Being set at liberty, I went to the inn where Captain Drury at first
lodged me. This captain, though he sometimes carried it fairly, was
an enemy to me and to Truth, and opposed it. When professors came to
me, while I was under his custody, and he was by, he would scoff at
trembling, and call us Quakers, as the Independents and Presbyterians
had nicknamed us before.[76] But afterwards he came and told me
that, as he was lying on his bed to rest himself in the daytime, a
sudden trembling seized on him; that his joints knocked together,
and his body shook so that he could not rise from his bed. He was so
shaken that he had not strength enough left to rise. But he felt the
power of the Lord was upon him; and he tumbled off his bed, and cried
to the Lord, and said he would never speak more against the Quakers,
such as trembled at the word of God.
[76] This implies that the nickname was given because the Friends
trembled when they spoke.
During the time I was prisoner at Charing-Cross, there came abundance
to see me, almost of all sorts, priests, professors, officers of the
army, etc. Once a company of officers, being with me, desired me to
pray with them. I sat still, with my mind retired to the Lord. At
last I felt the power and Spirit of God move in me; and the Lord's
power did so shake and shatter them that they wondered, though they
did not live in it.
Among those that came was Colonel Packer, with several of his
officers. While they were with me, there came in one Cob, and a great
company of Ranters with him. The Ranters began to call for drink and
tobacco; but I desired them to forbear it in my room, telling them if
they had such a mind to it, they might go into another room. One of
them cried, "All is ours"; and another of them said, "All is well."
I replied, "How is all well, while thou art so peevish, envious,
and crabbed?" for I saw he was of a peevish nature. I spake to
their conditions, and they were sensible of it, and looked one upon
another, wondering.
Then Colonel Packer began to talk with a light, chaffy mind,
concerning God, and Christ, and the Scriptures. It was a great grief
to my soul and spirit when I heard him talk so lightly; so that I
told him he was too light to talk of the things of God, for he did
not know the solidity of a man. Thereupon the officers raged, and
were wroth that I should speak so of their colonel.
This Packer was a Baptist, and he and the Ranters bowed and scraped
to one another very much; for it was the manner of the Ranters to
be exceedingly complimentary (as they call it), so that Packer bade
them give over their compliments. But I told them they were fit to go
together, for they were both of one spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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