seconded by the private solicitations of Mrs. Mary Sanders, a waiting gentlewoman in his family, an order for their release was obtained, directed to sir Francis Russel, a man of moderation and averse from persecution, who immediately caused them to be set at full liberty. But the case of James Parnel, a native of Retford in Nottinghamshire, who was educated in the schools of literature, in the sixteenth year of his age joined the quakers, and, though a youth was an affecting preacher and able disputant, and discovered the wisdom and understanding of age and experience, afforded most affecting instances of the severities a cruel jailor could inflict. His constitution was tender, and after ten or eleven months sunk under the multiplied hardships of his imprisonment, about the age of nineteen ; the consideration of his youth exciting no commiseration.* Besides the personal injuries these virtuous people suffered; they were exposed to great depredations in their property, by unreasonable fines and exorbitant distraints, especially on account of tithes into the detail of which we have not room to descend. Suffice it to say, that in 1659, were 531. 13s. 6d. only could be demanded, 1881. were exacted.‡ To sum up this view of their sufferings, it may be ob served, that when a printed account of them was presented to the parliament which the protector convened, it appeared that one hundred and forty of them were then in prison; and of one thousand nine hundred who had suffered in the preceding six years, twenty-one had died in prison, generally by hardship or by violent abuses.§ It is to be remarked, that they supported themselves under severe persecution, with meekness, patience, and fortitude, "as lambs dumb before their shearers:" and there were not wanting instances of their being so borne up by inward consolation and peace, by faith and hope in their afflictions, as frequently to sing praises to God, to the astonishment of the spectators and of their fellow-prisoners. While they were exposed to hatred, contempt, and abuse from without, brotherly kindness and unfeigned charity increased, and connected them amongst themselves. While Gough's History, vol. i. p. 176–180. * Ibid. p. 180-188. + Ibid. p. 284. § Ibid. p. 274. each seemed regardless of his own liberty, they were zeal. ous advocates for that of their brethren, and almost inces. sant in their representations to those in authority of the sufferings of their friends; going so far in their charity, as to offer themselves freely, person for person, to lie in pris on, instead of such as they apprehended were in danger of perishing through the length or extremity of their confinement.† This mutual and generous attachment was amiable: their moral conduct was regular: and their conscientious regard to fidelity in their commerce begat confidence. They were careful to manufacture or choose such goods as were substantial and would answer the expectations of the purchas ers; moderate in their profits; sparing in their commendations; punctual in their payments; they asked no more for their ware than the precise sum they were determined to accept; and they took no advantage of ignorance. So that, under all their sufferings, they prospered, and verified the proverb, that honesty is the best policy.‡ It was also a distinguishing trait in the character of this people that they attached themselves to none of the political parties of the day, nor entered into their ambitious views. It was with them a principle of religion to have no intermeddling with secular factions, and to demean themselves quietly and peaceably under the existing government. When the nation was in great commotion and fluctuation, on the death of Cromwell, George Fox addressed an exhortation to his friends "to live in love and peace with all men, to keep clear of all the commotions of the world, and not to intermeddle with the powers of the earth, but to let their conversation be in heaven." He remarked, that all who pretend to fight for Christ are deceived, for his kingdom is not of this world, and therefore his servants do not fight." When sir George Booth rose in arms in favor of the exiled monarch, the committee of safety invited the quakers to take up arms, offering considerable posts and commands to some of them. But they esteemed war and violence to be inconsistent with pure christianity, and were not to be corrupted by the prospects of preferment and honors.* Ibid. p. 141. + Gough's History, vol. i. p. 140, 175-76. VOL. IV. Ibid. p. 273, 4, 7. 39 Unassisted by any alliance with the state, nay, treated with severity by all the contending powers in their turn, and every where pursued with contempt and cruel abuse, they increased, and spread themselves over the kingdom, In the year 1652, meetings of them were settled in many of the central and northern parts of the nation. Their preachers were zealous and active; not intimidated by suf ferings, nor wearied by journies and labors. Francis Howgill and Edw. Burroughs, with Anthony Pearson, travelled to London; John Cam and John Audland to Bristol; Richard Hubberthorn and George Whitehead, to Norwich; and others to other parts. And we find George Fox disseminating their principles, and meeting the severest sufferings, in the remotest parts of the kingdom. The evils, which this people endured with singular meekness and patience, had great effect in awakening attention to their preaching, and softening the minds of numbers to the reception of their doctrine. It was justly remarked by Hugh Peters to Oliver Cromwell, that be could not give George Fox a better opportunity of spreading his principles in Cornwall, than by imprisoning him there."* The instances of the persecution and sufferings they en dured, which we have selected, for we do not pretend to give their history in a minute detail, reflect disgrace on the magistracy of the age and are a reproach to the adminis tration of justice. But the mayor of Oxford, in the year 1654, deserves to be mentioned as an example of a more equitable and humane disposition. Elizabeth Heavens and Elizabeth Fletcher, two North-country women, were ap. prehended and sent to Bocardo, a prison usually appropri ated to the reception of felons and murderers, for having exhorted the people, after service, in one of the churches. The mayor being sent for to meet the justices, by whose order they had been committed, to examine the quakers, he replied to the message: "Let them who committed them deal with them according to law, for my part I have nothing against them: if they wanted food, money, or clothes, I would willingly supply them." The justices, however, met, attended by Dr. Owen the vice-chancellor, who was Gough's History, p. 217. the principal in examining them; and the sentence passed on them was, that they should be whipped out of the city. This sentence, according to the constitution of the town, was not valid without the signature and seal of the mayor: which, as he judged it unmerited and unjust, he refused to affix to it. But by the order of the vice-chancellor and his coadjutors, it was severely executed without being legalised by his sanction: though the conviction of their innocence affected even the heart of the executioner to that degree, that he performed his office with manifest reluct ance.t Another more remarkable and more public instance of protection and justice, which this people were so happy as once to receive in those times, reflects honor on the name of general Monk. On a complaint against some of his soldiers for disturbing their meetings, he issued out this order: "St. James's, March 9, 1659. "I Do require all officers and soldiers to forbear to disturb the peaceable meetings of the quakers, they doing nothing prejudicial to the parliament or commonwealth of England. George Monk."* I am sensible, that wild flights of rudeness and enthusia asm, that violations of decency, decorum, and order, are imputed to the quakers of this period. Mosheim stigma. tizes them as "pernicious fanatics," and speaks, as it were with approbation, of their being "severely chastised for their extravagance and folly." But granting the justness of these imputations, which I conceive, however, are by no means to be admitted in all instances and to their full ex tent, and will scarcely apply to those cases of suffering which we have stated; every equitable and humane mind †These women had a few days before, for exhorting the inhabitants and students to repentance, been pumped on by the scholars of St. John's college, till they were almost suffocated: they were then tied arm to arm, and dragged up and down the college, and through a pool of water': and Elizabeth Fletcher, a young woman, was thrown over a grave, whereby she received a contusion on her side from which she never recovered, but soon after died. Yet it does not appear that the magis. trates animadverted on this inhuman outrage. Gough's History, vol. i. p. 147-149. * Ibid. p. 279. will feel indignant at seeing folly illegally chastised, and enthusiastic extravagancies restrained by acts of cruelty. Extravagance and folly rank almost with wisdom and vir tue, when compared with the injustice and iuhumanity of the MAGISTRATES from whom the quakers suffered persecution. Their history during this period, though we have given an abstract only of it, has carried us farther than we intended. But we shall not be long detained by a survey of the situation of the other sectaries at this time. An act of the Scotch presbytery, March 22, 1652-3, tended to convince the baptists, that their principles were not beheld with a favorable eye in that nation: for one of three declarations it then published, was "against the new Scots dippers." Lying under an odium, and animated by a zeal to propagate what they deemed truth, they properly went on to exhibit, from time to time, a representation and defence of their sentiments, by their publications. In the year 1654, the reverend William Britten, who had embraced their opinions, printed a treatise, entitled "The Mod erate Baptist; briefly shewing scripture-way for that ini tiatory sacrament of baptism; together with divers queries, considerations, errors, and mistakes, in and about the work of religion: wherein may appear, that the baptists of our times hold not those strange opinions as many heretofore have done; but as the scriptures are now more clearly un-. derstood, so they desire to come nearer to walk by the same light." In 1656, the baptist churches in Somersetshire published a confession of their faith.§ When Oliver Cromwell had usurped the government, he discharged at once all the principal officers of his army, upon this among other reasons, that they were all anabap tists. His intention of discarding them was first communicated to a Scots lord, called Tridle, and reached the ears of the baptists before it was executed. This occasioned a free and strong remonstrance against the design, written, it is supposed, by an officer, in a pamphlet, entitled Whitlock's Memorial, p. 528. 6 Crosby's History of the Baptists, vol. i. p. 254, who has given this confession of faith in the Appendix, No. iii. *Ibid. vol. ii. p. 5. |