In this year David Barclay died at Ury in Scotland. Before his departure he uttered many excellent expressions indeed. I may not omit to mention some particulars. In the latter end of September, being past the 76th year of his age, he was taken with a fever, which continued two weeks; and being much troubled with the gravel, his sickness was accompanied with pain in making water. Two days before his death, feeling his weakness, and being in an agony, he said to his son Robert, who was with him, ‘I shall now go to the Lord, and be gathered to many of my brethren who are gone before me.’ On the 11th of October, very early in the morning, he growing weaker, the said Robert Barclay signified to him, that his travail was, that He that loved him might be near him to the end. To which he answered, ‘The Lord is nigh;’ and said further to those about him, ‘Ye are my witnesses in the presence of God, that the Lord is nigh.’ And a little after he said, ‘The perfect discovery of the day-spring from on high, how great a blessing it hath been to me and my family!’ Robert Barclay’s wife asking if he would have something to refresh him, he said it needed not; and laying his hand upon his breast, he said, ‘he had that inwardly that refreshed him.’ A little while after, he was heard several times to say, ‘The truth is over all:’ and taking his eldest son to him, he blessed him, and said, ‘he prayed God he might never depart from the truth.’ Then his son’s eldest daughter coming near, he said, ‘Is this Patience?’ (for that was her name,) ‘Let patience have its perfect work in thee.’ And after kissing the other four of his son’s children, he laid his hands upon them, and blessed them. His apothecary that attended him coming also near, he took him by the hand, and said, ‘Thou wilt hear me witness, that in all this exercise I have not been curious to tamper nor to pamper the flesh.’ To which the apothecary said, ‘Sir, I can hear witness that you have always minded the better and more substantial part; and I rejoice to see the blessed end the Lord is bringing you to.’ To this the sick man replied, ‘Bear a faithful and true witness: yet it is the life of righteousness, the life of righteousness it is, that we bear testimony to, and not to an empty profession.’ Then he called several times, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come, come!’ And said also, ‘My hope is in the Lord.’ Afterwards he slept now and then for some hours; and seeing a carpenter coming into the room, he said to his son, ‘See thou charge him to make no manner of superfluity upon the coffin.’ In the afternoon several of his friends came to see him, which he having observed, said they were come in a seasonable time: and after some words were spoken, and that Patrick Livingston had prayed, which ended in praises, the sick old man held up his hands, and said, ‘Amen, amen, for ever!’ And after those that were present stood up, he said, ‘How precious is the love of God among his children, and their love to one another! thereby shall all men know that ye are Christ’s disciples, if ye love one another. How precious a thing it is to see brethren dwell together in love! my love is with you; I leave it among you.’ Several of his friends, pretty late at night, standing about the bed, and perceiving some of them to weep, he said, ‘Dear friends, all mind the inward man, heed not the outward. There is one that doth reward, the Lord of Hosts is his name.’ Next morning, after he had heard the clock strike three, he said, ‘Now the time comes.’ And a little after he was heard to say, ‘Praises, praises, praises to the Lord! Let now thy servant depart in peace. Into thy hands, O Father, I commit my soul, spirit and body. Thy will, O Lord, be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ These sentences he spoke by little intervals, one after another; and soon after five in the morning, the 12th of October, he slept in peace and quiet, there being present at his end above twenty persons, who were witnesses to what hath been here related. His corpse was attended to the grave by numerous followers; and though he had ordered not many to be called to his burial, yet a great number of the gentry came uninvited, from an esteem they bore to his memory.
In this year also Anne Downer departed this life, one of the first of those called Quakers at London: she had been married first to Benjamin Greenwell, and was afterwards wife to George Whitehead. Being taken ill, she removed to a place out of London, and her sickness increasing, she perceived it was like to take her away. Her ancient friend Mary Stout visiting her, asked her, if she knew her, she said, ‘Yes, very well, it is Mary Stout. I have my memory very well, and my understanding is clear, though I am very weak; but I am given up unto the will of the Lord, whether to die, or to live; for I have been faithful to him in what I knew, both in life and death.’ Perceiving some to be troubled concerning her, she said, ‘There is no cause for you to be troubled or concerned; for I am well, and in peace.’ Many Christian exhortations she gave on her dying bed, and said to some of her friends who came to visit her, ‘What, do you come on purpose to see me? I take it as an effect of the love of God, and I pray God bless your children.’ To another she was heard to say, ‘If I never see thy face more, it is well with me; God doth know my integrity, and how I have been, and walked before him.’ The evening before she died, she said to her husband, George Whitehead, &c. ‘The Lord is with me, I bless his name. I am well; it may be you are afraid I shall be taken away; and if it be, the will of the Lord be done. Do not trouble yourselves, nor make any great ado about me; but, my dear, go to bed; go to rest; and if I should speak no more words to thee, thou knowest the everlasting love of God.’ She was heard also to say, that she had done with all things in this life, and she had nothing to trouble her, but was at true peace and easy every way. And a few hours before she departed, she said, ‘Though I am in a dying condition, yet it is a living death; for though weakness seizes the body, yet my understanding is as clear as when in health.’ Thus she departed this life quietly, about the age of sixty-three years, having been a woman well gifted, and very serviceable to the church, not only with wholesome exhortations, but also by her Christian care for the sick and poor, and for widows, and orphans, who by her decease lost an eminent mother.
1687.
About this time George Fox wrote several general epistles, some of which were pretty large, to his friends, exhorting them to shun strife, to keep to mutual love and unity, and to mind true piety. He wrote many other edifying papers; and since the Papists now appeared barefaced, and performed their worship publicly, and there was much talk of their praying to saints, and by beads; in the year 1687, he emitted the following paper concerning prayer, not fearing to contradict openly that which he judged to be superstition, though the king himself was of the popish religion.
‘Christ Jesus when he taught his disciples to pray, said unto them, “When ye do pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” &c. Christ doth not say, that they should pray to Mary the mother of Christ; nor doth he say, that they should pray to angels, or to saints, that were dead. Christ did not teach them to pray to the dead, nor for the dead. Neither did Christ or his apostles teach the believers to pray by beads, nor to sing by outward organs: but the apostle said, he would sing and pray in spirit; for the spirit itself maketh intercessions; and the Lord, that searcheth the heart, knoweth the mind of the spirit.
‘To take counsel of the dead was forbidden by the law of God; but they were to take counsel of the Lord: and he hath given Christ in the new covenant, in his gospel-day, to be a counsellor and a leader to all his believers in his light. And men are not to run to the dead for the living: for the law and testimony of God forbids it. Those Jews, that refused the running waters of Shiloah, the floods and waters of the Assyrians and Babylonians came over them, and carried them into captivity: and they that refuse the waters of Christ, they are overflown with the flood of the world, that lieth in wickedness. They that asked counsel of stocks and stones, their state was in the spirit of error and whoredom; and they were gone a whoring from God, Hos. iv. 12. And they that joined themselves to Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead, provoked the Lord’s anger, and brought the Lord’s displeasure upon them, Psal. cvi. 28, 29. So here ye may see, the sacrifices of the dead were forbidden. “The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten,” Eccles. ix. 5. “Wo to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.” Isa. xxx. 1.
GEORGE FOX.’
On the 20th of the month called March, being the 1st month, Robert Widders, one of the first preachers among those called Quakers, died; and G. Fox was now much at London; but he grew more and more weak in body, having endured many hardships in cruel imprisonments for the truth. Sometimes he went into the country to take the fresh air, and at other times he was awhile at the country-house of his son-in-law, William Mead, who married one of his wife’s daughters. In the meanwhile he wrote much, for he was of a laborious temper, and did not omit under all his business to visit the meetings of his friends, and to edify them by his admonitions and exhortations. For now they were suffered to keep their meetings unmolested, since the king in the month called April, published his long expected declaration for liberty of conscience to all his subjects, which contained, That henceforth the execution of all penal laws concerning ecclesiastical matters, for not coming to church, for not receiving the sacraments, or for any other non-conformity with the established religion, or for performing religious worship in any other way, should be suspended, &c.
It would indeed have been more acceptable if this liberty had been established by the king and parliament, this being granted as yet only by virtue of his royal prerogative: but however it was, liberty was enjoyed. The friends therefore of the church at London, seeing how those of other persuasions presented addresses of thanks to the king, for his declaration for liberty of conscience, which was now published, and whereby the Dissenters were permitted to perform their worship freely, provided their preaching did not tend to make the minds of people averse to the government, thought it convenient to draw up an address also, and present it to the king; which was as followeth: