full liberty, with respect to his private sentiments of God and religion, provided his life and actions be conformable to the rules of piety and virtue." Even the United Provinces, which saw within their bosom the defeat of Arminianism, are at this time sensible of a considerable change in that respect; for while the patrons of Calvinism in that republic acknowledge, that the community, which makes an external profession of Arminianism, declines gradually both in its numbers and influence, they, at the same time, complain, that its doctrines and spirit gain ground from day to day; that they have even insinuated themselves more or less into the bosom of the established church, and infected the theological system of many of those very pastors who are appointed to maintain the doctrine and authority of the Synod of Dort. The progress of Arminianism in other countries is abundantly known; and its votaries in France, Geneva, and many parts of Switzerland, are certainly very numerous.

ee

ee It may not, however, be improper to observe here, that the progress of Arminianism has been greatly retarded, nay, that its cause daily declines in Germany and several parts of Switzerland, in consequence of the ascendant which the Leibnitian and Wolfian philosophy hath gained in these countries, and particularly among the clergy and men of learning. Leibnitz and Wolf, by attacking that liberty of indifference, which is supposed to imply the power of acting not only without, but against motives, struck at the very foundation of the Arminian system. But this was not all; for, by considering that multiplicity of worlds that compose the universe, as one system or whole, whose greatest possible perfection is the ultimate end of crea ting goodness, and the sovereign purpose of governing wisdom, they removed from the doctrine of predestination those arbitrary procedures and narrow views, with which the Calvinists are supposed to have loaded it, and gave it a new, a more pleasing, and a more philosophical aspect. As the Leibnitians laid down this great end, as the supreme object of God's universal dominion, and the scope to which all his dispensations are directed, so they concluded, that if this end was proposed, it must be accomplished. Hence the doctrine of necessity, to fulfil the purposes of a predestination founded in wisdom and goodness; a necessity, physical and mechanical in the motions of material and inanimate things, but a necessity, moral and spiritual in the voluntary determinations of intelligent beings, in consequence of propellent motives, which produce their effects with certainty, though these effects be contingent, and by no means the offspring of an absolute and essentially immutable fatality. These principles are evidently applicable to the main doctrines of Calvinism; by them predestination is confirmed, though modified with respect to its reasons and its ends; by them irresistible grace, irresistible in a moral sense, is maintained upon the hypothesis of propellent motives and a moral necessity. The perseverance of the saints is also explicable upon the same system, by a series of moral causes producing a series of moral effects. In consequence of all this, several divines of the German church have applied the Leibnitian and Wolfian philosophy to the illustration of the doctrines of Christianity; and the learned Canzius has written a book expressly to show the eminent use that may be made of that philosophy in throwing light upon the chief articles of our faith. See his 'Philosophie Leibnitianæ et Wolfianæ Usus in Theologia per præcipua fidei capita, auctore Isreal. Theoph. Canzio, and of which a second edition was published at Francfort and Leipsic, in 1749. See also Wittenbach's 'Tentamen Theologia Dogmaticæ Methodo Scientifica pertractatæ,' which was published in three vols. 8vo. at Francfort, in 1747. See above all, the famous work of Leibnitz, entitled 'Essais de Theodicee, sur la Bonte de Dieu, la Liberte de l'homme, et l'origine du mal.' It is remarkable enough, that the Leibnitian system has been embraced by

146

The external forms of divine worship and ec government in the Arminian church are almost with those that are in use among the Presbyteri however the leading men among the Arminians a liarly ambitious of maintaining their correspondence and fraternal intercourse with the church. of England, and leave no circumstance unimproved that may tend to confirm this union; so they discover, upon all occasions, their approbation of the episcopal form of ecclesiastical government, and profess to regard it as most ancient, as truly sacred, and as superior to all other institutions of church polity.'

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS.

The rise of the Quakers.

THE Sect of Quakers received this denomination, in the year 1650, from Gervas Bennet, Esq. a justice of peace in Derbyshire," partly on account of the convulsive agitations and shakings of the body George Fox. with which their discourses to the people were usually attended, and partly on account of the exhortation addressed to this magistrate by Fox and his companions, who, when they were called before him, desired him, with a loud voice and a vehement emotion of body, to tremble at the word of the Lord. However sarcastical this appellation may be, when considered in its origin, the members of this

very few, scarcely by any of the English Calvinists. Can this be owing to a want of inclination toward philosophical discussions? This cannot be said. The scheme of necessity and of partial evils tending to universal good, has indeed been fostered in some parts of Great Britain, and even has turned some zealous Arminians into moderate and philosophical Calvinists. But the zealous Calvinists have, for the most part, held firm to their theology, and blended no philosophical principles with their system; and it is certain, that the most eminent philosophers have been found, generally speaking, among the Arminians. If both Calvinists and Arminians claim a king, it is certain that the latter alone can boast of a Newton, a Locke, a Clarke, and a Boyle.

f Hence, to omit many other circumstances that show unquestionably the truth of this observation, the Arminians have been at great pains to represent Grotius, their hero and their oracle, as a particular admirer of the constitution and government of the church of England, which he preferred before all other forms of ecclesiastical polity. See what Le Clerc has published on this subject, at the end of the edition of Grotius's book, De Veritate Religionis Christianæ, which he gave at the Hague in the year 1724, p. 376.

g See George Sewel's History of the Quakers, p. 23. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 32.

f

sect are willing to adopt it, provided it be rightly understood; they prefer nevertheless to be called, in allusion to that doctrine that is the fundamental principle of their association, children, or confessors of light. In their conversation and intercourse with each other, they use no other term of appellation than that of friend."

This sect had its rise in England, in those unhappy times of confusion, anarchy, and civil discord, when every political or religious fanactic, that had formed new plans of government, or invented new systems of theology, came forth with his novelties to public view, and propagated them with impunity among a fickle and unthinking multitude. Its parent and founder was George Fox, a shoemaker, of a dark and melancholy complexion, and of a visionary and enthusiastic turn of mind. About the year 1647, which was the twenty-third year of his age, he began to stroll through several counties in England, giving himself out for a person divinely inspired, and exhorting the people to attend to the voice of the divine word, that lies hid in the hearts of all men. After the execution of Charles I. when all laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, seemed to be entirely suspended, if not extinct, Fox exerted his fanatical powers with new vigour, and formed more ambi

h Sewel, loc. cit. p. 624.

i The anonymous writers of A Letter to Dr. Formey, F.R.S. published by Nicol, seems much offended at Mr. Formey on account of his calling George Fox a man of a turbulent spirit, &c. He tells us, on the contrary, that, from all the information worthy of credit which he was able to procure, it appears that Fox was a man of so meek, contented, easy, steady, and tender a disposition, that it was a pleasure to be in his company; that he exercised no authority but over evil, and that every where and in all, but with love, compassion, and long suffering." This account he takes from Penn; and it is very probable that he has looked no farther, unless it be to the curious portrait which Thomas Ellwood, another quaker, has given of Fox, a portrait in which there is such an affected jingle of words, as shows the author to have been more attentive to the arrangement of his sentences, than to a true exhibition of the character of his original; for we are told by Ellwood, that this same George Fox was deep in divine knowledge, powerful in preaching, fervent in prayer, quick in discerning, sound in judgment, risum teneatis, amici; manly in personage, grave in gesture, courteous in conversation, weighty in communication, &c. &c. After having thus painted George after the fancy of his two brethren, for fancy is the Quaker's fountain of light and truth, the letter-writer observes, that Dr. Formey has taken his account of George's turbulence and fanaticism from Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. As Mosheim then is dead, and cannot defend himself, may I be permitted to beg of this anonymous letter-writer, who appears to be a candid and a rational man, to cast an eye upon Sewel's History of the Quakers, and to follow this meek, courteous, and modest George, running like a wild man through several counties, refusing homage to his sovereign, interrupting the ministers in the publie celebration of divine service at Nottingham, Mansfield, and Market Bosworth? It is remarkable, that the very learned and worthy Dr. Henry More, who was not himself without a strong tincture of enthusiasm, and who looked upon Penn as a pious Christian, treated nevertheless George Fox as a melancholy fanatic, and as one possessed with the devil. See his Myst. of Godliness, b. x. ch. 13. As also Schol. in Dialogue, v. § 5.

tious and extensive views. Having acquired a considerable number of disciples of both sexes, who were strongly infected with his wild enthusiasm, he excited great tumults in several parts of England; and, in the year 1650, went so far as to disturb the devotion of those that were assembled in the churches for the purposes of public worship, declaring, that all such assemblies were useless and unchristian. For these extravagances, both he and his companions were frequently cast into prison, and chastised, as disturbers of the peace, by the civil magistrate.*

sect under

II. The first association of Quakers was composed mostly of visionary fanatics, and of persons that really The first a seemed to be disordered in their brains; and tempts f hence they committed many enormities, which the Cromwell. modern Quakers endeavour to alleviate and diminish, but which they neither pretend to justify nor to approve. For

k Beside the ordinary writers of the ecclesiastical history of this century, the curious reader will do well to consult Croesii 'Historia Quakeriana, Tribus Libris comprehensa,' the second edition of which was published in 8vo. at Amsterdam, in the year 1703. A physician named Kolhansius, who was born a Lutheran, but turned Quaker, published critical remarks upon this history, under the title of 'Dilucidationes,' which were first printed at Amsterdam, in the year 1696. And it must be acknowledged, that there are many inaccuracies in the history of Croesius; it is, however, much less faulty than another history of this sect, which was published at Cologne in 12mo. in the year 1692, under the following title; 'Histoire abregee de la naissance et du progres du Kouakerisme avec celle de ses dogmes;' for the anonymous author of this latter history, instead of relating well-attested facts, has compiled, without either discernment or choice, such an extravagant medley of truth and falsehood, as is rather adapted to excite laughter than to administer instruction. See the second book of Croesius's 'Historia Quakeriana,' p. 322, and 376; as also Le Clerc, Biblioth. Universelle et Historique,' tom. xxii. p. 53. The most ample and authentic account of this sect is that which was composed by George Sewel, from a great variety of genuine records, and partly from the papers of Fox, its founder, and published under the following title; "The History of the Christian people called Quakers. This work is remarkable both for the industry and accuracy which the author has discovered in compiling it. But as Sewel was himself a Quaker, so he is sometimes chargeable with concealing, diminishing, or representing under artful colours, many things which, if impartially related, must have appeared dishonourable, and might have proved detrimental, to his community. It must, however, be granted, that, notwithstanding these defects, Sewel's history is abundantly sufficient to enable an impartial and intelligent reader to form a just and satisfactory idea of this visionary sect. Voltaire has also entertained the public with 'Four Letters,' concerning the religion, manners, and history of the Quakers, in his 'Melanges de Literature d'Histoire et de Philosophie,' which are written with his usual wit and elegance, but are rather adapted to amuse than instruct. The conversation between him and Andrew Pitt, an eminent Quaker in London, which is related in these Letters, may be true in general; but to render the account of it still more pleasing, the ingenious writer has embellished it with effusions of wit and fancy, and even added some particulars, that are rather drawn from imagination than memory. It is from the books already mentioned, that the French Dissertation on the Religion of the Quakers,' which is placed in the third volume of the splendid work, entitled 'Ceremonies et coutumes Religieuses de tout les Peuples,' is chiefly compiled, though with less attention and accuracy than might have been expected. A Lutheran writer, named Frederic Ernest Meis, has given an account of the English Quakers in a German work, entitled 'Entwurff der Kirchen Ordnung und Gebrauche der Quacker in England.'

kk

the greatest part of them were riotous and tumultuous in the highest degree; and even their female disciples, forgetting the delicacy and decency peculiar to their sex, bore their part in these disorders. They ran, like bacchanals, through the towns and villages, declaiming against episcopacy, presbyterianism, and every fixed form of religion; railed at public and stated worship; affronted and mocked the clergy, even in the very exercise of their ministerial functions; trampled upon the laws and upon the authority of the magistrates, under the pretext of being actuated by a divine impulse; and made use of their pretended inspiration to excite the most vehement commotions both in state and church. Hence it is not at all surprising, that the secular arm was at length raised against these pernicious fanatics, and that many of them were severely chastised for their extravagance and folly.' Cromwell himself, who was, generally speaking, an enemy to no sect, however enthusiastical it might be, entertained uneasy apprehensions from the frantic violence of the Quakers, and therefore, in his first thoughts, formed a resolution to suppress their rising

kk A female, contrary to the modesty of her sex, came into Whitehall-chapel stark naked, in the midst of public worship, when Cromwell was there present. Another came into the parliament house with a trenchard in her hand, which she broke in pieces, saying, "Thus shall he be broke in pieces." Thomas Adams, having complained to the protector of the imprisonment of some of his friends, and not finding redress, he took off his cap and tore it in pieces, saying, "So shall thy government be torn from thee and thy house." Several, pretending an extraordinary message from heaven, went about the streets, denouncing the judgment of God against the protector and his council; and one came to the door of the parliament house with a drawn sword, and wounded several, saying, "He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to kill every man that sat in that house." The most extravagant Quaker that appeared in this time, was James Naylor, formerly an officer, a man of parts, and so much admired by these fanatics, that they blasphemously styled him, "The everlasting son of righteousness; the prince of peace; the only begotten son of God; the fairest among ten thousand." See Neal's History of the Puritans; The Life and Trial of Naylor, p. 6, 7, &e. The anonymous author of the "Letter to Dr. Formey, F.R.S." seems to have lost sight of the state of Quakerism in the time of Fox, when he denies that the charge of turbulence and fanaticism can be proved against him or his friends, and gives the gentle denomination of imprudence to the extravagances exhibited by the Quakers under Charles I. and the commonwealth. The single story of Naylor, who was the convert and pupil of Fox, the letters, full of blasphemous absurdity, written to this Rose of Sharon, this new Jesus, by Hannah Stranger, Richard Fairman, and others, show the horrid vein of fanaticism that ran through this visionary sect. See these letters in the "Life and Trial of Naylor," who, though cruelly scourged, was, however, whipped into his senses, or at least, brought by his sufferings into a calmer state of mind. See also "Satan Inthroned," &c. p. 4, and 5. If Quakerism be now in England on a more rational footing, we may congratulate its members upon the happy change, but at the same time condole with them on the approaching annihilation of their sect; for if reason gets in among them, the spirit, I mean their spirit, will soon be quenched, and fancy being no more the only criterion of truth, the fundamental principle of their existence will be destroyed. In such a catastrophe, the abettors of ancient Quakerism, will find some resource among the Methodists.

1 Neal's History of the Puritans,' vol. iv. p. 153. Sewel's History, &c. passim.