Chap. 1. The HISTORY of the PuRITANs. 4-0r It was in the year I 6 so. that thefe wandring lights firll: received the de- Com~~nnomination of Q.Y AKERs, up_on this ground, th_at their fpeal~ing to the \:6~~.' people was ufually attended With convu!Gv~ agome~, and lhak1~gs ?f the:,_~' body. All their iipeakers had thefe tremblzngs, wh1ch they gloned m, af- •hqare firft . . . . d b' ba{; G d Wh calud quafertlllg 1t to be the character of a goo man to trem te I!J ore o: . en kers. George Fox appeared before Gervas Bennet Efq; one of the jufhces of Derby, OCiob. 30. I 6 so. he had one of his agitations, or ~ts of trembling upon him, and with a loud voice and ~ebement emotiOn of body, bid the jull:ice and thofe about him, tremble at the word of the Lord; whereupon the jufiice gave him and his friends, the name of Q.Y A KE ~s , which being agreeable to their common behaviour, quickly became the dlf– tinguilhing denomination of this people, At length they diflurbed the public worl11ip by appearing in ridiculous 'TI;eir beha· habits, with emblematical or typical reprefentations of fome impending viour. calamity; they alfo took the liberty of giving minifl:ers the reproachful names of hirelings, deceivers of the pecple, fa!Je prophets, &c. Some of them went through divers towns and villages naked, denouncing judgments and calamities upon the nation. Some have famifhed and dellroyed themfelves by deep melancholy; and others have undertaken to raife their friends from the dead. Mr. Baxter f<1ys, many francijcan friars and Baxtcr, p. c,ther papifls, have been difguifed fpeakers in their afiemblies; but little 77• credit i's to be given to fuch reports. It can't be expected that fuch an unfettled people lhould have an uniform fyfi:em of rational principles, Their firfl: and chief defign, if they had any, waste reduce all revealed religion to allegory; and becaufe feme had laid too great firefs upon rights and ceremonies, thefe would have neither order nor regularity, nor fl:ated feafons of worlhip, but all mull: arife from the inward impulfe of their fpirits. Agreeable to this rule, they declared againll: all forts of clergy, or fettled minifiers; again ll people's alfembling inJleep!e houfes; againll fixed times of public devotion, and confequently againll: the obfervation of the fabbatb, Their own meetings were occa– cafional, and when they met, one or another fpake as they were moved from within, and fometimes they departed without any one's being moved to fpeak at all. The doct_rines they delivered were as vague and uncertain as the princi- 'Tkeir doe– pie fromwh1ch they acted. They denied the holy fcriptures to be the on. tnnes. ly rule of their fai~h,_ cal~ing it a dead letter, and maintaining that every man had a lzght Withm hm1felf, which was a fufficient rule. They denied the received doctrine of the tri nity and incarnation. They difowned the facraments of baptifm and the Lord's fupper; nay, feme of them proceeded f? far, as to deny a Chrill: ~vithout them; or at leall:, to place more of the1r dependance upon a Chrill: within. They fpake little or VOL. II. F f f nothing
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