CHAPTER VII.

A. 1672.

WILLIAN PENN, after his return from the continent, entered into the married state. He was then in the twenty-eighth year of his age. He took for his wife Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett of Darling, in Sussex, who had fallen at the siege of Bamber, during the civil wars, in the service of the Parliament. She was esteemed an extraordinary woman, and not more lovely on account of the beauty of her person, than of the sweetness of her disposition. After their marriage they took up their residence at Rickmansworth in Hertfortshire.

William Penn, now married and settled, and in the possession of an abundant fortune, might have led the life of a gentleman of leisure. But he understood the gospel, and was resolved to live according to its spirit and teachings; and this kept him at work. Meetings were held at one place or another almost every day in the week, many of which he attended and addressed. The disputes too in the religious world which prevailed in these times, and in which the Quakers were particularly engaged, called him frequently forth as an author. In the preceding year Charles the Second had issued a declaration of indulgence to tender consciences in matters of religion, in consequence of which not less than five hundred Quakers had been released from prison. This indulgence was extended also to dissenters at large. Now one would have thought that the leaders of the different religious sects, all of which had felt the iron hand of persecution, would have employed this respite in solacing each other, and in promoting love among each other. But they did the contrary. They began to persecute each other, and their conduct towards the Quakers was most disgraceful. In consequence of the sound

arguments and good lives of the Quakers, many, especially of the Baptists, began to be attached to them, and left their own particular societies and joined them. The

leaders of several of the religious sects, finding their congregations growing less by such defections, seemed to think they could not use their liberty better than by trying to crush the Quakers. Hence many publications appeared against them of a most abusive character. These things gave Penn so much work, that he had but very little time left for repose during the whole of the present year.

On the midsummer following his marriage, he traversed three counties, Kent, Sussex, and Surry, preaching to no less than twenty-one different congregations, and some of these at considerable distances from each other, in twentyone days. This must have been no easy performance, considering the state of the roads at that period.

We find him equally indefatigable as an author. An anonymous writer had published "The Spirit of the Quakers tried." He answered it by He answered it by "The Spirit of

Truth vindicated."

John Morse, a preacher at Watford, having written both against him in particular, and the Quakers in general, he repelled the attack by "Plain Dealing with a traducing Anabaptist."

"Controversy Ended" soon followed, which was the production of Henry Hedworth, another preacher, and was of a similar personal character with the former. His answer to this paper was contained in "A Winding Sheet for Controversy Ended."

John Faldo, an Independent preacher near Barnet, finding that some of his hearers had gone over to the Quakers, was greatly enraged, and gave vent to his anger by writing a book, which he called " Quakerism no Christianity." This very soon attracted the notice of Penn, and, as a reply to it, he published "Quakerism a new Nickname for old Christianity."

About this time Reeve and Muggleton made a great noise in the religious world, by pretending to wonderful revelations. Reeve, who compared himself to Moses,

asserted that he was ordered to communicate his new system to Muggleton, whom he likened to Aaron. Penn, to expose the doctrines of these foolish pretenders, published "The new Witnesses proved old Heretics."

There is also a letter extant, which he wrote this year to Dr. Hasbert, a physician at Embden in Germany, whom he had found, on his late tour to the Continent, ready to embrace the religious principles of the Quakers. Its object was to encourage him to pursue the path he had thus taken.

CHAPTER VIII.

A. 1673.

PENN still continued to be employed as in the preceding year. As the spring advanced he undertook a journey to the western parts of the kingdom, in which he was joined by George Whitehead. They travelled from place to place spreading their principles as they went along. Gulielma Maria Penn accompanied her husband on this occasion. When they came to Bristol, it was the time of the great fair. It happened unexpectedly that they were joined there by George Fox, the founder of their religious society. He had just landed from a vessel which had brought him from Maryland, in America, whither he had gone some months before on a religious errand. All the parties staid at Bristol during the fair, and uniting their religious labours, they brought over many to their persuasion.

As a writer, there was no end of his employment this year. The first who called him forth was Thomas Hicks, a Baptist preacher in London. Alarmed at the defection of many of his congregation, he attacked the Quakers by, writing a dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker, which he forged so well, that many considered it not as a fiction, but as a discourse which had actually taken place

between the parties described. By making his Quaker say every thing that was weak and silly, he paved the way for such answers from his Christian as ensured the victory on his own side. By way of reply, William Penn brought out "The Christian Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated.”

The great subject of this work was the Light of Christ within. He began by explaining what this Light was, calling it, among other things, The Principle of God in Man.-This Light manifested and reproved sin and led to salvation; to salvation, first, from sin, and secondly, from the wrath to come.-The argument that men were wicked notwithstanding they had this Light within them, was no more an argument against its existence, than that men were wicked was an argument against the existence of the Scriptures, which also they had in their possession. -Neither, because all matters were not revealed by it was this an argument against its sufficiency.As this Light had manifested and reproved sin and led to salvation since the coming of Christ, so it had performed the same offices before; namely, from Adam through all the patriarchs and prophets ;-and as the Jews had a certain measure of this Light, so had the Gentiles also.—This was manifest from the tenets of their wise men, who acknowledged one God; who believed that the same God had imprinted the knowledge of himself on the minds of all mankind; that it became men to live piously; that the soul was immortal, and that there was an eternal recompense; tenets which were professed by Orpheus, Hesiod, Thales, Sybilla, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Timæus, Antisthenes, Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Antipater, Bias, Sophocles, Menander, Chilon, Pittacus, and many others. This was the Gentile theology; and though Jews and Christians had the advantage of the Gentiles in the measure of this Light, yet the Gentiles had sufficient for their own salvation; and that all those who obeyed it forsook their evil ways, and became transformed in their lives and characters.

These were simply the heads of his arguments. He

conducted himself in this work with great dignity; for instead of launching out against Hicks in terms of severity, he no where even mentioned his name, but satisfied himself with giving a compendium of the principles of his own society on those points which were then at issue between them, leaving the reader to compare the substance of it with that of the dialogue.

In a short time after this, Hicks produced a continuation of his dialogue, but took no notice whatever of "The Christian Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated." This unfair treatment offended William Penn, who immediately attacked him by opposing to his dialogue a little work called "Reason against Railing, and Truth against Fiction." Hicks now added another part to his dialogue; and Penn, in return, published "The Counterfeit Christian detected, and the Real Quaker justified." Hicks after this appeared no more in print. The controversy, however, did not end here, for he had fabricated so many falsehoods respecting the Quakers, that they appealed as a society to the Baptists themselves against him; in consequence of which a meeting was appointed at Barbican, where both parties might be heard. But it was fixed so as to take place in the absence of George Whitehead and William Penn, who, it was known, were then travelling; a great attendance also was procured of the calumniator's supporters, while but few on the other side were present. Hicks, therefore, was declared by a majority of voices to be acquitted.

These proceedings were soon sent to William Penn, who, on receiving them, hastened to London. On his arrival there, he laid his complaint before the public in a printed paper, and demanded another meeting of the Bap tists, in which the grievances of the Quakers might be heard. The paper was called William Penn's just complaint against, and solemn offer of a public meeting to, the leading Baptists." This demand was complied with after much opposition, and a second meeting was appointed. When the parties met, there was much noise and rioting. The Baptists were clamorous against "the