tender, like as if they had been in a meeting. Soon after I was brought in again, and the jury found the bill against me, which I traversed; and then I asked to put in bail till the next sessions, and the jailer's son offered to be bound for me but I stopped him, and warned friends not to meddle, for I told them, there was a snare in that yet I told the justices that I could promise to appear, if the Lord gave health and strength, and I were at liberty. Some of the justices were loving, and would have stopped the rest from indicting me or putting the oath to me; but judge Street, who was the chairman, said he must go according to law. So I was sent back to prison again, yet within two hours after, through the moderation of some of the justices, I had liberty given me to go at large till next quarter-sessions. These moderate justices (it was said) desired justice Parker to write to the king for my liberty, or for a noli prosequi (as they called it), because they were satisfied I was not such a dangerous person as I had been represented and this (it was said) he promised them to do, but did it not.

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After I had gotten a copy of the indictment against me, 1 went up to London, visiting friends as I went. And when I came there, some that were earnest to get me out of the hands of those envious justices, that sought to premunire me at Worcester, would needs be tampering again, to bring me before the judges of the king's-bench; whereupon was brought again by an habeas corpus before them. And I tendered them a paper, in which was contained what I could say instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, as followeth :

This I do in the truth, and in the presence of God declare, that king Charles the Second is lawful king of this realm, and of all other his dominions; and that he was brought in, and set up king over this realm by the power of God and I have nothing but love and good will to him and all his subjects, and desire his prosperity and eternal good. And I utterly abhor and deny the pope's power and supremacy, and all his superstitions and 'idolatrous inventions and do affirm, that he hath no power to absolve sin: and I do abhor and detest his murdering of princes or other people, by plots or contrivances. And likewise I do deny all plots and contrivances, and plotters and contrivers against the king and his subjects; knowing them to be the works of darkness, and the fruits of an evil spirit, and against the peace of the kingdom, and not from the Spirit of God, the fruit of which is love. I dare not take an oath,

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because it is forbidden by Christ and the apostle; but if I break my yea or nay, then let me suffer the same penalty as they that break their oaths.'

GEORGE FOx.

But the business being so far proceeded in at Worcester, they would not meddle in it, but left me as I was, to appear before the justices, at the next general quarter sessions at Worcester.

Meanwhile the yearly meeting of friends came on, at which (through the liberty granted me till the sessions) I was present, and exceeding glorious the meetings were beyond expression; blessed be the Lord.

After the yearly meeting was over, and friends out of the countries were pretty generally returned home, I set forward again for Worcester; the sessions drawing on, which were held in the fifth month. And when I was called to the bar, and the indictment read, some scruple arising among the jury concerning it, the judge of the court, who was justice Street, caused the oaths to be read and tendered to me again. I told him, I came now to try the traverse of my indictment, and that his tendering me the oaths a new, was a new snare. Then I desired him to answer me a question or two; and I asked him, whether the oaths were to be tendered to the king's subjects, or to the subjects of foreign princes? He said, to the subjects of this realm. Then said I, you have not named me a subject in the indictment, and therefore have not brought me within the statute. The judge cried, read the oath to him I said, I require justice. Again I asked him, whether the sessions ought not to have been holden for the king, and the body of the county? He said, yes. Then said I, you have there left the king out of the indictment; how then can you proceed upon this indictment to a trial between the king and me, seeing the king is left out? He said, the king was in before. But I told him, the king's (name) being left out, here was a great error in the indictment, and sufficient (as I was informed) to quash it. Besides I told him, that I was committed by the name of George Fox of London; but now I was indicted by the name of George Fox of Tredington in the county of Worcester and I wished the jury to consider, how they could find me guilty upon that indictment, seeing I was not of the place in the indictment mentioned? The judge did not deny, but there were errors in the indictment; but said, I might take my remedy in the proper place. I anwered, ye know we are a people that suffer all things, and

bear all things; and therefore ye thus use us, because we cannot revenge ourselves; but we leave our cause to the Lord. The judge said, the oath hath been tendered to you several times, and we will have some satisfaction from you concerning the oath. I offered them the same declaration instead of the oath, which I had offered to the judges above; hut it would not be accepted. Then I desired to know, seeing they put the oath a new to me, whether the indictment was quashed or no? Instead of answering me, the judge told the jury they might go out. Some of the jury were not satisfied; whereupon the judge told them, they had heard a man swear that the oath was tendered to me the last sessions; and then he told them what they should do. I told him, he should leave the jury to their own consciences. However the jury, being put on by him, went forth, and soon after came in again, and found me guilty. I spake to the jury, and asked them, how they could satisfy themselves to find me guilty upon that indictment, which was laid so false, and had so many errors in it? They could make but little answer, yet one, who seemed to be the worst of them, would have taken me by the hand; but I put him by, saying, how now Judas, hast thou betrayed me, and dost thou now come with a kiss? So I bid him and them repent. Then the judge began to tell me, how favourable the court had been to me. I asked him, how he could say so? Was ever any man worse dealt with, than I had been in this case, who was stopped in my journey, being travelling upon my lawful occasions, and then imprisoned without cause, and now had the oaths put to me only for a snare? And I desired him to answer me in the presence of the Lord, in whose presence we all are, whether this oath was not tendered me in envy? He would not answer that, but said, would you had never come here to trouble us and the country. I told him, I came not thither of myself, but was brought, being stopped in my travel on my journey, and I did not trouble them, but they had brought trouble upon themselves. Then the judge told me, what a sad sentence he had to tell me. I asked him, whether what he was going to speak was by way of passing sentence, or by way of information? For, I told him, I had many things to say, and more errors to assign in the indictment (besides those I had already mentioned) to stop him from giving sentence against me upon that indictment. He said, he was going to shew me the danger of a premunire, which was the loss of my liberty, and of all my goods and chattels, and to endure imprisonment during life. But he said, he did not

deliver this as the sentence of the court upon me, but as an admonition to me; and then he bid the jailer take me away. I expected to have been called again to hear the sentence; but when I was gone, the clerk of the peace (whose name was Twittey) asked him, (as I was informed) whether that which he had spoken to me, should stand for sentence? And he, consulting with some of the justices, told him yes, that was the sentence, and should stand. This was done behind my back, to save himself from shame in the face of the country. Many of the justices, and the generality of the people were moderate and civil; and there was one John Ashley, a lawyer, was very friendly both the time before and now, speaking on my behalf, and pleading the errors of the indictment for me; but justice Street, who was judge of the court, would not regard, but over-ruled all. This justice Street said to some friends in the morning before my trial, that if he had been upon the bench the first sessions, he would not have tendered me the oath; but if I had been convicted of being at a conventicle, he would have proceeded against me according to that law; and that he was sorry that ever I came before him; and yet he maliciously tendered the oath to me in the court again, when I was to have tried my traverse upon the indictment. But the Lord pleaded my cause, and met with both him and justice Simpson, who first ensnared me with the oath at the first sessions; for Simpson's son was arraigned not long after, at the same bar, for murder. And Street, who, as he came down from London, (after the judges had returned me back from the King's Bench to Worcester,) said, now I was returned to them, I should lie in prison and rot, had his daughter (whom he so doted on, that she was called his idol) brought down dead from London in an hearse, to the same inn where he spake those words, and brought to Worcester to be buried within a few days after. And people took notice of the hand of God, how sudden it was upon him; but it rather hardened than tendered him, as his carriage afterwards shewed.

After I was carried back to prison, several came to see me, and amongst others the earl of Salisbury's son, who was very loving, and troubled that they had dealt so badly by me. He staid about two hours with me, and took a copy of the errors in the indictment himself in writing.

The sessions being now over, and I fixed in prison by a premunire, my wife came up to me out of the north to be with me; and the assizes coming on soon after, in the sixth month, the state of my case being drawn up in writ

ing, she and Thomas Lower delivered it to judge Wild. In it was set forth the occasion of my journey; the manner of my being taken and imprisoned; the proceedings of the several sessions against me; and the errors in the indict ment by which I was premunired: which having had occasion to mention often before, I forbear to repeat here. When the judge had read it, he shook his head and said, we might try the validity or invalidity of the errors, if we would; and that was all they could get from him.

While thus I lay in prison, it came upon me to state our principle to the king, not with particular relation to my own sufferings, but for his better information concerning our principle, and us as a people. It was thus, and thus

directed t

To the King.

The principle of the quakers is the Spirit of Christ, who died for us, and is risen for our justification; by which we know we are his, and he dwelleth in us by his Spirit; and by the Spirit of Christ we are led out of unrighteousness and ungodliness. It brings us to deny all plottings and contrivings against the king or any man; and the Spirit of Christ brings us to deny all manner of ungodliness, as lying, theft, murder, adultery, fornication and all uncleanness and debauchery, malice and hatred, deceit, cousining and cheating whatsoever, and the devil and his works. And the Spirit of Christ brings us to seek the peace and good of all men, and to live peaceably; and leads us from such evil works and actions as the magistrates' sword takes hold upon. And our desire and labour is, that all, who profess themselves Christians, may walk in the Spirit of Christ; that they, through the Spirit, may mortify the deeds of the flesh, and by the sword of the Spirit may cut down sin and evil in themselves. Then the judges and other magistrates would not have so much work in punishing sin in the kingdom; neither then need kings or princes fear any of their subjects, if they all wased in the Spirit of Christ; for the fruits of the Spirit are love, righteousness, goodness, temperance, &c. And if that profess themselves Christians, did walk in the Saint of Christ, and by it did mortify sin and evil, it wont be a great ease to the magistrates and rulers, and woud free them from a great deal of trouble: the it would end a l men and women to do unto all others, as tien von at have others do unto them; and so the vai aw at Loery would be fulfilled. For if all, that are salet Cirscans.