Chapter XIV: 1660-1662.—George Fox writes an epistle of (1)

consolation to Friends unjustly imprisoned in consequence of
the insurrection of the Fifth-Monarchy Men—Friends’ declaration
against war and plots—John Perrot and Charles Bailie create a
schism—some Friends in New England are put to death, a sense
whereof is given to George Fox at the time—the King’s mandamus
to the Governor of New England and others, to restrain them
from executing Friends—the _Battledore_ is published, showing
by examples from thirty languages, that “Thou” and “Thee” are
proper to one person—on true worship—George Fox disputes with
some Jesuits, and with _all_ other sects—John Perrot’s heresy
condemned—on judicial swearing—George Fox and Richard
Hubberthorn write to the King, showing the number of Friends
imprisoned prior to, and during the first year of the
Restoration, and the number who died in prison during the
Commonwealth—Thomas Sharman, jailer at Derby, convinced, and
writes to George Fox—George Fox applies to Lord D’Aubigny on
behalf of two Friends imprisoned in the Inquisition at Malta,
who procures their liberation—the ground and rise of
persecution set forth—great service at _Bristol_, where also he
has a vision—visits Capt. Brown and his wife; the former had
fled from persecution, and was judged in himself, but
afterwards convinced—George Fox and several others are arrested
by Lord Beaumont, and sent to Leicester jail—they are suddenly
liberated—to Friends on the death of Edward Burrough—escapes
from persecutors—Friends established on Christ, the Rock of
Ages. 489

THE PREFACE;

BEING

A SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF THE DIVERS DISPENSATIONS OF
GOD TO MEN,

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THAT OF OUR PRESENT AGE, BY THE
MINISTRY AND TESTIMONY OF HIS FAITHFUL SERVANT, GEORGE FOX, AS AN
INTRODUCTION TO THE ENSUING JOURNAL.

BY

WILLIAM PENN.

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Divers have been the dispensations of God since the creation of the world unto the sons of men; but the great end of all of them has been the renown of his own excellent name in the creation and restoration of man: man, the emblem of himself, as a god on earth, and the glory of all his works. The world began with innocency: all was then good that the good God had made: and as he blessed the works of his hands, so their natures and harmony magnified Him their Creator. Then the morning stars sang together for joy, and all parts of his works said Amen to his law; not a jar in the whole frame, but man in paradise, the beasts in the field, the fowl in the air, the fish in the sea, the lights in the heavens, the fruits of the earth; yea the air, the earth, the water, and fire worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness! O holy sabbath! O holy day to the Lord.

But this happy state lasted not long: for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity; and so fell below it, lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in. By which, being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and residence, and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beasts.

Yet God that made him, had pity on him; for He seeing he was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent (that had first fallen from his own state), and by the mediation of the woman, man’s own nature and companion (whom the serpent had first deluded), in his infinite goodness and wisdom found out a way to repair the breach, recover the loss, and restore fallen man again by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; that as by means of a woman the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman also he should come into the world, who would prevail against him and bruise his head, and deliver man from his power; and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was personally and fully accomplished by him, and in him, as man’s Saviour and Redeemer.

But his power was not limited, in the manifestation of it, to that time; for both before and since his blessed manifestation in the flesh he has been the light and life, the rock and strength of all that ever feared God: present with them in their temptations, he followed them in their travels and afflictions, and supported and carried them through and over the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By this, Abel’s heart excelled Cain’s, Seth obtained the pre-eminence, and Enoch walked with God. It was this that strove with the old world, and which they rebelled against, and which sanctified and instructed Noah to salvation.

But the outward dispensation that followed the benighted state of man, after his fall, especially among the patriarchs, was generally that of angels; as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express, as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Moses, which was also delivered by angels, as the apostle tells us. This dispensation was much outward, and suited to a low and servile state; called therefore that of a schoolmaster, to point out and prepare that people to look and long for the Messiah, who would deliver them from the servitude of a ceremonious and imperfect dispensation, by knowing the realities of those mysterious representations in themselves. In this time the law was written on stone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood, and external rites and ceremonies, that were shadows of the good things that were to come, and were only to serve till the Seed came, or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ, to whom was the promise, and to all men only in him, in whom it was Yea and Amen; even life from death, immortality and eternal life.

This the prophets foresaw, and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it; which was the height of the Mosaical dispensation, and which ended in John’s ministry, the forerunner of the Messiah, as John’s was finished in him, the fulness of all. And God, that at sundry times and in divers manners, had spoken to the fathers by his servants the prophets, spoke then by his Son Christ Jesus, “who is heir of all things”; being the gospel day, which is the dispensation of sonship; bringing in thereby a nearer testament and a better hope; even the beginning of the glory of the latter days, and of the restitution of all things; yea, the restoration of the kingdom unto Israel.

Now, the Spirit, that was more sparingly communicated in former dispensations, began to be “poured forth upon all flesh,” according to the prophet Joel; and the light that shined in darkness, or but dimly before, the most gracious God caused to shine out of darkness: and the day-star began to arise in the hearts of believers, giving unto them the knowledge of God in the face (or appearance) of his Son Christ Jesus.

Now, the poor in spirit, the meek, the true mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righteousness, the peace-makers, the pure in heart, the merciful, and the persecuted, came more especially in remembrance before the Lord, and were sought out and blessed by Israel’s true Shepherd. Old Jerusalem with her children grew out of date, and the New Jerusalem into request, the mother of the sons of the gospel day. Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem, nor at the mountain of Samaria, will God be worshipped, above other places; for, behold, he is declared and preached a Spirit, and he will be known as such, and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth. He will come nearer than of old time, and he will write his law in the heart, and put his fear and Spirit in the inward parts, according to his promise. Then signs, types, and shadows flew away, the day having discovered their insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of the conscience; and all elementary services were expired in and by Him that is the substance of all.

And to this great and blessed end of the dispensation of the Son of God, did the apostles testify, whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice and superstition, and the Gentiles from their vanity and idolatry, to Christ’s Light and Spirit that shined in them; that they might be quickened from the sins and trespasses in which they were dead, to serve the living God in the newness of the Spirit of life, and walk as children of the light, and of the day, even the day of holiness: for such “put on Christ,” the light of the world, “and make no more provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” So that the Light, Spirit, and Grace that comes by Christ, and appears in man, was what the apostles ministered from, and turned people’s minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the churches of Christ in their day. For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit, but wait for the Spirit, and speak by the Spirit, and pray by the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit too, as that which approved them the truly begotten children of God; “born, not of flesh and blood, or of the will of man, but of the will of God;” by doing his will, and denying their own; by drinking of Christ’s cup, and being baptised with his baptism of self-denial: the way and path that all the heirs of life have trod to blessedness. But, alas! even in the apostles’ days, those bright stars of the first magnitude of the Gospel light, some clouds, foretelling an eclipse of this primitive glory, began to appear, and several of them gave early caution of it to the Christians of their time; that even then there was, and yet would be more and more, a falling away from the power of godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dispensation, by such as sought to make a fair show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of the cross ceased; yet with this comfortable conclusion, that they saw beyond it a more glorious time than ever, to the true church. Their sight was true, and what they foretold to the churches, gathered by them in the name and power of Jesus, came so to pass: for Christians degenerated apace into outsides, as days, and meats, and divers other ceremonies. And which was worse, they fell into strife and contention about them, separating one from another, then envying, and as they had power, persecuting one another, to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity, and grievous stumbling and offence to the heathen, among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them. And having got at last the worldly power into their hands, by kings and emperors embracing the Christian profession, they changed what they could, the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, into a worldly kingdom; or at least styled the worldly kingdom that was in their hands the kingdom of Christ, and so they became worldly, and not true Christians. Then human inventions and novelties, both in doctrine and worship, crowded fast into the church; a door being opened thereunto by the grossness and carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians; who had long since left the guidance of God’s meek and heavenly Spirit, and given themselves up to superstition, will-worship, and voluntary humility. And as superstition is blind, so it is heady and furious; for all must stoop to its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it: in the name of the Spirit, persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others, and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves, viz., the Light, Grace, and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; but always under the notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some such plausible name. Though Christianity allows of no name or pretence whatever for persecuting any man for matters of mere religion; religion being in its very nature, meek, gentle, and forbearing; and consists of faith, hope, and charity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he remains a persecutor; in that a man cannot believe well, or hope well, or have a charitable or tender regard to another, whilst he would violate his mind or persecute his body for matters of faith or worship towards his God.

Thus the false church sprang up, and mounted the chair. But though she lost her nature, she would keep her good name of the Lamb’s bride, the true church and mother of the faithful; constraining all to receive her mark, either in the forehead, or right hand, publicly or privately: but in deed and in truth she was Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots; mother of those that, with all their show and outside of religion, were adulterated and gone from the Spirit, nature, and life of Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious, covetous, cruel, &c., which are the fruits of the flesh, and not of the Spirit.

Now it was that the true church fled into the wilderness, that is, from superstition and violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state; hidden, and as it were out of sight of men, though not out of the world: which shows that her wonted visibility was not essential to the being of a true church in the judgment of the Holy Ghost; she being as true a church in the wilderness, though not as visible and lustrous, as when she was in her former splendour of profession. In this state many attempts she made to return, but the waters were yet too high, and her way blocked up, and many of her excellent children, in several nations and centuries, fell by the cruelty of superstition, because they would not fall from their faithfulness to the truth.

The last age did set some steps towards it, both as to doctrine, worship, and practice. But practice quickly failed, for wickedness flowed in a little time, as well among the professors of the Reformation, as those they reformed from; so that by the fruits of conversation they were not to be distinguished. And the children of the reformers, if not the reformers themselves, betook themselves very early to earthly policy and power to uphold and carry on their reformation, that had been begun with spiritual weapons; which I have often thought has been one of the greatest reasons the Reformation made no better progress, as to the life and soul of religion; for whilst the reformers were lowly and spiritually minded, and trusted in God, and looked to him, and lived in his fear, and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor sought deliverance in their own way, there were daily added to the church such as, one might reasonably say, should be saved. For they were not so careful to be safe from persecution, as to be faithful under it, being more concerned to spread the truth by their faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the worldly power out of their hands, that inflicted their sufferings upon them; and it will be well if the Lord suffer them not to fall by the very same way they took to stand. In doctrine, they were in some things short; in other things, to avoid one extreme they ran into another; and for worship, there was, for the generality, more of man than of God. They owned the Spirit, Inspiration, and Revelation indeed, and grounded their separation and reformation upon the sense and understanding they received from it, in the reading of the Scriptures of Truth; and this was their plea, the Scripture was the text, the Spirit the interpreter, and that to every one for himself. But yet there was too much of human invention, tradition, and art, that remained both in praying and preaching, and of worldly authority and worldly greatness in their ministers, especially in this kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some parts of Germany. God was therefore pleased among us, to shift from vessel to vessel: and the next remove humbled the ministry, so that they were more strict in preaching, devout in praying, and zealous for keeping the Lord’s day, and catechising children and servants, and repeating at home in their families what they had heard in public.

But even as these grew into power, they were not only for whipping some out, but others into the temple; and they appeared rigid in their spirits, rather than severe in their lives, and more for a party than for piety; which brought forth another people, that were yet more retired and select. They would not communicate at large, or in common with others; but formed churches among themselves of such as could give some account of their conversion, at least of very promising experiences of the work of God’s grace upon their hearts, and under mutual agreements and covenants of fellowship they kept together. These people were somewhat of a softer temper, and seemed to recommend religion by the charms of its love, mercy, and goodness, rather than by the terrors of its judgments and punishments; by which the former party would have terrified people into religion.

They also allowed greater liberty to prophesy than those before them; for they admitted any member to speak or pray, as well as their pastor (whom they always chose, and not the civil magistrate), if such found anything pressing upon them to either duty, even without the distinction of clergy or laity; persons of any trade, be it never so low and mechanical. But alas! even these people suffered great loss: for tasting of worldly empire, and the favour of princes, and the gain that ensued, they degenerated but too much. For though they had cried down national churches, and ministry, and maintenance too, some of them, when it was their own turn to be tried, fell under the weight of worldly honour and advantage, got into profitable parsonages too much, and outlived and contradicted their own principles: and which was yet worse, turned some of them absolute persecutors of other men for God’s sake, that but so lately came themselves out of the furnace; which drove many a step farther, and that was into the water—another baptism, as believing they were not scripturally baptized; and hoping to find that presence and power of God in submitting to that ordinance, which they desired and wanted.

These people made also profession of neglecting, if not renouncing, and censuring, not only the necessity but use of all human learning as to the ministry; and all other qualifications to it, besides the helps and gifts of the Spirit of God, and those natural and common to men; and for a time they seemed like John of old, a burning and a shining light to other societies.

They were very diligent, plain, and serious, strong in Scripture, and bold in profession, bearing much reproach, and contradiction: but that which others fell by, proved their hurt. For worldly power spoiled them too; who had enough of it to try them, what they would do if they had more; and they rested also too much upon their watery dispensation, instead of passing on more fully to the fire and Holy Ghost, which was his baptism, who came with a “fan in his hand that he might thoroughly (and not in part only) purge his floor,” and take away the dross and the tin of his people, and make a man finer than gold. Withal, they grew high, rough, and self-righteous, opposing further attainment; too much forgetting the day of their infancy and littleness, which gave them something of a real beauty; insomuch that many left them, and all visible churches and societies, and wandered up and down, as sheep without a shepherd, and as doves without their mates; seeking their beloved, but could not find Him (as their souls desired to know him) whom their souls loved above their chiefest joy.

These people were called Seekers by some, and the Family of Love by others; because, as they came to the knowledge of one another, they sometimes met together, not formally to pray or preach, at appointed times or places, in their own wills, as in times past they were accustomed to do; but waited together in silence, and as anything rose in any one of their minds that they thought savoured of a divine spring, so they sometimes spoke. But so it was, that some of them not keeping in humility, and in the fear of God, after the abundance of revelation, were exalted above measure; and for want of staying their minds in an humble dependence upon Him that opened their understandings to see great things in his law, they ran out in their own imaginations, and mixing them with those divine openings, brought forth a monstrous birth, to the scandal of those that feared God, and waited daily in the temple not made with hands, for the consolation of Israel; the Jew inward, and circumcision in spirit.

This people obtained the name of Ranters, from their extravagant discourses and practices. For they interpreted Christ’s fulfilling of the law for us, to be a discharging of us from any obligation and duty the law required, instead of the condemnation of the law for sins past, upon faith and repentance; and that now it was no sin to do that which before it was a sin to commit, the slavish fear of the law being taken off by Christ, and all things good that man did, if he did but do them with the mind and persuasion that it was so. Insomuch that divers fell into gross and enormous practices; pretending in excuse thereof that they could, without evil, commit the same act which was sin in another to do; thereby distinguishing between the action and the evil of it, by the direction of the mind, and intention in the doing of it. Which was to make sin superabound by the aboundings of grace, and to turn from the grace of God into wantonness, a securer way of sinning than before; as if Christ came not to take away sin, but that we might sin more freely at his cost, and with less danger to ourselves. I say, this ensnared divers, and brought them to an utter and lamentable loss, as to their eternal state; and they grew very troublesome to the better sort of people, and furnished the looser with an occasion to profane.

It was about that very same time, as you may see in the ensuing annals, that the eternal, wise, and good God was pleased, in his infinite love, to honour and visit this benighted and bewildered nation with his glorious dayspring from on high; yea, with a most sure and certain sound of the Word of Light and Life, through the testimony of a chosen vessel, to an effectual and blessed purpose, can many thousands say, Glory be to the name of the Lord for ever!

For as it reached the conscience and broke the heart, and brought many to a sense and search, so what people had been vainly seeking _without_, with much pains and cost, they by this ministry found _within_; where it was they wanted what they sought for, viz., the right way to peace with God. For they were directed to the Light of Jesus Christ within them, as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of God; near all, because _in_ all, and God’s talent to all; a faithful and true witness and just monitor _in_ every bosom; the gift and grace of God to life and salvation, that appears to all, though few regard it. This, the traditional Christian, conceited of himself, and strong in his own will and righteousness, and overcome with blind zeal and passion, either despised as a low and common thing, or opposed as a novelty, under many hard names or opprobrious terms; denying, in his ignorant and angry mind, any fresh manifestation of God’s power and Spirit in man in these days, though never more needed to make true Christians: not unlike those Jews of old, that rejected the Son of God at the very same time that they blindly professed to wait for the Messiah to come; because, alas, he appeared not among them according to their carnal mind and expectation.

This brought forth many abusive books, which filled the greater sort with envy, and lesser with rage, and made the way and progress of this blessed testimony strait and narrow indeed to those that received it. However, God owned his own work, and this testimony did effectually reach, gather, comfort, and establish, the weary and heavy laden, the hungry and thirsty, the poor and needy, the mournful and sick of many maladies, that had spent all upon physicians of no value, and waited for relief from heaven; help only from above: seeing, upon a serious trial of all things, nothing else would do but Christ himself, the light of his countenance, a touch of his garment, and help from his hand, who cured the poor woman’s issue, raised the centurion’s servant, the widow’s son, the ruler’s daughter, and Peter’s mother; and like her, they no sooner felt his power and efficacy upon their souls, than they gave up to obey him in a testimony to his power, and with resigned wills and faithful hearts, through all mockings, contradictions, beatings, prisons, and many other jeopardies that attended them for his blessed name’s sake.

And truly, they were very many and very great; so that in all human probability they must have been swallowed up quick of the proud and boisterous waves that swelled and beat against them; but that the God of all their tender mercies was with them in his glorious authority, so that the hills often fled and the mountains melted before the power that filled them; working mightily for them, as well as in them, one ever following the other. By which they saw plainly, to their exceeding great confirmation and comfort, “that all things were possible with him with whom they had to do.” And that the more that which God required seemed to cross man’s wisdom, and expose them to man’s wrath, the more God appeared to help and carry them through all to his glory; insomuch that if ever any people could say in truth, “Thou art our sun and our shield, our rock and sanctuary, and by thee we have leaped over a wall, and by thee we have run through a troop, and by thee we have put the armies of the aliens to flight,” these people had right to say it. And as God had delivered their souls of the wearisome burdens of sin and vanity, and enriched their poverty of spirit, and satisfied their great hunger and thirst after eternal righteousness, and filled them with the good things of his own house, and made them stewards of his manifold gifts; so they went forth to all quarters of these nations, to declare to the inhabitants thereof, what God had done for them; what they had found, and where and how they had found it; viz., the way to peace with God; inviting them to come and see and taste for themselves, the truth of what they declared unto them.

And as their testimony was to the principle of God in man, the precious pearl and leaven of the kingdom, as the only blessed means appointed of God to quicken, convince, and sanctify man; so they opened to them what it was in itself, and what it was given to them for; how they might know it from their own spirit, and that of the subtle appearance of the evil one; and what it would do for all those, whose minds are turned off from the vanity of the world and its lifeless ways and teachers, and adhere to this blessed light in themselves, which discovers and condemns sin in all its appearances, and shows how to overcome it, if minded and obeyed in its holy manifestations and convictions; giving power to such to avoid and resist those things that do not please God, and to grow strong in love, faith, and good works; that so man, whom sin hath made as a wilderness, overrun with briars and thorns, might become as the garden of God, cultivated by his Divine power, and replenished with the most virtuous and beautiful plants of God’s own right hand planting, to his eternal praise.

But these experimental preachers of glad tidings of God’s truth and kingdom, could not run when they list, or pray or preach when they pleased, but as Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own blessed Spirit, for which they waited in their services and meetings, and spoke as that gave them utterance, and which was as those having authority, and not like the dreaming, dry, and formal Pharisees. And so it plainly appeared to the serious-minded, whose spiritual eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure opened; so that to one was given the word of exhortation, to another the word of reproof, to another the word of consolation, and all by the same Spirit and in the good order thereof, to the convincing and edifying of many.

And truly they waxed strong and bold through faithfulness; and by the power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very fruitful; thousands, in a short time, being turned to the Truth through their testimony in ministry and sufferings, insomuch as in most counties, and many of the considerable towns of England, meetings were settled, and daily there were added such as should be saved. For they were diligent to plant and to water, and the Lord blessed their labours with an exceeding great increase; notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed progress, by false rumours, calumnies, and bitter persecutions; not only from the powers of the earth, but from every one that listed to injure and abuse them; so that they seemed indeed to be as poor sheep appointed to the slaughter, and as a people killed all the day long.

It were fitter for a volume than a preface, but so much as to repeat the contents of their cruel sufferings from professors as well as from profane, and from magistrates as well as from the rabble, that it may well be said of this abused and despised people, they went forth weeping and sowed in tears, bearing testimony to the precious seed, the seed of the kingdom, which stands not in words, the finest, the highest that man’s wit can use, but in power; the power of Christ Jesus, to whom God the Father hath given all power in heaven and in earth, that he might rule angels above, and men below; who empowered them, as their work witnesseth, by the many that were turned through their ministry from darkness to the light, and out of the broad into the narrow way, bringing people to a weighty, serious, and godly conversation; the practice of that doctrine which they taught.

And as without this secret Divine power there is no quickening and regenerating of dead souls, so the want of this generating and begetting power and life, is the cause of the little fruit that the many ministries that have been, and are in the world, bring forth. O that both ministers and people were sensible of this! My soul is often troubled for them, and sorrow and mourning compass me about for their sakes. O that they were wise! O that they would consider, and lay to heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting peace!

Two things are to be briefly touched upon; the doctrine they taught, and the example they led among the people. I have already touched upon their fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric; and to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic, or main distinguishing point or principle, viz., the Light of Christ within, as God’s gift for man’s salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now mention in their natural and experimental order.

First, Repentance from dead works to serve the living God; which comprehends three operations, first, a sight of sin; secondly, a sense and godly sorrow for it; thirdly, an amendment for the time to come. This was the repentance they preached and pressed, and a natural result from the principle they turned all people unto. For of light came sight; and of sight came sense and sorrow; and of sense and sorrow came amendment of life; which doctrine of repentance leads to justification; that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, through Christ, the alone propitiation; and to the sanctification or purgation of the soul from the defiling habits of sin present; which is justification in the complete sense of that word; comprehending both justification from the guilt of the sins that are past, as if they had never been committed, through the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and the creature’s being made inwardly just through the cleansing and sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the soul which is commonly called sanctification.

From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of the high calling of all true Christians, viz., perfection from sin, according to the Scriptures of Truth, which testify it to be the end of Christ’s coming, the nature of his kingdom, and for which his Spirit was given. But they never held a perfection in wisdom and glory in this life, or from natural infirmities or death, as some have with a weak or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against them.

This they called a redeemed state, regeneration, or the new birth; teaching everywhere, according to their foundation, that unless this work were known, there was no inheriting of the kingdom of God.

Third, to an acknowledgment of eternal rewards and punishments, as they have good reason; for else of all people, certainly they must be the most miserable; who for about forty years have been exceedingly great sufferers for their profession, and in some cases, treated worse than the worst of men, yea, as the refuse and offscouring of all things.

This was the purport of their doctrine and ministry; which, for the most part, is what other professors of Christianity pretend to hold in words and forms, but not in the _power_ of godliness; that has been long lost by men’s departing from that principle and Seed of Life that is in man, and which man has not regarded, but lost the sense of; and in and by which only he can be quickened in his mind to serve the living God in newness of life. For as the life of religion was lost, and the generality lived and worshipped God after their own wills, and not after the will of God, nor the mind of Christ, which stood in the works and fruits of the Holy Spirit; so that which they pressed, was not notion, but experience, not formality, but godliness; as being sensible in themselves, through the work of God’s righteous judgments, that without holiness no man should ever see the Lord with comfort.

Besides these doctrines, and out of them, as the larger branches, there sprang forth several particular doctrines, that did exemplify and further explain the truth and efficacy of the general doctrine before observed, in their lives and examples. As,

I. Communion and loving one another. This is a noted mark in the mouth of all sorts of people concerning them. “They will meet, they will help and stick one to another.” Whence it is common to hear some say, “Look how the Quakers love and take care of one another.” Others less moderate will say, “The Quakers love none but themselves”; and if loving one another, and having an intimate communion in religion, and constant care to meet to worship God and help one another, be any mark of primitive Christianity, they had it, blessed be the Lord, in an ample manner.

II. To love enemies. This they both taught and practised; for they did not only refuse to be revenged for injuries done them, and condemned it as of an unchristian spirit, but they did freely forgive, yea, help and relieve those that had been cruel to them, when it was in their power to have been even with them; of which many and singular instances might be given; endeavouring, through patience, to overcome all injustice and oppression, and preaching this doctrine as Christian for others to follow.

III. The sufficiency of truth speaking, according to Christ’s own form of words, of Yea, Yea, and Nay, Nay, among Christians without swearing, both from Christ’s express prohibition, “Swear not at all,” Matt. v.; and for that they being under the tie and bond of truth in themselves there was both no necessity for an oath, and it would be a reproach to their Christian veracity to assure their truth by such an extraordinary way of speaking; but offering at the same time, to be punished to the full, for false speaking, as others for perjury, if ever guilty of it; and hereby they exclude with all true, all false and profane swearing; for which the land did and doth mourn, and the great God was and is not a little offended with it.

IV. Not fighting but suffering, is another testimony peculiar to this people; they affirm that Christianity teacheth people “to beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and to learn war no more,” so that the wolf may lie down with the lamb, and the lion with the calf, and nothing that destroys be entertained in the hearts of people; exhorting them to employ their zeal against sin, and turn their anger against Satan, and no longer war one against another; because all wars and fightings come of men’s own hearts’ lusts, according to the apostle James, and not of the meek spirit of Christ Jesus, who is captain of another warfare, and which is carried on with other weapons. Thus, as truth-speaking succeeded swearing, so faith and truth succeeded fighting, in the doctrine and practice of this people. Nor ought they for this to be obnoxious to civil government, since if they cannot fight for it, neither can they fight against it; which is no mean security to the state; nor is it reasonable that people should be blamed for not doing more for others than they can do for themselves. And Christianity set aside, if the costs and fruits of war were well considered, peace, with its inconveniences, is generally preferable. But though they were not for fighting, they were for submitting to government; and that, not only for fear, but for conscience’ sake, where government doth not interfere with conscience; believing it to be an ordinance of God, and where it is justly administered, a great benefit to mankind; though it has been their lot, through blind zeal in some, and interest in others, to have felt the strokes of it with greater weight and rigour than any other persuasion in this age; whilst they, of all others (religion set aside) have given the civil magistrate the least occasion of trouble in the discharge of his office.

V. Another part of the character of this people is, they refuse to pay tithes, or maintenance to a national ministry, and that for two reasons; the one is, that they believe all compelled maintenance, even to gospel ministers, to be unlawful, because expressly contrary to Christ’s command, who said, “Freely you have received, freely give;” at least that the maintenance of gospel ministers should be free, and not forced. The other reason of their refusal is, because those ministers are not gospel ones, in that the Holy Ghost is not their foundation, but human arts and parts; so that it is not matter of humour or sullenness, but pure conscience towards God, that they cannot help to support national ministries where they dwell, which are but too much and too visibly become ways of worldly advantage and preferment.

VI. Not to respect persons, was another of their doctrines and practices, for which they were often buffeted and abused. They affirmed it to be sinful to give flattering titles, or to use vain gestures and compliments of respect; though to virtue and authority they ever made a difference, but after their plain and homely manner, yet sincere and substantial way; well remembering the example of Mordecai and Elihu, but more especially the command of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ who forbade his followers to call men Rabbi, which implies lord and master, also the fashionable greetings and salutations of those times; that so self-love and honour, to which the proud mind of man is incident, in his fallen estate, might not be indulged but rebuked.

VII. They also used the plain language of Thou and Thee, to a single person, whatever was his degree among men. And indeed the wisdom of God was much seen, in bringing forth this people in so plain an appearance; for it was a close and distinguishing test upon the spirit of those they came among; showing their insides and what predominated, notwithstanding their high and great profession of religion. This, among the rest, sounded so harsh to many of them, and they took it so ill, that they would say, “Thou me, thou my dog; if thou thouest me, I’ll thou thy teeth down thy throat,” forgetting the language they use to God in their own prayers, and the common style of the Scriptures, and that it is an absolute and essential propriety of speech; and what good had their religion done them, who were so sensibly touched with indignation for the use of this plain, honest, and true speech?

VIII. They recommended silence by their example, having very few words upon all occasions; they were at a word in dealing; nor could their customers with many words tempt them from it; having more regard to truth than custom, to example than gain. They sought solitude; but when in company, they would neither use, nor willingly hear, unnecessary as well as unlawful discourses; whereby they preserved their minds pure and undisturbed from unprofitable thoughts and diversions; nor could they humour the custom of “Good night, Good morrow, God speed;” for they knew the night was good, and the day was good, without wishing of either; and that in the other expression, the holy name of God was too lightly and unthinkingly used, and therefore taken in vain. Besides, they were words and wishes of course, and are usually as little meant, as are love and service in the custom of cap and knee; and superfluity in those, as well as in other things, was burdensome to them; and therefore they did not only decline to use them, but found themselves often pressed to reprove the practice.

IX. For the same reason they forbore drinking to people, or pledging of them, as the manner of the world is; a practice that is not only unnecessary, but they thought evil in the tendencies of it; being a provocation to drinking more than did people good, as well as that it was in itself vain and heathenish.

X. Their way of marriage is peculiar to them; and is a distinguishing practice from all other societies professing Christianity. They say that marriage is an ordinance of God, and that God only can rightly join man and woman in marriage. Therefore they use neither priest nor magistrate, but the man and woman concerned, take each other as husband and wife, in the presence of divers credible witnesses, “promising unto each other, with God’s assistance, to be loving and faithful in that relation, till death shall separate them.” But, antecedent to all this, they first present themselves to the Monthly Meeting for the affairs of the church, where they reside, there declaring their intentions to take one another as man and wife, if the said meeting have nothing material to object against it. They are constantly asked the necessary questions,[A] as in case of parents, or guardians, if they have acquainted them with their intention, and have their consent, &c. In case it appears they proceeded orderly, the meeting passes their proposal, and so records it in their meeting book; and in case the woman is a widow and hath children, due care is there taken, that provision also be made by her for the orphans before the said marriage; advising the parties concerned to appoint a convenient time and place, and to give fitting notice to their relations, and such friends and neighbours, as they desire should be the witnesses of their marriage: where they take one another by the hand, and by name promising reciprocally after the manner before expressed. Of all which proceedings, a narrative, in the way of certificate, is made, to which the said parties first set their hands, thereby making it their act and deed; and then divers of the relations, spectators, and auditors set their names as witnesses of what they said and signed; which certificate is afterward registered in the record belonging to the meeting where the marriage is solemnized. Which regular method has been, as it deserves, adjudged in courts of law a good marriage where it has been disputed and contested, for want of the accustomed formality of priest and ring, &c., which ceremonies they have refused, not out of humour, but conscience reasonably grounded, inasmuch as no Scripture example tells us, that the priest had any other part of old time, than that of a witness among the rest, before whom the Jews used to take one another: and therefore this people look upon it as an imposition, to advance the power and profits of the clergy. And for the use of the ring, it is enough to say, that it was a heathenish and vain custom, and never in practice among the people of God, Jews, or primitive Christians. The words of the usual form, as “With my body I thee worship,” &c., are hardly defensible: in short, they are more careful, exact, and regular than any form now used, and it is free from the inconveniences other methods are attended with; their care and checks being so many, and such, that no clandestine marriages can be performed among them.

XI. It may not be unfit to say something here of their births and burials, which make up so much of the pomp and solemnity of too many called Christians. For births, the parents name their own children, which is usually some days after they are born, and afterward sign a certificate, for that purpose prepared, of the birth and name of the child, or children, which is recorded in a proper book, in the Monthly Meeting, to which the parents belong; avoiding the accustomed ceremonies and festivals.

XII. Their burials are performed with the same simplicity. If the corpse of the deceased be near any public meeting place, it is usually carried thither, for the more convenient reception of those that accompany it to the ground they bury in, and it so falls out sometimes, that while the meeting is gathering for the burial, some or other have a word of exhortation, for the sake of the people there met together: after which, the body is borne away by the young men, or those that are of their neighbourhood, or that were most intimate with the deceased party: the corpse being in a plain coffin, without any covering or furniture upon it. At the ground, they pause some time before they put the body into its grave, that if any there should have anything upon them to exhort the people, they may not be disappointed, and that the relations may the more retiredly and solemnly take their last leave of the corpse of their departed kindred, and the spectators have a sense of mortality, by the occasion then given them to reflect upon their own latter end. Otherwise they have no set rites or ceremonies on those occasions; neither do the kindred of the deceased wear mourning, they looking upon it as a worldly ceremony and piece of pomp; and that what mourning is fit for a Christian to have, at the departure of a beloved relation or friend, should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss; and the love they had to them, and remembrance of them, to be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those they have left behind them, and their love of that they loved. Which conduct of theirs, though unmodish or unfashionable, leaves nothing of the substance of things neglected or undone; and as they aim at no more, so that simplicity of life is what they observe with great satisfaction, though it sometimes happens not to be without the mockeries of the vain world they live in.

These things gave them a rough and disagreeable appearance with the generality; who thought them turners of the world upside down, as indeed in some sense they were: but in no other than that wherein Paul was so charged, viz., to bring things back into their primitive and right order again. For these, and such like practices of theirs, were not the result of humour, as some have fancied, but a fruit of inward sense, which God, through his fear, had begotten in them. They did not consider how to contradict the world, or distinguish themselves; being none of their business, as it was not their interest; no, it was not the result of consultation, or a framed design to declare or recommend schism or novelty. But God having given them a sight of themselves, they saw the whole world in the same glass of truth; and sensibly discerned the affections and passions of men, and the rise and tendency of things; what gratified “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which are not of the Father, but of the world.” And from thence sprang, in that night of darkness and apostacy, which hath been over people, through their degeneration from the Light and Spirit of God, these and many other vain customs; which are seen, by the heavenly day of Christ which dawns in the soul, to be, either wrong in their original, or, by time and abuse, hurtful in their practice. And though these things seemed trivial to some, and rendered this people stingy and conceited in such persons’ opinions; there was and is more in them than they were aware of. It was not very easy to our primitive Friends to make themselves sights and spectacles, and the scorn and derision of the world; which they easily foresaw must be the consequence of so unfashionable a conversation in it. But herein was the wisdom of God seen in the foolishness of these things; first, that they discovered the satisfaction and concern that people had in and for the fashions of this world, notwithstanding their pretences to another; in that any disappointment about them came so very near them, that the greatest honesty, virtue, wisdom, and ability were unwelcome without them. Secondly, it seasonably and profitably divided conversation; for making their society uneasy to their relations and acquaintance, it gave them the opportunity of more retirement and solitude, wherein they met with better company, even the Lord God, their Redeemer, and grew strong in his love, power, and wisdom, and were thereby better qualified for his service; and the success abundantly showed it: blessed be the name of the Lord.

And though they were not great and learned in the esteem of this world (for then they had not wanted followers upon their own credit and authority), yet they were generally of the most sober of the several persuasions they were in, and of the most repute for religion; and many of them of good capacity, substance, and account among men.