledge, a member of the 
 Long Parliament, and an opposer of Cromwell, whom he 
 believed to be an usurper. In principles, he was a staunch 
 republican, and his voice at one time held great influence in 
 the administration of the government. Lambert, who was 
 an eminent general, on being condemned to death, pleaded 
 for mercy, and the judges commuted the sentence to perpetual 
 imprisonment on a small isle near Plymouth, where he ended 
 his unhappy career. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 175 
 
 The insurrection of the Fifth- Monarchy-men was a pre- 
 tence for passing an act, the effect of which was the persecu- 
 tion of Friends under the cloak of the dangerous tendency of 
 their meetings. This law was styled : " An Act for prevent- 
 ing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons 
 called Quakers, and others refusing to take lawful oaths." 
 After its passing, E. Burrough wrote a book, called, " The 
 case of the people called Quakers stated," and it showed the 
 falsehood of the accusation brought against them. Concern- 
 ing their meetings of worship, he makes use of the following 
 language : 
 
 " What judgment do our neighbors give in this case ? 
 They say they have known us to meet together in such man- 
 ner, for divers years, in towns and villages, and never knewnor 
 understood any harm or danger therein, nor ever were any 
 way prejudiced, either in their persons or estates in our meet- 
 ings. The very witness of God in all our neighbors does 
 testify, and give judgment, that our meetings have always 
 been peaceable and quiet; and that we come together in 
 peace and good order and part in the same, and no person 
 hath been harmed by such meetings ; inquire of the neigh- 
 borhood, and they will tell you, they believe, in their con- 
 sciences, our meetings are for good, and have good effects, 
 nor bring forth evil to any. 
 
 " As for the manner of our meeting and sitting together, it 
 is orderly and decent, and of good report among men ; and 
 for any doctrine that ever was there held or heard by any, 
 none can truly accuse it to be either error, heresy or sedition ; 
 but, on the contrary, they know it beareth witness against all 
 sin and iniquity, and tends to the turning of people from un- 
 godliness and unrighteousness, to truth and holiness ; and 
 many can tell, this is effected by our doctrine preached in our 
 meetings ; and all can witness, that we part again in peace and 
 good order, and in convenient time ; and they can show you 
 they are not terrified, nor the peace of the land disturbed (on 
 our part), by our meetings, which are in God's fear, and to 
 the glory of his name, which all men know, are according 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 to the law of God, and gospel, and primitive Christian exam- 
 ple. 
 
 " And seeing that the law against us is more put in execu- 
 tion than the pother laws, it doth appear, that there is more 
 envy against us, and our peaceable religious meeting, than 
 there is against profaneness, wickedness, drunkenness and 
 stage-playing, and unlawful games ; and such magistrates) 
 wheresoever they are, are not excusable in the sight of God, 
 though there is a law against us, while they put it in force, 
 and not other really good laws against profane and ungodly 
 persons and practices ; and therefore, seeing we do not suffer, 
 we must say, it is not only because there is a law against us, 
 but it is also, or rather because there is enmity, wrath and 
 wickedness in the hearts of men against us, which is the 
 main cause of our suffering in this day." 
 
 E. Burrough, like a faithful and diligent minister of Christ, 
 was always ready to do his bidding ; and he laboriously de- 
 voted all his time to the service of God and the Church, both 
 in preaching and writing. It was his meat and drink to do 
 the bidding of his heavenly Father. The sincerity of the 
 Society, however, was put to a severe test, by the multiplied 
 calamities which were caused by this and other similar laws ; 
 but the unwearied patience and fortitude, with which its 
 members submitted to their sufferings, the loss of their estates, 
 liberty and lives, is a convincing argument of their stern in- 
 tegrity. They were marked out as objects of unrelenting 
 cruelty ; but, with a power above mere humanity, they en- 
 dured with unshaken firmness the unremitting barbarity of 
 their enemies. Disposed, above all things, to please an over- 
 ruling Providence, and having an eye to their reward in the 
 crown of everlasting glory, they were enabled patiently to 
 submit to whatever afflictions were permitted to befall them 
 in their pilgrimage on earth. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The iron hand of oppression continued to rage in London 
 with unrelenting cruelty. A short narrative was published 
 and signed by twelve persons, showing a list of four thou- 
 sand and two hundred members of the Society of Friends who 
 were in the prisons of England at this time ; also denoting 
 the number in each county, as well as stating the cause of 
 their imprisonment. Some of the jails were crowded with 
 men and women — old men with grey hairs and youth. — 
 male and female, were all cast in together without the least 
 distinction. Thus many tradesmen, shop-keepers and hus- 
 bandmen, were reduced to poverty, and their families left in 
 a starving condition. More than five hundred were in the 
 London prison alone. At a meeting in a house known by 
 the name of the Bull and Mouth, a person named John 
 Trowel was killed, and his friends exposed his corpse to the 
 inhabitants, which excited- much commiseration and pity. 
 The coroner was summoned, who empanelled a jury, and, 
 according to the duties of the office, charged the jurors on 
 oath to make true inquiry into the cause of the death of the 
 deceased. They withdrew, but soon returned, refusing to 
 give a verdict, and requested the corpse to be interred, which 
 was done the same day. Although the coroner and jury met 
 several times, still they refused to give a verdict, because 
 Trowel was murdered in a crowd of riotous persons, and as 
 the particular murderer could not be detected, the city was 
 liable to a heavy fine, at the pleasure of the king. The 
 friends of the deceased sent a letter to the Lord Mayor, 
 in which they said : 
 
 " It may be supposed thou hast heard of this thing, for 
 12 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 it was done not in the night, but in open day ; not sud- 
 denly, unawares or by mishap, but intentionally and after 
 consideration ; not in a corner, but in the streets of the city 
 of London ; all of which circumstances highly aggravate 
 the murder to the shame and infamy of this city and its 
 government." 
 
 This letter was published, and the person who distributed 
 it through the streets was arrested and sent to prison by 
 the special order of Alderman Brown. "When one was 
 placed in the hands of the king, he said: "I assure you it 
 was not by my advice that any of your friends should be 
 slain ; ye must tell the magistrates of the city of it, and 
 prosecute the law." 
 
 Street meetings were common in almost every town ; 
 indeed Friends, having very few meeting-houses, were 
 forced to hold their meetings in the open air; so to them 
 it was rather a matter of necessity than choice. The con- 
 stables and other officers would frequently drag the preach- 
 ers from their stand ; but some were always ready to sup- 
 ply their places, if not among the men, some of the women 
 would address the people. Even the soldiers were en- 
 couraged to deeds of cruelty by their officers, and Alder- 
 man Richard Brown, who was formerly a major-general 
 under Cromwell, became so illiberal and persecuting that 
 the actors upon the stage frequently ridiculed him by saying, 
 " The devil was brown." A book exposing his base charac- 
 ter was also published, and dedicated to him by this small 
 epistle : 
 
 " RichardBrown ! if thou art not sealed up already for des- 
 truction, and if repentance be not utterly hid from thy eyes, 
 the Lord convert thee, and forgive thee all thy hard and cruel 
 dealings towards us. We desire thy repentance rather than 
 thy destruction ; and the Lord God of heaven and earth give 
 judgment of final determination between thee and us, that all 
 the earth may know whether thy cause against us, or our 
 cause, be just before him, who only is the righteous judge." 
 
 In the fifth month [May] of this year, one Philip Miller 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 179 
 
 came unto a meeting in John street, of the parish of Sepul- 
 chre's, London, and although vested with no office or legal 
 authority, commanded the rabble who attended him to appre- 
 hend five persons whom he selected, and among them was 
 John Crook, who before his convincement had been a justice 
 of the peace. Some time after this, Miller came to the same 
 place again, and struck several persons with his cane because 
 they would not obey his commands and leave the spot ; then 
 he charged the constables to secure and take several into 
 custody. On a first-day near the latter part of this month, 
 Captain Reeves with some soldiers made an attack upon the 
 Bull and Mouth meeting, and without an order or warrant 
 commanded his soldiers to seize about forty persons. Alder- 
 man Brown, coming to the place where the prisoners were 
 guarded, assaulted a very old man and pulled him down 
 twice, by the brim of his hat; a soldier struck one of them 
 on the head with a heavy pistol, and Brown sent them all to 
 Newgate guarded by soldiers. 
 
 They were brought before the court of sessions, where the 
 indictment was read, stating " That the prisoners, under pre- 
 tence of performing religious worship otherwise than by the 
 laws of the kingdom of England established, unlawfully and 
 tumultuously did gather and assemble themselves together, 
 to the great terror of his majesty's people, and to the disturb- 
 ance of the peace of the king, in contempt of our said lord, 
 the king and his laws, to the evil example of all others in the 
 like case offending," &c. When the clerk finished reading, 
 no witnesses appeared against the prisoners except Brown, 
 who was one of the judges and sat upon the bench. He 
 tendered the oath, but they refused to take it, and he sent 
 them back to prison. 
 
 A member of the Society was once seized in a very vio- 
 lent and abusive manner by some soldiers, because he 
 refused to leave a meeting, and when taken to court, he said : 
 " My refusing to go, was because they would not or could not 
 show any warrant for my apprehension. How should I know 
 whether they were officers, or robbers and murderers ?" To 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 this Alderman Brown exclaimed with some violence : " If 
 they had dragged you through all the kennels in the street, 
 you would have been served right for not going with 
 them." 
 
 One of the prisoners said to this persecuting alderman : 
 " Thou hast had many warnings and visitations in the love 
 of God, but hast slighted them ; therefore beware of being 
 sealed up in the wrath of God." One of the jailors took a 
 cane, and knocked down several of the prisoners, and it is 
 reported that Brown said, " Knock them down — knock them 
 down," which was certainly outrageous conduct on the part 
 of a man appointed to hold the scales of justice, and to se- 
 cure to every man the enjoyment of those rights which are 
 guaranteed by the government. We will mention another 
 instance of Brown's brutality. A prisoner was demanded 
 to answer to his indictment, guilty, or not guilty ; and not 
 answering it directly, Brown tauntingly said : " "We shall 
 have a revelation by and by." To which the prisoner said : 
 " How long will you oppose the innocent ? How long will 
 ye persecute the righteous seed of God?" But while he 
 was speaking, Brown foolishly began to mock the women 
 who sell their articles by crying them up and down the 
 street, by exclaiming, " Aha, aha ! will ye have any Wall- 
 fleet oysters ? Have you any kitchen stuff, maids ?" and 
 many other expressions that little became a justice of the 
 peace. One of the prisoners said : " He could not for con- 
 science sake forbear meeting with the people of God." 
 
 " Conscience, indeed," said Brown, " a dog's tail." 
 
 Alderman Adams, who was acquainted with one of the 
 prisoners, said, " I am sorry to see you here." 
 
 " Sorry," said Browri> " what should you be sorry for? " 
 
 " Yes, I am sorry, because he is a sober man," replied 
 Adams. 
 
 " There is not a sober man among the Quakers," said 
 Brown. 
 
 The spectators in the court became disgusted with his 
 conduct ; and when two persons were brought to trial for 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 181 
 
 robbing a house, he told them, " They were the veriest 
 rogues in England, except the Quakers." 
 
 But it would be almost impossible to describe the many 
 instances of his cruelty and inhumanity : a fair picture of 
 his unjust conduct was published, as we have already stated, 
 and dedicated to him. At this season of bitter persecution, 
 Francis Howgill wrote a letter of encouragement to his 
 friends, from which we extract the following message which 
 he delivered in the name of the living God : 
 
 " The sun shall leave its shining brightness, and cease to 
 give light to the world ; the moon shall become darkness, 
 and give no light unto the night; the stars shall cease to 
 know their office or place : my covenant with day, night, 
 times and seasons, shall sooner come to an end, than the 
 covenant I have made with this people, into which they are 
 entered with me, shall end or be broken. Yea, though the 
 powers of darkness and hell combine against them, and the 
 jaws of dealh open to receive them, yet I will deliver them, 
 and lead them through all. I will confound their enemies, 
 as I did in Jacob, and scatter them as I did in Israel in the 
 days of old. I will take their enemies — I will hurl them 
 hither and thither, as stones hurled in a sling ; and the me- 
 morial of this nation, which is holy unto me, shall never be 
 rooted out, but shall live through ages, as a cloud of wit- 
 nesses in generations to come. I have brought them to the 
 birth ; yea, I have brought them forth, and they are mine. 
 I will nourish them, and carry them as on eagles' wings ; 
 and though clouds gather against them, I will make my way 
 through them ; though darkness gather together, and tem- 
 pests gender, still I will scatter them as with an east wind ; 
 and nations shall know they are my inheritance, and they 
 shall know I am the living God, who will plead their cause 
 with all who rise up in opposition against them. 
 
 " These words are holy, faithful, eternal, good, and true ! 
 Blessed are they that hear and believe unto the end ; and 
 because of them no strength was left in me for awhile, but 
 at last my heart was filled with joy, even as when the Ark of 
 
IQ2 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 God was brought from the house of Obed-Edom, when 
 David danced before it, and Israel shouted for joy. 
 
 In Southwark, the spirit of persecution raged with as much 
 violence as in London. Numbers had been taken from reli- 
 gious meetings and committed to prison; and after remain- 
 ing in the White Lion prison about nine weeks, some of 
 them were brought to trial, before the Court of Sessions, 
 Judge Richard Onslow presiding. As we have not yet 
 inserted a regular Indictment, we give the following, so that 
 the reader may see and judge in what manner these digni- 
 taries represented the quiet and peaceable meetings of the 
 humble Society of Friends. 
 
 " The jurors, from our Lord the King, do present upon 
 their oath, that Arthur Fisher, late of the parish of St. Olave, 
 in the borough of Southwark, in the county of Surrey, yeo- 
 man ; Nathaniel Robinson, of the same, yeoman ; John 
 Chandler, of the same, yeoman ; and others, being wicked, 
 dangerous, and seditious sectaries, and disloyal persons, and 
 above the age of sixteen years, who, on the twenty-ninth day 
 of June, in the year of the reign of our Lord Charles the 
 Second, by the grace of C4od, King of England, Scotland, 
 France, Ireland, &c, the fourteenth, have obstinately refused, 
 and every one of them hath obstinately refused to repair 
 unto some church, chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer, 
 according to the laws and statutes of this kingdom of Eng- 
 land, in the like case set forth and provided (after forty days 
 next after the end of the session of Parliament, begun and 
 holden at Westminster, on the twenty-ninth day of February, 
 in the year of our Lady Elizabeth, late Queen of England, 
 the thirty-fifth, and there continued, until the dissolution of 
 the same, being the tenth day of April, in the thirty-fifth year 
 aforesaid) ; to wit, on the third day of August, in the year of 
 the reign of the said Charles, King of England, the fourteenth 
 aforesaid, in the parish of St. Olave aforesaid, in the borough 
 of Southwark aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, of them- 
 selves, did voluntarily and unlawfully join in, and were pre- 
 sent at an unlawful assemblage, conventicle, and meeting, at 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 183 
 
 the said parish of St. Olave, in the county aforesaid, under 
 color and pretence of the exercise of religion, against the 
 laws and statutes of this kingdom of England, in contempt 
 of our said Lord the King that now is, his laws, and to the 
 evil and dangerous example of all others in the like case, 
 offending against the peace of our said Lord the King, that 
 now is, his crown and dignity, and contrary to the form of 
 the statute in this same case set forth and provided." 
 
 After this indictment was read, the prisoners expressed a 
 wish to be tried by the late Act of Parliament against con- 
 venticles ; the reason they assigned was, because the Act of 
 the thirty-fifth of Elizabeth was passed in days of ignorance, 
 when the people were just beginning to throw off the 
 shackles of Popery. The clerk required them to plead 
 guilty or not guilty, but being rather dilatory in returning an 
 answer, they were sent back to prison. The rest, being 
 twenty-two in number, pleaded not guilty to the indictment. 
 When the jury were called, all took their seats save one, to 
 whom exception was made, on account of the envy and 
 malice he had heretofore displayed towards Friends. The 
 prisoners bid the jury take heed how they sported with 
 holy things, and that things concerning the conscience were 
 holy. It was not true, that they were wicked, dangerous, 
 and seditious sectaries, but they had always endeavored to 
 live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world, for the truth 
 of which they appealed to their neighbors; and they were 
 charged with not coming to hear the Common Prayer, when 
 they could not attend because the service-book was not pub- 
 lished until after they were arrested. After two witnesses 
 were examined, the jury retired, but soon returned with a 
 verdict of guilty on some of the counts, but not guilty on 
 others. This decision did not please the judge, and he 
 ordered the jury to leave the court again, and prevailed on 
 them to return a verdict of guilty to the whole of the indict- 
 ment. When this unjust trial was concluded, Judge Onslow 
 pronounced the following sentence : 
 
 " The prisoners must return to prison again, and lie there 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 three months without bail ; and if you do not make submis- 
 sion according to the law, either at, or before the end of the 
 aforesaid three months, you shall adjure the realm ; but in 
 case you refuse to make adjuration, or after adjuration made, 
 you should forbear to depart from the realm within the time 
 limited, or if you return again without license, you shall be 
 proceeded against as felons." 
 
 The judge said, " There is a way to escape the penalty." 
 
 " How ?" asked one of the prisoners. 
 
 " Come to Common Prayer, and do not attend Quaker 
 meetings," replied the judge. 
 
 The prisoner gave reasons why he could not comply with 
 that, even to escape persecution. 
 
 u Then you must adjure the land," said the judge. 
 
 " Adjure," returned the prisoner, " is to forswear." 
 
 " And ye cannot swear at all," said one of the justices, 
 laughing as if it were a jest. 
 
 How long they were kept prisoners is not known, but 
 generally believed they were not released until the king's 
 proclamation opened their prison doors. 
 
 John Crook and others, who were taken out of a meeting 
 in John Street, London, were brought before the justices at 
 Hick's Hall, and although they pointed out the illegality of 
 their apprehension without warrant, yet they were committed 
 to prison. According to the late act against Friends, an in- 
 dictment was drawn up against them, after which they were 
 r emoved to Newgate, in order to have their trial at Old Bai- 
 ley. On the twenty-fifth of the sixth month [June], John 
 Crook (as the indictment reads), gentleman, Isaac Grey, 
 physician, and John Bolton, goldsmith, were brought before 
 the Lord Mayor of London, Chief Justice Forster, and other 
 judges and justices, to answer the charges preferred against 
 them. John Crook was first called to the bar, and without 
 reading his indictment, the judge asked him ; — " When did 
 you take the oath of allegiance ?" 
 
 " After remaining six weeks in prison," said Crook, " am 
 I called on to accuse myself? Nemo debet seipsum prodere . 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 185 
 
 I am an Englishman, and by the law of England I ought 
 not to be taken or imprisoned, nor my freehold seized, nor 
 called in question, nor put to answer, but according to the 
 law of the land. I stand here at this bar as a delinquent, 
 and do desire that my accuser may be brought forth, and 
 then I will answer to my charge, if I be guilty of any." 
 
 " You are here demanded," replied the judge, *' to take the 
 oath of allegiance, and when you have done that, you shall 
 be heard about the other, for we have power to tender it to 
 any man." 
 
 " Not to me upon this occasion and in this place," said 
 the prisoner, " for I am brought here as an offender and not 
 to be made an offender, nor can you oblige me to criminate 
 myself. I challenge the benefit of the laws of England ; for 
 by them is a better inheritance derived to me as an English- 
 man, than that which I received from my parents ; for by 
 the former, the latter is secured. This is proved by the 
 twenty-ninth Chapter of Magna Charta, and the Petition of 
 Right mentioned in the third of Car. L, and in other good 
 laws ; therefore, in claiming the benefit of them, I demand 
 no more than my right. And you who are judges on the 
 bench, ought to be my counsel and not my accusers, and 
 instruct me in the benefits of the laws, that I may not, through 
 ignorance, lose any advantage, which the laws of my coun- 
 try afford me as an Englishman." 
 
 " We sit here to do justice," exclaimed the judge, " and 
 are upon our oaths ; and we are to tell you what is law and 
 not you us ; therefore, sirrah, you are too bold." 
 
 " Sirrah is not a word for a judge," continued Crook ; " I am 
 no felon, neither ought you to menace the prisoner at the bar. 
 For I stand here arraigned for my life and liberty, and the 
 preservation of my wife and children, and outward estate ; 
 therefore I have a right to be fully heard in my defence 
 according to law ; and I hope the court will bear with me, if 
 I take the freedom to assert my liberty as an Englishman and 
 a Christian ; if I speak loud, it is from zeal for the truth ; and 
 my innocence makes me bold. Let me see my accuser, that 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 I may know from what cause I have been six weeks impris- 
 oned, and do not at this time make me accuse myself by 
 asking me questions. Let my accuser come forth, or else do 
 me justice in discharging me by proclamation." 
 
 " We take no notice of you, otherwise than as an evil-dis- 
 posed person," replied Judge Twisden, " because you have 
 refused to take the oath." 
 
 " I explained before why I could not take the oath," said 
 the prisoner, " I am a lover of justice, and in my life have 
 endeavored to keep a conscience void of offence towards 
 God and man." 
 
 The court was here interrupted by a general cry of 
 " Take him out — take him out ; " and as the officers were 
 leading him back to prison, he said : " Mind the fear of the 
 Lord God, that you may corne to the knowledge of his will, 
 and do justice ! Take heed of oppressing the innocent, for 
 the Lord God of heaven and earth will assuredly plead their 
 cause ; and for my part, I have no desire that one hair of 
 your head should be hurt, but be guided by the wisdom of 
 God ! " 
 
 The next day they were again brought into court, and 
 demanded to take the oath ; but still insisting on the plea 
 that they ought to be first tried and convicted upon the 
 offence, if there was any, which caused them to sutler im- 
 prisonment, the judge became provoked, and used language 
 which did not well comport with his station and office. In 
 the afternoon of the same day, a new indictment was drawn 
 up, charging them with refusing to take the oath of allegi- 
 ance, to whicli they were required to plead guilty or not 
 guilty. Not being satisfied whether they ought to plead to 
 a created offence, and thereby acquiesce in the introduction 
 of a precedent in a court of judicature, they made some ob- 
 jection. But being informed their pleading would not de- 
 prive them of the benefit of the law, they said the indictment 
 was false, and they were not guilty. The jury who were 
 present, and the witnesses of the previous proceedings, were 
 discharged, and on the following day a new jury was em- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 187 
 
 panelled. In this jury were several soldiers, some of whom 
 had been actually concerned in using illegal violence to the 
 Friends, by dragging them from their meetings and houses • 
 so that they could expect no milder judgment from the jury 
 than they had received at the hands of the judges. When 
 the indictment was read, they moved to have the trial post- 
 poned until the next Quarter Session, in order to allow them 
 time to get advice from counsel, and prepare their defence. 
 To this reasonable request the judge replied : " We have 
 given you time enough, and you shall have no more, for we 
 will try you this" time; therefore swear the jury." The pri- 
 soners remonstrated against swearing the jury till this point 
 was properly discussed, and they were heard in their own 
 defence. This occasioned great confusion in the court ; some 
 of the spectators wanted them taken out, and others cried, 
 " Let them alone." In this tumult they supposed the evi- 
 dence was given against them, and complaining of such 
 illegal treatment, the executioner endeavored to gag Crook 
 and others. 
 
 " Will you give us leave to speak ?" said Crook. " We 
 except against some of the jury, as being our enemies, and 
 of those who by force commanded us to be dragged from 
 our meetings and took us to prison without a warrant or 
 legal process ; and must these be our judges ? We except 
 against them." 
 
 " It is too late now," replied the judge ; " you should have 
 done it before they were sworn jurymen. The jury will now 
 retire, and your duty is to decide whether these prisoners have 
 refused to take the oath, which charge being fully established 
 against them, you can form your opinion without leaving 
 the box." 
 
 The prisoners demanded the privilege to make, their 
 defence before the jury brought in their verdict, but they 
 were refused, \he chief judge at the same time remarking, 
 " that if the Quakers had liberty to speak they would make 
 themselves famous and their judges odious," and instead of 
 guarding their rights as freemen, they had recourse to their 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 usual exclamation, " stop their mouths, executioner !" which 
 he did with a dirty cloth. Yet when the foreman of the jury 
 was ordered to give in the verdict, John Crook took the 
 liberty to say a few words before the trial ended. 
 
 He said, " Let me have liberty first to speak — it is but a 
 few words, and I hope I shall do it with what brevity and 
 pertinency my understanding will give me leave, and the 
 occasion requires ; it is to the point of these two heads, mat- 
 ter of law and matter of conscience. To matters of law, I 
 have this to say, the statute by which you proceed against us, 
 was made against papists, occasioned by the gunpowder 
 plot, and is entitled, ' An act for the better discovery and 
 suppressing of popish recusants ;" but they have liberty and 
 we are destroyed. [Interrupted by the judges, and great dis- 
 turbance in the court.] As to conscience, I have something 
 to say — it is a tender thing, and we know what it is to offend 
 it; and, therefore, we dare not break Christ's command, who 
 said, ' Swear not at all;' and, also, the words of the Apostle 
 James, ' Above all things, my brethren, swear not.' " Here 
 he was interrupted by the executioner's choking his utterance 
 by the gag. The judge commanded the jury to deliver their 
 verdict, which was done according to his orders, and of course 
 it was against them. Silence being proclaimed, the Recorder 
 read the following sentence : 
 
 " The jury for the king do find that John Crook, John Bol- 
 ton and Isaac Grey, are guilty of refusing to take the oath of 
 allegiance, for which you do incur a premunirc, which is the 
 forfeiture of all your real estates during life, and your personal 
 estates for ever, and you to be out of the king's protection, and 
 to be imprisoned during his pleasure. And this is your sen- 
 tence." John Crook replied, " We are still under God's pro- 
 tection." 
 
 The prisoners were sent to Newgate, where J. Crook wrote 
 a full account of the whole trial, which was published, toge- 
 ther with the indictment, and he exhibited the mockery of jus- 
 tice, so that the king might see how his subjects were treated 
 by the authorities. Being at one time a justice of the peace, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 189 
 
 he possessed some knowledge of the laws, and succeeded in 
 exposing their illegal and arbitrary proceedings to the whole 
 nation. This trial demonstrates, beyond the power of all pal- 
 liation, that the government, at this era, was as arbitrary to 
 the dissenters, and particularly to Friends, as any absolute 
 government. We are here presented with an instance of 
 natural bora subjects, who violated no duty, committed no 
 crime, contrived no sedition, nor disturbed the government in 
 any way, deprived of those privileges guaranteed by the 
 Magna Charta and the Petition of Rights. And not only 
 this, but denied the liberty of speaking in their own defence 
 when on trial for life, liberty and property ; just exceptions 
 to jurymen evaded by artifice ; for the only cause that they 
 worshipped God according to the dictates of conscience. All 
 the prisoners 1 estates were confiscated, but on the twenty- 
 third of the seventh month [July], they were released, it is 
 supposed, by an order from the king ; — yet, two days after, 
 John Bolton and Isaac Grey were again arrested, cast into 
 prison and we have no account when they were discharged, 
 if ever. John Crook would also probably have been arrested, 
 but he left London immediately after his release. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Alderman Brown still continued his persecution against 
 the Society, as the following instance fully proves. A 
 mender of old shoes, or cobbler, who belonged to the Soci- 
 ety of Friends, was desired by a laboring man, on the night 
 of the seventh day of the week, to mend a pair of shoes, 
 so that he might have them again in the morning, as he had 
 no others to wear. The cobbler, to accommodate the man, 
 sat up till after midnight working at his shoes ; but not get- 
 ting them finished, he retired to bed, and rising early in the 
 morning, he went to work again as privately as he possibly 
 could in his chamber ; but an envious neighbor informed 
 against him for working on Sunday, for which he was ar- 
 rested, taken before Alderman Brown, and committed to 
 Bridewell. He was condemned to hard labor ; but refusing 
 to beat hemp, because he did not deserve the punishment, 
 he was cruelly and inhumanly whipped. 
 
 A number of prisoners at Newgate were crowded into 
 one room, which soon became unhealthy, causing much 
 sickness and one death. Sir William Turner, one of the 
 sheriffs of London, gaining information of the subject, or- 
 dered they should be returned to Bridewell, where they had 
 been before. Among these prisoners was a lazy, idle fellow, 
 who dressed as a Friend, acted like one, and contrived to be 
 placed in the same room with them, so that he might live 
 without, working. He was an enormous eater, and often 
 many of the modest would be forced to go without a meal, 
 to gratify his rapacious appetite. At last he became too 
 burdensome; and one of the prisoners, Thomas Elwood, 
 meeting the sheriff, said : " That man," pointing to the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 191 
 
 drone, " is not only none of our company, but an idle, dis- 
 solute fellow, who hath thrust himself among our friends, 
 that he might live upon them ; therefore I desire we may not 
 be troubled with him." 
 
 The sheriff smiled on seeing the drone standing with his 
 hat on, looking as demurely as he could, in order that he 
 might escape detection from the officers : walking towards 
 him, he said, " How came you to be in prison ?" 
 
 " I was taken at a meeting," he replied. 
 
 " But what business had you there ?" demanded the 
 sheriff. 
 
 " I went to hear," was the answer. 
 
 " Ay, you went upon a worse design, it seems," replied 
 the sheriff, " but I will disappoint you ; for I intend to 
 change your company, and place you with your right com- 
 panions." 
 
 He then ordered the turnkey to place the man among the 
 felons, and not let him trouble the Friends any more. Not 
 a little astonished, he heard his doom, and very quickly 
 parted with his Quakership ; for off went his hat, and bow- 
 ing several times to the sheriff, he said : " Good, your wor- 
 ship, have pity on me, and set me at liberty." 
 
 " No, no," said the sheriff, " I will not so far disappoint 
 you ; since you wanted to live in a prison, I will let you 
 remain." 
 
 The turnkey took him away and the pretender was reward- 
 ed according to his deeds, and Friends were never again 
 troubled with him. 
 
 It now becomes our painfid duty to record the death of 
 two faithful and exemplary ministers of the Society, Richard 
 Hubberthorn and Edward Burrough. The simplicity of their 
 lives, their ministerial labors, their active exertions in behalf 
 of their suffering friends, and their remarkable qualifications 
 for doing good, gave them a high place among the most 
 eminent members of the Society, and made their loss regret- 
 ted throughout ths whole kingdom. 
 
 In June, Richard Hubberthorn was dragged from the 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 meeting at the Bull and Mouth, and taken before Alderman 
 Brown, who with his own hands abused him violently and 
 committed him to Newgate. The prison was so densely 
 thronged, that he grew sick, and in two months the messen- 
 ger of death relieved his weary spirit. Two days before he 
 died, some of his friends desired to know if he felt satisfied 
 with his lot. He. said, " There is no need of disputing mat- 
 ters, for I know the ground of my salvation, and am for ever 
 satisfied in my peace with the Lord. That Faith which hath 
 wrought my salvation, I well know, and my conscience is at 
 rest." In the morning before he died, he said to Sarah Black- 
 berry, who was by his side, " Do not seek to hold me, for it 
 is too strait for me, and out of this straitness I must go ; for I 
 am wound unto largeness, and am to be lifted up on high far 
 above all." As his life had been spent in acts of righteous- 
 ness and the pursuits of peace, his departure from the world 
 exhibited the happy effects of such a course of conduct ; the 
 peaceful tenor of his conscience, stripping death of all its 
 terrors, he was in his last moments supported in the full 
 assurance of that faith which secured a crown of everlasting 
 glory in the world to come. 
 
 He was a man of low stature, an infirm constitution and 
 a weak voice ; so that a knowledge of his real worth and 
 character was reserved for an intimate acquaintance with him. 
 He possessed much meekness, humility, patience and broth- 
 erly kindness ; was distinguished for his equanimity of mind, 
 neither easily depressed in adversity, nor elated in pros- 
 perity ; clear in judgment and quick in apprehension, he 
 knew the season when to speak and when to be silent. Not- 
 withstanding the weakness of his voice, he was a powerful, 
 able and successful minister of the gospel. Travelling in 
 different parts of the nation for nearly nine years, he con- 
 vinced a number of the Truth, whose after lives bore testi- 
 mony to the power and efficacy of his ministry. 
 
 The death of Edward Burrough is an epoch in the history 
 of the Society of Friends. For several years he had been in 
 the city of London, where his ministry was blessed with many 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 193 
 
 conversions. He had an affectionate regard for the inhabit- 
 ants of that city, and when persecution was raging violently, 
 he repeatedly said to his bosom friend, Francis Howgill : " I 
 can freely go to that city, and lay down my life for a testi- 
 mony to that truth, which I have declared through the spirit 
 and power of God." During this year he was on a visit to 
 his friends in Bristol, and on taking leave of them, he said : 
 " I do not know whether I shall see your faces any more, and 
 therefore I exhort you to faithfulness and steadfastness in that 
 wherein you have found rest to your souls. I am now going 
 to the city of London again, to lay down my life for the 
 gospel, and suffer amongst the Friends who are persecuted 
 in that place." 
 
 Not long after arriving in London, he attended the meet- 
 ing at the Bull and Mouth, where he was violently pulled 
 down by soldiers, and take'h before Alderman Brown, who 
 committed him to Newgate. In a few weeks he was brought 
 to trial at the Old Bailey, fined by the court twenty marks, 
 and condemned to lie in prison till he paid the fine, which 
 amounted to perpetual imprisonment unless released by the 
 king. Immured in the same prison with over a hundred of 
 his friends, many of them took sick and died, and he was 
 among the number. And though a special order from the 
 king was sent to the sheriffs of London for his release, yet 
 such was the aversion to all humanity, and so implacable 
 the enmity of some of the city magistrates, especially Brown, 
 that they exerted themselves to prevent the execution of this 
 order, and found means to effect it. By his detention in 
 prison, his sickness increased, and threatened his approach- 
 ing dissolution. During his illness, he made the following 
 appeal : 
 
 " I have had the testimony of the Lord's love unto me 
 
 from my youth ; and my heart, O Lord, hath been given up 
 
 to do thy will ; I have preached the gospel freely in this city, 
 
 and have often given up my life for the gospel's sake ; and 
 
 now, O Lord, open my heart, and see if it be not right 
 
 before thee." Again he said, " There is no iniquity lies at 
 13 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 my door ; but the presence of the Lord is with me, and his 
 life I feel justifies me." At another time in prayer, he said r 
 " Thou hast loved me when I was in the womb, and I have 
 loved thee from my cradle — from my youth until this day, 
 and have served thee faithfully in my generation." He 
 counselled his friends to live in love and peace, and love one 
 another ; he prayed for his enemies and persecutors, and 
 asked the Lord to forgive Richard Brown for all the misery 
 he had occasioned, if it were just he should be forgiven. 
 Being sensible of the approach of death, he said, " Though 
 this body of clay must turn to dust, yet I have a testimony 
 that I have served God in my generation ; and that spirit 
 which hath lived and acted, and ruled in me, shall yet break 
 forth in thousands." The morning before his departure, he 
 said, " Now my soul and spirit is centred into its own being 
 with God, and this form of person must return from whence 
 it was taken." He soon expired ; changed the corruptible 
 body for an incorruptible one ; although only twenty-eight 
 years old at his death, he had zealously preached the gospel for 
 ten years, and, from his childhood, lived a life of righteousness. 
 
 Edward Burrough was a man of strong natural talent ; 
 and, however uneducated he might have been, his mind was 
 prepared for the ministry by that best instructor, the Spirit of 
 Truth, which gradually directed him to the blessed experi- 
 ence of holiness, and he soon became qualified, like the wise 
 scribe, out of the treasury of his own experience, to bring 
 forth things new and old. He was one of the most eloquent 
 ministers among the primitive Friends ; he always spoke the 
 feeling and animated language of his heart, which reached 
 the divine witness of his hearers, turning many from darkness 
 to light, and from sin to righteousness. 
 
 After his death, Francis Howgill wrote an article bearing 
 testimony to his excellent qualities, and mourning the loss 
 of one who was so well calculated to work good for the 
 degenerated. From this we will extract the following : 
 
 " Oh ! Edward Burrough ! I cannot but mourn for thee, 
 yet not as one without Hope or Faith, knowing and having 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 195 
 
 a perfect testimony of thy well-being in my heart, by the 
 spirit of the Lord ; yet thy absence is great, and years to 
 come shall know the want of thee. Shall I not lament as 
 David did, for a worse man than thee, even for Abner, when 
 in wrath he perished by the hand of Joab, without any just 
 cause, though he was a valiant man ? David lamented over 
 Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth (oh ! nay, he 
 was betrayed of his life) ? Even so hast thou been bereaved 
 of thy life by the hand of the oppressor, whose habitations are 
 full of cruelty. Oh! my soul, come not thou within their 
 secret, for thy blood shall be required at the hands of them 
 who thirsted after thy life ; and it shall cry as Abel's, who 
 was in the faith ; even so wert thou. It shall weigh as a 
 ponderous millstone upon their necks, and shall crush them 
 asunder, and be as a worm that gnaweth and shall not die. 
 When I think upon thee, I am melted into tears of true sor- 
 row. Shall I not say as David did of Saul and Jonathan, 
 when they were slain at Mount Gilboa — The beauty of Is- 
 rael is slain in high places ? even so wast thou cast into pri- 
 sons, with many more who are precious in the eyes of the 
 Lord. And surely precious wert thou to me, oh ! dear Ed- 
 ward — I am distressed for thee, my brother — very kind hast 
 thou been to me, and my love to thee was wonderful, pass- 
 ing the love of woman. Oh ! thou whose bow never turned 
 back, nor sword empty from the blood of the slain, from the 
 slaughter of the mighty ; who made nations and multitudes 
 shake with the word of Life, and was dreadful to the ene- 
 mies of the Lord : for thou didst cut like a razor, and yet 
 to the seed of God brought forth ; thy words dropped like 
 oil, and thy lips as the honey-comb. Thou shalt be recorded 
 amongst the valiants of Israel, who attained to the first de- 
 gree, through the power of the Lord, that wrought mightily 
 in thee in thy day, and wast worthy of double honor, be- 
 cause of thy works. 
 
 " Oh ! how certain a sound did thy trumpet give ! And 
 how great an alarm didst thou give in thy day, that made the 
 host of the uncircumcised greatly distressed ! What man 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 so valiant, though as Goliah of Gath, would not thy valor 
 have encountered with, while many despised thy youth. 
 
 " Oh ! thou prophet of the Lord ! Thou shalt for ever be 
 recorded in the Lamb's book of life, among the Lord's 
 worthies, who have followed the Lamb through great tribu- 
 lations, as many can witness for thee from the beginning, 
 till at last thou art found worthy to stand with the Lamb on 
 Mount Zion, the hill of God. I have often seen thee when 
 thy heart was tuned as a harp, praising the Lord, and send- 
 ing forth his great salvation. But now thou art freed from 
 the temptations of him who had the power of death, and 
 from thy outward enemies, who hated thee because of the 
 Love that dwelt in thee, and remainest at the right hand of 
 God, where there is joy and pleasure for evermore in the 
 everlasting light, which thou hast often testified unto, accord- 
 ing to the word of prophecy in thy heart, which was given 
 unto thee by the Holy Ghost ; and art at rest in the perfec- 
 tion thereof, in the beauty of Holiness. Yet thy life and thy 
 spirit I feel at present, have unity with it, and in it, beyond 
 all created and visible things which are subject to mutation 
 and change; and thy life shall enter into others, to testify 
 unto the same truth, which is from everlasting to everlasting ; 
 for God hath raised, and will raise up, children unto Abra- 
 ham ; His power is Almighty, great in his people in the 
 midst of their enemies." 
 
 William Ames also died at the latter end of this year at 
 Amsterdam. He was arrested at a meeting in London, and 
 committed to Bridewell by Alderman Brown, where having 
 been kept at hard labor, and suffered much ill-treatment, he 
 grew sick, and being an inhabitant of Amsterdam, they were 
 forced to discharge him. In his youth he was of a cheerful 
 disposition, and fond of gay company ; but convicted of the 
 folly of misspending his precious time, he became diligent 
 in religious exercises, read the Scriptures, and attended the 
 services performed in the churches. Yet he was not satisfied 
 in his mind that he was worshipping God according to the 
 dictates of his own conscience, and whilst in Ireland, a mili- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 197 
 
 tary officer under Cromwell, he went to hear Francis Howgill 
 and Edward Burrough preach the word of truth, and on 
 becoming convinced of their doctrine, he connected himself 
 with the Society of Friends. Advancing in godliness, he 
 soon became a zealous preacher and travelled in the work of 
 the ministry, not only in England, but in Holland and Ger- 
 many, where he convinced many, especially in the Palatine. 
 When George Fox left London, where he had spent 
 
 some time, he went about the beginning of this year 
 1666. to Norwich, and from thence to Cambridgeshire, 
 
 where he was informed of the death of his co-laborer, 
 Edward Burrough. a Sensible of the grief his friends would 
 sustain on account of this great loss, he wrote them the fol- 
 lowing lines : 
 
 a Friends ! be still and quiet in your own conditions, and 
 settled in the seed of God, that doth not change ; that in that 
 ye may feel dear Edward Burrough among you in the seed, 
 in which, and by which, he begat you to God, with whom he 
 is; and that in the seed ye may all see and feel him, in which 
 is the unity with him in the Life ; and to enjoy him in the 
 life that doth not change, which is invisible." 
 
 After travelling through several places, George Fox again 
 came to London, where having visited the numerous meet- 
 ings of Friends, he went into the county of Kent with 
 Thomas Briggs, and held a meeting at Tenterden. When 
 the meeting was dispersing, a company of soldiers took 
 George Fox and Briggs before their captain, who said : 
 " You will have to go with me to town." When they arrived, 
 the prisoners were taken to the jailor's house, where the mayor, 
 the captain and a lieutenant, who were justices, assembled 
 to make the necessary examination. The mayor said to 
 George Fox, " Did you come here to make a disturbance ?" 
 
 " I did not come to make a disturbance," said George Fox, 
 u neither has any been made." 
 
 " There is a law against all Quaker meetings," said the 
 captain. 
 
 " I know of no such law," replied the prisoner. They pro- 
 
 » 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 duced the act made against the Society of Friends and others, 
 and George Fox said : " That law was made against such as 
 were a terror to the king's subjects, and were enemies, and 
 held principles dangerous to the government ; and therefore, 
 it is not against my friends, for they hold Truth, and their 
 principles are not dangerous to the government, neither do 
 their members make disturbances at their meetings." 
 
 They told him he was an enemy to the king, which asser- 
 tion he denied ; at the same time telling them that, during the 
 battle of Worcester, he was cast into Derby prison, because 
 he would not take up arms against the king, and afterwards 
 sent to London by Colonel Hacker, as u plotter for the res- 
 toration of Charles, but released by the Protector, Oliver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 " "Were you imprisoned during the insurrection ?" inquired 
 the judges. 
 
 " Yes," replied George Fox, " but I was set at liberty by the 
 king's command." 
 
 After some consultation, the captain requested the prison- 
 ers to rise, and said: " Ye shall see we are civil to you, for 
 it is the mayor's pleasure that you should all be set at lib- 
 erty." 
 
 George Fox said their civility was noble ; and so, in com- 
 pany with his friend, he parted with his humane and reason- 
 able judges. 
 
 At Cornwall, they found two men, Joseph Hellen and 
 George Bewcy, who, though they possessed the Truth, yet 
 suffered themselves to be led astray by Blanch Pope, a rant- 
 ing woman, who ensnared them by asking: "Who made 
 the Devil — did not God ?" This silly question, which they 
 were unable to answer, they propounded to George Fox, 
 who answered : " No, for all that God made was good, and 
 was blest, but so was not the devil. He was called a ser- 
 pent, before he was called a devil and an adversary ; and 
 afterwards he was called a dragon, because he was a des- 
 troyer. The Devil abode not in the truth, and by departing 
 from the truth, he became a devil. Now, there is no promise 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 199 
 
 of God to the devil, that ever he should return unto truth 
 again ; but to man and woman, who have been deceived by 
 him, the promise of God is, that the seed of woman shalt 
 bruise the serpent's head, and break his power and strength 
 to pieces." This answer gave satisfaction to his friends, yet 
 Hellen was so fully imbued with false principles, that he was 
 disowned by them ; but Bewey soon recovered his standing 
 in the Society by deep and sincere repentance. 
 
 At a meeting in Helstone near Falmouth, George Fox 
 gave a history of the state of the Church in the primitive times, 
 and the state of the Church in the wilderness, and also the 
 condition of the false church that had arisen sines that period. 
 He next showed that the everlasting gospel was now preach- 
 ed again, over the head of the beast, Anti-christ, and the false 
 prophets, that were raised since the Apostles' days : and that 
 now the everlasting gospel was received and receiving, which 
 brought life and immortality to light. 
 
 Passing on, George Fox at last arrived at Land's End 
 where he found an assembly of Friends listening to Nicholas 
 Jose, whom he had convinced whilst on a visit to this 
 place some three years before. A sad judgment fell upon 
 one Colonel Robinson, about this time, which is well worth 
 relating. When King Charles ascended the throne, Robin- 
 son secured the appointment of a justice of the peace, and 
 became a great persecutor of Friends, many of whom he 
 sent to prison ; and hearing they were allowed some slight 
 liberty by the jailor, he made complaint to the judge of the 
 Assizes, who fined the jailor one hundred marks. Not long 
 after the assizes, Robinson sent to a neighboring justice to 
 know if he would go a fanatic-hunting, meaning the dis- 
 turbance of Friends' meetings. On the day they intended 
 to have the hunt, Robinson sent his servant round by the 
 road with his horses, while he intended to walk across the 
 fields and meet them at an appointed place. Passing 
 through one of the fields, where he kept a bull, he com- 
 menced playing with the animal as usual ; but it ran furi- 
 ously at him, and before he could defend himself, gored 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 him in the most horrible manner. One of the maid-servants 
 hearing her master cry out, came running into the field and 
 took the bull by the horn in order to pull him off; but, put- 
 ting her gently aside, it only seemed disposed to harm the 
 master. Numbers collected around, but the bull could not 
 be beaten off, until they brought mastiff dogs and set on him. 
 Robinson's sister came to him, saying, " Alack! brother, 
 what a heavy judgment is this ?" He replied, " Ah ! it is a 
 heavy judgment indeed ; pray let the bull be killed and the 
 flesh given to the poor." They took him home, but the 
 severity of his wounds soon caused his death ; and this was 
 the issue of a sinful intent to go fanatic-hunting. 
 
 We meet with few instances of sufferings in the metropo- 
 lis during this year, in comparison to those related in the last ; 
 yet Friends did not remain quite unmolested, for Sir John 
 Robinson succeeding Alderman Brown in the mayoralty, 
 who was nearly his equal in hating Friends, ordered a guard 
 to be placed at the entrance of the Bull and Mouth meeting- 
 house to prevent any person from going in. As they could 
 not enter, a number collected as near the door as possible 
 and held a meeting ; but every one who attempted to preach, 
 was dragged to prison. One first-day the mayor with his 
 officers and sheriff coming to the place of meeting, com- 
 manded the people to disperse ; but they not feeling disposed 
 to obey, he told his officers to strike ; who immediately with 
 their canes and sticks, as usual, dealt their blows on all sides, 
 unmercifully beating the heads both of men and women. 
 The mayor himself also struck several, and spurring on his 
 horse to ride over them, the horse being frightened, reared 
 on his hind legs, throwing his rider backward into the ken- 
 nel ; and when helped up again, he would have repeated hi& 
 abuses, had not the sheriffs, who were more moderate, and 
 ashamed of his actions, persuaded him to desist. 
 
 During this year the people of Colchester, in Essex, suf- 
 fered a serious and painful persecution. William Moore, 
 then mayor, dispersed many meetings, and cast many into 
 prison. This method of destroying their assemblies proving 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 201 
 
 ineffectual, a party of the county troops went to one of the 
 meetings, where having broken the windows and seats, they 
 beat many with clubs, and carried others to prison. After 
 this, they were kept out of the meeting-house, but, undaunted, 
 they met in the street, sometimes in the cold and rain, not daring 
 to decline their duty for these inconveniences. Thus they 
 continued meeting constantly twice a week, until a troop of 
 horse rode furiously among them, and without mercy beat 
 and bruised both old and young : many were seriously injured, 
 and some were arrested and cast into prison. On the third 
 of the first month [January], many Friends having met at 
 the usual place, the soldiers made another attack, knocking 
 down several, and abusing others in the most shameful man- 
 ner. The wife of Solomon Fromantle, a merchant, seeing 
 a trooper unmercifully beating her husband, endeavored to 
 protect him from the blows ; but the soldier struck her seve- 
 ral times, inflicting dangerous bruises. Edward Grant, father 
 of Fromantle's wife, about seventy years of age, was knocked 
 down, and survived the blow but a few days. After this, 
 finding the constancy of the sufferers invincible, they inter- 
 mitted their former violence for a few weeks, but the mayor 
 and recorder ordered the persecution to be re-continued, 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 While the king and queen were travelling in the west- 
 ern counties, a rumor was set on foot of a conspiracy being 
 formed in the north, among the republicans and separatists, 
 for the purpose of seizing several towns, and raising a gen- 
 eral insurrection. At this time, George Fox was travelling 
 in Yorkshire, where he first heard of this plot ; and in order 
 to exculpate himself and friends, and preserve them steadfast 
 in their peaceable principles, he wrote a testimony against all 
 plots and conspiracies ; admonishing his friends to be cir- 
 cumspect in their language and actions, and not to interfere 
 with any political party, or take part in any commotion. 
 Copies of this article were distributed in the northern coun- 
 ties, and one was also sent to the king and council ; yet not- 
 withstanding these precautions, he was soon subjected to a 
 very unjust and rigorous persecution and imprisonment. The 
 authorities seem to have taken uncommon pains to fix a sus- 
 picion on George Fox, as being concerned in this plot, for when 
 he left Yorkshire, and passed through the counties of Durham, 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland, several attempts were made 
 to arrest him, but they failed in accomplishing their pur- 
 pose. In passing through Cumberland, he was informed, that 
 the magistrates had offered a crown or a noble per day to any 
 of the peace officers that should apprehend any or all of the 
 Quaker preachers; but at the time of his journey, these 
 officers were attending court in order to receive their wages, 
 and without being molested he crossed into Westmoreland, 
 in which county a justice, named Fleming, had offered five 
 pounds to any man who would arrest him and deliver him 
 into the hands of the justice. Travelling towards Lancashire, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 203 
 
 he came to Swarthmore, where he heard that Colonel Kirby 
 had sent his lieutenant to search his trunk and person ; the 
 next day, however, George Fox went to Kirby Hall, the 
 residence of the colonel, and said ; " I am come to visit thee, 
 understanding that thou wouldst have seen me ; and now I 
 would fain know what thou hast to say to me, and whether 
 thou hast anything against me ?" 
 
 The colonel did not expect such a verdict, as he was then 
 about starting for London to attend Parliament; but said 
 before all the company, " As I am a gentleman, I have nothing 
 against you ; but Mrs. Fell must not keep great meetings at 
 her house, for thdy assemble against the law." 
 
 " The act does not take hold on us," replied George Fox, 
 " but on such men as meet to plot, and contrive, and raise 
 insurrections against the king; and we are none of those, 
 for we are a peaceable people." 
 
 After a short conversation, Colonel Kirby took him by the 
 hand and said, " I have nothing against you ;" and the com- 
 pany all said George Fox was an upright and deserving 
 man. 
 
 A short time after, there was a private meeting of the 
 justices and deputy-lieutenants at Houlker-Hall, the seat of 
 Justice Preston, where they granted a warrant to apprehend 
 him. Although they deemed this a secret transaction, yet 
 he received intelligence of it soon enough to have escaped, 
 had he thought proper so to do. Still, he would give no 
 advantage to his adversaries by allowing them to interpret or 
 represent his retreat as a proof of guilt, and thus form wrong 
 conclusions, which would lead them to treat his friends 
 with additional cruelty. After calmly weighing these con- 
 siderations, he determined quietly to abide the consequence, 
 and was apprehended the following day, and brought be- 
 fore Justices Rawlinson, Preston and Sir George Middleton. 
 Then they brought Thomas Atkinson, one of his friends, 
 as a witness against him, who testified that he told one 
 Knipe, " That he had written against the plotters, and knocked 
 
204 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 them down." From these words, however, they could not 
 make much capital. 
 
 8 Come," said Preston, " we will examine him in higher 
 matters." 
 
 " You deny God, and the Church, and the Faith," said 
 Sir George Middleton. 
 
 " No," replied George Fox, " I own God, and the true 
 Church and the true faith ; but what Church dost thou 
 own?" 
 
 It was generally believed that Middleton was a Papist, 
 and he could not reply to this question ; for, instead of an- 
 swering it, he said, " You are a rebel and a traitor." 
 
 " Whom do you call a rebel and a traitor ?" demanded 
 George Fox. 
 
 For a moment Middleton was silent, but at last he said, 
 " I spoke to you." George Fox quietly arose from his seat, 
 and with great earnestness said, " I have suffered more than 
 twenty such as thou, or any present. I was imprisoned for 
 six months in the Derby dungeon, and inhumanly suffered 
 because I refused to take up arms against the king before the 
 battle of Worcester. I was also sent by Colonel Hacker a 
 prisoner to Oliver Cromwell, as a conspirator against him. 
 Ye talk of a king, but how did you all stand in the days of 
 Cromwell, and what did ye do then for the king ? I have 
 more love to him, for his eternal good and welfare, than any 
 of you have." 
 
 " Have you heard of the plot ?" asked one of the justices. 
 
 " Yes," was the reply ; " the high sheriff of Yorkshire 
 told Dr. Hodgson of the circumstance, and from him I gained 
 my information." 
 
 " Why did you write against it, if you did not know some 
 who were connected with it ?" inquired Preston. 
 
 " My reason was this," replied the good man, " you are 
 always so illiberal as to make no discrimination between the 
 innocent and guilty, wherever Friends are concerned ; and 
 for fear some of the weak-minded would be led astray, I 
 wrote an article on the subject, and sent copies into West- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 205 
 
 moreland, Cumberland, Bishopric, and Yorkshire — you also 
 have a copy in your possession, as well as the king and his 
 council." 
 
 " O, you have great power," tauntingly exclaimed one of 
 the justices. 
 
 " Yes," he manfully replied, " I have power to write 
 against all conspirators." 
 
 As the last resort to ensnare an innocent man, Middleton 
 brought forth the Oath of Allegiance, and Supremacy. 
 
 But George Fox asked him, " Hast thou, who art a swearer, 
 ever taken the oath of allegiance ?" 
 
 This oath was written in such a manner as to reject the 
 Pope's power in England, and Middleton being a papist, 
 could not take it, therefore said George Fox, " How do you 
 expect us to receive it, when according to Christ and his 
 Apostle, we cannot swear at all ?" They consulted together 
 about sending him to jail, but as they did not all agree, he 
 was only ordered to appear at the Court of Sessions, which 
 he pledged himself to do. 
 
 In consequence of his engagement, he appeared at the ses- 
 sions at Lancaster, where the justices asked him what he 
 knew of the plot or insurrection. He told them he heard 
 it in Yorkshire from a friend, who received his information 
 from the high sheriff. They then asked him, whether he had 
 declared it to the magistrates. He informed them of the 
 afore-mentioned paper, which he had sent abroad, and also 
 to them, that he might remove all suspicion from their 
 minds. 
 
 " You certainly know there is an act against your meet- 
 ings," said one of the judges. 
 
 " I know there is an act against such as meet contrary to 
 the king's good, who are his enemies, and hold principles 
 dangerous to the country. But, I hope," he continued, " ye 
 do not look upon us to be such men, for our meetings are not 
 to terrify the king's subjects, neither are we enemies to him, 
 or any man." 
 
 Finding no grounds of crimination, they at last resorted to 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the usual means of tendering the oath of allegiance and su- 
 premacy. This he refused to take for reasons already spe- 
 cified, and the justices committed him to prison in Lancas- 
 ter Castle, where he was kept close prisoner until after the 
 spring assizes in 1665, when he was removed to Scarborough 
 Castle and detained upwards of a year longer. Finding 
 an opportunity to lay his situation before the king, he soon 
 obtained his release, after an arbitrary and most rigorous 
 punishment of more than three years. 
 
 About a month after George Fox was sent to prison, the 
 justices at Ulverston sent for Margaret Fell, and examined 
 her about holding large meetings at her house, at which they 
 seemed to be much offended, and insisted on tendering her 
 the oath of allegiance. She said — f You know I cannot 
 swear, and why did you send to my own house, and make 
 me leave my lawful and domestic affairs for the purpose of 
 ensnaring me by an oath ?' 1 
 
 This language madeteome impression on the judges, and 
 they told her if she would discontinue holding meetings at 
 her house they would not tender the oath. This was a plain 
 confession that the oath was a mere pretext for the purpose 
 of imprisoning Friends without any real cause, and an arbi- 
 trary measure, assumed to cloak their religious persecution. 
 To this proposal, however, she replied ; — " I will not deny 
 my faith or principles, for anything that ye may bring against 
 me, and while it shall please the Lord to let me have a 
 house, I shall endeavor to truly worship him in it." 
 
 She refused the oath, and they committed her to Lancas- 
 ter Castle, which prison was at that time crowded with many 
 of the Society, sent there for persisting to worship God in 
 their own way, or because they would not break one of 
 Christ's commands, and take an oath. Many of them were 
 poor men, the existence of whose families depended on their 
 daily labor, but they were placed above actual want by the 
 kindness, charity and sympathy of their friends. 
 
 A large number of Friends were tried before Judges Hide 
 and Terril, at Worcester, but nothing transpired during the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 207 
 
 trial, worthy of note, except when the judge charged the jury, 
 he said, though there was no evidence that any one preach- 
 ed at the meeting, yet if it was proved that the prisoners had 
 kept a meeting for religious worship, they were bound to 
 approve the indictment and bring into the court a verdict of 
 guilty. In other cases of law, the judges would not have 
 dared to pursue such an illegal and unwarrantable course. 
 
 A man named Edward Bourn was imprisoned for hav- 
 ing attended a meeting, and during his trial he asked the 
 judges, " If Christ and his Apostles should hold a meeting, 
 would this act against conventicles take hold of them ?" 
 
 " Yes," said the judge, "it would." But thinking he had 
 replied most too rashly, he said, " I won't answer your ques- 
 tions. Ye are no Apostles." Bourjn and several of his 
 friends were fined five pounds each by the court. As these 
 fines were laid on Friends, because they performed an indis- 
 pensable duty they owed to God, their consciences would 
 not permit the idea of paying them. This caused much 
 distress; their goods were seized and sacrificed at one-half 
 or one-fourth their real value, which made the actual loss 
 much greater than the nominal fine of the court. 
 
 A number of persons were brought to trial, for attending a 
 meeting held at the house of Robert Smith, and in the evi- 
 dence several of the prisoners made it appear they were at 
 another place during the time of the meeting ; but because 
 they would not inform the judges where they were, they 
 decided they were guilty, and treated them accordingly. 
 Robert Smith was premunired; but when the judge tendered 
 him the oath, he asked, "For whom was this law made? Is 
 it not for papists ?' And as it was generally believed some 
 of those on the bench were Roman Catholics, he said, " For 
 the general satisfaction of all the people, some of ye that sit 
 in judgment should take this oath." 
 
 " You must take the oath, or else sentence shall be pro- 
 nounced against you," said one of the judges. 
 
 " Shall the example of Christ decide the question ?" asked 
 Smith. 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 But the judge replied, " I am not come here to dispute with 
 you concerning the doctrine of Christ, but to inform you 
 concerning the doctrine of the law." 
 
 An indictment was drawn up against him, and the' judge 
 inquired whether he would answer it or not ? The reasons 
 he gave were not accepted, and the following sentence was 
 pronounced against him : " You shall be shut out of the 
 king's protection, forfeit your personal estate to the king for ever, 
 and your real estate during life." When this was read 
 before the court, Robert Smith calmly said, " The Lord hath 
 given, and if he suffers it to be taken away, his will be 
 done." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Many persecutions took place throughout the kingdom 
 during this year, one of which is so interesting that we can- 
 not pass over it without a full and minute notice. Thomas 
 Lurting, who was formerly a boatswain's mate, had passed 
 through many dangers in the different battles in which he 
 fought. Whilst sailing in a ship near the Canary Islands, 
 under Admiral Blake, they encountered several Spanish men- 
 of-war, and after a severe conflict, the English were victo- 
 rious. During the battle the admiral placed Lurting in 
 command of a pinnace and seven men, for the purpose of 
 setting three galleons in the bay on fire, which order he per- 
 formed with admirable courage ; but on returning he had 
 to pass a breastwork of the enemy, where a volley of small 
 shot killed two men close by his side and wounded another 
 in the back. In passing out of the bay they were forced to 
 come within four ships' length of the castle, which was 
 mounted with forty guns, and when they were immediately 
 opposite, their enemies fired, but, wonderful as it may appear, 
 not one was hurt. 
 
 In the year 1654, Thomas Lurting sailed in the same ship 
 with a man who had attended several meetings of the Soci- 
 ety of Friends in Scotland, and in his conversation upon 
 religious subjects, he made a deep impression on two young 
 men, for which he was discharged from the ship. The 
 young men, however, daily became more serious, and often 
 met together in silence, until their number began to increase. 
 This conduct troubled the captain very much, and offended 
 the priest on board, for he would frequently say to Lurting : 
 
 " O, Thomas, an honest man and a good Christian ; here is 
 14 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 a dangerous people on board, for it is known the Quakers are 
 blasphemous, denying the ordinances and word of God." 
 Thomas, in a fit of mistaken zeal, determined to put a stop 
 to their peaceable meetings, and whenever they would assem- 
 ble, he ordered them to disperse, and if they did not obey, he 
 would inflict on them the usual ship punishment. 
 
 But in his hours of meditation, when he would remember 
 the many fearful situations from which he had been delivered, 
 through the mercy of the Lord toward him, and when he dis- 
 covered what a worthless laborer the priest was in the Lord's 
 vineyard, he could not find it in his nature to destroy the lit- 
 tle silent meetings of these true worshippers, and in a spirit 
 of deep humility he made many promises to God for his fu- 
 ture conduct. By the grace of God it was shown him thai if 
 he did not perform these promises, he could reap no benefit 
 by them. Unsettled in mind, he would frequently, when 
 alone, pour out his heart freely before the Lord ; and though 
 he felt himself condemned, yet these judgments made him 
 feel happy because they broke the hardness of the heart, and 
 were at last a balm to the weary soul. Some of the ship's 
 crew thought he was mad, and wrote home to England to 
 that effect ; it also fell to his lot to share some of the mockery 
 and ridicule which he himself had once dealt out unsparingly 
 to innocent people. It was made manifest to him that he 
 should become a member of the Society of Friends, and after 
 much weeping and praying, he resolved, " Whether Quaker 
 or no Quaker, I am for peace with God." On the next first- 
 day he resolved to go to the small meeting, now six in 
 number, and it being reported he was to be present, many of 
 the crew left the priest, in order to see him. After the meet- 
 ing was over, the captain sent for Lurting, and endeavored 
 to prove from the Bible that the Quakers were no Christians '■> 
 Thomas remained silent, and the priest said : " I took you 
 for a very honest man, and a good Christian, but am sorry 
 you should be so deluded." Many things were said against 
 the Friends, which he knew to be false, and when he saw 
 how it was attempted by lies to vilify an innocent people, he 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 211 
 
 became strengthened in his purpose, and on going to his 
 friends he said : " When I went to the captain I was scarce 
 half a Quaker ; but by their lies and false reports they have 
 made mc almost a whole Quaker, or at least I hope to be one." 
 He continuing to meet with his friends, some more soon 
 joined them, and in less than six months they numbered 
 twelve men and two boys, one of whom was the priest's. The 
 ship was visited by a contagious disease, which swept 
 away forty in a short time, and strange to say, although all 
 the Friends on board had it, yet not one of them died. 
 This dreadful visitation changed the captain's conduct; 
 and wishing to treat Lurting very kindly, he ordered his 
 cook always to give him a portion of the best dishes 
 which were served at his table. The Friends got permission 
 to hold their meetings in a small cabin ; and the captain was 
 so well pleased with them, that when he had any careful 
 and particular work to be done about the ship, he would say, 
 " Thomas, take thy Friends, and see that this work is done 
 right." Of course they were not complete Friends, for they 
 did not then think it was wrong to fight ; and in several 
 battles with their enemies they distinguished themselves 
 above all the rest, which caused the captain to say : " I 
 would not care if all my men were Quakers, for they are 
 the bravest men on board of the ship." But at a fearful mo- 
 ment, the time of trial came. They were ordered from Leg- 
 horn to Barcelona, to take or burn a Spanish man-of-war in 
 that port ; and during the battle, the Friends fought with 
 much courage ; even Thomas, stripped to his waistcoat, was 
 hard at work to overcome the enemy ; but when he levelled 
 the guns, he gave orders not to fire until he went on deck to 
 see where the shot fell, so that they might regulate them either 
 higher or lower, as they required : as he walked out of the fore- 
 castle door, he heard something say within : " What if now 
 thou kill' st a man ? " It struck him with all the force of a 
 thunderbolt ; and He who can change all men's hearts at 
 his pleasure, turned his in a moment, in so great a degree, 
 that he looked upon war and the use of carnal weapons as 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 a sin. Putting on his coat, he went up on deck, and with 
 an unhappy mind, paced to and fro, almost unconscious of 
 the battle that was raging around. 
 
 At night they dropped below the castle, in order to get 
 beyond the reach of its guns ; and Lurting took this opportu- 
 nity to speak to two of his friends, and ask them their opinion 
 concerning fighting against their fellow-man. One of them 
 said : " If the Lord will only send me home well this time, 
 I will never enter another fighting vessel." 
 
 " If you will stand honest to that of God in your own 
 conscience," said Lurting, " and come to it to-morrow with 
 the Lord's assistance, I will bear my testimony against it." 
 
 The next day one of the Friends went to the captain, to 
 be excused from the engagement which was expected to take 
 place. 
 
 " Why do you wish to be excused from the battle ?" said 
 the commander. 
 
 " My conscience will permit me to fight no longer," re- 
 plied the sailor. 
 
 " He that will not fight at this time," said the captain, " I 
 will stab with my own sword." 
 
 " Then thou wilt be a man-slayer, and guilty of shedding 
 innocent blood," returned the other. 
 
 At this the captain, although he was once a Baptist 
 preacher, beat the man very cruelly with his cane, and ever 
 afterwards was an open and avowed enemy to Friends. 
 
 The ship had been cruising about the coast of Italy for 
 several months, when one morning the watch at the mast 
 head saw a large ship, which was supposed to be a Spanish 
 man-of-war ; and orders were immediately given to clear the 
 deck, and make ready for the anticipated combat. Lurting, 
 who was on deck, saw that the great hour of trial had at 
 length arrived ; and he earnestly prayed to God to give him 
 strength to bear up against everything that might tempt him 
 to break that commandment which Christ gave to all the 
 world, " Thou shalt not kill." He collected all his friends 
 together and spoke to them as follows: " We are in a fearful 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 213 
 
 situation, and the aspect of affairs is very dark and cloudy ; 
 yet I hope the Lord will deliver me and such as have faith 
 in him. I lay not this as an injunction upon any one ; but 
 leave you all to the Lord. I must tell you that the captain 
 puts great confidence in you ; therefore, let us be careful that 
 we give no just occasions, and all that are of my mind will 
 meet in the most public place upon the deck, in the full view 
 of the captain, that he may not say we deceived him, in not 
 telling him that we would not fight ; so that he might have 
 supplied our places with others." Then they went up on deck, 
 and meeting one of the lieutenants, he told them to go down 
 to their quarters. 
 
 " I can fight no more," said Lurting. 
 The lieutenant went immediately to the captain and said, 
 u Yonder the Quakers are, all together, and I do not know but 
 we may have a mutiny ; and one says he cannot fight." 
 
 The captain came to them, and with his cane whipped 
 several, which they bore with becoming patience. The ship, 
 which they expected to be an enemy, proved to be a friend, 
 belonging to Genoa ; before night the captain sent the priest 
 to Lurting, hoping that he would excuse all that had passed, 
 as it had been done in a passion. 
 
 " I have nothing but good will to the captain," said Thomas, 
 u and tell him that he must have a care of such passions ; for, 
 if he should kill a man in his passion, he might seek for 
 repentance and not find it." 
 
 Thomas Lurting arrived home in safety, and afterwards 
 shipped in a merchantman ; but he was several times pressed 
 into the king's service, and suffered much on account of his 
 religious principles. While helping to unload a ship at 
 Harwich he was seized by a press-gang ; but they were in- 
 formed that he was a Quaker; and the captain of the vessel 
 coming on board at the same time, tauntingly said, " Thou 
 art no Quaker; for if thou wast a Quaker, thou shouldst be 
 waiting on the Lord, and let his ravens feed thee, and not 
 foiling with thy body for subsistence." 
 
 u I perceive thou hast read some part of the Scriptures," 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 said Lurting. " Did'st thou never read that he is worse than 
 an infidel, who will not provide for his family ? I have often 
 heard the Quakers blamed for not working, but thou art the 
 first that ever I heard blame them for working." 
 
 " Turn him away, he is a Quaker," said the angry captain. 
 "No; pull him back again, he is no Quaker; thou art no 
 Quaker, Thomas ; for here thou bringest corn, and of it is 
 made bread, and by the strength of that bread we kill the 
 Dutch ; and therefore no Quaker, or thou art as accessary to 
 their deaths, as we." 
 
 After a few moments' silence, he turned to the captain and 
 said ; — " I am a man that can feed my enemies, and well 
 may I you, who pretend to be my friends." 
 
 " Put him away, he is a Quaker," exclaimed the captain. 
 
 But a few days after, he was pressed again in the same 
 vessel, and, when carried on board of a man-of-war, the cap- 
 tain ordered him to the cabin, where he began to curse the 
 Quakers, and swore that if he did not hang Thomas, he 
 would carry him to the Duke of York. The pressed sailor said 
 but little, feeling himself in the hands of the Lord and above 
 fear from the hands of any mortal. 
 
 " Why dost thou say nothing for thyself?" demanded the 
 captain. 
 
 " Thou say'st enough for thee and me too," replied Lurt- 
 ing. 
 
 In talking with passionate men it is best to say little, for 
 no reason or argument, however incontrovertible, will make 
 the least perceptible impression on their minds, or if it does, 
 their prejudices will not permit them to recognize the truth. 
 The philosophy of this reasoning was the ground-work on 
 which Lurting regulated his conduct while on board of all 
 men-of-war. One night the ship's crew were aroused from 
 their hammocks, by a cry from the captain's state room, 
 " Where is the Quaker ? Where is the Quaker ?" Thomas 
 hearing this, rushed into the cabin, saying — " Here I am. 
 What lack you at this time of night ?" 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 215 
 
 " Oh ! what dreams !" exclaimed the captain ; " Thomas, 
 I cannot sleep, thou must go on shore." 
 
 " I am in thy hands, thou may'st do with me as thou 
 pleasest," said Lurting. 
 
 A boat was lowered, and the " Quaker sailor," as he was 
 called, was put on shore at Harwich, by order of the captain, 
 who in his anger had said — " Hanging was too good for 
 him." 
 
 The most singular occurrence of Thomas Lurting's life, 
 was the retaking of a ship from a band of pirates without 
 resorting to the usual means of warfare. A member of the 
 Society of Friends, George Pattison, commanded a merchant 
 vessel which traded in the Mediterranean, and in the tenth 
 month [October], whilst near the island of Majorca, his ship 
 was chased by an Algerine pirate ; the English vessel being 
 a good sailor, the captain crowded on all Iris canvass, which 
 caused some of the materials to give way and the pirate over- 
 took them. The pirates ordered the captain on board of their 
 vessel, and in a small boat he with four of his men obeyed 
 their commands. When the captain and his men arrived on 
 board, the Turks sent fourteen of their men to take charge of 
 the English ship, which now contained only Thomas Lur- 
 ting, the mate, with three men and a boy. The mate 
 received the Turks as friends, when they ascended the ship's 
 side, and the pirates, somewhat surprised at their reception, 
 treated all on board with the greatest civility. Lurting told 
 his men to be of good cheer, for the Lord would deliver them 
 from the hands of their enemies, and they should not be car- 
 ried to Algiers as slaves. " But let me desire you," said he, 
 " as ye have been willing to obey me, so be willing to obey 
 these Turks, in whose power we are now placed." This 
 they promised to do, and the pirates, seeing they were so pas- 
 sive, became careless, and six of them returned to their own 
 vessel, leaving only eight on board of the Englishman. 
 
 " Now," said Lurting, " if our captain were on board, with 
 the rest of our men, I should not fear the Turks." 
 
 The master and men were sent back, which caused much 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 rejoicing, and Lurting said, " I now believe I shall not go to 
 Algiers, and if ye will be ruled by me, I will act for your 
 delivery as well as my own.'' 
 
 " What if we should overcome the Turks and go to 
 Majorca?" said the captain. 
 
 " I will kill one or two," said one of the men ; and, " 1 
 will cut as many of their throats as you will have me," 
 exclaimed another. 
 
 The mate, who had no idea of killing any one, became 
 much troubled at the conversation, and said, " If I knew any 
 of you would kill a Turk, I would give them warning of it 
 before. But if you will be ruled, I will act for you ; if not, I 
 will be still." Seeing that he would not permit them to take 
 their own course, they agreed to obey his instruction, and 
 do whatever he ordered them. " Well," said Lurting, " if 
 the Turks bid you do anything, do it without grumbling, 
 and with as much diligence and quickness as ye can, for 
 that pleases them, and will cause them to let us often be 
 together." 
 
 A storm arose and separated the vessels ; and the Turks 
 being asleep in the cabin, they were disarmed, the passages 
 to the cabin closed, and the helmsman steered for Majorca. 
 A fair gale sprang up, and in the morning they were in sight 
 of the island. When the pirates found they were prisoners, 
 instead of resisting, they began to cry, but Lurting said he 
 would take care of them, and they should not be sold as 
 slaves to the Spaniards. On arriving at the port of Majorca, 
 they told an English captain of their situation, who informed 
 the authorities, and they were forced to put to sea again. 
 The Turks attempted to seize the vessel several times, but 
 they were foiled, and the mate concluded it was best to sail 
 for the coast of Barbary and land them in a place from which 
 they might easily reach Algiers. Considerable difficulty 
 arose about the manner in which they could be safely set on 
 shore ; but at last Lurting agreed to take three men in a 
 small boat, and accomplish it if possible. As he was step- 
 ping in the boat, he clasped the captain by the hand, and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 217 
 
 said, " I believe the Lord will preserve me, for I have 
 nothing but good-will in venturing my life ; and I have not 
 the least fear upon me, but humbly trust that all will do 
 well." He placed all the Turks in the stern of the boat, 
 whilst he took the bow, with a boat-hook in his hand, and 
 the other men rowed, one of whom had a carpenter's adze, 
 another had a cooper's heading knife, and these were the 
 only arms in their possession. As they neared the shore, the 
 men became frightened, which the Turks observing, rose 
 to take possession of the boat. At this fearful moment, 
 Lurting ordered the men to seize their arms, but not to strike 
 until he gave the orders ; and thinking it was better to stun a 
 man than to kill him, he gave the leader of the pirates a 
 pretty heavy blow, at the same time bidding him to sit down, 
 which order he obeyed, as well as all his men. They soon 
 reached shallow water, and the Turks were commanded to 
 jump out, and on giving them some provisions, they took 
 their leave, with many signs of great kindness. The little 
 boat again proceeded to sea, but before they had gone a very 
 great distance, they observed the Turks on the top of a high 
 hill, waving their caps, as if to bid a last farewell to their best 
 friends. Thus the " Quaker sailor" saved the ship and its 
 men from a band of pirates, without shedding a drop of 
 blood, and they returned with a prosperous gale to their 
 native land. 
 
 Before the vessel arrived at London, the news of this 
 somewhat extraordinary incident had spread throughout the 
 city, and the king, with the Duke of York and several lords, 
 being at Greenwich, came in a barge to the side of the ship, 
 and heard a true account of the matter from the mate's own 
 lips. When he was told they had set the Turks free, he said 
 to the master : " You have done like a fool, for you might 
 have had great gain from them :" and to the mate he said : 
 " You should have brought the Turks to me." 
 
 " I thought it would be better for them to remain in their 
 own country," replied Lurting. 
 
 The king smiled, and left the vessel ; but the actions of 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the captain and mate showed conclusively that they had 
 learned the lesson the Saviour had taught : " Love your ene- 
 mies, and do good to those that hate you." 
 
 Several years after, when some seamen, who were mem- 
 bers of the Society of Friends, were in slavery at Algiers, 
 George Fox wrote a book to the Grand Sultan, in which he 
 proved their actions were in direct violation of the Alcoran 
 and the advice given by Mahomet, and added a succinct 
 narrative of the manner in which those Turks were treated 
 who fell into the hands of Captain Pattison and his crew. 
 The Friends, who were slaves, faithfully served their mas- 
 ters, and were allowed the liberty to hold meetings at stated 
 times, which many persons attended, and commended them 
 for adoring and worshipping the great living God, not out- 
 wardly with images, but with the heart. In a few years they 
 were redeemed from slavery ; but the manner in which it 
 was accomplished is not recorded. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 It was in this year that William Sewel's mother, Judith 
 Zinspenning, visited England, with William Caton, his wife, 
 and two other Friends. She held meetings in many places, 
 and through the aid of interpreters, succeeded in convincing 
 many : she also wrote a book of proverbs, which was trans- 
 lated into English by William Caton, and published in 
 London. 
 
 William Caton took passage in a vessel bound from Scar- 
 borough to Holland, and when about ten leagues from land, 
 they were overtaken by a fearful storm, which threatened to 
 destroy the vessel, and send them all to a watery grave. Al- 
 though he was prepared to meet death, if such was the will 
 of God, yet he knew it to be the duty of every man to pre- 
 serve his life by all just and lawful means ; and when the 
 ship sprang a leak, he worked as long as any at the pumps, 
 to keep her from sinking. He did not omit praying to the 
 Most High for deliverance, if consistent with His holy will ; 
 and his prayer was heard, for the tempest ceased ; but the 
 wind being contrary, the captain resolved to enter Yar- 
 mouth, where Caton went to a meeting on the first day of 
 the week, and in company with seven others, was arrested, 
 and carried before the main guard. The next day they were 
 brought before the bailiffs of the town, who tendered the oath 
 of allegiance, and on refusing to take it, they were cast into 
 prison for six months, and did not return to Holland until 
 the next year. 
 
 Two men, Lodowick Muggleton and John Reeves, appear- 
 ed in England at this time, pretending to be the two wit- 
 nesses spoken of in the third j verse of the eleventh chapter 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of Revelations. It was not long before Reeves died, yet 
 Muggleton continued to preach all his wild doctrines, and 
 wrote an article which was published, full of the most horrid 
 blasphemies, from which we extract the folowing : — " I am the 
 chief judge in the whole world and in passing the sentence of 
 eternal death and damnation upon the souls and bodies of 
 men. In obedience to my commission, I have already cursed 
 and damned many hundreds of people, both body and soul, 
 from the presence of God, elect men and angels to eternity. 
 And I go by as certain a rule in so doing, as the judges of 
 the land do, when they give judgment according to law ; 
 and no infinite spirit of Christ, nor any god, can or shall be 
 able to deliver from my sentence and curse." 
 
 Richard Farns worth, a zealous and intelligent minister of 
 the Society of Friends, answered this blasphemer, and said : 
 " Consider the nature of thy offence, how far it extends itself ; 
 and that is, to pass the sentence of eternal death and damna- 
 tion, both on the bodies and souls of men and women, and 
 that to eternity. Consider that thy injustice done by color of 
 office, deserves to have a punishment proportionable to the 
 offence ; and can the offence, in the eye of the Lord, be any 
 less than sin against the Holy Ghost, and so would'st make 
 the Holy Ghost the author of thy offence, which it is not ! 
 And seeing thou art guilty of sin against the Holy Ghost, 
 there is a punishment already proportioned for such an 
 offence ; and also thou art punishable by the law of the land, 
 for presuming under pretence of a commission and as a 
 judge, to pass the sentence of death upon the bodies of men 
 and women, and pretending to go by as certain a rule as the 
 judges of the land do in their cases." 
 
 To this serious reply he wrote an answer, in which he said : 
 " I will commend Farns worth, first, for setting his name to 
 it; and, secondly, for placing his words so truly and punc- 
 tually, that it makes my commission and authority but shine 
 the more clear and bright. I am as true an ambassador of God, 
 and judge of all men's spiritual estate, as any ever was since 
 the creation of the world. And if you Quakers and others can 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 221 
 
 satisfy yourselves that there was never any man commission- 
 ed of God to bless or curse, then you shall all escape that 
 curse I have pronounced upon so many hundreds ; and I 
 only shall suffer for cursing others, without a commission 
 from God. But my commission is no pretended thing, but 
 as true as the commission of Moses or the prophets, or the 
 Apostles. And," he continued, " no man can come to the 
 assurance of the favor of God, but in believing that God gave 
 this power unto John Reeves and myself. I have power 
 given me over all other gods, and infinite spirits whatsoever; 
 I have the keys of heaven and hell, and none can get to hea- 
 ven unless I open the gates ! I have power to remit their 
 sins, who^ receive my doctrine, and to retain and bind their 
 sins more close to the consciences, for their despising and not 
 receiving his doctrine ! I am single in doctrine, knowledge, 
 judgment and power, above all men, either prophets or apos- 
 tles, since the beginning of the world, or that shall be hereaf- 
 ter while the world endures. No person condemned by me 
 can make his appeal to God, neither by himself or any other, 
 because God was not in the world. His power to condemn 
 hath God given to me, and in this regard I am the only and 
 alone judge of what shall become of men and women; nei- 
 ther shall those that are damned by me, see any other God 
 or judge but me." 
 
 Muggleton then said that he had passed his sentence 
 against Farnsworth, and if he should answer this, he (Mug- 
 gleton) could not reply; as he had made it a standing rule 
 never to hold the least communication with those whom 
 he had damned. Still Farnsworth did not omit to answer his 
 blasphemies, and expose the absurdity of his being one of 
 the witnesses spoken of in Revelations. We shall have 
 occasion to mention this Muggleton again, as he lived some 
 years ; but, in his history, we do not find that any punish- 
 ment was inflicted on him by the magistrates, except the 
 pillory and six months' imprisonment, which many thought 
 entirely too light for his offences. 
 
 During this year were many cases of persecution; two 
 
222 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of which we cannot pass by unnoticed. Oliver Atherton, 
 a man of feeble health, having refused to pay tithes to the 
 Countess of Derby, who laid claim to the Ecclesiastical 
 Revenues of the parish of Ormskirk, she prosecuted him in 
 a court of justice, and caused him to be imprisoned at Derby; 
 where, remaining in a damp, unhealthy cell, he grew sick 
 and died. Before his death, however, he wrote a letter to 
 the countess in which he not only stated the cause why he 
 refused to pay tithes, but that his life was in danger, if he 
 remained longer in that wet, unhealthy prison ; and begged 
 her to show compassion, lest she should bring innocent 
 blood upon her head. He despatched his son Godfrey with 
 the letter, and, after receiving some rough treatment for not 
 taking off his hat, he handed the letter to the countess ; but 
 she refused to grant his father the liberty required, without 
 he would pay the tithes. Atherton soon died, and his friends 
 carried his corpse to Ormskirk, fastening to every market- 
 cross they passed, the following inscription, which was also 
 inscribed on his coffin : " This is Oliver Atherton, from the 
 Parish of Ormskirk, who by the Countess of Derby had been 
 persecuted to death for keeping a good conscience towards 
 God and Christ, in not paying tithes to her." Several others 
 were imprisoned under similar circumstances ; but the coun- 
 tess dying three weeks after Atherton was buried, they were 
 released. 
 
 In the tenth month [October], Humphry Smith, a minis- 
 ter of the Society of Friends, died in prison at Winchester 
 after remaining a year in a narrow cell. In the year 1660, 
 he had a vision of the fire in London, that took place six 
 years after, a relation of which was distributed among the 
 people. Whilst on his death-bed he said, " My heart is 
 filled with the power of God. It is good for a man at such 
 a time as this, to have a friend in the Lord." At another 
 time he said, " Lord, thou hast sent me forth to do thy will, 
 and I have been faithful unto thee in my small measure, 
 which thou hast committed unto me ; but if thou wilt yet 
 try me farther, thy will be done." Previous to his departure, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 223 
 
 he prayed earnestly, saying, " O Lord, hear the words and 
 sighs of thine oppressed, and deliver my soul from the op- 
 pressors. Hear me, O Lord ! uphold and preserve me. I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth. Thou art strong and mighty, 
 O Lord ! and can deliver thy people from their cruel oppres- 
 sors." Until the last moment of his life he continued quiet 
 and sensible; and' dying a prisoner, bearing witness to the 
 Truth, he left this troublesome and transitory life, for one 
 that is everlasting. 
 
 George Fox still remained in Lancaster Prison, where 
 they tendered him the oath of allegiance, which was 
 1664. refused, and he was brought to trial in the beginning 
 of the third month [March], before Judge Twisden. 
 He entered the court with his hat on, which the judge order- 
 ed the jailor to take oft"; when George Fox said: " The hat 
 is not the honor that comes from God." 
 
 " Will you take the oath of allegiance ?" asked the judge. 
 
 " I never took any oath in my life," said George Fox. 
 
 " Will you swear, or not ?" inquired Judge Twisden. 
 
 " I am neither Turk, Jew, nor heathen," replied George 
 Fox, " and should show forth my Christianity. Dost thou 
 not know that Christians in the primitive times, under the 
 ten persecutions, and some also of the martyrs in Queen 
 Mary's days, refused swearing because Christ and his Apos- 
 tles had forbidden it ? Ye have experience enough, how 
 men have sworn first to the king, and then against him. But 
 as for me, I have never taken an oath in all my life ; and my 
 allegiance doth not lie in swearing, but in truth and faithful- 
 ness ; for I honor all men, much more the king. But Christ, 
 who is the great prophet, who is King of kings, the Saviour 
 of the world, and the great Judge of the world, he saith, I 
 must not swear. Now the point is, whether I must obey 
 Christ, or thee ; for it is in tenderness of conscience, and in 
 obedience to the command of Christ, that I do not swear." 
 
 " Do you own the king ?"' asked George Fox. On receiv- 
 ing an answer in the affirmative, he inquired : " Why then 
 dost thou not observe his declaration from Breda, and his 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 promises made since he came into England, that no man 
 should be called in question for matter of religion so long as 
 they live peaceably ? Now if thou ownest the king, why 
 dost thou call me into question and strive to make me take 
 the oath when it is against my religion ?" 
 
 The judge became angry, and exclaimed : " Sirrah, will 
 you swear ?" 
 
 " I am none of thy sirrahs," said George Fox, " but a 
 Christian ; and for thee, who art an old man and a judge, to 
 sit there and give nick-names to the prisoners, doth not be- 
 come either thy grey hairs or thy office." 
 
 " George Fox," said the judge, somewhat regaining his 
 calmness, " will you take the oath or not ?" 
 
 " If I could take any oath at all," he replied, " I should 
 take this ; for I do not deny some oaths only, or on some oc- 
 casions, but all oaths, according to Christ's doctrine, who 
 said, Swear not at all. Now, if thou, or any of you, or any 
 of your ministers and priests here, will prove that ever Christ 
 or his Apostle, after they had forbidden all swearing, com- 
 manded Christians to swear, then will I swear." 
 
 As none of the priests offered to speak, Judge Twisden 
 said, — " I am a servant to the king, and he sent me, not to 
 dispute with you, but to put the laws in execution." 
 
 He was sent to prison, and two days afterwards, was 
 brought before the judge again, who asked him, whether he 
 would traverse the indictment, or submit, and on desiring 
 liberty to traverse, he was committed to prison until the next 
 assizes, and during his confinement wrote several papers to 
 the magistrates, manifesting the evil of persecution, and ex- 
 horting all to piety and virtue. 
 
 At the succeeding assizes, held in the eighth month [Au- 
 gust], he was brought before Judge Turner, and an indict- 
 ment was found against him for refusing to take the oath. 
 The jury retired, and soon returned with a verdict of guilty, 
 but in arrest of judgment the prisoner pleaded so many glar- 
 ing errors in the indictment, that the court was forced, al- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 225 
 
 though reluctantly, to acknowledge them sufficient to render 
 it entirely null. 
 
 " As I cannot look for mercy," said George Fox, appeal- 
 ing to the judge, " I demand justice of you." 
 
 " You must have justice, and you shall have law," replied 
 Judge Turner. 
 
 As the indictment was now destroyed, the judge again 
 tendered him the oath, which he refused, and was sent to 
 prison to await his trial at the next spring assizes, to be held 
 in the following year. Colonel Kirby, who had command 
 of the jail, was the chief instrument of his first imprisonment, 
 and now that he had secured him again, ordered the jailor to 
 keep him in close confinement and let no one have the least 
 communication with him. The jailor, in compliance with 
 this order, locked him up in a dismal cell, where he remained 
 during the cold winter, every rain or snow rendering his 
 room wet and damp. While in this gloomy abode he wrote 
 several letters to King Charles, the kings of France and 
 Spain, and also to the Pope : they were translated into Latin 
 by one of his friends, and published in London. The sub- 
 stance of them treated of the barbarous persecutions which 
 were constantly enacted throughout their separate kingdoms 
 on account of religion. From his letter to the Pope we make 
 the following extract : 
 
 " Innocent blood hath long cried for vengeance to the Lord ; 
 
 the earth swims with innocent blood, and the cry will be 
 
 heard. Your frozen profession, and your cold winter images 
 
 set up in your streets, the Lord God of power and dread, and 
 
 of heaven and earth, will be avenged on thee, and all of you 
 
 — his day is fast approaching. Ye great and rich cardinals 
 
 and Pope, ye have been fed like fat hogs ; and seeing that 
 
 thou would'^t not receive the Lord's messengers, but threw 
 
 them in prison, and in your Inquisition, it may be the Lord 
 
 may visit you another way, for his dread is gone out, and his 
 
 zeal is kindled against you. The fields are sprinkled with 
 
 the blood of the innocent, and ye are the Aceldama, or the 
 
 field of blood. But the Lord is coming to take vengeance 
 15 - 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 upon you ; his hand is stretched over your heads, and his 
 power is gone over you ; with that he will rule you, and smite 
 you down, and bring that are lofty from your seats, and abase 
 your pride, and take the glory to himself. How much blood, 
 which is immeasurable, have ye drank since the days of the 
 Apostles, and made yourselves drunk with it ! But now is 
 the indignation and wrath of the Almighty come and coming 
 upon you ; and thou. Pope, must feel it ; tremble, fear and 
 quake, ye cardinals, tremble, ye Jesuits, tremble, ye priors, 
 tremble, ye monks and friars, of what rank soever, for the 
 army of the Lord God is coming over you, by whom ye 
 shall be shaken and dashed to pieces." 
 
 Margaret Fell was also brought to trial at the Lancaster 
 assizes, in the eighth month [August], for refusing to take 
 the oath. When she was brought to the bar, the indictment 
 was read, and the judge said again, " Will you take the 
 oath ?" 
 
 " I desire to know, why I was taken from my own house," 
 said Margaret, " when there is no law against the innocent 
 and righteous ; and if I am a transgressor, let me know 
 wherein." 
 
 " Do you go to church ?" demanded the judge. 
 
 " Yes, to the church of Christ," was the reply. 
 
 " But do you go to church with other people ?" inquired 
 Judge Turner. " You know what I mean." 
 
 " What dost thou call the church, the house or the people ? 
 The house, you all know, is but wood and stone ; but if thou 
 call the people a church, to that I answer, as for the Church 
 of England that now is, I was gathered to the Truth, unto 
 which I now stand witness ; when this was not the established 
 Church, I was separated from the general worship of the 
 nation when there was another set up, than that which is 
 now, and was persecuted by that power and suffered much 
 hardship ; and would you now have us deny our faith and 
 principles, which we have suffered for so many years, and 
 turn to your church contrary to our consciences ?" 
 
 " You spend too much time in explanation," said the judge, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 227 
 
 '•come to the point; what say you to the oath, and to the 
 indictment ?" 
 
 " Regarding the oath," replied Margaret Fell, " I tell you I 
 cannot swear, for Christ Jesus has commanded, ' Swear not 
 at all.' I own truth, faithfulness and obedience to the king, 
 and all his just and lawful commands and demands ; and I 
 also deny all ploltings against the king and all popish supre- 
 macy and conspiracy. I do not deny the oath, because it is 
 an oath of allegiance, but I deny it because of Christ's com- 
 mand against all oaths." 
 
 After a debate of a few hours, the jury returned with a 
 verdict of guilty, but her counsel pleaded for an arrest of 
 judgment on account of several errors in the indictment, but 
 the judge would not admit the motion, and passed sentence 
 of premunire upon her. She remained in prison about 
 twenty months before she could obtain liberty to go to her 
 own house, where, after remaining a short time, she again 
 returned to prison, where she continued four years, until she 
 was released by an order from the king and council. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 During the last year, Francis Howgill had been arrested 
 at Kendal, in Westmoreland, and was brought to trial at the 
 spring assizes of this year at] Appleby, before Judge Twis- 
 den. When the jury was empaneled and the prisoner 
 brought to the bar, the judge said : " The face of things is 
 much altered since the last assizes ; all sects, under pretence 
 of conscience, did violate the laws, and hatched rebellions; 
 not that I have anything to charge you with, but seeing the 
 oath of allegiance was tendered to you at the last assizes, and 
 you refused to take it, it was thought such persons were ene- 
 mies to the king and government. I will not force you to 
 answer to your indictment now, but I must do it at the next 
 assizes, and in the meantime you must enter into recog- 
 nizance for your good behavior." 
 
 " Thou knowest very well," replied Francis Howgill, 
 " upon what slight pretences I was brought before thee at the 
 last assizes, where thou wert pleased to tender me the oath 
 of allegiance ; though I believe both ihee and the rest of the 
 court did know it was a received principle amongst us not 
 to swear at all. Many reasons I gave thee then — many 
 more I have to add, if I may have audience; for it may ap- 
 pear to you an absurd thing, and obstinacy in me, to refuse 
 it, if I should not tender a reason ; I am none of those who 
 make religion a cloak of maliciousness, nor conscience a 
 cloak to carry on plots or conspiracies ; the Lord hath re- 
 deemed me and many more out of such things ; and seeing 
 I have to appear at the next assizes, I desire nothing will be 
 required of me now." 
 
 On the second day of the assizes, he was again called 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 229 
 
 into court, and required to give a bond for good behavior. 
 Judge Twisdeniriade a speech against treasons and rebellions, 
 saying these things were carried on under the color of con- 
 science and religion, which no doubt he thought was a reflec- 
 tion on the Society of Friends. 
 
 u As to these things," said Howgill, " I am clear ; I hope 
 neither the court nor country have anything to lay to my 
 charge : I bless the Lord that I have nothing to accuse my- 
 self with ; for I have peace, and seek it with all men ; and, 
 as the court is pleased to give me time to answer to my in- 
 dictment till the next assizes, and since it is a matter of great 
 consequence to me — on which my liberty and estate depends, 
 I hope the court will have no objections to the postpone- 
 ment of my trial for five months ; as I will be in prison during 
 the time." 
 
 " We do not desire your imprisonment if you will be of 
 good behavior," replied the judge. 
 
 Here Justice Fleming remarked that Howgill was a 
 great speaker among the Friends, and they could not do 
 without him. 
 
 " If he will give bond for his good behavior, he shall be 
 set at liberty," returned Judge Twisden. Then, turning to 
 the prisoner, he said, u you need not tell us so much about 
 conscience ; we meddle not with that ; but you contemn the 
 laws, keep up great meetings, and do not go to church." 
 
 " It hath been a doctrine always and a received principle," 
 replied Howgill, "as anything we believe, that Christ's king- 
 dom could not be set up with carnal weapons, nor the gos- 
 pel propagated by force of arms, nor the Church of God 
 built with violence; but the Prince of Peace is manifest 
 amongst us, and we cannot learn war any more, but can love 
 our enemies, and forgive those that do evil to us ; and though 
 this unhappy controversy hath fallen among some men, who 
 have brought trouble . on the country and misery on them- 
 selves, we have no hand in it. This is the truth ; and if I 
 had twenty lives, I would engage them all that the body of 
 the Quakers will never have any hand in war or things of 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 that nature, that tend to the hurt of others ; and if any such 
 whom you repute to be Quakers, be found in such things, 
 I do, before the court here, and before the country, deny 
 them, — they are not among us." 
 
 " Well, we have spent enough time with you, and cannot 
 discourse any longer," said the judge. 
 
 " I acknowledge your moderation towards me," replied 
 Howgill, " and I shall not trouble you much longer. I can- 
 not enter into bonds, or come to your church, because I 
 would be treacherous to God and my own conscience ; and 
 even you and this people would think me a hypocrite." 
 
 He was, however, committed to prison, to await his trial 
 at the next assizes held at the same place in the eighth month 
 [August]. Previous to this second trial, he wrote two pa- 
 pers, which were presented to the judges : one of them was 
 a declaration, containing the substance of the oath, and the 
 other a modest defence of himself for refusing to swear. 
 
 "When he was brought before the bar, Judge Turner said : 
 " Here is an indictment against you, for refusing to swear : 
 are you guilty or not guilty ?" 
 
 " May I have liberty to speak in my own defence ?" in- 
 quired Howgill. 
 
 On receiving a reply in the affirmative, he said : " I will 
 lay the true state of the case before you, seeing Judge Twis- 
 den is not here, who was privy to all the proceedings hitherto 
 against me. I was born and educated in this country ; my 
 carriage and conversation is known, that I have walked 
 peaceably toward all men, as I hope my countrymen can 
 testify. About a year ago, being in a neighboring market- 
 town, about my reasonable and lawful business, I was sent 
 by a high constable to the justices of the peace for that place. 
 They had nothing to lay to my charge ; but asked me ques- 
 tions about our meetings, and at last tendered me the oath 
 of allegiance, though they never read it to me, nor did I 
 positively deny it, yet they committed me to prison. At the 
 next assizes, Judge Twisden declared that my mittimus was 
 insufficient ; nevertheless, he there tendered me the oath, and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS 
 
 231 
 
 engaged me. to appear at the following assizes, where, for 
 refusing to give bond for my good behavior, I was commit- 
 ted to prison, where I have been for the last five months, 
 some of that time under great restraint, and my friends were 
 not suffered to see me, or even to speak to me. Now, as to 
 the oath, the substance thereof, with the representation of my 
 case, is already presented to the court, unto which I have set 
 my hand, and shall in those words testify the same in open 
 court, if required : and seeing it is the very substance of 
 what the law doth require, I desire that it may be accepted, 
 and that I may be cleared from my imprisonment." 
 
 " But why do you not go to church, but meet in houses 
 and private conventicles, which the law forbids ?" inquired 
 the judge. 
 
 " We meet only for the worship of the true God, in spirit 
 and in truth," responded the prisoner, " having the primitive 
 Christians for our example ; and to no other end but that we 
 may be edified, and God glorified ; and where two or three 
 are met together in the name of Christ, and He in the midst 
 of them, there is a church." 
 
 That is true," replied the judge ; " but how long is it 
 since you have been to church, or will you go to the lawful 
 church ? Give me some reason why you do not go." 
 
 " I have many to give, if thou hast patience to hear them," 
 said Howgill. " First : God dwells not in temples made with 
 hands. Secondly : The parish house hath been a temple for 
 idols, and I dare not have fellowship with idols, nor worship 
 in idols' temples ; for what have we to do with idols, their 
 lemples, or worship?" 
 
 "Will you answer to your indictment?" demanded the 
 judge. 
 
 " I know not what it is," was the prisoner's reply ; " I 
 never heard it, though I often desired a copy." 
 
 The indictment was here read ; and it stated that he had 
 wilfully, obstinately, 'and contemptuously denied taking the 
 oath of allegiance to the king and his government. 
 
 " I positively deny the indictment," exclaimed Howgill. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " Did you not deny to swear ?" asked the judge. 
 
 " I gave the court the substance of the oath, as you all 
 know," said the prisoner. " I also told you that I did not 
 deny it out of obstinacy or wilfulness, neither in contempt of 
 the king's law or government, for I would rather choose my 
 liberty than bonds, and I am sensible it will be some damage 
 to me. I have a wife and children, and some estate, that 
 we might subsist on, and do good to others, and I know all 
 this lies at stake ; but if it were my life also, I cannot do 
 what is wrong, lest I should incur the displeasure of God ; 
 and do you judge I would lose my liberty wilfully, and suf- 
 fer the spoiling of my estate, and the ruining of my wife and 
 children, in obstinacy and wilfulness ? Surely not." 
 
 Judge Turner then turned to the jury and said: <l You see 
 he denies the oath, and will not plead to the indictment ; 
 he makes exceptions to the indictment only on account of the 
 form of words used ; he says he will not swear, you see on 
 what ground ?" The jury returned a verdict of guilty with- 
 out leaving the court-room. 
 
 When he was brought to the bar on the next day to hear 
 his sentence, the judge asked him if he had anything to say 
 why sentence should not be passed. 
 
 " I have many things to say, if you will hear them," said 
 Howgill. " First, as I have said, I deny not swearing out of 
 obstinacy or wilfulness, but am willing to testify the truth in 
 this matter of obedience, or any other matter wherein I am 
 condemned. Secondly, because swearing is directly against 
 the command of Christ and the doctrine of the Apostles. 
 Thirdly, even of some of the principal members of the 
 Church of England, as Bishop Usher, once primate of Ireland, 
 who said in his works, that the Waldenses denied all swear- 
 ing in their age from that command of Christ and the Apos- 
 tle James, and that it was sufficient ground; and Gauden, 
 late Bishop of Exeter, in a book I lately read, cites many 
 ancient fathers, proving that the Christians, for the first three 
 hundred years, did not swear, so that it is no new doctrine." 
 
 This the judge doubted, but on being told the books could 
 
HISTORY OP FRIENDS. 
 
 233 
 
 be procured, he said : " Why do you not come to church and 
 hear service, and be subject to the law and to every ordi- 
 nance of man, for the Lord's sake ?" 
 
 " I am a subject," said Howgill ; " and for that cause do 
 we pay taxes, tribute and custom, and give unto Caesar the 
 things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's ; 
 viz., worship, honor and obedience ; but if thou meanest the 
 parish assemblies, I tell thee faithfully, I am persuaded, and 
 upon good grounds, that their preachers are not the ministers 
 of Christ, nor their worship the worship of God." 
 
 " Well, I see you will not swear," said the judge ; " and you 
 must not think we deal severely with you, for it is our duty." 
 
 " But I think you do deal severely with me for obeying 
 the commands of Christ," returned the prisoner. " I pray 
 thee canst thou show me an instance where the authorities 
 have proceeded against those for whom this act was made ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied the judge. " I can mention to you 
 many in the country who have been premunired ; I have 
 pronounced sentence myself against divers." 
 
 " No, not against the papists," said Howgill ; " but I have 
 heard this statute was made against them, but it is executed 
 on the Quakers !" 
 
 The judge pronounced - the following sentence, in a low- 
 toned voice, as he was well aware he was unjustly treating 
 an honest and upright man. 
 
 " You are placed out of the king's protection, and the 
 benefits of the law ; your lands are confiscated to the king 
 during life, your personal estate for ever, and you are to be a 
 prisoner during your existence." 
 
 " It is a hard, very hard sentence, for obeying the com- 
 mand of Christ," said Francis Howgill, " but I am content, 
 and in perfect peace with the Lord ; and may the Lord for- 
 give you all !" 
 
 " If you will be subject to the laws, the king will show 
 you mercy," replied the judge. 
 
 " The Lord hath shown mercy to me," said Howgill, 
 " and I have done nothing against the king, nor government, 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 nor any man, blessed be the Lord, and therein stands my 
 peace ; and it is for Christ's sake I suffer, and not for evil 
 doing." 
 
 Then taking an affectionate leave of his family, he charged 
 them to be content with his departure, as such was the will 
 of God ; and the jailor led him to prison, where he remained 
 until death relieved him from his trials and sufferings. 
 
 In this important trial, the barbarity and cruelty of the per- 
 secutors need no comment ; but the staunch perseverance in 
 the conscientious idea of right on the part of Francis How- 
 gill, adds another to the long list of proofs which this work 
 furnishes, of what the Lord will do for those who steadfastly 
 abide in him. 
 
 The Society of Friends also met with a severe loss in the 
 death of John Audland, who died of consumption, contract- 
 ed by the exertion of speaking, at the numerous meetings 
 which he attended during the few last years of his eventful 
 life. He was one of the earliest preachers among the 
 Friends, and the first who, in company with John Camm, 
 visited the city of Bristol and the western counties, where, as 
 in other places, the numbers converted to the Faith gave 
 powerful tokens of his effectual ministry; being fluent in 
 expression, engaging in manner, and using language adapted 
 to the different states of his auditory, the number of his hear- 
 ers increased to such a degree, that for want of a house large 
 enough to contain them, he and his companion were fre- 
 quently obliged to hold their meetings in an orchard without 
 the city. As he was a partaker of his brethren in gospel 
 labor, so also, he bore his share in their perils and the perse- 
 cutions 1 of their enemies. From repeated imprisonments 
 and corporeal abuses, he contracted a cough, which finally 
 terminated in a slow fever, reducing the body to an extreme 
 state of weakness, and establishing in the system that fell 
 disease, consumption. 
 
 Before his conversion, he was an Independent preacher, 
 and after hearing George Fox speak several times, he said ; 
 ■ " Ah ! what have we been doing ? Or, what avails our great 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 235 
 
 profession ? All our building tumbles down ; our profession 
 is high as the wind ; the day of the Lord is upon it, and his 
 word as a fire consumes it as dry stubble, and puts an end 
 to all empty professions, and high notions, without life or 
 substance, to all the wisdom of fallen man. We must for- 
 sake the world, and all its glory ; it is all vanity and vexation 
 of spirit. Jt is a Saviour that I long for ; it is him that my 
 soul pants after. O! that I may be gathered into this life, 
 and overshadowed with his glory, sanctified throughout by 
 his word, and raised up by his eternal power !" 
 
 In this state he continued in daily supplication to the 
 Lord, until it pleased him to proclaim peace to his soul, and 
 send him forth to preach freely to all who would hearken to 
 the word of Truth. 
 
 Some of his friends having visited him a short time before 
 his decease, he addressed them with encouraging consola- 
 tion, and exhorted them to be faithful through all the trials 
 it was their lot to pass, while to his wife he said, " My will 
 is in true subjection to the will of the Lord, whether that is 
 life or death, and therefore give me up freely to his dispos- 
 ing." He loved his wife — dearly loved her, and it was only 
 in the thought that he bid her adieu, to sleep in the bosom 
 of Abraham, that his mind could become resigned to the 
 great affliction. He was not only preserved in a peaceful 
 serenity of mind at this solemn period, but at times was 
 joyful in the prospect of approaching felicity, and often pray- 
 ed for the prosperity of his friends ; that they might be pre- 
 served in the truth, and out of the evil of the world ; that the 
 gospel of Christ might spread and be published to the gath- 
 ering of all that pertain to Israel. His strength gradually di- 
 minished, and at the age of thirty-four, this faithful minister 
 of the Lord, conscious of having done his duty whilst on 
 earth, sweetly departed unto the long sleep of death — to be 
 awakened by the archangel's trump on the great day of the 
 resurrection. As a testimonial to the character of this good 
 man, we make the following extract from an article published 
 by his wife after his death. 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " The Eternal God, who by his Providence joined us to- 
 gether in marriage in our young days, in his blessed coun- 
 cil also caused his day to spring from on high upon us; in 
 the marvellous light, and bright shining whereof, he revealed 
 His son Christ in us, and gave us faith to believe in Him, 
 the Eternal Word of Life, by which our souls came to be 
 quickened, and made alive in him ; and also in and by the 
 quickening of his Holy Power, we were made one in spirit- 
 ual and heavenly relation, our hearts being knit together in 
 the unspeakable love of Truth, which was our life, joy and 
 delight, and made our days together exceeding comfortable, 
 and it was that by which our temporal enjoyments were sanc- 
 tified and made a blessing. — How hard it was and how great 
 a loss to part with so dear and tender a husband as he was 
 to me, is far beyond what I can express ; the dolor of my 
 heart, my tongue or pen is not able to express. Yet in this 
 I contented myself that it was the will of God that he should 
 be taken from all evil ; and that my loss, though great, was 
 not to be compared to his eternal gain." 
 
• 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 It will be remembered that during the trial of Francis 
 Howgill, the judge said there was anew statute which would 
 make him swear ; this statute was called, an "Act to prevent 
 and suppress Seditious Conventicles." Every rumor of an 
 insurrection was a prelude to an additional law against the 
 non-conformists. The plot alleged to have been formed in 
 the north, which has been mentioned, was made a pretext 
 for the new act, whereby the act of the thirty-fifth of Eliza- 
 beth was declared to be in full force. It further enacted : — 
 " That if any person of the age of sixteen years or upwards, 
 after the first of July, 1664, should be present at any meeting 
 under color or pretence of any exercise of religion, in any 
 other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the 
 Church of England, where shall be five or more persons be- 
 side the household, shall, for the first offence, suffer imprison- 
 ment not exceeding three months, or pay a sum of money 
 not exceeding five pounds, upon record made upon oath, 
 under the hands and seals of two justices of the peace ; for 
 the second offence, the penalty to be doubled ; and for the 
 third offence, being convicted before the justices at their quar- 
 ter sessions, or judge of assize, by the verdict of a jury, to be 
 transported to some of the American plantations (excepting 
 New England and Virginia) for seven years, or pay one 
 hundred pounds, &c. And in case they return, or make 
 their escape, such persons are to be adjudged felons, and suf- 
 fer death. Sheriffs or justices of the peace, or others com- 
 nissioned by them, are empowered to dissolve, dissipate, and 
 •reak up all unlawful conventicles, and to take into custody 
 ich of their number as they think fit. Persons who suffer 
 
238 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 such conventicles in their houses or barns, are liable to the 
 same penalties and forfeitures as other offenders. Persons 
 convicted of the third offence to be transported at their own 
 expense, and in default of ability to pay the same, to be 
 made over to the master of the ship, or his assigns, to serve 
 them as laborers for five years. Married women taken at 
 conventicles, are to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 
 twelve months, unless their husbands pay a sum not exceed- 
 ing forty pounds for their redemption. This act to continue 
 in force for three years, and to the end of the next session of 
 Parliament." 
 
 The former act of 1661 enacted the same penalties, though 
 not so strongly expressed as this ; nor does it appear that it 
 was so rigorously enforced. The penalties of that act af- 
 fected the Friends only ; but this extended to all who met in 
 any other manner than that allowed by the Liturgy, or prac- 
 tice of the church, reaching all the non-conformists of every 
 description ; yet we do not meet with a single instance of its 
 being put in execution against any, except members of the 
 Society. An anonymous writer, evidently .a learned man, 
 published a pamphlet in London, in which he showed, from 
 the laws of England, the absurdity of this act, since all re- 
 ligious duties exercised by six persons, not according to the 
 formality of the Church of England, was forbidden ; and 
 several incidents proved that it was a transgression for any 
 one to pray in a sick room, when the sufferer was near the 
 door of death : or if any one should pray for the happiness 
 of a young married couple, it was deemed a violation of the 
 law. It might happen that some, by the malice of their 
 enemies, might not only incur imprisonment for three 
 months, but, by a repetition of such friendly offices, be con- 
 demned to transportation. That this was not without dan- 
 ger appeared sufficiently by what Judge Orlando Bridgeman 
 said to the jury at Hertford : " You are not to expect a plain, 
 punctual evidence against them for anything they said or did 
 at this meeting ; for they may speak to one another, though 
 not with any auricular sound, but by a cast of the eye, or a 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 239 
 
 motion of the head or foot, or gesture of the body. So that 
 if you find or believe in your hearts that they were in the 
 meeting under cover of religion in their way, though they 
 sat still only, and looked upon each other, it was an unlaw- 
 ful meeting." 
 
 George Whitehead, a member of the Society of Friends, 
 also took this occasion to expose the unreasonable severity 
 of the persecutors; to strengthen his friends to steadfast- 
 ness in their Christian testimony; to exculpate them from 
 the charge of obstinacy, and answer several other things 
 which had been lately brought against them, and amongst 
 the rest, the following specious objection : 
 
 " The Quakers might keep small meetings, and so not 
 fall under the lash of the law ; for if they did not meet above 
 live in number, they were not within reach of the law ; and 
 by keeping private meetings, they might also acquit their 
 consciences before God." 
 
 To this George. Whitehead said : " It might have been 
 objected to the Prophet Daniel, that he might have prayed 
 secretly, and not with open windows and thrice a day, after 
 King Darius had signed the decree — that whosoever should 
 ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of the 
 king, he should be cast into the den of lions ; but Daniel, not- 
 withstanding this decree, continued to pray unto God as be- 
 fore. Since then our meetings are kept in obedience to the 
 Lord God, and according to the freedom he hath given us, 
 we may not leave off our testimony for God in that case ; but 
 we must be faithful to him, whatever we suffer on that ac- 
 count. For neither the threatening of men, nor their severity 
 or cruelty acted against us, how far soever it may extend, can 
 make us forsake the Lord by not holding meetings, or be 
 ashamed of Christ before men, lest hereafter he be ashamed 
 of us before his Father which is in heaven." Again he said : 
 " How unreasonable it was to incite a jury on ill-grounded 
 suspicion, without leaving them the liberty of their own 
 judgment ; and the judges have their duty specified in the 
 law and in Magna Charta." He also proved how unequal 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 it was that soldiers, who abused the Friends, should be called 
 before the courts as witnesses against them ; and that they 
 should be locked up with thieves and felons when this was 
 contrary to the rights of free-born Englishmen." 
 
 Josiah Coale also wrote an article, warning the king and both 
 houses of Parliament to beware how they persecuted an inno- 
 cent and unoffending people ; but remonstrances, however 
 reasonable, had little effect upon the men now possessed of 
 power, and previously determined to exert it with vindictive 
 violence in the punishment of non-conformists. 
 
 At the assizes at Hertford in the eighth month [August], 
 the following persons, members of the Society, were brought 
 to trial : Francis Prior, Nicholas Lucas, Henry Feast, Hen- 
 ry Marshall, Jeremy Hern, Thomas Wood, John Bendall, 
 and Samuel Trahern. Judge Orlando Bridgeman was on 
 the bench, and the prisoners were indicted for the third 
 offence against the conventicle act. This was a remarkable 
 instance of the eagerness of the persecutors ; for this act was 
 not in force until the first of the seventh month [July], and 
 these persons were arraigned for the third offence on the 
 twelfth or thirteenth of the succeeding month. Now as the 
 penalty for the first offence was imprisonment for a term not 
 exceeding three months, and for the second not exceeding six, 
 at the discretion of two justices, it was usual with these justi- 
 ces to commit them for a few days for the first and second 
 offences, not out of tenderness, but in order to subject them 
 more speedily to the penalty of transportation for the third. 
 
 An indictment was drawn up against the above named 
 eight persons, stating that they had been at an unlawful meet- 
 ing three sundry times, at specified places. This indictment 
 having been delivered to the grand jury, they could not agree 
 in their verdict ; for there were some whose consciences would 
 not permit them to be accessory to such a shameful work of 
 persecution, and they ignored the bill. Now, although this 
 was a legal verdict, and the court had no right to reject it, 
 yet the judges were so inured to surmount every barrier 
 of justice, in order to gratify themselves in persecuting an 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 241 
 
 innocent people, that instead of accepting the grand jury's 
 verdict, Judge Bridgman addressed them as follows : " My 
 masters, what do you mean to do ? Will you make a nose 
 of wax of the law, and suffer the law to be baffled ? Those 
 that think to deceive the law, the law will deceive them. 
 Why don't you find a true bill ?" 
 
 With these instructions they retired again, and brought in 
 a bill against the prisoners. Then four of their number were 
 called to the bar, and when the clerk asked whether they 
 were guilty or not guilty, they replied, they were not guilty, 
 having transgressed no just law. 
 
 " But," said the judge, " you have transgressed this law 
 (holding the conventicle act in his hand), and you have been 
 twice convicted already on record, and if ye are found guilty 
 by the jury this time, I must pass the sentence of transporta- 
 tion upon you. Now, therefore, ye shall see we do not 
 desire to strain the law to the highest severity ; neither do I 
 believe that it was the aim of law-makers to be severe, but 
 for conforming. If ye will promise that ye will not go, or be 
 at any more such meetings, I will acquit you for what is 
 passed ; this favor ye may receive before the charge is deli- 
 vered to the jury ; but afterward I cannot do it. And know, 
 also, if the jury, for want of punctual evidence, should not 
 find you guilty, yet if ye are taken again, ye will be in the 
 same situation as at present. What say you ? Will ye 
 promise to meet no more?" 
 
 " We can promise no such thing," replied the prisoners. 
 
 The jury was then sworn, and witnesses examined, who 
 deposed that they found those persons assembled, more than 
 five together, at certain times and places, but they neither 
 heard any of them speak, nor saw anything out of order. 
 The judge, in summing up the evidence and charging the 
 jury, said : "You are not to expect plain, punctual evidence of 
 anything said or done, a bare proof of their being met for wor- 
 ship in their own manner, not being according to the liturgy 
 and practice of the Church of England, is sufficient for their 
 
 conviction. 'Tis not your business to enter into the mean- 
 16 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ing of the law, but simply to determine the fact." The jury, 
 with these instructions, left the court, and returned with a 
 verdict of guilty. The judge ordered the prisoners to rise, 
 and read the following sentence : " You shall be transported 
 beyond the seas to the island of Barbadoes, and there remain 
 for seven years." 
 
 The other four were placed at the bar, and condemned to 
 be transported to Jamaica. When the sentence was pro- 
 nounced, the prisoners said : " We have transgressed no law 
 of God, nor wronged any man." 
 
 Three other prisoners were arraigned for trial, among 
 whom was John Reynolds, who, according to the testimony 
 of the witnesses, had been within a yard of the door of the 
 meeting-house, with his face from it. As applicable to his 
 situation, and to induce the jury to bring him in guilty, the 
 judge illustrated his case in the following manner: " Sup- 
 pose a man be killed in a house, and nobody saw him killed, 
 but a man is met coming out of the house with a bloody 
 knife in his hand, it is a very probable evidence that he is 
 guilty of murder. So, though the witnesses do not say that 
 they saw him actually in the meeting, yet they swore he was 
 within a yard of the door, with his face from the place where 
 they usually met, and twice before has he been taken and 
 convicted upon record. I now leave it with you to draw the 
 inference." 
 
 The jury returned with a verdict of " guilty," against the 
 three ; but " not guilty," in the case of Reynolds. The con- 
 demned were then brought to the bar, and the judge asked 
 them what they could say why judgment of transportation 
 should not be passed upon them. 
 
 " We are innocent," said the prisoners, " and have not 
 offended any just law of God or man, to deserve that sen- 
 tence ; we leave it to the witness of God in thy or your con- 
 sciences." 
 
 " You have done contrary to the conventicle act," replied 
 the judge, "which was made by the king and Parliament, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 243 
 
 and executed by us their subordinate ministers; if it be not 
 righteous and just, we must answer for that." 
 
 One of the prisoners said, " If I have transgressed any just 
 law, let me suffer; and if not, he that judgeth for God will 
 not condemn me." 
 
 " Hear your sentence," exclaimed Judge Bridgman. " You 
 shall be transported beyond the seas, to the island of Jamaica, 
 being one of his Majesty's foreign plantations, there to remain 
 seven years. Now I have this one thing to acquaint you 
 with : if you, or either of you, will pay down here to the 
 court an hundred pounds, before the court is adjourned, all 
 of you shall be acquitted and set at liberty." 
 
 But they unanimously answered " No," and pursuant to 
 the sentence, the jailor, by the sheriff's order, applied to 
 Thomas May, captain of the ship Anne, and contracted with 
 him to carry them to Barbadoes for five pounds a-piece, and 
 those to Jamaica for six pounds ; at the same time informing 
 the captain that they were freemen. When they were taken 
 on board the ship, the captain saw they were under com- 
 pulsion and refused to receive them, as his contract was to 
 carry freemen and no others. The disappointed jailor im- 
 mediately went to the secretary of state, and made oalh that 
 he had contracted with Thomas May for the prisoners' pas- 
 sage, as persons convicted by the conventicle act. May was 
 sent for, and although he had witnesses to disprove the oath 
 of the jailor, yet the secretary would not hear their evidence ; 
 and made the captain, against his will, carry the prisoners to 
 the specified placi s. They were put on board, but sent back 
 to shore several times, between London and Gravesend ; it 
 being very remarkable, that although many other vessels 
 passed them going down the river, this ship could not, on 
 account of contrary winds and stormy weather, proceed 
 to sea. Not only the captain, but his men, became 
 very uneasy and said they would leave the ship, if the 
 prisoners were not set on shore ; for they believed Heaven 
 was against them, and if they went to sea all would be 
 tost 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 After cruising along the shore for nearly two months, he 
 finally dismissed them at Deal, with a certificate, stating that 
 they had not run away, but were freely set on shore ; and 
 among the reasons given for his conduct, the captain said, 
 " Seeing the great adversities they had met with, I concluded 
 that the hand of God was against me ; and, therefore, I durst 
 not go off with these prisoners, because I found them to be 
 honest men, who did not deserve banishment. And also 
 there is a law extant, that no Englishman shall be transported 
 against his will ; and my men refused to proceed on the 
 voyage, if I did not set the prisoners on shore." 
 
 On board the Anne was one man who had been very 
 officious in getting them on board, and desirous of detaining 
 them with a design, it was thought, of selling them on the 
 islands. This Manning (for such was his name) entered a 
 complaint with the deputy or principal officer at Deal, that 
 these prisoners had ran away from the ship ; but when they 
 were arrested, the captain's certificate was produced and they 
 were set at libety. 
 
 They returned home, and by letter acquainted the king and 
 council of the whole proceedings ; which letter was read at 
 the council board, who by an order committed them to 
 prison, until means of transporting them by some ship could 
 be found ; and here they remained until released by the 
 king's letters patent, after an imprisonment of more than 
 seven years. On their return to prison, they found twenty- 
 one more of their friends in imprisonment; who, at the 
 quarter sessions of Hertford, in the tenth month [October], 
 were condemned to banishment, under which sentence most 
 of them were kept in close confinement until released by 
 letters patent, granted by the king in 1672. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 During the three last months of this year, many were con- 
 demned to transportation, among whom were several women, 
 and although their trials deserve particular notice, yet we 
 have only space sufficient to take a cursory glance at their 
 sufferings. 
 
 On the thirteenth of the tenth month [October], the Ses- 
 sions began at Hicks Hall, before Sir John Robinson, and a 
 bill of indictment was preferred against sixteen members of 
 Friends, for the third offence of the conventicle act. The 
 jury returned a verdict of not guilty, but the judge forced 
 them to retire again, and bring in that of guilty. How hard 
 this was to accomplish appears from the confession of one of 
 the jurymen, who afterwards published a small book entitled, 
 " The Wounded Heart, or the Juryman's offences." Twelve 
 of them received sentence of transportation, amongst whom 
 was a young woman named Hannah Trigg, whose treat- 
 ment was unusually tyrannical, and contrary even to this 
 severe law ; for being asked why sentence should not be 
 passed upon her, she replied, " I am not yet sixteen years 
 old." 
 
 " You tell a lie," said one of the justices, " and I was 
 always told the Quakers never lied." 
 
 And although a certificate of her birth signed by two 
 female witnesses, asserted that she was born the twentieth 
 day of the eighth month [August], 1649, yet the justices who 
 were intent on multiplying convicts, arbitrarily rejected this 
 proof, appearing determined to surmount all the legal objec- 
 tions by which she might escape the designed punishment. 
 The sentence of banishment was passed on this innocent 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 girl — but she grew sick, and died in Newgate prison ; and 
 what was most barbarous on the part of her persecutors, they 
 did not permit their unfeeling humanity to cease with her life, 
 but extended it to her dead body, by debarring her relations 
 from the consolation of paying their last mournful tribute of 
 affection, by interring her in a respectful and suitable man- 
 ner. They most shamefully buried her in a place specially 
 devoted to murderers and to felons, and to others who die 
 before their term of imprisonment had expired. 
 
 At the same time the sentence of banishment was pro- 
 nounced against twelve other persons, among whom were 
 four married women, who were, after eleven months' impri- 
 sonment in Bridewell, discharged. In pronouncing their 
 sentence, the judge ordered part of them to be taken to His- 
 paniola, when some of the people informed him that it did 
 not now belong to England. He also made another mistake 
 during the trial, by accusing the prisoners of having trans- 
 gressed the laws of the Commonwealth, forgetting that 
 Charles the Second was now king of England- — showing 
 the ignorance and recklessness of some of these judges. 
 
 On the twenty-first of this month, the mayor, with the 
 sheriffs and Alderman Brown, went to the meeting at the 
 Bull and Mouth, and after closing all the doors, arrested 
 about one hundred and sixty persons, and sent (hem to New- 
 gate for four days, where they were all crowded into a small 
 room, without respect to age or sex. On the twenty-eighth, 
 one hundred and seventy-five were sent to prison, privately, 
 the magistrates being ashamed to expose their unrelenting 
 severity to the public eye. On the fourth of the ninth month 
 [September], two hundred and thirty more were also com- 
 mitted to Newgate. The prisons were crowded to overflow- 
 ing, and on the seventh of the ninth month [September], at 
 the sessions of Old Bailey, Judge Keeley proceeded to the 
 trial of those who were brought to the court for the third 
 offence. In his charge to the grand jury he used the follow- 
 ing language ; 
 
 " The Quakers teach dangerous principles : this for one : 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 247 
 
 that it is not lawful to take an oath. You must not believe 
 that their leaders believe this doctrine, only they persuade 
 these poor ignorant souls that they do ; but they have an in- 
 terest to carry on against the government, and for that reason 
 they will not swear subjection to it; and their end is rebellion 
 and blood. You may easily know that they do not believe 
 themselves what they say, when they tell you it is not lawful 
 to take an oath, if you look into the Scripture ; the text 
 (Matt, v.) where our Saviour saith, Swear not at all, will 
 clear itself of such a meaning as forbids swearing, if you 
 look but into ihe next words, where it is said, Let your com- 
 munication be yea, yea ; nay, nay ; and it is said an oath is 
 an end of all strife. This for the New Testament. And the 
 Old is positive for swearing ; and they that deny swearing, 
 deny God of a special part of his worship. 
 
 " They pretend, in their scribbles, that the Conventicle Act 
 doth not concern them, but such as, under pretence of wor- 
 shipping God, do in their meetings conspire against the go- 
 vernment. This is a mistake : for if they should conspire, 
 /they would then be guilty of treason, and we should try 
 them by other laws ; but this act is against meetings, to pre- 
 vent them from forming a conspiracy ; for they meet to con- 
 sult, to know their number, and to hold correspondence with 
 one another, so that they may, in a short time, be up in # 
 arms. 
 
 " I had the honor to serve the king at York, upon the trial 
 of those wicked plotters, and we found those plots were 
 hatched and carried on in these meetings, and we hanged 
 four or five of the speakers or praters, whom we found to 
 be chief leaders of that rebellion. I warrant you their lead- 
 ers will keep themselves clear of the third offence : we shall 
 not take them. If we could catch their leaders, we should 
 try them by some other law, which, if executed, will deprive 
 them of life. This is a merciful law ; it takes not away 
 their estales ; it leaves them entire, only banishing them 
 for seven years if they will not pay one hundred pounds ; 
 and this is not for worshipping God according to their con- 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 sciences, for that they may do in their families, but forsooth 
 they will not do it, but must have thirty, forty, or an hundred 
 others to contrive their designs." 
 
 No doubt Judge Keeley imagined the bench was a privi- 
 leged place for him to utter falsehoods in, and that his office 
 and power exempted him from detection. He had a peculiar 
 inexpressible manner of misrepresenting facts, in order to 
 deprive people of their just rights; and to add public odium 
 to exorbitant severity, he not only punished with the utmost 
 rigor of this unrighteous law, but would bring aggravating 
 accusations against the prisoners, without the least regard to 
 truth. He intended to proceed immediately to the trial of 
 some of them ; but on calling one of the prisoners to the 
 bar, he proved conclusively to the jury that he was not 
 present at the meeting of Friends held at the Bull and 
 Mouth. The judge was disappointed, and immediately dis- 
 charged the jury, at the same time issuing orders for the 
 jailor of Newgate, the marshal and his posse, to attend all 
 the meetings of Friends, and be prepared to give evidence 
 against them at the next sessions. 
 
 Thus the magistrates and judges continued with unrelent- 
 ing severity to try, imprison, and condemn to banishment, the 
 innocent members of this Society. An account published 
 at this time states that more than six hundred were confined 
 * in prisons in different parts of the country; two hundred 
 were sentenced to banishment in this and the succeeding 
 year, of whom about one hundred and fifty were condemned 
 at the Old Bailey and Hick's Hall ; and what is most re- 
 markable, we find out of this large number, only seventeen 
 were actually transported, which was not owing to any re- 
 laxation of severity on the part of government or its subor- 
 dinate magistrates, but the difficulty they met with in pro- 
 curing vessels. 
 
 Whilst Josiah Cole was in 'prison in London, he wrote 
 several letters to his friends, exhorting them to constancy and 
 faithfulness amid their many trials and sufferings. It was a 
 time of wretchedness. Those who suffered in the name of 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 249 
 
 the Lord, continued honest, upright, straightforward, in their 
 course ; while others did not neglect to petition the king to 
 put an end to the persecution, for God would not let his 
 people suffer always. Among these was William Bailey, 
 who wrote to the king and Parliament a very strong letter, 
 warning them to beware of the course they were pursuing, 
 or the vengeance of God would fall heavily upon them. He 
 concluded his somewhat lengthy letter with the following 
 paragraph : 
 
 " And let me tell you again, that by these, your unreason- 
 able and unjust dealings, the understandings of thousands are 
 the more opened, and the tender, sober part or principle in 
 them, doth feel the weight and burden of this grievousness, 
 which you have prescribed and do so eagerly pursue to the 
 imprisonment until death of many innocent and free-born 
 people of this nation. And your unnatural, cruel sentence of 
 banishment, to separate husbands and wives, and every tie 
 of tenderness ! Oh ! how do you rend the bowels of the meek 
 of the earth, whom God hath blessed ? What is become of 
 all your promises of liberty for tender consciences ? God's 
 curse and vengeance will come upon you, and his plagues will 
 pursue you to destruction, if you proceed in this work ; and 
 your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless ; the 
 Lord hath spoken it. If you had the hearts of men, or of 
 flesh, ye would be afraid, and blush at the very thought ; my 
 heart and soul melts within me, and I am bowed down in 
 my spirit to think of the hardness of your hearts. Ye are and 
 have been warned again and again by the faithful messen- 
 gers and servants of the Lord, in love to your souls ; and you 
 are left without excuse, if never words more should be men- 
 tioned to you, by which ye might perceive how the Lord 
 doth strive with you, that ye might repent, and be saved from 
 the wrath to come, though some of you feel little of it in your 
 own consciences ; but his spirit will not always strive with you. 
 If you are resolved to go on, you will be wholly given up, 
 and exceedingly hardened, and grow desperate in cruelty and 
 oppression against God, and his truth and people, till the 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 whole earth is filled with violence ; and then, as true as God 
 liveth, will ihe flood come upon you, and ye shall fall after 
 the manner of Egypt, and the weight of the dreadful judg- 
 ment, due for all your abominations and cruelties, shall sink 
 you down into the pit that is bottomless." 
 
 Others were engaged in bearing testimony against perse- 
 cution by their epistles, remonstrances and prophetic warn- 
 ings, addressed to the king and Parliament ; and yet, what was 
 remarkable, amongst the great number condemned to ban- 
 ishment, not one of these eminent and active members was 
 included, although they never sought to escape by subterfuge, 
 but continued, when at liberty, to be an example to their 
 brethren in their regular attendance of meetings. Two of 
 their prophetic warnings are too remarkable to be passed 
 over unnoticed. The first is extracted from a publication of 
 George Fox, Jr., which was printed in 1661, in which he la- 
 mented over England on account of the judgments that were 
 coming upon her inhabitants for their wickedness and persecu- 
 tions ; he said, " The Lord had spoken in him concerning the 
 inhabitants." " The people are too many, I will thin them, 
 I will thin them !" Further, " that an overflowing scourge, 
 yea, even a great scourge, yea, even a great and terrible judg- 
 ment will come upon the land, and many in it will fall and 
 be taken away." 
 
 The next is a short admonitory caution from George Bishop, 
 of Bristol. He said to the king and both houses of Parlia- 
 ment, — " Meddle not with my people, because of their con- 
 science to me, and banish them not out of the nation b ecause 
 of their conscience ; for if you do, I will send my plagues 
 upon you, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 
 
 " Written in obedience to the Lord, by his servant." 
 
 Yet while these severe measures were rigorously executed, 
 for forcing uniformity in religious matters, true religion was 
 never more neglected than it was by the ruling party. The 
 manners and habits of the age were, to a scandalous degree, 
 corrupt and immoral. Through the example of their supe- 
 riors, and the pliant doctrine of their teachers, adapted to 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 251 
 
 flatter the great, and generally more abusive of non-conformity 
 than vice, "the common people [says Neale] gave them- 
 selves up to drunkenness, profane swearing, gaming, lewd- 
 ness, and all kinds of debauchery, which brought down the 
 judgment of Heaven upon the nation." 
 
 The Society of Friends looked upon the succeeding ca- 
 lamities which befel the nation, as divine judgments inflict- 
 ed upon a sinful and persecuting generation ; although the 
 secrets of the Almighty are deep and wondrous, and his 
 ways above the investigation of human wisdom, yet we ihink 
 scripture warrants us in considering national calamities in 
 this light, when national corruption arrives at such a degree 
 as to need some check, in order to show the brink of ruin on 
 which the nation stands. 
 
 The first of these evils was a war with the Dutch ; the 
 wanton and unjust policy commenced by the English Court, 
 and promoted by the selfishness of France, cost the nation a 
 great amount of moriey, besides the loss of thousands of 
 lives on both sides, without the least advantage to either 
 country. 
 
 The next general calamity which befel the nation, had 
 more the appearance of a divine visitation on account of the 
 transgressions of the people. It was the plague, which spread 
 throughout England in 16b"5. Neale says, " It was preceded 
 by an unusual drought ; the meadows were parched, and 
 burnt up like the highways, insomuch, that there was no 
 food for the cattle, which occasioned first a murrain among 
 them, and then a general contagion among the human spe- 
 cies, which increased in the city and suburbs of London, till 
 eight thousand or upwards died in a week. The wealthy 
 inhabitants fled into the remoter counties ; but the calamities 
 of those who stayed behind, and of the poorer sort, are not 
 easily described." All trade was entirely stopped. Inter- 
 course between London and the country was much inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 The terrible disease walked the streets, and pointed out 
 with its contaminated finger the victims of Death. With 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the grasp of an invisible Hercules, its almighty hand came 
 down upon the hearts of men, crushing out the very spark 
 of life, ere people were well aware their friends were in dan- 
 ger. Then came the sound and sigh of wo. The anvil 
 ceased to echo forth its clang, the sledge was unlifted, the bel- 
 lows breathed not, the fire of the furnace burnt out. The 
 saw, the plane and the hammer grew still. Merchants shut 
 up their stores, and walked home to die. No sound came 
 upon the ear, save the clink of the hammer or the grating of 
 the saw, as the undertaker hastily threw together the last nar- 
 row withdrawing-room of poor mortality. Everything seem- 
 ed to partake of the general terror. Grass was growing in 
 the most populous streets, and where once was the busy 
 hum of men, now became a scene of solitude, silence and 
 gloom. Yet there were roads on which the grass did not 
 spring up — they led to the graveyards. 
 
 It was certainly an awful visitation, sufficient one would 
 think to rouse the most inconsiderate to serious thoughtful- 
 ness, when they viewed the examples of mortality which 
 were daily multiplying before their eyes, and uncertain what 
 hour they would be called upon to give up their stewardship ; 
 but they were unawed by these symptoms of Divine displea- 
 sure, and not in the least relenting their persecutions, they 
 proceeded in their conduct by increasing the number of pri- 
 soners and exiles, as if nothing extraordinary had taken 
 place. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 In the fourlh month [April] of this year, twelve more 
 were sentenced to transportation, and seven others 
 1665. were taken from Newgate to Gravesend, and in com- 
 pany with eight others whom they met at that place, 
 were put on ship-board to be transported to the plantations. 
 
 On the eighteenth and twenty-second of the next month, 
 thirty-four were sentenced to Jamaica, and five to Bridewell. 
 Those who were tried on the eighteenth, were sentenced by 
 Judge Wharton, and those on the twenty-second by Judge 
 Windham, who said to one of the female prisoners: " Anne 
 Blow, I would show you as much favor as the court will 
 allow you, if you will say you will not attend the seditious 
 meetings at the Bull and Mouth." She answered : " Would'st 
 thou have me sin against that of God in my own conscience? 
 If I were set at liberty to-day, and the Lord required it of 
 me, I would go to the Bull and Mouth to-morrow." Con- 
 cerning another of the prisoners, John Gibson, the same 
 judge addressed the jury in the following manner : " Gentle- 
 men, although it is true, as this Gibson saith, that it cannot 
 be proved that they were doing any evil at the Bull and 
 Mouth; yet it was an offence for them to be met there, 
 because in process of time there might be evil done at such 
 meetings; therefore, this law was made to prevent them." 
 It was in this way they undertook to cloak their inhuman 
 actions. 
 
 At the next sessions of Old Bailey, four more were con- 
 demned to transportation, under which sentence one hundred 
 and twenty persons still remained in Newgate, the sheriff 
 not knowing how to get rid of them ; for the masters of 
 
254 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ships, persuaded of the men's innocence, refused to carry 
 them ; and the increasing pestilence confirmed them in their 
 refusal, for they looked upon it, like many others, as a judg- 
 ment sent upon the nation for its persecuting laws. To re- 
 medy this difficulty, an embargo was laid on all merchant- 
 men, with an order that no ship should go down the river 
 without a pass from the admiral ; and this would be given 
 to no captain sailing to any West Indies' port, but on con- 
 dition of his carrying some of the transported prisoners. 
 Remonstrances of the illegality of forcing Englishmen out 
 of their native country, were in vain. After some trouble, 
 they at last found a man to suit their purpose ; his name was 
 Fudge; and whilst making arrangements with him, he said: 
 u I will not stick to transport my nearest relations." "With 
 this man the sheriffs agreed to take the prisoners to Jamaica, 
 and in a few days fifty-five were put in a barge near New- 
 gate, and carried down the river to the ship, which was 
 lying at Bugby's-hole, a short distance below Greenwich. 
 When they came to the ship's side, the master being absent, 
 the seamen refused to assist in forcing them on board, and 
 the prisoners were unwilling to be active in their own trans- 
 portation. The turnkey and officers said that they were the 
 king's goods, and the sailors ought to assist in placing them 
 on board the ship ; but the mariners were inflexible, and 
 sternly refused to lend the least aid. At length, with much 
 difficulty, they got four on board ; and wearied with their 
 task, they returned with the rest to Newgate. In about two 
 weeks, they were again taken to the ship, and soldiers were 
 sent from the Tower to assist the prison officers in placing 
 them on the ship's deck. Many of the prisoners' friends ac- 
 companied them in other boats, though the soldiers threat- 
 ened to sink them if they did not leave. When they arrived 
 at the ship, the commander of the soldiers called on the sea- 
 men to assist, but few of them regarded his summons. The 
 soldiers then went to work, and after using the most severe 
 treatment, they succeeded in accomplishing their task, after 
 an hour's hard work, placing thirty-seven men and eighteen 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 255 
 
 women between two decks of the ship. The captain was 
 arrested for debt, and cast into prison, and it was nearly 
 seven months before they reached the Land's End : in the 
 intermediate time, the pestilence spread in the ship, and 
 caused the death of twenty-seven of the prisoners. Another 
 captain was procured, and on the twenty-third of the second 
 month [February], of the following year, the vessel sailed 
 from Plymouth, and was the next day taken by a Dutch pri- 
 vateer, off the Land's End, and carried to Hoorn, in North 
 Holland. When the commissioners of the Dutch admiralty 
 were informed that they would not be exchanged as prison- 
 ers of war, they set them at liberty, with a passport, and a 
 certificate, stating " that they had not made their escape, but . 
 were sent back by them." From Hoorn they went to Am- 
 sterdam, where they met with a kind reception from their 
 friends, who provided them with lodging and clothes, their 
 own having been mostly taken from them by the crew of 
 the privateer. All except one (who was a native of Hol- 
 land) returned to England; thus the hand of Divine Provi- 
 dence frustrated the design of their persecutors. 
 
 The same week that these fifty-five persons were put on 
 ship-board, the bills of mortality in London amounted to 
 upward of three thousand ; in the next, to four thousand and 
 thirty, and went on increasing, until the ninth month [Sep- 
 tember], when they numbered over seven thousand weekly. 
 
 It is said during the height of the pestilence, the king 
 asked one of his courtiers, " Whether any Quakers died of 
 the plague ?" When the courtier replied in the affirmative, 
 the king said it could not be looked upon as a judgment 
 against the persecutors ; but his chaplain could have told him 
 the words of Solomon, " There is an event to the righteous 
 and to the wicked ;" or, of the saying of Job, " He destroy- 
 eth the perfect and the wicked," which would no doubt have 
 shown him the error in his conclusion. 
 
 It is natural to suppose that a contagion which spread 
 through all the city with unabated violence, would soon 
 infect the jails and prisons, which are at all times liable to 
 
256 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 infection, on account of the numbers crowded together and 
 breathing the polluted air of close, damp, and filthy rooms. 
 In Newgate fifty-two fell victims to this contagion, twenty- 
 two of whom had been tried and sentenced to transportation. 
 In opposition to every feeling of humanity, they continued 
 to crowd the infectious jails with fresh prisoners. On the 
 ninth of the eighth month [August], Sir John Robinson, 
 Lieutenant of the Tower, sent a body of soldiers to break up 
 the meeting at the Peel ; they entered in their usual hostile 
 manner, and the soldiers took thirty-two of them to Newgate 
 without the least regard to the condition of that prison. In 
 the same month, eighteen others were committed to the Gate- 
 house, Westminster, by warrants from the Duke of Albe- 
 marle, four of whom died of the plague. 
 
 Among the great numbers who laid down their lives in 
 prison in the course of this year, was Samuel Fisher, who 
 was a prisoner in various jails, during the last four years of 
 his life. In 1661 he was several months a prisoner at the 
 Gatehouse, in Westminster ; soon after his release he was 
 illegally apprehended, as before related, sent to Bridewell, 
 and after some time brought to Guildhall, where, refusing to 
 take the oath of allegiance, he was committed to Newgate, 
 and confined there for twelve months. After he was dis- 
 charged, he was again taken at Charlwood, in Surrey, and 
 committed to the White Lion prison, in Southwark, where, 
 after nearly two years' imprisonment, he finished his earthly 
 course in perfect peace with God. 
 
 We see the predictions of George Bishop were fulfilled. 
 Whilst in prison at Bristol he wrote a letter to his friends, 
 exhorting them to steadfastness, and telling them if they hap- 
 pened to be banished, " God would give them grace in the 
 eyes of those among whom they should be sent, if they con- 
 tinued to adhere to him ; and that when he should have 
 tried them, he would bring them again into their native 
 country; and none shall root you out, but you shall be 
 planted and built up there; and the Lord shall visit our 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 257 
 
 enemies with the sword and pestilence and strike them with 
 terror." 
 
 When Isaac Pennington was a prisoner, he wrote to the 
 king and Parliament, and in a spirit of meekness endeavored 
 to dissuade them from all persecution. After proposing 
 several important queries, he said, " Were it not in love to 
 you, and in pity (in relation to what will certainly befall you, 
 if you pursue the same course), I could say in the joy of 
 my heart, and in the sense of the good will of my God to 
 us, who suffereth these things to come to pass ; go on, try it 
 out with the spirit of the Lord: come forth with your laws, 
 and prisons, and spoiling our goods, and banishment, and 
 death, and see if ye can carry it. For we come not forth 
 against you in our own wills, or in any enmity against your 
 persons or government, or in any stubbornness of spirit ; but 
 with the lamb-like nature which the Lord our God hath be- 
 gotten in us, which is taught and enabled by him, both to 
 do his will, and to suffer for his name's sake. And if we can- 
 not thus overcome you (even in patience of spirit, and in 
 love to you), and if the Lord our God pleaseth not to appear 
 for us, we are content to be overcome by you. So the will 
 of the Lord be done, saith my soul." He also proposed the 
 following question to the king and Parliament : " Whether 
 laws made by man, in equity, ought to exlend any farther 
 than there is power in man to obey ? And if it was not 
 cruel to require obedience in such cases, wherein the party 
 hath not the capacity of obeying?" And to explain this 
 subject still more, he said, " In things concerning the wor- 
 ship of God, wherein a man is limited by God both in what 
 worship he shall perform, and what worship he shall abstain 
 from ; here he is not left at liberty to obey what laws shall 
 be made by man contrary hereunto?" 
 
 George Fox was still a prisoner in Lancaster Castle under 
 the sentence or record of premunire. The arbitrary proceed- 
 ings against him at the assizes being probably known, the 
 justices, to avoid censure and disrepute, determined to pro- 
 cure his removal to some remote prison. In order to effect 
 17 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 their purpose, it seems, they set up some virulent, though 
 groundless accusations to the king and council, and obtained 
 an order from them to remove him from Lancaster, together 
 with a letter from the Earl of Anglesey, stating, u That if 
 those things were found true against him, with which he 
 was charged, he deserved no mercy." 
 
 Previous to his removal, he desired to see his friends and 
 relatives, but this was refused ; several papists, however, were 
 allowed to visit him, and they once affirmed in his presence, 
 that the Pope was infallible, and had been so since St. Pe- 
 ter's time. This was denied, and George Fox alleged from 
 history, that Marcellinus, one of the bishops of Rome, denied 
 the faith, and sacrificed to idols ; and therefore was not in- 
 fallible. He also said, — " If the papists were in the infalli- 
 ble spirit, they would not maintain their religion by jails, 
 swords, gallows, fires, racks, tortures, &c. ; for if they were 
 in the infallible spirit, they would preserve men's lives, and 
 use none but spiritual weapons in the furtherance of reli- 
 gion." By facts he also proved that it was the principle of 
 the papists, to kill every one, if it were possible, who left 
 their church. 
 
 " Will you declare this doctrine abroad ?" inquired the 
 papist. 
 
 " Yes," said George Fox, " such things ought to be de- 
 clared to the world, that it may be known how contrary your 
 religion is to true Christianity." 
 
 The member of the Roman Church left the prison in a 
 rage, but soon returned, and said,— "All the Patriarchs were 
 in hell, from the Creation until Christ came ; and when he 
 suffered, he went unto hell, and the devil said unto him, 
 What comest thou hither for ? to break open our strong- 
 holds ? And Christ said, To fetch them all out! And 
 Christ was three days and three nights in hell, to bring them 
 all out." 
 
 " It is false," replied George Fox, " for Christ said to the 
 thief on the cross, this day shaltthou be with me in Paradise. 
 Enoch and Elijah were translated unto Heaven ; Abraham 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 259 
 
 was in Heaven, for the Scriptures saith, that Lazarus was in 
 his bosom, and Moses and Elias were with Christ upon the 
 mount, before he suffered." 
 
 His adversary did not reply to these strong arguments 
 against the position in which he was unfortunately placed. 
 At another time, the Governor of the Castle, in company 
 with two or three members of Parliament, visited him, and 
 asked him if he recognized ministers and bishops ? " Yes," 
 replied the prisoner, " such as Christ sends forth ; those who 
 have freely received and would freely give, and such as are 
 qualified by the power and spirit of God, like the Apostles 
 of old. But such bishops and teachers as yours are, that 
 will go no farther than they have a great benefice, I do not 
 own ; for they are not like the Apostles. Christ said to his 
 ministers — Go ye unto all nations, and preach the Gospel. 
 But ye men of Parliament, that keep your priests in such fat 
 benefices, ye have ruined them all ; for do you think they 
 will go unto all nations and preach, or will preach in any 
 place without their pay ? Judge for yourselves, whether 
 they will or not." 
 
 After discussing several religious topics, they left the prison. 
 In a few weeks he was removed from Lancaster to Scar- 
 borough Castle, his future prison. When they took him 
 from the cold, wet, and smoky prison, he desired to see their 
 order, insisting that he was not the king's prisoner, but the 
 sheriff's ; for they and all the country knew, he was not fully 
 heard at the last assize, nor suffered to show the errors of the 
 indictment, which were sufficient to make it powerless ; 
 there was no sentence of premunire ; therefore, he was still 
 the sheriff's prisoner, and they could not remove him with- 
 out an order. During his journey, he suffered every kind of 
 abuse from the guard, but at Giggleswick he was placed in 
 the care of Lord Frecheville's troopers, who kindly admitted 
 his friends to converse with him, and treated him with much 
 civility. At Scarborough Castle he was denied all intercourse 
 with his friends, though persons connected with other persua- 
 sions were admitted. One day, Dr. Cradock with three 
 t 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 priests, accompanied by the Governor and his wife, paid the 
 prisoner a visit, and when the doctor asked him what he was 
 in prison for, he replied, " For obeying the command of 
 Christ and the Apostles, in not swearing ; but if thee being 
 both a doctor and justice of the peace, can convince me that 
 after Christ and the Apostle had forbidden swearing, they 
 commanded Christians to swear, then I will swear. Here 
 is a Bible, show me any such command if thou canst ?" 
 
 " It is written, ye shall swear in truth and righteousness," 
 said Cradock. 
 
 " Ay," said George Fox, " it was written so in Jeremiah's 
 time, but that was many ages before Christ commanded, not 
 to swear at all. But where is it written so since Christ for- 
 bade all swearing ? I could bring as many instances out of 
 the Old Testament for swearing as thou, and it may be more 
 too, but of what force are they to prove swearing lawful in 
 the New Testament, since Christ and the Apostle forbade 
 it ? Besides, where is it written, ye shall swear ; was this 
 said to the Gentiles ? or to the Jews ?" 
 
 " It was to the Jews," replied one of the priests. 
 
 " Very well," said George Fox, " but where did God ever 
 give a command to the Gentiles to swear ? For thou know- 
 est that we are Gentiles by nature." 
 
 " Indeed," replied Cradock, " in the gospel time everything 
 was to be established out of the mouth of two or three wit- 
 nesses, and there was to be no swearing then." 
 
 « Why, then, dost thou force oaths upon Christians, con- 
 trary to thy own knowledge of gospel times ? And why 
 dost thou excommunicate my friends '?" 
 
 " For not coming to church," answered Cradock. 
 
 " Why," said George Fox, " ye left us about twenty years 
 ago, when we were but young, to the Presbyterians, Inde- 
 pendents, and Baptists, many of whom made spoil of our 
 goods, and persecuted us because we would not follow 
 them. Now, we being but young, knew little then of your 
 principles, and those that knew them should not have fled 
 from us, but ye should have sent us your epistles or homilies ; 
 
 • 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 261 
 
 for Paul wrote epistles to the saints, though he was in pri- 
 son ; but we might have turned Turks or Jews for aught we 
 had from you as instruction. And now ye have excommu- 
 nicated us, that is, ye have put us out of your Church, before 
 ye have got us into it, and before ye have brought us to 
 know your principles. But what dost thou call the church ?" 
 
 " That which you call the steeple house." 
 
 " Was Christ's blood shed for a steeple house, and was it 
 purified and sanctified by his blood ? And seeing the 
 Church is Christ's bride and his wife, and that he is the head 
 of the Church, dost thou think the steeple house is Christ'e 
 bride and wife ?" 
 
 " No," replied Cradock, " Christ is the head of the people, 
 and they are the Church. 
 
 " But," said George Fox," ye have given that title to an 
 old house, which belongs to the people, and ye have taught 
 the people to believe so." 
 
 He also asked him some questions concerning tithes, but 
 Cradock and his friends, unable to contend with his argument, 
 and finding it was worse than folly to attempt to contradict 
 the proofs which were produced from the scriptures, left the 
 prison. 
 
 To the rigor and hardships of his imprisonment, his keep- 
 ers added frequent menaces, in order to terrify him. The 
 deputy governor once told him, " That the king, knowing he 
 had a great interest in the people, had sent him thither, so 
 that if there should be any conspiracy in the nation, they 
 could hang him over the wall." To this menace, he replied, 
 " If that was what they desired, and they were permitted so 
 to do, he was ready, for he never feared death or sufferings in 
 his life ; but was known to be an innocent, peaceable man, 
 free from all plots, and one that sought the good of all men." 
 
 His patience at length having surmounted the hardships 
 and persecutions to which he was exposed, and his inno- 
 cence pleading in his favor, his keepers gradually relented 
 their severity, and finally became more favorable and respect- 
 ful to him. 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 "After remaining a prisoner at Scarborough Castle about a 
 year, he laid his case in writing before the king, in which he 
 related the manner of his imprisonment and ihe severe treat- 
 ment he had been forced to endure ; subjoining, that he was 
 informed no man had power to deliver him, except the king. 
 His friend Esquire March, who said he would walk an hun- 
 dred miles barefoot to procure him his liberty, exerted his 
 best endeavors to obtain the success of the application, 
 and through the master of requests obtained the king's 
 order for his release, the substance of which was," that 
 the king being certainly informed that George Fox was a 
 man principled against plotting and fighting, and had been 
 ready at all times to discover plots rather than make any, &c, 
 therefore his royal pleasure was, that he should be released 
 from his imprisonment." As soon as this order was obtain- 
 ed, it was delivered to the governor of Scarborough, who 
 immediately discharged the prisoner with the following pass- 
 port : 
 
 " Permit the bearer hereof, George Fox, late a prisoner 
 here, and discharged by his majesty's order, quietly to pass 
 about his lawful occasions, without molestation. Given 
 under my hand at Scarborough Castle, this first day of Sep- 
 tember, 1666." 
 
 When George Fox received his release, as an acknow- 
 ledgment for the civility and kindness that was lately shown 
 him, he told the governor, " Whatever good he could do for 
 him and his friends, would be cheerfully done, and he would 
 never do them any hurt." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Society of Friends suffered a loss of one of its wor- 
 thy and zealous members, in the death of William Caton, 
 who died in the twelfth month [December] of this year, at 
 Amsterdam. His life was devoted to the service of God, 
 and his death was the triumph of the Christian faith. Of 
 his religious disposition, convincement and qualifications for 
 usefulness, the preceding pages amply testify, precluding the 
 necessity of enlarging upon them at this place. Distinguished 
 not only for his literary accomplishments and religious zeal, 
 but remarkable for the courteousness and affability of his dis- 
 position, he won the love and esteem of all with whom he 
 associated, not. only in his native land, but in whatever country 
 an all-wise Providence directed him to preach the eternal 
 Word. 
 
 The following day after George Fox was released from 
 Scarborough prison, the great fire broke out in the 
 1666. city of London, and in four days the greater part of the 
 houses within its walls were destroyed. The plague 
 had made fearful inroads among its inhabitants, and now the 
 Avenger's hand converted their dwellings into ashes, and the 
 citizens, in amazement, terror and despair, were forced to flee 
 for their lives, with what goods they could save, into Moor- 
 fields, where they lodged in temporary huts and tents. Many 
 families, who lived in luxury and opulence, were reduced to 
 poverty. But were they not warned ? Did not Thomas 
 Briggs, four years before this awful conflagration, preach 
 repentance to the inhabitants, and cry through the streets, 
 " Repent, oh London ! like Nineveh, or God will destroy 
 thee !" Were they not also forewarned by another remarka- 
 
264 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ble prediction from Thomas Ibbitt, of Huntingdonshire, who 
 entered London a few days before this occurrence, and on 
 the sixth and seventh days of the week, went through the 
 streets, pronouncing a judgment by fire, which should lay 
 waste the city. On the evening of these days, some of his 
 friends had meetings with him, in order to inquire into the 
 fact, whether he was called upon to pronounce that fearful 
 judgment. He stated that he had a vision of the fire, and 
 was commanded to go forth and warn the inhabitants. The 
 next day, the first of the week, on the second of the ninth 
 month [September], 1666, which immediately followed the 
 two days of his warning, the fire commenced in Pudding- 
 lane. Various were the conjectures formed concerning the 
 causes and authors of this conflagration : many long and 
 tedious investigations were made by the authorities, but all 
 to no purpose ; and why may we not safely acquiesce in 
 the opinion of the most pious and religious of that age, who 
 ascribed it to the visitation of Heaven upon a city shame- 
 lessly immersed in vice and immorality, and which had not 
 been sufficiently humbled by the pestilence of the foregoing 
 year ? 
 
 The Bull and Mouth meeting-house being destroyed, the 
 Friends continued to assemble at Wheeler-street, Peel, De- 
 vonshire-house, &c, and they had some respite and ease 
 from violent persecution and disturbance until the city was 
 in a great measure rebuilt. Their numbers increasing, they 
 erected a new meeting-house in White Hart Court, Grace- 
 church Street, which, from its central situation, became after- 
 wards the place for holding their yearly meetings. Here, 
 however, as well as at other points, they met with frequent * 
 disturbance from the trained bands and informers, who at- 
 tacked the meetings and molested the members. 
 
 As soon as George Fox obtained his release, he proceeded 
 as usual in his religious labors and services. He passed 
 through part of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, 
 visiting his friends, and holding many large meetings. Sev- 
 eral attempts were made to arrest him again, but the designs 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 265 
 
 of the persecutors were frustrated. On passing through 
 Whitby, he went to the residence of a priest, who fourteen 
 years before had said, " If he ever met George Fox again, 
 he would have his life, or George Fox should have his." 
 He found that the priest's wife had become a Friend, and 
 the priest himself favored the doctrine she had espoused. 
 During his stay, they treated him very kindly, and he left 
 them with regret. In this journey he established monthly 
 meetings in several prominent places, and after his circuit 
 through the counties, he returned to London : there he per- 
 ceived the expediency of the monthly meetings taking cogni- 
 zance of the orderly proceedings towards marriage, and 
 therefore recommended, " That proposals of marriage should 
 be laid before the men's monthly meetings, that Friends 
 might see that the relations of those who proceeded to mar- 
 riage were satisfied, that the parties were clear from other 
 engagements, and that widows had made provision for their 
 first husband's children before they married again ; and 
 whatever other inquiries were necessary for keeping all 
 things clean and pure, in good order and righteousness, to 
 the glory of God." 
 
 As persecution did not cease, Josiah Cole wrote the fol- 
 lowing warning to the king : 
 
 " King Charles. Let the people of God at liberty, who 
 suffer imprisonments for the exercise of the conscience to- 
 wards him ; and give liberty of conscience to them to wor- 
 ship and serve him as he requireth, and leadeth them by his 
 Spirit ; or else his judgments shall not depart from thy 
 kingdom, until thereby he hath wrought the liberty of his 
 people, and removed their oppressions. And remember thou 
 art once more warned by a servant of the Lord." 
 
 In this month also (the twelfth), Stephen Crisp published 
 an epistle containing an exhortation to his friends, and also 
 a prediction concerning succeeding times. We will make a 
 few extracts : 
 
 " And concerning those succeeding times, the Spirit of the 
 Lord hath signified, that there will be times of horror and 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 amazement, to all that have, and yet do reject his council ; 
 for as the days of his forbearance, warning and inviting, 
 have been long, so shall his appearance amongst those 
 that have withstood him, be fierce and terrible ; even so 
 terrible, as who shall abide his coming ? For the Lord 
 will work both secretly and openly, and his arm shall be 
 manifest to his children in both. 
 
 " Secretly he shall raise up a continual fretting anguish 
 among his enemies, one against another ; so that being 
 vexed and tormented inwardly, they shall seek to make each 
 other miserable, and delight therein for a little season ; and 
 then the prevailer must be prevailed over, and the digger 
 of the pit must fall therein ; and the confidence that men have 
 had one with another, shall fail ; and they will beguile and 
 betray one another, both by council and strength ; and as 
 they have banded themselves to break you, whom God hath 
 gathered, so shall they band themselves one against another, 
 to break, to spoil and destroy one another ; and through the 
 multitude of their treacheries, all credit or belief upon the 
 account of their solemn engagement, shall fail ; so that few 
 men shall count themselves, or what is theirs, safe in the 
 hands of a friend who hath not chosen his safety or friend- 
 ship in the pure light of the unchangeable truth of God. 
 
 " Ah ! my heart relents, and is moved within me in the 
 sense of these things, and much more than I can write or 
 declare, which the Lord will so do in the earth, and will 
 also make haste to accomplish among the sons of men, 
 that they may know and confess, that the Most High doth 
 rule in the kingdoms of men, and pulleth down and setteth 
 up according to his own will ; and this shall men do before 
 seven times pass over them, and shall be content to give their 
 glory unto him that sits in Heaven. 
 
 " Oh ! London ! London ! That thou and thy rulers would 
 have considered and hearkened, in the day of thy warnings 
 and invitations, and not have persisted in thy rebellion, till 
 the Lord was moved against thee, to cut off the thousands 
 and multitudes from thy streets, and the pressing and throng- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 • 267 
 
 ing of the people from thy gates, and to destroy and ruin 
 thy streets also, and lay desolate thy gates, when thou 
 thoughtest to replenish them again. 
 
 " Oh ! my friends, with dear and tender love have I signi- 
 fied these things unto you, that ye might stand armed with 
 the whole armor of God, clothed in righteousness, and your 
 feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; and 
 freely given up in all things to the disposing of the Lord, 
 who will deliver us, not by might, nor by the sword, but by 
 his eternal, invisible arm, will he yet save us and deliver us, 
 and get himself a name by preserving of us; and we shall 
 yet live to praise him who is worthy of glory, of honor, and 
 renown, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, 
 now and for ever. Amen." 
 
 In this year the regular business meetings or assemblies 
 for the temporal affairs of the Church, were established at 
 the most prominent places ; and the first meeting for the 
 regulation of the discipline was held at Skipton in York- 
 shire. The nature and use of this meeting is described by 
 George Fox in his Journal in the following manner : " To 
 this meeting came many Friends out of most parts of the 
 nation ; for it was about business relating to the Church, 
 both in this nation and beyond the seas. Several years 
 before, when I was in the north, I was moved to recom- 
 mend to Friends the setting up of this meeting for that ser- 
 vice ; for many Friends suffered in divers parts of the nation, 
 their goods were taken from them contrary to law, and they 
 knew not how to help themselves, or where to seek redress ; 
 but after this meeting was set up, several Friends, who had 
 been magistrates, and others who understood something of 
 the law, came thither, and were able to inform Friends, and 
 assist them in gathering up the sufferings, that might be laid 
 before the justices, judges or Parliament. This meeting had 
 stood several years, and divers justices and captains had 
 come to break it up ; but when they understood the business 
 Friends met about, and saw Friends' books and accounts of 
 collections for the relief of the poor ; how we took care, one 
 
268 f 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 county to help another, and help our friends beyond the sea, 
 and provide for our poor that none of them should be a charge 
 to their parishes, &c, the justices and officers confessed that 
 we did their work, and would pass away peaceably and 
 lovingly, commending Friends' practice." 
 
 It appears this was a general meeting of the whole nation, 
 held in a town of a central situation, the largest number of 
 the Society, in the earliest times, being in the north. Meet- 
 ings of discipline were established in each county, to be held 
 quarterly, and afterwards were subdivided into several meet- 
 ings, which order is continued to this day. The establishment 
 of monthly meelings, however, did not occasion the abolition 
 of quarterly meetings ; but the former taking upon them the 
 executive part of the discipline, which had before employed 
 the latter, it appeared conducive to the general benefit that 
 the quarterly meetings should still continue, in order to assist 
 and give advice to the monthly meetings. A few years after- 
 wards it was found expedient to hold a general meeting in 
 London, in which should be represented all the meetings not 
 only in England, but other countries, and as it was held an- 
 nually ever afterwards, it was called the London yearly meet- 
 ing. 
 
 Love, the characteristic of discipleship and unity, the bond 
 of society, was cultivated with scrupulous care amongst them, 
 and eminently distinguished them from most other bodies of 
 men of that day ; ^ It being (as William Penn testifies) a 
 common remark, in the mouths of all sorts of people, con- 
 cerning them, that they will meet, they will help and stick to 
 one another — 'look how the Quakers take care of one another: 
 and if loving one another, and having an intimate commu- 
 nion in religion, a constant care to meet and worship God, 
 and help one another, be any mark of primitive Christianity, 
 they had it in an ample manner." In this age they had 
 many skilful watchmen, foremost among whom was George 
 Fox, who were diligent in detecting the approach of every 
 danger from weakening or dissolving the bonds of amity and 
 unity, and faithfully warning, and carefully guarding, the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 269 
 
 different classes of the Society against the danger, self-pride, 
 as we have seen in the case of James Nayler, and other cases 
 of a similar kind, which are mentioned in the preceding pages. 
 In all the proceedings of these early meetings, the members 
 endeavored to exemplify the spirit of the gospel, which is 
 love, and whenever any misconduct of a member was brought 
 before the assembly, they condemned it honestly and sincere- 
 ly; but the testimony of disunity contained no tincture of 
 the spirit of the excommunications of the Roman hierarchy, 
 nothing like an anathema, or curse ; but in the. pure spirit of 
 Christianity, it offered up an earnest prayer for the repentance 
 and salvation of the guilty one. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, a book was published in 
 London, entitled, " Persecution appearing with its 
 1667. open face in William Armorer." It was written by 
 some prisoners, who were confined in jail on account 
 of their religion , and contained a relation of the persecutions 
 of said Armorer, who, being a knight and justice of the 
 peace, made it his business to disturb all meetings of the 
 Friends, and whenever a chance occurred, arrest the mem- 
 bers of the Society. From a number of cases noted in this 
 book, we will select a few of the most interesting. 
 
 Armorer frequently disturbed meetings held at the house 
 of Thomas Curtis, in Reading, and once he arrested at that 
 place, thirty-four persons, who were brought to trial, and 
 refused to take the oath. Among the prisoners was a man 
 named Henry Pizing, who, coming to the bar with his hat in 
 his hand, Judge Holt said, " Here's a man that hath some 
 manners. Will you take the oath of allegiance ?" continued 
 the judge, addressing himself to Pizing. 
 
 " I have taken it twice already," replied the prisoner. 
 
 " You were no Quaker then," asked the judge. 
 
 " Neither am I now," was the reply, " but have been many 
 weeks among them, and I never met with any hurt by them, 
 but found them to be an honest and civil people." 
 
 Armorer, who had taken him prisoner, said, " Why did 
 you not tell us so before ?" 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " Your worship was so wrathful, that you would not 
 hear me." 
 
 The judge administered the oath again, which the prisoner 
 took, and regained his liberty. 
 
 Thomas Curtis was then called to the bar, and asked if 
 he would take the oath of allegiance. 
 
 " I do not refuse the oath on account of not bearing alle- 
 giance to the king," said the prisoner, " but because Christ 
 has commanded us not to swear at all ; and I think I am as 
 good a subject to the king as any in the country ; if I could 
 take an oath to save his estate or life, I would do it. Will 
 the court allow some of their ministers to show me by the 
 Scriptures, how the oath might be taken so as not to break 
 the command of Christ?" 
 
 The judge called upon Priest Worrel to satisfy Curtis on 
 that point. But the careful priest, taking off his hat and 
 bowing to the court, desired to be excused, because the 
 Quakers were such obstinate people they would not be satis- 
 fied with the most conclusive proof. 
 
 " Ay," said Curtis, " this is commonly the answer we have 
 from these men, when they are desirous to answer us a 
 question according to the Scripture ; for when we make it 
 appear that they give no satisfactory answer to the question, 
 they say, we are obstinate." 
 
 Curtis was also imprisoned again by Armorer, without a 
 mittimus, whilst on his road to the Bristol fair. Three 
 women whom he had cast into the House of Correction, 
 were ordered to pay a fine for attending a meeting, but one 
 of them, Anne Harrison, said, " Thou hast got our house 
 already, and hast taken away our means ; and wouldst thou 
 have me pay more money when I have broken no law ? 
 Only four above sixteen years old were collected together, 
 and the act says there must be more than four." 
 
 " My man told me there were six ; and two of them ran 
 away," replied Armorer. 
 
 " It is false," said Anne, " there was Frances Kent, but 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 271 
 
 she, being a midwife, was taken out of town, and there was 
 no sixth person present." 
 
 " I will have Mrs. Kent," said Armorer, " and let the best 
 lady in the land want her, she shall not go except the king 
 and court send for her." 
 
 About this time, a Popish author published a book, called, 
 " The Reconciler of Religions ; or, A Decider of all Contro- 
 versies in matters of Faith." Josiah Cole, ever zealous in 
 the cause of religion, answered this work in a book, entitled, 
 " The Whore Unveiled ; or, the Mystery of the Deceit of 
 the Church of Rome revealed." The first book was written 
 principally against the Quakers, and sadly perverted their 
 doctrine, in such a manner, as to import, that the same spirit 
 which reproved Judas of sin, did also force him to hang 
 himself, in a fit of desperation. " For the Roman," said he, 
 " is the true Church, and not any other; she is the holy 
 Catholic and Apostolical, that is infallible, and could not err, 
 and has the power to work miracles. She is one in matters 
 of faith, governed by one invisible Head, Christ, and by a 
 visible head, the Pope, and therefore she is the true Church." 
 The superstition, idolatry, and cruel persecution of the Roman 
 Church, supplied abundant matter to prove it was false in 
 faith and doctrine. He did not deny that the true Church 
 was Catholic, or universal, yet he denied that the universality 
 of the Church of Rome was a sufficient argument to prove 
 her to be the true Church. 
 
 Richard Farnsworth took sick and died in London during 
 this year : he was an eloquent and gifted minister, and on 
 his death-bed gave strong evidences of his firm and steadfast 
 trust in God. He directed the following epistle to his 
 friends : 
 
 " God hath been mighty with me, and hath stood by me 
 at this time ; and his power and presence hath accompanied 
 me all along, though some think I am under a cloud for 
 something ; but God hath appeared for the owning of our 
 testimony, and hath broken in upon me as a flood, and I am 
 filled with his love more than I am able to express." 
 
272 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 As several eminent members of the Society were snatched 
 away by death, others were called upon to supply their loss, 
 in conducting the great work of God. Robert Barclay 
 was the son of Colonel David Barclay, of Ury, near Aber- 
 deen, descended from the Barclays of Mathers, in Scotland, 
 and of Catharine Gordon, from the house of the Duke of 
 Gordon. He was born in Edinburgh in 1643, and received 
 the rudiments of his education among the Calvinists of his 
 own country, which was finished at Paris, where he resided 
 some years with a relation. His uncle being president of the 
 Scotch College of Paris, he was instructed in the classics, 
 and attained a proficiency in many other branches of sci- 
 ence. 
 
 The Papists taking advantage of the immaturity of his 
 judgment, endeavored to make a proselyte of him. Their 
 entreaties at that tender age made some impression upon 
 him ; but as his judgment ripened, he soon clearly discov- 
 ered the errors of their religious system. He returned home 
 in 1664, then sixteen years of age ; and during his absence, 
 his father having joined the Society of Friends, he impressed 
 the excellence of that religion upon his son, by his circum- 
 spect example and religious conversation. This, together 
 with observations in regard to the conduct of others of that 
 profession, made an impression on his mind which produced 
 a remarkable consistency in his life. Under this impression, 
 he was induced to attend the religious meetings of the 
 Friends, and of his convincement we have an account in his 
 " Apology." " It was not by strength of argument, or by a 
 particular disquisition of each doctrine, and convincement of 
 my understanding, that I came to receive and bear witness 
 of the truth ; but by being secretly reached by the principle 
 of light and life to which they were gathered ; for when I 
 came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret 
 power among them, which touched my heart; and as I gave 
 way to it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the good 
 raised up, and so I became thus knit and united unto them, 
 
HISTORY OF* FRIENDS. 
 
 273 
 
 hungering more and more after this power and life, whereby 
 I might feel myself perfectly redeemed." 
 
 It was in this year he became thoroughly convinced, and 
 made public profession of the principles of the Society : 
 taking up his cross, he esteemed the reproach of Christ 
 greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and manifested 
 to the world that the contemptible situation in which they 
 had placed that Society could not deter him from following, 
 owning, and defending Truth, wherever it was found. He 
 possessed a clear comprehension, a depth of thought, a close 
 and convincing manner of reasoning, which, although plain 
 and unaffected, placed him in bold relief, as ihe champion 
 against the opponents and slanderers of the Society. By 
 means of his essays, and those of William Penn, together 
 with the contemporary writers, George Whitehead, Thomas 
 Elwood, Isaac Pennington, and others, the Society, hitherto 
 exposed to contempt and odium, by the misrepresentations 
 of their adversaries, began to assume a more prepossessing 
 appearance, whereby the candid and dispassionate part of 
 mankind freely admitted that it was no absurd combination 
 of wild ideas, but a profound system of important, rational, 
 and practical truths. Not that they introduced any new doc- 
 trines, or modelled a new system of principles ; but through 
 a candid exposition of their doctrine, they proved it to be 
 based upon the rock of salvation. 
 
 The conversion of Roger Haydock, of Lancashire, on ac- 
 count of its peculiarity deserves a passing notice. His elder 
 brother, John, having joined their communion, occasioned 
 considerable uneasiness to his mother, who was a zealous 
 Presbyterian ; and when Roger came to his father's house, 
 he being reputed a learned and intelligent man, she prevailed 
 on him to use his endeavors in convincing his brother of the 
 absurdity of his choice of worship, and dissuade him from 
 persisting in it. They both entered upon the discussion with 
 great spirit; but John, giving very cogent reasons for hia 
 change, he succeeded in silencing his brother in regard to 
 
 his objections. On his mother's inquiry for the reason 
 18 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of his silence, he replied, " My brother's arguments are 
 true, and I cannot gainsay them." He not only made an 
 acknowledgment of the truth, but also a public profession ; 
 and in a short time became an eminent minister of the Faith. 
 
 Miles Halhead travelling this year in Devonshire, was 
 taken up before a magistrate and was asked why he, who 
 lived in Westmoreland, had come into Devonshire. 
 
 " I have come to see some old friends, who resided in the 
 place about ten years ago," replied Halhead. 
 
 " Who were your old friends," demanded the magistrate. 
 
 " Sir John Coplestone, who was once high-sheriff of 
 Devonshire; John Page, who was mayor of Plymouth; 
 Justice Howel, who was a judge in the Exeter sessions; and 
 Colonel Buffet, who was then a justice of the peace," said 
 the prisoner. 
 
 " Truly, gentlemen," remarked one of the magistrates, 
 " though this man call these his friends, yet they have been 
 his persecutors." Another of the magistrates then gave 
 him an account of the disasters which had befallen all of 
 them, and how their estates had been confiscated. One of 
 them had been imprisoned for high treason, but escaped 
 from jail and fled the country; "if these men were your 
 persecutors," he continued, "you may be sure they will 
 trouble you no more ; for if they that persecute you, have 
 no better fortune than these men, I wish that neither I nor 
 any of my friends may have any hand in persecuting you.'' 
 
 The Earl of Clarendon, prime minister to King Charles, 
 and reputed to have been the chief instrument in inflicting 
 severities on the dissenters by the penal laws, about this 
 time lost his influence and became obnoxious to the whole 
 country, — and he who had been instrumental in the imprison- 
 ment and banishment of innocent persons, was at last con- 
 demned to banishment on account of almost groundless 
 accusations. 
 
 In the latter part of this year the Perpetual Edict was made 
 in Holland, for the maintenance of liberty, for the preserva- 
 tion of unity, and the common peace of the country of Hoi- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 275 
 
 land and West Friesland. By this edict, the chief command 
 of the military forces of the States, and the Stadtholdership, 
 were separated. This was followed by the suppression of 
 the office of Stadtholder, in order to contract the increasing 
 power of the Prince of Orange. 
 
 We are forced to pass by many occurrences which took 
 place during the frequent journeys of George Fox to all parts 
 of the country ; he was constantly forming new meetings 
 and introducing the necessary regularity for their govern- 
 ment; and as a faithful minister, he humbly, but zealously, 
 discharged that duty which God had assigned him in his> 
 vineyard. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, William Penn began to 
 attract particular attention, on account of his firm ad- 
 1668. herence to the principles of the Society of Friends. 
 
 He was born in London on the twenty-fourth of the 
 eighth month [August], 1644. His father, Sir William Penn, 
 in the time of the Commonwealth, held the highest office of 
 the navy, Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, Admiral of Ireland, 
 and Vice Admiral of England ; — all of which he discharged 
 with honor and fidelity. He retained his post after the res- 
 toration, was knighted by Charles Second, and was distin- 
 guished as a favorite by the Duke of York. The promising 
 prospect he entertained of his son's advancement, justified 
 him in paying more than usual attention to his education, 
 and at the age of fifteen he was entered a student in Christ 
 Church College in Oxford. At a meeting of the Society of 
 Friends in that place, he received some relish for pure and 
 spiritual religion, and the ministry of Thomas Loe impress- 
 ed him with an ardent desire to experience the truth of the 
 doctrines. He, with several other students, withdrew from 
 public worship, and held private meetings, where they preach- 
 ed and prayed among themselves. At the age of sixteen, he 
 was fined for non-conformity ; but this punishment not abat- 
 ing the fervor of his zeal, he was at length expelled from col- 
 lege. His father sent him to France, in company with a 
 party of fashionables, who were making a tour to that coun- 
 try. He continued in the gay and volatile society of Paris, 
 until his mind was diverted from the serious thoughts of reli- 
 gion. On his return, his father found him not only proficient 
 in the French language, but polite and courtly in his beha- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 277 
 
 vior, and his genteel carriage procured him the character of 
 an accomplished young gentleman. But amidst the caresses 
 and flatteries of men, he became dissatisfied with his mode of 
 life, and often his own conscience would remind him of his 
 former seriousness and good resolutions ; though guilty of 
 nothing which the world terms criminal, yet, by the light 
 with which his mind was illuminated, he was sensible he 
 had lost ground, as to the attainment of that inward purity of 
 heart, in which he had seen the substance of religion to con- 
 sist. His natural inclination, his lively and active disposi- 
 tion, his acquired accomplishments, his father's favor, the re 
 spect of his friends and acquaintance, were so many strong in- 
 centives to embrace the glory and pleasures of the world, then 
 even courting his acceptance ; and mountains of opposition in 
 his way to adopt that pure religion, which might endanger his 
 relinquishment of them all. This seemed almost insurmount- 
 able, but the earnest supplication of his heart being to the 
 Lord for the salvation of his soul, He was pleased to grant 
 him such a portion of his grace and good spirit, as enabled 
 him in due time to overcome all opposition, to brave all re- 
 proaches and persecutions, and to form a determined resolu- 
 tion to take up the cross of Christ. 
 
 In the year 1666, his father having committed to his care 
 and management a large estate in Ireland, he went over to that 
 island. When he arrived at the city of Cork, he went to hear 
 Thomas Loe, who began to preach from the following words : 
 " There is a faith that overcomes the world, and there is a 
 faith that is overcome by the world." Being an eloquent 
 and energetic minister, he converted young Penn, who joined 
 the Society, and attended their meetings constantly. A no- 
 bleman informed his father that his son was a " proselyte to 
 Quakerism," who remanded him home. On his return, his 
 father did not observe any great alteration in his dress, yet 
 the seriousness of his deportment, and his anxiety of mind, 
 were manifest indications of the truth of the information he 
 had received. Strenuous efforts were made to cause him to 
 forsake the course he was about to pursue, which would dis- 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 appoint all his father's sanguine hopes, and baffle his fond 
 schemes of seeing him advanced in court ; although his son 
 felt all the force of natural affection and filial duty, and would 
 not have offended him in any case wherein the peace of his 
 conscience was not concerned, yet he could not comply with 
 the requisitions of his earthly father, in those things which 
 were contrary to the will of his Father in heaven. 
 
 His father could endure his presence no longer, but turned 
 him out of doors and forced him to subsist on the charity of 
 his friends. He endured all these heart-rending trials with 
 Christian patience and magnanimity, and evinced the sincer- 
 ity of his profession by relinquishing every worldly prospect, 
 in order to attain the favor of Heaven. 
 
 George Fox made a tour through England and Wales 
 during the summer, and when he returned to London, he 
 paid a visit to his old friend, Esquire March, who was a jus- 
 tice of peace in Middlesex. He was at dinner, with several 
 priests and persons in authority, when George Fox entered, 
 but the good minister courteously excused himself when his 
 friend kindly invited him to sit down and partake of the 
 meal. Understanding that the visitor was a " Quaker," one 
 of the guests (a papist) asked him, whether he believed in 
 the christening of children. 
 
 " There is no scripture for such a practice," replied George 
 Fox. 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the papist, " not for christening chil- 
 dren ?" 
 
 " Nay," said George Fox ; " the one baptism by the one 
 spirit, into one body, we own ; but to throw a little water on 
 a child's face, and to call that baptizing and christening it, 
 we have no scripture for." 
 
 " Do you own the Catholic Faith ?" inquired the believer 
 in the Roman doctrine. 
 
 " Yes," replied George Fox ; " but neither the Pope nor 
 the papists are in the Catholic faith : the true faith is worked 
 by love, and purifies the heart ; and if you are in that faith 
 which gives victory, and access to God, you would not talk 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 279 
 
 to the people of a purgatory after death ; neither would you 
 use prisons, racks, and fires, to force others to adopt your re- 
 ligion. This was not the practice of the Apostles and prim- 
 itive Christians, but it was introduced by the Jews and Hea- 
 thens. I desire to know of thee, what it is that bringcth sal- 
 vation in your Church ?" 
 
 " A good life," said the papist. 
 
 " And nothing else ?" inquired George Fox. 
 
 " And good works." 
 
 " Is this your doctrine and principles ?" 
 
 He. replied in the affirmative. " Then," remarked George 
 Fox, " neither thou, nor the Pope, nor any of the papists, 
 know what it is that bringeth salvation." 
 
 " What brings salvation in your Church ?" inquired the 
 Roman Catholic. 
 
 " That which brought salvation in the Church in the Apos- 
 tles' days," was the reply ; " namely, the grace of God, "Which, 
 the Scripture says, brings salvation, and hath appeared to all 
 men ; and teaches us to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, 
 and to live godly, righteously, and soberly in the world. By 
 this it appears, it is not the good works or the good life that 
 brings salvation, but the grace of God." 
 
 After some other conversation on this subject, George Fox 
 called March aside, in order to make arrangements to prevent 
 the persecution of some Friends. March was not averse to 
 this, but said, he was in a dilemma how to act towards other 
 dissenters, since they did not swear. 
 
 " I will show thee how to distinguish," said George Fox, 
 " the other dissenters do swear in some cases, but we never 
 swear under any circumstance. If any one should steal their 
 cows or horses, thou shouldst ask them whether they would 
 swear the cattle were theirs ? Many of them will readily do 
 it But if thou triest our Friends, they cannot swear for 
 their own goods. When the oath is tendered, ask them 
 whether they can swear in any other case ; if they belong to 
 our Society they will answer in the negative, if not, in the 
 affirmative." 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS 
 
 George Fox then gave him a relation of a trial of a thief 
 in Berkshire, who, having stolen two beasts from a member 
 of the Friends, was imprisoned in the county jail. The 
 judge, being informed that the person who prosecuted was a 
 " Quaker," would not hear his evidence without he took the 
 oath. This he refused to do ; the oath of allegiance and su- 
 premacy was then tendered, which he also refused, and the 
 judge premunired him and let the thief go free. 
 
 Esquire March did not omit to allay the spirit of persecu- 
 tion in the section of the country in which he held his office, 
 and, although he could not avoid sending some to prison, yet 
 it was but for a few hours, or one day. Even this rendered 
 him so unhappy that he told the king he had sent some of 
 the Quakers to prison contrary to his conscience, and he 
 could do so no more. 
 
 In this year a young woman of Edmondsbury, having de- 
 stroyed* her natural child, was committed to prison to answer 
 the charge at the next sessions of the county court. Here 
 she was converted to the doctrine of Friends, by William 
 Bennet, who was in the same prison for refusing to take the 
 oath, and from a most grievous sinner she became a true 
 penitent. At her trial, Judge Matthew Hale, taking an in- 
 terest in her unhappy situation, caused the indictment to be 
 written in such a manner as would force the jury to bring 
 her in " not guilty." But she somewhat astonished the good 
 judge, when she pleaded guilty of the crime, and he told her 
 that she did not duly consider what she said ; since it could 
 not be believed that a young woman like her would kill her 
 child wilfully and designedly. The judge wished to show 
 her a chance of escape, but the fear of God was strong in 
 her heart ; fig-leaves would not hide her wickedness, and she 
 relied alone on the spirit of God. Then she plainly said to 
 the Court; — "I did commit the act to hide my shame. 1 
 have sinned most grievously, and now in the hour of true 
 repentance, I can by no means excuse myself, but am will- 
 ing to undergo the punishment the law requires. How could 
 T expect the forgiveness of God, if I denied my guilt ?" 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 281 
 
 Judge Hale shed tears at this undisguised and free con- 
 fession, and addressed her in the following manner ; — " Wo- 
 man, such a case as this I never met before ; perhaps you 
 who are but young, and speak so piously, as being struck to 
 the heart with repentance, might yet do some good in the 
 world; but now you force me, since you admit of no excuse, 
 to pronounce sentence of death against you." 
 
 When she came to her place of execution, she made a 
 speech to those gathered around, exhorting them, and espe- 
 cially the young, " to have the fear of God before their eyes ; 
 to give heed to his secret reproofs for evil, and not grieve and 
 resist the good spirit of the Lord ; which she herself not 
 having timely minded, it had made her run in evil, and thus 
 proceeding from wickedness to wickedness, it had at last 
 brought her to this dismal exit. But since she firmly trusted 
 to God's infinite mercy, nay, surely believed her sins, though 
 of a bloody dye, to be washed off by the pure blood of Christ, 
 she could contentedly leave the world." 
 
 Thus she preached on the gallows the doctrine of Truth, 
 and gave convincing proof that, like the thief on the cross, 
 she should soon join her Saviour in Paradise. 
 
 Thomas Loe died this year in London. He was a man 
 of fine temper ; easy, affable and pleasing in conversation, 
 and benevolent in his disposition ; he gained the affection 
 and esteem of all persons with whom he associated. He 
 visited Ireland several times, where he preached to large 
 gatherings, and converted many to the belief of the Society 
 of Friends. His pious departure from the scene of his labors 
 was consistent with the even tenor of his life ; resulting from 
 the excellent line of conduct he had early marked out for his 
 own good, and the glory of God. Whilst on his death-bed, 
 he was visited by William Penn, whom he converted in 
 Cork, and in whom he took especial interest. " Bear thy 
 cross and stand faithful to God," said the dying man ; " then 
 he will give thee an everlasting crown of glory, that shall not 
 be taken from thee. There is no way which shall prosper, 
 than that which the holy men of old have walked in. God 
 
282 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 hath brought immortality to light, and life immortal is felt. 
 Glory, glory to him, for he is worthy of it. His love over- 
 comes my heart, nay my cup runs over ; glory be to his 
 name for ever !" 
 
 This dying testimony to the virtue of that grace and truth 
 which obtains the victory over death, was a comfort and con- 
 firming evidence to William Penn, of the solidity of that 
 religion which he had, against much opposition, embraced 
 as the road to eternal salvation. At another time, he said 
 to his friends at his bed-side, " Be not troubled, the love of 
 God overcomes my heart." And to George Whitehead and 
 others, he said, " The Lord is good to me ; this day he hath 
 covered me with his glory. I am weak, but am refreshed to 
 see you." Another friend asking how he was, he answered, 
 " I am near leaving you, I think ; but am as well in my 
 spirit as I can desire. I bless the Lord ; I never saw more 
 of the glory of God, than I have done this day." Thus 
 rejoicing in hope till his end, his parting breath expressed a 
 song of praise to that Almighty Being whose goodness pre- 
 served him through life, and deserted him not in the end. 
 
 Thomas Vincent, a Presbyterian minister, became highly 
 offended because some of the members of his Church had 
 become convinced of the truth of the doctrine of Friends, 
 and joined the Society. He accused them of holding errone- 
 ous doctrine in regard to the Trinity, because they did not 
 approve of some expressions which were not to be found 
 in the Bible. On this subject a dispute was held in the Pres- 
 byterian Church of London ; Thomas Vincent taking one 
 side, and George Whitehead the other. The first accusa- 
 tion brought against the Quakers was, " That they held a 
 most damnable doctrine," which was denied by George 
 Whitehead ; but before they would give him time to prove 
 it was false, Vincent said, " Do you own one Godhead, sub- 
 sisting in three distinct and separate persons ?" 
 
 Whitehead said it was an unscriptural doctrine, and Vin- 
 cent framed this syllogism : 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 283 
 
 " There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
 the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one. 
 
 " There are either three manifestations, three operations, 
 three substances, or three something else beside subsistences: 
 
 " But they are not three manifestations, three operations, 
 three substances, not three anythings else beside subsistences. 
 
 " Ergo, three substances." 
 
 George Whitehead rejected these terms because they were 
 not found in Scripture, not deducible from 1 John v. 8, the 
 place Vincent instanced, and said, " I desire an explanation 
 of these terms, inasmuch as God did not use to wrap up his 
 truths in heathenish metaphysics, but in plain language." 
 
 " No better explanation could be procured than the mys- 
 tory of his syllogism." 
 
 George Whitehead and William Penn who was also 
 there, quoted several passages from Scriptures, proving 
 God's complete unity. William Penn denied the minor 
 proposition of Vincent's syllogism ; " For," said he, " no one 
 substance can have three distinct subsistences and preserve its 
 own unity ; for every substance will have its own subsistence ; 
 so that three distinct substances, or manners of being, will 
 require three distinct subsistences or beings, consequently, 
 three Gods ; for if the Godhead subsists in three separate 
 manners or forms, then is not any one of them a perfect and 
 complete subsistence without the other two ; so parts, and 
 something finite, is in God, or, if infinite, then three distinct 
 infinite subsistences ; and what is this but to assert three 
 Gods, since none is infinite, but God ? On the contrary, 
 there being an inseparability betwixt the substance and its 
 subsistence, the unity of substance will not admit a Trinity 
 of uncommunicable or distinct subsistences."^ 
 
 To make this strange doctrine somewhat clearer, George 
 Whitehead compared their three persons to three Apostles, 
 and said, " He did not understand how Paul, Peter, and 
 John, could be three persons and one Apostle." 
 
 A man named Maddocks, one of Vincent's followers, 
 * This discussion is taken verbatim from Sewel's History. 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 said, " He that scornfully and reproachfully compares our 
 doctrine of the blessed Trinity, of Father, Son, and Spirit, 
 one in essence, but three in person, to three finite men, as 
 Paul, Peter, and John, is a blasphemer, and you, George 
 Whitehead, have done so." 
 
 Whether this was a rash conclusion or otherwise, the judi- 
 cious reader will determine. This dispute made quite a 
 sensation in London, and soon after its termination, William 
 Penn published a book, entitled, " The Sandy Foundation 
 Shaken," in which he calmly and clearly explained the 
 points controverted, and defended his position with strong 
 and judicious argument, together with passages from the 
 Holy Scripture. This work gave great offence to some 
 powerful ecclesiastics, who soon applied their accustomed 
 method of refuting what they termed error, by imprisoning 
 the author in the Tower. Here he was placed in close con- 
 finement, and even denied the visits of his friends ; but his 
 enemies did not attain their purpose. On being informed 
 that the Bishop of London was resolved he should either 
 publicly recant or die in prison, he determined not to yield 
 the least compliance in violation of his conscience, and his 
 prison should be his grave, if his freedom depended on the 
 retraction of one tittle of what he believed to be right. Pre- 
 cluded from the opportunity of promoting piety by his min- 
 isterial labors, he was not unmindful of the great purpose 
 of his life, and applied himself diligently to writing several 
 works, which were published by his friends in London. It 
 was in the Tower he wrote that excellent treatise, "No 
 Cross, no Crown," a book tending to promote the general 
 design of religion, which went through several editions. In 
 order to clear himself from the aspersions cast upon him on 
 account of his doctrine in relation to the Trinity, he published 
 a small tract, called, " Innocency with her Open Face," in 
 which he successfully vindicated himself, and was released 
 from prison, after a confinement of seven months. 
 
 Another, one of the faithful followers of Christ, Josiah 
 Coale, was called upon to give up his stewardship during 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 295 
 
 this year, after leading a life of uprightness, usefulness, and 
 godliness. Having travelled through some parts of America, 
 the West Indies, Holland, and England, suffering many hard- 
 ships and imprisonments ; and his zealous ministerial services 
 for the space of twelve years, wasted his strength, and finished 
 an honorable and virtuous life by a gradual decline. During 
 his sickness George Fox visiting him, inquired whether he 
 had anything to say to his friends in England. He replied, 
 that he had discharged his duty fully in his travels amongst- 
 them, and had nothing more to leave them, except his love 
 and the blessing of God. An eloquent prayer was offered 
 up to Heaven at his bed-side, by George Fox, and the dying 
 man turning his eyes upon his weeping friends around, said, 
 in a voice of tenderness : " Well, Friends, be faithful to God, 
 and have a single eye to his glory, and seek nothing for 
 yourselves or your own glory ; and if anything of that kind 
 arise, judge it down by the power of the Lord God, that ye 
 may be clear in his sight, and answer his witness in all people: 
 then will ye have the reward of life. For my part, I have 
 walked in faithfulness with the Lord. His majesty is with 
 me, and his crown of life is upon me: so mind my love to 
 all my friends." To Stephen Crisp he said : " Dear heart, 
 keep low in the holy seed of God, and that will be thy crown 
 for ever.'' In a short time he fainted, and fell into the arms 
 of his friends, where, without a sigh or groan, he passed into 
 the sleep of death, to be awakened only by the trump of the 
 archangel. 
 
 Francis Howgill was one of the most active among the 
 first promulgators of the doctrine of the Society of 
 1669. Friends ; and his qualifications, his virtues, his ser- 
 vices, and his sufferings, have been laid before the 
 reader in several parts of this history. In the year 1661, he 
 suffered imprisonment, with a great many of his friends, in 
 London, in consequence of the insurrection of the fifth-mo- 
 narchy men. After he was released, he continued his labors 
 until the year 1663, when he was summoned to appear be- 
 fore the magistrates at Kendal, as before related, and in con- 
 
286 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 sequence premunired and imprisoned for life. On the 
 twentieth of the first month [January] he finished his course 
 on earth in Appleby prison, after a sickness of nine days. 
 During his illness, he was often heard to say : " I am con- 
 tent to die, and praise God for the many sweet enjoyments 
 and refreshments I have received, even in my prison-bed, 
 and I freely forgive all who placed me here. This is the 
 place of my first imprisonment ; and if it be the place of 
 laying down the body, I am content." Two days before his 
 death, his wife and friends being present, he addressed them 
 in the following language : — " Friends : As to matter of 
 words, you must not expect much more from me, neither is 
 there any great need of it : as to speak to matters of faith to 
 you, who are satisfied, only that you remember my dear love 
 to all Friends who inquire of me, for I ever loved Friends 
 well, and any others in whom truth appeared ; and truly 
 God will own his people, as he hath ever hitherto done, and 
 as we have daily witnessed ; for no sooner had they passed 
 that act against us for banishment, to the great suffering of 
 many good friends, than the Lord stirred up enemies, even 
 three great nations, whereby the violence of their hands was 
 taken off. As for me, I am well, and content to die ; I am 
 not at all afraid of death. And truly one thing I have ob- 
 served, which is, that this generation passeth away— many 
 good and valuable friends have been within these few years 
 taken from us, and therefore you have need to watch, and 
 be faithful, so that we may leave a good and not a bad favor 
 to the succeeding generation ; for you see, it is but a little 
 time that any of us have to stay here." His voice became 
 weak, but recovering, he said, " I have sought the way of 
 the Lord from a child, and lived innocently as among men ; 
 and if any inquire concerning my latter end, let them know 
 that I die in the faith in which I lived and suffered for." In 
 the fiftieth year of his age, he departed this life, in perfect 
 peace with God, and in full hope of a glorious immortality. 
 Some time before his decease, he made his will, in which 
 he bequeathed a token of his affectionate remembrances to 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 28T 
 
 several of his brethren and feliow-laborers in the ministry. 
 He also left a legacy to the poor Friends living in that sec- 
 tion of the country in which he dwelt. Although his per- 
 sonal estate was forfeited to the king for ever, the confis- 
 cation of his real estate was only during life. 
 
 As his last will and testament to his daughter, he wrote 
 her an epistle of advice and council in regard to her conduct 
 through life, which contains many reflections useful for the 
 mind of the young. The entire letter is therefore trans- 
 scribed : 
 
 " Daughter Abigail : 
 
 u This is for thee to take heed unto and observe, for the 
 regulating thy conversation in this world, so that thy life may 
 be happy and thy end blessed, and God glorified by thee in 
 thy generation. I was not heir to great possessions ; but the 
 Lord hath endowed me with a competency, and hath been 
 as a tender father to me, because I trusted in him, and loved 
 righteousness from a child. 
 
 " My counsel to thee is, that thou remember thy Creator in 
 the days of thy youth, fear him and serve him all thy days ; 
 first, seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof. 
 Though thou be born into the world a reasonable creature, 
 yet thou must be born again into God's image. Seek and 
 thou shalt find ; wait and thou shalt receive. If thou ask, In 
 what and how must I seek and wait ? I inform thee that thou 
 must silence all thy own thoughts ; and thou must turn thy 
 mind to that which is holy, and good within thyself, the 
 light of Jesus Christ, wherewith thou art enlightened, 
 which shows thee when thou dost evil, and checks and re- 
 proves thee for it. Take heed unto that, and it will show thee 
 evil notions or thoughts ; and as thou lovest it, it will subdue 
 them, and preserve thee for the time to come out of the evil ; 
 and thou wilt feel thy heavenly Father working in thee and 
 begetting thee unto life, and thou wilt feel the power of the 
 Lord strengthening thee in thy little, and making thee grow in 
 the immortal feed, and outgrow all evil, so that thou wilt 
 daily die to it, and take no pleasure in it, but in the Lord, 
 
288 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 and his goodness and virtue shed abroad in thy heart. Love 
 the Lord with thy heart and soul, even him that made thee, 
 and gave being to thee, and all things in heaven and on earth. 
 And do thou inquire of thy dear mother, she will inform thee, 
 she knows Him, and the way to life and peace ; and hearken 
 to her instructions. 
 
 " Be sober-minded in thy youth, and delight to read the Scrip- 
 tures and books written by Friends, and take heed what thou 
 readest, to conform thy practice thereto, as far as thou under- 
 standest, and pray often to the Lord, that he will increase thy 
 knowledge in his law and open thy understanding in the 
 things of his kingdom. God is a spirit of light, life and pow- 
 er ; He it is that searcheth the heart, and shows thee when 
 thou hast done evil ; that which shows thee evil is good, and 
 that which shows a lie is truth ; this is within, take heed to it 5 
 this is called God's Spirit in the scripture, believe in it, love 
 it, and it will quicken thy heart to good, and it will subject 
 the evil. Here is thy teacher near thee ; love it, and if thou 
 act contrary, it will condemn thee ; therefore take heed unto 
 this spirit of truth, and it will enlighten and enliven thee, and 
 will open thy understanding, and give thee to know what 
 God is, and to do that which is good and acceptable in his 
 sight ; this spirit never errs, but leads out of all error into all 
 truth. Search thy heart often by the light of Christ in thee ; 
 bring thy deeds to it, that they may be tried thereby, and ex- 
 amine thyself, how the case stands between the Lord and 
 thee ; and if thee feels conviction for any wrong thing, re- 
 gard the reproofs of instruction, they are the ways of life ; 
 humble thyself in sorrow, and turn unto the Lord, and he 
 will show thee mercy ; and take heed for the time to come, 
 that thou dost not run into the same evil again ; keep thy 
 heart clean ; watch against the evil in thyself, in that which 
 shows it, wherein there is power, and thereby thou hast 
 power to overcome all evil. 
 
 " Dear child, avoid sensual and sinful pleasures, which are 
 but transient delights, terminating in misery ; but keep under 
 the cross to the carnal will and affections ; avoid evil and 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS 
 
 289 
 
 loose company, for evil communications corrupt good man- 
 ners ; and associate with those who fear the Lord, who wor- 
 ship in spirit and in truth, whose lives are holy and exem- 
 plary, and whose conversation is pure and blameless. 
 
 "And now, Abigail, as to thy well-being in this life, this is 
 my advice and counsel unto thee; — love thy dear mother, 
 ever obey and honor her, and see thou grieve her not ; be 
 not stubborn or wilful, but submissive to her instructions, and 
 obedient to her commands, whose love hath been too great 
 over thee and thy sisters, which hath brought too much trou- 
 ble upon herself. Do thou always live with her, and be a 
 help unto her, and cherish her in her advanced years, that 
 she may be comforted in thee, and her soul may bless thee. 
 Love thy sisters, and be always courteous to them and thy 
 brother; encourage one another to do good. Learn in thy 
 youth to read, write, sew, knit, and all points of honest labor, 
 and good housewifery, that become a maid, and as thou 
 growest up in years, labor in the country. Flee idleness and 
 sloth, as the nourishers of evil, and beware of pride and vain 
 curiosity ; be well content with such apparel as thy mother 
 will permit thee, as thou mayest be a good example to others. 
 And if thee lives to be a woman, keep thyself unspotted, and 
 let not thy mind out after vain sports and pastimes ; the end 
 of all these is sorrow. And in thy conversation with young 
 men be very discreet, and watchful over thy affections, so as 
 not to be unwarily drawn into any imprudent or unhappy 
 attachment. Preserve the modesty of thy sex inviolate, and 
 if thy inclination is to marry, seek not a husband, but let a 
 husband seek thee. If thou livest in the fear of God, and 
 lead an honest and virtuous life, they that fear God will seek 
 thee. Do not give thy affections to every one that offers, but 
 be very considerate, and above all things (if thou dost marry) 
 choose a religious man ; and make thyself thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with his conversation and course of life before thou 
 give consent. Be discreet and wise, hide nothing from thy 
 mother, and if she be living, marry not without her consent. 
 And if thee joins thyself to an husband, let it be thy especial 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 care to preserve thy affection to him unimpaired ; be com- 
 pliant to his desire, and honor him before all; give him no 
 occasion of uneasiness or dissatisfaction, but be gentle and 
 easy to be entreated, and mind thy own business ; by these 
 means thou wilt engage his heart, and increase his affection 
 for thyself. And if the Lord gives thee children, bring them 
 up in his fear, and in useful employment, that thou mayst be 
 favored with the Lord's blessing in thy youth, in thy advanc- 
 ing years, and all thy life long. These things I give thee in 
 charge to observe, as my mind and will and counsel unto 
 thee, unalterable. 
 
 " Thy dear Father, 
 
 " Francis Howgill."' 
 
CHAPTER XXV, 
 
 Persecution for religion seemed to have subsided, and 
 more liberal sentiments were adopted by the moderate party 
 of the leading churchmen. In the spring, George Fox went 
 to York and several places in the north of England, but 
 passed on his way unmolested by his old enemies. In com- 
 pany with Thomas Briggs and John Stubs, he went to Ire- 
 land, and was received kindly by his friends in Dublin ; but 
 in his journey through the country, he met with no small 
 opposition from the Papists, who were very numerous. At 
 Cork, he made an effort to release some prisoners, who were 
 confined in jail on account of their religion, but failed, on 
 account of the obduracy of the mayor. He went to many 
 other places in the kingdom, but soon returned to Dublin, 
 and sailed again for-England. At Bristol he met Margaret 
 Fell, then on a visit to her daughter, to whom he made an 
 offer of marriage. He called her children together, and 
 asked their consent, which being readily granted, they were 
 married at a public meeting of Friends in Bristol. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham succeeding Clarendon in the 
 
 station of prime minister, he showed more lenity to 
 1670. the non-conformists than his predecessor had done- 
 
 and suffered them to hold their meetings without mo- 
 lestation. 
 
 The king, in his speech at the opening of Parliament, ex- 
 pressed his desire that ihey would take into serious delibe- 
 ration the means of effecting an union amongst all his Pro- 
 testant subjects, whereby they might be induced not only to 
 submit quietly to the government, but cheerfully give their 
 assistance to its support. But the majority of the House of 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIEXDS. 
 
 Commons, under the influence of the same party spirit 
 which had stimulated them to enact the severe laws of this 
 reign, appeared much disturbed, and in return petitioned the 
 king to issue a proclamation for the enforcement of the laws 
 against conventicles, and for preserving the peace of the 
 kingdom against unlawful assemblies of Papists and non- 
 conformists. The king accordingly issued the proclamation : 
 but it was not attended with very serious consequences, for 
 the dissenters, who, to avoid persecution, had usually met 
 clandestinely, now appeared more openly, and ventured to 
 assemble publicly for religious worship. A scheme was set 
 on foot for comprehending the Presbyterians in the body of 
 the established Church, and granting toleration to other dis- 
 senters. Lord Chief Justice Hale volunteered to draw up a 
 bill for this purpose, and Sir Orlando Bridgeman to support 
 it with all his interest in Parliament. This somewhat 
 alarmed the bishops ; and Archbishop Sheldon wrote a cir- 
 cular letter to his suffragans, enjoining them to make a mi- 
 nute inquiry in relation to the conventicles in their respective 
 dioceses. Having received all the information he could pro- 
 cure, he exaggerated every circumstance to the king, and 
 obtained from his easy nature a new proclamation, to put 
 the laws in force against the non-conformists, and particu- 
 larly against the preachers, according to the statute of 17 
 Car. II., which prohibits their residing in corporations. The 
 Parliament, upon their meeting after the prorogation, seconded 
 the efforts of the bishops, and adhered to the king in sup- 
 porting the present union of Church and state, against all 
 adversaries. 
 
 The former act against conventicles, which had condemn- 
 ed so many to banishment, having expired in the session of 
 Parliament held this year, they proceeded to make a third 
 act against them; but having found repeated and long impri- 
 sonments, and even banishment, ineffectual in deterring 
 Friends from collecting for the worship of God, they resolved 
 'to try the effect of impoverishing them ; and like the persecu- 
 tor of Job, they used various modes to accomplish their pur- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 293 
 
 poses. The title of this act was, " An act to prevent and 
 suppress seditious conventicles." It was an iniquitous law; 
 a flagrant violation of the established privileges of the people 
 of England ; it destroyed the bulwark of liberty — the trial by 
 jury — and contrary to the Magna Charta — gave one single 
 officer the power to fine, convict, or imprison, any offender ! 
 The English historians endeavor to palliate the severity of 
 this law, by alleging that politics and the cares of the gov- 
 ernment were the occasion of passing it, more than anything 
 concerning religion. Echard, according to Neale, says ; 
 " That this and all the penal laws made against the dissent- 
 ers, were the acts of the Parliament, and not of the Church, 
 and were made more on a civil and political, than upon a 
 moral and religious account, and always upon some fresh 
 provocation, in reality or appearance." 
 
 Although the penal laws were the acts of the Parliament, 
 as no other body had the power of making laws, yet it would 
 be a difficult undertaking to exculpate the established 
 Church. The Bishop of Peterborough declared in the 
 church of Rowel, " That this law hath done its business, 
 with all fanatics, except the Quakers; but when the Parlia- 
 ment sits again, a stronger law will be made, not only to 
 take away their lands and goods, but also to sell them as 
 bond-slaves." 
 
 Ward, of Salisbury, and Gunning, of Ely, are also said to 
 have been very zealous abettors of this severity, though 
 many of the bishops had the prudence to allow the odium of 
 the law to rest upon the civil magistrates. Thomas Elwooc! 
 informs us ; " That some of the clergy, of most ranks, and 
 others, who were excessively bigoted to that party, used their 
 utmost efforts to find out and encourage the most profligate 
 wretches, to turn informers; and get such persons into paro- 
 chial offices as would be most obsequious to their directions, 
 and prompt at their beck, to put this law into the most rigor- 
 ous execution." 
 
 George Fox being in London during the passage of this 
 Act, published a pamphlet, setting forth the injustice of the 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 law, in order, if possible, to keep the government from the 
 execution of its penalties. He also wrote an epistle to his 
 friends, exhorting them to faithfulness, to be true to their tes- 
 timony, and bear with Christian patience the sufferings they 
 would have to endure. On the first First-day that the law was 
 put into effect, George Fox went to Gracechurch street meet- 
 ing, but he found the street full of people, and a guard to 
 keep them out of the meeting-house ; at Lombard street he 
 also found a guard, but one of their ministers was addressing 
 a crowd of people in a court before the door. George Fox 
 arose to address the assembly, but a constable and informer, 
 with the aid of some soldiers, pulled him down ; and as they 
 committed this rash act, the good man only exclaimed — 
 " Blessed are the peace-makers." He was taken before the 
 lord mayor, who said ; " Mr. Fox, you are an eminent man 
 among those of your own profession ; pray will you be instru- 
 mental in persuading them from meeting in such great num- 
 bers? Christ hath promised, where two or three are met in 
 his name, he will be in the midst of them ; and the king and 
 Parliament are graciously pleased to allow four to meet 
 together to worship God ; why will not you be content to 
 partake both of Christ's promise to two or three, and the 
 king's indulgence to four ?" 
 
 George Fox answered him in the following manner : 
 " Christ's promise was not to discourage many from meet- 
 ing together in his name, but to encourage the few, so that 
 they might not forbear to meet on account of numbers. But 
 if Christ hath promised to manifest his presence in the midst 
 of so small an assembly, how much more would his pre- 
 sence abound where two or three hundred are gathered in 
 his name ! I wish thee to consider whether this act would 
 not have taken hold of Christ, with his twelve apostles and 
 seventy disciples (if it had been in their time), who used to 
 meet often together, and that, with great numbers ? How- 
 ever, this act did not concern us ; for it was made against 
 seditious meetings — of such as met, under pretence of reli- 
 gion, to contrive insurrection ; but we have been sufficiently 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 295 
 
 tried and proved, and always found peaceable ; and therefore 
 he should do well, to put a difference between the innocent 
 and guilty. May we not read the Scriptures, and speak the 
 Scriptures ? Is the Liturgy according to the Scriptures ?" 
 " Yes," replied the mayor. 
 
 " This act takes hold only of such as meet to plot and con- 
 trive insurrections, as late experience hath shown ; but you 
 have never experienced that from us. Because thieves are 
 sometimes on the road, must not honest men travel? And 
 because plotters and contrivers have met to do mischief, must 
 not an honest people meet to do good?" 
 
 The informer against him being a papist, somewhat excited 
 the people, and he was forced to make his escape, without 
 appearing against the prisoner, who was set at liberty. In 
 this year George Fox had a severe sickness, which rendered 
 him for some time both blind and deaf, and although his 
 friends despaired of him, yet in a few months he grew better. 
 
 In the ninth month [September], William Penn and 
 William Mead were taken from a meeting, and imprisoned. 
 The indictment set forth, " That William Penn and William 
 Mead, with divers other persons to the number of three hun- 
 dred, were tumultuously assembled together with force and 
 arms, at Gracechurch street, in the City of London, on the 
 fifteenth of September ; and that William Penn, by agree- 
 ment between him and William Mead, had preached there 
 in the public street, which caused to be assembled a great 
 concourse of people." To this indictment they all pleaded 
 " not guilty." They were remanded to Newgate, and two 
 days after were brought before the court again, which openly 
 manifested a pre-concerted design to treat them with the 
 utmost severity, and take every unfair advantage of the prison- 
 ers that lay in their power. Entering the court-room with 
 their hats on, the mayor reproved them sharply ; and Re- 
 corder Howel, who during the whole trial treated them with 
 implacable inhumanity, fined them forty marks each. 
 
 The jury being sworn, the witnesses deposed that they 
 saw William Penn speaking to the people, assembled in 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 great numbers in Gracechurch street ; but they did not hear 
 what he said. 
 
 " Were you there ?" inquired the recorder, of William 
 Mead. 
 
 " It is a maxim in your own law, that no man is bound to 
 accuse himself. Why, then, dost thou try to ensnare me 
 with such a question ?" said William Mead. 
 
 The recorder said, in a rage, " Sir, hold your tongue ; I 
 did not go about to ensnare you." 
 
 " We confess ourselves," said William Penn, " to be so 
 far from recanting or declining to vindicate the assembling 
 of ourselves, to preach, pray, or worship the eternal, holy, just 
 God, that we declare to all the world, that we do believe it 
 to be our indispensable duty to meet incessantly upon so 
 good an account ; nor shall all the powers upon earth be 
 able to divert us from reverencing and adoring our God who 
 made us." 
 
 The sheriff, Richard Brown, said, " You are not here for 
 worshipping God, but for breaking the law. You do your- 
 selves injustice in going on with that discourse." 
 
 " I affirm I have broken no law," replied William Penn, 
 u nor am I guilty of the indictment that is laid to my charge ; 
 and to the end, the bench, the jury and myself, with these 
 that hear us, may have a more direct understanding of this 
 procedure, I desire you would let me know by what law it 
 is you persecute me, and upon what law you ground ray 
 indictment." 
 
 " Upon the common law," answered the recorder. 
 
 " Where is that common law ?" inquired William Penn. 
 
 " You must not think," said the recorder, " that I am able 
 to run up so many years and over so many adjudged cases, 
 which we call common law, to gratify your curiosity." 
 
 " This answer," said Penn, " is very short of my question ; 
 for if it be common, it should not be so difficult to produce." 
 
 " Will you plead to your indictment?" exclaimed the re- 
 corder. 
 
 " Shall I plead to an indictment that hath no foundation 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 297 
 
 in law ?" replied Venn. " If it contains that law you say I 
 have broken, why should you decline to produce it, since it 
 will be impossible for the jury to determine, or bring in 
 their verdict, when the law is not clear to them, so that they 
 may act according to it ?" 
 
 " You are a saucy fellow," said the enraged recorder. 
 " speak to the indictment." 
 
 But William Penn insisted on his right to have the law 
 produced on which the indictment was founded, and the 
 court evading it, insisted on his pleading to the indict- 
 ment as it stood : at last the recorder, losing all patience, 
 made a plain confession that he did not know where the law 
 was to be found. " Will you teach the court what law is ?" 
 asked the officer. 
 
 " If the common law be so hard to understand, it is far 
 from being common," was the reply ; " but if Lord Coke, in 
 his Institutes, be of any consideration, he tells us that com- 
 mon law is common right, and that common right is the 
 great charter privileges confirmed in 9 Hen. III., 29 ; 25 
 Edw. L, 1 ; 2 Edw. III., 8 ; Coke's Institutes, ii., p. 56. 
 
 " You are a troublesome fellow, and it is not for the 
 honor of the court to suffer you to go on," said the recorder. 
 
 " I design no affront to the court," replied Penn, " but to 
 be heard in my just plea ; and I must plainly tell you, 
 that if you deny me the oyer of that law, which you suggest 
 I have broken, you do at once deny me an acknowledged 
 right, and evidence to the whole world your resolution to 
 sacrifice the privileges of Englishmen to your own sinister 
 and arbitrary design." This exasperated the recorder, and 
 he called the officers to take him away : and addressing the 
 mayor, he said, " My lord ; if you do not take some course 
 with this pestilent fellow to stop his mouth, we shall not be 
 able to do anything to-night." The mayor ordered him to 
 be taken to the bail-dock ; and as he was leaving the bar, he- 
 made the following address to the jury : 
 
 " This I leave upon your consciences, who are my jury 
 and my sole judges, that if these ancient fundamental laws, 
 
298 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 which relate to liberty and property, and are not limited to 
 particular persuasions in matters of religion, must not be in- 
 dispensably maintained and observed, who can say he hath a 
 right to the coat on his back? Certainly, then, our liberties 
 are to be openly invaded, our wives to be ravished, our chil- 
 dren enslaved, our families ruined, and our estates led away 
 in triumph by every sturdy beggar and malicious informer, 
 as their trophies, by our pretended forfeitures for conscience 
 sake." 
 
 William Mead then said : " Ye men of the jury : I now 
 stand here to answer to an indictment against me, which is 
 a bundle of stuff", full of lies and falsehoods ; for therein I 
 am accused that I met with force and arms unlawfully and 
 tumultuously. Time was when I had freedom to use a 
 carnal weapon ; and then I thought I feared no man. But 
 now I fear the living God, and dare not make use thereof, 
 nor hurt any man, nor do I know that I demeaned myself as 
 a tumultuous person ; therefore it is a very proper question 
 that William Penn demanded, an oyer to the law on which 
 our indictment is grounded. If the recorder will not tell 
 you what makes a riot, &c, Coke tells us a riot is, when 
 three or more are met together to beat a man, or to enter for- 
 cibly another man's land, to cut his grass, his wood, or break 
 down his pales." 
 
 The recorder pulled off' the prisoner's hat, and in a con- 
 temptuous manner he said, " I thank you, sir, for telling me 
 what the law is." 
 
 Richard Brown, the inveterate enemy of Friends, remark- 
 ed, that he was at one time an Independent, then something 
 else, now a Quaker, and no doubt next would be a Papist. 
 Brown himself had formerly been a Papist, and the prisoner 
 merely repeated the well-known Latin verse : 
 
 " Turpe est doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum." 
 
 William Mead was then taken to the bail-dock, and the 
 recorder gave the following charge to the jury : — " You have 
 heard what the indictment is ; it is for preaching to the peo- 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 299 
 
 pie, and drawing a tumultuous company after them ; and 
 Mr. Penh was speaking. If they should not be disturbed 
 you see they will go on ; there are three or four witnesses 
 that have proved that he did preach there ; that Mr. Mead did 
 allow of it, and after this, you have heard by substantial wit- 
 nesses what is said against them. Now we are upon matter 
 of fact, which you are to keep to, and observe, as what hath 
 been fully sworn, at your peril." 
 
 As this was an irregular proceeding, William Penn arose 
 in the bail-dock, and said in a loud voice ; — " I appeal to the 
 jury, and this great assembly, whether it be not contrary to 
 the undoubted right of every Englishman to give the jury 
 their charge in the absence of the prisoners ?" 
 
 " Why, ye are present, you hear, do you not ?" said the 
 recorder somewhat irritated. 
 
 " No thanks to the court that ordered me into 1he bail- 
 dock," replied Penn. " And you of the jury take notice that 
 I have not been heard, neither can you legally leave the court 
 before I have been fully heard, having at least ten or twelve 
 material points to offer, in order to invalidate the indictment." 
 
 " Pull that fellow down — pull him down," exclaimed the 
 furious recorder. 
 
 The prisoners were placed in one of the cells of the prison, 
 and the jury were commanded to agree upon their verdict; 
 after remaining about an hour and a half, eight of their num- 
 ber agreed upon a verdict, but the other four were dissatis- 
 fied and refused to enter the court. *The bench, highly pro- 
 voked at the four jurymen obstructing their designs, threatened 
 in menacing language to inflict the same punishment on 
 them as they wished to do upon the prisoners. The majority 
 of the jurymen again went to the jury-room, and after a short 
 time they all returned to the bar of the court with a unani- 
 mous verdict. 
 
 " Is William Penn guilty of the matter whereof he stands 
 indicted in manner and form, or not guilty?" interrogated the 
 officer. 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 " He is found guilty of speaking in Gracechurch Street," 
 replied the foreman. 
 « Is that all?" 
 
 " That is all I have in commission," was the answer. 
 
 " You might as well have said nothing," replied the recor- 
 der, his temper somewhat ruffled. 
 
 " Was it not an unlawful assembly ?" demanded the lord 
 mayor. 
 
 " My lord, this is all I have in commission," said the fore- 
 man, Thomas Beer. 
 
 The court refused to accept this verdict ; and strove un- 
 fairly to extort expressions from some of them, so as to make 
 them acknowledge the meeting was an unlawful assembly ; 
 but Bushel, Hammond, and some others, bravely maintained 
 their rights, and refused to admit any alteration in the verdict. 
 The following was then handed to the clerk of the court. 
 
 " We, the jurors hereafter named, do find William Penn 
 guilty of speaking, or preaching, to an assembly met together 
 in Gracechurch Street, on the 14th day of August, 1670, 
 and that William Mead is not guilty of said indictment." 
 
 Then follow the names of the twelve jurymen. The mayor 
 and recorder resented this action, and vilified the jury in 
 language unbecoming the seat of justice, or those of a libe- 
 ral education. The recorder addressed the jury in the fol- 
 lowing improper manner : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, you shall not be dismissed, till we have a 
 verdict that the court wMl accept ; and you shall be locked 
 up without meat, drink, fire, or tobacco. You shall not think 
 thus to abuse the court. We will have a verdict by the help 
 of God, or you shall starve for it." 
 
 William Penn remonstrated against such treatment, and 
 said ; — " My jury, who are my judges, ought not to be thus 
 menaced ; their verdict should be free and not compelled ; 
 the bench ought to wait upon them, but not forestall them. 
 I do desire that justice may be done me, and that the arbi- 
 trary resolves of the bench may not be made the measure of 
 my jury's verdict." 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 301 
 
 This vindication of his right exasperated the recorder, and 
 he exclaimed, " Stop that prating fellow's mouth, or put him 
 out of court." 
 
 The court then determined to send the jury back to their 
 room, and the prisoners to jail; but before they were taken 
 out, William Penn said, " The agreement of twelve men is 
 a verdict in law, and such an one being given by the jury, I 
 require the clerk of the peace to record it, as he will answer 
 it at his peril. And if the jury bring in another verdict con- 
 tradictory to this, I affirm they are perjured men in law." 
 And addressing himself to the jury, he exclaimed, " You are 
 Englishmen, mind your privilege ; give not away your 
 right." 
 
 " Nor will we ever do it," returned E. Bushel, one of the 
 jurymen. 
 
 One of the jury desired to be released on account of indis- 
 position ; but the lord mayor said, " You are as strong as 
 any of them ; starve, then, and hold your principles." To 
 which the recorder added, " Gentlemen, you must be con- 
 tent with your hard fate ; let your patience overcome it ; for 
 the court is resolved to have a verdict, and that before you 
 can be dismissed." 
 
 " We are agreed— we are agreed," exclaimed the jury. 
 
 But they were sent back to their chamber, where they were 
 shut up all night without victuals, fire or any accommoda- 
 tions whatever. The next morning they brought in the same 
 verdict ; and neither the passionate resentments, the oppro- 
 brious reflections, nor the repeated menaces of the bench 
 could prevail on them to sacrifice their principles or alter 
 their determination in the least manner. Their steadfastness, 
 and the manly defence of William Penn, caused Ihe recorder's 
 passion to get the better of his prudence, and he said, " Till 
 now, I never understood the reason of the policy and pru- 
 dence of the Spaniards in suffering the Inquisition among 
 them; and certainly it will never be well with us, until 
 something like the Spanish Inquisition be in England." 
 
 " I desire to ask the recorder one question," said William 
 
302 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Perm; "Do you allow of the verdict given of William 
 Mead ?" 
 
 " It cannot be a verdict, for you are indicted for con- 
 spiracy,'' replied the officer; "and one being found 'not 
 guilty,' and not the other, it cannot be a verdict." 
 
 " If ' not guilty' be not a verdict, then you make the jury 
 and Magna Charta a mere nose of wax," answered Penn. 
 
 " How is ' not guilty,' no verdict ?" inquired William 
 Mead. 
 
 " It is no verdict," continued the recorder. 
 
 " I affirm that the consent of a jury is a verdict in law," 
 exclaimed William Penn, " and if William Mead be not 
 guilty, it consequently follows that I am clear ; since you have 
 indicted us of conspiracy, and I could not possibly conspire 
 alone." 
 
 The jury not becoming an instrument in the hands of the 
 persecutors for the conviction of innocent men, they were 
 fined forty marks apiece and ordered to be imprisoned until 
 the fines were paid, but they were discharged some time after 
 by Habeas Corpus, returnable in the Common Pleas, where 
 their commitment was judged illegal. The prisoners, upon 
 being cleared by the jury, demanded their liberty; but they 
 were remanded back to prison for fines imposed upon them 
 for not taking off their hats in the presence of the court. 
 
 Thus ended this memorable trial, wherein a noble stand 
 was made against the illegal proceedings of despotic magis- 
 trates in dangerous times, when reason, law and equity 
 were equally disregarded. It was soon after published in 
 pamphlet form with an appendix attached, showing not only 
 the invalidity of the evidence, but also the absurdity of the 
 indictment and the illegal proceedings of the court. The 
 case of the Lord Chief Justice Keeley was also mentioned, 
 who having put restraints, a committee of Parliament on the 
 eleventh of December, 1667, passed a resolution, that his pro- 
 ceedings were innovations, in the trial of men for then lives 
 and liberties; and that he had used an arbitrary and illegal 
 power, which was dangerous to the lives and liberties of the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 303 
 
 people of England and tended to the introduction of an 
 arbitrary government. In the place of judicature he had 
 undervalued, vilified and condemned Magna Charta. In 
 view of this it was resolved that he should suffer condign 
 punishment in such a manner as the house should judge 
 most fit and requisite. 
 
 The book containing the trial went through several edi- 
 tions under the title of " The People's ancient and just 
 liberties asserted," and underneath was added the well 
 known quotation from Juvenal : 
 
 " Sic volo, sic jubeo ; stat pro ratione voluntas." 
 
 Another work was also published treating the matter in 
 more technical language, the author, Thomas Rudyard, being 
 a lawyer. It is not strange that he was most cruelly perse- 
 cuted, when we state, that he often vigorously pleaded the 
 cause of the oppressed, and sometimes put a check to the 
 illegality practised by the court. The magistrates of London 
 issued a warrant to break open his house during the night, in 
 order to apprehend him ; this warrant was executed by Cap- 
 tain Holford and some soldiers, and by a mittimus from the 
 lord mayor, stating " that he stirred up persons to disobe- 
 dience of the laws, and abetted and encouraged such as met in 
 unlawful and seditious conventicles, contrary to the late act," 
 he was committed to Newgate prison. His case was 
 brought before the justices of the court of Common Pleas, at 
 Westminster, by a Habeas Corpus, and after careful conside- 
 ration, that court decided that Thomas Rudyard was unjustly 
 imprisoned and unlawfully detained. He was set at liberty, 
 but was soon after arrested again and placed in Newgate, 
 for having attended a meeting at White Hart court, in Grace- 
 church street. He freely confessed that he had met in Grace- 
 church street, to worship God, but denied that it was for pur- 
 poses alleged in the indictment ; and when he desired to 
 know upon what law the indictment was grounded, he 
 received similar answers to those they had previously given 
 to Penn and Mead. Several other persons were tried at the 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 same time with Rudyard, and they urged their peaceable 
 principles to the court, and stated that the law against riots 
 was never designed against them, but against popish dis- 
 turbers of the public peace. The recorder said, that the 
 papists were better subjects to the king than they were ; and 
 that they were a stubborn and dangerous people, and must 
 either be made obedient to the laws, or there was no safe 
 living with them. 
 
 For this ill-treatment and inhumanity, the recorder won 
 the favor of the court ; and Alderman Robinson moved, that 
 he be presented with one hundred pounds for his service to 
 the king and country, at the last sessions of Old Bailey, 
 which was agreed to, and an order issued to the chamberlain 
 to pay it. Thomas Rudyard being informed of this fact, and 
 also that he soon after received two hundred pounds in a 
 similar manner, he thought proper to apprise his fellow- 
 citizens of the disposal of the public money, and published a 
 book, with the following satirical title : " An excellent way 
 to ease the treasury of being overburdened with orphan's 
 money, by which sinister means of disposing of its cash, the 
 chamber was so deeply in debt as was almost incredible." 
 
 Persecution was raging with all its former severity. The 
 informer, according to the law, receiving one-third of the 
 fine imposed upon the prisoners, tried upon the validity of 
 his information, a door was opened for base and wicked per- 
 sons, to gain booty by persecuting the innocent. This be- 
 came such a lucrative business that some magistrates them- 
 selves turned informers. 
 
 " Quid non movtalia pectora cogis 
 Auri sacra fames !" 
 
C H A PTER XXVI. 
 
 During the summer of this year, Thomas Bud died at 
 Ivelchester, in Somersetshire, after an imprisonment of eight 
 years and a half, for refusing to swear. Some hours before 
 death, he said : " I renew my covenant with God, and am 
 well satisfied in it ; and I believe God will sustain me by the 
 right hand of his justice, and I rejoice and thank God that all 
 my children walk in the way of the Lord." 
 
 At a meeting of the court at Whitehall, the king and 
 council issued an order for demolishing the meeting-house 
 at Horslydown, in Southwark, Surrey, and on the twenty- 
 fifth of the ninth month [September], several musketeers 
 entered it, beating and bruising the persons assembled, most 
 violently. The meeting was disturbed weekly for nearly 
 three months, and the soldiers acted in the most outrageous 
 manner both to men and women. At one of these assaults, 
 more than twenty persons were wounded and severely 
 bruised ; at another time, thirty, and at the last, over fifty 
 were wounded in the most horrible manner. At length, 
 these military violations of the peace of the city roused the 
 civil officers to interpose their authority ; but it was too weak 
 to protect this unarmed body against the number of armed 
 men that attacked them. On the sixteenth of the tenth month 
 [October], the Friends again met, and were again assaulted 
 by a parly of horse and foot. The police being on the spot 
 to preserve peace, kept them at bay for a short time, as it was 
 a more serious affair to trample upon the legal authority of 
 the civil power, Ihan upon the immunities and persons of 
 private individuals; but they soon broke through the barriers 
 
 of civil restraint, and fell upon the poor defenceless people 
 20 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 with their accustomed rage and inhumanity. In endeavoring 
 to prevent the shedding of blood, the police themselves suf- 
 fered almost as much as those who were the immediate 
 cause of the attack. On being rebuked for their cruelty, one 
 of them said ; " If you only knew what orders we have, you 
 would say we dealt mercifully with you." And, on being 
 asked, " How can you deal thus with a people that make no 
 resistance or opposition ?" they answered, " We had rather, 
 and it would be better for us, if you did resist and oppose." 
 These oppressive and injurious measures were carried most 
 too far; and a narrative of the violence of the soldiers was 
 presented to the king, who put a stop to their depredations 
 for a short time. 
 
 At the beginning of this year, George Fox, who was in 
 London, put forth the following prayer : " O Lord 
 1671. God Almighty! prosper Truth, and preserve Jus- 
 tice and equity in the land, and bring down all injus- 
 tice and iniquity, oppression and falsehood, cruelty and un- 
 » mercifulness in the land, that mercy and righteousness may 
 flourish. 
 
 And, O Lord God ! establish and set up verity, and pre- 
 serve it in the land ; and bring down all debauchery and vice 
 which causeth and leadeth people to have no esteem of Thee, 
 O God ! Nor their souls or bodies, nor of Christianity, modes- 
 ty, or humanity. 
 
 And, O Lord! put it in the magistrates' hearts to bring 
 down all this ungodliness, and violence, cruelty and profane- 
 ness, cursing and swearing; and put down all places of vice 
 which corrupt youth and the people, and lead them from the 
 kingdom of God, where no unclean thing can enter, neither 
 shall come ; but such works lead people to hell. And the 
 Lord in mercy bring down all these things in the nation, to 
 stop thy wrath, O God, from coming on the land !" 
 
 A week after George Fox's marriage with Margaret Fell, 
 she was cast into prison, but by the help of others he procured 
 a royal order from ihe king and council granting her release, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 307 
 
 Which was sent to the sheriff of Lancashire, who set the pris- 
 oner at liberty. 
 
 The heat of persecution began to cool, and George Fox 
 felt it his duty, in accordance with the will of God, to make 
 a religious visit to his friends in America. He apprised his 
 wife of his intention by letter, desiring her to come to Lon- 
 don previous to his starting on the voyage. After parting 
 with her, he set sail in the latter part of the summer for Amer- 
 ica, in company with several other friends, and after a pas- 
 sage of seven weeks, they landed at Barbadoes. 
 
 A witty pamphlet was published in London, being a satir- 
 ical rebuke on the gang of idlers, who gained means of sup- 
 port by becoming informers against persons who attended the 
 meetings of the Society of Friends. It was entitled — « An 
 easy way to get money cum privileg-io, without fear or cum- 
 ber : printed for the Society of Informers." It was dedicated 
 in the following manner : " To all you that can work, and 
 will not ; and to all those that, through other ways of extrav- 
 agance, have brought themselves into debt, necessity, or other 
 wants (for your speedy supply and future support), there is 
 an opportunity put in your hands, that is both safe, profitable 
 and honorable. It is to be Informers." 
 
 England and France declared war against Holland, and 
 the government thinking that persecution for rejigion 
 1672. during the war would be detrimental to their interest 
 King Charles published a proclamation, suspending 
 the execution of all the penal laws. 
 
 A Baptist preacher in London named Thomas Hicks, em- 
 ployed his pen in writing several pamphlets under the invi- 
 dious title of " A Dialogue between a Christian and a Qua- 
 ker ;" which (as usual in this unfair method of handling 
 polemical subjects), makes the fictitious Quaker speak in 
 character, or out of character, as best answered the author's 
 design, which appears not to have been for the investigation of 
 truth, so much as to represent his Quaker a deformed, ridi- 
 culous and erroneous being. The unfair dealing and per- 
 verse misrepresentation of this antagonist made a defence 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 necessary, and William Penn reviewed the subject very skil- 
 fully in two books, one entitled " Reason against Railing," 
 and the other, " The counterfeit Christian detected." He 
 called upon the society of Baptists in London, to exam- 
 ine into the truth of Hicks's assertions, and deal with him ac- 
 cording to his fruits ; but they appeared more anxious to 
 screen their preacher from detection, than to do justice to the 
 injured parties. Thomas Plant, one of Hicks's followers, in 
 order to re-enforce the false statements made by his teacher, 
 published a work called, " A Contest for Christianity," which 
 was answered by Thomas El wood, in his " Forgery, no 
 Christianity ;" in the conclusion of which, he challenged 
 Hicks to make true his charges before a public auditory, 
 but he was too wary to commit himself in such an open 
 manner. 
 
 At the meeting of Parliament, the king, in his speech, in- 
 formed them, that in order to have peace at home 
 1673. while they had war abroad, he had issued his decla- 
 ration of indulgence to dissenters, and had found 
 many good effects to result from this measure. That he was 
 resolved to adhere to his declaration : but a remonstrance 
 was drawn up by the House of Commons against it, insist- 
 ing that the penal laws could not be suspended but by act 
 of Parliament ; that this indulgence was illegal, tending to 
 subvert the constitution, by rendering the other two branches 
 of the legislature useless, while the acts of the three con- 
 jointly could be superseded by any prerogative claimed by 
 one of them. When they presented this remonstrance to 
 the king, he defended his right to issue the declaration, by 
 virtue of his acknowledged prerogative of supremacy in 
 ecclesiastical matters, which he did not claim in matters of 
 property or civil rights. But the Commons had in their 
 hands a stronger argument than words — the power of grant- 
 ing money, the want of which obliged the king to convene 
 their body; and they refused to pass the exchequer bill with- 
 out the king would revoke the above declaration, which he 
 at last was forced to do. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 309 
 
 In the summer, George Fox returned to England ; and on 
 his arrival at Bristol, he wrote to his wife, who, in company 
 with her son-in-law, Thomas Lower, and two of her daugh- 
 ters, hastened to that city. As the great fair was held in 
 Bristol a short time after his arrival, a number of his friends 
 came from different parts of the country, and held a large 
 meeting. George Fox said : " God was the first teacher of 
 man and woman in Paradise ; and that as long as they kept 
 to God's teaching, they kept in the image of God, and in 
 righteousness, holiness, and dominion over all that God hath 
 made. But when they hearkened to the false teaching of the 
 serpent, who was out of truth, and so disobeyed God, they 
 lost the image of God, to wit, Righteousness and Holiness ; 
 and so coming under the power of Satan, were turned out 
 of Paradise. This serpent was the second teacher, and the 
 man who followeth his teachings came into misery, and into 
 his fall. Christ Jesus was the third teacher, of whom God 
 said, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, 
 hear ye him.' And this Son himself said, ' Learn of me.' 
 He is the true Gospel teacher, that never falls, and therefore 
 is to be heard in all things, since he is the Saviour and 
 the Redeemer, and having laid down his life, had bought his 
 sheep with his precious blood." 
 
 After a short sojourn in Bristol, he went to Gloucestershire, 
 and passing through Oxfordshire, he arrived at London, 
 where persecution was somewhat on the decline ; but several 
 societies were busy in defaming Friends, by issuing ma- 
 licious books, which were not left unanswered by those who 
 were jealous of their good name. 
 
 George Fox and Thomas Lower were arrested at Arm- 
 scot, in Tredington parish, after holding a meeting 
 J 674. in that place, and cast into prison. Thomas Lower 
 might have regained his liberty by means of his 
 brother's intercession, who was one of the king's physicians, 
 and had procured a letter from Henry Savil, gentleman of 
 the bedchamber, to Lord Winsor, for his release, if he had 
 been willing to accept it ; but bearing too great a respect for 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 his father-in-law to leave him alone, he suppressed the letter, 
 and voluntarily continued his companion. 
 
 During the last session of the court for this year, they 
 were brought before the bar for trial. Justice Parker, who 
 caused them to be arrested, made a long but very weak 
 apology for his conduct ; stating that he thought it a milder 
 course to send them to jail, than to put his neighbors to the 
 expense of two hundred pounds, by putting the law against 
 conventicles in force. 
 
 The chairman, Simpson, then said : " Mr. Fox, you are a 
 famous man, and your statement may be true: but that we 
 may be better satisfied, will you take the oath of allegiance 
 and supremacy ?" 
 
 " I never took an oath in my life, but I have alway been 
 true to the government. I deny the Pope and his power, 
 and deny it with all my heart," was the answer. 
 
 " Give him a book," some one cried. 
 
 " The Book says, Swear not at all," replied George Fox, 
 The jailor was ordered to take him to prison, and as he 
 
 left, he said : " The Lord forgive you who cast me into prison 
 
 for obeying the doctrine of Christ." 
 
 The justices, afraid to proceed against Thomas Lower, on 
 
 account of his more powerful connexions, told him he was 
 
 at liberty. 
 
 rt Why cannot my father-in-law be set at liberty as well 
 as me, since we were taken together for the same pretended 
 offence." 
 
 " You can go about your business," said the justices ; "we 
 havs nothing to do with you." 
 
 When the court adjourned he went to the justices in their 
 chamber and desired to know : " What cause they had to 
 detain his father, when they had discharged him ; is it not 
 partiality ?" 
 
 " If you are not content we will tender you the oath and 
 send you to your father." 
 
 " Ye may do that if ye will," said Lower, " but whether 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 311 
 
 ye send me or no, I intend to go, and wait upon my father in 
 prison, for that is now my business in the country." 
 
 "Do you think, Mr. Lower," replied Justice Parker, in 
 apology for his conduct, " that I had no cause to send your 
 father and you to prison, when you had so great a meeting; 
 insomuch that the parson of the parish complained to me, 
 that he had lost the greatest part of his parishioners, so that 
 when he comes amongst them, he hath scarcely any auditors 
 left." 
 
 " I have heard," said Lower, " that the priest of the parish 
 comes so seldom to visit his flock, but once, it may be, or 
 twice in a year, to gather in his tithes, that it was but charity 
 in my father to visit so forlorn and forsaken a flock. And. 
 therefore, thou hadst no cause to send him to prison for visit- 
 ing and instructing them, who had so little comfort from 
 their pastor, who comes among them only to seek his gain 
 from this quarter." 
 
 Doctor Crowther, the parson, was present, but did not 
 reply either in resentment or vindication. But when 
 Thomas Lower left the room, the justices were highly 
 diverted at Crowther's expense, which so exasperated him, 
 that he threatened to sue Lower in the Bishops' Court on 
 an action for defamation ; but when he heard it, Thomas told 
 him, " that he might commence his suit as soon as he 
 pleased ; that he would answer it, and bring his whole 
 parish in evidence against him." The priest thought he 
 would pursue the wisest course and therefore let the matter rest. 
 
 Some days after a Habeas Corpus came down to Worces- 
 ter, for removing George Fox to the King's Bench bar, at 
 Westminster. The under-sheriff made Thomas Lower his 
 deputy to convey the prisoner to the specified court, where 
 his case was argued, but coming to no determination, the 
 judges placed him in the custody of the marshal, and ap- 
 pointed another day for a hearing. 
 
 By spreading some false reports, Justice Parker contrived 
 to have the prisoner sent back to Worcester for trial. He 
 appeared at the next assizes before Judge Turner, — who 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 formerly passed sentence of premunire against him at Lan- 
 caster. The judge was very moderate, and was inclined to 
 release him ; but Parker endeavored to prevent it by insinu- 
 ating that he was the ringleader of a band of treason plotters. 
 To clear himself from all trouble, Judge Turner referred the 
 case back to the court of sessions. So he was continued a 
 prisoner ; but through the favor of some of the justices, he 
 was permitted to lodge in a friend's house, and granted the 
 liberty of the town. 
 
 When the court of sessions was organized, George Fox 
 made his appearance again before the justices. The chair- 
 man opened his trial with a speech, in which he asserted the 
 usual frivolous pretences for committing him to prison ; and 
 to give an apparent pretext for their proceedings, he said — 
 " George Fox had a meeting at Tredington, from all parts 
 of the nation, to the terror of the king's subjects, for which he 
 had been committed to prison, and that, for the trial of his 
 fidelity, the oath had been tendered to him, which he refus- 
 ed ;" then turning to the prisoner, he asked whether he was 
 now willing to swear his allegiance to the king. Having 
 obtained liberty to speak, George Fox first vindicated him- 
 self from the misrepresentations of the chairman, then re- 
 peated the relation of his journey and the cause of it, as he 
 had done in former sessions ; he proved that it was not true 
 that there were persons from all parts of the nation, nor was 
 their meeting to terrify the king's subjects ; he honestly de- 
 clared his allegiance to the king, but refused to take the oath 
 on account of the command of Christ, which strictly for- 
 bids it. 
 
 The clerk then read the indictment, and when the chair- 
 man asked him if he was guilty, he replied, — " No, for the 
 indictment is a bundle of lies." 
 
 The jury, under instructions, returned a bill against him, 
 which he determined to traverse, but refused to give bail for 
 his appearance at the next sessions, only pledging his word 
 to appear, if the Lord gave him health and strength. He 
 was sent back to prison, but by the interposition of some 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 313 
 
 moderate justices he was set at liberty until the next quarter 
 sessions. 
 
 He went to London to attend the yearly meeting, where, 
 at the instance of some of his friends, he appeared before the 
 judges of king's bench, and, in lieu of an oath, delivered to 
 them a declaration of his fidelity to the king, and denying the 
 Pope's supremacy and power ; but as his case was under 
 cognizance of the quarter sessions of Worcester, the judges 
 were unwilling to interpose, without it was brought before 
 the bar of their court. 
 
 When the yearly meeting was over, he returned to Wor- 
 cester to traverse the indictment ; but when he proceeded to 
 show its errors, which were sufficient to quash it, he was in- 
 terrupted, the oath required of him again, and upon his re- 
 fusal to take it, the jury found him guilty. The chairman 
 then told him, "that he was going to show him the dangers 
 of a premunire, which was the loss of his liberty, and all his 
 goods and chattels, and the endurance of life imprisonment 
 But," added he, " I do not deliver this as a sentence of the 
 court, but as an admonition to you." When the jailor took 
 him away, this sentence was clandestinely entered on the 
 record. This action of the justices to evade the reproach 
 and censure due to their illegal proceedings, was condemned 
 by several of the justices themselves, as well as the general- 
 ity of the people. The Earl of Salisbury's son, interested 
 in the trial, visited George Fox in prison, and wrote a copy 
 of the errors in the indictment, and delivered a legal and 
 calm review of the case to Judge Wild. Soon after, George 
 Fox was seized with a violent attack of sickness, and made 
 application to Justice Parker for his removal to a place where 
 he could be properly treated. A letter was written to the 
 jailor, which was sufficient warrant to permit him to be taken 
 to the house of some of his friends. His wife hearing he 
 was in prison, under sentence of premunire, went to Wor- 
 cester to attend him, and after remaining with him three or 
 four months, she went to London to solicit his discharge. 
 Obtaining a meeting with the king at Whitehall, she gave 
 
314 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 him an account of her husband's long imprisonment and 
 sickness ; but the king said he could do nothing, and referred 
 her to the chancellor. Waiting on Lord Finch, she was 
 informed, " that the king could not release him otherwise 
 than by a pardon," which the king would readily have grant- 
 ed ; but George Fox did not wish to obtain his liberty in 
 that way, for it would be a tacit acknowledgment of guilt ; 
 and he said, " I would rather lie in prison all my days than 
 come out in any way dishonorable to the profession of the 
 Society of Friends." He rather chose to have the validity of 
 his indictment tried before the King's Bench, and accordingly 
 procured a Habeas Corpus for his removal to that court. Coun- 
 sellor Thomas Corbet was employed to plead for the prisoner, 
 and he acquitted himself with great honor. During the ar- 
 gument, he[advanced a new plea : " That by law they could not 
 imprison any man upon a premunire." He gave them refer- 
 ences ; and after consulting their books, they discovered the 
 argument to be well grounded, but omitted any further notice 
 of it, and proceeded immediately to examine the indictment. 
 As it was full of errors and misrepresentations, the judges 
 were unanimous in the opinion that the indictment was null 
 and void, and that George Fox ought to be set at liberty. A 
 motion was made to tender him the oath ; but that upright 
 and conscientious judge, Matthew Hale, who presided at the 
 King's Bench, was too honest to persecute the innocent man, 
 and he said, " he had, indeed, heard some such reports about 
 George Fox not taking the oath, but he had also heard more 
 good reports of him." 
 
 After a full hearing before the four judges, he was dis- 
 charged by proclamation, after suffering an unjust imprison- 
 ment of more than a year. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 During a religious visit to Plymouth, Miles Halhead went 
 to see General Lambert, who was imprisoned for life on a 
 small island near that place. The minister of the Lord spoke 
 to the old general the word of God, with sincerity and 
 truth : he brought before his mind the promises he had made 
 to the Lord in the hour of danger and trial, and how he had 
 broken them when brightness and worldly power once more 
 beamed upon him. After some religious conversation, Miles 
 Halhead said to the world-weary soldier: " Truly, I never 
 saw thy face before, to know thee, although I have been 
 brought before many of our English commanders in the time 
 of Oliver Cromwell." 
 
 " Who were they ?" inquired Lambert. 
 
 " Generals Fleetwood and Desborough, Major Blackmore, 
 and Colonel Fenwick." 
 
 " I know the most of these men were moderate, and 
 against persecution," said the general. 
 
 " Indeed they were very moderate," replied Miles ; " but 
 they permitted others to persecute us, and did not plead our 
 cause." 
 
 After remaining a few hours in pleasant conversation with 
 General Lambert and his interesting family, who were exiled 
 from the world and all its follies and temptations, he bid 
 them an affectionate adieu, and went forth again to preach the 
 pure doctrine of salvation. 
 
 One more case of persecution deserves mention, which 
 took place this year. Robert Tillet of Buckingham was 
 affected with consumption, and believing his death was close 
 at hand, desired some of his friends to call at his residence. 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 A few friends collected around the bed of the dying man, to 
 ehcerhim with the hope of glory, and administer those wordsof 
 consolation which his mind needed. Two informers acquaint- 
 ed the justice of the peace of this small meeting, which he re- 
 corded as a seditious body, and fined the sick man twenty 
 pounds for this pretended transgression of the law. Robert 
 Smith, who spoke a few words by the bedside, was fined 
 twenty pounds as a preacher, and several others were also 
 fined the same amount. 
 
 After attending the yearly meeting of the Society of 
 Friends in London, George Fox went to Swarthmore, 
 1675. where he resided about two years, in order to regain 
 his health, which was enfeebled by hardships and 
 long imprisonments. His old persecutor, Colonel Kirby, pro- 
 fessed much friendship, and bade him welcome to that sec- 
 tion of the country, but notwithstanding this appearance of 
 kindness, he some time afterwards ordered the constables of 
 Ulverstone to tell George Fox, " that they must have no more 
 meetings at Swarthmore, or they would be disturbed." Not- 
 withstanding which, on the next first-day, the Friends held 
 a meeting, and contrary to their expectation, it passed off 
 wilhout the least disturbance. During his seclusion at home, 
 he frequently wrote epistles and letters to his friends ; giving 
 advice to those in trouble, exhorting all to be faithful to God 
 and themselves, in order to win the crown of glory prepared 
 tor those who live a righteous, upright and godly life. 
 
 Many continued to be imprisoned for refusing to take the 
 oath of allegiance. William Penn in this year wrote a trea- 
 tise on oaths, in which he showed the reasons of Friends for 
 not swearing, and confirmed them by numerous authorities. 
 In consideration of the unhappy divisions and animosities 
 prevailing in the nation, he also wrote this year, an excellent 
 work, entitled, " England's present interest considered," 
 wherein, to allay the heats of the contending parties, he 
 shows the consistency of liberty of conscience with the peace 
 of the kingdom. Its pages are eminently conspicuous for 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 317 
 
 exalted sentiments of real Christianity and genuine pa- 
 triotism. 
 
 While one great mind was employed in pointing out the 
 true interest of the nation, another was appropriating his 
 labors to the service of truth and the society of which he was 
 a member. In this year Robert Barclay published his 
 " Apology for the true Christian Divinity, being an explana- 
 tion and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the 
 people called Quakers." This work was dedicated to King 
 Charles II., in an epistle remarkable for its plainness and sim- 
 plicity, free from the servile adulation too generally used 
 towards princes, by those in the lower rank of society. 
 
 The revocation of the indulgence of the king, and the dis- 
 pleasure of the court against the dissenters, gaveTresh stimulus 
 to the persecuting magistrates, and idle tribe of thirsty 
 informers. Persecutions were renewed against Friends, and 
 every penal law was made to bear upon them, upon the most 
 trivial pretences, which the capricious will of every petty 
 justice could suggest. Great distress was also occasioned 
 by the priests wrenching their tithes from the poor; and what 
 rendered these sufferings more severe, they had no grounds 
 to hope for redress while their plunderers were encouraged 
 and urged on by their superiors, whose duty it was to protect 
 the people in the unmolested possession of property accu- 
 mulated by honest industry. 
 
 It is a remarkable truth, that many of these persecutors 
 came to a sudden and miserable death ; one, in particular, 
 deserves some notice. Christopher Glin, priest of Butford, 
 who had acted very indiscreetly towards the Society of 
 Friends, was struck with blindness whilst preaching a ser- 
 mon, falsely accusing them of holding blasphemous doc- 
 trines, and continued sightless during the remainder of his 
 life. 
 
 On a voyage from the West Indies, in the ship Samuel, 
 of London, William Barly was taken sick, and died. He 
 had been a teacher among the Baptists, at Poole, in Dorset- 
 shire, where he was convinced through the ministry of 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 George Fox in 1655, and, on joining the Society, he became 
 a zealous, upright preacher and servant of the Lord. On his 
 death-bed he exhorted those around him, " to fear the Lord, 
 and not to fear death ; death is nothing in itself, but the sting 
 of death is sin. Tell my friends, in London, I would have 
 been glad to see their faces, but I go to my Father and their 
 Father, to my God and to their God. Remember my love 
 to my dear wife — she will be a sorrowful widow ; but let her 
 not mourn too much, for it's well with me." After address- 
 ing them for a long time on their duty to God and their fel- 
 low men, he fell into the sleep of death. 
 
 John Crook, in his writings, says, " He was bold and 
 zealous in his preaching, being willing to improve his time, 
 as if he knew that he had no longtime to live, and he was as 
 valiant in suffering for his testimony, when called thereunto." 
 
 He had for some time followed a seafaring life for the 
 maintenance of his family, and was instrumental by his 
 ministerial labor in convincing many inhabitants of distant 
 countries. 
 
 In the early part of this year Mathew Hide died in Lon- 
 don : he was notorious as a great persecutor of 
 1676. Friends, and frequently contradicted their preachers 
 while speaking, and otherwise disturbed the meetings. 
 When the hour of death was near at hand he summoned 
 George Whitehead and several of his friends to his bedside. 
 One of them asked him, if he had anything to say about his 
 conduct towards the Society of Friends. 
 
 " I am sorry for what I have done," replied Hide, " for 
 they are the people of God." 
 
 When George Whitehead entered the room, he said, " I 
 am come in love and tenderness to see thee ; if thou hast 
 any remorse of conscience, I would have thee banish it." 
 
 " What I have to say I speak in the presence of God," 
 said the dying man ; " as Paul was a persecutor of the 
 people of the Lord, so have I been a persecutor of His 
 people, as the world is, who persecute the children of God." 
 
 George Whitehead, then, with the eloquence of truth upon 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 319 
 
 his tongue, and the doctrine of the living God in his heart, 
 pointed the strait and narrow way to the dying sinner, and 
 bade him to seek repentance by washing his sins in the pure 
 blood of the Lamb. When his kind friends left him with the 
 spirit of the Lord, he exhorted his wife with tearful eyes to 
 leave the world and enjoy the richness of salvation, to look 
 within for guide and council in hours of trial and temptation, 
 and give heed to that still small voice which is the monitor of 
 God to man. The hour of death was passed with a quiet 
 conscience, and the dying man's peacefulness fully attested 
 the truth of God's saying : " I am he that blotteth out thy 
 transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
 sins." 
 
 William Lampit, the priest of Ulverstone, formerly a great 
 friend to Margaret Fell, now the wife of George Fox, also 
 died this year. In 1652 he said : " I will wage my life on 
 it, that the Quaker will all vanish, and come to naught in six 
 months." But on his death-bed he said to one of his parish- 
 ioners ; " I have been a preacher a long time, and thought I 
 had lived well, but I did not think it was so hard a thing to 
 die." 
 
 In the city of London, persecutions under the Conventicle 
 Act seem to have subsided during this year ; but the dis- 
 tresses and persecutions for ecclesiastical demands were 
 enormous and severe ; self-interest and antipathy to a people 
 whose principles and doctrine struck at the root of priest- 
 craft, and at mercenary ministers, excited the priesthood in- 
 cessantly to the execution of the severest laws in their power. 
 The number plundered, excommunicated, imprisoned, and 
 those who laid down their lives in prison in consequence of 
 the persecutions, is too large to note minutely. The picture 
 of disastrous sufferings on one hand, and the persecutions 
 disgraceful to Christianity, on the other, are too horrible and 
 inhuman for contemplation. 
 
 Robert Cooper, of Chcshunt, Hertfordshire, was imprison- 
 ed at the suit of Robert Winchestly, a priest, who gave spe- 
 cial orders to the jailor to keep him in close confinement ; 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 and when his friends pleaded for his liberty, on account of 
 the poverty of his wife and children, the priest said, — " If hi? 
 children starve it is none of my concern ; he shall lie (here 
 and rot ; I will have no more mercy on him than on a thief ; 
 if the law would hang him, I would ; tithes are my due, and 
 I will have them/' 
 
 At Norwich, Thomas Nelson, a vory poor man, who by 
 hard labor supported his wife and five small children, was 
 fined for being at a meeting. The officers, pitying his cir- 
 cumstances, reported to the justice, that the man had little in 
 the house except, one bed for his family. The hard-hearted 
 magistrate ordered them to seize his bed, which was done 
 on the next day, leaving him, his wife and children, to lie on 
 straw. His wife endeavored to maintain her children by 
 baking bread and cakes to sell in the market, but the officer 
 even seized this when she exposed it for sale. 
 
 William Poole, a constable of Norwich, was compelled to 
 accompany an informer to a meeting, and being affected with 
 the doctrine he heard preached there, said, with tears in his 
 eyes, — " What shall I do ? I know the power of God is 
 among you ;" and turning to the informer, he said, — " If 
 there is a curse hanging over any people upon earth, it is 
 upon you informers." This remark was true, for their ill- 
 gotten plunder was generally spent in gambling and de- 
 bauchery. 
 
 In Nottinghamshire, John Sayton was informed against, 
 for attending a meeting in the parish of Blyth, and fined by 
 Justice Thornton. He appealed to the quarter sessions, and 
 with much difficulty obtained a hearing of his case. The 
 jury finding the matter clear, brought in a verdict for 
 the appellant, when Penniston Whaley, one of the justices, 
 who had before manifested his virulence and ignorance of 
 Friends, and their principles, in his endeavors to enforce the 
 Act 35 Eiiz., ordered them out again, but one of them ex- 
 claimed — " We have agreed, and well considered the mat- 
 ter ! " 
 
 Not even granting them the privilege of freemen, he said 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 321 
 
 in a rage, — " You deserve to be hanged — you are as bad as 
 a highwayman ; I hope the king will destroy juries, for this 
 will not do." Sayton was acquitted, and this jury dismissed 
 to make room for another more pliant to the instructions and 
 temper of the court. On the following day, another jury was 
 empannelled for the trial of William Hudson, who proved 
 by the evidence that he was not at the meeting specified in 
 the indictment ; but eight of the jury being picked men, known 
 to be averse to the appellant, the other four were overawed 
 into compliance, and after the court adjourned, they privately 
 gave in a verdict against him. 
 
 In the city of Hereford, the severe persecution of the late 
 law against sundry members of this Society, the partiality of 
 the justices in frustrating appeals to the sessions for redress, 
 by refusing to accept the juries' verdicts for the appellants, 
 beinc found insufficient to deter Friends from holding their 
 meetings, the magistrates and priests combined to attempt it 
 by lawless violence. On the twentieth of the eighth month 
 [August], Henry Caldicott, mayor of the city, with his officers, 
 entered a meeting and warned them to desist assembling in 
 that city, or it would be at their peril. On the next first-day 
 the meeting was attacked by a ruthless mob, who offered 
 every insult to the peaceable people collected together to 
 worship God. For several months these attacks were con- 
 tinued; and although complaints of this treatment were 
 made to the mayor, yet he dismissed the complainants with- 
 out giving them the least satisfaction. At one time they 
 fired squibs in the congregation, broke the windows, injured 
 the house by casting stones against it, and tearing tiles from 
 the roof. In the midst of these disorders, Edward King and 
 Robert Simons, justices of the peace, and Abraham Seward, 
 mayor elect, came, not to quell the fury of the rabble, but to 
 send the abused to prison, which they effected by tendering 
 the oath of allegiance ; committing all who refused to take it. 
 
 They continued the like abuses during the whole year. 
 
 The sufferers, having repaired their house and rendered it 
 
 habitable once more, were again beset by the rude multi- 
 21 
 
322 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 tude, who were instigated by the officers of the mayor to 
 commit acts which the civil power is incorporated to pre- 
 vent. These were times in which justice was perverted, and 
 equity was thrown aside ; when peaceful dissenters were 
 tried and punished as rioters for worshipping God according 
 to the dictates of their own consciences ; whilst real riots were 
 not only allowed to pass with impunity, but were even 
 promoted by those whose duty it was to quell them. 
 
 Herr Adrian Paets, at one time ambassador for the States 
 of the United Provinces to the Court of Spain, wrote a letter 
 to Christian Hartzoeker, of Rotterdam, in which he expressed 
 a strange opinion of the doctrine of Friends ; and afterwards 
 meeting Robert Rarclay, they held a long conversation on 
 the principle of the inward Revelation of the Spirit. This 
 induced Rarclay to write a letter to Paets, which was sent to 
 Benjamin Furly, of Rotterdam, and delivered according to 
 the direction ; but as it was not answered, the writer had 
 it published in Latin, without mentioning the Herr's name. 
 
 " It is falsely supposed," said Barclay, " that the essence 
 of the Christian religion consisted in the historical faith 
 and knowledge of the birth, death, life, resurrection and 
 ascension of Christ. Faith and historical knowledge is, 
 indeed, a part of the Christian religion, but not such an essen- 
 tial part, as that without which the Christian religion cannot 
 consist ; but an integral part, which goes to the completing 
 of the Christian religion, as the hands or feet of a man are 
 integral parts of a man, without which nevertheless a man 
 may exist, but not an entire and complete man. I agree 
 that the historical knowledge of Christ is commonly mani- 
 fested to us by the Holy Scripture as the means ; but God 
 could, without such means, manifest the said historical 
 knowledge to our minds. 
 
 " A contingent truth may be known by a supernatural 
 knowledge ; and when God doth make known unto man 
 any matter of fact by divine or immediate revelation, he 
 then speaks as to the ear of the heart of the inward man. 
 When any natural idea is excited in us, we clearly know it ; 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 323 
 
 so also when any supernatural idea is raised, we clearly 
 know that whereof it is the idea." What properly is the 
 inward supernatural sense in man is also described, and 
 many other doctrinal points are argued with great force and 
 ability. This letter caused much excitement among all reli- 
 gious societies ; but few attempted to withstand the writer 
 in argument or knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, George Fox left Swarthmore, 
 where he had lived in seclusion since his release from 
 1677. "Worcester prison. After visiting the house of John 
 Reckless, in Nottinghamshire, who once imprisoned 
 him in that town, but had since embraced the doctrine of 
 truth, he travelled through Leicestershire, Derbyshire, War- 
 wickshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and thence 
 went to London to attend the approaching yearly meeting. 
 In these early times the principal business of the yearly 
 meeting was to receive accounts of the sufferings of Friends, 
 and take measures for their relief. At the annual meeting 
 of this year, accounts were received of the heavy sufferings 
 from the persecutions by the act of 23 Eliz., which was 
 made to guard against Popish recusants, but executed upon 
 Friends. An article relative to this grievance was drawn 
 up, with a petition for relief, and laid before Parliament ; but 
 no redress was obtained from that body. 
 
 After the yearly meeting adjourned, George Fox, accom- 
 panied by William Penn, Robert Barclay, George Keith, 
 and some others, went to Holland to visit their friends in that 
 kingdom. William Penn and Robert Barclay went from 
 Holland to Germany, where the former wrote two letters to 
 the Princess Elizabeth of the Palatinate, daughter of Frede- 
 ric, king of Bohemia, sister of Sophia, Duchess of Hanover, 
 and mother of George, king of Great Britain. The follow- 
 ing is her answer : 
 
 " This, Friend, will tell you, that both your letters were 
 very acceptable, together with your wishes for my obtaining 
 those virtues which may make me a worthy follower of our 
 
HISTORY OP FRIENDS. 
 
 325 
 
 great king and Saviour Jesus Christ. What I have done for 
 his true disciples is not so much as a cup of cold water; it 
 affords them no refreshment ; neither did I expect any fruit 
 
 of my letter to the Duchess of L , as I have expressed at 
 
 the same time unto B. F.* 
 
 " But since Robert Barclay desired I should write it, I 
 would not refuse him, nor omit to do anything that was 
 judged conducing to his liberty, though it should expose me 
 to the derision of the world. But this a mere moral man can 
 reach at ; the true inward graces are yet wanting in 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 When George Fox was at Amsterdam, he also wrote a 
 letter to this virtuous and interesting princess, commending 
 her for the modest and retired life she was pursuing, at the 
 same time exhorting her to piety and godliness ; to which 
 she returned this reply. 
 
 " Dear Friend : — I cannot but have a lender love to 
 those that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to whom it is 
 given not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him; 
 therefore, your letter and your friend's visit have been both 
 very welcome to me. I shall follow their and your counsel, 
 as far as God will afford me light and unction. Remaining 
 still, Your loving friend, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 After this correspondence, William Penn and Robert 
 Barclay determined to pass through the town of Herford 
 {the residence of the princess), on the frontiers of Paderborn, 
 in order to visit their royal friend. With the princess resided 
 Anna Maria, Countess of Homes, who desired these minis- 
 ters of God to hold a meeting for the comfort of their mind. 
 They were invited to partake of the hospitality of the Castle, 
 instead of remaining in a noisy inn, which invitation they 
 thankfully accepted. At the public meeting which was held, 
 
 * We suppose the princess alluded to Benjamin Furly ; of Rotterdam. 
 
326 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 these eminent men breathed forth the holy word of God in 
 language not to be misunderstood ; and after William Penn 
 had made a sermon which produced a deep and lasting 
 effect upon his hearers, the Princess Elizabeth took him by 
 the hand, and said ; " I cannot speak to you ; my heart is 
 full. Will you not come hither again, before you leave 
 Germany ?" 
 
 " We are in the hands of the Lord," replied Penn ; " and 
 being at His pleasure, cannot dispose of our time." They 
 parted in silent sorrow, and Robert Barclay returned to 
 Amsterdam, while William Penn went to Paderborn, by the 
 way of Cassel (where he conversed with the learned and 
 venerable Dureus), to Frankfort. Here he held a meeting at 
 the house of a young gentleman, noble by birth, named 
 Merlane, who said to him ; " Our quarters are free to you ; 
 let all come that will come, and lift up your voices without 
 fear." He then visited Chrisheim, a village near Worms, 
 where many Friends resided, who afterwards emigrated to 
 America with him, and settled the State of Pennsylvania. 
 Whilst in the Palatinate, he wrote an epistle to Elizabeth, 
 Princess Palatine, and Anna Maria, Countess of Homes, 
 to which he received the following answer : 
 
 " Dear Friend : — I have received your greetings, good 
 wishes, and exhortations, with much joy, and shall follow 
 the latter as far as it will please our great God to give me 
 light and strength. I can say little for myself; but I hope 
 the Lord will conduct me in his time, by his way, to his end ; 
 and that I shall not shrink from his fire. I do long for it ; 
 and when he assures my ways, I hope he will give me pow- 
 er to bear the cross I meet therein. I am also glad to hear 
 your journey hath been prosperous, both in the constitutions 
 of your bodies, to withstand the badness of the weather, and 
 in the reception you had in Cassel, Frankfort and Chrisheim. 
 Nothing surprised me there but the good old Dury, in whom 
 I did not expect so much ingenuity, having lately wrote a 
 book, entitled ' Le veritable Chretien,' that doth speak in 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 327 
 
 another way. I wish to know what reception you had at 
 Fredricksburg ; and if this find you at Cleves, I wish you 
 might take an occasion to see the two pastors of Mulheim, 
 who do really seek the Lord, but have some prejudice against 
 your doctrines, as also the Countess there. It would be of 
 much use for my family to have them disabused ; yet God's 
 will be done in that, and all things else concerning your lov- 
 ing friend in the Lord Jesus, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 George Fox went to Hamburg and Frederickstad to visit 
 his friends in that part of the country, and afterwards joined 
 William Penn at Amsterdam, who accompanied him to 
 Wiewart to hold some intercourse with the Society of Laba- 
 dites. Here they met the famous Anna Maria Schurman, 
 the gentlewomen Somedykes, the French pastor, Peter Yvon, 
 and others. Yvon gave an interesting account of John de 
 Labadie, the founder of the Society, and his religious princi- 
 ples. Anna Maria Schurman, in giving an account of her 
 former life, spoke " of her pleasure in learning, and her love 
 to the religion she was brought up in, but confessed she knew 
 not God or Christ all that while. And although from a child, 
 God had visited her at times, yet she never felt such a pow- 
 erful stroke, as by the ministry of John de Labadie ; then she 
 saw her learning was vanity and her religion like a body of 
 death, and she therefore resolved to despise the shame, desert 
 her former way of living and acquaintance, and join herself 
 with this little family that had retired from the world." One 
 of the Somedykes then gave a relation of her conver- 
 sion by the preaching of Labadie. To use her own words : 
 ;t I have often mourned the deadness and formality of Chris- 
 tians ; and I have said to myself, O the pride, the lusts, the 
 vain pleasures in which Christians live ! Can this be the way 
 to heaven ? Is this the way to glory ? Are these followers 
 of Christ? O, no! O God ! where is thy little flock ? Where 
 is thy little family that will live entirely to thee — that will 
 follow thee ? Make me one of that number." 
 
 William Penn was deeply affected with these circumstan- 
 
328 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ces ; he himself had sacrificed ihe world to Christ — the bril- 
 liant career a doting father had planned for his son's path 
 through life, to follow the despised and crucified Jesus, 
 and become an outcast from his paternal roof, in order to 
 inherit the crown of deathless glory. With tears in his 
 eyes he spoke of his conversion from the vanity and pride of 
 life> — of the temptation with which he was surrounded in the 
 gayest metropolis of Europe — the adversities he had to con- 
 tend with at the University of Oxford, and how, amid all these 
 difficulties, the Spirit of God whispered in his heart and 
 pointed to the high and holy way of everlasting life. It was 
 an interesting meeting — a meeting of kindred spirits, who 
 stood aloof from the world, only mingling with it for the 
 one purpose of doing their duty to God and man. As they 
 were about to depart, one of the pastors asked William Penn, 
 if the truth did not arise from a poor and illiterate people : 
 on receiving an answer in the affirmative, the pastor said : 
 " Then let not the learning of the world be used to defend 
 that which the Spirit of God hath brought forth ; for scholars 
 now coming among you will be apt to mix school learning 
 amongst your simpler and purer language, and thereby ob- 
 scure the brightness of your testimony." 
 
 George Fox and William Penn then bade farewell, and 
 travelled by the way of Groeningen to Embden, where 
 Penn visited the burgerrnaster, and asked him if he and the 
 senate had not received a letter in Latin from an English- 
 man, about two years since, concerning their severity towards 
 the people called Quakers. 
 
 " We did," replied the burgerrnaster. 
 
 " I am that man," said Penn, " and am constrained by my 
 conscience to visit thee on their behalf." 
 
 The burgerrnaster treated him very kindly, and promised 
 to alter his conduct towards Friends, which promise, how- 
 ever, he never fulfilled, for persecution raged with greater 
 violence for years afterwards. 
 
 William Penn went to Herford again, and held a meeting 
 with the Princess Elizabeth and the Countess of Homes, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 329 
 
 who received him with great kindness. He intreated them, 
 by their hope of glory, to leave the world, and not be willing 
 slaves to all its allurements and temptations, but remember 
 there was a day of judgment, when an account must be ren- 
 dered of their stewardship. As he was leaving, he took the 
 princess by the hand, and said : " I hope the blessing of 
 Jesus may be with and upon you." And when he exhorted 
 the countess to break off from the entanglements and glitter- 
 ing gew-gaws of the world, she beseeched him, in the lan- 
 guage of a broken spirit, to remember her, and implore the 
 Lord's assistance in her behalf, for, said she, " I am fully 
 convinced ; but, oh ! my sins are great." 
 
 At Amsterdam, George Fox and William Penn held a 
 debate with Dr. Galenus Abraham, an eminent Baptist mi- 
 nister, on some doctrinal points, which have been duly no- 
 ticed in the disputes qf other persons, and recorded in this 
 work. They soon sailed for England, and arrived safely at 
 Harwich, after suffering a violent storm at sea. When Wil- 
 liam Penn arrived in London, he found ihe following letter 
 from the princess : 
 
 " Dear Friend: Your tender care of my eternal well-being 
 doth oblige me much, and I will weigh every article of your 
 counsel, to follow it as much as lies in me, but God's grace 
 must be assistant, as you say yourself ; He accepts nothing 
 that does not come from him. If I had made me bare of 
 all worldly goods, and left undone what he required most 
 — I mean to do all in and by his Son — I shall be in no 
 better condition than at this present time. Let me feel him 
 first governing in my heart, then do what he requires of me; 
 but I am not able to teach others, being not taught of God 
 myself. Remember my love to G. F., B. F., G. K., and 
 dear Gertrude.^ If you write no worse than your postscript, 
 I can make out to read it. Do not think I go from what I 
 spoke to you the last evening we met ; I only stay to do it 
 
 * Gertrude Dericks, who had visited the princess, and coming to England, 
 she soon afterwards married Stephen Crisp. 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 in a way that is answerable before God and man. I can 
 say no more now, but recommend to your prayers, 
 " Your true friend, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 " P. S. — I almost forgot to tell you, that my sister writes 
 me word she had been glad you had taken your journey by 
 Osenburgh, to return to Amsterdam. There is also a Drof- 
 fard, of Limbourg, near this place (to whom I gave an ex- 
 emplar of R. B.'s Apology), very desirous to speak with 
 some of your friends." 
 
 This correspondence was continued for some time, but we 
 must close it with transcribing one of William Perm's letters, 
 which was written during his voyage from Holland to Eng- 
 land : 
 
 " Dear and truly respected Friend : 
 
 " My soul most earnestly desireth thy temporal and 
 eternal felicity, which standeth in thy doing the will of God 
 now on earth, as 'tis done in Heaven. O, dear princess, do 
 it ! Say the word once in truth and righteousness, ' Not 
 my will, but thine be done, O God ! ' Thy days are few, 
 and then thou must go to judgment. Then an account of 
 thy talent God will require from thee. What improvement 
 hast thou made ? Let it prove and show its own excellency, 
 that it is of God, and that it leadeth all that love it to God. 
 O ! that thou may'st be able to give an account with joy ! 
 
 I could not leave this country, and not testify to the recol- 
 lections I bear in my mind of that humble and tender en- 
 tertainment thou gavest us at thy court — the Lord Jesus 
 reward thee, and surely he hath a blessing in store for thee. 
 Go on ; be steadfast ; overcome, and thou shalt inherit. Do 
 not despond. One that is mighty is near thee ; a present 
 help in the needful time of trouble. O, let the desire of thy 
 soul be to his name, and to the remembrance of him. O, 
 wait upon the Lord, and thou shalt renew thy strength. The 
 youth shall faint, and the young man shall fail, but they that 
 trust in the Lord shall never be confounded. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 331 
 
 " I wish thee all true and solid felicity, with my whole soul. 
 The Lord God of heaven and earth have thee in his keep- 
 ing, that thou may'st not lose, but keep in that divine sense, 
 which, by his eternal word, he hath begotten in thee. Receive, 
 dear princess, my sincere and Christian salutation : grace, 
 mercy and peace, be multiplied among you all that love the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 " Thy business I shall follow with all the diligence and 
 discretion I can, and by the first give thee an account, after 
 it shall please the Lord to bring me safe to London. All my 
 brethren are well, and present thee with their dear love, and 
 the rest with thee that love Jesus, the light of the world. 
 Thou hast taught me to forget thou art a princess, and there- 
 fore I use this freedom ; and to that of God in thee am I 
 manifest, and I know thy integrity. Give, if thou pleasest, 
 the salutation of my dear love to Anna Maria, Countess of 
 Homes, with the inclosed. Dear Princess, do not hinder, 
 but help her. That may be required of her which (con- 
 sidering thy circumstances) may not yet be required of 
 thee. Let her stand free, and her freedom will make the 
 passage easier unto thee. Accept what I say, I entreat thee, 
 in that pure and heavenly love and respect, in which I write 
 so plainly to thee. Farewell, my dear friend ; and the Lord 
 be with thee. I am more than I can say. 
 
 " Thy great lover and respectful friend, 
 
 "W. Penn." 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 In the latter part of this year, George Fox travelled through 
 many parts of the country, relieving the oppressed so far as 
 lay in his power, and addressing the large meetings which 
 assembled to hear him speak the word of God. He found 
 persecution still raging with its usual violence. In Glou- 
 cestershire, John Meredith, a justice of the peace, caused 
 twenty-seven Friends to be indicted at Gloucestershire 
 sessions for absence from the established Church, though he 
 well knew many of them had suffered by the act against con- 
 venticles. He arbitrarily demanded of Henry Poutin and 
 Nathaniel Heskins sureties for their good behavior, when 
 no complaint was made against them, and kept them in 
 prison three months ; after which he indicted them at the 
 sessions, and they were fined forty pounds for attending 
 meetings. The other prisoners were treated in the most 
 brutal and inhuman manner. William Dobson of Bright- 
 well, in Berkshire, died a prisoner for his conscientious testi- 
 mony against the payment of tithes, upon which account he 
 had suffered severely, having been robbed of his goods from 
 time to time, during the space of thirteen years ; during 
 the most of which he was in prison. For tithes of 
 the value of £4 10s., he had o-oods taken from him worth 
 £40, and afterwards was persecuted in the court of exche- 
 quer, by which he was cast into prison, where he remained 
 until death. 
 
 The country became dissatisfied with the government ; 
 Parliament was divided into two parties, the court and the 
 country ; some were enlisted into the country party by offices, 
 some by pensions and others by inclination. Those who 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 333 
 
 were for supporting the measures of the court were in favor 
 of enforcing penal laws against non-conformists. The most 
 active justices were of this party, and in the execution of the 
 laws seemed to have considered the disposition and man- 
 dates of the court as the principal rule of action, without 
 giving much attention to the superior rale of right and equity. 
 The country party, backed by popular favor, had got the 
 ascendency in the House of Commons, and carried an 
 address to the king, disapproving of his attachment to France, 
 and requesting him to enter into an alliance with Holland, 
 which he resented as an invasion of his prerogative, and 
 ordered them to adjourn. He however resolved to allay the 
 ill-humor of his subjects by a popular act, which should 
 atone for his unwise measures. Princess Mary, eldest 
 daughter of the Duke of York, was married to the Prince of 
 Orange, afterwards King William HI., on the fourth of the 
 eleventh month [November], of this year. 
 
 When George Fox came to London in the beginning of 
 this year, he found his friends were engaged in solicit- 
 1678. ing Parliament to grant relief to those who were 
 suffering persecution by the execution of laws made 
 against Popish recusants. He joined these Friends in their 
 application ; but a sudden adjournment of Parliament put a 
 stop to their proceedings. 
 
 During the summer, George Fox visited Swarthmore, 
 where he wrote the following epistle to his friends who were 
 suffering persecution or imprisonment. 
 
 " My dear Friends, 
 
 " Who are sufferers for the Lord Jesus' sake, and for 
 the testimony of his truth, the Lord God Almighty with his 
 power uphold you, and support you in all your trials and 
 sufferings, and give you patience and content in his will, 
 that ye may stand valiant for Christ and his truth upon the 
 earth over the persecuting and destroying spirit, which makes 
 to suffer in Christ (who bruises his head) in whom ye hath 
 both election and salvation. And for God's elect sake, the 
 Lord hath done much from the foundation of the world ; as 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 may be seen throughout the Scriptures of truth ; and they 
 that touch them, touch the apple of God's eye, they are so 
 tender to him. And, therefore, it is good for all God's suffer- 
 ing children to trust in the Lord, and to wait upon him ; for 
 they shall be as Mount Sion, that cannot be removed from 
 Christ, their rock and salvation, who is the foundation of all 
 the elect of God, of the Prophets and the Apostles, and of 
 God's people now, and to the end ; glory to the Lord and to 
 the Lamb over all. Remember my dear love to all friends ; 
 and do not think the time long, for all time is in the Father's 
 hand, his Power. And therefore keep the word of patience, 
 and exercise that gift ; and the Lord strengthen you in your 
 sufferings, in his Holy Spirit of faith. Amen. 
 
 " George Fox." 
 
 The attention of Parliament was called at this time to the 
 discovery of a popish plot, and a resolution was passed, stat- 
 ing, " that there was a damnable hellish plot, contrived and 
 carried on by popish recusants, against the life of the king, 
 and the Protestant religion." Thus whilst the peaceful So- 
 ciety of Friends, in common with other dissenters, were per- 
 secuted under pretence of being seditious, riotous, contrivers 
 of plots in their religious assemblies, and subjected to the 
 penalties of laws made against popish recusants, the real 
 danger to the established Church was concocted by the pa- 
 pists, who, under the favor and protection of the courts, were 
 sanguine in their hopes of re-establishing their religion in its 
 full power and splendor. 
 
 The established Church became aware of its danger, and 
 applied the necessary means for correcting the evil ; the mo- 
 derate part were inclined to coalesce with the dissenters, in 
 opposition to the establishment of popery, but the magistrates, 
 who were of the high church party, retained their malignity 
 to dissenters, until their hands were manacled by law. Per- 
 secutions by the Acts of Eliz., for twenty pounds per month, 
 and the seizure of two-thirds of the annual rents, were mul- 
 tiplied against the Friends, as the most expedient mode of 
 impoverishing the estates of the members of that Society. 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 335 
 
 Advantage was taken of the alarm occasioned by the rumor 
 of the popish plot, to increase the rigorous persecution of a 
 people holding opposite principles ; under the specious pre- 
 text of the necessity, in this season of danger, to exert addi- 
 tional vigilance in guarding against seditious assemblies. 
 While the nation in general was in consternation at the dis- 
 coveries of the plot, the informers were pursuing their infa- 
 mous occupation, to the great detriment and oppression of 
 honest men ; and a writer of that time truly remarked, — " the 
 papists may laugh because of their victory, now they have 
 a law, whereby one Protestant fights against another." 
 
 The repeated instances of the interference of priests in pro- 
 moting the execution of the penal laws, leave no room to 
 doubt, that, notwithstanding the endeavors used to exculpate 
 the Church by throwing the odium on Parliament, yet the 
 clergy were deeply concerned both in the promotion and 
 stern execution of these laws. 
 
 In this year, Isaac Pennington, of Chalfont, in Bucking- 
 hamshire, an honorable, useful, and virtuous member 
 1679. of the Society of Friends, departed this life, near 
 Goodnestone in Kent. His body was conveyed to 
 his house in Buckinghamshire, from whence his funeral was 
 attended by a great number of his friends and neighbors, 
 who affectionately loved him on account of his innocent and 
 virtuous demeanor. He was converted by George Fox, at 
 the house of John Crook, in Bedfordshire, in the year 1658. 
 
 The' mistrust of Parliament and the nation, of the mea- 
 sures and designs of the court from the time of the confede- 
 racy with France, were increased by the evidence they re- 
 ceived of the popish plot. They passed a new Test Act this 
 year, disabling all persons of that religion for sitting in either 
 House of Parliament. The Duke of York with difficulty got 
 himself exempted ; but the fear of popery had made such an 
 impression on Parliament, that it conceived a design to ex- 
 clude the duke from succession to the crown, on account of 
 his religion ; for this reason, and the succeeding steps in the 
 persecution of Danby, the king, finding the two Houses 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 were too strong for him, prorogued parliament, and then dis- 
 solved it. 
 
 A new Parliament was summoned, and the king exerted 
 his endeavors to influence the elections, but the feeling of 
 the people defeated his unjust efforts. The Duke of York 
 was obliged to leave the country, and the motion made in 
 the House of Commons to exclude him from the succession 
 to the crown was carried, but the House of Lords rejected it 
 by a large majority. 
 
 As Friends were by principle disengaged from all politi- 
 cal parties, one might suppose they were less obnox- 
 1680. ious to the resentment of any party ; but they conti- 
 nued to be harassed still by the execution of penal 
 laws. The first we meet with in this year, is the persecution 
 of George Whitehead and Thomas Burr, at Norwich, by 
 Recorder Francis Bacon. These two men met in that city, 
 accidentally, both being there for the purpose of paying their 
 friends a religious visit. They were arrested at meeting, 
 and brought before the recorder, also a justice of the peace, 
 who demanded twenty pounds from each, for preaching, 
 which they refused to pay. 
 
 " Will you take the oath of allegiance ?" demanded 
 Bacon. 
 
 " We cannot do it,' replied George Whitehead. 
 
 " If you neither pay the fine nor take the oath, I will com- 
 mit you to prison," said the recorder. " Do you know there 
 is a statute made in Queen Elizabeth's time, yet in force, to 
 hang such persons as you are ?" 
 
 " Can you persecute us under that law ?" asked Thomas 
 Burr. 
 
 " Yes," replied the recorder, " if the king should give 
 orders to have it put in execution, I would do it, and have 
 you hanged if you would not adjure the realm." 
 
 He then committed them to jail until the ensuing sessions, 
 which was held about a month afterwards, when they were 
 again summoned for trial. On being brought to the bar, 
 George Whitehead addressed the court as follows: " We 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 337 
 
 have been five weeks in prison, and it is proper the court 
 should know for what ; pray let our mittimus be read." 
 
 " There is no need of your mittimus being read here," 
 replied the recorder ; " I will give an account of the cause. 
 They had gathered together a company of about two hun- 
 dred, and officers went from me to disperse them, but could 
 not, and thereupon I sent the sheriff, who took them away ; 
 and being brought before me, I proffered them, if they would 
 pay their fines, I would not commit them ; and, upon their 
 refusal, I tendered them the oath of allegiance, and not being 
 willing to take the oath of allegiance, I sent them to prison." 
 
 George Whitehead remarked, that free-born Englishmen 
 had a right to travel in any part of the nation, and Thomas 
 Burr, being a dealer in grain, was forced to travel from place 
 to place in order to attend to his business. The recorder said, 
 with a bitter sneer, " Had you not better have been turning 
 your malt at home than coming hither to preach ? The Scrip- 
 ture saith, ' God added to the Church such as should be 
 saved :' but ye draw from the Church, and the Church of 
 England will never be quiet till some of you be hanged." 
 
 George Whitehead then observed, how unbecoming it 
 was, and derogatory to his office as a judge, to speak as an 
 enemy to the prisoners, and to prejudge their cause before it 
 was lawfully before him : as a precedent, he referred to 
 Chief Justice Hussey, who, on being applied to by the king 
 for his opinion in the case of the Bfch-traitor; Humphry 
 Stafford, declined delivering it until it came judicially before 
 him. He defended his cause so well, and represented the 
 illegal proceeding of the recorder in so clear a light, that to 
 his appeal to the mayor and justices, the mayor replied ; 
 " You have appealed to me ; truly, we are tradesmen, and 
 no lawyers ; we leave matters of law to the recorder — he 
 knows the law, and we must acquiesce in his judgment." 
 The majority of the justices did not approve of the recorder's 
 conduct, but were inclined to set the prisoners at liberty. 
 They were released from the charges specified in the mitti- 
 mus, but were committed again until the next quarter ses- 
 22 
 
338 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 sion for refusing to take the oath. The recorder was depriv- 
 ed of his office by a vote of the common council, and a per- 
 son of more equity and moderation was elected in his place. 
 In consequence of this change, and the interposition of their 
 friends, they were cleared by proclamation at the next ses- 
 sions, and discharged from prison after a confinement of 
 four months. 
 
 Some persecutors wished to impress Parliament with the 
 idea that the Quakers were concerned in the papist plot, but 
 George Fox, who was then in London, published the follow- 
 ing declaration on behalf of himself and friends : 
 
 " It is our principle and testimony to deny and renounce 
 all plots and plotters against the king or any of his subjects ; 
 for we have the spirit of Christ, by which we have the mind 
 of Christ, who came to save men's lives, and not to 
 destroy them. And we would have the king and all his 
 subjects to be safe. Wherefore, we do declare, that we will 
 endeavor, to the extent of our power, to save and defend 
 him and them, by discovering all plots and plotters (which 
 shall come to our knowledge) that would destroy the 
 king or his subjects ; this we do sincerely offer unto you. 
 But as to swearing and fighting, which in tenderness of 
 conscience we cannot do, ye know that we have suffered 
 these many years for our conscientious refusal thereof. And 
 now that the Lord hath brought you together, we desire you 
 to relieve us and free us from those sufferings ; and that ye 
 will not put upon us to do those things, which we have suf- 
 fered so much and so long already for not doing ; for if you 
 do, ye will make our sufferings and bonds stronger instead of 
 relieving us." 
 
 Soon after he wrote a paper to all the rulers and magis- 
 trates in England, Scotland and Ireland, dissuading 
 1681. them from religious persecution, and in the beginning 
 of this year the House of Commons passed the 
 following resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved: That it is the opinion of this House, that per- 
 secution of Protestant Dissenters upon the penal laws, is at 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 339 
 
 this time grievous to the subjects, a weakening of the Protes- 
 tant interest, an encouragement to popery, and dangerous to 
 the peace of this kingdom. 
 
 " Resolved : That it is the opinion of this House, that the 
 Acts of Parliament, made in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth 
 and King James, against popish recusants, ought not to be 
 extended against Protestant Dissenters." 
 
 These votes showed the sense of the House of Commons, 
 but did not repeal the penal laws. George Fox and his 
 wife were sued for tithes in the Court of Exchequer, and 
 although they proved, in answer to the plaintiff's bill, that no 
 such tithe had ever been demanded or paid off the estate 
 during the forty-three years Margaret Fox had lived, yet 
 because they would not answer upon oath, the court issued 
 an order for their arrest and imprisonment. In the course of 
 the trial, it was proved that George Fox had agreed with his 
 wife, not to claim any right or title to her estate, but leave it 
 in her hands entirely. He laid the whole subject before four 
 judges of London, who put a stay to the persecution, and 
 made the demand of the plaintiff null and void. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 It was on the fourth of the third month [March] that the 
 king, in consideration of the services of Sir William 
 1681. Penn, and sundry debts due to him from the crown 
 at the time of his decease, granted to William Penn, 
 and his heirs, the large tract of land lying on the west side of 
 the river Delaware, in North America, formerly belonging to 
 the Dutch, then called the New Netherlands. The name was 
 changed by the king to that of Pennsylvania, in respect to 
 William Penn, whom he made absolute governor and proprie- 
 tor. This favor of the king is supposed to be principally 
 owing to the influence of the Duke of York, with whom, as 
 High Admiral of England, his father was a peculiar favor- 
 ite ; and on his dying bed, Admiral Penn, considering his son 
 exposed to the danger of suffering for religious principles, 
 recommended him to the care and protection of the Duke of 
 York. 
 
 Admiral Penn, on his death-bed, gave marks of true re- 
 pentance for his past actions : he gave his son reasonable 
 and wholesome advice concerning his conduct ; and at limes 
 was heard to say : " Wo to thee, O England — God will 
 judge thee — great plagues are at thy door." He also said : 
 " God hath forsaken us — we are infatuated, and will shut 
 our eyes. We will not see our true interest and happiness: 
 we shall be destroyed." In taking leave of his family, he 
 said to his son William : " If you and your friends keep to 
 your plain way of preaching, and keep to your plain way of 
 living, you will make an end of the priests to the end of the 
 world. Bury me by my mother — live all in love — shun all 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. ^41 
 
 matters of evil ; and I pray God to bless you all, and he will 
 bless you." A few minutes after this, he expired. 
 
 The non-conformists still continued to be persecuted by 
 the execution of the statutes enacted in the reign of 
 1682. Queen Elizabeth. All the magistrates, judges, just- 
 ices of the peace, and lieutenants of counties, sus- 
 pected of leaning to republican principles, were displaced, 
 and their stations filled with approved friends of the court 
 and king. The mention of this change of the magistracy of 
 London accounts for the reverse of the measures adopted in 
 relation to the dissenters. The informers, who had been for 
 some time held in detestation by the citizens, and discoun- 
 tenanced by the magistrates, began now to return to their prey 
 with fresh vigor and insolence, under the encouragement of 
 the court and its partizans. 
 
 George Whitehead, in particular, soon felt the effects of 
 the change in the magistracy of London : he was fined 
 three or four times during this and the succeeding year. 
 Sir John Moore fined him twenty pounds for preaching in a 
 meeting at Gracechurch-street, for the payment of which they 
 took goods from his shop : again, by a warrant from Sir 
 William Pritchard, for another fine of the same amount, the 
 constable seized his household goods. Two of his friends, 
 John Edge and Joseph Peckover, who quietly persuaded the 
 constables to suffer an inventory of the goods to be taken 
 before they were removed, were apprehended by constable 
 Manby, and prosecuted for a riot upon his evidence alone ; 
 for which they were fined and committed to Newgate, where 
 they remained nearly three months. 
 
 George Whitehead made an appeal against this last con- 
 viction, and also against another made by Sir Thomas Jen- 
 ner, recorder of London, for a fine of £20, and upon trial 
 was discharged from both cases. Manby having sold the 
 goods for £15, he only recovered £11 9s. 6d. on the first suit. 
 The charge of prosecuting the two appeals amounted to 
 £17 9s. 8d.; so he computed his loss at £61 7s., beside the 
 damage done to his house and furniture. 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 In the city of Bristol, Friends were persecuted by some 
 inhuman men, who distinguished their loyalty by an excess 
 of injustice, and their zeal for the Church by abusing their 
 neighbors most shamefully ; busily interfering with their 
 meeting, when they had no legal authority. The most noto- 
 rious of this band of informers were, Sheriff Knight, Alder- 
 man Ralph Olyffe, Jr., Helliar, an attorney, together with the 
 subordinate agents, Lugge, Tilley, Caffe, Patrick, Hoare, Wat- 
 kins, Brand, and Higgens. They destroyed the meeting-house 
 in James' parish, and plundered the dwelling of a widow lady 
 named Elizabeth Batho. They also attacked the Temple-street 
 meeting-house, and accused the innocent persons they abused 
 with creating a riot. During the attack, one of the rioters 
 used an impudent remark to a young female of delicacy and 
 spirit, for which she struck the villain on the head : he in- 
 formed Helliar of the treatment he received, and the female 
 was sent to Bridewell. They took from seven persons, in 
 five days, about one hundred pounds' worth of goods, fining 
 some for the poverty of others, They persecuted fifty 
 Friends as popish recusants, in order to run them to a pre- 
 munire. John Moore was committed to prison by the Ox- 
 ford act ; and Griffith Jones, a trader from London, being 
 taken at a meeting, had the bath of allegiance tendered to 
 him, and for refusing to take it, was sent to jail. 
 
 Nearly all the Friends in Bristol were confined in prison. 
 At the quarter sessions, several of them were indicted, found 
 guilty and fined ; but the justices, who were not insensible 
 of their wrongs, acted moderately, and discharged a great 
 many on their promise to appear at the next sessions. But 
 they were soon arrested again for attending meetings, by 
 Knight and Helliar, and several were committed to Newgate* 
 It is clear the court was perfectly aware of these proceedings, 
 for some of the persecutors were promoted in office, for their 
 barbarity. 
 
 This year, John Whitehead, an eminent Friend in the 
 ministry, of the East Riding of Yorkshire, was committed to 
 Lincoln Castle, by Justice Burrel, being accused as a Jesuit, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 343 
 
 and for preaching at a meeting. He was tried at the ensuing 
 assizes at Lincoln, before Baron Street, but the evidence not 
 sustaining the charge, the oath of allegiance was resorted to, 
 in order to ensnare the prisoner ; he refused, and was indict- 
 ed. He pleaded ably and eloquently on the illegality of the 
 action of the court, but he was convicted, premunired, and 
 cast into prison, where he remained until the general release 
 in 1686. 
 
 At Flamstead-end, in Hertfordshire, the justices and con- 
 stables attacked the meetings, and arrested a number of per- 
 sons for worshipping God according to the dictates of con- 
 science. At Broughton, in Leicestershire, the meeting was 
 also disturbed, and personal abuse offered to the members 
 and persons assembled. Towards the close of this year, all 
 the public meetings of Protestant dissenters (except the 
 Friends) were suppressed, but in private assemblies they 
 would pray " that it might please God to keep the Quakers 
 steadfast, that so they might be as a wall about them, in 
 order that other dissenters might not be rooted out." 
 
 In the beginning of this year, it was computed that seven 
 
 hundred members of the Society of Friends were suffer- 
 1683. ing imprisonment in England. Persecution raged with 
 
 greater violence in the city of Bristol than any other 
 place. Great numbers were not only cast into prison, but in 
 their filthy cells they were most inhumanly treated by the 
 jailor, Isaac Dennis. William Dewsbury, who suffered a 
 long confinement in Warwick prison, wrote an epistle of 
 consolation to his friends, who, like himself, preferred a cell 
 where reigned peace to his spirit, to liberty without it. In 
 conclusion, the writer says : — " Thus saith the Lord, hear my 
 word, which is founded unto you from the throne of my 
 grace and eternal glory ! Rejoice not too much in spirits, 
 but throw down your crowns before me, that there be not a 
 self-seeking, self-preserving spirit in the family of my people, 
 but all feel the birth immortal, raised up in the resurrection 
 of my life in you all, which truly makes self of no reputation, 
 so that all loftiness be laid low, and all haughtiness be bowed 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 down in every one, that I the Lord God in you all, may be 
 loved, obeyed, and exalted; who is taking, and will take to 
 me my great power, to exalt the meek upon the earth, and 
 reign over all the pride of the children of men (that is ex- 
 alted above my witness in their conscience,) that so my sons 
 may be brought from far, and my daughters from the ends of 
 the earth, in the sight of all people, whom I will make to 
 confess in subjection to my power. That you are the be- 
 loved people of the most high God, and of the righteous seed 
 which the Lord hath blessed ; and not any weapon formed 
 against you shall prosper, but come to naught, which will be 
 hastened for your comforts, and certainly performed accord- 
 ing to what is here declared, to your eternal joy ; and you 
 shall assuredly know the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
 
 All the abuse that Friends had already sustained not being 
 sufficient to satiate the vindictive spirit of the persecutors, 
 many of them were returned into the Exchequer Court on the 
 statute of 201. for absence from the national worship, the 
 amount of which fines came to the enormous sum of 16,440/. j 
 several were distrained, but how much was levied for these 
 fines we have no correct account. Not satisfied with depriv- 
 ing them of their liberty, property, and personal ease, these 
 persecutors determined to see how far they could succeed in 
 an attempt against their lives. They began with Richard 
 Vickris, who had before felt the effects of their malevolence 
 in fines, imprisonments, and personal abuse. He was the 
 son of Robert Vickris, formerly a merchant and alderman of 
 Bristol, and afterwards of Chew-Magna in Somersetshire. 
 Richard was convinced of the principles of Friends in his 
 youth, and to divert his mind from this humble Society, his 
 father sent him on a tour to the continent, but was disappoint- 
 ed in his intention. Disgusted with the superstition of the 
 ceremonious religion that everywhere met his view, he 
 returned to his native land, and openly embraced that profes- 
 sion to which he had formed an attachment before leaving 
 home. In the year 1680, he was imprisoned upon an excom- 
 munication; he was afterwards subjected to frequent fines 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 345 
 
 and distraints for attending meetings ; and now they pro- 
 ceeded to put the statute of 35 Eliz. in force against him, the 
 penalty of which we have mentioned in several places. 
 
 At the sessions, previous to the time called Easter, Richard 
 Vickris was indicted, but demurring to the jurisdiction of the 
 court and refusing to plead, he was committed to prison. At 
 the following sessions he was admitted to bail for his appear- 
 ance to answer the indictment ; during the summer he pro- 
 cured a Habeas Corpus to remove his trial from that court. 
 On the twentieth of the eighth month [August], he presented 
 his Habeas Corpus, had his recognizance discharged, and was 
 delivered into the custody of the sheriff. At the instigation 
 of Sir John Knight, he was brought to trial on the twenty- 
 third of the same month, and after a forced trial, the judge 
 pronounced the following sentence : " You shall conform, 
 or adjure the realm, in three months, or suffer death as a felon, 
 without the benefit of clergy." The recorder then admonished 
 him to conform. " I presume," said Richard Vickris, " you 
 will not desire my conformity against my conscience, and to 
 play the hypocrite, with man is hateful, much more with 
 God." 
 
 He was remanded back to prison, where he awaited his 
 sentence undismayed. His wife went to London to inter- 
 cede with the government in his favor, and by the assistance 
 of some friends, gained admission to the Duke of York, who, 
 on hearing her statement, said : " Neither my royal brother, 
 nor myself, desire any of his subjects should suffer for the 
 exercise of their consciences, if they conduct themselves 
 peaceably towards the government." The duke then gave 
 such directions as were effectual in procuring his discharge. 
 The prisoner was then removed by Habeas Corpus and writ 
 of error from Newgate in Bristol to London, and brought be- 
 fore the King's Bench, where, upon the errors assigned by 
 counsellor Pollexfen, he was cleared of the sentence delivered 
 in execution of the 35 Eliz., by Sir George Jeffries, Lord 
 Chief Justice, and to the great joy of his aged father, his dis- 
 
346 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 tressed wife, and family and friends throughout the nation, he 
 was legally discharged. 
 
 George Whitehead in his journal gives the following ac- 
 count of the suffering of some Friends in London at this 
 time : 
 
 " Our being shut out of our meeting-houses for divers years 
 in and about the cities of London and Westminster, and our 
 meetings kept in the street, in all sorts of weather, was a trial 
 and hardship upon us, even upon old and young, men and 
 women. But that trial was not so great as to have our 
 estates and livelihoods exposed to ruin by a pack of ravenous 
 informers ; although it was no small hardship to our persons 
 to be kept out of doors in the great, severe and long frost 
 and snow in the year 1683, for about three months together, 
 when the river Thames was so frozen, that horses, coaches 
 and carts could pass to and fro upon it, and a street be erect- 
 ed and stand over it." 
 
 At this time England was convulsed with politics. The 
 country party viewed with great uneasiness the arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings of the government ; they still thought the exclusion 
 of the Duke of York was necessary, and for the consideration 
 of this important subject they had several meetings. The 
 Duke of Monmouth was at the head of this plot, but before it 
 was matured, several of the ringleaders were arrested, tried 
 and executed. The brilliant, witty, fascinating Earl of Essex 
 perished in the gloomy walls of the Tower ; Lord Russell, 
 eldest son of the Duke of Bedford, fell a sacrifice to the resent- 
 ment of the court, and suffered on the block for high treason ; 
 and Algernon Sidney lost his life upon the scaffold, on 
 account of his action in the same plot. 
 
 The dissenters were persecuted with fresh vigor, and the 
 Friends, unwilling to voluntarily bear this additional suffering, 
 wrote an address to the king, exculpating their Society from 
 all enmity against the government. It concluded with the 
 following paragraph : 
 
 " Therefore we humbly entreat thee, O king, in princely 
 justice, Christian charity and compassion, to open our 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 347 
 
 prison doors, and take off our bonds, where the innocent 
 are opprest in thy land, that fear God, and (in conver- 
 sation) truly honor the king ; and suffer not the ruin of 
 such as are quiet in the land, the widow and the father- 
 less, for their peaceable consciences, to lie at the door 
 of a prince, professing the tender and compassionate religion 
 of Christ." 
 
 This address was presented to the king at Windsor, on the 
 eighth of the eighth month [August], by George Whitehead, 
 Alexander Parker, Gilbert Latey, and Francis Cornfield, on 
 behalf of themselves and the Society of Friends, but it did 
 not produce any relaxation of the oppressive measures during 
 the reign of Charles the Second. Towards the latter part of 
 this year, Princess Anne, daughter of the Duke of York, was 
 married to Prince George of Denmark, and the Duke of 
 Monmouth was restored to favor. 
 
 Notwithstanding the opposition made to the succession of 
 the Duke of York, he was proclaimed king immediately 
 1684. after the death of his brother without the least tumult or 
 shadow of opposition. He made an opening speech 
 before the council at Whitehall, in which he disclaimed arbi- 
 trary principles, and promised his protection to the estab- 
 lished Church and the liberties of the people. As usual he 
 received congratulatory addresses, couched in servile terms 
 of adulation, from every part of the kingdom. Amongst 
 the rest he received a fictitious letter, remarkable for its 
 brevity, uncouthness and blunt familiarity of expression, 
 which has been styled by Eachard and Hume the general 
 address of the Quakers. We give it entire. 
 
 " We are come to testify our sorrow for the death of our 
 good friend Charles, and our joy for thy being made our 
 governor. We are told that thou art not of the persuasion of 
 the Church of England, no more than we, wherefore, we 
 hope thou wilt grant us the same liberty thou allowest 
 thyself. Which doing we wish thee all manner of hap- 
 piness." 
 
 At the death of King Charles, it was found by computa- 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 tion, thai one thousand and five hundred Friends were in 
 the various prisons of the kingdom. The grievous sufferings 
 they had long endured with patience, induced them, on every 
 change of government, to apply to the new rulers, in hopes 
 at last to obtain redress. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 About a month after the accession of King James to the 
 throne, George Whitehead, Gilbert Latey, and Alex- 
 1685. ander Parker, waited upon him with the following 
 Address : 
 
 " TO KING JAMES THE SECOND. 
 
 " The humble application of the people called Quakers : 
 " Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God (by whom kings 
 reign) to take hence the late King Charles the Second, and 
 to preserve thee peaceably to succeed, we, thy subjects, hear- 
 tily desire that the Giver of all good and perfect gifts may 
 please to endue thee with wisdom and mercy, in the use of 
 thy great power to his glory, the king's honor, and the king- 
 dom's good. And it being our sincere resolution according 
 to our peaceable principles and conversation (by the assist- 
 ance of Almighty God), to live peaceably and honestly as 
 becomes true and faithful subjects, under the king's govern- 
 ment, and a conscientious people that truly fear and serve 
 God, we do humbly hope that the king's tenderness will 
 appear, and extend with his power to express the same, 
 recommending to his princely clemency the case of our pre- 
 sent suffering friends hereunto annexed." 
 
 An account of the number of sufferers was then added, 
 stating the place of their confinement and their several 
 conditions. 
 
 Soon after, the Friends of London submitted a more 
 copious account of their sufferings to the king and both 
 Houses of Parliament, in which they recapitulated the grie- 
 vous persecutions they sustained by no less than ten penal 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 laws,* which, for a long series of years, had been rigorously 
 enforced by ignorant magistrates, to gratify a causeless 
 enmity. They at length obtained the following warrant to 
 Sir Robert Sawyer, Attorney -general. 
 " James R. 
 
 " Whereas, we are given to understand that several of 
 our subjects, commonly called Quakers, in the schedules 
 hereunto annexed, are either convicted, or, upon process, in 
 order to their conviction, of premunire, for not swearing, or 
 indicted or presented for not coming to Church, or convicted 
 for the same, and several of them have been returned into our 
 Exchequer, and in charge for twenty pounds per mensem, 
 according to the statutes in that case provided, and some of 
 them lie in prison upon writs de excommunicatione capiendo, 
 and other processes, for the causes aforesaid ; and we being 
 willing that our said subjects, and other our subjects, com- 
 monly called Quakers, who are or have been persecuted, 
 indicted, convicted, or imprisoned, for any of the causes 
 aforesaid, should receive the full benefit of our general par- 
 don, which we have been pleased to grant to our loving sub- 
 jects by our royal proclamation, with all possible ease to 
 them, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby authorize, 
 will, and require, you to cause such of our subjects, com- 
 monly called Quakers, who are in prison for any of the 
 causes aforesaid, to be forthwith discharged out of prison, 
 and forthwith to stop and discharge, or cause to be discharg- 
 ed, by giving your consent on our behalf, all fines, forfeit- 
 
 * The following is a list of the statutes: 
 
 The 1st Eliz., ch. 2 ; for twelve pence a Sunday. 
 
 The 5th Eliz., ch 23; de excommunicatione capiendo. 
 
 The 23d Eliz., ch. 1 ; for L.20 a month. 
 
 The 29th Eliz., ch. 6, for continuation. 
 
 The 35th Eliz., ch. 1, for adjuring the realm on pain of death. 
 
 The 3d James the First, ch. 4, Premunire. 
 
 The 13th and 14th King Charles II., for transportation. 
 
 The 17th Charles II., ch. 2, against non-conformists. 
 
 The 22d Charles II., ch. 2, against seditious conventicles. 
 
 The 27th Henry VIIL, ch. 20, for the recovery of tithes. 
 
 i 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 351 
 
 ures, or sums of money, charged upon any of our subjects, 
 commonly called Quakers, for not coming to church, or set 
 upon ihem upon any process for the same ; as also all pro- 
 cesses, indictments, presentments, and convictions, for any of 
 the said causes, by entering nolle prosequi, or otherwise, as 
 you shall judge necessary, for rendering that our pardon 
 most effectual and beneficial for our said subjects ; and for 
 your so doing this shall be your warrant. 
 
 " Given at our Court at Whitehall, the 15th day of 
 March, 1685. By His Majesty's command. 
 
 " Sunderland, P. 
 
 " To our trusty and well-beloved \ 
 our Attorney-general." \ 
 
 Persecution not only ceased, but many who were confined 
 by prison-walls on account of their religion, obtained liberty 
 through the favors of a popish prince, which they were un- 
 able to do under his brother, Charles the Second. 
 
 We will deviate a few moments, for the purpose of men- 
 tioning the actions of the unhappy Duke of Monmouth, who, 
 on the death of his father, King Charles, went to Brussels. 
 He raised three men-of-war and some forces in Holland, with 
 which he sailed to the western coast of England, where he 
 published a proclamation against King James, written, it was 
 thought at the time, by the violent Robert Ferguson. The 
 Duke of Argyle landed in Scotland, and endeavored to raise 
 a rebellion there before the Duke of Monmouth should land 
 in the west. Both of them were defeated, taken, and exe- 
 cuted within a few days ; and a great number of their fol- 
 lowers were executed, without the form of a trial, by the Earl 
 of Feversham and Colonel Kirk. 
 
 Even when the Friends were released from imprisonment, 
 they were exposed to the power of unprincipled in- 
 1686. formers. The king having kindly received them at 
 sundry times, they were encouraged to present a com- 
 plaint and petition against the informers and then: iniquitous 
 practices. The king appointed Richard Graham and Philip 
 
f 
 
 352 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Burton commissioners to make an examination of the sub- 
 ject, and they held their meeting at Clifford's Inn on the 4th 
 of the fifth month [May]. The king in cabinet, on the 11th 
 of the fifth month [May], referred the report and the petition 
 to the lord chancellor, in order to correct the irregular pro- 
 ceedings of some justices and informers ; besides which, he 
 signified his pleasure to the subordinate magistrates and 
 justices, that they should put a stop to the depredations of 
 these men. George Fox, who resided mostly in London, 
 wrote an epistle of caution to his friends, bidding them be- 
 ware of carelessness, now that they were favored with 
 liberty : 
 
 " Friends : The Lord, by his eternal power, hath opened 
 the heart of the king to open the prison-doors, by which about 
 fifteen or sixteen hundred are set at liberty ; and hath given 
 a check to the informers, so that in many places our meetings 
 are pretty quiet. So my desires are, that both liberty and 
 sufferings, all may be sanctified to his people ; and Friends 
 may prize the mercies of the Lord in all things, and to him 
 be thankful, who stilleth the raging waves of the sea, and 
 allayeth the storms and tempests, and maketh a calm. And 
 therefore it is good to trust in the Lord, and cast your care 
 upon him who careth for you. For when ye were in your 
 jails and prisons, then the Lord did, by his eternal arm and 
 power, uphold you, and sanctified them to you (and unto 
 some he had made them as a sanctuary), and tried his people 
 as in a furnace of affliction, both in prisons and spoiling of 
 goods. And in all this the Lord was with his people, and 
 taught them to know that the earth is the Lord's, and the 
 fulness thereof; and that he was in all places; who crovvn- 
 eth the year with his goodness. (Psalms lxv.) Therefore, 
 let all God's people be diligent, and careful to keep the camp 
 of God holy, pure, and clean, and to serve God and Christ, 
 and one another, in the glorious, peaceable Gospel of life and 
 salvation ; which glory shinelh over God's camp, and his 
 great prophet, and bishop, and shepherd, is among or in the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 353 
 
 midst of them, exercising his heavenly offices in them, so 
 that you, his people, may rejoice in Christ Jesus, through 
 whom you have peace with God. For he that destroyeth 
 the devil and his work, and bruises the serpent's head, is all 
 God's people's heavenly foundation and rock to build upon ; 
 which was the holy prophets' and apostles' rock in days 
 passed, and is now a rock of our age, which rock and foun- 
 dation of God standeth sure. And upon this the Lord God 
 established all his people. Amen. 
 
 " George Fox. 
 
 M London, the 25th of the 
 7th month, 1686." 
 
 In this year, David Barclay departed this life, at his house 
 in Ury, Scotland, and on his death-bed he clearly manifest- 
 ed the great blessing of living in peace with God. Two 
 days before his death, he said to his son Robert, " I shall go 
 to the Lord, and be gathered to many of my brethren, who 
 are gone before me." Happy in the prospect of his son suc- 
 ceeding him in a life of piety, virtue, and religious conver- 
 sation, he said ; — " The perfect discovery of the day-spring 
 from on high, how great a blessing hath it been to me and 
 my family !" One of his friends praying by his bed-side, he 
 lifted up his hands, and said, "Amen, amen, for ever ! How 
 precious is the love of God among his children, and their 
 love one to another ! thereby shall all men know that ye are 
 Christ's disciples, if ye love one another. My love is with 
 you, and I leave it among you." His last words were utter- 
 ed in prayer. " Praises to the Lord. Let now thy servant 
 depart in peace. Into thy hands, O Father, I commit my 
 soul, spirit, and body. Thy will, O Lord, be done in earth, 
 as it is done in heaven." Soon after which he breathed his 
 last. 
 
 Anne, wife of George Whitehead, also died this year. 
 She was a woman possessing the purest traits of piety, be- 
 nevolence, and charity, adorned with the wisdom which is 
 
 from above, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated ; full 
 23 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of mercy, and of a tender heart enlisted in God's work, she 
 brought forth good fruit. Her time was employed in visit- 
 ing the poor and sick, ministering to their wants, and in 
 whispering words of comfort to those who were confined in 
 prisons. A friend to the widow and fatherless, she was justly 
 esteemed an ornament to her profession, for which she more 
 than once undauntingly suffered, when it fell to her lot. A 
 number of her old friends visited her sick chamber, and to 
 some questions she replied ; — " I have my memory very well, 
 and my understanding is clear, though I am very weak ; but 
 I am given up to the will of the Lord, whether to live or to 
 die ; for I have been faithful to him in what I knew, both in 
 life and death." To another visitor, she said ; — " If I never 
 see thy face more, it is well with me, God knoweth my in- 
 tegrity, and how I have been and walked before him." At 
 another time, she said ; — " I have done with all things in this 
 life, and have nothing that troubles me ; but am in true peace 
 and ease, in every way." She thus departed in peace on the 
 twenty-seventh of the fifth month [May], in the sixty-third 
 year of her age, leaving impressions of an affectionate regard 
 for her memory, on the hearts of many who were relieved by 
 her charity, and comforted in affliction by her ministering 
 spirit. 
 
 It was in the beginning of this year, Louis the Fourteenth 
 revoked the edict of Nantz, which had been pub- 
 1687. lished by Henry the Fourth, for the security of the 
 Protestants, and was declared irrevocable. Multitudes 
 fled from the continent, and were forced to find an asylum 
 in foreign countries. Nearly fifty thousand took refuge in 
 England, and the king's friendly reception and protection of 
 the fugitives, and the blame he attached to the king of France, 
 were ineffectual in curing his subjects of their jealousy or 
 their antipathy to his religion. 
 
 It was in the fourth month [April], the king published his 
 long expected declaration for liberty of conscience to all his 
 subjects, which stated " That henceforth the execution of all 
 penal laws concerning ecclesiastical matters, for not coming 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 355 
 
 to church, for not receiving the sacraments, or for any other 
 non-conformity with the established religion, or for perform- 
 ing religious worship in any other way, should be suspend- 
 ed." The Friends, as well as other dissenters, sent up ad- 
 dresses to the king, and to William Penn, who presented the 
 address of the Society of Friends ; the king returned the fol- 
 lowing reply : 
 
 " Gentlemen : 
 
 " I thank you heartily for your address. Some of 
 you know (I am sure you do, Mr. Penn) that it was always 
 my principle, that conscience ought not to be forced ; and 
 that all men ought to have the liberty of their conscience. 
 And what I have promised in my declaration, I will con- 
 tinue to perform as long as I live ; and I hope, before I die, 
 to settle it so that after ages shall have no reason to alter it" 
 
 The dissenters as well as the king were desirous that the 
 repeal of the penal laws might receive a parliamentary sanc- 
 tion ; yet the ends they had respectively in view were such 
 as to prevent a cordial coalition. The king's design in pro- 
 moting and establishing popery in the nation, became more 
 apparent every day. Notwithstanding he had prohibited 
 Protestant ministers from preaching on doctrinal points, yet 
 some of them would not obey the proclamation ; and, pro- 
 voked at this opposition, the king erected, a new ecclesiasti- 
 cal communion to enforce obedience to his mandates. He 
 sent an ambassador to Rome, to acknowledge his spiritual 
 obedience to the Pope and reconcile his kingdom to him. 
 A popish nuncio was sent to London, who made a public 
 entry at Windsor, with all the usual formalities. He attempted 
 to force Papists into the universities, and succeeded in de- 
 posing the Fellows of Magdalen College, at Oxford, to make 
 room for Romanists. The king also permitted the Jesuits 
 to erect a college in the Savoy at London, and suffered the 
 Friars to walk the public streets in the dress of their monas- 
 tical orders. In these days the patrons of the Church of 
 Rome asserted liberty of conscience to be a Christian duty ; 
 but can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his 
 
356 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 spots ? The king labored also to persuade the Prince and 
 Princess of Orange to give their assent to the repealing of 
 the test and penal laws, but they refused. Herr Fagel, 
 counsellor and chief pensionary at the Hague, declared the 
 judgment of the prince and princess on this subject, and 
 stated, " That they were willing to assent to the repealing of 
 the penal laws, as far as they had any tendency to the exer- 
 cise of worship ; but as for those that debarred Papists from 
 sitting in Parliament, of which the test was not the least, they 
 could not give their assent to the repealing of such limita- 
 tions." 
 
 The king's declaration for the liberty of conscience was, 
 on the twenty-seventh of the fourth month [April], 
 1688. republished, " To show that he was firm and constant 
 in his resolution, and that his intentions were not 
 changed since he issued it out, to excite his subjects to join 
 in it, and to choose such members of Parliament as might 
 do their part to finish what he had begun." To this 
 document was annexed an order of the council, for reading 
 the declaration in all the churches and chapels throughout 
 the kingdom ; and ordering the bishops to send and distribute 
 the declaration throughout their several dioceses for the benefit 
 of parishioners. The Archbishop of Canterbury and six 
 bishops petitioned the kin^ " not to insist on the distribution 
 and reading of his declaration, alleging that their great 
 adverseness to the distribution and publication of it in their 
 churches, proceeded neither from any want of duty and obe- 
 dience to his majesty ; nor from any want of due tenderness 
 to dissenters ; but because it was founded upon such a dis- 
 pensing power, as had been often declared illegal in Parlia- 
 ment." 
 
 Although they waited personally on the king with their 
 petition, without communicating the contents to any person 
 whatsoever, yet he resented it as an insult and committed 
 them to the Tower. This extraordinary proceeding occa- 
 sioned a great alarm among the people. They were indicted 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 357 
 
 and tried for publishing a seditious libel, but were acquitted 
 by the judges who presided at the lung's Bench. 
 
 In this year Tlieophila Townsend, a woman of knowledge 
 and talent, published a book, in which she gave an account 
 of the grievous persecution of her friends in Gloucestershire, 
 and a narrative of her imprisonment for three years in Glou- 
 cester Castle. In addressing those who despised Friends, 
 she said : "I do not write this from a spirit of revenge 
 against any, but it is in the love of God, to warn you, and 
 to exhort you to repentance, that ye may find mercy with the 
 Lord, which is the real desire of my soul. I can truly say in 
 the presence of the Lord, that I have nothing in my heart but 
 love and good will to the worst of our enemies, and this is 
 purity of heart, and in sincerity of mind. I really desire your 
 eternal peace and well-being, though ye have hardened your 
 hearts against the Lord, and his truth and people. Turn to 
 the Lord, I beseech you, bow before the Almighty, who will 
 plead with all flesh, and shall call all to an account, and re- 
 ward every one according to what he hath done in the body, 
 whether it be good or bad. Consider this, therefore, whilst 
 ye have time, and mind the things that belong to your peace, 
 before they are hid from your eyes ; for the long suffering of 
 the Lord will come to an end, who said, My Spirit shall not 
 always strive with man. Therefore whilst the Spirit of the 
 Lord, his light, his grace yet strives in your hearts, 1o turn you 
 off from your evil ways, be willing to embrace it, believe in 
 it, take counsel of it, submit to it with all your heart, be will- 
 ing to be led and guided by it, and incline your hearts to fol- 
 low it in all things, and then it will lead you to rest and peace 
 with the Lord for ever." 
 
 When King James was declining in power, the odium 
 resulting from his measures was attached to all who were 
 supposed to be in any manner friendly towards him. Wil- 
 liam Penn was exposed to the most undeserved obloquy on 
 this account ; he was decried as a papist, and as his inno- 
 cence needed no justification, he silently submitted to the 
 slander. William Popples, Secretary of the Land Office, and 
 
358 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 a particular friend of William Penn, wrote him a letter on 
 the subject, in which he begged him to answer these accusa- 
 tions against his reputation. In reply, he ascribed his 
 free access to the king to the intimacy that at one time ex- 
 isted between his majesty and his father, Admiral Penn- 
 To this he added : " My father's humble request to him 
 upon his death-bed was, to protect me from the inconvenien- 
 ces and troubles my persuasion might expose me to ; and his 
 friendly promise to do it, and exact performance of it, from 
 the moment I addressed myself to him ; I say, when all this 
 is considered, anybody that hath the least pretence to good 
 nature, gratitude or generosity, must needs know how to inter- 
 pret my access to the king." In another part of this letter, 
 he says ; " Whatsoever divides man's heart from God, sepa- 
 rates it from his neighbor ; and he that loves self more than 
 God, can never love his neighbor as himself. For, as the 
 Apostle said, If we do not love him, whom we have seen ; 
 how can we love God, whom we have not seen ?" 
 
 " Since all of all parties profess to believe in God, Christ 
 the Spirit and the scripture, that the soul is immortal, that 
 there are eternal rewards and punishments, and that the vir- 
 tuous shall receive the one, and the wicked suffer the other ; 
 I say, since this is the common faith of Christendom, let us 
 all resolve, in the strength of God, to live up to what we agree 
 in, before we fall out so miserably about the rest, in which we 
 differ. I am persuaded, the change and conflict which that pi- 
 ous course would bring us to, would go very far to dispose our 
 natures to compound easily for all the rest, and we might hope 
 yet to see happy days in poor England. And how is it possible 
 for the eminent men of every religious persuasion (espe- 
 cially the present ministers of the parishes of England), to 
 think of giving an account to God at the last day, without 
 using the utmost of their endeavors to moderate the mem- 
 bers of their respective communions towards those that differ 
 from them, is a mystery to me ; but this I know, and must 
 lay it at their doors, I charge also my own soul with it, God 
 requires moderation and humility from us ; for he is at hand, 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 359 
 
 who will not spare to judge our impatience, if we have no 
 patience for one another. May the eternal God rebuke the 
 wrath of man, and humble all under the sense of the evil of 
 this day ; and yet, unworthy as we are, give us peace for thy 
 holy name's sake !" 
 
 This year Rebecca Travers died in London. She was 
 born in the year 1609, and educated among the Baptists, of 
 which sect she became a zealous professor. She was con- 
 verted to the Society of Friends in 1654, through the ministry 
 of James Nayler. She was a virtuous woman, and suffered, 
 severe imprisonments several times on account of her religion 
 She labored successfully in the city of London, and publish- 
 ed several tracts of her religious experience, and stating: 
 " That though she had been a reader of the scriptures from a 
 child of six years old, as constantly as most persons, yet when, 
 by the power of the gospel, she was turned from darkness to 
 light, they appeared another thing in her view, being clearly 
 explained to her state and understanding, as she came to 
 learn of that spirit which gave them forth." After a long life 
 of virtuous and charitable deeds, she died in peace on the 
 15th day of the fourth month [April], in the eightieth year of 
 her age. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The king was now an avowed Papist, and the hopes of the 
 Protestants were centered on the accession of the Prince of 
 Orange to the throne. But these hopes were somewhat 
 damped by a report of the queen's pregnancy, which being a 
 circumstance peculiarly favorable to the views and designs of 
 the Romanists, occasioned the Protestants some uneasiness. 
 
 The dissatisfaction of the people was so general as to in- 
 duce them to unite in inviting the Prince of Orange to visit 
 England and assume the throne. He sailed in a fleet, with 
 twelve thousand land forces ; James, deserted by many of his 
 former friends, fled to France and took protection at the 
 court of St. Germains. William, Prince of Orange, entered 
 London, and was hailed as the deliverer of England. A 
 convention was summoned, which conferred the crown upon 
 him and his consort, with the title of William and Mary, 
 king and queen of England. He stated to the convention 
 " that he desired them to meet to advise him in the best 
 manner how to pursue the ends of his declaration in calling 
 a free parliament, for the preservation of the Protestant 
 religion, the restoring of the rights and liberties of the king- 
 dom, and settling the same, that they might not be in danger 
 of being again subverted." 
 
 William and Mary were crowned at Westminster, on the 
 eleventh of the second month [February] by the Bishop 
 1689. of London, (the Archbishop of Canterbury refusing to 
 take part in the ceremony) and they were soon after de- 
 clared king and queen of Scotland. War was proclaimed 
 against France, and the late King James, aided by the French 
 king, went over to Ireland with forces, but was defeated by 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 361 
 
 William in a bloody battle near the river Boyne. But it would 
 not be in place with the intention of this work to give a full ac- 
 count of this revolution. After the king appointed his privy 
 counsel, they judged it expedient to convert the present conven- 
 tion into a parliament, in order that the new settlement might 
 be established by a legal sanction, and it was thought hazard- 
 ous to the peace of the nation to proceed to a new election, un- 
 til the king was more firmly settled on the throne. The par- 
 liament now counting themselves invested with full power to 
 discharge their functions, proceeded to the enacting of such 
 laws as appeared requisite to attain the ends of the revolu- 
 tion. As the fears and the aversion of the Protestant sub- 
 jects to Popery had given rise to a coalition, which brought 
 about this revolution, the first attempt of parliament was to 
 strengthen this coalition, in uniting the Protestants of the dif- 
 ferent denominations in stronger bonds of alliance against 
 their common adversaries, and attaching them closely to the 
 present government, by destroying the " sacramental test," 
 and permitting all Protestants to hold office, but this bill was 
 rejected by the lords. The next measure in favor of the Dis- 
 senters was attended with better success. It was the Act of 
 Toleration, entitled, " An Act for exempting Protestant sub- 
 jects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the penal- 
 ties of certain laws ;" which passed without much opposition. 
 Some were in favor of excluding Friends, in consequence of 
 a declaration made in the house by some adverse member, 
 " that Quakers were no Christians." The following article was 
 proposed to be inserted in the bill, as a test : " That all such 
 who profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ 
 his eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, co- 
 equal with the Father and the Son, one God blessed for ever ; 
 and acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the old and new 
 Testament to be the revealed will and word of God.' 
 
 Upon viewing this clause of the bill the Friends, who were 
 attending Parliament to solicit the passing thereof in such a 
 manner as might give effectual relief to them and their 
 brethren, as well as to other dissenters, objected to some 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 expression in the above paragraph as unscriptural ; at the 
 desire of Sir Thomas Clarges and some others who were 
 friendly, they proposed the following instead : " I profess 
 faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son, 
 the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for 
 ever; and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
 and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration." 
 
 George Whitehead, Vaughton, William Mead and John 
 Osgood, were examined before the committee of the whole, 
 and gave full satisfaction as to their belief on this subject, 
 which evidence was conducive in gaining the end they 
 sought. 
 
 This act gave liberty to dissenters to hold their meetings 
 without molestation, provided the doors were not locked, 
 barred or bolted during the time of such meeting. It was 
 also provided that they should take an oath ; but as Friends 
 entertained conscientious scruples against taking an oath, 
 they were entitled to the full benefit of the act, by subscribing 
 to the following declaration : 
 
 " I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare, be- 
 fore God and the world, that I will be true and faithful to 
 King William and Queen Mary. And I solemnly profess 
 and declare, that I do from my heart abhor, detest and 
 renounce, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine 
 and position, that princes, excommunicated or deprived by 
 the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be 
 deposed or murdered by their subjects or any other what- 
 soever. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, 
 prelate, state or potentate hath, or ought to have, any power, 
 jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesias- 
 tical or spiritual, within this realm." 
 
 It was also enacted, that no congregation or assembly be 
 allowed by this act, until the place of such meeting should 
 be certified to the bishop of the diocese, or the archdeacon 
 of the archdeaconry, or to the justices of the peace at the 
 general or quarter sessions for the county, city or place, in 
 which such meeting should be held, and registered in the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 363 
 
 bishop's and archdeacon's court respectively, or recorded at 
 the said quarter sessions, for which the registrar or clerk should 
 not take a greater fee or reward than six pence. 
 
 The Friends, at last, were by this act legally tolerated in 
 their religion, and exempted from the persecution they had 
 been long subjected to, for keeping their religious meetings 
 and declining the oath of allegiance and supremacy. But 
 they were still subjected to the power of "spiritual courts," if 
 they refused to pay tithes ; the fifth clause of the act being : 
 
 " Provided always that nothing herein contained should 
 be construed to exempt any of the persons aforesaid from 
 paying of tithes, and other parochial duties, to the church or 
 minister, nor from any prosecution in any ecclesiastical court 
 or elsewhere for the same." 
 
 Although the king was opposed to persecution, yet this 
 exemption was out of his power to grant; being prevented 
 by the coronation oath ; and the sequel will prove that the 
 spirit of persecution survived the act of toleration. 
 
 This year died Alexander Parker. He was born on the 
 borders of Yorkshire, near Bolton in Lancashire ; he 
 1690. was well educated, and early in life was convinced of 
 the truth of the religion professed by Friends, after 
 which conversion he became an eminent minister. When 
 Colonel Hacker sent George Fox to Oliver Cromwell, he 
 accompanied him on his journey to London. He wrote 
 several treatises and epistles to his friends, and finished a 
 life, spent in doing good, on the eighth of the first month 
 [January]. 
 
 William Penn published proposals for the establishment 
 of a settlement in Pennsylvania; but his design was pre- 
 vented by an accusation which was brought against him for 
 being concerned in a new plot. When King William went 
 to attend the Congress at the Hague, some of the disaffected 
 party resolved to take advantage of his absence to form a 
 new conspiracy against the government. To accomplish 
 their purpose, Lord Preston, and a man named Ashton, 
 sailed for France, to concert measures with James, relative 
 
364 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 to their future actions. They were captured in the vessel, 
 and Ashton was immediately executed ; but Lord Preston, 
 to save his own life, turned state-evidence— accusing several, 
 noblemen and others, among whom was "William Penn, of 
 being concerned in the conspiracy to reinstate King James 
 on the throne. 
 
 William Penn defended himself before the king and 
 council ; but the tide of public opinion against him was too 
 strong, and by the advice of some of his friends, he appeared 
 but few times in public during the next two or three years. 
 Lest his friends might be induced to believe the false accu- 
 sations, he sent the following epistle to the London yearly 
 meeting : 
 
 " My beloved, dear, and honored Brethren : 
 
 " My unchangeable love salutes you ; and though 
 I am absent from you, yet I feel the sweet and lowly life of 
 your heavenly fellowship, by which I am with you, and a 
 partaker amongst you, whom I have loved above my chiefest 
 joy. Receive no evil surmisings, neither suffer hard thoughts, 
 through the insinuations of any, to enter your minds against 
 me, your afflicted but not forsaken friend and brother. My 
 enemies are yours, and, in the ground, mine for your sakes ; 
 and that God seeth in secret, and will one day reward open- 
 ly. My privacy is not because men have sworn truly, but 
 falsely against me ; for wicked men have laid in wait for me, 
 and false witnesses have laid to my charge that I knew not, 
 who have never sought myself, but the good of all, through 
 great exercises, and have done some good, and would have 
 done more, and hurt to no man ; but always desired that 
 truth and righteousness, mercy and peace, might take place 
 amongst us. Feel me near you, and lay me near you, my 
 dear and beloved brethren ; and leave me not, neither for- 
 sake, but wrestle with Him that is able to prevail against the 
 cruel desires of some, that we may yet meet in the congre- 
 gation of his people, as in days past, to our mutual comfort. 
 The everlasting God of his chosen in all generations, be in 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 365 
 
 the midst of you and crown your most solemn assemblies 
 with his blessed presence ; that his tender, meek, lowly, and 
 heavenly love and life may flow among you, and that he 
 would please to make it a seasoning and fruitful opportunity 
 to you ; that edified and comforted, you may return home, 
 to his glorious high praise, who is worthy for ever! To 
 whom I commit you, desiring to be remembered of you be- 
 fore Him, in the nearest and freshest accesses ; who cannot 
 forget you in the nearest relation, 
 
 " Your faithful Friend and Brother, 
 
 " William Penn." 
 
 We are now called upon to record the death of Robert 
 Barclay, who, at the age of forty-two, laid down his life in 
 this world, to enjoy in realms of bliss that happy state which 
 God, in his mercy, hath promised to all who obey his com- 
 mands, in living an honest, upright, and righteous life. To 
 the friends around his death-bed he said : " God is good still ; 
 and though I am under a great weight of weakness and 
 sickness, yet my peace flows : and this I know, whatever 
 exercises may be permitted to come upon me, they shall tend 
 to God's glory, and my salvation — in that I rest." He died 
 at his house at Ury, in Scotland, on the third day of the 
 eighth month [August], of this year. In speaking of his 
 character, William Penn says : " He loved the truth and way 
 of God, as revealed among us, above all the world, and was 
 not ashamed of it before men ; but bold and able in main- 
 taining it. Sound in judgment, strong in argument, cheerful 
 in sufferings, of a pleasant disposition ; yet solid, plain, and 
 exemplary in conversation. He was a learned man, a good 
 Christian, an able minisler, a dutiful son, a loving husband, 
 a tender and careful father, an easy master, and a good, kind 
 neighbor and friend. These eminent cmalities, in one who 
 employed them so serviceably, and who had not lived much 
 above half the life of a man, aggravated the loss of him, 
 especially in that nation where he lived." 
 
366 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 George Fox spent his latter years in the city of London 
 and its neighborhood, as the place he could be most 
 1691. essentially and universally serviceable to his friends. 
 
 The last epistle he wrote was to his friends in Ireland, 
 sympathizing with the hardships and dangers by which they 
 were surrounded, on account of the war in that kingdom. 
 On the next day, he preached a powerful and effectual ser- 
 mon at Gracechurch-street meeting, after which he prayed ; 
 then went to Henry Goldney's in White Hart court, accom- 
 panied by some friends, to whom he said: " I thought I felt 
 the cold strike to my heart, as I came out of the meeting- 
 house, but I am glad I was there ; now I am clear ; I am 
 fully clear." 
 
 During his illness, he said to some friends ; " All is well — 
 the seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself. And 
 though I am weak in body, yet the power of God is over all, 
 and the seed reigns over all disorderly spirits." 
 
 William Penn, who was with him at the hour of death, 
 says : " As he lived so he died, feeling the same eternal 
 power that raised him to be greatly serviceable in his gene- 
 ration, and preserved him steadfast in a life of righteousness, 
 to raise him above the fear of death in his last moments. In 
 full assurance he triumphed over death ; and was so calm in 
 his spirit, to the last, as if death were hardly worth notice ; 
 recommending to some of us, who were with him, the disper- 
 sion of an epistle he had lately written, and some of his 
 books ; but above all, the care of Friends, and of all Friends 
 those in Ireland and America, twice over repeating ' mind 
 poor Friends in Ireland and America.' And to some who 
 inquired about his situation, he answered, ' never heed ; the 
 Lord's presence is over all weakness and death — the Lord 
 reigns, blessed be the Lord.' " 
 
 The third day, after preaching his last sermon in Grace- 
 church street, he was removed from works to rewards, expir- 
 ing on the thirteenth of the eleventh month [November^, of 
 this year, in the sixty -seventh year of his age. 
 
 On the sixteenth of the said month, his body was taken to 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 367 
 
 the Friends' burial ground, near Bunhill fields, attended by 
 a large concourse of persons. He was a man of tall stature 
 and large body, but remarkably temperate in eating, drink- 
 ing, and sleeping. His deficiency in literature, and want of 
 a liberal education, have furnished topics of ridicule for some 
 writers who have noticed him. No man, perhaps, had a bet- 
 ter opportunity of judging the intrinsic value of his mind, and 
 of discovering the merits beneath the unpolished surface, 
 than William Penn, who describes him to be " A man whom 
 God endowed with a clear and wonderful depth ; a discerner 
 of other men's spirits and very much a master of his own. 
 And though the side of his understanding, which lay next to 
 the world, and especially the expression of it, might be found 
 unfashionable to nice ears, his matter was nevertheless very 
 profound, and would not only bear to be often considered, 
 but the more it was so, the more weighty and instructive it 
 appeared. And as abruptly and brokenly as sometimes his 
 sentences would fall from him about divine things, it is well 
 known they were often as text to many fairer declarations. 
 And indeed is showed beyond contradiction, that God sent 
 him, in that no art or parts had any share in the matter or 
 manner of his ministry ; and that so many great, excellent, 
 and necessary truths, as he came forth to preach to mankind, 
 had, therefore, nothing of man's wit or wisdom to recommend 
 them. So that as to man he was an original, being no man's 
 copy." 
 
 Although we have quoted largely on the character of 
 George Fox, we cannot omit inserting the following para- 
 graph, written by his friend Thomas Elwood. 
 
 " He was, indeed, a heavenly-minded man, zealous for the 
 name of the Lord, and preferred the honor of God before all 
 things. He was valiant for the truth, bold in asserting it, 
 patient in suffering for it, unwearied in laboring in it, steady 
 in his testimony to it, immoveable as a rook. Deep he was 
 in divine knowledge — clear in opening heavenly mysteries 
 — plain and powerful in preaching — fervent in prayer. He 
 was richly endued with heavenly wisdom — quick in discern- 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 ing — sound in judgment — able and ready in giving — dis- 
 creet in keeping counsel — a lover of righteousness — an en- 
 courager of virtue, justice, temperance, meekness, purity, 
 chastity, modesty, humility, charity, and self-denial, in all 
 things, both by word and example. Graceful he was in 
 countenance, manly in personage, grave in gesture, courteous 
 in conversation, weighty in communication, instructive in 
 discourse, and free from affectation in speech and carriage. 
 A severe reprover of hard and obstinate sinners — a mild and 
 gentle admonisher of such as were tender and sensible of 
 their failings ; not apt to resent personal wrongs — easy to 
 forgive injuries ; but zealously earnest, where the honor of 
 God, the prosperity of truth, and the peace of the church 
 were concerned. Very tender, compassionate, and pitiful, 
 he was to all, that were under any sort of affliction ; full of 
 brotherly love, full of fatherly care ; for indeed the care of 
 the churches of Christ was daily upon him, the prosperity 
 and peace whereof he studiously sought." 
 
 Nothing of much importance took place this year, except 
 
 the death of Stephen Crisp. He died during the 
 1692. latter part of the eighth month [August], in the city of 
 
 London. Having spent a life of devotion to the service 
 of God and man, he was well prepared to enjoy the eternal 
 peace which is the reward of all who follow the strait and 
 narrow way. To George Whitehead, who visited him about 
 four days before his decease, he said, — " I see an end of mor- 
 tality, but cannot come at it. I desire the Lord to deliver 
 me out of this troublesome and painful body ; yet there is 
 no cloud in my way ; I have full assurance of my peace 
 with God in Christ Jesus, my integrity and uprightness of 
 heart is known to the Lord, and I have peace and justifica- 
 tion in Christ Jesus, who made me upright in the sight of 
 God. I have fought the good fight of faith, and I have run 
 my course, and am waiting for the crown of life that is laid 
 up for me." To another, he said, — " Serve the truth for the 
 simple truth's sake, and it will preserve thee, as it hath done 
 me." He desired to be remembered to all his friends, and on 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 369 
 
 the twentieth day of the eighth month [August], he departed 
 this life, at Wandsworth, in Surrey, near London, in the 
 sixty-fourth year of his age. His body was removed to the 
 meeting-house in Gracechureh street, and from thence, ac- 
 companied by many Friends and others, to their burial 
 ground, at Bunhill fields. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 George Keith, who had occasioned considerable trouble 
 in Pennsylvania, since the death of George Fox, re- 
 1693. turned to England, and appeared at the London 
 yearly meeting, for this year. Here he conducted him- 
 self in a very strange and passionate manner. It appeared 
 that Thomas Elwood had written an excellent epistle to 
 Friends, briefly commemorating the mercies of the Almighty, 
 and warning them to beware of that spirit of contention and 
 division which had appeared of late in George Keith ; which 
 epistle was submitted to and approved by the meeting. 
 George Keith wished them to recall this epistle, but he refused 
 to retract the unjust representations he had made to the world. 
 The yearly meeting heard him patiently, until he withdrew 
 of his own accord, then approved of the following, which 
 was submitted by George Whitehead. 
 
 " That the said George Keith hath of late been, and yet is, 
 actuated by an unchristian spirit, which hath moved and led 
 him to stir up contention and strife in the Church of Christ, 
 and to cause divisions, separations, and breaches among 
 them that profess the truth ; and that the tendency of divers 
 of his late writings and actions hath been to expose the truth 
 of the friends thereof, to the reproach of the world, did unani- 
 mously agree, and declare it to be the sense and judgment of 
 this meeting; and it is the sense and judgment of this meet- 
 ing, that the said George Keith is gone from the blessed unity 
 of the peaceable spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and hath 
 thereby separated himself from the holy fellowship of the 
 Church of Christ; and that whilst he is in an unreconciled 
 and uncharitable state, he ought not to preach or pray in any 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 371 
 
 Friends' meeting, nor be owned or received as one of us, 
 until by a public and hearty acknowledgment of the great 
 offence he has given, and hurt he hath done, and condemna- 
 tion of himself therefor, he gives proof of his unfeigned re- 
 pentance, and does his endeavor to remove and take off the 
 reproach he hath brought upon truth and Friends, which in 
 the love of God we heartily desire for his soul's sake." 
 
 He held a separate meeting at Turner's Hall in Londom 
 and gave notice by a public advertisement that he intended 
 to point out the errors of the Quaker doctrines, inviting all 
 Friends to attend. Lest they should be misrepresented by 
 this apostate, several of their number wrote a pamphlet, 
 entitled, " The Christian Doctrine and Society of the People 
 called Quakers, cleared, &c," and when Keith published an 
 account of his meeting at Turner's Hall, he was answered 
 by Thomas Elwood in an article entitled, " An answer to 
 George Keith's narrative of his proceedings at Turner's Hall, 
 wherein his charges against divers of the people, called 
 Quakers, are fairly considered, examined and refuted." It 
 was not answered ; the apostate seems to have grown weary 
 of the controversy. A person named Lesley enlisted him- 
 self as a volunteer in George Keith's cause, and published 
 an anonymous work, entitled, " The Snake in the Grass." 
 In reply to this, Thomas Elwood proved, " First, that the 
 matters therein charged upon us, are, generally, the same that 
 have been charged on us heretofore by Faldo, Hicks, and 
 other adversaries, and refuted over and over again. Secondly, 
 tViat the things they charge on us, as errors and heresy, are 
 not pretended to be proved by any plain express positions or 
 assertions of ours ; but from our adversaries' own perverse 
 meanings, and wrested constructions of our words, always 
 denied and rejected by us. Thirdly, that the words and 
 passages brought by our adversaries for proof of their charges 
 against us, are not taken out of our doctrinal treatises, or 
 declarations of faith and principles; but (for the most part) 
 out of controversial books, wherein, ofttimes, the scope and 
 aim of the author is, not so much to assert or express his 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 own principles or doctrines, as to impugn and expose his 
 adversaries, by showing the contradictions, absurdities, and 
 ill-consequences of his adversaries' opinions ; from whence, 
 positively to conclude the author's own judgment, is neither 
 safe nor fair. Fourthly, that however any of our former 
 adversaries might have been misled in their judgments con- 
 cerning us, George Keith, who hath now moved this con- 
 troversy against us, knows full well that we do not hold 
 those things, either generally as a people, or as particular 
 persons, which he has charged on us as errors." 
 
 The author of " the Snake in the Grass" was answered 
 by Joseph Wyeth in a small book, called, " A Switch for the 
 Snake," which proved its pages to be full of misrepresenta- 
 tions, fabulous tales and crafty imposture. 
 
 This year Queen Mary died of the small-pox. She was 
 a woman not more eminent in her elevated rank of 
 1694. life, than for her intellectual endowments and virtu- 
 ous disposition. The ambassador of the king, her 
 father, at the Hague, who endeavored to convert her to the 
 Roman religion, once said, " That he never before believed 
 that a woman was to be found so well experienced in the 
 doctrine of the Christian religion ; and therefore he would 
 not advise any to enter into discourse with her about that 
 matter. She awaited the change with a perfect resignation 
 to Ihe Divine Will, and continued to the last in the hope 
 of recovering the reward of her good works. A few hours 
 before she died, she said, " I believe now that I shall die 
 shortly ; and I thank God that in my youth I have learned 
 this true doctrine, that repentance ought not to be deferred 
 to a dying-bed." The king, who loved his wife dearly and 
 devotedly, did not leave her chamber during the whole 
 of her sickness, and on the twenty -seventh of the twelfth 
 month [December], she departed this life in peace. 
 
 The zealous partizans of the late King James, on the sup- 
 position that the interest of William was weakened by the 
 death of the queen, renewed their efforts for his restoration, 
 both by an application to the French king, to enable James 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 373 
 
 to make a descent upon England, and also by a plot at home 
 to assassinate King William, which designs were timely dis- 
 covered and defeated. 
 
 The two Houses of Parliament entered into an association 
 to defend King William's life and government ; and in case 
 he should come to a violent death, to revenge it upon his ad- 
 versaries and their adherents. Numbers joined this associa- 
 tion ; but on account of their conscientious principles against 
 taking up arms, Friends could not become members, but 
 manifested their loyalty and fidelity to the king, by publish- 
 ing the following declaration : 
 
 " The ancient testimony and principle of the people called 
 Quakers, renewed with respect to the king and government, 
 and touching the present association : — 
 
 " We the said people do solemnly and sincerely declare, 
 that it hath been our judgment and principle from the first 
 day we were called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, 
 manifested in our consciences unto this day, that the setting 
 up and putting down kings and governments is God's pecu- 
 liar prerogative, for causes best known to himself; and that 
 it is not our work or business to have any hand or contri- 
 vance therein, nor to be busybodies in matters above our sta- 
 tion, much less to plot or contrive the ruin or overturn of any 
 of them ; but to pray for the king, and for the safety of our 
 nation, and good of all men, that we may live a peaceable 
 and quiet life, in all godliness and honesty, under the govern- 
 ment which God is pleased to set over us. 
 
 " And according to this our ancient and innocent princi- 
 ples, we often have given forth our testimony, and now do, 
 against all plotting, conspiracies, and contriving insurrections 
 against the king or the government, and against all treacher- 
 rous, barbarous, and murderous designs whatsoever, as works 
 of the devil and darkness ; and we sincerely bless God, and 
 are heartily thankful to the king and government for the 
 liberty and privileges we enjoy under them by law, esteeming 
 it our duty to be true and faithful to them. 
 
 " And whereas we the said people are required to sign the 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 said association, we sincerely declare that our refusing so to 
 do, is not out of any dissatisfaction to the king of these realms, 
 but purely because we cannot, for conscience sake, kill or re- 
 venge, either for ourselves or any man else. 
 
 " And we believe that the timely discovery and prevention 
 of the late barbarous design and mischievous plot against the 
 king and government, and the sad effects it might have had, 
 is an eminent mercy from Almighty God, for which we and 
 the whole nation have great cause to be humbly thankful to 
 Him, and to pray for the continuance of his mercies to them 
 and us." 
 
 Friends still suffered many inconveniences and trials, on 
 account of the non-payment of tithes and other eccle- 
 1695. siastical demands. The clergy were very rigorous in 
 executing the penalties of the law against them, and 
 by an oppressive mode of recovery, they secured more than 
 the original demand. At a meeting for the benefit of suffer- 
 ers, held in London, an address was sent to the king, with a 
 full statement of the case, in which they humbly requested 
 the king to extend his favor and compassion toward the suf- 
 ferers, either by proclamation or otherwise, as in his wisdom 
 and clemency should seem most useful and convenient. 
 
 In the address, they quoted the following good deeds of 
 several kings ; and sincerely hoped he would, in his mercy, 
 respite the numerous prisoners who were suffering in confine- 
 ment on account of their principles, and duty toward their 
 Creator. 
 
 " First : By King Charles the Second's proclamation of 
 grace in 1661, whereby many of our friends were released 
 and set free. 
 
 " Secondly : By his letters patent (or pardon) in 1672, 
 pursuant to his declaration of indulgence in the same year. 
 
 " Thirdly : By an act of Parliament, 25 Car. II., ch. 5, 
 entitled, An act for the king's most gracious and general par- 
 don, pardoning contempts against the king, whereby many of 
 the said people were discharged, and released out of prisons. 
 
 " Fourthly: Also by King James the Second, many were 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 375 
 
 released out of prisons, and relieved by divers commissions ; 
 and two general proclamation pardons, the one in 1685, and 
 the other in 1688. 
 
 " Fifthly : By an act of gracious, general, and free pardon, 
 in the second year of King William and Queen Mary, 
 several were discharged for contempts and imprisonments. 
 
 Sixthly : And by thy late consort the Queen (on applica- 
 tion made to her during thy absence), a poor innocent wo- 
 man, who had been long a prisoner at Lancaster upon a fine, 
 was released; which, as an intimation of the queen's tender 
 and merciful disposition, we very thankfully acknowledge, as 
 we do also very kindly acknowledge the king's late favorable 
 inclination to discharge two of our friends, prisoners at West- 
 moreland, upon a petition presented by our friend, Daniel 
 Quare." 
 
 This petition was presented to the king by George White- 
 head, Gilbert Latey, Thomas Lower, John Taylor and Daniel 
 Quare ; the last mentioned person being well known to the 
 king, they obtained easy access to his presence. They 
 attended his Majesty to a private apartment, and when alone 
 he asked : " At what place do you belong to, and of what 
 congregations are you ministers ?" 
 
 George Whitehead informed him that they were not set- 
 tled as ministers or pastors over any particular congregations, 
 but visited their meetings as directed by God; that they did 
 not preach for a salary, but according to Christ's command 
 to his ministers, they received the gospel freely and they 
 gave it freely. The king made no reply, but appeared very 
 serious and satisfied with the answer. A copy of the peti- 
 tion was presented to Lord-keeper Somers, who received it 
 courteously, and signified his consent to comply with their 
 request, as far as the law would permit. In a few months, 
 an act of grace was passed, through which about forty 
 Friends, imprisoned on account of the non-payment of tithes, 
 were restored to liberty. 
 
 Whilst King William was strenuously endeavoring to 
 relieve the Friends from the sufferings and hardships to 
 
376- 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 which they were exposed, the clergy of the established 
 Church were contriving a plan to bring them under the lash 
 of a new penal law. The Bishop of London introduced a 
 bill into the House of Lords, for the better payment of church- 
 rates, small tithes and other church dues, whereby the penal- 
 ties of the act of 32 Henry VIII., for the recovery of predial 
 tithes, were extended to small tithes, repairing public places 
 of worship, clerks' wages, and even the demands of the sex- 
 ton; so that for the trifling demand of perhaps less than a 
 shilling, any person might be subjected to the enormous 
 expense of a suit in the ecclesiastical courts, and if the moni- 
 tion of the judge to pay the demand and costs was not 
 obeyed, the prisoner was committed to the common jail, with- 
 out bail or mainprize, as specified in the aforesaid act of 
 Henry VIII., for predial tithes, with an addition, that the 
 justices were authorized to grant warrants to distrain the 
 goods of defendants in such cases, or imprison if no distress 
 could be found. 
 
 This bill arrested the attention of the London meeting for 
 sufferings, and they sent an address against its being made a 
 law, to the committee to whose care the bill was consigned 
 for consideration, the Bishop of London being chairman. 
 
 " What exceptions have you to make to the bill?" demand- 
 ed the bishop, when George Whitehead and his friends 
 waited on the committee with a copy of the address. 
 
 " The reason why we make exceptions," replied George 
 Whitehead, " is the same that is given in the act of Parlia- 
 ment, 17 Charles I., for abolishing the star-chamber and high 
 commission courts, it being conceived, with submission, that 
 the sjame reasons may be objected to the present bill." 
 
 Exceptions were then submitted in writing, and the com- 
 mittee of Friends retired, after receiving very courteous and 
 polile treatment from the temporal Lords. 
 
 In this year Roger Haydock died at his house at Penketh 
 in Lancashire ; he was fifty-three years old at the time 
 1696. of his death, and the year before went to Holland on 
 a religious visit, where his ministry was blessed with 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 377 
 
 much good. After his death, his wife Eleanor said : " My 
 spirit hath been and is bowed under a deep sense of my 
 great loss and exercise in the removal of my dear husband, 
 whom it hath pleased God in his wisdom to take away from 
 me, who was comfort to my life, and joy to my days in this 
 world, being given me of God, in great mercy and loving 
 kindness; and so he hath been enjoyed by me in thankful- 
 ness of heart to the close of that time God had appointed ; 
 and now is taken from the world, with all its troubles and 
 exercises, as also from all his labors and travels, which were 
 great among the churches of Christ, and which with me have 
 no small loss in his removal. But what shall I say ? Wise 
 and good is the Lord, who doth what he will in heaven and 
 in earth, and amongst his churches and his chosen. He can 
 break and bind up — wound and heal — kill and make alive 
 again, that the living may see his wonders, and magnify his 
 power in all, through all, and over all, who is God eternal, 
 blessed for ever. Amen." 
 
 She wrote an account of his life, in which she described 
 how, in her young years, he had been to her a faithful minis- 
 ter of godliness, and afterwards became her husband. After 
 describing his travels in the ministry of the gospel, she said, 
 " That though his love to her was above all visibles, as the 
 best of enjoyments he had in this world, yet she was not too 
 dear to him to give up to serve the truth of God. I was 
 made a blessing to him. He would often express it ; and 
 truly so was he to me every day, every way, and in every 
 respect. No tongue nor pen can relate the fulness of thai 
 comfort and joy we had in God, and one in another. Yet 
 we find such hath been the pleasure of God concerning them 
 he hath loved, to try them in the most near and dear enjoy- 
 ments, that it might be manifest he was loved above all ; that 
 no gifts may be preferred above the Giver; but that he may 
 be all in all, who is, and is to come, God, blessed for ever. 
 And truly there hath been great care and watchfulness one 
 over another, and over our own spirits, to see that our love, 
 though great, was bounded and kept within its compass, the 
 
378 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Truth being its original, also the Alpha and Omega. Al- 
 though it hath been the pleasure of God to try me, in the 
 removal of so great a blessing from me, sure it is, that I may 
 be the more inward to him, and have his love always in my 
 remembrance, who gives and takes away, and in all bless his 
 name. My soul travails that I may always follow his foot- 
 steps of self-denial in all things, that I may finish my course 
 in this world, to the glory of God, as he did, and have my 
 part in that mansion of glory with him eternal in the heavens ; 
 though it may be my lot to stay for a time in this world of 
 troubles, yet I have hope in immortality and eternal blessed- 
 ness, when time in this world shall be no more." 
 
 But it is impossible to give many extracts from this inter- 
 esting work ; we will therefore finish our notice of it by giving 
 the concluding paragraph : 
 
 " Though I saw not his going away, yet I have seen in 
 what he went, that it was full of zeal and fervency in the love 
 of God, and life of righteousness. So in pure submission to 
 the will of God, I conclude this short but true relation of my 
 worthy, dear husband, whose name and memory is blessed^ 
 and will live, and be a sweet savor in the hearts of the right- 
 eous, through ages." 
 
 A treaty of peace was concluded this year at Ryswick, 
 between England, France, and Holland, by which 
 1697. England was relieved from a long and expensive war, 
 and King William acknowledged as king of Great 
 Britain by Louis XIV. The king of France pledged himself 
 not to disturb King William in the possession of his realms 
 and government, or assist his enemies, or favor conspiracies 
 against his person. The inhabitants vied with each other in 
 congratulating the king, and the Friends, as well as the heads 
 and Fellows of the Universities, and people of every society 
 sent addresses to the ihrone which were received very gra- 
 ciously. The following is the grateful acknowledgment of 
 the Society of Friends : 
 
 " May it please the King : 
 
 " Seeing the most high God, who ruleth in the 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 379 
 
 kingdoms of men, and appointeth over them whomsoever 
 he will, hath by his overwhelming power and providence 
 placed thee in dominion and dignity over these realms, and 
 by his divine favor has signally preserved and delivered thee 
 from many great and imminent dangers, and graciously 
 turned the calamity of war into the desired mercy of peace : 
 we heartily wish that we and all others concerned may be 
 truly sensible, and humbly lhankful to Almighty God for 
 the same, that the peace may be a lasting and perpetual 
 blessing. 
 
 u And now, O king, the God of peace having returned 
 thee in safety, it is cause of joy to them that fear him, to 
 hear thy good and seasonable resolution effectually to dis- 
 courage profaneness and immorality, righteousness being 
 that which exalteth a nation. And as the king has been ten- 
 derly inclined to give ease and liberty of conscience to his 
 subjects of different persuasions (of whosa favors we have 
 largely partaken), so we esteem it our duty gratefully to 
 commemorate and acknowledge the same, earnestly beseech- 
 ing Almighty God to assist the king to prosecute all these 
 his just and good inclinations, that his days here may be 
 happy and peaceable, and hereafter he may be partaker of a 
 lasting crown that will never fade away. 
 
 " London, 7th of 11th month, 1697." 
 
• 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Although the Society of Friends enjoyed the exemp- 
 tions of the Act of Toleration, yet the clergy did not 
 1698. permit them to enjoy it for any length of time with- 
 out molestation. 
 
 The Norfolk priests challenged some Friends in London 
 to a public discussion, which they accepted ; and being 
 most too severe for them, the priests published two tracts, 
 entitled: 1st. "A Brief Discovery," &c. 2d. "Some few 
 of the Quakers' many horrid Blasphemies." These books, 
 written to represent the principles of the Quakers blasphe- 
 mous, met with suitable answers from George Whitehead, 
 who refuted their acrimonious and injurious assertions; and 
 the author delivered copies to all the members of Parliament, 
 to remove any wrong impressions made by reading the other 
 works. 
 
 The Society in London was deprived of the services of a 
 very valuable member, in the decease of Charles Marshall. 
 As a faithful servant, he went about doing good ; but the few 
 last years of his life were spent in or near London. To his 
 brethren, who collected in his sick-chamber, he addressed 
 himself in the following manner : 
 
 " I have loved the brethren ; I have sought the unity and 
 peace of the Church for these forty years, and to my great 
 comfort never did anything tending to the breach thereof. 
 
 " Five things are weightily impressed upon my mind, 
 warmly to recommend to Friends, which I desire may be 
 communicated to them. 
 
 " The first is : That they gather down unto the immortal feed 
 and word of life in themselves, and be exercised in it before 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 381 
 
 the Lord ; and duly prize, and set a right value upon, the 
 many outward and inward blessings that the Lord has emi- 
 nently bestowed upon them since the morning of the day of 
 his blessed visitation ; there shall they grow, and be pre- 
 served in living freshness to him ; and the Lord will continue 
 his mercies to them, and ihey shall not want his divine, re- 
 freshing presence in their meetings together before him. 
 
 " The second thing is : That those Friends to whom the 
 Lord hath given great estates, ought to cast their bread upon 
 the waters, and do good therewith in their life-time ; for those 
 that are enjoyers of such things, should see that they be good 
 stewards thereof. Oh ! the many poor families such persons 
 might be an help to ! How easily might they with a little 
 assist many a family to live in the world ! And what a com- 
 fort would it be for such, to see the fruits of their charity in 
 their life-time! " 
 
 His last words were—" I have not handled the word of the 
 Lord deceitfully, nor done the work negligently. I earnestly 
 desire Friends may live in love, and keep in the unity of 
 spirit, which is the bond of peace." 
 
 As his last moments approached, with great composure of 
 mind, he closed his own eyes ; the sting of death was taken 
 away, and his spirit returned to God who gave it, on the fif- 
 teenth of the ninth month [September], in the sixty-second 
 year of his age. 
 
 Nothing worthy of record took place this year, except 
 the death of John Crook, whose name and services are 
 1699. not unknown to the reader. In 1654, at the age of 
 thirty-seven, he was convinced of the truth of the 
 doctrine of Friends through the ministry of William Dews- 
 bury. For many years previous to his decease, he suffered 
 great pain, and he might have said with Israel, " I have 
 been afflicted from my youth." Besides the bodily affliction 
 with which he was tried, he was not exempt from trials of 
 another nature, in observing the deviation of some of his 
 offspring from the ways of righteousness, but he would 
 solace himself with the words of David : " Although my 
 
382 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an 
 everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure." 
 
 Two months before his death he wrote an epistle to his 
 children and grand-children, exhorting them to walk in truth, 
 uprightness and honesty before the most high God. The 
 epistle throughout contains good advice not only for the per- 
 sons to whom it was immediately addressed, but to all who 
 are treading the thorny path of youth and temptation. We 
 extract a few of the passages. 
 
 " I advise you to keep a pure conscience, both towards 
 God and man ; for if that be defiled, hypocrisy and formality 
 will deprive you of all comfortable feeling of God's presence, 
 and then deadness and dryness will be your miserable 
 portion. 
 
 " Be careful how you spend your precious time, for an 
 account must be given of every idle word, though but few 
 regard it ; but foolish jesting, and vain talking, are said to 
 grieve the spirit of God ; read Eph. iv. 29, 30. But im- 
 prove your time in prayer, religious exercises, &c. ; and be 
 diligent in your lawful callings ; for ' the desire of the sloth- 
 ful man killeth him,' Prov. xxi. 25. 
 
 " Be careful what company you frequent, for a man is 
 commonly known by the company he keeps, as much as by 
 any one outward thing; and of your behavior in company; 
 for I have found that a wise and sober deportment adds much 
 to a man's reputation and credit in the world. 
 
 " Love the Holy Scriptures, preferring them to all other 
 books whatsoever ; and be careful to read them with a holy 
 awe upon your spirits, lest your imaginations put construc- 
 tions upon them, to your hurt ; but exercise faith in the 
 promise of Christ, who hath said, My spirit shall take of 
 mine and show them unto you. 
 
 " Keep constantly to religious meetings amongst Friends ; 
 but look to your affections, that you respect not persons, but 
 the power and life of truth, from whomsoever it comes. 
 
 " Love one another truly, manifesting your love by good 
 counsel, and being helpful to each other on all occasions? 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 383 
 
 being good examples to all you converse with, especially to 
 your children, and those of your own families, that pride and 
 vanity may not be countenanced by you, but rather reprov- 
 ed ; remembering while they are under your government you 
 must give an account of the discharge of your duty to God 
 towards them. 
 
 " Be mindful of your latter end, and live as you would die, 
 not knowing how soon your days may be finished in this 
 world ; and while you do live in it, despise not the chasten- 
 ings of the Lord ; whatsoever they be he is pleased to visit 
 you withal. I have been afflicted from my youth up, both 
 inwardly and outwardly, but the God whom I served 
 provided for me, when all my outward relations forsook me, 
 none of them giving me any portion to begin with in the 
 world. This I speak, to let you know, I shall leave more 
 outwardly, even to the least of you, than was left to me. 
 
 " These things I commend unto you, out of true love to 
 your souls, knowing how the vain mind of man little regards 
 such advice as this I leave behind me ; but by this advice I 
 show my true love to you all, desiring God's blessing upon 
 it, to whom I commit you all." 
 
 He remained in complete possession of his faculties, 
 although in the eighty-second year of his age, until the time 
 of his death, which took place on the twenty-sixth of the 
 fourth month [April]. 
 
 By his warfare against Friends, George Keith ingratiated 
 himself into favor with the episcopal clergy, and 
 1700. about the beginning of this year was ordained a vicar 
 in that Church, by the Bishop of London. Some 
 one, of what persuasion we do not know, determined to 
 show his inconsistency to the world, and made a collection 
 of his former writings against the National Church and its 
 clergy, which the author entitled : " Mr. George Keith's 
 Account of a National Church and Clergy, humbly pre- 
 sented to the Bishop of London." To this work was ap- 
 pended some emeries he once wrote, relative to the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. A copy of it was sent to the Bishop 
 
384 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 of London, with these words of the Apostle ; " If I build 
 again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a trans- 
 gressor." That the Episcopalians entertained great hopes at 
 this time, that their new convert might be of some service to 
 the Church in bringing others to their communion, appears 
 from the following extract from Bishop Burnet's Church 
 History, vol. ii., page 144, 1700. 
 
 " The Quakers have had a great breach made among 
 them by one George Keith, a Scotchman, with whom I had 
 my education at Aberdeen ; he had been thirty-six years 
 among them ; he was esteemed the most learned man that 
 ever was in that sect; he was well versed both in the Orien- 
 tal tongues, in philosophy and mathematics. After he had 
 been above thirty years in high esteem among them, he was 
 sent to Pennsylvania to have the chief direction of the educa- 
 tion of their youth. In those parts he said, he first discovered 
 that, which had been always denied to him, or so disguised, 
 that he did not suspect it ; but being far out of reach, and in 
 a place where they were masters, they spoke out their mind 
 plainer, and it appeared to him that they were Deists, and that 
 they turned the whole doctrine of the Christian religion into 
 allegories ; chiefly those which relate to the death and resur- 
 rection of Christ, and the reconciliation of sinners to God by 
 virtue of his cross ; he, being a true Christian, set himself 
 with great zeal against this, upon which they grew weary of 
 him, and sent him back to England. At his return, he set 
 himself to read many of their books, and then he discovered 
 the mystery, which was so hid from him that he had not 
 observed it. Upon this, he opened a new meeting, and, by 
 a printed summons, he called the whole party to come and 
 see the proof that he had to offer, to convince them of these 
 errors. Few Quakers came to his meetings, but great mul- 
 titudes of other people flocked about him ; he brought the 
 Quakers' books with him, and read such passages out of 
 them as convinced his hearers that he had not charged them 
 falsely ; he continued these meetings, being still in outward 
 appearance a Quaker, for some years, till having prevailed 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 385 
 
 as far as he saw any probability of success, he laid aside 
 their exterior, and was reconciled to the Church, and is now 
 in holy orders among us, and likely to do good service in 
 undeceiving and reclaiming some of those misled enthu- 
 siasts." 
 
 This paragraph of the bishop's was answered by Alex- 
 ander Arscott, in the Appendix to his " Serious Considera- 
 tions," &c. ; he proved conclusively that George Keith was 
 not thirty-six years among the Quakers — that he was not 
 sent to Pennsylvania — that he was not sent back by them, 
 and that the whole article was untrue and false. In closing 
 this answer, Arscott mentions the following circumstance : 
 
 " The bishop has told us, after a long detail of his perform- 
 ances, that he is now (in the year 1700) in holy orders 
 amongst us, and likely to do good service in undeceiving 
 and reclaiming some of those misled enthusiasts. But what 
 if it should appear after all that he deeply repented of what 
 he had done ? I shall relate what has come to my know- 
 ledge, and leave the reader to judge of the truth of it. The 
 fact as related is this ; that one Richard Hayler, of Sussex, 
 made a visit to George Keith on his death-bed, which visit 
 was kindly taken by him ; and among other things that 
 passed, George Keith expressed himself in these words : ' I 
 wish I had died when I was a Quaker, for then I am sure it 
 would have been well with my soul.' This I have from a 
 person now living, of unquestioned reputation, who had it 
 from the widow of the said Richard Hayler, and her sister, 
 both since deceased, but persons of unblemished characters. 
 I hope, therefore, I may be excused in this one instance, at a 
 time when George Keith's performances against the Quakers 
 are so much magnified by the Bishop of London's defender, 
 as well as Dr. Burnet, -in letting the world know that there 
 is reason to believe that this conduct of George Keith at 
 last became his burden, and that he himself did not approve 
 of it." 
 
 This year closed the life of the unhappy King James, who 
 25 
 
386 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 died at the palace of St. Germain's, in France, on 
 
 1701. the seventeenth of the ninth month [September]. 
 After his death, the French king proclaimed his son 
 
 king of Great Britain. 
 
 During King William's absence in Holland, Parliament 
 settled the succession to the crown on Sophia, electress of 
 Hanover, and her heirs, in case of the death of William and 
 the Princess of Denmark without issue, so that the crown 
 might be placed entirely among Protestants. Addresses were 
 sent up to the throne from all quarters, expressing gratitude 
 for this resolution, and loyalty to the king and the house of 
 Hanover. As usual, on such occasions, the Friends present- 
 ed the king with a congratulatory address, through their com- 
 mittee, George Whitehead, William Mead, and Francis 
 Camfield. 
 
 On the death of the king of Spain, Louis of France placed 
 his grandson, the duke of Anjou, on the throne of 
 
 1702. Spain, and seemed determined to secure to the son of 
 James the possession of the crown of England on the 
 
 death of King William. Of this resolution of Louis, Wil- 
 liam notified Parliament, who promised to assist him to the 
 utmost in their power, and to maintain the succession of the 
 crown in the Protestant line. An abjuration was also drawn 
 up, in which it was declared, that the aforesaid pretended 
 prince, who suffered himself to be called James the Third. 
 King of England, &c, had no right or claim to the crown of 
 that kingdom or any dominions appertaining thereto. In the 
 early part of the third month [March], King William died at 
 Kensington, from the effects of an accident he received 
 whilst on a hunting excursion. The day of his death was 
 one of affliction to his subjects ; they loved him for the good 
 he had done their suffering nation, and perhaps no king ever 
 received so much voluntary homage as William the Third, 
 King of Great Britain. 
 
 Princess Anne, sister of the late Queen Mary, was pro- 
 claimed Queen of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, &c 
 Anne accepted with heartfelt satisfaction the proffered crown, 
 
HISTORY. OF FRIENDS. 
 
 387 
 
 and confirmed the ministers and officers in their respective 
 stations. She also wrote to the States General of the United 
 Netherlands, that she would keep to the alliances made with 
 the States by the deceased king, her brother. 
 
 In this year died Margaret, the widow of George Fox, in 
 her eighty-seventh year. She was the daughter of John 
 Askew of Marsh Grange, in the parish of Dalton in Lan- 
 cashire, a gentleman of an ancient family and good estate, 
 and conspicuous for piety and charity. Margaret was mar- 
 ried before she attained the age of eighteen years, to Thomas 
 Fell, who was bred a lawyer, appointed a justice of the peace, 
 elected to Parliament, appointed vice-chancellor of the county 
 of Lancaster, was a judge in one of the Welsh courts, all of 
 which offices he discharged with wisdom, justice, moderation 
 and mercy. In this history we have seen the means used to 
 exasperate him against Friends, on account of the convince- 
 ment of his wife and family during his absence; butwhen he 
 came home, the words of George Fox dispelled the cloud 
 from his brow, and although he was prejudiced against the 
 sect, he still continued to treat his wife with his usual com- 
 placency and affection. On the death of Judge Fell, and 
 after a widowhood of ele ven years, she was married, with the 
 consent of all her relatives, to George Fox, to whom she was a 
 kind, tender, and affectionate wife. She was a minister of God 
 to a sinful world, and in that office she discharged her duty 
 towards mankind, with an eye always upon the throne of 
 judgment. Previous to her death she wrote a book entitled, 
 " The Call of the Jews out of Babylon," which she dedicated 
 to the famous Manasseh Ben Israel, and charged him, as he 
 would answer it before God, to cause it to be read among his 
 brethren. 
 
 George Keith obtaining no settled place to preach, the 
 Bishops sent him as a missionary to convince the " bigoted 
 Quakers of Pennsylvania," but he did not make much by the 
 mission so far as religion was concerned, and on his return 
 he received a very nice living in the parish of Edburton in 
 Sussex, every year drawing his salary of one hundred and 
 twenty pounds. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 When Anne ascended the throne, the Friends congratu- 
 lated her with an address, in which they sincerely 
 1703. hoped her reign might be blessed with many happy 
 days, and to all her subjects she would extend that 
 kindness and liberality of spirit so prominent in the many 
 noble actions of her deceased and lamented brother. She re- 
 ceived it very kindly and said to the committee : " I thank 
 you for your address, and assure you of my protection." 
 
 In less than a month, England and Holland proclaimed 
 war against France, and the parliament of the former country 
 endeavored to repeal the act of toleration to dissenters ; but 
 the queen issued a proclamation against the rescission of this 
 excellent law, for which the Friends, in yearly meeting as- 
 sembled, sent her the following address : 
 
 " May it please the Queen : 
 
 " We, thy peaceable and dutiful subjects, met from 
 most parts of thy dominions, at our usual yearly meeting for 
 the promotion of piety and charity, being deeply affected with 
 thy free and noble resolution in thy late speech at the proro- 
 gation of the parliament, to preserve and maintain the Act of 
 Toleration, for the ease and quiet of all thy people, could not 
 but in gratitude esteem ourselves engaged, both to thank Al- 
 mighty God for that favorable influence, and to renew and 
 render our humble and hearty acknowledgments to the 
 Queen for the same, assuring her (in behalf of all our friends), 
 of our sincere affection and Christian obedience. 
 
 " And we beseech God, the fountain of wisdom and good- 
 ness, so to direct all thy counsels and undertakings, that right- 
 eousness which exalts a nation, and mercy and justice that 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 389 
 
 establish a throne, may be the character of thy reign, and 
 the blessings of these kingdoms under it." 
 
 When William Penn placed the above in the queen's 
 hands, she said : " Mr. Penn, I am so well pleased that 
 what I have said is to your satisfaction, that you and your 
 friends may be assured of my protection." 
 
 In this year, Ambrose Rigge, of Kygate in Surrey, depart- 
 ed this life after a long and suffering illness. There 
 1704. is something sweet in the last words of this good 
 and benevolent man, who had sacrificed the comforts 
 of a happy home, and the affection of parents and relations, 
 to win that fadeless wreath which encircles the brow of those 
 who have " fought the good fight." Around his bed stood 
 his weeping friends, offering the consolation of religion to 
 alleviate his pains, and as the Angel of Death summoned 
 him hence, he stretched forth his arms, and said with a happy 
 smile, " I am going where the weary are at rest." 
 
 In the dying advice which he left his friends, we select the 
 following : 
 
 " The way to be rich and happy in this world, is first to 
 learn righteousness ; for such were never forsaken in any 
 age, nor their seed begging their bread. And charge all 
 parents of children, that they keep their children low and 
 plain in meat, drink, apparel and everything else, and in due 
 subjection to all just and reasonable commands, and let them 
 not appear above the real estates of their parents, nor get up 
 in pride and high things, though their parents have plentiful 
 estates ; for that is of dangerous consequence to their future 
 happiness ; and let all who profess the truth, both young and 
 old, rich and poor, see that they walk according to the rule 
 and discipline of the gospel, in all godly conversation and 
 honesty, that none may suffer wrong by them in any matter 
 or thing whatsoever ; that as the Apostle exhorted, ' they 
 may owe nothing to any man, but to love one another; for 
 love out of a pure heart is the fulfilling the law,' which law 
 commands to do justly to all men. He that hath but little, 
 let him live according to that little, and appear to be what in 
 
390 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 truth he is ; for above all, God abhors the hypocrite, and he 
 that makes haste to be rich falls into snares, temptations, and 
 many noisy and hurtful lusts which drown many in perdi- 
 tion; and the love of money is the root of all evil, which 
 while some have lusted after, they have erred from the faith, 
 and compassed themselves about with many sorrows." 
 
 Anne Camm, whom we have menlioned by the name of 
 Anne Audland, died at an advanced age during the 
 1705. summer of this year. She was born in 1627, in the 
 parish of Kendal in Westmoreland, and received from 
 her father, Richard Newby, an excellent education. In the 
 year 1650, she was married to John Audland, and in 1652 they 
 were both convinced by George Fox. Her husband, John 
 Audland, died in the year 1664, and two years after she was 
 married to Thomas Camm, also a minister in the Society. 
 On her deathbed she enjoined her husband to " warn all, but 
 especially the rich, to keep low and not to be high-minded; 
 for humility and holiness is the badge of our profession." She 
 prayed the Lord to help her through the agony of death, and 
 exclaimed, O my God ! O my God ! thou hast not forsaken 
 me, blessed be thy name for ever ! O my blessed Saviour, 
 that suffered for me and all mankind, great pains in thy holy 
 body upon the cross, remember me thy poor handmaid in 
 this my bodily affliction. My trust is in thee, my hope is 
 only in thee, my dear Lord. Oh come, come, dear Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly, receive my soul to thee, I yield it up, 
 help me now in my bitter pangs." 
 
 Her last public appearance in the ministry was at a month- 
 ly meeting at Kendal, the second of the ninth month [Sep- 
 tember], 1705, at which time, though far advanced in years, 
 and affected with the bodily infirmity attendant on old age, 
 yet her spiritual abilities maintained their usual vigor. 
 
 She delivered a farewell sermon with affecting energy, and 
 pleaded with the congregation to be faithful and diligent in 
 the service of the Lord, that they might receive their reward 
 with those to whom God hath said, " Well done, good and 
 faithful servant, enter thou the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 391 
 
 The union of England and Scotland was the favorite 
 measure of James the First ; it also received some 
 
 1707. attention from King William, but was not finally 
 effected until this year. 
 
 Scotland was threatened with an invasion by the pre- 
 tended Prince of Wales, but he failed in the attempt. 
 
 1708. When the Union was finally accomplished, Friends 
 testified their affection to the queen by an address, 
 
 signed by fourteen members of the London yearly meeting ; 
 and when George Whitehead placed it in her hands, he said : 
 ; ' We heartily wish the Queen's health and happiness. We 
 are come to present an address from our yearly meeting, 
 which we could have desired might have been more early 
 and seasonably timed, but could not, because our said meet- 
 ing was but the last week ; and therefore now hope the queen 
 will favorably accept our address." 
 
 " I thank you very kindly for your address, and I assure 
 you of my protection ; you may depend upon it," replied 
 the queen. 
 
 " We thankfully acknowledge," said George Whitehead, 
 " that God, by his power and special providence, hath de- 
 fended the queen against the evil designs of her enemies, 
 having made the queen an eminent instrument for the good 
 of this nation and realm of Great Britain, in maintaining 
 the toleration and the liberty we enjoy in respect to our con- 
 sciences, against persecution. Which liberty being grounded 
 upon this reason in the late king's reign, ' For uniting the 
 Protestant subjects in interest and affection ;" the union of 
 Great Britain now settled, tends to the strength and safety 
 thereof ; for in union is the strength and stability of a nation 
 or kingdom ; and without union, no nation or people can be 
 safe, but are weak and unstable. The succession of the 
 crown being fixed and established in the Protestant line, 
 must needs be very acceptable to all true Protestant subjects. 
 
 " And now, O queen, that the Lord may preserve and 
 defend thee under all thy great care and concern for the 
 safety and good of this nation and kingdom of Great Bri 
 
393 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 tain, and that the Lord may bless and preserve thee to the 
 end, is our sincere desire." 
 
 The queen again promised her protection, and the com- 
 mittee withdrew from her presence. 
 
 On the twenty-second of the seventh month [July], John 
 Bank, a distinguished member of the Society of 
 
 1710. Friends, died at Yeovil. He exhorted those around 
 him to constantly attend their meetings of worship, 
 
 and said : " Although I am weak in body, and know not 
 whether I may live much longer, yet I am strong in the 
 Lord and the power of his might, and have nothing to do 
 but to die." To a young man who came with some friends 
 to see him, he said : " Thou art the young man who lives at 
 Somerton, lately convinced of the blessed truth ! The Lord 
 be with thee ; and I desire thee, in the love of God, to give 
 up in obedience to the working of the Spirit of God in thy 
 heart, and then he will do great things for thee ; and do not 
 thou stumble at the cross, for the more thou look'st at it, and 
 puts it off, the harder will it be to take it up." With his 
 dying breath, he exclaimed : " It is well with me I have 
 nothing to do but to die, and I shall end in the truth as I 
 began." 
 
 In the year 1656, William Crouch first began to attract 
 some attention in the Society. He suffered many trials, 
 hardships, and imprisonments, for the faith in which he 
 lived and died. He terminated a well-spent life, at the age 
 of eighty-two, on the thirteenth of the eleventh month [No- 
 vember], of this year. His death was a true picture of that 
 verse in Psalms which says : " Mark the perfect man, and 
 behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." 
 
 In the early part of this year, a bill was introduced into 
 Parliament, and eventually passed, in which it was 
 
 1711. enacted, " That if any persons in office, who by the 
 laws are obliged to qualify themselves by taking the 
 
 Sacraments, shall ever resort to a meeting of dissenters during 
 the time of their continuing in office, they shall forfeit twenty 
 pounds for every such offence, and be disqualified for any 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 393 
 
 office for the future, till they have made oath that they have 
 entirely conformed to the Church, and have not been at any 
 conventicle for the space of a whole year." 
 
 Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, 
 died in poverty, at the advanced age of ninety years. 
 
 1712. Once the Protector of England, now the outcast of 
 misfortune — such is the mutability of human affairs : 
 
 one moment in luxury and power, and the next writhing in 
 misery and wretchedness. How many will acknowledge the 
 truthfulness of this picture, and how many have done it al- 
 ready ? Men who have toiled for the glory, renown, and 
 z honor of this fickle world, who have sacrificed an immortal- 
 ity, that their names might live a few hours, and expire with 
 the next revolution of the wheel of fortune ! We have many 
 sad incidents in history, not only of men, but of nations, that 
 have risen with all the brightness of the meteor, yet ungod- 
 liness crushed them to the earth, and only their names are 
 remembered : the sites of their proud cities only marked by 
 the hand of God — their walls crumbled — their busy citizens 
 mouldered into dust, and their souls gone before the great 
 tribunal of the Almighty! 
 
 In this year peace was concluded between England and 
 France, and the Friends of the London yearly meet- 
 
 1713. ing sent an address to the queen, congratulating her 
 on the prospect of enjoying the happiness of peace 
 
 in her dominions for years to come, which she received very 
 kindly, assuring the committee again that whilst she was on 
 the throne of England, they should enjoy all the blessings 
 of the present laws, and worship' God according to the 
 dictates of their consciences. 
 
 In the summer of this year Sophia, Electoral Princess of 
 Brunswick Lunenburg, on whom fell the succession 
 
 1714. of tha crown of Great Britain, died after a short illness. 
 Two months after Queen Anne also departed this life, 
 
 and her death was deeply regretted by the whole nation. 
 Immediately after her decease, the privy council assembled 
 and deputized the Earl of Dorset to inform George, Prince 
 
394 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg, of his succession to the 
 throne of Great Britain. He instantly departed for England, 
 and arrived in London on the twentieth of the ninth month 
 [September]. He declared before the ministers his firm 
 resolve to maintain the toleration in favor of the Protestant 
 dissenters, by which they were relieved from all apprehen- 
 sions. The Friends, through George Whitehead, presented 
 an address to the king, thanking him for his determination 
 to protect the Protestants, and wishing him, if in accordance 
 with Divine will, a long and happy reign. After the king 
 read the address, George Whitehead said, " Thou art wel- 
 come to us, King George, we heartily wish thee health and 
 happiness, and thy son the prince also. King William HI. 
 was a happy instrument in putting a stop to persecution, by 
 promoting toleration, which being intended for the uniting 
 the king's Protestant subjects in interest and affection, it hath 
 so far that effect, as to make them more kind to one another, 
 even among the different persuasions, than they were when 
 persecution was on foot. We desire the king may have 
 further knowledge of us and our innocency ; and that to live 
 a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty, under 
 the king and his government, is according to our principles 
 and practice. May King Solomon's choice of wisdom be 
 thy choice, with holy Job's integrity and compassion to 
 the oppressed ; and the state of the righteous ruler com- 
 mended by King David, viz. : ' He that ruleth over men 
 must be just, ruling in the fear of God ; and he shall be as 
 the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning 
 without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the 
 earth by clear shining after rain.' " 
 
 In the eleventh month [November], Dr. Gilbert Burnet, 
 Bishop of Salisbury, the author of the History of the Refor- 
 mation in England, died in London. With some few excep- 
 tions, his writings were very moderate in tone, especially 
 " The Apology for the Church of England," published in 
 Holland in 1688, and soon after at London. In this apology 
 he uses the following language : " I will not deny but many 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 395 
 
 of the dissenters were put to great hardships in many parts 
 of England ; I cannot deny it, and I am sure I will never 
 justify it. And I will boldly say this, that if the Church of 
 England, after she is got out of this storm, will return to 
 hearken to the peevishness of some sour men, she will be 
 abandoned both by God and man, and will set both heaven 
 and earth against her." 
 
 In the fifth month [May], of this year, the term of the " Act 
 
 for the Quakers' solemn affirmation" expired, and on 
 1715. the seventh of the same month a bill was brought 
 
 into the House of Commons, and five days after, it was 
 passed, making the act perpetual. When submitted to the 
 House of Lords, in the sixth month [June], they made an 
 addition to the -bill, granting not only the favor to those who 
 desired it in England, but extended it to Scotland and other 
 places. At their next yearly meeting Friends expressed 
 their gratitude in these words : " The Lord our God, who 
 for the sake of his heritage hath often heretofore rebuked 
 and limited the raging waves of the sea, hath, blessed be 
 his name, mercifully dispersed the cloud threatening a 
 storm, which lately seemed to hang over us ; which together 
 with the favor God hath given us in the eyes of the king, 
 and the government, for the free enjoyment of our religious 
 and civil liberties, calling for true thankfulness to him, and 
 humbly to pray to Almighty God for the king and those 
 in authority, for his and their safety and defence, is cer- 
 tainly our Christian duty, as well as to walk inoffensively 
 as a grateful people." 
 
 Although before the passage of this act the Society applied 
 for an alteration in the form of the affirmation, yet they did 
 not succeed until five years after it had become a law. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Notwithstanding the death of Louis XIV., the pre- 
 tended king who relied upon the assistance of France, 
 
 1716. invaded Scotland, but being defeated, he returned 
 again to the court of St. Germain's. The yearly meet- 
 ing of Friends appointed a committee to deliver an address to 
 the king, returning thanks to him for his wise laws and 
 conduct, and assuring him of the duty and affection they 
 entertained towards him personally and his government. 
 
 An excellent epistle to Friends in all parts of the world, 
 was issued by the yearly meeting of this year, from 
 
 1717. which we will make a few of the most important 
 extracts. 
 
 " Touching the education of Friends' children, this meet- 
 ing hath a concern. We think it our duty to recommend 
 unto you the necessity that there is of a care in preserving 
 of them in plainness of speech and habit, suitable to our 
 holy profession ; and also, that no opportunity be omitted, 
 nor any endeavor wanting to instruct them in the principle 
 of truth which we profess, that thereby they, being sensible of 
 the operation thereof in themselves, may find not only their 
 spirits softened and tendered, fit to receive the impressions of 
 the Divine image, but may also from thence find themselves 
 under a necessity to appear clear in the several branches of 
 our Christian testimony. And as this will be most bene- 
 ficial to them, being the fruits of conviction, so it is the most 
 effectual way of propagating the same throughout the 
 Churches of Christ. And there being times and seasons 
 wherein their spirits are (more than others) disposed to have 
 those things impressed upon them ; so we desire that all 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 397 
 
 parents and others concerned in the oversight of youth, 
 might wait in the fear of God to know themselves divinely 
 qualified for that service, that in his wisdom they may make 
 use of every such opportunity, which the Lord shall put into 
 their hands. And we do hereby warn and advise Friends in 
 all places to flee every appearance of evil, and keep out of 
 pride and following the vain fashions and custom of this 
 world. 
 
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 TV TV *A* TV TV* 
 
 " Finally, dear friends and brethren, be careful to walk 
 unblamable in love and peace among yourselves, and 
 towards all men in Christian charity, and be humbly thank- 
 ful to the Lord our most gracious God, for the favor he hath 
 given us, in the eyes of the king and civil government, in the 
 peaceable enjoyment of our religious and Christian liberties 
 under them ; and the God of peace (we trust) will be with 
 you to the end. 
 
 " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. 
 Amen." 
 
 In this year, the high churchmen met with another morti- 
 fication in the repeal of the " Act against occasional 
 1718. conformity and the growth of schism," which act 
 they had obtained during their predominancy in the 
 latter end of Queen Anne's reign. 
 
 William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, died at his 
 country-seat, Rushcomb, near Twyford, in Buckinghamshire. 
 Since 1712, he had three apoplectic fits, and notwithstanding 
 the intermission of his intellectual faculties, and the failure of 
 his memory, his love for religion and sense of religious 
 enjoyments continued to the last. In the year 1716 some of 
 his friends, who came to visit him, taking their leave, he said, 
 " My love is with you, the Lord preserve you, and remem- 
 ber me in the everlasting covenant." Thus, in the absence 
 of mental powers, and in the sweet repose of the evening of 
 life, his piety and religion were the predominating qualities. 
 Fie died on the thirtieth of the fifth month [May], in the 
 seventy-fourth year of his age, and his body was interred on 
 
398 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 the fifth of the sixth month [June], at Jordan's, in Bucking- 
 hamshire. If fighting the good fight of faith, and passing 
 through the ordeal victorious, entitle the victor to the crown 
 of righteousness, can we doubt of his being made a partaker 
 of the promise of Christ? — Rev. iii. 21. " To him that over- 
 cometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, as I also 
 overcame and am set down with my father in his throne." 
 George Whitehead was born in Sine-begg in the parish of 
 
 Orton, in the county of Westmoreland, in the year 1636, 
 1723. of honest and respectable parents, who gave him a good 
 
 education, at the school of Blencoe, in Cumberland, 
 where he made great progress in classical literature ; his pa- 
 rents were Presbyterians, and he was taught the belief of that 
 sect, but when only fourteen years of age, he observed their life 
 and conversation was a sad contrast to the purity of their pro- 
 fessions, and longing for a more substantial religion, he at last 
 became a member of the Society of Friends. Sustained by 
 the consciousness of a well-spent life, he passed the last infir- 
 mities of age, with Christian patience and resignation to the 
 Divine will, " desiring to be dissolved and be with Christ," 
 he said, " the sting of death is taken away." A few hours 
 before his death, he said ; " I have taken a review of my life, 
 my labors and travels, which I have gone through since my 
 convincement, and I look upon them with abundance of 
 comfort and satisfaction, and admire how the presence of the 
 Lord has carried me through all." 
 
 On the eighth day of the third month [March], he departed 
 this life, having arrived at the advanced age of eighty-seven, 
 and was buried with the old friends of many of his trials, in 
 Bunhill fields. 
 
 Parliament would pass no law against the extortion of 
 tithes, and Friends suffered severely in consequence of these 
 ecclesiastical demands. In the year 1736, a catalogue of 
 sufferings throughout the kingdom, was published in Lon- 
 don, from which we glean the following statistical informa- 
 tion. Prosecutions in the Court of Exchequer, 659 ; in the 
 Ecclesiastical Court, 367; in all other Courts, 154; total 
 
HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 399 
 
 1180 ; of these, 302 were imprisoned, and nine died in their 
 cells. These prosecutions, though frequently commenced 
 for trivial sums, from Ad. to 5s., and a greater part of them for 
 sums not exceeding 40s., were attended with such heavy 
 costs and rigorous executions, that above L.800 was taken 
 from ten persons, where the original demands upon all of 
 them collectively did not amount to L.15. 
 
 A bill of relief was brought into the House of Commons, 
 but the clergy made strong manifestations of their opposition, 
 by publishing three pamphlets, said to be the productions of 
 the bishops. One of them was called, " The Country Par- 
 son's plea against the Quaker's bill for Tithes,"' &c, .which 
 received a copious and spirited answer by one who styled 
 himself " A member of the House of Commons," afterwards 
 discovered to be Lord Hervey. But the bishops did not 
 trust their cause solely to these pamphlets. Circular letters 
 were written to the clergy in all parts of the kingdom, and 
 numerous petitions from the clergy of Middlesex and else- 
 where against the bill, were sent to Parliament. Counsel 
 was heard in behalf of the petitioners, and several alterations 
 proposed in the bill, which, after a long debate, was finally 
 passed and sent up to the House of Lords. 
 
 After the second reading, a motion was made by Lord 
 Hinton to commit the bill, which motion was supported by 
 Lords Hervey and Carteret, the Duke of Argyle and Earl of 
 4 Ily, and opposed by the Bishop of Salisbury, the Lord 
 Chancellor, Lords Hardwick and Lovell — the bill was, how- 
 ever, lost by a majority of nineteen. This was the last effort 
 to extinguish the forcible collection of tithes from dissenters, 
 and it was only lost by the strenuous and united exertions of 
 the clergy, for amongst the majority we find the names of 
 fifteen bishops, three of whom had publicly opposed the prin- 
 ciples of Friends, in pamphlets and public prints. 
 
 With the record of this last struggle for the abolishment 
 of laws for the forcible collection of tithes, we conclude 
 Part I. of this History. We have beheld an humble man, in 
 the common walks of life, selected by God as an instrument 
 
400 
 
 HISTORY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 for preaching to a sinful world the principle of pure and 
 primitive Christianity, which was fading away before the 
 Simoom's breath of pernicious systems, idle ceremonies and 
 idolatrous forms. George Fox was a man of undaunted 
 courage, remarkable disinterestedness, inflexible integrity, 
 undisguised sincerity, unacquainted with the doctrine of the 
 schools ; and with a power and authority which the schools 
 cannot convey, speaking the language of experience, and of 
 a heart versed in the works of sanctification, he directed men 
 to a principle in their own hearts, which, if duly attended to, 
 would introduce rectitude of mind, simplicity of manners, a 
 life adorned with every Christian virtue and peace, the effect 
 of righteousness, which is the hope of heaven. We have 
 beheld him unshaken and undismayed amid the combined 
 powers of severe persecution, the greatest contempt and the 
 keenest ridicule. Nor need we withhold the meed of praise 
 from his cotemporary colleagues, who freely disseminated 
 principles conducive to the present and everlasting well-being 
 of mankind, with honest simplicity and success. They dis- 
 charged their duty with sincerity, imitating the self-denying 
 example of the Apostle, when he said : " I came not with 
 excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the 
 testimony of God; for I determined not to know anything 
 among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And my 
 speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of 
 man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of '• 
 power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
 men, but in the power of God." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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