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CHAPTER VII.

CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR.

T the close of the last chapter, George Fox was left in Worcester gaol. That circumstanceafter Penn had, in midsummer days, traversed Kent, Sussex, and Surrey on religious service, preaching to no less than twenty-one different congregations-excited in his mind a most painful interest; and nothing which he could do for the release of his honoured friend, did he leave undone. He wrote to Lady Penn, who wrote to Lord Windsor, Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, on the prisoner's behalf; but though these potent wheels were set in motion, they did not produce the desired result. The ensnaring oath of allegiance was tendered to the Quaker, with the effect anticipated and desired by his enemies. He could not swear; and he could not but be imprisoned for not swearing, and that they knew.

Charles, who had a good-natured feeling towards the Quakers as harmless people with odd ways, would have granted Fox a pardon; but Fox would accept no pardon, he only wanted justice, and that was difficult to obtain. He had broken no law, he contended; he maintained he was innocent, and therefore forgiveness in his case was an absurdity.

Penn wrote to him during his imprisonment, saying,

"The King knows not that thou refused a pardon, only that we chose rather a more suitable way to thine innocency. I am, and still stay in town, to do my utmost. The Lord knows that I could come in thy place to release thee; but the Lord's will be done. Dear George, things are pretty quiet, and meetings very full, and precious and living, blessed be the Lord for ever." "The name of the everlasting Lord God be blessed and praised for His goodness and mercy, saith my soul. He is our Blessed Rock, the life and joy of our days; the blessed portion of them that believe and obey."

Penn sent his "unchangeable love," not only to George, but to his wife; and she was worthy of it, as appears from the report she wrote of her efforts for her husband's welfare :

"After some time he fell sick in a long lingering sickness, and many times was very ill; so they wrote to me from London, that if I would see him alive, I might go to him, which accordingly I did; and after I had tarried seventeen weeks with him at Worcester, and no discharge like to be obtained for him, I went up to London, and wrote to the King an account of his long imprisonment, and that he was taken on his travel homewards, and that he was sick and weak and not like to live if they kept him long there; and I went with it to Whitehall myself, and I met with the King, and gave him the paper, and he said I must go to the Chancellor, he could do nothing in it. Then I wrote also to the Lord Chancellor, and went to his house, and gave him my paper, and spoke to him

1 "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 286.

that the King had left it wholly to him, and if he did not take pity and release him out of that prison, I feared he would end his days there. And the Lord Chancellor Finch was a very tender man, and spoke to the judge, who gave out an habeas corpus presently; and when we got it we sent it down to Worcester. They would not part with him at first, but said he was premunired, and was not to go out in that manner. And then we were forced to go to Judge North, and to the Attorney-General, and we got another order and sent down from them, and with much ado and great labour and industry of William Mead and other friends, we got him up to London.”1

A letter from Penn to Fox shows how the release in which the poor woman rejoiced was really accomplished.2

1 Quoted in "Worcester Sects," p. 247.

2 "DEAR GEORGE FOX,-Thy dear and tender love in thy last letter I received; and for thy business thus: A great lord, a man of a noble mind, did as good as put himself in a loving way to get thy liberty. He prevailed with the King for a pardon, but that we rejected. Then he pressed for a more noble release, that better answered hath. He prevailed, and got the King's hand to a release. It sticks with the Lord Keeper, and we have used and do use what interests we can. The King is angry with him (the Lord Keeper), and promiseth very largely and lovingly; so that if we have been deceived, thou seest the grounds of it. But we have sought after a writ of error these ten days past, well-nigh resolving to be as sure as we can; and an habeas corpus is gone, or will go to-morrow night. My dear love salutes thee and thy dear wife. Things are brave as to truth in these parts, great conviction upon the people. My wife's dear love is to you all. I long and hope ere long to see thee. So dear George Fox, etc., WILLIAM PENN."-Clarkson, vol. i. p. 156.

Sympathy for Fox and other suffering Quakers in England, did not so absorb Penn's feelings as to shut out sympathy for suffering Friends elsewhere. In 1673, on the first of seventh month, he addressed such persons in Holland and Germany:

"Hold up your heads, and be ye comforted, O little flock; your Shepherd will not fly though the wolf come. Know your Shepherd and dwell with Him, and He will bring you into sweet and green pastures in the midst of your enemies. Consult not with flesh and blood to know what may be the cause of your trials, how you may shun them, or which way you may keep Mammon and a good conscience too; but eye the Lord, without whose providence a sparrow falls not to the ground. No new or strange thing can happen unto you; dwell in the faith that works by love, and that will cast out all fear which begets any staggering from your holy testimony. Remember that many eyes are upon you, and as you acquit yourselves in this exercise that may quickly be suffered to come upon you, so will God's truth be well or ill spoken of, for people will measure your most holy way by you. The way they see not, you will behold. What know ye but the Lord is now preparing and brightening you for further service, both where you live and in other places. Oh, in the light of Jesus, the just man's path, live and walk that to the end you may endure; so shall you glorify God, answer their labours who have travailed among you, and obtain unto yourselves eternal salvation. So, dear hearts, be still quiet, given up in life and death. God's great work is going on; He always comes upon the world. in a storm, and sometimes to His children, that they

may be the more weaned from the world, that people may be the more stirred up to mind them, and that truth may be more effectually manifested through their self-denial, patience, and resolution." 1

Martyrs and confessors in primitive times were reproached for their readiness, even their eagerness, to suffer in the cause of Christ; and the same disposition appears in Penn and his Quaker friends. So far from shrinking at the approach of persecution, and fleeing from the endurance of pain, they rather hailed it as an honour conferred on them by the Head of the Church. They said, "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him." Like the Hebrews, they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.

The period to which this chapter refers may be called a time of peace, as regards release from persecution; but with regard to controversy, that went on more vigorously than ever, public debates and printed books filling up the years immediately succeeding his happy marriage.

1673,

The first debate I have to notice was in with Thomas Hicks, a Baptist minister, in Barbican. Nobody can tell whereabouts in the neighbourhood of the old city watch-tower this man's congregation met; but he seems to have been popular in his day, and like many others of the Puritan class, he was sorely grieved by Quakers' proceedings. He regarded Quakers as robbers prowling about the sheepfolds. They made converts amongst Baptists, as the Baptists had made converts amongst Episcopalians. Hicks was a vigilant shepherd, and looked sharply after those of his flock who were drawn beyond the

1 Penn's "Travels" p. 165.