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the sect under

James II.

community. But when he perceived that they treated with contempt both his promises and threatenings, and were, in effect, too powerful or too headstrong to yield to either, he prudently abstained from the use of force, and contented himself with employing wise measures and precautions to prevent their fomenting sedition among the people, or undermining the foundations of his new sovereignty. III. In process of time, the fumes of this excessive fanaticism began to evaporate, and the ardent impetuosity of the rising sect seemed gradually to The progress of subside; nor did the divine light, of which the Charles II. and quakers boast, produce such tumults in church and state, as at the first declaration of their celestial pretensions. Under the reign of Charles II. both their religious doctrine and discipline assumed a more regular and permanent form, by the care and industry of Fox, assisted, in this very necessary undertaking,by Robert Barclay, George Keith, and Samuel Fisher, men of learning and abilities, who became,notwithstanding, members of this strange community. Fox stood in urgent need of such able assistants; for his gross ignorance had rendered his religion, hitherto, a confused medley of incoherent tenets and visions. The new triumvirate therefore used their utmost endeavours to digest these under certain heads, and to reduce them to a sort of theological system." But such was the change of times, that the wiser and more moderate Quakers in England suffered more vexations, and were involved in greater calamities, than had fallen to the lot of their frantic and turbulent ancestors. These vexations indeed were not so much the consequence of their religious principles, as of their singular customs and manners in civil life. For they would never give to magistrates those titles of honour and pre-eminence that are designed to mark the respect due to their authority; they also refused obstinately to take the oath of allegiance to their sovereign," and to pay tithes

m Clarendon tells us, in his History of the Rebellion,' that the Quakers always per severed in their bitter enmity against Cromwell. See Sewel's History, book i. p. 91, 113, 148, 149.

n For an account of the life and writings of Barclay, see the General Dictionary. Sewel, in his History of the Quakers, gives an ample account of Keith. There is also particular mention made of Fisher, in a German work, entitled Unschuldige Nachricht, 1750, p. 338.

This refusal to take the oath of allegiance did not proceed from any disaffec tion to the government, but from a persuasion that all oaths were unlawful, and tha

to the clergy; hence they were looked upon as rebellious subjects, and on that account were frequently punished with great severity. Under the reign of James II. and more particularly about the year 1685, they began to see more prosperous days, and to enjoy the sweets of toleration and liberty, which they owed, not to the clemency of the government, but to the friendship of that monarch for the famous William Penn, who had been employed by him in matters of the utmost moment, and had rendered him signal and important services." What James had done, from motives of a personal or political nature, in favour of the Quakers, king William III. confirmed and continued, from a zeal for maintaining the rights of conscience, and advancing the cause of religious liberty. From these motives, he procured a full and ample toleration for dissenters of almost all denominations; and the Quakers, in consequence of this grant, enjoyed at length, upon a constitutional footing, tranquillity and freedom."

IV. Fatigued with the vexations and persecution which The propaga. they suffered in their native country during the tion of Quaker- reign of Charles II. the Quakers looked about for some distant settlements, where they might shelter themselves from the storm; and with this view began to

ism out of

England.

swearing, even upon the most solemn occasions, was forbidden in the New Testament. They also sincerely believed, that they were as much obliged to obedience by an affirmation, which they were willing to make, as by an oath.

p See a circumstantial account of their sufferings under Charles II. in Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 313, 353, 396, 432, 510, 518, 552, 569. Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 271. Sewel, loc. cit. passim.

q See Sewel's History of the Quakers.

r The indulgence of James II. towards the Quakers, and other dissenters from the established church, was, at bottom, founded on a zeal for popery, and designed to favour the Roman Catholics. More particularly the order he sent to the lord mayor of London, the 7th November, 1687, to dispense with the Quaker's not swearing, was evidently designed to open a door to the Roman Catholics to bear offices in the state without a legal qualification. At the same time it was probable enough, that a personal attachment to the famous William Penn may have contributed to render this monarch more indulgent to this sect than he would otherwise have been. The reasons of this attachment are differently represented. Some suppose it to have been owing to the services of his father in the fleet commanded against the Dutch, in the year 1665, by king James, when duke of York. Others attribute this attachment to his personal services. From the high degree of favour he enjoyed at court, they conclude that he was a concealed papist, and assisted the king in the execution of his designs. That the imputation of popery was groundless, appears from his correspondence with Dr. Tillotson, which is published in the Life of Penn, that is prefixed to the first volume of the works of the latter. It is nevertheless certain, that he was very intimate with father Peters, the hot-headed Jesuit, whose bigotry formed the king's projects, and whose imprudence rendered them abortive. It is also certain, that, in the year 1686, he went over to Holland, in order to persuade the prince of Orange to come into king James's

measures.

r Oeuvres de M. de Voltaire, tom. iv. p. 182.

disseminate their religious principles in various countries. Attempts of this nature were made in Germany, Prussia, France, Italy, Greece, Holland, and Holstein, but with little success. The Dutch however were, after much importunity, persuaded to allow a certain number of these enthusiasts to settle in Holland, where they still continue to reside. Multitudes of them also went over to America, and formed settlements there not long after the first rise of their sect; and it afterward happened, by a singular course of events, that this new world became the chief seat of their prosperity and freedom. William Penn, son of the famous vice-admiral of that name, who embraced Quakerism in the year 1668, received, in the year 1680, from Charles II. and from the English parliament, the grant of an ample, fertile, but uncultivated province in America, as a reward for the eminent services of his father. This illustrious Quaker, who was far from being destitute of parts, and whose activity and penetration were accompanied with an uncommon degree of eloquence,' carried over with him into his new dominions a considerable colony of his friends and brethren; and he founded in those distant regions a republic, whose form, laws, and institutions, resembled no other known system of government, whose pacific principles and commercial spirit have long blessed it with tranquillity and opulence, and which still continues in a prosperous and flourishing state." The Quakers predominate in this colony, both by their influence and their numbers; but all those who acknowledge the existence and providence of one Supreme Being, and show their respect to that Being, either by external worship, or at least by the regularity of their lives and actions, are admitted to the rights and privileges of citizens in this happy republic. The large province that constitutes its territory was called Pennsylvania, from the name of its proprietor; and its capital city was named Philadelphia, from the spirit of union and fraternal love that reigned at

It Bishop Burnet, who knew Penn personally, says, that "he was a talking vain man, who had such a high opinion of his own eloquence, that he thought nothing could stand before it; and that he had a tedious luscious way, that was not apt to overcome a man's reason, though it might tire his patience."

u The laws and charters of the colony of Pennsylvania may be seen in Rapin's History, Penn's Works, and in other collections of public records; they are also inserted in the Bibliotheque Britannique, tom. xv. p. 310, tom. xvi. p. 127. Penn acquired a great reputation, both by his writings and the active figure he made in life. See the accounts given of him by Sewel and Burnet.

1

first, and is still supposed to prevail, more or less, among its inhabitants.

disputes and

Quakers.

v. Even during the life of their founder, the Quakers, The intestine notwithstanding their extraordinary pretensions to contests of the fraternal charity and union, were frequently divided into parties, and involved in contests and debates. These debates indeed, which were carried on in the years 1656, 1661, and 1683, with peculiar warmth, were not occasioned by any doctrines of a religious nature, but by a diversity of opinions about matters of discipline, about certain customs and manners, and other affairs of little moment; and they were generally terminated in a short time, and without much difficulty." But, after the death of Fox, which happened in the year 1691, some friends, and more especially George Keith, who was by far the most learned member of the community, excited, by their doctrines and innovations, new discords of a much more serious and momentous kind than those which had before divided the brethren. This fountain of contention was opened in Pennsylvania, where Keith was charged with erroneous opinions concerning several points of theology, and more particularly concerning the human nature of Christ, which he supposed to be twofold, the one spiritual and celestial, the other corporeal and terrestrial. This and other inventions of Keith would perhaps have passed without censure, among a people who reduce the whole of religion to fancy and a kind of spiritual instinct, had not this learned man animadverted, with a certain degree of severity, upon some of the fantastic notions of the American brethren, and opposed, in a more particular manner, their method of converting the whole history of Christ's life and sufferings into a mere allegory, or symbolical representation of the duties of Christianity. The European Quakers dare not so far presume upon the indulgence of the civil and ecclesiastical powers, as to deny openly the reality of the history of the life, mediation, and sufferings of Christ; but in America, where they have nothing to fear, they are said to express themselves, without ambiguity, on this subject, and to maintain publicly, that Christ never existed, but in the hearts of the faithful. This point

w See Sewel's History of the Quakers.

x Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Peuples du monde, tom. iv. p. 141. Croesii Historia Quakeriana, lib. iii. p. 446.

was debated between Keith and his adversaries, in several general assemblies of the sect held in England, and was at length brought before the parliament. The contest was terminated, in the year 1695, by the excommunication of Keith and his adherents, which so exasperated this famous Quaker; that he returned, some years after this, into the bosom of the English church, and died in its communion." His friends and followers continued, for a long time, to hold their assemblies, and exercise their religion, in a state of separation from the rest of the sect; but now, if we may believe public fame, they are reconciled with their brethren.a

The religion of

a general

VI. The religion of the sect, called Quakers, has an air of novelty that strikes at first sight; but, when viewed closely, it will appear to be nothing more the quakers than a certain modification of that famous mystic considered in theology, which arose so early as the second cen- point of view. tury, was fostered and embellished by the luxuriant fancy of Origen, and, passing through various hands, assumed different aspects until it was adopted by the Quakers, who set off the motley form with new additions of their own invention. Fox indeed is not chargeable with these inventions; his ignorant and inelegant simplicity places him beyond the reach of suspicion in this matter; but it is, at the same time, undoubtedly certain, that all his doctrine concerning the internal word, and the divine light within, its operations and effects, was either borrowed from the writings of the mystics, which were, at that time, in the

y Bishop Burnet, who was certainly better acquainted with the history of Keith, with whom he had been educated, than Dr. Mosheim, attributes his return to the church of England to a much worthier motive than irritation and resentment. He tells us, that Keith, after that the American Quakers had appeared to him as little better than deists, opposed them so warmly, that they sent him back to England. Here he opened a new meeting, and by a printed summons called together the whole party to convince them of these errors. "He continued these meetings," says the bishop, "being still, in outward appearance, a Quaker, for some years; till having prevailed as far as he saw any appearance of success, he laid aside their exterior, and was reconciled to the church." See Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. ii. p. 249.

z See Burnet, ibid. Sewel's account of the troubles occasioned by Keith, in his History of the Quakers. But Sewel was either unacquainted with the true nature and state of this controversy, which, as he was an illiterate man, may well have been the case, or he has given designedly a false and ambiguous representation of the matter. See the life of Custer, in the Europa Erudita of Rahtlefus,* where this controversy is placed in its true light. Custer was a man of probity, who lived at that time in America, and was an eyewitness of these divisions.

a See Rogers's Christian Quaker, published in 4to. at London, in the year 1699; as also, The Quakers, a Divided People, published in 1708. Unschuldig. Nachright." 1744, p. 496.

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