The History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers: Intermixed with Several Remarkable Occurrencs.Sewel, William
History
The History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers: Intermixed with Several Remarkable Occurrencs.
Sewel, William
Society of Friends -- History -- Early works to 1800
Then G. Fox was taken away, and awhile after called for again. He still
cried to have the mittimus read; and the people being eager to hear
it, he bid his fellow-prisoner read it up; which being done, and read
according to the copy already mentioned, G. Fox said to the judge and
justices, ‘Thou that sayest thou art chief justice of England, and
you that be justices, ye know, that if I had put in sureties, I might
have gone whither I pleased, and have carried on the design, if I had
one, which major Ceely hath charged me with. And if I had spoken these
words to him, which he hath declared, then judge ye, whether bail or
mainprize could have been taken in that case.’ Then directing his
speech to major Ceely, he said, ‘When or where did I take thee aside?
Was not thy house full of rude people, and thou as rude as any of them
at our examination, so that I asked for a constable, or other officer,
to keep the people civil? But if thou art my accuser, why sittest thou
on the bench? That is not a place for thee to sit in; for accusers do
not use to sit with the judges: thou oughtest to come down, and stand
by me, and look me in the face. Besides, I would ask the judge and
justices this question, whether or no major Ceely is not guilty of
this treason, which he charges against me, in concealing it so long
as he hath done? Doth he understand his place, either as a soldier or
a justice of the peace? For he tells you here, that I went aside with
him, and told him what a design I had in hand; and how serviceable he
might be for it: that I could raise forty thousand men in an hour’s
time, and bring in Charles, and involve the nation in blood. Moreover,
that he would have aided me out of the country, but I would not go;
and therefore he committed me to prison for want of sureties for the
good behaviour, as the mittimus declares. Now do not you see plainly,
that major Ceely is guilty of this plot and treason that he talks
of, and hath made himself a party to it, by desiring me to go out of
the country, and demanding bail of me; and not charging me with this
pretended treason till now, nor discovering it? But I deny and abhor
his words, and am innocent of his devilish design.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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