Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

their pastor, it so stirred him up, that he not only used his influence to prevent the converts in question from attending there again, but he decried the doctrines of the Quakers as damnable, and said many unhandsome things concerning them. This slander having gone abroad, William Penn, accompanied by George Whitehead, an eminent minister among the Quakers, who had already written twenty-nine pamphlets in their defence, went to Vincent, and demanded an opportunity of defending their principles publicly. This, after a good deal of demur, was agreed to. The Presbyterian meeting-house was fixed for this purpose, and the day and hour appointed also. When the time came, the Quakers presented themselves at the door; but Vincent, to insure a majority on his side, had filled a great part of the meeting-house with his own hearers, so that there was but little room for them. Penn however and Whitehead, with a few others of the society, pushed their way in. They had scarcely done this, when they heard it proclaimed aloud, "that the Quakers held damnable doctrines." Immediately upon this White

upon

head

head showed himself. He began, in answer to the charge, to explain aloud what the principles of the society really were; but here Vincent interrupted him, contending that it would be a better way of proceeding, for himself to examine the Quakers as to their own creed. He then put a proposal to this effect to the auditors. They agreed to it, and their voice was law.

Vincent, having carried his point, began by asking the Quakers, "Whether they owned one Godhead subsisting in three distinct and separate persons." Penn and his friend Whitehead, both asserted that this, delivered as it was by Vincent, was no scriptural doctrine. Vincent, in reply, formed a syllogism upon the words "There are three, that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one," and deduced from them the doctrine of three separate subsistences and yet of but one Deity. Whitehead immediately rejected the term "subsistence," as no where to be found in the Scriptures, and demanded that their opponents should explain it, as God did not wrap up his truths in heathenish metaphysics, but deliver them

in plain language. Upon this several attempted an explanation: but the sum of all their answers was, that subsistence meant either person or the mode of a substance. To these substitutes William Penn and Whitehead both objected. They urged many texts from Scripture in behalf of their objection; and having done this, they begged leave to ask Vincent one question in their turn, namely," whether God was to be understood in an abstractive sense from his substance:" but the auditors pronounced this to be a point more fit for admiration than dispute.

It will not be necessary to detail the arguments brought forward in this controversy, in which much was said but nothing settled. It will be proper however to say something of the manner in which it was conducted, as well as of the result of it. While the debate was going on, great intemperance was betrayed on the part of several of the Presbyterians. They laughed, hissed, and stigmatized the Quakers by various opprobrious names, of which that of Jesuit was exclusively bestowed upon William Penn. On an answer which George Whitehead

gave to a question, the indignation of the audience increased, so that Vincent immediately went to prayer. In the course of his supplications he accused the Quakers of blasphemy; and having finished them, he desired his hearers to go home, and he withdrew himself at the same time from the pulpit. In this situation the Quakers knew not what to do. The congregation was leaving the meeting-house, and they had not yet been heard. Finding they would soon be left to themselves, some of them at length ventured to speak; but they were pulled down, and the candles (for the controversy had lasted till midnight) were put out. They were not however prevented by this usage from going on; for, rising up, they continued their defence in the dark, and, what was extraordinary, many staid to hear it. This brought Vincent among them with a candle. Addressing himself to the Quakers, he desired them to disperse. To this at length they consented, but only on the promise that another meeting should be granted them for the same purpose in the same place.

William Penn and George Whitehead,

having waited many days, during which they could not make Vincent perform his promise, went to the meeting-house again. This happened on a lecture-day. They waited till the service was over, when they rose up, and begged that they might be permitted to resume their defence. Vincent, however, who had by this time left the pulpit, made the best of his way home; nor would any other of the congregation, though repeatedly called upon, supply his place, either to defend his conduct, or to argue the point in question.

He

William Penn, deprived now of an opportunity of defending the doctrine which had been the subject of so much warmth during the controversy, determined upon an appeal to the public. Accordingly he brought out "The Sandy Foundation shaken.” introduced it by a preface, in which he noticed the proceedings relative to Vincent as now mentioned, and observed upon the arguments then adduced. He then attempted to refute "The Notion of one God subsisting in three distinct and separate Persons;" also "The Notion of the Impossibility of God pardoning Sinners without

[ocr errors]

a plenary

« ZurückWeiter »