SECTION X. The Oxford five mile act.-George Whitehead ad- 276 INTRODUCTION. 1 It may not perhaps be wholly useless, especially to my younger readers, to make a few introductory observations, which have been suggested in the compilation of the present work, on the character and conduct of the early Friends, and on the important subject of liberty of conscience, the history of which, in this country, will be found considerably illustrated in this Memoir. The religious Society of Friends was originally an association of persons earnestly seeking to obtain that true knowledge of God and of Christ, which is life eternal. Many of them were men esteemed in the several religious professions to which they belonged, for their practical experience and piety; yet notwithstanding what they already knew, their consciences were not satisfied, and they were led to believe, that a further acquaintance with Divine teachings than they yet possessed was to be obtained. They felt that they needed to know more of the work b of regeneration, and of the power of Christ to renew them into his own Image, than they experienced under the various teachings and ordinances on which they had been led in part at least to depend. They were men whose minds were richly imbued with Scripture truth, and not a few of them were very conversant with the theological controversies of their own and former days. Some of them, prior to the preaching of George Fox, had separated themselves from other communities and met together in a very simple way, earnestly looking and praying for the fuller knowledge of redemption from sin, and of that peace of mind which passeth all understanding. Whilst thus seeking for Truth, already exposed to the reproaches of their self-satisfied friends, they were led to believe that whilst they had dwelt much on the atonement of Christ, they had not sufficiently dwelt on the operations of that Holy Spirit and Comforter, who was to consummate the Gospel, to guide into all truth, and by whom, the apostle says, through Christ we have access unto the Father. Of this Divine Communion they believed they were made sensible partakers, and in it they found that consolation which they had long sought after and prayed for. As it was by sin that man lost the Divine Image and excellence in which he was created, so they believed the restoration by Christ to be equal to the loss by Adam, and that he who fully embraced the Gospel would be so guided into all truth, that sin might be effectually resisted and Christ followed. These views of the operations of the Holy Spirit and of the possibility of freedom from sin, I believe to have been the foundation of what is called Quakerism; and they led to or were immediately connected with, a clearer view of the nature and spirituality of the Gospel Dispensation-the extent of the apostacy from its simplicity and purity-and the inconsistency therewith of many practices which prevailed extensively in the reformed Churches. When George Fox travelled into various parts of England, calling men from all traditional knowledge, by which in the days of apostacy Gospel truth had been overlaid, to the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and showed the conformity of his views with the Divine testimony of Scripture, he found many prepared to receive the Truth which he proclaimed, as the answer to their prayers and the direction of their search. Though the embracing of these truths was the occasion of obloquy and suffering, they were welcome to them as the dawning of the morning to the mariner, after a long and stormy night. The office of the Holy Spirit or Divine Light as the Guide unto all Truth, became the great theme of their contemplation and their preaching, as that doctrine which being most fatal to satan's kingdom in men's hearts, he had been most busy in perverting; and which, as it was most opposed to man's unholy nature, so it was that which by nature he was most willing to have concealed from his view. They did not, as was imputed to them, set up this doctrine in opposition to that of the atonement and mediation of Christ; but they warned men against any dependence on Christ, without knowing Him to be formed in them and their hearts to be brought into subjection to his Spirit. They did not, as they were aspersed, set aside the Holy Scriptures to make way for any fancies of their own; but they warned men against resting satisfied with a Scripture knowledge, without knowing the true faith in Christ through which alone they lead to salvation. They valued the Holy Scriptures as inspired records of the Divine will-they read and quoted them freely, and recommended to others the perusal of them ; but they believed that, as the brazen serpent which had been the instrument of the Divine mercy to the Israelites, afterwards became the object of their idolatry, so were there many people who were ready to worship the book, whilst they neglected or opposed the Spirit by which it was written. They had a deep sense of man's corruption and of the Divine purity. They taught that every motion of good in the heart of man, from the first conviction of sin to the full assurance of faith, was through the immediate influer ce of the Holy Spirit. That in man, as man, there was no good thing; and that, as it was through the free Grace of God in Christ that any sinner was awakened to the error of his way, and not essentially through any outward means of instruction, however the Divine Influence might be usually connected with such means; so it was to that Divine Grace, as the means of still further enlightening the conscience, and of carrying on |