although they be but low and mean in the world's eye and esteem. God is pleased to make choice of low, mean, and weak things, and of instruments contemptible in the eyes of the high and lofty ones of this world, to confound the wisdom of the world, according to 1 Cor. i. He chose poor shepherds to divulge that great evangelical truth of Christ's birth; and certain women to preach that Gospel truth of his resurrection, (Luke, ii. and xxiv.) and both from angelical testimony, as well as from their sight of Christ himself. Truth must not be rejected because of such instruments which God in his wisdom is pleased to employ in his work; nor the day of small things despised: from small beginnings of good matters, great things, glorious attainments and perfections, do spring. Glory, honour and dominion, to our most gracious God, and to the Lamb on his throne, for ever and ever." These extracts from G. Whitehead's preface may serve as a sufficient illustration of G. Fox's sentiments on some points of Christian doctrine, in regard to which his soundness was so frequently impugned by his enemies, as the most ready mode of depreciating him in general esteem. It had been found in earlier times much easier to call a reformer a Gnostic or a Manichee, than to dispute his doctrine or condemn his life; and such is the effect of bold assertion, that, though so often contradicted and disproved, the charge of denying the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and of undervaluing his various offices, as our Mediator, Intercessor, and Redeemer, has yet hardly lost its influence on our Christian brethren of other Societies. It must be admitted, however, that the adherence to a confession of faith in very nearly the words of Scripture, and the abandonment of certain terms of scholastic theology which had become as a sort of shibboleth of orthodoxy, may probably have led persons attached to those expressions, to suspect a much greater deviation from their own sentiments than actually existed. It may be said of the early Friends, as Erasmus observes of the primitive Christians, that they were afraid to pronounce of God any thing but what was plainly expressed in the Sacred Writings; and it is worthy of observation, in the history of the Church, how creeds became enlarged, and became less and less scriptural, as Christian piety decayed, and the simplicity of the faith was corrupted. It may possibly be inquired, why the present Selection has been made only from the separate volume of Epistles, and has not included some of those in the Journal, which are equally valuable. I would reply, that already a selection has been made of some of the most important of these, in the abridgment of George Fox's life by my late father, to whose volume I have pleasure in considering the present as a companion. Perhaps, however, the more probable wish of the reader will be, that the Selection already made had been less copious. The desire to give a full and fair view of the author's opinions as expressed in his letters, may have led, in some instances, to an unnecessary repetition; but, as the frequent recurrence of particular sentiments mark the high estimation which they hold in the writer's mind, it seemed needful, for the purpose of exhibiting his views fairly, to give, to a considerable extent, the reiterations which were found in the original work. But, whilst anxious to give, in the following extracts, a fair specimen of the Epistles of G. Fox, I have not thought it a departure from this principle, to make a few slight alterations in the text, by the omission and occasional transposition of words in a sentence, where it did not in any degree alter the sense; by correcting some grammatical inaccuracies; and, occasionally, by the alteration of an antiquated word. CONTENTS. Many of the Epistles are of so general a nature, that it 141. To Friends to gather up their sufferings, and lay 148 An Exhortation to fervent Prayer and steadfast 250. A Warning to all to keep out of the vain Fashions 252. To Friends in the Ministry, scattered abroad in Virginia, Maryland, New England, Barbadoes, and other Plantations beyond the Sea...... 263. An Exhortation to keep to the ancient Principles 264. Extracts from other of G. Fox's Epistles, both of former and latter dates, relating to matter re- |