The _Evangelium Regni_ of Henry Nicholas, the acknowledged
founder of the sect, is written in such a manner as to include all
religious persuasions, and permits all parties to hold whatever
sentiments they please, if they merely declare themselves _members of
the Family of Love_.
"Omnes vos, O amatores veritatis! qui amabilem vitam charitatis
diligitis vocatmini et invitamini." (cap. 41.) ... "Omnes
peribunt, qui extra Christum extra communionem charitatis
manent." (Ibid.)
A confutation of this sect was written in the year 1579; the privy
council called upon the convocation of the year 1580 to notice it. We
find the sect still described in the publications of 1641, and
continuing under the same name with its preachers and congregations in
1645.
Bp. Cooper, in speaking of the sect in 1589 (_Admonition, &c._, p.
146.), terms them "that peevish faction of the 'Familie of Love,' which
have been breeding in this realm the space of these thirty years."
Fuller (_Ch. Hist._, 17th cent., p. 610.) says that in his time "they
had obtained the name of Ranters."
Leslie, in his _Works_ (vol. ii. p. 609.), considers the sect "identical
with that of the Quakers."
That this was not the case is evident, I conceive, from George Fox, the
father of the Quakers, having severely chastised this "Family of Love,"
because they would take an oath, dance, sing, and be cheerful. See
Sewel's _History of the Quakers_, iii. p. 88, 89, 344.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42