In reading your discourses my attention was particularly engaged by the
sermon delivered at Newtown, in Bucks County, and it did seem to me so
much at variance with the principles which induce the Quakers to
assemble for public worship, that were there no other evidence, it would
be sufficient to prove that you are not under the guidance of that
spirit, by which, in former days, their ministers were governed.
That society believe that the great object of such assembling is to
endeavour, by shutting out all external things, to discipline the mind
to that pure and silent worship and waiting upon God, in which they may
experience Christ to be their shepherd and teacher; and although this
solemn silence may sometimes be profitably interrupted for the purposes
of admonition, instruction and encouragement, yet that no minister can,
(when under right direction,) expatiate on topics irrelevant to the
subject.
A little examination must, I think, convince us that your sermon, so far
from being delivered under such impressions, carries on the face of it,
the proof of a mind struggling for distinction: and that in this effort,
much has been introduced foreign to the subject on which you professed
to treat, and however innocent in itself, very unsuitable to the place,
and peculiarly calculated to withdraw the mind from the object for which
the assembly were ostensibly gathered.
You commence your sermon by stating your apprehensions that there are
individuals who are not sufficiently impressed with the necessity of
order and discipline in society, and seem to consider it your duty to
convince them of its importance. To a plain understanding this does not
appear difficult, for the arguments in favour of it are so palpable,
that a very few minutes indeed, would be sufficient to any one not in
the habit of multiplying words, to establish it beyond all controversy.
You, however, seem never disposed to take the common road: the arguments
would be but the repetition of a thrice told tale, and would therefore
command no extraordinary attention: they might beget conviction, but
would not produce _that effect_ upon the audience, which, if not always
the object, is so dear to the orator.
But in deviating from the road, you have lost yourself in the
wilderness; and such has been your entanglement, that after all the time
which you consumed, I am sure there was not an individual present in the
meeting, who could tell what you really meant by discipline, how it is
to be established, or in what manner it is to be enforced. I form this
opinion from having read the sermon: for with all the advantages of
frequent recurrence to particular passages, and of re-perusal, I found
it very difficult to form any idea of your meaning: how then could your
audience, with none of these advantages, in the very few moments in
which they could preserve unbroken the slight concatenation of your
ideas, encumbered as they are with references unconnected with the
subject, receive any information or instruction from them. If I am
correct in my conclusion, and sure I am that no one who heard you can
contradict me, it must follow, that being incomprehensible to those to
whom it was addressed, it could not proceed from the suggestions of true
wisdom.
After a few observations on the subject of discipline, you give to your
audience a kind of lecture on astronomy. Had you confined yourself to
recalling to their recollection the wonderful harmony in the works of
the Almighty, it would not have been incongruous; but to enter into a
long dissertation on the sun, moon, and stars, and on vacuum and
unmeasured space, was neither adapted to the place or company. It was no
doubt quite new and entertaining to such of them as had never read the
elementary treatises in use in some of our schools; and it is certainly
the most sublime of all sciences, and that in which the powers of the
human mind have been displayed in the greatest degree; yet I cannot
think you were judicious in selecting a Quaker meeting as a proper
theatre for the display of your talents, nor can I believe that your
ingenuity can make any application of the facts you have stated to the
subject of your discourse. You tell us that the sun, although it emits
so much light, never lessens; that there is harmonious and social
commune between the heavenly bodies;[19] that the earth, if kept too
long in the cold, would grow heavier, and falling from its proper place,
derange the other bodies; that the moon has a great effect upon our
globe, &c. &c. The moon, we know, is thought by many to have a
considerable influence on the imaginations of men in certain situations,
but I never heard that such influence had any effect in producing good
order and discipline, and no one supposes that the rays of the sun can
throw any light upon the subject. Besides you ought to have recollected
that you were subjecting yourself to the charge of ingratitude; for
surely the men of science must think you ungrateful in availing yourself
so largely of those labours, which you have endeavoured to persuade your
friends are a curse to mankind.[20]
Footnote 19:
This information, I must acknowledge, is an exception to the
generality of my assertion, for I do not believe it is contained in
any of the elementary books I have mentioned; nor do I think it can be
found in the writings of either Newton or Herschell, or that either of
them, although so long engaged in examining the planetary system, were
so fortunate as to observe any of these bodies at the moment when they
were engaged in these friendly conversations. Perhaps the author has
been led into a mistake by some obstruction in his glass, like a
celebrated member of the Royal Society, who announced the discovery of
an elephant in the moon, which, on examination, was found to be only a
mouse in his telescope.
Footnote 20:
Sermons, page 53 and 55.
I am not so ignorant of the situation of the Society of Friends, as to
be uninformed of the uneasiness which is felt by some of its members
under its established rules of order and discipline; and as I know that
your preaching was one of the principal causes of it, I did think it of
some importance to endeavour to ascertain your opinions on the subject.
It was indeed a laborious work to travel through the many pages over
which they are dispersed; to remove the various matters with which they
were encumbered, and collect the scattered fragments. Yet after all my
toil, I found my work not half accomplished. These fragments when
brought together, were of such various sizes and colours, so diversified
in shape, and heterogeneous in their materials, that it surpassed my
skill to arrange them in any way consistent with order and propriety;
and if the knowledge of them can afford any instruction, it must be from
the striking contrast between their wild deformity, and the rational
rules of order and discipline which they are intended to supersede.
You say that all aversion to order and discipline arises from the want
of a right knowledge of ourselves: that when we come to this right
knowledge, we shall be so perfect in these things, that there will be no
contests or divisions among us: that all order and discipline must be
fixed by the divine Lawgiver, and that then it cannot be violated; and
therefore that all attempts to censure or control a member must proceed
from those who counterfeit its meaning, in order to _lord_ it over
others: that each member of society is in himself a little world, which,
if kept in right order and subjection, all would be harmony and
discipline; but, when this is not the case, all attempts to enforce them
tend to increase the confusion: that we all have the law within
ourselves, therefore order and discipline must never be contrived by
mortals: that the Quaker discipline is unsound, because it is in the
letter; but that there are some true Quakers, and that each of these has
all discipline and order within himself.
Now what is all this? Is it not a second growth of that _Fungus_ which
was engendered in the hot bed of fanaticism many years past; and has not
the sober sense of the humble Christian, or the wit and humour of a
Butler, been able to eradicate it from the soil of the Christian church?
Are we again to have among us those men above ordinances, who mistake
confusion for order, and the destruction of our faith for the
consummation of religion?
These questions must present themselves to every mind when examining
your opinions; for, when stripped of all glosses, and exhibited in their
genuine colours, they mean that all written rules of order and
discipline are restraints upon the liberty of the saints: that no rules
should be established by men, for that every man has the rule written in
his own heart, and that there alone he is accountable.
That no man is accountable to another for his religious belief, and that
every man has a right to worship in the way which he may believe most
acceptable to his Creator, are undeniable truths; but as the different
Christian sects have congregated on account of a unity in their
religious tenets, and assemble together for the purpose of uniting in
divine worship, they have a right, and, (if they are firm in their
belief,) it is their duty, to establish such rules and regulations as
will best preserve their religion in, what they believe to be, its
greatest purity; and in an especial manner to prevent the preaching of
doctrines adverse to it. And this is no infringement of the liberty of
conscience; for any man who dissents from their doctrines may separate
himself from them; he may unite himself with any other sect; or if, in
his career, his spiritual knowledge has set him above all ordinances, he
may erect his own standard, and, unrestrained by forms and unfettered by
creeds, he may give the utmost strain to his imagination, and perhaps
become himself the head of a sect. But no casuistry can justify, or
pretence excuse a man, who continues to be ostensibly the member of a
religious community, for the purpose of undermining its principles or
destroying the belief in its tenets. Let him believe them erroneous and
the substitutes he offers unquestionably true; it alters not the case.
The source will be impure, and the waters which flow from it, tainted.
If the mind can be brought to conceive the possibility of the existence
of a society formed according to your rules and orders of discipline, it
must present itself to the imagination in all the sublime confusion of
another chaos--you may offer yourself to explain the word of God, and
you will be reminded that this is all in the letter: you may tell them
that the Scriptures may be read to advantage, when all things in them
have been previously revealed;[21] and they may reply, that reading them
will then be quite unnecessary--you may exhort them to assemble together
for the purpose of divine worship, "for that then we should be
instructed what to do, and how to bring our offerings, to be handed over
to the priest, so that they may be made acquainted with our state, and
may preach the true gospel to us;"[22] and they may tell you "that such
assemblies are not the places to gather spiritual food."[23] If you are
asked why you waste so much time in preaching, you will tell them "the
reason is plain; that although the letter directs us to the law, and
nothing else can teach us, yet we flee from it; and therefore outward
instruments are raised up and clothed with power:"[24] and they may
reply that this is also the letter, and "that the Lord is too kind to
send them away for instruction; and that he is always present, a
schoolmaster to every soul."[25] If you explain to them your own growth
and experience in spiritual knowledge, they will ask you of what use it
can be to them, and tell you, "that each individual requires a law
peculiar to himself; and that the law of the Spirit of Life in one, is
not the law of the Spirit of Life in another"[26]--and if, (adopting
this opinion,) you should declare to them that the law of the Spirit of
Life is different in each individual, some of your audience may assert,
"that the divine law which is written by the finger of God upon the
tablet of our hearts, is the same to every individual"[27]--and if
fatigued with these objections, you should express your surprise at
their number, inconsistency and futility, you will be told that they are
all furnished by yourself.
Footnote 21:
Sermons, page 313.
Footnote 22:
Sermons, page 248.
Footnote 23:
Sermons, page 275.
Footnote 24:
Page 52.
Footnote 25:
Sermons, page 51.
Footnote 26:
Sermons, page 51.
Footnote 27:
Sermons in New York, page 124.
If, then, the great founder of the sect is yet so indistinct in his
vision, what must be the situation of those who are less advanced in the
religious experience of your new school? If he is so frequently involved
in contradictions, what must be the accumulated mass when collected
together?
Should your project be realised, and such a congregation assembled,
those who, like yourself, search the Scriptures for types and figures,
may, with much less violation of probability than occurs in your
discourses, consider the meeting as a consummation of that confusion of
tongues typified in the building of the Tower of Babel.