caufe thou haft fhed much blood upon the earth in my fight." Chron. xxii. 8.

The fame fentiment, concerning fpilling of blood, feems alfo to have been entertained even among the heathens; for whereas divers of the fathers held fighting unlawful to Chriftians, particularly Juftin Martyr, Tertullian and Origen; the laft of thefe in his anfwer to Celfus upon thisubject, fpeaks thus, Your own priests and those who belong to your temples, keep their hands from being defiled with blood, by reafon of the facrifices they muft offer, with unbloody and unpolluted hands, to thofe you efteem your gods; and when ye go to war, ye never take of the priestly order for foldiers.'

If then ye heathens faw thus far, furely we by the help of gofpel-light fhould fee farther: for my part I do not fee how the method of determining controverfies by fighting is reconcileable to reafon; for furely the righteous caufe is not always a neceffary concomitant of the longest sword; and much lefs do I fee how the reparation of injuries received is, by this method, reconcileable to the following fublime precepts, recommended to the practice of all Chriftians, viz. See that none render evil for evil to any man, and overcome evil with good, and love your enemies, blefs them that curfe you, &c. that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.' i Theff. V. 15. Rom. xii. 21. Mat. v. 44, 45.

From all which I conclude, that wars and fightings are an effect of the corruption of mankind, another ftrong inftance of the deficiency of the reformation, and fhall entirely ceafe among Chriftians, when they fhall arrive at that ftandard of purity and perfection which is prefcribed to them in the gospel.

I have now but one thing more to take notice of, before I conclude this my introduction to the History of the People called Quakers, and that is the difpofition of the age at that juncture of time, when this

people made their first appearance in the world, as being one confiderable co-operating means of making way for the reception of their doctrines.

The true church,' in the words of William Penn, having fled into the wildernefs, did at length make many attempts to return, but the waters had yet been too high and her way blocked up, and the laft age did make confiderable advances to a reformation both as to doctrine, worship, and practice. Bet practice quickly failed, for in a little time wickednes flowed in as well among the reformers as thofe they reformed from, fo that by the fruits of converfation they were not to be diftinguifhed. And the children of the reformers, if not the reformers themfelves, betook themselves very early to earthly policy and power to uphold and carry on their reformation that had begun by fpiritual weapons, which feems to have been one of the greatest reasons why the reformation made no better progrefs, as to the life and foul of religion. For whilst the reformers were lowly and fpiritually minded, and trufted in God, and looked to him, and lived in his fear, and confulted not with flesh and blood, nor fought deliverance in their own way, there were daily added to the church fuch as. one might reasonably fay fhould be faved: for they were not fo careful to be fafe from perfecution, as to be faithful and inoffenfive under it, being more con. cerned to spread the Truth by their faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the worldly power out of their hands that inflicted thofe fufferings upon them.

• Those before mentioned, owned the fpirit, infpiration and revelation indeed, and grounded their feparation and reformation upon the fenfe and underftanding they received from it in reading the Scriptures. But yet there was too much of human invention, tradition and art that remained both in praying

Rife and Progrefs of the People called Quakers,

and preaching, and of worldly authority and worldly greatnefs in their minifters.-They were more strict in preaching, devout in praying, and zealous for keeping the Lord's day, and catechizing of children. and fervants, and repeating at home in their families what they had heard in public. But even as these grew into power, they were not only for whipping fome out, but others into the temple: and they appeared rigid in their fpirits, rather than fevere in their lives, and more for a party than for piety: which brought forth another people, that were yet more

retired and felect.

They would not communicate at large, or in common with others; but formed churches among themselves of fuch as could give fome account of their converfion; at least, of very promifing experi ences of the work of God's grace upon their hearts; and under mutual agreements and covenants of fellowfhip, they kept together. These people were fomewhat of a fofter temper, and feemed to recommend religion by the charms of its love, mercy, and goodness, rather than by the terrors of its judgments and punishment; by which the former party would have awed people into religion.

They alfo allowed greater liberty to prophecy than those before them; for they admitted any member to speak or pray, as well as their pastor, whom they always chofe, and not the civil magistrate. If fuch found any thing preffing upon them to either duty, even without the diftinction of clergy or laity, perfons of any trade had their liberty, be it never fo low and mechanical. But alas! even thefe people fuffered great lofs: for tafting of worldly empire, and the favour of princes, and the gain that enfued, they degenerated but too much. For though they had cried down national churches and miniftry, and maintenance too; some of them, when it was their own turn to be tried, fell under the weight of worldly

honour and advantage, got into profitable parfonages too much, and outlived and contradicted their own principles and, which was yet worse, turned, fome of them, abfolute perfecutors of other men for God's fake, that but fo lately came themselves out of the furnace which drove many a step farther, and that was into the water; another baptifm, as believing they were not fcripturally baptized; and hoping to find that prefence and power of God in fubmitting to this watery ordinance, which they defired and wanted.

These people made alfo profeffion of neglecting, if not renouncing and cenfuring, not only the neceffity but use of all human learning as to the miniftry; and all other qualifications to it, befides the helps and gifts of the Spirit of God, and thofe natural and common to men. And for a time they feemed like John of old, a burning and a fhining light to other focieties.

They were very diligent, plain, and ferious; ftrong in Scripture, and bold in profeffion; bearing much reproach and contradiction. But that which others fell by, proved their fnare. For worldly power spoiled them too; who had enough of it to try them what they would do if they had more: and they refted alfo too much upon their watery difpenfation, instead of paffing on more fully to that of the fire and Holy Ghoft, which was his baptifm, who came with a fan in his hand, that he might throughly (and not in part only) purge his floor, and take away the drofs and the tin of his people, and make a man finer than gold. Withal, they grew high, rough, and felf-righteous; oppofing further attainment: too much forgetting the day of their infancy and littlenefs, which gave then fomething of a rea beauty; infomuch that many left them and all vifible churches and focieties, and wandered up and down, as sheep without a fhepherd, and as doves without their

mates; feeking their beloved, but could not find him (as their fouls defired to know him) whom their foul loved above their chiefeft joy.

These people were called Seekers by fome, and the Family of Love by others: becaufe, as they came to the knowledge of one another, they fometimes met together, not formally, to pray or preach at appointed times or places, in their own wills, as in times paft they were accustomed to do; but waited together in filence, and as any thing rofe, in any one of their minds, that they thought favoured of a Divine fpring, they fometimes fpoke. But, fo it was, that fome of them not keeping in humility and in the fear of God, after the abundance of revelation, werc exalted above meafure; and for want of ftaying their minds, in an humble dependance upon him that opened their understandings, to fee great things in his law, they ran out in their own imaginations, and mixing them with thofe Divine openings, brought forth a monftrous birth, to the scandal of those that feared God, and waited daily in the temple, not made with hands, for the confolation of Ifrael, the Jew inward, and circumcifion in Spirit.'

.

Thus it appears that the fields were now ripe unto the harveft; and as the fame author proceeds, "It' was about that yery time, as you may fee in the annals of George Fox, that the eternal, wife, and good God was pleased, in his infinite love to honour and vifit this benighted and bewildered nation with his glorious day-fpring from on high; yea with a moft fure and certain found of the word of light and life, through the teftimony of a chofen veffel, to an effectual and

*

i.e. George Fox, whofe character is thus given us by William Penn and Thomas Ellwood, from an intimate acquaintance and converfation with him, viz. He was the firft and chief elder in this age; a man though not of elegant fpeech or learned after the way of this world, yet endued with a wonderful depth in Divine knowledge; and although his expreffions might feem uncouth and unfashionable to nice ears, his matter was nevertheless very profound; and as abruptly and brokenly as fometimes his fentences about Divine things would feem to fall from him, it is well known they