A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers | Page 8

preface, but so much as to repeat the
contents of their cruel sufferings; from professors as well as from

profane, and from magistrates as well as the rabble: that it may be said
of this abused and despised people, they went forth weeping, and
sowed in tears, bearing testimony to the precious seed, even the seed of
the kingdom, which stands not in words, the finest, the highest that
man's wit can use; but in power, the power of Christ Jesus, to whom
God the Father hath given all power in heaven and in earth, that he
might rule angels above, and men below. Who empowered them, as
their work witnesseth, by the many that were turned through their
ministry, from darkness to light, and out of the broad into the narrow
way of life and peace: bringing people to a weighty, serious, and
God-like conversation; the practice of that doctrine which they taught.
And as without this secret divine power, there is no quickening and
regenerating of dead souls, so the want of this generating and begetting
power and life, is the cause of the little fruit that the many ministries,
that have been and are in the world, bring forth. O that both ministers
and people were sensible of this! My soul is often troubled for them,
and sorrow and mourning compass me about for their sakes. O that
they were wise! O that they would consider, and lay to heart the things
that truly and substantially make for their lasting peace!
Two things are to be considered; the doctrine they taught, and the
example they led among all people. I have already touched upon their
fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric: and,
indeed, to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic, or main
distinguishing point or principle, viz. the light of Christ within, as
God's gift for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly
tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now
mention in their natural and experimental order.
First, repentance from dead works to serve the living God. Which
comprehends three operations. First, a sight of sin. Secondly, a sense
and godly sorrow for sin. Thirdly, an amendment for the time to come.
This was the repentance they preached and pressed, and a natural result
from the principle they turned all people unto. For of light came sight;
and of sight came sense and sorrow; and of sense and sorrow came
amendment of life. Which doctrine of repentance leads to justification;

that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, through Christ the alone
propitiation, and the sanctification or purgation, of the soul from the
defiling nature and habits of sin present, by the Spirit of Christ in the
soul; which is justification in the complete sense of that word:
comprehending both justification from the guilt of the sins that are past,
as if they had never been committed, through the love and mercy of
God in Christ Jesus; and the creature's being made inwardly just,
through the cleansing and sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ
revealed in the soul; which is commonly called sanctification. But none
can come to know Christ to be their sacrifice, that reject him as their
sanctifier: the end of his coming being to save his people from the
nature and defilement, as well as guilt of sin; and, therefore, those that
resist his light and Spirit, make his coming and offering of none effect
to them.
From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the
mark of the prize of the high calling to all true Christians, viz.
Perfection from sin, according to the scriptures of truth; which testify it
to be the end of Christ's coming, and the nature of his kingdom, and for
which his Spirit was and is given, viz. to be perfect as our Heavenly
Father is perfect, and holy, because God is holy. And this the apostles
laboured for, that the Christians should be sanctified throughout in
body, soul, and spirit; but they never held a perfection in wisdom and
glory in this life, or from natural infirmities, or death, as some have,
with a weak or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against them.
This they called a redeemed state, regeneration, or the new birth:
teaching everywhere, according to their foundation, that unless this
work was known, there was no inheriting of the kingdom of God.
Thirdly, this leads to an acknowledgment of eternal rewards and
punishments, as they have good reason; for else, of all people, certainly
they must be most miserable, who, for above forty years, have been
exceeding great sufferers for their profession; and, in some cases,
treated worse than the worst of men; yea, as