estowed upon them as a term of reproach,
in consequence of their apparent convulsions which they laboured under
when they delivered their discourses, because they imagined they were
the effect of divine inspiration.

It is not our business, at present, to inquire whether the sentiments of
these people are agreeable to the gospel, but this much is certain, that
the first leader of them, as a separate body, was a man of obscure
birth, who had his first existence in Leicestershire, about the year
1624. In speaking of this man we shall deliver our own sentiments in a
historical manner, and joining these to what have been said by the
Friends themselves, we shall endeavour to furnish out a complete
narrative.

He was descended of honest and respected parents, who brought him up in
the national religion: but from a child he appeared religious, still,
solid, and observing, beyond his years, and uncommonly knowing in divine
things. He was brought up to husbandry, and other country business, and
was particularly inclined to the solitary occupation of a shepherd; "an
employment," says our author, "that very well suited his mind in several
respects, both for its innocency and solitude; and was a just emblem of
his after ministry and service." In the year 1646, he entirely forsook
the national church, in whose tenets he had been brought up, as before
observed; and in 1647, he travelled into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,
without any set purpose of visiting particular places, but in a solitary
manner he walked through several towns and villages, which way soever
his mind turned. "He fasted much," said Sewell, "and walked often in
retired places, with no other companion than his Bible." "He visited the
most retired and religious people in those parts," says Penn, "and some
there were, short of few, if any, in this nation, who waited for the
consolation of Israel night and day; as Zacharias, Anna, and Simeon,
did of old time." To these he was sent, and these he sought out in the
neighbouring counties, and among them he sojourned till his more ample
ministry came upon him. At this time he taught, and was an example of
silence, endeavouring to bring them from self-performances; testifying
of, and turning them to the light of Christ within them, and encouraging
them to wait in patience, and to feel the power of it to stir in their
hearts, that their knowledge and worship of God might stand in the power
of an endless life which was to be