Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

The dangerous game a fierce wild boar,
With wonted skill his ear he plies,
But teeth decay'd can hold no more,
And from his gripe the sylvan flies.
Hard names ensue-nor stripes are spared,
The boist'rous Hunter vents his rage,
While thus the yelping slave is heard
To plead the cause of feeble age,
Time was, I could have held to the last,
As well my angry master knows,
Who, though he boasts my vigour past,
Rewards me, now 'tis spent, with blows!

The Shepherd's Boy. Croxall, 155.

Mendaci homini, ne verum quidem dicenti credere solemus.
Who bears the liar's hated name,

Truth, in his lips shall lose her fame:
Let youth the shameful cover shun,
And learn, ere credit be undone,
That all the present shift can gain
Is dearly bought with future pain.

A shepherd boy had learned the vice;
And wantonly, not once or twice
But oft, alarm'd the labouring band
With outcry of the wolf at hand;
Till, vex'd to run the viewless chace,
No pains could draw them to the place.
By solitude allur'd, the beast
Now came indeed: his bloody feast
Perceiv'd, the master learns the cause,
And home the faithless youngster draws;
Here stripes, reproof and labour hard,
Forthwith became his just reward.

The Enemies made Friends.

Cicero.

Two men, going on a voyage in the same vessel, from mutual aversion chose their places the one at the prow the other at the stern. A storm arising, the man at the stern enquired of the pilot which end of the ship would go down first-the pilot replied, the forecastle. "Well," said the passenger, "I am content-I shall see that enemy of mine drown before me!" The wind increasing, and the ship making water till she began to settle down in earnest, the man at the prow cast a kind look at his fellow-passenger and the speech which had been lately uttered was forgotten. This being perceived by the other, he came to the mainmast, where the Friends met and embraced, and both went down together!

Communications may be addressed, POST PAID, "For the Editor of the Yorkshireman," at the Printer's, Pontefract; at Longman and Co.'s, London; John Baines and Co.'s, Leeds; and W. Simpson's, York.

CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT.

[blocks in formation]

No. XX. FOURTH DAY, 1st FIFTH Mo. 1833.

PRICE 4d. ART. I.-A Chronological summary of events and circumstances, connected with the origin and progress of the doctrine and practices of the Quakers.

1654.

(Continued from p. 303.)

A. D. The engagement of fidelity to Cromwell tendered to the army : many soldiers discharged for refusing to swear; among these John Stubbs, of whom hereafter as "a good soldier in the Lamb's warfare." (a)

The first General Meeting at Cinderhill Green near Sheffield: a place probably so named from the iron-furnaces, yet found in the neighbourhood-" a mighty meeting," says Geo. Fox, 66 many persons of note, and a general convincement."(b) There being now above sixty preachers of the Quaker doctrine, they spread themselves East, South, and West. John Camm, John Audland and others hold meetings at Bristol, and Friends are persecuted there both by the Magistracy and populace. Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill come to London: the former preaches to the young men assembled at their sports in MoorFields, surprising them by introducing himself into the ring, as if to wrestle. F. Howgill addresses the Protector in behalf of his friends and their doctrine. Several meetings are settled, the first at a private house in Aldersgate Street: a large hall is next hired in that neighbourhood, at the Bull and Mouth (properly Boulogne mouth, so called from the harbour of that town). (c)

(a) G. Fox's Journal, Edit. 1765, p. 113. (b) Id. p. 114, and see p. 266, 299, 300, 350, 389. (c) Sewel's Hist. vol. 1, p. 137, 142, Edit. 1799.

The hall in its dilapidated state was lately exposed to view, by the removal of the buildings in front. It is now pulled down, and a spacious hotel covers the ground where friends formerly worshipped God, and suffered for their testimony.

A. D.

George Fox, coming towards London, is taken from a meeting 1654. at Whetstone near Leicester, by an officer with seventeen troopers sent by Col, Hacker; who despatches him to the Protector at Whitehall. He is dismissed (after a long conference) by Cromwell who invites him to dine with his gentlemen in the Hall but he refuses the reason being, evidently, that he would not incur a personal obligation to Cromwell. George Fox preaches in and near London-"A great convincement," he says "there was some in the Protector's house and family." Many friends, about this time "are moved to go up and down to sound forth the everlasting gospel in most parts of this nation and also in Scotland." (d)

1655.

Others go beyond sea. Miles Halhead (with James Lancaster and other friends) preaches in Ireland. Miles had been left for dead, the year before, in the beatings and stonings he received in the course of his public testimony in Yorkshire; but had recovered so speedily as to astonish his persecutors. William Edmundson, the first Irish Quaker, having been convinced in the North of England, the year before, by James Nayler, a meeting is settled at his house at Lurgan. (e)

George Fox travels South and East of London. John Stubbs and William Caton having been labouring before him in Kent (and suffering also) he notes the convincement of Samuel Fisher, an eminent Baptist preacher, who for conscience sake had given up a parsonage reputed worth £200 a year: also of Luke Howard of Dover," who became a faithful minister of Christ." His life is yet extant, making, with some pieces written by him, a small volume.

The following morsel of doctrine, which George Fox gave forth in a dispute at Reading, may not be unfit for perusal at present. "The Ranters pleaded that God made the devil [Predestination in caricature!] I denied it, and told them he became a devil by going out of truth; and so became a murderer and a destroyer. I shewed them that God did not make him a devil, for God is a God of truth, and made all things good, and blessed them; but God did not bless the devil. And the devil is bad, and was a liar and a murderer, from the beginning [of his fall] and spake of himself, and not from God." Comp. John vii, 18; viii, 44; xvi, 13.

In Bedfordshire, John Crook a justice of peace joins the society, and is discharged from the Commission: he has left various works, with his Life, making a volume of 400 pages. His trial and defence at the Old Bailey (having been taken to prison from

(d) Journal, p. 127-130. (e) Gough, Hist. Bk. 1, Chap. 13.

A. D. a meeting for worship) is pretty largely cited in No. VII. He 1655. was an approved minister, and died in 1699, at Hertford. (f)

[ocr errors]

George Whitehead and three others subjected to an unjust and cruel imprisonment in Bury Goal, of more than a year's continuance. For an account of their treatment, illustrating very circumstan tially the inhumanity of that age, see his Works. (g) At Yarmouth, George Fox and R. Hubberthorne travelling in the ministry, are taken in their beds, guarded with pikes and halberts, and carried before a justice, on pretended suspicion of "broken up having a house. But they making their innocence appear by evidence, the magistrate reluctantly discharges them, confessing "he was sorry he had nothing more against them." At Cambridge, George Fox's life is threatened by the scholars, who unhorse his companion in the street; but by favour of the friendly mayor, he obtains at night a good meeting with some who were worthy, and departs early in the morning. "Great was the rage and enmity," he says, "of the people, professors as well as profane, against the truth and people of God at this time, and great the contempt and disdain they shewed offriends' plainness."(h) In his journal under date of the previous year, we have a paper of two folio pages, addressed "To such as follow the world's fashions." "What a world is this," he says, "how doth the devil garnish himself, how obedient are people to do his will and mind! They are altogether carried away with fooleries and vanities, both men and women." proceeds to accuse them of putting on gold and gay apparel: women plaiting the hair, men and women powdering it, and making their backs look like bags of meal. He says, "If one have store of ribands hanging about his waste, at his knees, and in his hat, of divers colours, red, white, black, or yellow, and his hair powdered, then he is a brave man, then he is no Quaker-likewise the women, having their gold, their patches on ther faces, noses, cheeks, and foreheads, their rings on their fingers, wearing gold on their cuffs double under and above (like a butcher with his white sleeves) their ribands tied about their hands, and three or four gold laces about their clothes, this is no Quaker, say they—and further, if one get a pair of breeches like a petticoat, and hang them about with points, and [have them] up almost to the middle, a pair of double cuffs upon his hands, and a feather in his сар, here's a gentleman!"-And he compares both sexes to fiddler's boys; using scripture pretty freely to reprove them. So we see here was something to stir up the world's resentment, professors (whom he also involves in the charge) as well as profane!

He

This year came out the oath of abjuration of the claims of Charles the Second; by refusing which many friends suffered. Great spoiling also there was of friends' goods, by the Independent, Presbyterian and some Baptist priests, who had got into the steeplehouses. (i)

(f) Journal, p. 138. (h) Journal, p. 142, 144.

(g) Christian Progress, &c., Edit. 1725, p. 66—96 ̧ (i) Journal, p. 133, 154.

A. D.

At Baldock, George for once falls into an adventure which 1655. ends agreeably. Returning from visiting a sick person, with some friends, "we found," he says, "two desperate fellows fighting so furiously that none durst come nigh to part them. But I was moved in the Lord's power to go to them, and when I had loosed their hands, I held one of them by one hand and the other by the other, shewed them the evil of their doings, and reconciled them one to the other, and they were so loving and thankful to me that people admired at it.” Conduct which able bodied Christians may sometimes find occasion (with due regard to their personal safety) not only to admire, but to imitate. (k)

1656.

James Parnel, born at Retford, Nottinghamshire, suffers martyrdom in Colchester castle. This youth had been convinced by George Fox, at a visit paid him in Carlisle prison, and had become a successful preacher and disputant. The Reader, if he take the pains to go through the account of his imprisonment and sufferings, will not find the term I have used too forcible.(?) Stephen Crisp, who had been convinced in discourse with James Parnel, becomes himself an eminent publisher of the same doctrine.

James Nayler, going into enthusiastic notions, and extravagant conduct, with a company of persons of both sexes, who laboured under strong delusion respecting him, is taken up at Bristol, and sent to London to be examined by the Parliament then sitting. Being judged by them guilty of blasphemy, he is by their [illegal and unconstitutional] order, subjected to repeated ignominious and cruel punishments, both in London and Westminster and at Bristol the scene of his principal offence, while others who had committed in regard to him acts the most offensive, and which might be termed blasphemous, he merely not forbidding them, are suffered to go unnoticed.

Some things injurious to the society, which never countenanced such conduct, and which disowned Nayler, have been written by different authors on the subject, and replied to, collectively, by Joseph Gurney Bevan. Nayler was an able and gifted preacher and disputant, but a weak man. He came to see and publicly condemn his error, and died in peace in 1660. (m)

John Camm, of Cammsgill in Westmorland, dies of a decline, worn out by labour in the ministry. He was among the first who travelled to propagate the gospel according to our principles: in which service he was careful not to make it chargeable, having an estate of his own. (n)

(k) Id. 158. (1) Journal, p. 103, 141, Sewel, vol. 1, p. 182–7. Gough, vol. 1, 180-8. (m) Fox's Journal, p. 205, 216. Sewel, vol. 1, p. 233–270. Gough vol. 1, p. 232-250. Refutation of some of the more modern misrepresentations, &c. 8vo. 1800. (n) Gough, vol. 1, p. 251. Piety promoted.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »