As Barclay, in

a concurrence from the parliament as will secure it to our posterity.* compliance with the request of Fox and his friends, left home in the Second month (April) that year, there is little doubt that he was present at the Yearly Meeting, which was sitting the 19th of the Third month, as appears by the date of the address.

The applications of the friends in London to ROBERT BARCLAY, had been made many months before he concluded to come to that city, and soon after the accession of the king.

It

may not be improper to insert, on this occasion, part of the letter from George Fox,

with a postscript written by two other friends,

1

as testimonials of their love, and of the sense which his friends had of his usefulness, and alacrity in serving the cause he had espoused.

*This address is particularly mentioned, because a spurious one

to James 2d. has been attributed to the Quakers.

*Edmonton, 19th of the 5th month, 1686.

The occasion of my writing to thee at this time is, that Friends were very sensible of the 'great service thou hadst concerning the Truth, ⚫ with the king and all the court; and that thou hadst their ear more than any friend, when here, and freedom and liberty on Friends' and • Truth's behalf. And now, dear ROBERT, · we understanding that the occasion of thy sudden return concerning the condition thy wife was in, being now over by her being delivered, I desire thee, and it is the desire of several other friends, that, whilst the door is open and the way so plain, thou wouldst be pleased to come to London with speed, or as soon as may be. There is a great service in thy coming, upon several accounts, more than I shall mention at this time; and so I hope the Lord will incline thy heart to weigh and consider thy service in it.

* Memoirs p. 54€

"The within desire of George Fox is also

the desire of us, and we think of all the

'friends here: we therefore hope thou wilt do • the needful therein.

We are thy real friends,

'JOHN OSGOOD,

FRANCIS CAMFIELD."

Let not any reader be so fastidious as to contemn the simple stile of George Fox. Though unlettered, he possessed a sound judgment and a quick apprehension. But had he been, and were many more of the advocates for the inward light of Christ, and for a self-denying life, deficient in acuteness of understanding,. this would not detract from their virtue, nor from the purity and excellence of religion. If the offices of religion are often filled by persons not distinguished by superior mental acquisi

tions, one cause of it may be, the too frequent refusal of talents and learning to bend in subjection to the humbling power of the cross. It seems difficult to quit this subject without expressing an ardent wish, that, amidst the career of prosperity, and the captivating charms of indulgence, some reader may be found, who may be willing here to pause; to consider, with BARCLAY, that the height of all happiness

is placed in the true knowledge of God;'t and to inquire seriously of the Divine witness. in the heart, Am I really concerned to obtain, and to preserve this knowledge; or, is it the whole, or the chief, business of my life, to pursue things of a temporal nature?"

During this time of ROBERT BARCLAY'S abode in the metropolis, he presented to the king an address of acknowledgment from the general meeting of Friends at Aberdeen. He

*See a remarkable Case, in Apol. Prop. 10, § 19, towards the end. See also 23, for Barclay's own experience.

+ Apol. Prop. 1.

also visited the seven bishops, then confined in the Tower for having refused to distribute, in their respective dioceses, the king's declaration for liberty of conscience; and for having represented to the king the grounds of their objec tion to the measure. The popular opinion was in favour of the bishops :* yet the former severities of some of that order against dissenters, particularly against Friends, occasioned some reflections on them; which, coming to the knowledge of the imprisoned bishops, they declared that the Quakers had belied them, by reporting that they had been the death of some. ROBERT BARCLAY being informed of this declaration, went to the Tower; and gave the bishops a well substantiated account of some persons having been detained in prison till death, by order of bishops, though they had been apprized of the danger by physicians who

Gough, Vol. iii. p. 198.