In

mestic meeting an oblation to the Father of all mercies. This little meeting is described by him to have been "a sweet meeting, in which the divine presence made them glad together," and in which he was sensible, whatever sacrifices he had made by his journey, that " they were blessed who could cheerfully give up to serve the Lord.” Having reposed for two or three weeks with his family, he went to London, from whence he addressed a letter to John Pennyman on the subject of his apostasy. about a month after this we find him at Bristol. Here he, G. Fox, C. Marshall, and others, held the great dispute with William Rogers, and some of the separatists, on the subject of church discipline. Rogers who was a merchant of Bristol, and who had joined the society, had attacked Robert Barclay's "Anarchy of the Ranters," and had been so defeated by the reply, as to have acknowledged his error under his own hand. Notwithstanding this, he had afterwards published his objections to the same work, and had been defeated by R. Barclay again. Not even yet satisfied, he had lately circulated papers on the same subject, and this it was

VOL. I.

that at length brought him to such a public settlement of the affair between them.

After the controversy, William Penn returned to London, and from thence to Worminghurst. While he was at home, he wrote letters to his friends in Germany, which have been preserved, such as to J. Claus, and P. Hendricks, who were in part companions of his late travels, and to others who belonged to the Quaker-Churches, which had been established there.

I see no occa

sion to lay these letters before the reader, for they are mostly of the same cast. He makes one general use of them, namely, to encourage his friends, as young persons or beginners in the faith, to put them in mind of the great principle on which they became a religious society, and to recommend to them peace and union with each other.

CHAP

CHAPTER XIV.

A. 1678-continues his management of West New Jersey -sends two other vessels there-petitions Parliament in behalf of the persecuted Quakers—is heard by a committee of the Commons-his two speeches before them-remarks upon these-writes "A brief answer to a false and foolish Libel”—also " An Epistle to the Children of Light in this Generation."

WI

ILLIAM PENN continued active in his station as a trustee for Byllinge. He had, as we have seen before, in conjunction with his colleagues, sent off Fenwick in the ship Griffith, accompanied by several families, to take possession of the land in West New Jersey, which had been purchased of the Lord Berkeley. This was in 1676. In the last year, 1677, he had dispatched commissioners, and three vessels, carrying no less. than four hundred and fourteen passengers, proprietors, with their servants and children, to the same parts. In the early part of the present year, he was employed in the same manner. He had influence to freight two other ships, one from London, and the other from Hull, with persons on the same errand; so that now about eight hundred settlers, mostly

P 2

mostly Quakers and persons of property and character, had set sail for the new land. ·

But while he was thus occupied in the arrangement of these his foreign concerns, his attention was called to the situation of things at home, and particularly as they related to his own religious society. In the early part of this year, the different acts which had been enacted against the Roman Catholics, began to be enforced with extraordinary rigour. Only a few years before, the great fire in London had taken place, the cause of which had been imputed to them. The fires on St. Margaret's Hill, and in Southwark, which followed, had been attributed to them also. And now, to add to the public consternation, a design of a most wicked and mischievous nature was said to have been discovered, which, on account of its nature and intended effects, was denominated The Popish Plot. Under these circumstances both the Parliament and the people were so incensed against the Roman Catholics, that all the laws which had been passed against them were pressed to their full length. Hence it happened that the Dissenters, against whom these laws were never in

tended,

tended, became unexpectedly the objects of them; for wherever Roman Catholicism was suspected, it was sure of being put to the test. Now it happened that William Penn was considered by many to be a Jesuit, and this circumstance gave occasion to these to consider the Quakers, to whom he belonged, in the same light. Hence almost immediately they experienced. the same severe prosecutions in the Exchequer as the Roman Catholics for penalties of twenty pounds a month for absence from the national worship, or of two thirds of their estates for the like offence, though there was actually no existing law against them. The evil then, as may be well supposed, where so many might be suspected, had been carried to an alarming length, of which the Parliament itself had indeed become so sensible, that it took under its consideration a distinguishing clause in the bill against Popery, or a clause for the discrimination of Protestant Dissenters from Papists, so that they who would take the oath and subscribe the declaration therein contained, should not suffer by such laws. Now this measure, though reasonable in itself, and sufficient as it related to other Dissenters, was of no

use