Quakerism.

with his last breath to the especial care of the Duke of York. William was left in possession of an ample fortune, and devoted himself to writing and preaching in defence and explanation of Quakerism. His learning and eloquence, Penn's serwith a certain sobriety of mind that quali- vices to fied his mysticism, made many converts; nor is it unlikely that his high social position and gallant bearing were helpful to the cause in some quarters. It was largely due to Penn that current opinion gradually ceased to confound the disciples of Fox with the rabble of Antinomian fanatics with which England was then familiar, and to put them upon a plane of respectability, by the side of Presbyterians and other Dissenters. Again and again, while engaged in this work, Penn was thrown into prison and kept there for months, sometimes in the Tower, like a gentleman, but once for six months in noisome Newgate, along with common criminals. These penalties were mostly for breaking the Conventicle Act. The reports of the trials are often very interesting, by reason of the visible admiration felt by the honest judges for the bril liant prisoner. "I vow, Mr. Penn," quoth Sir John Robinson from the bench one day, "I vow, Mr. Penn, I am sorry for you. You are an ingenious gentleman, all the world must allow you. and do allow you, that; and you have a plentiful estate; why should you render yourself unhappy by associating with such a simple people?" Sometimes the prisoner's ingenuity and resourcefulness would baffle the prosecutor, and in despair of other means of catching him the magistrate would ten

der the oath of allegiance. But Penn's subtlety was matched by his boldness: once when the judge insulted him by a remark derogatory to his character, the reply came quickly and sharply, "I trample thy slander as dirt under my His courage. feet!" And this boldness was equalled by his steadfastness: once the Bishop of London sent word to him in the Tower, that he must either withdraw certain statements or die a prisoner. "Thou mayest tell him," said Penn to the messenger, "that my prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my conscience to no mortal man."

During these years Penn kept publishing books and pamphlets, controversial or expository, wherein he argues and persuades with logic and with eloquence, and is not always meek; sometimes the keen blade leaps from the scabbard and deals a mortal thrust. Mrs. Samuel Pepys read one of these treatises aloud to her husband, who calls it extremely well written and "a serious sort of book, not fit for every one to read." The titles of these books give an inkling of their savour: "Truth Exalted," "The Guide Mistaken," "A Seasonable Caveat against Popery," etc. Thẹ one writings. which Mr. Pepys would not recommend to all readers was entitled "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," which was clearly open to the charge of Socinianism. Grave accusations of heresies were brought against Penn, to which he made reply in his "Innocency with her Open Face," some quotations from which will give us an impression of his style:

Some of his

with me, I

"It may not be unreasonable to observe, that however industrious some (and those dissenters too) have been to represent me as a person disturbing the civil peace, I have not violated any truly fundamental law which relates to external propriety and good behaviour, and not to religious apprehensions; it being the constant principle of myself and friends to maintain good works and keep our consciences void of offence, paying active or passive obedience, suitable to the meek If you will example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor not talk would I have any ignorant how forward must write. I was by messages, letters, and visits, to have determined this debate in a sober and select assembly, notwithstanding the rude entertainment we had met with before; but contrary to their own appointments our adversaries failed us, which necessitated me to that defence; and finding the truth so prest with slander, I cannot but say I saw my just call to her relief; but alas! how have those two or three extemporary sheets been tost, tumbled, and torn on all hands, yea, aggravated to a monstrous design, even the subversion of the Christian religion, than which there could be nothing more repugnant to my principle and pur

1 A discussion in a Presbyterian meeting-house in London, between Penn with some friends and the Presbyterian minister, Thomas Vincent, had ended in an attempt to silence the Quakers by uproar. Penn persisted even after the lights were put out, but then yielded to Vincent's promise to meet him again in a fair and open discussion. It proved impossible, however, to make Vincent keep his promise, and so Penn had recourse to the press, and published his The Sandy Foundation Shaken. See Stoughton's William Penn, p. 57.

You call names at me

instead of

pose; wherefore how very intemperate have all my adversaries been in their revilings, slanders, and defamations! using the most using argu- opprobrious terms of seducer, heretic, ment. blasphemer, deceiver, Socinian, Pelagian, Simon Magus, impiously robbing Christ of his divinity, for whom the vengeance of the great day is reserved, etc. Nor have these things been whispered, but in one book and pulpit after another have been thundered out against me, as if some bull had lately been arrived from Rome; and all this acted under the foul pretence of zeal and love to Jesus Christ, whose meek and gentle example always taught it for a principal mark of true Christianity to suffer the most outrageous injuries, but never to return any. Tell me, I pray, did Luther, that grand reformer whom you so much reverence, justly demand from the emperor at the Diet of Worms that none should sit upon his doctrines but the scripture; and in case they should be cast, that no other sentence should be passed upon him than what Gamaliel offered to the Jewish council, If it were not of God it would not stand; and if you will not censure him who first arraigned the Christian world (so called) at the bar of his private judgment (that had so many hundred years soundly slept, without so much as giving one considerable shrug or turn during that tedious winter-night of dark apostasy), but justify his proceedings, can you so furiously

If you do

not blame Luther for asserting the right of private judgment, why blame me?

assault others?

"But above all you, who refuse conformity to

others, you assume your

own infalli bility, as Papists do.

much as the

others, and that have been writing these eight years for liberty of conscience, . . . what pregnant testimonies do you give of your unwillingness to grant that to others you so earnestly when you beg for yourselves? Doth it not dis- persecute cover your injustice, and plainly express that only want of power hinders you to act? But of all Protestants in general I demand, do you believe that persecution to be Christian in yourselves that you condemned for antichristian in the Paptists? You judged it a weakness in their religion, and is it a cogent argument in yours? Nay, is it not the readiest way to enhance and propagate the reputation of what you would depress? If you were displeased at their assuming an infallibility, will you believe it impossible in yourselves to err? Have Whitaker, Reynolds, Laud, Owen, Baxter, Stillingfleet, Poole, etc., disarmed the Romanists of these inhuman weapons, that you might employ them against your inoffensive countrymen? Let the example and holy precepts of Christ dissuade you, who came not to destroy but save; and soberly reflect upon his equal law of doing as you would be done Have a care you are not upon one of Saul's errands to Damascus, and helping the mighty against God and his anointed; and rather choose by fair and moderate debates, not penalties ratified by imperial decrees, to determine religious differences.

unto.

But

if you are resolved severity shall take its

course, in this our case can never change

But you

cannot hurt

us, for if

God is with us, who can

be against

us ?

nor happiness abate; for no human edict can pos