OF THE INTRODUCTION. PART THE FIRST. The parentage, birth and education of William Penn, with the time and manner of his embracing the religion of the people called Quakers, &c. In the account of the religious system and manners of the Quakers. are comprehended: 1. The time, motive and manner of their first rise, and becoming a religious fociety. 2. Their first and chief principle, &c. 3. Their wor hip and ministry, with fome of their chief and particular doctrines. Their other tenets, doctrines, practices and customs, more peculiar to them than to other people, are ranged under the following heads, viz. 1. Their juftice, veracity and true Chriflian fortitude. 2. Their temperance and moderation. 3. Their charity and loving one another. 4. Under the first of these heads are comprised: Their difufe of flattering titles, and their not respecting perfons, &c. Their ufing the plain and true fpeech of thou and thee, to a fingle perfon, &c. Their difufe of the common falutations, &c. Their non-observance of holy-days, faft-days, &c. Their manner of naming the months, and days of the week, &c. Their refufing to pay tithes, pricfl' wages, &c. Their ftrictly paying the government taxes, dues, &c. Their not fuffering the Negro or flave-trade among them. Their refusing to fwear on any occafion. Their fortitude, in valiantly fuffering for their teftimony. 5. Under the fecond head are, Their difufe of gaming, Sports, plays, &c. In their diet and difcourfe. In their furniture and apparel. At their births, marriages and funerals. [3] 6. Under 6. Under the third head are reprefented: Their loving one another, and refraining from law-fuits, among them- Their loving enemies, and not fighting, but fuffering, &c. Their charity to the poor :- 7. Their marriages, births, burials and difcipline, from IV. Penn; con- cluded with fome further hints of the temper, and general difpo. fition of mind, and of the practice of this people, in early time, from W. Penn, and W. Edmundfon. Further account of the life of William Penn, continued till about the 1. First European discoveries of the different parts of America, by Spain, Portugal and England, from the year 1492 to 1497. 2. Summary of the ancient Virginia; and of the Dutch and Swede's pretenfions to what was called New Netherland by the former, and New Swedeland by the latter :-With a sketch of the firlt fettlement, Baltimore, in 1632; and of the reduction of the Dutch and Swedes under the British government in 1664. 3. First rife of New-Jersey, in 1664; and fome account of the En- glish administration by the governors of N. York, over the country on Delaware, till it was retaken by the Dutch, in 1673;-and of the go- vernment there, after it was furrendered to England. mary of the first fettlement and public tranfactions of Weft New-Jersey, by the Quakers, &c. continued from the divifion of the province, in 1676, till about the time of IV. Penn's obtaining the grant of Pennfyl- 5. A fketch of the religious ftate of West N. Jersey, about that time, with fome further hints of its general fituation, or ftate, till the fur- render of the refpective proprietary governments to the crown, in A general and comprehensive view of the rife, princi- THE wifdom of former ages, when tranfmitted, office and tory, &c, in writing, to pofterity, is an ineftimable treasure; ufe of hif but the actions of illuftrious and virtuous perfons, in the fame manner exhibited, is ftill more beneficial: by the former our judgments are rightly informed, and our minds brought into a proper way of thinking; by the latter we are animated to an imitation; and while the excellency of noble examples is displayed before our understandings, our minds are infpired with a love of virtue. This appears to be the office of hiftory; by which every fucceeding age may avail itfelf of the wifdom, and, even, of the folly, of the preceding, and become wifer and happier by a proper application. Though W. Penn this medium when we view the conduct of those great men of antiquity, who have benefited mankind, in their most effential interefts, they appear frequently to have been actuated by motives, the most difinterested, and attended with a fatisfaction more than human!-Adverfity, which refines men, and renders them more fit to benefit the human race, is a frequent concomitant of worthy minds; and apparent fuccefs doth not always immediately attend noble and just designs:-When a Scerates is put to death, wisdom and truth feem to fuffer; and when an Ariftides is exiled, justice appears to be in difgrace. But virtue is its own reward, and depends not on the fluctuating opinions of mortals, nor on the breath of popular applaufe; which is often on the fide of error, and entirely oppofite to the real interefts of its votaries. An example of true wifdom and fortitude, is an example no lefs confpicuous in the venerable founder of the of wisdom province of Pennsylvania, the truly great and wor tude. thy William Penn, than in many of the celebrated fages and legiflators of former ages; who, in oppofition to the vulgar notions of the times in which they lived, have feemingly fuffered in their own particulars, in order to benefit mankind: this will appear in the following sketch of his life, both with refpect to his religion in joining with the people called Quakers, and likewife in fettling the province itself. In both of which his engagement for the happiness of men was not unattended with a large share of that difficulty and oppofition, to which the most excellent undertakings are generally expofed: but minds of fuch exalted virtue are actuated by motives above mortality, and indifputably are influenced by fomething divine; without which, as Cicero fays," there never was a really good and great man.* His "Credendum eft neminem virorum bonorum talem fuiffe, nifi adjuvane Pro; & nemo unquam fuit vir magnus fine afflatu aliquo divino." Cic. de natura Deorum. ral Penn. His father, Sir William Penn, was of eminent of his facharacter; and ferved both under the parliament, ther admis and king Charles the fecond, in several of the highest maritime offices.* He was born in Bristol, anno 1621; and married Margaret, daughter of John Fafper, of Rotterdam in Holland, merchant; by Biographie whom he had his fon William Penn. He was him- Britannica. felf the fon of captain Giles Penn, feveral years Hisdefcent conful for the English, in the Mediterranean; and of the Penns of Penns-lodge, in the county of Wilts; and those Penns of Penn, in the county of Bucks; and by his mother, from the Gilberts, in the county of Somerset, originally from Yorkshire. He was addicted from his youth to maritime af- His offi`es. fairs, and made captain at twenty-one years of age; rear admiral of Ireland, at twenty-three; vice admiral of Ireland, at twenty-five; admiral to the Straits, at twenty-nine; vice admiral of England, at thirty-one; and general in the first Dutch war, at thirty-two. Whence returning, anno 1655, he was a parliament man for the town of Weymouth; in 1660, he was made commiffioner of the admiralty and navy, governor of the town and fort of Kingsail; vice admiral of Munster, and a member of that provincial council; and anno 1664, he was chofen great captain commander under the Duke of York, in that fignal, and moft evidently fuccefful fight with the Dutch Fleet. Thus he took leave of the fea, but continued His death. still in his other employments, till 1669; at which time, through bodily infirmities, contracted by the care W. Penn, in his printed works, fays further refpecting his father, Admiral Penn;-" He was engaged both under the parliament and king, but not as an actor in the domeftic troubles; his compafs always teering him to eye a national concern, and not inteltine wars. His fervice, therefore, being wholly foreign, he may be truly faid to ferve his country, rather than either of thefe interefts, fo far as they were distinct from each other."-Again, "In the attack on Hifpaniola, his employ was only as general of the flect; from which the mifcarriage did not arife; it was owing to the land forces, over which he had no cominand. PENN's Works. |