down to the ground six or seven times, and when he was down, they beat his head against the ground, and stamped upon him; and Brown, like a madman, bade them pull off his nose; whereupon they very violently pulled him by the nose. And when he was got up, they pulled him to the ground by the hair of his head, and then by the hair pulled him up again. And when he would have spoken in his own behalf against this cruelty, Brown bade them stop his mouth. Whereupon they not only struck him on the mouth, but stopped his mouth and nose also so close, that he could not draw breath, and was like to be choaked at which actions Brown fell a laughing, and at length sent him to jail.

Thomas Spire, being brought before Brown, he commanded his hat to be taken off; and because it was not done with such violence as he intended, he caused it to be put upon his head again, saying, 'It should not be pulled off so easily.' Then he was pulled down to the ground by his hat, and pulled up again by his hair. William Hill being brought before him, he commanded his hat to be pulled off, so that his head might be bowed down: whereupon he being pulled to the ground, was plucked up again by the hair of his head. George Ableson was thus pulled five times one after another to the ground, and plucked up by his hair, and so beaten on his face, or the sides of his head, that he staggered, and bled, and for some days was under much pain.

Nicholas Blithold being brought before Brown, he took his hat with both his hands, endeavouring to pull him down to the ground; and because he fell not quite to the ground forwards, he pushed him, to throw him backwards; and then he gave him a kick on the leg, and thrust him out of doors. Thomas Lacy being brought before him, he himself gave him a blow on the face; and Isaac Merrit, John Cook, Arthur Baker, and others, were not treated much better; so that he seemed more fit to have been a hangman, than an alderman, or justice. But I grow weary of mentioning more instances of his cruelty. These his abominable achievements were pub lished in print, more at large than I have mentioned

them and the book, as hath been said already, was de dicated to him. And yet I do not find any have been prosecuted on that account; though his wickedness was extravagant, and such as if he wanted to have stakes erected at Smithfield to vend his wood; being by trade a woodmonger.

In this hot time of persecution, Francis Howgill wrote, and gave forth the following paper for encouragement of his friends.

"The cogitations of my heart have been many, deep, and ponderous some months, weeks, and days, concerning this people which the Lord hath raised to bear testimony unto his name, in this the day of his power; and intercession hath been made often for them to the Lord, and a patient waiting to know his mind concerning them for the time to come; which often I received satisfaction in as to myself, but yet something I was drawn by the Lord to wait for, that I might comfort and strengthen his flock by an assured testimony. And while I was waiting out of all visible things, and quite out of the world in my spirit, and my heart upon nothing but the living God, the Lord opened the springs of the great deep, and overflowed my whole heart with light and love; and my eyes were as a fountain because of tears of joy, because of his heritage, of whom he showed me, and said unto me in a full, fresh, living power, and a holy, full testimony, so that my heart was ravished there with joy unspeakable, and I was out of the body with God in his heavenly paradise, where I saw and felt things unutterable, and beyond all demonstration or speech. At last the life closed with my understanding, and my spirit listened unto him; and the everlasting God said, "Shall I hide any thing from them that seek my face in righteousness? Nay, I will manifest it to them that fear me; I will speak, do thou listen, and publish it among all my people, that they may be comforted, and thou satisfied." And thus said the living God of heaven and earth, upon the 28th of the Third month, 1662.

The sun shall leave its shining brightness, and cease

to give light to the world; and the moon shall be altogether darkness, and give no light unto the night; the stars shall cease to know their office, or place; my covenant with day, night, times and seasons, shall sooner come to an end, than the covenant I have made with this people, into which they are entered with me, shall end or be broken. Yea, though the powers of darkness and hell combine against them, and the jaws of death open its mouth, yet I will deliver them, and lead them through all. I will confound their enemies as I did in Jacob, and scatter them as I did in Israel in the days of old. I will take their enemies, I will hurl them hither and thither, as stones hurled in a sling; and the memorial of this nation, which is holy unto me, shall never be rooted out, but shall live through ages, as a cloud of witnesses in generations to come. I have brought them to the birth, yea, I have brought them forth; I have swaddled them, and they are mine. I will nourish them, and carry them as on eagles' wings; and though clouds gather against them, I will make my way through them; though darkness gather together on a heap, and tempests gender, I will scatter them as with an east wind; and nations shall know they are my inheritance, and they shall know I am the living God, who will plead their cause with all that rise up in opposition against them.’

These words are holy, faithful, eternal, good, and true; blessed are they that hear and believe unto the end and because of them no strength was left in me for a while; but at last my heart was filled with joy, even as when the ark of God was brought from the house of Obed-Edom, when David danced before it, and Israel shouted for joy.

FRANCIS HOWGILL.'

That this writing of F. Howgill, who was a pious man, of great parts, together with many other powerful exhortations of such who valiantly went before, and never left the oppressed flock, tended exceedingly to their encouragement in this hot time of persecution, is certain. For how furious soever their enemies were, yet they con

tinued faithful in supplications and fervent prayers to God, that he might be pleased to assist them in their upright zeal, who aimed at nothing for self, but from a true fear and reverence before him, durst not omit their religious assemblies. And they found that the Lord heard their prayers, insomuch that I remember to have heard one say, that at a meeting where they seemed to be in danger of death from their fierce persecutors, he was as it were ravished, so that he hardly knew whether he was in or out of the body. They then persevering thus in faithfulness, to what they believed the Lord required of them, in process of time, when their enemies had taken such measures, that they were persuaded they had found out such means, by which they should suppress and extinguish the Quakers, they saw the Lord God Almighty rose up in their defence, and quashed and confounded the wicked devices of their cruel persecutors, as will be seen in the course of this history.

In the meanwhile let us take a view of the persecution in Southwark. Here the Quakers' meetings were no less disturbed than in London. Several persons, having been taken from their religious meetings, were committed; and after having been in White-lion prison about nine weeks, were brought to the bar, where Richard Onslow sat judge of the sessions. The indictment drawn up against them was as followeth.

The jurors for our lord the king do present upon their oath, that Arthur Fisher, late of the parish of St. Olave, in the borough of Southwark, in the county of Surry, yeoman; Nathaniel Robinson, of the same, yeo; man; John Chandler, of the same, yeoman; and others, being wicked, dangerous, and seditious sectaries, and disloyal persons, and above the age of sixteen years, who on the 29th day of June, in the year of the reign of our lord Charles the Second, by the grace of God, king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, &c. the fourteenth, have obstinately refused, and every one of them hath obstinately refused, to repair unto some church, chapel, or usual place of common prayer, according to

the laws and statutes of this kingdom of England, in the like case set forth and provided, (after forty days next after the end of the session of parliament, begun and holden at Westminster, on the 29th day of February, in the year of our lady Elizabeth, late queen of England, the thirty-fifth, and there continued until the dissolution of the same, being the tenth day of April, in the 35th year abovesaid.) To wit, on the 3d day of August, in the year of the reign of the said Charles, King of England, the fourteenth abovesaid, in the parish of St. Olave aforesaid, in the borough of Southwark aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, of themselves, did voluntarily and unlawfully join in, and were present at an unlawful assembly, conventicle, and meeting, at the said parish of St. Olave, in the county aforesaid, under colour and pretence of the exercise of religion, against the laws and statutes of this kingdom of England, in contempt of our said lord the king that now is, his laws, and to the evil and dangerous example of all others in the like case offending against the peace of our said lord the king that now is, his crown and dignity, and contrary to the form of the statute in this same case set forth and provided.'

I have inserted this indictment, that the reader may see not only the manner of proceeding, but also with what black and heinous colours the religious meetings of those called Quakers, were represented. This indictment being read, the prisoners desired that they might be tried by the late act of parliament against conventicles. But it was answered, they might try them by what they would that was in force. Then the prisoners desired that that statute, (viz. the 35th of Elizabeth,) might be read. This was done but in part, and it was said to the clerk, it was enough. The prisoners said then, that that act was made in the time of ignorance, when the people were but newly stept out of popery; and they showed also how unjustly they were dealt with. Then being required to plead guilty, or not guilty, to the indictment, some who were not very forward to answer, were haled out of the court, as taken pro confessis; and so sent back to prison.