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 FRIENDS

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FRIENDS

own imaginings as "revelations". "I fasted much," he tells us in his Journal, "walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places imtil night came on; and frequently in the night walked mournfully about by myself. For I was a man of sorrows in the first working of the Lord in me." This anguish of spirit continued, with intermissions, for some years; and it is not surprising that the lonely youth read into his Bible all his own idiosyncrasies and limitations.

Founding his opinions on isolated texts, he grad- ually evolved a system at variance with every existing form of Christianity. His central dogma was that of the "inner light", communicated directly to the in- dividual soul by Christ "who enlighteneth every man that Cometh into the world". To walk in this light and obey the voice of Christ speaking within the soul was to Fox the supreme and sole duty of man. Creeds and churches, councils, rites, and sacraments were discarded as outward things. Even the Scriptures were to be interpreted by the inner light. This was surely carrj'ing the Protestant doctrine of private judgmenttoJts ultimate logical conclusion. Inconven- ient passages of Holy Writ, such as those establishing Baptism and the Eucharist, were expounded by Fox in an allegorical sense ; whilst other passages were in- sisted upon with a literalness before unknown. Thus, from the text "Swear not at all", he drew the illicit- ness of oaths, even when demanded by the magistrate. Titles of honour, salutations, and all similar things conducive to vanity, such as doffing the hat or "scrap- ing with the leg", were to be avoided even in the presence of the king. War. even if defensive, was de- clared imlawful. Art, music, drama, field-sports, and dancing were rejected as unbecoming the gravity of a Christian. As for attire, he pleaded for that simplicity of dress and absence of ornament which later became the most striking peculiarity of his followers. There was no room in his system for the ordained and salaried clergy of other religions, Fox proclaiming that every man, woman or chikl, when moved by the Spirit, had an equal right to prophesy and give testimony for the edification of the brethren. Two conclusions, with disagreeable consequence to the early Friends, were drawn from this rejection of a "priesthood"; the first was, that they refused to pay tithes or church rates: the second, that they celebrated marriage among themselves, without calling in the services of the le- gally appointed minister.

Impelled by frequent "revelations", Fox began the public preaching of his novel tenets in 1647. It was not his intention to increase the religious confusion of the time by the addition of a new sect. He seems to have been persuaded that the doctrine by means of which he himself had "come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God" would be greeted alike by Christian, Turk, and heathen. The enthusiasm and evident sincerity of the uncouth young preacher gained him numerous converts in all parts of Britain ; whilst the accession of Margaret, wife of Judge Fell, afterwards of Fox himself, secured to the Friends a valuable rallying-point in the seclu- sion of Swarthmoor Hall, Lancashire. In an incredi- bly short time, a host of unordained apostles, male and female, were scouring the two hemispheres, carry- ing to the ends of the earth the gospel of Fox. One enthusiast hastened to Rome to enlighten the pope; a second went to the Orient to convert the sultan. The antagonistic religions dominant in England before and after the Restoration. Presbyterianism and the Estab- lished Church, made equally determined efforts, througn the aid of the civil power, to crush the grow- ing sect. From the detailed record which the Friends, in imitation of the primitive Christians, kept of the sufferings of their brethren, we gather that during the reign of Charles II, 1.3,562 "Quakers" were imprisoned in various parts of England, 198 were transported VI.— 20

as slaves beyond seas, and 338 died in prison or of wounds received in violent assaults on their meetings. They fared still worse at the hands of the Puritans in Massachusetts, w-ho spared no cruelty to rid the colony of this "cursed sect of heretics", and hanged four of them, three men and a woman, on Boston Common. What marked them out for persecution was not so much their theory of the inward light or their rejection of rites and sacraments, as their refusal to pay tithes, or take the oaths prescribed by law, or to have any- thing to do with the army ; these offences being aggra- vated in the estimation of the magistrates by their obstinacy in refusing to uncover their head in court and " thouing and theeing" the judges. The suffering Friends found at last a powerful protector in the per- son of their most illustrious convert, William, son of Admiral Penn, who defended his coreligionists in tracts and public disputes, and, through his influence with the la.st two Stuart kings, was frequently success- ful in shielding them from the violence of the' mob and the severity of the magistrates. Penn furthennore secured for them a safe refuge in his great colony of Pennsylvania, the proprietorship of which he acquired from Charles II in liquidation of a loan advanced to the Crown by his father. With the accession to the throne of James II the persecution of the Friends prac- tically ceased; and by successive Acts of Parliament passed after the Revolution of 1688, their legal dis- abilities were removed; their scruples about paying tithes and supporting the army were respected; and their affirmation was accepted as equivalent to an oath.

Meanwhile, Fox, in the intervals between his fre- quent imprisonments, had laboured to impart the semblance of an organization to the society; whilst the excesses of some of his followers compelled him to enact a code of discipline. His efforts in both these directions encountered strong opposition from many who had been taught to regard the inward light as the all-sufficient guide. However, the majority, sacrific- ing consistency, acquiesced; and before the death of Fox, 13 Jan., 1691, Quakerism was established on the principles which it has since substantially preserved.

Although the Friends repudiate creeds as "exter- nal "and "human", yet they, at least the early Quak- ers and their orthodox modern followers, admit the fundamental dogmas of Christianity as expounded in the Apostles' Creed. Rejecting as non-Scriptural the term Trinitij, they confess the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the doctrine of the Re- demption and salvation through Christ; and the sanctification of souls through the Holy Spirit. Their ablest apologists, as Robert Barclay and A\illiam Penn, have not been able to explain satisfactorily in what respect the "inward light" differs from the light of the individual reason; neither have they reconciled the doctrine of the supreme authority of the "inner voice" with the "external" claims of Scripture and the historic Christ. These doctrinal weaknesses were fruitful germs of dissensions in later times.

Though one of the earliest of Fox's "testimonies" was in reprobation of "steeple-houses", that is, the stately edifices with which Catholic piety had covered the soil of England, nevertheless, as "his adherents grew in numbers, he was forced to gather them intc congregations for purposes of worship and business. These "particular meetings" assembled on the first day of the week. They worshipped without any form of liturgy and in silence until some man, woman, or child was moved by the Spirit to "give testimony", the value ot which was gauged by the common sense of the assembly. By a process of development, a form of church government came into being, which has been described as follows: —

"The whole community of Friends is modelled somewhat on the Presbyterian system. Three gracia- tions of meetings or synods— monthly, quarterly, and