The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself Part 17

Why do they thus join hands, and counsel take Against the Lord's Anointed? This will make Him doubtless laugh who doth in heaven sit; The Lord will have them in contempt for it.

His sore displeasure on them He will wreak, And in His wrath will He unto them speak.

For on His holy hill of Sion He His king hath set to reign: sceptres must be Cast down before Him; diadems must lie At foot of Him who sits in majesty Upon His throne of glory; whence He will Send forth His fiery ministers to kill All those His enemies who would not be Subject to His supreme authority.

Where then will ye appear who are so far From being subjects that ye rebels are Against His holy government, and strive Others from their allegiance too to drive?

What earthly prince such an affront would bear From any of his subjects, should they dare So to encroach on his prerogative?

Which of them would permit that man to live?

What should it be adjudged but treason? and Death he must suffer for it out of hand.

And shall the King of kings such treason see Acted against Him, and the traitors be Acquitted? No: vengeance is His, and they That Him provoke shall know He will repay.

And of a truth provoked He hath been In a high manner by this daring sin Of usurpation, and of tyranny Over men's consciences, which should be free To serve the living G.o.d as He requires, And as His Holy Spirit them inspires.

For conscience is an inward thing, and none Can govern that aright but G.o.d alone.

Nor can a well-informed conscience lower Her sails to any temporary power, Or bow to men's decrees; for that would be Treason in a superlative degree; For G.o.d alone can laws to conscience give, And that's a badge of His prerogative.

This is the controversy of this day Between the holy G.o.d and sinful clay.

G.o.d hath throughout the earth proclaim'd that He Will over conscience hold the sovereignty, That He the kingdom to Himself will take, And in man's heart His residence will make, From whence His subjects shall such laws receive As please His Royal Majesty to give.

Man heeds not this, but most audaciously Says, "Unto me belongs supremacy; And all men's consciences within my land, Ought to be subject unto my command."

G.o.d by His Holy Spirit doth direct His people how to worship; and expect Obedience from them. Man says: "I ordain, That none shall worship in that way, on pain Of prison, confiscation, banishment, Or being to the stake or gallows sent.

G.o.d out of Babylon doth people call, Commands them to forsake her ways, and all Her several sorts of worship, to deny Her whole religion as idolatry.

Will man thus his usurped power forego, And lose his ill-got government? Oh no: But out comes his enacted, be it "That all Who when the organs play will not downfall Before this golden image, and adore What I have caused to be set up therefor, Into the fiery furnace shall be cast, And be consumed with a flaming blast.

Or in the mildest terms conform, or pay So much a month or so much every day, Which we will levy on you by distress, Sparing nor widow nor the fatherless; And if you have not what will satisfy, Ye're like in prison during life to lie."

Christ says, swear not; but man says, "Swear [or lie]

In prison, premunired, until you die."

Man's ways are, in a word, as opposite To G.o.d's as midnight darkness is to light; And yet fond man doth strive with might and main By penal laws G.o.d's people to constrain To worship what, when, where, how he thinks fit, And to whatever he enjoins, submit.

What will the issue of this contest be?

Which must give place--the Lord's or man's decree?

Will man be in the day of battle found Able to keep the field, maintain his ground, Against the mighty G.o.d? No more than can The lightest chaff before the winnowing fan; No more than straw could stand before the flame, Or smallest atoms when a whirlwind came.

The Lord, who in creation only said, "Let us make man," and forthwith man was made, Can in a moment by one blast of breath Strike all mankind with an eternal death.

How soon can G.o.d all man's devices squash, And with His iron rod in pieces dash Him, like a potter's vessel? None can stand Against the mighty power of His hand.

Be therefore wise, ye kings, instructed be, Ye rulers of the earth, and henceforth see Ye serve the Lord in fear, and stand in awe Of sinning any more against His law, His royal law of liberty: to do To others as you'd have them do to you.

Oh stoop, ye mighty monarchs, and let none Reject His government, but kiss the Son While's wrath is but a little kindled, lest His anger burn, and you that have transgressed His law so oft, and would not Him obey, Eternally should perish from the way - The way of G.o.d's salvation, where the just Are blessed who in the Lord do put their trust.

Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.

Happy's he Whom others' harms do wary make to be.

As the unreasonable rage and furious violence of the persecutors had drawn the former expostulation from me, so in a while after, my heart being deeply affected with a sense of the great loving- kindness and tender goodness of the Lord to his people, in bearing up their spirits in their greatest exercises, and preserving them through the sharpest trials in a faithful testimony to his blessed truth, and opening in due time a door of deliverance to them, I could not forbear to celebrate His praises in the following lines, under the t.i.tle of -

A SONG OF THE MERCIES AND DELIVERANCES OF THE LORD.

Had not the Lord been on our side, May Israel now say, We were not able to abide The trials of that day When men did up against us rise, With fury, rage, and spite, Hoping to catch us by surprise, Or run us down by might.

Then had not G.o.d for us arose, And shown His mighty power, We had been swallowed by our foes, Who waited to devour.

When the joint powers of death and h.e.l.l Against us did combine, And with united forces fell Upon us, with design To root us out, then had not G.o.d Appeared to take our part, And them chastized with His rod, And made them feel the smart, We then had overwhelmed been And trodden in the mire; Our enemies on us had seen Their cruel hearts' desire.

When stoned, when stocked, when rudely stripped, Some to the waist have been (Without regard of s.e.x), and whipped, Until the blood did spin; Yea, when their skins with stripes looked black, Their flesh to jelly beat, Enough to make their sinews crack, The lashes were so great; Then had not G.o.d been with them to Support them, they had died, His power it was that bore them through, Nothing could do't beside.

When into prisons we were thronged (Where pestilence was rife) By b.l.o.o.d.y-minded men that longed To take away our life; Then had not G.o.d been with us, we Had perished there no doubt 'Twas He preserved us there, and He It was that brought us out.

When sentenced to banishment Inhumanly we were, To be from native country sent, From all that men call dear; Then had not G.o.d been pleased t' appear, And take our cause in hand, And struck them with a panic fear, Which put them to a stand: Nay, had He not great judgments sent, And compa.s.sed them about, They were at that time fully bent To root us wholly out.

Had He not gone with them that went, The seas had been their graves Or when they came where they were sent, They had been sold for slaves.

But G.o.d was pleased still to give Them favour where they came, And in His truth they yet do live To praise His Holy Name.

And now afresh do men contrive Another wicked way Of our estates us to deprive, And take our goods away.

But will the Lord (who to this day Our part did always take) Now leave us to be made a prey, And that too for His sake?

Can any one who calls to mind Deliverances past, Discouraged be at what's behind, And murmur now at last?

Oh that no unbelieving heart Among us may be found, That from the Lord would now depart, And coward-like give ground.

For without doubt the G.o.d we serve Will still our cause defend, If we from Him do never swerve, But trust Him to the end.

What if our goods by violence From us be torn, and we Of all things but our innocence Should wholly stripped be?

Would this be more than did befall Good Job? Nay sure, much less: He lost estate, children and all, Yet he the Lord did bless.

But did not G.o.d his stock augment Double what 'twas before?

And this was writ to the intent That we should hope the more.

View but the lilies of the field, That neither knit nor spin, Who is it that to them doth yield The robes they are decked in Doth not the Lord the ravens feed, And for the sparrows care?

And will not He for His own seed All needful things prepare?

The lions shall sharp hunger bear, And pine for lack of food; But who the Lord do truly fear, Shall nothing want that's good.

Oh! which of us can now diffide That G.o.d will us defend, Who hath been always on our side, And will be to the end.

Spes confisa Deo nunquam confusa recedet.

Hope which on G.o.d is firmly grounded Will never fail, nor be confounded.

Scarce was the before-mentioned storm of outward persecution from the Government blown over when Satan raised another storm of another kind against us on this occasion. The foregoing storm of persecution, as it lasted long, so in many parts of the nation, and particularly at London, it fell very sharp and violent especially on the Quakers. For they having no refuge but G.o.d alone to fly unto, could not dodge and shift to avoid the suffering as others of other denominations could, and in their worldly wisdom and policy did, altering their meetings with respect both to place and time, and forbearing to meet when forbidden or kept out of their meeting- houses. So that of the several sorts of Dissenters the Quakers only held up a public testimony as a standard or ensign of religion, by keeping their meetings duly and fully at the accustomed times and places so long as they were suffered to enjoy the use of their meeting-houses, and when they were shut up and Friends kept out of them by force, they a.s.sembled in the streets as near to their meeting-houses as they could.

This bold and truly Christian behaviour in the Quakers disturbed and not a little displeased the persecutors, who, fretting, complained that the stubborn Quakers broke their strength and bore off the blow from those other Dissenters whom, as they most feared, so they princ.i.p.ally aimed at. For indeed the Quakers they rather despised than feared, as being a people from whose peaceable principles and practices they held themselves secure from danger; whereas having suffered severely, and that lately too, by and under the other Dissenters, they thought they had just cause to be apprehensive of danger from them, and good reason to suppress them.

On the other hand, the more ingenuous amongst other Dissenters of each denomination, sensible of the ease they enjoyed by our bold and steady suffering, which abated the heat of the persecutors and blunted the edge of the sword before it came to them, frankly acknowledged the benefit received; calling us the bulwark that kept off the force of the stroke from them, and praying that we might be preserved and enabled to break the strength of the enemy, nor could some of them forbear, those especially who were called Baptists, to express their kind and favourable opinion of us, and of the principles we professed, which emboldened us to go through that which but to hear of was a terror to them.

This their good-will raised ill-will in some of their teachers against us, who though willing to reap the advantage of a shelter, by a retreat behind us during the time that the storm lasted, yet partly through an evil emulation, partly through fear lest they should lose some of those members of their society who had discovered such favourable thoughts of our principles and us, they set themselves as soon as the storm was over to represent us in as ugly a dress and in as frightful figure to the world as they could invent and put upon us.

In order whereunto, one Thomas Hicks, a preacher among the Baptists at London, took upon him to write several pamphlets successively under the t.i.tle of "A Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker,"

which were so craftily contrived that the unwary reader might conclude them to be not merely fictions, but real discourses actually held between one of the people called a Quaker and some other person. In these feigned dialogues, Hicks, having no regard to justice or common honesty, had made his counterfeit Quaker say whatsoever he thought would render him one while sufficiently erroneous, another while ridiculous enough, forging in the Quaker's name some things so abominably false, other things so intolerably foolish, as could not reasonably be supposed to have come into the conceit, much less to have dropped from the lip or pen of any that went under the name of a Quaker.

These dialogues, shall I call them, or rather diabologues, were answered by our friend William Penn in two books; the first being ent.i.tled "Reason against Railing," the other "The Counterfeit Christian Detected;" in which Hicks being charged with manifest as well as manifold forgeries, perversions, downright lies, and slanders against the people called Quakers in general, William Penn, George Whitehead, and divers others by name, complaint was made, by way of an appeal, to the Baptists in and about London for justice against Thomas Hicks.

Those Baptists, who it seems were in the plot with Hicks to defame at any rate, right or wrong, the people called Quakers, taking advantage of the absence of William Penn and George Whitehead, who were the persons most immediately concerned, and who were then gone a long journey on the service of truth, to be absent from the city, in all probability, for a considerable time, appointed a public meeting in one of their meeting-houses, under pretence of calling Thomas Hicks to account and hearing the charge made good against him, but with design to give the greater stroke to the Quakers, when they, who should make good the charge against Hicks, could not be present. For upon their sending notice to the lodgings of William Penn and George Whitehead of their intended meeting, they were told by several Friends that both William Penn and George Whitehead were from home, travelling in the countries, uncertain where, and therefore could not be informed of their intended meeting, either by letter or express, within the time by them limited, for which reason they were desired to defer the meeting till they could have notice of it and time to return, that they might be at it. But these Baptists, whose design was otherwise laid, would not be prevailed with to defer their meeting, but, glad of the advantage, gave their brother Hicks opportunity to make a colourable defence where he had his party to help him and none to oppose him; and having made a mock show of examining him and his works of darkness, they, in fine, having heard one side, acquitted him.

This gave just occasion for a new complaint and demand of justice against him and them. For as soon as William Penn returned to London, he in print exhibited his complaint of this unfair dealing, and demanded justice by a rehearing of the matter in a public meeting to be appointed by joint agreement. This went hardly down with the Baptists, nor could it be obtained from them without great importunity and hard pressing. At length, after many delays and tricks used to shift it off, constrained by necessity, they yielded to have a meeting at their own meeting-house in Barbican, London.

There, amongst other Friends, was I, and undertook to read our charge there against Thomas Hicks, which not without much difficulty I did; they, inasmuch as the house was theirs, putting all the inconveniences they could upon us.

The particular pa.s.sages and management of this meeting, as also of that other which followed soon after, they refusing to give us any other public meeting, we were fain to appoint in our own meeting- house, by Wheeler Street, near Spitalfields, London, and gave them timely notice of, I forbear here to mention; there being in print a narrative of each, to which for particular information I refer the reader.

But to this meeting Thomas Hicks would not come, but lodged himself at an alehouse hard by; yet sent his brother Ives, with some others of the party, by clamorous noises to divert us from the prosecution of our charge against him; which they so effectually performed that they would not suffer the charge to be heard, though often attempted to be read.

As this rude behaviour of theirs was a cause of grief to me, so afterwards, when I understood that they used all evasive tricks to avoid another meeting with us, and refused to do us right, my spirit was greatly stirred at their injustice, and in the sense thereof, willing, if possible, to have provoked them to more fair and manly dealing. I let fly a broadside at them, in a single sheet of paper, under the t.i.tle of "A Fresh Pursuit"; in which, having restated the controversy between them and us, and reinforced our charge of forgery, &c., against Thomas Hicks and his abettors, I offered a fair challenge to them, not only to Thomas Hicks himself, but to all those his compurgators who had before undertaken to acquit him from our charge, together with their companion Jeremy Ives, to give me a fair and public meeting, in which I would make good our charge against him as princ.i.p.al, and all the rest of them as accessories.

But nothing could provoke them to come fairly forth.

Yet not long after, finding themselves galled by the narrative lately published of what had pa.s.sed in the last meeting near Wheeler Street, they, to help themselves if they could, sent forth a counter-account of that meeting and of the former at Barbican, as much to the advantage of their own cause as they upon deliberate consideration could contrive it. This was published by Thomas Plant, a Baptist teacher, and one of Thomas Hicks' former compurgators, and bore (but falsely) the t.i.tle of "A Contest for Christianity; or, a Faithful Relation of two late Meetings," &c.

To this I quickly wrote and published an answer; and because I saw the design and whole drift of the Baptists was to shroud Thomas Hicks from our charge of forgery under the specious pretence of his and their standing up and contending for Christianity, I gave my book this general t.i.tle: "Forgery no Christianity; or, a Brief Examen of a late Book," &c. And having from their own book plainly convicted that which they called a "faithful relation" to be indeed a false relation, I, in an expostulatory postscript to the Baptists, reinforced our charge and my former challenge, offering to make it good against them before a public and free auditory. But they were too wary to appear further, either in person or in print.

This was the end of that controversy, which was observed to have this issue: that what those dialogues were written to prevent was by the dialogues, and their unfair, unmanly, unchristian carriage, in endeavouring to defend them, hastened and brought to pa.s.s; for not a few of the Baptists' members upon this occasion left their meetings and society, and came over to the Quakers' meetings and were joined in fellowship with them; thanks be to G.o.d.

The controversy which had been raised by those cavilling Baptists had not been long ended before another was raised by an Episcopal priest in Lincolnshire, who fearing, as it seemed, to lose some of his hearers to the Quakers, wrote a book which he miscalled, "A Friendly Conference between a Minister and a Parishioner of his inclining to Quakerism," in which he misstated and greatly perverted the Quakers' principles, that he might thereby beget in his parishioners an aversion to them; and that he might abuse us the more securely, he concealed himself, sending forth his book without a name.