istered, for he freely acknowledged he was at the meeting at Wheeler Street, and spoke to the people there. The oath, however, was administered; but though the witnesses testified that he was speaking to the people, they could not be induced to declare that the assembly was an unlawful one. This appears to have disconcerted Robinson, who relied on their testimony to convict him under the Conventicle Act. He then told William Penn that they were not going to try him upon that act, but upon one passed in 1665, usually called the Oxford act. This act, in its terms, applied to "parsons and others, in holy orders, who had not subscribed the act of uniformity, and yet had taken upon them to preach, in unlawful assemblies, and to instil the poisonous principles of schism and rebellion in the hearts of his majesty's subjects, to the church and kingdom;" and required that all such non-conformist ministers should take an oath of a prescribed form. In case of refusal to take the oath, they were subjected to certain disabilities, under heavy forfeitures. Any tw justices of peace, upon oath made before them of any offence committed against the act, were empowered to commit the offender to prison for six months.

William Penn immediately showed them that the Oxford act did not apply to him, for he had never been in orders at all. Sir John Robinson, however, ordered the oath to be read, and inquired whether he would take it or not. He replied that he was conscientiously restrained from doing all that he was required by the oath to engage not to do, and therefore the oath was to him entirely needless. He informed them that his refusal to swear was not on account of the matter contained in the oath; but was

founded on better reasons than they could give for urging him to swear. In the course of the examination, Sir John told him "he had been as bad as others; "on which William Penn demanded of him when and where.

He re

plied "abroad and at home, too." To which William Penn returned the following energetic reply: "I make this bold challenge to all men, women, and children upon earth, justly to accuse me with ever having seen me drunk, heard me swear, utter a curse, or speak one obscene word, much less that I ever made it my practice. I speak this to God's glory, who has ever preserved me from the power of these pollutions, and who from a child begot an hatred in me towards them. But there is nothing more common, when men are of a more severe life than ordinary, than for loose persons to comfort themselves with the conceit that they were once as they are. Thy words shall be thy burden, and I trample thy slander as dirt under my feet." The following dialogue then ensued:

Sir John Robinson.-Well, Mr. Penn, I have no ill-will towards you; your father was my friend, and I have a great regard for you.

William Penn.-But thou hast an ill way of expressing it.

Robinson.-But you do nothing but stir up the people to sedition.

Penn.-Bring me the man that will dare to justify this accusation to my face; and if I am not able to make it appear that it is both my practice, and all my friends, to instil principles of peace and moderation, and only to war against spiritual wickedness, that all men may be brought to fear God and work righteousness, I shall contentedly

undergo the severest punishment all your laws can expose

me to.

Robinson.—Well, I must send you to Newgate for six months, and when they are expired, you will come out.

Penn. Is that all? Thou knowest a larger imprisonment has not daunted me. I accept it at the hand of the Lord, and am contented to suffer his will. Alas! you mistake your interest, you will miss your aim; this is not the way to compass your ends.

I would have thee and all men to know that I scorn that religion which is not worth suffering for, and able to sustain those that are afflicted for it. Mine is, and whatever may be my lot for my constant profession of it, I am no ways careful, but resigned to answer the will of God by the loss of goods, liberty, and life itself. Thy religion persecutes, mine forgives; and I desire my God to forgive you all that are concerned in my commitment, and I leave you all in perfect charity, wishing you eternal salvation.

He was then sent to the noisome prison of Newgate, to expiate, by a six months' confinement, the offence of preaching the Gospel to his brethren, and refusing to disobey the commandment of Christ.

VI.

WILLIAM PENN did not permit the time of his im

prisonment to be lost to himself or the community; but wrote several tracts, chiefly of a religious character, which were soon afterwards given to the world.

The first of these is entitled, "The great case of Liberty of Conscience, once more briefly debated, and defended by the authority of reason, Scripture, and antiquity."

In the preface he maintained that the enaction of such laws as restrained persons from the free exercise of their consciences in matters of religion, was but "the knotting of whipcord on the part of the enactors to lash their own posterity, whom they could never promise to be conformed. for ages to come to a national religion."

He maintained that they who imposed fetters upon the conscience, and persecuted for conscience' sake, defeated God's work of grace, or the invisible operation of his Holy Spirit, which alone could beget faith; that they claimed infallibility, which all good Protestants rejected; and that they usurped the divine prerogative, assuming the judgment of the great tribunal, and thereby robbing the Almighty of a right which belonged exclusively to himself; that they overthrew the Christian religion in the very nature of it, for it was spiritual, and not of this world; in the very practice of it, for this consisted of

meekness; in the promotion of it, for it was clear that they never designed to be better themselves, and they discouraged others in their religious growth; and in the rewards of it, for where men were religious out of fear, and this out of the fear of men, their religion was condemnation and not peace; that they opposed the plainest testimonies of Divine writ, which concurred in condemning all force upon the conscience; that they acted contrary to all true notions of government, first, as to the nature of it, which was justice; secondly, as to the execution of it, which was prudence; and, thirdly, as to the end of it, which was happiness.

The dissertation is closed in these words.

"Liberty of conscience, as thus stated and defended, we ask as our undoubted right by the law of God, of nature, and of our own country, It has been often promised. We have long waited for it, we have written much and suffered in its defence, and have made many true complaints, but found little or no redress.

"But, if after all we have said, this short discourse should not be credited, nor answered in any of its sober reasons and requests, but sufferings should be the present lot of our inheritance from this generation, be it known to them all, that meet we must, and meet we cannot but encourage all to do, whatsoever hardship we sustain, in God's name and authority who is Lord of hosts and King of kings, at the revelation of whose righteous judgments and glorious tribunal mortal men shall render an account of the deeds done in the body; and whatever the apprehensions of such may be concerning this discourse, it was written in love, and from a true sense of the present state