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FOUB LECTUEBS
ON IHE
RISE, PROGRESS, AND
PAST PROCEEDINGS OF
SCfye &amty ai JfrimEra
IN GREAT BRITAIN,
WITH BRIEF HISTORICAL NOTICES OF SOME PRECEDING AND
CONTEMPORARV EVENTS,
BY
WILLIAM THISTLETHWAITE*

"I KNOW THY WORKS, AND THY LABOUR, AND THY PATIENCE, AND
HOW THOU CANST NOT BEAR THEM WHICH ARE EVIL. * * *
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first love." — St. John to the Church at Ejphesus,

LONDON:
A. W. BENNETT, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT.
MANCHESTER: W. IRWIN, 5, PRINCESS STREET.
1865.

MANCHESTER!
PRINTED BY WILLIAM IRWIN,
PRINCESS STREET,

PREFACE

The four Lectures now offered to the public,
contain a historical review — not a history — of
the period of which they treat.
They bear the same relation to history that
scene painting bears to a pre-Raphaelite picture :
the minuter details are omitted, and the stronger
lights and shadows are painted in with a view
to the general effect.
In the preparation of them, it has not been
-my object to set forth new facts, or to indulge
in new speculations, but, as far as is practicable
in so brief and popular an outline, to place the
old and well known facts, in what I believe to
be their true relation to other cognate facts by
which they were influenced, and with which, if
we would expound their true character, they
ought ever to be associated.
The past experience of the Society of Friends
forms no exception to the general truth, that all
history " has been in the main sequential, that
each of its phases has been the consequence of
some prior phase, and the natural prelude to
that which has succeeded it." In the arrange
ment of the facts and reasonings contained in
the work, I have endeavoured to keep this truth
steadily in view. If my purpose has been to

iv. . PREFACE.
any considerable extent successfully attained,
the outline, though brief, will not be without its
value ; if the sequence be fanciful, and the con
nection unreal, the Lectures will not accomplish
the object for which they were prepared.
No thoughtful student of history can have
failed to observe, that in such a review, particular
individuals — if we may so speak — stand out on
the canvass, as representative men ; in the first
instance, no doubt, themselves moulded and
influenced by surrounding circumstances ; but
ultimately, in various degrees, moulding and
influencing the generation among whom they
lived. It is convenient to give these men pro
minence ; while others almost equally able,
active, and historical, but not equally represen
tative, are allowed to rest beneath the surface.
The earlier and later Puritans, Archbishop
Laud, George Fox, and the Yearly meeting's
Committee of 1760, on this account stand out
in the following pages, not on the ground of
their individual ability and importance, but of
their character as representatives of the times in
which they lived, and of the currents of thought,
common to certain portions of the community
among whom they laboured.
The reputation of the early Friends has
suffered from an imperfect exposition, in con
nection with the history of their lives, of the
peculiarities of the times in which they lived.
There has been a disposition manifest on the
part of some to bring their proceedings to the
test of modern standards, and, because they may

PREFACE. v.
not in every case have been found to square with
these standards, an unmerited censure has been
pronounced upon them. Others have fallen into
the opposite error of delivering a general
eulogium on all their acts and sentiments, which
being equally undiscriminating, has failed to
delineate with substantial accuracy their true
historical position.
In dealing with the reputation of the dead, it
has been my purpose, in the interest of the living,
" naught to extenuate, nor aught to set down in
malice.'' I have attempted, also, in passing
along, to indicate that which was accidental and
transitory — having its main connection with the
times when the events happened — in contrast
with that which was essential and enduring,
and which, without reference to fluctuation and
change, belonged not only to the time then
present, but to all time. From this review of
the past I have endeavoured to draw some
lessons of wisdom applicable to the present,
and some results of experience calculated to
influence and to guide our action in the future.
I have only further to add that it is several
years since some of these Lectures were written.
I had then no view to their publication f
hence I find it now all but impossible, by
reference to brief and imperfect notes, to verify
the quotations,* or to indicate, in a few instances,
the exact sources from which they were drawn.
It may, however, be stated generally that for
the facts contained in the first Lecture I am
chiefly indebted to the current Church Histories,

vi. PREFACE.
especially to those of Fuller and Marsden, who
have written from the Episcopal stand point, and
to Neal's History of the Puritans, and some of
the Biographies of eminent contemporary Non
conformists, whose sympathies flowed in the
contrary direction. The Pictorial and other
Histories of England have supplied me with
information on the general condition of the
country. In the later Lectures, where not other
wise indicated, my conclusions have been drawn
for the most part from observation and expe
rience, or from a careful study of unpublished
materials.
W. T.
The Uplands, near Wilmslow,
6th mo., 1865.

^ * Errata..— The expressions erroneously stated (page 70) to have been uttered oil
his death-bed by Robert Barclay, were spoken by his venerable father David Barclay
who died in 1686. The same assurance of faith, however, that had sustained the father
was on the like- solemn occasion granted to the son. When prostrated by a great
weight of sickness, shortly before his close, he said, "This I know, that whatever
exercises may be permitted to come upon me they shall turn to God's glory and mv
salvation, and in that I rest." *
At page ii2, line 7, for began read begun.

CONTENTS.

Preface  Pageiii.
ygilttVLXt 1st.
ON THE STATE OF RELIGIOUS OPINION AND PRACTICE
PRIOR TO THE RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
Tendency in human nature towards Ritualism in Religion — Anglo-
Saxon and Roman Catholic churcfies in Britain — Religious orders
— Early heresies— Religion under the Normans — System of Hilde-
hrand— Secular resistance to Papal supremacy — The dark ages —
Wiekliffe : his opinions and their diffusion. — Reformation in
Germany. — Religion and Feudalism under Henry VIII. — The
Reformation underEdward VI. — Gloomy prospects of the Reformers
at his death — Mary restores Popery — Differences among the Re
formers on Ceremonies and church government — The first schism
of the English Reformation at Strasburg. — The Puritans. — Queen
Elizabeth: her religious Administration. — Minor Sects — The
Family of Love — Anahaptists — Brownists. — Results of Elizabeth's
Ecclesiastical policy. — James I. : his character as a Religious Re
former. — The Hampton Court conference — The schisms of the
Reformation become incurable — Puritans leave the country —
Pilgrim Fathers — The King encourages Sports — Synod of Dordt —
Laud — Curious state of Parties — Rise of the democratic Puritans
— Religious feuds deepen on the accession of Charles I. — The in
fluence of Laud supreme — The Civil war commences — Character
of the Parliamentary party — The Royalists — The Clergy — The
nation profoundly moved— Great religious disruptions— The early
Quakers appear on the stage  Pago 1.
ygttztvttt 2itir.
THE EARLY FRIENDS AND THE COMMONWEATH TIMES.
Origin of Quakerism — Early Life and Character of George Fox : His
occupations and religious Exercises — His interviews with sundry
priests. — Carlyle's reference to this— Extract from the Sartor Re-
sartus — Fox finds relief at last — The central truth in his creed-
Has many "Openings'' — His call to the Ministry— Remarkable
visits to many places— Is imprisoned and abused — Convincements
f0]low — His Vision on Pendle Hill — Striking incidents flowing out
of it  Sedbergh Fair— Firbank Chapel — Francis Howgill, John
Audland, and others join him— Notices of these early Preachers-
Fox received at Swarthmore Hall— The great Missionary movement
of 1654: The Character of the men— The doctrines of the new
Society— Estimate of results.— Quakerism organized: Its Discipline
and Church government determined by its doctrinal Views.— A
Schism ensues— Penn, Barclay, Ellwood, and others, write in defence
of Order— Toleration granted by William and Mary— George Keith
 Death 0f Barclay and Fox in 1690— Estimate of Fox's character
as a Reformer — The Society attains its maximum as to numbers —
Quaker Emigration — Review of the work accomplished — Sources of
success 

THE MIDDLE AGES OF QUAKERISM.
Historical Epochs — Remarks on the published Histories of Friends.
Contemporary events — Their character and tendency. — Condition
of England under the Stuarts : Religion and Morality — Trade —
Science and Literature. — The condition of the Clergy — Evidence of
Bishop Burnett and of Archbishop Seeker — Piety among the Dis
senters — Evidence of Dr. Watts. — Friends : their number and dis
tribution — Of what elements composed — The ministry of suffering.
— Ariews of early Friends on the true constitution of a Church —
Birth membership — Eminent early Ministers who were living in
the I8th Century— The second generation of Friends did not
reproduce the spirituality of the first — Attempt to account for this
on general and special grounds— Tendency of religious revivals
to fluctuate — Lower moral and religious condition of Friends at
the commencement of the 18th century — Evidence of Gough and
Ambrose Eigge — Fox's Epistle to Traders reprinted — Bubble
schemes for rapid acquisition of wealth. — Evidence of Monthly
Meetings — Infidel publications— Discipline — Education — Compari
son with past Era — Action and Organization of the Society — Con
troversies — Relation to the Government. — The Ministry among
Friends at this time — Letter of Samuel Bownas thereon — Numbers
and distribution of the Ministers — Some Statistical information as
to Ministers deceased. — Conclusions deduced  Page 77.
~J@itrtvLXt 4ijr.
MODERN QUAKERISM: ITS ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND
INTERNAL ECONOMY.
Reference to last Lecture — Yearly Meeting's Committee of 1760 —
Abstract of the Committee's Sectional Reports — Evils described and
Remedies proposed.— What is church Discipline? — Problem to be
solved. — Views of Zinzendorf and Wesley — Organization of the
Moravians and the Methodists — Action of the Yearly Meeting of
1760— Membership determined — Special difficulties of the position
illustrated — Marriage — Wesley's views hereon — Results of restric
tion — The Peculiarities. — The Principles held by early Friends
on Speech and Dress common to other Christians — Later aspects
of these testimonies. — The Poor : Origin of a Church provision
for — Results — Rules increase and become more complex.— In
creased Centralization — Meetings for the administration of the
Discipline more highly organized — Constitution of Yearly Meeting
changed— Meetings of Ministers and Elders instituted — Women's
Yearly Meeting established. — The Politico-religious and Benevoi-
lent movement — Its results.— Influence of the Mystic theology 
Education — Failure of the day Schools — Great organization for
Boarding School instruction — Its tendencies and results.  Con
cluding Observations. — A new development looming in the near
future — Dangers to be apprehended from it — New adaptations from
time to time needed— What has been the tendency of the recent
Revision of the Discipline. — Our present position — Its discouraging
and its hopeful aspects  ,  Page 112.

FOUK LECTURES
ON THE
RISE, PROGRESS, AND PAST PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

LECTURE FIRST.
ON THE STATE OF RELIGIOUS OPINION AND PRACTICE
PRIOR TO THE RISE 01? THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

"But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of
God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage." — Paul to the Galatiam.
From the delivery of our Lord's sermon on the Mount
to the issuing of the decrees of the Council of Trent,
there was a long interval of time. During that interval,
however, many causes had combined to produce the
mighty contrast which marks the character of the re
spective epochs.
From the earliest times, a decay in the true spiritual
life of the church has too often been succeeded by an
increase of its external observances ; for it is easier to
practise a ceremonial than to change the life, and men
are naturally more delighted by the pomp and splendour
of outward forms than by the duty of devoting the
heart an entire sacrifice to God.
The consequences flowing from the early-received
opinions on the diffusion and interpretation of the Holy
Scriptures, on the authority of tradition, on the power
of the church to decree ceremonies, and especially from

2 Religious Opinion and Practice
the usurpation of all spiritual functions connected with
the cure of souls, by a priesthood too often both
ignorant and immoral, very early tended to extinguish,
with the light of private judgment, a true sense of in
dividual responsibility to God, Under these circum
stances, it is not strange that all spiritual truth became
gradually obscured and corrupted from the simplicity
of its original.
The history of Christianity in this country before
the period of the Reformation abundantly illustrates
this general tendency.
Of the condition of the early British church few memo
rials have come down to us ; but from the landing of
Augustine, about the close of the sixth century, the pro
cess described, amid various interruptions, went steadily
forward. The church of the Anglo-Saxons was at that
time existing, and for a considerable period it continued
to retain a purer creed and a simpler ritual than its
rival. The operations of both churches, however, were
conducted in an age of ignorance, superstition, and
semi-barbarism. The right of the common people to
exercise any judgment in the choice of their religion
was not then recognised ; so that missionary enterprises
were an affair between the king and his nobility and
the clergy. Ultimately the purer and the more strictly
aboriginal church became absorbed into the system of
its rival. Before the consolidation of the two churches
many conversions from heathenism had taken place, and
the Roman hierarchy had begun to take deep root in
the country, for kings as well as priests were now
among its nursing fathers. It became by degrees in
corporated with the several states of the Heptarchy,

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 3
and bishops took rank with earls in the great councils
of the nation. Tithes and church-shot, plough alms
and Peter's pence, in place of voluntary offerings, now
flowed into its exchequer, and it adopted a more courtly
and gorgeous ceremonial adapted to the change in its
condition. Religious houses, which had long existed among the
Anglo-Saxons, under not very objectionable conditions,
began at this period to change their character; for
"the ascetic principle firmly rooted in the east was
spreading itself over all the churches of western
Christendom." The religious orders used all their influence to
support the growing pretensions of the papacy, and
under their auspices a movement was commenced the
object of which was, by lowering the authority of both
the parochial clergy and the civil power, to bring the
church into closer dependence on the Roman See.
Before this period the church had encountered many
errors. Obstinate heresies had resulted in several
schisms. The deity of Christ, the doctrine of original
sin, the efficacy of the sacraments, and many other diffi
cult questions, had been the subjects of protracted con
troversies; but an authority had now arisen which claimed
the right finally to determine all dogmatic questions,
and the power infallibly to decide the orthodoxy of
men's opinions on all subjects by a reference to the
terms of a theological creed. It was unfortunate, how
ever, in connexion with the beneficial exercise of this
authority, and taking into account the interests of that
truth of which it professed to be the guardian, that the
mischief caused by the errors it sanctioned, was greater

4 Religious Opinion and Practice
than the benefit which resulted from the errors it ex
cluded. Before the Norman conquest, both learning
and religion had fallen into profound neglect, but this
condition was rather favorable than otherwise to the
progress of the Roman superstition. The papal supre
macy was at this time recognised, the confessional was
instituted, absolution was practised, prayers for the dead
were offered, relics were revered, and soul-shot was
extensively paid for releasing deceased friends out of
purgatory. William of Normandy received the papal sanction
for the invasion of England, in return for which, by
confirming the existing rights of the clergy and ex
tending their powers, he connected the English church
more closely with Rome. Though the energy of his
character and the vigour of his administration prevented
for the present the subjugation of his country, yet the
tendency of his policy under other circumstances would
have been strongly in this direction. The canon law
was established, and separate courts of judicature, pre
sided over by bishops, were organized for its adminis
tration. The higher offices in the church were bestowed
on foreign ecclesiastics ; and the celibacy of the clergy
was now more rigorously enforced : but this increase of
power brought with it no evident sense of increased
responsibility. By the general consent of historians,
gross ignorance and immorality pervaded every class of
society, and many even of the clergy were guilty of the
most atrocious crimes. The monks treated the rules
of their order with scorn, and indulged themselves in
every sensual gratification.
Such was the condition of things that ushered in the

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 5
great struggle between the ecclesiastical and the civil
power. In the progress of this contest, by practising
on the ignorance and credulity of men, applying without
reserve the terrors of superstition, the church was able
to arm subjects against their sovereign, and to kindle
the flames of war that were destined to fill Europe
with confusion.
The design of Hildebrand in the prosecution of this
policy was to secure — first the independence, and ulti
mately the ascendancy of the church. He objected to
the exercise of any control by the sovereign over the
freedom of its action, or of any veto upon the appoint
ment of its ministers. By one irresponsible head, its
machinery was to be directed, and it must influence,
without control, the subjects of all christian states.
Out of the pale of the church at this time, unity of
system and purpose was nowhere to be found. Some
governments were shaken by revolutions, some were
terrified by threats of" excommunication, " and not a
few were anxious to strengthen usurped power by the
aid of the Holy See."
The successors of Gregory steadily adhered to his
policy. They encouraged the Crusades ; they increased
the Monastic orders. Now they humbled kings through
their influence over the barons and the people; then
they overawed a turbulent nobility by the combined
powers of the monarch and the church. By supersti
tion or by fear, by exerting force or practising fraud,
the supremacy of the church must be attained.
In this country, at every step of their progress, they
encountered, however, some resistance.
The councils of Clarendon in 1164 defined the province

6 Religious Opinion and Practice
of the ecclesiastical power and limited its exercise.
The statute of provisors enacted in 1350, that the
" king and other lords shall present to benefices of their
own or their ancestor's foundation, and not the bishop
of Rome," and " that the free elections, presentments,
and collations of benefices, shall stand in right of the
crown or its subjects, notwithstanding any provisions
from Rome," to the contrary.
The power to devise real estate to ecclesiastical cor
porations was limited by the law of Mortmain, passed
in 1393, and by the provisions of the statute of pre-
munire — "if any persons should purchase from the
court of Rome any translations to benefices, or should
bring thence into England any processes, sentences of
excommunication, or other instruments, or should
receive and execute them, they were declared to be out
of the king's protection ; their goods and chattels were
to be forfeited, and their persons subjected to imprison
ment." But the progress of the papacy in this unequal
struggle, though interrupted, was not arrested. Looking
steadily to the end, in every difficulty the church " bent
to the breeze," and again moved on. Circumstances
are not always unpropitious : a king dies, a disputed
succession intervenes, and many events occur, that by
affecting the position of a country, give a new direction
to its policy. But the papacy never dies ; the head and
intellect of the huge body live through every change in
its material condition. Under these circumstances it
was not strange, that in this age the secular should be
subjugated by the ecclesiastical authority; and that the
priesthood should be erected into an independent power,

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 7
asserting first an equal, and ultimately a superior posi
tion to, the civil government.
Thus the church attained its end ; success crowned
the labour of centuries. " It made a wilderness and
called it peace," but the success was followed by
paralysis ; for during the long and dismal period that
ensued, scarcely an event occurs to mark its indi
vidual life. The dark ages settled upon it with their
deepest gloom. English divines made no contributions
of importance even to Roman Catholic theology, and
they lent no assistance in the revival of letters.
The superstitions of Rome had long been firmly
rooted in the popular mind of England when Wickliffe
began his crusade against the papacy. His sentiments
on the corruptions of the church were delivered in terms
of the utmost force and severity. Believing that the
Pope " was the abomination of desolation standing in
the holy place," he vigorously attacked the whole
system of which he was the head. He denounced the
Romish priesthood, and controverted their theory of
the sacraments. It was blasphemy to call any man the
head of the church ; the election of the Pope by Car
dinals was a device of the devil. The infallibility of
the church of Rome in matters of faith is the greatest
blasphemy of Anti-christ ; episcopal benedictions, con
firmations, consecration of churches, &c, were but
tricks to get money. He taught that clergymen may
marry, and that deacons and priests may preach without
license from Pope or Bishop. He held that baptism doth
not confer grace, but that it signifies grace previously
given : that extreme unction is useless and no sacra
ment ; and that even confirmation " is not much neces
sary to salvation."

8 Religious Opinion and Practice
He revived an important truth, which had long been
obscured by the Roman superstition, maintaining that
the New Testament is a perfect rule of faith and
manners, and that it ought to be read by the people ;
and in order to give effect to his views, he translated it
into the vulgar tongue. It would be interesting to know
the extent to which his opinions were received by the
mass of his countrymen. They sufficed to excite the
opposition of the papacy ; but this is consistent with
but a limited diffusion. Much of the power of Wick-
liffe would depend upon the range of his living voice.
The art of printing was not then known, and the mul
tiplication of manuscripts was expensive and laborious;
moreover, under any circumstances, subjection to a
feudal aristocracy in an era of civil commotion, and to
the training of an ignorant priesthood in the darkest
age of the church, were conditions not favourable to
the development of independent religious inquiry. It
might be that the good man had sowed his seed in an
ungenial soil ; it required but the influence of a favour
able season, however, to raise it into vigorous life.
And this soon came.
An unseemly struggle between rival Popes for the
possession of St. Peter's chair was now agitating the
church ; and, to the great scandal of ecclesiastical
dogmas, the exercise of private judgment was needed
to decide on the validity of their respective claims.
Long had the venerable institution resisted all attacks
and silenced all opposition from without. To give
greater effect to its spiritual jurisdiction, it had invoked
the aid of the civil power, and kindled penal fires.
Thus the faith of the nation had become orthodox and

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 9
homogeneous ; there was no disturbing element visible,
but growing symptoms of inherent weakness in
the body had begun to manifest themselves in its
members. Such was its condition when called to defend itself
against the attacks of the German Reformers. This
great secession from its ranks was the prelude to im
portant changes in England ; but these changes were
in the outset accompanied by circumstances which
diminished their value and limited their application. It
was not strictly a Reformation in religion that occurred
in England under the authority of Henry VIII. ; it
was rather an exchange of Popes. The church gained
a new officer, but it was not purged from its old errors :
it was emancipated from the Roman supremacy, but it
was not restored to the purity of its primitive practice.
By this act, however, the king without intending it,
rendered a great service to his country. He removed
the key-stone, and destroyed the arch ; the great system
lost cohesion, men's thoughts were unsettled and their
confidence shaken, so that the change was fraught with
issues which far exceeded the royal intention. TheBible,
moreover, was translated into English and printed, the
works of the Reformers were read, and it is not strange
that men began, without the king's permission, to en
quire into the stability of that foundation on which
their hopes for eternity had been based. The church
had claimed and exercised, with no sparing measures,
the power to decree ceremonies ; these seemed destined
now to extinguish its life. It had instituted numerous
sacraments, and on their validity the safety of souls had
been staked. Thus religion had become converted into a

10 Religious Opinion and Practice
system of external observances, having little, if any, con
nection with man's spiritual condition. Its duties were
for the most part performed by the priest, who, claiming
the power of the keys by virtue of a true succession from
the apostles, claimed also the important function of
admitting men into the kingdom of heaven, or of con
signing them to hopeless perdition. How much of all
this was truth and how much priestcraft? Let the
events of the succeeding times declare.
The Reformation arising out of this condition of
things was modified by several circumstances. In Eng
land, it began at the head and descended to the ex
tremities ; commencing in the first instance with the
king, it was carried on by but a small section of the
clergy. It was the result of no great conviction per
vading the mind of the people, and for some time it
had not much of the popular sympathy in its favour.
Recent events had diminished the power of the feudal
barons, but the influence of feudalism still survived.
Dependence for direction on superiors was in this age
the normal condition of the English people. On reli
gious questions they were profoundly ignorant. They
were fed at the monasteries and entertained at feasts ;
sometimes their senses were captivated by processions
and candlebearings ; then they were moved to solemnity
by the imposing ceremonials of the church. "Was it to
be expected under these circumstances that they should
doubt the authority of its mission, or question the right
of the priest to hold its revenues and direct its machinery.
In the regency of Edward VI., the reforming party
were in the majority, and it was now that the Reforma
tion commenced ; but his reign was brief, and during

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 11
its continuance many obstacles combined to retard the
progress of change. The members of the council were
divided in sentiment, the people had not yet been
roused to a full comprehension of the importance of
the new opinions, and a large proportion of the clergy
were either indifferent or hostile to them. The con
nexion between the civil and the ecclesiastical power
restricted the freedom and increased the difficulties of
the Reformers, for the old faith was so interwoven into
the framework of government,* that no great organic
change could be made in the church without affecting
the interests of the state. To these considerations we
may add, that the reforming clergy had been trained
in Popish universities, where an influence favourable to
existing institutions must have been produced on the
character of their reasonings and the conclusions of
their judgment, from which it would be difficult at once
to emancipate themselves. Hence they attempted, in
the first instance, only the outworks of the great strong
hold of the Roman superstition. They proceeded by
a slow process, and from the nature of the case, as the
controversy extended, it became largely absorbed in
questions connected with the ceremonies and govern
ment of the church. By what Scriptural authority are
we required to observe holy days and feasts ? Why are
the Roman vestments to be used in the consecration of
ministers ? What is the number of the Christian sacra
ments ? what their efficacy ? and by whom are they
savingly administered ? Is the king's authority in eccle
siastical causes supreme ? Is a true church polity com
posed of bishops, priests, and deacons, with subordination
of office and dignity, or of a synod of ministers and

12 Religious Opinion and Practice
elders, having co-ordinate powers ? It was to be ex
pected, that in the discussion of these and similar ques
tions great diversities of opinion would arise, and the
Reformers early encountered the difficulty of reconciling
the right of private judgment in religion with an entire
uniformity of religious practice and belief.
This uniformity, indeed, had been secured in the
ancient church by a somewhat logical process. If you
deprive men of the right to think at all on religious
questions you extinguish at the source all diversities of
opinion connected with them. But the Reformers en
deavoured to combine two irreconcileable conditions —
men must think independently and responsibly, and yet
they must think in harmony. For this purpose they
prepared formularies and digested articles of faith ; but
any toleration of opinions at variance with the legal
standards had not yet entered into their creed, for they
had hitherto failed to perceive that a true unity of the
spirit in religious association may subsist amid consider
able diversities of doctrinal belief.
Not succeeding in their efforts to secure uniformity
by means of creeds and controversies, they resorted to
persecution. But let us deal gently with the conduct
of these men ; their errors were peculiar to the age in
which they lived, and it cannot be denied that they
performed services to the cause of religion which will
ever merit the gratitude of posterity. They revised the
canon law, called in the mass books, converted the
altars into communion tables, attempting by all the
means in their power to purge the creed of the church
from its errors, and to bring its practice into a nearer
conformity to the simplicity of the primitive times.

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 13
But their position was critical and their power limited,
hence their course was a compromise with Popery.
In the earlier communion and baptismal services
for example, many traces of the old superstition were
still visible. " Departed saints continued to be com
mended to God's mercy," and " in baptism a cross
was made on the child's forehead and breast, with
an adjuration of the devil to go out of him. He was
then dipped with trine immersion, clothed with a
chrysome or white veil by the minister, and anointed
with oil."
But the Reformation, though still imperfect, was in
advance of the times. It was not yet rooted in the
sympathy of the people, and so far its establishment
could not be depended upon. Hitherto little had been
permanently established, but much had been unsettled.
Moreover men had begun to think upon religious ques
tions, and to discuss them with freedom ; and herein
was the great service rendered by the Reformers during
the brief reign of Edward VI.
Edward died too soon for his country, and was suc
ceeded on the throne by his sister. Mary was by descent
and education a papist, by nature a bigot and a perse
cutor. From inclination, therefore, as well as from
considerations of public policy, she at once determined
on the suppression of the new opinions ; and by an
exertion of the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs,
of which she denied the validity, she again subjected
her country to the Roman See.
Her reign was short, but into its narrow compass
there was compressed an unparalleled amount of suf
fering and disaster, so that even in the contemplation of

14 Religious Opinion and Practice
it at this distance of time Englishmen hang down their
heads. A Parliament elected at the commencement of
her reign gave the sanction of its authority to the royal
determination. The old persecuting statutes of the
Plahtagenets were revived into more than their ancient
activity ; but the laws designed by the wisdom of our
ancestors, to limit the power of the priesthood and to
defeat their rapacity, were either repealed or they ceased
to be enforced. Crowds of the most pious and learned
of the clergy were expelled from their churches, and
numbers of devoted christians were consigned to the
flames. Others fled abroad into Protestant countries,
where their faith was confirmed and their knowledge
was increased, and where, by the discipline of suffering,
they learned to endure hardness, as good soldiers of
Jesus Christ. What was the effect of all this on the
interests of the Protestant religion in this country?
The expulsion of a pious pastor, or the martyrdom of
an aged christian, victorious over suffering, and loyal to
his Saviour in the agonies of death, is an elevating
spectacle, appealing to men's sympathies with an elo
quence which it is impossible to resist. In every age
the blood of the martyrs had been the seed of the
church, and this was no exception. So far indeed was
Mary from repressing the new opinions by the vigour
of her proceedings, that she rooted them more deeply
in the affections of the people.
Of the most prominent advocates of the reformed
religion in the late reign, some, through fear, had gone
back to the old superstition ; others had fled and were
residing abroad ; many were in prison ; not a few had
already perished in the flames; and others had been

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 15
subjected to cruel tortures, not accepting deliverance,
that they too might obtain a better resurrection. At
this time, the prospects of the Reformers were gloomy
in the extreme, for amid all this community in suf
fering, they were distracted by differences among them
selves. The deposed bishops were appealed to, and Ridley,
then on the eve of his martyrdom, endeavoured to com
pose their distractions. " I love you, dear hearts," said
he, " though you have taken it otherwise, without
cause. I am going before you to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God." But the earnest
appeals of the good man failed to effect their purpose.
He could not convince them of their errors, but he
could pray for their enlightenment, and he desired them
to pray one for another.
The English refugees who had fled to Frankfort had
been admitted into a partnership in a French church.
The two congregations were to meet at different hours,
and before entering into possession, the English were
to subscribe the French confession, and to adopt a
simple ritual. They were not to answer aloud after
the minister, nor to use the litany and surplice, and
they agreed that they would avoid all quarrels about
ceremonies. Several learned divines connected with a similar con
gregation at Strasburg were alarmed by this departure
from the exact pattern of king Edward's service book.
" Should they deviate from it at this time, they appre
hended they should seem to condemn those at home
who were now sealing it with their blood, and give
occasion to their adversaries to charge them with

16 Religious Opinion and Practice
inconstancy." These views were supported by the
authority of Dr. Cox, who had been the tutor of king
Edward VI. ; but they were opposed by John Knox,
the celebrated Scotch reformed, and by the venerable
author of " The Book of Martyrs."
In this posture of affairs, the congregation at Frank
fort resolved to ask the advice of John Calvin, then
pastor of the church at Geneva. Having perused the
English service book, he delivered his opinion on the
case submitted to him. " There were many tolerable
weaknesses in it which, because at first they could
not be amended, were to be suffered; but that it
behoved the learned, grave, and godly ministers of
Christ to enterprise farther, and to set up something
more filed from rust and purer." " If religion had
flourished till this day in England, many of these things
would have been corrected ; but since the Reformation
is overthrown, and a church is to be set up in another
place, where you are at liberty to establish what order
is most for edification, I cannot tell what they mean
who are so fond of the leavings of Popish dregs"
These views were of great force as applied to the
detached congregations of Strasburg and Frankfort;
but they did not in the opinion of many meet the exact
circumstances of the reformed episcopal Church of
England. Out of these events, therefore, there arose a division
in the congregation at Frankfort, which was remarkable
as the first secession from the church of the Reforma
tion ; and from this date the Puritans, as the extreme
Reformers were now denominated, began to take a
prominent part in the religious discussions of the

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 17
country. Such was the position of ecclesiastical affairs
when Queen Mary died suddenly, and was succeeded
by her sister Elizabeth.
The new Queen proceeded with caution in reversing
the religious legislation of the preceding reign. Like her
father, she affected great magnificence in her devotions ;
she was fond of the old rites and ceremonies in which
she had been educated, and thought that her brother
had stripped religion too much of its ornaments. So
far her personal predilections were in favour of the old
religion. But the Pope had pronounced her illegitimate, and
supported the claim of the Queen of Scots to the
English crown; and again to admit the papal supremacy
was to limit the royal prerogative. This consideration
had sustained the decision of her father, and it had its
weight in the councils of the Tudor Queen.
With the sanction of her Parliament, therefore, she
restored the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical causes,
but in other respects her religious course was between
the church of Rome and the service book of king
Edward VI. ; her policy in consequence was opposed to
the views of the advanced Reformers. The spirit of
her father was strong in the queen, and the determina
tions of her will, gave unity to her purposes and decision
to her character. She was assisted moreover by coun
cillors of great ability in the various departments of her
administration. Having accepted with apparent reluc
tance the important office of head of the church, she
determined to enforce uniformity in its services ; but
recent events had so effectually dislocated the religious
machinery of the country that it was now beyond the

18 Religious Opinion and Practice
power of the queen, either personally or through the
agency of her Parliament, to carry her determination
into effect.
In the act of Supremacy, a clause had been inserted
empowering the sovereign, by letters patent under the
great seal, to create a court of high Commission with
spiritual jurisdiction within the realm of England and
Ireland, " to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and
amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts,
offences, and enormities whatsoever."
In the present posture of religious parties, a difficult
task awaited the Commission. It was sustained never
theless in active exercise of its functions through the
whole of Elizabeth's reign. Controversies ensued ; in
their origin, conducted on both sides by men eminent
for their learning and ability ; but the disputants failed
in their efforts to convince each other. Soon the terrors
of the high Commission gave weight to the logic of the
church; again uniformity was to be enforced by
persecution. But persecution ever gives tenacity to the principles
which it aims to eradicate, and widens the breach which
it is intended to heal. By these means union became
hopeless, but a large proportion of the country sup
ported the policy of the Queen. Of the clergy many
were in favour of the old religion, for at the commence
ment of the present reign they had- adopted articles in
convocation supporting the papal supremacy and the real
presence in the sacrament and in the sacrifice of the mass.
By this act they disburdened their consciences, but they
continued to retain their benefices ; for out of more than
10,000 ministers having cure of souls, only about 240,

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 19
on the accession of Elizabeth, appear to have given up
their connexion with their churches. But the Puritans,
though an inconsiderable minority and out of favour
with the court, were men of piety and determination.
The persecutions to which they were subjected gave
earnestness to their convictions and intensity to their
labours. The Reformation in Scotland had already
made great progress, and its principles began now to
exert a considerable influence upon the public opinion
of this country.
Hitherto no doctrinal questions of importance had
been at issue in this controversy. The Reformers were
dissatisfied with the government and discipline of the
church, and they desired the removal of some of its
offensive ceremonies, " because," say they, " being in
vented by men, though upon a good occasion, yet they
had since been abused to superstition and made a
necessary part of divine worship. Thus Hezekiah was
commended for breaking in pieces the brazen serpent
after it had been erected 800 years, and the high places
that had been abused to idolatry were commanded to be
destroyed. In the New Testament, the washing of the
disciples' feet which was practised in the primitive
church was, for wise reasons, laid aside, as well as their
love feasts. Besides, these rites and ceremonies have
occasioned great contentions in the church in every age.
The Galatian christians objected to St. Paul that he did
not observe the Jewish ceremonies as the other apostles
did; and yet he observed them while there was any
hope of gaining over weak brethren. For this reason
he circumcised Timothy, but when he perceived that
men would retain them as necessary things in the

20 Religious Opinion and Practice
church, he called that which before he made indifferent
wicked and impious ; saying that, whoever was circum
cised Christ could nothing profit him. The like con
tentions have been between the Greek and Latin
churches in later ages, for which and other reasons it
has been thought fit to lay aside these human inventions
which have done so much mischief."
Hence the Puritans were for keeping close to the
New Testament in the principles of their church
government and in the manner of their worship, while
the court Reformers maintained "that the practice
of the primitive church for the first four or five cen
turies was a proper standard of church government and
discipline, and in some respects a better than that of
the Apostles, which was only accommodated to the
infant state of the church while it was under persecu
tion," and, therefore, not suited to the exigencies of a
national establishment.
Before the close of Elizabeth's reign however, the
controversy had taken a wider range. At the Univer
sity of Cambridge and elsewhere, opposing views on
election and final perseverance had begun to prevail,
and these were aggravated by the means resorted to for
their suppression. On the nature of the sacraments
both parties were at first substantially agreed. It was
held that they were the signs and seals of grace, but
that the grace conveyed was through faith, and was thus
contingent on their being rightly received.
But in the manner of their administration there was
considerable diversity of opinion and practice. The
Puritans objected to kneeling at the communion, to the
use of the cross in baptism, and to baptism by women,

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 21
all of which they regarded as remains of the old super
stition and as opposed to the right administration of the
sacraments. Other questions followed. Was the Bishop
superior in office and dignity to the Priest or Presbyter
in a true ecclesiastical polity ? Was Presbyterian ordi
nation to holy orders equivalent to Episcopal ? What
were the rights of the respective churches with regard
to endowments by the State ? On these and similar
questions the parties to this controversy, as might be
supposed, arrived at very different conclusions.
Before the close of Elizabeth's reign, several small
sects of Nonconformists had appeared. These differed
widely in opinion from the two great classes by whom
the Reformation had been hitherto carried on, and from
both they received a large measure of abuse.
Of the "Family of Love," little is known but
through the accounts of their enemies. They appear
to have been a simple and innocent people, living much
in retirement, devoting themselves to the cultivation of
Christian affections and to a contemplative life. Some
obscurity hangs over their doctrinal opinions, but it is
clear that they did not come up to the standard of the
orthodox belief: a conscientious objection to judicial
oaths was among the peculiarities of the sect.
This heresy came within the functions of the high
Commission, who assailed it by proclamations containing
an unusual amount of ribaldry and abuse. The
" Family " were characterised as " crafty, hypocritical,
dangerous, and damnable ; their doctrines were absurd
and fanatical; and their books, lewd, heretical, and
seditious." The Anabaptists were an older and altogether a more

22 Religious Opinion and Practice
numerous and formidable body. Their chief centre
was in Germany, where some fierce enthusiasts under
their name held dangerous opinions about theMillehium.
In anticipation of the reign of the saints, they dis
claimed the authority of the civil magistrate, and in
volved the country in a war, which was attended by
great confusion and bloodshed. In England, the sect
appears to have been known before the time of the
Reformation, and their views against infant baptism,
judicial oaths, and some other received opinions, gained
considerable ground among the people in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth.
Their principles, however, were regarded by the
Government with feelings of aversion, and under the
authority of the writ "de hceretico comburendo"
several of them were committed to the flames.
Similar treatment awaited the followers of Robert
Brown,* a clergyman of good family, educated at Cam
bridge, who originated a secession in this reign.
He was a man of considerable ability, but of an
imperious and ill-regulated temper. The Brownists did
not differ from the Church of England in any important
article of faith. According however to their theory of
its government, the church is a Christian democracy.
They maintained that a true church is confined within
the limits of a single congregation, and therefore that
one church cannot lawfully exercise any jurisdiction or
authority over another. The minister holds his office
by the appointment of the members, and may be

* Brown is said, in the course of his life, to have been committed
to 32 prisons, many of which were so dark that he could not see his

hand at noon

Prior to the Rise of Friends, 23
deprived of it by the same authority. The power of
admitting persons into communion, or of excluding
them from it, is vested in the brotherhood. All pre
scribed forms of prayer are to be avoided, and laymen
may exercise the liberty of prophesying or exhorting
in all the assemblies of the faithful.
Several of the Brownists fled from the violence of
their persecutors into Holland, where they planted many
churches, organised after their favourite model. Many
of these persons subsequently emigrated to America,
where they were known as the Pilgrim Fathers, and
where, after enduring incredible hardships, they founded
several States, which have since been renowned for
their wealth and intelligence. Here they subsequently
copied the worst vices of their English persecutors, by
inflicting the most atrocious cruelties upon the Quakers,
several of whom they hanged.*
Doubtless these men were endowed with high quali
ties, and distinguished by many virtues, but we must
not conceal that their Christian reputation was tar
nished by many crimes. Their conduct to the Abori
gines of the country forms one of the darkest pages in
the history of colonization. " Hundreds of Indians,
* Among no class of religionists, as a class, before the rise of
Friends, does religious toleration appear to have been either under
stood or practised. The Presbyterians in 1645, after giving many
reasons against the toleration of Independents, speak on the general
question thus — " A toleration ! a toleration ! we detest and abhor the
much endeavoured toleration. Our bowels ! our bowels ! are stirred
within us, and we could even drown ourselves in tears when we call to
miud how long and sharp a travail this kingdom hath been in for
many years together to bring forth the blessed fruit of a pure and
perfect Reformation, and now at last, after all our pangs, and dolors,
and expectations, this real and thorough Reformation is in danger of
being strangled in the birth by a lawless toleration, that strives to be
brought forth before it." (See Jackson's Life of John Goodwin.)

24 Religious Opinion and Practice
under the pretended sanction of Christianity, and after
solemn religious exercises, they exterminated by fire
and sword ; and when the assailants, reeking from the
slaughter and blackened by the smoke, returned home,
they were everywhere received with pious ovations."
During the progress of the religious divisions con
nected with the reformation, and of the controversies
that rose out of them, what was the moral and religious
condition of the great body of the people ? To remedy
an existing scarcity, the bishops had admitted into the
ministry sundry artificers and others i( not brought up
to learning," including some that were of base occu
pation. The convocation in consequence issued an
admonition, forbidding all persons under the degree of
a Master of Arts, to preach or to expound the S criptures.
Yet so great was the religious destitution in some dis
tricts at this time, that the admonition could not be
carried into effect. In many places there was no
preaching nor reading so much as a homily for months
together, and in others it was hard to find persons to
baptize the young, or to bury the dead. To remedy
these evils, the Puritan party in the church instituted
their assemblies for prophesyings. These meetings were
conducted according to specified regulations, and were
designed by the clergy for the mutual instruction and
edification of themselves and their people. They were
supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the
Queen, who had a rooted aversion to preaching, de
termined on their suppression.
On her accession to the crown of England, a difficult
task had awaited Elizabeth; but in her political adminis
tration, success had crowned her efforts, and on her death

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 25
she left behind her a high reputation for practical
sagacity. Her ecclesiastical policy, however, had al
together failed. From the course of time and the
progress of opinion, the re-establishment of Popery
had been rendered more difficult, but the Reformation
had receded. She had failed to reconcile the contending
parties, and the prevailing controversies had taken a
wider range, and become more embittered. A great
opportunity of healing the wounds of the church had
passed away, and the character of the new king gave no
promise of a more cheering future. From the accession
of James all parties had grounds of hope, but in the end
they were all disappointed. Born of Roman Catholic
parents, and baptized according to the ritual of that
church, he had since been strictly educated in the opin
ions of the Scottish Reformers. To these, however, on
attaining the English crown, he speedily renounced his
allegiance. Deep in the knowledge of divinity, and
profoundly skilled in kingcraft, he decided to review
the religion of his subjects and to heal their distractions.
For this important office he had very indifferent quali
fications : he was cunning and pedantic, weak, preju
diced, and unprincipled ; and whilst entertaining high
notions of the prerogatives of his office, he was little
affected by its duties and responsibilities.
Soon after his arrival in England, he issued a procla
mation " touching a meeting for the hearing and deter
mining of things pretended to be amiss in the church."
Over this conference he presided in person. It was
held at Hampton Court, and continued its sittings for
three days, during which the various questions at issue
between the Puritans and the Bishops were brought

26 Religious Opinion and Practice
under discussion. It failed however in its main purpose
of restoring harmony to the church, but it effectually
opened the eyes of the Puritans as to the character of
the royal intentions ; and henceforth men began to
treat the schisms of the Reformation as permanent and
incurable, and the several parties drifted into new rela
tions towards each other. Scarcely any concessions
were made to the scruples of the Puritans, but a pro
clamation commanding strict conformity was issued,
and the usual consequences followed — " many of the
clergy were silenced; some were imprisoned; their
flocks were irritated ; the estrangement on both sides
was grievously increased, and the lawfulness of separ
ating from the Church of England began at length to
be generally discussed."
Deprived of hope by the conduct of the king, the
puritans began to despair of their country. Disappoint
ed in their expectations of relief, and harassed by new
persecutions, many of them now sought that freedom
and peace on the shores of America which they could
not enjoy in their native land.
The first generation of Reformers had nearly passed
away, and they were succeeded by men trained after
another fashion. A new order of divines obtained the
chief influence in the church. Meanwhile piety was in
decay. The Court was immoral, and all seriousness
was treated with contempt. At once to arrest the pro
gress of puritan opinions and to silence the objections of
the papists against the strictness of the reformed religion,
the king published " a declaration to encourage recrea
tions and sports on the Lord's day." About this time
the doctrinal questions determined in the synod of Dordt

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 27
began to find their way into England, and the sermons
were filled with discussions on predestination, universal
ity, efficacy, resistibility, or irresistibility of God's grace.
Laud now rising into a position of influence in the
established church, took the side of " free grace" in this
controversy, and his party began to teach other opinions,
which had not been before received by the church of the
Reformation. The Lord's supper is not only a sac
rament, it is also a sacrifice, the communion table is
therefore an altar, and it is to be placed " altar wise."
Images of Christ himself and of the prophets, apostles,
martyrs, and confessors, are to be introduced into
churches. The abuse of these is to be reformed, but
their use is good and laudable. Regeneration is con
ferred in baptism, and all baptized persons are thus
introduced into a state of grace and acceptance with
God. While Laud was thus leading the church back
over the road on which since the Reformation it had
been endeavouring, though often feebly and falteringly
to advance, the king was prudently looking round
among the Catholic powers to provide a wife for his
son. The negotiations for this end with the Pope and
the court of Spain were not ultimately ratified, but
they proceeded far enough to prove, if proof were
wanting, that neither the church of the Reformation
nor the Protestant succession were very safely enshrined
in the heart and conscience of the king. About this time
religious and political considerations became united by
singular affinities; Laud, the advocate of "Free Grace"
in theology, became the great supporter of despotism in
government, whilst the puritans, trained in a religious
creed not remarkable for its expansiveness, were the

28 Religious Opinion and Practice
most prominent advocates of civil and religious freedom.
James died before he had completed the arrangements
for the marriage of his son. According to the estimate
of his own times he had been eminently a religious
man, but posterity has done him justice by a more
accurate analysis of his character. Whilst making
great pretensions to piety, his conduct was habitually
immoral, whilst professing with much grimace and
solemnity his deep attachment to the Protestant religion,
he secretly devoted all his powers to bring about the
marriage of his son to a devoted adherent of the church
of Rome. His character throughout was hollow and
insincere, and the moral influence of his court was
pernicious to the country.
The conduct of James to the puritans had early
excited their suspicion, but before the end of his reign
they had begun to regard it with feelings of intense
hatred and disgust. Hopeless of relief they now spoke
of their wrongs in bold and uncompromising language ;
the court endeavoured to repress this freedom by
measures of impolitic harshness. Thus the relations
between the king and the Nonconformists were embit
tered, their sufferings, however, excited sympathy and
gained them new adherents. In their treatment, not
only had their religious scruples been disregarded, their
civil rights also had been violated, and they now began
to band themselves together in active hostility to the
principles of the government. The disputes which had
been carried on in the two preceding reigns increased
in violence and became more political in their character
on the accession of Charles I.
The young king was by nature proud and inflexible ;

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 29
he had moreover been educated in the most extravagant
notions of the royal prerogative. The principles of the
puritans he regarded with aversion, and from the com
mencement of his reign he resolved to watch their
proceedings with the utmost vigilance.
On the other hand the puritans had every reason to
distrust the policy of the king ; for his queen, to whom
he was devotedly attached, was a rigid Romanist, and
the influence of Laud, which was considerable in the
preceding reign, had now become supreme.
The principles of the Reformation henceforth became
increasingly unpopular in the church. Doctrines nearly
allied to the Romish superstition had begun to be
openly taught, and many of its antiquated ceremonies
were again restored. To secure a rigid conformity to
the new ceremonial, the court of Star Chamber was
organised, and it soon became the engine of incredible
cruelty. The book of Sports, which had been issued but not
enforced in the preceding reign, was again reprinted
with a declaration subjoined by the king, as he stated,
" out of pious care for the service of God," commanding
its publication in all the parish churches of his realm.
A few ministers of puritan opinions still retained their
benefices in the church, some of these were now silenced
because they refused to be made accessory to the dese
cration of the sabbath by giving their sanction to the
royal declaration. The sports, as might have been
anticipated, descended into noisy and tumultuous revels,
they were attended by drunkenness, quarrelings, and
even murders. Men of loose morals' took refuge in the
practice of the court, and pleaded the royal sanction for

30 Religious Opinion and Practice
their indulgences; whilst others of honourable char
acter and virtuous lives were stigmatised as puritans
and enemies of the king. Popery was now openly
countenanced, and its adherents were conciliated.
Through the influence of the queen and the divinity of
Laud, again the two churches seemed destined to make
a near approach to each other. Many of the English
clergy were men of learning^but they were little moved
by the responsibilities of their office and profoundly
ignorant of practical religion. Their sermons were filled
with discussions on ceremonies or with scholastic nice
ties connected with questions which minister nothing
to " Godly edifying."
They ceased to be the utterances of earnest men,
they raised no sympathy in other hearts, and the pulpit
lost its power. It is not surprising, therefore, that in
the convulsions which followed vast numbers forsook
their pastors and became absorbed by the several
factions into which the English democracy was soon
after divided.
The puritan clergy too had changed. The generation
who had fought hand to hand with the papacy, and
whose lives had been spent amid cruel sufferings, in a
vain endeavour to purge the church from the dregs of
the papal superstition, had now passed away. They
were succeeded by the democratic puritans of the
commonwealth. These men inherited their name but
not their spirit. They were Calvinists, and preached
against Laud's theory of free grace, but their opinions
on good works led them to the verge of Antinomianism.
They became impatient under persecution, and leaving
the great questions of "fixed fate and foreknowledge

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 31
absolute" for the present unsolved, they began to
discuss the grounds of the constitutional maxim " that
the king can do no wrong." They looked back on the
experience of the Jewish theocracy, and finding there
some precedents that did not square with that ancient
maxim, they dismissed their scruples and placed them
selves in active hostility to their sovereign. In the
distractions that followed these men rendered import
ant services to the cause of the Commonwealth. All
attempts at reconciliation having failed, the civil war
commenced. The Parliamentary army was compounded
of curious ingredients — it was the common refuge of all
who were discontented, either with the civil or the
religious administration of the government. Unruly
London apprentices with short hair, country farmers.
Parliamentary patriots, and democratic puritans, stood
side by side in the same ranks. Doubtless there was in
all this much false zeal and some dangerous fanaticism ;
but these were to a great extent neutralized by earnest
patriotism, and directed by no small amount of energy
and practical sagacity. The civil war was essentially a
rising of the untrained manhood of the nation against
the mis-government and despotism of its constituted
authorities. In the parliamentary army all questions
of social status were held subordinate to merit, for
energy and ability rose to distinction in whomsoever
they were found. Cromwell was a brewer and occupied
a farm; Jones, his brother-in-law, had been servant to a
private gentleman; Joyce, who carried off the king,
had recently been a common working tailor ; Colonel
Pride, who purged the House of Commons of the
malignants, was originally a drayman; Skippon rose

32 Religious Opinion and Practice
from the position of a common soldier without education
to the rank of commander in chief of the army in
Ireland, and member of the council of government.
Many of the founders of the religious sects that arose
out of the conflicts of these extraordinary times were
also of mean extraction. Hitherto, alike by court and
clergy, all "mean and mechanick" persons had been
regarded as unfit for any function in church or state.
But the governing powers had proved either unequal to
their duties or unfaithful to their mission, and the
people now for the first time aroused from the sleep of
centuries, proceeded to discharge as best they might
the new responsibilities that under these circumstances
devolved upon them. Many influences had been
powerfully at work, expanding the mind and increasing
the intelligence of the people. — The decay of feudalism,
the discovery of printing, the translation of the Holy
Scriptures into the vulgar tongue and their more general
circulation, the freedom with which religion had been
discussed, the persecutions to which dissenters had been
subjected, — all these had contributed to increase the
discontent, and to give a new direction to the popular
sentiments. The ground was now, for the first time,
fairly broken up, and the plants and weeds that " were
indigenous to the soil sprang up together with a rank
and irrepressible fertility."
Hitherto the spirit of religious inquiry had been kept
alive by the efforts used to suppress it. Now, the
shackles of past ages of intolerance were effectually
broken. The nation was torn by intestine strifes, and
numbers perished from the scourge of war. These
calamities loosened men's attachment to the world, by

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 33
shewing the precarious tenure of life, and all that
pertains to it. Their thoughts were stirred by the
greatness of the occasion, for solemn issues were
impending, and many began now to seek after those
substantial and enduring consolations which are only
to be found in true religion. But where was true
religion itself to be found? The infallibility of Rome
was the stronghold of grievous errors. The reformed
church of England had retained many of them, and its
hierarchy even now was favourable to a still nearer
connection with the old superstition.
The puritans had lost their early vitality, and were
less disposed to emulate the simple piety of their an
cestors than to protect their rights from the encroach
ments of the king.
The sectaries had become churches militant in a
double sense ; sometimes fighting, sometimes praying.
Now, enforcing the duty of resisting tyrants in earnest
discourses delivered in loud tones in the market-place —
then, illustrating their precepts by the energy of their
practice in the field. In the language of an able writer
(Colquhoun), " Men whose lives were infamous sounded
the depths of predestination and election. The cold-
hearted, churchman and the hot-headed sectary appeared
in the lists with arms burnished and fence acquired by
training ; and as civil confusion increased there was no
place which was not converted into an arena. Men
poured into the church and the meeting house, not to
humble themselves or to pray, but to witness a fight
between two controversialists, to watch the turn of the
conflict, and to applaud the victor. No bull-baiting
ever delighted the Spaniard, no cock-pit or rat-hunt

34 Religious Opinion and Practice
ever charmed the Englishman more than these combats
which went on week by week during the confusion of
the civil wars ; in parish churches, and city churches,
where hard faced men sat with eager eyes, watching in
the disputes and mingling in the fray.*
Sincere enquirers were perplexed by these conten
tions of rival sects, and being weary of polemic strife,
they lost confidence in their religious teachers.
"Many of these persons withdrew from all the
acknowledged forms of public worship, and devoted
themselves to a diligent search of the Holy Scriptures,
with prayer for right direction in the path of duty,
frequently meeting in select companies for the worship
of God and for mutual edification." Among this class
the preaching of the early Quakers found a ready
entrance, and many of them were among the first con
verts of the new society.
Such was the aspect of the religious world when
George Fox for the first time looked out upon it.
Among both the ministers and the members of every
section of the church, we find, combined with much
restless activity, great spiritual deadness. True religion
is a life created in man, to be strengthened by discipline.
At this time it was regarded by many as a system of
outward observances, very remotely if at all connected

*Nor were these animated but uncanonical proceedings confined to
the times of the civil wars, during which there was no Established
church, — they extended into the period of the Commonwealth. — This
fact is to be carefully borne in mind in judging of the character of the
interruptions of the worship in the national churches, for which some
of the early Friends have been severely blamed by public writers not
adequately informed of, or not sufiicienty taking into account the
exceptional and extraordinary circumstances under which they took
place.

Prior to the Rise of Friends. 35
with the spiritual life. The clergy seldom preached,
many of them were personally immoral, and not a few
scandalously licentious. The dissenters were absorbed
in political factions, or engaged in polemic strife.
The right of private judgment was exercised in great
liberty of speech, and everywhere men were more
concerned about an acquaintance ' with the letter that
killeth ' than with ' the spirit which giveth life.' Be
neath all this turmoil there was doubtless hidden no
small amount of earnest piety. But in his search
among the professors Fox did not find it, so he turned
away mournfully from all sects and parties and " became
a stranger to all."

36 The Early Friends and

LECTURE SECOND.
THE EARLY FRIENDS AND THE COMMONWEALTH TIMES.

" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and
ever."

We come now to the consideration of that phase of the
religious phenomena of the Reformation which was
exhibited by Quakerism in its first life; and in con
nexion with this enquiry, it will be needful to refer
as briefly as may be, to the character and labours of
George Fox ; for though the society of which he was
the founder ranked among its early converts, many
earnest, and not a few, able and learned men, yet the
influence of Fox was so powerful, his idiosyncrasies
were so marked, and so interwoven with the whole sys
tem of its doctrine and practice, that nowhere is genuine
Quakerism more accurately delineated than in the pages
of his remarkable journal.*
He was born at Drayton in the Clay, in Leicester
shire, in 1624, about one year before the death of James
I. His father, Christopher Fox, was an honest man ;
and though a weaver, he appears to have been in
comfortable circumstances in life. His mother, Mary
*A work of which Sir James Macintosh says : " It is one of the most
extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world, which no reader
of competent judgment can peruse without revering the virtue of the
Writer.''

The Commonwealth Times. 37
Lago, was of the "stock of the martyrs," and "was a
woman accomplished above most of her degree.'' Both
his parents were members of the established church,
and they brought up their children "in the way and
worship of the nation." From a youth this boy seems
to have been remarkable for his grave and pious deport
ment. The qualities of his future character were sha
dowed forth, even in his infant years. "When I came"
says he, "to eleven years of age, I knew pureness and
righteousness, for while a child I was taught how to
walk to be kept pure." — " The Lord taught me to be
faithful in all things, and to act faithfully in two ways,
viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man, and to
keep to yea and nay in all things. He shewed me that
though the people of the world have mouths full of de-
"ceit and changeable words, yet that my words should be
few and savory, seasoned with grace."
As he grew up, his relations remarking the tendency
of his mind, inclined to educate him for a "priest," but
others persuaded to the contrary, whereupon, he was
put out to a man who was a shoemaker by trade, but
who also was a grazier and a dealer in wool.
God had indeed a ministry for this inward, still, ob
serving youth, but he was to be prepared for it not by
scholastic training, but by the discipline of suffering,
and through the agony of many strange experiences.
When about 19 years of age, he received what he
regarded as a divine intimation, which determined the
course of his future life. " Thou seest how young
people go together into vanity, and old people into the
earth ; thou must forsake all, both young and old, and
keep out of all, and be a stranger to all." On this he

38 The Early Friends and
left home, broke off all familiarity or fellowship with
old and young ; he was afraid even of the company of
professors ; he found not the vitality and savor of true
godliness about them, for he was " sensible," he says,
"that they possessed not what they professed." Then
mighty troubles came upon him, and strong temptations
to despair. Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, Fox might have
" got out of the mire on that side of the slough which
was next to his own house," but his cry was for
deliverance through the right channel ; his aim was for
the wicket gate. Into hollow trees and other solitary
places, he retired, while under this exercise, to fast and
to pray. Here his Bible was his constant companion.
During this struggle sometimes he kept himself "retired
in his chamber, then he walked solitary in the chase."
But his temptations grew more and more, and his •
despair increased. He turned his thoughts upon the
past, and brought the actions of his life in review
before him. Was he ever so before ? Was this the
penalty of some unforgiven sin ? Had he incurred
guilt by forsaking his parents, and so brought himself
into darkness and despair ? He removed to London,
and looked round among the great professors of the city,
but here his spirit found no rest, for he found them in
the dark, and he " saw all, young and old, where they
were." He returned home to his relations, who advised
him to marry. He replied, " he was yet but a youth,
and must get wisdom." Others were in favour of his
entering the army, but he had no foes to war with but
those of his own soul. In this condition he went for com
fort to many a "priest," but he found no comfort there.
Some of these interviews are especially characteristic

The Commonwealth Times, 39
of the parties and of the times in which they occurred.
"I went," he says, "to another ancient 'priest' at
Mancetter in Warwickshire, and reasoned with him
about the ground of despair and temptations, but he
was ignorant of my condition ; he bade me take tobacco
and sing psalms. Tobacco was a thing I did not love,
and psalms I was not in a state to sing. He told my
troubles and sorrows to his servants, which grieved me
that I had opened my mind to such a one. Then I
heard of a priest living about Tamworth who was
accounted an experienced man, and I went seven miles
to see him, but I found him only like an empty hollow
cask. I heard also of one Dr. Cradock of Coventry,
and went to him. I asked him the grounds of tempta
tion and despair, and how troubles came to be wrought
in man. He asked me who was Christ's father and
mother ? I told him Mary was his mother, and that he
was supposed to be the son of Joseph but that he was
the Son of God. Now as we were walking together
in his garden, the alley being narrrow, I chanced in
turning to set my foot on the side of a bed, at which
the man was in a rage, as if the house had been on fire.
Thus all our discourse was lost, and I went away in
sorrow, worse than I was when I came."
Still intent on finding relief from the burdens that
oppressed his soul, he consulted another 'priest' in
high account, one Macham, but again, his physician,
ignorant of the true remedy, failed to reach the seat of
the disease. " He would needs give me some physic,"
says Fox, " and I was to have been let blood, but they
could not 'get one drop of blood from me, my body
being as it were dried up with griefs and troubles,

40 The Early Friends and
which were so great upon me that I could have wished
I had never been born, or that I had been born blind,
that I might never have seen wickedness or vanity, and
deaf, that I might never have heard vain and wicked
words, or the Lord's name blasphemed." Weary and
sick at heart, the earnest young man turned away from
his counsellors ; miserable comforters had they all been
to him ; not one had truly comprehended his condition,
but through the gloom that long had covered his soul,
even now some rays of light were faintly breaking.
It was to this period of George Fox's life that Carlyle
refers in the following characteristic extract from his
Sartor Resartus.
" The temple of immensity wherein as man, he had
been sent to minister, was full of holy mystery to him.
The clergy of the neighbourhood, the ordained watchers
and interpreters of that same holy mystery, listened with
unaffected tedium to his consultations, and advised him,
as the solution of such doubts, to drink beer and smoke
tobacco. For what end were their tithes levied and
eaten; for what were their shovel hats scooped out;
and their surplices and cassock aprons girt on ; and such
a church repairing and chaffering and organing and
other racketing held over that spot of God's earth, if
man were but a patent digester and the belly with its
adjuncts the grand reality. Fox turned away from
them with tears, and a sacred scorn, back to his leather
parings and his Bible. Mountains of incumbrance had
been heaped over that spirit, but it was a spirit, and it
would not be buried there. Through long days and
nights of silent agony it struggled and wrestled with a
man's force to be free. How its prison mountains

The Commonwealth Times. 41
heaved and swayed tumultuously as the giant spirit shook
them to this hand and that, and emerged into the light
of heaven."
From early life the mind of George Fox had been
profoundly moved by the powers of the world to come.
Hitherto he had wandered earnestly but aimlessly from
place to place, groping his way through the surrounding
darkness, to higher degrees of light and knowledge.
At length he began to apply the light he already had
to the discharge of his daily duty, and the tone of his
mind was strengthened by the exercise. While others
were sporting and feasting' on public occasions, he
would look out poor widows from house to house,
relieving their wants by gifts of money, and their
sorrows by the sympathy of a loving heart.
He was now in the 23rd year of his age. Great
events had recently been taking place around him.
Laud and Strafford had been executed, the nation had
been engaged in a frightful civil war, decisive battles
had been fought, the church had been overthrown,
the king was a prisoner, the monarchy was in ruins.
But he heeded not the conflict, for to him it was only
the striving of the " potsherds of the earth against the
potsherds of the earth."
He too had been engaged in mighty struggles. In
the valley of humiliation he had fought with Apollyon
and had been «' hard put to it." He had passed through
the darkness of the shadow of death, and heard its
doleful voices, but his deliverance drew near, for as the
day dawned " he began to discover deep things out of
darkness, and light out of the shadow of death."
In his troubles and exercises he now experienced

42 The Early Friends and
frequent intermissions ; for he was sometimes brought
into such a heavenly joy that he thought he was in
Abraham's bosom. He had consulted eminent divines,
but the malady of his soul was too deep for syllogisms.
It was when all his hopes in all men were gone, so that
he had nothing outwardly to help him, that he found
Christ, who alone had the key, and could open the
door of life and light J;o him. — Well might his heart
leap for joy, for to him it was the advent of that Spirit
of truth which leads into all truth. Thus this great
reality, the spiritual presence of Christ in the hearts
of his people, which in after life was his constant
theme and the source of his deepest consolations, was
opened to his comprehension. In his difficulties, he
now took refuge in a holier guidance, in his despair he
was comforted by the help and presence of his God.
Others might regard this as a delusion, but to him it
was a blessed reality — having important practical bear
ings on his daily life and conduct, and it speedily
became the centre round which other sacred truths
began to group themselves. He saw that all was to
be done in and by Christ, and that his troubles and
temptations had been designed for the trial of his
faith and the establishment of his confidence in God.
ThroughHim the burden of his sins had been taken away.
Tears of joy dropped from his eyes, for he had been
brought through the ocean of darkness and death. He
had glimpses of the great love of God in Christ, and was
filled with admiration at the infinitude of it. When
his soul was veiled in darkness faith became his sure
and steadfast anchor, and he could endure all things
now as seeing Him who is invisible. The Holy Spirit

TJie Commonwealth Times. 43
was in him as " a refiner with fire, and as a fuller with
soap." New desires after holiness were created, and
his spiritual discernment was increased. That which
in the word of life he had seen and handled, he began
henceforth to declare to others, that they too might be
made partakers of that " fellowship which, through the
Eternal Spirit, is with the Father and with his Son
Jesus Christ."
He now began to see more clearly into some things
which hitherto had sorely perplexed his thoughts. How
was it that all Christians were believers, both Protest
ants and Papists? This could not be, for all believers
were born of God, and had passed from death unto
life, and none were true believers but such as these.
As he was walking thoughtfully in the fields on
another occasion, it was "opened" to him " that being
bred at Oxford and Cambridge was not enough to fit
and qualify men to be ministers of Christ." At this he
wondered, for he had been educated a church-man, and
it " struck at the priests' ministry," and was contrary to
the common belief of the people. As he did not live in
an age of church building, he might not have witnessed
the ceremony of consecrating an ecclesiastical edifice,
but he had been taught, on entering the church, to
remove his hat and to tread reverently as on holy
ground. But now it was " opened" to him that "God
who made the world, did not dwell in temples made
with hands * * * * but that his people were his
temple, and that he dwelt in them."
No wonder that Nathaniel Stevens the priest of his
parish began to disapprove of Fox's discoveries, for such
"openings" were not calculated to increase the con-

44 The Early Friends and
fidence of the people in his teachings, or in the stability
of the episcopal system, which was then seriously
endangered. For some years Fox had been for the most part from
home. Frequently had his friends endeavoured to stay
his proceedings, and to bring him into a more regular
and settled life. But he was not to be moved from his
purpose, for, as he believed, God had laid his hand
upon him, and ordained him a prophet to the nations.
Except in obedience to this call, and in the discharge of
his duty, his soul could find no rest.
He heard a voice they could not hear,
Which said he must not stay;
He saw a hand they could not see,
Which beckoned him away.
He had been brought to an understanding of his own
spiritual condition, he was now to speak to the condition
of others, and from this time his life becomes a scene
of ceaseless labour or of patient suffering.
Let us glance briefly at the next few years of his
ministry. The review will bring us some knowledge of
the rise of Quakerism, of the character of Fox's early
labours, and of the peculiarities of the times in which
he lived. He began his travels as a minister of Christ
in 1047, by a visit to a woman in Lancashire who had
fasted 22 days, and whom he found under a temptation.
On his way he " declared truth " among the professors
at Dukinfield and Manchester. After his return he
preached at a great meeting of Baptists and Separatists
at Broughton in Leicestershire, where the "power of
the Lord was over them all." At' a meeting in Mans
field he prayed with such fervour and effect, that the

The Commonwealth Times. 45
place seemed to be shaken where the people were
assembled. He passed on through Derbyshire and
Leicestershire where several " tender people were
convinced." On visiting Warwickshire he found large
numbers praying and expounding the Scriptures in the
open fields. The Bible was handed to him and he
expounded the 5th chapter of Matthew, and opened
their inward state; which set them on fierce contentions,
and they separated. At Leicester a great meeting was
held for a dispute, wherein Presbyterians, Baptists,
Independents, and Common Prayer men were all con
cerned. The meeting was in a steeple house, and Fox
was moved to go amongst them. The priest was in the
pulpit, and the disputants in pews in the body of the
house. A woman propounded a question out of Peter,
" What that birth was, viz. : ' A being born again of
incorruptible seed, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth for ever ? ' " The priest answered her in
the language of Paul, " I suffer not a woman to speak
in the church," whereupon Fox stepped up to him and
questioned him on the nature of a true church. " Dost
thou call this house a church, or dost thou call this
mixed multitude a church ? The church is the pillar
and ground of truth, made up of living stones, living
members, a spiritual household which Christ is the head
of. But he is not the head of a mixed multitude, or
of an old- house, made up of lime, stones, and wood."
" This " says Fox, " set them all on fire, the priest
came down out of his pulpit, the professors out of their
pews, and the dispute was marred." Howbeit, several
were convinced that day, including the woman that
asked the question and her family. We next find him

46 The Early Friends and
preaching repentance in the vale of Beavor, where he
made many converts. In Nottingham he met with a
company of " shattered Baptists, and the Lord's power
wrought mightily and gathered many of them." At
Eaton, near Derby, a meeting of Friends had been
already established.
All sorts of services and duties began now to crowd
upon him. — He preached the Gospel wherever he came
— he visited public hirings and admonished justices not
to oppress servants in their wages, — he cried for equity
in courts of justice, — he warned those who kept houses
for public entertainment not to promote drunkenness,
— he testified against feasts, may-games, sports, plays,
and shews, — he charged parents and teachers to bring
up their children and servants in the fear of the Lord.
He addressed tradesmen in fairs and markets, and de
clared against their deceitful merchandisings. Through
all its transformations and disguises he traced out evil
and denounced it. But it was the earthly spirit of the
clergy that stirred in him the most uncompromising
antagonisms. To him the sound of the church-bell was
harsh and inharmonious. There was the ring of the
money changers in its softest tones. It was the market
bell that gathered the people, " together that the priest
might set forth his wares to sale." — " Oh the vast sums
of money that are gotten by the trade they make of
selling the Scriptures and by their preaching, from the
highest bishop to the lowest priest. What trade else
in the world is comparable to it ? "
In 1649 he visited Nottingham, where, for interrupt
ing the episcopal service, he was committed to prison;
He was sent to the house of the Sheriff, where he

The Commonwealth Times. 47
lodged and had great meetings. At these meetings
some persons of considerable condition in the world
were present, and the Lord's power appeared eminently
among them.
At Mansfield Woodhouse during service he " declared
truth to priest and people." Here he was cruelly beaten
by the congregation with sticks and Bibles.
At Coventry, Atherstone, and Market Boston, similar
treatment awaited him.
At Derby he was imprisoned for twelve months, but
his time was not unoccupied. He wrote letters to the
clergy, magistrates, justices, and others in authority.
Whilst in confinement his jailor became a convert, as
did also a devout soldier, who came to visit him, and
"who saw to the end of fighting," and laid down his
arms. Before his liberation he wrote a lament over
Derby on account of its wickedness, and addressed an
epistle to " tender convinced persons." He moved by
way of Lichfield, where he pronounced a woe against
the city, into Yorkshire. Here Richard /Farnsworth,
James Naylor, and William Dewsbury, three of the
first ministers of the society, " received the truth."
At Selby he made the acquaintance of Captain Pursloe,
who introduced him to Justice Hotham, a " tender man
who had some knowledge of God's working in his heart,"
and both of them were convinced. From York, where
several others joined him, he passed into Cleveland.
Here he says " God had an humble people who continue
a meeting unto this day, sitting under the teaching of
Christ their Saviour."
At Slath, to which he had travelled through deep
snow, he had large meetings, and " a great convincement

48 The Early Friends and
there was." Among those who here received the truth
was a man of 100 years of age. The chief constable,
and a clergyman whose name was Philip Scaife, were
also among the converts. Of the latter he says, " him
did the Lord afterwards make a free minister of his
free gospel."
In this district he was engaged, in several disputes
with the clergy and other public teachers, after which
he pursued his way to the east of Yorkshire, where he
held his meetings in large houses. This practice was
then thought strange, so he was desired to speak in the
churches. At this time ecclesiastical buildings were
put to strange uses. On several occasions Fox appears
to have been invited by the minister to take the pulpit,
and the bell was rung to assemble the people. At
Pickering even the sessions were held in the " steeple
house." Justice Robinson was chairman. Fox had a
meeting in an adjoining schoolroom, which was attend
ed by abundance of " priests and professors." Four
chief constables were convinced, as was " Justice Robin
son's priest," who was very loving and offered Fox his
pulpit, but he declined to occupy it. Here he was
joined by another clergyman, who travelled up the
country with him and arranged a meeting for him in a
church. He did not accept the offer of the building,
but in the grave-yard he delivered his views on idol
temples, priests, tithes, augmentations, ceremonies, and
traditions, and "opened other matters largely among
them." "All," he says, " were quiet, and many were
convinced, blessed be the Lord."
Still accompanied by " Mr. Boyes, the ancient
priest," he travelled on to another town, where he

The Commonwealth Times. 49
addressed a large meeting from the top of a haystack.
Wherever he went he left traces of his presence. He
visited Oram, and met with a favourable reception.
At night he reached Partington, and as his manner was,
he warned priest and people to repent and turn to the
Lord. Here he was evil entreated by the inhabitants ;
none would give him a lodging, darkness came on, and
it was winter, but he walked out of the town, and being
weary with travelling, sat down among furze bushes
and remained till break of day.
In the morning he was seized by a rude multitude
and taken before a magistrate, but was immediately
liberated. Again he returned to the town and delivered
his message, which many now received. " Every where
he braved his persecutors, but without bravado."
Early in 1652 he returned into some parts of York
shire which he had previously visited, holding large
meetings in divers places, at most of which a " mighty
brokenness among the people " was visible. By this time
several persons who had received the truth on a former
visit had begun to declare it to others, and some of
these now frequently joined him in his travels. Passing
into the West Riding he visited Wakefield and Brad
ford, and proceeded thence through Bingley and Colne
to Marsden. Here he refers briefly in his Journal to the
following circumstance : — "As we travelled we came
near a great hill called Pendle Hill, and I was moved
of the Lord to go up to the top of it, which I did with
some difficulty, it was so very steep and high." From
the summit of this hill he beheld stretched out before
him the fertile fields of Craven, and as his eye swept on,
Ingleborough and Whernside came into view; — the

50 The Early Friends and
distant peaks of the Westmoreland and Cumberland
mountains were visible in the dim horizon, and follow
ing the course of the Ribble, the coast of Lancashire
and the Irish sea might be seen stretching far away
into the west.
From the top of this hill, he says, "the Lord shewed
me in what places he had a people to be gathered."
The district over which he now for the first time cast
his eyes was destined to become the great stronghold of
early Quakerism.
In many respects his first visit to it was remarkable,
and the results that flowed out of it furnish matter for
one of the most interesting chapters in the history of
religious revivals. The country was mountainous, and
for the most part barren. It was difficult of access,
having few roads, and at that time no wheeled carriages.
For nearly a thousand years it had been occupied by a
race of men whose condition had been little affected by
the changes that had swept over other parts of the
country. They were genuine Anglo-Saxon yeomen,
and distinguished by all the independence, energy, and
tenacity which characterise that race. From Jervaulx
in the east to Furness in the west, no abbey or priory
church had ever been known in the district. In social
rank the inhabitants were equal, they had few paupers
among them, and no feudal servitude had yet impaired
their manhood.
In obedience to what he regarded as the pointing of
the heavenly finger, turning neither to the right hand
nor to the left, into this district Fox now bent his way.
He was accompanied by Richard Farnsworth, one of
his early converts, now a minister. Their road lay for

The Commonwealth Times. 51
the most part through a barren and mountainous region,
and the first night the travellers drew together a bundle
of ferns and lay on a common. The next day Farns
worth returned home, and Fox travelled alone. On
arriving at the market town of Wensleydale, after the
priest had finished his service, he declared the word of life
unto the people and then passed on, warning men every
where and preaching the everlasting gospel to them.
Here Major Bousfield and several others received his
message. Next day he assembled with a body of
Separatists at Justice Benson's, near Sedbergh. This
was the place he had seen in his vision on Pendle hill,
where a people came forth to meet him in white apparel.
The justice and his congregation were convinced, and a
flourishing meeting was established in the neighbour
hood. Gervase Benson (the justice), John Blakeling, and
othersof the congregation, became active promoters of the
new opinions. On Whit Wednesday of the same week,
there was a large fair to be held at Sedbergh. To this
place as to a common centre would be drawn the
scattered population of a district containing some 300
miles of superficial area. The opportunity was not to
be lost, — it was a singular but an important gathering.
There were usually here drawn together country farmers
and their farm servants, "for it was," says Fox, "a great
hiring." There were mothers and daughters and school
boys surrounding the market stalls engaged in noisy
merchandisings. There were old Cromwellian officers
and troopers just returned from their campaigns. Here
too might be seen the episcopal clergy of the neighbour
ing hamlets, then clad in Presbyterian livery, engaged
with Independent ministers and separatists in earnest

52 The Early Friends and
discussions on the strange aspects of the times.
In company with Justice Benson in this motley
assemblage Fox too was conspicuous. In the morning
he had a meeting at Richard Parrot's house in the
town; then "he declared truth through the fair."
The effect produced was great. The large church was
offered to him, but he refused to enter that edifice. In
the church-yard there grew two yew trees, then in the
vigour of their meridian greenness. They still stand,
but the wrinkles of centuries are upon them, and a few
solitary twigs, growing out of their decaying trunks are
all of life that remains with them. Seventy years before,
Giles Withington, M.A., one of the earlier Puritan
ministers, incumbent of the church, had preached from
this spot to his congregation, after he had been deprived
of his living on the ground of non-conformity. Under
the branches of these trees, therefore, a bench was
erected. There came the people from the fair, and
" abundance of priests and professors," and for several
hours Fox preached the word of life to them. Captain
Ward, Francis Howgill, and several others were con
vinced. " The next first-day," he says, " I came to Firbank
chapel in Westmoreland, where Francis Howgill and
John Audland had been preaching in the morning."
This small episcopal chapel was at that time in the
possession of the Independents. It is situated on the
summit of a conical hill, about five miles from
Sedbergh, and is extremely difficult of access. It
stands in the centre of a region, dreary in the extreme;
for miles in some directions nothing can be seen but
barren moorland, and scarcely on any side does a human

The Commonwealth Times. 53
habitation meet the view. Adjoining this small chapel
is a huge rock, having at its base a spring of water.
Up into this great primeval solitude, Fox was followed
by more than a thousand people, and refreshing himself
with a little water from the stream flowing at his feet,
he ascended the rock, and for the space of three hours,
fixed the attention and moved the hearts of his remark
able audience. Most of the congregation and all the
ministers connected with it were convinced of the truths
he communicated. Wherever he went, the wave of
spiritual emotion swept after him — conversions amongst
all classes be,gan to be counted by hundreds. Nor was
the effect a mere temporary excitement ; in a large
number of instances it resulted in permanently changing
the character, and producing those " fruits unto holiness
the end whereof is everlasting life."
At this time, (1652), in the district of which this is
the centre, we meet with several of the most remark
able of the early ministers of the society.
From a farmhouse called Sunbiggin, in Orton, came
George Whitehead, then ] 8 years of age, subsequently
the friend of William Penn, and excepting Fox the
most devoted of the early Quakers. He closed a life
of abundant labour and of incredible suffering in London
in 1724, the last of his generation, at the advanced age
of 87 years. .At Underbarrow was born Edward Bur-
rough, the Whitfield of the party, a bold and earnest
preacher, who also laboured and suffered without inter
mission for ten years, and died in Newgate of gaol
fever at the age of 27. Out of this district also sprang
Francis Howgill, John Audland, John and Thomas
Camm, Richard Hubberthorn, Ambrose Rigge, James

54 The Early Friends and
Lancaster, John Braithwaite, Samuel Bownas, and
many others well known as laborious and successful min
isters in the early history of the Quakers.
From Firbank chapel Fox proceeded through West
moreland and North Lancashire to Ulverston, where he
was received by the family of Judge Fell at Swarthmore
Hall. Here a meeting was established, and for some
time this may be considered as the centre of his opera
tions. He still continued his labours in the Northern
counties, sometimes preaching on mountains and in
steeple-houses, or it may be disputing with priests,
sometimes being praised and sometimes abused and
beaten, but through all he pressed on in his mission.
His converts soon began to be counted by thousands.
About this time Anthony Pearson, a distinguished
justice of the peace, and subsequently the author of a
work against tithes, joined him and became one of his
ablest supporters, and now also James Parnell, a youth
who visited him in Carlisle jail, received the truth, to
which he speedily became a martyr, but not till after he
had with great effect begun to declare it to others. At
this point however we must pause, for new actors now
appear on the scene, and the drama becomes too com
plicated for this sketch.
I have given an outline of a few events connected
with the early years of Fox's ministry. It will afford
a pretty accurate indication of the character of the man,
the results of his labours, and the peculiarities of the
times in which he lived. The ministers that now
began to flock in increasing numbers to his standard
were for the most part men like minded with himself.
They, like him, had been brought out of darkness, and

The Commonwealth Times. 55
soon they began to publish the method of their deliver
ance to others. Thus each became the centre of a new
circle of operations, and to this end they speedily
dispersed themselves over the country.
"About this time," (1654), says Fox, " did the Lord
move upon the spirits of many whom he had raised up
and sent forth to labour in his vineyard, to travel south
ward and spread themselves in the service of the gospel,
to the eastern, southern, and western parts of the
nation, as Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough to
London; John Camm and John Audland to Bristol;
Richard Hubberthorn and George Whitehead towards
Norwich; Thomas Holmes into Wales; and others
different ways; for about 60 ministers had the Lord
raised up, and now sent abroad out of the north
country." For all this there was no special pecuniary
provision; the movement was not the result of any pre
concerted arrangement. In modern phrase it was a lay
agency, for no ecclesiastical authority had laid his hand
upon the heads of these men, and consecrated them to
specific spheres of labour. Each began to reap, after
his own fashion, under the direction of the Great Hus
bandman, in his own portion of the harvest field, and
the effect became speedily visible.
It would be interesting to know what the doctrinal
opinions of these ministers were, but hitherto Fox had
issued no creed. Those who joined his society held
many views that were common to all Christians, but
they maintained some others which were at that time
peculiar to themselves, and these constituted the bond
of their union and fellowship one with another.
Men holding such opinions were clearly comprised in

56 The Early Friends and
the toleration contained in the Instrument of government
under which Cromwell had been recently appointed
Protector, for though differing in judgment from the
worship and discipline publicly held forth, they " pro
fessed faith in God through Jesus Christ."
By direction of a committee of Parliament this short
test was afterwards amplified into sixteen propositions
setting forth in greater detail the "fundamentals of
Christianity," and of these propositions probably there
was not one that did not convey a truth believed by the
new society.
But there were some other truths in their view equally
fundamental, contained in the New Testament, which
had not found their way into this catalogue, and it was
to these more immediately that Fox and his associates
now directed the attention of their hearers. On the
manifold and important offices of the Holy Spirit in
the great work of man's salvation they were constantly
insisting. He was the Unction from the Holy One, which
teachethof all things, the Light which enlighteneth every
man that cometh into the world ; his office was to con
vince the world of sin no less than to comfort and
sanctify the Christian believer, and to be his guide into
all truth. In their view the work of the Holy Spirit
constitutes the life of all true religion, for it is "the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that maketh free
from the law of sin and death." In the spirit the Lord's
people have everywhere fellowship one with another.
He seals their individual adoption into the heavenly
family, and is the appointed medium of communica
tion between the church and its glorified Head.
With the work of the ministry, with the conversion

The Commonwealth Times, 57
of the sinner, and the regeneration of the saint, in short,
with all that is most precious and most practical in
Christian experience they believed that this Spirit is
connected by inseparable relationships. But they
held that in the first ages of the church the spirituality
of the gospel had been obscured by human traditions
and ceremonies.
The true position of the Holy Scriptures in the great
Christian economy was much enlarged upon in connec
tion with the Spirit's teachings, and on this subject
their views were frequently misapprehended. They
spake of the Holy Spirit as primary, of the Scriptures as
secondary and subordinate, but at all times they reve
rently accepted their divine inspiration and authority.
As the stream is subordinate to the fountain, so in
dignity and office the Holy Scriptures are subordinate
to the source from which they issued, but they taught
that their authority as a rule is primary and conclusive,
and that " whatsoever any do, pretending to the Spirit
which is contrary to the Scriptures, is to be accounted
and reckoned a delusion of the devil." Fox carried a
Bible about with him, and referred to it in his sermons
and controversies. In the meeting house near Swarth-
more Hall he deposited a folio copy of the Holy Scrip
tures which still remains ; it was chained up for the use
of the congregation assembling there. He refused indeed
to accept the glosses and interpretations of the school
men, but to the plain and literal injunctions of the
sacred writings he ever yielded a ready obedience. It
was on this ground that he would neither take an oath
in court, nor fight in defence of himself or his country.
He would speak the truth, but his yea must be yea,

58 The Early Friends and
and his nay — nay. He would give no cause of just
offence to another, but if he received wrong he would
endure it, not "resisting the evil," but suffering
wrongfully. Convinced that the gospel is not a dispensation of
shadows, but the very substance of the heavenly things
themselves, the early Quakers held peculiar views on
the character and perpetuity of what are called the
Christian sacraments. — They maintained that in its
essence the true baptism of Christ is a baptism with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. It is the washing of regenera
tion that is accompanied by a renewal of the Holy Ghost.
The true communion of saints, is in the spiritual inter
course of believers with the Saviour and one with
another in Him, whereby their souls are made partakers
of that spiritual bread which nourisheth unto ever
lasting life. They contended that there is no connexion
as of necessity between the visible sign and the thing
signified. Let it be granted that these rites were
practised in an early age of the church, so also were the
washing of the disciples' feet, salutation, circumcision,
and other Jewish ceremonies. From this we are not to
infer their institution as perpetual ordinances in the
church.* In those times doubtless they had a service, they

•The following is an extract from a paper entitled " Gospel truths,"
published in Dublin, in 1698, and signed
William Penn, Thomas Stoeey,
Anthony Sharp, George Rook.
" We believe the necessity of the one baptism of Christ, as well as of
his one supper, which he promiseth to eat with those that open the
door of their hearts to Him, being the baptism and supper signified
by the outward signs ; which, though we disuse, we judge not those
that conscientiously practise them."

The Commonwealth Times. 59
have since, however, been applied to superstitious uses,
and by their substitution for the realities of which they
were professedly but the symbols, an incalculable injury
has been inflicted on spiritual religion.
In the great missionary movement of 1654, the minis-
terswho left the northern counties spread themselves into
all parts of the nation, and wherever they went the
burden of their concern was to bring men to the know
ledge of spiritual truth. Essentially their mission was a
crusade against all that was ceremonial, and in their
view, non-essential in religion.
For the duties on which they were entering the
avocations of their past life may seem to have been in
some sense but an indifferent preparation. They were,
however, a body of men deeply impressed with the
importance of their work, they believed intensely the
truths which they communicated, and in the earnestness
of such a conviction there is a power over the hearts of
others which far transcends all studied eloquence.
Fearless in manner, and unpolished in address, their
speech was simple and without circumlocution. They
were experimental preachers, loyal to their convictions
of truth, and disposed to make no terms with error.
" They waxed strong and bold through their faithful
ness; thousands in a short time being turned to the
truth, through their ministry, insomuch that in most
counties and many of the considerable towns of England,
meetings were settled, and there were daily added to
them such as should be saved*."
And so the process went on ; but their activity and
*Penn.

60 The Early Friends and
earnestness no less than their success speedily brought
them into notice, and raised opposition from all quarters.
Personally, Cromwell was averse to persecutions for
religion, but in his ecclesiastical administration he was
much controlled by others. During the Commonwealth
therefore they suffered severely. To them the new
presbyter was but " old priest writ large."*
Numbers of them were imprisoned. Of the rest,
they were abused in the streets, attacked through the
press, and every where spoken against. These violent
conflicts increased on the accession of Charles II.
In this reign their sufferings almost exceeded the
ordinary limits of human endurance. They were
crowded by thousands into the prisons of the country,
and vast numbers perished in these filthy and noisome
dungeons, from cruelty and jail fever. But their success
was accelerated by the means taken to arrest it. In all
parts of the country additions continued to be made to
the Society ; and its experience abundantly proves, if
proof were needed, how much may be effected, under
the most adverse circumstances, by active, unselfish, and
faithful men, who are prepared to suffer and to labour
for a cause in which they have confidence.
Not only did the new society, during this period,
take firm root in the rural districts and more populous
commercial cities of Great Britain and Ireland, in the
highest sense it became missionary in its character,
for its ministers carried the message abroad into other
countries, comprising the British colonies on the Amer
ican continent and in the West Indies. They visited
•Milton.

The Commonwealth Times. 61
also extensive districts in Western Europe, and the
strongholds of Popery and Mahommedanism in the
regions bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.
Let us pause at this point, and endeavour to ascertain
the true character of the movement to which I have
adverted. During the first twenty years of its existence
Quakerism had made a great impression upon the
country, but we have no adequate means by which to
measure its permanence, or accurately to estimate its
extent. The movement was characterized by activity, by
enthusiasm, and even by no small amount of what
would be now called fanaticism. In the advocacy of
their views the early preachers gave great prominence
to one important but hitherto neglected phase of
religious truth.
Every separate truth, however, has a determinate
relation to other cognate truths, and that advocacy
which on the whole does not present these truths in the
harmony of this relation, is liable to run into extremes,
and so to sacrifice one of the most important elements
of permanent success. To some extent, doubtless, in
its first life, the society failed to realise the importance
of this consideration, and its subsequent teachings were
unfavourably affected by the circumstance.
Cradled amid conflicts of no common intensity, there
Was an earnestness and an excitement connected with
its first movements, which in the nature of things it would
be impossible to sustain as its permanent condition. It
grew up in an age of violent controversies, and these
Were conducted on both sides with what appears at this
day an extraordinary amount of personal bitterness.

62 The Early Friends and
Men of warm temperaments and argumentative habits
rushed into the arena; but a considerable proportion
of both what they spoke and what they wrote was the
issue of zeal often not adequately tempered by discre
tion, and in some instances, no doubt, of ignorance
aggravated by haste.
The controversies of this era and the literature with
which they are associated have now for the most part
sunk into oblivion, but at the time they had a consider
able influence in increasing the numbers without adding
to the strength of the Society, for proselytes gained in
the excitement of polemic discussions are not much to
be depended upon ; too often, as the controversy be
comes exhausted, and the excitement dies out, they
pass away with the influences that produced them.
It is not to be denied therefore that in the body at
this time there was considerable mixture. Many en
thusiasts passed under its name, in whom true Qua
kerism had taken no root. In process of time these
went out from it, for they were not of it. The good
seed had been profusely sown, but the crop, though
luxuriant, was not so free from weeds, as if it had been
produced under a somewhat more careful and systematic
culture. But, on the other hand, if the proceedings of Fox
and his friends had been more regular and canonical,
the effect in the aggregate would certainly have been
less striking, and probably also far less beneficial.
They had an important mission to their generation.
For this they were prepared by a series of unusual pro
vidences, and we are not to forget in this case that the
great purposes of God in the moral regeneration of the

The Commonwealth Times. 63
world, are often carried into effect by means which the
wisdom of man may regard as inadequate, and by in
strumentalities, which in our view are encompassed by
imperfection. But after making large deductions for that which was
extraneous to true Quakerism in some of these early
proceedings, it cannot be denied that a great amount of
genuine work remains behind. No ordinary manifest
ation of ephemeral enthusiasm could have effected
this. There must have been hidden somewhere real
power in the ministers, and vitality in the truths which
they communicated. " For when a creed is successfully
introduced, which checks passion, subdues pride, and
restrains self-will, we may be sure that there is a prin
ciple of .truth that gives it power."*
Its effects were not confined to women or to ignorant
men of an excitable temperament and weak capacity.
The influence swept over all classes, and wherever the
message was received the life was changed. Atheists,
drunkards, and excisemen, jailors, constables, and jus
tices of the peace, sheriffs of counties and military
officers, clergymen and ladies of rank, lords-in-waiting
and university students, in short all conditions were re
presented in this despised and fanatical community.
Hitherto we have contemplated Quakerism rather as
an influence than as an organization. The professors
of the proscribed faith were to be found in all parts of
the country, but it was not until the Society had
attained its maximum as regards numbers, that it
assumed a definite form, by the adoption of settled

Colquhoun.

64 The Early Friends and
principles of government and a disciplinary adminis
tration. From its origin, general meetings for districts, with
out specified limits, were occasionally convened to
enquire into cases of persecution, suffering, or distress,
with a view to collecting funds, and devising other
means for their relief.
The arrangements connected with the public and
orderly solemnization of marriages, and the accurate
registration of births and deaths, appear also to have
early received attention; but in these matters, to a
large extent, each particular meeting discharged its own
duties without control or supervision.
In the first twenty years of its existence, the mem
bers of the Society assembled for public worship for
the most part in private dwelling-houses, for they
attached no idea of holiness to any ecclesiastical edi
fices, nor did they find any reason in principle, or in
the practice of the primitive believers, why they should
be set apart from secular uses.
Of some of these scattered congregations we have
no information whatever ; of others we find notices in
the records of the earliest meetings, in the journals of
ministers, and in the accounts of sufferings under the
conventicle act and other persecuting statutes.
Before the introduction of the discipline of the Society,
many of these small companies which had assembled at
irregular intervals, and in districts remote from other
meetings, were probably to a large extent lost sight of,
so that there can be no doubt that a considerable num
ber of persons who had been affected by the teachings
of the first ministers of the society, never became

The Commonwealth Times. 65
absorbed into its ultimate organization* All those who
frequented its meetings were considered as belonging to
the body, and though without any prescribed system of
discipline or church authority, they were subject one to
another in lo^e.
Persecution kept hypocrites out of their assemblies,
and for the rest, their faith was preserved in lively ex
ercise, and for the most part gave them victory over the
world. But they had their treasure in earthen vessels,
and from one time to another occasions arose when it
became necessary, in consideration for the honor
of God, and the service of His Truth, to withdraw
themselves from those who walked disorderly, and to
discharge other functions involving concert and ar
rangement. The form of church government to be adopted by the
new society was determined by principles fundamental
to its doctrinal belief.
They were a small and scattered band of men and
women, living in the world, but not of it. In so far as
they were members of Christ, they were the organs of
his Spirit, and their union was in Him, their living and
ever present Head.
But out of this relationship there flowed duties from
the associated persons towards each other ; for those
who are truly members of Christ no longer live unto
* On the importance of regular ecclesiastical supervision, John
Wesley makes the following important and suggestive remarks: —
" From the terrible instances I met with in all parts of England, I
am more and more convinced that the devil himself desires nothing
more than this, that the people of any place should be half awakened
and then left to themselves to fall asleep again. Therefore, I deter
mined, by the grace of God, not to strike one stroke in any place
where I cannot follow the blow.''

66 The Early Friends and
themselves ; they become members one of another, and
are subject one to another in Him.
In this view the government of the church in relation
to its Head is in some sense a Theocracy ; but in the re
lation which its several members bear 1*> each other,
there will be as much equality as is compatible with
that diversity, in which the Spirit divideth His gifts to
every man " severally as he will." According to this
theory of the constitution of the church, there can be
no distinction as between clergy and laity. Its authority
cannot be safely vested in a single bishop, or even in
an association of ministers having co-ordinate powers.
It resides in the whole church, but not in each member
equally, for in the Christian life there are successive
stages of individual development, and spiritual qualifi
cations for special services.
It is not to be expected therefore in a church where
there are fathers and elders worthy of double honor,
where there are gifts bestowed for " helps and govern
ments," where to one is given the word of wisdom, and
to another the word of knowledge, that all its proceed
ings should be regulated by numerical majorities. It
is obvious, also, that the functions of such a church can
be perfectly exercised only where each member is a
'' living unit in a living whole," hence it is no marvel
that George Fox so repeatedly and earnestly advised
the holding of all these meetings for discipline in the
" power of the Lord," that so the members might be
endued with heavenly wisdom and true discernment in
all their acts and deliberations.
In its original formation there had been a singular
absence of system in the Society. It was an association

The Commonivealth Times. 67
of persons who were earnestly seeking after the saving
knowledge of divine truth. In this way the members
were led to a more full reception of Christ, not only as
the ever present Head of his own church, but as the
spiritual Ruler and Teacher of every individual member
of it. In establishing a system of discipline, therefore,
the object was to reconcile the retention of a large
measure of spiritual liberty in the individual, with the
maintenance of order in their religious administration,
and through all to keep the power of man in subordina
tion to the authority of Christ in the church ; and they
so far succeeded that the system of discipline then es
tablished has subsequently been found so simple, and
yet so efficient, that notwithstanding the varying cir
cumstances of the society, it has proved in its main
particulars adapted to these changes, and it remains to
this day essentially the same as when it was originally
constituted. But it was not introduced without diffi
culty. During the time of the Commonwealth, there
had been everywhere a liberty of religious action,
which had not unfrequently resulted in excessive li
cense. The authority of a dominant priesthood had
been overthrown, and the right to think and worship
without reference either to the national or any other
human standard had been asserted in face of difficulties
and sufferings of no ordinary kind.
A considerable number of these defenders of an un
limited spiritual freedom still survived amongst the
early Friends, and not a few of them regarded with ap
prehension or with hostility the imposition of new
restrictions. A few other discontented or disappointed
persons combined with these enthusiasts, and out of this

68 The Early Friends and
circumstance there arose a controversy which continued
for several years, and resulted in a considerable though
temporary secession from the ranks of the society.
In this controversy William Penn, Robert Barclay,
and Thomas Ellwood, all men of education and ability,
now rising into influence and distinction, rendered
valuable services by their writings in defence of order.
Westmoreland was in the first instance the principal
focus of this secession, but it subsequently spread into
the West of England, where the separatists gained
several adherents. A few years later the Society was
involved in another controversy, of which George
Keith was the leader, arising in the first instance out
of some questions of a personal character, but eventually
widening into discussions on doctrinal opinions. He
gained several partizans in Pennsylvania, and a few in
this country : but being disowned by Friends in
America, he appealed to the Yearly Meeting in Lon
don, where the decision was confirmed. He shortly
after became a minister of the established church,
and the further progress of the secession was stayed.
Ultimately, however, a large proportion of the
persons connected with both secessions were re
absorbed into the body; but the immediate effect
of these controversies and of the secessions with
which they were connected was to introduce greater
regularity into the proceedings of the Society, by
bringing under control its disturbing elements. On
the other hand this action produced to some extent
a diminution in the amount of its individual and
spontaneous service, and of its aggressive mission
ary activity. In other respects, too, about this

The Commonwealth Times. 69
time the society came within the influence of new
conditions. Persecution virtually had ceased, for on the accession
of James II. the penal statutes were not rigidly en
forced, and under cover of his dispensing power, he
emptied the prisons of their suffering inmates, and
granted religious toleration to his dissenting subjects.
This toleration was confirmed by an act passed in the
reign of William and Mary, which brought them effect
ual and permanent relief.
As the first generation of Friends passed from the
stage, several persons, eminent for learning and ability,
who had embraced the views of the Society, had begun
to defend them in methodical works, which were ex
tensively read, and which had a favourable influence
alike on the action of the government and on the in
telligence of the country.
The Society henceforth became more regular, though
probably less active in its operations, even before the
death of its venerable founder.
About this period (1690) died Robert Barclay, of
Ury, at the age of forty-two. He is well known as
a logical writer, a devoted minister of the gospel of
Christ, and a humble and excellent man. The publica
tion of his celebrated " Apology for the true Christian
divinity " exercised within the Society an important
influence on the method of expounding religious truths.
It was the first systematic exposition of the doctrinal
views of Friends, and it speedily acquired all the au
thority of a creed. As to the true character of the
influence subsequently exerted by this work, different
opinions will be held. It was not by theological dis-

70 The Early Friends and
quisitions that the early Quakers were brought to the
knowledge of the truth, and even as regards Barclay
himself, these had a very subordinate influence in draw
ing him into connection with the body. It was by his
experience of the work, and witness of the Spirit, or
to use his own expressions, through " being secretly
reached by the principle of light and life," rather than
by the conviction of his understanding, that he was first
brought to Christ ; and in the few years of his subse
quent life this was the great theme of his teaching. In
life Barclay had devoted his vigorous intellect to the
illustration of the doctrines of spiritual Christianity,
and it was in these that he found his support in death.
To one of his friends, who prayed by his bedside, he
said — "Amen, Amen, forever. How precious is the
love of God among his children, and their love one to
another. My love is with you, I leave it among you."
His last words were — " Praised be the Lord. Let now
thy servant depart in peace. Into Thy hands, 0
Father, I commit my soul, spirit, and body. Thy will,
0 Lord, be done in earth, as it is done in heaven."
In the same year, also, died George Fox, at the age
of sixty-seven. This remarkable person had exercised
to the last, with singular wisdom and modesty, a com
manding influence in the society, and the loss of his
clear discernment and mature judgment was in the
then existing condition of the body a circumstance of
considerable importance. George Fox had consecrated
his life to the service of others, and he had received
the reward of his abundant labours in large measures of
cruelty and abuse. He was put in the stocks by parish
constables, he was beaten and stoned by mobs. On

The Commonivealth Times. 71
nine different occasions, amounting altogether to seven
or eight years of his life, he was imprisoned in horrible
dens, amid still more horrible companionships ; but
through all he was undaunted in his zeal for God, and
gentle and tender towards his persecutors. His suffer
ings, however, broke his constitution, and abridged his
fife. But his temper had not been soured by opposi
tion, nor his humility endangered by success. He lived
through all a faithful and uncorrupted man, and after a
short illness he died in the hope and assurance of the
gospel. With a few characteristic and pregnant words,
the good man closed his labours. *
" The power of the Lord is over all weakness and
death. The Lord reigneth : Blessed be the Lord."
Three days afterwards he was interred in Bunhill-fields,
and William Penn, the most distinguished of his sur
viving friends, wrote in his journal these few affection
ate words — " Many sons have done wisely and virtuously,
but thou, dear George, hast excelled them all." There
are many men who have no true measures for such per
sons as George Fox, and to these he is simply a fanatic
and an enthusiast. No doubt his character, like that of
some other men, may be viewed under two aspects,
but those who will take the pains to apply a careful and
discriminating analysis to the investigation of his life
and writings, will find, after making full allowance for
what they may regard as " the illusions of a gloomy
temperament," or "the errors of an untrained intellect"
— that in George Fox there will still remain the ele
ments of one of the noblest of human characters.
Untrained in the learning of the schools, his judgment
was free from the bias of other men's conclusions. Un-

72 The Early Friends and
skilled in the regular methods of gaining knowledge,
by his own marvellous intuitions he drew a large
amount of important truth out of obscurity. Many of
the opinions for which he laboured and suffered so
abundantly, though despised and disregarded at the
time, have since obtained a stable popularity in the
country, and others are yet destined to figure in the
church of the future. In an age of intolerance he was
the constant advocate of religious freedom, and the la
bours and sufferings of himself and his followers had a
principal influence in bringing about a change in the
religious legislation* of the country.
His views on temperance, on judicial oaths, and truth
speaking, on death punishments, and the reform of the
criminal laws, on the discipline of prisons, on negro
slavery, and some other subjects, in his own times
were singular, and for the most part original, though
now they have permeated the public mind, and in
fluenced the legislation of the country.
In Colquhoun's " Short Sketches of some Notable
Lives" we have a very interesting, and in the main
a correct estimate of Fox's character.
" The truth is that Fox's character had, like that of'
many others, two sides; and the contrast between
these is so great that one can hardly believe them to
belong to the same man.
"On the one side, we have strange thoughts and
words, fanciful imaginations — the illusions of an un
lettered mind. But such things are not unusual. Dr.
Johnson believed in second sight, in dreams and ghosts;
and his case presents to us the credulity of a child, with
the intellect of a giant. But if we turn to the other

The Commonwealth Times. 73
side of Fox's character, we find this man of fancies and
visions, confronted with controversialists, Jesuits, and
lawyers — puzzling them with his subtlety, and with his
logic beating down their fences. Now in a court of
justice, he confronts the judge, defies the bar, picks
flaws in their indictment, quotes against them adverse
statutes, and wrings from baffled judges a reluctant
acquittal. Then he is in the Protector's court, to meet
a man hard to dupe. There he plants himself, his hat
on his head, at Oliver's dressing-table ; engages him in
long discourse ; sets before him his duty ; presses on
him the policy of toleration ; till the iron-hearted
soldier, first surprised, then attentive, at length inte
rested, extends his hand to the Quaker, bids him repeat
his visit, and tells him if they could meet oftener, they
would be firmer friends. No less remarkable are his
courage and skill. As storms thicken, he is always in
front of the battle ; wherever the strife is vehement,
there he is ; now in Lancashire, now in Leicester, in
Westmoreland or Cornwall: meeting magistrates and
judges, braving them at Quarter Sessions, vanquishing
officers, governors of castles and judges. Then he sits
down calmly to organize, with a forecast equal to that of
Wesley, the scheme of Quaker polity, which has lasted
to our times. And if we smile at the oddity of his lan
guage, at the curious missives which he hurls at mayors
and magistrates, jailors and judges, we find at times a
caustic style worthy of Hudibras or Cobbett, in which
he lashes the frippery of the court, or meets the casuistry
of the Jesuits or Ultra Calvinists; and as we dwell on
those words of wisdom in which he tells us of his faith,
and cheers the drooping heart of Cromwell's daughter,

74 The Early Friends and
we perceive that he is no common man, but one who with
strange training and singular notions rose by the strength
of genius and piety to a wide command over men."
To conclude — I have endeavoured to shew that
George Fox and his associates during the second half of
the 17th century had performed a great work; and that
the church which they had drawn together, had given
undoubted evidence of true vitality. Their earlier pro
ceedings no doubt had often been irregular, and many
persons, passing under their name, had committed some
acts, and used many expressions for which their chief
justification is to be sought for in the license of the
times in which they lived. And yet beneath all this
irregularity and agitation, there was the spirit of a sound
mind. They were true men after all, and God blessed
their earnest and unselfish labours. The foundation of
their success must be patent to all who have attentively
pondered over their history.
They were consecrated to the promotion of a great work,
and they believed intensely the truths that they com
municated to others. They were active and aggressive.
They travelled, and preached and wrote incessantly.
During this half century alone, there issued from the
press of the society upwards of three thousand separate
books and papers, by more than six hundred different
writers, all intended to establish their converts, or to
explain or defend their opinions. No doubt a large
proportion of this literary material had no permanent
value, but the very amount of it proves that there was
life at the source from which it issued.
It was a characteristic of these men, that they were
changed themselves before they went about to change

The Commonwealth Times. 75
others. They preached the gospel without charge, for
their reward was in the souls that they gathered ; hence
their earnest words went to the hearts and consciences
of their hearers. They paid little, perhaps too little,
attention to creeds and schemes of doctrine.
The burden of their ministry, as I have already shown,
was to draw men from the shadow to the substance;
from dependence on the sign, to the experience of the
things signified. Hence they spake much about the
work of the Spirit in the conversion and regeneration of
sinners, and about the necessity of being redeemed from
the power of sin, as well as from its guilt.
In all their assemblies there was the liberty of
prophesying; for they revived an ancient custom of the
primitive church,* by which all who believed them
selves to be moved by a divine influence were allowed
to speak in the congregation, those who were present
judging how much authority was due to their ministra
tions. Thus the ministry was kept in healthy exercise.
In support of their principles they not only laboured,
but they suffered also. Out of the thousands who were
imprisoned during the Commonwealth, and the reign of
Charles II. many hundreds fell a sacrifice to their suffer
ings, and a large portion of the society retained their
religion at the cost of all the property that they pos
sessed. But they passed through the ordeal with con
stancy, for they endured as "seeing Him who is invisible."
The people looked on with wonder, for the " behaviour
of the Quakers, said they, was very extraordinary, and
had something in it that looked like the spirit of
* Mosheim.

76 The Early Friends and
martyrdom." While men of other sects, in the presence
of these legal severities, were stricken with fear, retreat
ing for divine worship into hidden and remote localities,
they met at the same place and hour as in times of
liberty, and when the officers came to seize them none
would stir, they went altogether to prison and stayed
there till they were dismissed. On their being dis
charged they Went to their meeting-house as before,
and when the doors were shut up by order,* " they
assembled in the street," for they were not afraid or
ashamed to meet together in a peaceable manner to wor
ship God, but in imitation of the prophet Daniel they
would do it more publicly, because they were forbidden."
Well might the biographer of Baxter exclaim, with
reference to such acts — "The heroic and persevering
conduct of the Quakers in withstanding the interfe
rence of government with the rights of conscience, by
which they finally secured those peculiar privileges
they so richly deserve to enjoy, entitles them to the vene
ration of all the friends of civil and religious freedom."
In the gathering together of this society, and in the
moulding of its early character, something is to be at
tributed to the peculiarities of the times in which it
originated, but essentially similar conduct will lead to
similar results under all circumstances, and in all times.
Do we desire to witness these results in our day ? Let
us ponder well the process through which they were
attained by our fathers.

* It was directed in 1070, by order in Council, "that Christopher
Wren, architect, do take down the Meeting House in Horsleydown."
Friends met on the rubbish, whence many were taken and imprisoned.
This state of things continued for many months. Ratcliff Meeting
House, and many others were treated after a similar fashion.

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 77
LECTURE THIRD.
THE MIDDLE AGES OF QUAKERISM.

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be ?"
" So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
St. Paul to the Romans.

In tracing the History of the Society of Friends
from its origin to the present time, the phenomena that
have characterised it may be conveniently grouped into
three eras, of about 70 years each. By thus adapting
our arrangement to succeeding generations, and to the
duration of the life of man, we shall approximate, to some
extent at least, to an important chronological unit, appli
cable to all social and historical enquiries : " For there
is," to use the language of an accurate writer,* "a pro
gressive change, both in the character of the human
race and in their outward circumstances, so far as
moulded by themselves; in each successive age the
principal phenomena of society are different from what
they were in the age immediately preceding, and still
more different from any earlier time. The periods at
which these successive changes are most apparent are
intervals of one generation, during which a new set of
human beings have been educated, have grown up from
childhood, and taken possession of society."
In a preceding Lecture (The Early Friends and the
Commonwealth Times,) I treated of the first period.
* John S. Mill.

78 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
In that Lecture it was my object to describe the origin
of Quakerism, and to trace its connexions, direct or
remote, with the principal causes which up to that time
had moulded its character, or influenced its development.
The religious and political circumstances of the Com
monwealth time were extraordinary. Viewed through
the dim light of two centuries of past years it appears to
us now, as one of those grand historical epochs, in which
" great plenitudes of the divine presence have been
experienced, raising high tides in the human spirit and
causing eminent virtues and talents to appear." * The
occasion called for remarkable men, and they came forth
at its bidding.
The materials required for the illustration of this, the
first period of our history, are abundant. The period
on which we are now to enter, in whatever aspect we
look upon it, is of a widely different character, and the
published sources of our information regarding it become
less and less copious as we approach to our own times.
A connected history of the Society of Friends has never
y*et been written. The works in which this has been
attempted are well known. They contain much matter
of an interesting character under a soniewhat crude and
imperfect arrangement : with this some future his
torian will deal.
Early in the last century, the Yearly Meeting
began to collect materials for such a work. In
1720, Sewell published his history in two volumes :
it comprises an outline of the principal events from the
origin of the Society to the year 1716. Gough's
• Emerson.

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 79
History, continuing the account to about 1760, was
printed in four volumes in 1790. A similar historical
record, relating to Friends in Ireland, was compiled by
Dr. Rutty : it comprises about the same period as the
History of Gough. Of the last century no distinct
record has been published.
These historical fragments manifest a fair amount of
discretion and ability in their respective writers, but
they are singularly deficient in the depth and variety of
the knowledge they communicate, regarding the then
existing condition of the great body of the Society.
They are familiar with the official documents
of the period, and with the action of our central
meetings, with all extreme cases of suffering and
with the applications made to parliament and
persons in authority for relief from them. In
addition to these they supply us with the biographies
of a few of our most devoted and eminent men. They
fail however to give us much real insight into the home
life and conduct, the social, moral, and religious circum
stances of our members in more obscure districts ;
concerning whom information might have been drawn
from the records of our subordinate meetings.
If, moreover, we would truly understand th,e condition
of the society during a given epoch, we must keep
prominently in view the condition of those by whom
they were surrounded, and this our historians have
failed to do. Before proceeding, therefore, with the
main subject of my Lecture, I propose briefly to glance
at the moral and religious condition of the country at
large. For every age has moral and religious as well as
social and political characteristics peculiar to itself, and

80 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
the human mind — not only more especially in passing
from infancy to manhood, but also through the maturity
of its powers to its decline in old age, is acted upon by
the influences of its own times. For these characteris
tics of particular epochs are but the exponents of secret
moral forces, which act powerfully though they act
silently, moulding the character of the age by operating
on individual conduct and opinion.
It is the function of religion, when vital, to control
these influences ; from the extent to which it effects
this we may pretty accurately measure the energy of the
religious life ; the victory that overcometh the world
is still only to be found in the vitality of the Christian's
faith. I adverted in a preceding Lecture to the moral
character of the nation under the government of Charles I.
but what was the state of things during the com
monwealth when the Puritans were in authority ?
Vice was repressed by laws remarkable for their se
verity. All popular recreations were prohibited.
" Religion was the language and garb of the court ; "
prayer and fasting were fashionable exercises, profession
was the road to preferment, not a play was acted in
all England for many years, and from the prince to the
peasant and common soldier the features of Puritanism
were universally exhibited. It has been well remarked
" that if we judge of the condition of things from the
wildness and extravagance of various opinions and prac
tices which then obtained and from the hypocritical
grimace which was adopted by many merely to answer
a purpose, our opinion will necessarily be unfavourable.
The truth perhaps lies between the extremes of un-

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 81
qualified censure and of undistinguishing approbation.
Making all due allowance for the infirmity and sin
which were combined with the profession of religion,
making every abatement for the inducements which
then encouraged the use of a religious vocabulary,
admitting that there was even a large portion of pure
fanaticism, still we apprehend an immense amount
of genuine religion will remain. There must have been
a large quantity of sterling coin when there was such
a circulation of counterfeit."
Though the practice of open profligacy during the
Commonwealth was thus discountenanced and repressed,
yet there can be no doubt that there was a moral con
dition hidden beneath the surface of things which
was far from satisfactory. Reaction followed when the
Restoration came, and the flood-gates of vice
and licentiousness were thrown open. The king was
a confirmed voluptuary, drunkenness overspread the
nation, the conversation of the people became fearfully
corrupted, for coarse and ribald jests were laughed at by
the highest classes, and were admitted into the popular
literature of the day. With slight modifications, this
continued to be substantially the moral condition of the
country on the accession of the House of Hanover.
"For the taint which Charles II. and his licentious'
court had inflicted upon the nation still festered,
especially among the aristocracy. The plays, the novels,
and the secret memoirs of the eighteeenth century,
exhibit such scenes of depravity as, after making ample
allowance for exaggeration, fully equal those of the pre
ceding age."* Gambling was commonly practised by
* Pictorial History of England.

82 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
both sexes. It was during this period that Beau Nash
maintained himself at Bath, in all but regal splendour,
by a long course of success at play. Ladies of fashion
ridiculed religion, but believed in ghosts ; nor was the
condition of the middle classes much more satisfactory.
In the larger towns and cities, the merchant forsook his
warehouse, and the tradesman his shop, resorting to
taverns to take care of the State and the Protestant
succession, to discuss the balance of power in Europe
and the misconduct of the ministry, without thinking
of their own. The approaches to the club houses
in London are said to have been often sur
rounded by an ambushment of bailiffs and bailiff's
followers, on the look out for these disinterested but
needy patriots ; so that an oratorial financier, when he
had settled the debts of the nation in the club, was not
unfrequently " sent off to the sponging house for being
unable to settle his own."
The spirit of speculation infused itself into commerce,
men rushed into bubble schemes promising a rapid
accumulation of wealth, attempting to achieve riches by
successful operations in the South Sea and other stocks,
rather than by the slow but safe pursuits of honest
industry. The lower classes, influenced by the example of
their superiors, revelled in the practice of a low
sensuality. Bull-baiting was a popular amusement, and it was not
till now that boxing was elevated into a national insti
tution, involving scientific training and high patronage.
Life and property were insecure, and not adequately
protected : even around the metropolis the roads were

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 83
infested by mounted highwaymen who plundered tra
vellers in defiance of the law,
Crime abounded though cart loads of criminals were
executed. The great national sin of intemperance was
never so rife as at this time.
On the average of the whole population the con
sumption per head of malt liquor is believed to have
been nearly double the amount consumed at present,
and it is not till about the close of the reign of
George I. that we hear much of the excessive spirit
drinking of the population of our larger towns. Grand
juries denounced it as one of the main causes of the
poverty and wretchedness of the lower classes, and,
about 1736, the subject forced itself on the attention of
parliament during several succeeding sessions.
But notwithstanding this deterioration of its morals,
the nation made progress in wealth and intelligence.
From the Restoration of Charles II. to the
abdication of James, the commercial marine of England
more than doubled itself. In every department of
science and literature there were many distinguished
cultivators. The Royal Society was established, Newton
wrote his Principia, and Hailey and Flamstead devoted
themselves to practical astronomy. Milton, Dryden,
and Pope published immortal poems ; Locke, Berkley,
and Bolingbroke cultivated metaphysics.
The reputation of the drama was sustained by many
brilliant though immoral writers ; and polite literature,
under Swift, Addison, Steele, and other essayists, rose
into an importance and exercised an influence that
has probably not been since equalled, and certainly
never exceeded.

84 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
" But the world by wisdom knew not God." At the
Restoration, crowds of the most pious and learned of the
clergy had been driven out of the church, and the
establishment became an engine of state policy, which
the sovereign used for the suppression of true religious
feeling, with a view to preparing the nation for the
restoration of Popery. The example of the court re
acted on the clergy who succeeded. Many of them were
ignorant, indifferent, and immoral. When Wesley
commenced his itinerant labours, about 1740, he found
them " boozing in taverns." " Little service," says Col-
quhoun, " could be expected from such men, and little
was got. Those who escaped scandal did not rise to
usefulness. With the exception of a few clergymen
drawn to towns, or niched in family livings, the mass of
the rural clergy in the days of Anne, George I.
and George IL, grovelled in habits of a coarse
sensuality. They were content to sail with the stream
— and a dirty stream it was down which English society
was floating. Little sense of religion was there, and as
little of morality."
Bishop Burnett, writing in 1713, when in the 70th
year of his age, deplores this condition in deeply pathetic
terms. " He could not live long, and he must give a free
vent to thoughts that lay in his mind both night and
day, and were the subjects of his secret mournings. He
could not look without the deepest concern to the immi
nent ruin hanging over his church. The outward state
of things was black enough (God knows,) but that which
excited his fears was the inward condition into which
the church had unhappily fallen. None but those who
were obliged to know it could adequately comprehend

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 85
the religious ignorance of those who presented them
selves for ordination. They were strangers to the
plainest parts of the Scriptures, which they said, in
excuse for their ignorance, their tutors in the Universi
ties had never mentioned the reading of to them, so that
they could give no account, or a very imperfect one, of
the contents even of the Gospels. The case was little
better with those who having got into orders came for
institution. They could not make it appear that they
had read the Scriptures or any good book since they
were ordained, so that the small measure of knowledge
they once had was in a way to be quite lost."
Archbishop Seeker, writing several years later, con
firms these views. " It was natural to men to complain
of their own times, for in comparing one age with another
we are apt to think the evils from which we suffer the
greatest. But we cannot be mistaken that an open
disregard for religion is the distinguishing characteristic
of the present age. The evil has grown to a great height
in the metropolis, and is daily spreading through every
part of the nation. It has brought dissoluteness and
contempt of principle into the higher part of the world,
and profligate intemperance and fearless criminality into
the lower. Christianity is ridiculed and railed at with
very little reserve, and the teachers of it without any
at all."
In the first half of the eighteenth century, the moral
and religious condition of the Dissenters seems to have
been about on a par with that of the Church. After
the Restoration of Charles II. the Presbyterians,
not being permitted to organize regular synods, were
deprived of the benefits of ecclesiastical supervision.

86 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
The meetings of the Independents were broken up by
the persecutions of that period, and both parties
assembled in small companies and by stealth. The
establishment of a general toleration, in 1688, found
most of the old ministers of the Commonwealth removed
from the stage, and with them much of the vitality of
that period had died out.
Soon after the accession of the House of Hanover,
the metaphysical divinity of Dr. Clarke, the low church
views of Bishop Hoadley, and the arianism of Whiston,
the mathematician, became popular among the Whig
party then in the ascendant. They were embraced by
a considerable section of the clergy, and many of those
Presbyterian and Independent ministers who had but
recently entered upon their duties adopted the fashion
able opinions, so that, in the time of George II.
"these denominations could number the Socinian pastors
of their flocks by scores."
Dr. Watts published his work on the revival of
practical religion, in 1731. In that work he uses this
language — "I am well satisfied that the great and general
reason is the decay of vital religion in the hearts and
lives of men ; and the little success which the minis
trations of the Gospel have had of late for the conversion
of sinners to holiness, and the recovery of them from the
state of corrupt nature and the course of this world to
the life of God by Jesus Christ. Nor is the complaint
of the declension of virtue and piety made only
by the Protestant dissenters. It is a general matter
of mournful observation amongst all that lay the
cause of God to heart, and, therefore, it cannot be
thought amiss for every one to use all just and

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 87
proper efforts for the recovery of dying religion in
the world."
Let us now proceed to enquire how Quakerism fared
during the ungenial era over which we have just passed.
Was it favourably circumstanced for resisting the evils
that everywhere surrounded it? To what extent did
its members fall under the power of the temptations of
that immoral age ? How far did its religious action
tend to control or modify them ? We will endeavour
to throw some light on these enquiries in the sequel.
At the commencement of the 18th century the
society was numerous and widely distributed. In
England and Ireland the numbers attending its religious
meetings were probably about three times as great as
at the present time. In Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of
Man, where Friends are now all but extinct, considerable
colonies existed. On the continent of Europe Yearly
meetings were held in Holland, and at Dantzic. They
comprised Friends from Amsterdam, Empden, Frederick
Stadt, and elsewhere. From 1680 to 1702 meetings
were held in North Africa amongst Friends in captivity ;
at Algiers and Sallee where several convincements are
reported to have taken place. In the United States of
America Friends were, then as they still are, numerous ;
and in the West Indies, which they have long since
ceased to occupy, there were regular meetings in the
Islands of Jamaica, Antigua, Barbadoes, Bermudas,
Nevis, and probably in some others. Surely we may
accept this as evidence of the religious energy of the
body during the first era of its existence.
There is reason to believe that at the commencement
of the 1 8th century, there were about 40,000 persons

88 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
so far connected with the Society of Friends in England
and Wales, as to be included in its registrations.
These may for the purposes of this Lecture be con
veniently grouped into three classes, viz., 1st. — Those
born after the accession of James II., and the cessation
of persecution. These would mostly be connected with
the society by birth, and might comprise in round num
bers about 10,000 individuals. 2nd. — Those born
during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II.
Of these there might be about 20,000, a considerable
proportion of whom would have no birth connection
with the society. 3rd. — The remaining 10,000 now of
mature age, born prior to the Commonwealth times,
would be connected with the body by convincement
only. In all these classes there were doubtless many true
Quakers. In the two last by far the largest proportion
were probably such ; but on the other hand there must
have been, and the evidence is abundant which proves
that there actually were, many young persons especially,
who had not been availingly brought under true
Christian conviction. It may safely be taken for gran
ted, therefore, that even before the commencement of
the 18th century the Society had become subject to
new conditions. Originally if they would hold and
propagate their religious principles they must submit
to heavy sacrifices. Persecution aided them, however,
in keeping hypocrites and superficial professors out of
their ranks , for none but earnest men will openly pro
pagate a creed that leads to the spoiling of their goods,
or to death from long imprisonments. But before the
close of the 17 th century the penal statutes had been

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 89
abolished ; and with them had vanished the " qui-tam
writs," and other engines of legal cruelty, through the
agency of which bad men had enriched themselves by
plundering the most virtuous and deserving of their
neighbours. But with them too had passed away some influences
which had braced the early Friends to that heroic ex
hibition of energy in action, and of patience in suffering,
which have been the admiration of subsequent ages.
Surely that discipline was not in its results insalutary,
though painful in the experience, whereby the early
Friends were so taught so endure hardness as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ. These helps to refinement
and energy of character, their successors of the second
generation did not possess. The great battle with per
secution and suffering had been to a large extent fought
out before their day ; and a period of rest had super
vened, during which much of the effort thus liberated
became absorbed by the endeavour to acquire wealth in
the pursuits of settled industry. There is no doubt a
difference of circumstances to be taken into account
between a church in its first fresh life, and a church in
its mature and organised development. In ordinary
phraseology we speak of the descendants of pious
ancestors, as being rather born Christians than made
such ; but the early Friends recognised in this position
a fallacy which they could not accept.
The essential nature of Christianity cannot be altered
by external accidents and circumstances ; the baptism
which in their view doth now save is the answer on the
part of each individual member, " of a good conscience
towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

90 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
That the attention of George Fox had been early
directed to the true constitution of a Christian church
we learn from an extract from his Journal quoted in my
last lecture.*
The principles set forth at this early period seem to
have subsequently regulated all his ecclesiastical
arrangements, so far as he lived to perfect them. In
determining upon the organisation of his followers, their
union was to be with Christ and their fellowship one
with another through Him. The process was that de
scribed by the Apostle. " They first gave their own
selves to the Lord, and then unto us, by the will of
God." Robert Barclay is still more specific as to the views
of the early Friends on this subject. To some extent,
however, before the close of the 17th century the
Society had become less homogeneous. It contained
within itself a considerable mixture of incongruous
elements. No arrangement was adopted for winnow
ing the chaff out of the wheat. This function had been
formerly to some extent discharged by persecution ;
but now, all who attended its meetings, and all the
offspring of such who were in the like practice, were
considered as belonging to the body, until by some
overt act of immorality they proved themselves un
worthy of their hereditary privilege.
Such an arrangement if continued for a series of
years must materially affect the character of any church,
by corrupting the source from which its vitality is to be
sustained and perpetuated. The tendency will be in
• See Lecture H. — page 45.

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 91
the progress of time for a society so constituted to lose
its essentially Christian character, and to become again
simply a portion of the general community subsisting
under peculiar regulations and circumstances.
How did Friends at the commencement of the 18th
century deal with the change which was silently
gathering round the Society ? Was their diagnosis of
its condition accurate ? Was their treatment of that
condition characterised by wisdom, and did it result in
success ? On the contrary it is to be feared, they were
but partially alive to the critical and difficult circum
stances into which they were drifting. Most of the
early ministers who had been instrumental in gathering
the Society, had long since gone to their rest. A few
of them, however, still remained. William Penn was
one of these. He had passed through the ordeal of
many trials ; but the strength of his capacious intellect
was yet unimpared. At this time, however, he was
much occupied by his American concerns ; and in other
respects as the leading advocate of a comprehensive
religious toleration, he would look charitably on the
yet incipient manifestations of the growing evil.
George Whitehead was then in the 64th year of his
age ; but his eye had not become dim, nor his natural
force materially abated. His life was still devoted to
the service of Him for whom he had laboured so long
and suffered so deeply. In later life, however, he
travelled less abroad on religious service, spending much
of his time in the city of London; where, for nearly
another quarter of a century, he laboured against the
inroad of evils, which it was not in his power to
eradicate. In these efforts he was ably seconded by

92 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
Thomas Ellwood, Richard Claridge, William Edmond-
son, Thomas Camm, Joseph Wyeth, Thomas Storey,
Gilbert Latey, Samuel Bownas, and others ; but many
of these died too early in the century to have much
influence over the course of the Society's proceedings.
Such was the position of the body at the commence
ment of the 18th century. Two courses were open for
adoption, in continuing the mission of their predecessors.
Recognising all men as sinners, to labour primarily to
bring all men to Christ. In so far, only as they were
instrumental in bringing them unto living union with
Him would true members be added to His church, for
it ought ever to be remembered that the real strength
of a church depends less on the number of its members
than upon their earnestness and zeal. But superadded
to this, the original object of the Society's mission, they
now began and began rightly, to devote a considerable
amount of their interest to the descendents of the first
converts, in the hope that by subjecting them to good
training and watchful oversight, they might be prepared
to fill in the church, the vacant places of those who had
passed away from the scene of their activities. To a
certain extent for some time, the attempt was made to
carry out both objects ; by degrees, however, Friends
became less missionary and aggressive, devoting a
larger amount of their attention to the offspring of
their own members. There is much reason to believe
that the greatest source of difficulty experienced by the
body at this period arose from its mixed constitution ;
from its failing to keep prominently before it, that line
which should divide, with various degrees of distinctness,
the members of a true church from those who are of the

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 93
world. Under the best arrangements, no doubt, there
is great difficulty in drawing this line, for human judg
ments are ever liable to serious errors. The difficulty of
drawing the line is admitted, but might it not have
been better to draw it somewhat incorrectly than not
to attempt to draw it at all?
It must be admitted, however, that this question has
many bearings, and that its solution is by no means free
from practical difficulties which require to be dispas
sionately considered in dealing with it.*
During the second era of its existence, it is a truth
patent to all who are accurately acquainted with its
history, that from whatever cause this condition might
arise, the Society of Friends did not reproduce the
active spirituality which characterised its origin. This
no doubt may be to some extent accounted for
on general considerations. It is in the nature of
* The early experience of Wesley among a body of untrained con
verts who joined his society is interesting and curious as bearing
practically on this question. In endeavouring to carry out the
opposite theory to that accepted by Friends, without reference to the
educational element, he encountered great difficulties and displace
ments. In the course of three months he informs us that 76 persons
withdrew from one of his societies in the north of England. He classi
fied and stated their reasons : — The refusal of the clergymen to give
them the sacrament ; the opposition of husbands, wives, or masters ;
the persuasion of friends ; the ridicule and abuse of enemies ; the loss
of the poor's allowance ; want of time : the fear of falling into fits ;
the objection to 'turn his back on his baptism ; the retention of
Thomas Naisbit in the society ; such in substance were the grounds
of their resignations. During the same period 64 were expelled, viz : —
Two for cursing and swearing; two for habitual Sabbath- breaking;
seventeen for drunkenness ; two for retailing spirituous liquors ; three
for quarrelling and brawling; one for beating his wife; three for
habitual wilful lying ; four for railingand evil speaking; one for idle
ness and laziness ; twenty-nine for lightness and carelessness. The
tares must have been growing somewhat profusely among the wheat
in this community to admit of such a crop being weeded out. —
Southey s Life of Wesley, vol. 1 p. 303.

94 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
religious revivals to fluctuate. The excitement of their
first life, and the fervour of their first love are not the
abiding condition of converts, and they certainly
cannot communicate them to their successors.
The mantle even of the primitive Christians did not
fall upon those who came after them. This was the
case at the Reformation ; and remarkably so in the
experience of the older Puritans. More recently it has
been verified in other revivals. Nearly half a century
after the commencement of his great mission John
Wesley writes : " Truly when I saw what God had
done among His people 40 or 50 years ago, when I saw
them warm in their first love, magnifying the Lord
and rejoicing in Christ their Saviour, I could expect
nothing less than that all these would have lived like
angels here below; that they would have walked as
continually seeing Him who is invisible, having constant
communion with the Father and the Son, living in
eternity and walking in eternity.
* * * *
" But instead of this it brought forth error in ten thou
sand shapes. It brought forth enthusiasm, imaginary
inspirations, ascribing to the all-wise God all the wild,
absurd, self inconsistent, dreams of a heated imagination.
It brought forth pride, it brought forth prejudice,
evil surmising, censoriousness, judging and condemn
ing one another, all totally subversive of that brotherly
love which is the very badge of the Christian profession;
without which, whosoever liveth is accounted dead
before God. It brought forth anger, hatred, malice,
revenge, and every evil work ; all direful fruits not of
the Holy Spirit, but of the bottomless pit."

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 95
The good man gave strong, perhaps too strong, ex
pression to his disappointment ; for after all, to some
extent at least, it originated in the ordinary reaction
that follows the excitement of all great religious revivals.
In these general considerations; in the low state of morals
and religion in the country at large, acting upon the
Society, weakened as I conceive by an important charac
teristic of its constitution — the increasing absence among
its members of religious homogeneousness, we have,
I think, the conditions combined which furnish strong
a priori grounds for anticipating a state of things such as
was in fact realised in the period we are now reviewing.
The moral and religious condition of the Society, at
the commencement of the 18th century is well described
in the following extract from one of its earlier historians.
(Gough). " And now a second generation being risen
and arising among the Society, who held the profession
as the religion of their education, and not by the
purchase of giving up all for its sake as their pre
decessors had done, too many of them appeared in
danger of being carried away with the stream, and of
being drawn aside by the tempting prospect into an
inordinate pursuit of wealth, beyond the limits of a
truly religious disposition and to the obstruction of
their growth in religious experience. Yet the main
body of the Society consisted of some of the old stock
who still survived, and several of the present generation,
who actuated by a serious concern for their well-being,
sought it in the way of self-denial and the daily cross,
as their elder brethren and fathers had done, and made
the religion of their education that of their judgment
and the rule of their conduct in life.

96 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
These, clearly perceiving the injurious consequences
likely to arise by indulging this worldly disposition,
and the danger of friends and their posterity resuming
the spirit and customs of the world, were incited as
faithful watchmen to give timely warning of the danger."
Among these was Ambrose Rigge, of Reigate, who
died in 1704. Even before the close of the preceding
century, for many days, months, and years, " his life had
been oppressed and his spirit grieved by the uneven
walking of many who have a name to live, and who pro
fess the knowledge of God in words," of whom, he says,
"many have got credit upon the account of truth,
because at the beginning it did, and doth still, lead all
who were and are faithful to it, to faithfulness and
truth even in the unrighteous Mammon; and to let
their yea be yea, and their nay be nay, even between
man and man in outward things, so that many would
have credited one who was called a Quaker with much
and many I believe did merely on that account, some
whereof I doubt, have just cause to repent of it already.
* * *
" It is so far below the nobility of Christianity, that it
is short of common civility and honest society amongst
men, to twist into other men's estates, and borrow upon
the truth's credit (gained by the just and upright dealing
of the faithful) more than they certainly know their
estates can answer; and with what they borrow,
reach after great things in the world, appearing
to men to be what in the sight of God and
truth they are not; seeking to compass great gain to
themselves whereby to make themselves and children
rich or great in the world. This I testify, for the Lord

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 97
God, is deceit and hypocrisy, and will be blasted with
the breath of His mouth."
In 1710 the Yearly meeting deplores this growing
tendency, and directs George Fox's " Epistle of cau
tion to Traders," to be printed and read annually in
Quarterly and Monthly meetings. This advice was
repeated in 1724. In the interim the nation had
become involved in the wildest commercial speculations.
In 1720 the South sea Scheme commenced. Its stock
rose during that year to ten times its original cost.
"Other companies sprung up, and grew round the
mighty original like mushrooms round a rotten tree,"
so that 'Change Alley, it is said, was crammed from
morning to night by an eager crowd comprising persons
of every station, colour, and description. Here
the squire bought stock from the parson, and the
duke from the dissenting minister. In the great rush
into these bubble schemes many Friends were soon
involved, so that the period (1720-1730) during
which most of them collapsed, was characterised by
failures of such criminality and disgrace as had been
altogether unknown in our early history. It has been
well remarked of this period, that " the undue pursuit
of worldly gain may be considered as having stood in
the relation of both cause and effect, to the low spiritual
condition with which it became connected; and there
were doubtless many things which conspired to lay the
members of the Society open to such a snare." *
During the early persecutions it had been difficult for
the Friends to procure a livelihood ; but with all their
William Tanner's Lectures.

98 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
peculiarities the first Quakers were honest true-hearted
men, whose word was their bond. These qualities have
an intimate connection with commercial success, and by
the steady practice of them, they soon became dis
tinguished as prudent and thriving tradesmen. Thus a
foundation was laid for the accumulation of wealth,
which by degrees began to exercise an unfavourable
influence on the religious and moral condition of the
body. " It is amidst the tempests of persecution, and in the
dark ages of trial that the church gathers strength.
Beneath unclouded sunshine it languishes and faints."
Great changes soon began to manifest themselves,
especially among the rising generation. Several of them
were now to be found in the practice of immoral
indulgences. In general society, excess in drinking,
great license, extravagance in dress, devotion to pleasure,
were everywhere prevalent; and the records of this period
abundantly prove that these had begun to make inroads,
especially among some of the younger Friends. In the
proceedings of one Monthly meeting in the north of
England, as early as 1702, the young men are reported
as misbehaving themselves at inns at the time of their
Quarterly and General meetings. In two others it is,
stated, in 1704, that they are to be found on these
occasions in the streets, but are absent from the
meetings altogether, for which they are sharply reproved.
In others there is the evidence of a very low moral
condition. At Bristol, so early as in 1701, the
Monthly meeting issued a minute of caution to Friends,
"not to take it amiss if they find their children and
servants in Bridewell" for offences committed during

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 99
the hours of Divine service. " Since the Government
is strict in this case for the suppression of vice and
looseness."* There were other unsatisfactory indica
tions at this period, to which I must briefly refer.
The infidel writings of Toland, Woolston, and others,
were much circulated in the early part of the 18th
century, and their publication led to some animated
controversies. These deistical works found their way
into many families of Friends. The Yearly meeting
referred to the subject in the printed epistles of
1729 and 1730, cautioning Friends "to be very
careful to prevent their children and servants from
reading such vile and corrupt books, (some of which
have been published of late,) as manifestly tend to
oppose and reject the Divine authority of the Holy
Scriptures, and to introduce Deism, Atheism, and all
manner of infidelity and corruption both in principle
and practice." The subject engaged the attention of the
inferior meetings, and in one of the largest of the Northern
Quarterly Meetings, and probably elsewhere, the works
of Woolston were specified by name, and directed to be
collected and burnt. This state of things led to a rapid
increase of disciplinary regulations.
It is questionable whether there was not at this time
an over estimate of the power, and a want of clear
perception of the functions of ecclesiastical discipline.
There are fruits growing out of the corrupt nature of
man, that however they may be modified in character by
external treatment, can only be removed when the root
which nourishes them has been destroyed. At this time,
* W. Tanner's Lectures.

100 Tlie Middle Ages of Quakerism.
for example, there was great extravagance in dress, and
much expensive display in the wearing of mourning
garments in memory of the dead. Attempts were made
to keep these in check by the issuing of minute sump
tuary regulations, but they failed to achieve their
purpose. Combined with this laxity in conduct and moral
principle, we find the manifestation of greater
impatience under restraint. This feeling not unfre-
quently was carried to the extent of open insubordi
nation and resistance. Several cases occur, where
committees appointed by superior meetings, were set at
defiance by the inferior. In one case, at least, of a
somewhat later date, such a committee is reported to
have been waylaid and attacked. In 1760, Mary Jerom,
who had been disowned by her Monthly meeting,
brought an action for libel, at the Nottingham
Assizes, against the Clerk for having read in usual
course the minute of disownment issued in her
case. Under such circumstances, it is not sur
prising, that the discipline of the Society was less
successful in reclaiming delinquents than had formerly
been the case. Even in its administration there existed
considerable irregularity. At one time we find great
laxity and indifference, at another there was a strin
gency- of rule enforced by a promptitude of decision
characteristic of impatience and haste. Many efforts
were made to arrest the progress of these disorders, and
soon by far the largest proportion of the Society's energy
began to be absorbed in questions connected with the
regulation of the outward conduct of its members.
Much attention was paid to the promotion of education

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 101
in day schools taught by Friends, and to a certain extent
no doubt these efforts were beneficial.
Before the close of the preceding century George
Fox had pressed this subject upon the attention of his
followers. " Some among you breed up your children
in such a rude, heady way, that when they grow up they
do not matter you nor care for you. In some things
they are worse than the world's, more loose, stubborn
and disobedient, so that when they come to be sent
apprentice they run quite out into the world." This,
after his death, became more abundantly manifest.
There is no doubt a great influence exerted for
good or for evil in the early education of a child, and
the patient labours and earnest prayers of Christian
parents and teachers may, for this end, be ranked among
the most powerful of human instrumentalities. Yet the
truth remains whatever may be our theory : in number
less instances we cannot, by any human instrumentality
however powerful, make our children into all that we
should wish them to be. The corrupt instincts of our
common nature will develop themselves notwithstanding
all our attempts to repress and eradicate them.
In taking my leave of the moral and religious
condition of the Society which I have delineated in
the foregoing sketch, it may be proper to remark
that the conclusions therein enunciated rest upon an
amount and variety of evidence which could not in
passing be indicated. I have now before me a list
of 1401 Friends who were married during this period,
1700-50, in five Monthly meetings, whose Records
I have carefully examined. Within the same districts,
and during the same period, 644 persons (being 46£

102 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
for every 100 married) were separated from the
society. I have arranged and recorded the causes of their
separation. It may be stated generally that about 41
per cent, of them were for marriages contrary to rule,
37 per cent, were for immoral conduct, and the remaining
22 per cent, were from various other causes. On com
paring these results with the experience of the period
comprised in the preceding Lecture, and presuming
upon the uniform exercise of the discipline in the
respective periods, it would appear that marriages con
trary to rule had increased about three-fold during this
period, and that the amount of immorality had nearly
doubled itself.
I have thus endeavoured to convey to you an outline
of the moral and religious condition of Friends, in
connection with the state of things existing in the
country at large. I will refer in a few concluding obser
vations to the action of the Society during the period
which I have undertaken to review.
It has been already remarked that the characteristics
of a church in the first stage of its development are
different from those exhibited in its normal and organ
ized condition, hence it was to be anticipated that the
religious action of the second generation of Friends
would differ from the action of the first.
Originally addressing themselves to all, the object of
the early Friends had been to quicken into the divine
life men who had been dead in trespasses and sins, and
thus to draw them together by the bonds of a common
sympathy into the fellowship of the gospel of Christ.
Their successors endeavoured to hold that which they

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 103
had drawn together, to consolidate the elements so
vitalised, and to confer upon the mass a healthy corporate
action. To effect this, much work required to be done.
The granting of religious tbleration, however, by
William and Mary, furnished them with many new
facilities for the attainment of these objects. Meeting
houses were to be built, and schools provided with
teachers. From 1690 to 1720 a large proportion of
these buildings were erected. They had previously for
the most part worshipped in dwelling houses. This
higher type of corporate organisation gradually evolved,
though at irregular intervals, many of our disciplinary
arrangements. The answering of Queries, the appoint
ment of Overseers and Elders, the reception of convinced
persons into membership, and, more recently, the
recognition of Ministers, the regulations for the more
equal incidence of the cost of maintaining the poor
involving the rules of settlement, the issuing of Certifi
cates on the removal of members ; these, and many other
arrangements of our religious polity, were for the most
part brought into more or less of methodical operation
during the first half of the 18th century. In endeavour
ing to determine the exact period when these various
usages were adopted we encounter great diversities of
practice in different meetings and districts. The central
action of the Society did not then reach the extremities
so immediately as is now the case. Hence the recommen
dations of the Yearly meeting were followed out with
much irregularity in many of the subordinate meetings.
Even in extensive districts Women's meetings for
discipline were omitted for long periods, aud, so late as
1760, only one Preparative meeting was regularly held

104 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
in the two counties of Sussex and Kent. Originally,
General meetings for the spread of the truth were
numerous and frequent. Subsequently they became
occasions of much disorder, and, soon after the middle of
the last century, these public meetings, except when
held at the request of a minister, had to a large extent
been discontinued.
During the second half of the 17th century no incon
siderable proportion of the Society's action was absorbed
in the publication of books of a controversial or doctrinal
character. It was doubtless to some extent in conse
quence of the granting of religious toleration to
Dissenters, but perhaps still more of the decay of
religious earnestness among all classes of Christian
professors, that the controversies which had raged so
fiercely during the civil wars and the Commonwealth, as
well as in the reigns of the later Stuarts, had for the
most part died out with the 1 7th century.
The works of Keith and Bugg (1690-1700), "The
Country Parson's Plea," (1728), supposed to have been
written by the Bishop of London, and other pamphlets
of a local or limited interest, called out occasional
replies from Friends, but they produced no results of
permanent value or importance.
The constitutional changes which had then recently
taken place in this country, had considerably modified
the relation in which the Society stood to the civil
government. The early Friends had at all times recognised within
conscientious restrictions the duty of obedience to the
government under which it was their lot to live. Not
the less on this account did individuals among them

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 105
feel bound to address those in authority in the language
of warning and remonstrance, in which they conveyed to
them some truths that rarely reached them through
other channels.
Friendswerenot, however, at this time, party politicians,
and they studiously kept themselves free from all political
combinations of which the object was to change a dynasty
or to subvert the constitution as by law established.
Under both the Commonwealth and the Stuarts they
had suffered severely, but they had suffered without
resistance, committing their cause to Him who judgeth
righteously. On the granting of religious toleration by
William and Mary, and the subsequent adjustment of
the penal laws to the rights of conscience, they became
bound to the sovereigns of the Revolution and of the
House of Hanover in the bonds of a much closer
affection. Their loyalty was warmed by gratitude, and
their speech became more courtly. On every available
occasion, whether it was the accession of a new sovereign,
the birth or death of a distinguished member of the Royal
family, the repeal of an obnoxious statute, orthesuppres-
sion of a formidable rebellion, they promptly presented
themselves at the foot of the throne, with expressions
of lively gratitude and sympathy, and assurances of their
unchanging fidelity and affection. While the Whig
party maintained the ascendancy in the government of
the country Dissenters were conciliated, and the rights
of conscience were increasingly recognised. Of this
disposition in the administration Friends were not slow
to avail themselves. At their instance, during this half
century, the legal process for the recovery of tithes and
other ecclesiastical demands was simplified and rendered

106 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
less vexatious and costly, and such a form of affirmation
was substituted for an oath in evidence, as reconciled to
a large extent the demands of justice with the religious
scruples of the great body of friends.
To a greater or less extent in all religious bodies,
but especially in the Society of Friends, there is an im
portant sympathy between the religious vitality of the
ministry, and that of the body out of which it arises,
and with which it is associated ; the two act and re-act
upon each other. It was through the instrumentality
of an earnest and faithful ministry that the marked
effects connected with the first gathering of Friends were
produced, and on the other hand it was out of the true
vitality of the body that the ministry was itself reple
nished and perpetuated. After making all needful
allowance for the peculiarities and even the infirmities
of some of these early preachers, we are not able to
resist the conclusion that for more than sixty years the
Society on the whole was blessed with an efficient and
successful ministry. The ministers existed in adequate
numbers, their distribution was such as to leave few
places long without their service. They devoted them
selves earnestly to the work, they did not overcharge
themselves with wordly cares, and their simple labours
were largely blessed to the conversion of sinners. With
out any preconcerted arrangements in connexion with
the ministry, there can be no doubt that, for a long time,
the religious meetings in the society, were felt by
those who attended them to be lively and edifying.
With reference to these meetings, Robert Barclay gives
us this testimony, as applicable to the period in which he
lived. "And God isnotwanting to movein his children, to

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 107
bring forth words of exhortation or prayer when it is
needful, so that of the many gatherings and meetings
of such as are convinced of the truth, there is scarcely
any in which God raiseth not up some or other to
minister to his brethren, and there are few meetings
that are altogether silent. For where many are met
together, in this one life and name, it doth most
naturally and frequently excite them to pray to, and
praise God, and stir up one another by mutual exhor
tations and instructions. Yet we judge it needful there
be in the first place some time of silence * * *
and not to hurry into the exercise of these things so
soon as the bell rings, as other Christians do."
The earlier records do not enable us to measure the
extent to which this liberty of prophesying was practi
cally carried ; but the evidence is clear that, both as
regards the amount, the activity and the distribution of
the ministry, through the goodness of God, there was a
liberal provision in the church. A considerable number
of these early ministers survived during some part of
the second epoch. In the meantime, as I have already
shown, a great decline in the religious life of the body
had set in, which materially influenced its condition,
and this re-acted upon the ministry. A smaller number
of persons now dedicated themselves to the work than
was formerly the case, and, even as regards these, there
was less of active service beyond the limits of the society
and less visible fruit resulted from their labours. The
evidence of Dr. Watts has been already referred to, as
proving that the same religious condition subsisted at
this period among other bodies of Protestant dissenters.
Samuel Bownas was a man of great experience and

108 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
of a clear discernment. He had commenced his ministry
during the last years of the preceding period (1697,)
and in 1751 he writes the following letter, (which so far
as I know, has never been published. It is addressed
to an aged cotemporary minister : — " The Church seems
very barren of young ministers to what it was in our
youth, nor is there much convincement to what was then.
lt seems to me (and I have been a Minister these 54
years,) that I had more service and better success in my
ministry the first 20 years, than I have since had for a
long time. I do not find any fruit or good effect of
what I do in that way, and yet what I am concerned in
seems to be very acceptable and well received by others.
I have closely examined where the fault is, but don't
find it out. On my last journey into your parts, (the
north of England,) it seemed to very little purpose. In
Norfolk and Suffolk it appeared to me that I had very
good and edifying service in many places, but that is all
I find come of it. The man spoke well, say they, and
that is all I get for my labour. Now, formerly, I rarely
went a journey but I found some convincement. Taking
this into consideration makes my heart sad, but we must
submit, for unless our Master bless our ministry we
cannot make it profitable to others. '
As the number of ministers became smaller, and their
activity less spontaneous, the society began to suffer
from their unequal distribution. In some meetings
there were several, in others, and that the larger pro
portion, none were resident for many years in succession.
In the preceding century such a circumstance had rarely
occurred, and, if it had, the itinerant activity of the mi
nistry would have neutralised it. For there is abundant

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. 109
evidence of a godly care existing among these early
ministers, to distribute themselves according to the reli
gious necessities of the several meetings. This was the
case in London, Bristol and elsewhere. On other occa
sions directions were given to ministers, by Monthly
meetings, to attend weak meetings, and especially those
where no minister resided, inquiry being periodically
made whether this service had been discharged.
Other cases are on record where ministers are recom
mended to hold meetings in ' dark places,' or in districts
where none had been held before. All these various
methods were adopted during the early part of the 18th
century. They were important practical arrangements,
in harmony with the true interpretation of the views of
Friends on the right exercise of spiritual gifts; but as
the society became more formal and less earnest, they
were permitted to fall into desuetude.
The length to which this Lecture has already ex
tended must preclude my entering into any statistical
detail of the experience of the Society, in connexion
with the ministry during this epoch, as deduced from the
following, and other information, in my possession : —
1st — A list of public Friends deceased in Great Britain
and Ireland, arranged according to sex, in periods
from 1700 to 1850. This list contains the record of
2630 ministers, of whom 1269, or nearly one-half, died
during the period 1700 to 1750.
2nd — A similar list of public Friends deceased in the
Quarterly Meeting for Lancashire, during the same pe
riod, arranged under the meetings where they respec
tively resided at death.
3rd — The number of certificates granted for religious

110 The Middle Ages of Quakerism.
service out of the limits of their respective meetings to
95 ministers, resident in four Monthly meetings in diffe
rent parts of this country, from 1700 to 1750.
I will state, in a few additional sentences, some con
clusions to which this information has led me. The
number of ministers during this epoch was at least three
fold greater than at the present time, or in the ratio of
13 to 4. In 1700, there is reason to believe, that fully
two-thirds of our meetings had acknowledged ministers
residing within their limits. In 1750, however, it would
appear that about that proportion of them were without
resident ministers.
At the commencement of this, the 18th century, the
itinerant activity of the ministry was very great. In
1750 it had become much less, though it continued to be
in excess of the succeeding period. In a review of the
history of this epoch, there is much that leads to the
conclusion, that in the days of our great grandfathers
Friends were not, whether we regard their condition or
their action, all that we should wish them to have been,
and certainly very far from what they were during the
lifetime of those who were instrumental in gathering
the society together.
And yet, while thus endeavouring, in the interests of
the truth, to give a faithful record of their condition
during this period, let us indulge no censorious
spirit. The rather taking into account the charac
teristics of the times in which they lived, the advan
tages which they possessed, and the temptations to which
they were exposed, let us remember our own infirmities
and carefully guard ourselves from doing injustice to the
memory of the dead. Compared with the state of the

The Middle Ages of Quakerism. Ill
people at large, the moral and religious condition of the
Society was undoubtedly favourable, andevenif we have
reference to the high standard of Christian attainment,
we may apply to no inconsiderable number of the second
generation of friends, we say not whether to the majo
rity of them, the language of a writer of ability and dis
crimination, who has not long since passed away from
amongst us — " We know," says the late Samuel Tuke,
" that during the period we have been reviewing, there
was among the members of the society much unobtrusive
piety and vigorous religious character. We know that
the friends of that day stood high in the estimation of
their fellow Christians for conscientious integrity. We
know that there were not a few, who in their respective'
neighbourhoods, were as burning lights. We know,
from good information, that there was much religious
influence exerted on young persons, which tended to fix
on their minds a deep reverence for the Almighty, and
a tender fear of offending Him.
We know too when we, some of us, look back to the
character — religious, moral and intellectual — of our
fathers and grandfathers, that there was much, very
much, in it, which we would wish, above all things to
see realised in that of our children and grand-children."
The circumstances under which this changed condi
tion of things manifested itself, and the action with
which it became associated, must form the subject of
another Lecture on the characteristics of the succeeding
period.

112 Modern Quakerism.

LECTURE FOURTH.
MODERN QUAKERISM : — ITS ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND
INTERNAL ECONOMY.

"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."
St. Paul to the Galatians.
" We are ' called unto liberty,' beloved friends ; but it is the liberty of
the renewed heart, which can no longer delight itself in sin, or in the
love of the world— but finds its appropriate exercise in doing or in
suffering according to the will of God. It is a liberty not without law,
but subject to the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes free from
the law of sin and death." — Yearly Meetings' Epistle, 1862.

In my last Lecture I referred to thereligious condition
of the Society of Friends during its middle ages, and to
the causes that in my view had produced or influenced
that condition. I endeavoured also to point out briefly
and in general terms the character of the remedies that
had been resorted to, for the removal of the evils which
had begqin to manifest themselves. To these two impor
tant departments of our inquiry I shall again have to
refer, in discussing the action of the Yearly meeting at
this time, and the consequences that flowed out of it.
The statements contained in that Lecture represent
the condition of the Society at this period, as in some res
pects, better, but in other respects as worse than it really
was. In the early part of the 18th century there was an
amount of religious vitality which cannot be represented

Modem Quakerism. 113
by averages. In the later years, however, of the period,
there was a general moral andreligious declension, greater
even than what appears on the record.
This was especially the case from about 1730 to 1760,
during which time the religious life of the body was at a
low ebb. The discipline was very imperfectly adminis
tered, and there is reason to believe that a considerable
number of persons detached themselves from the ranks of
the Society by reason of a simple lapse of interest in its
proceedings. In 1760 this laxity had become so serious and so
manifest, that the Yearly meeting determined to deal
with it through the appointment of a large Committee of
its members. In the appointment of this Committee,
and in the course of action with which it became asso
ciated, we have one of the most important epochs in our
history. It is often described as the period of the revival of
the discipline, and, to a cursory observer, such only at
first sight it may seem to have been ; but it was in rea
lity much more than this. It was the dividing line where
an important phase of the Society's development termi
nated, and where another equally important commenced.
To this new development I will refer in a subsequent
part of this Lecture.
The Committee appointed by the Yearly meeting of
1760 consisted, originally, of about 58 persons, but to
this number some addition was subsequently made. It
was sub-divided into several sections, who proceeded to
visit the Society in all parts of the nation.
The 1st section reported in 1762. This Report was
presented by John Griffiths, of Chelmsford, from the

114 Modern Quakerism.
Committee appointed to visit the counties of Essex,
Suffolk, Norfolk, Huntingdon, Cambridge, the Isle of
Ely, Bedford and Hertford.
Everywhere they had found that the meetings for
divine worship were neglected by many, and among not a
few there was much worldliness and extravagance.
The discipline was irregularly administered, though
there was a living remnant in most of the meet
ings, in whom they found the savour of true religion.
Most of the remaining Reports were presented in 1763.
The 2nd Report was brought in by John Hunt, of
London, from the Committee appointed to visit the
counties of York, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, and
Leicester. In Yorkshire the meetings were large
and solemn ; but im many places the same evils were pre
valent as were noticed in the preceding report. Several
Friends were illuminating their shops on the occasion of
victories gained in the war, in which the country was
then engaged. Others, whilst refusing themselves to fight
saw no objection to providing substitutes to fight on
their behalf. In many districts the life of religion was
low, and there was an absence of that Christian courage,
in dealing with delinquents, which ever results from a
true zeal for God.
Jeremiah Waring, of Wandsworth, presented the Re
port from the Committeefor Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hants
and Berkshire. Here the state of things was found to
be similar to that which existed in the districts previously
reported upon. The Committee recommended the join
ing together of some of the executive meetings, the ap
pointment of Overseers, and other changes calculated to
bring about more order and regularity.

Modern Quakerism. 115
A large district, comprising eleven counties, in the
centre and south-west of England, was visited by a com
mittee of twenty-two Friends, whose report waspresented
by Isaac Sharpies, of Hitchin. Here the moral and reli
gious condition was again reported to be low. The disci
pline was frequently administered by small coteries,
meeting in private houses, and the manners and customs
of the world, such as the wearing of mourning apparel,
&c, extensively prevailed. Tithes were voluntarily
paid by many, and the practice was obstinately
defended. In one instance a Monthly meeting refused
to recognise the Committee, or to answer any of their
inquiries. Two written Reports, and one verbal, from other sec
tions were presented by Saml. Fothergill, of Warrington.
This eminent person, though of feeble health, was one
of the most devoted, as he was certainly one of the ablest
and most eloquent ministers then existing in the Society.
His first Report related to the counties in the north and
north-west of England : — " As the nature of our visit
became known, we met a kind and open reception.* *
In divers of the above counties we found a large body of
Friends, many of whom are labouring in their several sta
tions for the revival of our holy testimony * * * *
But the love of the world has engrossed the attention of
too many who might have been helpers in the Lord's
work. On a careful inspection into the state of the
church, we found the effects of this worldly spirit disco
vering themselves in the neglect of that great and indis
pensable duty, the worship of the Lord Almighty.
The meetings for discipline were also in some parts
much neglected; few attend them unless by appointment.

116 Modern Quakerism.
The great end of discipline, which is to dress the garden
and keep it, is too much neglected, and we fear, by some
corrupt minds opposed. In general wefound the Society
in love, there were few open differences * * Yet in
many places the precious unity of the Spirit is greatly
obstructed by the above mentioned causes."
In some places they found that " intemperance pre
vailed, to the great reproach and public scandal of our
religious profession, and there has been much remissness
in dealing with such open transgressors * * Too
many have departed from plainness in its divers branches
and set light by our testimony in this respect, and by
uniting in the corrupt customs and conversation of the
world, have laid themselves open to the snare of joining
in marriage with those of other Societies."
"The neglect of Overseers in not duly discharging their
trust, watching over the flock, and administering
counsel and admonition, plainly and without respect of
persons, hath been one great cause of disorders spreading
among the churches."
The Report of the Committee appointed to visit Friends
in the principality of Wales was very discouraging. It
was presented to the Yearly meeting by John Townend,
of London, in 1763. In this district the meetings had
been from the first, in situation, far apart from each
other. Quakerism had never fairly taken root among
the Welsh. The organization of the Society had been
imperfectly carried out, for the system of correspondence
and subordination among the meetings had been sub
jected to great dislocations. Large numbers of the mem
bers had emigrated to America ; mixed marriages had
become almost universal, so that the small isolated

Modem Quakerism. 117
meetings in the Principality at this date were fast
dying out.
In several respects the Reports of these good men were
of great value and importance. They aroused a more
healthy and earnest interest in the scattered communi
ties of Friends in different parts of the country, and
they drew the attention of the Yearly meeting to the
circumstances of their actual condition. The Committee
saw the evils, and described them as they had seen
them, but it is questionable whether their discrimination
was equally clear as to the methods best adapted to their
removal. In their view the remedy was to be looked
for in better educational provisions, and in the more
stringent application of church discipline.
I have spoken of the action of this Committee as
being the dividing line between two phases of the So
ciety's development, yet it is not thence to be inferred
that any change in its religious principles was at this
period introduced into the body, for it still adhered
to the standard of its ancient creeds.
Even in discipline, thoughtherewassomemodification,
the current of our ecclesiastical arrangements continued
to run in the old channels. But whilst no fundamental
change in these respects was suggested, there had been,
as I have already shown, a great change in the people,
and this change now re-acted on everything connected
with their conduct and proceedings.
From the earliest times there had been church disci
pline in the body, but, to a large extent, it was simple
in its character, and individual and local in its adminis
tration. Being itself the issue of the spiritual life, and
having its source in love, it was a spiritual power, and

118 Modem Quakerism.
as such an effective instrumentality in the regulation and
government of the church. In this hidden power, acting
upon the separate members of a living spiritual organism,
we have efficient discipline, and yet but few rules,
for it combines in a simple, and often a single agency,
the legislative and the executive departments of the
Christian administration. The Christian man is called
into liberty, but in such an economy he becomes subject
to a new law, and whilst keeping within the limitations
of this law, there is developed that loving subordination
one to another, among the members, without which the
functions of the spiritual life can never be rightly ex
ercised. But if, from any cause, the spiritual life declines
or dies out, this hidden power, wherein dwells the only
efficient church authority, will be found to decline or
die with it, and too often, where this has been the case,
it has been attempted to provide a substitute for it in the
regulations of an external discipline. As disorders in
crease rules are multiplied, and in order tobringthem to
bear on those who need restraint, ecclesiastical centrali
zation is increased.
Such was the condition into which the Society of
Friends had drifted at the period on which we have
now entered, and how best to preserve the con
duct and manners of such a community within the limi
tations of the Christian precepts, constituted the
difficult problem, calling for solution from the Yearly
meeting of 1760. But the difficulties connected with
the solution of this problem were not confined to the
Society of Friends. About the same time similar diffi
culties, but different in degree, were encountered both
by the Methodists and the Moravians.

Modern Quakerism. 119
In each case the object to be attained was substanti
ally the same, i.e. — to build up and sustain a faultless
church amid the ruins of our fallen humanity. Their
respective Societies were to besomany gardens enclosed,
and by strict supervision and discipline they were to
"keep and dress them." Such was their ideal, but it
was destined never to be even approximately realised-
It has been in the experience of the Christian church
in every age, that lights and shadows have continued by
turns to succeed each other. Cheering displays of earnest
piety have been followed by periods of cold hearted in
difference, and the wisest of ecclesiastical arrangements
have but too often been thwarted by human infirmity
and error.
In his early ministry, Count Zinzendorf attempted to
control these irregularities, and to this end he organised
the Moravian community at Herrnhut. He appointed
Elders and Overseers of the flock, laid down rules to
regulate their dress and manners, exercising all practic
able care to keep out persons of unsound sentiments or
immoral condnct. He ultimately, however, relinquished
the attempt to enforce religious duties by authority : for
experience convinced him that evils arising from
human weakness can never be expelled by rules.
Gifted with tender sympathy for the erring, he
continued to pray for, to admonish, to watch, to test
those who flocked into his community, and, by such
processes, he drove away by degrees those whom he
failed to assimilate into the life and functions of his
church. He was especially careful to allow a free course
to the divine influence, and he feared to mar its power
by sharp and formal rules — endeavouring rather to

120 Modem Quakerism.
encounter prejudice by candour, and to subjugate pas
sion by love.
Towards the close of his life, he was urged to prohibit
frivolous diversions and to put them down by rule. His
answer shews his wisdom — " There is no way," he said,
"of inducing men to take up the cross of Christ, except
through their own conversion. To exercise an external
constraint is only to induce hypocrisy, or to lead men to
believe themselves Christians because they abstain from
certain worldly practices."
With a remarkable genius for organisation, Wesley
attempted, about this time, to attain the same object in
his Connection, by means similar to those which had
been adopted by the Moravian brethren ; but, with a
quick perception of the limitation of his own powers, he
appears to have early relinquished the effort as hopeless.
" He aimed," says Southey, " at making the Methodists
a peculiar people, and he required them, like the
Quakers, to intermarry among themselves. This point
was determined in the first Conference — the want of such
a regulation having been experienced. Many of our
members, it was said, have lately married with un
believers, even such as were wholly unawakened, and
this has been attended with fatal consequences. Few
of these have gained the unbelieving wife or husband
generally, they have either themselves had a heavy cross,
or entirely fallen back into the world." He seems, also,
to have been enamoured with the idea of keeping down
extravagance in dress by enforcing obedience to church
regulations ; for neither by the application of Christian
counsel, nor by his great personal influence, could he
keep the dress of his converts under any adequate con-

Modern Quakerism. 121
trol. " The very people that sate under the pulpit or
by the side of it, were as fashionably adorned as others
of their own rank. " This," said he, " is a melancholy
truth — I am ashamed of it, but I know not how to help
it. I call heaven and earth to witness, this day, that it
is not my fault. The trumpet has not given an un
certain sound for more than fifty years past." Even to
the end of his life he grieved over his want of success,
and it is interesting to observe the mournful terms in
which he reviews his course, acknowledges his failure,
and turns with a sort of half belief to what he conceives
might have been the superior efficacy of a resort to stern
unyielding discipline. " I might," he says, " have been
as firm as either the people called Quakers, or the
Moravian brethren. I might have said this is our
manner of dress, which we know is both scriptural and
rational. If you join with us you are to dress as we do,
but you need not join with us unless you please. But
alas ! the time is now past."
Such were the doubts and the difficulties that beset
the course pursued by Wesley. In the opposite course
adopted by the Yearly meeting of 1760, these diffi
culties were not diminished. With Friends, however,
the time was not allowed to pass without a persistent
attempt to rein in such irregularities by a firmer
exercise of the authority of the church. They began
by defining in sharp but artificial lines, who were, and
who were not to be regarded as in religious fellowship
with them. Out of these lines death had removed the
first converts, but there still remained within them many
of their unconverted children and grand-children.
From the influence of animmoral age — not adequately

122 Modem Quakerism.
counteracted by a vigorous religious life, or by the
arrangements adopted for the determination of its
membership — the Society of Friends, as stated in my
last Lecture, had at this time become a mixed com
munity to an extent unknown in its earlier experience :
and this circumstance, during its middle ages, imported
new difficulties into its legislation. Originally its
external regulations were few, and adapted to the con
dition and wants of an essentially homogeneous body.
They were now increased in number, and applied with
greater strictness to a body constituted of different
ingredients, and. subsisting under materially different
circumstances. The importance of this disparity
between the regulations and the body to whom they
were now applied, was not at the time sufficiently
taken into the account, but the results, in course of
years, began to develop themselves, in increasing the
isolation, in diminishing the numbers, in restricting
the action, and in other respects in powerfully modifying
and giving an artificial character to the entire Society.
I will endeavour to make these points more clear by
referring to the effect of the regulations applying — 1st,
to the marriage of its members — 2nd, to the maintenance
of some of its external peculiarities — and, 3rd, to the
arrangements adopted for the relief of its poor.
1st. — It was to be anticipated that when, by the
success of his ministry, George Fox had drawn a body
of converts around him, a variety of questions, springing
out of a full reception of the Christian principles which
he promulgated, would have to be considered and
adjusted. Among these, one of the most important was
marriage. Against the great heresy of a human priest-

Modem Quakerism. 123
hood, from the first he had fearlessly contended. By no
money payment, by no participation in its services, by
no voluntary act whatever would he recognise what he
regarded as a great system of unchristian usurpation.
Marriage was indeed God's ordinance, but the priest
was not to be regarded in any special sense as God's
representative. He objected, therefore, to the function
of the priest in marriage, and he objected, also, to the
ceremonial which the Church had decreed for its accom
plishment. These opinions he held in common with a
large proportion of those who at that time dissented
from the Church of England. During the Common
wealth, by an Ordinance of the little Parliament passed
in 1653, marriage had been treated as a merely civil
contract, and a simple form, almost precisely similar to
that adopted by Friends, was laid down for its accom
plishment before the magistrate. This Ordinance was
confirmed by the Protector's Parliament, in 1656 ; and,
to prevent vexatious lawsuits, all marriages which had
taken place under it were -declared valid on the resto
ration of Charles II. But this Ordinance expired with
"the Commonwealth, and, even if it had continued in
force, it was not altogether satisfactory to George Fox;
though it is manifest that a large body of his followers
had taken advantage of its provisions, for on no other
ground can we account forthesmall number of marriages
(194) registered by the Society as solemnized in its meet
ings during the period of the Commonwealth. In his view,
a marriage between Christians was not to be regarded as
simply a civil contract, for it was to be ' in the Lord.'
Hence though themarriageof the parties was their own act,
yet, to give it the religious sanction, it must be per-

124 Modern Quakerism.
formed with the consent and in the presence of the
church. "Marriage," he says, "is God's joining, not
man's. * * * We marry none, but are witnesses to
it." Thus a provision was required in the church for
its due celebration, and also other regulations in con
nection with it. It was provided, therefore, that there
should be in the Society no marriage of persons near of
kin ; that, in its celebration, none should sanction the
priestly office, nor submit to an objectionable ceremonial;
and, especially, that there should be no unequal yoking
with unbelievers. It has been questioned whether the
definition of a believer among the early Friends was
sufficiently comprehensive to reach much beyond the
pale of their own Society, for on many occasions ex
pressions were used by them which. would lead to
the inference that, in their own opinion, they alone were
the true Israel of God. This is an error to which all
who are connected with religious revivals are peculiarly
prone, for they find much in the church and in the world
that leads into it. It has been shewn that Wesley's views
tended strongly in this direction. His language on the
subject of marriage I have already quoted. It is the
language of experience no less than of principle; and
therefore it was that the early Quakers, on almost every
ground, had decided objections to what they denominated
as ( mixed marriages.' In their social as in their religious
intercourse, for many years, they were much blended to
gether. Concerning marriage they were sufficiently nume
rous to admitofanadequatefreedomofchoice among them
selves, and at that time, as a community, they were to a
considerable extent religiously homogeneous. Hence, for
a long period, the regulation restricting the marriage of

Modern Quakerism. 125
members to members worked favorably. To the cir
cumstances, however, of a body like the Society of
Friends, in the middle of the 18th century, the regulation
as hitherto understood had no legitimate application.
It was designed for a body united by spiritual affinities,
and subsisting together as a distinct and separate
people. It was now applied to a community in which
membership was restricted and ultimately determined
by considerations and accidents, not necessarily involving
either in their presence or in their absence any definite
judgment as to religious condition.
In a community so constituted there is, as respects mar
riage, theplayof affinities, which no churchregulations can
effectually control ; for men and women of the world
will ever marry each other, without much reference to
the consideration whether their union is approved by
the church, or whether they are likely to prove to each
other " meet helps" in the Lord. In such a community,
the regulation does not secure even an agreement in
religious principle, for the line of membership does not
determine this. There may be agreement in moral
habits and educational bias, but these, however desirable,
do not prove that a marriage is or is not ' in the Lord.'
Still less can the absence of this agreement in Educa
tional bias, under such circumstances, form any ground
upon which the church may remove a member from its
fellowship. Thus the line of membership is essentially
faulty as a standard. The rule in its origin was adapted
to another state of things, and its unvarying application
to the body in its altered condition could lead to nothing
but confusion.
It was unfortunate at this time that as these marriages

126 Modern Quakerism.
became more common, the regulation itself began to be
more strictly enforced. From the first, however, it failed
to arrest the progress of the evil against which it was
directed. But, by its operation, large numbers of per
sons were separated from the Society at the precise time
when, under a genial treatment, many of them might have
been brought more closely within the range of moral and
religious influences. There is reason to believe that
nearly one half of all the disownments, at this period,
resulted from this cause alone, and that of every hundred
persons married nearly forty married in violation of this
rule. From about 1760, the period when these arrange
ments took a systematic and practical shape, we find the
line of membership dividing the Society into two classes,
members and non-members, which appear side by side
in our registers of births and deaths. In these registers
the columns proceed inversely, the non-members increas
ing, the members diminishing, under the operation of
the new arrangements.
2nd — Let us now refer to the origin, and endeavour
to ascertain the effect, of what are sometimes denominated
the minor testimonies of the society, in determining its
existing condition. We have the testimony of
William Penn, himself a courtier and a gentleman,
that in his intercourse with others, George Fox "was
civil beyond all forms of breeding." But with him the
love of truth was a deeper sentiment than the duty of
practising the forms of ordinary politeness. Hence
from the first he declined the use of the complimentary
phraseology then current. To him it appeared to be
not consistent with true Christian sincerity. He could
not therefore, for example, subscribe himself the obe-

Modern Quakerism. 127
dient, humble servant of any man, whose servant he was
not ; he could not call any man reverend whom he did
not regard as worthy of being revered. The days of the
week, and some of the months of the year, had been de
signated by names derived from heathen superstitions.
In his view these names ought not to be used by Chris
tians. The simple numerical designation was in many
respects better and more convenient. It had moreover
the sanction of ancient practice, and was free from
the taint of a corrupt original. Some terms such as
'Church,' 'Word of God,' &c, used in the New Testa
ment Scriptures, in a particular signification, had since
acquired other meanings. These secondary significations
he believed to be the source of much confusion of
thought. He would, therefore, confine the words to
their primary usage.
But perhaps his most conspicuous departure from the
modes of speech then current among the higher classes
of his countrymen; was in his manner of using the1 pro
nouns. He held that 'thou' was the generical name for
the class of individual persons spoken to, and he objected
to the use of 'you' in the second person singular. There
were at that time some grounds for maintaining this
distinction. The best usage of the language, which is
the foundation of all grammatical proprieties, was not on
this point then fully determined. This was, therefore,
even in a literary point of view, to some extent an open
question. It was convenient and in accordance with the
analogies of many other tongues, to have a distinction
between the singular and plural. " Thou" had been
uniformly used as the second person singular in the
authorised translation of the Scriptures, thenbutrecently

128 Modern Quakerism.
issued. It was retained in their conjugations by gram
marians, and in the book of Common Prayer. But with
George Fox this was not altogether a literary question.
He thought hesawinitsomeimportantreligiousandmoral
bearings. This simple mode of speech was not only the
language of the Bible and of his own childhood, it was
also the ordinary address of the middle and lower classes
of his countrymen. He was to be no respecter of per
sons, he was not to use one language to the rich, and
another to the poor. In his intercourse with the great
he knew no fear. He stood erect before them in the
simple majesty of his Christian manhood, regarding with
a sacred scorn and loathing all servile cringings, all
glorying flatteries and hypocrisies. He soon, however,
found that an adherence to such a conduct and phrase
ology began to give offence, "for," he says, "it was a
sore cut to proud flesh" to be addressed after this
unusual fashion. Abuse and suffering followed ; these
endeared to him the more the cause- for which he suf
fered, and conferred upon it a prominence in the
estimation of his followers which essentially it did not
possess. In the progress of time this question began
gradually to assume new aspects.
The usage of the language which had been partial and
doubtful became fixed. Modes of speech which origin
ally were open to objection, in the opinion of some, by
common usage had lost their original taint; hence, under
these changed circumstances, in the manner of upholding
this Christian testimony to truthfulness of speech, greater
liberty of action might have been not only safe but
desirable. For, except we have strong religious grounds to the

Modern Quakerism. 129
contrary brought home to our individual conviotions, we
ought to be at liberty to give to every word the sense in
which it is used by the purest writers and the most
correct speakers of our day. "For the words of a
language already framed being no man's private pos
session, but the common measure of commerce and
communication, it is not for any one at pleasure to
change the stamp they are current in, nor alter the
ideas they are fixed to."* But this liberty was not
allowed, and much time and strength were spent in
imposing the restriction on those who did not deem the
practice so attempted to be enforced, as of the nature of
a Christian obligation.
The Costume of the early Friends was not uniform —
they dressed plainly, but they did not adopt any par
ticular form of a plain dress. They belonged mostly to
the middle or yeoman class, and, in consequence, they
were to a large extent beyond the influence of fashion.
A considerable proportion of them had been, moreover,
before their connexion with the Society, a religious and
seeking people, accustomed to square their conduct in its
main outlines into a conformity with the Christian pre
cepts. " Such persons," says Clarkson, "were found in
plain and simple habits, notwithstanding the contagion
of their superiors in rank. The men of this description
generally wore plain round hats with common crowns.
They had discarded the sugar loaf hat, and the hat
turned up with a silver clasp on one side, as well as all
ornaments belonging to it. They had adopted a plain
suit of clothes, the colour of which was either drab or
* Locke.

1 30 Modem Quakerism.
grey. These were then the colours of the clothes of the
peasants of England, as they now are of those of Portu
gal and Spain."
A plain grey coat with alchemy buttons, and girt
round the waist with a leathern girdle, was worn by
George Fox. This was the ordinary coat of men of his
rank in his own times, and was probably descended from
the old British frieze gown, girt about the body with
a penny leathern girdle, mentioned in the Book of
Martyrs as worn by Latimer and some of the early
Reformers. On the application of Christian principle
to dress, the early Friends were agreed. They regarded
a conformity to the changing fashions of the world as
sinful ; but they left the particular forms and arrange
ments of dress to be regulated by the convictions and
wants of the individual wearer. In the case of those
whose dress had been plain on their joining the Society,
no change was made ; but when others of a gay appear
ance were brought to a knowledge of the truth, one of
the first effects of the new conviction was the putting
away of their fashionable apparel. "As soon," says
Thomas Ell wood, "as my understanding began to
open," (here was the true foundation of the change,)
" and I felt some stirring in my breast tending to the
work of a new creation in me, some evils I was required
to put away and to cease from. I took off from my
apparel those unnecessary trimmings, lace, ribbons, and
useless buttons, which had no real service, but were set
on only for that which was by mistake called ornament,
and I ceased to wear rings." In this way the early
Friends became a plain people, but without affecting
uniformity in their plainness. Their circumstances and

Modem Quakerism. 131
their wants were different, and, keeping within the limits
of Christian moderation, they con suited them. Their dress
gave them little concern, and occupied little of their time
or thought. Theirs was the freedom from the bondage
of fashion which it is the privilege of Christians to enjoy :
for he only " is a free man, whom the truth makes free;
and all are slaves beside."
They regarded themselves as but strangers and pil
grims on earth. Everything, therefore, which tended to
bind them to the earth, whether the pursuit of wealth,
the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, they considered
as not consistent with the great design of their being.
But these views they held in common with good men
of other religious persuasions. Many, even of the
Roman Catholic divines enforced similar opinions, and
they were supported by Bunyan, Baxter, and others of
the Puritan party. The same views were held by
Wesley, and addressed to his followers a century later-
"I exhort all who desire me to watch over their souls,
to wear no gold, no pearls, or precious stones. Use no
curling of the hair, nor costly apparel how grave soever.
I advise all who are able to receive this saying, buy no
velvet, no silks, no fine linen, no superfluities, no mere
ornaments, though ever so much in fashion. Wear
nothing though you have it already, which is of a
flaming colour, or which is in any kind gay, glistening,
or showy ; nothing made in the very height of fashion ;
nothing apt to attract the eyes of bystanders. I do not
advise women to wear rings, ear-rings, necklaces, laces
of whatever kind or colour, or ruffles, which by little
and little may shoot easily from one to twelve inches
deep."

132 Modern Quakerism.
Such, substantially, were the views of the early
Quakers on the subject of dress, and the great body of
the first converts were in sympathy with them. But,
after the restoration of Charles IL, the passions of the
age ran strongly in the direction of a foolish and sinful
extravagance. Many of the young Friends had grown
up without having been subjected to the restraints of
true Christian conviction, and, as was to be expected,
they came within the influence of the prevailing mania.
How are such to be dealt with by the church? I. know of
no course, but to endeavour to make the tree good, that
its fruit may be good also. No doubt many efforts were
made in this direction, but, being only partially success
ful, they were supplemented by a different kind of
action — a conformity to external simplicity began to be
enforced by discipline.*
By the authority of the superior meetings, all ribbons,
rings, clasps, and other ornamental appendages, were
forbidden; and thus Friends became, in their external
appearance, a people distinct from others, and, by a
natural process of assimilation, they were moulded by
degrees into a unity of fashion among themselves ; in
* A strong tendency towards this new course of action manifested
itself soon after the death of George Fox. It was against this new
development that Margaret Fox, in 1698, addressed Friends in an
Epistle containing words of wisdom and of warning well calculated to
arrest this tendency.
" Let us beware of being guilty or of having a hand in ordering or
contriving that which is contrary to Gospel freedom. * * » It is
a dangerous thing to lead young Friends much into the observation of
outward things, which may easily be done. For they can soon get into
an outward garb, so as to be all alike outwardly, but this will not make
them true Christians. It's the Spirit that gives life. I would be loath .
to have a hand in these things. The Lord preserve us that we do no
hurt to God's work, and let Him work whose work it is."
From Margaret Fox's Epistle to Friends.

Modern Quakerism. 133
other words, they adopted a peculiar and nearly uniform
plain dress.
Now, what was the effect of all this labour to attain
uniformity ? What the amount of substantial good that
flowed from this attempt to stereotype a form of ex
ternal simplicity, and to enforce its adoption ?
The first and most important effect was to absorb in
the effort a large' portion of that Christian energy which
in the earlier times had been better employed, and to
concentrate it upon an object within the Society which,
even if the end had been attained, would not have
repaid the sacrifice.
But the end was not in any fair sense of the term
attained, for the process by which it Was to be healthily
reached was reversed. To eradicate such evils, "it is
necessary to enter into the passions of mankind, and
to correct all those depraved sentiments that give
birth to the extravagancies which appear in the
outward dress and behaviour. Foppish and fantastic
ornaments are more the indications of vice than criminal
in themselves. Extinguish vanity in the mind, and you
naturally retrench the little superfluities of garniture and
equipage. The blossoms will fall of themselves when
the root that nourishes them is destroyed."*
3rd. — One of the most remarkable characteristics of
the early Friends was their sympathy with the poor
and afflicted. With them as with the Church of the prim
itive believers, the provision for their poor members
was one of the earliest subjects requiring concerted
arrangements. In 1660, George Fox 'refers to a
* 'Addison.

134 Modern Quakerism.
General meeting which had been held for several years at
Skipton in Yorkshire, but which was attended by many
Friends from other parts of the nation. " Divers
justices and captains had come to break this me'eting
up, but when they understood the business, Friends
met about and saw their books, and the amount of their
collections for the relief of th« poor, how we took care
one county to help another and to help our Friends
beyond the seas, and to provide for our poor, that none
of them should be chargeable to their parishes, the
justices and officers confessed, we did their work and
passed away peaceably and lovingly, commending Friends
practice. " Sometimes there would come two hundred of the
poor of other people and wait there till the meeting
was over, (for all the country knew we met about the
poor,) and after the meeting Friends would send to the
baker's for bread, and give every one of these poor
people a loaf, how many soever there were of them ;
for we were taught to do good unto all, though es
pecially to the household of faith."
The occasion for this provision was much increased
by the cruel persecutions and robberies to which, on
their first rise, the Friends were everywhere exposed.
It was no rare occurrence at that period for the father
of a family to be thrown into a dungeon, and the house
to be spoiled even of the children's beds and all their
provisions. " Nor was it uncommon to seek their entire
proscription and ruin by refusing to deal with them."
Was it surprising, therefore, that, on this account,
these people should cling all the more closely to
each other? But they were united by stronger bonds

Modem Quakerism. 135
than these. The hearts of rich and poor were knit
together in a holy relationship ; brethren in the same
covenant of promise and of the same household of faith.
If one member suffered, therefore the other members
suffered with it. Whilst any were in want, even the
things which were possessed by the others, they re
garded not as their own. As was the case with the
primitive Christians, the hearts of many of them so
overflowed with loving sympathy, that " to their power,
yea, even beyond thsir power," they abounded in the
riches of their liberality to each other. The epistles of
Fox abound with allusions to this practical Christian
benevolence. "Let a house be provided for them that
are distempered in mind, and also an alms-house for
the poor that are past work. * * * Let all widows
be taken notice of, and encouraged in their outward
business. If they have many children, put them out
apprentices or servants, for they may be a burden to
them to bring up. * * * If there are many more
poor belonging to one meeting than another, and that
meeting thereby is burdened and oppressed, let the rest
of the meetings assist them, * * * that ye may
bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of
Christ." " In, all your meetings enquire who is sick and weak, or
in want, and widows and fatherless, or aged people that
cannot help themselves; and let such as God hath dis
tributed to, of that which God hath distributed, lay
aside for the necessities of others — for 'he that giveth
to the poor leudeth to the Lord, and He loves a cheerful
giver.' " Here we have the principle of the ancient Offer
tory, and of the modern Systematic beneficence Society.

136 Modem Quakerism.
To those that married, he recommended, in place of
the marriage feast usually provided, the substitution of
provisions for the poor, " for they cannot feast you
again," and, says he, " be of a free noble spirit, above
all churlish misers, and niggards, and narrow spirits."
How nobly kind are such sentiments as these, and truly
Christian was the practice that rose out of them.
But, in course of years, this spontaneous benevolence
began to be levied upon each member who was of ability
to contribute, as an ordinary rate to be distributed by
officers appointed for the purpose; and thus, on the
part of the rich, the whole service was discharged in a
systematic and perfunctory manner; and, on the part of
the poor, the provision came to be regarded as a right to
entire maintenance from the funds of the Society, as
fixed and indefeasible as if claimed under the statute of
Elizabeth. Thus, this provision, which was so Christian
in its origin, became to some extent communistic in its
practice; and, in course of time, numbers, whom Fox
would not have recognised as even of the household of
faith, began to claim entire support from it. The
effect became speedily visible, as the Society changed
by degrees its original character of a Christian
church, for that of a corporation conferring certain
outward privileges. The tendency, undoubtedly
was to interfere with and to limit its labours
among the poor. The evil was two-fold : the in
dependent poor were prevented from applying for
membership, lest they should be suspected of seeking
chiefly the improvement of their worldly circumstances;
and, on the other hand, it induced among Friends an
undue caution in admitting the poor into membership;

Modern Quakerism. 137
for to draw a poor man into a church with a limited
constituency of wealthy persons becomes a much more
important question when his conversion entails the
obligation to give him, if necessary, entire outward
support, and to provide for the education and appren
ticing of his family. It was thus that the Society began
to place its members in the bonds of its disciplinary
regulations. These regulations, as I have already
shewn, rested on great principles, and were intended
to enforce undoubted obligations. But the error lay,
when principle did not operate, in attempting to attain
the end by the exercise of external constraint.
Parents, and all acting in loco parentis towards those
in early life, are bound to exercise such restraint, by
virtue of the authority vested in them for that end, as
the responsible heads of the families committed to their
care. The church, however, is not a family, and its
officers are not parents. The family and the church are
both divine institutions, but the one cannot perform the
work of the other : each has its own duties to dis
charge, and these involve distinct agencies and separate
arrangements.* In a religious community, under the most favourable
circumstances, there is in the multiplication of rules an
unhealthy and dangerous development: for the Christian
they are not needed, and in the case of those who are
ignorant and out of the way, we may bring about, by
ecclesiastical restrictions, an outward propriety of de
meanour in which the individual takes rest, but which

» " The family has a two-fold character. It is at once a civil and a
sacred thing. It is both a monarchy and a church. Its rightful head
is a king and a priest." — The Priestltood of Some.

138 > Modem Quakerism.
may have little if any connection with an improvement
in his religious condition.
To enforce general principles, therefore, and to point
out their application to the practical details of every day
life, is the perpetual mission of the church. But, in
bringing these principles to bear on the varying circum
stances and complicated relations to which they apply,
there must be freedom of individual action and personal
responsibility. For right conduct is not that which is
fashioned by outward rules, but that which springs from
Christian motives, and which is the result of convictions so
deep and earnest, that they have power to change the life.
Let it not, however, be inferred from the preceding
description, that these attempts to make the Society a
separate and peculiar people, absorbed the whole energy
of the Yearly meeting. Many other questions affecting
both the conduct of Friends, their religious condition,
and their duties to others, came at this period from
time to time under review, and resulted in the issue
of many new regulations.
As these regulations were multiplied, and the dis
cipline increased in complexity, greater attention
became necessary to the composition and character of
meetings for its administration, and so by degrees, the
Society assumed the type of a more perfect organization.
In 1766 the women Friends applied for permission to
constitute themselves a Yearly meeting, but this power
was not then granted to them. On a second application
in 1784, they were allowed to institute a system of
correspondence with their subordinate meetings; but it
was not till 1790, that the Yearly meeting of women
Friends, constituted of representatives, and with its exist-

Modern Quakerism. 139
ing functions, was commenced. In 1786, the Ministers
and Elders began to meet as a select and separate body.
Previously their queries were mostly answered in the
open Quarterly meeting, and Overseers, Representatives,
and other well-concerned Friends, were admitted into
their meetings where such were held as distinct from
the meeting at large. In 1789, the Yearly meeting
gave its judgment on a proposition from one of the
Quarterly meetings, — that the offices of Elder and
Overseer are distinct, and do not concur in one person
unless he be appointed to each office. From this time,
the distinction between Elders and Overseers was main
tained, and a system of mutual correspondence and
subordination was established in these select meetings,
as distinct from the meetings for discipline.
Soon after the establishment of the Yearly meeting
of women Friends, and of regular meetings for Ministers
and Elders, the Yearly meeting itself was changed from
a select and representative assembly to the open and
popular meeting which now exists.
About this time (1793) the present large meeting
houses in Bishopsgate Street were erected. It has been
remarked by a Friend, recently deceased,* who was con
versant with the Yearly meeting, both before and after
the change, that since the opening of the new houses in
Bishopsgate Street, " the numbers attending the Yearly
meeting have been increased three-fold, and that they
consist no longer of Friends sitting in awe of the meeting
and rising with fear and trembling to speak, but of men
accustomed to vivacious discussions, not a few of whom

• Luke Howard.

140 Modern (Quakerism.
are speakers in other assemblies." There is some truth
in this remark : the contrast between the two periods is
doubtless in many points considerable.
There are imperfections inherent in the existing
administration, but we are not ignorant that there were
imperfections also in that which preceded it; and, on a
balance of the two, there is much ground to doubt the
soundness of the conclusion that, as a whole, the former
arrangements were better than these. Under its new
organization, the Yearly meeting has continued to labour
successfully with the Government for the removal of the
few legal disabilities to which Friends were still subject.
Their affirmation in criminal cases has been accepted
in lieu of an oath. The repeal of the "Test and Cor
poration acts" has thrown open to them, in common
with other Dissenters from the Church of England,
many offices connected with the civil administration of
the country, from which they were formerly excluded
by their conscientious scruples. In 1835, the law which
gave power to ecclesiastical courts to imprison for non
payment of tithes was repealed, and the last Friend
imprisoned on this account was set at liberty.
An act for the commutation of tithes has since been
passed, which has still further simplified the process for'
the recovery of these payments from Friends. By
decisions of Courts of Law, they have maintained their
right to hold their meetings for discipline select and
with closed doors. In the same manner they have
sustained their claim to be relieved from the duty of
serving as churchwardens, and from some other offices
involving services inconsistent with their Christian
testimonies.

Modern. Quakerism. 141
The era of suffering for conscience sake has thus
passed away, and with it the necessity for constant
efforts to gain relief. Other objects, having for the
most part a wider range and a different character, have
since claimed the attention of the Yearly meeting, and
its representative Committee, the "Meeting for Suffer
ings." For the promotion of these new objects we find
them often in communication with the Government,
or delivering addresses.in the closet of the King.
It was towards the close of the 18th century that the
remarkable development of politico-religious and benev
olent effort, which has. been so striking a characteristic
of modern Quakerism, may be said to have fairly
commenced. In 17S3, the Yearly meeting took up the
question of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The
support of the Bible and Anti-Slavery Societies followed
early in the present century ; and, in 1805, the question
of Popular Education in connection with Lancasterian
Schools began to engage much of the attention of
Friends. On the establishment of the Holy Alliance, the
Meeting for Sufferings addressed its Imperial and Royal
members, in support of Religious Liberty.
Since 1819, the amelioration of the Criminal Code
has received much attention; and, more recently,
Institutions for the promotion of Peace and Temper
ance, and for the abolition of Church Rates, have found
their most earnest and stable supporters in the Society
of Friends.
It is difficult to estimate, as regards others, the amount
of. good that has resulted from these efforts. It has
certainly been considerable, but, as regards the Society

142 Modern Quakerism.
itself, I think it must be admitted that their absorption
to so large an extent into the regular proceedings of the
Yearly meeting has tended to secularize its service, and
to introduce an unfavourable change into the character
of its deliberations. The warfare of the early Friends
was essentially a spiritual warfare. It was for the most
part aggressive and direct, employing no intermediate
agencies. As good soldiers, trained to endure hardness,
their spiritual weapons were kept bright by use. In
recent times we have done, and rightly done, much
benevolent work by proxy. Personal service has in
many instances been rendered, but, in too large a pro
portion of cases, the services of others have been enlisted
by a judicious distribution of money, whilst our depart
ment has been to make the money. This system of
operation has restricted and in other respects, I think,
interfered with a preparation for the exercise of indi
vidual gifts for general usefulness, and has thus
influenced unfavourably the Society's action.
As a system, it can-hardly be said to be germane to
its principles — for Quakerism contemplates no systematic
provision for the employment, within its own organiza
tion, of paid proxy services and separate agencies for
the discharge of religious duties.
There is reason to believe that the Society, especially
during the second half of the 18th century, was also
injuriously affected by a phase of doctrinal thought that
then became widely current in the religious world —
for the writings of the mystic divines met with much
acceptance among many about this time. Fenelon,
Lady Guyon, Thos. A. Kern pis, Hugh Turford, Wm.
Law, and other writers of this school, were much read,

Modem Quakerism. 143"
especially by Friends and Moravians, and they evidently
exercised no small influence on some of our best and
most earnest thinkers.
The religious literature then circulated abounds with
figurative illustrations of spiritual truths, and with
recommendations to Friends to be much in retirement,
to practise divine contemplation, to dwell alone, and
not to be numbered with the nations. There is some
thing in all this that commends itself to our experience
in our best moments, but, though containing a truth, it
does not exhibit, in harmonious proportions, the whole
truth. Whilst accepting, therefore to the full, the view
of Wordsworth, —
"Nor less, I deem that there are powers,
Which of themselves our minds impress,
That we can feed this mind of ours,
In a wise passiveness,"
let us accept, also, the co-relative truth, that the active
must balance the passive, the practical the contemplative,
whenever we desire to bring about a healthy condition
of things.*
No one appears to me to have resorted more bene
ficially to retirement for meditation and prayer than
George Fox ; but when he had obtained the victory
through faith, he was not satisfied there to rest "feeding
his mind in a wise passiveness." He not only began
himself to walk by faith, but he opposed those who
* A great part of mankind owe their principles to their practice ; that
is, to that wonderful accession of strength and energy which good
dispositions receive from good actions. It is difficult to sustain virtuo
by meditation alone; but let our conclusions only have influence
eDou^h once to determine us upon a course of virtue, and that
influence will acquire such augmentation of force from every instance
of virtuous endeavour, as ere long to produce in us constancy and
resolution, a formed and a fixed character.— Dr. Paley.

144 Modern Quakerism.
walked in a different direction, by an active testimony.
The effect produced on the ministry of Friends in tiie
middle ages by this phase of religious thought, combined
with the restrictions to which the exercise of spiritual
gifts had been subjected, was very marked. The witness
became feebler, and the ministers both less numerous
and less active. In the service, to a large extent, as
has been already stated, the women displaced the men.
This tendency to spiritual abstraction, accompanied
as it was by a somewhat defective inculcation of positive
truth, produced, it is to be feared, in some minds, a
confusion of thought, favourable to the reception of the
poison diffused by Hannah Barnard among Friends in
Ireland, and by Elias Hicks among Friends in America,
and ultimately led to a rebound in the opposite direction
in the more recent secession in Manchester and elsewhere.
Among the several agencies that have moulded the
character and influenced the development of modern
Quakerism, its system of Education may be regarded as
the most important and powerful. To this subject I will
therefore advert in a few additional observations.
I have already stated that, towards the close of the
17th century, funds were provided by which day schools,
taught by Friends, were established in the compass or
within reach of most of our principal meetings. Many
of the teachers of these schools were men of competent
learning and ability ; some were authors, and not a few
of them were able and devoted ministers of Christ.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that a considerable
influence was exerted upon the rising generation through
the agency of these establishments. But the power of
a day school training is limited by several circumstances.

Modern Quakerism. 145
When combined with a good home, and with pure and
virtuous associations in the school, such a training is to
be regarded as very favorable to the formation of good
habits, and it may be even of true Christian character.
But when these conditions are not united, the results
are frequently far from what we should desire.
In some localities, the influence of a day school may
be favorable, in others the reverse, but as a whole the
effects of such a training are isolated and irregular.
There is no unity of system and object in these insti
tutions, no working by common means towards a com
mon end. However, therefore, such an education may
act upon the individual, it can exert no material power
over the character of a community circumstanced as was
the Society of Friends during the last half of the 18th
century. At this period, the larger proportion of its members
resided in rural districts. In the country schools,
the children came into contact with injurious moral
associations. " Why not, therefore, it was asked,
select a secluded situation for them during the course
of their education, where they may be kept from
bad company in the way of association, and from
seeing the bad things which children are exposed
to at home?" The idea was in harmony with the
prevailing tone of thought.
The subject was taken up with interest by Dr.
Fothero-ill of London, and other prominent members of
the Yearly meeting. On all hands, the day schools
were admitted to have failed; they had not produced
in the youth of the Society those moral habits, neither
had they fostered those religious principles which every

146 Modem Quakerism.
Christian parent desires to see implanted in the mind
of his child. The Yearly meeting, therefore, deter
mined to act for the body. Under its authority, a
national boarding sehool for 300 children, the issue of
parents not in affluent circumstances, was opened at
Ackworth, in Yorkshire, in 1779. The results were so
far encouraging, that a few years later, other similar
institutions, but on a somewhat smaller scale, were com
menced; in 1808, at Sidcot, for the S. W. of England;
in 1811, at Croydon, for London and Middlesex ; and in
1815, at Wigton, for Cumberland and the North.
Simultaneously with this movement in England, the
question was taken up by Friends in Ireland, who
opened in 1785, a boarding school for the children
of Leinster province, at Mountmellick; in 1793, for
Munster province, at Waterford; and in 1794, for
Ulster province, near Belfast. Several other boarding
schools, affording a more liberal mental culture, were
also opened for the education of the higher classes.
About the same time, and much after the same
manner, the educational movement was taken up by
Friends in America. In 1792, by Philadelphia Yearly
meeting, and subsequently by Ohio, New England,
North Carolina, and Indiana. To these schools
Friends in England forwarded considerable contri
butions. Nor was it for its members only that this
educational provision was made by the body. The
benefits were extended at a later period to the
children of many who had been separated from its
communion. Since 1832, four or five other boarding
schools have been opened, providing accomodation for
about 300 of this class. For the establishment and

Modern Quakerism. 147
support of this great educational organization, and for
purposes connected with it, large sums of money have
been at different times contributed, amounting alto
gether to nearly a quarter of a million sterling, and
for its maintenance, several thousands of pounds are
still annually collected. On the whole, it may, I think,
be safely asserted, that in no existing religious organi
zation have we the same ample provisions for education
and that in none are the young so carefully and so
generally educated.
The conduct of a community, trained and constituted
as is the Society of Friends, differs from that of the
average population of the country in several particulars :
among these, one of the most important has relation to
marriage. We are informed by statisticians that the tendency
of the sexes to marriage is liable to be modified by a
number of conditions.
Above a certain point in education, comfort of cir
cumstances, and respectability of position, the tendency
diminishes, and we see men and women of the middle
and upper classes living contentedly in celibacy from a
dread of the increased expenses of matrimonial life.
The extent to which this indisposition to marry has, in
later years especially, been developed amongst Friends,
whether resulting from our educational system, our
church regulations, our social circumstances, or from
other less obvious causes, indicates a condition requiring
to be carefully guarded against.
lt would be easy, if the limits of this Lecture admit
ted of further expansion, to point out many other
peculiarities connected with our condition, both as a

148 Modem Quakerism.
church and as a population, which have been silently
gathering around us, but especially during the epoch I
have just travelled over. These external accretions,
which are not of the essence of true Quakerism, have
contributed much to render our existing position not
only artificial, but to a certain extent untenable. In
this condition, however, we are not destined to remain
at rest. The evidence is not wanting to show that we
are now approaching another phase of development.
If, by the action of the past, we have to some extent
been brought into bondage, let us beware lest t"he
liberty of the present lead us into latitudinarianism.
To early Quakerism, the indwelling Spirit, the
Representative in the church on earth of its risen Lord,
was both a motive power and a restraining law.
Equally opposed now as then to deadness on the one
hand, and to false liberty on the other, wherever He is
in dominion, He still remains as a Guide to the church,
to be conservative and safe. Even in the process of
removing things that are shaken, as of things that are
made, His purpose is manifest — " that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain." Whilst not
blind to the dangers inherent either in the former or
the present condition of things, I am not one of those
who have seen in the establishment of our discipline,
or in its subsequent revisions and changes, any covert
purpose on the part of the Yearly meeting, to build
upon other than the ancient foundations.
I have elsewhere expressed, and I venture again to
repeat my conviction, that the decadence of churches is
often the result of causes to a large extent within the
influence of their own control ; among which, not the

Modem Quakerism. 149
least important, is a misapprehension of the true pur
pose and spirit of their original, leading them to
an over rigid adherence to arrangements and modes
of action in their institution good, because in harmony
with a then existing state of things, but ever more
or less temporary, because requiring in each suc
cessive agevto be adapted to new conditions of society,
and to the ever varying wants of the great family of
man. Such well digested modifications of external
arrangements, involving, it may be, changes in modes of
procedure, are 'not to be regarded as departures from
fundamental truths and principles : for we may adhere
so long and so tenaciously to stereotyped forms as to
bring ourselves into a practical isolation, involving the
sacrifice of our influence over those by whom we are
surrounded. If, as a Christian community, we have, through a too
rigid adherence to some of our past arrangements,
drifted into a false and untenable position, let us not,
on this account, shrink from the consideration how we
can, in accordance with our distinguishing principles,
again assume our true place in the Christian church, by
discharging our mission to our own generation as our
forefathers did to theirs.
In this course we may encounter some difficulties,
but these are not insuperable. In endeavouring how
ever to solve them, we must not ignore the past
and proceed at once to lay aside the old arrangements
and to organise anew as if these had never existed;
but we must by degrees adapt our practice and our
regulations to a somewhat different order of things which
we desire to see established, in which spiritual life and

150 Modern Quakerism.
health, with the freedom and energy which follow in
their train, may again, as at the beginning, be the
normal condition of the church.
Such I believe to be the character and tendency of
the changes recently introduced into our discipline. It
has been said, however, that Friends have abandoned
their distinguishing peculiarities, and taken new ground.
I have endeavoured to show that we hold no peculiarities
but such as are connected with principles binding upon
all Christians.
We may never abandon that peculiarity into which
the truth leads, and which, flowing out of true cross-
bearing, is ever found associated with zeal unto good
works. But it has been incidental to some of our
past arrangements, that through them we have been
led into exclusiveness.
In religious interest and sympathy we have become
too much separated from the world around us. Our
Christian service has thus been not only cramped and
distorted, but far too largely confined to ourselves. It
was not so in the beginning. We require to build again
on the old foundations, and, armed with the force of
truth, to make our influence felt in the world.
For the accomplishment of suuh a work there are some
indications connected with our present circumstances
that are not altogether cheering. There exists among
many of our young people much earnest religious
thought, but too large a portion of it, in some districts,
floating into a loose and aimless eclecticism, instead of
being devoted to the service of the Society, from
lack of decision, is dissipated and lost. In common with
other portions of the Christian church, we still suffer

Modern Quakerism. 151
from the intensity of our worldliness, and the absorbing
activity with which business is prosecuted in our day.
Nothing but the power of a victorious faith can save us
from this deadening influence in its manifold trans
formations. Our future, however, has lights, as well as shadows.
Let us look upon these and take couiage. I think
it will be admitted that there is to be found in
the body, at this time, greater religious earnestness,
combined with an increasing exercise of spiritual gifts ;
and it is interesting to know that many of these gifts
have been recognised by the church as in various
degrees of the character of true gospel ministry.
Among those recently acknowledged as ministers, the
number of men is again found to preponderate over that
of women. But not only has the number of our minis
ters of late much increased, their dedication to the
service has more than kept pace with that increase.
Our religious action has become more varied, more
local, and spontaneous; and, in connection with it, our
small scattered meetings are becoming in many districts
objects of the increased care and sympathy of the body.
A large band of other labourers, not directly con
nected with the Christian ministry, have sprung up, and
have engaged in benevolent efforts of a more decidedly
religious type; and personal, as distinguished from
proxy services, are again increasing among us.
The chasm which, during the last two or three gene
rations in particular, has divided us in religious interest
and sympathy from the population around us, is thus to
some extent being bridged over by new developments
arising out of the circumstances of our own times.

152 Modern Quakerism.
Our more numerous public meetings, our first day
schools with their adult classes, our cottage readings,
and other agencies of like character, are favourable indi
cations — movements in the right direction. Whilst
engaging, however, in such labours for the benefit of
those beyond our limits, let us not fail in our duty to
our own members. The two courses of service will be
found to be in true harmony.
They will act and re-act upon each other, and both
will prosper in exact proportion as neither is neglected.
Bracing ourselves therefore, to the double conflict, and
gathering wisdom from our past experience, let us look
hopefully forward.
We have yet a great mission in the church of the
future. The aspects of the times call for its exercise.
Standing on the mount in a dry season, the Prophet
saw by the eye of faith, some indications which caused
him to gird up his loins for a vigorous race. So may
the cloud rising in our horizon, which, though yet but
as the size of a man's hand, cheer us onward to higher
efforts and be to us the auspicious portent of an abun
dant rain.

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