There being now also several others who preached the doctrine of the inward light of God, which convinceth man of sin, the number of those professors of the light increased greatly. And as it had been said at first, that they should be destroyed within a short time; so now the priests began to say, that they would eat out one another. For many of them, after meetings, having a great way to go, staid at their friends’ houses by the way, and sometimes more than there were beds to lodge, so that some lay on the hay-mows. This made some of the public church grow afraid that this hospitality would cause poverty, and that when these friends had eaten out one another, they would come to be maintained by the parishes, and so be chargeable to them. But it fell out quite otherwise, for these people were the more blessed, and increased, without falling into want. This puts me in mind of what one of the daughters of Judge Thomas Fell once told me, viz. that her father having been abroad, and coming home with his servants, found the shed so full of the horses of strange guests, (for Margaret, his wife, had cleared the stable where they first stood, to make room for her husband’s own horses,) that he said to his wife, this was the way to be eaten out, and that thus they themselves should soon be in want of hay. But to this Margaret said, in a friendly way, that she did not believe, when the year was at an end, that they should have the less for that. And it so fell out; for this year their stock of hay was such, that they sold a great parcel of what they had in abundance. Thus the proverb was verified, that charity doth not impoverish. The truth of this was also experienced by those called Quakers; for though many people at first were shy, and would not deal with them, because of their non-conformity with the vulgar salutation, and their saying Thou and Thee to a single person, instead of You, &c. insomuch that some that were tradesmen lost their customers, and could hardly get money enough to buy bread; yet this changed in time, when people found by experience they could better trust to the words of these, than to that of those of their own persuasion. Hence it was, that often when any came into a town, and wanted something, they would ask, where dwells a draper, or taylor, or shoemaker, or any other tradesman, that is a Quaker? But this so exasperated others, that they began to cry out, if we let these Quakers alone, they will take the trade of the nation out of our hands. Now the cause of their trade’s thus increasing, was, because they were found upright in their dealings; for integrity did then shine out among them above many others: to this the true fear of God led them, and to this they were exhorted from time to time. G. Fox also writ a general epistle to them, which was as followeth: ‘To you all, Friends every where, scattered abroad.