A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress Of the People called QUAKERS IN Which their Fundamental Principle Doctrines Worship Ministry and Discipline are Plainly Declared to prevent the Mistakes and Perversions that Ignorance and Prejudice may make to abuse the Credulous With a Summary Relation of the former Dispensations of God in the World by way of Introduction As unknown and yet well known 2 Cor. 6.9 By W. Penn. London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-Street and at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-lane near Shore-ditch 1694. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER READER this Following Account of the People called Quakers c. was writ in the Fear and Love of God First as a standing Testimony to that ever Blessed Truth in the inward Parts with which God 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 God has in his Great mercy gathered and united by his one blessed Spirit in the Holy Profession of it whose Fellowship I value above all Worldly Greatness Thirdly in Love and Honour to the Memory of that Worthy Servant of God G. 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 G. F'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 republisht 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 easie rate to be inform'd about this People that have been so much every where spoken against But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ it is upon no worse Ground 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 great change That all may come to an Inward Sensible and Experimental knowledge of God 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 God 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 W.P. THE CONTENTS Chap. I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this despised People called Quakers Chap. II. Of the Rise of this People their Fundamental Principle and Doctrines and Practice in twelve Points resulting from it their Progress and Sufferings An Expostulation with England thereupon Chap. III. Of the Qualifications of their Ministry Eleven Marks that it is Christian Chap. IV. Of the Discipline and Practice of this People as a Religious Society The Power Church they own and exercise and that which they reject and Condemn With the Method of their Proceedings against Erring and Disordering Persons Chap. V. Of the First Instrument or Person by whom God was pleased to gather this People into the way they Profess His Name G. Fox his many excellent Qualifications showing a Divine and not a Human Power to have been their Original in him His Troubles and Sufferings both from without and within His End and Triumph at it Chap. VI. Containing Five several Exhortations First General reminding this People of their Primitive Integrity and Simplicity Secondly in Particular to the Ministry Thirdly to the Young convinced Fourthly to the Children of Friends Fifthly to those that are yet Strangers to this People and Way to whom this Book and that it was Preface to in its former Edition may come All the several Exhortations accommodated to their several States and Conditions that all may answer the end of God's love to them viz. God's Glory and their own Salvation A BRIEF ACCOUNT c. CHAP I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this Despised People called Quakers 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 Restauration 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 Jarr 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 Worshipped 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 God 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 God 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 found out a way to Repair the Breach Recover the Loss and Restore fallen Man again by a Nobler 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 God in the Flesh in the fullness of Time was Personally and Fully accomplished by him and in him as Man's Saviour and Redeemer But his Power was not limitted 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 God 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 preheminence and Enoch walked with God 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 School-Master 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 and which ended in John's Ministry the Forerunner of the Messiah as John's was finished in him the Fullness of all And then God 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 Sonship Bringing in thereby a nearer Testament and a better hope even the Beginning of the Glory of the latter days and of the Restitution 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 shined in Darkness or but dimly before the most gracious God caused to Shine out of Darkness and the Day-star began to arise in the Hearts of Believers giving unto them the knowledge of God 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 Peace-makers 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 God be worshipped 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 worshipped 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 were 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 God did the Apostles Testifie whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit to turn the Jews from their Prejudice and Superstition and the Gentiles from their Vanity and Idolatry to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God 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 Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that come by Christ and appear in Man were that divine Principle the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches 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 God Born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God 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 Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew 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 pass For Christians degenerated a-pace 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
for not doing more for others than they can do for themselves And Christianity set aside if the Costs and Fruits of War were well considered Peace with all its Inconveniencies is generally Preferrable But tho' they were not for Fighting they were for submitting to Government and that not only for Fear but for Conscience Sake where Government doth not interfere with Conscience Believing it to be an Ordinance of God and where it is justly administred a great Benefit to Mankind Tho' it has been their Lot through blind Zeal in some and Interest in others to have felt the Strokes of it with greater Weight and Rigour than any other Perswasion in this Age whilst they of all others Religion set aside have given the Civil Magistrate the least occasion of Trouble in the Discharge of his Office V. Another part of the Character of this People was and is They refuse to pay Tythes or Maintenance to a National Ministry and that for two Reasons The one is They believe all compelled Maintenance even to Gospel Ministers to be Unlawful because expresly contrary to Christ's Command who said Freely you have received freely give At least that the Maintenance of Gospel Ministers should be free and not forced The other Reason of their Refusal is Because those Ministers are not Gospel Ones in that the Holy Ghost is not their Foundation but Humane Arts and Parts So that it is not matter of Humour or Sullenness but Pure Conscience towards God that they cannot help to support National Ministries where they dwell which are but too much and too visibly become ways of Worldly Advantage and Preferment VI. Not to respect Persons was and is another of their Doctrines and Practices for which they were often Buffetted and Abused They Affirmed it to be sinful to give Flattering Titles or to use Vain Gestures and Complements of Respect Tho' to Virtue and Authority they ever made a Difference but after their Plain and Homely Manner yet sincere and substantial way Well remembering the Examples of Mordecai and Elihu but more especially the Command of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ who forbad his Followers to call Men Rabbi which implies Lord or Master also the fashionable Greetings and Salutations of those Times that so Self-love and Honour to which the proud Mind of Man is incident in his fallen Estate might not be Indulged but Rebuked And tho' this render'd their Conversation disagreeable yet they that will remember what Christ said to the Jews How can ye believe in me who receive honour one of another will abate of their resentment if his Doctrine has any Credit with them VI. They also used the Plain Language of Thou and Thee to a single Person whatever was his Degree among Men. And indeed the Wisdom of God was much seen in bringing forth this People in so Plain an Appearance For it was a Close and Distinguishing Test upon the Spirits of those they came among shewing their Insides and what predominated notwithstanding their High and Great Profession of Religion This among the rest sounded so harsh to many of them and they took it so ill that they would say Thou me Thou my Dog If thou Thouest me I 'll thou thy Teeth down thy Throat forgetting the Language they use to God in their own Prayers and the common Stile of the Scriptures and that it is an absolute and essential Propriety of Speech And what good alas had their Religion done them who were so sensibly toucht with Indignation for the use of this Plain Honest and True Speech VII They recommended Silence by their Example having very few words upon all Occasions They were at a Word in Dealing Nor could their customers many Words tempt them from it having more regard for Truth than Custom to Example than Gain They sought Solitude but when in Company they would neither use nor willingly hear Vnnecessary as well as Vnlawful Discourses Whereby they preserved their Minds pure and undisturbed from unprofitable Thoughts and Diversions Nor could they humour the Custom of Good Night Good Morrow God Speed for they knew the Night was Good and the Day was Good without wishing of either and that in the other Expression the Holy Name of God was too lightly and unthinkingly used and therefore taken in Vain Besides they were Words and Wishes of Course and are usually as little meant as are Love and Service in the Custom of Cap and Knee and superfluity in those as well as in other things was Burthensom to them And therefore They did not only decline to use them but found themselves often press'd to reprove the Practice VIII For the same reason they forbore Drinking to People or Pledging of them as the manner of the World is A Practice that is not only Unnecessary but they thought Evil in the Tendencies of it being a Provocation to Drink more than did People good as well as that it was in it self Vain and Heathenish IX Their way of Marriage is peculiar to them and shews a distinguishing Care above other Societies professing Christianity They say that Marriage is an Ordinance of God and that God only can rightly joyn Man and Woman in Marriage Therefore they use neither Priest nor Magistrate but the Man and Woman concern'd take each other as Husband and Wife in the presence of divers Credible Witnesses promising unto each other with God's Assistance to be Loving and Faithful in that Relation till Death shall separate them But antecedent to all this They first present themselves to the Monthly Meeting for the Affairs of the Church where they reside there declaring their Intentions to take one another as Husband and Wife if the said Meeting have nothing material to object against it They are constantly askt the necessary Questions as in Case of Parents or Guardians if they have acquainted them with their Intention and have their Consent c. The Method of the Meeting is to take a Minute thereof and to appoint Proper Persons to enquire of their Conversation and Clearness from all others and whether they have discharged their Duty to their Parents or Guardians and make report thereof to the next Monthly Meeting where the same Parties are desired to give their Attendance In case it appears they have proceeded Orderly the Meeting Passes their Proposal and so Records it in their Meeting Book And in Case the Woman be a Widow and hath Children due care is there taken that Provision also be made by her for the Orphans before the Meeting pass the Proposal of Marriage Advising the Parties concerned to appoint a convenient Time and place and to give fitting Notice to their Relations and such Friends and Neighbours as they desire should be the Witnesses of their Marriage Where they take one another by the Hand and by Name promise Reciprocally Love and Fidelity after the manner before expressed Of all which Proceedings a Narrative in a way of Certificate is made to which the said Parties first set
Original in Him His Troubles and Sufferings both from without and within His End and Triumph I Am now come to the Third Head or Branch of my Preface viz. The Instrumental Author For it is Natural for some to say Well here is the People and Work but where and who was the Man the Instrument He that in this Age was sent to begin this Work and People I shall as God shall enable me declare who and what he was not only by report of others but from my own long and most inward Converse and intimate knowledge of him for which my Soul blesseth God as it hath often done And I doubt not but by that time I have discharged my self of this part of my Preface my serious Readers will believe I had good Cause so to do The Blessed Instrument of and in this day of God and of whom I am now about to Write was George Fox distinguished from another of that Name by that Other 's addition of Younger to his Name in all his Writings not that he was so in Years but that he was so in the Truth But he was also a Worthy Man Witness and Servant of God in his time But this George Fox was Born in Leicester-shire about the Year 1624. He descended of Honest and Sufficient Parents who endeavoured to bring him up as they did the rest of their Children in the Way and Worship of the Nation Especially his Mother who was a Woman accomplisht above most of her Degree in the place where she lived But from a Child he appeared of another Frame of Mind than the rest of his Brethren being more Religious Inward Still Solid and Observing beyond his Years as the Answers he would give and the Questions he would put upon occasion manifested to the Astonishment of those that heard him especially in Divine Things His Mother taking Notice of his Singular Temper and the Gravity Wisdom and Piety that very early shined through him refusing Childish and Vain Sports and Company when very Young She was Tender and Indulgent over him so that from her he met with little Difficulty As to his Employment he was brought up in Country Business and as he took most delight in Sheep so he was very skilful in them An Employment that very well suited his mind in several Respects both for its Innocency and Solitude and was a just Emblem of his after Ministry and Service I shall not break in upon his own Account which is by much the best that can be given and therefore desire what I can to avoid saying any thing of what is said already as to the particular Passages of his coming forth But in general when he was somewhat above Twenty he left his Friends and visited the most Retired and Religious People in those Parts And some there were short of few if any in this Nation who waited for the Consolation of Israel Night and Day as Zacherias Anna and good Old Simeon did of Old Time To these he was sent and these he sought out in the Neighbouring Countys and among them he Sojourned till his more ample Ministry came upon him At this time he taught and was an Example of Silence endeavouring to bring them from Self-performances Testifying of and turning them to the Light of Christ within them and encouraging them to wait in Patience to feel the Power of it to stir in their Hearts that their Knowledge and Worship of God might stand in the Power of an Endless Life which was to be found in the Light as it was obeyed in the Manifestation of it in man For in the Word was Life and that Life is the Light of Men. Life in the Word Light in Men and Life in Men too as the Light is obeyed The Children of the Light living by the Life of the Word by which the Word begets them again to God which is the Regeneration and New-Birth without which there is no coming into the Kingdom of God And to which whoever comes is greater than John that is than John's Dispensation which was not that of the Kingdom but the Consummation of the Legal and Forerunning of the Gospel Times the time of the Kingdom Accordingly several Meetings were gathered in those Parts and thus his Time was employed for some Years In 1652. He being in his usual Retirement his Minde exercised towards the Lord upon a very High Mountain in some of the hither parts of Yorkshire as I take it he had a Vision of the great Work of God in the Earth and of the way that he was to go forth in a publick Ministry to begin it He saw People as thick as Motes in the Sun that should in time be brought Home to the Lord that there might be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold in all the Earth There his Eye was directed Northward beholding a great People that should receive him and his Message in those Parts Upon this Mountain he was moved of the Lord to sound out his Great and notable Day as if he had been in a great Auditory and from thence went North as the Lord had shown him And in every place where he came if not before he came to it he had his particular Exercise and Service shown to him so that the Lord was his Leader indeed For it was not in vain that he Travailed God in most places sealing his Commission with the Convincement of some of all sorts as well Publicans as sober Professors of Religion Some of the first and most Eminent of those that came forth in a publick Ministry and which are now at Rest were Richard Farnsworth James Nayler William Dewsberry Tho. Aldam Francis Howgil Edward Burroughs John Camm John Audland Richard Hubberthorn T. Taylor T. Holmes Alexander Parker William Simpson William Catton John Stubbs Robert Withers Tho. Low Josiah Coale John Burnyeat Robert Lodge Thomas Salt-house and many more Worthies that cannot be well here Named together with divers yet living of the first Great Convincement who after the knowledge of God's purging Judgments in themselves and some time of waiting in silence upon him to feel and receive Power from on High to speak in his Name which none else rightly can though they may use the same Words They felt Its Divine Motions and were frequently drawn forth especially to visit the Publick Assemblies to reprove inform and exhort them Sometimes in Markets Fairs Streets and by the High-way-side calling People to Repentance and to turn to the Lord with their Hearts as well as their Mouths directing them to the Light of Christ within them to see examine and consider their ways by and to eschew the evil and do the Good and Acceptable Will of God And they suffered great Hardships for this their Love and Good-will being often Stockt Stoned Beaten Whipt and Imprisoned though Honest Men and of Good Report where they lived that had left Wives and Children and Houses and Lands to visit them with a living Call to Repentance