The two epistles immediately following, are those referred to in a preceding paragraph. "For my dear, honourable brethren, who are or may be sentenced to be transported to the isles beyond the sea, for the testimony of the name of the Lord Jesus. "For those, from whom the Lord hath suffered or shall suffer their dear and tender husbands to be separated beyond the seas or elsewhere, for the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ." "Dear handmaids, whom the Lord hath counted worthy to part with your dear, and tender husbands, for his name— -assuredly, many put their shoulders to help to bear the burden of your trials this day. O, the tears and breakings of heart, that are poured forth before the Lord for your dear husbands, and lies of many prayers, and assuredly shall be your tender children! You are famiknown to be families of many mercies. Be you and "My dear Friends, in the suffering of the Lamb, who liveth and reigneth forever and ever, and shall overcome all his enemies in the day determined, when all his enemies shall bow under the soles of his feet, then shall all that oppress you, call you the blessed of the Lord. O my dear brethren! lift up your heads in the light and life of Jesus, for whom you suffer; abide in his light: reign over your thoughts, either of wife or children, or what-content with your cup, handed forth to you; ever would trouble your minds, for giving up freely in this your testimony. The Lord is with you, and thousands shall bless the name of the Lord for your faithful testimony, which shall sound over nations, to gather the people. "O, my dear brethren, triumph in the face of all your enemies! it shall be well with you, wheresoever the Lord suffers you to be carried; and as to your wives and children, the Lord hath said, it shall be well with them; the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon them and with you, to the comfort of the isles that wait for his law. Therefore, in the peaceable power of the Lord, go on, you chosen brethren of the suffering seed, which the Lord hath blessed. Blessed be the day, that the Lord called you by his power, to stand faithful in what he requires of you; in which living testimony, your memorial shall never perish, but preach to ages and generations, to the glory of the name of our God! Go on with gladness, for it is to bring in the seed from the ends of the earth, that our brethren may come from far, and our sisters from the ends of the world. sight of Plymouth, when she was taken by a Dutch man-of-war, and carried into Holland. When they came into Holland, the States there sent the banished Friends back to England with a letter of passport and a certificate [to show] that they had not made an escape, but were sent back by them. But, in time, the Lord's power wrought over this storm, and many of our persecutors were confounded and put to shame."-Journal, fol. edit. 1786. p. 384. and bless the name of the Lord, that you are accounted worthy to be the first fruits. What could the Lord do more for you, than count you worthy to suffer in this nature, and give you such husbands, who are set as lights in the face of all people; let it be seen that you bands. Stand over the affectionate part, and love the Lord Jesus more than your dear hussolace your souls in the love and life of the Lord Jesus, your eternal husband and the comforter of your earthly husbands. He will make us all rejoice in whatever he calls us unto, we diligently watching and judging ourselves, and resting in the light and in the will of God. In which, the Lord establish you, for whom the soul of your brother breathes daily to the Lord, to strengthen you and your dear husbands and all that love the Lord Jesus Christ; in whom, fare you well! "Warwick common jail, 10th of "W. D." The following epistle belongs to this period; and it is subjoined for the information and satisfaction of those, who have faith to receive it as an evidence, in addition to those which have preceded, that the flock of Christ is not left alone and comfortless in the day of trouble, affliction, and distress. "To all faithful and suffering members in all holes, prisons, and jails, for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ; with the rest of the faithful, wherever scattered. "Dear brethren and sisters! "Hear the word of the Lord:-thus saith the Lord, though you now drink the cup of adversity, and eat the bread of affliction, and are trampled upon as though you were not worthy to live upon the earth, yet, notwithstanding all the fury of men, you are resolved in the strength of his spirit, forever to be deprived of the sweet enjoyments of wife, husband, tender children, parents, and outward the testimony of his name. He will go before you, through all the waters and floods of afflictions; and will appear with you before the councils of men; and his saving power shall compass you about in your hot and sharp afflictions, all you who have your confidence alone in the Lord your God. "Therefore trust in his name, and cast all your care upon him. And if any of you joyfully suffer the spoiling of your goods, he will supply what is needful for you and yours. And if any of you seal your testimony in the word of his patience with your blood, he will take care of your tender wives and children, or parents, for whom your souls have been poured forth in prayers for their good. possessions, liberty and life, [rather than] deny jewels, and counted you worthy to suffer for the testimony of his name before the sons of men. "Oh! you dear and tender children, who love not your lives unto death this day, that you may finish a good testimony for the glory of the Lord God; lift up your heads in the light of his covenant, and believe in his name, for he is near you, even the mighty God of safety. And let not any weight or burden lie upon you; for He will be more than a husband to wife, and more than wife to husband, or parents to children, or children to parents; yea, He will be a husband to the widow, and a father to the children who are deprived of their tender parents for his name's sake. He will enlarge your borders in the life of righteousness. You that suffer in true innocency, will he refresh with the depth of his mercies. "Therefore hear the word which is sounded Yea, he will guard you with the angel of his unto you. Rejoice not too much in spirits presence, and all that devise mischief against being made subject, but throw down your you, shall be confounded before the glory of crowns before him, that there be not a selfhis power, with which he will keep and pre-seeking, self-serving spirit in the family of his serve you in the word of his patience, in people. But feel the birth immortal raised up safety, in his presence. in the resurrection of life in you all, which truly makes self of no reputation; so that all loftiness be laid low, and all haughtiness bowed down in every one. Thus the Lord God, may be loved, obeyed, and exalted in you all: who is taking to him his great power, to exalt the meek upon the earth, and to reign over all the pride of the children of men, who are exalted above the witness in their consciences; so that his sons may be brought from afar, and his daughters from the ends of the earth, in the sight of all people; whom he will make to confess, in subjection to his power, that you are the people of God, and of the righteous seed which the Lord hath blessed. Not any weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, but come to naught, which will be hastened and certainly per formed, according to what is here declared, to your comfort and joy. And you shall assuredly know, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. "Therefore, dear children, who drink the deepest in sufferings, think it not hard; for it is his purpose unto you all, that have not any eye to self, but alone seek his glory in all that you do, to make you more and more honourable, and double his blessings upon you and yours. For he has beheld your integrity, and is mightily moved in compassion towards you. Therefore he is risen for your sake, to declare unto you, that not a hair of your head shall perish, neither shall you be detained in prisons and desolate holes any longer than he has determined shall be for your good, and the glory of his name. Therefore stand faithful; resist every evil thought, or whatever would cause you to murmur, or desire anything but what you know will advance the glory of his name, and the exaltation of his truth, over all that riseth up against it; in your being truly subject to the measure of light and life, that will not let any seek pre-eminence or esteem amongst men. Neither let self-striving nor self-serving have power in any; but in true humility, love and meekness, watch one over another; and let the strong take the weak by the hand, that you may all gently, in love, meekness, and holy fear, serve one another and dread his name; that your love may be manifest one unto another, in the simplicity of your spirits. Then will he make his dwelling amongst you, and with you; and his glorious presence you shall feel mightily in you and amongst you, moving in the exercise of his spirit, to the renown of his name, and the comfort one of another. And he will crown you with heavenly blessings; and you shall praise his name forever, that he made you his "The word of the Lord, before expressed, came to me in the prison-house at Warwick, the 13th day of the first month, 1664; which constrained me to send it to be read amongst you, dear, faithful, and suffering people of God, in whom I remain your brother and companion in tribulation and kingdom of patience in the Lord Jesus Christ. "W. D." CHAPTER XVI. Grounds on which Friends were willing to endure such sufferings-Statement of their principles-Additional testimony from Penington. In the last chapter we have seen, how the malice of the grand adversary of mankind any of those always, that it did not contradict was exercised towards those, who in that day, by the powerful efforts they were making, threatened to shake his kingdom to its very foundation. Friends had taken their station in the front of the battle, in which the nation was then engaged for the security of its rights Unjust laws, together with antichristian and liberties. They, however, fought not as practices, and even those in private or comothers did. They wrestled not with flesh and mon life that were vain or sinful, were things blood, neither were the weapons they wield- against which they kept up a continual wared carnal. With spiritual weapons they fare; refusing compliance with the former, contended against principalities and powers, and zealously reproving the latter, on all against the rulers of the darkness of this occasions, and without respect of persons, world, and against spiritual wickedness in as they were led by the Spirit of Truth: high places. No instrument could have been patiently enduring whatever sufferings they easily constructed, to put the constancy of this might be obnoxious to, from thus exercising faithful band more fully to the test, than the themselves to have a conscience void of ofact against conventicles; which, to the inflic- fence towards God and towards man. tion of fine and imprisonment, now added the greater part of forty years they perseconfiscation and banishment; with the deter- vered, through grievous persecutions, in their mination, if it had been possible, to bend their resistance to man's usurpation of a prerogative steadfast wills under the despotism of the pre-over conscience, to which he has no real vailing power, and make them bow to the image of the day. Friends saw that the stake was great, and that the trust confided to them was no less so. The cause was the Lord's, not their own; and their success, through his faithfulness who stood by and protected them, was beyond anything that mere human energy could have accomplished. But such of my readers, as look upon the views of Friends to have been merely sectarian, may still be disposed to inquire what the object was, the attainment of which the Quakers proposed to themselves, that could possibly afford them an equivalent, either present or future, in return for the dreadful sufferings they thus patiently and perseveringly endured. I answer, they suffered for the testimony of a good conscience, and many of them were Christian martyrs, in the comprehensive sense of the word. Their cause was identified with the broad principles and catholic spirit of Christianity itself, and was by no means sectarian. But to satisfy an inquiry of this kind, it will be necessary to speak more in detail, and to define with some precision, though briefly, those points in the religious opinions and practices of that period, in which their consciences were so deeply involved. They laid it down as a principle of paramount importance, that no earthly power ought to be suffered to interfere in matters of conscience. With this fundamental principle once established in their minds, they hesitated not to show by an open, decided, and intrepid line of conduct, that they were sincere in as serting to be truth, whatever was thus solemnly and clearly impressed upon their minds as such, however greatly it might be opposed to prevailing notions, or at variance with human laws and long established custom; provided For claim; until they saw their desires in some measure answered, by a considerable alteration in the laws, as well as a manifest amelioration in public feeling. With regard to their religious opinions, they may be briefly stated as follows: they asserted it to be a doctrine clearly deducible from Scripture itself, that unless the truths of the Gospel are by revelation of the divine spirit sealed to the mind of man, he must remain without a true perception of their import, and so fail to obtain that saving knowledge of the truth, which those writings are intended to impart. While they asserted this as regards the holy Scriptures, they were strenuous in affirming it as their belief, upon a foundation no less solid, that the love of God to man is such and so universal, that he has provided for the salvation of all his creatures, if they on their part do not wilfully reject the offers of his love in Christ Jesus. That Christ, being the "true light that lighteth every one that comes into the world," and by whom all things that are reprovable are made manifest,-believing in the light, is virtually believing in Christ, and following the light which teacheth temperance, righteousness, and godliness, is following Christ, although he may never have been heard of by the outward ear.* That, as it is this divine light which reproves the heart of all individuals for sin, so it would work out the salvation of all, if not resisted: nor is it less universal than the seed of sin; being the purchase of his blood, who "tasted death for every man." Thus, all among the heathen who are saved, are accepted for Christ's sake, in their obedience to that measure of light and grace, however small, which they have severally received. or derogate from the atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ; but on the contrary, do magnify and exalt it. For as we believe all those things to have been certainly transacted, which are recorded in the holy Scriptures concerning the birth, life, miracles, sufferings, resurrection and ascension of Christ; so we do also believe that it is the duty of every one to believe it to whom it pleases God to reveal the same, and to bring to them the knowledge of it; yea we believe it were damnable unbelief not to believe it, when so declared; but to resist that holy Seed, which, as minded, would lead and incline every one to believe it as it is offered unto them, though it revealeth not in every one the outward and explicit knowledge of it, nevertheless it always assenteth to it ubi declaratur, where it is declared. Nevertheless, as we firmly believe it was necessary that Christ should come, that by his death and sufferings he might offer up himself a sacrifice to God for our sins, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; so we believe that the remission of sins which any partake of, is only in and by virtue of that most satisfactory sacrifice, and no otherwise. For it is by the obedience of that one that the free gift is come upon all to justification. For we affirm, that as all men partake of the fruit of Adam's fall, in that by reason of that evil seed, which through him is communicated unto them, they are prone and inclined unto evil, though thousands of thousands be ignorant of Adam's fall, neither ever knew of the eating of the forbidden fruit; so also many may come to feel the influence of this holy and divine seed and light, and be turned from evil to good by it, though they knew nothing of Christ's coming in the flesh, through whose obedience and sufferings it is purchased unto them. And as we affirm it is absolutely needful, that those do believe the history of Christ's outward appearance, whom it pleased God to bring to the knowledge of it; so we do freely confess, that even that outward knowledge is very comfortable to such as are subject to, and led by the inward seed and light. For not only doth the sense of Christ's love and sufferings tend to humble them, but they are thereby also strengthened in their faith, and encouraged to follow that excellent pattern which he hath left us, who suffered for us, as saith the apostle Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 21. leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps and many times we are greatly edified and refreshed with the gracious sayings which proceed out of his mouth. The history then is profitable and comfortable with the mystery, and never without it; but the mystery is and may be profitable without the explicit and outward knowledge of the history." [Editors of F. Library.] Consistently with the foregoing statement, respecting "the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," they believed it to be one with Him, who, in the Revelation of the apostle John, is called "the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God;" and therefore, that all who desire to experience a being created anew in Christ Jesus, must be found walking in the light, as he is in the light, in which alone is to be enjoyed that holy fellowship, which is with the saints in light, and that cleansing from all sin which is by the blood of the everlasting covenant. Thus, without defining the order in which the great work is accomplished, regeneration, including sanctification and justification, is truly experienced. And On these general principles were based some of those particular views which made Friends so offensive in their early days. By these were regulated their opinions, or rather their conclusions, on the subject of Gospel ministry; which excluded pay for preaching, and human appointments or acquirements, as necessary for this important work. They were strenuous in their belief, that true Gopel ministry was a thing very different from that which passed for it in the world. From Him who instructed them they learned, agreeably with the testimony of the holy Scriptures, that Gospel ministry, can only be exercised by virtue of a gift received from Christ, and under the immediate influence of his spirit; and that therefore, no unregenerate person can ever really be one of his ministers. although multitudes intruded themselves into that sacred office, under the sanction of prevailing opinions and established systems, Friends bore a decided, a conscientious, and a living testimony, against all exercise of ministerial functions, unless authorized as above. They also deprecated in the strongest terms any system of maintenance, whether of tithe or otherwise, which, by instituting a stipendiary ministry, tended to pervert the Gospel of Christ, to annul his express injunction, "Freely ye have received, freely give," and to sanction the practice of trading in holy things. This they were taught to consider as wholly unscriptural and antichristian, and therefore embracing within itself the principles of its own destruction; inasmuch as, if incurring divine disapprobation, though the system might be long permitted, the purposes of the Almighty would ultimately be fulfilled, as his will prevails through the earth, in its utter extinction. With opinions such as these, not lightly taken up, but under exercises of no ordinary character, the early Friends went forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; and it is not too much to say of a large proportion of outward observances, though in connexion them, that they were wise as serpents and with a belief in Christ and a reliance upon harmless as doves. When George Fox at the his merits, yet to the virtual exclusion or unLord's command went forth, as a minister of dervaluing of that inward work, the being the everlasting Gospel, "the world," says he, born again of the spirit, without which, our "was like a briary, thorny wilderness." "And Saviour himself has expressly told us, we again, “When I came, in the Lord's mighty cannot see the kingdom of God. In confor power with the word of life, into the world, mity with these views, they found themselves the world swelled and made a noise like the called upon to lay aside both water bapraging waves of the sea. Priests and profes- tism and the use of the bread and wine, callsors, magistrates and people, were all like a ed the sacrament; feeling their minds engaged sea, when I came to proclaim the day of the rather to press after and by all means to hold Lord amongst them, and to preach repentance up that spiritual baptism, and also that union to them." And it was no matter of surprise and communion with Christ as the bread of that such should have been the case. Those life, which is essential and complete in itself. views, which he and the early Friends were "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat led to take of Christian doctrine and the prin- the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his ciples of individual practice, were such, as to make them appear not only very singular, but their zealous and public reproof of what they justly esteemed to be evil, whether in the root or in the fruit, made them "seem to be opposed to existing institutions and enemies to all sorts of men;" but it was " for the Lord's sake.' blood, ye have no life in you." "Behold I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." They saw to the end of all wars and fightings, and were called to renounce them, together with the root from whence they spring. In the same way, they laid aside all oaths, agreeably with the command of Christ and his apostle, and in conformity with an evidence which they felt in themselves, that the bond of an oath was no longer necessary where the truth of the Gospel has become the governing principle of the soul. This became the fruitful source of suffering to Friends in Having a testimony given them to bear against "a hireling ministry," they found it to be their place to resist, passively, the payment of all demands of an ecclesiastical nature; as well as to endeavour, in the most active and zealous manner, by their preaching and by their writings, to open the eyes of the people to the deception by which they were beguiled, and the bondage which enthralled them. This the early times. they were enabled to do, through the faithful Those matters which relate to their outward exercise of their several gifts, in a very pow-deportment, dress and address, were the inerful and effectual manner; and it was one main source of the sufferings which the early Friends had to endure. Another branch of that ministry which was committed to them, was that of drawing people off from a dependence upon those forms and ceremonies so much insisted upon in religion, and directing their attention to the substance, to that "ingrafted word," which is able to save the soul. With this view they testified to all kinds of professors, that "the incorruptible seed and word of God, that liveth and abideth forever," is that by which the great work of regeneration is begun, carried forward, and perfected in the souls of men,and only in proportion as there is a co-operation therewith by obedience to its manifestations. This exposed them to much obloquy, and gained them many enemies; among those, more especially, who were either selfishly interested in, or superstitiously attached to, what are called the ordinances of religion:-such as placed all their hopes upon the practice of cessant occasion of persecution and abuse. As these wounded the pride of men, so they excited the contempt and malice of the corrupt nature. The refusing to take off the hat, for instance, excepting as a sign of worship to Almighty God, was one of the things that in those days put to the proof the spirit, by which professors and others were too much actuated. For although it is in itself a small matter, it was grievously offensive to the proud nature of man; and on that account occasioned Friends as much reproach and persecution, as some things of far greater moment, in which they were led to differ from other men. The reader is now in possession of the chief particulars wherein Friends became so obnoxious to their contemporaries; and by means of which they drew upon themselves that large amount of suffering, they had for so long a period to endure; this, however, eventually purchased for the community at large, as well as for themselves, much of the liberty they have since enjoyed. The following short paragraphs, from a writer already 36 |