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
most reason to approach him with Reverence and Fear VI. He was of an Innocent Life no Busie-body nor Self-seeker neither Touchy nor Critical What fell from him was very Inoffensive if not very Edifying So Meek Contented Modest Easie Steady Tender it was a pleasure to be in his Company He exercised no Authority but over Evil and that every where and in all but with Love Compassion and Long-suffering A most Merciful Man as ready to Forgive as unapt to take or give an Offence Thousands can truly say he was of an Excellent Spirit and Savour among them and because thereof of the most Excellent Spirits loved him with an unfained and unfading Love VII He was an Incessant Labourer For in his Younger time before his many great and deep Sufferings and Travels had enfeebled his Body for Itinerant Services he laboured much in the Word and Doctrine and Discipline in England Scotland and Ireland turning many to God and confirming those that were convinced of the Truth and setling Good Order as to Church Affairs among them And towards the Conclusion of his Travelling Services between the Years Seventy One and Seventy Seven he Visited the Churches of Christ in the Plantations in America and in the Vnited Provinces and Germany as his Journal Relates to the Convincement and Consolation of many After that time he chiefly resided in and about the City of London and besides his Labour in the Ministry which was Frequent and Serviceable He writ much both to them that are within and those that are without the Communion But the care he took of the Affairs of the Church in General was very great VIII He was often where the Records of the Business of the Church are kept and where the Letters from the many Meetings of God's People over all the World use to come Which Letters he had read to him and Communicated them to the Meeting that is Weekly held there for such Services and he would be sure to stir them up to answer them especially in Suffering Cases Showing great Sympathy and Compassion upon all such Occasions carefully looking into the Respective Cases and endeavouring Speedy Relief according to the Nature of them So that the Churches or any of the Suffering Members thereof were sure not to be forgotten or delayed in their Desires if he were there IX As he was Unwearied so he was Vndaunted in his Services for God and his people He was no more to be moved to Fear than to Wrath. His Behaviour at Darby Litchfield Appleby before Oliver Cromwell at Launston Scarborough Worcester and Westminster-Hall with many other places and Exercises did abundantly evidence it to his Enemies as well as his Friends But as in the Primitive Times some rise up against the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ even from among those that they had turned to the Hope of the Gospel and they became their greatest Trouble so this Man of God had his share of Suffering from some that were convinced by him who through prejudice or mistake ran against him as one that sought Dominion over Conscience because he prest by his presence or Epistles a ready and zealous compliance with such good and wholesome things as tended to an Orderly Conversation about the Affairs of the Church and in their walking before men That which contributed much to this ill Work was in some a begrudging of this Meek Man the love and esteem he had and deserved in the Hearts of the people and weakness in others that were taken with their groundless Suggestions of Imposition and blind Obedience They would have had every man Independent that as he had the Principle in himself he should only stand and fall to that and no Body else Not considering that the Principle is One in all and though the measure of Light or Grace might differ yet the Nature of it was the same and being so they struck at the Spiritual Vnity which a people guided by the same Principle are naturally led into So that what is an evil to One is so to All and what is Vertuous Honest and of good Repute to One is so to All from the Sense and Savour of the One Vniversal Principle which is common to all and which the disaffected also profess to be the Root of all True Christian Fellowship and that Spirit into which the people of God drink and come to be Spiritually-minded and of one Heart and one Soul Some weakly mistook good Order in the Government of Church Affairs for Discipline in Worship and that it was so prest or recommended by Him and other Brethren And thereupon they were ready to reflect the same things that Dissenters had very reasonably objected upon the National Churches that have coercively pressed Conformity to their Respective Creeds and Worships Whereas these things related wholly to Conversation and the Outward and as I may say Civil part of the Church that men should walk up to the Principles of their Belief and not be wanting in Care and Charity But though some have stumbled and fallen through mistakes and an unreasonable Obstinancy even to a Prejudice yet blessed be God the Generality have returned to their First Love and seen the Work of the Enemy that loses no Opportunity or Advantage by which he may check or hinder the Work of God and disquiet the Peace of his Church and chill the Love of his people to the Truth and one to another And there is hope of divers of the few that yet are at a Distance In all these Occasions though there was no Person the Discontented struck so sharply at as this Good Man he bore all their Weakness and Prejudice and returned not Reflection for Reflection but forgave them their weak and bitter Speeches praying for them that they might have a Sense of their hurt and see the Subtilty of the Enemy to Rend and Divide and return into their First Love that thought no Ill. And truly I must say that though God had visibly cloathed him with a Divine Preference and Authority and indeed his very presence exprest a Religious Majesty yet he never abused it but held his place in the Church of God with great Meekness and a most engaging Humility and Moderation For upon all Occasions like his blessed Master he was a Servant to all holding and exercising his Eldership in the Invisible Power that had gathered them with Reverence to the Head and Care over the Body And was received only in that Spirit and Power of Christ as the First and Chief Elder in this Age Who as he was therefore worthy of double Honour so for the same Reason it was given by the Faithful of this day because his Authority was inward and not outward and that he got it and kept it by the Love of God and Power of an Endless Life I write my Knowledge and not Report and my Witness is True having been with him for Weeks and Months together on divers Occasions and those of
us in this Day and that it is not to be heard in the Noises and Hurries of the Mind but is distinctly understood in a Retired Frame Jesus loved and chose Solitudes often going to Mountains to Gardens and Sea-sides to avoid Crowds and Hurries to shew his Disciples it was Good to be Solitary and sit loose to the World Two Enemies lie near your States Imagination and Liberty but the plain practical Living Holy Truth that has convinced you will preserve you if you Mind it in your selves and bring all Thoughts Inclinations and Affections to the Test of It to see if they are wrought in God or of the Enemy or your own selves So will a true Taste Discerning and Judgment be preserved to you of what you should do and leave undone And in your diligence and Faithfulness in this way you will come to inherit Substance and Christ the Eternal Wisdom will fill your Treasury And when you are Converted as well as Convinced then confirm your Brethren and be ready to every good Word and Work that the Lord shall call you to that you may be to his Praise who has chosen you to be partakers with the Saints in Light of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Inheritance incorruptible in Eternal Habitations And now as for you that are the Children of God's People a Great Concern is upon my Spirit for your good And often are my Knees Bowed to the God of your Fathers for you that you may come to be partakers of the same Divine Life and Power that have been the Glory of this Day that a Generation you may be to God an Holy Nation and a Peculiar People Zealous of Good Works when all our Heads are laid in the Dust Oh you Young Men and Women let it not suffice you that you are the Children of the People of the Lord you must also be born again if you will inherit the Kingdom of God Your Fathers are but such after the Flesh and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam by a Spiritual Generation or you will not you cannot be of his Children or Off-spring And therefore look carefully about you Oh ye Children of the Children of God! Consider your Standing and see what you are in Relation to this Divine Kindred Family and Birth Have you obeyed the Light and received and walked in the Spirit which is the incorruptible Seed of the Word and Kingdom of God of which you must be born again God is no respecter of Persons The Father cannot save or answer for the Child or the Child for the Father but in the Sin thou Sinnest thou shalt die and in the Righteousness thou doest through Christ Jesus thou shalt live for it is the Willing and Obedient that shall eat the Good of the Land Be not deceived God is not mocked such as all Nations and People Sow such they shall reap at the hand of the just God And then your many and great Priviledges above the Children of other People will add weight in the scale against you if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and not only good Doctrine but good Example and which is more you have been turned to and acquainted with a Principle in your selves which others have been ignorant of And you know you may be as Good as you please without the Fear of Frowns and Blows or being turned out of doors and forsaken of Father and Mother for God's Sake and his Holy Religion as has been the Case of some of your Fathers in the day they first entred into this Holy Path. And if you after hearing and seeing the Wonders that God has wrought in the deliverance and preservation of them through a Sea of Troubles and the manifold Temporal as well as spiritual Blessings that he has filled them with in the sight of their Enemies you should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and so near a Salvation you would not only be most ungrateful Children to God and them but must expect that God will call the Children of those that knew him not to take the Crown out of your Hands and that your lot will be a dreadful Judgment at the hand of the Lord. But Oh that it may never be so with any of you The Lord forbid saith my Soul Wherefore Oh ye Young Men and Women look to the Rock of your Fathers chuse the God of your Fathers There is no other God but him no other Light but his no other Grace but his nor Spirit but his to Convince you Quicken and Comfort you to Lead Guide and Preserve you to God's Everlasting Kingdom So will you be Possessors as well as Professors of the Truth embracing it not only by Education but Judgment and Conviction From a Sense begotten in your Souls through the operation of the Eternal Spirit and Power of God by which you may come to be the Seed of Abraham through Faith and the circumcision not made with Hands and so Heirs of the Promise made to the Fathers of an Incorruptible Crown That as I said before a Generation you may be to God holding up the Profession of the blessed Truth in the Life and Power of it For Formality in Religion is Nauseous to God and good Men and the more so where any Form or Appearance has been new and peculiar and begun and practised upon a Principle with an Vncommon Zeal and Strictness Therefore I say for you to fall flat and formal and continue the profession without that Salt and Savour by which it is come to obtain a good Report among Men is not to answer God's Love or your Parents Care or the mind of Truth in your selves or in those that are without Who tho' they will not obey the Truth have Sight and Sense enough to see if they do that make a Profession of it For where the Divine Virtue of it is not felt in the Soul and waited for and lived in imperfections will quickly break out and shew themselves and detect the Unfaithfulness of such Persons and that their Insides are not seasoned with the Nature of that holy Principle which they profess Wherefore Dear Children let me intreat you to shut your Eyes at the Temptations and Allurements of this Low and Perishing World and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those Lusts and Vanities that your Fathers for the Truths Sake long since turned their Backs upon But as you believe it to be the Truth receive it into your Hearts that you may become the Children of God So that it may never be said of you as the Evangelist Writes of the Jews of his time That Christ the true Light came to his own but his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Children of God which were born not of
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
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 stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and worship crouded 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 others which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Groce and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ But always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity allows of no Name or Pretence whatever for persecuting of any Man for matters of meer 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 needs keep her good Name of the Lambs-bride the True Church and Mother of the Faithful Constraining all to receive her Mark either in their Forehead or Right hand that is publickly or privately But Indeed 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 Lustrious as when she was in her former Splendor 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 lookt 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 and Inoffensive 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 those 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 extream they run into another And for Worship there was for the generality more of man in it than of God They owned the Spirit Inspiration and Revelation indeed and grounded their Separation and Reformation upon the Sence and Vnderstanding they received from it in the Reading of the Scriptures of Truth And this was their Plea The Scripture is the Text the Spirit the Interpreter and that to every one for himself But yet there was too much of humane 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 in England to shift us 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 Catechizing of Children and Servants and Repeating at Home in their Families what they had heard in publick 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 Terrours of its Judgments and Punishment by which the former Party would have awed People into Religion They also allowed greater liberty to Prophecy 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 any thing pressing upon them to either Duty even without the Distinction of Clergy or Laity Persons of any Trade had their Liberty 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 cryed down National Churches and Ministry and Maintenance too some of them when it was their own turn to be Tryed 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 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
the nearest and most exercising Nature and that by Night and by Day by Sea and by Land in this and in Foreign Countries And I can say I never saw him out of his Place or not a Match for every Service or Occasion For in all things he acquitted himself like a Man yea a strong Man a New and Heavenly-minded Man A Divine and a Naturalist and all of God Almighty's making I have been surprised at his Questions and Answers in Natural things That whilst he was Ignorant of useless and Sophistical Science he had in him the Grounds of useful and commendable Knowledge and cherisht it every where Civil beyond all Forms of Breeding in his Behaviour Very Temperate Eating Little and Sleeping Less though a Bulky Person Thus he Lived and Sojourned among us And as he lived so he died feeling the same Eternal Power that had raised and preserved him in his last Moments So full of Assurance was he that he Triumpht over Death and so even in his Spirit to the last as if Death were hardly worth Notice or a mention Recommending to some of us with him the Dispatch and Dispersion of an Epistle just before given forth by him to the Churches of Christ throughout the World and his own Books But above all Friends and of all Friends those in Ireland and America twice over Saying Mind poor Friends in Ireland and America And to some that came in and enquired how he found himself he answered Never heed the Lord's Power is over all Weakness and Death the Seed reigns Blessed be the Lord Which was about Four or Five Hours before his Departure out of this World He was at the great Meeting near Lombard-street on the First Day of the Week and it was the Third following about Ten at Night When he left us being at the House of H. Goldney in the same Court. In a good Old Age he went after having lived to see his Childrens Children to many Generations in the Truth He had the Comfort of a short Illness and the Blessing of a clear Sense to the last And we may truly say with a Man of God of Old that being Dead he yet Speaketh And though now absent in Body he is Present in Spirit Neither Time nor Place being able to interrupt the Communion of Saints or dissolve the Fellowships of the Spirits of the Just His Works praise him because they are to the praise of him that worked by him for which his Memorial is and shall be blessed I have done as to this part of my Preface when I have left this short Epitaph to his Name Many Sons have done virtuously in this Day but Dear George thou Excellest them All. CHAP. VI. Containing Five several Exhortations First General reminding this People of their Primitive Inâ—egrity 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 Presace 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 AND now Friends you that profess to walk in the way that this Blessed Man was sent of God to turn us into suffer I beseech you the word of Exhortation as well Fathers as Children and Elders as Young Men. The Glory of this Day and Foundation of the Hope that has not made us ashamed since we were a People you know is that Blessed Principle of Light and Life of Christ which we profess and Direct all people to as the great and Divine Instrument and Agent of Man's Conversion to God It was by this that we were first Touched and effectually enlightned as to our Inward State which put us upon the Consideration of our Latter End causing us to set the Lord before our Eyes and to Number our Days that we might apply our Hearts to Wisdom In that Day we judged not after the Sight of the Eye or after the Hearing of the Ear but according to the Light and Sense this Blessed Principle gave us so we judged and acted in reference to Things and Persons our selves and others yea towards God our Maker For being quickned by it in our Inward Man we could easily discern the difference of things and feel what was Right and what was Wrong and what was Fit and what not both in reference to Religious and Civil Concerns That being the ground of the Fellowship of all Saints it was in That our Fellowship stood In this we desired to have a Sense one of another acted towards one another and all Men in Love Faithfulness and Fear In the feeling of the Stirrings and Motions of this Principle in our Hearts we drew near to the Lord and waited to be prepared by it that we might feel Drawings and Movings before we approached the Lord in Prayer or open'd our Mouths in Ministry And in our Beginning and Ending with This stood our Comfort Service and Edification And as we ran faster or fell short we made Burthens for our selves to bear our Services finding in our selves a Rebuke instead of an Acceptance and in lieu of Well done who has required this at your hands In that day we were an Exercised People our very Countenances and Deportment declared it Care for others was then much upon us as well as for our selves especially of the Young Convinced Often had we the Burthen of the Word of the Lord to our Neighbours Relations and Acquaintance and sometimes Strangers also We were in Travail likewise for one anothers Preservation Not seeking but shuning Occasions of any Coldness or Misunderstanding treating one another as those that believed and felt God present Which kept our Conversation Innocent Serious and Weighty guarding our selves against the Cares and Friendships of the World We held the Truth in the Spirit of it and not in our own Spirits or after our own Wills and Affections They were bowed and brought into Subjection in so much that it was visible to them that knew us we did not think our selves at our own Dispose to go where we List or say or do what we List or when we List Our Liberty stood in the Liberty of the Spirit of Truth and no Pleasure no Profit no Fear no Favour could draw us from this retired strict and watchful Frame We were so far from seeking occasions of Company that we avoided them what we could pursuing our own Business with Moderation instead of medling with other Peoples Unnecessarily Our Words were Few and Savoury our Looks Composed and Weighty and our whole Deportment very Observable True it is that this Retired and strict sort of Life from the Liberty of the Conversation of the World exposed us to the Censures of many as Humourists Conceited and Self-righteous Persons c. But it was our Preservation from many Snares