CHAPTER XII (6)

“O Friends, do not cloak and cover yourselves; there is a God that knoweth your hearts, and that will uncover you. He seeth your way. ‘Woe be to him that covereth, but not with my Spirit, saith the Lord.’ Do ye act contrary to the law, and then put it from you? Mercy and true judgment ye neglect. Look, what was spoken against such: my Saviour spoke against such: ‘I was sick, and ye visited me not; I was hungry, and ye fed me not; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; I was in prison, and ye visited me not.’ But they said, ‘When saw we thee in prison, and did not come to thee?’ ‘Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these little ones, ye did it not unto me.’ Friends, ye imprison them that are in the life and power of truth, and yet profess to be the ministers of Christ. But if Christ had sent you, ye would bring out of prison, and bondage, and receive strangers. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter; ye have condemned, and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.”

After this, as I was going out of town, having two Friends with me, when we were little more than a mile out of the city, there met us two troopers belonging to Colonel Hacker’s regiment, who took me, and the Friends that were with me, and brought us back to the Mews, and there kept us prisoners. But the Lord’s power was so over them, that they did not take us before any officer; but shortly after set us at liberty again.

The same day, taking boat, I went to Kingston, and thence to Hampton Court, to speak with the Protector about the sufferings of Friends. I met him riding into Hampton-Court Park, and before I came to him, as he rode at the head of his life-guard, I saw and felt a waft (or apparition) of death go forth against him; and when I came to him, he looked like a dead man. After I had laid the sufferings of Friends before him, and had warned him, according as I was moved to speak to him, he bid me come to his house. So I returned to Kingston, and next day went to Hampton Court, to speak further with him. But when I came, he was sick, and —— Harvey, who was one that waited on him, told me the doctors were not willing I should speak with him. So I passed away, and never saw him more.

From Kingston I went to Isaac Penington’s, in Buckinghamshire, where I had appointed a meeting, and the Lord’s truth and power were preciously manifested amongst us. After I had visited Friends in those parts, I returned to London, and soon after went into Essex, where I had not been long before I heard that the Protector was dead, and his son Richard made Protector in his room. Whereupon I came up to London again.

Before this time the church-faith (so called) was given forth, which was said to have been made at the Savoy in eleven days’ time. I got a copy before it was published, and wrote an answer to it; and when their book of church-faith was sold in the streets, my answer to it was sold also. This angered some of the parliament-men, so that one of them told me, “they must have me to Smithfield.” I told him, “I was above their fires, and feared them not.” And reasoning with him, I wished him to consider, “Had all people been without a faith these sixteen hundred years, that now the priests must make them one? Did not the apostle say, that Jesus was the author and finisher of their faith? And since Christ Jesus was the author of the apostles’ faith, of the church’s faith in primitive times, and of the martyrs’ faith, should not all people look unto him to be the author and finisher of their faith, and not to the priests?” Much work we had about the priest-made faith; for they called us house-creepers, leading silly women captive, because we met in houses, and would not hold up their priests and temples, which they had made and set up. I told them, that it was they who led silly women captive, and crept into houses, who kept people always learning under them, who were covetous, and had a form of godliness, but denied the power and Spirit which the apostles were in. Such began to creep in the apostles’ days; but now they had got the magistrates on their side, who upheld those houses for them, which they had crept into, their temples, with their tithes: whereas the apostles brought people off even from that temple, and those tithes and offerings, which God had for a time commanded. And the apostles met in several private houses, being to preach the gospel to all nations; which they did freely, as Christ had commanded them. Thus do we, who bring people off from these priests, temples, and tithes which God never commanded, to meet in houses, or on mountains, as the saints of old did, who were gathered in the name of Jesus, Christ being their Prophet, Priest, and Shepherd.

Major Wiggan, a very envious man, was present, yet he bridled himself before the parliament-men, and some others that were there in company. He took upon him to make a speech, and said, “Christ had taken away the guilt of sin, but had left the power of sin remaining in us.” I told him, that was strange doctrine, for Christ came to destroy the devil and his works, and the power of sin, and so to cleanse men from sin.

So Major Wiggan’s mouth was stopped at that time. But next day, desiring to speak with me again, I took a friend or two with me, and went to him. Then he vented much passion and rage, beyond the bounds of a Christian or moral man; whereupon I reproved him; and having brought the Lord’s power over him, and let him see what condition he was in, I left him.

After some time I passed out of London, and had a meeting at Sergeant Birkhead’s at Twickenham, to which many people came, and some of considerable quality in the world. A glorious meeting it was, wherein the Scriptures were largely and clearly opened, and Christ exalted above all, to the great satisfaction of the hearers.

But there was great persecution in many places, both by imprisoning and breaking up of meetings. At a meeting about seven miles from London, the rude people usually came out of several parishes round about, to abuse Friends, and often beat and bruised them exceedingly. One day they abused about eighty Friends, who went to that meeting out of London, tearing their coats and cloaks off their backs, and throwing them into ditches and ponds; and when they had besmeared them with dirt, they said they looked like witches. The next First-day, I was moved of the Lord to go to that meeting, though I was then very weak. When I came there, I bid Friends bring a table, and set it in the field, where they used to meet, to stand upon. According to their wonted course, the rude people came. Having a Bible in my hand, I showed them their and their priests’ and teachers’ fruits: and the people became ashamed, and were quiet. I opened the Scriptures to them, and our principles agreeing therewith; I turned the people from darkness to the light of Christ and his Spirit, by which they might understand the Scriptures, see themselves and their sins, and know Christ Jesus to be their Saviour. So the meeting ended quietly, and the Lord’s power came over all to his glory. But it was a time of great sufferings; for besides the imprisonments (through which many died) our meetings were greatly disturbed. They have thrown rotten eggs and wild-fire into our meetings, and have brought in drums beating, and kettles, to make noises with, that the truth might not be heard; and among these, the priests were as rude as any: as may be seen in the book of the fighting priests, wherein a list is given of some of them that had actually beaten and abused Friends.

Many also of our Friends were brought up to London, prisoners, to be tried before the committee; where Henry Vane,[60] being Chairman, would not suffer Friends to come in, except they would put off their hats: but at last the Lord’s power came over him, so that, through the mediation of others, they were admitted. Many of us having been imprisoned upon contempts (as they called them) for not putting off our hats, it was not a likely thing that Friends, who had suffered so long for it from others, should put off their hats to him. But the Lord’s power came over them all, and wrought so, that several Friends were set at liberty by them. Now inasmuch as sufferings grew very sharp, I was moved of the Lord to write a few lines and send amongst Friends, to encourage them to go on faithfully and boldly, through the exercises of the day; of which a copy here follows:—

“My dear Friends, wherever scattered abroad, in prison or out of prison; fear not, because of the reports of sufferings; let not the evil spies of the good land make you afraid, if they tell you the walls are high, and there are Anakims in the land; for at the blowing of the rams’ horns did the walls of Jericho fall; and they that brought the evil report, perished in the wilderness. But dwell ye in the faith, patience, and hope, having the Word of Life to keep you, which is beyond the law; and having the oath of God, his covenant, Christ Jesus, which divides the waters asunder, and makes them to run all on heaps; in that stand: and ye will see all things work together for good to them that love God. In that triumph, when sufferings come, whatever they may be. Your faith, your shield, your helmet, your armour you have on; ye are ready to skip over a mountain, a wall, or a hill, and to walk through the deep waters, though they be as heaps upon heaps. The evil spies of the good land may preach up hardness; but Caleb, which signifies a heart, and Joshua, a Saviour, triumph over all.”

After a while I went to Reading, where I was under great sufferings and exercises, and in great travail of spirit for about ten weeks. For I saw there was great confusion and distraction amongst the people, and that the powers were plucking each other to pieces. And I saw how many were destroying the simplicity, and betraying the truth. Much hypocrisy, deceit, and strife, was got uppermost in the people, so that they were ready to sheath their swords in one another’s bowels. There had been a tenderness in many of them formerly, when they were low, but when they were got up, had killed and taken possession, they came to be as bad as others; so that we had much to do with them about our hats, and saying Thou and Thee to them. They turned their profession of patience and moderation into rage and madness; and many of them were like distracted men for this hat-honour. For they had hardened themselves by persecuting the innocent, and were at this time crucifying the Seed, Christ, both in themselves and others; till at last they fell to biting and devouring one another, until they were consumed one of another; who had turned against, and judged, that which God had wrought in them, and showed unto them. So shortly after, God overthrew them, and turned them upside down, and brought the king over them, who were often surmising that the Quakers met together to bring in King Charles, whereas, Friends did not concern themselves with the outward powers, or government. But at last the Lord brought him in, and many of them when they saw he would be brought in, voted for bringing him in. So with heart and voice praise the name of the Lord, to whom it doth belong; who over all hath the supremacy, and who will rock the nations, for he is over them.

I had a sight and sense of the king’s return a good while before, and so had some others. I wrote to Oliver several times, and let him know that while he was persecuting God’s people, they whom he accounted his enemies were preparing to come upon him. When some forward spirits that came amongst us, would have bought Somerset-house, that we might have meetings in it, I forbade them to do so; for I then foresaw the king’s coming in again. Besides, there came a woman to me in the Strand, who had a prophecy concerning King Charles’s coming in, three years before he came: and she told me, she must go to him to declare it. I advised her to wait upon the Lord, and keep it to herself; for if it should be known that she went on such a message, they would look upon it to be treason; but she said, she must go, and tell him, that he should be brought into England again. I saw her prophecy was true, and that a great stroke must come upon them in power; for they that had then got possession were so exceeding high, and such great persecution was acted by them, who called themselves saints, that they would take from Friends their copyhold lands, because they could not swear in their courts.