Part 1

THREE

APOSTLES OF QUAKERISM,

POPULAR SKETCHES OF

FOX, PENN AND BARCLAY,

By B. RHODES,

Author of "JOHN BRIGHT, Statesman and Orator," &c.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY J. STOUGHTON, D.D., AUTHOR OF "ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND," "LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN," &C., &C.

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"They pleaded only for broad, unfettered, spiritual Christianity."--_J. J. Gurney. Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 27._

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PHILADELPHIA: HENRY LONGSTRETH, NO. 723 SANSOM STREET. 1886.

INTRODUCTION.

I have been requested by the Author of this Volume to write a few introductory lines; with that request I cheerfully comply. Having read the proof sheets, I can testify to the diligence, care, and ability, with which the work has been executed. The perusal has been to me very interesting and very pleasant; and I have felt much satisfaction at finding that the historical conclusions here presented are, in general, coincident with my own.

It might be supposed that a book of this limited size, and intended for popular circulation, would be based chiefly, if not entirely, on the larger and best known biographies and histories relative to the men and the period described. But this is by no means the case. I find in these pages numerous signs of original research, and abundant evidence that the writer has formed an independent judgment of the questions coming before him in his enquiries. He has had access to some unpublished correspondence, of which he has made good use. Fourteen letters, not printed before, are laid under contribution, and they add much to the value of the volume.

Mr. Rhodes has evidently much sympathy with the life and labours of the early Quakers; and not being a member of that Society, he is free to judge impartially of certain points in their singular history. That judgment he has wisely exercised. I am fully persuaded in my own mind that Quakerism was a salutary reaction against the formalities, and the hard theological systematising of the age; that it called attention to forgotten truths; and that its excitements, though clouded by some smoke, yet burnt with fire from heaven; also I quite concur with the writer in thinking that the Society of Friends have still a place for good amongst religious agencies at work in this nineteenth century. May they have grace successfully to accomplish their mission!

I may add, that whilst all three of these biographical sketches are valuable contributions to our ecclesiastical literature, the last, which treats of Robert Barclay, is the fullest, most original, and best of all.

JOHN STOUGHTON.

PREFACE.

The demand of this busy age is for small books, containing the pith and marrow of important subjects. As regards my subject, I have endeavoured to meet this demand. I hope that the volume supplies at once sketches of three leaders in early Quaker history, and an informal manual of the rise and tenets of the Society.

A few years ago, I was led to re-examine the journal of George Fox, and I was surprised to find him an evangelist of a rare order, with a heart burning and throbbing with pity for sinners and with zeal for the Master. His ardent nature was laid hold of by the gospel in its fulness, and the result was a spirituality at once delicate and strong.

The same features attracted me in William Penn. He also had many of the gifts of the evangelist. He could collect and hold a crowd almost as well as Fox, and preach them as full a gospel. If other schemes had not claimed so large a share of his life, I think he might have done an evangelistic work equal to that done by George Fox.

Robert Barclay deserves to be highly honoured as one who truly devoted his all to Christ. And he had much to devote--an honoured name and titled connections, rare intellectual gifts and great acquirements, social position and wealth. Yet if I understand his life aright, there was no half-heartedness in his decision. But I miss in him that glowing and vigorous assertion of gospel truths which delights us in the pages of Fox and Penn. The pungent and arousing appeals which stud like gems the writings of his two brethren are not to be found in his pages. Silent waiting on God is urged, entire self-surrender to God on the part of the Christian is insisted on with great earnestness. But the reader will look in vain, even in passages which seem to invite them, for earnest calls to repentance or to diligent service of the gospel of Christ.

The Quakerism of the eighteenth century followed Barclay. The work of Fox was dropped. No one continued his vigorous aggression, but repression of activity was advocated openly. To this I venture to trace the decline of the Society in those days. In the Quakerism of to-day, I think I see Fox's spirit, and I would fain help the healthy reaction, however feebly, by these sketches. I hope they will also introduce to some Christians of other denominations three beautiful examples of spiritual-mindedness.

In the preparation of the sketches of Penn and Barclay, I have had access to numerous unpublished letters in the keeping of a member of the Barclay family. For these I desire to express my warmest thanks. I have used them sparingly. A list of those from which I give extracts will be found on the next page. To the best of my knowledge these extracts have not been printed before.

It is not probable that I shall continue the series of sketches to which this trio forms an appropriate introduction. But I am glad thus to acknowledge my indebtedness to a Society to which I owe more than I can ever repay. None of its members long more fervently than I do that the spirit and labours of its first days may distinguish it again.

Batheaston, near Bath.

LIST OF LETTERS

(HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED). _From which extracts are given in this volume._

_From_ Geo. Fox to Robert Barclay, dated 16. X. 1675, quoted pp. 84, 113

" Geo. Keith to R. Barclay, 12. III. 1676 54, 114

" D. Barclay to R. Barclay do. 113

" R. Barclay to the Princess Elizabeth, 6. VII. 1676 121

" the Princess Elizabeth to R. Barclay, Dec. 1, 1676 122

Do. do. Mar. 1, 1677 126

Do. do. July 6, 1677 126

" R. Barclay to the Princess Elizabeth, 6. V. 1679 127

" the Duke of York to R. Barclay, June 27th, 1680 131

" Geo. Fox to R. Barclay, 31. IV. 1680 129

" Christian Barclay to Friends in Aberdeen, 15. VI. 1693 95

" Wm. Penn to R. Barclay, junr., 7. XII. 1694 71

" Hy. Gouldney to R. Barclay, junr., 28. XII. 1694 70

" Sir D. Dalrymple to R. Barclay, junr., July 4th, 1710 76

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R. Barclay's "Vindication" quoted pp. 91, 120, 137, 138.

GEORGE FOX,

THE

FIRST OF THE QUAKERS.

"This man, the first of the Quakers, and by trade a Shoemaker, was one of those to whom, under ruder or purer form, the Divine Idea of the Universe is pleaded to manifest itself."--_Carlyle._

"That nothing may be between you and God, but Christ."--_George Fox._

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The Author has long believed that a popular sketch of the Life and Work of George Fox was wanted. His noble labours in the Gospel, and the many excellences of his character are not known as they deserve to be. The story of his life is full of dramatic interest, and the author has endeavoured to tell it with sympathy and yet with faithfulness.

Too few outside the Society of Friends are aware of the great and happy change which has lately come over it. The cramping influence of custom and precedent is yielding to the free spirit which first made the Society a power. In the present remodelling of its "Practice and Discipline," the study of its early days is of great importance. And for a fervent and constraining piety, for free and large-hearted devotion to "the truth" wherever it leads, few men are more worthy of study and imitation at the present day than George Fox.

Should this effort prove a success, companion sketches of Penn and Barclay will shortly follow.

The Manse, Batheaston, near Bath; _September, 1883_.

PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.

That "a popular sketch of the Life and Work of George Fox was wanted," was proved by the sale of 1500 copies of this pamphlet within six months of its publication. The opinions expressed by competent judges made me feel that I had not laboured in vain. Ministers of various denominations wrote to thank me, and to confess that they had not understood George Fox before.

This Second Edition contains little that is new, but in the sketch of Barclay will be found several extracts from Fox's letters hitherto unpublished.

GEORGE FOX,

THE

FIRST OF THE QUAKERS.

The Protestant Reformation was at once a revolt against the claims of Popery, and an assertion of the authority of the New Testament. In neither particular did it satisfy the early Quakers. In their opinion it retained some remnants of Popery to its great disfigurement, whilst it was timid and halting in its acceptance of some of the teachings of the Christian dispensation. They regarded it as their work to reject the forms and ceremonies and "priestly pretentions" that had been retained, in order to reproduce the spiritual worship and simple church life of the apostolic days. Especially they believed themselves raised up to assert the living presence of Christ with his church by his Holy Spirit. They protested that feeble life, however orthodox its creed, was as dishonouring to Christ, and as unworthy of these days of the large outpouring of the Holy Ghost, as was formalism itself. The first and chief exponent of these views was George Fox.

George Fox was born at Fenny Drayton, in Leicestershire, in 1624. His parents were pious members of the Church of England, and he tells with satisfaction that his father was generally denominated "righteous Christer," whilst his mother sprung from "the stock of the Martyrs."

His religious life seems to have commenced almost in infancy. His childhood and youth were marked by a sober bearing, a precocious thoughtfulness, and a love of solitude, which made many notice him; and it was proposed to make him a clergyman. Accordingly, Nathaniel Stevens, the parish priest, seems to have regarded him hopefully, until his deepening experience made the youth aware how blind his guide was, when the former friend became a bitter persecutor. But as some of George's friends objected to his entering the church, he became, in the mingling of businesses so common in that day, shoemaker and shepherd, excelling in the latter contemplative employment, which his friend, William Penn, regards as a fit emblem of his future work. Though he had received only the plainest English education, yet the keen cravings of his strong mind, together with his earnest Bible-reading and much careful thought, soon made him at home in Christian truth, the great topic of conversation and theme of discussion in that age. A noble, severe truthfulness foreshadowed his future teachings, and indicated the stamp of the man. It "kept him to yea and nay," refusing all asseveration or other strengthening of his statements, excepting his favourite "verily." But people remarked that if George said "verily" it was impossible to move him. His own strict and pure life made him feel keenly the poor living of some who made great professions.

But his great preparation for his future work was soon to begin. In his 20th year, his soul began to be racked with conflicts, the nature and source of which he could not understand. This crisis in Fox's history is generally spoken of as his conversion. In some respects it resembles more the deepening and intensifying of a life which already existed. His spiritual nature was waking up to vigorous life. The slight and ill-grasped views which had satisfied the boy did not satisfy the man. They seemed to give no real and sufficient answer to his questionings. He wanted to understand the meaning of life, the plans of God, and his own part in them. In religion he felt that there should be the clearest and strongest mental grasp, insight into the very heart and core of things. He had only seen as in a mist. Where was the seer that could show, by his apt and living words and his accent of conviction, that the veil had been lifted up for him, and that he had verily seen the Shekinah? To such a one he would listen reverently if he could find him; all others seemed mere triflers to his earnest mood. Then again, if God was a real Father, he felt that real and close relations with him must be possible, but he sadly owned that he did not enjoy those relations, and asked himself and others "Why am I thus?" He began to look facts intently in the face, to find out their meaning. He looked at himself and saw only sin; he looked into the professing church, and even there saw the same sad sight. It made him ask, was the gospel a mistake and Christ powerless? Or was he worse than others that his soul should be in such darkness and distress? Was he worse than in former days when he enjoyed comfort, and when the Lord shewed him some of his truth? Had he sinned too deeply to be allowed to enjoy peace? Had he sinned against the Holy Ghost?

In his anguish, like a good churchman he went to his vicar, and asked him to explain his condition to him, but he could not. Then he sought other clergymen, who had a name for strict living or wisdom, but they could give him no help, though he went as far as London in the quest. Some of the advice which he received, he mentions with a pity that is keener than the severest sarcasm. One bade him sing psalms and chew tobacco; another wished to bleed him, but his large frame had been brought into such a condition by his distress, that no drop of blood would flow from him. Such blindness was not peculiar to the clergy. His friends proposed to relieve his sorrows by excitement, and by diverting his attention. Some recommended him to marry, but he sadly replied he was but a lad and must gain wisdom. Others would have him enlist and seek diversion in the exciting events of the civil war; but says Marsden, the historian of the Puritans, "though the bravest man in England, perhaps, if moral courage is bravery, he detested the business of the soldier. Far other thoughts possessed his mind. He had been religiously educated by Puritan parents of the Church of England, and he was now awaking to the consideration of his eternal state."

Meanwhile he fasted often and searched the Scriptures with desperate earnestness. He wandered in solitary places, and spent hours in the trunks of hollow trees in meditation and prayer. Disappointed in the clergy, he turned to the dissenters with no better success. Evidently the thing was of God, for he missed men like Baxter, who could have given him at least good counsel and Christian sympathy. Fox was for some time in Coventry, in 1643, when Baxter was preaching there, one part of the day to the garrison, and the other to the civilians. But possibly if they had met, Baxter's hatred of heresy might have overborne his charity, and obscured his spiritual vision, and he might have branded Fox as a heretic, just as he afterwards dubbed his followers "malignants."[1]

[1] A similar experience is to be found in the unpublished memoir of that pious and accomplished Quakeress, Miss P. H. Gurney, p. 43. "I was painfully struck with the want of any sign of true devotion or spiritual mindedness in the several congregations I attended in London, both in preachers and hearers. Had I gone, as I once felt some inclination to do, to that called St. Mary Woolnoth, (Jno. Newton's) I might have found an exception to this description; but being accidently prevented, I have sometimes thought it was in the ordering of Providence that whatever of spiritual religion was then circulating in the national church, I was not permitted to find it, though I sought it with the most earnest desire of success." Miss Gurney took these facts as a proof that God intended that she should turn Quakeress; but surely the true explanation of these providences is that God will have us look to Him, and not rest unduly on any man or human system. He spoils our idols that we may worship only Him.

Every experienced pastor must have met with such cases. Until God satisfies the soul the words of men are vain; when His hour has come, the truth which brings light and peace is often one that has been explained and urged before. George Fox had to learn that it is God's work to enlighten, that there is still to be enjoyed a real guidance of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the solution of difficulties and mysteries, in a clear apprehension of the truth, and a soul-satisfying sense of its power. And if the lesson was slowly and hardly learnt, it resulted in a clearer insight into the truth, and more fitness to deal with other tried souls.

At times during these days of trial the dark clouds broke, and for a time the sun shone through. But until he learnt that Christ was to be his Teacher and Comforter, it was but for a time. It was a short respite to gather strength, a brief foreshadowing of the coming joy. Hear his touching thanksgiving for the goodness that did not break the bruised reed. "As I cannot declare the misery I was in, it was so great and heavy upon me, so neither can I set forth the mercies of God to me in my misery. Oh! the everlasting love of God to my soul when I was in distress. When my torments and troubles were great, then was His love exceeding great. Thou, Lord, makest the fruitful field a wilderness, and a barren wilderness a fruitful field. Thou bringest down and settest up. Thou killest and makest alive. All honour and glory be to Thee, O Lord of Glory. The knowledge of Thee in the Spirit is life." But the clouds finally passed away, and abiding sunshine settled on him, when Christ revealed Himself to him as the Great Physician, for whom he had been longing so earnestly. His troubles had lasted three years, and, no doubt, had been aggravated by his morbid fears and mistaken loneliness. But through life his nature was keenly susceptible; for example, the sins of the nation at the Restoration made him blind and seriously ill with grief, in spite of active work and much society. No wonder then that his anguish wore him out at the time when his soul was in the dark, and when that which appeared to him alone worth living for seemed denied him. But now that he was weaned from trusting in an arm of flesh, came the time of divine deliverance. "When all my hopes in them (the dissenters) and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, O! then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition,' and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory. For all are concluded in sin and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, who enlightens and gives grace, faith, and power. Thus when God doth work who shall let it? And this I knew experimentally. My desires after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of Christ alone, without the aid of any man, book, or writing. For though I read the Scriptures that spake of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His Spirit."

This discovery was to Fox what the unfolding of the great doctrine of justification by faith was to Luther. It was not only the commencement of a new life, it was the theme of his life-long ministry, and the special message which he was raised up to deliver to the world. In neither case was there the revelation of a new truth, only an old truth was to be emphasized, and to take its right place in the minds and hearts of men.

To this grand truth, that Christ is still with us to guide us by His Holy Spirit into all truth, Fox henceforth trusted to clear up all doubts, and to unfold all truths, and to explain the Holy Scriptures. So in our day has Mr. Moody set forth prayer as the all-sufficient practical commentator on the Bible. Henceforth, Fox expected Divine prompting to every service and Divine guidance in its performance, and without these he would not move. He had already been convinced of several points afterwards prominent in Quakerism, especially that no place or building can properly be called "holy ground," and that a University training was not a sufficient qualification for the ministry. As to the last point, just as the modern Quaker apostle, Stephen Grellet, said he could no more make a sermon than he could make a world, so did Fox protest against a man-made minister. As he was ever the enlightened and persistent advocate of sound education, this contention must not be mistaken for a contempt of human learning in its right place. It was but an emphatic assertion that the only availing spiritual knowledge comes not through human teaching but through the teaching of the Holy Spirit; and that, on the other hand, where He calls a man to the office of the ministry, the absence of a scholastic training was an utterly insufficient reason for interfering with the call. The abundant blessing which attended the preaching of Fox, Bunyan and other "unlearned and ignorant men," gave emphasis to this doctrine in that age. To these views the other Quaker "testimonies" were speedily added, and soon the whole scheme of doctrine was complete in his mind.

Two points must here be insisted upon:--1st, neither George Fox nor any of the early Friends, though their language is sometimes hazy, ever claimed to be inspired. Says a recent authority, [Fielden Thorp, B. A., in the Friends' Quarterly Examiner for April, 1870,] "It has often been a cause of satisfaction to us that nowhere in the authorised documents of our society is the word (inspiration) applied to the ministry of Friends." Secondly, notice that Fox was most careful to note how his convictions corresponded with Holy Scripture. So he says, "When I had openings they answered one another, and answered the Scriptures, for I had great openings of the Scriptures."[2] Whilst, then, the fallibility of the ministry is acknowledged, and the infallibility of the Bible asserted, surely the doctrine of the Divine Guidance is not perverted through insufficient safeguards. But we are not prepared in all points to defend Fox's application of the doctrine. Possibly he sometimes mistook the workings of his own mind for the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Nor are his theology and his interpretations of Scripture beyond criticism. His ideas on the Divine In-dwelling took the form of the famous doctrine of the Seed or Light within. But though the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit are taught by Friends as distinctly as ever, it is questionable whether the doctrine of the Light within _in the precise form in which Fox preached it, and Barclay developed it theologically_, has obtained the general acceptance of the Society. It certainly is not to be found in its authorised publications, such as the official "Doctrine, Practice and Discipline." It speaks well for the independence of thought in the society, that the pet-child of its great leaders should be abandoned when it failed to secure their conscientious assent.[3]