disciples to preach, had not commanded them to preach freely, as he had given them freely; and whether all the ministers of Christ were not bound to observe this command of Christ. Cradock said he would not dispute that; and being unwilling to stay on this subject, he turned to another matter; but finding G. Fox never to be at a loss for an answer, and that he could get no advantage of him, he at length went away with his company.

With such kind of people G. Fox was often troubled whilst he was prisoner there: for most that came to the castle would speak with him, and many disputes he had with them. But as to his friends, he was as a man buried alive, for very few of them were suffered to come to him. Josiah Coale once desiring admittance, the governor told him, "You are an understanding man, but G. Fox is a mere fool." Now though the governor dealt hardly with him, yet in time he altered, for having sent out a privateer to sea, they took some ships that were not their enemies, which brought him into some trouble : after that he grew somewhat more friendly with G. Fox: to whom the deputy governor said once, that the king knowing that he had a great interest in the people, had sent him thither, that if there should be any stirring in the nation, they should hang him over the wall. And among the Papists, who were numerous in those parts, there was much talk of hanging G. Fox. But he told them, if that was what they desired, and it was permitted them, he was ready, for he never feared death nor sufferings in his life; but was known to be an innocent peaceable man, free from all stirrings and plottings, and one that sought the good of all men. But the governor now growing kinder, G. Fox spoke to him when he was to go to the parliament in London, and desired him to speak to Esq. Marsh, sir Francis Cob, and some others, and to tell them how long he had lain in prison, and for what. This the governor did, and at his coming back told him that Esq. Marsh said, he knew G. Fox so well, that he would go an hundred miles barefoot for his liberty; and that several others at court had spoken well of him.

After he had been prisoner there above a year, in the castle, he sent a letter to the king, in which he gave him an account of his imprisonment, and also of the bad treatment he had met with, and also that he was informed that no man could deliver him but the king. Esq. Marsh, who was a gentleman of the king's bedchamber, did whatever he could to procure his liberty, and at length obtained an order from the king for his release; the substance of which was, "That the king being certainly informed that G. Fox was a man principled against plotting and fighting, and had been ready at all

times to discover plots, rather than to make any &c, that therefore his royal pleasure was, that he should be discharged from his imprisonment, &c. This order being obtained, was not long after brought to Scarborough, and delivered to the governor, who upon the receipt thereof, discharged him, and gave him the following pass. port.

"Permit the bearer hereof, George Fox, late a prisoner here, and now discharged by his majesty's order, quietly to pass about his lawful occasions, without any molestation. Given under my hand at Scarborough Castle, this first day of September, 1666.

"Jordan Croslands, "Governor of Scarborough Castle."

G. Fox being thus released, would have given the governor something for the civility and kindness he had of late shewed him; but he would not receive any thing; and said, whatever good he could do for him and his friends, he would do it, and never do them any hurt: and so he continued loving to his dying day; nay if at any time the mayor of the town, sent to him for soldiers, to disperse the meetings of those called Quakers, if he sent any, he privately charged them, not to meddle with the meeting.

The very next day after G. Fox was released, the fire broke out in London, and the report of it came quickly down into the country, how that city was turned into rubbish and ashes, (insomuch that after an incessant fire which lasted nearly four days, but little of old London, was left standing) there being about thirteen thousand and two hundred houses burnt; the account whereof hath been so circumstantially described by others, that I need not treat of it at large; but I cannot omit to say, that Thomas Briggs, some years before passing through the streets of London, preached repentance to the inhabitants; and coming through Cheapside, he cried out, that unless London repented, as Nineveh did, God would destroy it.

Now I may relate another remarkable prediction.

Thomas Ibbitt of Huntingdonshire came to London a few days before the burning of that city, and (as hath been related by eyewitnesses) did upon his coming thither, alight from his horse, and unbutton his clothes in so loose a manner, as if they had been put on in haste just out of bed. In this manner he went about the city on the 6th (being the day he came thither) and also on the 7th day of the week, pronouncing a judgment by fire which should lay waste the city. On the evening of these days some of his friends had meetings with him, to enquire concerning his message and call, to pronounce that impending judgment: in his account whereof he was not more particular and clear, than that he said he for sometime had the vision thereof, but had delayed to come and declare it as commanded, until he felt (as he expressed it) the fire in his own bosom: which message or vision was very suddenly proved to be sadly true, as the foregoing brief account doth in part declare. The fire began on the 2d of September, 1666, on the first day of the week, which did immediately follow those two days the said Thomas Ibbitt had gone about the city declaring that judg

ment.

Having gone up and down the city, as hath been said, when afterwards he saw the fire break out, and beheld the fulfilling of his prediction, a spiritual pride seized on him, which, if others had not been wiser than he, might have tended to his utter destruction: for the fire being come as far as the east end of Cheapside, he placed himself before the flame, and spread his arms forth, as if to stay the progress of it; and if one Thomas Matthews, with others, had not pulled him (who seened now altogether distracted) from thence, it was like he might have perished by the fire. Yet in process of time, as I have been told, he came to some re