the times changed, Fox did not. His course was unswerving. He was threatened, for refusing the oaths, with the penalties of premunire: he was kept in gaol under that charge, and reduced by severe illness: but he refused to accept release even from a royal pardon, because he would not admit his guilt. Charles now took a friendly interest in his case, and pressed upon him a pardon; but it was only, when his trial was transferred to the King's Bench, and the celebrated Sir Matthew Hale quashed the indictment as bad, and ordered him to be set free, that he was released. To his wife, saddened in 1673 by a fresh imprisonment inflicted on him, he writes: "Dear Heart; Thou seemed to be a little grieved, when I was speaking of prisons, and when I was taken. Be content with the will of God. I saw I had a suffering to undergo; but the Lord's peace is over all: blessed be his holy name for ever." Yet, during all these sufferings, he had been busy with his pen, and several works were issued by him from Worcester gaol. These he followed up with others, after his release, during the year-and-half of repose which he spent to recruit his strength. In 1677, he resumed his labours; travelled through Yorkshire, assisted in London to prepare the remonstrance to Parliament, and then, after a few weeks spent in retirement with William Penn, passed in his company to Holland, where he continued teaching and preaching through its principal towns, interesting himself for his persecuted

brethren in Poland, and corresponding with a German Princess who had treated the Quakers with kindness. The rest of the year, after his return to England, was occupied in settling some disputes amongst the Friends. The next two years were passed in comparative quiet on his wife's estate in Lancashire; but in 1680 the renewed troubles, which fell upon the Quakers, drew him from his retreat; and, as the great struggle of their opponents now was to break up the Quaker meetings in London, it was there that Fox fixed hinself. There, with the interval of a short trip to Holland, he remained till the death of Charles II. During the hot persecution of 1685, he and William Penn repeatedly attended the meeting in Gracechurch Street; and though, when Fox was not present, the constables and soldiers dispersed the meetings, it was a tribute to the power of the man that, when he appeared, they were overawed, and remained quiet hearers in the meeting which they had come to disperse. His last years, after the accession

*The answer of Princess Elizabeth to Fox's letter was this:

DEAR FRIEND,

I cannot but have a tender love to those that love the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom it is given not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him; therefore your letter and your friend's visit have been both very welcome to me. I shall follow them and your counsel as far as God will afford me light and unction. Remaining still,

Your loving friend,

ELIZABETH.

1 Sister of Prince Rupert, and cousin of Charles II.

of James II., through the increasing influence of William Penn, were passed in peace. The yearly meeting in the spring of 1685 was largely attended by hundreds of Quakers set free from prison. Fox was there, as earnest in counselling moderation, as he had been in encouraging his followers in distress. Nor were his exhortations without fruits. The heat and enthusiam of his first disciples had given place to a more sober feeling. Isaac Pennington, after a life of love, had died -and Barclay, one of the most illustrious of the Quakers, who had brought the strong sense of his Scottish blood to illustrate the Quaker practice, was giving, at this time, his dying testimony to his views. To one of his friends, who conducted prayers by his bed-side, he said; "Amen, Amen, for ever. How precious is the love of God among his children, and their love one to another. My love is with you, I leave it among you." His last words were; "Praised be the Lord. now thy servant depart in peace. Into thy hands, O Father, I commit my soul, spirit, and body.

Let

Thy will,

He

O Lord, be done on earth as it is done in heaven." Now, at length, Fox's mission was fulfilled, and the infirmities of age began to creep upon him. continued indeed actively employed, and attended the yearly meeting of 1690, but he spent most of his time at the houses of his friends near Kingston and Waltham Abbey. It is with interest that we read the modest testament in which he bequeaths, for the

use of the Quakers, the small property of three acres of land, with house and stable, of which he stood possessed in the parish of Ulverstone, "with my ebony bedstead, with the painted curtains that Robert Widders sent me, and my great sea-case with the bottles in it. These I do give, to stand in the house as heirlooms, when the house is made use of for a meeting-place, so that a Friend may have a bed to lie on, and a chair to sit in, and a bottle to hold a little water to drink." And then, after giving directions for the repairs of the house and pavement, "that so Friends may go dry to the meeting; " and bidding them let any poor honest Friend live in part of the house, he adds,—“It is all the land and house I have in England, and it is given up to the Lord, and so let it be for the Lord's service, to the end of the world, and for his people to meet in, to keep them from the winter's cold and wet, and the summer's heat; for," he adds, with a grateful retrospect of a life spent in so much trouble, yet under such gracious guidance,—“the Eternal God, who hath, by His eternal, powerful arm, preserved me, through all my troubles, trials, temptations, afflictions, persecution, reproaches, and imprisonments, and carried me over them all, has sanctified all these things to me; and hath been, by His eternal power, my preserver and upholder and keeper, and hath taken care and provided for me, so that I never did want, and have been content and thankful with what the Lord provided for me;" and

so, he says to his son-in-law, "my love is to thee and all the rest of Friends, in the holy and peaceable Truth, and God Almighty keep you in it, and in the order of it. Amen."

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On the 10th of November, 1690, he wrote a long epistle to the Friends in Ireland, who were then suffering from persecution. And after this characteristic effort, and continuing to that day his journal, kept for above forty years,-a curious record of opinions, deeds, and suffering,--and preaching with much power in the Friends' Meeting on Sunday the 11th, he took to his bed, and lying there for two days, in great peace of mind, departed this life on the 13th, in the 67th year of his age. The calmness which had distinguished him through life characterized his last hours. His only care was for the Friends, the suffering, and the poor. "Mind," he said twice, "your Friends in Ireland and America." Death he seemed to regard without interest; and to those who asked him of himself, he said, "Never heed, the Lord's presence is over all weakness and death; the Lord reigns, blessed be the Lord." His friends W. Penn, and Thomas Ellwood, ("a discerner of other men's spirits," says Penn, "and very much a master of his own,") have described him fairly, "though the side of his mind," says Penn, "which lay next to the world, and especially the expression of it, might be found unfathomable to nice ears; his matter, nevertheless, was very profound, and would

I