surprized us, and deep sorrow fell upon us, which brought that sudden and strange change, that made us both the derision of profane, and wonder of sober men. The author of the “ Account of Familism,' for want of more skill, and seriousness, calls it the hypochondria; as if it had been only a flux of melancholy overpowering the strength of reason, and carrying the understanding captive at the impetuosity of its fancies. But having been thus made sensible of the terrors of the Lord for sin, and being brought into a true understanding of that religion and worship which most please God, some of us were constrained, and in conscience bound, to go forth into the world, and publish these · Tidings of judgment for sin, and conversion, through righteousness, wrought by the mighty power ' of God in the conscience,' that all might be awakened to try their works, faiths, worships, and whole religions, whether they were of God or men ; or whether they had been doing their own wills, or the will of God; that so they might be brought to experience God to be a God nigh at hand, reconciled in Christ, blotting out sin, and renewing a right fpirit within ; by which their religion might not longer stand in the traditions of men, or on the education of parents, but upon the convictions and operations of God's grace in the conscience. And thus is all that Christ did without, brought nigh and home to the very soul. The feed of the woman is known to bruise the head of the serpent; Christ, the Light, and Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world, not only to take away the sins past through remission, but cleanse from the nature, root, and ground of sin, by his holy blood, which sprinkles all consciences that wait and walk in the light (the just man's path) from dead works, to serve the living God in uprightness for ever. For this cause are we brought out into the world; and behold the vessel we are embarked in, our lading, and the country we make for! the vessel, truth; the lading, faith and good works; our fouls, the passengers; and the country, the land of everlasting rejt. H 2 This This I could not but present you with, that no endeavours of our enemies may be able to lodge a false character of us and our principles with you: though I must faithfully tell you, that I should wrong my own reason, as well as your judgment, and speak against my conscience too, if I should let in one thought of this man's ability to do us any great mischief with you: for, out of no insult, but in real truth, I take him for a very unskilful pilot on our coast, a man unacquainted with our concerns; and a most incompetent person for an antagonist. Accept (for I can ask no excuse for) my plainness. I have not fawned; I never could, and now much less : these matters not only deserve, but require, the greateft plainness. And men that believe they shall have to do with God, after they have left having to do with men, ought to act with greatest circumspection and sincerity. Remember your original, remember your end; and know assuredly that, but “Breath is in your “ nostrils; and for every deed done in this mortal “ body, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, will « God, the righteous judge, require an account from “ you before his great tribunal ;” where may you all be able to answer with joy! I am your faithful friend, WILLIAM PENN. WISDOM WISDOM JUSTIFIED Of her CHILDREN, FROM THE IGNORANCE AND CALUMNY OF CH A P. I. His EPISTLE considered. HE adversary we have to do withal begins his dedicatory epistle thus, "The daily and nume(rous increase of the heretical generation of Quakers ' in these parts, made me a little more than ordinarily inquisitive into their doctrines and persuasions; which s I found not only destructive of civil government, . but of religion itself.' It is natural with ignorance to be proud, and envy to flander. His enquiry has been at our adversaries doors, not ours. They that read him, and those books that lately came out, may know his informers without farther cost: but book-robbery, though to untruth, is an old priest-trick. If his sort of rendering us inconsistent with government could incense the civil magistrate to our destruction, we know very well traducers would not be wanting. Truth has never been persecuted under its own name: heresy is an old blot the devil has cast upon it, that it may become suspected with the simple; and Christians were of old worried in beast-skins; such coverings the present heathen spirit has provided for us. But as we cannot but bless the name of Almighty God, thaç he has brought us to the knowļedge of his good old way of “ Truth in the inward parts;a” so do we affirm it to be neither averse from government, nor destructive of religion ; right government being according to it; and pure religion being " to keep ourselves « ourselves unspotted from the world,b” and to do, or suffer, which we have ever done; and God knows, to that is the tendency of our holy principle, to wit, moderation, justice, industry, temperance, and upright conversation, But the true English of this wicked suggestion is no more than this; the Quakers and their persuasion are inconsistent with will-worshippers, hirelings, men-pleasers, persecutors, and oppressors: they give the world an alarm for these things, and round their ears with the necessity of walking in so strait and narrow a way, as gives great disquiet to the libertine, and brings the priest's qualification into great question, and his trade into absolute danger. No wonder, then, so many hard names are cast upon us, to deter such as are unacquainted with us; and beget fcruples in them that are well-disposed to us. However, this contentment this paragraph gives, that notwithstanding all this opposition, we daily and numerously increase,' for which my soul is greatly glad, and my knees bow to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would continue to prosper and speed his own great work of redemption in the earth. But he goes on: For what else can be expected from them, who deny the scripture to be the word of God, and rule and guide in matters of salvation?' Answ. We do not deny the scriptures to be the word of God, and rule and guide in matters of falvation, out of any undervalue of them; but from that reverent regard we have to Christ, the great and eminent WORD, “who was with God, and was God, ~ by whom all things were made; who is the way, « truth, and life, the great Prophet, Judge, Law“ giver, and Priest to his people, whose lips preserve “ knowledge.” He is the new covenant rule and judge; and without him we can never understand, nor believe the scriptures as we should do: nay, so far are they from being a rule, &c. that a thousand cafes may Jam. i. 27. © John xivActs vii. 37, happen happen wherein they cannot be a direction to us. Nay, they may be burned, drowned, torn, loft, mistransated, added to, diminished; men may be robbed of them, imprisoned from them; but none of all this can or ought to be said of the great gospel rule: God has ever been sufficient to his people in every age; and since they only are “ children of God, who are led by the Spirit “ of God,” and that it is “ the Spirit of God alone “ which leads into all truth,” it follows that the law of the spirit of life, writ in the heart, and not a law writ on paper (a state less excellent than the Jews, whose law was written upon ftone) is the great evangelical rule of living : yet are the scriptures an holy declaration of the word of God, and of the rule and guide in matters of salvation : and we reject for ever that spirit which leads into those principles and practices, that in the least contradict the standing and permanent truths therein mentioned: for they were written by holy men of God, being inspired thereto, and contain godly reproof, admonition, exhortation, and prophecies, for the edification of the church, and perfecting the man of God to every good word and work, through faith in Christ Jesus; and as such, many directions, precepts, and rules, are therein laid down: yet they all refer to the grace, light, spirit, word, or anointing within, as that by which man ought to be ruled, governed, and ordered, to God's glory and his own comfort, as they first were who gave them forth; for they were witnesses of the truth of what they writ. So that they are an holy declaration of the way of God, and that holy principle which leads to it, and in it; without which the book is sealed, the scriptures are unknown; and consequently not the scriptures, but that holy key of David, is the rule, how far, and which way, we are both to understand, interpret, believe, and practise them, "Tit. ii. 11, 12. |