0

A

DEFENCE

OF

THE ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES

OF

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

IN A SERIES OF LETTERS.

No. I.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "THE TRUTH VINDICATED."

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY EDMUND FRY AND SON,

BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT.

Nine Pence.

21

A DEFENCE

OF

THE ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES

OF THE

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

MY DEAR FRiends,

At the present time, when "the distinguishing views and practices of Friends," are attacked from so many quarters, with a vigour and determination equalled only by the bitterness and speciousness with which they are allied, I feel it to be quite unnecessary to enter into any exposition of the motives which have induced me once more to take up my pen, in behalf of our original principles as a Society, and in defence of the christian lives and characters of the worthy and ever-memorable men by whom it was founded. Before, however, we enter into a detailed and scriptural examination of the doctrines we profess, our time may probably be employed to some advantage, by a brief recurrence to the period and circumstances with which the rise of the Society was connected; from whence, by no difficult transition, we can advance to the present crisis, which will afford abundant materials for a long introductory letter, which if it exhausts not your patience to read, will assuredly not weary mine to write.

Two hundred years have almost passed away since George Fox, under the immediate guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit, left house and home, friends and relations, and went forth into the world to preach the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many in different parts of the kingdom, had at the same time their hearts prepared for the Gospel message of love, of which he, with other highly gifted persons, both men and women, was made the blessed bearer. Through the instrumentality of these, a numerous Society was soon formed, who, in obedience to the

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manifestation of duty with which their hearts were sensibly impressed, renounced the pleasures, the vain customs and fashions of the world, as those things from which, as Christians, they felt convinced they should be separated. They also withdrew themselves, under the same clear conviction of duty, from the different forms which nominal Christianity had then already assumed, and met together, unattended by any human help, to wait in holy and reverential silence upon the Lord their God; and in thus waiting, they were enabled to testify to the truth of that declaration of the Prophet " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." These were peculiar and tumultuous times;-the three kingdoms agitated from one end to the other by political strife and rampant fanaticism. Pride, hypocrisy, drunkenness, swearing, jealousies, discords, and almost every kind of evil that flows from the worst passions of man, were the raging elements of that moral tempest which about this period shook society to its very foundation. The name of religion was adopted to disguise the vilest designs, and to justify the most diabolical acts. Each religious sect assumed, more or less, a sort of Jus Divinum for its particular mode of faith; and whilst all professed themselves the disciples of Him who said, "My kingdom is not of this world," yet few, in their endeavour to gain ascendancy, disdained the use of that weapon of which the same Divine authority had said, "He that taketh the sword, shall perish with the sword."

"Come out from amongst them, and be ye separate," was the language which was audibly addressed to the souls of those, who, gathering together in the Lord's power, and in defiance of the power of man, first gave rise to the Society of Friends. Their profession of Christ was not an empty one. As they believed on him, so they followed him; as they preached, so they practised. They denounced war, and they followed peace; they condemned oaths, and they would not swear; they forbade pride, and they practised humility; they reproved the vain fashions and customs of the world, and they exhibited the greatest simplicity and plainness; they refused "to give flattering titles," and they declined to receive them; they decried as antichristian all retaliation of injuries, and they turned their cheek to the smiter, and prayed for their oppressors; they contended for civil and religious freedom, and not a slave clanked his fetters beneath their roof; they lifted

up their voices against hireling priests, and their antichristian exactions; and they quietly submitted, as became the followers of their crucified Master, to the spoliation of their goods, the confiscation of their estates-the imprisonment, banishment and torture of their bodies-yea, they laid down their lives, in many instances, as a testimony for the Lord Jesus, and the truth of the everlasting Gospel. No power of man could daunt them; no malice of Satan dismay them; no privations remove their patience; no persecutions diminish their faith. Sustained by the inward presence of God's Holy Spirit, they were consoled in every affliction; and their "joy was made perfect through suffering."—"The eternal God was their refuge, and underneath were the everlasting arms."

Thus proving faithful through the sharpest trials, they subdued their enemies by non-resistance, and the practice of every christian virtue, which, through Divine Grace, they were enabled to attain. These are not mere assertions, but they are historical facts; recorded and corroborated by men who were eye-witnesses, and joint sufferers in the cruel persecutions they narrate, of which the impartial reader may obtain ample satisfaction, by referring to the works themselves.

There were undoubtedly instances of departure both from the principles and practice of the Society in some of its early members; but these were comparatively few, and no more affect the character of the sound and faithful members, or derogate from the truth and purity of their principles, than can the follies and crimes which have been perpetrated by men called Christians, of almost all denominations, affect the divine mission with which the primitive Disciples and Apostles of our Lord were charged.

Under such circumstances then as I have stated, the Society of Friends was originated, and finally settled; and down from that period, to the time at which I now write, there have been always those amongst them who have faithfully upheld the original testimonies, and have not shunned when called thereto, "to declare the whole counsel of God."

False brethren have, doubtless, at different periods created dissensions in the body, and drawn aside by their snares, the weak and unstable.—What Satan could not accomplish by torture and imprisonment, he has too successfully done, by the assumption of