One day there being a meeting appointed near London, they beat and abused about eighty persons that came out of the city to meet there, tearing their coats and cloaks from off their backs, and throwing them into ditches and ponds. The next First-day of the week after this, G. Fox, though at that time very weak, went thither, and preaching with the bible in his hand, he showed the rude people, their, and their teachers’ fruits, and how disagreeable these mad actions were to the doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures. Many of his imprisoned friends were now brought up to London to be tried by the committee; where sir Henry Vane, being chairman, would not suffer them to come in, except they would put off their hats. But since many of them had been imprisoned upon contempts, (as the not putting off hats before magistrates was called,) others signified that it must not be expected that now they should comply; and so through the mediation of some that persuaded Vane, they were at length admitted; where they so well defended their cause, that several were set at liberty. Sufferings now growing very sharp, G. Fox, to encourage his friends, wrote the following lines to them: ‘My dear friends, every where scattered abroad, in prison, or out of prison, fear not, because of the reports of sufferings; let not the evil spies of the good land make you afraid, if they tell you the walls are high, and that there be Anakims in the land; for at the blowing of the ram’s horns did the walls of Jericho fall down; and they that brought the evil report, perished in the wilderness. But dwell ye in the faith, patience, and hope, having the word of life to keep you, which is beyond the law; and having the oath of God, his covenant, Christ Jesus, which divides the waters asunder; and makes them to run all on heaps; in that stand, and ye shall see all things work together for good, to them that love God; and in that triumph when sufferings come, whatever they be: your faith, your shield, your helmet, your armour you have on; ye are ready to skip over a mountain, or a wall, or an hill, and to walk through the deep waters, though they be heaps upon heaps: for the evil spies of the good land may preach up hardness, but Caleb, which signifies an heart, and Joshua, a saviour, triumph over all. G. F.’