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 own 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 no

kno

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 no where 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 à voluntary application of himself: certain however it is, that but for this interference he would have remained in prison.

CHAP

OF WILLIAM PENN.

59

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

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 !"

It is now pleasing to relate that the Admiral, though he had discarded his son, began

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