XXI.

IN the year 1694 William Penn wrote a preface to the Journal of George Fox, who died, as already mentioned, in 1690. The preface is a treatise of itself, and has been frequently published separately from the work to which it was originally prefixed, under the title of "THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS."

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Divers have been the dispensations of God since the creation of the world unto the sons of men; but the great end of all of them has been the renown of his own excellent name in the creation and restoration of man-man, the emblem of Himself, as a god on earth and the glory of all his works. The world began with innocency. All was then good that the good God had made; and as He blessed the works of his hands, so their natures and harmony magnified Him their Creator. Then the morning. stars sang together for joy, and all parts of his works said Amen to his law; not a jar in the whole frame; but man in paradise, the beasts in the field, the fowls in the air, the fish in the sea, the lights in the heavens, the fruits of the earth; yea, the air, the earth, the water and fire worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness. O holy sabbath! O holy day to the Lord!

[After speaking of the fall of man, the successive dispensations of God, the apostasy from Christianity, and the progress of the reformation to his own time, he writes:]

It was about that time that the eternal, wise, and good God was pleased, in his infinite love, to honor and visit this benighted and bewildered nation with his glorious dayspring from on high; yea, with a most sure and certain sound of the word of light and life, through the testimony of a chosen vessel, to an effectual and blessed purpose can many thousands say, Glory be to the name of the Lord forever!

For as it reached the conscience, and broke the heart, and brought many to a sense and search, so that which people had been vainly seeking without, with much pains and cost, they by this ministry found within, where it was they wanted what they sought for, viz., the right way to peace with God. For they were directed to the light of Jesus Christ within them, as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of God; near all because in all, and God's talent to all, a faithful and true witness and just monitor in every bosom, the gift and grace of God to life and salvation that appears to all, though few regard it.

God owned his own work, and this testimony did effectually reach, gather, comfort, and establish the weary and heavy laden, the hungry and thirsty, the poor and needy, the mournful and sick of many maladies, that had spent all upon physicians of no value, and waited for relief from heaven, help only from above, seeing, upon a serious trial of all things, nothing else would do but Christ himself— the light of his countenance, a touch of his garment, and

help from his hand, who cured the poor woman's issue, raised the centurion's servant, the widow's son, the ruler's daughter, and Peter's mother. And liker they no sooner felt his power and efficacy upon their souls, but they gave up to obey Him, in a testimony to his power, and with resigned wills and faithful hearts, through all mockings, contradictions, beatings, prisons, and many other jeopardies that attended them, for his blessed name's sake.

And as their testimony was to the principle of God in man, the precious pearl and leaven of the kingdom, as the only blessed means appointed of God to quicken, convince, and sanctify man, so they opened to them what it was in itself, and what it was given to them for, how they might know it from their own spirit, and that of the subtle appearance of the evil one; and what it would do for all those whose minds are turned off from the vanity of the world and its lifeless ways and teachers, and adhere to this blessed light in themselves, which discovers and condemns sin in all its appearances, and shows how to overcome it, if minded and obeyed in its holy manifestations and convictions; giving power to such to avoid and resist those things that do not please God; and to grow strong in love, faith, and good works, that so man, whom sin hath made as a wilderness overrun with briars and thorns, might become as the garden of God, cultivated by his divine power, and replenished with the most virtuous and beautiful plants of God's own right-hand planting, to his eternal praise.

But these experimental preachers of glad tidings of God's truth and kingdom could not run when they list, or pray or preach when they pleased, but as Christ their

Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own blessed Spirit, for which they waited in their services and meetings, and spoke as that gave them utterance. They were diligent to plant and to water, and the Lord blessed their labors with an exceeding great increase, notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed progress by false rumors, calumnies, and bitter persecutions.

Two things are to be considered, the doctrine they taught and the example they led among all people. I have already touched upon their fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric; and, indeed, to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic or main distinguishing point or principle, viz., the light of Christ within as God's gift for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now mention in their natural and experimental order.

First, repentance from dead works to serve the living God, which comprehends three operations: first, a sight of sin; secondly, a sense and godly sorrow for it; thirdly, an amendment for the time to come. This was the repentance they preached and pressed, and a natural result from the principle they turned all people unto. For of light came sight, and of sight came sense and sorrow, and of sense and sorrow came amendment of life; which doctrine of repentance leads to justification, that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, through Christ the alone propitiation; and to the sanctification or purgation of the soul from the defiling nature and habits of sin present, by the Spirit of Christ in the soul, which is justification in the complete sense of that word, comprehending both jus

tification from the guilt of the sins that are past (as if they had never been committed), through the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and the creature's being made inwardly just through the cleansing and sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the soul, which is commonly called sanctification. But that none can come to know Christ to be their sacrifice that reject Him as their sanctifier, the end of his coming being to save his people from the nature and defilement, as well as guilt of sin; and that, therefore, those that resist his light and Spirit make his coming and offering of none effect to them.

From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of the high calling to all true Christians, viz., perfection from sin, according to the Scriptures of Truth; which testify it to be the end of Christ's coming, and the nature of his kingdom, and for which his Spirit was and is given, viz., to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, and holy, because God is holy. And this the apostles labored for, that the Christians should be sanctified throughout in body, soul, and spirit; but they never held a perfection in wisdom and glory in this life, or from natural infirmities, or death, as some have, with a weak or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against them.

This they called a redeemed state, regeneration, or the new birth; teaching everywhere according to their foundation, that without this work were known, there was no inheriting the kingdom of God.

Thirdly, this leads to an acknowledgment of eternal rewards and punishments, as they have good reason; for else, of all people, certainly they must be the most miser