nguished the members of this
sect. Every superfluity and ornament was carefully retrenched: no plaits
to their coat, no buttons to their sleeves; no lace, no ruffles, no
embroidery. Even a button to the hat, though sometimes useful, yet
not being always so, was universally rejected by them with horror and
detestation.

The violent enthusiasm of this sect, like all high passions, being
too strong for the weak nerves to sustain, threw the preachers into
convulsions, and shakings, and distortions in their limbs; and they
thence receded the appellation of "Quakers." Amidst the great toleration
which was then granted to all sects, and even encouragement given to all
innovations, this sect alone suffered persecution. From the fervor of
their zeal, the Quakers broke into churches, disturbed public worship,
and harassed the minister and audience with railing and reproaches. When
carried before a magistrate, they refused him all reverence, and treated
him with the same familiarity as if he had been their equal. Sometimes
they were thrown into mad-houses, sometimes into prisons; sometimes
whipped, sometimes pilloried. The patience and fortitude with which they
suffered, begat compassion, admiration, esteem.[*] A supernatural spirit
was believed to support them under those sufferings, which the ordinary
state of humanity, freed from the illusions of passion, is unable to
sustain.

* The following story is told by Whitlocke, p. 599. Some
Quakers at Hasington, in Northumberland, coming to the
minister on the Sabbath day, and speaking to him, the people
fell upon the Quakers, and almost killed one or two of them,
who, going out, fell on their knees, and prayed God to
pardon the people, who knew not what they did; and
afterwards speaking to the people, so convinced them of the
evil they had done in beating them, that the country people
fell a quarrelling, and beat one another more than they had
before beaten the Quakers.

The Quakers crept into the army; but as they preached universal peace,
they seduced the military zealots from their profession, and would soon,
had they been suffered, have put an end, without any defeat or calamity,
to the dominion of the saints. These attempts became a fresh ground of
persecution, and a new reason for their progress among the people.

Morals with this sect were carried, or affected to be carried to the
same degree of extravagance as religion. G