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?