life and salvation. Many were affected, and much reached and tendered, for her heart was opened, and she was largely drawn forth, and enabled by the Truth to lay open to them, and zealously to recommend and press home, the doctrines of Christ our Saviour, in the power and demonstration of his own Spirit, to the great satisfaction and comfort of Friends. We came from thence to Leeds, had a good opportunity with Friends, and proceeded to Nottingham, where we staid the first-day meetings. In the afternoon the meeting was very large, and she had an excellent opportunity, being enabled through Divine assistance, to preach the Gospel of glad-tidings and salvation, through faith in Christ, freely to them. All were quiet and attentive to Truth's testimony; the power of the Lord came over all, and it was a comfortable season. From thence in three days we came safe to London, with peace and satisfaction.

In the year 1736, after our Yearly Meeting at London, we went to Banbury Yearly Meeting, and had a meeting at Hitchin in our way. She had divers good opportunities at that Yearly Meeting, which was large. We set forward next morning towards Northampton, and had a meeting at Bugbrook that evening, where many professors came, and she was enabled to preach the Gospel to them, and declare the way of life and salvation, as it was made freely manifest by the light of Christ shining in the heart. It was a good opportunity, and Truth's testimony had an affecting reach upon many.

and declared in the power and demonstration of the Spirit of Christ; an open door appeared to receive the testimony, and many were af fected and reached by the Truth.

We staid thereabouts some time, and she visited many of her friends and former acquaintance; and also attended the meetings at Rawden, Gildersome, and Brighouse, where she had good service. From thence we went to Manchester, being accompanied by our dear friend Tabitha Hornor, where we had divers meetings to good satisfaction. My wife desiring to see that worthy Friend and servant of Christ, Benjamin Bangs, (for she ever dearly loved those who had faithfully served the Lord in the prime of their time, and retained their integrity in old age,) we went to Stockport, in Cheshire, and he received us with open arms, like a father in Christ. We had a meeting where he was present, and she had good service, and we were much comforted in his company.

From thence we returned by Manchester and Halifax, and afterwards went to Leeds. We spent some time with our friends there, to their satisfaction and our comfort, and were several times at their meeting, where she had good service. We also went to their Monthly Meeting held at Bradford, where she had an excellent time; and afterwards to the Quarterly Meeting at York, where she had good opportunities.

When that meeting was over, she took her solemn leave of her friends in that country, in much tenderness, for the Lord had wonderNext morning we came to Northampton fully owned us together with his goodness, Quarterly Meeting, where many Friends met, in that her last visit to them, which greatly and she had divers excellent opportunities strengthened the bands of that true love and there, particularly at the meeting of minis-nearness, which had subsisted from her miters, greatly to the comfort and satisfaction of nority. It proved a parting time indeed, and the few ministers in that county, and others met with them. Being fully clear, we set forward for London, and came safe home in peace.

her last farewell to most of them. We then set forwards towards home; came to Mansfield on first-day morning, staid both meetings, and to Nottingham that night; next Having drawings in her mind to visit her day to Leicester, and so got safely to London native country once more, the latter end of the fore part of the eighth month, through this summer we set forward in company with some hardship and difficulty, the weather our friend and cousin Thomas Story. We being very wet and turbulent. We came had meetings at Albans, Sherrington, Wel- home in perfect peace, with thankful hearts lingborough, Leicester, Nottingham, and Sheffield, where she had good opportunities, and discharged herself faithfully. Thence we came to Leeds, and were at that meeting. Thomas Story leaving us there, travelled northward, but we staid some time longer, and then went to Bradford, and were at that meeting on a first-day. A large assembly of Friends and others came together, having notice of our intention of being there, and her heart was wonderfully opened amongst them; many Gospel truths were set in a clear light,

before the Lord, for his preservation and good presence, that had attended and made our journey truly comfortable and satisfactory to us; for which he shall have the praise, who is for ever worthy.

In the year 1737, she inclining to be at the Yearly Meeting at Tenbury, in Worcestershire, to be held for the western counties, we set forward in company with our worthy friend Joseph Ollive, and were at the meeting at High-wickham; after which we proceeded to Worcester, and went in company with many

Friends from thence to Tenbury. We had was much decayed, yet not very perceptible several large meetings in that place, wherein in her public service. In our way we had she had divers opportunities and good service. meetings at Ware and Hertford; then coming We thence returned to Worcester, and had a to Huntington, we were at that meeting on meeting with Friends there; from thence to a first-day, which was pretty large, divers Eversham, and visited that meeting; and so Friends coming from parts adjacent. She to Warwick, and were at their meetings on had a good opportunity to discharge herself first-day, which were large; wherein she had of the concern that was upon her, and we had good opportunities to declare the truth. Next a satisfactory and comfortable time. In the day we had a meeting at Coventry, which evening we had a meeting at Godmanchester was large, and the power of Truth was with in the school-house, where many people came, us, and she had good service for the Lord in and she was enabled to preach the Gospel of that place. Then being clear and easy, we life and salvation, in the power and authority came directly home, with thankfulness in our of the Spirit of Christ, to the comfort and minds to the Almighty, for his mercy and satisfaction of many. goodness, who is always near to his depending servants, that are truly devoted in heart to him, and through Divine assistance are answering his requirings.

In our return from thence, we had a meeting at Royston, where we were comforted in the enjoyment of the love of God amongst Friends. In our way home we staid TotHaving had for some time drawings in her tenham meeting, and then came to our outmind to visit Friends at Royston, and Hunt- ward habitation, she being perfectly clear and ington, in the seventh month we undertook easy, having faithfully performed this her last that journey, though she was then very weak-journey; and how it fared with her afterwards, ly; for through hard travail and close exercise, I refer to the testimony I have written conand her often infirmities, her natural strength cerning her.

MEMOIRS OF

THE

LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN,

AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

BY ENOCH LEWIS.

INTRODUCTION.

Nor does it comport with the purpose of the present undertaking, to enter into an elaborate defence of William Penn, from the numerous

ALTHOUGH several lives of William Penn and unfounded calumnies, which envy or maare already before the public, yet none of levolence have arrayed against him. The them appeared to comport fully with the de- best refutation of them, is the life he led, the sign of the Friends' Library, and it was there- death he died, and the lasting memorials he fore deemed expedient to compile another.- has left of the exercise of those Christian virIn performing this task, it is not expected tues which ennoble and adorn the character that much which is new will be brought to light, the design being chiefly to place more prominently in view the religious life of this eminent and worthy man.

of man. Some of these slanders however, are noticed and briefly refuted; and they will serve to confirm the observation so often made, that men who have been conspicuous for the

purity and integrity of their lives have, for of novelty, it is believed that they will furnish that very reason, been marks for the enven- the reader with much that is valuable and inomed shafts of those who felt their own constructive, as well as interesting, in a dress scious defects reproved, by the silent but for- somewhat different from any other compilacible testimony of a holy and unblameable tion, and will repay him for the labour of a conduct and conversation. careful and serious perusal.

If the memoirs do not present the attraction

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN.

THE subject of the following memoir occu- little is known. Being the heir to a consipied a conspicuous station in civil and reli- derable estate, and a youth of promising abiligious society. As an eminent and faithful minister of the Gospel, and a consistent and pious Christian, he was justly honoured and beloved by his brethren, while the liberal and enlightened views of his enlarged mind on the subject of human rights and liberty, which he steadily advocated through life and carried out in founding the government of Pennsylvania, have gained for him the esteem and admiration of mankind.

ties, his father appears to have spared no expense to confer upon him the best education which the country could afford. He received the rudiments of learning at Chigwell school, which was near Wanstead, in Essex, then the country residence of his father. Although he left this seminary at the age of twelve years, yet he appears while there to have received some serious impressions in regard to the concerns of religion. The Lord, who deWilliam Penn was honourably descended; signed to make him an instrument of good to his paternal ancestors for several generations many souls, visited his mind by his holy Spihaving been persons of high respectability and rit, bringing him under a weighty consideraconsiderable note in the world. His grand-fa- tion respecting his eternal well being; and ther, Giles Penn, was a captain in the English though he then knew not what it was which navy, and for a time held the office of British thus solidly impressed him, yet it had a good Consul in the Mediterranean. His father, Wil-effect on his mind.

liam Penn, at an early age, became a dis- From the age of twelve to fifteen years, he tinguished naval officer, and passed rapidly resided in London, and had the advantage of through the successive grades of promotion, a private tutor to aid him in the prosecution so that at the age of thirty-one he was cre- of his studies.

ated Vice Admiral. He was a man of good During this period, his religious thoughtfulunderstanding, and a thoughtful turn of mind; ness was often renewed, and though the buoythough his opinions on the subject of reli-ancy of youthful spirits might at times dissigion were widely different from those em- pate it, yet there was a work begun, which braced by his son. Accustomed to the ex- the enemy of souls could not wholly lay ercise of absolute control over others, he waste, and which, as he advanced toward could not endure opposition; and though his manhood, began to produce those blessed temper was neither cruel nor morose, its irri- fruits of the Spirit, by which his after life tability sometimes hurried him into measures was conspicuously marked. which his more sober judgment condemned. To the habits of undisputed authority and impatience of contradiction, growing out of the nature of his employment, rather than to a want of paternal affection, we are to attribute these acts of severity toward his son, which the biographers of the latter have had occasion to record.

At fifteen he went to college, where he entered as a gentleman commoner at Christ's church, Oxford. While there he appears to have pursued his studies with diligence, and cultivated the acquaintance of such of his fellow-students as were distinguished for their talents or their worth; and among his intimate friends at that time, was John Locke, celeWilliam Penn was born in London, on the brated for his Essay on the Human Under14th of the eighth month, (now the tenth,) standing. Amid the dissipation and wickedA. D. 1664. Of his very early years but ness which abounded in the University, the

and advantage, which his own interest at court opened before him, must be blasted, and he endeavoured by argument, entreaty, and eventually by violence, to divert the attention of his son to the brilliant career which his talents, and the influence of his father would enable him to pursue. But the ambition of William Penn led him another way-his eye and expectation were fixed upon heaven and heavenly things, and thither all his hopes and prospects tended; and his father being unable to alter his course, at length sent him away from his house.

Lord, by his invisible power and Spirit, preserved him from corruption; and soon after he entered there, attending a religious meeting appointed by Thomas Loe, formerly a member of the college, but then one of the people in scorn called Quakers, he was so thoroughly reached by his living and powerful ministry, that his previous religious exercise was effectually renewed and strengthened. His desires after the experimental knowledge of true vital religion were earnest and fervent, and his understanding being divinely enlightened to see the emptiness and formality which too much prevailed among all sorts of How long he remained an exile from the professors, he longed to come to the full en- paternal home is not known-but probably it joyment of that inward and spiritual work, by was not long; for his father was in reality which the heart and affections are changed much attached to him, and his mother, who and all things made new, and all things of was a most amiable and worthy woman, tenGod. In this seeking state of mind, he was derly interceded for his return. There is no induced, in company with some of his fellow-doubt, that after the first burst of anger had students whose views were similar to his passed by, his father quickly relented, and we own, to withdraw from the established wor- soon find him devising plans for the comple ship of the University, and to hold meetings tion of his education and giving a different for religious edification among themselves, in turn to his thoughts. With this view he sent which they were engaged in preaching and him to France in company with some persons prayer. This conduct gave great offence to of quality, who were making a tour on the the heads of the seminary, and he and his continent, and for some time he was a resident companions were fined for non-conformity. at Paris. This gay and licentious metropolis This, however, instead of reconciling Wil- furnished little society calculated to strengthen liam Penn, only served to increase his zeal the pious resolutions of William Penn; and for the principles he had imbibed, and believ- whatever he might acquire of fashionable ing it his duty to continue the religious prac-manners or polite accomplishments, he certices he had thus begun, he was on that ac-tainly did not increase in religious stability. count soon afterward expelled the college. He returned home, and in his conduct and manners gave evidence of the work of grace which was going on in his heart. "He refrained from associating with the fashionable world, or mingling in its vain amusements, and took great delight in the company of the most grave and sober persons, with whom he mixed almost entirely." His father rea-ceit that they have not been respected accorddily perceived, that if he persisted in this course, those prospects of worldly promotion

While at Paris, he met with an incident which he has recorded, for the purpose of showing the folly of those outward demonstrations of honour, which the pride of man has led him to invent and afterwards covet. "What envy, quarrels and mischief," says he, in a work written after he became a Friend, "have happened among private persons, upon their con

ing to their degree of quality among men, with hat, knee, or title-even duels and murders not a few. In France I was myself once set upon about eleven o'clock at night, as I * Clarkson relates in his Life of Penn, that Wil- was walking to my lodgings, by a person who liam Penn, in company with Robert Spencer and waylaid me with his naked sword in his hand, some others, tore the surplices over the heads of and demanded satisfaction of me for taking no the students who wore them; and attributes notice of him, at a time when he civilly sahis expulsion from college to this outrage. The luted me with his hat, though the truth was, I story appears to have been copied from Oldmixon, and is in part contradicted by the letter of saw him not when he did it. Suppose he had William Penn to the same Robert Spencer, after killed me, for he made several passes at me, or he became Earl of Sunderland; for it appears by that I, in my defence, had killed him, when I dsithat letter, that their acquaintance was formed at armed him; I ask any man of understanding a subsequent period in France.-See Memoirs of or conscience, if the whole round of ceremony Pennsylvania Historical Society, Vol. II. page 244. This gives reason to apprehend that the whole were worth the life of a man, considering the story of the surplices may be an error, especially dignity of his nature, and the importance of his as Besse, the original biographer, is silent upon the life, with respect to God his Creator, himself, subject, and attributes his expulsion to his contin- and the benefit of civil society." In the issue of ued absence from the national worship. this attack, he displayed his humanity and re4

VOL. V.-No. 1.

gard for the life of a fellow-being, in permitting power and Spirit, which enabled him to rehis assailant to pass away unharmed, though he had him completely in his power, and had not at that time wholly laid aside the warrior.

ject all the glittering allurements of worldly grandeur and honour, and with holy resolution determine to follow Christ Jesus in the regeneration, whatever sacrifices, sufferings or reproaches it might cost him.

He afterward resided some time at Saumur, where he went for the purpose of receiving instruction from the celebrated Moses Amyrault, a learned Calvinistic minister and professor of divinity, who was then held in high estimation. Under this instructer, he renewed his studies, read the ancient fathers as well as the modern works of theology, and acquired an accurate knowledge of the French language. After leaving Saumur, he proceeded toward Italy, but when he arrived at Turin, a letter from his father reach-served him as I ought to serve him! Yea, ed him, desiring his return home. The admiral having received orders to take command of the fleet under the duke of York, against the Dutch, wished to leave his family in the care of his son. William accordingly returned in 1664, having been absent about two years.

In giving an account some years after, of his religious exercises and convincement, he remarks, "Yea, it is Christ the true and only Seed of God, who visited my soul, even in my young years, spread my sins in order before me, reproved me and brought godly sorrow upon me, making me often to weep in solitary places, and say within my soul, O that I knew the Lord as I ought to know him! O that I

often was there a great concern upon my spirit about my eternal state, mournfully desiring that the Lord would give my soul rest in the great day of trouble. Now was all the glory of the world as a bubble; yea, nothing was dear to me that I might win Christ; for the love, pleasure and friendship of this world On his return, his father perceived not only were a burden to my soul. In this seeking that he had become a good French scholar, state, I was directed to the testimony of Jesus but that he had acquired a considerable tinc in mine own conscience, as the true shining ture of the characteristic manners of that Light, given me to discern the thoughts and nation. His new associations had in some intents of my own heart. And no sooner was degree worn off the seriousness of his de- I turned unto it, but I found it to be that which meanour, so that his carriage and behaviour from my childhood had visited me, though I were what would be deemed courtly and po- distinctly knew it not; and when I received lite. He received his son with evident marks it in the love of it, it showed me all that ever of satisfaction, supposing he had gained his I had done, and reproved all the unfruitful point, and for some time nothing occurred to works of darkness, judging me as a man in convince him to the contrary. the flesh, and laying judgment to the line, and Soon after this, however, his spiritual exer-righteousness to the plummet in me. By the cises and conflicts were renewed. The Lord who loved him, and designed him for usefulness in his church, followed him by the secret but powerful convictions of his Spirit. His worldly prospects were highly flattering to the natural ambition of a young and ardent mind. He possessed a manly form blooming with health, a lively and active disposition, a ready wit, and talents improved by great literary and scientific attainments, and many rich and powerful friends. These, added to his father's interest at court, and his intimacy with the duke of York, presumptive heir to the crown, as well as the solicitations of numerous friends, strongly inclined him to embrace the glory and pleasures of this world, which might be said to court his acceptance. But the glory and joy of the heavenly inheritance had taken a deep hold of his mind, and at seasons his earnest supplications were poured out to the Lord for preservation and right direction. And He who regards the prayer of the sincere seeker, was graciously pleased to hear his cry, and to favour him with a renewed visitation of his own holy

brightness of his coming into my soul, the Lord Jesus discovered the man of sin there, upon his throne, and by the breath of his mouth, which is the two-edged sword of his Spirit, he destroyed his power and kingdom; and having made me a witness of the death of the cross, he hath also made me a witness of his resurrection—so that in good measure my soul can now say, I am justified in the spirit; and although the state of condemnation unto death was glorious, yet justification unto life was, and is, more glorious."

Speaking of an interview with some pious persons, he says, "I let them know how and when the Lord first appeared unto me, which was about the twelfth year of my age, and how at times, between that and my fifteenth, he continued to visit me, and the divine impressions he gave me of himself-of my persecution at Oxford, and how the Lord sustained me in the midst of the hellish darkness and debauchery of that place; of my being banished the college; the bitter usage I underwent when I returned to my father, whipping, beating and turning out of doors; of