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our fears, if not by totally suppressing, yet at least by preventing their after growth and increase amongst us: that our posterity may untroubled live, by this early care of our laws and liberties, and we enjoy the wished for happiness of a peaceful life.

tendency thereof; it being self-evident to pro- our country, do humbly pray your timely ceed from a spirit of persecution and invidious consideration of our jealousies, and remove prejudice, and is full of old, bitter, refuted calumnies, always made a cloak and excuse for persecution, against the most sincere professors of Christianity and religious reformers. I need say the less to it now, since it was so illy resented by the most sensible and judicious representatives of the House of Commons, that it was not suffered to come to life or I need not make any larger remark on this birth in that house. And the same calumnies petition, than on that from Norfolk, it being a and unjust insinuations and charges contained plain indication of the like envious and perin the said petition, being maliciously cast secuting spirit. The old popish clamour of upon the Quakers, in divers books and pam- heresies and heretics, &c., against the consciphlets of Francis Bugg, and the three Nor-entious reformers and Protestant martyrs, folk priests before mentioned, were fully being always such brands of infamy as were answered, detected and refuted, by me and designed to introduce persecutions, to suppress some other friends; and particularly the said petition out of Norfolk, and another petition of the same kind from Bury in Suffolk, in a reply on behalf of the people called Quakers, to two petitions against them, the one out of Norfolk, the other from Bury in Suffolk, printed 1699, being some brief observations made on those petitions, and humbly tendered to the consideration of the House of Commons, to whom those petitions were directed. And that it may further appear what a malicious spirit was then at work to raise a new persecution against us, after our liberty was legally granted; I think meet to add a copy of the said petition from Bury, which is as followeth :

and destroy the most conscientious and sincere Christians: such clamorous defamations were bruited abroad by the persecuting, popish hierarchy, against the reformed Protestants and Protestant martyrs of old, to excuse their cruelties against them.

Although these aldermen of Bury, were wheedled or seduced to patronize such a foul and invidious petition against the people called Quakers, I do not believe that they could prove any one of their divers charges from their own knowledge, if they were asked one by one, upon the particular matters of fact, as they stand charged against the people. called Quakers; neither can we think they are so frighted with the Quakers, or so afraid of them as they would seem to be. To the honourable the Commons of England, One would think they should have had better in Parliament assembled; the humble petition knowledge of the innocency of their neighof the aldermen, assistant justice, and chief bours by the time of their petition, than to burgess and burgesses of the common coun- render them so odious, so formidable, yea, cil, in behalf of themselves and the other in-seditious and obnoxious as their said petition habitants of the borough of Bury St. Edmonds, very unjustly represented them. in Suffolk.

Humbly showeth,

That we considering all ancient heresies, which have vexed both church and state, were never so formidable in their rise and progress, as are the Quakers; we have too just a cause of dreading the subversion of our government by them, if not carefully prevented and suppressed, being in their clandestine constitutions, opposite to the condition of our established policy, and in their principles of faith, anti-Christian; of government, antimonarchial; in points of doctrine, anti-scriptural; and in practices, illegal; having their weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings, which we cannot but reasonably believe, tend not only to the subversion of our laws, but of our religion also, to us of greater concern than our lives.

We therefore, obliged in duty to God and

However, one good turn was observable, that the Suffolk representatives showed more moderation and prudence, than either to solicit for, or promote the said Bury petition in Parliament; they showed more discretion therein, by dropping it, than the aldermen or common council of Bury did, in patronizing or countenancing such a bitter, invidious attempt.

I remember divers of the Suffolk members of Parliament were against the Norfolk petition, and expressed their dislike of such persecuting dispositions, which were so repugnant and contradictory to the toleration and religi ous liberty of conscience, granted and settled by the king and government.

Before we could get our answers to the three Norfolk priests' books, prepared and printed for the Parliament, it was thought meet the following short paper should be delivered in print, in order to moderate the spirits of those whom they endeavoured to

prepossess with prejudice against us and our Christian principles.

The endorsed title on the outside of our said paper was,

"The Quakers' modest observation upon the three Norfolk clergymen's and Francis Bugg's books."

The title on the inside.

"The three Norfolk clergymen's brief discovery, &c.; presented by them to the king and Parliament against the people called Quakers, modestly observed to our superiors."

It does not surprise us to be evilly entreated, and especially by those that have an interest in doing it.

But if conscience prevailed more than contention, and charity overruled prejudice, we might hope for fairer quarter from our adver

saries.

But such is our unhappiness, that nothing less will satisfy them, than breaking in upon the indulgence that we enjoy, if they could persuade the government to second their attempts to a new persecution.

In order to which, we perceive they have been hard at work to pervert our books, violate our sense, abuse our practice, and ridicule our persons; knowing very well with whom they have to do, and that the patience of our profession, is their security in abusing of it.

However, if it has weight enough with our superiors to expect a fresh defence of our principles and practices, we shall, with God's assistance, be ready for their satisfaction, once more to justify both, against the insults of our restless adversaries; who otherwise, we take leave to say, would not deserve our notice since we have already repeatedly answered their objections in print, and think it our duty, as well as wisdom, to use the liberty the government has favoured us with, in as peaceable and inoffensive manner as may be.

plea for their pretended divine right to them, under the new covenant dispensation; nor yet for ministers to force maintenance, wages or hire from their hearers; both being contrary to the new covenant dispensation and ministry, and repugnant to Christ's express commission and precept, and to his ministers' practice. Tithes as well as offerings or oblations were abolished and ended by Jesus Christ.

Their flying to human and popish laws for their claim to tithes, is but a weak shift and mean subterfuge, and a giving away the cause, viz: of their pretended spirituality and priesthood, on which their claim of divine right is grounded, and consequently thereby they unpriest themselves; Christ having put an end to both the priesthood, old covenant and law, which did enjoin the payment of tithes to the Levitical priesthood. Wherefore the priests' said claim now is to set up human authority and laws above Christ Jesus' divine authority, and law of the new covenant; which appears not only repugnant to his crown and dignity, who is Lord of lords, and King of kings, but also inconsistent with the true Christian profession, whereof Jesus Christ is our great High Priest and Apostle; to whom be glory and dominion for ever.

THE CONCLUSION.

Manifold exercises, trials, and tribulations hath the Lord my God supported me under and carried me through, in my pilgrimage, for his name and truth's sake, more than could possibly be related in this history; having spent a long time, even the greatest part of my life, from my youth upward, in the testimony, service and vindication of the liv. ing, unchangeable truth, as it is in Christ Jesus, my Lord; for whom I have suffered many things, both in body and spirit, as also by reproaches and calumnies, and sincerely laboured in his love, who has supported me, and hitherto helped me in the gospel of the grace of God, and of his dear Son Jesus Christ, even the gospel of life, salvation and The priests in our days have made a great peace, to them who truly believe: and yet I noise for tithes and offerings, &c., and the esteem not all my sufferings and afflictions envy and persecution of many of them, worthy to be compared to the glory set before against us, is chiefly for refusing to pay theme. For all which, I must ascribe blessing, same, which is purely for conscience sake to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

GEORGE WHITEHEAD,
JOHN VAUGHTON,
JOHN FIDDEMAN,
HENRY GOULDNEY,

WILLIAM PENN,
JOHN FIELD,
JOHN BELLERS,
JOSEPH WYETH.

As to the priests' claim of tithes, oblations and obventions, we find no warrant in holy Scripture, that Christ's gospel ministers ever made such claim or demand, but the contrary. I have had many discourses with bishops and others of the clergy, and I never met with any of them that could maintain their

honour, glory, power, and dominion to the Lord God, and the Lamb upon his throne, for ever and ever.

And when, by the grace and assistance of my heavenly Father, I have finished the work he hath given me to do; I firmly believe and livingly hope in the Lord, I shall die in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ever live with and rest in him, in his heavenly kingdom. O my

soul! enter thou into thy rest, even thy eternal rest, from thy manifold labours, travails and sufferings; for the Lord thy God hath dealt bountifully with thee: glory to his excellent name for evermore.

GEORGE WHITEHEAD.

Concluded, London, the 18th of the Sixth month, 1711.

A SUPPLEMENT TO THE PRECEDING
HISTORY.

The author has closed the foregoing account of his Christian travails about the seventy-fifth year of his age, at which he probably expected the period of his life and labours; but it pleased God to prolong both, leading his outward man, by an easy and gradual declension to its natural dissolution, and enabling him, by preserving his intellects, to employ even the last remains of his bodily

strength, in the same kind of religious services, which he had been from his youth habituated to. We have therefore thought proper to attend him to the end of his pilgrimage, by subjoining such occurrences in his latter years

as have come to our hands.

his friends, got access, and were introduced by one of the prince's gentlemen, into a chamber, where the prince met them; and then George Whitehead spoke to him, the substance of which speech was as follows;

"We take it as a favour that we are thus admitted to see the prince of Wales, and are truly very glad to see thee. Having delivered our address to the king thy royal father, and being desirous to give thyself a visit, in true love, we very heartily wish health and happiness to you both; and that if it should please God thou shouldst survive thy father and come to the throne, thou mayest enjoy tranquillity and peace.

"I am persuaded, that if the king, thy father, and thyself, do stand for toleration, for liberty of conscience to be kept inviolable, God will stand by you.

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May king Solomon's choice of wisdom

be thy choice, with holy Job's integrity and compassion to the oppressed; and the state of the righteous ruler commended by king David, viz: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth,

On the 3rd day of the eighth month, Octo-even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear ber, 1714, the people called Quakers present- shining after rain." This speech was favoured a congratulatory address to king George, upon his accession to the crown, which being ably heard by the prince. read to and graciously accepted by the king, George Whitehead made a speech to this effect;

In the year 1715, after the breaking out of that unnatural rebellion, which was suppressed by the king's forces at Preston, George Whitehead, accompanied by his friend John Butcher, having obtained an admission to the king's presence, presented to him a paper, a copy of which, found among the author's manuscripts, since his decease, we here insert.

bly presented.

«Thou art welcome to us, king George. We heartily wish thee health and happiness, and thy son the prince also. King William the third was a happy instrument in putting a stop to persecution, by promoting toleration, which being intended for uniting the king's Protestant subjects, in interest and affection, A few words in true love to king George, humit hath so far that effect, as to make them more kind to one another, even among the Seeing our most gracious God hath been differing persuasions, than they were when pleased, by his overruling power and provipersecution was on foot. We desire the king dence, to give thee a free and peaceable accesmay have further knowledge of us and our sion to the throne of these kingdoms; O let thy innocency; and that to live a peaceable trust and confidence be in the same divine Powquiet life, in all godliness and honesty, is ac-er, and thy eye to that light and grace thereby cording to our principle and practice."

and

George Whitehead having thus spoken, his name was asked; whereupon he answered, George Whitehead. And having it upon his mind to see the prince also, and intimating his desire to a lord who was gentleman to the prince's bed-chamber, he made way for it: and thus George Whitehead, with some of

*Sewel's History of the Quakers, p. 711.

given thee, and the Lord will, no doubt, confound thy foes, and disperse and expel that dark cloud and spirit of rebellion that is risen up against thee and thy lawful government, constituted for the defence and support of our just liberties and properties, religious and civil, against popery and slavery.

Thy Christian principle for liberty to tender consciences being maintained and stood by, against persecution, the pillar of popery, the Lord will stand by and defend thee and

thy royal offspring; for surely mercy and truth do preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy. Remember what the Spirit of the Lord spake by king David in his last words; He that ruleth over men, must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light of the morning, even a morning without clouds.

"The Lord, the God of hosts be thy defence, thy guide and counsellor, and replenish thy heart with his wisdom, whereby kings reign and princes decree justice; for in that wisdom, true dominion stands.

of reasoning, no less admirable than the unspotted integrity of his grey hairs was hon. ourable.

He wrote in the latter part of his time, several small treatises, particularly one in the eighty-sixth year of his age, entitled, An Epistle to our Christian Friends, called Quakers, &c., which being already in print, we refer thereto.

Sustained by the consciousness of a well led life, he passed the last infirmities of age with Christian patience and resignation, and, on the 8th day of the month called March, 1722-3, died the best of deaths; for as Cicero, in the person of Cato the elder, excellent

"That thou, O king, mayest be a blessing in the hand of the Lord, to these nations, and enjoy a safe, a peaceable and prosperously expresses it; "The best end of a man's reign in this life, and a crown of righteousness in that to come, is the hearty prayer of an ancient servant of Jesus Christ, and a truly loving and faithful subject.

"GEORGE WHITEHEAD.

"London, the 25th of the Eighth month, called October, 1715."

In the month called May, 1716, the people called Quakers, at their yearly meeting in London, drew up an address, and presented it to the king, testifying their loyalty, and expressing their sense of the signal providence of God in confounding the late black conspiracy; at the presenting of which address, George Whitehead made a previous speech to the king, signifying,

"That in their annual assembly, held for the religious concerns of their Society, endeavouring to promote and put in practice the duties of religion professed by them, the sense of the great deliverance had such a weight upon their minds, that they were willing to express it in an address to king George, whom God by his providence had brought hither, and preserved, so that he could well say, he was George, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, &c. And that as men carried that saying stamped on the money in their pockets, so it was to be wished it might be imprinted in the hearts of the subjects."

life is, when the understanding and other senses remaining entire, nature takes in pieces her own work, which she herself did put together." And again, "Whatsoever is according to nature, is to be accounted good; and, what is more natural than for old men to die; a thing, which happens also to young men, notwithstanding nature's opposition and reluctancy. Young men therefore, seem to me to die, like as a fierce flame is quenched by abundance of water; but old men, as when a fire being spent, goes out of its own accord, without compulsion: and as apples, while green, are plucked from the trees by force, but, when ripe, fall of themselves; so violence bereaves young men of life, maturity the aged: which indeed to me is so delightful, that as I approach nearer to death, methinks I see the land, and after a tedious voyage am at last making to my port."

We shall conclude with the character given him after his decease, in two testimonies, the one written by Richard Claridge, his intimate friend and acquaintance, who survived him but a few weeks; the other by the friends of the monthly meeting at Devonshire house, London, in whose neighbourhood he had been an inhabitant many years.

RICHARD CLARIDGE's Testimony concerning GEORGE WHITEHEAD.

"George Whitehead was one whom the Lord had highly dignified in his day, calling him about the sixteenth year of his age, to the acknowledgment of the blessed truth, and about the eighteenth, to bear a public tes timony to it, in which testimony the Lord preserved him faithful until the end of his day, which was on the 8th of the first month, called March, 1722, being about eighty-seven years of age.

Although now above eighty years of age, and feeble in body, he nevertheless continued to bear his testimony in the public assemblies, to the virtue and excellency of that divine grace, which had supported him from his youth upward, imparting in most sensible expressions, such choice fruits of his own experiences, that an attentive hearer could not depart unedified. And even in meetings about The Lord had bestowed on him such a church affairs, where sometimes diversity of measure of his divine gifts of faith, wisdom, sentiments may arise, he would express his judgment, understanding, self denial, patience, thoughts with a convincing force and solidity | love, meekness, utterance, and other graces

of the spirit, that he was an instrument in his hand to open the blind eyes, and turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

And as it pleased the Lord to make him an able minister of the New Testament, so his speech and his preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God; 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5.; so that when he spake, he spake as the oracles of God; and when he ministered, he did it as of the ability which God giveth; 1 Pet. iv. 11.

He was not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, spake he in Christ; 2 Cor. ii. 17.

His ministry was a sound and living ministry, and many yet living have a testimony thereunto in their hearts and consciences.

He was an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, and fervent in the spirit; Acts xviii. 24, 25.

A good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord; Acts xi. 24.

He was an elder, whom the Lord had anointed unto the spiritual and evangelical ministry, raised up among many others, near the first breaking forth of this gospel day, after a long night of apostacy, which had overspread this and other nations with gross darkness, in matters relating to Christianity.

And though bonds and afflictions attended him, yet none of these things moved him, neither counted he his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish his course with joy and the ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God; Acts xx. 23, 24.

For having this ministry, as he had received mercy, he fainted not; but renounced the hidden things of dishonesty; not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God; 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2.

The Testimony of Devonshire house monthly meeting. A short account and testimony concerning our dear and worthy friend, GEORGE

WHITEHEAD.

Our ancient worthy friends, who in the morning of this gospel day, were about the same time sent forth to declare the truth, with this our deceased friend, are now most of them gone to their rest; yet the generality of friends of middle age may have had a long VOL. VIII. No. 12.

knowledge of him, and of his gravity, wisdom and abilities, beyond many in the church of Christ; but for the sake of the younger friends, that have not had that knowledge, and for the encouragement of those in faithfulness, that are, or may be convinced of the blessed truth, or receive a gift of the ministry, we of the monthly meeting of Devonshire house, of which he was a very eminent member, about the space of fifty years, esteem ourselves engaged to give in this our short account and testimony concerning him.

We find he was born at Sun-bigg, in the parish of Orton, in the county of Westmoreland, about the year 1636, of honest parents, who gave him an education in grammar learning.

At or about the seventeenth year of his age, when some friends, by the mighty power of God, were gathered to be a people, the Lord was pleased to visit him, and by the testimony of truth, he was reached unto and convinced of the necessity of an inward and spiritual work to be known and wrought upon the souls of men; and of the emptiness and insufficiency of outward show and formality, out of the life and power. In the year 1654, and the eighteenth year of his age, the Lord sent him forth to preach the everlasting gospel in life and power; and having passed through York, Lincoln and Cambridge, he had some service in his journey, and travelling on foot, came a youth into Norfolk and Suffolk, where he visited some few meetings of friends, and steeple-houses, and meetings of sober professors; at one of which, near a whole meeting was convinced, by the mighty power of God, through his lively and piercing testimony and prayer.

He continued some months in Norfolk and about Norwich, where having meetings, he preached the everlasting gospel, and thereby turned many from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan, unto God and his power; that people might not continue in empty forms and shadows, but come to the life and substance of true religion; and to know Christ their true Teacher and Leader: and great was his service, labour and travel in those counties, whereby many were reached unto, convinced of, and established in the blessed truth; and some raised up to bear a But he suffered public testimony thereunto. great opposition, hardships, long and sore imprisonments, and severe whipping, for his tes timony to the truth, in those his tender years, although few now remain who were living witnesses thereof; yet by a journal of his own writing, which we desire may be printed, the same will more largely appear; and the perusal of which, we hope, may be edifying

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