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kingdom of God's sake, should eventually reap their reward. He began however to find, that even in this his temporal state he was not deserted. His mother kept up a com munication with him privately, feeding him as well as she could from her own purse; and several kind friends administered also to his wants.

In 1668, being then twenty-four years of age, he came forth in the important character of a minister of the Gospel; having, as has been before stated, joined in membership with the religious society of the Quakers.

In this year he became an author also. His first work bore the following title: “Truth exalted, in a short but sure Testimony against all those Religions, Faiths, and Worships, that have been formed and followed in the Darkness of Apostasy, and for that glorious Light, which is now risen and shines forth in the Life and Doctrine of the despised Quakers, as the alone good old Way of Life and Salvation." This work, in which he thought it his duty to stand forth to the world as the champion of his own particular faith, was an address to kings, priests, and people, and to persons of various

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denominations in religion; to the Catholics first, then to those of the Church of England, and lastly to the different Protestant Separatists. He exhorted them severally to examine the ground on which their faith and worship stood; to inquire how far these were built on divine authority, or only on the notions of men; and how far they were vitally supported, or dependent upon carnal forms. He put questions to all of them concerning their doctrine and practice, by which it was plain he conceived their religion to stand "not in the divine, but in the fallen or apostate nature; not in the broken, but in the stony heart." He then called their attention towards the faith and practice of the Quakers, by means of which he contended that the Truth, that is Christianity, was exalted; and that this was the only system of faith and practice which would radically redeem from human traditions, carnal ceremonies, and a persecuting spirit.

It is probable that some, judging from the title of this work, and from the substance of it as it has now been given, may accuse William Penn of no small share of arrogance

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arrogance as the author of it. But these must be informed, that it was the belief of the early Quakers, that the system of religious doctrine and practice, which was introduced by George Fox, was really a new dispensation to restore Christianity to its primitive purity, and that they were to have the honour of being made the instruments of spreading it through the earth. This belief arose out of various considerations. In the first place, they who followed this system led a life of great self-denial. They abstained from the pleasures of the world, that they might avoid every thing that could contaminate their moral character. They discarded all customs which could bring their sobriety, chastity, and independence, into danger. They watched over their very words, and changed the very names of things, that they might always be found in the truth. They submitted to a discipline strict and severe, that they might be continued in the proper path. Friends of peace, they avoided, as far as was possible, all recourse to law, and they refused to bear arms against their fellow-creatures on any pretence whatever. Taking then into consideration this their

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system, and comparing it with the practice of the world, it appeared to them like the renovation of the primitive Christian system upon earth. It approached also in their opinion, like the latter, the nearest to the letter and spirit of the new Covenant. When ushered into the world by them, it was followed, considering the severity of its discipline, by an almost miraculous proselytism. Priests, magistrates, and people left their religion in great numbers, many of the former giving up valuable livings, to support it. They too, who thus espoused it, were ready, like the apostles of old, to stamp the sincerity of their conversion by martyrdom. From these and other considerations, the early Quakers looked upon the system in question in the light now mentioned; and hence it was that they spoke with an authority which might have the appearance of arrogance with others.

Much about this time a person of the name of Jonathan Clapham published "A Guide to the True Religion." His object, as there stated, was to assist persons in making a proper choice of their faith. For this purpose he drew up a number of articles, which

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which he considered to compose the true Christian creed. Those who embraced other articles, he pronounced to be incapable of salvation, but particularly the Papists, Socinians, and Quakers; the last of whom he treated with the most severity. This publication happened to fall into the hands of William Penn. It set him as it were on fire, and he brought out almost immediately "The Guide mistaken." This book contained four chapters. In the first he attempted to confute the Guide's system of religion; in the second, he reprehended his aspersions; in the third, he laboured to detect his hypocrisy; and in the fourth, he compared his contradictions.

"The Guide mistaken" had not been out long, when a circumstance happened, which, as far as William Penn was concerned, led to a most disagreeable result, the parti⚫culars of which I must now explain. Two persons belonging to a Presbyterian congregation in Spital-Fields went one day to the meeting-house of the Quakers, merely to learn what their religious doctrines were. It happened that they were converted there. This news being carried to Thomas Vincent,

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