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 Mid

summer, 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 VOL. II.

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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.

And 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 should suffer you thus to make use of it. Now that ye may the more clearly see the temper of my spirit, and how my heart stands in 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 upon 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 at 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 pleass 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.