AN EPISTLE TO THE TH REA DE R. HIS following account of the people called Quakers, &c. was writ in the fear and love of God: first, as a standing teftimony to that ever-bleffed truth, in the inward parts, with which God, in my youthful time, vifited my foul, and for the fenfe and love of which I was made willing, in no ordinary way, to relinquish the honours and interefts of the world: fecondly, as a testimony for that defpifed people, that God has, in his great mercy, gathered and united, by his own bleffed Spirit, in the holy profeffion of it; whofe fellowship I value above all worldly greatness: thirdly, in love and honour to the memory of that worthy fervant of God, G. Fox, the first inftrument thereof, and therefore ftiled by me the great and blessed apostle of our day. As this gave birth to what is here prefented to thy view, in the first edition of it, by way of preface to G. Fox's excellent journal; fo the confideration of the prefent usefulness of the following account of the people called Quakers, (by reafon of the unjust reRections of fome adverfaries, that once walked under the profeffion of friends) and the exhortations that conclude it, prevailed with me to confent that it fhould be republished in a smaller volume; knowing al fo full well, that great books, efpecially in these days, grow burthenfome, both to the pockets and minds of too many; and that there are not a few that defire (fo that it be an eafy rate) to be informed about this people, that have been fo much, everywhere, fpoken against: but, bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, it is upon no worfe grounds, than it was faid of old time of the primitive Chriftians; as I hope will appear to every fober and confiderate reader. Our bufinefs, after all the ill ufage we have met with, being the realities of religion, an effectual change, before our laft and great change: that all may come to an inward, fenfible, and experimental knowledge of God, through the convictions and operations of the light and Spirit of Christ in themselves; the fufficient and bleffed means given to all, and that thereby all may come favingly to know the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom he hath sent to enlighten and redeem the world; which knowledge is, indeed, eternal life. And that thou, reader, mayeft obtain it, is the earnest defire of him that is ever Thine in fo good a work, W. PEN N. A BRIEF A BRIEF ACCOUNT, &c. СНАР. І. Containing a brief account of divers difpenfations of God in the world, to the time he was pleafed to raise this despised people, called Quakers.. D' IVERS have been the difpenfations of God, fince the creation of the world, unto the fons of men: but the great end of all of them has been, the renown of his own excellent name, in the creation and restoration of man: man, the emblem of himfelf, as a god on earth, and the glory of all his works. The world began with innocency: all was then good that the good God had made: and as he blessed the works of his hands, fo their natures and harmony magnified him, their Creator. Then the morning ftars fang together for joy, and all parts of his works said amen to his law. Not a jar in the whole frame; but man in paradise, the beafts in the field, the fowl in the air, the fish in the fea, the lights in the heavens, the fruits of the earth, yea, the air, the earth, the water and fire, worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wifdom, and goodness. O holy fabbath, O holy day to the Lord! But this happy state lafted not long: for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to afpire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as intereft and felicity, and fo fo fell below it; loft the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in. By which, being no longer fit for paradife, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and refidence, and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the prefence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beafts. Yet God, that made him, had pity on him: for he, feeing man was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but through the fubtlety of the ferpent (who had firft fallen from his own ftate, and by the mediation of the woman, man's own nature and companion, whom the ferpent had first deluded) in his infinite goodness and wifdom, found out a way to repair the breach, recover the lofs, and restore fallen man again, by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promifed to be born of a woman; that as, by means of a woman, the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman alfo He fhould come into the world, who would prevail against him and bruise his bead, and deliver man from his power: and which, in a fignal manner, by the difpenfation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was perfonally and fully accomplished by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer. But his power was not limited, in the manifeftation of it, to that time; for both before, and fince, his bleffed manifeftation in the flesh, he has been the light and life, the rock and ftrength, of all that ever feared God: was prefent with them in their temptations, followed them in their travels and afflictions, and supported and carried them through and over the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By this Abel's heart excelled Cain's, and Seth obtained the preheminence, and Enoch walked with God. It was this that ftrove with the old world, and which they rebelled against, and which fanctified and inftructed Noab to falvation. But the outward difpenfation that followed the benighted state of man, after his fall, especially among the the patriarchs, was generally that of angels; as the fcriptures of the Old Teftament do in many places exprefs, as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Mofes, which was alfo delivered by angels, as the apoftle tells us. This difpenfation was much outward, and fuited to a low and fervile ftate; called therefore, by the apostle Paul, that of a fchoolmafter, which was to point out, and prepare that people to look and long for, the Meffiah, who would deliver them from the fervitude of a ceremonious and imperfect difpenfation, by knowing the realities of thofe myfterious reprefentations in themselves. In this time, the law was written on stone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood and external rites and ceremonies, that were fhadows of the good things that were to come, and were only to ferve till the Seed came, (or the more excellent and general manifeftation of Chrift) to whom was the promife, and to all men only in him, in whom it was yea and amen, even life from death, immortality, and eternal life. This the prophets forefaw; and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it; which was the top of the Mofaical difpenfation, and which ended in John's miniftry, the fore-runner of the Meffiab, as John's was finished in him, the fulness of all. And then God, that at fundry times, and in divers manners, had fpoken to the fathers by his fervants the prophets, fpoke to men by his Son, Chrift Jefus, who is Heir of all things; being the gospel-day, which is the difpenfation of Sonship; bringing in thereby a nearer teftament and a better hope; even the beginning of the glory of the latter days, and of the reftitution of all things; yea, the restoration of the kingdom unto Ifrael. Now the Spirit, that was more sparingly communicated in former difpenfations, began to be poured forth upon all flesh, according to the prophet Joel, and the light, that fhined in darkness, or but dimly, before, the moft gracious God caufed to fhine out of darkness, and the day-ftar began to arife in the hearts of be lievers, |