was in like manner discussed and his arguments fully answered from scripture and reason. Thus we parted (says George) and his subtilty was confuted by simplicity.' (d)

A. D.

2nd. He writes to Cromwell and lays before him the case of 1658. Friends in this nation, and in Ireland, 'it being a time of much suffering."

3rd, There being a talk of making Cromwell king' he goes to him and warns him against accepting it; and of divers dangers, which if he did not avoid he would bring shame and ruin upon himself and his posterity.

4th, The Lady Claypole, the Protector's daughter, being ́ sick and much troubled in mind,' he writes her a letter which is given at length in the Journal, and which being read to her she said, It stayed her mind for the present.

5th, He writes also to the Protector and chief magistrates' who had espoused the cause of the Waldenses, and other persecuted protestants, and appointed a Fast-day and public collection for the sufferers. (e)

This letter contains an argument ad hominem against the persecuting spirit of the age which, while it pretended zeal for true religion and scripture, oppressed those who were in the profession and possession of the Truth at home, He says, 'Now, whereas ye take into your consideration the sad persecution, tyranny, and cruelty exercised upon them whom ye call your Protestant brethren, and contribute to administer to their wants outwardly, this is good in its place and we own it, and see it good to administer to the necessities of others, and to do good to all: and we who are sufferers by a law derived from the Pope, are willing to join and to contribute with you to their outward necessities. For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; who is good to all, gracious to all, and willing that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth-But in the mean time, while you are doing this and taking notice of others' cruelty, tyranny and persecution, turn your eye upon yourselves and see what ye are doing at home-He concludes thus, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God and shall be made manifest in all your consciences: which ye shall witness.'

6

Lastly, in addition to several public protests against their oppression and hypocrisy delivered by Edward Burrough and others to the Protector and Parliament, about this time, George pays a visit to Cromwell himself at Hampton Court, to warn him further; but is prevented doing it fully by the coming on of the Protector's last illness: who dies on the 3rd of September, in this year.

He says, 'I met him riding into Hampton Court Park, and before I came to him, as he rode at the head of his life-guards, I saw and felt a waft of death go forth against him.' George however delivered his conscience thus publicly, and was invited to come to the palace; but when he came, the next day, the physicians would not permit an audience, and he never saw him more. (f)

(d) Journ. pa. 273-275. (e) Journ. pa. 278.

(f) Journ. pa. 282.

The Canon law, used in the Ecclesiastical Courts: perhaps also referring to some Statutes of Eliz. and Henry VIII.

A. D.

The Sufferings of the members of this society at large for their 1658. several Testimonies continue: of which take the following examples.

Bucks: John Brown of Wessen, refusing to swear when summoned to serve upon a Jury, was fined twenty shillings and committed to Ailsbury gaol, where he lay twelve weeks.

Many of the people called Quakers, going to religious meetings a few miles distant from their own dwellings, were taken up by officers, under pretence of breaking the Sabbath, had their horses impounded and sometimes detained for a penalty of ten shillings, for travelling on that day and at other times themselves, for refusing to pay the penalty, were set in the stocks. (g)

Hants, Ambrose Rigge, going to visit his friends in prison at Southampton, is seized on by officers, and shamefully abused, then by the Mayor's order whipt in the Market-place, carried in a wheelbarrow and thrown into a dung-cart, and so sent away from tithing to tithing; and threatened that if he came again he should be whipt twice as much, burnt on the shoulder, and banished the land. Others suffer, in this county, for the like Christian conduct. (h)

On the tenth of October, John Pigeon of Crawley, on an information of a meeting at his house, is brought before the Justices, and refusing to give bond (though he offered to let them know of any future meeting, in time) as also to take the oath of allegiance, is sent to the County gaol: to which his brother, who directed his affairs in his absence, is sent in a month after. His servants are next beaten, or, so terrified that they leave the house-the informers plunder it of the furniture, revel and drink on the spot, with a crew of disorderly fellows resorting thither for that purpose, and make such havock of the estate that the damage is computed to be at least £500. In the mean time the Justices fine the gaoler £5 for giving the prisoner the liberty of a little fresh air; an indulgence commonly granted to others in his custody.

Lincolnshire, Edmund Wooley riding (in 1657) through Boston to a meeting, is fined for travelling on the Sabbath and has his mare taken from him, by the Mayor's order. He is shortly after committed to Lincoln gaol, at the suit of Francis Ball an Impropriator, or farmer, of Tithes. After about a year's imprisonment he dies. A faithful and conscientious man; and acknowledged to be so even by his prosecutor, who said, He believed Edmund would have paid him his tithes, had he thought them his right. (i)

Northamptonshire. William Vincent, for a demand of only fourpence for Tithes, is imprisoned in Northampton Low-gaol, at the suit of Thomas Andrews, priest of Wellingboro', above a year among felons, by whom he is much abused, being a very weakly man with sores, and on crutches. The priest his prosecutor, on his miserable case being represented to him, refused him mercy. (k)

Nicholas Day, Peter Mackerness, and George Whitlock all of

(g) Besse, vol. 1, p. 75. (h) Idem. 230. (i) Idem. 347. (k) Idem. 530

Findon, for refusing to take an oath at a Court-Leet, are fined twenty shillings each, and undergo in consequence a seizure and loss of goods to the value of £56 2s. 6d.

Oxfordshire. There were in these times' says the author of the Sufferings,' 'some men advanced to the office of Magistrate, so extremely fond of personal homage as to prosecute and imprison for the omission of that which no law required.' He proceeds to give instances of this intolerance (which indeed abound in his volumes) for the present, in the conduct of two personages, William Fines [Fiennes] otherwise called Lord Say' and 'Sir William Waller, at Stanton-Harcourt,-'So furious a zealot against the quakers was this Lord Say, that for no other cause than their being such, he arbitrarily and illegally forced Simon Thompson and John Parsons, two of his tenants, out of their houses, had their goods thrown into the street, and obliged them, their wives and seven children, to lie in the streets three weeks in a cold wet season' with much damage to their property. (1)

It is very justly remarked by Joseph Besse, that the injuries he specifies were done to the parties for the omission of that which no law required-he might have added, and which the Gospel prohibits to Christians,-to-wit a servile and flattering behaviour to the great, or to persons in office. See James ii, 1-13.

When Abraham had a favour to ask of the children of Heth, we read that he stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.' Gen. xxiii, 7. But, when the proud Haman was advanced to office, though the king himself had so commanded concerning him, righteous Mordecai would do him no reverence. And in each case the parties, in the returns they made, shewed their natures—the one, noble and generous and willing to have granted more than was asked-the other, base and revengeful to an extreme of cruelty. It should seem, by these examples (taken altogether) that it is not so much the act itself (be the form what it may) as the spirit in which it is required or yielded, that should obtain the consideration of the professor of a pure and undefiled religion.'

I am sorry to be obliged to add, to this catalogue of sufferings, the treatment of the Friends of that time by the students at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge: which was so brutal, and in every way so outrageous, especially when they found them assembled for worship, that I shall not assume the tone of aggravation by specifying the acts, but simply refer the reader to the Sufferings, vol. 1.' under Oxfordshire 1658, Cambridgeshire 1658-9: and (if he incline then to proceed to a lower date) to Story's Journal; which indeed gives both sides of the case, exhibiting instances of good behaviour also. (m)

Possibly at a future time the reading, in a dispassionate and candid spirit, of these histories may induce the question, What has been done for this people, to indemnify them (in their posterity and successors in the same faith) for so much of wrong so patiently and loyally endured? I hope at least that no ingenuous scholar (or teacher either) will feel offended at this intimation.

(To be continued.)

(1) Idem. 564-5. (m) Story; Fol. Edit. 475, 529, 579, 637, 649, 663, 675, 715

ART. II. The question of Negro Christianity in Barbadoes, in the

Seventeenth Century.

In the year 1675, William Edmundson being in Barbadoes, in the course of his ministry, and holding meetings with the Negroes, complaint was made to the Governor Sir Jonathan Atkins, that he was a Jesuit come out of Ireland, pretending to be a Quaker, and to make the Negroes Christians, but would make them Rebels-on which the Governor was about to send a warrant for his apprehension. Hearing of this, he took a friend with him and went to the Governor, before the warrant came. The Governor used high words, and threatened what he would do-sending for his marshal. In the mean time, however,' W. E. says we had much discourse; and among other things he told me he was informed that I was making the Negroes Christians, and would make them rebel and cut their throats. I told him, it was a good work to bring them to the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus, and to believe in Him that died for them, and for all men: and that that would keep them from rebelling, or cutting any man's throat: but if they did rebel, and cut their throats (as he said) it would be through their own doings, in keeping them in ignorance and under oppression: giving them liberty to be common with women (like beasts) and on the other hand starving them for want of meat and clothes convenient: so giving them liberty in that which God restrained, and restraining them in that which God allowed and afforded to all men; which was meat and clothes.'

This defence of his conduct weighed so much with the Governor, that when the marshal came he told him, He thought to have committed him to prison, but his mind was altered :—and he appears to have been kind to this friend afterwards. H.

ART. III.-Cases of Sufferings for Tithe : Testimony of Nicholas Homwood.

From Besse's SUFFERINGS, &c. "Kent, 1676. Jos. Ongley was committed to prison for Tithes at the suit of William Jordan priest. Also Jeremy Warner was imprisoned for refusing to pay Tithes at the suit of Richard Austin, Impropriator. His case was somewhat peculiar, he being sued for the Tithe of a crop of corn, the whole of which was less than the seed from which it sprung. The oppression of Tithe is great when it sweeps away, AS IT VERY OFTEN DOES, the Farmer's whole profit; but that oppression is aggravated when added to the loss sustained without it. On the 19th of September, this year, Nicholas Homwood died in Maidstone gaol after eleven years' imprisonment for Tithes."

As this friend was not only a martyr to the cause in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but likewise a witness against it in print, I shall here insert the part in prose (for it is accompanied with a page

A WORD OF COUNSEL AS TO TITHES.

23

of verse, of which the matter is superior to the style) of his publication. It may serve in addition to what I have already published of the kind in No.6, Art. III, to evince the conscientious feeling and full persuasion of duty, under which our ancient friends bore their testimony. Ed.

A word of counsel: or a warning to all young convinced Friends, and others whom it may concern; that are called forth to bear a testimony for the Lord in the case of Tithe. Which may also serve for answer to a late Pamphlet, entitled the Lawfulness of Tithes, by W. J. as it concerns the Quakers' conscience in the case; the allegations thereof for the Divine Right of Tithes being sufficiently confuted in divers treatises, not taken notice of in the said Pamphlet. Printed in the Year 1675.

Hebr. vii, 12. For the Priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Hebr. viii, 1, 2. Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum, we have an High-priest, who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens; a Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man.

Do not flee from the cross, lest thou miss of the crown; and have a care, that the enemy and adversary of thy soul do not betray thee; he will attempt and present many things to thy view, to hinder thee from the work thou art called to: therefore stand upon thy watch diligently, and resist him, and keep to that which makes manifest, which is light, lest thou be beguiled (as I was) by that subtil serpent, which is called the devil and satan.

When the Lord God by the light of his Son Christ Jesus, had made it manifest to me, that Tithe was not to be paid; and that they that paid Tithe, and they that took Tithe, denied Christ, as to the end of his coming, who hath put an end to all shadows whatsoever; for he is the subtance; and where the substance Christ Jesus is truly witnessed, all shadows flee away so there was life and death, good and evil, set before me; if I joined to that which is good, happiness would attend me; but if to that which is evil, I should lose my reward. And in these my meditations the enemy presents himself, and appears in this manner, Hath God set good and evil before thee, and hath he shewed to thee, that they that pay Tithe therein deny Christ to be come? Is it not said likewise, he that doth not provide for his family is worse than an infidel?" And thou hast many children, and a great family to look after; if thou deniest Tithe, thou wilt be cast into prison; and what then will become of thy children? They must suffer. This was the voice of the serpent to me; and I not standing in the cross, but hearkening to it, was beguiled and betrayed; for then the consulting part got up, and led me into many reasonings and questionings, and so [I lost my condition, and fell under the power of the enemy, which deceived me, and I was deceived, and paid tithe that year, but I desire it may be a warning to all whose hearts the Lord hath opened in any measure concerning Tithe, and for their sakes is this given forth: Oh! do not consult with flesh and blood, neither let the reasoning part get up; but stand in the cross, and keep to the first motion, that openeth the thing to thee, lest the enemy prevail, and so bring thee into terrible bondage and slavery, as he did me; for in so doing, I did greatly increase the anger of the Lord against me, and the terrors of the Almighty took hold of me, which terribly shook the earth, insomuch that when it was morning, I longed for night; and when night hath come, I desired morning; and the fire of the Lord's indignation was kindled within me; my exercise was very great, and a bitter cup was my portion, which was a just recompence of reward. And thus it was with me for many months, and a sore and grievous travel I went under for this my disobedience; and in this my great distress, I sought the Lord with many tears, and desired, that he would not cut off my life in this condition; if he did, I should