CHAPTER XIV (11)

“Thus zealously he preached; and though many might look upon this as a novelty, yet it was of such effect, that some were convinced of the truth; for Burrough was a breaker of stony hearts, and therefore by a certain author not unjustly called ‘a son of thunder;’ though he omitted not in due season to speak a word of consolation to those that were of a broken heart, and of a contrite spirit.”

46. William Bailey (or Bayley), whose writings were published in one volume, 4to, in 1676, and of whom there is a brief account in Piety Promoted, vol. i., p. 83, is stated to have been “mighty in the Scriptures,” and not only a believer and preacher of the word of faith, but a sufferer for the same. OnOn one occasion, he was thrown down and dragged upon the ground by the hair of his head, his persecutors endeavouring to rend and break asunder his jaws, so that the ground whereon he lay was besmeared with his blood. As if this butchering had not been enough to make him a sacrifice, a heavy man stamped on his breast with his feet, endeavouring to beat the breath out of his body. When this persecutor had done his pleasure, he told the jailer to take him away and put him in some nasty hole, for his entertainment and cure.

William Bailey, being master of a ship, often crossed the mighty waters for the maintenance of his family, and many beyond the seas were comforted by his ministry. He was taken ill at sea on his return from visiting Friends in Barbadoes, and died on board the Samuel of London, in latitude 46° 36´ N. He died in great peace, as if he had fallen asleep, exhorting those around him to fear God.

47. Humphrey Lower, who resided near Bodmin, in Cornwall, was an influential magistrate, his name appearing as such in the history of the county, under Charles I. He could, however, say with Paul, “What things were gain unto me, those I counted loss for Christ.” In 1658, for not attending the national worship, and refusing to enter into bond to appear at the assizes, on a presentment made against him by the constable of the parish, H. Lower was, on his non-appearance, committed, notwithstanding his age and high character, to Launceston jail, where he continued till the assizes; and then was put forth without examination or trial, or any satisfaction for such rough treatment. In 1660, he was sent for by a warrant, to appear before two justices at Wadebridge, when one of them, Roscarrock, tendered him the oath of supremacy; and for his refusing to take it, a mittimus was made out and subscribed by him and two other magistrates, who acted very unwillingly. Thereupon he was again sent to Launceston jail, where he remained about two weeks, and then was freed by Sir J. Coryton and E. Hearle. It is stated that H. Lower, when himself in the commission of the peace, had more obliged the said Roscarrock than any other man, by doing him many singular offices of justice and courtesy. The return was a very ungrateful one.

G. Fox mentions large and satisfactory meetings held at his house in 1663 and 1668, and says that he continued serviceable till his death, the date of which event is not recorded.

48. We who live in the 19th century, when the impartial administration of justice extends to all ranks of society, and when the accommodations of our prisons are so vigilantly looked into, can scarcely credit that respectable Englishmen should be subjected to such gross abuse in pestilential dungeons. But the early annals of Friends abound with similar cases, many of them still more aggravated. Take the following example:—

During the close imprisonment of Friends at Aberdeen, Patrick Livingstone often preached to the people through the prison windows, exhorting the people to fear God. This practice was highly displeasing to the magistrates. They, therefore, sought to prevent it, by causing some of them to be separated from the rest of their companions, and violently thrust into a close-vaulted cell, on the top of the jail, called the “iron-house,” where the worst of felons and murderers were usually confined. They had neither light nor air, except through a long hole in a thick wall, which had a double grating of iron on the outside and another within. Here they were kept night and day, in the heat of the summer of 1678, when the filthiness of the place, and the corruptioncorruption of the air so closely pent-up, produced a multitude of worms, called white maggots and other vermin, which swarmed about even upon their beds and victuals, and manifestly tended to the extreme danger of their health and lives.

49. Thomas Lower was son-in-law to Judge Fell, having married his daughter Mary.

50. Thomas Curtis became a faithful minister, and sufferer for Christ’s sake. In 1666, he is mentioned in a letter from Alexander Parker to Margaret Fell as being a prisoner with thirty-two or thirty-three others. His wife, Ann Curtis, was a daughter of a sheriff of Bristol. See a letter of T. Curtis to George Fox, in Letters of Early Friends, p. 240.

51. James Naylor was a monument of human frailty. His gift in the ministry was eminent; his experience in divine things truly great. He fell through unwatchfulness, but was restored through deep sufferings and unfeigned repentance. His own writings are the most clear and lively description of the various dispensations he underwent; some of them deserve to be transmitted to the latest posterity. His address to his brethren bespeaks the real repentance of his heart; in that he says, “My heart is broken this day for the offence I have occasioned to God’s truth and people,—I beseech you, forgive wherein I evilly requited your love in that day. God knows my sorrow for it!” &c. A few hours before his death, he spoke in the presence of several witnesses the following remarkable words:—

“There is a spirit which I feel, that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong; but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all temptations; as it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thought to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring is the mercy and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness; its life is everlasting love unfeigned. It takes its kingdom with entreaty, and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else regard it, or can own its life. It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoiceth, but through sufferings; for with the world’s joy it is murdered. I found it alone; being forsaken. I have fellowship therein with those who lived in dens and desolate places in the earth; who through death obtained this resurrection, and eternal, holy life!”

Such was the end of James Naylor; who, in his forty-fourth year, “chastened, but not killed—cast down, but not destroyed”—through much tribulation, entered, we may humbly hope, “into the kingdom of God.”—(For full particulars, see his Life by Joseph Gurney Bevan.)

52. John Ellis, who is only twice mentioned in this journal, was an able gospel minister, preaching in the authority of divine life, to the reaching of God’s witness in many hearts. His doctrine was sound, flowing from the living fountain and divine spring of life and heavenly wisdom. His preaching was full of reproof and caution, but in that meekness which made it edifying. Whilst tender of the good in all, he was terrible against the workers of iniquity. He was a man of great kindness, a visitor of the widows and fatherless in their distress, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, according to his ability. He laboured greatly in the gospel in several counties, often saying, “His Father’s business must not be neglected, or done negligently.” As he was travelling in the service of Truth, he was taken ill, and died in great peace in 1707 saying, “I am ready, for I have a sure foundation.”

53. Morgan Watkins, who is only mentioned in this place, became a sufferer for the truth. About eight years from the above date, we find him in the Gatehouse prison, near Westminster abbey, with nineteen others on the same account, being committed by warrant from the Duke of Albemarle, “for being at a meeting in St. John’s.” This was during the time the plague visited London. In Barclay’s Letters of Early Friends, are two from Morgan Watkins, one of them dated from the Gatehouse prison, in which he says, “Blessed be His name who hath kept me, and nineteen more in this close place, all in health, above these five weeks; notwithstanding three have been buried out of this prison of the sickness.—Good is the hand of the Lord to his own, whose death is gain.”

In a letter written about three months after the above, he mentions the release of himself and Friends, and adds, “I have been weak since I came out into the air, but through the great love of my God, I am wonderfully preserved, to the praise of his name. But the two imprisonments in Newgate, and the one at the Gatehouse, have much weakened my body, in which I have had several battles with death; but the power of my God arising, gave me dominion over the distemper and weakness of the flesh. The day was dreadful to all flesh, and few were able to abide it, and stand in the judgment; but the Lord was very merciful to the remnant of his people, and his blessed seed is arising in many.”many.”

54. This was not the same John Wilkinson who joined with Storey in creating a schism in the Society.

55. It is justly observed by a writer, not of the Society of Friends, that these “place the Presbyterian Christianity of that day in a most unfavourable light, and show how deeply it was imbued with a sour persecuting spirit of Popery.”

56. Edward Billing was a faithful sufferer for the truth. Henry Fell, in a letter to Margaret Fell, in 1660, mentions Friends being beat very sore, and exceedingly abused in the streets. “They pulled me out of meeting,” he says, “beat me much, knocked me down in the street, and tore all my coat. Edward Billing and his wife were much abused, he especially.”

Edward Billing was one of the three Friends, who, in 1659, appeared before the bar of the House of Commons, to present an address describing the sufferings of Friends, and signed by 164 of the Society, wherein they make an offer of their own bodies, person for person, to lie in prison instead of such of their brethren as were then under confinement, and might be in danger of their lives through extreme durance. (See Letters of Early Friends, pp. 62–68.62–68.) Although little or no apparent effect appeared to be produced at the time in the House from the above-mentioned appeal, it appears, from the journals of the Commons in the month following, a committee was appointed, “to consider of the imprisonment of such persons who continue committed for conscience sake, and how, and in what manner they are, and continue committed, together with the whole cause thereof, and how they may be discharged; and to report the same to the Parliament.”

57. The first Yearly Meeting of the Society appears to have been held in 1658, at Scalehouse, about three miles from Skipton. At that meeting the subject of the visit of Friends “beyond the sea,” claimed much attention, and it was agreed to recommend a general collection in aid of these gospel missions. An epistle was issued to that effect, and the appeal was liberally responded to, and considering the value of money at that period, a large amount was raised. The epistle, with particulars of the collection and its disbursement, may be seen in Bowden’s History of Friends in America, vol. i., p. 58-60.

Yearly Meetings were held in different parts of England to the number of twenty-six, at which were reported the number of prisoners; the various sufferings on account of the Truth; those who died for it; and the number of ministers deceased. The affairs of truth were also considered, and the members of the church had blessed opportunities of heavenly correspondence and fellowship, one with another. For full particulars of the setting up of General and Yearly Meetings, and of the institution and objects of the Discipline in the Society, see Letters, &c., of Early Friends, part ii., pp. 275-353.

58. The Earl of Newport, it would appear, was very favourably inclined towards Friends. In a letter from E. Burrough to F. Howgill, 4th of 7th Month [9th Month] 1658, he observes, “This night, at Woodcock’s, at the meeting, was the Earl of Newport; he is truly loving to us.” In the same letter, E. Burrough says, “Truth spreads and grows. The Earl of Pembroke has been with us; there is a principle of God stirring in him.”