Three Apostles of Quakerism: Popular Sketches of Fox, Penn and BarclayRhodes, Benjamin
History
Three Apostles of Quakerism: Popular Sketches of Fox, Penn and Barclay
Rhodes, Benjamin
Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690; Fox, George, 1624-1691; Penn, William, 1644-1718; Society of Friends
In 1673 died Alexander Jaffray, whose valuable diary gives us such an
interesting picture of the religious life of his time. The editor of
it, John Barclay of Croydon, the laborious editor of many standard
Quaker journals, found it in two parts, whilst ransacking Ury for
remains of his distinguished ancestor. He published with it a sketch of
the early history of Friends in Scotland, especially enriched with the
substance of the minutes of the Ury meeting. Much valuable information
was added in copious notes, the whole forming a precious memorial
of a period of eminent spirituality and remarkable faithfulness to
conscience. Jaffray's death-bed was visited by many who rejoiced in the
remarkable experiences and testimony he furnished. We may be sure that
the Apologist was amongst the number.
In the same year, 1673, was published Barclay's well-known Quaker
Catechism. Part of its quaint title richly deserves quoting. He calls
it a "Catechism and confession of faith, approved of and agreed unto by
the General Assembly of the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles, Christ
himself chief speaker in and among them." Thus he steals a march on the
Assembly's Catechism on the very title-page. The object of the little
book was to meet the allegation that the Quakers vilified and denied
the Scriptures, by asserting their whole creed in the language of the
Scriptures. The answers to the successive questions therefore are
passages of Scripture without note or comment. The work is deftly done,
and the Catechism has had a very large circulation.
In the next year, 1674, we find him attending the Friends' Yearly
Meeting in London, then newly established, and taking part in a visit
of remonstrance to the notorious Ludovic Muggleton. The only account
of the interview occurs in the journal of John Gratton, the ancestor
of John Bright, who was one of the party. It is interesting chiefly as
indicating the hopefulness with which the early Friends tried to do
good unto all men. Their patience must have been sorely tried by the
ridiculous answers of the pretended prophet, whom they entrapped and
exposed several times in their short interview.[17] Yet this is the man
whom Macaulay represents as morally and intellectually the equal of
George Fox.
[17] William Penn had exposed him two years before in a pamphlet
entitled, "The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics." However he still
gained converts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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