Penn, i. 125. CHAP. ernment. He sought no revolution, but that which XVI. followed as the consequence of the public intelligence. Such revolutions were inevitable. "Though men consider it not, the Lord rules and overrules in the 12 kingdoms of men." Any other revolution would be transient. The Quakers submitted to the restoration of Charles II., as the best arrangement for the crisis; confident that time and truth would lead to a happier issue. "The best frame, in ill hands, can do nothing that is great and good. Governments, like clocks, go from the motion imparted to them; they depend on men, rather than men on government. Let Proud, i. men be good, the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it." Even with absolute power, an Antonine or an Alfred could not make bricks without straw, nor the sword do more than substitute one tyranny for another. Penn, in 198. Penn, ii. 536. The moral power of ideas is constantly effecting changes and improvement in society. No Quaker book has a trace of skepticism on man's capacity for progress. Such is the force of an honest profession of truth, the humblest person, if single-minded and firm, "can shake Fox,112. all the country for ten miles round." The integrity 347, 348. of the Inner Light is an invincible power. It is a Penn, i. power which never changes; such was the message of Fox to the pope, the kings, and nobles of all sorts; it fathoms the world, and throws down that which is conFox,176. trary to it. It quenches fire; it daunts wild beasts; it turns aside the edge of the sword; it outfaces instruments of cruelty; it converts executioners. It was remembered with exultation, that the enfranchisements of Christianity were the result of faith, and not of the sword; and that truth in its simplicity, radiating from the foot of the cross, has filled a world of sensualists XVI. with astonishment, overthrown their altars, discredit- CHAP. ed their oracles, infused itself into the soul of the multitude, invaded the court, risen superior to armies, and led magistrates and priests, statesmen and generals, in its train, as the trophies of its strength exerted 47, in its freedom. 348 Thus the Quaker was cheered by a firm belief in the progress of society. Even Aristotle, so many centuries ago, recognized the upward tendency in human affairs; a Jewish contemporary of Barclay declared that progress to be a tendency towards popular power; George Fox Fox,175 perceived that the Lord's hand was against kings; and one day, on the hills of Yorkshire, he had a vision, that he was but beginning the glorious work of God in the earth; that his followers would in time become as numerous as motes in the sunbeams; and that the party of humanity would gather the whole human race b. xxv in one sheepfold. Neither art, wisdom, nor violence, said Barclay, conscious of the vitality of truth, shall Barclay, quench the little spark that hath appeared. The atheist-such was the common opinion of the Quakersthe atheist alone denies progress, and says in his heart, All things continue as they were in the beginning. But 546. Besse, ii. 523. Penn, & 202. If, from the rules of private morality, we turn to political institutions, here also the principle of the Quaker is the Inner Light. He acquiesces in any established government which shall build its laws upon the declarations of "universal reason." government is a part of his religion; and the religion Fox, 72 that declares "every man enlightened by the divine light," establishes government on universal and equal enfranchisement. "Not one of mankind," says Penn, "is exempted from this illumination.”—“God discovers himself to Penn, i 320 CHAP. every man." He is in every breast, in the ignorant XVI. drudge as well as in Locke or Leibnitz. Every moral Penn, i. Pe truth exists in every man's and woman's heart, as an 323. Barclay, Ib. 168, Penn,iii. 183. Ib. i.203. Barclay, Penn, ii. 552. incorruptible seed; the ground may be barren, but the 295, 290. seed is certainly there. Every man is a little sovereign 169. to himself. Freedom is as old as reason itself, which is given to all, constant and eternal, the same to all 183. nations. The Quaker is no materialist; truth and conscience are not in the laws of countries; they are not one thing at Rome, and another at Athens; they cannot be abrogated by senate or people. Freedom and the right of property were in the world before Penn, Protestantism; they came not with Luther; they do not vanish with Calvin; they are the common priviIb. 1.221. lege of mankind. Barclay, 183. 221. Ibid. ii. 294. Barclay, 7. The Bible enfranchises those only to whom it is carried; Christianity, those only to whom it is made known; the creed of a sect, those only within its narrow pale. The Quaker, resting his system on the Inner Light, redeems the race. Of those who believe in the necessity of faith in an outward religion, some have cherished the mild superstition, that, in the hour of dissolution, an angel is sent from heaven "to manifest the doctrine of Christ's passion;" the Quaker believes that the heavenly messenger is always present in the breast of every man, ready to counsel the willing listener. Man is equal to his fellow-man. No class can, "by long apprenticeship" or a prelate's breath, by wearing 310, 311. black or shaving the crown, obtain a monopoly of moral truth. There is no distinction of clergy and laity. Ib. 309, The Inner Light sheds its blessings on the whole human race; it knows no distinction of sex. It redeems woman by the dignity of her moral nature, and claims for her the equal culture and free exercise of her XVI. endowments. As the human race ascends the steep ac- CHAP. clivity of improvement, the Quaker cherishes woman as the equal companion of the journey. Fox, 59; Barclay, 169, 305, Men are equal. The Quaker knows no abiding312 distinction of king and subject. The universality of the Inner Light "brings crowns to the dust, and lays Fox,175 them low and level with the earth." "The Lord will be king; there will be no crowns but to such as obey his will." With God a thousand years are indeed as one day; yet judgment on tyrants will come at last, Be and may come ere long. Besse,ii. 523. 541. Ib. 504. Ib. 505 Every man has God in the conscience; the Quaker knows no distinction of castes. He bows to God, and not to his fellow-servant. "All men are alike by creation," says Barclay; and it is slavish fear which Barclay, reverences others as gods. "I am a man," says every Quaker, and refuses homage. The most favored of his race, even though endowed with the gifts and glories of an angel, he would regard but as his fellowservant and his brother. The feudal nobility still nourished its pride. Nothing," says Penn, "noth- 1.430. ing of man's folly has less show of reason to palliate it." "What a pother has this noble blood made in the world!" "But men of blood have no marks of honor stampt upon them by nature." The Quaker scorned to take off his hat to any of them; he held himself the peer of the proudest peer in Christendom. With the Eastern despotism of Diocletian, Europe had learned the hyperboles of Eastern adulation; but "My Lord Peter and My Lord Paul are not to be found in the Bible; My Lord Solon or Lord Scipio is not to be read in Greek or Latin stories." And the Quaker 1.417. returned to the simplicity of Gracchus and Demosthenes, though "Thee and Thou proved a sore cut to Fox XVI. CHAP. proud flesh." This was not done for want of courtesy ; for "No religion," says Penn, "destroys courtesy, civiliClark ty and kindness; and kindness;" but the Quaker knew that the hat Penn, i was the symbol of enfranchisement, and was worn by Penn, in son, 1.57. the Norman nobility in presence of their king, as a proclamation that they were peers of the realm, equal with their sovereign. The Quaker historian, narrating the elevation of Cromwell, does not fail to tell, that, on assuming the power of a prince, "he covered himself, Sewel, all the others remaining uncovered." George Fox, scorning the faint-hearted republicans whose zeal melted in the sunshine of favor, refused to "eat a bit of the Protector's bread, or drink a sup of his drink;" and took care to wear the hat in his presence. After more than a century and a quarter, when, in the first great scene of May the French revolution, at the opening of the states 5. general, the clergy and the nobility, according to established privilege, had, like the king, put on their square caps and plumed bonnets, the representatives of the commons, imitating the Quaker precedent, covered their heads also with their hats, that had neither plumes nor ribands; thus explaining to the Bourbons the meaning of the Quaker symbol. 1789. George Fox declares, that he saw his doctrine in the pure openings of light without the help of any man. But the spirit that made to him the revelation was the invisible spirit of the age, rendered wise by tradition, and in a season of revolution excited by the enthusiasm of liberty and religion. There is a close analogy between the popular revolutions of France and England. In France, the same symbols and principles reappeared, but more rapidly, and on a wider theatre. The elements of humanity are always the same; the Inner Light dawns upon every nation, and is the same |