A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers | Page 4

blind, so it is heady and
furious, for all must stoop to its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it:
in the name of the spirit, persecuting the very appearance of the spirit
of God in others, and opposing that in others, which they resisted in
themselves, viz. the light, grace, and spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; but
always under the notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some such
plausible name; though Christianity allows of no name, or pretence
whatever, for persecuting of any man for matters of mere religion,
being in its very nature meek, gentle, and forbearing; and consists of
faith, hope, and charity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he
remains a persecutor; in that a man cannot believe well, or hope well,
or have a charitable or tender regard to another, whilst he would violate
his mind, or persecute his body, for matters of faith or worship towards
his God.
Thus the false church sprang up, and mounted the chair; but, though
she lost her nature, she would needs keep her good name of the Lamb's
bride, the true church, and mother of the faithful: constraining all to
receive her mark, either in their forehead, or right-hand; that is,
publicly, or privately. But, in deed and in truth, she was mystery
Babylon, the mother of harlots, mother of those that, with all their show
and outside of religion, were adulterated and gone from the spirit,
nature, and life of Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious, covetous,
cruel, &c. which are the fruits of the flesh, and not of the spirit.
Now it was, that the true church fled into the wilderness, that is, from
superstition and violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state: hidden,
and as it were, out of sight of men, though not out of the world. Which
shows, that her wonted visibility was not essential to the being of a true
church in the judgment of the Holy Ghost; she being as true a church in
the wilderness, though not as visible and lustrous, as when she was in
her former splendor of profession. In this state many attempts she made

to return, but the waters were yet too high, and her way blocked up; and
many of her excellent children, in several nations and centuries, fell by
the cruelty of superstition, because they would not fall from their
faithfulness to the truth.
The last age did set some steps towards it, both as to doctrine, worship,
and practice. But practice quickly failed: for wickedness flowed, in a
little time, as well among the professors of the reformation, as those
they reformed from; so that by the fruits of conversation they were not
to be distinguished. And the children of the reformers, if not the
reformers themselves, betook themselves, very early, to earthly policy
and power, to uphold and carry on their reformation that had been
begun with spiritual weapons; which I have often thought has been one
of the greatest reasons the reformation made no better progress, as to
the life and soul of religion. For whilst the reformers were lowly and
spiritually minded, and trusted in God, and looked to him, and lived in
his fear, and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor sought deliverance
in their own way, there were daily added to the church such as, one
might reasonably say, should be saved: for they were not so careful to
be safe from persecution, as to be faithful and inoffensive under it:
being more concerned to spread the truth by their faith and patience in
tribulation, than to get the worldly power out of their hands that
inflicted those sufferings upon them: and it will be well if the Lord
suffer them not to fall, by the very same way they took to stand.
In doctrine they were in some things short; in other things, to avoid one
extreme, they ran into another: and for worship, there was, for the
generality, more of man in it than of God. They owned the spirit,
inspiration, and revelation, indeed, and grounded their separation and
reformation upon the sense and understanding they received from it, in
the reading of the scriptures of truth. And this was their plea; the
scripture is the text, the spirit the interpreter, and that to every one for
himself. But yet there was too much of human invention, tradition, and
art, that remained both in praying and preaching; and of worldly
authority, and worldly greatness in their ministers; especially in this
kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some parts of Germany. God was
therefore pleased in England to shift us from vessel to vessel; and the

next remove humbled the ministry, so that they were more strict in
preaching, devout in praying, and zealous for keeping the