A narrative and exposition of the late proceedings of New England Yearly Meeting : with some of its subordinate meetings and their committees, in relation to the doctrinal controversy now existing in the Society of Friends : edited from records kept, from time to time, of the proceedings and interspersed with occasional remarks and observations

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Preface

Inasmuch as our first parents, as individuals, were subject, through the wiles of the enemy, to a departure from the purity of the condition in which they were created, so it will be admitted by all true believers, who have been conversant with sacred and profane history, that throughout every generation of their descendants, men have been liable, through the same beguiling influence, to fall from a better to a worse condition.

Hence it follows, that as all religious associations are made up of individuals, that all such bodies of men are exposed to the same danger of a declension ; and for this reason it undoubtedly was, that the Lord God of Israel, through his servants Moses and Joshua, labored abundantly with his chosen people in exhorting them to a continuance of fidelity and obedience, in the keeping of his covenant with them, and commands to them — warning them against a lapsed condition, and assuring them of his judgments and indignation that must surely follow a departure from his commands.

And thus we see that their future safety and preservation, consisted not in his having once chosen them from amongst all the families of the earth with whom to place his name, but in their continuing to keep a single eye to the pattern which he had showed them in the mount.

He had done wonders for them in delivering them from bondage, — he had brought them out with a high hand and an out-stretched arm, and had established his covenant with them as his peculiar church and people, and therefore required faithfulness at their hands, answerable to the favours which he had bestowed upon them.

He had required them to love him, and to do justice, righteousness and judgment in all things, throughout their generations — to abstain from idolatry, and from all the evils against which he had warned them : he had prohibited them from mixing with the surrounding nations in their ways and manners of devotion — to come out from among them, and to be separate from them.

Notwithstanding some of those nations believed in the same God in whom they believed, and held and pi-actised some rites in common with them, and coincided with certain things which he had commanded them, such as their altars, their sacrifices, and their priest's services in offering upon them — rites which had been handed down from the first ages of time; figurative and prophetic of that most acceptable sacrifice of the Saviour of men, for the blotting out of the sins of all men, on condition of true repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, as the practices of those nations were in many essential points diverse and not according to the covenant which he had made with his Israel, and tended to idolatry and the serving of other gods ; his people were therefore strictly forbidden to mingle with them ; not because there were no sincere people among those nations, but because their ways were not in accordance with the pattern shown to Israel in the mount.

We find by following the history of this once favored and chosen people, and beholding, as we do, their gross departure from God's covenant, abundant evidence to show the necessity there was of warning them in the outset against an apostacy, and no less of his mercy in continuing from age to age to send his prophets and messengers unto them, to testify against the forsaking of his law, lest his statutes should be altogether disregarded and trodden down by them.

But, alas ! how many sufferings, reproaches and persecutions these his messengers had to endure, from the hands of those who had departed fi'om the Lord's testimonies, because of their faithfulness to him. On the other hand, how many of those called prophets were induced by bribery, were lured by th e love, and driven by the fear of man, to prophecy smooth things — to flatter those in power, and to cry peace, peace ! when there was no peace. How many and unsparing were the gifts and honors bestowed upon men by those in power, for the strengthening of their own hands in iniquity, and for woi'king devices against the Lord and his faithful servants !

But blessed be the Lord, a faithful remnant there was, (among the many hundreds that were called jjrophets,) who feared the Lord, that could neither be bought nor driven to forego the word of the Lord, nor to baulk his testimonies to please men. But an apostacy had so prevailed over the rulers of Israel in that day, that many of the prophets were persecuted and slain for their constancy and faithfulness to their Lord and Master. The rulers of the people had become so lost to all that was good, that they took light for darkness, and darkness for light, and so persecuted the Lord's true messengers.

But a reformation — a better day and a better covenant was seen to be coming, and was foretold by those persecuted messengers. And however long the darkness of that apostacy prevailed — however long the coming of a better day was protracted, it was not deferred until human nature had ceased to be human nature in the fall — a condition from which the Gospel power is only able ever to redeem ; but this redemption is effected only upon the condition ol faith and obedience, so essential under the former dispensation, and without which fallen nature has been the same in every age, is abundantly evinced by the grievous lapse which has befallen the church under both covenants.

Thus we see, however better the day, that without the obedience of faith, fallen nature, or the natural man, is the same, and no better under this than under the former dispensation. And those who ai'e favored with the New Testament, and do not live in conformity with its precepts, and come to experience the power of that religion which it inculcates, are even more reprehensible than those under the former covenant ; of whom many, with less outward advantage, came to witness in an eminent degree, that which was then, as now, the power of God unto salvation.

By the events which have transpired, it would seem that the same liability of departing from the law of the Lord which existed in the Jewish Church, exists in the

Christian Church, and that individuals, as well as bodies of Christians, are as liable to degenerate through disobedience and unfaithfulness to the commands of Christ, as were those under the former covenant; inasmuch as the temptations of the old enemy are as artfully directed against the Chrstian as against the Jewish Church, and only detected by abiding in Him who is the Light of the world, and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The lapse of the Lord's people, under the former covenant, is strikingly observable in the lamentation over them : "Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed : how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me ? " — Jer. ii. 21.

But to mark the consummation of the declension and final apostacy of the Jewish Church, we must refer to the time when Jesus Christ came into the world, and call to mind the great enmity and bitterness which the whole sanhedrim and rulers of that body betrayed ; their madness against Him and His doctrines, His ministry and mighty works.

They denied Him and his mission, although Moses , in whom they trusted, had spoken so plainly of him, — they made and spread abroad among the people, all manner of false reports and wicked accusations against him ; and made a decree that any one who confessed him to be the Christ should be put out of the synagogue ; and their influence and the fear of them, — the bribery, the friendship and other means to which they resorted, succeeded to an astonishing degree in bringing the Saviour of men into great disrepute among the people ; and even made the Jewish nation generally believe him to be a deceiver, a dangerous person, and a disturber of the peace, and that therefore he ought to be put to death.

Finally, they bribed Judas Iscariot to betray him into their hands ; and in that great concourse which was assembled at his trial before Pilate, (where only two of his disciples dared to come,) there was not so much as one who raised his voice against his being put to death.

By these high professors he was put to death — under great pretensions, and professions of religion, and a zeal for the support of the law and covenant which God had ordained to them as a people ; making great boasts of their ancestors, and of being the children of Abraham, whilst they were doing the works of their father, the devil, and were his children.

We ai'e assured that eleven out of the twelve of his Apostles, and many others who stood faithful to His Gospel, suffered the like from their cruel hands.

With these wicked rulers, the chief Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the learned Rabbis, terminated the Jewish dispensation.

When the spirit of this world rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, wjiatever they profess as to religion, or whether they make no profession at all; whether priests or levites, scribes or pharisees, or mere men of the world, it matters not, if destitute of the spirit and love of God, they persecute the Saviour of men, and his disciples the children of light : for there is an enmity existing between the spirit of the world and the spirit of God — the flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh — consequently the children of this world war against the children of God.

It was, by that spirit of this world and of darkness which rebels against the light, that Christ and his followers were persecuted and put to death, by the Jews first, and also by the Gentiles : for j^his religion truly was, to the high professing Jews, a stumbling block, and to the wisdom of the Greeks foolishness ; because the darkness which was in them, could not comprehend it.

But after the Jewish nation was dispersed, the Christian church continued to grow and increase greatly, although her sons were persecuted and slain in large numbers by the heathen nations : and death — to them welcome death — was almost continually inflicted by the hand of man, and became to them the happy passport to an entrance into the fruition of light, and the realms of eternal glory with Him, for whose cause they had dared to die.

Thus the tribulations of those who were loyal to their Lord, whose mission to this lower world was made perfect through sufferings, were sanctified and productive of a crown of life ; whilst those who were not faithful unto death, through the fear of man or love of the world, were cast off" forever and denied the tree of life.

What a glorious pattern, therefore, were the early Christians in suffering for the name of Him who had given the example before them ; and to which example has been added these precepts — that it is enough for the servant to be as his Master, and the disciple as his Lord. Fear not them that kill the body, and have no more that they can do ; but I will forewarn you whom ye ought to fear, &c. ; for to those who know God,

and the Will of God, his fear surpasses the fear of man.

What shame and blushing, therefore, ought modern professors to take to themselves, flinching as they do, when their sufferings, whether by the hand of false brethren, or from the world, are so entirely incomparable with the sufferings of Christ and his early followers.

But in process of time the Head of the Church was pleased to say it is enough, and saw meet to prove his people by the reverse of personal suffering ; then persecution ceased, and ease and luxury succeeded ; a soil in which the life and power of religion was less prolific : and a trust and reliance on the Divine support was gradually less apparent, the love and friendship of the world began to take root in too many of the influential members of the Church ; a plant which could not so well flourish under persecution.

Subsequently, for want of sufficient self-denial and true humility, the love of power increased in some of the honorable, and in time a junction with the earthly power ensued, and a disposition for greatness, and to give and receive honor one from another, began to prevail, and that honor which cometh from God and belongeth unto God, was less regarded and less inculcated, and at length profanely transferred to men.

And the title of Reverend, Right Reverend, Holy Feather, and Most Holy Father, was ascribed to men — was called for and most sacrilegiously given and received by men ! by vain and sinful men ! to the pampering of the pride and haughtiness of man: thus shamefully robbing God of that reverence and honor only due to His Great and Holy Name. This constitutes idolatry in its legitimate form.

PREFACE. II

The sin of avarice, and love of rule, and of absolute power, took deep root in the hearts of those seekers after divine honors. And as their authority increased and became established, great and most oppressive requisitions were made upon men's consciences and estates : and the Christian discipline by which the church in its purer days had been conscientiously and faithfully governed, was now disregarded and made to give place to the will and pleasure of Popes, Bishops, and Synods.

These men, or this body of men, thus assuming divine honors, did, in their collective capacity, claim to be the Church, or body of Christ — the Holy Mother Church, and with great boldness asserted their own infallibihty, and that the Church could not err — that her decrees and determinations were imperious and paramount to all former doctrines or discipline, or even to the Holy Scriptures themselves ; and punished all gainsayers of their doctrines and practices, with excommunication, or imprisonment, or with death.

It is abundantly evident, that the deeper the church became involved in error, the more boldly she proclaimed her authority and infallibility. It is no less evident that an apostacy of the church has always led to persecution ; and that sufferings under persecution, faithfully and patiently endured, have tended to a reformation.

The Christian exercise of the true church's labor and care towards those who have lost their way, is Discipline. But the annoyance of honest men and women for well doing, is Persecution. The former was ordained of him who is supremely good — the latter is an abomination in the sight of God. Again, the former is exercised in the love of God, but the latter in the hatred of the wicked One.

The advancement of any people, in moral or religious righteousness, is truly more cheering and hopeful to an honest mind, and vastly more well pleasing in the sight of God, than a retrograde course, and that without any reference to the point already arrived at.

But that body which descended from the primitive Christian church, and became degenerated, has never been wholly reformed, although divers notable attempts were made for that pui'pose, at different times between the third and sixteenth centuries, notwithstanding a solitary remnant of sincere believers came out and stood in a situation of detachment from it, during that period. But the regal power of the Romish church was exceedingly great — combining with, and encompassing the authorities of many earthly kingdoms and empires ; and before whom, with a Pope at their head, a Huss and a Jerome, with a gi'eat . number of others, fell victims to their ferocity.

Will any protestant say, that these martyrs were not raised up of God as witnesses against the ecclesiastical corruptions, because of their failure of success ? Will any such presume to make that failure chargeable upon a want, on their part, of integrity or pui'ity of intentions, or yet upon the want of a Divine commission, to testify against the atrocities of the church 1 For is it not a true saying, that the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church ] And can there be a doubt, that the death of those unflinching and undaunted men, gave energy and resolve to those who followed after ? So that their lives and sufferings are not lost, but cherished in the sympathies of all honest protestants : and does not their patient indurance of the most cruel persecutions, tend to encourage every tender heart to greater faithfulness in suffering ?

But the enquiry arises, what could induce these rulers to inflict the punishment of death upon the Martyrs ? Not the spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus, whose kingdom was not to be supported by carnal weapons, but whose religion is love ; and who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them.

Was it not their insatiable avarice and voracious love of power, grounded in malice, which led to many crafty inventions for their own aggrandizement, and the grasping of wealth, and carnal indulgences, that led them on to those atrocious deeds 1 For their craft they saw was in great danger, if men of such principles, and such Christian eminence as the martyrs were, should be suffered to go at large, and to promulgate their doctrines.

In time, through the good providence of Almighty power, more men were raised up and made instrumental in bringing about a partial, though notable reformation ; to the breaking down in some degree, the power of the Roman Hierarchy. And although this beam of gospel light, did not at once fully dispel the whole cloud of papal darkness, yet it did discover to the reformers, some of the greater evils.

Whether the minds of men in that day were not prepared to endure the full radiance of the gospel light, as it shone upon the primitive believers ; or whether the papal yoke was too strong to be entirely broken off by the hands of these witnesses, I will not pretend to determine : suffice it to say, that God saw mete that such advancement should then be made. And be it remembered, that even this was at the expense of many lives of his faithful martyrs ; though not to the full accomplishment of a perfect reformation.

And, however, they broke the ground by faithfully renouncing some of the grosser errors of the popish church, yet they retained and unhappily brought out ■with, them the spirit of war, retaliation and persecution, which never existed in the primitive Christian Church, together with a deal of formality and useless ceremonials, which had been imbibed and accumulated during the dark ages of the church's apostate condition.

And in some instances, in the escaping of one great error, the reformers invariably fell into another in an opposite direction. They were right in denying the merits and works of Romish observances, of likenesses, and imagery, of holy relics, the mass, indulgences, &c., &c. But at the same time entirely overlooked the spiritual work of God to be wrought in man, and through the gift of the Holy Ghost bi/ man, in the obedience of faith, to the regenerating of the heart : they erred in placing their trust in faith alone without regard to that work wrought by the power and spirit of Christ .;in the heart, to the regeneration of the soul, whereby He subdues and crucifies the old man with his deeds ; — in a dependence upon a faith which stands alone, and which is not the gift of God ; and, therefore, not a living faith that worketh by love ; but a faith that is well pleasing to the unregenerate man. If barely believing in Christ, and that his death and sufferings alone, would save men, who would refuse so much as to believe, and to ascribe much honor to Christ for justifying and saving them through his own sufferings without them, and without the painful endurance of the baptism of fire and Holy Ghost in themselves.

Under these and other like circumstances it was, that the protestant believers, although they had faithfully vv^itnessed against many of the Romish superstitions, fell into a state of ease, relaxation, and the indulgences of a carnal mind ; still trusting in man, and in the advancement which they had made, and so rested far short of fully attaining to the life and power of true Christianity which had been lost in the apostacy. Then the Lord was graciously pleased to stir up and to visit many minds, with the day spring from on high, for the blessed purpose, not only for salvation to those individuals, but for a further reformation, and final consummation, and establishment of true vital Christianity among men.

And by means of this visitation, many became uneasy and dissatisfied, with the lifeless formalities which yet remained in the Church, and longed in their minds to find the living and sustaining substance, of which the customary rituals and outward performances then practiced, were but a figure ; and of which they took place, not to the satisfying or removal of the sins of the flesh.

Among these seeking and awakening souls, was George Fox. He, through deep meditation ; waiting upon and dwelling with God in spirit, was made a chosen instrument in unfolding the religion of Jesus Christ, moie perfectly agreeable to the New Testament ; and was endued with a remarkable gift of discernment of the condition of men, and in the mystery of true godliness ; that it stood not in form but in power. And with great meekness and Christian cour-

IG PREFACE,

age, was enabled to combat the sins of the age in which he lived : and more clearly to instruct and to direct those seeking souls to the teaching of Christ in the inner man, by his light and good spirit : and to bring them off from trusting in man, and from those, who like the Papists, were still making a trade of the Gospel, a thing unknown in the primitive days of the Church.

To this faith and ministry, and to the covenant of the pure Gospel of peace, many were gathered. These separated themselves from the spirit and friendship of the world, (so prevalent among the professors of that day,) for the purpose of restoring primitive Christianity in the life and power of it, to the purging of the consciences of men, through the inward operations and purgations of the Holy Ghost, to the doing away, (at least among themselves,) of war, retaliation, and oppression, as well as a hireling ministry : all of which had been inti'oduced into the Church under its degenerated condition.

This doctrine, which inculcates the belief in Christ's teaching his people himself; and the faith that every true believer has access to God through him ; as also the testimony against war and a hireling ministry, spread alarm among the clergy of that day.

Hence, as the number of the Quakers increased, the clergy began to have fearful apprehensions as to the safety of their callings, or the continued enjoyment of their salaries ; and consequently, resorted to the exercise of their influence, (which was then great in England,) for the purpose of disaffecting ihe minds of the people against this, to them, new doctrine, of free grace, and a free ministry ; and soon succeeded in raising a storm of persecution against these unresisting Christians. And they, the priests, successfully invoked the civil powers to their assistance ; so that the spoiling of goods, imprisonment, and even death itself was often inflicted upon this unoffending people ; when nothing could be laid to their charge, but obedience to the law of their God, in honestly promulgating the doctrines of Christ and his Apostles as exemplified in the New Testament, and thereby to carry out the reformation which the first reformers had begun.

Here then was seen, protestants inflicting persecution upon their fellow protestants; (similar to that which those of the Roman Church inflicted upon one another ;) and only for the reason that the latter were consummating the good work that the former, or their predecessors, had begun. And the evidence to prove that the first reformation was not complete, will be found in the consideration that the former had not arrived fully to the ground of primitive Christianity, in that they yet retained the spirit of domination, war, and a hireling ministry, creating jealousy and hatred against the greater excellency — against the free teaching of the Gospel. And no greater evidence need be called for, to establish this point, than to show that they persecuted their fellow professors for well doing.

And God's permission of the deep sufferings of the many messengers whom he had sent to bear witness for him, is no evidence against the validity of their mission or calling. Their sufferings were as seed sown, and the fruit to be gathered in God's providence in after generations — by those who are accounted worthy also to suffer for the name of Him who died for them ; whilst those who have lifted up their cruel hands against the Lord's humble messengers, are equally reprehensible, whether those messengers were prophets or apostles, or early Christians, or modern I'eformers, however xinsuccessful any of them may appear to have been, in obviously leforming the church from a lapsed condition, or of having effected a reformation. Here allusion is made to such instances as those of Huss and Jerome.

It appears by the testimony of Jesus Christ our Lord, that the persecutors of that day weie chargeable with the blood of the prophets that were slain, from righteous Abel to the days of Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the temple ; and whether more or less reprehensible, modern persecutors are, under the light of the gospel day, and themselves professing to be Christians, the reader will judge.

Suffering for righteousness' sake, is diffusive of the spirit of righteousness, not only for the time being, but to after generations. And this diffusion of the Spirit tends to gather to the cause espoused by the sufferers. — "A sword shall pass through thine own soul, that the hearts of many may be revealed" — "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me." His gathering spirit should extend to all men, through the power of his death.

But among the sufferers for righteousness' sake, Jesus Christ stands above all and over all — His sufferings were propitiatory, and a sacrifice for the sins of others, as well as procurative in the ordei'ing of God's power and wisdom, of an immediate and universal pouring forth of his good spirit ; whilst the sufferings of prophets and apostles, and all the faithful martyrs, though not propitiatory, nor immediately influential, are mediately influential, through our outward knowledge of their great and unflinching faithfulness to Christ the Head over all.

Human nature itself would never be a Christian martyr ; and human reason alone could never comprehend vv^hy God should yield his faithful servants to the pow^er of wricked men, because it sees not as He sees — he cannot see how success can grow out of a defeat. And even the disciples of our Lord themselves, whilst his body lay in the grave, felt as though his mission was defeated. But after his resurrection, and after he had taught them of the necessity and purpose of his sufferings, and had breathed the Holy Ghost upon them, then their understandings were opened, and they were made not only to see the power of his sufferings for the establishment of his cause, but were made willing to suffer themselves, for his sake and for their ovra sake, as well as for the honour of that cause and those testimonies which he had published and ordained, and to follow his example of non-resistance.

But the successors of Husa and Jerome, for want of more of the understanding here alluded to, seemed to apprehend a defeat in their death ; and to retrieve their cause unhappily resorted to unchristian means, as did also the Waldenses, eventuaUy, in support of themselves and their good cause, and the result plainly shows, that the cause of God cannot be promoted, nor his work made to prosper, by resorting to an arm of flesh, instead of trusting in His power.

One thing is very observable, that the peaceable, unresisting, and patient endurance of persecution, by our early friends, as dictated by the precepts and spirit of Christ, has hitherto been apparently instrumental in terminating to a great extent, persecution among protestants ; an influence, which we have reason to believe, has also reached the Roman Catholics.

And persecution is a thing so heinous, and so irreconcileable with the law of Christ, that we may well say it was never inflicted by one true Christian upon another, or upon any other person. Discipline, the church of Christ has always bad — not for wounding but for curing — not for the annoyance nor restraining of him who reprobates the evil, but for reproof to him who doeth evil.

But seeing the liability of men and Christians to a declension and departure from the immediate government of truth, as individuals land as a body, induced George Fox and his fellow helpers to institute and establish a written disclipine, both for the Church and for the members, as a guide to the ordering of Church government, and for the deciding of all questions that might after arise in the society.