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 this Watery 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 Humane 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 Snare For worldly Power spoiled them too who had enough of it to try them what they would do if they had had more And they rested also too much upon their Watry Dispensation instead of passing on more fully to that of the Fire and Holy Ghost which was his Baptism who came with a Fan in his Hand that he might throughly 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 Withall 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 in so much that many left them and all visible Churches and Societies and Wandred 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 any thing rose in any one of their Minds that they thought Savoured of a Divine Spring 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 Dependance 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 fullfilling of the Law for us to be a discharging of us from any Obligation and Duty the Law required of us 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 Perswasion 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 super-abound 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 save us from our Sins but in our Sins not to take away Sin but that we might Sin more freely at his Cost and with less Danger to our selves 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 Prophane CHAP. II. Of the Rise of this People their Fundamental Principle and Doctrine and Practice in twelve Points resulting from it Their Progress and Sufferings An Expostulation with England thereupon IT was about that very time as you may see in G. F's Annals that the Eternal Wise and Good God was pleased in his infinite Love to Honour and Visit this benighted and bewildred Nation with his Glorious Day-spring 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 that which 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 and 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 Straight 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 Tryal of all things
is chiefly understood as to particular Cases in the Sense delivered by the Persons deputed or chosen for that Service by the said Meeting During their Yearly Meeting to which their other Meetings referr in their Order and naturally Resolve themselves care is taken by a Select Number for that service chosen by the General Assembly to draw up the Minutes of the said Meeting upon the several matters that have been under Consideration therein to the end that the Respective Quarterly and Monthly Meetings may be informed of all Proceedings together with a general Exhortation to Holiness Vnity and Charity Of all which Proceedings in Yearly Quarterly and Monthly Meetings due Record is kept by some One appointed for that Service or that hath voluntarily undertaken it These Meetings are opened and usually concluded in their Solemn waiting upon God who is sometimes graciously pleased to answer them with as signal Evidences of his Love and Presence as in any of their Meetings of Worship It is further to be Noted that in these Solemn Assemblies for the Church's Service there is no one presides among them after the manner of the Assemblies of other People Christ only being their President as he is pleased to appear in Life and Wisdom in any one or more of them to whom whatever be their Capacity or Degree the rest adhere with a Firm Vnity not of Authority but Conviction which is the Divine Authority and Way of Christ's Power and Spirit in his People Making good his blessed Promise That he would be in the Midst of his where and whenever they were met together in his Name even to the End of the World So be it Now it may be expected I should here set down what sort of Authority is exercised by this People upon such Members of their Society as correspond not in their Lives with their Profession and that are Refractory to this good and wholesom Order setled among them and the rather because they have not wanted their Reproach and Sufferings from some Tongues and Pens upon this occasion in a plentiful manner The Power they exercise is such as Christ has given to his own People to the End of the World in the Persons of his Disciples viz. To Oversee Exhort Reprove and after long Suffering and Waiting upon the Disobedient and Refractory to Disown them as any more of their Communion or that they will any longer stand Charged in the Sight and Judgment of God or Men with their Conversation or Behaviour as one of them untill they Repent The subject matter about which this Authority in any of the foregoing Branches of it is Exercised is First in Relation to common and general Practice and Secondly about those things that more strictly referr to their own Character and Profession and which distinguish them from all other Professors of Christianity avoiding two Extreams upon which many Split viz. Persecution and Libertinism That is a Coercive Power to Whip People into the Temple that such as will not Comform tho' against Faith and Conscience shall be punisht in their Persons or Estates Or leaving all loose and at large as to Practice and so unaccountable to all but God and the Magistrate To which hurtful Extream nothing has more contributed than the Abuse of Church Power by such as suffer their Passions and private Interests to prevail with them to carry it to Outward Force and Corporal Punishment A Practice they have been taught to dislike by their extream Sufferings as well as their known Principle for an Vniversal Liberty of Conscience On the other hand they equally dislike an Independancy in Society An unaccountableness in Practice and Conversation to the Rules and Terms of their own Communion and to those that are the Members of it They distinguish between Imposing any Practice that immediately regards Faith or Worship which is never to be done or suffered or submitted unto and requiring Christian Compliance with those Methods that only respect Church Business in its more Civil part and Concern and that regard the Discreet and Orderly Maintenance of the Character of the Society as a Sober and Religious Community In short what is for the Promotion of Holiness and Charity that Men may Practice what they profess live up to their own Principles and not be at Liberty to give the Lie to their own Profession without Rebuke is their Vse and Limit of Church Power They compel none to them but oblige those that are of them to walk Suitably or they are denyed by them That is all the Mark they set upon them and the Power they Exercise or Judge a Christian Society can Exercise upon those that are the Members of it The way of their Proceeding against such as have Lapst or Transgrest is this He is visited by some of them and the matter of Fact laid Home to him be it any evil Practice against known and general Vertue or any Branch of their Particular Testimony which he in Common professeth with them They labour with him in much Love and Zeal for the good of his Soul the Honour of God and Reputation of their Profession to own his Fault and condemn it in as ample a Manner as the Evil or Scandal was given by him which for the most part is performed by some Written Testimony under the parties Hand And if it so happen that the party prove Refractory and is not willing to clear the Truth they profess from the Reproach of his or her evil doing or Unfaithfulness they after repeated Entreaties and due waiting for a Token of Repentance give forth a Paper to disown such a Fact and the Party offending Recording the same as a Testimony of their care for the Honour of the Truth they profess And if he or she shall clear their Profession and themselves by sincere Acknowledgment of their Fault and Godly sorrow for so doing they are received and looked upon again as Members of their Communion For as God so his true People Vpbraid no Man after Repentance This is the account I had to give of the People of God called Quakers as to their Rise Appearance Principles and Practices in this Age of the World both with Respect to their Faith and Worship Discipline and Conversation And I Judge it very proper in this place because it is to Preface the Journal of the First Blessed and Glorious Instrument of this Work and for a Testimony to Him in his singular Qualifications and Services in which he abundantly excelled in this day and are worthy to be set forth as an Example to all succeeding Times to the Glory of the Most High God and for a just Memorial to that Worthy and Excellent Man his Faithful Servant and Apostle to this Generation of the World CHAP. V. Of the First Instrument or Person by whom God was pleased to gather this People into the way they Profess His Name G. Fox His many excellent Qualifications showing a Divine and not a Human Power to have been their
God as you should do you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose Some seek it in Books some in Learned Men but what they look for is in themselves though not of themselves but they overlook it The Voice is too still the Seed too small and the Light shineth in Darkness They are abroad and so cannot divide the Spoil But the Woman that lost her Silver found it at Home after she had lighted her Candle and swept her House Do you so too and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know viz. Truth Truth in the Inward Parts so valuable in the sight of God The light of Christ within who is the Light of the World and so a Light to you that tells you the Truth of your Condition leads all that take heed unto it out of Darkness into God's marvellous Light For Light grows upon the Obedient It is sown for the Righteous and their way is a shining Light that shines forth more and more to the perfect day Wherefore O Friends Turn in Turn in I beseech you Where is the Poison There is the Antidote There you want Christ and There you must find him and blessed be God There you may find him Seek and you shall find I testifie for God But then you must seek aright with your whole Heart as Men that seek for their Lives yea for their Eternal Lives Diligently Humbly Patiently as those that can taste no Pleasure Comfort or Satisfaction in any thing else unless you find him whom your Souls want and desire to know and love above all O it is a Travail a Spiritual Travail Let the Carnal Profane World think and say as it will And through This Path you must walk to the City of God that has Eternal Foundations if ever you will come there Well! And what does this blessed Light do for you Why 1. It sets all your Sins in order before you It detects the Spirit of this World in all its Baits and Allurements and shews how Man came to fall from God and the fallen Estate he is in 2. It begets a Sense and Sorrow in such as believe in it for this fearful Lapse You will then see him Distinctly whom you have Pierced and all the Blows and Wounds you have given him by your Disobedience and how you have made him to serve with your Sins and you will Weep and Mourn for it and your Sorrow will be a Godly Sorrow 3. After this it will bring you to the Holy Watch to take Care that you do so no more and that the Enemy surprise you not again Then Thoughts as well as Words and Works will come to Judgment which is the way of Holiness in which the Redeemed of the Lord do walk Here you will come to love God above all and your Neighbours as your selves Nothing Hurts Nothing Harms Nothing makes Afraid on this Holy Mountain Now you come to be Christ's indeed for you are his in Nature and Spirit and not your own And when you are Thus Christ's then Christ is yours and not before And here Communion with the Father and with the Son you will know and the Efficacy of the Blood of Cleansing even the Blood of Jesus Christ that Immaculate Lamb which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel and which cleanseth from all Sin the Consciences of those that through the living Faith come to be sprinkled with it from dead Works to serve the living God To Conclude Behold the Testimony and Doctrine of the People called Quakers Behold their Practice and Discipline And behold the blessed Man and Men at least many of them that were sent of God in this Excellent Work and Service All which is more particularly expressed in the Annals of that Man of God Which I do heartily recommend to my Readers most serious Perusal and beseech Almighty God that his Blessing may go along with both to the Convincement of many as yet Strangers to this Holy Dispensation and also to the Edification of the Church of God in General Who for his manifold and repeated Mercies and Blessings to his People in this day of his great Love is worthy ever to have the Glory Honour Thanksgiving and Renown and be it rendred and ascribed with Fear and Reverence through him in whom he is well pleased his Beloved Son and Lamb our Light and Life that sits with him upon the Throne World without End Amen Says One that God has long since Mercifully favoured with his Fatherly Visitation and who was not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision and Call to whom the Way of Truth is more Lovely and Precious than ever and that knowing the Beauty and Benefit of it above all Worldly Treasure has chosen it for his Chiefest Joy and therefore recommends it to thy Love and Choice because he is with great Sincerity and Affection thy Soul's Friend William Penn. The END
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress Of the People called QUAKERS IN Which their Fundamental Principle Doctrines Worship Ministry and Discipline are Plainly Declared to prevent the Mistakes and Perversions that Ignorance and Prejudice may make to abuse the Credulous With a Summary Relation of the former Dispensations of God in the World by way of Introduction As unknown and yet well known 2 Cor. 6.9 By W. Penn. London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-Street and at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-lane near Shore-ditch 1694. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER READER this Following Account of the People called Quakers c. was writ in the Fear and Love of God First as a standing Testimony to that ever Blessed Truth in the inward Parts with which God in my Youthful time visited my Soul and for the Sense and Love of which I was made willing in no ordinary Way to relinquish the Honours and Interests of the World Secondly as a Testimony for that Despised People that God has in his Great mercy gathered and united by his one blessed Spirit in the Holy Profession of it whose Fellowship I value above all Worldly Greatness Thirdly in Love and Honour to the Memory of that Worthy Servant of God G. Fox the First Instrument thereof and therefore styled by me the Great and Blessed Apostle of our Day As this gave Birth to what is here presented to thy view in the first Edition of it by way of Preface to G. F's excellent Journal so the Consideration of the present usefulness of the following Account of the People called Quakers by reason of the unjust Reflections of some Adversaries that once walked under the Profession of Friends and the Exhortations that conclude it prevailed with me to consent that it should be republisht in a smaller Volume knowing also full well that Great Books especially in these days grow Burthensome both to the Pockets and Minds of too many and that there are not a few that desire so it be at an easie rate to be inform'd about this People that have been so much every where spoken against But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ it is upon no worse Ground than it was said of old time of the Primitive Christians as I hope will appear to every Sober and Considerate Reader Our Business after all the ill usage we have met with being the Realities of Religion an effectual change before our last great change That all may come to an Inward Sensible and Experimental knowledge of God through the Convictions and Operations of the Light and Spirit of Christ in themselves the sufficient and blessed means given to all that thereby all may come savingly to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to Enlighten and Redeem the World Which knowledge is indeed Eternal Life And that thou Reader mayst obtain it is the earnest desire of him that is ever Thine in so good a Work W.P. THE CONTENTS Chap. I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this despised People called Quakers Chap. II. Of the Rise of this People their Fundamental Principle and Doctrines and Practice in twelve Points resulting from it their Progress and Sufferings An Expostulation with England thereupon Chap. III. Of the Qualifications of their Ministry Eleven Marks that it is Christian Chap. IV. Of the Discipline and Practice of this People as a Religious Society The Power Church they own and exercise and that which they reject and Condemn With the Method of their Proceedings against Erring and Disordering Persons Chap. V. Of the First Instrument or Person by whom God was pleased to gather this People into the way they Profess His Name G. Fox his many excellent Qualifications showing a Divine and not a Human Power to have been their Original in him His Troubles and Sufferings both from without and within His End and Triumph at it Chap. VI. Containing Five several Exhortations First General reminding this People of their Primitive Integrity and Simplicity Secondly in Particular to the Ministry Thirdly to the Young convinced Fourthly to the Children of Friends Fifthly to those that are yet Strangers to this People and Way to whom this Book and that it was Preface to in its former Edition may come All the several Exhortations accommodated to their several States and Conditions that all may answer the end of God's love to them viz. God's Glory and their own Salvation A BRIEF ACCOUNT c. CHAP I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this Despised People called Quakers 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 Restauration 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 Jarr 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 Man was deceived and that it was not of Malice or an Original Presumption in him but through the Subtilty of the Serpent who 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
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 Sence and Godly Sorrow for Sin 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 the Sanctification or Purgation of the Soul from the defiling Nature and Habits of Sin Present by the Spirit of Christ in the Soul Which is Justification in the compleat Sence 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 Creatures being made inwardly just through the Cleansing and Sanctfiying Power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the Soul which is commonly called Sanctification But that none can come to know Christ to be their Sacrifice that Reject him as their Sanctifier The End of his coming being to save his People from the Nature and Defilement as well as Guilt of Sin and that therefore those that resist his Light and Spirit make his coming an offering of none effect to them From hence sprang a Second Doctrine they were led to declare as the Mark of the Price of the High Calling to all true Christians viz. Perfection from Sin according to the Scriptures of truth which testifie it to be the End of Christ's coming and the Nature of his Kingdom and for which his Spirit was and is given viz. to be Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect and Holy because God is Holy And this the Apostles laboured for that the Christians should be Sanctified Through-out in Body Soul and Spirit 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 every where according to their Foundation that without this Work were known there was no inheriting the Kingdom of God Thirdly This leads 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 exceeding great Sufferers for their Profession and in some Cases treated worse than the worst of Men yea as the Refuse and Off-scowering 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 which generally speaking has been long lost by Mens 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 he can only be quickned 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 prest was not Notion but Experience no 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 General Doctrines as the larger Branches there sprang forth several particular Doctrines that did exemplifie 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 Faith and Patience to overcome all Injustice and Oppression and Preaching this Doctrine as Christian for others to follow III. Another was The Sufficiency of Truth speaking according to Christ's own form of sound Words of Yea Yea and Nay Nay among Christians without Swearing both from Christ's express Prohibition to Swear at all Mat. 5. and for that they being under the Tye and Bond of Truth in themselves there was 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 simple and uncompounded Answers as Yea and Nay without Asseverations Attestations or Super-natural Vouchers being most suitable to Evangelical Righteousness But offering at the same time to be punisht 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 Prophane 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 Plough-Shares and their Spears into Pruning-Hooks and to learn War no more that so 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 Mens 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 Patience 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 any 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 all its Inconveniencies is generally Preferrable But tho' 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 administred a great Benefit to Mankind Tho' 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 Perswasion 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 was and is They refuse to pay Tythes or Maintenance to a National Ministry and that for two Reasons The one is They believe all compelled Maintenance even to Gospel Ministers to be Unlawful because expresly 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 Humane 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 and is another of their Doctrines and Practices for which they were often Buffetted and Abused They Affirmed it to be sinful to give Flattering Titles or to use Vain Gestures and Complements of Respect Tho' to Virtue and Authority they ever made a Difference but after their Plain and Homely Manner yet sincere and substantial way Well remembering the Examples of Mordecai and Elihu but more especially the Command of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ who forbad his Followers to call Men Rabbi which implies Lord or 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 And tho' this render'd their Conversation disagreeable yet they that will remember what Christ said to the Jews How can ye believe in me who receive honour one of another will abate of their resentment if his Doctrine has any Credit with them VI. 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 Spirits of those they came among shewing 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 Stile of the Scriptures and that it is an absolute and essential Propriety of Speech And what good alas had their Religion done them who were so sensibly toucht with Indignation for the use of this Plain Honest and True Speech VII They recommended Silence by their Example having very few words upon all Occasions They were at a Word in Dealing Nor could their customers many Words tempt them from it having more regard for Truth than Custom to Example than Gain They sought Solitude but when in Company they would neither use nor willingly hear Vnnecessary as well as Vnlawful 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 Burthensom to them And therefore They did not only decline to use them but found themselves often press'd to reprove the Practice VIII 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 Drink more than did People good as well as that it was in it self Vain and Heathenish IX Their way of Marriage is peculiar to them and shews a distinguishing Care above other Societies professing Christianity They say that Marriage is an Ordinance of God and that God only can rightly joyn Man and Woman in Marriage Therefore they use neither Priest nor Magistrate but the Man and Woman concern'd 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 Husband and Wife if the said Meeting have nothing material to object against it They are constantly askt the necessary Questions as in Case of Parents or Guardians if they have acquainted them with their Intention and have their Consent c. The Method of the Meeting is to take a Minute thereof and to appoint Proper Persons to enquire of their Conversation and Clearness from all others and whether they have discharged their Duty to their Parents or Guardians and make report thereof to the next Monthly Meeting where the same Parties are desired to give their Attendance In case it appears they have proceeded Orderly the Meeting Passes their Proposal and so Records it in their Meeting Book And in Case the Woman be a Widow and hath Children due care is there taken that Provision also be made by her for the Orphans before the Meeting pass the Proposal of 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 promise Reciprocally Love and Fidelity after the manner before expressed Of all which Proceedings a Narrative in a way of Certificate is made to which the said Parties first set
Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God A most close and comprehensive Passage to this occasion You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews in that you bear the Name of God's People by being the Children and wearing of the Form of God's People And He by his Light in you may be very well said to come to his own and if you obey it not but turn your Back upon it and walk after the Vanities of your Minds you will be of Those that receive him not which I pray God may never be your Case and Judgment But that you may be thoroughly sensible of the many and great Obligations you lie under to the Lord for his Love and to your Parents for their Care And with all your Heart and all your Soul and all your Strength turn to the Lord to his Gift and Spirit in you and hear his Voice and obey it that you may Seal to the Testimony of your Fathers by the Truth and Evidence of your own Experience that your Childrens Children may bless you and the Lord for you as those that delivered a faithful Example as well as Record of the Truth of God unto them So will the Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Account with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know your Creator to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Holy Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart For there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you might let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff in your minds the Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Sanctified as I have been speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has born the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you For the Saints Faith was their Victory of old By this they overcame Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mould Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain Because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a Notion as that you are in Christ whilst in your old fallen Nature For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or Christ with Beial Hear what the beloved Disciple tells you If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth That is if we go on in a Sinful way are Captivated by our Carnal Affections and are not Converted to God we walk in Darkness and cannot possibly in that state have any Fellowship with God Christ Cloths them with his Righteousness that receive his Grace in their Hearts and deny themselves and take up his Cross daily and follow him Christ's Righteousness makes Men inwardly Holy of Holy Minds Wills and Practices It is never the less Christs because we have it for it is ours not by Nature but by Faith and Adoption It is the Gift of God But still tho' not ours as of or from our selves for in that Sense it is Christ's for it is of and from him yet it is ours and must be ours in Possession Efficacy and Enjoyment to do us any good or Christ's Righteousness will profit us nothing It was after this manner that he was made to the Primitive Christians Righteousness Sanctification Justification and Redemption and if ever you will have the Comfort Kernel and Marrow of the Christian Religion thus you must come to learn and obtain it Now my Friends by what you have Read and will Read in what Follows you may perceive that God has visited a Poor People among you with this saving Knowledge and Testimony Whom he has upheld and encreased to this Day notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal Despise not the Meanness of this Appearance It was and yet is we know a day of small things and of small Account with too many and many hard and ill Names are given to it But it is of God it came from him because it leads to him This we know but we cannot make another know it as we know it unless he will take the same way to know it that we took The World talks of God but what do they do They pray for Power but reject the Principle in which it is If you would know God and Worship and serve