1 -LXII. 1660. and fashion. George Fox, born at Drayton in CHA P. Lancashire, in 1624, was the founder of this sect. He was the son of a weaver, and was himself bound apprentice to a shoe-maker. Feeling a stronger impulse towards spiritual contemplations than towards that mechanical profession, he left his master, and went about the country clothed in a leathern doublet, a dress which he long affected, as well for its singularity as its cheapness. That he might wean himself from sublunary objects, he broke off all connexions with his friends and family, and never dwelt a moment in one place; lest habit should beget new connexions, and depress the sublimity of his aërial meditations. He frequently wandered into the woods, and passed whole days in hollow trees, without company, or any other amusement than his bible. Having reached that pitch of perfection as to need no other book, he soon advanced to another state of spiritual progress, and began to pay less regard even to that divine composition itself. His own breast, he imagined, was full of the same inspiration which had guided the prophets and apostles themselves; and by this inward light must every spiritual obscurity be cleared, by this living spirit must the dead letter be animated. WHEN he had been sufficiently consecrated in his own imagination, he felt that the fumes of self-applause soon dissipate, if not continually supplied by the admiration of others; and he began to seek proselytes. Proselytes were easily gained, at a time when all men's affections were turned towards religion, and when the most extravagant modes of it were sure to be most popular. All the forms of ceremony, invented by pride and ostentation, Fox and his disciples, from a superior pride and ostentation, carefully rejected: Even the ordinary rites of civility were shunned, as the nourishment of carnal vanity and self-conceit. They would bestow no titles of distinction: The name of friend was the t only LXII. 1660. CHA P. only salutation with which they indiscriminately accosted every one. To no person would they make a bow, or move their hat, or give any signs of reverence. Instead of that affected adulation, introduced into modern tongues, of speaking to individuals as if they were a multitude, they returned to the simplicity of ancient languages; and thou and thee were the only expressions which, on any consideration, they could be brought to employ. DRESS too, a material circumstance, distinguished the members of this sect. Every superfluity and ornament was carefully retrenched: No plaits to their coat, no buttons to their sleeves: No lace, no ruffles, no embroidery. Even a button to the hat, though sometimes useful, yet not being always so, was universally rejected by them with horror and detestation. THE violent enthusiasm of this sect, like all high passions, being too strong for the weak nerves to sustain, threw the preachers into convulsions, and shakings, and distortions in their limbs; and they thence received the appellation of quakers. Amidst the great toleration which was then granted to all sects, and even encouragement given to all innovations, this sect alone suffered persecution. From the fervour of their zeal, the quakers broke into churches, disturbed public worship, and harassed the minister and audience with railing and reproaches. When carried before a magistrate, they refused him all reverence, and treated him with the same familiarity as if he had been their equal. Sometimes they were thrown into mad-houses, sometimes into prisons: Sometimes whipped, sometimes pilloried. The patience and fortitude with which they suffered, begat compassion, admiration, esteem.* A supernatural spirit was believed to support them under The following story is told by Whitlocke, p. 599. Some quakers at Hasington in Northumberland coming to the minister on 1 LXII. under those sufferings, which the ordinary state of CHA P. humanity, freed from the illusions of passion, is unable to sustain. The quakers crept into the army: But as they preached universal peace, they seduced the military zealots from their profession, and would soon, had they been suffered, have put an end, without any defeat or calamity, to the dominion of the saints. These attempts became a fresh ground of persecution, and a new reason for their progress among the people. up MORALS with this sect were carried, or affected to be carried, to the same degree of extravagance as religion. Give a quaker a blow on one cheek, he held the other: Ask his cloke, he gave you his coat also: The greatest interest could not engage him, in any court of judicature, to swear even to the truth: He never asked more for his wares than the precise sum which he was determined to accept. This last maxim is laudable, and continues still to be religiously observed by that sect. No fanatics ever carried farther the hatred to ceremonies, forms, orders, rites, and positive institutions. Even baptism and the Lord's supper, by all other sects believed to be interwoven with the very vitals of christianity, were disdainfully rejected by them. The very sabbath they profaned. The holiness of churches they derided; and they would give to these sacred edifices no other appellation than that of shops or steeple-houses. No priests were admitted in their sect: Every one had received from immediate illumination a character much superior to the sacerdotal. When they met for divine worship, on the Sabbath-day, and speaking to him, the people fell upon the quakers, and almost killed one or two of them, who, going out, fell on their knees, and prayed God to pardon the people, who knew not what they did; and afterwards speaking to the people, so convinced them of the evil they had done in beating them, that the country people fell a quarrelling, and beat one another more than they had before beaten the quakers. 1660. LXII. CHA P. worship, each rose up in his place, and delivered the extemporary inspirations of the Holy Ghost: Wo1660. men were also admitted to teach the brethren, and were considered as proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit. Sometimes a great many preachers were moved to speak at once: Sometimes a total silence prevailed in their congregations. SOME quakers attempted to fast forty days in imitation of Christ; and one of them bravely perished in the experiment. A female quaker came naked into the church where the protector sat; being moved by the spirit, as she said, to appear as a sign to the people. A number of them fancied, that the renovation of all things had commenced, and that clothes were to be rejected, together with other superfluities. The sufferings which followed the practice of this doctrine, were a species of persecution not well calculated for promoting it. JAMES NAYLOR was a quaker, noted for blasphemy, or rather madness, in the time of the protectorship. He fancied that he himself was transformed into Christ, and was become the real saviour of the world; and in consequence of this frenzy, he endeavoured to imitate many actions of the Messiah related in the evangelists. As he bore a resemblance to the common pictures of Christ, he allowed his beard to grow in a like form: He raised a person from the dead: He was ministered unto by women: He entered Bristol mounted on a horse: suppose, from the difficulty in that place of findin an ass: His disciples spread their garments before him, and cried, "Hosannah to the highest ; 66 holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabbaoth." When carried before the magistrate, he would give no other answer to all questions than "thou hast "said B Whitlocke, p. 624. One Dorcas Earberry h Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. p. 399. made oath before a magistrate, that she had been dead two days, and that Naylor had brought her to life. Id. ib. "said it." What is remarkable, the parliament thought that the matter deserved, their attention. Near ten days they spent in inquiries and debates about him. They condemned him to be pilloried, whipped, burned in the face, and to have his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron. Ail these severities he bore with the usual patience. So far his delusion supported him. But the sequel spoiled all. He was sent to Bridewell, confined to hard labour, fed on bread and water, and debarred from all his disciples, male and female. His illusion dissipated, and after some time he was contented to come out an ordinary man, and return to his usual occupations. THE chief taxes in England, during the time of the commonwealth, were the monthly assessments, the excise, and the customs. The assessments were levied on personal estates, as well as on land;' and commissioners were appointed in each county for rating the individuals. The highest assessment amounted to 120,000 pounds a-month in England; the lowest was 35,000. The assessments in Scotland were sometimes 10,000 pounds a-month; commonly 6000. Those in Ireland 9000. At a ́medium, this tax might have afforded about a million a-year. The excise, during the civil wars, was levied on bread, flesh-meat, as well as beer, ale, strong-waters, and many other commodities. the king was subdued, bread and flesh-meat were exempted from excise. The customs on exportation were lowered in 1656." In 1650, commissioners were appointed to levy both customs and excises. Cromwel in 1657 returned to the old practice of farming. Eleven hundred thousand pounds were then offered, both for customs and excise; a greater sum than had ever been levied by the commissioners: The whole of the taxes during that *Thurloe, vol. v. p. 708. vol. ii. p. 476. Scobel, p. 376. VOL. VII. 1 Scobel, p. 419. Ꮓ After Thurloe, vol. vi. p. 425. LXII. 1660. |