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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of
+the People Called Quakers, by William Penn
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers
+
+
+Author: William Penn
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2006  [eBook #19377]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND
+PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS***
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1834 Harrison and Crosfield edition by David Price,
+email ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+
+
+
+
+                             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.
+
+
+ WITH A SUMMARY RELATION OF THE FORMER DISPENSATIONS OF GOD IN THE WORLD;
+                         BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.
+
+                             BY WILLIAM PENN.
+
+    AS UNKNOWN, AND YET WELL KNOWN.  2 COR. VI. 9.
+
+                             TWELFTH EDITION.
+
+                               MANCHESTER:
+
+          _Printed by Harrison and Crosfield_, _Market Street_.
+
+                                 SOLD BY
+
+               HARVEY & DARTON, GRACECHURCH STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                  1834.
+
+
+
+
+AN EPISTLE TO THE READER.
+
+
+Reader, this following account of the people called Quakers, &c. was
+written 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 own 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, George 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 George Fox'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 republished
+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 easy rate,
+to be informed 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 grounds 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 and 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.
+
+WILLIAM PENN.
+
+
+
+
+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 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 work 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 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
+provided 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; was present with them in their temptations, 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, and 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, by the apostle Paul, that of a schoolmaster, which was 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 top of the Mosaical dispensation, which
+ended in John's ministry, the forerunner of the Messiah, as John's was
+finished in him, the fulness of all.  And then God, that at sundry times,
+and in divers manners, had spoken to the fathers by his servants the
+prophets, spoke to men 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 rise 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 peacemakers, the pure in heart, the
+merciful and 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, by his own Son, declared and
+preached a Spirit, and that he will be known as such, and worshipped in
+the spirit and in the truth.  He will now 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 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 come by Christ, and appear in
+man, were that divine principle the apostles ministered from, and turned
+people's minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the church
+of Christ in their day.  For which cause they advise them not to quench
+the spirit, but to 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 baptized with his
+baptism of self-denial; the way and path that all the heirs of life have
+ever 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 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 of 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 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, 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 of any man for matters of mere 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 Lamb's bride,
+the true church, and mother of the faithful: constraining all to receive
+her mark, either in their forehead, or right-hand; that is, 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 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 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 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
+extreme, they ran 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 sense and understanding 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 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 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 catechising of
+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 awed 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 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 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
+further, 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 also made 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 snare.  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 that of 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, 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 fulfilling 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 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 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+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_.
+
+At was about that very time, as you may see in George Fox's 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
+day-spring from on high; yea, with a more 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, 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
+manifestations 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, but they gave up to obey him in a testimony to
+his power: and that with resigned wills and faithful hearts, through all
+mockings, contradictions, confiscations, 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 a 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 all 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 should be turned off
+from the vanity of the world, and its lifeless ways and teachers, and
+adhere to his 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, over-run with briers 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 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 in the inward parts, 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 the rabble: that it may be said
+of this abused and despised people, they went forth weeping, and sowed in
+tears, bearing testimony to the precious seed, even 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 light, and out of the broad into the narrow way of life and
+peace: bringing people to a weighty, serious, and God-like 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 considered; the doctrine they taught, and the
+example they led among all people.  I have already touched upon their
+fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric: and,
+indeed, 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 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 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.  But 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, therefore, those that resist
+his light and Spirit, make his coming and offering of none effect to
+them.
+
+From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the mark
+of the prize of the high calling to all true Christians, viz. Perfection
+from sin, according to the scriptures of truth; which testify 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 throughout 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 everywhere, according to their foundation, that unless this work
+was known, there was no inheriting of 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 most miserable, who, for above 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-scouring
+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 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 he can only 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 these 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 shall ever see the Lord with comfort.
+
+Besides these general doctrines, as the larger branches, there sprang
+forth several particular doctrines, that did exemplify and farther
+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 mouths
+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. v.) and for that, they being under the tie 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 asseveration, attestation, or supernatural vouchers,
+being most suitable to evangelical righteousness.  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 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 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 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 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 was, and is, they refuse
+to pay tithes 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 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 these 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, and is, 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
+deference; 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
+forbade 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 state, might not be indulged, but rebuked.  And though this
+rendered their conversation disagreeable, yet they that will remember
+what Christ said to the Jews, "How can you believe which receive honour
+one of another?" will abate of their resentment, if his doctrine has any
+credit with them.
+
+VII.  They also used the plain language of Thee and Thou, 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; showing their insides, and what predominated,
+notwithstanding their high and great profession of religion.  This among
+the rest sounded harsh to many of them, and they took it ill, 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, alas! 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 or
+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
+unthankfully 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 burthensome 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 drink 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 shows a distinguishing
+care above 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 to each
+other, with God's assistance, to be loving and faithful in that relation,
+till death shall separate them.  But antecedent to 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 asked the necessary questions, {25} 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 inquire of their
+conversation and clearness from all others, and whether they have
+discharged their duty to their parents or guardians; and to make report
+thereof to the next monthly meeting, where the same parties are desired
+to give their attendance. {26}  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 proposals 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 way of certificate is made, to which the said parties first set their
+hands, thereby confirming it as their act and deed; and then divers
+relations, spectators, and auditors, set their names as witnesses of what
+they said and signed.  And this 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 by cross and ill people disputed and
+contested, for want of the accustomed formalities of priest and ring,
+&c.--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 of the inconveniences, with which other methods are attended; their
+care and checks being so many, and such, as 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 of too many called Christians.
+For births, the parents name their own children; which is usually some
+days after they are born, in the presence of the midwife, if she can be
+there, and those that were at the birth, who afterwards 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 body
+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 burying-ground.  And it so falls out sometimes, that while the
+meeting is gathering for the burial, {27} some or other has a word of
+exhortation, for the sake of the people there met together.  After which
+the body is borne away by young men, or else those that are of their
+neighbourhood, or those that were most of the intimacy of 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 the last leave of the
+body 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 ever wear mourning;
+{28} 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, or for civil distinction, as some have fancied; but a
+fruit of inward sense, which God through his holy fear, had begotten in
+them.  They did not consider how to contradict the world, or distinguish
+themselves as a party from others; it being none of their business, as it
+was not their interest; no, it was not the result of consultation, or a
+framed design, by which 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 it was that
+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 the 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 that 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 these people stingy and conceited in
+such persons' opinion; there was and is more in them, than they were, or
+are, 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 here 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
+high pretences to another: in that any disappointment about them came so
+very near them, as that the greatest honesty, virtue, wisdom, and
+ability, were unwelcome without them.  Secondly, it seasonably and
+profitably divided conversation; for this 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.
+
+And also some among them wanted not for parts, learning, or estate;
+though then as of old, not many wise, or noble, &c, were called; or, at
+least, received the heavenly call, because of the cross that attended the
+profession of it in sincerity.  But neither do parts or learning make men
+the better Christians, though the better orators and disputants; and it
+is the ignorance of people about the divine gift, that causes that vulgar
+and mischievous mistake.  Theory and practice, speculation and enjoyment,
+words and life, are two things.  O! it is the penitent, the reformed, the
+lowly, the watchful, the self-denying, and holy soul, that is the
+Christian!  And that frame is the fruit and work of the Spirit, which is
+the life of Jesus; whose life, though hid in the fulness of it in God the
+Father, is shed abroad in the hearts of them that truly believe,
+according to their capacity.  O that people did but know this to cleanse
+them, to circumcise them, to quicken them, and to make them new creatures
+indeed! recreated, or regenerated, after Christ Jesus unto good works;
+that they might live to God, and not to themselves; and offer up living
+prayers and living praises to the living God, through his own living
+Spirit, in which he is only to be worshipped in this gospel day.
+
+O that they that read me could but feel me! for my heart is affected with
+this merciful visitation of the Father of lights and spirits to this poor
+nation, and the whole world through the same testimony.  Why should the
+inhabitants thereof reject it?  Why should they lose the blessed benefit
+of it?  Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their hearts, and
+say from the heart, Speak Lord, for now thy poor servants hear: O that
+thy will may be done, thy great, thy good, and holy will, in earth as it
+is in heaven! do it in us, do it upon us, do what thou wilt with us; for
+we are thine, and desire to glorify thee our Creator, both for that, and
+because thou art our Redeemer; for thou art redeeming us from the earth,
+from the vanities and pollutions of it, to be a peculiar people unto
+thee.  O! this were a brave day for England, if so she could say in
+truth! but alas, the case is otherwise! for which some of thine
+inhabitants, O land of my nativity! have mourned over thee with bitter
+wailing and lamentation.  Their heads have been, indeed, as waters, and
+their eyes as fountains of tears, because of thy transgression and
+stiffneckedness; because thou wilt not hear, and fear, and return to the
+Rock, even thy Rock, O England! from whence thou art hewn.  But be thou
+warned, O land of great profession, to receive him into thy heart.
+Behold, at that door it is he hath stood so long knocking; but thou wilt
+yet have none of him.  O! be thou awakened! lest Jerusalem's judgments do
+swiftly overtake thee, because of Jerusalem's sins that abound in thee.
+For she abounded in formality, but made void the weighty things of God's
+law, as thou daily dost.
+
+She withstood the Son of God in the flesh, and thou resistest the Son of
+God in the Spirit.  He would have gathered her, as a hen gathereth her
+chickens under her wings, and she would not; so would he have gathered
+thee out of thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to inherit
+substance; to have known his power and kingdom: for which he often
+knocked within, by his grace and Spirit; and without, by his servants and
+witnesses: but, on the contrary, as Jerusalem of old persecuted the
+manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh, and crucified him, and
+whipped and imprisoned his servants; so hast thou, O land! crucified to
+thyself afresh the Lord of life and glory, and done despite to his Spirit
+of grace; slighting the fatherly visitation, and persecuting the blessed
+dispensers of it by thy laws and magistrates: though they have early and
+late pleaded with thee in the power and Spirit of the Lord; in love and
+meekness, that thou mightest know the Lord, and serve him, and become the
+glory of all lands.
+
+But thou hast evilly entreated and requited them, thou hast set at nought
+all their counsel, and wouldst have none of their reproof, as thou
+shouldst have had.  Their appearance was too straight, and their
+qualifications were too mean for thee to receive them; like the Jews of
+old, that cried, Is not this the Carpenter's Son, and are not his
+brethren among us; which of the scribes, of the learned (the orthodox)
+believe in him?  Prophesying their fall in a year or two, and making and
+executing of severe laws to bring it to pass: endeavouring to terrify
+them out of their holy way, or destroy them for abiding faithful to it.
+But thou hast seen how many governments that rose against them, and
+determined their downfall, have been overturned and extinguished, and
+that they are still preserved, and become a great and a considerable
+people, among the middle sort of thy numerous inhabitants.  And
+notwithstanding the many difficulties without and within, which they have
+laboured under, since the Lord God eternal first gathered them, they are
+an increasing people; the Lord still adding unto them, in divers parts,
+such as shall be saved, if they persevere to the end.  And to thee, O
+England! were they, and are they lifted up as a standard, and as a city
+set upon a hill, and to the nations round about thee, that in their light
+thou mayst come to see light, even in Christ Jesus the light of the
+world, and, therefore, thy light and life too, if thou wouldst but turn
+from thy many evil ways, and receive and obey it.  "For in the light of
+the Lamb must the nations of them that are saved walk," as the scripture
+testifies.
+
+Remember, O nation of great profession! how the Lord has waited upon thee
+since the dawning reformation, and the many mercies and judgments by
+which he has pleaded with thee; and awake and arise out of thy deep
+sleep, and yet hear his word in thy heart, that thou mayst live.
+
+Let not this thy day of visitation pass over thy head, nor neglect thou
+so great salvation as is this which is come to thy house, O England! for
+why shouldst thou die?  O land that God desires to bless, be assured it
+is he that has been in the midst of this people, in the midst of thee,
+and not a delusion, as thy mistaken teachers have made thee believe.  And
+this thou shalt find by their marks and fruits, if thou wilt consider
+them in the spirit of moderation.
+
+
+
+CHAP.  III.
+
+
+_Of the Qualifications of their Ministry_.  _Eleven marks that it is
+Christian_.
+
+I.  They were changed men themselves, before they went about to change
+others.  Their hearts were rent, as well as their garments; and they knew
+the power and work of God upon them.  And this was seen by the great
+alteration it made, and their stricter course of life, and more godly
+conversation that immediately followed upon it.
+
+II.  They went not forth, or preached, in their own time or will, but in
+the will of God; and spoke not their own studied matters, but as they
+were opened and moved of his Spirit, with which they were well acquainted
+in their own conversion: which cannot be expressed to carnal men, so as
+to give them any intelligible account; for to such it is, as Christ said,
+like the blowing of the wind, which no man knows whence it cometh, or
+whither it goeth.  Yet this proof and seal went along with their
+ministry, that many were turned from their lifeless professions, and the
+evil of their ways, to an inward and experimental knowledge of God, and a
+holy life, as thousands can witness.  And as they freely received what
+they had to say from the Lord, so they freely administered it to others.
+
+III.  The bent and stress of their ministry was conversion to God;
+regeneration and holiness.  Not schemes of doctrines and verbal creeds,
+or new forms of worship: but a leaving off in religion the superfluous,
+and reducing the ceremonious and formal part, and pressing earnestly the
+substantial, the necessary and profitable part to the soul; as all, upon
+a serious reflection, must and do acknowledge.
+
+IV.  They directed people to a principle in themselves, though not of
+themselves, by which all that they asserted, preached, and exhorted
+others to, might be wrought in them, and known to them, through
+experience, to be true; which is a high and distinguishing mark of the
+truth of their ministry, both that they knew what they said, and were not
+afraid of coming to the test.  For as they were bold from certainty, so
+they required conformity upon no human authority, but upon conviction,
+and the conviction of this principle, which they asserted was in them
+that they preached unto: and unto that they directed them, that they
+might examine and prove the reality of those things which they had
+affirmed of it, as to its manifestation and work in man.  And this is
+more than the many ministers in the world pretended to.  They declare of
+religion, say many things true, in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit;
+of holiness and heaven; that all men should repent and amend their lives,
+or they will go to hell, &c.  But which of them all pretend to speak of
+their own knowledge and experience; or ever directed to a divine
+principle, or agent, placed of God in man, to help him; and how to know
+it, and wait to feel its power to work that good and acceptable will of
+God in them?
+
+Some of them, indeed, have spoken of the spirit, and the operations of it
+to sanctification, and performance of worship to God; but where and how
+to find it, and wait in it, to perform our duty to God, was yet as a
+mystery to be declared by this farther degree of reformation.  So that
+this people did not only in words, more than equally press repentance,
+conversion, and holiness, but did it knowingly and experimentally; and
+directed those, to whom they preached, to a sufficient principle; and
+told them where it was, and by what tokens they might know it, and which
+way they might experience the power and efficacy of it to their souls'
+happiness.  Which is more than theory and speculation, upon which most
+other ministers depend: for here is certainty; a bottom upon which man
+may boldly appear before God in the great day of account.
+
+V.  They reached to the inward state and condition of people; which is an
+evidence of the virtue of their principle, and of their ministering from
+it, and not from their own imaginations, glosses, or comments upon
+scripture.  For nothing reaches the heart, but what is from the heart; or
+pierces the conscience, but what comes from a living conscience; insomuch
+as it hath often happened, where people have under secrecy revealed their
+state or condition to some choice friends, for advice or ease, they have
+been so particularly directed in the ministry of this people, that they
+have challenged their friends with discovering their secrets, and telling
+their preachers their cases, to whom a word hath not been spoken.  Yea,
+the very thoughts and purposes of the hearts of many have been so plainly
+detected, that they have, like Nathaniel, cried out, of this inward
+appearance of Christ, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of
+Israel."  And those that have embraced this divine principle, have found
+this mark of its truth and divinity, that the woman of Samaria did of
+Christ when in the flesh, to be the Messiah, viz. It had told them all
+that ever they had done; shown them their insides, the most inward
+secrets of their hearts, and laid judgment to the line, and righteousness
+to the plummet; of which thousands can at this day give in their witness.
+So that nothing has been affirmed by this people, of the power and virtue
+of this heavenly principle, that such as have turned to it have not found
+true, and more; and that one half had not been told to them of what they
+have seen of the power, purity, wisdom, and goodness of God therein.
+
+VI.  The accomplishments, with which this principle fitted even some of
+the meanest of this people for their work and service, furnishing some of
+them with an extraordinary understanding in divine things, and an
+admirable, fluency, and taking-way of expression, gave occasion to some
+to wonder, saying of them, as of their Master, "Is not this such a
+mechanic's son, how came he by this learning?"  As from thence others
+took occasion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuits in disguise, who
+had the reputation of learned men for an age past; though there was not
+the least ground of truth for any such reflection; in that their
+ministers are known, the places of their abode, their kindred and
+education.
+
+VII.  That they came forth low, and despised, and hated, as the primitive
+Christians did; and not by the help of worldly wisdom or power, as former
+reformations in part have done: but in all things it may be said, this
+people were brought forth in the cross; in a contradiction to the ways,
+worships, fashions, and customs of this world; yea, against wind and
+tide, that so no flesh might glory before God.
+
+VIII.  They could have no design to themselves in this work, thus to
+expose themselves to scorn and abuse; to spend and be spent; leaving wife
+and children, house and land, and all that can be accounted dear to men,
+with their lives in their hands, being daily in jeopardy, to declare this
+primitive message revived in their spirits, by the good Spirit and power
+of God, viz.
+
+That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; and that he has sent
+his Son a light into the world, to enlighten all men in order to
+salvation; and that they that say they have fellowship with God, and are
+his children and people, and yet walk in darkness, viz. in disobedience
+to the light in their consciences, and after the vanity of this world,
+lie and do not the truth.  But that all such as love the light, and bring
+their deeds to it, and walk in the light, as God is light, the blood of
+Jesus Christ his Son should cleanse them from all sin.  Thus John i. 4.
+19.  Chap. iii. 20, 21.  1 John i. 5, 6, 7.
+
+IX.  Their known great constancy and patience in suffering for their
+testimony in all the branches of it; and that sometimes unto death, by
+beatings, bruisings, long and crowded imprisonments, and noisome
+dungeons: four of them in New England dying by the hands of the
+executioner, purely for preaching amongst that people: besides
+banishments, and excessive plunders and sequestrations of their goods and
+estates, almost in all parts, not easily to be expressed, and less to
+have been endured, but by those that have the support of a good and
+glorious cause; refusing deliverance by any indirect ways or means, as
+often as it was offered unto them.
+
+X.  That they did not only not show any disposition to revenge, when it
+was at any time in their power, but forgave their cruel enemies; showing
+mercy to those that had none for them.
+
+XI.  Their plainness with those in authority, like the ancient prophets,
+not fearing to tell them to their faces, of their private and public
+sins; and their prophesies to them of their afflictions and downfal, when
+in the top of their glory: also of some national judgments, as of the
+plague, and fire of London, in express terms; and likewise particular
+ones to divers persecutors, which accordingly overtook them; and were
+very remarkable in the places where they dwelt, which in time may be made
+public for the glory of God.
+
+Thus, reader, thou seest this people in their rise, principles, ministry,
+and progress, both their general and particular testimony; by which thou
+mayst be informed how, and upon what foot, they sprang, and became so
+considerable a people.  It remains next, that I show also their care,
+conduct, and discipline as a Christian and reformed society, that they
+might be found living up to their own principles and profession.  And
+this the rather, because they have hardly suffered more in their
+character from the unjust charge of error, than by the false imputation
+of disorder: which calumny, indeed, has not failed to follow all the true
+steps that were ever made to reformation, and under which reproach none
+suffered more than the primitive Christians themselves, that were the
+honour of Christianity, and the great lights and examples of their own
+and succeeding ages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+
+_Of the discipline and practice of this people_, _as a religious
+society_.  _The church power they own and exercise_, _and that which they
+reject and condemn_: _with the method of their proceedings against erring
+and disorderly persons_.
+
+This people increasing daily both in town and country, a holy care fell
+upon some of the elders among them, for the benefit and service of the
+church.  And the first business in their view, after the example of the
+primitive saints, was the exercise of charity; to supply the necessities
+of the poor, and answer the like occasions.  Wherefore collections were
+early and liberally made for that and divers other services in the
+church, and intrusted with faithful men, fearing God, and of good report,
+who were not weary in well doing; adding often of their own in large
+proportions, which they never brought to account, or desired should be
+known, much less restored to them, that none might want, nor any service
+be retarded or disappointed.
+
+They were also very careful, that every one that belonged to them,
+answered their profession in their behaviour among men, upon all
+occasions; that they lived peaceably, and were in all things good
+examples.  They found themselves engaged to record their sufferings and
+services: and in the case of marriage, which they could not perform in
+the usual methods of the nation, but among themselves, they took care
+that all things were clear between the parties and all others: and it was
+then rare, that any one entertained an inclination to a person on that
+account, till he or she had communicated it secretly to some very weighty
+and eminent friends among them, that they might have a sense of the
+matter; looking to the counsel and unity of their brethren as of great
+moment to them.  But because the charge of the poor, the number of
+orphans, marriages, sufferings, and other matters, multiplied; and that
+it was good that the churches were in some way and method of proceeding
+in such affairs among them, to the end they might the better correspond
+upon occasion, where a member of one meeting might have to do with one of
+another; it pleased the Lord, in his wisdom and goodness, to open the
+understanding of the first instrument of this dispensation of life, about
+a good and orderly way of proceeding; who felt a holy concern to visit
+the churches in person throughout this nation, to begin and establish it
+among them: and by his epistles, the like was done in other nations and
+provinces abroad; which he also afterwards visited, and helped in that
+service, as shall be observed when I come to speak of him.
+
+Now the care, conduct, and discipline, I have been speaking of, and which
+are now practised among this people, is as followeth.
+
+This godly elder, in every county where he travelled, exhorted them that
+some, out of every meeting of worship, should meet together once in the
+month, to confer about the wants and occasions of the church.  And, as
+the case required, so those monthly meetings were fewer or more in number
+in every respective county; four or six meetings of worship, usually
+making one monthly meeting of business.  And accordingly, the brethren
+met him from place to place, and began the said meetings, viz. For the
+poor, orphans, orderly walking, integrity to their profession, births,
+marriages, burials, sufferings, &c.  And that these monthly meetings
+should, in each county, make up one quarterly meeting, where the most
+zealous and eminent friends of the county should assemble to communicate,
+advise, and help one another, especially when any business seemed
+difficult, or a monthly meeting was tender of determining a matter.
+
+Also that these several quarterly meetings should digest the reports of
+their monthly meetings, and prepare one for each respective county,
+against the yearly meeting, in which all quarterly meetings resolve;
+which is held in London: where the churches in this nation, and other
+nations {43a} and provinces, meet by chosen members of their respective
+counties, both mutually to communicate their church affairs, and to
+advise, and be advised in any depending case, to edification.  Also to
+provide a requisite stock for the discharge of general expenses for
+general services in the church, not needful to be here particularized.
+{43b}
+
+At these meetings any of the members of the churches may come, if they
+please, and speak their minds freely, in the fear of God, to any matter;
+but the mind of each quarterly meeting, therein represented, 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 refer 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 {44} 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, unity, and charity.  Of all which
+proceedings in yearly, monthly, and quarterly 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
+churches' 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
+unity, 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 wholesome order settled 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 longer of their
+communion, or that they will stand charged with the behaviour of such
+transgressors, or their conversation, until 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 refer to their own
+character and profession, and which distinguish them from all other
+professors of Christianity; avoiding two extremes upon which many split,
+viz. persecution and libertinism, that is, a coercive power to whip
+people into the temple; that such as will not conform, though against
+faith and conscience, shall be punished 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 extreme, nothing has
+more contributed than the abuse of church power, by such as suffer their
+passion 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 extreme sufferings, as well as their known principle
+for a universal liberty of conscience.
+
+On the other hand, they equally dislike an independency 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 practise 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 use and limit of church power.  They
+compel none to them, but oblige those that are of them to walk suitably,
+or they are denied 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 members of it.
+
+The way of their proceeding against such as have lapsed or transgressed,
+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 virtue, 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 party's 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, upbraid 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 which 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 George 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_.
+
+I am now come to the third head or branch of my preface, viz. the
+instrumental author.  For it is natural for some to say, Well, here is
+the people and work, but where and who was the man, the instrument?  He
+that in this age was sent to begin this work and people?  I shall, as God
+shall enable me, declare who and what he was; not only by report of
+others, but from my own long and most inward converse, and intimate
+knowledge of him; for which my soul blesseth God, as it hath often done:
+and I doubt not, but by that time I have discharged myself of this part
+of my preface, my serious readers will believe I had good cause so to do.
+
+The blessed instrument of, and in this day of God, and of whom I am now
+about to write, was George Fox, distinguished from another of that name,
+by that other's addition of younger to his name, in all his writings; not
+that he was so in years, but that he was so in the truth: but he was also
+a worthy man, witness, and servant of God in his time.
+
+But this George Fox was born in Leicestershire, about the year 1624.  He
+descended of honest and sufficient parents, who endeavoured to bring him
+up, as they did the rest of their children, in the way and worship of the
+nation: especially his mother, who was a woman accomplished above most of
+her degree in the place where she lived.  But from a child he appeared of
+another frame of mind than the rest of his brethren; being more
+religious, inward, still, solid, and observing beyond his years, as the
+answers he would give, and the questions he would put, upon occasion,
+manifested, to the astonishment of those that heard him, especially in
+divine things.
+
+His mother, taking notice of his singular temper, and the gravity,
+wisdom, and piety, that very early shined through him, refusing childish
+and vain sports, and company, when very young, was tender and indulgent
+over him, so that from her he met with little difficulty.  As to his
+employment, he was brought up in country business, and as he took most
+delight in sheep, so he was very skilful in them; an employment that very
+well suited his mind in several respects, both for its innocency and
+solitude; and was a just emblem of his after ministry and service.
+
+I shall not break in upon his own account, which is by much the best that
+can be given, and therefore desire what I can, to avoid saying anything
+of what is said already, as to the particular passages of his coming
+forth: but, in general, when he was somewhat above twenty, he left his
+friends, and visited the most retired and religious people in those
+parts; and some there were in this nation, who waited for the consolation
+of Israel, night and day; as Zacharias, Anna, and good old Simeon did of
+old time.  To these he was sent, and these he sought out in the
+neighbouring counties, and among them he sojourned till his more ample
+ministry came upon him.  At this time he taught, and was an example of,
+silence, endeavouring to bring them from self-performances; testifying
+of, and turning them to, the light of Christ within them, and encouraging
+them to wait in patience, and to feel the power of it to stir in their
+hearts, that their knowledge and worship of God might stand in the power
+of an endless life, which was to be found in the light, as it was obeyed
+in the manifestation of it in man.  For in the word was life, and that
+life is the light of men: life in the word, light in men; and life in men
+too, as the light is obeyed: the children of the light living by the life
+of the word, by which the word begets them again to God, which is the
+regeneration and new birth, without which there is no coming into the
+kingdom of God: and to which whoever comes, is greater than John; that
+is, than John's dispensation, which was not that of the kingdom, but the
+consummation of the legal, and fore-running of the gospel-times, the time
+of the kingdom.  Accordingly several meetings were gathered in those
+parts; and thus his time was employed for some years.
+
+In 1652, he being in his usual retirement, his mind exercised towards the
+Lord, upon a very high mountain in some of the higher parts of Yorkshire,
+as I take it, he had a vision of the great work of God in the earth, and
+of the way that he was to go forth in a public ministry, to begin it.  He
+saw people as thick as motes in the sun, that should in time be brought
+home to the Lord, that there might be but one shepherd and one sheepfold
+in all the earth.  There his eye was directed northward, beholding a
+great people that should receive him and his message in those parts.
+Upon this mountain he was moved of the Lord to sound out his great and
+notable day, as if he had been in a great auditory; and from thence went
+north, as the Lord had shown him.  And in every place where he came, if
+not before he came to it, he had his particular exercise and service
+shown to him, so that the Lord was his leader indeed.  For it was not in
+vain that he travelled; God in most places sealing his commission with
+the convincement of some of all sorts, as well publicans as sober
+professors of religion.  Some of the first and most eminent of those that
+came forth in a public ministry, and who are now at rest, were Richard
+Farnsworth, James Nayler, William Dewsberry, Thomas Aldam, Francis
+Howgil, Edward Burroughs, John Camm, John Audland, Richard Hubberthorn,
+T. Taylor, T. Holmes, Alexander Parker, Wm.  Simson, William Caton, John
+Stubbs, Robert Withers, Thomas Low, Josiah Coale, John Burnyeat, Robert
+Lodge, Thomas Salthouse, and many more worthies, that cannot well be here
+named; together with divers yet living of the first and great
+convincement; who, after the knowledge of God's purging judgment in
+themselves, and some time of waiting in silence upon him, to feel and
+receive power from on high to speak in his name, (which none else rightly
+can, though they may use the same words,) felt its divine motions, and
+were frequently drawn forth, especially to visit the public assemblies,
+to reprove, inform, and exhort them: sometimes in markets, fairs,
+streets, and by the highway-side: calling people to repentance, and to
+turn to the Lord with their hearts as well as their mouths; directing
+them to the light of Christ within them, to see, examine, and consider
+their ways by, and to eschew the evil, and do the good and acceptable
+will of God.  And they suffered great hardships for this their love and
+good-will; being often stocked, stoned, beaten, whipped, and imprisoned,
+though honest men, and of good report where they lived; that had left
+wives, children, and houses and lands to visit them with a living call to
+repentance.  And though the priests generally set themselves to oppose
+them, and wrote against them, and insinuated most false and scandalous
+stories to defame them, stirring up the magistrates to suppress them,
+especially in those northern parts; yet God was pleased to fill them with
+his living power, and give them such an open door of utterance in his
+service, that there was a mighty convincement over those parts.
+
+And through the tender and singular indulgence of judge Bradshaw, and
+judge Fell, and colonel West, in the infancy of things, the priests were
+never able to gain the point they laboured for, which was to have
+proceeded to blood; and, if possible, Herod-like, by a cruel exercise of
+the civil power, to have cut them off, and rooted them out of the
+country.  But especially judge Fell, who was not only a check to their
+rage in the course of legal proceedings, but otherwise upon occasion; and
+finally countenanced this people.  For, his wife receiving the truth with
+the first, it had that influence upon his spirit, being a just and wise
+man, and seeing in his own wife and family a full confutation of all the
+popular clamours against the way of truth, that he covered them what he
+could, and freely opened his doors, and gave up his house to his wife and
+her friends; not valuing the reproach of ignorant or evil-minded people:
+which I here mention to his and her honour, and which will be, I believe,
+an honour and a blessing to such of their name and family, as shall be
+found in that tenderness, humility, love, and zeal for the truth and
+people of the Lord.
+
+That house was for some years, at first especially, until the truth had
+opened its way into the southern parts of this island, an eminent
+receptacle of this people.  Others, of good note and substance in those
+northern countries, had also opened their houses, together with their
+hearts, to the many publishers, that, in a short time, the Lord had
+raised to declare his salvation to the people; and where meetings of the
+Lord's messengers were frequently held, to communicate their services and
+exercises, and comfort and edify one another in their blessed ministry.
+
+But lest this may be thought a digression, having touched upon this
+before, I return to this excellent man; and for his personal qualities,
+both natural, moral, and divine, as they appeared in his converse with
+the brethren, and in the church of God, take as follows:
+
+I.  He was a man that God endued with a clear and wonderful depth: a
+discerner of others' spirits, and very much a master of his own.  And
+though that side of his understanding which lay next to the world, and
+especially the expression of it, might sound uncouth and unfashionable to
+nice ears, his matter was nevertheless very profound; and would not only
+bear to be often considered, but the more it was so, the more weighty and
+instructing it appeared.  And as abruptly and brokenly as sometimes his
+sentences would seem to fall from him, about divine things, it is well
+known they were often as texts to many fairer declarations.
+
+And indeed it showed, beyond all contradiction, that God sent him, in
+that no arts or parts had any share in the matter or manner of his
+ministry; and that so many great, excellent, and necessary truths, as he
+came forth to preach to mankind, had therefore nothing of man's wit or
+wisdom to recommend them.  So that as to man he was an original, being no
+man's copy; and his ministry and writings show they are from one that was
+not taught of man, nor had learned what he said by study.  Nor were they
+notional or speculative, but sensible and practical truths, tending to
+conversion and regeneration, and the setting up of the kingdom of God in
+the hearts of men: and the way of it was his work.  So that I have many
+times been overcome in myself, and been made to say, with my Lord and
+Master, upon the like occasion, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
+and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent of
+this world, and revealed them to babes:" for, many times hath my soul
+bowed in an humble thankfulness to the Lord, that he did not choose any
+of the wise and learned of this world to be the first messenger in our
+age, of his blessed truth to men; but that he took one that was not of
+high degree, or elegant speech, or learned after the way of this world,
+that his message and work he sent him to do might come with less
+suspicion, or jealousy of human wisdom and interest, and with more force
+and clearness upon the consciences of those that sincerely sought the way
+of truth in the love of it.  I say, beholding with the eye of my mind,
+which the God of heaven had opened in me, the marks of God's finger and
+hand visibly in this testimony, from the clearness of the principle, the
+power and efficacy of it, in the exemplary sobriety, plainness, zeal,
+steadiness, humility, gravity, punctuality, charity, and circumspect care
+in the government of church-affairs, which shined in his and their life
+and testimony, that God employed in this work, it greatly confirmed me
+that it was of God, and engaged my soul in a deep love, fear, reverence,
+and thankfulness for his love and mercy therein to mankind: in which mind
+I remain, and shall, I hope, through the Lord's strength, to the end of
+my days.
+
+II.  In his testimony or ministry, he much laboured to open truth to the
+people's understandings, and to bottom them upon the principle and
+principal, Christ Jesus the light of the world; that by bringing them to
+something that was from God in themselves, they might the better know and
+judge of him and themselves.
+
+III.  He had an extraordinary gift in opening the scriptures.  He would
+go to the marrow of things, and show the mind, harmony, and fulfilling of
+them, with much plainness, and to great comfort and edification.
+
+IV.  The mystery of the first and second Adam, of the fall and
+restoration, of the law and gospel, of shadows and substance, of the
+servant's and Son's state, and the fulfilling of the scriptures in Christ
+and by Christ the true light, in all that are his, through the obedience
+of faith, were much of the substance and drift of his testimonies: in all
+which he was witnessed to be of God: being sensibly felt to speak that
+which he had received of Christ, and was his own experience, in that
+which never errs nor fails.
+
+V.  But, above all, he excelled in prayer.  The inwardness and weight of
+his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and
+the fewness and fulness of his words, have often struck even strangers
+with admiration, as they used to reach others with consolation.  The most
+awful, living, reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his
+in prayer.  And truly it was a testimony he knew and lived nearer to the
+Lord than other men; for they that know Him most, will see most reason to
+approach him with reverence and fear.
+
+VI.  He was of an innocent life, no busy-body, nor self-seeker: neither
+touchy nor critical: what fell from him was very inoffensive, if not very
+edifying.  So meek, contented, modest, easy, steady, tender, it was a
+pleasure to be in his company.  He exercised no authority but over evil,
+and that everywhere, 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, the most excellent
+spirits loved him with an unfeigned 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 settling good
+order, as to church affairs, among them.  And towards the conclusion of
+his travelling service, between the years 1671, and 1677, he visited the
+churches of Christ in the plantations of America, and in the United
+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 wrote 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 {57} held 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 was there.
+
+IX.  As he was unwearied, so he was undaunted in his services for God and
+his people; he was no more to be moved to fear than to wrath.  His
+behaviour at Derby, Lichfield, Appleby, before Oliver Cromwell, at
+Launceston, 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 rose 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 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 pressed, 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 nobody 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 unity 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 virtuous, honest, and of good repute to one, is so to
+all, from the sense and savour of the one universal 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 pressed 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 obstinacy 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 clothed him with a
+divine preference and authority, 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 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 cherished 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 triumphed 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 despatch
+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 inquired 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 Henry
+Goldney, in the same court.  In a good old age he went, after having
+lived to see his children's children in the truth to many generations.
+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 fellowship of the spirits of the just.  His works
+praise him, because they are to the praise of Him that wrought 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 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
+which 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 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 enlightened, 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, ourselves and
+others; yea, towards God our Maker.  For being quickened 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 religion 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 of one another, acted towards one
+another, and all men; in love, faithfulness, and fear.
+
+In 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
+opened 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 in our services, we made burdens for ourselves to bear;
+finding in ourselves 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 ourselves;
+especially of the young convinced.  Often had we the burden of the word
+of the Lord to our neighbours, relations, and acquaintance; and sometimes
+strangers also.  We were in travail likewise for one another's
+preservation; not seeking, but shunning, 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 ourselves 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.
+
+We were bowed and brought into subjection, insomuch that it was visible
+to them that knew us.  We did not think ourselves at our own disposal, 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 meddling with other people's 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, to which others were continually exposed, by the prevalency of
+the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, that
+wanted no occasions or temptations to excite them abroad in the converse
+of the world.
+
+I cannot forget the humility and chaste zeal of that day.  O! how
+constant at meetings, how retired in them; how firm to truth's life, as
+well as truth's principles; and how entire and united in our communion,
+as, indeed, became those that profess one head, even Christ Jesus the
+Lord.
+
+This being the testimony and example the man of God before mentioned was
+sent to declare and leave amongst us, and we having embraced the same, as
+the merciful visitation of God to us, the word of exhortation, at this
+time, is that we continue to be found in the way of this testimony, with
+all zeal and integrity, and so much the more, by how much the day draweth
+near.  And first, as to you my beloved and much honoured brethren in
+Christ, that are in the exercise of the ministry: O! feel life in your
+ministry.  Let life be your commission, your well-spring and treasury on
+all such occasions; else, you well know, there can be no begetting to
+God: since nothing can quicken or make people alive to God, but the life
+of God; and it must be a ministry in and from life, that enlivens any
+people to God.  We have seen the fruit of all other ministries, by the
+few that are turned from the evil of their ways.  It is not our parts, or
+memory, the repetition of former openings, in our own will and time, that
+will do God's work.  A dry doctrinal ministry, however sound in words,
+can reach but the ears, and is but a dream at the best.  There is another
+soundness that is soundest of all, viz. Christ the power of God.  This is
+the key of David, that opens, and none shuts; and shuts and none can
+open: as the oil to the lamp, and the soul to the body, so is that to the
+best of words: which made Christ to say, "My words, they are Spirit, and
+they are life;" that is, they are from life, and therefore they make you
+alive, that receive them.  If the disciples that had lived with Jesus,
+were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it; much more must we wait
+to receive before we minister, if we will turn people from darkness to
+light, and from satan's power to God.
+
+I fervently bow my knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
+that you may always be like-minded; that you may ever wait reverently for
+the coming and opening of the word of life, and attend upon it in your
+ministry and service, that you may serve God in his Spirit.  And be it
+little, or be it much, it is well; for much is not too much, and the
+least is enough, if from the motion of God's Spirit; and without it,
+verily, never so little is too much, because to no profit.
+
+For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately, or through the ministry of
+his servants, that teacheth his people to profit; and to be sure, so far
+as we take him along with us in our services, so far we are profitable,
+and no further.  For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us
+for our salvation, much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the
+conversion of others.  If therefore it was once a cross to us to speak,
+though the Lord required it at our hands, let it never be so to be
+silent, when he does not.
+
+It is one of the most dreadful sayings in the book of God, "That he that
+adds to the words of the prophecy of this book, God will add to him the
+plagues written in this book."  To keep back the counsel of God, is as
+terrible; "For he that takes away from the words of the book of this
+prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life."  And
+truly, it has great caution in it, to those that use the name of the
+Lord, to be well assured the Lord speaks; that they may not be found of
+the number of those that add to the words of the testimony of prophecy,
+which the Lord giveth them to bear; nor yet to mince or diminish the
+same, both being so very offensive to God.
+
+Wherefore, Brethren, let us be careful, neither to out-go our guide, nor
+yet loiter behind him; since he that makes haste may miss his way, and he
+that stays behind lose his guide.  For even those that have received the
+word of the Lord, had need wait for wisdom, that they may see how to
+divide the word aright: which plainly implieth, that it is possible for
+one that hath received the word of the Lord, to miss in the dividing and
+application of it; which must come from an impatiency of spirit, and a
+self-working, which makes an unsound and dangerous mixture, and will
+hardly beget a right-minded living people to God.
+
+I am earnest in this, above all other considerations, as to brethren in
+the ministry, (well knowing how much it concerns the present and future
+state and preservation of the church of Christ Jesus, that has been
+gathered and built up by a living and powerful ministry,) that the
+ministry be held, preserved, and continued in the manifestations,
+motions, and supplies of the same life and power, from time to time.
+
+And wherever it is observed, that any do minister more from gifts and
+parts, than life and power, though they have an enlightened and doctrinal
+understanding, let them in time be advised and admonished for their
+preservation, because insensibly such will come to depend upon a
+self-sufficiency; to forsake Christ the living Fountain, and hew out unto
+themselves cisterns, that will hold no living waters: and, by degrees,
+such will come to draw others from waiting upon the gift of God in
+themselves, and to feel it in others, in order to their strength and
+refreshment, to wait upon them, and to turn from God to man again, and so
+make shipwreck of the faith once delivered to the saints, and of a good
+conscience towards God: which are only kept by that divine gift of life
+that begat the one, and awakened and sanctified the other in the
+beginning.
+
+Nor is it enough, that we have known the divine gift, and in it have
+reached to the spirits in prison, and been the instruments of the
+convincing of others of the way of God, if we keep not as low and poor in
+ourselves, and as depending upon the Lord, as ever: since no memory, no
+repetitions of former openings, revelations, or enjoyments, will bring a
+soul to God, or afford bread to the hungry, or water to the thirsty,
+unless life go with what we say, and that must be waited for.
+
+O that we may have no other fountain, treasure, or dependence!  That none
+may presume at any rate to act of themselves for God, because they have
+long acted from God; that we may not supply want of waiting, with our own
+wisdom, or think that we may take less care and more liberty in speaking
+than formerly; and that where we do not feel the Lord by his power, to
+open us and enlarge us, whatever be the expectation of the people, or has
+been our customary supply and character, we may not exceed or fill up the
+time with our own.
+
+I hope we shall ever remember, who it was that said, "Of yourselves you
+can do nothing;" our sufficiency is in him.  And if we are not to speak
+our own words, or take thought what we should say to men in our defence,
+when exposed for our testimony; surely, we ought to speak none of our own
+words, or take thought what we shall say in our testimony and ministry,
+in the name of the Lord, to the souls of the people: for then, of all
+times, and of all other occasions, should it be fulfilled in us, "For it
+is not you that speak, but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you."
+
+And, indeed, the ministry of the Spirit must and does keep its analogy
+and agreement with the birth of the Spirit: that as no man can inherit
+the kingdom of God, unless he be born of the Spirit; so no ministry can
+beget a soul to God, but that which is from the Spirit.  For this, as I
+said before, the disciples waited before they went forth; and in this our
+elder brethren and messengers of God in our day, waited, visited, and
+reached to us; and having begun in the Spirit, let none ever hope or seek
+to be made perfect in the flesh: for what is the flesh to the Spirit, or
+the chaff to the wheat?  And if we keep in the Spirit, we shall keep in
+the unity of it, which is the ground of true fellowship.  For by drinking
+into that one Spirit, we are made one people to God, and by it we are
+continued in the unity of the faith, and the bond of peace.  No envying,
+no bitterness, no strife, can have place with us.  We shall watch always
+for good, and not for evil, one over another; and rejoice exceedingly,
+and not begrudge at one another's increase in the riches of the grace
+with which God replenisheth his faithful servants.
+
+And Brethren, as to you is committed the dispensation of the oracles of
+God, which give you frequent opportunities, and great place with the
+people among whom you travel, I beseech you, that you would not think it
+sufficient to declare the word of life in their assemblies, however
+edifying and comfortable such opportunities may be to you and them: but,
+as was the practice of the man of God before mentioned, in great measure,
+when among us, inquire the state of the several churches you visit; who
+among them are afflicted or sick, who are tempted, and if any are
+unfaithful or obstinate; and endeavour to issue those things in the
+wisdom and power of God, which will be a glorious crown upon your
+ministry.  As that prepares your way in the hearts of the people, to
+receive you as men of God, so it gives you credit with them to do them
+good by your advice in other respects; the afflicted will be comforted by
+you, the tempted strengthened, the sick refreshed, the unfaithful
+convicted and restored, and such as are obstinate, softened and fitted
+for reconciliation; which is clinching the nail, and applying and
+fastening the general testimony, by this particular care of the several
+branches of it, in reference to them more immediately concerned in it.
+
+For though good and wise men, and elders too, may reside in such places,
+who are of worth and importance in the general, and in other places; yet
+it does not always follow, that they may have the room they deserve in
+the hearts of the people they live among; or some particular occasion may
+make it unfit for him or them to use that authority.  But you that travel
+as God's messengers, if they receive you in the greater, shall they
+refuse you in the less?  And if they own the general testimony, can they
+withstand the particular application of it in their own cases?  Thus ye
+will show yourselves workmen indeed, and carry your business before you,
+to the praise of his name that hath called you from darkness to light,
+that you might turn others from satan's power unto God and his kingdom,
+which is within.  And O that there were more of such faithful labourers
+in the vineyard of the Lord!--Never more need since the day of God.
+
+Wherefore I cannot but cry and call aloud to you, that have been long
+professors of the truth, and know the truth in the convincing power of
+it, and have had a sober conversation among men; yet content yourselves
+only to know truth for yourselves, to go to meetings, and exercise an
+ordinary charity in the church, and an honest behaviour in the world, and
+limit yourselves within those bounds; feeling little or no concern upon
+your spirits, for the glory of the Lord in the prosperity of his truth in
+the earth, more than to be glad that others succeed in such service.
+Arise ye in the name and power of the Lord Jesus!  Behold how white the
+fields are unto harvest, in this and other nations, and how few able and
+faithful labourers there are to work therein!  Your country-folks,
+neighbours, and kindred, want to know the Lord and his truth, and to walk
+in it.  Does nothing lie at your door upon their account!  Search and
+see, and lose no time, I beseech you, for the Lord is at hand.
+
+I do not judge you; there is one that judgeth all men, and his judgment
+is true.  You have mightily increased in your outward substance, may you
+equally increase in your inward riches, and do good with both, while you
+have a day to do good.  Your enemies would once have taken what you had,
+from you, for his name's sake in whom you have believed; wherefore he has
+given you much of the world, in the face of your enemies.  But O, let it
+be your servant, and not your master! your diversion rather than your
+business! let the Lord be chiefly in your eye, and ponder your ways, and
+see if God has nothing more for you to do: and if you find yourselves
+short in your account with him, then wait for his preparation, and be
+ready to receive the word of command, and be not weary of well-doing,
+when you have put your hand to the plough; and, assuredly, you shall
+reap, if you faint not, the fruit of your heavenly labour in God's
+everlasting kingdom.
+
+And you, young convinced ones, be you entreated and exhorted to a
+diligent and chaste waiting upon God, in the way of his blessed
+manifestation and appearance of himself to you.  Look not out, but
+within: let not another's liberty be your snare: neither act by
+imitation, but by sense and feeling of God's power in yourselves: crush
+not the tender buddings of it in your souls, nor over-run, in your
+desires and warmness of affections, the holy and gentle motions of it.
+Remember it is a still voice that speaks to 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, gardens, and sea sides, to avoid
+crowds and hurries: to show 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 yourselves, 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 of your ownselves: 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, a holy nation, and a peculiar people,
+zealous of good works, when all our heads are laid in the dust.  O! 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 offspring.  And
+therefore look carefully about you, O 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 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
+privileges, 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 yourselves, which others too generally
+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 entered
+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,
+should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and 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, O that it may never be so with any
+of you!  The Lord forbid, saith my soul.
+
+Wherefore, O ye young men and women! look to the rock 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 uncommon
+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 yourselves, or in those that
+are without: who, though 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 show 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 entreat 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 truth's 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 in 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 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
+backs upon it, and walk after the vanities of your minds, you will be of
+those that received 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 children's
+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 grey 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 nature, but spirit, shall live in you when they are gone.
+
+* * * * *
+
+I shall conclude this account with a few words to those who 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 O that you, who are called Christians,
+would receive him into your hearts! 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
+evily entreated him.  So that if you come not to the possession and
+experience of what you profess, all your formality and religion will
+stand you in no stead in the day of God's judgment.
+
+I beseech you ponder with yourselves 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 leaven of the kingdom, that, being received, leavens 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
+state.
+
+You will say, perhaps, that though you are sinners, and live in daily
+commission of sin, and are not sanctified, as I have been speaking, yet
+you have faith in Christ, who has borne the curse for you, and in him you
+are complete by faith, his righteousness being imputed to you.
+
+But, my friends, let me entreat you not to deceive yourselves, 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 sanctify you:
+for the saints' faith was their victory of old: by this they overcame sin
+within, and sinful man 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 Belial?  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 clothes 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 not the less Christ's, because we have it; for it is
+ours, not by nature, but by faith and adoption: it is the gift of God.
+But, still, though not ours, as of or from ourselves, (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, you may perceive that God has
+visited a poor people among you, with this saving knowledge and
+testimony, whom he has upheld and increased 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 to 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 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 testify 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 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 doth this blessed light do for you?  Why, first, it sets
+all your sins in order before you: it detects the spirit of this world in
+all its baits and allurements, and shows how man came to fall from God,
+and the fallen state he is in.  Secondly, 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.  Thirdly, 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
+yourselves.  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 you will know communion
+with the Father and with the Son, and the efficacy of the blood of
+cleansing, even the blood of Jesus Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which
+speaks 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 reader's 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 God's church 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 rendered 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 treasures, 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.
+
+                                  FINIS.
+
+              PRINTED BY HARRISON AND CROSFIELD, MANCHESTER.
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+
+Footnotes
+
+
+{25}  Instead of being asked those questions, the present practice is to
+produce the needful certificates of consent.
+
+{26}  This second attendance is not now required.
+
+{27}  This hardly describes the present practice.  It is not _during_ the
+gathering only, if at all, that exhortation takes place.  If the corpse
+be conveyed to a meeting-house, the meeting is held like any other; and
+what is here called 'Exhortation,' takes place or not, as any minister
+present believes him or herself influenced.  The usage at the burial
+ground is still as here described.  Interments often take place without
+any previous meeting.
+
+{28}  The collective sense and judgment of the church, herein, remains
+the same, as is manifest by the frequent advices given forth from their
+yearly and other meetings.
+
+{43a}  At present (1834) there are eight yearly meetings on the American
+continent, which correspond with the yearly meeting in London, and
+mutually with each other; they are united in doctrine, and their
+discipline is similar.
+
+{43b}  They are thus particularized in a more recent publication of the
+society:--This is an occasional voluntary contribution, expended in
+printing books; house-rent for a clerk, and his wages for keeping
+records; the passage of ministers who visit their brethren beyond sea;
+and some small incidental charges; but not, as has been falsely supposed,
+the reimbursement of those who suffer distraint for tithes, and other
+demands, with which they scruple to comply.
+
+{44}  This is not now quite correct.  A committee still draws up the
+General Epistle; but the minutes of the transactions of the meeting are
+made as matters occur during its several sittings.
+
+{57}  Called the Meeting for Sufferings, and now held monthly, except
+exigencies require more frequent sittings.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND
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