Volume 1 — THE EIGHTH BOOK. 1664-1667. (continued 2)

Then Jeremiah Hern and Thomas Wood were called to the bar, and their indictment read, to which they pleaded, ‘Not guilty, but innocent;’ and Jeremiah said, he was no such person as the act mentioned, for plotting and contriving insurrections. Then the judge interrupting him, said, ‘You are a forward man, you have an estate;’ and so he caused him to be set by: and to Thomas Wood he said, ‘I hear a good report of you; consider what you do; I am sorry, seeing you have a good report among your neighbours, that you should be found guilty, which I fear you will if you put yourself upon trial: I am willing to show you favour; and it may be one man may fare the better for another.’ This reflected on Jeremiah, who, by the malice of one John King, had been falsely represented to the judge. Yet Jeremiah having shown how he had been wronged, the judge said, they should both partake of his favour, if they would but desire it, and this favour consisted in this, as he himself said, that he would wave the proceedings of the court, and give them till the next assizes, to consider better with themselves. ‘What say you, (thus he continued,) will ye have it deferred till the next assizes? for if the jury find the bill, you will be sent to Jamaica; ye must not all go to one place.’ To this the prisoners returned, ‘We have transgressed no law of God, nor wronged any man: we leave it to the court; we desire it not.’ ‘If you will not desire it,’ replied the judge, ‘I cannot, nor will do it.’

Then three other prisoners were brought to the bar, among whom was one John Reynolds, who, according to the deposition of the witnesses, had been within a yard of the door of the meeting-place, with his face from it. The judge then said, ‘God forbid that I should do any thing that is not right and just against my conscience; there is that which is written upon the wall before me, which puts me in mind, that I should not judge for man, but for God.’ Then turning to the jury, he spoke to them almost after the same manner, as he did concerning the other four prisoners: and to induce them to declare Reynolds, (who was taken but not in the meeting,) guilty, he spoke thus: ‘Suppose 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 the murder. So though the witnesses do not say that they saw and took him 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 he hath been taken twice already, and convicted upon record. My masters, I leave it to you, go forth.’ Then a bailiff was called, and charged to provide the jury a room, and to let none speak with them, nor to let them have either bread, drink, or candle, till they brought in their verdict. The jury being gone out, soon agreed, and after they were returned said, that four of the five prisoners were guilty, and that the other who stood without the door was not guilty. So he was acquitted; but the other four being brought to the bar, the judge asked them, what they could say why judgment of transportation should not be given against them. Their answer was, ‘We are innocent, and have not offended any just law of God or man, to deserve that sentence; we leave it to the witness of God in thy or your consciences.’ Then the judge said, ‘Ye have offended against this law, (having the act before him,) which is made by the king and parliament, and executed by us their subordinate ministers: if it be not righteous and just, we must answer for that.’ One of the prisoners had said before, ‘If I have transgressed any just law, let me suffer; and if not, he that judgeth for God will not condemn me.’ To which the judge returned, ‘You do well to put me in mind of my duty; pray think of your own.’ And now he asked the prisoners, ‘Have you any more to say?’ To which they answered, ‘Nothing, but that we are innocent.’ Then he said, ‘Hear your sentence: 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, that if you, and either of you, will pay down here into the court, an hundred pounds before the court riseth, you and every one of you shall be discharged, and clearly acquitted for what is past. And I will show you this favour, not to discharge the court at this present, but shall adjourn it till afternoon.’ This was done; and the court being met again, the judge sent to the condemned prisoners to know if they would pay down the hundred pounds; but they answering, ‘No,’ the court was then soon discharged.

Seven of these prisoners not long after were carried on ship-board to be transported to the West Indies; but (which was remarkable,) the ship by contrary winds and stormy weather was hindered going to sea. Not only the master, whose name was Thomas May, but also his men, grew very uneasy at this: for they believed that Heaven was against them: nay, the sailors threatened to leave the ship, if the master would not set those prisoners ashore. And he himself, considering how after having lain long in the Downs, and more than once set sail, they were hindered to go on by contrary winds, resolved at length, after having lingered about two months, to set the banished ashore; and so he did, giving them a certificate, of which I have a copy in my custody, that they were not run away, but freely put ashore by him, for which, among others, he gave these reasons, that seeing the great adversities they had met with, he concluded from thence, that the hand of God was against him, and that therefore he durst not go off with these prisoners, because he found them to be honest men, who had not deserved banishment. And also that there was a law extant, that no Englishman might be transported against his mind. And that his men refused to proceed on the voyage if he would carry away these people. This certificate he gave under his hand, and so let them go away free; and not long after the ship set sail with a fair wind. I do not find that the banished, who returned home again, were prosecuted on this account: for the sentence against them was executed as far as it could at that time, and they had made no opposition, but had been sufferers.

Persecution in the meanwhile did not cease: but this did not discourage those called Quakers; they continued valiant, as I have seen in many letters sent about that time to some of my acquaintance. One said in the court of justice, ‘We are in the service of the Lord, and may not leave it;’ another who was offered to be freed of banishment, if he would pay down an hundred pounds, said, ‘Though I had an hundred lives to lose, and could redeem them all for an hundred pence, yet I would not do it.’ But this could not stop the violence of the persecutors; till an heavier hand reached them, as may be related hereafter.

In the months of October and December many were condemned to transportation, and among these several women, whose trials I shall but cursorily speak of: for if I should relate all particulars, the description would far exceed my limits; and therefore I will but touch upon some few things.

On the 13th of October, sixteen of those called Quakers were tried at Hicks’s Hall, in Middlesex, for the third offence, as they called it.—The grand jury consulting together about finding the bill of indictment, could not well agree. And the justices giving them a check, one of the jurymen desired to know, by what law they ought to find a bill against any persons, without witnesses to testify the fact committed. To which answer was made by the court, that their records testified the crime or fact, and that such their record was a sufficient witness without the testimony of any man. And for a proof of this it was further said, ‘The records in Chancery serve as a sufficient testimony; and if it be so in Chancery, why not here?’ The jury having been twice upon this business, was sent up a third time; and Edward Shelton, the clerk, said he would go up also to help them, and so he did; it having been threatened, that if the jurymen did not find a bill, they should be fined. Nevertheless, at their return they answered, ‘No verdict.’ Whereupon the justices finding the jurymen not to answer their ends, took them apart, and examined them one by one, telling them that the only thing they were to look upon was, that they did assemble together above the number of five in company; which, according to what they said, their records showed. This made some of the jury comply; but others stood it out, and signified that in conscience they could not consent to what was required of them. But the major part complying with the justices, upon their threatening them, and the others being strongly pressed, the bill was, by a kind of force, accepted at length. But how hard a case this was to some, appeared by the mournful confession of one of the jury, who to ease his conscience published in print a small book, with the title of ‘The Wounded Heart, or The Juryman’s Offences,’ &c. in which he openly disapproved the fact, to which he had been induced by human fear. The pains had been so great to persuade the jury to bring in a verdict according to the mind of the court, that the clerk, as was reported, said, he had rather have given twenty pounds, than have been so troubled.

The next day the prisoners were brought to the bar, and William Proctor, of Gray’s Inn, sat as judge in the court. The questions and answers I pass by for brevity sake. One Hannah Trigg pleading she was innocent, was asked how old she was; to which she saying she was not sixteen years old; one of the justices did not stick to say, she told a lie; and that he thought the Quakers would not lie. In the meanwhile it appeared, that he only said so by guess to baffle her; for by a certificate of some that were present at her birth, (which was divulged in print,) it was proved that she, being the daughter of Timothy Trigg, was born at London on the 20th of the month called August, 1649; and so was but fifteen years of age, and dealt with against the law; which was the harder, because this maid falling sick, died in prison, after the sentence of banishment had been past upon her: which sentence was now pronounced against twelve persons, among whom were four maids; and four married women were condemned to a confinement of eleven months in Bridewell. The judge in the pronouncing the sentences was so disturbed in his mind, that ordering some to be transported to Virginia, and others to Barbadoes, he condemned some also to be sent to Hispaniola; at which the people were not a little surprised, for he made it plainly appear, that he did not consider what he said; since Hispaniola was no place in the dominions of the king of England: but he was so confounded, that he also accused the prisoners of having transgressed the laws of the commonwealth, forgetting that England was no more a commonwealth, as it was before the restoration of king Charles II.

On the 15th of October above forty of the prisoners called Quakers, were tried before the judges Hide and Keeling. To mention all the exhorbitances of this trial, which were not few, I count needless; for as to the questions and answers, and the passing of sentence, the reader may form to himself an idea of it from what hath been said already of the trial at Hertford, &c. A maid being asked, guilty, or not guilty, answered, ‘I never was taken at any seditious meeting or conventicle in my life.’ To which the judge said, ‘But, woman, were not you taken at the Bull and Mouth the 21st of August?’ She answered, ‘I am innocent in the sight of God and all good people.’ That this was true the judge did not deny, but said, ‘I believe that, woman, but you have transgressed a law.’ She replied, ‘As for the Bull and Mouth. I believe I have been there an hundred times, and if the Lord permit me life and liberty, I do not know but I may go there an hundred times more.’ The judge then saying, ‘Woman, will you plead or no, guilty or not guilty, or else I must pass sentence upon you.’ She answered, ‘The will of the Lord be done, I am innocent.’ Yet this could not avail her, though judge Hide had said a little before concerning the prisoners, ‘If they are innocent, then they are not guilty.’ But she was set by as mute, or pro confesso, as to the fact charged against her in the indictment. Others who complained of the unreasonableness of the proceedings, were hectored as impudent: and the jury showing themselves dissatisfied concerning the witnesses, judge Hide said to them, it was no untruth if a man did mistake in the time, and that his evidence was good, though he did not see one in the house: ‘For,’ said he, ‘if forty men be in a room, and one is brought out of the room to me, standing at the door, cannot I swear that he was in that room, if I see him come out? You must not make such scruples.’

In the meanwhile there were some among the witnesses who did not know the prisoners by face; so that there was reason enough to disprove their testimony. But whatever was objected, the business must go on: for though one of the witnesses declared that the meeting, from which the prisoners had been taken was peaceable; and though one of the prisoners said, that the law was made against seditious meetings, and that nothing of sedition had been proved against them: yet judge Keeling said, the act was made to prevent such meetings, because under colour and pretence of religion, plots and conspiracies might be carried on. And when a prisoner said, that he was at a peaceable godly meeting, and received much comfort there; the judge returned, ‘That is as much as we desire. You confess you were there; and though it was a peaceable meeting, yet it was an unlawful one.’ Another of the prisoners who pleaded that the law the court acted by was contrary to Magna Charta, and the ancient fundamental laws of the land, was answered by judge Hide, ‘If the king and parliament should make a law that two justices without a jury should adjudge a man to death for the third offence as a felon, without benefit of clergy, it would be a good law, and according to Magna Charta, and the law of the land; and we should be bound to execute it.’ It seems this judge, (who not long after was suddenly summoned hence to appear before the divine assizes,) was of opinion, that since the legislative power resided in the king and parliament, all that they resolved and enacted, must pass for good law. But if I should mention all the absurdities I meet with in these proceedings, when should I come to an end? True it is, that sometimes a show was made of pity: for judge Keeling said to two maids, ‘We are sorry that such young maids should be thus deluded.’ But because they would not promise to go to the public church, though they declared themselves ready to assist at divine service, they were deemed as guilty. Another prisoner being asked by judge Hide, whether he would go to church, answered, ‘If I have my liberty, I shall go to church.’ But when it appeared that he did not mean the established or public church, this promise could not save him. One Richard Poulton, a lad of fifteen years of age, who by a certificate showed, that he was not yet sixteen years old, and therefore no transgressor of the law, was asked, if he would swear he was not sixteen, just as if he could have remembered the time of his birth; to which he answered, that he was not brought up to swearing: and being asked, whether he would promise to go to church, he answered, he should promise no such thing. Then he was returned to the rest that were to be sentenced.

This was on the 17th of the aforesaid month; when nineteen persons, among which were some women, were condemned to banishment, and four married women to twelve months imprisonment in Bridewell. None of the judges it seems had a mind to pronounce sentence, and therefore they left this business to the city recorder. He then bidding the prisoners to hearken to the judgment of the court, spoke so softly, that he could not well be heard, which made one of the prisoners say, that he ought to speak louder, for they could not hear him. But he continuing to speak softly as before, two or three others of the prisoners told him, they could not tell what he said. To which he answered, he cared not whether they did or no; and then said, ‘Hearken to your sentence, You and every of you, shall be transported beyond the seas, the men to Barbadoes, and the women to Jamaica, being two of his majesty’s plantations, there to remain seven years.’ Thus the persecutors endeavoured to be rid of the Quakers: but though persecution now was very hot, yet they fainted not, neither were they in want of such vigilant assistants, as both by example and words continually encouraged them to faithfulness: who yet, (which was remarkable,) were not condemned to banishment, as many others.

Among these was Josiah Coale also, who about this time, as I have been told, was in prison at London; and both by writing, and by word of mouth, did exhort his fellow-believers to constancy: for, (when under confinement,) he betook himself to his pen, and recommended to his friends, that they would not forsake their meetings, though they were to undergo great sufferings, since it was God’s good pleasure to let their patience be tried. ‘And,’ said he, ‘that these afflictions come upon us is by God’s permission: who then shall gainsay him, or endeavour to reason with him about matters of so great a concern, since his way is hid from man.’ He also signified to them that this was done to try their faith, and that therefore they ought to continue bold, and persevere valiantly. ‘And though,’ said he, ‘great sufferings and afflictions attend us, yet my heart, praised be the Lord, is not troubled, neither hath fear seized me, because I see the intent of the Lord in it.’ And in one letter he spoke thus: ‘Friends, this know: that for the sake of the residue of the seed which is yet ungathered, is my life freely sacrificed up into the hand of the Lord; and ready and willing am I to lay it down for the testimony of God’s blessed truth, which he hath given me to hear, if thereunto I am called: for bonds and afflictions attend me daily, and I may say, we are in jeopardy of our lives daily: so let your prayer to God be for me, that I may be kept unto the end, to finish my testimony with joy, and in all things to bring glory and honour to the name of the Lord, who is over all, blessed for ever.’ This his Christian desire he obtained, as will be said in due place. It was a time of suffering; and those to whose share it fell, continued valiant: whilst others did not neglect to exhort the king and parliament to leave off persecution. Among these was William Bayly, who gave forth a very serious exhortation and warning against the persecution to the king and parliament, &c. beginning thus:

‘For the King and Parliament, &c.

‘Friends,

‘The God of heaven hath put it into my heart to write a few words unto you, in the fear and dread of his name, and in the counsel of his own will, concerning the work which ye have taken in hand against him and his people; this is not the end and work for which the Lord God hath permitted you into the places of government and rule, in this nation, (nor the way for you to prosper, nor to prolong your days in the earth,) thus to persecute and afflict an innocent and harmless people, who are peaceable, and walk uprightly towards God and man; therein endeavouring, in all things, to keep their consciences void of offence, and who have no helper in the earth but the Lord alone; neither is their kingdom of this world, but they are verily the children and servants of the most high God, whom he hath gathered from amongst men, and from the kindness of the earth, to be the first fruits unto him, and to the Lamb in this age; and we are his, and not our own, he hath brought us, and redeemed us unto himself, and to him alone have we committed our innocent cause, and he hath undertaken to plead it for us, with all our adversaries; and no weapon formed against us shall ever prosper, but be broken to pieces.

‘Therefore friends, be awakened and open your eyes, and see what a stir and ado here is in this nation; to haul and drag up and down a company of tender, innocent, and harmless people, men and women, and children, from their peaceable meetings, who meet together in the fear and tender love of God, without any evil or bad intent toward any; but have good-will and compassion toward all men, even to the worst of our enemies, as the Lord bears us witness; and these are they that are driven as sheep to the slaughter, and thrown into your noisome jails, and prisons, and houses of correction; by rude and brutish people, your servants, whom you have set on work by your authority, till many of them have (patiently) suffered till death, whose innocent blood will assuredly be required at your hands, (though they shall not go free of the guilt, who have had the least hand in it, without speedy repentance.) And thus ye may see and read, how the disciples of Christ Jesus, are as sheep and Lambs in the midst of wolves in this age, and as a lily among thorns, and all this is only for obeying his commands, and for worshipping the everlasting invisible God, in the spirit, and in the truth, according to the Scriptures, the which, if you knew and understood, you would tremble to think what you have done against them, to cause so many of the little ones, which believe in Christ, so grievously to suffer, who said, it were better a millstone were hanged about his neck, and be drowned in the depth of the sea, that should offend one of these little ones, that believe in me; and as true as Christ Jesus suffered, and rose again, and as God liveth, who raised him from the dead, we are some of those his little ones that believe in him, who, (in derision and scorn in this age,) are called Quakers, as ye might call Moses, the prophets and apostles, (in days past,) who did quake and tremble at the presence of the Lord, who is the same now as ever he was, though the ungodly know him not, nor his power: and we are of that poor and afflicted people, mentioned Zeph. iii. 12. 19. “Whose trust is in the name of the Lord, who will undo all that afflict them.”

‘But what shall I say unto you; if ye will not, or cannot believe our faithful testimony, (or the testimony of God through us,) and the innocency of our cause and sufferings, neither will ye believe, if one should rise from the dead and declare it unto you; for many tender visitations, and timely warnings, and gentle reprehensions have you had, from the pure spirit of the Lord God, both from his witness in your own consciences, and from his faithful servants, and messengers, who have written and declared unto you in his name and power in this your day. And as for my part, who am one of the least of the thousands of Israel, I could willingly have been silent as toward you at this time, but the Lord, whom I serve in my spirit, hath laid it upon me to warn you once more, for whose sakes I have borne a burden, in the true sight and sense of your sad estate, and of the day of thick darkness, wrath, and distress, which is hastening upon you from the Almighty.

‘Wherefore be not proud nor rebellious, but hear, and obey the word of the Lord; for thus saith the Lord God that made heaven and earth, let my innocent people alone, and touch them not any more, as ye have done; for they are mine, and I have called them, and chosen them, and redeemed them; they are my jewels, which I am making up, they shall show forth my glory before men to the whole world; I have anointed them, and I will preserve them and deliver them, and crown them with an everlasting salvation. I will rebuke kings and rulers for their sakes, and distress nations, and dethrone the mighty from their seats that rise up against them, as I have done; and let my everlasting gospel have a free passage in these nations; and do not reproach and afflict my servants and messengers so any more, whom I have chosen and sent to preach and declare the way of life and salvation to the ends of the earth, but bow your ear and your heart unto them and their testimony, that it may be well with you, and prolong your days; for he that blesseth them shall be blessed, and he that curseth them shall be cursed, and every hand shall wither that opposeth them, as hath been, and shall be, henceforth for ever: I the Lord have spoken it.

‘But and if you will not hear, but will still persist, and go on, as ye have done, to oppress my heritage, and harmless people, and make war and opposition against my power and truth, and thus set yourselves and your power against me, the living God, I will bring you down suddenly, to the astonishment of nations, and I will cut your day short, and turn your pleasures into howling and lamentation, and shame and contempt shall cover your memorial as a garment. Thus will I work for the deliverance of my seed, and none shall let it; for the year of my redeemed is come, and the day of vengeance is in my heart, to plead its cause with all flesh.

‘Therefore, consider your ways, and see what ye are doing, and what the effect of this your work will be; ye are but men, and the children of men, who were but as yesterday; your breath also is in your nostrils, and your life is but a vapour, which will soon vanish away: you labour in the very fire, and bring forth wind, which blows up the flame of that which will consume you, and deprive you of all happiness for ever: O that ye had but hearts to consider it! For the more you strive with the Lord, and oppress his people, the more will they multiply, and grow stronger and stronger: and you shall wax weaker and weaker, and your works shall be your heavy burden; for life and immortality is risen, and the power of God is stirring in the hearts of thousands, and light and understanding, the excellent spirit which was in Daniel, is breaking forth like the lightning, which shines out of the east into the west, in the sight of many people, whereby they know, it is the day of the coming of the Son of Man, with power and great glory, that every eye may see him, and they that have pierced him shall mourn bitterly: so, your labour is in vain, and your works for the fire, and your striving with your Maker to no purpose, as to effect your end and aim. And of these things you have been often forewarned, and the Lord hath been very long suffering towards you, in sparing you thus long, and suffering you thus far to act against him and his dear people; and his mercy and forbearance hath been evidently showed in a large measure unto you, in deferring his heavy judgments thus long, which must have been confessed to be just upon you. And will you thus requite the Lord, by increasing your tasks of oppression upon his tender innocent people? O unwise and ungrateful generation! Hath not God yet showed you, that you should do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly? But are these your fruits and practices, fruits of mercy or justice? Or if there be any tincture or spark of love, or humility in them, let God’s witness, the light in all your consciences, and in people, answer. I tell you plainly, that such fruits and doings among you, that profess yourselves Christians, have made the very name of Christ and Christianity, a proverb of reproach through nations, and have caused the God of heaven to be blasphemed; and how could it be otherwise, seeing you who profess the most knowledge of God, and have talked of converting the heathen, as some of your leaders have done, are found the least in the life and fruits thereof. But to what would they convert them? to pride and swearing, and drunkenness, and oppression, and all manner of excess, and to persecute people for their good conscience? They have no need of that; for, some of them have said, they did not use to swear and be drunk, &c. till they came among the Christians, and learned of them; they did not do so in their own country: ye are so far from converting them, being out of the life of what ye profess and talk of yourselves, that the very heathen or infidels, (as ye call them,) do judge and condemn you, who are making inquiry, concerning these your proceedings against this harmless people, among whom some of them have been kindly entreated, who visited them at the Lord’s requiring, though contrary in opinion and religion; and this doth rise up in judgment against you.

‘But, friends, have you yourselves been under sufferings, and some of you been driven into strange countries, or lands, for your cause, as it was called? Nay, did not the king himself once flee for refuge to a tree, to save himself from his enemies’ hands? If not, why are there such representations made of it, in so many places in the nation? And was not this as great a mercy and deliverance from God, so to obscure and preserve him, from them who pursued him, and many of you also? And are these things forgotten? Can mercy be loved, except it be remembered? And do you remember and love his mercies, by doing justly, and walking humbly with him, as he doth require? Or do you boast in vain glory, as if your own arm had done it, or your own strength or deserts had delivered you? If so, then God must needs be forgotten, and his mercies trodden under foot, and his visitations and counsels cast behind your back; and so, all that forget God, shall be torn in pieces, and there shall be none to deliver them, as it is written.

‘And were these your sufferings, which you sustained by them ye opposed, unjust and unequal? And if you should say, they were: then I say, it is much more unjust and very unequal in the sight of God, and all sober people that fear him, for you, thus to inflict such cruel sufferings as imprisoning, and stifling up to death in your noisome jails and holes among thieves and murderers, and to pronounce sentence of banishment upon an innocent, harmless, peaceable people, that do not oppose you in the least, with any outward force, neither do so much as the thoughts of it lodge within our breasts, as the Lord God knoweth, who hath called us to peace, but on the contrary have sought and do seek your welfare and happiness, both in this world, and in the world to come, which in time shall be manifest to the whole earth.

‘And if you say, your sufferings were unjust and unequal, though you did oppose them, and make war against them so long as you could, because they deprived you of your rights and privileges, and just liberties, and natural birthrights, &c. which were your due to enjoy, as being free-born of the nation: then how much more is it unjust, and unequal, and unrighteous, thus to inflict sufferings upon your friends, and oppress your peaceable neighbours, who are free-born people of the same nation, and do not oppose you, but are tender towards you, as aforesaid, and subject to all wholesome just laws, and tributary to you, for which causes we ought to have our just liberty, and enjoy the privilege of our birthright, which is our due so long as we live peaceably and harmlessly, but if it be not a privilege to be pleaded for, then are all your own grounds and reasons, and cause, without a foundation, and you and the whole nation may be swept away by any that are able to do it, without being charged with injustice or oppression, which is contrary to the just balance, the light of Christ in all people’s consciences. And as we are the dearly beloved people of the most high God, who doth bless us with his presence, and manifest his everlasting love and good-will towards us daily, and overshadows us with his power and tender mercies, whom he hath gathered out of the evil ways and spirit of this world, and all the vanities thereof, unto himself, to walk with him who is invisible, in the upright, blameless, undefiled life, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; I say, considering these things, how greatly and unrighteously do our sufferings appear to all sober people, whose eyes are open, and will be more open to discern and savour the bitterness of that proud, envious, wrathful spirit, which thus hath acted and deceived you: and its end is numbered by them that have wisdom from above.

‘For friends, set aside the reproachful name of Quakers, and the other titles of derision and scorn, which the envious and blood-thirsty spirit hath invented to render the people of God odious in all ages, and tell me what ye have justly to charge against this people, whom you so furiously pursue to the dens and caves of the earth, to the loss of the lives of so many of them; by which children are made fatherless, and tender-hearted women, mournful widows, and let it come forth to open view, and declare it abroad, as your articles against them, to the whole world, and speak the truth, and nothing but the truth, as you use to tell one another, that all people may rightly know and understand the very ground and most secret cause, who do inquire, of these your present proceedings against them; for notice is taken by many, and ere long it must be manifest to all men, as the folly and madness of Jannes and Jambres were, that withstood Moses; for you withstand no less than him of whom Moses wrote; who said, “I am the light of the world,” against whom Saul was once exceedingly mad, and had thoughts to do very much against that way, which was then as well as now, called Heresy, till the light of Jesus, whom he persecuted, met with him, with his letters, or warrants, to haul men and women to prison, as your servants do, and smote him to the ground, and made him tremble, who, from that time, became such a Quaker, as you now persecute and imprison till death; but the light of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, will meet with all persecutors, and oppressors about religion, let them be never so mad, or think they ought to do much against that way, they call Heresy, as some of you have said, who have made a mock at the light, even publicly, which many took notice of, and even marvelled at such blasphemy in an open court, against the Saviour of the world: and there is no other name under heaven by which men shall be saved, but him who said, John, vii. 7. 12. and 16. “I am the light of the world, who lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

‘And this is he, in whom we have believed, and of whom we have declared, and must declare and hear testimony, as long as we have a being; and the world shall know that our testimony is true; and for his name and truth only, do we thus patiently suffer the contradictions of sinners, as our brethren did by the zealous Jews in ages past; but you are not so zealous for Christ’s law and commandments, as they were of Moses and the prophets, which Christ ends and fulfils, who thought it was not lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day, as to heal the sick, for then would you “Do to all men, as ye would they should do to you;” for his law runs thus, “And be ye merciful,” &c. and “Love you your enemies; and swear not at all,” &c. as ye may read.

‘But behold, how both Jews and Gentiles take notice, and are ashamed and grieved, to hear and see what a deal of bad works you do, even on your Sabbath-day, as some of you call it, and how you profane the day of your worship, with your cattle, and servants, which are within your gates, what riding and running, and toiling, in rage and fury, like madmen, sweating, and swearing, and cursing, and dragging, and hauling the innocent members of Christ’s body out of their peaceable meetings, into your jails and holes; on your day of worship. But are your sacrifices, ye offer at that time, accepted? Have ye peace whilst these things are acting in your name, and by your authority? If you have peace and pleasure therein, let me tell you from the righteous God, you are hardened in your sins against him, and he will break your peace speedily, and turn your pleasure into bitterness and lamentation: and his innocent people’s meetings shall stand, and be increased; and their way shall prosper, and the truth shall spread and prevail, and have dominion over all nations; and their enemies shall fall and be confounded, let them strive what they can against them; for they are of God, and not of man, or the will of man, and they seek his glory and not their own; and such as abide faithful to him, shall triumph over all the principalities, and powers of the rulers of the darkness of this world, and make a show openly of the victory over all that do or may oppose them; for their life is immortal, and the Lord of heaven and earth is their strength, who is with them as a mighty terrible one; therefore shall their persecutors fall before them.

‘And let me tell you again, that by these your unreasonable, 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 imprisoning to death so many innocent persons and free-born people of this nation, besides hundreds are liable to the same, which yet remain in your prisons. And your unnatural, cruel sentence of banishment, to separate dear and tender husbands from their dear and tender wives, and tender children, and little innocent babes: 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 ye 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 thoughts hereof; my heart and soul melts within me, and I am even bowed down, with cries to God, in my spirit, to think of the hardness of your hearts.

‘God Almighty, cut short thy work in righteousness, and shorten the days of oppression and cruelty for thine elect’s sake; which cry night and day unto thee, and make known thy name and power to the ends of the earth; and let the heathen hear, and fear, and bow to thy righteous sceptre, and let the kings of the earth lay down their crowns at the feet of the Lamb, that through thy righteous judgments they may partake of thy tender mercies, which endure for ever; that their eyes may be no longer withholden, nor blinded by the god of this world, the power and prince of darkness, but that they may come to see thee, who art invisible, and enjoy the same precious life of pure unfeigned love, which abounds in the hearts of thy hidden ones; and receive thy peaceable wisdom, to be governed, and to govern therein; then would they surely know, that we are thine, and confess to thy glorious truth, and speak good of thy name, and magnify thy power, and no longer count the blood of thy everlasting covenant, (wherewith we are sanctified,) as an unholy thing.

‘But, O thou righteous, holy, pure, eternal God, art unknown unto all them that sit in darkness, and dwell in the spirit of enmity against thee and thy people; though thou art come near to judgment, according to the promise, Mal. iii. 5. And thy way of life and salvation is hid from them, therefore they hate us without a cause, and thus evilly entreat us in the darkness of their minds, and in the ignorance and hardness of their hearts; for which my soul doth pity them, and even entreat thee for them, that if possible their eyes may be yet opened, and their hearts yet softened, and their spirit humbled, that they may see what they are doing in the dark, and consider the effect of their work, which will assuredly follow: and if thy warnings and gentle visitations will not humble them, then let thy judgments awaken them, and bring them down, and humble them, that they may perceive something of what thou art doing, in these latter days, and art resolved to do to the ends of the earth, though the whole world should gather and band together to oppose thy work and people; for thou hast begun, and thou wilt go through and perfect thy work; thou wilt raise thy seed, and gather thine elect from the four winds, and bring them from the ends of the earth, and scatter the proud in the vain imaginations of their hearts; and thou wilt break thy way through all that oppose thee in this the day of thy mighty power, in which thou art arisen, as a giant to run his race, to finish transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in and establish everlasting righteousness; that the kingdom of this world may become thy kingdom, and of thy Christ, as thou hast promised, and art now fulfilling; glory and honour, and thanks, and everlasting praises be to thy glorious name, world without end. Amen.

‘So friends, ye are and have been warned again and again by the faithful messengers and servants of the Lord, in love to your souls; and you are left without excuse, if never words more should be mentioned unto 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: for if you will not believe them, but slight and reject them, and neither make conscience of what hath proceeded out of your own mouth, nor regard to perform your own words and public engagements, in that which is just, which the Lord requireth of you, nor remember his by-past and present mercies, and long suffering towards you, but trample all under foot; I say, if it be thus with you, and you are resolved to go on, you will wholly be given up, and be exceedingly hardened, and grow desperate in cruelty and oppression against God, and his truth and people, till your whole earth is filled with violence; and then, (as true as God liveth,) will the flood come upon you, and ye shall fall after the manner of Egypt; and the weight of the dreadful judgments, due for all your abominations and cruelties, shall sink you down into the pit that is bottomless, and that suddenly, as the Lord hath spoken.

By his servant, who is a lover of the welfare of all your souls, and I am thus far clear of all your blood,

WILLIAM BAYLY.’

Written in the Tenth month, 1664, at Hartford.

Again, in December, twelve of those called Quakers, were condemned to banishment; for it was resolved to go on, not regarding what George Bishop gave forth in print, and caused to be delivered to the king and the members of parliament, being as followeth:

‘To the King and both Houses of Parliament, thus saith the Lord.

‘Meddle not with my people, because of their conscience to me, and banish them not out of the nation because of their conscience; for if ye do, I will send my plagues upon you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Written in obedience to the Lord, by his servant, GEORGE BISHOP.’

Bristol, the 29th of the Fifth month, 1664.

The fulfilling of this prediction we shall see; for within a short time a war ensued with the Dutch, and the pestilence appeared at London; but before it broke out, yet more of the imprisoned Quakers were condemned to banishment, viz. two and thirty persons, both men and women, who were sentenced by the court on the 6th, 14th, and 15th of December; for whatever they said in defence of themselves, proved ineffectual. One asked, If we meet really to worship God, must we suffer for that? And judge Hide answered, ‘Yes, that you must.’ But judge Keeling, to mend the matter a little, said, ‘You shall not suffer for worshipping God, but for being at an unlawful assembly contrary to the law.’ Another said, ‘I meet to worship the eternal God in Spirit, as he persuades my heart and conscience; and must I be condemned to banishment for that?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ said judge Keeling, ‘for the law is against it.’ To which judge Twisden added, ‘He hath confessed that he was there to worship God; and their worship is contrary to the liturgy of the church of England.’ Thus we see, if there was but evidence that the prisoners had been at a meeting, this was counted sufficient to condemn them. A woman being asked, what she had to say to the evidence given, answered, ‘Be it known unto you all, if I had as many bodies as hairs on my head, I could lay them all down for the living eternal truth of the living God.’ After all the prisoners had been called to the bar, they were at length sentenced to be transported to Jamaica, and to remain there seven years.

This year in September died my mother, Judith Zinspenning at Amsterdam in Holland, where she was born of religious parents among the Baptists, into whose society her father Conrad Zinspenning was entered in a singular manner; of which, though it may seem somewhat out of my road, yet because of the remarkable steps of Providence appearing therein, I will give a short account. He being of Cologne in Germany, was bred a Papist; and after he had past the Latin schools, his father thrust him into a cloister; (for Papists used to think it meritorious to offer up one of their children to the clergy.) But he found the monastical life so much against his inclination, that his father dying before the probation year was expired, he begged his mother to assist him in his intention to leave the fraternity, since he was not yet bound by vow. She complied with his desire, and so he got out, and then he was put to a trade. After he had served his time, he resolved to travel, and first took a turn to Holland, from thence to France, and then to Italy, and the metropolis Rome, and so back again. Having been a lay-friar, he got letters of recommendation to such monasteries as were of the order of those monks he had lived with; that so he might freely find lodging there for sometime. And because in Holland there are no cloisters, he was recommended to some eminent Papists at Amsterdam: whither being come, he liked the place so well, that he resolved to stay there sometime; which he did, after having found employment. And thus getting into acquaintance, he came in time to live with a Baptist, who employed him as a journeyman. He never till now met with the New Testament, in which he began to read so eagerly, that the Lord co-operating by his good Spirit, his understanding came to be opened, so that he got a clear sight of the superstition and errors of the popish religion, in which he was trained up; and then entering into discourse with his master, was persuaded to renounce popery, and to enter into the communion of the Baptists. This broke all his measures concerning his intended travels; and then resolving to settle where he was, he took to wife one Catharine de Mol, a virtuous maid, whose father was one of the primitive Baptists that arose under the persecution in Flanders, from whence he with many more came to settle in Holland.

From these parents my mother descended, who was religiously inclined even from her youth, and became so well versed in the Holy Scriptures; and was so diligent in writing down so much of the sermons she heard, as she could retain by memory; that her father said sometimes, ‘It is a pity that this girl is not a boy, who then in time might become an eminent instrument in the church.’ After she was come to age, though much inclined to lead a single life, yet at length she was married to my father, Jacob Williamson Sewel, a very religious young man; whose father William Sewel, from Kidderminster in Worcestershire, having been one of those Brownists, that left England and settled in Holland, married a Dutch wife at Utrecht, where my father was born; who being come to age, endeavoured to walk in the narrow way, and conversed mostly with the strictest professors of those days. And both he and my mother came in time to grow dissatisfied with that worship to which they were joined; yet in clearness of understanding my mother exceeded my father; nevertheless she continued dissatisfied as well as he, with the common way of worship she belonged to; so that oftentimes, when she came from the meeting-house, she resolved not to go there any more, because she reaped no real and substantial benefit by it. But then the first day of the week being come again, she was in a straight, thinking that however it was, yet by the apostle we were exhorted not to forsake the assemblies. In this irresolute condition she continued a long time; and being incumbered with the cares of the family, she was not so much at liberty for performing religious duties, (viz. prayers, reading of, and meditating on the Holy Scriptures, visiting the sick, and such like pious exercises,) as she was before she was married; which made her wish sometimes she had never entered into matrimony, and that she might live to enjoy again that peace and quiet which once she had. But she knew not yet that it was the love of the Lord thus working upon her, to draw her off from transitory things. In this state she was often seized with grief and sorrow, so that she counted herself the most miserable of women; for neither husband nor children, nor any outward enjoyments, could afford her any pleasure; but all her desire was to attain to an undefiled state, in which she might live an unblameable life, not only before men, but also before God; for feeling there was yet something in her which was evil and polluting, she struggled to overcome it; but all her labour proved in vain. This made her cry earnestly to the Lord as one in great danger; and her doubts whether it was possible to attain to perfection increased. But in this forlorn state it pleased the Lord to manifest himself to her in some measure, though she knew not then it was he. And often she cried out, ‘Lord what will it avail me to know that thou hast sent thy Son into the world, and that he was crucified and died for the sins of the world, if I am not saved by it. Lord forgive my sins, and have mercy upon me.’ And once when she was alone, pouring out her heart before the Lord, he made himself known to her, and spoke to her soul, that if she would be perfect, she must follow the light in every respect. Having heard this, she desired to know what this light was; and the Lord showed her, that the light was the life of men. This she understood in some degree, and so separated herself as much as ever she could conveniently from conversation, endeavouring to live retiredly. And having about this time heard Dr. Galenus Abrahams, an eminent Baptist teacher, preach upon the parable of the seedsman; that which he spoke concerning the good ground, and how the ground must be fitted by the Lord’s working, so affected her, that she resolved to rest from all her own labour; and so she left frequenting the Baptists’ assemblies any more.

In this retired state she continued a good while, and at length came to hear William Ames preach; and he declaring the light of Christ as the true teacher, this agreed with what had already been told her inwardly by the immediate manifestations of the Lord to her. And thus she came fully to be convinced that this was the truth she had so long desired to know. Now she saw that it was her duty to give up all, and to keep nothing back: for she had already seen, that if she would be Christ’s disciple, she must forsake all, even her own self. But a fear of the cross was no small impediment to her; yet now she gave up to obedience; and saw that her former performances had been defective; and now all came into remembrance. This caused sorrow; but she prayed to the Lord both night and day, and then he manifested his power by which she was led out of the darkness and bondage, wherein she had been held captive; and her supplication was to the Lord, that it might not be with her as formerly, to wit, sometimes great zeal, and then coldness again; but that she might continue in fervency of spirit. After a long time of mourning the Lord manifested his kindness to her, by which she came to be quickened and refreshed; and by the judgments of the Lord all was narrowly searched out, so that nothing could be hid; and a separation was made between the precious and the vile, and death passed over all. But thus to part with all her own wisdom, and forsake her great attainments, was no small cross: yet she became willing to hear it, although many violent tempests rose to draw her off, if possible, from closely adhering to the beloved of her soul; yet she was not forward in imitation: for my father, who when he was convinced of the truth preached by W. Ames and W. Caton, soon left off the common way of salutation, would sometimes persuade her by arguments to do so too; but she told him, if the leaving off of that custom was a thing the Lord required, she believed he would show it her in his own time, because she was given up to follow his requirings. And so the Lord did in due time; and she continuing zealously faithful, he was pleased after my father’s death to give her a public testimony, and she became eminently gifted: for her natural abilities surpassing the ordinary qualifications of her sex, and becoming sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord, could not but produce good effects; and she came to be much visited and sought to by professors; and the Fifth monarchy-men applauded her because of her pathetical admonitions. But she was above flattery, and trampled upon it. Nay, she was so well esteemed, that I remember, having some movings to visit the collegians in their meeting, after one of them had left off speaking, she stood up, and said, that she had something upon her mind to speak to them by way of exhortation. But knowing that they suffered not women to speak amongst them, she was not willing bluntly to intrude herself; but desired their leave, which they readily granted, and one of their chief speakers said to her, ‘It is true, friend, we do not allow women to speak in the church; yet we hear that respect to you, that we give you the liberty of speaking.’ And then she cleared herself, having formerly been a frequenter of that assembly. And when she had done speaking, I do not remember she was contradicted by any; but one of their speakers concluded the meeting with a prayer.

Before that time she wrote and published a small book to those of her former society, which she called a Serious Reproof of the Flemish Baptists: in which she dealt very plainly with them; and showed how they were apostatized. She wrote also some other treatises, extant in print; and was much beloved and well esteemed by English friends, as appears by several letters written to her from England, and yet extant. Those of her own nation often resorted to her for instruction, she being so well exercised in the way of the Lord, that she was able to speak a word in season to various conditions. Many times she visited the meetings at Alkmaar, Haarlem and Rotterdam; and was often invited by her friends to come and edify them with her gift. She wrote also many letters for edification and admonition to particular persons, and some epistles also to the church. But it pleased the Lord to take her early to himself. When she fell sick, she soon had a sense that she was not like to recover, and therefore spoke much to me in private, and acquainted me with several things touching myself, and relating to her outward estate. And the night before she departed, she called me to her bed-side, and exhorted me very fervently to depart from evil, and to fear the Lord: which by the mercy of God in time, made very deep impressions on my mind; so that still I find reason to bless the name of the Lord for having been pleased that I was the son of such an excellent mother: who early in the morning when she felt death approaching, called me up out of my bed, and sent me to her brother, and to W. Caton, to come and see her; and I had hardly been returned a quarter of an hour before she departed this life, and slept in peace, to my great grief then; though afterwards, when I came to years of discerning, I saw reason to believe that it was not without a singular providence that the Lord had taken her away: for one had long continued to be an importunate suitor to her, who in time lost his integrity. To give a small instance of her true zeal for God, I will insert here the following epistle she wrote to her friends, to stir up the pure mind in them.

An Epistle to the Friends of Truth.

‘Grace and peace be multiplied among you, my dearly and much beloved friends, you that have received a blessing from God the heavenly Father in Christ Jesus, the Lord of glory; who by his unspeakable love, and his unchangeable light, hath drawn you off from the imaginary worships, and brought you in measure to know him who was from the beginning. Dear friends, keep in the light by which ye are enlightened, and in the knowledge of God, which every one hath received for himself; watching against the seducings of Satan; that your eyes may be kept open, lest deceit should prevail in any of you, by which truth might lose its splendour, and the brightness of the Lord become darkened.

‘I write these things to you in true love, and though but young, yet as one that takes care for you; for the Lord knows how often ye are in my remembrance; desiring for you, that ye may not only know the truth, but that ye may be found to be living witnesses of it: for I, knowing the preciousness of it, cannot but desire that others may also participate of the same; labour, therefore, for it, my friends, that so, when the Lord comes and calls to an account, every one may be found faithful according to what he hath received: for this is the talent which the Lord hath given, viz. the knowledge of him who is true, and who rewardeth every one according to his deeds: but the negligent and slothful servant said that his Lord was an hard man, and that he gathered where he had not strewed, and this was his condemnation: for the Lord said, “Thou knewest that I was an austere man; wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?” Mind these things, my beloved friends, ye that have an ear to hear, and dig after this parable in yourselves; for we all have received talents, some more, and others less. Let therefore every one be faithful to the Lord, according to what he hath received; for truly some of you, I believe, have received five talents. Let it but be duly considered and seen in the light of the Lord, what knowledge ye have had of the eternal God beyond many, even when ye were yet in darkness: how often hath the Lord appeared, and clearly made manifest himself? And how abundantly hath he made it known in the heart, that he it was who was worthy to be feared and served? Certainly that is a great and weighty talent, and therefore the Lord may say justly, what could I have done more to my vineyard? O my friends, besides all this, he hath caused his eternal light to shine into our hearts, whereby we have seen the corrupted ways of the world, and paths leading to death. This, I say, the Lord hath showed us by his eternal light: glory and praises be given to our God for ever.

‘Dear friends, go on in that in which ye have begun; for I can hear witness for the Lord, that his love hath been abundantly shed abroad upon us, without respect of persons: because those that fear him, and work righteousness, are acceptable to him; and he makes his truth manifest among us, and causeth his peace and mercy to rest upon us. It is true, that Satan doth not rest to scatter this, and to sow doubts and unbelief in our hearts; but we keeping close to the Lord, are preserved from his snares; and happy is he who hath found a place where he is freed from tempests: but before this place be found, there are many hidden rocks that may be struck on, not unknown to me. And therefore I have true compassion on those who are not past them all yet; for shipwreck may easily be suffered on any of these.

‘Yet in all this danger there is something on which we may rely safely, and to which we may trust, being as a beacon, viz. the light shining into our hearts, though it be sometimes but as a spark, and so small, in regard of the manifold seducings, that it can hardly be discerned. Here then is no small grief and anguish; here all the mercies of the Lord, which formerly we enjoyed abundantly, are called in question, or doubted of; here is danger, and yet certainty; for by not sinning, the beacon is minded, and by relying on a true hope to be saved, we are preserved in the tempest. I write these things for the information of those that are travelling towards a city that hath a foundation, and whose builder and maker is God; for to such my love is extended, and my desire to the Lord for them is, that they may be kept by his power, to remain standing at his coming.

‘Dear friends, keep your meetings in the fear of the Lord, and have a care that your minds are not drawn out to hear words outwardly; but stand in the cross to that which desireth refreshment from without: and when at any time ye feel but little refreshment, let it not enter into your hearts that the Lord is not mindful of you; but centre down into yourselves, in the pure light, and stand still therein: then it may be ye will find the cause why the presence of the Lord is departed from you for some time; and ye putting away the cause, shall enjoy the Lord again to your comfort.

‘May God Almighty preserve you all by his power, lest any strife or discord be found among you; and may you grow up in love, and thereby be obliged to hear each other’s burdens; and let no transitory things cumber your hearts, but be resigned to the Lord; for that to which we are called, is not to be compared to that which is transitory, or perishing; since it is a treasure that is everlasting, and to which the world, and all that is in it, is but as dung; because the most glorious part of it is but vanity of vanities. O, my friends, let none be stopped by that which is an impediment to entering into the kingdom of heaven; but strive all to enter the narrow gate; and search every one of you your own hearts, with the light ye are enlightened with, which shall manifest your own states to you; and keeping there, it shall multiply your peace, and every one shall find therein his own teacher, as those have experienced who sought the Lord with all their heart. Now the God of all mercies, who alone is immortal, keep you and us altogether to the end; that so in these dangerous times we may remain standing, to the glory of his great name. O friends, keep out craftiness, and enter not readily into discourse with those that are out of the truth; for they speak in their own wills, and are crafty, and, knowing no bridle to their mind, it produceth that by which the simple and innocent are caught; but stand ye rather, and keep in that wherein ye see their subtilty; for then, though ye may not have a word to apologize for yourselves, yet ye shall be above them.

‘This is written from me, a young plant, in love to you, according to the gift received from the Lord. My salutation is to you all in the light of truth.

JUDITH ZINSPENNING.’

In the year 1664 came forth a small book in print, to the king, and both houses of parliament, wherein were set forth, not only the violent persecution almost over all England, with the names of persons, places, and cases, which indeed were woful, and some bloody; but it was also represented, that there were at that time in prison above six hundred of those called Quakers, merely for religion’s sake.

1665.

In the month called January, in the year 1664-5, thirty-six of that persuasion, among which were eight women, were condemned to be transported to Jamaica. The jury not being so forward to declare the prisoners guilty as the court desired, were persuaded however by the threatenings of judge Keeling, the recorder Wild, and the boisterous Richard Brown, to do what was demanded of them.

On the 18th and 22d of the next month, thirty-four of the said people were sentenced to be carried to Jamaica, and five to Bridewell. The manner of their trial I pass by with silence, to avoid prolixity. Those that were tried on the 18th were sentenced by judge Wharton; and those on the 22d by judge Windham, who said to Anne Blow, who declared, that the fear of the Lord being upon her heart, she durst not conform to any thing that was unrighteous, ‘Anne Blow, I would show you as much favour as the court will allow you, if you will say that you will go no more to that seditious meeting,’ meaning the Bull-and-Mouth. To which she answered, ‘Wouldest thou have me sin against that of God in my own conscience? if I were set at liberty to day, if the Lord required it of me, I should go to the Bull-and-Mouth to-morrow.’

Concerning one John Gibson, the said judge spoke to the jury in this manner: ‘Gentlemen, 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 in such meetings: therefore this law was made to prevent them.’ By this we may see with what specious colours the persecutors cloaked their actions. I find among my papers, a letter of John Furly, and Walter Miers, (both of whom I knew well,) mentioning, that some of the jury, for refusing to give such a verdict as was required of them, were fined in great sums, and put into prison, there to remain till they should pay the fine.

Having now said thus much of sentencing, it grows time to speak of the execution thereof.

Some of the persons ordered for banishment, fell sick, and died in prison; some became apostates, and some were redeemed by their relations that were not Quakers; but yet a considerable number was, though with great pains, brought on ship-board, to be transported to the West Indies. We have seen already how those that were sentenced at Hertford, by judge Orlando Bridgman, having been put ashore by the master of the ship, returned. And it was not long after, that three of their friends, being on board the ship the Many-fortune of Bristol, were also set on shore with a certificate from the master of the ship, signed by him and seven of his men, wherein they complained of their adversity, and said, that God had said as it were in their hearts. “Accursed be the man that separates husband and wife; and he who oppresseth the people of God, many plagues will come upon him.”

But the first of those called Quakers, who really tasted banishment, were Edward Brush, and James Harding, who were banished, not only out of London, where they as citizens had as much right to live as the chiefest magistrates, but also out of their native country, contrary to the right of a free-born Englishman: these, with one Robert Hays, were on the 24th of the month called March, early in the morning fetched from Newgate in London, and brought to Blackfriars’ stairs, where they were put into a boat, and so carried down to Gravesend, and there had on board a ship. Hardly any warning had been given to these prisoners; and Robert Hays being sickly, had taken some physic, which had not done working; and since it was very cold that morning, and he had got nothing to eat before he came to Gravesend, he was seized in the ship with so severe sickness, that he died of it, and then his corpse was carried to London, and there buried. The other two were carried to Jamaica, where, by the providence of God, in time it fared well with them, and Edward Brush lived to return into England. It was remarkable, that not long after these persons were banished, the pestilence broke out at London, first of all in the house of a meal-man in Bearbinder lane, next door to the house where the said Edward lived, which by some was thought worthy of being taken notice of; since that house was the first which was shut because of the sickness.

With the other prisoners they had more trouble and pains, because no shipmasters could be found that would carry them: wherefore an embargo was laid on all merchantmen, with order that none should go down the river without having a pass from the Admiral; and this they would give to no master going to the West Indies, unless he made promise to carry some Quakers along with him to the place to which they were banished. Whatever any masters spoke against this, intimating that there was a law, according to which no Englishman might be carried out of his native country against his mind, was in vain. At length by force they got one to serve their turn; and then seven persons that were sentenced to banishment, were, on the 18th of the month called April, carried from Newgate to Blackfriars’ stairs, and so in a boat to Gravesend. But in the meantime the pestilence increased, and not long after judge Hide, who had been very active in persecuting, was, with many others, suddenly taken away out of this life; for he having been seen in the morning at Westminster in health, as to outward appearance, it was told in the afternoon that he was found dead in his chamber; being thus summoned to appear and give account of his deeds before a higher court than ever he presided in.

Yet transportation was not come to a stand; first, as hath been said, three persons, next seven, and on the 16th of the month called May, eight were carried down the river to Gravesend, and put on ship-board; but as the number of those that were carried away was heightened, so also the number of those that died of the pestilence much more increased. But notwithstanding this scourge from Heaven, transportation continued; for a master of a ship was found at length, who had said, as was reported, that he would not stick to transport even his nearest relations. And so an agreement was made with him, that he should take between fifty and sixty Quakers into his ship, and carry them to the West Indies. Of these eight or ten at a time were brought to the water-side, and so with boats or barges carried to the ship, which lay at anchor in the Thames, in Bugbey’s-hole, a little beyond Greenwich. Many of these prisoners, among which several women, not showing themselves ready to climb into the ship, lest it should seem as if they were instrumental to their transportation, were hoisted up with the tackle; and the sailors being unwilling to do this work, and saying, that if they were merchants’ goods, they should not be unwilling to hoist them in, the officers took hold of the tackle, and said, ‘They are the king’s goods.’ This was on the 20th of the month called July, and on the 4th of the next month, when, according to the bill of mortality, three thousand and forty died in one week, the rest of the banished prisoners were carried with soldiers to the said ship, in which now were fifty-five of the banished Quakers, and among these eighteen women. But something adversely hindered this ship from going away, and the pestilence also entered into it, which took away many of the prisoners, and so freed them from banishment. But though the pestilence grew more hot at London, and that a war was risen between England and Holland, yet the fire of persecution continued hot, and great rejoicings were made when the Dutch were beaten at sea, and their admiral Obdam was blown up with his ship. Neither did the persecutors leave off to disturb the meetings of those called Quakers, and imprison many of them; nay, so hardened and unrelenting were some, that when at London more than four thousand people died in one week, they said, that the only means to stop the pestilence, was to send the Quakers out of the land. But these fainted not, but grew emboldened against violence. In September some meetings were still disturbed at London, though the number of the dead in one week was heightened to above seven thousand, being increased in that time nigh two thousand. Now such as intended to have met at the Bull-and-Mouth, were kept out from performing worship there; but yet meeting in the street, they were not disturbed; for there seemed to be some fear of the common people, who grew discontented because there was little to be earned by tradesmen; and the city came to be so emptied, that grass grew in the streets that used to be most populous, few people being seen by the way. Thus the city became as a desert, and the misery was so great, that it was believed some died for want of attendance.

It was about this time that Samuel Fisher, who first had been a prisoner in Newgate at London, and afterwards in Southwark, since the beginning of the year 1663, till now, being about a year and a half, died piously.

It is reported that the king, in the time of this great mortality, once asked, whether any Quakers died of the plague? And having been told, yes, he seemed to slight that sickness, and to conclude, that then it could not be looked upon as a judgment or plague upon their persecutors. But certainly his chaplains might well have put him in mind of what Solomon saith, “There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked:” and of this saying of Job, “He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked:” as also that of the prophet, “That the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”

Now travelling in the country was stopped, which made some people go with boats along the coast, and so went ashore where they had a mind. Thus did Stephen Crisp, who came about this time to York, where the duke of York was then, with many of the great ones. About this time Alexander Parker, and George Whitehead came to London, where they had good service in preaching the truth.

Great fires were now kindled in the streets to purify the contagious air; but no relief was found by it; for in the latter end of September there died at London above eight thousand people in one week, as I remember to have seen in one of the bills of mortality at that time. In the meanwhile the ship in which the banished prisoners were, could not go off, but continued to lie as a gazingstock for those ships that passed by; for the master was imprisoned for debt.

Now the prediction of George Bishop was fulfilled, and the plagues of the Lord fell so heavily on the persecutors, that the eagerness to banish the Quakers, and send them away, began to abate. The same G. Bishop about Midsummer, wrote from the prison at Bristol, (where he made account that he also should have been banished,) a letter to his friends to exhort them to steadfastness, foretelling them, that if they happened to be banished, God would give them grace in the eyes of those among whom they should be sent, if they continued to adhere to him; and that when he should have tried them, he should bring them again into their native country; and that none should root them out; but they should be planted and built up there; and that the Lord should visit their enemies with the sword and pestilence, and strike them with terror. This is but a short hint of what he wrote at large.

G. Fox, the younger, had also in the year 1661 given forth a little book, of which some small mention hath been made before, in which he lamented England, because of the judgments that were coming upon her inhabitants for their wickedness and persecution; saying among the rest, that the Lord had spoken in him concerning the inhabitants, ‘The people are too many, the people are too many, I will thin them, I will thin them.’ Besides that the spirit of the Lord had signified unto him, that an overflowing scourge, yea even an exceeding great and terrible judgment, was to come upon the land, and that many in it should fall, and be taken away. And that this decree of the Lord was so firm, that though some of the Lord’s children and prophets should appear so as to stand in the gap, yet should not that alter his decree. This with much more he wrote very plainly; and though he was deceased long ago, yet this paper was reprinted, to show the inhabitants how faithfully they had been warned.

What Isaac Pennington, being a prisoner, wrote about this time to the king and parliament, and published in print, was also very remarkable, being designed with Christian meekness to dissuade them if possible from going on with this mischievous work of persecution. In this paper, containing some queries, among many weighty expressions, I find these also:

‘After ye have done all ye can, even made laws as strong as ye can, and put them in the strictest course of execution ye can, one night from the Lord may end the controversy, and show whether we please the Lord in obeying him, or ye in making laws against us for our fidelity and obedience to him.

‘As the Lord is able to overturn you, so if ye mistake your work, misinterpreting the passages of his providence, and erring in heart concerning the ground of his former displeasure; and so, through the error of judgment, set yourselves in opposition against him, replanting the plants which he will not have grow, and plucking up the plants of his planting; do ye not in this case provoke the Lord, even to put forth the strength which is in him against you? We are poor worms. Alas, if ye had only us to deal with, we should be nothing in your hands! But if his strength stand behind us, we shall prove a very burdensome stone, and ye will hardly be able to remove us out of the place wherein God hath set us, and where he pleaseth to have us disposed of. And happy were it for you, if instead of persecuting us, ye yourselves were drawn to wait for the same begettings of God, which we have felt, out of the earthly nature into his life and nature, and did learn of him to govern in that; then might ye be established indeed, and be freed from the danger of those shakings, and overturnings, which God is hastening upon the earth.

‘Now, because ye may be apt to think, that I write these things for my own sake, and the sakes of my friends and companions in the truth of God, that we might escape the sufferings and severity which we are like to undergo from you, and not so mainly and chiefly for your sakes, lest ye should bring the wrath of God and misery upon your souls and bodies; to prevent this mistake in you, I shall add what followeth. Indeed this is not the intent of my heart: for I have long expected, and do still expect this cup of outward affliction and persecution from you, and my heart is quieted and satisfied therein, knowing that the Lord will bring glory to his name, and good to us out of it: but I am sure it is not good for you to afflict us for that which the Lord requireth of us, and wherein he accepteth us; and ye will find it the bitterest work that ever ye went about, and in the end will wish that the Lord had rather never given you this day of prosperity, than that he would suffer you thus to make use of it. Now that ye may more clearly see the temper of my spirit, and how my heart stands to this thing, I shall a little open unto you, my faith and hope about it, in these ensuing particulars:

‘First, I am assured in my heart and soul, that this despised people, called Quakers, is of the Lord’s begetting in his own life and nature. Indeed, had I not seen the power of God in them, and received from the Lord an unquestionable testimony concerning them, I had never looked towards them: for they were otherwise very despicable in my eyes. And this I cannot but testify concerning them, that I have found the life of God in me owning them, and that which God hath begotten in my heart, refreshed by the power of life in them: and none but the Lord knows the beauty and excellency of glory, which he hath hid under this appearance.

‘Secondly, The Lord hath hitherto preserved them against great oppositions, and is still able to preserve them. Every power hitherto hath made nothing of overrunning them; yet they have hitherto stood, by the care and tender mercy of the Lord; and the several powers which have persecuted them, have fallen one after another.

‘Thirdly, I have had experience myself of the Lord’s goodness and preservation of me, in my suffering with them for the testimony of his truth, who made my bonds pleasant to me, and my noisome prison, (enough to have destroyed my weakly and tenderly educated nature,) a place of pleasure and delight; where I was comforted by my God night and day, and filled with prayers for his people, as also with love to, and prayers for, those who had been the means of outwardly afflicting me, and others on the Lord’s account.

‘Fourthly, I have no doubt in my heart that the Lord will deliver us. The strength of man, the resolution of man is nothing in my eye in compare with the Lord. Whom the Lord loveth, he can save at his pleasure. Hath he begun to break our bonds and deliver us, and shall we now distrust him? Are we in a worse condition than Israel was, when the sea was before them, the mountains on each side, and the Egyptians behind pursuing them? He indeed that looketh with man’s eye, can see no ground of hope, nor hardly a possibility of deliverance; but, to the eye of faith, it is now nearer than when God began first to deliver.

‘Fifthly, It is the delight of the Lord, and his glory to deliver his people, when to the eye of sense it seemeth impossible. Then doth the Lord delight to stretch forth his arm, when none else can help: and then doth it please him to deal with the enemies of his truth and people, when they are lifted up above the fear of him, and are ready to say in their hearts concerning them, they are now in our hands, who can deliver them?

‘Well, were it not in love to you, and in pity, in relation to what will certainly befal you, if ye go on in this 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 prison, and spoiling of our goods, and banishment, and death, if the Lord please, 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 or refractoriness of spirit; but with the lamb-like nature which the Lord our God hath begotten in us, which is taught, and enabled by him, both to do his will, and to suffer for his name-sake. And if we cannot thus overcome you, even in patience of spirit, and in love to you, and if the Lord our God please not to appear for us, we are content to be overcome by you. So the will of the Lord be done saith my soul.’

This the author concludes with a postscript, containing a serious exhortation to forsake evil. Besides this he gave forth another paper, wherein he proposed this question to the king and both houses of parliament.

‘Whether laws made by man, in equity, ought to extend any further 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 a capacity in him of obeying.’ And to explain this a little further, he said, ‘In things concerning the worship of God, wherein a man is limited by God, both 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.’ Thus Pennington strove by writing to show the persecutors the evil of their doings: but a fierce party prevailed then: and the clergy continually blew the fire of persecution; nay, many presumed the time was now come totally to destroy the Quakers; and in December twelve more were condemned to transportation.

Concerning those banished that were now in the ship which lay in the Thames, I will yet leave them there, and take again a view of George Fox, whom in the foregoing year we left in a hard prison at Lancaster. In the month called March this year he was brought again to his trial before judge Twisden; and though judge Turner had given charge at the assize before, to see no such gross errors were in the indictment as before, yet in that respect this was not much better than the former, though the judge examined it himself. The jury then being called to be sworn, and three officers of the court having deposed, that the oath had been tendered to him at the last assizes, according to the indictment, the judge said, it was not done in a corner: and then asked him, what he had to say to it; and whether he had taken the oath at the last assizes? George Fox thereupon gave an account of what had been done then, and that he had said, that the book they gave him to swear on, saith. “Swear not at all.” And repeating more of what he spoke then, the judge said, ‘I will not dispute with you but in point of law.’ George Fox offering to speak something to the jury concerning the indictment, he was stopped by the judge; and then George Fox asked him, whether the oath was to be tendered to the king’s subjects only, or to the subjects of foreign princes? The judge replied, ‘To the subjects of this realm.’ ‘Well,’ said he, ‘look to the indictment, and thou mayest see that the word subject is left out of this indictment also.’ Several other great errors as to time, &c. he had observed in the indictment, but no sooner had he spoke concerning the errors, but the judge cried, ‘Take him away jailer, take him away.’ Then he was hurried away; yet the people thought he should have been called again; but that was not done. After he was gone, the judge asked the jury, whether they were agreed? They said, ‘Yes,’ and found for the king against him. The reason why George Fox was led away so suddenly, seemed to be that they expected he would have proved the officers of the court to have sworn falsely, seeing the day on which the oath had been tendered to him at the assizes before, was wrong in the indictment; and yet they had sworn, that on that day he had refused to take the oath. Before George Fox was brought before the judge, he had passed sentence of premunire against Margaret Fell, for having refused to take the oath. And though this sentence had not been passed against George Fox, yet he was recorded as a premunired person; though it had not been asked him what he had to say why sentence should not be pronounced against him. And thus he continued prisoner in Lancaster castle.

Whilst he was there, though weak of body, he wrote several papers; but the neighbouring justices laboured much to get him removed from thence to some remote place; for it was pretty well known among the people, how the court at the assizes had dealt with him. So about six weeks after, they got an order from the king and council to remove him from Lancaster; and they received also a letter from the earl of Anglesey, wherein it was written, that if these things which he was charged with, were found true against him, he deserved no clemency or mercy: and yet the greatest matter they had against him, was his refusal of the oath. His persecutors now having prepared for his removal, the under sheriff, and the head sheriff’s men, with some bailiffs, came and fetched him out of the castle, when he was so weak, by lying in that cold, wet, and smoky prison, that he could hardly go or stand. So they brought him down into the jailer’s house where justice William Kirby, and several others were. They called for wine to give him, but he well knowing their malice against him, told them, he would have none of their wine. Then they cried, ‘Bring out the horses.’ G. Fox therefore desired, that if they intended to remove him, they would first show him their order, or a copy of it. But they would not show him any but their swords. He then told them, there was no sentence passed upon him, neither was he premunired, that he knew of; and therefore he was not made the king’s prisoner, but was the sheriff’s: for they and all the country knew that he was not fully heard at the last assizes, nor suffered to show the errors that were in the indictment, which were sufficient to quash it. And that they all knew there was no sentence of premunire passed upon him; and therefore he not being the king’s prisoner, but the sheriff’s, desired to see their order. But instead of showing him their order, they hauled him out, and lifted him upon one of the sheriff’s horses; for he was so very weak, that he was hardly able to sit on horseback. Riding thus along the street, he was much gazed upon by the people, and had great reason to say, that he received neither Christianity, civility, nor humanity, for how ill and weak soever he was, yet they hurried him away about fourteen miles to Bentham in Yorkshire; and so wicked was the jailer, one Hunter, a young fellow, that he lashed the horse on which G. Fox rode, with his whip, to make him skip and leap, insomuch that he had much ado to sit him; and then would this wanton fellow come, and looking him in the face, say, ‘How do you Mr. Fox?’ To which he answered, it was not civil in him to do so. Yet this malicious fellow seemed little to regard it; but he had not long time to delight in this kind of insolence; for soon after he was cut off by death.