i i t JAMES THORNTON. | * I Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/narrativeexposit00wilb_1 SEP 20 1919 NARRATIVE AND EXPOSITIoSp^ OF THE LATE PROCEEDINGS OF NEW-ENGLAND YEARLY MEETING, WITH SOME OF ITS SUBORDINATE MEETINGS & THEIR COMMITTEES, IN RELATION TO THE DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSY NOW EXISTING IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS I PREFACED BY A CONCISE VIEW OF THE CHURCH, SHOWING THE OCCASION OF ITS APOSTACY, BOTH UNDER THE FORMER AND PRESENT DISPENSATIONS. WITH AN APPENDIX. EDITED FROM RECORDS KEPT, FROM TIME TO TIME, OP THOSE PROCEEDINGS, AND INTERSPERSED WITH OCCASIONAL REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS. Addressed to the Members of the said Yearly Meeting. BY JOHN 'WILBUR. " For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteous- ness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment dehvered unto them."— 2 Peter ii. 21. *' Men talk as if we ought to speak leniently of the faults of a man who de- lights us by his genius or his talents. This precisely is the man whose faults we should be prompt to mark, because he is the man whose faults are the most seducing to the world."— Dymond, 186-7. NE W-YORK: PIERCY & REED, PRINTERS, IX SPRUCE STREET 1 8 45. PREFACE. Inasmuch as our first parents, as individuals, were subject, through the wiles of the enemy, to a depar- ture from the purity of the condition in -which they were created, so it will be admitted by all true be- lievers, who have been conversant with sacred and profane history, that throughout every generation of their descendants, men have been liable, through the same beguiling influence, to fall from a better to a worse condition. Hence it follows, that as all religious associations are made up of individuals, that all such bodies of men are exposed to the same danger of a declension ; and for this reason it undoubtedly was, that the Lord God of Israel, through his servants Moses and Joshua, labored abundantly with his chosen people in exhort- ing them to a continuance of fidelity and obedience, in the keeping of his covenant with them, and commands to them — warning them against a lapsed condition, and assuring them of his judgments and indignation that must surely follow a dej^arture from his commands. And thus we see that their future safety and preser- vation, consisted not in his having once chosen them 4 PREFACE. from amongst all the families of the earth with whom to place his name, but in their continuing to keep a single eye to the pattern which he had showed them in the mount. He had done wonders for them in delivering them from bondage, — he had brought them out with a high hand and an out-stretched arm, and had established his covenant with them as his peculiar church and people, and therefore required faithfulness at their hands, answerable to the favours which he had bestowed upon them. He had required them to love him, and to do jus- tice, righteousness and judgment in all things, through- out their generations — to abstain from idolatry, and from all the evils against which he had warned them : he had prohibited them from mixing with the surround- ing nations in their ways and manners of devotion — to come out from among them, and to be separate from them. Notwithstanding some of those nations believed in the same God in whom they believed, and held and practised some rites in common with them, and coin- cided with certain things which he had commanded them, such as their altars, their sacrifices, and their priest's services in offering upon them — rites which had been handed down fVom the first ages of time; figurative and prophetic of that most acceptable sacrifice of the Saviour of men, for the blotting out of the sins of all men, on condition of true repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, as the practices of those nations were in many essential points diverse and not according to the cove- nant which he had made with his Israel, and tended to PREFACE. 5 idolatry and the serving of other gods ; his people were therefore strictly forbidden to mingle with them ; not because there were no sincere people among those nations, but because their ways were not in accordance with the pattern shown to Israel in the mount. We find by following the history of this once favored and chosen people, and beholding, as we do, their gross departure from God's covenant, abundant evi- dence to show the necessity there was of warning them in the outset against an apostacy, and no less of his mercy in continuing from age to age to send his prophets and messengers unto them, to testify against the forsaking of his law, lest his statutes should be altogether disre- garded and trodden down by them. But, alas ! how many sufferings, reproaches and persecutions these his messengers had to endure, from the hands of those who had departed from the Lord's testimonies, because of their faithfulness to him. On the other hand, how many of those called prophets were induced by bribery, were lured by the love, and driven by the fear of man, to prophecy smooth things — to flatter those in power, and to cry peace, peace ! when there was no peace. How many and unsparing were the gifts and honors bestowed upon men by those in power, for the strengthening of their own hands in iniquity, and for working devices against the Lord and his faithful servants ! But blessed be the Lord, a faithful remnant there was, (among the many hundreds that were called pro- phets,) who feared the Lord, that could neither be bought nor driven to forego the word of the Lord, nor to baulk his testimonies to please men. But an apostacy had so prevailed over the rulers of Israel in 6 PREFACE. that day, that many of the prophets were persecuted and slain for their constancy and faithfulness to their Lord and Master. The rulers of the people had be- come so lost to all that was good, that they took light for darkness, and darkness for light, and so persecuted the Lord's true messengers. But a reformation — a better day and a better cove- nant was seen to be coming, and was foretold by those persecuted messengers. And however long the dark- ness of that apostacy prevailed — however long the com- ing of a better day was protracted, it was not deferred until human nature had ceased to be human nature in the fall — a condition from which the Gospel power is only able ever to redeem ; but this redemption is effected only upon the condition oi faith and ohediencef so essential under the former dispensation, and without which fallen nature has been the same in every age, is abundantly evinced by the grievous lapse which has befallen the church under both covenants. Thus we see, however better the day, that without the obedience of faith, fallen nature, or the natural man, is the same, and no better under this than under the former dispensation. And those who are favored with the New Testament, and do not live in conformi- ty with its precepts, and come to experience the power of that religion which it inculcates, are even more reprehensible than those under the former covenant ; of whom many, with less outward advantage, came to witness in an eminent degree, that which was then, as now, the power of God unto salvation. By the events which have transpired, it would seem that the same liability of departing from the law of the Lord which existed in the Jewish Church, exists in the PREFACE. 7 Christian Church, and that individuals, as well as bodies of Christians, are as liable to degenerate through dis- obedience and unfaithfulness to the commands of Christ, as were those under the former covenant ; in- asmuch as the temptations of the old enemy are as artfully directed against the Chrstian as against the Jewish Church, and only detected by abiding in Him who is the Light of the world, and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The lapse of the Lord's people, under the former covenant, is strikingly observable in the lamentation over them : *'Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed : how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me 1 " — Jer. ii. 21. But to mark the consummation of the declension and final apostacy of the Jewish Church, we must refer to the time when Jesus Christ came into the world, and call to mind the great enmity and bitterness which the whole sanhedrim and rulers of that body betrayed ; their madness against Him and His doctrines, His ministry and mighty works. They denied Him and his mission, although Moses, in whom they trusted, had spoken so plainly of him, — they made and spread abroad among the people, all manner of false reports and wicked accusations against him ; and made a decree that any one who confessed him to be the Christ should be put out of the syna- gogue ; and their influence and the fear of them, — the bribery, the friendship and other means to which they resorted, succeeded to an astonishing degree in bringing the Saviour of men into great disrepute among the people ; and even made the Jewish nation 8 PREFACE. generally believe him to be a deceiver, a dangerous person, and a disturber of the peace, and that there- fore he ought to be put to death. Finally, they bribed Judas Iscariot to betray him into their hands ; and in that great concourse which was assembled at his trial before Pilate, (where only two of his disciples dared to come,) there was not so much as one who raised his voice against his being put to death. By these high professors he was put to death — under great pretensions, and professions of religion, and a zeal for the support of the law and covenant which God had ordained to them as a people ; making great boasts of their ancestors, and of being the children of Abraham, whilst they were doing the works of their father, the devil, and were his children. We are assured that eleven out of the twelve of his Apostles, and many others who stood faithful to His Gospel, suffered the like from their cruel hands. With these wicked rulers, the chief Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the learned Rabbis, termin- ated the Jewish dispensation. When the spirit of this world rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, whatever they profess as to religion, or whether they make no profession at all ; whether priests or levites, scribes or pharisees, or mere men of the world, it matters not, if destitute of the spirit and love of God, they persecute the Saviour of men, and his disciples the children of light : for there is an enmity existing between the spirit of the world and the spirit of God — the flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh — consequent- PREFACE. 9 ly the children of this world war against the children of God. It was, by that spirit of this world and of darkness which rebels against the light, that Christ and his fol- lowers were persecuted and put to death, by the Jews first, and also by the Gentiles : for ^his religion truly was, to the high professing Jews, a stumbling block, and to the wisdom of the Greeks foolishness ; because the darkness which was in them, could not compre- hend it. But after the Jewish nation was dispersed, the Christian church continued to grow and increase greatly, although her sons were persecuted and slain in large numbers by the heathen nations : and death — to them welcome death — was almost continually in- flicted by the hand of man, and became to them the happy passport to an entrance into the fruition of light, and the realms of eternal glory with Him, for whose cause they had dared to die. Thus the tribulations of those who were loyal to their Lord, whose mission to this lower world was made perfect through sufferings, were sanctified and productive of a crown of life ; whilst those who were not faithful unto death, through the fear of man or love of the world, were cast off forever and denied the tree of life. What a glorious pattern, therefore, were the early Christians in suffering for the name of Him who had given the example before them ; and to which example has been added these precepts — that it is enough for the servant to be as his Master, and the disciple as his Lord. Fear not them that kill the body, and have no more that they can do ; but I v^rill forewarn you whom 10 PREFACE. ye ought to fear, &c. ; for to those who know God, and the Will of God, his fear surpasses the fear of man. What shame and blushing, therefore, ought modern professors to take to themselves, flinching as they do, when their sufferings, whether by the hand of false brethren, or from the world, are so entirely incompara- ble with the sufferings of Christ and his early followers. But in process of time the Head of the Church was pleased to say it is enough, and saw meet to prove his people by the reverse of personal suffering ; then per- secution ceased, and ease and luxury succeeded ; a soil in which the life and power of religion was less prolific : and a t7'iLst and reliance on the Divine support was gradually less apparent, the love and friendship of the world began to take root in too many of the influ- ential members of the Church ; a plant which could not so well flourish under persecuti he boldly charges their views of Scripture passages with " error and heresy" — with aiding that tremendous proce