YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1941

THE

RISE AND PROGRESS

PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS.

BY WILLIAM PENN.

As unknown, and yet well known. 2 Cor. vi. 9.

PHILADELPHIA:
HENRY PERKINS, 134 CHESTNUT STREET.
BOSTON:
PERKINS & MARVIN.
1838.

TO
THE READER.

This following account of the people called
Quakers, &c. was written in the fear and love
of God : first, as a standing testimony to that
ever blessed truth, in the inward parts, with
which God, in my youthful time, visited my
soul, and for the sense and love of which I was
made willing, in no ordinary way, to relin
quish the honours and interests of the world.
Secondly, as a testimony for that despised peo
ple, that God ha? in his great mercy gathered
and united by his own blessed Spirit in the holy
profession of it ; whose fellowship I value above
all worldly greatness. Thirdly, in love and
honour to the memory of that worthy servant
of God, George Fox, the first instrument thereof,
and therefore styled by me, The great and
blessed apostle of our day. As this gave birth
to what is here presented to thy view, in the
first edition of it, by way of preface to George
Fox's excellent journal ; so the consideration
of the present usefulness of the following
account of the people called Quakers, (by
reason of the unjust reflections of some adver-

TO THE READER.

saries that once walked under the profession of
friends) and the exhortations that conclude it,
prevailed with me to consent that it should be
republished in a smaller volume; knowing also
full well, that great books, especially in these
days, grow burthensome, both to the pockets
and minds of too many ; and that there are not
a few that desire (so it be at an easy rate) to
be informed about this people, that have been
so much every where spoken against : but,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, it is upon no worse grounds than
it was said of old time of the primitive Chris
tians ; as I hope will appear to every sober and
considerate reader. Our business, after all the
ill usage we have met with, being the realities
of religion, an effectual change before our last
and great change ; that all may come to an
inward, sensible and experimental knowledge
of God, through the convictions and operations
of the light and spirit of Christ in themselves,
the sufficient and blessed means given to all,
that thereby all may come savingly to know
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he
hath sent, to enlighten and redeem the world :
which knowledge, is indeed eternal life. And
that thou, reader, mayst obtain it, is the earnest
desire of him that is ever
Thine in so good a work,
WILLIAM PENN.

RISE AND PROGRESS

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Divers have been the dispensations of God
since the creation of the world unto the sons of
men ; but the great end of all of them has been
the renown of his own excellent name in the
creation and restoration of man — man, the
emblem of himself, as a God on earth, and
the glory of all his works. The world began
with innocency : all was then good that the
good God had made : and as he blessed the
works of his hands, so their natures and har
mony magnified him their Creator. Then the
morning stars sang together for joy, and all
parts of his works said Amen to his law : not
a jar in the whole frame ; but man in paradise,
the beasts in the field, the fowl in the air, the
fish in the sea, the lights in the heavens, the
fruits of the earth ; yea, the air, the earth, the
water and fire worshipped, praised and exalted
his power, wisdom and goodness ! O holy sab
bath ! O holy day to the Lord !
But this happy state lasted not long: for
1*

RISE AND PROGRESS OP

man, the crown and glory of the whole, being
tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily
yielded against command and duty, as well as
interest and felicity ; and so fell below it, lost
the divine image, the wisdom, power and purity
he was made in. By which, being no longer
fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of
God, his proper dwelling and residence, and
was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the
presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth,
the habitation of beasts.
Yet God who made him had pity on him ;
for He, seeing man was deceived, and that it
was not of malice, or an original presumption
in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent,
(that had first fallen from his own state,) and by
the mediation of the woman, man's own nature
and companion, (whom the serpent had first
deluded,) in his infinite goodness and wisdom
provided a way to repair the breach, recover
the loss, and restore fallen man again by a
nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to
be born of a woman ; that as, by means of a
woman the evil one had prevailed upon man,
by a woman also He should come into the
world, who would prevail against him and
bruise his head, and deliver man from his power :
and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensa
tion of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness
of time, was personally and fully accomplished

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 7
by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and
Redeemer. But his power was not limited, in the mani
festation of it, to that time ; for both before and
since his blessed manifestation in the flesh, He
has been the light and life, the rock and strength
of all that ever feared God ; was present with
them in their temptations, followed them in their
travels and afflictions, and supported and carried
them through and over the difficulties that have
attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By
this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, Seth obtain
ed the pre-eminence, and Enoch walked with
God. It was this that strove with the old world,
and which they rebelled against, and which
sanctified and instructed Noah to salvation.
But the outward dispensation that followed
the benighted state of man after his fall, especi
ally among the patriarchs, was generally that of
angels, as the Scriptures of the Old Testament
do in many places express, as to Abraham,
Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by
Moses, which was also delivered by angels, as
the apostle tells us. This dispensation was
much outward, and suited to a low and servile
state ; called therefore that of a schoolmaster,
to point out and prepare that people to look and
long for the Messiah, who would deliver them
from the servitude of a ceremonious and im
perfect dispensation, by knowing the realities of
those mysterious representations in themselves.

8 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
In this time the law was written on stone, the
temple built with hands, attended with an out
ward priesthood and external rights and cere
monies, that were shadows of the good things
that were to come, and were only to serve till
the Seed came, or the more excellent and gene
ral manifestation of Christ, to whom was the
promise, and to all men only in Him, in whom
it was Yea and Amen, even life from death,
immortality and eternal life.
This the prophets foresaw, and comforted
the believing Jews in the certainty of it ; which
was the top of the Mosaical dispensation, which
ended in John's ministry, the forerunner of the
Messiah, as John's was finished in Him, the
fulness of all. And God, who at sundry times,
and in divers manners, had spoken to the
fathers by his servants the prophets, spoke
then by his Son Christ Jesus, who is heir of all
things ; being the gospel-day, which is the dis
pensation of sonship ; bringing in thereby a
nearer testament, and a better hope ; even the
beginning of the glory of the latter days, and
of the restitution of all things ; yea, the restora
tion of the kingdom unto Israel.
Now the Spirit, that was more sparingly
communicated in former dispensations, began
to be poured forth upon all flesh, according to
the prophet Joel ; and the light that shined in
darkness, or but dimly before, the most graci-

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9
ous God caused to shine out of darkness ; and
the day-star began to arise in the hearts of
believers, giving unto them the knowledge of
God in the face (or appearance) of his Son
Christ Jesus.
Now the poor in spirit, the meek, the true
mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righ
teousness, the peace-makers, the pure in heart,
the merciful and the persecuted, came more espe-
ciallyin remembrance before the Lord, and were
sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shep
herd. Old Jerusalem with her children grew
out of date, and the new Jerusalem into request,
the mother of the sons of the gospel-day.
Wherefore no more at old Jerusalem, nor at
the mountain of Samaria, will God be wor
shipped above other places ; for, behold, he is
declared and preached a Spirit, and He will be
known as such, and worshipped in the Spirit
and in the Truth. He will come nearer than
of old time, and He will write his law in the
heart, and put his fear and Spirit in the inward
parts, according to his promise. Then signs,
types and shadows flew away, the day having
discovered their insufficiency in not reaching
to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of the
conscience ; and all elementary services were
expired in and by Him who is the substance of
all. And to this great and blessed end of the dis-

10 RISE AND PROGEESS OF
pensation of the Son of God, did the apostles
testify, whom he had chosen and anointed by
his Spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice
and superstition, and the Gentiles from their
vanity and idolatry, to Christ's Light and Spirit
that shined in them ; that they might be quick
ened from the sins and trespasses in which they
were dead, to serve the living God, in the new
ness of the Spirit of life, and walk as children
of the light, and of the da.f, even the day of
holiness : For such " put on Christ," the light of
the world, " and make no more provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." So that the
Light, Spirit and Grace, that comes by Christ,
and appears in man, was what the apos
tles ministered from, and turned people's
minds unto, and in which they gathered and
built up the churches of Christ in their day.
For which cause they advise them not to quench
the Spirit, but wait for the Spirit, and speak
by the Spirit, and pray by the Spirit, and walk
in the Spirit too, as that which approved them
the truly begotten children of God, born not of
flesh and blood, or of the will of man, but of
the will of God, by doing his will and denying
their own, by drinking of Christ's cup, and
being baptized with his baptism of self-denial ;
the way and path that all the heirs of life have
trod to blessedness. But alas ! even in the
apostles' days, — those bright stars of the first

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 11
magnitude ofthe gospel light — some clouds, fore
telling an eclipse of this primitive glory, began
to appear; and several of them gave early cau
tion of it to the Christians of their time, that
even then there was, and yet would be more
and more, a failing away from the power of
godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dis
pensation, by such as sought to make a fair
show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of
the cross ceased : yet with this comfortable
conclusion, that they saw, beyond it, a more
glorious time than ever to the true church.
Their sight was true, and what they foretold
to the churches, gathered by them in the name
and power of Jesus, came so to pass : For Chris
tians degenerated apace into outsides, as days,
and meats, and divers other ceremonies. And,
which was worse, they fell into strife and con
tention about them, separating one from ano
ther, then envying, and, as they had power, per
secuting one another, to the shame and scandal
of their common Christianity, and grievous stum
bling and offence of the heathen, among whom
the Lord had so long and so marvellously pre
served them. And having got at last the
worldly power into their hands, by kings and
emperors embracing the Christian profession,
they changed, what they could, the kingdom of
Christ, which is not of this world, into a
worldly kingdom ; or at least styled the worldly

12 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
kingdom, that was in their hands, the kingdom
of Christ, and so they became worldly, and not
true Christians. Then human inventions and
novelties, both in doctrine and worship, crowd
ed fast into the church ; a door being opened
thereunto, by the grossness and carnality that
appeared then among the generality of Chris
tians, who had long since left the guidance of
God's meek and heavenly Spirit, and given
themselves up to superstition, will-worship, and
voluntary humility ; (and as superstition is blind,
so it is heady and furious ; for all must stoop to
its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it ;) in
the name of the Spirit, persecuting the very ap
pearance of the Spirit of God in others, and
opposing that in them which they resisted in
themselves, viz. The Light, Grace and Spirit of
the Lord Jesus Christ; but always under the
notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some
such plausible name. Though Christianity al
lows of no name or pretence whatever for per
secuting any man for matters of mere religion ;
religion being in its very nature meek, gentle and
forbearing, and consisting of faith, hope and cha
rity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he re
mains a persecutor ; in that a man cannot be
lieve well or hope well, or have a charitable or
tender regard to another, whilst he would vio
late his mind, or persecute his body, for mat
ters of faith or worship towards his God.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 13
Thus the false church sprang up, and
mounted the chair. But though she lost her
nature, she would keep her good name of the
Lamb's bride, the true church and mother of
the faithful; constraining all to receive her
mark, either in their forehead or right hand ;
that is, publicly or privately. But in deed and
in truth she was mystery Babylon, the mother
of harlots, mother of those that, with all their
show and outside of religion, were adulterated
and gone from the Spirit, nature and life of
Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious,
covetous, cruel, &c. which are the fruits of the
flesh, and not of the Spirit.
Now it was, that the true church fled into
the wilderness, that is, from superstition and
violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state ;
hidden, and as it were, out of sight of men,
though not out of the world : which shows
that her wonted visibility was not essential to
the being of a true church in the judgment of
the Holy Ghost ,• she being as true a church in
the wilderness, though not as visible and lus
trous, as when she was in her former splendour
of profession. In this state many attempts she
made to return ; but the waters were yet too
high, and her way blocked up, and many of her
excellent children, in several nations and cen
turies, fell by the cruelty of superstition, be-
2

14 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
cause they would not fall from their faithfulness
to the truth.
The last age did set some steps towards it,
both as to doctrine, worship, and practice. But
practice quickly failed ; for wickedness flowed
in a little time, as well among the professors of
the Reformation, as those they reformed from ;
so that by the fruits of conversation they were
not to be distinguished. And the children of
the reformers, if not the reformers themselves,
betook themselves very early to earthly policy
and power, to uphold and carry on their refor
mation that had been begun with spiritual wea
pons; which, I have often thought, has been
one of the greatest reasons the Reformation
made no better progress, as to the life and soul
of religion. For whilst the reformers were
lowly and spiritually minded, and trusted in
God, and looked to him, and lived in his fear,
and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor
sought deliverance in their own way, there were
daily added to the church such, as one might
reasonably say, should be saved ; for they were
not so careful to be safe from persecution, as
to be faithful and inoffensive under it ; being
more concerned to spread the truth by their
faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the
worldly power out of their hands that inflicted
their sufferings upon them ; and it will be well

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 15
if the Lord suffer them not to fall, by the very
same way they took to stand.
In doctrine they were in some things short ;
in other things, to avoid one extreme, they
ran into another ; and for worship, there was,
for the generality, more of man than God.
They owned the Spirit, Inspiration and Revela
tion, indeed, and grounded their separation and
reformation upon the sense and understanding
they received from it, in the reading of the
Scriptures of truth. And this was their plea, the
Scripture was the text, the Spirit the interpre
ter, and that to every one for himself. But yet
there was too much of human invention, tradi
tion and art, that remained both in praying and
preaching ; and of worldly authority and
worldly greatness in their ministers ; especially
in this kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some
parts of Germany. God was therefore pleased
among us, to shift from vessel to vessel ; and
the next remove humbled the ministry, so
that they were more strict in preaching, devout
in praying, and zealous for keeping the Lord's
day, and catechising children and servants,
and repeating at home in their families, what
they had heard in public.
But even as these grew into power, they were
not only for whipping some out, but others into
the temple ; and they appeared rigid in their spi
rits, rather than severe in their lives, and more

16 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
for a party than for piety, which brought forth
another people, that were yet more retired and
select. These would not communicate at large,
or in common with others ; but formed churches
among themselves of such as could give some
account of their conversion, at least of very
promising experiences of the work of God's
grace upon their hearts ; and under mutual
agreements and covenants of fellowship, they
kept together. These people were somewhat
of a softer temper, and seemed to recommend
religion by the charms of its love, mercy and
goodness, rather than by the terrors of its judg
ments and punishments ; by which the former
party would have terrified people into religion.
They also allowed greater liberty to pro
phecy than those before them ; for they admit
ted any member to speak or pray, as well as
their pastor, (whom they always chose, and not
the civil magistrate,) if such found any thing
pressing upon them to either duty, even without
the distinction of clergy or laity — persons
of any trade, be it never so low and me
chanical. But alas ! even these people suffer
ed great loss : for tasting of worldly empire,
and the favour of princes, and the gain that
ensued, they degenerated but too much. For,
though they had cried down national churches
and ministry, and maintenance too, some of
them, when it was their own turn to be tried,

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 17
fell under the weight of worldly honour and
advantage, got into profitable parsonages too
much, and outlived and contradicted their own
principles : and, which was yet worse, turned,
some of them, absolute persecutors of other
men for God's sake, who but so lately came
themselves out of the furnace ; which drove
many a step farther, and that was into the wa
ter — another baptism — as believing they were
not scripturally baptized ; and hoping to find
that presence and power of God, in submitting
to this ordinance, which they desired and
wanted. These people made also profession of neglec
ting, if not renouncing and censuring, not only
the necessity, but use of all human learning, as
to the ministry, and all other qualifications to
it, besides the helps and gifts of the Spirit of
God, and those natural and common to men ;
and for a time they seemed, like John of old, a
burning and a shining light to other societies.
They were very diligent, plain and serious ;
strong in Scripture and bold in profession;
bearing much reproach and contradiction.
But that which others fell by, proved their
hurt. For worldly power spoiled them too ;
who had enough of it to try them what they
would do if they had more ; and they rested
also too much upon their watery dispensation,
instead of passing on more fully to the fire
2*

18 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
and Holy Ghost, which was His baptism,
who came with a fan in his hand, that he might
thoroughly (and not in part only) purge his
floor, and take away the dross and the tin of
his people, and make a man finer than gold.
Withal they grew high, rough and self-right
eous, opposing further attainment; too much
forgetting the day of their infancy and little
ness, which gave them something of a real
beauty ; insomuch that many left them, and all
visible churches and societies, and wandered
up and down, as sheep without a shepherd, and
as doves without their mates; seeking their
beloved, but could not find Him (as their souls
desired to know him) whom their souls loved
above their chiefest joy.
These people were called Seekers by some,
and the Family of Love by others ; because,
as they came to the knowledge of one another,
they sometimes met together, not formally to
pray or preach at appointed times or places, in
their own wills, as in times past they were
accustomed to do, but waited together in
silence ; and as any thing rose in any one of
their minds that they thought savoured of a
divine spring, so they sometimes spoke. But so it
was, that some of them not keeping in humility,
and in the fear of God, after the abundance of
revelation, were exalted above measure ; and
for want of staying their minds in an humble

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 19
dependence upon Him that opened their under
standings to see great things in his law, they
ran out in their own imaginations, and mixing
them with those divine openings, brought forth
a monstrous birth, to the scandal of those that
feared God and waited daily in the temple not
made with hands, for the consolation of Israel,
the Jew inward, and circumcision in Spirit.
This people obtained the. name of Ranters,
from their extravagant discourses and prac
tices. For they interpreted Christ's fulfilling of
the law for us, to be a discharging of us from
any obligation and duty the law required, instead
of the condemnation of the law for sins past,
upon faith and repentance; and that now it
was no sin to do that which before it was
a sin to commit ; the slavish fear of the law
being taken off by Christ, and all things good
that man did, if he did but do them with the
mind and persuasion that it was so. Insomuch
that divers fell into gross and enormous prac
tices ; pretending in excuse thereof, that they
could, without evil, commit the same act which
was sin in another to do ; thereby distinguish
ing between the action and the evil of it, by
the direction of the mind and intention in the
doing of it ; which was to make sin super-
abound by the aboundings of grace, and to turn
from the grace of God into wantonness — a

20 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
securer way of sinning than before : as if Christ
came not to take away sin, but that we might
sin more freely at his cost, and with less danger
to ourselves. I say, this ensnared divers, and
brought them to an utter and lamentable loss
as to their eternal state ; and they grew very
troublesome to the better sort of people, and
furnished the looser with an occasion to pro
fane. It was about that time, that the eternal, wise
and good God was pleased, in his infinite love,
to honour and visit this benighted and bewilder
ed nation with his glorious day-spring from on
high ; yea, with a most sure and certain sound
of the word of light and life, through the testi
mony of a chosen vessel, to an effectual and
blessed purpose, can many thousands say ;
glory be to the name ofthe Lord forever!
For as it reached the conscience and broke
the heart, and brought many to a sense and
search, so that which people had been vainly
seeking without, with much pains and cost,
they, by this ministry, found within, where it
was they wanted what they sought for, viz.
the right way to peace with God. For they
were directed to the light of Jesus Christ within
them, as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of
God ; near all, because in all, and God's talent
to all — a faithful and true witness, and just

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 21
monitor in every bosom — the gift and grace of
God, to life and salvation, that appears to all,
though few regard it. This the traditional
Christian, conceited of himself, and strong in his
own will and righteousness, and overcome with
blind zeal and passion, either despised as a low
and common thing, or opposed as a novelty,
under many hard names, and opprobrious terms ;
denying, in his ignorant and angry mind, any
fresh manifestations of God's power and Spirit
in man in these days, though never more needed
to make true Christians. Not unlike those Jews
of old, who rejected the Son of God, at the very
same time that they blindly professed to wait
for the Messiah to come ; because, alas ! he
appeared not among them according to their
carnal mind and expectation.
This brought forth many abusive books,
which filled the greater sort with envy, and
lesser with rage ; and made the way and pro
gress of this blessed testimony strait and narrow
indeed to those that received it. However,
God owned his own work, and this testimony
did effectually reach, gather, comfort and esta
blish the weary and heavy laden, the hungry
and thirsty, the poor and needy, the mournful
and sick of many maladies, that had spent all
upon physicians of no value, and waited for
relief from heaven, help only from above : see
ing, upon a serious trial of all things, nothing

22 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
else would do but Christ himself, the light of
his countenance, a touch of his garment, and
help from his hand, who cured the poor wo
man's issue, raised the centurion's servant, the
widow's son, the ruler's daughter, and Peter's
mother. And like her, they no sooner felt his
power and efficacy upon their souls, but they
gave up to obey him in a testimony to his
power, and with resigned wills and faithful
hearts, through all mockings, contradictions,
beatings, prisons, and many other jeopardies
that attended them for his blessed name's
sake. And truly they were very many, and very
great; so that in all human probability they
must have been swallowed up quick of the
proud and boisterous waves that swelled and
beat against them ; but that the God of all their
tender mercies was with them in his glorious
authority, so that the hills often fled, and the
mountains melted before the power that filled
them ; working mightily for them, as well as
in them, one ever following the other. By
which they saw plainly, to their exceeding
great confirmation and comfort, that all things
were possible with him with whom they had to
do ; and that the more that which God required
seemed to cross man's wisdom, and expose
them to man's wrath, the more God appeared
to help and carry them through all to his glory ;

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 23
— insomuch, that if ever any people could say
in truth, " Thou art our sun and our shield, our
rock and sanctuary, and by thee we have leap
ed over a wall, and by thee we have run through
a troop, and by thee we have put the armies of
the aliens to flight," these people had a right to
say it. And as God had delivered their souls
from the wearisome burdens of sin and vanity,
and enriched their poverty of spirit, and satis
fied their great hunger and thirst after eternal
righteousness, and filled them with the good
things of his own house, and made them stew
ards of his manifold gifts ; so they went forth
to all quarters of these nations, to declare to the
inhabitants thereof what God had done for
them ; what they had found, and where and
how they had found it, viz. the way to peace
with God ; inviting them to come, and see, and
taste for themselves, the truth of what they
declared unto them.
And as their testimony was to the principle
of God in man, the precious pearl and leaven of
the kingdom, as the only blessed means appoint
ed of God to quicken, convince and sanctify
man, so they opened to them what it was in
itself, and what it was given to them for ; how
they might know it from their own spirit, and
that of the subtle appearance of the evil one ;
and what it would do for all those whose
minds are turned off from the vanity of the

24 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
world, and its lifeless ways and teachers, and
adhere to this blessed light in themselves, which
discovers and condemns sin in all its appear
ances, and shows Trow to overcome it, if minded
and obeyed in its holy manifestations and con
victions ; giving power to such to avoid and
resist those things that do not please God, and
to grow strong in love, faith and good works :
that so man, whom sin hath made as a wilder
ness overrun with briars and thorns, might
become as the garden of God, cultivated by his
divine power, and replenished with the most
virtuous and beautiful plants of God's own
right-hand planting, to his eternal praise.
But these experimental preachers of glad
tidings of God's truth and kingdom, could not
run when they list, or pray or preach when
they pleased, but as Christ their Redeemer
prepared and moved them by his own blessed
Spirit, for which they waited in their services
and meetings, and spoke as that gave them
utterance; and which was as those having
authority, and not like the dreaming, dry and
formal Pharisees. And so it plainly appeared
to the serious-minded, whose spiritual eye the
Lord Jesus had in any measure opened; so
that to one was given the word of exhortation,
to another the word of reproof, to another the
word of consolation, and all by the same Spirit

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 25
and in the good order thereof, to the convincing
and edifying of many.
And truly they waxed strong and bold
through faithfulness ; and by the power and
Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very fruitful ;
thousands, in a short time, being turned to the
Truth in the inward parts through their testi
mony in ministry and sufferings ; insomuch as
in most counties, and many of the considerable
towns of England, meetings were settled, and
daily there were added such as should be saved.
For they were diligent to plant and to water,
and the Lord blessed their labours with an
exceeding great increase, notwithstanding all
the opposition made to their blessed progress,
by false rumors, calumnies and bitter persecu
tions ; not only from the powers of the earth,
but from every one that listed to injure and
abuse them : so that they seemed indeed to be
as poor sheep appointed to the slaughter, and
as a people killed all the day long.
It were fitter for a volume than a preface,
but so much as to repeat the contents of their
cruel sufferings from professors as well as from
profane, and from magistrates as well as the
rabble : so that it may be said of this abused
and despised people, they went forth weeping
and sowed in tears, bearing testimony to the
precious Seed, the Seed of the kingdom, '-
which stands not in words, (the finest, the
3

26 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
highest that man's wit can use,) but in power —
the power of Christ Jesus, to whom God the
Father hath given all power in heaven and in
earth, that He might rule angels above, and men
below; who empowered them, as their work
witnesseth, by the many that were turned
through their ministry from darkness to the
light, and out of the broad into the narrow way
of life and peace, bringing people to a weighty,
serious and godlike conversation ; the practice
of that doctrine which they taught.
And, as without this secret divine power
there is no quickening and regenerating of dead
souls, so the want of this generating and beget
ting power and life, is the cause of the little
fruit that the many ministries, that have been
and are in the world, bring forth. Oh ! that both
ministers and people were sensible of this. My
soul is often troubled for them, and sorrow and
mourning compass me about for their sakes.
Oh ! that they were wise. Oh ! that they would
consider, and lay to heart the things that truly
and substantially make for their lasting peace.
Two things are to be considered ; the doc
trine they taught, and the example they led
among all people. I have already touched
upon their fundamental principle, which is as
the corner-stone of their fabric ; and indeed, to
speak eminently and properly, their character
istic, or main distinguishing point or principle,

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 27
viz. The Light of Christ within, as God's gift
for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root
of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and
branched out from it, which I shall now men
tion in their natural and experimental order.
First, repentance from dead works to serve
the living God; which comprehends three
operations : first, a sight of sin ; secondly, a
sense and godly sorrow for it ; thirdly, an
amendment for the time to come. This was
the repentance they preached and pressed, and
a natural result from the principle they turned
all people unto. For of light came sight ; and
of sight came sense and sorrow ; and of sense
and sorrow came amendment of life : which
doctrine of repentance leads to justification,
that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past,
through Christ the alone propitiation ; and to the
sanctification or purgation of the soul, from the
defiling nature and habits of sin present, by the
Spirit of Christ in the soul ; which is justifica
tion in the complete sense of that word ; com
prehending both justification from the guilt of
the sins that are past (as if they had never been
committed) through the love and mercy of
God in Christ Jesus ; and the creature's being
made inwardly just, through the cleansing and
sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed
in the soul ; which is commonly called sancti
fication. But that none can come to know

28 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
Christ to be their sacrifice that reject Him as
their Sanctifier ; the end of His coming being
to save His people from the nature and defile
ment, as well as guilt of sin ; and that therefore
those that resist His Light and Spirit, make
His coming and offering of none effect to them.
From hence sprang a second doctrine they
were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of
the high calling to all true Christians, viz. per
fection from sin, according to the Scriptures of
Truth ; which testify it to be the end of Christ's
coming, and the nature of His kingdom, and
for which His Spirit was and is given, viz. to
be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect,
and holy, because God is holy. And this the
apostles laboured for, that the Christians should
be sanctified throughout in body, soul and
spirit ; but they never held a perfection in wis
dom and glory in this life, or from natural
infirmities, or death, as some have, with a weak
or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against
them. This they called a redeemed state, regenera
tion, or the new birth : teaching every where
according to their foundation, that without this
work were known, there was no inheriting the
kingdom of God.
Thirdly, this leads to an acknowledgment of
eternal rewards and punishments, as they have
good reason ; for else, of all people, certainly

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 29
they must be the most miserable, who, for above
forty years, have been exceeding great sufferers
for their profession, and in some cases treated
worse than the worst of men ; yea, as the
refuse and off-scouring of all things.
This was the purport of their doctrine and
ministry; which, for the most part, is what
other professors of Christianity pretend to hold
in words and forms, but not in the power of
godliness ; which, generally speaking, has been
long lost by men's departing from that Principle
and Seed of life that is in man, and which man
has not regarded, but lost the sense of; and in
and by which only he can be quickened in his
mind to serve the living God in newness of life.
For as the life of religion was lost, and the
generality lived and worshipped God after their
own wills, and not after the will of God, nor
the mind of Christ, which stood in the works
and fruits of the Holy Spirit ; so that which
they pressed, was not notion, but experience ;
not formality, but godliness ; as being sensible
in themselves, through the work of God's righ
teous judgments, that without holiness no man
shall ever see the Lord with comfort.
Besides these general doctrines, as the larger
branches, there sprang forth several particular
doctrines, that did exemplify and farther explain
the truth and efficacy of the general doctrine
3*

30 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
before observed, in their lives and examples :
as, I. Communion and loving one another. This
is a noted mark in the mouth of all sorts of
people concerning them : They will meet, they
will help and stick one to another. Whence it
is common to hear some say : Look how the
Quakers love and take care of one another.
Others, less moderate, will say : The Quakers
love none but themselves : and if loving one
another, and having an intimate communion in
religion, and constant care to meet to worship
God, and help one another, be any mark of
primitive Christianity, they had it, blessed be
the Lord, in an ample manner.
II. To love enemies. This they both taught
and practised. For they did not only refuse to
be revenged for injuries done them, and con
demned it as of an unchristian spirit, but they
did freely forgive, yea, help and relieve those
that had been cruel to them, when it was in
their power to have been even with them ; of
which many and singular instances might be
given ; endeavouring, through faith and pa
tience, to overcome all injustice and oppression,
and preaching this doctrine as Christian, for
others to follow.
III. Another was, The sufficiency of truth-
speaking, according to Christ's own form of
sound words, of yea, yea, and nay, nay, among

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 31
Christians, without swearing; both from Christ's
express prohibition to swear at all, Matt, v.,
and for that they being under the tie and bond
of truth in themselves, there was no necessity
for an oath ; and it would be a reproach to
their Christian veracity to assure their truth by
such an extraordinary way of speaking ; sim
ple and uncompounded answers, as yea, and
nay, (without asseverations, attestations, or su
pernatural vouchers,) being most suitable to
evangelical righteousness. But offering at the
same time to be punished to the full, for false-
speaking, as others for perjury, if ever guilty
of it. And hereby they exclude, with all true,
all false and profane swearing ; for which the
land did and doth mourn, and the great God
was, and is not a little offended with it.
IV. Not fighting, but suffering, is another
testimony peculiar to this people. They affirm
that Christianity teacheth people to beat their
swords into plough-shares, and their spears into
pruning hooks, and to learn war no more ; that
so the wolf may lie down with the lamb, and
the lion with the calf, and nothing that destroys
be entertained in the hearts of people ; ex
horting them to employ their zeal against sin,
and turn their anger against Satan, and no
longer war one against another ; because all
wars and fightings come of men's own hearts'
lusts, according to the apostle James, and not

32 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
of the meek Spirit of Christ Jesus, who is cap
tain of another warfare, which is carried
on with other weapons. Thus, as truth-speak
ing succeeded swearing, so faith and patience
succeeded fighting, in the doctrine and practice
of this people. Nor ought they for this to be
obnoxious to civil government, since if they
cannot fight for it, neither can they fight
against it ; which is no mean security to any
state. Nor is it reasonable that people should
be blamed for not doing more for others than
they can do for themselves. And, Christianity
set aside, if the costs and fruits of war were
well considered, peace, with all its inconveni
ences, is generally preferable. But though
they were not for fighting, they were for sub
mitting to government ; and that, not only for
fear, but for conscience-sake, where govern
ment doth not interfere with conscience ; be
lieving it to be an ordinance of God, and where
it is justly administered, a great benefit to man
kind. Though it has been their lot, through
blind zeal in some, and interest in others, to
have felt the strokes of it with greater weight
and rigour than any other persuasion in this
age; whilst they, of all others, religion set
aside, have given the civil magistrate the least
occasion of trouble in the discharge of his
office. V. Another part of the character of this

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 33
people, was, and is, they refuse to pay tithes or
maintenance to a national ministry ; and that
for two reasons : the one is, they believe all
compelled maintenance, even to gospel minis
ters, to be unlawful, because expressly contrary
to Christ's command, who said, " Freely you
have received, freely give :" at least, that the
maintenance of gospel ministers should be free,
and not forced. The other reason of their refu
sal is, because those ministers are not gospel
ones, in that the Holy Ghost is not their foun
dation, but human arts and parts. So that it
is not matter of humour or sullenness, but pure
conscience towards God, that they cannot help
to support national ministries where they dwell,
which are but too much and too visibly become
ways of worldly advantage and preferment.
VI. Not to respect persons, was, and is ano
ther of their doctrines and practices, for which
they were often buffeted and abused. They
affirmed it to be sinful to give flattering titles,
or to use vain gestures and compliments of
respect. Though to virtue and authority they
ever made a difference ; but after their plain
and homely manner, yet sincere and substantial
way ; well remembering the examples of Mor
decai and Elihu, but more especially the com
mand of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ,
who forbad his followers to call men Rabbi,
which implies lord or master ; also the fashion-

34 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
able greetings and salutations of those times ;
that so self-love and honour, to which the
proud mind of man is incident in his fallen
estate, might not be indulged, but rebuked.
And though this rendered their conversation
disagreeable, yet they that will remember what
Christ said to the Jews, " How can ye believe,
which receive honour one of another," will
abate of their resentment, if his doctrine has
any credit with them.
VII. They also used the plain language of
thee and thou to a single person, whatever was
his degree among men ; and indeed, the wis
dom of God was much seen, in bringing forth
this people in so plain an appearance ; for it
was a close and distinguishing test upon the
spirits of those they came among ; showing
their insides, and what predominated, notwith
standing their high and great profession of
religion. This, among the rest, sounded so
harsh to many of them, and they took it so ill,
that they would say, " Thou me, thou my
dog! If thou thou'st me, I'll thou thy teeth
down thy throat ;" forgetting the language they
use to God in their own prayers, and the com
mon style of the Scriptures, and that it is an
absolute and essentia] propriety of speech. And
what good, alas ! had their religion done them,
who were so sensibly touched with indignation
for the use of this plain, honest and true speech 1

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 35
VIII. They recommended silence by their
example, having very few words upon all occa
sions. They were at a word in dealing ; nor
could their customers, with many words, tempt
them from it, having more regard to truth than
custom, to example than gain. They sought
solitude; but when in company, they would
neither use, nor willingly hear unnecessary or
unlawful discourses; whereby they preserved
their minds pure and undisturbed from unprofit
able thoughts and diversions. Nor could they
humour the custom of Good night, Good mor
row, God speed ; for they knew the night was
good, and the day was good, without wishing
of either ; and that, in the other expression, the
holy name of God was too lightly and unthank-
fully used, and therefore taken in vain. Be
sides, they were words and wishes of course,
and are usually as little meant, as are love and
service in the custom of cap and knee ; and
superfluity in those, as well as in other things,
was burthensome to them ; and therefore they
did not only decline to use them, but found
themselves often pressed to reprove the prac
tice. , IX. For the same reason they forebore
drinking to people, or pledging of them, as the
manner of the world is ; a practice that is not
only unnecessary, but, they thought, evil in the
tendencies of it, being a provocation to drink

36 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
more than did people good, as well as that it
was in itself vain and heathenish.
X. Their way of marriage is peculiar to
them, and shows a distinguishing care above
other societies professing Christianity. They
say that marriage is an ordinance of God, and
that God only can rightly join man and woman
in marriage ; therefore they use neither priest
nor magistrate ; but the man and woman con
cerned, take each other as husband and wife,
in the presence of divers credible witnesses,
promising to each other, with God's assistance,
to be loving and faithful in that relation, till
death shall separate them. But antecedent to
to this, they first present themselves to the
Monthly Meeting for the affairs of the church,
where they reside ; there declaring their inten
tions to take one another as husband and wife,
if the said meeting have nothing material to
object against it. They are constantly asked
the necessary questions, as in case of parents
or guardians, if they have acquainted them
with their intention, and have their consent,
&c. The method of the meeting is, to take a
minute thereof, and to appoint proper persons
to inquire of their conversation and clearness
from all others, and whether they have dis
charged their duty to their parents or guardians;
and to make report thereof to the next Monthly
Meeting, where the same parties are desired to

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 37
give their attendance. In case it appears they
have proceeded orderly, the meeting passes
their proposal, and so records it in their meet
ing-book. And in case the woman be a widow,
and hath children, due care is there taken, that
provision also be made by her for the orphans,
before the meeting passes the proposals of marri
age ; advising the parties concerned, to appoint a
convenient time and place, and to give fitting
notice to their relations, and such friends and
neighbours, as they desire should be the witness
es of their marriage ; where they take one a nother
by the hand, and by name promise reciprocally
love and fidelity, after the manner before express
ed. Of all which proceedings, a narrative in way
of certificate is made, to which, the said parties
first set their hands, thereby making it their
act and deed ; and then divers relations,
spectators and auditors set their names as wit
nesses of what they said and signed. And this
certificate is afterwards registered in the record
belonging to the meeting where the marriage
is solemnized. Which regular method has been,
as it deserves, adjudged in courts of law a good
marriage ; where it has been by cross and ill
people disputed and contested, for want of the
accustomed formalities of priest and ring, &c. ;
ceremonies they have refused, notout of humour,
but conscience reasonably grounded ; inasmuch
as no Scripture example tells us, that the priest
4

38 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
had any other part, of old time, than that of a
witness among the rest, before whom the Jews
used to take one another. And therefore this
people look upon it as an imposition to advance
the power and profits of the clergy. And for
the use of the ring, it is enough to say, that it
was a heathenish and vain custom, and never
in practice among the people of God, Jews or
primitive Christians. The words of the usual
form, as, " With my body I thee worship," &c.
are hardly defensible. In short, they are more
careful, exact and regular, than any form now
used ; (and this mode is free of the inconveni
ences with which other methods are attended ;)
their care and checks being so many, and such,
as that no clandestine marriages can be per
formed among them.
XI. It may not be unfit to say something
here of their births and burials, which make up
so much of the pomp and solemnity of too
many called Christians. For births, the pa
rents name their own children ; which is usually
some days after they are born, in the presence
of the midwife, if she can be there, and those
that were at the birth ; who afterwards sign a
certificate for that purpose prepared, of the
birth and name of the child or children ; which
is recorded in a proper book, in the Monthly
Meeting to which the parents belong ; avoiding
the accustomed ceremonies and festivals.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 39
XII. Their burials are performed with the
same simplicity. If the body of the deceased
be near any public meeting-place, it is usually
earried thither, for the more convenient recep
tion of those that accompany it to the burying
ground; and it so falls out sometimes, that
while the meeting is gathering for the burial,
some or other has a word of exhortation,
for the sake of the people there met together;
after which the body is borne away by young
men, or else those that are of the neighbourhood,
or those that were most of the intimacy of the
deceased party; the corpse being in a plain
coffin, without any covering or furniture upon
it. At the ground, they pause some time before
they put the body into its grave, that if any there
should have any thing Upon them to exhort the
people, they may not be disappointed, and that
the relations may the more retiredly and so
lemnly take their last leave of the body of their
departed kindred, and the spectators have a
sense of mortality, by the occasion then given
them to reflect upon their own latter end.
Otherwise, they have no set rites or ceremonies
on those occasions. Neither do the kindred of
the deceased ever wear mourning ; they look
ing upon it as a worldly ceremony and piece
of pomp ; and that what mourning is fit for a
Christian to. have at the departure of a beloved
relation or friend, should be worn in the mind,

40 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
which only is sensible of the loss ; and the love
they had to them, and remembrance of them,
to be outwardly expressed by a respect to their
advice, and care of those they have left behind
them, and their love of that they loved. Which
conduct of theirs, though unmodish or unfash
ionable, leaves nothing of the substance of
things neglected or undone. And as they aim
at no more, so, that simplicity of life is what
they observe with great satisfaction, though it
sometimes happens not to be without the mock
eries of the vain world they live in.
These things to be sure gave them a rough and
disagreeable appearance with the generality,
who thought them turners of the world upside
down, as indeed, in some sense they were ; but in
no other than that wherein Paul was so charged,
viz. to bring things back into their primitive
and right order again. For these and such
like practices of theirs were not the result of
humour, or for civil distinction, as some have
fancied, but a fruit of inward sense, which God,
through his holy fear, had begotten in them.
They did not consider how to contradict the
world, or distinguish themselves as a party
from others ; it being none of their business, as it
was not their interest ; no, it was not the result
of consultation or a framed design by which to
declare or recommend schism or novelty. But
God having given them a sight of themselves,
they saw the whole world in the same glass of

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 41
truth, and sensibly discerned the affections and
passions of men, and the rise and tendency of
things ; what it was that gratified the " lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,
which are not of the Father, but of the world."
And from thence sprang, in the night of dark
ness and apostacy which hath been over people
through their degeneration from the Light and
Spirit of God, these and many other vain cus
toms ; which are seen by the heavenly day of
Christ, that dawns in the soul, to be, either
wrong in their original, or, by time and abuse,
hurtful in their practice. And though these
things seemed trivial to some, and rendered these
people stingy and conceited in such persons'
opinion, there was and is more in them, than
they were or are aware of.
It was not very easy to our primitive friends
to make themselves sights and spectacles, and
the scorn and derision of the world; which
they easily foresaw must be the consequence of
so unfashionable a conversation in it. But
here was the wisdom of God seen in the fool
ishness of these things; first, That they dis
covered the satisfaction and concern that people
had in and for the fashions of this world, not
withstanding their high pretences to another, in
that any disappointment about them came so very
near them, as that the greatest honesty, virtue,
wisdom and ability, were unwelcome without
4#

42 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
them. Secondly, It seasonably and profitably divi
ded conversation ; for this making their society
uneasy to their relations and acquaintance, it
gave them the opportunity of more retirement
and solitude ; wherein they met with better
company, even the Lord God their Redeemer,
and grew strong in his love, power and wisdom,
and were thereby better qualified for his service.
And the success abundantly showed it : blessed
be the name of the Lord.
And though they were not great and learned
in the esteem of this world, (for then they had
not wanted followers upon their own credit and
authority,) yet they were generally of the most
sober of the several persuasions they were in,
and of the most repute for religion ; and many
of them of good capacity, substance and account
among men.
And also some among them wanted not for
parts, learning or estate ; though then, as of old,
not many wise, or noble, &c. were called, or at
least received the heavenly call, because of the
cross that attended the profession of it in sin
cerity. But neither do parts nor learning make
men the better Christians, though the better
orators and disputants ; and it is the ignorance
of people about the divine gift, that causes
that vulgar and mischievous mistake. Theory
and practice, speculation and enjoyment, words
and life, are two things. Oh ! it is the penitent,

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 43
the reformed, the lowly, the watchful, the self-
denying and holy soul, that is the Christian.
And that frame is the fruit and work of the
Spirit, which is the life of Jesus ; whose life,
though hid in the fulness of it in God the Father,
is shed abroad in the hearts of them that truly
believe, according to their capacity. Oh ! that
people did but know this to cleanse them, to
circumcise them, to quicken them, and to make
them new creatures indeed ; re-created or re
generated after Christ Jesus unto good works ;
that they might live to God, and not to them
selves, and offer up living prayers and living
praises to the living God, through his own living
Spirit, in which only he is to be worshipped in
this gospel-day.
Oh ! that they that read me could but feel
me ; for my heart is affected with this merciful
visitation of the Father of lights and spirits to
this poor nation, and the whole world, through
the same testimony. Why should the inhabit
ants thereof reject it 1 Why should they lose
the blessed benefit of it 1 Why should they not
turn to the Lord with all their hearts, and say
from the heart, " Speak, Lord, for now thy poor
servants hear 1 Oh ! that thy will may be done,
thy great, thy good and holy will, in earth as it
is in heaven. Do it in us, do it upon us, do
what thou wilt with us ; for we are thine, and
desire to glorify thee our Creator, both for that,

44 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
and because thou art our Redeemer ; for thou
art redeeming us from the earth, from the vani
ties and pollutions of it, to be a peculiar people
unto thee." Oh ! this were a brave day for
England, if so she could say in truth. But
alas ! the case is otherwise : for which some of
thine inhabitants, O land of my nativity ! have
mourned over thee with bitter wailing and
lamentation. Their heads have been indeed as
waters, and their eyes as fountains of tears,
because of thy transgression and stiffnecked-
ness ; because thou wilt not hear, and fear, and
return to the rock,1 even thy rock, O England !
from whence thou art hewn. But be thou
warned, O land of great profession ! to receive
him into thy heart. Behold at that door it is,
he hath stood so long knocking; but thou
wilt yet have none of him. Oh ! be thou awa
kened, lest Jerusalem's judgments do swiftly
overtake thee, because of Jerusalem's sins that
abound in thee. For she abounded in formality,
but made void the weighty things of God's law,
as thou daily doest.
She withstood the Son of God in the flesh,
and thou resistest the Son of God in the Spirit.
He would have gathered her as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and she would
not ; so would He have gathered thee out of
thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to
inherit substance, to have known his power and

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 45
kingdom ; for which He often knocked within,
by his grace and Spirit, and without, by his
servants and witnesses. But on the contrary, as
Jerusalem of old persecuted the manifestation of
the Son of God in the flesh, and crucified him,
and whipped and imprisoned his servants ; so
hast thou, 0 land ! crucified to thyself afresh the
Lord of life and glory, and done despite to his
Spirit of grace ; slighting the Fatherly visita
tion, and persecuting the blessed dispensers of
it by thy laws and magistrates ; though they
have early and late pleaded with thee in the
power and Spirit of the Lord, in love and meek
ness, that thou mightest know the Lord, and
serve him, and become the glory of all lands.
But thou hast evilly entreated and requited
them. Thou hast set at nought all their counsel,
and wouldst have none of their reproof, as thou
shouldst have had. Their appearance was too
strait, and their qualifications were too mean
for thee to receive them ; like the Jews of old,
that cried, " Is not this the carpenter's son, and
are not his brethren among us ; which of the
scribes, of the learned (the orthodox) believe in
him 1" prophesying their fall in a year or two,
and making and executing severe laws to bring
it to pass; endeavouring to terrify them out
of their holy way, or destroy them for abiding
faithful to it. But thou hast seen how many
governments that rose against them, and deter-

46 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
mined their downfall, have been overturned and
extinguished, and that they are still preserved,
and become a great and a considerable people,
among the middle sort of thy numerous inhabi
tants. And notwithstanding the many difficul
ties without and within, which they have
laboured under, since the Lord God Eternal
first gathered them, they are an increasing
people; the Lord still adding unto them, in
divers parts, such as shall be saved, if they per
severe to the end. And to thee, O England !
were they, and are they lifted up as a standard,
and as a city set upon a hill, and to the nations
round about thee, that in their light thou mayest
come to see light, even in Christ Jesus, the light
of the world ; and therefore thy light, and life
too, if thou wouldst but turn from thy many
evil ways, and receive and obey it. For in the
Light of the Lamb must the nations of them
that are saved walk, as the Scripture testifies.
Remember, O nation of great profession !
how the Lord has waited upon thee since the
dawning of reformation, and the many mercies
and judgments by which he has pleaded with
thee ; and awake and arise out of thy deep sleep,
and yet hear his word in thy heart, that thou
mayst live.
Let not this thy day of visitation pass over
thy head, nor neglect thou so great salvation
as is this which is come to thy house, 0 Eng-

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 47
land ! for why shouldst thou die, 0 land that
God desires to bless 1 Be assured it is He that
has been in the midst of this people, in the
midst of thee ; and not a delusion, as thy mis
taken teachers have made thee believe. And
this thou shalt find by their marks and fruits,
if thou wilt consider them in the spirit of mod
eration. I. They were changed men themselves be
fore they went about to change others. Their
hearts were rent as well as their garments ;
and they knew the power and work of God
upon them. And this was seen by the
great alteration it made, and their stricter
course of life and more Godly conversation that
immediately followed upon it.
II. They went not forth, or preached in their
own time or will, but in the will of God ; and
spoke not their own studied matter, but as they
were opened and moved of his Spirit, with
which they were well acquainted in their own
conversion; which cannot be expressed to
carnal men, so as to give them any intelligible
account; for to such it is, as Christ said, like
the blowing ofthe wind, which no man knows,
whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. Yet this
proof and seal went along with their ministry,
that many were turned from their lifeless pro
fessions, and the evil of their ways, to an in-

48 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
ward' and experimental knowledge of God, and
an holy life, as thousands can witness. And as
they freely received what they had to say from
the Lord, so they freely administered it to
others. III. The bent and stress of their ministry
was conversion to God ; regeneration and holi
ness. Not schemes of doctrines and verbal
creeds, or new forms of worship ; but a leaving
off, in religion, the superfluous, and reducing
the ceremonious and formal part, and pressing
earnestly the substantial, the necessary and
profitable part to the soul ; as all, upon a serious
reflection, must and do acknowledge.
IV. They directed people to a principle in
themselves, though not of themselves, by which
all that they asserted, preached and exhorted
others to, might be wrought in them, and known
to them, through experience, to be true ; which
is an high and distinguishing mark of the truth
of their ministry, both that they knew what
they said, and were not afraid of coming to the
test. For as they were bold from certainty, so
they required conformity upon no human au
thority, but upon conviction, and the convic
tion of this principle, which they asserted was
in them that they preached unto ; and unto that
they directed them, that they might examine
and prove the reality of those things which
they had affirmed of it, as to its manifestation

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 49
and work in man. And this is more than the
many ministers in the world pretended to.
They declare of religion, say many things true,
in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit; of
holiness and heaven ; that all men should re
pent and amend their lives, or they will go to
hell, &c. But which of them all pretend to
speak of their own knowledge and experience ;
or ever directed to a divine principle, or agent,
placed of God in man, to help him ; and how
to know it, and wait to feel its power to work
that good and acceptable will of God in them ?
Some of them indeed have spoken of the
Spirit, and the operations of it to sanctification,
and performance of worship to God ; but where
and how to find it, and wait in it to perform
our duty to God, was yet as a mystery to be
declared by this farther degree of reformation.
So that this people did not only in words, more
than equally press repentance, conversion and
holiness, but did it knowingly and experimen
tally ; and directed those to whom they preach
ed, to a sufficient principle; and told them
where it was, and by what tokens they might
know it, and which way they might experience
the power and efficacy of it to their souls' hap
piness. Which is more than theory and specu
lation, upon which most other ministers depend :
for here is certainty ; a bottom upon which
5

50 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
man may boldly appear before God in the great
day of account.
V. They reached to the inward state and
condition of people, which is an evidence of
the virtue of their principle, and of their minis
tering from it, and not from their own imagi
nations, glosses, or comments upon Scripture.
For nothing reaches the heart, but what is
from the heart, or pierces the conscience, but
what comes from a living conscience. Inso
much that it hath often happened, where people
have, under secrecy, revealed their state or
condition to some choice friends for advice or
ease, they have been so particularly directed
in the ministry of this people, that they have
challenged their friends with discovering their
secrets, and telling their preachers their cases,
to whom a word had not been spoken. Yea,
the very thoughts and purposes of the hearts of
many have been so plainly detected, that they
have, like Nathaniel, cried out, of this inward
appearance of Christ : " Thou art the Son of
God, thou art the King of Israel." And those
that have embraced this divine principle have
found this mark of its truth and divinity, (as
the woman of Samaria did of Christ, when in
the flesh, that he was the Messiah,) viz. " It had
told them all that ever they had done ;" shown
them their insides, the most inward secrets of
their hearts, and laid judgment to the line, and

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 51
righteousness to the plummet ; of which thou
sands can, at this day, give in their witness.
So that nothing has been affirmed by this peo
ple, of the power and virtue of this heavenly
principle, that such as have turned to it have
not found true, and more; and that one half
had not been told them of what they have seen
of the power, purity, wisdom and goodness of
God therein.
VI. The accomplishments with which this
principle fitted, even some of the meanest of
this people, for their work and service ; fur
nishing some of them with an extraordinary
understanding in divine things, and an admira
ble fluency and taking way of expression,
which gave occasion to some to wonder, say
ing of them, as of their Master, " Is not this
such a mechanic's son, how came he by this
learning V As from thence others took occa
sion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuits
in disguise, (who had the reputation of learned
men for an age past,) though there was not the
least ground of truth for any such reflection ;
in that their ministers are known, the places of
their abode, their kindred and education.
VII. That they came forth low, and despised
and hated, as the primitive Christians did, and not
by the help of worldly wisdom or power, as
former reformations, in part, have done. But
in all things it may be said, this people were

52 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
brought forth in the cross ; in a contradiction
to the ways, worships, fashions and customs of
this world ; yea, against wind and tide, that so
no flesh might glory before God.
VIII. They could have no design to them
selves in this work, thus to expose themselves
to scorn and abuse ; to spend and be spent ;
leaving wife and children, house and land, and
all that can be accounted dear to men, with their
lives in their hands, being daily in jeopardy, to
declare this primitive message, revived in their
spirits, by the good Spirit and power of God,
viz. That God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all ; and that he has sent his Son a light into
the world, to enlighten all men in order to sal
vation ; and that they that say they have fel
lowship with God, and are his children and
people, and yet walk in darkness, (viz. in dis
obedience to the light in their consciences,) and
after the vanity of this world, they lie, and do
not the truth. But that all such as love the
light, and bring their deeds to it, and walk in
the light, as God is light, the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son, should cleanse them from all
sin. Thus John i. 4, 19. Chap. iii. 20, 21. 1
John, i. 5, 6, 7.
IX. Their known great constancy and pa
tience in suffering for their testimony, in all the
branches of it ; and that sometimes unto death,

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 53
by beatings, bruisings, long and crowded im
prisonments, and noisome dungeons ; four of
them in New England dying by the hands of
the executioner, purely for preaching amongst
that people ; besides banishments and excessive
plunders and sequestrations of their goods and
estates, almost in all parts, not easily to be ex
pressed, and less to have been endured, but by
those that have the support of a good and glo
rious cause ; refusing deliverance by any indi
rect ways or means, as often as it was offered
unto them.
X. That they did not only not show any
disposition to revenge, when it was at any time
in their power, but forgave their cruel ene
mies ; showing mercy to those that had none
for them.
XI. Their plainness with those in authority,
like the ancient prophets, not fearing to tell
them to their faces, of their private and public
sins ; and their prophecies to them of their
afflictions and downfall, when in the top of their
glory; also of some national judgments, as of
the plague, and fire of London, in express
terms ; and likewise particular ones to divers
persecutors, which accordingly overtook them,
that were very remarkable in the places where
they dwelt ; which in time may be made public
for the glory of God.
Thus, reader, thou seest this people in their
5*

54 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
rise, principles, ministry and progress, both
their general and particular testimony; by
which thou mayest be informed how, and upon
what foot they sprang and became so consider
able a people. It remains next that I show
also their care, conduct and discipline, as a
Christian and reformed society, that they might
be found living up to their own principles and
profession. And this, the rather, because they
have hardly suffered more in their character
from the unjust charge of error, than by the
false imputation of disorder; which calumny,
indeed, has not failed to follow all the true steps
that were ever made to reformation, and under
which reproach none suffered more than the
primitive Christians themselves, that were the
honour of Christianity, and the great lights and
examples of their own and succeeding ages.
This people increasing daily both in town
and country, an holy care fell upon some of
the elders among them, for the benefit and ser
vice of the church. And the first business in
their view, after the example of the primitive
saints, was the exercise of charity ; to supply
the necessities of the poor, and answer the like
occasions. Wherefore collections were early
and liberally made for that and divers other
services in the church, and intrusted with faith
ful men, fearing God, and of good report, who
were not weary in well-doing ; adding often of

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 55
their own, in large proportions, which they
never brought to account, or desired should be
known, much less restored to them, that none
might want, nor any service be retarded or dis
appointed. They were also very careful that every one
that belonged to them answered their profession
in their behaviour among men, upon all occa
sions ; that they lived peaceably, and were in
all things good examples. They found them
selves engaged to record their sufferings and
services ; and in case of marriage, which
they could not perform in the usual methods of
the nation, but among themselves, they took
care that all things were clear between the par
ties and all others. And it was then rare that
any one entertained an inclination to a person
on that account, till he or she had communicat
ed it secretly to some very weighty and emi
nent friends among them, that they might have
a sense of the matter ; looking to the counsel
and unity of their brethren as of great moment
to them. But because the charge of the poor,
the number of orphans, marriages, sufferings
and other matters multiplied, and that it was
good that the churches were in some way and
method of proceeding in such affairs among
them, to the end they might the better corres
pond upon occasion, where a member of one
meeting might have to do with one of another ;

56 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
it pleased the Lord in his wisdom and goodness,
to open the understanding of the first Instrument
of this dispensation of life, about a good and
orderly way of proceeding ; who felt an holy
concern to visit the churches in person through
out this nation, to begin and establish it among
them. And by his epistles, the like was done in
other nations and provinces abroad, which he
also afterwards visited, and helped in that ser
vice ; which shall be observed when I come to
speak of him.
Now the care, conduct and discipline, I have
been speaking bf, and which are now practised
among this people, is as followeth.
This godly elder, in every county where he
travelled, exhorted them, that some out of every
meeting for worship, should meet together once
in the month, to confer about the wants and
occasions of the church. And as the case
required, so those Monthly Meetings were fewer
or more in number in every respective county :
four or six meetings for worship, usually making
one monthly meeting for business. And accor
dingly the brethren met him from place to place,
and began the said meetings, viz. For the poor,
orphans, orderly walking, integrity to their pro
fession, births, marriages, burials, sufferings,
&c. And that these Monthly Meetings should,
in each county, make up one Quarterly Meeting,
where the most zealous and eminent friends of

THE SOCIETY OF FItlENDS. 57
the county should assemble to communicate,
advise and help one another, especially when
any business seemed difficult, or a Monthly
Meeting was tender of determining a matter.
Also that these several Quarterly Meetings
should digest the reports of their Monthly Meet
ings, and prepare one for each respective county
against the Yearly Meeting, in which all Quar
terly Meetings resol ve ; which is held in London ;
where the churches in this nation, and other na
tions and provinces, meet by chosen members
of their respective counties, both mutually to
communicate their church-affairs, and to advise,
and be advised, in any depending case, to edifi
cation : also to provide a requisite stock for
the discharge of general expenses for general
services in the church, not needful to be here
particularized. At these meetings any of the members of the
churches may come, if they please, and speak
their minds freely, in the fear of God, to any
matter; but the mind of each Quarterly Meeting,
therein represented, is chiefly understood, as to
particular cases, in the sense delivered by the
persons deputed, or chosen for that service by
the said meeting.
During their Yearly Meeting, to which their
other meetings refer in their order, and natu
rally resolve themselves, care is taken by a
select number for that service, chosen by the

58 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
general assembly, to draw up the minutes of the
said meeting, upon the several matters that have
been under consideration therein, to the end that
the respective Quarterly and Monthly Meetings
may be informed of all proceedings ; together
with a general exhortation to holiness, unity
and charity. Of all which proceedings in the
Yearly, Monthly and Quarterly meetings, due
record is kept by some one appointed for that
service, or that hath voluntarily undertaken it.
These meetings are opened, and usually con
cluded, in their solemn waiting upon God, who
is sometimes graciously pleased to answer them
with as signal evidences of his love and presence,
as in any of their meetings of worship.
It is further to be noted, that in these solemn
assemblies for the churches' service, there is no
one presides among them after the manner ofthe
assemblies of other people ; Christ only being
their President, as He is pleased to appear in life
and wisdom in any one or more of them ; to
whom, whatever be their capacity or degree,
the rest adhere with a firm unity, not of au
thority, but conviction, which is the divine
authority and way of Christ's power and Spirit
in his people : making good his blessed promise,
that he would be in the midst of his, where and
whenever they were met together in his name,
even to the end of the world. So be it.
Now it may be expected, I should here set

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 59
down what sort of authority is exercised by this
people, upon such members of their society as
correspond not in their lives with their profes
sion, and that are refractory to this good and
wholesome order settled among them ; and the
rather, because they have not wanted their
reproach and sufferings from some tongues and
pens, upon this occasion, in a plentiful manner.
The power they exercise, is such as Christ
has given to his own people, to the end of the
world, in the persons of his disciples, viz. to
oversee, exhort, reprove, and after long suffer
ing and waiting upon the disobedient and refrac
tory, to disown them, as any more of their
communion, or that they will any longer stand
charged in the sight and judgment of God or
men, with their conversation or behaviour, as
any of them, until they repent. The subject-
matter about which this authority, in any of the
foregoing branches of it, is exercised ; is first,
in relation to common and general practice ;
and secondly, about those things that more
strictly refer to their own character and profes
sion, and which distinguish them from all other
professors of Christianity ; avoiding two ex
tremes upon which many split, yiz. persecution
and libertinism ; that is, a coercive power, to
whip people into the temple ; that such as will
not conform, though against faith and con
science, shall be punished in their persons or

60 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
estates : or leaving all loose and at large, as to
practice, and so unaccountable to all but God and
the magistrate. To which hurtful extreme,
nothing has more contributed than the abuse of
church power, by such as suffer their passion
and private interests to prevail with them to
carry it to outward force and corporal punish
ment — a practice they have been taught to dis
like, by their extreme sufferings, as well as
their known principle for an universal liberty
of conscience.
On the other hand, they equally dislike an
independency in society; an unaccountableness,
in practice and conversation, to the rules and
terms of their own communion, and to those
that are the members of it. They distinguish
between imposing any practice that immediately
regards faith or worship, (which is never to be
done or suffered, or submitted unto) and requir
ing Christian compliance with those methods
that only respect church-business in its more
civil part and concern ; and that regard the
discreet and orderly maintenance of the cha
racter of the society as a sober and religious
community. In short, what is for the promo
tion of holiness and charity, that men may
practise what they profess, live up to their own
principles, and not be at liberty to give the
lie to their own profession without rebuke, is
their use and limit of church power. They.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 61
compel none to join them, but oblige those that
are of them to walk suitably, or they are denied
by them : that is all the mark they set upon them,
and the power they exercise, or judge a Chris
tian society can exercise, upon those that are
the members of it,
The way of their proceeding against such as
have lapsed or transgressed, is this : he is visited
by some of them, and the matter of fact laid home
to him, be it any evil practice against known
and general virtue, or any branch of their par
ticular testimony, which he, in common, pro
fesseth with them. They labour with him in
much love and zeal, for the good of his soul,
the honour of God, and reputation of their pro
fession, to own his fault and condemn it, in as
ample a manner as the evil or scandal was given
by him ; which for the most part is performed
by some written testimony under the party's
hand : and if it so happen, that the party prove
refractory, and is not willing to clear the truth
they profess, from the reproach of his or her evil
doing or unfaithfulness, they, after repeated
entreaties and due waiting for a token of repent
ance, give forth a paper to disown such a fact,
and the party offending ; recording the same as
a testimony of their care for the honour of the
truth they profess.
And if he or she shall clear their profession
and themselves, by sincere acknowledgment of
6

62 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
their fault, and godly sorrow for so doing, they
are received and looked upon again as members
of their communion. For as God, so his true
people, upbraid no man after repentance.
This is the account I had to give of the peo
ple of God called Quakers, as to their rise,
appearance, principles and practices in this age
Of the world, both with respect to their faith
and worship, discipline and conversation. And
I judge it very proper in this place, because it
is to preface the journal of the first blessed and
glorious instrument of this work, and for a tes
timony to him in his singular qualifications and
services, in which he abundantly excelled in this
day, and which are worthy to be set forth as an
example to all succeeding times, to the glory of
the Most High God, and for a just memorial to
that worthy and excellent man, His faithful ser
vant and apostle to this generation of the world.
I am now come to the third head or branch
of my subject, viz. The instrumental author.
For it is natural for some to say, Well, here is
the people and work, but where and who was
the man, the instrument — he that in this age
was sent to begin this work and people 1 I shall,
as God shall enable me, declare who and what
he was ; not only by report of others, but from
my own long and most inward converse, and
intimate knowledge of him ; for which my soul

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 63
blesseth God, as it hath often done : and I doubt
not, but by that time I have discharged myself
of this part of my subject, my serious readers
will believe I had good cause so to do.
The blessed instrument of and in this day of
God, and of whom I am now about to write,
was George Fox, distinguished from another of
that name, by that other's addition of younger
to his name, in all his writings ; not that he was
so in years, but that he was so in the Truth :
but he was also a worthy man, witness and ser
vant of God in his time.
But this George Fox was born in Leicester
shire, about the year 1624. He descended of
honest and sufficient parents, who endeavoured
to bring him up, as they did the rest of their
children, in the way and worship of the nation :
especially his mother, who was a woman accom
plished above most of her degree in the place
where she lived. But from a child he appeared
of another frame of mind than the rest of his
brethren ; being more religious, inward, still,
solid, and observing beyond his years, as the
answers he would give, and the questions he
would put, upon occasion, manifested, to the
astonishment of those that heard him, especi
ally in divine things.
His mother, taking notice of his singular tem
per, and the gravity, wisdom and piety, that
very early shined through him, refusing childish

64 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
and vain sports and company when very young,
was tender and indulgent over him, so that from
her he met with little difficulty. As to his employ
ment, he was brought up in country business,
and as he took most delight in sheep, so he was
very skilful in them ; an employment that very
well suited his mind in several respects, both
for its innocency and solitude ; and was a just
emblem of his after ministry and service.
I shall not break in upon his own account,
which is by much the best that can be given ;
and therefore desire, what I can, to avoid say
ing any thing of what is said already, as to the
particular passages of his coming forth : but, in
general, when he was somewhat above twenty,
he left his friends, and visited the most retired
and religious people in those parts. And some
there were in this nation, who waited for the
consolation of Israel, night and day, as Zacha-
rias, Anna, and good old Simeon did of old
time. To these he was sent, and these he sought
out in the neighbouring counties, and among
them he sojourned, till his more ample ministry
came upon him. At this time he taught, and
was an example of silence, endeavouring to
bring them from self-performances; testifying
of, and turning them to the light of Christ within
them, and encouraging them to wait in patience,
and to feel the power of it to stir in their hearts,
that their knowledge and worship of God might

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 65
stand in the power of an endless life, which
was to be found in the light, as it was obeyed
in the manifestation of it in man. For in the
Word was life, and that life is the light of men.
Life in the Word, light in men ; and life in men
too, as the light is obeyed : the children of the
light living by the life of the Word, by which
the Word begets them again to God, which is
the regeneration and new birth, without which i
there is no coming into the kingdom of God :
and to which whoever comes, is greater than
John ; that is, than John's dispensation, which
was not that ofthe kingdom, but the consumma
tion of the legal, and fore-running of the gospel-
times, the time of the kingdom. Accordingly
several meetings were gathered in those parts ;
and thus his time was employed for some
years. In 1652, he being in his usual retirement, his
mind exercised towards the Lord, upon a very
high mountain (in some of the hither parts of
Yorkshire, as I take it) he had a vision of the
great work of God in the earth, and of the way
that he was to go forth in a public ministry, to
begin it He saw people as thick as motes in
the sun, that should in time be brought home to
the Lord, that there might be but one Shepherd
and one sheepfold in all the earth. There his
eye was directed northward, beholding a great
people that should receive him and his message
6*

66 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
in those parts. Upon this mountain he was
moved of the Lord to sound out his great and
notable day, as if he had been in a great audi
tory ; and from thence went north, as the Lord
had shown him. And in every place where he
came, if not before he came to it, he had his
particular exercise and service shown to him,
so that the Lord was his Leader indeed. For
it was not in vain that he travelled ; God in
most places sealing his commission with the
convincement of some of all sorts, as well pub
licans as sober professors of religion. Some of
the first and most eminent of those that came
forth in a public ministry, and which are now
at rest, were Richard Farnsworth, James
Nayler, William Dewsberry, Thomas Aldam,
Francis Howgil, Edward Burroughs, John
Camm, John Audland, Richard Hubberthorn,
T. Taylor, T. Holmes, Alexander Parker, Wil
liam Simson, William Caton, John Stubbs,
Robert Withers, Thomas Low, Josiah Coale,
John Burnyeat, Robert Lodge, Thomas Salt-
house, and many more worthies, that cannot be
well here named ; together with divers yet living
of the first and great convincement, who, after
the knowledge of God's purging judgment in
themselves, and some time of waiting in silence
upon him, to feel and receive power from on
high to speak in his name, (which none else
rightly can, though they may use the same

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 67
words) they felt its divine motions, and were
frequently drawn forth, especially to visit the
public assemblies, to reprove, inform, and exhort
them ; sometimes in markets, fairs, streets, and
by the highway side ; calling people to repent
ance, and to turn to the Lord with their hearts
as well as their mouths ; directing them to the
light of Christ within them, to see, examine, and
consider their ways by, and to eschew the evil,
and do the good and acceptable will of God.
And they suffered great hardships for this their
love and good will ; being often stocked, stoned,
beaten, whipped and imprisoned, though honest
men, and of good report where they lived, that
had left wives, children, houses, and lands,
to visit them with a living call to repentance.
And though the priests generally set themselves
to oppose them, and write against them, and
insinuated most false and scandalous stories to
defame them, stirring up the magistrates to sup
press them, especially in those northern parts ;
yet God was pleased so to fill them with his
living power, and give them such an open door
of utterance in his service, that there was a
mighty convincement over those parts.
And through the tender and singular indul
gence of Judge Bradshaw, Judge Fell, and Co
lonel West, in the infancy of things, the priests
were never able to gain the point they laboured
for, which was to have proceeded to blood ; and,

08 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
if possible, Herod-like, by a cruel exercise of the
civil power, to have cut them off, and rooted
them out of the country : but especially Judge
Fell, who was not only a check to their rage in
the course of legal proceedings, but otherwise
upon occasion, and finally countenanced this
people. For his wife receiving the Truth with
the first, it had that influence upon his spirit,
being a just and wise man, and seeing in his
own wife and family a full confutation of all the
popular clamours against the way of truth, that
he covered them what he could, and freely
opened his doors, and gave up his house to his
wife and her friends ; not valuing the reproach
of ignorant or evil-minded people; which I here
mention to his or her honour, and which will
be, I believe, an honour and a blessing to such
of their name and family, as shall be found in
that tenderness, humility, love and zeal for the
Truth and people of the Lord.
That house was for some years, at first espe
cially, till the Truth had opened its way into the
southern parts of this island, an eminent recep
tacle of this people. Others, of good note and
substance in those northern countries, had also
opened their houses, together with their hearts,
to the many publishers, that, in a short time, the
Lord had raised to declare his salvation to the
people ; and where meetings of the Lord's mes
sengers were frequently held, to communicate

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 69
their services and exercises, and comfort and
edify one another in their blessed ministry.
But lest this may be thought a digression,
having touched upon this before, I return to this
excellent man ; and for his personal qualities,
both natural, moral and divine, as they appear
ed in his converse with the brethren, and in the
church of God, take as follows :
I. He was a man that God endued with a
clear and wonderful depth ; a discerner of
others' spirits, and very much a master of his
own. And though that side of his understand
ing which lay next to the world, and especially
the expression of it, might sound uncouth and
unfashionable to nice ears, his matter was nev
ertheless very profound ; and would not only
bear to be often considered, but the more it was
so, the more weighty and instructing it appear
ed. And as abruptly and brokenly as some
times his sentences would seem to fall from
him, about divine things, it is well known they
were often as texts to many fairer declarations.
And, indeed, it showed beyond all contradic
tion, that God sent him ; in that no art or parts
had any share in the matter or manner of his
ministry ; and that so many great, excellent, i
and necessary truths as he came forth to preach
to mankind, had therefore nothing of man's
wit or wisdom to recommend them. So that
as to man he was an original, being no man's

70 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
copy. And his ministry and writings show
they are from one that was not taught of man,
nor had learned what he said by study. Nor
were they notional or speculative, but sensible
and practical truths, tending to conversion and
regeneration, and the setting up of the kingdom
of God in the hearts of men. And the way of
it was his work. So that I have many times
been overcome in myself, and been made to
say, with my Lord and Master, upon the like
occasion, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent of this world,
and revealed them to babes." For many times
hath my soul bowed in an humble thankfulness
to the Lord, that he did not choose any of the
wise and learned of this world to be the first
messenger in our age, of his blessed truth to
men ; but that he took one that was not of high
degree, or elegant speech, or learned after the
way of this world, that his message and work,
he sent him to do, might come with less suspi
cion, or jealousy of human wisdom and interest,
and with more force and clearness upon the
consciences of those that sincerely sought the
way of truth in the love of it. I say, beholding
with the eye of my mind, which the God of
heaven had opened in me, the marks of God's
finger and hand visibly in this testimony, from
the clearness of the principle, the power and

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 71
efficacy of it, in the exemplary sobriety, plain
ness, zeal, steadiness, humility, gravity, punctu
ality, charity and circumspect care in the
government of church affairs, which shined in
his and their life and testimony that God em
ployed in this work, it greatly confirmed me
that it was of God, and engaged my soul in a
deep love, fear, reverence and thankfulness for
his love and mercy therein to mankind : in
which mind I remain, and shall, I hope, through
the Lord's strength, to the end of my days.
II. In his testimony or ministry, he much
laboured to open truth to the people's under
standings, and to bottom them upon the princi
ple and principal, Christ Jesus, the Light of the
world; that by bringing them to something
that was from God in themselves, they might
the better know and judge of him and them
selves. III. He had an extraordinary gift in opening
the Scriptures. He would go to the marrow
of things, and show the mind, harmony and
fulfilling of them with much plainness, and to
great comfort and edification.
IV. The mystery of the first and second
Adam, of the fall and restoration, of the law
and gospel, of shadows and substance, of the
servant's and son's state, and the fulfilling of
the Scriptures in Christ, and by Christ, the
true Light, in all that are his, through the obe-

72 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
dience of faith, were much ofthe substance and
drift of his testimonies. In all which he was
witnessed to be of God ; being sensibly felt to
speak that which he had received of Christ, and
was his own experience, in that which never
errs nor fails.
V. But above all, he excelled in prayer.
The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the
reverence and solemnity of his address and
behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his
words, have often struck even strangers with
admiration, as they used to reach others with
consolation. The most awful, living, reverent
frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his
in prayer. And truly it was a testimony he
knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other
men ; for they that know Him most, will see
most reason to approach him with reverence
and fear.
VI. He was of an innocent life, no busy
body, nor self-seeker ; neither touchy nor cri
tical. What fell from him was very inoffen
sive, if not very edifying. So meek, contented,
modest, easy, steady, tender, it was a pleasure
to be in his company. He exercised no autho
rity but over evil, and that every where, and
in all ; but with love, compassion, and long
suffering. A most merciful man, as ready to
forgive, as unapt to take or give an offence.
Thousands can truly say he was of an excel-

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 73
lent spirit and savouramong them ; and because
thereof, the most excellent spirits loved him
with an unfeigned and unfading love.
VII. He was an incessant labourer: for in
his younger time, before his many, great and
deep sufferings and travels had enfeebled his
body for itinerant services, he laboured much
in the word and doctrine, and discipline, in
England, Scotland and Ireland ; turning many
to God, and confirming those that were con
vinced of the truth, and settling good order, as
to church affairs, among them. And towards
the conclusion of his travelling services,
between the years 1671 and 1677, he
visited the churches of Christ in the planta
tions in America, and in the United Provinces,
and Germany, as his journal relates, to the
convincement and consolation of many. After
that time he chiefly resided in and about the
city of London. And besides his labour in the
ministry, which was frequent and serviceable,
he wrote much, both to them that are within,
and those that are without the communion-
But the care he took of the affairs of the church
in general was very great.
VIII. He was often where the records of the
business of the church are kept, and where the
letters from the many meetings of God's people
over all the world use to come. Which letters
he had read to him, and communicated them
7

74 RISE AND PHOGRESS OF
to the meeting that is weekly held for such
services ; and he would be sure to stir them
up to answer them, especially in suffering cases ;
showing great sympathy and compassion upon
all such occasions ; carefully looking into the
respective cases, and endeavouring speedy re
lief, according to the nature of them. So that
the churches, or any of the suffering members
thereof, were sure not to be forgotten or delayed
in their desires, if he were there.
IX. As he was unwearied, so he was un
daunted in his services for God and his people.
He was no more to be moved to fear than to
wrath. His behaviour at Derby, Litchfield,
Appleby, before Oliver Cromwell, at Launces-
ton, Scarborough, Worcester, and Westminster-
Hall, with many other places and exercises,
did abundantly evidence it, to his enemies as
well as his friends.
But as in the primitive times, some rose up
against the blessed apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ, even from among those that they had
turned to the hope of the gospel, and they
became their greatest trouble ; so this man of
God had his share of suffering from some that
were convinced by him, who, through preju
dice or mistake, ran against him, as one that
sought dominion over conscience, because he
pressed, by his presence or epistles, a ready and
zealous compliance with such good and whole-

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 75
some things as tended to an orderly conversa
tion about the affairs of the church, and in
their walking before men. That which contri
buted much to this ill work was in some, a
begrudging of this meek man the love and
esteem he had and deserved in the hearts ofthe
people ; and weakness in others, that were
taken with their groundless suggestions of im
position and blind obedience.
They would have had every man indepen
dent; that as he had the principle in himself, he
should stand or fall to that only, and nobody
else : not considering that the principle is one
in all ; and though the measure of light or
grace might differ, yet the nature of it was the
same ; and being so, they struck at the spiritual
unity, which a people, guided by the same prin
ciple, are naturally led into : so that what is an
evil to one, is so to all, and what is virtuous,
honest, and of good repute to one, is so to all,
from the sense and savour of the one universal
principle which is common to all, and which
the disaffected also profess to be the root of all
true Christian fellowship, and that spirit into
which the people of God drink, and come to be
spiritually-minded, and of one heart and one
soul. Some weakly mistook good order in the
government of church affairs for discipline in
worship, and that it was so pressed or recom-

76 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
mended by him and other brethren. And there
upon they were ready to reflect the same
things that dissenters had very reasonably ob
jected upon the national churches, that have
coercively pressed conformity to their respec
tive creeds and worships. Whereas these
things related wholly to conversation, and the
outward, (and as I may say,) civil part of the
church ; that men should walk up to the prin
ciples of their belief, and not be wanting in care
and charity. But though some have stumbled
and fallen, through mistakes, and an unreason
able obstinacy even to a prejudice ; yet blessed
be God, the generality have returned to their
first love, and seen the work of the enemy, that
loses no opportunity or advantage by which
he may check or hinder the work of God, and
disquiet the peace of his church, and chill the
love of his people to the truth, and one to ano
ther ; and there is hope of divers of the few
that yet are at a distance.
In all these occasions, though there was no
person the discontented struck so sharply at,
as this good man, he bore all their weakness
and prejudice, and returned not reflection for
reflection ; but forgave them their weak and
bitter speeches, praying for them, that they
might have a sense of their hurt, and see the
subtilty of the enemy to rend and divide, and
return into their first love that thought no ill.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 77
And truly I must say, that though God had
visibly clothed him with a divine preference
and authority, and indeed his very presence
expressed a religious majesty ; yet he never
abused it ; but held his place in the church of
God with great meekness, and a most engaging
humility and moderation. For upon all occa
sions, like his blessed Master, he was a servant
to all ; holding and exercising his eldership in
the invisible power that had gathered them,
with reverence to the head and care over the
body ; and was received, only in that spirit and
power of Christ, as the first and chief elder in
this age : who, as he was therefore worthy of
double honour, so for the same reason it was
given by the faithful of this day, because his
authority was inward and not outward, and
that he got it and kept it by the love of God,
and power of an endless life. I write my know
ledge, and not report, and my witness is true ;
having been with him for weeks and months
together on divers occasions, and those of the
nearest and most exercising nature ; and that
by night and by day, by sea and by land ; in
this and in foreign countries : and I can say, I
never saw him out of his place, or not a match
for every service or occasion.
For in all things he acquitted himself like a
man, yea, a strong man, a new and heavenly-
minded man, a divine and a naturalist, and all
7#

78 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
of God Almighty's making. I have been sur
prised at his questions and answers in natural
things ; that whilst he was ignorant of useless
and sophistical science, he had in him the
grounds of useful and commendable knowledge,
and cherished it every where : civil beyond all
forms of breeding, in his behaviour ; very tem
perate, eating little, and sleeping less, though
a bulky person.
Thus he lived and sojourned among us. And
as he lived, so he died ; feeling the, same eter
nal power that had raised and preserved him,
in his last moments. So full of assurance was
he, that he triumphed over death ; and so even
in his spirit to the last, as if death were hardly
worth notice, or a mention : recommending to
some of us with him, the dispatch and disper
sion of an epistle just before given forth by him
to the churches of Christ throughout the world,
and his own books ; but above all, friends, and
of all friends, those in Ireland and America ;
twice over saying, Mind poor friends in Ire
land and America.
And to some that came in and inquired how
he found himself, he answered, "Never heed, the
Lord's power is over all weakness and death ;
the seed reigns, blessed be the Lord :" which
was about four or five hours before his depar
ture out of this world. He was at the great
meeting near Lombard street, on the first day

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 79
of the week, and it was the third following,
about ten at night, when he left us.
In a good old age he went, after having lived
to see his children's children in the truth to
many generations. He had the comfort of a
short illness, and the blessing of a clear sense
to the last : and we may truly say, with a man
of God of old, that being dead, he yet speaketh;
and though now absent in body, he is present
in spirit : neither time nor place being able to
interrupt the communion of saints, or dissolve
the fellowship of the spirits of the just. His
works praise him, because they are to the
praise of Him that wrought by him ; for which
his memorial is and shall be blessed. I have
done, as to this part of my subject, when I
have left this short epitaph to his name: " Many
sons have done virtuously in this day ; but dear
George, thou excellest them all."
And now, friends, you that profess to walk
in the way that this blessed man was sent of
God to turn us into ; suffer, I beseech you, the
word of exhortation, as well fathers as children,
and elders as young men. The glory of this
day, and foundation of the hope that has not
made us ashamed since we were a people, you
know, is that blessed principle of light and life
of Christ which we profess, and direct all peo
ple to, as the great and divine instrument and

80 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
agent of man's conversion to God. It was by
this that we were first touched and effectually
enlightened, as to our inward state ; which put
us upon the consideration of our latter end ;
causing us to set the Lord before our eyes, and
to number our days, that we might apply our
hearts to wisdom. In that day we judged not
after the sight of the eye, or after the hearing
of the ear ; but according to the light and sense
this blessed principle gave us, so we judged and
acted in reference to things and persons, our
selves and others ; yea, towards God our Ma
ker. For being quickened by it in our inward
man, we could easily discern the difference of
things, and feel what was right, and what was
wrong, and what was fit, and what not, both
in reference to religious and civil concerns.
That being the ground of the fellowship of all
saints, it was in that our fellowship stood. In
this we desired to have a sense of one another,
acted towards one another, and all men, in
love, faithfulness and fear.
In feeling of the stirrings and motions of this
principle in our hearts, we drew near to the
Lord, and waited to be prepared by it, that we
might feel drawings and movings before we
approached the Lord in prayer, or opened our
mouths in ministry. And in our beginning and
ending with this, stood our comfort, service and
edification. And as we ran faster or fell short

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 81
in our services, we made burthens for ourselves
to bear; finding in ourselves a rebuke instead
of an acceptance ; and in lieu of well-done,
Who has required this at your hands 1 In that
day we were an exercised people, our very
countenances and deportment declared it.
Care for others was then much upon us, as
well as for ourselves ; especially of the young
convinced. Often had we the burthen of
the word of the Lord to our neighbours, rela
tions and acquaintance, and sometimes stran
gers also. We were in travail likewise for
one another's preservation ; not seeking, but
shunning occasions of any coldness or mis
understanding; treating one another as those
that believed and felt God present : which kept
our conversation innocent, serious and weighty ;
guarding ourselves against the cares and friend
ships of the world.
We held the Truth in the spirit of it, and not
in our own spirits, or after our own will and
affections : they were bowed and brought into
subjection, insomuch that it was visible to them
that knew us. We did not think ourselves at our
own disposal, to go where we list, or say or do
what we list or when we list. Our liberty stood
in the liberty of the Spirit of Truth ; and no
pleasure, no profit, no fear, no favour could
draw us from this retired, strict and watchful
frame. We were so far from seeking occasions

82 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
of company, that we avoided them what we
could ; pursuing our own business, with mode
ration, instead of meddling with other people's,
unnecessarily. Our words were few and savoury, our looks
composed and weighty, and our whole deport
ment very observable. True it is, that this
retired and strict sort of life from the liberty of
the conversation of the world, exposed us to the
censures of many, as humourists, conceited and
self-righteous persons, &c. But it was our pre
servation from many snares, to which others
were continually exposed, by the prevalency of
the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life, that wanted no occasions or temp
tations to excite them abroad in the converse of
the world.
I cannot forget the humility and chaste zeal
of that day. Oh ! how constant at meetings^
how retired in them, how firm to Truth's life,
as well as Truth's principles ! And how entire
and united in our communion, as indeed became
those that profess one Head, even Christ Jesus
the Lord.
This being the testimony and example the
man of God, before-mentioned, was sent to
declare and leave amongst us, and we having
embraced the same as the merciful visitation of
God to us, the word of exhortation at this time
is, That we continue to be found in the way of

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 83
this testimony, with all zeal and integrity, and
so much the more, by how much the day
draweth near.
And first, as to you, my beloved and much
honoured brethren in Christ, that are in the
exercise of the ministry : Oh ! feel life in your
ministry — let life be your commission, your
well-spring and treasury on all such occasions :
else, you well know, there can be no begetting
to God, since nothing can quicken or make
people alive to God, but the life of God ; and it
must be a ministry in and from life, that enlivens
any people to God. We have seen the fruit of
all other ministries, by the few that are turned
from the evil of their ways. It is not our parts,
or memory, or the repetition of former open
ings, in our own will and time, that will do
God's work. A dry doctrinal ministry, how
ever sound in words, can reach but the ear,
and is but a dream at the best : there is another
soundness, that is soundest of all, viz. Christ
the power of God. This is the key of David,
that opens and none shuts, and shuts and none
.can open : as the oil to the lamp, and the soul
to the body, so is that to the best of words :
which made Christ to say, " My words, they are
Spirit, and they are life ;" that is, they are from
life, and therefore they make you alive, that
receive them. If the disciples, that had lived
with Jesus, were to stay at Jerusalem till they

84 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
received it, much more must we wait to receive
before we minister, if we will turn people from
darkness to light, and from Satan's power to
God. I fervently bow my knees to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may
always be like-minded, that you may ever wait
reverently, for the coming and opening of the
Word of Life, and attend upon it in your min
istry and service, that you may serve God in
his Spirit. And be it little or be it much, it is
well ; for much is not too much, and the least
is enough, if from the motion of God's Spirit ;
and without it, verily, never so little is too much,
because to no profit.
For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately,
or through the ministry of his servants, that
teacheth his people to profit ; and to be sure, so
far as we take Him along with us in our ser
vices, so far we are profitable and no farther.
For if it be the Lord that must work all things in
us for our salvation, much more is it the Lord
that must work in us for the conversion of others.
If therefore it was once a cross to us to speak,
though the Lord required it at our hands, let it
never be so to be silent, when he does not.
It is one of the most dreadful sayings in the
book of God, that " He that adds to the words
of the prophecy of this book, God will add to
him the plagues written in this book." To keep

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 85
back the counsel of God is as terrible ; for " he
that takes away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out
the book of life." And truly, it has great cau
tion in it, to those that use the name of the Lord,
to be well assured the Lord speaks, that they
may not be found of the number of those that
add to the words of the testimony of prophecy,
which the Lord giveth them to bear ; nor yet to
mince or diminish the same, both being so very
offensive to God.
Wherefore, brethren, let us be careful neither
to out-go our Guide, nor yet loiter behind him ;
since he that makes haste, may miss his way,
and he that stays behind, lose his guide. For
even those that have received the word of the
Lord, had need wait for wisdom, that they
may see how to divide the word aright : which
plainly implieth, that it is possible for one that
hath received the word of the Lord, to miss in
in the dividing and application of it ; which must
come from an impatience of spirit, and a self-
working, which makes an unsound and danger
ous mixture, and will hardly beget a right-
minded living people to God.
I am earnest in this above all other consi
derations, as to public brethren ; well knowing
how much it concerns the present and future
state and preservation of the church of Christ
8

86 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
Jesus, that has been gathered and built up by a
living and powerful ministry, that the ministry-
be held, preserved and continued in the mani
festations, motions and supplies of the same life
and power, from time to time.
And wherever it is observed, that any do
minister more from gifts and parts, than life and
power, though they have an enlightened and
doctrinal understanding, let them in time be
advised and admonished for their preservation ;
because insensibly such will come to depend upon
a self-sufficiency ; to forsake Christ the living
fountain, and hew out unto themselves cisterns
that will hold no living waters : and by degrees,
such will come to draw others from waiting
upon the gift of God in themselves, and to feel
it in others, in order to their strength and
refreshment, to wait upon them, and to turn
from God to man again, and so make shipwreck
of the faith once delivered to the saints, and of
a good conscience towards God; which are
only kept by that divine gift of life, that begat
the one, and awakened and sanctified the other
in the beginning.
Nor is it enough, that we have known the
divine gift, and in it have reached to the spirits
in prison, and been the instruments of the con
vincing of others of the way of God, if we keep
not as low and poor in ourselves, and as depend-

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 87
ing upon the Lord, as ever : since no memory,
no repetitions of former openings, revelations
or enjoyments, will bring a soul to God, or
afford bread to the hungry, or water to the
thirsty, unless life go with what we say ; and
that must be waited for.
Oh ! that we may have no other fountain,
treasure or dependence ! That none may pre
sume at any rate to act of themselves for God,
because they have long acted from God ; that
we may not supply want of waiting with our
own wisdom, or think that we may take less
care and more liberty in speaking than formerly;
and that where we do not feel the Lord, by his
power, to open us and enlarge us, whatever be
the expectation of the people, or has been our
customary supply and character, we may not
exceed or fill up the time with our own.
I hope we shall ever remember, who it was
that said, " Of yourselves ye can do nothing."
Our sufficiency is in him. And if we are not to
speak our own words, or take thought what we
should say to men in our defence when exposed
for our testimony, surely we ought to speak
none of our own words, or take thought what
we shall say in our testimony and ministry, in
the name of our Lord, to the souls of the people ;
for then of all times, and of all other occasions,
should it be fulfilled in us, " for it is not you that

88 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
speak, but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh
in you."
And indeed, the ministry of the Spirit must
and does keep its analogy and agreement with
the birth of the Spirit ; that as no man can
inherit the kingdom of God, unless he be born of
the Spirit, so no ministry can beget a soul to
God, but that which is from the Spirit. For this,
as I said before, the disciples waited before they
went forth ; and in this, our elder brethren, and
messengers of God in our day, waited, visited,
and reached us. And having begun in the
Spirit, let none ever hope or seek to be made
perfect in the flesh. For what is the flesh to the
Spirit, or the chaff to the wheat ? And if we
keep in the Spirit, we shall keep in the unity of
it, which is the ground of the fellowship. For
by drinking into that one Spirit, we are made
one people to God, and by it we are continued
in the unity of the faith, and the bond of peace.
No envying, no bitterness, no strife, can have
place with us. We shall watch always for good,
and not for evil, one over another, and rejoice
exceedingly, and not begrudge at one another's
increase in the riches of the grace with which
God replenisheth his faithful servants.
And brethren, as to yoii is committed the dis
pensation of the oracles of God, which gives you
frequent opportunities, and great place with the

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 89
people among whom you travel, I beseech you
that you would not think it sufficient to declare
the Word of life in their assemblies, however
edifying and comfortable such opportunities
may be to you and them : but, as was the prac
tice of the man of God before mentioned, in
great measure, when among us, to inquire the
state of the several churches you visit ; who
among them are afflicted or sick, who are
tempted, and if any are unfaithful or obstinate ;
and endeavour to issue those things in the wis
dom and power of God, which will be a glori
ous crown upon your ministry. As that pre
pares your way in the hearts of the people, to
¦ receive you as men of God, so it gives you
credit with them to do them good by your
advice in other respects ; the afflicted will be
comforted by you, the tempted strengthened,
the sick refreshed, the unfaithful convicted and
restored, and such as are obstinate, softened
and fitted for reconciliation ; which is clinching
the nail, and applying and fastening the general
testimony, by this particular care of the several
branches of it, in reference to them more imme
diately concerned in it.
For though good and wise men, and elders
too, may reside in such places, who are of worth
and importance in the genera], and in other
places ; yet it does not always follow, that they
8*

90 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
may have the room they deserve in the hearts
of the people they live among ; or some parti
cular occasion may make it unfit for him or
them to use that authority. But you that
travel as God's messengers, if they receive you
in the greater, shall they refuse you in the less ?
And if they own the general testimony, can
they withstand the particular application of it,
in their own cases 1 Thus ye will show your
selves workmen indeed, and carry your
business before you, to the praise of His name,
that hath called you from darkness to light,
that you might turn others from Satan's power
unto God and his kingdom, which is within.
And Oh ! that there were more of such faithful ¦
labourers in the vineyard of the Lord ! Never
more need since the day of God.
Wherefore I cannot but cry and call aloud to
you, that have been long professors of the truth,
and know the truth in the convincing power
of it, and have had a sober conversation among
men, yet content yourselves only to know truth
for yourselves, to go to meetings, and exercise
an ordinary charity in the church and an honest
behaviour in the world, and limit yourselves
within these bounds ; feeling little or no concern
upon your spirits for the glory of the Lord in
the prosperity of his truth in the earth, more
than to be glad that others succeed in such

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 91
service. Arise ye in the name and power of
the Lord Jesus ! Behold how white the fields
are unto harvest, in this and other nations,
and how few able and faithful labourers there
are to work therein ! Your country-folks,
neighbours and kindred want to know the
Lord and his truth, and to walk in it. Does
nothing lie at your door upon their account 1
Search and see, and lose no time, I beseech
you, for the Lord is at hand.
I do not judge you ; there is one which judg
eth all men and his judgment is true. You
have mightily increased in your outward sub
stance. May you equally increase in your
inward riches, and do good with both, while
you have a day to do good. Your enemies
would once have taken what you had from you
for his name's sake, in whom you have believed ;
wherefore he has given you much of the world,
in the face of your enemies. But Oh ! let it be
your servant, and not your master ! Your
diversion rather than your business ! Let the
Lord be chiefly in your eye ; and ponder your
ways, and'see if God has nothing more for you
to do : and if you find yourselves short in your
account with him, then wait for his preparation,
and be ready to receive the word of command,
and be not weary of well-doing, when you
have put your hand to the plough ; and

92 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
assuredly you shall reap, if you faint not, the
fruit of your heavenly labour in God's ever
lasting kingdom.
And you young convinced ones, be you intreat-
ed and exhorted to a diligent and chaste waiting
upon God, in the way of his blessed manifesta
tion and appearance of himself to you. Look
not out, but within : let not another's liberty be
your snare : neither act by imitation, but sense
and feeling of God's power in yourselves : crush
not the tender buddings of it in your souls, nor
over-run, in your desires and warmness of
affections, the holy and gentle motions of it.
Remember it is a still voice that speaks to
us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in
the noises and hurries ofthe mind; but it. is
distinctly understood in a retired frame. Jesus
loved and chose solitudes; often going to
mountains, gardens, and sea-sides, to avoid
crowds and hurries, to show his disciples it was
good to be solitary, and sit loose to the world.
Two enemies lie near your states, imagination
and liberty ; but the plain, practical, living,
holy truth that has convinced you, will preserve
you, if you mind it in yourselves, and bring
all thoughts, inclinations and affections, to
the test of it, to see if they are wrought in
God, or of the enemy, or your ownselves.
So will a true taste, discerning and judgment

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 93
be preserved to you, of what you should do and
leave undone. And in your diligence and
faithfulness in this way you will come to
inherit substance ; and Christ, the eternal wis
dom, will fill your treasury. And when you
are converted, as well as convinced, then
confirm your brethren ; and be ready to every
good word and work, that the Lord shall call
you to ; that you may be to his praise, who has
chosen you to be partakers, with the saints in
light, of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, an
inheritance incorruptible in eternal habita
tions. And now, as for you, that are the children
of God's people, a great concern is upon my
spirit for your good : and often are my knees
bowed to the God of your fathers, for you, that
you may come to be partakers of the same
divine life and power, that have been the glory
of this day ; that a generation you may be to
God, an holy nation, and a peculiar people,
zealous of good works, when all our heads are
laid in the dust. O you young men and
women ! let it not suffice you, that you are the
children of the people of the Lord ; you must
also be born again, if you will inherit the king
dom of God. Your fathers are but such after
the flesh, and could but beget you into the like
ness of the first Adam ; but you must be begot-

94 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
ten into the likeness of the second Adam, by a
spiritual generation, or you will not, you can
not be of his children or offspring. And there
fore look carefully about you, O ye children of
the children of God ! Consider your standing,
and see what you are in relation to this divine
kindred, family and birth. Have you obeyed
the light, and received and walked in the Spirit,
which is the incorruptible seed of the Word and
kingdom of God, of which you must be born
again 1 God is no respecter of persons. The
father cannot save or answer for the child, or
the child for the father ; but in the sin thou sin-
nest thou shalt die ; and in the righteousness thou
dost, through Christ Jesus, thou shalt live ; for
it is the willing and obedient that shall eat the
good of the land. Be not deceived, God is not
mocked ; such as all nations and people sow,
such they shall reap at the hand of the just God.
And then your many and great privileges above
the children of other people, will add weight
in the scale against you, if you choose not the
way of the Lord. For you have had line upon
line, and precept upon precept, and not only
good doctrine, but good example ; and which is
more, you have been turned to, and acquainted
with, a principle in yourselves, which others
have been ignorant of. And you know you
may be as good as you please, without the

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 95
fear of frowns and blows, or being turned out of
doors and forsaken of father and mother for
God's sake and his holy religion, as has been
the case of some of your fathers, in the day they
first entered into this holy path. And if you, after
hearing and seeing the wonders that God has
wrought in the deliverance and preservation of
them, through a sea of troubles, and the mani
fold temporal, as well as spiritual blessings that
he has filled them with, in the sight of their
enemies, should neglect and turn your backs
upon so great and near a salvation, you would
not only be most ungrateful children to God
and them, but must expect that God will call
the children of those that knew him not, to take
the crown out of your hands, and that your lot
will be a dreadful judgment at the hand of the
Lord. But Oh ! that it may never be so with any
of you. The Lord forbid, saith my soul.
Wherefore, O ye young men and women !
look to the rock of your fathers. There is no
other God but him, no other light but his, no
other grace but his, nor spirit but his, to con
vince you, quicken and comfort you ; to lead,
guide and preserve you to God's everlasting
kingdom. So will you be possessors as well as
professors of the truth, embracing it, not only
by education, but judgment and conviction ;
from a sense begotten in your souls, through

96 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
the operation of the eternal Spirit and power of
God ; by which you may come to be the seed
of Abraham, through faith, and the circum
cision not made with hands ; and so heirs of
the promise made to the fathers, of an incorrup
tible crown : that, as I said before, a generation
you may be to God, holding up the profession
of the blessed truth in the life and power of it.
For formality in religion is nauseous to God
and good men ; and the more so, where any
form or appearance has been new and pecu
liar, and begun and practised upon a principle,
with an uncommon zeal and strictness. There
fore I say, for you to fall flat and formal, and
continue the profession, without that salt and
savour by which it is come to obtain a good
report among men, is not to answer God's love,
or your parents' care, or the mind of truth in
yourselves, or in those that are without: who,
though they will not obey the truth, have sight
and sense enough to see if they do that make a
profession of it. For where the divine virtue of
it is not felt in the soul, and waited for and lived
in, imperfections will quickly break out, and
show themselves, and detect the unfaithfulness
of such persons, and that their insides are not
seasoned with the nature of that holy principle
which they profess.
Wherefore, dear children, let me intreat you

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9T
to shut your eyes at the temptations and allure
ments of this low and perishing world, and not
suffer your affections to be captivated by those
lusts and vanities, that your fathers, for the
truth's sake, long since turned their backs
upon : but as you believe it to be the truth, re
ceive it into your hearts, that you may become
the children of God ; so that it may never be
said of you, as the Evangelist writes of the
Jews in his time, that Christ, the true Light,
" came to his own, but his own received him
not ; but to as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the children of God ;
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor ofthe will of man, but of God :"
a most close and comprehensive passage to
this occasion. You exactly and peculiarly
answer to those professing Jews, in that you
bear the name of God's people, by being the
children, and wearing of the form of God's peo
ple. And He, by his Light in you, may be very
well said to come to his own, and if you obey
it not, but turn your backs upon it, and walk
after the vanities of your minds, you will be of
those that "received him not ;" which I pray God
may never be your case and judgment ; but
that you may be thoroughly sensible of the
many and great obligations you lie under to
the Lord for his love, and to your parents for
9

08 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
their care; and with all your heart, and all
your soul, and all your strength, turn to the
Lord, to his gift and Spirit in you, and hear his
voice and obey it, that you may seal to the tes
timony of your fathers, by the truth and evi
dence of your own experience ; that your
children's children may bless you, and the Lord
for you, as those that delivered a faithful exam
ple, as well as record of the truth of God unto
them. So will the grey hairs of your dear
parents, yet alive, go down to the grave with
joy, to see you the posterity of truth, as well as
theirs, and that not only their nature but spirit
shall live in you when they are gone.
I shall conclude this account with a few
words to those that are not of our communion,
into whose hands this may come ; especially
those of our own nation.
Friends, as you are the sons and daughters
of Adam, and my brethren after the flesh, often
and earnest have been my desires and prayers
to God on your behalf, that you may come to
know your Creator to be your Redeemer and
Restorer to the holy image, that through sin
you have lost, by the power and Spirit of his
Son Jesus Christ, whom he hath given for the
light and life of the world. And Oh ! that you,
who are called Christians, would receive him

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 99
into your hearts ! For there it is you want
him, and at that door he stands knocking that
you might let him in, but you do not open to
him. You are full of other guests, so that a
manger is his lot among you now, as well as of
old. Yet you are full of profession, as were
the Jews when he came among them, who
knew him not, but rejected and evilly entreated
him. So that if you come not to the posses
sion and experience of what you profess, all
your formality in religion will stand you in no
stead in the day of God's judgment.
I beseech you, ponder with yourselves your
eternal condition, and see what title, what
ground and foundation you have for your Chris
tianity ; if more than a profession, and an his
torical belief of the Gospel. Have you known
the baptism of fire, and the Holy Ghost, and the
fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff in
your minds, and carnal lusts and affections ?
— that divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being
received, leavens the whole lump of man, sanc
tifying him throughout in body, soul and spirit?
If this be not the ground of your confidence,
you are in a miserable estate.
You will say, perhaps, " That though you
are sinners, and live in daily commission of sin,
and are not sanctified," as I have been speak
ing, "yet you have faith in Christ, who has

100 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
borne the curse for you, and in him you are
complete by faith, his righteousness being im
puted to you."
But, my Friends, let me entreat you not to
deceive yourselves in so important a point as
is that of your immortal souls. If you have
true faith in Christ, your faith will make you
clean ; it will sanctify you ; for the saints' faith
was their victory of old. By this they over
came sin within, and sinful men without. And
if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are man
ifest. Yea, thou art a new creature ; new
made, new fashioned, after God's will and
mould. Old things are done away, and behold,
all things are become new ; new love, desires,
will, affections and practices. It is not any
longer thou that livest, thou disobedient, carnal,
worldly one ; but it is Christ that liveth in thee ;
and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal
gain: because thou art assured that thy cor
ruptible shall put on incorruption, and thy mor
tal, immortality, and that thou hast a glorious
house, eternal in the heavens, that will never
wax old or pass away. All this follows being
in Christ, as heat follows fire, and light the
sun. Therefore have a care how you presume to
rely upon such a notion, as that you are in

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 101
Christ, whilst in your old fallen nature. For
what communion hath light with darkness, or
Christ with Belial? Hear what the beloved
disciple tells you : " If we say we have fellow
ship with God, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not the truth." That is, if we go on in a
sinful way, are captivated by our carnal affec
tions, and are not converted to God, we walk
in darkness, and cannot possibly, in that state,
have any fellowship with God. Christ clothes
them with his righteousness, that receive his
grace in their hearts, and deny themselves, and
take up his cross daily, and follow him. Christ's
righteousness makes men inwardly holy; of
holy minds, wills and practices. It is not
the less Christ's, because we have it ; for it is
ours, not by nature, but by faith and adoption.
It is the gift of God. But still, though not ours,
as of or from ourselves, (for in that sense it is
Christ's, for it is of and from him,) yet it is
ours, and must be ours in possession, efficacy
and enjoyment, to do us any good ; or Christ's
righteousness will profit us nothing. It was
after this manner that he was made, to the pri
mitive Christians, righteousness, sanctification,
justification and redemption ; and if ever you
will have the comfort, kernel and marrow of
the Christian religion, thus you must come to
learn and obtain it. 9*

102 RISE AND PROGRESS OF
Now, my friends, by what you have read,
you may perceive that God has visited a poor
people among you with this saving knowledge
and testimony : whom he has upheld and
increased to this day, notwithstanding the
fierce opposition they have met withal. Des
pise not the meanness of this appearance. It
was, and yet is (we know) a day of small
things, and of small account with too many ;
and many hard and ill names are given to it.
But it is of God, it came from him because it
leads to him. This we know, but we cannot
make another to know it, unless he will take
the same way to know it that we took. The
World talks of God, but what do they do?
They pray for power, but reject the principle
in which it is. If you would know God, and
worship and serve God as you should do, you
must come to the means he has ordained and
given for that purpose. Some seek it in books,
some in learned men ; but what they look for
is in themselves, though not of themselves;
but they overlook it. The voice is too
still, the seed too small, and the light shin-
eth in darkness. They are abroad, and so
cannot divide the spoil. But the woman that
lost her silver, found it at home, after she had
lighted her candle and swept her house. Do
you so too, and you shall find what Pilate

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 103
wanted to know, viz. Truth . truth in the
inward parts, so valuable in the sight of God.
The light of Christ within, who is the light
of the world, (and so a light to you, that tells
you the truth of your condition,) leads all, that
take heed unto it, out of darkness into God's
marvellous light. For light grows upon the
obedient : it is " sown for the righteous," and
their way is a shining light, that shines forth
more and more to the perfect day.
Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I
beseech you. Where is the poison, there is the
antidote : there you want Christ, and there
you must find him ; and blessed be God, there
you may find him. Seek and you shall find, I
testify for God. But then you must seek
aright, with your whole heart, as men that
seek for their lives, yea, for their eternal lives ;
diligently, humbly, patiently, as those that can
taste no pleasure, comfort or satisfaction, in any
thing else, unless you find him whom your
souls desire to know and love above all. Oh ! it
is a travail, a spiritual travail, let the carnal,
profane world, think and say as it will. And
through this path you must walk to the city of
God, that has eternal foundations, if ever you
will come there.
Well ! and what does this blessed light do
for you ? Why, first, it sets all your sins in

104 RfSE AND PROGRESS OF
order before you : it detects the spirit of this
world in all its baits and allurements, and shows
how man came to fall from God, and the
fallen estate he is in. Secondly, it begets a
sense and sorrow, in such as believe in it, for
this fearful lapse. You will then see Him dis
tinctly whom you have pierced, and all the
blows and wounds you have given him by
your disobedience, and how you have made
him to serve with your sins ; and you will weep
and mourn for it, and your sorrow will be a
godly sorrow. Thirdly, after this it will bring
you to the holy watch, to take care that you
do so no more, and that the enemy surprise
you not again. Then thoughts, as well as
words and works, will come to judgment ;
which is the way of holiness, in which the
redeemed ofthe Lord do walk. Here you will
come to love God above all, and your neigh
bours as yourselves. Nothing hurts, nothing
harms, nothing makes afraid on this holy moun
tain. Now you come to be Christ's indeed ;
for you are his in nature and spirit, and not
your own. And when you are thus Christ's,
then Christ is yours, and not before. And
here communion with the Father, and with the
Son you will know, and the efficacy of the
blood of cleansing, even the blood of Jesus
Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which speaks

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 105
better things than the blood of Abel ; and which
cleanseth from all sin the consciences of those
that through the living faith, come to be
sprinkled with it, from dead works, to serve
the living God.
To conclude, behold the testimony and doc
trine of the people called Quakers ! Behold
their practice and discipline ! And behold the
blessed man and men (at least many of them)
that were sent of God in this excellent work and
service! All which is more particularly
expressed in the Annals of that man of God,
which I do heartily recommend to my readers'
most serious perusal ; and beseech Almighty
God, that his blessing may go along with both,
to the convincement of many, as yet strangers
to this holy dispensation ; and also to the edifi
cation of God's church in general : who for
his manifold and repeated mercies and bless
ings to his people in this day of his great
love, is worthy ever to have the glory, honour,
thanksgiving and renown ; and be it rendered
and ascribed, with fear and reverence, through
him in whom he is well pleased, his beloved
Son and Lamb, our light and life, that sits with
him upon the throne, world without end.
Amen, Says one that God has long since mercifully
favoured with his fatherly visitation, and

106 RISE AND PROGRESS.
who was not disobedient to the heavenly
vision and call; to whom the way of truth
is more lovely and precious than ever, and
who, knowing the beauty and benefit of
it above all worldly treasures, has chosen
it for his chiefest joy ; and therefore
recommends it to thy love and choice,
because he is with great sincerity and
affection, Thy Soul's Friend,
WILLIAM PENN.

THE ENi>.