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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3),
+by Thomas Clarkson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3)
+
+Author: Thomas Clarkson
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2005  [eBook #15261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME
+II (OF 3)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Carlo Traverso, Graeme Mackreth, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr.
+
+
+
+A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME II
+
+Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners,
+Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of
+the Society of Friends
+
+by
+
+THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.
+Author of Several Essays on the Slave Trade
+
+New York: Published by Samuel Stansbury, No 111, Water-Street
+
+1806
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SECT. I.--Marriage--Regulation and example of George Fox, relative to
+Marriage--Present regulations, and manner of the celebration of it among
+the Quakers.
+
+SECT. II.--Those who marry out of the society, are disowned--Various
+reasons for such a measure--Objection to it--Reply.
+
+SECT III.--But the disowned may be restored to membership--Terms of
+their restoration--these terms censured--Reply.
+
+SECT IV.--More women disowned on this account than men--Probable causes
+of this difference of number.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+SECT I.--Funerals--Extravagance and pageantry of ancient and modern
+funerals--These discarded by the Quakers--Plain manner in which they
+inter their dead.
+
+SECT II.--Quakers use no tomb-stones, nor monumental inscriptions
+--Various reasons of their disuse of these.
+
+SECT. III.--Neither do they use mourning garments--Reasons why they thus
+differ from the world--These reasons farther elucidated by
+considerations on Court-mourning.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Occupations--Agriculture declining among the Quakers--Causes and
+disadvantages of this decline.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+SECT. I.--_Trade--Quakers view trade as a moral question--Prohibit a
+variety of trades and dealings on this account--various other wholesome
+regulations concerning it._
+
+SECT. II.--_But though the Quakers thus prohibit many trades, they are
+found in some which are considered objectionable by the world--These
+specified and examined._
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Settlement of differences--Abstain from duels-and also from law--Have
+recourse to arbitration--Their rules concerning arbitration--An account
+of an Arbitration Society at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles._
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SECT. I.--_Poor--No beggars among the Quakers--Manner of relieving and
+providing for the poor._
+
+SECT. II.--_Education of the children of the poor provided
+for--Observations on the number of the Quaker-poor--and on their
+character._
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION.
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+_Invitation to a perusal of this part of the work--The necessity of
+humility and charity in religion on account of the limited powers of the
+human understanding--Object of this invitation._
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_God has given to all, besides an intellectual, a spiritual
+understanding--Some have had a greater portion of this spirit than
+others, such as Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and
+Apostles--Jesus Christ had it without limit or measure._
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus, and the
+Prophets, and the Apostles had, he cannot know spiritual things--This
+doctrine confirmed by St. Paul--And elucidated by a comparison between
+the faculties of men and of brutes._
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Neither except he has a portion of the same spirit, can he know the
+scriptures to be of divine origin, nor can he spiritually understand
+them--Objection to this doctrine-Reply._
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_This spirit, which has been thus given to men in different degrees, has
+been given them as a teacher or guide in their spiritual concerns--Way
+in which it teaches._
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_This spirit may be considered as the primary and infallible guide--and
+the scriptures but a secondary means of instruction--but the Quakers do
+not undervalue the latter on this account--Their opinion concerning
+them._
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_This spirit, as a primary and infallible guide, has been given to men
+universally--From the creation to Moses--From Moses to Christ--From
+Christ to the present day._
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Sect. I.--_And as it has been universally to men, so it has been given
+them sufficiently--Those who resist it, quench it--Those who attend to
+it, are in the way of redemption._
+
+Sect. II.--_This spirit then besides its office of a spiritual guide,
+performs that of a Redeemer to men--Redemption outward and
+inward--Inward effected by this spirit._
+
+Sect. III.--_Inward redemption produces a new birth--and leads to
+perfection--This inward redemption possible to all._
+
+Sect. IV--_New birth and perfection more particularly explained-New
+birth as real from "the spiritual seed of the kingdom" as that of plants
+and vegetables from their seeds in the natural world--and goes on in the
+same manner progressively to maturity._
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SECT. I._--Possibility of redemption to all denied by the favours of
+"Election and Reprobation"--Quaker-refutation of the later doctrine._
+
+SECT. II._--Quaker refutation continued._
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Recapitulation of all the doctrines advanced--Objection that the
+Quakers make every thing of the Spirit and but little of Jesus
+Christ--Attempt to show that Christians often differ without a just
+cause--Or that there is no material difference between the creeds of the
+Quakers and that of the objectors on this subject._
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+SECT. I._--Ministers of the Gospel--Quakers conceive that the spirit of
+God alone can qualify for the ministry--Women equally qualified with
+men--Way in which ministers are called and acknowledged among the
+Quakers._
+
+SECT. II._--Quaker-ministers, when acknowledged, engage in family
+visits--Nature of these--and sometimes in missions through England--and
+sometimes in foreign parts._
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_Elders--Their origin and their office--These are not to meddle with the
+discipline of the church._
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+SECT I._--Worship--is usually made to consist of prayer and
+preaching--But neither of these are considered by the Quakers to be
+effectual without the aid of the spirit--Hence no liturgy or studied
+form of words among the Quakers--Reputed manner and character of
+Quaker-preaching--Observations upon these._
+
+SECT. II--_Silent worship--Manner of it--Worship not necessarily
+connected with words--Advantages of this mode of worship._
+
+SECT. III.--_Quakers discard every thing formal and superstitious from
+their worship--No consecrated ground--No priest's garments--No
+psalmody--No one day esteemed by them holier than another--Reasons for
+these singularities._
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_Miscellaneous particularities--Quakers seldom use the words "original
+sin," or "Trinity," and never "the word of God" for the
+Scriptures--Believe in the manhood and divinity of Christ--In the
+resurrection--Their ideas on sanctification and justification._
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Quakers reject baptism and the Lord's supper--Indulgence solicited for
+them on account of the difficulties connected with these subjects--These
+difficulties explained._
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SECT. I.--_Two baptisms, that of John and of Christ--That of John was by
+water--and a Jewish ordinance--John the prophet left under the law._
+
+SECT. II.--_Baptism of Christ was by the Spirit--This the baptism of the
+Gospel--Authorities on which this distinction between the two is
+founded._
+
+SECT. III.--_Quakers conceive it was not the baptism of John which Jesus
+included in the Great Commission, when he ordered his disciples to go
+into all nations, and to teach them, baptizing in the name of the
+father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost--This shown from
+expressions taken from St. Peter and St. Paul--and from the object and
+nature of this baptism._
+
+SECT. IV.--_But that it was the baptism of Christ--This shown from a
+critical examination of the words in the commission itself--And from the
+commission, as explained by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul._
+
+SECT. V.--_Practice of Jesus and the Apostles a confirmation of this
+opinion._
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Sect. I.--_Two suppers, the one instituted by Moses, the other by Jesus
+Christ--The first called the passover--Ancient and modern manner of its
+celebration._
+
+Sect. II.--_Second, enjoined by Jesus at Capernaum--This wholly, of a
+spiritual nature--Way in which this may be enjoyed._
+
+Sect. III.--_Quakers say that Jesus instituted no new supper distinct
+from that of the passover, and which was to render null and void that
+enjoined at Capernaum, at a rite of the Christian church--No such
+institution to be collected from St. Matthew, St. Mark, or St. John._
+
+Sect. IV.--_Nor from St. Luke--St. Luke only says, that all future
+passovers of the Disciples with Christ were to be spiritual--but if, as
+Jews, they could not all at once abdicate the passover to which they had
+been educated, they were to celebrate it with a new meaning--But no
+acknowledged permission of it to others._
+
+Sect. V.--_Nor from St. Paul--St. Paul only says that the passover, as
+spiritualized by Jesus, was allowed to his disciples, or to the Jewish
+converts, who could not all at once lay aside their prejudices
+concerning it, but that it was to last only for a time--Different
+opinions about this time--That of the Quakers concerning it._
+
+Sect. VI.--_Had a new supper, distinct from that of the passover, been
+intended as a ceremonial of the Christian church, it would have been
+commanded to others besides the disciples, and its duration would not
+have been limited--Reasons from St. Paul, to show that he himself did
+not probably consider it as a Christian ordinance--Whereas the supper
+enjoined at Capernaum, was to be eternal--and universal--and an
+essential with all Christians._
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS
+OF THE
+_QUAKERS_.
+
+
+(CONTINUED)
+
+
+VOL. II B.
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS
+OF THE
+QUAKERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Marriage--Quakers differ in many respects from others, on the subject
+of Marriage--George Fox introduced Regulations concerning it--Protested
+against the usual manner of the celebration of it--Gave an example of
+what he recommended--Present regulations of the Quakers on this
+subject._
+
+
+In the continuation of the Customs of the Quakers, a subject which I
+purpose to resume in the present volume, I shall begin with that of
+Marriage.
+
+The Quakers differ from others in many of their regulations concerning
+this custom. They differ also in the manner of the celebration of it.
+And, as they differ in these respects, so they experience generally a
+different result. The Quakers, as a married, may be said to be a happy,
+people. Hence the detailers of scandal, have rarely had it in their
+power to promulgate a Quaker adultery. Nor have the lawyers had an
+opportunity in our public courts of proclaiming a Quaker divorce.
+
+George Fox suggested many regulations on this subject. He advised, among
+other things, when persons had it in contemplation to marry, that they
+should lay their intention before the monthly meetings, both of the men
+and women. He advised also, that the consent of their parents should be
+previously obtained, and certified to these. Thus he laid the foundation
+for greater harmony in the approaching union. He advised again, that an
+inquiry should be made, if the parties were clear of engagements or
+promises of marriage to others, and, if they were not, that they should
+be hindered from proceeding. Thus, he cut off some of the causes of the
+interruption of connubial happiness, by preventing uneasy reflections,
+or suits at law, after the union had taken place. He advised also, in
+the case of second marriages, that any offspring resulting from the
+former, should have their due rights and a proper provision secured to
+them, before they were allowed to be solemnized. Thus he gave a greater
+chance for happiness, by preventing mercenary motives from becoming the
+causes of the union of husbands and wives.
+
+But George Fox, as he introduced these and other salutary regulations on
+the subject of Marriage, so he introduced a new manner of the
+celebration of it. He protested against the manner of the world, that
+is, against the formal prayers and exhortations as they were repeated,
+and against the formal ceremonies, an they were practised by the Parish
+Priest. He considered that it was God, who joined man and woman before
+the fall; and that in Christian times, or where the man was truly
+renovated in heart, there could be no other right or honourable way of
+union. Consistently with this view of the subject, he observed, that in
+the ancient scriptural times, persons took each other in marriage in the
+assemblies of the Elders; and there was no record, from the Book of
+Genesis to that of Revelations, of any marriage by a Priest. Hence it
+became his new society, as a religious or renovated people, to abandon
+apostate usages, and to adopt a manner that was more agreeable to their
+new state.
+
+George Fox gave in his own marriage, an example of all that he had thus
+recommended to the society. Having agreed with Margaret Fell, the widow
+of Judge Fell, upon the propriety of their union as husband and wife,
+he desired her to send for her children. As soon as they were come, he
+asked them and their respective husbands,[1] "If they had any thing
+against it, or for it, desiring them to speak? and they all severally
+expressed their _satisfaction therein_. Then he asked Margaret, if she
+had fulfilled and performed her husband's Will to her children? She
+replied, the _children know that_. Whereupon he asked them, whether, if
+their mother married, they should not lose by it? And he asked Margaret,
+whether she had done any thing in lieu of it, which might answer it to
+the children? The children said, _she had answered it to them_, and
+desired him to _speak no more about that_. He told them, that he was
+plain, and that he would have all things done plainly; for he sought not
+any outward advantage to himself. So, after he had acquainted the
+children with it, their intention of marriage was laid before Friends,
+both privately and publicly;" and afterwards a meeting being appointed
+for the accomplishment of the marriage, in the public Meeting-house at
+Broad Mead, in Bristol, they took each other in marriage, in the plain
+and simple manner as then practised, and which he himself had originally
+recommended to his followers.
+
+[Footnote 1: G. Fox's Journal, Vol. 2. p. 135.]
+
+The regulations concerning marriage, and the manner of the celebration
+of it, which obtained in the time of George Fox, nearly obtain among the
+Quakers of the present day.
+
+When marriage is agreed upon between two persons, the man and the woman,
+at one of the monthly meetings, publicly declare their intention, and
+ask leave to proceed. At this time their parents, if living, must either
+appear, or send certificates to signify their consent. This being done,
+two men are appointed by the men's meeting, and two women are appointed
+by that of the women, to wait upon the man and woman respectively, and
+to learn from themselves, as well as by other inquiry, if they stand
+perfectly clear from any marriage-promises and engagements to others. At
+the next monthly meeting the deputation make their report. If either of
+the parties is reported to have given expectation of marriage to any
+other individual, the proceedings are stopped till the matter be
+satisfactorily explained. But if they are both of them reported to be
+clear in this respect, they are at liberty to proceed, and one or more
+persons of respectability of each sex, are deputed to see that the
+marriage be conducted in an orderly manner.
+
+In the case of second marriages, additional instructions are sometimes
+given; for if any of the parties thus intimating their intentions of
+marrying should have children alive, the same persons, who were deputed
+to inquire into their clearness from all other engagements, are to see
+that the rights of such children be legally secured.
+
+When the parties are considered to be free, by the reports of the
+deputation, to proceed upon their union, they appoint a suitable day for
+the celebration of it, which is generally one of the week-day meetings
+for worship. On this day they repair to the Meeting-house with their
+friends. The congregation, when seated, sit in silence. Perhaps some
+minister is induced to speak. After a suitable time has elapsed, the man
+and the woman rise up together, and, taking each other by the hand,
+declare publicly, that they thus take each other as husband and wife.
+This constitutes their marriage. By way, however, of evidence of their
+union, a paper is signed by the man and woman, in the presence of three
+witnesses, who sign it also, in which it is stated that they have so
+taken each other in marriage. And, in addition to this, though, it be
+not a necessary practice, another paper is generally produced and read,
+stating concisely the proceedings of the parties in their respective
+Meetings for the purpose of their marriage, and the declaration made by
+them, as having taken each other as man and wife. This is signed by the
+parties, their relations, and frequently by many of their friends, and
+others present. All marriages of other Dissenters are celebrated in the
+established churches, according to the ceremonies of the same. But the
+marriages of the Quakers are valid by law in their own Meeting-houses,
+when solemnised in this simple manner.
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers, marrying out of the Society, to be disowned--That regulation
+charged with pride and cruelty--Reasons for this disownment are--That
+mixed Marriages cannot be celebrated without a violation of same of the
+great Principles of the Society--That they are generally productive of
+disputes and uneasiness to those concerned--and that the discipline
+cannot be carried on in such families._
+
+
+Among the regulations suggested by George Fox, and adopted by his
+followers, it was determined that persons, belonging to the society,
+should not intermarry with those of other religious professions. Such an
+heterogeneous union was denominated a _mixed marriage_; and persons,
+engaging in such mixed marriages, were to be disowned.
+
+People of other denominations have charged the Quakers with a more than
+usually censurable pride, on account of their adoption of this law. They
+consider them as looking down upon the rest of their fellow-creatures,
+as so inferior or unholy, as not to deign or to dare to mix in alliance
+with them, or as looking upon them in the same light as the Jews
+considered the Heathen, or the Greeks the Barbarian world. And they have
+charged them also with as much cruelty as pride, on the same account. "A
+Quaker, they say, feels himself strongly attached to an accomplished
+woman; but she does not belong to the society. He wishes to marry, but
+he cannot marry her on account of its laws. Having a respect for the
+society, he looks round it again, but he looks round it in vain. He
+finds no one equal to this woman; no one, whom he could love so well. To
+marry one in the society, while he loves another out of it better, would
+be evidently wrong. If he does not marry her, he makes the greatest of
+all sacrifices, for he loses that which he supposes would constitute a
+source of enjoyment to him for the remainder of his life. If he marries
+her, he is expelled the society; and this, without having been guilty of
+an immoral offence."
+
+One of the reasons, which the Quakers give for the adoption of this law
+of disownment in the case of mixed marriages, is, that those who engage
+in them violate some of the most important principles of the society,
+and such indeed as are distinguishing characteristics of Quakerism from
+the religion of the world.
+
+It is a religious tenet of the Quakers, as will be shown in its proper
+place, that no appointment of man can make a minister of the gospel, and
+that no service, consisting of an artificial form of words, to be
+pronounced on stated occasions, can constitute a religious act; for that
+the spirit of God is essentially necessary to create the one, and to
+produce the other. It is also another tenet with them, that no minister
+of a christian church, ought to be paid for his Gospel-labours. This
+latter tenet is held so sacred by the Quakers, that it affords one
+reason among others, why they refuse payment of tithes, and other
+demands of the church, preferring to suffer loss by distraints for them,
+than to comply with them in the usual manner. Now these two principles
+are essentials of Quakerism. But no person, who marries out of the
+society, can be legally married without going through the forms of the
+established church. Those therefore who submit to this ceremony, as
+performed by a priest, acknowledge, according to the Quakers, the
+validity of an human appointment of the ministry. They acknowledge the
+validity of an artificial service in religion. They acknowledge the
+propriety of paying a Gospel-minister for the discharge of his office.
+The Quakers, therefore, consider those who marry out of the society, as
+guilty of such a dereliction of Quaker-principles, that they can be no
+longer considered as sound or consistent members.
+
+But independently of the violation of these principles, which the
+Quakers take as the strongest ground for their conduct on such an
+occasion, they think themselves warranted in disowning, from a
+contemplation of the consequences, which have been known to result from
+these marriages.
+
+In the first place, disownment is held to be necessary, because it acts
+as a check upon such marriages, and because, by acting as such a check,
+it prevents the family-disputes and disagreements which might otherwise
+arise; for such marriages have been found to be more productive of
+uneasiness than of enjoyment. When two persons of different religious
+principles, a Quaker for example, and a woman of the church, join in
+marriage, it is almost impossible that they should not occasionally
+differ. The subject of religion arises, and perhaps some little
+altercation with it, as the Sunday comes. The one will not go to church,
+and the other will not go to meeting. These disputes do not always die
+with time. They arise, however, more or less, according to
+circumstances. If neither of the parties set any value upon their
+religious opinions, there will be but little occasion for dispute. If
+both of them, on the other hand, are of a serious cast, much will depend
+upon the liberality of their sentiments: but, generally speaking, it
+falls to the lot of but few to be free from religious prejudices. And
+here it may be observed, that points in religion also may occasionally
+be suggested, which may bring with them the seeds of temporary
+uneasiness. People of other religious denominations generally approach
+nearer to one another in their respective creeds, than the Quakers to
+either of them. Most christians agree, for example, in the use of
+Baptism in some form or other, and also in the celebration of the Lord's
+Supper. But the Quakers, as will be shown in this volume, consider these
+ordinances in a spiritual light, admitting no ceremonials in so pure a
+system as that of the Christian religion.
+
+But these differences, which may thus soon or late take their rise upon
+these or other subjects, where the parties set a value on their
+respective religious opinions, cannot fail of being augmented by new
+circumstances in time. The parties in question have children. The
+education of these is now a subject of the most important concern. New
+disputes are engendered on this head, both adhering to their respective
+tenets as the best to be embraced by their rising offspring. Unable at
+length to agree on this point, a sort of compromise takes place. The
+boys are denied, while the girls are permitted, baptism. The boys,
+again, are brought up to meeting, and the girls to church, or they go
+to church and meeting alternately. In the latter case, none of the
+children can have any fixed principles. Nor will they be much better off
+in the former. There will be frequently an opposition of each other's
+religious opinions, and a constant hesitation and doubt about the
+consistency of these. There are many points, which the mothers will
+teach the daughters as right, or essential, but which the fathers will
+teach the sons as erroneous or unimportant. Thus disputes will be
+conveyed to the children. In their progress through life other
+circumstances may arise, which may give birth to feelings of an
+unpleasant nature. The daughters will be probably instructed in the
+accomplishments of the world. They will be also introduced to the
+card-room, and to assemblies, and to the theatre, in their turn. The
+boys will be admitted to neither. The latter will of course feel their
+pleasures abridged, and consider their case as hard, and their father as
+morose and cruel. Little jealousies may arise upon this difference of
+their treatment, which may be subversive of filial and fraternal
+affection. Nor can religion be called in to correct them; for while the
+two opposite examples of father and mother, and of sisters and brothers,
+are held out to be right, there will be considerable doubts as to what
+are religious truths.
+
+The Quakers urge again in behalf of their law against mixed marriages,
+that if these were not forbidden, it would be impossible to carry on the
+discipline of the society. The truth of this may be judged by the
+preceding remarks. For if the family were divided into two parties, as
+has been just stated, on account of their religion, it would be but in a
+kind of mongrel-state. If, for instance, it were thought right, that the
+Quaker-part of it should preserve the simplicity of the Quaker-dress,
+and the plainness of the Quaker-language, how is this to be done, while
+the other part daily move in the fashions, and are taught as a right
+usage, to persist in the phrases of the world? If, again, the
+Quaker-part of it are to be kept from the amusements prohibited by the
+society, how is this to be effected, while the other part of it speak of
+them from their own experience, with rapture or delight? It would be
+impossible, therefore, in the opinion of the Quakers, in so mixed a
+family, to keep up that discipline, which they consider as the
+corner-stone of their constitutional fabric, and which may be said to
+have been an instrument in obtaining for them the character of a moral
+people.
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_But though persons are thus disowned, they may be restored to
+membership--Generally understood, however, that they must previously
+express their repentance for their marriages--This confession of
+repentance censured by the world--But is admissible without the
+criminality supposed--The word repentance misunderstood by the world._
+
+
+But though the Quakers may disown such as marry out of their society, it
+does not follow that these may not be reinstated as members. If these
+should conduct themselves after their disownment in an orderly manner,
+and, still retaining their attachment to the society, should bring up
+their children in the principles and customs of it, they may, if they
+apply for restoration, obtain it, with all their former privileges and
+rights.
+
+The children also of such as marry out of the society, though they are
+never considered to be members of it, may yet become so in particular
+cases. The society advises that the monthly meetings, should extend a
+tender care towards such children, and that they should be admitted
+into membership at the discretion of the said meetings, either in
+infancy or in maturer age.
+
+But here I must stop to make a few observations, on an opinion which
+prevails upon this subject. It is generally understood that the Quakers,
+in their restoration of disowned persons to membership, require them
+previously and publicly to acknowledge, that they have _repented_ of
+their marriages. This obligation to make this public confession of
+repentance, has given to many a handle for heavy charges against them.
+Indeed I scarcely know, in any part of the Quaker-system, where people
+are louder in their censures, than upon this point. "A man, they say,
+cannot express his penitence for his marriage without throwing a stigma
+upon his wife. To do this is morally wrong, if he has no fault to find
+with her. To do it, even if she has been in fault, is indelicate. And
+not to do it, is to forego his restoration to membership. This law
+therefore of the Quakers is considered to be immoral, because it may
+lead both to hypocrisy and falsehood."
+
+I shall not take up much time in correcting the notions that have gone
+abroad on this subject.
+
+Of those who marry out of the society, it may be presumed that there are
+some, who were never considered to be sound in the Quaker-principles,
+and these are generally they who intermarry with the world. Now they,
+who compose this class, generally live after their marriages, as happily
+out of the society as when they were in it. Of course, these do not
+repent of the change. And if they do not repent, they never sue for
+restoration to membership. They cannot, therefore, incur any of the
+charges in question. Nor can the society be blamed in this case, who, by
+never asking them to become members, never entice them to any
+objectionable repentance.
+
+Of those again, who marry out of the society, there may be individuals,
+so attached to its communion, that it was never imagined they would have
+acted in this manner. Now of these, it may in general be said, that they
+often bitterly repent. They find, soon or late, that the opposite
+opinions and manners, to be found in their union, do not harmonize. And
+here it may be observed, that it is very possible, that such persons may
+say they repent without any crimination of their wives. A man, for
+instance, may have found in his wife all the agreeableness of temper,
+all the domestic virtue and knowledge, all the liberality of religious
+opinion, which he had anticipated; but in consequence of the mixed
+principles resulting from mixed marriages, or of other unforeseen
+causes, he may be so alarmed about the unsteady disposition of his
+children and their future prospects, that the pain which he feels on
+these accounts may overbalance the pleasure, which he acknowledges in
+the constant prudence, goodness, solicitude, and affection, of his wife.
+This may be so much the case, that all her consolatory offices may not
+be able to get the better of his grief. A man, therefore, in such
+circumstances, may truly repent of his marriage, or that he was ever the
+father of such children, though he can never complain as the husband of
+such a wife.
+
+The truth, however, is, that those who make the charge in question, have
+entirely misapplied the meaning of the word _repent_. People are not
+called upon to express their sorrow, for _having married the objects of
+their choice_, but for _having violated those great tenets of the
+society_, which have been already mentioned, and which form
+distinguishing characteristics between Quakerism and the religion of the
+world. Those, therefore, who say they repent, say no more than what any
+other persons might be presumed to say, who had violated the religious
+tenets of any other society to which they might have belonged, or who
+had flown in the face of what they had imagined to be religious truths.
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Of persons, disowned for marriage, the greater proportion is said to
+consist of women--Causes assigned for this difference of number in the
+two sexes._
+
+
+It will perhaps appear a curious fact to the world, but I am told it is
+true, that the number of the women, disowned for marrying out of the
+society, far exceeds the number of the men, who are disowned on the same
+account.
+
+It is not difficult, if the fact be as it is stated, to assign a reason
+for this difference of number in the two sexes.
+
+When men wish to marry, they wish, at least if they are men of sense, to
+find such women as are virtuous; to find such as are prudent and
+domestic, and such as have a proper sense of the folly and dissipation
+of the Fashionable world; such in fact as will make good mothers and
+good wives. Now if a Quaker looks into his own society, he will
+generally find the female part of it of this description. Female Quakers
+excel in these points. But if he looks into the world at large, he will
+in general find a contrast in the females there. These, in general, are
+but badly educated. They are taught to place a portion of their
+happiness in finery and show: utility is abandoned for fashion: The
+knowledge of the etiquette of the drawing-room usurps the place of the
+knowledge of the domestic duties: A kind of false and dangerous taste
+predominates: Scandal and the card-table are preferred to the pleasures
+of a rural walk: Virtue and Modesty are seen with only half their
+energies, being overpowered by the noxiousness of novel-reading
+principles, and by the moral taint which infects those who engage in the
+varied rounds of a fashionable life. Hence a want of knowledge, a love
+of trifles, and a dissipated turn of mind, generally characterize those
+who are considered as having had the education of the world.
+
+We see therefore a good reason why Quaker-men should confine themselves
+in their marriages to their own society. But the same reason, which thus
+operates with Quaker-men in the choice of Quaker-women, operates with
+men who are not of the society, in choosing them also for their wives.
+These are often no strangers to the good education, and to the high
+character, of the Quaker-females. Fearful often of marrying among the
+badly educated women of their own persuasion, they frequently address
+themselves to this society, and not unfrequently succeed.
+
+To this it may be added, that if Quaker-men were to attempt to marry out
+of their own society, they would not in general be well received. Their
+dress and their manners are considered as uncouth in the eyes of the
+female-world, and would present themselves as so many obstacles in the
+way of their success. The women of this description generally like a
+smart and showy exterior. They admire heroism and spirit. But neither
+such an exterior, nor such spirit, are to be seen in the Quaker-men. The
+dress of the Quaker-females, on the other hand, is considered as neat
+and elegant, and their modesty and demeanor as worthy of admiration.
+From these circumstances they captivate. Hence the difference, both in
+the inward and outward person, between the men and the women of this
+society, renders the former not so pleasing, while it renders the latter
+objects of admiration, and even choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Funerals--Most nations have paid extravagant attention to their
+dead--The moderns follow their example--This extravagance, or the
+pageantry of funerals, discarded by the Quakers--Their reasons for
+it--Plainness of Quaker-funerals._
+
+
+If we look into the history of the world, we shall find, from whatever
+cause it has arisen, whether from any thing connected with our moral
+feelings, such as love, gratitude, or respect, or from vanity, or
+ostentation, that almost all nations, where individuals have been able
+to afford it, have incurred considerable expense in the interment of
+their dead. The Greeks were often very extravagant in their funerals.
+Many persons, ornamented with garlands, followed the corpse, while
+others were employed in singing and dancing before it. At the funerals
+of the great, among the Romans, couches were carried, containing the
+waxen or other images of the family of the deceased, and hundreds joined
+in the procession. In our own times, we find a difference in the manner
+of furnishing or decorating funerals, though but little in the intention
+of making them objects of outward show. A bearer of plumes precedes the
+procession. The horses employed are dressed in trappings. The hearse
+follows ornamented with plumes of feathers, and gilded and silvered with
+gaudy escutcheons, or the armorial bearings of the progenitors of the
+deceased. A group of hired persons range themselves on each side of the
+hearse and attendant carriages, while others close the procession. These
+again are all of them clad in long cloaks, or furnished, in regular
+order, with scarfs and hat-bands. Now all these outward appendages,
+which may be called the pageantry of funerals, the Quakers have
+discarded, from the time of their institution, in the practice of the
+burial of their dead.
+
+The Quakers are of opinion, that funeral processions should be made, if
+any thing is to be made of them, to excite serious reflections, and to
+produce lessons of morality in those who see them. This they conceive to
+be best done by depriving the dead body of all ornaments and outward
+honours. For, stripped in this manner, they conceive it to approach the
+nearest to its native worthlessness or dust. Such funerals, therefore,
+may excite in the spectator a deep sense of the low and debased
+condition of man. And his feelings will be pure on the occasion, because
+they will be unmixed with the consideration of the artificial
+distinctions of human life. The spectator too will be more likely, if he
+sees all go undistinguished to the grave, to deduce for himself the
+moral lesson, that there is no true elevation of one above another, only
+as men follow the practical duties of virtue and religion. But what
+serious reflections, or what lessons of morality, on the other hand, do
+the funerals of the world produce, if accompanied with pomp and
+splendour? To those who have sober and serious minds, they produce a
+kind of pity, that is mingled with disgust. In those of a ludicrous
+turn, they provoke ludicrous ideas, when they see a dead body attended
+with such extravagant parade. To the vulgar and the ignorant no one
+useful lesson is given. Their senses are all absorbed in the show; and
+the thoughts of the worthlessness of man, as well as of death and the
+grave, which ought naturally to suggest themselves on such occasions,
+are swallowed up in the grandeur and pageantry of the procession.
+Funerals, therefore, of this kind, are calculated to throw honour upon
+riches, abstractedly of moral merit; to make the creature of as much
+importance when dead as when alive; to lessen the humility of man; and
+to destroy, of course, the moral and religious feelings that should
+arise upon such occasions. Add to which, that such a conduct among
+christians must be peculiarly improper; for the christian dispensation
+teaches man, that he is "to work out his salvation with fear and
+trembling." It seems inconsistent, therefore, to accompany with all the
+outward signs of honour and greatness the body of a poor wretch, who has
+had this difficult and awful task to perform, and who is on his last
+earthly journey, previously to his appearance before the tribunal of the
+Almighty to be judged for the deeds which he has committed in the flesh.
+
+Actuated by such sentiments as these, the Quakers have discarded all
+parade at their funerals. When they die, they are buried in a manner
+singularly plain. The corpse is deposited in a plain coffin. When
+carried to the meeting-house or grave-yard, it is attended by relations
+and friends. These have nothing different at this time in their external
+garments from their ordinary dress. Neither man nor horse is apparelled
+for the purpose. All pomp and parade, however rich the deceased may have
+been, are banished from their funeral processions. The corpse, at
+length, arrives at the meeting-house[2]. It is suffered to remain there
+in the sight of the spectators. The congregation then sit in silence, as
+at a meeting for worship. If any one feels himself induced to speak, he
+delivers himself accordingly; if not, no other rite is used at this
+time. In process of time the coffin is taken out of the meeting-house,
+and carried to the grave. Many of the acquaintances of the deceased,
+both Quakers and others, follow it. It is at length placed by the side
+of the grave. A solemn, silent pause, immediately takes place. It is
+then interred. Another shorter pause then generally follows. These
+pauses are made, that the "spectators may be more deeply touched with a
+sense of their approaching exit, and their future state." If a minister
+or other person, during these pauses, have any observation or
+exhortation to make, which is frequently the case, he makes it. If no
+person should feel himself impressed to speak, the assembled persons
+depart. The act of seeing the body deposited in the grave, is the last
+public act of respect which the Quakers show to their deceased
+relations. This is the whole process of a Quaker-funeral.
+
+[Footnote 2: It is sometimes buried without being carried there.]
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers use no vaults in their burying-grounds--Relations sometimes
+buried near each other, but oftener otherwise--They use no tomb-stones
+or monumental inscriptions--Reasons for this disuse--But they sometimes
+record accounts of the lives, deaths, and dying sayings, of their
+Ministers._
+
+
+The Quakers, in the infancy of their institution, were buried in their
+gardens, or orchards, or in the fields and premises of one another. They
+had at that time no grave-yards of their own; and they refused to be
+buried in those of the church, lest they should thus acknowledge the
+validity of an human appointment of the priesthood, the propriety of
+payment for gospel-labour, and the peculiar holiness of consecrated
+ground. This refusal to be buried within the precincts of the church,
+was considered as the bearing of their testimony for truth. In process
+of time they raised their own meeting-houses, and had their respective
+burying places. But these were not always contiguous, but sometimes at a
+distance from one another, The Quakers have no sepulchres or arched
+vaults under ground for the reception of their dead. There has been here
+and there a vault, and there is here and there a grave with sides of
+brick; but the coffins, containing their bodies, are usually committed
+to the dust.
+
+I may observe also, that the Quakers are sometimes buried near their
+relations, but more frequently otherwise. In places where the
+Quaker-population is thin, and the burial ground large, a relation is
+buried next to a relation, if it be desired. In other places, however,
+the graves are usually dug in rows, and the bodies deposited in them,
+not as their relations lie, but as they happen to be opened in
+succession without any attention to family connexions. When the first
+grave in the row is opened and filled, the person who dies next, is put
+into that which is next to it; and the person who dies next, occupies
+that which is next to the second[3]. It is to many an endearing thought,
+that they shall lie after their death, near the remains of those whom
+they loved in life. But the Quakers, in general, have not thought it
+right or wise to indulge such feelings. They believe that all good men,
+however their bodies may be separated in their subterraneous houses of
+clay, will assuredly meet at the resurrection of the just.
+
+[Footnote 3: By this process a small piece of ground is longer in
+filling, no room being lost, and the danger and disagreeable necessity
+of opening graves before the bodies in them are decayed, is avoided.]
+
+The Quakers also reject the fashions of the world in the use of
+tomb-stones and monumental inscriptions. These are generally supposed to
+be erected out of respect to the memory or character of the deceased.
+The Quakers, however, are of opinion, that this is not the proper manner
+of honouring the dead. If you wish to honour a good man, who has
+departed this life, let all his good actions live in your memory; let
+them live in your grateful love and esteem; so cherish them in your
+heart, that they may constantly awaken you to imitation. Thus you will
+show, by your adoption of his amiable example, that you really respect
+his memory. This is also that tribute, which, if he himself could be
+asked in the other world how he would have his memory respected in this,
+he would prefer to any description of his virtues, that might be given
+by the ablest writer, or handed down to posterity by the ablest monument
+of the sculptor's art.
+
+But the Quakers have an objection to the use of tomb-stones and
+monumental inscriptions, for other reasons. For, where pillars of
+marble, abounding with panegyric, and decorated in a splendid manner,
+are erected to the ashes of dead men, there is a danger, lest, by making
+too much of these, a superstitious awe should be produced, and a
+superstitious veneration should attach to them. The early Christians, by
+making too much of the relics of their saints or pious men, fell into
+such errors.
+
+The Quakers believe, again, that if they were to allow the custom of
+these outward monuments to obtain among them, they might be often led,
+as the world is, and by the same causes, to a deviation from the truth;
+for it is in human nature to praise those whom we love, but more
+particularly when we have lost them. Hence, we find often such
+extravagant encomiums upon the dead, that if it were possible for these
+to be made acquainted with them, they would show their disapprobation of
+such records. Hence we find also, that "as false as an epitaph," has
+become a proverbial expression.
+
+But even in the case where nothing more is said upon the tomb-stone than
+what Moses said of Seth, and of Enos, and of Cainan, and others, when he
+reckoned up the genealogy of Adam, namely, that "they lived and that
+they died," the Quakers do not approve of such memorials. For these
+convey no merit of the deceased, by which his example should be
+followed. They convey no lesson of morality: and in general they are not
+particularly useful. They may serve perhaps to point out to surviving
+relations, the place where the body of the deceased was buried, so that
+they may know where to mark out the line for their own graves. But as
+the Quakers in general have overcome the prejudice of "sleeping with
+their fathers," such memorials cannot be so useful to them.
+
+The Quakers, however, have no objection, if a man has conducted himself
+particularly well in life, that a true statement should be made
+concerning him, provided such a statement would operate as a lesson of
+morality to others; but they think that the tomb-stone is not the best
+medium of conveying it. They are persuaded that very little moral
+advantage is derived to the cursory readers of epitaphs, or that they
+can trace their improvement in morals to this source. Sensible, however,
+that the memorials of good men may be made serviceable to the rising
+generation, ("and there are no ideas, says Addison, which strike more
+forcibly on our imaginations, than those which are raised from
+reflections upon the exits of great and excellent men,") they are
+willing to receive accounts of the lives, deaths, and remarkable dying
+sayings, of those ministers in their own society, who have been eminent
+for their labours. These are drawn up by individuals, and presented to
+the monthly meetings, to which the deceased belonged. But here they must
+undergo an examination before they are passed. The truth of the
+statement, and the utility of the record, must appear. It then falls to
+the quarterly meetings to examine them again, and these may alter, or
+pass, or reject them, as it may appear to be most proper. If these
+should pass them, they are forwarded to the yearly meeting. Many of
+them, after this, are printed; and, finding their way into the bookcases
+of the Quakers, they become collected essays of morality, and operate as
+incitements to piety to the rising youth. Thus the memorials of men are
+made useful by the Quakers in an unobjectionable manner; for the
+falsehood and flattery of epitaphs are thus avoided; none but good men
+having been selected, whose virtues, if they are recorded, can be
+perpetuated with truth.
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_They discard also mourning garments--These are only emblems of
+sorrow--and often make men pretend to be what they are not--This
+contrary to Christianity--Thus they may become little better than
+disguised pomp, or fashionable forms--This instanced in the changes and
+duration of common mourning--and in the custom also of court-mourning
+--Ramifications of the latter._
+
+
+As the Quakers neither allow of the tomb-stones, nor the monumental
+inscriptions, so they do not allow of the mourning garments of the
+world.
+
+They believe there can be no true sorrow but in the heart, and that
+there can be no other true outward way of showing it than by fulfilling
+the desires, and by imitating the best actions, of those whom men have
+lost and loved. "The mourning, says William Penn, which it is fit for a
+Christian to have on the departure of beloved relations and friends,
+should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss. And the
+love which men have had to these, and their remembrance of them, should
+be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those
+they have left behind them, and their love of that which they loved."
+
+But mourning garments, the Quakers contend, are only emblems of sorrow.
+They will therefore frequently be used, where no sorrow is. Many persons
+follow their deceased relatives to the grave, whose death, in point of
+gain, is a matter of real joy; witness young spendthrifts, who have been
+raising sum after sum on expectation, and calculating with voracious
+anxiety, the probable duration of their relations' lives. And yet all
+these follow the corpse to the grave, with white handkerchiefs, mourning
+habits, slouched hats, and dangling hat-bands. Mourning garments,
+therefore, frequently make men pretend to be what they are not. But no
+true or consistent Christian can exhibit an outward appearance to the
+world, which his inward feelings do not justify.
+
+It is not contended here by the Quakers, that because a man becomes
+occasionally a hypocrite, this is a sufficient objection against any
+system; for a man may be an Atheist even in a Quaker's garb. Nor is it
+insinuated, that individuals do not sometimes feel in their hearts, the
+sorrow which they purpose to signify by their clothing. But it is
+asserted to be true, that men who use mourning habits as they are
+generally used, do not wear them for those deceased persons only whom
+they loved, and abstain from the use of them where they had no esteem,
+but that they wear them promiscuously on all the occasions which have
+been dictated by fashion. Mourning habits therefore, in consequence of a
+long system of etiquette, have become, in the opinion of the Quakers,
+but little better than _disguised pomp_, or _fashionable forms_.
+
+I shall endeavour to throw some light upon this position of the Quakers,
+by looking into the practice of the world.
+
+In the first place, there are seasons there, when full mourning, and
+seasons when only half mourning, is to be worn. Thus the habit is
+changed, and for no other reason, than that of conformity with the laws
+of fashion. The length of this time also, or season of mourning, is made
+to depend upon the scale of men's affinity to the deceased; though
+nothing can be more obvious, than that men's affection for the living,
+and that their sorrow for them when dead, cannot be measured by this
+standard. Hence the very time that a man shall mourn, and the very time
+that he shall only half-mourn, and the very time that he shall cease to
+mourn, is fixed for him by the world, whatever may be the duration of
+his own sorrow.
+
+In court-mourning also, we have an instance of men being instructed to
+mourn, where their feelings are neither interested nor concerned. In
+this case, the _disguised pomp_, spoken of by the Quakers, will be more
+apparent. Two princes have perhaps been fighting with each other for a
+considerable portion of their reigns. The blood of their subjects has
+been spilled, and their treasures have been exhausted. They have
+probably had, during all this time, no kind disposition one towards
+another, each considering the other as the aggressor, or as the author
+of the war. When both have been wearied out with expense, they have made
+peace. But they have still mutual jealousies and fears. At length one of
+them dies. The other, on receiving an express relative to the event,
+orders mourning for the deceased for a given time. As other potentates
+receive the intelligence, they follow the example. Their several levees
+or drawing-rooms, or places of public audience, are filled with
+mourners. Every individual of each sex, who is accustomed to attend
+them, is now habited in black. Thus a round of mourning is kept up by
+the courtiers of Europe, not by means of any sympathetic beating of the
+heart, but at the sound, as it were, of the postman's horn.
+
+But let us trace this species of mourning farther, and let us now more
+particularly look at the example of our own country for the elucidation
+of the point in question. The same Gazette, which gave birth to this
+black influenza at court, spreads it still farther. The private
+gentlemen of the land undertake to mourn also. You see them accordingly
+in the streets, and in private parties, and at public places, in their
+mourning habits. Nor is this all. Military officers, who have fought
+against the armies of the deceased, wear black crapes over their arms in
+token of the same sorrow.
+
+But the fever does not stop even here. It still spreads, and in tracing
+its progress, we find it to have attacked our merchants. Yes, the
+disorder has actually got upon _change_. But what have I said? Mourning
+habits upon change! Where the news of an army cut to pieces, produces
+the most cheerful countenances in many, if it raises the stocks but an
+half per cent. Mourning habits upon change, where contracts are made for
+human flesh and blood! Where plans that shall consign cargoes of human
+beings to misery and untimely death, and their posterity to bondage, are
+deliberately formed and agreed upon! O sorrow, sorrow! what hast thou
+to do upon change, except in the case of commercial losses, or
+disappointed speculation! But to add to this _disguised pomp_, as the
+Quakers call it, not one of ten thousand of the mourners, ever saw the
+deceased prince; and perhaps ninety nine in the hundred, of all who
+heard of him, reprobated his character when alive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+_Occupations of the Quakers--Agriculture declining among them--Probable
+reasons of this decline--Country congenial to the quietude of mind
+required by their religion--Sentiments of Cowper--Congenial also to the
+improvement of their moral feelings--Sentiments of William
+Penn--Particularly suited to them as lovers of the animal creation._
+
+
+The Quakers generally bring up their children to some employment. They
+believe that these, by having an occupation, may avoid evils, into which
+they might otherwise fall, if they had upon their hands an undue
+proportion of vacant time. "Friends of all degrees, says the book of
+extracts, are advised to take due care to breed up their children in
+some useful and necessary employment, that they may not spend their
+precious time in idleness, which is of evil example, and tends much to
+their hurt."
+
+The Quakers have been described to be a domestic people, and as
+peculiarly cherishing domestic happiness. Upon this principle it is,
+combined with the ties of their discipline and peculiar customs, that
+we scarcely find any of this society quitting their country, except for
+America, to reside in foreign parts. If it be a charge against the
+Quakers, that they are eager in the pursuit of wealth, let it at least
+be mentioned in their favour, that, in their accumulation of it, they
+have been careful not to suffer their knowledge to take advantage of the
+ignorance of others, and to keep their hands clear of the oppression,
+and of the blood of their fellow-creatures.
+
+In looking among the occupations of the Quakers, we shall find some, who
+are brought up as manufacturers and mechanics; but the number of these
+is small.
+
+Others, but these are few, follow the sea. There may be here and there a
+mate or captain in the coasting employ. In America, where they have
+great local and other advantages, there may be more in the seafaring
+line. But, in general, the Quakers are domestic characters, and prefer
+home.
+
+There are but few also, who follow the professions. Their education and
+their religion exclude them from some of these. Some, however, are to be
+found in the department of medicine: and others, as conveyancers, in the
+law.
+
+Several of the Quakers follow agriculture. But these are few, compared
+with the rest of the society, or compared with the number of those who
+formerly followed a rural life. Almost all the Quakers were originally
+in the country, and but few of them in the towns. But this order of
+things is reversing fast. They are flocking into the towns, and are
+abandoning agricultural pursuits.
+
+The reasons, which may be given for this change, may be the following.
+It is not at all unlikely but that tithes may have had some influence in
+producing it. I am aware, however, it will be said, that a Quaker,
+living in the country, and strongly principled against these, would
+think it a dereliction of his duty to leave it on this account, and
+would remain upon the principle, that an abode there, under the annual
+exercise of his testimony, would, in a religions point of view, add
+strength to his strength. But it must be observed; on the other hand,
+that where men are not obliged to remain under grievous evils, and can
+get rid of them, merely by changing their occupation in life, and this
+honourably, it is in human nature to do it. And so far tithes, I
+believe, have had an influence, in driving the Quakers into the towns.
+Of later years, as the society has grown thinner in the country, I
+believe new reasons have sprung up; for the Quakers have had less
+opportunity of society with one another. They have been subjected, also
+to greater inconvenience in attending their religious meetings. Their
+children also have been more exposed to improper connexions in marriage.
+To which it may be added, that the large and rapid profits frequently
+made in trade, compared with the generally small and slow returns from
+agricultural concerns, may probably have operated with many, as an
+inducement to such a change.
+
+But whatever reasons may have induced them to quit the country, and to
+settle in the towns, no temporal advantages can make up to them, as a
+society, the measure of their loss. For when we consider that the
+Quakers never partake of the amusements of the world; that their worldly
+pleasures are chiefly of a domestic nature; that calmness, and quietude,
+and abstraction from worldly thoughts, to which rural retirement is
+peculiarly favourable, is the state of mind which they themselves
+acknowledge to be required by their religion, it would seem that the
+country was peculiarly the place for their habitations.
+
+It would seem, also as if, by this forsaking of the country, they had
+deprived themselves of many opportunities of the highest enjoyment of
+which they are capable as Quakers. The objects in the country are
+peculiarly favourable to the improvement of morality in the exercise of
+the spiritual feelings. The bud and the blossom, the rising and the
+falling leaf, the blade of corn and the ear, the seed time and the
+harvest, the sun that warms and ripens, the cloud that cools and emits
+the fruitful shower; these, and an hundred objects, afford daily food
+for the religious growth of the mind. Even the natural man is pleased
+with these. They excite in him natural ideas, and produce in him a
+natural kind of pleasure. But the spiritual man experiences a sublimer
+joy. He sees none of these without feeling both spiritual improvement
+and delight. It is here that he converses with the Deity in his works:
+It is here that he finds himself grateful for his goodness--that he
+acknowledges his wisdom--that he expresses his admiration of his power.
+
+The poet Cowper, in his contemplation of a country life, speaks forcibly
+on this subject.
+
+   "O friendly to the best pursuits of man,
+   Friendly to _thought_, to _virtue_, and to _peace_,
+   Domestic life, in rural leisure pass'd!
+   Few know thy value, and few taste thy sweets;
+   Though many boast thy favours, and affect
+   To understand and choose these for their own
+   But foolish man _forgoes his proper bliss_,
+   Ev'n as his first progenitor, and quits,
+   Though plac'd in Paradise, (for earth has still
+   Some traces of her youthful beauty left,)
+   _Substantial happiness_ for _transient joy_.
+   Scenes form'd for _contemplation_, and to _nurse_
+   The _growing seeds of wisdom_, that suggest
+   By every pleasing image they present,
+   Reflections, _such as meliorate the heart,
+   Compose the passions, and exalt the mind."_
+
+William Penn, in the beautiful letter which he left his wife and
+children before his first voyage to America, speaks also in strong terms
+upon the point in question.
+
+"But agriculture, says he, is especially in my eye. Let my children be
+husbandmen and housewives. This occupation is industrious, healthy,
+honest, and of good example. Like Abraham and the holy ancients, who
+pleased God, and obtained a good report, this leads to consider the
+_works of God_, and _nature of things that are good_, and diverts the
+mind from _being taken up_ with the _vain arts and inventions of a
+luxurious world_." And a little farther on he says, "_Of cities and
+towns, of concourse beware_. The _world is apt to stick close_ to those,
+who have _lived and got wealth there_. A _country life and estate_, I
+like best for my children. I prefer a decent mansion of a hundred pounds
+a year, to ten thousand pounds in London, or such like place, _in the
+way of trade_."
+
+To these observations it may he added, that the country, independently
+of the opportunity it affords for calmness and quietude of mind, and the
+moral improvement of it in the exercise of the spiritual feelings, is
+peculiarly fitted for the habitation of the Quakers, on account of their
+peculiar love for the animal creation. It would afford them a wide range
+for the exercise of this love, and the improvement of the benevolent
+affections. For tenderness, if encouraged, like a plant that is duly
+watered, still grows. What man has ever shown a proper affection for the
+brute creation, who has been backward in his love of the human race?
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Trade--Trade seldom considered as a question of morals--But Quakers
+view it in this light--Prohibit the slave-trade--Privateering
+--Manufactories of weapons of war--Also trade where the revenue is
+defrauded--Hazardous enterprises--Fictitious paper--Insist upon
+punctuality to words and engagements--Advise an annual inspection of
+their own affairs--Regulations in case of bankruptcy._
+
+
+I stated in the last chapter, that some of the Quakers, though these
+were few in number, were manufacturers and mechanics; that others
+followed the sea; that, others were to be found in the medical
+profession, and in the law; and that others were occupied in the
+concerns of a rural life. I believe with these few exceptions, that the
+rest of the society may be considered as engaged in trade.
+
+Trade is a subject, which seldom comes under the discussion of mankind
+as a moral question. If men who follow it, are honest and punctual in
+their dealings, little is thought of the nature of their occupations,
+or of the influence of these upon their minds. It will hardly, however,
+be denied by moralists, that the buying and selling of commodities for
+profit, is surrounded with temptation, and is injurious to pure,
+benevolent, or disinterested feelings; or that where the mind is
+constantly intent upon the gaining of wealth, by traffic, it is
+dangerously employed. Much less will it be denied, that trade is an
+evil, if any of the branches of it through which men acquire their
+wealth, are productive of mischief either to themselves or others. If
+they are destructive to the health of the inferior agents, or to the
+morality of any of the persons concerned in them, they can never be
+sanctioned by Christianity.
+
+The Quakers have thought it their duty, as a religious body, to make
+several regulations on this subject.
+
+In the first place they have made it a rule, that no person,
+acknowledged to be in profession with them, shall have any concern in
+the slave-trade.
+
+The Quakers began to consider this subject, as a Christian body, so
+early as in the beginning of the last century. In the year 1727, they
+passed a public censure upon this trade. In the year 1758, and
+afterwards in the year 1761, they warned and exhorted all in profession
+with them "to keep their hands clear of this unrighteous gain of
+oppression." In the yearly meeting of 1763, they renewed their
+exhortation in the following words: "We renew our exhortation, that
+Friends every where be especially careful to keep their hands clear of
+giving encouragement in any shape to the slave-trade; it being evidently
+destructive of the natural rights of mankind, who are all ransomed by
+one Saviour, and visited by one divine light in order to salvation; a
+traffic calculated to enrich and aggrandize some upon the miseries of
+others; in its nature abhorrent to every just and tender sentiment, and
+contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel."
+
+In the same manner, from the year 1763, they have publicly manifested a
+tender concern for the happiness of the injured Africans, and they have
+not only been vigilant to see that none of their own members were
+concerned in this impious traffic, but they have lent their assistance
+with other Christians in promoting its discontinuance.
+
+They have forbidden also the trade of privateering in war. The Quakers
+consider the capture of private vessels by private persons, as a robbery
+committed on the property of others, which no human authority can make
+reconcileable to the consciences of honest individuals. And upon this
+motive they forbid it, as well as upon that of their known profession
+against war.
+
+They forbid also the trade of the manufacturing of gun-powder, and of
+arms or weapons of war, such as swords, guns, pistols, bayonets, and the
+like, that they may stand clear of the charge of having made any
+instrument, the avowed use of which is the destruction of human life.
+
+They have forbidden also all trade, that has for its object the
+defrauding of the king either of his customs or his excise. They are not
+only not to smuggle themselves, but they are not to deal in such goods
+as they know, or such as they even suspect, to be smuggled; nor to buy
+any article of this description, even for their private use. This
+prohibition is enjoined, because all Christians ought "to render to
+Caesar the things that are Caesars," in all cases where their
+consciences do not suffer by doing it: because those, who are accessory
+to smuggling, give encouragement to perjury and bloodshed, these being
+frequently the attendants of such unlawful practices; and because they
+do considerable injury to the honest trader.
+
+They discourage also concerns in "hazardous enterprises," in the way of
+trade. Such enterprisses are apt to disturb the tranquillity of the
+mind, and to unfit if for religious exercise. They may involve also the
+parties concerned, and their families, in ruin. They may deprive them
+again of the means of paying their just debts, and thus render them
+injurious to their creditors. Members, therefore, are advised to be
+rather content with callings which may produce small but certain
+profits, than to hazard the tranquillity of their minds, and the
+property of themselves and others.
+
+In the exercise of those callings which are deemed lawful by the
+society, two things are insisted upon: first, that their members "never
+raise and circulate any fictitious kind of paper credit, with
+endorsements and acceptances, to give it an appearance of value without
+an intrinsic reality:" secondly, that they should be particularly
+attentive to their words, and to the punctual performance of their
+engagements, and on no account delay their payments beyond the time they
+have promised. The society have very much at heart the enforcement of
+the latter injunction, not only because all christians are under an
+obligation to do these things, but because they wish to see the high
+reputation of their ancestors, in these respects, preserved among those
+of their own day. The early Quakers were noted for a scrupulous
+attention to their duty, as Christians, in their commercial concerns.
+One of the great clamours against them, in the infancy of their
+institution, was, that they would get all the trade. It was nothing but
+their great honour in their dealings, arising from religious principle,
+that gave birth to this uproar, or secured them a more than ordinary
+portion of the custom of the world in the line of their respective
+trades.
+
+Among other regulations made by the Quakers on the subject of trade, it
+is advised publicly to the members of the society, to inspect the state
+of their affairs once a year. And lest this advice should be
+disregarded, the monthly meetings are directed to make annual
+appointments of suitable Friends to communicate it to the members
+individually. But independently of this public recommendation, they are
+earnestly advised by their book of extracts, to examine their situations
+frequently. This is done with a view, that they may see how they stand
+with respect to themselves and the world at large; that they may not
+launch out into commercial concerns beyond their strength, nor live
+beyond their income, nor go on longer in their business than they can
+pay their debts.
+
+If a Quaker, after this inspection of his affairs, should find himself
+unable to pay his just debts, he is immediately to disclose his affairs
+to some judicious members of the society, or to his principal creditors,
+and to take their advice how he is to act; but to be particularly
+careful not to pay one creditor in preference to another.
+
+When a person of the society becomes a bankrupt, a committee is
+appointed by his own monthly meeting, to confer with him on his affairs.
+If the bankruptcy should appear, by their report, to have been the
+result of misconduct, he is disowned. He may, however, on a full
+repentance, (for it is a maxim with the society, that "true repentance
+washes put all stains,") and by a full payment of every man his own, be
+admitted into membership again; or if he has begun to pay his creditors,
+and has made arrangements satisfactory to the society for paying them,
+he may be received as a member, even before the whole of the debt is
+settled.
+
+If it should appear, on the other hand, that the bankruptcy was the
+unavoidable result of misfortune, and not of imprudence, he is allowed
+to continue in the society.
+
+But in either of these cases, that is, where a man is disowned and
+restored, or where he has not been disowned at all, he is never
+considered as a member, entitled to every privilege of the society,
+till he has paid the whole of the debts. And the Quakers are so strict
+upon this point, that if a person has paid ten shillings in the pound,
+and his creditors have accepted the composition, and the law has given
+him his discharge, it is insisted upon that he pays the remaining ten as
+soon as he is able. No distance of time will be any excuse to the
+society for his refusal to comply with this honourable law. Nor will he
+be considered as a full member, as I observed before, till he has paid
+the uttermost farthing; for no collection for the poor, nor any legacy
+for the poor, or for other services of the society, will be received
+from his purse, while any thing remains of the former debt. This rule of
+refusing charitable contributions on such occasions, is founded on the
+principle that money, taken from a man in such a situation, is taken
+from his lawful creditors; and that such a man can have nothing to give,
+while he owes any thing to another.
+
+It may be observed of this rule or custom, that as it is founded in
+moral principle, so it tends to promote a moral end. When persons of
+this description see their own donations dispensed with, but those of
+the rest of the meeting taken, they are reminded of their own situation,
+and of the desirableness of making the full satisfaction required. The
+custom, therefore, operates as a constant memento, that their debts are
+still hanging over them, and prompts to new industry and anxious
+exertion for their discharge. There are many instances of Quakers, who
+have paid their composition as others do, but who, after a lapse of many
+years, have surprised their former creditors by bringing them the
+remaining amount of their former debts. Hence the Quakers are often
+enabled to say, what few others can say on the same subject, that they
+are not ultimately hurtful to mankind, either by their errors, or by
+their misfortunes.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_But though the Quakers have made these regulations, the world find
+fault with many of their trades or callings--Several of these
+specified--Standard proposed by which to examine them--Some of these
+censurable by this standard--and given up by many Quakers on this
+account, though individuals may still follow them._
+
+
+But though the Quakers have made these beautiful regulations concerning
+trade, it is manifest that the world are not wholly satisfied with their
+conduct on this subject. People charge them with the exercise of
+improper callings, or of occupations inconsistent with the principles
+they profess.
+
+It is well known that the Quakers consider themselves as a highly
+professing people; that they declaim against the follies and vanities of
+the world; and that they bear their testimony against civil customs and
+institutions, even to personal suffering. Hence, professing more than
+others, more is expected from them. George Fox endeavoured to inculcate
+this idea into his new society. In his letter to the yearly meeting in
+1679, he expresses himself as follows: "The world also does expect more
+from Friends than from other people, because they profess more.
+Therefore you should be more just than others in your words and
+dealings, and more righteous, holy, and pure, in your lives and
+conversations; so that your lives and conversations may preach. For the
+world's tongues and mouths have preached long enough; but their lives
+and conversations have denied what their tongues have professed and
+declared." I may observe, therefore, that the circumstance of a more
+than ordinary profession of consistency, and not any supposed immorality
+on the part of the Quakers, has brought them, in the instances alluded
+to, under the censure of the world. Other people, found in the same
+trades or occupations, are seldom noticed as doing wrong. But when men
+are set as lights upon a hill, blemishes will be discovered in them,
+which will be overlooked among those who walk in the vale below.
+
+The trades or occupations which are usually condemned as improper for
+Quakers to follow, are numerous. I shall not therefore specify them all.
+Those, however, which I purpose to select for mention, I shall accompany
+with all the distinctions which equity demands on the occasion.
+
+The trade of a distiller, or of a spirit-merchant, is considered as
+objectionable if in the hands of a Quaker.
+
+That of a cotton manufacturer, who employs a number of poor children in
+the usual way, or in a way which is destructive to their morals and to
+their health, is considered as equally deserving of censured.[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: Poor children are frequently sent by parishes to
+cotton-mills. Little or no care is taken of their morals. The men, when
+grown up, frequently become drunken, and the girls debauched. But the
+evil does not stop here. The progeny of these, vitiated by the
+drunkenness and debauchery of their parents, have generally diseased and
+crippled constitutions, which they perpetuate to a new generation; after
+which the whole race, I am told, generally becomes extinct. What
+Christian can gain wealth at the expense of the health, morals, and
+happiness of his fellow-creatures?]
+
+There is a calling which is seldom followed by itself: I mean the
+furnishing of funerals, or the serving of the pall. This is generally in
+the hands of Cabinet-makers, or of Upholsterers, or of woollen-drapers.
+Now if any Quaker should be found in any of these occupations, and if he
+should unite with these that of serving the pall, he would be considered
+by such an union, as following an objectionable trade. For the Quakers
+having discarded all the pomp, and parade, and dress, connected with
+funerals, from their own practice, and this upon moral principles, it
+is insisted upon, that they ought not to be accessary to the promotion
+of such ceremonials among others.
+
+The trade of a printer, or bookseller, when exercised by a Quaker, has
+not escaped the animadversions of the world. A distinction, however,
+must be made here. They who condemn this calling, can never do it
+justly, but in supposed cases. They must suppose, for example, that the
+persons in question follow these callings generally, or that they do not
+make an exception with respect to the printing or selling of such books
+as may convey poison to the morals of those who read them.
+
+A Quaker-tailor is considered as a character, which cannot consistently
+exist. But a similar distinction must be made here as in a former case.
+The world cannot mean that if a Quaker confines himself to the making of
+clothes for his own society, he is reproachable for so doing; but only
+if he makes clothes for every one without distinction, following, as he
+is ordered, all the varying fashions of the world.
+
+A Quaker-hatter is looked upon in the same light as a Quaker-tailor. But
+here a distinction suggests itself again. If he make only plain and
+useful hats for the community and for other Quakers, it cannot be
+understood that he is acting inconsistently with his religious
+profession. The charge can only lie against him, where he furnishes the
+hat with the gold and the silver-lace, or the lady's riding-hat with its
+ornaments, or the military hat with its lace, cockade, and plumes. In
+this case he will be considered as censurable by many, because he will
+be looked upon as a dealer in the superfluities condemned by his own
+religion.
+
+The last occupation I shall notice is that of a silversmith. And here
+the censure will depend upon a contingency also. If a Quaker confines
+himself to the selling of plain silver articles for use, little
+objection can be raised against his employ. But if, in addition to this,
+he sells goldheaded canes, trinkets, rings, ear-rings, bracelets,
+jewels, and other ornaments of the person, he will be considered as
+chargeable with the same inconsistency as the follower of the former
+trade.
+
+In examining these and other occupations of the Quakers, with a view of
+seeing how far the objections which have been advanced against them are
+valid, I own I have a difficult task to perform. For what standard shall
+I fix upon, or what limits shall I draw upon this occasion? The
+objections are founded in part upon the principle, that Quakers ought
+not to sell those things, of which their own practice shows that they
+disapprove. But shall I admit this principle without any limitation or
+reserve? Shall I say without any reserve, that a Quaker-woman, who
+discards the use of a simple ribbon from her dress, shall not sell it to
+another female, who has been constantly in the habit of using it, and
+this without any detriment to her mind? Shall I say again, without any
+reserve, that a Quaker-man who discards the use of black cloth, shall
+not sell a yard of it to another? And, if I should say so, where am I to
+stop? Shall I not be obliged to go over all the colours in his shop, and
+object to all but the brown and the drab? Shall I say again, without any
+reserve, that a Quaker cannot sell any thing which is innocent in
+itself, without inquiring of the buyer its application or its use? And
+if I should say so, might I not as well say, that no Quaker can be in
+trade? I fear that to say this, would be to get into a labyrinth, out of
+which there would be no clew to guide us.
+
+Difficult, however, as the task may seem, I think I may lay down three
+positions, which will probably not be denied, and which, if admitted,
+will assist us in the determination of the question before us. The first
+of these is, that no Quaker can be concerned in the sale of a thing,
+which is evil in itself. Secondly, that he cannot encourage the sale of
+an article, which he knows to be essentially, or very generally, that
+is, in seven cases out of ten, productive of evil. And, thirdly, that he
+cannot sell things which he has discarded from his own use, if he has
+discarded them on a belief that they are specifically forbidden by
+Christianity, or that they are morally injurious to the human mind.
+
+If these positions be acknowledged, they will give ample latitude for
+the condemnation of many branches of trade.
+
+A Quaker-bookseller, according to these positions, cannot sell a profane
+or improper book.
+
+A Quaker spirit-merchant cannot sell his liquor but to those whom he
+believes will use it in moderation, or medicinally, or on proper
+occasions.
+
+A Quaker, who is a manufacturer of cotton, cannot exercise his
+occupation but upon an amended plan.
+
+A Quaker-silversmith cannot deal in any splendid ornaments of the
+person.
+
+The latter cannot do this for the following reasons. The Quakers reject
+all such ornaments, because they believe them to be specifically
+condemned by Christianity. The words of the apostles Paul and Peter,
+have been quoted both by Fox, Penn, Barclay, and others, upon this
+subject. But surely, if the Christian religion positively condemns the
+use of them in one, it condemns the use of them in another. And how can
+any one, professing this religion, sell that, the use of which he
+believes it to have forbidden? The Quakers also have rejected all
+ornaments of the person, as we find by their own writers, on account of
+their immoral tendency; or because they are supposed to be instrumental
+in puffing up the creature, or in the generation of vanity and pride.
+But if they have rejected the use of them upon this principle, they are
+bound, as Christians, to refuse to sell them to others. Christian love,
+and the Christian obligation to do as we would wish to be done by,
+positively enjoin this conduct. For no man, consistently with this
+divine law and obligation, can sow the seeds of moral disease in his
+neighbour's mind.
+
+And here I may observe, that though there are trades, which may be
+innocent in themselves, yet Quakers may make them objectionable by the
+manner in which they may conduct themselves in disposing of the articles
+which belong to them. They can never pass them off, as other people do,
+by the declaration that they are the fashionable articles of the day.
+Such words ought never to come out of Quakers' mouths; not so much
+because their own lives are a living protest against the fashions of the
+world, as because they cannot knowingly be instrumental in doing a moral
+injury to others. For it is undoubtedly the belief of the Quakers, as I
+had occasion to observe in a former volume, that the following of such
+fashions, begets a worldly spirit, and that in proportion as men indulge
+this spirit, they are found to follow the loose and changeable morality
+of the world, instead of the strict and steady morality of the gospel.
+
+That some such positions as these may be fixed upon for the farther
+regulation of commercial concerns among the Quakers, is evident, when we
+consider the example of many estimable persons in this society.
+
+The Quakers, in the early times of their institution, were very
+circumspect about the nature of their occupations, and particularly as
+to dealing in superfluities and ornaments of the person. Gilbert Latey
+was one of those who bore his public testimony against them. Though he
+was only a tailor, he was known and highly respected by king James the
+Second. He would not allow his servants to put any corruptive finery
+upon the clothes which he had been ordered to make for others. From
+Gilbert Latey I may pass to John Woolman. In examining the Journal of
+the latter I find him speaking thus: "It had been my general practice to
+buy and sell things really useful. Things that served chiefly to please
+the vain mind in people, I was not easy to trade in; seldom did it; and
+whenever I did, I found it weaken me as a Christian." And from John
+Woolman I might mention the names of many, and, if delicacy did not
+forbid me, those of Quakers now living, who relinquished or regulated
+their callings, on an idea, that they could not consistently follow them
+at all, or that they could not follow them according to the usual manner
+of the world. I knew the relation of a Quaker-distiller, who left off
+his business upon principle. I was intimate with a Quaker-bookseller. He
+did not give up his occupation, for this was unnecessary; but he was
+scrupulous about the selling of an improper book. Another friend of
+mine, in the society, succeeded but a few years ago to a draper's shop.
+The furnishing of funerals had been a profitable part of the employ. But
+he refused to be concerned in this branch of it, wholly owing to his
+scruples about it. Another had been established as a silversmith for
+many years, and had traded in the ornamental part of the business, but
+he left it wholly, though advantageously situated, for the same reason,
+and betook himself to another trade. I know other Quakers, who have held
+other occupations, not usually objectionable by the world, who have
+become uneasy about them, and have relinquished them in their turn.
+These noble instances of the dereliction of gain, where it has
+interfered with principle, I feel it only justice to mention in this
+place. It is an homage due to Quakerism; for genuine Quakerism will
+always produce such instances. No true Quaker will remain in any
+occupation, which he believes it improper to pursue. And I hope, if
+there are Quakers, who mix the sale of objectionable with that of the
+other articles of their trade, it is because they have entered into this
+mixed business, without their usual portion of thought, or that the
+occupation itself has never come as an improper occupation before their
+minds.
+
+Upon the whole, it must be stated that it is wholly owing to the more
+than ordinary professions of the Quakers, as a religious body, that the
+charges in question have been exhibited against such individuals among
+them, as have been found in particular trades. If other people had been
+found in the same callings, the same blemishes would not have been so
+apparent. And if others had been found in the same, callings, and it
+had been observed of these, that they had made all the beautiful
+regulations which I have shown the Quakers to have done on the subject
+of trade, these blemishes would have been removed from the usual range
+of the human vision. They would have been like the spots in the sun's
+disk, which are hid from the observation of the human eye, because they
+are lost in the superior beauty of its blaze. But when the Quakers have
+been looked at solely as Quakers, or as men of high religious
+profession, these blemishes have become conspicuous. The moon, when it
+eclipses the sun, appears as a blemish in the body of that luminary. So
+a public departure from publicly professed principles will always be
+noticed, because it will be an excrescence or blemish, too large and
+protuberant, to be overlooked in the moral character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+_Settlement of differences--Quakers, when they differ, abstain from
+violence--No instance of a duel--George For protested against going to
+law, and Recommended arbitration-Laws relative to arbitration--Account
+of an arbitration-society, at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles
+--Its dissolution--Such societies might be usefully promoted._
+
+
+Men are so constituted by nature, and their mutual intercourse is such,
+that circumstances must unavoidably arise, which will occasion
+differences. These differences will occasionally rouse the passions;
+and, after all, they will still be to be settled. The Quakers, like
+other men, have their differences. But you rarely see any disturbance of
+the temper on this account. You rarely hear intemperate invectives. You
+are witness to no blows. If in the courts of law you have never seen
+their characters stained by convictions for a breach of the
+marriage-contract, or the crime of adultery; so neither have you seen
+them disgraced by convictions for brutal violence, or that most
+barbarous of all Gothic customs, the duel.
+
+It is a lamentable fact, when we consider that we live in an age,
+removed above eighteen hundred years from the first promulgation of
+Christianity, one of the great objects of which was to insist upon the
+subjugation of the passions, that our children should not have been
+better instructed, than that we should now have to behold men, of
+apparently good education, settling their disputes by an appeal to arms.
+It is difficult to conceive what preposterous principles can actuate
+men, to induce them to such a mode of decision. Justice is the ultimate
+wish of every reasonable man in the termination of his casual
+differences with others, But, in the determination of cases by the
+sword, the injured man not unfrequently falls, while the aggressor
+sometimes adds to his offence, by making a widow or an orphan, and by
+the murder of of a fellow-creature. But it is possible the duellist may
+conceive that he adds to his reputation by decisions of this sanguinary
+nature. But surely he has no other reputation with good men, than that
+of a weak, or a savage, or an infatuated creature; and, if he fells, he
+is pitied by these on no other motive than that of his folly and of his
+crime. What philosopher can extol his courage, who, knowing the bondage
+of the mind while under the dominion of fashion, believes that more
+courage is necessary in refusing a challenge, than in going into the
+field? What legislator can applaud his patriotism, when he sees him
+violate the laws of his country? What Christian his religion, when he
+reflects on the relative duties of man, on the law of lore and
+benevolence that should have guided him, on the principle that it is
+more noble to suffer than to resist, and on the circumstance, that he
+may put himself into the doubly criminal situation of a murderer and a
+suicide by the same act?
+
+George Fox, in his doctrine of the influence of the spirit as a divine
+teacher, and in that of the necessity of the subjugation of the passions
+in order that the inward man might be in a fit state to receive its
+admonitions, left to the society a system of education, which, if acted
+upon, could not fail of producing peaceable and quiet characters; but
+foreseeing that among the best men differences would unavoidably arise
+from their intercourse in business and other causes, it, was his desire
+that these should be settled in a Christian manner. He advised therefore
+that no member should appeal to law; but that he should refer his
+difference to arbitration, by persons of exemplary character in the
+society. This mode of decision appeared to him to be consistent with the
+spirit of Christianity, and with the advice of the apostle Paul, who
+recommended that all the differences among the Christians of his own
+time should be referred to the decision of the saints, or of such other
+Christians, as were eminent for their lives and conversation.
+
+This mode of decision, which began to take place among the Quakers in
+the time of George Fox, has been continued by them to the present day.
+Cases, where property is concerned to the amount of many thousands, are
+determined in no other manner. By this process the Quakers obtain their
+verdicts in a way peculiarly satisfactory. For law-suits are at best
+tedious. They often destroy brotherly love in the individuals, while
+they continue. They excite also, during this time, not unfrequently, a
+vindictive spirit, and lead to family-feuds and quarrels. They agitate
+the mind also, hurt the temper, and disqualify a man for the proper
+exercise of his devotion. Add to this, that the expenses of law are
+frequently so great, that burthens are imposed upon men for matters of
+little consequence, which they feel as evils and incumbrances for a
+portion of their lives; burthens which guilt alone, and which no
+indiscretion, could have merited. Hence the Quakers experience
+advantages in the settlement of their differences, which are known but
+to few others.
+
+The Quakers, when any difference arises about things that are not of
+serious moment, generally settle it amicably between themselves; but in
+matters that are intricate and of weighty concern, they have recourse to
+arbitration. If it should happen, that they are slow in proceeding to
+arbitration, overseers, or any others of the society, who may come to
+the knowledge of the circumstance, are to step in and to offer their
+advice. If their advice is rejected, complaint is to be made to their
+own monthly meeting concerning them; after which they will come under
+the discipline of the society, and if they still persist in refusing to
+settle their differences or to proceed to arbitration, they may be
+disowned. I may mention here, that any member going to law with another,
+without having previously tried, to accommodate matters between them
+according to the rules of the society, comes under the discipline in
+like manner.
+
+When arbitration is determined on, the Quakers are enjoined to apply to
+persons of their own society to decide the case. It is considered,
+however, as desirable, that they should not trouble their ministers, if
+they can help it, on these occasions, as the minds of these ought to be
+drawn out as little as possible into worldly concerns. If Quakers,
+however, should not find among Quakers such as they would choose to
+employ for these purposes, or such as may not possess skill in regard to
+the matter in dispute, they may apply to others out of the society,
+sooner than go to law.
+
+The following is a concise statement of the rules recommended by the
+society, in the case of arbitrations.
+
+Each party is to choose one or two friends as arbitrators, and all the
+persons, so chosen, are to agree upon a third or a fifth. The
+arbitrators are not to consider themselves as advocates for the party by
+whom they were chosen, but as men, whose duty it is to judge
+righteously, fearing the Lord. The parties are to enter into engagements
+to abide by the award of the arbitrators. Every meeting of the
+arbitrators is to be made known to the parties concerned, till they have
+been fully heard. No private meetings are allowed between some of the
+arbitrators, or with one party separate from the other, on the business
+referred to them. No representation of the case of one party, either by
+writing or otherwise, is to be admitted, without its being fully made
+known to the other; and, if required, a copy of such representation is
+to be delivered to the other party. The arbitrators are to hear both
+parties fully, in the presence of each other, whilst either has any
+fresh matter to offer, for a time mutually limited. In the case of any
+doubtful point of law, the arbitrators are jointly to agree upon a case,
+and consult counsel. It is recommended to arbitrators to propose to the
+parties, that they should give an acknowledgment in writing, before the
+award is made; that they have been candidly and fully heard.
+
+In the same manner as a Quaker proceeds with a Quaker in the case of any
+difference, he is led by his education and habits to proceed with
+others, who are not members of the same society. A Quaker seldom goes to
+law with a person of another denomination, till he has proposed
+arbitration. If the proposal be not accepted, the Quaker has then no
+remedy but the law. For a person, who is out of the society, cannot be
+obliged upon pain of disownment, as a Quaker may, to submit to such a
+mode of decision, being out of the reach of the Quaker-discipline.
+
+I shall close my observations upon this subject, by giving an account of
+an institution for the accommodation of differences, which took place in
+the year 1793, upon Quaker principles.
+
+In the town of Newcastle upon Tyne, a number of disputes were
+continually arising on the subject of shipping concerns, which were
+referred to the decision of the laws. These decisions were often
+grievously expensive. They were, besides, frequently different from what
+seafaring persons conceived to be just. The latter circumstance was
+attributed to the ignorance of lawyers in maritime affairs. Much money
+was therefore often expended, and no one satisfied. Some Quakers, in the
+neighbourhood, in conjunction with others, came forward with a view of
+obviating these evils. They proposed arbitration as a remedy. They met
+with some opposition at first, but principally from the gentlemen of the
+law. After having, however, shown the impropriety of many of the legal
+verdicts that had been given, they had the pleasure of seeing their plan
+publicly introduced and sanctioned. For in the month of June, 1793, a
+number of gentlemen, respectable for their knowledge in mercantile and
+maritime affairs, met at the Trinity-hall in Newcastle, and associated
+themselves for these and other purposes, calling themselves "The
+Newcastle upon Tyne Association for general Arbitration."
+
+This association was to have four general meetings in the year, one in
+each quarter, at which they were to receive cases. For any urgent
+matter, however, which might occur, the clerk was to have the power of
+calling a special meeting.
+
+Each person, on delivering a case, was to pay a small fee. Out of these
+fees the clerk's salary and incidental expenses were to be paid. But the
+surplus was to be given to the poor.
+
+The parties were to enter into arbitration-bonds, as is usual upon such
+occasions.
+
+Each party was to choose out of this association or standing committee,
+one arbitrator for himself, and the association were to choose or to
+ballot for a third. And here it will be proper to observe, that this
+standing association appeared to be capable of affording arbitrators
+equal to the determination of every case. For, if the matter in dispute
+between the two parties were to happen to be a mercantile question,
+there were merchants in the association: If a question relative to
+shipping, there were ship-owners in it: If a question of insurance,
+there were insurance-brokers also. A man could hardly fail of having his
+case determined by persons who were competent to the task.
+
+Though this beautiful institution was thus publicly introduced, and
+introduced with considerable expectations and applause, cases came in
+but slowly. Custom and prejudice are not to be rooted out in a moment.
+In process of time, however, several were offered, considered, and
+decided, and the presumption was, that the institution would have grown
+with time. Of those cases which were determined, some, relating to
+ships, were found to be particularly intricate, and cost the arbitrators
+considerable time and trouble. The verdicts, however, which were given,
+were in all of them satisfactory. The Institution, at length became so
+popular, that, incredible to relate, its own popularity destroyed it! So
+many persons were ambitious of the honour of becoming members of the
+committee, that some of inferior knowledge, and judgment, and character,
+were too hastily admitted into it. The consequence was, that people
+dared not trust their affairs to the abilities of every member: and the
+institution expired, after having rendered important services to
+numerous individuals who had tried it.
+
+When we consider that this institution has been tried, and that the
+scheme of it has been found practicable, it is a pity that its benefits
+should have been confined, and this for so short a period, to a single
+town. Would it not be desirable, if, in every district, a number of
+farmers were to give in their names to form a standing committee, for
+the settlement of disputes between farmer and farmer? or that there
+should be a similar institution among manufacturers, who should decide
+between one manufacturer and another? Would it not also be desirable,
+if, in every parish, a number of gentlemen, or other respectable
+persons, were to associate for the purpose of accommodating the
+differences of each other? For this beautiful system is capable of being
+carried to any extent, and of being adapted to all stations and
+conditions of life. By these means numerous little funds might be
+established in numerous districts, from the surplus of which an
+opportunity would be afforded of adding to the comforts of such of the
+poor, as were to distinguish themselves by their good behaviour, whether
+as labourers for farmers, manufacturers, or others. By these means also
+many of the quarrels in parishes might be settled to the mutual
+satisfaction of the parties concerned, and, in so short a space of time,
+as to prevent them from contracting a rancorous and a wounding edge.
+Those, on the other hand, who were to assist in these arbitrations,
+would be amply repaid; for they would be thus giving an opportunity of
+growth to the benevolence of their affections, and they would have the
+pleasing reflection, that the tendency of their labours would be to
+produce peace and good will amongst men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Management of the poor--Quakers never seen as beggars--George Fox began
+the provision for the Quaker-poor--Monthly meetings appoint
+overseers--Persons passed over are to apply for relief and the
+disorderly may receive it in certain cases--Manner of collecting for the
+poor--If burthensome in one monthly meeting, the burthen shared by the
+quarterly--Quakers gain settlements by monthly meetings, as the other
+poor of the kingdom, by parishes._
+
+
+There are few parts of the Quaker-constitution, that are more worthy of
+commendation, than that which relates to the poor. All the members of
+this society are considered as brethren, and as entitled to support from
+one another. If our streets and our roads are infested by miserable
+objects, imploring our pity, no Quaker will be found among them. A
+Quaker-beggar would be a phenomenon in the world.
+
+It does not, however, follow from this account, that there are no poor
+Quakers, or that members of this society are not born in a dependent
+state. The truth is, that there are poor as well as rich, but the wants
+of the former are so well provided for, that they are not publicly seen,
+like the wants of others.
+
+George Fox, as he was the founder of the religion of the Quakers, I mean
+of a system of renovated Christianity, so he was the author of the
+beautiful system by which they make a provision for their poor. As a
+Christian, he considered the poor of every description, as members of
+the same family, but particularly those, who were of the household of
+faith. Consistently with this opinion, he advised the establishment of
+general meetings in his own time, a special part of whose business it
+was to take due care of the poor. These meetings excited at first the
+vigilance and anger of the magistrates; but when they came to see the
+regulations made by the Quakers, in order that none of their poor might
+become burthensome to their parishes, they went away--whatever they
+might think of some of their new tenets of religion--in admiration of
+their benevolence.
+
+The Quakers of the present day consider their poor in the same light as
+their venerable elder, namely, as members of the same family, whose
+wants it is their duty to relieve; and they provide for them nearly in
+the same manner. They intrust this important concern to the monthly
+meetings, which are the executive branches of the Quaker constitution.
+The monthly meetings generally appoint four overseers, two men and two
+women, over each particular meeting within their own jurisdiction, if
+their number will admit of it. It is the duty of these, to visit such of
+the poor as are in membership, of the men to visit the men, but of the
+women sometimes to visit both. The reason, why this double burthen is
+laid upon the women-overseers, is, that women know more of domestic
+concerns, more of the wants of families, more of the manner of providing
+for them, and are better advisers, and better nurses in sickness, than
+the men. Whatever these overseers find wanting in the course of their
+visits, whether money, clothes, medicine, or medical advice and
+attention, they order them, and the treasurer of the monthly meetings
+settles the different accounts. I may observe here, that it is not easy
+for overseers to neglect their duty; for an inquiry is made three times
+in the year, of the monthly meetings by the quarterly, whether the
+necessities of the poor are properly inspected and relieved[5]. I may
+observe also that the poor, who may stand in need of relief, are always
+relieved privately, I mean, at their respective homes.
+
+[Footnote 5: In London a committee is appointed for each poor person.
+Thus, for example, two women are appointed to attend to the wants and
+comfort of one poor old woman.]
+
+It is however possible, that there may be persons, who, from a variety
+of unlocked for causes, may be brought into distress, and whose case,
+never having been suspected, may be passed over. But persons, in this
+situation, are desired to apply, for assistance. It is also a rule in
+the society, that even persons whose conduct is disorderly, are to be
+relieved, if such conduct has not been objected to by their own monthly
+meeting. "The want of due care, says the book of Extracts, in watching
+diligently over the flock, and in dealing in due time with such as walk
+disorderly, hath, brought great difficulties on some meetings; for we
+think it both unreasonable and dishonourable, when persons apply to
+monthly meetings for relief in cases of necessity, then to object to
+them such offences as the meeting, through neglect of its own duty, hath
+suffered long to pass by, unreproved and unnoticed."
+
+The poor are supported by charitable collections from the body at large;
+or, in other words, every monthly meeting supports its own poor. The
+collections for them are usually made once a month, but in some places
+once a quarter, and in others at no stated times but when the treasurer
+declares them necessary, and the monthly meeting approves. Members are
+expected to contribute in proportion to their circumstances; but
+persons in a low situation, and servants, are generally excused upon
+these occasions.
+
+It happens in the districts of some monthly meetings, that there are
+found only few persons of property, but a numerous poor, so that the
+former are unable to do justice in their provision for the latter. The
+society have therefore resolved, when the poor are too numerous to be
+supported by their own monthly meetings, that the collection for them
+shall be made up out of the quarterly meeting, to which the said monthly
+meeting belongs. This is the same thing as if any particular parish were
+unable to pay the rates for the poor, and as if all the other parishes
+in the county were made to contribute towards the same.
+
+On this subject I may observe, that the Quaker-poor are attached to
+their monthly meetings, as the common poor of the kingdom are attached
+to their parishes, and that they gain settlements in these nearly in the
+same manner.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Education of the children of the poor particularly insisted upon and
+provided for by the Quakers--The bays usually pat out to
+apprenticeship--The girls to service--The latter not sufficiently
+numerous for the Quaker-families, who want them--The rich have not their
+proper proportion of these in their service--Reasons of it--Character of
+the Quaker poor._
+
+
+As the Quakers are particularly attentive to the wants of the poor, so
+they are no less attentive to the education of their offspring. These
+are all of them to receive their education at the public expense. The
+same overseers, as in the former case, are to take care of it, and the
+same funds to support it. An inquiry is therefore made three times in
+the year into this subject. "The children of the poor, says the book of
+Extracts, are to have due help of education, instruction, and necessary
+learning. The families also of the poor are to be provided with Bibles,
+and books of the society, at the expense of the monthly meetings. And as
+spine members may be straitened in their circumstances, and may refuse,
+out of delicacy, to apply for aid towards the education of their
+children, it is earnestly recommended to friends in every monthly
+meeting, to look out for persons who may be thus straitened, and to take
+care that their children shall receive instruction: and it is
+recommended to the parents of such, not to refuse this salutary aid, but
+to receive it with a willing mind, and with thankfulness to the great
+author of all good."
+
+When the boys have received their necessary learning, they are usually
+put out as apprentices to husbandry or trade. Domestic service is
+generally considered by their parents as unmanly, and as a nursery for
+idleness. Boys too, who can read and write, ought to expect, with the
+accustomed diligence and sobriety of Quakers, to arrive at a better
+situation in life. The girls, however, are destined in general for
+service: for it must be obvious, whatever their education may be, that
+the same number of employments is not open to women as to men. Of those
+again, which are open, some are objectionable. A Quaker-girl, for
+example, could not consistently be put an apprentice to a Milliner.
+Neither if a cotton-manufactory were in the neighbourhood, could her
+parents send her to such a nursery of debauchery and vice. From these
+and other considerations, and because domestic employments belong to
+women, their parents generally think it advisable to bring them up to
+service, and to place them in the families of friends.
+
+It is a remarkable circumstance, when we consider it to be recommended
+that Quaker-masters of families should take Quaker-servants, that
+persons of the latter description are not to be found sufficiently
+numerous for those who want them. This is probably a proof of the
+thriving situation of this society. It is remarkable again, that the
+rich have by no means their proportion of such servants. Those of the
+wealthy, who are exemplary, get them if they can. Others decline their
+services. Of these, some do it from good motives; for, knowing that it
+would be difficult to make up their complement of servants from the
+society, they do not wish to break in upon the customs and morals of
+those belonging to it, by mixing them with others. The rest, who mix
+more with the world, are, as I have been informed, fearful of having
+them, lest they should be overseers of their words and manners. For it
+is in the essence of the Quaker-discipline, as I observed upon that
+subject, that every member should watch over another for his good. There
+are no exceptions as to persons. The servant has as much right to watch
+over his master with respect to his religions conduct and conversation,
+as the master over his servant; and he has also a right, if his master
+violates the discipline, to speak to him, in a respectful manner, for
+so doing. Nor would a Quaker-servant, if he were well grounded in the
+principles of the society, and felt it to be his duty, want the courage
+to speak his mind upon such occasions. There have been instances, where
+this has happened, and where the master, in the true spirit of his
+religion, has not felt himself insulted by such interference, but has
+looked upon his servant afterwards as more worthy of his confidence and
+esteem. Such a right, however, of remonstrance, is, I presume, but
+rarely exercised.
+
+I cannot conclude this subject without saying a few words on the
+character of the Quaker-poor.
+
+In the first place I may observe, that one of the great traits in their
+character is independence of mind. When you converse with them, you find
+them attentive, civil, and obliging, but you see no marks of servility
+about them, and you hear no flattery from their lips. It is not the
+custom in this society, even for the poorest member to bow or pull off
+his hat, or to observe any outward obeisance to another, who may happen
+to be rich. Such customs are forbidden to all on religious principle. In
+consequence, therefore, of the omission of such ceremonious practices,
+his mind has never been made to bend on the approach of superior rank.
+Nor has he seen, in his own society, any thing that could lessen his own
+importance or dignity as a man. He is admitted into the meetings of
+discipline equally with the rich. He has a voice equally with them in
+all matters that are agitated there. From these causes a manliness of
+mind is produced, which is not seen among any other of the poor in the
+inland in which we live.
+
+It may also be mentioned as a second trait, that they possess
+extraordinary knowledge. Every Quaker-boy or girl, who comes into the
+world, must, however poor, if the discipline of the society be kept up,
+receive an education. All, therefore, who are born in the society, must
+be able to read and write. Thus the keys of knowledge are put into their
+hands. Hence we find them attaining a superior literal and historical
+knowledge of the scriptures, a superior knowledge of human nature, and a
+knowledge that sets them above many of the superstitions of those in
+their own rank in life.
+
+Another trait conspicuous in the character of the Quaker-poor, is the
+morality of their lives.
+
+This circumstance may easily be accounted for. For, in the first place,
+they are hindered in common with other Quakers, by means of their
+discipline, from doing many things, that are morally injurious to
+themselves. The poor of the world are addicted to profane swearing. But
+no person can bring the name of the creator of the Universe into
+frequent and ordinary use, without losing a sense of the veneration that
+is due to him. The poor of the world, again, frequently spend their
+time in public houses. They fight and quarrel with one another. They run
+after horse-racings, bull-baitings, cock-fightings, and the still more
+unnatural battles between man and man. But, by encouraging such habits,
+they cannot but obstruct in time, the natural risings of benevolence
+both towards their fellow-creatures and to those of the animal creation.
+Nor can they do otherwise than lose a sense of the dignity of their own
+minds, and weaken the moral principle. But the Quaker-poor, who are
+principled against such customs, can of course suffer no moral injury on
+these accounts. To which it may be added, that their superior knowledge
+both leads and attaches them to a superior conduct. It is a false, as
+well as a barbarous maxim, and a maxim very injurious both to the
+interests of the rich and poor, as well as of the states to which they
+belong, that knowledge is unpropitious to virtue.
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION
+OF THE
+QUAKERS.
+
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION OF THE QUAKERS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+_Religion of the Quakers--Invitation to a patient perusal of this part
+of the work--No design, by this invitation, to proselyte to
+Quakerism--All systems of Religion, that are founded on the principles
+of Christianity, are capable, if heartily embraced, of producing present
+and future happiness to man--No censure of another's Creed warrantable,
+inasmuch as the human understanding is finite--Object of this
+Invitation._
+
+
+Having explained very diffusively the great subjects, the moral
+Education, Discipline, and Peculiar Customs, of the Quakers, I purpose
+to allot the remaining part of this volume to the consideration of their
+religion.
+
+I know that persons, who are religiously disposed will follow me
+patiently through this division of my work, not only because religion is
+the most important of all subjects that can be agitated, but because,
+in the explanation of the religious systems of others, some light may
+arise, which, though it be not new to all, may yet be new and acceptable
+to many. I am aware, however, that there are some who direct their
+reading to light subjects, and to whom such as are serious may appear
+burthensome. If any such should have been induced, by any particular
+motive, to take this book into their hands, and to accompany me thus
+far, I entreat a continuation of their patience, till I have carried
+them through the different parts and divisions of the present subject.
+
+I have no view, in thus soliciting the attention of those who are more,
+or of those who are less religiously disposed, to attempt to proselyte
+to Quakerism. If men do but fear God, and work righteousness, whatever
+their Christian denomination may be, it is sufficient. Every system of
+religion which is founded on the principles of Christianity, must be
+capable, if heartily embraced, of producing temporal and eternal
+happiness to man. At least, man with his limited understanding, cannot
+pronounce with any absolute certainty, that his own system is so far
+preferable to that of his neighbour, that it is positively the best, or
+that there will be any material difference in the future happiness of
+those who follow the one or the other; or that the pure professors of
+each shall not have their peculiar rewards. The truth is, that each
+system has its own merits. Each embraces great and sublime objects. And
+if good men have existed, as none can reasonably deny, before
+Christianity was known, it would be a libel on Christianity, to suppose
+either that good men had not existed since, or that good Christians
+would not be ultimately happy, though following systems differing from
+those of one another. Indeed, every Christian community has a great deal
+to say in the defence of its own tenets. Almost all Christian churches
+have produced great characters; and there are none, I should hope, that
+had not been the authors of religious good. The church of England, in
+attempting to purify herself at the reformation, effected a great work.
+Since that time she has produced at different periods, and continues to
+produce, both great and good men. By means of her Universities, she has
+given forth, and keeps up and disseminates, a considerable portion of
+knowledge; and though this, in the opinion of the Quakers, is not
+necessary for those who are to become ministers of the Gospel, it cannot
+be denied that it is a source of temporary happiness to man; that it
+enlarges the scope of his rational and moral understanding, and that it
+leads to great and sublime discoveries, which become eminently
+beneficial to mankind. Since that time she has also been an instrument
+of spreading over this kingdom a great portion of religious light, which
+has had its influence in the production of moral character.
+
+But though I bestow this encomium upon the established church, I should
+be chargeable with partiality and injustice, if I were not to allow,
+that among the dissenters of various descriptions, learned, pious, and
+great men, had been regularly and successively produced. And it must be
+confessed, and reflected upon with pleasure, that these, in proportion
+to their numbers, have been no less instrumental in the dissemination of
+religions knowledge, and in the production of religious conduct. I might
+go to large and populous towns and villages in the kingdom, and fully
+prove my assertion in the reformed manners of the poor, many of whom,
+before these pious visitations, had been remarkable for the profaneness
+of their lives.
+
+Let us then not talk but with great deference and humility; with great
+tenderness and charity; with great thankfulness to the author of every
+good gift,--when we speak of the different systems that actuate the
+Christian World. Why should we consider our neighbour as an alien, and
+load him with reproaches, because he happens to differ from us in
+opinion about an article of faith? As long as there are men, so long
+will there be different measures of talents and understanding; and so
+long will they view things in a different light, and come to different
+conclusions concerning them. The eye of one man can see farther than
+that of another: So can the human mind, on the subject of speculative
+truths. This consideration should teach us humility and forbearance in
+judging of the religion of others. For who is he, who can say that he
+sees the farthest, or that his own system is the best? If such men as
+Milton, Whiston, Boyle, Locke, and Newton, all agreeing in the
+profession of Christianity, did not all think precisely alike concerning
+it, who art thou, with thy inferior capacity, who settest up the
+standard of thine own judgment as infallible? If thou sendest thy
+neighbour to perdition in the other world, because he does not agree in
+his creed with thee, know that he judges according to the best of his
+abilities, and that no more will be required of him. Know also that thou
+thyself judgest like a worm of the earth; that thou dishonourest the
+Almighty by thy reptile notions of him; and that in making him accord
+with thee in condemning one of his creatures for what thou conceivest
+to be the misunderstanding of a speculative proposition, thou treatest
+him like a man, as thou thyself art, with corporeal organs; with
+irritable passions, and with a limited intelligence. But if, besides
+this, thou condemnest thy neighbour in this world also, and feelest the
+spirit of persecution towards him, know that, whatever thy pretensions
+may be to religion, thou art not a Christian. Thou art not possessed of
+that charity or love, without which thou art but as sounding brass and a
+tinkling cymbal.
+
+Having therefore no religious prejudices[6] myself, except in favour of
+Christianity, and holding no communion with the Quakers, as a religions
+society, it cannot be likely that I should attempt to proselyte to
+Quakerism. I wish only, as I stated in my introduction to this work, to
+make the Quakers better known to their countrymen than they are at
+present. In this I think I have already succeeded, for I believe I have
+communicated many facts concerning them, which have never been related
+by others. But no people can be thoroughly known, or at least the
+character of a people cannot be thoroughly understood, except we are
+acquainted with their religion; much less can that of the Quakers, who
+differ so materially, both in their appearance and practice, from the
+rest of their fellow-citizens.
+
+[Footnote 6: Though I conceive a charitable allowance ought to be made
+for the diversity of religious opinions among Christians, I by no means
+intend to say, that it is not our duty to value the system of opinion
+which we think most consonant to the Gospel, and to be wisely zealous
+for its support.]
+
+Having thought it right to make these prefatory observations, I proceed
+to the prosecution of my work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+_The Almighty created the Universe by means of his spirit--and also
+man--He gave man, besides his intellect, an emanation from his own
+spirit, thus making him in his own image--But this image he lost--A
+portion, however, of the same spirit was continued to his
+posterity--These possessed it in different degrees--Abraham, Moses, and
+the prophets, had more of it than some others--Jesus possessed it
+immeasurably, and without limit--Evangelists and apostles possessed it,
+but in a limited manner, and in different degrees._
+
+
+The Quakers believe, that when the Almighty created the Universe, he
+effected it by means of the life, or vital or vivifying energy that was
+in his own spirit. "And the earth was without form, and void; and
+darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon
+the face of the waters."
+
+This life of the spirit has been differently named, but is concisely
+stiled by St. John the evangelist "the word" for he says, "in the
+beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
+All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made,
+that was made."
+
+The Almighty also, by means of the same divine energy or life of the
+spirit which had thus created the universe, became the cause also of
+material life, and of vital functions. He called forth all animated
+nature into existence; for he "made the living creature after his kind."
+
+He created man also by the same power. He made his corporeal and organic
+nature. He furnished him also with intellect, or a mental understanding.
+By this latter gift he gave to man, what he had not given to other
+animated nature, the power of reason, by which he had the superiority
+over it, and by means of which he was enabled to guide himself in his
+temporal concerns. Thus when he made the natural man, he made him a
+rational agent also.
+
+But he gave to man, at the same time, independently of this intellect or
+understanding, a spiritual faculty, or a portion of the life of his own
+spirit, to reside in him. This gift occasioned man to become more
+immediately, as it is expressed, the image of the Almighty. It set him
+above the animal and rational part of his nature. It made him know
+things not intelligible solely by his reason. It made him spiritually
+minded. It enabled him to know his duty to God, and to hold a heavenly
+intercourse with his maker.
+
+Adam then, the first man, independently of his rational faculties,
+received from the Almighty into his own breast such an emanation from
+the life of his own spirit, as was sufficient to have enabled him both
+to hold, and to have continued, a spiritual intercourse with his maker,
+and to have preserved him in the state of innocence in which he had been
+created. As long as he lived in this divine light of the spirit, he
+remained in the image of God, and was perfectly happy; but, not
+attending faithfully and perseveringly to this his spiritual monitor, he
+fell into the snares of Satan, or gave way to the temptations of sin.
+From this moment his condition became changed. For in the same manner as
+distemper occasions animal life to droop, and to lose its powers, and
+finally to cease, so unrighteousness, or his rebellion against the
+divine light of the spirit that was within him, occasioned a dissolution
+of his spiritual feelings and perceptions; for he became dead as it
+were, in consequence, as to any knowledge of God, or enjoyment of his
+presence[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: It was said that, in the day in which Adam should eat
+forbidden fruit, he should die; but he did not lose his animal life, or
+his rational nature. His loss therefore is usually considered by the
+Quakers to have been a divine spiritual principle, which had been
+originally superadded to the animal and rational faculties.]
+
+It pleased the Almighty, however, not wholly to abandon him in this
+wretched state, but he comforted him with the cheering promise that the
+seed of the woman should some time or other completely subdue sin, or
+to use the scriptural language, "should bruise the serpent's head;" or,
+in other words, as sin was of a spiritual nature, so it could only be
+overcome by a spiritual conqueror; and therefore that the same holy
+spirit, or word, or divine principle of light and life, which had
+appeared in creation, should dwell so entirely and without limit or
+measure, in the person or body of some one of his descendants, that sin
+should by him be entirely subdued.
+
+As God then poured into Adam, the first man, a certain portion of his
+own spirit, or gave him a certain portion of the divine light, for the
+regulation of his spiritual conduct and the power of heavenly
+intercourse with himself, so he did not entirely cease from bestowing
+his spirit upon his posterity; or, in other words, he gave them a
+portion of that light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the
+world. Of the individuals therefore who succeeded Adam, all received a
+portion of this light. Some, however, enjoyed larger portions of it than
+others, according as they attended to its influences, or according to
+the measure given them. Of those who possessed the greatest share of it,
+some were the ancient patriarchs, such as Noah and Abraham, and others
+were the ancient scriptural writers, such as Moses and the prophets.
+The latter again experienced it in different measures or degrees; and in
+proportion as they had it, they delivered more or less those prophecies
+which are usually considered as inspired truths, from a belief that many
+of them have been circumstantially completed.
+
+At length, in the fulness of time, that is, when all things had been
+fulfilled which were previously to take place, this divine spirit, which
+had appeared in creation, this divine word, or light, took flesh, (for,
+as St. John the Evangelist says, "the word was made flesh, and dwelled
+among us,") and inhabited "the body which had been prepared for it;" or,
+in other words, it inhabited the body of the person Jesus; but with this
+difference, that whereas only a portion of this divine light or spirit
+had been given to Adam, and afterwards to the prophets, it was given
+without limit or measure to the man Jesus[8]. "For he whom God hath
+sent, says St. John, speaketh the words of God, _for God giveth not the
+Spirit by measure unto him."_ And St. Paul says, [9] "In him _the fulness
+of the Godhead_ dwelled bodily." In him, therefore, the promise given to
+Adam was accomplished, "that the seed of the woman should bruise the
+serpent's head;" for we see in this case a human body, weak and infirm,
+and subject to passions, possessed or occupied, without limit or
+measure, by the spirit of God. But if the man Jesus had the full spirit
+of God within him, he could not be otherwise than, perfectly holy. And
+if so, sin never could have entered, and must therefore, as for as
+relates to him, have been entirely repelled. Thus he answered the
+prophetic character which had been given of him, independently of his
+victory over sin by the sacrifice of himself, or by becoming afterwards
+a comforter to those in bondage, who should be willing to receive him.
+
+[Footnote 8: John 3:34]
+
+[Footnote 9: Col. 2:9]
+
+After Jesus Christ came the Evangelists and Apostles. Of the same spirit
+which he had possessed _immeasurably_, these had their several portions;
+and though these were[10] limited, and differed in degree front one
+another, they were sufficient to enable them to do their duty to God and
+men, to enjoy the presence of the Almighty, and to promote the purposes
+designed by him in the propagation of his gospel.
+
+[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. 10. 18.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+_Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus and the
+prophets and the apostles had, he can have no knowledge of God or
+spiritual things--Doctrine of St. Paul on this subject--This confirms
+the history of the human and divine spirit in man--These spirits
+distinct in their kind--This distinction farther elucidated by a
+comparison between the faculties of men and brutes--Sentiments of
+Augustin--Luther--Calvin--Smith--Taylor--Cudworth._
+
+
+The Quakers believe, that there can be no spiritual knowledge of God,
+but through the medium of his holy spirit; or, in other words, that if
+men have not a portion of the same spirit which the holy men of old, and
+which the Evangelists and Apostles, and which Jesus himself had, they
+can have no true or vital religion.
+
+In favour of this proposition, they usually quote those remarkable words
+of the Apostle Paul;[11] "for what man knoweth the things of a man, save
+the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
+no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of
+the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
+that are freely given to us of God." And again--"but the natural man
+receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness
+to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
+discerned."
+
+[Footnote 11: 1 Cor. 2.11, &c.]
+
+By these expressions the Quakers conceive that the history of man, as
+explained in the last chapter, is confirmed; or that the Almighty not
+only gave to man reason, which was to assist him in his temporal, but
+also superadded a portion of his own spirit, which was to assist him in
+his spiritual concerns. They conceive it also to be still farther
+confirmed by other expressions of the same Apostle. In his first letter
+to the Corinthians, he says,[12] "Know ye not that your body is the
+_temple of the Holy Ghost_, which _is in you_, which ye have of God;"
+and in his letter to Timothy he desires him[13] "to hold fast that good
+thing which was committed to him by means of the _holy_ Ghost, which
+_dwelled in him_" Now these expressions can only be accurate on a
+supposition of the truth of the history of man, as explained in the
+former chapter. If this history be true, then they are considered as
+words of course: for if there be a communication between the supreme
+Being and his creature man, or if the Almighty has afforded to man an
+emanation of his own spirit, which is to act for a time in his mortal
+body, and then to return to him that gave it, we may say, with great
+consistency, that the divinity resides in him, or that his body is the
+temple of the holy spirit.
+
+[Footnote 12: 1 Cor. 6. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 13: 2 Tim. 1. 14.]
+
+The Quakers conceive again from these expressions of the Apostle, that
+these two principles in man are different from each other; they are
+mentioned under the distinct names of the spirit of man, and of the
+spirit of God. The former they suppose to relate to the understanding:
+the latter conjointly to the understanding and to the heart. The former
+can be brought into use at all times, if the body of a man be in health.
+The latter is not at his own disposal. Man must wait for its
+inspirations. Like the wind, it bloweth when it listeth. Man also, when
+he feels this divine influence, feels that it is distinct from his
+reason. When it is gone, he feels the loss of it, though all his
+rational faculties be alive. "Those, says Alexander Arscott, who have
+this experience, certainly know that as at times, in their silent
+retirements and humble waitings upon God, they receive an understanding
+of his will, relating to their present duty, in such a clear light as
+leaves no doubt or hesitation, so at other times, when this is withdrawn
+from them, they are at a loss again, and see themselves, as they really
+are, ignorant and destitute."
+
+The Quakers again understand by these expressions of the Apostle, which
+is the point insisted upon in this chapter, that human reason, or the
+spirit of man which is within him, and the divine principle of life and
+light which is the spirit of God residing in his body or temple, are so
+different in their powers, that the former cannot enter into the
+province of the latter. As water cannot penetrate the same bodies, which
+fire can, so neither can reason the same subjects as the spiritual
+faculty.
+
+The Quakers, however, do not deny, that human reason is powerful within
+its own province. It may discover in the beautiful structure of the
+Universe, and in the harmony and fitness of all its parts, the hand of a
+great contriver. It may conclude upon attributes, as belonging to the
+same. It may see the fitness of virtue, and deduce from thence a
+speculative morality. They only say that it, is incompetent to spiritual
+discernment. But though they believe the two spirits to be thus distinct
+in their powers, they believe them, I apprehend, to be so far connected
+in religion that the spirit of God can only act upon a reasonable being.
+Thus light and the power of sight are distinct things. Yet the power of
+sight is nothing without light, nor can light operate upon any other
+organ than the eye to produce vision.
+
+This proposition may be farther elucidated by making a comparison
+between the powers of men, and those of the brute-creation. An animal is
+compounded of body and instinct. If we were to endeavour to cultivate
+this instinct, we might make the animal tame and obedient. We might
+impress his sensitive powers, so that he might stop or go forward at our
+voice. We might bring him in some instances, to an imitation of outward
+gestures and sounds. Bat all the years of his life, and centuries of
+life in his progeny would pass away, and we should never be able so to
+improve his instinct into intellect, as to make him comprehend the
+affairs of a man. He would never understand the meaning of his goings
+in, or of his goings out, or of his pursuits in life, or of his progress
+in science. So neither could any education so improve the reason of man
+into the divine principle of light within him, as that he should
+understand spiritual things; for the things of God are only discernible
+by the spirit of God.
+
+This doctrine, that there is no understanding of divine things except
+through the medium of the divine principle, which dwells in the temple
+of man, was no particular notion of George Fox, or of the succeeding
+Quakers, though undoubtedly they have founded more upon it than other
+Christians. Those, who had the earliest access to the writings of the
+evangelists and apostles, believed the proposition. All the ancient
+fathers of the church considered it as the corner stone of the Christian
+fabric. The most celebrated of the reformers held it in the same light.
+The divines, who followed these, adopted it as their creed also; and by
+these it has been handed down to other Christian communities, and is
+retained as an essential doctrine by the church of England, at the
+present day.
+
+The Quakers adduce many authorities in behalf of this proposition, but
+the following may suffice.
+
+"It is the inward master, says St. Augustine, that teacheth. Where this
+inspiration is wanting, it is in vain that words from without are beaten
+in."
+
+Luther says, "no man can rightly know God, unless he immediately
+receives it from his holy spirit, except he finds it by experience in
+himself; and in this experience the holy spirit teacheth as in his
+proper school, out of which school nothing is taught but mere talk."
+
+Calvin, on Luke 10. 21. says, "Here the natural wisdom of man is so
+puzzled, and is at such a loss, that the first step of profiting in the
+school of Christ is to give it up or renounce it. For by this natural
+wisdom, as by a veil before our eyes, we are hindered from attaining the
+mysteries of God, which are not revealed but unto babes and little ones.
+For neither do flesh and blood reveal, nor doth the natural man
+perceive, the things that are of the spirit. But the doctrine of God is
+rather foolishness to him, because it can only be spiritually judged.
+The assistance therefore of the holy spirit is in this case necessary,
+or rather, his power alone is efficacious."
+
+Dr. Smith observes, in his select discourses, "besides the outward
+Revelation of God's will to men, there is also an inward impression of
+it in their minds and spirits, which is in a more especial manner
+attributed to God. We cannot see divine things but in a divine light.
+God only, who is the true light, and in whom there is no darkness at
+all, can so shine out of himself upon our glossy understandings, as to
+beget in them a picture of himself, his own will and pleasure, and turn
+the soul (as the phrase is in Job) like wax or clay to the seal of his
+own light and love. He that made our souls in his own image and
+likeness, can easily find a way into them. The word that God speaks,
+having found a way into the soul, imprints itself there, as with the
+point of a diamond, and becomes (to borrow Plato's expression) 'a word
+written in the Soul of the learner.' Men may teach the grammar and
+rhetoric; but God teaches the divinity. Thus it is God alone that
+acquaints the soul with the truths of revelation."
+
+The learned Jeremy Taylor, bishop of Down and Connor, speaks in a
+similar manner in his sermon de Viâ Intelligentiae. "Now in this
+inquiry, says he, I must take one thing for granted, which is, that
+every good man is taught of God. And indeed, unless he teach us, we
+shall make but ill scholars ourselves, and worse guides to others. No
+man can know God, says Irenaeus, except he be taught of God. If God
+teaches us, then all is well; but if we do not learn wisdom at his feet,
+from whence should we have it? It can come from no other spring."
+
+Again--"those who perfect holiness in the fear of God, have a degree of
+divine knowledge more than we can discourse of, and more certain than
+the demonstration of Geometry; brighter than the sun, and indeficient as
+the light of heaven--A good man is united to God--As flame touches
+flame, and combines into splendour and into glory, so is the spirit of a
+man united to Christ by the spirit of God. Our light, on the other hand,
+is like a candle; every word of doctrine blows it out, or spends the
+wax, and makes the light tremulous. But the lights of heaven are fixed
+and bright and shine for ever."
+
+Cudworth, in his intellectual system, is wholly of the same opinion:
+"All the books and writings which we converse with, they can but
+represent spiritual objects to our understanding, which yet we can never
+see in their own true figure, colour, and proportion, until we have a
+divine light within to irradiate and shine upon them. Though there be
+never such excellent truths concerning Christ and his Gospel, set down
+in words and letters, yet they will be but unknown characters to us,
+until we have a living spirit within us, that can decypher them, until
+the same spirit, by secret whispers in our hearts, do comment upon them,
+which did at first indite them. There be many that understand the Greek
+and Hebrew of the scripture, the original languages in which the text
+was written, that never understood the language of the spirit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+_Neither can a man, except he has a portion of the same spirit which
+Jesus and the Apostles and the Prophets had, know spiritualty that the
+scriptures are of divine authority, or spiritually understand
+them--Explanation of these tenets--Objection, that these tenets set
+aside human reason--Reply of the Quakers--Observations of
+Luther--Calvin--Owen--Archbishop Usher--Archbishop Sandys--Milton
+--Bishop Taylor._
+
+
+As a man cannot know spiritual things but through the medium of the
+spirit of God; or except he has a portion of the same spirit, which
+Jesus and the Prophets and the Apostles had, so neither can he, except
+he has a portion of the same spirit, either spiritually know that the
+writings or sayings of these holy persons are of divine authority, or
+read or understand them, to the promotion of his spiritual interests.
+
+These two tenets are but deductions from that in the former chapter, and
+may be thus explained.
+
+A man, the Quakers say, may examine the holy scriptures, and may deduce
+their divine origin from the prophecies they contain, of which many have
+been since accomplished; from the superiority of their doctrines beyond
+those in any other book which is the work of man; from the miraculous
+preservation of them for so many ages; from the harmony of all their
+parts, and from many other circumstances which might be mentioned. But
+this, after all, will be but an historical, literal, or outward proof of
+their origin, resulting from his reason or his judgment. It will be no
+spiritual proof, having a spiritual influence on his heart; for this
+proof of the divine origin of the scriptures can only be had from the
+spirit of God. Thus, when the Apostle Paul preached to several women by
+the river side near Philippi, it is said of Lydia only,[14] "the Lord
+opened her heart, that she attended to the things that were spoken by
+Paul." The other women undoubtedly heard the gospel of Paul with their
+outward ears, but it does not appear that their hearts were in such a
+spiritual state, that they felt its divine authority; for it is not said
+of them, as of Lydia, that their hearts were opened to understand
+spiritually that this gospel was of God. Again,[15] when Jesus Christ
+preached to the Jews in the temple, many believed on him, but others
+believed not, but were so enraged that they took up stones to cast at
+him. It appears that they all heard his doctrine with their outward
+ears, in which he particularly stated that he was from above; but they
+did not receive the truth of his origin in their hearts, because they
+were not in a state to receive that faith which cometh from the spirit
+of God. In the same manner persons hear sermon after sermon at the
+present day, but find no spiritual benefit in their hearts.
+
+[Footnote 14: Acts 16.13]
+
+[Footnote 15: John 8.30.45.59.]
+
+Again--a man, by comparing passages of scripture with other passages,
+and by considering the use and acceptation of words in these, may arrive
+at a knowledge of their literal meaning. He may obtain also, by perusing
+the scriptures, a knowledge of some of the attributes of God. He may
+discover a part of the plan of his providence. He may collect purer
+moral truths than from any other source. But no literal reading of the
+scriptures can give him that spiritual knowledge of divine things, which
+leads to eternal life. The scriptures, if literally read, will give him
+a literal or corresponding knowledge, but it is only the spiritual
+monitor within, who can apply them to his feelings; who can tell him
+"thou art the man; this is thy state: this is that which thou oughtest
+or oughtest not to have done;" so that he sees spiritually, (the spirit
+of God bearing witness with his own spirit) that his own situation has
+been described. Indeed, if the scriptures were sufficient of themselves
+for this latter purpose, the Quakers say that the knowledge of spiritual
+things would consist in the knowledge of words. They, who were to get
+most of the divine writings by heart, would know spiritually the most
+of divine truths. The man of the best understanding, or of the most
+cultivated mind, would be the best proficient in vital religion. But
+this is contrary to fact. For men of deep learning know frequently less
+of spiritual Christianity, than those of the poor, who are scarcely able
+to read the scriptures. They contend also, that if the scriptures were
+the most vitally understood by those of the most learning, then the
+dispensations of God would be partial, inasmuch as he would have
+excluded the poor from the highest enjoyments of which the nature of man
+is susceptible, and from the means of their eternal salvation.
+
+These tenets, which are thus adopted by the Quakers, are considered by
+many of the moderns as objectionable, inasmuch as they make reason, at
+least in theology, a useless gift. The Quakers, however, contend that
+they consider reason as one of the inestimable gifts of God. They value
+it highly in its proper province. They do not exclude it from religion.
+Men, by means of it, may correct literal errors in the scriptures; may
+restore texts, may refute doctrines inconsistent with the attributes of
+the Almighty. The apology of Robert Barclay, which is a chain of
+reasoning of this kind from the begining to the end, is a proof that
+they do not undervalue the powers of the mind. But they dare not ascribe
+to human reason that power, which they believe to be exclusively vested
+in the spirit of God.
+
+They say, moreover, that these tenets are neither new nor peculiar to
+themselves as a society. They were the doctrines of the primitive
+Fathers. They. were the doctrines also of the protestant reformers. And
+though many at the present day consider that scripture, interpreted by
+reason, is the religion of protestants, yet it was the general belief of
+these reformers, that the teaching of the Holy spirit was necessary to
+the spiritual understanding of the scriptures, as well as to the
+spiritual establishment of their divine origin.
+
+Luther observes--"It is not human reason, or wisdom, nor the law of God,
+but the work of divine grace freely bestowed upon me, that teacheth me
+and showeth me the gospel: and this gift of God I receive by faith
+alone."
+
+"The scriptures are not to be understood but by the same spirit by which
+they were written."
+
+"No man sees one jot or tittle in the scriptures, unless he has the
+spirit of God."
+
+"Profane men, says Calvin, desire to have it proved to them by reason,
+that Moses and the prophets spoke from God. And to such I answer, that
+the testimony of the spirit exceeds all reason. For as God alone is a
+sufficient witness of himself in his word, so will his word not find
+credit in the hearts of men, until it is sealed by the inward testimony
+of his spirit. It is therefore necessary, that the same spirit which
+spake by the mouth of the prophets, enter into our hearts to persuade
+us, that they faithfully declared what was commanded them by God."
+
+Again--"Unless we have the assurance which is better and more valid than
+any judgment of man, it will be in vain to go about to establish the
+authority of scripture, either by argument or the consent of the church;
+for except the foundation be laid, namely, that the certainty of its
+divine authority depends entirely upon the testimony of the spirit, it
+remains in perpetual suspense." Again--"The spirit of God, from whom the
+doctrine of the Gospel proceeds, is the only true interpreter to open it
+to us."
+
+"Divines, says the learned Owen, at the first reformation, did generally
+resolve our faith of the divine authority of the scriptures, into the
+testimony of the Holy Spirit;" in which belief he joins himself, by
+stating that "it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe
+the scripture to be the word of God."
+
+In another place he says, "our Divines have long since laid it down,
+that the only public, authentic, and infallible interpreter of the holy
+scriptures, is the author of them, from whose inspiration they receive
+all their truth, clearness, and authority. This author is the Holy
+Spirit."
+
+Archbishop Sandys, in one of his Sermons, preached before Queen
+Elizabeth, has the following observations:
+
+"The outward reading of the word, without the inward working of the
+spirit, is nothing. The precise Pharisees, and the learned Scribes, read
+the scriptures over and over again. They not only read them in books,
+but wore them on their garments. They were not only taught, but were
+able themselves to teach others. But because this heavenly teacher had
+not instructed them, their understanding was darkened, and their
+knowledge was but vanity. They were ignorant altogether in that saving
+truth, which the prophet David was so desirous to learn. The mysteries
+of salvation were so hard to be conceived by the very apostles of Christ
+Jesus, that he was forced many times to rebuke them for their dulness,
+which unless he had removed by opening the eyes of their minds, they
+could never have attained to the knowledge of salvation in Christ Jesus.
+The ears of that woman Lydia would have been as close shut against the
+preaching of Paul, as any others, if the finger of God had not touched
+and opened her heart. As many as learn, they are taught of God."
+
+Archbishop Usher, in his sum and substance of the Christian Religion,
+observes, "that it is required that we have the spirit of God, as well
+to open our eyes to see the light, as to seal up fully in our hearts
+that truth, which we can see with our eyes: for the same Holy Spirit
+that inspired the scripture, inclineth the hearts of God's children to
+believe what is revealed in them, and inwardly assureth them, above all
+reasons and arguments, that these are the scriptures of God." And
+farther on in the same work, he says, "the spirit of God alone is the
+certain interpreter of his word written by his Spirit; for no man
+knoweth the things pertaining to God, but the Spirit of God."
+
+Our great Milton also gives us a similar opinion in the following words,
+which are taken from his Paradise Lost:
+
+   ----"but in their room----
+  Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
+  Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
+  To their own vile advantages shall turn
+  Of lucre and ambition, and the truth
+  With superstition's and tradition's taint,
+  Left only in those written records pure,
+  Though not but by the spirit understood."
+
+Of the same mind was the learned bishop Taylor, as we collect from his
+sermon de Viâ Intelligentiae. "For although the scriptures, says he, are
+written by the spirit of God, yet they are written within and without.
+And besides the light that shines upon the face of them, unless there be
+a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, and
+interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit, convincing our
+consciences, and preaching to our hearts; to look for Christ in the
+leaves of the gospel, is to look for the living among the dead. There is
+a life in them; but that life is, according to St. Paul's expression,
+'hid with Christ in God;' and unless the spirit of God first draw it, we
+shall never draw it forth."
+
+"Human learning brings excellent ministeries towards this. It is
+admirably useful for the reproof of heresies, for the detection of
+fallacies, for the letter of the scripture, for collateral testimonies,
+for exterior advantages; but there is something beyond this that human
+learning, without the addition of divine, can never reach. Moses was
+learned in all the learning of the Egyptians; and the holy men of God
+contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order, motion, and
+influences of the heaven; but, besides all this, they were taught
+something far beyond these prettinesses. Pythagoras read Moses' books,
+and so did Plato, and yet they became not proselytes of the religion,
+though they were the learned scholars of such a master."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+_The spirit of God which has been thus given to man in different
+degrees, was given him as a spiritual teacher, or guide, in his
+spiritual concerns--It performs this office, the Quakers say, by
+internal monitions--Sentiments of Taylor--and of Monro--and, if
+encouraged, it teaches even by the external objects of the
+creation--William Wordsworth._
+
+
+The Quakers believe that the spirit of God, which has been thus given to
+man in different degrees or measures, and without which it is impossible
+to know spiritual things, or even to understand the divine writings
+spiritually, or to be assured of their divine origin, was given to him,
+among other purposes, as a teacher of good and evil, or to serve him as
+a guide in his spiritual concerns. By this the Quakers mean, that if any
+man will give himself up to the directions of the spiritual principle
+that resides within him, he will attain a knowledge sufficient to enable
+him to discover the path of his duty both to God and his fellow-man.
+
+That the spirit of God was given to man as a spiritual instructor, the
+Quakers conceive to be plain, from a number of passages, which are to be
+found in the sacred writings.
+
+They say, in the first place, that it was the language of the holy men
+of old. [16] "I said, says Elihu, days should speak, and multitude of
+years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit (or the spirit itself
+is) in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him
+understanding." The Levites are found also making an acknowledgment to
+God; [17] "That he gave also their forefathers his good spirit to
+instruct them." The Psalms of David are also full of the same language,
+such as of [18] "Shew me thy ways, O Lord; lead me in the truth." [19] "I
+know, says Jeremiah, that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in
+man that walketh to direct his steps." The martyr Stephen acknowledges
+the teachings of the spirit, both in his own time and in that of his
+ancestors. [20] "Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
+do always resist the holy spirit. As your fathers did, so do ye." The
+Quakers also conceive it to be a doctrine of the gospel. Jesus himself
+said, [21] "No man can come to me except the Father, which sent me, draw
+him--It is written in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God."
+[22]St. John says, "That was the true light, (namely, the word or
+spirit) which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." St. Paul,
+in his first letter to the Corinthians, asserts, [23]that "the
+manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal."
+And, in his letter to Titus, he asserts the same thing, though in
+different words: [24] "For the grace of God, says he, which bringeth
+salvation, hath appeared unto all men."
+
+[Footnote 16: Job 32. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Nehemiah 9. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Psalm 25. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Jeremiah 10. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Acts 7. 51.]
+
+[Footnote 21: John 6.44.45]
+
+[Footnote 22: John 1. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 23: i Cor. 12. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Titus 2. 11.]
+
+The spirit of God, which has been thus given to man as a spiritual
+guide, is considered by the Quakers as teaching him in various ways. It
+inspires him with good thoughts. It prompts him to good offices. It
+checks him in his way to evil. It reproves him while in the act of
+committing it.
+
+The learned Jeremy Taylor was of the same opinion. "The spirit of grace,
+says he, is the spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by secret inspirations,
+by proper arguments, by actual persuasions, by personal applications, by
+effects and energies."
+
+This office of the spirit is beautifully described by Monro, a divine of
+the established church, in his just measures of the pious institutions
+of youth, "The holy spirit, says he, speaks inwardly and immediately to
+the soul. For God is a spirit. The soul is a spirit; and they converse
+with one another in spirit, not by words, but by spiritual notices;
+which, however, are more intelligible than the most eloquent strains in
+the world. God makes himself to be heard by the soul by inward motions,
+which it perceives and comprehends proportionably as it is voided and
+emptied of earthly ideas. And the more the faculties of the soul cease
+their own operations, so much the more sensible and intelligible are the
+motions of God to it. These immediate communications from God with the
+souls of men are denied and derided by a great many. But that the father
+of spirits should have no converse with our spirits, but by the
+intervention only of outward and foreign objects, may justly seem
+strange, especially when we are so often told in holy scripture, that we
+are the temples of the holy Ghost, and that God dwelleth in all good
+men."
+
+But this spirit is considered by the Quakers not only as teaching by
+inward breathings, as it were, made immediately and directly upon the
+heart without the intervention of outward circumstances, but as making
+the material objects of the Universe, and many of the occurrences of
+life, if it be properly attended to, subservient to the instruction of
+man; and that it enlarges the sphere of his instruction in this manner,
+in proportion as it is received and encouraged. Thus the man, who is
+attentive to these divine notices, sees the animal, the vegetable, and
+the planetary world, with spiritual eyes. He cannot stir abroad, but he
+is taught in his own feelings, without any motion of his will, some
+lesson for his spiritual advantage; or he perceives so vitally some of
+the attributes of the divine being, that he is called upon to offer
+some spiritual incense to his maker. If the lamb frolics and gambols in
+his presence as he walks along, he may be made spiritually to see the
+beauty and happiness of innocence. If he finds the stately oak laid
+prostrate by the wind, he may be spiritually taught to discern the
+emptiness of human power; while the same spirit may teach him inwardly
+the advantage of humility, when he looks at the little hawthorn which
+has survived the storm. When he sees the change and the fall of the
+autumnal leaf, he may be spiritually admonished of his own change and
+dissolution, and of the necessity of a holy life. Thus the spirit of God
+may teach men by outward objects and occurrences in the world; but where
+this spirit is away, or rather where it is not attended to, no such
+lesson can be taught. Natural objects of themselves can excite only
+natural ideas: and the natural man, looking at them, can derive only
+natural pleasure, or draw natural conclusions from them. In looking at
+the Sun, he may be pleased with its warmth, and anticipate its
+advantages to the vegetable world. In plucking and examining a flower,
+he may be struck with its beauty, its mechanism, and its fragrant smell.
+In observing the butterfly, as it wings its way before him, he may smile
+at its short journeys from place to place, and admire the splendour
+upon its wings. But the beauty of Creation is dead to him, as far as it
+depends upon connecting it spiritually with the character of God. For no
+spiritual impression can arise from any natural objects, but through the
+intervention of the spirit of God.
+
+William Wordsworth, in his instructive poems, has described this
+teaching by external objects in consequence of impressions from a higher
+power, as differing from any teaching by books or the human
+understanding, and as arising without any motion of the will of man, in
+so beautiful and simple a manner, that I cannot do otherwise than make
+an extract from them in this place. Lively as the poem is, to which I
+allude, I conceive it will not lower the dignity of the subject. It is
+called Expostulation and Reply, and is as follows:[25]
+
+     Why, William, on that old gray stone,
+     Thus for the length of half a day,
+     Why, William, sit you thus alone,
+     And dream your time away?
+
+     Where are your books? that light bequeath'd
+     To beings, else forlorn and blind,
+     Up! Up! and drink the spirit breath'd
+     From dead men to their kind.
+
+     You look round on your mother earth,
+     As if she for no purpose bore you,
+     As if you were her first-born birth,
+     And none had liv'd before you!
+
+     One morning thus by Esthwaite lake,
+     When life was sweet, I knew not why,
+     To me my good friend Matthew spake,
+     And that I made reply:
+
+     The eye it cannot choose but see.
+     We cannot bid the ear be still;
+     Our bodies feel where'er they be,
+     Against or with our will.
+
+     Nor less I deem that there are powers,
+     Which of themselves our minds impress,
+     That we can feed this mind of ours
+     In a wise passiveness.
+
+     Think you,'mid all this mighty sum
+     Of things for ever speaking,
+     That nothing of itself will come,
+     But we must still be seeking?
+
+     Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
+     Conversing as I may,
+     I sit upon this old gray stone,
+     And dream my time away?
+
+[Footnote 25: See Lyrical Ballads, Vol. 1. p. 1.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V
+
+_This spirit was not only given to man as a teacher, but as a primary
+and infallible guide--Hence the Scriptures are a subordinate or
+secondary guide--Quakers, however, do not undervalue them on this
+account--Their opinion concerning them._
+
+
+The spirit of God, which we have seen to be thus given to men as a
+spiritual teacher, and to act in the ways described, the Quakers usually
+distinguish by the epithets of primary and infallible. But they have
+made another distinction with respect to the character of this spirit;
+for they have pronounced it to be the only infallible guide to men in
+their spiritual concerns. From this latter declaration the reader will
+naturally conclude, that the scriptures, which are the outward teachers
+of men, must be viewed by the Quakers in a secondary light. This
+conclusion has indeed been adopted as a proposition in the Quaker
+theology; or, in other words, it is a doctrine of the society, that the
+spirit of God is the primary and only infallible, and the scriptures but
+a subordinate or secondary guide.
+
+This proposition the Quakers usually make out in the following manner:
+
+It is, in the first place, admitted by all Christians, that the
+scriptures were given by inspiration, or that those who originally
+delivered or wrote the several parts of them, gave them forth by means
+of that spirit, which was given to them by God. Now in the same manner
+as streams, or rivulets of water, are subordinate to the fountains
+which produce them; so those streams or rivulets of light must be
+subordinate to the great light from whence they originally sprung. "We
+cannot, says Barclay, call the scriptures the principal fountain of all
+truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and
+manners; because the principal fountain of truth must be the truth
+itself, that is, whose certainty and authority depend not upon another."
+
+The scriptures are subordinate or secondary, again, in other points of
+view. First, because, though they are placed before us, we can only know
+or understand them by the testimony of the spirit. Secondly, because
+there is no virtue or power in them of themselves, but in the spirit
+from whence they came.
+
+They are, again, but a secondary guide; because "that, says Barclay,
+cannot be the only and principal guide, which doth not universally reach
+every individual that needeth it." But the scriptures do not teach deaf
+persons, nor children, nor idiots, nor an immense number of people, more
+than half the Globe, who never yet saw or heard of them. These,
+therefore, if they are to be saved like others, must have a different or
+a more universal rule to guide them, or be taught from another source.
+
+They are only a secondary guide, again, for another reason. It is an
+acknowledged axiom among Christians, that the spirit of God is a perfect
+spirit, and that it can never err. But the scriptures are neither
+perfect of themselves as a collection, nor are they perfect in their
+verbal parts. Many of them have been lost. Concerning those which have
+survived, there have been great disputes. Certain parts of these, which
+one Christian council received in the early times of the church, were
+rejected as not canonical by another. Add to this, that none of the
+originals are extant. And of the copies, some have suffered by
+transcription, others by translation, and others by wilful mutilation,
+to support human notions of religion; so that there are various readings
+of the same passage, and various views of the same thing. "Now what,
+says Barclay, would become of Christians, if they had not received that
+spirit and those spiritual senses, by which they know how to discover
+the true from the false? It is the privilege of Christ's sheep, indeed,
+that they hear his voice, and refuse that of the stranger; which,
+privilege being taken away, we are left a prey to all manner of wolves."
+The scriptures, therefore, in consequence of the state in which they
+have come down to us, cannot, the Quakers say, be considered to be a
+guide as entirely perfect as the internal testimony of their great
+author, the spirit of God.
+
+But though the Quakers have thought it right, in submitting their
+religious creed to the world on this subject, to be so guarded in the
+wording of it as to make the distinction described, they are far from
+undervaluing the scriptures on that account. They believe, on the other
+hand, whatever mutilations they may have suffered, that they contain
+sufficient to guide men in belief and practice; and that all internal
+emotions, which are contrary to the declaration of these, are wholly
+inadmissible. "Moreover, says Barclay, because the scriptures are
+commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the dictates of the
+holy spirit, and that the errors, which may be supposed by the injury of
+time to have slipt in, are not such but there is a sufficient clear
+testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith, we do look
+upon them as the only fit outward judge of controversies among
+Christians, and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary to their testimony,
+may therefore justly be rejected as false."
+
+The Quakers believe also, that as God gave a portion of his spirit to
+man to assist him inwardly, so he gave the holy scriptures to assist him
+outwardly in his spiritual concerns. Hence the latter, coming by
+inspiration, are the most precious of all books that ever were written,
+and the best outward guide. And hence the things contained in them,
+ought to be read, and, as far as possible, fulfilled.
+
+They believe, with the apostle Paul, that the scriptures are highly
+useful, "so that, through patience and comfort of them, they may have
+hope; and also that they are profitable for reproof, for correction, and
+for instruction in righteousness:" that in the same manner as land,
+highly prepared and dressed by the husbandman, becomes fit for the
+reception and for the promotion of the growth of the seed that is to be
+placed in it, so the scriptures turn the attention of man towards God,
+and by means of the exhortations, reproofs, promises, and threatenings,
+contained in them, prepare the mind for the reception and growth of the
+seed of the Holy Spirit.
+
+They believe, again, that the same scriptures show more of the
+particulars of God's will with respect to man, and of the scheme of the
+Gospel-dispensation, than any ordinary portion of his spirit, as usually
+given to man, would have enabled him to discover. They discover that
+[26] "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
+through Jesus Christ:" [27] "That Jesus Christ was set forth to be a
+propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
+for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of
+God;" [28]that "he tasted death for every man;" that he [29]was
+"delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification;"
+[30]that "he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God;"
+[31] "and ever liveth to make intercession for us; and, that he is the
+substance of all the types and figures under the Levitical priesthood,
+[32] being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
+believeth."
+
+[Footnote 26: Rom. 6. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Rom. 3. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Heb. 2. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 29: 4. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 30: Heb. 12. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Heb. 7. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Rom. 10. 4.]
+
+They believe, again, that, in consequence of these various revelations,
+as contained in the scriptures, they have inestimable advantages over
+the Heathen nations, or over those, where the gospel-sun has never yet
+shone; and that, as their advantages are greater, so more will be
+required of them, or their condemnation will be greater, if they fail to
+attend to those things which are clearly revealed.
+
+They maintain, again, that their discipline is founded on the rules of
+the gospel; and that in consequence of giving an interpretation
+different from that of many others, to some of the expressions of Jesus
+Christ, by which they conceive they make his kingdom more pure and
+heavenly, they undergo persecution from the world--so that they confirm
+their attachment to the scriptures by the best of all credible
+testimonies, the seal of their own sufferings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+_This spirit of God, which has been thus given to men as an infallible
+guide in their spiritual concerns, has been given them universally--To
+the patriarchs and Israelites, from the creation to the time of
+Moses--To the Israelites or Jews, from Moses to Jesus Christ--To the
+Gentile world from all antiquity to modern times--To all those who have
+ever heard the gospel--And it continues its office to the latter even
+at the present day._
+
+
+The Quakers are of opinion that the spirit of God, of which a portion
+has been given to men as a primary and infallible guide in their
+spiritual concerns, has been given them universally; or has been given
+to all of the human race, without any exceptions, for the same purpose.
+
+This proposition of the Quakers I shall divide, in order that the reader
+may see it more clearly, into four cases. The first of these will
+comprehend the Patriarchs and the Israelites from the creation to the
+time of Moses. The second, the Israelites or Jews from the time of Moses
+to the coming of Jesus Christ. The third, the Gentiles or Heathens. And
+the fourth, all those who have heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, from
+the time of his own ministry to the present day.
+
+The first case includes a portion of time of above two thousand years.
+Now the Quakers believe, that during all this time men were generally
+enlightened as to their duty by the spirit of God; for there was no
+scripture or written law of God during all this period. "It was about
+two thousand four hundred years, says Thomas Beaven, an approved writer
+among the Quakers, after the creation of the world, before mankind had
+any external written law for the rule and conduct of their lives, so far
+as appears by either sacred or profane history; in all which time
+mankind, generally speaking, had only for their rule of faith and
+manners the external creation as a monitor to their outward senses, for
+evidence of the reality and certainty of the existence of the Supreme
+Being; and the internal impressions God by his divine spirit made upon
+the capacities and powers of their souls or inward man, and perhaps some
+of them oral traditions delivered from father to son."
+
+To the same point Thomas Beaven quotes the ever memorable John Hales,
+who, in his golden remains, writes in the following manner: "The love
+and favour, which it pleased God to bear our fathers before the law', so
+far prevailed with him, as that without any books and writings, by
+familiar and friendly conversing with them, and communicating himself
+unto them, he made them receive and understand his laws, their inward
+conceits and intellectuals being, after a wonderful manner, figured as
+it were and charactered by his spirit, so that they could not but see
+and consent unto, and confess the truth of them. Which way of
+manifesting his will unto many other gracious privileges it had, above
+that which in after ages came in place of it, had this added, that it
+brought with it unto the man to whom it was made, a preservation against
+all doubt and hesitancy, and a full assurance both who the author was,
+and how far his intent and meaning reached. We who are their offspring
+ought, as St. Chrysostom tells us, so to have demeaned ourselves, that
+it might have been with us as it was with them, that we might have had
+no need of writing, no other teacher but the spirit, no other books but
+our hearts, no other means to have been taught the things of God."
+
+That the spirit of God, as described by Thomas Beaven and the venerable
+John Hales, was the great instructor or enlightener of man during the
+period we are speaking of, the Quakers believe, from what they conceive
+to be the sense of the holy scriptures on this subject. For in the first
+place, they consider it as a position, deducible from the expressions of
+Moses[33], that the spirit of God had striven with those of the
+antediluvian world. They believe, therefore, that it was this spirit
+(and because the means were adequate, and none more satisfactory to them
+can be assigned) which informed Cain, before any written law existed,
+and this even before the murder of his brother, that[34] "if he did
+well, he should be accepted; but if not, sin should lie at his door."
+The same spirit they conceive to have illuminated the mind of Seth, but
+in a higher degree than ordinarily the mind of Enoch; for he is the
+first, of whom it is recorded, that[35] "he walked with God." It is also
+considered by the Quakers as having afforded a rule of conduct to those
+who lived after the flood. Thus Joseph is described as saying, when
+there is no record of any verbal instruction from the Almighty on this
+subject, and at a time when there was no scripture or written law of
+God, [36] "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
+God?" It illuminated others also, but in a greater or less degree, as
+before. Thus Noah became a preacher of righteousness. Thus Abraham,
+Isaac, and Jacob, were favoured with a greater measure of it than others
+who lived in their own times.
+
+[Footnote 33: Gen. 6.3]
+
+[Footnote 34: Ib 4.7]
+
+[Footnote 35: Gen. 5.24.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Ib. 39.9.--The traditionary laws of Noah were in force at
+this time; but they only specified three offences between man and man.]
+
+From these times to the coming of Jesus Christ, which is the second of
+the cases in question, the same spirit, according to the Quakers, still
+continued its teachings, and this notwithstanding the introduction of
+the Mosaic law; for this, which was engraven on tables of stone, did not
+set aside the law that was engraven on the heart. It assisted, first,
+outwardly, in turning mens' minds to God; and secondly, in fitting them
+as a schoolmaster for attention to the internal impressions by his
+spirit. That the spirit of God was still the great teacher, the Quakers
+conceive to be plain; for the sacred writings from Moses to Malachi
+affirm it for a part of the period now assigned; and for the rest we
+have as evidence the reproof of the Martyr Stephen, and the sentences
+from the New Testament quoted in the fourth chapter. And in the same
+manner as this spirit had been given to some in a greater measure than
+to others, both before and after the deluge, so the Quakers believe it
+to have been given more abundantly to Moses and the prophets, than to
+others of the same nation; for they believe that the law in particular,
+and that the general writings of Moses, and those of the prophets also,
+were of divine inspiration, or the productions of the spirit of God.
+
+With respect to the Heathens or Gentiles, which is the third case, the
+Quakers believe that God's holy spirit became a guide also to them, and
+furnished them, as it had done the patriarchs and the Jews, with a rule
+of practice. For even these, who had none of the advantages of scripture
+or of a written divine law, believed, many of them, in God, such as
+Orpheus, Hesiod, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and
+others. And of these it may be observed, that it was their general
+belief, as well as it was the belief of many others in those days, that
+there was a divine light or spirit in man, to enable him to direct
+himself aright.
+
+Among the remnants that have been preserved of the sayings, of
+Pythagoras, are the following which relate to this subject: "Those
+things which are agreeable to God, cannot be known, except a man hear
+God himself." Again--"But having overcome these things, thou shalt know
+the cohabitation or dwelling together of the immortal God and mortal
+man. His work is life--The work of God is immortality, eternal life."
+"The most excellent thing, says Timoeus, that the soul is awakened to,
+is her guide or good genius; but if she be rebellious to it, it will
+prove her daemon, or tormentor."
+
+"It was frequently said of Socrates, he had the guide of his life within
+him, which, it was told his father Sophroniscus, would be of more worth
+to him than five hundred masters. He called it his good angel, or
+spirit; that it suggested to his mind what was good and virtuous, and
+inclined and disposed him to a strict and pious life; that it furnished
+him with divine knowledge, and impelled him very often to speak publicly
+to the people, sometimes in a way of severe reproof, at other times to
+information."
+
+Plato says, "the light and spirit of God are as wings to the soul, or as
+that which raiseth up the soul into, a sensible communion with God above
+the world."
+
+"I have, says Seneca, a more clear and certain light, by which I may
+judge the truth from falsehood: that which belongs to the happiness of
+the soul, the eternal mind will direct to." Again--"It is a foolish
+thing for thee to wish for that which thou canst not obtain. God is near
+thee, and he is in thee. The good spirit sits or resides within as, the
+observer of our good and evil actions. As he is dealt with by us, he
+dealeth with us."
+
+The Quakers produce these, and a multitude of other quotations, which it
+is not necessary to repeat, to show that the same spirit, which taught
+the patriarchs before the law, and the Jews after it, taught the
+Gentiles also. But this revelation, or manifestation of the spirit, was
+not confined, in the opinion of the Quakers, to the Roman or Greek
+philosophers, or to those who had greater pretensions than common to
+human wisdom. They believe that no nation was ever discovered, among
+those of antiquity, to have been so wild or ignorant as not to have
+acknowledged a divinity, or as not to have known and established a
+difference between good and evil.
+
+Cicero says, "there is no country so barbarous, no one of all men so
+savage, as that some apprehension of the Gods hath not tinctured his
+mind. That many indeed, says he, think corruptly of them, must be
+admitted; but this is the effect of vicious custom. For all do believe
+that there is a divine power and nature."
+
+Maximus Tyriensis, a platonic philosopher, and a man of considerable
+knowledge, observes, that "notwithstanding the great contention and
+variety of opinions which have existed concerning the nature and essence
+of God, yet the law and reason of every country are harmonious in these
+respects, namely, that there is one God, the king and father of all--and
+that the many are but servants and co-rulers unto God: that in this the
+Greek and the Barbarian, the Islander and the inhabitant of the
+continent, the wise and the foolish, speak the same language. Go, says
+he, to the utmost bounds of the ocean, and you find God there. But if
+there hath been, says he, since the existence of time, two or three
+atheistical, vile, senseless individuals, whose eyes and ears deceive
+them, and who are maimed in their very soul, an irrational and barren
+species, as monstrous as a lion without courage, an ox without horns, or
+a bird without wings, yet out of these you will be able to understand
+something of God. For they know and confess him whether they will or
+not."
+
+Plutarch says again, "that if a man were to travel through the world, he
+might possibly find cities without walls, without letters, without
+kings, without wealth, without schools, and without theatres. But a city
+without a temple, or that useth no worship, or no prayers, no one ever
+saw. And he believes a city may more easily be built without a
+foundation, or ground to set it on, than a community of men have or keep
+a consistency without religion."
+
+Of those nations which were reputed wild and ignorant in ancient times,
+the Scythians may be brought, next, to the Greeks and Romans, as an
+instance to elucidate the opinion of the Quakers still farther on this
+subject. The speech of the Scythian Ambassadors to Alexander the Great,
+as handed down to us by Quintus Curtius, has been often cited by
+writers, not only on account of its beauty and simplicity, but to show
+us the moral sentiments of the Scythians in those times. I shall make a
+few extracts from it on this occasion.
+
+"Had the Gods given thee, says one of the Ambassadors to Alexander, a
+body proportionable to thy ambition, the whole Universe would have been
+too little for thee. With one hand thou wouldest touch the East, and
+with the other the West; and not satisfied with this, thou wouldest
+follow the Sun, and know where he hides himself."----
+
+"But what have we to do with thee? We never set foot in thy country. May
+not those who inhabit woods be allowed to live without knowing who thou
+art, and whence thou comest? We will neither command nor submit to any
+man."----
+
+"But thou, who boastest thy coming to extirpate robbers, thou thyself
+art the greatest robber upon earth."----
+
+"Thou hast possessed thyself of Lydia, invaded Syria, Persia, and
+Bactriana. Thou art forming a design to march as far as India, and thou
+now contest hither, to seize upon our herds of cattle. The great
+possessions which thou hast, only make thee covet more eagerly what thou
+hast not."----
+
+"We are informed that the Greeks speak jestingly of our Scythian
+deserts, and that they are even become a proverb; but we are fonder of
+our solitudes, than of thy great cities."----
+
+"If thou art a god, thou oughtest to do good to mortals, and not to
+deprive them of their possessions. If thou art a mere man, reflect on
+what thou art."----
+
+"Do not fancy that the Scythians will take an oath in their concluding
+of an alliance with thee. The only oath among them is to keep their word
+without swearing. Such cautions as these do indeed become Greeks, who
+sign their treaties, and call upon the Gods to witness them. But, with
+regard to us, our religion consists in being sincere, and in keeping the
+promises we have made. That man, who is not ashamed to break his word
+with men, is not ashamed of deceiving the Gods."
+
+To the account contained in these extracts, it may be added, that the
+Scythians are described by Herodotus, Justin, Horace, and others, as a
+moral people. They had the character of maintaining justice. Theft or
+robbery was severely punished among them. They believed infidelity after
+the marriage-engagement to be deserving of death. They coveted neither
+silver nor gold. They refused to give the name of goods or riches to any
+but estimable things, such as health, courage, liberty, strength,
+sincerity, innocence, and the like. They received friends as relations,
+or considered friendship as so sacred an alliance, that it differed but
+little from alliance by blood.
+
+These principles of the Scythians, as far as they are well founded, the
+Quakers believe to have originated in their more than ordinary attention
+to that divine principle which was given to them, equally with the rest
+of mankind, for their instruction in moral good; to that same principle,
+which Socrates describes as having suggested to his mind that which was
+good and virtuous, or which Seneca describes to reside in men as an
+observer of good and evil. For the Scythians, living in solitary and
+desert places, had but little communication for many ages with the rest
+of mankind, and did not obtain their system of morality from other
+quarters. From the Greeks and Romans, who were the most enlightened,
+they derived no moral benefit. For Strabo informs us, that their morals
+had been wholly corrupted in his time, and that this wretched change had
+taken place in consequence of their intercourse with these nations. That
+they had no scripture or written law of God is equally evident. Neither
+did they collect their morality from the perusal or observance of any
+particular laws that had been left them by their ancestors; for the same
+author, who gives them the high character just mentioned, says that they
+were found in the practice of justice,[37] not on account of any laws,
+but on account of their own _natural genius or disposition_. Neither
+were they found in this practice, because they had exerted their reason
+in discovering that virtue was so much more desirable than vice; for the
+same author declares, that nature, and not reason, had made them a moral
+people: for[38] "it seems surprising, says he, that nature should have
+given to them what the Greeks have never been able to attain either in
+consequence of the long succession of doctrines of their wise men, or of
+the precepts of their philosophers; and that the manners of a barbarous,
+should be preferable to those of a refined people."
+
+[Footnote 37: Justitia gentis Ingeniis culta, non Legibus.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Prorsus ut admirabile videatur, hoc illis naturam dare,
+quod Graeci longá sapientium doctriná praeceptisque philosophorum
+consequi nequeunt, cultosque mores incultae barbariae collatione
+soperari.]
+
+This opinion, that the spirit of God was afforded as a light to lighten
+the Gentiles of the ancient world, the Quakers derive from the
+authorities which I have now mentioned; that is, from the evidence which
+history has afforded, and from the sentiments which the Gentiles have
+discovered themselves upon this subject. But they conceive that the
+question is put out of all doubt by these remarkable words of the
+Apostle Paul. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by
+_nature_ the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are
+a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law _written on their
+hearts_, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
+mean while accusing, or else excusing one another." And here it may be
+observed, that the Quakers believe also, that in the same manner as the
+spirit of God enlightened the different Gentile nations previously to
+the time of the apostle, so it continues to enlighten those, which have
+been discovered since; for no nation has been found so ignorant, as not
+to make an acknowledgment of superior spirit, and to know the difference
+between good and evil. Hence it may be considered as illuminating those
+nations, where the scriptures have never reached, even at the present
+day.
+
+With respect to the last case, which includes those who have heard with
+their outward ears the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Quakers believe, that
+the spirit of God has continued its office of a spiritual instructor as
+well to these as to any of the persons who have been described. For the
+Gospel is no where said to supersede, any more than the law of Moses
+did, the assistance of this spirit. On the other hand, this spirit was
+deemed necessary, and this by the apostles themselves, even after
+churches had been established, or men had become Christians. St. Paul
+declares,[39] that whatever spiritual gifts some of his followers might
+then have, and however these gifts might then differ from one another,
+the spirit of God was given universally to man, and this to profit
+withal. He declares again that [40] "as many as were led by this spirit,
+these, and these only, possessed the knowledge that was requisite to
+enable them to become the sons of God." And in his letter to the
+Thessalonians, who had become a Christian church, he gave them many
+particular injunctions, among which one was, that [41] they would not
+quench or extinguish the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 39: Cor. 12. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Rom. 8, 14.]
+
+[Footnote 41: 1 Thess. 5. 19.]
+
+And in the same manner as this spirit was deemed necessary in the days
+of the apostles, and this to every man individually, and even after he
+had become a Christian, so the Quakers consider it to have been
+necessary since, and to continue so, wherever Christianity is professed.
+For many persons may read the holy scriptures, and hear them read in
+churches, and yet not feel the necessary conviction for sin. Here then
+the Quakers conceive the spirit of God to be still necessary. It comes
+in with its inward monitions and reproofs, where the scripture has been
+neglected or forgotten. It attempts to stay the arm of him who is going
+to offend, and frequently averts the blow.
+
+Neither is this spirit unnecessary, even where men profess an attention
+to the literal precepts of the Gospel. For in proportion as men are in
+the way of attending to the outward scriptures, they are in the way of
+being inwardly taught of God. But without this inward teaching no
+outward teaching can be effectual; for though persons may read the
+scriptures, yet they cannot spiritually understand them; and though they
+may admire the Christian religion, yet they cannot enjoy it, according
+to the opinion of the Quakers, but through the medium of the spirit of
+God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_This spirit, as it has been given universally, so it has been given
+sufficiently--Hence God is exonerated Of injustice, and men are left
+without excuse--Those who resist this spirit, are said to quench it, and
+may become so hardened in time, as to be insensible of its
+impressions--Those who attend to it, may be said to be in the way of
+redemption--Similar sentiments of Monro--This visitation, treatment,
+and influence of the spirit, usually explained by the Quakers by the
+Parable of the sower._
+
+
+As the spirit of God has been thus afforded to every man, since the
+foundation of the world, to profit withal, so the Quakers say, that it
+has been given to him in a sufficient measure for this purpose. By the
+word "sufficient" we are not to understand that this divine monitor
+calls upon men every day or hour, but that it is within every man, and
+that it awakens him seasonably, and so often during the term of his
+natural life, as to exonerate God from the charge of condemning him
+unjustly, if he fails in his duty, and as to leave himself without
+excuse. And in proportion as a greater or less measure of this spirit
+has been afforded him, so he is more or less guilty in the sight of his
+Maker.
+
+If any should resist these salutary operations of the Holy Spirit, they
+resist it to their own condemnation.
+
+Of such it may he observed, that they are said to quench or grieve the
+spirit, and, not unfrequently, to resist God, and to crucify Christ
+afresh; for God and Christ and the Spirit are considered to be
+inseparably united in the scriptures.
+
+Of such also it may be again observed, that if they continue to resist
+God's holy Spirit, their feelings may become so callous or hardened in
+time, that they may never be able to perceive its notices again, and
+thus the day of their visitation may be over: for [42] "my people, saith
+God, would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me; so I
+gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own
+counsels." To the same import was the saying of Jesus Christ, when he
+wept over Jerusalem. [43] "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
+this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are
+hid from thine eyes." As if he had said, there was a day, in which ye,
+the inhabitants of Jerusalem, might have known those things which
+belonged to your peace. I was then willing to gather you, as a hen
+gathereth her chickens, but as ye would not suffer me, the things
+belonging to your peace are now hid from your eyes. Ye would not attend
+to the impressions by God's Holy Spirit, when your feelings were tender
+and penetrable, and therefore now, the day having passed over, ye have
+lost the power of discerning them.
+
+[Footnote 42: Psalm 81. 11,12]
+
+[Footnote 43: Luke 19, 42.]
+
+Those, on the other hand, who, during this visitation of the Holy
+Spirit, attend to its suggestions or warnings, are said to be in the
+way of their redemption or salvation.
+
+These sentiments of the Quakers on this subject are beautifully
+described by Monro, in his just measures of the pious institutions of
+youth. "The Holy Spirit," says he, "solicits and importunes those who are
+in a state of sin, to return, by inward motions and impressions, by
+suggesting good thoughts and prompting to pious resolutions, by checks
+and controls, by conviction of sin and duty; sometimes by frights and
+terrors, and other whiles by love and endearments: But if men,
+notwithstanding all his loving solicitations, do still cherish and
+cleave to their lusts, and persevere in a state of sin, they are then
+said to resist the Holy Ghost, whereby their condition becomes very
+deplorable, and their conversion very difficult; for the more men resist
+the importunities, and stifle the motions of the Holy Spirit, the
+stronger do the chains of their corruption and servitude become. Every
+new act of sin gives these a degree of strength, and consequently puts a
+new obstacle in the way of conversion; and when sin is turned into an
+inveterate and rooted habit, (which by reiterated commissions and long
+continuance it is) then it becomes a nature, and is with as much
+difficulty altered as nature is. Can the Ethiopian change his colour,
+or the Leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed
+to do evil."
+
+"The Holy Spirit again," says he, "inspires the prayers of those who, in
+consequence of his powerful operations, have crucified the flesh with
+the affections and lusts, with devout and filial affections, and makes
+intercession for them with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered. He
+guides and manages them. The sons of God are led by the spirit of god.
+He makes, his blessed fruits, righteousness, peace, joy, and divine
+love, more and more to abound in them; he confirms them in goodness,
+persuades them to perseverance, and seals them to the day of
+redemption."
+
+The Quakers usually elucidate this visitation, treatment, and influence
+of the Holy Spirit, by the parable of the sower, as recorded by three of
+the Evangelists. "Now the seed is the word of God." But as the word of
+God and the spirit, according to St. John the Evangelist, are the same,
+the parable is considered by the Quakers as relating to that divine
+light or spirit which is given to man for his spiritual instruction and
+salvation. As the seed was sown in all sorts of ground, good, bad, and
+indifferent, so this light or spirit is afforded, without exception, to
+all. As thorns choked this seed, and hindered it from coming to
+perfection, so bad customs, or the pleasures and cares of the world,
+hinder men from attending to this divine principle within them, and
+render it unfruitful in their hearts. And as the seed in the good ground
+was not interrupted, and therefore produced fruit in abundance, so this
+spiritual principle, where it is not checked, but received and
+cherished, produces also abundance of spiritual fruit in the inward man,
+by putting him into the way of redemption from sin, or of holiness of
+life.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_The spirit of God, therefore, besides its office of a teacher, performs
+that of a Redeemer of men--Redemption outward and inward--Outward is by
+the sufferings of Jesus Christ--These produce forgiveness of past sins,
+and put men into a capacity of salvation--inward, or the office now
+alluded to, is by the operation of the spirit--This converts men, and
+preserves them from sins to come--outward and inward connected with each
+other._
+
+
+The spirit of God, which we have seen to be given to men, and to be
+given them universally, to enable them to distinguish between 'good and
+evil, was given them also, the Quakers believe, for another purpose,
+namely, to redeem or save them. Redemption and salvation, in this
+sense,' are the same, in the language of the Quakers, and mean a
+purification from the sins or pollutions of the world, so that a new
+birth may be produced, and maintained in the inward man.
+
+As the doctrine of the Quakers, with respect to redemption, differs from
+that which generally obtains, I shall allot this chapter to an
+explanation of the distinctions, which the Quakers usually make upon
+this subject.
+
+The Quakers never make use of the words "original sin," because these
+are never to be found in the sacred writings. They consider man,
+however, as in a fallen or degraded state, and as inclined and liable to
+sin. They consider him, in short, as having the seed of sin within him,
+which he inherited from his parent Adam. But though they acknowledge
+this, they dare not say, that sin is imputed to him on account of Adam's
+transgression, or that he is chargeable with sin, until he actually
+commits it.
+
+As every descendant, however, of Adam, has this seed within him, which,
+amidst the numerous temptations that beset him, he allows sometime or
+other to germinate, so he stands in need of a Redeemer; that is, of some
+power that shall be able to procure pardon for past offences, and of
+some power that shall be able to preserve him in the way of holiness for
+the future. To expiate himself, in a manner satisfactory to the
+Almighty, for so foot a stain upon his nature as that of sin, is utterly
+beyond his abilities; for no good action, that he can do, can do away
+that which has been once done. And to preserve himself in a state of
+virtue for the future, is equally out of his own power, because this
+cannot be done by any effort of his reason, but only by the conversion
+of his heart. It has therefore pleased the Almighty to find a remedy for
+him in each of these cases. Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of his own
+body, expiates for sins that are past, and the spirit of God, which has
+been afforded to him, as a spiritual teacher, has the power of cleansing
+and purifying the heart so thoroughly, that he may be preserved from
+sins to come.
+
+That forgiveness of past sins is procured by the sacrifice of Jesus
+Christ, is obvious from various passages in the holy scriptures. Thus
+the apostle Paul says, that Jesus Christ [44] "was set forth to be a
+propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
+for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God."
+And in his epistle to the Colossians he says, [45] "In whom we have
+redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." This
+redemption may be called outward, because it has been effected by
+outward means, or by the outward sufferings of Jesus Christ; and it is
+considered as putting men, in consequence of this forgiveness, into the
+capacity of salvation. The Quakers, however, attribute this redemption
+wholly to the love of God, and not to the impossibility of his
+forgiveness without a plenary satisfaction, or to the motive of heaping
+all his vengeance on the head of Jesus Christ, that he might appease his
+own wrath.
+
+[Footnote 44: Rom. 3.25.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Coloss. 1.14.]
+
+The other redemption, on the other hand, is called inward, because it is
+considered by the Quakers to be an inward redemption from the power of
+sin, or a cleansing the heart from the pollutions of the world. This
+inward redemption is produced by the spirit of God, as before stated,
+operating on the hearts of men, and so cleansing and purifying them, as
+to produce a new birth in the inward man; so that the same spirit of
+God, which has been given to men in various degrees since the
+foundation of the world, as a teacher in their spiritual concerns, which
+hath visited every man in his day, and which hath exhorted and reproved
+him for his spiritual welfare[46], has the power of preserving him from
+future sin, and of leading him to salvation.
+
+[Footnote 46: The Quakers believe, however, that this spirit was more
+plentifully diffused, and that greater gifts were given to man, after
+Jews was glorified, than before. Ephes. 4.8.]
+
+That this inward redemption is performed by the spirit of God, the
+Quakers show from various passages in the sacred writings. Thus St. Paul
+says, [47] "According to his mercy he hath saved us by the washing of
+regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." The same apostle
+says, again, [48] "It is the law of the Spirit that maketh free from the
+law of sin and death." And again--[49] "As many as are led by the spirit
+of God, they are the sons of God."
+
+[Footnote 47: Titus 3.5.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Rom. 8.2.]
+
+[Footnote 49: Rom. 8.14.]
+
+The Quakers say, that this inward redemption or salvation as effected by
+the spirit, is obvious also from the experience of all good men, or from
+the manner in which many have experienced a total conversion or change
+of heart. For though there are undoubtedly some who have gone on so
+gradually in their reformation from vice to virtue, that it may have
+been considered to be the effect of reason, which has previously
+determined on the necessity of a holy life, yet the change from vice to
+holiness has often been so rapid and decisive, as to leave no doubt
+whatever, that it could not have been produced by any effort of reason,
+but only by some divine operation, which could only have been that of
+the spirit of God.
+
+Of these two kinds of redemption, the outward and the inward, of which
+the latter will be the subject of our consideration, it may be observed,
+that they go hand in hand together[50]. St. Paul has coupled them in
+these words: "for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
+the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by
+his life;" that is, by the life of his spirit working inwardly in
+us.--And as they go together in the mind of the apostle, so they go
+together as to the benefit of their effects. For, in the first place,
+the outward redemption takes place, when the inward has begun. And,
+secondly, the outward redemption, or the sufferings of Jesus Christ,
+which redeem from past sins, cannot have any efficacy till the inward
+has begun, or while men remain in their sins; or, in other words, no man
+can be entitled to the forgiveness of sins that have been committed,
+till there has been a change in the inward man; for St. John intimates,
+that [51]the blood of Christ does not cleanse from sin, except men walk
+in the light, or, to use an expression synonymous with the Quakers,
+except men walk in the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 50: Rom, 5. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 51: John I. 6.7.]
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Inward redemption, which thus goes on by the operation of the Holy
+Spirit, has the power of producing a new birth in men--This office of
+the spirit acknowledged by other Christians--Monro--Hammond--Locke--It
+has the power also of leading to perfection--Sentiments of the Quakers
+as to perfection--and of the ever memorable John Hales--Gell--Monro
+--This power of inward redemption bestowed upon all._
+
+
+The sufferings then of Jesus Christ, having by means of the forgiveness
+of past sins, put men into a capacity for salvation, the remaining part
+of salvation, or the inward redemption of man, is performed by the
+operation of the Holy Spirit; of which, however, it must be remembered,
+that a more plentiful diffusion is considered by the Quakers to have
+been given to men after the ascension of Jesus Christ, than at any
+former period.
+
+The nature of this inward redemption, or the nature of this new office,
+which it performs in addition to that of a religious teacher, may be
+seen in the following account.
+
+It has the power, the Quakers believe, of checking and preventing bad
+inclinations and passions; of cleansing and purifying the heart; of
+destroying the carnal mind; of making all old things pass away; of
+introducing new; of raising our spiritual senses, so as to make us
+delight in the things of God, and to put us above the enjoyment of
+earthly pleasures. Redeeming thus from the pollutions of the world, and
+leading to spiritual purity, it forms a new creature. It produces the
+new man in the heart. It occasions a man by its quickening power to be
+born again, and thus puts him into the way of salvation. [52] "For verily
+I say unto thee, says Jesus Christ to Nicodemus, except a man be born
+again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
+
+[Footnote 52: John 3.3.]
+
+This office and power of the spirit of God is acknowledged by other
+Christians. Monro, who has been before quoted, observes, "that the soul,
+being thus raised from the death of sin and born again, is divinely
+animated, and discovers that it is alive by the vital operations which
+it performs."
+
+"Again, says he, this blissful presence, the regenerate who are
+delivered from the dominion, and cleansed from the impurities of sin,
+have recovered, and it is on the account of it, that they are said to be
+an habitation of God through the spirit and the temples of the Holy
+Ghost. For that good spirit takes possession of them, resides in their
+hearts, becomes the mover, enlightener, and director of all their
+faculties and powers, gives a new and heavenly tincture and tendency to
+all their inclinations and desires, and, in one word, is the great
+spring of all they think, or do, or say; and hence it is that they are
+said to walk no more after the flesh, but after the spirit, and to be
+led by the spirit of God."
+
+Dr. Hammond, in his paraphrase and annotations on the New Testament,
+observes, that "he who hath been born of God, is literally he who hath
+had such a blessed change wrought in him by the operation of God's
+spirit in his heart, as to be translated from the power of darkness into
+the kingdom of his dear Son."
+
+"As Christ in the flesh, says the great and venerable Locke, was wholly
+exempt from all taint and sin, so we, by that spirit which was in him,
+shall be exempt from the dominion of carnal lusts, if we make it our
+choice, and endeavour to live after the spirit."
+
+"Here the apostle, says Locke, shows that Christians are delivered from
+the dominion of their carnal lusts by the spirit of God that is given to
+them, and dwells in them, as a new quickening principle and power, by
+which they are put into the state of a spiritual life, wherein their
+members are made capable of becoming the instruments of righteousness."
+
+And this spirit of God, which thus redeems from the pollutions of the
+world, and puts a new heart as it were into man, is considered by the
+Quakers as so powerful in its operations, as to be able to lead him to
+perfection. By this the Quakers do not mean to say, that the perfection
+of man is at all like the perfection of God; because the perfection of
+the former is capable of growth. They believe, however, that, in his
+renewed state, he may be brought to be so perfect, as to be able to keep
+those commandments of God which are enjoined him. In this sense they
+believe it is, that Noah is called by Moses [53]a just and perfect man
+in his generation; and that Job is described [54]as a perfect and an
+upright man; and that the evangelist Luke speaks of Zacharias and
+Elizabeth in these words--[55] "They were both righteous before God, and
+walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
+
+[Footnote 53: Gen. 6. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 54: Job 1. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Luke 1. 6.]
+
+That man, who is renewed in heart, can attain this degree of perfection,
+the Quakers think it but reasonable to suppose. For to think that God
+has given man any law to keep, which it is impossible for him, when
+aided by his Holy Spirit, to keep, or to think that the power of Satan
+can be stronger in man than the power of Christ, is to think very
+inadequately of the Almighty, and to cast a dishonourable reflection on
+his goodness, his justice, and his power. Add to which, that there would
+not have been such expressions in the New Testament, as those of Jesus
+Christ--"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
+Heaven is perfect"--Nor would there have been other expressions of the
+Apostles of a similar meaning, if the renewed man had not possessed the
+power of doing the will of God.
+
+This doctrine of perfection brought the Quakers into disputes with
+persons of other religions denominations, at the time of their
+establishment. But, however it might be disapproved of, it was not new
+in these times; nor was it originally introduced by them. Some of the
+fathers of the church, and many estimable divines of different
+countries, had adopted it. And here it may be noticed, that the doctrine
+had been received also by several of the religious in our own.
+
+In the golden remains of the ever memorable John Hales, we find, that
+"through the grace of Him that doth enable as, we are stronger than
+Satan, and the policy of Christian warfare hath as many means to keep
+back and defend, as the deepest reach of Satan hath to give the onset."
+
+"St. Augustine, says this amiable writer, was of opinion, that it was
+possible for us even in this natural life, seconded by the grace of God,
+perfectly to accomplish what the law requires at our hands." In the
+Golden Remains, many sentiments are to be found of the same tenour.
+
+Bacon, who collected and published Dr. Robert Gell's remains, says in
+his preface, that Dr. Gell preached before King Charles the first on
+Ephesians 4. 10. at New-Market, in the year 1631, a bold discourse, yet
+becoming him, testifying before the King that doctrine he taught to his
+life's end, "the possibility, through grace, of keeping the law of God
+in this life." Whoever reads these venerable Remains, will find this
+doctrine inculcated in them.
+
+Monro, who lived some time after Dr. Gell, continued the same doctrine:
+So great, says he, in his just measures, is the goodness and benignity
+of God, and so perfect is the justice of his nature, that he will not,
+cannot command impossibilities. Whatever he requires of mankind by way
+of duty, he enables them to perform it--His grace goes before and
+assists their endeavours; so that when they do not comply with his
+injunctions, it is because they will not employ the power that he has
+given them, and which he is ready to increase and heighten, upon their
+dutiful improvement of what they have already received, and their
+serious application to him for more.
+
+Again--"Though of ourselves, and without Christ, we can do nothing; yet
+with him we can do all things: and then, he adds a little lower, why
+should any duties frighten us, or seem impossible to us?"
+
+Having now stated it to be the belief of the Quakers, that the spirit of
+God acts as an inward redeemer to man, and that its powers are such that
+it may lead him to perfection in the way explained, it remains for me to
+observe, that it is their belief also, that this spirit has been given
+for these purposes, without any exception, to all of the human race: or
+in the same manner as it was given as an universal teacher, so it has
+been given as an universal redeemer to man, and that it acts in this
+capacity, and fulfils its office to all those who attend to its inward
+strivings, and encourage its influence on their hearts.
+
+That it was given to all for this purpose, they believe to be manifest
+from the Apostle Paul:[56] "for the grace of God, says he, which bringeth
+salvation, hath appeared unto all men." He says again,[57] that "the
+Gospel was preached unto every creature which is under Heaven." He
+defines the Gospel to be[58] "the power of God unto salvation to every
+one that believeth." He means therefore that this power of inward
+redemption was afforded to all. For the outward Gospel had not been
+preached to all in the time of the apostle; nor has it been preached to
+all even at the present day. But these passages are of universal import.
+They imply no exception. They comprehend every individual of the human
+race.
+
+[Footnote 56: Titus 2.11.]
+
+[Footnote 57: Coloss. 1.23.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Rom. 1.16.]
+
+That this spirit was also given to all for these purposes, the Quakers
+believe, when they consider other passages in the scriptures, which
+appear to them to belong to this subject. For they consider this spirit
+to have begun its office as an inward redeemer[59] with the fall of the
+first man, and to have continued it through the patriarchal ages to the
+time of the outward Gospel, when there was to be no other inward
+redemption but by the same means. Thus by the promise which was given to
+Adam, there was to be perpetual enmity between the seed of the serpent
+and the seed of the woman, though the latter was to vanquish, or as, the
+Quakers interpret it, between the spirit of sin and the spirit of God,
+that was placed in man. This promise was fully accomplished by Jesus,
+(who came from the woman) after he had received immeasurably the spirit
+of God, or after he had become the Christ. But the Quakers consider it
+to have bean partially accomplished by many from the time of Adam; for
+they believe that many, who have attended to the seed of God, or, which
+is the same thing,[60] to the portion of the spirit of God within them,
+have witnessed the enmity alluded to, and have bruised, in a great
+degree, the power of sin within their own hearts, or have experienced in
+these early times the redeeming power of the spirit of God. And except
+this be the case, the Quakers conceive some of the passages, which they
+suppose to relate to this subject, not to be so satisfactorily
+explicable as they might be rendered. For it is said of Abraham, that he
+saw Christ's day. But as Abraham died long before the visible appearance
+of Christ in the flesh, he could neither have seen Christ outwardly, nor
+his day. It is still affirmed that he saw Christ's day. And the Quakers
+say they believe he saw him inwardly, for he witnessed in his own
+spirit, which is the same thing, the redeeming power of the spirit of
+God. For as the world was made by the spirit, or by the word, which is
+frequently interpreted to be Christ, so these terms are synonimous, and
+often used the one for the other. The Quakers therefore believe Abraham
+to have experienced in a very high degree the power[61] of this inward
+redemption. They believe also that Job experienced it in an
+extraordinary manner. For he asserted that he knew "that his redeemer
+lived." But Job could never have said this, except be had alluded to the
+powerful influence within him, which had purified his heart from the
+pollutions of sin. For being as early as the time of Moses, he could
+never have seen any of the sacred writings which mentioned Jesus Christ
+as a redeemer, or the person of Jesus Christ.
+
+[Footnote 59: In the same manner Jesus Christ having tasted death for
+every man, the sacrifice, or outward redemption, looks backwards and
+forwards, as well to Adam as to those who lived after the Gospel times.]
+
+[Footnote 60: 1 John. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit
+sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is
+born of God.]
+
+[Footnote 61: The Quakers do not deny, that Abraham might have seen
+Christ prophetically, but they believe he saw him particularly in the
+way described.]
+
+The Quakers also consider David, from the numerous expressions to be
+found in the Psalms, as having experienced this inward redemption also,
+and in the same manner as they conceive this spirit to have striven with
+Abraham, and Job, and David, so they conceive it to have striven with
+others of the same nation for their inward redemption to the time of
+Jesus Christ. They believe again, that it has striven with all the
+Heathen nations, from the foundation of the world to the same period.
+And they believe also, that it has continued its office of a redeemer to
+all people, whether Jews, Heathens, or Christians, from the time of
+Jesus Christ to the present day.
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Proposition of the new birth and perfection, as hitherto explained in
+the ordinary way--New view of the subject from a more particular detail
+of the views and expressions of the Quakers concerning it--A new
+spiritual birth as real from the spiritual seed of the kingdom, as that
+of plants or vegetables from their seeds in the natural world--And the
+new birth proceeds really in the same progressive manner, to maturity or
+perfection--Result of this new view the same as that in the former
+section._
+
+
+I stated in the last section that the spirit of God is considered by
+the Quakers as an inward redeemer to men, and that, in this office, it
+has the power of producing a new birth in them, and of leading them to
+perfection in the way described. This proposition, however, I explained
+only in the ordinary way. But as the Quakers have a particular way of
+viewing and expressing it, and as they deem it one of the most
+important of their religious propositions, I trust I shall, be excused
+by the reader, if I allot one other section to this subject.
+
+Jesus Christ states, as was said before, in the most clear and positive
+terms, that [62] "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
+of heaven."
+
+[Footnote 62: John 3. 3.]
+
+Now the great work of religion is salvation or redemption. Without this
+no man can see God; and therefore the meaning of the words of Jesus
+Christ will be this, that, except a man be born again, he cannot
+experience that inward redemption which shall enable him to see the
+kingdom of heaven.
+
+Redemption then is necessary to qualify for a participation of the
+heavenly joys, and it is stated to take place by means of the new birth.
+
+The particular ideas then, which the Quakers have relative to the new
+birth and perfection, are the following. In the same manner as the
+Divine Being has scattered the seeds of plants and vegetables in the
+body of the earth, so he has implanted a portion of his own
+incorruptible seed, or of that which, in scripture language, is called
+the "Seed of the Kingdom," in the soul of every individual of the human
+race. As the sun by its genial influence quickens the vegetable seed, so
+it is the office of the Holy Spirit, in whom is life, and who resides in
+the temple of man, to quicken that which is heavenly. And in the same
+manner as the vegetable seed conceives and brings forth a plant, or a
+tree with stem and branches; so if the soul, in which the seed of the
+kingdom is placed, be willing to receive the influence of the Holy
+Spirit upon it, this seed is quickened and a spiritual offspring is
+produced. Now this offspring is as real a birth from the seed in the
+soul by means of the spirit, as the plant from its own seed by means of
+the influence of the sun. "The seed of the kingdom, says Isaac
+Pennington, consists not in words or notions of mind, but is an inward
+thing, an inward spiritual substance in the heart, as real inwardly in
+its kind, as other seeds are outwardly in their kind. And being received
+by faith, and taking root in man, (his heart, his earth, being ploughed
+up and prepared for it,) it groweth up inwardly, as truly and really, as
+any outward seed doth outwardly."
+
+With respect to the offspring thus produced in the soul of man, it maybe
+variously named. As it comes from the incorruptible seed of God, it may
+be called a birth of the divine nature or life. As it comes by the
+agency of the spirit, it may be called the life of the spirit. As it is
+new, it may be called the new man or creature: or it may have the
+appellation of a child of God: or it is that spiritual life and light,
+or that spiritual, principle and power within us, which may be called
+the Anointed, or Christ within.
+
+"As this seed, says Barclay, is received in the heart and suffered to
+bring forth its natural and proper effect, Christ comes to be formed and
+raised, called in scripture the new man, Christ within us, the hope of
+glory. Yet herein they (the Quakers) do not equal themselves with the
+holy man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead
+dwelt bodily, neither destroy his present existence. For though they
+affirm Christ dwells in them, yet not immediately, but mediately, as he
+is in that seed which is in them."
+
+Of the same opinion was the learned Cudworth. "We all, says he, receive
+of his fulness grace for grace, as all the stars in heaven are said to
+light their candles at the sun's flame. For though his body be withdrawn
+from us, yet by the lively and virtual contact of his spirit, he is
+always kindling, cheering, quickening, warming, and enlivening hearts.
+Nay, this divine life begun and kindled in any heart, wheresoever it be,
+is something of God in flesh, and in a sober and qualified sense,
+divinity incarnate; and all particular Christians, that are really
+possessed of it, are so many mystical Christs."
+
+Again--"Never was any tender infant so dear to those bowels that begat
+it, as an infant newborn Christ, formed in the heart of any true
+believer, to God the Father of it."
+
+This account relative to the new birth the Quakers conceive to be
+strictly deducible from the Holy Scriptures. It is true, they conceive,
+as far as the new birth relates to God and to the seed, and to the
+spirit, from the following passages: [63] "Whosoever is born of God doth
+not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him." [64] "Being born again,
+not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God."
+[65] "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." It is
+considered to be true again, as far as the new birth relates to the
+creature born and to the name which it may bear, from these different
+expressions: [66] "Of whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be
+formed in you." [68] "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
+in me." [69] "But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry
+Abba, Father." [70] "But as many as received him, that is, the spirit or
+word, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." [71] "For as many
+as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And as
+parents and children resemble one another, so believers are made [72]
+"conformable to the image of his son," "who is the image of the invisible
+God."
+
+[Footnote 63: 1 John 3. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 64: 1 Peter 1. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 65: James 1. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 66: Gal. 4. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Rom. 8.15.]
+
+[Footnote 69: John 1. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Rom. 3. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Rom. 8. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Coloss. 1. 15.]
+
+Having explained in what the new birth consists, or having shown,
+according to Barclay, [73] "that the seed is a real spiritual
+substance, which the soul of man is capable of feeling and apprehending,
+from which that real spiritual inward birth arises, called the new
+creature or the new man in the heart," it remains to show how believers,
+or those in whose souls Christ is thus produced, may be said to grow up
+to perfection; for by this real birth or geniture in them they come to
+have those spiritual senses raised, by which they are made capable of
+tasting, smelling, seeing, and handling, the things of God.
+
+[Footnote 73: P. 139. Ed. 8.]
+
+It may be observed then, that in the new birth a progress is
+experienced from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood. As it is
+only by submission to the operation of the spirit that this birth can
+take place, so it is only by a like submission, that any progress or
+growth from one stature to another will be experienced in it; neither
+can the regenerated become instrumental in the redemption of others, any
+farther or otherwise than as Christ or the anointing dwells and operates
+in them, teaching them all truths necessary to be known, and
+strengthening them to perform every act necessary to be done for this
+purpose. He must be their only means and [74] "hope of glory." It will
+then be that the [75] "creature which waiteth in earnest expectation for
+the manifestation of the sons of God, will be delivered from the bondage
+of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." For
+[76] "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
+passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things of God."
+
+[Footnote 74: Coloss. 1. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Rom. 8. 19, 21.]
+
+[Footnote 76: Cor. 5. 17, 18.]
+
+They who are the babes of the regeneration begin to see spiritual
+things. The natural man, the mere creature, never saw God. But the
+babes, who cry Abba, Father, begin to see and to know him. Though as yet
+unskilful in the word of righteousness, [77] "they desire the sincere
+milk of the word, that they may grow thereby." And [78] "their sins are
+forgiven them."
+
+[Footnote 77: 1 Pet 2. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 78: 1 John 2. 12.]
+
+They, who are considered as the young men in this state, are said to be
+[79] "spiritually strong, and the word of God abiding in them, to have
+overcome the wicked one."
+
+[Footnote 79: 1 John 2. 14.]
+
+They, who have attained a state of manhood, are called fathers, or are
+said to be of full age, and to be capable of taking strong meat.
+[80] "They come, in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
+of God, unto perfect men, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
+of Christ. They arrive at such a state of stability, that they are no
+more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
+doctrine; but speaking the truth in love, grow up unto him in all
+things, which is the head, even Christ." [81] "The old man with his deeds
+being put off, they have put on the new man, which is renewed in
+knowledge after the image of him that created him." [82] "They are
+washed, they are sanctified, they are justified in the name of the Lord
+Jesus, and in the spirit of our God." The new creation is thus
+completed, and the sabbath wherein man ceases from his own works,
+commences; so that every believer can then say with the apostle, [83] "I
+am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
+liveth in me. And the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
+faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
+
+[Footnote 80: Eph. 4. 13.14.15.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Col. 3.9.10.]
+
+[Footnote 82: 1 Cor. 6.11.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+But this state of manhood, [84] "by which the man of God may be made
+perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, does not take place,
+until Christ be fully formed in the souls of believers, or till they are
+brought wholly under his rule and government. He must be substantially
+formed in them. He must actually be their life, and their hope of glory.
+He must be their head and governor. As the head, and the body, and the
+members are one, according to the apostle, but the head directs; so
+Christ, and, believers in whom Christ is born and formed, are one
+spiritual body, which he himself must direct also. Thus Christ, where he
+is fully formed in man, or where believers are grown up to the measure
+of the stature and fulness of sonship, is the head of every man, and God
+is the head of Christ. Thus Christ the begotten entirely governs the
+whole man, as the head directs and governs all the members of the body;
+and God the Father, as the head of Christ, entirely guides and governs
+the begotten. Hence, believers [85] 'are Christ's, and Christ is God's;'
+so that ultimately God is all in all."
+
+[Footnote 84: 2 Tim. 9.17.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Cor. 9.23.]
+
+Having given this new view of the subject, I shall only observe farther
+upon it, that the substance of this chapter turns out to be the same as
+that of the preceding, or according to the notions of the Quakers, that
+inward redemption cannot be effected but through the medium of the
+spirit of God. For Christ, according to the ideas now held out, must be
+formed in man, and he must rule them before they can experience full
+inward redemption; or, in other words, they cannot experience this
+inward redemption, except they can truly say that he governs them, or
+except they can truly call him Governor, or Lord. But no person can say
+that Christ rules in him, except he undergoes the spiritual process of
+regeneration which has been described, or to use the words of the
+Apostle, [86] "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
+Spirit.[87]"
+
+[Footnote 86: 1 Cor. 12.6]
+
+[Footnote 87: The reader will easily discern from this new view of the
+new birth, how men, according to the Quakers, become partakers of the
+divine nature, and how the Quakers make it out, that Abraham and others
+saw Christ's day, as I mentioned in a former chapter.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Quakers believe from the foregoing accounts, that redemption is
+possible to all--Hence they deny the doctrine of election and
+reprobation--do not deny the texts on which it is founded, but the
+interpretation of them--as contrary to the doctrines of Jesus Christ and
+the Apostles--as making his mission unnecessary--as rendering many
+precepts useless--and as casting a stain on the character and attributes
+of God._
+
+
+It will appear from the foregoing observations, that it Is the belief of
+the Quakers, that every man has the power of inward redemption within
+himself, who attends to the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and that as
+outward redemption by the sufferings of Jesus Christ extends to all,
+where the inward has taken place, so redemption or salvation, in its
+full extent, is possible to every individual of the human race.
+
+This position, however, is denied by those Christians, who have
+pronounced in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation;
+because, if they believe some predestined from all eternity to eternal
+happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, they must then believe that
+salvation is not possible to all, and that it was not intended to be
+universal.
+
+The Quakers have attempted to answer the objections, which have been
+thus made to their theory of redemption; and as the reader will probably
+expect that I should notice what they have said upon this subject, I
+have reserved the answers they have given for the present place.
+
+The Quakers do not deny the genuineness of any of those texts, which are
+usually advanced against them. Of all people, they fly the least to the
+cover of interpolation or mutilation of scripture to shield themselves
+from the strokes of their opponents. They believe, however, that there
+are passages in the sacred writings, which will admit of an
+interpretation different from that which has been assigned them by many,
+and upon this they principally rely in the present case. If there are
+passages, to which two meanings may be annexed, and if for one there is
+equal authority as for the other, yet if one meaning should destroy all
+the most glorious attributes of the supreme being, and the other should
+preserve them as recognized in the other parts of the scripture, they
+think they are bound to receive that which favours the justice, mercy,
+and wisdom of God, rather than that which makes him appear both unjust
+and cruel.
+
+The Quakers believe, that some Christians have misunderstood the texts
+which they quote in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation,
+for the following reasons:--
+
+First, because if God had from all eternity predestinated some to
+eternal happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, the mission of Jesus
+Christ upon earth became unnecessary, and his mediation ineffectual.
+
+If this again had been a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, it never
+could have been overlooked, (considering that it is of more importance
+to men than any other) by the founder of that religion. But he never
+delivered any words in the course of his ministry, from whence any
+reasonable conclusion could be drawn, that such a doctrine formed any
+part of the creed which he intended to establish among men. His doctrine
+was that of mercy, tenderness, and love; in which he inculcated the
+power and efficacy of repentance, and declared there was more joy in
+Heaven over one sinner that repented, than over ninety-nine just persons
+who needed no repentance.
+
+By the parable of the sower, which the Quakers consider to relate wholly
+to the word or spirit of God, it appears that persons of all description
+were visited equally for their salvation; and that their salvation
+depended much upon themselves; and that where obstacles arose, they
+arose from themselves also, by allowing temptations, persecutions, and
+the cares of the world, to overcome them. In short, the Quakers believe,
+that the doctrine of election and reprobation is contrary to the whole
+tenour of the doctrines promulgated by Jesus Christ.
+
+They conceive also, that this doctrine is contrary to the doctrines
+promulgated by the Evangelists and Apostles, and particularly contrary
+to those of St. Paul himself, from whom it is principally taken. To make
+this Apostle contradict himself, they dare not. And they must therefore
+conclude, either that no person has rightly understood it, and that it
+has been hitherto kept in mystery; or, if it be intelligible to the
+human understanding, it must be explained by comparing it with other
+texts of the same Apostle, as well as with those of others, and always
+in connexion with the general doctrines of Christianity, and the
+character and attributes of God. Now the Apostle Paul, who is considered
+to [88] intimate, that God predestined some to eternal salvation, and
+the rest to eternal misery, says, [89]that "God made of one blood all
+nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth;" that, in the
+Gospel dispensation, [90] "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
+nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free." [91]He
+desires also Timothy "to make prayers and supplications and
+intercessions for all men;" which the Quakers conceive he could not have
+done, if he had not believed it to be possible, that all might be saved.
+"For this is acceptable, says he, in the sight of our Saviour, who will
+have all men to be saved; for there is one God and one mediator between
+God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all."
+Again, he says,[92] that "Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." And
+in another place he says, [93] "The grace of God, which bringeth
+salvation, has appeared unto all men." But if this grace has appeared to
+all, none can have been without it. And if its object be salvation, then
+all must have had sufficient of it to save them, if obedient to its
+saving operations.
+
+[Footnote 88: Romans, Chap. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 89: Acts 17. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 90: Coloss. 3. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 91: 1 Tim. 2. 1. 3. 4. 5. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 92: Hebrews 2. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Titus 2. 11.]
+
+Again, if the doctrine of election and reprobation be true, then the
+recommendations of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and particularly of
+Paul himself, can be of no avail, and ought never to have been given.
+Prayer is inculcated by these as an acceptable duty. But why should men
+pray, if they are condemned before-hand, and if their destiny is
+inevitable? If the doctrine again be true, then all the exhortations to
+repentance, which are to be found in the scriptures, must be
+unnecessary. For why should men repent, except for a little temporary
+happiness in this world, if they cannot be saved in a future? This
+doctrine is considered by the Quakers as making the precepts of the
+Apostles unnecessary; as setting aside the hopes and encouragements of
+the Gospel; and as standing in the way of repentance or holiness of
+life.
+
+This doctrine again they consider as objectionable, in as much as it
+obliges men to sin, and charges them with the commission of it. It makes
+also the fountain of all purity the fountain of all sin; and the author
+of all good the dispenser of all evil. It gives to the Supreme Being a
+malevolence that is not to be found in the character of the most
+malevolent of his creatures. It makes him more cruel than the most cruel
+oppressor ever recorded of the human race. It makes him to have
+deliberately made millions of men, for no other purpose than to stand
+by and delight in their misery and destruction. But is it possible, the
+Quakers say, for this to be true of him, who is thus described by St.
+John--"God is Love?"
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers' interpretation of the texts which relate to this
+doctrine--These texts of public and private import--Election, as of
+public import, relates to offices of usefulness, and not to
+salvation--as of private, it relates to the Jews--These had been
+elected, but were passed over for the Gentiles--Nothing more
+unreasonable in this than in the case of Ishmael and Esau--or that
+Pharaoh's crimes should receive Pharaoh's punishment--But though the
+Gentiles were chosen, they could stand in favour no longer than while
+they were obedient and faithful_.
+
+
+The Quakers conceive that, in their interpretation of the passages which
+are usually quoted in support of the doctrine of election and
+reprobation, and which I shall now give to the reader, they do no
+violence to the attributes of the Almighty; but, on the other hand,
+confirm his wisdom, justice, and mercy, as displayed in the sacred
+writings, in his religious government of the world.
+
+These passaged may be considered both as of public and of private
+import; of public, as they relate to the world at large; of private, as
+they relate to the Jews, to whom they were addressed by the Apostle.
+
+The Quakers, in viewing the doctrine as of public import, use the words
+"called," "predestinated," and "chosen," in the ordinary way in which
+they are used in the scriptures, or in the way in which Christians
+generally understand them.
+
+They believe that the Almighty intended, from the beginning, to make
+both individuals and nations subservient to the end which he had
+proposed to himself in the creation of the world. For this purpose he
+gave men different measures of his Holy Spirit; and in proportion as
+they have used these gifts more extensively than others, they, have been
+more useful among mankind. Now all these may be truly said to have been
+instruments in the hands of Providence, for the good works which they
+have severally performed; but, if instruments in his hands, then they
+may not improperly be stiled chosen vessels. In this sense the Quakers
+view the words "chosen," or "called." In the same sense they view also
+the word "preordained;" but with this difference, that the instruments
+were foreknown; and that God should have known these instruments
+before-hand is not wonderful; for he who created the world, and who, to
+use an human expression, must see at one glance all that ever has been,
+and that is, and that is to come, must have known the means to be
+employed, and the characters who were to move, in the execution of his
+different dispensations to the world.
+
+In this sense the Quakers conceive God may be said to have foreknown,
+called, chosen, and preordained Noah, and also Abraham, and also Moses,
+and Aaron, and his sons, and all the prophets, and all the evangelists,
+and apostles, and all the good men, who have been useful in spiritual
+services in their own generation or day.
+
+In this sense also many may be said to have been chosen or called in the
+days of the Apostle Paul; for they are described as having had various
+gifts bestowed upon them by the spirit of God. [94] "To one was given the
+word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another the
+'discerning of spirits;' to another prophecy; and to others other kinds
+of gifts. But the self-same spirit worked all these, dividing to every
+man severally as he chose." That is, particular persons were 'called by
+the spirit of God, in the days of the Apostle, to particular offices for
+the perfecting of his church.
+
+[Footnote 94: 1 Cor. 12. 10. 11.]
+
+In the same sense the Quakers consider all true ministers of the Gospel
+to be chosen. They believe that no imposition of hands or human
+ordination can qualify for this office. God, by means of his Holy Spirit
+alone, prepares such as are to be the vessels in his house. Those
+therefore, who, in obedience to this spirit, come forth from the
+multitude to perform spiritual offices, may be said to be called or
+chosen.
+
+In this sense, nations may be said to be chosen also. Such were the
+Israelites, who by means of their peculiar laws and institutions, were
+kept apart from the other inhabitants of the world.
+
+Now the dispute is, if any persons should be said to have been chosen in
+the scripture language, for what purpose they were so chosen. The
+favourers of the doctrine of election and reprobation, say for their
+salvation. But the Quakers say, this is no where manifest; for the term
+salvation is not annexed to any of the passages from which the doctrine
+is drawn. Nor do they believe it can be made to appear from any of the
+scriptural writings, that one man is called or chosen, or predestined to
+salvation, more than another. They believe, on the other hand, that
+these words relate wholly to the usefulness of individuals, and that if
+God has chosen any particular persons, he has chosen them that they
+might be the ministers of good to others; that they might be spiritual
+lights in the universe; or that they might become, in different times
+and circumstances, instruments of increasing the happiness of their
+fellow-creatures. Thus the Almighty may be said to have chosen Noah, to
+perpetuate the memory of the deluge; to promulgate the origin and
+history of mankind; and to become, as St. Peter calls him, "a preacher
+of righteousness" to those who were to be the ancestors of men. Thus he
+may be said to have chosen Moses to give the law, and to lead out the
+Israelites, and to preserve them as a distinct people, who should carry
+with them notions of his existence, his providence, and his power. Thus
+he may be said to have chosen the prophets, that men, in after ages,
+seeing their prophecies accomplished, might believe that Christianity
+was of divine origin. Thus also he may be said to have chosen Paul,([95]
+and indeed Paul is described as a chosen vessel) to diffuse the Gospel
+among the Gentile world.
+
+[Footnote 95: Acts 9. 15.]
+
+That the words, called or chosen, relate to the usefulness of
+individuals in the world, and not to their salvation, the Quakers
+believe from examining the comparison or simile, which St. Paul has
+introduced of the potter and of his clay, upon this very occasion.
+[96] "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou
+made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump
+to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" This
+simile, they say, relates obviously to the uses of these vessels. The
+potter makes some for splendid or extraordinary uses and purposes, and
+others for those which are mean and ordinary. So God has chosen
+individuals to great and glorious uses, while others remain in the mean
+or common mass, undistinguished by any very active part in the promotion
+of the ends of the world. Nor have the latter any more reason to
+complain that God has given to others greater spiritual gifts, than that
+he has given to one man a better intellectual capacity than to another.
+
+[Footnote 96: Rom. 9. 20. 21.]
+
+They argue again, that the words "called or chosen," relate to
+usefulness, and not to salvation; because, if men were predestined from
+all eternity to salvation, they could not do any thing to deprive
+themselves of that salvation; that is, they could never do any wrong in
+this life, or fall from a state of purity: whereas it appears that many
+of those whom the scriptures consider to have been chosen, have failed
+in their duty to God; that these have had no better ground to stand
+upon than their neighbours; that election has not secured them from the
+displeasure of the Almighty, but that they have been made to stand or
+fall, notwithstanding their election, as they acted well or ill, God
+having conducted himself no otherwise to them, than he has done to
+others in his moral government of the world.
+
+That persons so chosen have failed in their duty to God, or that their
+election has not preserved them from sin, is apparent, it is presumed,
+from the scriptures. For, in the first place, the Israelites were a
+chosen people. They were the people to whom the apostle addressed
+himself, in the chapter which has given rise to the doctrine of election
+and reprobation, as the elected, or as having had the preference over
+the descendants of Esau and others. And yet this election did not secure
+to them a state of perpetual obedience, or the continual favour of God.
+In the wilderness they were frequently rebellious, and they were often
+punished. In the time of Malachi, to which the Apostle directs their
+attention, they were grown so wicked, [97]that "God is said to have no
+pleasure in them, and that he would not receive an offering at their
+hands." And in subsequent times, or in the time of the Apostle, he tells
+them, that they were then passed over, notwithstanding their election,
+[98]on account of their want of righteousness and faith, and that the
+Gentiles were chosen in their place.
+
+In the second place, Jesus Christ is said in the New Testament to have
+called or chosen his disciples. But this call or election did not secure
+the good behaviour of Judas, or protect him from the displeasure of his
+master.
+
+[Footnote 97: Malachi 1. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 98: Rom, 9. 31. 32.]
+
+In the third place, it may be observed, that the Apostle Paul considers
+the churches under his care as called or chosen; as consisting of people
+who came out of the great body of the Heathen world to become a select
+community under the Christian name. He endeavours to inculcate in them a
+belief, that they were the Lord's people; that they were under his
+immediate or particular care; that God knew and loved them, before they
+knew and loved him; and yet this election, it appears, did not secure
+them from falling off; for many of them became apostates in the time of
+the Apostle, so "that he was grieved, fearing he had bestowed upon them
+his labour in vain." Neither did this election secure even to those who
+then remained in the church, any certainty of salvation; otherwise the
+Apostle would not have exhorted them so earnestly "to continue in
+goodness, lest they should be cut off."
+
+The Quakers believe again, that the Apostle Paul never included
+salvation in the words "called or chosen," for another reason. For if
+these words had implied salvation, then non-election might have implied
+the destruction annexed to it by the favourers of the doctrine of
+reprobation. But no person, who knows whom the Apostle meant, when he
+mentions those who had received and those who had lost the preference,
+entertains any such notion or idea. For who believes that because Isaac
+is said to have had the preference of Ishmael, and Jacob of Esau, that
+therefore Ishmael and Esau, who were quite as great princes in their
+times as Isaac and Jacob, were to be doomed to eternal misery? Who
+believes that this preference, and the Apostle alludes to no other, ever
+related to the salvation of souls? Or rather, that it did not wholly
+relate to the circumstance, that the descendants of Isaac and Jacob were
+to preserve the church of God in the midst of the Heathen nations, and
+that the Messiah was to come from their own line, instead of that of
+their elder brethren. Rejection or reprobation too, in the sense in
+which it is generally used by the advocates for the doctrine, is
+contrary, in a second point of view, in the opinion of the Quakers, to
+the sense of the comparison or simile made by the Apostle on this
+occasion. For when a Potter makes two sorts of vessels, or such as are
+mean and such as are fine and splendid, he makes them for their
+respective uses. But he never makes the meaner sort for the purpose of
+dashing them to pieces.
+
+The doctrine therefore in dispute, if viewed as a doctrine of general
+import, only means, in the opinion of the Quakers, that the Almighty has
+a right to dispose of his spiritual favours as he pleases, and that he
+has given accordingly different measures of his spirit to different
+people: but that, in doing this, he does not exclude others from an
+opportunity of salvation or a right to life. On the other hand, they
+believe that he is no respecter of persons, only as far as obedience is
+concerned: that election neither secures of itself good behaviour, nor
+protects from punishment: that every man who standeth, must take heed
+lest he fall: that no man can boast of his election, so as to look down
+with contempt upon his meaner brethren: and that there is no other
+foundation for an expectation of the continuance of divine favour than a
+religions life.
+
+In viewing the passages in question as of private import, which is the
+next view the Quakers take of them, the same lesson, and no other, is
+inculcated. The Apostle, in the ninth chapter of the Romans, addresses
+himself to the Jews, who had been a chosen people, and rescues the
+character of God from the imputation of injustice, in having passed over
+them, and in having admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his
+favours.
+
+The Jews had depended so much upon their privileges as the children of
+Abraham, and so much upon their ceremonial observances of the law, that
+they conceived themselves to have a right to continue to be the peculiar
+people of God. The Apostle, however, teaches them, in the ninth and the
+eleventh chapters of the Romans, a different lesson, and may be said to
+address them in the following manner:--
+
+"I am truly sorry, my kinsmen in the flesh, that you, who have always
+considered yourselves the elder and chosen branches of the family of the
+world, should have been passed over; and that the Gentiles, whom you
+have always looked upon as the younger, should be now preferred. But God
+is just--He will not sanction unrighteousness in any. Nor will he allow
+any choice of his to continue persons in favour, longer than, after much
+long suffering, he finds them deserving his support. You are acquainted
+with your own history. The Almighty, as you know, undoubtedly
+distinguished the posterity of Abraham, but he was not partial to them
+alike. Did he not reject Ishmael the scoffer, though he was the eldest
+son of Abraham, and countenance Isaac, who was the younger? Did he not
+pass over Esau the eldest son of Isaac, who had sold his birth-right,
+and prefer Jacob? Did he not set aside Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the
+three eldest sons of Jacob, who were guilty of incest, treachery, and
+murder, and choose that the Messiah should come from Judah, who was but
+the fourth? But if, in these instances, he did not respect eldership,
+why do you expect that he will not pass you over for the Gentiles, if ye
+continue in unbelief?"
+
+"But so true it is, that he will not support any whom he may have
+chosen, longer than they continue to deserve it, that he will not even
+continue his countenance to the Gentiles, though he has now preferred
+them, if by any misconduct they should become insensible of his favours.
+[99] For I may compare both you and them to an Olive-Tree. If some of
+you, who are the elder, or natural branches, should be broken off, and
+the Gentiles, being a wild Olive-Tree, should be grafted in among you,
+and with you partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-Tree, it would
+not become them to boast against you the branches: for if they boast,
+they do not bear the root, but the root them. Perhaps, however, they
+might say, that you, the branches, were broken off, that they might be
+grafted in. Well, but it was wholly on account of unbelief that you were
+broken off, and it was wholly by faith that they themselves were taken
+in. But it becomes them not to be high-minded, but to fear. For if God
+spared not you, the natural branches, let them take heed, lest he also
+spare not them."
+
+[Footnote 99: Rom. 11. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.]
+
+"Moreover, my kinsmen in the flesh, I must tell you, that you have not
+only no right to complain, because the Gentiles have been preferred, but
+that you would have no right to complain, even if you were to become the
+objects of God's vengeance. You cannot forget, in the history of your
+own nation, the example of Pharaoh: you are acquainted with his
+obstinacy and disobedience. You know that he stifled his convictions
+from day to day. You know that, by stifling these, or by resisting God's
+Holy Spirit, he became daily more hardened; and that by allowing himself
+to become daily more hardened, he fitted himself for a vessel of
+wrath, or prepared the way for his own destruction. You know at length
+that God's judgments, but not till after much long suffering, came upon
+him, so that the power of God became thus manifested to many. But if you
+know all these things, and continue in unrighteousness and unbelief,
+which were the crimes of Pharaoh also, why do you imagine that your
+hearts will not become hardened like the heart of Pharaoh; or that if
+you are guilty of Pharaoh's crimes, you are not deserving of Pharaoh's
+punishment?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IX.
+
+_Recapitulation of all the doctrines hitherto laid down with respect to
+the influence of the Spirit--Objection to this, that the Quakers make
+every thing of this spirit, and but little of Jesus Christ--Objection
+only noticed to show, that Christians have not always a right
+apprehension of Scriptural terms, and therefore often quarrel with one
+another about trifles--Or that there is, in this particular case, no
+difference between the doctrine of the Quakers and that of the objectors
+on this subject._
+
+
+I shall now recapitulate in few words, or in one general proposition,
+all the doctrines which have been advanced relative to the power of the
+spirit, and shall just notice an argument, which will probably arise on
+such a recapitulation, before I proceed to a new subject.
+
+The Quakers then believe that the spirit of God formed or created the
+world. They believe that it was given to men, after the formation of it,
+as a guide to them in their spiritual concerns. They believe that it was
+continued to them after the deluge, in the same manner, and for the same
+purposes, to the time of Christ. It was given, however, in this
+interval, to different persons in different degrees. Thus the prophets
+received a greater portion of it than ordinary persons in their own
+times. Thus Moses was more illuminated by it than his contemporaries,
+for it became through him the author of the law. In the time of Christ
+it continued the same office, but it was then given more diffusively
+than before, and also more diffusively to some than to others. Thus the
+Evangelists and Apostles received it in an extraordinary degree, and it
+became, through them and Jesus Christ their head, the author of the
+Gospel. But, besides its office of a spiritual light and guide to men in
+their spiritual concerns, during all the period now assigned, it became
+to them, as they attended to its influence, an inward redeemer,
+producing in them a new birth, and leading them to perfection. And as it
+was thus both a guide and an inward redeemer, so it has continued these
+offices to the present day.
+
+From hence it will be apparent that the acknowledgment of God's Holy
+Spirit, in its various operations, as given in different portions before
+and after the sacrifice of Christ, is the acknowledgment of a principle,
+which is the great corner stone of the religion of the Quakers. Without
+this there can be no knowledge, in their opinion, of spiritual things.
+Without this there can be no spiritual interpretation of the scriptures
+themselves. Without this there can be no redemption by inward, though
+there may be redemption by outward means. Without this there can be no
+enjoyment of the knowledge of divine things.
+
+Take therefore this principle away from them, and you take away their
+religion at once. Take away this spirit, and Christianity remains with
+them no more Christianity, than the dead carcass of a man, when the
+spirit is departed, remains a man. Whatsoever is excellent, whatsoever
+is noble, whatsoever is worthy, whatsoever is desirable in the Christian
+faith, they ascribe to this spirit, and they believe that true
+Christianity can no more subsist without it, than the outward world
+could go on without the vital influence of the sun.
+
+Now an objection will be made to the proposition, as I have just stated
+it, by some Christians, and even by those who do not wish to derogate
+from the spirit of God, (for I have frequently heard it started by such)
+that the Quakers, by means of these doctrines, make every thing of the
+spirit, and [100]but little of Jesus Christ. I shall therefore notice
+this objection in this place, not so much with a view of answering it,
+as of attempting to show, that Christiana have not always a right
+apprehension of scriptural terms; and therefore that they sometimes
+quarrel with one another about trifles, or rather, that when they have
+disputes with each other, there is sometimes scarcely a shade of
+difference between them.
+
+[Footnote 100: The Quakers make much of the advantages of Christ's
+coming in the flesh. Among these are considered the sacrifice of his own
+body, a more plentiful diffusion of the Spirit, and a dearer revelation
+relative to God and man.]
+
+To those who make the objection, I shall describe the proposition which
+has been stated above, in different terms. I shall leave out the words
+"Spirit of God," and I shall wholly substitute the term "Christ." This I
+shall do upon the authority of some of our best divines.... The
+proposition then will run thus:
+
+God, by means of Christ, created the world, "for without him was not any
+thing made, that was made."
+
+He made, by means of the same Christ, the terrestrial Globe on which we
+live. He made the whole Host of Heaven. He made, therefore, besides our
+own, other planets and other worlds.
+
+He caused also, by means of the same Christ, the generation of all
+animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.
+
+He occasioned also by the same means, the generation of reason or
+intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.
+
+Man, however, had not been long created, before he fell into sin. It
+pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in
+creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiritual
+faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to
+obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin. And this inward
+striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all
+would be inexcusable and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.
+
+It pleased God also, in process of time, as the attention of man was led
+astray by bad customs, by pleasures, by the cares of the world, and
+other causes, that the same Christ, in addition to this his inward
+striving with him, should afford him outward help, accommodated to his
+outward senses, by which his thoughts might be oftener turned towards
+God, and his soul be the better preserved in the way of salvation.
+Christ accordingly, through Moses and the Prophets, became the author of
+a dispensation to the Jews, that is, of their laws, types, and customs,
+of their prophecies, and of their scriptures.
+
+But as in the education of man things must be gradually unfolded, so it
+pleased God, in the scheme of his redemption, that the same Christ, in
+fulness of time, should take flesh, and become personally upon earth the
+author of another outward, but of a more pure and glorious dispensation,
+than the former, which was to be more extensive also; and which was not
+to be confined to the Jews, but to extend in time to the uttermost
+corners of the earth. Christ therefore became the Author of the inspired
+delivery of the outward scriptures of the New Testament. By these, as by
+outward and secondary means, he acted upon men's senses. He informed
+them of their corrupt nature, of their awful and perilous situation, of
+another life, of a day of judgment, of rewards and punishments. These
+scriptures therefore, of which Christ was the Author, were outward
+instruments at the time, and continue so to posterity, to second his
+inward aid. That is, they produce thought, give birth to anxiety, excite
+fear, promote seriousness, turn the eye towards God, and thus prepare
+the heart for a sense of those inward strivings of Christ, which produce
+inward redemption from the power and guilt of sin.
+
+Where, however, this outward aid of the Holy Scriptures has not reached,
+Christ continues to purify and redeem by his inward power. But as men,
+who are acted upon solely by his inward strivings, have not the same
+advantages as those who are also acted upon by his outward word, so less
+is expected in the one than in the other case. Less is expected from the
+Gentile than from the Jew: less from the Barbarian than from the
+Christian.
+
+And this latter doctrine of the universality of the striving of Christ
+with man, in a spiritually instructive and redemptive capacity, as it is
+merciful and just, so it is worthy of the wise and beneficent Creator.
+Christ, in short, has been filling, from the foundation of the world,
+the office of an inward redeemer, and this, without any exception, to
+all of the human race. And there is even [101] "now no salvation in any
+other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby
+we must be saved."
+
+[Footnote 101: Acts 4. 12.]
+
+From this new statement of the proposition, which statement is
+consistent with the language of divines, it will appear, that, if the
+Quakers have made every thing of the spirit, and but little of Christ, I
+have made, to suit the objectors, every thing of Christ, and but little
+of the spirit. Now I would ask, where lies the difference between the
+two statements? Which is the more accurate; or whether, when I say these
+things were done by the spirit, and when I say they were done by Christ,
+I do not state precisely the same proposition, or express the same
+thing?
+
+That Christ, in all the offices stated by the proposition, is neither
+more nor less than the spirit of God, there can surely be no doubt. In
+looking at Christ, we are generally apt to view him with carnal eyes. We
+can seldom divest ourselves of the idea of a body belonging to him,
+though this was confessedly human, and can seldom consider him as a pure
+principle or fountain of divine life and light to men. And yet it is
+obvious, that we must view him in this light in the present case; for if
+he was at the creation of the world, or with Moses at the delivery of
+the law, (which the proposition supposes) he could not have been there
+in his carnal body; because this was not produced till centuries
+afterwards by the virgin Mary. In this abstracted light, the Apostles
+frequently view Christ themselves. Thus St. Paul:[102] "I live, yet not
+I, but Christ liveth in me." And again,[103] "Know ye not your own
+selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
+
+[Footnote 102: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+[Footnote 103: 2 Cor. 15.5].
+
+Now no person imagines that St. Paul had any idea, either that the body
+of Christ was in himself, or in others, on the occasions on which he has
+thus spoken.
+
+That Christ therefore, as he held the offices contained in the
+proposition, was the spirit of God, we may pronounce from various views,
+which we may take of him, all of which seem to lead us to the same
+conclusion.
+
+And first let us look at Christ in the scriptural light in which he has
+been held forth to us in the fourth section of the seventh chapter,
+where I have explained the particular notions of the Quakers relative to
+the new birth.
+
+God maybe considered here as having produced, by means of his Holy
+Spirit, a birth of divine life in the soul of the "body which had been
+prepared;" and this birth was Christ. [104] "But that which is born of
+the spirit, says St. John, is spirit." The only question then will be as
+to the magnitude of the spirit thus produced. In answer to this St. John
+says,[105] "that God gave him not the spirit by measure." And St. Paul
+says the same thing: [106] "For in him all the fulness of the godhead
+dwelt bodily." Now we can have no idea of a spirit without measure, or
+containing the fullness of the godhead, but the spirit of God.
+
+[Footnote 104: John 3.6.]
+
+[Footnote 105: John 3.34.]
+
+[Footnote 106: Coloss. 2.9]
+
+Let us now look at Christ in another point of view, or as St. Paul seems
+to have viewed him. He defines Christ [107] "to be the wisdom of God,
+and the power of God." But what are the wisdom of God, and the power of
+God, but the great characteristics and the great constituent parts of
+his spirit?
+
+[Footnote 107: 1 Cor. 1. 24.]
+
+But if these views of Christ should not be deemed satisfactory, we will
+contemplate him as St. John the Evangelist has held him forth to our
+notice. Moses says, that the spirit of God created the world. But St.
+John says that the word created it. The spirit therefore and the word
+must be the same. But this word he tells us afterwards, and this
+positively, was Jesus Christ.
+
+It appears therefore from these observations, that it makes no material
+difference, whether we use the words "Spirit of God" or "Christ," in the
+proposition that has been before us, or that there will be no difference
+in the meaning of the proposition, either in the one or the other case;
+and also if the Quakers only allow, when the spirit took flesh, that the
+body was given as a sacrifice for sin, or that part of the redemption of
+man, as far as his sins are forgiven, is effected by this sacrifice,
+there will be little or no difference between the religion of the
+Quakers and that of the objectors, as far as it relates to Christ[108].
+
+[Footnote 108: The Quakers have frequently said in their theological
+writings, that every man has a portion of the Holy Spirit within him;
+and this assertion has not been censured. But they have also said, that
+every man has a portion of Christ or of the light of Christ, within him.
+Now this assertion has been considered as extravagant and wild. The
+reader will therefore see, that if he admits the one, he cannot very
+consistently censure the other.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. X.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Ministers--The Spirit of God alone can made a Minister of the
+Gospel--Hence no imposition of hands nor human knowledge can be
+effectual--This proposition not peculiarly adopted by George Fox, but by
+Justin the Martyr, Luther, Calvin, Wickliffe, Tyndal, Milton, and
+others--Way in which this call, by the Spirit, qualifies for the
+ministry--Women equally qualified with men--How a Quaker becomes
+acknowledged to be a Minister of the Gospel._
+
+
+Having now detailed fully the operations of the Spirit of God, as far as
+the Quakers believe it to be concerned in the instruction and redemption
+of man, I shall consider its operations, as far as they believe it to
+be concerned in the services of the church. Upon this spirit they make
+both their worship and their ministry to depend. I shall therefore
+consider these subjects, before I proceed to any new order of tenets,
+which they may hold.
+
+It is a doctrine of the Quakers that none can spiritually exercise, and
+that none ought to be allowed to exercise, the office of ministers, but
+such as the spirit of God has worked upon and called forth to discharge
+it, as well as that the same Spirit will never fail to raise up persons
+in succession for this end.
+
+Conformably with this idea, no person, in the opinion of the Quakers,
+ought to be designed by his parents in early youth for the priesthood:
+for as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can say which is the
+vessel that is to be made to honour.
+
+Conformably with the same idea, no imposition of hands, or ordination,
+can avail any thing, in their opinion, in the formation of a minister of
+the Gospel; for no human power can communicate to the internal man the
+spiritual gifts of God.
+
+Neither, in conformity with the same idea, can the acquisition of human
+learning, or the obtaining Academical degrees and honours, be essential
+qualifications for this office; for though the human intellect is so
+great, that it can dive as it were into the ocean and discover the laws
+of fluids, and rise again up to heaven, and measure the celestial
+motions, yet it is incapable of itself of penetrating into divine
+things, so as spiritually to know them; while, on the other hand,
+illiterate men appear often to have more knowledge on these subjects
+than the most learned. Indeed the Quakers have no notion of a human
+qualification for a divine calling. They reject all school divinity, as
+necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe that if a
+knowledge of Christianity had been attainable by the acquisition of the
+Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and
+Roman philosophers, then the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the
+best proficients in it; whereas, the Gospel was only foolishness to many
+of these. They say with St. Paul to the Colossians,[109] "Beware lest any
+man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of
+men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And they
+say with the same Apostle to Timothy,[110] "O Timothy! keep that which
+is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and
+oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have
+erred concerning the faith."
+
+[Footnote 109: Coloss. 2. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 110: 1 Tim. 6, 20, 21]
+
+This notion of the Quakers, that human learning and academical honours
+are not necessary for the priesthood, is very ancient. Though George Fox
+introduced it into his new society, and this without any previous
+reading upon the subject, yet it had existed long before his time. In
+short, it was connected with the tenet, early disseminated in the
+church, that no person could know spiritual things but through the
+medium of the spirit of God, from whence it is not difficult to pass to
+the doctrine, that none could teach spiritually except they had been
+taught spiritually themselves. Hence we find Justin the Martyr, a
+Platonic philosopher, but who was afterwards one of the earliest
+Christian writers after the Apostles, and other learned men after him
+down to Chrysostom, laying aside their learning and their philosophy for
+the school of Christ. The first authors also of the reformation,
+contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported
+it. Wickliffe, the first reformer of the English church, and Tyndal the
+Martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language,
+supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, Master of Pembroke-Hall in
+Cambridge, preached a sermon before the University, contending that the
+Universities corresponded with the schools of the prophets, and that
+human learning was an essential qualification for the priesthood. This
+sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, Master of Caius College
+in the same University, in which he stated, after having argued the
+points in question, that the Universities did not correspond with the
+schools of the prophets, but with those of Heathen men; that Plato,
+Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were more honoured there, than Moses or
+Christ; that grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, physics, metaphysics, and
+the mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or
+the defence of the Gospel; that Christian schools had originally brought
+men from Heathenism to Christianity, but that the University schools
+were likely to carry men from Christianity to Heathenism again. This
+language of William Dell was indeed the general language of the divines
+and pious men in those times in which George Fox lived, though
+unquestionably the opposite doctrine had been started, and had been
+received by many. Thus the great John Milton, who lived in these very
+times, may be cited as speaking in a similar manner on the same subject.
+"Next, says he, it is a fond error, though too much believed among us,
+to think that the University makes a minister of the gospel. What it may
+conduce to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now. But that, which
+makes fit a Minister, the Scripture can best inform us to be only from
+above; whence also we are bid to seek them. [111]Thus St. Matthew says,
+'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
+labourers into his harvest.' Thus St. Luke: [112] 'The flock, over which
+the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.' Thus St. Paul: [113] 'How shall
+they preach, unless they be sent?' But by whom sent? By the university,
+or by the magistrate? No, surely. But sent by God, and by him only."
+
+[Footnote 111: Mat. 9.38.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Acts 20.28.]
+
+[Footnote 113: Rom. 10.15.]
+
+The Quakers then, rejecting school divinity, continue to think with
+Justin, Luther, Dell, Milton, and indeed with those of the church of
+England and others, that those only can be proper ministers of the
+church, who have witnessed within themselves a call from the spirit of
+God. If men would teach religion, they must, in the opinion of the
+Quakers, be first taught of God. They must go first to the school of
+Christ; must come under his discipline in their hearts; must mortify the
+deeds of the body; must crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts
+thereof; must put off the old man which is corrupt; must put on the new
+man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;"
+must be in fact, "Ministers of the sanctuary and true tabernacle, which
+the Lord hath pitched, and not man." And whether those who come forward
+as ministers are really acted upon by this Spirit, or by their own
+imagination only, so that they mistake the one for the other, the
+Quakers consider it to be essentially necessary, that they should
+experience such a call in their own feelings, and that purification of
+heart, which they can only judge of by their outward lives, should be
+perceived by themselves, before they presume to enter upon such an
+office.
+
+The Quakers believe that men, qualified in this manner, are really fit
+for the ministry, and are likely to be useful instruments in it. For
+first, it becomes men to be changed themselves, before they can change
+others. Those again, who have been thus changed, have the advantage of
+being able to state from living experience what God has done for them;
+[114] "what they have seen with their eyes; what they have looked upon;
+and what their hands have handled of the word of life." Men also, who,
+by means of God's Holy Spirit, have escaped the pollutions of the world,
+are in a fit state to understand the mysteries of God, and to carry with
+them the seal of their own commission. Thus men under sin can never
+discern spiritual things. But "to the disciples of Christ," and to the
+doers of his will, "it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of
+Heaven." Thus, when the Jews marvelled at Christ, saying [115] "How
+knoweth this man letters, (or the scriptures) having never learned?
+Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent
+me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
+it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Such ministers also are
+considered as better qualified to reach the inward state of the people,
+and to "preach liberty to the captives" of sin, than those who have
+merely the advantage of school divinity, or of academical learning. It
+is believed also of these, that they are capable of giving more solid
+and lasting instruction, when they deliver themselves at large: for
+those, who preach rather from intellectual abilities and from the
+suggestions of human learning, than from the spiritual life and power
+which they find within themselves, may be said to forsake Christ, who is
+the "living fountain, and to hew out broken cisterns which hold no
+water," either for themselves or for others.
+
+[Footnote 114: Coloss. 2. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 115: 1 Tim. 6.20.21.]
+
+This qualification for the ministry being allowed to be the true one, it
+will follow, the Quakers believe, and it was Luther's belief also, that
+women may be equally qualified to become ministers of the Gospel, as the
+men. For they believe that God has given his Holy Spirit, without
+exception, to all. They dare not therefore limit its operations in the
+office of the ministry, more than in any other of the sacred offices
+which it may hold. They dare not again say, that women cannot mortify
+the deeds of the flesh, or that they cannot be regenerated, and walk in
+newness of life. If women therefore believe they have a call to the
+ministry, and undergo the purification necessarily connected with it,
+and preach in consequence, and preach effectively, they dare not, under
+these circumstances, refuse to accept their preaching, as the fruits of
+the spirit, merely because it comes through the medium of the female
+sex.
+
+Against this doctrine of the Quakers, that a female ministry is
+allowable under the Gospel dispensation, an objection has been started
+from the following words of the Apostle Paul: [116] "Let your women keep
+silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to
+speak"--"and if they will learn any thing, let them ask their Husbands
+at home." but the Quakers conceive, that this charge of the Apostle has
+no allusion to preaching. In these early times, when the Gospel
+doctrines were new, and people were eager to understand them, some of
+the women, in the warmth of their feelings, interrupted the service of
+the church, by asking such questions as occurred to them on the subject
+of this new religion. These are they whom the Apostle desires to be
+silent, and to reserve their questions till they should return home. And
+that this was the case is evident, they conceive, from the meaning of
+the words, which the Apostle uses upon this occasion. For the word in
+the Greek tongue, which is translated "speak," does not mean to preach
+or to pray, but to speak as in common discourse. And the words, which
+immediately follow this, do not relate to any evangelical instruction,
+which these women were desirous of communicating publicly, but which
+they were desirous of receiving themselves from others.
+
+[Footnote 116: 1 Cor. 14.34.35.]
+
+That the words quoted do not relate to praying or preaching is also
+equally obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers; for if they had related
+to these offices of the church, the word "prophesy" had been used
+instead of the word "speak." Add to which that the Apostle, in the same
+epistle in which the preaching of women is considered to be forbidden,
+gives them a rule to which he expects them to conform, when they should
+either prophesy or pray: but to give women a rule to be observed during
+their preaching, and to forbid them to preach at the some time, is an
+absurdity too great to be fixed upon the most ordinary person, and much
+more upon an inspired Apostle.
+
+That the objection has no foundation, the Quakers believe again, from
+the consideration that the ministry of women, in the days of the
+Apostles, is recognized in the New Testament, and is recognized also, in
+some instances, as an acceptable service.
+
+Of the hundred and twenty persons who were assembled on the day of
+pentecost, it is said by St. Luke that [117] some were women. That these
+received the Holy Spirit as well as the men, and that they received it
+also for the purpose of prophesying or preaching, is obvious from the
+same Evangelist. For first, he says, that "all were filled with the Holy
+Ghost." And secondly, he says, that Peter stood up, and observed
+concerning the circumstance of inspiration having been given to the
+women upon this occasion, that Joel's prophecy was then fulfilled, in
+which were to be found these words: "And it shall come to pass in the
+hist days, that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy--and on my
+servants and handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and
+they shall prophesy."
+
+[Footnote 117: Acts, Chap. 1.]
+
+That women preached afterwards, or in times subsequent to the day of
+pentecost, they collect from the same Evangelist. [118]For he mentions
+Philip, who had four daughters, all of whom prophesied at Cæsarea. Now
+by prophesying, if we accept [119]St. Paul's interpretation of it, is
+meant a speaking to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, under the
+influence of the Holy Spirit. It was also a speaking to the church: it
+was also the speaking of one person to the church, while the others
+remained silent.
+
+[Footnote 118: Acts 21.9.]
+
+[Footnote 119: 1 Cor. 14.]
+
+That women also preached or prophesied in the church of Corinth, the
+Quakers show from the testimony of St. Paul: for he states the manner in
+which they did it, or that [120]they prayed and prophesied with their
+heads uncovered.
+
+[Footnote 120: 1 Cor. 11. 5.]
+
+That women also were ministers of the Gospel in other places; and that
+they were highly serviceable to the church, St. Paul confesses with
+great satisfaction, in his Epistle to the Romans, in which he sends his
+salutation to different persons, for whom he professed an affection or
+an esteem: [121]thus--"I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a
+servant of the church, which is at Cenchrea." Upon this passage the
+Quakers usually make two observations. The first is, that the [122]Greek
+word, which is translated servant, should have been rendered minister.
+It is translated minister, when applied by St. Paul to [123]Timothy, to
+denote his office. It is also translated minister, when applied to
+[124]St. Paul and Apollos. And there is no reason why a change should
+have been made in its meaning in the present case. The second is, that
+History has handed down Phoebe as a woman eminent for her Gospel
+labours. "She was celebrated, says [125]Theodoret, throughout the world;
+for not only the Greeks and the Romans, but the Barbarians, knew her
+likewise."
+
+[Footnote 121: Romans 16.1.]
+
+[Footnote 122: [Greek: Diokogos.]]
+
+[Footnote 123: 1 Thess. 3. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 124: 1 Cor. 3. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 125: In Universa Terra celebris facta est; nec eam soli
+Romani, &c,]
+
+St. Paul also greets Priscilla and Aquila. He greets them under the
+title of fellow-helpers or fellow-labourers in Jesus Christ. But this is
+the same title which he bestows upon Timothy, to denote his usefulness
+in the church. Add to which, that Priscilla and Aquila were the persons
+of whom St. Luke [126]says, "that they assisted Apollos in expounding to
+him the way of God more perfectly."
+
+[Footnote 126: Acts 18. 24. 26.]
+
+In the same epistle he recognizes also other women, as having been
+useful to him in Gospel-labours. Thus--"Salute Tryphena, and Tryphosa,
+who labour in the Lord." "Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much
+in the Lord."
+
+From these, and from other observations, which might be made upon this
+subject, the Quakers are of opinion that the ministry of the women was
+as acceptable, in the time of the Apostles, as the ministry of the men.
+And as there is no prohibition against the preaching of women in the New
+Testament, they see no reason why they should not be equally admissible
+and equally useful as ministers at the present day.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Way in which Quakers are admitted into the ministry--When acknowledged,
+they preach, like other pastors, to their different congregations or
+meetings--They visit occasionally the different families in their own
+counties or quarterly meetings--Manner of these family-visits--Sometimes
+travel as ministers through particular counties or the kingdom at
+large--Sometimes into foreign parts--Women share in these
+labours--Expense of voyages on such occasions defrayed out of the
+national stock._
+
+
+The way in which Quakers, whether men or women, who conceive themselves
+to be called to the office of the ministry, are admitted into it, so as
+to be acknowledged by the society to be ministers of the Quaker-church,
+is simply as follows.
+
+Any member has a right to rise up in the meetings for worship, and to
+speak publicly. If any one therefore should rise up and preach, who has
+never done so before, he is heard. The congregation are all witnesses of
+his doctrine. The elders, however, who may be present, and to whose
+province it more immediately belongs to judge of the fitness of
+ministers, observe the tenour of his discourse. They watch over it for
+its authority; that is, they judge by its spiritual influence on the
+mind, whether it be such as corresponds with that which may be presumed
+to come from the spirit of God. If the new preacher delivers any thing
+that appears exceptionable, and continues to do so, it is the duty of
+the elders to speak to him in private, and to desire him to discontinue
+his services to the church. But if nothing exceptionable occurs, nothing
+is said to him, and he is allowed to deliver himself publicly at future
+meetings. In process of time, if, after repeated attempts in the office
+of the ministry, the new preacher should have given satisfactory proof
+of his gifts, he is reported to the monthly meeting to which he belongs.
+And this meeting, if satisfied with his ministry, acknowledges him as a
+minister, and then recommends him to the meeting of ministers and
+elders belonging to the same. No other act than this is requisite. He
+receives no verbal or written appointment or power for the execution of
+the sacerdotal office. It may be observed also, that he neither gains
+any authority, nor loses any privilege, by thus becoming a minister of
+the Gospel. Except, while in the immediate exercise of his calling, he
+is only a common member. He receives no elevation by the assumption of
+any nominal title, to distinguish him from the rest. Nor is he elevated
+by the prospect of any increase to his wordly goods in consequence of
+his new office; for no minister in this society receives any pecuniary
+emolument for his spiritual labours.
+
+When ministers are thus approved and acknowledged, they exercise the
+sacred office in public assemblies, as they immediately feel themselves
+influenced to that work. They may engage also, with the approbation of
+their own monthly meeting, in the work of visiting such Quaker families
+as reside in the county, or quarterly meeting to which they belong. In
+this case they are sometimes accompanied by one of the elders of the
+church. These visits have the name of family visits, and are conducted
+in the following manner:--
+
+When a Quaker minister, after having commenced his journey, has entered
+the house of the first family, the individual members are collected to
+receive him. They then sit in silence for a time. As he believes himself
+concerned to speak, he delivers that which arises in his mind with
+religions freedom. The master, the wife, and the other branches of the
+family, are sometimes severally addressed. Does the minister feel that
+there is a departure in any of the persons present, from the principles
+or practice of the society, he speaks, if he believes it required of
+him, to these points. Is there any well disposed person under any inward
+discouragement; this person may be addressed in the language of
+consolation. All in fact are exhorted and advised as their several
+circumstances may seem to require. When the religious visit is over, the
+minister, if there be occasion, takes some little refreshment with the
+family, and converses with them; but no light or trifling subject is
+ever entered upon on these occasions. From one family he passes on to
+another, till he has visited all the families in the district, for which
+he had felt a concern.
+
+Though Quaker ministers frequently confine their spiritual labours to
+the county or quarterly meeting in which they reside, yet some of them
+feel an engagement to go beyond these boundaries, and to visit the
+society in particular counties, or in the kingdom at large. They who
+feel a concern of this kind, must lay it before their own monthly
+meetings. These meetings, if they feel it right to countenance it, grant
+them certificates for the purpose. These certificates are necessary;
+first, because ministers might not he personally known as ministers out
+of their own district; and secondly, because Quakers, who were not
+ministers, and other persons who might counterfeit the dress of Quakers,
+might otherwise impose upon the society, as they travelled along.
+
+Such persons, as thus travel in the work of the ministry, or public
+friends as they are called, seldom or never go to an inn at any town or
+village, where Quakers live. They go to the houses of the latter. While
+at these, they attend the weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings of the
+district, as they happen on their route. They call also extraordinary
+meetings of worship. At these houses they are visited by many of the
+members of the place and neighbourhood, who call upon and converse with
+them. During these times they appear to have their minds bent on the
+object of their mission, so that it would be difficult to divert their
+attention from the work in hand. When they have staid a sufficient time
+at a town or village, they depart. One or more guides are appointed by
+the particular meeting, belonging to it, to show them the way to the
+next place, where they propose to labour, and to convey them free of
+expense, and to conduct them to the house of some member there. From
+this house, when their work is finished, they are conveyed and conducted
+by new guides to another, and so on, till they return to their
+respective homes.
+
+But the religious views of the Quaker ministers are not always confined
+even within the boundaries of the kingdom. Many of them believe it to be
+their duty to travel into foreign parts. These, as their journey is now
+extensive, must lay their concern not only before their own monthly
+meeting, but before their own quarterly meeting, and before the meeting
+of Ministers and Elders in London also. On receiving their certificates,
+they depart. Some of them visit the continent of Europe, but most of
+them the churches in America, where they diligently labour in the
+vineyard, probably for a year or two, at a distance from their families
+and friends. And here it may be observed, that, while Quaker ministers
+from England are thus visiting America on a religious errand, ministers
+from America, impelled by the same influence, are engaging in
+Apostolical missions to England. These foreign visits, on both sides,
+are not undertaken by such ministers only as are men. Women engage in
+them also. They cross the Atlantic, and labour in the vineyard in the
+same manner. It may be mentioned here, that though it be a principle in
+the Quaker society, that no minister of the Gospel ought to be paid for
+his religious labours, yet the expense of the voyage, on such occasions,
+is allowed to be defrayed out of the fund, which is denominated by the
+Quakers their national stock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XI.
+
+_Elders--Their appointment--One part of their office to watch over the
+doctrines and conduct of ministers--Another part of their office to meet
+the ministers of the church, and to confer and exhort for religious
+good--None to meddle at these conferences with the government of the
+church._
+
+
+I mentioned in the preceding chapter, as the reader must have observed,
+that certain persons, called Elders, watched over those who came forward
+in the ministry, with a view of ascertaining if they had received a
+proper qualification or call. I shall now state who the elders are, as
+well as more particularly the nature of their office.
+
+To every particular meeting four elders, two men and two women, but
+sometimes more and sometimes less, according as persons can be found
+qualified, are appointed. These are nominated by a committee appointed
+by the monthly meeting, in conjunction with a committee appointed by the
+quarterly meeting. And as the office annexed to the name of elder is
+considered peculiarly important by the Quakers, particular care is
+taken, that persons of clear discernment, and such as excel in the
+spiritual ear, and such as are blameless in their lives, are appointed
+to it. It is recommended that neither wealth nor age be allowed to
+operate as inducements in the choice of them. Indeed, so much care is
+required to be taken with respect to the filling up this office, that if
+persons perfectly suitable are not to be found, the meetings are to be
+left without them.
+
+It is one part of the duty of the elders, when appointed, to watch over
+the doctrine of young ministers, and also to watch over the doctrine and
+conduct of ministers generally, and tenderly to advise with such as
+appear to them to be deficient in any of the qualifications which belong
+to their high calling.
+
+When we consider that every religious society attaches a more than
+common respectability to the person who performs the sacerdotal office,
+there will be no difficulty in supposing, whenever a minister may be
+thought to err, that many of those who are aware of his error, will want
+the courage to point it out to him, and that others will excuse
+themselves from doing it, by saying that interference on this occasion
+does not belong more immediately to them than to others. This
+institution therefore of elders fixes the offices on individuals. It
+makes it their duty to watch and advise--It makes them responsible for
+the unsound doctrine, or the bad conduct of their ministers. And this
+responsibility is considered as likely to give persons that courage in
+watching over the ministry, which they might otherwise want. Hence, if a
+minister in the Quaker church were to preach unsoundly, or to act
+inconsistently with his calling, he would be generally sure of being
+privately spoken to by one or another elder.
+
+This office of elders, as far as it is concerned in advising ministers
+of the Gospel, had its foundation laid by George Fox. Many persons, who
+engaged in the ministry in his time, are described by him as "having run
+into imaginations," or as "having gone beyond their measure;" and in
+these cases, whenever they should happen, he recommended that one or
+two friends, if they saw fit, should advise with them in love and
+wisdom. In process of time, however, this evil seems to have increased;
+for as the society spread, numbers pressed forward to become Gospel
+ministers; many supposed they had a call from the spirit, and rose up,
+and preached, and in the heat of their imaginations, delivered
+themselves unprofitably. Two or three persons also, in the frenzy of
+their enthusiasm, frequently rose up, and spoke at the same time. Now
+this was easily to be done in a religious society, where all were
+allowed to speak, and where the qualifications of ministers were to be
+judged of in part by the truths delivered, or rather, where ordination
+was no mark of the ministry, or where an human appointment of it was
+unknown. For these reasons, that mode of superintendence which had only
+been suggested by George Fox, and left to the discretion of individuals,
+was perfected into an establishment, out of imperious necessity, in
+after times. Men were appointed to determine between the effects of
+divine inspiration and human imagination; to judge between the cool and
+the sound; and the enthusiastic and the defective; and to put a bridle
+as it were upon those who were not likely to become profitable labourers
+in the harvest of the Gospel. And as this office was rendered necessary
+on account of the principle that no ordination or human appointment
+could make a minister of the Gospel; so the same principle continuing
+among the Quakers, the office has been continued to the present day.
+
+It devolves upon the elders again, as a second branch of their duty, to
+meet the ministers of the church at stated seasons, generally once in
+three months, and to spend some time with them in religious retirement.
+It is supposed that opportunities may be afforded here, of encouraging
+and strengthening young ministers, of confirming the old, and of giving
+religious advice and assistance in various ways: and it must be supposed
+at any rate, that religious men cannot meet in religious conference,
+without some edification to each other. At these meetings, queries are
+proposed relative to the conduct both of ministers and elders, which
+they answer in writing to the quarterly meetings of ministers and elders
+to which they belong. Of the ministers and elders thus assembled, it may
+be observed, that it is their duty to confine themselves wholly to the
+exhortation of one another for good. They can make no laws, like the
+ancient synods and other convocations of the clergy, nor dictate any
+article of faith. Neither can they meddle with the government of the
+church. The Quakers allow neither ministers nor elders, by virtue of
+their office, to interfere with their discipline. Every proposition of
+this sort must be determined upon by the yearly meeting, or by the body
+at large.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Worship--Consists of prayer and preaching--Neither of these effectual
+but by the Spirit--Hence no liturgy or form of words, or studied
+sermons, in the Quaker-church--Singular manner of delivering
+sermons--Tone of the voice usually censured--This may arise from the
+difference between nature and art--Objected, that there is little
+variety of subject in these sermons--Variety not so necessary to
+Quakers--Other objections--Replies--Observations of Francis Lambert, of
+Avignon._
+
+
+As no person, in the opinion of the Quakers, can be a true minister of
+the gospel, unless he feel himself called or appointed by the spirit of
+God, so there can be no true or effectual worship, except it come
+through the aid of the same spirit.
+
+The public worship of God is usually made to consist of prayer and
+preaching.
+
+Prayer is a solemn address of the soul to God. It is a solemn confession
+of some weakness, or thanksgiving for some benefit, or petition for some
+favour. But the Quakers consider such an address as deprived of its life
+and power, except it be spiritually conceived. [127] "For the spirit
+helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we
+ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
+which cannot be uttered."
+
+[Footnote 127: Rom. 8. 26.]
+
+Preaching, on the other hand, is an address of man to men, that their
+attention may be turned towards God, and their minds be prepared for the
+secret and heavenly touches of his spirit. But this preaching, again,
+cannot be effectually performed, except the spirit of God accompany it.
+Thus St. Paul, in speaking of himself, says, [128] "And my speech and my
+preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
+demonstration of the spirit and with power, that your faith should not
+stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." So the Quakers
+believe that no words, however excellent, which men may deliver now,
+will avail, or will produce that faith which is to stand, except they be
+accompanied by that power which shall demonstrate them to be of God.
+
+[Footnote 128: 1 Cor. 2. 4.]
+
+From hence it appears to be the opinion of the Quakers, that the whole
+worship of God, whether it consist of prayer or of preaching, must be
+spiritual. Jesus Christ has also, they say, left this declaration upon
+record,[129]that "God is a spirit, and that they that worship him, must
+worship him in spirit and in truth." By worshipping him in truth, they
+mean, that men are to worship him only when they feel a right
+disposition to do it, and in such a manner as they judge, from their own
+internal feelings, to be the manner which the spirit of God then
+signifies.
+
+[Footnote 129: John 4.24.]
+
+For these reasons, when the Quakers enter into their meetings, they use
+no liturgy or form of prayer. Such a form would be made up of the words
+of man's wisdom. Neither do they deliver any sermons that have been
+previously conceived or written down. Neither do they begin their
+service immediately after they are seated. But when they sit down, they
+wait in silence,[130] as the Apostles were commanded to do. They
+endeavour to be calm and composed. They take no thought as to what they
+shall say. They avoid, on the other hand, all activity of the
+imagination, and every thing that arises from the will of man. The
+creature is thus brought to be passive, and the spiritual faculty to be
+disencumbered, so that it can receive and attend to the spiritual
+language of the Creator. [131]If, during this vacation from all mental
+activity, no impressions should be given to them, they say nothing. If
+impressions should be afforded to them, but no impulse to oral delivery,
+they remain equally silent. But if, on the other hand, impressions are
+given them, with an impulse to utterance, they deliver to the
+congregation as faithfully as they can, the copies of the several
+images, which they conceive to be painted upon their minds.
+
+[Footnote 130: Mat. 10.19. Acts 1.4.]
+
+[Footnote 131: They believe it their duty, (to speak in the Quaker
+language,) to maintain the watch, by preserving the imagination from
+being carried away by thoughts originating in man; and, in such watch,
+patiently to await for the arising of that life, which, by subduing the
+thoughts of man, produces an inward silence, and therein bestows a true
+sight of his condition upon him.]
+
+This utterance, when it manifests itself, is resolvable into prayer or
+preaching. If the minister engages in prayer, the whole company rise up,
+and the men with the minister take off their hats, that is, [132]uncover
+their heads. If he preaches only, they do not rise, but remain upon
+their seats as before, with their heads covered. The preacher, however,
+uncovers his own head upon this occasion.
+
+[Footnote 132: 1 Cor. Ch. 11.]
+
+There is something singular in the manner in which the Quakers deliver
+themselves when they preach. In the beginning of their discourses, they
+generally utter their words with slowness; indeed, with a slowness,
+which sometimes renders their meaning almost unintelligible to persons
+unaccustomed to such a mode of delivery; for seconds sometimes elapse
+between the sounding of short sentences or single words, so that the
+mind cannot always easily carry the first words, and join them to the
+intermediate, and connect them with the last. As they proceed, they
+communicate their impressions in a brisker manner; till, at length,
+getting beyond the quickness of ordinary delivery, they may be said to
+utter them rapidly. At this time, some of them appear to be much
+affected, and even agitated by their subject. This method of a very
+slow and deliberate pronunciation at first, and of an accelerated one
+afterwards, appears to me, as far as I have seen or heard, to be
+universal: for though undoubtedly some may make less pauses between the
+introductory words and sentences than others, yet all begin slower than
+they afterwards proceed.
+
+This singular custom may be probably accounted for in the following
+manner. The Quakers certainly believe that the spirit of God furnishes
+them with impressions on these occasions, but that the description of
+these is left to themselves Hence a faithful watch must be kept, that
+these may be delivered to their hearers conformably to what is delivered
+to them. But if so, it may perhaps be necessary to be more watchful, at
+the outset, in order to ascertain the dimensions as it were of these
+impressions, and of their several tendencies and bearings, than
+afterwards, when such a knowledge of them has been obtained. Or it may
+be that ministers, who go wholly unprepared to preach, have but a small
+view of the subject at first. Hence they speak slowly. But as their
+views are enlarged, their speech becomes quickened, and their feelings
+become interested with it. These, for any thing I know, may be
+solutions, upon Quaker principles, of this extraordinary practice.
+
+Against the preaching of the Quakers, an objection is usually made by
+the world, namely, that their ministers generally deliver their
+doctrines with an unpleasant tone. But it may be observed that this,
+which is considered to be a defect, is by no means confined to the
+Quakers. Persons of other religious denominations, who exert themselves
+in the ministry, are liable to the same charge. It may be observed also,
+that the difference between the accent of the Quakers, and that of the
+speakers of the world, may arise in the difference between art and
+nature. The person who prepares his lecture for the lecture-room, or his
+sermon for the pulpit, studies the formation of his sentences, which are
+to be accompanied by a modulation of the voice. This modulation is
+artificial, for it is usually taught. The Quakers, on, the other hand,
+neither prepare their discourses, nor vary their voices purposely,
+according to the rules of art. The tone which comes out, and which
+appears disagreeable to those who are not used to it, is nevertheless
+not unnatural. It is rather the mode of speaking which nature imposes,
+in any violent exertion of the voice, to save the lungs. Hence persons
+who have their wares to cry, and this almost every other minute, in the
+streets, are obliged to adopt a tone. Hence persons with disordered
+lungs, can sing words with more ease to themselves than they can utter
+them, with a similar pitch of the voice. Hence Quaker women, when they
+preach, have generally more of this tone than the Quaker men, for the
+lungs of the female are generally weaker than those of the other sex.
+
+Against the sermons of the Quakers two objections are usually made; the
+first of which is, that they contain but little variety of subject.
+Among dissenters, it is said, but more particularly in the
+establishment, that you may hear fifty sermons following each other,
+where the subject of each is different. Hence a man, ignorant of
+letters, may collect all his moral and religious duties from the pulpit
+in the course of the year. But this variety, it is contended, is not to
+be found in the Quaker church.
+
+That there is less variety in the Quaker sermons than in those of
+others, there can be no doubt. But such variety is not so necessary to
+Quakers, on account of their peculiar tenets, and the universality of
+their education, as to others. For it is believed, as I have explained
+before, that the spirit of God, if duly attended to, is a spiritual
+guide to man, and that it leads him into all truth; that it redeems him;
+and that it qualifies him therefore for happiness in a future state.
+Thus an injunction to attend to the teachings of the spirit, supersedes,
+in some measure, the necessity of detailing the moral and religious
+obligations of individuals. And this necessity is still farther
+superseded by the consideration, that, as all the members of the Quaker
+society can read, they can collect their Christian duty from the
+scriptures, independently of their own ministers; or that they can
+collect those duties for themselves, which others, who are illiterate,
+are obliged to collect from the church.
+
+The second objection is, that the Quaker discourses have generally less
+in them, and are occasionally less connected or more confused than those
+of others.
+
+It must be obvious, when we consider that the Quaker ministers are often
+persons of but little erudition, and that their principles forbid them
+to premeditate on these occasions, that we can hardly expect to find the
+same logical division of the subject, or the same logical provings of
+given points, as in the sermons of those who spend hours, or even days
+together, in composing them.
+
+With respect to the apparent barrenness, or the little matter sometimes
+discoverable in their sermons, they would reply, that God has not given
+to every man a similar or equal gift. To some he has given largely; to
+others in a less degree. Upon some he has bestowed gifts, that may edify
+the learned; upon others such as may edify the illiterate. Men are not
+to limit his spirit by their own notions of qualification. Like the
+wind, it bloweth not only where it listeth, but as it listeth. Thus
+preaching, which may appear to a scholar as below the ordinary standard,
+may be more edifying to the simple hearted, than a discourse better
+delivered, or more eruditely expressed. Thus again, preaching, which may
+be made up of high sounding words, and of a mechanical manner and an
+affected tone, and which may, on these accounts, please the man of
+learning and taste, may be looked upon as dross by a man of moderate
+abilities or acquirements. And thus it has happened, that many have left
+the orators of the world and joined the Quaker society, on account of
+the barrenness of the discourses which they have heard among them.
+
+With respect to Quaker sermons being sometimes less connected or more
+confused than those of others, they would admit that this might
+apparently happen; and they would explain it in the following manner.
+Their ministers, they would say, when they sit among the congregation,
+are often given to feel and discern the spiritual states of individuals
+then present, and sometimes to believe it necessary to describe such
+states, and to add such advice as these may seem to require. Now these
+states being frequently different from each other, the description of
+them, in consequence of an abrupt transition from one to the other, may
+sometimes occasion an apparent inconsistency in their discourses on such
+occasions. The Quakers, however, consider all such discourses, or those
+in which states are described, as among the most efficacious and useful
+of those delivered.
+
+But whatever may be the merits of the Quaker sermons, there are
+circumstances worthy of notice with respect to the Quaker preachers. In
+the first place, they always deliver their discourses with great
+seriousness. They are also singularly bold and honest, when they feel it
+to be their duty, in the censure of the vices of individuals, whatever
+may be the riches they enjoy. They are reported also from unquestionable
+authority, to have extraordinary skill in discerning the internal
+condition of those who attend their ministry, so that many, feeling the
+advice to be addressed to themselves, have resolved upon their amendment
+in the several cases to which their preaching seemed to have been
+applied.
+
+As I am speaking of the subject of ministers, I will answer one or two
+questions, which I have often heard asked concerning it.
+
+The first of these is, do the Quakers believe that their ministers are
+uniformly moved, when they preach, by the spirit of God?
+
+I answer--the Quakers believe they may be so moved, and that they ought
+to be so moved. They believe also that they are often so moved. But they
+believe again, that except their ministers are peculiarly cautious, and
+keep particularly on their watch, they may mistake their own
+imaginations for the agency of this spirit. And upon this latter belief
+it is, in part, that the office of elders is founded, as before
+described.
+
+The second is, as there are no defined boundaries between the reason of
+man and the revelation of God, how do the Quakers know that they are
+favoured at any particular time, either when they preach or when they do
+not preach, with the visitation of this spirit, or that it is, at any
+particular time, resident within them?
+
+Richard Claridge, a learned and pious clergyman of the Church of England
+in the last century, but who gave up his benefices and joined the
+society of the Quakers, has said a few words in his Tractatus
+Hierographicus, upon this subject, a part of which I shall transcribe as
+an answer to this latter question.
+
+"Men, says he, may certainly know, that they do believe on the Son of
+God, with that faith that is unfeigned, and by which the heart is
+purified: for this faith is evidential and assuring, and consequently
+the knowledge of it is certain. Now they, who certainly know that they
+have this knowledge, may be certain also of the spirit of Christ
+dwelling in them; for [133] 'he that _believeth_ _on the Son of God, hath
+the witness in himself;'_ and this witness is the spirit; for it is
+[134] 'the spirit that beareth witness,' of whose testimony they may be
+as certain, as of that faith the spirit beareth witness to."
+
+[Footnote 133: 1 John 5.10.]
+
+[Footnote 134:1 John 5. 6.]
+
+Again--"They may certainly know that they love the Lord above all, and
+their neighbour as themselves. For the command implies not only a
+possibility of knowing it in general, but also of such a knowledge as
+respects their own immediate concernment therein, and personal benefit
+arising from a sense of their conformity and obedience thereunto. And
+seeing they may certainly know this, they may also as certainly know,
+that the spirit of Christ dwelleth in them;[135] for 'God is love, and
+he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.' And
+[136] 'if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
+perfected in us.'" In the same manner he goes on to enumerate many other
+marks from texts of scripture, by which he conceives this question may
+be determined[137].
+
+[Footnote 135:1 John 4. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 136:1 John 4. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 137: The Quakers conceive it to be no more difficult for them
+to distinguish the motions of the Holy Spirit, than for those of the
+church of England, who are candidates for holy orders. Every such
+candidate is asked, "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the
+Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministration?" The answer
+is, "I trust so."]
+
+I shall conclude this chapter on the subject of the Quaker preaching, by
+an extract from Francis Lambert of Avignon, whose book was published in
+the year 1516, long before the society of the Quakers took its rise in
+the world. "Beware, says he, that thou determine not precisely to speak
+what before thou hast meditated, whatsoever it be; for though it be
+lawful to determine the text which thou art to expound, yet not at all
+the interpretation; lest, if thou doest so, thou takest from the Holy
+Spirit that which is his, namely, to direct thy speech that thou mayest
+preach in the name of the Lord, void of all learning, meditation, and
+experience; and as if thou hadst studied nothing at all, committing thy
+heart, thy tongue, and thyself, wholly unto his spirit; and trusting
+nothing to thy former studying or meditation, but saying to thyself in
+great confidence of the divine promise, the Lord will give a word with
+much power unto those that preach the Gospel."
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_But besides oral or vocal, there is silent worship among the
+Quakers--Many meetings where not a word is said, and yet worship is
+considered to have begun, and to be proceeding--Worship not necessarily
+connected with words--This the opinion of other pious men besides
+Quakers--Of Howe--Hales--Gell--Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol--Monro
+--Advantages which the Quakers attach to their silent worship._
+
+
+I have hitherto confined myself to those meetings of the Quakers, where
+the minister is said to have received impressions from the Spirit of
+God, with a desire of expressing them, and where, if he expresses them,
+he ought to deliver them to the congregation as the pictures of his
+will; and this, as accurately as the mirror represents the object that
+is set before it. There are times, however, as I mentioned in the last
+section, when either no impressions may be said to be felt, or, if any
+are felt, there is no concomitant impulse to utter them. In this case
+no person attempts to speak: for to speak or to pray, where the heart
+feels no impulse to do it, would be, in the opinion of the Quakers, to
+mock God, and not to worship him in spirit and in truth. They sit
+therefore in silence, and worship in silence; and they not only remain
+silent the whole time of their meetings, but many meetings take place,
+and these sometimes in succession, when not a word is uttered.
+
+Michael de Molinos, who was chief of the sect of the Quietists, and
+whose "Spiritual Guide" was printed at Venice in 1685, speaks thus:
+"There are three kinds of silence; the first is of words, the second of
+desires, and the third of thoughts. The first is perfect; the second is
+more perfect; and the third is most perfect. In the first, that is, of
+words, virtue is acquired. In the second, namely, of desires, quietness
+is attained. In the third, of thoughts, internal recollection is gained.
+By not speaking, not desiring, and not thinking, one arrives at the
+true and perfect mystical silence, where God speaks with the soul,
+communicates himself to it, and in the abyss of its own depth, teaches
+it the most perfect and exalted wisdom."
+
+Many people of other religious societies, if they were to visit the
+meetings of the Quakers while under their silent worship, would be apt
+to consider the congregation as little better than stocks or stones, or
+at any rate as destitute of that life and animation which constitute the
+essence of religion. They would have no idea that a people were
+worshipping God, whom they observed to deliver nothing from their lips.
+It does not follow, however, because nothing is said, that God is not
+worshipped. The Quakers, on the other hand, contend, that these silent
+meetings form the sublimest part of their worship. The soul, they say,
+can have intercourse with God. It can feel refreshment, joy, and
+comfort, in him. It can praise and adore him; and all this, without the
+intervention of a word.
+
+This power of the soul is owing to its constitution or nature. "It
+follows, says the learned Howe, in his 'Living Temple,' that having
+formed this his more excellent creature according to his own more
+express likeness; stampt it with the more glorious characters of his
+living image; given it a nature suitable to his own, and thereby made it
+capable of rational and intelligent converse with him, he hath it even
+in his power to maintain a continual converse with this creature, by
+agreeable communications, by letting in upon it the vital beams and
+influences of his own light and love, and receiving back the return of
+its grateful acknowledgments and praises: wherein it is manifest he
+should do no greater thing than he hath done. For who sees not that it
+is a matter of no greater difficulty to converse with, than to make a
+reasonable creature? Or who would not be ashamed to deny, that he who
+hath been the only author of the soul of man, and of the excellent
+powers and faculties belonging to it, can more easily sustain that which
+he hath made, and converse with his creature suitably to the way,
+wherein he hath made it capable of his converse?"
+
+That worship may exist without the intervention of words, on account of
+this constitution of the soul, is a sentiment which has been espoused by
+many pious persons who were not Quakers. Thus, the ever memorable John
+Hales, in his Golden Remains, expresses himself: "Nay, one thing I know
+more, that the prayer which is the most forcible, transcends, and far
+exceeds, all power of words. For St. Paul, speaking unto us of the most
+effectual kind of prayer, calls it sighs and groans, that cannot be
+expressed. Nothing cries so loud in the ears of God, as the sighing of a
+contrite and earnest heart."
+
+"It requires not the voice, but the mind; not the stretching of the
+hands, but the intention of the heart; not any outward shape or carriage
+of the body, but the inward behaviour of the understanding. How then can
+it slacken your worldly business and occasions, to mix them with sighs
+and groans, which are the most effectual prayer?"
+
+Dr. Gell, before quoted, says--"Words conceived only in an earthly mind,
+and uttered out of the memory by man's voice, which make a noise in the
+ears of flesh and blood, are not, nor can be accounted a prayer, before
+our father which is in Heaven."
+
+Dr. Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol, has the following expressions in his
+sermons: "Prayer doth not consist either in the bending of our knees, or
+the service of our lips, or the lifting up of our hands or eyes to
+heaven, but in the elevation of our souls towards God. These outward
+expressions of our inward thoughts are necessary in our public, and
+often expedient in our private devotions; but they do not make up the
+essence of prayer, which may truly and acceptably be performed, where
+these are wanting."
+
+And he says afterwards, in other parts of his work--"Devotion of mind is
+itself a silent prayer, which wants not to be clothed in words, that God
+may better know our desires. He regards not the service of our lips, but
+the inward disposition of our hearts."
+
+Monro, before quoted, speaks to the same effect, in his Just Measures of
+the Pious Institutions of Youth. "The breathings of a recollected soul
+are not noise or clamour. The language in which devotion loves to vent
+itself, is that of the inward man, which is secret and silent, but yet
+God hears it, and makes gracious returns unto it. Sometimes the pious
+ardours and sensations of good souls are such as they cannot clothe with
+words. They feel what they cannot express. I would not, however, be
+thought to insinuate, that the voice and words are not to be used at
+all. It is certain that public and common devotions cannot be performed
+without them; and that even in private, they are not only very
+profitable, but sometimes necessary. What I here aim at is, that the
+youth should be made sensible, that words are not otherwise valuable
+than as they are images and copies of what passes in the hidden man of
+the heart; especially considering that a great many, who appear very
+angelical in their devotions, if we take our measures of them from their
+voice and tone, do soon, after these intervals of seeming seriousness
+are over, return with the dog to the vomit, and give palpable evidences
+of their earthliness and sensuality; their passion and their pride."
+
+Again--"I am persuaded, says he, that it would be vastly advantageous
+for the youth, if care were taken to train them up to this method of
+prayer; that is, if they were taught frequently to place themselves in
+the divine presence, and there silently to adore their Creator,
+Redeemer, and Sanctifier. For hereby they would become habitually
+recollected. Devotion would be their element; and they would know, by
+experience, what our blessed Savour and his great Apostle meant, when
+they enjoin us to pray without ceasing. It was, I suppose, by some such
+method of devotion as I am now speaking of, that Enoch walked with God;
+that Moses saw him that is invisible; that the royal Psalmist set the
+Lord always before him; and that our Lord Jesus himself continued whole
+nights in prayer to God. No man, I believe, will imagine that his
+prayer, during all the space in which it is said to have continued, was
+altogether vocal. When he was in his agony in the garden, he used but a
+few words. His vocal prayer then consisted only of one petition, and an
+act of pure resignation thrice repeated. But I hope all will allow,
+that his devotion lasted longer than while he was employed in the
+uttering a few sentences."
+
+These meetings then, which are usually denominated silent, and in which,
+though not a word be spoken, it appears from the testimony of others
+that God may be truly worshipped, the Quakers consider as an important
+and sublime part of their church service, and as possessing advantages
+which are not to be found in the worship which proceeds solely through
+the medium of the mouth.
+
+For in the first place it must be obvious that, in these silent
+meetings, men cannot become chargeable before God, either with hypocrisy
+or falsehood, by pretending to worship him with their lips, when their
+affections are far from him, or by uttering a language that is
+inconsistent with the feelings of the heart.
+
+It must be obvious, again, that every man's devotion, in these silent
+meetings, is made, as it ought to be, to depend upon himself; for no man
+can work out the salvation of another for him. A man does not depend at
+these times on the words of a minister, or of any other person present;
+but his own soul, worked upon by the divine influence, pleads in
+silence with the Almighty its own cause. And thus, by extending this
+idea to the congregation at large, we shall find a number of individuals
+offering up at the same time their own several confessions; pouring out
+their own several petitions; giving their own thanks severally, or
+praising and adoring; all of them in different languages, adapted to
+their several conditions, and yet not interrupting one another.
+
+Nor is it the least recommendation of this worship, in the opinion of
+the Quakers, that, being thus wholly spiritual, it is out of the power
+of the natural man to obstruct it. No man can break the chains that thus
+binds the spirit of man to the spirit of God; for this chain, which is
+spiritual, is invisible. But this is not the case, the Quakers say, with
+any oral worship. "For how, says Barclay, alluding to his own times, can
+the Papists say their mass, if there be any there to disturb and
+interrupt them? Do but take away the mass-book, the chalice, the host,
+or the priest's garments; yea, do but spill the water, or the wine, or
+blow out the candles, (a thing quickly to be done,) and the whole
+business is marred, and no sacrifice can be offered. Take from the
+Lutherans and Episcopalians their liturgy or common prayer-book, and no
+service can be said. Remove from the Calvinists, Arminians, Socinians,
+Independents, or Anabaptists, the pulpit, the bible, and the hourglass,
+or make but such a noise as the voice of the preacher cannot be heard,
+or disturb him but so before he come, or strip him of his bible or his
+books, and he must be dumb: for they all think it an heresy to wait to
+speak, as the spirit of God giveth utterance; and thus easily their
+whole worship may be marred."
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Quakers reject every thing formal, ostentatious, and spiritless, from
+their worship--Ground on which their Meeting-houses stand, not
+consecrated--The latter plain--Women sit apart from the men--No
+Pews--nor priest's garments--nor psalmody--No one day thought more holy
+than another--But as public worship is necessary, days have been fixed
+upon for that purpose._
+
+
+Jesus Christ, as he was sitting at Jacob's well, and talking with the
+woman of Samaria, made use of the following, among other expressions, in
+his discourse: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
+neither, in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
+But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
+the Father in spirit and in truth."
+
+These expressions the Quakers generally render thus: I tell you that a
+new dispensation is at hand. Men will no longer worship at Jerusalem
+more acceptably than in any other place. Neither will it be expected of
+them, that they shall worship in temples, like the temple there. Neither
+the glory, nor the ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones, nor
+the splendid garments of the High Priest, will be any parts of the new
+worship that is approaching. All ceremonies will be done away, and men's
+religion will be reduced simply to the worshipping of God in spirit and
+in truth. In short, the Quakers believe, that, when Jesus came, he ended
+the temple, its ornaments, its music, its Levitical priesthood, its
+tithes, its new moons, and sabbaths, and the various ceremonial
+ordinances that had been engrafted into the religion of the Jews.
+
+The Quakers reject every thing that appears to them to be superstitious,
+or formal, or ceremonious, or ostentatious, or spiritless, from their
+worship.
+
+They believe that no ground can be made holy; and therefore they do not
+allow the places on which their Meeting-houses are built to be
+consecrated by the use of any human forms.
+
+Their Meeting-houses are singularly plain. There is nothing of
+decoration in the interior of them. They consist of a number of plain
+long benches with backs to them; There is one elevated seat at the end
+of these. This is for their ministers. It is elevated for no other
+reason, than that their ministers may be the better heard. The women
+occupy one half of these benches, and sit apart from the men.
+
+These benches are not intersected by partitions. Hence there are no
+distinct pews for the families of the rich, or of such as can afford to
+pay for them: for in the first place, the Quakers pay nothing for their
+seats in their Meeting-houses; and, in the second, they pay no respect
+to the outward condition of one another. If they consider themselves,
+when out of doors, as all equal to one another in point of privileges,
+much more do they abolish all distinctions, when professedly assembled
+in a place of worship. They sit therefore in their Meeting-houses
+undistinguished with respect to their outward circumstances, [138]as the
+children of the same great parent, who stand equally in need of his
+assistance; and as in the sight of Him who is no respecter of persons,
+but who made of one blood all the nations of men who dwell on all the
+face of the earth.
+
+[Footnote 138: Spiritual officers, such as elders and overseers, sit at
+the upper part of the Meeting-house.]
+
+The Quaker ministers are not distinguishable, when in their places of
+worship, by their dress. They wear neither black clothes, nor surplices,
+nor gowns, nor bands. Jesus Christ, when he preached to the multitude,
+is not recorded to have put on a dress different from that which he wore
+on other occasions. Neither do the Quakers believe that ministers of the
+church ought, under the new dispensation, to be a separate people, as
+the Levites were, or to be distinguished on account of their office from
+other men.
+
+The Quakers differ from other Christians in the rejection of psalmody,
+as a service of the church. If persons feel themselves so influenced in
+their private devotions, [139]that they can sing, as the Apostle says,
+"with the spirit and the understanding," or "can sing[140] and make
+melody in their hearts to the Lord," the Quakers have no objection to
+this as an act of worship. But they conceive that music and psalmody,
+though they might have been adapted to the ceremonial religion of the
+Jews, are not congenial with the new dispensation that has followed;
+because this dispensation requires, that all worship should be performed
+in spirit and in truth. It requires that no act of religion should take
+place, unless the spirit influences an utterance, and that no words
+should be used, except they are in unison with the heart. Now this
+coincidence of spiritual impulse and feeling with this act, is not
+likely to happen, in the opinion of the Quakers, with public psalmody.
+It is not likely that all in the congregation will be impelled, in the
+same moment, to a spiritual song, or that all will be in the state of
+mind or spirit which the words of the psalm describe. Thus how few will
+be able to sing truly with David, if the following verse should be
+brought before them: "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so
+panteth my soul after thee, O God." To this it may be added, that where
+men think about musical harmony or vocal tunes in their worship, the
+amusement of the creature will be so mixed with it, that it cannot be a
+pure oblation of the Spirit, and that those who think they can please
+the Divine Being by musical instruments, or the varied modulations of
+their own voices, must look upon him as a Being with corporeal organs,
+sensible, like a man, of fleshly delights, and not as a Spirit, who can
+only be pleased with the worship that is in spirit and in truth.
+
+[Footnote 139: 1 Cor. 14. 15.]
+
+[Footnote 140: Ephes. 5. 19.]
+
+The Quakers reject also the consecration and solemnization of particular
+days and times. As the Jews, when they became Christians, were enjoined
+by the Apostle Paul, not to put too great a value upon "days,[141] and
+months, and times, and years;" so the Quakers think it their duty as
+Christians to attend to the same injunction. They never meet upon saints
+days, as such, that is, as days demanding the religious assemblings of
+men, more than others; first, because they conceive this would be giving
+into popish superstition; and secondly, because these days were
+originally the appointment of men and not of God, and no human
+appointment, they believe, can make one day holier than another.
+
+[Footnote 141: Gal. 4. 10.]
+
+For the latter reason also they do not assemble for worship on those
+days which their own government, though they are greatly attached to it,
+appoint as fasts. They are influenced also by another reason in this
+latter case. They conceive as religion is of a spiritual nature, and
+must depend upon the spirit of God, that true devotion cannot be excited
+for given purposes or at a given time. They are influenced again by the
+consideration, that the real fast is of a different nature from that
+required. [142] "Is not this the fast, says Isaiah, that I have chosen,
+to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
+the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal
+thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out,
+to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that
+thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?" This the Quakers believe to
+be the true fast, and not the work of a particular day, but to be the
+daily work of every real Christian.
+
+[Footnote 142: Isaiah 58. 6. 7.]
+
+Indeed no one day, in the estimation of the Quakers, can be made by
+human appointment either more holy or more proper for worship than
+another. They do not even believe that the Jewish Sabbath, which was by
+the appointment of God, continues in Gospel times, or that it has been
+handed down by divine authority as the true Sabbath for Christians. All
+days with the Quakers are equally holy, and all equally proper for the
+worship of God. In this opinion they coincide with the ever memorable
+John Hales. "For prayer, indeed, says this venerable man, was the
+Sabbath ordained: yet prayer itself is Sabbathless, and admits of no
+rest, no intermission at all. If our hands be clean, we must, as our
+Apostle commands us, lift them up every where, at all times, and make
+every place a church, every day a Sabbath-day, every hour canonical. As
+you go to the market; as you stand in the streets; as you walk in the
+fields--in all these places, you may pray as well, and with as good
+acceptance, as in the church: for you yourselves are temples of the Holy
+Ghost, if the grace of God be in you, more precious than any of those
+which are made with hands."
+
+Though, however, the Quakers believe no one day in the sight of God to
+be holier than another, and no one capable of being rendered so by human
+authority, yet they think that Christians ought to assemble for the
+public worship of God. They think they ought to bear an outward and
+public testimony for God; and this can only be done by becoming members
+of a visible church, where they may be seen to acknowledge him publicly
+in the face of men. They think also, that the public worship of God
+increases, as it were, the fire of devotion, and enlarges the sphere of
+spiritual life in the souls of men. "God causes the inward life, says
+Barclay, the more to abound when his children assemble themselves
+diligently together, to wait upon him; so that as iron sharpeneth iron,
+the seeing the faces of one another, when both are inwardly gathered
+unto the life, giveth occasion for the life secretly to rise, and to
+pass from vessel to vessel: and as many candles lighted and put in one
+place, do greatly augment the light and make it more to shine forth, so
+when many are gathered together into the same life, there is more of
+the glory of God, and his power appears to the refreshment of each
+individual; for that he partakes not only of the light and life raised
+in himself, but in all the rest. And therefore Christ hath particularly
+promised a blessing to such as assemble in his name, seeing he will be
+in the midst of them." For these and other reasons, the Quakers think it
+proper, that men should be drawn together to the public worship of God:
+but if so, they must be drawn together at certain times. Now as one day
+has never been, in the eyes of the Quakers, more desirable for such an
+object than another, their ancestors chose the first day in the week,
+because the Apostles had chosen it for the religious assembling of
+themselves and their followers. And in addition to this, that more
+frequent opportunities might be afforded them of bearing their outward
+testimony publicly for God, and of enlarging the sphere of their
+spiritual life, they appointed a meeting on one other day in the week in
+most places, and two in some others, for the same purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XIII.
+
+_Miscellaneous particularities--Quakers careful about the use of such
+words as relate to religion--Never use the words "original sin"--nor
+"word of God," for the scriptures--Nor the word "Trinity"--Never pry
+into the latter mystery--Believe in the manhood and divinity of Jesus
+Christ--Also in a resurrection, but sever attempt to fathom that
+subject--Make little difference between sanctification and
+justification--- Their ideas concerning the latter_.
+
+
+The Quakers are remarkably careful, both in their conversation and their
+writings, on religious subjects, as to the terms which they use. They
+express scriptural images or ideas, as much as may be, by scriptural
+terms. By means of this particular caution, they avoid much of the
+perplexity and many of the difficulties which arise to others, and
+escape the theological disputes which disturb the rest of the Christian
+world.
+
+The Quakers scarcely ever utter the words "original sin," because they
+never find them in use in the sacred writings.
+
+The scriptures are usually denominated by Christians "the word of God."
+Though the Quakers believe them to have been given by divine
+inspiration, yet they reject this term. They apprehend that Christ is
+the word of God. They cannot therefore consistently give to the
+scriptures, however they reverence them, that name which St. John the
+Evangelist gives exclusively to the Son of God.
+
+Neither do they often make use of the word "Trinity." This expression
+they can no where find in the sacred writings. This to them is a
+sufficient warrant for rejecting it. They consider it as a term of mere
+human invention, and of too late a date to claim a place among the
+expressions of primitive Christianity. For they find it neither in
+Justin Martyr, nor in Irenaeus, nor in Tertullian, nor in Origen, nor in
+the Fathers of the three first centuries of the church.
+
+And as they seldom use the term, so they seldom or never try, when it
+offers itself to them, either in conversation or in books, to fathom its
+meaning. They judge that a curious inquiry into such high and
+speculative things, though ever so great truths in themselves, tends
+little to Godliness, and less to peace; and that their principal concern
+is with that only which is clearly revealed, and which leads practically
+to holiness of life.
+
+Consistently with this judgment, we find but little said respecting the
+Trinity by the Quaker writers.
+
+It is remarkable that Barclay in the course of his apology, takes no
+notice of this subject.
+
+William Penn seems to have satisfied himself with refuting what he
+considered to be a gross notion, namely, that of three persons in the
+Trinity. For after having shown what the Trinity was not, he no where
+attempts to explain what he conceived it to be. He says only, that he
+acknowledges a Father, a Word, and a Holy Spirit, according to the
+scriptures, but not according to the notions of men; and that these
+Three are truly and properly One, of one nature as well as will.
+
+Isaac Pennington, an ancient Quaker, speaks thus: "That the three are
+distinct, as three several beings or persons, the Quakers no where read
+in the scriptures; but they read in them that they are one. And thus
+they believe their being to be one, their life one, their light one,
+their wisdom one, their power one. And he that knoweth and seeth any one
+of them, knoweth and seeth them, all, according to that saying of Christ
+to Philip, 'He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.'"
+
+John Crook, another ancient writer of this society, in speaking of the
+Trinity, says, that the Quakers "acknowledge one God, the Father of
+Jesus Christ, witnessed within man only by the spirit of truth; and
+these three are one, and agree in one; and he that honours the Father,
+honours the Son that proceeds from him; and he that denies the Spirit,
+denies both the Father and the Son." But nothing farther can be obtained
+from this author on this subject.
+
+Henry Tuke, a modern writer among the Quakers, and who published an
+account of the principles of the society only last year, says also
+little upon the point before us. "This belief, says he, in the Divinity
+of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, induced some of the
+teachers in the Christian church, about three hundred years after
+Christ, to form a doctrine, to which they gave the name of Trinity; but,
+in our writings we seldom make use of this term, thinking it best, on
+such a subject, to keep to scriptural expressions, and to avoid those
+disputes which have since perplexed the Christian world, and led into
+speculations beyond the power of human abilities to decide. If we
+consider that we ourselves are composed of a union of body, soul, and
+spirit, and yet cannot determine how even these are united; how much
+less may we expect perfect clearness on a subject, so far above our
+finite comprehension, as that of the Divine Nature?"
+
+The Quakers believe, that Jesus Christ was man, because he took flesh,
+and inhabited the body prepared for him, and was subject to human
+infirmities; but they believe also in his Divinity, because he was the
+word.
+
+They believe also in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, as
+connected with the Christian religion. In explaining our belief of this
+doctrine, says Henry Tuke, we refer to the fifteenth chapter of the
+first epistle to the Corinthians. In this chapter is clearly laid down
+the resurrection of a body, though not of the same body that dies.
+"There are celestial bodies, and there are bodies terrestrial; but the
+glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
+another. So also is the resurrection of the dead: It is sown a natural
+body, it is raised a spiritual body: there is a natural body, and there
+is a spiritual body. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
+cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
+incorruption." Here we rest our belief in this mystery, without desiring
+to pry into it beyond what is revealed to us; remembering "that secret
+things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are
+revealed, belong unto us and to our children."
+
+The Quakers make but little difference, and not such as many other
+Christians do, between sanctification and justification. "Faith and
+works, says Richard Claridge, are both concerned in our complete
+justification."--"Whosoever is justified, he is also in measure
+sanctified; and as far as he is sanctified, so far is he justified, and
+no farther. But the justification I now speak of, is the making of us
+just or righteous by the continual help, work, and operation of the Holy
+Spirit."--"And as we wait for the continual help and assistance of his
+Holy Spirit, and come to witness the effectual working of the same in
+ourselves, so we shall experimentally find, that our justification is
+proportionable to our sanctification; for as our sanctification goes
+forward, which is always commensurate to our faithful obedience to the
+manifestation, influence, and assistance, of the grace, light, and
+spirit of Christ, so shall we also feel and perceive the progress of our
+justification."
+
+The ideas of the Quakers, as to justification itself, cannot be better
+explained than in the words of Henry Tuke before quoted: So far as
+remissions of sins, and a capacity to receive salvation, are parts of
+justification, we attribute it to the sacrifice of Christ; "In whom we
+have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to
+the riches of his grace." But when we consider justification as a state
+of divine favour and acceptance, we ascribe it, not simply either to
+faith or works, but to the sanctifying operation of the spirit of
+Christ, from which living faith and acceptable works alone proceed; and
+by which we may come to know, that "the spirit itself beareth witness
+with our spirits, that we are the children of God."
+
+In attributing our justification, through the grace of God in Christ
+Jesus, to the operation of the Holy Spirit, which sanctifies the heart
+and produces the work of regeneration, we are supported by the testimony
+of the Apostle Paul, who says, "Not by works of righteousness which we
+have done, but of his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
+and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Again--"But ye are washed, but ye are
+sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
+the spirit of our God."
+
+"By this view of the doctrine of justification, we conceive the
+apparently different sentiments of the Apostles Paul and James are
+reconciled. Neither of them say that faith alone, or works alone, are
+the cause of our being justified; but as one of them asserts the
+necessity of faith, and the other of works, for effecting this great
+object, a clear and convincing proof is afforded, that both contribute
+to our justification; and that faith without works, and works without
+faith, are equally dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XIV.
+
+_Quakers reject Baptism and the Lord's Supper--Much censured far
+it--Indulgence solicited for them on account of the difficulties
+connected with these subjects--Christian Religion spiritual--Jewish
+types to be abolished--Different meanings of the word "Baptise"--Disputes
+concerning the mode of Baptism--Concerning also the nature and constitution
+of the Supper--Concerning also the time and manner of its celebration
+--This indulgence also proper, because the Quakers give it to others,
+who differ from them as a body on the subject of Religion_.
+
+
+The Quakers, among other particularities, reject the application of
+water-baptism, and the administration of the Sacrament of the Supper, as
+Christian rites.
+
+These ordinances have been considered by many as so essentially
+interwoven with Christianity, that the Quakers, by rejecting the use of
+them, have been denied to be Christians.
+
+But whatever may be the difference of opinion between the world and the
+Quakers, upon these subjects, great indulgence is due to the latter on
+this occasion. People have received the ordinances in question from
+their ancestors. They have been brought up to the use of them. They have
+seen them sanctioned by the world. Finding their authority disputed by a
+body of men, who are insignificant as to numbers, when compared with
+others, they have let loose their censure upon them, and this without
+any inquiry concerning the grounds of their dissent. They know perhaps
+nothing of the obstinate contentious; nothing of the difficulties which
+have occurred; and nothing of those which may still be started on these
+subjects. I shall state therefore a few considerations by way of
+preface, during which the reader will see, that objections both fair and
+forcible may be raised by the best disposed Christians, on the other
+side of the question; that the path is not so plain and easy as he may
+have imagined it to be; and that if the Quakers have taken a road
+different from himself on this occasion, they are entitled to a fair
+hearing of all they have to say in their defence, and to expect the same
+candour and indulgence which he himself would have claimed, if, with the
+best intentions, he had not been able to come to the same conclusion, on
+any given point of importance, as had been adopted by others.
+
+Let me then ask, in the first place, what is the great characteristic of
+the religion we profess?
+
+If we look to divines for an answer to this question, we may easily
+obtain it. We shall find some of them in their sermons speaking of
+circumcision, baptismal washings and purifications, new moons, feasts of
+the passover and unleavened bread, sacrifices, and other rites. We shall
+find them dwelling on these as constituent parts of the religion of the
+Jews. We shall find them immediately passing from thence to the religion
+of Jesus Christ. Here all is considered by them to be spiritual.
+Devotion of the heart is insisted upon as that alone which is acceptable
+to God. If God is to be worshipped, it is laid down as a position, that
+he is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. We shall find them also,
+in other of their sermons, but particularly in those preached after the
+reformation, stating the advantages obtained by that event. The Roman
+Catholic system is here considered by them to be as ceremonial as that
+of the Jews. The Protestant is held out as of a more spiritual nature,
+and as more congenial therefore with the spirit of the gospel. But what
+is this but a confession, in each case, that in proportion as men give
+up ceremonies and become spiritual in their worship, their religion is
+the best, or that spirituality is the grand characteristic of the
+religion of Jesus Christ? Now there immediately arises a presumption, if
+spirituality of feeling had been intended as the characteristic of any
+religion, that no ceremonious ordinances would have been introduced into
+it.
+
+If, again, I were to make an assertion to divines, that Jesus Christ
+came to put an end to the ceremonial parts of the Jewish law, and to the
+types and shadows belonging to the Jewish dispensation, they would not
+deny it. But baptism and the supper were both of them outward Jewish
+ceremonies, connected with the Jewish religion. They were both of them
+types and shadows, of which the antetypes and substances had been
+realized at the death of Christ. And therefore a presumption arises
+again, that these were not intended to be continued.
+
+And that they were not intended to be continued, may be presumed from
+another consideration. For what was baptism to any but a Jew? What could
+a Gentile have understood by it? What notion could he have formed, by
+means of it, of the necessity of the baptism of Christ? Unacquainted
+with purifications by water as symbols of purification of heart, he
+could never have entered, like a Jew, into the spiritual life of such an
+ordinance. And similar observations may be made with respect to the
+Passover-Supper. A Gentile could have known nothing, like a Jew, of the
+meaning of this ceremony. He could never have seen in the Paschal Lamb
+any type of Christ, or in the deliverance of the Israelites from
+Egyptian bondage, any type of his own deliverance from sin, so clearly
+or so feelingly as if the facts and customs had related to his own
+history, or as if he had been trained to the connexion by a long series
+of prophecies. In short, the passover could have had but little meaning
+to him.
+
+From these circumstances, therefore, there would be reason to conclude,
+that these ceremonies were not to be continued, at least to any but
+Jews; because they were not fitted to the knowledge, the genius, or the
+condition of the Gentile world.
+
+But, independently of these difficulties, which arise from a general
+view of these ordinances as annexed to a religion which is confessed to
+be spiritual, others arise from a particular view of each. On the
+subject of baptism, there is ground for argument, as to the meaning of
+the word "baptize." This word, in consequence of its representation of a
+watery ceremony, is usually connected with water in our minds. But it
+may also, very consistently, be connected even with fire. Its general
+meaning is to purify. In this sense many understand it. And those who
+do, and who apply it to the great command of Jesus to his disciples,
+think they give a better interpretation of it, than those who connect it
+with water. For they think it more reasonable that the Apostles should
+have been enjoined to go into all nations, and to endeavour to purify
+the hearts of individuals by the spirit and power of their preaching,
+from the dross of Heathen notions, and to lead them to spirituality of
+mind by the inculcation of Gospel principles, than to dip them under
+water, as an essential part of their new religion.
+
+But on a supposition that the word baptize should signify to immerse,
+and not to purify, another difficulty occurs; for, if it was thought
+proper or necessary that persons should be initiated into Christianity
+by water-baptism, in order to distinguish their new state from that of
+the Jews or Heathens, who then surrounded them, it seems unnecessary for
+the children of Christian parents, who were born in a Christian
+community, and whose ancestors for centuries have professed the
+Christian name.
+
+Nor is it to be considered as any other than a difficulty that the
+Christian world have known so little about water-baptism, that they have
+been divided as to the right manner of performing it. The eastern and
+western churches differed early upon this point, and Christians continue
+to differ upon it to the present day; some thinking that none but
+adults; others, that none but infants should be baptised: some, that the
+faces only of the baptized should be sprinkled with water; others, that
+their bodies should be immersed.
+
+On the subject of the sacrament of supper, similar difficulties have
+occurred.
+
+Jesus Christ unquestionably permitted his disciples to meet together in
+remembrance of their last supper with him. But it is not clear, that
+this was any other than a permission to those who were present, and who
+had known and loved him. The disciples were not ordered to go into all
+nations, and to enjoin it to their converts to observe the same
+ceremony. Neither did the Apostles leave any command by which it was
+enjoined as an ordinance of the Christian church.
+
+Another difficulty which has arisen on the subject of the supper, is,
+that Christians seem so little to have understood the nature of it, or
+in what it consisted, that they have had, in different ages, different
+views, and encouraged different doctrines concerning it. One has placed
+it in one thing, and another in another. Most of them, again, have
+attempted in their explanation of it, to blend the enjoyment of the
+spiritual essence with that of the corporeal substance of the body and
+blood of Christ, and thus to unite a spiritual with a ceremonial
+exercise of religion. Grasping, therefore, at things apparently
+irreconcilable, they have conceived the strangest notions; and, by
+giving these to the world, they have only afforded fuel for contention
+among themselves and others.
+
+In the time of the Apostles, it was the custom of converted persons,
+grounded on the circumstances that passed at the supper of the passover,
+to meet in religious communion. They used, on these occasions, to break
+their bread, and take their refreshment and converse together. The
+object of these meetings was to imitate the last friendly supper of
+Jesus with his disciples, to bear a public memorial of his sufferings
+and his death, and to promote their love for one another. But this
+custom was nothing more, as far as evidence can be had, than that of a
+brotherly breaking of bread together. It was no sacramental eating.
+Neither was the body of Jesus supposed to be enjoyed, nor the spiritual
+enjoyment, of it to consist in the partaking of this outward feast.
+
+In process of time, after the days of the Apostles, when this simple
+custom had declined, we find another meeting of Christians, in imitation
+of that at the passover supper, at which both bread and wine were
+introduced. This different commemoration of the same event had a new
+name given to it; for it was distinguished from the other by the name of
+Eucharist.
+
+Alexander, the seventh bishop of Rome, who introduced holy water both
+into houses and churches for spiritual purposes, made some alterations
+in the ingredients of the Eucharist, by mixing water with the wine, and
+by substituting unleavened for common bread.
+
+In the time of Irenaeus and Justin the Martyr, we find an account of the
+Eucharist as it was then thought of and celebrated. Great stress was
+then laid upon the bread and wine as a holy and sacramental repast:
+prayers were made that the Holy Ghost would descend into each of these
+substances. It was believed that it did so descend; and that as soon as
+the bread and wine perceived it, the former operated virtually as the
+body, and the latter as the blood of Jesus Christ. From this time the
+bread was considered to have great virtues; and on this latter account,
+not only children, but sucking infants, were admitted to this sacrament.
+It was also given to persons on the approach of death. And many
+afterwards, who had great voyages to make at sea, carried it with them
+to preserve them both from temporal and spiritual dangers.
+
+In the twelfth century, another notion, a little modified from the
+former, prevailed on this subject; which was, that consecration by a
+Priest had the power of abolishing the substance of the bread, and of
+substituting the very body of Jesus Christ.
+
+This was called the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
+
+This doctrine appeared to Luther, at the dawn of the reformation, to be
+absurd; and he was of opinion that the sacrament consisted of the
+substance of Christ's body and blood, together with the substance of the
+bread and wine; or, in other words, that the substance of the bread
+remained, but the body of Christ was inherent in it, so that both the
+substance of the bread and of the body and blood of Christ was there
+also. This was called the doctrine of Consubstantiation, in
+contradiction to the former.
+
+Calvin again considered the latter opinion erroneous: he gave it out
+that the bread was not actually the body of Jesus Christ, nor the wine
+his blood; but that both his body and blood were sacramentally received
+by the faithful, in the use of the bread and wine. Calvin, however,
+confessed himself unable to explain even this his own doctrine. For he
+says, "if it be asked me how it is, that is, how believers sacramentally
+receive Christ's body and blood? I shall not be ashamed to confess, that
+it is a secret too high for me to comprehend in my spirit, or explain in
+words."
+
+But independently of the difficulties which have arisen from these
+different notions concerning the nature and constitution of the Lord's
+supper, others have arisen concerning the time and the manner of the
+celebration of it.
+
+The Christian churches of the east, in the early times, justifying
+themselves by tradition and the custom of the passover, maintained that
+the fourteenth day of the month Nissan ought to be observed as the day
+of the celebration of this feast, because the Jews were commanded to
+kill the Paschal Lamb on that day. The western, on the other hand,
+maintained the authority of tradition and the primitive practice, that
+it ought to be kept on no other day than that of the resurrection of
+Jesus Christ. Disputes again of a different complexion agitated the
+Christian world upon the same subject. One church contended that the
+leavened, another that unleavened bread only should be used upon this
+occasion: others contended, whether the administration of this sacrament
+should be by the hands of the clergy only: others, whether it should not
+be confined to the sick: others, whether it should be given to the young
+and mature promiscuously: others, whether it should be received by the
+communicant standing, sitting, or kneeling, or as the Apostles received
+it: and others, whether it should be administered in the night time as
+by our Saviour, or whether in the day, or whether only once, as at the
+passover, or whether oftener in the year.
+
+Another difficulty, but of a different nature, has occurred with respect
+to the Lord's supper. This has arisen from the circumstance, that other
+ceremonies were enjoined by our Saviour in terms equally positive as
+this, but which most Christians, notwithstanding, have thought
+themselves at liberty to reject. Among these the washing of feet is
+particularly to be noticed. This custom was of an emblematic nature. It
+was enjoined at the same time as that of the Lord's supper, and on the
+same occasion. But it was enjoined in a more forcible and striking
+manner. The Sandimanians, when they rose into a society, considered the
+injunction for this ordinance to be so obligatory, that they dared not
+dispense with it; and therefore, when they determined to celebrate the
+supper, they determined that the washing of feet should be an ordinance
+of their church. Most other Christians, however, have dismissed the
+washing of feet from their religious observance. The reason given has
+principally been, that it was an eastern custom, and therefore local. To
+this the answer has been, that the passover, from whence the Lord's
+supper is taken, was an eastern custom also, but that it was much more
+local. Travellers of different nations had their feet washed for them in
+the east. But none but those of the circumcision were admitted to the
+passover-supper. If, therefore, the injunction relative to the washing
+of feet, be equally strong with that relative to the celebration of the
+supper, it has been presumed, that both ought to have been retained;
+and, if one has been dispensed with on account of its locality, that
+both ought to have been discarded.
+
+That the washing of feet was enjoined much more emphatically than the
+supper, we may collect from Barclay, whose observations upon it I shall
+transcribe on this occasion.
+
+"But to give a farther evidence, says he, how these consequences have
+not any bottom from the practice of that ceremony, nor from the words
+following, 'Do this in remembrance of me,' let us consider another of
+the like nature, as it is at length expressed by John. [143] 'Jesus
+riseth from supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and
+girded himself: after that, he poureth water into a bason, and began to
+wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he
+was girded. Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus
+answered him. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. So after he
+had washed their feet, he said, Know ye what I have done to you? If I
+then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash
+one another's feet: for I have given you an example, that ye should do
+as I have done to you.' As to which let it be observed, continues
+Barclay, that John relates this passage to have been done at the same
+time with the other of breaking bread; both being done the night of the
+passover, after supper. If we regard the narration of this, and the
+circumstances attending it, it was done with far more solemnity, and
+prescribed far more punctually and particularly, than the former. It is
+said only, 'as he was eating he took bread;' so that this would seem to
+be but an occasional business: but here 'he rose up, he laid by his
+garments, he girded himself, he poured out the water, he washed their
+feet, he wiped them with a towel.' He did this to all of them; which are
+circumstances surely far more observable than those noted in the other.
+The former was a practice common among the Jews, used by all masters of
+families, upon that occasion; but this, as to the manner, and person
+acting it, to wit, for the master to rise up, and wash the feet of his
+servants and disciples, was more singular and observable. In the
+breaking of bread and giving of wine, it is not pleaded by our
+adversaries, nor yet mentioned in the text, that he particularly put
+them into the hands of all; but breaking it, and blessing it, gave it
+the nearest, and so they from hand to hand. But here it is mentioned,
+that he washed not the feet of one or two, but of many. He saith not in
+the former, that if they do not eat of that bread, and drink of that
+wine, that they shall be prejudiced by it; but here he says expressly to
+Peter, that 'if he wash him not, he hath no part with him;' which being
+spoken upon Peter's refusing to let him wash his feet, would seem to
+import no less, than not the continuance only, but even the necessity of
+this ceremony. In the former, he saith as it were passingly, 'Do this in
+remembrance of me:' but here he sitteth down again; he desires them to
+consider what he hath done; tells them positively 'that as he hath done
+to them, so ought they to do to one another:' and yet again he redoubles
+that precept, by telling them, 'that he has given them an example, that
+they should do so likewise.' If we respect the nature of the thing, it
+hath as much in it as either baptism or the breaking of the bread;
+seeing it is an outward element of a cleansing nature, applied to the
+outward man, by the command and the example of Christ, to signify an
+inward purifying. I would willingly propose this seriously to men, that
+will be pleased to make use of that reason and understanding that God
+hath given them, and not be imposed upon, nor abused by the custom or
+tradition of others, whether this ceremony, if we respect either the
+time that it was appointed in, or the circumstances wherewith it was
+performed, or the command enjoining the use of it, hath not as much to
+recommend it for a standing ordinance of the Gospel, as either
+water-baptism, or bread and wine, or any other of that kind? I wonder
+then, what reason the Papists can give, why they have not numbered it
+among their sacraments, except merely Voluntas Ecclesiae et Traditio
+Patrum, that is, the Tradition of the Fathers, and the Will of the
+Church."
+
+[Footnote 143: John 13. 3. &c.]
+
+The reader will see by this time, that, on subjects which have given
+rise to such controversies as baptism and the Lord's supper have now
+been described to have done, people may be readily excused, if they
+should entertain their own opinions about them, though these may be
+different from those which are generally received by the world. The
+difficulties indeed, which have occurred with respect to these
+ordinances, should make us tender of casting reproach upon others, who
+should differ from ourselves concerning them. For when we consider, that
+there is no one point connected with these ordinances, about which there
+has not been some dispute; that those who have engaged in these
+disputes, have been men of equal learning and piety; that all of them
+have pleaded primitive usage, in almost all cases, in behalf of their
+own opinions; and that these disputes are not even now, all of them,
+settled; who will take upon him to censure his brother either for the
+omission or the observance of one or the other rite? And let the
+Quakers, among others, find indulgence from their countrymen for their
+opinions on these subjects. This indulgence they have a right to claim
+from the consideration, that they themselves never censure others of
+other denominations on account of their religion. With respect to those
+who belong to the society, as the rejection of these ceremonies is one
+of the fundamentals of Quakerism, it is expected that they should be
+consistent with what they are considered to profess. But with respect to
+others, they have no unpleasant feelings towards those who observe them.
+If a man believes that baptism is an essential rite of the Christian
+church, the Quakers would not judge him if he were to go himself, or if
+he were to carry his children, to receive it. And if, at the communion
+table, he should find his devotion to be so spiritualized, that, in the
+taking of the bread and wine, he really and spiritually discerned the
+body and blood of Christ, and was sure that his own conduct would he
+influenced morally by it, they would not censure him for becoming an
+attendant at the altar. In short, the Quakers do not condemn others for
+their attendances on these occasions. They only hope, that as they do
+not see these ordinances in the same light as others, they may escape
+censure, if they should refuse to admit them among themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XV.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Baptism--Two baptisms--That of John and of Christ--That of John was by
+water, a Jewish ordinance, and used preparatory to religious conversion
+and worship--Hence John used it as preparatory to conversion to
+Christianity--Jesus submitted to it to fulfil all righteousness--Others
+as to a baptism to repentance--But it was not initiative into the
+Christian church, but belonged to the Old Testament--Nor was John under
+the Gospel, but under the law_.
+
+
+I come now to the arguments which the Quakers have to offer for the
+rejection of the use of baptism and of the sacrament of the supper; and
+first for that of the use of the former rite.
+
+Two baptisms are recorded in scripture--the baptism of John, and the
+baptism of Christ.
+
+The baptism of John was by water, and a Jewish ordinance. The washing of
+garments and of the body, which were called baptisms by the Ellenistic
+Jews, were enjoined to the Jewish nation, as modes of purification from
+legal pollutions, symbolical of that inward cleansing of the heart,
+which was necessary to persons before they could hold sacred offices,
+or pay their religions homage in the temple, or become the true
+worshippers of God. The Jews, therefore, in after times, when they made
+proselytes from the Heathen nations, enjoined these the same customs as
+they observed themselves. They generally circumcised, at least the
+proselytes of the covenant, as a mark of their incorporation into the
+Jewish church, and they afterwards washed them with water or baptized
+them, which was to be a sign to them of their having been cleansed from
+the filth of idolatry, and an emblem of their fitness, in case of a real
+cleansing, to receive the purer precepts of the Jewish religion, and to
+walk in newness of life.
+
+Baptism therefore was a Jewish ordinance, used on religious occasions:
+and therefore John, when he endeavoured by means of his preaching to
+prepare the Jews for the coming of the Messiah, and their minds for the
+reception of the new religion, used it as a symbol of the purification
+of heart, that was necessary for the dispensation which was then at
+hand. He knew that his hearers would understand the meaning of the
+ceremony. He had reason also to believe, that on account of the nature
+of his mission, they would expect it. Hence the Sanhedrim, to whom the
+cognizance of the legal cleansings belonged, when they were informed of
+the baptism of John, never expressed any surprise at it, as a now, or
+unusual, or improper custom. They only found fault with him for the
+administration of it, when he denied himself to be either Elias or
+Christ.
+
+It was partly upon one of the principles that have been mentioned, that
+Jesus received the baptism of John. He received it as it is recorded,
+because "thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness." By the
+fulfilling of righteousness is meant the fulfilling of the ordinances of
+the law, or the customs required by the Mosaic dispensation in
+particular cases. He had already undergone circumcision as a Jewish
+ordinance, and he now submitted to baptism. For as Aaron and his Sons
+were baptized previously to the taking upon them of the office of the
+Jewish priesthood, so Jesus was baptized by John previously to his
+entering upon his own ministry, or becoming the high priest of the
+Christian dispensation.
+
+But though Jesus Christ received the baptism of John, that he might
+fulfil all righteousness, others received it as the baptism of
+repentance from sins, that they might be able to enter the kingdom that
+was at hand. This baptism, however, was not initiative into the
+Christian church. For the Apostles rebaptized some who had been baptized
+by John. Those, again, who received the baptism of John, did not profess
+faith in Christ, John again, as well as his doctrines, belonged to the
+Old Testament. He was no minister under the new dispensation, but the
+last prophet under the law. Hence Jesus said, that though none of the
+prophets "were greater than John the baptist, yet he that is least in
+the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." Neither did he ever hear the
+Gospel preached; for Jesus did not begin his ministry till John had been
+put into prison, where he was beheaded by the orders of Herod. John, in
+short, was with respect to Jesus, what Moses was with respect to Joshua.
+Moses, though he conducted to the promised land, and was permitted to
+see it from Mount Nebo, yet never entered it, but gave place to Joshua,
+whose name, like that of Jesus, signifies a Saviour. In the same manner
+John conducted to Jesus Christ. He saw him once with his own eyes, but
+he was never permitted, while alive, to enter into his spiritual
+kingdom.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Second baptism, or that of Christ--This the baptism of the gospel--This
+distinct from the former in point of time; and in nature and essence--As
+that of John was outward, so this was to be inward and spiritual--It was
+to cleanse the heart--and was to be capable of making even the Gentiles
+the seed of Abraham--This distinction of watery and spiritual baptism
+pointed out by Jesus Christ--by St. Peter--and by St. Paul._
+
+
+The second baptism, recorded in the scriptures, is that of Christ. This
+may be called the baptism of the Gospel, in contradistinction to the
+former, which was that of the law.
+
+This baptism is totally distinct from the former. John himself
+said,[144] "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that
+cometh after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to
+bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."
+
+[Footnote 144: Matth. 3.11.]
+
+From these words it appears, that this baptism is distinct, in point of
+time, from the former; for it was to follow the baptism of John: and
+secondly, in nature and essence; for whereas that of John was by water,
+this was to be by the spirit.
+
+This latter distinction is insisted upon by John in other places. For
+when he was questioned by the Pharisees [145] "why he baptized, if he was
+not that Christ, nor Ellas, nor that prophet," he thought it a
+sufficient excuse to say, "I baptize with water;" that is, I baptize
+with water only; I use only an ancient Jewish custom; I do not intrude
+upon the office of Christ, who is coming after me, or pretend to his
+baptism of the spirit. We find also, that no less than three times in
+eight verses, when he speaks of his own baptism, he takes care to add to
+it the word [146] "water," to distinguish it from the baptism of Christ.
+
+[Footnote 145: John 1. 25]
+
+[Footnote 146: John 1 from 25 to 34.]
+
+As the baptism of John cleansed the body from the filth of the flesh, so
+that of Christ was really to cleanse the soul from the filth of sin.
+Thus John, speaking of Jesus Christ, in allusion to this baptism,
+says,[147] "whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
+floor, and gather his wheat into his garner, but he will burn up the
+chaff with unquenchable fire." By this he insinuated, that in the same
+manner as the farmer, with the fan in his hand, winnows the corn, and
+separates the light and bad grains from the heavy and the good, and in
+the same manner as the fire afterwards destroys the chaff, so the
+baptism of Christ, for which he was preparing them, was of an inward and
+spiritual nature, and would effectually destroy the light and corrupt
+affections, and thoroughly cleanse the floor of the human heart.
+
+[Footnote 147: Mat. 3. 12]
+
+This baptism, too, was to be so searching as to be able to penetrate the
+hardest heart, and to make even the Gentiles the real children of
+Abraham.[148] "For think not, says John, in allusion to the same
+baptism, to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father; for I
+say unto, you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children
+unto Abraham." As if he had said, I acknowledge that you Pharisees can,
+many of you, boast of relationship to Abraham by a strict and scrupulous
+attention to shadowy and figurative ordinances; that many of you can
+boast of relationship to him by blood; and all of you by circumcision.
+But it does not follow, therefore, that you are the children of Abraham.
+Those only will be able to boast of being his seed, to whom the fan and
+fire of Christ's baptism shall be applied. The baptism of him, who is to
+come after me, and whose kingdom is at hand, is of that spiritual and
+purifying nature, that it will produce effects very different from those
+of an observance of outward ordinances. It can so cleanse and purify the
+hearts of men, that if there are Gentiles in the most distant lands,
+ever so far removed from Abraham, and possessing hearts of the hardness
+of stones, it can make them the real children of Abraham in the sight of
+God.
+
+[Footnote 148: Math. 3.9.]
+
+This distinction between the watery baptism of John, and the fiery and
+spiritual baptism of Christ, was pointed out by Jesus Christ himself;
+for, he is reported to have appeared to his disciples after his
+resurrection, and to have commanded them [149] "that they should not
+depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
+says he, ye have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but
+ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
+
+[Footnote 149: Acts 1.4.]
+
+Saint Luke also records a transaction which took place, in which Peter
+was concerned, and on which occasion he first discerned the baptism of
+Christ, as thus distinguished in the words which have been just given.
+[150] "And as I began to speak, says he, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as
+on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that
+he said, John, indeed, baptised with water, but ye shall be baptized by
+the Holy Spirit."
+
+[Footnote 150: Acts II, 15,16.]
+
+A similar distinction is made also by St. Paul; for when he found that
+certain disciples had been baptized only with the baptism of John,[151]
+he laid his hand upon them, and baptized them again; but this was with
+the baptism of the spirit. In his epistle also, to the Corinthians, we
+find the following expression:[152] "For by one spirit are we all
+baptized unto one body."
+
+[Footnote 151: Acts 19.]
+
+[Footnote 152: I Cor. 12, 13].
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Question is, which of these turn baptisms is included in the great
+commission given by Jesus to his Apostles, "of baptizing in the name of
+the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?"--Quakers deny it to be that
+of John, because contrary to the ideas of St. Peter and St.
+Paul--because the object of John's baptism had been completed--because
+it was a type under the law, and such types were to cease._
+
+
+It appears then that there are two baptisms recorded in Scripture; the
+one, the baptism of John, the other that of Christ; that these are
+distinct from one another; and that the one does not include the other,
+except he who baptizes with water, can baptize at the same time with the
+Holy Ghost. Now St. Paul speaks only of[153] one baptism as effectual;
+and St. Peter must mean the same, when he speaks of the baptism that
+saveth. The question therefore is, which of the two baptisms that have
+been mentioned, is the one effectual, or saving baptism? or, which of
+these it is, that Jesus Christ included in his great commission to the
+Apostles, when he commanded them "to go and teach all nations, baptizing
+them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+[Footnote 153: Eph. 4.5.]
+
+The Quakers say, that the baptism, included in this commission, was not
+the baptism of John.
+
+In the first place, St. Peter says it was not, in these words:
+[154] "Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of
+God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing, wherein few,
+that is, eight souls, were saved by water;[155] whose antetype baptism
+doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
+but the answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of
+Jesus Christ."
+
+[Footnote 154: 1 Peter 3. 20. 21]
+
+[Footnote 155: Antetype is the proper translation, and not "the figure
+whereunto."]
+
+The Apostle states here concerning the baptism that is effectual and
+saving; first, that it is not the putting away of the filth of the
+flesh, which is effected by water. He carefully puts those upon their
+guard, to whom he writes, lest they should consider John's baptism, or
+that of water, to be the saving one, to which he alludes; for, having
+made a beautiful comparison between an outward salvation in an outward
+ark, by the outward water, with this inward salvation by inward and
+spiritual water, in the inward ark of the Testament, he is fearful that
+his reader should connect these images, and fancy that water had any
+thing to do with this baptism. Hence he puts his caution in a
+parenthesis, thus guarding his meaning in an extraordinary manner.
+
+He then shows what this baptism is, and calls it the answer of a good
+conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, he
+states it to be the baptism of Christ, which is by the Spirit. For he
+maintains, that he only is truly baptized, whose conscience is made
+clear by the resurrection of Christ in his heart. But who can make the
+answer of such a conscience, except the Holy Spirit shall have first
+purified the floor of the heart; except the spiritual fan of Christ
+shall have first separated the wheat from the chaff, and except his
+spiritual fire shall have consumed the latter?
+
+St. Paul makes a similar declaration: "For as many of you as have been
+baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."[156] But no man, the Quakers
+say, merely by being dipped under water, can put on Christ, that is, his
+life, his nature, his disposition, his love, meekness, and temperance,
+and all those virtues which should characterise a Christian.
+
+[Footnote 156: Galat 3. 27.]
+
+To the same purport are those other words by the same Apostle:[157] "Know
+ye not, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were
+baptized into his death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
+by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
+life." And again--[158] "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
+risen with him, through the faith of the co-operation of God, who hath
+raised him from the dead." By these passages the Apostle Paul testifies
+that he alone is truly baptized, who first dies unto sin, and is raised
+up afterwards from sin unto righteousness, or who is raised up into life
+with Christ, or who so feels the inward resurrection and glory of Christ
+in his soul, that he walks in newness of life.
+
+[Footnote 157: Rom. 6.3.4]
+
+[Footnote 158: Colos. 2.12]
+
+The Quakers show again, that the baptism of John could not have been
+included in the great commission, because the object of John's baptism
+had been completed even before the preaching of Jesus Christ.
+
+The great object of John's baptism, was to make Jesus known to the Jews.
+John himself declared this to be the object of it. [159] "But that he
+should be made manifest unto Israel, _therefore_ am I come baptizing
+with water." This object he accomplished two ways; first, by telling all
+whom he baptized that Jesus was coming, and these were the Israel of
+that time; for he is reported to have baptized all Jerusalem, which was
+the metropolis, and all Judea, and all the country round about Jordan.
+Secondly, by pointing him out personally.[160] This he did to Andrew, so
+that Andrew left John and followed Jesus. Andrew, again, made him known
+to Simon, and these to Philip, and Philip to Nathaniel; so that by means
+of John, an assurance was given that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
+
+[Footnote 159: John 1.31.]
+
+[Footnote 160: John 1.40.]
+
+The Quakers believe again, that the baptism of John was not included in
+the great commission, because it was a type under the law, and all types
+and shadows under the law were to cease under the Gospel dispensation,
+or the law of Christ.
+
+The salvation of the Eight by water, and the baptism of John, were both
+types of the baptism of Christ. John was sent expressly before Jesus,
+baptizing the bodies of men with water, as a lively image, as he himself
+explains it, of the latter baptizing their souls with the Holy Ghost and
+with fire. The baptism of John, therefore, was both preparative and
+typical of that of Christ. And it is remarked by the Quakers, that no
+sooner was Jesus baptized by John with water in the type, than he was,
+according to all the Evangelists, baptized by the [161] Holy Ghost in
+the antetype. No sooner did he go up out of the water, than John saw the
+Heavens opened, and the spirit of God descending like a dove, and
+lighting upon him. It was this baptism of Jesus in the antetype which
+occasioned John to know him personally, and enabled him to discover him
+to others. The baptism of John, therefore, being a type or figure under
+the law, was to give way, when the antetype or substance became
+apparent. And that it was to give way in its due time, is evident from
+the confession of John himself. For on a question which arose between
+some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying, and on a report
+spread abroad, that Jesus had begun to baptize, John says, [162] "He
+(Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease."--This confession of John
+accords also with the following expressions of St. Paul: [163] "The Holy
+Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet
+made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which
+was a figure for the time then present,"--which stood only in meats and
+drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
+the time of reformation.
+
+[Footnote 161: Mat. 3. 16.--Mark 1. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 162: John 3. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 163: Heb. 9. 8. 9. 10.]
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Quakers show that the baptism, included in the great commission, which
+appears not to be the baptism of John, is the baptism of Christ, from a
+critical examination of the words in that commission--Way in which the
+Quakers interpret these words--This interpretation confirmed by
+citations from St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul_.
+
+
+Having attempted to show, according to the method of the Quakers, that
+the baptism of John is not the baptism included in the great commission,
+I shall now produce those arguments, by which they maintain that that
+baptism, which is included in it, is the baptism of Christ.
+
+These arguments will be found chiefly in a critical examination of the
+words of that commission.
+
+To enable the reader to judge of the propriety of their observations
+upon these words, I shall transcribe from St. Matthew the three verses
+that relate to this subject.
+
+[164] "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
+unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
+baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
+Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
+commanded you. And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
+world."
+
+[Footnote 164: Mat. 23.18,19,20.]
+
+The first observation, which the Quakers make, is upon the word
+"THEREFORE." As all power is given unto _me_ both in Heaven and in
+earth; and as I can on that account, and as I will qualify you, go ye
+therefore, that is, having previously received from me the qualification
+necessary for your task, go ye.
+
+The next observation is, that the commission does not imply that the
+Apostles were to teach and to baptize as two separate acts, but, as the
+words intimate, that they were to teach baptizing.
+
+The Quakers say again, that the word "teach" is an improper translation
+of the original [165]Greek. The Greek word should have been rendered
+"make disciples or proselytes." In several editions of our own Bibles,
+the word "teach" is explained in the margin opposite to it, "make
+disciples or Christians of all nations," or in the same manner as the
+Quakers explain it.
+
+[Footnote 165: [Greek: didasko] is the usual word for teach, but [Greek:
+word] is used in the commission; which latter word occurs but seldom in
+the New Testament, and always signifies to "disciple."]
+
+On the word "baptize," they observe, that because its first meaning is
+to wash all over, and because baptism with Christians is always with
+water, people cannot easily separate the image of water from the word,
+when it is read or pronounced. But if this image is never to be
+separated from it, how will persons understand the words of St. Paul,
+"for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body?" Or those of
+Jesus, "Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, or be baptized with the
+baptism that I am baptized with?" Or, if this image is not to be
+separated from it, how will they understand the Evangelists, who
+represent Jesus Christ as about to baptize, or wash all over, with fire?
+To baptize, in short, signifies to dip under water, but, in its more
+general meaning, to purify. Fire and water have equally power in this
+respect, but on different objects. Water purifies surfaces. Fire
+purifies by actual and total separation, bringing those bodies into one
+mass which are homogeneous, or which have strong affinities to each
+other, and leaving the dross and incombustible parts by themselves.
+
+The word "in" they also look upon as improperly translated. This word
+should have been rendered [166] "into." If the word "in" were the right
+translation, the words "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
+of the Holy Ghost," might be construed into a form of words to be used
+at the time of baptism.
+
+[Footnote 166: The word in the original Greek is [Greek word] and not
+[Greek word]]
+
+But we have no evidence that such a formula was ever used, when any of
+the Apostles baptized. Indeed, the plain meaning of the word is "into,"
+and therefore all such formula is groundless.[167] "Jesus Christ did
+not, says Zuinglius, by these words institute a form of baptism, which
+we should use, as divines have falsely taught."
+
+[Footnote 167: Lib. de Bapt. p. 56, tom. 2. Oper.]
+
+On the word "name," the Quakers observe, that, when it relates to the
+Lord, it frequently signifies in scripture, his life, or his spirit, or
+his power. Thus, [168] "in my name, shall they cast out devils." And,
+[169] "by what power, or by what name have ye done this?"
+
+[Footnote 168: Mark 16. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 169: Acts 4. 7.]
+
+From the interpretation, which has now been given of the meaning of
+several of the words in the verses, that have been quoted from St.
+Matthew, the sense of the commission, according to the Quakers, will
+stand thus: "All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth. In virtue
+of the power which I have, I will give you power also. I will confer
+upon you the gift of the Holy Spirit. When you have received it, go into
+different and distant lands; go to the Gentiles who live in ignorance,
+darkness, and idolatry, and make them proselytes to my new dispensation;
+so purifying their hearts, or burning the chaff of their corrupt
+affections by the active fire of the Holy Spirit, which shall accompany
+your preaching, that they may be made partakers of the divine nature,
+and walk in newness of life. And lest this should appear to be too great
+a work for your faith, I, who have the power, promise to be with you
+with this my spirit in the work, till the end of the world."
+
+The Quakers contend, that this is the true interpretation of this
+commission, because it exactly coincides with the meaning of the same
+commission as described by St. Luke and St. Mark, and of that also which
+was given to St. Paul.
+
+St. Luke states the commission given to the Apostles to have been
+[170] "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
+name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The meaning therefore
+of the commission, as stated by St. Luke, is precisely the same as that
+stated by St. Matthew. For first, all nations are included in it.
+Secondly, purification of heart, or conversion from sin, is insisted
+upon to be the object of it. And thirdly, this object is to be effected,
+not by the baptism of water, (for baptism is no where mentioned,) but by
+preaching, in which is included the idea of the baptism of the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 170: Luke 24. 47]
+
+St. Mark also states the commission to be the same, in the following
+words: [171] "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
+the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall
+be saved." Here all nations, and the preaching of the Gospel, are
+mentioned again; but baptism is now added. But the baptism that was to
+go with this preaching, the Quakers contend to be the baptism of the
+spirit. For first, the baptism here mentioned is connected with
+salvation. But the baptism, according to St. Peter, which doth also now
+save us, "is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer
+of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;"
+or the baptism of the spirit. Secondly, the nature of the baptism here
+mentioned is explained by the verse that follows it. Thus, "he that
+believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. And these signs shall follow
+them that believe: they shall speak with new tongues." This therefore is
+the same baptism as that which St. Paul conferred upon some of his
+disciples by the laying on of his hands. [172] "And when Paul had laid
+his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with
+tongues and prophesied." Thus, again, it is demonstrated to be the
+baptism of the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 171: Mark 16.15.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Acts 19.6.]
+
+The commission also, which has been handed down to us by St. Matthew,
+will be found, as it has been now explained, to coincide in its object
+with that which was given to Paul, as we find by his confession to
+Agrippa. For he declared[173] he was sent as a minister to the Gentiles
+"to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from
+the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of
+sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in
+Christ." But what was this, the Quakers say, but to baptize them into
+the life and spirit of a new and divine nature, or with the baptism of
+Christ?
+
+[Footnote 173: Acts 26.17. 18.]
+
+And as we have thus obtained a knowledge from St. Paul of what his own
+commission contained, so we have, from the same authority, a knowledge
+of what it did not contain; for he positively declares, in his first
+Epistle to the Corinthians, that "Christ sent him not to baptize
+(evidently alluding to the baptism by water) but to preach the Gospel."
+It is clear therefore that St. Paul did not understand his commission to
+refer to water. And who was better qualified to understand it than
+himself?
+
+It is also stated by the Quakers, as another argument to the same point,
+that if the baptism in the commission had been that of water only, the
+Apostles could easily have administered it of themselves, or without
+any supernatural assistance; but, in order that they might be enabled to
+execute that baptism which the commission pointed to, they were desired
+to wait for divine help. Jesus Christ said,[174] "I send the promise of
+my father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be
+endued with the power from on high; for John truly baptized with water,
+but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Now,
+the Quakers ask, if baptism by water had been the baptism contained in
+the great commission, why could not the Apostles have performed it of
+themselves? What should have hindered them more than John from going
+with people into the rivers, and immersing them? Why were they first to
+receive themselves the baptism of the spirit? But if it be allowed, on
+the other hand, that when they executed the great commission, they were
+to perform the baptism of Christ, the case is altered. It became them
+then to wait for the divine help. For it required more than human power
+to give that baptism, which should change the disposition and affections
+of men, and should be able to bring them from darkness unto light, and
+from the power of Satan unto God. And here the Quakers observe, that the
+Apostles never attempted to execute the great commission, till the time
+fixed upon by our Saviour, in these words: "But tarry ye in the city of
+Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." This was the day
+of pentecost. After this "they preached, as St. Peter says, with the
+Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven," and with such efficacy, that "the
+Holy Ghost fell upon many of them, who heard their words."
+
+[Footnote 174: Luke 24.49.]
+
+
+SECT. V.
+
+_Objection to the foregoing arguments of the Quakers--namely, "If it be
+not the baptism of John that is included in the Great Commission, how
+came the Apostles to baptize with water?"--Practice and opinions of
+Peter considered--also of Paul--also of Jesus Christ--This practice, as
+explained by these opinions, considered by the Quakers to turn out in
+favour of their own doctrine on this subject._
+
+
+I have now stated the arguments by which the Quakers have been induced
+to believe that the baptism by the spirit, and not the baptism by water,
+was included by Jesus Christ in the great commission which he gave to
+his Apostles, when he requested them "to go into all nations, and to
+teach them, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
+the Holy Ghost."
+
+Against these arguments the following question has been usually started,
+as an objection: "If it be not included in the great commission, how
+came the Apostles to baptize; or would they have baptised, if baptism
+had not been considered by them as a Christian ordinance?"
+
+The Quakers, in answering this objection, have confined themselves to
+the consideration of the conduct of the Apostles Peter and Paul. For
+though Philip is said to have baptized also, yet he left no writings
+behind him like the former; nor are so many circumstances recorded of
+him, by which they may be enabled to judge of his character, or to know
+what his opinions ultimately were, upon that subject.
+
+The Quakers consider the Apostles as men of the like passions with
+themselves. They find the ambition of James and John; the apostacy and
+dissimulation of Peter; the incredulity of Thomas; the dissention
+between Paul and Barnabas; and the jealousies which some of them
+entertained towards one another, recorded in holy writ. They believe
+them also to have been mostly men of limited information, and to have
+had their prejudices, like other people. Hence it was not to be expected
+that they should come all at once into the knowledge of Christ's
+kingdom; that, educated in a religion of types and ceremonials, they
+should all at once abandon these; that, expecting a temporal Messiah,
+they should lay aside at once temporal views; and that they should come
+immediately into the full purity of the gospel practice.
+
+With respect to the Apostle Peter, he gave early signs of the dulness of
+his comprehension with respect to the nature of the character and
+kingdom of the Messiah. [175]For when Jesus had given forth but a simple
+parable, he was obliged to ask him the meaning of it. This occasioned
+Jesus to say to him, "Are ye also yet without understanding?"
+
+[Footnote 175: Matt. 15.16.]
+
+In a short time afterwards, when our Saviour told him, [176] "that he
+himself must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, and be killed, and
+be raised again the third day, Peter took him and rebuked him, saying,
+Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee."
+
+[Footnote 176: Matt. l6. 21. 22.]
+
+At a subsequent time, namely, just after the transfiguration of Christ,
+he seems to have known so little about spiritual things, that he
+expressed a wish to raise three earthly tabernacles, one to Moses,
+another to Elias, and a third to Jesus, for the retention of signs and
+shadows as a Gospel labour, at the very time when Jesus Christ was
+opening the dismission of all but one, namely, "the tabernacle of God,
+that is with men."
+
+Nor did he seem, at a more remote period, to have gained more large or
+spiritual ideas. He did not even know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ
+was to be universal. He considered it as limited; to the Jews, though
+the words in the great commission, which he and the other Apostles had
+heard, ordered them to teach all nations. He was unwilling to go and
+preach to Cornelius on this very account, merely because he was a Roman
+Centurion, or in other words, a Gentile; so that a vision was necessary
+to remove his scruples in this particular. It was not till after this
+vision, and his conversation with Cornelius, that his mind began to be
+opened; and then he exclaimed, "Of a truth, I perceive that God is no
+respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and
+worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."
+
+The mind of Peter now began to be opened and to see things in a clearer
+light, when a new occurrence that took place nearly at the same time,
+seems to have taken the film still more from his eyes: for while he
+preached to Cornelius, and the others present, he perceived that "the
+Holy Ghost fell upon all of them that heard his words, as on himself and
+the other Apostles at the beginning." Then remembered Peter the words of
+the Lord, how that he said, "John indeed baptised with water, but ye
+shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost:" that is, Peter finding that
+Cornelius and his friends had received, by means of his own powerful
+preaching, the Holy Ghost, perceived then for the first time, to his
+great surprise, that he had been executing the great commission of Jesus
+Christ; or that he had taught a Gentile, and baptized him with the Holy
+Spirit. Here it was that he first made the discrimination between the
+baptism of John, and the baptism of Christ.
+
+From this time there is reason to think that his eyes became fully open;
+for in a few years afterwards, when we have an opportunity of viewing
+his conduct again, we find him an altered man as to his knowledge of
+spiritual things. Being called upon at the council of Jerusalem to
+deliberate on the propriety of circumcision to Gentile converts, he
+maintains that God gives his Holy Spirit as well to the Gentiles as to
+the Jews. He maintains again, that God _purifies_ by _faith_; and he
+delivers it as his opinion, that circumcision is to be looked upon as a
+yoke. And here it may be remarked, that circumcision and baptism
+uniformly went together, when proselytes of the covenant were made, or
+when any of the Heathens were desirous of conforming to the whole of the
+Jewish law.
+
+At a time, again, subsequent to this, or when he wrote his Epistles
+which were to go to the strangers all over Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
+Asia, and Bithynia, he discovers himself to be the same full grown man
+in spiritual things on the subject of baptism itself, in these
+remarkable words, which have been quoted: "Whose antitype baptism doth
+also now save us, (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the
+answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus
+Christ." So that the last opinion of Peter on the subject of
+water-baptism contradicted his practice, when he was but a noviciate in
+Christ's kingdom.
+
+With respect to the Apostle Paul, whose practice I am to consider next,
+it is said of him, as of St. Peter, that he baptized.
+
+That Paul baptized is to be collected from his own writings. For it
+appears, by his own account, that there had been divisions among the
+Corinthians. Of those who had been converted to Christianity, some
+called themselves after the name of Cephas; others after the name of
+Apollos; others after the name of Paul; thus dividing themselves
+nominally into sects, according to the name of him who had either
+baptized or converted them. St. Paul mentions these circumstances, by
+which it comes to light, that he used water-baptism, and he regrets that
+the persons in question should have made such a bad use of this rite, as
+to call themselves after him who baptized them, instead of calling
+themselves after Christ, and dwelling on him alone. [177] "I thank God,
+says he, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius; lest any
+should say that I baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the house
+of Stephanas. Besides I know not whether I baptized any other, for
+Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." Now this
+confession of the Apostle, which is usually brought against the Quakers,
+they consider to be entirely in their favour, and indeed decisive of the
+point in question. For they collect from hence, that St. Paul never
+considered baptism by water as any Gospel ordinance, or as any rite
+indispensably necessary, when men were admitted as members into the
+Christian church. For if he had considered it in this light, he would
+never have said that Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the
+Gospel. Neither would he have thanked God, on account of the mere abuse
+of it, that he had baptized so few, for doubtless there were many among
+the learned Greeks, who abused his preaching, and who called it
+_foolishness_, but yet he nowhere says, that he was sorry on that
+account that he ever preached to them; for preaching was a gospel
+ordinance enjoined him, by which many were to be converted to the
+Christian faith. Again--If he had considered water baptism, as a
+necessary mark of initiation into Christianity, he would uniformly have
+adopted it, as men became proselytes to his doctrines. But among the
+thousands, whom in all probability he baptized with the Holy Spirit
+among the Corinthians, it does not appear, that there were more than the
+members of the three families of Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanus, whom be
+baptized with water.
+
+[Footnote 177: 1 Cor. I. 14, 15, 16.]
+
+But still it is contended, that Paul says of himself, that the baptized.
+The Quakers agree to this, but they say that he must have done it, in
+these instances, on motives very different from those of an
+indispensable Christian rite.
+
+In endeavouring to account for these motives, the Quakers consider the
+Apostle Paul as not in the situation of Peter and others, who were a
+long time in acquiring their spiritual knowledge, during which they
+might be in doubt as to the propriety of many customs; but as coming, on
+the other hand, quickly and powerfully into the knowledge of Christ's
+kingdom. Hence, when he baptized, they impute no ignorance to him. They
+believe he rejected water-baptism as a gospel ordinance, but that he
+considered it in itself as an harmless ceremony, and that, viewing it in
+this light, he used it out of condescension to those ellenistic Jews,
+whose prejudices, on account of the washings of Moses and their customs
+relative to proselytes, were so strong, that they could not separate
+purification by water from conversion to a new religion. For St. Paul
+confesses himself that "to the weak he became as weak, that he might
+gain the weak, and was made all things to all men, that he might by all
+means save some." Of this his condescension many instances are recorded
+in the New Testament, though it may be only necessary to advert to one.
+At the great council at Jerusalem, where Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James,
+and others, were present, it was[178] determined that circumcision was
+not necessary to the Gentiles. St. Paul himself with some others carried
+the very letter of the council, containing their determination upon this
+subject, to Antioch to the brethren there. This letter was addressed to
+the brethren of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. After having left Antioch,
+he went to Derbe and Lystra, where, notwithstanding the determination of
+himself and the rest of the council, that circumcision was not a
+Christian rite, he[179] circumcised Timotheus, in condescension to the
+weakness of the Jews, who were in those quarters.
+
+[Footnote 178: Acts 15.]
+
+[Footnote 179: Acts 16.3.]
+
+In addition to these observations on the practice and opinions of the
+Apostles, in the course of which the Quakers presume it will be found
+that the baptism of John is not an ordinance of the Gospel, they presume
+the same conclusion will be adopted, if they take into consideration the
+practice and opinions of Jesus Christ.
+
+That Jesus Christ never forbad water-baptism, the Quakers readily allow.
+But they conceive his silence on this subject to have arisen from his
+knowledge of the internal state of the Jews. He knew how carnal their
+minds were; how much they were attached to outward ordinances; and how
+difficult it was to bring them all at once into his spiritual kingdom.
+Hence, he permitted many things for a time, on account of the weakness
+of their spiritual vision.
+
+That Jesus submitted also to baptism himself, they allow. But he
+submitted to it, not because he intended to make it an ordinance under
+the new dispensation, but to use his own words, "that he might fulfil
+all righteousness." Hence, also he was circumcised. Hence he celebrated
+the Passover. And hence, he was enabled to use these remarkable words
+upon the cross: "It is fulfilled."
+
+But though Jesus Christ never forbad water-baptism, and, though he was
+baptized with water by John, yet he never baptized any one himself. A
+rumour had gone abroad among the Pharisees, that the Jesus had baptized
+more disciples than John the Baptist. But John, the beloved disciple of
+Jesus, who had leaned on his bosom, and who knew more of his sentiments
+and practice than any other person is very careful, in correcting this
+hear-say report, as if unworthy of the spiritual mind of his master,
+and states positively; [180] "that Jesus-baptized not."
+
+[Footnote 180: John 4.2.]
+
+The Quakers, lay a great stress upon this circumstance: for they say,
+that if Jesus never baptized with water himself, it is a proof that he
+never intended to erect water-baptism into a Gospel-rite. It is
+difficult to conceive, they say, that he should have established a
+Sacrament, and that he should never have administered it. Would he not,
+on the other hand, if his own baptism had been that of water, have begun
+his ministry by baptizing his own disciples, notwithstanding they had
+previously been, baptized by John? But he not only never baptized, _but
+it is no where_ recorded of him, that he ordered his disciples to
+baptize "with water."[181] He once ordered a leper to go to the priest,
+and to offer the gift for his cleansings. At another time[182], he
+ordered a blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam; but he never
+ordered any one to go and be baptized with water. On the other hand, it
+is said by the Quakers, that he dearly intimated to three of his
+disciples, at the transfiguration, that the dispensations of Moses and
+John were to pass away; and that he taught himself, "that the kingdom of
+God cometh not with observation;" or, that it consisted not in those
+outward and lifeless ordinances, in which many of those to whom he
+addressed himself placed the essence of their religion.
+
+[Footnote 181: Mat. 8.4.]
+
+[Footnote 182: John 9.7]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XVI.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Supper of the Lord--Two such suppers, one enjoined by Moses, the other
+by Jesus Christ--The former called the Passover--Original manner of its
+celebration--The use of bread and wine added to it--Those long in use
+when Jews Christ celebrated it--Since his time, alterations made in this
+supper by the Jews--But bread and wine still continued to be component
+parts of it, and continue so to the present day--Modern manner of the
+celebration of it._
+
+
+There are two suppers of the Lord recorded in the Scriptures; the first
+enjoined by Moses, and the second by Jesus Christ.
+
+The first is called the Supper of the Lord, because it was the last
+supper which Jesus Christ participated with his disciples, or which the
+Lord and master celebrated with them in commemoration of the passover.
+And it may not improperly be called the Supper of the Lord on another
+account, because it was the supper which the lord and master of every
+Jewish family celebrated, on the same festival, in his own house.
+
+This supper was distinguished, at the time alluded to, by the name of
+the Passover Supper. The object of the institution of it was to
+commemorate the event of the Lord passing over the houses of the
+Israelites in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered the
+former from their hard and oppressive bondage.
+
+The directions of Moses concerning this festival were short, but
+precise.
+
+On the fourteenth day of the first month, called Nissan, the Jews were
+to kill a lamb in the evening. It was to be eaten in the same evening,
+roasted with fire, and the whole of it was to be eaten, or the remains
+of it to be consumed with fire before morning. They were to eat it with
+loins girded, with their shoes on their feet, and with their staves in
+their hands, and to eat it in haste. The bread which they were to eat,
+was to be unleavened, all of it, and for seven days. There was to be no
+leaven in their houses during that time. Bitter herbs also were to be
+used at this feast. And none who were uncircumcised were allowed to
+partake of it.
+
+This was the simple manner in which the passover, and the feast of
+unleavened bread, which was included in it, were first celebrated. But
+as the passover, in the age following its institution, was not to be
+killed and eaten in any other place than where the Lord chose to fix his
+name, which was afterwards at Jerusalem, it was suspended for a time.
+The Jews, however, retained the festival of unleavened bread, wherever
+they dwelt. At this last feast, in process of time, they added the use
+of wine to the use of bread. The introduction of the wine was followed
+by the introduction of new customs. The Lord or master of the feast used
+to break the bread, and to bless it, saying, "Blessed be thou, O Lord,
+who givest us the fruits of the earth." He used to take the cup, which
+contained the wine, and bless it also: "Blessed be thou, O Lord, who
+givest us the fruit of the vine." The bread was twice blessed upon this
+occasion, and given once to every individual at the feast. But the cup
+was handed round three times to the guests. During the intervals between
+the blessing and the taking of the bread and of the wine, the company
+acknowledged the deliverance of their ancestors from the Egyptian
+bondage; they lamented their present state; they confessed their sense
+of the justice of God in their punishment; and they expressed their hope
+of his mercy from his former kind dealings and gracious promises.
+
+In process of time, when the Jews were fixed at Jerusalem, they revived
+the celebration of the passover, and as the feast of unleavened bread
+was connected with it, they added the customs of the latter, and blended
+the eating of the lamb and the use of the bread and wine, and several
+accompaniments of consecration, into one ceremony. The bread therefore
+and the wine had been long in use as constituent parts of the
+passover-supper, and indeed of all the solemn feasts of the Jews, when
+Jesus Christ took upon himself, as master of his own family of
+disciples, to celebrate it. When he celebrated it, he did as the master
+of every Jewish family did at that time. He took bread, and blessed,
+and broke, and gave to his disciples. He took the cup of wine, and gave
+it to them also. But he conducted himself differently from others in one
+respect, for he compared the bread of the passover to his own body, and
+the wine to his own blood, and led the attention of his disciples from
+the old object of the passover, or deliverance from Egyptian bondage, to
+a new one, or deliverance from sin.
+
+Since the time of our Saviour, we find that the Jews, who have been
+dispersed in various parts of the world, have made alterations in this
+supper: but all of them have concurred in retaining the bread and wine
+as component parts of it. This will be seen by describing the manner in
+which it is celebrated at the present day.
+
+On the fourteenth day of the month Nissan, the first-born son of every
+family fasts, because the first-born in Egypt were smitten on that
+night. A table is then set out, and covered with a cloth. On the middle
+of it is placed a large dish, which is covered with a napkin. A large
+passover cake of unleavened bread, distinguished by marks, and
+denominated "_Israelite_," is then laid upon this napkin. Another, with
+different marks, but denominated "_Levite_," is laid upon the first: and
+a third, differently marked, and denominated "_Priest_," is laid upon
+the second. Upon this again a large dish is placed, and in this dish is
+a shank bone of a shoulder of lamb, with a small matter of meat on it,
+which is burnt quite brown on the fire. This is instead of the lamb
+roasted with fire. Near this is an egg, roasted hard in hot ashes, that
+it may not be broken, to express the totality of the lamb. There is also
+placed on the table a small quantity of raw charvil instead of the
+bitter herbs ordered; also a cup with salt water, in remembrance of the
+sea crossed over after that repast; also a stick of horse radish with
+its green top to it, to represent the bitter labour that made the eyes
+of their ancestors water in slavery; and a couple of round balls, made
+of bitter almonds pounded with apples, to represent their labour in lime
+and brinks. The seat or couch of the master is prepared at the head of
+the table, and raised with pillows, to represent the masterly authority
+of which the Jews were deprived in bondage. The meanest of the servants
+are seated at the table for two nights with their masters, mistresses,
+and superiors, to denote that they were all equally slaves in Egypt, and
+that all ought to give the same ceremonial thanks for their redemption.
+Cups also are prepared for the wine, of which each person must drink
+four in the course of the ceremony. One cup extraordinary is set on the
+table for Elias, which is drank by the youngest in his stead.
+
+All things having been thus prepared, the guests wash their hands, and
+seat themselves at table. The master of the family, soon after this,
+_takes his cup of wine in his right hand_, and the rest at the table
+doing the same, he says, together with all the others, "Blessed art
+thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast created the fruit
+of the vine." This is followed by a. thanksgiving for the institution of
+the passover. _Then the cup of wine is drank by all_. Afterwards the
+master of the family says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of
+the Universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and
+commanded us to cleanse our hands."
+
+Then the master of the family desires the guests to partake of the
+charvil dipped in salt water, which he gives them with an appropriate
+blessing. He makes them touch also the dish, containing the egg and
+shank bone of the lamb, and repeat with him a formula of words suited to
+the subject. He then takes _the second cup of wine_, and uses words in
+conjunction with the rest, expressive of the great difference between
+this and any other night. After this, copious remarks follow on the
+institution of the passover. Then follow queries and answers of the
+rabbis on this subject: then historical accounts of the Jews: then the
+fifteen acts of the goodness of God to the Jewish nation, which they
+make out thus:--He led the Jews out of Egypt: he punished the Egyptians:
+he executed judgment on their gods: he slew their first-born: he gave
+the Jews wealth: he divided the sea for them: he made them pass through
+it as on dry land: he drowned the Egyptians in the same: he gave food to
+the Jews for forty years in the wilderness; he fed them with manna: he
+gave them the sabbath: he brought them to Mount Sinai: he gave them the
+law: he brought them to the Laud of Promise: he built the Temple.
+
+When these acts of the goodness of God, with additional remarks on the
+passover out of Rabbi Gamaliel, have been recited, all the guests touch
+the dish which contains the three cakes of bread before mentioned, and
+say: "This sort of unleavened bread, which we eat, is because there was
+not sufficient time for the dough of our ancestors to rise, until the
+blessed Lord, the King of Kings, did reveal himself to redeem them, as
+it is written. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough, which they
+brought forth out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were
+thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry; neither had they prepared for
+themselves any victuals." After this they touch the horse-radish and
+join in a narration on the subject of their bondage. Then they take
+_their third cup of wine_, and pronounce a formula of adoration and
+praise, accompanied with blessings and thanksgivings, in allusion to the
+historical part of the passover. After this the master of the family
+washes his hands and says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of
+the Universe, who hast sanctified us with thy Commandments, and
+commanded us to cleanse our hands." He then breaks the _uppermost cake
+of bread_ in the dish, and says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King
+of the Universe, who hast brought forth bread from the earth." Then he
+takes _half of another cake of bread, and breaks it_, and says, "Blessed
+art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us
+with thy commandments, and commanded us to eat the unleavened bread."
+_Then he gives every one at the table of each of the two cakes of bread
+that are broken_, and every one repeats audibly the two last blessings.
+He then takes the green top from the horse-radish, and puts on the balls
+before mentioned, and pronounces a blessing. He then puts these into the
+hands of the guests, and they pronounce the same. After this, he cuts
+the bottom cake, and puts a piece of it upon a piece of horse-radish,
+and pronounces a formula of words, in allusion to an historical fact.
+
+These ceremonies having been thus completed, the guests sup.
+
+After supper, a long grace is said. Then the _fourth cup_ is filled. A
+long prayer follows, on the subject of creation. This is again followed
+by a hymn, enumerating and specifying the twelve wonders which God did
+at midnight. Another hymn succeeds, specifying the fifteen great works
+which God did at different times, both on the night, and on the day, of
+the passover. Then follows a prayer in praise of God, in which a desire
+is expressed, that they may again he brought to Jerusalem. Then follows
+a blessing on the fourth cup which is taken; after which another hymn is
+sung, in which the assistance of the Almighty is invoked for the
+rebuilding of the temple. This hymn is followed by thirteen canticles,
+enumerating thirteen remarkable things belonging to the Jews, soon after
+which the ceremony ends.
+
+This is the manner, or nearly the manner, in which the passover is now
+celebrated by the Jews. The bread is still continued to be blessed, and
+broken, and divided, and the cup to be blessed and handed round among
+the guests. And this is done, whether they live in Asia, or in Europe,
+or in any other part of the known world.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Second Supper is that enjoined by Jesus at Capernaum--It consists of
+bread from Heaven--or of the flesh and blood of Christ--But these not of
+a material nature, like the passover-bread, or corporeal part of
+Jesus--but wholly of a spiritual--Those who receive it, are spiritually
+nourished by it, and may be said to sup with Christ--This supper
+supported the Patriarchs--and must be taken by all Christians--Various
+ways in which this supper may be enjoyed_.
+
+
+The second supper recorded in the scriptures, in which bread, and the
+body, and blood of Christ, are mentioned, is that which was enjoined by
+Jesus, when he addressed the multitude at Capernaum. Of this supper, the
+following account may be given:
+
+[183] "Labour not, says he to the multitude, for the meat which
+perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
+the Son of Man shall give unto you."
+
+[Footnote 183: John 6. 27.]
+
+A little farther on, in the same chapter, when the Jews required a sign
+from heaven, (such as when Moses gave their ancestors manna in the
+wilderness,) in order that they might believe on him, he addressed them
+thus: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
+from heaven: but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For
+the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth light
+unto the world."
+
+Then said they unto him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." And Jesus
+said unto them, "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
+never hunger; and he that believeth in me, shall never thirst."
+
+It appears, that in the course of these and other words that were spoken
+upon this occasion, the Jews took offence at Jesus Christ, because he
+said, he was the bread that came down from heaven; for they knew he was
+the son of Joseph, and they knew both his father and his mother. Jesus
+therefore directed to them the following observations:
+
+"I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,
+and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a
+man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread, which came down
+from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And
+the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
+of the world." The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How
+can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them,
+"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
+Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever eateth my
+flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up
+at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
+indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,
+and I in him. As the living father hath sent me, and I live by the
+father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that
+bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and
+are dead. He that eateth of this bread, shall live forever."
+
+As the Jews were still unable to comprehend the meaning of his words,
+which they discovered by murmuring and pronouncing them to be hard
+sayings, Jesus Christ closes his address to them in the following words:
+"It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing: the
+words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
+
+It appears from hence, according to the Quakers, that Jesus Christ, in
+mentioning the loaves, took occasion to spiritualize, as he did on all
+other fit occasions, and to direct the attention of his followers from
+natural to spiritual food, or from the food that perisheth, to that
+which giveth eternal life.
+
+Jesus Christ calls himself upon this occasion the living bread. He says
+that this bread is his flesh, and that this flesh is meat indeed. The
+first conclusion which the Quakers deduce on this subject, is, that this
+bread, or this flesh and blood, or this meat, which he recommends to his
+followers, and which he also declares to be himself, is not of a
+material nature. It is not, as he himself says, like the ordinary meat
+that perisheth, nor like the outward manna, which the Jews ate in the
+wilderness for their bodily refreshment. It cannot therefore be common
+bread, nor such bread as the jews ate at their passover, nor any bread
+or meat ordered to be eaten on any public occasion.
+
+Neither can this flesh or this bread be, as some have imagined, the
+material flesh or body of Jesus. For first, this latter body was born of
+the virgin Mary; whereas the other is described as having come down from
+heaven. Secondly, because, when the Jews said, "How can this man give us
+his flesh?" Jesus replied, "It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh
+profiteth nothing;" that is, material flesh and blood, such as mine is,
+cannot profit any thing in the way of quickening; or cannot so profit as
+to give life eternal. This is only the work of the spirit. And he adds,
+"the words I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life."
+
+This bread then, or this body, is of a spiritual nature. It is of a
+spiritual nature, because it not only giveth life, but preserveth from
+death. Manna, on the other hand, supported the Israelites only for a
+time, and they died. Common bread and flesh nourish the body for a time,
+when it dies and perishes; but it is said of those who feed upon this
+food, that they shall never die. This bread, or body, must be spiritual
+again, because the bodies of men, according to their present
+organization, cannot be kept for ever alive; but their souls may. But
+the souls of men can receive no nourishment from ordinary meat and
+drink, that they should be kept alive, but from that which is spiritual
+only. It must be spiritual again, because Jesus Christ describes it as
+having come down from heaven.
+
+The last conclusion which the Quakers draw from the words of our Saviour
+on this occasion, is, that a spiritual participation of the body and
+blood of Christ is such an essential of Christianity, that no person who
+does not partake of them, can be considered to be a Christian; "for
+except a man eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, he has
+no life in him."
+
+The Quakers therefore believe, that this address of Jesus Christ to his
+followers near Capernaum, relates wholly to the necessity of the souls
+of men being fed and nourished by that food, which it is alone capable
+of receiving, namely, that which is of a spiritual nature, and which
+comes from above. This food is the spirit of God; or, in the language of
+the Quakers, it is Christ. It is that celestial principle, which gives
+life and light to as many as receive it and believe in it. It is that
+spiritual principle, which was in the beginning of the world, and which
+afterwards took flesh. And those who receive it, are spiritually
+nourished by it, and may be said to sup with Christ; for he himself
+says, [184] "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
+voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
+and he with me."
+
+[Footnote 184: Rev. 3. 20.]
+
+This supper which Jesus Christ enjoins, is that heavenly manna on which
+the Patriarchs feasted, before his appearance in the flesh, and by which
+their inward man became nourished; so that some of them were said to
+have walked with God; for those, according to St. Paul, [185] "did all
+eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink;
+for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock
+was Christ."
+
+[Footnote 185: 1 Cor. 10.3.4.]
+
+This supper is also that "daily bread," since his appearance in the
+flesh; or, as the old Latin translation has it, it is that
+supersubstantial bread, which Christians are desired to pray for in the
+Lord's prayer; that bread, which, according to good commentators, is
+above all substance, and above all created things. For this bread fills
+and satisfies. By extinguishing all carnal desires, it leaves neither
+hunger nor thirst after worldly things. It redeems from the pollutions
+of sin. It so quickens as to raise from death to life, and it gives
+therefore to man a sort of new and divine nature, so that he can dwell
+in Christ and Christ in him.
+
+This supper, which consists of this manna, or bread, or of this flesh
+and blood, may be enjoyed by Christians in various ways. It may be
+enjoyed by them in pious meditations on the Divine Being, in which the
+soul of man may have communion with the spirit of God, so that every
+meditation may afford it a salutary supper, or a celestial feast. It may
+be enjoyed by them when they wait upon God in silence, or retire into
+the light of the Lord, and receive those divine impressions which
+quicken and spiritualize the internal man. It may be enjoyed by them in
+all their several acts of obedience to the words and doctrines of our
+Saviour. Thus may men everyday, nay, every hour, keep a communion at the
+Lord's table, or communicate, or sup, with Christ.
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_The question then is, whether Jesus Christ instituted any new supper,
+distinct from that of the passover, (and which was to render null and
+void that enjoined at Capernaum) to be observed as a ceremonial by
+Christians--Quakers say, that no such institution can be collected from
+the accounts of Matthew, or of Mark, or of John--The silence of the
+latter peculiarly impressive in the present case._
+
+
+It appears then, that there are two suppers recorded in the scriptures,
+the one enjoined by Moses, and the other by Jesus Christ.
+
+The first of these was of a ceremonial nature, and was confined
+exclusively to the Jews: for to Gentile converts who knew nothing of
+Moses, or whose ancestors were not concerned in the deliverance from
+Egyptian bondage, it could have had no meaning.
+
+The latter was of a spiritual nature. It was not limited to any nation.
+It had been enjoyed by many of the Patriarchs. Many of the Gentiles had
+enjoyed it also. But it was essentially necessary for all Christians.
+
+Now the question is, whether Jesus Christ, when he celebrated the
+passover, instituted any new supper, distinct from that of the
+passover, and which was to render null, and void, (as it is the tendency
+of ceremonies to do) that which he enjoined at Capernaum, to be observed
+as an ordinance by the Christian world.
+
+The Quakers are of opinion that no institution of this kind can be
+collected from Matthew, Mark, or John. [186]St. Matthew mentions the
+celebration of the passover supper in the following manner: "And as they
+were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave to
+his disciples, and said, take, eat, this is my body."
+
+[Footnote 186: Mat. 26. 26.]
+
+"And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
+drink ye all of it."
+
+"For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for
+the remission of sins."
+
+"But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the
+vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's
+kingdom."
+
+St. Mark gives an account so similar to the former, that it is
+unnecessary to transcribe it. Both mention the administration of the
+cup; both the breaking and giving of the bread; both the allusion of
+Jesus to his own body and blood; both the idea of his not drinking wine
+any more but in a new kingdom; but neither of them mention any command,
+nor even any insinuation by Jesus Christ to his disciples, that they
+should do as he did at the passover supper.
+
+St. John, who relates the circumstance of Jesus Christ washing the feet
+of his disciples on the passover night, mentions nothing even of the
+breaking of bread, or of the drinking of the wine upon that occasion.
+
+As far therefore as the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and John, are
+concerned, it is obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers, that Christians
+have not the least pretence, either for the celebration of the passover,
+or of that which they usually call the Lord's Supper; for the command
+for such a supper is usually grounded on the words, "do this in
+remembrance of me." But no such words occur in the accounts of any of
+the Evangelists now cited.
+
+This silence with respect to any command for any new institution is
+considered by the Quakers as a proof, as far as these Evangelists are
+concerned, that none was ever intended. For if the sacrament of the
+supper was to be such a great and essential rite as Christians make it,
+they would have been deficient in their duty, if they had failed to
+record it. St. Matthew, who was at the supper, and St. Mark, who heard
+of what had passed there, both agree that Jesus used the ceremony of the
+bread and the wine, and also that he made an allusion from thence to his
+own body and blood; but it is clear, the Quakers say, whatever they
+might have heard as spoken by him, they did not understand him as
+enjoining a new thing. But the silence of John, upon this occasion, the
+Quakers consider as the most impressive in the present case. For St.
+John was the disciple, who leaned upon the bosom of Jesus at this
+festival, and who of course must have heard all that he said. He was
+the disciple again, whom Jesus loved, and who would have been anxious to
+have perpetuated all that he required to be done. He was the disciple
+again, who so particularly related the spiritual supper which Jesus
+enjoined at Capernaum, and in this strong language, that, "except a man
+eat his flesh, and drink his blood, he has no life in him."
+Notwithstanding this, St. John does not even mention what took place on
+the passover night, believing, as the Quakers suppose, that it was not
+necessary to record the particulars of a Jewish ceremony, which, being a
+type, was to end when its antitype was realized, and which he considered
+to be unnecessary for those of the Christian name.
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Account of St. Luke examined--According to him Jesus celebrated only
+the old Jewish passover--Signified all future passovers with him were to
+be spiritual--Hence he turned the attention of those present from the
+type to the antitype--He recommended them to take their meals
+occasionally together in remembrance of their last supper with him; or
+if, as Jews, they could not relinquish the passover, to celebrate it
+with a new meaning._
+
+
+St. Luke, who speaks of the transactions which took place at the
+passover-supper, is the only one of the Evangelists who records the
+remarkable words, "do this in remembrance of me." St. Luke, however,
+was not himself at this supper. Whatever he has related concerning it,
+was from the report of others.
+
+But though the Quakers are aware of this circumstance, and that neither
+Matthew, Mark, nor John, give an account of such words, yet they do not
+question the authority of St. Luke concerning them. They admit them, on
+the other hand, to have been spoken; they believe however, on an
+examination of the whole of the narrative of St. Luke upon this
+occasion, that no new institution of a religious nature was intended.
+They believe that Jesus Christ did nothing more than celebrate the old
+passover; that he intimated to his disciples, at the time he celebrated
+it, that it was to cease; that he advised them, however, to take their
+meals occasionally, in a friendly manner, together, in remembrance of
+him; or if, as Jews, they could not all at once relinquish the passover,
+he permitted them to celebrate it with a new meaning.
+
+In the first place St. Luke, and he is joined by all the other
+Evangelists, calls the feast now spoken of the passover. Jesus Christ
+also gives it the same name; for he says, "with desire I have desired to
+eat this passover with you before I suffer."
+
+Jesus Christ, according to St. Luke, took bread and broke it, and
+divided it among his disciples. He also took the cup, and gave thanks,
+and gave it among them. But this, the Quakers say, is no more than what
+the master of every Jewish family did on the passover night: nor, is it
+any more, as will have already appeared, than what the Jews of London,
+or of Paris, or of Amsterdam, or of any other place, where bread and
+wine are to be had, do on the same feast at the present day.
+
+But though Jesus Christ conducted himself so far as other masters of
+families did, yet he departed from the formula of words that was
+generally used upon these occasions. For in the first place, he is
+described to have said to his disciples, that "he would no more eat of
+the passover, until it should be fulfilled in the kingdom of God;" and a
+little farther on, that "he would not drink of the fruit of the vine,
+till the kingdom of God should come; or, as St. Matthew has it, till he
+should drink it new with them in his father's kingdom."
+
+By these words the Quakers understand, that it was the intention of
+Jesus Christ to turn the attention of his disciples from the type to the
+antitype, or from the paschal lamb to the lamb of God, which was soon to
+be offered for them. He declared, that all his passover suppers with
+them were in future to be spiritual. Such spiritual passovers, the
+Quakers say, he afterwards ate with them on the day of pentecost, when
+the spirit of God came upon them; when their minds were opened, and when
+they discovered, for the first time, the nature of his kingdom. And
+these spiritual passovers he has since eaten, and continues to eat with
+all those whose minds, detached from worldly pursuits and connexions,
+are so purified and spiritualized, as to be able to hold communion with
+God.
+
+It is reported of him next, that "he took bread, and gave thanks, and
+brake it, and gave to his disciples, saying, this is my body which is
+given for you."
+
+On these words the Quakers make the following observations:--The word
+"this" does not belong to the word "bread," that is, it does not mean
+that this bread is my body. For the word "bread" in the original Greek
+is of the masculine, and the word "this" is of the neuter gender. But it
+alludes to the action of the breaking of the bread, from which the
+following new meaning will result. "This breaking of the bread, which
+you now see me perform, is a symbol or representation of the giving, or
+as St. Paul has it, of the breaking of my body for you."
+
+In the same manner, the Quakers say, that the giving of the wine in the
+cup is to be understood as a symbol or representation of the giving of
+his blood for them.
+
+The Quakers therefore are of opinion, when they consider the meaning of
+the sayings of Jesus Christ both with respect to the bread and to the
+wine, that he endeavoured again to turn the attention of his disciples
+from the type to the antitype; from the bread and wine to his own body
+and blood; from the paschal lamb that had been slain and eaten, to the
+lamb that was going to be sacrificed; and as the blood of the latter
+was, according to St. Matthew, for the remission of sins, to turn their
+attention from the ancient object of the celebration of the passover, or
+salvation from Egyptian bondage, to a new object, or the salvation of
+themselves and others by this new sacrifice of himself.
+
+It is reported of him again by St. Luke, after he had distributed the
+bread and said, "this is my body which is given for you," that he added,
+"this do in remembrance of me."
+
+These words the Quakers believe to have no reference to any new
+institution; but they contain a recommendation to his disciples to meet
+in a friendly manner, and break their bread together, in remembrance of
+their last supper with him, or if as Jews, they could not all at once
+leave off the custom of the passover, in which they had been born and
+educated as a religious ceremony, to celebrate it, as he had then
+modified and spiritualized it, with a new meaning.
+
+If they relate to the breaking of their bread together, then they do not
+relate to any passover or sacramental eating, but only to that of their
+common meals; for all the passovers of Jesus Christ with his disciples
+were in future to be spiritual. And in this sense the primitive
+Christians seem to have understood the words in question. For in their
+religious zeal they sold all their goods, and, by means of the produce
+of their joint stock, they kept a common table, and lived together. But
+in process of time, as this custom from various causes declined, they
+met at each other's houses, or at their appointed places, to break their
+bread together, in memorial of the passover-supper. This custom, it is
+remarkable, was denominated the custom of _breaking of bread_. Nor could
+it have had any other name so proper, if the narration of St. Luke be
+true. For the words "do this in remembrance of me," relate solely, as he
+has placed them, to the breaking of the bread. They were used after the
+distribution of the bread, but were not repeated after the giving of the
+cup.
+
+If they relate, on the other hand, to the celebration of the passover,
+as it had been modified and spiritualized with a new meaning, then the
+interpretation of them will stand thus: "As some of you, my disciples,
+for ye are all Jews, may not be able to get over all your prejudices at
+once, but may celebrate the passover again, and as it is the last time
+that I shall celebrate it with you, as a ceremonial, I desire you to do
+it in remembrance, or as a memorial of me. I wish the celebration of it
+always to bring to your recollection this our last public meeting, the
+love I bear to you, and my sufferings and my death. I wish your minds to
+be turned from carnal to spiritual benefits, and to be raised to more
+important themes than the mere escape of your ancestors from Egyptian
+bondage. If it has been hitherto the object of the passover to preserve
+in your memories the bodily salvation of your ancestors, let it be used
+in future, if you cannot forsake it, as a memorial of your own spiritual
+salvation; for my body, of which the bread is a representation, is to be
+broken, and my blood, of which the wine is an emblem, is to be shed for
+the remission of your sins."
+
+But in whatever sense the words "do this in remembrance of me" are to be
+taken, the Quakers are of opinion, as far as St. Luke states the
+circumstances, that they related solely to the disciples themselves.
+Jesus Christ recommends it to those who were present, and to those only,
+to do this in remembrance of him. But he no where tells them to order or
+cause it to be done by the whole Christian world, as he told them to
+"preach the Gospel to every creature."
+
+To sum up the whole of what has been said in this chapter:--If we
+consult St. Luke, and St. Luke only, all that we can collect on this
+subject will be, that the future passover-suppers of Christ with his
+disciples were to be spiritual; that his disciples were desired to break
+their bread together in remembrance of him; or if, as Jews, they could
+not relinquish the passover, to celebrate it with a new meaning; but
+that this permission extended to those only who were present on that
+occasion.
+
+
+SECT. V.
+
+_Account of St. Paul--He states that the words "do this in remembrance
+of me" were used at the passover-supper--That they contained a
+permission for a custom, in which both the bread and the wine were
+included--That this custom was the passover, spiritualised by Jesus
+Christ--But that it was to last but for a time--Some conjecture this
+time to be the destruction of Jerusalem--But the Quakers, till the
+disciples had attained such a spiritual growth, that they felt Christ's
+kingdom substantially in their hearts--And as it was thus limited to
+them, so it was limited to such Jewish converts as might have adopted it
+in their times._
+
+
+The last of the sacred writers, who mentions the celebration of the
+passover-supper, is St. Paul, whose account is now to be examined.
+
+St. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, reproves[187] the
+latter for some irregularities committed by them in the course of their
+religious meetings. What these meetings were is uncertain. They might
+have been for the celebration of the passover-supper, for there was a
+synagogue of Jews at Corinth, of whom some had been converted. Or they
+might have been for the celebration of the passover as spiritualized by
+Jesus Christ, or for the breaking of bread, which customs both the
+Jewish and Gentile converts might have adopted. The custom, however, at
+which these irregularities took place, is called by St. Paul, the Lord's
+Supper. And this title was not inapplicable to it in either of the cases
+supposed, because it must have been, in either of them, in
+commemoration of the last supper, which Jesus Christ, or the Lord and
+Master, ate with his disciples before he suffered.
+
+[Footnote 187: Chap. 11.]
+
+But whichever ceremonial it was that St. Paul alluded to, the
+circumstances of the irregularities of the Corinthians, obliged him to
+advert to and explain what was said and done by Jesus on the night of
+the passover-supper. This explanation of the Apostle has thrown new
+light upon the subject, and has induced the Quakers to believe, that no
+new institution was intended to take place as a ceremonial to be
+observed by the Christian world.
+
+St. Paul, in his account of what occurred at the original passover,
+reports that Jesus Christ made use of the words "this do in remembrance
+of me." By this the Quakers understand that he permitted something to be
+done by those who were present at this supper.
+
+He reports also, that Jesus Christ used these words, not only after the
+breaking of the bread, but after the giving of the cup: from whence they
+conclude, that St. Paul considered both the bread and the wine, as
+belonging to that which had been permitted.
+
+St. Paul also says, "for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this
+cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." By these words they
+believe they discover two things; first, the nature of the thing
+permitted; and, secondly, that the thing permitted, whatever it was, was
+to last but for a time.
+
+The thing then, which was permitted to those who were present at the
+passover-supper, was to show or declare his death. The words "show or
+declare," prove, in the first place, the connexion of the thing
+permitted with the Jewish passover. For after certain ceremonies had
+been performed on the passover night, "the showing forth or
+declaration," as it was called, followed; or the object of the meeting
+was declared aloud to the persons present, or it was declared to them
+publicly in what particulars the passover feast differed from all the
+other feasts of the Jews. Secondly, the word "death" proves the thing
+permitted to have been the passover, as spiritualized by Jesus Christ;
+for by the new modification of it, his disciples, if they were unable to
+overcome their prejudices, were to turn their attention from the type to
+the antitype, or from the sacrifice of the paschal lamb to the sacrifice
+of himself, or to his own sufferings and death. In short, Jesus Christ
+always attempted to reform by spiritualizing. When the Jews followed him
+for the loaves, and mentioned manna, he tried to turn their attention
+from material to spiritual bread. When he sat upon Jacob's well, and
+discoursed with the woman of Samaria, he directed her attention from
+ordinary, or elementary to spiritual and living water. So he did upon
+this occasion. He gave life to the dead letter of an old ceremony by a
+new meaning. His disciples were from henceforth to turn their attention,
+if they chose to celebrate the passover, from the paschal lamb to
+himself, and from the deliverance of their ancestors out of Egyptian
+bondage to the deliverance of themselves and others, by the giving up of
+his own body and the shedding of his own blood for the remission of
+sins.
+
+And as the thing permitted was the passover, spiritualized in this
+manner, so it was only permitted for a time, or "until he come."
+
+By the words "until he come," it is usually understood, until Christ
+come. But though Christians have agreed upon this, they have disagreed
+as to the length of time which the words may mean. Some have understood
+that Jesus Christ intended this spiritualized passover to continue for
+ever as an ordinance of his church, for that "till he come" must refer
+to his coming to judge the world. But it has been replied to these, that
+in this case no limitation had been necessary, or it would have been
+said at once, that it was to be a perpetual ordinance, or expressed in
+plainer terms, than in the words in question.
+
+Others have understood the words to mean the end of the typical world,
+which happened on the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jews were
+dispersed, and their church, as a national one, done away. For the
+coming of Christ and the end of the world have been considered as
+taking place at the same time. Thus the early Christians believed, that
+Jesus Christ, even after his death and resurrection, would come again,
+even in their own life time, and that the end of the world would then
+be. These events they coupled in their minds; "for[188] they asked him
+privately, saying, tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be
+the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" Jesus told them in
+reply, that the end of the world and his coming would be, when there
+were wars, and rumours of wars, and earthquakes, and famine, and
+pestilence, and tribulations on the earth; and that these calamities
+would happen even before the generation, then alive, would pass away.
+Now all these things actually happened in the same generation; for they
+happened at the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ therefore meant
+by the end of the world, the end of the Jewish world, or of the world of
+types, figures, and ordinances: and he coupled naturally his own coming
+with this event, because he could not come fully into the hearts of any,
+till these externals were done away. He alluded, in short, to the end of
+the Jewish dispensation and the beginning of his own spiritual kingdom,
+or to the end of the ceremonial and the beginning of the Gospel world.
+
+[Footnote 188: Matt. 24.]
+
+Those therefore who interpret the words "till he come" to mean the end
+of the typical world, are of opinion that the passover, as spiritualized
+by Jesus Christ, was allowed to the disciples, while they lived among a
+people, so wedded to religious ceremonies as the Jews, with whom it
+would have been a stumbling block in the way of their conversion, if
+they had seen the Apostles, who were their countrymen, rejecting it all
+at once; but that it was permitted, them, till the destruction of
+Jerusalem, after which event the Jews being annihilated as a nation, and
+being dispersed and mixed among the infinitely greater body of the
+Gentiles, the custom was to be laid aside, as the disuse of it could not
+be then prejudicial to the propagation of the Gospel among the community
+at large.
+
+The Quakers, however, understand the words "till he come," to mean
+simply the coming of Christ substantially in the heart. Giving the words
+this meaning, they limit the duration of the spiritualized passover, but
+do not specify the time. It might have ceased with some of them, they
+say, on the day of pentecost, when they began to discover the nature of
+Christ's kingdom; and they think it probable, that it ceased with all of
+them, when they found this kingdom realized in their hearts. For it is
+remarkable that those, who became Gospel writers, and it is to be
+presumed that they had attained great spiritual growth when they wrote
+their respective works, give no instructions to others, whether Jews or
+Gentiles, to observe the ceremonial permitted to the disciples by Jesus,
+as any ordinance of the Christian church. And in the same manner as the
+Quakers conceive the duration of the spiritualized passover to have been
+limited to the disciples, they conceive it to have been limited to all
+other Jewish converts, who might have adopted it in those times, that
+is, till they should find by the substantial enjoyment of Christ in
+their hearts, that ceremonial ordinances belonged to the old, but that
+they were not constituent parts of the new kingdom.
+
+
+SECT. VI.
+
+_Quakers believe, from the preceding evidence, that Jesus Christ
+intended no ceremonial for the Christian church--for if the custom
+enjoined was the passover spiritualized, it was more suitable for Jews
+than Gentiles--If intended as a ceremonial, it would have been commanded
+by Jesus to others besides his disciples, and by these to the Christian
+world--and its duration would not have been limited--Quakers believe St.
+Paul thought it no Christian ordinance--three reasons taken from his
+own writings on this subject._
+
+
+The Quakers then, on an examination of the preceding evidence, are of
+opinion that Jesus Christ, at the passover-supper, never intended to
+institute any new supper, distinct from that of the passover, or from
+that enjoined at Capernaum, to be observed as a ceremonial by
+Christians.
+
+For, in the first place, St. Matthew, who was at the supper, makes no
+mention of the words "do this in remembrance of me."
+
+Neither are these words, nor any of a similar import, recorded by St.
+Mark. It is true indeed that St. Mark was not at this supper. But it is
+clear he never understood from those who were, either that they were
+spoken, or that they bore this meaning, or he would have inserted them
+in his Gospel.
+
+Nor is any mention made of such words by St. John. This was the beloved
+disciple who was more intimate with Jesus, and who knew more of the mind
+of his master, than any of the others. This was he who leaned upon his
+bosom at the passover-supper, and who must have been so near him as to
+have heard all that passed there. And. yet this disciple did not think
+it worth his while, except manuscripts have been mutilated, to mention
+even the bread and wine that were used upon this occasion.
+
+Neither does St. Luke, who mentions the words "do this in remembrance of
+me," establish any thing, in the opinion of the Quakers, material on
+this point. For it appears from him that Jesus, to make the most of his
+words, only spiritualized the old passover for his disciples, all of
+whom were Jews, but that he gave no command with respect to the
+observance of it by others. Neither does St. Luke himself enjoin or call
+upon others to observe it.
+
+St. Paul speaks nearly the same language as St. Luke, but with this
+difference, that the supper, as thus spiritualised by Jesus, was to last
+but for a time.
+
+Now the Quakers are of opinion, that they have not sufficient ground to
+believe from these authorities, that Jesus intended to establish any
+ceremonial as an universal ordinance for the Christian church. For if
+the custom enjoined was the spiritualized passover, it was better
+calculated for Jews than for Gentiles, who were neither interested in
+the motives nor acquainted with the customs of that feast. But it is of
+little importance, they contend, whether it was the spiritualized
+passover or not; for if Jesus Christ had intended it, whatever it was,
+as an essential of his new religion, he would have commanded his
+disciples to enjoin it as a Christian duty, and the disciples themselves
+would have handed it down to their several converts in the same light.
+But no injunction to this effect, either of Jesus to others, or of
+themselves to others, is to be found in any of their writings. Add to
+this, that the limitation of its duration for a time, seems a sufficient
+argument against it as a Christian ordinance, because whatever is once,
+most be for ever, an essential in the Christian church.
+
+The Quakers believe, as a farther argument in their favour, that there
+is reason to presume that St. Paul never looked upon the spiritualised
+passover as any permanent and essential rite, which Christians were
+enjoined to follow. For nothing can be more clear than that, when
+speaking of the guilt and hazard of judging one another by meats and
+drinks, he states it as a general and fundamental doctrine of
+Christianity, that [189] "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
+righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
+
+[Footnote 189: Romans 14. 17.]
+
+It seems also by the mode of reasoning which the Apostle adopts in his
+epistle to the Corinthians on this subject, that he had no other idea of
+the observance of this rite, than he had of the observance of particular
+days, namely, that if men thought they were bound in conscience to keep
+them, they ought to keep them religiously. "He that regardeth a day,
+says the Apostle, regardeth it to the Lord." That is, "as he that
+esteemed a day, says Barclay, and placed conscience in keeping it, was
+to regard it to the Lord, (and so it was to him, in so far as he
+regarded it to the Lord, the Lord's day,) he was to do it worthily: and
+if he were to do it unworthily, he would be guilty of the Lord's day,
+and so keep it to his own condemnation." Just in the same manner St.
+Paul tells the Corinthian Jews, that if they observed the ceremonial of
+the passover, or rather, "as often as they observed it," they were to
+observe it worthily, and make it a religious act. They were not then
+come together to make merry on the anniversary of the deliverance of
+their ancestors from Egyptian bondage, but to meet in memorial of
+Christ's sufferings and death. And therefore, if they ate and drank the
+passover, under its new and high allusions, unworthily, they profaned
+the ceremony, and were guilty of the body and blood of Christ.
+
+It appears also from the Syriac, and other oriental versions of the New
+Testament, such as the Arabic and Ethiopic, as if he only permitted the
+celebration of the spiritualized passover for a time in condescension to
+the weakness of some of his converts, who were probably from the Jewish
+synagogue at Corinth. For in the seventeenth verse of the eleventh
+chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, the Syriac runs thus:
+[190] "As to that, concerning which I am now instructing you, I commend
+you not, because you have not gone forward, but you have gone down into
+matters of less importance." "It appears from hence, says Barclay, that,
+the Apostle was grieved, that such was their condition that he was
+forced to give them instruction concerning these outward things, and
+doting upon which they showed that they were not gone forward in the
+life of Christianity, but rather sticking in the beggarly elements; and
+therefore the twentieth verse of the same version has it thus:
+[191]'When then ye meet together, ye do not do it as it is just ye
+should in the day of the Lord; ye eat and drink.' Therefore showing to
+them, that to meet together to eat and drink outward bread and wine, was
+not the labour and work of that day of the Lord."
+
+[Footnote 190: The Syriac is a very ancient version, and as respectable
+or of as high authority as any. Leusden and Schaaf translate the Syriac
+thus: "Hoc autem, quod praecipio, non tanquam laudo vos, quia non
+progressi estis, sed ad id, quod minus est, descendistis." Compare this
+with the English edition.]
+
+[Footnote 191: Quum igitur congregamini, non sicut justum est die domini
+nostri, comeditis et bibites. Leusden et Schaaf lordoni butavorum.]
+
+Upon the whole, in whatever light the Quakers view the subject before
+us, they cannot _persuade_ themselves that Jesus Christ intended to
+establish any new _ceremonial_, distinct from the passover-supper, or
+which should render null and void, (as it would be the tendency of all
+ceremonials to do) the supper which he had before commanded at
+Capernaum. The only supper which he ever enjoined to Christians, was the
+latter. This spiritual supper was to be eternal and universal. For he
+was always to be present with those "who would let him in, and they were
+to sup with him, and he with them." It was also to be obligatory, or an
+essential, with all Christians. "For except a man were to eat his flesh,
+and to drink his blood, he was to have no life in him." The supper, on
+the other hand, which our Saviour is supposed to have instituted on the
+celebration of the passover, was not enjoined by him to any but the
+disciples present. And it was, according to the confession of St. Paul,
+to last only for a time. This time is universally agreed upon to be that
+of the coming of Christ. That is, the duration of the spiritualized
+passover was to be only till those to whom it had been recommended, had
+arrived at a state of religious manhood, or till they could enjoy the
+supper which Jesus Christ had commanded at Capernaum; after which
+repast, the Quakers believe they would consider all others as empty, and
+as not having the proper life and nourishment in them, and as of a kind
+not to harmonize with the spiritual nature of the Christian religion.
+
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND VOLUME
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3),
+by Thomas Clarkson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3)
+
+Author: Thomas Clarkson
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2005  [eBook #15261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME
+II (OF 3)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Carlo Traverso, Graeme Mackreth, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made
+available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr.
+
+
+
+A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME II
+
+Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners,
+Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of
+the Society of Friends
+
+by
+
+THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.
+Author of Several Essays on the Slave Trade
+
+New York: Published by Samuel Stansbury, No 111, Water-Street
+
+1806
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SECT. I.--Marriage--Regulation and example of George Fox, relative to
+Marriage--Present regulations, and manner of the celebration of it among
+the Quakers.
+
+SECT. II.--Those who marry out of the society, are disowned--Various
+reasons for such a measure--Objection to it--Reply.
+
+SECT III.--But the disowned may be restored to membership--Terms of
+their restoration--these terms censured--Reply.
+
+SECT IV.--More women disowned on this account than men--Probable causes
+of this difference of number.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+SECT I.--Funerals--Extravagance and pageantry of ancient and modern
+funerals--These discarded by the Quakers--Plain manner in which they
+inter their dead.
+
+SECT II.--Quakers use no tomb-stones, nor monumental inscriptions
+--Various reasons of their disuse of these.
+
+SECT. III.--Neither do they use mourning garments--Reasons why they thus
+differ from the world--These reasons farther elucidated by
+considerations on Court-mourning.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Occupations--Agriculture declining among the Quakers--Causes and
+disadvantages of this decline.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+SECT. I.--_Trade--Quakers view trade as a moral question--Prohibit a
+variety of trades and dealings on this account--various other wholesome
+regulations concerning it._
+
+SECT. II.--_But though the Quakers thus prohibit many trades, they are
+found in some which are considered objectionable by the world--These
+specified and examined._
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_Settlement of differences--Abstain from duels-and also from law--Have
+recourse to arbitration--Their rules concerning arbitration--An account
+of an Arbitration Society at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles._
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SECT. I.--_Poor--No beggars among the Quakers--Manner of relieving and
+providing for the poor._
+
+SECT. II.--_Education of the children of the poor provided
+for--Observations on the number of the Quaker-poor--and on their
+character._
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION.
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+_Invitation to a perusal of this part of the work--The necessity of
+humility and charity in religion on account of the limited powers of the
+human understanding--Object of this invitation._
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_God has given to all, besides an intellectual, a spiritual
+understanding--Some have had a greater portion of this spirit than
+others, such as Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and
+Apostles--Jesus Christ had it without limit or measure._
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus, and the
+Prophets, and the Apostles had, he cannot know spiritual things--This
+doctrine confirmed by St. Paul--And elucidated by a comparison between
+the faculties of men and of brutes._
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_Neither except he has a portion of the same spirit, can he know the
+scriptures to be of divine origin, nor can he spiritually understand
+them--Objection to this doctrine-Reply._
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_This spirit, which has been thus given to men in different degrees, has
+been given them as a teacher or guide in their spiritual concerns--Way
+in which it teaches._
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_This spirit may be considered as the primary and infallible guide--and
+the scriptures but a secondary means of instruction--but the Quakers do
+not undervalue the latter on this account--Their opinion concerning
+them._
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_This spirit, as a primary and infallible guide, has been given to men
+universally--From the creation to Moses--From Moses to Christ--From
+Christ to the present day._
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Sect. I.--_And as it has been universally to men, so it has been given
+them sufficiently--Those who resist it, quench it--Those who attend to
+it, are in the way of redemption._
+
+Sect. II.--_This spirit then besides its office of a spiritual guide,
+performs that of a Redeemer to men--Redemption outward and
+inward--Inward effected by this spirit._
+
+Sect. III.--_Inward redemption produces a new birth--and leads to
+perfection--This inward redemption possible to all._
+
+Sect. IV--_New birth and perfection more particularly explained-New
+birth as real from "the spiritual seed of the kingdom" as that of plants
+and vegetables from their seeds in the natural world--and goes on in the
+same manner progressively to maturity._
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SECT. I._--Possibility of redemption to all denied by the favours of
+"Election and Reprobation"--Quaker-refutation of the later doctrine._
+
+SECT. II._--Quaker refutation continued._
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Recapitulation of all the doctrines advanced--Objection that the
+Quakers make every thing of the Spirit and but little of Jesus
+Christ--Attempt to show that Christians often differ without a just
+cause--Or that there is no material difference between the creeds of the
+Quakers and that of the objectors on this subject._
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+SECT. I._--Ministers of the Gospel--Quakers conceive that the spirit of
+God alone can qualify for the ministry--Women equally qualified with
+men--Way in which ministers are called and acknowledged among the
+Quakers._
+
+SECT. II._--Quaker-ministers, when acknowledged, engage in family
+visits--Nature of these--and sometimes in missions through England--and
+sometimes in foreign parts._
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_Elders--Their origin and their office--These are not to meddle with the
+discipline of the church._
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+SECT I._--Worship--is usually made to consist of prayer and
+preaching--But neither of these are considered by the Quakers to be
+effectual without the aid of the spirit--Hence no liturgy or studied
+form of words among the Quakers--Reputed manner and character of
+Quaker-preaching--Observations upon these._
+
+SECT. II--_Silent worship--Manner of it--Worship not necessarily
+connected with words--Advantages of this mode of worship._
+
+SECT. III.--_Quakers discard every thing formal and superstitious from
+their worship--No consecrated ground--No priest's garments--No
+psalmody--No one day esteemed by them holier than another--Reasons for
+these singularities._
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_Miscellaneous particularities--Quakers seldom use the words "original
+sin," or "Trinity," and never "the word of God" for the
+Scriptures--Believe in the manhood and divinity of Christ--In the
+resurrection--Their ideas on sanctification and justification._
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Quakers reject baptism and the Lord's supper--Indulgence solicited for
+them on account of the difficulties connected with these subjects--These
+difficulties explained._
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SECT. I.--_Two baptisms, that of John and of Christ--That of John was by
+water--and a Jewish ordinance--John the prophet left under the law._
+
+SECT. II.--_Baptism of Christ was by the Spirit--This the baptism of the
+Gospel--Authorities on which this distinction between the two is
+founded._
+
+SECT. III.--_Quakers conceive it was not the baptism of John which Jesus
+included in the Great Commission, when he ordered his disciples to go
+into all nations, and to teach them, baptizing in the name of the
+father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost--This shown from
+expressions taken from St. Peter and St. Paul--and from the object and
+nature of this baptism._
+
+SECT. IV.--_But that it was the baptism of Christ--This shown from a
+critical examination of the words in the commission itself--And from the
+commission, as explained by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul._
+
+SECT. V.--_Practice of Jesus and the Apostles a confirmation of this
+opinion._
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Sect. I.--_Two suppers, the one instituted by Moses, the other by Jesus
+Christ--The first called the passover--Ancient and modern manner of its
+celebration._
+
+Sect. II.--_Second, enjoined by Jesus at Capernaum--This wholly, of a
+spiritual nature--Way in which this may be enjoyed._
+
+Sect. III.--_Quakers say that Jesus instituted no new supper distinct
+from that of the passover, and which was to render null and void that
+enjoined at Capernaum, at a rite of the Christian church--No such
+institution to be collected from St. Matthew, St. Mark, or St. John._
+
+Sect. IV.--_Nor from St. Luke--St. Luke only says, that all future
+passovers of the Disciples with Christ were to be spiritual--but if, as
+Jews, they could not all at once abdicate the passover to which they had
+been educated, they were to celebrate it with a new meaning--But no
+acknowledged permission of it to others._
+
+Sect. V.--_Nor from St. Paul--St. Paul only says that the passover, as
+spiritualized by Jesus, was allowed to his disciples, or to the Jewish
+converts, who could not all at once lay aside their prejudices
+concerning it, but that it was to last only for a time--Different
+opinions about this time--That of the Quakers concerning it._
+
+Sect. VI.--_Had a new supper, distinct from that of the passover, been
+intended as a ceremonial of the Christian church, it would have been
+commanded to others besides the disciples, and its duration would not
+have been limited--Reasons from St. Paul, to show that he himself did
+not probably consider it as a Christian ordinance--Whereas the supper
+enjoined at Capernaum, was to be eternal--and universal--and an
+essential with all Christians._
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS
+OF THE
+_QUAKERS_.
+
+
+(CONTINUED)
+
+
+VOL. II B.
+
+PECULIAR CUSTOMS
+OF THE
+QUAKERS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Marriage--Quakers differ in many respects from others, on the subject
+of Marriage--George Fox introduced Regulations concerning it--Protested
+against the usual manner of the celebration of it--Gave an example of
+what he recommended--Present regulations of the Quakers on this
+subject._
+
+
+In the continuation of the Customs of the Quakers, a subject which I
+purpose to resume in the present volume, I shall begin with that of
+Marriage.
+
+The Quakers differ from others in many of their regulations concerning
+this custom. They differ also in the manner of the celebration of it.
+And, as they differ in these respects, so they experience generally a
+different result. The Quakers, as a married, may be said to be a happy,
+people. Hence the detailers of scandal, have rarely had it in their
+power to promulgate a Quaker adultery. Nor have the lawyers had an
+opportunity in our public courts of proclaiming a Quaker divorce.
+
+George Fox suggested many regulations on this subject. He advised, among
+other things, when persons had it in contemplation to marry, that they
+should lay their intention before the monthly meetings, both of the men
+and women. He advised also, that the consent of their parents should be
+previously obtained, and certified to these. Thus he laid the foundation
+for greater harmony in the approaching union. He advised again, that an
+inquiry should be made, if the parties were clear of engagements or
+promises of marriage to others, and, if they were not, that they should
+be hindered from proceeding. Thus, he cut off some of the causes of the
+interruption of connubial happiness, by preventing uneasy reflections,
+or suits at law, after the union had taken place. He advised also, in
+the case of second marriages, that any offspring resulting from the
+former, should have their due rights and a proper provision secured to
+them, before they were allowed to be solemnized. Thus he gave a greater
+chance for happiness, by preventing mercenary motives from becoming the
+causes of the union of husbands and wives.
+
+But George Fox, as he introduced these and other salutary regulations on
+the subject of Marriage, so he introduced a new manner of the
+celebration of it. He protested against the manner of the world, that
+is, against the formal prayers and exhortations as they were repeated,
+and against the formal ceremonies, an they were practised by the Parish
+Priest. He considered that it was God, who joined man and woman before
+the fall; and that in Christian times, or where the man was truly
+renovated in heart, there could be no other right or honourable way of
+union. Consistently with this view of the subject, he observed, that in
+the ancient scriptural times, persons took each other in marriage in the
+assemblies of the Elders; and there was no record, from the Book of
+Genesis to that of Revelations, of any marriage by a Priest. Hence it
+became his new society, as a religious or renovated people, to abandon
+apostate usages, and to adopt a manner that was more agreeable to their
+new state.
+
+George Fox gave in his own marriage, an example of all that he had thus
+recommended to the society. Having agreed with Margaret Fell, the widow
+of Judge Fell, upon the propriety of their union as husband and wife,
+he desired her to send for her children. As soon as they were come, he
+asked them and their respective husbands,[1] "If they had any thing
+against it, or for it, desiring them to speak? and they all severally
+expressed their _satisfaction therein_. Then he asked Margaret, if she
+had fulfilled and performed her husband's Will to her children? She
+replied, the _children know that_. Whereupon he asked them, whether, if
+their mother married, they should not lose by it? And he asked Margaret,
+whether she had done any thing in lieu of it, which might answer it to
+the children? The children said, _she had answered it to them_, and
+desired him to _speak no more about that_. He told them, that he was
+plain, and that he would have all things done plainly; for he sought not
+any outward advantage to himself. So, after he had acquainted the
+children with it, their intention of marriage was laid before Friends,
+both privately and publicly;" and afterwards a meeting being appointed
+for the accomplishment of the marriage, in the public Meeting-house at
+Broad Mead, in Bristol, they took each other in marriage, in the plain
+and simple manner as then practised, and which he himself had originally
+recommended to his followers.
+
+[Footnote 1: G. Fox's Journal, Vol. 2. p. 135.]
+
+The regulations concerning marriage, and the manner of the celebration
+of it, which obtained in the time of George Fox, nearly obtain among the
+Quakers of the present day.
+
+When marriage is agreed upon between two persons, the man and the woman,
+at one of the monthly meetings, publicly declare their intention, and
+ask leave to proceed. At this time their parents, if living, must either
+appear, or send certificates to signify their consent. This being done,
+two men are appointed by the men's meeting, and two women are appointed
+by that of the women, to wait upon the man and woman respectively, and
+to learn from themselves, as well as by other inquiry, if they stand
+perfectly clear from any marriage-promises and engagements to others. At
+the next monthly meeting the deputation make their report. If either of
+the parties is reported to have given expectation of marriage to any
+other individual, the proceedings are stopped till the matter be
+satisfactorily explained. But if they are both of them reported to be
+clear in this respect, they are at liberty to proceed, and one or more
+persons of respectability of each sex, are deputed to see that the
+marriage be conducted in an orderly manner.
+
+In the case of second marriages, additional instructions are sometimes
+given; for if any of the parties thus intimating their intentions of
+marrying should have children alive, the same persons, who were deputed
+to inquire into their clearness from all other engagements, are to see
+that the rights of such children be legally secured.
+
+When the parties are considered to be free, by the reports of the
+deputation, to proceed upon their union, they appoint a suitable day for
+the celebration of it, which is generally one of the week-day meetings
+for worship. On this day they repair to the Meeting-house with their
+friends. The congregation, when seated, sit in silence. Perhaps some
+minister is induced to speak. After a suitable time has elapsed, the man
+and the woman rise up together, and, taking each other by the hand,
+declare publicly, that they thus take each other as husband and wife.
+This constitutes their marriage. By way, however, of evidence of their
+union, a paper is signed by the man and woman, in the presence of three
+witnesses, who sign it also, in which it is stated that they have so
+taken each other in marriage. And, in addition to this, though, it be
+not a necessary practice, another paper is generally produced and read,
+stating concisely the proceedings of the parties in their respective
+Meetings for the purpose of their marriage, and the declaration made by
+them, as having taken each other as man and wife. This is signed by the
+parties, their relations, and frequently by many of their friends, and
+others present. All marriages of other Dissenters are celebrated in the
+established churches, according to the ceremonies of the same. But the
+marriages of the Quakers are valid by law in their own Meeting-houses,
+when solemnised in this simple manner.
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers, marrying out of the Society, to be disowned--That regulation
+charged with pride and cruelty--Reasons for this disownment are--That
+mixed Marriages cannot be celebrated without a violation of same of the
+great Principles of the Society--That they are generally productive of
+disputes and uneasiness to those concerned--and that the discipline
+cannot be carried on in such families._
+
+
+Among the regulations suggested by George Fox, and adopted by his
+followers, it was determined that persons, belonging to the society,
+should not intermarry with those of other religious professions. Such an
+heterogeneous union was denominated a _mixed marriage_; and persons,
+engaging in such mixed marriages, were to be disowned.
+
+People of other denominations have charged the Quakers with a more than
+usually censurable pride, on account of their adoption of this law. They
+consider them as looking down upon the rest of their fellow-creatures,
+as so inferior or unholy, as not to deign or to dare to mix in alliance
+with them, or as looking upon them in the same light as the Jews
+considered the Heathen, or the Greeks the Barbarian world. And they have
+charged them also with as much cruelty as pride, on the same account. "A
+Quaker, they say, feels himself strongly attached to an accomplished
+woman; but she does not belong to the society. He wishes to marry, but
+he cannot marry her on account of its laws. Having a respect for the
+society, he looks round it again, but he looks round it in vain. He
+finds no one equal to this woman; no one, whom he could love so well. To
+marry one in the society, while he loves another out of it better, would
+be evidently wrong. If he does not marry her, he makes the greatest of
+all sacrifices, for he loses that which he supposes would constitute a
+source of enjoyment to him for the remainder of his life. If he marries
+her, he is expelled the society; and this, without having been guilty of
+an immoral offence."
+
+One of the reasons, which the Quakers give for the adoption of this law
+of disownment in the case of mixed marriages, is, that those who engage
+in them violate some of the most important principles of the society,
+and such indeed as are distinguishing characteristics of Quakerism from
+the religion of the world.
+
+It is a religious tenet of the Quakers, as will be shown in its proper
+place, that no appointment of man can make a minister of the gospel, and
+that no service, consisting of an artificial form of words, to be
+pronounced on stated occasions, can constitute a religious act; for that
+the spirit of God is essentially necessary to create the one, and to
+produce the other. It is also another tenet with them, that no minister
+of a christian church, ought to be paid for his Gospel-labours. This
+latter tenet is held so sacred by the Quakers, that it affords one
+reason among others, why they refuse payment of tithes, and other
+demands of the church, preferring to suffer loss by distraints for them,
+than to comply with them in the usual manner. Now these two principles
+are essentials of Quakerism. But no person, who marries out of the
+society, can be legally married without going through the forms of the
+established church. Those therefore who submit to this ceremony, as
+performed by a priest, acknowledge, according to the Quakers, the
+validity of an human appointment of the ministry. They acknowledge the
+validity of an artificial service in religion. They acknowledge the
+propriety of paying a Gospel-minister for the discharge of his office.
+The Quakers, therefore, consider those who marry out of the society, as
+guilty of such a dereliction of Quaker-principles, that they can be no
+longer considered as sound or consistent members.
+
+But independently of the violation of these principles, which the
+Quakers take as the strongest ground for their conduct on such an
+occasion, they think themselves warranted in disowning, from a
+contemplation of the consequences, which have been known to result from
+these marriages.
+
+In the first place, disownment is held to be necessary, because it acts
+as a check upon such marriages, and because, by acting as such a check,
+it prevents the family-disputes and disagreements which might otherwise
+arise; for such marriages have been found to be more productive of
+uneasiness than of enjoyment. When two persons of different religious
+principles, a Quaker for example, and a woman of the church, join in
+marriage, it is almost impossible that they should not occasionally
+differ. The subject of religion arises, and perhaps some little
+altercation with it, as the Sunday comes. The one will not go to church,
+and the other will not go to meeting. These disputes do not always die
+with time. They arise, however, more or less, according to
+circumstances. If neither of the parties set any value upon their
+religious opinions, there will be but little occasion for dispute. If
+both of them, on the other hand, are of a serious cast, much will depend
+upon the liberality of their sentiments: but, generally speaking, it
+falls to the lot of but few to be free from religious prejudices. And
+here it may be observed, that points in religion also may occasionally
+be suggested, which may bring with them the seeds of temporary
+uneasiness. People of other religious denominations generally approach
+nearer to one another in their respective creeds, than the Quakers to
+either of them. Most christians agree, for example, in the use of
+Baptism in some form or other, and also in the celebration of the Lord's
+Supper. But the Quakers, as will be shown in this volume, consider these
+ordinances in a spiritual light, admitting no ceremonials in so pure a
+system as that of the Christian religion.
+
+But these differences, which may thus soon or late take their rise upon
+these or other subjects, where the parties set a value on their
+respective religious opinions, cannot fail of being augmented by new
+circumstances in time. The parties in question have children. The
+education of these is now a subject of the most important concern. New
+disputes are engendered on this head, both adhering to their respective
+tenets as the best to be embraced by their rising offspring. Unable at
+length to agree on this point, a sort of compromise takes place. The
+boys are denied, while the girls are permitted, baptism. The boys,
+again, are brought up to meeting, and the girls to church, or they go
+to church and meeting alternately. In the latter case, none of the
+children can have any fixed principles. Nor will they be much better off
+in the former. There will be frequently an opposition of each other's
+religious opinions, and a constant hesitation and doubt about the
+consistency of these. There are many points, which the mothers will
+teach the daughters as right, or essential, but which the fathers will
+teach the sons as erroneous or unimportant. Thus disputes will be
+conveyed to the children. In their progress through life other
+circumstances may arise, which may give birth to feelings of an
+unpleasant nature. The daughters will be probably instructed in the
+accomplishments of the world. They will be also introduced to the
+card-room, and to assemblies, and to the theatre, in their turn. The
+boys will be admitted to neither. The latter will of course feel their
+pleasures abridged, and consider their case as hard, and their father as
+morose and cruel. Little jealousies may arise upon this difference of
+their treatment, which may be subversive of filial and fraternal
+affection. Nor can religion be called in to correct them; for while the
+two opposite examples of father and mother, and of sisters and brothers,
+are held out to be right, there will be considerable doubts as to what
+are religious truths.
+
+The Quakers urge again in behalf of their law against mixed marriages,
+that if these were not forbidden, it would be impossible to carry on the
+discipline of the society. The truth of this may be judged by the
+preceding remarks. For if the family were divided into two parties, as
+has been just stated, on account of their religion, it would be but in a
+kind of mongrel-state. If, for instance, it were thought right, that the
+Quaker-part of it should preserve the simplicity of the Quaker-dress,
+and the plainness of the Quaker-language, how is this to be done, while
+the other part daily move in the fashions, and are taught as a right
+usage, to persist in the phrases of the world? If, again, the
+Quaker-part of it are to be kept from the amusements prohibited by the
+society, how is this to be effected, while the other part of it speak of
+them from their own experience, with rapture or delight? It would be
+impossible, therefore, in the opinion of the Quakers, in so mixed a
+family, to keep up that discipline, which they consider as the
+corner-stone of their constitutional fabric, and which may be said to
+have been an instrument in obtaining for them the character of a moral
+people.
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_But though persons are thus disowned, they may be restored to
+membership--Generally understood, however, that they must previously
+express their repentance for their marriages--This confession of
+repentance censured by the world--But is admissible without the
+criminality supposed--The word repentance misunderstood by the world._
+
+
+But though the Quakers may disown such as marry out of their society, it
+does not follow that these may not be reinstated as members. If these
+should conduct themselves after their disownment in an orderly manner,
+and, still retaining their attachment to the society, should bring up
+their children in the principles and customs of it, they may, if they
+apply for restoration, obtain it, with all their former privileges and
+rights.
+
+The children also of such as marry out of the society, though they are
+never considered to be members of it, may yet become so in particular
+cases. The society advises that the monthly meetings, should extend a
+tender care towards such children, and that they should be admitted
+into membership at the discretion of the said meetings, either in
+infancy or in maturer age.
+
+But here I must stop to make a few observations, on an opinion which
+prevails upon this subject. It is generally understood that the Quakers,
+in their restoration of disowned persons to membership, require them
+previously and publicly to acknowledge, that they have _repented_ of
+their marriages. This obligation to make this public confession of
+repentance, has given to many a handle for heavy charges against them.
+Indeed I scarcely know, in any part of the Quaker-system, where people
+are louder in their censures, than upon this point. "A man, they say,
+cannot express his penitence for his marriage without throwing a stigma
+upon his wife. To do this is morally wrong, if he has no fault to find
+with her. To do it, even if she has been in fault, is indelicate. And
+not to do it, is to forego his restoration to membership. This law
+therefore of the Quakers is considered to be immoral, because it may
+lead both to hypocrisy and falsehood."
+
+I shall not take up much time in correcting the notions that have gone
+abroad on this subject.
+
+Of those who marry out of the society, it may be presumed that there are
+some, who were never considered to be sound in the Quaker-principles,
+and these are generally they who intermarry with the world. Now they,
+who compose this class, generally live after their marriages, as happily
+out of the society as when they were in it. Of course, these do not
+repent of the change. And if they do not repent, they never sue for
+restoration to membership. They cannot, therefore, incur any of the
+charges in question. Nor can the society be blamed in this case, who, by
+never asking them to become members, never entice them to any
+objectionable repentance.
+
+Of those again, who marry out of the society, there may be individuals,
+so attached to its communion, that it was never imagined they would have
+acted in this manner. Now of these, it may in general be said, that they
+often bitterly repent. They find, soon or late, that the opposite
+opinions and manners, to be found in their union, do not harmonize. And
+here it may be observed, that it is very possible, that such persons may
+say they repent without any crimination of their wives. A man, for
+instance, may have found in his wife all the agreeableness of temper,
+all the domestic virtue and knowledge, all the liberality of religious
+opinion, which he had anticipated; but in consequence of the mixed
+principles resulting from mixed marriages, or of other unforeseen
+causes, he may be so alarmed about the unsteady disposition of his
+children and their future prospects, that the pain which he feels on
+these accounts may overbalance the pleasure, which he acknowledges in
+the constant prudence, goodness, solicitude, and affection, of his wife.
+This may be so much the case, that all her consolatory offices may not
+be able to get the better of his grief. A man, therefore, in such
+circumstances, may truly repent of his marriage, or that he was ever the
+father of such children, though he can never complain as the husband of
+such a wife.
+
+The truth, however, is, that those who make the charge in question, have
+entirely misapplied the meaning of the word _repent_. People are not
+called upon to express their sorrow, for _having married the objects of
+their choice_, but for _having violated those great tenets of the
+society_, which have been already mentioned, and which form
+distinguishing characteristics between Quakerism and the religion of the
+world. Those, therefore, who say they repent, say no more than what any
+other persons might be presumed to say, who had violated the religious
+tenets of any other society to which they might have belonged, or who
+had flown in the face of what they had imagined to be religious truths.
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Of persons, disowned for marriage, the greater proportion is said to
+consist of women--Causes assigned for this difference of number in the
+two sexes._
+
+
+It will perhaps appear a curious fact to the world, but I am told it is
+true, that the number of the women, disowned for marrying out of the
+society, far exceeds the number of the men, who are disowned on the same
+account.
+
+It is not difficult, if the fact be as it is stated, to assign a reason
+for this difference of number in the two sexes.
+
+When men wish to marry, they wish, at least if they are men of sense, to
+find such women as are virtuous; to find such as are prudent and
+domestic, and such as have a proper sense of the folly and dissipation
+of the Fashionable world; such in fact as will make good mothers and
+good wives. Now if a Quaker looks into his own society, he will
+generally find the female part of it of this description. Female Quakers
+excel in these points. But if he looks into the world at large, he will
+in general find a contrast in the females there. These, in general, are
+but badly educated. They are taught to place a portion of their
+happiness in finery and show: utility is abandoned for fashion: The
+knowledge of the etiquette of the drawing-room usurps the place of the
+knowledge of the domestic duties: A kind of false and dangerous taste
+predominates: Scandal and the card-table are preferred to the pleasures
+of a rural walk: Virtue and Modesty are seen with only half their
+energies, being overpowered by the noxiousness of novel-reading
+principles, and by the moral taint which infects those who engage in the
+varied rounds of a fashionable life. Hence a want of knowledge, a love
+of trifles, and a dissipated turn of mind, generally characterize those
+who are considered as having had the education of the world.
+
+We see therefore a good reason why Quaker-men should confine themselves
+in their marriages to their own society. But the same reason, which thus
+operates with Quaker-men in the choice of Quaker-women, operates with
+men who are not of the society, in choosing them also for their wives.
+These are often no strangers to the good education, and to the high
+character, of the Quaker-females. Fearful often of marrying among the
+badly educated women of their own persuasion, they frequently address
+themselves to this society, and not unfrequently succeed.
+
+To this it may be added, that if Quaker-men were to attempt to marry out
+of their own society, they would not in general be well received. Their
+dress and their manners are considered as uncouth in the eyes of the
+female-world, and would present themselves as so many obstacles in the
+way of their success. The women of this description generally like a
+smart and showy exterior. They admire heroism and spirit. But neither
+such an exterior, nor such spirit, are to be seen in the Quaker-men. The
+dress of the Quaker-females, on the other hand, is considered as neat
+and elegant, and their modesty and demeanor as worthy of admiration.
+From these circumstances they captivate. Hence the difference, both in
+the inward and outward person, between the men and the women of this
+society, renders the former not so pleasing, while it renders the latter
+objects of admiration, and even choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+_Funerals--Most nations have paid extravagant attention to their
+dead--The moderns follow their example--This extravagance, or the
+pageantry of funerals, discarded by the Quakers--Their reasons for
+it--Plainness of Quaker-funerals._
+
+
+If we look into the history of the world, we shall find, from whatever
+cause it has arisen, whether from any thing connected with our moral
+feelings, such as love, gratitude, or respect, or from vanity, or
+ostentation, that almost all nations, where individuals have been able
+to afford it, have incurred considerable expense in the interment of
+their dead. The Greeks were often very extravagant in their funerals.
+Many persons, ornamented with garlands, followed the corpse, while
+others were employed in singing and dancing before it. At the funerals
+of the great, among the Romans, couches were carried, containing the
+waxen or other images of the family of the deceased, and hundreds joined
+in the procession. In our own times, we find a difference in the manner
+of furnishing or decorating funerals, though but little in the intention
+of making them objects of outward show. A bearer of plumes precedes the
+procession. The horses employed are dressed in trappings. The hearse
+follows ornamented with plumes of feathers, and gilded and silvered with
+gaudy escutcheons, or the armorial bearings of the progenitors of the
+deceased. A group of hired persons range themselves on each side of the
+hearse and attendant carriages, while others close the procession. These
+again are all of them clad in long cloaks, or furnished, in regular
+order, with scarfs and hat-bands. Now all these outward appendages,
+which may be called the pageantry of funerals, the Quakers have
+discarded, from the time of their institution, in the practice of the
+burial of their dead.
+
+The Quakers are of opinion, that funeral processions should be made, if
+any thing is to be made of them, to excite serious reflections, and to
+produce lessons of morality in those who see them. This they conceive to
+be best done by depriving the dead body of all ornaments and outward
+honours. For, stripped in this manner, they conceive it to approach the
+nearest to its native worthlessness or dust. Such funerals, therefore,
+may excite in the spectator a deep sense of the low and debased
+condition of man. And his feelings will be pure on the occasion, because
+they will be unmixed with the consideration of the artificial
+distinctions of human life. The spectator too will be more likely, if he
+sees all go undistinguished to the grave, to deduce for himself the
+moral lesson, that there is no true elevation of one above another, only
+as men follow the practical duties of virtue and religion. But what
+serious reflections, or what lessons of morality, on the other hand, do
+the funerals of the world produce, if accompanied with pomp and
+splendour? To those who have sober and serious minds, they produce a
+kind of pity, that is mingled with disgust. In those of a ludicrous
+turn, they provoke ludicrous ideas, when they see a dead body attended
+with such extravagant parade. To the vulgar and the ignorant no one
+useful lesson is given. Their senses are all absorbed in the show; and
+the thoughts of the worthlessness of man, as well as of death and the
+grave, which ought naturally to suggest themselves on such occasions,
+are swallowed up in the grandeur and pageantry of the procession.
+Funerals, therefore, of this kind, are calculated to throw honour upon
+riches, abstractedly of moral merit; to make the creature of as much
+importance when dead as when alive; to lessen the humility of man; and
+to destroy, of course, the moral and religious feelings that should
+arise upon such occasions. Add to which, that such a conduct among
+christians must be peculiarly improper; for the christian dispensation
+teaches man, that he is "to work out his salvation with fear and
+trembling." It seems inconsistent, therefore, to accompany with all the
+outward signs of honour and greatness the body of a poor wretch, who has
+had this difficult and awful task to perform, and who is on his last
+earthly journey, previously to his appearance before the tribunal of the
+Almighty to be judged for the deeds which he has committed in the flesh.
+
+Actuated by such sentiments as these, the Quakers have discarded all
+parade at their funerals. When they die, they are buried in a manner
+singularly plain. The corpse is deposited in a plain coffin. When
+carried to the meeting-house or grave-yard, it is attended by relations
+and friends. These have nothing different at this time in their external
+garments from their ordinary dress. Neither man nor horse is apparelled
+for the purpose. All pomp and parade, however rich the deceased may have
+been, are banished from their funeral processions. The corpse, at
+length, arrives at the meeting-house[2]. It is suffered to remain there
+in the sight of the spectators. The congregation then sit in silence, as
+at a meeting for worship. If any one feels himself induced to speak, he
+delivers himself accordingly; if not, no other rite is used at this
+time. In process of time the coffin is taken out of the meeting-house,
+and carried to the grave. Many of the acquaintances of the deceased,
+both Quakers and others, follow it. It is at length placed by the side
+of the grave. A solemn, silent pause, immediately takes place. It is
+then interred. Another shorter pause then generally follows. These
+pauses are made, that the "spectators may be more deeply touched with a
+sense of their approaching exit, and their future state." If a minister
+or other person, during these pauses, have any observation or
+exhortation to make, which is frequently the case, he makes it. If no
+person should feel himself impressed to speak, the assembled persons
+depart. The act of seeing the body deposited in the grave, is the last
+public act of respect which the Quakers show to their deceased
+relations. This is the whole process of a Quaker-funeral.
+
+[Footnote 2: It is sometimes buried without being carried there.]
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers use no vaults in their burying-grounds--Relations sometimes
+buried near each other, but oftener otherwise--They use no tomb-stones
+or monumental inscriptions--Reasons for this disuse--But they sometimes
+record accounts of the lives, deaths, and dying sayings, of their
+Ministers._
+
+
+The Quakers, in the infancy of their institution, were buried in their
+gardens, or orchards, or in the fields and premises of one another. They
+had at that time no grave-yards of their own; and they refused to be
+buried in those of the church, lest they should thus acknowledge the
+validity of an human appointment of the priesthood, the propriety of
+payment for gospel-labour, and the peculiar holiness of consecrated
+ground. This refusal to be buried within the precincts of the church,
+was considered as the bearing of their testimony for truth. In process
+of time they raised their own meeting-houses, and had their respective
+burying places. But these were not always contiguous, but sometimes at a
+distance from one another, The Quakers have no sepulchres or arched
+vaults under ground for the reception of their dead. There has been here
+and there a vault, and there is here and there a grave with sides of
+brick; but the coffins, containing their bodies, are usually committed
+to the dust.
+
+I may observe also, that the Quakers are sometimes buried near their
+relations, but more frequently otherwise. In places where the
+Quaker-population is thin, and the burial ground large, a relation is
+buried next to a relation, if it be desired. In other places, however,
+the graves are usually dug in rows, and the bodies deposited in them,
+not as their relations lie, but as they happen to be opened in
+succession without any attention to family connexions. When the first
+grave in the row is opened and filled, the person who dies next, is put
+into that which is next to it; and the person who dies next, occupies
+that which is next to the second[3]. It is to many an endearing thought,
+that they shall lie after their death, near the remains of those whom
+they loved in life. But the Quakers, in general, have not thought it
+right or wise to indulge such feelings. They believe that all good men,
+however their bodies may be separated in their subterraneous houses of
+clay, will assuredly meet at the resurrection of the just.
+
+[Footnote 3: By this process a small piece of ground is longer in
+filling, no room being lost, and the danger and disagreeable necessity
+of opening graves before the bodies in them are decayed, is avoided.]
+
+The Quakers also reject the fashions of the world in the use of
+tomb-stones and monumental inscriptions. These are generally supposed to
+be erected out of respect to the memory or character of the deceased.
+The Quakers, however, are of opinion, that this is not the proper manner
+of honouring the dead. If you wish to honour a good man, who has
+departed this life, let all his good actions live in your memory; let
+them live in your grateful love and esteem; so cherish them in your
+heart, that they may constantly awaken you to imitation. Thus you will
+show, by your adoption of his amiable example, that you really respect
+his memory. This is also that tribute, which, if he himself could be
+asked in the other world how he would have his memory respected in this,
+he would prefer to any description of his virtues, that might be given
+by the ablest writer, or handed down to posterity by the ablest monument
+of the sculptor's art.
+
+But the Quakers have an objection to the use of tomb-stones and
+monumental inscriptions, for other reasons. For, where pillars of
+marble, abounding with panegyric, and decorated in a splendid manner,
+are erected to the ashes of dead men, there is a danger, lest, by making
+too much of these, a superstitious awe should be produced, and a
+superstitious veneration should attach to them. The early Christians, by
+making too much of the relics of their saints or pious men, fell into
+such errors.
+
+The Quakers believe, again, that if they were to allow the custom of
+these outward monuments to obtain among them, they might be often led,
+as the world is, and by the same causes, to a deviation from the truth;
+for it is in human nature to praise those whom we love, but more
+particularly when we have lost them. Hence, we find often such
+extravagant encomiums upon the dead, that if it were possible for these
+to be made acquainted with them, they would show their disapprobation of
+such records. Hence we find also, that "as false as an epitaph," has
+become a proverbial expression.
+
+But even in the case where nothing more is said upon the tomb-stone than
+what Moses said of Seth, and of Enos, and of Cainan, and others, when he
+reckoned up the genealogy of Adam, namely, that "they lived and that
+they died," the Quakers do not approve of such memorials. For these
+convey no merit of the deceased, by which his example should be
+followed. They convey no lesson of morality: and in general they are not
+particularly useful. They may serve perhaps to point out to surviving
+relations, the place where the body of the deceased was buried, so that
+they may know where to mark out the line for their own graves. But as
+the Quakers in general have overcome the prejudice of "sleeping with
+their fathers," such memorials cannot be so useful to them.
+
+The Quakers, however, have no objection, if a man has conducted himself
+particularly well in life, that a true statement should be made
+concerning him, provided such a statement would operate as a lesson of
+morality to others; but they think that the tomb-stone is not the best
+medium of conveying it. They are persuaded that very little moral
+advantage is derived to the cursory readers of epitaphs, or that they
+can trace their improvement in morals to this source. Sensible, however,
+that the memorials of good men may be made serviceable to the rising
+generation, ("and there are no ideas, says Addison, which strike more
+forcibly on our imaginations, than those which are raised from
+reflections upon the exits of great and excellent men,") they are
+willing to receive accounts of the lives, deaths, and remarkable dying
+sayings, of those ministers in their own society, who have been eminent
+for their labours. These are drawn up by individuals, and presented to
+the monthly meetings, to which the deceased belonged. But here they must
+undergo an examination before they are passed. The truth of the
+statement, and the utility of the record, must appear. It then falls to
+the quarterly meetings to examine them again, and these may alter, or
+pass, or reject them, as it may appear to be most proper. If these
+should pass them, they are forwarded to the yearly meeting. Many of
+them, after this, are printed; and, finding their way into the bookcases
+of the Quakers, they become collected essays of morality, and operate as
+incitements to piety to the rising youth. Thus the memorials of men are
+made useful by the Quakers in an unobjectionable manner; for the
+falsehood and flattery of epitaphs are thus avoided; none but good men
+having been selected, whose virtues, if they are recorded, can be
+perpetuated with truth.
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_They discard also mourning garments--These are only emblems of
+sorrow--and often make men pretend to be what they are not--This
+contrary to Christianity--Thus they may become little better than
+disguised pomp, or fashionable forms--This instanced in the changes and
+duration of common mourning--and in the custom also of court-mourning
+--Ramifications of the latter._
+
+
+As the Quakers neither allow of the tomb-stones, nor the monumental
+inscriptions, so they do not allow of the mourning garments of the
+world.
+
+They believe there can be no true sorrow but in the heart, and that
+there can be no other true outward way of showing it than by fulfilling
+the desires, and by imitating the best actions, of those whom men have
+lost and loved. "The mourning, says William Penn, which it is fit for a
+Christian to have on the departure of beloved relations and friends,
+should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss. And the
+love which men have had to these, and their remembrance of them, should
+be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those
+they have left behind them, and their love of that which they loved."
+
+But mourning garments, the Quakers contend, are only emblems of sorrow.
+They will therefore frequently be used, where no sorrow is. Many persons
+follow their deceased relatives to the grave, whose death, in point of
+gain, is a matter of real joy; witness young spendthrifts, who have been
+raising sum after sum on expectation, and calculating with voracious
+anxiety, the probable duration of their relations' lives. And yet all
+these follow the corpse to the grave, with white handkerchiefs, mourning
+habits, slouched hats, and dangling hat-bands. Mourning garments,
+therefore, frequently make men pretend to be what they are not. But no
+true or consistent Christian can exhibit an outward appearance to the
+world, which his inward feelings do not justify.
+
+It is not contended here by the Quakers, that because a man becomes
+occasionally a hypocrite, this is a sufficient objection against any
+system; for a man may be an Atheist even in a Quaker's garb. Nor is it
+insinuated, that individuals do not sometimes feel in their hearts, the
+sorrow which they purpose to signify by their clothing. But it is
+asserted to be true, that men who use mourning habits as they are
+generally used, do not wear them for those deceased persons only whom
+they loved, and abstain from the use of them where they had no esteem,
+but that they wear them promiscuously on all the occasions which have
+been dictated by fashion. Mourning habits therefore, in consequence of a
+long system of etiquette, have become, in the opinion of the Quakers,
+but little better than _disguised pomp_, or _fashionable forms_.
+
+I shall endeavour to throw some light upon this position of the Quakers,
+by looking into the practice of the world.
+
+In the first place, there are seasons there, when full mourning, and
+seasons when only half mourning, is to be worn. Thus the habit is
+changed, and for no other reason, than that of conformity with the laws
+of fashion. The length of this time also, or season of mourning, is made
+to depend upon the scale of men's affinity to the deceased; though
+nothing can be more obvious, than that men's affection for the living,
+and that their sorrow for them when dead, cannot be measured by this
+standard. Hence the very time that a man shall mourn, and the very time
+that he shall only half-mourn, and the very time that he shall cease to
+mourn, is fixed for him by the world, whatever may be the duration of
+his own sorrow.
+
+In court-mourning also, we have an instance of men being instructed to
+mourn, where their feelings are neither interested nor concerned. In
+this case, the _disguised pomp_, spoken of by the Quakers, will be more
+apparent. Two princes have perhaps been fighting with each other for a
+considerable portion of their reigns. The blood of their subjects has
+been spilled, and their treasures have been exhausted. They have
+probably had, during all this time, no kind disposition one towards
+another, each considering the other as the aggressor, or as the author
+of the war. When both have been wearied out with expense, they have made
+peace. But they have still mutual jealousies and fears. At length one of
+them dies. The other, on receiving an express relative to the event,
+orders mourning for the deceased for a given time. As other potentates
+receive the intelligence, they follow the example. Their several levees
+or drawing-rooms, or places of public audience, are filled with
+mourners. Every individual of each sex, who is accustomed to attend
+them, is now habited in black. Thus a round of mourning is kept up by
+the courtiers of Europe, not by means of any sympathetic beating of the
+heart, but at the sound, as it were, of the postman's horn.
+
+But let us trace this species of mourning farther, and let us now more
+particularly look at the example of our own country for the elucidation
+of the point in question. The same Gazette, which gave birth to this
+black influenza at court, spreads it still farther. The private
+gentlemen of the land undertake to mourn also. You see them accordingly
+in the streets, and in private parties, and at public places, in their
+mourning habits. Nor is this all. Military officers, who have fought
+against the armies of the deceased, wear black crapes over their arms in
+token of the same sorrow.
+
+But the fever does not stop even here. It still spreads, and in tracing
+its progress, we find it to have attacked our merchants. Yes, the
+disorder has actually got upon _change_. But what have I said? Mourning
+habits upon change! Where the news of an army cut to pieces, produces
+the most cheerful countenances in many, if it raises the stocks but an
+half per cent. Mourning habits upon change, where contracts are made for
+human flesh and blood! Where plans that shall consign cargoes of human
+beings to misery and untimely death, and their posterity to bondage, are
+deliberately formed and agreed upon! O sorrow, sorrow! what hast thou
+to do upon change, except in the case of commercial losses, or
+disappointed speculation! But to add to this _disguised pomp_, as the
+Quakers call it, not one of ten thousand of the mourners, ever saw the
+deceased prince; and perhaps ninety nine in the hundred, of all who
+heard of him, reprobated his character when alive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+_Occupations of the Quakers--Agriculture declining among them--Probable
+reasons of this decline--Country congenial to the quietude of mind
+required by their religion--Sentiments of Cowper--Congenial also to the
+improvement of their moral feelings--Sentiments of William
+Penn--Particularly suited to them as lovers of the animal creation._
+
+
+The Quakers generally bring up their children to some employment. They
+believe that these, by having an occupation, may avoid evils, into which
+they might otherwise fall, if they had upon their hands an undue
+proportion of vacant time. "Friends of all degrees, says the book of
+extracts, are advised to take due care to breed up their children in
+some useful and necessary employment, that they may not spend their
+precious time in idleness, which is of evil example, and tends much to
+their hurt."
+
+The Quakers have been described to be a domestic people, and as
+peculiarly cherishing domestic happiness. Upon this principle it is,
+combined with the ties of their discipline and peculiar customs, that
+we scarcely find any of this society quitting their country, except for
+America, to reside in foreign parts. If it be a charge against the
+Quakers, that they are eager in the pursuit of wealth, let it at least
+be mentioned in their favour, that, in their accumulation of it, they
+have been careful not to suffer their knowledge to take advantage of the
+ignorance of others, and to keep their hands clear of the oppression,
+and of the blood of their fellow-creatures.
+
+In looking among the occupations of the Quakers, we shall find some, who
+are brought up as manufacturers and mechanics; but the number of these
+is small.
+
+Others, but these are few, follow the sea. There may be here and there a
+mate or captain in the coasting employ. In America, where they have
+great local and other advantages, there may be more in the seafaring
+line. But, in general, the Quakers are domestic characters, and prefer
+home.
+
+There are but few also, who follow the professions. Their education and
+their religion exclude them from some of these. Some, however, are to be
+found in the department of medicine: and others, as conveyancers, in the
+law.
+
+Several of the Quakers follow agriculture. But these are few, compared
+with the rest of the society, or compared with the number of those who
+formerly followed a rural life. Almost all the Quakers were originally
+in the country, and but few of them in the towns. But this order of
+things is reversing fast. They are flocking into the towns, and are
+abandoning agricultural pursuits.
+
+The reasons, which may be given for this change, may be the following.
+It is not at all unlikely but that tithes may have had some influence in
+producing it. I am aware, however, it will be said, that a Quaker,
+living in the country, and strongly principled against these, would
+think it a dereliction of his duty to leave it on this account, and
+would remain upon the principle, that an abode there, under the annual
+exercise of his testimony, would, in a religions point of view, add
+strength to his strength. But it must be observed; on the other hand,
+that where men are not obliged to remain under grievous evils, and can
+get rid of them, merely by changing their occupation in life, and this
+honourably, it is in human nature to do it. And so far tithes, I
+believe, have had an influence, in driving the Quakers into the towns.
+Of later years, as the society has grown thinner in the country, I
+believe new reasons have sprung up; for the Quakers have had less
+opportunity of society with one another. They have been subjected, also
+to greater inconvenience in attending their religious meetings. Their
+children also have been more exposed to improper connexions in marriage.
+To which it may be added, that the large and rapid profits frequently
+made in trade, compared with the generally small and slow returns from
+agricultural concerns, may probably have operated with many, as an
+inducement to such a change.
+
+But whatever reasons may have induced them to quit the country, and to
+settle in the towns, no temporal advantages can make up to them, as a
+society, the measure of their loss. For when we consider that the
+Quakers never partake of the amusements of the world; that their worldly
+pleasures are chiefly of a domestic nature; that calmness, and quietude,
+and abstraction from worldly thoughts, to which rural retirement is
+peculiarly favourable, is the state of mind which they themselves
+acknowledge to be required by their religion, it would seem that the
+country was peculiarly the place for their habitations.
+
+It would seem, also as if, by this forsaking of the country, they had
+deprived themselves of many opportunities of the highest enjoyment of
+which they are capable as Quakers. The objects in the country are
+peculiarly favourable to the improvement of morality in the exercise of
+the spiritual feelings. The bud and the blossom, the rising and the
+falling leaf, the blade of corn and the ear, the seed time and the
+harvest, the sun that warms and ripens, the cloud that cools and emits
+the fruitful shower; these, and an hundred objects, afford daily food
+for the religious growth of the mind. Even the natural man is pleased
+with these. They excite in him natural ideas, and produce in him a
+natural kind of pleasure. But the spiritual man experiences a sublimer
+joy. He sees none of these without feeling both spiritual improvement
+and delight. It is here that he converses with the Deity in his works:
+It is here that he finds himself grateful for his goodness--that he
+acknowledges his wisdom--that he expresses his admiration of his power.
+
+The poet Cowper, in his contemplation of a country life, speaks forcibly
+on this subject.
+
+   "O friendly to the best pursuits of man,
+   Friendly to _thought_, to _virtue_, and to _peace_,
+   Domestic life, in rural leisure pass'd!
+   Few know thy value, and few taste thy sweets;
+   Though many boast thy favours, and affect
+   To understand and choose these for their own
+   But foolish man _forgoes his proper bliss_,
+   Ev'n as his first progenitor, and quits,
+   Though plac'd in Paradise, (for earth has still
+   Some traces of her youthful beauty left,)
+   _Substantial happiness_ for _transient joy_.
+   Scenes form'd for _contemplation_, and to _nurse_
+   The _growing seeds of wisdom_, that suggest
+   By every pleasing image they present,
+   Reflections, _such as meliorate the heart,
+   Compose the passions, and exalt the mind."_
+
+William Penn, in the beautiful letter which he left his wife and
+children before his first voyage to America, speaks also in strong terms
+upon the point in question.
+
+"But agriculture, says he, is especially in my eye. Let my children be
+husbandmen and housewives. This occupation is industrious, healthy,
+honest, and of good example. Like Abraham and the holy ancients, who
+pleased God, and obtained a good report, this leads to consider the
+_works of God_, and _nature of things that are good_, and diverts the
+mind from _being taken up_ with the _vain arts and inventions of a
+luxurious world_." And a little farther on he says, "_Of cities and
+towns, of concourse beware_. The _world is apt to stick close_ to those,
+who have _lived and got wealth there_. A _country life and estate_, I
+like best for my children. I prefer a decent mansion of a hundred pounds
+a year, to ten thousand pounds in London, or such like place, _in the
+way of trade_."
+
+To these observations it may he added, that the country, independently
+of the opportunity it affords for calmness and quietude of mind, and the
+moral improvement of it in the exercise of the spiritual feelings, is
+peculiarly fitted for the habitation of the Quakers, on account of their
+peculiar love for the animal creation. It would afford them a wide range
+for the exercise of this love, and the improvement of the benevolent
+affections. For tenderness, if encouraged, like a plant that is duly
+watered, still grows. What man has ever shown a proper affection for the
+brute creation, who has been backward in his love of the human race?
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Trade--Trade seldom considered as a question of morals--But Quakers
+view it in this light--Prohibit the slave-trade--Privateering
+--Manufactories of weapons of war--Also trade where the revenue is
+defrauded--Hazardous enterprises--Fictitious paper--Insist upon
+punctuality to words and engagements--Advise an annual inspection of
+their own affairs--Regulations in case of bankruptcy._
+
+
+I stated in the last chapter, that some of the Quakers, though these
+were few in number, were manufacturers and mechanics; that others
+followed the sea; that, others were to be found in the medical
+profession, and in the law; and that others were occupied in the
+concerns of a rural life. I believe with these few exceptions, that the
+rest of the society may be considered as engaged in trade.
+
+Trade is a subject, which seldom comes under the discussion of mankind
+as a moral question. If men who follow it, are honest and punctual in
+their dealings, little is thought of the nature of their occupations,
+or of the influence of these upon their minds. It will hardly, however,
+be denied by moralists, that the buying and selling of commodities for
+profit, is surrounded with temptation, and is injurious to pure,
+benevolent, or disinterested feelings; or that where the mind is
+constantly intent upon the gaining of wealth, by traffic, it is
+dangerously employed. Much less will it be denied, that trade is an
+evil, if any of the branches of it through which men acquire their
+wealth, are productive of mischief either to themselves or others. If
+they are destructive to the health of the inferior agents, or to the
+morality of any of the persons concerned in them, they can never be
+sanctioned by Christianity.
+
+The Quakers have thought it their duty, as a religious body, to make
+several regulations on this subject.
+
+In the first place they have made it a rule, that no person,
+acknowledged to be in profession with them, shall have any concern in
+the slave-trade.
+
+The Quakers began to consider this subject, as a Christian body, so
+early as in the beginning of the last century. In the year 1727, they
+passed a public censure upon this trade. In the year 1758, and
+afterwards in the year 1761, they warned and exhorted all in profession
+with them "to keep their hands clear of this unrighteous gain of
+oppression." In the yearly meeting of 1763, they renewed their
+exhortation in the following words: "We renew our exhortation, that
+Friends every where be especially careful to keep their hands clear of
+giving encouragement in any shape to the slave-trade; it being evidently
+destructive of the natural rights of mankind, who are all ransomed by
+one Saviour, and visited by one divine light in order to salvation; a
+traffic calculated to enrich and aggrandize some upon the miseries of
+others; in its nature abhorrent to every just and tender sentiment, and
+contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel."
+
+In the same manner, from the year 1763, they have publicly manifested a
+tender concern for the happiness of the injured Africans, and they have
+not only been vigilant to see that none of their own members were
+concerned in this impious traffic, but they have lent their assistance
+with other Christians in promoting its discontinuance.
+
+They have forbidden also the trade of privateering in war. The Quakers
+consider the capture of private vessels by private persons, as a robbery
+committed on the property of others, which no human authority can make
+reconcileable to the consciences of honest individuals. And upon this
+motive they forbid it, as well as upon that of their known profession
+against war.
+
+They forbid also the trade of the manufacturing of gun-powder, and of
+arms or weapons of war, such as swords, guns, pistols, bayonets, and the
+like, that they may stand clear of the charge of having made any
+instrument, the avowed use of which is the destruction of human life.
+
+They have forbidden also all trade, that has for its object the
+defrauding of the king either of his customs or his excise. They are not
+only not to smuggle themselves, but they are not to deal in such goods
+as they know, or such as they even suspect, to be smuggled; nor to buy
+any article of this description, even for their private use. This
+prohibition is enjoined, because all Christians ought "to render to
+Caesar the things that are Caesars," in all cases where their
+consciences do not suffer by doing it: because those, who are accessory
+to smuggling, give encouragement to perjury and bloodshed, these being
+frequently the attendants of such unlawful practices; and because they
+do considerable injury to the honest trader.
+
+They discourage also concerns in "hazardous enterprises," in the way of
+trade. Such enterprisses are apt to disturb the tranquillity of the
+mind, and to unfit if for religious exercise. They may involve also the
+parties concerned, and their families, in ruin. They may deprive them
+again of the means of paying their just debts, and thus render them
+injurious to their creditors. Members, therefore, are advised to be
+rather content with callings which may produce small but certain
+profits, than to hazard the tranquillity of their minds, and the
+property of themselves and others.
+
+In the exercise of those callings which are deemed lawful by the
+society, two things are insisted upon: first, that their members "never
+raise and circulate any fictitious kind of paper credit, with
+endorsements and acceptances, to give it an appearance of value without
+an intrinsic reality:" secondly, that they should be particularly
+attentive to their words, and to the punctual performance of their
+engagements, and on no account delay their payments beyond the time they
+have promised. The society have very much at heart the enforcement of
+the latter injunction, not only because all christians are under an
+obligation to do these things, but because they wish to see the high
+reputation of their ancestors, in these respects, preserved among those
+of their own day. The early Quakers were noted for a scrupulous
+attention to their duty, as Christians, in their commercial concerns.
+One of the great clamours against them, in the infancy of their
+institution, was, that they would get all the trade. It was nothing but
+their great honour in their dealings, arising from religious principle,
+that gave birth to this uproar, or secured them a more than ordinary
+portion of the custom of the world in the line of their respective
+trades.
+
+Among other regulations made by the Quakers on the subject of trade, it
+is advised publicly to the members of the society, to inspect the state
+of their affairs once a year. And lest this advice should be
+disregarded, the monthly meetings are directed to make annual
+appointments of suitable Friends to communicate it to the members
+individually. But independently of this public recommendation, they are
+earnestly advised by their book of extracts, to examine their situations
+frequently. This is done with a view, that they may see how they stand
+with respect to themselves and the world at large; that they may not
+launch out into commercial concerns beyond their strength, nor live
+beyond their income, nor go on longer in their business than they can
+pay their debts.
+
+If a Quaker, after this inspection of his affairs, should find himself
+unable to pay his just debts, he is immediately to disclose his affairs
+to some judicious members of the society, or to his principal creditors,
+and to take their advice how he is to act; but to be particularly
+careful not to pay one creditor in preference to another.
+
+When a person of the society becomes a bankrupt, a committee is
+appointed by his own monthly meeting, to confer with him on his affairs.
+If the bankruptcy should appear, by their report, to have been the
+result of misconduct, he is disowned. He may, however, on a full
+repentance, (for it is a maxim with the society, that "true repentance
+washes put all stains,") and by a full payment of every man his own, be
+admitted into membership again; or if he has begun to pay his creditors,
+and has made arrangements satisfactory to the society for paying them,
+he may be received as a member, even before the whole of the debt is
+settled.
+
+If it should appear, on the other hand, that the bankruptcy was the
+unavoidable result of misfortune, and not of imprudence, he is allowed
+to continue in the society.
+
+But in either of these cases, that is, where a man is disowned and
+restored, or where he has not been disowned at all, he is never
+considered as a member, entitled to every privilege of the society,
+till he has paid the whole of the debts. And the Quakers are so strict
+upon this point, that if a person has paid ten shillings in the pound,
+and his creditors have accepted the composition, and the law has given
+him his discharge, it is insisted upon that he pays the remaining ten as
+soon as he is able. No distance of time will be any excuse to the
+society for his refusal to comply with this honourable law. Nor will he
+be considered as a full member, as I observed before, till he has paid
+the uttermost farthing; for no collection for the poor, nor any legacy
+for the poor, or for other services of the society, will be received
+from his purse, while any thing remains of the former debt. This rule of
+refusing charitable contributions on such occasions, is founded on the
+principle that money, taken from a man in such a situation, is taken
+from his lawful creditors; and that such a man can have nothing to give,
+while he owes any thing to another.
+
+It may be observed of this rule or custom, that as it is founded in
+moral principle, so it tends to promote a moral end. When persons of
+this description see their own donations dispensed with, but those of
+the rest of the meeting taken, they are reminded of their own situation,
+and of the desirableness of making the full satisfaction required. The
+custom, therefore, operates as a constant memento, that their debts are
+still hanging over them, and prompts to new industry and anxious
+exertion for their discharge. There are many instances of Quakers, who
+have paid their composition as others do, but who, after a lapse of many
+years, have surprised their former creditors by bringing them the
+remaining amount of their former debts. Hence the Quakers are often
+enabled to say, what few others can say on the same subject, that they
+are not ultimately hurtful to mankind, either by their errors, or by
+their misfortunes.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_But though the Quakers have made these regulations, the world find
+fault with many of their trades or callings--Several of these
+specified--Standard proposed by which to examine them--Some of these
+censurable by this standard--and given up by many Quakers on this
+account, though individuals may still follow them._
+
+
+But though the Quakers have made these beautiful regulations concerning
+trade, it is manifest that the world are not wholly satisfied with their
+conduct on this subject. People charge them with the exercise of
+improper callings, or of occupations inconsistent with the principles
+they profess.
+
+It is well known that the Quakers consider themselves as a highly
+professing people; that they declaim against the follies and vanities of
+the world; and that they bear their testimony against civil customs and
+institutions, even to personal suffering. Hence, professing more than
+others, more is expected from them. George Fox endeavoured to inculcate
+this idea into his new society. In his letter to the yearly meeting in
+1679, he expresses himself as follows: "The world also does expect more
+from Friends than from other people, because they profess more.
+Therefore you should be more just than others in your words and
+dealings, and more righteous, holy, and pure, in your lives and
+conversations; so that your lives and conversations may preach. For the
+world's tongues and mouths have preached long enough; but their lives
+and conversations have denied what their tongues have professed and
+declared." I may observe, therefore, that the circumstance of a more
+than ordinary profession of consistency, and not any supposed immorality
+on the part of the Quakers, has brought them, in the instances alluded
+to, under the censure of the world. Other people, found in the same
+trades or occupations, are seldom noticed as doing wrong. But when men
+are set as lights upon a hill, blemishes will be discovered in them,
+which will be overlooked among those who walk in the vale below.
+
+The trades or occupations which are usually condemned as improper for
+Quakers to follow, are numerous. I shall not therefore specify them all.
+Those, however, which I purpose to select for mention, I shall accompany
+with all the distinctions which equity demands on the occasion.
+
+The trade of a distiller, or of a spirit-merchant, is considered as
+objectionable if in the hands of a Quaker.
+
+That of a cotton manufacturer, who employs a number of poor children in
+the usual way, or in a way which is destructive to their morals and to
+their health, is considered as equally deserving of censured.[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: Poor children are frequently sent by parishes to
+cotton-mills. Little or no care is taken of their morals. The men, when
+grown up, frequently become drunken, and the girls debauched. But the
+evil does not stop here. The progeny of these, vitiated by the
+drunkenness and debauchery of their parents, have generally diseased and
+crippled constitutions, which they perpetuate to a new generation; after
+which the whole race, I am told, generally becomes extinct. What
+Christian can gain wealth at the expense of the health, morals, and
+happiness of his fellow-creatures?]
+
+There is a calling which is seldom followed by itself: I mean the
+furnishing of funerals, or the serving of the pall. This is generally in
+the hands of Cabinet-makers, or of Upholsterers, or of woollen-drapers.
+Now if any Quaker should be found in any of these occupations, and if he
+should unite with these that of serving the pall, he would be considered
+by such an union, as following an objectionable trade. For the Quakers
+having discarded all the pomp, and parade, and dress, connected with
+funerals, from their own practice, and this upon moral principles, it
+is insisted upon, that they ought not to be accessary to the promotion
+of such ceremonials among others.
+
+The trade of a printer, or bookseller, when exercised by a Quaker, has
+not escaped the animadversions of the world. A distinction, however,
+must be made here. They who condemn this calling, can never do it
+justly, but in supposed cases. They must suppose, for example, that the
+persons in question follow these callings generally, or that they do not
+make an exception with respect to the printing or selling of such books
+as may convey poison to the morals of those who read them.
+
+A Quaker-tailor is considered as a character, which cannot consistently
+exist. But a similar distinction must be made here as in a former case.
+The world cannot mean that if a Quaker confines himself to the making of
+clothes for his own society, he is reproachable for so doing; but only
+if he makes clothes for every one without distinction, following, as he
+is ordered, all the varying fashions of the world.
+
+A Quaker-hatter is looked upon in the same light as a Quaker-tailor. But
+here a distinction suggests itself again. If he make only plain and
+useful hats for the community and for other Quakers, it cannot be
+understood that he is acting inconsistently with his religious
+profession. The charge can only lie against him, where he furnishes the
+hat with the gold and the silver-lace, or the lady's riding-hat with its
+ornaments, or the military hat with its lace, cockade, and plumes. In
+this case he will be considered as censurable by many, because he will
+be looked upon as a dealer in the superfluities condemned by his own
+religion.
+
+The last occupation I shall notice is that of a silversmith. And here
+the censure will depend upon a contingency also. If a Quaker confines
+himself to the selling of plain silver articles for use, little
+objection can be raised against his employ. But if, in addition to this,
+he sells goldheaded canes, trinkets, rings, ear-rings, bracelets,
+jewels, and other ornaments of the person, he will be considered as
+chargeable with the same inconsistency as the follower of the former
+trade.
+
+In examining these and other occupations of the Quakers, with a view of
+seeing how far the objections which have been advanced against them are
+valid, I own I have a difficult task to perform. For what standard shall
+I fix upon, or what limits shall I draw upon this occasion? The
+objections are founded in part upon the principle, that Quakers ought
+not to sell those things, of which their own practice shows that they
+disapprove. But shall I admit this principle without any limitation or
+reserve? Shall I say without any reserve, that a Quaker-woman, who
+discards the use of a simple ribbon from her dress, shall not sell it to
+another female, who has been constantly in the habit of using it, and
+this without any detriment to her mind? Shall I say again, without any
+reserve, that a Quaker-man who discards the use of black cloth, shall
+not sell a yard of it to another? And, if I should say so, where am I to
+stop? Shall I not be obliged to go over all the colours in his shop, and
+object to all but the brown and the drab? Shall I say again, without any
+reserve, that a Quaker cannot sell any thing which is innocent in
+itself, without inquiring of the buyer its application or its use? And
+if I should say so, might I not as well say, that no Quaker can be in
+trade? I fear that to say this, would be to get into a labyrinth, out of
+which there would be no clew to guide us.
+
+Difficult, however, as the task may seem, I think I may lay down three
+positions, which will probably not be denied, and which, if admitted,
+will assist us in the determination of the question before us. The first
+of these is, that no Quaker can be concerned in the sale of a thing,
+which is evil in itself. Secondly, that he cannot encourage the sale of
+an article, which he knows to be essentially, or very generally, that
+is, in seven cases out of ten, productive of evil. And, thirdly, that he
+cannot sell things which he has discarded from his own use, if he has
+discarded them on a belief that they are specifically forbidden by
+Christianity, or that they are morally injurious to the human mind.
+
+If these positions be acknowledged, they will give ample latitude for
+the condemnation of many branches of trade.
+
+A Quaker-bookseller, according to these positions, cannot sell a profane
+or improper book.
+
+A Quaker spirit-merchant cannot sell his liquor but to those whom he
+believes will use it in moderation, or medicinally, or on proper
+occasions.
+
+A Quaker, who is a manufacturer of cotton, cannot exercise his
+occupation but upon an amended plan.
+
+A Quaker-silversmith cannot deal in any splendid ornaments of the
+person.
+
+The latter cannot do this for the following reasons. The Quakers reject
+all such ornaments, because they believe them to be specifically
+condemned by Christianity. The words of the apostles Paul and Peter,
+have been quoted both by Fox, Penn, Barclay, and others, upon this
+subject. But surely, if the Christian religion positively condemns the
+use of them in one, it condemns the use of them in another. And how can
+any one, professing this religion, sell that, the use of which he
+believes it to have forbidden? The Quakers also have rejected all
+ornaments of the person, as we find by their own writers, on account of
+their immoral tendency; or because they are supposed to be instrumental
+in puffing up the creature, or in the generation of vanity and pride.
+But if they have rejected the use of them upon this principle, they are
+bound, as Christians, to refuse to sell them to others. Christian love,
+and the Christian obligation to do as we would wish to be done by,
+positively enjoin this conduct. For no man, consistently with this
+divine law and obligation, can sow the seeds of moral disease in his
+neighbour's mind.
+
+And here I may observe, that though there are trades, which may be
+innocent in themselves, yet Quakers may make them objectionable by the
+manner in which they may conduct themselves in disposing of the articles
+which belong to them. They can never pass them off, as other people do,
+by the declaration that they are the fashionable articles of the day.
+Such words ought never to come out of Quakers' mouths; not so much
+because their own lives are a living protest against the fashions of the
+world, as because they cannot knowingly be instrumental in doing a moral
+injury to others. For it is undoubtedly the belief of the Quakers, as I
+had occasion to observe in a former volume, that the following of such
+fashions, begets a worldly spirit, and that in proportion as men indulge
+this spirit, they are found to follow the loose and changeable morality
+of the world, instead of the strict and steady morality of the gospel.
+
+That some such positions as these may be fixed upon for the farther
+regulation of commercial concerns among the Quakers, is evident, when we
+consider the example of many estimable persons in this society.
+
+The Quakers, in the early times of their institution, were very
+circumspect about the nature of their occupations, and particularly as
+to dealing in superfluities and ornaments of the person. Gilbert Latey
+was one of those who bore his public testimony against them. Though he
+was only a tailor, he was known and highly respected by king James the
+Second. He would not allow his servants to put any corruptive finery
+upon the clothes which he had been ordered to make for others. From
+Gilbert Latey I may pass to John Woolman. In examining the Journal of
+the latter I find him speaking thus: "It had been my general practice to
+buy and sell things really useful. Things that served chiefly to please
+the vain mind in people, I was not easy to trade in; seldom did it; and
+whenever I did, I found it weaken me as a Christian." And from John
+Woolman I might mention the names of many, and, if delicacy did not
+forbid me, those of Quakers now living, who relinquished or regulated
+their callings, on an idea, that they could not consistently follow them
+at all, or that they could not follow them according to the usual manner
+of the world. I knew the relation of a Quaker-distiller, who left off
+his business upon principle. I was intimate with a Quaker-bookseller. He
+did not give up his occupation, for this was unnecessary; but he was
+scrupulous about the selling of an improper book. Another friend of
+mine, in the society, succeeded but a few years ago to a draper's shop.
+The furnishing of funerals had been a profitable part of the employ. But
+he refused to be concerned in this branch of it, wholly owing to his
+scruples about it. Another had been established as a silversmith for
+many years, and had traded in the ornamental part of the business, but
+he left it wholly, though advantageously situated, for the same reason,
+and betook himself to another trade. I know other Quakers, who have held
+other occupations, not usually objectionable by the world, who have
+become uneasy about them, and have relinquished them in their turn.
+These noble instances of the dereliction of gain, where it has
+interfered with principle, I feel it only justice to mention in this
+place. It is an homage due to Quakerism; for genuine Quakerism will
+always produce such instances. No true Quaker will remain in any
+occupation, which he believes it improper to pursue. And I hope, if
+there are Quakers, who mix the sale of objectionable with that of the
+other articles of their trade, it is because they have entered into this
+mixed business, without their usual portion of thought, or that the
+occupation itself has never come as an improper occupation before their
+minds.
+
+Upon the whole, it must be stated that it is wholly owing to the more
+than ordinary professions of the Quakers, as a religious body, that the
+charges in question have been exhibited against such individuals among
+them, as have been found in particular trades. If other people had been
+found in the same callings, the same blemishes would not have been so
+apparent. And if others had been found in the same, callings, and it
+had been observed of these, that they had made all the beautiful
+regulations which I have shown the Quakers to have done on the subject
+of trade, these blemishes would have been removed from the usual range
+of the human vision. They would have been like the spots in the sun's
+disk, which are hid from the observation of the human eye, because they
+are lost in the superior beauty of its blaze. But when the Quakers have
+been looked at solely as Quakers, or as men of high religious
+profession, these blemishes have become conspicuous. The moon, when it
+eclipses the sun, appears as a blemish in the body of that luminary. So
+a public departure from publicly professed principles will always be
+noticed, because it will be an excrescence or blemish, too large and
+protuberant, to be overlooked in the moral character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+_Settlement of differences--Quakers, when they differ, abstain from
+violence--No instance of a duel--George For protested against going to
+law, and Recommended arbitration-Laws relative to arbitration--Account
+of an arbitration-society, at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles
+--Its dissolution--Such societies might be usefully promoted._
+
+
+Men are so constituted by nature, and their mutual intercourse is such,
+that circumstances must unavoidably arise, which will occasion
+differences. These differences will occasionally rouse the passions;
+and, after all, they will still be to be settled. The Quakers, like
+other men, have their differences. But you rarely see any disturbance of
+the temper on this account. You rarely hear intemperate invectives. You
+are witness to no blows. If in the courts of law you have never seen
+their characters stained by convictions for a breach of the
+marriage-contract, or the crime of adultery; so neither have you seen
+them disgraced by convictions for brutal violence, or that most
+barbarous of all Gothic customs, the duel.
+
+It is a lamentable fact, when we consider that we live in an age,
+removed above eighteen hundred years from the first promulgation of
+Christianity, one of the great objects of which was to insist upon the
+subjugation of the passions, that our children should not have been
+better instructed, than that we should now have to behold men, of
+apparently good education, settling their disputes by an appeal to arms.
+It is difficult to conceive what preposterous principles can actuate
+men, to induce them to such a mode of decision. Justice is the ultimate
+wish of every reasonable man in the termination of his casual
+differences with others, But, in the determination of cases by the
+sword, the injured man not unfrequently falls, while the aggressor
+sometimes adds to his offence, by making a widow or an orphan, and by
+the murder of of a fellow-creature. But it is possible the duellist may
+conceive that he adds to his reputation by decisions of this sanguinary
+nature. But surely he has no other reputation with good men, than that
+of a weak, or a savage, or an infatuated creature; and, if he fells, he
+is pitied by these on no other motive than that of his folly and of his
+crime. What philosopher can extol his courage, who, knowing the bondage
+of the mind while under the dominion of fashion, believes that more
+courage is necessary in refusing a challenge, than in going into the
+field? What legislator can applaud his patriotism, when he sees him
+violate the laws of his country? What Christian his religion, when he
+reflects on the relative duties of man, on the law of lore and
+benevolence that should have guided him, on the principle that it is
+more noble to suffer than to resist, and on the circumstance, that he
+may put himself into the doubly criminal situation of a murderer and a
+suicide by the same act?
+
+George Fox, in his doctrine of the influence of the spirit as a divine
+teacher, and in that of the necessity of the subjugation of the passions
+in order that the inward man might be in a fit state to receive its
+admonitions, left to the society a system of education, which, if acted
+upon, could not fail of producing peaceable and quiet characters; but
+foreseeing that among the best men differences would unavoidably arise
+from their intercourse in business and other causes, it, was his desire
+that these should be settled in a Christian manner. He advised therefore
+that no member should appeal to law; but that he should refer his
+difference to arbitration, by persons of exemplary character in the
+society. This mode of decision appeared to him to be consistent with the
+spirit of Christianity, and with the advice of the apostle Paul, who
+recommended that all the differences among the Christians of his own
+time should be referred to the decision of the saints, or of such other
+Christians, as were eminent for their lives and conversation.
+
+This mode of decision, which began to take place among the Quakers in
+the time of George Fox, has been continued by them to the present day.
+Cases, where property is concerned to the amount of many thousands, are
+determined in no other manner. By this process the Quakers obtain their
+verdicts in a way peculiarly satisfactory. For law-suits are at best
+tedious. They often destroy brotherly love in the individuals, while
+they continue. They excite also, during this time, not unfrequently, a
+vindictive spirit, and lead to family-feuds and quarrels. They agitate
+the mind also, hurt the temper, and disqualify a man for the proper
+exercise of his devotion. Add to this, that the expenses of law are
+frequently so great, that burthens are imposed upon men for matters of
+little consequence, which they feel as evils and incumbrances for a
+portion of their lives; burthens which guilt alone, and which no
+indiscretion, could have merited. Hence the Quakers experience
+advantages in the settlement of their differences, which are known but
+to few others.
+
+The Quakers, when any difference arises about things that are not of
+serious moment, generally settle it amicably between themselves; but in
+matters that are intricate and of weighty concern, they have recourse to
+arbitration. If it should happen, that they are slow in proceeding to
+arbitration, overseers, or any others of the society, who may come to
+the knowledge of the circumstance, are to step in and to offer their
+advice. If their advice is rejected, complaint is to be made to their
+own monthly meeting concerning them; after which they will come under
+the discipline of the society, and if they still persist in refusing to
+settle their differences or to proceed to arbitration, they may be
+disowned. I may mention here, that any member going to law with another,
+without having previously tried, to accommodate matters between them
+according to the rules of the society, comes under the discipline in
+like manner.
+
+When arbitration is determined on, the Quakers are enjoined to apply to
+persons of their own society to decide the case. It is considered,
+however, as desirable, that they should not trouble their ministers, if
+they can help it, on these occasions, as the minds of these ought to be
+drawn out as little as possible into worldly concerns. If Quakers,
+however, should not find among Quakers such as they would choose to
+employ for these purposes, or such as may not possess skill in regard to
+the matter in dispute, they may apply to others out of the society,
+sooner than go to law.
+
+The following is a concise statement of the rules recommended by the
+society, in the case of arbitrations.
+
+Each party is to choose one or two friends as arbitrators, and all the
+persons, so chosen, are to agree upon a third or a fifth. The
+arbitrators are not to consider themselves as advocates for the party by
+whom they were chosen, but as men, whose duty it is to judge
+righteously, fearing the Lord. The parties are to enter into engagements
+to abide by the award of the arbitrators. Every meeting of the
+arbitrators is to be made known to the parties concerned, till they have
+been fully heard. No private meetings are allowed between some of the
+arbitrators, or with one party separate from the other, on the business
+referred to them. No representation of the case of one party, either by
+writing or otherwise, is to be admitted, without its being fully made
+known to the other; and, if required, a copy of such representation is
+to be delivered to the other party. The arbitrators are to hear both
+parties fully, in the presence of each other, whilst either has any
+fresh matter to offer, for a time mutually limited. In the case of any
+doubtful point of law, the arbitrators are jointly to agree upon a case,
+and consult counsel. It is recommended to arbitrators to propose to the
+parties, that they should give an acknowledgment in writing, before the
+award is made; that they have been candidly and fully heard.
+
+In the same manner as a Quaker proceeds with a Quaker in the case of any
+difference, he is led by his education and habits to proceed with
+others, who are not members of the same society. A Quaker seldom goes to
+law with a person of another denomination, till he has proposed
+arbitration. If the proposal be not accepted, the Quaker has then no
+remedy but the law. For a person, who is out of the society, cannot be
+obliged upon pain of disownment, as a Quaker may, to submit to such a
+mode of decision, being out of the reach of the Quaker-discipline.
+
+I shall close my observations upon this subject, by giving an account of
+an institution for the accommodation of differences, which took place in
+the year 1793, upon Quaker principles.
+
+In the town of Newcastle upon Tyne, a number of disputes were
+continually arising on the subject of shipping concerns, which were
+referred to the decision of the laws. These decisions were often
+grievously expensive. They were, besides, frequently different from what
+seafaring persons conceived to be just. The latter circumstance was
+attributed to the ignorance of lawyers in maritime affairs. Much money
+was therefore often expended, and no one satisfied. Some Quakers, in the
+neighbourhood, in conjunction with others, came forward with a view of
+obviating these evils. They proposed arbitration as a remedy. They met
+with some opposition at first, but principally from the gentlemen of the
+law. After having, however, shown the impropriety of many of the legal
+verdicts that had been given, they had the pleasure of seeing their plan
+publicly introduced and sanctioned. For in the month of June, 1793, a
+number of gentlemen, respectable for their knowledge in mercantile and
+maritime affairs, met at the Trinity-hall in Newcastle, and associated
+themselves for these and other purposes, calling themselves "The
+Newcastle upon Tyne Association for general Arbitration."
+
+This association was to have four general meetings in the year, one in
+each quarter, at which they were to receive cases. For any urgent
+matter, however, which might occur, the clerk was to have the power of
+calling a special meeting.
+
+Each person, on delivering a case, was to pay a small fee. Out of these
+fees the clerk's salary and incidental expenses were to be paid. But the
+surplus was to be given to the poor.
+
+The parties were to enter into arbitration-bonds, as is usual upon such
+occasions.
+
+Each party was to choose out of this association or standing committee,
+one arbitrator for himself, and the association were to choose or to
+ballot for a third. And here it will be proper to observe, that this
+standing association appeared to be capable of affording arbitrators
+equal to the determination of every case. For, if the matter in dispute
+between the two parties were to happen to be a mercantile question,
+there were merchants in the association: If a question relative to
+shipping, there were ship-owners in it: If a question of insurance,
+there were insurance-brokers also. A man could hardly fail of having his
+case determined by persons who were competent to the task.
+
+Though this beautiful institution was thus publicly introduced, and
+introduced with considerable expectations and applause, cases came in
+but slowly. Custom and prejudice are not to be rooted out in a moment.
+In process of time, however, several were offered, considered, and
+decided, and the presumption was, that the institution would have grown
+with time. Of those cases which were determined, some, relating to
+ships, were found to be particularly intricate, and cost the arbitrators
+considerable time and trouble. The verdicts, however, which were given,
+were in all of them satisfactory. The Institution, at length became so
+popular, that, incredible to relate, its own popularity destroyed it! So
+many persons were ambitious of the honour of becoming members of the
+committee, that some of inferior knowledge, and judgment, and character,
+were too hastily admitted into it. The consequence was, that people
+dared not trust their affairs to the abilities of every member: and the
+institution expired, after having rendered important services to
+numerous individuals who had tried it.
+
+When we consider that this institution has been tried, and that the
+scheme of it has been found practicable, it is a pity that its benefits
+should have been confined, and this for so short a period, to a single
+town. Would it not be desirable, if, in every district, a number of
+farmers were to give in their names to form a standing committee, for
+the settlement of disputes between farmer and farmer? or that there
+should be a similar institution among manufacturers, who should decide
+between one manufacturer and another? Would it not also be desirable,
+if, in every parish, a number of gentlemen, or other respectable
+persons, were to associate for the purpose of accommodating the
+differences of each other? For this beautiful system is capable of being
+carried to any extent, and of being adapted to all stations and
+conditions of life. By these means numerous little funds might be
+established in numerous districts, from the surplus of which an
+opportunity would be afforded of adding to the comforts of such of the
+poor, as were to distinguish themselves by their good behaviour, whether
+as labourers for farmers, manufacturers, or others. By these means also
+many of the quarrels in parishes might be settled to the mutual
+satisfaction of the parties concerned, and, in so short a space of time,
+as to prevent them from contracting a rancorous and a wounding edge.
+Those, on the other hand, who were to assist in these arbitrations,
+would be amply repaid; for they would be thus giving an opportunity of
+growth to the benevolence of their affections, and they would have the
+pleasing reflection, that the tendency of their labours would be to
+produce peace and good will amongst men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Management of the poor--Quakers never seen as beggars--George Fox began
+the provision for the Quaker-poor--Monthly meetings appoint
+overseers--Persons passed over are to apply for relief and the
+disorderly may receive it in certain cases--Manner of collecting for the
+poor--If burthensome in one monthly meeting, the burthen shared by the
+quarterly--Quakers gain settlements by monthly meetings, as the other
+poor of the kingdom, by parishes._
+
+
+There are few parts of the Quaker-constitution, that are more worthy of
+commendation, than that which relates to the poor. All the members of
+this society are considered as brethren, and as entitled to support from
+one another. If our streets and our roads are infested by miserable
+objects, imploring our pity, no Quaker will be found among them. A
+Quaker-beggar would be a phenomenon in the world.
+
+It does not, however, follow from this account, that there are no poor
+Quakers, or that members of this society are not born in a dependent
+state. The truth is, that there are poor as well as rich, but the wants
+of the former are so well provided for, that they are not publicly seen,
+like the wants of others.
+
+George Fox, as he was the founder of the religion of the Quakers, I mean
+of a system of renovated Christianity, so he was the author of the
+beautiful system by which they make a provision for their poor. As a
+Christian, he considered the poor of every description, as members of
+the same family, but particularly those, who were of the household of
+faith. Consistently with this opinion, he advised the establishment of
+general meetings in his own time, a special part of whose business it
+was to take due care of the poor. These meetings excited at first the
+vigilance and anger of the magistrates; but when they came to see the
+regulations made by the Quakers, in order that none of their poor might
+become burthensome to their parishes, they went away--whatever they
+might think of some of their new tenets of religion--in admiration of
+their benevolence.
+
+The Quakers of the present day consider their poor in the same light as
+their venerable elder, namely, as members of the same family, whose
+wants it is their duty to relieve; and they provide for them nearly in
+the same manner. They intrust this important concern to the monthly
+meetings, which are the executive branches of the Quaker constitution.
+The monthly meetings generally appoint four overseers, two men and two
+women, over each particular meeting within their own jurisdiction, if
+their number will admit of it. It is the duty of these, to visit such of
+the poor as are in membership, of the men to visit the men, but of the
+women sometimes to visit both. The reason, why this double burthen is
+laid upon the women-overseers, is, that women know more of domestic
+concerns, more of the wants of families, more of the manner of providing
+for them, and are better advisers, and better nurses in sickness, than
+the men. Whatever these overseers find wanting in the course of their
+visits, whether money, clothes, medicine, or medical advice and
+attention, they order them, and the treasurer of the monthly meetings
+settles the different accounts. I may observe here, that it is not easy
+for overseers to neglect their duty; for an inquiry is made three times
+in the year, of the monthly meetings by the quarterly, whether the
+necessities of the poor are properly inspected and relieved[5]. I may
+observe also that the poor, who may stand in need of relief, are always
+relieved privately, I mean, at their respective homes.
+
+[Footnote 5: In London a committee is appointed for each poor person.
+Thus, for example, two women are appointed to attend to the wants and
+comfort of one poor old woman.]
+
+It is however possible, that there may be persons, who, from a variety
+of unlocked for causes, may be brought into distress, and whose case,
+never having been suspected, may be passed over. But persons, in this
+situation, are desired to apply, for assistance. It is also a rule in
+the society, that even persons whose conduct is disorderly, are to be
+relieved, if such conduct has not been objected to by their own monthly
+meeting. "The want of due care, says the book of Extracts, in watching
+diligently over the flock, and in dealing in due time with such as walk
+disorderly, hath, brought great difficulties on some meetings; for we
+think it both unreasonable and dishonourable, when persons apply to
+monthly meetings for relief in cases of necessity, then to object to
+them such offences as the meeting, through neglect of its own duty, hath
+suffered long to pass by, unreproved and unnoticed."
+
+The poor are supported by charitable collections from the body at large;
+or, in other words, every monthly meeting supports its own poor. The
+collections for them are usually made once a month, but in some places
+once a quarter, and in others at no stated times but when the treasurer
+declares them necessary, and the monthly meeting approves. Members are
+expected to contribute in proportion to their circumstances; but
+persons in a low situation, and servants, are generally excused upon
+these occasions.
+
+It happens in the districts of some monthly meetings, that there are
+found only few persons of property, but a numerous poor, so that the
+former are unable to do justice in their provision for the latter. The
+society have therefore resolved, when the poor are too numerous to be
+supported by their own monthly meetings, that the collection for them
+shall be made up out of the quarterly meeting, to which the said monthly
+meeting belongs. This is the same thing as if any particular parish were
+unable to pay the rates for the poor, and as if all the other parishes
+in the county were made to contribute towards the same.
+
+On this subject I may observe, that the Quaker-poor are attached to
+their monthly meetings, as the common poor of the kingdom are attached
+to their parishes, and that they gain settlements in these nearly in the
+same manner.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Education of the children of the poor particularly insisted upon and
+provided for by the Quakers--The bays usually pat out to
+apprenticeship--The girls to service--The latter not sufficiently
+numerous for the Quaker-families, who want them--The rich have not their
+proper proportion of these in their service--Reasons of it--Character of
+the Quaker poor._
+
+
+As the Quakers are particularly attentive to the wants of the poor, so
+they are no less attentive to the education of their offspring. These
+are all of them to receive their education at the public expense. The
+same overseers, as in the former case, are to take care of it, and the
+same funds to support it. An inquiry is therefore made three times in
+the year into this subject. "The children of the poor, says the book of
+Extracts, are to have due help of education, instruction, and necessary
+learning. The families also of the poor are to be provided with Bibles,
+and books of the society, at the expense of the monthly meetings. And as
+spine members may be straitened in their circumstances, and may refuse,
+out of delicacy, to apply for aid towards the education of their
+children, it is earnestly recommended to friends in every monthly
+meeting, to look out for persons who may be thus straitened, and to take
+care that their children shall receive instruction: and it is
+recommended to the parents of such, not to refuse this salutary aid, but
+to receive it with a willing mind, and with thankfulness to the great
+author of all good."
+
+When the boys have received their necessary learning, they are usually
+put out as apprentices to husbandry or trade. Domestic service is
+generally considered by their parents as unmanly, and as a nursery for
+idleness. Boys too, who can read and write, ought to expect, with the
+accustomed diligence and sobriety of Quakers, to arrive at a better
+situation in life. The girls, however, are destined in general for
+service: for it must be obvious, whatever their education may be, that
+the same number of employments is not open to women as to men. Of those
+again, which are open, some are objectionable. A Quaker-girl, for
+example, could not consistently be put an apprentice to a Milliner.
+Neither if a cotton-manufactory were in the neighbourhood, could her
+parents send her to such a nursery of debauchery and vice. From these
+and other considerations, and because domestic employments belong to
+women, their parents generally think it advisable to bring them up to
+service, and to place them in the families of friends.
+
+It is a remarkable circumstance, when we consider it to be recommended
+that Quaker-masters of families should take Quaker-servants, that
+persons of the latter description are not to be found sufficiently
+numerous for those who want them. This is probably a proof of the
+thriving situation of this society. It is remarkable again, that the
+rich have by no means their proportion of such servants. Those of the
+wealthy, who are exemplary, get them if they can. Others decline their
+services. Of these, some do it from good motives; for, knowing that it
+would be difficult to make up their complement of servants from the
+society, they do not wish to break in upon the customs and morals of
+those belonging to it, by mixing them with others. The rest, who mix
+more with the world, are, as I have been informed, fearful of having
+them, lest they should be overseers of their words and manners. For it
+is in the essence of the Quaker-discipline, as I observed upon that
+subject, that every member should watch over another for his good. There
+are no exceptions as to persons. The servant has as much right to watch
+over his master with respect to his religions conduct and conversation,
+as the master over his servant; and he has also a right, if his master
+violates the discipline, to speak to him, in a respectful manner, for
+so doing. Nor would a Quaker-servant, if he were well grounded in the
+principles of the society, and felt it to be his duty, want the courage
+to speak his mind upon such occasions. There have been instances, where
+this has happened, and where the master, in the true spirit of his
+religion, has not felt himself insulted by such interference, but has
+looked upon his servant afterwards as more worthy of his confidence and
+esteem. Such a right, however, of remonstrance, is, I presume, but
+rarely exercised.
+
+I cannot conclude this subject without saying a few words on the
+character of the Quaker-poor.
+
+In the first place I may observe, that one of the great traits in their
+character is independence of mind. When you converse with them, you find
+them attentive, civil, and obliging, but you see no marks of servility
+about them, and you hear no flattery from their lips. It is not the
+custom in this society, even for the poorest member to bow or pull off
+his hat, or to observe any outward obeisance to another, who may happen
+to be rich. Such customs are forbidden to all on religious principle. In
+consequence, therefore, of the omission of such ceremonious practices,
+his mind has never been made to bend on the approach of superior rank.
+Nor has he seen, in his own society, any thing that could lessen his own
+importance or dignity as a man. He is admitted into the meetings of
+discipline equally with the rich. He has a voice equally with them in
+all matters that are agitated there. From these causes a manliness of
+mind is produced, which is not seen among any other of the poor in the
+inland in which we live.
+
+It may also be mentioned as a second trait, that they possess
+extraordinary knowledge. Every Quaker-boy or girl, who comes into the
+world, must, however poor, if the discipline of the society be kept up,
+receive an education. All, therefore, who are born in the society, must
+be able to read and write. Thus the keys of knowledge are put into their
+hands. Hence we find them attaining a superior literal and historical
+knowledge of the scriptures, a superior knowledge of human nature, and a
+knowledge that sets them above many of the superstitions of those in
+their own rank in life.
+
+Another trait conspicuous in the character of the Quaker-poor, is the
+morality of their lives.
+
+This circumstance may easily be accounted for. For, in the first place,
+they are hindered in common with other Quakers, by means of their
+discipline, from doing many things, that are morally injurious to
+themselves. The poor of the world are addicted to profane swearing. But
+no person can bring the name of the creator of the Universe into
+frequent and ordinary use, without losing a sense of the veneration that
+is due to him. The poor of the world, again, frequently spend their
+time in public houses. They fight and quarrel with one another. They run
+after horse-racings, bull-baitings, cock-fightings, and the still more
+unnatural battles between man and man. But, by encouraging such habits,
+they cannot but obstruct in time, the natural risings of benevolence
+both towards their fellow-creatures and to those of the animal creation.
+Nor can they do otherwise than lose a sense of the dignity of their own
+minds, and weaken the moral principle. But the Quaker-poor, who are
+principled against such customs, can of course suffer no moral injury on
+these accounts. To which it may be added, that their superior knowledge
+both leads and attaches them to a superior conduct. It is a false, as
+well as a barbarous maxim, and a maxim very injurious both to the
+interests of the rich and poor, as well as of the states to which they
+belong, that knowledge is unpropitious to virtue.
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION
+OF THE
+QUAKERS.
+
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+RELIGION OF THE QUAKERS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+_Religion of the Quakers--Invitation to a patient perusal of this part
+of the work--No design, by this invitation, to proselyte to
+Quakerism--All systems of Religion, that are founded on the principles
+of Christianity, are capable, if heartily embraced, of producing present
+and future happiness to man--No censure of another's Creed warrantable,
+inasmuch as the human understanding is finite--Object of this
+Invitation._
+
+
+Having explained very diffusively the great subjects, the moral
+Education, Discipline, and Peculiar Customs, of the Quakers, I purpose
+to allot the remaining part of this volume to the consideration of their
+religion.
+
+I know that persons, who are religiously disposed will follow me
+patiently through this division of my work, not only because religion is
+the most important of all subjects that can be agitated, but because,
+in the explanation of the religious systems of others, some light may
+arise, which, though it be not new to all, may yet be new and acceptable
+to many. I am aware, however, that there are some who direct their
+reading to light subjects, and to whom such as are serious may appear
+burthensome. If any such should have been induced, by any particular
+motive, to take this book into their hands, and to accompany me thus
+far, I entreat a continuation of their patience, till I have carried
+them through the different parts and divisions of the present subject.
+
+I have no view, in thus soliciting the attention of those who are more,
+or of those who are less religiously disposed, to attempt to proselyte
+to Quakerism. If men do but fear God, and work righteousness, whatever
+their Christian denomination may be, it is sufficient. Every system of
+religion which is founded on the principles of Christianity, must be
+capable, if heartily embraced, of producing temporal and eternal
+happiness to man. At least, man with his limited understanding, cannot
+pronounce with any absolute certainty, that his own system is so far
+preferable to that of his neighbour, that it is positively the best, or
+that there will be any material difference in the future happiness of
+those who follow the one or the other; or that the pure professors of
+each shall not have their peculiar rewards. The truth is, that each
+system has its own merits. Each embraces great and sublime objects. And
+if good men have existed, as none can reasonably deny, before
+Christianity was known, it would be a libel on Christianity, to suppose
+either that good men had not existed since, or that good Christians
+would not be ultimately happy, though following systems differing from
+those of one another. Indeed, every Christian community has a great deal
+to say in the defence of its own tenets. Almost all Christian churches
+have produced great characters; and there are none, I should hope, that
+had not been the authors of religious good. The church of England, in
+attempting to purify herself at the reformation, effected a great work.
+Since that time she has produced at different periods, and continues to
+produce, both great and good men. By means of her Universities, she has
+given forth, and keeps up and disseminates, a considerable portion of
+knowledge; and though this, in the opinion of the Quakers, is not
+necessary for those who are to become ministers of the Gospel, it cannot
+be denied that it is a source of temporary happiness to man; that it
+enlarges the scope of his rational and moral understanding, and that it
+leads to great and sublime discoveries, which become eminently
+beneficial to mankind. Since that time she has also been an instrument
+of spreading over this kingdom a great portion of religious light, which
+has had its influence in the production of moral character.
+
+But though I bestow this encomium upon the established church, I should
+be chargeable with partiality and injustice, if I were not to allow,
+that among the dissenters of various descriptions, learned, pious, and
+great men, had been regularly and successively produced. And it must be
+confessed, and reflected upon with pleasure, that these, in proportion
+to their numbers, have been no less instrumental in the dissemination of
+religions knowledge, and in the production of religious conduct. I might
+go to large and populous towns and villages in the kingdom, and fully
+prove my assertion in the reformed manners of the poor, many of whom,
+before these pious visitations, had been remarkable for the profaneness
+of their lives.
+
+Let us then not talk but with great deference and humility; with great
+tenderness and charity; with great thankfulness to the author of every
+good gift,--when we speak of the different systems that actuate the
+Christian World. Why should we consider our neighbour as an alien, and
+load him with reproaches, because he happens to differ from us in
+opinion about an article of faith? As long as there are men, so long
+will there be different measures of talents and understanding; and so
+long will they view things in a different light, and come to different
+conclusions concerning them. The eye of one man can see farther than
+that of another: So can the human mind, on the subject of speculative
+truths. This consideration should teach us humility and forbearance in
+judging of the religion of others. For who is he, who can say that he
+sees the farthest, or that his own system is the best? If such men as
+Milton, Whiston, Boyle, Locke, and Newton, all agreeing in the
+profession of Christianity, did not all think precisely alike concerning
+it, who art thou, with thy inferior capacity, who settest up the
+standard of thine own judgment as infallible? If thou sendest thy
+neighbour to perdition in the other world, because he does not agree in
+his creed with thee, know that he judges according to the best of his
+abilities, and that no more will be required of him. Know also that thou
+thyself judgest like a worm of the earth; that thou dishonourest the
+Almighty by thy reptile notions of him; and that in making him accord
+with thee in condemning one of his creatures for what thou conceivest
+to be the misunderstanding of a speculative proposition, thou treatest
+him like a man, as thou thyself art, with corporeal organs; with
+irritable passions, and with a limited intelligence. But if, besides
+this, thou condemnest thy neighbour in this world also, and feelest the
+spirit of persecution towards him, know that, whatever thy pretensions
+may be to religion, thou art not a Christian. Thou art not possessed of
+that charity or love, without which thou art but as sounding brass and a
+tinkling cymbal.
+
+Having therefore no religious prejudices[6] myself, except in favour of
+Christianity, and holding no communion with the Quakers, as a religions
+society, it cannot be likely that I should attempt to proselyte to
+Quakerism. I wish only, as I stated in my introduction to this work, to
+make the Quakers better known to their countrymen than they are at
+present. In this I think I have already succeeded, for I believe I have
+communicated many facts concerning them, which have never been related
+by others. But no people can be thoroughly known, or at least the
+character of a people cannot be thoroughly understood, except we are
+acquainted with their religion; much less can that of the Quakers, who
+differ so materially, both in their appearance and practice, from the
+rest of their fellow-citizens.
+
+[Footnote 6: Though I conceive a charitable allowance ought to be made
+for the diversity of religious opinions among Christians, I by no means
+intend to say, that it is not our duty to value the system of opinion
+which we think most consonant to the Gospel, and to be wisely zealous
+for its support.]
+
+Having thought it right to make these prefatory observations, I proceed
+to the prosecution of my work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+_The Almighty created the Universe by means of his spirit--and also
+man--He gave man, besides his intellect, an emanation from his own
+spirit, thus making him in his own image--But this image he lost--A
+portion, however, of the same spirit was continued to his
+posterity--These possessed it in different degrees--Abraham, Moses, and
+the prophets, had more of it than some others--Jesus possessed it
+immeasurably, and without limit--Evangelists and apostles possessed it,
+but in a limited manner, and in different degrees._
+
+
+The Quakers believe, that when the Almighty created the Universe, he
+effected it by means of the life, or vital or vivifying energy that was
+in his own spirit. "And the earth was without form, and void; and
+darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon
+the face of the waters."
+
+This life of the spirit has been differently named, but is concisely
+stiled by St. John the evangelist "the word" for he says, "in the
+beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
+All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made,
+that was made."
+
+The Almighty also, by means of the same divine energy or life of the
+spirit which had thus created the universe, became the cause also of
+material life, and of vital functions. He called forth all animated
+nature into existence; for he "made the living creature after his kind."
+
+He created man also by the same power. He made his corporeal and organic
+nature. He furnished him also with intellect, or a mental understanding.
+By this latter gift he gave to man, what he had not given to other
+animated nature, the power of reason, by which he had the superiority
+over it, and by means of which he was enabled to guide himself in his
+temporal concerns. Thus when he made the natural man, he made him a
+rational agent also.
+
+But he gave to man, at the same time, independently of this intellect or
+understanding, a spiritual faculty, or a portion of the life of his own
+spirit, to reside in him. This gift occasioned man to become more
+immediately, as it is expressed, the image of the Almighty. It set him
+above the animal and rational part of his nature. It made him know
+things not intelligible solely by his reason. It made him spiritually
+minded. It enabled him to know his duty to God, and to hold a heavenly
+intercourse with his maker.
+
+Adam then, the first man, independently of his rational faculties,
+received from the Almighty into his own breast such an emanation from
+the life of his own spirit, as was sufficient to have enabled him both
+to hold, and to have continued, a spiritual intercourse with his maker,
+and to have preserved him in the state of innocence in which he had been
+created. As long as he lived in this divine light of the spirit, he
+remained in the image of God, and was perfectly happy; but, not
+attending faithfully and perseveringly to this his spiritual monitor, he
+fell into the snares of Satan, or gave way to the temptations of sin.
+From this moment his condition became changed. For in the same manner as
+distemper occasions animal life to droop, and to lose its powers, and
+finally to cease, so unrighteousness, or his rebellion against the
+divine light of the spirit that was within him, occasioned a dissolution
+of his spiritual feelings and perceptions; for he became dead as it
+were, in consequence, as to any knowledge of God, or enjoyment of his
+presence[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: It was said that, in the day in which Adam should eat
+forbidden fruit, he should die; but he did not lose his animal life, or
+his rational nature. His loss therefore is usually considered by the
+Quakers to have been a divine spiritual principle, which had been
+originally superadded to the animal and rational faculties.]
+
+It pleased the Almighty, however, not wholly to abandon him in this
+wretched state, but he comforted him with the cheering promise that the
+seed of the woman should some time or other completely subdue sin, or
+to use the scriptural language, "should bruise the serpent's head;" or,
+in other words, as sin was of a spiritual nature, so it could only be
+overcome by a spiritual conqueror; and therefore that the same holy
+spirit, or word, or divine principle of light and life, which had
+appeared in creation, should dwell so entirely and without limit or
+measure, in the person or body of some one of his descendants, that sin
+should by him be entirely subdued.
+
+As God then poured into Adam, the first man, a certain portion of his
+own spirit, or gave him a certain portion of the divine light, for the
+regulation of his spiritual conduct and the power of heavenly
+intercourse with himself, so he did not entirely cease from bestowing
+his spirit upon his posterity; or, in other words, he gave them a
+portion of that light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the
+world. Of the individuals therefore who succeeded Adam, all received a
+portion of this light. Some, however, enjoyed larger portions of it than
+others, according as they attended to its influences, or according to
+the measure given them. Of those who possessed the greatest share of it,
+some were the ancient patriarchs, such as Noah and Abraham, and others
+were the ancient scriptural writers, such as Moses and the prophets.
+The latter again experienced it in different measures or degrees; and in
+proportion as they had it, they delivered more or less those prophecies
+which are usually considered as inspired truths, from a belief that many
+of them have been circumstantially completed.
+
+At length, in the fulness of time, that is, when all things had been
+fulfilled which were previously to take place, this divine spirit, which
+had appeared in creation, this divine word, or light, took flesh, (for,
+as St. John the Evangelist says, "the word was made flesh, and dwelled
+among us,") and inhabited "the body which had been prepared for it;" or,
+in other words, it inhabited the body of the person Jesus; but with this
+difference, that whereas only a portion of this divine light or spirit
+had been given to Adam, and afterwards to the prophets, it was given
+without limit or measure to the man Jesus[8]. "For he whom God hath
+sent, says St. John, speaketh the words of God, _for God giveth not the
+Spirit by measure unto him."_ And St. Paul says, [9] "In him _the fulness
+of the Godhead_ dwelled bodily." In him, therefore, the promise given to
+Adam was accomplished, "that the seed of the woman should bruise the
+serpent's head;" for we see in this case a human body, weak and infirm,
+and subject to passions, possessed or occupied, without limit or
+measure, by the spirit of God. But if the man Jesus had the full spirit
+of God within him, he could not be otherwise than, perfectly holy. And
+if so, sin never could have entered, and must therefore, as for as
+relates to him, have been entirely repelled. Thus he answered the
+prophetic character which had been given of him, independently of his
+victory over sin by the sacrifice of himself, or by becoming afterwards
+a comforter to those in bondage, who should be willing to receive him.
+
+[Footnote 8: John 3:34]
+
+[Footnote 9: Col. 2:9]
+
+After Jesus Christ came the Evangelists and Apostles. Of the same spirit
+which he had possessed _immeasurably_, these had their several portions;
+and though these were[10] limited, and differed in degree front one
+another, they were sufficient to enable them to do their duty to God and
+men, to enjoy the presence of the Almighty, and to promote the purposes
+designed by him in the propagation of his gospel.
+
+[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. 10. 18.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+_Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus and the
+prophets and the apostles had, he can have no knowledge of God or
+spiritual things--Doctrine of St. Paul on this subject--This confirms
+the history of the human and divine spirit in man--These spirits
+distinct in their kind--This distinction farther elucidated by a
+comparison between the faculties of men and brutes--Sentiments of
+Augustin--Luther--Calvin--Smith--Taylor--Cudworth._
+
+
+The Quakers believe, that there can be no spiritual knowledge of God,
+but through the medium of his holy spirit; or, in other words, that if
+men have not a portion of the same spirit which the holy men of old, and
+which the Evangelists and Apostles, and which Jesus himself had, they
+can have no true or vital religion.
+
+In favour of this proposition, they usually quote those remarkable words
+of the Apostle Paul;[11] "for what man knoweth the things of a man, save
+the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
+no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of
+the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
+that are freely given to us of God." And again--"but the natural man
+receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness
+to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
+discerned."
+
+[Footnote 11: 1 Cor. 2.11, &c.]
+
+By these expressions the Quakers conceive that the history of man, as
+explained in the last chapter, is confirmed; or that the Almighty not
+only gave to man reason, which was to assist him in his temporal, but
+also superadded a portion of his own spirit, which was to assist him in
+his spiritual concerns. They conceive it also to be still farther
+confirmed by other expressions of the same Apostle. In his first letter
+to the Corinthians, he says,[12] "Know ye not that your body is the
+_temple of the Holy Ghost_, which _is in you_, which ye have of God;"
+and in his letter to Timothy he desires him[13] "to hold fast that good
+thing which was committed to him by means of the _holy_ Ghost, which
+_dwelled in him_" Now these expressions can only be accurate on a
+supposition of the truth of the history of man, as explained in the
+former chapter. If this history be true, then they are considered as
+words of course: for if there be a communication between the supreme
+Being and his creature man, or if the Almighty has afforded to man an
+emanation of his own spirit, which is to act for a time in his mortal
+body, and then to return to him that gave it, we may say, with great
+consistency, that the divinity resides in him, or that his body is the
+temple of the holy spirit.
+
+[Footnote 12: 1 Cor. 6. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 13: 2 Tim. 1. 14.]
+
+The Quakers conceive again from these expressions of the Apostle, that
+these two principles in man are different from each other; they are
+mentioned under the distinct names of the spirit of man, and of the
+spirit of God. The former they suppose to relate to the understanding:
+the latter conjointly to the understanding and to the heart. The former
+can be brought into use at all times, if the body of a man be in health.
+The latter is not at his own disposal. Man must wait for its
+inspirations. Like the wind, it bloweth when it listeth. Man also, when
+he feels this divine influence, feels that it is distinct from his
+reason. When it is gone, he feels the loss of it, though all his
+rational faculties be alive. "Those, says Alexander Arscott, who have
+this experience, certainly know that as at times, in their silent
+retirements and humble waitings upon God, they receive an understanding
+of his will, relating to their present duty, in such a clear light as
+leaves no doubt or hesitation, so at other times, when this is withdrawn
+from them, they are at a loss again, and see themselves, as they really
+are, ignorant and destitute."
+
+The Quakers again understand by these expressions of the Apostle, which
+is the point insisted upon in this chapter, that human reason, or the
+spirit of man which is within him, and the divine principle of life and
+light which is the spirit of God residing in his body or temple, are so
+different in their powers, that the former cannot enter into the
+province of the latter. As water cannot penetrate the same bodies, which
+fire can, so neither can reason the same subjects as the spiritual
+faculty.
+
+The Quakers, however, do not deny, that human reason is powerful within
+its own province. It may discover in the beautiful structure of the
+Universe, and in the harmony and fitness of all its parts, the hand of a
+great contriver. It may conclude upon attributes, as belonging to the
+same. It may see the fitness of virtue, and deduce from thence a
+speculative morality. They only say that it, is incompetent to spiritual
+discernment. But though they believe the two spirits to be thus distinct
+in their powers, they believe them, I apprehend, to be so far connected
+in religion that the spirit of God can only act upon a reasonable being.
+Thus light and the power of sight are distinct things. Yet the power of
+sight is nothing without light, nor can light operate upon any other
+organ than the eye to produce vision.
+
+This proposition may be farther elucidated by making a comparison
+between the powers of men, and those of the brute-creation. An animal is
+compounded of body and instinct. If we were to endeavour to cultivate
+this instinct, we might make the animal tame and obedient. We might
+impress his sensitive powers, so that he might stop or go forward at our
+voice. We might bring him in some instances, to an imitation of outward
+gestures and sounds. Bat all the years of his life, and centuries of
+life in his progeny would pass away, and we should never be able so to
+improve his instinct into intellect, as to make him comprehend the
+affairs of a man. He would never understand the meaning of his goings
+in, or of his goings out, or of his pursuits in life, or of his progress
+in science. So neither could any education so improve the reason of man
+into the divine principle of light within him, as that he should
+understand spiritual things; for the things of God are only discernible
+by the spirit of God.
+
+This doctrine, that there is no understanding of divine things except
+through the medium of the divine principle, which dwells in the temple
+of man, was no particular notion of George Fox, or of the succeeding
+Quakers, though undoubtedly they have founded more upon it than other
+Christians. Those, who had the earliest access to the writings of the
+evangelists and apostles, believed the proposition. All the ancient
+fathers of the church considered it as the corner stone of the Christian
+fabric. The most celebrated of the reformers held it in the same light.
+The divines, who followed these, adopted it as their creed also; and by
+these it has been handed down to other Christian communities, and is
+retained as an essential doctrine by the church of England, at the
+present day.
+
+The Quakers adduce many authorities in behalf of this proposition, but
+the following may suffice.
+
+"It is the inward master, says St. Augustine, that teacheth. Where this
+inspiration is wanting, it is in vain that words from without are beaten
+in."
+
+Luther says, "no man can rightly know God, unless he immediately
+receives it from his holy spirit, except he finds it by experience in
+himself; and in this experience the holy spirit teacheth as in his
+proper school, out of which school nothing is taught but mere talk."
+
+Calvin, on Luke 10. 21. says, "Here the natural wisdom of man is so
+puzzled, and is at such a loss, that the first step of profiting in the
+school of Christ is to give it up or renounce it. For by this natural
+wisdom, as by a veil before our eyes, we are hindered from attaining the
+mysteries of God, which are not revealed but unto babes and little ones.
+For neither do flesh and blood reveal, nor doth the natural man
+perceive, the things that are of the spirit. But the doctrine of God is
+rather foolishness to him, because it can only be spiritually judged.
+The assistance therefore of the holy spirit is in this case necessary,
+or rather, his power alone is efficacious."
+
+Dr. Smith observes, in his select discourses, "besides the outward
+Revelation of God's will to men, there is also an inward impression of
+it in their minds and spirits, which is in a more especial manner
+attributed to God. We cannot see divine things but in a divine light.
+God only, who is the true light, and in whom there is no darkness at
+all, can so shine out of himself upon our glossy understandings, as to
+beget in them a picture of himself, his own will and pleasure, and turn
+the soul (as the phrase is in Job) like wax or clay to the seal of his
+own light and love. He that made our souls in his own image and
+likeness, can easily find a way into them. The word that God speaks,
+having found a way into the soul, imprints itself there, as with the
+point of a diamond, and becomes (to borrow Plato's expression) 'a word
+written in the Soul of the learner.' Men may teach the grammar and
+rhetoric; but God teaches the divinity. Thus it is God alone that
+acquaints the soul with the truths of revelation."
+
+The learned Jeremy Taylor, bishop of Down and Connor, speaks in a
+similar manner in his sermon de Via Intelligentiae. "Now in this
+inquiry, says he, I must take one thing for granted, which is, that
+every good man is taught of God. And indeed, unless he teach us, we
+shall make but ill scholars ourselves, and worse guides to others. No
+man can know God, says Irenaeus, except he be taught of God. If God
+teaches us, then all is well; but if we do not learn wisdom at his feet,
+from whence should we have it? It can come from no other spring."
+
+Again--"those who perfect holiness in the fear of God, have a degree of
+divine knowledge more than we can discourse of, and more certain than
+the demonstration of Geometry; brighter than the sun, and indeficient as
+the light of heaven--A good man is united to God--As flame touches
+flame, and combines into splendour and into glory, so is the spirit of a
+man united to Christ by the spirit of God. Our light, on the other hand,
+is like a candle; every word of doctrine blows it out, or spends the
+wax, and makes the light tremulous. But the lights of heaven are fixed
+and bright and shine for ever."
+
+Cudworth, in his intellectual system, is wholly of the same opinion:
+"All the books and writings which we converse with, they can but
+represent spiritual objects to our understanding, which yet we can never
+see in their own true figure, colour, and proportion, until we have a
+divine light within to irradiate and shine upon them. Though there be
+never such excellent truths concerning Christ and his Gospel, set down
+in words and letters, yet they will be but unknown characters to us,
+until we have a living spirit within us, that can decypher them, until
+the same spirit, by secret whispers in our hearts, do comment upon them,
+which did at first indite them. There be many that understand the Greek
+and Hebrew of the scripture, the original languages in which the text
+was written, that never understood the language of the spirit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+_Neither can a man, except he has a portion of the same spirit which
+Jesus and the Apostles and the Prophets had, know spiritualty that the
+scriptures are of divine authority, or spiritually understand
+them--Explanation of these tenets--Objection, that these tenets set
+aside human reason--Reply of the Quakers--Observations of
+Luther--Calvin--Owen--Archbishop Usher--Archbishop Sandys--Milton
+--Bishop Taylor._
+
+
+As a man cannot know spiritual things but through the medium of the
+spirit of God; or except he has a portion of the same spirit, which
+Jesus and the Prophets and the Apostles had, so neither can he, except
+he has a portion of the same spirit, either spiritually know that the
+writings or sayings of these holy persons are of divine authority, or
+read or understand them, to the promotion of his spiritual interests.
+
+These two tenets are but deductions from that in the former chapter, and
+may be thus explained.
+
+A man, the Quakers say, may examine the holy scriptures, and may deduce
+their divine origin from the prophecies they contain, of which many have
+been since accomplished; from the superiority of their doctrines beyond
+those in any other book which is the work of man; from the miraculous
+preservation of them for so many ages; from the harmony of all their
+parts, and from many other circumstances which might be mentioned. But
+this, after all, will be but an historical, literal, or outward proof of
+their origin, resulting from his reason or his judgment. It will be no
+spiritual proof, having a spiritual influence on his heart; for this
+proof of the divine origin of the scriptures can only be had from the
+spirit of God. Thus, when the Apostle Paul preached to several women by
+the river side near Philippi, it is said of Lydia only,[14] "the Lord
+opened her heart, that she attended to the things that were spoken by
+Paul." The other women undoubtedly heard the gospel of Paul with their
+outward ears, but it does not appear that their hearts were in such a
+spiritual state, that they felt its divine authority; for it is not said
+of them, as of Lydia, that their hearts were opened to understand
+spiritually that this gospel was of God. Again,[15] when Jesus Christ
+preached to the Jews in the temple, many believed on him, but others
+believed not, but were so enraged that they took up stones to cast at
+him. It appears that they all heard his doctrine with their outward
+ears, in which he particularly stated that he was from above; but they
+did not receive the truth of his origin in their hearts, because they
+were not in a state to receive that faith which cometh from the spirit
+of God. In the same manner persons hear sermon after sermon at the
+present day, but find no spiritual benefit in their hearts.
+
+[Footnote 14: Acts 16.13]
+
+[Footnote 15: John 8.30.45.59.]
+
+Again--a man, by comparing passages of scripture with other passages,
+and by considering the use and acceptation of words in these, may arrive
+at a knowledge of their literal meaning. He may obtain also, by perusing
+the scriptures, a knowledge of some of the attributes of God. He may
+discover a part of the plan of his providence. He may collect purer
+moral truths than from any other source. But no literal reading of the
+scriptures can give him that spiritual knowledge of divine things, which
+leads to eternal life. The scriptures, if literally read, will give him
+a literal or corresponding knowledge, but it is only the spiritual
+monitor within, who can apply them to his feelings; who can tell him
+"thou art the man; this is thy state: this is that which thou oughtest
+or oughtest not to have done;" so that he sees spiritually, (the spirit
+of God bearing witness with his own spirit) that his own situation has
+been described. Indeed, if the scriptures were sufficient of themselves
+for this latter purpose, the Quakers say that the knowledge of spiritual
+things would consist in the knowledge of words. They, who were to get
+most of the divine writings by heart, would know spiritually the most
+of divine truths. The man of the best understanding, or of the most
+cultivated mind, would be the best proficient in vital religion. But
+this is contrary to fact. For men of deep learning know frequently less
+of spiritual Christianity, than those of the poor, who are scarcely able
+to read the scriptures. They contend also, that if the scriptures were
+the most vitally understood by those of the most learning, then the
+dispensations of God would be partial, inasmuch as he would have
+excluded the poor from the highest enjoyments of which the nature of man
+is susceptible, and from the means of their eternal salvation.
+
+These tenets, which are thus adopted by the Quakers, are considered by
+many of the moderns as objectionable, inasmuch as they make reason, at
+least in theology, a useless gift. The Quakers, however, contend that
+they consider reason as one of the inestimable gifts of God. They value
+it highly in its proper province. They do not exclude it from religion.
+Men, by means of it, may correct literal errors in the scriptures; may
+restore texts, may refute doctrines inconsistent with the attributes of
+the Almighty. The apology of Robert Barclay, which is a chain of
+reasoning of this kind from the begining to the end, is a proof that
+they do not undervalue the powers of the mind. But they dare not ascribe
+to human reason that power, which they believe to be exclusively vested
+in the spirit of God.
+
+They say, moreover, that these tenets are neither new nor peculiar to
+themselves as a society. They were the doctrines of the primitive
+Fathers. They. were the doctrines also of the protestant reformers. And
+though many at the present day consider that scripture, interpreted by
+reason, is the religion of protestants, yet it was the general belief of
+these reformers, that the teaching of the Holy spirit was necessary to
+the spiritual understanding of the scriptures, as well as to the
+spiritual establishment of their divine origin.
+
+Luther observes--"It is not human reason, or wisdom, nor the law of God,
+but the work of divine grace freely bestowed upon me, that teacheth me
+and showeth me the gospel: and this gift of God I receive by faith
+alone."
+
+"The scriptures are not to be understood but by the same spirit by which
+they were written."
+
+"No man sees one jot or tittle in the scriptures, unless he has the
+spirit of God."
+
+"Profane men, says Calvin, desire to have it proved to them by reason,
+that Moses and the prophets spoke from God. And to such I answer, that
+the testimony of the spirit exceeds all reason. For as God alone is a
+sufficient witness of himself in his word, so will his word not find
+credit in the hearts of men, until it is sealed by the inward testimony
+of his spirit. It is therefore necessary, that the same spirit which
+spake by the mouth of the prophets, enter into our hearts to persuade
+us, that they faithfully declared what was commanded them by God."
+
+Again--"Unless we have the assurance which is better and more valid than
+any judgment of man, it will be in vain to go about to establish the
+authority of scripture, either by argument or the consent of the church;
+for except the foundation be laid, namely, that the certainty of its
+divine authority depends entirely upon the testimony of the spirit, it
+remains in perpetual suspense." Again--"The spirit of God, from whom the
+doctrine of the Gospel proceeds, is the only true interpreter to open it
+to us."
+
+"Divines, says the learned Owen, at the first reformation, did generally
+resolve our faith of the divine authority of the scriptures, into the
+testimony of the Holy Spirit;" in which belief he joins himself, by
+stating that "it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe
+the scripture to be the word of God."
+
+In another place he says, "our Divines have long since laid it down,
+that the only public, authentic, and infallible interpreter of the holy
+scriptures, is the author of them, from whose inspiration they receive
+all their truth, clearness, and authority. This author is the Holy
+Spirit."
+
+Archbishop Sandys, in one of his Sermons, preached before Queen
+Elizabeth, has the following observations:
+
+"The outward reading of the word, without the inward working of the
+spirit, is nothing. The precise Pharisees, and the learned Scribes, read
+the scriptures over and over again. They not only read them in books,
+but wore them on their garments. They were not only taught, but were
+able themselves to teach others. But because this heavenly teacher had
+not instructed them, their understanding was darkened, and their
+knowledge was but vanity. They were ignorant altogether in that saving
+truth, which the prophet David was so desirous to learn. The mysteries
+of salvation were so hard to be conceived by the very apostles of Christ
+Jesus, that he was forced many times to rebuke them for their dulness,
+which unless he had removed by opening the eyes of their minds, they
+could never have attained to the knowledge of salvation in Christ Jesus.
+The ears of that woman Lydia would have been as close shut against the
+preaching of Paul, as any others, if the finger of God had not touched
+and opened her heart. As many as learn, they are taught of God."
+
+Archbishop Usher, in his sum and substance of the Christian Religion,
+observes, "that it is required that we have the spirit of God, as well
+to open our eyes to see the light, as to seal up fully in our hearts
+that truth, which we can see with our eyes: for the same Holy Spirit
+that inspired the scripture, inclineth the hearts of God's children to
+believe what is revealed in them, and inwardly assureth them, above all
+reasons and arguments, that these are the scriptures of God." And
+farther on in the same work, he says, "the spirit of God alone is the
+certain interpreter of his word written by his Spirit; for no man
+knoweth the things pertaining to God, but the Spirit of God."
+
+Our great Milton also gives us a similar opinion in the following words,
+which are taken from his Paradise Lost:
+
+   ----"but in their room----
+  Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
+  Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
+  To their own vile advantages shall turn
+  Of lucre and ambition, and the truth
+  With superstition's and tradition's taint,
+  Left only in those written records pure,
+  Though not but by the spirit understood."
+
+Of the same mind was the learned bishop Taylor, as we collect from his
+sermon de Via Intelligentiae. "For although the scriptures, says he, are
+written by the spirit of God, yet they are written within and without.
+And besides the light that shines upon the face of them, unless there be
+a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, and
+interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit, convincing our
+consciences, and preaching to our hearts; to look for Christ in the
+leaves of the gospel, is to look for the living among the dead. There is
+a life in them; but that life is, according to St. Paul's expression,
+'hid with Christ in God;' and unless the spirit of God first draw it, we
+shall never draw it forth."
+
+"Human learning brings excellent ministeries towards this. It is
+admirably useful for the reproof of heresies, for the detection of
+fallacies, for the letter of the scripture, for collateral testimonies,
+for exterior advantages; but there is something beyond this that human
+learning, without the addition of divine, can never reach. Moses was
+learned in all the learning of the Egyptians; and the holy men of God
+contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order, motion, and
+influences of the heaven; but, besides all this, they were taught
+something far beyond these prettinesses. Pythagoras read Moses' books,
+and so did Plato, and yet they became not proselytes of the religion,
+though they were the learned scholars of such a master."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+_The spirit of God which has been thus given to man in different
+degrees, was given him as a spiritual teacher, or guide, in his
+spiritual concerns--It performs this office, the Quakers say, by
+internal monitions--Sentiments of Taylor--and of Monro--and, if
+encouraged, it teaches even by the external objects of the
+creation--William Wordsworth._
+
+
+The Quakers believe that the spirit of God, which has been thus given to
+man in different degrees or measures, and without which it is impossible
+to know spiritual things, or even to understand the divine writings
+spiritually, or to be assured of their divine origin, was given to him,
+among other purposes, as a teacher of good and evil, or to serve him as
+a guide in his spiritual concerns. By this the Quakers mean, that if any
+man will give himself up to the directions of the spiritual principle
+that resides within him, he will attain a knowledge sufficient to enable
+him to discover the path of his duty both to God and his fellow-man.
+
+That the spirit of God was given to man as a spiritual instructor, the
+Quakers conceive to be plain, from a number of passages, which are to be
+found in the sacred writings.
+
+They say, in the first place, that it was the language of the holy men
+of old. [16] "I said, says Elihu, days should speak, and multitude of
+years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit (or the spirit itself
+is) in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him
+understanding." The Levites are found also making an acknowledgment to
+God; [17] "That he gave also their forefathers his good spirit to
+instruct them." The Psalms of David are also full of the same language,
+such as of [18] "Shew me thy ways, O Lord; lead me in the truth." [19] "I
+know, says Jeremiah, that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in
+man that walketh to direct his steps." The martyr Stephen acknowledges
+the teachings of the spirit, both in his own time and in that of his
+ancestors. [20] "Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
+do always resist the holy spirit. As your fathers did, so do ye." The
+Quakers also conceive it to be a doctrine of the gospel. Jesus himself
+said, [21] "No man can come to me except the Father, which sent me, draw
+him--It is written in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God."
+[22]St. John says, "That was the true light, (namely, the word or
+spirit) which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." St. Paul,
+in his first letter to the Corinthians, asserts, [23]that "the
+manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal."
+And, in his letter to Titus, he asserts the same thing, though in
+different words: [24] "For the grace of God, says he, which bringeth
+salvation, hath appeared unto all men."
+
+[Footnote 16: Job 32. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Nehemiah 9. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Psalm 25. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Jeremiah 10. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Acts 7. 51.]
+
+[Footnote 21: John 6.44.45]
+
+[Footnote 22: John 1. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 23: i Cor. 12. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Titus 2. 11.]
+
+The spirit of God, which has been thus given to man as a spiritual
+guide, is considered by the Quakers as teaching him in various ways. It
+inspires him with good thoughts. It prompts him to good offices. It
+checks him in his way to evil. It reproves him while in the act of
+committing it.
+
+The learned Jeremy Taylor was of the same opinion. "The spirit of grace,
+says he, is the spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by secret inspirations,
+by proper arguments, by actual persuasions, by personal applications, by
+effects and energies."
+
+This office of the spirit is beautifully described by Monro, a divine of
+the established church, in his just measures of the pious institutions
+of youth, "The holy spirit, says he, speaks inwardly and immediately to
+the soul. For God is a spirit. The soul is a spirit; and they converse
+with one another in spirit, not by words, but by spiritual notices;
+which, however, are more intelligible than the most eloquent strains in
+the world. God makes himself to be heard by the soul by inward motions,
+which it perceives and comprehends proportionably as it is voided and
+emptied of earthly ideas. And the more the faculties of the soul cease
+their own operations, so much the more sensible and intelligible are the
+motions of God to it. These immediate communications from God with the
+souls of men are denied and derided by a great many. But that the father
+of spirits should have no converse with our spirits, but by the
+intervention only of outward and foreign objects, may justly seem
+strange, especially when we are so often told in holy scripture, that we
+are the temples of the holy Ghost, and that God dwelleth in all good
+men."
+
+But this spirit is considered by the Quakers not only as teaching by
+inward breathings, as it were, made immediately and directly upon the
+heart without the intervention of outward circumstances, but as making
+the material objects of the Universe, and many of the occurrences of
+life, if it be properly attended to, subservient to the instruction of
+man; and that it enlarges the sphere of his instruction in this manner,
+in proportion as it is received and encouraged. Thus the man, who is
+attentive to these divine notices, sees the animal, the vegetable, and
+the planetary world, with spiritual eyes. He cannot stir abroad, but he
+is taught in his own feelings, without any motion of his will, some
+lesson for his spiritual advantage; or he perceives so vitally some of
+the attributes of the divine being, that he is called upon to offer
+some spiritual incense to his maker. If the lamb frolics and gambols in
+his presence as he walks along, he may be made spiritually to see the
+beauty and happiness of innocence. If he finds the stately oak laid
+prostrate by the wind, he may be spiritually taught to discern the
+emptiness of human power; while the same spirit may teach him inwardly
+the advantage of humility, when he looks at the little hawthorn which
+has survived the storm. When he sees the change and the fall of the
+autumnal leaf, he may be spiritually admonished of his own change and
+dissolution, and of the necessity of a holy life. Thus the spirit of God
+may teach men by outward objects and occurrences in the world; but where
+this spirit is away, or rather where it is not attended to, no such
+lesson can be taught. Natural objects of themselves can excite only
+natural ideas: and the natural man, looking at them, can derive only
+natural pleasure, or draw natural conclusions from them. In looking at
+the Sun, he may be pleased with its warmth, and anticipate its
+advantages to the vegetable world. In plucking and examining a flower,
+he may be struck with its beauty, its mechanism, and its fragrant smell.
+In observing the butterfly, as it wings its way before him, he may smile
+at its short journeys from place to place, and admire the splendour
+upon its wings. But the beauty of Creation is dead to him, as far as it
+depends upon connecting it spiritually with the character of God. For no
+spiritual impression can arise from any natural objects, but through the
+intervention of the spirit of God.
+
+William Wordsworth, in his instructive poems, has described this
+teaching by external objects in consequence of impressions from a higher
+power, as differing from any teaching by books or the human
+understanding, and as arising without any motion of the will of man, in
+so beautiful and simple a manner, that I cannot do otherwise than make
+an extract from them in this place. Lively as the poem is, to which I
+allude, I conceive it will not lower the dignity of the subject. It is
+called Expostulation and Reply, and is as follows:[25]
+
+     Why, William, on that old gray stone,
+     Thus for the length of half a day,
+     Why, William, sit you thus alone,
+     And dream your time away?
+
+     Where are your books? that light bequeath'd
+     To beings, else forlorn and blind,
+     Up! Up! and drink the spirit breath'd
+     From dead men to their kind.
+
+     You look round on your mother earth,
+     As if she for no purpose bore you,
+     As if you were her first-born birth,
+     And none had liv'd before you!
+
+     One morning thus by Esthwaite lake,
+     When life was sweet, I knew not why,
+     To me my good friend Matthew spake,
+     And that I made reply:
+
+     The eye it cannot choose but see.
+     We cannot bid the ear be still;
+     Our bodies feel where'er they be,
+     Against or with our will.
+
+     Nor less I deem that there are powers,
+     Which of themselves our minds impress,
+     That we can feed this mind of ours
+     In a wise passiveness.
+
+     Think you,'mid all this mighty sum
+     Of things for ever speaking,
+     That nothing of itself will come,
+     But we must still be seeking?
+
+     Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
+     Conversing as I may,
+     I sit upon this old gray stone,
+     And dream my time away?
+
+[Footnote 25: See Lyrical Ballads, Vol. 1. p. 1.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V
+
+_This spirit was not only given to man as a teacher, but as a primary
+and infallible guide--Hence the Scriptures are a subordinate or
+secondary guide--Quakers, however, do not undervalue them on this
+account--Their opinion concerning them._
+
+
+The spirit of God, which we have seen to be thus given to men as a
+spiritual teacher, and to act in the ways described, the Quakers usually
+distinguish by the epithets of primary and infallible. But they have
+made another distinction with respect to the character of this spirit;
+for they have pronounced it to be the only infallible guide to men in
+their spiritual concerns. From this latter declaration the reader will
+naturally conclude, that the scriptures, which are the outward teachers
+of men, must be viewed by the Quakers in a secondary light. This
+conclusion has indeed been adopted as a proposition in the Quaker
+theology; or, in other words, it is a doctrine of the society, that the
+spirit of God is the primary and only infallible, and the scriptures but
+a subordinate or secondary guide.
+
+This proposition the Quakers usually make out in the following manner:
+
+It is, in the first place, admitted by all Christians, that the
+scriptures were given by inspiration, or that those who originally
+delivered or wrote the several parts of them, gave them forth by means
+of that spirit, which was given to them by God. Now in the same manner
+as streams, or rivulets of water, are subordinate to the fountains
+which produce them; so those streams or rivulets of light must be
+subordinate to the great light from whence they originally sprung. "We
+cannot, says Barclay, call the scriptures the principal fountain of all
+truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and
+manners; because the principal fountain of truth must be the truth
+itself, that is, whose certainty and authority depend not upon another."
+
+The scriptures are subordinate or secondary, again, in other points of
+view. First, because, though they are placed before us, we can only know
+or understand them by the testimony of the spirit. Secondly, because
+there is no virtue or power in them of themselves, but in the spirit
+from whence they came.
+
+They are, again, but a secondary guide; because "that, says Barclay,
+cannot be the only and principal guide, which doth not universally reach
+every individual that needeth it." But the scriptures do not teach deaf
+persons, nor children, nor idiots, nor an immense number of people, more
+than half the Globe, who never yet saw or heard of them. These,
+therefore, if they are to be saved like others, must have a different or
+a more universal rule to guide them, or be taught from another source.
+
+They are only a secondary guide, again, for another reason. It is an
+acknowledged axiom among Christians, that the spirit of God is a perfect
+spirit, and that it can never err. But the scriptures are neither
+perfect of themselves as a collection, nor are they perfect in their
+verbal parts. Many of them have been lost. Concerning those which have
+survived, there have been great disputes. Certain parts of these, which
+one Christian council received in the early times of the church, were
+rejected as not canonical by another. Add to this, that none of the
+originals are extant. And of the copies, some have suffered by
+transcription, others by translation, and others by wilful mutilation,
+to support human notions of religion; so that there are various readings
+of the same passage, and various views of the same thing. "Now what,
+says Barclay, would become of Christians, if they had not received that
+spirit and those spiritual senses, by which they know how to discover
+the true from the false? It is the privilege of Christ's sheep, indeed,
+that they hear his voice, and refuse that of the stranger; which,
+privilege being taken away, we are left a prey to all manner of wolves."
+The scriptures, therefore, in consequence of the state in which they
+have come down to us, cannot, the Quakers say, be considered to be a
+guide as entirely perfect as the internal testimony of their great
+author, the spirit of God.
+
+But though the Quakers have thought it right, in submitting their
+religious creed to the world on this subject, to be so guarded in the
+wording of it as to make the distinction described, they are far from
+undervaluing the scriptures on that account. They believe, on the other
+hand, whatever mutilations they may have suffered, that they contain
+sufficient to guide men in belief and practice; and that all internal
+emotions, which are contrary to the declaration of these, are wholly
+inadmissible. "Moreover, says Barclay, because the scriptures are
+commonly acknowledged by all to have been written by the dictates of the
+holy spirit, and that the errors, which may be supposed by the injury of
+time to have slipt in, are not such but there is a sufficient clear
+testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith, we do look
+upon them as the only fit outward judge of controversies among
+Christians, and that whatsoever doctrine is contrary to their testimony,
+may therefore justly be rejected as false."
+
+The Quakers believe also, that as God gave a portion of his spirit to
+man to assist him inwardly, so he gave the holy scriptures to assist him
+outwardly in his spiritual concerns. Hence the latter, coming by
+inspiration, are the most precious of all books that ever were written,
+and the best outward guide. And hence the things contained in them,
+ought to be read, and, as far as possible, fulfilled.
+
+They believe, with the apostle Paul, that the scriptures are highly
+useful, "so that, through patience and comfort of them, they may have
+hope; and also that they are profitable for reproof, for correction, and
+for instruction in righteousness:" that in the same manner as land,
+highly prepared and dressed by the husbandman, becomes fit for the
+reception and for the promotion of the growth of the seed that is to be
+placed in it, so the scriptures turn the attention of man towards God,
+and by means of the exhortations, reproofs, promises, and threatenings,
+contained in them, prepare the mind for the reception and growth of the
+seed of the Holy Spirit.
+
+They believe, again, that the same scriptures show more of the
+particulars of God's will with respect to man, and of the scheme of the
+Gospel-dispensation, than any ordinary portion of his spirit, as usually
+given to man, would have enabled him to discover. They discover that
+[26] "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
+through Jesus Christ:" [27] "That Jesus Christ was set forth to be a
+propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
+for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of
+God;" [28]that "he tasted death for every man;" that he [29]was
+"delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification;"
+[30]that "he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God;"
+[31] "and ever liveth to make intercession for us; and, that he is the
+substance of all the types and figures under the Levitical priesthood,
+[32] being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
+believeth."
+
+[Footnote 26: Rom. 6. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Rom. 3. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Heb. 2. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 29: 4. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 30: Heb. 12. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Heb. 7. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Rom. 10. 4.]
+
+They believe, again, that, in consequence of these various revelations,
+as contained in the scriptures, they have inestimable advantages over
+the Heathen nations, or over those, where the gospel-sun has never yet
+shone; and that, as their advantages are greater, so more will be
+required of them, or their condemnation will be greater, if they fail to
+attend to those things which are clearly revealed.
+
+They maintain, again, that their discipline is founded on the rules of
+the gospel; and that in consequence of giving an interpretation
+different from that of many others, to some of the expressions of Jesus
+Christ, by which they conceive they make his kingdom more pure and
+heavenly, they undergo persecution from the world--so that they confirm
+their attachment to the scriptures by the best of all credible
+testimonies, the seal of their own sufferings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+_This spirit of God, which has been thus given to men as an infallible
+guide in their spiritual concerns, has been given them universally--To
+the patriarchs and Israelites, from the creation to the time of
+Moses--To the Israelites or Jews, from Moses to Jesus Christ--To the
+Gentile world from all antiquity to modern times--To all those who have
+ever heard the gospel--And it continues its office to the latter even
+at the present day._
+
+
+The Quakers are of opinion that the spirit of God, of which a portion
+has been given to men as a primary and infallible guide in their
+spiritual concerns, has been given them universally; or has been given
+to all of the human race, without any exceptions, for the same purpose.
+
+This proposition of the Quakers I shall divide, in order that the reader
+may see it more clearly, into four cases. The first of these will
+comprehend the Patriarchs and the Israelites from the creation to the
+time of Moses. The second, the Israelites or Jews from the time of Moses
+to the coming of Jesus Christ. The third, the Gentiles or Heathens. And
+the fourth, all those who have heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, from
+the time of his own ministry to the present day.
+
+The first case includes a portion of time of above two thousand years.
+Now the Quakers believe, that during all this time men were generally
+enlightened as to their duty by the spirit of God; for there was no
+scripture or written law of God during all this period. "It was about
+two thousand four hundred years, says Thomas Beaven, an approved writer
+among the Quakers, after the creation of the world, before mankind had
+any external written law for the rule and conduct of their lives, so far
+as appears by either sacred or profane history; in all which time
+mankind, generally speaking, had only for their rule of faith and
+manners the external creation as a monitor to their outward senses, for
+evidence of the reality and certainty of the existence of the Supreme
+Being; and the internal impressions God by his divine spirit made upon
+the capacities and powers of their souls or inward man, and perhaps some
+of them oral traditions delivered from father to son."
+
+To the same point Thomas Beaven quotes the ever memorable John Hales,
+who, in his golden remains, writes in the following manner: "The love
+and favour, which it pleased God to bear our fathers before the law', so
+far prevailed with him, as that without any books and writings, by
+familiar and friendly conversing with them, and communicating himself
+unto them, he made them receive and understand his laws, their inward
+conceits and intellectuals being, after a wonderful manner, figured as
+it were and charactered by his spirit, so that they could not but see
+and consent unto, and confess the truth of them. Which way of
+manifesting his will unto many other gracious privileges it had, above
+that which in after ages came in place of it, had this added, that it
+brought with it unto the man to whom it was made, a preservation against
+all doubt and hesitancy, and a full assurance both who the author was,
+and how far his intent and meaning reached. We who are their offspring
+ought, as St. Chrysostom tells us, so to have demeaned ourselves, that
+it might have been with us as it was with them, that we might have had
+no need of writing, no other teacher but the spirit, no other books but
+our hearts, no other means to have been taught the things of God."
+
+That the spirit of God, as described by Thomas Beaven and the venerable
+John Hales, was the great instructor or enlightener of man during the
+period we are speaking of, the Quakers believe, from what they conceive
+to be the sense of the holy scriptures on this subject. For in the first
+place, they consider it as a position, deducible from the expressions of
+Moses[33], that the spirit of God had striven with those of the
+antediluvian world. They believe, therefore, that it was this spirit
+(and because the means were adequate, and none more satisfactory to them
+can be assigned) which informed Cain, before any written law existed,
+and this even before the murder of his brother, that[34] "if he did
+well, he should be accepted; but if not, sin should lie at his door."
+The same spirit they conceive to have illuminated the mind of Seth, but
+in a higher degree than ordinarily the mind of Enoch; for he is the
+first, of whom it is recorded, that[35] "he walked with God." It is also
+considered by the Quakers as having afforded a rule of conduct to those
+who lived after the flood. Thus Joseph is described as saying, when
+there is no record of any verbal instruction from the Almighty on this
+subject, and at a time when there was no scripture or written law of
+God, [36] "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
+God?" It illuminated others also, but in a greater or less degree, as
+before. Thus Noah became a preacher of righteousness. Thus Abraham,
+Isaac, and Jacob, were favoured with a greater measure of it than others
+who lived in their own times.
+
+[Footnote 33: Gen. 6.3]
+
+[Footnote 34: Ib 4.7]
+
+[Footnote 35: Gen. 5.24.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Ib. 39.9.--The traditionary laws of Noah were in force at
+this time; but they only specified three offences between man and man.]
+
+From these times to the coming of Jesus Christ, which is the second of
+the cases in question, the same spirit, according to the Quakers, still
+continued its teachings, and this notwithstanding the introduction of
+the Mosaic law; for this, which was engraven on tables of stone, did not
+set aside the law that was engraven on the heart. It assisted, first,
+outwardly, in turning mens' minds to God; and secondly, in fitting them
+as a schoolmaster for attention to the internal impressions by his
+spirit. That the spirit of God was still the great teacher, the Quakers
+conceive to be plain; for the sacred writings from Moses to Malachi
+affirm it for a part of the period now assigned; and for the rest we
+have as evidence the reproof of the Martyr Stephen, and the sentences
+from the New Testament quoted in the fourth chapter. And in the same
+manner as this spirit had been given to some in a greater measure than
+to others, both before and after the deluge, so the Quakers believe it
+to have been given more abundantly to Moses and the prophets, than to
+others of the same nation; for they believe that the law in particular,
+and that the general writings of Moses, and those of the prophets also,
+were of divine inspiration, or the productions of the spirit of God.
+
+With respect to the Heathens or Gentiles, which is the third case, the
+Quakers believe that God's holy spirit became a guide also to them, and
+furnished them, as it had done the patriarchs and the Jews, with a rule
+of practice. For even these, who had none of the advantages of scripture
+or of a written divine law, believed, many of them, in God, such as
+Orpheus, Hesiod, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and
+others. And of these it may be observed, that it was their general
+belief, as well as it was the belief of many others in those days, that
+there was a divine light or spirit in man, to enable him to direct
+himself aright.
+
+Among the remnants that have been preserved of the sayings, of
+Pythagoras, are the following which relate to this subject: "Those
+things which are agreeable to God, cannot be known, except a man hear
+God himself." Again--"But having overcome these things, thou shalt know
+the cohabitation or dwelling together of the immortal God and mortal
+man. His work is life--The work of God is immortality, eternal life."
+"The most excellent thing, says Timoeus, that the soul is awakened to,
+is her guide or good genius; but if she be rebellious to it, it will
+prove her daemon, or tormentor."
+
+"It was frequently said of Socrates, he had the guide of his life within
+him, which, it was told his father Sophroniscus, would be of more worth
+to him than five hundred masters. He called it his good angel, or
+spirit; that it suggested to his mind what was good and virtuous, and
+inclined and disposed him to a strict and pious life; that it furnished
+him with divine knowledge, and impelled him very often to speak publicly
+to the people, sometimes in a way of severe reproof, at other times to
+information."
+
+Plato says, "the light and spirit of God are as wings to the soul, or as
+that which raiseth up the soul into, a sensible communion with God above
+the world."
+
+"I have, says Seneca, a more clear and certain light, by which I may
+judge the truth from falsehood: that which belongs to the happiness of
+the soul, the eternal mind will direct to." Again--"It is a foolish
+thing for thee to wish for that which thou canst not obtain. God is near
+thee, and he is in thee. The good spirit sits or resides within as, the
+observer of our good and evil actions. As he is dealt with by us, he
+dealeth with us."
+
+The Quakers produce these, and a multitude of other quotations, which it
+is not necessary to repeat, to show that the same spirit, which taught
+the patriarchs before the law, and the Jews after it, taught the
+Gentiles also. But this revelation, or manifestation of the spirit, was
+not confined, in the opinion of the Quakers, to the Roman or Greek
+philosophers, or to those who had greater pretensions than common to
+human wisdom. They believe that no nation was ever discovered, among
+those of antiquity, to have been so wild or ignorant as not to have
+acknowledged a divinity, or as not to have known and established a
+difference between good and evil.
+
+Cicero says, "there is no country so barbarous, no one of all men so
+savage, as that some apprehension of the Gods hath not tinctured his
+mind. That many indeed, says he, think corruptly of them, must be
+admitted; but this is the effect of vicious custom. For all do believe
+that there is a divine power and nature."
+
+Maximus Tyriensis, a platonic philosopher, and a man of considerable
+knowledge, observes, that "notwithstanding the great contention and
+variety of opinions which have existed concerning the nature and essence
+of God, yet the law and reason of every country are harmonious in these
+respects, namely, that there is one God, the king and father of all--and
+that the many are but servants and co-rulers unto God: that in this the
+Greek and the Barbarian, the Islander and the inhabitant of the
+continent, the wise and the foolish, speak the same language. Go, says
+he, to the utmost bounds of the ocean, and you find God there. But if
+there hath been, says he, since the existence of time, two or three
+atheistical, vile, senseless individuals, whose eyes and ears deceive
+them, and who are maimed in their very soul, an irrational and barren
+species, as monstrous as a lion without courage, an ox without horns, or
+a bird without wings, yet out of these you will be able to understand
+something of God. For they know and confess him whether they will or
+not."
+
+Plutarch says again, "that if a man were to travel through the world, he
+might possibly find cities without walls, without letters, without
+kings, without wealth, without schools, and without theatres. But a city
+without a temple, or that useth no worship, or no prayers, no one ever
+saw. And he believes a city may more easily be built without a
+foundation, or ground to set it on, than a community of men have or keep
+a consistency without religion."
+
+Of those nations which were reputed wild and ignorant in ancient times,
+the Scythians may be brought, next, to the Greeks and Romans, as an
+instance to elucidate the opinion of the Quakers still farther on this
+subject. The speech of the Scythian Ambassadors to Alexander the Great,
+as handed down to us by Quintus Curtius, has been often cited by
+writers, not only on account of its beauty and simplicity, but to show
+us the moral sentiments of the Scythians in those times. I shall make a
+few extracts from it on this occasion.
+
+"Had the Gods given thee, says one of the Ambassadors to Alexander, a
+body proportionable to thy ambition, the whole Universe would have been
+too little for thee. With one hand thou wouldest touch the East, and
+with the other the West; and not satisfied with this, thou wouldest
+follow the Sun, and know where he hides himself."----
+
+"But what have we to do with thee? We never set foot in thy country. May
+not those who inhabit woods be allowed to live without knowing who thou
+art, and whence thou comest? We will neither command nor submit to any
+man."----
+
+"But thou, who boastest thy coming to extirpate robbers, thou thyself
+art the greatest robber upon earth."----
+
+"Thou hast possessed thyself of Lydia, invaded Syria, Persia, and
+Bactriana. Thou art forming a design to march as far as India, and thou
+now contest hither, to seize upon our herds of cattle. The great
+possessions which thou hast, only make thee covet more eagerly what thou
+hast not."----
+
+"We are informed that the Greeks speak jestingly of our Scythian
+deserts, and that they are even become a proverb; but we are fonder of
+our solitudes, than of thy great cities."----
+
+"If thou art a god, thou oughtest to do good to mortals, and not to
+deprive them of their possessions. If thou art a mere man, reflect on
+what thou art."----
+
+"Do not fancy that the Scythians will take an oath in their concluding
+of an alliance with thee. The only oath among them is to keep their word
+without swearing. Such cautions as these do indeed become Greeks, who
+sign their treaties, and call upon the Gods to witness them. But, with
+regard to us, our religion consists in being sincere, and in keeping the
+promises we have made. That man, who is not ashamed to break his word
+with men, is not ashamed of deceiving the Gods."
+
+To the account contained in these extracts, it may be added, that the
+Scythians are described by Herodotus, Justin, Horace, and others, as a
+moral people. They had the character of maintaining justice. Theft or
+robbery was severely punished among them. They believed infidelity after
+the marriage-engagement to be deserving of death. They coveted neither
+silver nor gold. They refused to give the name of goods or riches to any
+but estimable things, such as health, courage, liberty, strength,
+sincerity, innocence, and the like. They received friends as relations,
+or considered friendship as so sacred an alliance, that it differed but
+little from alliance by blood.
+
+These principles of the Scythians, as far as they are well founded, the
+Quakers believe to have originated in their more than ordinary attention
+to that divine principle which was given to them, equally with the rest
+of mankind, for their instruction in moral good; to that same principle,
+which Socrates describes as having suggested to his mind that which was
+good and virtuous, or which Seneca describes to reside in men as an
+observer of good and evil. For the Scythians, living in solitary and
+desert places, had but little communication for many ages with the rest
+of mankind, and did not obtain their system of morality from other
+quarters. From the Greeks and Romans, who were the most enlightened,
+they derived no moral benefit. For Strabo informs us, that their morals
+had been wholly corrupted in his time, and that this wretched change had
+taken place in consequence of their intercourse with these nations. That
+they had no scripture or written law of God is equally evident. Neither
+did they collect their morality from the perusal or observance of any
+particular laws that had been left them by their ancestors; for the same
+author, who gives them the high character just mentioned, says that they
+were found in the practice of justice,[37] not on account of any laws,
+but on account of their own _natural genius or disposition_. Neither
+were they found in this practice, because they had exerted their reason
+in discovering that virtue was so much more desirable than vice; for the
+same author declares, that nature, and not reason, had made them a moral
+people: for[38] "it seems surprising, says he, that nature should have
+given to them what the Greeks have never been able to attain either in
+consequence of the long succession of doctrines of their wise men, or of
+the precepts of their philosophers; and that the manners of a barbarous,
+should be preferable to those of a refined people."
+
+[Footnote 37: Justitia gentis Ingeniis culta, non Legibus.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Prorsus ut admirabile videatur, hoc illis naturam dare,
+quod Graeci longa sapientium doctrina praeceptisque philosophorum
+consequi nequeunt, cultosque mores incultae barbariae collatione
+soperari.]
+
+This opinion, that the spirit of God was afforded as a light to lighten
+the Gentiles of the ancient world, the Quakers derive from the
+authorities which I have now mentioned; that is, from the evidence which
+history has afforded, and from the sentiments which the Gentiles have
+discovered themselves upon this subject. But they conceive that the
+question is put out of all doubt by these remarkable words of the
+Apostle Paul. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by
+_nature_ the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are
+a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law _written on their
+hearts_, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
+mean while accusing, or else excusing one another." And here it may be
+observed, that the Quakers believe also, that in the same manner as the
+spirit of God enlightened the different Gentile nations previously to
+the time of the apostle, so it continues to enlighten those, which have
+been discovered since; for no nation has been found so ignorant, as not
+to make an acknowledgment of superior spirit, and to know the difference
+between good and evil. Hence it may be considered as illuminating those
+nations, where the scriptures have never reached, even at the present
+day.
+
+With respect to the last case, which includes those who have heard with
+their outward ears the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Quakers believe, that
+the spirit of God has continued its office of a spiritual instructor as
+well to these as to any of the persons who have been described. For the
+Gospel is no where said to supersede, any more than the law of Moses
+did, the assistance of this spirit. On the other hand, this spirit was
+deemed necessary, and this by the apostles themselves, even after
+churches had been established, or men had become Christians. St. Paul
+declares,[39] that whatever spiritual gifts some of his followers might
+then have, and however these gifts might then differ from one another,
+the spirit of God was given universally to man, and this to profit
+withal. He declares again that [40] "as many as were led by this spirit,
+these, and these only, possessed the knowledge that was requisite to
+enable them to become the sons of God." And in his letter to the
+Thessalonians, who had become a Christian church, he gave them many
+particular injunctions, among which one was, that [41] they would not
+quench or extinguish the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 39: Cor. 12. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Rom. 8, 14.]
+
+[Footnote 41: 1 Thess. 5. 19.]
+
+And in the same manner as this spirit was deemed necessary in the days
+of the apostles, and this to every man individually, and even after he
+had become a Christian, so the Quakers consider it to have been
+necessary since, and to continue so, wherever Christianity is professed.
+For many persons may read the holy scriptures, and hear them read in
+churches, and yet not feel the necessary conviction for sin. Here then
+the Quakers conceive the spirit of God to be still necessary. It comes
+in with its inward monitions and reproofs, where the scripture has been
+neglected or forgotten. It attempts to stay the arm of him who is going
+to offend, and frequently averts the blow.
+
+Neither is this spirit unnecessary, even where men profess an attention
+to the literal precepts of the Gospel. For in proportion as men are in
+the way of attending to the outward scriptures, they are in the way of
+being inwardly taught of God. But without this inward teaching no
+outward teaching can be effectual; for though persons may read the
+scriptures, yet they cannot spiritually understand them; and though they
+may admire the Christian religion, yet they cannot enjoy it, according
+to the opinion of the Quakers, but through the medium of the spirit of
+God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_This spirit, as it has been given universally, so it has been given
+sufficiently--Hence God is exonerated Of injustice, and men are left
+without excuse--Those who resist this spirit, are said to quench it, and
+may become so hardened in time, as to be insensible of its
+impressions--Those who attend to it, may be said to be in the way of
+redemption--Similar sentiments of Monro--This visitation, treatment,
+and influence of the spirit, usually explained by the Quakers by the
+Parable of the sower._
+
+
+As the spirit of God has been thus afforded to every man, since the
+foundation of the world, to profit withal, so the Quakers say, that it
+has been given to him in a sufficient measure for this purpose. By the
+word "sufficient" we are not to understand that this divine monitor
+calls upon men every day or hour, but that it is within every man, and
+that it awakens him seasonably, and so often during the term of his
+natural life, as to exonerate God from the charge of condemning him
+unjustly, if he fails in his duty, and as to leave himself without
+excuse. And in proportion as a greater or less measure of this spirit
+has been afforded him, so he is more or less guilty in the sight of his
+Maker.
+
+If any should resist these salutary operations of the Holy Spirit, they
+resist it to their own condemnation.
+
+Of such it may he observed, that they are said to quench or grieve the
+spirit, and, not unfrequently, to resist God, and to crucify Christ
+afresh; for God and Christ and the Spirit are considered to be
+inseparably united in the scriptures.
+
+Of such also it may be again observed, that if they continue to resist
+God's holy Spirit, their feelings may become so callous or hardened in
+time, that they may never be able to perceive its notices again, and
+thus the day of their visitation may be over: for [42] "my people, saith
+God, would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me; so I
+gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own
+counsels." To the same import was the saying of Jesus Christ, when he
+wept over Jerusalem. [43] "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
+this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are
+hid from thine eyes." As if he had said, there was a day, in which ye,
+the inhabitants of Jerusalem, might have known those things which
+belonged to your peace. I was then willing to gather you, as a hen
+gathereth her chickens, but as ye would not suffer me, the things
+belonging to your peace are now hid from your eyes. Ye would not attend
+to the impressions by God's Holy Spirit, when your feelings were tender
+and penetrable, and therefore now, the day having passed over, ye have
+lost the power of discerning them.
+
+[Footnote 42: Psalm 81. 11,12]
+
+[Footnote 43: Luke 19, 42.]
+
+Those, on the other hand, who, during this visitation of the Holy
+Spirit, attend to its suggestions or warnings, are said to be in the
+way of their redemption or salvation.
+
+These sentiments of the Quakers on this subject are beautifully
+described by Monro, in his just measures of the pious institutions of
+youth. "The Holy Spirit," says he, "solicits and importunes those who are
+in a state of sin, to return, by inward motions and impressions, by
+suggesting good thoughts and prompting to pious resolutions, by checks
+and controls, by conviction of sin and duty; sometimes by frights and
+terrors, and other whiles by love and endearments: But if men,
+notwithstanding all his loving solicitations, do still cherish and
+cleave to their lusts, and persevere in a state of sin, they are then
+said to resist the Holy Ghost, whereby their condition becomes very
+deplorable, and their conversion very difficult; for the more men resist
+the importunities, and stifle the motions of the Holy Spirit, the
+stronger do the chains of their corruption and servitude become. Every
+new act of sin gives these a degree of strength, and consequently puts a
+new obstacle in the way of conversion; and when sin is turned into an
+inveterate and rooted habit, (which by reiterated commissions and long
+continuance it is) then it becomes a nature, and is with as much
+difficulty altered as nature is. Can the Ethiopian change his colour,
+or the Leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed
+to do evil."
+
+"The Holy Spirit again," says he, "inspires the prayers of those who, in
+consequence of his powerful operations, have crucified the flesh with
+the affections and lusts, with devout and filial affections, and makes
+intercession for them with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered. He
+guides and manages them. The sons of God are led by the spirit of god.
+He makes, his blessed fruits, righteousness, peace, joy, and divine
+love, more and more to abound in them; he confirms them in goodness,
+persuades them to perseverance, and seals them to the day of
+redemption."
+
+The Quakers usually elucidate this visitation, treatment, and influence
+of the Holy Spirit, by the parable of the sower, as recorded by three of
+the Evangelists. "Now the seed is the word of God." But as the word of
+God and the spirit, according to St. John the Evangelist, are the same,
+the parable is considered by the Quakers as relating to that divine
+light or spirit which is given to man for his spiritual instruction and
+salvation. As the seed was sown in all sorts of ground, good, bad, and
+indifferent, so this light or spirit is afforded, without exception, to
+all. As thorns choked this seed, and hindered it from coming to
+perfection, so bad customs, or the pleasures and cares of the world,
+hinder men from attending to this divine principle within them, and
+render it unfruitful in their hearts. And as the seed in the good ground
+was not interrupted, and therefore produced fruit in abundance, so this
+spiritual principle, where it is not checked, but received and
+cherished, produces also abundance of spiritual fruit in the inward man,
+by putting him into the way of redemption from sin, or of holiness of
+life.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_The spirit of God, therefore, besides its office of a teacher, performs
+that of a Redeemer of men--Redemption outward and inward--Outward is by
+the sufferings of Jesus Christ--These produce forgiveness of past sins,
+and put men into a capacity of salvation--inward, or the office now
+alluded to, is by the operation of the spirit--This converts men, and
+preserves them from sins to come--outward and inward connected with each
+other._
+
+
+The spirit of God, which we have seen to be given to men, and to be
+given them universally, to enable them to distinguish between 'good and
+evil, was given them also, the Quakers believe, for another purpose,
+namely, to redeem or save them. Redemption and salvation, in this
+sense,' are the same, in the language of the Quakers, and mean a
+purification from the sins or pollutions of the world, so that a new
+birth may be produced, and maintained in the inward man.
+
+As the doctrine of the Quakers, with respect to redemption, differs from
+that which generally obtains, I shall allot this chapter to an
+explanation of the distinctions, which the Quakers usually make upon
+this subject.
+
+The Quakers never make use of the words "original sin," because these
+are never to be found in the sacred writings. They consider man,
+however, as in a fallen or degraded state, and as inclined and liable to
+sin. They consider him, in short, as having the seed of sin within him,
+which he inherited from his parent Adam. But though they acknowledge
+this, they dare not say, that sin is imputed to him on account of Adam's
+transgression, or that he is chargeable with sin, until he actually
+commits it.
+
+As every descendant, however, of Adam, has this seed within him, which,
+amidst the numerous temptations that beset him, he allows sometime or
+other to germinate, so he stands in need of a Redeemer; that is, of some
+power that shall be able to procure pardon for past offences, and of
+some power that shall be able to preserve him in the way of holiness for
+the future. To expiate himself, in a manner satisfactory to the
+Almighty, for so foot a stain upon his nature as that of sin, is utterly
+beyond his abilities; for no good action, that he can do, can do away
+that which has been once done. And to preserve himself in a state of
+virtue for the future, is equally out of his own power, because this
+cannot be done by any effort of his reason, but only by the conversion
+of his heart. It has therefore pleased the Almighty to find a remedy for
+him in each of these cases. Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of his own
+body, expiates for sins that are past, and the spirit of God, which has
+been afforded to him, as a spiritual teacher, has the power of cleansing
+and purifying the heart so thoroughly, that he may be preserved from
+sins to come.
+
+That forgiveness of past sins is procured by the sacrifice of Jesus
+Christ, is obvious from various passages in the holy scriptures. Thus
+the apostle Paul says, that Jesus Christ [44] "was set forth to be a
+propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
+for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God."
+And in his epistle to the Colossians he says, [45] "In whom we have
+redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." This
+redemption may be called outward, because it has been effected by
+outward means, or by the outward sufferings of Jesus Christ; and it is
+considered as putting men, in consequence of this forgiveness, into the
+capacity of salvation. The Quakers, however, attribute this redemption
+wholly to the love of God, and not to the impossibility of his
+forgiveness without a plenary satisfaction, or to the motive of heaping
+all his vengeance on the head of Jesus Christ, that he might appease his
+own wrath.
+
+[Footnote 44: Rom. 3.25.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Coloss. 1.14.]
+
+The other redemption, on the other hand, is called inward, because it is
+considered by the Quakers to be an inward redemption from the power of
+sin, or a cleansing the heart from the pollutions of the world. This
+inward redemption is produced by the spirit of God, as before stated,
+operating on the hearts of men, and so cleansing and purifying them, as
+to produce a new birth in the inward man; so that the same spirit of
+God, which has been given to men in various degrees since the
+foundation of the world, as a teacher in their spiritual concerns, which
+hath visited every man in his day, and which hath exhorted and reproved
+him for his spiritual welfare[46], has the power of preserving him from
+future sin, and of leading him to salvation.
+
+[Footnote 46: The Quakers believe, however, that this spirit was more
+plentifully diffused, and that greater gifts were given to man, after
+Jews was glorified, than before. Ephes. 4.8.]
+
+That this inward redemption is performed by the spirit of God, the
+Quakers show from various passages in the sacred writings. Thus St. Paul
+says, [47] "According to his mercy he hath saved us by the washing of
+regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." The same apostle
+says, again, [48] "It is the law of the Spirit that maketh free from the
+law of sin and death." And again--[49] "As many as are led by the spirit
+of God, they are the sons of God."
+
+[Footnote 47: Titus 3.5.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Rom. 8.2.]
+
+[Footnote 49: Rom. 8.14.]
+
+The Quakers say, that this inward redemption or salvation as effected by
+the spirit, is obvious also from the experience of all good men, or from
+the manner in which many have experienced a total conversion or change
+of heart. For though there are undoubtedly some who have gone on so
+gradually in their reformation from vice to virtue, that it may have
+been considered to be the effect of reason, which has previously
+determined on the necessity of a holy life, yet the change from vice to
+holiness has often been so rapid and decisive, as to leave no doubt
+whatever, that it could not have been produced by any effort of reason,
+but only by some divine operation, which could only have been that of
+the spirit of God.
+
+Of these two kinds of redemption, the outward and the inward, of which
+the latter will be the subject of our consideration, it may be observed,
+that they go hand in hand together[50]. St. Paul has coupled them in
+these words: "for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
+the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by
+his life;" that is, by the life of his spirit working inwardly in
+us.--And as they go together in the mind of the apostle, so they go
+together as to the benefit of their effects. For, in the first place,
+the outward redemption takes place, when the inward has begun. And,
+secondly, the outward redemption, or the sufferings of Jesus Christ,
+which redeem from past sins, cannot have any efficacy till the inward
+has begun, or while men remain in their sins; or, in other words, no man
+can be entitled to the forgiveness of sins that have been committed,
+till there has been a change in the inward man; for St. John intimates,
+that [51]the blood of Christ does not cleanse from sin, except men walk
+in the light, or, to use an expression synonymous with the Quakers,
+except men walk in the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 50: Rom, 5. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 51: John I. 6.7.]
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Inward redemption, which thus goes on by the operation of the Holy
+Spirit, has the power of producing a new birth in men--This office of
+the spirit acknowledged by other Christians--Monro--Hammond--Locke--It
+has the power also of leading to perfection--Sentiments of the Quakers
+as to perfection--and of the ever memorable John Hales--Gell--Monro
+--This power of inward redemption bestowed upon all._
+
+
+The sufferings then of Jesus Christ, having by means of the forgiveness
+of past sins, put men into a capacity for salvation, the remaining part
+of salvation, or the inward redemption of man, is performed by the
+operation of the Holy Spirit; of which, however, it must be remembered,
+that a more plentiful diffusion is considered by the Quakers to have
+been given to men after the ascension of Jesus Christ, than at any
+former period.
+
+The nature of this inward redemption, or the nature of this new office,
+which it performs in addition to that of a religious teacher, may be
+seen in the following account.
+
+It has the power, the Quakers believe, of checking and preventing bad
+inclinations and passions; of cleansing and purifying the heart; of
+destroying the carnal mind; of making all old things pass away; of
+introducing new; of raising our spiritual senses, so as to make us
+delight in the things of God, and to put us above the enjoyment of
+earthly pleasures. Redeeming thus from the pollutions of the world, and
+leading to spiritual purity, it forms a new creature. It produces the
+new man in the heart. It occasions a man by its quickening power to be
+born again, and thus puts him into the way of salvation. [52] "For verily
+I say unto thee, says Jesus Christ to Nicodemus, except a man be born
+again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
+
+[Footnote 52: John 3.3.]
+
+This office and power of the spirit of God is acknowledged by other
+Christians. Monro, who has been before quoted, observes, "that the soul,
+being thus raised from the death of sin and born again, is divinely
+animated, and discovers that it is alive by the vital operations which
+it performs."
+
+"Again, says he, this blissful presence, the regenerate who are
+delivered from the dominion, and cleansed from the impurities of sin,
+have recovered, and it is on the account of it, that they are said to be
+an habitation of God through the spirit and the temples of the Holy
+Ghost. For that good spirit takes possession of them, resides in their
+hearts, becomes the mover, enlightener, and director of all their
+faculties and powers, gives a new and heavenly tincture and tendency to
+all their inclinations and desires, and, in one word, is the great
+spring of all they think, or do, or say; and hence it is that they are
+said to walk no more after the flesh, but after the spirit, and to be
+led by the spirit of God."
+
+Dr. Hammond, in his paraphrase and annotations on the New Testament,
+observes, that "he who hath been born of God, is literally he who hath
+had such a blessed change wrought in him by the operation of God's
+spirit in his heart, as to be translated from the power of darkness into
+the kingdom of his dear Son."
+
+"As Christ in the flesh, says the great and venerable Locke, was wholly
+exempt from all taint and sin, so we, by that spirit which was in him,
+shall be exempt from the dominion of carnal lusts, if we make it our
+choice, and endeavour to live after the spirit."
+
+"Here the apostle, says Locke, shows that Christians are delivered from
+the dominion of their carnal lusts by the spirit of God that is given to
+them, and dwells in them, as a new quickening principle and power, by
+which they are put into the state of a spiritual life, wherein their
+members are made capable of becoming the instruments of righteousness."
+
+And this spirit of God, which thus redeems from the pollutions of the
+world, and puts a new heart as it were into man, is considered by the
+Quakers as so powerful in its operations, as to be able to lead him to
+perfection. By this the Quakers do not mean to say, that the perfection
+of man is at all like the perfection of God; because the perfection of
+the former is capable of growth. They believe, however, that, in his
+renewed state, he may be brought to be so perfect, as to be able to keep
+those commandments of God which are enjoined him. In this sense they
+believe it is, that Noah is called by Moses [53]a just and perfect man
+in his generation; and that Job is described [54]as a perfect and an
+upright man; and that the evangelist Luke speaks of Zacharias and
+Elizabeth in these words--[55] "They were both righteous before God, and
+walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."
+
+[Footnote 53: Gen. 6. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 54: Job 1. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Luke 1. 6.]
+
+That man, who is renewed in heart, can attain this degree of perfection,
+the Quakers think it but reasonable to suppose. For to think that God
+has given man any law to keep, which it is impossible for him, when
+aided by his Holy Spirit, to keep, or to think that the power of Satan
+can be stronger in man than the power of Christ, is to think very
+inadequately of the Almighty, and to cast a dishonourable reflection on
+his goodness, his justice, and his power. Add to which, that there would
+not have been such expressions in the New Testament, as those of Jesus
+Christ--"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
+Heaven is perfect"--Nor would there have been other expressions of the
+Apostles of a similar meaning, if the renewed man had not possessed the
+power of doing the will of God.
+
+This doctrine of perfection brought the Quakers into disputes with
+persons of other religions denominations, at the time of their
+establishment. But, however it might be disapproved of, it was not new
+in these times; nor was it originally introduced by them. Some of the
+fathers of the church, and many estimable divines of different
+countries, had adopted it. And here it may be noticed, that the doctrine
+had been received also by several of the religious in our own.
+
+In the golden remains of the ever memorable John Hales, we find, that
+"through the grace of Him that doth enable as, we are stronger than
+Satan, and the policy of Christian warfare hath as many means to keep
+back and defend, as the deepest reach of Satan hath to give the onset."
+
+"St. Augustine, says this amiable writer, was of opinion, that it was
+possible for us even in this natural life, seconded by the grace of God,
+perfectly to accomplish what the law requires at our hands." In the
+Golden Remains, many sentiments are to be found of the same tenour.
+
+Bacon, who collected and published Dr. Robert Gell's remains, says in
+his preface, that Dr. Gell preached before King Charles the first on
+Ephesians 4. 10. at New-Market, in the year 1631, a bold discourse, yet
+becoming him, testifying before the King that doctrine he taught to his
+life's end, "the possibility, through grace, of keeping the law of God
+in this life." Whoever reads these venerable Remains, will find this
+doctrine inculcated in them.
+
+Monro, who lived some time after Dr. Gell, continued the same doctrine:
+So great, says he, in his just measures, is the goodness and benignity
+of God, and so perfect is the justice of his nature, that he will not,
+cannot command impossibilities. Whatever he requires of mankind by way
+of duty, he enables them to perform it--His grace goes before and
+assists their endeavours; so that when they do not comply with his
+injunctions, it is because they will not employ the power that he has
+given them, and which he is ready to increase and heighten, upon their
+dutiful improvement of what they have already received, and their
+serious application to him for more.
+
+Again--"Though of ourselves, and without Christ, we can do nothing; yet
+with him we can do all things: and then, he adds a little lower, why
+should any duties frighten us, or seem impossible to us?"
+
+Having now stated it to be the belief of the Quakers, that the spirit of
+God acts as an inward redeemer to man, and that its powers are such that
+it may lead him to perfection in the way explained, it remains for me to
+observe, that it is their belief also, that this spirit has been given
+for these purposes, without any exception, to all of the human race: or
+in the same manner as it was given as an universal teacher, so it has
+been given as an universal redeemer to man, and that it acts in this
+capacity, and fulfils its office to all those who attend to its inward
+strivings, and encourage its influence on their hearts.
+
+That it was given to all for this purpose, they believe to be manifest
+from the Apostle Paul:[56] "for the grace of God, says he, which bringeth
+salvation, hath appeared unto all men." He says again,[57] that "the
+Gospel was preached unto every creature which is under Heaven." He
+defines the Gospel to be[58] "the power of God unto salvation to every
+one that believeth." He means therefore that this power of inward
+redemption was afforded to all. For the outward Gospel had not been
+preached to all in the time of the apostle; nor has it been preached to
+all even at the present day. But these passages are of universal import.
+They imply no exception. They comprehend every individual of the human
+race.
+
+[Footnote 56: Titus 2.11.]
+
+[Footnote 57: Coloss. 1.23.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Rom. 1.16.]
+
+That this spirit was also given to all for these purposes, the Quakers
+believe, when they consider other passages in the scriptures, which
+appear to them to belong to this subject. For they consider this spirit
+to have begun its office as an inward redeemer[59] with the fall of the
+first man, and to have continued it through the patriarchal ages to the
+time of the outward Gospel, when there was to be no other inward
+redemption but by the same means. Thus by the promise which was given to
+Adam, there was to be perpetual enmity between the seed of the serpent
+and the seed of the woman, though the latter was to vanquish, or as, the
+Quakers interpret it, between the spirit of sin and the spirit of God,
+that was placed in man. This promise was fully accomplished by Jesus,
+(who came from the woman) after he had received immeasurably the spirit
+of God, or after he had become the Christ. But the Quakers consider it
+to have bean partially accomplished by many from the time of Adam; for
+they believe that many, who have attended to the seed of God, or, which
+is the same thing,[60] to the portion of the spirit of God within them,
+have witnessed the enmity alluded to, and have bruised, in a great
+degree, the power of sin within their own hearts, or have experienced in
+these early times the redeeming power of the spirit of God. And except
+this be the case, the Quakers conceive some of the passages, which they
+suppose to relate to this subject, not to be so satisfactorily
+explicable as they might be rendered. For it is said of Abraham, that he
+saw Christ's day. But as Abraham died long before the visible appearance
+of Christ in the flesh, he could neither have seen Christ outwardly, nor
+his day. It is still affirmed that he saw Christ's day. And the Quakers
+say they believe he saw him inwardly, for he witnessed in his own
+spirit, which is the same thing, the redeeming power of the spirit of
+God. For as the world was made by the spirit, or by the word, which is
+frequently interpreted to be Christ, so these terms are synonimous, and
+often used the one for the other. The Quakers therefore believe Abraham
+to have experienced in a very high degree the power[61] of this inward
+redemption. They believe also that Job experienced it in an
+extraordinary manner. For he asserted that he knew "that his redeemer
+lived." But Job could never have said this, except be had alluded to the
+powerful influence within him, which had purified his heart from the
+pollutions of sin. For being as early as the time of Moses, he could
+never have seen any of the sacred writings which mentioned Jesus Christ
+as a redeemer, or the person of Jesus Christ.
+
+[Footnote 59: In the same manner Jesus Christ having tasted death for
+every man, the sacrifice, or outward redemption, looks backwards and
+forwards, as well to Adam as to those who lived after the Gospel times.]
+
+[Footnote 60: 1 John. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit
+sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is
+born of God.]
+
+[Footnote 61: The Quakers do not deny, that Abraham might have seen
+Christ prophetically, but they believe he saw him particularly in the
+way described.]
+
+The Quakers also consider David, from the numerous expressions to be
+found in the Psalms, as having experienced this inward redemption also,
+and in the same manner as they conceive this spirit to have striven with
+Abraham, and Job, and David, so they conceive it to have striven with
+others of the same nation for their inward redemption to the time of
+Jesus Christ. They believe again, that it has striven with all the
+Heathen nations, from the foundation of the world to the same period.
+And they believe also, that it has continued its office of a redeemer to
+all people, whether Jews, Heathens, or Christians, from the time of
+Jesus Christ to the present day.
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Proposition of the new birth and perfection, as hitherto explained in
+the ordinary way--New view of the subject from a more particular detail
+of the views and expressions of the Quakers concerning it--A new
+spiritual birth as real from the spiritual seed of the kingdom, as that
+of plants or vegetables from their seeds in the natural world--And the
+new birth proceeds really in the same progressive manner, to maturity or
+perfection--Result of this new view the same as that in the former
+section._
+
+
+I stated in the last section that the spirit of God is considered by
+the Quakers as an inward redeemer to men, and that, in this office, it
+has the power of producing a new birth in them, and of leading them to
+perfection in the way described. This proposition, however, I explained
+only in the ordinary way. But as the Quakers have a particular way of
+viewing and expressing it, and as they deem it one of the most
+important of their religious propositions, I trust I shall, be excused
+by the reader, if I allot one other section to this subject.
+
+Jesus Christ states, as was said before, in the most clear and positive
+terms, that [62] "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
+of heaven."
+
+[Footnote 62: John 3. 3.]
+
+Now the great work of religion is salvation or redemption. Without this
+no man can see God; and therefore the meaning of the words of Jesus
+Christ will be this, that, except a man be born again, he cannot
+experience that inward redemption which shall enable him to see the
+kingdom of heaven.
+
+Redemption then is necessary to qualify for a participation of the
+heavenly joys, and it is stated to take place by means of the new birth.
+
+The particular ideas then, which the Quakers have relative to the new
+birth and perfection, are the following. In the same manner as the
+Divine Being has scattered the seeds of plants and vegetables in the
+body of the earth, so he has implanted a portion of his own
+incorruptible seed, or of that which, in scripture language, is called
+the "Seed of the Kingdom," in the soul of every individual of the human
+race. As the sun by its genial influence quickens the vegetable seed, so
+it is the office of the Holy Spirit, in whom is life, and who resides in
+the temple of man, to quicken that which is heavenly. And in the same
+manner as the vegetable seed conceives and brings forth a plant, or a
+tree with stem and branches; so if the soul, in which the seed of the
+kingdom is placed, be willing to receive the influence of the Holy
+Spirit upon it, this seed is quickened and a spiritual offspring is
+produced. Now this offspring is as real a birth from the seed in the
+soul by means of the spirit, as the plant from its own seed by means of
+the influence of the sun. "The seed of the kingdom, says Isaac
+Pennington, consists not in words or notions of mind, but is an inward
+thing, an inward spiritual substance in the heart, as real inwardly in
+its kind, as other seeds are outwardly in their kind. And being received
+by faith, and taking root in man, (his heart, his earth, being ploughed
+up and prepared for it,) it groweth up inwardly, as truly and really, as
+any outward seed doth outwardly."
+
+With respect to the offspring thus produced in the soul of man, it maybe
+variously named. As it comes from the incorruptible seed of God, it may
+be called a birth of the divine nature or life. As it comes by the
+agency of the spirit, it may be called the life of the spirit. As it is
+new, it may be called the new man or creature: or it may have the
+appellation of a child of God: or it is that spiritual life and light,
+or that spiritual, principle and power within us, which may be called
+the Anointed, or Christ within.
+
+"As this seed, says Barclay, is received in the heart and suffered to
+bring forth its natural and proper effect, Christ comes to be formed and
+raised, called in scripture the new man, Christ within us, the hope of
+glory. Yet herein they (the Quakers) do not equal themselves with the
+holy man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead
+dwelt bodily, neither destroy his present existence. For though they
+affirm Christ dwells in them, yet not immediately, but mediately, as he
+is in that seed which is in them."
+
+Of the same opinion was the learned Cudworth. "We all, says he, receive
+of his fulness grace for grace, as all the stars in heaven are said to
+light their candles at the sun's flame. For though his body be withdrawn
+from us, yet by the lively and virtual contact of his spirit, he is
+always kindling, cheering, quickening, warming, and enlivening hearts.
+Nay, this divine life begun and kindled in any heart, wheresoever it be,
+is something of God in flesh, and in a sober and qualified sense,
+divinity incarnate; and all particular Christians, that are really
+possessed of it, are so many mystical Christs."
+
+Again--"Never was any tender infant so dear to those bowels that begat
+it, as an infant newborn Christ, formed in the heart of any true
+believer, to God the Father of it."
+
+This account relative to the new birth the Quakers conceive to be
+strictly deducible from the Holy Scriptures. It is true, they conceive,
+as far as the new birth relates to God and to the seed, and to the
+spirit, from the following passages: [63] "Whosoever is born of God doth
+not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him." [64] "Being born again,
+not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God."
+[65] "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." It is
+considered to be true again, as far as the new birth relates to the
+creature born and to the name which it may bear, from these different
+expressions: [66] "Of whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be
+formed in you." [68] "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
+in me." [69] "But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry
+Abba, Father." [70] "But as many as received him, that is, the spirit or
+word, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." [71] "For as many
+as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And as
+parents and children resemble one another, so believers are made [72]
+"conformable to the image of his son," "who is the image of the invisible
+God."
+
+[Footnote 63: 1 John 3. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 64: 1 Peter 1. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 65: James 1. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 66: Gal. 4. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Rom. 8.15.]
+
+[Footnote 69: John 1. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Rom. 3. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Rom. 8. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Coloss. 1. 15.]
+
+Having explained in what the new birth consists, or having shown,
+according to Barclay, [73] "that the seed is a real spiritual
+substance, which the soul of man is capable of feeling and apprehending,
+from which that real spiritual inward birth arises, called the new
+creature or the new man in the heart," it remains to show how believers,
+or those in whose souls Christ is thus produced, may be said to grow up
+to perfection; for by this real birth or geniture in them they come to
+have those spiritual senses raised, by which they are made capable of
+tasting, smelling, seeing, and handling, the things of God.
+
+[Footnote 73: P. 139. Ed. 8.]
+
+It may be observed then, that in the new birth a progress is
+experienced from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood. As it is
+only by submission to the operation of the spirit that this birth can
+take place, so it is only by a like submission, that any progress or
+growth from one stature to another will be experienced in it; neither
+can the regenerated become instrumental in the redemption of others, any
+farther or otherwise than as Christ or the anointing dwells and operates
+in them, teaching them all truths necessary to be known, and
+strengthening them to perform every act necessary to be done for this
+purpose. He must be their only means and [74] "hope of glory." It will
+then be that the [75] "creature which waiteth in earnest expectation for
+the manifestation of the sons of God, will be delivered from the bondage
+of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." For
+[76] "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
+passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things of God."
+
+[Footnote 74: Coloss. 1. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Rom. 8. 19, 21.]
+
+[Footnote 76: Cor. 5. 17, 18.]
+
+They who are the babes of the regeneration begin to see spiritual
+things. The natural man, the mere creature, never saw God. But the
+babes, who cry Abba, Father, begin to see and to know him. Though as yet
+unskilful in the word of righteousness, [77] "they desire the sincere
+milk of the word, that they may grow thereby." And [78] "their sins are
+forgiven them."
+
+[Footnote 77: 1 Pet 2. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 78: 1 John 2. 12.]
+
+They, who are considered as the young men in this state, are said to be
+[79] "spiritually strong, and the word of God abiding in them, to have
+overcome the wicked one."
+
+[Footnote 79: 1 John 2. 14.]
+
+They, who have attained a state of manhood, are called fathers, or are
+said to be of full age, and to be capable of taking strong meat.
+[80] "They come, in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
+of God, unto perfect men, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
+of Christ. They arrive at such a state of stability, that they are no
+more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
+doctrine; but speaking the truth in love, grow up unto him in all
+things, which is the head, even Christ." [81] "The old man with his deeds
+being put off, they have put on the new man, which is renewed in
+knowledge after the image of him that created him." [82] "They are
+washed, they are sanctified, they are justified in the name of the Lord
+Jesus, and in the spirit of our God." The new creation is thus
+completed, and the sabbath wherein man ceases from his own works,
+commences; so that every believer can then say with the apostle, [83] "I
+am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
+liveth in me. And the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
+faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
+
+[Footnote 80: Eph. 4. 13.14.15.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Col. 3.9.10.]
+
+[Footnote 82: 1 Cor. 6.11.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+But this state of manhood, [84] "by which the man of God may be made
+perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, does not take place,
+until Christ be fully formed in the souls of believers, or till they are
+brought wholly under his rule and government. He must be substantially
+formed in them. He must actually be their life, and their hope of glory.
+He must be their head and governor. As the head, and the body, and the
+members are one, according to the apostle, but the head directs; so
+Christ, and, believers in whom Christ is born and formed, are one
+spiritual body, which he himself must direct also. Thus Christ, where he
+is fully formed in man, or where believers are grown up to the measure
+of the stature and fulness of sonship, is the head of every man, and God
+is the head of Christ. Thus Christ the begotten entirely governs the
+whole man, as the head directs and governs all the members of the body;
+and God the Father, as the head of Christ, entirely guides and governs
+the begotten. Hence, believers [85] 'are Christ's, and Christ is God's;'
+so that ultimately God is all in all."
+
+[Footnote 84: 2 Tim. 9.17.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Cor. 9.23.]
+
+Having given this new view of the subject, I shall only observe farther
+upon it, that the substance of this chapter turns out to be the same as
+that of the preceding, or according to the notions of the Quakers, that
+inward redemption cannot be effected but through the medium of the
+spirit of God. For Christ, according to the ideas now held out, must be
+formed in man, and he must rule them before they can experience full
+inward redemption; or, in other words, they cannot experience this
+inward redemption, except they can truly say that he governs them, or
+except they can truly call him Governor, or Lord. But no person can say
+that Christ rules in him, except he undergoes the spiritual process of
+regeneration which has been described, or to use the words of the
+Apostle, [86] "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
+Spirit.[87]"
+
+[Footnote 86: 1 Cor. 12.6]
+
+[Footnote 87: The reader will easily discern from this new view of the
+new birth, how men, according to the Quakers, become partakers of the
+divine nature, and how the Quakers make it out, that Abraham and others
+saw Christ's day, as I mentioned in a former chapter.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Quakers believe from the foregoing accounts, that redemption is
+possible to all--Hence they deny the doctrine of election and
+reprobation--do not deny the texts on which it is founded, but the
+interpretation of them--as contrary to the doctrines of Jesus Christ and
+the Apostles--as making his mission unnecessary--as rendering many
+precepts useless--and as casting a stain on the character and attributes
+of God._
+
+
+It will appear from the foregoing observations, that it Is the belief of
+the Quakers, that every man has the power of inward redemption within
+himself, who attends to the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and that as
+outward redemption by the sufferings of Jesus Christ extends to all,
+where the inward has taken place, so redemption or salvation, in its
+full extent, is possible to every individual of the human race.
+
+This position, however, is denied by those Christians, who have
+pronounced in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation;
+because, if they believe some predestined from all eternity to eternal
+happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, they must then believe that
+salvation is not possible to all, and that it was not intended to be
+universal.
+
+The Quakers have attempted to answer the objections, which have been
+thus made to their theory of redemption; and as the reader will probably
+expect that I should notice what they have said upon this subject, I
+have reserved the answers they have given for the present place.
+
+The Quakers do not deny the genuineness of any of those texts, which are
+usually advanced against them. Of all people, they fly the least to the
+cover of interpolation or mutilation of scripture to shield themselves
+from the strokes of their opponents. They believe, however, that there
+are passages in the sacred writings, which will admit of an
+interpretation different from that which has been assigned them by many,
+and upon this they principally rely in the present case. If there are
+passages, to which two meanings may be annexed, and if for one there is
+equal authority as for the other, yet if one meaning should destroy all
+the most glorious attributes of the supreme being, and the other should
+preserve them as recognized in the other parts of the scripture, they
+think they are bound to receive that which favours the justice, mercy,
+and wisdom of God, rather than that which makes him appear both unjust
+and cruel.
+
+The Quakers believe, that some Christians have misunderstood the texts
+which they quote in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation,
+for the following reasons:--
+
+First, because if God had from all eternity predestinated some to
+eternal happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, the mission of Jesus
+Christ upon earth became unnecessary, and his mediation ineffectual.
+
+If this again had been a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, it never
+could have been overlooked, (considering that it is of more importance
+to men than any other) by the founder of that religion. But he never
+delivered any words in the course of his ministry, from whence any
+reasonable conclusion could be drawn, that such a doctrine formed any
+part of the creed which he intended to establish among men. His doctrine
+was that of mercy, tenderness, and love; in which he inculcated the
+power and efficacy of repentance, and declared there was more joy in
+Heaven over one sinner that repented, than over ninety-nine just persons
+who needed no repentance.
+
+By the parable of the sower, which the Quakers consider to relate wholly
+to the word or spirit of God, it appears that persons of all description
+were visited equally for their salvation; and that their salvation
+depended much upon themselves; and that where obstacles arose, they
+arose from themselves also, by allowing temptations, persecutions, and
+the cares of the world, to overcome them. In short, the Quakers believe,
+that the doctrine of election and reprobation is contrary to the whole
+tenour of the doctrines promulgated by Jesus Christ.
+
+They conceive also, that this doctrine is contrary to the doctrines
+promulgated by the Evangelists and Apostles, and particularly contrary
+to those of St. Paul himself, from whom it is principally taken. To make
+this Apostle contradict himself, they dare not. And they must therefore
+conclude, either that no person has rightly understood it, and that it
+has been hitherto kept in mystery; or, if it be intelligible to the
+human understanding, it must be explained by comparing it with other
+texts of the same Apostle, as well as with those of others, and always
+in connexion with the general doctrines of Christianity, and the
+character and attributes of God. Now the Apostle Paul, who is considered
+to [88] intimate, that God predestined some to eternal salvation, and
+the rest to eternal misery, says, [89]that "God made of one blood all
+nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth;" that, in the
+Gospel dispensation, [90] "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
+nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free." [91]He
+desires also Timothy "to make prayers and supplications and
+intercessions for all men;" which the Quakers conceive he could not have
+done, if he had not believed it to be possible, that all might be saved.
+"For this is acceptable, says he, in the sight of our Saviour, who will
+have all men to be saved; for there is one God and one mediator between
+God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all."
+Again, he says,[92] that "Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." And
+in another place he says, [93] "The grace of God, which bringeth
+salvation, has appeared unto all men." But if this grace has appeared to
+all, none can have been without it. And if its object be salvation, then
+all must have had sufficient of it to save them, if obedient to its
+saving operations.
+
+[Footnote 88: Romans, Chap. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 89: Acts 17. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 90: Coloss. 3. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 91: 1 Tim. 2. 1. 3. 4. 5. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 92: Hebrews 2. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Titus 2. 11.]
+
+Again, if the doctrine of election and reprobation be true, then the
+recommendations of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and particularly of
+Paul himself, can be of no avail, and ought never to have been given.
+Prayer is inculcated by these as an acceptable duty. But why should men
+pray, if they are condemned before-hand, and if their destiny is
+inevitable? If the doctrine again be true, then all the exhortations to
+repentance, which are to be found in the scriptures, must be
+unnecessary. For why should men repent, except for a little temporary
+happiness in this world, if they cannot be saved in a future? This
+doctrine is considered by the Quakers as making the precepts of the
+Apostles unnecessary; as setting aside the hopes and encouragements of
+the Gospel; and as standing in the way of repentance or holiness of
+life.
+
+This doctrine again they consider as objectionable, in as much as it
+obliges men to sin, and charges them with the commission of it. It makes
+also the fountain of all purity the fountain of all sin; and the author
+of all good the dispenser of all evil. It gives to the Supreme Being a
+malevolence that is not to be found in the character of the most
+malevolent of his creatures. It makes him more cruel than the most cruel
+oppressor ever recorded of the human race. It makes him to have
+deliberately made millions of men, for no other purpose than to stand
+by and delight in their misery and destruction. But is it possible, the
+Quakers say, for this to be true of him, who is thus described by St.
+John--"God is Love?"
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Quakers' interpretation of the texts which relate to this
+doctrine--These texts of public and private import--Election, as of
+public import, relates to offices of usefulness, and not to
+salvation--as of private, it relates to the Jews--These had been
+elected, but were passed over for the Gentiles--Nothing more
+unreasonable in this than in the case of Ishmael and Esau--or that
+Pharaoh's crimes should receive Pharaoh's punishment--But though the
+Gentiles were chosen, they could stand in favour no longer than while
+they were obedient and faithful_.
+
+
+The Quakers conceive that, in their interpretation of the passages which
+are usually quoted in support of the doctrine of election and
+reprobation, and which I shall now give to the reader, they do no
+violence to the attributes of the Almighty; but, on the other hand,
+confirm his wisdom, justice, and mercy, as displayed in the sacred
+writings, in his religious government of the world.
+
+These passaged may be considered both as of public and of private
+import; of public, as they relate to the world at large; of private, as
+they relate to the Jews, to whom they were addressed by the Apostle.
+
+The Quakers, in viewing the doctrine as of public import, use the words
+"called," "predestinated," and "chosen," in the ordinary way in which
+they are used in the scriptures, or in the way in which Christians
+generally understand them.
+
+They believe that the Almighty intended, from the beginning, to make
+both individuals and nations subservient to the end which he had
+proposed to himself in the creation of the world. For this purpose he
+gave men different measures of his Holy Spirit; and in proportion as
+they have used these gifts more extensively than others, they, have been
+more useful among mankind. Now all these may be truly said to have been
+instruments in the hands of Providence, for the good works which they
+have severally performed; but, if instruments in his hands, then they
+may not improperly be stiled chosen vessels. In this sense the Quakers
+view the words "chosen," or "called." In the same sense they view also
+the word "preordained;" but with this difference, that the instruments
+were foreknown; and that God should have known these instruments
+before-hand is not wonderful; for he who created the world, and who, to
+use an human expression, must see at one glance all that ever has been,
+and that is, and that is to come, must have known the means to be
+employed, and the characters who were to move, in the execution of his
+different dispensations to the world.
+
+In this sense the Quakers conceive God may be said to have foreknown,
+called, chosen, and preordained Noah, and also Abraham, and also Moses,
+and Aaron, and his sons, and all the prophets, and all the evangelists,
+and apostles, and all the good men, who have been useful in spiritual
+services in their own generation or day.
+
+In this sense also many may be said to have been chosen or called in the
+days of the Apostle Paul; for they are described as having had various
+gifts bestowed upon them by the spirit of God. [94] "To one was given the
+word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another the
+'discerning of spirits;' to another prophecy; and to others other kinds
+of gifts. But the self-same spirit worked all these, dividing to every
+man severally as he chose." That is, particular persons were 'called by
+the spirit of God, in the days of the Apostle, to particular offices for
+the perfecting of his church.
+
+[Footnote 94: 1 Cor. 12. 10. 11.]
+
+In the same sense the Quakers consider all true ministers of the Gospel
+to be chosen. They believe that no imposition of hands or human
+ordination can qualify for this office. God, by means of his Holy Spirit
+alone, prepares such as are to be the vessels in his house. Those
+therefore, who, in obedience to this spirit, come forth from the
+multitude to perform spiritual offices, may be said to be called or
+chosen.
+
+In this sense, nations may be said to be chosen also. Such were the
+Israelites, who by means of their peculiar laws and institutions, were
+kept apart from the other inhabitants of the world.
+
+Now the dispute is, if any persons should be said to have been chosen in
+the scripture language, for what purpose they were so chosen. The
+favourers of the doctrine of election and reprobation, say for their
+salvation. But the Quakers say, this is no where manifest; for the term
+salvation is not annexed to any of the passages from which the doctrine
+is drawn. Nor do they believe it can be made to appear from any of the
+scriptural writings, that one man is called or chosen, or predestined to
+salvation, more than another. They believe, on the other hand, that
+these words relate wholly to the usefulness of individuals, and that if
+God has chosen any particular persons, he has chosen them that they
+might be the ministers of good to others; that they might be spiritual
+lights in the universe; or that they might become, in different times
+and circumstances, instruments of increasing the happiness of their
+fellow-creatures. Thus the Almighty may be said to have chosen Noah, to
+perpetuate the memory of the deluge; to promulgate the origin and
+history of mankind; and to become, as St. Peter calls him, "a preacher
+of righteousness" to those who were to be the ancestors of men. Thus he
+may be said to have chosen Moses to give the law, and to lead out the
+Israelites, and to preserve them as a distinct people, who should carry
+with them notions of his existence, his providence, and his power. Thus
+he may be said to have chosen the prophets, that men, in after ages,
+seeing their prophecies accomplished, might believe that Christianity
+was of divine origin. Thus also he may be said to have chosen Paul,([95]
+and indeed Paul is described as a chosen vessel) to diffuse the Gospel
+among the Gentile world.
+
+[Footnote 95: Acts 9. 15.]
+
+That the words, called or chosen, relate to the usefulness of
+individuals in the world, and not to their salvation, the Quakers
+believe from examining the comparison or simile, which St. Paul has
+introduced of the potter and of his clay, upon this very occasion.
+[96] "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou
+made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump
+to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" This
+simile, they say, relates obviously to the uses of these vessels. The
+potter makes some for splendid or extraordinary uses and purposes, and
+others for those which are mean and ordinary. So God has chosen
+individuals to great and glorious uses, while others remain in the mean
+or common mass, undistinguished by any very active part in the promotion
+of the ends of the world. Nor have the latter any more reason to
+complain that God has given to others greater spiritual gifts, than that
+he has given to one man a better intellectual capacity than to another.
+
+[Footnote 96: Rom. 9. 20. 21.]
+
+They argue again, that the words "called or chosen," relate to
+usefulness, and not to salvation; because, if men were predestined from
+all eternity to salvation, they could not do any thing to deprive
+themselves of that salvation; that is, they could never do any wrong in
+this life, or fall from a state of purity: whereas it appears that many
+of those whom the scriptures consider to have been chosen, have failed
+in their duty to God; that these have had no better ground to stand
+upon than their neighbours; that election has not secured them from the
+displeasure of the Almighty, but that they have been made to stand or
+fall, notwithstanding their election, as they acted well or ill, God
+having conducted himself no otherwise to them, than he has done to
+others in his moral government of the world.
+
+That persons so chosen have failed in their duty to God, or that their
+election has not preserved them from sin, is apparent, it is presumed,
+from the scriptures. For, in the first place, the Israelites were a
+chosen people. They were the people to whom the apostle addressed
+himself, in the chapter which has given rise to the doctrine of election
+and reprobation, as the elected, or as having had the preference over
+the descendants of Esau and others. And yet this election did not secure
+to them a state of perpetual obedience, or the continual favour of God.
+In the wilderness they were frequently rebellious, and they were often
+punished. In the time of Malachi, to which the Apostle directs their
+attention, they were grown so wicked, [97]that "God is said to have no
+pleasure in them, and that he would not receive an offering at their
+hands." And in subsequent times, or in the time of the Apostle, he tells
+them, that they were then passed over, notwithstanding their election,
+[98]on account of their want of righteousness and faith, and that the
+Gentiles were chosen in their place.
+
+In the second place, Jesus Christ is said in the New Testament to have
+called or chosen his disciples. But this call or election did not secure
+the good behaviour of Judas, or protect him from the displeasure of his
+master.
+
+[Footnote 97: Malachi 1. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 98: Rom, 9. 31. 32.]
+
+In the third place, it may be observed, that the Apostle Paul considers
+the churches under his care as called or chosen; as consisting of people
+who came out of the great body of the Heathen world to become a select
+community under the Christian name. He endeavours to inculcate in them a
+belief, that they were the Lord's people; that they were under his
+immediate or particular care; that God knew and loved them, before they
+knew and loved him; and yet this election, it appears, did not secure
+them from falling off; for many of them became apostates in the time of
+the Apostle, so "that he was grieved, fearing he had bestowed upon them
+his labour in vain." Neither did this election secure even to those who
+then remained in the church, any certainty of salvation; otherwise the
+Apostle would not have exhorted them so earnestly "to continue in
+goodness, lest they should be cut off."
+
+The Quakers believe again, that the Apostle Paul never included
+salvation in the words "called or chosen," for another reason. For if
+these words had implied salvation, then non-election might have implied
+the destruction annexed to it by the favourers of the doctrine of
+reprobation. But no person, who knows whom the Apostle meant, when he
+mentions those who had received and those who had lost the preference,
+entertains any such notion or idea. For who believes that because Isaac
+is said to have had the preference of Ishmael, and Jacob of Esau, that
+therefore Ishmael and Esau, who were quite as great princes in their
+times as Isaac and Jacob, were to be doomed to eternal misery? Who
+believes that this preference, and the Apostle alludes to no other, ever
+related to the salvation of souls? Or rather, that it did not wholly
+relate to the circumstance, that the descendants of Isaac and Jacob were
+to preserve the church of God in the midst of the Heathen nations, and
+that the Messiah was to come from their own line, instead of that of
+their elder brethren. Rejection or reprobation too, in the sense in
+which it is generally used by the advocates for the doctrine, is
+contrary, in a second point of view, in the opinion of the Quakers, to
+the sense of the comparison or simile made by the Apostle on this
+occasion. For when a Potter makes two sorts of vessels, or such as are
+mean and such as are fine and splendid, he makes them for their
+respective uses. But he never makes the meaner sort for the purpose of
+dashing them to pieces.
+
+The doctrine therefore in dispute, if viewed as a doctrine of general
+import, only means, in the opinion of the Quakers, that the Almighty has
+a right to dispose of his spiritual favours as he pleases, and that he
+has given accordingly different measures of his spirit to different
+people: but that, in doing this, he does not exclude others from an
+opportunity of salvation or a right to life. On the other hand, they
+believe that he is no respecter of persons, only as far as obedience is
+concerned: that election neither secures of itself good behaviour, nor
+protects from punishment: that every man who standeth, must take heed
+lest he fall: that no man can boast of his election, so as to look down
+with contempt upon his meaner brethren: and that there is no other
+foundation for an expectation of the continuance of divine favour than a
+religions life.
+
+In viewing the passages in question as of private import, which is the
+next view the Quakers take of them, the same lesson, and no other, is
+inculcated. The Apostle, in the ninth chapter of the Romans, addresses
+himself to the Jews, who had been a chosen people, and rescues the
+character of God from the imputation of injustice, in having passed over
+them, and in having admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his
+favours.
+
+The Jews had depended so much upon their privileges as the children of
+Abraham, and so much upon their ceremonial observances of the law, that
+they conceived themselves to have a right to continue to be the peculiar
+people of God. The Apostle, however, teaches them, in the ninth and the
+eleventh chapters of the Romans, a different lesson, and may be said to
+address them in the following manner:--
+
+"I am truly sorry, my kinsmen in the flesh, that you, who have always
+considered yourselves the elder and chosen branches of the family of the
+world, should have been passed over; and that the Gentiles, whom you
+have always looked upon as the younger, should be now preferred. But God
+is just--He will not sanction unrighteousness in any. Nor will he allow
+any choice of his to continue persons in favour, longer than, after much
+long suffering, he finds them deserving his support. You are acquainted
+with your own history. The Almighty, as you know, undoubtedly
+distinguished the posterity of Abraham, but he was not partial to them
+alike. Did he not reject Ishmael the scoffer, though he was the eldest
+son of Abraham, and countenance Isaac, who was the younger? Did he not
+pass over Esau the eldest son of Isaac, who had sold his birth-right,
+and prefer Jacob? Did he not set aside Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the
+three eldest sons of Jacob, who were guilty of incest, treachery, and
+murder, and choose that the Messiah should come from Judah, who was but
+the fourth? But if, in these instances, he did not respect eldership,
+why do you expect that he will not pass you over for the Gentiles, if ye
+continue in unbelief?"
+
+"But so true it is, that he will not support any whom he may have
+chosen, longer than they continue to deserve it, that he will not even
+continue his countenance to the Gentiles, though he has now preferred
+them, if by any misconduct they should become insensible of his favours.
+[99] For I may compare both you and them to an Olive-Tree. If some of
+you, who are the elder, or natural branches, should be broken off, and
+the Gentiles, being a wild Olive-Tree, should be grafted in among you,
+and with you partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-Tree, it would
+not become them to boast against you the branches: for if they boast,
+they do not bear the root, but the root them. Perhaps, however, they
+might say, that you, the branches, were broken off, that they might be
+grafted in. Well, but it was wholly on account of unbelief that you were
+broken off, and it was wholly by faith that they themselves were taken
+in. But it becomes them not to be high-minded, but to fear. For if God
+spared not you, the natural branches, let them take heed, lest he also
+spare not them."
+
+[Footnote 99: Rom. 11. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.]
+
+"Moreover, my kinsmen in the flesh, I must tell you, that you have not
+only no right to complain, because the Gentiles have been preferred, but
+that you would have no right to complain, even if you were to become the
+objects of God's vengeance. You cannot forget, in the history of your
+own nation, the example of Pharaoh: you are acquainted with his
+obstinacy and disobedience. You know that he stifled his convictions
+from day to day. You know that, by stifling these, or by resisting God's
+Holy Spirit, he became daily more hardened; and that by allowing himself
+to become daily more hardened, he fitted himself for a vessel of
+wrath, or prepared the way for his own destruction. You know at length
+that God's judgments, but not till after much long suffering, came upon
+him, so that the power of God became thus manifested to many. But if you
+know all these things, and continue in unrighteousness and unbelief,
+which were the crimes of Pharaoh also, why do you imagine that your
+hearts will not become hardened like the heart of Pharaoh; or that if
+you are guilty of Pharaoh's crimes, you are not deserving of Pharaoh's
+punishment?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IX.
+
+_Recapitulation of all the doctrines hitherto laid down with respect to
+the influence of the Spirit--Objection to this, that the Quakers make
+every thing of this spirit, and but little of Jesus Christ--Objection
+only noticed to show, that Christians have not always a right
+apprehension of Scriptural terms, and therefore often quarrel with one
+another about trifles--Or that there is, in this particular case, no
+difference between the doctrine of the Quakers and that of the objectors
+on this subject._
+
+
+I shall now recapitulate in few words, or in one general proposition,
+all the doctrines which have been advanced relative to the power of the
+spirit, and shall just notice an argument, which will probably arise on
+such a recapitulation, before I proceed to a new subject.
+
+The Quakers then believe that the spirit of God formed or created the
+world. They believe that it was given to men, after the formation of it,
+as a guide to them in their spiritual concerns. They believe that it was
+continued to them after the deluge, in the same manner, and for the same
+purposes, to the time of Christ. It was given, however, in this
+interval, to different persons in different degrees. Thus the prophets
+received a greater portion of it than ordinary persons in their own
+times. Thus Moses was more illuminated by it than his contemporaries,
+for it became through him the author of the law. In the time of Christ
+it continued the same office, but it was then given more diffusively
+than before, and also more diffusively to some than to others. Thus the
+Evangelists and Apostles received it in an extraordinary degree, and it
+became, through them and Jesus Christ their head, the author of the
+Gospel. But, besides its office of a spiritual light and guide to men in
+their spiritual concerns, during all the period now assigned, it became
+to them, as they attended to its influence, an inward redeemer,
+producing in them a new birth, and leading them to perfection. And as it
+was thus both a guide and an inward redeemer, so it has continued these
+offices to the present day.
+
+From hence it will be apparent that the acknowledgment of God's Holy
+Spirit, in its various operations, as given in different portions before
+and after the sacrifice of Christ, is the acknowledgment of a principle,
+which is the great corner stone of the religion of the Quakers. Without
+this there can be no knowledge, in their opinion, of spiritual things.
+Without this there can be no spiritual interpretation of the scriptures
+themselves. Without this there can be no redemption by inward, though
+there may be redemption by outward means. Without this there can be no
+enjoyment of the knowledge of divine things.
+
+Take therefore this principle away from them, and you take away their
+religion at once. Take away this spirit, and Christianity remains with
+them no more Christianity, than the dead carcass of a man, when the
+spirit is departed, remains a man. Whatsoever is excellent, whatsoever
+is noble, whatsoever is worthy, whatsoever is desirable in the Christian
+faith, they ascribe to this spirit, and they believe that true
+Christianity can no more subsist without it, than the outward world
+could go on without the vital influence of the sun.
+
+Now an objection will be made to the proposition, as I have just stated
+it, by some Christians, and even by those who do not wish to derogate
+from the spirit of God, (for I have frequently heard it started by such)
+that the Quakers, by means of these doctrines, make every thing of the
+spirit, and [100]but little of Jesus Christ. I shall therefore notice
+this objection in this place, not so much with a view of answering it,
+as of attempting to show, that Christiana have not always a right
+apprehension of scriptural terms; and therefore that they sometimes
+quarrel with one another about trifles, or rather, that when they have
+disputes with each other, there is sometimes scarcely a shade of
+difference between them.
+
+[Footnote 100: The Quakers make much of the advantages of Christ's
+coming in the flesh. Among these are considered the sacrifice of his own
+body, a more plentiful diffusion of the Spirit, and a dearer revelation
+relative to God and man.]
+
+To those who make the objection, I shall describe the proposition which
+has been stated above, in different terms. I shall leave out the words
+"Spirit of God," and I shall wholly substitute the term "Christ." This I
+shall do upon the authority of some of our best divines.... The
+proposition then will run thus:
+
+God, by means of Christ, created the world, "for without him was not any
+thing made, that was made."
+
+He made, by means of the same Christ, the terrestrial Globe on which we
+live. He made the whole Host of Heaven. He made, therefore, besides our
+own, other planets and other worlds.
+
+He caused also, by means of the same Christ, the generation of all
+animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.
+
+He occasioned also by the same means, the generation of reason or
+intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.
+
+Man, however, had not been long created, before he fell into sin. It
+pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in
+creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiritual
+faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to
+obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin. And this inward
+striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all
+would be inexcusable and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.
+
+It pleased God also, in process of time, as the attention of man was led
+astray by bad customs, by pleasures, by the cares of the world, and
+other causes, that the same Christ, in addition to this his inward
+striving with him, should afford him outward help, accommodated to his
+outward senses, by which his thoughts might be oftener turned towards
+God, and his soul be the better preserved in the way of salvation.
+Christ accordingly, through Moses and the Prophets, became the author of
+a dispensation to the Jews, that is, of their laws, types, and customs,
+of their prophecies, and of their scriptures.
+
+But as in the education of man things must be gradually unfolded, so it
+pleased God, in the scheme of his redemption, that the same Christ, in
+fulness of time, should take flesh, and become personally upon earth the
+author of another outward, but of a more pure and glorious dispensation,
+than the former, which was to be more extensive also; and which was not
+to be confined to the Jews, but to extend in time to the uttermost
+corners of the earth. Christ therefore became the Author of the inspired
+delivery of the outward scriptures of the New Testament. By these, as by
+outward and secondary means, he acted upon men's senses. He informed
+them of their corrupt nature, of their awful and perilous situation, of
+another life, of a day of judgment, of rewards and punishments. These
+scriptures therefore, of which Christ was the Author, were outward
+instruments at the time, and continue so to posterity, to second his
+inward aid. That is, they produce thought, give birth to anxiety, excite
+fear, promote seriousness, turn the eye towards God, and thus prepare
+the heart for a sense of those inward strivings of Christ, which produce
+inward redemption from the power and guilt of sin.
+
+Where, however, this outward aid of the Holy Scriptures has not reached,
+Christ continues to purify and redeem by his inward power. But as men,
+who are acted upon solely by his inward strivings, have not the same
+advantages as those who are also acted upon by his outward word, so less
+is expected in the one than in the other case. Less is expected from the
+Gentile than from the Jew: less from the Barbarian than from the
+Christian.
+
+And this latter doctrine of the universality of the striving of Christ
+with man, in a spiritually instructive and redemptive capacity, as it is
+merciful and just, so it is worthy of the wise and beneficent Creator.
+Christ, in short, has been filling, from the foundation of the world,
+the office of an inward redeemer, and this, without any exception, to
+all of the human race. And there is even [101] "now no salvation in any
+other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby
+we must be saved."
+
+[Footnote 101: Acts 4. 12.]
+
+From this new statement of the proposition, which statement is
+consistent with the language of divines, it will appear, that, if the
+Quakers have made every thing of the spirit, and but little of Christ, I
+have made, to suit the objectors, every thing of Christ, and but little
+of the spirit. Now I would ask, where lies the difference between the
+two statements? Which is the more accurate; or whether, when I say these
+things were done by the spirit, and when I say they were done by Christ,
+I do not state precisely the same proposition, or express the same
+thing?
+
+That Christ, in all the offices stated by the proposition, is neither
+more nor less than the spirit of God, there can surely be no doubt. In
+looking at Christ, we are generally apt to view him with carnal eyes. We
+can seldom divest ourselves of the idea of a body belonging to him,
+though this was confessedly human, and can seldom consider him as a pure
+principle or fountain of divine life and light to men. And yet it is
+obvious, that we must view him in this light in the present case; for if
+he was at the creation of the world, or with Moses at the delivery of
+the law, (which the proposition supposes) he could not have been there
+in his carnal body; because this was not produced till centuries
+afterwards by the virgin Mary. In this abstracted light, the Apostles
+frequently view Christ themselves. Thus St. Paul:[102] "I live, yet not
+I, but Christ liveth in me." And again,[103] "Know ye not your own
+selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
+
+[Footnote 102: Gal. 2.20.]
+
+[Footnote 103: 2 Cor. 15.5].
+
+Now no person imagines that St. Paul had any idea, either that the body
+of Christ was in himself, or in others, on the occasions on which he has
+thus spoken.
+
+That Christ therefore, as he held the offices contained in the
+proposition, was the spirit of God, we may pronounce from various views,
+which we may take of him, all of which seem to lead us to the same
+conclusion.
+
+And first let us look at Christ in the scriptural light in which he has
+been held forth to us in the fourth section of the seventh chapter,
+where I have explained the particular notions of the Quakers relative to
+the new birth.
+
+God maybe considered here as having produced, by means of his Holy
+Spirit, a birth of divine life in the soul of the "body which had been
+prepared;" and this birth was Christ. [104] "But that which is born of
+the spirit, says St. John, is spirit." The only question then will be as
+to the magnitude of the spirit thus produced. In answer to this St. John
+says,[105] "that God gave him not the spirit by measure." And St. Paul
+says the same thing: [106] "For in him all the fulness of the godhead
+dwelt bodily." Now we can have no idea of a spirit without measure, or
+containing the fullness of the godhead, but the spirit of God.
+
+[Footnote 104: John 3.6.]
+
+[Footnote 105: John 3.34.]
+
+[Footnote 106: Coloss. 2.9]
+
+Let us now look at Christ in another point of view, or as St. Paul seems
+to have viewed him. He defines Christ [107] "to be the wisdom of God,
+and the power of God." But what are the wisdom of God, and the power of
+God, but the great characteristics and the great constituent parts of
+his spirit?
+
+[Footnote 107: 1 Cor. 1. 24.]
+
+But if these views of Christ should not be deemed satisfactory, we will
+contemplate him as St. John the Evangelist has held him forth to our
+notice. Moses says, that the spirit of God created the world. But St.
+John says that the word created it. The spirit therefore and the word
+must be the same. But this word he tells us afterwards, and this
+positively, was Jesus Christ.
+
+It appears therefore from these observations, that it makes no material
+difference, whether we use the words "Spirit of God" or "Christ," in the
+proposition that has been before us, or that there will be no difference
+in the meaning of the proposition, either in the one or the other case;
+and also if the Quakers only allow, when the spirit took flesh, that the
+body was given as a sacrifice for sin, or that part of the redemption of
+man, as far as his sins are forgiven, is effected by this sacrifice,
+there will be little or no difference between the religion of the
+Quakers and that of the objectors, as far as it relates to Christ[108].
+
+[Footnote 108: The Quakers have frequently said in their theological
+writings, that every man has a portion of the Holy Spirit within him;
+and this assertion has not been censured. But they have also said, that
+every man has a portion of Christ or of the light of Christ, within him.
+Now this assertion has been considered as extravagant and wild. The
+reader will therefore see, that if he admits the one, he cannot very
+consistently censure the other.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. X.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Ministers--The Spirit of God alone can made a Minister of the
+Gospel--Hence no imposition of hands nor human knowledge can be
+effectual--This proposition not peculiarly adopted by George Fox, but by
+Justin the Martyr, Luther, Calvin, Wickliffe, Tyndal, Milton, and
+others--Way in which this call, by the Spirit, qualifies for the
+ministry--Women equally qualified with men--How a Quaker becomes
+acknowledged to be a Minister of the Gospel._
+
+
+Having now detailed fully the operations of the Spirit of God, as far as
+the Quakers believe it to be concerned in the instruction and redemption
+of man, I shall consider its operations, as far as they believe it to
+be concerned in the services of the church. Upon this spirit they make
+both their worship and their ministry to depend. I shall therefore
+consider these subjects, before I proceed to any new order of tenets,
+which they may hold.
+
+It is a doctrine of the Quakers that none can spiritually exercise, and
+that none ought to be allowed to exercise, the office of ministers, but
+such as the spirit of God has worked upon and called forth to discharge
+it, as well as that the same Spirit will never fail to raise up persons
+in succession for this end.
+
+Conformably with this idea, no person, in the opinion of the Quakers,
+ought to be designed by his parents in early youth for the priesthood:
+for as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can say which is the
+vessel that is to be made to honour.
+
+Conformably with the same idea, no imposition of hands, or ordination,
+can avail any thing, in their opinion, in the formation of a minister of
+the Gospel; for no human power can communicate to the internal man the
+spiritual gifts of God.
+
+Neither, in conformity with the same idea, can the acquisition of human
+learning, or the obtaining Academical degrees and honours, be essential
+qualifications for this office; for though the human intellect is so
+great, that it can dive as it were into the ocean and discover the laws
+of fluids, and rise again up to heaven, and measure the celestial
+motions, yet it is incapable of itself of penetrating into divine
+things, so as spiritually to know them; while, on the other hand,
+illiterate men appear often to have more knowledge on these subjects
+than the most learned. Indeed the Quakers have no notion of a human
+qualification for a divine calling. They reject all school divinity, as
+necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe that if a
+knowledge of Christianity had been attainable by the acquisition of the
+Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and
+Roman philosophers, then the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the
+best proficients in it; whereas, the Gospel was only foolishness to many
+of these. They say with St. Paul to the Colossians,[109] "Beware lest any
+man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of
+men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And they
+say with the same Apostle to Timothy,[110] "O Timothy! keep that which
+is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and
+oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have
+erred concerning the faith."
+
+[Footnote 109: Coloss. 2. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 110: 1 Tim. 6, 20, 21]
+
+This notion of the Quakers, that human learning and academical honours
+are not necessary for the priesthood, is very ancient. Though George Fox
+introduced it into his new society, and this without any previous
+reading upon the subject, yet it had existed long before his time. In
+short, it was connected with the tenet, early disseminated in the
+church, that no person could know spiritual things but through the
+medium of the spirit of God, from whence it is not difficult to pass to
+the doctrine, that none could teach spiritually except they had been
+taught spiritually themselves. Hence we find Justin the Martyr, a
+Platonic philosopher, but who was afterwards one of the earliest
+Christian writers after the Apostles, and other learned men after him
+down to Chrysostom, laying aside their learning and their philosophy for
+the school of Christ. The first authors also of the reformation,
+contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported
+it. Wickliffe, the first reformer of the English church, and Tyndal the
+Martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language,
+supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, Master of Pembroke-Hall in
+Cambridge, preached a sermon before the University, contending that the
+Universities corresponded with the schools of the prophets, and that
+human learning was an essential qualification for the priesthood. This
+sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, Master of Caius College
+in the same University, in which he stated, after having argued the
+points in question, that the Universities did not correspond with the
+schools of the prophets, but with those of Heathen men; that Plato,
+Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were more honoured there, than Moses or
+Christ; that grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, physics, metaphysics, and
+the mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or
+the defence of the Gospel; that Christian schools had originally brought
+men from Heathenism to Christianity, but that the University schools
+were likely to carry men from Christianity to Heathenism again. This
+language of William Dell was indeed the general language of the divines
+and pious men in those times in which George Fox lived, though
+unquestionably the opposite doctrine had been started, and had been
+received by many. Thus the great John Milton, who lived in these very
+times, may be cited as speaking in a similar manner on the same subject.
+"Next, says he, it is a fond error, though too much believed among us,
+to think that the University makes a minister of the gospel. What it may
+conduce to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now. But that, which
+makes fit a Minister, the Scripture can best inform us to be only from
+above; whence also we are bid to seek them. [111]Thus St. Matthew says,
+'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
+labourers into his harvest.' Thus St. Luke: [112] 'The flock, over which
+the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.' Thus St. Paul: [113] 'How shall
+they preach, unless they be sent?' But by whom sent? By the university,
+or by the magistrate? No, surely. But sent by God, and by him only."
+
+[Footnote 111: Mat. 9.38.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Acts 20.28.]
+
+[Footnote 113: Rom. 10.15.]
+
+The Quakers then, rejecting school divinity, continue to think with
+Justin, Luther, Dell, Milton, and indeed with those of the church of
+England and others, that those only can be proper ministers of the
+church, who have witnessed within themselves a call from the spirit of
+God. If men would teach religion, they must, in the opinion of the
+Quakers, be first taught of God. They must go first to the school of
+Christ; must come under his discipline in their hearts; must mortify the
+deeds of the body; must crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts
+thereof; must put off the old man which is corrupt; must put on the new
+man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;"
+must be in fact, "Ministers of the sanctuary and true tabernacle, which
+the Lord hath pitched, and not man." And whether those who come forward
+as ministers are really acted upon by this Spirit, or by their own
+imagination only, so that they mistake the one for the other, the
+Quakers consider it to be essentially necessary, that they should
+experience such a call in their own feelings, and that purification of
+heart, which they can only judge of by their outward lives, should be
+perceived by themselves, before they presume to enter upon such an
+office.
+
+The Quakers believe that men, qualified in this manner, are really fit
+for the ministry, and are likely to be useful instruments in it. For
+first, it becomes men to be changed themselves, before they can change
+others. Those again, who have been thus changed, have the advantage of
+being able to state from living experience what God has done for them;
+[114] "what they have seen with their eyes; what they have looked upon;
+and what their hands have handled of the word of life." Men also, who,
+by means of God's Holy Spirit, have escaped the pollutions of the world,
+are in a fit state to understand the mysteries of God, and to carry with
+them the seal of their own commission. Thus men under sin can never
+discern spiritual things. But "to the disciples of Christ," and to the
+doers of his will, "it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of
+Heaven." Thus, when the Jews marvelled at Christ, saying [115] "How
+knoweth this man letters, (or the scriptures) having never learned?
+Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent
+me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
+it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Such ministers also are
+considered as better qualified to reach the inward state of the people,
+and to "preach liberty to the captives" of sin, than those who have
+merely the advantage of school divinity, or of academical learning. It
+is believed also of these, that they are capable of giving more solid
+and lasting instruction, when they deliver themselves at large: for
+those, who preach rather from intellectual abilities and from the
+suggestions of human learning, than from the spiritual life and power
+which they find within themselves, may be said to forsake Christ, who is
+the "living fountain, and to hew out broken cisterns which hold no
+water," either for themselves or for others.
+
+[Footnote 114: Coloss. 2. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 115: 1 Tim. 6.20.21.]
+
+This qualification for the ministry being allowed to be the true one, it
+will follow, the Quakers believe, and it was Luther's belief also, that
+women may be equally qualified to become ministers of the Gospel, as the
+men. For they believe that God has given his Holy Spirit, without
+exception, to all. They dare not therefore limit its operations in the
+office of the ministry, more than in any other of the sacred offices
+which it may hold. They dare not again say, that women cannot mortify
+the deeds of the flesh, or that they cannot be regenerated, and walk in
+newness of life. If women therefore believe they have a call to the
+ministry, and undergo the purification necessarily connected with it,
+and preach in consequence, and preach effectively, they dare not, under
+these circumstances, refuse to accept their preaching, as the fruits of
+the spirit, merely because it comes through the medium of the female
+sex.
+
+Against this doctrine of the Quakers, that a female ministry is
+allowable under the Gospel dispensation, an objection has been started
+from the following words of the Apostle Paul: [116] "Let your women keep
+silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to
+speak"--"and if they will learn any thing, let them ask their Husbands
+at home." but the Quakers conceive, that this charge of the Apostle has
+no allusion to preaching. In these early times, when the Gospel
+doctrines were new, and people were eager to understand them, some of
+the women, in the warmth of their feelings, interrupted the service of
+the church, by asking such questions as occurred to them on the subject
+of this new religion. These are they whom the Apostle desires to be
+silent, and to reserve their questions till they should return home. And
+that this was the case is evident, they conceive, from the meaning of
+the words, which the Apostle uses upon this occasion. For the word in
+the Greek tongue, which is translated "speak," does not mean to preach
+or to pray, but to speak as in common discourse. And the words, which
+immediately follow this, do not relate to any evangelical instruction,
+which these women were desirous of communicating publicly, but which
+they were desirous of receiving themselves from others.
+
+[Footnote 116: 1 Cor. 14.34.35.]
+
+That the words quoted do not relate to praying or preaching is also
+equally obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers; for if they had related
+to these offices of the church, the word "prophesy" had been used
+instead of the word "speak." Add to which that the Apostle, in the same
+epistle in which the preaching of women is considered to be forbidden,
+gives them a rule to which he expects them to conform, when they should
+either prophesy or pray: but to give women a rule to be observed during
+their preaching, and to forbid them to preach at the some time, is an
+absurdity too great to be fixed upon the most ordinary person, and much
+more upon an inspired Apostle.
+
+That the objection has no foundation, the Quakers believe again, from
+the consideration that the ministry of women, in the days of the
+Apostles, is recognized in the New Testament, and is recognized also, in
+some instances, as an acceptable service.
+
+Of the hundred and twenty persons who were assembled on the day of
+pentecost, it is said by St. Luke that [117] some were women. That these
+received the Holy Spirit as well as the men, and that they received it
+also for the purpose of prophesying or preaching, is obvious from the
+same Evangelist. For first, he says, that "all were filled with the Holy
+Ghost." And secondly, he says, that Peter stood up, and observed
+concerning the circumstance of inspiration having been given to the
+women upon this occasion, that Joel's prophecy was then fulfilled, in
+which were to be found these words: "And it shall come to pass in the
+hist days, that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy--and on my
+servants and handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and
+they shall prophesy."
+
+[Footnote 117: Acts, Chap. 1.]
+
+That women preached afterwards, or in times subsequent to the day of
+pentecost, they collect from the same Evangelist. [118]For he mentions
+Philip, who had four daughters, all of whom prophesied at Caesarea. Now
+by prophesying, if we accept [119]St. Paul's interpretation of it, is
+meant a speaking to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, under the
+influence of the Holy Spirit. It was also a speaking to the church: it
+was also the speaking of one person to the church, while the others
+remained silent.
+
+[Footnote 118: Acts 21.9.]
+
+[Footnote 119: 1 Cor. 14.]
+
+That women also preached or prophesied in the church of Corinth, the
+Quakers show from the testimony of St. Paul: for he states the manner in
+which they did it, or that [120]they prayed and prophesied with their
+heads uncovered.
+
+[Footnote 120: 1 Cor. 11. 5.]
+
+That women also were ministers of the Gospel in other places; and that
+they were highly serviceable to the church, St. Paul confesses with
+great satisfaction, in his Epistle to the Romans, in which he sends his
+salutation to different persons, for whom he professed an affection or
+an esteem: [121]thus--"I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a
+servant of the church, which is at Cenchrea." Upon this passage the
+Quakers usually make two observations. The first is, that the [122]Greek
+word, which is translated servant, should have been rendered minister.
+It is translated minister, when applied by St. Paul to [123]Timothy, to
+denote his office. It is also translated minister, when applied to
+[124]St. Paul and Apollos. And there is no reason why a change should
+have been made in its meaning in the present case. The second is, that
+History has handed down Phoebe as a woman eminent for her Gospel
+labours. "She was celebrated, says [125]Theodoret, throughout the world;
+for not only the Greeks and the Romans, but the Barbarians, knew her
+likewise."
+
+[Footnote 121: Romans 16.1.]
+
+[Footnote 122: [Greek: Diokogos.]]
+
+[Footnote 123: 1 Thess. 3. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 124: 1 Cor. 3. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 125: In Universa Terra celebris facta est; nec eam soli
+Romani, &c,]
+
+St. Paul also greets Priscilla and Aquila. He greets them under the
+title of fellow-helpers or fellow-labourers in Jesus Christ. But this is
+the same title which he bestows upon Timothy, to denote his usefulness
+in the church. Add to which, that Priscilla and Aquila were the persons
+of whom St. Luke [126]says, "that they assisted Apollos in expounding to
+him the way of God more perfectly."
+
+[Footnote 126: Acts 18. 24. 26.]
+
+In the same epistle he recognizes also other women, as having been
+useful to him in Gospel-labours. Thus--"Salute Tryphena, and Tryphosa,
+who labour in the Lord." "Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much
+in the Lord."
+
+From these, and from other observations, which might be made upon this
+subject, the Quakers are of opinion that the ministry of the women was
+as acceptable, in the time of the Apostles, as the ministry of the men.
+And as there is no prohibition against the preaching of women in the New
+Testament, they see no reason why they should not be equally admissible
+and equally useful as ministers at the present day.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Way in which Quakers are admitted into the ministry--When acknowledged,
+they preach, like other pastors, to their different congregations or
+meetings--They visit occasionally the different families in their own
+counties or quarterly meetings--Manner of these family-visits--Sometimes
+travel as ministers through particular counties or the kingdom at
+large--Sometimes into foreign parts--Women share in these
+labours--Expense of voyages on such occasions defrayed out of the
+national stock._
+
+
+The way in which Quakers, whether men or women, who conceive themselves
+to be called to the office of the ministry, are admitted into it, so as
+to be acknowledged by the society to be ministers of the Quaker-church,
+is simply as follows.
+
+Any member has a right to rise up in the meetings for worship, and to
+speak publicly. If any one therefore should rise up and preach, who has
+never done so before, he is heard. The congregation are all witnesses of
+his doctrine. The elders, however, who may be present, and to whose
+province it more immediately belongs to judge of the fitness of
+ministers, observe the tenour of his discourse. They watch over it for
+its authority; that is, they judge by its spiritual influence on the
+mind, whether it be such as corresponds with that which may be presumed
+to come from the spirit of God. If the new preacher delivers any thing
+that appears exceptionable, and continues to do so, it is the duty of
+the elders to speak to him in private, and to desire him to discontinue
+his services to the church. But if nothing exceptionable occurs, nothing
+is said to him, and he is allowed to deliver himself publicly at future
+meetings. In process of time, if, after repeated attempts in the office
+of the ministry, the new preacher should have given satisfactory proof
+of his gifts, he is reported to the monthly meeting to which he belongs.
+And this meeting, if satisfied with his ministry, acknowledges him as a
+minister, and then recommends him to the meeting of ministers and
+elders belonging to the same. No other act than this is requisite. He
+receives no verbal or written appointment or power for the execution of
+the sacerdotal office. It may be observed also, that he neither gains
+any authority, nor loses any privilege, by thus becoming a minister of
+the Gospel. Except, while in the immediate exercise of his calling, he
+is only a common member. He receives no elevation by the assumption of
+any nominal title, to distinguish him from the rest. Nor is he elevated
+by the prospect of any increase to his wordly goods in consequence of
+his new office; for no minister in this society receives any pecuniary
+emolument for his spiritual labours.
+
+When ministers are thus approved and acknowledged, they exercise the
+sacred office in public assemblies, as they immediately feel themselves
+influenced to that work. They may engage also, with the approbation of
+their own monthly meeting, in the work of visiting such Quaker families
+as reside in the county, or quarterly meeting to which they belong. In
+this case they are sometimes accompanied by one of the elders of the
+church. These visits have the name of family visits, and are conducted
+in the following manner:--
+
+When a Quaker minister, after having commenced his journey, has entered
+the house of the first family, the individual members are collected to
+receive him. They then sit in silence for a time. As he believes himself
+concerned to speak, he delivers that which arises in his mind with
+religions freedom. The master, the wife, and the other branches of the
+family, are sometimes severally addressed. Does the minister feel that
+there is a departure in any of the persons present, from the principles
+or practice of the society, he speaks, if he believes it required of
+him, to these points. Is there any well disposed person under any inward
+discouragement; this person may be addressed in the language of
+consolation. All in fact are exhorted and advised as their several
+circumstances may seem to require. When the religious visit is over, the
+minister, if there be occasion, takes some little refreshment with the
+family, and converses with them; but no light or trifling subject is
+ever entered upon on these occasions. From one family he passes on to
+another, till he has visited all the families in the district, for which
+he had felt a concern.
+
+Though Quaker ministers frequently confine their spiritual labours to
+the county or quarterly meeting in which they reside, yet some of them
+feel an engagement to go beyond these boundaries, and to visit the
+society in particular counties, or in the kingdom at large. They who
+feel a concern of this kind, must lay it before their own monthly
+meetings. These meetings, if they feel it right to countenance it, grant
+them certificates for the purpose. These certificates are necessary;
+first, because ministers might not he personally known as ministers out
+of their own district; and secondly, because Quakers, who were not
+ministers, and other persons who might counterfeit the dress of Quakers,
+might otherwise impose upon the society, as they travelled along.
+
+Such persons, as thus travel in the work of the ministry, or public
+friends as they are called, seldom or never go to an inn at any town or
+village, where Quakers live. They go to the houses of the latter. While
+at these, they attend the weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings of the
+district, as they happen on their route. They call also extraordinary
+meetings of worship. At these houses they are visited by many of the
+members of the place and neighbourhood, who call upon and converse with
+them. During these times they appear to have their minds bent on the
+object of their mission, so that it would be difficult to divert their
+attention from the work in hand. When they have staid a sufficient time
+at a town or village, they depart. One or more guides are appointed by
+the particular meeting, belonging to it, to show them the way to the
+next place, where they propose to labour, and to convey them free of
+expense, and to conduct them to the house of some member there. From
+this house, when their work is finished, they are conveyed and conducted
+by new guides to another, and so on, till they return to their
+respective homes.
+
+But the religious views of the Quaker ministers are not always confined
+even within the boundaries of the kingdom. Many of them believe it to be
+their duty to travel into foreign parts. These, as their journey is now
+extensive, must lay their concern not only before their own monthly
+meeting, but before their own quarterly meeting, and before the meeting
+of Ministers and Elders in London also. On receiving their certificates,
+they depart. Some of them visit the continent of Europe, but most of
+them the churches in America, where they diligently labour in the
+vineyard, probably for a year or two, at a distance from their families
+and friends. And here it may be observed, that, while Quaker ministers
+from England are thus visiting America on a religious errand, ministers
+from America, impelled by the same influence, are engaging in
+Apostolical missions to England. These foreign visits, on both sides,
+are not undertaken by such ministers only as are men. Women engage in
+them also. They cross the Atlantic, and labour in the vineyard in the
+same manner. It may be mentioned here, that though it be a principle in
+the Quaker society, that no minister of the Gospel ought to be paid for
+his religious labours, yet the expense of the voyage, on such occasions,
+is allowed to be defrayed out of the fund, which is denominated by the
+Quakers their national stock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XI.
+
+_Elders--Their appointment--One part of their office to watch over the
+doctrines and conduct of ministers--Another part of their office to meet
+the ministers of the church, and to confer and exhort for religious
+good--None to meddle at these conferences with the government of the
+church._
+
+
+I mentioned in the preceding chapter, as the reader must have observed,
+that certain persons, called Elders, watched over those who came forward
+in the ministry, with a view of ascertaining if they had received a
+proper qualification or call. I shall now state who the elders are, as
+well as more particularly the nature of their office.
+
+To every particular meeting four elders, two men and two women, but
+sometimes more and sometimes less, according as persons can be found
+qualified, are appointed. These are nominated by a committee appointed
+by the monthly meeting, in conjunction with a committee appointed by the
+quarterly meeting. And as the office annexed to the name of elder is
+considered peculiarly important by the Quakers, particular care is
+taken, that persons of clear discernment, and such as excel in the
+spiritual ear, and such as are blameless in their lives, are appointed
+to it. It is recommended that neither wealth nor age be allowed to
+operate as inducements in the choice of them. Indeed, so much care is
+required to be taken with respect to the filling up this office, that if
+persons perfectly suitable are not to be found, the meetings are to be
+left without them.
+
+It is one part of the duty of the elders, when appointed, to watch over
+the doctrine of young ministers, and also to watch over the doctrine and
+conduct of ministers generally, and tenderly to advise with such as
+appear to them to be deficient in any of the qualifications which belong
+to their high calling.
+
+When we consider that every religious society attaches a more than
+common respectability to the person who performs the sacerdotal office,
+there will be no difficulty in supposing, whenever a minister may be
+thought to err, that many of those who are aware of his error, will want
+the courage to point it out to him, and that others will excuse
+themselves from doing it, by saying that interference on this occasion
+does not belong more immediately to them than to others. This
+institution therefore of elders fixes the offices on individuals. It
+makes it their duty to watch and advise--It makes them responsible for
+the unsound doctrine, or the bad conduct of their ministers. And this
+responsibility is considered as likely to give persons that courage in
+watching over the ministry, which they might otherwise want. Hence, if a
+minister in the Quaker church were to preach unsoundly, or to act
+inconsistently with his calling, he would be generally sure of being
+privately spoken to by one or another elder.
+
+This office of elders, as far as it is concerned in advising ministers
+of the Gospel, had its foundation laid by George Fox. Many persons, who
+engaged in the ministry in his time, are described by him as "having run
+into imaginations," or as "having gone beyond their measure;" and in
+these cases, whenever they should happen, he recommended that one or
+two friends, if they saw fit, should advise with them in love and
+wisdom. In process of time, however, this evil seems to have increased;
+for as the society spread, numbers pressed forward to become Gospel
+ministers; many supposed they had a call from the spirit, and rose up,
+and preached, and in the heat of their imaginations, delivered
+themselves unprofitably. Two or three persons also, in the frenzy of
+their enthusiasm, frequently rose up, and spoke at the same time. Now
+this was easily to be done in a religious society, where all were
+allowed to speak, and where the qualifications of ministers were to be
+judged of in part by the truths delivered, or rather, where ordination
+was no mark of the ministry, or where an human appointment of it was
+unknown. For these reasons, that mode of superintendence which had only
+been suggested by George Fox, and left to the discretion of individuals,
+was perfected into an establishment, out of imperious necessity, in
+after times. Men were appointed to determine between the effects of
+divine inspiration and human imagination; to judge between the cool and
+the sound; and the enthusiastic and the defective; and to put a bridle
+as it were upon those who were not likely to become profitable labourers
+in the harvest of the Gospel. And as this office was rendered necessary
+on account of the principle that no ordination or human appointment
+could make a minister of the Gospel; so the same principle continuing
+among the Quakers, the office has been continued to the present day.
+
+It devolves upon the elders again, as a second branch of their duty, to
+meet the ministers of the church at stated seasons, generally once in
+three months, and to spend some time with them in religious retirement.
+It is supposed that opportunities may be afforded here, of encouraging
+and strengthening young ministers, of confirming the old, and of giving
+religious advice and assistance in various ways: and it must be supposed
+at any rate, that religious men cannot meet in religious conference,
+without some edification to each other. At these meetings, queries are
+proposed relative to the conduct both of ministers and elders, which
+they answer in writing to the quarterly meetings of ministers and elders
+to which they belong. Of the ministers and elders thus assembled, it may
+be observed, that it is their duty to confine themselves wholly to the
+exhortation of one another for good. They can make no laws, like the
+ancient synods and other convocations of the clergy, nor dictate any
+article of faith. Neither can they meddle with the government of the
+church. The Quakers allow neither ministers nor elders, by virtue of
+their office, to interfere with their discipline. Every proposition of
+this sort must be determined upon by the yearly meeting, or by the body
+at large.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XII.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Worship--Consists of prayer and preaching--Neither of these effectual
+but by the Spirit--Hence no liturgy or form of words, or studied
+sermons, in the Quaker-church--Singular manner of delivering
+sermons--Tone of the voice usually censured--This may arise from the
+difference between nature and art--Objected, that there is little
+variety of subject in these sermons--Variety not so necessary to
+Quakers--Other objections--Replies--Observations of Francis Lambert, of
+Avignon._
+
+
+As no person, in the opinion of the Quakers, can be a true minister of
+the gospel, unless he feel himself called or appointed by the spirit of
+God, so there can be no true or effectual worship, except it come
+through the aid of the same spirit.
+
+The public worship of God is usually made to consist of prayer and
+preaching.
+
+Prayer is a solemn address of the soul to God. It is a solemn confession
+of some weakness, or thanksgiving for some benefit, or petition for some
+favour. But the Quakers consider such an address as deprived of its life
+and power, except it be spiritually conceived. [127] "For the spirit
+helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we
+ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
+which cannot be uttered."
+
+[Footnote 127: Rom. 8. 26.]
+
+Preaching, on the other hand, is an address of man to men, that their
+attention may be turned towards God, and their minds be prepared for the
+secret and heavenly touches of his spirit. But this preaching, again,
+cannot be effectually performed, except the spirit of God accompany it.
+Thus St. Paul, in speaking of himself, says, [128] "And my speech and my
+preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
+demonstration of the spirit and with power, that your faith should not
+stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." So the Quakers
+believe that no words, however excellent, which men may deliver now,
+will avail, or will produce that faith which is to stand, except they be
+accompanied by that power which shall demonstrate them to be of God.
+
+[Footnote 128: 1 Cor. 2. 4.]
+
+From hence it appears to be the opinion of the Quakers, that the whole
+worship of God, whether it consist of prayer or of preaching, must be
+spiritual. Jesus Christ has also, they say, left this declaration upon
+record,[129]that "God is a spirit, and that they that worship him, must
+worship him in spirit and in truth." By worshipping him in truth, they
+mean, that men are to worship him only when they feel a right
+disposition to do it, and in such a manner as they judge, from their own
+internal feelings, to be the manner which the spirit of God then
+signifies.
+
+[Footnote 129: John 4.24.]
+
+For these reasons, when the Quakers enter into their meetings, they use
+no liturgy or form of prayer. Such a form would be made up of the words
+of man's wisdom. Neither do they deliver any sermons that have been
+previously conceived or written down. Neither do they begin their
+service immediately after they are seated. But when they sit down, they
+wait in silence,[130] as the Apostles were commanded to do. They
+endeavour to be calm and composed. They take no thought as to what they
+shall say. They avoid, on the other hand, all activity of the
+imagination, and every thing that arises from the will of man. The
+creature is thus brought to be passive, and the spiritual faculty to be
+disencumbered, so that it can receive and attend to the spiritual
+language of the Creator. [131]If, during this vacation from all mental
+activity, no impressions should be given to them, they say nothing. If
+impressions should be afforded to them, but no impulse to oral delivery,
+they remain equally silent. But if, on the other hand, impressions are
+given them, with an impulse to utterance, they deliver to the
+congregation as faithfully as they can, the copies of the several
+images, which they conceive to be painted upon their minds.
+
+[Footnote 130: Mat. 10.19. Acts 1.4.]
+
+[Footnote 131: They believe it their duty, (to speak in the Quaker
+language,) to maintain the watch, by preserving the imagination from
+being carried away by thoughts originating in man; and, in such watch,
+patiently to await for the arising of that life, which, by subduing the
+thoughts of man, produces an inward silence, and therein bestows a true
+sight of his condition upon him.]
+
+This utterance, when it manifests itself, is resolvable into prayer or
+preaching. If the minister engages in prayer, the whole company rise up,
+and the men with the minister take off their hats, that is, [132]uncover
+their heads. If he preaches only, they do not rise, but remain upon
+their seats as before, with their heads covered. The preacher, however,
+uncovers his own head upon this occasion.
+
+[Footnote 132: 1 Cor. Ch. 11.]
+
+There is something singular in the manner in which the Quakers deliver
+themselves when they preach. In the beginning of their discourses, they
+generally utter their words with slowness; indeed, with a slowness,
+which sometimes renders their meaning almost unintelligible to persons
+unaccustomed to such a mode of delivery; for seconds sometimes elapse
+between the sounding of short sentences or single words, so that the
+mind cannot always easily carry the first words, and join them to the
+intermediate, and connect them with the last. As they proceed, they
+communicate their impressions in a brisker manner; till, at length,
+getting beyond the quickness of ordinary delivery, they may be said to
+utter them rapidly. At this time, some of them appear to be much
+affected, and even agitated by their subject. This method of a very
+slow and deliberate pronunciation at first, and of an accelerated one
+afterwards, appears to me, as far as I have seen or heard, to be
+universal: for though undoubtedly some may make less pauses between the
+introductory words and sentences than others, yet all begin slower than
+they afterwards proceed.
+
+This singular custom may be probably accounted for in the following
+manner. The Quakers certainly believe that the spirit of God furnishes
+them with impressions on these occasions, but that the description of
+these is left to themselves Hence a faithful watch must be kept, that
+these may be delivered to their hearers conformably to what is delivered
+to them. But if so, it may perhaps be necessary to be more watchful, at
+the outset, in order to ascertain the dimensions as it were of these
+impressions, and of their several tendencies and bearings, than
+afterwards, when such a knowledge of them has been obtained. Or it may
+be that ministers, who go wholly unprepared to preach, have but a small
+view of the subject at first. Hence they speak slowly. But as their
+views are enlarged, their speech becomes quickened, and their feelings
+become interested with it. These, for any thing I know, may be
+solutions, upon Quaker principles, of this extraordinary practice.
+
+Against the preaching of the Quakers, an objection is usually made by
+the world, namely, that their ministers generally deliver their
+doctrines with an unpleasant tone. But it may be observed that this,
+which is considered to be a defect, is by no means confined to the
+Quakers. Persons of other religious denominations, who exert themselves
+in the ministry, are liable to the same charge. It may be observed also,
+that the difference between the accent of the Quakers, and that of the
+speakers of the world, may arise in the difference between art and
+nature. The person who prepares his lecture for the lecture-room, or his
+sermon for the pulpit, studies the formation of his sentences, which are
+to be accompanied by a modulation of the voice. This modulation is
+artificial, for it is usually taught. The Quakers, on, the other hand,
+neither prepare their discourses, nor vary their voices purposely,
+according to the rules of art. The tone which comes out, and which
+appears disagreeable to those who are not used to it, is nevertheless
+not unnatural. It is rather the mode of speaking which nature imposes,
+in any violent exertion of the voice, to save the lungs. Hence persons
+who have their wares to cry, and this almost every other minute, in the
+streets, are obliged to adopt a tone. Hence persons with disordered
+lungs, can sing words with more ease to themselves than they can utter
+them, with a similar pitch of the voice. Hence Quaker women, when they
+preach, have generally more of this tone than the Quaker men, for the
+lungs of the female are generally weaker than those of the other sex.
+
+Against the sermons of the Quakers two objections are usually made; the
+first of which is, that they contain but little variety of subject.
+Among dissenters, it is said, but more particularly in the
+establishment, that you may hear fifty sermons following each other,
+where the subject of each is different. Hence a man, ignorant of
+letters, may collect all his moral and religious duties from the pulpit
+in the course of the year. But this variety, it is contended, is not to
+be found in the Quaker church.
+
+That there is less variety in the Quaker sermons than in those of
+others, there can be no doubt. But such variety is not so necessary to
+Quakers, on account of their peculiar tenets, and the universality of
+their education, as to others. For it is believed, as I have explained
+before, that the spirit of God, if duly attended to, is a spiritual
+guide to man, and that it leads him into all truth; that it redeems him;
+and that it qualifies him therefore for happiness in a future state.
+Thus an injunction to attend to the teachings of the spirit, supersedes,
+in some measure, the necessity of detailing the moral and religious
+obligations of individuals. And this necessity is still farther
+superseded by the consideration, that, as all the members of the Quaker
+society can read, they can collect their Christian duty from the
+scriptures, independently of their own ministers; or that they can
+collect those duties for themselves, which others, who are illiterate,
+are obliged to collect from the church.
+
+The second objection is, that the Quaker discourses have generally less
+in them, and are occasionally less connected or more confused than those
+of others.
+
+It must be obvious, when we consider that the Quaker ministers are often
+persons of but little erudition, and that their principles forbid them
+to premeditate on these occasions, that we can hardly expect to find the
+same logical division of the subject, or the same logical provings of
+given points, as in the sermons of those who spend hours, or even days
+together, in composing them.
+
+With respect to the apparent barrenness, or the little matter sometimes
+discoverable in their sermons, they would reply, that God has not given
+to every man a similar or equal gift. To some he has given largely; to
+others in a less degree. Upon some he has bestowed gifts, that may edify
+the learned; upon others such as may edify the illiterate. Men are not
+to limit his spirit by their own notions of qualification. Like the
+wind, it bloweth not only where it listeth, but as it listeth. Thus
+preaching, which may appear to a scholar as below the ordinary standard,
+may be more edifying to the simple hearted, than a discourse better
+delivered, or more eruditely expressed. Thus again, preaching, which may
+be made up of high sounding words, and of a mechanical manner and an
+affected tone, and which may, on these accounts, please the man of
+learning and taste, may be looked upon as dross by a man of moderate
+abilities or acquirements. And thus it has happened, that many have left
+the orators of the world and joined the Quaker society, on account of
+the barrenness of the discourses which they have heard among them.
+
+With respect to Quaker sermons being sometimes less connected or more
+confused than those of others, they would admit that this might
+apparently happen; and they would explain it in the following manner.
+Their ministers, they would say, when they sit among the congregation,
+are often given to feel and discern the spiritual states of individuals
+then present, and sometimes to believe it necessary to describe such
+states, and to add such advice as these may seem to require. Now these
+states being frequently different from each other, the description of
+them, in consequence of an abrupt transition from one to the other, may
+sometimes occasion an apparent inconsistency in their discourses on such
+occasions. The Quakers, however, consider all such discourses, or those
+in which states are described, as among the most efficacious and useful
+of those delivered.
+
+But whatever may be the merits of the Quaker sermons, there are
+circumstances worthy of notice with respect to the Quaker preachers. In
+the first place, they always deliver their discourses with great
+seriousness. They are also singularly bold and honest, when they feel it
+to be their duty, in the censure of the vices of individuals, whatever
+may be the riches they enjoy. They are reported also from unquestionable
+authority, to have extraordinary skill in discerning the internal
+condition of those who attend their ministry, so that many, feeling the
+advice to be addressed to themselves, have resolved upon their amendment
+in the several cases to which their preaching seemed to have been
+applied.
+
+As I am speaking of the subject of ministers, I will answer one or two
+questions, which I have often heard asked concerning it.
+
+The first of these is, do the Quakers believe that their ministers are
+uniformly moved, when they preach, by the spirit of God?
+
+I answer--the Quakers believe they may be so moved, and that they ought
+to be so moved. They believe also that they are often so moved. But they
+believe again, that except their ministers are peculiarly cautious, and
+keep particularly on their watch, they may mistake their own
+imaginations for the agency of this spirit. And upon this latter belief
+it is, in part, that the office of elders is founded, as before
+described.
+
+The second is, as there are no defined boundaries between the reason of
+man and the revelation of God, how do the Quakers know that they are
+favoured at any particular time, either when they preach or when they do
+not preach, with the visitation of this spirit, or that it is, at any
+particular time, resident within them?
+
+Richard Claridge, a learned and pious clergyman of the Church of England
+in the last century, but who gave up his benefices and joined the
+society of the Quakers, has said a few words in his Tractatus
+Hierographicus, upon this subject, a part of which I shall transcribe as
+an answer to this latter question.
+
+"Men, says he, may certainly know, that they do believe on the Son of
+God, with that faith that is unfeigned, and by which the heart is
+purified: for this faith is evidential and assuring, and consequently
+the knowledge of it is certain. Now they, who certainly know that they
+have this knowledge, may be certain also of the spirit of Christ
+dwelling in them; for [133] 'he that _believeth_ _on the Son of God, hath
+the witness in himself;'_ and this witness is the spirit; for it is
+[134] 'the spirit that beareth witness,' of whose testimony they may be
+as certain, as of that faith the spirit beareth witness to."
+
+[Footnote 133: 1 John 5.10.]
+
+[Footnote 134:1 John 5. 6.]
+
+Again--"They may certainly know that they love the Lord above all, and
+their neighbour as themselves. For the command implies not only a
+possibility of knowing it in general, but also of such a knowledge as
+respects their own immediate concernment therein, and personal benefit
+arising from a sense of their conformity and obedience thereunto. And
+seeing they may certainly know this, they may also as certainly know,
+that the spirit of Christ dwelleth in them;[135] for 'God is love, and
+he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.' And
+[136] 'if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
+perfected in us.'" In the same manner he goes on to enumerate many other
+marks from texts of scripture, by which he conceives this question may
+be determined[137].
+
+[Footnote 135:1 John 4. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 136:1 John 4. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 137: The Quakers conceive it to be no more difficult for them
+to distinguish the motions of the Holy Spirit, than for those of the
+church of England, who are candidates for holy orders. Every such
+candidate is asked, "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the
+Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministration?" The answer
+is, "I trust so."]
+
+I shall conclude this chapter on the subject of the Quaker preaching, by
+an extract from Francis Lambert of Avignon, whose book was published in
+the year 1516, long before the society of the Quakers took its rise in
+the world. "Beware, says he, that thou determine not precisely to speak
+what before thou hast meditated, whatsoever it be; for though it be
+lawful to determine the text which thou art to expound, yet not at all
+the interpretation; lest, if thou doest so, thou takest from the Holy
+Spirit that which is his, namely, to direct thy speech that thou mayest
+preach in the name of the Lord, void of all learning, meditation, and
+experience; and as if thou hadst studied nothing at all, committing thy
+heart, thy tongue, and thyself, wholly unto his spirit; and trusting
+nothing to thy former studying or meditation, but saying to thyself in
+great confidence of the divine promise, the Lord will give a word with
+much power unto those that preach the Gospel."
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_But besides oral or vocal, there is silent worship among the
+Quakers--Many meetings where not a word is said, and yet worship is
+considered to have begun, and to be proceeding--Worship not necessarily
+connected with words--This the opinion of other pious men besides
+Quakers--Of Howe--Hales--Gell--Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol--Monro
+--Advantages which the Quakers attach to their silent worship._
+
+
+I have hitherto confined myself to those meetings of the Quakers, where
+the minister is said to have received impressions from the Spirit of
+God, with a desire of expressing them, and where, if he expresses them,
+he ought to deliver them to the congregation as the pictures of his
+will; and this, as accurately as the mirror represents the object that
+is set before it. There are times, however, as I mentioned in the last
+section, when either no impressions may be said to be felt, or, if any
+are felt, there is no concomitant impulse to utter them. In this case
+no person attempts to speak: for to speak or to pray, where the heart
+feels no impulse to do it, would be, in the opinion of the Quakers, to
+mock God, and not to worship him in spirit and in truth. They sit
+therefore in silence, and worship in silence; and they not only remain
+silent the whole time of their meetings, but many meetings take place,
+and these sometimes in succession, when not a word is uttered.
+
+Michael de Molinos, who was chief of the sect of the Quietists, and
+whose "Spiritual Guide" was printed at Venice in 1685, speaks thus:
+"There are three kinds of silence; the first is of words, the second of
+desires, and the third of thoughts. The first is perfect; the second is
+more perfect; and the third is most perfect. In the first, that is, of
+words, virtue is acquired. In the second, namely, of desires, quietness
+is attained. In the third, of thoughts, internal recollection is gained.
+By not speaking, not desiring, and not thinking, one arrives at the
+true and perfect mystical silence, where God speaks with the soul,
+communicates himself to it, and in the abyss of its own depth, teaches
+it the most perfect and exalted wisdom."
+
+Many people of other religious societies, if they were to visit the
+meetings of the Quakers while under their silent worship, would be apt
+to consider the congregation as little better than stocks or stones, or
+at any rate as destitute of that life and animation which constitute the
+essence of religion. They would have no idea that a people were
+worshipping God, whom they observed to deliver nothing from their lips.
+It does not follow, however, because nothing is said, that God is not
+worshipped. The Quakers, on the other hand, contend, that these silent
+meetings form the sublimest part of their worship. The soul, they say,
+can have intercourse with God. It can feel refreshment, joy, and
+comfort, in him. It can praise and adore him; and all this, without the
+intervention of a word.
+
+This power of the soul is owing to its constitution or nature. "It
+follows, says the learned Howe, in his 'Living Temple,' that having
+formed this his more excellent creature according to his own more
+express likeness; stampt it with the more glorious characters of his
+living image; given it a nature suitable to his own, and thereby made it
+capable of rational and intelligent converse with him, he hath it even
+in his power to maintain a continual converse with this creature, by
+agreeable communications, by letting in upon it the vital beams and
+influences of his own light and love, and receiving back the return of
+its grateful acknowledgments and praises: wherein it is manifest he
+should do no greater thing than he hath done. For who sees not that it
+is a matter of no greater difficulty to converse with, than to make a
+reasonable creature? Or who would not be ashamed to deny, that he who
+hath been the only author of the soul of man, and of the excellent
+powers and faculties belonging to it, can more easily sustain that which
+he hath made, and converse with his creature suitably to the way,
+wherein he hath made it capable of his converse?"
+
+That worship may exist without the intervention of words, on account of
+this constitution of the soul, is a sentiment which has been espoused by
+many pious persons who were not Quakers. Thus, the ever memorable John
+Hales, in his Golden Remains, expresses himself: "Nay, one thing I know
+more, that the prayer which is the most forcible, transcends, and far
+exceeds, all power of words. For St. Paul, speaking unto us of the most
+effectual kind of prayer, calls it sighs and groans, that cannot be
+expressed. Nothing cries so loud in the ears of God, as the sighing of a
+contrite and earnest heart."
+
+"It requires not the voice, but the mind; not the stretching of the
+hands, but the intention of the heart; not any outward shape or carriage
+of the body, but the inward behaviour of the understanding. How then can
+it slacken your worldly business and occasions, to mix them with sighs
+and groans, which are the most effectual prayer?"
+
+Dr. Gell, before quoted, says--"Words conceived only in an earthly mind,
+and uttered out of the memory by man's voice, which make a noise in the
+ears of flesh and blood, are not, nor can be accounted a prayer, before
+our father which is in Heaven."
+
+Dr. Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol, has the following expressions in his
+sermons: "Prayer doth not consist either in the bending of our knees, or
+the service of our lips, or the lifting up of our hands or eyes to
+heaven, but in the elevation of our souls towards God. These outward
+expressions of our inward thoughts are necessary in our public, and
+often expedient in our private devotions; but they do not make up the
+essence of prayer, which may truly and acceptably be performed, where
+these are wanting."
+
+And he says afterwards, in other parts of his work--"Devotion of mind is
+itself a silent prayer, which wants not to be clothed in words, that God
+may better know our desires. He regards not the service of our lips, but
+the inward disposition of our hearts."
+
+Monro, before quoted, speaks to the same effect, in his Just Measures of
+the Pious Institutions of Youth. "The breathings of a recollected soul
+are not noise or clamour. The language in which devotion loves to vent
+itself, is that of the inward man, which is secret and silent, but yet
+God hears it, and makes gracious returns unto it. Sometimes the pious
+ardours and sensations of good souls are such as they cannot clothe with
+words. They feel what they cannot express. I would not, however, be
+thought to insinuate, that the voice and words are not to be used at
+all. It is certain that public and common devotions cannot be performed
+without them; and that even in private, they are not only very
+profitable, but sometimes necessary. What I here aim at is, that the
+youth should be made sensible, that words are not otherwise valuable
+than as they are images and copies of what passes in the hidden man of
+the heart; especially considering that a great many, who appear very
+angelical in their devotions, if we take our measures of them from their
+voice and tone, do soon, after these intervals of seeming seriousness
+are over, return with the dog to the vomit, and give palpable evidences
+of their earthliness and sensuality; their passion and their pride."
+
+Again--"I am persuaded, says he, that it would be vastly advantageous
+for the youth, if care were taken to train them up to this method of
+prayer; that is, if they were taught frequently to place themselves in
+the divine presence, and there silently to adore their Creator,
+Redeemer, and Sanctifier. For hereby they would become habitually
+recollected. Devotion would be their element; and they would know, by
+experience, what our blessed Savour and his great Apostle meant, when
+they enjoin us to pray without ceasing. It was, I suppose, by some such
+method of devotion as I am now speaking of, that Enoch walked with God;
+that Moses saw him that is invisible; that the royal Psalmist set the
+Lord always before him; and that our Lord Jesus himself continued whole
+nights in prayer to God. No man, I believe, will imagine that his
+prayer, during all the space in which it is said to have continued, was
+altogether vocal. When he was in his agony in the garden, he used but a
+few words. His vocal prayer then consisted only of one petition, and an
+act of pure resignation thrice repeated. But I hope all will allow,
+that his devotion lasted longer than while he was employed in the
+uttering a few sentences."
+
+These meetings then, which are usually denominated silent, and in which,
+though not a word be spoken, it appears from the testimony of others
+that God may be truly worshipped, the Quakers consider as an important
+and sublime part of their church service, and as possessing advantages
+which are not to be found in the worship which proceeds solely through
+the medium of the mouth.
+
+For in the first place it must be obvious that, in these silent
+meetings, men cannot become chargeable before God, either with hypocrisy
+or falsehood, by pretending to worship him with their lips, when their
+affections are far from him, or by uttering a language that is
+inconsistent with the feelings of the heart.
+
+It must be obvious, again, that every man's devotion, in these silent
+meetings, is made, as it ought to be, to depend upon himself; for no man
+can work out the salvation of another for him. A man does not depend at
+these times on the words of a minister, or of any other person present;
+but his own soul, worked upon by the divine influence, pleads in
+silence with the Almighty its own cause. And thus, by extending this
+idea to the congregation at large, we shall find a number of individuals
+offering up at the same time their own several confessions; pouring out
+their own several petitions; giving their own thanks severally, or
+praising and adoring; all of them in different languages, adapted to
+their several conditions, and yet not interrupting one another.
+
+Nor is it the least recommendation of this worship, in the opinion of
+the Quakers, that, being thus wholly spiritual, it is out of the power
+of the natural man to obstruct it. No man can break the chains that thus
+binds the spirit of man to the spirit of God; for this chain, which is
+spiritual, is invisible. But this is not the case, the Quakers say, with
+any oral worship. "For how, says Barclay, alluding to his own times, can
+the Papists say their mass, if there be any there to disturb and
+interrupt them? Do but take away the mass-book, the chalice, the host,
+or the priest's garments; yea, do but spill the water, or the wine, or
+blow out the candles, (a thing quickly to be done,) and the whole
+business is marred, and no sacrifice can be offered. Take from the
+Lutherans and Episcopalians their liturgy or common prayer-book, and no
+service can be said. Remove from the Calvinists, Arminians, Socinians,
+Independents, or Anabaptists, the pulpit, the bible, and the hourglass,
+or make but such a noise as the voice of the preacher cannot be heard,
+or disturb him but so before he come, or strip him of his bible or his
+books, and he must be dumb: for they all think it an heresy to wait to
+speak, as the spirit of God giveth utterance; and thus easily their
+whole worship may be marred."
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Quakers reject every thing formal, ostentatious, and spiritless, from
+their worship--Ground on which their Meeting-houses stand, not
+consecrated--The latter plain--Women sit apart from the men--No
+Pews--nor priest's garments--nor psalmody--No one day thought more holy
+than another--But as public worship is necessary, days have been fixed
+upon for that purpose._
+
+
+Jesus Christ, as he was sitting at Jacob's well, and talking with the
+woman of Samaria, made use of the following, among other expressions, in
+his discourse: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
+neither, in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
+But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
+the Father in spirit and in truth."
+
+These expressions the Quakers generally render thus: I tell you that a
+new dispensation is at hand. Men will no longer worship at Jerusalem
+more acceptably than in any other place. Neither will it be expected of
+them, that they shall worship in temples, like the temple there. Neither
+the glory, nor the ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones, nor
+the splendid garments of the High Priest, will be any parts of the new
+worship that is approaching. All ceremonies will be done away, and men's
+religion will be reduced simply to the worshipping of God in spirit and
+in truth. In short, the Quakers believe, that, when Jesus came, he ended
+the temple, its ornaments, its music, its Levitical priesthood, its
+tithes, its new moons, and sabbaths, and the various ceremonial
+ordinances that had been engrafted into the religion of the Jews.
+
+The Quakers reject every thing that appears to them to be superstitious,
+or formal, or ceremonious, or ostentatious, or spiritless, from their
+worship.
+
+They believe that no ground can be made holy; and therefore they do not
+allow the places on which their Meeting-houses are built to be
+consecrated by the use of any human forms.
+
+Their Meeting-houses are singularly plain. There is nothing of
+decoration in the interior of them. They consist of a number of plain
+long benches with backs to them; There is one elevated seat at the end
+of these. This is for their ministers. It is elevated for no other
+reason, than that their ministers may be the better heard. The women
+occupy one half of these benches, and sit apart from the men.
+
+These benches are not intersected by partitions. Hence there are no
+distinct pews for the families of the rich, or of such as can afford to
+pay for them: for in the first place, the Quakers pay nothing for their
+seats in their Meeting-houses; and, in the second, they pay no respect
+to the outward condition of one another. If they consider themselves,
+when out of doors, as all equal to one another in point of privileges,
+much more do they abolish all distinctions, when professedly assembled
+in a place of worship. They sit therefore in their Meeting-houses
+undistinguished with respect to their outward circumstances, [138]as the
+children of the same great parent, who stand equally in need of his
+assistance; and as in the sight of Him who is no respecter of persons,
+but who made of one blood all the nations of men who dwell on all the
+face of the earth.
+
+[Footnote 138: Spiritual officers, such as elders and overseers, sit at
+the upper part of the Meeting-house.]
+
+The Quaker ministers are not distinguishable, when in their places of
+worship, by their dress. They wear neither black clothes, nor surplices,
+nor gowns, nor bands. Jesus Christ, when he preached to the multitude,
+is not recorded to have put on a dress different from that which he wore
+on other occasions. Neither do the Quakers believe that ministers of the
+church ought, under the new dispensation, to be a separate people, as
+the Levites were, or to be distinguished on account of their office from
+other men.
+
+The Quakers differ from other Christians in the rejection of psalmody,
+as a service of the church. If persons feel themselves so influenced in
+their private devotions, [139]that they can sing, as the Apostle says,
+"with the spirit and the understanding," or "can sing[140] and make
+melody in their hearts to the Lord," the Quakers have no objection to
+this as an act of worship. But they conceive that music and psalmody,
+though they might have been adapted to the ceremonial religion of the
+Jews, are not congenial with the new dispensation that has followed;
+because this dispensation requires, that all worship should be performed
+in spirit and in truth. It requires that no act of religion should take
+place, unless the spirit influences an utterance, and that no words
+should be used, except they are in unison with the heart. Now this
+coincidence of spiritual impulse and feeling with this act, is not
+likely to happen, in the opinion of the Quakers, with public psalmody.
+It is not likely that all in the congregation will be impelled, in the
+same moment, to a spiritual song, or that all will be in the state of
+mind or spirit which the words of the psalm describe. Thus how few will
+be able to sing truly with David, if the following verse should be
+brought before them: "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so
+panteth my soul after thee, O God." To this it may be added, that where
+men think about musical harmony or vocal tunes in their worship, the
+amusement of the creature will be so mixed with it, that it cannot be a
+pure oblation of the Spirit, and that those who think they can please
+the Divine Being by musical instruments, or the varied modulations of
+their own voices, must look upon him as a Being with corporeal organs,
+sensible, like a man, of fleshly delights, and not as a Spirit, who can
+only be pleased with the worship that is in spirit and in truth.
+
+[Footnote 139: 1 Cor. 14. 15.]
+
+[Footnote 140: Ephes. 5. 19.]
+
+The Quakers reject also the consecration and solemnization of particular
+days and times. As the Jews, when they became Christians, were enjoined
+by the Apostle Paul, not to put too great a value upon "days,[141] and
+months, and times, and years;" so the Quakers think it their duty as
+Christians to attend to the same injunction. They never meet upon saints
+days, as such, that is, as days demanding the religious assemblings of
+men, more than others; first, because they conceive this would be giving
+into popish superstition; and secondly, because these days were
+originally the appointment of men and not of God, and no human
+appointment, they believe, can make one day holier than another.
+
+[Footnote 141: Gal. 4. 10.]
+
+For the latter reason also they do not assemble for worship on those
+days which their own government, though they are greatly attached to it,
+appoint as fasts. They are influenced also by another reason in this
+latter case. They conceive as religion is of a spiritual nature, and
+must depend upon the spirit of God, that true devotion cannot be excited
+for given purposes or at a given time. They are influenced again by the
+consideration, that the real fast is of a different nature from that
+required. [142] "Is not this the fast, says Isaiah, that I have chosen,
+to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
+the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal
+thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out,
+to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that
+thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?" This the Quakers believe to
+be the true fast, and not the work of a particular day, but to be the
+daily work of every real Christian.
+
+[Footnote 142: Isaiah 58. 6. 7.]
+
+Indeed no one day, in the estimation of the Quakers, can be made by
+human appointment either more holy or more proper for worship than
+another. They do not even believe that the Jewish Sabbath, which was by
+the appointment of God, continues in Gospel times, or that it has been
+handed down by divine authority as the true Sabbath for Christians. All
+days with the Quakers are equally holy, and all equally proper for the
+worship of God. In this opinion they coincide with the ever memorable
+John Hales. "For prayer, indeed, says this venerable man, was the
+Sabbath ordained: yet prayer itself is Sabbathless, and admits of no
+rest, no intermission at all. If our hands be clean, we must, as our
+Apostle commands us, lift them up every where, at all times, and make
+every place a church, every day a Sabbath-day, every hour canonical. As
+you go to the market; as you stand in the streets; as you walk in the
+fields--in all these places, you may pray as well, and with as good
+acceptance, as in the church: for you yourselves are temples of the Holy
+Ghost, if the grace of God be in you, more precious than any of those
+which are made with hands."
+
+Though, however, the Quakers believe no one day in the sight of God to
+be holier than another, and no one capable of being rendered so by human
+authority, yet they think that Christians ought to assemble for the
+public worship of God. They think they ought to bear an outward and
+public testimony for God; and this can only be done by becoming members
+of a visible church, where they may be seen to acknowledge him publicly
+in the face of men. They think also, that the public worship of God
+increases, as it were, the fire of devotion, and enlarges the sphere of
+spiritual life in the souls of men. "God causes the inward life, says
+Barclay, the more to abound when his children assemble themselves
+diligently together, to wait upon him; so that as iron sharpeneth iron,
+the seeing the faces of one another, when both are inwardly gathered
+unto the life, giveth occasion for the life secretly to rise, and to
+pass from vessel to vessel: and as many candles lighted and put in one
+place, do greatly augment the light and make it more to shine forth, so
+when many are gathered together into the same life, there is more of
+the glory of God, and his power appears to the refreshment of each
+individual; for that he partakes not only of the light and life raised
+in himself, but in all the rest. And therefore Christ hath particularly
+promised a blessing to such as assemble in his name, seeing he will be
+in the midst of them." For these and other reasons, the Quakers think it
+proper, that men should be drawn together to the public worship of God:
+but if so, they must be drawn together at certain times. Now as one day
+has never been, in the eyes of the Quakers, more desirable for such an
+object than another, their ancestors chose the first day in the week,
+because the Apostles had chosen it for the religious assembling of
+themselves and their followers. And in addition to this, that more
+frequent opportunities might be afforded them of bearing their outward
+testimony publicly for God, and of enlarging the sphere of their
+spiritual life, they appointed a meeting on one other day in the week in
+most places, and two in some others, for the same purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XIII.
+
+_Miscellaneous particularities--Quakers careful about the use of such
+words as relate to religion--Never use the words "original sin"--nor
+"word of God," for the scriptures--Nor the word "Trinity"--Never pry
+into the latter mystery--Believe in the manhood and divinity of Jesus
+Christ--Also in a resurrection, but sever attempt to fathom that
+subject--Make little difference between sanctification and
+justification--- Their ideas concerning the latter_.
+
+
+The Quakers are remarkably careful, both in their conversation and their
+writings, on religious subjects, as to the terms which they use. They
+express scriptural images or ideas, as much as may be, by scriptural
+terms. By means of this particular caution, they avoid much of the
+perplexity and many of the difficulties which arise to others, and
+escape the theological disputes which disturb the rest of the Christian
+world.
+
+The Quakers scarcely ever utter the words "original sin," because they
+never find them in use in the sacred writings.
+
+The scriptures are usually denominated by Christians "the word of God."
+Though the Quakers believe them to have been given by divine
+inspiration, yet they reject this term. They apprehend that Christ is
+the word of God. They cannot therefore consistently give to the
+scriptures, however they reverence them, that name which St. John the
+Evangelist gives exclusively to the Son of God.
+
+Neither do they often make use of the word "Trinity." This expression
+they can no where find in the sacred writings. This to them is a
+sufficient warrant for rejecting it. They consider it as a term of mere
+human invention, and of too late a date to claim a place among the
+expressions of primitive Christianity. For they find it neither in
+Justin Martyr, nor in Irenaeus, nor in Tertullian, nor in Origen, nor in
+the Fathers of the three first centuries of the church.
+
+And as they seldom use the term, so they seldom or never try, when it
+offers itself to them, either in conversation or in books, to fathom its
+meaning. They judge that a curious inquiry into such high and
+speculative things, though ever so great truths in themselves, tends
+little to Godliness, and less to peace; and that their principal concern
+is with that only which is clearly revealed, and which leads practically
+to holiness of life.
+
+Consistently with this judgment, we find but little said respecting the
+Trinity by the Quaker writers.
+
+It is remarkable that Barclay in the course of his apology, takes no
+notice of this subject.
+
+William Penn seems to have satisfied himself with refuting what he
+considered to be a gross notion, namely, that of three persons in the
+Trinity. For after having shown what the Trinity was not, he no where
+attempts to explain what he conceived it to be. He says only, that he
+acknowledges a Father, a Word, and a Holy Spirit, according to the
+scriptures, but not according to the notions of men; and that these
+Three are truly and properly One, of one nature as well as will.
+
+Isaac Pennington, an ancient Quaker, speaks thus: "That the three are
+distinct, as three several beings or persons, the Quakers no where read
+in the scriptures; but they read in them that they are one. And thus
+they believe their being to be one, their life one, their light one,
+their wisdom one, their power one. And he that knoweth and seeth any one
+of them, knoweth and seeth them, all, according to that saying of Christ
+to Philip, 'He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.'"
+
+John Crook, another ancient writer of this society, in speaking of the
+Trinity, says, that the Quakers "acknowledge one God, the Father of
+Jesus Christ, witnessed within man only by the spirit of truth; and
+these three are one, and agree in one; and he that honours the Father,
+honours the Son that proceeds from him; and he that denies the Spirit,
+denies both the Father and the Son." But nothing farther can be obtained
+from this author on this subject.
+
+Henry Tuke, a modern writer among the Quakers, and who published an
+account of the principles of the society only last year, says also
+little upon the point before us. "This belief, says he, in the Divinity
+of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, induced some of the
+teachers in the Christian church, about three hundred years after
+Christ, to form a doctrine, to which they gave the name of Trinity; but,
+in our writings we seldom make use of this term, thinking it best, on
+such a subject, to keep to scriptural expressions, and to avoid those
+disputes which have since perplexed the Christian world, and led into
+speculations beyond the power of human abilities to decide. If we
+consider that we ourselves are composed of a union of body, soul, and
+spirit, and yet cannot determine how even these are united; how much
+less may we expect perfect clearness on a subject, so far above our
+finite comprehension, as that of the Divine Nature?"
+
+The Quakers believe, that Jesus Christ was man, because he took flesh,
+and inhabited the body prepared for him, and was subject to human
+infirmities; but they believe also in his Divinity, because he was the
+word.
+
+They believe also in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, as
+connected with the Christian religion. In explaining our belief of this
+doctrine, says Henry Tuke, we refer to the fifteenth chapter of the
+first epistle to the Corinthians. In this chapter is clearly laid down
+the resurrection of a body, though not of the same body that dies.
+"There are celestial bodies, and there are bodies terrestrial; but the
+glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
+another. So also is the resurrection of the dead: It is sown a natural
+body, it is raised a spiritual body: there is a natural body, and there
+is a spiritual body. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
+cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
+incorruption." Here we rest our belief in this mystery, without desiring
+to pry into it beyond what is revealed to us; remembering "that secret
+things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are
+revealed, belong unto us and to our children."
+
+The Quakers make but little difference, and not such as many other
+Christians do, between sanctification and justification. "Faith and
+works, says Richard Claridge, are both concerned in our complete
+justification."--"Whosoever is justified, he is also in measure
+sanctified; and as far as he is sanctified, so far is he justified, and
+no farther. But the justification I now speak of, is the making of us
+just or righteous by the continual help, work, and operation of the Holy
+Spirit."--"And as we wait for the continual help and assistance of his
+Holy Spirit, and come to witness the effectual working of the same in
+ourselves, so we shall experimentally find, that our justification is
+proportionable to our sanctification; for as our sanctification goes
+forward, which is always commensurate to our faithful obedience to the
+manifestation, influence, and assistance, of the grace, light, and
+spirit of Christ, so shall we also feel and perceive the progress of our
+justification."
+
+The ideas of the Quakers, as to justification itself, cannot be better
+explained than in the words of Henry Tuke before quoted: So far as
+remissions of sins, and a capacity to receive salvation, are parts of
+justification, we attribute it to the sacrifice of Christ; "In whom we
+have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to
+the riches of his grace." But when we consider justification as a state
+of divine favour and acceptance, we ascribe it, not simply either to
+faith or works, but to the sanctifying operation of the spirit of
+Christ, from which living faith and acceptable works alone proceed; and
+by which we may come to know, that "the spirit itself beareth witness
+with our spirits, that we are the children of God."
+
+In attributing our justification, through the grace of God in Christ
+Jesus, to the operation of the Holy Spirit, which sanctifies the heart
+and produces the work of regeneration, we are supported by the testimony
+of the Apostle Paul, who says, "Not by works of righteousness which we
+have done, but of his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
+and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Again--"But ye are washed, but ye are
+sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
+the spirit of our God."
+
+"By this view of the doctrine of justification, we conceive the
+apparently different sentiments of the Apostles Paul and James are
+reconciled. Neither of them say that faith alone, or works alone, are
+the cause of our being justified; but as one of them asserts the
+necessity of faith, and the other of works, for effecting this great
+object, a clear and convincing proof is afforded, that both contribute
+to our justification; and that faith without works, and works without
+faith, are equally dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XIV.
+
+_Quakers reject Baptism and the Lord's Supper--Much censured far
+it--Indulgence solicited for them on account of the difficulties
+connected with these subjects--Christian Religion spiritual--Jewish
+types to be abolished--Different meanings of the word "Baptise"--Disputes
+concerning the mode of Baptism--Concerning also the nature and constitution
+of the Supper--Concerning also the time and manner of its celebration
+--This indulgence also proper, because the Quakers give it to others,
+who differ from them as a body on the subject of Religion_.
+
+
+The Quakers, among other particularities, reject the application of
+water-baptism, and the administration of the Sacrament of the Supper, as
+Christian rites.
+
+These ordinances have been considered by many as so essentially
+interwoven with Christianity, that the Quakers, by rejecting the use of
+them, have been denied to be Christians.
+
+But whatever may be the difference of opinion between the world and the
+Quakers, upon these subjects, great indulgence is due to the latter on
+this occasion. People have received the ordinances in question from
+their ancestors. They have been brought up to the use of them. They have
+seen them sanctioned by the world. Finding their authority disputed by a
+body of men, who are insignificant as to numbers, when compared with
+others, they have let loose their censure upon them, and this without
+any inquiry concerning the grounds of their dissent. They know perhaps
+nothing of the obstinate contentious; nothing of the difficulties which
+have occurred; and nothing of those which may still be started on these
+subjects. I shall state therefore a few considerations by way of
+preface, during which the reader will see, that objections both fair and
+forcible may be raised by the best disposed Christians, on the other
+side of the question; that the path is not so plain and easy as he may
+have imagined it to be; and that if the Quakers have taken a road
+different from himself on this occasion, they are entitled to a fair
+hearing of all they have to say in their defence, and to expect the same
+candour and indulgence which he himself would have claimed, if, with the
+best intentions, he had not been able to come to the same conclusion, on
+any given point of importance, as had been adopted by others.
+
+Let me then ask, in the first place, what is the great characteristic of
+the religion we profess?
+
+If we look to divines for an answer to this question, we may easily
+obtain it. We shall find some of them in their sermons speaking of
+circumcision, baptismal washings and purifications, new moons, feasts of
+the passover and unleavened bread, sacrifices, and other rites. We shall
+find them dwelling on these as constituent parts of the religion of the
+Jews. We shall find them immediately passing from thence to the religion
+of Jesus Christ. Here all is considered by them to be spiritual.
+Devotion of the heart is insisted upon as that alone which is acceptable
+to God. If God is to be worshipped, it is laid down as a position, that
+he is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. We shall find them also,
+in other of their sermons, but particularly in those preached after the
+reformation, stating the advantages obtained by that event. The Roman
+Catholic system is here considered by them to be as ceremonial as that
+of the Jews. The Protestant is held out as of a more spiritual nature,
+and as more congenial therefore with the spirit of the gospel. But what
+is this but a confession, in each case, that in proportion as men give
+up ceremonies and become spiritual in their worship, their religion is
+the best, or that spirituality is the grand characteristic of the
+religion of Jesus Christ? Now there immediately arises a presumption, if
+spirituality of feeling had been intended as the characteristic of any
+religion, that no ceremonious ordinances would have been introduced into
+it.
+
+If, again, I were to make an assertion to divines, that Jesus Christ
+came to put an end to the ceremonial parts of the Jewish law, and to the
+types and shadows belonging to the Jewish dispensation, they would not
+deny it. But baptism and the supper were both of them outward Jewish
+ceremonies, connected with the Jewish religion. They were both of them
+types and shadows, of which the antetypes and substances had been
+realized at the death of Christ. And therefore a presumption arises
+again, that these were not intended to be continued.
+
+And that they were not intended to be continued, may be presumed from
+another consideration. For what was baptism to any but a Jew? What could
+a Gentile have understood by it? What notion could he have formed, by
+means of it, of the necessity of the baptism of Christ? Unacquainted
+with purifications by water as symbols of purification of heart, he
+could never have entered, like a Jew, into the spiritual life of such an
+ordinance. And similar observations may be made with respect to the
+Passover-Supper. A Gentile could have known nothing, like a Jew, of the
+meaning of this ceremony. He could never have seen in the Paschal Lamb
+any type of Christ, or in the deliverance of the Israelites from
+Egyptian bondage, any type of his own deliverance from sin, so clearly
+or so feelingly as if the facts and customs had related to his own
+history, or as if he had been trained to the connexion by a long series
+of prophecies. In short, the passover could have had but little meaning
+to him.
+
+From these circumstances, therefore, there would be reason to conclude,
+that these ceremonies were not to be continued, at least to any but
+Jews; because they were not fitted to the knowledge, the genius, or the
+condition of the Gentile world.
+
+But, independently of these difficulties, which arise from a general
+view of these ordinances as annexed to a religion which is confessed to
+be spiritual, others arise from a particular view of each. On the
+subject of baptism, there is ground for argument, as to the meaning of
+the word "baptize." This word, in consequence of its representation of a
+watery ceremony, is usually connected with water in our minds. But it
+may also, very consistently, be connected even with fire. Its general
+meaning is to purify. In this sense many understand it. And those who
+do, and who apply it to the great command of Jesus to his disciples,
+think they give a better interpretation of it, than those who connect it
+with water. For they think it more reasonable that the Apostles should
+have been enjoined to go into all nations, and to endeavour to purify
+the hearts of individuals by the spirit and power of their preaching,
+from the dross of Heathen notions, and to lead them to spirituality of
+mind by the inculcation of Gospel principles, than to dip them under
+water, as an essential part of their new religion.
+
+But on a supposition that the word baptize should signify to immerse,
+and not to purify, another difficulty occurs; for, if it was thought
+proper or necessary that persons should be initiated into Christianity
+by water-baptism, in order to distinguish their new state from that of
+the Jews or Heathens, who then surrounded them, it seems unnecessary for
+the children of Christian parents, who were born in a Christian
+community, and whose ancestors for centuries have professed the
+Christian name.
+
+Nor is it to be considered as any other than a difficulty that the
+Christian world have known so little about water-baptism, that they have
+been divided as to the right manner of performing it. The eastern and
+western churches differed early upon this point, and Christians continue
+to differ upon it to the present day; some thinking that none but
+adults; others, that none but infants should be baptised: some, that the
+faces only of the baptized should be sprinkled with water; others, that
+their bodies should be immersed.
+
+On the subject of the sacrament of supper, similar difficulties have
+occurred.
+
+Jesus Christ unquestionably permitted his disciples to meet together in
+remembrance of their last supper with him. But it is not clear, that
+this was any other than a permission to those who were present, and who
+had known and loved him. The disciples were not ordered to go into all
+nations, and to enjoin it to their converts to observe the same
+ceremony. Neither did the Apostles leave any command by which it was
+enjoined as an ordinance of the Christian church.
+
+Another difficulty which has arisen on the subject of the supper, is,
+that Christians seem so little to have understood the nature of it, or
+in what it consisted, that they have had, in different ages, different
+views, and encouraged different doctrines concerning it. One has placed
+it in one thing, and another in another. Most of them, again, have
+attempted in their explanation of it, to blend the enjoyment of the
+spiritual essence with that of the corporeal substance of the body and
+blood of Christ, and thus to unite a spiritual with a ceremonial
+exercise of religion. Grasping, therefore, at things apparently
+irreconcilable, they have conceived the strangest notions; and, by
+giving these to the world, they have only afforded fuel for contention
+among themselves and others.
+
+In the time of the Apostles, it was the custom of converted persons,
+grounded on the circumstances that passed at the supper of the passover,
+to meet in religious communion. They used, on these occasions, to break
+their bread, and take their refreshment and converse together. The
+object of these meetings was to imitate the last friendly supper of
+Jesus with his disciples, to bear a public memorial of his sufferings
+and his death, and to promote their love for one another. But this
+custom was nothing more, as far as evidence can be had, than that of a
+brotherly breaking of bread together. It was no sacramental eating.
+Neither was the body of Jesus supposed to be enjoyed, nor the spiritual
+enjoyment, of it to consist in the partaking of this outward feast.
+
+In process of time, after the days of the Apostles, when this simple
+custom had declined, we find another meeting of Christians, in imitation
+of that at the passover supper, at which both bread and wine were
+introduced. This different commemoration of the same event had a new
+name given to it; for it was distinguished from the other by the name of
+Eucharist.
+
+Alexander, the seventh bishop of Rome, who introduced holy water both
+into houses and churches for spiritual purposes, made some alterations
+in the ingredients of the Eucharist, by mixing water with the wine, and
+by substituting unleavened for common bread.
+
+In the time of Irenaeus and Justin the Martyr, we find an account of the
+Eucharist as it was then thought of and celebrated. Great stress was
+then laid upon the bread and wine as a holy and sacramental repast:
+prayers were made that the Holy Ghost would descend into each of these
+substances. It was believed that it did so descend; and that as soon as
+the bread and wine perceived it, the former operated virtually as the
+body, and the latter as the blood of Jesus Christ. From this time the
+bread was considered to have great virtues; and on this latter account,
+not only children, but sucking infants, were admitted to this sacrament.
+It was also given to persons on the approach of death. And many
+afterwards, who had great voyages to make at sea, carried it with them
+to preserve them both from temporal and spiritual dangers.
+
+In the twelfth century, another notion, a little modified from the
+former, prevailed on this subject; which was, that consecration by a
+Priest had the power of abolishing the substance of the bread, and of
+substituting the very body of Jesus Christ.
+
+This was called the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
+
+This doctrine appeared to Luther, at the dawn of the reformation, to be
+absurd; and he was of opinion that the sacrament consisted of the
+substance of Christ's body and blood, together with the substance of the
+bread and wine; or, in other words, that the substance of the bread
+remained, but the body of Christ was inherent in it, so that both the
+substance of the bread and of the body and blood of Christ was there
+also. This was called the doctrine of Consubstantiation, in
+contradiction to the former.
+
+Calvin again considered the latter opinion erroneous: he gave it out
+that the bread was not actually the body of Jesus Christ, nor the wine
+his blood; but that both his body and blood were sacramentally received
+by the faithful, in the use of the bread and wine. Calvin, however,
+confessed himself unable to explain even this his own doctrine. For he
+says, "if it be asked me how it is, that is, how believers sacramentally
+receive Christ's body and blood? I shall not be ashamed to confess, that
+it is a secret too high for me to comprehend in my spirit, or explain in
+words."
+
+But independently of the difficulties which have arisen from these
+different notions concerning the nature and constitution of the Lord's
+supper, others have arisen concerning the time and the manner of the
+celebration of it.
+
+The Christian churches of the east, in the early times, justifying
+themselves by tradition and the custom of the passover, maintained that
+the fourteenth day of the month Nissan ought to be observed as the day
+of the celebration of this feast, because the Jews were commanded to
+kill the Paschal Lamb on that day. The western, on the other hand,
+maintained the authority of tradition and the primitive practice, that
+it ought to be kept on no other day than that of the resurrection of
+Jesus Christ. Disputes again of a different complexion agitated the
+Christian world upon the same subject. One church contended that the
+leavened, another that unleavened bread only should be used upon this
+occasion: others contended, whether the administration of this sacrament
+should be by the hands of the clergy only: others, whether it should not
+be confined to the sick: others, whether it should be given to the young
+and mature promiscuously: others, whether it should be received by the
+communicant standing, sitting, or kneeling, or as the Apostles received
+it: and others, whether it should be administered in the night time as
+by our Saviour, or whether in the day, or whether only once, as at the
+passover, or whether oftener in the year.
+
+Another difficulty, but of a different nature, has occurred with respect
+to the Lord's supper. This has arisen from the circumstance, that other
+ceremonies were enjoined by our Saviour in terms equally positive as
+this, but which most Christians, notwithstanding, have thought
+themselves at liberty to reject. Among these the washing of feet is
+particularly to be noticed. This custom was of an emblematic nature. It
+was enjoined at the same time as that of the Lord's supper, and on the
+same occasion. But it was enjoined in a more forcible and striking
+manner. The Sandimanians, when they rose into a society, considered the
+injunction for this ordinance to be so obligatory, that they dared not
+dispense with it; and therefore, when they determined to celebrate the
+supper, they determined that the washing of feet should be an ordinance
+of their church. Most other Christians, however, have dismissed the
+washing of feet from their religious observance. The reason given has
+principally been, that it was an eastern custom, and therefore local. To
+this the answer has been, that the passover, from whence the Lord's
+supper is taken, was an eastern custom also, but that it was much more
+local. Travellers of different nations had their feet washed for them in
+the east. But none but those of the circumcision were admitted to the
+passover-supper. If, therefore, the injunction relative to the washing
+of feet, be equally strong with that relative to the celebration of the
+supper, it has been presumed, that both ought to have been retained;
+and, if one has been dispensed with on account of its locality, that
+both ought to have been discarded.
+
+That the washing of feet was enjoined much more emphatically than the
+supper, we may collect from Barclay, whose observations upon it I shall
+transcribe on this occasion.
+
+"But to give a farther evidence, says he, how these consequences have
+not any bottom from the practice of that ceremony, nor from the words
+following, 'Do this in remembrance of me,' let us consider another of
+the like nature, as it is at length expressed by John. [143] 'Jesus
+riseth from supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and
+girded himself: after that, he poureth water into a bason, and began to
+wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he
+was girded. Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus
+answered him. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. So after he
+had washed their feet, he said, Know ye what I have done to you? If I
+then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash
+one another's feet: for I have given you an example, that ye should do
+as I have done to you.' As to which let it be observed, continues
+Barclay, that John relates this passage to have been done at the same
+time with the other of breaking bread; both being done the night of the
+passover, after supper. If we regard the narration of this, and the
+circumstances attending it, it was done with far more solemnity, and
+prescribed far more punctually and particularly, than the former. It is
+said only, 'as he was eating he took bread;' so that this would seem to
+be but an occasional business: but here 'he rose up, he laid by his
+garments, he girded himself, he poured out the water, he washed their
+feet, he wiped them with a towel.' He did this to all of them; which are
+circumstances surely far more observable than those noted in the other.
+The former was a practice common among the Jews, used by all masters of
+families, upon that occasion; but this, as to the manner, and person
+acting it, to wit, for the master to rise up, and wash the feet of his
+servants and disciples, was more singular and observable. In the
+breaking of bread and giving of wine, it is not pleaded by our
+adversaries, nor yet mentioned in the text, that he particularly put
+them into the hands of all; but breaking it, and blessing it, gave it
+the nearest, and so they from hand to hand. But here it is mentioned,
+that he washed not the feet of one or two, but of many. He saith not in
+the former, that if they do not eat of that bread, and drink of that
+wine, that they shall be prejudiced by it; but here he says expressly to
+Peter, that 'if he wash him not, he hath no part with him;' which being
+spoken upon Peter's refusing to let him wash his feet, would seem to
+import no less, than not the continuance only, but even the necessity of
+this ceremony. In the former, he saith as it were passingly, 'Do this in
+remembrance of me:' but here he sitteth down again; he desires them to
+consider what he hath done; tells them positively 'that as he hath done
+to them, so ought they to do to one another:' and yet again he redoubles
+that precept, by telling them, 'that he has given them an example, that
+they should do so likewise.' If we respect the nature of the thing, it
+hath as much in it as either baptism or the breaking of the bread;
+seeing it is an outward element of a cleansing nature, applied to the
+outward man, by the command and the example of Christ, to signify an
+inward purifying. I would willingly propose this seriously to men, that
+will be pleased to make use of that reason and understanding that God
+hath given them, and not be imposed upon, nor abused by the custom or
+tradition of others, whether this ceremony, if we respect either the
+time that it was appointed in, or the circumstances wherewith it was
+performed, or the command enjoining the use of it, hath not as much to
+recommend it for a standing ordinance of the Gospel, as either
+water-baptism, or bread and wine, or any other of that kind? I wonder
+then, what reason the Papists can give, why they have not numbered it
+among their sacraments, except merely Voluntas Ecclesiae et Traditio
+Patrum, that is, the Tradition of the Fathers, and the Will of the
+Church."
+
+[Footnote 143: John 13. 3. &c.]
+
+The reader will see by this time, that, on subjects which have given
+rise to such controversies as baptism and the Lord's supper have now
+been described to have done, people may be readily excused, if they
+should entertain their own opinions about them, though these may be
+different from those which are generally received by the world. The
+difficulties indeed, which have occurred with respect to these
+ordinances, should make us tender of casting reproach upon others, who
+should differ from ourselves concerning them. For when we consider, that
+there is no one point connected with these ordinances, about which there
+has not been some dispute; that those who have engaged in these
+disputes, have been men of equal learning and piety; that all of them
+have pleaded primitive usage, in almost all cases, in behalf of their
+own opinions; and that these disputes are not even now, all of them,
+settled; who will take upon him to censure his brother either for the
+omission or the observance of one or the other rite? And let the
+Quakers, among others, find indulgence from their countrymen for their
+opinions on these subjects. This indulgence they have a right to claim
+from the consideration, that they themselves never censure others of
+other denominations on account of their religion. With respect to those
+who belong to the society, as the rejection of these ceremonies is one
+of the fundamentals of Quakerism, it is expected that they should be
+consistent with what they are considered to profess. But with respect to
+others, they have no unpleasant feelings towards those who observe them.
+If a man believes that baptism is an essential rite of the Christian
+church, the Quakers would not judge him if he were to go himself, or if
+he were to carry his children, to receive it. And if, at the communion
+table, he should find his devotion to be so spiritualized, that, in the
+taking of the bread and wine, he really and spiritually discerned the
+body and blood of Christ, and was sure that his own conduct would he
+influenced morally by it, they would not censure him for becoming an
+attendant at the altar. In short, the Quakers do not condemn others for
+their attendances on these occasions. They only hope, that as they do
+not see these ordinances in the same light as others, they may escape
+censure, if they should refuse to admit them among themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XV.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Baptism--Two baptisms--That of John and of Christ--That of John was by
+water, a Jewish ordinance, and used preparatory to religious conversion
+and worship--Hence John used it as preparatory to conversion to
+Christianity--Jesus submitted to it to fulfil all righteousness--Others
+as to a baptism to repentance--But it was not initiative into the
+Christian church, but belonged to the Old Testament--Nor was John under
+the Gospel, but under the law_.
+
+
+I come now to the arguments which the Quakers have to offer for the
+rejection of the use of baptism and of the sacrament of the supper; and
+first for that of the use of the former rite.
+
+Two baptisms are recorded in scripture--the baptism of John, and the
+baptism of Christ.
+
+The baptism of John was by water, and a Jewish ordinance. The washing of
+garments and of the body, which were called baptisms by the Ellenistic
+Jews, were enjoined to the Jewish nation, as modes of purification from
+legal pollutions, symbolical of that inward cleansing of the heart,
+which was necessary to persons before they could hold sacred offices,
+or pay their religions homage in the temple, or become the true
+worshippers of God. The Jews, therefore, in after times, when they made
+proselytes from the Heathen nations, enjoined these the same customs as
+they observed themselves. They generally circumcised, at least the
+proselytes of the covenant, as a mark of their incorporation into the
+Jewish church, and they afterwards washed them with water or baptized
+them, which was to be a sign to them of their having been cleansed from
+the filth of idolatry, and an emblem of their fitness, in case of a real
+cleansing, to receive the purer precepts of the Jewish religion, and to
+walk in newness of life.
+
+Baptism therefore was a Jewish ordinance, used on religious occasions:
+and therefore John, when he endeavoured by means of his preaching to
+prepare the Jews for the coming of the Messiah, and their minds for the
+reception of the new religion, used it as a symbol of the purification
+of heart, that was necessary for the dispensation which was then at
+hand. He knew that his hearers would understand the meaning of the
+ceremony. He had reason also to believe, that on account of the nature
+of his mission, they would expect it. Hence the Sanhedrim, to whom the
+cognizance of the legal cleansings belonged, when they were informed of
+the baptism of John, never expressed any surprise at it, as a now, or
+unusual, or improper custom. They only found fault with him for the
+administration of it, when he denied himself to be either Elias or
+Christ.
+
+It was partly upon one of the principles that have been mentioned, that
+Jesus received the baptism of John. He received it as it is recorded,
+because "thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness." By the
+fulfilling of righteousness is meant the fulfilling of the ordinances of
+the law, or the customs required by the Mosaic dispensation in
+particular cases. He had already undergone circumcision as a Jewish
+ordinance, and he now submitted to baptism. For as Aaron and his Sons
+were baptized previously to the taking upon them of the office of the
+Jewish priesthood, so Jesus was baptized by John previously to his
+entering upon his own ministry, or becoming the high priest of the
+Christian dispensation.
+
+But though Jesus Christ received the baptism of John, that he might
+fulfil all righteousness, others received it as the baptism of
+repentance from sins, that they might be able to enter the kingdom that
+was at hand. This baptism, however, was not initiative into the
+Christian church. For the Apostles rebaptized some who had been baptized
+by John. Those, again, who received the baptism of John, did not profess
+faith in Christ, John again, as well as his doctrines, belonged to the
+Old Testament. He was no minister under the new dispensation, but the
+last prophet under the law. Hence Jesus said, that though none of the
+prophets "were greater than John the baptist, yet he that is least in
+the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." Neither did he ever hear the
+Gospel preached; for Jesus did not begin his ministry till John had been
+put into prison, where he was beheaded by the orders of Herod. John, in
+short, was with respect to Jesus, what Moses was with respect to Joshua.
+Moses, though he conducted to the promised land, and was permitted to
+see it from Mount Nebo, yet never entered it, but gave place to Joshua,
+whose name, like that of Jesus, signifies a Saviour. In the same manner
+John conducted to Jesus Christ. He saw him once with his own eyes, but
+he was never permitted, while alive, to enter into his spiritual
+kingdom.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Second baptism, or that of Christ--This the baptism of the gospel--This
+distinct from the former in point of time; and in nature and essence--As
+that of John was outward, so this was to be inward and spiritual--It was
+to cleanse the heart--and was to be capable of making even the Gentiles
+the seed of Abraham--This distinction of watery and spiritual baptism
+pointed out by Jesus Christ--by St. Peter--and by St. Paul._
+
+
+The second baptism, recorded in the scriptures, is that of Christ. This
+may be called the baptism of the Gospel, in contradistinction to the
+former, which was that of the law.
+
+This baptism is totally distinct from the former. John himself
+said,[144] "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that
+cometh after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to
+bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."
+
+[Footnote 144: Matth. 3.11.]
+
+From these words it appears, that this baptism is distinct, in point of
+time, from the former; for it was to follow the baptism of John: and
+secondly, in nature and essence; for whereas that of John was by water,
+this was to be by the spirit.
+
+This latter distinction is insisted upon by John in other places. For
+when he was questioned by the Pharisees [145] "why he baptized, if he was
+not that Christ, nor Ellas, nor that prophet," he thought it a
+sufficient excuse to say, "I baptize with water;" that is, I baptize
+with water only; I use only an ancient Jewish custom; I do not intrude
+upon the office of Christ, who is coming after me, or pretend to his
+baptism of the spirit. We find also, that no less than three times in
+eight verses, when he speaks of his own baptism, he takes care to add to
+it the word [146] "water," to distinguish it from the baptism of Christ.
+
+[Footnote 145: John 1. 25]
+
+[Footnote 146: John 1 from 25 to 34.]
+
+As the baptism of John cleansed the body from the filth of the flesh, so
+that of Christ was really to cleanse the soul from the filth of sin.
+Thus John, speaking of Jesus Christ, in allusion to this baptism,
+says,[147] "whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
+floor, and gather his wheat into his garner, but he will burn up the
+chaff with unquenchable fire." By this he insinuated, that in the same
+manner as the farmer, with the fan in his hand, winnows the corn, and
+separates the light and bad grains from the heavy and the good, and in
+the same manner as the fire afterwards destroys the chaff, so the
+baptism of Christ, for which he was preparing them, was of an inward and
+spiritual nature, and would effectually destroy the light and corrupt
+affections, and thoroughly cleanse the floor of the human heart.
+
+[Footnote 147: Mat. 3. 12]
+
+This baptism, too, was to be so searching as to be able to penetrate the
+hardest heart, and to make even the Gentiles the real children of
+Abraham.[148] "For think not, says John, in allusion to the same
+baptism, to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father; for I
+say unto, you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children
+unto Abraham." As if he had said, I acknowledge that you Pharisees can,
+many of you, boast of relationship to Abraham by a strict and scrupulous
+attention to shadowy and figurative ordinances; that many of you can
+boast of relationship to him by blood; and all of you by circumcision.
+But it does not follow, therefore, that you are the children of Abraham.
+Those only will be able to boast of being his seed, to whom the fan and
+fire of Christ's baptism shall be applied. The baptism of him, who is to
+come after me, and whose kingdom is at hand, is of that spiritual and
+purifying nature, that it will produce effects very different from those
+of an observance of outward ordinances. It can so cleanse and purify the
+hearts of men, that if there are Gentiles in the most distant lands,
+ever so far removed from Abraham, and possessing hearts of the hardness
+of stones, it can make them the real children of Abraham in the sight of
+God.
+
+[Footnote 148: Math. 3.9.]
+
+This distinction between the watery baptism of John, and the fiery and
+spiritual baptism of Christ, was pointed out by Jesus Christ himself;
+for, he is reported to have appeared to his disciples after his
+resurrection, and to have commanded them [149] "that they should not
+depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
+says he, ye have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but
+ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
+
+[Footnote 149: Acts 1.4.]
+
+Saint Luke also records a transaction which took place, in which Peter
+was concerned, and on which occasion he first discerned the baptism of
+Christ, as thus distinguished in the words which have been just given.
+[150] "And as I began to speak, says he, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as
+on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that
+he said, John, indeed, baptised with water, but ye shall be baptized by
+the Holy Spirit."
+
+[Footnote 150: Acts II, 15,16.]
+
+A similar distinction is made also by St. Paul; for when he found that
+certain disciples had been baptized only with the baptism of John,[151]
+he laid his hand upon them, and baptized them again; but this was with
+the baptism of the spirit. In his epistle also, to the Corinthians, we
+find the following expression:[152] "For by one spirit are we all
+baptized unto one body."
+
+[Footnote 151: Acts 19.]
+
+[Footnote 152: I Cor. 12, 13].
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_Question is, which of these turn baptisms is included in the great
+commission given by Jesus to his Apostles, "of baptizing in the name of
+the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?"--Quakers deny it to be that
+of John, because contrary to the ideas of St. Peter and St.
+Paul--because the object of John's baptism had been completed--because
+it was a type under the law, and such types were to cease._
+
+
+It appears then that there are two baptisms recorded in Scripture; the
+one, the baptism of John, the other that of Christ; that these are
+distinct from one another; and that the one does not include the other,
+except he who baptizes with water, can baptize at the same time with the
+Holy Ghost. Now St. Paul speaks only of[153] one baptism as effectual;
+and St. Peter must mean the same, when he speaks of the baptism that
+saveth. The question therefore is, which of the two baptisms that have
+been mentioned, is the one effectual, or saving baptism? or, which of
+these it is, that Jesus Christ included in his great commission to the
+Apostles, when he commanded them "to go and teach all nations, baptizing
+them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+[Footnote 153: Eph. 4.5.]
+
+The Quakers say, that the baptism, included in this commission, was not
+the baptism of John.
+
+In the first place, St. Peter says it was not, in these words:
+[154] "Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of
+God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing, wherein few,
+that is, eight souls, were saved by water;[155] whose antetype baptism
+doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
+but the answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of
+Jesus Christ."
+
+[Footnote 154: 1 Peter 3. 20. 21]
+
+[Footnote 155: Antetype is the proper translation, and not "the figure
+whereunto."]
+
+The Apostle states here concerning the baptism that is effectual and
+saving; first, that it is not the putting away of the filth of the
+flesh, which is effected by water. He carefully puts those upon their
+guard, to whom he writes, lest they should consider John's baptism, or
+that of water, to be the saving one, to which he alludes; for, having
+made a beautiful comparison between an outward salvation in an outward
+ark, by the outward water, with this inward salvation by inward and
+spiritual water, in the inward ark of the Testament, he is fearful that
+his reader should connect these images, and fancy that water had any
+thing to do with this baptism. Hence he puts his caution in a
+parenthesis, thus guarding his meaning in an extraordinary manner.
+
+He then shows what this baptism is, and calls it the answer of a good
+conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, he
+states it to be the baptism of Christ, which is by the Spirit. For he
+maintains, that he only is truly baptized, whose conscience is made
+clear by the resurrection of Christ in his heart. But who can make the
+answer of such a conscience, except the Holy Spirit shall have first
+purified the floor of the heart; except the spiritual fan of Christ
+shall have first separated the wheat from the chaff, and except his
+spiritual fire shall have consumed the latter?
+
+St. Paul makes a similar declaration: "For as many of you as have been
+baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."[156] But no man, the Quakers
+say, merely by being dipped under water, can put on Christ, that is, his
+life, his nature, his disposition, his love, meekness, and temperance,
+and all those virtues which should characterise a Christian.
+
+[Footnote 156: Galat 3. 27.]
+
+To the same purport are those other words by the same Apostle:[157] "Know
+ye not, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were
+baptized into his death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
+by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
+life." And again--[158] "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
+risen with him, through the faith of the co-operation of God, who hath
+raised him from the dead." By these passages the Apostle Paul testifies
+that he alone is truly baptized, who first dies unto sin, and is raised
+up afterwards from sin unto righteousness, or who is raised up into life
+with Christ, or who so feels the inward resurrection and glory of Christ
+in his soul, that he walks in newness of life.
+
+[Footnote 157: Rom. 6.3.4]
+
+[Footnote 158: Colos. 2.12]
+
+The Quakers show again, that the baptism of John could not have been
+included in the great commission, because the object of John's baptism
+had been completed even before the preaching of Jesus Christ.
+
+The great object of John's baptism, was to make Jesus known to the Jews.
+John himself declared this to be the object of it. [159] "But that he
+should be made manifest unto Israel, _therefore_ am I come baptizing
+with water." This object he accomplished two ways; first, by telling all
+whom he baptized that Jesus was coming, and these were the Israel of
+that time; for he is reported to have baptized all Jerusalem, which was
+the metropolis, and all Judea, and all the country round about Jordan.
+Secondly, by pointing him out personally.[160] This he did to Andrew, so
+that Andrew left John and followed Jesus. Andrew, again, made him known
+to Simon, and these to Philip, and Philip to Nathaniel; so that by means
+of John, an assurance was given that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
+
+[Footnote 159: John 1.31.]
+
+[Footnote 160: John 1.40.]
+
+The Quakers believe again, that the baptism of John was not included in
+the great commission, because it was a type under the law, and all types
+and shadows under the law were to cease under the Gospel dispensation,
+or the law of Christ.
+
+The salvation of the Eight by water, and the baptism of John, were both
+types of the baptism of Christ. John was sent expressly before Jesus,
+baptizing the bodies of men with water, as a lively image, as he himself
+explains it, of the latter baptizing their souls with the Holy Ghost and
+with fire. The baptism of John, therefore, was both preparative and
+typical of that of Christ. And it is remarked by the Quakers, that no
+sooner was Jesus baptized by John with water in the type, than he was,
+according to all the Evangelists, baptized by the [161] Holy Ghost in
+the antetype. No sooner did he go up out of the water, than John saw the
+Heavens opened, and the spirit of God descending like a dove, and
+lighting upon him. It was this baptism of Jesus in the antetype which
+occasioned John to know him personally, and enabled him to discover him
+to others. The baptism of John, therefore, being a type or figure under
+the law, was to give way, when the antetype or substance became
+apparent. And that it was to give way in its due time, is evident from
+the confession of John himself. For on a question which arose between
+some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying, and on a report
+spread abroad, that Jesus had begun to baptize, John says, [162] "He
+(Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease."--This confession of John
+accords also with the following expressions of St. Paul: [163] "The Holy
+Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet
+made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which
+was a figure for the time then present,"--which stood only in meats and
+drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
+the time of reformation.
+
+[Footnote 161: Mat. 3. 16.--Mark 1. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 162: John 3. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 163: Heb. 9. 8. 9. 10.]
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Quakers show that the baptism, included in the great commission, which
+appears not to be the baptism of John, is the baptism of Christ, from a
+critical examination of the words in that commission--Way in which the
+Quakers interpret these words--This interpretation confirmed by
+citations from St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul_.
+
+
+Having attempted to show, according to the method of the Quakers, that
+the baptism of John is not the baptism included in the great commission,
+I shall now produce those arguments, by which they maintain that that
+baptism, which is included in it, is the baptism of Christ.
+
+These arguments will be found chiefly in a critical examination of the
+words of that commission.
+
+To enable the reader to judge of the propriety of their observations
+upon these words, I shall transcribe from St. Matthew the three verses
+that relate to this subject.
+
+[164] "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
+unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
+baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
+Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
+commanded you. And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
+world."
+
+[Footnote 164: Mat. 23.18,19,20.]
+
+The first observation, which the Quakers make, is upon the word
+"THEREFORE." As all power is given unto _me_ both in Heaven and in
+earth; and as I can on that account, and as I will qualify you, go ye
+therefore, that is, having previously received from me the qualification
+necessary for your task, go ye.
+
+The next observation is, that the commission does not imply that the
+Apostles were to teach and to baptize as two separate acts, but, as the
+words intimate, that they were to teach baptizing.
+
+The Quakers say again, that the word "teach" is an improper translation
+of the original [165]Greek. The Greek word should have been rendered
+"make disciples or proselytes." In several editions of our own Bibles,
+the word "teach" is explained in the margin opposite to it, "make
+disciples or Christians of all nations," or in the same manner as the
+Quakers explain it.
+
+[Footnote 165: [Greek: didasko] is the usual word for teach, but [Greek:
+word] is used in the commission; which latter word occurs but seldom in
+the New Testament, and always signifies to "disciple."]
+
+On the word "baptize," they observe, that because its first meaning is
+to wash all over, and because baptism with Christians is always with
+water, people cannot easily separate the image of water from the word,
+when it is read or pronounced. But if this image is never to be
+separated from it, how will persons understand the words of St. Paul,
+"for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body?" Or those of
+Jesus, "Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, or be baptized with the
+baptism that I am baptized with?" Or, if this image is not to be
+separated from it, how will they understand the Evangelists, who
+represent Jesus Christ as about to baptize, or wash all over, with fire?
+To baptize, in short, signifies to dip under water, but, in its more
+general meaning, to purify. Fire and water have equally power in this
+respect, but on different objects. Water purifies surfaces. Fire
+purifies by actual and total separation, bringing those bodies into one
+mass which are homogeneous, or which have strong affinities to each
+other, and leaving the dross and incombustible parts by themselves.
+
+The word "in" they also look upon as improperly translated. This word
+should have been rendered [166] "into." If the word "in" were the right
+translation, the words "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
+of the Holy Ghost," might be construed into a form of words to be used
+at the time of baptism.
+
+[Footnote 166: The word in the original Greek is [Greek word] and not
+[Greek word]]
+
+But we have no evidence that such a formula was ever used, when any of
+the Apostles baptized. Indeed, the plain meaning of the word is "into,"
+and therefore all such formula is groundless.[167] "Jesus Christ did
+not, says Zuinglius, by these words institute a form of baptism, which
+we should use, as divines have falsely taught."
+
+[Footnote 167: Lib. de Bapt. p. 56, tom. 2. Oper.]
+
+On the word "name," the Quakers observe, that, when it relates to the
+Lord, it frequently signifies in scripture, his life, or his spirit, or
+his power. Thus, [168] "in my name, shall they cast out devils." And,
+[169] "by what power, or by what name have ye done this?"
+
+[Footnote 168: Mark 16. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 169: Acts 4. 7.]
+
+From the interpretation, which has now been given of the meaning of
+several of the words in the verses, that have been quoted from St.
+Matthew, the sense of the commission, according to the Quakers, will
+stand thus: "All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth. In virtue
+of the power which I have, I will give you power also. I will confer
+upon you the gift of the Holy Spirit. When you have received it, go into
+different and distant lands; go to the Gentiles who live in ignorance,
+darkness, and idolatry, and make them proselytes to my new dispensation;
+so purifying their hearts, or burning the chaff of their corrupt
+affections by the active fire of the Holy Spirit, which shall accompany
+your preaching, that they may be made partakers of the divine nature,
+and walk in newness of life. And lest this should appear to be too great
+a work for your faith, I, who have the power, promise to be with you
+with this my spirit in the work, till the end of the world."
+
+The Quakers contend, that this is the true interpretation of this
+commission, because it exactly coincides with the meaning of the same
+commission as described by St. Luke and St. Mark, and of that also which
+was given to St. Paul.
+
+St. Luke states the commission given to the Apostles to have been
+[170] "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
+name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The meaning therefore
+of the commission, as stated by St. Luke, is precisely the same as that
+stated by St. Matthew. For first, all nations are included in it.
+Secondly, purification of heart, or conversion from sin, is insisted
+upon to be the object of it. And thirdly, this object is to be effected,
+not by the baptism of water, (for baptism is no where mentioned,) but by
+preaching, in which is included the idea of the baptism of the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 170: Luke 24. 47]
+
+St. Mark also states the commission to be the same, in the following
+words: [171] "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
+the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall
+be saved." Here all nations, and the preaching of the Gospel, are
+mentioned again; but baptism is now added. But the baptism that was to
+go with this preaching, the Quakers contend to be the baptism of the
+spirit. For first, the baptism here mentioned is connected with
+salvation. But the baptism, according to St. Peter, which doth also now
+save us, "is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer
+of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;"
+or the baptism of the spirit. Secondly, the nature of the baptism here
+mentioned is explained by the verse that follows it. Thus, "he that
+believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. And these signs shall follow
+them that believe: they shall speak with new tongues." This therefore is
+the same baptism as that which St. Paul conferred upon some of his
+disciples by the laying on of his hands. [172] "And when Paul had laid
+his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with
+tongues and prophesied." Thus, again, it is demonstrated to be the
+baptism of the spirit.
+
+[Footnote 171: Mark 16.15.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Acts 19.6.]
+
+The commission also, which has been handed down to us by St. Matthew,
+will be found, as it has been now explained, to coincide in its object
+with that which was given to Paul, as we find by his confession to
+Agrippa. For he declared[173] he was sent as a minister to the Gentiles
+"to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from
+the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of
+sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in
+Christ." But what was this, the Quakers say, but to baptize them into
+the life and spirit of a new and divine nature, or with the baptism of
+Christ?
+
+[Footnote 173: Acts 26.17. 18.]
+
+And as we have thus obtained a knowledge from St. Paul of what his own
+commission contained, so we have, from the same authority, a knowledge
+of what it did not contain; for he positively declares, in his first
+Epistle to the Corinthians, that "Christ sent him not to baptize
+(evidently alluding to the baptism by water) but to preach the Gospel."
+It is clear therefore that St. Paul did not understand his commission to
+refer to water. And who was better qualified to understand it than
+himself?
+
+It is also stated by the Quakers, as another argument to the same point,
+that if the baptism in the commission had been that of water only, the
+Apostles could easily have administered it of themselves, or without
+any supernatural assistance; but, in order that they might be enabled to
+execute that baptism which the commission pointed to, they were desired
+to wait for divine help. Jesus Christ said,[174] "I send the promise of
+my father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be
+endued with the power from on high; for John truly baptized with water,
+but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Now,
+the Quakers ask, if baptism by water had been the baptism contained in
+the great commission, why could not the Apostles have performed it of
+themselves? What should have hindered them more than John from going
+with people into the rivers, and immersing them? Why were they first to
+receive themselves the baptism of the spirit? But if it be allowed, on
+the other hand, that when they executed the great commission, they were
+to perform the baptism of Christ, the case is altered. It became them
+then to wait for the divine help. For it required more than human power
+to give that baptism, which should change the disposition and affections
+of men, and should be able to bring them from darkness unto light, and
+from the power of Satan unto God. And here the Quakers observe, that the
+Apostles never attempted to execute the great commission, till the time
+fixed upon by our Saviour, in these words: "But tarry ye in the city of
+Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." This was the day
+of pentecost. After this "they preached, as St. Peter says, with the
+Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven," and with such efficacy, that "the
+Holy Ghost fell upon many of them, who heard their words."
+
+[Footnote 174: Luke 24.49.]
+
+
+SECT. V.
+
+_Objection to the foregoing arguments of the Quakers--namely, "If it be
+not the baptism of John that is included in the Great Commission, how
+came the Apostles to baptize with water?"--Practice and opinions of
+Peter considered--also of Paul--also of Jesus Christ--This practice, as
+explained by these opinions, considered by the Quakers to turn out in
+favour of their own doctrine on this subject._
+
+
+I have now stated the arguments by which the Quakers have been induced
+to believe that the baptism by the spirit, and not the baptism by water,
+was included by Jesus Christ in the great commission which he gave to
+his Apostles, when he requested them "to go into all nations, and to
+teach them, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
+the Holy Ghost."
+
+Against these arguments the following question has been usually started,
+as an objection: "If it be not included in the great commission, how
+came the Apostles to baptize; or would they have baptised, if baptism
+had not been considered by them as a Christian ordinance?"
+
+The Quakers, in answering this objection, have confined themselves to
+the consideration of the conduct of the Apostles Peter and Paul. For
+though Philip is said to have baptized also, yet he left no writings
+behind him like the former; nor are so many circumstances recorded of
+him, by which they may be enabled to judge of his character, or to know
+what his opinions ultimately were, upon that subject.
+
+The Quakers consider the Apostles as men of the like passions with
+themselves. They find the ambition of James and John; the apostacy and
+dissimulation of Peter; the incredulity of Thomas; the dissention
+between Paul and Barnabas; and the jealousies which some of them
+entertained towards one another, recorded in holy writ. They believe
+them also to have been mostly men of limited information, and to have
+had their prejudices, like other people. Hence it was not to be expected
+that they should come all at once into the knowledge of Christ's
+kingdom; that, educated in a religion of types and ceremonials, they
+should all at once abandon these; that, expecting a temporal Messiah,
+they should lay aside at once temporal views; and that they should come
+immediately into the full purity of the gospel practice.
+
+With respect to the Apostle Peter, he gave early signs of the dulness of
+his comprehension with respect to the nature of the character and
+kingdom of the Messiah. [175]For when Jesus had given forth but a simple
+parable, he was obliged to ask him the meaning of it. This occasioned
+Jesus to say to him, "Are ye also yet without understanding?"
+
+[Footnote 175: Matt. 15.16.]
+
+In a short time afterwards, when our Saviour told him, [176] "that he
+himself must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, and be killed, and
+be raised again the third day, Peter took him and rebuked him, saying,
+Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee."
+
+[Footnote 176: Matt. l6. 21. 22.]
+
+At a subsequent time, namely, just after the transfiguration of Christ,
+he seems to have known so little about spiritual things, that he
+expressed a wish to raise three earthly tabernacles, one to Moses,
+another to Elias, and a third to Jesus, for the retention of signs and
+shadows as a Gospel labour, at the very time when Jesus Christ was
+opening the dismission of all but one, namely, "the tabernacle of God,
+that is with men."
+
+Nor did he seem, at a more remote period, to have gained more large or
+spiritual ideas. He did not even know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ
+was to be universal. He considered it as limited; to the Jews, though
+the words in the great commission, which he and the other Apostles had
+heard, ordered them to teach all nations. He was unwilling to go and
+preach to Cornelius on this very account, merely because he was a Roman
+Centurion, or in other words, a Gentile; so that a vision was necessary
+to remove his scruples in this particular. It was not till after this
+vision, and his conversation with Cornelius, that his mind began to be
+opened; and then he exclaimed, "Of a truth, I perceive that God is no
+respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and
+worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."
+
+The mind of Peter now began to be opened and to see things in a clearer
+light, when a new occurrence that took place nearly at the same time,
+seems to have taken the film still more from his eyes: for while he
+preached to Cornelius, and the others present, he perceived that "the
+Holy Ghost fell upon all of them that heard his words, as on himself and
+the other Apostles at the beginning." Then remembered Peter the words of
+the Lord, how that he said, "John indeed baptised with water, but ye
+shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost:" that is, Peter finding that
+Cornelius and his friends had received, by means of his own powerful
+preaching, the Holy Ghost, perceived then for the first time, to his
+great surprise, that he had been executing the great commission of Jesus
+Christ; or that he had taught a Gentile, and baptized him with the Holy
+Spirit. Here it was that he first made the discrimination between the
+baptism of John, and the baptism of Christ.
+
+From this time there is reason to think that his eyes became fully open;
+for in a few years afterwards, when we have an opportunity of viewing
+his conduct again, we find him an altered man as to his knowledge of
+spiritual things. Being called upon at the council of Jerusalem to
+deliberate on the propriety of circumcision to Gentile converts, he
+maintains that God gives his Holy Spirit as well to the Gentiles as to
+the Jews. He maintains again, that God _purifies_ by _faith_; and he
+delivers it as his opinion, that circumcision is to be looked upon as a
+yoke. And here it may be remarked, that circumcision and baptism
+uniformly went together, when proselytes of the covenant were made, or
+when any of the Heathens were desirous of conforming to the whole of the
+Jewish law.
+
+At a time, again, subsequent to this, or when he wrote his Epistles
+which were to go to the strangers all over Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
+Asia, and Bithynia, he discovers himself to be the same full grown man
+in spiritual things on the subject of baptism itself, in these
+remarkable words, which have been quoted: "Whose antitype baptism doth
+also now save us, (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the
+answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus
+Christ." So that the last opinion of Peter on the subject of
+water-baptism contradicted his practice, when he was but a noviciate in
+Christ's kingdom.
+
+With respect to the Apostle Paul, whose practice I am to consider next,
+it is said of him, as of St. Peter, that he baptized.
+
+That Paul baptized is to be collected from his own writings. For it
+appears, by his own account, that there had been divisions among the
+Corinthians. Of those who had been converted to Christianity, some
+called themselves after the name of Cephas; others after the name of
+Apollos; others after the name of Paul; thus dividing themselves
+nominally into sects, according to the name of him who had either
+baptized or converted them. St. Paul mentions these circumstances, by
+which it comes to light, that he used water-baptism, and he regrets that
+the persons in question should have made such a bad use of this rite, as
+to call themselves after him who baptized them, instead of calling
+themselves after Christ, and dwelling on him alone. [177] "I thank God,
+says he, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius; lest any
+should say that I baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the house
+of Stephanas. Besides I know not whether I baptized any other, for
+Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." Now this
+confession of the Apostle, which is usually brought against the Quakers,
+they consider to be entirely in their favour, and indeed decisive of the
+point in question. For they collect from hence, that St. Paul never
+considered baptism by water as any Gospel ordinance, or as any rite
+indispensably necessary, when men were admitted as members into the
+Christian church. For if he had considered it in this light, he would
+never have said that Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the
+Gospel. Neither would he have thanked God, on account of the mere abuse
+of it, that he had baptized so few, for doubtless there were many among
+the learned Greeks, who abused his preaching, and who called it
+_foolishness_, but yet he nowhere says, that he was sorry on that
+account that he ever preached to them; for preaching was a gospel
+ordinance enjoined him, by which many were to be converted to the
+Christian faith. Again--If he had considered water baptism, as a
+necessary mark of initiation into Christianity, he would uniformly have
+adopted it, as men became proselytes to his doctrines. But among the
+thousands, whom in all probability he baptized with the Holy Spirit
+among the Corinthians, it does not appear, that there were more than the
+members of the three families of Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanus, whom be
+baptized with water.
+
+[Footnote 177: 1 Cor. I. 14, 15, 16.]
+
+But still it is contended, that Paul says of himself, that the baptized.
+The Quakers agree to this, but they say that he must have done it, in
+these instances, on motives very different from those of an
+indispensable Christian rite.
+
+In endeavouring to account for these motives, the Quakers consider the
+Apostle Paul as not in the situation of Peter and others, who were a
+long time in acquiring their spiritual knowledge, during which they
+might be in doubt as to the propriety of many customs; but as coming, on
+the other hand, quickly and powerfully into the knowledge of Christ's
+kingdom. Hence, when he baptized, they impute no ignorance to him. They
+believe he rejected water-baptism as a gospel ordinance, but that he
+considered it in itself as an harmless ceremony, and that, viewing it in
+this light, he used it out of condescension to those ellenistic Jews,
+whose prejudices, on account of the washings of Moses and their customs
+relative to proselytes, were so strong, that they could not separate
+purification by water from conversion to a new religion. For St. Paul
+confesses himself that "to the weak he became as weak, that he might
+gain the weak, and was made all things to all men, that he might by all
+means save some." Of this his condescension many instances are recorded
+in the New Testament, though it may be only necessary to advert to one.
+At the great council at Jerusalem, where Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James,
+and others, were present, it was[178] determined that circumcision was
+not necessary to the Gentiles. St. Paul himself with some others carried
+the very letter of the council, containing their determination upon this
+subject, to Antioch to the brethren there. This letter was addressed to
+the brethren of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. After having left Antioch,
+he went to Derbe and Lystra, where, notwithstanding the determination of
+himself and the rest of the council, that circumcision was not a
+Christian rite, he[179] circumcised Timotheus, in condescension to the
+weakness of the Jews, who were in those quarters.
+
+[Footnote 178: Acts 15.]
+
+[Footnote 179: Acts 16.3.]
+
+In addition to these observations on the practice and opinions of the
+Apostles, in the course of which the Quakers presume it will be found
+that the baptism of John is not an ordinance of the Gospel, they presume
+the same conclusion will be adopted, if they take into consideration the
+practice and opinions of Jesus Christ.
+
+That Jesus Christ never forbad water-baptism, the Quakers readily allow.
+But they conceive his silence on this subject to have arisen from his
+knowledge of the internal state of the Jews. He knew how carnal their
+minds were; how much they were attached to outward ordinances; and how
+difficult it was to bring them all at once into his spiritual kingdom.
+Hence, he permitted many things for a time, on account of the weakness
+of their spiritual vision.
+
+That Jesus submitted also to baptism himself, they allow. But he
+submitted to it, not because he intended to make it an ordinance under
+the new dispensation, but to use his own words, "that he might fulfil
+all righteousness." Hence, also he was circumcised. Hence he celebrated
+the Passover. And hence, he was enabled to use these remarkable words
+upon the cross: "It is fulfilled."
+
+But though Jesus Christ never forbad water-baptism, and, though he was
+baptized with water by John, yet he never baptized any one himself. A
+rumour had gone abroad among the Pharisees, that the Jesus had baptized
+more disciples than John the Baptist. But John, the beloved disciple of
+Jesus, who had leaned on his bosom, and who knew more of his sentiments
+and practice than any other person is very careful, in correcting this
+hear-say report, as if unworthy of the spiritual mind of his master,
+and states positively; [180] "that Jesus-baptized not."
+
+[Footnote 180: John 4.2.]
+
+The Quakers, lay a great stress upon this circumstance: for they say,
+that if Jesus never baptized with water himself, it is a proof that he
+never intended to erect water-baptism into a Gospel-rite. It is
+difficult to conceive, they say, that he should have established a
+Sacrament, and that he should never have administered it. Would he not,
+on the other hand, if his own baptism had been that of water, have begun
+his ministry by baptizing his own disciples, notwithstanding they had
+previously been, baptized by John? But he not only never baptized, _but
+it is no where_ recorded of him, that he ordered his disciples to
+baptize "with water."[181] He once ordered a leper to go to the priest,
+and to offer the gift for his cleansings. At another time[182], he
+ordered a blind man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam; but he never
+ordered any one to go and be baptized with water. On the other hand, it
+is said by the Quakers, that he dearly intimated to three of his
+disciples, at the transfiguration, that the dispensations of Moses and
+John were to pass away; and that he taught himself, "that the kingdom of
+God cometh not with observation;" or, that it consisted not in those
+outward and lifeless ordinances, in which many of those to whom he
+addressed himself placed the essence of their religion.
+
+[Footnote 181: Mat. 8.4.]
+
+[Footnote 182: John 9.7]
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XVI.
+
+
+SECT. I.
+
+_Supper of the Lord--Two such suppers, one enjoined by Moses, the other
+by Jesus Christ--The former called the Passover--Original manner of its
+celebration--The use of bread and wine added to it--Those long in use
+when Jews Christ celebrated it--Since his time, alterations made in this
+supper by the Jews--But bread and wine still continued to be component
+parts of it, and continue so to the present day--Modern manner of the
+celebration of it._
+
+
+There are two suppers of the Lord recorded in the Scriptures; the first
+enjoined by Moses, and the second by Jesus Christ.
+
+The first is called the Supper of the Lord, because it was the last
+supper which Jesus Christ participated with his disciples, or which the
+Lord and master celebrated with them in commemoration of the passover.
+And it may not improperly be called the Supper of the Lord on another
+account, because it was the supper which the lord and master of every
+Jewish family celebrated, on the same festival, in his own house.
+
+This supper was distinguished, at the time alluded to, by the name of
+the Passover Supper. The object of the institution of it was to
+commemorate the event of the Lord passing over the houses of the
+Israelites in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered the
+former from their hard and oppressive bondage.
+
+The directions of Moses concerning this festival were short, but
+precise.
+
+On the fourteenth day of the first month, called Nissan, the Jews were
+to kill a lamb in the evening. It was to be eaten in the same evening,
+roasted with fire, and the whole of it was to be eaten, or the remains
+of it to be consumed with fire before morning. They were to eat it with
+loins girded, with their shoes on their feet, and with their staves in
+their hands, and to eat it in haste. The bread which they were to eat,
+was to be unleavened, all of it, and for seven days. There was to be no
+leaven in their houses during that time. Bitter herbs also were to be
+used at this feast. And none who were uncircumcised were allowed to
+partake of it.
+
+This was the simple manner in which the passover, and the feast of
+unleavened bread, which was included in it, were first celebrated. But
+as the passover, in the age following its institution, was not to be
+killed and eaten in any other place than where the Lord chose to fix his
+name, which was afterwards at Jerusalem, it was suspended for a time.
+The Jews, however, retained the festival of unleavened bread, wherever
+they dwelt. At this last feast, in process of time, they added the use
+of wine to the use of bread. The introduction of the wine was followed
+by the introduction of new customs. The Lord or master of the feast used
+to break the bread, and to bless it, saying, "Blessed be thou, O Lord,
+who givest us the fruits of the earth." He used to take the cup, which
+contained the wine, and bless it also: "Blessed be thou, O Lord, who
+givest us the fruit of the vine." The bread was twice blessed upon this
+occasion, and given once to every individual at the feast. But the cup
+was handed round three times to the guests. During the intervals between
+the blessing and the taking of the bread and of the wine, the company
+acknowledged the deliverance of their ancestors from the Egyptian
+bondage; they lamented their present state; they confessed their sense
+of the justice of God in their punishment; and they expressed their hope
+of his mercy from his former kind dealings and gracious promises.
+
+In process of time, when the Jews were fixed at Jerusalem, they revived
+the celebration of the passover, and as the feast of unleavened bread
+was connected with it, they added the customs of the latter, and blended
+the eating of the lamb and the use of the bread and wine, and several
+accompaniments of consecration, into one ceremony. The bread therefore
+and the wine had been long in use as constituent parts of the
+passover-supper, and indeed of all the solemn feasts of the Jews, when
+Jesus Christ took upon himself, as master of his own family of
+disciples, to celebrate it. When he celebrated it, he did as the master
+of every Jewish family did at that time. He took bread, and blessed,
+and broke, and gave to his disciples. He took the cup of wine, and gave
+it to them also. But he conducted himself differently from others in one
+respect, for he compared the bread of the passover to his own body, and
+the wine to his own blood, and led the attention of his disciples from
+the old object of the passover, or deliverance from Egyptian bondage, to
+a new one, or deliverance from sin.
+
+Since the time of our Saviour, we find that the Jews, who have been
+dispersed in various parts of the world, have made alterations in this
+supper: but all of them have concurred in retaining the bread and wine
+as component parts of it. This will be seen by describing the manner in
+which it is celebrated at the present day.
+
+On the fourteenth day of the month Nissan, the first-born son of every
+family fasts, because the first-born in Egypt were smitten on that
+night. A table is then set out, and covered with a cloth. On the middle
+of it is placed a large dish, which is covered with a napkin. A large
+passover cake of unleavened bread, distinguished by marks, and
+denominated "_Israelite_," is then laid upon this napkin. Another, with
+different marks, but denominated "_Levite_," is laid upon the first: and
+a third, differently marked, and denominated "_Priest_," is laid upon
+the second. Upon this again a large dish is placed, and in this dish is
+a shank bone of a shoulder of lamb, with a small matter of meat on it,
+which is burnt quite brown on the fire. This is instead of the lamb
+roasted with fire. Near this is an egg, roasted hard in hot ashes, that
+it may not be broken, to express the totality of the lamb. There is also
+placed on the table a small quantity of raw charvil instead of the
+bitter herbs ordered; also a cup with salt water, in remembrance of the
+sea crossed over after that repast; also a stick of horse radish with
+its green top to it, to represent the bitter labour that made the eyes
+of their ancestors water in slavery; and a couple of round balls, made
+of bitter almonds pounded with apples, to represent their labour in lime
+and brinks. The seat or couch of the master is prepared at the head of
+the table, and raised with pillows, to represent the masterly authority
+of which the Jews were deprived in bondage. The meanest of the servants
+are seated at the table for two nights with their masters, mistresses,
+and superiors, to denote that they were all equally slaves in Egypt, and
+that all ought to give the same ceremonial thanks for their redemption.
+Cups also are prepared for the wine, of which each person must drink
+four in the course of the ceremony. One cup extraordinary is set on the
+table for Elias, which is drank by the youngest in his stead.
+
+All things having been thus prepared, the guests wash their hands, and
+seat themselves at table. The master of the family, soon after this,
+_takes his cup of wine in his right hand_, and the rest at the table
+doing the same, he says, together with all the others, "Blessed art
+thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast created the fruit
+of the vine." This is followed by a. thanksgiving for the institution of
+the passover. _Then the cup of wine is drank by all_. Afterwards the
+master of the family says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of
+the Universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and
+commanded us to cleanse our hands."
+
+Then the master of the family desires the guests to partake of the
+charvil dipped in salt water, which he gives them with an appropriate
+blessing. He makes them touch also the dish, containing the egg and
+shank bone of the lamb, and repeat with him a formula of words suited to
+the subject. He then takes _the second cup of wine_, and uses words in
+conjunction with the rest, expressive of the great difference between
+this and any other night. After this, copious remarks follow on the
+institution of the passover. Then follow queries and answers of the
+rabbis on this subject: then historical accounts of the Jews: then the
+fifteen acts of the goodness of God to the Jewish nation, which they
+make out thus:--He led the Jews out of Egypt: he punished the Egyptians:
+he executed judgment on their gods: he slew their first-born: he gave
+the Jews wealth: he divided the sea for them: he made them pass through
+it as on dry land: he drowned the Egyptians in the same: he gave food to
+the Jews for forty years in the wilderness; he fed them with manna: he
+gave them the sabbath: he brought them to Mount Sinai: he gave them the
+law: he brought them to the Laud of Promise: he built the Temple.
+
+When these acts of the goodness of God, with additional remarks on the
+passover out of Rabbi Gamaliel, have been recited, all the guests touch
+the dish which contains the three cakes of bread before mentioned, and
+say: "This sort of unleavened bread, which we eat, is because there was
+not sufficient time for the dough of our ancestors to rise, until the
+blessed Lord, the King of Kings, did reveal himself to redeem them, as
+it is written. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough, which they
+brought forth out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were
+thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry; neither had they prepared for
+themselves any victuals." After this they touch the horse-radish and
+join in a narration on the subject of their bondage. Then they take
+_their third cup of wine_, and pronounce a formula of adoration and
+praise, accompanied with blessings and thanksgivings, in allusion to the
+historical part of the passover. After this the master of the family
+washes his hands and says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of
+the Universe, who hast sanctified us with thy Commandments, and
+commanded us to cleanse our hands." He then breaks the _uppermost cake
+of bread_ in the dish, and says, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King
+of the Universe, who hast brought forth bread from the earth." Then he
+takes _half of another cake of bread, and breaks it_, and says, "Blessed
+art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us
+with thy commandments, and commanded us to eat the unleavened bread."
+_Then he gives every one at the table of each of the two cakes of bread
+that are broken_, and every one repeats audibly the two last blessings.
+He then takes the green top from the horse-radish, and puts on the balls
+before mentioned, and pronounces a blessing. He then puts these into the
+hands of the guests, and they pronounce the same. After this, he cuts
+the bottom cake, and puts a piece of it upon a piece of horse-radish,
+and pronounces a formula of words, in allusion to an historical fact.
+
+These ceremonies having been thus completed, the guests sup.
+
+After supper, a long grace is said. Then the _fourth cup_ is filled. A
+long prayer follows, on the subject of creation. This is again followed
+by a hymn, enumerating and specifying the twelve wonders which God did
+at midnight. Another hymn succeeds, specifying the fifteen great works
+which God did at different times, both on the night, and on the day, of
+the passover. Then follows a prayer in praise of God, in which a desire
+is expressed, that they may again he brought to Jerusalem. Then follows
+a blessing on the fourth cup which is taken; after which another hymn is
+sung, in which the assistance of the Almighty is invoked for the
+rebuilding of the temple. This hymn is followed by thirteen canticles,
+enumerating thirteen remarkable things belonging to the Jews, soon after
+which the ceremony ends.
+
+This is the manner, or nearly the manner, in which the passover is now
+celebrated by the Jews. The bread is still continued to be blessed, and
+broken, and divided, and the cup to be blessed and handed round among
+the guests. And this is done, whether they live in Asia, or in Europe,
+or in any other part of the known world.
+
+
+SECT. II.
+
+_Second Supper is that enjoined by Jesus at Capernaum--It consists of
+bread from Heaven--or of the flesh and blood of Christ--But these not of
+a material nature, like the passover-bread, or corporeal part of
+Jesus--but wholly of a spiritual--Those who receive it, are spiritually
+nourished by it, and may be said to sup with Christ--This supper
+supported the Patriarchs--and must be taken by all Christians--Various
+ways in which this supper may be enjoyed_.
+
+
+The second supper recorded in the scriptures, in which bread, and the
+body, and blood of Christ, are mentioned, is that which was enjoined by
+Jesus, when he addressed the multitude at Capernaum. Of this supper, the
+following account may be given:
+
+[183] "Labour not, says he to the multitude, for the meat which
+perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
+the Son of Man shall give unto you."
+
+[Footnote 183: John 6. 27.]
+
+A little farther on, in the same chapter, when the Jews required a sign
+from heaven, (such as when Moses gave their ancestors manna in the
+wilderness,) in order that they might believe on him, he addressed them
+thus: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
+from heaven: but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For
+the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth light
+unto the world."
+
+Then said they unto him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." And Jesus
+said unto them, "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
+never hunger; and he that believeth in me, shall never thirst."
+
+It appears, that in the course of these and other words that were spoken
+upon this occasion, the Jews took offence at Jesus Christ, because he
+said, he was the bread that came down from heaven; for they knew he was
+the son of Joseph, and they knew both his father and his mother. Jesus
+therefore directed to them the following observations:
+
+"I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,
+and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a
+man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread, which came down
+from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And
+the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
+of the world." The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How
+can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them,
+"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
+Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever eateth my
+flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up
+at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
+indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,
+and I in him. As the living father hath sent me, and I live by the
+father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that
+bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and
+are dead. He that eateth of this bread, shall live forever."
+
+As the Jews were still unable to comprehend the meaning of his words,
+which they discovered by murmuring and pronouncing them to be hard
+sayings, Jesus Christ closes his address to them in the following words:
+"It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing: the
+words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
+
+It appears from hence, according to the Quakers, that Jesus Christ, in
+mentioning the loaves, took occasion to spiritualize, as he did on all
+other fit occasions, and to direct the attention of his followers from
+natural to spiritual food, or from the food that perisheth, to that
+which giveth eternal life.
+
+Jesus Christ calls himself upon this occasion the living bread. He says
+that this bread is his flesh, and that this flesh is meat indeed. The
+first conclusion which the Quakers deduce on this subject, is, that this
+bread, or this flesh and blood, or this meat, which he recommends to his
+followers, and which he also declares to be himself, is not of a
+material nature. It is not, as he himself says, like the ordinary meat
+that perisheth, nor like the outward manna, which the Jews ate in the
+wilderness for their bodily refreshment. It cannot therefore be common
+bread, nor such bread as the jews ate at their passover, nor any bread
+or meat ordered to be eaten on any public occasion.
+
+Neither can this flesh or this bread be, as some have imagined, the
+material flesh or body of Jesus. For first, this latter body was born of
+the virgin Mary; whereas the other is described as having come down from
+heaven. Secondly, because, when the Jews said, "How can this man give us
+his flesh?" Jesus replied, "It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh
+profiteth nothing;" that is, material flesh and blood, such as mine is,
+cannot profit any thing in the way of quickening; or cannot so profit as
+to give life eternal. This is only the work of the spirit. And he adds,
+"the words I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life."
+
+This bread then, or this body, is of a spiritual nature. It is of a
+spiritual nature, because it not only giveth life, but preserveth from
+death. Manna, on the other hand, supported the Israelites only for a
+time, and they died. Common bread and flesh nourish the body for a time,
+when it dies and perishes; but it is said of those who feed upon this
+food, that they shall never die. This bread, or body, must be spiritual
+again, because the bodies of men, according to their present
+organization, cannot be kept for ever alive; but their souls may. But
+the souls of men can receive no nourishment from ordinary meat and
+drink, that they should be kept alive, but from that which is spiritual
+only. It must be spiritual again, because Jesus Christ describes it as
+having come down from heaven.
+
+The last conclusion which the Quakers draw from the words of our Saviour
+on this occasion, is, that a spiritual participation of the body and
+blood of Christ is such an essential of Christianity, that no person who
+does not partake of them, can be considered to be a Christian; "for
+except a man eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, he has
+no life in him."
+
+The Quakers therefore believe, that this address of Jesus Christ to his
+followers near Capernaum, relates wholly to the necessity of the souls
+of men being fed and nourished by that food, which it is alone capable
+of receiving, namely, that which is of a spiritual nature, and which
+comes from above. This food is the spirit of God; or, in the language of
+the Quakers, it is Christ. It is that celestial principle, which gives
+life and light to as many as receive it and believe in it. It is that
+spiritual principle, which was in the beginning of the world, and which
+afterwards took flesh. And those who receive it, are spiritually
+nourished by it, and may be said to sup with Christ; for he himself
+says, [184] "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
+voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
+and he with me."
+
+[Footnote 184: Rev. 3. 20.]
+
+This supper which Jesus Christ enjoins, is that heavenly manna on which
+the Patriarchs feasted, before his appearance in the flesh, and by which
+their inward man became nourished; so that some of them were said to
+have walked with God; for those, according to St. Paul, [185] "did all
+eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink;
+for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock
+was Christ."
+
+[Footnote 185: 1 Cor. 10.3.4.]
+
+This supper is also that "daily bread," since his appearance in the
+flesh; or, as the old Latin translation has it, it is that
+supersubstantial bread, which Christians are desired to pray for in the
+Lord's prayer; that bread, which, according to good commentators, is
+above all substance, and above all created things. For this bread fills
+and satisfies. By extinguishing all carnal desires, it leaves neither
+hunger nor thirst after worldly things. It redeems from the pollutions
+of sin. It so quickens as to raise from death to life, and it gives
+therefore to man a sort of new and divine nature, so that he can dwell
+in Christ and Christ in him.
+
+This supper, which consists of this manna, or bread, or of this flesh
+and blood, may be enjoyed by Christians in various ways. It may be
+enjoyed by them in pious meditations on the Divine Being, in which the
+soul of man may have communion with the spirit of God, so that every
+meditation may afford it a salutary supper, or a celestial feast. It may
+be enjoyed by them when they wait upon God in silence, or retire into
+the light of the Lord, and receive those divine impressions which
+quicken and spiritualize the internal man. It may be enjoyed by them in
+all their several acts of obedience to the words and doctrines of our
+Saviour. Thus may men everyday, nay, every hour, keep a communion at the
+Lord's table, or communicate, or sup, with Christ.
+
+
+SECT. III.
+
+_The question then is, whether Jesus Christ instituted any new supper,
+distinct from that of the passover, (and which was to render null and
+void that enjoined at Capernaum) to be observed as a ceremonial by
+Christians--Quakers say, that no such institution can be collected from
+the accounts of Matthew, or of Mark, or of John--The silence of the
+latter peculiarly impressive in the present case._
+
+
+It appears then, that there are two suppers recorded in the scriptures,
+the one enjoined by Moses, and the other by Jesus Christ.
+
+The first of these was of a ceremonial nature, and was confined
+exclusively to the Jews: for to Gentile converts who knew nothing of
+Moses, or whose ancestors were not concerned in the deliverance from
+Egyptian bondage, it could have had no meaning.
+
+The latter was of a spiritual nature. It was not limited to any nation.
+It had been enjoyed by many of the Patriarchs. Many of the Gentiles had
+enjoyed it also. But it was essentially necessary for all Christians.
+
+Now the question is, whether Jesus Christ, when he celebrated the
+passover, instituted any new supper, distinct from that of the
+passover, and which was to render null, and void, (as it is the tendency
+of ceremonies to do) that which he enjoined at Capernaum, to be observed
+as an ordinance by the Christian world.
+
+The Quakers are of opinion that no institution of this kind can be
+collected from Matthew, Mark, or John. [186]St. Matthew mentions the
+celebration of the passover supper in the following manner: "And as they
+were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave to
+his disciples, and said, take, eat, this is my body."
+
+[Footnote 186: Mat. 26. 26.]
+
+"And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
+drink ye all of it."
+
+"For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for
+the remission of sins."
+
+"But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the
+vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's
+kingdom."
+
+St. Mark gives an account so similar to the former, that it is
+unnecessary to transcribe it. Both mention the administration of the
+cup; both the breaking and giving of the bread; both the allusion of
+Jesus to his own body and blood; both the idea of his not drinking wine
+any more but in a new kingdom; but neither of them mention any command,
+nor even any insinuation by Jesus Christ to his disciples, that they
+should do as he did at the passover supper.
+
+St. John, who relates the circumstance of Jesus Christ washing the feet
+of his disciples on the passover night, mentions nothing even of the
+breaking of bread, or of the drinking of the wine upon that occasion.
+
+As far therefore as the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and John, are
+concerned, it is obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers, that Christians
+have not the least pretence, either for the celebration of the passover,
+or of that which they usually call the Lord's Supper; for the command
+for such a supper is usually grounded on the words, "do this in
+remembrance of me." But no such words occur in the accounts of any of
+the Evangelists now cited.
+
+This silence with respect to any command for any new institution is
+considered by the Quakers as a proof, as far as these Evangelists are
+concerned, that none was ever intended. For if the sacrament of the
+supper was to be such a great and essential rite as Christians make it,
+they would have been deficient in their duty, if they had failed to
+record it. St. Matthew, who was at the supper, and St. Mark, who heard
+of what had passed there, both agree that Jesus used the ceremony of the
+bread and the wine, and also that he made an allusion from thence to his
+own body and blood; but it is clear, the Quakers say, whatever they
+might have heard as spoken by him, they did not understand him as
+enjoining a new thing. But the silence of John, upon this occasion, the
+Quakers consider as the most impressive in the present case. For St.
+John was the disciple, who leaned upon the bosom of Jesus at this
+festival, and who of course must have heard all that he said. He was
+the disciple again, whom Jesus loved, and who would have been anxious to
+have perpetuated all that he required to be done. He was the disciple
+again, who so particularly related the spiritual supper which Jesus
+enjoined at Capernaum, and in this strong language, that, "except a man
+eat his flesh, and drink his blood, he has no life in him."
+Notwithstanding this, St. John does not even mention what took place on
+the passover night, believing, as the Quakers suppose, that it was not
+necessary to record the particulars of a Jewish ceremony, which, being a
+type, was to end when its antitype was realized, and which he considered
+to be unnecessary for those of the Christian name.
+
+
+SECT. IV.
+
+_Account of St. Luke examined--According to him Jesus celebrated only
+the old Jewish passover--Signified all future passovers with him were to
+be spiritual--Hence he turned the attention of those present from the
+type to the antitype--He recommended them to take their meals
+occasionally together in remembrance of their last supper with him; or
+if, as Jews, they could not relinquish the passover, to celebrate it
+with a new meaning._
+
+
+St. Luke, who speaks of the transactions which took place at the
+passover-supper, is the only one of the Evangelists who records the
+remarkable words, "do this in remembrance of me." St. Luke, however,
+was not himself at this supper. Whatever he has related concerning it,
+was from the report of others.
+
+But though the Quakers are aware of this circumstance, and that neither
+Matthew, Mark, nor John, give an account of such words, yet they do not
+question the authority of St. Luke concerning them. They admit them, on
+the other hand, to have been spoken; they believe however, on an
+examination of the whole of the narrative of St. Luke upon this
+occasion, that no new institution of a religious nature was intended.
+They believe that Jesus Christ did nothing more than celebrate the old
+passover; that he intimated to his disciples, at the time he celebrated
+it, that it was to cease; that he advised them, however, to take their
+meals occasionally, in a friendly manner, together, in remembrance of
+him; or if, as Jews, they could not all at once relinquish the passover,
+he permitted them to celebrate it with a new meaning.
+
+In the first place St. Luke, and he is joined by all the other
+Evangelists, calls the feast now spoken of the passover. Jesus Christ
+also gives it the same name; for he says, "with desire I have desired to
+eat this passover with you before I suffer."
+
+Jesus Christ, according to St. Luke, took bread and broke it, and
+divided it among his disciples. He also took the cup, and gave thanks,
+and gave it among them. But this, the Quakers say, is no more than what
+the master of every Jewish family did on the passover night: nor, is it
+any more, as will have already appeared, than what the Jews of London,
+or of Paris, or of Amsterdam, or of any other place, where bread and
+wine are to be had, do on the same feast at the present day.
+
+But though Jesus Christ conducted himself so far as other masters of
+families did, yet he departed from the formula of words that was
+generally used upon these occasions. For in the first place, he is
+described to have said to his disciples, that "he would no more eat of
+the passover, until it should be fulfilled in the kingdom of God;" and a
+little farther on, that "he would not drink of the fruit of the vine,
+till the kingdom of God should come; or, as St. Matthew has it, till he
+should drink it new with them in his father's kingdom."
+
+By these words the Quakers understand, that it was the intention of
+Jesus Christ to turn the attention of his disciples from the type to the
+antitype, or from the paschal lamb to the lamb of God, which was soon to
+be offered for them. He declared, that all his passover suppers with
+them were in future to be spiritual. Such spiritual passovers, the
+Quakers say, he afterwards ate with them on the day of pentecost, when
+the spirit of God came upon them; when their minds were opened, and when
+they discovered, for the first time, the nature of his kingdom. And
+these spiritual passovers he has since eaten, and continues to eat with
+all those whose minds, detached from worldly pursuits and connexions,
+are so purified and spiritualized, as to be able to hold communion with
+God.
+
+It is reported of him next, that "he took bread, and gave thanks, and
+brake it, and gave to his disciples, saying, this is my body which is
+given for you."
+
+On these words the Quakers make the following observations:--The word
+"this" does not belong to the word "bread," that is, it does not mean
+that this bread is my body. For the word "bread" in the original Greek
+is of the masculine, and the word "this" is of the neuter gender. But it
+alludes to the action of the breaking of the bread, from which the
+following new meaning will result. "This breaking of the bread, which
+you now see me perform, is a symbol or representation of the giving, or
+as St. Paul has it, of the breaking of my body for you."
+
+In the same manner, the Quakers say, that the giving of the wine in the
+cup is to be understood as a symbol or representation of the giving of
+his blood for them.
+
+The Quakers therefore are of opinion, when they consider the meaning of
+the sayings of Jesus Christ both with respect to the bread and to the
+wine, that he endeavoured again to turn the attention of his disciples
+from the type to the antitype; from the bread and wine to his own body
+and blood; from the paschal lamb that had been slain and eaten, to the
+lamb that was going to be sacrificed; and as the blood of the latter
+was, according to St. Matthew, for the remission of sins, to turn their
+attention from the ancient object of the celebration of the passover, or
+salvation from Egyptian bondage, to a new object, or the salvation of
+themselves and others by this new sacrifice of himself.
+
+It is reported of him again by St. Luke, after he had distributed the
+bread and said, "this is my body which is given for you," that he added,
+"this do in remembrance of me."
+
+These words the Quakers believe to have no reference to any new
+institution; but they contain a recommendation to his disciples to meet
+in a friendly manner, and break their bread together, in remembrance of
+their last supper with him, or if as Jews, they could not all at once
+leave off the custom of the passover, in which they had been born and
+educated as a religious ceremony, to celebrate it, as he had then
+modified and spiritualized it, with a new meaning.
+
+If they relate to the breaking of their bread together, then they do not
+relate to any passover or sacramental eating, but only to that of their
+common meals; for all the passovers of Jesus Christ with his disciples
+were in future to be spiritual. And in this sense the primitive
+Christians seem to have understood the words in question. For in their
+religious zeal they sold all their goods, and, by means of the produce
+of their joint stock, they kept a common table, and lived together. But
+in process of time, as this custom from various causes declined, they
+met at each other's houses, or at their appointed places, to break their
+bread together, in memorial of the passover-supper. This custom, it is
+remarkable, was denominated the custom of _breaking of bread_. Nor could
+it have had any other name so proper, if the narration of St. Luke be
+true. For the words "do this in remembrance of me," relate solely, as he
+has placed them, to the breaking of the bread. They were used after the
+distribution of the bread, but were not repeated after the giving of the
+cup.
+
+If they relate, on the other hand, to the celebration of the passover,
+as it had been modified and spiritualized with a new meaning, then the
+interpretation of them will stand thus: "As some of you, my disciples,
+for ye are all Jews, may not be able to get over all your prejudices at
+once, but may celebrate the passover again, and as it is the last time
+that I shall celebrate it with you, as a ceremonial, I desire you to do
+it in remembrance, or as a memorial of me. I wish the celebration of it
+always to bring to your recollection this our last public meeting, the
+love I bear to you, and my sufferings and my death. I wish your minds to
+be turned from carnal to spiritual benefits, and to be raised to more
+important themes than the mere escape of your ancestors from Egyptian
+bondage. If it has been hitherto the object of the passover to preserve
+in your memories the bodily salvation of your ancestors, let it be used
+in future, if you cannot forsake it, as a memorial of your own spiritual
+salvation; for my body, of which the bread is a representation, is to be
+broken, and my blood, of which the wine is an emblem, is to be shed for
+the remission of your sins."
+
+But in whatever sense the words "do this in remembrance of me" are to be
+taken, the Quakers are of opinion, as far as St. Luke states the
+circumstances, that they related solely to the disciples themselves.
+Jesus Christ recommends it to those who were present, and to those only,
+to do this in remembrance of him. But he no where tells them to order or
+cause it to be done by the whole Christian world, as he told them to
+"preach the Gospel to every creature."
+
+To sum up the whole of what has been said in this chapter:--If we
+consult St. Luke, and St. Luke only, all that we can collect on this
+subject will be, that the future passover-suppers of Christ with his
+disciples were to be spiritual; that his disciples were desired to break
+their bread together in remembrance of him; or if, as Jews, they could
+not relinquish the passover, to celebrate it with a new meaning; but
+that this permission extended to those only who were present on that
+occasion.
+
+
+SECT. V.
+
+_Account of St. Paul--He states that the words "do this in remembrance
+of me" were used at the passover-supper--That they contained a
+permission for a custom, in which both the bread and the wine were
+included--That this custom was the passover, spiritualised by Jesus
+Christ--But that it was to last but for a time--Some conjecture this
+time to be the destruction of Jerusalem--But the Quakers, till the
+disciples had attained such a spiritual growth, that they felt Christ's
+kingdom substantially in their hearts--And as it was thus limited to
+them, so it was limited to such Jewish converts as might have adopted it
+in their times._
+
+
+The last of the sacred writers, who mentions the celebration of the
+passover-supper, is St. Paul, whose account is now to be examined.
+
+St. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, reproves[187] the
+latter for some irregularities committed by them in the course of their
+religious meetings. What these meetings were is uncertain. They might
+have been for the celebration of the passover-supper, for there was a
+synagogue of Jews at Corinth, of whom some had been converted. Or they
+might have been for the celebration of the passover as spiritualized by
+Jesus Christ, or for the breaking of bread, which customs both the
+Jewish and Gentile converts might have adopted. The custom, however, at
+which these irregularities took place, is called by St. Paul, the Lord's
+Supper. And this title was not inapplicable to it in either of the cases
+supposed, because it must have been, in either of them, in
+commemoration of the last supper, which Jesus Christ, or the Lord and
+Master, ate with his disciples before he suffered.
+
+[Footnote 187: Chap. 11.]
+
+But whichever ceremonial it was that St. Paul alluded to, the
+circumstances of the irregularities of the Corinthians, obliged him to
+advert to and explain what was said and done by Jesus on the night of
+the passover-supper. This explanation of the Apostle has thrown new
+light upon the subject, and has induced the Quakers to believe, that no
+new institution was intended to take place as a ceremonial to be
+observed by the Christian world.
+
+St. Paul, in his account of what occurred at the original passover,
+reports that Jesus Christ made use of the words "this do in remembrance
+of me." By this the Quakers understand that he permitted something to be
+done by those who were present at this supper.
+
+He reports also, that Jesus Christ used these words, not only after the
+breaking of the bread, but after the giving of the cup: from whence they
+conclude, that St. Paul considered both the bread and the wine, as
+belonging to that which had been permitted.
+
+St. Paul also says, "for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this
+cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." By these words they
+believe they discover two things; first, the nature of the thing
+permitted; and, secondly, that the thing permitted, whatever it was, was
+to last but for a time.
+
+The thing then, which was permitted to those who were present at the
+passover-supper, was to show or declare his death. The words "show or
+declare," prove, in the first place, the connexion of the thing
+permitted with the Jewish passover. For after certain ceremonies had
+been performed on the passover night, "the showing forth or
+declaration," as it was called, followed; or the object of the meeting
+was declared aloud to the persons present, or it was declared to them
+publicly in what particulars the passover feast differed from all the
+other feasts of the Jews. Secondly, the word "death" proves the thing
+permitted to have been the passover, as spiritualized by Jesus Christ;
+for by the new modification of it, his disciples, if they were unable to
+overcome their prejudices, were to turn their attention from the type to
+the antitype, or from the sacrifice of the paschal lamb to the sacrifice
+of himself, or to his own sufferings and death. In short, Jesus Christ
+always attempted to reform by spiritualizing. When the Jews followed him
+for the loaves, and mentioned manna, he tried to turn their attention
+from material to spiritual bread. When he sat upon Jacob's well, and
+discoursed with the woman of Samaria, he directed her attention from
+ordinary, or elementary to spiritual and living water. So he did upon
+this occasion. He gave life to the dead letter of an old ceremony by a
+new meaning. His disciples were from henceforth to turn their attention,
+if they chose to celebrate the passover, from the paschal lamb to
+himself, and from the deliverance of their ancestors out of Egyptian
+bondage to the deliverance of themselves and others, by the giving up of
+his own body and the shedding of his own blood for the remission of
+sins.
+
+And as the thing permitted was the passover, spiritualized in this
+manner, so it was only permitted for a time, or "until he come."
+
+By the words "until he come," it is usually understood, until Christ
+come. But though Christians have agreed upon this, they have disagreed
+as to the length of time which the words may mean. Some have understood
+that Jesus Christ intended this spiritualized passover to continue for
+ever as an ordinance of his church, for that "till he come" must refer
+to his coming to judge the world. But it has been replied to these, that
+in this case no limitation had been necessary, or it would have been
+said at once, that it was to be a perpetual ordinance, or expressed in
+plainer terms, than in the words in question.
+
+Others have understood the words to mean the end of the typical world,
+which happened on the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jews were
+dispersed, and their church, as a national one, done away. For the
+coming of Christ and the end of the world have been considered as
+taking place at the same time. Thus the early Christians believed, that
+Jesus Christ, even after his death and resurrection, would come again,
+even in their own life time, and that the end of the world would then
+be. These events they coupled in their minds; "for[188] they asked him
+privately, saying, tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be
+the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" Jesus told them in
+reply, that the end of the world and his coming would be, when there
+were wars, and rumours of wars, and earthquakes, and famine, and
+pestilence, and tribulations on the earth; and that these calamities
+would happen even before the generation, then alive, would pass away.
+Now all these things actually happened in the same generation; for they
+happened at the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ therefore meant
+by the end of the world, the end of the Jewish world, or of the world of
+types, figures, and ordinances: and he coupled naturally his own coming
+with this event, because he could not come fully into the hearts of any,
+till these externals were done away. He alluded, in short, to the end of
+the Jewish dispensation and the beginning of his own spiritual kingdom,
+or to the end of the ceremonial and the beginning of the Gospel world.
+
+[Footnote 188: Matt. 24.]
+
+Those therefore who interpret the words "till he come" to mean the end
+of the typical world, are of opinion that the passover, as spiritualized
+by Jesus Christ, was allowed to the disciples, while they lived among a
+people, so wedded to religious ceremonies as the Jews, with whom it
+would have been a stumbling block in the way of their conversion, if
+they had seen the Apostles, who were their countrymen, rejecting it all
+at once; but that it was permitted, them, till the destruction of
+Jerusalem, after which event the Jews being annihilated as a nation, and
+being dispersed and mixed among the infinitely greater body of the
+Gentiles, the custom was to be laid aside, as the disuse of it could not
+be then prejudicial to the propagation of the Gospel among the community
+at large.
+
+The Quakers, however, understand the words "till he come," to mean
+simply the coming of Christ substantially in the heart. Giving the words
+this meaning, they limit the duration of the spiritualized passover, but
+do not specify the time. It might have ceased with some of them, they
+say, on the day of pentecost, when they began to discover the nature of
+Christ's kingdom; and they think it probable, that it ceased with all of
+them, when they found this kingdom realized in their hearts. For it is
+remarkable that those, who became Gospel writers, and it is to be
+presumed that they had attained great spiritual growth when they wrote
+their respective works, give no instructions to others, whether Jews or
+Gentiles, to observe the ceremonial permitted to the disciples by Jesus,
+as any ordinance of the Christian church. And in the same manner as the
+Quakers conceive the duration of the spiritualized passover to have been
+limited to the disciples, they conceive it to have been limited to all
+other Jewish converts, who might have adopted it in those times, that
+is, till they should find by the substantial enjoyment of Christ in
+their hearts, that ceremonial ordinances belonged to the old, but that
+they were not constituent parts of the new kingdom.
+
+
+SECT. VI.
+
+_Quakers believe, from the preceding evidence, that Jesus Christ
+intended no ceremonial for the Christian church--for if the custom
+enjoined was the passover spiritualized, it was more suitable for Jews
+than Gentiles--If intended as a ceremonial, it would have been commanded
+by Jesus to others besides his disciples, and by these to the Christian
+world--and its duration would not have been limited--Quakers believe St.
+Paul thought it no Christian ordinance--three reasons taken from his
+own writings on this subject._
+
+
+The Quakers then, on an examination of the preceding evidence, are of
+opinion that Jesus Christ, at the passover-supper, never intended to
+institute any new supper, distinct from that of the passover, or from
+that enjoined at Capernaum, to be observed as a ceremonial by
+Christians.
+
+For, in the first place, St. Matthew, who was at the supper, makes no
+mention of the words "do this in remembrance of me."
+
+Neither are these words, nor any of a similar import, recorded by St.
+Mark. It is true indeed that St. Mark was not at this supper. But it is
+clear he never understood from those who were, either that they were
+spoken, or that they bore this meaning, or he would have inserted them
+in his Gospel.
+
+Nor is any mention made of such words by St. John. This was the beloved
+disciple who was more intimate with Jesus, and who knew more of the mind
+of his master, than any of the others. This was he who leaned upon his
+bosom at the passover-supper, and who must have been so near him as to
+have heard all that passed there. And. yet this disciple did not think
+it worth his while, except manuscripts have been mutilated, to mention
+even the bread and wine that were used upon this occasion.
+
+Neither does St. Luke, who mentions the words "do this in remembrance of
+me," establish any thing, in the opinion of the Quakers, material on
+this point. For it appears from him that Jesus, to make the most of his
+words, only spiritualized the old passover for his disciples, all of
+whom were Jews, but that he gave no command with respect to the
+observance of it by others. Neither does St. Luke himself enjoin or call
+upon others to observe it.
+
+St. Paul speaks nearly the same language as St. Luke, but with this
+difference, that the supper, as thus spiritualised by Jesus, was to last
+but for a time.
+
+Now the Quakers are of opinion, that they have not sufficient ground to
+believe from these authorities, that Jesus intended to establish any
+ceremonial as an universal ordinance for the Christian church. For if
+the custom enjoined was the spiritualized passover, it was better
+calculated for Jews than for Gentiles, who were neither interested in
+the motives nor acquainted with the customs of that feast. But it is of
+little importance, they contend, whether it was the spiritualized
+passover or not; for if Jesus Christ had intended it, whatever it was,
+as an essential of his new religion, he would have commanded his
+disciples to enjoin it as a Christian duty, and the disciples themselves
+would have handed it down to their several converts in the same light.
+But no injunction to this effect, either of Jesus to others, or of
+themselves to others, is to be found in any of their writings. Add to
+this, that the limitation of its duration for a time, seems a sufficient
+argument against it as a Christian ordinance, because whatever is once,
+most be for ever, an essential in the Christian church.
+
+The Quakers believe, as a farther argument in their favour, that there
+is reason to presume that St. Paul never looked upon the spiritualised
+passover as any permanent and essential rite, which Christians were
+enjoined to follow. For nothing can be more clear than that, when
+speaking of the guilt and hazard of judging one another by meats and
+drinks, he states it as a general and fundamental doctrine of
+Christianity, that [189] "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
+righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
+
+[Footnote 189: Romans 14. 17.]
+
+It seems also by the mode of reasoning which the Apostle adopts in his
+epistle to the Corinthians on this subject, that he had no other idea of
+the observance of this rite, than he had of the observance of particular
+days, namely, that if men thought they were bound in conscience to keep
+them, they ought to keep them religiously. "He that regardeth a day,
+says the Apostle, regardeth it to the Lord." That is, "as he that
+esteemed a day, says Barclay, and placed conscience in keeping it, was
+to regard it to the Lord, (and so it was to him, in so far as he
+regarded it to the Lord, the Lord's day,) he was to do it worthily: and
+if he were to do it unworthily, he would be guilty of the Lord's day,
+and so keep it to his own condemnation." Just in the same manner St.
+Paul tells the Corinthian Jews, that if they observed the ceremonial of
+the passover, or rather, "as often as they observed it," they were to
+observe it worthily, and make it a religious act. They were not then
+come together to make merry on the anniversary of the deliverance of
+their ancestors from Egyptian bondage, but to meet in memorial of
+Christ's sufferings and death. And therefore, if they ate and drank the
+passover, under its new and high allusions, unworthily, they profaned
+the ceremony, and were guilty of the body and blood of Christ.
+
+It appears also from the Syriac, and other oriental versions of the New
+Testament, such as the Arabic and Ethiopic, as if he only permitted the
+celebration of the spiritualized passover for a time in condescension to
+the weakness of some of his converts, who were probably from the Jewish
+synagogue at Corinth. For in the seventeenth verse of the eleventh
+chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, the Syriac runs thus:
+[190] "As to that, concerning which I am now instructing you, I commend
+you not, because you have not gone forward, but you have gone down into
+matters of less importance." "It appears from hence, says Barclay, that,
+the Apostle was grieved, that such was their condition that he was
+forced to give them instruction concerning these outward things, and
+doting upon which they showed that they were not gone forward in the
+life of Christianity, but rather sticking in the beggarly elements; and
+therefore the twentieth verse of the same version has it thus:
+[191]'When then ye meet together, ye do not do it as it is just ye
+should in the day of the Lord; ye eat and drink.' Therefore showing to
+them, that to meet together to eat and drink outward bread and wine, was
+not the labour and work of that day of the Lord."
+
+[Footnote 190: The Syriac is a very ancient version, and as respectable
+or of as high authority as any. Leusden and Schaaf translate the Syriac
+thus: "Hoc autem, quod praecipio, non tanquam laudo vos, quia non
+progressi estis, sed ad id, quod minus est, descendistis." Compare this
+with the English edition.]
+
+[Footnote 191: Quum igitur congregamini, non sicut justum est die domini
+nostri, comeditis et bibites. Leusden et Schaaf lordoni butavorum.]
+
+Upon the whole, in whatever light the Quakers view the subject before
+us, they cannot _persuade_ themselves that Jesus Christ intended to
+establish any new _ceremonial_, distinct from the passover-supper, or
+which should render null and void, (as it would be the tendency of all
+ceremonials to do) the supper which he had before commanded at
+Capernaum. The only supper which he ever enjoined to Christians, was the
+latter. This spiritual supper was to be eternal and universal. For he
+was always to be present with those "who would let him in, and they were
+to sup with him, and he with them." It was also to be obligatory, or an
+essential, with all Christians. "For except a man were to eat his flesh,
+and to drink his blood, he was to have no life in him." The supper, on
+the other hand, which our Saviour is supposed to have instituted on the
+celebration of the passover, was not enjoined by him to any but the
+disciples present. And it was, according to the confession of St. Paul,
+to last only for a time. This time is universally agreed upon to be that
+of the coming of Christ. That is, the duration of the spiritualized
+passover was to be only till those to whom it had been recommended, had
+arrived at a state of religious manhood, or till they could enjoy the
+supper which Jesus Christ had commanded at Capernaum; after which
+repast, the Quakers believe they would consider all others as empty, and
+as not having the proper life and nourishment in them, and as of a kind
+not to harmonize with the spiritual nature of the Christian religion.
+
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND VOLUME
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #15261 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15261)