PREFACE. Sir James Mackintosh, speaking of "George Fox's Journal," says, “it is one of the most extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world,-which no reader of competent judgment can peruse without revering the virtue of the writer." The compiler's object in the present Memoir, has been to condense the most important features and incidents of the life of so eminently pious a character as George Fox, in order to produce a small volume sufficiently interesting for the general reader, and more especially for those unacquainted with the principles and history of Quakers. Christianity must possess some universally fundamental principle-some common ground upon which all communities of christians meet, however the practices of their separate churches may differ; and as the investigation of this principle forms the most important subject of their research, all are bound, in prosecuting this inquiry, to divest themselves of prejudice, so far, as to pursue it for the sake of Truth itself. Professor Playfair, says, "It is too much forgotten by physiologists, that their duty is really not to refute the experiments of others, nor to show that they are erroneous, but to discover truth, and that alone. It is startling," he continues, "when we reflect, that all the time and energy of a multitude of persons of genius, talent, and knowledge, are expended in endeavours to demonstrate each other's errors. A remark that applies with equal force to the pursuit of every kind of knowledge, and more particularly where it relates to religious opinions. The great object of the Reformation was to draw people from the authority of the church, so called, to the authority of scripture; from obscure traditions, from the opinions of the fathers, and from the decrees of councils, composed of fallible men like ourselves, to the light of the gospel, the inspired fountain from which their opinions are all professed to be drawn.. The gospel, therefore, is the ostensible rule of all the reformed churches a rule, which as it is directly opposed to the pretensions of popery, places them all upon an equal footing, and better would it have been had they strictly confined themselves to it; for, "there is always' a propensity among all men,' ' everywhere,' to fall into a similar kind of external worship of forms and dogmas-of observances apart from morals, and creeds apart from conviction-to substitute the offices of a priesthood for individual holiness-the consecration of times and places, of temples and days, for the sanctification of the heart and life. Into such forms human nature is ever prone to corrupt spiritual service; and quod semper, ubique, et ab omnibus, is the very formula of the corrupt religion of human nature.”† The question now agitating the religious world, is, whether this fundamental principle is to be carried out, or whether we are once more to relapse into the superstitions of popery, by ad Chemistry of Agriculture and Physiology," p. 20. + Edinburgh Review, clxix. p. 215. mitting vain traditions and the opinions of men, to be of equal authority with the "voice of revelation." It is impossible to stand still in these inquiring times, and the Reformation, so far as it has been happily begun, must either be carried forward, in the great power of God, towards, perfection, or, if left to the guidance of human wisdom, must again recede into the thick darkness, from which it has been in part rescued. Should, therefore, this little work contribute, in the slightest degree, to the advancement of religious knowledge, the author's object will be accomplished. He makes little pretension to originality; for, whenever he could express his own sentiments by introducing the words of other writers, he has preferred to do so; and by comparing some of the more striking Quaker opinions, with the great principle of the Reformation avowed by other churches, he has endeavoured to show how closely religious liberty is connected with our civil rights. Had Great Britain remained up to this hour Roman Catholic-a fief of the see of Rome-what would have been her rank among the nations of Europe? Would her moral and intellectual influence ever have exalted her to the powerful station she now fills-at once the envy and glory of the civilized world? The facts of the narrative stand upon their own indisputable authenticity. The compiler's remarks are mostly put interrogatively, thus inviting the reader to think and judge for himself, holding up to him the gospel, as the christian standard for faith and doctrine, which, being the written word of God, offers an authority immeasureably surpassing all traditions and human opinions. In so doing, he most expressly states, that it has been far from his intention to wound the feelings of any one who may differ from him in sentiments; for, aware in his own case, how strong are the influences of early prejudices, he yields the same allowance to others, that he claims for himself; asking only a candid investigation of how far such prejudices are, or are not, in accordance with the gospel. Woodside, near Epping, |