spoil and ruin which now attendeth and threateneth many hundreds of families, by the execution of laws, that (we humbly conceive) were never made against us.'

His second speech to the Committee.

'THE candid hearing our sufferings have received from this committee, and the fair and easy entertainment that you have given us, obligeth me to add whatever can encrease your satisfaction about us. I hope you do not believe I would tell you a lie; I am sure I should chuse an ill time and place to tell it in; but I thank God it is too late in the day for that. There are some here that have known me formerly; I believe they will say, I never was that man; and it would be hard, if after a voluntary neglect of the advantages of this world, I should sit down in my retirement short of common truth.

'Excuse the length of my introduction; it is for this I make it. I was bred a Protestant, and that strictly too: I lost nothing by time or study; for years, reading, travel and observation, made the religion of my education the religion of my judgment: my alteration hath brought none to that belief; and though the posture I am in may seem odd, or strange to you, yet I am conscientious; and (till you know me better) I hope your charity will rather call it my unhappiness than my crime. I do tell you again, and here solemnly declare in the presence of Almighty God, and before you all, that the profession I now make, and the society I now adhere to, have been so far from altering that Protestant judgment I had, that I am not conscious to myself of having receded from an iota of any one principle maintained by those first Protestants and reformers of Germany, and our own martyrs at home, against the Pope and see of Rome.

On the contrary, I do with great truth assure you, that we are of the same negative faith with the ancient Protestant Church, and upon occasion shall be ready (by God's assistance) to make it appear, that we are of the same belief as to the most fundamental positive articles of her creed too. And therefore it is we think it hard, that though we deny, in common with her, those doctrines of Rome so zealously protested against (from whence the name Protestants) yet that we should be so unhappy as to suffer, and that with extreme severity, by those very laws on purpose made against the maintainers of those doctrines we do so deny. We chuse no suffering, for God knows what we have already suffered, and how many sufficient and trading families are reduced to great poverty by it. We think our

selves an useful people we are sure we are a peaceable people; yet, if we must still suffer, let us not suffer as Popish recusants, but as Protestant dissenters.

But I would obviate another objection, and that none of the least that hath been made against us, viz. that we are enemies to government in general, and particularly disaffected to this we live under: I think it not amiss, but very seasonable, yea my duty, now to declare to you (and that I do with good conscience in the sight of the Almighty God) first, that we believe government to be God's ordinance; and next, that this present government is established by the providence of God and law of the land, and that it is our Christian duty readily to obey it in all its just laws; and wherein we cannot comply, through tenderness of conscience, in all such cases, not to revile or conspire against the government, but with Christian humility and patience tire out all mistakes against us, and wait their better information, who, we believe, do as undeservedly as severely treat us; and I know not what greater security can be given by any people, or how any government can be easier from the subjects of it.

I shall conclude with this; that we are so far from esteeming it hard or ill, that the house hath put us upon this discrimination, that on the contrary we value it, as we ought to do, for an high favour (and cannot chuse but see and humbly acknowledge God's providence therein) that you should give us this fair occasion to discharge ourselves of a burden we have, not with more patience than injustice, suffered but too many years under: and I hope our conversation shall always manifest the grateful resentment of our minds for the justice and civility of this opportunity; and so pray God direct you.'

I

The committee agreed to insert, in a bill then depending, a proviso or clause for relief in the case complained of; and the same did pass the House of Commons: but before it had gone through the House of Lords, it was quashed by a sudden prorogation of the parliament.

The generality of people being now in a hurry and consternation of mind upon the discovery of the popish plot, and apprehensions of a French invasion; he, lest the minds of any of his friends the Quakers should be drawn from their wonted dependence upon God, to partake of the popular uneasiness, writ an epistle to them, directed, "To the Children of Light in this Generation," which is inserted in this collection.

And in the next year," the nation still continuing under

€ 1679.

fears of wicked designs on foot for subverting the Protestant religion, and introducing Popery, he published a book entitled, "An Address to Protestants," wherein he sets forth the reigning evils of the times, and endeavours to excite men to repentance and amendment of life, as the best means to cure their fears, and prevent the impending dangers.

The same year also he prefixed to the works of Samuel Fisher, then printing in folio, a testimony concerning that author, who having been a minister of the church of England, and afterwards a preacher among the Baptists, at length joined in profession with the Quakers, and died a prisoner for his testimony in the year 1665.

The rising hopes of Papists, and the just fears of Protestants, kept the nation still in a ferment; and writs being issued for summoning a new parliament, party struggles for power ran high, on which occasion our author dedicated to the freeholders and electors a sheet called "England's great Interest in the Choice of this New Parliament;" and soon after the parliament sitting, he presented to them a book entitled, "One Project for the Good of England."

In this year 1680, died that excellent princess Elizabeth of the Rhine, before mentioned, to whose real worth our author's religious gratitude dedicated a memorial, by transmitting to posterity her exemplary character, in the second edition of his "No Cross, No Crown," printed anno 1682.

On the eighth of the eighth month this year also, departed this life his dear friend and father-in-law Isaac Pennington; to whose virtues he published a testimony, and prefixed it to his works, that year printed in folio.

There being about this time some difference in judgment among his friends the Quakers about establishing church discipline, (a point not easily fixed, so as neither to subject the conscience to an ecclesiastical authority, nor yet to give an unlimited liberty of running into anarchy and confusion) he published a little book, called, "A Brief Examination of Liberty Spiritual."

A fresh persecution being now raised in the city of Bristol, where Sir John Knight, sheriff, John Hellier, attorney at law, and other their accomplices, put the penal laws in a rigorous execution, many of the people called Quakers there were fined and imprisoned. To whom William Penn wrote the following epistle for their Christian consolation and encouragement, directed,

1681.

VOL. i.

'To the Friends of God in the City of Bristol.

. This sent to be read among them, when assembled to wait upon the Lord.'

'I do herewith send amongst you the dear and tender salutation of my unfeigned love, that is held in the fellowship of the lasting gospel of peace, that has many years been preached and believed amongst you, beseeching the God and Father of this glorious day of the Son of Man, to increase and multiply his grace, mercy and peace among you, that you may be faithful, and abound in every good word and work, doing and suffering what is pleasing unto God, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, which becomes you to be found daily doing, that so an entrance may be administered unto you abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that is an everlasting kingdom. My beloved brethren and sisters! Be not cast down at the rage of evil men, whose anger works not the righteousness of God, and whose cruelty the Lord will limit. Nothing strange or unusual is come to pass; it makes well for them that eye the Lord in and through these sufferings: there is food in affliction, and though the instruments of it cannot see it, all shall work together for good to them that fear the Lord: keep your ground in the truth, that was, and is, the saints victory: they that shrink, go out of it: it is a shield to the righteous: feel it; and see, I charge you by the presence of the Lord, that you turn not aside the Lord's end towards you in this suffering, by consulting with flesh and blood in easing your adversaries, for that will load you. Keep out of base bargainings, or conniving at fleshly evasions of the cross. Our Captain would not leave us such an example: let them shrink, that know not why they should stand; we know in whom we have believed he is mightier in the faithful to suffer and endure to the end, than the world to persecute: call to mind those blessed ancients, that by faith overcame of old, that endured cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover bonds and imprisonments, that accepted not deliverance (to deny their testimony) that they might obtain a better resurrection : they were stoned, they were tempted, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword but ye have not so resisted unto blood; and it sufficeth, I hope, to you, "that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished," when it may be truly said, "It shall go well with the righteous, but very ill with

the wicked." The Lord God by his power keep your hearts living to him, that it may be your delight to wait upon him, and receive the bounty of his love; that being fed with his daily bread, and drinking of his cup of blessing, you may be raised above the fear or trouble of earthly things, and grow strong in him who is your crown of rejoicing; that having answered his requirings, and walked faithfully before him, you may receive, in the end of your days, the welcome sentence of gladness. Eternal riches are before you, an inheritance incorruptible: press after that glorious mark: let your minds be set on things that are above; and when Christ, that is the glory of his poor people, shall appear, they shall appear with him in glory; when all tears shall be wiped away, and there shall be no more sorrow or sighing, but they that overcome shall stand as mount Sion, that cannot be moved.

'So my dear friends and brethren, endure, that you may be saved, and you shall reap, if you faint not. What should we be troubled for? Our kingdom is not of this world, nor can be shaken by the overturning here below. Let all give glory to God on high, live peaceably on earth, and shew good-will to all men, and our enemies will at last see, they do they know not what, and repent, and glorify God our heavenly Father. O! great is God's work on earth. Be universal in your spirits, and keep out of all straitness and narrowness: look to God's great and glorious kingdom, and its prosperity: our time is not our own, nor are we our own: God hath bought us with a price, not to serve ourselves, but to glorify him, both in body, soul, and spirit; and by bodily sufferings for the truth, he is glorified. Look to the accomplishing of the will of God in these things, that the measure of Christ's sufferings may be filled up in us, who bear about the "Dying of the Lord Jesus;" else our suffering is in vain. Wherefore, as the flock of God, and family and houshold of faith, walk with your loins girded, being sober, hoping to the end for the grace and kindness which shall be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, to whom you and yours are committed: his precious Spirit minister unto you, and his own life be shed abroad plenteously among you, that you may be kept blameless to the end.

I am your friend and brother, in the fellowship of the suffering for the truth, as it is in Jesus. Worminghurst, the 24th of WILLIAM PENN.' the 12th month, 1681.'