voice that speaks to us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in the noises and hurries of the mind; but it is distinctly understood in a retired frame. Jesus loved and chose solitudes; often going to mountains, gardens, and seasides, to avoid crowds and hurries, to show his disciples it was good to be solitary, and sit loose to the world. Two enemies lie near your states, imagination and liberty; but the plain, practical, living, holy Truth, that has convinced you, will preserve you, if you mind it in yourselves, and bring all thoughts, inclinations, and affections to the test of it, to see if they are wrought in God, or of the enemy, or your ownselves. So will a true taste, discerning, and judgment be preserved to you, of what you should do and leave undone. And when you are converted, as well as convinced, then confirm your brethren; and be ready to every good word and work that the Lord shall call you to.

And now, as for you, that are the children of God's people, a great concern is upon my spirit for your good. O you young men and women! let it not suffice you, that you are the children of the people of the Lord; you must also be born again, if you will inherit the kingdom of God. Have you obeyed the light, and received and walked in the Spirit, which is the incorruptible seed of the Word and kingdom of God, of which you must be born again? God is no respecter of persons. The father cannot save or answer for the child, or the child for the father. Your many and great privileges above the children of other people, will add weight in the scale against you, if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had line upon line, and precept upon precept, and

not only good doctrine, but good example; and, which is more, you have been turned to, and acquainted with, a principle in yourselves, which others have been ignorant of.

Wherefore, O ye young men and women! look to the rock of your fathers. There is no other God but Him, no other light but his, no other grace but his, nor spirit but his, to convince you, quicken and comfort you; to lead, guide, and preserve you to God's everlasting kingdom. So will you be possessors as well as professors of the Truth, embracing it not only by education, but judgment and conviction; from a sense begotten in your souls, through the operation of the eternal Spirit and power of God.

I shall conclude with a few words to those that are not of our communion, into whose hands this may come.

I beseech you, ponder with yourselves your eternal condition, and see what title, what ground and foundation you have for your Christianity; if more than a profession, and an historical belief of the gospel. Have you known the baptism of fire, and the Holy Ghost, and the fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff in your minds, and carnal lusts and affections?-that divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being received, leavens the whole lump of man, sanctifying him throughout in body, soul, and spirit.

you

If have true faith in Christ, your faith will make you clean; it will sanctify you; for the saints' faith was their victory of old. By this they overcame sin within, and sinful men without. And if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, whose

Old

fruits are manifest. Yea, thou art a new creature; new made, new fashioned, after God's will and mould. things are done away, and behold all things are become new; new love, desires, will, affections, and practices. Therefore, have a care how you presume to rely upon such a notion, as that you are in Christ, whilst in your old fallen nature.

If you would know God, and worship and serve God as you should do, you must come to the means He has ordained and given for that purpose. Some seck it in books, some in learned men; but what they look for is in themselves, though not of themselves; but they overlook it. The voice is too still, the seed too small, and the light shineth in darkness. Wherefore, O Friends, turn in, turn in, I beseech. you. There you want Christ, and there you must find Him; and blessed be God, there you may find Him. Seek and you shall find, I testify for God. But then you must seek aright, with your whole heart, as men that seek for their lives, yea, for their eternal lives; diligently, humbly, patiently, as those that can taste no pleasure, comfort, or satisfaction in anything else, unless you find Him whom your souls desire to know and love above all. Oh! it is a travail, a spiritual travail, let the carnal, profane world think and say as it will. And through this path you. must walk to the city of God, that has eternal foundations, if ever you will come there.

Well! and what does this blessed light do for you? Why, first, it sets all your sins in order before you; it detects the spirit of this world in all its baits and allurements, and shows how man came to fall from God, and the fallen estate he is in. Secondly, it begets a sense and

sorrow in such as believe in it, for this fearful lapse. You will then see Him distinctly whom you have pierced, and all the blows and wounds you have given Him by your disobedience, and how you have made Him to serve with your sins; and you will weep and mourn for it, and your sorrow will be a godly sorrow. Thirdly, after this it will bring you to the holy watch, to take care that you do so no more, and that the enemy surprise you not again. Then thoughts, as well as words and works, will come to judg ment; which is the way of holiness, in which the redeemed of the Lord do walk. Here you will come to love God above all, and your neighbors as yourselves. Nothing hurts, nothing harms, nothing makes afraid on this holy mountain. Now you come to be Christ's indeed; for you are his in nature and spirit, and not your own. And when you are thus Christ's, then Christ is yours, and not before. And here communion with the Father and with the Son you will know, and the efficacy of the blood of cleansing, even the blood of Jesus Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel; and which cleanseth from all sin the consciences of those that through the living faith come to be sprinkled with it, from dead works to serve the living God.

IN

XXII.

N the year 1695, an anonymous writer published what he called an answer to William Penn's Key; a tract which has been noticed under the transactions of 1692.

The writer, having charged him with prevarication, and attributed his conduct to an intemperate zeal for an unbounded liberty of conscience, according to the doctrine. of King James's declaration, William Penn refers him to several of his works which were published in Charles's time, to show that he always defended the same principles, and was not more intemperate in the reign that favored liberty of conscience than he was in the one which did not. To which he adds, "No man but a persecutor can, without great injustice or ingratitude, reproach that part I had in King James's court. For I think I may say, without vanity, upon this provocation, I endeavored at least to do some good at my own cost, and would have been glad to have done more. I am very sure I intended, and I think I did, harm to none, either parties or private persons, my own family excepted."

On the 5th of First month, 1696, William Penn accomplished his marriage at Bristol with Hannah Callowhill, daughter of Thomas Callowhill, and granddaughter of Dennis Hollister, both eminent merchants of that city.

Shortly after this he was subjected to a heavy trial, by the death of his eldest son, a youth of very promising