CHAPTER IV. A. 1691-continues in retirement-new Proclamation for his apprehension becomes more unpopular than everfalls under the censure of some of his own Societywrites in consequence a general letter to the members of it-is visited in his retirement-Message sent to him there by John Locke-writes a Preface to Barclay's Apology-affairs of Pennsylvania. WILLIAM PENN had been but little more than six weeks in his retirement, when another Proclamation came out for the apprehension of him, and of Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely, and of James Grahame. This Proclamation was in consequence of the accusation of Fuller. It was founded on the charge, that he and the two just mentioned had been accomplices in a conspiracy with the Earl of Clarendon, the Viscount Preston, and two others of the names of Elliott and Ashton, (the latter of whom had been executed in consequence only a month before,) to send intelligence to, and to invite over to England, James the.Second, who was then in France. The clamour now was greater than ever against him. He was loaded with reproaches from almost all quarters. All those who disliked him, and there were too many many of this description, took this new opportunity of reviling him. In the first place, those of the Church of England, except Dr. Tillotson and a very few other liberal individuals, hated him with an implacable hatred, because he had taken up the cause of the Dissenters. Hence Papist, Jesuit, Rogue, and Traitor, resounded where they went. In the second place, the Dissenters hated him because they supposed that, under the mask of religious liberty, he had been promoting the schemes of James in behalf of popery and arbitrary power. They propagated therefore the same epithets with the same industry and virulence. Thirdly, there was at this time a numerous class of foreign Protestants in the kingdom, namely, those who had fled from France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz. All these joined also in the cry of his condemnation. They had themselves smarted under the lash of Popery, and had therefore no mercy upon the man who would restore James, and thus revive it in the land which was to be now the land of their habitation. Add to this, that he began to fall under the censure of many of his own religious Society. This grieved grieved him more than all. He had borne up against the opprobrium of the world, and had made no attempt to counteract it: but he could no longer be silent under this new wound; and therefore he addressed to the members at large, through their Representatives met in their Annual Assembly, the following letter: "My beloved, dear, and honoured Brethren, My unchangeable love salutes you; and though I am absent from you, yet I feel the sweet and lowly life of your heavenly fellowship, by which I am with you, and a partaker amongst you, whom I have loved above my chiefest joy. chiefest joy. Receive no evil surmisings, neither suffer hard thoughts, through the insinuations of any, to enter your minds against me, your afflicted but not forsaken Friend and Brother. My enemies are yours; and, in the ground, mine for your sake and that God seeth in secret, and will one day reward openly. My privacy is not because men have sworn truly, but falsely, against me; 'for wicked men have laid in wait for me, and false witnesses have laid to my charge things I knew not,' who have never sought myself, but the good of all, through great enemies, and have done some good, and would have done more, and hurt no man; but always desired that Truth and. Righteousness, Mercy and Peace, might take place amongst us. Feel me near you, my dear and beloved Brethren, and leave me not, neither forsake me, but wrestle with him that is able to prevail against the cruel desires of some, that we may yet meet in the congregation of his people, as in days past, to our mutual comfort. The everlasting God of his chosen, in all generations, be in the midst of you, and crown your most solemn Assemblies with his blessed presence! that his tender, meek, lowly, and heavenly Love and Life may flow among you, and that he would please to make it a seasoning and fruitful opportunity to you, desiring to be remembered of you before him, in the nearest and freshest accesses, who cannot forget you in the nearest relation, "Your faithful Friend and Brother, "WILLIAM PENN." While he was living in retirement he was visited by a few select friends, who were mostly of the same religious profession with himself. himself. These administered to him consolation in their turn. There was one person, however, not of the Society, by whose grateful remembrance of him at this afflicting season he was peculiarly gratified. His old friend and fellow collegian, John Locke, had come home in the fleet which had brought the Prince of Orange to England. Finding that he had been persecuted in the manner described, he desired to be the instrument of procuring a pardon for him from King William. It may be remembered that William Penn had made a similar offer to Locke when the latter was in banishment at the Hague. It is remarkable that the same answers followed on both occasions. William Penn persisted in declaring that he had never been guilty of the crime alleged against him, and that he could not therefore rest satisfied with a mode of liberation, the very terms of which would be to the world a standing monument of his guilt. After this we hear nothing more of William Penn for the remainder of the year, except that he wrote a Preface to the Works of the celebrated Apologist, Robert Barclay, and another to those of John Burnyeat, an eminent |