Protestant country, and came from Protestant hands, and could not but think the severities they lay under, for mere conscience to God, must necessarily bring the very Protestant religion under scandal abroad. Being Protestants in all those points wherein the very Church of England might claim that title, and whose main point was a strict and holy life, this made it seem reasonable and requisite to me to make their sufferings and them better known to those in authority; charitably hoping that if they would give themselves the leisure to be truly informed of both, they would afford them better quarter in their own country than stocks, whips, gaols, dungeons, præmunires, fines, sequestrations, and banishment, for their peaceable dissent in matters relative to faith and worship; and accordingly I had framed a scheme to myself for that purpose. But it so fell out, that towards the close of that year I was made incapable of prosecuting the resolution I had taken, and the plan I had laid of this affair, by a close and long imprisonment in the Tower of London, for a book I writ called 'The Sandy Foundation Shaken,' occasioned by some reflections upon us and our principles by one Tho. Vincent, a dissenting minister, because some of his congregation inclined to be of our persuasion.

"I was committed the beginning of December, and was not discharged till the fall of the leaf following; wanting about fourteen days of nine months.

"As I saw very few, so I saw them but seldom, except my own father and Dr. Stillingfleet, the present Bishop of Worcester. The one came as my relation, the other at the king's command, to endeavor my change of judgment. But as I told him, and he told the king, that the Tower

was the worst argument in the world to convince me; for whoever was in the wrong, those who used force for religion never could be in the right; so neither the Doctor's arguments, nor his moving and interesting motives of the king's favor and preferment, at all prevailed; and I am glad I have the opportunity to own so publicly the great pains he took and humanity he showed, and that to his moderation, learning, and kindness I will ever hold myself obliged."

W

III.

HILE imprisoned in the Tower, William Penn wrote a work entitled "NO CROSS, NO CROWN," from which we take some passages illustrative of its character.

READER:-The great business of man's life is to answer the end for which he lives, that is, to glorify God and save his own soul. As one knowing the terrors of the Lord, I persuade thee to be serious, diligent, and fervent about thy own salvation. As one knowing the comfort, peace, joy, and pleasure of the ways of righteousness I exhort and invite thee to embrace the reproofs and convictions of Christ's light and spirit in thine own conscience, and bear the judgment of thy sin. The fire burns but the stubble; the wind Llows only the chaff. Yield thy body, soul, and spirit to Him who maketh all things new-new heavens and new earth, new love, new joy, new peace, new works, a new life and conversation.

Christ's cross is Christ's way to Christ's crown. This is the subject of the following discourse, first written during my confinement in the Tower of London in the year 1668, now reprinted with great enlargement of matter and testimonies, that thou mayest be won to Christ, or if won already, brought nearer to Him. It is a path which God in his everlasting kindness guided my feet into, in the flower of my youth, when about two and twenty years

of age. He took me by the hand and led me out of the pleasures, vanities, and hopes of the world. I have tasted of Christ's judgments, and of his mercies, and of the world's frowns and reproaches. I rejoice in my experience, and dedicate it to thy service in Christ.

THOUGH THE knowledge and obedience of the doctrine of the cross of Christ be of infinite moment to the souls of men, being the only door to true Christianity and the path which the ancients ever trod to blessedness, yet it is little understood, much neglected, and bitterly contradicted, by the vanity, superstition, and intemperance of professed Christians.

The unmortified Christian and the heathen are of the same religion, and the deity they truly worship is the god of this world. What shall we cat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? And how shall we pass away our time? Which way may we gather wealth, increase our power, enlarge our territories, and dignify and perpetuate our names and families in the earth? It is a mournful reflection, but a truth which will not be denied, that these worldly lusts fill up a great part of the study, care, and conversation of Christendom.

The false notion that they may be children of God while in a state of disobedience to his holy commandments, and disciples of Jesus though they revolt from his cross, and members of his true church, which is without spot or wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of spots and wrinkles, is of all other deceptions upon themselves the most pernicious to their eternal condition. For they are at peace in sin and under a security in their transgression.

Their vain hope silences their convictions, and overlays all tender motions to repentance; so that their mistake about their duty to God is as mischievous as their rebellion against Him. Thus they walk on precipices and flatter themselves, till the grave swallows them up and the judgment of the great God breaks the lethargy.

O Christendom! my soul most fervently prays that after all thy lofty professions of Christ and his meek and holy religion, thy unsuitable and unchristlike life may not cast thee at that great assize of the world and lose thee this great salvation at last. Can Christ be thy Lord and thou not obey Him? He is none of thy Saviour whilst thou rejectest his grace in thy heart, by which He would save thee. Has He saved thee from thy sinful lusts, thy worldly affections, and vain conversations? If not, then He is none of thy Saviour. For though He be offered a Saviour for all, yet He is actually a Saviour to those only who are saved by Him; and none are saved by Him who live in those evils by which they are lost from God, and which He came to save them from.

It is from sin that Christ is come to save man, and from death and wrath as the wages of it. So far as people obtain victory over those evil dispositions and fleshly lusts to which they have been addicted, so far they are truly saved, and are witnesses of the redemption that comes by Jesus Christ. His name shows his work: "And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins." "Behold," said John of Christ, "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!"

BECAUSE THERE is mercy with the God of compassion, that He may be feared, He has sent forth his Son, a pro