But mark: I would not be mistaken. I am far from thinking it fit, because I exclaim against the injustice of whipping Quakers for Papists, that Papists should be whipped for their consciences. No: for though the hand, pretended to be lifted up against them, hath, I know not by what discretion, lighted heavily upon us, and we complain, yet we do not mean that any should take a fresh aim at them, or that they should come in our room, for we must give the liberty we ask, and cannot be false to our principles, though it were to relieve ourselves; for we have good will to all men, and would have none suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent on any hand. And I humbly take leave to add, that those methods against persons so qualified do not seem to me to be convincing, or indeed adequate to the reason of mankind; but this I submit to your consideration. To conclude: I hope we shall be held excused of the men of that (the Roman Catholic) profession in giving this distinguishing declaration, since it is not with design to expose them, but, first, to pay that regard we owe to the inquiry of this Committee, and, in the next place, to relieve ourselves from the daily spoil and ruin which now attend and threaten many hundreds of families, by the execution of laws which, we humbly conceive, were never made against us."

Such was the speech of William Penn, and such was to be expected from him, if he remained faithful to his former principles. They who declaim for liberty at home, but yet who would be friends to slavery in other lands; or they who, while they make a noise about liberty, civil and personal, would yet impose fetters on the religious freedom of the mind, show at once the inconsistency of their opinions, as well as that these proceed from a corrupt source. The true friend to liberty, on the other hand, who collects his notions concerning it from the pure and sacred fountains of truth and justice, feels no spirit of exclusion in his breast. That portion of it which he enjoys himself he wishes to be communicated to others. He confines it not to climate. He limits it not to complexion or colour, but he is anxious that it should fly from region to region, and extend itself, under a rational control, from the meridian to the poles. Such was the disposition manifested in this speech. William Penn had the courage to declare, and this before persons in authority, who could have no pleasant feelings towards those who should be well disposed to the Catholics, what he had maintained during his life, that it was unlawful to occasion others to suffer, even Catholics themselves, on account of a conscientious religious dissent. This fundamental proposition, which extended to all, he would not deny or falsify, either to relieve himself or his friends; nor did he or they wish to enjoy the privileges it contained at the expense or suffering of others, much less that this their intercession for themselves. should occasion the Catholics to be marked afresh. Bold as this language was, he offended no one. That which would have been of itself an offensive sentiment was lost or overlooked in the nobleness of those which followed it. The Committee, on the other hand, heard him with extraordinary attention. Their attention, indeed, was such as to have made a more than ordinary im

pression upon him; and, therefore, by way of grateful return, thinking he could do no less than unbosom himself to them on certain other subjects (by which he and they whose cause he had then pleaded might be better known to them), he addressed them a second time in the following words: "The candid hearing our sufferings have received from you, and the fair and easy entertainment you have given us, oblige me to add whatever can increase your satisfaction about us. I hope you do not believe I would tell you a lie. I am sure I should choose 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 who have known me formerly. I believe they will say I was never 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 observations, 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 call it rather 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 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 which we do so deny. We choose 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 ourselves 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, namely, that we are enemies to government in general, and particularly dissaffected to that which we live under. I think it not amiss, but very reasonable, yea, my duty, now to declare to you, and this I do with good conscience, in the sight of 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 the 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 about us, and wait the better information of those 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 this House hath put us upon this discrimination, that, on the contrary, we value it, as we ought to do, an high favour, and cannot choose but see and humbly acknowledge God's providence therein, that you should give us this fair occasion to discharge ourselves of a burthen we have not with more patience than injustice suffered but too many years under. And I hope our conversation shall always manifest the greatful resentment of our minds for the justice and civility of this opportunity; and so I pray God direct you."

This speech also had a considerable effect upon the Committee. Indeed nothing more agreeable could have been offered them at this juncture than the explanation now given. The Quakers at that time laboured under the suspicion, in common with other Dissenters, that they were hostile to the government, and that they might therefore watch for an opportunity of destroying it. William Penn, to do away with this suspicion, laid before them the creed of the Quakers on this subject. These, when called upon by magistrates to do what their consciences disapproved, refused obedience to their order. No threats could intimidate them. Satisfied with such refusal, they bore with fortitude the sufferings which followed, and left to their oppressors the feelings only of remorse for their conduct. By such means they performed their duty to God in a quiet and peaceable manner, that is, they made no sacrifice of their just convictions, and yet they did not disturb the harmony of society or interrupt the progress of civil government by rebellion. At this time then, when the nation had been convulsed by civil war and commotions, when the Government had been frightened by reported plots and conspiracies, and when Dissenters of all descriptions were considered only as peaceable because the chains in which they were held prevented them from being otherwise, it particularly became the Committee to know that they, whose petition was then before them, were persons who espoused the opinion in question. And here a wide field for observation would present itself, if I had room for stating those thoughts which occur on this subject, involving no less than the question, How far mankind, when persecuted by their respective governments for matters relating to the conscience, have gained more advantages to themselves in this respect by open resistance, than by the Quaker-principle of a quiet and peaceable submission to the penalties which the laws inflict? To solve this we might look to the nature

The

of the human mind, and then to examples from history. In taking a survey of the former, it would be obvious, that the oppressor for religion (and indeed every other oppressor) would become irritated, and rendered still more vindictive, by opposition; while, on the other hand, his mind might be softened by the sight of heroic suffering. To resistance he would attach nothing but a common, or perhaps an ignominious character, whereas he might give something more than a common reputation, nay, even nobility, to patience and resignation under supposed injury. In punishing the man who opposed him, he would lose all pity; but his feelings might be called forth where he saw all selfish notions done away, and the persecuted dying with satisfaction for a public good. Add to which, that he could not but think something of the cause for which men thus thought it worth their while to perish. In looking at historical example, that of the Apostles would first strike us. Had they resisted the government, or stirred up the multitudes which attended them to do it, they had lost their dignity and their usefulness. Their resistance had been a bar to the progress of their religion, whereas their suffering is universally confessed to have promoted it. same may be said of those martyrs, after whom followed the Established Church-nay, of the very persons now in question; for to the knowledge, which succceding governments had, that it was the custom of the Quakers never to submit to the national authority in matters of conscience, and yet never to resist this authority by force, it is to be ascribed, that at this moment they enjoy so many privileges. They are allowed to solemnize their own marriages. Their affirmation is received legally as their oath. Exceptions are always made in their favour in all acts of Parliament which relate to military service. And this reminds me, that if this principle could be followed up, I mean generally and conscientiously, sources of great misery might be done away. For if the great bulk of mankind were so enlightened, either by scriptural instruction or divine agency, as to feel alike on the subject of any evil, and to feel conscientiously at the same time the absolute necessity of adhering to this principle as its cure, no such evil could be perpetrated by any government. Thus, for example, if war were ever to be generally and conscientiously viewed in this light, how could it ever be carried on for ambitious or other wicked purposes, if men could be forced neither by threats, imprisonment, corporal suffering, nor the example of capital punishments, to fight? I do not mean here, if a cominon combination were to take place for such a purpose, that such an effect would be produced. A combination, the result of mere policy, could never have in it sufficient virtue to stand the ordeal to which it might be exposed on such an occasion. It must be a general harmony of action, arising out of a vivid sense of the evil in question, and out of a firm conviction, at the same time, that this was the remedy actually required as a Christian duty, and that no other was allowed. In this point of view Christianity contains within itself the power of removing the great evils of

wicked governments, without interrupting those other parts of their system witicks are of essential use to the good order, peace, and happiness of mankind.

But to return.

The two speeches of William Penn, as now quoted, made a favourable impression on the Committee, so that they agreed to insert a clause in the bill then in agitation for relief in the case complained of. This clause they reported to the Commons, and the Commons actually passed it. It was afterwards carried to the Lords; but a sudden prorogation of Parliament taking place before the bill could be read a third time, the clause was rendered useless.

I find two publications by William Penn in this year. An anonymous person had written, "The Quakers' Opinions." This book contained a collection of the different religious tenets which the author supposed the society to entertain, and quotations from the writings of Fox, Whitehead, and others, in confirmation of the same. William Penn wrote an answer to it, to which he affixed only the name of "A Brief Answer to a False and Foolish Libel." His other publication was "An Epistle to the Children of Light in this Generation." It was dated from Worminghurst, and written entirely on occasion of the times; for people's minds continued still in a state of alarm on account of the Popish plot. There were then apprehensions also about a French invasion: there was a belief, in short, that some dreadful storm was about to burst upon the nation. William Penn, therefore, anticipating that the members of his own society might partake of the popular uneasiness, and that, by thus admitting earthly cares and fears, they might lose that heavenly spirit which would best fit them to meet the distress which was coming on, wrote them this letter. He exhorted them in it as an highly professing people, that is, as the Children of Light in this Generation, to show an example worthy of this their high calling-to throw away as so much dross the fears, anxiety, and uneasiness of the world-to mount the watch-tower-to be in a state of preparation, and so to live in righteousness, as to be enabled to stand in the gap between the wickedness of the nation and the vengeance of God, confiding in him alone as their only solid support in time of trouble.

CHAPTER XV.

A. 1679.—CONTINUES HIS MANAGEMENT OF WEST NEW JERSEY—WRITES "AN ADDRESS TO PROTESTANTS OF ALL PERSUASIONS"-GENERAL CONTENTS OF THIS WORK-WRITES A PREFACE TO THE WORKS OF SAMUEL FISHER-ALSO "ENGLAND'S GREAT INTEREST IN THE CHOICE OF A NEW PARLIAMENT"-ASSISTS ALGERNON SIDNEY IN HIS ELECTION FOR GUILDFORD-TWO OF HIS LETTERS TO THE LATTERWRITES "ONE PROJECT FOR THE GOOD OF ENGLAND"-GENERAL CONTENTS OF THIS WORK.

In 1679 I And nothing recorded of William Penn relative to the manage