cause it once was. What is become of Antioch, Jerufalem, &c. both churches of Chrift, and before ROME? Nor is it number; (the Devil has that) nor antiquity; (for he has that) but CHRIST-LIKENESS and conformity to Jefus; who hath divorced those that have adulterated: and though he had left but two or three (though there were thousands) yet he would be in the midst of them: and they have been in the wilderness, people crying in fackcloth. The generality declined from CHRIST'S SPIRIT, and it was loft, and the teachings of it: and then came up FORM without POWER, and a wrathful spirit to propagate it; and this made up the great whore, that looked like the Lamb's bride, Chrift's church, but was not, which God will judge. Remember, that God was not without a church, though the natural church and priesthood of the Jews apoftatized: fo in the cafe of the church of Rome. Now is the Lord raifing up his old power, and • giving his Spirit, and moving upon the waters (the people) that out of that ftate all may come, and know God in spirit, and Chrift his Son, whom he has fent into people's hearts, a True LIGHT. And, ? my friend, build not upon fancies, nor the traditions of men, but CHRIST, the fure foundation, as he appears to thee in thy confcience; that thou mayest feel his power to redeem thee up to himself, out of the earthly fenfual fpirit, to know thy right eye plucked out, the true mortification; and this brings thee to the church of the FIRST-BORN, that is more <divine and noble than an outward glittering church, that is inwardly polluted: for know, as thou fowest, thou reapest, in the great day of account. So to God's Spirit, in thy own confcience, do I recommend thee, that leads out of all evil, and quickens thee to God, as thou obeyeft it, and makes thee a child of God, and an heir of glory. I am, in much hafte, and as much love, In the 12th month of this year, one Matthew Hide, a person that had been very troublefome in the Quakers meetings, by oppofing their minifters in their publick teftimony and prayers, was taken fick; and on his death-bed, being under great remorfe of confcience for what he had done, he could not be easy till he had fent for fome of that people, and particularly George Whitehead, to whom he expreffed great forrow for the abufes done them, declaring them to be the children of God, and begging mercy of the Lord for his wilful oppofition to known truth in gainsaying them; and died penitent. This gave occafion to our author to publish, as a warning to others, a narrative, entitled, "Saul fmitten to the Ground." In the year 1676, he became one of the proprietors of West Jersey in America, and was inftrumental in the first colonizing of that province by the English: for King Charles II. having given the propriety of that country to the Duke of York, he granted the fame to Sir George Berkley and the Lord Carteret, the former of whom fold his part to one Edward Billing, a Quaker; whofe circumftances in the world afterward declining, he transferred his right to William Penn, Gawen Lawrey, and Nicholas Lucas, in trust for the payment of his debts: they accordingly allotted out and fold the lands; and many people from England transported themselves, and fettling there, in a few years it became a flourishing plantation, and fo continues. The chief town of it is Burlington, fituate on the great river Delaware. But we return to religious matters. About this time it pleafed God to infpire the hearts of two proteftant ladies of great quality in Germany, with a fenfe of the follies and vanities of the world, and to excite them to an earnest inquiry after the knowledge of Himself. The one was the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick V. Prince Palatine of the Rhine and King of Bohemia, grand-daughter to King James I. and fifter to Prince Rupert, and the late Princess Sophia, King George the Firft's mother: the the other, Anna Maria de Hornes, Countess of Hornes, a familiar acquaintance of the faid princefs. The report of their religious inclination coming to our author's intelligence, who embraced every opportunity of watering the growing feeds of virtue, he fent them a letter of encouragement and confolation, exhorting those noble women to a conftancy and perfeverance in that holy way which the Lord had directed their feet into. The letter itself, though large, being worthy of the reader's perufal, he will find in this collection. In the year 1677, he travelled into Holland and Germany; an account of which, written and published by himself, is likewise hereafter inferted. Soon after his return from Holland, he wrote a letter in answer to one he had received from John Pennyman, a person who had once profeffed himself a Quaker, but was now become an appafer of them; part of which letter containing advice well adapted to the cafe of fuch a backflider, we here fubjoin. 'I TO JOHN PENNYMAN," JOHN PENNYMAN, Received a letter from thee fince my arrival in this land.Let me tell thee, in the spirit of ⚫ truth and meekness, my foul has been frequently fad • and heavy for thy fake, because of thofe degenerate and four grapes which thou haft brought forth, the ⚫ unnatural and unkindly fruits that of late years have ⚫ proceeded from thee. Ah! Whence art thou fallen, and what art thou turned to? What is become of thy tenderness and thy zeal for the way of truth, as profeffed amongst us? Verily thou art increafing thy burthen, and ftrengthening the Lord's judgment against thee, and treasuring up wrath against the day ⚫ of wrath. Hadft thou been told of the things thou haft done, ⚫ ten years fince, thou wouldst never have believed it; thou • thou wouldst have cried out, "God forbid! far be "it from me!" But one weakness brings on another, and one unfaithfulness increaseth another. O that <thou wouldst be advised! That thou wouldst fee from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and turn to thy first love, and do thy firft works; for I have nothing but love and good-will in my heart, both to thee and thy wife; and it is with the grief of a friend of God, and of you both, that I behold the evil and pernicious ufe that fome envious, prejudiced, and ⚫ unreasonable people make of you, and your carriage to us; yet fcorn and deride you in their hearts, after they have ferved their turns of you. O return, if yet mercy may be found with the Lord, and be not found fighting against him. O that my love could take hold of you, and that my life could raise any tenderness in you, that yet you might be gathered, ⚫ and not utterly perish. This I tell you, in the name and fear of the Lord, the weighty power and life and glory of God is amongst us as a people: and though there may be fome perfonal weakneffes, or mifcarriages, through the unfaithfulness of fome particulars, that ferve as food for prejudiced fpirits to feed upon, and though fome go out from us, and turn against us, speaking lies in hypocrify, that is, under the pretence of truth, which may caufe fome to ftumble, and feveral to be astonished, yet all this fhall work together for ' good to them that fear the Lord. It fhall tend to greater watchfulness, diligence, and faithfulness to the Lord; and the juft fhall live more and more by faith, through which they fhall overcome all their ' enemies, and stand in their lot at the end of all days, and live and reign with the Lord for ever. I should willingly spend an hour with thee upon this subject, if I knew when and where without inconvenience to either of us. In the mean while I wish thee well, ⚫ and for ever. London, 18th of the 9th Thy true friend, The The people called Quakers being now harraffed with fevere profecutions in the Exchequer, on penalties of twenty pounds per month, or two thirds of their eftates, by laws made against Papifts, but unjustly turned upon them; William Penn, foliciting the parliament for redrefs of thofe grievances, prefented the following petitions, viz. To the COMMONS of ENGLAND, affembled in Par'liament.' The Request of the People called Quakers.' 'BE < < Efides thofe many and great fufferings we have fuftained by the execution of laws made against us, to the ruin of many induftrious families, we have been many of us much damnified both in our estates and perfons, fometimes even to death itfelf, by laws neither made against us, nor fo much as defigned against fuch a people as we are, and fuch principles as we hold. And understanding that you are pleafed to infert and enact fuch a diftinguishing claufe in the bill against popery, as that they who will take the oath and fubfcribe a declaration therein expreffed, fhall not fuffer by fuch laws; and because, for pure confcience, we cannot swear at all (in which we are not alone, for that many of the philofophers, Jews, and C many of the beft of Chriftians have had the fame tenderness) we intreat you to take our particular cafe into your ferious confideration, and give us fome < relief, otherwife we are like to come under penalties that belong not to us, because we cannot take this oath; though the ground of our refufal be not the < matter to which the penalty is affixed, but the form of it; and that, which with due refpect and integrity we offer, is, that our wORD may be taken instead of an OATH, and if we are found faulty, that we may undergo that penalty which shall be inflicted in the other cafe: that we and our families may not be ex pofed |