Part 1 (1/2)

A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers.

by William Penn.

AN EPISTLE TO THE READER.

Reader, this following account of the people called Quakers, &c. was written in the fear and love of G.o.d: first, as a standing testimony to that ever blessed truth in the inward parts, with which G.o.d, in my youthful time, visited my soul, and for the sense and love of which I was made willing, in no ordinary way, to relinquish the honours and interests of the world. Secondly, as a testimony for that despised people, that G.o.d has in his great mercy gathered and united by his own blessed Spirit in the holy profession of it; whose fellows.h.i.+p I value above all worldly greatness. Thirdly, in love and honour to the memory of that worthy servant of G.o.d, George Fox, the first instrument thereof, and therefore styled by me--The great and blessed apostle of our day. As this gave birth to what is here presented to thy view, in the first edition of it, by way of preface to George Fox's excellent Journal; so the consideration of the present usefulness of the following account of the people called Quakers, by reason of the unjust reflections of some adversaries that once walked under the profession of Friends, and the exhortations that conclude it, prevailed with me to consent that it should be republished in a smaller volume; knowing also full well, that great books, especially in these days, grow burthensome, both to the pockets and minds of too many; and that there are not a few that desire, so it be at an easy rate, to be informed about this people, that have been so much every where spoken against: but blessed be the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is upon no worse grounds than it was said of old time of the primitive Christians, as I hope will appear to every sober and considerate reader. Our business, after all the ill usage we have met with, being the realities of religion, an effectual change before our last and great change: that all may come to an inward, sensible, and experimental knowledge of G.o.d, through the convictions and operations of the light and spirit of Christ in themselves; the sufficient and blessed means given to all, that thereby all may come savingly to know the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to enlighten and redeem the world: which knowledge is indeed eternal life. And that thou, reader, mayst obtain it, is the earnest desire of him that is ever thine in so good a work.

WILLIAM PENN.

CHAP. I.

_Containing a brief account of divers dispensations of G.o.d in the world_, _to the time he was pleased to raise this despised people_, _called Quakers_.

Divers have been the dispensations of G.o.d 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 G.o.d on earth, and the glory of all his works. The world began with innocency; all was then good that the good G.o.d 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 work said Amen to his law.

Not a jar in the whole frame; but man in paradise, the beasts in the field, the fowl 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, wors.h.i.+pped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness.

O holy sabbath! O holy day to the Lord!

But this happy state lasted not long; for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded, against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity, and so fell below it; lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in; by which, being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of G.o.d, his proper dwelling and residence, and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beasts.

Yet G.o.d that made him had pity on him; for he, seeing man was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent, who had first fallen from his own state, and by the mediation of the woman, man's own nature and companion, whom the serpent had first deluded, in his infinite goodness and wisdom provided a way to repair the breach, recover the loss, and restore fallen man again by a n.o.bler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; that as by means of a woman the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman also he should come into the world, who would prevail against him, and bruise his head, and deliver man from his power: and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of G.o.d in the flesh, in the fulness of time was personally and fully accomplished by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer.

But his power was not limited, in the manifestation of it to that time; for both before and since his blessed manifestation in the flesh, he has been the light and life, the rock and strength of all that ever feared G.o.d; was present with them in their temptations, followed them in their travels and afflictions, and supported and carried them through and over the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, and Seth obtained the pre-eminence, and Enoch walked with G.o.d. It was this that strove with the old world, and which they rebelled against, and which sanctified and instructed Noah to salvation.

But the outward dispensation that followed the benighted state of man, after his fall, especially among the patriarchs, was generally that of angels; as the scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express, as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Moses, which was also delivered by angels, as the apostle tells us. This dispensation was much outward, and suited to a low and servile state; called therefore, by the apostle Paul, that of a schoolmaster, which was to point out and prepare that people to look and long for the Messiah, who would deliver them from the servitude of a ceremonious and imperfect dispensation, by knowing the realities of those mysterious representations in themselves. In this time the law was written on stone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood, and external rites and ceremonies, that were shadows of the good things that were to come, and were only to serve till the seed came, or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ, to whom was the promise, and to all men only in him, in whom it was yea and amen, even life from death, immortality and eternal life.

This the prophets foresaw, and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it; which was the top of the Mosaical dispensation, which ended in John's ministry, the forerunner of the Messiah, as John's was finished in him, the fulness of all. And then G.o.d, that at sundry times, and in divers manners, had spoken to the fathers by his servants the prophets, spoke to men by his Son Christ Jesus, who is heir of all things, being the gospel-day, which is the dispensation of sons.h.i.+p: bringing in thereby a nearer testament, and a better hope; even the beginning of the glory of the latter days, and of the rest.i.tution of all things; yea, the restoration of the kingdom unto Israel.

Now the spirit, that was more sparingly communicated in former dispensations, began to be poured forth upon all flesh, according to the prophet Joel; and the light that s.h.i.+ned in darkness, or but dimly before, the most gracious G.o.d caused to s.h.i.+ne out of darkness, and the day-star began to rise in the hearts of believers, giving unto them the knowledge of G.o.d in the face, or appearance, of his Son Christ Jesus.

Now the poor in spirit, the meek, the true mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righteousness, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the merciful and persecuted, came more especially in remembrance before the Lord, and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd. Old Jerusalem with her children grew out of date, and the new Jerusalem into request, the mother of the sons of the gospel-day. Wherefore, no more at old Jerusalem, nor at the mountain of Samaria, will G.o.d be wors.h.i.+pped above other places; for, behold, he is, by his own Son, declared and preached a Spirit, and that he will be known as such, and wors.h.i.+pped in the spirit and in the truth. He will now come nearer than of old time, and he will write his law in the heart, and put his fear and spirit in the inward parts, according to his promise. Then signs, types, and shadows flew away, the day having discovered their insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of the conscience; and all elementary services expired in and by him, that is the substance of all.

And to this great and blessed end of the dispensation of the Son of G.o.d, did the apostles testify, whom he had chosen and anointed by his spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice and superst.i.tion, and the Gentiles from their vanity and idolatry, to Christ's light and spirit that s.h.i.+ned in them; that they might be quickened from the sins and trespa.s.ses in which they were dead, to serve the living G.o.d, in the newness of the spirit of life, and walk as children of the light, and of the day, even the day of holiness: for such put on Christ, the light of the world, and make no more provision for the flesh, to fulfil the l.u.s.ts thereof. So that the light, spirit, and grace, that come by Christ, and appear in man, were that divine principle the apostles ministered from, and turned people's minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the church of Christ in their day. For which cause they advise them not to quench the spirit, but to wait for the spirit, and speak by the spirit, and pray by the spirit, and walk in the spirit too, as that which approved them the truly begotten children of G.o.d, born not of flesh and blood, or of the will of man, but of the will of G.o.d; by doing his will, and denying their own; by drinking of Christ's cup, and being baptized with his baptism of self-denial; the way and path that all the heirs of life have ever trod to blessedness.

But alas! even in the apostles' days, those bright stars of the first magnitude of the gospel light, some clouds, foretelling an eclipse of this primitive glory, began to appear; and several of them gave early caution of it to the Christians of their time, that even then there was, and yet would be more and more, a falling away from the power of G.o.dliness, and the purity of that spiritual dispensation, by such as sought to make a fair show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of the cross ceased. Yet with this comfortable conclusion, that they saw beyond it a more glorious time than ever to the true church. Their sight was true; and what they foretold to the churches, gathered by them in the name and power of Jesus, came to pa.s.s: for Christians degenerated apace into outsides, as days, and meats, and divers other ceremonies. And, which was worse, they fell into strife and contention about them; separating one from another, then envying, and, as they had power, persecuting one another, to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity, and grievous stumbling and offence of the heathen; among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them. And having got at last the worldly power into their hands, by kings and emperors embracing the Christian profession, they changed, what they could, the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, into a worldly kingdom; or, at least, styled the worldly kingdom that was in their hands, the kingdom of Christ, and so they became worldly and not true Christians.

Then human inventions and novelties, both in doctrine and wors.h.i.+p, crowded fast into the church; a door opened thereunto, by the grossness and carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians, who had long since left the guidance of G.o.d's meek and heavenly spirit, and given themselves up to superst.i.tion, will-wors.h.i.+p, and voluntary humility. And as superst.i.tion is blind, so it is heady and furious, for all must stoop to its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it: in the name of the spirit, persecuting the very appearance of the spirit of G.o.d in others, and opposing that in others, which they resisted in themselves, viz. the light, grace, and spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; but always under the notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some such plausible name; though Christianity allows of no name, or pretence whatever, for persecuting of any man for matters of mere religion, being in its very nature meek, gentle, and forbearing; and consists of faith, hope, and charity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he remains a persecutor; in that a man cannot believe well, or hope well, or have a charitable or tender regard to another, whilst he would violate his mind, or persecute his body, for matters of faith or wors.h.i.+p towards his G.o.d.

Thus the false church sprang up, and mounted the chair; but, though she lost her nature, she would needs keep her good name of the Lamb's bride, the true church, and mother of the faithful: constraining all to receive her mark, either in their forehead, or right-hand; that is, publicly, or privately. But, in deed and in truth, she was mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots, mother of those that, with all their show and outside of religion, were adulterated and gone from the spirit, nature, and life of Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious, covetous, cruel, &c. which are the fruits of the flesh, and not of the spirit.

Now it was, that the true church fled into the wilderness, that is, from superst.i.tion and violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state: hidden, and as it were, out of sight of men, though not out of the world.

Which shows, that her wonted visibility was not essential to the being of a true church in the judgment of the Holy Ghost; she being as true a church in the wilderness, though not as visible and l.u.s.trous, as when she was in her former splendor of profession. In this state many attempts she made to return, but the waters were yet too high, and her way blocked up; and many of her excellent children, in several nations and centuries, fell by the cruelty of superst.i.tion, because they would not fall from their faithfulness to the truth.

The last age did set some steps towards it, both as to doctrine, wors.h.i.+p, and practice. But practice quickly failed: for wickedness flowed, in a little time, as well among the professors of the reformation, as those they reformed from; so that by the fruits of conversation they were not to be distinguished. And the children of the reformers, if not the reformers themselves, betook themselves, very early, to earthly policy and power, to uphold and carry on their reformation that had been begun with spiritual weapons; which I have often thought has been one of the greatest reasons the reformation made no better progress, as to the life and soul of religion. For whilst the reformers were lowly and spiritually minded, and trusted in G.o.d, and looked to him, and lived in his fear, and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor sought deliverance in their own way, there were daily added to the church such as, one might reasonably say, should be saved: for they were not so careful to be safe from persecution, as to be faithful and inoffensive under it: being more concerned to spread the truth by their faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the worldly power out of their hands that inflicted those sufferings upon them: and it will be well if the Lord suffer them not to fall, by the very same way they took to stand.

In doctrine they were in some things short; in other things, to avoid one extreme, they ran into another: and for wors.h.i.+p, there was, for the generality, more of man in it than of G.o.d. They owned the spirit, inspiration, and revelation, indeed, and grounded their separation and reformation upon the sense and understanding they received from it, in the reading of the scriptures of truth. And this was their plea; the scripture is the text, the spirit the interpreter, and that to every one for himself. But yet there was too much of human invention, tradition, and art, that remained both in praying and preaching; and of worldly authority, and worldly greatness in their ministers; especially in this kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some parts of Germany. G.o.d was therefore pleased in England to s.h.i.+ft us from vessel to vessel; and the next remove humbled the ministry, so that they were more strict in preaching, devout in praying, and zealous for keeping the Lord's day, and catechising of children and servants, and repeating at home in their families what they had heard in public. But even as these grew into power, they were not only for whipping some out, but others into the temple: and they appeared rigid in their spirits, rather than severe in their lives, and more for a party than for piety: which brought forth another people, that were yet more retired and select.