For a justice of the peace in this county, who was called sir Dennis Hampson of TapBeing returned home, I waited in daily ex-low, breaking in with a party of horse upon pectation of a command from the justices to a little meeting near Woodburn, in his neighappear again before them; but none came. I bourhood, the 1st of the fifth month 1683, sent spake with those Friends who had been with me when I was before them, and they said they had heard nothing of it from them, although they had since been in company with them. At length the assize came; but no notice was given to me, that I should appear there; in fine, they never troubled themselves or me any further about it.

fees for him. Thomas Dell and Edward Moore also, by other people of the world paying their fines and fees for them; and shortly after Stephen Pewsey, by the town and parish

where he lived, for fear his wife and children should become a charge upon them. The other seventeen remained prisoners till king James' proclamation of pardon.

APPENDIX.

CONTAINING A SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF THOMAS ELLWOOD.

The following extracts comprise the author's introduction of his subject, and the heads of his arguments.

Ir does not appear that Thomas Ellwood | destly, yet with Christian freedom and plain. left any account of his own life, subsequent ness of speech, offered to the consideration of to the close of 1683, the period at which the all concerned therein; on behalf generally of preceding memoir concludes; though from all that suffer for conscience' sake; particu. thence to the time of his decease, an interval larly the people called Quakers." elapsed of about thirty years. During that time his active pen was employed, with but little intermission, in support of the cause, to the service of which his heart and talents "Persecution is a word of so harsh a sound, were devoted. To this circumstance may and so generally distasteful to English ears, reasonably be attributed the deficiency in his that scarcely any of those who are most fornarrative; which the following pages, com- ward and active in that work, are willing to prising a brief notice of the principal circum- have their actions called by that name. That stances that have been handed down to us, none therefore, who have set a hand to that relating to that portion of his life, may in work, or whose minds are any whit inclined some measure supply. thereto, may, from the dislike they have to In consequence of the imprisonment of the word, reject this dissuasive as a thing Friends under the Riot Act, noticed in page wherein they are not concerned; I think it 415, &c., Thomas Ellwood published, in the | needful here to declare, what it is I mean by course of the same year, “A Discourse con- | persecution. By persecution, then, I intend a cerning riots: occasioned by some of the people forcing or compelling of any, by pains or called Quakers being indicted for a riot," &c. The objects of this tract were, to define the legal signification of the term "riot ;" and to prove that the meetings of Friends in no degree partook of that charaeter. The following are extracts from the concluding observations: "How truly I have stated the case on the one hand, with respect to riots, the many quotations in the foregoing discourse will show. How true an account, on the other hand, I have given of our meetings, the whole nation, and all nations where we have meetings, may judge. Upon the whole, my request is, that all, both justices and jurors, who have or shall be concerned in this or the like case, will seriously weigh the matter, and not strain the law beyond its due extent." "To oppress any by colour of law, is the greatest abuse of law." In the same year he addressed a forcible yet temperate remonstrance, to those whose eyes were not open to the impiety and absurdity of attempting to exact religious com- "1. You may, for aught you know, be pliances; which he entitled, "A seasonable found fighting against God: you are not, you Dissuasive from persecution, humbly and mo- | cannot be, upon your own principles, infalli

penalties, bodily or pecuniary, to relinquish or forsake that exercise of religion, or way of worship, which they believe to be the right way of worship, and the true and acceptable exercise of religion, which God hath required of them: and to receive, embrace, conform to, and perform some other exercise of religion and way of worship, which they who are so compelled are either firmly persuaded is not right, or at least have no belief that it is right. This, in short, is that which I call persecution; and this is that which I dissuade from, whatever other name the actors of it may please themselves in calling it by.

I. "To begin now with the first of these, viz: the forcing or compelling of any to forsake that exercise of religion, or way of wor ship, which they believe to be right :—the reasons by which I shall endeavour to dissuade all men from such an undertaking, are these:

bly sure, that that way of worship which you thus endeavour to force us from, is not the true worship of God.

getic appeal to persecutors, founded on the well known character and conduct of the persecuted:

"2. By endeavouring to force us from that "Ye have known us long; ye have had way of worship, which we believe the Lord large experience of us; ye have tried us hath led us into, and requireth of us, you en- many ways, and proved us after divers mandeavour to force us to make shipwreck of faith.

"3. In endeavouring, by force and cruelty, to restrain us from worshipping God, as we are fully persuaded he hath taught us and doth require of us, you go out of the path of the righteous, and tread in the steps of the wicked and ungodly.

ners. And what evil can you convict us of to this day? Have we not always been a quiet, peaceable, harmless people? When, being reviled, did we revile? or when, being persecuted, did we not patiently suffer it? Ah! what do you propose to yourselves? Do you think to root us out, and destroy God's heritage? It is impossible. The root of Jesse "4. That exercise of religion which you bears us; and upon the immovable rock are would force us from, is not simply of itself we immovably built. O, dash not yourselves condemned and disallowed by that law, by the against it! But if you could destroy or ruin severity of which you would force us from it. persons, yet is it possible that there can lodge "5. In thus eagerly pursuing us, and dis-in English breasts, such more than barbarous turbing our peaceable meetings, you give inhumanity, to destroy so many thousand fayourselves, as well as us, a great deal of milies! The Rome-rid French and Irish have needless trouble. For, as that learned doctor gone far that way; but English hands were in the Jewish law did well observe, if this never so defiled. God grant they never may! counsel or this work be of men, it will come Do you think, by rigorous and cruel usage, to to naught; but if it be of God, ye cannot frighten us out of our religion, and force us to overthrow it :'-so I say to you in our case. desert our principles? How can you hope to "6. And lastly, be pleased to consider, accomplish such a thing, who have seen our what sort of agents and instruments you are unmoved constancy, and steadfast perseverfain to make use of, and not seldom are your-ance therein, under all the sufferings that selves made use of by, to carry on this work." have hitherto been inflicted on us. "II. Now for the other branch of persecution, viz: The forcing or compelling of any to embrace some exercise of religion and way of worship, which they are firmly persuaded is not right, or at least have no belief that it is right the reasons by which I shall endeavour to dissuade all men from such an undertaking, are these:

"1. In thus imposing your way of worship upon others, you act quite contrary to Christ and his apostles.

"2. In thus imposing your way of worship upon others, you follow the worst of patterns, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, &c.

"Have not many of us been already stript of all their outward substance? not a bed being left them to lie on-not a stool to sit on-not a dish to eat from! Is there a prison in the nation, or a dungeon in a prison, which has not been a witness of our groanings? Have we not been tried by banishment, and proved by death itself? death in New England, by the hand of the hangman!—death in Old England, by the rough hands of rude and boisterous officers and soldiers, who have given divers of our friends those blows, which in few days have brought them to their graves! "I might add to these, burning in the fore"3. In forcing people to your way of wor-head-cutting off ears-unmerciful beatings, ship, who have no belief that it is the right, whippings, and cruel scourgings. But did you cause them to sin; for whatsoever is not any, or all of these deter us from the worship of faith is sin. of our God? Nay! hath not our cheerfully "4. In forcing people to your way of wor-undergoing all these hardships, sufficiently ship, who have a firm persuasion and belief evinced to the world, that our religion and that it is not the right, you make men hypo- consciences are dearer to us than our estates, crites and time-servers. our liberties, our limbs, or our lives? Why then will you repeat severities upon us, which have so often been tried before in vain? Can you take pleasure in putting others to pain, and delight yourselves in afflicting others? O, suffer not your nature so far to degenerate from the gentleness and tenderness of true and generous Englishmen !

"5. By obtruding and enforcing your religion upon others, you greatly disparage and undervalue it, and give men the more ground to suspect and dislike it.

"6. You break that great command, which Christ says is the law and the prophets, viz: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."" "And think not the worse of us, for our In conclusion, he makes the following ener-faithfulness to our God! He that is true to VOL. VII.—No. 11.

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God, will be true to men also; but he that is false and treacherous to God, how is it likely he should be true to men? Endeavour not, therefore, to draw us into unfaithfulness to our God; for that, to be sure, would be hurtful to us, and no ways advantageous to you. Neither be ye exasperated against us, from the difficulty you find in breaking our meetings; or because that, when you have dragged us out of our meetings, and fined or imprisoned us for being there, you find us there again: but rather take it for an argument, that we sincerely love and believe our religion; and that we find our meetings worth suffering for. For, indeed, in our meetings we do meet with the Lord our God, in whose presence is fulness of joy.'

spreading his temptations on every hand; and some, alas! have entered thereinto, and are caught and held therein, for whom my soul in secret mourns.

"And truly, friends, a great weight hath been upon my spirit for many days, and my mind hath been deeply exercised, in the sense I have of the enemy's prevailing by one bait or other, to unsettle the minds of some, unto whom the arm of the Lord had reached, and in some measure gathered to a resting place: but not abiding in that pure light, by which they were at first visited, and to which they were at first turned, the understanding hath been veiled again; the eye, which was once in some measure opened, hath the God of this world insensibly blinded again, and darkness About the year 1685, William Rogers made is come over them, to that degree, that they another attack upon the Society, directed in can now contentedly take up again, what in particular against George Whitehead; who, the day of their convincement, and in the time as well as Thomas Ellwood, had several years of their true tenderness, they cast off as a before been engaged in controversy with him, burden too heavy to be borne. O my friends! in reply to his Christian Quaker Distinguish- this hath been the enemy's work; therefore it ed. Rogers' present production was styled greatly behoves all to watch against him: for A Rhyming Scourge for George Whitehead, it hath been for want of watchfulness, that he who probably not thinking himself qualified to hath got entrance into any. For, when the meet his adversary with a rhyming reply, mind hath been from off the true watch, in a Thomas Ellwood undertook the defence of his secure and careless state, then hath he secretfriend, by a publication entitled, Rogero Mas-ly wrought, and presented his fair baits, his tix-A Rod for William Rogers, in return for allurements or enticements by pleasure or his Rhyming Scourge.

In the early part of the succeeding year, 1686, Thomas Ellwood published a general Epistle to Friends, in which he endeavoured, with affectionate earnestness, to check the tendency to division and declension which had then manifested itself in the Society; exhorting his fellow members to maintain a true consistency of conduct, and to guard against the injurious effects of a worldly spirit, as follows, viz:

profit, to catch the unwary mind. And hence it hath come to pass, that some, who have come out fairly, and begun well, and have seemed in good earnest to set their hands to God's plough, have looked back, and been weary of the yoke of Christ, and have either lusted after the flesh-pots of Egypt again, or turned aside into some by-path or crooked way in the wilderness, and thereby fallen short of the promised good land.

"But you, my dear friends, in whom the "Dear friends, unto whom the gathering word of life abides, and who abide in the vir arm of the Lord hath reached, and who have tue and savour thereof, ye know the wiles of known, in your several measures, a being the enemy, and the power which subdues him, gathered thereby into the heavenly life, and and the Rock in which the preservation and are witnesses of the preserving power, by safety is. So that I write not these things which you have been kept faithful to the unto you, because ye know them not; but the Lord, and regardful of his honour: unto you, end of my thus writing is, to stir up the pure in an especial manner, is the salutation of my mind in all upon whom the name of the Lord true and tender love in the Lord; and for is called, that we all may be provoked to you, as for myself, are the breathings and watchfulness against the workings of the fervent desires of my soul offered up, in the wicked one. Therefore, dear friends, bear, I one Spirit, unto him who is your God and beseech you, the word of exhortation, though mine, that both you and I may be for ever from one that is little and low, and through kept in the fresh sense of his tender mercies mercy sensible of it, and who hath not been and great loving-kindness unto us, that there-accustomed to appear after this manner; but in our souls may cleave firmly unto him, and the wind, ye know, bloweth where it listeth. never depart from him. For, friends, it is a trying day, a day of great difficulty and danger, wherein the enemy is at work, and very busy, setting his snares on every side, and

"Friends, call to mind the former times, and remember the days that are past and gone, when the day of the Lord first dawned unto you, and his power seized upon you. Ye

vain and airy minds withal, that they may not come to gravity and solidity.

and let every one examine himself, that this Achan, with his Babylonish garment, may be found and cast out; for indeed he is a troubler of Israel.

know how weighty and retired the spirits of Friends then were; how grave and solid their deportment and carriage; how few and sa- "Thence it hath come to pass, that there is voury their words, tending to edify the hear- scarcely a new fashion come up, or a fantastic ers; how great a fear and backwardness was cut invented, but some one or other, that proin them, to enter into familiarity with the fesses Truth, is ready with the foremost to world's people. O friends! that was a good run into it. Ah, friends! the world sees this, day, and that was a safe state; for fear be- and smiles, and points the finger at it. And gets watchfulness, and watchfulness is a means this is both a hurt to the particular, and a reto prevent danger. Therefore, all friends, proach to the general. Therefore, O! let the keep in the holy fear, and therein watch against | lot be cast; let search be made by every one, the enemy, that he entangle you not, nor hurt your spirits by a too near familiarity, and intimate conversing with the people of the world; for therein, I assure you, lies a snare. "For though it be both lawful and necessary, and in some cases also useful and serviceable to the Truth, to converse with them that are without; yet if any friend should adventure in a frank and free mind, beyond the limits of the pure fear, to entertain familiarity with the world's people, the spirit of the world in them will seek an entrance; and, if not diligently watched against, will also get an entrance, and bring a hurt and a loss upon him or them into whom it so gets. For being once entered, it will insensibly work, and dispose the mind to a condescension to and compliance with the people of the world it converses with, first in one thing, then in another; in words, in behaviour, &c., little things in appearance, but great in consequence, till at length an indifferency gets up in the mind, and the testimony of truth by degrees is let fall. But while the pure fear is kept to and dwelt in, the watch is always set, the spirit is retired and weighty, and an holy awfulness rests upon the mind, which renders such converse both safe to the friends, and more serviceable to them they converse withal.

"And all friends, who upon true search shall find yourselves concerned in this particular, I warn and exhort you all, return to that which at first convinced you; to that keep close, in that abide, that therein ye may know, as at the first, not only a bridle to the tongue, but a curb to the roving mind, a restraint to the wandering desire. For assuredly, friends, if truth be kept to, none will need to learn of the world what to wear, what to put on, or how to shape and fashion their garments; but Truth will teach all how best to answer the end of clothing, both for useful service and modest decency. And the cross of Christ will be a yoke to the unruly will, and a restraint upon the wanton mind; and will crucify that nature that delights in finery and in bravery of apparel, in which the true adorning doth not stand, but in the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even a meek and quiet spirit.

"And the grace of God, which hath appeared to all, and which hath brought salvation to many, will not only teach to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live "And, friends, not only in your conversing soberly, righteously, and godly in this present with the world's people, but in all your con- world, but will also lead those that obey it, versation and course of life, watch against the out of all excess, and out of all superfluities spirit of the world; for it lies near to tempt, and worldly vanities, and will teach them to and to draw out the mind, and to lead back order their conversation aright. Therefore to into the world again. You know, friends, this heavenly grace let every mind be turned, that at the first, when the visiting arm of the and therein stayed; that thereby all who Lord reached to us, he led us out of the profess the Truth may be kept in the holy world's ways, manners, customs, and fash-limits of it; that in their whole conversation ions; and a close testimony, both in word and practice, was borne against them. But how hath this testimony been kept up, and kept to, by all who have since made profession of the Truth! Ah! how hath the enemy, for want of watchfulness, stolen in upon too many, and led out their minds from that which did at first convince them, into a liberty beyond the cross of Christ Jesus! and in that liberty they have run into the world's fashions, which the worldly spirit continually invents to feed the

and course of life-in eating, in drinking, in putting on apparel, and in whatsoever else we do or take in hand, all may be done to the glory of God, that our moderation in all things may appear unto all men.

"And let not any deceive and hurt themselves with a false plea, saying, 'I will be left to my liberty; I have freedom to do, go, or wear so and so; and religion stands not in clothes,' &c., for that liberty which the worldly spirits leads into, is not indeed the true