An introduction to the life and Christian service of William Penn, a stalwart of faith in the Philadelphia period. “Being ready to faint concerning my hope of the restitution of all things, it was at this time the Lord visited me with a certain and sound testimony of his eternal world.” – William Penn {1}

A seasoned man of arms learns both victory and defeat. It was defeat on every front that hung in the bitter December air for Sir William Penn. Fourteen years earlier he was a hero for a series of naval victories that included his capture of Dutch Jamaica. He contributed greatly to the advancement of British interests over Dutch interests and in the process rose to the highest levels of government. Sir William served as an Admiral of the British Navy. But in renewed warfare, a daring Dutch raid in June 1667 slipped unobserved past his coastal guard. It struck within 25 miles of London on the Medway River in Kent. During the summer of 1668 a civilian review board impeached and removed him from duty. Even before their verdict, his health began to fail. {2}

Added to these woes, the latest blow was the second arrest within thirteen months of his namesake son William, now aged 23. Once again, it was for religious activism. The warrant, dated December 16, committed him to close confinement in the Tower of London, only a few hundred paces from the Penn residence. The Bishop of London had brought charges against the young Penn for authoring a `Blasphemous Booke lately Printed Intitulated `The Sandy Foundation Shaken.’ Most grievous to the bishop was an attack on the Trinity, asserting `that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are not one Eternal Substance’ {3} Penn further wrote, `And if the divine nature be in three distinct so as that one is not the other, it must follow that there would be three distinct gods… For what can any man of sense conclude but that there be three distinct infinities…’ Penn argued for common sense and against employing `the terms of heathenish philosophy’ in examining Trinitarian doctrine. Christ’s Church should no longer be guided by such tradition into accepting `Aquinas, the great adored St. Thomas of Rome, and one of the most renowned doctors of the Romish church, which may inform well-meaning Protestants to what refuge our adversaries run.’ {4}

Young William Penn had only a few approved visitors and no exercise or fresh air. Because of his social position, he was confined in the Queen’s house — a sturdy two story stucco and beam construction facing the neatly manicured tower green with a view of the private execution block. Conditions for his printer John Derby at Gate House were far worse. {5}

YOUNG PENN’S EARLY COURSE OF LIFE

In character young William seemed much more like his mother, Margaret Jasper Vandershuren Penn, the amiable and sensible daughter of a Dutch merchant from Rotterdam. Sir William long had borne the annoyance of his son’s religious zeal. First there was the adolescent skirmish with the Episcopal church stirred up by the Quaker preaching of Thomas Loe in Macroom, which 16-year-old William had attended.

Two years later, in 1662, he and several schoolmates acted on this preaching. They were expelled from the prestigious Christ Church College of Oxford for publicly criticizing the ceremonies of the Church of England. After this humiliation, the Admiral whipped, beat, turned his son out of doors, {6} and sent him to Paris to learn something of the real world.

William soon tired of Paris. In 1663 he enrolled in studies at L’Academie Protestante de Saumur, then a flourishing center of Huguenot culture, and one of Europe’s leading centers for Protestant learning. It may be surprising that such a center briefly prospered in France. However, the charter for the Academy was a consequence of the liberal policies in 1598 instituted by the Protestant born and raised Henry IV. Henry desired to make amends for the horrors of his predecessor Charles IX in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. {7} Though for political expediency Henry abjured his Protestant upbringing for Catholicism, his clear sympathies led to continuing Jesuit inspired intrigues against him. He was assassinated in 1610. {8}

At Saumur, Penn lived and studied with the distinguished theologian Moise Amyraut. Amyraut struggled to reconcile the Calvinist doctrine of election with the Arminian doctrine of free grace and universal salvation. {9} His unsatisfying arguments were roundly criticized by both sides of the debate.

The words were yet sealed. Nearly two hundred years would pass. Then the recovery of the scriptural promises for both a heavenly and an earthly kingdom would provide a soul-satisfying harmony. Scriptural testimony supporting both election and free grace would stand reconciled.

CHRONOLOGY — OUR HUGUENOT LEGACY

The air at Saumur was filled with discussion on Biblical prophecies that is surprisingly familiar. Of special interest were the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The collective opinion held that the church was in the sixth, or Philadelphia stage. This point was not lost on Penn later in life. Huguenot scholar Pierre de Launay (1573-1661) was engaged in historical studies to determine when during the ravages of the Goths and Vandals that broke up the Roman empire one should begin counting the 1260 days of Daniel using the day- for-a-year formula. He applied the Two Witnesses to the Old and New Testaments. Amyraut took exception with some of de Launay’s views, maintaining that the one thousand year reign of the church would come only after the ruin of the iron and clay in Daniel’s image. {10}

However the most significant Huguenot scholar at the time would have been Pierre Jurieu (1637-1713), then a young man himself. Writing in 1686, after the Huguenot suppression and expulsion from France in 1685, Jurieu extended de Launay’s methods. He concluded that the Lord’s special judgment would fall on France — the tenth part of the city — in the decade of 1780-90, and certainly by 1796.11 These insights were repeated and incorporated by a number of later writers such as John Lathrop (1731-1820), a Yale-educated divinity scholar. He was particularly active in drawing attention to Jurieu’s Chronology studies predicting the revolution in France nearly one hundred years in advance. Lathrop created a spark of interest in Biblical Chronology that William Miller (1781-1849) would fan into a full flame during his ministry.

Amyraut, at age 67, died just after New Years 1664, but Penn stayed on at Saumur a few months longer. A report to Sir William Penn in April 1664 speaks of William’s `very good character’ and reported that he `keeps pace with the best sort of company amongst whom the best things are craved:’ The letter wrongly muses that little harm could come from these studies. {12}

WILLIAM PENN’S CONVERSION

After Penn’s return to England later in 1664, he enrolled in the reading of law at Lincoln. Samuel Pepys, a famed observer of affairs in London, was unimpressed by `the vanity of [Penn’s] French garb and the manner of his speech and gait:’ Yet a troubled poem the same year shows that beneath these appearances was a soul in turmoil. The struggles of youth and his heart sympathy for those in `covenant’ relationship to God filled his thoughts.’ {³} The participation in a `covenant by sacrifice’ Psalms 50:5 was being recovered by the Lord’s people through the general re-examination of scriptures following the Reformation. Soon through the writings of William Penn, the emblem of the `Cross and Crown’ would emerge to be disseminated throughout North America and Europe.

When the hand of providence is upon one of God’s servants, irony is not uncommon. In 1665, Sir William again sent his son off on travel, this time to Ireland to press the family’s claims to estates that would later be the source of young Penn’s great inherited wealth. While there, William tasted military action and blood when he joined a contingent that helped to quell a troop mutiny in Belfast. Flushed with excitement that fame and fortune lay through arms, he commissioned a half-portrait. This work shows a dashing youth, with dark shoulder-length hair, wearing the black armor of battle and a cravat. Only the expressive kindness in his eyes — those mirrors of the soul — belays the portrait’s message. This painting of young William Penn in full military dress remains his only certain portrait from life.

Sir William sent him back to Cork, Ireland in 1667 to arrange for leases and rents on the family properties. In Cork, late that summer, Penn again went to the sermons of Thomas Loe, the same preacher who had incited his expulsion from Oxford. The surviving tract Thomas Loe wrote suggests the topic of his powerful discourse: `Bear the cross, and stand faithful to God, then he will give thee an everlasting crown of glory, that shall not be taken from thee There is no other way that shall prosper than that which holy men of old have walked:’ {14}

William Penn’s course for life was now fixed for Christ. {15} `Christ’s Cross is Christ’s way to Christ’s Crown… It is a path God, in his everlasting kindness, guided my feet into in the flower of my youth, when about twenty-two years of age; He took me by the hand and led me out of the pleasures and vanities and hopes of the world… to strive against the world, the flesh, and the devil `

His father, perhaps alarmed by reports of his son’s conversion to Quakerism, repeatedly ordered him directly home, and not to stop at Bristol. All to no avail. On the 3rd of November 1667, right on the stroke of the prophetic clock, young Penn was arrested for the first of many times because of his religious activity. {16} His crime was participating in a Quaker assembly on Sunday — then heretical by law. Here Penn made his first protest for religious liberty and for the important theme of the separation of church and state. Penn’s letter from jail to the Lord President of Munster, the Earl of Orrery, sets the case this way. {17}

‘Though to dissent from a national system imposed by authority renders men heretics, yet I dare believe your Lordships better read in Reason and Theology than to subscribe [to] a maxim so vulgar and untrue… [as to believe] Religious Government suited to the nature and genius of a civil empire:’

The Earl sent back a fiery warning and advised young Penn that Dad, Sir William, was being sent copies of all correspondence on this matter. He added further warning against his Quaker associations. Nevertheless the charges were set aside and those jailed were released. Penn, ignoring his father’s wishes, and no doubt fearful of his wrath, came home by way of Bristol so he could spend time in fellowship with George Bishop, a respected former associate of his father. This old comrade-at-arms had turned away from military service in 1654 to become a pacifist Quaker. George Bishop wrote a warm letter of commendation to Sir William on behalf of young Penn. {18}

‘[I] do rejoice to see the Mercy to your family; and that the loving kindness of the Lord hath visited this thy son, to give him the true sense and conviction of that which since his childhood he hath sought to understand; to whom I hope you will be tender and receive him into your Arms and Love; [rather] than by any kind of estrangedness, put sadness on him..:’

The feared `estrangedness’ took place. The father turned his son out of the house. Not surprisingly, lengthy theological treatises from young William to his father were unheeded. To add to young Penn’s afflictions, death again claimed close friends and mentors as it had claimed Moise Amyraut. His dear friends Thomas Loe and George Bishop died in 1668.19 Possibly this impressed on him the brevity of our earthly course. His ministry was to be radically different from that which preceded it. Now William Penn’s ministry became even more public and more controversial, leading to his treatise The Sandy Foundation Shaken; and then — prison.

In correspondence related to The Sandy Foundation Shaken Penn engaged in sophisticated argument so he would not be dismissed as unlearned and simple-minded. But from his earliest writings Penn maintained that the Lord’s word should not be understood by convoluted, academic arguments, because `Scholars… will… mix school learning amongst your simpler and purer language, and thereby obscure the brightness of the testimony:’ {2} °

He did not waiver in his position on the Trinity. Citing support from earlier scholars Paulus Samosata, Macedonius and Sabellius, he wrote later, in 1674: `It is manifest then, though I deny the Trinity of Separate Persons in one Godhead, yet consequentially, [I] do not deny the deity of Jesus Christ’21

NO CROSS — NO CROWN

The seven months in prison were spent writing No Cross — No Crown, `A discourse showing the nature and discipline of the holy Cross of Christ, and that denial of self, and daily bearing of Christ’s Cross, is alone the way to rest and the Kingdom of God:’ Even after three hundred years, and 53 editions, it is a moving call to a life of consecrated living. The wide distribution of this work includes editions in French, German, and Dutch. No Gross — No Crown helped to fix the image of the Cross and Crown in the hearts and minds of a broad spectrum of the Lord’s people. Its language is simple and sincere. Its extensive scriptural references show a thorough knowledge of scripture. It employs the question format of teaching. It asks `What is the Cross of Christ?’

‘… [It] is that divine grace and power… that constantly opposeth itself to the inordinate and fleshly appetites… and so may be justly termed the instrument of man’s wholly dying to the world and being made conformable to the will of God… The way of taking up the cross is an entire resignation of soul Oh! This shows to every one’s experience how hard it is to be a true disciple of Jesus. The way is narrow indeed, and the gate very strait… they that can not endure the cross must never have the crown. To reign, it is necessary first to suffer.’ {22}

‘What is our cup and cross that we should drink and suffer? They are the denial and offering up of ourselves, by the same spirit, to do or suffer the will of God for his service and glory, which is the true obedience of the cross of Jesus… He travelled through all the straits and difficulties of humanity first… 0 come! Let us follow him, the most unwearied, the most victorious captain of our salvation; to whom all the great Alexanders and mighty Caesars of the world are less than the poorest soldier of their camp could be to them… For Christ made himself of no reputation to save mankind; but these have plentifully ruined people to augment theirs… they advanced their empire by rapine and blood, but he by suffering and persuasion… Misery and slavery followed all their victories, his brought greater freedom and felicity to those he overcame. In all they did, they sought to please themselves; in all he did, he sought to please his Father, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is the most perfect pattern of self-denial we must follow, if we will ever come to glory’ {23}

THE CHURCH — GOD’S ETERNAL HABITATION

Penn also developed a theme neglected for nearly one thousand years by focusing on ignored scriptural promises. The tone for conventional views of heaven had been set by Catholic writers, and little modified by Protestants. An example is one of the most important writings of Western Civilization — The City of God (413 AD). Here the Bishop of Hippo (St. Augustine) set forth an inspiring vision of heavenly bliss and the communion of the saints that is both powerful and lovely: {24}

‘The conclusion is that in the everlasting City, there will remain in each and every one of us an inalienable freedom of will, emancipating us from every evil and filling us with every good, rejoicing in the inexhaustible beatitude of everlasting happiness, unclouded by the memory of any sin or sanction suffered, yet with no forgetfulness of our redemption nor of any loss of gratitude for our redeemer The memory of previous miseries will be purely a matter of mental contemplation… And, surely, in all that City nothing will be lovelier than that song in praise of the grace of Christ by whose blood all there were saved… the end of all our living, that Kingdom without end, the real goal of our present life:’

In focusing on the inspiring promises of scripture St. Augustine minimized the importance of the life experiences of the church — these are memories dissipated like clouds. But Penn recognized that these life experiences acquired under unfavorable conditions will eternally benefit the church. {25}

‘For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said… {2 Corinthians 6:16} This is the evangelical temple, the Christian church whose ornaments are not… worldly art and wealth, but the graces of the spirit: meekness, love, faith, patience, self-denial and charity… This living house is more glorious than Solomon’s dead house; and of which he was but a figure, as he, the builder, was of Christ, who builds up a holy temple to God… But the divine glory, the beauty of holiness in the gospel house or church, made up of renewed believers, should exceed the outward glory of Solomon’s temple..’

This focus on the church as God’s glorious eternal habitation was really ground breaking. In contrast to St. Augustine, the church does not merely deaden the memories of their sufferings and join the heavenly realm in rest, love and praise — their sufferings, bearing the cross, and their graces of the spirit, constitute them as the holy temple to God.

VICTORY THROUGH PATIENCE AND LONG-SUFFERING

After being released from the Tower July 1669, Penn again took up his evangelical travels. In an extended trip to Ireland in September he combined business and evangelical work. He established active contacts with Quakers throughout the British isles and was again arrested for preaching in August 1670. Civil disobedience was now a way of life. His father’s health weakened further and Penn agreed to let his father pay his fine so that he could leave Newgate prison in October 1670, one month before his father’s death. As the shadow of death deepened, Sir William was reconciled to his son. {26}

‘… notwithstanding all my trials… the Lord had preserved me to this day… [and a particular blessing was] the tenderness of Father to me before and at his death; and how through patience and long-suffering all opposition was conquered:’

PENN’S EARLY MINISTRY AND OUR LEGACY

Had the ministry of young William Penn ended at this point, his life would have been memorable for focusing the minds and hearts of Christians on the Cross and Crown emblem. We would hear echoes of his theme of simplicity in the words `simple and sincere toward all:’ We would note with interest his ministry immediately following his father’s death when he made two missionary circuits in Holland and Germany — trips undertaken at risk, since Penn was the son of one of Holland’s principal adversaries. He maintained correspondence with persecuted Quakers in Danzig, and sent a special letter of petition for their relief to John III Sobieski, the elected King of Poland. {27}

The death of Sir William left young Penn in control of the family fortune. This was not of immediate concern to him except that it gave him the opportunity to pursue the ministry nearly full tima There is no indication whatsoever in his writings that he had formed the idea for the `holy experiment:’

Yet, this is the same William Penn familiar to United States citizens as one of their greatest colonial founders. A man who would make a Christian attempt in this imperfect world to establish a representative democracy committed to liberty, civil rights, religious freedom, a life of decent living under a government at peace with its neighbors. The only colonial founder who established an effective peace with the native American Indians that would last for three generations. This founder of Pennsylvania — so named at the insistence of the British government to honor Sir William — lived as a traveling evangelist. Penn, who Voltaire would later call one of the greatest lawgivers since antiquity — at this point spoke only in opposition to the repressive laws crafted to chain men’s consciences. In time, Pennsylvania would prove to be the focal point for the struggle for freedom, of historic importance to men everywhere. Philadelphia, the very city founded by Penn, would prove to be its cradle. But these efforts of `little strength’ {Revelation 3:8} were yet in the future.

— {Richard Doctor}

 

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{1} Dunn, Mary Maples and Richard Dunn, The Papers of William Penn; Record #119, p. 477, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. This definitive series, now up to Volume 5, is a well supported scholarly effort to publish and exhaustively annotate all the records relating to William Penn. It is arranged chronologically so that all references to Penn’s writings may be conveniently recovered by turning to the appropriate data Penn here understands restitution to be an inner spiritual condition, but his solid links to chronological study will be treated below.

{2} McClintock, John and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theologica4 and Ecclesiastical Literature, Penn, William, Baker, 1981.

{3} Dunn, op. cit., Record #25. Though the words are Penn’s, all quotes are rendered with modern American English spelling. Penn’s spelling on the whole is atrocious.

{4} Dunn, op. cit., Record #26.

{5} Dunn, op. cit., p. 81. Most recently this same house hosted Her-mann Goering during WWII.

{6} Comfort, W, William Penn and Our Liberties, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1975, P. 57; also in Dunn, op. cit., Record #119, p. 476.

{7} Russell, C.T., Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 2, p. 338.

{8} McClintock and Strong, op. cit., Huguenots.

{9} McClintock and Strong, op. cit., Amyraut.

{10} Froom, L.E., Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Volume 2, Review and Her4ld, Washington, DC, 1948, pp. 632-633.

{11} Froom, op. cit., pp. 226, 234.

{12} Dunn, op. cit., Record #3.

{13} Dunn, op. cit., Record #4.

{14} No Cross — No Crown, p. x.

{15} Penn, W., No Cross — No Crown, 1682, reprinted by Sessions, York, England, 1981, p. xxx.

{16} the five months of torment Revelation 9:5 begins with the bold posting of the ninety-five thesis by Martin Luther on October 31, 1517, then 5 x 30 = 150 prophetic days or 150 years, end October 31, 1667. This would be the first Sunday following the end of that period of savage bloodshed and misery and the beginning of a new era of religious liberty.

{17} Dunn, op cit., Record #18. Note that Religious Government is capitalized while civil empire is not, and also the diplomatic use of `Lordships’ in the plural of the `royal wa’

{18} Dunn, op. cit., Record #20.

{19} NCNC, pp. 30-34.

{20} Dunn, op. cit., Record #119, p. 478.

{21} Dunn, op. cit., Record #76, p. 271.

{22} NCNC, Pp. 37-38.

{23} Walsh, C. G., et al. translators, St. Augustine — City of God, Book XXII, Chapter 30, Doubleday Image Books, 1958.

{24} NCNC, pp. 58-59.

{25} Dunn, op. cit., Record #119, p. 435.

{26} Dunn, op. cit., Record #119, p. 477

 

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