no less than twenty-three philosophers of the same description, besides those

just mentioned.

Fourthly, he quoted the accounts handed down to us of the conduct of virtuous Heathen women. He selected twelve for this purpose, among whom were Penelope, Lucretia, and Cornelia.

From the Heathen he went to Scripture history and that of the primitive Christians. He quoted sayings from Solomon, the doctrine of Christ as recorded by Matthew about denial of self, the example of John the Baptist, the testimonies of the apostle Peter, and the exhortation of Paul against pride, covetousness, and luxury. To this he added an account of the nonconformity of the primitive Christians to the world, sayings and observations by the Fathers of the Church from Ignatius down to Augustine, quotations from canons and epistles, and the examples of some of the ancient Christian bishops.

Lastly, he gave an account of the lives and sayings of many of those who lived in more modern times: of Charles the Fifth, Michael de Montaigne, Cardinal Woolsey, Sir Philip Sidney, Secretary Walsingham, Sir John Mason, Sir Walter Rawleigh, and twenty-six others, among whom were Kings, Princes, Chancellors, Counts, Cardinals, and others, who had distinguished themselves in England, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, and other parts of the world.

His great object in making the above collection was to corroborate and enforce all that he had laid down in the first part or division of his work, namely, that a life of strict virtue, that is, to do well and to bear or suffer ill, was the way to everlasting happiness; or that, where there was no bearing of the cross of Christ, there would be no wearing of the crown of glory.

Such then were the contents of "No Cross, No Crown," as consisting of its two divisions, of which it may be truly said, that taking it altogether, it was a great work, and more especially when we consider the youth of the author, and the short time in which he composed it. It was rich in doctrine, rich in scriptural examples, and profuse in a display of history. discovered great erudition, extensive reading, and a considerable knowledge of the world.

It

Among other employments of William Penn, while in the Tower, he wrote to the Lord Arlington, then principal secretary of state, by whose warrant he had been sent there. Having reflected upon his own case, during his confinement, he was of opinion, the more he considered it, that the government, by depriving him of his liberty, had acted upon principles not to be defended either by the laws of the Christian religion or by those of the realm. He therefore wrote to him to desire his release. We find in this letter several just and noble sentiments. He tells the Lord Arlington, "that he is at a loss to imagine how a diversity of religious opinions can affect the safety of the State, seeing that kingdoms and commonwealths have lived

under the balance of divers parties.He conceives that they only are unfit for political society who maintain principies subversive of industry, fidelity, justice, and obedience; but to say that men must form their faith of things proper to another world according to the prescriptions of other mortal men in this, and, if they do not, that they have no right to be at liberty or to live in this is both ridiculous and dangerous. He maintains that the understanding can never be convinced by other arguments than what are adequate to its own nature. Force may make hypocrites, but can make no converts; and if, says he, I am at any time convinced, I will pay the honour of it to truth, and not to base and timorous hypocrisy. He then desires, as many of his enemies have retracted their opinions about him, and as his imprisonment is against the privileges of an Englishman, as well as against the forbearance inseparable from true Christianity, that he may receive his discharge. Should this be denied him, be begs access to the King; and if this should be denied him also, he hopes the Lord Arlington will himself hear him against such objections as may be thought weighty; so that, if he is to continue a prisoner, it may be known for what. He makes, he says, no apology for his letter, the usual style of suppliants, because he conceives that more honour will accrue to the Lord Arlington by being just, than advantage to himself as an individual by becoming personally free.”

William Penn, notwithstanding this letter, continued still in prison; when understanding that "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," which had occasioned such an outcry against him, had been misrepresented, he wrote, by way of apology for it, and to correct any misapprehension about it, a little tract, which, in allusion to the conscious rectitude of his own conduct and the undisguised manner in which he there explained himself, he called "Innocency with her Open Face." In this new work he reviewed the three subjects which constituted the contents of the former. He argued, as before, against the notion of the impossibility of God pardoning sinners without a plenary satisfaction, which was one of them, and also against that of the justification of impure persons by an imputative righteousness, which was another; and he appealed additionally to the high authority of Stillingfleet, in his late discourse about Christ's sufferings, against Crellius, in his favour. With respect to the third notion, he maintained that he had been misunderstood. A conclusion had been drawn that, because he had denied one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons, he had denied the divinity of Christ. He cited, therefore, several passages from Scripture to prove that Christ was God. This doctrine, he asserted, was an article of his own faith; and, as a proof that it had been so, he desired those who thought otherwise to consult his "Guide Mistaken," which he had published before "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," and in which they would find that he had acknowledged both the divinity and eternity of Christ. His enemies, therefore, he said, had been beating the air and fighting with their owe shadows in supposing what he himself had neither written nor even thought

of. These were concisely the contents of his last work. When it came out, it is said to have given satisfaction. Some, however, of his enemies contended that he had disgraced himself by producing it; that he had read his own recantation in it; and that from a Socinian he had all at once become a defender of the Trinity. They, however, who asserted this, did not know that he rejected the latter doctrine, merely on account of the terms in which it had been wrapped up by Vincent; terms which, he said, were the inventions of men three hundred years after the Christian æra, and which were nowhere to be found in the Scriptures. In this respect, that is, as far as the doctrine comprehended three separate persons in one God, he uniformly rejected it; but he never denied that of the divinity of Christ, or of "a Father, Word, and Spirit."

Soon after the publication of "Innocency with her Open Face," he was discharged from the Tower, after having been kept there on terms of unusual severity for seven months. His discharge came suddenly from the King, who had been moved to it by the intercession of his brother, the Duke of York. It is not known whether William Penn's father, the Admiral, applied to the Duke for this purpose, or whether the Duke out of compliment to the Admiral made a voluntary application of himself: certain however it is, that but for this interference he would have remained in prison.

CHAPTER V.

A. 1669-VISITS THOMAS LOE ON HIS DEATH-BED-EXHORTATION OF THE LATTER-IS SENT AGAIN TO IRELAND-WRITES A "LETTER TO THE YOUNG CONVINCED"-PROCURES THE DISCHARGE OF SEVERAL FROM PRISON-RETURNS TO ENGLAND-IS RECONCILED TO HIS FATHER.

THE first place in which we find William Penn after his liberation from the Tower was at the bed-side of Thomas Loe, who was then on the eve of departing from the world. It cannot but be remembered that Thomas Loe was the person, who, while William Penn was at Oxford, confirmed the religious impressions he had received at Chigwell school. He was the person also who had given a bias to his mind, while in the city of Cork, by which he was disposed, at a time when looking out for some practical system of religion for himself, to fix upon that of the Quakers. Here then we see the master and the disciple brought together, and this at an awful crisis. It must have been a most gratifying circumstance to Thomas Loe, when he considered the imprisonment of William Penn, the undaunted manner in which he had borne it, and the useful way in which he had spent his time, while under it (but particularly in the production of "No Cross, No Crown,* in which work he inculcated, even when in bonds, that bonds were to be

endured for religion's sake), to find that one, who had received as it were his own baptism, had, when tried by the fire, come out of it like pure gold. And that these sentiments were then uppermost in the mind of the dying minister, there is no doubt; for, though the particulars of this interesting interview are not known, it is yet recorded that Thomas Loe, in taking his final leave of William, gave him the following exhortation: "Bear thy cross, and stand faithful to God; then he will give thee an everlasting crown of glory that shall not be taken from thee. There is no other way that shall prosper than that which the holy men of old walked in. God hath brought immortality to light, and life immortal is felt. His love overcomes my heart. Glory be to his name for evermore!"

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It is now pleasing to relate that the Admiral, though he had discarded his son, began again to relent. He could not help thinking, however his son might have been mistaken, that at least he was sincere, or that his steady perseverance in the course he had taken, in spite of all persecution, was a proof of his integrity. He now allowed him to be at his own house, though he did not see him, and caused it to be signified to him through his mother, that he might return to Ireland, there to execute a commission for him.

William Penn was greatly cheered by this, though partial, gleam of returning love on the part of his father, and accordingly prepared for his journey. In the month of August he reached Cork. He entered immediately upon his father's business. In the intervals, however, of his leisure he attended to the concerns of his own religious society. He preached, as occasion offered, both at Cork and Dublin. He attended the national meeting of the Quakers in the latter city. He wrote also several little tracts to promote the religion he had espoused. Among these was his Letter "To the Young Convinced." He meant by the latter appellation such as had lately become converts to his own religious faith. He began by explaining to these, whom he considered to have been called out of the pleasures and vanities of the world, the nature of their new calling. He visited them, he said, as a traveller in the same path, in bowels of tenderness and compassion, to exhort them to make this their calling and election sure. For this purpose he invited them to hold meetings for worship frequently, to beware of all lightness, jesting, and a careless mind, and to endeavour as much as possible, both by their conversation and conduct, to keep in the simplicity of the cross of Christ. If the world was constant to its own momentary fashions, the more it became them to be constant in their testimony against it. If, however, in doing this, they should meet with heavy exercises, they were not to murmur against God, but to give themselves up to his will. No external fear was to shake them: for that same Power, which had wrought a change in their hearts, was able to carry them through this their terrestrial trial.

But his great employment, during his leisure, was in visiting those of his poor brethren who were in prison on account of their religion, a case which

he could well estimate by reflecting upon that which had been his own. He held religious meetings with these in their gaols, in which he endeavoured to comfort them to the utmost of his power. He drew up also an account of the cases of several, most of whom were then in confinement for no other reason than that they had been found worshiping in places which the law did not then recognise. This account, which was of the nature of an address, he presented to the Lord Lieutenant with his own hand; and he followed it up with such unremitting zeal, calling in the aid of his father, and of all those courtiers whom he could interest, that at length an order in council was obtained for their release.

Having executed his father's commission, he returned to England. On his arrival there a reconciliation took place, to the joy of all concerned, but particularly of his mother; after which he took up his residence in his father's house.

CHAPTER VI.

A. 1670-PREACHES IN GRACECHURCH-STREET-IS TAKEN UP AND COMMITTED TO NEWGATE-IS TRIED AT THE OLD BAILEY AND ACQUITTED-ACCOUNT OF THIS MEMORABLE TRIAL-ATTENDS HIS FATHER ON HIS DEATH-BED-DYING SAYINGS OF THE LATTER— PUBLISHES "THE PEOPLE'S ANCIENT AND JUST LIBERTIES ASSERTED”—DISPUTES PUBLICLY WITH JEREMY IVES AT HIGH WYCOMB-WRITES TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR OF OXFORD-PUBLISHES "A SEASONABLE CAVEAT AGAINST POPERY" IS AGAIN TAKEN UP FOR PREACHING, AND SENT TO THE TOWER, AND FROM THENCE TO NEWGATE.

In the year 1670 the famous Conventicle Act was passed by Parliament, which prohibited Dissenters from worshiping God in their own way. It had been first suggested by some of the bishops. The chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury had previously printed a discourse against toleration, in which he asserted as a main principle, that it would be less injurious to the government to dispense with profane and loose persons than to allow a toleration to religious Dissenters. "This act," says Thomas Ellwood, "brake down and overran the bounds and banks anciently set for the defence and security of Englishmen's lives, liberties, and properties, namely, trials by jury, instead thereof directing and authorizing justices of the peace (and that too privately out of sessions) to convict, fine, and by their warrants distrain upon offenders against it, directly contrary to the Great Charter." It was impossible that an act like this could pass without becoming a source of new suffering to William Penn, situated as he then was, first, as a minister of the Gospel, and secondly, as a man who always dared to do what he thought to be his duty. Accordingly he was one of the earliest