the settlement of Pennsylvania. The doctrine of the inner light was by no means a new one in Holland and Germany, and the dead letter of the Scriptures is a thought common to David Joris, Caspar Schwenckfeldt, and the modern Quaker. The similarity between the two sects has been manifest to all observers, and recognized by themselves. William Penn, writing to James Logan of some emigrants in 1709, says: “Herewith comes the Palatines, whom use with tenderness and love, and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable character; for they are a sober people, divers Mennonists, and will neither swear nor light. See that Guy has used them well.”[1] Thomas Chalkley, writing from Holland the same year, says: “There is a great people which they call Mennonists who are very near to truth, and the fields are white unto harvest among that people spiritually speaking.”[2] When Ames,[3] Caton, Stubbs, Penn, and others of the early Friends went to Holland and Germany, they were received with the utmost kindness by the Mennonites, which is in strong contrast with their treatment at the hands of the established churches.
The strongest testimony of this character, however, is given by Thomas Story, the recorder of deeds in Pennsylvania, who made a trip to Holland and Germany in 1715. There he preached in the Mennonite meeting houses at Hoorn, Holfert, Drachten, Goredyke, Heerveen, Jever, Oudeboone, Grow, Leeuwarden, Dokkum, and Henleven, while at Malkwara no meeting was held because “a Person of note among the Menists being departed this life,”
