^ PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BX 7654 .B7 F9 1865 
 Boorne, James, 1824-1910. 
 The "Friend" in his family 
 
Digitized by tlie Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 lnttps://arcln ive.org/details/friendinhisfamilOOboor 
 
K itfamiliait Exposition 
 
 OF SOMK OF 
 
 THE RELIGIODS PRINCIPLES '/^^'oSu/^ 
 
 OF 
 
 Sotictg of ifrifnbs; 
 
 wrrn 
 
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 
 
 OF A FEW OF 
 
 f ■ 
 
 " IIOLJ> SUCH IK REPUTATION ; BECAUSK FOR THE WORK OF CHRIST, THny 
 WERE NIGH UNTO DEATH, NOT REGARDING THEIR LIFE." 
 
 "whose FAITH FOLLOW ; CONSIDERING THE END OF THEIR CONVERSATION, 
 JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, AND TO-DAY, AND FOR ETOR." 
 
 London : 
 ALFRED W. BENNETT, 
 
 BISHOPSGATK STRKET WITHOUT. 
 
 1865. 
 
READING : 
 T. BAKCHAM, MACHINE PRINTER. 
 
€ximck by way of ""^xdm. 
 
 (From George Foafs Ejnstles, No. 120. j 
 
 ' ' Exhort all yoiir Families, at times and seasons, 
 whether they be servants or children, that they may 
 be informed of the Truth. For when ye were pro- 
 fessors, many of yon did exhort and instruct them in 
 the form, when ye had not the power ; and therefore 
 now being brought into the Truth, ye should be the 
 more diligent to exhort, admonish, and instruct them. 
 
 G. F., 1656." 
 
 (From the same, No. 264. j 
 " Exhort your Children and Families in the Truth, 
 that the Lord may be glorified in all your Families. 
 And teach your ChUcb-en when they are young, then 
 will they remember it when they are old, according 
 to Solomon's counsel. 
 
 G. F., 1669." 
 
 (From the Yearly Meeting'' a Epistle, 
 "As touching the education of Friends' Children, 
 for wliich this Meeting hath often found a concern, 
 we think it our duty to recommend unto you, 
 that no opportunity be omitted, nor any endeavours 
 wanting, to instruct them concerning the Principles 
 
IV. 
 
 of Truth which we profess ; aud there being times 
 and seasons, wherein their spirits are more than at 
 others disposed to have such things impressed upon 
 them, so we desire that all parents and others con- 
 cerned in the oversight of Youth, may wait in the 
 fear of God, to know themselves qualified for that 
 service ; that in His wisdom they may make use of 
 every such opportunity which the Lord shall put 
 into their hands." 
 
 (From thv, same, 1789.^ 
 ' ' We earnestly recommend to all the frequent 
 perusal of the Holy Scriptiu-es, according to repeated 
 exhortations ; and we at this time also recommend 
 the Writings of our faithfid predecessors, and the Ac- 
 counts that are published of their experiences, labours, 
 travels, and sufferings iu the cause of Christ." 
 
 *' And ye shall teach them your Children, speaking 
 of them when thou sittest in thine House, and when 
 thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and 
 when thou risest up. 
 
 " And thou shalt write them upon the door posts 
 of thine house, and upon thy gates."— Deut. xi. 19 
 and 20. 
 
 "Go Home to thy Friends; and tell them how 
 great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath 
 had compassion on thee."— Mark v. 19. 
 
 " He that Watereth, shall be Watered also him- 
 self."— Prov. xi. 25. 
 
V. 
 
 This little work seems to me to speak for itself ; 
 to bear upon its surface, its purpose and its character. 
 
 The only remark, therefore, which I have to make, 
 is with regard to its Anunymousness. I have thought 
 the matter over, and find there is something to be 
 said for, and against it. 
 
 Thus ; I alone am responsible for its contents, and 
 its many imperfections ; to take this responsibility 
 on myself is a reason wjainst. But I have no object in 
 its publication, but to bring in a familiar, and I hope 
 readable form, the subjects of which it treats before 
 my brethren in their FamUies ; and I know that my 
 name could add no weight to the sentiments ; these 
 are reasons for ; and the reasons for, in my judgment, 
 preponderate. 
 
 I heartily desire that it may be blessed to the 
 confirmation and strengthening of some of the rising 
 generation, the hope of the future, in those sound 
 and Scriptural, those trxdy Catholic and Apostolic 
 PrincijJes which Friends profess, and which, I believe 
 the Lord wiU yet cause to " be displayed, because of 
 the Truth." 
 
 The Author. 
 
VI. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Geoege Fox — The Preparation of the People 
 — The Formation of the Society — Elizabeth 
 HooTON — Francis Howgill. 
 
 (^hapteti 2. 
 
 "Swear not at all" — Imprisonment — Descrip- 
 tion OF THE Prisons — Friends' Faith and Firm- 
 ness — Our Liberty — John Audland. 
 
 fhaptei] 3. 
 
 The Teaching of the Spirit — The Work of 
 the Ministry — Its Freedom— The Ministry of 
 Women — John Camm. 
 
 (^hapten 4. 
 True Unity — Edward Burrougu. 
 
 ^haptet] 5. 
 
 Silent Meetings — Spiritual Worship — The 
 True Communion — Alexander Jaffray — David 
 Barclay. 
 
 ^haptei] 6. 
 
 Diversities of Gifts — Oliver Sansom— Robert 
 Barclay. 
 
vn. 
 
 Robert Barclay, the Younger — A Place and 
 Work for All— Meetings for Discipline — Offices 
 IN the Church — Thomas Ellwood. 
 
 ^hapteii 8. 
 
 "Christ is All" — His Universal Light — The 
 Coming of Christ — In the Flesh, and in the 
 Spirit — William Edmundson— John Burnyeat, 
 
 (phapteri 9. 
 
 Thomas Loe — Newness of Life — Testimony- 
 bearing — Unlawfulness of War — Pleasures and 
 Fashions of the World — Richard Claridge. 
 
 ^hapteii JO. 
 
 Defence of the Early Friends — The Church 
 of Christ— Tithes— William Caton. 
 
 (phapteii ih 
 
 Katherine Evans — Christian Baptism — The 
 Lord's Supper — James Parnell. 
 
 fhapteii J 2. 
 
 Christopher Story — Extract from his "Epistle 
 of Love" — Concluding IIemarks. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Geoege Fox — The Preparatiok of the People 
 — The Foemation of the Society — Elizabeth 
 HooTON — Francis Howgill. 
 
 ^^f:^ff^T is my intention to devote a short 
 S^l^l^ time occasionally, perhaps about an 
 QvJ^^ hour on one evening ia the week, 
 ^^1^ to an exposition of some of the 
 4- principles of Friends; and as you 
 have often expressed a wish for some informa- 
 tion as to the Early days of the Society, and 
 have, as I have noticed, shewn a preference for 
 Biography, I wUl bear these circumstances in 
 mind, and endeavour to shape my discourse 
 accordingly. And I shaU be greatly disap- 
 pointed if you are satisfied with my brief and 
 impei-fect sketches. It is my hope and desii-e 
 
 B 
 
THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 that yon may turn from them to Sewel's His- 
 tory, and the various Jounials which yoTi will 
 find in the library, and acqixaint yoiirselves with 
 the filling up of the ])ictures, of which I can give 
 you but the merest outline. 
 
 George Fox, as you are aware, is generally 
 regarded as the Founder of our religious Society. 
 Till was indeed " a worthy Elder and faithful 
 ^Minister of Jesus Christ ;" and I do not know 
 that Friends have any objection to regard him 
 as the founder of the Society, so far as human 
 instrumentality was concerned in its formation, i 
 It must, however, be borne in mind, that the 
 Lord was by His Holy Spirit detaching many 
 others from the bare professions, and vain forms 
 and cej-emonies, which too largely prevailed, and 
 in which they had too fcmdly trusted, at the 
 same time that He was preparing this gi-eat and 
 good man for his work. When, therefore, he 
 began to labour publicly, though amidst much 
 darkness and persecution, there were not a few 
 who gladly received his message ; for the Lord, 
 who gave him "a tongue," gave also "a prepa- 
 ration of heart" to the people; indeed, I think 
 
THE PREPARATION OF THE PEOPLE. 3 
 
 Ave are justified in applying to those seeking 
 people, who heard and soon associated with 
 George Fox, the words, "whose hearts the Lord 
 opened, so that tliey attended unto the things 
 which were spoken." 
 
 George Fox had scarcely reached his nine- 
 teenth birthday, when, "at the command of 
 God, on the 9th of the 7th month, 1G43, 
 (I think he was born in the same month, 1C2-1-,) 
 he left his relations, and broke off all familiarity 
 or fellowship with old or young." From this 
 time he " devoted himself to the Lord," who 
 taught him, and "opened many things unto 
 him." His labours, however, were of a pi-i- 
 vate character for some time after his exer- 
 cises commenced; but, in 1046, we find him 
 engaged in public exhortation. He travelled 
 from place to place as he "felt drawings," 
 or, as he more frequently expresses it, " was 
 moved of the Lord." In this, as well as 
 in subsequent years, he speaks repeatedly of 
 meeting, in these travels, with " friendly 
 people." Thus, in his journal, he writes, — 
 "About the beginning of the year 1647, I 
 
 was moved of the Lord to go into Derby- 
 u 2 
 
4 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 shire, where I met with some friendly people, 
 and had many discourses with them. Then 
 passing further into the peak country, I met 
 with more friendly people" ; and speaking of 
 some who " i-elied too much on dreams," he says, 
 "but these people came out of these things, and 
 at last became Friends." And therefore I re- 
 peat, what I have sometimes told you, that I 
 beUeve these simple and sincere-hearted people 
 who received George Fox's message and united 
 with him, were spoken of amongst themselves 
 as Friends, even before they were known to 
 others as Quakers, 
 
 It is not my purpose to say much respecting 
 George Fox, because I apprehend you are ac- 
 quainted with the leading circumstances of his 
 life, and have read that most interesting and 
 edifying book, his Journal, whi«h' the late Sir- 
 James Mackintosh pronounced to be "one of 
 the most extraordinary and instructive nan-a- 
 tives in the world." About the middle of the 
 fii'st volume of the little work entitled " Piety 
 Promoted," is an account of him, from which I 
 will read you a few lines, as they seem to me to 
 supply a succinct epitome of Ms life. "He faith- 
 
GEOKGE FOX. * 5 
 
 f Lilly laboured in the ministry 47 years, through 
 much sufferings and many perils of various sorts, 
 as by the journal of his life doth largely appear. 
 And God gave him length of days, that he saw 
 his children in the faith unto the third and 
 fourth generation, to a great increase. And 
 gi'eat was his care for the preservation of those 
 who had received the Truth, that they might 
 walk in the same ; and to that end gave forth 
 many faithful epistles, and good exhortation and 
 advice, for good order and disciphne in the 
 Church of Christ, as aj^pears in the collection of 
 his epistles to Friends. He preached the Gospel 
 effectually but two days before he died, viz., on 
 the 11th of the 11th month, 1690, at Grace- 
 church Street Meeting-house. After meeting he 
 said, " I am glad I was here ; now I am clear, 
 I am fully clear" ; and then the same day was 
 taken ill of some indisposition of body, and 
 continued weak in body for two days at the 
 house of Henry Goldney, in White-Hart Court, 
 in Gracechurch Street ; and lay in much con- 
 tentedness and peace to the end, very sensible. 
 And on the 13th of the 11th month, 1G90, he 
 quietly departed this life in peace, about the 
 
6 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 tenth hour iii the night. So he ended liis days 
 in a faithful testimony, in perfect love and unity 
 with his brethren, being in about the 66th year 
 of his age." 
 
 In confirmation of my remark j ust now as to 
 the preparation of some hearts for the message, 
 simultaneously witli George Fox's qualification 
 to deli\'er it, I remember Sewel says, in his very 
 valuable and interesting history of the society, 
 that there were " others who, by the like imme- 
 diate way, as George Fox himself — (that is, 
 without human mediation or means,) — were 
 convinced in their minds, and came to see that 
 tliey ought diligently to take heed to the teach- 
 ings of the grace of God that hath appeared to 
 them. And tluis it happened, that these, unex- 
 pectedly and unawares, came to meet with fellow 
 believers, which they were not acquainted with 
 before." Thus, we may say, was the society 
 formed. Amongst those thus gathered, was — to 
 use the words of George Fox — " a very tender 
 woman, whose name was Elizabeth Hooton;" 
 of whom I must say a few words. 
 
ELIZABETH HOOTON. 
 
 7 
 
 Elizabeth Hooton seems to have united with 
 these fellow believers in 1647, and was a person 
 of considerable lepute and substance, of great 
 religious expeiience, and was at that time more 
 than forty-five years of age. This good woman 
 "felt herself moved publicly to preach the way of 
 salvation to others." This was not, however, until 
 16-51 ; and it is interesting to know that she was 
 the first female Friend who bore a public testi- 
 mony. Gough says of her, "She was a woman 
 religiously inclined in an early stage of life, and 
 one of the first who joined in religious fellowship 
 with George Fox, before the name of Quaker was 
 applied to him and his Friends." In the same 
 year she was imj^risoned in Derby for reproving 
 a priest. The next year she was imprisoned at 
 York for preaching at Rotherham. In 1654 we 
 find she is imprisoned at Lincoln, on a similar 
 account, for five months. And, on many other 
 occasions, she innocently and patiently sufiered 
 for her christian testimony. And oh, how 
 different a thing it is, at this long distance of 
 time, surrounded by all the comforts and jn'ivi- 
 leges which we are favoured ^leaceably to enjoy, 
 to speak of these suffeiings, and to bear them, 
 
8 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 for Christ's sake, amidst reproach and contumely, 
 as did these sons and daughters of the morning, 
 who truly laboured, and we have entered into 
 their labours. 
 
 In 1661, E. Hooton, "hearing of the wicked- 
 ness committed by those of New England, was 
 moved to make a voyage to America." Nowhex'e 
 had Friends, who by that time had become 
 numerous, met with more persecution and 
 cruelty than in New England. The authorities 
 had even gone so far in Boston as to hang one 
 woman and three men Friends, and though 
 they did not hang Elizabeth Hooton, and her 
 companion, Joan Broksup, " a woman near as 
 aged as herself," they treated them with the 
 greatest cruelty. Having borne her testimony, 
 and preached the gospel, " Elizabeth departed 
 to Old England, where she stayed some time in 
 her own habitation. But it came upon her to 
 visit New England again ; and so she did." 
 This was in the following year, and this time, 
 her daughter Elizabeth was her companion. 
 Both mother and daughter were exposed to, 
 and suffered, the gi-eatest indignities and cruel- 
 ties ; both were whipped — the former many 
 
NEW ENGLAND BARBARITIES. 9 
 
 times, either at the whipping post or cart 
 tail ; but they were wonderfully preserved, and 
 nothing could quench their love for their Friends 
 or their faithfulness to their Lord. A dark and 
 fearful page is that in which the New England 
 barbarities are recorded ; when innocent men 
 and women, for merely professing to be Quakers, 
 were beaten and banished, put in stocks, ex- 
 posed to wild beasts, publicly whipped, had 
 their ears cut off, and were even hanged. 
 
 Subsequently, E. Hooton, travelled much 
 abroad "in truth's service," in company with 
 George Fox and several other Friends. Under 
 date 1672, in G. F.'s journal, you may read 
 this characteristic memorandum: — "About a 
 week after we landed in Jamaica, Elizabeth 
 Hooton, a woman of great age, and who had 
 travelled much in truth's service, and suffered 
 much for it, dejiarted this life. She was well 
 the day before she died ; and departed in peace, 
 like a lamb, bearing testimony to Truth at her 
 departure." 
 
 The year in which Elizabeth Hooton came 
 forth as a minister (1651) was one in which 
 
10 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 many additions were made to the number of 
 these Friends. Sewel, in tracing George Fox's 
 labours at this date, says — " Ricliard Farnswortli 
 and several others were convinced by his preach- 
 ing ; afterwards, James Naylor came to liim, and 
 acknowledged the truth of that doctrine lie hekl 
 forth ; likewise William Dewsbury, and many 
 more ; and these three named became in time 
 ministers of the Gospel." I will continue this 
 quotation from Sewel, because it contains a re- 
 markable confirmation of what I have already 
 stated as to the forming of the society : — " But, 
 by the way, I must say that William Dewsbury 
 was one of those that had already been imme- 
 diately convinced, as George Fox himself was, 
 who, coming to him, Jound himself in unity 
 ivith him." 
 
 In the following year, these and a few others 
 bore a public testimony and laboured as ministei's 
 of the Truth, which tliey had received, " endu- 
 ring hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." 
 " '1 he preachers," says Sewel, "were this year 
 (1652) no less than twenty-five in number ; and 
 almost in every place where they came they met 
 with opposition, and became, as it were, the 
 
THE SPREADING OF THE TRUTH, 
 
 11 
 
 p)-ey of the rude multitude. But neither the 
 beating, bviffeting, nor stoning of the mad I'.ibble, 
 nor the jails or whippings that befel tliom from 
 the magistrates, were able to stop the progi-ess of 
 the doctrine they preached to the people, in 
 markets and streets, and also in steeple-houses ; 
 and many, even of those that had been enraged 
 like wolves, became afterwards like lambs ; and 
 suffered patiently from others what formerly 
 they themselves in a blind zeal had committed." 
 From that time, in the quaint but expressive 
 language of George Fox, " Truth spread. " 
 Amongst those who had been measurably pre- 
 pared for liis doctrines, and who were convinced 
 when they heai-d him jn-each in Westmoreland 
 in 1652, was Francis Howgill, of whom I have 
 prepared a very brief memoir, with which I 
 pi-opose to conclude the present occasion. 
 
 Francis Howgill was born about the year 
 IGIS, ;uid resided at To Ithorne, near Gray-rigg, 
 in Westmoreland. He received a university 
 education, and became a pi'eacher amongst the 
 Episcopalians, whom he afterwards left, being 
 dissatisfic^d with their mode of worship and 
 
12 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 doctrines, and the superstition he saw remaining 
 amongst them. He joined the Independents, 
 amongst whom he became a teacher ; and subse- 
 quently the Anabaptists, " apprehending that 
 they walked more in accordance with the Gospel 
 of Christ." He did not, howevei-, find that 
 spiritual comfort which his soul thirsted after, 
 but remained destitute of that peace of mind 
 which he so earnestly longed for, until about 
 the 34:th year of liis age, when he joined the 
 persecuted people, in scorn called Quakers ; 
 amongst whom, says Sewel, " he became a 
 zealous member, and he died in communion 
 with them after having been about sixteen years 
 eminent amongst them as a minister, and on 
 account of his writings and sufferings." 
 
 Francis Howgill was convinced by George 
 Fox, when in Westmoreland, in 1652 ; shortly 
 after which he returned to the parish of Colton, 
 in Furnace Fells, Lancashire, the money he had 
 taken from them as a hireling preacher. George 
 Fox describes him as " one of the Lord's wor- 
 thies, that preached His everlasting word of life 
 from about the year 1652 until the year 1668," 
 when he died in prison. He was imprisoned at 
 
FRANCIS HOWGILL. 13 
 
 Appleby, and confined there -with James Naylor 
 for several months. "Having been set at liberty, 
 he grew valiant and bold for the name of the 
 Lord, and travelled up and dovm on foot preach- 
 ing the everlasting Gospel." His -work lay 
 chiefly in and about London ; he, with Edward 
 Burrough and Anthony Pearson, being the first 
 Friends who had meetings in that city. Anthony 
 Pearson soon went into the north; and "J. Aud- 
 land, J. Camm, and R. Hubberthome (who had 
 come up for a time) into Oxfordshire ; but Fran- 
 cis Howgill and Edward Burrough, remaining in 
 London, laboured diligently, having three or 
 more meetings every week, larger than could be 
 contained in any place they could conveniently 
 obtain for the purpose." 
 
 Some meetings being settled in London, in 
 company with his dear friend and companion 
 Edward BuiTOugh, he visits Bristol in 1654. 
 " They stayed about seven weeks in and about 
 Bi-istol, labouring diligently, and many received 
 the Tnith which they preached." 
 
 They returned to London ; and, with J. Camm, 
 F. Howgill pays a visit to the Protector, Oliver 
 Cromwell; soon after which he writes to him. 
 
1 
 
 1 i THE " FRIKND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 AVe find F. Howgill in tlie Isle of Ely, Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, and Kent ; — but most frequently in 
 London. Again accompanied by Edwaixl Bur- 
 rough, he pays a religious visit to Ireland, from 
 whence tliey are banished. In a letter wliicli 
 he writes to Margaret Fell, in 165G, and which 
 is dated from London, he says, "We have about 
 twenty meetings in a week in this city ; and ten 
 ov twenty miles about there arc great desires. 
 If we can, we go out, but we cannot stay. 
 Great is our care. E. B. salutes thee ; he is 
 almost sjient. Few know our condition.- — F.H." 
 
 F. Howgtll appears to have laboured chiefly 
 in London, and peihaps wholly so, from the time 
 of his return from Ireland, until ICGl, when, 
 with many others, he was imprisoned in London 
 on suspicion, or alleged suspicion, of Friends 
 being concerned in the insurrection of the Fifth 
 Monarch}^ people. His dear friend and fellow- 
 labourer, E. Burrough, died in Newgate, in 
 1GG2 ; and in the 5th Month, 1663, F. Howgill 
 is committed to Appleby goal, from which he is 
 shortly tali en only to be recommitted, and that 
 for life, for not taking the oath of allegiance. 
 After a tec'.ious and painfully-interesting trinl, 
 
F. HOWGILL IMPRISONED FOR LIFE. 15 
 
 tlie particulai's of which are given in a preface 
 to his works, which were compiled in a folio 
 volume, and published after his decease, the fol- 
 lowing sentence was passed upon him, simply 
 for his obedience to the command of our Sa- 
 viour, "Swear not at all," : — "You are put out 
 of the King's protection and the benefit of the 
 law ; your lands are confiscated to the King 
 during your life, and your goods and chattels 
 for ever, and you to be a prisoner during your 
 life." Francis Howgill "had a wife and chil- 
 dren, and some small estate which he knew lay 
 at stake in the matter ; but he said if it were 
 his hfe also, he could not revolt from or deny 
 that which he had most certainly believed in." 
 It appears he lay in prison until his decease, in 
 16G8 ; wi-iting many things in support of Truth 
 and its principles. I cannot refrain from giving 
 you an extract or two from a letter which he 
 wrote from his Aijpleby gaol to Margaret Fell, 
 herself a prisoner, in 166G, as it will shew you 
 something of his condition and of the resigna- 
 tion of his mind under his imprisonments and 
 sufferings : — " I received thy last, which was 
 acceptable unto me ; not forgetting the days of 
 
16 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 old when vre were comforted, refreshed, and 
 rejoiced together in the Lord, when we were 
 present personally together ; and now being ab- 
 sent outwardly, we know wherein our union 
 with God stands, and with all the saints in 
 light. I do indeed often rejoice in my heart, 
 that God hath prolonged my days so long, to 
 see so much of God's power and glory brought 
 forth in our age. I am freely given up ; and 
 I bless the Lord I am veiy well content ; I 
 am in perfect joy and peace. I bless the Lord, 
 who hath been our refuge and preservation 
 \mtil now. The people have been and are so 
 mad and riide hereabouts, I can hardly receive 
 a letter or wi-ite one. I have so bad a jailor, 
 who is very often the cause of detaining any 
 strangers, and getting them into bonds, for his 
 gain, insomuch that I am sometimes more 
 troubled for these than myself. Of late he will 
 let none speak with me, though they come but 
 out of Cumberland; but I must bear all this, 
 and much more, 'till God order it othenvise. 
 I am heartily glad of G. F.'s liberty, though 
 these two years I have not written a line to him, 
 for fear of troubling him in his strait bonds. I 
 
HIS COMPLETE RESIGNATION. 17 
 
 am no more weary of bonds than the first day 
 T came in ; yet, if it be the will of God, I desire 
 liberty, that I might behokl the faces of dear 
 Friends again, and be comforted in them, that 
 we might rejoice together in the Lord. I had 
 but one companion, and he hath laid down the 
 body this last week, — a good man ; he hath suf- 
 fered much ; he was in for tithes, and made a 
 sweet end. My wife and cliildren are well, I 
 hear ; blessed be God. Remember me dearly to 
 all thy children and fellow-prisoners and Friends 
 thereabouts ; and signify if thou know where 
 G. F. is now. Not more now, but that I am 
 thy truly loving friend and brothei' in the fel- 
 lowship of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Francis Howgill." 
 "Often, in the course of his last sickness, he 
 said he was content to die ; that he was ready, 
 and praised God for the sweet enjoyment and 
 refreshment he had received on that his prison- 
 house bed whereon he lay, freely foi'giving all 
 who had a hand in his restraint." Two days 
 before his depaiture, he commissioned his wife 
 and some Friends who visited him, to remember 
 
 his " dear love to all Friends who enquired for 
 c 
 
18 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 him, for he had ever loved Friends well, or any 
 in whom truth appeared." A few hours pre- 
 vious to his decease, some Fiiends who lived 
 several miles distant from Appleby, came to see 
 him. " He inquired of all their welfare, and 
 prayed fervently with many heavenly expres- 
 sions, that the Lord, by His mighty power, 
 might preserve them out of all such things as 
 would spot and defile." 
 
 " His voice then, by reason of his great weak- 
 ness, failed him ; hut after a little while re- 
 covering some strength, he said, ' I have sought 
 the way of the Lord from a child, and lived 
 innocently as among men; and if any enquire 
 concerning my latter end, let them know that I 
 die in the Faith in which I lived, and for which 
 I suffered.' After these words he spoke some 
 in prayer to God; and so sweetly finished his 
 days in peace with the Lord, in the fiftieth year 
 of his age." 
 
"SWEAR NOT AT ALL." 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "Swear not at all" — Imprisonment — Description 
 OF THE Prisons — Friends' Faith and Firmness 
 — Our Liberty — John Audland. 
 
 ■I^^^OJJ will remember that Francis How- 
 
 '^T^^ gill was cast into Appleby gaol for 
 
 of. -I 
 
 (ini-^^^ life, for obeying the command of our 
 
 Lord, " Swear not at all." In 1655, 
 
 4- George Fox says, "came out the 
 
 Oath of Abjuration, by which many Friends 
 
 suffered, and several Friends went to speak 
 
 to the Protector about it; and he began to 
 
 hearken, and sufferings increasing upon Friends, 
 
 by reason that envious magistrates made use 
 
 of that oath, as a snare to catch Friends in, 
 
 who, they knew, could not swear at all, 1 was 
 
 moved to write to the Protector;" and Georee 
 
 did wi'ite as plain and powerful a letter to the 
 c 2 
 
20 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Protector, as perhaps was ever permed ; shewing 
 how, and why. Friends could not swear, inde- 
 pendently of the contents of the oath ; and that 
 though they could not take the oath on con- 
 scientious and Christian grounds, " they denied 
 all that is abjured in it." And in 1661, George 
 Fox further writes, " About this time the Oaths 
 of Allegiance and Supremacy were tendered to 
 Friends, as a snare, because it was known we 
 could not swear; and thereupon many were 
 imprisoned, and divers praemunired." Friends, he 
 goes on to state, published and circulated widely, 
 " The grounds and reasons why they refused to 
 swear ; " and George Fox himself " was moved 
 to give forth " the few memorable lines, " The 
 world saith, kiss the book ; but the book saith, 
 kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and the Son saith. 
 Swear not at all, hnt keep to yea and nay in all 
 yovu' communications ; for whatsoever is more 
 than these cometh of evil." It is evident that 
 under these oaths, which might be tendered to 
 any one at any time, there was little probability 
 of Friends escaping the malice of theu- persecu- 
 tors. There are hundreds of cases on record, 
 wherein Friends, having cleared themselves of 
 
OATHS TENDERED AS A SNARE. 21 
 
 unjust charges brought against them, are re- 
 tiu'ned to their prison cells, because they would 
 not take oaths, which were notoriously oflfered 
 to them as "snares." It was the oath of allegi- 
 ance, you will recollect, that was tendered to 
 Francis Howgill, and for the not swearing of 
 which, what he justly termed " a hard sentence, 
 though he forgave them all," was passed upon 
 him. Imprisonment was, I assure you, a very 
 different thing in those days to what it is in ours. 
 The being taken from home and family, the 
 domestic and social derangement, and the injury 
 involved in the loss of the head of the household, 
 may be much the same now as then ; but the 
 physical condition of the sufferer himself is not 
 to be compared. Sewel says, " that they were 
 cast into stinking dungeons that some great men 
 acknowledged were not fit even for dogs and 
 we continually read of the absence of water, 
 fresh air, and straw ; but to get a true idea of 
 the real condition of the prisons, we must read 
 the life of John Howard, who visited them a 
 centwy later. Mostly damj), dark, filthy and 
 fever infested, they had not the necessary ac- 
 commodations of life ; the filth of months was 
 
THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 allowed to accumulate on the floor, whicli was 
 usually of earth, always wet and soaking, fre- 
 quently over the shoes in filthy slush and water; 
 and sometimes so crowded, even with males and 
 females, the young and the aged alike, that all 
 could not lie down, even if they would, at one 
 time. The jailors, too, were not only wicked 
 men, but previous to Howard's time, were un- 
 salaried, so that by their cruelties they extoi'ted 
 fees from those committed to them. John 
 Howard informs us that on his visiting North- 
 ampton gaol he foimd " that the jailor, instead 
 of receiving a salary for his services, actually 
 paid forty pounds a year for his situation;" 
 which, he says, " was not an unfair index to the 
 material condition of the prison." At Leicester 
 the jail was pronounced even " incapable of 
 being rendered convenient or healthy ;" and the 
 governors and turnkeys " had no salary except 
 what they could wring from their victims." At 
 Nottingham, the " cells were cut in the solid 
 rock, and in this horrible hole the poorer and 
 honester of the prisoners were sometimes im- 
 mured for years !" In some no food was allowed ; 
 the " keepers lived on extortion ! the prisoners 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PEISONS. 
 
 23 
 
 on cha/i'ity /.'" Again and again no yard, no 
 straw, no water, no day room, no chimney, no 
 di-ain. So far from exaggerating, I do not 
 attempt to give you by any means an adequate 
 and full description of the abominable miseries 
 of these loathsome holes, the condition of which, 
 says a wi-iter of the Life of Howard, ivords 
 cannot describe, nor the imagination picture; 
 and to which a man consigned, is " inevitably 
 condemned to rot." But I do wish you to have 
 some just appreciation of the facts. There was 
 no attraction for our Friends, many of them ac- 
 customed to the charms and comforts of home 
 and family, some indeed to the luxuries and 
 refinements of life, some in weak and delicate 
 health, all loving life and liberty, in these 
 noisome dungeons. No, there was no self-im- 
 posed martyi'dom about them. At one time there 
 were four thousand, two hundred men and 
 women Friends in prison in England, their goods 
 seized and then- families mostly reduced to 
 poverty, and they " fain to lie on cold nasty 
 gi'ound, without being suffered to have any 
 straw ; and often have they been kept several 
 days without victuals ! No wonder that so 
 
24 
 
 THE " FKIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 many died by such hard imprisonments as 
 these." 
 
 "Well, George Fox wi-ote to the King (Charles 
 II.), shewing how unjust it was, that more than 
 three thousand Friends should be in jirison for 
 not taking the oath of allegiance to him, when 
 " one of the greatest tilings that they suffered 
 for formerly was, because they coiild not swear 
 to the Protectors." And in the case of Francis 
 Howgill, I remember, he offered at the trial, in 
 ^VTitulg, in various forms, all the substance of 
 the oath, to shew that not against the substance, 
 but against the oath, his testimony lay. And 
 when at an earlier period the oath of abjura- 
 tion (that was of the Pope of Rome) was 
 tendered to them, they were equallj^ concerned 
 to make manifest to all their testimony. I 
 think the earliest Friends who suffered on tliis 
 ground were Miles Halliead and Thomas 
 Salthouse, in 1655, when "they refusing to 
 swear it, were sent to Exeter prison." Their 
 answer was ; "In the presence of the eternal 
 God, and before all this jjeople, we do deny, 
 "with as much detestation as any of you, the 
 Pope, and his supremacy, and the piu'gatory, 
 
FAITH AND FIRMNESS. 25 
 
 and all that is in the form of the oath mentioned 
 we declare freely against ; and we do not deny- 
 to swear because of any guilt that is upon us, 
 but in obedience to the command of Christ, who 
 saith, " Swear not at all and we will not come 
 under the condemnation of an oath, for the 
 liberty of the outward man." 
 
 Now in perusing Sewel's History, and some 
 of our earliest records, I am satisfied this faith- 
 fulness to the plain command of our Lord, this 
 immovable adherence to truth speaking, to the 
 Nay and Yea as binding beyond any form to the 
 Christian, and more than which cometh of 
 evil, was a testimony raised in the hearts of our 
 early Friends spontaneously and simultaneously 
 by the Holy Spirit; which, says the Apostle, "is 
 given unto us," and which leadeth into "all 
 truth." It was because their faith stood not 
 " in the wisdom of men, but in the power of 
 God," that, as friends and enemies alike acknow- 
 ledged, there was no moving them. They were 
 not biased by results, they feared not conse- 
 quences. Their concern was, to know the will of 
 the Lord ; and that once made known to them, 
 there was no conferring with flesh and blood. 
 
26 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 On one occasion which just occurs to me, 
 Geoi'ge Fox was pleading on behalf of Friends 
 with a Justice of the peace for Middlesex, one 
 Esquii-e Marsh, who urged that there were many- 
 others who alleged an objection to swearing, 
 and, said he, " how shall I know how to dis- 
 ting\iish between you and them ; seeing that 
 they and you all say, it is for conscience sake that 
 you cannot swear." George shews him how such 
 as have not truly a conscience in it do swear, 
 when their own interests were at stake. But 
 those who ai-e " really of us," though they can 
 bear witness to the truth, can never swear 
 under any circumstances. And he then nar- 
 rates a real incident, and there were but too 
 many such at hand, which I will repeat to you, 
 as it will further give to you some idea how in 
 those days justice was turned aside and judg- 
 ment was perverted. " Hereupon I gave him a 
 relation of a trial in Berkshii'e, which was thus : 
 A thief stole two beasts from a Friend of ours ; 
 the thief was taken and cast into prison, and 
 the Friend appeared against him at the Assizes. 
 But somebody having informed the judge that 
 the prosecutor was a Quaker, and could not 
 
JUDGMENT PERVERTED. 27 
 
 swear, the judge, before he heard what the 
 Friend could say, said, " Is he a Quaker, and 
 will he not swear ? Then tender him the oaths 
 of allegiance and supremacy." So he cast the 
 Friend into prison, and praemunired him ; and 
 set the thiej at liberty that had stolen his 
 goods." At a later time, 1676, George Fox 
 writes, referring to an earlier period, " Some 
 weak ones there were, when the King came in, 
 who did take the oath ; but after they had done 
 so, they were sore troubled for disobeying the 
 command of Christ and the Ajjostle, and went 
 to the magistrates, condemned themselves, and 
 offered to go to prison." 
 
 I want you to observe and remember the re- 
 markable unity, as well as the suffering stead- 
 fastness, of these tender consciences. And was 
 not the testimony a sound one ? Does not the 
 taking an oath imply a laxity in the obligation 
 of truth speaking, at all times, and \inder all 
 circumstances, unworthy of the Christian cha- 
 racter 1 Does not the positive command, " let 
 your communication be yea, yea ; nay, nay 
 superadded to the negative one of " neither 
 shalt thou swear," further explain and confirm 
 
* 
 
 28 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 it ? And the yet additional statement so 
 acciu-ately true, that " whatsoever is more 
 than these cometh of evil," still fix and 
 rivet it 1 Yes and No are ever necessary ; take 
 away sin and wickedness and there can be no 
 need for "more than these." Some, however, 
 have said that the command of our Lord related 
 to profane swearing. But what an evasion is 
 this. "Ye have heard that it hath been said 
 by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear 
 thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine 
 oaths. But I say unto you. Swear iiot at all." 
 The forbidden swearing of the new dispensation 
 is placed in contradistinction to the allowed 
 swearing " of old time." The time was when 
 an oath was allowed if accompanied by a solemn 
 performance, the time is come when no oath 
 is allowed ; or the whole words must be vain. 
 Swearing falsely, swearing and not performing 
 was ever prohibited ; what could our Lord in 
 this Sermon on the Mount prohibit now, but 
 swearing though truly, swearing though per- 
 forming. 
 
 Let me remark in closing this subject, 
 that the Waldenses wholly abstained from 
 
OUR LIBERTY. 29 
 
 swearing ; and that oaths were not taken by the 
 early Christians of the first three centuries. I 
 must also remind you how favorably we are 
 cii'cumstanced in this, as in many otlier respects, 
 through the faithfulness of those who have gone 
 before, how rich a harvest of religious liberty 
 we are reaping from the consistent and persistent 
 adherence to the truth and to the convictions 
 of conscience of our ^predecessors in religious 
 profession. 
 
 "Not in vain, Confessor old, 
 Unto us the tale is told, 
 
 Of thy day of trial : 
 Every age, on him who strays 
 From its broad and beaten ways. 
 
 Pours its seven-fold vial. 
 
 Happy he whose inward ear, 
 Angel comfortings can hear. 
 
 O'er the rabble's laughter ; 
 And while Hatred's fagots bum. 
 Glimpses, through the smoke, discern, 
 
 Of the good hereafter. 
 
 Knowing this, that never yet. 
 Share of Truth was vainly set, 
 
 In the world's wide fallow ; 
 After hands shall sow the seed. 
 After hands from hill and mead, 
 
 Reap the harvest yellow. " — Whittier. 
 
30 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 I will now proceed to read you a very brief 
 biography of a Friend wbo was named in our 
 notice of F. Howgill. 
 
 John Audland. — More than two centuries 
 have now passed, it being in 1652, since George 
 Fox preached "that memorable sermon," on 
 " the rock hard by" Firbank Chapel, in West- 
 moreland, which, being so accompanied by the 
 Lord's convincing power, reached home unto 
 the hearts of the people, that they and the 
 teachers of the congi-egation were convinced of 
 the truth declared unto them. 
 
 In the morning of that day, John Audland 
 and Francis Howgill, (the former a young but 
 eminent teacher amongst the Independents, the 
 latter an Episcopalian,) had been preaching in 
 Firbank Chapel ; in the afternoon, they with 
 more than a thousand others were the hearers 
 of George Fox; who "declared God's ever- 
 lasting tmth and word of life, freely and 
 largely, for above the space of three hours," 
 directing all "to the Spirit of God in themselves, 
 that so they might be tiu-ned from darkness to 
 light, and from the power of Satan, which they 
 
JOHN AUDLAND. 
 
 31 
 
 had been under, unto God ; by which they 
 should become children of the light, and by the 
 Spirit of truth be led into all truth ; and so 
 sensibly understand the words of the Prophets, 
 of Christ, and of the Apostles ; and come to 
 know Christ to be their Teacher to instnict 
 them, their Counsellor to direct them, theii* 
 Shepherd to feed them, their Bishop to oversee 
 them, and their Prophet to open divine mysteries 
 unto them ; so that their bodies might be pre- 
 pared, sanctified, and made fit temples for God 
 and Christ to dwell in. Moreover he explained 
 the Prophets, and the figures and shadows, and 
 directed his hearers to Christ the substance. 
 He also opened the parables and sayings of 
 Christ, and showed the intent and scope of the 
 Apostles' writings and epistles to the elect. 
 Then he spoke also concerning the state of the 
 apostacy which had been since the Apostles' 
 days ; how the priests had gotten the Scriptures 
 without being in that spirit which gave them 
 forth, and how they were found in the steps of 
 the false prophets, Scribes, and Pharisees of old, 
 and were such as the true prophets, Christ and 
 his Apostles cried against ; insomuch that none 
 
32 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 that were guided by the Spirit of God now 
 could own them." 
 
 John Audland was born at Camsgill, in 
 "Westmoreland, the seat of his future friend, 
 John Camm. Oiu* historian, Sewel, informs us, 
 that he " was a young man of a comely coun- 
 tenance and very lovely qualities. When he 
 was but seventeen or eighteen years old he was 
 very religious, and a zealous searcher of the holy 
 Scriptures ; and having a good understanding 
 and a strong memory, he gathered a large 
 treasure of Scrij^ture learning, became an emi- 
 nent preacher amongst the Independents, and 
 had a very nimierous auditory. But when he 
 heard George Fox preach, he was thereby so 
 reached to the heart, that he began in process 
 of time to see the emptiness of his great literal 
 knowledge, and that all liis righteousness was 
 but as filthy rags. This brought him to a state 
 of mourning, for now he saw that all his pro- 
 fession and wisdom could not bring him true 
 happiness. But the Lord, who doth not break 
 the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, 
 did pity liim in this state of deep humiliation, 
 and bore him up again by His supporting power, 
 
J. AUDLAND AT BRISTOL. 33 
 
 whereby in time he came to be prepared for 
 that service he was apijoiated to by God." It is 
 recorded of him, as of liis Friend Howgill, that 
 lie " gave back the money he had received for 
 preaching, to the parish of Colton in Lancashire, 
 so far was he from approving that former 
 service." And about this time, 1652, when John 
 Audland must have been about twenty-two 
 years of age, George Fox says, " Jolin Audland 
 and Francis Howgill, and J. Camm and E. 
 Burrough, R. Hubberthorn, and Miles Hub- 
 bersty and Miles Halliead, with several others, 
 being endued with jiower from on high, came 
 forth in the work of the ministry, and approved 
 themselves faithful labourers therein, travelling 
 up and down preaching the gospel freely, 
 whereby multitudes were convinced, and many 
 effectually turned to the Lord." 
 
 Early in 1G54, we find John Audland in 
 company with Thomas Airey at Bristol ; J. A. 
 being the first Friend who visited that city, 
 "where many received theix' testimony." Tlien 
 passing through the country and so to London, 
 they met with John Camm, who becomes much 
 attached and nearly united to John Audland, 
 
34 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 SO as to be called " his bosom friend." John 
 Audland and John Camm then go towards 
 Bristol. It was probably on their way, that 
 they visited Oxford ; for in a letter written to 
 Margaret Fell, by Edward Burrough and 
 Francis Howgill, dated " London, 29th of 6 mo. 
 1 654," they say, " Our dear brethren, John 
 Audland and John Camm, went from us last 
 6th day out of this city towards Oxford, to be 
 there the last 1st day; our hearts were broken 
 in separating one from another, for our lives are 
 bound up in one, and we partake of one 
 another's sufferings and one another's joys." 
 The following is extracted from an old MS. 
 (written, it is presumed, in pursuance of the 
 Yearly Meeting's advice) : — " The account of 
 ye first Publishers of ye Blessed Truth and who 
 it pleased ye Lorde to raisse up to receive them, 
 (kc. In this county of Oxon, first in y"' citty of 
 Oxford, as taken out of ye records of the people 
 of God commonly called quakers in y'- place." 
 " The same year, (16.54,) John Camm comeing 
 to this citty had greate servise who kep a 
 meeting at Rich : Bettris's house (and another 
 at James Pinnells, who with his wife in a short 
 
J. AUDLAND AT OXFORD. 
 
 35 
 
 time were convinced of Truth, but not being 
 
 fixitlifull fell from it again) also the Power of the 
 
 Loi'de reached unto Thomas Loe whom Lorde 
 
 afterwai'd made a minister of his everlasting 
 
 truth. The s''' John Camm comeing again ye 
 
 2"^- time w"'- Jno Audlaud went to y* Baptist 
 
 meeting and waitiaig there imtill ye person y'* 
 
 was speaking had done, John Audland begane 
 
 to speake upon y"^ same matter, and made those 
 
 tilings nu»re cleare to y^ people's imderstanding, 
 
 so gi'eatly to y*^ satisfaction of those y'- were 
 
 there, that y" man in whose house y^ (Baptist) 
 
 meeting was ke]jt, received John Audland and 
 
 John Camm into their house." 
 
 At Bristol they were eminently useful and 
 
 devoted, " and amongst those that did receive 
 
 their testimony were Josiah Coale, George 
 
 Bishop, Charles Marshall, ifec." "And now 
 
 there were many labouring," says George Fox 
 
 in Iiis Journal, " in the Lord's vineyard, as F. 
 
 Howgill and E. Bunough in London, J. 
 
 Audland and J. Camm in Bristol, E. Hubber- 
 
 thorn and G. Whitehead in Norwich, T. Holmes 
 
 in Wales, and other ways, for above sixty 
 
 ministers did the Lord raise up and send 
 D 2 
 
36 THE "friend" m his family. 
 
 abroad;" to whom George Fox addressed an 
 affectionate and very weighty epistle. 
 
 J ohn Audland (with J. Camm) continues to 
 labour in and about Bristol, frequently coi-- 
 responding with their fellow-labourers in the 
 Lord's work. F. Howgill, in a letter to Robert 
 Widders, says, " Our dear brethren J. Audland 
 and J. Camm we hear from, and we write to 
 one another twice in the week ; they are near 
 us ; they are precious ; and the work of the 
 Lord is great about Bristol ;" and in a letter to 
 Thomas Aldam dated also 7th month, 1656, 
 (which miist have been but a short time before 
 J. Camm's decease) he says, From Bristol we 
 have received letters from our dear brethren J. 
 Audland and J. Camm ; the mighty power of 
 the Lord is that way : that is a precious city 
 and a gallant people : their net is like to break 
 with fishes, they have caught so much there, 
 and all the coast thereabout : mighty is His 
 work and power in this His day ! Shout for 
 joy all ye holy ones ! For the Lord rides on in 
 power to get himself a name : and let all that 
 know the Lord praise him, for his mercy 
 endureth for ever." 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS PREACHING. 37 
 
 Charles Marshall, in his testimony respecting 
 him, says, " Jolin Audlancl was a young man, of 
 a sweet, ruddy and amiable countenance, and of 
 a cheerful spirit, one of the wise in heart ; he 
 appeared, many times, so filled with the excellent 
 bright power of the Lord, that immortality 
 might be said to shine in his face. My soul 
 hath a sensible remembrance, how the doctrine 
 given him of Clrrist Jesus dropped from his lips 
 as dew, and descended as the refreshing rain ; 
 lovingly tender to the poor in spirit, and the 
 sensible travellers Zionward ; but his voice was 
 as thunder in the strength of the Lord, against 
 the Man of Sin and those in covenant with 
 him. He was truly a labourer in the work 
 of the gospel, by night and by day, offering up 
 his natural life for the truth and the work of it, 
 in which he extremely spent himself." 
 
 " Their preaching," says J. Besse, " was like 
 that of the Apostles, in the demonstration of the 
 Spirit and with power; multitudes flocked to 
 hear them, and many embraced their doctrine." 
 After a time, the meetings so increased, that 
 they were compelled to hold them out of doors 
 even in winter, when there would be present 
 
38 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 " two, three, and sometimes near foiu' thousand, 
 of all degrees, professions, ages, and sexes." It 
 is stated, that when J. Aiidland was preaching 
 and exhorting to repentance, he spoke with 
 "such mighty power and piercing authority, 
 that some of the anditory fell on the ground, 
 and cried out under a sense of their trans- 
 gression." Such eminent success attracted the 
 notice and excited the jealousy of the priests, 
 who stirred up the people against them. The 
 prison ajjpears more than once to have been 
 their dwelling, and " great perils, sore beatings, 
 and cruel mockings, both of the rabble, and also 
 of the bitter spirited professors," their constant 
 lot. On one occasion an order was issued for 
 their " departing the city forthwith to which 
 they answered, " We came not in the will of 
 man, nor stand in the will of man, but when He 
 moves us to depart, who moved us hither, we 
 shall obey." 
 
 John A'udland had been married, in his 20th 
 year, to Anne Newby, "a virtuous maid, not 
 only of good family but excelling in piety," 
 whom he loved heai-tily and tenderly. " But 
 such was tlic imreserved dedication of heart," 
 
HIS SICKNESS AND DEATH. 39 
 
 says Gough, " to tlie sei-Adce of God, that neither 
 the allui'ements of domestic ease and satisfaction, 
 nor the dangers and hardships which awaited 
 them everywhere abroad, were of sufficient 
 consideration with them, to prevent theii- ready 
 obedience, when they apprehended the call of 
 diity summoned them to go forth with the 
 message of the gospel." Sewel says, "Though 
 his wife loved him dearly, and preferred his 
 company above what the world could give, yet 
 in regard to his gospel sei-^^ice, she gave him up 
 freely to be much from home : whereby during 
 a great part of the time of their marriage she 
 had not his desirable company." He laboured 
 diligently in the Lord's harvest till his bodily 
 strength failed, "but he bore his sickness with 
 great patience, and said once, ' That in those 
 great meetings in the Orchax'd, at Bristol, he 
 often forgot himself, not considering the inability 
 of his body, from a desire to be heard by all : 
 but that his reward was with him, and he 
 content to be with the Lord, which his soul 
 valued above all things.' To his wife, knowing 
 how tenderly she loved him, he said, ' My will 
 is in true subjection, siibmitting* to tlie will of 
 
40 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 the Lord, whether life or death, and therefore 
 give me up freely to His disposing and she, 
 how dear soever he was to her, did so; which 
 gave him some ease, seeing her sincere resigned- 
 ness ; and Leing sometimes overcome with joy, 
 he praised God in his sickness ; nay, so ardent 
 was his zeal, that once though very weak, he 
 desired to be helped up in bed upon his knees, 
 and thus he fervently supplicated the Lord in 
 the behalf of his Churches ; ' that they might 
 be preserved in the Truth, out of the evil of the 
 world, and that His gospel might sjiread and 
 be published to the gathering of all that pertain 
 to Israel.'" His strength daily dimuiished, and 
 he sweetly departed at the age of thirty-four 
 years." — 1664. 
 
THE MINISTRY. 
 
 41 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Teaching or the Spirit — The Work of the 
 Ministry — Its Freedom — The Ministry of 
 Women — John Camm. 
 
 DEFERRING, as I have occasionally 
 f'ijV] done in the interval, to the matter of 
 <• ^ ' our former discourses, I wish, before 
 gi'V'ii'g you a little further account of 
 
 ■ if ' a Friend who has been once or twice 
 named, to say a few words to you on two sub- 
 jects, introduced in them but not dwelt on, 
 namely, the call to and qualification for the 
 work of the Ministry ; and the Ministiy of 
 Women. 
 
 No one, who has the slightest acquaintance 
 with the character of our Early Friends, can fail 
 to be struck by their entire and most implicit 
 reliance on the Divine power and guidance. 
 Did they undertake never so small a matter of 
 
42 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 a religious natiire, or move in never so humble 
 a service, it was because they "felt drawings" 
 in their spirits, or were " moved of the Lord " 
 thereto. I believe of them, as a body, it may 
 be said. They trusted in the Lord with all their 
 hearts, and leaned not to their own understand- 
 ings ; they acknowledged Him in all their ways, 
 and He directed their paths. If this were not 
 their attainment, it was their aim ; and should 
 be, I do believe, the aim, and may be the blessed 
 attainment, of all the " pure in heart," the true 
 "children of God." 
 
 It is no want of charity to say, of the mass 
 of those by whom they were surrounded, and 
 amongst whom they had to testify, both priests 
 and people, (for by their fruits we shall know 
 them,) that a whole-hearted and single-eyed' 
 devotion to their Lord's service, a loving belief 
 of His Presence in the hearts of his children, 
 and a confiding childlike trust in His unfailing 
 individual protection, guidance, and teaching, 
 were not their distinguishing traits. But, " in 
 the midst of a crooked and perverse nation," 
 testimonies such as these were dearer to our 
 Friends than their lives. Theii-s was no head 
 
THE TEACHING OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 43 
 
 knowledge, which could be postponed or compro- 
 mised ; but a heart experience, a living reality ; 
 and that which they had seen, and heard, and 
 handled, of the word of Life, they could not but 
 " declare " ; and so, when they preached to 
 others, as Wm. Penn says, " that which they 
 pressed, was not notion, but experience." 
 
 The blessed doctrine of the indi\'idual and 
 immediate guidance of the Holy Spix'it, though 
 very far from being universally acknowledged 
 in the Christian Church, is now accepted in a 
 degree which was unknown to the worldly 
 and formal professors of that day. To them, 
 though as old as the Gospel itself, it was as 
 some "new doctrine"; and those who held it 
 wei-e i-anked with the superstitious and fanatical. 
 Nevertheless, our Fi-iends believed that the 
 promised Comforter was given, who was to 
 abide for ever, " Even the Spirit of Truth, whom 
 the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him 
 not, neither knoweth Him ; but ye know Him, 
 for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you;" 
 saith the Lord. 
 
 Now, to a full acceptance of this doctrine, I 
 am inclined to attribute the character of the 
 
44 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 ministry, which they professed and exercised. 
 If the Lord, by his Spirit, makes known his 
 will unto man, will guide the meek in judg- 
 ment, and teach them his way; and requires 
 him to trust, not to his own understanding, but 
 to His leading and directing, in what could this 
 be expected to be practised and realized more 
 than in his acts of devotion, in his religious 
 services, in the things affecting his soul's in- 
 terests and that of others. They believed " that 
 as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
 the Sons of God," and that in acts of ministry 
 and worship they might look for this divine 
 and immediate guidance and teaching not to be 
 suspended, but rather to be specially clear. It 
 was no doctrinal structure built up by them, no 
 creed compiled by their reasoning powers, but a 
 necessary and probably an unconscious sequence, 
 that they could own as the ministry of the Gospel 
 of Christ, that only which was in the moving of 
 His Holy Spirit, which was " not in the words 
 which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
 Ghost teacheth ;" and how numerous and wonder- 
 ful are the testimonies on record, that " it was in 
 the demonstration of the Spii'it and of power." 
 
DIVINE GUIDANCE. 
 
 45 
 
 I have marked a passage, in that very touching 
 and most interesting preface by William Penn 
 to George Fox's joiu-nal, on this subject, Avliich 
 I think you will not regret my reviving, tliough 
 you may have read it before. " But these experi- 
 mental preachers of the glad tidings of God's 
 truth and kingdom could not run when they 
 list, or pray or preach when they pleased, but as 
 Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them 
 by his own blessed Spii-it, for which they waited 
 in theii' services and meetings, and spoke as that 
 gave them utterance, and which was as those 
 having authority, and not like tlie dreaming 
 dry and formal Pharisees. And so it plainly 
 appeared to the serious-minded, whose spiiitual 
 eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure oj^ened ; 
 so that to one was given the word of exhorta- 
 tion, to another the word of reproof, to another 
 the word of consolation, and all by the same 
 Spuit, and in the good order thereof, to the 
 convincing and edifying of many. * * * * 
 They went not foitli or preaclied in their own 
 time or will, but in the will of God, and spoke 
 not theii" own studied matter, but as they 
 were opened and moved of His Spirit, with 
 
46 THE "pkiend" in his family. 
 
 which they were well acquainted in their own 
 conversion; which cannot be expressed to carnal 
 men so as to give thein any intelligible account ; 
 for to such it is, as Christ said, like the blowing 
 of the wind, which no man knows whence it 
 Cometh or whither it goeth ; yet this proof and 
 zeal went along with their ministry, that many 
 were turned from their lifeless professions, and 
 the evil of their ways, to the knowledge of God, 
 and a holy life ; as thousands can witness. And 
 as they freely received what they had to say of 
 the Lord, so they freely administered it to 
 others." 
 
 And truly the freedom of the ministry fol- 
 lowed, not as any part of a scheme of doctrine, 
 but as a natural result of the character of that 
 ministry itself. The gift of the ministry was 
 the gift of God ; " and the gift of God was not 
 to be purchased with money"; and, constrained 
 by the love of Christ, they gave as freely as they 
 received it. There was never any exception in 
 any form to this freedom of the ministry 
 amongst Friends. It would not be possible. 
 As George Fox said of a priest who was con- 
 vinced as early as 1651, and who subsequently 
 
FREEDOM OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 47 
 
 received a gift in the ministry, so say Friends 
 of every age of him or her, whom the Lord calls 
 to labour* in the Gospel amongst us, " Him the 
 Lord, by His free Spirit, did make a ^ree Minister 
 or His free Gospel ! " 
 
 These various testimonies, as I have said, were 
 not framed by their own reasoning powers, and 
 piled up, as it were, together to make a goodly 
 edifice ; but were rather as the limbs and bran- 
 ches of a well -rooted tree, shooting out there- 
 from. The root was the Truth itself ; the 
 branches down to the smallest twigs were the 
 outgrowths, the testimonies, of ti-uth ; they re- 
 ceived them in the love of it, and bore them 
 with immovability and steadfastness ; for as 
 their ministry, so their " faith, stood not in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 
 
 And from the pure, scriptural, and apostolic 
 doctrine which they held of the ministry itself, 
 followed another, that of the Ministry of Women. 
 If a forsaking of the ordinary avocations of life, a 
 classical education and acquired knowledge, had 
 been, in their belief, i)art of the qualification of 
 a minister of the Gospel ; it is not pi'obable that 
 they, more than others, would have admitted of 
 
48 THE " FRIEND " UST HIS FAMILY. 
 
 tlie ministry of women. But if, in their belief, 
 the possession of a gift, and an individual call to 
 its exercise by the Great Head of His Church, in 
 whom "there is neither male nor female, for 
 all are one in Christ Jesus," were the true qxxali- 
 flcation, they could not but feel, that to foi'bid 
 the preaching of such women as were thus called 
 and qualified, was to " quench the Spirit," and to 
 "limit the Holy One"; and it is my conviction 
 that such qualifications were apparent, and such 
 gifts exercised amongst our Friends, before the 
 matter had been discussed amongst them, as a 
 principle. From the first, however, there have 
 been no two opinions about it. The whole sub- 
 ject is admirably set forth in a letter which 
 George Fox wrote to the Duke of Holstein, in 
 1G84, and which I recommend to your notice. 
 That you may "be informed" somewhat more 
 explicitly, 1 quote from Sewel's epitome of the 
 subject, which I think will interest and instruct 
 you in the views of Friends thereon. 
 
 He says, " Now preaching among them is not 
 confined to the male sex, as among others ; for 
 they believe that Women whom the Lord hath 
 gifted for Gospel ministry may exercise their gifts 
 
THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN. 
 
 49 
 
 among them to edification ; for who will presume 
 to say, ' What doest thou 1 ' to Him who by his 
 apostle hath said 'Quench not the Spirit.' They 
 are not ignorant that the same apostle said, ' Let 
 your women keep silence in the churches.' Now 
 not to insist on the word your, which seems to 
 carry an emphasis along with it, as being chiefly 
 applicable to those Corinthian women, yet by 
 what follpws, it appears plainly that it refers to 
 ignoi-ant women, since it is said, ' If they will 
 learn anything, let them ask their husbands at 
 home.' Whereby it appears that this say- 
 ing hath relation to such women who, either 
 from indiscretion or curiosity, or out of a desire 
 to be looked upon, px-oposed questions to the 
 Church, and thereby caused more confusion than 
 edification ; for it is indeed a shame for such 
 women to speak in the church. That the apostle 
 doth not absolutely forbid women speaking to 
 edification in the church, appears from his own 
 words, 'Every woman that prayeth or prophe- 
 cieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her 
 head,' for here he gives to women a prescript 
 how to behave themselves when they prophecy, 
 and what he means by prophesying, he himself 
 
 E 
 
50 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 declareth in the same epistle : ' He that prophe- 
 sieth speaketh unto men to edification, and ex- 
 hortation, and comfoi't,' and ' he that prophesieth 
 edifieth the church.' And what is this but that 
 which we call preaching 1 Hence we understand 
 what kind of virgins were the four daughters of 
 Philip which did prophecy, and what kind of 
 servant of the Church Phoebe was, and Try- 
 phena, and Tryphosa, who laboured in the 
 Lord, and Persis, who laboured m\ich in the 
 Lord, which is considerably more than what is 
 said of that Mary who bestowed much laboui' 
 on the Apostles. How significantly doth the 
 apostle call Priscilla and Aquilla his helpers in 
 Christ Jesus. And what he means by his helpers 
 in that sense we may see from Phil. iv. 3, where 
 he speaks of women which laboured with him in 
 the Gospel. All this, then, duly considered. 
 Friends think it unlawful to forbid such women 
 to preach whom the Lord hath gifted, and who 
 are of a godly life and conversation, since it 
 sufficiently appears that in the primitive church 
 they were not debarred from that service. And 
 as in those days, so in ours, it hath evidently 
 appeared that some pious women have had a 
 
JOHN CAMM. 
 
 51 
 
 very excellent gift, to the edification of the 
 Church. All which tends to the glory of God, 
 who is no respecter of persons, and is pleased to 
 make use of weak instruments to shew forth his 
 jjraise." 
 
 The last biographical sketch being that of 
 John Audland, I think the one to-night cannot 
 be more appropriate than that of " his bosom 
 friend." 
 
 JoHX Camm was born at Camsgill, in the 
 Barony of Kendal, in Westmoreland. His 
 family had probably given name to the place, 
 having had it in their possession for several 
 generations. He received a good education, 
 and became a man of good abilities and con- 
 sidei'able propei-ty. The world " seemed to 
 smile upon him, and the riches and glory of it 
 had exceedingly increased, and were likely to 
 increase more." He was religiously inclined 
 from his youth, strict in the observance of its 
 duties, and most exemplary in his conduct. 
 With some others, he separated from the 
 national worship, and formed a select congre- 
 gation, assembling at Fii'bank Chapel ; amongst 
 E 2 
 
52 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 whom he sometimes officiated as minister. 
 They had not, however, come to enjoy the 
 substance which satisfies the soul ; but were 
 prepared to I'eceive further manifestations of the 
 way of life and salvation. This was opened to 
 them by George Fox, when he visited that part 
 in 1652. As mentioned in our notice of John 
 Audland, many (I have read "some hundreds") 
 were on that remarkable occasion convinced, 
 and amongst them J. Camm, who became 
 willing to take up the cross to the glory and 
 friendship of the world, in endeavoiiring to 
 secure an everlasting inheritance in that which 
 is to come. 
 
 After much inward and patient submission to 
 the operations of the Holy Spirit, who alone 
 truly prepares for the work, this Friend was 
 one of the first called to labour in the ministry, 
 among the people called Quakers. His first 
 journey was through the northern counties of 
 England to the borders of Scotland ; after 
 which, he was engaged to visit (accompanied by 
 F. Howgill) some of the southern parts. When 
 out on this journey, he was concerned personally 
 " to declare the message of the Lord to Oliver 
 
LETTER TO OLIVER CROMWELL. 53 
 
 Cromwell, then called Protector :" to whom he 
 also wrote au epistle, commencing thus : 
 
 " On the last day of the First month, (then) 
 called March, about two o'clock in the morning, 
 I was moved of the i.ord to write these ensuing 
 lines, and tp lay before thee the cause of our 
 coming hither to London. Friend, we came not 
 here to petition anything from thee in the 
 outward, but in the tender bowels of love to 
 exhort thee to mind thy own condition, how 
 thou standest in relation to the Lord God of 
 heaven and earth, who is powerful, and pure, 
 and holy ; who will not acquit the wicked, but 
 will wound the hairy scalp of him who goes on 
 in iniquity : before whose presence all stand 
 naked and bare , who knows and seest all the 
 secrets of thy heart, thy outgoings and incom- 
 ings, to whom thou must give account of all 
 things done in the body, whether they be good 
 or evil. Therefore, in love to thy soul, were we 
 moved to come to exhort thee to stand in the 
 fear of the Lord, and in his counsel; and to 
 mind the light in thy conscience, which is pure 
 and of God, to guide thee in the great affairs of 
 the nations ; for to keep in H is fear is safe, 
 
54 THE " FRIEND " IX HIS FAMILY. 
 
 while dreadful and terrible will the day of the 
 Lord be to all Who are found out of His fear, 
 and acting in their own wills, and bounding and 
 limiting the Spiiit of the Lord, and walking 
 contrary to the pure law of God, the light in 
 their consciences." 
 
 In this faithful strain he proceeds, bidding 
 him " take heed ; for he that is in high places is 
 subject to many temptations." Interviews and 
 epistles such as the Protector received from John 
 Camm, and others of the l\arly Friends, were 
 likely to justify his conviction expressed in the 
 following lines : " Now I see there is a people 
 risen and come up, that I cannot win either 
 with gifts, honours, offices, or places ; but all 
 other sects and people I can." 
 
 John Camm, in company -n-ith Edward 
 Hurrough, then travelled through the middle of 
 the nation ; when, reaching London again, he 
 met many Friends whose labours in tliat city 
 had been attended with much success. Amongst 
 these was his countryman, J ohn A udland, who 
 united ^vit\l John Camm in visiting Bristol, 
 where "a great and effectual door was opened." 
 The ministry of these Friends was eSectual to 
 
LABOURS IN BRISTOL. 55 
 
 to the com'ilicement of many, as they "preached 
 baptising." 
 
 In the Ninth month, 1654, F. Howgill and 
 E. Buri-ough wrote from Bristol, to Margaret 
 Fell ; " Dearly beloved Sister and Mother, — To 
 many who shall bless thee in the name of the 
 Lord ! Every day of the week, either out of 
 the city or in it, we have meetings. On the 
 last First day we had a meeting at one Captain 
 Bishop's house in the city — a large house Avith 
 large rooms, but all were too little ; so in the after- 
 noon we went to a place called the Fort. There 
 were about two thousand people there, and 
 many great men and women, and all silent ; but 
 we could hardly reach them with words, the 
 multitude was so great ; yet all was still and 
 we could not get from them. Here is a pretty 
 people and a gi-eat harvest. John Audland 
 and John Camm we see not yet, but expect 
 their coming. Here is a thirsty land. Salute 
 us dearly to George Fox ; one hour with him 
 would be a great joy to us." 
 
 Now these same Friends wrote again to 
 Margaret Fell, in the First month, 1655, when 
 they mention, (in narrating the various labours 
 
56 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 and callings of the brethren, themselves " among 
 the rude world thrashing and jiloughing ;" some 
 in one direction, others in another, many 
 confined in prisons) ; "John Camm is at Bristol." 
 In a letter of the Seventh month of the same 
 year we read, "John Camm and John Audland 
 are at liberty in the work of the Lord in and 
 about Bristol and as mentioned in our notice 
 of John Audland, in 7mo. 1656, they are still 
 in that city, with " their net like to break with 
 fishes though in the Eleventh month of the 
 same year, as we shall see, he entered into " the 
 joy of his Lord." 
 
 From an account of J. Camm, in a little work, 
 to which I am occasionally indebted, " Piety 
 Promoted," we learn that " he was a man richly 
 furnished with the gifts of the Holy Spirit; patient 
 in exercises, grave in behaviour, profound in 
 judgment, quick in discerning, and a sliai-p 
 reprover of wickedness, hypocrisy, and of dis- 
 orderly walkers in the profession of truth ; and 
 unity of brethren was his soul's delight. His 
 ministry was weighty and deep, not pleasant to 
 itching ears, but reaching the witness of God ; 
 careful not to make the gospel chai-geable. 
 
HIS ILLNESS AND DECEASE. 57 
 
 having an estate of his own. He would often 
 call his children together and exhort them to 
 fear the Lord and would wonderfully praise God 
 for His goodness." 
 
 John Canim was of a weak and delicate 
 constitution, and his customary debility was 
 much increased by his laborious service in the 
 caiise to which he was so wholly devoted. 
 Gough, in his account of him, says, " His con- 
 stitution, naturally weak, was hereby reduced 
 into a gradual decline." During his last illness, 
 he frequently had his family gathered around him, 
 to whom he extended much religious counsel, 
 and often prayed with them. How resigned he 
 was to the will of God, and how happy in the 
 ]>rospect of a speedy removal, may be gathered 
 from the following expressions which he uttered 
 a short time before his decease : " How great a 
 benefit do T enjoy beyond many, having such a 
 large time of prejjaration for death : being daily 
 dying, that I may live for ever with my God in 
 that kingdom which is unspeakably full of 
 glory. My outwai'd man daily wastes and 
 moidders down, and draws towards its place 
 and centre ; but my inward man revives and 
 
58 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 mounts iipwards towards its place and habitation 
 in the heavens." On the morning of the day 
 of his removal, he called his wife and family to 
 him, and exhoi-ted them to love and serve the 
 Lord, and to walk circumspectly in his fear ; 
 adding, that the time of his iepai-ture was come, 
 and he was about to enter into everlasting joy 
 and rest; charging them to "be patient and 
 content in his removal." Shortly after he ap- 
 peared to be passing quietly away, when the 
 sobbing and weeping awoke him ; he said, " My 
 dear hearts, you have wronged me and disturbed 
 me, for I was at sweet rest. You should not so 
 passionately soitow for my departure. This 
 house of earth and clay must go to its place, 
 but this soul and spirit is to be gathered up to 
 the Lord to live with him for ever, and where 
 we shall meet with everlasting joy." And after 
 again taking leave of them, and repeating his 
 charge, he lay down and expired, in the 11th 
 Month, 1656, being in his 52nd year. 
 
TRUE UNITY. 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 True Unity— Edward Burrough. 
 
 THOUGHT you might to-night be 
 looking for .some further account 
 of a Friend, who has already been 
 named more than once. I mean 
 Edward Burrough. Who that has 
 the smallest knowledge of the early history of 
 the Society is not familiar with the name 1 Who 
 that has any acquaintance with a Friends' 
 library and does not know the works of Edward 
 Burroughs But it is well to know somethinc 
 further than this. 
 
 It is not very important, nevertheless it is 
 very interesting to remark, as I have often 
 done in tracing the characters and labours of 
 these Early Friends, and I do not know that the 
 remark need be limited to them, how, like the 
 
60 THE " FRIEND IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 first disciples, they were " sent forth by two 
 and two ;" and how great and close the unity of 
 spirit between some amongst whom, as to out- 
 ward circumstances, age and education, there 
 would be the greatest disparity. But the work 
 of the Holy Spii'it is not to remove these 
 inequalities and differences, but to sanctify and 
 appropriate to the service and glory of the 
 Father the varying gifts and talents with which 
 in His wisdom He has seen fit to endow His 
 children. I remember reading in one place, 
 upon which at the present moment I cannot lay 
 my hand, of a ministering Friend recording 
 how dearly he loved, and how closely he was 
 united to his companion and fellow labourer, 
 who, he goes on to remark, was "a man of a very 
 different nature" to himself Thus you vrould 
 have noticed that whilst John x\udland was a 
 young man of two and twenty, when yoked 
 with his bosom friend John Camm, in 1652, 
 John Camm was himself nearly fifty years old 
 at that time ; and Howgill was by many years 
 the senior of liis yoke fellow Edward Burrough. 
 Truly their consolation was in Chritit, and their 
 fellowship in the Spirit. 
 
EDWARD BURROUGH. 
 
 61 
 
 Edward Burrough was bom in Kendal, in 
 Westmoreland, of ui)riglit and honest parents, 
 who brought him up " in leai ning and good 
 education as the coiuitry did aiford." Though 
 by his parents trained up in the Episcopal 
 worship, he often went to the meetings of the 
 Presbyterians, because, as he states, " their 
 doctrines in many things seemed to approach 
 nearer to Truth." In liis youth, he was endued 
 witli " wisdom above his equals in years ; and, 
 moreover, was very religious, conversing fre- 
 quently with those in good esteem for piety and 
 godly life." 
 
 When George Fox went to Under Barrow, 
 in 1652, as Sewel relates, "several people ac- 
 companied him, and he had great reasonings 
 with them, but especially with one Edward 
 Burrough, who, though of extraordinaiy parts 
 and acquired knowledge, was not able to 
 withstand the efficacious sayings of George 
 Fox : and this Burrough became an euiinent 
 man among the Quakers, so called, being endued 
 with a courage and undei'standing fit to over- 
 come his opposeis, and to break even strong 
 hearts." 
 
62 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 In common with the disciples of a crucified 
 Lord, Edward Burrough had to bear the cross 
 as well as preach it. No sooner did his con- 
 vincement become known, than he was " rt^jectod 
 by his relations, and by a blind zeal turned out 
 of his father's house. This he bore patiently, 
 and continued faithful in the doctrine he had 
 embraced." And what advei'sities did he not 
 undergo from that time 1 " reviling, slandering, 
 buffeting, and caning were often his lot ; watch- 
 ing and fasting wei"e many times his portion ; 
 and imprisonment, great jeopardies and danger 
 of life he was not unacquainted with ; but 
 nothing could make this hero shrink." 
 
 Edward Burrough is mentioned by Geoi'ge 
 Fox and Sewel amongst those who early "ap- 
 peared zealous preachers among those called 
 Quakers ; and often declared the doctrine they 
 professed in steeple-houses and markets, whei'eby 
 the number of them began greatly to increase." 
 
 By some he was called " a son of thunder," as 
 it was " his peculiar talent to thunder against sin 
 and iniquity ; though he also oinitted not, in due 
 season, to speak a word of consolation to those that 
 were of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit." 
 
HIS CHARACTER AND LABOURS. 
 
 63 
 
 He appears to have dedicated himself most 
 unreservedly to the service which he had 
 entered ; wrote much in defence of Truth and 
 its friends ; and to them, individually and collec- 
 tively ; and, as he found it requii-ed of him to 
 do so, would " engage in disi)utes with those of 
 other persuasions, sparing no pains when he 
 thought he could serve the Lord and his 
 Church." 
 
 His addresses to those in power are remarka- 
 ble for their faithfulness ; his epistles to Friends 
 for his affectionate care on their behalf ; and his 
 vindications of the Truth for their clearness and 
 conciseness. 
 
 Many of his writings are of a polemical nature, 
 and proved useful in clearing Truth of those 
 calumnies, which its enemies are ever ready, in 
 some form or other, to cast upon it ; and this 
 character was the necessary consequence of an 
 industrious and continual misrepresentation of 
 the principles so dear to him, by his adversaries 
 and persecutors, rather than the result of any 
 controversial bias on his part. The Lord was 
 with him, and accompanied him in " confounding 
 the wisdom of the wise, stt)pping the mouths of 
 
G4 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 many contentious opposers, and in convincing 
 gainsayers ; yea, the Lord did manifest and 
 perfect his strength through weakness, even 
 thi'ough instruments despised and contemptible 
 in the eyes of the proud and exalted of the 
 woi-ld ; out of the mouths of babes did the 
 Lord ordain strength, and through simplicity 
 did his ■wisdom speak, both in this his faitliful 
 Edward Burrough, and divers others in the 
 beginning : so that let none contemn the honest 
 plainness and harmless simplicity of any of his 
 writings or books, for many were living wit- 
 nesses, that the power and wisdom of God did 
 appear and show itself in him through such 
 plainness and simplicity, to the confounding and 
 overturning the wisdom of many that were 
 high and lofty, who conceited themselves wise 
 with the opj)osition of science (falsely so 
 called)." — Ellis Hooke's Testimony. 
 
 In the work of the ministry, Francis 
 Howgill was almost the constant com- 
 panion of Edward Bui-rough. They were 
 amongst the first Friends who held meet- 
 ings in London ; that city was the chief 
 scene of their labours, and the cause of Truth 
 
HIS DILIGENCE. 65 
 
 and Friends there, a weighty, constant and 
 almost chief concern. 
 
 William Sewel says, " But when Francis 
 Howgill and Edward Burrough were come to 
 London, things began to have another face, for 
 they laid hold of all 02:)portunities they could 
 light on to preach the gosjjel." Edward 
 Burrough's first visit to that city was probably 
 in his 19th year; and continuing "to preach 
 the Word of God there, many became conviiaced, 
 and great addition was made to« the Church." 
 Several occm-rences on record prove Edward 
 Burrough to have been very courageous and 
 zealous in the work the Lord had appointed 
 him. His ministry was deep, powerful, and 
 very acceptable to his friends. 
 
 " They laid hold of all opportunities they 
 could light on to preach the (jospel." These are 
 not mere words ; they record a fact which brings 
 to our mind the great diversity between the 
 position and circumstances of those living at the 
 present time and those of more than two cen- 
 turies since. William Sewel tells us "at 
 London there is a custom in summer time, 
 when the evening approaches, and tradesmen 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 leave off woi-king, that many lusty fellows meet 
 in the fields to try their skill and strength in 
 wi-estling, where generally a multitude of people 
 stand gazing in a round. Now it so fell out 
 that Edward Bun'ough passed by the place 
 where they were wrestling, and standing still 
 among the spectators, saw how a strong and 
 dexterous fellow had already tlu'own three 
 others and was waiting for a fourth champion if 
 any durst venture to enter the lists. At length, 
 none being bold enough to tiy, Edward Burrough 
 stept into the ring, and having looked upon the 
 wrestler with a serious countenance, the man 
 was not a little surprised, instead of an airy 
 antagonist, to meet with a grave and awful 
 young man ; and all stood, as it were, amazed 
 at this sight, eagerly expecting what would be 
 the issue of this combat. But it was quite 
 another fight Edward Burrough aimed at ; for 
 having already fought agauist spiritual wicked- 
 ness, that had once prevailed on him, and 
 having overcome in a measure by the grace of 
 God, he now endeavoured to fight also against 
 it in others, and to turn them from the evil of 
 theii' ways. "With this intention he began very 
 
HIS COURAGE. 
 
 (17 
 
 seriously to speak to the standers by, and that 
 with such a heart-pierciiig power, that he was 
 heard by this mixed multitude with no less 
 attention than admiration ; for his speech tended 
 to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
 the power of Satan to God. To effect this he 
 labom-ed with convincing words, shewing how 
 God had not left himself without a witness, but 
 had given to man a measure of His grace, and 
 enlightened every one with the light of Clirist. 
 Thus he preached zealously, and though many 
 might look upon this as a novelty, yet it was of 
 such effect that some were convinced of the 
 Truth." About eight out of the ten years which 
 elapsed between his convincement and decease, 
 'ten years of unintermittent labour,' were spent 
 in and abo^it London. This city, as I have 
 said, was the chief scene of his extraordinary 
 labours. The following few lines from an epistle 
 he wrote about six months before his decease, 
 "To the Friends of Truth in and about 
 London," will give you some idea of his feeling 
 toward them and his manner of expression. 
 " Dearly and well beloved in Christ our life and 
 glorv ; the Snirit of the Lord is upon me, and 
 
G8 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 at this time qiiickeneth my heart into the lively 
 remembrance of you all ; herewith sending the 
 hearty and fervent salutation of my dear and 
 perfect love unto all the faitliful amongst you. 
 For the Father's love filleth my heart and hath 
 raised up my spmt into an holy frame and 
 temper of gladness and rejoicing of great joy 
 and comfort, in the remembrance and feeling 
 sense of what the Lord hath wrought and made 
 manifest among His people ; and the fulness of 
 His love and rejoicing floweth out, in praising 
 and magnifying the Lord our God for evermore. 
 * * * This hath been effected by the hand 
 and power of the Most High, who hath also 
 preserved us unto this day through many trials 
 and tribulations ; and again and again when 
 our enemies have risen up to destroy us, even 
 then hath the Lord been our defence and con- 
 founded our persecutors ; so that we yet live : 
 blessed be the name of the Lord ! the remem- 
 brance of which infinite tender mercies from 
 the Father that we have received, hath a 
 heavenly influence upon my heart at this time, 
 which causeth me to say; "what manner of love" 
 is this ! Oh the height and depth and infinite- 
 
HIS FERVOR. 69 
 
 ness of the same ! The beauty thereof hath 
 ravished my heart ; the strength thereof hath 
 overcome me ; and the virtue thereof hath filled 
 my souL And this is the jjresent frame of my 
 spirit, full of love and goodwill to the Lord God 
 and to all his saints ; and particularly unto you, 
 unto whom my spiiit desireth, in the Lord, 
 iaci-ease of peace, and mercies, and blessings, 
 and all heavenly virtue unto you all ; for I am 
 under particular engagements unto you more 
 than unto many." Though surrounded with 
 outward trials and persecutions, thus did Edward 
 Biu'rough, and veiy many others of his day, 
 "sing and make melody in their hearts to the 
 Lord ; giving thanks always for all tilings unto 
 God and the Father, in the name of oiu- Lord 
 Jesus Chi-ist." 
 
 In 1655 he visited Ireland with Francis 
 Howgill, from whence they were banished. 
 In reference to this banishment, William 
 Edmundson tells us, that "a guard of soldiers 
 was ordered to conduct them from place to 
 place till they were shipped off ; but the guards 
 were loving to them, and suffered them to have 
 meetings where they came, so that several 
 
70 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 received the Tmth, and small meetings were 
 settled in divers places." 
 
 Edward Biirrough also visited Scotland, and 
 some 2iarts of Flanders ; and " many thousands 
 were there Avho were living in the body and 
 alive in the Truth, Avho could, in the Spirit of 
 the Lord, bear testimony to the power and 
 verity of his ministry in the many countries 
 where he travelled ; for he laboured much in 
 divers places, even in the heat of the day, 
 though he began early in the morning." In 
 1661 we find him interceding with the King, 
 respecting the persecution in New England, to 
 which I have made some reference ; and having 
 obtained the mandamus, he succeeded in getting 
 leave for Samuel Shattock, a Friend, to convey it. 
 
 " Thus," says Sewel, " was Edward Burroiigh 
 always laborious ; and like a faitliful and diligent 
 minister of Christ, he was so totally devoted to 
 the service of God and the Chm-ch, both in 
 preaching and in writing in defence of the 
 Gospel, that he scarce reserved any time for 
 himself, and seldom took rest, but continued to 
 work incessantly, till the time of his departure 
 drew near." 
 
HE DIES IN PBISON. 
 
 71 
 
 lu another place oui' liistorian says, " Now I 
 come to the glorious exit of Edward Burrough, 
 that valiant hero. For several years, he had 
 been very much at London, and there preached 
 the Gospel with piercing and powerful declarar- 
 tions ; and that city was so near him, that 
 oftentimes when persecution grew hot, he said 
 to Francis Howgill, his bosom friend, ' I can 
 freely go to the city of London and lay down 
 my life for a testimony to that Truth which I 
 have declared through the power and spii-it of 
 God;' and being in this year (1662) at Bristol 
 and thereabouts, and moved to return to London, 
 he said to many of his Friends, when taking 
 leave of them, that he did not know that he 
 should see their faces any more ; and therefore 
 he exhorted them to faithfulness and steadfast- 
 ness in that wherein they had found rest for 
 their souls ; and to some he said, ' I am now 
 going up to the city of London, to lay down my 
 life for the Gospel, and suffer amongst Friends 
 in that place. ' " Whilst preaching at the Bull 
 and Mouth meeting-house in that city, Edward 
 Burrough was pulled down, fined and imprisoned, 
 where he was kejit " about eight months, with 
 
72 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 six or seven score prisonei'S upon the same 
 account." From want of room, tliese innocent 
 sufferers were so crowded that "their natures 
 were suffocated, many grew sick and died, of 
 which number he was one." The decease of the 
 body was in the month called February, 1662, 
 in about the 28th year of his age. Let us now 
 turn to an entry in George Fox's journal, 
 under this date : " Passing from thence to 
 Sutton, and so into Cambridgesliire, I heard of 
 Edward Burrough's decease ; and being sensible 
 how great a grief and exercise it would be to 
 Friends to part with him, I wrote the following 
 lines for the staying and settling of their 
 minds : — 
 
 " Friends, be still and quiet in your own 
 conditions, and settled in the seed of God that 
 doth not change, that in that ye may feel dear 
 Edward Burrough among you in the seed ia 
 which, and by which, he begat you to God, with 
 whom he is : and that in the seed ye may all 
 see and feel him, in which is unity with him in 
 the life that doth not change, which is invisi- 
 ble.— G. F." 
 
 About ten years after his decease, Edward 
 
F. howgill's testimony of him. 73 
 
 Burroughs writings were collected and published 
 in a large folio volume of some nine hundred 
 pages, itself a remarkable proof and monument 
 of his pious industry and zeal. 
 
 His near and dear friend and brother, Francis 
 Howgill, gave forth "A Testimony concerning 
 the Life, Death, Ti'ials, Travels, and Labours of 
 Edward BuiTOugh, that worthy Prophet of the 
 Lord •" with some extracts from which we will 
 conclude this brief sketch of his useful life. 
 
 " Shall days, or months, or years, wear out 
 thy name as thougli thou hadst no being'? Oh 
 nay ! Shall not thy noble and valiant acts, and 
 mighty works which thou hast wroiight, through 
 the Power of Him that gave thee being, live in 
 generations to come ? Oh, yes i * * * Thou 
 hast penetrated the hearts of many ; and the 
 memorial of the just shall live for ever, and be 
 had in renown among the children of wisdom 
 for ever ; for thon hast turned many to right- 
 eousness, and shalt shine as a star of God in the 
 firmament of God's power for ever and ever; 
 and they that ai'e in that, shall see thee there, 
 and enjoy thee there, though thou be gone away 
 hence, and can no more be seen in mutability ; 
 
74 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 yet thy life and thy sphit shall run parallel with 
 immortality. Oh, Edward Burrough ! I cannot 
 but mourn for thee ; yet not as one without 
 hope or faith ; knowing and having a jierfect 
 testimony of thy well-being in my heart, by the 
 Spirit of the Lord : yet thy absence is great, 
 and years to come shall know the want of thee. 
 * * * When I think upon thee, I am melted 
 into tears of true sorrow; and because of the 
 want that the inheritance of the Lord hath of 
 thee, my substance is even as dissolved. Shall 
 I not say as David said of Saul and Jonathan, 
 when they were slain in Mount Gilboa, 'The 
 beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places,' 
 even so wast thou stifled in nasty holes and 
 prisons, and many more who were precious in 
 the eyes of the Lord ; and surely precious wast 
 thou to me. Oh, dear Edward ! I am distressed 
 for thee, my brother ; very pleasant hast thou 
 been to me, and my love to thee was wonderful, 
 passing the love of woman. Oh, thou whose 
 bow never turned back, neither sword empty 
 from the blood of the slain, from the slaughter 
 of the mighty; who made nations and multi- 
 tudes shake with the word of life in thy mouth. 
 
F. iiowgill's testimony to e. burrough. 75 
 
 and wast very dreadful to the enemies of the 
 Lord, for thou didst cut like a razor ; and yet to 
 the seed of God brought forth, thy words dropt 
 like oil, and thy lips as the honeycomb. Thou 
 shalt be recorded amongst the valiants of Israel 
 who attained to the first degree through the 
 power of the Lord, that wrought mightily in 
 thee in thy day, and wast worthy of double 
 honoiur because of thy work's sake. Thou wast 
 expert to handle thy weapon, and by thee the 
 mighty have fiillen, and the slain of the Lord 
 have been many ; many have been pricked to 
 
 I the heart through the power of the Word of 
 Life, and coals of fire from thy life came forth 
 of thy mouth, that in many a thicket and 
 among many briars and thorns, it came to be 
 kindled, and did devour much stubble that cum- 
 
 ' bered the ground and stained the earth. Oh, 
 how certain a sound did thy trumpet give ! and 
 how gi'eat an alamm didst thou give in thy day, 
 
 i that made the host of the uncircumcised greatly 
 distressed. What man so valiant, though as 
 Goliath of Gath, would not thy valour have en- 
 countered with, while many despised thy youth. 
 And how have I seen thee with thy sling and 
 
76 THE " FKIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 thy stone (despised weapons as to war with) 
 wound the mighty ; and that which hath seemed 
 contemptible to the Dragon's party, even as the 
 jawbone of an ass, with it thou hast slain the 
 Philistines, heaps upon heaps, as did Sampson. 
 Thou hast put thy hand to the hammer of 
 the Lord, and has often fastened nails in 
 t]\e heads of the Lamb's enemies, as Jael 
 did to Sisera; and how many a rough stone 
 hast thou polished and squared, and made 
 it fit for the building of God; and much 
 knotty wood hast thou hewed in thy day, 
 which was not fit for the building of God's 
 house. Oh, thou prophet of the Lord ! thou 
 slialt for ever be recorded in the Lamb's Book of 
 Life, among the Lord's worthies, who have 
 followed the Lamb thi-ougli great tribulations, 
 as many can witness for thee, from the beginning, 
 and at lilst hath overcome and been found 
 worthy to stand with the Lamb upon Mount 
 Zion, the hill of God, as I have often seen thee, 
 and thy heai't well tuned as a harp to pi-aise the 
 Lord and to sound forth His great salvation, 
 which many a time hath made glad the hearts 
 of them that did believe, and strengthen theii- 
 
F. howgill's testimony to e. burrough. 77 
 
 faith and hope. Well, thou art at rest, and 
 bound up in the bundle of life ; and I know 
 tears were wiped away from thy eyes, because 
 there was no caiise of sorrow in thee; for I 
 know thou witnessed the old things done away, 
 and there was no curse ; but blessings were 
 poured upon thy head as I'ain, and jJcace as a 
 mighty shower, and trouble was far from thy 
 dwelling, though in the outward man trouble 
 on every side, and hast had a greater share in 
 that for the Gospel's sake, though a youth, in 
 thy time, than many besides ; but now thou art 
 freed from that, and hast obtained a name 
 through faith with the Saints in light. Well, 
 liadst thou moi-e to give up than thy life for the 
 name of Jesus in this world 1 Nay, and to seal 
 thy testimony committed unto thee with thy 
 blood, as thou hast often said in thy day, which 
 shall remain as a crown upon thee for ever and 
 ever. And now thou art freed from the temp- 
 tations of him who had the power of death, and 
 art freed from thy outward enemies, who hated 
 thee because of the life that dwelt in thee, and 
 remainest at the right hand of God, where there 
 is joy and pleasure for evermore, in the everlas- 
 
78 THE " FRIEXD " IX HIS FAMILY. 
 
 ting light, which thou hadst often testified unto, 
 according to the word of prophecy in thy heart, 
 which was given unto thee by the Holy Ghost, 
 and art at rest in the perfection tliei-eof, in the 
 beauty of holiness ; yet thy life and thy spiiit 
 I feel at present, and have unity with it and in 
 it, beyond all created and visible things which 
 are subject to mutation and change. And thy 
 life shall enter into others, to testify imto the 
 same Truth, which is from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting; for God, whose power is almighty, 
 great in His people in the midst of their enemies, 
 hath raised, and will raise up children unto 
 Abraham, of them that have been as dead 
 stones. * * * The Lord singled him out, 
 and commanded him to go forth into countries 
 unknown to him, as he did some more besides, 
 upon whom he laid a necessity to preach the 
 Gospel freely, without money, without price, 
 without tithes, without augmentations, gifts, or 
 rewards ; and in that he was as ftiithful a man, 
 none exceeding him in his generation ; for those 
 things were an abhorrency to his heart : and 
 where he met with any such hii-eling shepherds 
 and deceitful workers, which had gulled the 
 
F. howgill's testimony to e. burrough. 79 
 
 nations, and cheated the people for dishonest 
 gain, and kept them in blindness, the indignation 
 of the Lord was kindled in his heart, and the 
 sword of the Lord was very sharp in his hand ; 
 and whomsoever he met that walked after this 
 sort, they were sure to feel the weight of liis 
 weapon, and the force of his blow, by which 
 many have been deeply wounded, and have 
 gnashed their teeth on liim, greedy of their gain, 
 because of their present wound and blow that 
 he did give them ; and though he was but young 
 in years, yet he was full of fortitude and true 
 valour. The Lord oftentimes, when he exercised 
 him in such war as this, hath filled his quiver 
 full of polished shafts, and made his bow to 
 abide in strength, and he was as dexterous and 
 as ready handed as any that I knew in his day, 
 against tlie Beast and Ms followers ; and indeed 
 he was even-handed, and had a special good aim, 
 and seldom missed the mark. God has filled his 
 mouth with arguments, so that he hath often 
 made a breach in the face of a host. 
 
 " And it was my lot, (which I cannot but say 
 fell in a good ground,) to be his companion and 
 fellow-labourer in the work of the gospel, 
 
80 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS F.UIILY. 
 
 whereunto we were called, for many years 
 together. And oh ! when I consider, my heart 
 is broken ! how sweetly we walked together for 
 many months and yeai-s, in which we had a 
 peifect knowledge of one another's heart, and 
 perfect union of spuit; not so much as one 
 cross word, or one hard thought of discontent 
 ever arose, I believe, in either of our hearts, for 
 ten years together; but our souls were bound 
 up in unity and peace, having the frame of our 
 hearts bent after one and the self-same thing ; 
 to wit, the 2:)ropagation of tliat truth by which 
 liberty was obtained and salvation received 
 through Jesus Clu'ist, the true light of the 
 world. And in the beginning of his travels 
 and laboui's, it was his share to break up 
 rough places and untilled ground, and to walk 
 amongst many briars and thorns, which scratched, 
 and jjricked, and teared ; and travelled with 
 some othei-s not without great opposition ; and 
 he often trod the paths and ways wliich had not 
 been occupied in the truth ; and where darkness 
 had the dominion, and was as a covering, he 
 brake through as an armed man, not minding 
 the opposition, but the victory and the good of 
 
F. howgill's testimony to e. bureough. 81 
 
 souls ; though to my knowledge his sufferings 
 and trials have not been small, nor his exercise 
 little, on the right hand and on the left ; in 
 ti-avel often ; oftentimes buffetted ; sometimes 
 knocked down by unreasonable men, who had 
 not faith ; loaded with lies, slanders, calumnies, 
 and reproaches; often in weakness, yea in 
 deaths often ; in watchings, fastings, and temp- 
 tations often ; in straits and necessities ; in 
 perils among rude multitudes; in perils in idol 
 temples ; in perils in streets and markets, where 
 the Lord did move him often to go in the 
 beginning of his time; besides the exceeding 
 weiglit of service from week's end to week's 
 end, insomuch that he seldom had many hours 
 of repose, and often buffetted by those spiiits 
 who lost their first love and rose in opposition. 
 
 " He was very diligent and faithful, true- 
 hearted and valiant ; and the yoke at last came 
 to be easy unto him, though no ease at all in 
 the body as to the outward man ; for lie made 
 the work of the Lord his whole business, without 
 taking so much liberty unto himself, or about 
 any outward occasion in this world, as to spcr.d 
 
 one week to himself, to my knowledge, these 
 G 
 
82 THE "friend" m his family. 
 
 ten yeoA'S. He had ventured himself often for 
 the body's sake ; and a great care I know was 
 in his heart, that those that he ministered unto, 
 and others that had believed the same truth, 
 might thrive and prosper, and might walk as 
 becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " He was of a manly spii-it in the things of 
 God; he hath engaged himself often iipon the 
 Lord's account singly, in great disputes, where 
 there were many opposers ; he hath stood in the 
 door and in the gap against all his enemies, for 
 the worthy name of God, and taken the whole 
 weight of things upon his own shoulders, that 
 others might be eased, though often to the weak- 
 ening and almost destroying of the outward man ; 
 yet doing all in love to the Lord and for his 
 people's sake, he did it with cheerfulness ; and 
 it was a gi'ief to him if any opportunity was* 
 missed of doing good. He was a man of no 
 great learning in natural tongues, which men so 
 much applaud ; yet indeed his heart was full of 
 matter, and his tongue was as the hand of a 
 ready scribe ; and yet he had the tongue of the 
 learned, having had experiment of the work of 
 the Lord, and being acquainted with many con- 
 
F. howgill's testimony to e. bubrough. 83 
 
 ditions, which God had carried him thi-ough, he 
 could speak a word in season unto all who 
 declared theii- conditions unto him, or otherways, 
 in his public ministry. He was very plausible 
 and elegant in his speech, and indeed had the 
 tongue of a learned orator, to declare himself to 
 the understandings and consciences of all men 
 with whom he conversed, by which many re- 
 ceived great profit, and their understandings 
 came to be opened ; for his words were forcible 
 and very pleasant, as apples of gold in pictures 
 of silver. 
 
 " He continued in the city of London veiy 
 much at time and times, betwixt eight and nine 
 years together, preaching the word of God, and 
 speaking of the things of His kingdom to all 
 that looked after it ; and had great watching, 
 travail and exercise in the work of the Lord ; 
 and his earnest desii-e was, that all might 
 come to know God's salvation, and the redemp- 
 tion of their souls ; and his diligence was known 
 unto many, that his only rejoicing was in the 
 prosperity of the work of the Lord, and the 
 increase of faith amongst them that did believe. 
 
 "At a public meeting which the people of 
 G 2 
 
84 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 the Lord have kept these many years, to hear 
 and speak of the things of God to edification, 
 at the Bull and Month, near Aldersgate, he 
 was violently plucked down and haled away 
 in a barbarous manner, and carried to the 
 guard and so committed to Newgate, not for 
 evU-doing, but for testif3Tng unto the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and for the worship of God ; as 
 though this were become a great crime worthy 
 of bonds, and at last death. 
 
 "And after a little season he gave up the 
 ghost, and died a prisoner, and shall be re- 
 corded, and is in the Lamb's book of Life, as a 
 martyr for the Word of God, and the testimony 
 of Jesus, for which only he suffered and gave up 
 his life, whose death was precious in the eyes of 
 the Lord. But now he ever liveth with God, 
 and his works follow him, and his labours shall 
 testify of him in generations to come ; and 
 thousands besides myself can bear witness his 
 life and death was to the praise, honour and 
 glory of the grace of God, unto whom be the 
 glory of all His works for ever. Amen." 
 
SILENT MEETINGS. 
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Silent Meetings — Spiritual Worship — The True 
 Communion — Alexander Jaefray — David Bar- 
 clay. 
 
 (EiFTER the glance "we have already had, 
 of the incessant labours in the work 
 Q!^^ of the Ministry of some of the Early 
 '^j^ Friends, it is possible that you may 
 ^4- suppose that their Meetings for Wor- 
 ship were not distinguished for their Silence. I 
 thought it might be well to offer a few remarks 
 on that important subject, before proceeding 
 with the two very brief biographical sketches 
 I propose to give you to-night. It is most 
 evident that all who were called, even though of 
 deep religious experience and of great talent, 
 to join and become foremost members of this 
 rehgious society, were not called to "the min- 
 istry of the word." I think the Friends of 
 
86 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 ■whom I purpose speaking to-night will be illus- 
 trations of this. 
 
 As regards theii' meetings for worship, I 
 am satisfied that from the veiy first they 
 were gathered in outward silence. The bui-den 
 of almost the first paper which George Fox 
 wrote, and "sent forth amongst the con- 
 vinced peo2)le," was to this effect. He writes to 
 them; "Mark and consider in silence, and in 
 lowliness of mind, and thou wilt hear the Lord 
 speak to thee in thy mind. His voice is sweet 
 and pleasant : His sheep hear His voice and they 
 will not hearken to another. When they hear 
 His voice they rejoice and are obedient ; they 
 also sing for joy. Oh ! their hearts are filled 
 with everlasting triumph. They sing and praise 
 the Eternal God in Zion. Their joy man shall 
 never take from them. Glory to the Lord 
 God for evermore." And we find him telling a 
 people called Ranters, that they did not wait 
 upon God in their meetings, as they should do, 
 to feel his power to gather their minds inwai'd, 
 that they might feel His presence and power 
 amongst them in their meetings, to sit down 
 therein, and wait upon Him. And he repeats to 
 
LIBERTY OF PROPHECY. 87 
 
 them that the message from the Lord to them 
 is, that when they come together they "wait to 
 feel the Lord's Power and S2)U'it in themselves, to 
 gather them to Christ that they may be taught 
 of Him who says, 'Learn of Me.'" 
 
 Sewel, in describing the Friends' manner of 
 worship, says, "they spend sometime in devout 
 silence and retiredness of mind, waiting upon 
 the Lord. And if under this spiritual exercise 
 any one feels himself stirred up of God, to speak 
 something by way of doctrine or exhortation, 
 he doth so, and sometimes more than one, but 
 orderly one after another. And that this was 
 usual in the primitive apostolic Church, appears 
 from what Paul saith, ' If anything be revealed 
 to another that sitteth by, let the fii-st hold his 
 peace. For ye may all prophecy one by one.' " 
 And having at hand the life of one of our earliest 
 Friends and most eminent ministers, George 
 Whitehead, let me shew you, what he says, — 
 and you will obsei-ve the date, — "After some 
 time that I was conversant among Friends and 
 frequented the meetings to which I belonged 
 both in Westmoreland and Yorkshire, — between 
 the years 1652 and 1G54, — being much inwardly 
 
88 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 exercised in waiting upon the Loi'd among 
 them — where we had little preaching, but our 
 meetings kept much or often in silence, or but 
 few words declared, — the Lord was pleased 
 sometimes by his power and word of life both to 
 tender and open my heart and understanding, so 
 that he gave me (and some others) now and 
 then a few words livingly to utter in some 
 meetings;" and again, "Oh, thus keeping j 
 silence before the Lord and thus drawing near 
 j to him in a true silent frame of spirit, to hear 
 I first what the Lord speaks to us before we 
 : speak to others, whether it be of judgment or 
 of mercy, is the way for renewing our strength, | 
 and to be His Ministei-s." 
 
 And how could it be otherwise with a people 
 who believed in and testified of the universality 
 of the love and grace of God, and the free gift 
 of his Spu'it ; and wlio were weaned from out- 
 t waixi dependence, forms and observances. Isaac | 
 Pennington says, " And this is the manner ol' 
 their worship, they wait upon the Lord, to 
 j meet in the silence of flesh, and to watch for the 
 stirrings of His life, and the breakings forth of j 
 His povver amongst them. And in the break- | 
 
AS THE SPIRIT GIVETH UTTERANCE. 89 
 
 ings forth of that 2^0"^er they pray, speak, 
 exhort, rebuke, sing or mourn, according as the 
 Spirit teaches, requires and gives utterance. 
 But if the Spirit do not require them to speak, 
 and give them to utter, then every one is to sit 
 still in his place, (in his heavenly place I mean), 
 feeling his own measure, feeding thereupon, 
 receiving therefrom what the Lord giveth." 
 And yet, he continues, that none may suppose 
 silence to be in itself an end or aim, or other 
 than a means; "Absolutely silent meetings, 
 wherein there is a resolution not to speak, we 
 know not ; but we wait on the Lord, either 
 ! to feel Him in words, or in silence of spirit 
 I without words, as He pleaseth. And that which 
 I we aim at, and are instructed to by the Spirit 
 j of the Lord, as to silent meetings, is, that the 
 liesh in every one be kept silent, and that there 
 be no building up but in the spirit and power 
 of the Lord." 
 
 You will remember I had occasion to speak 
 some short time since, of the great number of 
 Friends who were imprisoned because they 
 could not but obey the command of their 
 Saviour, " swear not at all ," and on that ground 
 
ft 
 
 90 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 were compelled in common-with all other oaths, 
 to refuse the oath of allegiance. T thought 
 then of an affecting circumstance which is 
 pei'haps more appropriately mentioned here. It 
 is narrated in a letter written by Thomas Curtis 
 of EeadiQg, to George Fox, in the First month, 
 1665, "We were in prison about fifty odd 
 prisoners (no doubt all the adult Friends in 
 the place), and now are brought this sessions to 
 o\ir trial, about fifty upon the oath of allegiance, 
 and yet the jury cleared us." But some of the 
 magistrates were wicked, he goes on to state, 
 and again tendered to some of them the oath, so 
 that though the country, by the jury, had set 
 Friends free, those bad men sent them again to 
 prison. Again to quote him accurately ; " "We 
 are twenty five in aU yet left (in prison). Tliis 
 day our meeting was quiet, contrary to all 
 expectations. Our little children kept the meetings 
 up when we were all in prison," 
 
 Now what think you of these views of Spiritual 
 Worshi]^ ? I may acknowledge that they com- 
 mend themselves to my mind and conscience, 
 and that I cannot but heartily accept them and 
 xinite in them. 
 
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 
 
 91 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord ; the heaven is my 
 throne, and the earth is my footstool ; where is 
 the house that ye build unto me 1 and where is 
 the place of my rest ? For all those things 
 hath miae hand made, and all those things have 
 been, saith the Lord : but to this man will I 
 look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite 
 spii-it, and trembleth at my word." 
 
 It was probably in remembrance of these 
 words of the Prophet, that the Apostle Paul 
 said to the Athenians, " God that made the 
 world, and all things therein, seeing that He is 
 Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in 
 temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped 
 with men's hands, as though He needed 
 anything, seeing He giveth to all, life, and 
 breath, and all things." Rather should they 
 " seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after 
 Him and find Him, though He be not far from 
 every one of us." Is not the day and hour 
 come " when the true worshippers shall worship 
 the Father in Spirit and in Truth." God is a 
 Spirit — the father of our spirits ; and the woi'ship 
 which He seeketh and the service which is accep- 
 table to Him, is not that which is outward, " with 
 
92 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 men's hands," but which is inward, with the heart, 
 
 the subjection of the will, the adoration of the 
 I heart, and prostration of the soul before Him. 
 i How numerous are the exhortations and how 
 j great the encouragements given by the Psalmist 
 
 and other inspired writers, to " wait upon the 
 
 Lord." 
 
 One of the gracious arrangements of the 
 law, the dispensation of types, and " a shadow 
 of good things to come" was thus announced 
 I unto Moses ; "And thou shalt put the Mercy seat 
 j above upon the Ark ; and in the Ark thou shalt 
 I put the testimony that I shall give thee. And 
 ! there will I meet with thee, and / will commune 
 with thee." This was indeed a glorious feature 
 j and a gracious promise of a dispensation which 
 j " was to be done away and was done away, 
 not by being broken, but by being fulfilled, in 
 Christ; who was "the end of the law for 
 righteousness to every one that believeth." Now, 
 argues the Apostle Paul, "if the ministration 
 of condemnation be glory, much more doth the 
 ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 
 For if that which is done away is glorious, 
 much more that which remaineth is glorious." 
 
THE TRUE COMMUNION. 
 
 93 
 
 ** How shall not the ministration of the Spirit 
 be rather glorious ?" For us is opened up the 
 "new and living Way," through whom "we 
 have access by one Sjirrit unto the Father." 
 Unspeakably great is, I believe, in this respect, 
 the blessed privilege of the Christian, even of 
 communing with his Lord. There are times when 
 he may not only pour out his soul before the 
 Lord, but may " hear what God the Lord will 
 speak unto him when he shall be led into the 
 "quiet habitation" of which he shall have to 
 report ; " I sat down under His shadow with 
 great delight ; and His fruit was sweet to my 
 taste. He brought me to the banqueting 
 house, and His banner over me was love." 
 Often in these seasons of reverend prostration 
 of soul before the Lord and of waiting upon 
 Him, not only wiU the thoughts and aspirations 
 of our hearts ascend to heaven, but the thoughts 
 of God win come down upon us ; not only will 
 prayer and praise ascend before the throne, but 
 the blessed influences of Him who has promised 
 to be " as dew unto Israel" will descend upon 
 our souls. " And J acob dreamed, and behold a 
 ladder set up on the ea/rth, but the top of it 
 
94 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of 
 God ascending and descending thereon." 
 
 In the language of the last Yearly Meeting 
 epistle ; " May the God of patience and of hope 
 be pleased yet more and more to bless ns in our 
 religious assemblies. Whether in our larger or 
 in our smaller meetings, may the name of J csus 
 be "as ointment poured forth," diffusing a 
 heavenly fragrance, and uniting us in fellowship 
 with the one family of the Lord's redeemed on 
 earth and in heaven." 
 
 I now pass on to the notices of two Friends, 
 both Scotchmen, which I promised, and which 
 will, I tliink, prove in harmony with the subject 
 that has engaged our thoughts at this time. 
 First:— 
 
 Alexander Jaffray ; who was born at Aber- 
 deen, in the month called July, 1G41. He 
 received a liberal education, and moved in Avhat 
 is termed high life ; was made a Magistrate, a 
 Member of the Scottish Parliament for his 
 native city, and afterwards of the English one ; 
 and was one of the Commissioners sent twice to 
 Holland, to treat with Charles II. 
 
ALEXANDER JAFFRAY. 95 
 
 He kept a diary, whicli, though referring to 
 the trying times in which he lived, and in 
 whose concerns from his station he was not 
 merely a looker-on; yet its entries principally 
 relate to affairs of a more important and spirit- 
 tial nature ; and the writer, it is evident, was 
 experiencing a growth in the Truth, and that 
 light was gradually breaking in upon his miad. 
 For some time he had entertained scruples with 
 regard to many practices in repute amongst pro- 
 fessors generally, and felt an "earnest exercise 
 of spirit in search of substantial good amidst all 
 the vicissitudes of his day." It should be re- 
 marked, that Alexander Jaffray was not alone 
 in such exercise, but that there were around 
 bim several who were his companions in pious 
 dedication. "Deeply burdened with the for- 
 mality, superetition, and will-worship prevalent 
 around them, these serious inquirers had sepa- 
 rated from the several congregations of the 
 people, and at length several of them began to 
 meet together by themselves, waiting upon God 
 in a holy silence and awful humility of soul for 
 ability to draw nigh unto him in true spiritual 
 worship." Such meetings as are here refen-ed 
 
96 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 to, appear to have been held after the manner 
 of Friends, at a place called Heads, and another 
 at Drumbowy, in the south of Scotland, as early 
 as the year 1653. It is distinctly stated, that 
 "these meetings had been established for the 
 full space of a year, before any in connection 
 with Friends found them out and visited them." 
 Though several Friends visited Scotland earlier, 
 they do not appear to have reached Aberdeen. 
 John Burnyeat was probably the first who 
 visited that city, which was in the year 1658, 
 whither he went, "in the faith that stood in 
 God's power." He had great service there for 
 more than three months. Yet with regard to 
 Aberdeen, and the districts thereabouts, no open 
 espousals of the tenets peculiar to Friends took 
 place until towards the end of the year 1662, 
 when "William Dewsbury was drawn in love to 
 these prepared and panting souls, to proclaim 
 among them "the acceptable year of the Lord," 
 even deliverance from the bondage of corrup- 
 tion by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus. " Thus was the remarkable work of 
 convincement, which had been secretly going on 
 in some of their hearts for several years through 
 
EARLY DAYS IN ABERDEEN. 97 
 
 many deep conflicts of spirit, helped forward to 
 such a point, tliat they were made willing even 
 in all things, to take u\) the daily cross, though 
 in various respects as bitter as- death, and to 
 follow the guidance of Christ by his Spirit 
 within them, whithersoever he should be pleased 
 to lead." 
 
 Alexander JafFray was one of the most pro- 
 minent of these persecuted people, and having 
 been a man in high repute and good esteem, or 
 as he is described in ancient records, " a man of 
 great accoimt as to religion among the highest 
 professors all along," as well as fi'om his position 
 in civil life, the malice of j)ersecutors fell 
 heavily upon him ; which he bore in a patient 
 and forgiving spirit. On hearing that God had 
 i-aised wp a j)eople in England, dii'ecting all to 
 the pure Light, Spirit, and Grace in their own 
 hearts, as the most sure teacher and leader into 
 all truth, religion, and worship, his own words 
 were — " His very heart did leap within him for 
 
 joy-" 
 
 For his Christian testimony he suffered by 
 
 imprisonment, as well as in other res2)ects. 
 
 Througli ecclesiastical tyranny, he was on one 
 If 
 
98 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 occasion confined for more than nine montlis ; 
 and dui'ing that time wrote to the Bishop of 
 Aberdeen (who had been the instrument of his 
 oppression) a very touching appeal : also a paper, 
 entitled, "A Testimony for Trath given forth 
 for the good of all to whom it may come, <fec." 
 About the end of the 4th Month, 1673, he was 
 taken ill, and, says the Monthly Meeting's 
 minute a short time after, (one of the earliest 
 minutes made by Friends at Aberdeen,) " It 
 pleased the Lord to remove out of the body, our 
 dear and precious fi-iend, Alexander Jafiray, at 
 his own house, at Kingswell, the 7th of 5th 
 Month, 1673, at one in the morning; who was 
 bm-ied in his own buiial gi-ound there, on the 
 8th day. He was a sincere, upright-hearted man 
 all his time, and one that had been a seeker of 
 the Lord from his youth up, and had much of 
 the life of Jesus and spiiit of holiness attending 
 his heart all along, as his conversation wit- 
 nessed; and died with blessed and living 
 testimonies to the honour of Truth before many 
 professors and profane who came to see him." 
 And now I will proceed to, 
 
DAVID BARCLAY. 
 
 99 
 
 David Barclay. — Of au ancient and distin- 
 guished family, a man of rank and abilities, 
 David Barclay, commonly called Colonel Barclay, 
 ■was an eminent and ijrominent character in the 
 early history of oxir Society, in the north of 
 Scotland. He was a man of large estate, of 
 coni'tly manners, and liberal education ; and was 
 elected to several successive Parliaments, as 
 member for Sutherlandshu-e or the sliii-es of 
 Angus and Kincaixline. He was born at Kir- 
 toimhill, in the year 1610. In 1647, he 
 married Katlierine, daughter of Sir Bobert 
 Gordon, of Gordonstown, son to the Earl of 
 Sutherland; about which time, it is presumed, 
 he laid aside his military engagements. He 
 "received the Truth in the year 1666, being 
 the 57th of his age, and abode in it, and in 
 constant imity \vith the faithful friends thereof; 
 having suffered the spoiling of his goods 
 cheerfully, and many other indignities he was 
 formerly unaccustomed to bear, and several 
 tedious imprisonments." 
 
 This ai)pears to have been by no means a 
 hasty step. It is stated of him that he was 
 
 between fifty and sixty years of age when it 
 H 2 
 
100 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 occurred to him with great force, that it was 
 high time for him who had spent so much of his 
 day in the service of others, to bestow the re- 
 mainder wholly in the service of his God. In 
 some perplexity bvit in great sincerity he reviews 
 the contending sects, but finds most satisfaction 
 in retirement and reading his Testament, where 
 he learns that true Christianity is "righteous- 
 ness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," 
 that it teaches us to be humble, patient, and 
 self-denying. He becomes acquainted witli a 
 people "everywhere spoken against," who were 
 remarkable for their "testimony against all the 
 follies and vanities of the world," for "much 
 plainness and simplicity and abstractedness 
 from the world," who "loved one another 
 in a manner not to be surpassed," who "had 
 beat their swords into ploughshares and their 
 spears into pruning hooks, and neither taught 
 nor exercised war any more." He sees more 
 and more, as he knows more of them, that 
 they are true followers or disciples of Jesus 
 Christ, and "upon full conviction he joined 
 with them, and became eminent for his religious 
 and exemplary life, as he was formerly for his 
 
A TRULY NOBLE MAN. 
 
 101 
 
 bravery, resolving to suffer indignities and in- 
 juries for conscience sake, — a virtue he was 
 before veiy mucli unacquainted with." George 
 Fox says of him, that he became " a noble man 
 for the Lord and His Truth." 
 
 And it was noted that none bore the cruelties, 
 iadignities, and imprisonments, to which our 
 early Friends were subjected, perhaps particu- 
 larly iu those parts, with more calmness and 
 Cliristian patience than David Barclay; and 
 when upon an occasion of uncommon rudeness, 
 one of his relations lamented that he should 
 experience such a reverse of treatment from 
 what he had formerly known in that place, he 
 replied, that he found more satisfaction as well 
 as honour, in being thus insulted for his re- 
 ligious principles, than when, some years before, 
 it was usual with the magistrates as he passed 
 the city of Aberdeen, to meet him several miles, 
 conduct him to a public entertainment in theh- 
 townhouse, and then accompany him as many 
 miles on his way from them. 
 
 His humility and sincerity were remarkable, 
 and his deportment is said to have been par- 
 ticularly awful and striking when engaged in 
 
102 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 public prayer. In his person lie is represented 
 as "one of the largest, strongest, and handsomest 
 of men, that could be seen among many 
 thousands, his hah- white as flax." At the time 
 of his convincement, David Barclay resided in 
 Edinburgh ; his son Robert on the estate at 
 Ury ; Robert being then not nineteen years of 
 age, and having quite newly become united in 
 faith and fellowship with this religious body. 
 In that same month and year, the first Public 
 Meeting for Worship was kept at Ury. " Such 
 a fact is thought worthy to be pointed out," says 
 a biographer, "and it is afl'ectionately recom- 
 mended to the contemplation of the youthful 
 reader, taken in connexion with the extensive 
 religious growth and fruitfulness of 'this blessed 
 young man' in after life ; it seems to have been 
 as an early offering by way of earnest, and not 
 merely indicated, but doubtless opened the way 
 to further acts of dedication." His father David 
 soon settled there, and the meetings thus com- 
 menced were continued, and regularly held in a 
 building close to the family mansion, for more 
 than one hundred and twenty years. For meet- 
 ing with his Friends in Public Worship, he was 
 
HIS DYING EXPRESSIONS. 103 
 
 imprisoned more than once. In 1676 he suffered 
 seven months confinement in the Tolbooth at 
 Edinburgh on this account, being then near 
 seventy years of age, and was at last released 
 through the interest and exertions of his son 
 Robert. 
 
 Towards the end of the 7th Month, 1686, he 
 was taken ill of a fever. During his sickness, 
 his son Robert expressing his travail, Tliat He 
 that loved him might be near him to the end ; he 
 replied, The Lord is nigh, repeating it again. 
 A little after, he said, " The perfect discovery of 
 'the Dayspring from on high' — how great a 
 blessing it hath been to me and to my family !" 
 At another time he said, "I shall go to the 
 Lord, and be gathered to many of my brethren, 
 who are gone before me, and to my dear son 
 refeiTuig to his youngest son, David, who died 
 about a year before, "an amiable youth of ex- 
 emplary life and conversation, and an acceptable 
 preacher amongst Friends." In the afternoon 
 of his last day, several Friends came to see him. 
 He said thejr came in a seasonable time, and 
 after some words were spoken, and Patrick 
 Livingstone had prayed, the sick man lift up 
 
] 04 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 his hands and said, " Amen ! Amen for ever. 
 How precious is the love of God among His 
 children, and their love one to another ; thereby 
 shall all men know that ye are Christ's disciples, 
 if ye love one another. My love is with you, 
 and I leave it among you." And after a little 
 while, he added, " The Truth is over all." He 
 then "took his eldest son, Robert, to him, and 
 blessed him ; and he prayed to God that he 
 might never depart from the Tnith." Davdd 
 Barclay's last words appear to have been, 
 " Praises, praises, praises to the Lord. Let now 
 Thy servant depart in peace. Unto Thy hands, 
 O Father, I commit my soul, spirit, and body. 
 Thy will, O Lord, be done in earth, as it is in 
 heaven." His son Robert, who wrote an inter- 
 esting and weighty account of his dear father's 
 illness, says, "These sentences he spake by little 
 intervals, one after another. And so a little 
 after hve in the morning, the 12tli of the 8tli 
 Month, 1686, he fell asleep, like a lamb, in re- 
 markable quietness and calmness ; there being 
 standing about to behold his end above twenty 
 persons, who were witnesses" of his happy state. 
 
"BARCLAY OF URY." 
 
 105 
 
 He was inteiTed in the buiyiiig ground at 
 Uiy, which he had given to Friends. 
 
 I cannot conchide these few words respecting 
 tliis tr\ily "noble man" without quoting some 
 of John Gr. Whittier's characteristic verses 
 about him. 
 
 Up the streets of Aberdeen, 
 By tlie Kirk and College green, 
 
 Rode the Laird of Ury ; 
 Close behind him, close beside, 
 Foul of mouth and evil-eyed, 
 
 Pressed the Mob in fury. 
 
 Flouted him the drmiken churl. 
 Jeered at him the serving girl, 
 
 Prompt to please her master. 
 And the begging carlin, late 
 Fed and clothed at Ury's gate. 
 
 Cursed him as he passed her. 
 
 Yet, with calm and stately mien, 
 Up the streets of Aberdeen, 
 
 Came he slowly riding ; 
 And, to all he saw and heard, 
 Answering not with bitter word, 
 
 Turning not for chiding. 
 
 Came a troop with broad swords swinging, 
 Bits and bridles sharply ringing, 
 
 Loose and free and forward ; 
 
106 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Quoth the foremost, " Ride him down ! 
 Push him ! prick him ! through the town, 
 Drive the Quaker, coward !" 
 
 But from out the thickening crowd, 
 Cried a sudden voice and loud : 
 
 " Barclay ! Ho ! a Barclay !" 
 And the old man at his side, 
 Saw a comrade, battle tried. 
 
 Scarred and sunburned darkly. 
 
 • • * • • 
 " Marvel not, mine ancient friend. 
 Like beginning, Hke the end;" 
 
 Quoth the Laird of Ury ; 
 " Is the sinful servant more, 
 Than his gi-acious Lord, who bore 
 
 Bonds and stripes in Jewry ? 
 
 Give me joy, that in His name 
 I can bear, with patient frame. 
 
 All these vain ones offer ; 
 Wliile for them H e suffereth long. 
 Shall I answer wrong with wrong. 
 
 Scoffing witli the scoffer ? 
 
 Happier I with loss of aU, 
 Hunted, out-lawed, held in thrall. 
 
 With few friends to greet me, 
 Than when reeve and squire were seen, 
 Riding out from Aberdeen, 
 
 With bared heads, to meet me. 
 
 When each good wife, o'er and o'er, 
 Blessed me as I passed her door ; 
 And the snooded daughter. 
 
"BARCLAY OF URY." 
 
 107 
 
 Through her casement glancing down, 
 Smiled on him who bore renown, 
 
 From red fields of slaughter. 
 
 Hard to feel the stranger's scoff, 
 Hard the old friend's falling off, 
 
 H ard to learn forgiving : 
 But the Lord His own rewards 
 Aud H is love with theirs accords, 
 
 W arm and fresh and living. 
 
 Through the dark and stormy night, 
 Faith beholds a feeble light. 
 
 Up the blackness streaking ; 
 Knowing God's own time is best, 
 In a patient hope I rest. 
 
 For the fuU day breaking !" 
 
 So the Laird of Ury said. 
 Turning slow his horse's head, 
 
 Towards the Tolbooth prison, 
 \\ liere, through iron grates, he heard 
 Poor disciples of the Word, 
 
 Preach of Christ arisen. 
 
108 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DiVEKSITIES OK GiFTS — OLIVER SaN.SOM — KOBERT 
 
 Barclay. 
 
 ^j^^f^^'EW things are perhaps more worthy 
 (^j^j^v^J of notice, in the history of our Early 
 if: /»-/.£) Friends, than the remarkable unity 
 <fP^Q' of doctrine and jn^actice which pre- 
 ^|S^ vailed, amidst the greatest outward 
 variety of circumstances. Whether male or 
 female, called from amongst the rich or the 
 poor, the old or the young, the learned or the 
 illiterate of the world, they " walked by the 
 same rule, and minded the same thing." They 
 witnessed that there was " one Lord, one faith, 
 one baptism ; one body, and one Spirit, even 
 as they were called with one hope of their 
 calliiig." Whatever might have been their 
 former professions or circumstances, their habits 
 or their education, they threw down all their 
 
DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS. 
 
 109 
 
 crowns at the feet of Jesus, and became one in 
 Him. Like the primitive believers, they "by 
 one Spu'it were all baptized into one body." 
 But in one body are many members, to whom 
 are allotted various offices, as set forth by the 
 apostle ; " diversities of gifts, but the same 
 Spirit; differences of administrations, but the 
 same Lord ; diversities of operations, but the 
 same God who worketh all in all." Thus, by 
 the one spirit, were some called to public, others 
 to more private labour; some by the tongiie, 
 others by the pen, and all by their lives, to be 
 "preachers of righteousness." Before giving 
 you some account of Robert Barclay, the author 
 of " The Apology for the True Christian 
 Divinity," and son of the Friend of whom I 
 last gave you a little memoir ; I thought a slight 
 sketch of a Friend of a veiy different stamp, 
 whose life I have recently been reading, might 
 interest you and illustrate the remarks just 
 made. 
 
 Oliver Sansom lived in a very retired part 
 of the county of Berks, where, for many years, 
 he preached Truth in his life and conversation. 
 
110 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 as well as in the assemblies of the people ; and 
 for his faithful adherence to its testimonies, he 
 was in various ways a great sufferer ; for not 
 only, as his Friends testified of him, " was he a 
 preacher up of love and good works, but he 
 practised them." His testimony was against 
 all the pollutions of the world, against all pride 
 and the vain fashions and customs thereof ; and 
 he laboured that truth might be in dominion, 
 and that such as professed it might prosper and 
 grow therein ; so that in his ministry, and other 
 services of the Church of Christ, he was very 
 serviceable, and was j^reserved unto a good old 
 age, in a holy life and exemplary conversation. 
 
 This Friend was born at a small village in 
 Berkshire, on the 8th of 7th month, 163G; of 
 parents who were members of the Church of 
 England. When about twenty years of age, lie 
 first attended, at the invitation of a Friend, 
 a meeting of the people called Quakers ; at 
 which he appears to have been convinced of the 
 truth of the doctrines preached, and to have ex- 
 perienced desires of walking accordingly. His 
 own words were, speaking of the testimony he 
 then heard, " I was fully convinced and satisfied 
 
OLIVER SAXSOM. Ill 
 
 in myself, that that was the Ti-uth and way of 
 God, which was matter of great joy and comfort 
 to me ; for 1 now hoped to go forward, and 
 walk in it without any obstruction." Through 
 the working of the enemy, he allowed himself 
 , much liberty, and " made merry over the wit- 
 ness within," until a sickness in 1661 brought 
 him low ; recovering from which, he abstained 
 from his "former vain courses, was much re- 
 formed in his conversation, but through the 
 workings of the grand adversary upon the weak 
 part, could not as yet confess the Lord openly." 
 
 Whilst living thus, as he says, " somewhat 
 like Nicodemus," having a love for the Lord in 
 his heart, but not daring, through weakness, to 
 follow Him in an open jJrofession of his Truth, 
 he married one Jane Bunce, a sober and suitable 
 woman ; and still continued to walk in great 
 seriousness of mind, and spent much time in 
 reading good books, more especially the Holy 
 Scriptures; yet did he conceal his judgment, 
 not in any part denying the worship which was 
 wrong, nor standing up in a testimony for that 
 which he was satisfied was right. He met with 
 a book written by Isaac Pennington, which was 
 
112 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 of much service to him ; aud as he conferred 
 not with flesh and blood, but looked to the 
 Lord, he was made willing to endure the cross ; 
 and cried earnestly unto the Lord to enable him 
 to walk in the way lie should go, and for 
 strength to follow Him therein fully unto the 
 end. 
 
 Friends now began to increase in these parts, 
 and persecution raged, so that "many Friends 
 were in prisons, and suiFerings grew shai'p and 
 gi-eat," so that Oliver says, " I could no longer 
 keejJ back or conceal myself ; Imt a necessity 
 come upon me to shew myself, and take my 
 part and lot with the sufferers that suffered for 
 righteousness' sake."' Thus were the bonds of 
 faitliful Friends made a means to confirm and 
 embolden him, and no doubt many others, to 
 profess the Truth and right way of the Lord. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1663, Oliver 
 Sansom went to dwell at a ])lace called Boxford, 
 near Newbiuy, in Berkshire ; and diligently 
 went to the meetings of Friends, tliough liis 
 wife continued to go to "the priest's worship." 
 He had not been long here, before he had some 
 trouble from the j^arish priest, who proved a 
 
"persecuted, but not forsaken." 113 
 
 groat persecutor ; and with whom, and his 
 ciu'ate, Oliver Sansom endeavoured, both by 
 word and writing, to set forth and vindicate his 
 principles; but from these parties he met witli 
 continual jiersecution. Time will not allow of 
 our following him througli his mimerous and 
 vaiied troubles, and frequent imprisonments. 
 His goods were continually distrained, some- 
 times to the last tiding he jjossessed; yet the Lord 
 blessed his labours, and made him thankful that 
 he was counted worthy to suffer. He became a 
 great stay and support to Friends in those parts, 
 encouraging them in their testimony, both by 
 precept and example, and writing them valuable 
 epistles of comfort and counsel, to remain stead- 
 fast to those testimonies for which he was so 
 continually in bonds. His letters to his wife, 
 who became a valuable Friend, to the Friends 
 of his own and other Meetings, as well as those 
 he addressed to some priests, justices of the 
 peace, &c., are full of instruction, sound doc- 
 trine, and faithful advice. In the language of 
 one of his co temporaries, " his letters were 
 grave and seasoned with that which made them 
 
 savoiuy ; and showed that he wrote in a sense 
 r 
 
114 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 of the Holy Tnith he professed and suffered 
 for." He travelled occasionally in the work of 
 the ministry in this country, and twice in that 
 capacity visited Friends in Ireland, but his 
 labours lay mostly in his own and neighbouring 
 Meetings. He appears, as his journal sets forth, 
 to have availed himself of all opportunities 
 to defend the Truth and Friends from those 
 reproaches which its enemies were constantly 
 throwing on it and them, and for its sake and theii-s 
 to have welcomed rather than shunned suffering. 
 
 Having borne a faithful testimony at Boxford, 
 he believed it right to remove to Faringdon ; 
 and at a subsequent period, the Abingdon Meet- 
 ing growing small, he believed himself called on 
 to go and live there, which " tended much to the 
 comfort and edification of Friends at that place." 
 In each of these sitiiations he was called to 
 suffer on behalf of those principles which were 
 so dear to him. Having reached a good old age, 
 with an unclouded prospect of a resting place 
 where "the wicked cease from troubling," and 
 an assurance of the reward promised to the 
 faithful, he departed this life at Abingdon, the 
 23rd of 2nd month, 1710. 
 
A GOOD STEWARD. 115 
 
 Thomas EUwood, tlie Friend to whom were 
 committed the papers and autobiography of 
 Oliver Sansom, and who prepared them for the 
 press after his decease, in a testimony he gives 
 of him, amongst other things, says : " Though 
 he came later into the Lord's vineyard than 
 many otiiers, yet from the time he did come in, 
 he came not behind many others for painful 
 diligence and watchful industry in the work he 
 was called to. For the last twenty years or 
 more of his life, I knew him well, and convei'sed 
 with him often, either personally or by letter; 
 and from tlie knowledge I thus had of him, 
 and the sense which dwells upon my spii-it 
 concerning him, I have this testimony to bear 
 in a few words of him, and to his honest and 
 innocent life ; that he was a good steward of his 
 Master's treasures ; a faithful dispenser of the 
 divine mysteries committed to him ; an inward 
 and heavenly-minded man, more in substance 
 than in show; greater in power than in ex- 
 pression ; a man meek and quiet in spirit, yet 
 full of zeal ; but tliat so well tempered with 
 and governed by knowledge, that it tended to 
 
 the good of all, nor hurt of any. Adorned he 
 I 2 
 
116 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 was with humility, temperance, and self-denial, 
 valiant in the Lamb's war, and bold in defence 
 of the Truth ; patient in suifering for the Truth, 
 through which he obtained the victory; so 
 addicted he was and wholly given up to the 
 service and promotion of the Truth, that he 
 spared not on all good occasions to spend as 
 well as to be spent therein 3 contracting his own 
 private expenses, and rather straitening himself, 
 that (his outward estate not being great) he 
 might be able the more freely to lay forth him- 
 self and it in public services for Trath and 
 Friends. The Lord send forth more such faith- 
 ful labourers into His vineyard, and support and 
 bless them in their labours therein, till their 
 work be finished, as He did him; of whom in a 
 word it may be said, he lived and died a Sei'vant 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Without further comment here, I will now 
 proceed to, 
 
 Robert Barclay. This "faithful servant 
 and minister of Jesvis Christ, and famous 
 apologist for the j^eople called Quakers, was 
 the son of Col. David Barclay of TJry, near 
 
ROBERT BARCLAY. 117 
 
 Aberdeen;" and was bom in the year 1648. 
 In one of his works, a " Treatise on Uni- 
 versal Love," he says, " My first education, 
 from my infancy, fell amongst the strictest 
 sort of Calvinists, those of our country being 
 generally acknowledged to be the severest of 
 that sect; in the heat of zeal surpassing not 
 only Geneva, from whence they derive their 
 pedigree, but all other the Reformed Churches 
 abroad, so called. I had scarce got out of my 
 cliildhood, when I was, by permission of Divine 
 Providence, cast among the company of Papists ; 
 and my tender years and immature capacity not 
 being able to withstand and resist the insinua- 
 tions that were used to proselyte me to that 
 way, I became quickly defiled with the pollutions 
 thereof; and continued therein for a time, until 
 it pleased God, through His rich love and mercy, 
 to deliver me out of those snares, and to give 
 me a clear understanding of the evil of that 
 way." 
 
 In 10G4, when little more than IG years old, 
 Robert Uarclay returned from France, whither 
 he liad been sent for the benefit of the French 
 and Latin languages, with wliich and some 
 
118 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 others lie was -well acquainted. Whilst there 
 he staid at the Scots' College at Paris, of which 
 his uncle Robert was rector. " Here he made 
 so great a proficiency in his studies as to gain 
 the notice and praise of the masters of the 
 College ; and he also became so great a favourite 
 with his uncle, as to receive the offer of being 
 made his heir, if he would remain in France. But 
 his father, fearing he might become tainted with 
 the superstitions of Popery, and in compliance 
 with his mother's dying request, went to Paris 
 to bring him home." The offers made by his 
 uncle to induce him to stay were not accepted, 
 but interest was sacrificed to filial duty. It was 
 during the absence of Robert, that David 
 Barclay had received the Triith as mentioned 
 on the last occasion ; and the former, from 
 " the example and instruction of his honest and 
 worthy father, and his converse with other 
 servants of God, came to see and taste the 
 excellency of it also, and was convinced about 
 1667.' In speaking of himself in his Apology, 
 Prop. XI. § 7, he says, " When I came into the 
 silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret 
 power amongst them which touched my heart ; 
 
HIS CONVINCEMENT. 119 
 
 and as I gave way imto it, I found the evil 
 weakening in me, and the good raised up ; and 
 so I became thus knit and united unto them, 
 himgering more and more after the increase of 
 this power and life, whereby I might find myself 
 perfectly redeemed." 
 
 He came forth early a zealous and fervent 
 witness for the Truth, of which, by this power, 
 he had been convinced ; enduring the cross, and 
 despising the shame which attended his disciple- 
 ship, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater 
 riches than all the treasures of Egypt. " He 
 was much exercised in controversy from the 
 many contradictions that fell upon Truth and 
 upon him for its sake, in his own country chiefly, 
 in which he ever acquitted himself with honour 
 to the Truth and laboured diligently with his 
 pen in its defence, which " he could handle 
 well." In 1670, he was married to Christian, 
 daughter of Gilbert Molleson, who sm-vived 
 him many years, a woman of whom her Friends 
 testified, that " her concern for the Truth and 
 the Church's prosperity continued with her to 
 the last, her earnest travail being then, as it had 
 been all her life long, to be a faithful labourer 
 
120 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 for her God ; who had been with her, and 
 blessed her with His presence from her youth 
 upwards, and who remarkably attended her to 
 the drawing of her last breath." In the same 
 year, Robert Barclay published his " Truth 
 cleared of Calumnies in answer to an anony- 
 mous book, purposely written to misrepresent 
 Friends and their principles, by one William 
 Mitchell ; who replied to E.. B.'s work, but the 
 latter shortly after wrote his " William Mitchell 
 unmasked," which, says a cotemporary, "put 
 an end to that controversy." In 1672, "he was 
 moved of the Lord, in a cross to his own will, 
 to pass through the streets of Aberdeen covered 
 with sackcloth and ashes, to call the inhabitants 
 to repentance, by that signal and singular sign;" 
 and afterwards wrote a " Seasonable warning and 
 serious exhortation to the inhabitants thereof." 
 An extract from this address will show, in his 
 own words, how he was brought thus to be " a 
 spectacle to the world." 
 
 " Therefore was I commanded of the Lord to 
 pass through your streets, covered with sack- 
 cloth and ashes, calKng you to repentance, that 
 ye might yet be more awakened and alarmed to 
 
"a spectacle to the world." 121 
 
 take notice of the Lord's voice unto yon ; and 
 not to despise the things which belong to your 
 peace, whilst yoiu" day lasteth, lest hereafter 
 they be liid from your eyes. And the command 
 of the Lord concerning this thing came unto 
 me that very morning as I awakened, and the 
 burden thereof was very great ; yea, seemed al- 
 most insupportable unto me, (for such a thing 
 until that very moment had never entered me 
 before, not in the most remote consideration). 
 And some, when I called to declare to them 
 this thing, can bear wtness how great was the 
 agony of my spirit ; how I besought the Lord 
 with tears that this cup might pass from me ; 
 yea, how the pillars of my tabernacle were 
 shaken, and how exceedingly my bones trem- 
 bled, until I freely gave up nnto the Lord's will. 
 And this was the end and tendency of my 
 testimony, to call you to repentance by this 
 signal and singular step, which I, as to my own 
 will and inclination, was as rmwilling to be 
 found in, as the worst and the wickedest of 
 you can be averse from receiving or laying it to 
 heai-t. Let all and every one of you, in whom 
 there is yet alive the least regard to God or His 
 
122 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 fear, consider and weigh this matter in the pre- 
 sence of God, and by the Spirit of J esiis Christ 
 in your hearts, which makes all things manifest. 
 Search and examine every one in his own soul, 
 how far this warning and voice of the Lord is 
 applicable unto them ; and how great need they 
 have to be truly humbled in their spirits ; re- 
 turning unto the Lord in their inward parts, 
 with such true and unfeigned repentance, as 
 answers to the outward clothing of sackcloth 
 and being covered with ashes. Consider, where 
 are ye who are called Christians ; among whom 
 it is become a wonder, a stone of stumbling, 
 or matter of mockery, or a ground of reproach, 
 for one in the name of the Lord to invite you 
 to repentance in sackcloth and ashes. Would 
 not the heathen condemn you in this thing ; 
 and will not Nineveh stand up in judgment 
 against you 1 How is it that ye who are called 
 Christians can willingly give room to every idle 
 mountebank, and can suffer your minds to be 
 drawn out to behold these sinful divertisements, 
 which indeed divert the mind from the serious 
 sense of God's fear 1 The people can be gathered 
 there, and neitlier the magistrates complaiu of 
 
HIS DEFENCE. 
 
 123 
 
 tumult, nor yet preachers and professors cry out 
 against it as delusion or madness. Oh, my 
 friends ! consider ; can there be any more 
 strongly deluded, than for people daily to ac- 
 knowledge and confess in words, they are sinners 
 and sinning ; and to startle at that, which did 
 so lively represent unto them, what they own to 
 be theii" own state and condition ? I shall add 
 that which, upon this occasion I declared unto 
 you, / was for a Sign from the Lord unto you ; 
 I desire ye might not be among those that 
 wonder and perish, but rather repent and be 
 saved. And this is my testimony unto you, 
 whether you will hear or forbear. I have peace 
 with my God in what I have done, and am 
 satisfied that His requirings I have answered in 
 this thing." 
 
 In 1673, Robert Barclay, who now devoted 
 all his time and talents to the service of the 
 Lord, published his " Catechism and Confession 
 of Faith," establishing the doctrines held by 
 him and his Friends in plain scripture terms, 
 and in those only. In the course of the next year, 
 he wrote a book for the purpose of vindicating 
 Friends from such that accuse them of confusion 
 
124 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 and disorder on the one liand, and from such as 
 calumniate them with tyranny and imposition 
 on the other. It was entitled, "The Anarchy 
 of the Ranters and other libertines, and the 
 Hierarchy of the Romanists and other ])re- 
 tended Churches, equally refused and refuted," 
 etc. For whilst there were some who charged 
 Friends with laying waste all good order under 
 colour of private internal direction ; there were 
 other disaffected parties under theii- name, who 
 accused them of violating the rights of private 
 conscience, and restricting individual liberty, by 
 the wholesome discipline which had been set vip 
 among them. To answer the latter more par- 
 ticularly, to reconcile the province of the body 
 with the privileges of individuals, appears to 
 have been E,. B.'s concern; and he performed 
 his task in a most masterly manner. One of 
 the dissatisfied party replied, but the contro- 
 versy "ended greatly to the honour of Truth 
 and R. B. its advocate ; his opponent owning 
 his mistakes under his hand." 
 
 His next publication was the "Theses Theo- 
 logicse." Almost immediately after theii- ap- 
 pearance, some "Students of Divinity (so called). 
 
PUBLICATION OF "THE APOLOGY." 
 
 12.) 
 
 at Aberdeen, challenged a dispiite on the said 
 propositions, which was held in the 2nd Month, 
 1C75," between them and E,. Barclay and 
 another Friend, " which tended to the advantage 
 of Trnth, four students being convinced." 
 
 The first mention made of Robert Barclay by 
 George Fox is, " after I had been a while at 
 Swai-thmore, several Friends from divers parts 
 of the nation came to visit me, and some out 
 of Scotland ; by whom I understood that four 
 yoimg students of Aberdeen were convinced 
 there this year, at a dispute held there by Robert 
 Barclay and George Keith, with some of the 
 scholars of that University." 
 
 The same year he gave to the public "A true 
 and faithful account of the most material 2)as- 
 sages of the dispute." The students publishing 
 their accoimt and calling it, f Quakerism can- 
 vassed," R. B. replied in liis "Quakerism 
 confirmed." From the opposition which the 
 publication of these Theses gave rise to, the 
 gi-eat satisfaction they afforded to others, and a 
 desire in many to be farther informed, he was 
 engaged "in the liberty of the Lord to present to 
 the world his ' Apology for the Truth ' held by 
 
126 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 these people," -which he dedicated to the King 
 Charles II., in 1675. It has passed thi'ough 
 many editions, and has been piinted in sevei-al 
 languages. Referring to it, Wm. Perm says, 
 " The method and style of the book may be 
 somewhat singular and like a scholar ; for "we 
 make that sort of learning no part of oiu' divine 
 science ; but that was not to show himself, but 
 out of his tenderness to scholars ; and, as far as 
 the simplicity and purity of the truth would 
 permit, in condescension to their education and 
 way of treating these points hereiu handled." 
 In the preface to the reader, R. B. himself says, 
 " I confess myself to be not only no imitator 
 and admirer of the schoolmen, but an opposer 
 and despiser of them, as such ; neither have I 
 sought to accommodate this my work to itching 
 ears, who desire rather to comprehend in then- 
 heads the sublime notions of Truth, than to 
 embrace it in their hearts ; for what I have 
 written comes more from my heart than from 
 my head ; what I have heard with the eai-s of the 
 soul, and seen with my inward eyes, and my 
 hands have handled of the Word of Life, and 
 what hath been inwardly manifested to me of 
 
RELIGIOUS VISIT TO HOLLAND, ETC. 127 
 
 the tilings of God, that do I declare." 
 
 For about five months in 1676-7, he suffered 
 imprisonment for the Tnith, at Aberdeen. 
 Whilst confined through the malice of others, 
 he wi'ote his beautiful " Treatise on Universal 
 Love." Though not professing to enumerate all 
 his minor writings, it should be mentioned, that 
 from his prison he addressed a long Latin letter 
 to the Heer Adrian Paets, a person of quality 
 from Holland, with whom R. B. had convei-sed 
 respecting the principles of Friends, and to 
 whom they had been much misrepresented. This 
 was, a few years after, translated and printed in 
 English, under the title of, " The possibility and 
 necessity of the inward and immediate revela- 
 tion of the Spirit of God," &c. 
 
 Shortly after his release from prison, he ac- 
 companied William Penn in part of his religious 
 visit to Holland and Germany; "spreading the 
 Gospel of Christ, and having good service for 
 the Lord." They contracted an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with some illustrious individuals, 
 Elizabeth, the Princess Palatine of the Rhine, 
 and her friend, Anna Maria de Homes, Countess 
 of Homes ; " who was, as well as the Princess, 
 
128 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAJIILY. 
 
 a woman seeking after the best tilings, and a 
 favom-er of siicli as sepai'ate tlieniselves from 
 the world for the sake of righteousness." The 
 account of the religious interviews the Friends 
 had with these illustrious but humble indi- 
 viduals, and of a Meeting with them and 
 some of theii' neighboui-s, is of an affecting 
 character. The quotation of a few sentences 
 of William Penn's will prove this. " It was 
 at this Meeting that the Lord in a more 
 eminent manner began to appear. The Eternal 
 Word showed itself a hammer on this day ; 
 yea, sharper than any two edged sword, 
 di^dding asunder between the soul and the 
 spu-it, the joints and the marrow. Yea, this 
 day was aU flesh hvmibled before the Lord. It 
 amazed one : — stnick another : broke another : 
 yea, the noble arm of the Lord was truly 
 awakened, and the weight and work thereof 
 bowed and tendered us also after an iinusual 
 and extraordinary manner. They had a sense 
 and discovery that day, what would become of 
 the glory of aU flesh, when God shall enter 
 into judgment. Well, let my right hand forget 
 its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of 
 
REM A it K A BL U JI EET I X O S . 
 
 129 
 
 my month, when I shall forget tlie loving- 
 kindness of the Lord, and tlje sure mercies of 
 our God to us, his travelling servants, that day." 
 Of another Meeting, wlien were present " several 
 of tlie town as well as of the Family," he says, 
 " The Meeting began with a weighty exercise 
 and travail in prayer, that the Lord would 
 glorify His own name that day. And by His 
 own jjower He made way to theii- consciences, 
 and sounded His awakening trumpet in their 
 ears, that they might know that He was God, 
 and that there is none like unto Him. Oh ! the 
 day of the Lord livingly dawned upon us, and 
 the searcliing life of J esus was in the midst of 
 us. Oh ! the Word that never faileth them 
 that wait for it, and abide in it, opened tlie way 
 and unsealed the Book of Life ! Yea, the 
 quickening power and life of Jesus wrought 
 and reached to them, and virtue from Him in 
 whom dwelleth the Godhead bodily went forth, 
 and blessedly distilled upon us His own heavenly 
 life, sweeter than the pure frankincense, yea, 
 than the .sweet-smelUng myrrh that cometh from 
 a far country. And as it began, so was it 
 
 carried on, and so it ended. Elessed be the 
 
 J ! 
 
130 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 name of the Loi'd ; and confided in be our God 
 for Ever." Wliefl our Friends took a final leave 
 of them, they recommended unto them " holy 
 silence from all will- worship, and tlie workings, 
 strivings, and images of their own mind and 
 spirits ; that Jesus might be felt of them in their 
 hearts ; and His holy teachings witnessed and 
 followed in the way of His blessed cross, that 
 would crucify them unto the world, and the 
 world iinto them ; that their faith, hope, and 
 joy might stand in Christ in them, the Heavenly 
 Prophet, Shepherd, and Bishop, wliose voice all 
 that are truly sheep will hear and follow, and 
 not the voice of any stranger whatever." So 
 they left them "in the love and peace of 
 God," praying that they might be kept from the 
 evil of the world. This Princess was the eldest 
 daughter of Frederick V. Elector Palatine and 
 King of Bohemia, and Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Kina James I. of England. Her influence with 
 parties in power in this country was used on 
 behalf of our suffering Friends. Her corres- 
 ])ondence on this account, and some private 
 letters to and from Robert Barclay, William 
 Penn, &c., are preserved. 
 
AX EPISTLE TO THE AMBASSADORS. 131 
 
 In the 11th Month, 1677, the Ambassadors 
 of the sevei'al Princes of Europe met at Nime- 
 guen, to consult the Peace of Chiistendora. So 
 Robert Barclay wrote " An Epistle of Love and 
 Friendly Advice" to them ; it is a most instructive 
 piece. Its objects being to show tlie grounds of 
 War; and tliat whilst these grounds remain, their 
 means to promote i)eace were likely to be 
 unstable and iiieffectual ; at the same time 
 pointing the way by which a lasting peace may 
 prevail. A copy of it in Latin and a Latin 
 "Apology" were presented "to each Amba.ssador, 
 and one to each of their Principals," to wit, 
 " the Kings of Great Britain, Spain, France, 
 Sweden and Denmark, the Prince Elector 
 Palatine, and the Dukes of Lorraine, Holstein, 
 Lunenburg, Osnaburg, Hanover, and the Pope's 
 Nimcio." We find R. B. a prisoner in Aber- 
 deen, in 1070, for his testimony to the Truth, 
 having been taken fi'om a Meeting for worship. 
 
 About this time, (j)robably from the prison,) 
 
 he wrote a Vindication of his Apology. Several 
 
 books were written, I should tell you, by way 
 
 of answer to this celebrated work ; amongst 
 
 them was one by John Brown, called " Quaker- 
 j 2 
 
132 
 
 THE " FRIEND IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 ism, the Patliway to Paganism." This John 
 Brown, was "a minister" of some repute, and 
 his book was in wide cii-culation before the 
 Apology to wliich it professed to reply was 
 printed in English ; how welcome to seekers 
 after the Truth must have been R. B.'s "Apology 
 for the true Christian Divinity, Vindicated from 
 John Brown's examiaation and pretended refu- 
 tation thereof, in his book cajled ' Quakerism, 
 the Pathway to Paganism.' " This book of 
 Brown's having long since fallen into obli\'ion, 
 "the Vindication" is but little read; in fact, it has 
 never been reprinted, except in the collection of 
 E,. Barclay's works. It is a second Apology ; and 
 not inferior to that which it vintlicates. In his 
 preface to it, the author says, " That no delight 
 in controversy hath indTxced me to ujidertake 
 this treatise, but pure necessity to vindicate the 
 Truth professed by me, from the many gross 
 perversions wherewith this author hath abused 
 it." Brown's book abounds with personal abuse 
 of R. B. "Ignoramus," "Fool," "presumptuous 
 and blasjihemous miscreant," are specimens of 
 tliis .so-called "reverend" aiithor's language 
 towards R. B. ; and Friends in general are no 
 
STYLE OF lilS OPPONENTS. 
 
 133 
 
 better treated. They, accortliug to Iiis account, 
 are " Locusts, of whose ministry the devil makes 
 use, only masculine in malice against Christ, 
 breathing foith nothing but that putiid poison, 
 that innate serpentine venom." Again, " This 
 God-daring, Christ-blaspheming, Spirit-despising 
 generation, of the pi-odigiously profane and 
 arrogant sect of Runagad Quakers." Words 
 much further from the truth could hardly have 
 been selected ; and yet this was the style of the 
 better class of opponent with which — as they so 
 repeatedly state, and we may so readily believe, 
 — "for Tnith's sake," oiir Friends had to 
 contend. 
 
 From his jirison, as I have said, R. Barclay 
 wrote also a vindication of his book, " The 
 Anarchy and Hierarchy." This year also (1 079) 
 lie went to Holland, but no account of his 
 journey is preserved. In 1682, R. B. was 
 " api)ointed Governor of East Jersey in North 
 America, by the propiietors of that province, of 
 whom his friend the Eai-1 of Perth was one. 
 He was also made a i)ro]irietor, and had allotted 
 to him 5000 acres of land more than his pro- 
 prietory share." This was to induce him to ac- 
 
13-i THE "FKlENi) ' IN HIS FAiliLV. 
 
 cejjt the Governorship, which was, liowever, 
 pei-formed hy a deputy, with " a salary of ^400 
 per annum, a sum equal to £1000 or more, 
 according to the present value of money." 
 Charles II. confirmed tlie grant of the Govern- 
 ment, and the Royal Commission states, that 
 " such are his knowm fidelity and capacity, that 
 he has the government during life ; but that no 
 other governor after him shall have it longer 
 than for three years." The remainder of his life, 
 j however, was spent chiefly at home, journeying 
 ' occasionally " to promote his private concerns, to 
 serve his relations and neighbours, or to maintain 
 the cause of his brethren in religious profession." 
 
 J. Whiting says, " He travelled in the minis- 
 tiy in Scotland and England, and several times 
 came to London." Thus we find him iising his 
 i interest at Court on behalf of Friends, " where 
 I he had good ser"\"ice," in 108-5; and also in the 
 following year, and appears to have been at the 
 Yearly Meeting in 1687. He was in London 
 also in 1688, and for the last time. He visited 
 and conversed with King James II., and took 
 "a final leave of the King, for wlio.se troubles 
 he was much concerned, «iiid with whom he had 
 
HIS EARLY DEATH. 135 
 
 beeu sevei'al times engaged in serious discourse 
 on the i)osture of affaii-s at that time." About 
 the beginning of 1690, he was engaged in a 
 religious visit to some jia-rts of Scotland, and on 
 his return, fell ill of a fever, which tei'uiinated 
 in his decease. In thi-s visit, and during his 
 sickness, he had the company of a valuable 
 Friend, James Dickenson. The time of his 
 illness is described as having been a solemn sea- 
 son, the spirits of those present being deeply 
 affected with a sense of the Divine, goodness. 
 Having expressed his love to "dear George 
 (G. Fox) and all the Faithful everywhere," he 
 concluded with "God is good still : and though 
 I am under a great weight of sickness and 
 weakness, yet my peace flows. This I know, 
 that whatever exei'cises may be permitted to 
 come upon me, they shall tend to God's glory 
 and my salvation ; and in that I rest ; " and so 
 "he died in great peace with the Lord, at his 
 own house, at Uiy, on the 3rd of the 8th 
 Month, 1G90, in his 42nd year." 
 
 Some of his writings have passed through 
 several editions. They wei-e collected and j)ub- 
 lished in one volume, folio, in 1G92; and in 
 
136 THE "friend" i\ his family. 
 
 1718 were reprinted, in 3 vols, octavo, entitled, 
 I " Truth triiimpliaut, throngh the Spiritual war- 
 j fare, ChrLstian labours and writings of that able i 
 j and faithful sei-vant of Jesus Christ, Robert ■ 
 j Barclay." As Geoi'ge Fox in his testimony 
 I says, " much more might be written concerning 
 I this faithful brother in the Lord, and Pillar in 
 
 the Church of Christ," but I will conclude 
 
 with two short extracts ; the former from 
 I William Sewel, the latter from William Penn, 
 
 both of whom knew R. Barclay very well : — 
 I " He really lived up to what he professed, 
 
 being of an unblameable deportment, truly 
 ' pious, and well beloved." 
 
 I " He loved the Truth and the Way of God as 
 ! revealed among us above all the world, and was 
 not ashamed of it before men ; but bold and able 
 in maintaining it, sound in judgment, strong in 
 argument, cheerful in travels and in sufferings. 
 He was a learned man, a good Christian, and 
 able minister." 
 
 "Hold such in reputation; because foe the 
 WORK OF Christ they were nigh unto death, not 
 
 REGARDING THEIR LIFE. 
 
liOBEKT BARCLAY THE YOUNGER. 137 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Egbert Barclay the Younger — A Place and 
 Work for All — Meetings fob Discipline — 
 Offices in the Church — Thomas Ellwood. 
 
 preceded by one of his Father ; and 
 ^AQ' ^ thought it might suitably be fol- 
 
 Son. Thus " instead of the Fathers are the 
 Children;" and as " one generation jiasseth away, 
 and another generation cometh," they who 
 have seen and known the lovingkindness and 
 mighty acts of the Lord, "tell it to the generation 
 following." " One generation shall pi'aise thy 
 works to another, and shall declare thy mighty 
 acts." 
 
 v;^|5^<2UR last opportunity closed with a 
 memoir of Robert Barclay. It was 
 
 lowed by some shoi't account of his 
 
 Robert Barclay the younger, was the eldest 
 son of the author of the " Apology," and was 
 
138 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 born at Ury, on the 25th of First month, 1672. 
 In the testimony issued by the Meeting to which 
 he belonged at the time of his decease, his 
 Friends refer to the great advantage he had, in 
 the example and precepts of "his worthy 
 father and mother, as well as of his grandfather ;" 
 which, much to their comfort, made a sensible 
 impression on him in his youth. He must have 
 been in his nineteenth year when his father was 
 removed, and it is stated of him that he early 
 "discovered a heart devoted to religion." In 
 his youth he was taken by his parents to 
 London, where, we are informed, though the 
 object of the journey appears to have reference 
 to his education, "he became acquainted with 
 George Fox and other eminent Friends, who 
 rejoiced to see so hopeful an appearance in the 
 son of so worthy and honoui'able a father." In 
 his sixteenth year we find him again jovirn eying 
 with his father from Scotland to London ; no 
 small undertaking in the seventeenth century ; 
 when he stayed " a considerable time at Wind- 
 sor, at the King's Court ; where, on account of 
 his father's interest, which created many depen- 
 dents, he was much caressed ; yet then, as well 
 
HIS CHARACTER AND MINISTRY. 139 
 
 as tlirougli his whole life, liis conversation was 
 clean and void of offence ; and he may be truly 
 said to have "remembered his Creator in the 
 days of his youth." 
 
 It was especially observed, after his father's 
 death, " that as he grew in years, he dedicated 
 himself yet more paiticiilarly to the work of 
 religion, which concern," his Friends testified, 
 " ever remained with him." 
 
 In the twenty-second year of his age "his 
 mouth was opened in a Public manner to praise 
 his Maker, and to preach His everlasting Gospel ; 
 wliich he continued to do to the end of his time, 
 being upwards of seventy five years old." 
 Having himself a serious and living sense of 
 religion, so he laboured to pi'opagate the same 
 in others ; and his humble, meek beha\dour, his 
 remarkable charity to the poor, and other 
 amiable qualities, corresponded well with his 
 doctrine. He appears to have always acted 
 from a sense of duty, and of his responsibility 
 for the talents entinsted to him ; so that his 
 testimonies were seasonably delivered, and ac- 
 ceptable to the hearers. He often visited 
 London, and several parts of England and 
 
140 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Scotland, once by Inverness to the Highlands, 
 having Meetings as they passed along, (for he 
 was accompanied by Andrew Jatfray, a son, I 
 believe, of Alexander) where no Friends had 
 ever been before. At one time he was convinced 
 it was his duty, and once convinced of duty he 
 never flinched, to attend the public meeting 
 place of the parish where he lived, and " warn the 
 people to come out of their forms and turn to 
 Jesus Christ ; whom if they did look tinto in 
 faith, they should as certainly be healed, as 
 those of old were who looked in faith towards 
 the brazen serpent, which Moses caused to be 
 lifted up in the wilderness." As long as his 
 health allowed him he was diligent in visiting 
 the Meetings of Friends. When afflicted with 
 much sickness he used to repeat, "not mine, but 
 the Lord's will be done in everything." He 
 died in his 76th year, and was bxiried "in the 
 family's burying place, in the presence of most 
 Friends in the North, with several of the gentry 
 who were his relations and also his own tenants, 
 in the plain decent manner he himself pre- 
 scribed." 
 
A PLACE AND WORK FOR ALL. 141 
 
 I do uot know that the Friend of whom I 
 have just been speaking can be classed amongst 
 our Eai'ly Friends, at any rate he belongs to a 
 later generation of them ; but I thought in the 
 short narrative of him there was something 
 both instructive and interesting. 
 
 To speak of Thomas Ellwood, as I now 
 propose to do, is to return to a much earlier 
 period. Before doing so, however, or rather in 
 connection with him, it is worthy of remark, 
 how each man amongst these Friends, — not- 
 withstanding so much that they had in common, 
 united as they were in religious convictions and 
 in sufferings, — how each man was liimself, and 
 had his own work and place in the body. And 
 beavitiful, and I think if I except the Cliurch of 
 the primitive Chiistian behevers, I may add, 
 how unexampled, the combination wliich ob- 
 tained amongst them, of fellowship and union 
 and submission one to another in love, with the 
 fullest independence and the broadest individual 
 liberty. For the " first and great command- 
 ment" was alike the basis of their fiiithfulness 
 to their Lord, and the bond of theii- fellowsliip 
 one with another. To his " own master" each 
 
142 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 man stood or fell, to Him alone was lie respon- 
 sible ; but " walking in the light, as He is in 
 tlie light, they had fellowshiji one with another." 
 In a remarkable degree they illustrated our 
 Lord's words, " One is your Master, even Christ, 
 and all ye are Brethren." In the Church of 
 Christ there is room for All who will take up 
 the cross and follow Him ; " Infinite grace 
 would redeem and sanctify All, and provide not 
 oyily room, hut service, for each in the great 
 household." How frequently did that highly 
 gifted and large-hearted man, George Fox, write 
 to this effect. " All the members of Christ 
 have need one of another. For the foot hath 
 need of the hand, and the hand hath need of 
 tlie foot ; the ear hath need of the eye, and the 
 eye of the ear. So that all the members are 
 serviceable in the body, which Christ is the 
 liead of, and the Head sees tlieir service. 
 Therefore let none despise tlie least member. 
 
 G. F." 
 
 It was evident to George Fox, that in the 
 newly formed Society there must be order and 
 government, and that this was perfectly com- 
 ])atible with individual liberty ; that " the body" 
 
OUR QUARTERLY MEETINGS. 
 
 had its duties and I'esi^onsibilities and rights, as 
 well as the "members in particular." Very 
 early was Geoi-ge Fox moved to get Friends in 
 the diiferent distiicts of the country to meet 
 together to confer with and assist one another ; 
 " for many Friends suffered in divers parts, even 
 contrary to law, and understood not how to help 
 themselves, or where to get redress." So early 
 as 1653 there appears to have been a Meeting 
 or two settled in the Nortli of England, "for 
 looking after the poor, and othei' matters re- 
 lating to the Church of Christ." During the 
 next few years there were several general 
 Meetings established for that purpose, and by 
 1660 there was probably no pai-t of the country 
 xmrepresented at such Meetings. To this end 
 George Fox and his coadjutors had industriou.sly 
 laboured ; and these general or county Meetings 
 being usually held once a quarter, was the com- 
 mencement of our Quarterly Meetings. This 
 step, of thoroughly arranging and establishing 
 these periodical Meetiugs for discipline, was 
 taken, as George Fox assures us, and his 
 Friends believed, in the Divine ordering ; it 
 proved too at precisely the right time, for owing 
 
144 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 in some degree to troubles in the nation at that 
 period, Friends became peculiarly exposed to 
 persecution, and before the year was out, George 
 Fox had to recoixl, " A^ow were the prisons 
 everywliere JiUed with Friends and others, in 
 the city and country, and tlie posts were so laid 
 for the searching of letters, that none could pass 
 unsearched. We lieard of several tJwuscmds of 
 our Friends, that were cast into prison in 
 several parts of the nation, and Margaret Fell 
 carried an acco\int of them to the King and 
 Council. The next week we had an account of 
 several tJwtisands more that were cast into 
 prison, and she went and laid them also before 
 the King and the Council. Tliey wondered how 
 ive coidd have suclt intelligence, seeing they had 
 given such strict charge for the interce^jting of 
 all letters ; biit the Lord did so order it, that 
 we had an account, notwithstanding all their 
 stoppings." 
 
 Tlie necessities of so many brethren in prison, 
 as well as of the families thus deprived of theii- 
 support, pressed upon them, and requii-ed and re 
 ceived their loving Christian care. And after 
 (lenei-al oi- Quarterly Afeetings had Iteen 
 
OUR MONTHLY MEETINGS. 
 
 145 
 
 well estalilished throughout the countiy, Tiiith 
 spreading and Friends gieatly increasing, George 
 Fox " was moved of the Lord to recommend 
 the setting up of Monthly Meetings, to take 
 care of God's gloiy, and to admonish and exhort 
 such as walked disorderly or carelessly and not 
 accoi-ding to Truth." This was about 1666 ; and 
 having established " live Monthly Meetings of 
 men and wonfen Friends in the City of London," 
 he passes through several counties, and writes 
 to others, till they become general throughout 
 the land ] and he adds, (for there was a fear, 
 and in some places a great opposition, on the 
 part of the short-sighted, on the ground of these 
 
 j arrangements interfering with individual action 
 and the liberty of the Spirit), " though we met 
 with some opposition, the Lord's power came 
 
 I over all, and the Monthly Meetings were estab- 
 lished also." Women's Meetings were also 
 
 j established, and to their formation much oppo- 
 
 ' sition was offered by some. 
 
 In addition to the exercise of a brotherly care 
 
 over the members that they walked accoi-ding 
 
 to their profession, an undoubted duty of a 
 
 Christian Church ; the assistance of the numer- 
 ic 
 
14G THE "friend in his family. 
 
 ous siifferers in property and in person, and the 
 care of widows, orphans and the poor, for all of 
 which there was also apostolic example, arrange- 
 ments were necessary for the proper sofemnization 
 and recording of mamages, burials and the like. 
 These did not supersede the Quarterly Meetings, 
 which had some business peculiar to themselves, 
 and to which, as Sewel says, " what is not well 
 adjusted at the Monthly Meefings can be 
 carried." These Quarterly Meetings may be 
 said to converge in the Yearly Meeting, which 
 at first was held at various places, but in 1669 
 was I think established in London, "in the 
 week called Whitsunweek, because at that time 
 of the year it is commonly best for traveUiug," 
 when and where, by the Lord's goodness, it had 
 been since held witliout intermission. Almost 
 from the first an Epistle was written by the 
 Yearly Meeting to "Friends and Brethren of the 
 Quarterly and Monthly Meetings;" and I believe 
 from that time to the present, without exception, 
 an Epistle has every year been issued. 
 
 Now these Meetings called forth many gifts 
 and talents other than those exercised in 
 Meetings for Worship. You remember how 
 
OFFICES IN THE CHURCH. 147 
 
 beautifully we are told in the 6tli chapter of the 
 Acts of the Apostles, the Brethren were en- 
 joined to look out from among them " men of 
 honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of 
 ■wisdom," whom they might appoint to "the daily 
 ministration," and "the serving of tables," that 
 the Apostles might "give themselves continually 
 to prayer, and to the ministiy of the Word;" 
 and how Paul in writing to the Corinthians 
 tells them, that "God hath set some" in the 
 Church for "helps" and "governments" as well 
 as "apostles," and "prophets" and "teachers." 
 And the comfoit and edification and strength of 
 a Church consists in each member filling the 
 place in which God hath "set" him, and in 
 humility, and in dependance dti Divine help, 
 keeping it. 
 
 Now as you are aware, the officers in our 
 Church, correspond with those of the Apostolic 
 Church, being, besides Ministers, Elders and 
 Overseers. I am not ignorant that we re- 
 peatedly meet also in the New Testament with 
 the words "Bishop and Deacon;" but you will 
 find on the slightest examination, that these 
 
 are interchangeable terms with "Elder aiid 
 K 2 
 
148 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Overseer," applied in many instances to the 
 same persons, and indicating the same offices. 
 The word " Presbyter," too, which occasionally 
 occurs, is only another form of the word "Elder." 
 These take the oversight of the flock, "not by 
 constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, 
 but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords 
 over God's heritage, but being ensamples to 
 the flock." This duty of oversight presses 
 peculiarly on those whom their brethren have 
 appointed to those stations, but not to the 
 exclusion of any other member. All are en- 
 couraged to " look not every man on his own 
 things, but every man also on the things of 
 others," and to watch over one another in love. 
 The watching over the ministry devolves more 
 particularly upon the Elders, who very early 
 were enjoined " tenderly to encourage and help 
 young ministers, and advise others ; as they, in 
 the Wisdom of God, see occasion;" and this 
 continues to be the only regulation and defini- 
 tion of their duties, (and though it may be in 
 other words, I do not think in the New Testa- 
 ment, there is more,) " as they, in the Wisdom 
 of God, see occasion." The New Testament 
 
DIVUSK DIKECTION. 
 
 149 
 
 description of the Christian Church, and the 
 duties of its officers, is in marked contrast with 
 the defined duties and detailed requirements 
 of the Law. Tluit was a dispensation of the 
 Letter ; this of the Spirit. " And wliere the 
 Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," and the 
 best of guidance. I remember a passage in 
 one of George Fox's epistles, written to urge 
 Friends to be humble and tender and con- 
 descending, and avoiding quarrels, ^^keepiny in 
 the power of the Lord, it will lead you in all 
 things, without many words, and bring you 
 to see and feel and live m that which was 
 before enmity was, or words either." Guided 
 by this Wisdom which cometh from above, and 
 which is promised to those who prayerfully and 
 sincerely seek it, not only will each officer and 
 member be enabled rightly to perform his 
 particular duties, but " tlie whole body fitly 
 joined together, and compacted by that wliich 
 every joint sujjplieth, according to the effectual 
 working in the mea.sure of every jiart, maketli 
 increase of the body unto the edifying of itself 
 in love." 
 
150 THE " FRIEXD " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Thomas Ellwood. — According to his biogi-a- 
 plier, tliis Friend was " a Juan of a comely 
 aspect, of a free and generous disposition, of a 
 courteous and affable temper, and pleasant con- 
 versation ; a gentleman boi-n and bred ; a 
 scholar, a true Christian, an eminent author, a 
 good neighbour, a kiud fi-iend." He jjroved a 
 very useful and acceptable Elder in the Chui'ch, 
 devoting nearly the whole of Ms time and 
 talents to its service. 
 
 Thomas Ellwood was born about the 8th 
 Month, 1639, at Crowell, in Oxfordshire. 
 His parents, during a visit to London, when 
 Thomas was young, "contracted an acquaint- 
 ance and intimate friendship with the Lady 
 Spiingett, widow of Sir "William Springett, and 
 afterwards wife of Isaac Pennington." It was 
 aboiit the year 1658, (Isaac Pennington and 
 wife then living upon theii- own estate at 
 Chalfont, Bucks, about fifteen miles from Cro- 
 well,) that Thomas Ellwood accompanied his 
 father to pay them a Adsit; when, says he, 
 " we first heard, then found, they had become 
 'Quakers,' a people we had no knowledge of." 
 Tliis, of course, proved a ^'isit of a veiy different 
 
THOMAS ELLWOOD. 
 
 151 
 
 cliaractt r to what these individuals had been ac- 
 customed to; "for the weightiness that was upon 
 the spirits and countenances of the hosts, kept 
 down the Lightness which would have sho-\vn 
 itself in their guests ; so they returned, not 
 gi'eatly satisfied with the journey, nor knowing 
 what in particular to find fault with." In tlie 
 10th Month, 1659, they (the father, Thomas, 
 and his sisters,) again visited the Penningtons ; 
 " where they met a kind reception, and tarried 
 some days one day at least longer than they 
 would otherwise have done, in order to attend a 
 Meeting which was to be lield in the laz'ge hall 
 of " The Grove," and at wliich several Ministers 
 were to be present ; including Thomas Curtis, 
 James Naylor, and Edward Burrough. The 
 latter only was engaged in communication ; 
 whose words, Thomas Ell wood says, " I 
 drank in with delight; for they not only 
 answered my understanding, ljut warmed my 
 heart witli a certain heat whicli I had not till 
 then felt from the muiistry of any man." He 
 was ever after much attached to Edward 
 BuiTough, and frequently refers to liim as "his 
 father in Christ." At their departure, Edward 
 
152 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 BuiTOugh s})oke to tlieir several conditious, of 
 I which it proved he had a true sense, saying 
 afterwards to the Friends, " as for the old man, 
 he is settled on his lees ; and the young woman 
 I (one sister having left a few days previous) is 
 light and airy ; but the young man is reached, 
 and may do well, if he don't lose it." 
 
 A short time after, Thomas Ellwood went to 
 a Meeting which he had heard was to be at 
 Isaac Pennington's house, at High Wycombe, 
 wearing his sword, and allowing his gi'eyhound 
 to run by his horse's side, that he might rather 
 be thought to go out a coursing, than to a 
 Meeting. " This latter Meeting," says he, " was 
 like the clenching of a nail, confirming and 
 fastening in my mind those good principles 
 wliich had sunk into me at the former j my 
 understanding began to open, and I felt some 
 stirrings in my breast, tending to the work of a 
 new creation in me." And many were the 
 exercises within, and trials without, which from 
 this time fell to the lot of our Friend. Brought 
 up in ease, luxury, and fashion, he had much to 
 learn, much to unlearn, much to forsake ; as the 
 manners, the jJi'ide, and the will-worsliip of the 
 
HIS EAKLY LIFE. 
 
 153 
 
 world ; and to follow after that plainness and 
 purity of life, unto which the Spirit of Truth 
 leads. Nothing but religion could have enabled 
 one with a disposition naturally so high and 
 resolute, to submit as he did to the butfetings, 
 beatiDgs, cruel treatment, and other persecution 
 with becoming meekness and patience. He now 
 attended the Meetings of Friends, when " held 
 withia a reasonable distance ;" and spent his 
 time " on other days, for the most part in his 
 chamber, in retiredness of mind, waiting upon 
 the Lord." 
 
 In 16G0, he was moved to publish "An 
 Alarm to the Priests." About the same time 
 he wrote a letter to a ministering Friend, 
 Thomas Loe of Oxford, respecting the holding 
 of a Meeting ; which, falling into the hands of 
 the Lord Lieutenant, was made an excuse for 
 the wa-iter's imprisonment. When released, he 
 continued diligent, through much opposition, in 
 attending Meetings, and visiting his imprisoned 
 Friends ; for " well nigh all the men Friends 
 that were then in the county of Bucks," were 
 in a cold, open, exposed prison, " scaice fit for a 
 dog house." 
 
154 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 For the sake of inqjrovemeut in Latin, and 
 other studies, through Isaac Pennington's media^ 
 tion, he became, in 1662, a companion to John 
 Milton, the poet, who "had wholly lost his 
 sight Ellwood reading, and Milton commenting 
 and explaining as occasion requii-ed. And it 
 was in accordance with a suggestion of EUwood's, 
 that Milton having wi-itten " Paradise Lost," 
 wrote " Paradise Regained." 
 
 From a Meeting at the " Bull and Mouth," 
 London, he, with many more Friends, was 
 taken by a jjarty of soldiers, on the 26th of 
 8th Month, 16G2, and imprisoned in the Old 
 Bridewell. " A general storm fell that day, but 
 it lighted most heavy upon our Meetings, so 
 that most of our men Friends were made 
 prisoners, and the prisons generally filled ; and 
 gi'eat woi'k had the women, to run about 
 from prison to prison to find their husbands, 
 theii" fathers, their bi'others, or servants. For 
 an excellent order, even in those early days, 
 was practised among Friends of that city, by 
 which there were certain Friends of either sex 
 appointed to have the oversight of prisons in 
 every quarter, and to take care of all Friend.s, 
 
BONDS AND IMPRISONMENTS. 155 
 
 the poor especially, that should be committed 
 thither." 
 
 On the 29th of 10th Month following, he 
 was discharged ; but the Oath was immediately 
 tendered as a snare, and he as quickly sent to 
 Newgate ; which " prison was very full of 
 Friends, as was most of the other prisons about 
 town." After a short stay here, they sent him 
 again to Bridewell ; from which, after a few 
 months' imjirisonment, he was " without further 
 question discharged." 
 
 As these imprisonments so much interfered 
 with liis studies, and the air of London with 
 his health, he left his friend, Milton, and became 
 tutor to the children of his much loved and 
 highly honoured Friend, Isaac Pennijjgton. 
 Here he continued until his mairiage seven years 
 after. Perseciition raged during this peiiod. 
 He, with other Friends, suffei's imprisonment 
 for attending a Friend's burial ; and subsequently 
 is, with others, committed to the House of Correc- 
 tion at Wycombe, on "the 13th day of the month 
 called March, 1665, and kept a close prisoner 
 there till the 7th day of the month called June, 
 1666," for attending a religious Meeting. 
 
156 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 On the 28tli of Stli Month, 1GG9, lie married 
 a Friend, named Mary Ellis, " a solid, weighty 
 woman, who had a jiiiblic testimony for the 
 Lord and his Truth." From tliis time he 
 appears to have dwelt mostly " at Hunger Hill, 
 in the parish of Amersham, Buckinghamshire." 
 There can be no doubt of the truth of what his 
 friends say of him, that " he was a very service- 
 able man in writing, advising, and exhorting 
 to keep all things well and in good order, 
 according to the Truth and the testimony 
 thereof." With regard to his writings, they 
 bear the stamp of a Christian scholar, and are 
 remarkable for their ease and point. His first 
 pieces related mostly to Tithes ; and his " Foun- 
 dation of Tithes Shaken," is perhaps as forcible 
 a book on that subject, as any extant. But his 
 paper war was twofold ; for having for a time 
 contended for the Truth " with open and avowed 
 enemies, another sort of war arose, an intestine 
 war, raised by some among ourselves, such as 
 had been once of us and retained the profession, 
 and would have been thought to be of us still ; 
 but having through ill-grounded jealousies let in 
 discontents, and thereupon fallen into jangling, 
 
EDITS GEORGE FOX's JOURNAL. 157 
 
 chiefly about church discipline, at length brake 
 forth into open schism." These separatists were | 
 lieaded by John "Wilkinson and John Story ; j 
 and, as when at a later period " George Keith, 
 who had known better things than most op- 
 posers," rose up against Truth and Friends, 
 Thomas Ellwood felt called on to " contend 
 earnestly for the faith delivered to the saints." 
 In these controversies, we are told " he acquitted 
 himself as an ingenuous man, a Christian, and a 
 fair opponent ;" and the writings he has left 
 behind him proA'e it. In the memoir of Robert 
 Barclay it was mentioned how he too was 
 similarly engaged in showing by tongue and pen 
 that " the wholesome disci];)line of the body was 
 no violation of private conscience or individual 
 liberty." 
 
 "And now to come to somethins more 
 pleasant ; our dear Friend, Geoi-ge Fox, dying in 
 the 11th Month, 1G90, and leaving behind him 
 an excellent Journal of his travels and sufferings, 
 our Friend Thomas Ellwood, and nobody titter, 
 about this time was at the pains of transcribing 
 it, and fitting it for the press." In a letter to 
 John Fiekl of London, in 2mo. 169.3, he says, 
 
158 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 " I desii'e to acquaint Friends that dear George 
 Fox's Journal is, I hope, well neai- transcribed, 
 though some years still remain to be digested. 
 I am now in the year 168-t. I wish I could 
 have dispatched it with more expedition, but 
 can a-ssure Friends and thee, I have not neg- 
 lected it, nor been lazy at it. I have much 
 other public business lying upon me, and some 
 private which may not be wholly neglected ; 
 but the main of my time has been spent on 
 this ser\ace." He was also the Author of many 
 valuable Epistles to Friends ; of " Davideis, or 
 the Life of King David " ; of the " Sacred 
 History, or the Historical pai-ts of the Old t 
 and New Testament, arranged with respect to 
 order of time and place, with Observations," and 
 of several other Works ; the last published before j 
 his decease, being in answer to a so-called 
 " Divine Treatise, to demonstrate Water Baptism, | 
 Imposition of Hands, &c." by a nameless priest, j 
 Thomas EUwood intituled his reply, "The 
 Glorious Brightness of the Gospel Day, dispel- 
 ling the Sliadow of the Legal Dispen.sation, and 
 whatsoever of human invention hath been su- 
 peradded thereto." 
 
HIS VARIOUS WORKS. 159 
 
 111 his old age, he was again called on by- 
 suffering to bear testimony to those principles 
 which he had so often ably defended in writing ; 
 for about the year 1708, he was jjrosecuted in 
 the Court of Exchequer for the nonpayment of 
 Tithes, and his property seized to a considerable 
 value. 
 
 Our Friend was occasionally inclined to 
 express himself in verse. This was the case 
 with his " Life of David, King of Israel 
 which was written at distant intervals, without 
 any thought of its being made public ; until, late 
 in life, he finished what had so long been 
 an incomjjlete manuscript, and circumstances 
 seemed to render its publication desirable. As a 
 specimen of his verse, at the same time showing 
 tlie state of his mind, I quote a few lines, 
 written at an early period. 
 
 " Oil, that mine eyes might closed be, 
 To what becomes me not to see ; 
 That deafness might possess mine ear, 
 To what becomes me not to hear ; 
 That truth my tongne might always tie, 
 From ever speaking foolishly ; 
 That no vain thoughts might ever rest, 
 Or be conceived in my breast ; 
 
IGO 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 That by each word, each deed, each thought, 
 Glory may to my God be brought. 
 But what are wishes ! Lord, mine eye 
 On Thee is fix'd, to Thee I cry ; 
 Oh, purge out all my dross, my tin, 
 Make me more white than snow within ; 
 Wash, Lord, and purify my heart, 
 And make it clean in every part. 
 And when 'tis clean. Lord, keep it too. 
 For that is more than I can do. " 
 
 For many years the Monthly Meeting was 
 held at his house, and he "had a peculiar 
 gift for government in the Church, and 
 vised to come up constantly to the Yearly 
 Meeting in London, and was very serviceable 
 therein;" and an ancient Friend adds, "I must 
 needs say he was an ornament to the Meeting, 
 and will be missed much therein and many 
 other ways." His wife died about five years 
 before him ; and he, being taken ill of a palsy 
 in his 74th year, and "having served his gener- 
 ation according to the will of God, fell asleep, 
 and was* honourably buried the second day 
 following, being the 4th of the 3rd Month, 
 1713, at Jordans." 
 
"CHRIST IS ALL." 
 
 161 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "Christ is All" — His Univer.sal Light — The 
 CoMixVo OF Christ — In the Flesh— and in the 
 Spirit — William Edmundson— John Burnyeat. 
 
 I^'F I liad to express with all possible 
 brevity, the end and aim of the 
 ministry and life and labours of 
 George Fox and his Friends, and I 
 ti'ust I may add of all his successors ; 
 for in it stands, whether amongst us oi- others, 
 the true Apostolical Succession, — I should adopt 
 the words to be found on almost every page of 
 George Fox's journal, " I preached Christ ;" — • 
 " I pointed them to Chi'ist ;" — " I told them I 
 was come to dii-ect tliem to Christ Jesus." 
 
 They unequivocally and unanimously believed 
 and taught, that Christ died for all, and that He 
 had given unto cdl a measure of His light ; 
 which, shining in their hearts, as in a dark place, 
 
162 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 would, as it was lovingly followed and obeyed, 
 guide and teach them ; and as it was disregarded, 
 hated and disobeyed, be theii- condemnation. 
 This doctrine has been often misrepresented, 
 sometimes possibly misunderstood • by the light 
 of Christ, the}'' meant neither an ignis fatuus of 
 theii- own imaginations, nor the natiu-al con- 
 science ; but that Divine light, a measure of 
 which glimmers in every soul of man, illumin- 
 ating the conscience, reproving for sin, and 
 making manifest his deeds ; as said our Lord in 
 that wondrous conversation with Nicodemus, 
 " every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest 
 his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth 
 truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be 
 made manifest that they are wrought in God." 
 
 Now let us see what George Fox says on this 
 subject, almost at the very commencement of 
 lus course. Addressing a miscellaneous company, 
 he exhorts them to " love the light, which 
 Christ hath enlightened you withal, who saith, 
 'I am the light of the world,' and who doth 
 lighten every one that cometh into the worlcL 
 One loves the light, and there is no occasion 
 at all of stumbling ; another hates the light, 
 
HIS UNIVERSAL LIGHT. 
 
 163 
 
 because his deeds are evil, and the light will 
 reprove him. Thou that hatest this light, thou 
 hast it ; thou kiiowest that lying is evil, drunk- 
 enness is evil, swearing is evil ; whoredom, 
 theft, and all ungodliness, and all um-ighteous- 
 ness, are evil. Christ Jes\is hath given thee 
 light enough to let thee see these things are 
 evil. This light, if thou lovest it, will teach 
 thee holiness and righteousness, without which 
 none shall see God ; but if thou hatest this 
 light, it is thy condemnation." 
 
 And we find him preaching the same doctrine, 
 and in very similar teims, more than thii-ty 
 years afterwards. Indeed throughout his whole 
 coui-se, and in common with all united with 
 him in religious fellowship, through evil report 
 and through good report, he faithfully main- 
 tained and preached it. "All have sinned;" 
 Christ "gave himself a ransom for all." He 
 was "the true light, which lighteth every man 
 that Cometh into the world. " If we " hate the 
 light" we "walk in darkness and do not the i 
 truth," even "the light that is in us may be- 
 come darkness," and then, oh " how great is that 
 darkness ;" "but if we walk in the light, as He 
 
164 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 is in the light, we have fellowship one with 
 another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
 cleanseth us from all sin." Therefore, as the 
 Apostle Paul fully sets forth in the opening 
 chapters of his Epistle to the Romans ; "In the 
 day when God shall judge the secrets of men 
 by Jesus Christ," all will be found "without 
 excxise." This was, as I apprehend, the simple 
 theology of our early Friends. 
 
 None could believe more fully or maintain 
 more firmly than they, the coming of Clu'ist in 
 the flesh, or value more highly and reverently, 
 the " one sacrifice for sin, " which in the body 
 " prepared for " Him, He offered for all people ; 
 in short, they accepted most implicitly and un- 
 reservedly all that the Scriptures testify of Him. 
 But this testimony, and consequently their be- 
 lief, also embraced the further truth, that He 
 was also now come in His Spu'it, revealing 
 Himself in our hearts, knocking there, calling 
 there, and if received and obeyed, washing, 
 sanctifying, teaching there ; and thus " of God 
 is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and 
 sanctification and redemption." And they were 
 called to bear testimony to this truth so 
 
THE COMING OF CHRIST. 
 
 165 
 
 prominently — so needed because so much neg- 
 lected — that they were sometimes charged with 
 denying the Lord who bought them. Of this, 
 says G. Fox, when with gi-eat pain he heard of 
 it, "the least thought never entered our hearts;" 
 " it was a scandalous lie and slander, cast upon 
 us to render us odious." Candid hearers would 
 rather have to report, as did one Colonel Lyne, 
 who came to hear for himself, "Now I can gain- 
 say such as I have heard speak evil of you ; 
 who say, you do not own Christ, nor that He 
 died ; whereas I perceive that you exalt Christ 
 in all his offices beyond what I have ever heard 
 before." When G. Fox was in Barbadoes, he 
 "with some other Friends drew up a paper to 
 go forth in the name of the peo])le called 
 Quakei-s, for the clearing of Truth and Friends 
 from false reports." It was addressed to the 
 Governor of Barbadoes and others; and from 
 it I must read you the paragi'aph relating to our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; especially as this 
 docimient is one of the very few issued on behalf 
 and in the name of the body, and as it so plainly 
 and fully sets forth the testimony of Friends to 
 the work and offices of our Blessed Lord. 
 
166 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 Having in the first place " plainly and 
 sincerely declared, that we do own and believe 
 in the Only wise, Omnipotent and Everlasting 
 God, the Creatoi' of all things both in heaven 
 aud on earth, and the Pi-eserver of all that He 
 hath made," they proceed, "and we own and 
 believe in Jesus Christ, His beloved and only 
 begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased ; who 
 was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of 
 the Virgin Mary ; in whom we have redemption 
 through His Blood, even tlie forgiveness of 
 sins ; wlio is tlie express image of the invisible 
 God, the first-born of every creature, by whom 
 were all things created that are in Heaven and 
 in eai-th, visible and invisible, whether they be 
 thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers ; 
 all tilings were created by Him. And we 
 o^nl and believe that He was made a sacrifice 
 for sin, who knew no sin, neither was 
 I guile found in His mouth ; tliat He was cni- 
 cified for us in the flesh, without the gates 
 of Jerusalem ; and that He whs buried, and 
 i rose again the tlurd day by the power of 
 j Hls Father, for our justification ; and that He 
 I asccFided up into Heaven, and now sitteth at 
 i , 
 
CHRIST IN THE FLESH. 
 
 1G7 
 
 the light hand uf Gud. This Jesus, who was 
 the foundation of the holy Prophets and Apostles, 
 is our foundation : and we believe there is no 
 other foundation to be laid but that which is 
 laid, even Christ Jesus ; who tasted death for 
 every man, shed His blood for all men, is the 
 projntiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but also for the sins of the whole world : 
 according as John the Baptist testified of Him, 
 when he said " Behold the Lamb of God, that 
 taketh away the sins of the world," John i. 29. 
 We believe that he alone is our Redeemer and 
 Saviour, the captain of our salvation, who saves 
 us from sin, as well as from hell and the wrath 
 to come, and destroys the devil and his works. 
 He is the Seed of the woman that bruises the 
 Serpent's head, to wit, Christ Jesus, the Alpha 
 and Omega, the First and the Last. He is (as 
 the Scriptures of truth say of Him) our wisdom, 
 righteousness, justification, and redemption ; 
 neither is there salvation in any other, for there 
 is no other name under heaven given among 
 men, whereby we may be saved. He alone is 
 the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls : He is 
 our Prophet, whom Moses, long since testified 
 
168 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 of, saying, 'A Proijhet shall the Lord your God 
 raise up uuto you of your brethren, like unto 
 me ; Him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever 
 He shall say unto you : and it shall come to 
 jiass, that every soul which will not hear that 
 pro})het, shall be destroyed from among the 
 peoijle.' " Acts ii. 22, 23. 
 
 " He is now come in Spirit, ' and hath given 
 us an understanding, that we may know Him 
 that is true.' He rules in our hearts by His 
 law of love and life, and makes us free from the 
 law of sin and death. We have no life, but by 
 Him ; for he is the quickening Spirit, the second 
 Adam, the Lord from heaven, by whose blood 
 we are cleansed, and our consciences spiinkled 
 from dead works, to serve the living God. He 
 is our Mediator, who makes peace and recon- 
 ciliation between God offended and us offending : 
 He being the Oath of God, tlie new covenant of 
 light, life, grace, and peace ; the Author and 
 Finisher of our faith. This Lord Jesus Chiist, 
 the heavenly man, the Emmanuel, God with us, 
 we all own and believe in ; He whom the high- 
 priest raged against, and said he had spoken 
 blasphemy, whom the priests and elders of the 
 
AND IN THE SPIRIT. 
 
 169 
 
 Jews took counsel together against, and put to 
 death ; the same whom Judas betrayed for 
 thirty pieces of silver, which the priests gave 
 him as a reward for his treason ; who also gave 
 large money to the sokliers to broach a horrible 
 lie, namely, ' that His disciples came and stole 
 him away by night, whilst they slept.' After 
 He was risen from the dead, the history of the 
 Acts of the Apostles sets forth how the chief 
 priests and elders persecuted the disciples of this 
 Jesus, for preaching Christ and His resurrection. 
 This, we say, is that Lord Jesus Christ, whom 
 we own to be our Life and Salvation." 
 
 In the early part of 1671, George Fox 
 mentions in his Journal how, "having finished his 
 services for the Lord in England," " it was upon 
 him from the Lord to go beyond the seas to 
 visit the plantations in America." He then 
 describes how he embarked at Gravesend with 
 twelve Fiiends whom he names. Amongst 
 I them was Elizabeth Hooton, of whom some time 
 back I told you ; also William Edmundson. 
 The Friends on landing, as might be expected, 
 divided into several smaller companies, some 
 "going upon the Lord's service to Antigua," 
 
1 7U THE " FRIEXD " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 othei"S to Jamaica, others to Barbadoes, »fec. It ! 
 seems clear that William Edmundson was in 
 Barbadoes with George Fox, and was no doubt 
 one of the Friends who joined him in di-awing 
 up the declaration of wliich the extract I have 
 read was a part. I am not so clear whether 
 John Bumyeat was one of them. He was ' 
 then travelling in the ministiy in those parts, 
 but it was, I think, just subsequent to the date 
 of that address, that he meets with George Fox 
 and they are for some time united in the good i 
 work. Of these two Friends, William Edmund- ' 
 son and John Burnyeat, I thought of giving j 
 you some fiu-ther particulars at this time ; not 
 so much because their names have been thus 
 introduced, as from the circumstance of their 
 being identified -with the history of the early 
 days of our Society in Ireland, of which I was 
 ; desirous of saying something, as we have 
 ! hitherto spoken of England and Scotland. 
 
 William Edmundson was one of the earUest, 
 perhaps the hi-st Friend who resided in Ireland. 
 He was born in Westmoreland, in the year 
 1627. "After he grew up he went into the 
 
WILLIAM EDMUNDSON. 
 
 171 
 
 army, and continued a soldier some time," but 
 being religiously inclined, delivered up his 
 charge. He married a young woman of Derby- 
 shire, and went to Ireland, " with an intention 
 to settle and trade, but was under inward 
 affliction upon his soul's account." Being on 
 bu.siness in the North of England, in 1653, he, 
 with two of his relations, went to a " Meeting 
 of the people called Quakers ; when, by the 
 ministry of some of the said people, both he 
 and the said two relations were convinced of 
 the way of Life." "So returning again to 
 Ireland, and being made willing to bear the 
 cross of Christ, he soon met with various trials 
 for the Tnxth's sake ; and had the gi-eater 
 exercise, seeing there was not then any of the 
 people called Quakers in that nation to have 
 conversation with ; yet his behaviour and de- 
 portment so reached both his wife and brother, 
 that they were soon convinced of the Truth, 
 and willing to meet with liim in his own house 
 to worship God in Spirit, though in outward 
 silence ;" and shortly after, four more individuals 
 joined this little company. About tliis time, 
 " J ohn Tiifin, a servant of the Lord, came over 
 
172 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 from England, who was a strength and comfort 
 to Friends ; several were convinced and added to 
 their number." 
 
 The refu.sal of the honour of uncovering the 
 head, plain speech, plain dealing and the like, 
 exposed them "to abusive language, sometimes 
 to blows and stones." William Edmttndson 
 tells lis, in speaking of his own state, " The 
 Lord's hand was heavy upon me day and night, 
 so that I travelled under a gi'eat war and 
 conflict betwixt flesh and spirit ;" and in another 
 place, he adds, "my exercises and trials both 
 within and without were many, and of divers 
 sorts, beyond what I can express." He thought 
 it his duty to accomjmny John Tifiin on the 
 afoi-esaid visit. At this time, few would lodge 
 them in their houses. " At Belfast, that town 
 of gi-eat profession, there was but one of all the 
 inns and public houses that woiild lodge any of 
 our Friends. " These Friends were visiting several 
 places in the North, whilst " Edward Burrough 
 and Francis Howgill were come into the South 
 of tliat kingdom, in the service of Truth." 
 William Edmundson relates, that "soon after 
 John TifSn went for England ; but our Meeting 
 
EARLY LABOURS IN IRELAjy). 173 
 
 increased, and sometimes the Lord's power and 
 Spirit would move me to speak some few 
 words ia Meeting," — "several gathered to our 
 Meeting, and were convinced and received the 
 Truth." There being "great openness among 
 the people, Meetings wei-e soon settled in several 
 places." With regard to the subject of this 
 notice, we are informed, "that he being faithful, 
 it pleased God to enlarge his gifts for the 
 ministry, so that he became an able minister of 
 Jesus Christ ; skilful in dividing the word of 
 righteousness, plain and powerful in preaching, 
 sound in doctrine, and profound in the mysteries 
 of God, which were largely communicated to 
 him." 
 
 When George Fox was at Badgley, in 1655, 
 he says, "Here William Edmundson, a Friend 
 who lived in Ireland, having some drawings 
 upon his spirit to come over into England to see 
 me, met with me ; by whom I wrote a few lines 
 to the few Friends then convinced in the north 
 of Ireland." And under this date in W. 
 Edmundson's Journal is the following entry ; 
 " About this time I had some drawings on my 
 spirit to go for England and to see George Fox, 
 
174 THB "friend" in his family. 
 
 whom I had not yet seen. So I went over and 
 met with him at Badgley, in Tieicestershire, 
 where there was a gi-eat Meeting of Friends 
 from several places. When the Meeting ended 
 I went to George Fox, and he took notice of 
 me; we went into the orchard, and kneeling 
 down, he prayed. The Lord's heavenly power 
 and presence was there : he was tender over 
 me." 
 
 Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill were 
 at that time in the south of Ireland, from 
 whence, as before narrated, they were banished ; 
 "a guard of soldiei-s conducted them from place 
 to place, till they were shipped off ; but the 
 guards were loving to them, and suffered them 
 to have Meetings where they came, so that 
 several received the Truth, and small Meetings 
 were settled in divers places." The short epistle 
 G. Fox addressed to Friends there, W. Edmund- 
 son read to them in their Meetings, at which they 
 " were mightily shaken, and broken into tears 
 and weeping." 
 
 On the very day on which Howgill and 
 Burrough were banished from Ireland, two 
 women Friends landed ; and in the same year, 
 
PREACHES FROM THE STOCKS. 
 
 175 
 
 "Richard Clayton was moved of the Lord to 
 come for Ireland in the service of the gospel," 
 and William Edmundson "was moved to go 
 with him;" they travelled on foot, held several 
 Meetings, and many "received the Truth in the 
 love of it, in much tenderness." 
 
 The reception these evangelists met with at 
 Belturbet, was a fair specimen of the treatment 
 they were continually receiving. " The Lord's 
 power and presence was with xis at the Meeting, 
 but the Provost of the town was an envious 
 man, who came with some rude people, broke 
 up our Meeting and took us to prison, lioth men 
 and women. We were all night in a very cold 
 place, the women were mightily pinched with 
 cold, it being frost and snow." In the morning, 
 William Edmundson was " put into the stocks 
 in the Market place," where many people 
 gathering round them, he " preached the Truth 
 to them, which they heard with soberness." 
 This not suiting the turn of the Provost, he 
 sent his officer to let him loose, but W. E. did 
 not remove his legs from the .stocks when they 
 were opened, but told the officer that the Pi'O- 
 vost.had \mt him in, and he, the Provost, should 
 
176 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 take him out. And so that the stocks should 
 not serve again as a pulpit, the Provost came 
 himself and took him out. 
 
 In an early number of "Piety Pi'omoted," is 
 an account of one Robert Wardell, a Friend 
 who travelled much in the ministry, in Scotland, 
 Ireland, Holland, Germany, Auierica, and many 
 other parts, and who died in Jamaica in 1G96. 
 This R. W. was a boy when W. E. was put in 
 the stocks at Belturbet ; and boy-Hke, went to 
 see the man in the stocks. When he heard him 
 preach, he ran to the Provost and told him 
 " he had set in the stocks a better man than 
 himself," and this R. W. "being convinced, 
 kept to Truth, and with Friends, afterwards 
 became a serviceable man for Ti-uth, and a 
 preacher of it" as above stated. But to return; 
 it is very interesting and instructive to trace the 
 spreading of the Truth in these early days in 
 that country, to which end William Edmundson 
 was a favoured and lionoured instrument. But 
 with the inci-ease of Friends, persecution in- 
 creased also ; and it fell to the lot of this 
 faithful Fiiend to be often in perils of divers 
 sorts, and very often in prisons, " as persecution 
 
HIS CONSTANT LABOURS. 
 
 177 
 
 grew hot " in those "rough times." In Cavan, 
 he was for fourteen weeks confined in a foul 
 close dungeon, where his "natm-e was stifled 
 and he taken for dead." Frequently was he 
 "abused and stocked," and his "goods made 
 havoc of by covetous men." 
 
 A letter from William Edmundson to Mar- 
 garet Fell is preserved, dated 6mo., 1G61, in 
 which he informs her, "as concerning Friends 
 here, I hear of many in prison at Waterford ; 
 at Cork and Limerick many Friends are fined in 
 great sums for meeting. I hear tliat Friends in 
 the North have their liberty. We have six of 
 our Meeting in prison and fined for meeting ; 'it 
 is well ' with Friends here ; the Lord's presence 
 is with us and His power fresh amongst us." 
 
 His religious labours, which were deep and 
 almost constant, were not confined to his own 
 country. " He went many times into England, 
 laboui'ing in the woi-k of the gospel in divers 
 parts, and three times into the Islands of Eng- 
 lish plantations in America, goiag the warfare 
 at his own cost, that the gospel might not be 
 chaigeable ; and endured hardship as a good 
 soldier of the Lamb, approving liimself as a 
 
178 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 faithful minister of Christ." For the interesting 
 particulars of these great labours, summed up 
 in such few -words, I must refer you to his 
 Journal. From which you will see he was with 
 Elizabeth Hooton when she died in Jamaica, 
 and with George Fox at Barbadoes, when they 
 drew up the paper to the Governor, from which 
 in our opening remarks to-night I quoted. 
 
 "As he had an excellent gift for the Mioistry, 
 he was also endued with a large understandiag 
 and gift for government and religious discipline 
 in the Church of Chi'ist." In the testimony 
 which his Quarterly Meeting gave forth after his 
 decease, it is said by those who were contem- 
 porary with him, that "he was an eminent 
 Apostle and able Minister of the Gospel of life 
 and salvation, having an extraordinary gift in 
 opening and applying the tyjjical part of the 
 law to the substance of the gospel; a faithful 
 eldei', whose lamp shined bright, and was there- 
 fore worthy of double honour." He appears to 
 have been indeed regarded as " a father " in his 
 day. John Fothergill, when travelling in the 
 work of the ministry in Ireland, in 1705, 
 "met with our ancient and honourable Friend, 
 
THE END OF HIS RACE. 
 
 179 
 
 "William Edmiindson, " whom," says he, " I had 
 a gi-eat desire to see, having a deep and reverent 
 value for him, for I believed that if I was not 
 what I should be, he would not only observe 
 wherein, but would plainly deal with me." 
 
 William Edmundson wrote several weighty 
 and instructive epistles, and left behind him an 
 interesting and valuable Journal. He lived to 
 a good old age ; and having seen the state of 
 things much altered, as the solitary few assem- 
 bling in his own house, to Meetings of faithful 
 Friends throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land, and " having run his race with patience, 
 and kept the faith, he departed this life in sweet 
 peace with the Lord, in imity with his bretkren, 
 and good- will unto all men, on the 31st of 6th 
 Month, 1712, being near 85 years old." 
 
 John Burnyeat was bom in the parish of 
 
 Lowswatei', in Cumberland, about the year 
 
 16.31 ; and was consequently about twenty-two 
 
 years old, when he was " convinced of the blessed 
 
 Ti-uth by liis elder brother in Christ, George 
 
 Fox, when he first came into Cumberland, in 
 
 the year 1653." 
 M 2 
 
180 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Many and deep were the exercises and inward 
 travails he experienced in the work of regener- 
 ation ; he was brought " into deep judgment 
 and great tribulation of soul ; for when gathered 
 from amongst the shepherds that fed themselves 
 with temporal things from the flock, and knew 
 not how to feed their flock with spiritual food, 
 for they had it not, he came to see, with many 
 more that there must be an inward work, a 
 Saviour nigh to save from sin, and that all their 
 buildings, which had been high, were but a 
 Babel tower upon which confusion came." And 
 again, " Seeing over all the worships in the world 
 which were set up either by imitation or man's 
 invention, and seeing it to be ia vain to worship 
 God, teaching for doctrines the commandments 
 of men, we were constrained to withdraw from 
 them, and to bear witness against them, where 
 they were ignorant of the life and power of 
 God." 
 
 And so they met and waited upon the Lord ; 
 and in their measures were obedient unto the 
 manifestations of His Holy Spirit. "We often 
 assembled together," said John Burnyeat, "as 
 the Lord's messengers (whom He sent amongst 
 
JOHN BURNYEAT. 181 
 
 us) had exhorted us ; and we minded the Light 
 of Chi'ist in our hearts, and what that dis- 
 covered ; and in oiu" spirits, we, through its 
 assistance, warred and watched against the evil 
 seen therein ; and according to the understand- 
 ing received, we waited therein upon the Lord 
 to see what He would further manifest, with a 
 holy resolution to obey His will, so far as we 
 were able, whatsoever it cost us ; for this, I 
 know, was the condition of many in that day." 
 For four years, almost entirely in outward 
 silence did these Friends "wait upon the Lord," 
 when J. Burnyeat appeared amongst them "in 
 a public testimony." 
 
 "So the Lord becoming our shepherd, He 
 taught us and led us forth into green pastures, 
 where we did feed and rest together with great 
 delight. Oh ! the joy, pleasure, and the great 
 delight, with which our hearts were overcome 
 many times in our reverent and holy assemblies ! 
 How were our hearts melted as ^wax, and our 
 souls poured out as water before the Lord, and 
 our spirits as oil, frankincense, and myrrh 
 offered up unto the Lord as sweet incense, when 
 not a woi'd outwardly in all our assemblies has 
 
182 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 been uttered ! And then did the Lord delight 
 to come down into his garden, and walk in the 
 midst of the beds of spices ; and He caused the 
 north wind to awake, and the south wind to 
 blow upon his garden, and the pleasant showers 
 to descend for the refreshing of his tender plants, 
 that they might grow more and more. And 
 now unto them that had known the night, was 
 the joyful morning come, according to that 
 ancient experience of David, (Psalm xxx. 5;) 
 'Weejiing may endure for a night, but joy 
 Cometh in the morning,' and such as had been 
 in deep afflictions, tossings, and distresses, came 
 to witness the fulfilling of that great gospel 
 promise, ' O ! thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, 
 and not comforted ; behold I will lay thy stones 
 with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with 
 sapphires; and I will make thy windows of 
 agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all 
 thy borders of pleasant stones; and all thy 
 children shall be taught of the Lord, and 
 gi'eat shall be the peace of thy children. In 
 righteoiisness shalt thou be established ; thou 
 shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt 
 not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come 
 
HIS CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 183 
 
 near thee.' Thus they came to be gathered into 
 covenant with God, and to witness the fulfilling 
 of His promises." 
 
 In 1657, the Lord sent John Bm-nyeat forth 
 to tell to others what God had done for his 
 soul, "though he did not go much abroad at 
 first, but kept to his own Meeting for some 
 time, save only to visit Friends that were 
 prisoners for Truth's testimony at Carlisle." He 
 was about this time moved to go and speak to 
 sundry priests, one of whom got him imprisoned 
 in " Carlisle gaol, where he remained three-and- 
 twenty weeks." In the 8th month of the next 
 year, he "took his journey into Scotland, in the 
 faith that stood in God's power." This visit 
 was referred to, I hope you will recollect, in the 
 account I gave you of Alexander Jafiray, and 
 J. Bumyeat spoken of as the earliest Friend 
 who visited Aberdeen. He spent about three 
 months in that nation, having great sei-vice, 
 "not only in Friends' Meetings, where thei-e 
 were any, but in steeple-houses and markets." 
 He says, "Our work was to call people to 
 repentance, out of their lifeless, hypocritical 
 profession and dead formalities, wherein they 
 
184 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 were settled in the ignorance of the true and 
 living God, and so to come to know remission 
 of sins, and receive an inheritance amongst them 
 that are sanctified." 
 
 In the 3rd Month, 1659, he took shipping for 
 Ireland ; which, whilst in Scotland, he believed 
 would be reqiiired of Him, but "waited till the 
 full season came, according to the blessed 
 counsel of God." Having been engaged about 
 four months, he was joined by " Robert Lodge, 
 newly come out of England," who " was also an 
 able Minister." And so these Friends "became 
 concerned in one work and service and travel 
 together, and were truly united in the itnity of 
 the faith and life of Christ, in which blessed 
 unity and fellowship of the Gospel of the Son 
 of God, they laboured and travelled in that 
 nation of Ireland for twelve months after they 
 met." They returned in the 7th Month, 1660, 
 being clear of that nation, "many being con- 
 vinced and gathered to the Truth." They 
 laboured diligently, "often in cold, hunger, and 
 hardships, in that country, which then was in 
 many parts uninhabited ; and were in prison 
 several times; once in Armagh, once in Dublin, 
 
FOLLOWS HIS "OUTWARD CALLING." 185 
 
 and twice in Cork ; besides otlier abuses because 
 of the testimony which they had to bear for the 
 Lord, in towns and steeple-houses; and against 
 hireling priests, who sought their rewards, and 
 loved the wages of unrighteousness." 
 
 When not engaged in the Lord's service, it 
 was his practice "diligently to foUow his out- 
 ward calUng," and regularly attend his own 
 Meeting ; for, says he, " it was still my delight 
 so to do, and there to be dihgent in waiting up- 
 on the Lord ; for I always found that therein I 
 received an increase of strength, life, and 
 wisdom from the Lord. And as I found any 
 motion upon me from the Lord to go to any 
 Meeting abroad, either in our country or any 
 other, I went and cleared myself as the Lord 
 gave ability, and returned again to my calling, 
 and so to our own Meeting, where I delighted 
 to wait in silence upon the Lord; for I loved 
 that much, because I found an inward growth 
 thereby, through the teachings and openings of 
 His Spii'it in my heart." 
 
 About this time, 1662, he went to see 
 " George Fox, and also Edward Burrough, who 
 were then at London ; and Richard Hubberthorn ; 
 
18G THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 for I loved (he writes with the simplicity so 
 characteristic of him) to have the counsel and 
 countenance of my elder brethren who were in 
 Christ before me." 
 
 Coming to Eipon, on his return from this 
 visit to London, he went to the prison to visit 
 Friends, who were suffering there for meeting 
 together to worship God ; " and going into the 
 prison to see them, and speaking some words 
 of exhortation to them, the gaoler took him 
 before the Mayor, Chancellor, Aldermen, &c." 
 John Bumyeat proving to them that he had 
 broken no law, and they being unable to 
 ensnare him, tendered the Oath of allegiance 
 and supremacy, which he refused to take ; " not 
 in contempt to the King or his authority, but 
 in obedience to Christ's command." Here, with 
 many other Friends, he wa-s a prisoner fourteen 
 weeks. In prison, they sat together to wait 
 upon the Lord once in every day ; for speaking 
 on such occasions he was frequently put into a 
 dungeon by himself, " being several times haled 
 off his knees, while in prayer." 
 
 During the summer of 1664, a concern which 
 had for four years been upon his mind, began 
 
HIS FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 187 
 
 again to rise, so that he believed it was the 
 Lord's time to fulfil that which he " had yielded 
 imto in spirit so long ago." In the 7th Month 
 he took shipping at Galway, in Ireland, for 
 Barbadoes. He staid there three or four 
 mouths, visiting Friends and travelling and 
 labouring in the work of the Gospel, " both for 
 the confirmation of those that were gathered, 
 and for the gathering of others unto the Truth, 
 that they might partake of the like precious 
 faith." 
 
 He then visited Friends throughout Mary- 
 land, Virginia, New York, New England, &c., 
 and, through Barbadoes, arrived at home towards 
 the end of 1667, — having "had good sei-vice." 
 In these visits, he was very useful in establishing 
 the minds of Friends against the " vain imagin- 
 ations" of John Perrott, who had troubled 
 them much. 
 
 William Edmundson, who, as we have seen, 
 was travelling at the same time in these parts, 
 says, in his J oumal in reference to it, " There 
 we travelled severally in oui' services as the 
 Lord ordered us ; George Fox, John Burnyeat, 
 and several other Fiiends, to New England ; 
 
188 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 I took boat and went to Vu'ginia, where things 
 were much out of order, but the Lord's power 
 and testimony went over all." 
 
 After his return he continued to travel in 
 this country, Wales, and Ireland, until the 
 spring of 1670, when he attended the London 
 Yearly Meeting, and spent a part of that sum- 
 mer thereabouts, in the service of Truth. On 
 the 15th of 3rd Month, "for declaring the 
 Truth at Devonshire House," he was plucked 
 down, fined £20, and imprisoned in Newgate, 
 with William Simpson, but was discharged the 
 next day. 
 
 In company with William Simpson, in the 
 5th Month, he sails for Barbadoes again, where 
 his dear companion died, which was a gi-eat loss 
 and trial to John Burnyeat. He visited New 
 England, Virginia, Maryland, and other parts 
 of America, and " had many blessed Meetings." 
 They swam over several rivers, and lodged " in 
 wigwams, the Indians being kind then to New 
 England again, and again through the Jerseys, 
 New York, Maryland, Virginia, &c. He and 
 George Fox had a Meeting with the Indians; 
 " and after much good service, being clear of 
 
LABOURING IN THE WORK OP THE GOSPEL. 189 
 
 those countries, he and George Fox returned 
 and landed in Ireland, in 3rd Month, 1673. 
 John Biu'nyeat then visited "most of the Meet- 
 ings in that nation, laboiu-iag there till the 10th 
 Month." For the next few years he appears to 
 have been travelling, " labouring in the work of 
 the Gospel," in this country, and North and 
 South "Wales. In 1677, he met George Fox 
 "at William Penn's house in Sussex, where he 
 and George Fox wrote their great book, 'A 
 New England Firebrand Quenched " in answer 
 to Roger Williams, a priest with whom they 
 disputed when at Rhode Island, and who had 
 published a partial relation of it. 
 
 In the latter part of his life, he took a wife, 
 and "settled in Ireland, where his service most- 
 ly lay in his latter days ; but he came over into 
 the North of England to visit Friends in 
 1682." He was imprisoned in Dublin for 
 preaching in the 6th Month, 1683, but was 
 freed in the 8th Month following. In 1684, he 
 was again in England, and travelled in the 
 ministry in the northern parts and in Scotland ; 
 and John Whiting says, " after his return, I do 
 not find but he continued in Ireland, where he 
 
190 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY, 
 
 was very serviceablte, to the time of his decease." 
 
 His wife dying in 1688, he intended to have 
 left Ireland for his native country, "the wars 
 and troubles approaching ; but not having free- 
 dom in himself to go, he vohmtarily gave 
 himself up to stay with Friends there, to take 
 part in what sufferings might happen; and 
 indeed he was a blessed instrument in the hand 
 of the Lord, for the strengthening and com- 
 forting of his people in those suffering and 
 calamitous times." 
 
 Being "visited with a fever, he continued 
 sick twelve days ; all which time he was pre- 
 served in his senses, and in a sweet frame of 
 spirit, did often say, ' He was fine at ease, and 
 quiet in his spirit, and the Lord did attend him 
 with His heavenly power and presence.' To the 
 comfort and satisfaction of them about him, he 
 said, 'That he ever loved the Lord, and the Lord 
 loved him from his youth and so in great 
 peace with the Lord, having finished his coiu'se 
 and kept the faith, he departed the 11th of the 
 7th Month, 1690, aged about fifty-nine years." 
 " He was an excellent Minister of the Gospel 
 of Christ, and liis memory is blessed." How 
 
HIS MEMORY IS BLESSED. 
 
 191 
 
 much beloved, esteemed, and lamented by his 
 Friends, let the Testimonies which they could 
 not but put forth respecting him, tell. For, as 
 I have hinted, and you must have observed 
 before, these brief notices admit of very little 
 detail ; my object being to give you some general 
 idea of the character and calling of the Friend, 
 and to raise a desire for that further acquaintance 
 which their Lives and Journals supply. 
 
 George Fox says, " he preached in his life and 
 conversation, as well as by his words. He was an 
 elder and a pillar in the house of God ; a man 
 endued much with the wisdom of God, and in. 
 
 ithad a care of the welfare of the Chmx-h of 
 ChrLst, and laboured with the apostate.s and 
 backsliders, to tvu'n them to Christ, and his 
 peaceable Ti-uth." 
 
192 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Thomas Loe — Newness of Life — Testimony bear- 
 ing — Unlawfulness of War — Pleasures and 
 Fashions of the Woelb — Richard Claridge. 
 
 EFORE offeiiag a few remarks on two 
 or three subjects which seem to call 
 ^^^^^ for them in the course of these ex- 
 'f^jQ' positions, (to which I must apply a 
 ^'jf' similar remark to that I so recently 
 made with regai'd to the biographies, that they 
 are necessarily general and suggestive, rather 
 than detailed and exhaustive ;) I wish to tell 
 you what little is known, and it is but little I 
 have been able to gather, respecting a Friend 
 to whom some reference has several times been 
 made, Thomas Loe of Oxford. 
 
 Thomas Loe. — The first mention I made of 
 this Friend was in giving some account of John 
 
THOMAS LOE. 193 
 
 Audland's labours in Oxford. I quoted from 
 an old M.S. shewing, that on his first visit 
 in 1654, his ministry was blessed to several, 
 " also tliat the Power of the Lorde reached 
 unto Thomas Loe, whom ye Lorde afterwards 
 made a Minister of his everlasting Tmth." 
 In 1657 Thomas Loe was labouring in the 
 work of the ministiy in Ireland ] indeed he 
 was so much given up, as we shall see, to be 
 spent iu that nation, that "from his early and 
 zealous labours in that land he has been called 
 'the Apostle of Ireland.'" This visit, of which 
 some records are preserved, must have been about 
 two years after Howgill and Burrough were 
 banished, and two years before John Burnyeat 
 went there. Our historian, Gough, speaks 
 of him as " an able and eminent Minister of the 
 gospel, endued with spiritual discernment to 
 divide theword aright, to the differing states of the 
 auditory. He travelled (partly on foot) through 
 the greatest part of the nation, and by his power- 
 ful and prevaiKug ministry, was instrumental 
 to confirm and edify his Friends, who were before 
 gathered into the Society, and to increase their 
 number by the convincement of others." 
 
 N 
 
194 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 But there is reason to suppose that this visit 
 in 1657 was not his first; for we find the 
 following postscript to a letter, written by 
 Edward BuiTOugh from Dublin, to Margaret 
 Fell iu 1655, — the year after Thomas Loe's 
 convincement ; "Here is a Friend come from 
 England, since I wrote this, from Oxford," 
 (and the late John Barclay in copying this, 
 inserts the name, Thomas Loe,) " who saith he 
 was moved to come ; and / believe it. I am 
 refreshed by him." And I am further confirmed 
 in this by the mention of Thomas Loe, as one 
 of the Friends who early visited Ireland, in 
 " Butty's Rise and Progress of the people 
 called Quakers ia Ireland," previous to that of 
 Barbara Blaugdon ; who was one of the women 
 Friends who landed there on the day of Edward 
 Burrough's banishment in 1655. 
 
 Then we have a letter of Thomas Loe's own 
 writing to Geoi'ge Fox, so descriptive, that I 
 must give it you in full, dated from 
 
 " The North of Ireland, 17 th of Uh mo. 1660. 
 "Dear and Most Honourable, — 
 
 " Thine with much joy I received ; and 
 things laere are at present pretty cool. I am 
 
HIS LETTER FROM IRELAND. 195 
 
 now in the North, where all is quiet and still, 
 and Meetings enlarge daily. T came lately ont 
 of the West, from Cork, Bandon, Limerick, 
 and those parts, where persecution hath been 
 gi-eater since these changes ; prisons daily at- 
 tending us, hailing out of their towns, and 
 breaking Meetings, and blows and threats, and 
 many other sufferings, Friends have sustaraed 
 by them. Whole Meetings have been carried to 
 prison in several places ; at Limerick they have 
 kept Friends near four weeks together ; and at 
 Dublin the greatest part of a quarter of a year ; 
 and at Cork tliey have sevei-al times done the 
 same. I was there a little while since at a 
 Monthly Meeting, and near the end of our 
 Meeting, they came with a guard of soldiers, and 
 carried away all the men Friends to prison. 
 And so about Waterford they have done the 
 same, and almost in all parts of tlie nation ; 
 many sharp ti'ials have Friends had by them. 
 Things are generally well with Friends, and 
 Meetings fresh and living ; a blessed Presence is 
 among them ; and they have well got over their 
 sufferings, and in wisdom have been well 
 
 preserved in their several meetings. I do 
 N 2 
 
196 THE "fkiend" in his family. 
 
 believe many of them are freely given up to 
 suffer all things for the Truth's sake. Here is 
 some increase lately ; about the middle of the 
 nation there is a Meeting of near forty, and 
 most convinced lately ; at this time things are 
 a little qiiieter, I know of none in prison, but 
 what are in for tithes. As to my own par- 
 ticular, dear G. F., I am well ; and the Lord's 
 blessings and pure presence are with me in my 
 labours. It is yet on me to stay in this nation, 
 and the thing hath oft run through me, 'thou 
 must travel through this storm with Friends 
 here.' I am tinily and wholly given up into the 
 will of God, and am content to suffer and 
 endure all things for the Lord's sake. Abund- 
 ance of threats in clivers places are uttered 
 against me, and they have had me in prison 
 divers times ; but way hath been made for my 
 release in some short time." 
 
 "Thomas Loe." 
 There is no doubt, however, that Thomas Loe 
 retiu-ned home before the end of the year. In 
 our recent account of Thomas EUwood, it was 
 stated, that he was iuqiiisoned towards the end 
 of the year IGGO, in consequence of a letter he 
 
T. ELL wood's invitation TO HIM. 197 
 
 had wiitten to Thomas Loe at Oxford. This is 
 how it came about. Thomas EUwood, under 
 this date, wi'ites ; " I came to London from 
 Isaac Pennington's, and thither I went again 
 in my way home ; and wliile I staid there, 
 amongst other Friends who came thither, 
 Thomas Loe of Oxford was one. A faitliful 
 and diligent labourer he was in the work of the 
 Lord, and an excellent ministerial gift he had. 
 And I, in my zeal for Triith, being very desirous 
 that my neighbours might have the opjiortunity 
 of healing the gospel, the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion, livingly and powerfully preached among 
 them, entered into communication with him 
 about it; offering to procure some convenient 
 place in the town where I lived, for a Meeting 
 to be held, and to invite my neighbours to it, if 
 he could give me any ground to expect his 
 company at it. He told me, ' he was not at his 
 own command, but at the Lord's ; and he knew 
 not how He might dispose of him ; but wished 
 me, if I found when I was come home, that the 
 thing continued with weight upon my mind, 
 and that I could get a fit place for a Meeting, 
 I would advertise him of it, by a few lines 
 
198 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 directed to him at Oxford, wMther he was then 
 going, and he might then let me know how his 
 freedom stood in that matter.' When therefore 
 I was come home, and had treated with a 
 neighbour for a place to have a Meeting in, I 
 wrote to my Friend Thomas Loe, to acquaint 
 him that I had j^rocured a place for a Meeting, 
 and would invite company to it, if he would fix 
 the time, and give me some ground to hope that 
 he would be at it." Now this letter was mis- 
 carried, taken to the Lord-Lieutenant of the 
 county, and magnified into a cliarge of sedition ; 
 and Ellwood, instead of getting "according to 
 expectation an agreeable answer to his letter," 
 was surprised by a party of horse soldiers to 
 take him away. He then became a prisoner of 
 the Marshal of the city of Oxford, whilst 
 Thomas Loe, with many other Friends, was a 
 prisoner in Oxford Castle ; and writes Ellwood, 
 " I had much rather have been among them 
 there, with all the inconveniences they underwent, 
 than where I was with the best entertainment 
 so desirous was he of the company of Friends. 
 It soon became known amongst the prisoners in 
 the Castle, that this young Friend was a prisoner 
 
THOMAS LOE's LETTER TO T. ELL WOOD. 199 
 
 of the Marshal, "whereupon it pleased the Lord 
 to move the heart of Thomas Loe" to write to 
 him as follows : — 
 "My Beloved Friend, — 
 
 "In the Truth and love of the Lord 
 Jesus, by which life and salvation is revealed in 
 the saints, is my dear love unto thee, and in 
 much tenderness do I salute thee. And dear 
 heart, a time of trial God hath permitted to 
 come upon us, to try our faith and love to Him ; 
 and this will work for the good of them, that 
 through patience endure to the end. And 
 I believe God will be glorified through our 
 sufferings, and His name will be exalted in 
 the patience and long-suffering of His chosen. 
 When I heard that thou wast called into 
 this trial, with the Servants of the Most High, 
 to give thy testimony to the truth of what 
 we have believed, it came into my heart to 
 wi-ite unto thee, and to greet thee with the 
 embraces of the power of an endless life ; where 
 our faith stands, and unity is felt with the saints 
 for ever. Well, my dear Friend, let ixs live in 
 the pure counsel of the Lord, and dwell in His 
 strength, which gives us power and sufficiency 
 
200 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 to endure all things, for His name's sake ; and 
 then onr crown and reward mil be with the 
 Lord for ever, and the blessings of His heavenly 
 kingdom will be our portion. Oh, dear heart, 
 let us give up all freely into the will of God, 
 that God may be glorified by us, and we 
 comforted together in the Lord Jesus, which is 
 the desire of my soul, who am thy dear and 
 loving Friend in the eternal truth, 
 
 "Thomas Loe." 
 " We are more than forty here, who suffer 
 innocently for the testimony of a good con- 
 science ; because we cannot .swear and break 
 Christ's commands. And we are all well, for 
 the blessing and presence of God is with us. 
 Friends here salute thee. Farewell. The power 
 and wisdom of the Lord God be with thee. 
 Amen." 
 
 Whilst William Penn was a student at 
 Christ Church College, Oxford, " he was reached 
 by the preaching of Thomas Loe, sufficiently so 
 to cause him to withdraw himself from the 
 formal National way of Worship, and to meet 
 for the exercise of religion, mutual edification 
 and prayer, with several of his fellow students, 
 
WILLIAM PENN CONVINCED. 201 
 
 but not to connect himself with the people 
 called Quakers ; but in the twenty-second year 
 of his age, his father having committed to his 
 care and management a considerable estate in 
 Ireland, he was at Cork at the time Thomas 
 Loe was labouring there. William Penn natur- 
 ally went to the Meeting to see and hear a 
 Friend who had already been the means of doing 
 his soul good. T. Loe commenced his declara- 
 tion with the words, ' There is a faith that 
 overcomes the world, and there is a faith that 
 is overcome by the world,' upon which he en- 
 larged with much clearness and energy. By the 
 living and powerful testimony of this man, he 
 was now thoroughly and effectually convinced, 
 and afterwards constantly attended the Meetings 
 of that people, even through the heat of per- 
 secution." 
 
 Thomas Loe "travelled in divers parts of 
 England, and was several times imprisoned for 
 his testimony. By his travels and labours his 
 natural strength was impaired, and coming to 
 London ia 1668 in the course of his travels, he 
 was there seized with that disease which termi- 
 nated his labours and existence in the body." 
 
202 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Under tliis date, on turning to Sewel's history, 
 we find a notice of this Friend, which well 
 con-esponds with what we already know of him. 
 " This year at London died Thomas Loe, a man 
 of an excellent gift, who zealously had laboured 
 in the Ministry of the Gospel in Ireland, and 
 by his preaching had brought many over to the 
 Society of his Friends, and among others also, 
 "William Perm, to whom on his death bed he 
 spoke thus, ' Bear thy cross and stand faithful 
 to God ; then He will give thee an everlasting 
 Crown of Glory that shall not be taken from 
 thee. There is no other way that shall prosper, 
 than that which the holy men of old have 
 walked in. God hath brought immortality to 
 light, and life immortal is felt. Glory, glory to 
 Him, for He is worthy of it. His love over- 
 comes my heart ; nay, my cup runs over. Glory 
 be to His name for ever ! ' At another time he 
 said to his Friends, as they stood at his bedside, 
 ' Be not troubled, the love of God overcomes 
 my heart.' And to George Whitehead and 
 others, he said, ' The Lord is good to me, this 
 day He hath covered me with His Glory. I 
 am weak, but am refreshed to see you. The 
 
THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 203 
 
 Lord is good to me.' Another Friend asking 
 him how it was with him, he answered, ' I am 
 near leaving you, I think ; but am as well in 
 my spu-it, as I can desire ; I bless the Lord ; I 
 never saw more of the Glory of the Lord, than 
 I have this day.' And when it was thought 
 that he was departing, he began to sing Praises 
 to the Lord, ' Glory, glory to Thee for ever.' 
 Which did not a little affect the standers by, 
 thus to hear a dying man sing. And in this 
 glorious state he depaiiied." 
 
 I do not know how it may affect you, but I 
 think I never read the records of the lives of 
 oiu- early Friends, without a painful sense of 
 our own shortcomings and tinfaithfulness, and a 
 desire that we possessed more of their devoted- 
 ness and zeal ; nor can I pei'use the narratives 
 of their deaths, whether as we have seen in the 
 abnost solitary prison, or in freedom surrounded 
 by loving Friends, whether in youth, or in a 
 ripe old age, without feeling the aspiration 
 raised in my heart, "Let me die the death of 
 the righteous, and let my last end be like his." 
 
 May we ever bear in mind, that if we would 
 
204: THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 die the death, so also must we live the life, of 
 the righteous ; even a " life of faith in. the Son 
 of God." " The just shall live by faith." It is 
 a gi-eat favoui- to know the desii-e raised in our 
 hearts, that we may indi^adually be of the 
 people of Grod, and that when Time is no more, 
 through His infinite and unmerited love and 
 mei'cy in Christ J esus, we may " enter into the 
 kingdom." But we must not rest satisfied with 
 the desire. We must, " forgetting those things 
 which are behind, and reaching forth imto those 
 tilings which are before, jyress toward tlie mark, 
 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus." We must experience a change here, 
 even as "from death unto life." 
 
 " If any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
 tvire; old things are passed away; behold, aU 
 things become new, and all things are of God." 
 In the um-egenei-ate state man regards himself as 
 his own, and lives to himself; but when he is 
 in Chi-ist, " renewed in the spiiit of his mind," 
 all things another aspect wear, all things become 
 new. He feels that he is no longer his own, 
 but bought with a price ; and the love of Christ 
 constraineth him to judge vnth the Apostle, 
 
NEWNESS OF LIFE. 205 
 
 that he " should not henceforth live unto him- 
 self, but unto Him who died for him, and rose 
 again." Neither will he call that which he 
 possesseth his own ; but that all he is, and has, are 
 "talents" entrusted to him, and he "a steward." 
 When he has done all, he feels himself " an un- 
 profitable servant." The motives from which he 
 acts, the standard by which he judges, the hope 
 which is in him, the end set before him, all 
 things a/re new. There is no evil but Sin ; and 
 that which he formerly esteemed as such, as 
 adversity or affliction, are the chastenings of the 
 same wise and loving Father, from whom 
 Cometh every good gift ; all things are of God. 
 
 Now without for a moment judging others, 
 and if possible still less of questioning the wis- 
 dom of God's varied dealings with His children, 
 it has been the unanimous experience of all our 
 Friends who have witnessed this change, this 
 effectual conversion, " this turning from dark- 
 ness to light, and from the power of Satan imto 
 God," and of not a few others, who, having 
 submitted theii' whole hearts unto the teaching 
 of the Holy Spirit, and from time to time have 
 been brought amongst us, (many as you know 
 
206 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 in a most remarkable manner), I say it has 
 been the unanimous experience of Friends, that 
 they have had to bear witness to certain truths ; 
 that "walking by the same nile, they minded 
 the same thing." I repeat that we do not judge 
 others who are not similai-ly led. There are, I 
 believe, few things moi-e cramping, more detri- 
 mental to our soul's welfare, than to take a 
 narrow and contracted view of the Divine 
 economy, and of the manifold operations of 
 Divine grace ; " though I speak with the tongues 
 of men and of angels, and have not ClMrity, I 
 am become as soimding brass, or a tinkling 
 cymbal." How instructive the rebuke of our 
 Lord, to those disciples who forbad one, who 
 was " casting out devils in His name," but 
 "followed not with them." And you remember, 
 how the Apostle in his Epistle to tlie Romans, 
 shews how " inexcusable " such judging is, and 
 how, in judging others, we " condemn ourselves." 
 "For we shall all stand before the judgment 
 seat of Chi-ist ;" and he, with whom God hath 
 dealt very differently to what He has with us, 
 wiU be accepted, yea, " God hath received him," 
 " God is able to make him .stand " as well as 
 
"the greatest of these is charity." 207 
 
 any of us. So we do " not therefore judge one 
 another ; but judge this rather, that no man put 
 a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall in his 
 brother's way." But we do this, when we are 
 unfaitliful to our own light, and calling, and 
 convictions. The most consistent and faithful 
 adherence to what we believe to be right, is 
 perfectly compatible with, — and should we not 
 say, even essential to, — the exercise of the truest 
 and largest charity towards others. For whilst 
 it is indeed true, that they will not be judged 
 by our light, it is equally tnie, that we shall not 
 be by theirs. " Every one of us shall give 
 account of himself to God." We must, thei'efore, 
 on the one hand, never harbour in our breast a 
 judging, exclusive spirit, any feeling but that of 
 the most perfect charity for the sincere con- 
 victions of others, be they far as they may from 
 ours ; nor ever allow, on the other hand, that 
 charity to the principles or practices of others, 
 to merge in any degree into indifference, or 
 unfaitlifulness to our own. 
 
 1 was about to remaik that from the first. 
 Friends have had to bear witness to certain 
 truths, or as they continually express it, "to 
 
208 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 bear testimony to the Truth." Moreover, the 
 Apostle tells us, " it is required in stewards that 
 a man be found faithful and if faithfulness is 
 required in the stewardship of " the um-ighteous 
 mammon," how much more so of "the true 
 riches." Let thoughts such as these take pos- 
 session of us, — that we are not our own, that we 
 have nought that is our own, that we are 
 Christ's, that we live unto Him who died for 
 us, and that what He has revealed to us by His 
 Sjiiiit, are truths " committed to ovu" trust to 
 which faithfulness, a humble, but ready and 
 loving homage even as to "the testimony of 
 Jesus," is called for at our hand, — and we have 
 not only the key to the faith and patience, the 
 cheerful, though suffering steadfastness of our 
 Early Friends, but have somewhat of their 
 spirit, and are on the same immoveable foun- 
 dation. 
 
 And in speaking of their spirit, I cannot 
 forbear just referring to the words of William 
 Dewsbury, one day uttered by him, " rising up 
 in his bed in great weakness," during the short 
 time he lived after his nineteen yea/rs imprison- 
 ment in Warwick gaol ; " My God having put 
 
TESTIMONY BEARING. 209 
 
 it in my heart to bear testimony to His name 
 and blessed Truth ; / as joyjully entered Prisons 
 as Palaces ; and in the prison house I sung 
 Praises to my God, and esteemed the Bolts and 
 Locks 2)ut upon me as Jewels.'' 
 
 On previous occasions I have spoken, as 
 oppoi'tunity offered, of some of the testimonies 
 borne by Friends. I wish now to say a few 
 words — and I trast to you but a very few will 
 be necessary — on one which they have uniformly 
 maintaiued, almost alone amongst the professed 
 foUowei's of the meek and lowly Jesus, the 
 unlawfulness to the Christian, of all War. It is 
 to me a matter of inexpressible astonishment, 
 that those wlio j^rofess to be the folio wei'S of the 
 Lamb, the disciples of a crucified Lord, can in 
 any way countenance, not to say engage in, 
 those scenes of violence, plunder and carnage, 
 which are included, with nearly every other 
 sin, ia that one word. War. 
 
 Tliat the world should resort to so false and 
 
 unieasonable an arbitrament as that of the 
 
 sword, is explicable only on the ground of the 
 
 natural enmity, folly, and corruption of the 
 
 human heart, which is " not subject to the law 
 o 
 
210 THE "friend" m HIS FAMILY. 
 
 of God, neither indeed can be." But I think 
 we have seen that the Christian is called out of 
 the ■world, that his heart is cleansed from 
 its corruptions, that he lives in newness of life, 
 that he is subject to the law of God; and that 
 henceforth, instead of " the works of the flesh," 
 lie is to bring forth " the fniits of the Spirit." 
 Can there be any doubt to which class belong 
 all the elements and accompaniments of "War? 
 " From whence come wars and fightings ? Come 
 they not hence, even of your lusts?" asks one 
 Apostle; and another tells us, what almost 
 every page of the New Testament, and of 
 Chi'istian experience teaches us, that " they that 
 are Chi-ist's have crucified the flesh with the 
 afiections (the passions) and lusts;" and have 
 therefore removed the very ground on which 
 they stand, have subdued the very soiu'ces from 
 which they spring. With the New Testament 
 in oiu- hands, and the Holy Spirit, even in some 
 small measure, in our hearts, how can we take 
 jjart in the violent destruction and bloodshed of 
 oui" fellow men ? Are those who are enjoined 
 to do " good unto all men," to love even their 
 "persecutors and enemies," to "forgive even as 
 
THE UNLAWFULNESS OF WAK. 211 
 
 they have been forgiven," who are "not to 
 strive," nor even to " speak evil," to do tliis great 
 wickedness, and share in this practical aggrega- 
 tion of the "works of the flesh?" "War is an 
 active violation of every Chiistian precept and 
 virtue. It was not with our Friends e^ en an 
 open question for argument; it was, and is, 
 simply as impossible for them to fight, as to 
 fly, — the essential conditions are wanting. And 
 not only are all fighting and violence forbidden 
 in the collective sense, which we express by 
 the term, "War, but even individually, we are 
 to " recompence to no man evil for evil." "We 
 are not to smite again. "We may suffer, if the 
 will of God be so, but we are not to do, evil. 
 
 There has always appeared to my mind a 
 peculiar significance in those solemn words, 
 " whose damnation is just," which the Apostle 
 so emphatically asserts, when he repudiates the 
 thought, that we may " do evil, that good may 
 come." Our duty is plain, the rules which 
 should influence us are clear, let " none render 
 evil for evU unto any man. But ever follow 
 that which is good, both among yourselves and 
 
 to all men." "If ye love them which love you 
 o2 
 
212 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 what rewai'd have ye, do not even the publicans 
 the same." Can you read the Sermon on the 
 Mount, and be in any degree of doubt as to 
 your requii'ements, even if they are not your 
 attainments, as a Christian 1 But to disregard 
 and abandon, to spurn as premature or imprac- 
 ticable, the plain commands of our Lord and of 
 His Apostles, and to follow instead thereof the 
 devices of the Enemy, to do Ids works, and let 
 sin reign in our members, from some fancied 
 possibility of good coming therefrom, is the 
 height of folly, an awful illustration of "the 
 deceivableness of unrighteousness," the failure 
 of our faith, the flinching in the time of trial, 
 and a practical distrust and denial of oiu' 
 gracious Lord. 
 
 As I think of it I feel the force of the 
 Apostle's words, and pray that we may be of 
 those who " do the will of God," and obey His 
 commandments, "and His commandments are 
 not grievous that we may " commit the keeping 
 of our souls to Him in well-doing as unto a 
 faithful Creator and that committing all our 
 ways unto Him, and iu simple faith leaving 
 results with Him who has numbered the haii'S of 
 
NONCONFORMITY TO THE WORLD. 
 
 213 
 
 our head, we may thus " honour the Son, and the 
 Father, and so shall not come into condemnation." 
 
 Another testimony which our Friends have 
 been called upon, in a somewhat marked manner 
 to bear, is that against the pride and vanity of 
 the world, its pleasures and its fashions ; and to 
 a practical exhibition of Chi'istian moderation 
 and simplicity in all things. This would natur- 
 ally manifest itself in a vai-iety of ways ; in the 
 pursuits and modes of life, the manner of 
 spending every portion of time, the conversa" 
 tion, appearance, and general demeanour. 
 
 The gi-eat and fundamental difference between 
 the Christian and the worldling, is one of spirit. 
 He is not to be " confomied to this world but 
 that non-conformity is effected, by his being 
 "transformed, by the renewing of the mind." 
 A difference of external conduct, if the heart 
 be not changed, is the hy|iOcritical " washing of 
 the outside of the cup and platter," which our 
 Lord condemns. But observe what it is our 
 Lord really does condemn. It is not the clean 
 outside ; it is the wa»shing of the outside, the 
 making tJtat appea/r clean, when within there is 
 " extortion, excess, and uncleanness when 
 
214 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 there is inconsistency between the internal and 
 the external life ; -when there is hypocrisy ; 
 when the spiritual state gives the lie to the 
 outward pretensions. Indeed, our Lord adds, 
 "Cleanse first that which is within the cup and 
 platter, that the outside of them may he clean 
 also." And there is no condemnation of the 
 clean outside, when it is the result of the cleans- 
 ing within, when it is the outcome of a renewed 
 mind. Thence, indeed, it mmt follow. A 
 living faith, is a faith that influences the life. 
 "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." 
 
 We are sometimes told that a man may not 
 be very guarded in his expressions, that he may 
 indulge in the foUies and frivolities of the 
 world, that he may frequent the baU-room, may 
 visit the theatre, or the race-course, and yet be 
 a good Christian. As I said, we judge no man ; 
 but " that which we have seen and heard, that 
 declare we unto you." The man who is "bom 
 again," who is living in " newness of life," who 
 is "redeemed unto God," who has "here no 
 continuing city, but seeks one to come," feeUng 
 himself "a stranger and a sojourner" here, 
 " desii'ing a better country, that is a heavenly," 
 
THE PLEASURES OF THE WORLD. 215 
 
 and lives under an abiding sense of his respon- 
 sibility; as he is of a different spiiit to "the 
 childi-en of disobedience," so will he find his 
 pleasures and joys in widely different things to 
 them ; as his inner life is different (as said the 
 Psalmist "All My Springs a/re in Thee,''') so will 
 he present to those about hini a different ex- 
 ternal life; "the outside will be clean also." 
 As the fountain, so the streams; as the heart, 
 so the actions; there will be a bridle to the 
 tongue, a departing from vanity, a hatred of 
 pride, an abhorrence of every evil way, an absti- 
 nence from, and denial of all that is of " the old 
 man and his deeds," that savours of " the world 
 which passeth away, and the lusts thereof." And 
 in proportion as we truly " love not the world," 
 shall we be quick to detect what is of it, and 
 its spirit. It is an unchanging truth, " If any 
 man love the world, the love of the Father 
 is not in him. For all that is in the world, 
 the lust of the flesh, and the lusts of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but 
 is of the world." And if we truly hate that 
 which is of it, and ahhor evil, we shall not trifle 
 with it, nor approach it as nearly as we can. 
 
216 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 It is a cause of thankfulness to know that there 
 are many of our Christian brethren of other 
 denominations, who unite in, and act upon senti- 
 ments such as these. But is there not perhaps 
 a still greater number who profess and call 
 themselves Christians, who know nothing of 
 these restraints, "who profess that they know 
 God, but in works they deny Him." 
 
 In connection with this subject I incline to 
 remark, that the carrying out of these principles 
 would exert a salutary influence on all ovir 
 actions, our words, and even oui- thoughts. 
 Friends have no testimony to peculiarity or 
 singularity ; but to true plainness and simplicity, 
 they have. Surely the avoidance of " that out- 
 ward adorning," and " costly array," so indicative 
 of a vain and worldly mind, the contemning the 
 fashions of a world " given to change," and the 
 wearing of "modest apparel," "as becometh 
 those professing godliness," is not less a chi'istian 
 vii-tue, and a cliristian duty in the present day, 
 than when they were first enjoined by Peter 
 and by Paul. 
 
 I have not thought of bringing befoi'e yovi an 
 array of arguments, which might most readily 
 
THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 217 
 
 be clone, against the things which are compre- 
 hended under the " deceitful hists," the " lying 
 vanities," the "fashions of this wox'ld," and 
 "the pride of life." They war axjainst the soul, 
 and are hateful in the sight of God; Is not 
 THAT ENOUGH? The Spirit of God bears its 
 witness in all our hearts to the warnings and 
 precepts of the Inspired Records. There is the 
 ground and wan-ant of the conduct of Friends 
 in all these tilings. To that I wish to direct 
 you, as sufficient to guide, instnict, and connect 
 all our conduct and conversation. " Blessed is 
 the man that walketh not in the counsel of the 
 ungodly, nor standetli in the way of sinners, 
 nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Biit his 
 delight is in the law of the Lord ; in His law 
 doth he meditate day and night." May each 
 one of us be able to add with the Psalmist, 
 " Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my 
 counsellors or, as it reads in the margin, " the 
 men of my cottnsel then we shall not be 
 suffered to go far astray, but walk in the safest, 
 most pleasant and peaceful of paths, the Way 
 of the Lord. We will conclude as usual with 
 a short nan-ative of a Friend. 
 
218 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 Richard Claridge. — As at the first promulga- 
 tion of Christianity, " not many wise men after 
 the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble 
 were called," so in a remarkable manner at the 
 rise of our Society, it may be said, it pleased 
 God by "the foolish things of the world, to 
 confound the wise, and by the weak things of 
 the world, to confound the things that ai'e 
 mighty." There were, however, among the 
 early Friends, those who had been great and 
 learned in this world ; these were made willing 
 to " count all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and to cast 
 down all their crowns as at the foot of the 
 Cross ; seeking to leam of that promised 
 Comforter, who, the Saviour declared, should 
 teach His willing disciples "all things," and 
 bring to their " remembrance whatsoever he had 
 said unto them." 
 
 Amongst these was Richard Claridge, who 
 had received a very liberal and extensive 
 education. He was bom at Farnborough, in 
 "Warwickshire, in the 10th Month, 1649. He 
 spent nearly two years at Balliol College, and 
 afterwards at Mary's Hall, Oxford, where "he 
 
RICHARD CLARID6E. 219 
 
 gained the reputation of being a good orator, 
 philosopher, and Grecian." In 1670, he took 
 the degree of "Bachelor of Arts, and was 
 ordained a deacon and two years after " was 
 made a priest of the King's Chapel, West- 
 minster." In 1673, he became Rector of 
 Peopleton, in Worcestershire ; where he kept 
 a school, for the purpose of preparing scholars 
 for taking their degrees at the Universities. 
 He also became "Master of Arts, and was 
 Rector of Peopleton, for about thirteen years; 
 but having become very uneasy as regarded his 
 own state, though a teacher of others, he went 
 to hear many who were highly esteemed amongst 
 the Baptists, Presbjrterians, &c., and was at 
 length enabled, through grace, to obey the 
 heavenly call ; and being directed by the Truth, 
 according to the measure then manifested to 
 him, he voluntarily quitted his parochial charge, 
 and tithes revenue." This he did in 1691 ; and 
 then became connected with the Baptists. These 
 people, he says, he found "to have a serious 
 remnant amongst them, sounder in doctrine, 
 holier in life, and to have less of human inven- 
 tion in their worship, than those of the National 
 
220 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 way, yet they were far short of that purity of 
 faith, worsliip, and discipline, for which the 
 primitive Christians were so famous in the age 
 of the Apostles." Those words remained much 
 with him, whicli he heard expressed by a by- 
 stander, when baptized with water after the 
 manner of the Baptists; "welcome from one 
 form into another ;" and feeling more and more 
 that something far beyond these various forms 
 was to be known, and attained unto, he did not 
 settle in them, but was humble and watcliful to 
 embrace that which was manifested in the Light. 
 
 Having made diligent search into the principles 
 of Friends, he attended their Meetings about 
 the end of 1695. Here he met with the desired 
 satisfaction which his soul had long sought 
 after ; coming to the substance, and leaving the 
 shadows, " which stood only in meats and 
 drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinan- 
 ces, imposed until the time of reformation." 
 His first a^ipearance in the Ministry amongst 
 Friends, was at a Meeting held at a Friends' 
 hoiise in Aldersgate Street, London, in the 8th 
 Month, 1697. This was more than nineteen 
 months after he had attended Friends' Meetings, 
 
HIS MIXISTRY AMOXGST FRIENDS. 
 
 221 
 
 and desisted from j^reaching amongst others. 
 His testimony at tliis meeting was "to re- 
 commend a broken and contrite spiiit, to the 
 debasing of self and to the magnifying the grace 
 of God, by which he had been turned from 
 darkness to light, and been enabled to testify by 
 living exj)erience of His goodness." His views 
 on this important subject were very clear, as 
 expressed in some papers which he wrote about 
 this time ; and he " was very watchful over 
 himself, lest at any time he should be too 
 forward, and by that means insensibly fall 
 again into what he had formerly been judged 
 for, namely, preaching and praying in his own 
 will and wisdom." Amongst his writings (and 
 his labours in this line were not a few), are some 
 interesting reports of conferences on doctrinal 
 points, had with Ba})tist teachers and others, 
 who continued to " have a personal respect for 
 him." 
 
 In Sixth Month, 1700, Richard Claridge 
 removed from London, wliere he had been 
 living, to Barking in Essex ; here he dwelt, 
 and kept a boarding school for some years. 
 Soon after, he was drawn forth in a spirit of 
 
222 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 love " to write an epistle to the people called 
 Baptists, with whom he formerly walked in 
 fellowship," in which, as well as in his other 
 writings, much religious experience and know- 
 ledge in " the deep things of God " is manifest. 
 
 In the next year, he visited several neigh- 
 bouring Meetings in Essex, Hertfordshire, 
 Middlesex, &c., "to his own spiritual consola- 
 tion, and to the refreshment and strengthening 
 of others ; to whom it was frequently with him 
 to drop a word in season, exhorting all to a 
 humble and patient waiting upon God, that 
 they might come to witness the possession of 
 Truth in themselves." About this time he 
 published his "Mercy covering the Judgment- 
 seat and afterwards his " Lux Evangelica 
 Attestata." These books proved of great use and 
 assistance to many enquiring souls ; but says 
 H. Claridge, in reference to 1^at cii-cumstance, 
 "not \mto man, but unto the Lord alone, be 
 ascribed the praise and glory of all." 
 
 In the next and succeeding years, he wrote 
 several valuable tracts, and many letters of 
 spiritual advice, and comfort and counsel. 
 About the time called Michaehnas, 1703, he 
 
SOME OP HIS WOEKS. 223 
 
 relinquislied his school ; but remained at 
 Barking for two or three years longer ; devoting 
 his spare time "to the service of Truth and 
 Friends, both by preaching and writing." He 
 continues thus engaged till about 1707, when 
 after a short tarriance at Edmonton, he removed 
 to Tottenham, where he again kept " a con- 
 siderable school." 
 
 Whilst at Barking, he " bore a faithful testi- 
 mony against the steeple house rate," and 
 published some cogent reasons for his not 
 paying 4he same; and it was probably whilst 
 at Edmonton, he published a book which he had 
 written some little time before, entitled "Melius 
 Inqixii-endum," in answer to a Priest's book, 
 called " Rigid Quakers, Cruel Persecutors." 
 Shortly after his settling at Tottenham, he was 
 prosecuted for the non-payment of tithes, and 
 had his goods seized ; and was further subjected 
 to a most tedious prosecution, " for keeping 
 school without license " of the Bishop. But his 
 adversaries did not gain their end ; who were 
 stirred up by the Priest against Friends, and 
 "particularly agakist him who had left their 
 Church, and had written so learnedly in de- 
 
224- THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 fence of the Quakers' principles ;" the Vicar 
 railing and re\T.ling from the p\iljjit against 
 R. C. and his school, which he designated "a 
 nursery of heresy and schism." In 1710, R. 
 Claridge wi'ote his " Tractatus Hierographicus," 
 which was not published until after his decease ; 
 and in 1712, "An Apology for J. Bocket's 
 book, Gentile Divinity and MoraKty." 
 
 "In the latter end of 1713, being the C-lth 
 year of his age, begiiiniug to be sensible of a 
 decay of his wonted strength and vigour, and 
 finding the fatigues of his employment disagree- 
 able to the infirmities of age, and having, 
 through the blessing of God, a competent estate 
 for his subsistence, he left ofi" keeping school, 
 and removed from Tottenham to George's Court, 
 near Hick's Hall, London, where he dwelt the 
 remainder of his days ;" attending Meetings in 
 and about that city, also marriages, burials, &c., 
 " on which occa.sions he was very seinriceable 
 and devoting the greater part of his time to the 
 service of Truth. 
 
 Having, about four days previously settled his 
 outward affairs, he was taken ill of a fever, on 
 the 22nd of the 2nd Month, 1723, which in- 
 
HIS EXCELLENT GIFTS. 
 
 225 
 
 creased until his decease on the 28th of the same. 
 
 This Friend " had a peculiar gift of adminis- 
 teiing suitable advice and consolation to such as | 
 were in distress, or affliction, whether of body 
 or mind." His Friends testified that "his piety 
 towat'ds God, his love to his neighbour, the truth 
 and justice of his words and actions, made him as 
 a hght in the world, and gave forth a testimony 
 to the Truth, in the hearts of all. Great was 
 his care and concern for the Church, that it 
 might be kept clean from the spots and pollu- 
 tions of "the woi-ld ; he was a reprover of vice 
 and immorality without respect of persons. 
 His testimony was sound and edifying, pressing 
 all to puiity and holiness of life ; that, in 
 giving up in faithful obedience to the light of 
 Christ inwardly manifested, they might come 
 to witness the free and full rerrdssion of all 
 their transgressions, through sanctification of 
 the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the 
 blood of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator and 
 Advocate with the Father, and the propitiation 
 for the sins of the world." 
 
 p 
 
226 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Defence of the Early Friends — The Church of 
 Christ — Tithes — William Caton. 
 
 " Steeplehouse." I confess to no partiality for 
 it myself ; and if your dislike to it arises from 
 a fear of your motive being misunderstood, or 
 of hurting the feelings of sincere minds, I can 
 go so far as to share it with you. But designate 
 the building as best we may, we can neither 
 consistently nor truthfully call it, a Church. 
 
 It is difficult for us in the j^i'esent day to 
 appreciate in many respects the position of our 
 early Friends. It is much easier hastily and 
 summarily to condemn some of their words or 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
DEFENCE OF THE EARLY FRIENDS. 227 
 
 actions, than faii-Iy and impartially to make 
 ourselves acquainted with all the circumstances 
 in which they were placed. Where the latter 
 course is followed, I believe there would be but 
 little which we could not readily justify. True 
 it is that George Fox, and others of our early 
 Friends, expressed themselves strongly with 
 regard to the Priests, calling them "bliud leadez'S 
 of the blind," &c. Within the recollection of the 
 pi-esent generation, there has been a vast im- 
 provement in the character of a lai'ge portion of 
 the Clergy. But what was the general character 
 of those who arrogated to themselves the sacred 
 office in the seventeenth century'? There is 
 nothing in the language or Journal of George 
 Fox, or in those of any of liis brethren, which 
 gives yovi so low an idea of the Clergy of that 
 day, as you will obtain from the perusal of a 
 work which cannot be suspected of hostility, 
 "Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times." 
 Speaking of the Clergy on the re-establishment 
 of the Scottish Episcopacy, he writes, " They 
 were the worst preachers I ever heard ; they 
 were ignorant to a reproach ; and many of them 
 were openly vicious. Tliey were a disgrace to 
 
228 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 their order and sacred functions ; and were 
 indeed the dregs and refuse of the North. 
 Those of them who rose above contempt or 
 scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that 
 they were as much hated, as the others were 
 despised." Nor is his character of the Bishops 
 of a more favourable description, " I observed 
 the deportment of our Bishops was in all points 
 so different from what became their function, 
 that I had a more than ordinary zeal kindled 
 within me upon it. They were not only furious 
 against all that stood out against them, but 
 were very remiss in all the parts of their 
 function. Some did not live within their 
 diocese ; and those who did, seemed to take no 
 care of them ; they shewed no zeal against vice ; 
 the most eminently wicked in tlie country were 
 their particular confidants. They took no pains 
 to keep the Clergy strictly to rules and to their 
 duty ; on the conti-ary, there was a levity and a 
 carnal way of living about them, that very much 
 scandalized me." 
 
 Neither must we be too hasty in judging our 
 Friends for a practice which we could not so 
 well reconcile with tlie customs of the nine- 
 
THEIR SPEAKING IN CHURCHES (SO CALLED). 229 
 
 teenth, as with those of the seventeenth century. 
 T refer to that of their addressing the congrega- 
 tions at the Palish places of Worship. It was 
 no unusual thing, and by no means pecuHar to 
 the Friends, that others than the Priest spoke 
 in those places, nor were the puljuts then fenced 
 so strictly against others as in the present day. 
 The " Common Prayer Priest " and the " Pres- 
 byterian Priest" disputed in "the steeplehouse," 
 and sometimes preached from the same pulpit. 
 Now let me read you one or two extracts from 
 George Pox's Journal, which may tkrow some 
 light on his conduct in this matter. 
 
 "At length we came to this old priest's 
 steeplehouse in the Moors ; and when we were 
 come to it, he went before me, and held open 
 the pulpit door ; but I told him I should not go 
 into it. Then I opened to them the rise of all 
 those houses, and their superstitious waysj 
 shewing them, that as the end of the Apostles' 
 1 going into the temj^le and synagogues, which 
 God had commanded, was not to hold them up, 
 but to bring the peojile to Christ, the substance ; 
 so the end of my coming there, was not to hold 
 up these temples, priests, and tithes, which God 
 
230 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 had never commanded, hut to bring themselves 
 off from all these things to Clirist, the substance." 
 
 Again; " When we came into the town to bait, 
 the bells rang. I asked what they rang for, 
 and they said for me to preach in the steeple- 
 house. After some time I felt drawings that 
 way; and as I walked to the steeplehouse, I 
 saw the people wei'e gathered together in the 
 yard. The priest would have had me go into 
 the steeplehouse (this man afterwards became a 
 Friend), but I said, ' nay, it was no matter.' It 
 was something strange to the people that I 
 would not go into that which they called ' the 
 house of God.' I stood up in the steeplehouse 
 yard, and declared to the people that I came not 
 to hold up the temples, nor their priests, nor 
 their tithes, nor theii' augmentations, nor theii- 
 priests' ways, nor then- Jewish and heathenish 
 ceremonies and traditions, for all these I denied, 
 and told them that that jiiece of ground was no 
 moi'e holy, than any other piece of ground." 
 
 And again we read ; " It was thought a 
 strange thing then to preach in houses, and not 
 to go to church as they called it ; so that I was 
 much desu-ed to go and speak in the steeple- 
 
STEEPLEHOUSES NOT CHURCHES. 231 
 
 houses. One of the priests wrote to me, and 
 in\ite(l me to preach in his steeplehouse. * * 
 Now the Lord had shewed me while I was in 
 Derby prison, that I should sjDeak in steeple- 
 houses to gather people from thence, and a 
 concern would sometimes come upon my mind 
 about the puljiits that the priests lolled in. For 
 the steeplehouses and pulpits were offensive to 
 my mind, because both priests and people called 
 them ' the house of God,' and idolized them ; 
 reckoning that God dwelt there in the oiitward 
 house. Whereas they should have looked for 
 God and Christ to dwell in their hearts, and 
 theii- bodies to be made the temples of God." 
 
 Some years after George Fox relates, " There 
 came a professor, and gave me a push in the 
 breast in the steeplehouse, and bid me ' get out 
 of the Church.' 'Alas ! poor man,' said I, 'do'st 
 thou call the steeplehouse, the Church ! The 
 Churcli is tlie people whom Christ hath purchased 
 with His blood, and not the house.' " I continue 
 the quotation as it will shew another feature in 
 this good man's character. " It happened that 
 Justice Hotham came to hear of this man's 
 abuse, sent his warrant for him, and bound 
 
232 
 
 THE "friend" in HIS FAMILY. 
 
 him over to the sessions, so affected was he with 
 the truth, and so zealous to keep the peace ; and 
 indeed this Justice had asked me before, whether 
 any people had meddled with me or abused me ; 
 but I was not to tell him anything of that kind, 
 but ims to forgive all." 
 
 Thus was it simply from a desii'e not to give 
 the name of " the body of Christ " to that which 
 had no sort of claim to such a designation, and 
 by the giving of which (as is always the case of 
 a departure from our form of sound words) 
 other errors and false notions are fostered, that 
 our early Friends, whose every word was 
 watched, avoided doing so, and gave to the 
 building some other appellation. 
 
 You are aware too that whilst Friends re- 
 verenced the Holy Scriptures, and believed them 
 to be the Words of God, and gave the best 
 proofs of that belief, by acting in accordance 
 with their prece]:)ts at all costs, they could never 
 call them, as did many others, " The Word of 
 God ;" because that is the name which they 
 never give to themselves, whilst they give it to 
 Him who " was made flesh and dwelt among 
 us," who was before, and shall be after the 
 
" YE AKE THE TEMPLE OF GOD." 233 
 
 writings, precious as they are, "which testify of 
 Him, who " sitteth upon the white horse," and 
 whose "name is called the AVord of God." It 
 can, therefore, be no matter of surprise, that 
 they were restrained from giving the name of 
 "the Bride, the Lamb's wife" to a material 
 building. 
 
 The calling the house a Church, is followed by 
 claiming foi' it also a sacred character; hence 
 on entering it, the head must be uncovered ; 
 as if there were holiness in a building, and 
 such truths, as that " The Most High dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands," so repeatedly 
 insisted on by the Apostle, were of no effect. 
 Friends had no choice but by word and act, 
 to abstain from participating in, but rather 
 protesting against, such folly and idolatry. 
 It was part of the accusation against the Apostle 
 Paul, that he had " also gone about to profane 
 the temple." It is no profanation to protest 
 against such usurjiation. Truly " the temple of 
 God is holy;" but adds the Apostle, "which 
 temple ye are," and at another time, "your 
 body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and 
 again, " ye are the temples of the living God." 
 
234 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 It is His Saints who make His Church; they 
 are His Holy temple ; " whose house are we, if 
 we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing 
 of the hope firm unto the end." It is very 
 desirable that we should have a correct scriptural 
 apprehension of the Church of Christ. It is 
 His body. Inclusive of all who beh'eve in 
 Him, " the Christ, the Son of the living God 
 exclusive of all who do not. "Upon this 
 rock," by which I believe our Lord meant, not 
 the human man Peter, to whom he spoke, but 
 the Divine Revelation of which he spoke ; " for 
 flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 but my Father which is in Heaven ; and upon 
 this rock, will I build my Church." This is 
 the Church, out of which it may truly be said, 
 "there is no Salvation;" in lohich shall be 
 many " from the east, and from the west, and 
 from the north, and from the south, " that we 
 wot not of; for we cannot limit the revelation 
 of the Father. 
 
 But whilst there is no example in Scripture 
 for calling the place where Christians meet a 
 Church, there is for calling particular bodies of 
 believers in different ages, and various locaKties, 
 
THE CHUKCH OF CHRIST. 235 
 
 Churches. Christian Societies are therefore, 
 popvdarly and properly tei-med, Churches. But 
 no one of these is the Church. " The King's 
 daughter is all glorious within ;" but can this 
 be truly said of any religious society, or 
 outward Church. Even amongst those gathered 
 about the person of our Blessed Lord, and of 
 the Churches formed by the Apostles themselves, 
 there were those "who were eneiiies of the 
 Cross of Christ, whose end was destruction." 
 In the Ark were the unclean, as well as the clean. 
 They "were not all Israel, which were of Israel, 
 neither because they were the seed of Abrahapa, 
 were they all childi-en." "The Lord knoweth 
 them that are His." The Church is identical 
 with no ecclesiastical body, or religious com- 
 munity which does exist, or ever has existed. 
 It consists of all true believers, in all ages and 
 under all names. Kobert Barclay had to 
 contend in his day for the faith, against the 
 exclusiveness, and errors worse than exclusive- 
 ness, of the high professors and ritualists, "who 
 affirmed, 'That no man, however holy, is a 
 member of the Church of Christ without the 
 outward ceremonies ; and that men who have 
 
2S{i THE " FBIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 this outward profession, though inwardly un- 
 holy, may be members of the true Church of 
 Chi-ist, yea and ought to be so esteemed.' " He 
 says, " The Church is the gathering or company 
 of such as God hath called out of the world, and 
 worldly spirit, to walk in His light and life." 
 And this is just what the word itself signifies, 
 — the called, or gathered out. Notwithstanding 
 therefore the dogmas and pretensions of the 
 Roman and Anglican liierarchies, we believe 
 and are therefore bold to say, that the Church 
 of Christ is not an outward and visible body ; 
 but the body of which Christ is the head, is 
 invisible and spiritual. In the words of a 
 modern writer, " The Church embraces the good 
 of all denominations ; and rejects the bad from 
 whatever hands they may have received the rite 
 of baptism, to whatever communions they may 
 belong, however pure their creed, or scriptural 
 their form of worship. ' The just shall live by 
 faith.' He belongs therefore to the true Church 
 who beKeves ; and he who believeth not, to 
 whatever Church he may belong, has 'neither 
 part nor lot in this matter.' " 
 
 I had intended following up this subject with 
 
"CHRIST THE END OP THE LAW." 237 
 
 a few remarks about Tithes ; but they must be 
 very brief. How differently must a Friend 
 approach this subject from a State-churchman. 
 The one beKeving in the Church as a spiritual 
 body, with no head but Christ, no law but His, 
 no ministers but of His appointing and anoint- 
 ing, and that His free Gospel is not to be made 
 chargeable ; the other believing the Church to 
 be an outward body, with a temporal head, 
 i governed by human laws, with a man-made, and 
 ' State-supjjorted Priesthood. But for the human 
 laws which impose them, in the present day, to 
 speak of the question of Tithes, would seem to 
 be, to discuss an item of the Jewish economy. 
 The laws, of which that of tithe was one, were 
 " a shadow of good things to come," and were 
 appointed only to the time of reformation. For 
 the law was given by Moses; but grace and 
 truth came by Jesus Christ. The old dispensa,- 
 tion of the law, with its rites and types, was 
 "that which was done away," and the new 
 dispensation of grace and truth, "that which 
 remaineth." I have never found Friends 
 preaching one way, and pa3dng another; or 
 j building up with one hand, what they were 
 
238 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 pulling down with the other. From the day 
 that they were convinced that War was wrong, 
 they joined not in it, nor in any way directly 
 and knowingly contributed to its sinews. In 
 refusing to pay tithe, which was no part of the 
 gospel economy, but obviously contrary to it 
 and its spirit, they had no thought of saving 
 their own pockets. There were hundreds of 
 cases in which the payment would have been 
 easy, in which the non-payment was bitterly 
 heavy, indeed ruinous ; and involving in those 
 days the sacrifice of liberty, as well as of 
 property. Neither by such conduct did they 
 aim at an alteration of the law of the land ; 
 which, however, they had as citizens a legitimate 
 and perfect right to do. When they appUed to 
 Parliament it was not for any sort of exemption, 
 but "for an Act which should prevent \m- 
 reasonable and bitter men from recm-ring to 
 those modes of obtaining their demands which 
 were i-uinous." They understood the question 
 in all its beaiings, as their writings abundantly 
 prove ; tliey felt it would be wrong, and indeed 
 anti-chrLstian for them to recognise the justice 
 of the claim by paying the demand, and 
 
TITHES WERE A^T HEAVE-OFFERING. 239 
 
 therefore they could not do so. The Friend of 
 whom I last gave you some account, Richard 
 Claridge, who as a Clergyman had many years 
 been in the receipt of Tithes, and as a Friend 
 suffered for his testimony against them, traverses 
 this subject at length in some of his works. 
 He shews, I cannot but think to the satisfaction 
 of every impartial reader, that Tithes can be no 
 part of the Christian dispensation, and therefore 
 to recognise them as such is anti-christian ; 
 that Christ put an end to them, and the law, 
 and the Priesthood. Under the law, Tithes 
 were an heave-offering. " But the Tithes of the 
 Children of Israel, which they offer as an heave- 
 offering unto the Lord, I have given to the 
 Levites to inherit." They were therefore, as all 
 other heave-offerings, typical of Chi-ist, who is 
 the great Heave-offering, and in whom they all 
 had their final determination and accomplish- 
 ment. They were the shadows, He the substance, 
 they the type, He the Antitype. One of our 
 early Friends, Joseph Besse, the laborious com- 
 piler of those large volumes known as, " The 
 Sufferings of Friends," admits freely, in dis- 
 j cussing this matter, that " it is the Lord's will, 
 I 
 
240 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 that Ministers should have a Maintainance 
 but he shews, that His Ministers are those, 
 whom Christ by His Spirit sends and commis- 
 sions ; and that the only maintainance that He 
 sanctions, is such of " the carnal things," as is 
 freely offered by those who have been " made 
 partakers of their siiiritual things." The in- 
 structions which our Lord gave with regard to 
 the support of His Ministei-s, and the example 
 set by His Apostles, gives little countenance to 
 the system of compulsory Tithe. " For the 
 priesthood being changed, there is made of 
 necessity a change also of the law." I know of 
 no greater perversion or prostitution of Scrip- 
 ture, than to bring it in support of the 
 " Anti-christian Yoke of Tithes." In conclusion, 
 I will quote a portion of the Yearly Meeting's 
 Minute on this subject, in 1832. " Our Blessed 
 Lord put an end to that Priesthood, and to all 
 those ceremonial usages connected therewith, 
 which were before divinely ordained under the 
 law of Moses. The present system of Tithes 
 was not in any way instituted by Him, our 
 Holy Head and High Priest, the gi-eat Christian 
 Law Giver. It had no existence in the purest 
 
ABHOGATED BY THE CO.MIXG OF CHRIST. 241 
 
 and earliest ages of His Cliurcli, Lut was 
 gradually introduced as sui)erstitiou and apos- 
 tacy spread over professing Christendom, and 
 was subsequently enforced by legal authority. 
 And it appears to us, in thus enforcing, as due 
 'to God and Holy Church,' a Tithe upon the 
 produce of the earth, and upon the increase of 
 the herds of the field, an attempt was made to 
 uphold and pei-petuate a divine institution 
 appointed only for a time, but which was 
 abrogated by the Coming in the flesh of tlie 
 Lord Jesus Christ. The vesting of power by 
 the laws of the land in the King, assisted by 
 liis Council, whereby articles of belief ai'e framed 
 for the adoption of his subjects, and under 
 which the support of the teachers of these 
 articles is enforced, is, in our judgment, a pro- 
 cedure at variance with the whole scope and 
 design of the Gospel ; and as it violates the 
 right of private judgment, so it interferes with 
 that responsibility by which man is bound to 
 his Creator." 
 
 And in a later j^art of the same Minute, 
 referring to what are called Church Rates, 
 the Friends say, "And we consider that to be 
 Q 
 
242 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 compelled to unite in the support of Buildings, 
 where a mode of Religious Worsliip is observed, 
 in which we cannot conscientiously unite, and 
 in paying for appurtenances attached to that 
 mode of Worship from which we alike dissent, 
 is subversive of that freedom which the Gospel 
 of Christ has conferred upon all." 
 
 The Memoir I have prepared for you this 
 evening, and from so many at hand, I have really 
 a difficulty in making a selection, is that of a 
 Friend with whose name I presume you are 
 familiar, but who, as you will observe, great as 
 were his laboui-s, died before lus thirtieth year. 
 
 William Caton. — The place and the time of 
 the bii-th of this Friend, are not certain ; but it 
 is probable that he was born in Lancashire, 
 about the year 1636. When about fourteen 
 years of age, his father placed him in the family 
 of Judge Fell, to be educated by a priest who 
 was also tutor to the Judge's son, whose com- 
 panion he became in his studies. The memorable 
 visit of George Fox to this family, was in 1652. 
 Amongst those who believed his report, William 
 Caton was one ; then, says he " was I broken 
 
WILLIAM CATOX. 
 
 243 
 
 and melted, and overcome with the love of 
 God which sprang up in my heart ; and with 
 the divine and precious promises, which were 
 contiimed in my soul : Oh, the preciousness 
 and excellency of that day ! Oh, the glory 
 and blessedness of that day !" His increasing 
 attachment to the Truth, made him willing 
 to sacrifice much "outwai'd pi'eferment and 
 his conduct proved his sincerity, when he 
 said — " In that day I could have chosen much 
 rather to have done any kind of labour 
 pertaining to the house, with the seia-ants that 
 were in tlie Truth, than to have enjoyed the 
 delights of this world ^vith his (the Ju lge's) son, 
 or any one else for a season. For my delight 
 was not then, as it had been, in the vain perish- 
 ing and transitory things of the world ; but my 
 deUght was in the Lord, in His mercy and 
 loving-kindness, and to be with His people ; for 
 the sake of whose company I could have exposed 
 myself to some pretty hard employment." 
 "After a time," he wi-ites, " I began to know 
 the motion of His power, and the command of 
 His Spirit ; by which 1 came to be moved to go 
 to the places of Public Worship, to declare 
 Q -2 
 
244 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 against the deceit of the Priests, and the sins of 
 the people, and to warn all to repent." 
 
 William Caton was also often in markets, 
 " declaring God's eternal Truth ;" of which he 
 had, through mercy, become a witness ; clearing 
 his conscience among them, and returning with 
 that peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, which is 
 the reward of faithfulness. He counted that 
 the " beating, buffeting, stocking, stoning, with 
 many other reproaches," which he went through 
 in those days, were not worthy to be considered 
 in comparison with that enjoyment of life, 
 power, and love, which the Father had revealed 
 in him, and by which he was carried through 
 and over all. 
 
 In his nineteenth year, he felt called, in Gospel 
 love, to visit his brethren. His separation from 
 the family with whom he had so long resided, 
 and between whom and himself so strong an 
 attachment existed, was a mutual trial ; perhaps 
 especially to Margaret Fell, of whom he speaks 
 as a " tender-hearted nursing mother " in the 
 Truth. Sewel, in his history of Friends, 
 informs us, that "Judge Fell was very unwilling 
 to part with W. Caton ; but Margaret, his wife, 
 
VISITS HIS BRETHREN AND OTHERS. 245 
 
 though she could not well give him up before, yet 
 believing that the Lord required his service, not 
 only freely resigned him, but also prevailed with 
 her husband to let him go ; for he did not desire 
 his liberty to serve other men, but to enter into 
 the service of the Lord, and to j^roclaim the 
 everlasting Gospel." He travelled southward, 
 and shortly arrived in London, where he was 
 kindly received by Friends, and they were 
 sweetly refi'pshed together in the Lord. Of 
 Friends and their labours in London, he says, 
 there were ten or twelve in that city, "even, 
 plain, honest, upright men, such as the Lord 
 was pleased to make use of in that day, and 
 very diligent we wei'e in His work, night and 
 day labouring faithfully as much as in us lay, 
 to exalt His name over all, and to make His 
 Truth and Salvation known unto all." Of this 
 number, was a Friend named John Stubbs, who 
 became his frequent companion and fellow- 
 traveller. William Caton's service being con- 
 cluded in the city, he went into Kent, being 
 accompanied by Jolin Stubbs. They were the 
 first Friends who visited that county, and 
 through their instinimentality many were con- 
 
246 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 vincecl ; amongst whom might be named, Lvike 
 Howard of Dover, and Samuel Fisher of Lydd; 
 and several Meetings were established. Alluding 
 to their visit to Dover, W. Caton says, " we 
 were as pilgrims and strangers, not knowing the 
 face of any in the town." They took lodgings 
 at a small inn, until they were turned out ; for, 
 as they visited the " steeplehouses on First-day, 
 and spoke in the yards, it wa.s ordered that no 
 one should have them in theii' house, under a 
 certain penalty." L. Howard went to see the 
 Quaker who was preaching in the " churchyard." 
 He relates that on seeing William Caton, " for 
 J. Stubbs was moved to go to the Anabaptists," 
 his heart smote within him, and that he was 
 reached. He protected him from the mob of 
 "rude spirits that oiFered him abuse." This 
 Friend says, in his journal, that when William 
 Caton " had borne his testimony, he passed away. 
 I took notice where he went in, and at night, 
 Nicodemus-like, I went to see him ; and I was 
 loathe to go in the day, and would fain have got 
 company to have gone with me, but could not ; 
 so I went alone, and then met with him and his 
 dear companion, J ohn Stubbs, who liad been at 
 
"SHAMEFULLY ENTREATED." 
 
 247 
 
 tlie other steeplehouse. I believed the Lord 
 stii-red me in my miad to go to see them. I 
 found them eating a little bread, with beer, 
 without anything to sweeten or relish it." 
 
 A short extract from W. Caton's Joiirnal, 
 will show the usage these simple and innocent 
 messengers of the gos^^el met with at Maid- 
 stone. "When there, " it was upon my dear 
 bi other John Stubbs, to go to theii' Public place 
 of worship, and it was upon me to go to the 
 meeting of the Independents, which accordingly 
 we did ; and J ohn was taken at their steeple- 
 house, and I the day following at my inn, 
 and were both sent to the house of correction 
 (so called), where we were searched, and had 
 our money and our ink horns and Bible, 
 &c., taken from us; and aftei-wards we were 
 stripped, and had our necks and amis put in 
 the stocks ; and in that condition were des- 
 perately whipped ; and aftei-wards we had irons 
 and great clogs of wood laid upon us, and in 
 that condition they would liave comjjelled us 
 to have wrought." They were kept without 
 victuals for several days, and the chief agent in 
 this cruelty was a noted pi-esbyterian. After 
 
•248 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 a while they were passed from one officer to 
 another, out of the town, John Stubbs at one 
 extremity, and William Caton at the other. 
 They, however, soon met again in London, 
 when it came npon them " to return to Maid- 
 stone, and into that country, which (writes 
 W. C.) was no small trial to us." Now, Provi- 
 dence so ordered it, that none meddled with 
 them, though they, to be fully seen, went on 
 First-day to the steeplehouse. Afterwards they 
 passed through the country, visiting the brethren 
 that had received the gospel, who were confirmed 
 in the faith, and the more so through their 
 patient suffering. 
 
 From Dover W. Caton passed over to Calais, 
 where his " spirit was very much grieved and 
 burthened by the idolatry that was in vogue 
 there." His service was limited, for want of an 
 interpreter ; this being siipplied, he " had a 
 veiy gallant opportunity to declare the Truth 
 among them." Soon after his return, finding 
 J, Stubbs about to depart for Holland, W. 
 Caton found it his place to accompany him. 
 After a little delay, occasioned partly by the 
 difficulty in getting a jmssage, being of a " sect 
 
A VALIANT SERVANT. 
 
 249 
 
 everywhere spoken against," they sailed for 
 Flushing ; had service at several places, met 
 with some violence, cleared their consciences, 
 and having borne a faithful testimony to God s 
 truth in those parts, returned to England in 
 peace. Swarthmore continued to be W. Caton s 
 home when in England, where he was always 
 welcomed and sweetly refreshed. 
 
 His next joiu-ney was into Scotland, J. 
 Stubbs going with him, but they separated in 
 Edinburgh in much love. W. Caton reached 
 Swarthmore again, about the close of the year 
 1655, "having thus proved himself a faithful 
 and valiant servant of his Lord," before he 
 reached his 20th year. He appears to have been 
 a constant labourer, being engaged in the neigh- 
 bouring counties when " at home," in various 
 sei"vices. " Time would fail to relate i)ai-ticularly 
 the extraordinary good service in Cheshire, 
 Lancashire, Staffordshire, (fee. Sometimes in 
 steeplehouses, sometimes in markets, and night 
 and day frequently in Meetings." Bodily suffer- 
 ing, and persecution from unreasonable men, 
 attended him. At Congerton, in Cheshire, he 
 and his companion, W. Simpson, were imprisoned. 
 
250 THE " FRIEND " IX HIS FAMILY. 
 
 In the Tliird Month 1656, he again visited 
 Scotland, and on his return travelled into 
 the soTith-west part of England. He visited G. 
 Fox and others in Lanncestou jail, " where (says 
 W C.) my refreshment was so much, that my 
 cup was made to overflow." He then went on 
 through the southern counties, to Kent, where 
 he visited such especially who had received theii" 
 testimony. The following extract from W. 
 Caton's Journal, will show the state of his own 
 mind, whilst it revives trutlis important to us all. 
 
 "Many precious and large Meetings I had in 
 that county, and the Lord was very much with 
 me, who furnished me plentifully with his word 
 and power ; insomuch that I stood admiring 
 (regarding with wonder) at sundry times, from 
 whence I had that fulness. And it was not by 
 me only, but by many more, who, looking with 
 the eye of reason on my earthly tabernacle, 
 could not expect any great thing from me, being 
 then but about twenty years of age. Yet plenty 
 j of Heavenly things the Lord was pleased to open 
 I in me, and through me, to the end that I might 
 I communicate the same to the multitude ; which 
 j sometimes being very gi-eat, I was ready to say 
 
THE CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY. 251 
 
 within myself, where shall I have wherewithal 
 to satisfy all these? when I looked at my own 
 weakness and insufficiency as to myself, I was 
 ready to faint ; bnt when I looked only at the 
 Lord, and put my confidence entirely in Him, 
 I was strong and courageous. For the Lord 
 showed me by his eternal light, on a time 
 when I was bemoaning my own weakness, and 
 gi'oaning under a sense of the weight of the 
 burden of the service and work of the Lord, 
 saying or thinking within myself, Oh ! such and 
 such are so fitted and so fiu'nished, that they 
 need not care what service they are called to, 
 but as for me, I am so simple, I am so weak, 
 and I have never anything before hand ; neither 
 do scarce ever know when I go into a Meeting 
 of several hundreds, what I shall say, or whether 
 anything or nothing; yea, when I was full of 
 these and such Kke reasonings, the Lord showed 
 me, how ' they that had mixch had nothing over, 
 and they that had little had no lack,' even as it 
 was with the Israelites of old." Enteiing 
 Meetings in this humble, dependent state, he 
 further observes : " The Lord hath been pleased 
 to give me his word so plentifully, that through 
 
2.32 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 kim I was enabled to speak two, three, yea 
 sometimes four hours in a Meeting, with little 
 or no intermission ; and often it has been with 
 me, that as T knew not before the Meeting what 
 I shonld speak in the Meeting, neither could I 
 well remember after the Meeting, what I had 
 spoken in it. Now these things I rehearse, not 
 for my own praise, but do say, Not unto me, 
 not unto me, that have nothing but what I 
 have received, be the praise, but unto the Lord 
 alone, who is the giver of every good and 
 perfect gift." 
 
 In the 7th Month, 1656, W. Caton went 
 again to Holland. At Middleburgh, he was 
 imprisoned ; and his suffei-ings were great, 
 " both in tlie inward and outward man ;" and 
 he being in very delicate health, was but ill able 
 to bear the hardships and privations of the 
 prison, for they denied him " so much as a bit 
 of sackcloth to lie under, or above him." On 
 his return to England, he travelled mostly in 
 the south, and was soon again required to visit 
 his brethren in Holland ; of which country, he 
 was by some early writers designated, the apostle. 
 It cannot be doubted that his services in that 
 
HIS LABOURS IN HOLLAND. 
 
 253 
 
 country were very great ; some Friends suffering 
 pex'secution, whilst others professing with them 
 had " ran out." In addition to the exercise of his 
 gift in the ministry, he was concerned "in keep- 
 ing things in as good order as possible ; and 
 likewise in getting books printed and published, 
 and in several other respects." Whilst there he 
 mostly resided in Amsterdam, " which was a 
 place of great concernment, and of more con- 
 stant service than other paints of that countiy ;" 
 and he consequently returned there, when his 
 services in other parts, to which he felt drawn, 
 were completed. He was fully given up to the 
 work of the Lord, and he made it his sole 
 business to be doing the work of Him who had 
 called him, and in measure fitted and qualified 
 him for the work ; blessed be His name for ever 
 who suffered him never to go without his 
 reward. Thus was he engaged amongst his 
 Friends in Holland, witli the exception of 
 occasional visits to this country, till about the 
 4th Month, 10-59; when, "seeing things in a 
 pretty good posture as to the Tnith, Friends 
 well settled, and their Meetings kept in good 
 order," he visited Scotland, which was described 
 
254 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 at that time as being " ia a mighty uproar." 
 
 A desire to be brief necessitates my passing 
 over much in which I am siu'e you could not 
 fan to be greatly interested. 
 
 W. Caton then passes through many English 
 counties, and towards the close of the next year, 
 is again in Holland. About " the time called 
 Whitsuntide, in the year 1661," he comes again 
 to England, but for only a short time ; he 
 passes through some parts of Holland, and then 
 proceeds to Germany. W. Caton tells us that 
 when he had been about half a year in 
 G-ermany, and had had very good service, 
 especially in the Palatinate, it was upon him to 
 return again to Holland, which he accordingly 
 did ; and when safely arrived, he visited 
 Friends, as his manner was, and they were 
 sweetly refreshed together. Whilst in Ger- 
 many, he received the mournful intelligence 
 of the decease of Niesie Dirrix, of Amsterdam, 
 " who had been a dear, extraordinary and 
 special Friend, and a true and faithful servant 
 of the ilock of God in the Low Countries, of 
 whose love, and virtue, and faithfulness, and 
 good service she had in her day, a volume might 
 
HIS HONOURABLE MARRIAGE. 
 
 '255 
 
 be writ." It was a sister of this Friend he 
 speaks of iu the following extract : "In process 
 of time something came before me, and npon me 
 from the Lord, (which afterwards did more fully 
 appear,) concerning my taking Anneken Dirrix 
 to wife;" and ia another place, he speaks of 
 submitting it to his brethi-en, before mentioning 
 it to her, either by word or writing, that if they 
 did own and approve of it, he should be the 
 more assui-ed of its being a right thing. It met 
 with tlie concurrence of his Friends botli in this 
 country, and in Holland ; they believing that it 
 was of the Lord, and that it would prove very 
 serviceable to Truth and Friends in those parts. 
 Their marriage was eventually accomplished at 
 a general meeting of Friends, at Amsterdam, 
 " in the fear and wisdom of the Lord, and unity 
 of His Spirit, on the last day of the 8th Month, 
 1G62." The proceedings both of a private and 
 public character of these Fiiends, the fii-st who 
 were married in that country, and which are 
 interestingly described in W. Caton's Jouiiial, 
 appear to have been conducted throughout, in 
 that honourable and exemplary manner, which 
 it was his concern they should be. This union 
 
256 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 was not allowed to interfere with his religious 
 service ; for in less than three months, we find 
 him leaving his dear wife and home, to visit his 
 Friends in England on a religious account. 
 When ia London, he mentions being sweetly 
 refreshed as he " was wont to be among the 
 flock of God, and especially with dear Edward 
 Burrough, who was then a prisoner in Newgate : 
 but in less than two weeks after, he (Edward 
 Burrough) was released from his bonds ; for the 
 Lord removed him out of this evil world, that 
 he might reward him with everlasting life in 
 the world to come." Having again returned 
 home, he was engaged in travelling from place 
 to place in that country, visiting Friends and 
 their Meetings, iintil it came ixpon him to return 
 to England ; his wife and some other Friends 
 from Amsterdam accompanying him. " Friends 
 in London rejoiced more than a little to see 
 people of another nation, and of a strange 
 language, brought into the same living Truth in 
 which they were established, and to bear the 
 same image that they bore, and to be compre- 
 hended in the same love which the Father of 
 owe Lord Jesus Christ had shed abroad so 
 
"his life did preach." 
 
 257 
 
 sweetly among them." After a while Anneken 
 Catoii and other Friends returned hcjiiie, whilst 
 William felt himself drawn to visit parts of this 
 country. When the time for his return was 
 come, he went on board a ship, which jjroved 
 leaky, and forced them to put into Yarmouth 
 Roads. W hilst detained here, W. Caton went 
 on shore ; " where, for being at a Meeting of 
 his Friends on the First-day of the week, he, 
 with seven more, was apprehended and carried 
 to the main guard." They had the Oath of 
 Allegiance tendered them as a snare, and were 
 imprisoned for about six months. They were 
 liberated on the 22nd of Second Month, 1GG4, 
 soon after which date, W. Caton returned to 
 Holland for the last time. 
 
 In addition to his many epistles, W. Caton 
 wrote several books ; amongst which should be 
 mentioned, his " Abridgment of Ecclesiastical 
 History by Eusebius Pamphilius." William 
 Sewel, who also Uved at Amsterdam, says : 
 " He was a man not only of literature and 
 zealous for religion, but of a courteous and 
 affable temper and conversation, and was in 
 good esteem among those he was acquainted 
 
 R 
 
258 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 with;" — and very similar is the testimony of 
 George Fox : " He was one like unto Timothy, 
 who was an example in innocency, simplicity 
 and purity in his life and conversation, after he 
 was converted ; for that did preach, as well as 
 his doctrine, in the churches of Christ. And 
 his innocent life preached both righteousness 
 and Truth where he came ; and was a good 
 savour to God, and in the hearts of the people ; 
 and he was one that had a care of God's glory 
 and honour, and the spreading of the Truth and 
 the prosperity of it, and in it he spent himself 
 and finished his testimony ; who, in his life 
 time, wrote many precious epistles to Friends, 
 besides several books. And in his travels he 
 had many trials and exercises by false brethren, 
 backsliders and apostates, besides his perils by 
 the sea, and among priests and professors ; but 
 the Lord, with His eternal arm and power gave 
 him dominion over all. And after he had finished 
 his testimony, lie died in the Lord, and is blessed, 
 and i-ests from his labours, and his works follow 
 him." His decease was at Amsterdam, about 
 the Tenth Month, 16G.5. 
 
BKLIGIOUS SERVICES ABROAD. 
 
 259 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Katherine Evans — Christian Baptism — The 
 Lord's Supper — James Parnell. 
 
 ■^^Y object in selecting on the last oc- 
 casion the life of William Caton, 
 was to shew you that some of 
 V^^i^ Friends were engaged in Ee- 
 
 ~ ^ ligioiis service in various parts of 
 the Continent. Their love and labours, indeed, 
 seemed limited to no clime or country ; their 
 message and their zeal to know no bounds. 
 Thus about the time that William Caton was in 
 Holland, John Love was preaching the gospel, 
 and testifying against superstition, in Leghorn. 
 He died in the prison of the Inquisition. It 
 was reported "he starved himself to death," but 
 there were " some nuns who confessed that he 
 was dispatched in the night." John Perrot 
 
 was at Venice, visiting the grand Doge, preach- 
 R 2 
 
260 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 ing, and distributing books ; Mary Fisher was 
 at Adrianople, and had a most remarkable 
 interview with the Sultan, his grand Vizier, and 
 a large company of Tm-ks ; Samuel Fisher and 
 John Stubbs were at Rome ; " conversing with 
 the Cardinals, giving books to the Friars, and 
 testifying against Popish superstitions and, 
 not to mention others, Katherine Evans and 
 Sarah Cheevers were lying in the Inquisition at 
 Malta. Of the former of these two Friends, I 
 must give you a very brief notice. 
 
 Kathekine Evans was the wife of a Friend 
 named John Evans, who lived near Bath, and 
 is described as " a man of considerable estate." 
 This estate, however, must have been most 
 materially diminished by his constant fines and 
 sufferings, for lie " bore a good testimony to the 
 Truth," and was on that account also many 
 times impi-isoned. In 1658 for "gi^dng Chris- 
 tian exhortation to the peojile at Plymouth, he 
 was imprisoned ; and two days afterwards on a 
 cold frosty morning, stripped naked from the 
 waist iipwards, more than three quarters of an 
 hour ; after which he was cruelly whipped 
 
KATHERINE EVANS. 
 
 261 
 
 through the town." In 1664 he laid down his 
 life in prison, rather than do violence to his 
 conscience, and disobey the command of his 
 Saviour, " Swear not at all." 
 
 Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers were 
 amongst the earliest Friends who visited Scot- 
 land, being there in the year 1 654. They are 
 mentioned in "Jaffray's Diary" amongst the 
 "several gospel ministers from England, whose 
 feet were early turned towards Scotland." I 
 think the life of Katherine Evans is but a fair 
 sample of that of many of our early Friends. 
 Wholly devoted to the service of the Lord, hers 
 was a life of labour and of suffering, from the 
 day of her convincement, almost to the day 
 of her death. In 1655 she must have been 
 labouring and holding Meetings on the Isle of 
 Wight, for we find in " Besse's Sufferings" she 
 is on that account "banished the Island, and 
 received many abuses." From the same au- 
 thority we learn, that she is amongst the " above 
 twenty persons who were sent to Exeter prison " 
 in 1656 as vagrants, for visiting theii" brethren 
 in prisons, and were then themselves " lodged 
 among felons, and lay generally on straw, whilst 
 
2(j2 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 from the filth of the place many of them fell 
 sick, and one of them died." At a later period 
 of the same year, she "was taken out of her 
 bed, and banished from the Isle of Man." In 
 1657 " for exhorting the people to repentance" 
 at Salisbury, she " was stiipped and tied to a 
 whipping post in the Market place, and there 
 whipped, ' for she " travelled in many countries, 
 and suflfered much for her testimony." But I 
 will not follow her through " her many adver- 
 sities" and "constant travels." Yet I must 
 mention that in 1658, she, with her Friend 
 Sarah Cheevers, went towards Alexandria, but 
 the ship putting in at Malta, and the Friends 
 going ashore, they were soon taken up, and 
 suffered a most dreadful confinement for about 
 four years in the Inquisition. Here for a large 
 portion of the time they were in constant fear 
 — no, they knew no fear — -they were most 
 wonderfully presei'ved and supported — though 
 they were indeed in hourly danger of 
 being burned. They were continually told 
 they should never go out of their cell alive. 
 There was no light or air, but through two 
 small holes, and so intensely hot, that they were 
 
HER MANY ADVERSITIES. 2Q'i 
 
 often compelled " to lay on the floor -with their 
 mouths against the chink of the door, to get air 
 to breathe." An account of this imprisonment 
 was published soon after their release, and you 
 may find some interesting particulars of it, 
 under this year's date, in Sewel's History. 
 " After their return to England, they travelled 
 in the service of Truth in that Kingdom and in 
 Ireland." In 1663, K. Evans is imprisoned for 
 meeting with her Friends at Rochester. In the 
 year 1664 (in which her husband died) we find 
 she and Sarah Cheevers are imprisoned at 
 Wirdf3combe ; and in 1666 she is in Welshpool 
 gaol, Montgomeiyshire ; this was for refusing 
 to swear. Then in 1682 she is amongst the 
 Friends sufFeiing a cruel imprisonment in 
 Newgate, Loudon — there, indeed, she appears 
 frequently to have been ; and at a later period 
 of that year, she " was among the one hundred 
 and fifteen Friends who suffered imprisonment 
 at Bristol, when Meetings were kept up in that 
 city by the children only." But I will only 
 further quote Sewel's closing notice of her. 
 " After many adversities and great sufferings, 
 having lived to a great age, she died, and so 
 
264 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 entered into Everlasting Rest." Her decease 
 was about the Fourth Mouth, 1691. 
 
 There are two subjects upon which I wish to 
 say a few words, and i-especting which I appre- 
 hend a few will suffice, because you have access 
 to so many valuable dissertations on those 
 subjects, as well as to some smaller works and 
 tracts, in which the views of Friends are briefly 
 epitomised. Fir'st, as regards Christian Baptism. 
 We have already seen in the discussion of more 
 than one subject, that the religion of Christ is 
 not formal, ceremonial and typical, but spiritual ; 
 the Realization of that, which the ceremonies 
 and types of the law Foreshadowed. When 
 Christ had suffered and finished the work which 
 was given Him of the Father, the types were 
 exchanged for the Antitype, the figures, for the 
 thing figured, the shadows for the Substance ; 
 tlie rites and sacrifices of the law, "which stood 
 only in meats and chinks, and divers washings, 
 and carnal ordinances, imposed until the time 
 of reformation," which, says the Ajiostle, " was 
 a figure for the time then present," were 
 abolished by " the blood of Christ, who, thi-ough 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
 265 
 
 the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot 
 to God, to purge the conscience from dead 
 works ;" — " which the law could not do in 
 that it was weak;" — "for the law made 
 nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better 
 hope did." 
 
 But it may be objected that water baptism is 
 ' not a remnant of Jewish law. I believe 
 it had its origin in Jewish law; and it cannot 
 be denied, that at least it Avas of a similar charac- 
 , ter, elementaiy, shadowy, typical. But water 
 ! baptism undoubtedly was a part, both before 
 and after the coming of Christ, of the customaiy 
 Jewish ritual. Nothing could be j^laiiier, than 
 that according to the ceremonial law of the 
 Jews, there could be no removal of uncleanness, 
 1 no puritication, Avithout ablution in water. 
 
 The " divers washings," were many of them, 
 j effected by dipping or immersion, and are in the 
 Greek described as baptisms. And the Jews 
 baptised their proselytes ; and when a proselyte 
 was ba])tised, it was usually extended to his 
 i family or household. Nor is there in the 
 Scripture narrative, a word from wliich it could 
 ajjpear, that the Baptism of Jolm was anything 
 
266 THE "feiend" in his family. 
 
 novel or strange. It had features peculiar to 
 itself, but in the mode of its administration, 
 it bore close resemblance to some of the " divei"s 
 washings" to which they were accustomed, so 
 that " there arose a question between some of 
 J ohn's disciples and the Jews," not about the 
 novelty of his proceedings, but about that 
 which they immediately recognised in it, " about 
 purifying." Certain it is, that in its charactei' 
 it was like unto theirs ; not instrumental, but 
 typical, of a change from a state of sin and 
 uncleanness, to one of purity. The Jews under- 
 stood what it was "to be born of ivater /' though 
 they had yet to learn what that was which it 
 ty]iified, the " being born of the Sjnrit." 
 
 When, however, in the early Christian church 
 that was learnt, and not the sign, but the thing 
 I signified known, and the thing typified ex- 
 I perienced, then the imposing upon Christians 
 the ceremony and the sign, is spoken of as a 
 I " turning again to the weak and beggarly ele- 
 ' ments,'' as being no part of the real and spiritual 
 gospel of Christ, who, "abolished the law of 
 commandments contained in ordinances ;" and 
 thei-efore, asks the Apostle, in referring to this 
 
WATER BAPTISM, A FIGURE. 267 
 
 same subject in another Epistle, "If ye be dead 
 with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, 
 why, as though Kving in the world, are ye 
 subject to ordinances, after the commandments 
 and doctrines of men ?" 
 
 We cannot think that there is even an allusion 
 to elementaiy water, in many of those passages 
 which some think coimtenance water baptism ; 
 and in others where an allusion is made, we 
 believe, that it is wholly figurative. In such 
 texts, as " Except a man be boi'n of water, and 
 of the Spirit — " But ye are washed, but ye are 
 sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of 
 the Lord J esus, and by the Spii'it of our God 
 — " By the washing of regeneration, and the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost ;" and many others 
 which may occur to you, there is no unequal 
 yoking of the ceremonial with the spiritual, or 
 putting new wine into old bottles ; but there is 
 an interpreting and enforcing one expression by 
 the othei-. And as in the corresponding figure 
 " of fire," the enlightening, cleansing, refining 
 operation " of the Holy Ghost" is set forth ; so 
 in this more frequent figure of water and of 
 washing, is the purifying woik of the Spirit, 
 
268 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 illustrated ; and by the use of both terms, the 
 sign and the thing signified, is the one effect 
 the more fully represented and strengthened. 
 
 Now let me remind you, how John the Baptist | 
 himself always spoke of his baptism, not as 
 similar to, but in contrast to, that of Christ. 
 He indeed was sent to baptise with water, but 
 he was to decrease ; He, whose forerunner John 
 was, whose way he came to prepare, and who 
 was to increase, " the same is He which baptizeth 
 with the Holy Ghost." Tlie baptism of one 
 was with water, elementary, external, emble- 
 matical ; of the other, with the Spirit and with 
 fire, internal, thorough, effectual. In confonnity 
 with the words, which, wliilst they had more 
 immediate reference to saciitices and burnt- 
 offerings, applied to the characteiistics of both 
 dispensations, " He taketh away the lirst, that 
 He may establish the second," John also 
 declared, "He must increase, but J must 
 decrease." 
 
 The Baptism of Christ, of which John's was 
 a figure, and in contradistinction to which it 
 was placed, not only by John, but by our Lord 
 himself, " For John truly baptised with watei'. 
 
THE "one" christian "BAPTISM." 269 
 
 but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost 
 not many days hence and lest any should 
 suggest a limit to this gracious promise, the 
 Apostle emphatically adds, " For the promise is 
 \into you and to your childi"en, and to all that 
 are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God 
 shall call ;" this Baptism of the Holy Ghost is in 
 harmony with all we know of this dispensation 
 of the Spirit ; as was that of water with the one 
 preceding it. The baptism which belonged 
 to the dispensation of John, and which distin- 
 guished it from the Christian, was a Baptism 
 of Water; the "one baptLsm," which "now 
 saveth," which belongs to the Chi-istian dispen- 
 sation, and distinguishes it from Johns, is the 
 Baptism of the Spii-it. 
 
 The " One Baptism " of Christ which was to 
 increase, surely is not a modified repetition of, 
 or in its character like unto, that of John, 
 which was to decrease. Instead of being 
 applied by man, to the body ; it is applied 
 to the soul, by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 and so regenerates and saves. Thus saith 
 the Apostle, " For by one Spirit are we all 
 baptised into one body." "The baptLsm which 
 
270 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 doth now save us, is not the putting away of the 
 filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good 
 conscience toward God, by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ." " For as many as have been 
 baptised into Christ, have put on Christ." This 
 can never be said of water baptism. It may , 
 be urged that our Lord himself was bajjtised i 
 with water. So was He circumcised. He came 
 " to fulfil the law;" and submitted Himself there- 
 to ; saying, " Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it ^ 
 becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." It 
 would be more to the purpose could it be shewn ! 
 that our Lord had Himself baptised ; but it is 
 distinctly stated, that " Jesiis Hunself baptised 
 not nor can it be shewn that He ever enjoined 
 water baptism on others. ] 
 That water baptism was to some extent | 
 practised in the early Church, can be no matter j 
 of surprise, when we consider, how attached to 
 their rites and traditions, were not only the 
 converts, but to some extent the Apostles them- 
 selves, and how gradually was unfolded to them 
 the spirituality of the Gospel Dispensation ; 
 the great principle of which was, that God was 
 no longer to be served by the intei'vention of 
 
BAPTISM OF PROSELYTES. 
 
 271 
 
 sacerdotal and typical institutions, but through 
 the mediation of the Son, and under the in- 
 fluence of the Spirit. Long after the Jewish 
 litual was abolished by the death of Christ, 
 many of His devoted servants adhered with 
 strictness to parts of it. As long as they 
 observed some of the ceremonies of Judaism 
 in their- own persons, and were not prepared 
 for a full reception of the doctrine, that the 
 ordinances and shadows of the law were now 
 to be disused, it cannot, indeed, be a matter 
 of surprise, that in the reception of converts 
 to the new faith, they persevered in the practice 
 of baptising them with water. There were, 
 no doubt, many cases in which, as has been 
 mentioned was their former practice, on the 
 reception of a jjroselyte, they baptised him and 
 all his liousehold ; but it must not, on the 
 other hand, be overlooked, that whilst there 
 were these instances of those who left their 
 Jvidaism or Heathenism for a profession of 
 Christianity, having that lite performed upon 
 them, there is not a single instance given of 
 the baptism by water of any person born of 
 Christian parents. 
 
272 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 You remember how he, who was " not a 
 whit behind the chiefest Apostles," regarded 
 this " bondage " and " doctrine of baptisms," 
 and having purer and fuller views than many 
 around him of the excellence and spiiituality 
 of the Gospel, and of his own mission in it, 
 thanked God that he, " who took Timothy and 
 circumcised him," liad baptised only two whom 
 he names. 
 
 But had the practice of the Apostles been 
 clearer and more uniform, their example would 
 not have rendered imperative, or of permanent 
 obligation, on the Church, a rite which was not 
 enjoined by our Lord Himself, the outward and 
 ceremonial character of which was contrary to 
 the spirituality of His Teaching and Kingdom ; 
 and, if not of those things themselves, of the 
 nature of those things, which His coming 
 " in the fulness of the time " abrogated and 
 disannulled. To have the mind graciously 
 awakened to Divine things, to feel the oper- 
 ation of the Holy Spii'it on our hearts, and 
 then to fall back upon " carnal ordinances," 
 is as practical an illustration as the present 
 days could supply, of that endeavour of which 
 
BAPTISM, THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH. 273 
 
 the Apostle warns us, "having begun in the 
 
 Spirit, to be made perfect by the flesh." 
 
 " Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty whei'e- 
 
 witli Clu'ist hath made lis free, and be not 
 
 entangled again with the yoke of bondage." 
 
 His is the dispensation, not of the shadow, btit 
 
 of the substance ; not of the signs, but of the 
 
 Reality; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. 
 
 How widely different from the dogma of those 
 
 who say, that Water " Baptism is the Door of 
 
 the Church," is tlie declaration of our Lord, " I 
 
 am the Door : by Me if any man enter, he 
 
 shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find 
 
 pasture or from that of His Apostle, " God 
 
 hath sent forth the S])irit of His Son into your 
 
 hearts, crying, ' Abba, Father ' " And when by 
 
 the Baptism of His Spirit, yoxi have joined the 
 
 Church, and, through His infinite love and 
 
 inercy in " Christ Jesus, of whom the whole 
 
 family in Heaven and earth is named," have 
 
 known the cry raised in your hearts by the 
 
 Spirit of His Son, " Abba, Father you will be 
 
 prepared to sit at the Lord's table, and partake 
 
 of His Su]jper. 
 
 Many of the remarks which I made with 
 s 
 
27i 
 
 THE " FKIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 regard to "Water Baptism, — that being ,in its 
 nature shadowy and ceremonial, it belonged to 
 " the first things which He taketh away," rather 
 than to "the second which He established" — 
 you will see, will apply also to the elementaiy 
 o^' outward Supper. Friends do not believe 
 either of them was instituted by oiu" Lord, who 
 was, and is Himself the Bread and Water of 
 Life. The Lord's Supper, — the realization of 
 those words, " I will come in to him, and sup 
 with him, and he with Me," without which we 
 are not of His Church, " Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye 
 have no life in you," — like unto His baptism, 
 " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
 me," — is a Spiritual experience. It is not by 
 these supposed ordinances, but, says the Apostle 
 Peter, "to us are given exceeding great and 
 precious promises, that hy these ye might be 
 made partakers of the Divine natui'e." And 
 whilst some think that the outward obser- 
 vances may aid in the attainment of the 
 substance, and far be it from us to suggest that 
 this is not to some extent the case, yet Friends 
 believe, that to a very far greater extent, and 
 
THE lord's supper. 
 
 275 
 
 in a fai" gi-eatei* degi-ee, do those observances, 
 and the gi-eat importance attached to tliem, 
 cause the niiiid to he diverted from, and fall 
 short of, the enjoyment of the Blessed Reality. 
 
 We readily admit that Christ broke bread 
 with His disciples ; and that after He left them, 
 they were accustomed to do so among them- 
 selves ; that " the breaking of bread" was indeed 
 a prevalent practice with them, and that the 
 injunction, " This do in remembrance of Me," 
 might apply to the " Passover supper" which He 
 was then keejjing, or to the practice of " breaking 
 bread," or to both ; and that these early Chris- 
 tians had their public repasts, of which the rich 
 and the poor partook together, their " love 
 feasts," in which they did " shew forth the Lord's 
 death." But to " shew forth the Lord's death," 
 and to partake of "the flesh and blood of Christ," 
 are, it is obvious, two different things. Friends 
 deny that our Lord instituted any outward 
 observance as of permanent obligation on His 
 Church ; or that the practice of the early 
 Members tliereof, rendered it so, any more than 
 did their having all things common, their 
 
 abstinence from things strangled, their washing 
 s 2 
 
276 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 one another's feet, or their anointing the sick 
 ■with oil, make similar practices incumbent 
 upon us. 
 
 It is very worthy of remark, that whilst our 
 Lord laid down for His Church no such obser- 
 vances. He continually raised the thoughts of 
 those around Him, from the things of the earth, 
 to the higher truths of His kingdom. Thus did 
 He take occasion, when drinking water at the 
 well of Samaria, to tell the Woman and oui-selves 
 of that Living Water which He gives, and which 
 He is. But He did not thereby establish anj 
 special connection between that truth, and that 
 well, even Jacob's well. So when the Jews 
 followed Him, because they " did eat of the 
 loaves, and were filled," He told them of " that 
 Meat which endui'eth iinto Everlasting life," 
 and of "the Bread which cometh down from 
 Heaven." And so again when He was at 
 supper with His disciples, he uses the bread and 
 the wine, as figures of the body which should be 
 broken, and the blood which should be shed for 
 the remission of sins ; and teaches them, that 
 as their bodies are fed and nourished by the 
 outward food, so might their souls feed on Him 
 
"THE COMMUNION OP THE BODY OF CHRIST." 277 
 
 ■whose "flesh is meat indeed, and whose blood 
 is drink indeed." " This," said He, " is that 
 bread which came down from Heaven ; not as 
 your fathers did eat manna and are dead ; he 
 that eateth of this bread, shall live for ever." 
 
 Therefoi-e, although Christians while they 
 are partaking of the bread and wine, if they 
 do so, not unwor-thily, but in singleness of heart, 
 in remembrance of Him, may be permitted to 
 " eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son 
 of Man," there is no necessa/ry relation between 
 the external ceremony, and the spiritual eating 
 and drinking. But rathei', we are bound to 
 testify, that in any and every time or place, 
 without the use of any elements, yea, as oft 
 as they meet together, the true Children of God, 
 they who live by faith in the Son of God, may 
 be favored to feed together, in a spiritual sense, 
 on the body and blood of Christ, and experience 
 the truest Communion with their Holy Head, 
 and one with another in Him. 
 
 Great stress is laid, by those who regard the 
 outward supper as an ordinance of Christ, on 
 the words, "Do this in remembrance of Me." 
 But Matthew, who gives a very minute descrip- 
 
278 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 tion of our Lord's Supper with His disciples, — 
 and it should not be overlooked, that in eating 
 this Slipper, our Lord was "keeping the Passover 
 with His disciples" — Matthew, who m-ote at a 
 much earlier date than either of the other 
 ^Evangelists, who was himself present, says 
 nothing of those words iipon which alone could 
 the supposed new ordinance have been foimded. 
 Mark, the "Son" and companion of Peter, 
 whose narrative is supposed to have been 
 wiitten under his superintendence, if not from 
 his dictation, which is throughout characterised 
 by the exactness of its details, makes no reference 
 to them. Neither does the other eye witness, 
 the beloved John, who " was leaning on Jesus's 
 bosom." Of the four Evangelists, these words 
 are given by Luke only. But from this we do 
 not conclude that they were not spoken ; on the 
 contrary, from the testimony of Luke, and from 
 their repetition by Paul, we fully accept them 
 as a part of the discourse. But we do conclude 
 therefrom, that in the estimation of the Apostles, 
 who themselves were present, but did not record 
 .them, that there was no thought on the part of 
 oivr Lord, to base thereon, either a continuance 
 
THE PASSOVER SUPPER. 279 
 
 of the then present, or the establishment of a 
 new ordinance in His church. I said that we 
 should not overlook that this was the Passover 
 supper; instituted in remembrance of Israel's 
 delivei'ance out of Egypt. Buxtorf and other 
 writers inform us, that " at the celebration of 
 the Passover, it was the custom among the Jews, 
 for the master of the family to take bread, and 
 bless and bi'eak it, and give it unto the rest ; 
 likewise to take the cup, and give thanks and 
 distribute it so that the very actions performed 
 by Christ were " paschal actions ;" and He tells 
 them at that "feast of unleavened bread," 
 instituted in remembrance of their deliverance 
 out of natural Egypt, henceforth, as oft as 
 they eat it, to do it in remembrance of Him, 
 their Soul's Saviour and Deliverer out of spirit- 
 ual Egypt. Hence the Apostolic exhortation, 
 "Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye 
 may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. 
 For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed 
 for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not 
 with old leaven, neither with the leaven of 
 malice and wickedness ] hut with the unlemened 
 Bread of sincerity and truth." 
 
'ISO THE " FRIEXU " IS HIS FAMILY. 
 
 But wliilst on the solemn occasion of which 
 we have been speaking, oiu' Lord gave no 
 commandment respecting the snpper, he did 
 resjiecting another act, in very positive tei'ms. 
 " He viseth from sn])per, and laid aside His 
 garments ; and took a towel and girded Himself. 
 After that He ])onret]i water into a bason, and 
 j began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wijie 
 I them with the towel wherewith He was gii'ded." 
 I "So after He had washed their feet, and had 
 taken His garments, and was sat doAra again, 
 He said nnto them, know ye what I have done 
 nnto yon ' Ye call me Master and Lord ; and 
 ye say well : for so I am. If I then, yoiu- 
 Lord and Master, have washed your feet, 
 1/e also ought to wash one aiiothers feet. For I 
 have given you an example that ye should do as 
 I h"ve done unto you." Here are the accom- 
 2)aniraents equally striking, and the words mnch 
 more explicit, than those respecting the bread 
 and wine. 
 
 It is at once seen, that the washing of feet 
 does not become a standing ordinance in the 
 Church. The command is positive and Limited, 
 not moi-al and universal ; having reference to 
 
NOT A STANDING ORDINANCE. 
 
 281 
 
 the peculiar habits of the persons addi-essed, 
 and binding only on them. What we have to 
 learn from it, is a lesson of brotherly love and 
 Imniility, a willingness to wash one another's j 
 feet, in the sense in which we are elsewhere 
 enjoined, to " give unto one of these little ones 
 a cup of cold water." And Friends can see no 
 reason, why a different mode of interpretation 
 is to be adopted, with regard to the bread 
 and the wine. 
 
 We cannot but esteem any deiiartiire from 
 tlie truth, and simplicity, and spiiituality of the 
 Gos])el, either in doctrine or practice, but as 
 objectionable. Yet, apart from this, we are 
 willing to admit, that there is little that is 
 objectionable, in tlie " breaking of bread," or in 
 " the Communion of the Lord's table," as it is 
 observed by some Christian societies. But to 
 how few, comparatively how very few, does this 
 remark apply. If we review, and we can do so 
 but most imperfectly, the history of this sub- 
 ject, from the day that our Lord " did eat the 
 Passover with His disciples," to the present 
 time, we shall see that tlie making it an out- 
 ward ordinance or sacrament, contrary to its 
 
282 
 
 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 truly spiritual charactei-, has been, and yet is, 
 the prolific source of exaggerated and false 
 notions, of hypociisies, contentions, and woeful 
 heresies, beyond perhaps any other subject, far 
 beyond the power of words to express, or the 
 human mind adequately to conceive. There are 
 many other observations I should like to make 
 on this interesting and important subject, but I 
 hope I have said enough to induce you to 
 follow it further for yourselves. That is all I 
 can hope to do, either with the subjects, or the 
 biographies, introduced on these occasions. 
 
 James Parnell. — "When George Fox was in 
 the dungeon at Carlisle, in 1653, he says, " James 
 Parnell, a little lad of about sixteen years of 
 age, came to see me and was convinced; and 
 the Lord quickly made liiiu a powerful minister 
 of the Woi'd of Life, and many were turned to 
 Christ by him, though he lived not long." 
 " He showed himself," says Sewel, " both with 
 his pen and his tongue, a zealous promoter of 
 religion, although he underwent hard sufferings 
 on that account." 
 
 James Parnell was a native of Ketford, in 
 
JAMES PARNELL. 
 
 283 
 
 Nottinghamsliii'e, and appears to have received a 
 good education, but very little is known of liim 
 pi'e'V'ious to liis connection with Friends. It 
 is probable that he moved in a humble sphere, 
 and had but little, if anything, to depend on for 
 subsistence, but hLs own exertions ; as he tells 
 us he " challenged no property in the earth," 
 and that he "followed his outward calling" 
 when not occupied "in the service of Truth." He 
 states, that according to his age, he was "as 
 pei-fect in sin" as any in the town where he 
 lived, and that he exceeded many in wickedness. 
 In this state he was beloved, and sought by 
 those around him; but when convinced by 
 George Fox, and having embraced the Truth in 
 which he steadfastly remained, he became a 
 wonder to them, a " mock in the streets," or 
 accounted as imworthy to live amongst them ; 
 and some said, " it would be doing God service to 
 kill him." He was despised by his fonner com- 
 panions, and rejected by his relations. But, 
 says he, " He that called me from amongst 
 them unto Himself, that I might no longer 
 follow the vain courses of the world, nor set my 
 delight in things below, but that I might serve 
 
284 THE " FRIEND " IX HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Him iu newness of life, that in me His work- 
 manship might appear to the confounding the 
 heathen who know Him not ; He by His power 
 kept me, and gave me strength to bear his cross, 
 and despise the shame ; so that neither fail* | 
 words, nor foul words, could cause me to deny 
 what God by His grace had wrought in my 
 heart." Like the Apostle formerly, he was 
 thought " beside himself," and his enemies 
 reported " that he was deluded." 
 
 When about fifteen years of age, James 
 Parnell says, " I was called forth to visit some 
 Friends in the north part of England, with 
 whom I had union in spirit before I saw their 
 faces." It was during this visit to the north, 
 probably, that he found George Fox in CarKsle 
 jail, as mentioned by the latter in his Journal. 
 
 Having returned from this joiirney, he followed 
 his outward calling, and informs us he was not 
 sent far from home in the service of Truth at 
 first ; but was occasionally engaged in the 
 Lord's work, being concerned to fill up the in- 
 termediate time with dihgent attention to his 
 outward occupation. 
 
 In 1654, he was moved to visit a people 
 
"let no man despise thy youth." 285 
 
 about fifteen miles from his home, to whom 
 the Lord was revealing his Truth, and thence 
 proceeded to Cambridge ; and from thi'^ time he 
 appears to have been wholly engaged in the 
 ser\nce of Tmth, either by suffering on its 
 behalf, by preaching, writing books in reply to 
 opposers, and epistles to comfort, counsel, and 
 confirm those who were convinced. 
 
 Sewel says, that though of remarkably low 
 stature, he was endowed with gi-eat ability, and 
 did not fear, wherever he came, to call people 
 to repentance : so diminutive was his stature, 
 and boyish his appearance, that he was con- 
 temptuously called "The Quaking boy." He 
 was, however, a most zealous and favoured . 
 instrument, in convincing many of the Truth ; 
 so endued with wisdom, and when exerci.sing 
 liis gift, spake so in the demonstration of the 
 Spii-it, and with such authority and power, that 
 his opponents are said to have been unable to 
 withstand him. V^ery similar is the testimony 
 of one who was intimately acquainted with 
 him, Samuel Cater. He informs us, that not- 
 withstanding his youth and mean appearance, 
 he was remarkably endowed with Divine wisdom. 
 
286 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 that " in the name and power of the living 
 God, he was enabled to stop the mouths of those 
 who came forth in the strength of the power of 
 darkness to oppose the Truth of God, to catch 
 them in their own snares, and to confound them 
 in the sight of all who had eyes to see." 
 
 He appears, indeed, to have been, as another 
 contemporary testified he was, "an innocent 
 man, and lived in the testimonies and fear of 
 God; he sought nothing here for himself, but 
 alone laboured and travailed that the people 
 might be brought into the knowledge and love 
 of God." 
 
 In Cambridge, he was imprisoned. Richard 
 Hubberthorne, his fellow-prisoner, writes to 
 Francis Howgill : — " James Parnell and I are 
 in the dungeon as yet, where we were put the 
 28th of last [6th] month, but we feel the mighty 
 power of God, and are in joy and peace in the 
 Lord; to Him be praise eternal for evermore." 
 He remained in pi-ison for the space of two 
 sessions ; and was shortly after discharged, and 
 sent out of the town, "as a rogue," under "an 
 escort of men bearing arms and staves." He 
 soon believed it required of him to return to 
 
A FAITHFUL SERVANT OF CHRIST. 287 
 
 Cambridge; which, without conferring ■svith 
 flesh and blood, notwithstanding the cruelty and 
 injustice which he had experienced there, he 
 did ; and openly and freely proclaimed the 
 Ti-uth there and in the parts adjacent, for about 
 half a year. Many gladly received his message ; 
 but, says he, " there were more adversaries ; yet 
 Truth spread, and conquered over its enemies." 
 
 About the beginning of 1655, he went into 
 Essex, being then about eighteen years of age. 
 "He was the first called a 'Quaker' who 
 preached the gospel in that county." " About 
 the middle of the summer, he came to Colchester, 
 and there preached the gospel, and disputed 
 with the Town Lecturer and a Priest, so that 
 many were convinced of the Truth preached by 
 him," amongst whom was Stephen Crisp. And 
 so George Fox, coming to the field of James 
 ParneU's labours, says in his Journal, he " found 
 a gi'eat flock of the Lord's sheep in that county 
 who fed in His pastures of life." James Parnell 
 appears to have remained here about ten days, 
 labouring zealously ; " preaching, praying, ex- 
 horting, and admonishing, turning the minds of 
 all sorts of professors to the Light of Jesus." 
 
288 THE "friend" m his family. 
 
 Very different was the treatment he received 
 from many of those among whom he went. 
 They, in their anger, " gnashed upon him with 
 their teeth, and beat liim with fists and staves." 
 " As he was coming out of a steeplehouse in 
 that town, he was met by a blind zeah)t who 
 struck him a violent blow with a great staff, 
 saying, ' Take that for Christ's sake to whom 
 this innocent sufferer meekly replied, ' Friend, 
 I do receive it for Jesus Clirist's sake.' " 
 
 After enduring much cruel persecution, and 
 " many grievous affronts, wliich he bore witliout 
 showing any heat or anger, for he was a real 
 pattern of meekness and patience," he proceeded 
 to Coggeshall, where a Fast was proclaimed, "to 
 pray against the errors of the peojjle called 
 Quakers." Though he knew tliat bonds would 
 attend him, he was pressed in spirit to attend 
 that meeting, and defend the Truth of God. 
 " I was made willing," says he, " not only to be 
 bound, but also to suffer for the pure eternal 
 Truth, which I am made a witness of." He 
 was rudely treated, arrested, and committed to 
 the common jail at Colchester. Here he was 
 kept close until the assizes, which were held at 
 
"TEUTH WAS PREACHED IN ALL THIS." 289 
 
 Chelmsford ; to which place he was compelled 
 to walk " above twenty miles through the 
 country, fastened to a chain with felons and 
 murderers, remaining chained both day and 
 night and he himself " coupled with one 
 charged with murder." Thus, he remarks, " I 
 was led through the country for a gazing-stock 
 unto the world ; but Truth was preached in all 
 this, and prevailed on the hearts of the people ; 
 so that I could rejoice in all, and triumjih over 
 my enemies." He was tried (if such a farce, in 
 which he was not allowed to defend himself, 
 might be called a trial,) and was fined "for 
 contempt of the magistracy and ministry." He 
 was therefore taken back to his old ruinous 
 prison, "and the jailor was commanded not to 
 let any giddy-headed people (by which was 
 meant Friends) to come at him :" and so great 
 was the enmity against "this innocent lamb," 
 that the jailor's " wife, who was a wicked shrew, 
 did not only set her man to beat him, but 
 several times herself laid violent hands upon 
 him, and swore she would have his blood : she 
 also set other prisoners to take away his victuals 
 
 brought to him by his Friends," and "forced 
 T 
 
290 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 him to lie on cold damp stones." George Fox 
 says, " As I passed through Colchester, I went 
 to visit James Parnell in prison, but the cruel 
 jailor would hardly let us come in, or stay with 
 him. Very cruel they were unto him ; the 
 jailor's wife threatened to have his blood." He 
 was afterwards put into a hole in the wall, 
 much like in form to a baker's oven; twelve 
 feet from the ground, so that he went up to it 
 by a ladder, which being left too short, he was 
 obliged to climb from the ladder to the hole by 
 a rope. "Friends would have brought him a 
 cord and a basket to draw up his victuals, but 
 the inhuman jailor would not sulfer them ; but 
 forced him to go down and up by that short 
 ladder and I'ope, to fetch his victuals, (which for 
 a long time he did) or he might have famished 
 in the hole." From the dampness of the place, 
 his limbs grew benumbed, so that one time 
 having got his victuals in one hand, in climbing 
 into his hole, he fell upon the stones, " whereby 
 he was exceedingly wounded in his head, and 
 his body so bruised, that he was taken up for 
 dead." He was then put into another hole, 
 which "was called the oven," and here "he was 
 
HIS INNOCENT DEATH. 
 
 291 
 
 almost spent for breath ; and though bonds 
 were offered for his return when recovered, and 
 Tliomas Shortland otfered to "lie body for 
 body," yet all was denied. " This hard im- 
 prisonment did so weaken him, that after ten or 
 eleven months, he fell sick and died." Thomas 
 Shortland and Ann Langley were with him in 
 his last moments. He said to Tliomas, " I die 
 innocently. 1 have seen gi-eat things : don't 
 hold me, but let me go." Ann Langley said, 
 " No, dear heart, we will not hold thee." His 
 last words were — "Now, I go." He then 
 stretched himself out, and falling into a sweet 
 slee]), in about an hour he breathed his last, 
 and entered that blessed state, " where the 
 wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are 
 at rest." 
 
292 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Christopher Story — Extracts from his "Epistle 
 OF Love" — CoNCLUDiNa Remarks. 
 
 ^0'^^HRISTOPHER STORY was born at 
 jsj^^fl Righead, in Cumberland, in the 4th 
 Month, 1648, and received a good, 
 and what is termed, a polite educa- 
 tion. He lived upon his own estate, 
 which his father, who had been " an industrious 
 man in the creation," had bought, improved, 
 and left him. 
 
 In his youth, though preserved from running 
 into the excesses, and gross and crying sins, so 
 prevalent in that day ; he describes himself as 
 " drawn after the vain pastimes which are in 
 the world; as vain shooting with guns and 
 bows, and following them that played at cards." 
 For these things the Lord sorely rebuked him ; 
 and he says, " I was sensible of trouble of con- 
 
CHRISTOPHER STORY. 
 
 293 
 
 science for many days, and was consulting 
 with myself what to do, though I did not know 
 at that time of one man who judged those things 
 imlawful to be done." 
 
 As he grew up, he became more serious, and 
 was the subject of much exercise on the manner 
 of prayer, after the national form, wlaich 
 worship he continued to attend. " Prayer 
 seemed a duty,"' but he obtained no relief or 
 satisfaction from following, even in the strictest 
 way, the formalities to which he was accustomed ; 
 and so was drawn "to wait upon the Lord, to 
 feel what would open upon his mind to supplicate 
 the Lord for, but not to pray in form." Con- 
 tinuing to be diligent in " going to church," he 
 became dissatisfied with the singing, " neither 
 durst he open his mouth as others did, but sat 
 solitarily." 
 
 About this time, he went to a Meeting in his 
 neighbourhood, called by a Friend, but was "too 
 hurried in going, and too outward when there, 
 to receive much profit." Shortly after, there 
 was one which Robert Barclay attended, who 
 ".spoke the words of Truth excellently to the 
 people ;" and amongst other things which he 
 
294 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 said, and which Christopher felt he coiild have 
 
 " said Amen to," was the following : " If a man 
 
 could begin at Genesis, and repeat all tlie 
 
 Scriptures to the end of Revelations, and was not 
 
 led, and guided by a measure of that Spirit by 
 
 which the Scrii^tures were given forth, it would 
 
 avail liim nothing." 
 
 Robert Barclay soon departed after the Meeting 
 
 was over, and Christopher was disappointed in 
 
 not being able to have some dispute with him. 
 
 "But," says he, "some Friends perceiving that 
 
 I was forwai'd in discourse, cast themselves in 
 
 my way ; and a young priest that had been at 
 
 the Meeting took part with me ; and in the 
 
 hearing of many, we discoursed about many 
 
 things ; but I clearly saw that Friends were too 
 
 hard for us, though I would not acknowledge 
 
 it ; and I put on a resolution I would never 
 
 more dispute publicly with Friends." He then 
 
 read a book, written by Francis Howgill, which 
 
 had the effect of drawing him nearer to Friends. 
 
 The next Meeting he attended was one held by 
 
 Thomas Langhorn and Thomas Carleton ; the 
 
 latter of whom Christopher Story describes, as 
 
 " one of a sweet countenance, and who spake 
 % 
 
A MEETING SETTLED IN HIS HOUSE. 295 
 
 concerning the Spirit of Truth being come, that 
 convinceth the woi'ld of sin, and which being 
 taken heed unto, would lead out of sin." These 
 Friends he invited to his house, which caused 
 a report soon to spread, that he was turned 
 Quaker. Many neighbours came in "to hear 
 and see," during the evening, of which the 
 Friends took advantage, had a Meeting, and 
 cleared up many things to their satisfaction, and 
 many were convinced. Christopher Story, with 
 others, accompanied these truly gospel-laboui'ers 
 to Carlisle the next morning, and having parted 
 with them, returned home, saying to one anothei', 
 " If there be saints upon earth, those men are 
 two of them." 
 
 Amongst this interesting company was 
 " Christopher Tayloi', who, with his wife and 
 his brothel- Andrew, also received the Ti-uth in 
 the love of it, became worthy Friends, and died 
 in the faith." After a little time, others were 
 convinced, and this little company sat down 
 "to wait upon the Lord, though there were 
 none to speak words." The Meeting was settled 
 in the year 1672, at Christopher Stoiy's house. 
 In these gatherings they were owned by their 
 
296 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 Heavenly Father; wonderfully comforted in 
 spirit, experiencing a renewal of strength from 
 a sense of the Lord's nearness. On this wise 
 theii' Meetings were kept for some years out of 
 doors, when a "public Friend" was amongst 
 them, as many others then came ; and in an upper 
 room when alone. Persecution raged for a few 
 years, and the steadfastness and faithfulness of 
 those who patiently bore it for Christ's sake, 
 witnessing a good confession, was a means of 
 adding to their number. They " could not pay 
 Tithes, lest they should thereby deny the coming 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, whose 
 coming put an end to the priesthood who 
 received tithes :" and not only were they led 
 out of gross evils, but in common with those 
 scattered about the countiy, who singly and 
 fully followed the Lord, were led out of many 
 customs and fashions that are in the world. 
 
 Their Meetings, unless visited by a Friend 
 travelling in the ministry, continued to be held 
 in unbroken silence about 'five years, at which 
 time Chi-istopher Story appears as a Minister 
 amongst them, and in the neighbouring Meetings 
 which he felt drawn to visit. His first religious 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE YEARLY MEETING. 297 
 
 visit of any extent, was in company with 
 Edmund Winn, to Scotland. At Aberdeen, 
 they found " the greatest part of men Friends 
 in prison, Avhere they had been about two years, 
 and amongst them was Patrick Livingstone." 
 
 On his retum from Scotland, he attended the 
 Yearly Meeting in London ; which was a glori- 
 ous Meeting to him, and many more, " who were 
 wet -with the dew from Heaven ; and that which 
 was so confirming, was to see the aged and the 
 ymmg keep their filaces in humility ; and so 
 endued with Heavenly wisdom, that nothing 
 which tended to strife and contention could 
 appear Avithout rebuke, in order that love, 
 unity, and concord, might be maintained in the 
 church of Christ." On his retum from London, 
 he visited several Meetings; being fined £20 
 during his absence, for a Meeting held in his 
 OAvn house. 
 
 The following extracts from " The account of 
 the life, convincement, sufferings, labours and 
 travels of that faithful elder, and minister of 
 Jesus Christ, Christopher Story," may be in- 
 teresting to you, as shewing the state of things 
 in those early times. 
 
298 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the endeavours of our 
 persecutors, yet Truth prosj^ered ; and there 
 "were many added to the chiirch, insomuch that 
 our dwelling houses were too small to keep our 
 Meetings in ; so we saw it needful to build a 
 Meeting-house, and purchased wood for that 
 purpose ; but the Priest, with some others, 
 petitioned the bench of J ustices at the Sessions, 
 not to permit us to build a Meeting-house, for 
 they alleged, if we built a new Chapel, they 
 might pull down the old Church ; for by this 
 time peo2)le's eyes were so much opened, that 
 though the parish was five miles in length, yet 
 sometimes, not above five, besides the Priest 
 and Clerk, were there. Three Clerks were 
 convinced, one after another, and came among 
 Friends ; though one of them fell short ; yet, 
 however, he would never be Clerk again ; and 
 when one of them told the Priest he could not 
 say ' Amen ' to him, for he saw the Priest him- 
 self was short, the Priest rej)lied, he might say 
 'amend;' but all would not do so, so he left 
 him." The Sessions wi-ote to the party of whom 
 Friends had purchased the wood for their 
 Meeting-house, who was himself called a Justice, 
 
TRAVELS IN THE MINISTRY. 299 
 
 not to let Friends have the wood ; nor did he, 
 nor would he return their money ; and " wood 
 being in great men's hands," they could not ob- 
 tain any for money ; and were at length driven 
 to Scotland to buy wood, "and biiilt a house 
 that would hold one-third more than they were ; 
 but in a few years it came to be filled." 
 
 In the year 1 687, Christopher Story visited, 
 in gospel-love, his brethren in Ireland, after 
 which, in 1689, he joined with John Bowstead, 
 and travelled through Lancashire, Cheshire, 
 StafFoi"dshire, Gloucestershire, &c., to Bristol ; 
 and being clear of that city, through Wilts, 
 Berks, &c., to London, taking most Meetings on 
 their way; and so to Birmingham, &c., where 
 they parted ; John Bowstead for Wales, and 
 Christopher to his home. 
 
 In 1691, he again left home, and accompanied 
 by Thomas Blaii", re-visited Scotland. During 
 this visit, he felt drawn towards a few who 
 professed with Friends in Glasgow, where there 
 was no settled Meeting at this date. Here the 
 Friends met with cruel treatment, and were 
 " stoned out of the town with great severity." 
 They afterwards put forth a j)aper, headed, " A 
 
300 THE "friend" in his family. 
 
 Looking Glass for the Inhabitants of the Town 
 of Glasgow," in which their reason for visiting 
 that place was given, their cruel reception 
 stated, and theii- desii-e expressed that it may 
 not be laid to their charge. After this, several 
 united with the three or four Friends of that 
 place, and a Meeting was settled. 
 ■ With Andi-ew Taylor, he visited most counties 
 in England in 1695. Living so near the borders 
 of that country, Christopher Story was often in 
 Scotland, where, and at divers places in England, 
 they met with hard usage. 
 
 It appears that he was married before his 
 convincement, and that his wife became a 
 valuable Friend. She accompanied him in his 
 religioiis visit to Scotland, in 1698. 
 
 As I mentioned some of the circumstances 
 i connected with the erection of the Meeting 
 house, its enlargement at a subsequent date may 
 be just noticed. " The number of Friends," 
 says Christopher Story, " increasing, many 
 being convinced, and Friends growing up, our 
 Meeting-house at Sykeside grew too little to 
 contain us, and in the year 1699, it being about 
 twenty-seven years since om- Meeting was first 
 
"MY CHILDREN WALK IN THE TRUTH." 301 
 
 settled, we enlarged the meeting-house, which is 
 supposed to contain about three hundred, and 
 is generally well filled ; many of our cliihlren 
 growing up in the Truth, and being zealous for 
 the God of their fathers." 
 
 In the year 1701, Christopher Story was 
 again drawn towards his friends in Ireland, 
 and visited most of the Meetings in that country, 
 when he, and his companions distributed " many 
 books relating to Truth's principles." 
 
 We know but little of his labours after this 
 time, as his own narrative which concludes at 
 this date, is evidently designed to show " the 
 breaking out, and spread of Truth in those 
 parts," rather than to record his own labours, 
 especially at a later period. 
 
 His Friends stated of him, that " his gift in 
 the ministry was not only plain, but powerful 
 and edifying, and often fell upon the heritage of 
 God, as a sweet shower upon tender grass ;" that 
 he was " one of the first raised up iu tliat 
 sendee, iu that pai t of the country, and that 
 many were the witnesses of his great diligence 
 and application, in the strengthening, encourag- 
 ing, and confirming of the churches in that 
 
302 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. . 
 
 county, where his service was truly gi'eat, and 
 among whom he was honourably esteemed, 
 being as a tender father and faithful watchman 
 over the flock of Ckrist, that nothing might 
 get in among, or prevail over them, that might 
 prove hui'tful, and liLader the work of regener- 
 ation." As old age came upon him, his zeal 
 and fervency were not lessened, which was 
 demonstrated by the living freshness that at- 
 tended his ministry, and his continued con.stancy 
 in attending Meetings even when under very 
 great bodily weakness. He died in great peace, 
 on the 6th of the 11th Month, 1720, aged about j 
 72 years ; a minister about 43 years. j 
 
 Christopher Story, as you will have obsei-ved, j 
 lived at a somewhat later period than most of 
 those Friends of whom I have spoken on these 
 occasions. The heat of persecution had ceased, 
 and given way for trial of a different description. 
 C. Story addi-essed an "Epistle of Love and Good 
 Advice to the people of the Lord everywhere," 
 from which I propose to read a short extract, 
 because it points to those dangers to which also 
 we are exposed in the present day. 
 
EXTRACT FROM HIS "EPISTLE OF LOVE." 303 
 
 "And now, my dear Friends, in this time of 
 rai'e and outward liberty, whicli the Lord's 
 faitliful people greatly prize, as a mercy from 
 the Lord's bountiful hand, beware of the enemy 
 of the soul that lies near, to draw the minds of 
 men and women to love the world ; for whoso- 
 1 ever loveth the world, the love of the Father 
 ; is not in him. And this unwearied adversary, 
 whose transformings are great, would come in 
 under pretence of being a friend, but in the 
 light of the Lord is seen to be a devoiu-ing 
 enemy; not leading at first into open profane- 
 ness, for many are dead to the gi-oss evils 
 that are in the world ; but rather into that 
 earthly-mindedness, where little fruit is brought 
 forth that is well-pleasing unto the Lord. 
 Ought not all to pray, as their flight hath not 
 been in the winter, that it may not be on the 
 sabbath-day; for many are called, but few 
 are chosen. And as the Lord in His mercy hath 
 freed us of many burdens, our elder brethren 
 bore in the heat of the day, the memorial of 
 whom is sweet unto the living, who gave theii- 
 cheek to the smiter, and theii- head to him that 
 pulled off the hair ; and who could not call that 
 
304 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 their own on the mon-ow which they enjoyed 
 to-day, whose innocent sufferings made deep 
 impressions upon many people, and so largely 
 manifested their love to God and contempt of 
 the world, that many came to see, though the 
 Lord's people were diligent in labouring in the 
 outward creation, that they might not be 
 chargeable to others, yet they were willing to 
 give up their all when called thereunto, to suffer 
 for His name's sake ; and here their light sliiued 
 to the admii'ation of many, that great is 
 become the gathering of the Lord's people, who 
 through many tribulations, enter the kingdom, 
 and whose care is to lay up durable riches. 
 And oh, that it may now be the care of all such, 
 who may not be called upon to give up their all, 
 and to manifest their love to God, and contempt 
 of the world, by suffering for His name's sake, 
 to be found in the doing part, that there may be 
 a delight in doing good, and shewing mercy, and 
 that saying be fulfilled, ' If thine enemy hunger, 
 feed him, if he thirst, give him drink.' Here 
 it will be manifest, who they are who love their 
 enemies ; and such must of necessity love one 
 another, as God, for Christ's sake, hath loved us. 
 
"to the people of the loed, everywhere." 305 
 
 " And, dear Friends, it is our contempt of the 
 world tliat makes fruitful, as we abide in the 
 Heavenly Vine ; and no doubt, if there be such 
 a true care as there ought to be, to shew forth 
 the Lord's praise who hath called us to glory 
 and virtue, the Lord will open the eyes of 
 many to see our love to God, and contempt of 
 the world, in this calm time, that they shall 
 say, these people are diligent and laborious in 
 all theii' undertakings, yet they exceed many of 
 then- equals iu hospitality, in dispersing abroad 
 aud giving to the poor ; which, being done in a 
 right mind, always was, and still is, a good 
 work, being done so that the end of those that 
 do it, be not to be seen of men, for if so, such 
 have their reward ; but if done so that the left 
 hand may not know what the right hand doeth, 
 the Lord who seeth in secret, will reward such 
 openly. 
 
 " And now, my dearly beloved Friends, unto 
 
 whom the Lord hath given gifts, and who are 
 
 become planters and waterers in His holy hand, 
 
 whose service is great in the churcla, to the 
 
 bringing of many from far, nearer unto the 
 
 Lord ; that such may do their day's work faith- 
 u 
 
306 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 fully, that there may not be a coming short of 
 the crown in the end, is the weighty concern 
 that ought to remain on the minds of us all, 
 and that there may be a readiness, and a 
 willingness at aU times to answer the Lord's 
 requirings, and to shew forth a good example 
 unto all, in keeping clear of those unnecessary 
 entanglements of this life, that might hurt their 
 service in the church, remembering the saying 
 of the wise Apostle, ' No man that warreth, 
 entangleth himself with the aifairs of this life,' 
 but rather with him conclude, when writing to 
 Timothy, ' For we brought nothing into this 
 world, and it is certain we can carry nothing 
 out ; having food and raiment, let us be there- 
 with content.' Signifying also how 'the love 
 of money is the root of all evil; which, while 
 some men coveted after, they have erred from 
 the faith, and pierced themselves through with 
 many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee 
 these things, and follow after righteousness, 
 godliness, faith, love, meekness,' charging him 
 ' in the sight of God, and before Jesus Christ, 
 to keep this commandment Avithout spot, unre- 
 bukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
 
CONCLUDING KEMABKS. 307 
 
 Ckrist;' who is the blessed and only potentate, 
 the King of kings, and Lord of lords, to whom 
 be honour, and power everlasting. Amen." 
 
 It is to be feared that what persecution and 
 rough usage cotdd not do, the love and friend- 
 ship of the world, and the entanglements of 
 this life, have in some measure accomplished. 
 " The KISSES of an enemy," says the wise man, 
 "are deceitful." These are the dangers to 
 which we are exposed ; and great watchfulness 
 is required on our parts, lest by " the deceitful- 
 ness" of these things, "our minds be corrupted 
 from the simpKcity that is in Christ." The 
 enemy is ever active and vigilant. Growth 
 and decay are gradual processes ; and we have 
 need of watching unto prayer, that "no man 
 beguile" us, and that being ourselves " Strong 
 in the Lord," and " Steadfast in the Faith," we 
 may be enabled to " strengthen the things that 
 remain." For the various testimonies of which 
 I have spoken, are, we are well persuaded, 
 "according to the will," and part of "the whole 
 counsel of God." If we are favom-ed indi- 
 vidually to apprehend these testimonies, as 
 
308 THE " FRIEND " IN HIS FAMILY. 
 
 precious truths committed to our faithfol up- 
 holding by our Heavenly Father, we shall not 
 be indifferent to them ; and next to a personal 
 "full assurance of faith" in Chi-ist Jesus, cm" 
 Lord, I desire this may be your experience. 
 
 I have endeavoured on these occasions to set 
 some of these testimonies before you. Much 
 that I have said has probably not been new to 
 you, but we requii-e "line upon line, precept 
 upon precept, here a little, and there a little;" 
 and where I have been able to do so, I have 
 prefen-ed qiioting the words of others, often at 
 additional trouble to myself, that you might 
 have a better authority than mine. It has been 
 veiy interesting to me, to collate and compare 
 the accounts we have of the lives of some of 
 our early Friends ; to see how modestly they 
 speak of themselves, how, in honour they pre- 
 ferred one another, and in aU things gave God 
 the glory. I am veiy sensible how imperfectly 
 the various Subjects, as well as Biographies have 
 been treated ; but as I mentioned at starting, 
 all I could hope to do would be to sketch outlines, 
 and I trust you wUl fill up the pictures for 
 yourselves, from the fuller details which a 
 
"WHOSE FAITH FOLLOW." 309 
 
 Friend's library furnishes. Princij^les and Bio- 
 gi-apliies are, I think, appropriately combined ; 
 for of what value are Biogi-aphies, but as they 
 exhibit principles ; and Principles, but as they 
 are carried out in our lives ? 
 
 The great lessons of the lives of our prede- 
 cessors in religious profession, are, an Implicit 
 Reliance on the Divine Guidance, and a Faith- 
 fulness to Individual convictions of Duty. If 
 we witness a return of primitive jnirity and 
 zeal, it will be, through individual submission to 
 the teaching of the Holy Spirit, individual 
 dedication and faithfulness. May we, each one, 
 mind our own calling, and do our own work, 
 " according to the will of God." We have but 
 One Perfect Example. The disciples, who have 
 gone before, are indeed " a cloud of witnesses ; " 
 but we " look unto Jesus, the Aiithor and 
 Finisher of our Faith and follow the disciples 
 only, as they followed their Lord; "Both 
 Theirs and Ours." 
 
 "Whose FAITH follow; consideking the end 
 
 OF THEIR CONVEESATION, JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME 
 YESTERDAY, AST) TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER." 
 
BARCHAM, MACHINE PRINTER, READING. 
 
(by the same author.) 
 
 '4 ' 
 
 mtm 
 
 OF TRACTS. 
 
 ECCL. XI. 
 
 1 Cast thy bread 
 upon the waters. 
 
 6 In the morn- 
 ing sow thy seed, 
 and in the even- 
 ing withhold not 
 thine hand ; for 
 thou knowest 
 notwhether shall 
 prosper, either 
 this or that, or 
 whether they 
 both shall be 
 alike good. 
 
 
 
 
 
 EccL. xii. 
 
 10 "Acceptable 
 
 1 
 
 1 words ; and that 
 
 
 ■ which was writ- 
 
 
 ten was upright. 
 
 
 ' even words of 
 
 Kj 
 
 truth. 
 
 
 n " The words 
 
 
 of the wise are 
 
 1 
 
 as goads, and as 
 
 
 nails fastened by 
 
 
 ' the masters of as- 
 
 
 semblies, which 
 
 mm 
 
 ' are given from 
 
 
 j one shepherd." 
 
 Cjmfin ij^i i| 
 
 
 
 1. The Prodigal's Beturn. 
 
 2. The Thief on the Cross. 
 
 3. The Throne and the Cloud. 
 
 4. The Bad Bargain. 
 
 5. The True Satisfaction. 
 
 6. The Fight of Faith. 
 
 7. The Great Salvation. 
 
 8. The liord's Prayer. 
 
 Price 1/4 per Hundred; Free hj Post 1/G; 
 12/- per Thousand; 
 
 OF THE PUBLISHER, 
 THOMAS BARCHAM, PRINTER, READING. 
 
 [Over. 
 
THE "OPEN bible" SERIES OF TRACTS. 
 
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 four pages each, and are well adapted for the widest 
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 on the great truths of practical religion. They are 
 written by a Friend ; and, tliough earnest and lively, 
 are, so far as our observation has gone, sound both in 
 doctrine and language." — The " Friend." 
 
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 deserving the largest circidation. Those of our readers 
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