Utrecht, he was engaged in a public dispute. Galenus Abrahams, the great father of the Socinian Menists in these parts, denied that there was any new Christian dispensation or apostolical commission then going on in the world by the instrumentality of the Quakers. This denial was to become the subject of discussion. Both parties went to the place of meeting, Galenus Abrahams attended by several preachers and others of his own congregation, and William Penn by George Fcx and a body of Quakers. At length the dispute began: but all we know of it is, that it lasted from eight in the morning till one in the afternoon, and this successively for two days.

The meeting being over, he proceeded with George Fox by the way of Leyden to the Hague, and from thence to Delft, and from thence to Rotterdam. He employed himself, while in this city, in visiting Friends and friendly people; in holding public meetings, which were numerously and respectably attended; and in writing letters, which he intended to leave behind him on his return to England, in order that they might be printed and circulated throughout Germany. The first of these was “A Call or Summons to Christendom to prepare for the great and notable Day of the Lord, which was then at hand." He appealed through the medium of this Summons to different denominations of persons; to Catholics; to Evangelicals or Gospellers; to the Reformed, including all the subdivided Sects; to degenerated, fallen, and titular Christians; to Kings and Princes; to Nobles; to Judges; to Lawyers; to Merchants; to Farmers and CountryPeople; and to Priests and Pastors. He exposed with great boldness the different failings of these, and endeavoured to impress upon them what belonged to their relative situations in life. His language was clear, nervous, and animated. It was enriched by metaphor and scriptural expressions, and manifested the pen of a ready writer. The second was The second was "An Address, by way of Advice, to those who were sensible of this Summons or Call, wherever scattered throughout the world." He exhorted these to dwell in the Spirit which God had begotten in their hearts; to be careful, having once come out of the world, to keep out of it; to be aware of, and therefore to examine, their own thoughts and imaginations; to watch against their own will, that it might be kept under due subjection; to be frequent in waiting upon God; not to be discouraged or overpowered by afflictions or persecutions, but to hold fast to Christ. On each of these topics he enlarged in a spiritual manner. The third was "An Address to those Professors of Christianity who separated themselves from the visible Sects or Churches of the Times;" and the fourth, "A Tender Visitation to those, but particularly among the High and Low Dutch Nations, who desired to know and worship God in Sincerity and Truth; containing a plain Testimony to the ancient and apostolical Life, Way, and Worship, which God was then reviving in the Earth." Of the contents of the two latter I must leave the reader to judge by their titles.

Hearing that a nobleman, a man of serious and retired habits, lived at

the village of Wonderwick, he and G. Fox made an excursion to visit him. The nobleman, on learning their errand, invited them in. His house was stately, but yet plain. On receiving them he shook them by the hand, and bad them welcome. As soon as they were properly seated, he gave them a sober and pathetic account of his life and religious experience. When this was over, he took them into another room, where he introduced them to his wife, under the name of some Christian Friends who had come to see her. She received them kindly. Having sat in silence for some time, after the manner of the Quaker ministers, William Penn delivered a discourse. He began by proving the proposition, that death had reigned from Adam to Christ. He then explained what Christ's day was. He showed, next, that though this day had come, there were but few who had seen it. He then pointed out the way which led to Christ, and what it was to be in him, and under the government of his grace; "directing them to the blessed principle, which God had shed abroad in their hearts;" and concluded by declaring the nature and manner of the appearance and operation of this principle, and by appealing to their own consciences for the truth of it. This discourse appears to have had a powerful effect upon the hearers, and even upon William Penn himself; for he was so affected by what had come unexpectedly from his own mouth, that he felt himself constrained to kneel down and pray. "Great brokenness," says he, "fell upon all; and that which was before the world began was richly manifested in and among us,” The nobleman and his wife then blessed their visitors, and the work which was in their hands. They considered, they said, their house as blessed for their sakes, and expressed great thankfulness that they had lived to see them.

Returning to Rotterdam, he held two meetings, the one a public one, in which he took leave of the country; and the other a select one, that is, for those of the society only, whom he exhorted earnestly to grow up as a holy people. After this he procceded to the Brill, and from thence went on board the packet. During the whole passage there was a dreadful storm of wind, rain, and hail intermixed. The weather was entirely against them, and the vessel so leaky, that, unless two pumps had been going night and day, it must have foundered. There were also many passengers on board, so that they were in each other's way. Some of the seamen were near being washed overboard. At length they arrived at Harwich, but not till after they had been three nights and two days at sea. Here, says he, it was observable, speaking of the passengers, that, “ though they had experienced such wonderful preservation, some of the inconsiderate soon forgot it, and returned quickly to their wanton talk and conversation, not abiding in the sense of that hand which had delivered them."

After landing at Harwich, he rode on horseback to London, stopping and attending several meetings in his way. He staid also in London a few days for the same purpose. He then went down to his seat at Worminghurst in

Sussex, where he arrived after an absence of about three months and ten days, and after a journey in the service of the Church of nearly three thousand miles within that period. He had the pleasure, to use his own words, "to find his dear wife, child, and family well. Blessed be the name of the Lord God of all the families of the earth!" And here, as a proof of the constantly pious frame of his mind, and of his constant thankfulness to the Divine Being for benefits already received, and of his reliance upon him for those to come, it must not be omitted, that on the afternoon of his arrival he assembled all his family for worship, thus making the first fruits of his domestic meeting an oblation to the Father of all mercies. This little meeting is described by him to have been "a sweet meeting, in which the divine presence made them glad together," and in which he was sensible, whatever sacrifices he had made by his journey, that "they were blessed who could cheerfully give up to serve the Lord."

Having reposed for two or three weeks with his family, he went to London, from whence he addressed a letter to John Pennyman on the subject of his apostacy. In about a month after this we find him at Bristol. Here he, G. Fox, C. Marshall, and others, held the great dispute with William Rogers, and some of the separatists, on the subject of church discipline. Rogers, who was a merchant of Bristol, and who had joined the society, had attacked Robert Barclay's "Anarchy of the Ranters," and had been so defeated by the reply, as to have acknowledged his error under his own hand. Notwithstanding this, he had afterwards published his objections to the same werk, and had been defeated by R. Barclay again. Not even yet satisfied, he had lately circulated papers on the same subject, and this it was that at length brought him to such a public settlement of the affair between them.

After the controversy, William Penn returned to London, and from thence to Worminghurst. While he was at home, he wrote letters to his friends in Germany, which have been preserved, such as to J. Claus, and P. Hendricks, who were in part companions of his late travels, and to others who belonged to the Quaker Churches which had been established there. I see no occasion to lay these letters before the reader, for they are mostly of the same cast. He makes one general use of them, namely, to encourage his friends, as young persons or beginners in the faith, to put them in mind of the great principle on which they became a religious society, and to recommend to them peace and union with each other.

CHAPTER XIV.

A. 1678.-CONTINUES HIS MANAGEMENT OF WEST NEW JERSEY-SENDS TWO OTHER VESSELS THERE-PETITIONS PARLIAMENT IN BEHALF OF THE PERSECUTED QUAKERS-IS HEARD BY A COMMITTEE OF THE COMMONS - HIS TWO SPEECHES BEFORE THEM-REMARKS UPON THESE-WRITES "A BRIEF ANSWER TO A FALSE AND FOOLISH LIBEL "-ALSO "AN EPISTLE TO THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT IN THIS GENERATION."

WILLIAM PENN continued active in his station as a trustee for Byllinge. He had, as we have seen before, in conjunction with his colleagues, sent off Fenwick in the ship Griffith, accompanied by several families, to take possession of the land in West New Jersey, which had been purchased of the Lord Berkeley. This was in 1676. In the last year, 1677, he had despatched commissioners, and three vessels, carrying no less than four hundred and fourteen passengers, proprietors, with their servants and children, to the same parts. In the early part of the present year, he was employed in the same manner. He had influence to freight two other ships, one from London, and the other from Hull, with persons on the same errand; so that now about eight hundred settlers, mostly Quakers and persons of property and character, had set sail for the new land.

But while he was thus occupied in the arrangement of these his foreign concerns, his attention was called to the situation of things at home, and particularly as they related to his own religious society. In the early part of this year, the different acts which had been enacted against the Roman Catholics began to be enforced with extraordinary rigour. Only a few years before, the great fire in London had taken place, the cause of which had been imputed to them. The fires on St. Margaret's-hill, and in Southwark, which followed, had been attributed to them also. And now, to add to the public consternation, a design of a most wicked and mischievous nature was said to have been discovered, which, on account of its nature and intended effects, was denominated the Popish Plot. Under these circumstances, both the Parliament and the people were so incensed against the Roman Catholics, that all the laws which had been passed against them were pressed to their full length. Hence it happened that the Dissenters, against whom these laws were never intended, became unexpectedly the objects of them; for, wherever Roman Catholicism was suspected, it was sure of being put to the test. Now it happened that William Penn was considered by many to be a Jesuit, and this circumstance gave occasion to these to consider the Quakers, to whom he belonged, in the same light. Hence almost immediately they experienced the same severe prosecutions in the Exchequer as the Roman Catholics for penalties of twenty pounds a month for absence from the national worship, or of two-thirds of their estates for the like offence, though there was actually no existing law against them. The evil then, as may be well sup.

posed, where so many might be suspected, had been carried on to an alarming length, of which the Parliament had indeed become so sensible, that it took under its consideration a distinguishing clause in the bill against Popery, or a clause for the discrimination of Protestant Dissenters from Papists, so that they who would take the oath, and subscribe the declaration therein contained, should not suffer by such laws. Now this measure, though reasonable in itself, and sufficient as it related to other Dissenters, was of no use to the Quakers; for being unable, on account of their religious tenets, to swear at all, they had not even the door which was intended them for their escape. William Penn therefore drew up a petition in their behalf, which was presented to both Houses of Parliament, in which he set forth their hard case, and requested that, in the discriminating clause then in agitation, the word of a Quaker might be taken instead of his oath, with this proviso, that if any one of that description should utter a falsehood on such an occasion, he should be liable to the same punishment as if he had taker a false oath.

The petition having been presented, he was admitted to a hearing before a Committee of the House of Commons, when he addressed the members of it in the following manner:

"If we ought to believe that it is our duty, according to the doctrine of the Apostle, to be always ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, and this to every sober and private inquirer, certainly much more ought we to hold ourselves obliged to declare with all readiness, when called to it by so great an authority, what is not our hope; especially when our very safety is eminently concerned in so doing, and when we cannot decline this discrimination of ourselves from Papists without being conscious to ourselves of the guilt of our own sufferings, for so must every man needs be who suffers mutely under another character than that which truly belongeth to him and his belief. That which giveth me a more than ordinary right to speak at this time, and in this place, is the great abuse which I have received above any other of my profession; for of a long time I have not only been supposed a Papist, but a Seminary, a Jesuit, an emissary of Rome, and in pay from the Pope-a man dedicating my endeavours to the interest and advancements of that party. Nor hath this been the report of the rabble, but the jealousy and insinuation of persons otherwise sober and discreet. Nay, some zealots for the Protestant religion have been so far gone in this mistake, as not only to think ill of us, and decline our conversation, but to take courage to themselves to prosecute us for a sort of concealed Papists; and the truth is, that, what with one thing and what with another, we have been as the woolsacks and common whipping-stock of the kingdom: all laws have been let loose upon us, as if the design were not to reform, but to destroy us; and this, not for what we are, but for what we are not. It is hard that we must thus bear the stripes of another interest, and be their proxy in punishment; but it is worse, that some men can please themselves in such a sort of administration.