THE following brief Memoirs of the Life of ISAAC PENINGTON, collected from the testimonies of his Friends, and other authentic accounts, were prefixed to a volume of his Letters, published in 1796.

"He was the eldest son of Isaac Penington, many years an alderman of London, and for two years successively mayor of the city. He was born about the year 1617; his education was suitable to his quality among men, having the advantages of the schools and universities of his own country, joined with the conversation of some of the most considerable men of his time. His father's situation in public business, gave him pretence enough to share of the world's greatness; but he refused its glory, and chose rather a life dedicated to religion and retirement. He received impressions of piety very early; and they had so good an effect upon him, that he was preserved from the evils of the age, and became the wonder of his kindred and familiars, for his awful life and frequent retirements, his declining company that might interrupt his meditations, and being disposed to a life of mourning. Yet this sorrow did not flow from a sense of former vices, for he was inclined to virtue from his childhood; but with Habakkuk, from the dread he had of the majesty of God, and his desire to find a resting-place in the great day of trouble. In the midst of which exercises nothing gave him ease or comfort, but the smiles of God's countenance upon his soul.

"About the year 1648, he married Mary, the widow of Sir William Springet, a religious wo

man; but he continued in a seeking state for some years after; till at length he was convinced of the principles of Truth, as professed by the people called Quakers, and joined himself to this society about 1658, being then forty-one years of age. Neither his worldly station, the most considerable of any that had closed with this way, nor the debasement it brought upon his learning and wisdom, nor yet that reproach and loss which attended his public espousing of it, did deter him from owning and embracing it. Thus parting with all he had not received of God, he received a new stock from heaven, wherein the Lord prospered him; the dew of heaven rested upon his branch and root, and he grew rich and fruitful in heavenly treasure, full of love, patience, and long-suffering; exemplary in his duty to God and men; zealous, yet tender; wise, yet humble; a constant and early comer to meetings, and watchful and reverent in them; one who loved power and life more than words; and as for that he waited, so he would be often affected with it, and made to utter such testimonics as were to the help of the poor and the needy, the weary and heavy laden, the true sojourners and travellers to the eternal rest and city of God."

This was the testimony of one well acquainted with him: "And as it was given to him to believe in Christ, so he had also to suffer for his sake; his imprisonments being many, and some of them long; which he underwent with great constancy and quietness of mind. He was first imprisoned in the year 1661, in Aylesbury gaol, for worshipping God in his own house; and endured great hardship for seventeen weeks, in a cold incommodious room, without a chimney, great part of the time in winter; from which usage his body con

tracted so great a disorder, that for several week's after he was not able to turn himself in his bed. He was imprisoned five times after this on account of his religious profession; (being confined at one time in Aylesbury gaol, eighteen months, and in Reading gaol, which was his last imprisonment, twenty-one months.) And being of a tender constitution, his life was greatly endangered by the hardship he endured.

[To his patience under suffering, the following. testimony is borne by one who had often been with him in bonds. See volume I. p. xxviii.

"I have had knowledge of him near twenty years, especially in suffering; for it pleased the Lord so to order it, that our lot fel together in prison several times; and I may say it was well it was so; for being made willing by the power of God (that did attend him) to suffer with great patience, cheerfulness, contentedness, and true nobility of spirit, he was a good example to me and' others. I do not remember that ever I saw him cast down or dejected in his spirit in the time of his close confinement, nor speak hardly of those that persecuted him; for he was of that temper as to love enemies, and to do good to those that hated him; having received a measure of that virtue from Christ, his Master, that taught him so to do. Indeed I may say, in the prison he was a help to the weak, being made instrumental in the hand of the Lord for that end; with much more than at present I shall express. O the remembrance of the glory that did often over-shadow us in the place of confinement! so that indeed the prison was made by the Lord to us (who was powerfully with us) as a pleasant palace! I was often, with many more, by those streamings of life that did many times rum through his vessel, greatly overcome with the pure

presence and overcoming love of our God, that was plentifully shed abroad in our hearts."]

"Thus through many tribulations did he enter the kingdom, having been long exercised, tried, and approved of the Lord. As his outward man grew in years, his inward man grew in grace, and the knowledge of his Redeemer; for it was observable among them that knew him in his declining time, that when the candle of his natural life burnt dimmer, his soul waxed stronger, and,. like a replenished lamp, shone with greater lustre. It may be further said, that as his profession was adorned by a life of piety and virtue, and the constant practice of what he recommended to others; so his good judgment appeared in two eminent respects:

“First, he was urgent, that all those who knew any thing of the gift of ministry to others, would always wait in their several exercises, to be endued with matter and power from on high, before they opened their mouths in a testimony for the Lord; and that at all times, as well out of meetings as in them, they might live so near the Lord, as to feel the key of David opening the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom: and by experiencing the depth of the heavenly travail, and the trials, deliverances, and consolations of it; with the dominion and victory that in the end, by persever. ance, are obtained; they might be as true saviours on Mount Sion, the salt of the world, thoroughly furnished to every good word and work, and master-builders in God's house; that a pure and living stream of ministry might be continued, and conveyed to the generations to come.

"His excellency in another respect was, his love to the unity of brethren: whatever struck at

that, he no sooner perceived, than he endeavoured to oppose it with all his might.

"In conclusion, it may be said, that as he was a light in the church, so he was a blessing to his own family: a loving husband, a tender and prudent father, and a just and kind master. Many were the gifts God honoured him with, which he made use of to the praise of the great Giver. Being thus fit to live, he was prepared to die, when the summons came to him; which was in the sixty. third year of his age, on the 8th of the eighth month, 1679; when he fell sick in his journey into Kent, and departed this life after about a week's illness. His remains were brought to his house at Chalfonts, in Buckinghamshire, and interred in the burial ground at Jordan's, in the same county."

See Testimonies of George Fox, William Penn, and others, prefixed to the original Work See also Appendix to this Volume.