BX lt3!f 0^7 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Date Due Rpn n%\ L r W^t-z l~I964ifl ^>rt< --^^Hl^sIlTl ~ lybo M " mi 2 D nm^ ; (MH \a OEfctV L^ B PRINTED IN U. a. H. (t^ NO. 29233 Cornell University Ubrary BX7734 .C87 Quakerism not Chrlstlanitv: or Reasons olln 3 1924 029 464 975 The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029464975 aUAKERISM' NOT CHRISTIANITY OR, REASONS FOR RENOUNCING THE DOCTRINE OF FRIENDS. is xhTri; 'kt^^ PARTS. -»-^ y- BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D. Patior of the Laightsireet Presbyterian Church; and for twenty years Member of the Society of Friends. Judge not according to the appearance ; but judge righteous judgment. John, 7 ; S5. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord ; and what wisdom is in them ? Jer. 8 : 0. We llave renounced the hidden things ofdishonesty ; not wallcing in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth, conunonding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Cor. 4 i S. PRINTED BY D. FANSHAWvV V < ', - SOLD BY JONATHAN LEAVITT, 182 Broadway, New- York: AND CROCKER & BREWSTER, 47 WASHINGTON-ST. BOSTON. 1833. 6^ -/ 73 f Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by Samdbi, Hah- SON Cox, D. D., in the Clerk's Office of the Distdct Court of the Southern District of New-Yorlc. /l7o-SL.(^-& ADVERTISEMENT. The reader is respectfully requested to consult in his Bible the passages to which reference is made in this work ; especially those which, after such reference, are discussed or expounded without being quoted at large. The quotations of latin and other passages, which are improvidently too numerous for correct taste, it may be, have been on review mostly retained, as the chief objec- tion to them is perhaps neutralized by the consideration that they are generally translated, or their meaning is sufficiently indicated by the scope or connection of the argument, which they are designed in some way to sub- serve. The notes are embodied at the end of the volume, as more favorable to method and compactness, if not pre- ferable also on the score of utility. Many peculiar or singular expressions, and some repe- titions of thought, occur incidentally and unavoidably in a treatise of this special nature — and often with a relative aspect which all readers will not equally discern. The table of contents following, has been arranged to serve also as a general index. Let it be remembered that principles not persons are here assailed; the system, not purposely the indivi- duals who hold, more than those who deny it. The system is viewed mainly in its religious aspect only, and contrasted with the system of the scriptures; and thence pronounced to be fundamentally erroneous. Let the publication be so regarded and judged — especially by those who believe that it is no advantage to be edified for eternity on a false foundation. What I ask of all christians, in reference to it, whoever they may be and wherever they may reside, is simply — to do justice, and not desert the Master in regard to it ! If they will act in the fear of God, and do their duty; and defend this work so far as it defends Chris- tianity : this is all I ask of them — and this a greater than any of us demands. It would indeed grieve me to see christians siding with Quakerism against Christianity: but, even then, I should have a resource — should have, if the ninety-third psalm only was " written for our learn- ing, that we through patience and comfort of the scrip- tures might have hope." errata. Last line but one, on page 22 — serene for screen. Line 18, on page 29 — curtained for continued. Page 112, line 8 — desiring for devising. Page 263, line fifth from the bottom — eminently for evidently. Page 420, last line but one — secret for secrets. 8C|- Other typographical inaccuracies will be perceived, which it seems im- possible wholly to prevent ; especially as a nev/ orthography, half introduced, mystifies the operatives at the printing-office, ever and anon, between the Walk- crian and Websterimi style and authority. CONTENTS, PART FIRST. Page. Address to certain ministers of the gospel, ... 9 Their probable estimate of Qua- kerism, . . .10 Sentiments of Dr. Alexander, 11 Friends a soeiety, not a church, 13 The author's conversion, . 15 Reluctance to leave Friends, . 33 Visit to Elias Hicks, ■. . 33 " Dealings" at Philadelphia, . 39 Decision to profess Christianity, 44 Dedication to the ministry, . 46 Disownment by Friends, note 14, 46 Style of this work, . . 48 Barclay, the greatest author of Friends, . . .50 Logic, 52 Friends averse to classical learn- ing, 56 Uncharitableness, . . .61, Schism in the body, . . .68 Believing what we cannot under- stand, 80 Distinction between the mode and the fact, 81 George Fox, note 17, . 90 Mystery 91 1 Tim. 3 : 16, . . .93 Which party are primitive Friends, 94 Journal of George Fox, . . 101 His miracles, . • . . 104 Apostates, , . . . . 108 Rom. 9 : 1-3, note 23, . .111 Motives of the author, . . 1 12 Predicament of a censurer, . 115 Sophisms of Friends, • . 118 The Apostles, . .121 1 Tim. 5 : 24, 25, . . . 127 Inspired Interpretation, . . 131 Heb. 2:9, . . . .133 1 Cor. 15 : 22 134 The resurrection of the body, . 135 Education of Friends, . . 142 Tlieir excellences, . . 147 Harshness, . 151 Sincerity, . 160 Sentiments of Dr. Miller, . . 166 Priest-craft, . 167 Confidence, . 175 Irreligious sages, . 178 Changing one's religion, . . 183 Union of the evangelical ministry, 184 Sectarianism, .... 190 Orthodoxy not illiberal, . 195 Success — a criterion, . . 197 Forbearance and evidence, . 198 Quotation from Dr. Woods, . 199 Quotation from Dr. Beecher, . 202 Quakerism, a synopsis, . 207 Infidels prefer Quakerism, . . 216 Trinity, 217 War, 234 Washington's opinion, . . 245 The pacification of the world, . 255 Conclusion, . . . 266 PART SECOND. Mottos 261 Principles, .... 263 Quotation from Dr. Fitch, . . 267 Positions of truth, . . 268 Title of this work, what it means, 277 Definition of Christianity, . . 279 Radicalism and innovation, 281' Inward light, the grand error, . 282 Incapable of definition, . . 284 Conscience all the thing at which they blindly aim, . . 286 The Spirit, . . 291 1 John, 4 : 1-3, . . . 292 Confession of Friends, . . 295 Scriptures superfluous, . . 298 Different modes of getting rid of them, 299 Inward-light patriotism, . . 305 Rom. 8 : 14, . . . 309 Inspired actions, . . .311 They make God himself to be — a rule of action, . . . 313 All they truly know comes from the Bible/ . • -316 Inward light among the heathen, 322 Anecdote, .... 328 No salvation but that of Christ, 337 Practice of the apostles, 339 Their preaching, . 346 Influences of the Spirit, . . 347 Views of Friends, . . . 362 Quakerism chance-begotten, . 363 The catholic views not those of Friends, . . . 366 Texts not in the Bible, . . 369 " Winked at," . . .370 Dr. Waugh, anecdote, . . 372 Sin of perverting the gospel, 376 The scripture vainly quoted to support their views, . . 377 Barclay's great proof-texts ex- amined, .... 379 Gen. 6:3, . . . .330 Antediluvians, . . . 384 Facilities of tradition, . 394 Kom. 10 : 8, . . . .395 The word of God, . . .393 Justification, .... 404 Barclay's view, . . . 417 John, 1:9 424 Mistakes of inspiration, 432 Tit. 2: 11, .... 433 1 Cor. 12 : 7, . . . 438 Plenary inspiration of Fox, 440 Peculiar testimonies, . . 445 Isai. 38 : 16, , . 448 Isai. 30 : 81, the inward teacher, 449 2 Pet. 1 : 19, ... 450 Fox in Nottingham steeple-house, 451 Naked " for a sign ;" note 55, . 454 Friend Bevan, .... 454 Catacombs of Paris, . . 460 Sentiments of the General Assem- bly of tlie Presbyterian church, 462 What saith the scripture, . . 466 Quotation from Bishop M'll- vaine's Evidences, . . 468 Quotation from Josephus, . 472 Isai. 8 : 19-22, . . . .477 Accountability, .... 480 Barclay's vitiation of 2 Tim. 3 : M-17, 487 Sealing of the canon, Good things in the theatre. Conclusion, PART THIRD. Mottos, A sacrament. Baptism, Apostolic practice, 1 Pet. 3:21, 1 Cor. 1 : 14-17, Lay baptism, Matth. 3 : 13-15, Subjects and mode, Eph. 4:5, In the name of, . The Lord's supper, Friends' view, ICor. 11: 17-34, 2 Cor. 5 : 18-21, ' Friends,' three fee. Cardinal's hat, . Beauties of nature, Restraint, .... Quakerism waning and to wane, Col. 2 : 20-23, . The Christian ministry, Life-devotement, How Barclay was converted, A call to the ministry, Temporal support, Matth. 10 : 8, . Example of Paul, Anecdote, Very ancient Friends, The first gratis preacher, Value of the ministry. Female preachers. The rule. Their prohibition not partial, lo- cal, or temporary, Flattery of the sex. The proper sphere of female usefulness, Saying of Dr. Mason, The Bible commended to Chris- tians, Conclusion, Notes, 490 501 503 THIS VOI.1JME Is particularly and most respectfully addressed to the Reverend Archibald Alexander, D. D. S. T. P. Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. Samuel Miller, D. D. , do. do. Leonard Woods, D. D. S. T. P. do. Andover, Mass, James Richards, D. D. S. T. P. do. Auburn, N. York. Matthew La Rue Perrine, D. D. do. do. Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D. S. T. P. do. Yale College, Con. Lyman Beecher, D. D. S. T. P. Lane do. Cincinnati,' Ohio. " George A. Baxter, D. D. S. T. P. Union do. Virginia. Edward D. Griffin, D. D. President of Williams' College, Massachusetts. Heman Humphrey, D. D. do. Amherst do. do. Jeremiah Day, D. D. LL. D. do. Yale do. Connecticut. Eliphalet Nott, D. D. do. Union do. N. York. Joshua Bates, D. D. do. Middlebury do. Vermont. John McDowell, D. D. Pastor of the 1st Pres. Church, EliBabethtown, N. J. Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D. Pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y. Ezra Styles Ely, D. D. do. 3rd do. Philadelphia. * I Insert this name with great pleasure here — though the place was re- served for another, now " triumphantly " removed to a happier world ; whom I better knew than I have been privileged to know his worthy and honored successor ; and whom it suits the feelings of my heart to commemorate, as best I may, since I can no more — except that I may strive to imitate and com- mend the example of one of the most useful and consistent characters in the christian ministry ; one of the most judicious and sound divines, which our country and our church had to lose or has been called to mourn. I need not write his name. A thousand fleshly tablets and some more durable mon- uments, record and will consecrate it in the gratitude of coming ages ! For strangers, however, it may be necessary 1 refer to the late Rev, John Holt Eicb, D. D. of Virginia. 6 Samuel Fisher, D. D. Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Patterson, N. J. * Thomas H. Skinner, D. D. Pastor of the 5th Presbyterian Church, Philad. t Thomas McAuley, D. D. LL. D. do. 10th do. do. James M. Mathews, D. D. do. South Dutch Church, N. York. and Chancellor of the University of the city of New York. Thomas De Witt, D. D. Assoc. Pastor of the Coll. Dutch Churches, N. Y. John Woodbridge,'D. D. Pastor of the Bowery Presbyterian Church, N. Y. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D. Sec. of the Am. B. of Com. for F. Missions. Benjamin H. Rice, D. D. Assoc. Sec. of the American Home Miss. Society. Justin Edwards, D. D. Cor. Sec. of the American Tem. Soc. Andover, Mass. * Now (lately inaugurated) Theological Seminary, Andover, Mas.?, t Now Pastor (lately installed) of the Murray-street Presbyterian church, N. York. PART FIB.SX. INTRODUCTION MISCELIiANEOUS. Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ; as it is written, Rom. 3 : 4. And that from a child thou hast known the holy sckiptdres, which ARE ABLE TO MAKE THEE WISE UNTO SALVATION THEOUGH FAITH WHICH IS m Christ Jesvs. 2 Tim. 3 : 15. God — spake in time past unto the fathers ey the prophets. Heb. 1:1. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Psalm 138 : 2. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye re- ceived THE WORD or God which ve heard op vs, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 1 Thess. 3 : 13. And he said unto them. Full well [very piously] ye reject the command- ment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition ; making the wjjrd of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered : and many such like things do ye. Mark, 7 : 9, 13. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the com- mandments of men. Mark, 7 : 7. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. Luke, 16 : 17. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God : because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John, 4 : 1. To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no-light in them. Isaiah, 8 : 20. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. Jer. 48 : 10. ; CIVAKERISM NOT CHRISTIANITY! OR REASONS FOR KENouirciira the doctrinb of tthsxshs. Fathers and Brethren, My veneration for your common character as ministers of the gospel of our glorious Lord, in- duces the present liberty which I adventure to take w^ith your names. From no spirit of ostentation, and vv^ith no desire to commit you before the public for the contents of these pages, do I avail myself of the privilege. Nor, much as I esteem the depth and the correctness of your theological erudition, do I addict myself to call any one of you Father, in a sense vi^hich may imply a diminution of my own re- sponsibility to Christ, or his obscuration as the only Bishop of bishops rightfully acknowledged in the church. But, as I suppose there is a substantial oneness of theological sentiment among you, in which I may humbly account myself to participate; as I know you will approve of every reasonable at- tempt to vindicate " the holy scriptures " against all who contradict or degrade them ; as I am per- suaded of your enlightened disapprobation, in com- mon with all consistent christians, touching the 10 erroneous conceptions of the Society of Friends, especially in the matter of the end and office of scriptural Revelation; as I know you can] as well appreciate my feelings and sentiments in the pre- mises, perhaps, as any persons who have never been by education faithfully imbued with their pecuhar mistakes ; as I sincerely value your christian and official qualities, and am delighted on any occasion, as on this, to publish my deep reverence for both ; though you are distributed to different spheres and distant scenes of usefulness ; yet, aiding one cause, preaching one gospel, having the same Master, the same motive, the same glorious and incomparable hope, I have judged it proper to prefix your names to this Introduction, and formally to address its pages, and virtually the entire publication, to your- selves : " though it may serve no other end " than to evince unity in the greatest and best pursuits, the communion of christian brotherhood, and the joint inheritance of all the disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is certain, moreover, that your concurrence, in reprobating the errors of the Quakers, is in the main entire. I consider you, therefore, as representing the common creed of Christendom, or rather of all enlightened protestants, in opposition to the system of Friends. I consider you as constituting for the time a moral court, before whom I may plead the cause of truth, and whose award, whether tacitly or formally announced, the christian public will re- spect, I doubt not, as well advised, principled and unanimous ; for, in such a case, it is not learning, 11 piety and independence, that wavers or quails to human prejudice. It will not be doubted that the sentiments of one of you, as cursorily expressed in illustration of a kindred subject, may be applied especially to this, and fully considered as the sentiments of you all. " The other opinion referred to, is that of fanatics in general, who, whilst they confess that the scrip- tures are divinely inspired, imagine that they are possessed of the same inspiration. And some, in our own times, have proceeded so far as to boast of revelations, by which the scriptures are entirely superseded, as a rule of faith and practice. Now, the difference between these persons and the holy men of God who wrote the scriptures, consists in two things. First, the inspired writers could give some external evidence, by miracles or prophecy, to prove their pretensions ; but enthusiasts can furnish no such evidence ; and, secondly, the productions of the prophets and apostles were worthy of God, and had his impress ; but the discourses of those men, except what they repeat from scripture, are wholly unworthy their boasted origin, and more re- semble the dreams of the sick, or the ravings of the insane, than the words of truth and soberness." * Fanatical persons, who " cannot teach, and will not learn," abound in the daughter and the mother country, and are not confined to any particular com- munity of professing or pretending christians. They are found in Scotland, Ireland, the United States, and throughout the christian world. It would be equally fatiguing and unnecessary to write their 12 different names. But whatever differences distin- guish them, they all agree in the matter of degrading THE ONLY INSPIRED VOLUME ; and doing this, while- we leave them to the disposal of the " blessed and only Potentate," we can neither join in the worldly acclaim that praises their deeds of goodness, nor recognise them as members of the church visible of our glorious Lord. This, they and the world, their sympathetic allies, ought at least to know. If they are real christians, they will be so saved at last ; and^Our joy will, we trust, be full, when we witness the event in eternity. In time, however, we can acknowledge no man without the distinctive signals — not of a party, but of Christ. It may be a ques- tion how far the imperfection of those signals may extend without destroying their competency ; and that question we may hesitate to answer, since, ad- mitting the defects of all, it is difficult to know with how much error, ignorance and eccentricity, piety may co-exist. " Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure ; having this seal, the Lord know- eth them that are his ; and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'''' Signals also are not vitals, however necessary in their place ; and when they become vitiated and ambiguous in a high degree, even where the vitals possibly exist, we do not decide on the latter, when we so far pass upon the former as to withhold all christian recog- nition and fellowship, from the erratic or disguised individuals that carry them. The matter is much the same, when all the king's signals are superseded by those of private invention and preference, or 13 when they are So mangled as really to forego their original form, color, and'proportion. There are few religious radicals, however, who have so boldly re- trenched the total livery of the service, as those christians of their own sort, who profess to be, very properly, not a church, but a " Society ;" not brethren, but " Friends ;" and who often, in their public statements, and sometimes in the peculiar symbols of their faith, think it quite sufficient, where we all expect some show at least o^ divine warrant for their singularities, to use, " Friends believe ; the society prefer ; it is our custom ; it was the opinion of ancient Friends ; we are content to adopt ; it ap- pears manifest to us ; it was the practice of early Friends ;" and other such phrases innumerable ; which, though quite habituated with them, are as incapable of convincing any well disciplined mind, as they are destitute of all rational evidence. If it was the office of faith to create its own objects, and a thing became true simply because one believed it, the reality of faith would be the criterion of truth ; the monstrosities of distempered fancy would be- come identical with the realities of godliness ; and every insane zealot would create a new universe for himself! How melancholy the delusion of enthu- siasts ! " For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Al- mighty. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers." Job, 15 : 25, 26. " Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity ; for vanity shall be his recompense," 31. But very certainly do they know, whose knowledge has cost 14 them no labor, intellectual or moral ; and very clear- ly do they see, who discern intuitively all mysterips, actual, possible, and transcendental ! The conviction that comes without evidence, or with that only which it makes for itself, is very strong and venturous, as well as ordinarily incorrigible. To doubt its demon- strations, is profane ! To question its dogmas, is in- fidel ! To contradict its hallowed audacity, is abso- lutely impious ! And thus their career is sped. But will the eternal frame of things give way to them '? Alas ! it is impregnable. Its structure is more dura- ble, changeless, and excellent, than their inspired imaginings perceive. To fall on a certain " stone," is to break, not it, but one's self: but to have that stone fall on us, is the judicial method of God, in " grinding to powder" his adversaries. Luke, 20 : 18. Hence they voluntarily and wantonly elaborate their own ruin. The moral enactments of God are the strongest fixtures in the universe. Jer. 31 : 35, 37 ; Matth. 24 : 35. Our temporal and eternal salvation must, in every instance, prosper or fail, in accord- . ance — not in contravention — to the laws of his own unalterable constitution. The rock must fall, when loosened ftom on high Or — gra-vitation cease, when you go by ! But this is what enthusiasts do not credit, or vision- aries see. They seem to think they can certainly control or reverse eternal laws, if they are only faithful and sincere ! And yet what is their history 1 Their bones whiten the plain, to warn succeeding pilgrims ! Instead of changing the universe, they 15 only confound themselves ! Instead of altering the truth of God, they wildly sin against his nature and his name ! Instead of realizing their selfish antici- pations of his favor, their reckless temerity merely Challenges his wrath ! Of this he has fully warned them : " Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that com- pass yourselves about with sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand ; ye shall lie down in sorrow." Isaiqji, 50 : 11. Ever since the charm of Quakerism, in which I had been nurtured, was dissolved by the unmystical verities of the Bible, I have held it my especial duty to publish something for the benefit of others, that might evince the main articles of difference be- tween the two systems. As already intimated, you, fathers and brethren, can know experimentally al- most nothing of the long troublous agony attendant on such a revolution ! In ordinary conversions from sin to Christ, it is in general adventitiously neces- sary to experience bitterness, anguish, and even convulsion of soul ; I say adventitiously, for all this results not from the constitution of the gospel, or the nature of religion ; but from the embattled ele- ments of human pride, ignorance, and obstinacy, as they clash with the ethereal armor of the Al- mighty. But in a conversion from deep-seated and sanctimonious error, there are superadded and ter- rible obstacles to be surmounted. Often, especially in the first stages of the influence of truth, did I feel the terrific contest ! Often the strength of hal- lowed prejudice rose in its vigor to contradict the 16 plain and " true sayings of God !" Often had I to read it again and again, in the page of genuine in- spiration, before I could realize the conviction that I had been speciously deceived by a thousand tes- timonies of a counterfeit inspiration ! So great was my jealousy of influence from all Anti-Quaker in- structors, that I received the books of their wisdom vpith dread, and laid them aside unperused, that I might " search the scriptures " alone. Providence had placed me, more than a year before that crisis — memorable to me, in a village (Newark, N. Jersey) where the Society had not one nominal member, with the exception of myself. There I often en- countered those who differed from me, and with whom I was always prompt to argue in favor of the tenets in which I had been educated. That I argued uniformly, and with high conviction at least, many living witnesses can attest ; and what sorely worst- ed me in the argument, generally, was — the apt and frequent quotation of texts, of whose scriptural ex- istence I was ignorant ! One female disputant, who, though not ineloquent, was fluent, and pointed, " and mighty in the scriptures ;" the venerable, and now, I trust, glorified ^ Mrs. Douglass, (wife of the excellent, and also, I trust, glorified person^ with whom I then boarded,) a lady to whom, under God, I am happy in the opportunity of recording my deep obligations ; she ever succeeded in disputation, by that celestial weaponry with which I was unpro- vided, and which she used, with skill and courage, against the light within and all its arrogant mani- festations. / attribute my conversion to Christianity 17 very much instrumentaUy to her wisdom, benevolencB, and valor, for the truth .' If I constructed a syllogism that appeared to me invincible, and confidently pro- pounded the premises for her admission, that I might force her to admit the conclusion also, she" would exclaim, " You are all wrong, my child, ill premise and conclusion both ; your soul is as blind as the inward light can make it ; you are dead in tres- passes and sins, destitute of every spark of godli- ness, and must be born again, thoroughly changed in your thoughts, affections, and reasonings, or you will be certainly lost." She would then aptly quote some passages from the Bible, which, often like ja- velins projected by the force of the warrior, pierced my bosom and left me neither peace nor hope. But still I neglected the Bible, and ruminated, more than I was willitig should be known by others, on the pos- sibility that inspiration itself, as connected with the Quakers, might be Wrong ! My father had carefully educated me in the principles of Friends ; and I may be permitted to say of him, though he lived but four days in the present century, that all his in- fluence was, so far as I can recollect, (being only in my eighth year when he* died,) very different from that of the generality of Friends ; and this, particu- larly, in the grand items of reverence for " the holy scriptures ;" a practical and conscientious regard for " the Lord's day ;" and boldness for the truth of religion among its adversaries ; uniform decision in the cause of virtue ; a nice sense of honor ; an un- feigned charitableness toward all serious chris- tians ; and an inflexible consistency of deportment. 3 18 He was an example of universal temperance ; ten- derly humane and self-denying in his officer of be- neficence, and distinguished as the friend of the black-man in all his degradations. In these re- .spects his eldest son may be allowed to pay a tear- ful, solemn, and most affectionate tribute to his "memory ! I will add, that he was often pained with the scepticism, or, at least, the looseness of principle which he observed among his people, and even their preachers, in regard to the truths of religion, the sanctity of the scriptures, and the obligation of the christian Sabbath! My venerable and sincerely honored mother had always, and with tears, follow- ed the same course of inculcation ; only that she was, more than others of the society with whom I have been acquainted, distinguished, at least, for some decision of faith in the article of Christ's vica- rious death — not that he dies, and rises, and as- cends, and intercedes, within us, (as they often say,) but that he died " without the gate" of Jerusalem, and there made an atonement for the sins of men. This / ascribe much to the fact, that her earlier education was purely Presbyterian. She was bap- tized by the excellent Dr. Sproat ^ of (Arch- street) Philadelphia ; and often listened to his instructions and exhortations with great interest — remembering many of his expressions, especially at the communion table, and venerating his devotional piety, sometimes not without tears, to the present day ! When, therefore, I found Mrs. Douglass^ so tena- cious of the scripture, so disdainful of every pre- tender to superiority or even equality with these 19 " lively oracles ;" when others also, with whom I less frequently conversed, appeared to me" possessed of thorough knowledge in religion, and really to be- lieve the eternal truth of scripture very much as I beUeved the facts of geography or the matters of daily life ; when, also, I had frequent opportunities of hearing the gospel preached, and that by diffe- rent ambassadors of God, and of witnessing the administration of the Lord's Supper as well as christian baptism ; neither of which I had ever be- fore witnessed ! I became uneasy and troubled in spirit. I knew not the cause, nor even the nature of my unhappiness. Sinners under the special in- fluence of the Spirit of God, a revival of religion, I had never s.een. I knew not that any creature had ever felt as I felt, or that there was any excellence of nature or promise in such agitation. So pungent was the misery, so undefined and unappreciated the influence, that I was not even aware of its con- nection with religion. Consequently I tried every means in my power to dissipate it. I went into company, frequented parties, invented sports, com- menced the study of the French language with an accomplished French gentleman, whose manners and society pleased me, but whose principles of fatalism, and whose habits of profligacy, shocked me ; for, to these things I had not been habituated. Finding, at last, that every effort was vain, and every resource insipid, I resolved to study more diligently, to try to excel in my profession, and to pursue this, to the exclusion of every thing else, as my supreme good, being then occupied in the office 20 of a respectable counsellor, as a student of law. Hence I studied laboriously, and with a kind of phrensied determination. I separated from asso- ciates, and tried to wear the vizor of misanthropy, that I might keep all intruders at a distance. Here a new misery disturbed me. / could not keep my mind, as formerly., on the topics and paragraphs of the law hook! Not even the style of Blackstone, of which I had always been enamoured, could retain my strangely discursive thoughts. I felt a kind of ro- mantic curiosity to study the scriptures, and made it a virtue to deny myself the pleasure. It appeared a random, unprofitable longing of the mind, that re- quired, as it received, a resolute coercion. I will stvdy, was my half angry motto. And so I did, la- boriously, and to no purpose. I went over a page, perhaps ten times, and could not retain one line or thought of it. The book appeared like " vanity," and the study like " vexation of spirit." Still I per- severed ; grew daily more wretched ; and felt that I had no friend in the world to whom I could un- bosom my sorrows and disburden my soul ! Alas ! that " friend that sticketh closer than a brother," that " laid down his life for his friends," and who in- vites us all to " come unto him," especially when " weary and heavy laden," and promises that we " shall find rest to our souls ;" who invites us to " cast all our care upon him, knowing that he careth for us ;" that unequaled friend I little knew, and had never proved ! One day, while vacantly meditating over a law book, not on its contents, but on the atheism of Diderot and other authors, officiously 21 loaned me by my French instructor, and which I had perused and returned weeks before, it was strangely impressed on my mind that I had better turn atheist, if I could, for the sake of consistency ; for he is consistent, thought I, with himself, who, nev- er worshipping God, also denies his existence ; but for me there is no such honor. I acknowledge his being, and live as if I had ascertained the contrary ! I was much agitated, but broke the somnium with my motto, I vyill study. Thus passed away my days for many weeks ; till once, when particularly chagrined at the lubricity of law in its contact with my efforts of mind to retain it, my attention was suddenly fixed and charmed with the volume. I felt a relief and a re- creation of mind such as had long been unknown. My two diverse objects were unexpectedly blended ; the desire to investigate scripture and the resolve to stvdy seemed to meet at once, and be strangely re- conciled. This unexpected pleasure was produced by the occurrence of a scriptural quotation from Matt. 5 : 25, "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him." It was in the third vo- lume of Blackstone, chap. 20, p. 298, on Pleading. The Xo^icxes^ecieA preliminary measures with the parties, with a view to produce a reconciliation and prevent a law-suit. The usage, in the opinion of that accomplished jurist, was founded on the above passage of the gospel ; which he seemed to com- mend and revere. His remarks appeared excellent and applicahle to those who have a controversy to settle with God. So I applied them ; and thought, O 22 that mine could be settled in the way before it cornea to bar!' O that there could be a liberty of im- parlance, or licentia loquendi, to " end the matter amicably without further suit, by talking with the plaintiff!" In other places^ also, my author, I re- membered, had not infrequently quoted the sayings of scripture, particularly the writings «f Moses, with reverence for the sacred volume and an implied panegyric on the Jewish lawgiver. I quickly re- verted to several instances, and compared them. Here I felt, unknown before, the impression which- atheistical writers had already made on my mind. Moses seemed a mean, deluded Jew ; and I was as- tounded that such a writer as Blackstone should so compliment his law knowledge, and admit his inspi- ration. Reflection, however, corrected the revery ; and conscience whispered, you are the weak, mean, ignorant, deluded, sinful one .' My enjoyment not- withstanding was great. I was arrested, entertain- ed, absorbed. From an ocean of agitating storms and incumbent night, I had suddenly found tran- quil moorings, open day, a hospitable welcome, and a palatable repast. Intus aquse dulces, vivoque sedilia 'saxo ; Nympharum domus ; hie fessas non vincula naves UUa tenent, unco nonalligat anchora morsu. — ^Virg. Within are waters of sweetness found. And couches of living rock surround. The home of the nymphs ; where vessels moor, Fatigued from the ocean, and rest secure. No cables fix their hulls to the strand; Nor anchor chains to nethermost land. There zephyrs of peace screen the cove ; Its breath is summer, its whisper lore. 23 I was delightfully engrossed ; and finding that to proceed with regular study was to lose the attrac- tive objects — was to launch out again into the in- clement element, and that the margin of the page on which my eye then rested, referred me to the chapter and verse of the Pentateuch where I might also study other words of that undent lawyer at large, I arose with alacrity, (being then alone in the office) and went to that corner of the library where our learned preceptor kept hi^ very valuable volumes of theology. There I found a Bible, and hastily snatching it, I was soon fixed in the perusal of the connection to which I was referred. Thus a quotation in a law-hook was, in providence, asso- ciated with my first or best convictions in religion ; it brought me to read the scriptures, and was a link in that chain of causes that ultimately bound me in a relation not (I trust) to be dissolved, to the salva- tion that is in Christ Jesus. " Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord." Psalm 107 : 43. Though my religious exercises were perhaps marked and interesting, possibly edifying, I have hitherto delayed, though often requested and some- times importuned, to write their history. My rea- sons for this were several and satisfactory. One was, that I was new in religion, and always have felt a dread of dishonoring that holy name by which I am called, and sometimes (not habitually) an awful fear of ultimate rejection. This may seem strange to some who know that I profess the doctrine of the perseverance, or rather the conservation, of all genuine 24 believers. It would not, however, seem strange to them if they also knew that doctrine ; of which. I have no doubt at all, and am just as fully assured of it, as that these words and a thousand others are true : "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them unto me, is greater than all ; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." John, 10: 27-30. This decisive passage, spoken to malignant Jews, is immediately preceded by these words : " But ye believe not ; be- cause ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you." 26. I believe and am sure that such is the doctrine of the total Bible, and that there is not one text that asserts the contrary, or that does not rather imply and teach the infallible perseverance of all real christians ; and this, after a very thorough exami- nation of all the passages upon which some super- ficially rely to prove that chance, or Satan, or some other agent, " is able to pluck " the sheep of Christ out of his hands. Apostates from the faith might have had the experiences of " stony-ground " hear- ers, each of whom " dureth for a while, yet hath he no root, in himself;" but they were always actuated by some bad motive of deceit or sin, and so were al- ways graceless. " They went out from us, because they were not of us." 1 John, 2 : 19. But what of all this 1 Does this ascertain or imply that I am a christian, and shall not yet apostatize, and finally perish 1 Not at all f There is rational space for self- 25 diffidence and self-examination ; yea, there is no DOCTRINE THAT SO MUCH INSPIRES BOTH, aS that which I have just stated and confessed : nor are there any religionists whose personal assurance or presumption is so daring and void of all humility, as some, I might say many, who hold the opposite doc- trine ! Yes ! persons who believe, they say, that there are no spiritual attainments inconsistent vdth eventual perdition possible to he made in this world, are the very persons whose confidence of ultimate salvation is at once most towering and secure ! Having however lived twenty years in the school of Christ, and "by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," Gal. 2: 20, and being convinced that some history of my change oilght to accompany this treatise, I do very diffi- dently consent to the sketching of its outlines as herewith presehted, in the hope that the recital may benefit some readers, and will injure none. It ought however to be remembered that an outline is not a full picture ; and that the best finishing of a truth-directed sketch is that of a corresponding per- sonal experience. Still, experiences are not the gospel : they are the mere results of the gospel, in its operation, in given circumstances, on the mind and heart and life of an individual. Without more detail of incidents, dear to my me- mory, but of less interest to others, suffice it that I now commenced the reading of the scriptures alone, and in good earnest. My solemn purpose was to explore the sacred book, and know from itself what it contained, and what were the internal proofs 4 26 of its divinity. Conviction increased as I proceeded, and soon became overpowering. But here several things occurred to dissuade me, in vain, from de- cision in so plain and so high a course of duty. Among others, these two : first, " If you accredit the Bible, and adopt it as your highest rule in religion, what will become of the inward light ?" I saw that they were two, and rivalrous of each other's claims ; and that no Quaker could consistently appropriate the Bible according to its own demands as the word of God. Again, the awful revolution in all my so- cial relationships, which must inevitably ensue, as the consequence of " obedience to the heavenly vision," hy the scriptures manifested to my mind. These things, with others that I omit to name, held me in a suspense of agony. I was alone, and no mortal knew or sympathized with the solemn hour. The scenes of a future world ; the sanctions of eternity ; the insignificance of time ; the worth of the soul; the absolute necessity of obedience; the solemnity of the crisis ; the supremacy of the divine judgment in the case ; and the safety of securing the approbation of God ; together with the certain conviction that, at all events, there could be no ulti- mate danger in adhering " to the law and to the tes- timony;" since, whatever might be true, with respect to my old doctrine of " the light within," must be somewhere indicated in a volume whose truth Friends themselves admitted. These con- siderations, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, at last prevailed ; my knees bowed, my soul bowed with them, for the first time in my life ; I wor- 27 /(hipped, prayed, and solemnly devoted myself to the Author of my being and the hope of my soul, to he his for ever, to follow Jesus Christ " through good report and evil report ;" and by his " strength made perfect in weakness," to glorify him in the ways of truth, through time and through eternity. As soon as I had made this surrendry, conscious as I was of its unspeakable solemnity and perfect irretrievableness, I was assaulted with a fierce temptation^ with a succession of " fiery darts of the wicked " one, all mainly in this form : You have made a vow which you will never keep ; you have perjured your soul forever ; you are lost ! You be religious ! You are a hypocrite, a fool, a fiend ! You will apostatize in less than three weeks, and, at last, make your bed in hell — a hateful, ruined wretch ! Alas ! thought I, it is certainly true. I am wicked, and never felt worse than now that I wish to be good ! Here my sins began to disgorge themselves to my view. " Sin revived, and I died — and the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the command- ment holy, and just, and good." And thus it was that sin " became exceeding sinful " in my renewed perceptions. For several weeks my situation was wretched, indescribably wretched. I had plighted my being to serve my Maker ; but this implied that I should become qualified for the service that was spiritual, and filial, and august. Instead of this, it was gloom, sin, and fearful anticipation. I had 28 no peace, and hope seemed a phantom of indefinite characteristics that continually eluded my grasp. I was much alone ; " with other views of men and manners now, and others of a life to come." Forsaking, and forsaken of all friends, I now perceived where earthly pleasure ends ; Hard task for one who lately knew no care. And harder still, as learnt beneath despair. ****** God's holy word, once trivial in my view, Now, by the voice of my experience true, Seemed, as it is, the fountain whence alone Must spring that hope I longed to make my own. — Cowpek. One thing that marked this dark hour, or rather month, in my memory, was a peculiar conviction of sin ! not only of its superlatively evil nature, that deserves all that God denounces against it in his word, and that I was such a sinner as his truth de- scribes ; but that I had sinned unutterably much against his gospel, in slighting it, and specially against his holy word, in daring to, reason against it ! The insolence and the insufferable abomination of such neglect of " the oracles of God " appeared to me, as seen in the light of the goodness and the greatness of their adorable Author, astonishingly evil ! And I wondered why I was not in hell ; it seemed to me that I ought to go there, and that if I had any virtue I should approve of the righteousness and excellency of such a measure, as what ought to be. It seemed impossible that I should ever be saved — translated to those halcyon seats of God, and admitted to his holy presence for ever ! The de- 29 gree of these exercises, depending, in part, as I now suppose, upon the singular ardency of my native temperament, I do not attempt to describe; and would scarcely rehearse to my nearest friend the forms of excessive perturbation that harrowed up my soul till the fearful conflict was over ! This oc- curred one night, on my knees, by my bedside. The service of prayer had before seemed at once impossible to be, by me, either omitted or perform- ed. Then it was easy, it was delightful. How long I now continued praising rather than praying in this posture, I know not. But this I know, that my soul seemed absorbed in the glory of God — the chamber luminous with his presence, the universe glorious for his sake, while alleluias kept me de- lightfully awake until morning ! The luminous appearance of the chamber and of the bed where I lay, continued from the sight of dis- tant objects, which the darkness of a cloudy No- vember night (1812) would have rendered invisible had there been no intervening drapery to deepen it, I have purposely mentioned, and now proceed to ex- plain. A sober philosophy, as I then thought, and now know, can perfectly resolve it. The state of one's mind, in proportion to the intensity of its afffec- tions, as melancholy or mirthful, as vigorous or lan- guid, as imaginative or plodding, imparts its own character to surrounding objects ; and often indu- ces the sensation that the characteir is in the objects, and not in the mind. Nearly the same sentiment is more scientifically given by that great father of isound reasoning. Lord Bacon : " Omnes percep- 30 tiones, tarn sensus quam mentis, sint_ ex analogta hominis, non ex analogia universi ; atque intellectus humanus instar speculi imsqualis ad radios rerum, qui suam naturam naturts rerum immiscet, eamque distorquet et inficitP A little obstinate rationality, as Dr. Johnson calls it, kept me then and since from the profound or the sublime of religious en- thusiasm. Had I yielded to feeling, to imagination, and seeming revelation, at a time when the genuine influences of the Spirit of God (as I believe) had made me happy in him, and thrilled my soul with holy ravishment, I might have been a devout mad- man, inspired, or any thing else, in my own esteem. But the balance of my mind was restored by reflec- tion. " The truth and soberness " of Christianity induced that reflection, and made me know that I ought to exercise my understanding, and "try the spirits " in every direction, before I trusted them. The case of Col. Gardner^ I had previously heard or read, and it then recurred to me. Were it not, thought I, that I happen to know better, I could see and tell of prodigies, of angelic apparition and mi- raculous glory, as well as others ; and now it seems clear to me how the excellent Gardiner was de- ceived, and how thousands of religious enthusiasts first come by their commission. I ascribe it, under God, to the power of his written truth alone, that I became not then a disciple of moonshine and ex- travagance. The wonder is the greater, that I was by education predisposed to it. The spring of the aflfections, or zeal in religion, however genuine, re- quires the balance-wheel of sound scriptural in- 31 Btruction to regulate its movements and secure its utility. Much am I indebted, whom nature made so ardent, and education so moulded to enthusiasm, much do I owe to the sober voice of scripture, for all the steadiness of faith, the sobriety of character, and the uniformity of action, which I have been enabled in some degree (yet imperfectly) to exem- plify. ** Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come." Acts, 26: 22. My soul has often leaped for joy and thankfulness that the Great Shepherd hath so led and kept me ! — So will he keep for ever all who truly trust him. I would not here imply that sobriety and mode- ration were the early characteristics of my religion. I was impetuous ; decisive ; perfectly assured ; ex- tatically happy in God ; resolved to confess Jesus Christ any where ; anxious to show others the way to blessedness ; totally inexperienced ; and not properly impressed with the necessity of experi- ence in order to usefulness ; supposing I should al- ways " walk in the light, as lie is in the light," and anticipating no reverses ; ignorant of the wanton enmity 'of men actually cherished against the gos- pel ; and often inconsiderate in the way, place, time, and style, of a.ddressing them on the matters of re- ligion. In principles, however, I have always been substantially the same : nor do I know that, since the period of spiritual nativity, I have ever had one deep deliberate doubt of the truth and excel-. 32 lence of Christianity, or of the general meaning of the scriptures. Reverses however I did experienfce — just as extreme, pungent and complete, as the joys that preceded them were high ! My hope left me after a few weeks, my joys all dried away, and the deepest melancholy of darkness that could be felt embowered me. I felt that I had been deluded, hypocritical, wild in my rejoicings ; — not that I doubted religion ; I doubted only myself! Thus ex- tremes and opposites succeeded, till " tribulation wrought patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope ;" and thus " the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus," is wont to accomplish his people ; " estab- lish, strengthen, settle them ; to him be glory and do- minion for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Pet. 5 : 10, 11. I have since compared my feelings in religion to the vibrations of the pendulum of an open clock, whose first movements, when energetically started, incline almost to cover one hundred and eighty degrees of the circle ; but, gradually subsiding from extremes, and losing the momentum of extravagance, every movement becomes more regular; the deep central attraction influences more ; its motions are more or- derly and useful ; and at last it assumes that state of punctual and measured gravity which it keeps to the end of its " appointed time ; " and without which, however costly its material, or polished its exterior, or comely its proportions, it would be of no utility. That I have gained the point of perfect regularity, I am very far from asserting ; but that I have held my way, in the main, progressive, I do believe, just 33 as really as I know that I am still imperfect and have much to learn. One characteristic of ray early and subsequent re- ligion, was derived from its connection historically with thq tenets .of Friends. I read the Bible, meditated, prayed, conversed, and agonized sponta- neously for their salvation. Thousands of times, in thought, di^d I find myself in one of their meetings, with the Bible open in my hand, " expounding and testifying . the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and of the prophets, from morning till evening." / did not intend to leave the society, if I could tcith peace of conscience continue in it ; though I did in- tend, by the grace of God, to follow " the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." I accordingly put my- self in the way of conversing with the most eminent Friends in New- York and its vicinity, from whom I received no satisfaction ; and then began, more than ever, to suspect that the truth was not in them. Some Friends in this city advised that I should visit their great oracle on Long-Island for the reso- lutioftof my difficulties , and offered to accompany me. I accepted the proposal, and went in the sea- son of snow a journey of (I suppose) near thirty miles. We arrived when he was preaching in a Friends' meeting-house : as he had just begun, how- ever, we heard almost all of it. It was a declama- tory deistical piece of prosing against the resurrec- tion of the body, the error that sin is an infinite evil, and the abomination of the„ " divines, as they call themselves," whom he charged with teaching all 5 34 these fooleries. He inveighed against the doctrine of atonement in the coarsest style, in connection with his thesis that sin is no such evil as they say .' Among other things that ehcited his oractdar wrath, as I well remember, was this : some of the wicked, carnal young Friends had come to meeting that morning with bells by twenties on the gears of their sleigh-horses ; these were tethered to the trees in the immediate grounds of the meeting-house, yet not so near as to interrupt the speaker, though their sounds were audible through the closed apartments. But the preacher took a holy umbrage at the distant clatter of the bells* Music of all kinds appeared to be his aversion f and he indulged in a terrible epi- sode against the frequent noises of the bells, which he said were put there only for pride, and to do as others did; they were, he said, wholly from be- neath; for, he had no doubt, it was the spirit of the wicked One himself that prompted the dear young Friends to such a departure from the prin- ciples of the society! If the matter of putting on the bells, which has been generally thought neces- sary to the safety of passengers, and on that ac- count is sometimes required by law, had been an infinite evil, he could scarcely have denounced it with more inspired zeal or devotional nonsense ! We may regard this as an instance of the stoop- ing of inspiration, the very bathos of illumined and genuine preaching ; which, the privileged hear- ers of such prophets know very well, may ojien be witnessed in the communications of the light within. Whether Friend Hicks was inspired just then, and 35 in what degree and kind precisely, are questions which I shall not venture to discuss. Others may resolve them. It might, however, assist the grave inquirer, to settle alnother question Jirst : Was the prophet Zechariah, in the conclusion of his fourteen chapters of thrilling developement, and when speak- ing of the perfection and blessedness of the yet future and near approaching Millennial State — was he inspired t He speaks, without stooping in- deed, on the verj same topic, in a very different style, and to a very uncongenial end ! He seems to think that there was no sin, at least intrinsically, in the hells of the horses ! He says they shall all be consecrated, inscribed, made subsidiary, to the glory of Jehovah ! " In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD." Zech. 14 : 20. In the afternoon and evening of that day, I was at his house, in close and solemn conference. Many, say ten or twenty Friends, were present. They sat with their large hats on, all listening to the inspiration of their host, and exhibiting an appear- ance of solemnity by which I was well nigh over- awed-^the instinctive and heathenish awe of a Quaker ! Aware of the danger, I was resolved to resist the evil ; which I did to the astounding of the company, by venturing, at the pause of a paragraph, respectfully to ask some questions. These he al- ways attempted promptly to answer ; and always to my astonishment and grief. Our main topic was the death of Christ. He asserted most boldly that Christ made no atonement for our sins on the cross ; 36 that God required none but what the tears of the penitent could make ; that he died to show us how to crucify our sinful propensities on the cross of our faith:— this queer piece of heretical mysticism is, I think, verbally, much the same as his position, so far as I can recollect its terms. Other views were all in keeping with these ; and when I produced a host of quotations of scnptme, right in the teeth of his assertions, he grew warm, degraded the Book of God, and made up for the want of argument by resorting to sonorous prophecy. This is one of their very common and very wicked arts of evasion. When cornered with an argument or crippled with a text, they usually (their preachers, I mean) become sud- denly inspired ; and exalting their testimony above all height, put down all carnal doubts, all naughty caviling, all daring liberty of thought, in a summary way. This, though the details were worse, was the general sum of Our interview ; and I returned as I went, only moredisgusted with Quakerism than ever. Still, I loved the man, and resolved to think the best of him. Sometimes I thought, he is cer- tainly an awful deceiver, an emissary of the pit ; and then tried to believe, so recent and infirm were my doctrinal impressions, that his ignorance and education might properly reconcile the idea of his errors with the possibility of his piety.'" My com- panion, too, said all he could in his favor; but not enough to inspire me with any confidence in such a guide of souls. Thus to write of that journey, and of those who entertained me at its end, seems, I acknowledge. 37 like ingratitude : for I was received and treated every where with the kindest hospitaUty, attention, and fulness. Could these things have compensa- ted for the want of greater and better, I had been converted by their generous behavior much sooner than their arguments. This is one of the worst things about them! They lack the evidences of vital and genuine religion ; but have so many other things resembling its secondary and subordinate at- tendants, that thej/eeZsafe, and wish others to think them so, on account of these other things. Now, I am far enough from censuring their hospitable and gene- rous mode of entertaining strangers, and should not blame them if they were even more given to this no- ble conduct than many of them are : but, what I aver is, that it is worse than hoorishness and inclemency when it takes the place and becomes the im/posing sub- stitute of the religion of the Bible ! It blinds the eyes of host and guest ; while spectators at a dis- tance "judge according to the appearance" and forget " righteous judgment." Hospitality, how- ever, is only one of their sectarian virtues ; there is a whole system of influence, exactly of the same sort, that diffuses itself through all the relations of society, and deceives every man who does not truly take the Bible as his oracle. I was, therefore, not insensible to their kindness, nor ungrateful for it ; and what is much more, I was not deceived by it. Compare their courtesy and claims with the inspired mottos of the title-page of this volume ! A maturer observation has confirmed my opinion of the general emptiness of their christian pretensions. Many of 38 them, especially in the city of Philadelphia, possess the social qualities comparatively in polish and per- fection. Their famihes, some of their schools, and public institutions, are ordinarily well regulated; They have public spirit, fine manners, and good in- formation. They live upon a noble and generous scale of things ; and are evidently in the career of social and intellectual improvement. In many re- spects are they excellent and valuable members of society ; and in many meliorated and altered from primitive Friends. They have refinement, ele- gance, and worldly respectability ! In all these mat- ters I would delight to do them justice, as I sin- cerely respect and even love many of them ; while I wish nothing worse than salvation to one of them. This they may little appreciate, if they read these lines. I however record it, because it is the truth, and because others will appreciate it. I know them too well to expect the holy magnanimity that loves truth even when it condemns us ; and when I re- flect on the nature of unbelief and of Christianity, of worldly greatness and eternal glory, of the sanc- tions of God and the presurqptions of men, their graceless excellencies appear only fke worse, because they usurp the place that religion claims ; they ap- pear like Anti-Christ in the temple of God, splendid and saintly in his professions, so that " the world wonders after the beast," but false and hollow in principles,^ because an evident enemy to the cross of Christ, in which alone the apostle gloried ; and the worse an enemy, because surrounded with all the show that indicates a friend. 39 On my return I was summoned, both by my anxious mother and by the heads of the Pine-street meeting, to which I belonged, to Philadelphia. I complied ; and while there, (about two weeks,) lost no opportunity, as I thought it proper, and as my honored mother required of me, to attend all theii meetings, and to have frequent interviews with theii chief men, and to put myself sincerely in the way of receiving any explanation which might, if pos sible, reconcile it^ to my conscience to continue my birth-right membership. The uniform result of sucii occasions, when calmly compared with the doctrine of the Bible, was a deeper conviction of the funda- mental errors of the society, and that it was my duty "to go forth unto Christ without the camp, bearing his reproach : for here have we no conti- nuing city, but we seek one to come." Heb. 13 : 13, 14. Without more detail, I will state the substance of an interview which I had with a committee of the meeting appointed finally to treat with me. They were five or six in number, though at present I distinctly recollect but three of them. These were two brothers, A. and B. and a third one, say C. After sitting through a long pause, which, as they accounted it worship, I was unwiUing to disturb, I thought their embarrassment, was manifest, and hence that it was my duty to break the silence. If, said I, we are all the servants of the same Grod, and the disciples of the same Lord, we need not be afraid of each tJther. I wish you, if you please, to commence business, as time is precious, and I am prepared. I regard you as the heads of 40 the meeting to which J appertain, and hope you are Friends not '^only to each other, but to God and his servants. If you can answer my sincere scruples against your whble system, I will state them, and rejoice in their dissipation. A. We did not come here to engage in controversy. Neither did I, having no fondness for it, I assure you. But do you not " watch for souls as they that must give account f and ought you not, when a member deviates, as I appear to you to have done, to try to convince and restore him? Here some allusion was made to a letter which J had written, acknowledging theirs, informing them of my intended compliance with their request to see them, and describing my visit on Long-Island, with the doctrine I had there heard and condemned. I found that the letter had affected them unhappily : as I kept no copy, I do not remember its expres- sions ; while I doubt not that its style was energetic and peculiar, I can only vouch for its general cor- rectness. I had also felt some of the bitter fruits of that letter before my interview with the committe. Being in meeting one week-day, just as they were about to pass from worship to " business," I chose to remain. No one, indeed, but a member, had a right to do this ; but I was a member, and was con- scious of no bad motives or offence in remaining. Here one of their preachers — what is he now ? — who was of the first in that meeting, rose suddenly and beckoned me to arise and follow him. I com- plied. As soon as we had passed the door he thus- accosted me : "I think it improper that thou, who 41 hast so * vilified ' one of our noblest preachers in thy letter to the committee, shouldst remain as a member of the meeting;" I rieplied, " Am I not a member'? Did I transgress any law 1 or has any on6 member a right thus to expel another without lawj trial, or ceremony 1" He, however, was inspired and inexorable. L thought it useless to return and state the matter to the meeting, though I felt that it\<^as flStirpation and oppression. I just bowed and left the imperious zealot. At that time he was very high, inspired, and rising as a preacher, — a man of singular audacity, and, I fear, of wretched princi- ples, as he ha^ lately been convicted, by the society themselves, of some real or alleged iniquity, for which thdy have degraded and " disowned" him. I know of other oracles that once were like the urim and thummitn of old, and whom, when I doubted audibly to my relatives, it was next to impiety and treason ! But now where are theyl God forbid that I should glory over them, as I do not ! But let Friends consider ! The stars of their heaven have been shaken ; their brightest luminaries have fallen ! Any one who can recollect the preachers of Phila- delphia and its general vicinity for thirty years, ought to review the foundations of his faith in their holiness and inspiration ! I recollect and could re- hearse a multitude of facts and names that speak terribly in this relation! But I forbear. Friends there know what I mean ! When I saw, in the committee, the effect of the letter I had written, I commenced an explanation. This was not well received, for it was probably too 6 42 convincing. At lagt said C. very abraptly, "Samuel, dost thou believe the doctrine of predestination?" I regretted the question ; for sure I was that neither did they understand the subject, nor could I satis- ►fg-ctorily explain it to them. Still, as it was a plain question of fact, I replied, "I do." " What !" he i-ejoined, " that horrible doctrine ! I am astonished ! I would know why thee believes it !" I replied, " Be- cause I believe the Bible ;, and because that book very clearly reveals it." I here referred to Ephe- sians, chap. 1, and some other places. It appeared evident from his air that he did not anticipate the hardihood of so full an answer ; and I thought that he asked the question as if to awe me into a denial of what he was pleased to predestinate to condem- nation. Here the whole circle sat mute, till I turn- ed to B. whom I most respected of the company, a man seemingly of more honesty, intelligence and worth, than I commonly found among them, in argu- ment about religion. " Has^; thou, friend B. never seen," said I, turning to him and using 'the plain language,' as I did, respectfully to all of them at that time, " hast thou never read that doctrine in Paul's Epistles, as well as elsewhere throughout the Bible 1" He seemed troubled ; but at last replied, " I certainly have seen there what looked very much like it indeed!" said I, "And why then didst thou not believe itt" said he, " As I never can understand it, I always turn over the leaf"" I answered, " If one cannot at all understand it, why does it seem to chafe you sot If we may turn over the leaf of an inspired book that wag written on purpose to in- 43 Struct us in those things which God judges proper for us to know, and has therefore fully revealed, whenever we happen to dislike a passage, others may do the same ; and so the whole Bible will be thrown away ! I think this is a solemn and criminal slight put upon the Author of the Bible ; and I, for one, should be afraid to do it. To me it seems mo- desty and piety both, to learn all that he condescends to teach, to trust where we possibly may be unable to solve, and at ^11 events not to omit any part of his communicated wisdom, lest we should find our names omitted from 'the Book of Life,' in the last day : for he says, He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings." ^^ I did indeed the more infer and feel that they were ignorant almost of " the first principles of the doctrine of Christ ; unstable as water, that could not excel ; children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to de- ceive !" I felt too the horrible vanity of their vesti- mental signals of holiness; hence I pitied them with a bleeding heart, but felt divorced from their communion, arid edified in utter detestation of their dreamy tenets. I shook their hands at parting, ex- pressed my soul's wishes for their welfare, bade them farewell, and abjured them for ever. I went home to my mother's, happy and trusting in God, but more than ever penetrated with a sense that Quakerism was a hollow arid shell, in which neither truth nor grace resided, and which should yet be dashed and pulverized by the " iron rod" of the 44 despised Messiah ! '' As the vessels of ^ potter shall they be broken to shivers !'* Rev. 2 : 27. My soul was now in that frame which is expressed in the sober and excellent words of the 124th Psalm. I saw the way of duty clear, and was calmly happy to walk in it. The storm was over, the agony' gone ! I felt it sweet and easy to leave all things for Christ, ^pd thought my crosses, crowns ; my losses* gains ; my privations, privileges ! If on my cheek, for thy dear name, Shame and reproaches be, All hail reproach, and welcome shame. So thou remember me ! That evening, I think, or shortly after, my dear, tender, and most afflicted mother, seeing that all the means and opportunities prescribed for my re-con- version only confirmed me, when I meditated and read the Bible, in a sense of duty to profess Jesus Christ in one of his own churches, now grew incon- solable ; and, in a transport of grief, solemnly com- manded me, in the name of God, who has required " obedience to parents " in his own word, to yield my purpose and continue a member of the Society ! It was an awful and severe crisis ! I felt its bitter- ness, and sympathised with her, whose strong and dear affection deserved for her all that a parent could deserve of a child ! My sisters and brothers (I think all) were present. I paused, and then, with entire decision, answered : " We ought to obey God ra- ther than man. Whether it be right in the sight oj God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Jf any man come to me, and hate not his 45 father, atid mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot he my disciple. And every one that hath for- saken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name^s sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Acts, 4 : 19. 5 : 29. Luke, 14 : 26. .9 ; 62. Matt. 19 : 29. Mark, 10 : 29, 30.) lintend to tcike §tage to-rhorrow morning, before day, and return to Newark, where I expect soon to be baptized as a christian confessor, and partake at the com- munion-stable with them that believe and know the truth." 1 Tim. 4 : 3. This purpose I was enabled to execute ; and accordingly, on the seventh day of March, (Lord's day,) 1813, in the second" pres- byterian church, Newark, N. Jersey, I professed my. faith in Christ, was baptized, and did " eat of that bread, and drink of that cup," which symbolizes the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, " who died for us and rose again," according to his own blessed commandment, " This do, in remembrance of me." I was then in the twentieth year of my age. No one whom experience hg,th not taught, can well ima- gine what a struggle, and what a triumph it is, for an educated Friend to come to this ! Instances of the sort are about as rare in this country as conver- sions from the Jews ; and, while almost equally dif- ficult and desirable, they are much less appreciated by Christians. I did it, however, in the hardihood of principle; conviction of the truth, and faith in 46 God, elevated my soul above all considerations be- sides them : and while 1 thank God, in Christ Jesus, as " the author and finisher of my faith, through whom, strengthening me, I can do all things," I record it here to his glory and my own ineffable joy, that I have never, for one moment, re- gretted that decisive initial measure ! and would no more go hack to Friends, than I would resign my hope and joy in Christ Jesus ! " Shortly aifter this I came to the conclusion that God had called me to the work of the ministry. I pass over the details of self-examination, and trials in this relation, through which I was enabled to pass, by the help of God speaking to me in his word, and comforting my soul at the throne of grace. I was licensed by the presbytery of New- York, in the month of October, 1816, to preach the gospel ; and ordained to that office by the presbytery of Jersey, at Mendham, July 1, ]817. " Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mispeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 1 Sam. 7 : 12. Having ever since felt that God hath invested me with an office of magnitude, and a commission of responsi- bility, I have equally felt that, as a minister of Jesus, I was bound to perform a service of point and plainness to Friends ; that as I could have no per- sonal access to their meetings, and as private con- ferences had often proved unavailing, having, from experience, very little hope in talking with a Friend, as it is mostly impossible to convince him, and having, therefore, for a long time, almost totally disconti- 47 nued it ; and convinced also, that any written trea- tise that should honestly attack the fundamental errors of their creed would be, of course, denounced by the Society, come from whom it might, and be- ing written with whatever care and calmness, I felt that there was no alternative. Hence the present volume, in which my purpose is " nothing to exte- nuate, nor set down aught in malice ;" to fear God only, and leave consequences with him. " Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all !" I have, at different times, received letters from divers Friends, preachers and others ; some commanding me to re- pent and return to the inward light ; others arguing the matter, informing me that I know I am doing wrong, remonstrating, warning, prophesying, testi- fying ; and all inspired. Some of them are docu- ments of heresy worthy of exposure ; and I have them all filed and at hand, whenever it may be ne- cessary to publish them, when I can do it with naries and dates entire, and suitable notes and illustrations. Some of them I have answered, and others, full of rampant infidelity and something worse, I have just filed in silence. Some have ut- tered divers predictions concerning me, with speci- fications of time, which I have already lived to confound. Some of their prophecyingsused at first instinctively to frighten me ; but, in the end, I was only strengthened by them, when I saw the time arrived in which they were at once due and disho- nored. " When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, 48 that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously ; thou shah not be afraid of him." Deut. 18 : 22. If there were no eternity, no heaven, no hell, no Sa- vior, and no duty to perform, I would let them alone. With respect to the style of this treatise, it is, perhaps, full of peculiarities, and those who know the writer will find them all his own. He is con- scious also of their blemishes and faults. All he asks of the critic is to consider that the profession, on the score of taste, is quite as humble as the per- formance. A man should be himself at all times : peculiarities, eccentricities, and even inaccuracies, are more tolerable than mimicry, affectation, and false consequence ; while, in respect to conscience, one ought to remember that his appetite or organs are diseased who cannot tolerate even the truth of the everlasting gospel, unless modernized, decorated with the beauties of artificial rhetoric, and spiced to the relish of a sickly taste. Such a reader desires not to know the truth, but to get rid of it ; and this he covertly attempts under a demand for style. There is much of this silly and wicked capricious- ness in the world. Its votaries, one would think, must perfectly nauseate the Bible ! and retreat po- litely for respite in fresco to the profanely bewitch- ing genius of Byron, or the brilliant romancing of Scott. I would rather be denounced by critics and Friends in league, than defer to this graceless ap- petite one single hair. " The preacher sought," however, " to find out 49 iCdeptable words;" and if it be ultimately found that " that which was written was upright, even Wbrds of truth," its faultiness in minor respects will little disturb me. Some, and perhaps not a few, of the pecuUarities of style and sentiment, how- ever, result from the subject itself, the relations of the vvriter, the manner he prefers to adopt aS bfest suited to arrest the thoughts, and the very peculiar singularities of the people called Quakers. For thehi, indeed, the work is intended, principally, if they will ; secondarily, if they choose ; and for others alone, should they universally refuse. "And he said linto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee ; for they will not hearken unto me : for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, arid thy forehead strong against their fore- heads. As an adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dis- mayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shaft say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God ; he that heareth, let him hear ; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear : for they are a rebeUious house." Ezek. 3 : 4, 7-9, 27. Isaiah, 41 : 15, 16. Hos. 6 : 5-7. One great difficulty which every writer must feel on this subject, is polemically to ascertain precisely what that is which he opposes. That Quakerism is of difficult definition, has been the charge of christians against it from the beginning. They 50 have no authentic cireeds or syntbols of feith : and those who know them, know that their inspiration often- differs from itself on many points, according to the number of its subjects, multiplied by the number of interviews had with them. Vxove any thing wrong, which one of them has said ; prove it to another of them, and you will probably hear the convenient anSwer : " O that is a mistake, it is iiot what Friends believe." If you insist, " What then do they believe 1" you will meet some reply of ambiguity, evasion, or obscurity, which will convince you only of their general ignorancfe of their own tenets, and bf the trust of each to the better inspi- ration of all the others. In general, they are, as a sect, marvellously ignorant of what the scriptures teach. Their contradiqtions have been shown by many writers. In order to attain some definite end, therefore, I have mainly taken Barclay's Apology ; a book which deserves and receives, perhaps, more of their common confidence than any other of their public documents ; and have assumed it as a stand- ard of what Quakerism is, proving the positions that I oppose, by quotations from its pages, and va- luing it as by far the most respectable performance of which the society can boast; the works of Penn IN TOTO, being postponed to it. In this, if I have been studious of convenience to myself, I have been equally favorable to them ; for, not only in point of style and scholarship, but in approximation (though it be but fitful and occasional) to protestant orthodoxy, Barclay holds a high, perhaps a solitary, pre-eminence. I have read many books and ser- 51 mons of Friends, but never one that deserved a com- parison with the real respectabihty of Barclay. In many things that he says passingly, he speaks the un- doubted truth of God ; and in his Theses Theologies, the fourteenth proposition itself, " concerning the power of the civil magistrate, in matters purely i:e- ■ ligious, and pertaining to the conscience," is admi- rable, and worthy of the almost unqualified approba- tion of christians. He produced his Apology in his comparative yoUth, when in his 27th year, or, at most, his 28th, and about nine years after uniting with the Society, which occurred in 1667. That he was a man of unblemished morals and unsullied fame, there lives not one to question. I sincerely yespect him; and con- sidering his Roman Catholic trainings his Jesuitical education on the continent, in connection with his very youth, when (in his 18th or 19th year) the imposing pretensions of Quakerism first entranced his devout imagination, I r^ither pity than dislike him, as I have often and deeply compassionated thousands, whose noble minds, like lions taken in the meshes of a secret net, were entangled, and subdued, and prostrated, by an influence which they could neither define nor escape. Let it be remembered, then, that I do not intentionally assail the man, when I ex- amine and decry his sentiments ; that it really grieves me to appear often as if I were opposing him ; and when I use freely what he. hath himself given to the public and posterity, I only avail myself of a universal right, which any other man may ex- ercise, upon his own responsibility to God, in ani- madversion upon what I have written. In his public 52 charactejj: as a religious teacfier, and in tjijs alone, do I denounce him and his peers. The great fault, of Bnrolay, as a reasouer, is, in my opiniop, the anti-Baconian style of his reasoning. Though that illustrious reformer of the dialectic art, died about half a century before the Apology was written ; and tlipugh his immortal Novum Organum had been ex-: . tant then so many years, it is most probable (slight- ed as it was by many of the visionary votaries of Aris- totle's theory-making logic) that Barclay had never read it ! I infer this from the whole style of his reasoning, which no one will call Baconian who knows how-to define. the inductive philosophy, and has ever read the Apology once through, with his thoughts awake. I infer it from his views and de- nunciations of logic, as an art by which men " may learn twenty tricks and distinctions how to shut out the truth," and which only impedes that "secret virtue and power " which " ought to be the logic £ind philosophy wherewith a true christian ministei: should be, furnished, and for which they need not be beholden to Aristotle.'''' And I infer it froin the fact, that he never once mentions Bacon, or allude^ to him, (as I can find,) in the whole compass of his nearly 600 octavo pages. The logic of Bacon is the logic of the New Testament. Its principles are opposed to those of the Stagyrite, as they are found- ed in universal experience, observation, and fact. They coincide with all we know ; they lead to true results ; they are universal and impartial ; they de- light in evidence alone ; they aid the interests and demonstrate the claims of Christianity ; and they just 53 m certainly e?:all; the Bible aijid explode Qmherism. That knowledge is nQt innate ; that inward, light is folly ; that any man is liable to errj that we must make iflferences from facts, which theory must fol- low and not precede, in order to the possession of knowledge ; that men come into this wprid without ideas, ignorant a$ brutes, and derive all they know by means of sensation and reflection ; that we must guard our premises, and make them sure, before we arrive at conclusions ; and that one fact is worth a thousalid theories, and good against a million : these are the main principles of true reasoning, and the foundation of the Baxonian philosophy — a philoso- phy which is not " falsely so called," and the influ- ence of which can be deprecated only by the con- tracted bigots of some fondled theory, begotten in darkness and instinctively trembling at-the light. If Barclay was disgusted at the philosophy of ^^m- totle, and denounced it from a general conviction of its inutility, I agree with him : from his inference, however, from that premise, that we ought to throw away all learned logic, I dissent; and for the foUow;- ing reasons : — 1. It is impossible to have none. Men deceive theniselves when they think tha,t all philoso- phy is bad, and that it is possible to retain our senses and forego the use of all. All men think, right or wrong ; and they think also according to certain laws. To think aloof from all the principles of in- tellectual philosophy is impossible. The only ques- tion \Sr-^hether our philosophy of thought shall he fawrahle or adverse to truth ; whether it shall he true or false ? — 2, Barclay himself uses much of 54 the wit of the schools, and is much indebted to it (as thence Friends are also) in his whole treatise. He acknowledges, indeed, that he has used natural logic, w\v\c\\ he commends, and at the same time contra-distinguishes from that of the sch6ols, which he totally denounces. But is he right in this ] Can any man suppose that natural logic alone gave him all that dialectic subtlety which he certainly evinces, and sometimes with success '? Was it natural or scholastic wit that cast so many formal syllogisms in mood and figure, and strewed them profusely over his pages in such anticipated order 1 Method is one of the loftiest and most important divisions of artificial logic ; and, at the same time, that in which natural logic fails most frequently, while it is also a division of which Barclay qx&\\s himself with considerable address throughout his volume. Frienids have often boasted of him on this very ac- count. He. is plainly wrong, then, in scorning all artificial logic ; and had he been well acquainted with Bacon^s regenerated and most excellent system, I cannot suppose either that he could have denounced it, or that he ever would have written his Apology. The whole system of inward light much mord ac- cords with the fictions of Aristotle than with the strict and sober principles of Bacon : with which last indeed it cannot consist at all ! What rational evidence is there in the decision of inward light T What relation has that light to evidence 1 No more than declamation has to argument, or assertion to proof. — 3. Jesus Christ evinces the power of correct reasoning in all his preaching. The connectionbe- 55 tween premise and conclusion ; the necessity of evidence to thouglit, to obligation, and moral ac- tion ; the power of the dilemma; the admissions of an opponent ; the misery of sophism ; the force of implication and inference ; the ad hcminem style ; the reductio ad absurdum ; the sorites ; and almost every other manner of argumentation, is frequently exemplified in his reasonings. The same is true of all *the. sacred writers ; especially of Paul, who was, at once, probably, the greatest reasoner, and the most useful man, that ever ap- peared as the irispired ambassador of Christ. My last reason is — 4. That nobody actually believes the statement, (though some may suppose they do,) that well cultivated scholastic logic is of no use in religion, and Tiot a desirable and responsible gift of provi- dence. False learning, and the abuse of true, are both bad ; but surely this does not impair the excel- lency and usefulness of true learning ! A man's spirituality, just here, may be wonderfully influenced — unknown perhaps to himself — by envy ! He may have no learning ; he may feel their superiority who are not in his predicament ; he may be unable, or unwilling, 6r without opportunity to study ; and therefore he may set himself to disparage what he does not possess, and would— ^om no good motive possibly — very gladly attain, could " the desire of the slothful," or the caprice of the vain, or the resources of the wealthy, procure it for him. Facts speak on this point. How much is the cause of the Reformation indebted to learning ] Almost as much as learning has been also indebted to it ! Look 56 at the map of the World. What but learning exer translated the BMe into our mother tongue, or any other tongue, since " Babel Was x;onfounded f ' What a prodigious effect on all the interests of society has the art of printing exerted! Look at the Friends themselves. The writings of ^arcZay, Pcran, and others, who were comparatively learned men, have procured for them all the- theological respectability, or the most of it, which they have ever attained : and of this they are so conscious, that they continually refer to those writers for a vindication of their tenets. The sum is this : no man ever yet sincerely or con- sistently denounced ti»ue learning, who did himself possess it ; and they who possess it not, are no pro- per judges in the case. " He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him." Prov. 18 : 13. The book of Proverbs is Baconian, to a Wonder ! But there is one feature of the system of Friends which deserves a recognition here — its inimical re- gdfd to classical and scientific learning. I do not say that all Friends are thus hostile, or that they- are all alike hostile to liberal learning ; but / charge this hostility on the system. That such is its cha- racter, appears from the denunciation, the indis- criminate proscription of Barclay ; and that not in a few places of his book. It appears in the general hostility of Friends to all colleges and seminaries where the elevated branches are thoroughly taught. Not one young Friend out of five hundred, even in this free country, ever obtains a liberal education, in fact or in name ; certainly never becomes gradu- 57 ated in the arts at any chartered institution ; and where an instance occurs, it is always attended with special difficulties. They have no college of liberal science in the world! Some, I know, of the sus- pected worldly sort in Philadelphia, have proposed, and would have forwarded so excellent an object ; but they were always awed into despondency by the unlettered, all-knowing light toithin. And in this, their obsequiousness was quite consistent ; for, if schools, academies and universities are all in their nature wrong, and as such forbidden of God, it is certainly right to desist totally and at once from the prosecution of their cause ! Incidental evils in- deed they will always include ; but the system is not chargeable with these, unless in its own nature it approves and fosters them. There will always, perhaps, be hypocrites at the communion table ; but Christianity does not make them : and the purest ministry of the gospel will often become " a savor of death unto death;" but sinners themselves, and not such a ministry, are to blame for the conse- quence. And so the best organized system of in- tellectual education that the world has ever seen, has often presented the appaUing spectacle of pro- fligate and wicked students perverting its privileges. But what of that 1 Shall we burn our colleges 1 Why not our primary school-houses too 1 What benefi- cent institution, what bounty of the blessed God is not perverted and abused in this naughty world I I return to the fact, and ask the friends of order, of religion, and of man, dispassionately to consider, at their leisure, the three following questions : 8 58 1. Is Quakerism friendly to the cultivation and diffusion of scientific knowledgel 2. If not, %s it con- genial any more with Christianity than with the real interestsof the nation or the world? 3. When would the whole world be converted -to Christ upon their principles, or by their influence? One painful consideration to any person who wishes and who endeavors to subserve the conver- sion of Friends to Christianity, is their characteristic aversion to investigate. One special reason of this, beside others, not a few derived, in common with the hinderances of other men, from the " first Adam, " results from the genius of their religion. To investigate, is to think, examine, analyze ; and in religion it is to "search the scriptures daily;" to " ask wisdom " in prayer to God ; to weigh evi- dence ; to respect the opinion of others, so far as to " consider " what they say ; to admit the possi- bility of one's own error on any subject ; to depre- cate and resist the dark tyranny of prejudice ; to deny infallibility to men universally ; to surmount the dictation of friends just as sincerely as that of enemies; to feel the incomparable value of truth, and to realize the obligation of the mandate, " buy the truth, and sell it not ;" to feel and to own one's personal fallibility ; to study the force and to sift the correctness of educational principles ; to ply all proper means of right knowledge with candor and benevolence ; to grasp known truth, after examina- tion, with courage and tenacity ; to habituate the exercise of investigation ; to "incline one's ear unto wisdom, and apply the heart to understanding ; yea, 59 to cry after knowledge, and lift up the voice for understanding ; to seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures ; in order to understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." Prov. 2 : 2-5. True, there are some minds com- paratively incapable of investigation. They look back, and not forward, and they can see nothing out of the wake of their own random sailing. They perceive not the other side of the question. With them to investigate is indevotion, is danger, is scepticism — so incredulous are they of the ultimate truth ©f what they believe. With them abstraction is distraction ; the value of principles of thought is inscrutable ; and degrees of evidence are a profane supposition. What they believe they know, though they cannot prove it ; what they hold, they are sure is right, though they have no other evidence ; and what their conscience approves, they are not afraid to venture, because they are sincere. "The slug- gard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." Prov. 26 : 16. " Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit 1 There is more hope of a fool than of him. 12." " My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways." 23 : 26. " Brethren, be not children in un- derstanding : howbeit, in malice be ye children, but IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN." 1 Cor. 14 : 20. There are minds, too, so weak and insipid in their very structure, that, wherever is their place in " the body," it is plain that they were never intended for " the eye ;" although the perversion of their native training, mixed with the dregs of their own vanity. 60 may possibly intoxicate them with the notion oif their competency to become leaders in religion. Such minds as these are easily brought to feel the flame of inspiration, and to surrender to all the phantasies of that serene delirium . But with respect to greater minds, those capacitated for thought and investi- gation, what are we, in consistency, to expect from them, after they have imbibed from infancy the sentiment of a universal inward light, paramount to the scriptures, which every man is supremely hound to audit and to follow, " through faith in its effectual operation ?" Hence is it that I aver their intractableness, and their consistent aversion to investigate, as resulting from the very genius of their religion. Their master spirits often, I might say habitually, resist the tendencies of rational thought, that they may get still, suppress "the mo- tions and activity of the creature," and come to know a unity with the life, the power, and spirit within them. This is their religion. It was the very soul of the scheme and conduct of George Fox. When I was yet recent in the faith of Christ, and before I was " disowned ;" being in company with some eminent preachers of the sot ciety at a public inn, and conversing very mode- rately, but with decision, on the topics of difference ; one of the preachers suddenly rose, beckoned me solemnly into an adjoining apartment, and then commenced his inspired advice substantially in this sort : " Samuel, thy mind is too active ; if thee wants peace, I can tell thee how to find it : get still, get still! and thou shalt come to know the hidden 61 wisdom in the quiet of all flesh. I tell thee, my dear young friend, get still" I thanked him for his intentioned kindness ; but told him that was a very inferior answer to the question, What must I do to he saved ? compared with the inspired answer con- tained in the scriptures. Acts, 16 : 31. I told him I felt bound in conscience toward God, to prove all things ; and that I deeply doubted the peace of which he spoke, as I desired none that could not look at the truth without blenching, and grow stronger and pure'r by a thorough investigation of the doctrine of Christ. I treated him kindly, and felt what I se»med. He however was offended, as I suppose, because I could not follow his advice, since I felt obhgated to investigate : — I suppose this from several ungrateful and unreciprocated indi- cations ; especially this, that though I. occasionally see him in the city of his residence, and have to- ward him, as the Lord knows, feelings of kind- ness alone, he never knows me ! He walks by me in the street, or rides in wealthy dignity ; and seems to say as we pass each other, "he was fairly warned ; but he wilfully refused — to get still !" Alas ! my memory and conscience both confirm the charge. May his mind never respond affirmatively to a more serious one ! Uncharitableness will probably be charged to my account. But (1) does it come with a good grace from Friends \ From those who in their writings, their discipline, their preaching, and their common talk, denounce all the christian ministry, of what- ever denomination, as "hirelings!" This word. 62 that abounds in their use, occurs in the New-Testa- ment only in one chapter and one connection; (John, lO ;) and means a false teacher of religion, who loves the wages more than work ; who loves the wages supremely, and " careth not for the sheep." It is there used three times only. In their stereo- typed calumny, they unchurch and eternally undo every minister of the gospel who receives a tempo- ral support for his spiritual services; though his whole powers and time and affections are devoted to the work of the ministry alone ; — for, an " hire- ling," that deserves the name, is certainly, as Judas, the prince of reprobates! How happens it that Friends have obtained, even by immemorial prece- dent, a license from public sentiment on this ar- ticle 1 If what they allege is true, Tillotson, Watts — some of whose hymns they teach their children, and Blair, and millions beside of the noblest stars in the ecclesiastical firmament, are now " lifting up their eyes in hell, being in torments !" And are they the immaculate exempts that may cry out "uncha- ritableness," when a minister of Jesus Christ undertakes to expose their errors and tell them the truth in its plainness, " according to the command- ment of the everlasting God," and as it is re- vealed " by the scriptures of the prophets — made known to all nations for the obedience of faith V Rom. 16 : 26. There is one other fact worthy of notice, (and I could easily summon more,) in illustration of their claim to decry uncharitableness : Their polity, both in its organization and its known and frequent 63 administration, positively excommunicates, collec- tively and individually, all the true churches of Jesus Christ in Christendom, and every personal professor of the faith of Jesus, who belongs not to their so- ciety ! Proof — If one of their members of either sex, dares to contract marriage with any other per- son, however excellent and however exemplary in every christian virtue, they are immediately under the necessity to make a formal (written — if I recollect right) declaration of their repentance, as if they had committed a grievous sin ; or — would you believe it, fathers and brethren 1 — be excommunicated, or publicly "disowned," by the operation of "the good order used amongst them!" This, resulting ne- cessarily from the genius of Quakerism, is a fixed and immutable statute, in England, Ireland, America, and elsewhere ; and has been since the originof the society. If they do not know it, I would tell them — that it is a pestilent limb of antichrist ; a piece of covert popery ; a legislation contrary to the certain constitution of God ; a principle of organized and iniquitous misanthropy — and in every view criminal, tyrannous, and wrong ! No community on earth have a right to make such an ordinance. It is proof that they are a " society, " and n^t a church of Jesus Christ. I, of course, speak this merely from a sense of right, having no possible interest in the subject but what I avow. But is it not a crying shame, a disgrace to the age, and a^ monstrosity in christian society 1 It often leads, as I know, to hypocrisy, equivocation, and all the sly arts of evasion \_ while its repudiated victims are many. Suppose, for example, that a 64 character as exalted and stainless as Dr. Chalmers, should contract an. alliance, " honorable in all," with a lady of worth belonging to the society ; and Suppose that, when waited on " under deahngs," she should find it in her heart rather to bless the God of Rebecca, for the Isaac of her pure affections, than to repent of the donation and the blessing together, that she might retain the incalculable ad- vantage of " her birth-right " among such a people : why, the consequence is infallible ! But this is not all. The register of her misdemeanor and her reso^ lute impenitence, after being read to all the assem- bled meetings, (men's and women's apart,) is per- petuated to coming ages, with the added oppro- brium — " by the assistance of a hireling minister;" or words very like these ipsissima of my present recollection. The result however is the same, as it respects " disownment," if the marriage is con- summated by a magistrate, or in any other way of " the world's people." Their policy in this is ob- vious : it is to eternize their sectarianism — to di- vorce their members from human nature, and to excommunicate the species, in order to maintain their resolute peculiarities! Odisse Jiumanum genus !^^ Is Quakerism Christianity 1 One final cause of the interdict of God, in respect to marriage within cer- tain degrees of consanguinity and affinity, is doubt- less to destroy, or rather to prevent, the clanishness of families ; to interlace the centres and connect the circles of social life in one vast and catholic attrac- tion ; and to make every one " honor all men, " and feel that every individual that has a soul, and for whom 65 Christ died, and who belongs to our common species, is an object of obligatory and reciprocal benevo- lence. Let me say again, I am not angry at them. It is a desire of their salvation that leads me to hold to their vision the mirror of truth. If the reflection is ungrateful, the rays of incidence come from them- selves. I only wish to demonstrate to every reader, that their talk about charity is not so congruous ; and to remind them of the proverb applicable to those who "live in glass houses." Nor is the as- sumption here gratuitous. There is no people in the world more sensitive than they to the esteem of men. They are sensitive also to the importance of charity, and even clamorous for its exercise — when they are to be the objects of it. Their vehemence is prodigiously reduced in those relations where they are justly entitled to become the subjects of it. Many of them speak as if the obligations of charity were not reciprocal, and as if the lines of charity autho- rized its movement only in one direction — I need not say toward themselves. At its best, the charity of a Quaker for other denominations is mere feel- ing at the time, ordinarily one of the most capri- cious, flitting, and gossamer productions in the world. A soul without principles is about as strong and steady in moral action, as in ordinary life would be a body without bones. (2) They ought to remember, if they ever knew, the nature of charity. With the mere word, I confess myself on no very amicable terms ; and wish sincerely it had never appeared in our English Bible. The original word a/yaitYi is rendered love very often, and should have 9 66 been so rendered in every instance. It would then have prevented a vast amount of dotage, mistake^ and lawless affectation. Love means, benevo- lence, " good will to men." And if I have outraged this pure celestial principle, how was it done 1 1 have been satirical, ironical, sarcastic, possibly. True ; and I wish I could have done it all with more address ; " wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove." I wish that I could have maintained more palpably throughout the distinction between the persons of Friends and their individual interests on the one hand, and their corporate and public rrors on the other. But may J^ not appeal to them and to all, in my turn, for honesty, for justice 1 Will they not credit me when I assure them that I aimed to honor the distinction adequately, and that it is against their errors alone that I have desired to be bold and even severe 1 If they ask why I have been willing to make them appear ridiculous, and why, on such a serious sub- ject, I have been so willing to excite sometimes the laughter of the reader 1 I answer, mainly for two rea- sons : first, because it appears to me that some of their chief errors are so antiquated, and at the same time so venerable in their own view, and incorrigible by ordinary measures, that it was like Elijah at Mount Carmel, when he demonstrated the ridiculous but most devout worship of the idolaters to be what it was, by holding their folly obvious to the multitude, in a vein of the most biting and acrimonious irony of which we have any example ; and second, because the genius of their system, by inducing a spurious 67 solemnity on every religious subject, puts the whole matter ordinarily out of the reach of men, who ought to have religion familiarized to their thoughts, and in- terwoven with their daily associations, and engrafted upon all the objects of their converse in life ; instead of beiiig shrouded in unapproachable solemnity and inscrutable mystery. I have therefore endeavored so to write, that if, through the infinite grace of Jesus Christ, we should meet at last in a better world, vvhere prejudice ^hall be done away for ever, my charity will be accredited ; my motives unim- peached ; my reasons vindicated even for the al- leged severities. Let them remember that charity, the name and the thing, is a matter among the most abused in our language, "the sport of mere pre- tenders to the name," and the very antipodes often of christian benevolence. This " rejoiceth in the truth ;" and "hateth every false way ;" and will in any wise maintain pure the religion of heaven. I suppose it charity to abet the truth ; to expose and frustrate, by rational argument and moral means, all the errors that would corrupt it ; to become ag- gressively a controvertist or even a champion for its sake ; and in valor to " contend earnestly for the faith ONCE delivered" — mark, not delivered mil- lions of times, or oftener, but ONGE delivered — " to the saints." " If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed : for, he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." This is charity of a genuine stamp ; charity coined in the mint of heaven, and having 68 "the image and superscription of God." Of what kind of love becomes it the destruction, practically to honor such of his commandments \ That kind that postpones the first table of the law to the second ; talks well of both, and obeys neither; delights in those imaginings which truth denounces, and courts darkness rather than light, as the atmosphere of all its flourishing^ It is charity to — self, dear self, partial, evil, deceitful self! And is not the selfishness of the original the reason why the picture is denied \ It may be proper here to view the subject in another aspect. There is a great schism in the body. Friends are divided, or rather subdivided into two distinct sects, at least in this country ; the Orthodox and the Hicksites. I have reason to be- lieve that the letter already referred to, written by myself to the committee at Philadelphia, A. D. 1813, had some influence, in the providence of God, in producing the event. It was the first bill of attainder that ever was filed in that city, I ween, against the oraculous Simon of the Samaritans ; who had widely " bewitched the people, giving out that himself was some great one : to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries." However that be, I wish to remark on the fact : 1. That it is only a change in the progress of the times and the increase ofetangelicallight, whichrequires and portends other revolutions. It has broke the charm of infalliUlity, in which the semi-papacy of the seventeenth century 69 (when other monstrosities were "spouted from the crater of a revolutionary volcano ") may be identified in Quakerism. That human infallibility must exist somewhere on earth, our ancestors held it sacri- legious to doubt. The Pope and Fox agreed in the general sentiment; and each of them claimed it as his own : only one challenged it by virtue of St. Peter's investiture, the other as the result of interior illumination. Hence the dogmatizing of Quakerism is all " anointed " with infallibility. What could inspiration morel But the charm is broken. Altar is reared against altar; and oppo- site batteries^, equally infallible, pour their polemical voUies into each other, with new methods of gun- nery and fortification. I think this is well, rather than the opposite. It may yet open the eyes of both belligerents t.o the real light. "A living dog is better than a dead lion." Any thing but stagnation, "silent meetings," and a sleepy congregation — telling how " refreshed" they felt! Concussions in the atmosphere, with the glare of lightning, and the roll of thunder, and the terror of all terrestrial con^ sciousness, may still be necessary to purity, health, and even life. " Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife : and some also of good will. What thenl Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pre- tence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." I allude mainly to the idea of action and inquiry on the subject of reli- gion, as better than dotage and supineness — not that T think the preaching of either party is the pure truth of the gospel, or that either properly "preach Christ" 70 at all. I am convinced of the contrary. Still, there is no hope of those who take all for granted "even as they are led," and who examine nothing. Ex- citement is not religion— but it is ordinarily indisr pensable to it. This may be the very means se- lected by that admirable Economist who is " won- derful in counsel and excellent in working," to rouse them from the lethargy of ages ; and necessitate their practical searching, so as to bring them,, it may be, savingly to know the "truth and -soberness " of the gospel. God is a real and glorious, though an invisible and little accredited agent, in all these teeming wonders of his sovereignty. O let us pray more, that his prospering breath may vivify, through the truth, an awakened and confounded population ! 2. We may be in danger of thinking too much of it ; of dishonoring too much in comparison the one party, and of crediting the other prematurely for attainments they have yet to make ; and so of in- juring both parties, and really retarding their com- mon proficiency. I have something gravely to allege agaihst those called orthodox- — only by con- trast with notions the most infidel, and sordid, and impudent in error ; something, on account of which, while it remains, I feel pressed, in judgment and in conscience too, to deny to them boldly a recognition of christian character. I cannot at all fellowship them, so corrupt is their confession, and so equivo- cal their " professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ :" I say again, ija. the ear of earth and the eye of heaven, that I cannot do it ; nor do I think, most excellent sirs, that one of you, or those whom 71 you represent and influence, ought to do it. Sup- pose they are, by possibility, genuine christians at heart ; I still think that they are so exceedingly de- fective that God has a terrible controvfersy with them, in which we are in danger of taking side against him, by a course of fraternizing and con- gratulation, while they remain as they are. He neither requires us to search the heart, nor to admit a silly charity against evidence or without it. The defect to which I allude is pervading and universal. It is the stain, and, in my christian judgment, the damning fault of all their publications — the very best of them. I call them " orthodox" only by usage, and for distinction, and always with reluctance, whik I witness that accursed leaveii in all their pub- lished symbols. It is a, qualifier downward of all their good promisings ; it is the obscuration, if not the extinguisher, of all their heavenly light ; it is the goal, and the limit, and the barrier, of their christian advancement ; and it is an error which no one of you would allow, among any other people, to the man whom you would feel warranted to' fel- lowship as a christain brother. It is this : perti- naciously REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PARA- MOUNT AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, AS OUR RULE OP FAITH AND PRACTICE ; AND REFUSING, WITH MELANCHOLY AND EQUAL CONSISTENCY TO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF JesUS ChRIST IN CALLING THEM " THE WORD OF GOD." Where got they all their honorable orthodoxy, but from that book of books which they dare to call " a secondary rule f ' How know they one grand 72 truth, how can they prove it in controversy, but by resort to the scripture, that " cannot be broken']" They quote Barclay, in what he says with cardinal heresy, that the scriptures "are not to be esteemed the adequate, primary rule of faith and manners. Yet, because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty; for, as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify that the Spirit is that guide by which the saints are led into all truth ; therefore, according to the scriptures^ the Spirit is the first and principal leader. Seeing, then, that we do therefore receive and believe the scrip- tures, because they proceeded from the Spirit, for the very same reason is the Spirit more originally and principally the rule, according to the received maxim in the schools : * Propter quod unum quod- que est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale ;' that for which a thing is such, that thing itself is more such." Of this caballistical aphorism more hereafter. I have taken the above from a late publication of theirs, entitled, " An EXPOSITION of the Faith OF THE RELIGIOUS SoCIETY OF FrIENDS, COMMONLY CALLED Quakers, in the fundamental doctrines OF the christian religion, principally selected FROM their early WRITINGS. By ThOMAS EvANS." With the family of the compiler, or author, I have some quondam acquaintance ; and may add, that I sincerely respect them for their singular intelligence, and comparative deference for the scriptures ; in 73 ^hich they seem to me to go farther than others, and perhaps as far as they can, with the perilous enchantment of Fox and Barclay, and all the retinue of inspired errorists of the sort, obstructing them. For others of the party I entertain a similar defer- ence — as real and as deep as they possess who flatter them more, or who dislike their errors less. The Exposition contains 232 citations from early Friends, to prove " that they sincerely believed, and openly avowqiij the great fundamental truths of the christian religion," It is published under the sanction of the society, by their assembled " repre- sentatives." The work is neat, showing great ac- curacy and great pains- taking in the selection. It is constituted throughout of precious excerpts from the writings of the society; and appears to me — and it would be affectation to imply that I did not think myself a judge in such things — to be the very best manifesto of their views, in seeming approxi- mation to catholic orthodoxy, that I have ever seen, or which I believe it possible to compile or select from the Writings of their authors. It proves, how- ever, that in their belief they have been cardinal HERETICS from the beginhing^the whole of them ; and that the present " orthodox" intend to remain what their fathers were. Allow me, too, to express my wonder and regret at the facility with which some truly orthodox divines, under the influence of the imposing na»?c of orthodox, have gloried in them, and recognised them as christian brethren, vastly increasing the satisfactions of the inward light ! It is 10 74 really injuring them, and compromising the truth of God, which we are set to defend. Let me state a case that is quite parallel in my own estimate. Some Unitarians, as they call them- selves, in order to slander us of tritheism, are as low as Socinus himself, uncle or nephew ; as low as mere humanitarianism can make them. Others of hoc genus omne, are hyperarians ; they believe not only that Jesus Christ is the chief of all creatures, but so ancient and exalted and incomparable, that he is their constituted Head, and even very God — in a subordinate sense ! i. e. that he is God, truly and properly, saving only that he is not the eternal Je- hovah, and was indeed created to be, what he is, the glorious Chieftain of creation. Thus I have given the scale of finite, on which different degrees, between the two extremes specified, are selected, by different " deniers of the Lord that bought them," as their resting-place — for the present. How high, very estimable sirs, on that scale might I ascend^ speaking divers good and true things by the way, in favor of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and at the same time denying his supreme divinity, before you, who understand this subject so wisely and well, would own me as a brother in the Lord \ You would tell me, that though he was " of the seed of David according to the flesh," i. e. in his proper human nature, he was also, in his superior nature, " God over all, and blessed for ever;" and that until I threw away my scale of finite, and forbore to attempt to measure infinite, and recog- nise Jesus Christ as the Jehovah of the Bible, 75 whom Isaiah saw in vision on his throne, ch. 6, (John, 12,) such a recognition could never be extended ; it was morally impossible, and wholly out of the question ; and you would, I think, answer as you ought, in consistency not more than duty. It is not by lowering, or altering the standard of God, that men are reduced to conformity and similitude. And when a whole sect come, in effect, to you, and detrude " the oracles of God" from their justly supreme pre-emijience, call them " a secondary rule," and license them to be " esteemed as such ;" and MAKE God himself a rule of action; (the only way in which they can show a superior rule;) and profess to walk by the greater, and not by the less; and maintain the plenary inspiration of George Fox and all his satellites ; and tell you that the scriptures can be known in their divinity, not by faith cordially honoring the rational evidence that demonstrates it abundantly, but only by having the same spirit that they had who gave them forth; thus " MAKING THE WORD OF GOD OF NONE EFFECT, THROUGH THEIR TRADITION WHICH THEY HAVE DE- LIVERED," as well as received ; " and many such like things they do;" and when they say divers other things, and some that are true and important, which they affect to know irrespectively of " the secondary rule," or in a way of paramount autho- rity — though you all well know, that there is not a particle of " light in them" which they have not borrowed, or rather " stolen," (a felony which the Bible itself indignantly resents,) from that dishonored rule, " that they might keep their own tradition :" 76 I say, in such a case as this, will you absolve them of the greater, for the sake of the less 1 This is not the way of absolution in a higher relation — " even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." Nor do I see, by parity of reasoning, so far as the general principle and spiritual ethics of the case are con- cerned, why we might not recognise also some, or many of the deniers of the divinity of Jesus Christ, because they talk so much panegyric, and so much truth of him, and because they live and act so un- blamably, notwithstanding ! I am far from accusing you of any such recognition ; and only allege, that, however benevolently your hearts may beat, as I know they do, toward their highest interests, you will be wrong in principle, and injurious toward those very interests, should you recognise, in your exalted stations, the visibility of their claims as a christian church, or thereality of their pretensions as individual christians. An opposite course would, I am per- suaded, be a real injury to themselves., Their error debilitates a,ll their principles of faith, and pervades the whole of their religious sympathy. I have no doubt at all, that it has, first and last, been the means of destroying more souls than the wheels of the great car of oriental idolatry have ever crushed of the bodies of men, devoutly prostrate before them ! It is a virus that I know experimentally, and shudder at the thoughts of it : " remembering mine afflic- tion and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is hum- bled in me." As long as it lasts, we can never con- vince a Friend of one of his '^ legion" of subordi- nate mistakes ! It completely nullifies the con- 77 stitution! Like papacy, it pays great court to a certain volume, the legitimate use of which it for ever precludes; awarding, it may be, a costly and gorgeous " envelope of purple, a casket and a lock, for the Word of Life !" If there is any doubt of this, I ask a Friend, on certainly demonstrable scriptural evidence, to submit most cordially to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. And what think you of this divine test 1 I know what to think. He will not wait for the evidence ! he is afraid to look at it ! ahd as for doing it, not he ! he will glide off, like an eel in his proper element, and resist the light that shines "outwardly" as plain as day; under the influence of his viaticum of interior illu- mination ; walking by the greater, and not by the less ! ! And so of any thing else, contained, however plainly, in the word of God, which his carnal preju- dices happen to dislike. I dismiss this part of the subject with the remark, that it is, at all events, safer to withhold such recog- nition, in doubtful circumstances, than to extend it ; since, if they are christians, many, or all, or any of them, such will not be ultimately damaged by the principled reserve ; if otherwise, you will do nothing to assist their delusion ; and, at all events, it should never be a question, in reference to any people, who, on any pretence whatever, professing a general Christianity, still reduce the word of God to a rule of " secondjary" importance. All I know, and all I have ever thought, and read, and prayed, on this momentous subject, has settled me in the conclusion for ever, that they are fundamentally wrong on this 78 article, touching the rule of scripture in religion ; that they can never be rectified till they surrender, with all their heart, that Ttpfov li^evSog^^ of their heresy ; that any reformation short of this, is nothing but an abortion, instead of a birth ; and that any other sentiment in the case, especially emanating from centres of influence, and eminences of hght, honored and dear sirs, such as God hath appointed you to fill with happy success in this our age and country, would dishonor the Master whom you serve, and injure the cause that you love, and frustrate the very ends that might prompt or tempt your benevo- lence, in any instance, to utter or to sanction it. 3. For reasons similar to those just stated, it seems not justifiable that the ' orthodox^ should he sanc- tioned in their severities against their brethren of tfie other party. Into the merits of their contro^ versies I have no mind to enter, referring to princi- ples alone in these animadversions. I ask the ' orthodox ' the following questions : Do you see the errors of the other party] Do you lament them \ Do you feel, in their case, the criminality of religious error \ Do you wish to correct and reclaim them 1 Well ! I admit that you do. But have a care how you carry it toward them. Are yourselves much bet- ter, when you tell them doctrinally that their inward light (this is no fetch or perversion) is paramount to the book of their reputed scorn ! that the Bible is not THE WORD OF GoD ! that the Holy Scriptures amount only to a " secondary rule," and ought to be so " esteemed !" and that Fox (to say nothing of THOUSANDS of Others) was truly inspired, accord- 79 ing to his towering pretensions ! You had better be cleaner yourselves, before you count their spots. You had better study self-knowledge more impar- tially, before you " throw the first stone" at them. In the name of Jesus Christ, my glorious Master and Redeemer, I am not at all afraid to say to you, Repent of your cardinal heresy, and accept the word of God as YOUR highest rule in religion! In vain do you vend your inspired argumentation against them ; they can answer you with arguments equally inspired. You will only break down one another, without building up any one in the " most holy faith" of christians. You have helped to take from them both the fulcrum and the lever, without which all attempts to elevate their views are vain. Like task-masters of old, ypu take away straw, and demand the "full tale" of brick. They will never be rectified, nor you either, till you both renounce to- gether, or that party that shall be so rectified, your mysticising heresy of interior light and your conse- quent degradation of the word of God — a heresy in which there is, alas ! quite too little to choose be- tween you. But, I have more to say on the schism. 4. There may be such an unceremonious denounc- ing of the other party, as the lower and the more erroneous, as really to do injustice to some of their better characteristics; regarding the men, rather than their wrong opinions, in this palliati've re- flection. That some of them are very honest, and possessed of much moral courage of a certain sort, must be admitted. Their very confessions of infi- delity are honorable, rather than covert hypocrisy. 80 Any thing but a hooded villain — a concealed and sanctimonious hypocrite in the church! There is always more hope of the conversion of an infidel, that knows himself such, than of a false pretender who mistakes himself for a genuine worshipper. A man had better, with respect to the hopefulness of his conversion to Christ, have no religion than a false one; hg,d better know himself a foe, than mistake himself a friend. " Be not deceived : God is not mocked," Till deceit can throw its veil of mid- night over the eye-sight of Omniscience, its prac- tisings, however ingenious, will be utterly vain. They may ruin and deceive their possessor alone. If to say this be uncourtly — I am acting for the court of heaven. The grand rallying sentiment of the party now in question, has been that of their great champion — whose name is now burnt into them as Hicksites : No MAN CAN BELIEVE WHAT HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. It is not with him original, as you well know : nor is the controversy novel that depends upon it. It affects every truth and every heresy ; it belongs to some very interesting discussions in intellectual philoso- phy ; and it deserves to be well considered for the sake of all men. It is a matter that actually enters into the experience in some way of every thinking christian, and of every doubting sinner. And I con- fess that it has elicited my compassion, when I have witnessed the hopeless contests, especially of Friends, in regard to it. That there is some truth in it, which of you, dear sirs, will question] How then ought the difficulty to be resolved 1 How does it 81 affect our moral relations to the mysteries of the gos- gel 1 How does it consist with the criminality of error and the obligations of faith ] As I have not lately first considered the subject, and have my own way of resolving it, in which how- ever I am neither solitary nor original, I hope it will little startle you when I say — that the position is NOT MORE sweeping THAN TRUE ; in my judgment. I repeat the averment — No man can believe what HE does not undj:rstand. I extend it to religion and every thing else ; but prefer the apophthegm that faith and intelligence must be commensurate, at least in this respect, that faith can go no farther than intelligence, though intelligence may go farther than faith. To me it does not appear where there is either fallacy or peril in the proper import and use of this position, I certainly deceive myself greatly or I un- derstand all that I believe on every subject. Take that of "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,". for a high example. You can easily show me the limit of intellection on this topic, dazzling with its own effulgence. You can show me the fact revealed; yes, I believe it, and I under- stand the fact revealed ! But do I understand the mode of it also 1 No, I do not — nor do I believe the mode of it, either. The mode is no subject of reve- lation, no object of faith, no matter of intelligence. I believe that God is one in one sense ; and three in another sense : and not so either as to exclude the other. But as to the mode or manner of it, or the question, How is it so 1 I understand nothing, 11 82 I believe nothing, I read nothing in the scriptures. So I take it is the truth with respect to every other matter of revealed instruction. But I go farther. I find- every thing in the universe, as related to ray knowledge, precisely, in the same predicament. What are the premises of natural philosophy,, but facts or phenomena, observed and classed, defined and methodized, with the exactitude of science'? So of astronomy, botany, chemistry, geology, and the whole of physical science — not alone. But do not philosophers understand the modes of the facts'. Not at all. They understand to some extent the re- lations of the facts ; and facts subordinate which analysis discovers : but still they know no more of modes than essences. If this be true, we owe it to the Hicksites, fathers and brethren, just because we owe it to all others whom we can influence or assist in vanquishing the obstructions that intercept their return to the " obedience of the faith " — from what source soever they result, to disabuse genuine orthodoxy of the false metaphysics that have dis- honored it; to facilitate the way of life to the faith of men universally ; and not to consecrate the errors of good men or even great ones, because some of them have gloomed the whole of Christi- anity by protruding and aggrandizing the opposite position. I regard it as granting the whole cause to the enemy ; as surrendering the total contro- versy ; for one to require, contrary to the laws of mind, a homage to the gospel which, for that reason if for no other, the mind instinctively refuses to render ! and this, if I mistake not, is an infinitely 83 interesting concern ! " We are debtors both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise ; as much as in us is, to be ready to preach the gospel" to" them. Isai. 57: 14. Hab. 2:2. It would be sad for us in the day of judg- ment — I had almost said, even at the right hand of our glorious Lord, if he should there prove against us that, because " not skilful in the word of right- eousness," we had made dark what he had made clear, difficult what he had rendered easy, and unin- telligible what himself had fully and with infinite condescension expounded ! Allow me here to relate an anecdote in point. I was once providentially (some few years since) thrown in company with several respected persona of this unhappy persuasion. One of them, an edu- cated and regular physician of the city of Phila- delphia, remarked that he would rather hear nothing on that subject, for it would be useless; adding, I am so certain that a man cannot believe what he does not understand, that I never wish to listen to what confessedly contradicts this principle. Said I — may I not say any thing ] No, was the answer; if contradictory to the position aforesaid. I replied, but what if I avouch the same, for I cer- tainly believe it myself? This greatly surprised him and others. I proceeded : explained some of the greatest facts of revelation in coincidence with it; and elicited from him the concession — I never heard any thing so rational or convincing in favor of your side of the question before ! His countenance changed from the first moment he perceived my 84 meaning, from lightness to gravity. He always behaved differently to me and to these topics after- ward ; and on his lamented death-bed, besides the patience he showed and the confessions he made, he ventured with trembling to express a hope of redemption through the blood of the Lamb ; wel- comed a christian minister to his apartment ; united with him in prayer ; and called Jesus Christ his Redeemer ! Forgive me, sirs, for a tear to the mem- ory of my own dear late brother, James Cox, M. D. who left the world in December 1831, in the 35th year of his age. The Lord reigns ! He was a man of unsullied character ; in social and professional life universally respected. In chas- tity of manners, in justice of principle, in decision of conduct, his equals were few and his admirers many. And of his errors — liking them as little as you can, I can appreciate his prejudices, his educa- tion, his impediments, his real ignorance of Chris- tianity ! Forgive the reference and the episode : — there are thousands of others in a similar condition. O that I could help them to " behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world !" I would labor for their salvation, ,and think their souls, gathered in Christ Jesus, the best hire in the world : for he whom such a motive would not supremely influence deserves truly the epithet of " hireling " or reprobate. In view of this noble distinction between the fact and the mode, as related to the faith and the duty of men — that is, to their believing and practising f' the glorious gospel of the blessed God ;" while it 85 gives a lucid and legitimate facility above almost any other, and is of universal applicability ; I would say to Friends of both parties, that it will leave them " without excuse " if, upon whatever pretence, they refuse that gospel. The end for which the gospel was written, is that for which the whole volume of inspiration was written. It is not to in- form us of " a superior rule " within us — which it behoved to do, if any such thing exists ; and so at once to nullify its ^utility and condemn its copious- ness ; for who could want such a massive volume, as a mere index-finger to the inward light — and then afterward need the more voluminous writings, equally inspired, of Friends, as a supplemental ap- pendix to its contents'? The design of the scriptures, of which Jesus Christ is the pervading subject-theme from first to last, is plainly declared to us : " These are written THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name." Hence the whole scriptures are said to be " made KNOWN TO ALL NATIONS FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH." To believe, is to obey ; for God commatids us to beheve. Mark, 1 : 15. 1 John, 3 : 23. The design of revelation then, and of inspiration as the way of revelation, is to disclose to us the lessons of truth which we are required to learn ; the doctrines of God, which we are obligated to receive ; and the duties of wisdom, happiness, and salvation, which we are privileged and commanded to perform. And all this under the sanction of — life or death eternal! Jesus Christ has plainly suspended our destiny on 86 this single point — whether we cordially embrace the gospel or not! Mark, 16 : 15, 16. And what shall we say to him, in the day of judgment, if then we are revealed to have been spiritual infidels ; what- ever we professed to be, or perhaps thought our- selves here, or whatever other frail mortals thought and said of us \ Shall we say. Lord, how can a man believe what he cannot understand 1 He may an- swer-'— I revealed facts, realities, things that are, and those at once the most important for me to disclose, and for you to embrace : I revealed them in human language ; fully, intelligibly, appositely, and required the universal assent of the understanding, and con- sent of the heart, to their supreme excellency. The mode of them I neither revealed, nor required you to believe, more than to understand or cavil about. I offered you salvation in those things ; I oifered it practicably, sincerely, universally : and ye would not ! Ye loved your own superstition and tradition, more than my word ; which you wrested, dishonored, made void, and treated at best as " a secondary rule :" Wherefore, " Depart from me, ye cursed,unto everlasting fire ;" that same fire which was " pre- pared for" original transgressors, " the devil and his angels." Will you, superior, and safe by presumption, scorn the representation ; and count it methodistical and gross I Then know, my friends, that the experi- ence—I pray it may never be yours — will be more gross than the representation — more humbling — more terrible ! I fear that few of you ever have been, as ALL MEN ought to be, rationally afraid, of the 87 " damnation" which the scriptures reveal. Strange is the paradox on this subject, respecting the doc- trine of the fact, that those generally who seem least afraid of the fact are most annoyed with the doctrine ; those most exposed to the greater, most nauseate the less; those who can imperturbably brave damnation for a whole life-time, are most delicately timid of the word even occasionally told to them. It seems impossible for Friends to distinguish wisely between the^gurative and the mystical style ; and because the Bible abounds with the former though totally destitute of the latter, and because Friends abound with the latter even more than the former, they are perpetually mysticising. In their in- terpretation of scripture especially, nothing will sa- tisfy them, when in this vein, but mystery: every figure must be mystified before it can be held to con- tain any thing spiritual. This propensity does infi- nite mischief to their religion : it ruins the sober influence of scripture, or rather wholly prevents it. The best interpreters (and the best men are also meant by these) have shown that mysticalness is no attri- bute of revelation : which is the disclosure of things otherwise secret, and the attestation of things other- wise uncertain. What God says is true. But in what he says, the grand matter is what he means. Meaning is the soul of truth. To suppose that there is no sober coincidence between his words and his meaning, or that his meaning is unintelli- gible, or recondite beyond all the laws of language to contain, and all the fairest laws of interpretation 88 to evolve, is monstrous. It is the same as to charge God with deception and shuffling. It is a contra- diction also. For, what kind of a revelation is that, which purposely obscures what it professes to un- veill Now mysticism is nothing but double and doubtful meaning; where all is more dark and senseless, after the explanation professedly given. The facts or realities revealed in scripture are grand ; and mysterious, it may be, in the mode of their existence. But as facts they are all intelligi- ble, and the propositions in which they are expressed are all intelligible : and to believe the facts in the propositions is properly /ai^^, and saving faith also if we believe them with the heart. But the mode of them, and the mystery of them, have nothing to do •with, faith any more than with intelligence. Mysti- <;ism draws a veil of its own weaving over the open face of revelation. What God reveals, as far as fw REVEALS it, may be understood ; and in that re- spect it may be said that we understand all that we believe. Thus the proposition that God exists is plain,, and I believe it. As a fact it is intelligible, credible, and not at all mysterious. But the mode of the fact is mysterious. How does he exist II do not know. I do not believe or preach or care any thing in respect to the mode : so that I am wholly without faith, where I am also without know- ledge and understanding, on the question how does he exist ? So also of all the facts of revelation ; while a consistent practical recognition of this plain distinction would answer all the ends of faith and piety, without any of the absurdities of our own making on this article, which are wholly adverse to those ends. But some of you will say ; After all, your distinc- tion is of little consequence ! Why 1 Because it sheds too strong a light on the subject 1 Because you hate the facts revealed 1 Then know that this is the quintessence of — depravity. You are the un- converted children of the first Adam, and not the converted children of the second. To hate the facts of revelation — is just the character and the crime of our total* species, since the primeval apos- tacy! it is that very fundamental fact which the scriptures reveal and which heresy sophisticates ! the fact without which the whole fabric of the gos- pel falls, and the right experimental knowledge of which is necessary to all true spiritual discernment. The depravity of man is his fault, and not his mis- fortune. For it he is to be primarily blamed, not pitied. He is voluntary in it all. He never excuses its ebullitions in others^ especially when it injures him. God will not excuse it in him. And yet it is not peculiar to Friends, but to the species, to deny, conceal, and most reluctantly to own it. Still, it is the statute of Jehovah's mercy and the limita- tion of its sway of glorious sovereignty, that the person of an opposite character, and he alone, shall be pardoned and saved. " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper : but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Frov. 28 : 13. Friends, however, have some peculiar ways of " covering " sin ; and very few ways of confessing 12 90 it. In the "Journal" of their founder there are repeated asseverations of an almost immaculate innoceilcy ;" but scarcely such a thing as one humi- liating confession of sin in all the two octavos I And this characteristic, not without some excep- tions, pervades the mass of their writings. They mystify the acknowledgment of their depravity ; throw it mostly into the third person universal ; and seem much estranged to the petition of the publi- can — espetially its formal allusion to the atonement, which, you know, dear sirs, though unperceived in our translation, is a prominent excellence of the original. They speak of their wickedness as " a seed, a principle, a root," and so forth ; as if it were a physical malady, for which they were to be more pitied than periled or blamed, and not a mere moral evil for which they, and they only, are to blame ; — or, sin is no longer sin ; and the difference between physical and moral evil is no more to be discrimi- nated or believed. I need not add that to confound this primordial distinction, is to explode all moral government ; to violate the public sentiment of mankind ; to be condemned by the philosophy of more enHghtened heathenisrft ; to contradict our own moral organization and consciousness ; to con- found the day of judgment and the Judge himself! If men are moral agents,' absolutely and perfectly such ; if all their moral conduct, right and wrong, is entirely voluntary, and subject to the jurisdiction of the Eternal Lawgiver ; if their responsibility is necessary and entire ; if they can disbelieve the gospel, only by neglecting it, perverting it, avoiding 91 it, contradicting it, and sophisticating it, or opposing it with resolute antipathy ; if their impenitence or unbelief or heresy is all the acting of moral wick- edness, " an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God " so that they become " hard- ened through the deceitfulness of sin f if the cause is faulty, criminal, " exceeding sinful;" if their im- piety and consequent perdition (should they die as they live — which is probable) results from a faulty cause alone, and is itself essentially cri:minal and blame-worthy in tlie moral estimate of God ; if their alienation is voluntary as well as habitual, and guilty as well as ordinarily invincible; if it result not from want of capacity to be accountable, nor evidence quite sufficient to convince, nor provision amply made in Christ for their redemption, nor the free and importunate offer of a full salvation, nor the stirrings and remonstrances of " the Spirit and the Bride" that " say, Come :" and these premises are all true and demonstrable, I am sure : then it fol- lows — ^but, I am overwhelmed ! ! — " Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? What shall THE end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ]" I hear the irrevocable sentence, " Ye shall die in your sins, and where I am ye cannot come !" So they must die, if so they continue to live. To warn them as they go, and to warn them as " pri- soners of hope," is a strong and a mighty incentive with me in this publication. Of the one party it is a favorite excuse that there are so many mysteries in scriptural theology. What if there are ■? They are all parts of the great " mys- 92 tery of godliness" — and the alternative of "godli- ness " is " hell-fire !" But what mystery is there, the fact of which, in appropriate propositions, a man cannot both understand and believe] I know of no such mystery in the scriptures; and should like to have one discretely pointed out to me. To some it will appear that the word and the idea of mystery is fatal to the validity of the distinction between the fact and the mode : because, if the distinction be valid, all mystery is precluded ; and the objects of faith may be, and indeed are all molded into rational and intelligible propositions ; and so en- tirely denuded of mystery. The difficulty results from confounding two different senses in which the word mystery is used ; and from misconceiving its scriptural sense. If this is correct, I am sure it is so important as to be worth reading " in season and out of season." The first may be called the metaphysical and popular or colloquial sense — ^fpr they are the same ; and its definition is. That which is essentially incomprehensible or inconceivably supe- rior to our mental perceptions, so as seemingly to molate the laws of evidence and the possibility of intelligence. The other is simply, A secret; a thing previously and inscrutably unknown, till dis^ closed by authentic evidence. This last is the scrip- tural sense ; and not the other. The word mystery, singular and plural, occurs near thirty times in the New (not once in the Old) Testament. But I can- not find a solitary instance where it means any thing but a secret ; not to be discovered indeed by human penetration j but, being ' revealed ' to the holy apos- 93 ties for our profit and their own, both credible and intelligible as any other fact : " according to the revelation of the mystery (the disclosure of the fact) which was kept secret since the world began, but NOW IS MADE MANIFEST, and BY THE SCRIPTURES OP THE PROPHETS, ACCORDING TO THE COMMAND- MENT OF THE EVERLASTING GoD, MADE KNOWN TO ALL NATIONS FOR THE OBEDIENCE OP FAITH." Rom. 16 : 25,26. No inward light here. The only text which might seem as an excep- tion, and which as' such, has been not infrequently quoted, will be found on examination to be rather a more illustrious Example* Permit me to quote it as it is not (though it ought to be) translated in our Bible. 1 Tim. 3 : 16. " The pillar and ground of the truth — and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness — is this .* God was manifested in human nature ; vindicated by the Spirit ; beheld by angels ; preached unto the nations ; accredited in the world ; received again to glory." In our ver- sion, the first clause is put in apposition with " the church of the living God ;" making the church the foundation of the truth, when plainly it is only the superstructure. " For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus, the Christ." As we have it, it becomes a kind of apotheosis of " the church ;" which would suit Rome rather than a protestant community. The false rendering, here and elsewhere, has often helped their error. Rom. 11 : 18. As it is rendered above, however, it gives, I am persuaded, the very sense of the original. The INCARNATION OF Jesus Christ AND the grand AFFECTIONS OF HIS HISTORY ; is declared to be the great secret of godliness, which the scriptures re- veal ; the substantial theme of their total testimony ; the illustrious • fundamental of true religion ; the body and soul of inspired theology ; the centre of the circle ; the sun of the dependent system ; " the pillar and ground of the truth." The mystery is given in its parts ; each constituent proposition is a plainly intelligible fact and equally a credible one ; the secret is divulged, each part and the vphole : to believe it is the way and the manner of " godli- ness." Wo be to " the mystery of iniquity" that rejects it, and seeks for a safer foundation ! And wo be to the sorcery that sophisticates its truth, or mystifies the facilities of faith in its august and most salutary disclosures ! Spiritual sorcery is the worst sorcery in the world. The greatest and most confounding mystery that I know, is — the despera- tion of voluntary and obstinate impiety ! the indo- lence, presumption, and fool-hardinessj of irreli- gious men! One observation more in respect to the schism, 5. It has been made with both parties a capitcil question, and one of conflicting and exclusive claims ; which of them approaches more to the stand- ard of primitive Quakerism, or rather which party identically constitutes " the society'''' in this country, as the proper counterparts or the genuine successors of the foxian Friends. It were perhaps a more correct account to say that neither party has made it a question at all. Either arrogates the honor and denies it to the other : and which is right I'* 95 Grammatici certant ; et adhuc sub judice lis est. Hor. A quarrel 'tis, where sages disagree And vainly strive to solve the mystery. Inspiration, however oraculous, is of little avail ; because it can be so soon counteracted with oppo- site inspiration. Here " Greek meets Greek ;" and when " the tug of war " will end, or on whose standard the eagles of victory will perch, is a ques- tion for prognosticators. My own opinion is two- fold : (1) That either party can perhaps equally prove their positions from Fox, Barclay and others. I know of no latitude of mysticising or heresy to which the Hicksites have gone, for which precedent of the primitive sort may not be cited from their books : nor any summit of orthodoxy to which their more intelligent rivals have advanced, for which I have not myself perused the sanction of the same authority. This is my full conviction : and I would burden this long chapter with ample quotations in point, did I conceive it of any adequate impor- tance. Their respective publications however sus- tain the assertion. Buty convinced more powerfully that they are all wrong together ; that there is error enough among the best of them to annul their visi- bility as christian professors, and fix them with the fanatical corrupters of the truth of God — all of them, as long as they remain voluntarily in their not-half-reformed imbecility; ray opinion is (2) That the care they take, and the pains they are at, to make out their exclusive title to primitive Friend - ism, is a demonstration of their childishness and 96 vacuity : a question not worth settling ; and which "it argueth," as Bacon says of such disputes, " more real subtlety to despise than consider." I in- stance it as a proof of their real puerility. It shows also at what they are aiming — not at heaven, but earth ; not at proficiency,^ but retrogradation ; not to be christians, but Friends ! This is the truth of the matter, and the sum of it. Has God promised salvation to th6ir attainments, even should they suc- ceed in making theml In some respects they seem as completely abandoned of the temper of logical candor and honest susceptibility to evidence, as the Jews themselves ; of whom says the apostle, with some terrific .parallelism; they "both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have per- secuted us : and they please not God and are con- trary to all men ; forbidding us to speak ^° to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always,; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." 1 Thess. 2 : 15, 16. The infatuation of men, we know, is often judicial and desperate.: "that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.': 2 Thess. 2 : 10-1 2. I hope in God for better things in store for some of them ! I will here state numerically some reasons why the ecclesiastical visibility of the ' orthodox ' or of Friends universally, as a christian church, cannot be recognised by the churches of Christ. (1) They do not even profess to be a christian church — they are only "the religious society of Friends." Their body too is composed mainly of birth-right 97 members, those y/hofrom the birth haye been full and entire members without any confession or cove- nanting of their own : while few unite with them on " convincement." They used to be called " seek- ers " at first. (2) They deny "the holy scriptures " to be THE WORD OF GoD. (3) They deny them to be THE PRIMARY RULE of religious action; declar- ing them to be properly " esteemed " only as " a secondary rule." (4) They declare that every hu- man being has something "within" him, which is by way of eminence his highest and the primary rule, all-sufficient for duty and salvation. (5) They expressly affirm this internal rule to be superior to the scriptures; and they walk by the greater and not by the less. (6) Their confession of the revealed doctrine of the godhead is equivocal,^ Sabellian, and adverse, expressly adverse; to the tri-personal nature of God. (7) They deny in theory and practice the christian sacraments, positively deny them — though these are the con- stituted signals of visibility, putting the paternal name on all the children of the visible covenant family of God. (8) They have no such thing as a proper christian ministry, of either sex, among them. (9) They do not beheve in the resurrec- tion OF the body ; and they " overthrow the faith of" many in this prime article of the creed of chrisT tians. (10) They give no proof of honoring or achieving those great ends for which mainly the visibility and organization of christian churches exist on the earth : — such as maintaining the pure confes- sion of "the truth as it is in Jesus ;" the true wor- 13 98 SHIP of God, according to his word ; the diffusion of evangelical influence ; the propagation of genu- iNE CHRISTIANITY through the world ; the constant AND CLEAR OFFER OF SALVATION, with all the proper facilities for obtaining it, to every individual that has capacities to heed and accept ; and the mu- tual edification OF BELIEVERS in " the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godKness^ in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word THROVGH PREACHING, wMch is Committed" to- competent men, " according to the commandment of God our Savior." Tit. 1 : 2, 3. (11) They funda- mentally VITIATE THE WORSHIP OF GoD, render- ing it visionary, mystical, impracticable : a system of refihed will-worship and schismatical folly. See synopsis infia, Art.- 21 and note. (12) They have DISTINCTIVE MARKS ONHY AS HERETICS AND MYSTICS AND SECTARIANS ; NONE of a christian ehurch. (13) They excommunicate and denounce all visible, CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, RECIPROCATING NG RECOGNI- TION WITH THEM, and preferring their own way with^Mrc divino et ca;c?ws^»o claims to be themselves the only authorized religipnists and gcHuine worship- pers in the world. (14) They are doing nothing VISIBLY for the conversion of the world to Christ'. (15) They will have to be entirely superseded before the millennium ; as one of the real obstq:cles that retard its advent. (16) I know net what body OF PERVERTED RELIGIONISTS WE MAY NOT RECOG- NISE, if we may them % nor on what principle 99 of evangelical truth and order, we could possibly proceed in such recognition ; nor what piety we ever promote by lowering the standard or by throw- ing it away. 2 John, 7-11. Rev. 2: 2, 9. 3: 9, 22. (17) They are not orthodox. The word is only a caricature as applied to them ; and is just, only as discriminating them in contrast with the most ex- travagant and virulent specimens of infidel error. (18) Such recognition would only injure them — I mean their ultimate interests, not their present feelings. (19) They are to blame before God, AND THEY ALONE, in the extant light and state of things, for not being recognised. It is wholly their own fault. Let them change, and be wise and sound and thorough in christian principle ; then they will be owned " by the whole family in heaven and earth," and by the Father. (20) To recognise A COMMUNITY in this superlative relation is solemn business. The laws of courtesy and kind neighbor- hood have nothing to do with it. We have no right to consult social feelings, or any oiYiQt feelings. We must proceed according to principle, truth, scripture. No discretion is committed tons by the Great Head of the church, in the way of making or changing or va- cating the laws that govern the case, and for which the responsibility is not ours. Let those who dissent from these positions, show that they are unscriptu- ral ; or censure the Lawgiver ; or expect no notice from the officers of Christ, whatever they say in controversy. Some of these reasons may partially imply each other ; still, a correct expose required the different 100 aspects of the matter to be seen. The true way to determine the question is — 1. To consider the ' orthodox' absolutely, as though Hicksites were not ; allowing no partial or party influeaces to affect us. 2. To ascertain what they believe and profess, the whole pf it, and the necessary implications of their system. 3. To compare the result with the revealed criterion, fully, impartially, clearly. A, To decide, first, for eternity — waAthen, for time ! But many a sentence will proceed, no doubt, from many a person that is noy^<<%e. - , Friends will probably think I have forgotten the exhortation — " endeavoring to keep the unity of THE SPIRIT in the bond of peace." Eph. 4 : 3. Here they are again at fault. They ordinarily mistake wholly the meaning of the duty and the sense of the phrase. Read verses 1-6 of the context. They are all addressed to the church; that had one bap- tism, as I suppose all christians have, (visibly such,) who have been baptized into one name — that " of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." For, THE UNITY OP THE NAME to which it visibly devotes us, I take to be the true criterion of the unity of baptism. Friends have never been bap- tized, in the sense of scripture, at all ! Besides, " the unity of the Spirit " means — the consistency AND IDENTITY OF ALL HIS INSPIRATIONS : all are one ; a unit of harmonies, not a multiple of contradic- tions. It is objective, not subjective. Essentially, our feelings toward each other have nothing to do with it. Friends may feel unity toward each other, and toward good people of other denominations, 101 and yet have the Spirit, or know his unity, not at all ! All his influences are like each other and like Him — and hence we ought to conform to his truth and " endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit" as displayed in all his ways. The " Journal" of George Fox is indeed a cu- riosity. He was from his early youth an eccentric and extraordinary character. While yet in his teens it was remarked of him, he says, " If George says verily, there is no^ altering him." Vol. I, p. 84. Here was the identical germe in the acorn, I take it, whence sprang the great oak and its umbrage. In reference to the old shoemaker with whom he served, he writes ; " While I was with him he was blest, but after I left him he broke and came to nothing." Ibid. He adds, p. 85, The Lord " said unto me ; ffF'Thou seest how young people go toge- ther into vanity, and old people into the earth ; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all." It was now that his famous " openings" began. God, he continually says, told him this, that, and the other, totidem verbis ; ^ just as his old master, I suppose, was wont to do. Of one of those favored occasions, he writes, " I saw there was a great crack to go throughout the earth, and a great smoke to go as the crack went, and that after the crack there should be a great shaking. This was the earth in people's hearts, which was to be shaken before the seed of God was raised out of the earth." p. 100. He was at this time in doubt about which of the learned professions he should select. He was determined, 102 however, by aa " opening ;" as follows : " The cre- ation was open to me ; and it was showed me, how all things had their names given them, according to their nature and virtue. I was at a stand in my mind, whether I should practise physic for the good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of the creatures were so opened to me by the Lord." P. 104. One might almost regret that he had not selected the profession of medicine, since all its departments were so opened to him! In botany, pharmacy, materia medica, pathology, and progno- sis, modern improvements had been anticipated ; Sydenham and Rush and other lights as certainly precluded! A learned physician once said tome, "You preachers have the advantage of us; our science involves such uncertainty : we have no ora- cles of medicine, no Bibles of practice." True — ' but how near they came on one occasion to realizing such a desideratum ! What discoveries in physical science had been the consequence ! We need not have waited for the experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy to demonstrate the non-entity of phlogiston; or for Cuvier to set the world right about geological strata and the cosmogony of Moses. It is a fact, however, that many very respectable physicians of the society, who profess to believe, pugnis et calcir bus *' for ought I know, in the inspiration of George, have sustained a very useful and honorable place ajnong " the professors of the healing art ;" with- out possessing oneiotaof such extraordinary "open- ings" or any science subhmated above common comprehension. In fact the medical profession is 103 a favorite resort of intellectual gentlemen of the society ; and many of them in the city of Philadel- phia have I known, ahd honored, as have thousands of others, since the commencement of the present century. Some of them are men of eminence — to whom I would propound tlie dilemma : If the foun- der of your sect was not inspired, most surely he was a deluded and well nigh a delirious fanatic : a case possibly of mania connected with gome clas- sifications known to your science. But if he wag not so merged in hallucination ; if he was truly in- spired ; then you ought, gentlemen, to know or to remember that you are all in the same awful con- demnation with the clergy and the bar ; for George had an " opening" on the subject, that is quite con- clusive equally against the incumbents of the three professions. They are all in the same category; their professions are all in a common dishonor: — and I call on you, by all your sincerity and by all your consistency, as Friends, to repent of this your wickedness, in presuming to go to school to learned lecturers instead of the inward light which shines in you ; a light that is grieved at your carnalities of that sort, and is so clear that fools can see it. Lis- ten then to your indictment and your sentence, gentlemen! " I went to Clausen in Leicestershire, in the vale of Beavor; and the mighty power of God appeared there also, in several towns and vil- lages where Friends were gathered. While I was there^the Lord opened to me three things, relating to those three great professions in the world, law, physic, and divinity, (so called.) He showed me. 104 that the physicians were out of, the wisdom of, God, by which the creatures were made ; and knew not the virtues of the creatures, bfecause they were out of the Word of wisdom, by which they were made." Of the priests and lawyers he had openings in the same unity: when he sums up the matter thus; " And that these three, the physicians, the priests, and flie lawyers, ruled the world out of the wisdom, out of the faith, and out of the equity and law of God I the one pretending the cure of the body, the other the cure of the soul, and the third the protec- tion of the property of the people." He then pro- ceeds to show that " all might be reformed :" and by what process 1 Truly, this Reformer had a unit, a catholicon, unum pro universis, which we might anticipate. It was "the light!" p. 106. But how impiously scientific some medical gentlemen of the society remain to this day ! With respect to his miracles, instead of enlarging on their history or nature, I will just transcribe the article in the "Index" to the second volume under that head ; where we may see a summation of them as received by Friends in this our day ! Is it the nineteenth century-^or the ninth ! " Miracles wrought by the power of God, I. 297 ; she that was ready to die raised up again, I. 301; the lame made whole, I. 214 ; the diseased restored, 11. 208 ; a distracted woman healed, I. 117. See trouble of mind ; a great man given over by physi- cians restored, I. 121 ; G. F. prays for a distracted woman at Chichester, I. 303; restores J. Jay's neck, broke (as the people said) by a fall from a horse in 105 East-Jersey, II. 161 ; speaks to a sick man in Ma- ryland, who was raised up by the Lord's power, II. 164, and prays the Lord to rebuke J. C.'s infirmity, and the Lord by his power soon gave him ease," &c. II. 321, Concerning his whole productions and influence, it may be justly said that he was one of the most indefatigable zealots, and at the same time one of the most deluded religionists that ever lived. His mission plenipotentiary from God, is remarkable equally for its super-apostolic claims and its entire destitution of rational evidence, " I saw ; it was clearly showed me ; the power of the eternal God came over me ; the Lord said to me ; the Lord opened to me; the Lord moved me;" and such like seals of evidence abound multitudinous, to a degree which no one of the sacred writers can parallel ; which not even the apocryphal history of " Tobit " can be thought to rival. Let no man condemn Ann Lee and the Shakerisni she intro- duced ; nor the more recent votaries of Mormon- ism ; nor the blasphemies of Matthias ; nor any future outrage upon the laws -of evidence or the feelings 6f piety or the proportions of truth ; if they are sufficiently obtuse or wayward to confess the inspiration of George FoX. If to hate and de- nounce all other religionists on the face of the whole earth, beside himself and his deluded retainers ; if to vaunt himself a paragon of perfect innocence, an intimate or familiar of the attendant divinity, on every emergency perfectly inspired, a worker of miracles, victorious (as he says) on all occasions of 14 106 dispute with learned men, knowing the contents of scripture without reading them, and ordained of God immediately for the rare work of utterly revo- lutionizing his own constitution ; if sincere confi- dence in his own qualifications ; if a bold and im- pudent invasion of the worship of others, interrupt- ing and insulting it in the name of the Lord as did not the apostles, and bestowing the coarsest epi- thets on every other ministry whenever he could find it ; if calling the Episcopalian edifices " steeple- houses," and contradicting their ministers publicly when in their own pulpits ; if disturbing other con- gregations, hundreds of them, wherever he went, " to draw away disciples after him," without re- spect to individual and corporate rights or the laws and constitution of society ; if provoking persecu- tion by such means and then complaining of it ; if illiterate effrontery in denouncing all liberal learn- ing and all its possessors and professors ; if a litera- lizing, mygticising, imaginative vein of theological dictation ; if resolute perseverance in devotion to his object : if all these things can constitute his claim to confidence-:-" Credat Judaeus Apella ! non ggQ »22 gmjji an instance ought to convince man- kind, without sacrificing another of the species in the needless experiment, of the infinite importanck OF THE SCRIPTURES ; as Supplying the very desi- deratum of an adequate rule in religion, by which all opinions may be tried and all errors condemned, with unsparing and impartial steadiness, and with supreme authority. All false religion, and all infi- delity, and all heresy, unite in this — to put down 107 the volume of inspiration ; though they differ inimit- ably in their ways of doing it. Yet I know of nothing that makes it " void " more effectwally than the leaven of Quakerism ! . We ought too to be humble at the spectacle of our dishonored species. Poor human nature ! where is thy boasted intellect 1 where thy strength of judg- ment, thy sane integrity, thy virtue, thy wisdom 1 And yet this system of distempered thought is in some of its aspects so imposing and so importunate, that in an intelligent and cordial attachment to the religion of the scriptures, and in that alone, is there any rational safety or protection from its fascinations. The ignorant bow to it, of course ! Yet who, beside the enlightened christian, is not ignorant of the contents, systematically viewed, of the word of God 1 ^ Fox is the root and the trunk of the tree of Quakerism. Some of the radical sap nourishes every branch ; swells every bud into a blossom ; matures the fruit ; qualifies the surround- ing odor ; constitutes the shade of its darkness ; and sustains all its homogenous parts, that have stood for nearly two centuries uplifted on such a supporter. But it is split ; it is becoming weak ; it is found to be hollow ; and there is in it a strange inward light, which will turn into a fiame of fire, and reduce it to ashes, for the good of mankind. It cannot fall too soon for the interests of Chris- tianity and of man. The heavenly dove is not seen in its branches ; even when its imposing foliage and a still serenity as of death, seem to invite or 108 to indicate her presence. " It is nigh unto cursing, whose, end is to be burned." We often hear it said that apostates are always strenuous in opposing the community they have ab- jured. This may be a general fact ; but as such it is no argument. The word apostate is commonly used in a bad sense alOne, and as such it becomes a brand with which to stigmatize any man who at any time and for any cause renounces any society or sect. But the word, meaning to stand off from, does of itself imply no criminality: because, one may certainly apostatize from error as well as truth, from evil as well as good, and from folly as well as wisdom. When therefore they blame me for the mere fact of apostacy from them, they assume the very thing which they ought to prove ; namely, that their religi,on is right and not wrong,, is true and not false, is wise and not foolish. ' To apostatize from what is wrong, is the grace of repentance. Apos- tacy is right or wrong in reference to its object alone, and inversely as that object is right or wrong. If therefore Q,uakerism be what I think it is, the fact of my determined apostacy from it is what I shall recollect with pleasure in the day of judgment. " Wherefore come out from among them," &c. (2 Cor. 6 : 17, 18. Rev. 18 : 4.) As to the strenuous opposition of apostates in all cases, it is probably a fact: we have however no concern with it unless it can be proved that such are always wrong in pror portion as they are strenuous and because they are strenuous. Paul apostatized once fqr all (he was no changeling) from " the Jews' religion ;" and 109 they might call him an apostate Jew and apply to him the proverb that apostates are always strenuous in opposition to the community they have abjured. Would that prove their own rectitude or refute his arguments \ Would it prove that he sinned when he apostatized from a corrupted, worldly system, which was also abandoned of God and execrated by mankind, as connected with its degenerate abet- tors \ So Luther apostatized from popery ; and was often gratuitously reviled as an apostate by the Ro- manists. But if that word is bad in itself then know that it may be retorted. Barclay was an apostate. He left the Romish church for the society at nearly the same age in which I left the society :— and what then % The inference is that all the talk, in which many seem to glory, about apostasy, is a show of words without sense — unless it be the sense of malignity. But here let it be observed that it re- quires moral courage and moral virtue, which for ever dare to exemplify, to brave the frown of thou- sands in apostatizing from antiquated educational error, on the single principle of faith in the testimony of God ! It is true in modern as well as in ancient days that men often countervail their secret convic- tions from mere moral cowardice — they dare not do their duty ! . John, 12 : 42, 43. There is perhaps no sort of pusillanimity at once so common and so despicable and so ruinous as this ! But admitting the fact of this strenuousness, and supposing any case, as that of Paul for example, where the apostacy was right, it does not follow 110 * that the strenuousness is wrong. There are reasons why such apostates should be strenuous. (1) They are better acquainted with the ebils of the system than others. Their knowledge is expe- rimental as well as theoretical. Their impressions are compara.tively vivid, their views comparatively clear, and their convictions comparatively just. Paul's knowledge of Judaism could not, without a miracle, have been what it was unless he had been ane of them. My knowledge of Quakerism could never have been what it is, had Inot been educated a Friend. I know they can say that I did not under^ stand their sentiments when I was with them ; and if they mean that I was ignorant of them in contrast with Christianity, that is, ignorant of thentas wrong, they say truth : for I was ignorant of Christianity. Not so, if they mean that I had never heard hiin- dreds of theiy preachers with attention and confi- dence, read their books, especially George Fox's Journal, and understood their doctrine. They may say indeed that I do not understand it now, as they often have said ; the light may tell them so, as it has told them many other things equally credible ; but I know that I do understand their system as far as it is intelligible, and that I did this in fact before I left them. For the rest, let others judge. (2) Apostates are more interested than others in the explosion of the errors they have renounced. Paul often alludes to his Own case in illustrating the con- dition of the Jews ; he had been one of them, and was near the verge of perdition with them; his rescue was wonderful ; and his zeal was strenuous, Ill from this fact, for the conversion of others. Per- haps he had unbelieving relatives, or friends and intimates, w^hom he tenderly loved ; and for whom he could never have felt so deeply had he not pre- viously been of their number. He could appeal to God that he had*'' " great heaviness and cor^tinual sorrow in his heart " on their account. It is rea- sonable and natural XhsLt sincere converts, from any false scheme, should always Show their zeal in a similar way. (3) They are under peculiar obligations. If they have peculiar knowledge and peculiar interests, they have also peculiar facilities ; and they ought to exert a proportionate influence in favor of the truth. Who shall attend to the case of their former asso- ciates, if they neglect them 1 Do they not owe it to the Author of their own illumina.tion in the truth, to try to bring others to its blessings 1 and especially them with whom themselvfes were, once associated I Thus I have ever felt it my duty, since the com- mencement of my " faith in Christ Jesus " and knowledge of " the grace of GoH in truth," to try to do something for Friends ; because, while 1 knew their sublime self-complacency in religion, t knew also their deep ignorance and error in respect to the true doctrine of Christ. But there never was a people perhaps so inaccessible to all instruction not of their own making as are they. They will call meetings of other denominations to hear them ; but they will never (exceptions are not rules) re- .turn the homage in kind, by going to hear other preachers than their own. The only way then is — 112 to publish. This I do: — yet with diffidence, I con- fess, in ray own powers to perform the difficult ser- vice ; but without diffidence, real or professed, in regard to the questions. What is truth ? Is Qimker- ism Christianity 1 Did George Fox preach the same doctrine with Christ and the apostles 1 With this explanation I acknowledge that I am an apostate from Quakerism, and strenuous in devising the ex- tirpation of the system : — and strenuous also, and on the same account, in desiring the salvation of all those who are "my brethren and kinsmen accord- ing to the flesh." I can however adopt the language of Tully on the score of charity, as applicable here. Vehe-r menter me agere fateor, iracunde nego. , Omnino irasci amicis non temere soleo, ne si merentur qui- dem. Sine verborum contumelia a te dissentire possum, sine animi summo dolore non possum. " For while I confess a peculiar earnestness of manner,. I must wholly deny malignity of motive. In converse with Friends, 1 am not accustomed rashly to incur their resentment ; even when they probably deserve the castigation that would lea;d to it. I may indeed differ from one without contu- melious language ; but in the present instance not without real anguish of mind." It will be a great question doubtless with many, What are the motiviss of the writer 1 Is it not plain that this is rather his concern than theirs 1 Men there are who never seriously set themselves to search for the truth ; and yet are often found med- dling with the motives of others: especially with 113 theirs who aggressively espouse the positive of a question in religion,, professing a knowledge of the truth and a desire to communicate it, for the bene- fit of others and the glory of God. Hence many will probably neglect, or in character omit, the peru- sal of this work, though considerably occupied, it may be, in speculation on the motives of the au- thor ; where one will be found so wise as to leave persons and motives to the arbitration of God, while he candidly searches for the principles of truth. Rom. 14 : 10-12. With my person and motives the public have little concern ; while with the matter of the work their concern is incalculable. My motives, / know, are supremely important to myself; since mine is the solemn responsibility for them " at the judgment-seat of Christ :" and though 1 deem them of little moment to the public apart from their influence on the character of this treatise ; and though I have generally conceived it to be one of the common and sordid arts of false teachers to be continually boasting of their good motives, which however deceives the hearts of multitudes ; and though I have generally written as if it were com- paratively of no importance to others what my mo- tives were, and indeed none of their business to inquire, unless the treatise itself so indicates them as to furnish all the evidence of which the case admits ; still, I will venture here, to the best of my knowledge, frankly and fully to state them : / am actuated by a sense of duty to the cause of truth and its Author ; of duty to the souls of men, and es- pecially to the immortal interests of the people, one 15 114 of whom I was horn and educated ; and whose dis- tinguishing views I formerly and sincerely believed : with the desire of bringing them to see the divinity, the fulness, the excellency of the scriptures, as pro- perly our highest, holiest, safest rule of religious faith and practice — a rule thatis disparaged or disclaimed only by the policy of the kingdom of darkness. This profession will very possibly be impugned. In making it, I am sensible of the abuse which may be made of it by the adversary. Well I know that every breathing man upon the footstool, who re- mains unchanged in his native character, is the enemy of christians and of Christ. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." And to me it seems not credible that the exterior habitude of meekness, with which Quakerism so mechanically and so cheaply invests its votaries, can do any thing more for "the natural man" than injuriously to misrepresent him to others and himself.. If it were of use to affirm, never so solemnly, that these are my motives, that I have consciously no other, and that I beg to have my positions refuted rather than my name and person assailed, I could easily and would cheerfully make the affirmation. But well I know "leviathan is not so tamed." The truth too is stubborn and invincible. Presumption cannot change, nor authority awe, nor sorcery charm it. Hence those who fight with the weapons of truth, sincerely forswearing all others, must never allow feeling to govern, or sympathy to preponderate, in the strife. Otherwise they may conciliate the foe, but they lose the cause : the foe is pacified to them. 115 but not to the King, for whom they are engaged. Hence it is that severities (as they appear perhaps to all who neither know nor love the truth) abound in what I have written ; as they more terribly abound in the word of God. Unhappy indeed is the condition of a fault-finder. Yet with some such main intention came I to the present service. If I say, it is ungrateful to my feelings — it will be but repeating what every one in similar relations has affirmed. But the laws of moral and social feeling are immutable. I will say the truth ; to me it is disagreeable, it is painful. Still, I have no doubt it is necessary. " Necessity is laid upon me ; yea, wo is me if I" do not dis- charge this duty to the cause of truth. The sur- geon that amputates a limb, or pierces an abscess, or inflicts any other suffering in the way of hia vo- cation; must preserve a steady hand, an equal eye, a firm tenacious nerve : nor is his kindness then sus- pected; he is not ridiculed, scorned, calumniated for his faithfulness. The world acknowledges that he willed not the misery, but the cure ; not the pain, but the restoration. But, neither mercy, nor jus- tice, is commonly done to the polemic. His case is trying ; his duty difficult ; his obligations high. Who will give him credit for his motives, even if they are purely benevolent ? The vain world, whom his argument condemns \ the errorist, whom it ex- poses % the reprobate, whom it convicts l Men are not so fond of seeing their faults, as to thank those who help their vision, however honestly. If one fail in the difficult attempt, he is condemned ; and 116 often, if he succeed, those whose errors he detects are pitied and caressed for that reason. Few re- alize the interest which all men have in the truth ; and hence they as little appreciate the injury of error or the necessity of correcting it. Beside, men incline generally to resist aggression, seeming or real, without reference to equity ; and if one is deemed the assailant, they instinctively take part with the assailed, and resist him. But let equity be honored : and let it be ascertained by a wiser cri- terion than mere appearances. Truly, this treatise is rather a defence. Friends are the assailants. They assail all Christendom. They are the reform- ers and the innovators. They denounce all others ; and that in terms utterly inconsistent with the allow- ance of their piety : " hirelings, the world's people," and such like epithets, abound in their authentic wri- tings. I never said that they have all no piety ; I only say that it is too much mystified, where it possibly exists, to be recognised by the church of God ; that their system recognises no denomination but their own ; and that ordinarily I have little confidence in the piety of a Friend, whatever other qualities of gene- ral worth I may, and freely do, accord to him. God is my witness that there is no affectation in this averment — I am painfully " shut up to " it by moral necessity and all the evidence that affects the case. I never said that they would none of them be saved, but rather the contrary : but then I have said, and do say, that the principles of salvation are immuta- ble and very little understood by them ; that they are often mistaken, and egregiously misstated, by their 117 inspired ministers, especially of the tender sex ; that their theological system involves much fundamental error, and is " another gospel, which is not ano- ther" — as, if a 'will o' the wisp' should aspire to be the sun ; truly it would be " another sun, which is not another ;" that their views are bewitching to all that are not established in " the truth as it is. in Jesus," and destructive in an awful degree ; that God requires his people not only to hold the truth, but to " hold it fast," and in modern phrase to go the whole in its due support ; that there can be no such thing as religious compromise with error more than Wjith sin ; that even the religious public ordina- rily misunderstand it; that Quakerism must dis- solve and disappear as " the baseless fabric of a vision," since nothing but truth is immortal, and with respect to his own kingdom hath the Savior said, " Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up ;" that in America the exotic declines, since here are none of the storms of persecution, dnd I sincerely hope never will be, to give it vigor by endurance and circulate its genial fluids by extraneous action ; that it is sophisticated in its very texture and soul, and will make a spe- cious sophist mainly of any vaunted reasoner who espouses it ; that it is mystical, and as such heathen- ish and false, Christianity having many sublimities indeed, — but nothing properly mystical in its whole constitution ; and that, leaving persons with God, and contending as we ought for principles, and that valiantly, and not as when " a standard-bearer faint- eth," we ought to inscribe on our banners the word 118 CHRISTIANITY, and resist fqr ever the counterfeit of earth in favor of the current coin of heaven. Let earthhngs oppose the sentiment, if they will ! their retribution flies swiftly and predominates for ever ! Respecting the capital sophisms of the Quakers, especially in the argumentation of Barclay, I would sp.ecify one or two. 1. To argue from the historical or noted abuse of any thing, to its disuse as both expedient and obligatory on that account : instead of arguing from the proper nature of the thing as right or wrong ; as sanctioned by divine authority or frau- dulently imposed by men ; as natively tending to goodness or productive of harm ; as intrinsically a part of Christianity or surreptitiously and supersti- tiously appended to it. This is the very acme of logical absurdity and sin ! This capital sophism, with which the Apology abounds, is perhaps the most absurd and abomina- ble in principle that can be found in all. the circuits of nominal religion, in all the errors of spurious logic, or throughout the encyclopedia of universal heresy. According to it, we have only toabuseia order to abo- minate a divine institution ; while we graduate its evil exactly in proportion to its abuse. On this principle the religion of Christ may be legitimately proved to be the worst system that ever claimed the confidence of men — incomparably the worst ; since no other sys- tem has ever been, as all admit, so much, so wan- tonly, so universally abused ! On the same principle the Divine Being himself — but, I forbear! The man who does not utterly forswear this prin- 119 ciple, and that at once, intelligently and cordially ; the man who acts upon it at all, either knowingly or doatingly, either confessedly or — what is both' much more common and much more mischievous — covertly, such a man is utterly disqualified for the business of fair argumentation on any subject ; and on the superlative subject of religion is he qualified only to disparage, corrupt and destroy it ! The principle directly opposite to the sophism, the true and proper one^ the one dear to the mind exact- ly in proportion to its wisdom and its goodness, is to judge of things accordingto their nature ; to call their abuses abuses, and as such to condemn and avoid them ; and to graduate the evil of the abuse in exact proportion to the goodness of its subject! and con- versely, to value an evil thing as one neither liable to abuse, nor ordinarily capable of it : while it should be our aim directly to rescue religion, in her own celestial beauty, from the wrongs and calumnies of her enemies ; and resolutely to view her heavenly countenance mainly as reflected in her own perfect mirror, the scriptures of inspiration. Let any man who has capacity and honesty, and a very little of both is suflicient, read. Barclay with, the rigid application of this principle to all his sen- tences ; resisting the fascination of his inspired audacity ; and see how much his argument is every where indebted to the sophism ! Especially when he speaks of the gospel ministry and the two sacra- ments ; to mention no others. How it avails him, and blinds his reader, to inveigh against — what no way touches the question — the vices, sordid motives, 120 and abominable practices, of some, say many, of the clergy ; the dissensions, angry controversy, and mad- dened blood-shed, that have arisen about preceden- cy, transubstantiation, the cup to the laity, and a thousand other matters of human abuse, which no way affect our obUgations ; except that they all be- come stronger from the premises, to resist abuses and to exemplify Christianity as Christ and the apos- tles gave it to us — and not to despoil it of all its peculiar characteristics till nothing be left, except what no man can abuse ! Barclay is fond of the implication that the abuses as abominations, which he alleges, are abominated only by himself and his confederates of the so- ciety : though he oftener declaims than adduces au- thentic facts ; yet he has no right to imply that he is alone with his people, in so loving Christianity as to be equally alone in execrating its corrupters. Love for Christianity is my sole reason for disliking him and his fraternity. To this sophism, I shall have frequent occasion to advert in the progress of these pages. 2. Another capital sophism deserves a place, which I am rather at a loss to designate. It consists in a rapid and daring application to all christians, and especially — of course — to themselves, of any thing and every thing contained in the Bible, with- out considering the laws of application, or the ne- cessity of discriminating, or the native sense of the passage where it occurs, or the misery of mistake in matters of infinite moment to all. Particularly, it makes almost nothing of the perfect and solitary 121 EMINENCE OF THE APOSTLES ; it discriminates little or not at all between what was spoken or promised to them exclusively, and what is equally appropriate to all believers ; it seems to assume that miracles and inspiration (the latter necessarily) were not all confined to the first century, or merely adapted to the initials of the last and most perfect dispensa- tion, and so having performed their office and fully accomplished the cause which they were given to subserve, have pasSfed away with the occasion that required them ; while vital religion, quite another thing, reaps the perpetual harvest of their useful- ness, and flourishes without their repetition. It im- plies that those things are revealed for imitation, rather than faith. But let us reason the case. The apostles wrought miracles, and for this they were expressly trained by their Master. Directions, prohibitions, and pro- mises of a peculiar nature, were hence propounded for them. If the, Quakers are just as much inspired, then indeed all the furniture above referred to is equally their own. But mind ! all or none is the word. For, if some and not all appertains to them, then there must be discrimination ; then it is not enough to show what is written in the scriptures, as having been spoken to the apostolic disciples, since the passages may reifer to them alone ; then it may be delusion and sin for Friends to apply, as they do, to themselves, whatever was said to the apos- tles. If however all, saving mere local circum- stances, appertains to them, then let us see them dispose of such passages as these, which, if not • 16 122 confined to the persons of the apostles, are confined wholly to the age of the apostles. " And these signs," &c. Mark, 16 : 17, 18. Luke, 17:5, 6. This last, we think, respects the faith of miracles alone ; or the faith necessary to work a miracle ; and which it behoved them to understand, who were soon to be put upon that perilous service in. the sight of maddened adversaries. Mark, 13 : 11. Such pas- sages abound in the New Testament and afford a fine paradise for sincere visionaries. The Friends, those of them who are not degenerate formalists and nothingarians, are distinguished for this devout insanity ; though they are not alone in its fits and excesses. It has been the partial and occasional error of millions of christians, who have in general avoided it. Ultimately, it is in principle the very thronal error of the papacy. The fact is, thk APOSTLES, AS SUCH, HAD NO SDCCESSORS ; SUPER- SEDED often, they have been succeeded never ; while the assumption of apostolical powers, apos- tolical derivation, and apostolical succession, in this style of feudal reasoning and military commission and romanizing pride, has been the bane of visible Christianity since the apostles " fell asleep." It were well if an assumption so ignorant and criminal had been totally confined to the pale of the papacy. For one I am as much opposed as Barclay, to an earthly politico- ecclesiastical hierarchy ; but, while I see this shameful error at the very basis of many organized corruptions, I can see the same principle, a little spiritualized and of a more tranquil aspect, arrogating Ae commission and the honors of the 123 apostles of the Lamb, in the persons of Barclay and his associates, his predecessors and successors of the foxian school, for nearly two centuries. It is enough for sober christians to belong to a church whose profession is pure, whose officers are " sound in the faith," and whose-practice is humbly in coinci- dence ; enough to be '< built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom they also are builded together, for a habitation of God through the Spirit." To these foundations of divine sanction and certain im- movability, the christian of intelligence would be very sorry to add, " and built also upon George Fox, Robert Barclay, Sarah Grubb, and a thousand other prophets and prophetesses, who have been recently commissioned and inspired, exactly as were Moses and Isaiah, Matthew and Paul, and all the other writers of the holy scripture !" It is however much more evident that the whole massive struc- ture of Quakerism rests on Fox, Barclay, and others, than that it touches " the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- ner-stone." Wo be to it, if it be found in eternity not on this foundation ! " For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ !" " For their rock is not as our'rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." As to the way in which Friends manage to resist the appeal ; Why do you not pluck up trees by the roots and transport them into the. midst of the ant- 124 arctic ocean ; why do you not take np venomous serpents and fondle them with impunity ; why not drink poison or other deadly thing, without preju- dice to health 1 Their way of rdjoinder we know, having often listened to the responses of the oracle within, on that article : " Why, dear Friends, it is plain to the vision of my mind that- nothing is want- ing but faith. The Almighty is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Be it unto you according to your faith. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. His hand is not shortened, nor his ear heavy: he can both hear and save. But where is your faith ? Alas ! in what days do we live ?" True ! degenerate times. Not a soul to be found on the earth Who can, for example, transport the Alleghany mountains one mile to the east of their present lodgment, or even remove a bramble bush that grows on its breast six inches from tTie position of its local obstinacy. No faith to be found ! And what is to become of us all 1 He that believeth not, said the Savior, shall be damned ! Who can doubt the necessity that preachers of religion should be apt to teach ? who can knowingly approve of those, whose a priori illusion, resulting from its p&rent illusion of " inward objective mani- festations in the heart," so metamorphoses and mangles the doctrine of Christ ■? and at the same time removes them, (instead of the mountains,) to the very antipodes of sober sense 1 The Spirit of God denounces those busy teachers, who need them- selves to be taught ; " understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm !" Now, as they 125 assert when they answer, I shall just take the same liberty ; and assert that their light is darkness, their confidence confusion, and their solution utterly igno- rant and utterly false ! The reason is — that what was said to the apostles, as such, and all that related to THEIR working of miracles, is formally appli- cable TO THEM ALONE, and of usc to US Only in a way of instruction, advertisement, and sober accom- modation. Other sayings of God apply to us, and are objects of faith to christians of our age ; our want of faith, toward objects that properly relate to us, may be rebuked by what was said to apostles in other relations : and this is what I mean by the use of sober accommodation under the guidance of the great moral truths of Christianity. Faith is indeed suffi- ciently and quite criminally infirm", even in true christians ; but if we were all as destitute of it, as we are of all attained or attainable power to remove trees and mountains, the plain consequence virere that no true church exists on the earth, and we shall all perish for ever ! Let them father the consequence, who hold the doctrine ! and let every Friend, who cannot perform these prodigies, "examine himsejf whether he be in the faith !" — for I can inform him that it is possible to be a true christian without them : and more, that " many will say to Christ in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name 1 and in thy name have cast out devils 1 and in thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will he profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me ye that work iniquity." Judas may head this forlorn company, as their " chief speaker ;" for 126 we know he never departed from iniquity, thoOgh there is some evidence that he wrought miracles : we know this, because (1) there is not a particle of evidence that he ever had, any piety, that Christ ever knew him; and (2) there is direct evidence to the contrary. Said Je^^ " Have not I chosen you twelve 1 and one of you is a devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon : for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve." John, 6: 70, 71. Matt. 10: 4,8. He called Judas "a devil" in the early stages of his ministry; nor did he then first learn his character, as if in thus asso- ciating him, in his deep providential wisdom, with the others, he had mistaken that character. The Son of God was not used to mistakes : " because he knew all men ; and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." Be- sides, it is expressly said, that " Jesus knew ^om the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him" John 2 : 24, 25. 6 : 64. How perilous to the soul is the darkness of the inward light ! If it were a mere absurdity, as innocent as it is silly or sincere, I should SB.y dream on — at least should not write a book to arouse it with the order, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." I will just add, there is more force in the frequent averment that Jesus knew the traitor (in one sense, as he knew him not, in another and a nobler sense) ^om the begin- ning, that he certainly seems , never to have been either known or suspected by the eleven ! " Lord is it I ■? so said they all." No one said, Is it not Judas? 127 " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment;" as in .the case of the openly profane and profligate : "and some men they follow after;" as in the case of saintly seducers and hypocrites, whose real character is revealed (like that of Judas) late, or only in eternity. " But evil men and se- ducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived-" I have just adverted to a passage of scripture, and used it too in its correct import, which may as well here be considered 'more at large. Friends abuse it very sincerely, if not universally. If they knew its meaning, it would mock their inspiration terribly. It is this. " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment ; and some men they fol- low after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand ; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." 1 Tim. 5: 24,25. The original word npo^^g means simply — manifest, palpable, clear as day, not to be mistaken. It is rendered in the passage, '^open beforehand,' and * manifest beforehand.' It occurs only in a third place in the New-Testament, Heb. 7 : 14, and is there better ''^ rendered "evident." The passage then means in substance this ; Beware, Timothy, in ordaining officers or receiving members or super- vising the general interests of the church ; beware of specious appearances. Some men indeed could not deceive you : they are too palpably wicked ; their sins are notorious ; their lives are scandalous ; you and all men know them, and so anticipate for them very correctly the sentence of eternal 128 judgment, to which their enormities proceed, as it were, before them ; expecting their arrival and the retribution "then to be displayed against them. But there is another class of wicked men of a de- scription precisely opposite. They are good look- ing, celestializing, imposing hypocrites. You must be wary and penetrating to see them. Their sins are more covert ; less manifest ; not preceding them but "following after" to judgment. Beware then of appearances ; and lay hands suddenly on no man. Not knowing the sense of this text or the words of the original. Friends spiritualize it into a very good meaning indeed ! so that what the apostle used to denote flagitious profligates or open con- temners of goodness, their inspiration interprets to mean a high and holy spiritual experience which Friends of an exalted character, or saints alone, realize. Often have I heard their preachers insist, with all the unction of holy sonorousness, on the necessity and blessedness of this rare experience ! Saying substantially as follows : " Ah ! my Friends, you must come to knowthis for yourselves. Can you say in truth and from your own assured expe- rience, ' My sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment?' Happy those who can adopt that language of the apostle ! They know of a sure- ty how good and how pleasant it is ! O the ex- cellency of this experience ! I say again, my dear Friends,' have you ever known it for yourselves 1 Be assured that without it you are only as ' sound- ing brass or a tinkling cymbal.' I can testify to the excellency of the experience, from certain 129 knowledge and with undoubted clearness made manifest by the inward Teacher to my soul. O how much better than all. the learning of the schools ! How great the * learned ignorance ' that knows it not, and yet affects .to preach unto others in the learning of the letter ! As I sat in the stillness and solemnity of all flesh, the word was sounded through the secret chambers of my heart, in the present meeting: and it was made manifest to my inner man that I must communicate it for the benefit of others. I deliver it as a message from the Lord to some of you. To whom it appertaineth I know not ; it was not revealed to me. But sure I am, my very dear Friends, that some soul will feel that its state is reached by what the Master gave me to communicate." Friends will probably think that I am now sinning against conscience, if not corrimit- ting the unpardonable sin, by thus exposing them. My motive is with the Lord. As to thes facts I have declared, their truth is the most venomous thing in the statement. Often, often have I heard this sub- lime experience recommended ; I could narrate several pretty facts in this connection — but I for- bear ; having answered my object by rescuing the true sense of the passage from their inspiration, and giving to the impartial reader another facility of ascertaining the soundness of their pretensions, in connection with their incomparable sublimity! I think, however, that to any judicious and just be- holder, we may here apply the passage to Quakerism itself personified, with conviction of its righteous- ness : " O degrading counterfeit ! O ignorant and 17 130 vaporing cheat ! O dark and dreary meteor of light f thy sins are manifest beforehand, going before to judgment. Thy inspiration is the veriest folly in the world. It is the dishonor of God and .the con- fusion of men. It is piety to detest thy character, resist thy usurpation, and open the prison-doors to them that are bound in the miserable caverns of thy influence." More than once have I been so- lemnly asked, since I left them and before, " if my sins had ever been opened beforehand," &c.- I hope to be spared the trial of a repetition of the pious concern, from henceforth ! 3. A third sophism, that characterizes their rea- soning and results — how I pity them — from a sense of consistency in maintaining the prerogatives of oracular inspiration and the diapason of religious sing-song, is this— wAa^eccr breaks upon the mind in connection with a text, is the inspired solution of its meaning, is the true and orthodox interpretation. Hence it is that their preachers, with their prince Barclay himself, (the most rational Friend that ever thought himself inspired,) are the worst interpreters in the world! There are two reasons for this: (1) their liability to be wrong ; resulting from their dis- dain of sober investigation ; their general ignorance of the laws of true, and the facilities of false, inter- pretation ; their religious dread of any helps that appear learned and that savor of the wicked school- men ; their real and educated destitution of the best helps in judgment ; and the force of system and of sect prejtidicing their perceptions ; and (2) theirne- cessary and sublime self-commitment to defend their 131 positions — all the sparks that they have kindled. This is only consistency ! Who would not defend his positions as infallible, who believed that they were all given by inspiration of God ; and so were proper codicils to the volume of prophets and apos- tles as in common " the oracles of God !" Hence they cannot confess error, without blowing up their system. They ought to be right indeed, so right that miracles could add nothing to the evidence of their infallibility ; otherwise there may be inevitable perdition in the necessity under which they lay themselves of defending at all events the positions of their preaching ! To be incorrigibly wrong, on such a central matter of one's creed, is just as ill omened to the welfare of the soul as it seems pos- sible to conceive ! To confess error, when proved, is the privilege of a freeman of Jesus Christ. He is willing to own himself wiser to-day than he was yesterday. The instances of false interpretation that abound in the sayings and writings of their preachers are " so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea- shore innumerable." They quote in a loose, hap-hazard, and often most erring way in point of fact. They educe a doc- trine from a text that never was in it ; though it might have been in them. They infer from premi- ses what was never contained in them. They give to their own imaginings, beside the unction and sanction of the^oracle, a certain homogeneousness of the system which the text never had before, and which is both specious and satisfactory to all ; then 132 they frequently exclaim ; " and now, Friends, only behold it ! was any thing ever plainer in the world 1 How rational, how excellent, how consolatory ! What need of the vain learning of the world, to unravel what hath been revealed to sucklings and to babes?" And thus the whole meeting are con- vinced ; all bowed under the influence ; all gathered into the clear hght and life of the spirit ! And what abhorred impiety to breathe a breath against all that incumbent glory ! / know how horribly profane such an aggression would be held by them : and yet I very calmly declare it the spell of a more horrible delusion ! Take one more instance of false interpretation : et crimine ub uno, disce omnesP It occurs in the formal statement of the fifth proposition of the Apology, " concerning the universal redemption by Christ, and also the saving and spiritual LIGHT, wherewith every man is enlightened." Its object is to prove the universality of the light. , It occurs in the quotation of the following passage ; " Nor is it less universal than the seed of sin, being the purchase of his death, who tasted death for every man : for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" 1 Cor, 15 : 22» These specimens I have purposely seliected, as being suited to my object, withoiit being outra- geously bad or as exceptionable as others. They are as decent instances as can be found. One re- mark here — we ought to give no quarters to an inter- preter of INSPIRED resources, whatever may be due in clemency to others. It is bad enough when an 133 uninspired preacher mistakes the meaning of scrip- ture and misrepresents the mind of God : espe- cially, aa is generally, the case, if it occur from a criminal carelessness in dealing with his words. But an inspired blunderer — what a monster ! shall we spare him 1 Though these remarks principally affect the lat- ter quotation ; yet, with respect to the former, Heb. 2 : 9, as I am persuaded he mistakes its meaning, I -will remark, that the word man is not in the origi- nal, and the- strict rendering of ifftip Ttavrog is for each,- or, on account of every one, as Dr. Macknight has it ; thus, " that he should taste death for every one of them." Now the connection evinces that the apostle is speaking of the church, and not of the world ; hence " they who are sanctified, many sons brought unto glory, saying, I mil declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the ohurch will I sing praise unto thee," are the associated expres- sions of the context. I do not think therefore that that passage proves universality in any relation, with respect to the species of man. I indeed be- lieve that the atonement, made by Jesus Christ on the cross, is in its own nature amply sufficient for all mankind, ^^ and that nothing but their voluntary pride and obstinacy of unbelief prevail as the means of exclusion to any one who hears the gospel ; that the atonement is designedly large enough for all, and applicable to all, but applied only to them that believe ! that it is offered to all ; to them that re- ject, as really, as consistently, and as sincerely, as to them that accept it ; and that to reject it is a 134 deep and damning sin, which any man indulges at the peril of his soul, in a matter where his guilt is manifest and his doom revealed : still, I do not be- lieve that any such doctrine is taught in the text now under consideration. Am I right in this \ How then does it consist with the views of Barclay or the use to which he has applied itt The text from 1 Cor. 15 : 22, is however a worse perversion. " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." He plainly here infers or sees clearly that the word die refers to spi- ritual death. This will be for a moment admitted. I ask then if its manifest opposite made alive means not shall he spiritually quickened and horn again ? If so, the passage as Barclay interprets it, proves universal salvation! I will not take upon me to say how much such a view would afflict the sentiments of Friends : I am safer in saying that such a view is no more the native sense or proper meaning of the passage than if he had used it to prophesy what shall occur in heaven a million of ages hence or had told us that it means — a certain youth of Scotch nativity, French education, Romish predilections, and very respectable talents, was converted to the sentiments of George Fox, and inspired to write a book as good as the Bible, if not better, called Bar- clay's Apology. The word die, in the passage, is to b6 literally in- terpreted, meaning nothing but natural death — as it is improperly called : for death was a part of our sentence as sinners, Gen. 3 : 19, which has been executed from the beginning. But what if we " all 135 die" in Adam? we "shall all be made alive" in Christ. The dominion of death shall be destroyed and his vast prison depopulated. Those ruins shall be built again, And all that dust shall rise. " There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts, 24 : 15. John, 5 : 28, 29. 1 Thess. 4 : 13-18. Matt. 10 : 28. " The re- surrection of the just" will be ineffably and consum- mately glorious ; and this doctrine, in connection with the general subject, it is the formal object of the apostle throughout this wonderful chapter to prove beyond all contradiction. The passage con- cerned is in perfect keeping with all the other parts : while the importance of the doctrine is such — a doctrine denied by " some " at Corinth— that the apostle has declared it to be just fundamen- tal to Christianity! The great argument of the apostle for the resurrection of our bodies is the fact that Chrisfs body rose, ascended, and is sub- limed and glorified for ever in heaven. His posi- tion is — that our bodies shall rise just as certainly ; and the bodies of saints, to everlasting beauty and beatitude. He considers the position however in reference mainly to the resurrection of the just. In proof of this view we might quote the whole chap- ter, and innumerable other passages of genuine inspiration. 1 Cor. 15 : 12-22. To many readers this argumentation of mine will appear unnecessarily minute. But my object shall soon appear, to explain and vindicate the 136 seeming prolixity. It is two fold ; (1) to evince that Barclay has miserably mistaken the plain and certain meaning of the passage, when he spirituali- zes the ideas of %m^"and/being made alive, and then applies them to prove — yes, to .prove his doc- trine of " universal redemption by Christ, and also the saving and spiritual light, wherewith every man is enlightened !" I call this most miserable and guilty blundering, which, in a man of scholarship and professed inspiration, who writes a voluminous polemical tractate, ought to be universally appre- ciated. He addresses his book to " the CLERGY of what sort soever, unto whose hands these may come ; but more particularly to the doctors, pro- fessors and STUDENTS of divinity in the universities and schools of Great Britain, whether prelatical, presbyterian, or any other :" a book abounding with just such wild, rash and false interpretation of scrip- ture passages ; that makes a great show of scrip- ture authorities and references, while on examina- tion it appears that his very proof-texts are (I do not say intentionally, but I do say, through a criminal and hurtful assumption that he is inspir- ed) wrested from their original meaning — and wrested with the greatest and the most imposing confidence ! The imposition is very grateful (not of course as such) to Friends ; and they think that, apart from the oracular wisdom of their school- learned prophet, his positions are all fortified by scripture, and not to be answered by the "hire- lings " to whom they were in defiance addressed. Many of them boast to this day, in their deep do- 137 tage, that the Apology has never been answered and is truly unanswerable: — a very convenient sentiment for " the Society." I do not examine other texts, only because I think it unnecessary here to pursue the subject. To correct all his wrong and wretched misinterpretations of scripture, for which— observe — I do not oppugn his sincerity or charge him with conscious fraud, were an invidious and an elabo- rate task, to say nothing of the mass of paper it would require, ^ny man of sober sense may make an inference by the way, in respect to the validity of his claims to inspil-ation ! Inspiration is itself a mis- erable thing if it cannot interpret its own words, previously uttered and recorded ! What could more tend to make infidels by thousands and millions, in respect to all the claims of Christianity, than to represent its basis to be a dark, self-contradictory, mystical and blundering, inspiration t^such an in- spiration exactly as that of Friends in all ages since the time of Cromwell ! But I have a further though a kindred ob- ject in urging this matter of interpretation. (2) Friends-do none of 'them believe in the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. To some readers this will be strange even to astonishment. Very few, who believe that doctrine, on the simple authority of scripture, could imagine that it was any part of the darkness df the inward light boldly to deny and denounce a fact so plainly revealed in the ora- cles of God, and there made so fundamental to Christianity ! But it is even so ! I venture the as- sertion that ja Friend who beheves it is a rarer phe- 18 138 noraenon than an eclipse of the moon. Rightly to believe it, according to the sure testimony of God^ is well nigh impossible to any man who does not believe in the paramount authority of scripture ; and to no man more incorrigibly than to a Friend. They call it a gross conception^ a heathen notion, a piece of folly, and a thing impossible. They use the stale arguments of mere deism against it. I have heard especially ^^ one of their preachers most scornfully declaim against it : — any mer« hearer virould have thought that his sermon was the libel- lous harangue of a deist opposing revelation. Though young (as a few weeks only) in the know- ledge of God, and then a member of the society, 1 longed to say unto them, "ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God T why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead 1 Be not deceived ; evil com- munications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. But some man will say. How are the dead raised upl and with what body do they comel Thoii fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God f Matt. 22 : 29. Acts, 26 : 8. 1 Cor. 15 : 33-36. Rom. 9 : 20. This topic is immensely important. . Christianity stands or falls with the doctrine of the resurrection of the body ! That man ought to doubt his piety who can look at the heresy of Friends on this article and feel indifferent. Is it nothing that the hopes 139 of the whole world or those of them that are alone legitimate, should be ruined by a heavenly-looking heresy that sinks their common bapis iilto nothing 1 I would just as soon turn atheist outright or — what is the same thjng — sadducee entiire, as fellowship any man who dares to violate the only hope of men by denying the scriptural account of the resurrection of both soul and body! The word avaatouaLg translated resurrection oc- curs nearly fifty times in the New Testament. Its proper meaning is re-existence, or a standing up afterward of those who are here prostrated by death. It refers to the soul and body both ; yet so essentially that the Bible treats those who deny either as denying both, and so denounces them as reprobates. Friends do not, I know, deny the an- astasis or resurrection of the soul. They believe, in form as we do, that the soul goes to its allotment immedidtely at death, ^o far they believe pro- fessedly the scripture doctrine of the resurrection. Thus Christ taught it in the case of the patriarchs, whose bodies are not yet raised, but who " sleep in JesuSy by quoting a passage from " the scripture," and then declaring, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." But not a Friend — far from it — believes in the gross conception that the body shall rise ! This point, except by some pretty certain implications, Barclay wholly omits. I have read his book often and much ; and on one occasion lately read it regularly through ; but remember no sentence in which he formally touches the subject. This was, I must think, policy ! Few suspected 140 him to deny what he did not discuss; and fewer still would mark an omission that was not by them anticipated. Their blank infidelity here ought to be known. This single but important matter is to me proof positive that they are all deluded by some spirit that Tules their i^arkness. They do indeed use the word, passingly, in re- ference to Christ, a,nd eyen claim to bplieve the fact of him ; as when they give out one of their best aspects to the public, speaking of the " birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension," of the Re- deemer. But farther than this I never knew them go. If any authentic treatise of their authors con- tains it, I never saw, I never heard from one of them, a declaration that " all that are in their graves" shall " come forth" in the last day at the word of Christ. If it is one of their 'orthodox' theses, how happened the " Apolpgy" to forget to mention it 1 Was it less important than the "plain lan- guage," «fec 1 or did inspiration lose its self-posses- sion in the authorship of that lucid volume ] I be- lieve verily that lam uttering the truth, when I say, they are either utterly ignorant or utterly irifidel on the point. And very cardinal is this, not only abso- lutely, but as a rnatter of test in the controversy ; for no man living believes the doctrine, except simply on the authority of scripture ; and it is a doctrine not aXSLllpeipuliar to any denomination of christians. What 'kind of a homogeneous inspiration then is that of Friends, that leads them not to know it, to disbelieve it, or forget or deny it '? I say again, it is A TEST MATTER ; it is a demonstration that confounds ' 141 for ever their high and false pretensions ! I know indeed that, in Sewel, Gough, Penn, and others, the word is used, and reference had to its general im- port. But how brief, passing, inconclusive ! It may mean (and it occurs very rarely even thus) that Christ rose from the dead — and not that th^ whole species shall rise also. I have heard the doctrine, as chris- tians hold it, often disclaimed and ridiculed by Friends of different classes, long before the schism. Mosheim signalizes their denial of the resurrection of the dead, as one of the known and central attri- butes of the heresy. So do other authors, and those of the first respectabihty. Here the reader may inquire, " Why, if Quakerism is Christianity, has it been so doubted, impeached, denounced, by wise and holy men in all ages and places since its rise \ The men who have beeri its characteristic oppugners, are the first in the evangelical world, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and they are all agreed in exploding it, as a sophistical delu- sion and an impious deceit. Says Dr. Owen, among other solemn and pertinent declarations, " Sin will not be mortified by the power of their light within, nor by their resolutions, nor by any of their austere outward appearances, nor peculiar habits or looks, which in this matter are openly pharisaical." He says that in his day they only grfltified deceitfully the impulses of sin, by " exciting and provoking themselves to exceed all others in clamors, railings, evil speakings, reproaches, calumnies, and malicious treating of those who dissented from them, without the least discovery of a heart filled with kindness 142 and benignity unto mankind, or love unto any BUT THEMSELVES." And this is a specimen of the common sentiment. I cannot leave this matter without remarking the power of education, especially with Friends ! Their MODE OF education IS THE MAKING AND THE KEEPING AND THE SECRET OP THEIR SECT. They subduc the infant mind and awe the infant conscience, with the direct rays of the inward light. They identify all divinity and right, in the associations of their chil- dren, with the light within and its friendly fruits. Here the spell commences that " grows with their growth and strengthens with their strength." In- vestigation is much akin to scepticism and so is devoutly precluded :- — but tvhat worse scepticism it is to suppose that investigation could rase the foun- dation of our faith ! They must take every thing for granted or see it in the light ! They must wear a ridiculous cut and color of clothes, such as are or- thodox or common to the clanship ; and use ihe plain language, and act like Friends : and then if they feel awkward and foolish ; if their garb appear ridi- culous to themselves ; if their manners expose them to jeering and affront ; if they are insolently struck (as I have often been) in the street by worthless boys and cursed as " a Quaker ;" if their effeminate holy whine is profanely- mocked — as it often is by saucy passengers ; and if a thousand other inconveniences accrue ; especially if they are sometimes asked for one good reason for such singularity in gratuitous opposition to mankind, they yxm^ijust hear it all for righteousness^ sake; not he afraid of the cross, hut 143 remember early friends, how much more they endured in the same cause ! Now, much of this, which they call " a guarded education," is just the worst kind of sorcery. It is fascination and religions tyrannizing over the blighted attributes of mind ! It is a system exactly cailculated to prostrate every noble, courageous and manly sentiment ; and to transmute a fine] ingenuous boy into a sorry, sly, and often simulating creature in the form of man. 'Tis liberty alone that givffs the flower Of .fleeting life its lustre and perfume ; And we are weeds without it. All constraint. Except what wisdom lays on evil men, Is evil; hurts the faculties; impedes Their progress in the road of science ; blinds The eyesight of discovery ; and begets, In those that sufier it, a sordid mind, Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit To be the tenant of man's noble form . — Cowper. The strength of the educational influence is won- derful. It is so identified with the voice of God speaking in them, at them, to them, and [through them ; a,nd that constantly and audibly ; that its witchery is unparalleled. Hence it is almost impos- sible by any means to break the charm, where once it has gained a commanding influence in early life ! The power of association, the horaogeneous- ness of the scheme, the visible uniform in which they always appear, their peculiarities of language and behavior, their family interests and relation- ships, with innumerable other matters, all unite to rnake an influence and an atmosphere of the sect. 144 which they easily identify with goodness and hea- ven, and from which it is next to impossible to escape. Hence in general to be born a Friend is to die a Friend. Argument, evidence, truth, may all be against then! in vain : they feel it n9t, they know it not : and there they are, stagnant and im- movable. This is a portentous clia,racter of the sys- tem, and ought to ,make especially the young to pause and consider! When I look back on that in- fluence as it affected jaie, my feelings are unuttera- ble : — I have never speken or written their intensity ! I bless "the only wise God" that I am not what I was, a Friend ! By this however I do not mean that I had any "godly sincerity" of did my duty ac- cording to knowledge, while one of them. So far from this, I then knew that I was no christian, and felt that I was unfit to die ; inasmuch as I often and even habitually acted contrary to the. " light within :" by which I now mean only my natural conscience armed against me, as it was, with a very superficial knowledge of the scriptures. Idid however believe that Quakerism and Christianity were just the same ; and so deep were my convictions in favor of the scheme, that the operation of scripture,- in that re- spect revolutionizing my mind, was truly agonizing. It was also difficult and terribfe ! To find one's self wholly wrong in first principles; to see the necessity of repentance ; to renounce all the hallowed and long habituated associations of infancy and child- hood : to see scripture every where contradicting what you before knew to be true ; and to embrace " that which is good " after "proving ^11 things :" 145 what is this but difficulty and anguish ! The sys- tem ought to be right that so rivets its principles to the very being of its disciples ! It ought to be right, for it is very seldom renounced at all ; and much more seldom, for the sake of Jesus Christ ! It ought to be right, for otherwise all its present votaries will probably live and die in error : so great the power of educational religious prejudice ; I f©el it to this day ! I never see a very plain garb, without some of the reverent associations of child- hood : — it looks'so good, so patriarchal, so inspired! This proves only the power of education in general, and of religious education in particular, and of early religious education more especially, as it does not .prove that Friends are right in the lessons of religion which they inculcate ! A Friend is ordinarily made befwe he is five years of age !.the stamp of charac- ter is impressed on a yielding surface so deeply, and SQ seemingly by the hand of God. himself, that its print is indelible ! This I call the cement and the eecret of their system. In addition to this all their children are born, not spiritimlly but naturally, into full birth-right membership ! . and it needs no evan- gelical regeneration or subsequent profession to constitute the finished Friend ; which a child com- monly becomes, as soon as he beconies of mature age. But whfen some are recreant to the light, and sin against the costume and, other ordinances and sacraments of the society, they are still Friends in their consciences — ^in their associations — in their com?ictions ! They were made such without cate- chism, intelligence, or evidence. In some solemn. 19 146 flashes of the lights they felt its reality and they know (no religionists speak more confidently) thafi it is true. If ever they reform, it will be of course according to all the formalities and usages of Friends; now they are gay and dissipated, but they are still Friends : — and education has decided their creed J Hence a Friend is always established and unalterable ; and this without examination, without knowledge,^ and (I fear) without prayer I Hence he never changes^ but plods onward and dies as he lives — a Friend t In this Friends often, verif often, glory. If a man is onee made acquainted with Friends' principles, say they, he can never wholly " get rid of it," Of this I have often been my- self reminded ! And in general it is truth 1 But i» this any argument, or one of their best, for the truth of their system! It may prove the strength of false and early and habituated impressions alone I It may prove that the system has nothing to do with evidence ; that it is purely mechanical, and that it only enslaves its disciples : it may prove that the whole concern is nothing better than an organized system of prejudice. Such a process may make Friends, just as, in a change of circumstances, it also makes -Deists, Mahommedans, Jew», RomanistSy Pagans, or even Atheists ! Now, it is a known principle in the philosophy of mind, that a man can seldom be by evidence corrected from that course of which he was not by evidence convinced ; he can- not be reasoned out of error, if he was not at first reasoned into it .' If it were reasoning that makess an infidel, reasoning could much more convert \am. 147 But when passion, pride, prejudice, education, per- sonal influence, social sympathies, interest, fashion, worldly considerations, or profligacy, or a combina- tion of such causes, make for a man his principles or persuasion in religion, he is ordinarily shut against the light of evidence ; he is proof to the truth and the grace of the gospel. His soul is the victim, and heaven the forfeiture ! and justly, for no man, young or old, has a right to believe without evidence, and to be led by mere dictation, in the awful mat- ters of salvation and eternity ! God has furnished us with full and perfect evidence of his own being and perfections ; of his ways of administration with men ; and of the unalterable principles of his moral empire ; of the person and ofl5ces of his Son, and of the only way of salvation " through his blood " and by faith in his name ! And " how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation 1" I do not however deny that there are good things, such as they are, in the style of education adopted by Friends. There are many good things in it — for the present world, which would be infinitely better, were it not for the world to come ! They make their children commonly industrious, orderly, economical, tender in their affections, obedient to parents, regular in their habits, moderate in their desires, comfortable in their dwellings, and respec- table — often rich ! in society. This they do in a certain form, to a good degree, and ucith a fearful amount of degenerate exceptions not equally recog- nised by ordinary observers. But what is all this to an immortal, who must obey the gospel of Jesus 148 Ohrist or — perish for ever ! What is all this, if, with so much of temporal convenience, they un- dermine the welfare of his soul and effectually pre- judice him against the religion of Jesus Christl What of all this, if they have given him principles of religion perfectly incorrigible and fundamentally wrong \ They have done him the greatest possible disservice, which is all the worse for the good things that accompany it. Friends have one advantage in respect to repu- tation, touching apostates and delinquents of the society " disowned," which is peculiar to them- selves. Their degenerate sons forego the costume, and so exonerate the society. Hence their relation to Friends, being no longer advertised along the streets, in " plainness of speech, behavior, and ap- parel,^'' becomes as though it was not or had never been. Thus the public in effect grajit them total irresponsibility in this matter; and judge of them as if their best appearing specimens were all ; and so frame all their associations in their favor. In the mean time. Souvenirs, and Tokens, and Amulets, and all the harpings of semi-pagan minstrelsey and popular sentimentalism, the sickliness of refined re- ligion that proposes a way to heaven less vulgar than that of " repentance toward God and faith to- ward our Lord Jesus Christ;" all these influences report them well, and view them as moving citadels of light and purity. The Quaker stood under his smooth broad brim. In the plain drab suit, that simple and triin, Was better than royal robes to him, 149 Wlio looked on the inward pa*t-, Foregoing thehonorsand wealth of earth; And emptied his breast of the praise of birth. To seek the treasures of matchless worth a Reserved for the pure in heart. — Extracted. In effect, the world is a grea:t forest, in which a re- negade Friend ensconces himself, and relieves the fame of the society. Hence seemingly they have no such characters. The individual instances that oc- cur, though terribly numerous, are known each by a comparative iFew, and not by the public. This is one cause of their popularity with the superficial, the sceptical, the morbidly sentimental, and the weakly charitable — who seem to love every thing alike or at least to profess that impracticable folly. How noble, as well as different, is the prayer of the apostle for his Philippian converts ! " that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment ; that ye may approve (discrimi- nate) things that are excellent ; that ye may be sin- cere and without offence till the day of Christ ; be- ing filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." There is no heresy, says an ancient father, in which, taken as a whole, there is not more of truth than error ! So, there might be -more of food than poison in a fatal dish, ip wiiich, but for the food, the poison would never be tasted ; still, the poison is more than sufficient to kill: and is the food then an advantage 1 This simile shows the real state of the case, the gospel being umpire. The fatal cha- lice of the " murderer " of souls, must be made 150 palatable, and is often bountiful and luxurious be- side : or, it would not be so eagerly quaffed even by the multitude. I, for one, little thank Quaker- ism for all its imposing worldly excellencies, since I am well persuaded that their scheme deprives me of my only glory and hope — " Jesus Christ and him crucified^ and the worship of God accord- ing to his own authority^ and grace ! Take from me this — and I would you could rob me of ex- istence too ! since, being without blessedness, is not desirable; and blessedness without Christ, is impossible ; and Christ withoijt his truth and wor- ship is a vile illusion. The Christ of Quakerism is not the Christ of the scriptures. The gospel sends us out of ourselves to Christ by faith, for eternal life : Quakerism sends us feeling in the dark for the inward light, which is Christ in enery man from the foundation of the world! Is this the Christ of the New Testament ! I have no words with which to express the horror of my soul at the perversion ! How many worldly good things ought Quakerism to give us in compensation for such a robbery 1 I would say to Quakerism personified with its lures, " Thy money perish with thee ! for I perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity !" Take Christ away, only quench the glory of the mercy-seat> only put out the sun of our day, and all your lighted tapers, your festivity and yowc friendship, your banqueting and merriment, but mock the melancholy Of him whose thought can stretch beyond an hour. 151 I know that all this will appear — -poetry, to those who prize not " the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord !" But with them it is notoriously an easy reckoning every day to live without him, forget him, and count themselves " rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing;" while they are "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and stran- gers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2 : 12. And such will' say what aileth thee ? and compas- sionate the softness that can mourn for such a visionary absence ! " And they say unto her. Wo- man, why weepest thoul She saith unto them. Because they have taken away my Lord, and I. KNOW NOT where THEY HAVE LAID HIM." John, 20 : 13. These are rational tears, worthy of the cheek of men and angels. It is wisdom weeping at the grave of hope, and trampling on sceptres and diadems ! It is inimortality humbled in despair, and abhorring her sins while crushed beneath the .Burden! It is penitence without pardon, rehgion without peace, holiness without salvation! How different the light of scripture! — the index-finger of truth pointing to the Savior ! " Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the worid." By many these pages will be censured for their harshness and for utterly disparaging the excel- lences of Friends. With respect to their excel- lences I say comparatively nothing : and this not that leither deny or disesteem them. Some quali- 152 ties they undoubtedly possess that are amiable and useful; and I cordially wish' that these, whatever they are, were more increased, more enlightened by " the truth of the gospel," and more, widely prevalent in tlie earth. I expect to be scarcely credited by them, when I " protest unto them," tliat I am conscious only of benevolence to their true temporal and eternal interests in all that I think, speak, or write, concerning their erroneous scheme. But whether they believe it or not, God is witness. If I did not at least fully believe that my motives were benevolent, I should mygelf have no hope toward God. But my hope is happy and my faith perpetually gathering strength. I have a hope, which, in degree of excellence at least, I am sure I could never have derived from Quaker prin- ciples. What then could induce me thus to oppose their scheme 1 Solely the conviction that it is wrong! Why did Paul oppose Judaism or Luther popery f They were both benevolent. " Glory to God in the highest," was associated in their moral feelings with " peace on earth, good will toward men." Yet we see how their good will acted ! It often induced them to expose, confute, denounce, and even an- athematize, the corrupters of the gospel. And in this they were not less benevolent, and much more self-denying, than- when they were administering consolation to the contrite.. I speak not of the ex- cellences of Friendsj because I think they are quite too conscious of them ; , because they have been overrated by the world ; because they do not ne- cessarily imply piety toward God ; because, if mere 153 social and apparent excellence be all they have, so living and so dying they will perish forever; be- cause their errors is the grand matter which moves me to write at all; because the things in which they are wrong are greater than those in which they may be right; because while they talk and act against vain amusements, war, slavery, and spirit- ous liquors, they also talk and act against the su- premacy of the scriptures as the word of God, and against the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, which are most demonstrably and even evi- dently divine institutions ; because, while their impo- sing appearance is a passport to the confidence of the superficial, their carelessness or denial of the sanc- tity of " the Lord's day," is a grief of heart to the most intelligent christians ; while the vagueness and vacuity of their confession, on fundamental articles of christian truth, as the doctrine of the trinity, the person and offices of the Redeemer, the value and relations of the death of Christ as con- nected with human hope, the depraved moral cha- racter of man, the true doctrine of the influence of the Spirit, the nature and the indispensableness of regeneration, the wonderful divine method of jus- tification, the resurrection of the body, and the eternal states of men ; the vagueness and vacuity of their creed, and the imbecility or ambiguity of their practice, in respect to points like these, neces- sarily and righteously induce the suspicion, of all well informed and honest disciples of the Son of God, that they are radically apostate and graceless. Another reason for the alleged omission is the ex- 20 154 treme sensitiveness of the Quakers to the matter of human approbation. I wish we all cared practi- cally half as much for the approbation of God ! Any observer, who has eyed their manners and read their books, will see how ill they can endure the moral frown of- the community. If public sen- timent were enlightened and humane in its general testimony against them, they could Jiardly maintain their distinctive character in this country. Here they pay no tithes, church-rates, or other legal ex- actions, for the support of the " hireling " clergy. They have all the immunities of citizenship and are eligible to all the places of eminence : and they will newer (as I think and hope) be persecuted into consequence by their countrymen. I am as utterly and as sincerely averse to all persecution and phy- sical coercion on religious accounts, doing or suf- fering, as they are : and do as cordially condemn the wholly unchristian persecutions which Friends have suffered in either hemisphere. This, I fully be- lieve, is the present sense of every sincere protest- ant. But the value of the truth is not less, because we have learned wholly to abjure the use of carnal weapons in its support. The war must be con- tinued, but the armor must be of celestial tempera- ment alone. Nor yet, because of this, are we to consider a truce with the foe as expedient, or obli- gatory, or allowable. Christianity can never steal a march on the world or succeed by ambuscade or skirmishing. All she wins must be by fair battle, under the open eye of day. She scorns conceal- ment, treachery, stratagem. " She challenges in- 155 vestigation and defies refutation." She opens her bosom to the .foe ; and if he will not be conciliated to her person and besought to draw the precious nutriment of her consolations, he may violate that maternal bosom with his impious dagger — he will find it strangely invulnerable to his assault. Only his weapon and himself, will be broken. The charge of harshness is much in the same predicament. If what I have written be justly styled harsh, my reasons for adopting that character of dis- putation are the Following. 1. The importance of the matter. To doubt that importance is to discredit all religion. Look at it as related to all other religionists ; specially to all who knowingly reject their doctrine. They will all be lost, according to the gospel, if the Quaker doc- trine be true ! for, he that helieveth not, shall he, damned; and they most decisively disbelieve and denounce it. On the other hand, what will become of Friends, with all their placidity, philanthropy, and high pretensions ; if at last it should appear that they had accredited " another gospel, which is not another," instead of that of Christ 1 They will all be lost together who have nothing better than pure Quakerism to defend them from the fire ! These are my convictions ; and I know that they are just as true as the New Testament. 2. I really believe that the plain attire and speech of Friends, which give them such a saintship of ap- pearance, are the veil that covers many an aban- doned infidel. I might think this from the nature of the case. Externals cannot change the heart; 156 otherwise, the "hirelings" of the British establish- ment must be as holy as their vocation, as stainless as their surplice, as unsullied as their lawn. But I know it from actual converse with individuals ! with multitudes, preachers pf both sexes, as well as their commonalty ! and I have yet to learn what is the de- finition of that INFIDELITY to which Jesus Christ hath pledged himself to award damnation, if they are not legitimately and most awfully in danger of it ! When one of their first preachers tells me, in per- sonal conference, that Jesus Christ made no atone- ment ; that God exacts none except what the sinner makes with his tears ; and that the resurrection of the body is a monster of absurdity ; when he ridi- cules "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" when he doubts the miraculous conception of Christ, thinks it probable that Joseph was his proper father, and at all events considers that to err in this is nothing to the sin of eating West India sugar! When another tells me that,Ezekiel bore the sins of his age just as Christ bore ours — being melancholy on account of them ! When ano- ther takes a little child and pronounces him " with- out all sin, as holy as an angel," while the scriptures say, " that which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; ye must be born again : the wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies : we were by nature children of wrath, even as others ;" and while their whole tenor teaches the " enmity of the carnal mind against God :" when all this, and a million other things in perfect keep- ing uoith this, are taught and held by the society, 157 the known holders and teachers uncensured by their authorities, I am reduced to Jhe fair necessity of con- tradicting the New Testament, or discrediting the piety of the Quakers, or defiUng my conscience with the charity of the world which " rejoiceth [not] in the truth," or abandoning the laws of rational thought and evidence. 3. Another reason for my alleged severity is that "I believe they have been greatly injured by a luscious and spurious clemency ; and that nothing but " great plainness of speech" and uncompromising appUca- tions of the truth, can reach the seat of their malady. They are natively just as sinful as other men, and they equally require all the specifics of the gospel for their restoration. But who shall tell them what they are, and what they must become, by " repen- tance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," as \heonly alternative of perdition I Their preachers have altered very much since I have heard them, if they will ever do this wisely and faith- fully ! What then is my office 1 To apologize for the gospel and flatter them in the name of the Lordl "For we are not as many, who corrupt* (dilute, as wine is artfully reduced by dishonest mixtures) THE WORD OP GOD : but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." I know of none who more dilute and enervate the genuine discriminating might of the gospel than the preach- ers of Quakerism, especially their tuneful female preachers. These are frequently charmers. They sing their inspired fascination, that affects the phy- sical sensibilities, acts rather soothingly or in some 158 indefinable way on the nervous system, comforts the unregenerate, and instructs nobody. 4. Any other course, than that herein pursued, would do violence to my own convictions of the im- mutable nature of the gospel and of the contrariety of Quakerism to that nature ; would afford no peace to my conscience or pleasure to my memory. My views of the duty of a preacher may be found in the second and third chapters of Ezekiel, in the first of Jeremiah, and in the last four verses of the second of second Corinthians. If I have said any thing that is untrue, let it be demonstrated, and (if need be) I will publicly confess and retract it ! Not being inspired or infallible, I may commit errors : and bound to nothing but truth, I can confess them. Nothing else shall move me. And by demonstration I mean a sound argument from scripture against the doc- trinal, or from witnesses against the historical, or from self-contradiction against the didactic aver- ments. And let no professor of Christianity join the popular outcry against the alleged harshness of this treatise, who is not prepared to show its essential contrariety to the religion of the Bible. There is no people in the world who more deal in softness or are more injured by it, than Friends. It is not at all my primary aim to please them — / expect to make them angry : hut this is not my desire ; it is rather at once my anticipation and my grief ! Tell me how the truth of scripture can be faithfully dis- played against its inimical corrupters so as to please them, and that way I would like to adopt : still, if they must be goaded with truth or remain ignorant 159 of its nature and hostile to its charms, then I say let them feel it ! I have called their preaching, especially that of ihe feminine department, tuneful ; for such it emi- nently is: operating like a charm, as pouring on the soul the freshest tide of heaven's eternal minstrelsy, through them. With all their opposition to sing- ing, which they " cry against" and by profession to- tally disuse in worship, I know of few denominations who do so much at it, in a sort, as Friends. They sing their prea(5hing, and their praying — which sel- dom occurs, almost all of it. Their inspiration moves with difficulty when not on a canter. This inspired singing, is mainly what I mean by sorcery, as appli- ed to their ways. Still, it is a fact that the effect of their devout cantation is very considerable. It arrests the attention and enchains the sympathies ; and is quite entertaining and agreeable often, while it dis- penses with thought-work and conscientious self- application. Friends might learn, one would think, that singing is natural to us ; that it suits our con- stitution ; that it is founded in principles that never vary ; that its powers will become adverse, if not con- secrated ; that God has incorporated it both in the body and the soul of his worship ; that its sanction and its evidence pervade the whole Bible ; that it deserves scientific and philosophical cultivation ; that it is a delightful and most excellent part of wor- ship ; that Jesus Christ practised it ; that his apos- tles established and regulated it ; that his church has evermore maintained it ; and that Fox and his company nullified the divine constitution when they 160 professedly exploded it, with " all sorts of music," from their hearts and voices. A great fault it is in any people which I am now about to expose ; and common, wherever the truth is not known and duly honored ; yet, more rife among " the religious society," and more embodied in some sense surreptitiously in their religious sys- tem, than among any other description of religion- ists known to me : it is this — sincerity is all. The sophism consists in the generic vagueness of the word Sincerity, that determines nothing as to the moral qualities of the mind in religion ; while it requires us to accord the superlative dignity of christian character to men "who obey not the gos- pel of God," and who insist on salvation, neverthe- iess, because they are sinceire. This is probably the whole hope, if not the whole creed, and the whole religion, of thousands of ungodly men, espe- cially of the foxian school. There are many such reposing in hope among Friends. They hold to the word, as if it were the thing ; or to the thing, as if there were possibly only one way of being sincere — and no way of going to perdition with " a lie in the right hand." Hence they are se- renely comfortable in their graceless attainments. They apply their minds with no intensity of ear- nestness and prayer, to ascertain the truth. They live, in numerous instances, more ignorant of the contents of the Bible than many a six-year-old pupil of a well-taught infant school ; they are imperturbably satisfied with their own doings; believe in the " effectual operation " of the light 161 within; dteas plain, use the plain language — and very seldom (whatever they smother) utter a word of evil audibly ; desire to be industrious, lay . by something, be economical, grow rich, and dislike all priest-craft and hireling preachers ; and being sincere, who is better in .his prospects for another world, one would like to know 1 Will such an one go to heaven at death I " Straight as an arrow from a bow, I tell thee." Certainly ! How unjust to send him in the opposite direction ! What harm has he done t Who has a better chance 1 He was always peaceable, kind to the poor, paid his debts, and was a member of Friends' meeting. A pretty reason for doubting his safety, to be sure ! The only difficulty is — that all this, though " highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God ;" being just as far from the truth of the gospel, as darkened infidelity can make it ! Where is any sense of our moral ruin, as fallen crea- tures, "children of wrath — that which was lostf Where is faith in Christ t Where repentance, humi- liation, and the evidence of a change of heart'? Where self-knowledge, religious experience, or spi- ritual joyi Where the Mediaj^or, the covenant of grace, the succor of the promises? What distinc- tive feature of christian piety does such a character manifest I Where is there any sense of sin, any peace at its pardon, any mention of " the only name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved 1" Where is their professed faith in the doctrine of regeneration ? or are Friends all regen- 21 162 erated of course, because full members that have retained their birth-right to — delusion I Suppose, by possibility, in any given case, the individual was at heart a true and spiritual worshipper ; and is saved, as Job says he " escaped with the skin of his teeth ;" still, the objections to this facile favor^ presumptuous charity, and tmiform construction of safety, are two-fold : first. It proceeds with utterly insufficient evidence, declaring what is not proved, what no man knows, and what, even probably, may not be true ; and second, It is a positive, efficacious, insidious, injury to the living, without any possible benefit to thededd.^ Still, they affect riot to know it, many of them. " I am sincere," covers all. And there are other ways, much allied to the former, by which they try to evade the responsibility of evangelized men; (1) I am conscientious. (2) If this is not duty, I am not to blame, for I know no better. (3) I know enough already. If a man has more required of him, in proportion to his advantages, I shall only increase obligation by increasing knowledge : if we should all do, as well as we know, it would be better for us. They seem " willingly ignorant of" such principles as the following : that ignorance of duty may result simply from a siriful dislike to it ; that ignorance of duty is sin, where we have the means of knowledge ; that all men are obligated TO KNOW God, and to improve all the means in their possession to this infinitely excellent end ; 1 Cor. 15 : 34, that God will hold them to account not only for all they have, but for all they might 163 have had, not only for all the sound sermons they hear, but for all they refuse to hear, not only for attainments and achievements, but for facilities and means and opportunities and privileges, not only for what they use, but for what they abuse ; that their conscience is not higher than his authority, and not exempt, in any possible instance, from the jurisdiction of his law ; that a man may be to blame for his sincerity as well as his profligacy ; that there is no neutrality in religion, so that we are the enemies if not the friends of Jesus Christ ; that sincerity merely is no proof of piety, since a man may be sincerely stupid, and stupidly practising a wicked course of conduct ; that it was sincerity of a specific kind, " godly sincerity," that character- ized the apostles ; that Paul was as sincere before his conversipn as he was after it — when " breath- ing out threatenings and slaughter against the dis- ciples of the Lord," as when edifying .them in goodness — when he " verily thought with himself, that he ought to dp many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which things he also did in Jerusalem," as when preaching among tlie nations " the unsearchable richer of Christ ;" that the time has long since arrived which the Savior predicted, " when whoso killeth his disciples shall think that he doeth God service ;" that some -indolent and corrupted sinners, infatuated by the judgment of God, sincerely " believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had plea- sure in unrighteousness ;" that few penitents ever " repented themselves " more sincerely than Judas, 164 when he " brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and. elders, saying, I have sin- ned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood ; and they said. What is that to usl see thou to that, and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went, and hanged him- self;" and that therle is a perfection in the moral governrpent of God, which such excuses will never prevail to destroy, .blind as they may be to all the principles involved in that perfection. A prin- ciple of requisition in the government of God, from which he never departs, they seem not to know or clanishly to resist and sophisticate — that " without faith it is impossible to please God ;" and that of consequence "they that are in the flesh," that is, who act on carnal or worldly principles, con- tinuing in them, "cannot please God;" do what they will in forms of excellence, with such expec- tancy, ilom. 8: 8. Heb. 11: 6. James, 1 : 6-8. Hence in general they do not understand the doc- trine of faith. The only faith required in their sys- tem is that — in the "effectual operation" of the internal principle. And what is this, but faith in a worse than moonstruck fallacy 1 Hence the system cheats the souls of men^— cheats them of knowledge, of sound doctrine, of meiital liberty, of evidence, of instruction, of cjiristianity ; and substitutes a thing of "will o' the wisp" dimensions, that rose from the bogs of "Drayton in the clay, Leicester- shire," England, some two centuries since. If any one accuse me here of actually hating Quakerism, I beg he will never attempt to prove his position ; 165 ag it is wholly unnecessary. My confession shall forestall him : I certainly do hate it ; by all the hope of heaven that I cherish consciously in Christ Jesus at this moment, I abhor it ; by all the love I bear to the souls of men, my own and others, I abhor it ; by all the sense I have of what Christianity is, and what the scriptures mean, and what men infinitely need in order to salvation, I renounce and execrate it ; and make it a part of my piety to detest it, as a composi- tion of spiritual sorcery, presuming ignorance, arid deceitful dogmatism ; offensive to heaven and dele- terious to the noblest hopes of men, in " the life that now is and also that which is to come :" — and I qualify the written solemnity only by remarking that it is wholly and only against the system, and not at all against individuals, that it aims the honest and hearty declaration. I have no wish to " snatch from His hand the balance or the rod," who decides on persons according to truth ; can be deceived by no specious counterfeits ; has himself anathematized " an angel from heaven" who should vend " another gospel" or vitiate the true ; and who has of right and of power the independent sway of destinies, both mine and theirs. "Amen. Alleluia." That there is criminality in all religious error, misanthropy as well as impiety, and essential sin in cherishing it, is' plain to any honest reader of the word of Godj or any common thinker on the nature of its contents. I can express the truth, however, in a better way, by a quotation from my honored friend, Dr. Miller. In his excellent sermon on " The enmity of the human heart against the character and 166 government of God," published in the Murray- STREEIT Discourses, he inquires, " Does error spring from deficiency of evidence 1 Is there not, in the arguments by v(rhich the scriptures are proved to be divine, a variety, an ampHtude, adapted to carry conviction to every mind not stupified by passion, or rendered impenetrable by prejudice l They never haye been, they never can be, under- mined or shaken. And as it regards the general features of the system which the Bible has ihcul- i cated, is it not a reflection on the wisdom of him from whom it emanated, and subversive of the very design of its promulgation, to say that it can- not be satisfactorily ascertained,' by any diligence of research, united- with candor of mind and purity of moral feeling 1 Radical error,. in one who applies himself to the study of the sacred records, cannot arise from any want of perspicuity in them, but must be the offspring of a heart hostile to that Being who has impressed upon the gospel the image and superscription of his own glory. The conclusion cannot be evaded, but by assuming at once all the monstrous dogmas of infidelity." To that conclusion I find myself ^painfull]/ reduced in reference to the erring system of Friends, whene- ver I ponder the affecting subject- — from which my thoughts are almost never away ! Hence I judge their " foundation " to be " sandy ;" needing to be " shaken " not only, but utterly subverted and sup- planted by that of the gospel — which is another SYSTEM AND THE ONLY SURE ONE ! Friends are not alone in the magnanimity, that likes truth only 167 when it suits them. But among all tellurians or lunarians of my acquaintance, they are distinguish- ed for liking those that like them, and liking no others. Matt. 5 : 46, 47. To refute them, especially if it be unanswerable, is a great injury. It mars all "the unity of the Spirit" which is identified with — their feelings ! and this is the highest idea that any of them seem to have of the matter. Their feelings are — inspiration ! I regard Quakerism also to be one of the most heavily oppressive systems that ever became preva- lent, as the voluntarily cherished incubus of mind. " While they promise them hberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." While they vaunt themselves peculiarly free in their mental action, it is plain to a dispassionate observer of facts on both sides, that they are perhaps the most priest-ridden community in Christendom. This fact I know some- what experimentally — coiitrasting present freedom with former bondage. The principles of priest- craft, properly such, are organized into the very structure of their society. A few have rule ; con- trol every thing; forestall argument; check investi- gation ; propound doctrine ; impYison thought in their spell of influence ; enunciate the last advices of their inward oracle ; tell how it was with " early Friends ;" denounce all priest-craft except their own ; and dogmatize serenely away all wicked du- bitation and worldly propensities to examine. Hence mind is sufTocaited with smoke, called " light ;" and the more " ductile "they are, to the invisible mon- itor, the impalpable fanaticism, the most celestial- 168 looking forgery, the more saturated are they with inward light according.to " the unity in the silence of all flesh !" Hence the deception is a perfect spi- ritual fascination too. Fox was, while he lived, the Loyola of the order, for authority. No con- vent was ever ruled more completely by sanctipio- nious abbot or fastidious prioress, than the whole society by a recent forgery from heaven, delivered by one or more (for they generally confirm each others' reports) male or ferriale functionaries, in great " sincerity/' I have myself witnessed facts of doating folly which it would be sullying these pages to rehearse — all '' sincere," I have no doubt. In the spell of this influence are they all, more or less : — except perhaps those hickory allies, who have merely a nominal relation to the society, and have been educated with very little of its realized influence. The feminine venders are more nume- rous. Their spirituality is loquacious. They see more visions ; more frequently uncover the head to usurp the headship of a large assembly : and often virgin diflSdence itself, is taught to deny itself, and brazen the looks of promiscuous thousands, sono- rous apd superior, infallible as the Delphian oracle, clothed cap-a-pie in spiritual sincerity, bronzed in the holy impudence, and willing sacrifices in the cause of " the light !" Priest-craft may be defined — Any system of in- fluence, maintained by religious officers or others, under the assumed sanction of the name of God, which is not authorized by evidence that can be demonstrated, and which may not be. so resolved 169 info the authority of God alone. According to this definition, it may be observed; 1. That priest- ckAFT IS AS OLD AS SIN ; and as wide, in its seminal existence and tendencies, as the depravity of men. They reason most perversely who charge it m any SENSE on Christianity : for (1) It ordinarily abounds most (though never most hated) where Christianity is least known and possesses no influence. It is the very soul and body of paganism. The Drmds, as Caesar's Commentates tell every school-boy, practis- ed a most perfect system in the British Islands, be- fore Christianity, as such, was known in the world. Chaldea, Egypt, Troy, Carthage, the cities of Greece, the story of pagan Rome, the altars and oracles of heathenism, the facts of universal his- tory, and the false worship of the nations since the age of Nimrod, all attest it. An illegitimate spi- ritual regency, a system of imposture with its mys- tagogue or its hierophant its priest or its priestess, in gorgeous and glaring or simple and " plain" habiliments, is the brief description of false reli- gion in this'apostate and benighted world. This is priest-craft. It is the disguise of the devil as the great deceiver of the nations. But (2) How can Christianity be oppugned for this \ There is no system like Christianity. It is its own original. It exposes, denounces, execrates, all priest-craft ; and has really taught even infidels among us, all they know in principle against its evil natuise and im- pious usurpations. I observe 2l That ghristianity IS THE ONLY CURE fo^r priest-craft in the WORLD. Man is " a religious animal," as philoso- 22 170 phers tell us. It is true. He has a conscience j is a mass of wants and fears ; is weak and knows, it, even against his va'nity and his vaunting ; infers by necessity the existence of a superior power, from the attestations of the visible universe ; is a moral being and a sinful one, and knows both — even when he oyms neither ; as mutual censure, and mutual crimination, and mutual ambition of praise, every where demoristrate : and he will, HAVE a religion of some sort. All history proves it. If not the true, he will have a false one: and he PREFERS A FALSE ONE NOTORIOUSLY 1 Yet, jUSt in proportion ^s you indulge his preference, you will- morally imbrute and degrade him ; you will make him servilq, superstitious, sanguinary ; you will in- dulge priest-qraft of some sort, and facilitate the irruption of every sort and every degree of that ruinous and soul-murdering Jeaven ! What shall we do 1 What is the inference I Where the alterna- tive 1 It is plain, as the vision of angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem; sweet, ag the music of their song ; efficacious, as the salvation of their Prince : Give hjm Christianity ; pure, lucid, FULL ; AND man WILL B^E. NEITHER SLAVEi NOR SIM- PLETON, NOR COMPARATIVELY SINNER. Christianity is the grand catholicon ; the only one under heaven that deserves the name ; the only one that abhors all quackery, all false profei^sion, all fprged certifi- cates, all money-making imfK)Slure, all abusje ; the only catholicon that meets the case,^ suits the wants, equals the malady, restores the ruin, answers the intellect, and reinstates, the total being of man in 171 the perfection of his God. True, it does not ope- rate mechanically ; nor by chemical affinity ; nor by electrical conductors ; nor by magical effect. It is alone by contact with the mind, that it generates its own transcendent good. It does not profess, by mere proximity, or local residence, or geographi- cal classification, or pious ancestral eminence, to restore and save us. By understanding it, loving it, doing it ; and in no o|;her way, are its eternal re- storative exeellenqes divinely realized to a human being. Where then or when was there ever a proper instance of failure I To understand, and love, and do, its truth, is the philosophy of experimental religion. Where not so entertained, it does not profess to con- fer the benefit. Whence I observe, once more, 3. That THE ONLY GENUINE ENEMIES OF PRIEST-CRAFT ON THE GLOBE, ARE TRUE ENLIGHTENED CHRISTIANS ; and this, just in proportion to their real conformity to the gospel, that infallible institute of God. Hence these are steadfastly and comparably the only friends of diffusing the scriptures ; of enlightening the peo- ple ; of circulating sound inteUigence ; of multiply- ing and universalizing the facilities of knowledge ; of correct and manly reasoning ; of proving what they hold and what they teach, inducing the people every where to be " more noble than those in Thes- salonica, receiving the word with all readiness of mind, and searching the scriptures daily, whe- ther THOSE THINGS ARE SO ;" of exposing all im- posture ; of having their own credentials searched ; and of having Jesus Christ, and not themselves, glorified in the salvation of men ; saying, " not for 172 that we have dominion over your faith, but are "helpers of your joy : for by faith ye stand." Again, I observe, 4. That infidels and heretics, great AND SMALL, ARE THE GREATEST PATRONS OF SECTA- RIANISM AND PRIEST-CRAFT IN TERRITORIAL CHRIS- TENDOM. This paradox is still a truth. They are, it may be, opposed to all sectarianism — except THEIR OWN ; since they are themselves a sect ; and their interests are as completely one as were those of Herod and Pilate — when Christ is to be put down or slaia ! Under their nominal guise of opposing sectarianism^ they cloak their spiritual theomachy — their opposition to all religion, and to God himself: they wish to put down Christianity, and put up the priest-craft of infidel sincerity, philosophizing athe- ism,, and the apotheosis of reason! How silly the victims of their devices ! They would take from us all the shield and all the sword we either have or desire, against the very priest-craft of which they are the vaunted ienemies ; "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," and "the shield of faith " invincible in combat. I observe lastly, 5. That Quakerism is evidently a system of dou- ble-refined PRiEST-CKAFT. Its influence over mind is confessedly as great as that of the ancient Druids or the followers of any heretical delusion ever broached. Is it warranted 1 Is it a legitimate influence 1 Can it be demonstrated 1 Can they "render a reason" for their towering pretensions.' Can they rationally resolve their spiritual regime into the manifest authority of God 1 Is their do- mination at one identically with that of the holy 173 scriptures l Is Quakerism Christianity X Let candid examination, attending dispassionately to evidence, answer. As a witness, if I may speak, I am not afraid to record that if Jesuits and Roman priests are in favor of the circulation of the scriptures, and op- posed to the maxim that " ignorance is th^ mother of devotion ;" if the papal hierarchy are not mainly an organization of infidels ; if their known priest- craft, and boasted infallibility, are in favor of the universal diffasion of knowledge ; if they are wont to prefer evidence to authority ; and if they allow the right of private judgment in religion ; then is Quakerism a system of evidence, aloof from impos- ture, and involving none of the vital elements of spiritual tyranny, potent priest-craft, and servile submission : then, and only on those suppositions, is it not a system of imposture. They will say, this is mere assertion. Possibly not. However, some argument may appear in this treatise. But I speak also with the privilege of a witness. If I do not know both sides, namely, Quakerism and Christia- nity, it has scarcely been for want of opportunity or application : and I surely know my accountability. Besides, I know the accountability of others. No one is obligated to believe what I say, without evi- dence, or against it ; and no one will reject truth, adequately shown, from whatever motive, without an inevitable responsibility to God. " But all things that are reproved (reprovable) are made manifest by the light : for whatsoever doth jmake manifest, IS LIGHT. Wheriefore he saith. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall 174 give thee light." The word of God makes manifest. Some will say, Why so severe in the abstract! We must judge Quakerism by its fruits. I answer, certainly, by its fruits ; but what is to he the crite- rion ■? The ^him of ihui;nan softness, or the caprice of the million, or the philosophy of infidels, or the partiality of worldlings, or " the friendship of the' world whifch is enmity etgainst God T" or^ his holy word alone I If the latter, I fully consent ; and say, this is exactly what I have done. With the word of God for the criterion, I judge the system ; and pro- nounce its fruits to be mystical, dieceptive, fallacious, and ordinarily any thing but genuine Christianity. I sincerely believe ihsii-^IIiQliism is one of the genu- ine fruits of Quakerism ; and that its common ap- propriate fruits are different in kind, and contrary in nature, when compared with the wise, intelligible sober, practical, holy, catholic fruits of Christianity. "Judge not according to the appearance ; but judge righteous judgment :" and let those who flatter. Friends now, remember that Jesus Christ will call them to account for it at a tribunal where flattery will be shown to any one, only as a sin to he branded and condemned. How specious is the practising of " them that glpry in appearance, and not in heart !" How imposing is their glorying ; how superficial ; how irradiate with the glare that betokens " an angel pf light !" But what right has an impenitent or unconverted sinner, no matter how ' plain' and no matter who, to arrogate the prero- gatives of the children of God ! to vaunt as' if any thing was good enough, as a substitute or an equi- 175 valent, for a changed and sanctified heart — a heart purely at " peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 1" Let men beware of democracy in re- ligion ! Christianity is not a republic, but a king- dom. It is an eternal theocracy ; and monarchists alone can constitute its subjects. Reader, surren- der your heart, your mind, your being, fid ucially, to the Prince eternal, "on whose head are many crowns;" accept his salvation in cordial obedience to the truth, and^ yours it is for ever ! O — will you ? It may be thought that what is here exhibited, and the manner of it, betrays a degree of confidence that wise men will only compassionate "? What can / expect to effectuate 1 What does it imply that I should think to assail with effect a structure that has stood the brunt of intellectual chieftainship for so many generations 1 Will Quakerism go down now, because I Write t To all this, I answer — My confidence is indeed singular and very steadfast ; but its nature perhaps and its objects may not be well understood. I would ask the curious and the penetrating^ and especially the judicious christian, to resolve these questions : Is it confidence in my- self, or the cause, that is here exemplified 1 in any thing of my own, as such; any thing to which I am su^cient as of myself ; any thing that is to hap- pen as the mere result of what / can do 1 Or is it •confidence in God 1 I trust in God alone — -in his truth and his cause : in his purposes and prophecies and providences and promises — '■that quadruple al- liance of faithj that everlasting and harmonious chain of strength omnipotent, in vvhich to confide 176 is simple and happy piety. " There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh : for the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. — I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Commit thy way unto .the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him ; fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wickjd de- vices to pass. Delight thyself also in the Lord ; and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart." Under God, my confidence is in the display of his truth, as that chosen instrumentality by which emi- nently he works. I have endeavored to explain several very important passages of scripture, in their true and native meaning — ^and am sure that if in these I have succeeded as an interpreter, I have carried-the point as a polemic. The reason is — the strength of the word of Ood ! Till these scrip- tures, to which I now refer, are just shown to be falsely expounded, I shall calmly view the victory as won ; and give all the glory to him to whom I resign the arbitration of events, with pure satisfac- tion in his government. To the exposition of these texts mainly would I invoke the attention of the inquisitive reader ; for, after all, what God has spo- ken, and what he mean^ are the decisive matters. " The word of the Lord endureth for ever. There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord." And hence it is that "a false 177 witness shall perish; but the man that heareth, speaketh constantly;" i. e. he speaks with- decision and uniform steadfastness, because he listens and learns of God. I will here request the serious reader tt?" To keep his Bible at hand, and peruse carefully THE PASSAGE AND ITS CONNECTION, in every cose where the allusion is important or the explanation at- tempted at length. He will thus be better qualified to judge of what is truth ; and to see " if those things are so," wtych he will find declared : and if they are, and he be really a serious reader, he will be too wise to blame so poor a worm as I am, who had no agency in the matter, for what the scrip- tures teach ! He must then settle the controversy with God — till which be seen and felt, tenderly and deeply, by a man, he will ordinarily play the fool in sacred concerns, both in his censure and his praise, his cavilling and his commendation. " And what are we \ Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord." I add that in the scriptural positions is all the ultimate strength of this treatise. If these are valid — so is the cause which they sup- port. Till these are refuted, it is impossible to do any thing effectual in opposition to the publication. Till they are refuted nothing is done for Friends and their cause. .^ Hence a man is scarcely com- petent to condemn this work, whatever his general sense, or fame, or station, unless he possesses pro- bably the following qualifications : 1. He must have a correct and thorough knowledge of scriptural truth ; 2. He must know in full comparison what Quakerism is ; 3. He must be prepared to judge 23 178 RELIGIOUSLY, and not from any worldly motives, be- tween Christianity and Quakerism as here display- ed. Friends can find worldly-wise men, superficial and interested persons, venal and capricious editors, plenty of them, and perhaps some persons illus- trious in the world — " in form and gesture proudly eminent," and even some weak and facile religion- ists of different denominations, to side with them, and condemn any publication that honors the su- premacy of truth and vindicates the scriptures im- partially as " the word of God." But all this will avail them nothing, so long as the expounded quotations of scripture are obviously against them. For the rest — I trust in God ; leaving all in his hand, feeling my own weakness and deep unwor- thiness in his sight ; and praying that he would deign to make useful what I have written ! A class of thinkers there is, some of them of considerable consequence in life, to whom, antici- pating their estimate of this work, I would venture a respectful caution. They are men of manners and of mind, of influence and reading, of great social respectability and general soundness of intel- ligence, of professional eminence or retired dignity, of experience in the things of the world and of large observation in human affairs : in short, they are men for whose opinion on almost any subject, the public would be willing to yield their confidence in anticipation. But are they equally competent to judge and to pronounce on the subject of religion? on that etherial theme of themes, that is of its own class, its own eminence^ its own criterion 1 Here is 179 the blunder exactly that some great men make :— religion is the only subject, we may say, which they do not understand ; which they have never patiently and impartially and thoroughly examined : the only subject concerning which they venture to pronounce presumptuously ! And is it the only subject that is worthy of their neglect X It is here too, and here alone comparatively, that they are wayward and intractable ; suspecting the motives, and overlook- ing the demonstrations, of those who kindly wish to help them in the paramount concern, and who (even on the humble principle — ne sutor ultra cre- pidem*") are quite competent to the task. They are, it may be, speculative believers ; semi-converts ; and willing to pass in religion for considerably more than they are worth ! By what STANDARD DO THEY JUDGE 1 Demonstrably by a false one ; one condemned by the law of God, and preparing for the scorn of demons in the day of judgment ! " For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness ; but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wisel Where is the scribe ? Where is the disputer of this world 1 Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world !" With all their glorious intellection and envied superiority, they never can comprehend the nature of evangelical humility, or the way of " life " and the only way revealed " as it is in Jesus," or the principles of vital piety ascendant. They are described, if they did but recognise their own like- 180 ness, in many places of the scriptures ; as " heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; ever learning and never able TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH," Of them is the order of God to his ministers, and his people too ; " From such turn away !" that is, as I understand it, keep away from their influence ; mark them as such and let your estimate of them be independent of popular appraisement; keep distant from their power and their society, as aware of their seductive qualities, unless when and where you may possibly do them good ; as the physician frequents the places of infection, not that he may catch the disease, but if possible assist or administer the cure. But in the supreme concern, how great the fatuity of these intellectual nobles ! How they elaborate their own confusion and rush to the ca- tastrophe of all their greatness! How they dupe their own understandings in religion, expecting God to defer to them and provide some special conveyance for their dignified transmission to hea- ven ! the vulgar way — would be shocking and in- tolerable to think of! Yes, here in this country of no stereotyped nobility, or hereditary grandeur, or names of heraldic eminence, it is becoming more and more a desideratum with this class, to have a RELIGION FOR GENTLEMEN ; one fit for scholars and dignitaries ; one that can be sustained without all vulgarizing or mingling with the herd ; one that will be competent to opulence and philosophy — and that shall intoxicate also the pretension, the pe- 181 dantry, the insolent ambition, of all the underlings and upstarts and tributaries in the community ! To all which, I would only oppose the naked point of " the sword of the Spirit," radiating with more than electrical efficiency : " Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." One of the wisest things perhaps which such men, the best of them, can say, is what one of them (now in thought — for whom I cherish more than mere respect) has substantially said, on this general subject; nor do I aver that there is no wis- dom in it : " The clergy will not give the Quakers credit for their real improvement ; nor recognise their certain melioration ; nor, it seems, permit them to grow better ; nor let them alone." To all this, I reply ; that it seems to me to be in the case the mere wisdom of a liberally educated pagan ! no knowledge of Christianity ; no perception of THE GRAND CRITERION IN RELIGION — THE LAW OF God and the truth of his gospel; no justice done or allowed to the motives of benevolence, that would rouse the sleeper in a house on fire ; no spirituality ; no sense, no truth, no goodness ; but merely the superficial views of worldlings, elegantly temporizing, and talking as if religion were not the terra incognita of their travels, their investigations, and their discoveries 1 As for the 182 ' improvement' of Friends, to what does it all amount religiously, if they are not on the founda- tion, the only one that God has laid in Zion ? If they give no proper evidence of this, it is real mis- anthropy, and not the wisdom, of the kingdom or of the King, to " let them alone !" They will not be let alone in the day of judgment; why should they in the day of mercy ! Besides, the declivity of things, or " the course of this world," is not " the way, and the truth, and the life." Things do not meliorate toward heaven by neglect, or self-prompt- ing. Men are saved in contravention of "the course of this world ;" and not by drifting with its tide. No man grows better by a:bandonment of the appointed means of grace. " Ephraim is joined to idols : LET HIM ALONE." And what is this, but the dirge of his soul ] Let Friends accept the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, cordially, intelligently, as revealed in " the lively oracles " of " grace and truth ;" and let them abjure their folly and their mysticising fantasy, for the scriptures, as " the word of God," honestly acknowledged, and as their HIGHEST RULE IN RELIGION, devoutly lov- ed : and then let the clergy be blamed if they do not rejoice over them, with the angels of God ! Otherwise, you blame the clergy for their fidelity alone ! for their invincible attachment to the gospel! for their immutable preservation of an eternal testi- mony ! for their plainly unpopular adhesion to the truth ! For one, and with no strong hold on time, and consequently no known motive or prospect of worldly advantage, I can declare that it would 183 sweetly sooth the last or any other hour of my life, and give a new delight to my song of triumph in re- demption by Jesus Christ, could I think that the whole society, or any number of them, were becom- ing genuine converts to the faith of the gospel ! I feel more — but cannot express it. " Visions of glory" throng my cherished sight, And " unborn ages crowd " upon " my soul !" One other sentiment, common among the general class I have described, deserves animadversion. It is this : ' A man ought not to change his rehgion ; es- pecially the rehgion of his ancestors, the religion in which he has been educated, and in which all his social relations and domestic sympathies reside.' This is very specious ; it appears very amiable ; it is quite full of respect for temporal convenience and homeborn tranquility : and it is perhaps one of the most common, really influential, flatly unchristian, and mostly incorrigible, principles of human action. It is adopted by the Friend, the Romanist, the Jew, the Mahommedan, the Infidel, the Sectary, the No- thingarian, and the votary of any one of a thousand other casts of religion. Strange too that it should be advocated by those who pique themselves on their philosophy and elevation of mind ! But so it is. Fashion is omnipotent. It can " change times and laws," reverse the nature of things, revolution the ways of God, canonize reprobates, and stamp the most senseless and impossible positions with the indisputable impress of truth ! But before the sen- 184 timent to which I now refer is adopted and practi- cally hazarded by any one, I would entreat him to consider the following things : 1. Whether every different system can be equally right, or safe, or worthy \ or, if not, whether such views will not be overruled confoundingly in the day of judgment 1 2. Whether truth can be other than a unit, or pos- sibly consist with contraries t 3. Whether such a sentiment obeys any precept of the decalogue 1 or, if it can possibly obei/ the fifth by violating the FIRST, second, third, and fourth l 4. Whether do- mestic peace and the kind treatment of relatives, excellent ends as they are and by none more valued than by me, may not be purchased at too dear a rate or perhaps overrated in our tender or instinc- tive estimate l Whether some sacrifices may not be required of us for Christ's sake ; and whether one can be saved while loving others more than him ? 5. Whether Christ has never anticipated the diflaculties which it was framed to suit 1 and whether he would not have us meet them in a dif- ferent way — a way that cares more for eternity than time, for the soul than the body, for the creator than the creature, for salvation than ease and ele- gance of life ! I would refer (not for one who cares not to examine) to the following places for an an- swer ; Luke, 12 : 49-53 ; 14 : 25-27. Matt. 19 : 29. Mark, 10 : 28-31. John, 12: 25, 26, 42, 43. And having said this, "from such" we " turn away." I turn, honored fathers and beloved brethren in the gospel of Jesus Christ, most affectionately to you, in whom the whole church glorifies God with rea- 185 son : and before I conclude this introduction, will adventure a word of animadversion on a different and yet a related subject ; if your kindness will suffer it, from one so consciously your junior aiid your inferior in the service. Emboldened by the peculiarities of my own religious history, and of feelings and estimates of things thence necessarily resulting, I may speak freely in the audience of all men, even to you whom I justly revere. Most tenderly do I esteem and love yon all, and those hundreds of kindred spirit whom you prbperly re- present. Sincerely do I suppose that you hold heartily in substance one system. The enemies of God are of the same opinion; they group you together, in their antipathy, their caricature, their defamation. They regard you as the steady and the mighty advocates (as well as the sincere disci- ples-— a more heavenly character,) of the religion of Jesus Christ ; a:nd they make common cause against you. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. "^is wise and oft subserves the noblest ends To learn of foes, that teach us more than friends; The act may profit, while its aim offends. Is there no demonstration here of substantial unity and general identity of sentiment 1 How use- ful is christian union ! In what then do you possibly differ 1 and in what may you agree to differ 1 i an- swer ; Simply as your metaphysical philosophy may differ, in explication of the great things of your COMMON FAITH : Simply as it differs in its forms of solution or its fehcities of inculcation and defence. 24 1^6 This I sdeittttly and cordially bfelieve. How great and how many are the matters in which you are agreed ; in which yoU aim decisively at the same thing ! and profoundly may we question, whether, from the certain imperfection of christians in this world, and the variety of your educational and local influences, and the individuality which the plastic hand that formed has stamped upon your minds, and the acknowledged idiosyncrasy of character which has always existed in the church and diversified her modern as it did her ancient ministers— men of con- science and independent thought and habituated investigation pre-eminently ; we could ever wisely anticipate^ in the true church of God, a much greater degree of theological coincidence on earth> than now exists among you 1 In the great facts and principles of a common system, you are certainly united. What insipidity and stagnation and supine- ness, might we ii^ot e3q)ect as the sure result of perfect uniformity ! Now, there is debateable ground enough to keep acumen awake ; and not enough to rouse or authorize any alienation. You are breth- ren and ministers of the same Lord Jesus Christ. I know and love eind honor you all. So do thou- sands of better judges. What I now write is rather foa- others than yourselves. I believe you hold the truth in common i the truth of the Refor- mation ; the truth of Christianity. I believe you all hold the truth, as the world all hate it ; and as it would be now corrupted or opposed by its ene- mies ; and as contradistinguished from the errors of SabelUus, Arius, Pelagius, Arminius, Socinua, 187 and Fox — and from the more abstract errors of antinomianism, stoicism, fatalism, fanaticism, radi- calism, ultraisDo, neology ; " and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine ; ac- cording to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which is committed" respectively to our "trust." From a general acquaintance jyith all, and a special intimacy with some of you, I aver, that I am unable to see any differences among you which should alienate you from my christian esteem and confi- dence, or that could properly engender alienation among yourselves. You differ indeed ecclesias- tically, as belonging to several denominations of christians ; who are all allied in mutual corres- pondence and engaged nobly in the same mis- sionary action. You difffer theologically, only in the mode of explaining and vindicating and apply- ing the same great truths of a common system. Suppose then, fathers and brethren, that there was among us more of a manifest assiduity of kindness ; more of magnifying the things of unity dnd dinii- nishing the things of dissidence ; more of liberal and generous allowance where variance might be of reason and in a sort of right expected ; more of personal conference and prayer on topics of ambi- guity or doubt; more intercourse, frankness, and love, according to the temper of the blessed Paul ; more of manifested confidence and holy magna- nimity and reciprocal esteem ; more dependence on moral and evangelical influence, and less on the machinery of church government ; more of a prac- tical §ense of personal responsibility to a common 188 and a reigning ahd a witnessing Lord ; niore of an unwillingness to misunderstand, suspect, incujpate, or avoid, one another ; more of a just appreciation of the motives and the sanctions and the symbols of professed sincerity ; more of watchfulness against the spirit so often censured by one that " made himself of no repi:^ation" for our saTses; Mark, 9 ; 33-50. 2 Thess. 2 : 7, 8. 3 John, 9 : 12. Rev. 1 ; 20. more of unity in action and service, as indispensable, and very eminently efficacious, to promote unity of vision ; more of the spirit of be- nevolence, and of the sympathies of goodness, and of the living portraiture of piety ; more sense of what is common and identical in our interests and. duties, our principles and dangers, our histories and prospects ; more of the wisdom that discerns our common enemies and necessities and weaknesses and exposures; more in short of the temper and the acting of the gospel of our Lord, the Lord of Glory, our example as vvell as our expiation and our righteousness : what would be the result 1 I answer ; it would be excellent, manifold, certain, permanent. It is just what God is waiting for, what the church desires, and the world perishingly needs ! Some of these results I could venture to predict: such , probably as these; we should see that in the things of faith we were all more alike than perhaps we supposed; that it was easy, and sweet, and, safe, to forbear with each other in minor peculiarities ; that imperfect phraseology, and the passion for philosophizing, and specious logomachy, make a great quantum of all our con- 189 structive or real differences ; that evils could now be a hundred fold better corrected, when love came fresh from the cross to qualify orthodoxy into recti- tude, and when our colloquial and printed rhetoric always honored heaven's rule of demonstration, " speaking the truth in love ;" that the moral power of each, and the collective power of all, would be increased, refined, amplified, in all legitimate influ- ence ; that the spirit of the ministry would become every where elevated, purified, homogeneous ; that other denominations and the whole country would derive a kindred benefit ; that our theological semi- naries would become schools of experimental piety and the culture of gracious affections, as well as the high places of theological lore and exercise and ac- complishment ; that we should all increase in prac- tical wisdom ; that religion's power would be quad- rupled in all directions ; that the evident blessing of God would attend us, making our ministrations liv- ing and effectual, as " the ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of righteousness ;" that conver- sions would abound and revivals of religion become the steady order of the day ; tjhat the, churches would more a^id more love their ministers ; that the wicked would be confounded, and refuted by tlieir own consciences ; that error would die of necessity or retreat to courted and distant solitudes ; and that jealousies would fade away, antipathies expire, sectarianism wane to its destined dishonor, and the vices of bigotry, superstition, fanaticism, mystical divinity, unsanctioned observances, with other and kindred evils that annoy us now, would be continu- 190 ally reduced and superseded, by the triumphant in- fluence of the gospel. Of these results/proportion- ate mainly to the reform or the advance attained, I have no doubt : and always does the thought occur, when I see with pain the little difference mag- nified reciprocally into the mighty all of the con- trovertist, that if those brethren had been educated as thoroughly in the inward-light scheme, or any other grand error of the earth, as some of their ac- quaintance were, they would know how to appreci- ate each other better ; and they would thus begin to brighten the prospects of the nineteenth century before the history should be written of its earlier and its less honorable years. Allow me to advert to some evils that especially claim correction. 1. Sectarianism ; a love of sect, that seeks its praemia laudis in this world, and as the reward of mistaking the denomination to which one happens to belong for " the kingdom of heaven," or at least the frequent implication of such a shame- ful sentiment. How often do we hear " our church, our denomination, our judicatory, our people," spo- ken of, in such terras of personal appropriation as carelessness or earthiness alone could inspire ; such as seem to forget who " purchased the church with his own blood." The first epistle of Paul to Timo- thy was written to instruct that lovely young evan- gelist, "how he ought to behave himself in the HOUSE OP God, which is the church of the liv- ing God." The proprietor of the church is its claim- ant too ; and if not " his glory," neither will he give his property to another. Besides, do those 191 more honor the denomination to which they belong, who continually prefer, and even oppose, its separate interests, to those of the whole kingdom of Christ on earth; or those who judge the interests of that kingdom steadily and purely preferred by all its members and officers, to be the very best way of promoting those of the denomination 1 each in his own sphere and place, certainly ; but each for the kingdom of heaven ! The sin of sectarianism ap- pears to me to be rottenness at the heart of the body and poison in the very .soul of the church. It is a deadly injury to any denomination of our vaunted fondness ! It consists in exalting local against universal interests ; private against catholic views ; party against piety ; policy against principle ; and our men, our measures, our doctrines, our views, our prosperity, against the glorious commonwealth of the King of Israel. And what is this, but exalt- ing earth against heaven 1 It hardens the heart of a minister of Christ, and saddens the soul of a pri- vate disciple : converting the former, while it justly lessens his influence, into a cruel inquisitor, or a facile Jesuit, or a wily politician ; the latter, into a sickly bigot, or a dissocial monachist, or a barren devotee. Piety hence is nothing — but as party feels its influence. It soon loses the liberality that re- joices to pronounce, " grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ;" — "tothem that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints ,with all that in every place call upon the NAME OF Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and OURS." This to me appears the elemental mischief 192 of the papacy; the very "mystery of iniquity," whether it "works" in embryo, or is developed in living vigor &f monstrous youth- or ihore hoirrible maturity. It dethrones the King of Zion, just in proportion as self is exalted to the supreme episco- pate. If there is any sin deijounced in the "oracles of God " as the very quintessence of deceitfulness, the very sublimity of treason, the very hypocrisy of spiritual usurpation; in short, the very personifica- tion described as " the man of sin, the son of per- dition, who oppqseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God., or , that is worshipped ;" we have here the identity of the evil in the temper of sectarianism. If this temper were well analyzed, it would be found to consist of very unlovely and anti-christian ingredients. It is wholly alien from " the fruit of the Spirit." The elenients of its composition would be found probably to be deceit, hypocrisy, ambition, selfishness, apprehen- sion, suspicion, envy, jealousy, sordid feelings, false zeal, and the wrath of man " which worketh not the righteousness of God." Its holy preten- sions constitute one of its worst characteristics : but another of its worst is — the stealth and the ad- dress with which its influence often invades the truly good ! The evangelic histories confirm this position in reference to the apostles themselves, and illustrate the terrible sinuosities of the sin : all other history demonstrates its influence over com- mon mortals ; and that of the church particularly, its too potent spell over ecclesiastics in every age of the christian era. In short, no man is more deceiv- 193 ed by it than he whose self-complacency, beguiling him from a needful vigilance against its approaches, presents him to himself as an exception to the rule ! " Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain,^° The spirit that dwelleth in us " (the native moral tem- perament of every individual) " lusteth to envy ?" Hence he neglects himself, in that very matter, in ^hich the care of others can do least for his preser- vation ; and cares for others, in those very relations in which he ought to honor the supreme Inspector and feel as much the solemnity of his own accoun- table action. As envy pines at good possessed, So jealousy looks forth distressed On good that seems approaching ; And, if success his steps attend, Discerns a rival in a friend ; And hates him for encroaching. — Cowper. There are personages, of other denominations than those to which any of us belong, and on both sides of the Atlantic occasionally found, whose high-church childishness is as proverbial, as their low-christian manliness is notorious. For them — the high-church party, I mean — it is less incongru- ous, possibly less criminal, to identify themselves with " the church ;" to view their own sect as " the kingdom of hea:ven ;" and sublimely to abandon their more evangelical and better taught brethren, to the imaginary resource of " the uncovenanted mercies of God." For them, exclusive pretensions may be less shocking ; possibly more in the way of 25 194 their characteristic vocation ; less dishonorable, it may be, to their intellectual vigor. " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child." But for us, there is no such apology. We were never taught it, I think, by " holy mother church." It is no part of our pro- fession. It is not Congenial with our creed. No one of us could avow it. Our churches would not endure it. Our piety, all of heaven that there is in it, reclaims at the perversion. The apostles of the Lamb teach it not; and while they every where remind us that the kingdom of Christ " is not of this world," they also " beseech us by the mercies of God," if there be " any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies," to "fulfil their joy, that we be like- minded, having the same love, being of one ac- cord, of one mind." They say to us, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory ; but in lowhness of mind let each esteem other better than them- selves." This exhortation may be considered a sovereign recipe, prophylactic and therapeutic both, against the mighty malady — the epidemic of eccle- siastics since the primitive ages. To follow it, is perfect freedom from the influence. No one would thus become the stern spontaneous censor of his brethren ; none would find his spiritual wardrobe empty of those desirable garments or hea\^enly mantles, with one of which a brother's nakedness could be concealed and a covering furnished, with- out connivance, even for " a multitude of sins." We should think it then as necessary to our theological 195 accomplishment to be " simple concerning evil," as it is obviously to be " wise unto that which is good." This is true wisdom. " Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." And let us not forget, while " the purity of the church " has ever been the persecutor's plea and passport to all enor- mities, that " the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace " — and not in war of them that makp war. Let us remember that Jesus Christ hath said, "Blessed are the peace- makers : for they shall be called the children of God." If I mistake not, this is the age, and this the country, and this the crisis too, for the obliga- tions of anti-sectarian Christianity to be felt, its characteristics exemplified, its excellencies acknow- ledged. What I know of Quakerism has quickened my Sense and matured my detestation of the evil. 2. Another evil, kindred in nature to the former, is this ; A too strict and even an illiberal con- struction of doctrinal orthodoxy. I mean here to sanction nothing like latitudinarianism ; nothing like denying the propriety of conscientiousness even in little things; nothing like indiffererice to truth, in its major or its minor relations; nothing like servility or tameness in any of the details of faith or practice. We ought to be as really con- scientious in little things as in great ones : to pre- serve the mens sihi conscia recti '* in the least, as truly as in the greatest. But ought we to insist alike on all in the creed of visible communion ; and make every thing a term of recognition which has 196 become to us identified, in whole or in part, with the truth of revelation 1 as if whatever may be necessary to the perfection of the church, Were equally necessary to the visibility of the church ! as if every thing that a christian ought to be, is that without which a christian is not ! as if what belongs to growth and accomplishment, were indispensable in the same degree to existence itself! These mon- strous suppositions could not be sustained in argu- ment, and are perhaps very rarely affirmed in prac- tice. But are they as rarely implied 1 Are they never couched covertly in our sentiments ; insensibly in our conduct ; devastatingly in our influence 1 How easily is the brand of heretic, or the impeachment of unsound, or the suspicion of innovating, or the whisper of erroneous, admitted or applied ?^ And to whom 1 Men, whose piety perhaps has been long and well demonstrated ; with whom " the spirit of truth," and not " the spirit of error," holds mani- fest communion ; who are, and have ever been, " in labors more abundant," it may be, than most others, their allies or oppugners ; and whose success in the ministry, both in conversions multiplied and fruits unequivocal, has been the palpable seal of God on their commission as his own ambassadors. I know it is objected-4iere, with something possibly of wis- dom, in show or in reahty, that success is not the criterion ! Grant it — Is it not still a criterion, and a tolerably good one 1 one which any man would plead or consider in his own case, but simply for the reason — that there it has no applicability pro- bably 1 Yes ! says the objector, but success attends 197 many a hereriasch, many a fanatic, many a heathen corrupter. Look at Mohammed ; look at Peter the hermit ; look at George Fox. I answer, all this is true. But what is the inference 1 that success is only of one kind 1 ■ or that successs in mischief is all 1 or that success in " winning souls " to Christ, and " turning, many to righteousness," proves nothing 1 Not a christian on earth, nor an angel in heaven, believes any such extra- vagance of folly ! I repeat it ; no good man soberly believes any such thing. Do heretics and schismatics and heathen corrupters, ever appropri- ately succeed in converting men to holiness, to the faith of Christ, and " the blessed hope " of the gospel 1 " By their fruits ye shall know them." We estimate fruits, I think, first by the quality; and then by the quantity. Suppose they are good and numerous — are we to infer that they grew in the devil's garden and resulted from the culture of his emissaries'! They are not " the grapes of Spdora ;" they are not "the clusters of Gomorrah." This will be generally admitted on all sides. Is success in rearing such fruit, no demonstration of an alli- ance with the master of the grounds ? with the giver of the increase 1 How then are his allies to be known 1 By imperious indolence 1 by arrogant denunciation 1 by an everlasting clamor or insinua- tion of their heterodoxy who do all the work, who brave all the dangers, who meet all the questions, and who bear all the " evil report" of "the master of the house 1" by such an outcry raised or nou- rished by men, it may be* who never were success- 198 ful in the ministry? who never had a revival of religion probably, under all their preaching] who dwell in libraries and abstractions ; and know little experimentally of contact with the rude million, in a way that brooks their boorishness, and encoun- ters their very reviling, for the sake of showing them the love of Christ and the way of salvation through his blood ! The heartlessness with which the success of a preacher in the credible conversion of souls to God, is sometimes philosophized away to nothing ; and the nothingness of their success who thus reasbn, as sometimes exalted into a foil of their glorious orthodoxy while they thus pervert the argument, arid to their consolation it may be who have cause rather to be humiliated and ashamed before God and man at their own official barren- ness ; are equally melancholly and portentous ! Success is better estimated in heaven ; where f they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the ■ firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- ness, as the stars for ever and ever. For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of rejoicing/! Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy." A man cannot be right by conformity, though he may be by conviction. It is evidence, not dogma- tism, that corrects him. The force of great names and the power of uninspired authority, are not only less than the power of the gospel ; they are different in nature too. They, are also as much inferior, as they are different, in the influence they exert. They may make partisans ; but they will never 199 make christians : nor is it mainly by such means that God makes christians. " The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is THE ONLY RULE to di- rect us HOW WE MAY GLORIFY AND ENJOY HIM." He honors his own word ; he respects the laws of mind ; he violates nothing but sin. He so effec- tually and tenderly persuades, whom he converts, that duty is seen as privilege and service relished as enjoyment. The love of the Savior invests all the legislation of the king ; and the grace of salvation facilitates all the mandates of righteousness. Ought we not to proceed in a way similar, when our end is corresponding? Is it not safe to copy an example so illustrious and superhuman 1 Good reason is there to suppose that such a way is that of your common desire ; and that you all approve, as I do, the following sentiments. "I have endeavored," says Dr. Woods, " to guard against any mixture of bigotry, being fully aware that this tends to pro- duce narrowness of feeling, and to prevent im- provement. Most heartily would I welcome EATERY RAY OF NEW LIGHT WHICH MAY SHINE UPON THE GREAT SUBJECTS OF REVELATION. FoR WHILE I REGARD THE UNCHANGEABLE WORD OF GoD AS A PERFECT AND INFALLIBLE RULE OF FAITH AND PRACTICE, I BELIEVE THAT OUR PERCEPTION OF ITS TRUTHS, AND OUR MANNER OP EXPLAINING AND ENFORCING THEM, ADMIT OF VAST IMPROVEMENT. And although, in the extent of their knowledge of Christianity, and their ability to defend and illustrate its doctrinal and practical principles, the soo older divines seem to ftie far superior to the ge- nerality of late theological writers, whether in Europe or America; I cannot but think that some real progress has been made during the last cen- tury in the right understanding of the christian religion, and in the right mode of setting forth its truths, for the conversion of sinners and the spread of the gospel. And it is my persuasion, though some may regard it as partiality Or weakness, that this progress is chiefly owing to the labors of those whom we call New-England divines ; and I am supported in this persuasion by some of the ablest advocates of divine truth in Great Britain. But while I say this, I am ready to deplore whatever has been among us of* erroneous opinion, and of unchristian feeling and practice. I cherish the pleasing hope, that the multitude of young men who have recently entered the ministry, or are now preparing for it, will seek and obtain larger mea- sures of divine illumination, than their predecessors, and that in the happy results of their studies and labors, they will exceed all former generations." In this extract, I have taken no other liberty than to capitalize two sentences, that deserve to be written permanently on conscious tablets of the heart. To the estimate of the author, respecting the theo- logians of New-England, I can fully subscribe ; without any imputation of indelicate praise, as / am neither a native nor a resident of that distin- guished district. To them do I confess the indebt- edness of the country and especially of the church. I wish indeed that here we could be unqualified, 201 and without exception, in the benediction! But— there are weeds as well as flowers, poisons as Well as fruits: and however genteel, or honorable, or literary, or eminent, — If any man love not THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, let him be anathema, MARAN-ATHA ! 1 Cor. 16 : 22. Still, with respect to those who hold geherically and with good proof of soundness, the same evan- gelical system, there ought to be — tesTe christo — increasing unioq ; and as themeans of it, increas- ing forbearance and affectionate regard. All go- vernment is founded in concession. ' We defer to others reciprocally, and for ends of mutual benefit. If no latitude is to be given to thought ; none to investigation ; none to the free inspection of things debateable ; none to the calm and kind interchange of honest opinion or demur on minor points ; none to the best modes of philosophizing on the reali- ties of our common faith : the consequences are equally disastrous and evident — all government is at an end ; no conventional union can exist ; orga- nized combination however excellent its object, and regular co-operation however inspiring or evange- lical its cause, must be utterly and indefinitely aban- doned ! I am well and deeply convinced that there are elements of excellence and resources of strength in those circles with which we are connected, that require only a wiser and a christian economizing, in order to secure some of the noblest and the purest achievements. And this consummation we should at least approximate, if we and ours were all so piously purposed and concentrating in our tenden- 26 30^ ci0S, as to show a more child-like obedIenc6 to. th& divine exhortation; "beseeching us that we walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called *, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffer- ing, forbearing one another in love ; ENDEAVOR- ING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." It comes here happily to the purpose to avail mysielf of another extract from the writings, of one of you, fathers and brethren, memorably, and with reciprocal accord, addressed to another of your honored number. " It has been my deliberate opinion," says Dr. Beecher, "for many years, de- rived from extensiv.e observation^ and a careful. at- tention to. the elementary principles of he various differences which have agitated the chjirch, that the ministers of the orthodox congregational church, and the ministers of the presbyterian church, are all, cordially united in^ every one of the doctrines of the Bibk and of the Confession of Faith, which have been regarded and denominated fundamental ; and that the points wherein they differ do not sub- vert or undermine any one of these doctrines, or justify the imputation of heresy, or the withdraw- ment of confidence or co-operation in every good work. I would not be understood to say, that I think the points of dif^renpe to be in, every case of little consequence ; or that, by being, mW4e centres of as§a,ult aiid defence, they inay not be driven to hurtful extremes ; nor yet that earnest discussion, conducted wath christian courtesy, is to he depreca- ted. WitboBt something of this kind the publjp 203 intellect might fall asleep, and truth be transmitted by tradition through the memory ; and an unthinkr. ing theology, cold as. winter and powerless as the grave,, might extend a * dead orthodoxy ' over the Idnd-^a sure precursor, as in Germany, of a coming age of heresy and infidelity." Most heartily do 1 appropriate the sentiments of the father'; and could add, were that decorous or required, my jiinibr experience iri attestation of their wisdom and their jexcelleirce. Equally for charita- ble allowance toward all substantial christians, and for absolute explosion toward all fundamental here- tics, ought we to be' theologically and ecclesiasti- cally characterized.. So have I learned Christ. So I intend immutably to act, by the grace of God. So to act, is most certainly the wisdom and the duty, especially in this age and country, of those whom I consider you, honored sirs, as representing,- and in reference to whom I have been so bold in making this appeal, . Your example, especially in coinci- dence and concert, as perfected and manifested and known, would, I think, under God, move and influ- ence our vast christian community. This I heartily desire, from motives, which, I trust, eternity will not denounce. The interests of religion require it. The wants of the world, the glory of Christ, the progress of orthodoxy, the regeneration of souls, re- quire it. Particularly, I long to see the glorious cons-ummation for the sake of those wanderers from " truth and soberness," in reference to whom these pages appear. We need light in our atmosphere, BO pure and abundant, that heresy and extravagance 304 will die in it instinctively ; that infidelity will repent and trust the name of Jesus exultingly-^or, retreat deliriQus to some far distaat wilderness of night ; and that sophistry and sorcery willbe^too obvious to the common vision of mankind, to encourage any longer their traditions or their triumphs. , Shall I add, upon what equal number of men in the United States, if not upon yourselves, rest such signal and noble obligations in reference to ihe.results desired? " The light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." May " the Father of lights " most affluently endow you vvith his precious gift^ ! and use you, in this eventful crisis of things, as co-agents with himself illustriously, in effecting the wide and holy pacifica- tion of his Israel, the consolidation df the tribes, and the conquest of etherial arms against an em- battled, world ! How' different from what we all believe, is the system of Friends ! I would denounce that system as 'Vanother gospel," I would denounce it in the name of Jesus .Christ, if I stood alone, and if "all men forsook me," in. the principled detestation of its abominable doctrines 1, I have^Z^ the misery of its priest-craft, its perversion, and its bondage. I will here present the reader with a synopsis of it, as I suppose it properly constituted, in answer to the frequent question, What is Quakerism? The in- ference will be evident — we ought to be engaged and united in endeavoring the diffusion of the truth, for the extirpation of cardinal error ; this is what ought to occupy us primarily :— and after we have 205 achieved the victory, we may perfectionateour cpm- raon creed, cotnparatively at leisure, and compara- tively with a gx)od conscience ! But it may be well here to enter previously a ca- veat, as pertinent to the times and the places of this work. Some have said, to me ; Beware that you look at all the best symbols and the most recent specimens of their doctrine ; and give them every advantage, regarding always the last regular emis- sion ©r document of their views ; for these are thought to im^rofe considerably as years and months proceed. Ai e you not willing that friend- ism should grow better 1 should approximate nearer and nearer to the true standard \ and at last, or per- haps soon become identical with Christianity \ Answer — -No ! I am not so willing : and for the following reasons ; 1. The idea is absurd. That grow better, which— 'Sls a system — is contrary to Christianity ! Friends may grow better, may " re- pent and believe the gospel," may become (would God they should !) christians, walking in the light of genuine oracles-: they may thus improve — but their system, friendism, is another thing. It is a homogeneous compouiid of hurtful error. Hence, 2. Its character ia fixed ; and so is its definition, its nature, its history. It is not hereafter to be ascer- tained. The only proper criterion of what it is, is — THE Quaker SCRIPTURES ; the sacrc^i writings of Fox, Barclay, Penn, . and others. 3. We are, therefore, not to expect any revised editions, or mo- dern emendations, or transformed impiroveraents, of that old^nd well established identity. Let those 206 paragons- of light (1 mean the orthodox) that are swung from their ancient moorings, not deceive themselves. If they improve — I am glad of it. In- cumhite remis, pueri^—herid to yout ears, boys, would I say to them cheeringly, as they proceed to safer, stations and a firmer hold. Only let them not sup- pose that they and Quakerism are identical. They will have, if they are sincere in striving to know and worship the true God in his own revealed way, to make changes more and greater than they now an- ticipate ; and happy they who make them: happy /—by the grace of God — that have made them : I would do it again, O how quickly — were it ^nqw to be repeated : only let not these changes, as they proceed, be construed as jf Quakerism Was chang- rag ! The idea of mutation^is ruinous to its jife. In that respect it is like the permanent decrees of the council of Trent. It professes to be based «w- fallibly on the inspiration of God ! to be identified with Christianity itself! with Christianity in its great- est purity, spirituality, fulness, and perfection ! And its professions are the most impudent^excltisive, and vain. ^ If any one object, that this is discouraging to those that would reform^ I reply ; no such thing ! Would they reform trdly, or to salvation, who wish to do it by stealth ! who desire to be smuggled noiselessly into the kingdoin, that prefers to "^siiffer violence" and be "taken by force!" who act like the disingenuous and indolent scholar, that asks every one to inform him about his lesson, and then gays — I knew it before ! A man who is unwilling to 207 " come out ftom among them' arid be separate," may be unwilling to go to heaven in the only pos- sible way ; and as for a reform which the plain and practical truth, that illustrates its proper nature and objects, must not be permitted to influence, it is a kind oi truthless reformation, of which the ungodly world is continually furnishing the apt and the miserable exariiples. I. In doctrine, it is at once the policy and th'e character of the system, to be often vague and ne- gative, in substance if not in form; more opposing the things of bthers'. faith, than magnifying aggres- sively, the positives of its own. II. The caAdiival error or central heresy of the system, is identified with a prodigiously important nonentity, which they call by different names; as "inward light, the principle, the seed," &c. This is said to be acertaih divine influence,, apart from the substance and the faculties of the mind, resident in every hum,ian being, in all ages and nations of mankind, as "universal as the'seed of sin." ■ HI. The great business of every one in religion is to mind that inward mentor, and walk in all things according to. its demonstrations. IV. By due attention uniformly given to this rule, salvajiofl is attained infallibly and in |;he best man- ner, " And indeed this is the surest way to become a christian." V. This rule in religion is plenary and para.- mount ; the most noble and the most excellent : far surpassing every other rule conceivable. .VI. As, Bi consequence, the scriptures are onjy 208 " a sefcondaiy rale," and ought to be so " esteemed." For they sustain to this nobler one, the relation of the streams to the fountain ; the effects to the cause ; the production to the producer; the offspring to the parent ; the moon to the sun : and so, however good in themselves, inferior quite to the other. VIL- The scriptures are hot " the word of God," although they contain his words ;' nor ought they ever to be so called or entitled.^' VIII. Immediate inspiration has not ceased in the church ; but exists in all true ministers as really as it did in the apostles : so that "where that doth not teach, words without do make a noise to no purpose." IX. The same influence specifically is indispen- sable to the existence of a christian, _ and " abso- lutely necessary to the buildiiig up of true faith ;" so that not to possess it, is to be only a vile and hypocritical pretender to^ the name; and hence " how many christians., yea, and of these great masters and doctors of Christianity, so accounted, shall we justly divest of that noble title !" says' the same luminary — Barclay. X. There is no true knowledge in religion, or none worth having, but that which depends on " inward ohjectiiie maiiifestations in the heart " or "immediate revelation :" and such "testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed." XI. All such revelations of the " universal and saving light," must be consonant indeed with the scriptures, since both have a common and compe- 209 tent origin; they " neithpr do nor can ever contra- dict the outward testimony of the scriptures, or right and sound reason." XII. StilJ, these modern revelations are in no wise to be tried by the scriptures ; they " are to be subjected to the examination, neither of the out- ward ^* testimony of the scriptures, nor of the natu- ral reason of man." XIII. Man is such a degenerate creature that in his natural state he " can know nothing aright; yea, his thoughts arid conceptions concerning God and things spiritual, until he be disjoined from this evil seed, and united to the divine light, are unpro- fitable both to himself and others." XIV. " God, out of his infinite love, hath so loved the world, that he hath given bis only Son a light, that whosoever helieveth in him should be saved; and this light enlighteneth the hearts of all in a day, in order to salvation, if not resisted : nor is it less universal than the seed of sin, being the purchase of his death, who tasted death for every man." XV. By this doctrine the difficulties of religion " are easily solved," and the catholic view of the means of grace entirely superseded ; since the heathen every where can be saved in Christ, " if they suffer his seec^pand light to take place (in which light, communion with the Father and Son is en- joyed) so as of wicked men to become holy :" so that it is an error to aver " the absolute necessity of the outward knowledge " of the death of Christ, " in order to the obtaining its saving effect ; among 27 210 whom the Remonstrants of Holland have beea chiefly wanting, and many other assertors of Uni' versal Redemption, in that they have not placed the extent of this salvation in that divine and evangeli- cal principle of light and life, wherewith Christ hath enlightened every man that comes into the world, which is excellently and evidently held forth in these scriptures, Gen. 6 : 3. Dent. SO : 14. John, 1 : 7, 8, 9. Rom. 10 : 8. Tit. 2 : 11." XVI. Those who " resist not this light — are justified in the sight of God ;" since " in them is produced an holy, pure, and spiritual birth ;" so that "justification — is all one with sanctification." XVII. Those in whom " this-^birth is fully brought forth," become presently " perfect;" in a somewhat quaUfied sense, that "admits of a grovvth ;" connected with the possibility of sinning, where the mind doth not most diligently and watch- fully attend unto the LordJ' XVIII. There is no such thing ordinarily as tjie conservation of saints, or their infallible perseve^ ranee to glory ; many saints on the contrary apos- tatize utterly : yet there may be attained, by some rare ones, a condition of maturity, " from which there cannot be a total apostacy." XIX. The inward light in the instar omnium of the ministry ; by which all its acts are to be plenarily guided ; by it alone can there be a true call of God to the work, or a valid ordination ; with it, the au- thority is full, " without human commission or lite- rature -y^ in its exercises and services, no salary i» to be given or received ;, though possibly, in case 211 of want, what is " needful for meat and clothing" may be received by preachers, if they feel " liberty given them in the Lord ;" about which, however, the inward counsellor is in every case specifically to be consulted, XX. Women have as good a right to preach as men, and are as legitimately and as often called to the work of the ministry. XXI. " All true and acceptable worship to God, is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit," without all restriction " to places, times, or persons." Other worship, the whole of it, is resolvable into " superstitions, will- worship, and abominable idolatry in the sight of God ; which are to be denied, rejected, and sepa- rated from, in this day of his spiritual arising ;" whatever favors from God or man it might have anciently received.'* XXII. "Baptism. is a pure and spiritual thing, to wit, the baptism of the Spirit and fire ;" attended with no outward observance : and " the baptism of infants, is a mere human traditipn." XXIII. The Lord's supper is much in the same predicament. It might have been " for the cause of the weak — even used in the church for a time," with other obsolete and unprofitable ceremonies ; " all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former ; yet seeing they are but the shadows of better things, they cease in such as have obtained the substance." XXIV. The magistrate has no right to inter- meddle with the affairs of the church or the laws of 212 conscience ; but ought to do his duty impartially in his own secular sphere. XXV. All outward and ordinaiy signs of reve- rence and respect ; " such as the taking oflf the hat to a man, the bowings and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that kind ;" and all vain and unprofitable sports ; all heathen number- ing of months, days, and so forth, contrary to nu- merical simplicity ; all plural speech to one person ; all gay and beauteous clothing ; all war and resis- tance of evil ; all swearing, before magistrates and elsewhere ; all slavery ; and all proud conformity to " the world's people," in words, manners, or equi- page : all these are absolutely unlawful and wrong. XXVI. God hath no absolute purpose of salva- tion to any individuals; and it is all a matter of chance who gets or stays converted to the truth ; as all have equal opportunity in the light, and the will is left in every sense free and fortuitous. XXVII. Respecting the '"eternal damnation " of the wicked ; the reality of hell torments ; the cer- tainty and evidence of a state future and immortal ; the resurrection of the body ; the millennium ; the end of the world; and the day of judgment: there is a remarkable vacancy in all their enunciations. Barclay almost wholly omits even the incidental treatment of these topics ; and is very unsatisfactory, loose, and cursory, in what he says. Some of the most important of them, I believe, he never men- tions. In an index or " table of chief things," of sixteen pages, suffixed to his volume, there is no such "chief thing" as punishment, wicked, depra- 213 vity, resurrection, perdition, hell, damnation, im- mortality, eternity, futurity, regeneration, repen- tance, humility, hope, despair, assurance, fanaticism, bigotry, martyrdom, incarnation, trinity, atone- ment, expiation, propitiation, sacrifice, justice, sa- tisfaction, penalty, unpardonable, pardon, confes- sion, supplication, intercession, mediation, mediator, means of grace, mercy, righteousness, orthodoxy, heterodoxy, wisdom : while such " chief things " are there as, woman, William Barclay, voices, ves- pers, turks, titles, tithes, theseus' boat, taulerus, talk, tables, silence, shoe-maker, servetus, seed, sect, sax- ony, rustic, recreations, ranters, quakers, plays, physics, oil, number, liturgy, letter, laic, hai eben yokdan, freely, exorcism, ear, dancing, clothes, cler- gy, calvinists, bow, appearances, anicetus ! Their views of sin, law, justice, atonement, mercy, ac- countability, repentance, perdition, genuine affec- tions in religion as contra-distinguished and discri- minated, from spurious, and the truth so clearly re- vealed in the word of God that a man (no matter who) will be lost for ever in point of fact, who dies without obeying the gospel ; their views of these vital subjects of "truth and soberness " are, I fear, exceedingly superficial and worthless, vague and erroneous : — while, for the honor of their omniscient light, they have to act as if they knew all things about all things ! XXVIII. On the subject of the christian Sabbath, or as the beloved apostle calls it, The Lord's day. Rev. 1 : 10. Friends have discovered that there is no such thing under the gospel ; that all that was 214 judaical and evanescent, as the vapors at the rise of light ; that to observe the first day of the week is probably convenient and of christian expediency: but that the "fourth command,^'' either virtually or literally, has any " moral obligation," they are " not so superstitious as to believe ;" nor do they " super- stitiously strain the scripture for another reason" besides that of expediency, as they " have meetings also for worship at other times." This is a very evil feature, I think, of their ortho- dox system. Those who know Friends, in this coun- try at least, may judge of the principle hy its fruits. Let all observe their practices. They regard the day of rest as abrogated, and judaical ; and typical mere- ly, and so temporary: although its obligation is fixed in the decalogue, where no other com- mandment OF THE TEN is' abrogated ; and though it is there declared to be no judaizing day, but con- tinued from the creation of the world, and at that time two thousand five hundred years old when the Jewish dispensation commenced ; and though no statute of abolition can be found in the New Testament, but simply an indication, sufficient and conclusive, of its change from the seventh to the first of the week, in commemoration of the new crea- tion FINISHED and all "very good" and infinitely more glorious than the former ! and though Jesus Christ declares to us that " the Sabbath was made for man ;" mark, he says not for the Jews — centuries before they existed, but — for man ! and though all the moral reasons now exist, for something stronger than expediency to bind the conscience of man to 215 the service and worship of his Creator, which ever did exist ! and though God hath put his seal on its observance most notably in all ages of the christian era, and his brand oi jvdgments marked and terrible on the violators of its sanctity ! and though to take away the time when God is to be worshipped, is to take away his worship from the earth ! and though the scath of ruin, menacingly rests on those places of profligacy and infidelity, in nominal Christendom, where the Sabbath is profaned ; so as to demon- strate palpably the fact that O?" WITHOUT THE SABBATH, IS WITHOUT CHRISTIANI- TY.^' But I have sketched an outline which exhibits Quakerism much as it is, in its best features ; for all the symbols which they show, are the master- pieces of the society, of which the vast majority knov*^ only enough for implicit confidence, jn what their inspired leaders have, with care, concert, and some perplexity, prepared ; as their "yearly epis- tles," and other pubHc documents ; which are gene- rally, in my judgment, both more correct, and less exceptionable every way, than their primitive and standard writings ; and much better than one in twenty of their members, either knows, thinks, or feels. You, who know what Christianity is, can judge whether Quakerism is at all consistent with it ; whether it ought to be doctrinally tolerated and practically approved ; whether I err in having some special zeal for its extirpation, as a moral nuisance in the community; and to how great an extent I may have mistaken my duty in matter or manner, 216 while inveighing against a specious counterfeit which is not only not Christianity, but seductive and false to the hopes of the soul ! and which (by Its ostentatious pageantry of plainness and some quali- ties of sensible comfort and economy Involved In it — which are prodigiously over-valued ordinarily and the appeal of which is to the sympathies and the senses and the temporal convenience mainly after all) obtrudes Itself plausibly on the feelings of the "unlearned" and the "unstable;" who like Quakerism remarkably ; even while they dislike " the holy scriptures," and Impiously "wrest them to their own destruction." It Is no slander of the so- ciety, but a plain and proveable verity which I can myself most solemnly attest, that of all sects of serious professors In Christendom, they have a soli- tary preference, or rather pre-eminence, in the esti- mate of Infidels ! It was the dying declaration of the author of the Age of Reason — very like the age of foxian light — that he decisively preferred them and wished to be burled in their cemetery ! the dis- tinguished praise of the sage of Lanark and his fe- male coadjutors, has not been more equivocal or less cordial, In their late memorable missionary Illuminations toward " the natives " of the United States ! And sceptics of all sorts, socinian and others, give them a, preference, which a christian would abhor! See (t?" John, 7 : 7. 15 : 16-21, es- pecially 19. "The seed of the serpent" Is never pleased or pacific toward " the seed of the woman" — that Is toward Christ and christians ; James, 4 ; 4, though sometimes robed in celestial attire, Its smooth- 217 ness, and softness, and passivity of tenderness, and love to every thing, commend its pretension to the confidence of thousands. " For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possi- ble, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. 24 : 24. Before I conclude this prolonged introduction, I would offer some remarks on two topics in connexion with the synopsis ; which, quoting from Barclay alone, I have enjlieavored so to display as hopefully to stand prx)of against even the suspicion of inten- tional wi'ong. The first is the subject of the trinity. It is my own persuasion that the received orthodox state- ment of our common creeds, (those of the church of England, the Methodist Episcopal, the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Moravian, and all other protes- tants even generically of the stamp of the Reforma- tion,) is not that of Friends. On the contrary, I believe them all, and especially the ' orthodox,' to be at best, sabellians, or most equivocal mystics, on that grand article. They deny the distinction OF PERSONS IN THE GoDHEAD ; THE HYPOSTATICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DIVINE NATURE ! and yet they say so many things that are true, and so many that are imposing, that the absence of sagacity will always favor their ' orthodox ' pretension, more than its presence. Penn is their great cham- pion on this article, which their greater champion, Barclay, plainly evades : on whose lucubrations re- specting it, and those of the modern ' orthodox,' J also would " show mine opinion." 28 218 1. Penn utterly mis-states what he vilifies ; using: person as we and all protestants use it not, as it is used on common subjects, implying a distinct ex- istence. Hence he resolves our doctrine into tri- theism ; and entertains his readers with playing off a reductio ad ahsurdum, with scintillating fire- works and other " sparks " that his light " has kindled," against the absurdities that he makes him- self j insolently and unfairly sporting about " three eternal entities " or " three eternal nothings," and so forth. He does it all too, on the assumption that our doctrine is essentially ruinous to the unity of the divine nature, as if we believed in three Gods ; and as if he, and the lights that see with hita, were the only sound defenders of the faith that " there is but one only, the living and true God." He im- plies that " separate and distinct " personalties, i» our creed ; as if what is. " distinct " in some re*- spects, must necessarily be " sejparate" in all or ia the same respects : and so, when he has got, by that Jesuitical sophism or rather "sly" involution, the persons of the Godhead " separated," his induc- tive absurdities become considerable. 2. It is impossible for enlightened believers of the truth to acknowledge the corrupters of this re- vealed doctrine : and all the sect are in this con- demnation. Of one party, no one will doubt that this is truth. And who are the ' orthodox V Those who uphold William Penn as an inspired and illus- trious teacher in religion^, and a most worthy minis- ter of Jesus Christ ! who endorse his Socinian or Sabcllian errors, and canonize his revilings against 219 the truth ! who vindicate equally hira, and Barclay, aud Fox, as inspired teachers sent from God ! and who place their writings on a par with " the oracles of God ;" declaring them, and more constantly honoring them in conduct, as of even " greater " authority. 3. Their confession on this article is very am- biguous and insufficient. At best it seems to me rather an obscuration than an elucidation of what they believe — if ^ indeed they do formally and fully believe any thing. To tell us that they believe in " the sacred Three," or " the Three that bear re- cord in heaven," is not enough; nor yet, in the words of Penn, that they " never have disowned a Father, Word, and Spirit, which are One, but men's inventions ;" nor yet that they believe them " ac- cording to the scriptur'es :" which last is a mere circle. It is like saying, ", I believe in all truth ; my creed is orthodoxy ; I believe exactly right ; or, I believe the whole Bible !" It is plainly no symbol of faith, and no symbol at all, where one will not state, in plain and definite language, the premises, and what he does totidem verbis believe. In such case a man may refer to cited passages, for illus- tration or for proof; but never properly for state- ment ! This, honesty requires him to give in the language and style of definition, using the perspi- cuous language of his mother tongue and the words of his own conceptions on the topic. It is plain that to quote scripture, is not the way of showing what I believe or- the sense of scripture as I entertain it. The truth is given to the church, for confession 220 and diffusion ; and through the church, to all man- kind "for the obedience of faith:" and hence the policy of a private creed, or the privilege of holding one thing and prea,ching or professing another, is abomination, is odious sin ! It is just the way which apostles did not; 2 Cor. 2 : 17 ; 4 : 1-3. 1 Thess. 2 : 3-20 ; and the very way which any moderns do sinningly alone. Paul merely uses the language of his slanderers, in 2 Cor. 12 : 16, that he may in- dignantly refute it, as he does ! it is shocking to observe some authors (though Friends I now mean less) mistake it utterly ; and abuse it too, as the sanction of an odious system of priest-craft and dishonesty ! 4. Friends are hence " tender " of adopting the common language of trinitarians ; disapproving it and substituting the words of scripture, in a way faulty and deceptive ! " They have carefully avoided entangling themselves by the use of unscriptural terms, invented to define Him who is undefinable, scrupulously adhering to Ihe safe and simple lan- guage of the holy scriptures, as contained in Matt. 28 : 18, 19, and 1 John, 5 : 7." Evans' Exposition, p. 39. I object to this (1) that the " terms " were not so " invented." It was not to define Him; but the doctrine which we believe to be revealed of him, that the terms are used : and when used, they were not invented, but only applied. (2) Friends would become " entangled," it seems, by using them. Wbyl Other professors are disentangled and re- lieved by their use. Do they believe something very different frpm the common faith, after all, ' ortho- 221 dox ' as they are 1 (3) But they say the terms are " unscriptural." Which one 1 that of trinity P^ but this means only thre^ness or the quaUty of being three in some sense! Do they beUeve then that " the Father, and the SOn, and the Holy Ghost," are three in no sense, because they are confessedly one in a more obvious sense 1 and yet do they be- lieve in the sacred Three 1 Three — what 1 Is there no noun in the language, with which a grammatical conscience, that peculiarly respects the affection of number, can parse it possibly'! We say, three per- sons or personalities ; and if you ask us what we mean by such " unscriptural " words : we reply, first, what do you mean, by a plural adjective that agrees with no noun4 what do Friends mean, or do they mean nothing, by the word " three 1" Here I think, if the glory of the mercy-seat did not awe us to reserve, so near the ineffable shechinah that abides there, we might well adopt the facetiousness of Penn, and say that Friends believe in three " nothings ;" or, believe nothing in the " three !" It is just, to press them here : for the difficulty on their part is real, it is demonstrated, and it is evaded. Sometimes they even claim to believe the trinity, in an unqualified (averment. Says Barclay of an opponent, (Brown,) " he will needs infer our de- nying of the trinity, albeit he cannot deny but he finds it owned by me." Strangely " owned " in- deed ! If Jesus Christ should " own " him, in the day of judgment, as ambiguously, it will be at least questionable which side of the Judge is the " right " one! Shortly afterward, he would "know of" 222 Brown, " in what scripture he finds these words, that the Spirit is a distinct person of the Trinity ?" He so " owns " the trinity then, as to deny the per- sonality of the three that constitute it ! or does^ he deny this only of the third, and not of the second, or the first 1 What evidence has he that the Father is a person ; and not a principle, the mere primum mobile or 'eternal cause,' of Plato 1 or impulsive light of Fox ] Will Friends then (and Barclay is their confession of faith) divest each of the three of per- sonality'? and so have an impersonal God \ a divinity without a person ] a God who is — the mere effigies of mechanical atheism ! And is this their vaunted and precious ' orthodoxy V If otherwise, where will they attach personality 1 Tb the Father? what! and deny it to the Son? To the Son^ — and have two Gods, according to Penn 1 To the Father and the Son, and not to the Spirit \ or, to all three— and have three Gods, according to the same in- spired authority 1 or, to some one or two of the three, exclusively I Pray, what evidence have we of the personality of any one of them, which does not also demonstrate the personality of each of them'? Is th.e Father not a person \ Or, when Friends pro- fess to believe in the Spirit, do they mean to deny his personality'? and yet say that he "is God'?" what! is God impersonal again'? or, is it less than atheism to resolve the divinity into an impersonal existence ; the mere principium et fons of neces- sitated being ! The God of Friends, I experimen- tally know, is little other than an impersonal influ- ence or principle.^ In short, nothing is plainer than 223 that the revised modern ' Exposition,' of what " Friends beheve " on this high article, needs far- ther expounding, and is necessarily liable to all the difficulties which Penn infers against the true and full trinitarian symbols. It is even in a much worse predicament than that into which he reduces the true doctrine sophistically ; since it simulates away the advantages of the doctrine, which are adamantine, and which, while sinking in its own muddy waters, Quakerism still assumes or affects ! Yet really, it has no advantages. It makes more difficulties than it finds, and teaches all its friends to make them continuously. It defines nothing, and it settles nothing. Besides, it leaves them to be- lieve — what 1 • I answer, vagueness, words, smoke, a mere code of negatives, and a great parade of 'inspired^ orthodoxy! My great reason, however, for saying what this context contains, is two-fold — to show them that, if they are sound in what they profess, the very same difficulties (greatly increased) rest oppressively upon them, which the Unitarian Penn, and all other revilers of the truth, allege against our doctrine : and to show also that there is no so- lution possible to language or to thought, which so elucidates scripture, establishes faith, and breaks an adversary— «?c6cZ/are superbos^^ — as that doctrine, which the wise and the good of universal Christen- dom, that have been at all distinguished for these qualities, have eminently believed ! Second. I would tell Friends that it is puerile and silly to object to any word, merely because it is " unscripturaL" Where is the expression "inward light" found, in 224 those scriptures t Were it well in me to object to »■«, merely on that ground 1 or to silent meetings, conmncement, outward testimony, plain language, and a number of others used by the society \ What man, that objects not to the thing affirmed in John, 1 : 14, would ever object to the term, 'un scriptural' as it is, of incarnation ?. Besides, this silly softness ought much more to object to the translation of the inspired scriptures at all : since every word, it may be, of the new language is ' unscriptural,' Our word God is unscriptural, primitively heathen and druidi- cal ; for no such word occurs in the scriptures, be- fore they were translated " by the will of man !" I say again, the softness, so " tender," of which I speak, is infinitely ^illy. It would disgrace a school- boy ! I add — those who have studied the circum- ference, and the radii, and the centre of the wheel of universal heresy, as successive errorists are deve- loped or as history tiirns it to the view, (and nothing actually new comes up in its modern demonstra- tions,) know that where the thing on any subject is soundly believed, the term that suits it is seldom an offence or a difficulty. And I can " see clearly," as well Sisjiel powerfully, that Friends may have some deeper reason than the allegation of " unscriptural," when they reject the terms trinity, person, and others of the sort, in their confession of what they believe. It sounds rather queer to me that Friends should all at once grow more enamored and reverential of that book, which is not " the word of God," than all its noblest unsuspected friends ! Just here they 225 must have — nothing but scripture language t Just here " inward light " becomes very scriptural ; and what is scriptural becomes " a more noble and ex- cellent rule," if not " all their salvation, and all their desire !" Third. We use the term person, (because, among other reasons, it suits the case better than any other : we use it in a sense special and appro- priate — to suit exactly that discrimination of the Godhead, as " the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost," which the disclosures and the usages of scriptural revelation abundantly warrant and re- quire ! As previously shown, we neither understand nor believe any thing about the essential mode of the divine existence, the mode of the trinal deity; or how it is that " the Word was in the beginning with God !" We only believe the fact. This is revealed, definable, intelligible ; " the great mystery of godliness," incontrovertibly ! The distinction is indispensable in all correct language and thought, touching the economical relations of the divine per- sons. The Father sent the Son ; the Son came into the world ; the Spirit applies and. seals redemp- tion in our hearts. Did the Father die for us 1 did the Son accept the atonement 1 did the Spirit pro- nounce our absolution for his sake % Is it not in certain aspects proper to one to perform what it is not proper^ to the others to perform 1 Must we then distinguish or confound 1 And can we be cori-ect while denuding the Godhead of all personality t or restricting it to any one, and denying it of course to two others of " the sacred three !" We use these ' unscriptural ' terms, for reasons so valid and so 29 226 worthy, that we see no reason to intermit their use ; but more and more to I'etain it. They are fun- datnental in their archetypes ; and indispensable in the symbols of " a good confession." But fourth, I deny that they are ' unscriptural.' Most evidently the thing is there, which they signify. If it is, then a proper and apposite term, a term expressive and philosophically legitimate, as person is, to represent the thing, is every way correct and not rightly termed ' unscriptural.' This is inore important to be seen, on an article of faith that is primary even among fundamentals; and which, like an everlast- ing rock of central ocean, the Purges of heresy dash against, only to break themselves. " When he, the Spirit of truth, is come," &c. says Christ. John 16 : 7, 13, 14. In the same connection, he often calls him Comforter (rm^xkYflog) or Paraclete ; the same word which is applied personally to the Sa- vior himself, in 1 John, 2:1. In the passage above, he is masculine in the original, although it refers to " the Spirit of truth," in immediate apposition ; and the word spirit in the Greek is neuter : as used, on purpose to indicate personality. Thus the masculine pronoun exsivog and the masculine ov, are used fami- liarly in the same connection. See 14 : 26. 15 : 26. 16 : 8, 13, 14, to which I refer for specimens of the style that pervades thfe Bible : a style that will bear inspection, experience, usage. What diluting folly would it be, as Dr. Dwight and others have success- fully shown, to render the phraseology of scripture on this s^ subject impersonally, almost any where! But the very term person is used.' See ,2 Cor. 227 2 : 10 — " in the person of Christ ;" says the blessed Paul. The same word or phrase exactly, in 4 : 6, is repeated ; and might be well rendered, " the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1 : 9 is another instance ; " who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pre- sence (Greek-^— person) of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." I will quote only one other example ; Heb. 1:3. " who, being the brightness of his glory and 'the express image of his person :" whose 1 The person of the Father ! yes, and as dis- tinguished, by necessary implication, from the person of the Son : and both as persons in the Godhead ! But, I forbear. In adverting to these specimens of what is scriptural, it is not my plan to write a disser- tation on the trinity. I must remark, however, once more, jfifth, That Friends are in a dilemma which their light has made, and from which to be extri- cated is possible only in one way— and that is, can- didly, as individuals or as a society, to renounce the great meteor of their delusion ! They are at best in the common predicament of men. In truth, i. e. apart from a wonted simulation of being inspired, THEY KNOW NOTHING in theology that the Bible has not directly or indirectly taught them; and why will they not honestly acknowledge so certain a truth ] If they would only acquire a release or manumission from the spell of ignorance, and fatuity, and keal DISHONESTY ; and willingly own their indebtedness to " the oracles of God ;" they might then be helped, by " the Bridegroom " and " the Bride," to make a proficiency in heavenly wisdom, from which now 228 their sincere sorcery necessarily precludes them! God will be no party to a cause "that loveth or maketh a lie " — as Quakerism is ! I have little or no hope of their valid jimprovement until their foundations of falsehood are exploded ; and so con- vinced is my whole soul of this, that I avovp it as Steadfastly : whatever some judicious ones, who have comparatively never attended to the subject, may think or pronounce in the opposite; " They that forsake the law, praise the wicked : but such as keep the law,^ contend with them." Prov. 28 : 4, 5, 9, 13, 18, 23. I reject therefore the idea that Friends, at their " best estate," are ' orthodox ' or unequivocal, on the revealed doctrine of the Godhead. It is my own conviction that the power of the Quaker system is much more Attmaw than divine ; excessively more of the man than the Master ; more fixed in dogmatizing, incomparably, than in de- monstration : that, apart from influence sectarian and clanish, there is precious little of pure chris- tian influence among them. Their leaders know not, learn not, study not, teach not, the pure expounded spnse of '^ the oracles of God ;" and hence their Christianity is mainly as equivocal and false, as their vaunted inspiration is a ridi- culous conceit, a most impudent lie, a fundamen- tal delusion and cheat of the destroyer! The whole system is a mystical and false invention of men ; founded in falsehood of the most insidious kind, which pervades and characterizes the whole concern of principles and persons — so far as they 229 are purely and exclusively under its influence. Who can honestly or consistently deny this 1 I answer — only those who are willing to endorse their preten- sions to immediate inspiration ! I do not say that no better influence comes on some of them in spite of their system. " The sun of righteousness " may shine through a mist, and vivify even the mental surface that his beams affect : and is the mist to be praised for that 1 One ill feature of their system is that implicated in the forementioned topics — the virtual impersona- lity of their God. They, all of them, refuse to allow personality to the names of the Godhead. They say, the Spirit is God — but deny his personality : and they just as much deny it, distinctively, and wholly, to the Father and to the Son; resolving this into their "tender" respect for the " secondary rule " — almost as if that were a person ! Now what I fur- thermore allege is that in effect they deny it to the Godhead, I allege this as a fact, rather than an ar- gument ; and write it as a witness rather than a disputer. Their theology is debilitated, and ren- dered effete and powerless, by their totality within ; by an impersonal divinity of uncertain attributes, confused definition, and most mystified sanctity. Their God is — a principle, seed, light, and so forth, inserted in the Soul ; " a measure of that power, virtue, spirit, life, and grace, that was in Christ Jesus : thus the seed of the kingdom, as a redeem- ing principle, is placed in the heart of every indi- vidual, ready to expand with the opening faculties of the soul, and to take the government of it. 230 from the first dawn of intellectual life : the gift of grace, as an operative power in the hearts of men, was universally dispensed to the whole hu- man race : by whose inward operations in our hearts, we are sanctified and prepared for an inheritance eternal in the heavens :" so that the greatest con- demnation " would be to resist that holy seed, which, as minded, would lead and incline every one to be- lieve it as it is offered unto them ; though it revealeth not in every one the outward and explicit knowledge of it, nevertheless it always assenteth to it where it is declared." It "^' ought to be distinguished from every other influence which actuates the human mind. We therefore profess and firmly believe, that the light of Christ, in the heart, is an unerring guide, and iheprimary rule of faith and practice — that it is the tt/°" only medium .=£0 through which we can truly and livingly attain to the tt?" knovv- ledge of God, and the mysteries of his heavenly kingdom. That the influences of the Holy Spirit must be sensibly experienced, in order to be avail- ing to us, is evident, in the very nature of things. To experience this essential qualification, it is our duty to retire inwardly to the measure of divine grace. We believe that the soJemn duty of vocal prayer requires a special impulse. =£0 Whenever the gospel is really preached, it is preached bap- tizingly ..£5 ft?" in a greater or less degree, We profess the same faith, and the guidance of the same unerring principle." I have selected the above ' orthodox ' specimens from " The testimony of the Society of Friends on the continent of America ;" 231 published in 1830 ; as one of the most improved specimens of Quakerism ; in which however, as the last sentence shows, they identify themselves with the whole foxian mass of by-^one inspiration : evincing, what is morally necessary, that any con- sistent Yrlevidimwsl go, the whole, for the system. And why do they exclude the poor Hicksites, who are certainly Quakers, and just as much inspired as was Fox himself! In that famous ' Testimony,' they call the persons of the Godhead, in the sophis- tical abuse of Penn, " separate and distinct ;" and declare that they "reject the terms" not only, but consider them 'J as conveying ideas too gross to be admitted ;" while they deny all distinct personality to each of "the three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and " believe "[that] these three are one." I have en- deavored to select the above fairly, as showing their sense of them, altering nothing, except by the hands, which I have placed near passages that I wished to be particularly observed. Let no one for- get their ' orthodox' patronage. Let the reader consider that this impersonal di- vinity within, is the great leveller and leavener of their system ; that whatever it appears, when dressed up in its best to go abroad over " the con- tinent of America," its home character, its matter of fact identity, its real influence and pious prac- tisings every day, " in meeting " and elsewhere, is interior, indefinite, delusive, fanatical, super-spirit- ual, " unerring," and inspired! In the name of the great God I proclaim — that the system is funda- 232 mentally wrong; it is not Christianity; it is an abominable delusion ; which it is the duty of all men, and very sacredly of all christians, uni- tedly to reject, deny, and reprove ; "having no fel- lowship" with the works of its "darkness," its pre- tension, and its pompous folly ! All its efforts will not do, for those who have their eyes open and are satisfied, with Christianity. It is sinking in the wa- ters of its own perturbation ; and this conspiracy of " yearly meetings," and the charity of the ill-in- formed, may only avail to elevate it above the wave for — a little longer breathing, before it sinks, by its own Weight, to rise no more— till the day of judg- ment ! The anathema of the eternal God, " the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost," rests on that system that dares to mystify his revelation, de- clare it not his word, and tell the world, as one of its 'orthodox' statements on "the continent of America," that \he universal inward light is "an unerring guide, and the primary rule of faith and practice;" italicising it themselves, and proclaiming it at the same time "the only medium" of the saving knowledge of God! And this is ortho- doxy ! — this the stuff which the church of God is re- quired charitably to succor, sanction, fellowship ! Any unprejudiced man of sense can see that it is all nothing but ' orthodox' materialism; with its sensible influences, " the operative power — placed in the heart of every individual ; ready to expand — and take the government," no doubt. Very much like the little cramped mainspring of a just-wound- up watch, tending mechanically to start all the 233 wheels, " ready to expand and take the govern- ment," and make all the subaltern machinery hum again ; if one would just " retire inwardly " and qlear the way for it, and linfix the balance- wheel of a sound mind. It is ignorant and void of spirituality: — as spiritual as impulse, and serui- hle influences ; as spiritual as clock-work, and the difference between rest and motion ; as spiritual as — machinery, stagnant or going, with its " mea- sure of that powpr, virtue, spirit, life, grace, seed, principle, light within," and so forth: but not so spiritual as-^chemistry or common sense. , Blind is the dotard who can think it the same with Chris- tianity. I have always observed that when the human mind adopts afiy false system of l-eligion, it com- mences its ingenious toilS of devout sophistry and specious lying to sustain it. Hence- he that either " loveth " or " niaketh a lie," turns to it in confor- mity, and is th^reafter sincerely and sinfully de- ceived: and the lie in turn makes him! O the danger every way, to character, to state, to des- tiny, of a false system of religion! I regard it' as beyond conception of description ciirsed of God and execrable to saints. I do not say that the ad- vocates of Quakerism Imow that they ai'e lying : but convinced I am in. the sight oif God that they might know it ! they might but for this — ^a false system of religion is the most deceitful thing in the world : for, it seems as if its helpers were helping God, doing duty, defending holiness, co-operating with Jesus Christ, and performing prodigies of be- 30 234 iieficence. In this way the m'lad feels, whatever it ihiriks, as if it was prosperously ' working its pas- sage' to heaven: hence, the greatest enemy it meets, is one that incorruptly holds the truth and manifests it. Hence the only way to inake an opposing demonstration of any. value,, is, to ' with- stand it couriageously and with aggressive onset. Half-way measures will only liourishthe hycjlra till moi-e heads are grown. And who knows not that such wisdom is not "from above," and hath its de- nunciation only in the book of God ! That sorry softness with its eyes shutj that asks quarter for error, would, at some safer opportunity, ask license for sin : for often the brood of its sympathies are marvellously like "a generation of vipers," whom true benevolence would rather warn to ^' escape the damnation of, hell." The other topic, on which I design to remark, is that of war and the passive endurance of injuries. Barclay gives the strange views t)f Friends in the foliowing formal proposition, on which he enlarges ; " That it is not lawfuj for christians to resist evil,, or to war or fight in any case." This is in brief exactly what they profess. Without discussing the volu- minous theme, I will state at least some of the results, in which my own conviction rests, in opposition to their views, which I once " verily thought " true. 1. Friends magnify the relative importance of the matter, out of symmetry and a,gainst apostolic example. They appear to me, many of them, to place their views of pacification, — ^just where Paul 235 puts " Jesus Christ and him cracified ;" 9i the centre of the system. The most important pacifi- cation in the world is that with God through the glorious atonement ! Thus, ojpteu have I conversed with a Friend about the •vyray of salvation— when, instead of any fixity of thought to the point, he would go ofi^ at a tangent and with a noise, inquir- ing, ' Does thee believe in the lawfulness of war'? or that any christian can be a soldier ]' Barclay in- deed seema to think that the things are totally incompatible; so that the man who can reconcile them, " may be. Supposed also to have found a way to reconcile God with the denil, Christ with anti- christ, light with darkness, and good with evU. But if this is impossible, as indeed it is, so will also the. other be impossible; and men do but deceive themselves and others, while they boldly adventure to establish such absurd and impossible things." This, it must be confessed, is not begging the question ! 2. They say many things here, which, however true, are not to the purpose: As that war is a great and dreadful evil ; that revenge is wrong ; and that soldiers are often wicked and revengeful. There is no need of saying what nobody disputes. The question is-^Js war, or the taking of life in certain cases, or all sorts of resistance of evil, positively unlawful I ahd that not " for christians " only, but ■for all men ; so that, if their position be true, it can be done at all by any one, only in a way of sinning against God ] This is what I understand them to affirm ; and their doctrine, in argument and fact. 236 extends to capital punishment, and the power and functions of the magistracy — nay, to the very or- ganization of society ; to its order and protection ; to the nethermost foundations of civil government. If a thief may be justly slain with the sword by the ministers of law, why not a gang of them 1 if a bandit, why not a banditti'? and if a foraging party of freebooters, why not an iniquitous or an invading nation I Friends say, ' Apprehend theni, treat them kindly, and confine them for life ; but not take life, for this is what we cannot give.' What folly ! How are we to apprehend them, when we may not use the sword, or any hostile force, or "resist evil in any case:" while ^^cy use sword, pistol, musket, and cannon \ Admirable ! " He beareth not the sword in vain ;" saith " the outward testimony of scripture !" and here this inward-light testimony expounds the way of it! It is not neces- sary to travel very far south to find nvlUjication. Their views are treason against common sense, against their own safety and fire-side enjoyments, and against the commonwealth, to say nothing, of the sanctions of Christianity ! I should think the proper means of apprehending them, would be to coax them to become Friends. By this means, it is hoped, the prophecies are all to be fulfilled, in turning *' swords into ploughshares and spears into praning hooks ;" so that the nation's, becoming (\\ji\te friendly, are to "learn war no more!" So we go, swimmingly along, down the stream of prosperity, to halcyon moorings and a certain port ! We are all to become Friends, it seems. 237 3. Friends often speak of the present dispensa- tion, as if the principles involved were not of moral and perpetual obligation, or of unalterable eternal sameness. " It is not lawful for christians." If it was ever right to take life or to wage war, it may be right again. The principles concerned are all anchored in the nature of things, which results from the nature of God, and is therefore unchangeable. If revenge is wrong (as it certainly is) in the nature of things, then it, was never right, and never will be, irrespective of dispensations. 4. They often forget that the sin of taking life consists wholly in that, which is more abundantly sin where life is not taken — in malevolence or per- sonal hatred and ill-feeling. " Whosoever hateth HIS BROTHER, is a murderer : and, ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." From which I infer (1) that there are thousands of " mur- derers " that no human law can implead, and mil- lions that 9;ppear as respectable as Friends. (2) That murder is properly distinct, and separate too, from ta,king life ; so that it exists, in the immense MAJORITY OF CASES, where life is not taken ; and consequently, may not exist where life is taken. 5. The argument is vain, which, premising that God alone is the author and arbiter of life, as he is alone its great proprietor too, declares inferentially that therefore the thesis of Friends is true : for, obviously, if God is so the owner of all life, he may take it in any way he pleases ; mediately or by the agency of others, as well as immediately by his own agency. Hence, men hold the life of all the irra- 238 tionals ia ^possession; for God hath given us the responsible usufruct or quasi*" allodiuni, in the ma^na charta of his empire : for use, not abuse, indeed ; and to the end of time. Gen. 9 : 1-7. 1 Tim. 3 : 5. show our title. On Noah, and in him on. all mankind, The charter was conferred, by which we hold The flesh of animals in fee, and claim O'er all we feed on, power of life and death. But read the instrument and mark it well : Th' oppression of a tyrannous control Can find no warrant there. Feed then, and yield Thanks for thy food. Carnivorous through sin, Feed on the slain, l)ut spare the living brute ! — Cowpek. Brutes can feel. They suffer and enjoy ; a,nd are proper objects of benevplenee, hitman and divine. " A righteous man regards th thp life of his beast ; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." Prov. 12 : 10. But dqes it necessarily infer cruelty, in the man that takes their life, under this charter I May not a man, with tender cbris^tian feelings, im- molate them for food 1 If he is cruel, is cruelty ne- cessary to the act ] and is not cruelty to brutes, of the very same quality, though the form and the de- gree may differ, with cruelty or malevoleiice in higher relations \ A feeling of cruelty in any as- pect, is like a feeling of cruelty in all other aspects ; it is homogeneous, it is bad, it is contrary to the law of God. But if merely to ta,ke life does not nep^ssarily make a murderer, or a fiend, or no christian, of a farmer, or a biJtcher,^.or a fisherman, we may here see in its lower relations the certain 239 difference bfetweeii taking life — as one thing, and malevolence — which is another. Whence, 6. God has frequently and in recorded instances authorized the former, but neper, never the other. God NEVER DID, and morally he never could, (it is not improper to say that " he cannot deny himself,") AUTHORIZE ONE MAN TO HATE ANOTHER ! He authorized Israel under Moses and Joshua, and subsequently under many other leaders, to exter- minate the wicked Cartaaaites and others : but did he authorize mafevolence to their persons'! or ne- cessitate it, by the order or the service I not at all. Take a case ; 1 Sam. 15 : 3, 22, 23, 32, 33, " Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the. king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.".-£J) Would not Barclay have denounced him, had he been there 1 would he not have rebuked, among "absurd and impossible things," an attempt tO show the utter consistency of the act of the prophet, with " the mind of Christ 1" or, because it occurred under a former dispensation, are we to neglect the ever- lasting principles on which it is founded? or, be- cause Saul spared Agag, are we to panegyrize his " tender jnercies," to the dishonor of the holy man of God, who, with his own hand, sacrificed him " before the Lord in Gilgal f ' « Did Samuel hate Agag, or was the act on his part malevolent \ Wq 240 " might almbst as wisely ask, was God Malevolent in issuing the order which Samuel simply executed 1 or, was it not "murder" in Samuel to obey the authority of Jehovah l or, was not Saul the better man of the two, at least the calmer in the case, and the more like— a Friend t Ho\y^ many frothy de- cl^imers might have appealed to the million; the majority, very plausibly against him ; and settled by acclamation the point " that it is not lawful for christians to resist evil, or to war or fight in any case !" Just as now, the superficial multitude'^ be- lieve according to their selfishriess, their education, or their caprifce ; and even the plurality^ of "the great vulgar " yield to the same control, undis- ciplined by evidence ! Hence ^ 7. It comes to pass observably that many oppo- sers of the plainly revealed doctrine of eternal punishment, (as universalists, unitarians, infidels, pseudo-philanthropists of every description,) grow very .specially tender in their clemency on the topics of capital punishment, war, the importance of the "peace' society," and the superlative excellence of the ethics or creed of passive endurance! I do not say that the "peace society" may not be in the main a good and valuable thing ; or that some very sound aftd worthy aUies are not to be found with it; or that it will not become (as I sincerely pray that it may) increasingly useful, wise, and power- ful, in the pacification of society. I only Say that there is an affinity or element congenial, between punishment in time and punishment in eternity ; punishment of law, human arid divine ; punishment 241 by the magistracy, of this world and that which is to come : and that, as the principles are much the same in both cases, it is as easy, and almost as perilous, to reason wrong on either as the other. Hence some and even many maddened apostates or virulent infidels, who are not altogether dispas- sionate or disinterested inquirers, are found to oppose those wholesome principles of society, with- out which its civil or domestic existence would become impossible — as sure and full experience shows. They endeavor to prove the wickedness of the executive act ^ of the judiciary that sanctions it ; of the legislation that ordains it ! as if wickedness were necessary to it ; as if Washington did not sign the death-warrant of Andre with emotion and with tears ; as if benevolence itself would not sac- rifice a man who makes himself a nuisance against the life of others ; as if Quakerism ought not to be put down, if it is false ; as if justice were hostile to mercy; as if one ought, to have mercy less on the commonwealth, than on him who would burn it to ashes for the sake of pilfering among the ruins, the relics of its treasure ; as if there was but one way of cheapening human life ; as if God could not punish, without spite ; as if his punitiVe justice were any other than a modification of his infinite benevolence ; as if benevolence itself were not the inspiration of his way, when he "punishes the wicked with everlasting destruction, from the pre- sence of the Lord and from the glory of his power !" By such reasoners, it is often alleged that capital punishment is useless, since it does not prevent 31 242 crime notoriously. I reply (1) This might prove possibly its inexpediency, but never its unlawfulness, (2) It is absurd to say it prevents none, because all is not prevented. And it is manifestly false. The fear of capital punishment prevents millions of murders — that would otherwise be perpetrated ! It prevents, and controls, and intimidates, to a degree incalculably great. What but moral restraint ordi- narily coerces the mutual hatred of men 1 and what moral restraint exists, beside the sword of armed authority, sufficiently gross and palpable to check their fury who fear no retribution from the throne of Godl (3) All their reasoning is sufficiently i-efuted from the ordinance of God, establishing capital punishment, by his own authority in this world, and by more than this— his own awful agency in the next. 8. The right to take life, and consequently to redress wrongs equitably in any other way, has been solemnly and fully delegated in the word of God to the magistracy of this world ; whiclf is hence his own ordinance, obligatory alike on the actions and the consciences of his creatures uni- versally. This could be proved from innumerable places of the New Testament ; from the crucifixion- scene of three sufferers, and the history of the abuses of power attending it ; and from one or two select- ed passages soon to be considered. It is even im- plied in the " fourteenth thesis " of Barclay ; where, in reference to the power of the magistrate, though he says nothing of divine authority with him, he avers that "the law is for the transgressor, and 243 justice to be administered upon all, without respect of persons." And bow could this be, if armed au- thority in the state, with the power of life and death iti its possession, were morally wrong, contrary to the will of God, a system only of legalized and im- pious murder 1 Without the power of life and death, government is a nullity and law contemptible ; the foundations of society are everted, and the hopes of the sublunary universe expire ! Yet, what Friend could wear a sword or wield one 1 He who thinks all war and resistance of evil, necessarily a diabo- lical crime, and "unlawful for christians'!" or, he who thinks war in some cases just'J But such an one is no Friiend. He has lost cast, and gone away from the luminary within. I refer here mainly to Rom. 13 : 1-7, or the whole chapter; where we are plainly taught the following things : (1) That civil government, as such, is a divine in- stitution ; " the authorities that be are ordained of God," as a regency of his own. (2) That their power includes the prerogative of life and death, according to equity. (3) That they are hence au- thorized to make war, on certain occasions and responsibly to the Supreme Commander, against malefactors of all sorts ; one of them, and any one, and millions of them, other things being equal. (4) That they are charged^ with the repose and order of society, against all insurgents that would disturb it ; for the magistrate " is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, bie afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 244 execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Hence (5) That it is the duty inalienably, and ought ta be a part of the religion, of all men, to honor and obey the magistracy, in the due and lawful exercise of their power. " Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath," (or fear of them,) " but also ffTToR conscience' sake." (6) We see the treason against God of one of the principles of Friends — that on which they refuse incorrigibly, either to bear arms in any case, or to pay the fines very properly levied against delinquents or exempts. They plead conscience! What right have they, I ask, to keep such a conscience ? Is it conscience " resisting the ordinance of God T' And what respect deserves it from man? I an- swer, just as much as it gets from God. It is nothing better than a piecie of will- worship, ac- cording to the inspiration of a man's deluded feel- ings, ignorant or cowardly or perverse or indolent or perhaps compounded of all these, leading him religiously to have his own way at all events. Hear the word of God : " For, for this cause pay ye tri- bute ALSO : for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render there- pore to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute IS due ; custom to whom custom ; fear to whom FEAR ; honor to WHOM HONo:i." It was the mili- tary government of the CJESARS to which was the direct reference of the apostle at the time. But Friends say, we cannot pay militia fines ; nor do any thing to uphold the military power. Ah !, truly : — and why do you ever become adjuncts and 245 allies and officers of such a civic dynasty 1 or vote for the ministers of such a power ^ What are you doing at the polls, but upholding that very power 1 What moral right have ^om there 1 to vote or be vo- ted for ] And yet all of you (generally * ') exercise the right of suffrage. And you virtually appeal to the SWORD, WHENEVER you sue a man, and invoke the armed interference of the law to coerce him to his duty! Have I no right here to suggest that casuis- try is sometimes .marvellously convinced, not by evidence but by influence ; not by the Bible, but the — PURSE ! If the government charged a pecu- niary bonus or capitation tax for the privilege of voting, I presume there would be heard some new conscientious groaning against the military power — even by Friends ! But it gives them influence in a cheap way; and hence they forget the dreadful horror they sometimes feel in doing any thing to uphold a military government. Without such a government, there is not a right, nor a possession, nor an endearment, they could call their own, one single day or night! And yet — others must do the fighting or pay for the war : they only enjoy the privileges ; which blood and treasure other than their own, procured for them and still preserves. In the defence of the commonwealth, they refuse all responsibility : and just so — by proxy— do they support and diffuse Christianity in the world ! trans- late the scriptures, defend them, and so forth ! The Father of his Country, in answer to an ad- dress of the society, congratulating him in their way on.hia accession to the presidency of the Union, 246 gives a marked and just reproof of their unequal principles, "receiving benefits and rendering none," to the power of the State. His words are very; kind, dignified, and worthy of himself; commend- ing their principles in reference to order and peace, " except their declining to share with others the bur- thens of the common defence." He also very exem- plarily assures them that " it is his wish and desire that the laws may always be as extensively accom- modated to the conscientious scruples of all men, as a due regard to the protection and essential in- terests of the nation may justify and permit." Thus nobly wrote Washington in 1789. He had wit- nessed during the revolution some of their twistical proceedings ; and taken several of their luminaries into his own custody, lest their " scruples " might incline rather too far toward royalty and England. In the last war (1812) some became sudden con- verts to Quakerism ; growing quite conscientious in the time of danger against such profane expo- sures of life-r-and either joined the Society, or pleaded a kindred exemption from military respon- sibilities. In the revolution, a number of courage- ous and patriotic men of the society, took the field; who were called, on their return, " Free Quakers," being disowned by Friends. What a pity that their own good sense on some other subjects, can not be birought on this to act with equal light and love of evidence ! " Render therefore unto Caesar, the things which are Caesar's; and unto God, the things that are God's." Mat. 22 : 21. OTl Pet. 2 : 13-17. We suppose it taught also (7) That the principles of 24^7 the magistracy, as divinely sanctioned, are to be held virtually to extend to all communities less than that of the State ; as a school, a family, a ship's crew, a caravan, an army, or a company socially organized in any way. The means must be ade- quate to the ends of government. There must be order, law, authority, headship, concentration ; and equally there must be subordination, self-deniial, harmony, and obedience. There ought also to be, as always there might, mutual benevolence and wisdom. Hence ' the father or head of a family is a domestic magistrate. He is legislature, judiciary, and police. He presides over the commonwealth of home. He must be able sometimes to coerce obedience ; sometimes to repel invasion ; sometimes to protect his charge by an appeal to the ultima ratio*^ — when there is no time to wait for the n- ^m^^ of ordinary safety or the legum** of adequate redress. Nor is there any need of anger or mahce m the administration ; so that where such passions find sway, it is the man himself, and not the system or sphere of his duties, that is culpable. Malice is incidental, adventitious, corruptive r and of con- sequence infers nothing against the established equity and wisdom of the divine constitution. Hence (8) that abuses in the administration of civil or political government do not affect the prin- ciple for which we contend. Those abuses, as sttcA, the worse for what they impiously mar, may be wisely shown, justly resisted, and equitably re- dressed. In such a world as this, all history pro- claims their horrible abundiance. But on the^as- 248 sive endurance scheme, passive endurance is all ! When would this principle have achieved the liber- ties of America 1 The system of magistracy re- acts on its incumbents. It tells them to be "just, ruling in the fear of God:" or, his providence may let loose upon them a revolutionary tdrnado that shall hurl them from their seats, or conduct a regu- lar impeachment which shall instate their succes- sors. Such a lex talionis or in terror em influence, exists in this country in the civ^c majesty of the ballot-boxes. Thus society is teinpered, balanced, and founded, in obvious principles of reciprocal de- pendence and responsibility ; and the fierce pas- sions of the worst, for whom especially the crimi- nal code is enacted, 1 Tim. 1 : 8, 9, are held in check serene ; like the rumbling central fires of an unbroached volcano, with the turbulence of its im- prisoned lava surging, beneath the adamantine crust on which a city stands stately and secure ! 9. The texts which Friends quote so confidently in favor of their vieAvs, show only in their hands what an interpreter the inward lightis ! C?" Matt. 5 : 38-48. Must these orders be all literalized ; or, interpreted in their spirit according to the analogy of faith ^ In the latter way, they appear in beau- tiful symmetry and keeping ; as absolutely forbid- ding all malevolence, anger, revenge, and every modification of these diabolical passions ! But do they forbid Paul to stand on his rights as a Roman citizen, at Philippi 1 Acts, 16 : 35-39. 22 : 25-30, or to use legal measures, backed with a military cohort, for his redress! 23-28. Besides, Friends 249 require us to literalize those orders ; and yet they practically do it not themselves .' Let us see. " And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also '." Is this the way of Friends, Orthodox or Hicksites I Witness their mutual litigations for " the uttermost farthing " in dispute between them ! Witness tlieir prac- tice when one of " the world's people " would wrong them out of their own, or "take away their coat !" The- style of the passage is plainly proverbial and figurative ; and it is for those only to be privileged to literalize its meaning, whose practice discredits the interpretation they maintain, and whose ordinary spiritualizing of passages plainly literal has become itself a proverb ! But " How can thee love a man and yet strike or slay him with thy hand f'** Answer— As well as Samuel could "hew Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal!" How can Friends think it not murder, to carry passive endurance to its extravagance in any case " outwardly," while probably real malice lives and practises withivt theml Matt. 23: 24-28. «^ Mark, 7 : 14-23. There must be a deeper and more thorough cleansing of their characters than the hue of Quakerism can impart, in order to their knowing or showing true wisdom ! Their reli- gion, just here, is so external alone, so form aland ceremonial, so hollow and heartless, that appear- ances, not realities, carry it in the favorable estima- tion of the populace. What I allege is — that their views are puerile, impracticable, false ; and that Christianity is not responsible for them. And if 32 ^ 250 those views ever allow them (as I have reason to think the remark not uncalled for) to enter the tem- ple and the jury-box of their country's justice, when a manslayer is to be tried for his life, and refuse to convict him — because their views condemn all capi- tal punishment ; and so influence or fatigue their juror peers into a verdict of acquittal; and this al- though the evidence may be conclusive and they (virtually) sworn to render accordirigly : I feel it to be my duty to write it {ST' as no better than a clear example of anti-christianity, fraud, perjury, and co- vert treason against the commonwealth! Deut. 25 : 1. A christian could weep with tenderness, glow with benevolence, and hesitate with interjec- ted prayer for his salvation ; and yet inflexibly — utter the verdict of truth and righteousness ! Such is the conduct of principle. 10. Friends often adduce Matt. 26 : 52, (see also Rev. 13 : 10 ; and 16 : 6,) where the Savior said to Peter, "Put up again thy sword into its place ; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Their views here are very ob- jectionable: 1. As they interpret it, it proves that no good man or christian can use the sword at all. It thus disposes of Washington, Colonel Gardiner, Cornelius the centurion of the Italian band, old Samuel, and millions of others not to be nuihbered. But 2. Does it say any such thing ^ — " shall perish with the sword f he shall die by a violence like that which he exerts. Is this necessarily — perdition everlasting \ Such navigators ought to look ahead p, little, and they could see the rock against which 251 they are dashing themselves. A Friend once argued with me as follows: "It can't mean tem- poral punishment, for they very often escape. It must mean therefore that which is eternal ; for the words are express—* shall perish ;' that is, * with the sword' hereafter." This is a summary way of settling the matter, truly. But we may well pause before we sanction such enormous error. For 3. It proves too much quite — it nullifies the thir- teenth of Romans ; where the clear explains or at least coerces the doubtful. Many a man " beareth the sword" by the authority of God, as his civic " minister." Inference — their inspiration is at fault again : it dogmatizes what is false, as it is wont to do. 4. A credible interpretation does more honor to the passage : Peter was ardent to fight for the kingdom of his master, and thus to carry the for- tunes and the cause of Messiah. But this was not the way to propagate his religion. He that resorted to such means would fail of the end and destroy himself. That spiritual tyrant who affects to sit in Peter's chair (in which Peter himself never sat) and resembles him only in his errors, unites in his own regime the power of the sword with that of the keys — and how much oithe religion of Christ does he propagate \ Generally, the passage is an interdict against all such military measures and sanguinary means of grace : while it had a special applicability to the duty of that unparalleled crisis, to suffer rather than resist. If resistance had been wise, he would have employed it. " Twelve legions of angels " had " presently " appeared for his res- 252 cue, asking no human sword to add its imbecility to their arras. " But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be f 54. John, 18 : 36. Friends are often asked, what would be your course of duty as the head of a family, if a despe- rado in quest of " beauty and booty" were to break into your house at, midnight 1 They answer, (1) This is an extreme case, and it is not fair to try principles in that way. I reply, why 1 because a principle is not to be judged by looking at its na- tive tendency, its proper fruits, its practical relation and utility 1 Must we then go to the sky of Utopia for all our ethical light 1 But it is not an extreme cas^ : far from it ! It occurs virtually every day in the lyear ; our newspapers groan with the records of violence, and society is bleeding in every mem- bei/. Tak^ a fact — A lady at the South was once left, in the absence of her husband, alone in 'the house, or with no other protection than sleeping iutfancy in her chamber, and a few slaves in other apartments. Just as she was about to retire, she was alarmed by the sudden appearance of an ath- letic negro of the neighborhood, who plainly an- nounced a purpqse more terrible than death to the thoughts of conjugal virtue. What should she do \ With calm self-possession she concealed the agita- tion of her feelings — requested him to wash his feet in water that she would procure for him — and watching her moment while he was so engaged, having seized an axe that she "had prudently con- cealed, she despatched him with one well directed blow on his head ! Suppose her husband had been 253 a Friend — could he have blamed her at his return ] Would any jury of men or women condemn her 1 She deserves to rank with Judith who decapitated Holofernes, and " Jael the wife of Heber the Ken- ite " who " shall be blessed " for the uail she drove through the temples of Sisera! Judges, 4 : 5. Hence when Friends say, (2) that if we are faith- ful we shall never be brought into such extremities, they utter what is foolishness itself. Was not Isaiah faithful, whom Manasseh " sawed asunder 1" or Paul who was beheaded under Nero ■! Let the blood of the martyrs answer. That war is ordinarily iniquitous and wrong on both sides, and that terrible abuses of the power of the sword have always prevailed in our world, though WITH SPECIAL CRIMINALITY in an age so favored vvith the means of knowledge and right- eousness as this, must be at once admitted and maintained. Wars of conquest, ambition, martial glory, or posthumous fame, are utterly unauthorized and wrong ; are " earthly, sensual, devilish ;" are worthy of the combined abhorrence of earth and heaven. If our peace societies would all be defi- nite AND SOUND in principle, aiming at things pro- per and practicable, and at these alone, I, for one, have no doubt not only of tkeir high utility, but of their rapid prosperity and ultimate success. Let them honor the principles of magistracy as laid doyirn in the New Testament ; maintain the recti- tude of war when strictly defensive, when abso- lutely necessary ia the last resort, when so prose- cuted that the" guidance of the Lord of hosts 254 can be devoutly invoked on its movements ; let them make no canopy or cover for law-hating in- fidels and universalists ; let them recognise and honor the doctrine of penalty and the armed puis- sance of the state ; let them show rights and duties reciprocally and wisely ; let none of them misrepre- sent the religion of Jesus Christ, as if it contained " the old wives' fable " of passive endurance, or as if a man could not have prowess or " show him- self a man " or act valiantly pro arts et focis ^^ without malevolence : let them so act and so pro- ceed, and they will take hold of the public mind ; they will arrest the attention of cabinets and states- men ; they will disarm a mighty prejudice and attach devoted millions to their cause ; heaven will bless their labors of philanthropy ; the nations of the earth may hear their voice, feel their arguments, and echo their wishes, in the universal pacification of the globe and through the " blessed and holy " ages of the millennium. 11. While I fully believe all that 1 have written on this momentous subject, I feel bound to add — that it is no part of the argument or the motive to autho- rize wars, feuds, and bloody rencounters, such as actually occur in almost every page of universal history ! There is no need of war comparatively, on the earth ; either individually or generally. The real necessity for war is very different from the as- sumed necessity. There is no need of it abso- lutely; — except what wicked passions mainly foment and make. For abuses of principle or practice, I am no apologist. Diplomacy, equitable, calm, 255 PACIFIC, OUGHT TO SETTLE ALL INTERNATIONAL DIF- FERENCES : justly dreading an appeal to the sword, as a most terrible calamity. To exemplify this wis- dom, is transcendently the duty especially of chris- tian nations. My very soul deprecates war ! It is indeed a mighty and a monstrous evil — " a game, which, were their subjects wise, kings would not play at." Ruin to finances is nothing compared with ruin to morals. It depraves a nation! Pri- vate differences top might easily be settled in every case, but for bad passions! And for all these maladies, can nothing be done 1 There is apa- nacea, which I would here record as infallible : it is a compound in due proportions of James 4 : 1-17. Matt. 18: 15-18, and 2 Cor. 5 : 10-21. Whence, I observe, 12. The pacification of society and the regenera- tion of the world, is to be realized ONLY through THE PREVALENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ; ONLY BY THE ASCENDENCY OF CHRISTIAN SENTIMENT • AMONG THE NATIONS ! I beheve that such a period will arrive : for it is certainly and credibly predicted : but I believe as much in the only appointed means, as I do in the desired end of the glorious consum- mation ! It will occur not by rendering magistracy weaponless and imbecile ; but by superseding its occasions of using the sword. There is no inward LIGHT of any sort in man, that will correct his er- rors or convert his soul or reform his millions on the earth. The grace of the gospel alone can work his melioration. It is only by the diffusion of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," and its ere- 256 derice in the world, that such a period ever will arrive ! The means are revealed, just as much as the end, in the scriptures of truth : and the oppo- sers of missions to the heathen, of the operations of Bible societies, Sabbath-schools, and other evan- gelical instrumentalities of communicative good- ness, however they may say or think themselves desirous of the result, are really its most formidable and guilty retarders. Meanwhile, the magistracy is not to be disarmed or divested of the thunders of God. Quakerism has had a trial of its plenipoten- tiary light,, for nearly two centuries. What state has adopted it ; or what promise does it unfold of its ovra ultimate prevalence, or of its ever pacifying the nations 1 It is an obscuration of the light of Christianity and a delusion that supersedes its influ- ence. Is. 2 : 2-5. Matt. 28 : 18-20. Rom. 16 : 25-27. Dan. 7 : 26, 27. 12 : 9-13. Rev. 20 : 1-6. These passages show the reality of the millen- nium and the theory of its eventuation. Inward light can only retard and prevent it. "For out of ZlON SHALL go FORTH THE LAW, AND THE WORD OF THE Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge AMONG the nations, AND SHALL REBUKE MANY PEO- PLE : AND THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOUGH-SHARES, AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING- HOOKS : NATION SHALL NOT LIFT UP SWORD AGAINST NATION, NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE. O HOUSE OF JaCOB, COME YE, AND LET US WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD !" My fathers and brethren ; in what follows of this work, I shall address you really, but with still less 257 directness and form. The volume, as it is now to go forth, is, I hope, destined in providence to do some good. Again, I say, with the matter I am comparatively contented. The manner is much more vulnerable. It has indeed very little of my own confidence. I entreat you, however, to reflect on the exceeding difficulty of doing such a service in a style felicitpus and acceptable : especially for one so situated ; so interrupted and harried with other duties.^^ You will defend the cause of truth, and the fortunes of my humble book, only as they appear to you congenial or identified. I can ask no more — unless it be your prayei'S for me and " my kinsmen according to the flesh !" The junior prophet exclaimed, while the patriarch sage ascend- ed ; " My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" It was well and elo- quently said. The genuine prophetic service, the christian ministry more eminently, the pious and the learned fathers of the church, are the defence of the country ; the munition of the nation ; the treasure of the state : nor will I wait the time to catch your falling mantle, or lament your departure, if permitted to survive, before I express my grate- ful conviction of the truth. The ministers of the gospel — that deserve the name — are " the messen- gers of the churches and. the glory of Christ." Jesus Christ holds them as "stars" in his own right hand. He defends them too ; "saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." The history of this country demonstrates the same 33 258 truth in every chapter : and so long as Christianity, pure and free, shall continue to throw over us the mantle of celestial influence, we shall endure and flourish, the hope and the wonder of the world. This is the only inspiration we need. The institu- tions of our civil freedom are comparatively conge- nial with the principles of the gospel. " In com- parison with the rest of the world," says Baxter, " I shall think that land happy which hath but bare liberty to be as good as the people are willing to be." How much more liberty do we enjoy or — ^per- vert ! Here we may think and act and worship without fear. There is no temptation — I had al- most said — not to be honest. It is the vantage- ground of evidence : and we are all willing to make this league even with infidelity and heresy — that we will on all sides freely examine, so that evidence only may lead us : and that system shall alone prevail that can stand the shock of all rational dis- cussion. Christianity, I venture nothing in saying it, is such a system ; and just as evident is it that there is no other : consequently, Quakerism is not that system ; and therefore only do I benevo- lently desire to see it universally superseded. "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good," It is strange that any one should so err respecting the nature of benevolence, as to question either its vital connexion with truth, or its fearless delight in evidence, or the vigor and the principle of all its proper demonstrations ; since the predominance of selfishness alone can adequately account for the apathy or the antipathy of millions toward the gos- 259 pel. "And this is the condemnation!" "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." TAUT SBCOSrS, THE GRAXD ERROR. Sint castae deliciae meae, scripturae tuae ; nee fallar in eis, nee fallam ex ejs, AuocsTiNF.. O be thy written Word my chaste delight ; Guiding my earthly pilgrimage aright ! In it I know my soul is not deeeived; From it I speak the truth to be believed. It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should EARNESTLV COKTEHD FOR THB FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE DELIVERED UNTO THE SAINTS. Jude, 3. For there must also be heresies among you, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you. 1 Cor. 11 : 19. Then shall ye return and diseern between the righteous and the wieked ; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. Mai. 3 : 18. The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Isa. 9: 15, 16. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. V\hat. is the chafiF to the wheat? saith the Lord. Jer. 23 : 28. For without are dogs, and sokckrers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and WHOSOEVER LOVETH AND MAKETH A LIE. Revelations, 22 : 15. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran : I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But ir they had stood in my counsel, and had CAUSED MY PEOPLH TO HKAR MY WORDS, THEN THEy"hOULD HAVE TURNED THEM FROM THEIK EVIL WAY, AND FROM THE EVIL OF THEIR DOIKOS. Jer, 23:21,22. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed .' As we said before, so say I now again, if any [man or angel] preach any other Gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal. 1 ; 8, 9. PART SGCOND. THE GRAND ERROR. For the sake of argument and for the sake of be- nevolence we ought, as in all controversies, so emi- nently in this, to ascertain the grand points in re- spect to Vi^hich the parties are agreed. To state all these might not be useful ; but some there are upon v\rhich, I suppose, our coincidence will be admitted by all. These shall be carefully recorded in the outset ; and by the writer assumed as principles of reasoning in the subsequent pages. As Barclay can be shown to sanction several of them. Friends will probably assent to as many of these principles. 1. The scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments, as generally received by the protestant world, contain, in their proper and native meaning, the truth, and in respect to that meaning are evi- dently THE TRUTH. 2. These scriptures were given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost for the benefit of mankind. 3. Truth is a unit ; that is, it is always consistent 264 with itself; as " no lie is of the truth :" and hence REVELATION is ONE SYSTEM, of different but related parts in divine harmony. 4. It is impossible that the same Holy Spirit, that equally inspired Moses and the beloved John and all the intervening prophets and apostles, should ever contradict himself or reveal things contrary to his own revelation on any other theme or occasion : we hold this, distinguishing between verbal and virtual contradictions ; as, for example, man is mor- tal — man is immortal : God can do all things — God cannot lie. 5. Whatever is proved to be contrary to scripture, is necessarily false : and consequently, whatever is proved to coincide with scripture is necessarily true. 6. Whatever duty is, according to scripture, bind- ing on the present worshippers of God, is binding by divine authority and cannot be habitually omitted or violated without sin : though duties and sins differ illimitably in form and degree. 7. Almost every rule has its exceptions ; which however do not impair (they rather confirm) the rule : as, this proposition — it is appointed unto men once to die may be styled the rule of our faith in re- spect to the mortality of the species ; but Enoch and Elijah never did and never will die, though they are of the species and were once alive on the earth ; they become exceptions to the rule, by which' how- ever the rule is confirmed rather than impaired. 8. It is monstrous and mischievous to invert the foregoing principle ; that is, to make a rule of an exception, or to mistake the exception for the rule : 265 thus, for example ; Enoch and Elijah were men, and they never died and never will die ; therefore I and all other men will, never die — ^we shall either be translated or exist in this world for ever ! Take another illustration. Iscariot was an apos- tle of Jesus Christ ; he was also " a devil," a sordid traitor, one of the worst of men and "the son of perdition :" therefore the apostles of Jesus Christ were— ^but I forbear ! Iscariot was the exception and the only one, to the rule that the apostles of Jesus Christ were in holiness resembling the angels of God, in fidelity incorruptible, in goodness super- lative, and in salvation for ever glorious. There are, however, some subordinate exceptions, of constancy rather than of character, in the history of the holy apostles, that do not disprove their exalted excellence in general, while they reveal notwithstanding their imperfection in particular instances. 9. The best thing may be abused, and abused to a dreadful and intolerable degree. Still, the thing itself remains the same ; and to disparage it, on account of its abuse by men, or to make it respon- sible for that abuse, or to infer the obligation of its disuse from such premises, instead of judging of the same by a correct standard according to its proper nature, is illegitimate in reasoning, and would in its consequences empower the wicked to destroy (by nuerely abusing) universal goodness ; while, at the same time, it would enervate the strength, de- grade the cause, and ruin the friends, of all righte- ousness ; since the abuse of any thing may be ad- 34 266 mitted by a christian, and also abhorred and de- plored by him, without destroying the moral rela- tion between that thing and him ; and since also the very idea of its ahuse presupposes its intrinsic goodness and affirms the wickedness of its abusers alone. For example : the ministry of the gospel is a divine institution, and one of incalculable excel- lence and usefulness ; but none perhaps beside it (unless that of marriage) has been so sacrilegiously and horribly abused in every way : is the institution therefore bad, as bad, and as worthy to be execra- ted and scouted by the whole community as are its abuses and abusers 1 10. He cannot be wrong who goes really accord- ing to the scripture. 11. The Bible is a good book. 12. It is possible that a knowledge and love of the contents of the Bible may induce a man to defend it with vehemence, and even to oppose men with decision for its sake ; while his feelings toward their personal interests, whom he judges to be adverse to that book of God, are not the less benevolent, hut the more so, because of his supreme regard for truth, and for God, its Author and avenger. 13. Purity is properly before peace, and prc^erJy before iinity ; while purity, unity, peace, — ^'ust in that order of precedency, — ^are all desirable. 14. Communion of feeling is fpunded on com- munion of sentiment ; so that doctrinal coincidence always induces (or tends tQ induce) union of affec-i tion ; doctrinal contrariety pr divergency equally inspires alienation; and no combination of senti- 207 fltient, soul, or action, is comparatively desirable, except that which results from " the truth as it is in Jesus." To the last two of these statements, I doubt in- deed if Friends will agree. / however believe them. Instead of others, let us mind a standard passage in James, 3:17. " But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." Mark! — the ce- lestial wisdorh'is first pure — -then peaceable! If I mistake not, this is the very reverse of the wisdom of mankind. They wish us to be first "peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits," and other benignities, and then — after all these harmless qualities — then — if ever — "pure!" But purity must precede, or — the wisdom "de- Bcendeth not from above ; but is earthly, sensual, devilish." Here is the point of divergency ! The great question is, shall purity or peace precede ? If peace, had always been preferred in the church, such a thing as persecution for righteousness' sake had not been known. I would however wish always to retain the spirit of moderation and benevolence, even when engaged in controversy respecting fun- damentals. To use the excellent words of an esteemed cotemporary ; (Dr. Fitch, of Yale Col- lege ;) " the heat does not enable us to see, it is the light only. Truth is learned only at the pure foun- tains of evidence. Authority does not create it ; dogmatism recommends it not; neither does vio- lence impose it : from such task-masters conscience 268 retreats that she may hear, in the still silence of her musings, the voice of God." 15. It is proper to use the scripture in all religious investigation, since it was given to this very end^ that the man of God might be accomplished for every good work ; according to that signal testi- mony of the apostle, which I thus alter in the trans- lation, to make it more orderly and like the original ; " All scripture is given by inspiration of God ; and is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for cor- rection, for education in righteousness ; so that the man of God might be accomplished, consummately furnished for every good work." 2 Tim. 3 : 16, 17..^ The last six verses of the chapter ought to be read in their connection and thoroughly digested in their common scope, especially by Friends. Having thus stated neveraS. principles of reason- ing, by which to be governed in this work, I will now state some positions op truth, or things that I believe and shall endeavour to prove as we pro- ceed. As in the former I have stated what I sup- pose will be mainly admitted on both sides, so in the latter will appear what I indeed believe with very high conviction ; but what (or the most of which) Friends characteristically, (if not univer- sally,) disbelieve with very great decision. 1. The scriptures are the paramount rule of faith and practice ; they were so given and design- ed by their divine Author ; and are never duly ho- nored whein they are equalized or subordinated, to reason, conscience, feelings, private spirits, dreams, 269 revelations, impressions, visions, or influences of any other description. 2. Tlxe scriptures are given by that kind of di- vine inspiration (I forbear all technical names) whicli procures the result of written truth, without any mixture of error, in the original Hebrew and Greek : of which our translation is in the main a very excellent representation. 3. The scriptures have been providentially |)re- served from all substantial corruptions of the text, so that they answer the original design of their au- thor in remaining a volume (or rather many vo- lumes) of divine inspiration, virtually and wonder- fully pure. Psalm 12 : 6, 7. 4. Divine illumination or spiritual discernment characterizes the saints in all ages, and is vital to the existence of religion ; that influence, however, of the Spirit of God, which produces and matures it, is specijically different (in nature and result) from that of proper inspiration. 5. In true religion, which is substantially the same in all ages, the truth of scripture, affecting the mind in the forms of preaching, reading, admonish- ing, meditating, or some other and yet kindred form, is the grand instrument of the Holy Ghost in all his saving operations. 6. All the moral excellence of man is the super- natural production of the Spirit of God, and is pro- perly resolvable into " the fruit of the Spirit :" which is not indigenous to the soil, or the sponta- neous growlth of nature, or one of the fruits of the 270 . flesh ; and this is mainly what I mean by the epi- thet (not miraculous, but) supernatural. 7. Inspiration is a gift and not a grace, a gift that may more benefit others than its subject ; and so is not necessary at ail to be personally experi- enced in order to salvation ; since otherwise, all that were not divinely inspired, as the apostles were, are infallibly lost ; since wicked men, as Ba^am, Caiphas, and many others, were divinely inspired, but never (as we must think) regenerated ; and since the inspiration of the writers of scripture, though they were " holy men of God," in no part constituted, however it might have occasionally and even eminently assisted, their personal religion. 8. We have no evidence that, since (or near) the apostolic age, there has been one proper miracle wrought, or one human being divinely .inspired, or that there exists any more the necessity than the reality in our age of such wonderful endowments. 9. To pretend or affect inspiration, without pos- sessing it, or being able to give any proof, either miraculous or rational, of its reality, is either capital impiety or terrible delusion, or probably both. It is incalculable misery and guilt! 10. No man evades or habitually disparages the authority of scripture, who is not to be suspected, as secretly conscious or timorous that the scripture itself is his moral enemy. 11. To disparage or corrupt the influence of scripture upon the minds of men, is enormous sin ; a sin especially against the first three and indeed all the commandments of the decalogue ; a sin that 271 awfully jeopards the souls of those who are engaged in it, teaching or taught. 12. A man who is afraid of investigation, in res- pect to the principles of his faith, is most probably destitute of the Spirit of Christ. 13. A man who knows the truth and loves it, does, in every instance, desire its universal recog- nition and diffusion. 14. The knowledge and love of " the truth as it is in Jesus " is a proper definition of vital religion. " True religion,'' says President Edwards, " in a great measure consists in holy affections. A love of divine things, for the beauty and sweetness of their moral excellency, is the spring of all holy af- fections." Such love of things invisible, howe- ver, presupposes knowledge and discrimination ; of which revealed truth is the only medium, and faith in it the indispensable way. 15. A man whose personal religion cannot stand the test of scripture, is much more evidently unable to endure the ordeal of eternal judgment — to which he goes. 16. It is the highest interest, the present and ul- timate happiness, of a man to come to the know- ledge and acknowledgment of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth : and it is duty too! 17. To be prejudiced against evidence, is sin ; and the strength of prejudice, however strong it may be, is sinful in proportion to its strength ; and perilous to the soul in proportion to its sinfulness. 18. To oppose prejudice with truth, with scrip- 272 lure, with argument ; to oppose whatever is adverse to these by the same means, is the office of genuine philanthropy and the signal of divine benevolence. 19. To believe a proposition only because others believe it ; or because I was educated to believe it ; or because it suits me ; or because it seems to me honorable to the divine character; contains in it not a particle of religious virtue ; and is a course that has led thousands of souls fatally far from God, but has probably never brought one to him. 20. Truth is no pensioner on human opinion, but is as really independent of what we think, as it is of what we wish or of what we are ; while it is identified with " every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God-" Truth is greater than any of us — considerably. 21. No man can ever savingly possess the truth, who does not appreciate it ; and whose appreciation is not practical and commmanding, leading him to use the necessary means, and to make the neces- sary sacrifices, and to show the necessary decision, for its attainment. What self-denial could be more promising or profitable 1 22. The office of human reason in religion IS IN subserviency to scriptural revelation ; and is properly three-fold ; this — not to anticipate its sovereign disclosures, or to imply its superfluity, or to invent its proper contents, or to dictate to it in any way ; but — (1) to examine the evidence which is said to sustain its pretensions, as a com- munication from God ;(2) to ascertain the meaning of its contents, under the gracious assistance which 273 it proposes to the ingenuous inquirer — ^which is the noble art and science and service of interpretation ; (3) WISELY TO APPLY TO ALL. PRACTICAL USES OP THE CHRISTIAN LIFE THE KNOWLEDGE SO ACQUIRED. 23. It is the duty of all men to " come to the knowledge of the truth ;" and to this end to exer- cise the reasoning faculty honestly and in the fear of God— and love him "with all thy mind!" 2 Tim. 1:7. 24. The sin of reasoning in religion is not at all intrinsic to the exercise ; since Christ reasoned, as also did all the apostles ; but it consists in reason- ing to serve some evil purpose, of pride, passion, party, or perverseness ; and '^ meekness of wis- dom " does not imply tameness or insipidity of ar- gument ; but only integrity of motive, candor, and love of the truth. James, 3 : 13. 25. Personalities in controversy are always im- proper, if not mahgnant ; they can scarcely proceed from a good motive or to a good end ; but, to im- plicate persons as the mere result of principles, however severe the implication, or however tre- mendous the consequence, is at once legitimate and unavoidable. 26. Whether a Friend is ever a christian, so as to be saved ; whether this is possible, probable, or common, or the reverse ; if savingly pious, how many and who are such, and in what proportion these to the comparative chaff of the society \. these questions, and all such as these, belong, I think, to the solemn arbitration of God ; they are questions which I wish not at all to decide ; and though 35 274 Friends must necessarily be affected by the princi- ples discussed, in common with all other people, or with special emphasis and application, yet I can truly say, before the Searcher of hearts, that " my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is, that they might be saved," and that I desire benefit and not blighting to their souls as the result of this publication. 27, Irony, when founded in truth and directed to its vindication, is sometimes a lawful and perhaps, a necessary weapon of religious controversy. Sa- tire is in the same predicament. Neither however should be used with frequency or freedom. There are certain usages of sanctimonious absurdity, to which mankind become addicted as custom and tradition prescribe ; which, having no foundation in truth, though most tenaciously practised as divine ordinances, can be successfiilly assailed, it may be, only by some of those modes of reasoning which make their folly manifest and glaring to every be- holder. 28. Truth is the doctrine of facts or realities or things. As these are the great archetypes of truth in religion ; as they exist separately from the testi- mQny that 'describes them j so it is not even the testimony of God that makes them as they are. His testimony is the highest rational evidence of their existence ; but still they exist independent of that testimony. Heaven, and hell, and the resur- rection of the dea.d, are realities, whether known or unknown, whether believed or disbelieved, whether revealed or unrevealed. The testimony of God 275 coDcerning them, affects ns, not them ; makes them no more real or important intrinsically, but com- municates the certain information respecting them which we infinitely need to possess. Thus also the things of Quakerism are true or false intrinsically : if true, it will not be in the power of investigation to injure them ; if false, what harm is done by the investigation that discloses it 1 Do we make them false, by showing that they are so 1 Are we to blame for their falsity, or for showing it 1 Is if a privilege to be "fundamentally wrong] Is it the interest of a man not to know things as they are I Is error good for him 1 Is it misanthropy to as- sist in the hopeful substitution of truth ? Must Quakerism be kept and cherished and defended at all events 1 living, dying, and hereafter 1 " The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is :" 1 Cor. 3 : an agent sufiiciently penetrating and impartial, truly. Nothing that i& not INCOMBUSTIBLY durable, can survive that or- deal of fire ; even if a true christian minister has reared it, and reared it too upon the right and only foundation. Nothing but "gold, silver, precious stones," can last and emerge unscathed. What then shall be the result with " wood, hay, stubble ;" especially if it be very questionably or not at all connected with the immovable foundation 1 Let no man tempt the possibilities of eternal judg- ment! or, let hell be confounded, as well as out- done, by the desperation of traitors on the earth, for whose redemption "the only begotten Son" 276 laid down his own precious life! an infinite sacri- fice, worse than in vain for them! Truly, they " deny the Lord that bought them ; and bring up- on themselves swift destruction." 29. One cardinal doctrine of Christianity may in our theological reasoning be never forgotten with impunity or safety : it is — the sinfulness, the POSITIVE ILL-DESERT AND JUDICIAL EXPOSURE OF THE WHOLE SPECIES. To deny this, is to deny the gos- pel, as well as the law, of God. A system devised on purpose to save sinners, to save them from sin and hell, has no mercy to ofier to the innocent and the safe : and if these are all, that system is super- fluous and vain. But to admit this, namely, the sinfulness of every individual as morally fallen and obnoxious, is also to admit, in honesty and consis- tency alike, that none of us has any thing to claim or pretend on the ground of desert, or any thing to fear but from the justice of God, or any thing to hope but from his grace, his free and rich and wonderful favor toward the guilty and the lost, through the glorious and only Mediator. 30. On the last fundamental principle rests ano- ther, or is allied to it as its proper and pervading counterpart ; the importance of which is properly infinite and most demonstrably true : namely, that God, in conferring favors on the guilty, that is, where all deserve injustice the precise opposite of favor, may be a most sovereign and independent Potentate, and may show himself such, in realizing to whom he will, such favors, in kind and degree, In manner and in form, as to himself seems good 277 and proper. With this, however, we are to remem- ber that sovereignty divine is not arbitrariness — or caprice or partiality or favoritism, or any other un- principled or ignorant quality. God has reasons for all he does. They are infinitely the best rea- sons in the universe. They are infinitely benevo- lent and infinitely enlightened. They are measured on a scale of infinite, intending the best and the greatest good of being: and securing this j end perpetually and gloriously in a manifold and perfect dispensation. ' He cannot be ignorant of opposing interests and opposite considerations : nor can he act against the stronger motive, or prefer in any case a less to a greater good, or a greater to a less evil. Accordingly, he does all he morally and wisely can, in the circumstances, for the salvation of every human being. But it is false and hci- prous, FUNDAMENTALLY SO, to affirm that he must make no discriminations of sovereign donation and grace ; that he must do as much in every sense for one man as another ; and that HE must not decide HOW MANY AND PERSONALLY WHO shull hear the gospel, obey it, do their duty, embrace the Savior, and be saved by grace for ever. Rom. 11 : 4-7. 4: 13-16. Matt. 20; 13-16. My chief proposition is that QVABBRisng: xs sros cb&xstxanztt. My meaning is — not that Quakerism is, in all its parts, separately taken, hostile to Christianity ; nor that it is in none identical with Christianity ; nor 278 that in all its parts it must be repudiated by chris- tians : but only that its distinctive characteristics i major and minor, constitute a system, which, as such, is not Christianity, is radically wrong ; and consequently that it ought to be universally ab- jured — since it is neithei* the duty nor the interest of any individual to mistake the truth or not to know what it is. The views of Friends, touching the scriptures, the light within, the nature of wor- ship, the office of reason in religion, spiritual duty and the way of performing it, are among their major characteristics ; from which all the others homoge- neously flow. It will be no refutation therefore to show that in minor respects Quakerism is right, or that in such I am wrong ; the distinctive charac- teristics, that make the system, must be honestly analyzed and shown not only to be consistent with Christianity, and identical with it, but the identity ITSELF — or, nothing is shown that sustains its une- qualed pretensions, or properly relieves it from the impeachment that the wisest and the best, of all ages since its rise, have never ceased to maintain against it. It has been constantly denounced by the noblest servants of God that have lived as its cotemporaries since the times of Owen and Baxter, Bates and Howe ; — and it is lauded by the loose, the infidel liberal, the volatile, the heretical notori- ously : by those who, all grouped together, consti- tute an anti-evangelical assemblage, whose praise is dishonor and whose censure commendation. One specimen of what the most excellent Bax- ter, " the ecclesiastical Demosthenes of the seven- 279 teenth century," thought, may here be subjoined. At Kidderminster, a place favored and transformed through his powerful ministry, he says ; " The Quakers would fain have got entertainment, and set up a meeting in the town, and frequently railed at me in the congregation; but when I had once given them leave to meet in the church for a dis- pute, and, before the people, had opened their deceits and shame, none would entertain them more, nor did they get one proselyte among us." I ask any chrittian who is not afraid of the truth, whether Baxter would have built them up on their own foundation I and whether he could have done it, without deserting Jesus Christ, at least for the time? In saying that Quakerism is not Christianity, let then the proposition be properly understood. I mean that, while it claims identity with Chris- tianity, and while its claims are perfectly seraphic and exclusive, it is itself a delusive corruption and a hideous caricature of that divine system. Prindpia non homines — we write impersonally of the system. My great reason for this is a convic- tion, which I shall attempt to evidence to others, that it is not the religion of the scriptures ; but a scheme often fundamentally opposed, in doctrine and spirit, to the genuine import of those " lively oracles." I of course identify Christianity with the religion of the scriptures. My practical inference is that Quakerism ought to be universally abjured and the scriptures univer- sally received as the superlative substitute : and 280 this, at the hazard of all consequences ; since he who knows his duty toward God, and refuses to perform it, must, without repentance, sink into " everlasting destruction." There can be no com- promise in our known spiritual duty. My predominating hope of doing good by this treatise is not necessarily that it will be extensively read by Friends; or — consequently — that it will immediately benefit them; but, satisfied as I am that Quakerism shall yet be dissipated by the in- fluence of scripture, it is that others who read, may know what that system is, (which however is pro- perly no system,) as contradistinguished from Chris- tianity ; and thus that this work may, by the bless- ing of God, in some measure subserve the advance- ment of the knowledge that shall ultimately make "the light of the moon as the light of the sun;" and which, investing all objects with its genial flood, shall dissolve that formidable iceberg on which so many barks have foundered and so many men — I fear — perished for ever ! My source of proof shall be mainly the scriptures. In adducing however for refutation the cardinal and known peculiarities of Quakerism, I shall not encumber these pages with unnecessary proofs or quotations. I know the system, and have read and studied many of their standard books, particularly Barclay's Apology, which I have often read, and have recently and thoroughly reperused. I am of course responsible, and I hope not incorrigible, in respect to mistakes or misstatements. Some respectable christians will doubtless cen- 281 sure the radicalism, as it may seem to them, of this way of procedure. Professing no love of innova- tion for its own sake, nor inclining at all to mistake it for improvement, as if the two were always iden- tical, I confess myself unable to accede to the sen- timent that Friends are to be meliorated and edified on their own foundation. I believe their system, as such, to be fundamentally false: hence I cannot trifle with them or be other than radicalizing in opposition to their system. For this, on their ac- count, I am cordially sorry and consciously grieved at heart ; having no wish to make enemies or to hurt the feelings of a human being. Often have I tried to find some Tarshish conveyance, from the great Nineveh of my apprehended duty: but, in that direction, I as often anticipated a storm, a ship- wreck, a whale. To me indeed it seems only won- derful that christian men and christian ministers should ever take the ground of compromise, in re- lation to the system. Did they ever intelligently compare 1 Cor. 3 : 11, with Gal. 1 : 6-91 I ascribe their lenity mainly to ignorance and superficial judgment respecting it : while I have " counted the cost " of a more thorough position, in view of pos- sible consequences. Still, to the persons of Friends, I am conscious only of good will and tenderness. Could I not distinguish between them and their system, in cer- tain modifications, I should have hope for none of them. As it is, I am quite willing to entreat them ; to expostulate with them; and to beseech them TO HEAR ME CANDIDLY. If they See iny faults, vay 36 282 prejudices, my extravagance, my severity, let them show the magnanimity of their own christian con- descension ; and put such a construction of chari- tableness on the deed, as will suit their own ideas of its indefinite largeness. To their youth, espe- cially their young men, I would speak with some hope of being rationally considered and generously appreciated. I have been such an one myself. Them I venture to counsel as I would my own soul. Experience enables me to know and to feel as they do. I sympathize with them. Still, I sum- mon them to manliness and moral courage of in- vestigation. Will they so believe the system of their sires, as if it were true only because they taught it to them \ or as if examination would ruin itl A strange way to believe it ! What is this but disbelief of its ultimate truth 1 Do you, I would say to them, think it a privilege to err? to be Friends, even if you are not christians \ to think Quakerism and Christianity identical, while fearing to consult evidence or look at the nature of the things? Then must you live and die — Friends, just as your fathers did: and certainly they ought to have been right ! I commence with an investigation of their doc- trine of the INWARD I.IGHT. That doctrine is that tlwre is in every man, by the goodness of his Crea- tor, a certain ' inward light^ which is equally in all men of all ages and of all countries, by attention to the monitions of ichich men come into a state of spirituality and salvation ; and " the only cause why some men are more benefited by its beams than 283 others, is this — that some men pay more attention to it than others.'''' — Barclay. Every sect that radically deviates from pure Chris- tianity, is characterized by some fundamental error, which is called the grand errou of the system. Such an error do I conceive the inward light to be in the scheme of Quakerism. It is the centre of the system ; the basis of the structure ; the parent of .all its obliquities. And if, after all, it should appear to be an ignis fatuus,& meteor of a troubled atmosphere, an airy and mischievous illusion, what is their condition, what their end, who have con- signed themselves to its fatal guidance ■? " If the light which is in thee," &c. I once utterly believed it true — and it was the search and the faith of the scriptures that cured me of the prejudice. My reasons are the following : the impossibility of an intelligible definition of its nature ; the argument, from the admission of its truth, that the scriptures are superfluous ; the fact that all the real knowledge and intelligible preaching of Friends are derived from the scriptures ; the condition and practice of those nations, who; being destitute of the scrip- tures, but not on this theory of the inward light, have had nothing to embarrass the growth of its natural fruits ; the missionary practice of apostles, in carrying the gospel to distant nations and preach- ing it to all the world, as if the gospel so preached, and not the universal inward light, was to be the instrument of salvation " to every one that be- lieveth ;" the character of their preaching, and also of his who commissioned and preceded them, as 284 wonderfully destitute of all force and propriety, in respect to the doctrine of inward light, if that doc- trine be true ; the fallacy of all the evidence upon which the doctrine affects to be supported by scrip- ture ; the powerful decision of many passages against it ; the innumerable contradictions of that light as it shines from Friends; the paramount office of scripture, according to its own claims, as our rule in religion. On each of these reasons I propose to enlarge. I. The impossibility of an intelligible de- finition OF its nature, if there were nothing else to impeach its credibility, would authorize a denial df its claims, would absolutely require this- at our hands. What is this inward light ? is a question which we have a right to ask ; and which they ought to answer, who say of its authority that it is para- mount to the scriptures ; and of its efficacy that by attending to its influence, we come into a state of salvation. Is it reason, or conscience, or know- ledge, or holiness, or blind impulse, or spontaneous action, or monitorial suggestion, or the Spirit of God in his person or his influences'! What is the thing which they mean, if they mean definitely any thing, when they speak of " the light within ?" Let them not scorn this question. It is worthier of their consideration than their contempt. We are serious who ask it. We cannot indeed help our conviction that there is no such thing properly in existence. Friends are wont to use the pronoun and the rela- tive, instead of the direct antecedent, when they 285 speak of this indefinable influence. They say, for I have often heard them, it will teach thee, it imll guide thee, it will keep thee from the enemy and bring thee under the shadow of the Almighty. This is all very fine ; and concerning the scripture in- strumentally, or the Holy Spirit personally, or reli- gion personified, it is both intelligible and true. But here I demand a definition of " it." To what must I attend, what must I follow, by what rule must I go, in order to these halcyon and heavenly results 1 They»do not mean the scripture, unques- tionably. Do they then mean the intellectual fa- culty ? This they often disclaim. " We look upon reason as fit to order and rule man in things na- tural — ^yet that not being the right organ — it cannot profit him toward salvation, but rather hindereth." — ■ Barclay. Is it conscience ? As often do they deny this ver- sion of the inward light. " Our adversaries — calum- niate us, as if we preached up a natural light, or the light of man's naturalconscience : — as if this which we preach up were some natural power and faculty of the soul, and that we only differ in the wording of it, and notin the thing itself — this light of which we speak is not only distinct, but of a different nature from the soul of man, and its facul- ties."-'^Barclay, Take one specimen, however, of his own " preaching up." It evinces their common style, and either exalts conscience into "a more noble and excellent rule" than the word of God; or, — what does it mean 1 He says that Friends " cannot cease 28C to proclaim the day of the Lord that is arisen in it," (the light) in order " that others may come and feel the same in themselves, and may know that 0?' that little small thing that ,-£0 reproves them in their hearts, however they have despised and neg- lected C?" it .=£0 is nothing less than the gospel preached in them ; Christ, the wisdom and power of God, being in and by that seed seeking to save their souls." What a body of divinity there must be, in "that little small thing" that lives so uncom- fortably in us ! I have transferred his words, just as they are in the Apology — except the hands ! How much greater the day (misty as it is) that Barclay sheds on that miserable little nondescript, than any of its own ! As if a man should take a blazing flambeau into a dark damp grotto under ground to see — a suffocating firefly ! and as if this, when seen, should puzzle all the entomologists, in the country and out of it, to ascertain its definition, species, genus, order, class, or kingdom ! If it be admitted that they mean something, of which their rational conception is bewildered, one might be allowed to say, it seems certain that they ignorantly mean nothing but natural conscience. I have often heard their preachers, in their inspired communications, and others in common parlance, appeal to us, if we had never felt that i'fi us that condemns us when we trespass, the witness that cannot be hid " in a corner," or bribed or doubted ; that is " a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well." This is in substance one of their very common forms of popular inculcation and ap- 287 peal ; and as it is addressed to all without discri' mination, and not to saints in particular, I see not how it substantially differs from the unmystical appeal often heard from our pulpits ; as when the preacher says; "Have you not often violated or defiled your own consciences 1 done what, you knew was displeasing to God at the time, and so sinned directly against his majesty and goodness 1" But they reclaim at the sentiment. Their mean- ing, they say, is far sublimer than mere con- science. And * plainly their doctrine would be ridiculous, thus stated, every man has a natural conscience ; a truism which nobody disputes. Nei- ther is it knowledge that constitutes this wonderful light, unless knowledge be innate, or unless it be of some supernatural description altogether above definition. Is it holiness, moral excellence, confor- mity of heart to God 1 This will hardly be affirmed. When God defines the human heart for the human species, he defines it as " deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." What an omission, if there be somewhat radically excellent and allied to his own beauty in the moral countenance of man ! That some of the Friends believe in a re- maining particle of goodness in the human heart, I know ; that many have this infidel belief, I fear ; and that their very erroneous conceptions of that fundamental article, the depraved natural character of man, take their rise from the dogma of inward light, I fully believe. They often speak of the inward seed which God hath planted in all the hearts of his human creatures, and which strives 2g8 to take foot and grow and bear fruit ; but is too much oppressed, by " the activity of the creature" and other causes, to come to perfection. They speak of " the principle ;" they say they " believe in the principle." They speak of following " the principle." But all this is no definition. It is not gospel, it is not sense. It is mysticism and indevotional cant ! And it is worse— ^to infinity, precisely, worse — ^because of the darkness and uncertainty it sheds upon a subject of vital im- port to the souls of men ! They tell us too that it is in "the openings of the principle" that their preachers are " clothed " with power to speak to the states of their auditory: i. ve. the expansion of this inward light it is that makes the inspiratum of their preachers. This is probable. But still the question returns ; what is " it ?" What is " that which " and so forth 1 Is it Mind imptdse, a mere acttiating of the mind t This they will hardly af- firm. And yet I have seen and heard such things in their preachers as seemed to me to imply that they felt themselves to be each a mere mouthpiece or mechanical echo to some superior mind ! They often rise as if by physical impulsion, stand through a long introductory pause, inform their hearers that they know not what they have to communicate — that they had "premeditated" nothing — but, that " it was impressed with indubitable clearness in the secret of the mind that," &c. according to the matter " revealed " to them : and this, while they preach almost the same sermon throughout which they have delivered frequently before. Sometimes 389 the stamp of their commission is for the moment not quite so legible or certain to themselves. Then the light teaches such a style as this ; " My mind hath been exercised — I felt a concern to address — I should feel easier to say a few words — perhaps I should reach the state of some present, if I gave utterance to what hath been communicated to my own soul." This indeed is strange inspiration, and we shall not feel relieved by the adduction of a thousand similar specimens, in regard to a defini- tion of the true nature of the light within. What christian does not pity an audience of many hun- dreds, listening to such oracular edification as this ! I have instanced spontaneous motion or action, meaning a kind of free-spiritedness, by which, be- cause they " feel easy " to take a particular course, they infer that it is divinely sanctioned and all in the light : and also monitorial suggestion, because they often act, as if an aerial prompter or angelic mentor were behind them, telling them the way. This is seen in their wonderful occasional abrupt- ness. Sometimes darting up to speak,*^ as if by electric influence ; and then darting down again, as if, almost in the middle of their subject, the in- spiring influence was withdrawn or an inspired veto administered. If this be a ridiculous picture, I am sure it is a true one! Friends also know it, espe- cially the more intelligent. The quality of ridicu- lous is not in the painter ; nor would it be in the portrait, but for the features of the original ; which are not exceeded in the delineation. It is a picture over which I could weep and groan ! What will 37 290 eternity reveal as the consequence of all this degra- dation of the worship of God 1 Can the God of the New Testament approve of such soft and silly ma- nagement l But do they refer to the Spirit of God, in his per- son or his influence, these powers and properties of the light within ? I am aware that sometimes in theory, and perhaps in practice, they do ; nay, that this is their grand pretension. But, allowing for a moment that the light itself depends for its exis- tence on the Spirit of God, still, this does not an- swer the question, what is its nature ? The Spirit may affect any one of the mental faculties, may approach and influence the mind in a variety of forms and degrees, and through different mediums ; but what is that influence in every man and in every age and country that constitutes their idea of inward light ? I believe it is properly indefinable — because it is a sheer nonentity, a mental creation, a dream of an undisciplined mind that runs before evidence, or rather without and against it — a mind that makes the objects that it sees, and very sin- cerely (this is not ironical, for sincerity is not syno- nymous with correctness) mistakes its own ima- ginings for the suggestions of " the eternal Spirit !" But is it not awfuH Must the divine Author of the Bible be made responsible for the lawless visions of men 1 and these visions of extravagance be held co-ordinate with the written " oracles of God ;" nay, paramount to them ■! But, aside from the manifest impiety of this, (which is perhaps one of the worst things in Quakerism and one of the most danger- 291 ous corruptions in Christendom,) what is its moral influence on the abettors of the scheme 1 Does it make them christians 1 does it sanctify them ac- ceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord ■? If salvation be possible in consistency with such error, which plainly challenges a doubt, it is not by the error, but in spite of it, that the mercy of God " rejoiceth against judgment." Error is poison ; the poison of the soul : and though we might pos- sibly receive a given quantity of poison, mingled with our food, and eat it without death, yet no one is to be commended for such an act, especially if, by repetition, it becomes a habit ; while the exam- ple may influence others whose judgment of the safe proportion may not be advised, and whose exit by the indulgence may be inevitable. The assumed connection between inward light and the influence of the Holy Spirit, (of whose person and name we know nothing that the scrip- tures have not taught us,) is of prime importance in this controversy ; and worthy, if possible, to be rationally resolved. By the Spirit they intend that same divine Agent by whom the scriptures were inspired. But if He is not the author of their inward light or at all chargeable with their inspired communications, if the proper characteristics of Quakerism arise from some other source, how un- speakably important that this should be known by all! It is my full and deep conviction that the Author of the scriptures is not the Author OP Quakerism : that they are two and distinct and opposite spirits ! and that Quakerism hath origi- 292 nated from neglect or violation of this scriptural commandment, in common with innumerable others, of the Holy Ghost ; " Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God ; because MANY FALSE PROPHETS are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye [ascep-tain y'e:— impe- ratively] THE Spirit of God : Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God : and this is that spirit of anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in the world." 1 John, 4 : 1-3. On this important passage, of the known and genuine words of the Holy Ghost, permit a few reflections. It is given as a criterion of discrimi- nation between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of anti-christ. The words that confesseth do not mean that admits with reluctance or constraint; as if tortured to the admission ; but that boldly and in a way that characterizes, asserts the important fact, without disparaging its amazing value or cor- rupting its subhme intention. It refers to the pro- fession of cardinal doctrine. This might easily be demonstrated — and shall be, when the comment is respectably denied. The object of this confession, the proposition that Jesu,s Christ is come \has come] in the flesh, means (as can be rigidly shown, when necessary) that Jesus, the Messiah, has out- wardly COME IN HUMAN NATURE ; plainly according to the historical testimony of the four evangelists: verses 9 and 10. From these I infer that whatever 293 spirit is not characterized in his influences, by professing and magnifying that grand proposition, is a limb of anti-christ. Now let us " try " Qua- kerism by this inspired criterion. It is the spirit of Quakerism to confess that Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world, comes inwardly, spi- ritually, iMPALPABLY, in the hearts of all men, as a " little small thing." How is this coming in the flesh, according to the scwse of scriptural phrase- ology 1 He " came into the world to save sinners ;" and this " is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation." He " came to seek and to save that which was lost : — not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many : Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree ; When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." This is THE WAY in which " Jesus Christ came in the flesh ;" and the confession of that fundamental fact is made (by the criterion) the signal of the Spirit of Christ, and its non-confession the index of anti-christ. But the confession is too outward for Friends. In regard to the expression in the flesh, it may be remarked that the word flesh, in the style of scripture, is (not mystically though) often figura- tively used : that it means either (1) flesh literally; or, (2) flesh morally, as the moral character of man ; or, (3) flesh, referring to the species or hu- man nature or mankind ; that in this last sense is 294 the expression to be understood when it is said Jesus Christ has come in the flesh ; that is, in hu- man nature. Compare Rom. 8 : 3. 9 ; 5. 1 Tim. 3 : 16. 1 Pet. 3:18. 4:1. 1 John, 4 : 2, 3. 2 John, 7. John, 1 : 14. There are doubtless other senses ; but these are the main ones ; with which however should be mentioned another, namely, (4) the state of human life temporal, as distinguished from that beyond the grave : as Paul says, Phil. 1 : 24, " to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." I have heard one silly version of the proposition which is proposed as the criterion ; it was given to me very confidently by a preacher of Friends. "In the flesh" said he ; " Christ has come in the flesh : that is the inward light, because it is in our flesh, it is inside of us. He is anti-christ that denies it !" Though the sage seems to think himself withal one of the wonders of the age, and though in divers sin- gular respects he is truly a wonderful character and as certainly inspired as any other of his fraternity, yet is he one of those M'hose letters I never an- swer and whose positions I have ceased to deny. Tale portentum refutatione indignum est, as Calvin says of universalism : — a monstrosity of this sort is unworthy of serious refutation. He is too im- pervious to common sense and scripture, to be worthy of sober argument. " For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a de- ceiver and an anti-christ." 2 John, 7. Now take a few specimens (thousands might be given) of the confession of Friends. " Christ is 295 in all men as in a seed, yea, and he never is nor can be separate from that holy pure seed and light which is in all men. In this respect then, as he is in the seed which is in all men, we have said Christ is in all men, and have preached and directed all men to Christ in them, who lies crucified in them by their sins and iniquities, that they may look upon him whom they have pierced, and repent : whereby he that now lies as it were slain and bu- ried in them, may conje to be raised, and have do- minion in their liearts over all." — Barclay. This mysticism and heresy is a true, but a very moderate specimen of their general confession. As a fact I can attest its truth that they do thus say and preach and direct men. It is their grand AND THEIR VERY DISTINGUISHING CONFESSION. It is the great metropolis of the foxian empire : and its native influence and actual result are utterly to disparage and obscure the real advent, the real crucifixion, the real atonement, of the Son of God ! It is the hostile opposite of the criterion proposi- tion, Jesus Christ has come in human nature ! Speaking of the Jews, the apostle puts it as the climax of their dignities that " of them, as con- cerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Here he teaches that Christ is both God and man in one person ; that in his human nature he is descended of Jewish pa- rents ; that in his superior nature he is the supreme God: and that he thus "came" into the world. This splendid fact is worthy to be made the con- fession of the church of Christ. 296 I now appeal to the conscience of the reader; and to his intelligence, if he have habitually and candidly perused the scriptures ; whether the spirit of Quakerism be not the spirit of anti-christ ? I do not here accuse them, of what they disclaim. They believe tlie historical fact of the mission of Christ to our world. They admit " his miraculous concep- tion, birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension,"*' as matters of fact. But this is not the question. Does this outward matter charac- terize them'? Is it their confession'! "We require no formal subscription to any articles, either as a condition of membership or a qualification for the service of the church."** How then do they " try the spirits ?" By the anti-christian dogma that — " Every man coming into the world, is endued with a measure of the light, grace or good Spirit of Christ."*' This is their confession ! — a thing, espe- cially in reference to a universal and equal and native participation of the Spirit of Christ, which I intend to disprove in the course of these pages. Barclay admits the fact of the personal advent, here and there, and states it passingly, in his big volume ; but no more. I infer that their spirit is not of God. Thus, though I cannot define the nature of what they mean by the inward light, I have traced it to its source ; or at least evinced that it is very diffe- rent from the influence of the Spirit of God, ac- cording to an inspired criterion. The counterfeits of a perishable currency we are all wise to detect : but the infinitely more deleterious counterfeits of 297 Christianity, we are strangely slow to discriminate. If men valued their souls as mttch as their pro- perty, they would wisely resist the imposing &brics of the enemy. This, bible christians are taught to do by the outtcard light of scripture, in the com- mencement of their religious course ; " lest Satan should get an advantage of us ; for we are not ignorant of his devices." How necessary this to the safety of the soul ! " And no marvel ; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Be- ware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." But THE CRITERION-FRUIT, the PRIMARY index of their genuineness or corruption — remember — is their " confession," their doctrine, the moral scope of their influence, as tested by " the oracles of God ;" and not their " sheep's clothing," their arts of in- gratiating, their placid and benign appearance, their sublime professions, their overflowing love for every body, their regular irreproachable morality, or any of their personal or active characteristics ; (in which things many of the ancient pharisees sur- passed them ;) while their confession is vitiated, defective, or heretical. * No man who has a just conception of the death of Christ as an " offering for sin," through whose atonement and mediation alone as a Savior by his cross, one human being ever was or will be saved, can think it other than congruous that the confes- sion of his advent in the flesh, as &. historical (as it was before a prophetical) fact, should be divinely 38 298 made a criterion of discrimination between Christ and antichrist ; or that Quakerism should be con- demned by that plain test, since its confession is so very dissimilar and mystically different, . from the facts of his mission and passion as detailed by the Evangelists. Before I leave this question of the nature of the light, it may be proper to suggest a suspicion long entertained and (I believe)" valid, that there is some, perhaps much, of pure materializing in their view of it. ^n inserted Jlaine that tends to kindle into glow and splendor, but is well nigh suffocated with humid air and adverse influences ; a seed that strives to grow, but cannot; an embryo Savior within struggling to be delivered, and a people sitting still in silence to suffer the physiological operation ! These are their ordinary figures of illustration ! But' — consider, is it not a mechanical representa- tion \ What has it to do with our own moral agency, vphich scripture every where describes as the me- diate arbiter of character and destiny 1 It is not spirituaMty at all ! It is blindness, grossness, mate- rialism, presuming folly, and essential falsehood. II. The argument, from the admission of the truth of this universal light within, that the scriptures are superfluous, is, I think, rational arid sound. Why should we prefer the difficult to the easy, the obsolete to the recent, the less to the greater, the distant to the near X What use of the inferior when we have the paramount ? The con- sistency of some Friends on this article, makes them at once malignant fanatics and delirious infidels ! 299 The policy of the powers of darkness is one of great moral unity. Unconverted men, who " hate the light that has come into the world," are all united in the end, however they diflfer in the means, to get rid of it. They all however reqiiire some specious substitute for " the holy scriptures, WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE US WISE UNTO SALVATION, THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN ChRIST JeSUS-" It is also necessary that this substitute should some how be made to appear intrinsiccdly and relatively superior to "thfe oracles of God;" that so they may support the character of candid and philo- sophic men, who prefer only what is " more excel- lent," and prefer it rigidly on that account. Thus the papist, the socinian, the deist, the philosopher of scepticism, the mere man of the world, the Friend, and all other impugners of the paramount authority of scripture, have each a favorite mode of avoiding and disparaging the volume of God. But it is manifest that their common aim is one. Their common cause is one, their common charac- ter ; and with some possible exceptions and pro- bable differences in degree, one shall be their common doom. Their security is presumption — at least it is a far different thing from tiieir safety. " For when they shall say ' peace and safety ;' then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not escape." Their sincerity will not save them. The papist has the tradition of the church, and the infallibility of " the man of sin," for his sup- posed vindication ; while his Bible moulders un: 300 read, covered with dust, enshrouded in the web of the spider, and hid in some unfrequented nook of his cloister. His responsibility is all devolved upon a mere abstraction — the church. So say the church, and I must believe it, is the summary of his creed. What a conveniency ! almost as good as " a mea- sure " of inward light. But who is the church ? Of this community each one is a constituent mem- ber ; but, in his creed, each depends upon all the others ; all manage to alienate their individual responsibility ; the whole of them elude its pres- sure ; the Pope himself believes as the church does ; the voice of the Bible is drowned in the din ; and iniquitous superstition, bigotted, bloody, persecut- ing, blind, and infallible as Quaker inspiration, performs its pagan orgies of execrable devotion-^- besides maintaining the lateran council, commis- sioning the Jesuits, canonizing sinners, vend- ing indulgences, managing the fires of purgatory, comforting the Inquisition, and wielding the Pro- paganda. The socinian admits the general truth of Chris- tianity : but makes his own reason, i. e. his selfish- ness, so to interpret the meaning of its documents, that he learnedly ascertains fi-om them all his pe- culiar views. Reason is his substitute ; — a goddess well bred and vastly genteel, but often as fanatical as the priestess on the tripod ; as perfidious, not to say as profligate, as the deity of revolutionary France. To Reason he can latently prescribe what she must sanction ; and thus he manages to antici- pate what scripture must reveal. There are no 301 mysteries in his creed : — except that he should need any revealed help from heaven, seeing he can teach and reform it vfhen it comes ! With him Jesus Christ is only a creature ; his death a mere sentimental display of suffering virtue, or conscious truth, or sublime martyrdom ; and at all events no atonement for our sins : Satan is a mere personi- fication of evil ; and hell a nonentity. With him experimental religion is not revealed in the Bible ; eternal punishment is a pure impossibility, which no evidence can prove ; regeneration is an absur- dity ; serious religion the effect of ignorance ; and the Holy Ghost himself no person, no being ; but a mere attribute, energy, relation, quality, virtue, influence. Thus he evades the whole power of the gospel, and is-r— a gentleman. The deist comes to the same result by extrava- gantly magnifying the light of nature. So great is this light, that the Bible is unnecessary. He can demonstrate that God is not prodigal of his gifts ; and when " the heavens declare his glory and the firmanent showeth his handy work," as there is no necessity, so neither is there any reality in a reve- lation of another sort. And we must admit, he says, his conclusions, if we grant his premises : for God is a wise economist, as well as a most munifi- cent king ; and what is altogether unnecessary, he will assuredly not communicate : and of what is necessary, the deist is a competent judge. Safe in the hands of one disposing power, Or in the natal or the mortal hour. 302 The sceptical philosopher is the disciple of the lights of science. He is above the need of celes- tial guidance. The Bible will do for the herd, but he is elevated above the necessity of such anti- quated rules. He is as well assured as if his geo- graphy had mapped the interior of the eternal world. He understands the wonderful facts of natural^ and the sublime discoveries of contempla- tive and experimental science. He has learned to doubt where others are sufficiently gross to be- lieve ; having ascertained that the philosophy of the Bible is radically wrong. It may be a good book to awe the world and aid the magistracy. But if all men were as enlightened by philosophy as some are, the Bible would be utterly exploded. In the times of Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac New- ton, philosophers were not " renewed up " to these heliocentric discoveries. The mere man of the world finds pleasure, and wants no more. This divinity is with him a suc- cedaneum for God and goodness. The Bible is good for the squalid and the unfortunate ; As beads and prayer-books are the toys of age; But if all could be as happy without it, as he is, its room would be better than its company. What a pity that such voluptuaries should ever get sick and die ; and possibly come to 'judgment in a future state ! But every now and then it happens that one drops off. The Friend gets rid of the Bible as effectually 303 as ^ny one of the foregoing, and much more spe- ciojisly. And why not, since he has something bel^ter within ? why not, when the inward light is pai'amount'! They have the spirit, that teaches them to disparage the words of the Spirit! They drink at the fountain, and what need of the streams 1 They walk hy the Lawgiver, and not by the law ! Their preachers are just as really inspired as was Paul ; and why go to his antiquated writings, when they have fresh inspirations at handl Beside, Friends doubt sometimes whether Paul was in- spired in all that he wrote. There are some things in his epistles that look rather carnal ; as if he was not then " delivered from the letter," or as if he had strayed away from his guide ; as they often do ! That Friends do, all of them, in London, New- York, and Philadelphia, and of all ages since their rise, unite in denying the paramount authority of scripture, is infallibly a fact. That they do this with much subtlety of argumentation, I believe ; — as I also believe that their argumentation is in its process pure sophistry, and in its result pure heresy. Their grand sophism may be detected by distin- guishing the personal dignity of the Spirit, com- pared with all his influences. It is a more general truth that the Agent is greater than the action. The Holy Ghost is greater than the scriptures, and greater than a miracle, and greater than creation. He is greater than any or all of his influences, miraculous or ordinary. Why are Friends so ela- borate, with Fox and Barclay at their head, to prove what no christian ever denied 1 The Holy 304 Ghost is God, and God is greater than all his works. The inspiration of the scriptures, for the use of men, proceeded from the Holy Ghost. Now, what is the position of a consistent protestant here 1 It is this — the Bible is a code of laws which I am obligated, in reverence for its divine Author, heart- ily to obey as my paramount rule of faith and action. What the position of a Friend"! As the Spirit that inspired the Bible is greater than the Bible, I am determined by the light within to walk by the greater and not by the less. That is — the Friend makes a rule of the Ruler, a law of the Lawgiver ; and a practical nonentity of the volume legislated by rightful authority on purpose to regu- late all his actions! This I call THEIR GRAND ERROR — the monstrous and mortal sophism of the Quakers. Hear their champion. Though the scriptures are all true, "nevertheless, because they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all truth and know- ledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. — Therefore also the Spirit is more originally and principally the rule, according to that received maxim in the schools, Propter quod unumquodque est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale. Englished thus : That for which a thing is such, that thing itself is more such." Let us see how this reasoning, applied to the legislature of the nation, would evince the superior patriotism of its disciples. Ordinary people think it right to honor " the powers that be " in a way of 305 peaceably obeying the laws. But suppose a poli- tical sect should arise to reform us all in that gross conception ; and should assume to know a better way, a far more excellent style of patriotism. We listen to their wisdom ; and this is its sum : " These laws, fellow citizens, can never make you patriots. They are all indeed very good, and ye are in the habit — ^we hear — of having every family in the country provided with a copy of them. For this you have large societies and levy a fearful tax upon the coffers of the fJoor. We are afraid that ye are all trusting to the dead letter of ordinances ; and much concerned that ye should be brought off from these outward things to hunt for patriotism in the secret of your own hearts. There after all is the place for it. Types and paper and law phrases never yet made a patriot. It is all vnthin that the true virtue is to be found. Beside, if ye would be wise, remember that this dotage of yours, in obey- ing the laws of your country, is a great affront to the legislature. Are the laws greater than the law- makers 1 Is it not plain that if you respect them for the sake of these, these are themselves woithy of much more respect ! That on account of which any thing is such, the thing itself is more such. If therefore you respect the laws, for the sake of the legislature, how plain is it that you are continually offending the legislature by such astonishing reve- rence for the laws ! But we have risen above all these vulgar influences. Our minds are all full of the light of patriotism, and so we can do just as we please. But because our patriotism is all one 39 306 with that of the legislature itself, it is qiiite a thing impossible that we should ever transgress the pro- visions of the statute-book.^" We do not however submit our doctrines or our actions to be judged by that material volume ; especially, because who are the judges 1 none but our doating countrymen ! But they are not proper judges ; and never can be, till their minds become enlightened with our doc- trine ; and then they will think just as we do. Beside, the statute-book is a very mysterious com- position. There is no possibility of knowing what it means, without our superhuman illumination, even if one sincerely desired nothing so much. The legislature contrived it on purpose that it might not be understood by common patriots. But as soon as you become sublimed by our instruc- tions, fellow citizens, (for whom our bowels yearn with tenderness and universal love — just like that in the legislature,) by simply " attending to " the light of patriotism in the secret of every heart, (as it is there made plain to the suckling and the fool,) you will come to know all the mysteries of political science, state polity, legislation, jurisprudence, and law practice ; yea, you can teach others also, and that without all learning and skill in the statute-book. You will come to discern the vanity of all legal forms and phrases, which the statute-book doth indeed appear to you to require, but which we see clearly to be cumbrous, expensive, and non-essential. Then indeed you will not be fleeced by the lawyers, and doctors, and judges. You will utterly retrench all these 'hireling' orders. You will see the non-neces- 307 sity of all such learned officers, and a thousand others, which our countrymen have continued to revere only because they have never known the liberty of true patriotism ; in which women are as wise as men in the anointing, and just as capable of lecturing on patriotism and instructing large con- gregations — while others are misled to believe in the paramount authority of the statute-book." In such a case of political radicalism as this, every real patriot would know how to dispose of it. He would see the hyipocrisy of the argument, even if he believed the sincerity of its venders. The main- tenance of the civil state would be impossible upon their reforming principles. He would view their doctrine as an abscess forming near the heart of the body politic ; and though the million might be taken with it, though they might praise the good- ness and fair appearance of its apostles, masculine find feminine, and even mistake them for " angels of light," the men whom thought distinguishes, and evidence affects, and principle controls, would think it patriotism to expose the fallacy of their scheme, and denounce the innovation as ruinous to the commonwealth. And what is time to — eternity \ In particular, it is manifest that the poor statute- book would soon become the victim of their ascen- dant argument. They would think it, to say the least, superfluous. A quotation from its pages, in opposition to their views, would be like a straw on the case of the crocodile. They would ride in their imaginations, especially if they were sincere, over the heads of the disparaged community. Fanati- 308 chia, sublimed and ethereous, would make a foot- ball of civic virtuie ! Such is the practical tendency and the actual re- sult of the light within. The Quakers treat the Bible as at best a very subordinate help. Many of them openly defame it. One very celebrated preacher has publicly and often said that mankind had been better without the Bible. And why is he not correct, if all men have a portion of the Spirit within tliem superior to it, by simply attend- ing to whose monitions they practice righteousness and attain salvation ] I am aware of the double (not hidden) character in which I appear before the christian public : a witness as well as a disputant. But how could I be a mere disputant ; since it was what I had witnessed, and what I renounced, on my knees with the Bible open, as an act of worship to '* the only wise God," and what I have with much anguish and many tears experienced as the consequence of my education and relationships, that brought me thus publicly to dispute at all t As a witness, aware of my accountability to the Searcher of hearts, " whose eyes are upon the truth," I shall at least make no intentional misrepresentation. No oath could add to the solemnity which invests the obligation of veracity in my convictions. But if it might, " I call God for a record upon my soul " that I will not intentionally misstate any thing. I however state that I have witnessed from their preachers and their people, times without number, s6ntimients, inuendos, implications, and significant actions, the whole scope of which was directly to 309 degrade the Bible ; and it is my full conviction that this is the very genins of their scheme, its native and necessary tendency. There is an argument of Barclay, which I will now consider. As its topic is fundamental, so its speciousness is seraphic. It is in substance this : — time was when to he led by the Spirit of God was thought to define the children of God ; but in our age the same characteristic becomes a reproach, and even an impeachment of christian piety. As he uses scripture to sustain his position, he always assumes the very point to be proved. No christian will deny that to be led by the Spirit, of God is essentially indicative of a true christian. Here then we are agreed. The only question respects the manner in which they are led ! Of this Barclay makes no question at all ; but just assumes, as suits him, that it is in the very way alone of Friends ! He refers here to that memorable saying of Paul, Rom. 8 : 14. " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." His reasoning in the connexion is very convincing, to those that follow the inward light, and who count it worldly logic to " prove all things and hold fast that which is good." But we will hear Barclay. "Of old none were ever judged christians, but such as had the Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8 : 9. But now many do boldly call themselves Christians, who make no difficulty of confessing they are with- out it, and laugh at such as say they have it. Of old they were accounted the sons of God, who were led by the Spirit of God. But how many aver 310 themselves sons of God, who know nothing of this leader ; and he that affirms himself so led, is, by the pretended orthodox of this age, presently pro- claimed an heretic. The reason hereof is very manifest, viz. Because many in these days, under the name of christians, do experimentally find, that they are not actuated nor led by God's Spirit ; yea, many great doctors, divines, teachers and bishops of Christianity, (commonly so called,) have wholly shut their ears from hearing, and their eyes from seeing, this inward guide, and so are become strangers unto it ; whence they are, by their own experience, brought to this strait, either to confess that they are as yet ignorant of God, and have only the shar dow of knowledge, and not the true knowledge of him, or that this knowledge is acquired without imme- diate revelation." And this is indispensable to — piety ! What inspired extravagance ! A Friend may speak and write what he pleases. The above is a specimen of Barclay's inspiration and of his charitableness ! If his reasoning be correct, then I see not that one soul of us can be saved that deli- berately differs with him in the matter of the in- ward light '. We are not christians, it seems ; we are "pretended" orthodox, ignorant of God, not sons of God, but graceless persons, whether doc- tors, bishops or what not 1 Let no man say that I lay too much stress on this controversy. A chris- tian may well aver that a more ruinous heresy to the souls of men could scarcely be invented, by the great sire of heresy, than Quakerism ! The dif- ference between it and Christianity is so great, so 311 glaring, and yet so relatively concealed, that we must take the stand of martyrs, denouncing and abhorring it, and that practically reckless of good or evil report as the result. Those who see the difference are specially bound to be bold in con- fessing it ; for the million see nothing but " an an* gel of light." I make a corollary here of moment — Friends mistake the nature and design of all inspiration ; especially in viewing it as having for its direct ob- ject to inspire our actions ! Now, we know that the actions of the apostles were, many of them, as men, defective, fallible, wrong ; — of course, not inspired. They were to be honored as inspired only when orally or scripturally they propounded the truth for our knowledge and government. In- spired actions make — inspired irresponsihleness, which is the character of Quaker inspiration. Hence, a preaching Friend is always right ; walks in innocency and truth alone ; has nothing to con- fess — except that God led and inspired all his ac- tions ; and thus morally identifies his agency with the divine agency, and finds marvellous peace in confessing no sin, having no gratuitous justifica- tion, knowing nothing of the way of salvation through the death of Christ, and preaching, " ano- ther gospel," totally and terribly another, all by in- spiration ! Barclay in order to avail his argument, ought to have shown that there was only one conceivable way of being led by the Spirit, and that it was the identical way of Friends ! he ought to have shown 312 that the Spirit does not lead " the sons of God " by means of his own word; or, that those who follow him in his recorded truth, are recreant to his authority, and do not follow him at all ! he ought to have shown that Luther, and the noble colleagues of the Reformation, were not " sons of God," be- cause they were led by the Spirit ordy through the word of God ; and that they had the darkness to follow Christ in the matter of styling the scriptures " the word of God." He ought to have shown that the scriptures tell men to go away from their pages to find their author ; and that it is not through the instrumentality of truth revealed in scripture that the Holy Spirit illumines, sanctifies, consoles, and perfects, the elect of God. Jesus Christ not only resolved the unbelief of the Jews into their prior disbelief of the scriptures ; but he denounces them as hypocrites, because they lightly esteemed or dis- believed " the word of God." Compare John, 5 : 46, 47, with 8 : 47. " For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me ; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words \ He that is of God, heareth God's words ; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." Beside, the promise of salvation is made to him that believeth . the gospel; while christians are said to be " born of the word " and " begotten of his own will with the word of truth." To this we may subjoin, " for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." I here ask the reader to pause and consider the execrableness of the grand position of Friends, 313 who profess to walk hy the Holy Ghost ! by him as A RULE ; hy him immediately, and not by his vorit- ten instractions ! by •him, as " a more noble" and principal rule in religion ! What is this but the darkness and impiety of making God himself a rule of action, and that for all men ; their eu- perlative rule, by which it is in the highest degree SPIRITUAL to walk in all things! They walk by the greater indeed ! I have no words in which to express my horror, at the sin and folly of the senti- ment ! Satan has discovered " a more excellent way," in these latter ages, of " sitting in the temple of God and showing himself that he is God," since Luther identified him in the pontificatiB and un- masked him to the world ! His malignant majesty has always manifested a characteristic superiority to the word of God, since first he disparaged it to the mother of mankind, and "deceived" her with the incantation of his argumeht. He exhibited the same cast of character on the throne of the pa- pacy : and now among fanatical protestants of all sorts, Quakers, Shakers, Mormonites, and what not, who desert " the law and the testimohy " be- cause " there is no tight in them," he afiects a gifted internal autopsy in religion, which, being superior to the Bible, renders it superfluous. This is one of his rare " devices !" To get rjd of the law, he pretends to walk by the lawgiver! To supersede the word of God, he makes God himsdf a ruh of action ! This truly is (we hope) one of his last and rarest inventions : — 'it may also safely be pronounced one of his worst ! He knows its 40 314 million-catching speciousness, and has proved its value in his modern policy. He will retain it as long as he can ! It is howeve* nothing but his most holy-looking^ device to prop a falling cause, and elude his trenaendous enemy, the word of God. " Get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, it is WRITTEN, IT IS WRITTEN," (thrice, said Jesus,) " thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou serve !-^thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God ! — man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!" This is the noblest life and the noblest food ! It is the unique and pervading and master policy of hell, and has been from the beginning, to put an extinguisher on the light of revelation ; to va- cate the holy scripture ; to neutralise the word of God. To accomplish this is the central object ; no matter by what means, if they will only reach it. The means are variable ; the generalship asto^iish- ing ; the resources and expedients endless. Su- persede the voice of the authentic "oracles of God," and Satan can reign in state and safety. The atmosphere of night favors his domain. The most specious means are often the most apposite and the least suspected. Those vi^hich throw a ver- bal compliment on the Bible, and seem to reve- rence ^n order the more certainly to destroy its authority, are quite eligible. And what delusion equal to the spell of Quakerism to effectuate this end 1 " And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother 1 And Joab. took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed to the s^ord that was in Joab's hand : so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground,, and struck him not again ; and he died." A left-handed trick ! Many such sinister friendships have the foes of truth evinced for it. So dies the Bible with the kisses of Friends. In this country they are at this day mainly — I fear — a community of infidels — only they would have us.think that they love Christianity. The only way in which Friends can elude, with any show of consistency, the force of this infer- ence — ihsii their superior law is the lawgiver him- self, is to deny at once honestly that they are trini- tarians, and to deny consequently that the " Spirit is God." Otherwise — God is their paramount rule of action ! There is no possible escape. I consider this dilemma as fair and as conclusive as that to which Jesus Christ reduced the Sadducees, when they raeavly said, "We cannot tell;" evading the premises because- they dreaded the conclusion. It is this : either the Spirit, in their creed, is not God, is a mere impersonal infiueTice or quality — and then they deny the trinity, deny their own admis- sions and averments, deny their 'orthodox' preten- sions, deny Gvevf thing but Sabellian or Socinian heresy : or, their cardinal principle is one with the impious absurdity of making God himself a rule of action, " the saints' rule," the highest rule, and so forth ! and hence, the ovdy way that even they can invent, to detrude the scriptures from their divine supremacy or to show a superior rule, is to make 316 thj©ir eternal Author — a rule ! Let any man of sense and principle, who prefers not to swing, gored thvou^h life, and " his offspring with him," on either hprn, of thjis bellowing monster, deny him, ai^d take the wprd of God as his highest rule in reHgion, in 1;h;is world and in that which is' to come '. The absurdity of the soul of the system, th*. putrijd quality of it^ very heart, is such — but I leave the reader, who qan, to think that it is not among ippious abs^urdities and destructive errors the most Qpnfoundiwg and confounded ! Monstrum hoFrendum ! informe, ingens, ciii lumen ademptum. ViRO. A monster taemendoua — misshapen — forlorn — Who^ej fifiti<}^|Of light, is the- challenge of scorn ! III. Thfi fact iJfM all the real knowledge and ♦ infej^gible j^^eef^hing of Friends are derived from thfi, scri0urfi^, demonstrates the non-entity of tbeir inward, ligl^t. The^tlijrty-nine books of the Old Testament had all been extant for nearly five, and some of them for nearly ^fteen, centuries, before the apostolic age. Thpy had. beea translated into the Greek language fpr three centuries. Christ and his apos- tles often quoted them, and always in a style of eoinpende|,tion. " The scripture cannot be broken," said Christ. He al^o said, " think not that I am pome tp destroy tbe law or the prophets ; I am not comp to destroy, but tp fulfil. For verily I say unto yov), Till heftjren and earth pass, one jot or one 317 tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." The evangelists and apostles followed the example of Christ. They ever revered and confirmed the writings of their inspired predeces- sors. They reasoned from the sayings of scripture as philosophers reason from facts, and mathemati- cians from axioms or propositions already demon- strated. " What saith the scripture 1 the scripture saith ; for it is written ; as saith the prophet ;" were thesir accustomed forms of reference, quotation, and proof. This is manly and even sublime. It shows that all the long succession of inspired men, from Enoch to the apocalyptic angel, who said to John, " I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets," all the series of so many centuries and millenaries of time, were raised up, commissioned, and inspired, by the eternal and immutable God. It shows that they had a common cause with each other and with God ; it shows " the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace." But beside this common agreement in doctrine and subserviency in object, these two characteristic qualities of genuine inspiration are manifest in each individual writer ; (1), Each writer is perfectly in- dependent of the others. Being equally inspired, he could deliver his message for the substance of it, if none other had preceded, if none other had existed. He quotes: the others indeed, and so evinces their common unity ; for the cause requires it. But this he does comparatively seldom, and then obviously more for others than himself. His own resources in God are just as ample, compared 318 with his official exigences, as were those of the first writer. No man can think concerning one of the writers of the New Testament that all his real knowledge and intelligible doctrine are servilely owing to his acquaintance with the writers of the Old Testament. If this were the case, his assumed inspiration would be suspected or incredible. The other characteristic is (2) That in the writers of the New Testament there is a plain moral equa- lity IN STYLE AND EFFICACY — to Say the least of them — in those passages which are not quoted, and which are largely more abundant, compared with those which are quoted from the prophets of a pre- ceding dispensation. All proof of this is deemed superfluous ; otherwise we could refer to the whole of the New Testament. If this be true of the New Testament writers, why may we not expect the same in their inspired successors and equals of the Society of Friends t Proper inspiration undoubtedly equalizes for the time all its genuine subjects. Where all is truth that is spoken or written, we cannot say that what one uttered is more true than what another uttered by the same authority. Consequently the oracles of the Quakers are the oracles of God — or, those of the apostles are not — or, the inspiration of the Quakers is a miserable delusion. But is it a delusion 1 If it have the two charac- teristics above considered, we should be slow to conclude against its claims. Has it then those characteristics'! Is each inspired preacher, inde- pendent, in the sense explained, of his inspired 819 predecessors of the Bible 1 And is there eqijal excellence of style and strength in what they speak at large, in distinction from what they quote from the scriptures \ Would their sermons make another Bible, if they were only collected and printed and bound in one book, beginning with Fox and pro- ceeding onward to living prophets and prophet- esses \ Why not I Is not God as able to inspire ignorant persons now as he was aforetime 1 What a loss to mankind, that so much inspiration is not rescued from oblivfon by the labors of stenography and stereotyped for the benefit of all coming ages ! O Mill, Kennicott, and De Rossi, what a loss! We must press the question. Are Friends in- debted to inspiration or to the scriptures for all they know or intelligibly preach in religion I Would the inward light have told them of the person, mis- sion, name, and glory, of Jesus Christ, or of a thousand other topics of truth, if the light of scrip- ture had never directly or indirectly shone upon them] If, for the knowledge of these things, as far' as they possess it, they are wholly indebted to scriptural revelation, in common with all their co- temporaries, how almost impious the delusion or the disingenuousness which affects to derive it independently of the written oracles ! whether they know it or not, their pretension is a monstrous fal- lacy! If they know it not, their ignorance is cri- minal and they have no right to be deceived . They have amply the means of knowledge; and God will call them to a solemn account. " They have Moses and the prophets;" they have Christ and 320 the apostles. "Let them hear theift." Otherwise "neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." And when they descend to the dead or rise in judgment, they will find, their sins and their excuses classed -together, in the indict- ment of eternal righteousness against them. There is a great variety in the style and copi- ousness of their preaching. Some of their preachers do not deliver twelve public speeches in as many months; and all of them together would not oc- cupy an hour in the delivery. These perhaps never, or very seldom, make a scriptural quotation. Some- times the recital of a passage constitutes the whole sermon. Some preachers are long to unendurable ; and their elders have the office of advising them to a curtailment of their inspirations. They are all as various in the manner of making formal quotations, as they are in the time they occupy in preaching. In general, they are loose and indefinite in- the citation of passages. They very often quote what is not there, because so said the light withiti at the time. One of their then most eminent preachers, on one occasion, in formally arguing with the writer, quoted a passage improperly. This was in- stantly remarked and the Bible produced. The passage was read in its connection (1 Cor. 12 : 7, to be considered hereafter) before the company of Friends, which was large. The efiect was power- ful. The preacher, " as he needs must," admitted his error. He was admonished to beware of de- pending upon misquotation for his arguments and upon the light within for his quotations. As he 321 quoted the passage, it suited his purpose ; and so have I heard it quoted in their solemn pubUc in- spirations, and that very frequently ; they quote it so, I ween, every month in the year, and found their argument on the mistake. But, as the passage is written in the text, and especially as the con- nection ascertains its meaning, it affords them no assistance. The crown of the matter was that a year or more afterward, and in company with that very same preacher, a professional gentleman and one who claims some scholarship in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, himself quoted that very passage in his old way to establish his old doctrine of the universality of inward light. I re- minded him of the circumtstaiice ; remarked on the power of habit and the love of theory ; and then abandoned this inspired quoter of Scripture as an incorrigible victim of the inward light. He has since, however, abandoned his Quakerism for, the allied mysticism of the system of correspondences. This is one of a thousand specimens that might be afforded. One thing is remarkable : — the tenacity and bold- ness of Friends in quoting scripture, when they see clearly that the passage helps their doctrine. It seems probable that if the Bible was found seem- ingly to favor their views one tenth part as much as it contradicts them, they would soon adopt it as their paramount rule in religion. In this they re- semble other enemies and corrupters of the truth ; who deal in excerpts and detached phrases, instead of studying and loving the whole connection ; in- 41 322 stead of believing and adopting the total volume ; who array one part against others, a few parts against many, and individual expressions against the universal scope of the word of God ; as if it were not all one thing — all equally divine — all equally evidenced to be " given by inspiration of God." I will add, that it has often been sarcastically re- marked by some of their own people, that their preachers are too much indebted to the phraseology of the Bible to be supposed themselves inspired: and one \ery d'lstmgmshed professional gentleman, a Friend, in the city of P a, once affirmed to an elder of the meeting, and in the presence of many, his own dubitation of their preachers, as follows; " I have seen some preachers that we call ' hire- lings,' who, on acquaintance, appeared to me to be men of great intelligence and spirituality." His audience seemed astounded. " What !" exclaimed the elder, (whose son was a preacher,) " does thee mean them that preach for hire V Answered the other ; " Aye ! and to tell thee more, much that comes regularly from our gallery is sheer non- sense." I can give names and witnesses, when necessary. Thus it is, especially with the more in- telligent; many doubt and ridicule their inspired communications : — many who will be angry with me for thus — in part — exposing a system of spiri- tual abuse which themselves certainly know to exist in the midst of them. IV. My next argument is drawn from the con- dition and practice of those nations, who, being des- 323 iitute of the scripture, but not (on this theory) of the inward light, have had nothing to embarrass the growth of its natural fruits or mystify their qualities. The doctrine of the interior light was invented, in my opinion, much on the ground of its wonder- ful convenience. And who can deny the splendor and excellence of the scheme 1 What a grand spi- ritual equipment for tartars, hottentots, and all sorts of savages ! Every man, the world over, furnished with a private supply, an individual vade mecum of inspired illumination, " by attending to the moni- tions of which" he has all necessary knowledge, and especially the riches of salvation ! What could the Great Mogul desire or have in all his state, more handy or important ? The only difficulty of the scheme is that it clashes with all evidence, fact, experience, and scripture. Like a thousand other "imaginations" that the gospel unceremoniously " casts down," there is not a particle of truth in its composition. The mon- strous ignorance of the pagan nations, their idola- try, polytheism, cruelty, pollution, obscenity, and perverseness, have been recorded by their own poets, orators, and historians ; and the scene has been relieved by no evidence of " the principle " in its proper fruits, which can be read by eyes that have been anointed with " the eye-salve of Christ." Men think well of themselves, and of others, when they feel a common cause. Hence they are very chari-. table to human nature in the gross: while their " tender mercies " to individuals in the detail are 324 " cruel." Jmt the reverse is true of those who think of human nature that it is as bad as the Supreme Inspector testifies. In proof of the real character of the nations, to whom the light of the gospel has not shone, as a tremendous but certain matter of fact — not half so convenient, it may be, but abundantly more worthy of confidence than the opposite theory, I shall ap- peal to scripture alone. If they have this light, each of them, we are not to expect an omission in the total scriptures respecting it ; much less the attestation of the absolute contrary. I waive what " certain of their own poets have said ;" what Dr. Macknight has proved, from the best heathen au- thorities, of the dreadful moral degradation of the very lights of heathenism themselves, and especially of the immorality of Socrates, that darling of po- pular infidelity ; I waive the assistance of facts nar- rated' in the reports of missionaries, who were per- sonal observers and eye-witnesses of the enormities which they rehearse ; I waive the fact of the current testimony of the Christian church, of all denomina- tions since the Reformation, to the darkened and dreadful condition of the heathen nations. These sources of proof and many others of kindred character, I waive : for, if the Bible is not express in omitting or contradicting the statement of Friends, I grant that other proofs are insufii- cient or illusory. My first proof is drawn from the first chapter of Romans, from the fourteenth verse to the end: — in which, if there be such a light in all men, as they aver, I am sure that Paul was ig* 325 norant of it. He there declares that he wishes to preach the gospel to all men, because they need it and because he feels benevolently indebted to them, to communicate, by preaching or writing, that in- valuable blessing. " I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ; both to the wise and to the unwise : so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteous- ness of God revealed from faith to faith ; [or, the righteousness of God by faith is revealed to faith ;] as it is WRITTEN, the just shall live by faith ;" or, the just by faith, shall live. I now ask, if this is not all folly, or at least a most superfluous office of the apostle, on supposition of this all-sufficient universal inward light l Friends believe the gospel and this light to be identical ! Why then should Paul carry them the gospel, when each one of them had it in his own bosom 1 Will Friends say they did not know what it was, and needed the presence and preaching of an apostle to give them the infor- mation 1 What kind of a light then is it 1 What good would the sun himself do to the nations, if they could not see him without the help of lesser lights, as torches, lamps, tapers, matches, fireflies, and glow-worms, to aid the vision of a man and teach him where to see the sun] And why were not forty thousand apostles provided with forty million of evangelists to help them, in the work of going 326 to every man on the globe and explaining to him elaborately the important fact that he had a light vnthin " by attending to " the monitions of which he should learn all he wanted and acquire all he needed for this world and the next ! And what is the condition of the nations through successive ages ] Do not the moderns need to be told, as well as the ancients, of the existence, offices, pro- perties, and relations, of this interior light : what is their condition then without apostolic monitors to help them 1 What is their condition, even on the Quaker scheme, without preaching 1 But I proceed. The apostle then evinces the horribly criminal condition of the whole heathen world. He says that the light of nature, teaching what they never learn, " that which may be known of God " from his works, condemns them as sinners and leaves them " without excuse." He says ; " Pro- fessing themselves to be wise," i. e. to have an inward light of their own, " they became fools ; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Here are some of the rays of the inward light of the heathen nations ; some of the precious fruits of heathenism! Quadrupeds, reptiles, vermin, did they and their very sages adore, instead of " the only wise God." They practised unnatural crime, he says ; and that without remorse, being totally abandoned of the fear of God. He ends the pic- ture with these words; " Andmn as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave 327 them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient ; being filled with all un- righteousness," «fcc. to the end. On the foregoing citation I remark, 1. It con- tains a moral estimate of the whole world, as dis- tinguished from the Jews ; these he subsequently characterizes in the next chapter : and then, in the third, asks the question, " Are we better than they V are the Jews essentially and by nature any better than the Gentiles 1 " No ; in no wise ; for we have before proved^ both Jews and Gentiles, that THEY ARE ALL UNDER SIN." 2. The picture, of their degraded and guilty condition, is given in the ar- gument, on purpose to evince their need of having the gospel preached to them. This is obvious. 3. The apostle intimates that all the nations once had, hut voluntarily forewent and forfeited, the know- ledge of God. They were all descended from Noah. All his sons had the knowledge of the true God. But soon, hating, they corrupted and lost it. The children imitated and appropriated the iniquity of their fathers. Every generation de- teriorated. " Their posterity approved their say- ings." And what became of their knowledge \ The little grew less. The streams of traditionary truth were more and more vitiated ; and branching into all directions, at last presented the monstrous proportions of the common mythology, and the abominable usages of universal paganism. Thus it was true, historically, individually, philosophical- ly, and universally, that "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." I remark, 4. That there is not a word said about the inward light ; no 328 exception in favor of its influence ; no crimination for working its extinction ; no intimation that the apostle knew of its existence ! 5. Inhere is no ex- ception of individuals. Pythagoras, Socrates, Pla- to, Aristotle, all the rare lights of pagan antiquity, had then shone upon the darkness : but, it was so unrelieved by their lustre, that the apostle lacked sight to see or charity to acknowledge or judgment to appreciate or inspiration to describe, the unhal- lowed and ungenial radiance. Whatever these sages were, the gospel, I find, makes little account of their lucubrations ; and I wish that many chris- tian writers, to say nothing of Friends, had shown the wisdom and the modesty toward God to leave them peaceably and submissively, where they are and where the scripture leaves them, in the hands of the Eternal. I have often remembered with pleasure an anecdote which I have somewhere read and now record. A party in a stage-coach were once entertained per force with the sponta- neous eloquence of a consequential blood, who chose to harangue them on the foolery of the mis- sionary cause. At last he came to the dreadful implication of the system, that the heathen actu- ally need the gospel, and may perish in their sins if not brought to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Here he vociferated, railed, declaimed, as if noise must convince where nothing else could be commanded— till he seemed exhausted. And tamer far for so much fury shown, As is the course of rash and fiery men, The rude companion smiled, as if transformed. COWPER. 329 His fellow passengers bore it well, though some of them felt not a little bored with it. At length an old gentleman in the rear, who had sat mute and unobserved, interposed, as follows: May I ask you a question, sir 1 Certainly. You, sir, and we all are not heathen : and worse will it be for us if we are not christians. The question is this — Are you a true christian ? have you personally a " good hope through grace" of everlasting life 1 The catechumen hesitated. Proceeded the catechist — Suffer me then to assure you that, if you should ever be so happy as to arrive in heaven yourself, which I pray you may, you will find the heathen all there too — or, a perfectly satisfactory reason for their absence ! It is plain that Paul viewed the whole world as so wicked and lost, and the gospel as so solely competent through God to save, that therefore his inspired benevolence desired to bring them the outward light of the gospel, and preach to them " the unsearchable riches of Christ ;" that so, tljfough faith in the testimony and promise of God, they might be saved from sin and from the wrath to come. This view is not only devoid of the doc- trine of Friends, but wholly adverse to it. Other- wise, why are not Friends actuated toward the heathen world as was Paul 1 Are they charac- terized in any way by the love of missions I My next proof is contained in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 20 and 21. "But I say, that the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God : and I would not that ye 42 330 should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the.Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." The anti-quaker phrases of "the cup of the Lord," and " the Lord's table," shall receive consideration in their place. It is worthy of note how Paul's charity disposes of the total mass of pagan worship in these verses ! It is all offered to- devils and not to God ! He makes no exceptions, no qualifications, no apologies. How plain that either Paul was destitute of inspiration or that the nations (and I have substituted the word nations for gentiles, as a better translation of the original) are in league with the Devil and his legions — and that their very worship breathes of hell ! Now where is the inward light ? But — not to press this question: admit that it exists-r-it . is manifestly inefficacious. What good does it ac- complish t who is purified or enlightened or saved by it ■? It might as well not be, since it leaves the very religion of its subjects in the service of the Devil ! Yet, O ye immortal souls, to whom Friers preach, they preach not the gospel to you ! They recommend you to the pagan darkness of the in- ward light, and turn you away from " the marvel- lous light" of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God !" Let those of you who have no souls or (what is worse) no consciences — practically none, continue the blind followers of the blind. Those whose eyea are open see "the ditch" into which ye will all Soon fall together. And O ye " forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value- O that 331 ye would altogether hold your peace ; and it should be your wisdom." The blood of souls will be found in your skirts, and that by thousands. You are not aware exactly of your heavy responsibility to God. He has condemned those rash and ignorant pretenders to a call from him, who preach " ano- ther " and an unknown gospel, " understanding • neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." I would recommend to you a rational and prayerful perusal of the twenty-third chapter of Jeremiah. Another argument is drawn from the recognised former condition of those saints to whom the apos- tolical epistles were written. Says Paul to the Corinthians ; " Ye know that ye were gentiles, car- ried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.". He says to the Galatians ; " This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith 1" The Quaker answer properly is ; " O foolish Paul ! be ashamed of thy ignorance. We receive the Spirit neither by the one nor the other. Every man by nature, whether heathen, jew, or christian, receives a portion of the Spirit of God, without which God could not be just, nor man accountable. Dost thou think that God could not save his creatures without the preaching of thee or any other man^ We have nobler and more honorable views of the universal Father." Plainly Paul thought that saints receive the Spirit " by the hearing of faith." With the fact alone am I concerned. Other matters I leave to Friends. What then was their condition before they enjoyed "the hearing of faith 1" Had they 332 "the Spirit" then! He reminds the Ephesians of their previous state in these words ; " that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." How could all this be> on the Quaker theory 1 In the same letter, he says ; " This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other gen- tiles WALK, IN THE VAWITY OF THEIR MIND, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." He says to the Thessalonians ; " Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God." Says the beloved John, on the behalf of the church, his brethren ; " And we know that we are of God ; and the whole world lieth in wickedness." A thousand other testimonies could be added ; but it is useless. Where are the fruits of the light universal? Did the apostles know! They did not. But Friends aver that in other passages their doctrine is recognised. Is this likely, after reading those passages that exclude the possibility of its existence ! But I will examine one or two of their texts, which they love — mainly because they mis- understand them! " Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons ; 833 but, in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Acts, 10 : 34, 35. If this passage asserted as a fact — what it does not — that in every nation there are instances of holy men, who, without all knowledge of scriptural revelation, are accepted of God ; more than this would still be necessary to sustain the theory of Friends : it would still be wanting to show that the knowledge, by which they wrought righteousness, was the result of the universal in- ward light. It might be the result of oral preach- ing ; it might depend upon special disclosures of the Spirit, as that which .first warned Abram to migrate from Ur of the Chaldees ; it might occur as the consequence of patriarchal tradition, like that which assisted (at least) the piety of antediluvian saints. The passage has no affinity with the doc- trine of Friends. It merely asserts the characteristic largeness of the new dispensation, in distinction from the national bigotry of the Jews. " In short," says Dr. Scott, " where the essence of true religion is found, God will graciously accept it, without re- garding names, forms or sects : — and whatever may yet be wantmg in explicit knowledge of faith, will in due time be communicated." The opposite of the text is that a man who had heard of salvation, who had long resided among the people of God, who believed the scriptures, and was sincerely devout, could NOT be accepted, because he was by nativity an undrcumcised Roman : this the Jews believed, and with a violence that was perfectly inexorable. The facts that circumcision was abolished and 334 that the nations were to be admitted " fellpw-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel," as distinguishing the new economy, were incredible to the Jews and at first even to the apostles themselves. This was the first instance, and Cornelius and his household were the first fruits, of apostolic preaching to the Gentiles. It required a miracle, a divine vision thrice repeated at Joppa, to convince Peter of the will of God, in this grand relation. Nothing less could break the spell of his Jewish prejudices ; which were almost as strong as those of Friends against what they choose to call " a hireling minis- try." When he journeyed, in obedience to the order of God, from Joppa to Cesarea, " certain bre- thren from Joppa accompanied him." These had not seen his vision, and hence " what God had cleansed, that called they common." They would doubtless report his uncanonical administration on their return. Peter was afterward put to. trial on this very ground. When he " was come up to Je- rusalem, they that were of the circumcision con- tended with him, saying, thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and ex- pounded it by order unto them." Hence it is evi- dent that this passage respects the Jewish, but has no relation to the Quaker controversy. I remark a few particulars. 1. Cornelius, though a native Ro- man, was an inhabitant of Palestine. He lived in Cesarea, which was nearer to Jerusalem than was Nazareth, where Christ was educated. He was 335 doubtless acquainted with the Old Testament scrip- tures, with the worship of the synagogue, and the persons of the Jews. Though he held a military commission (a case where piety yid soldiership combine) under the Roman Emperor, he appears so to have conducted as to win the universal ap- probation of the Jews ; and he had been quartered at Cesarea most probably for years. Thus he was a religious man long before Peter's visit; though very imperfect in his knowledge. The historical facts of Messikh's advent he had not then learned. He " was of good report among all the nation of the Jews." 2. That " God is no respecter of per- sons " is an elemental truth that refers to his judi- cial character alone. His providential administra- tion — his eternal sovereignty is not considered : it is only affirmed that as a judge he tcill he impar- tial, deciding according to facts and evidence ; he will not accept or condemn a man, Jew or Greek, because of national characteristics. 3. The ministry of the gospel, and not the inward light, nor even the ministry of angels, did God employ to "preach peace hy Jesus Christ'''' to this converted heathen and " perfect that which was lacking in his faith." The ministry of angels was employed to prepare the way for the nobler or better adapted service of an apostle preaching the gospel. Cor- neUus " saw an angel in his house, who stood and said unto him, send men to Joppa, and call for Simon,. whose surname is Peter ; who shall tell thee words WHEREBY THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE SHALL BE SAVED." What need of all this on the principle 336 of Friends 1 4. This holy centurion and his fa- mily were taught, what Friends had been slow to learn. After the sermon, said Peter, "Can any man forbid wajgr, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we 1 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." Truly it was not the light within that predominated in the speaker or hearers : otherwise the question had been, " Why not forbid water? having the substance, what need of the sign 1 Having the Holy Ghost, what need of water 1" What need \ " Thus it BECOMETH US to FULFIL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS." What need is there of doing the will of God ! I just add, 5. That the in- troductory words, " then Peter opened his mouth and said," are not to be regarded as a mere ple- onasm. They refer to his critical and novel situa- tion. He had been meditating on the import of the vision. His sensations were, no doubt, inde- scribably strong. But he kept it all a secret till the proper opportunity. Then he boldly, as well as promptly, divulged it ; he " opened his mouth " and spoke the unwonted and glorious truth. " After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Rev. 7 : 9, 10. From this text, and others of which this is a specimen, Friends infer that there 337 are pious and holy people among all nations ; that they become such by attention to the inward light and not by outward means ; and consequently that their whole sy&tem is proved. But surely their in- ferences are too rapid to be sound. Not a word is said about the manner of their becoming pious ; and why then have we not an equal right to infer that the rule, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, was as really true in their case as in other cases 1 There is at best no proof in such texts in favor of Friends. Beside, it occurs in a connection of prophecy. Events, then future to the writer, were predicted. These events were the conversion of hundreds to the faith of Christ, who were " sealed in their foreheads as the ser- vants of God." Whatever may be meant by the process of sealing, if we are to judge of this by other instances of which we are informed, we should say the gospel was preached to them ; they believed it ; they professed the religion of Christ, were baptized, and accepted, " as heirs together of the grace of life." It is moreover a scene which occurs properly on the earth, though it respects the heavenly state ; as by the rapid associations of prophecy, the two are often exchanged and often mingled also in the description. If however it is destitute of all proof of that which it was brought to prove, we must search for other texts which bear upon the question. How do sinners become pioiis ? Whatever we may allow for possibilities in the divine administration, there is no known ob re- vealed METHOD OF SALVATION OTHER THAN THAT 43 333 WHICH IS BY FAITH IN THE GOSPEL OF JeSUS Christ ! The gospel had been preached through- out the whole world, before the book of Revelation was written. Missionary efforts were made in after ages, especially in the next century. The book itself sublimely and often predicts the spread of the gospel as the means of salvation : and I know of no necessity or reason for the inference, from that text or any other in the Bible, that men are saved without the gospel. The propagation of the gospel in the first ages, constitutes one of the most wonderful prodigies in human history ; whether we consider the obstacles that were overcome, the victories that were accom- plished, the means used, the space occupied and filled with its radiance, or its lasting and magnifi- cent results as related to the future and the present world. Viewed with accuracy and comprehensive- ness, it remains itself a demonstration of the di- vinity OF THE GOSPEL AND THE SUCCORS OP GoD IN ITS PROMULGATION, which infidelity can never an- swer or candor disallow. The passage in Colos- sians, 1 : 23, (compare 6,) which Barclay translates and interprets, as if it meant to teach his thesis of " universal and saving light " suflfocating " in every creiature that is under heaven," as if it meant " that little small thing" and so forth, means demonstra- bly no more than the vast and astonishing diffusion of the gospel, by preaching, even in the first thirty years after the crucifixion of its glorious Author. It were better thus rendered : " Not removed from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, which 339 hath been preached (xi^pvxBevtog ei) Ttaa-^ rp xtiasi T*i vTto tov ovpavov) in all creation that is under heaven ; and of which I Paul am made a minister." Another specimen this of what it seems the voca- tion of iniVard light to do ! How anti-spiritual, Low gross, how prevaricating, is such a light! I could easily write another treatise of corrections, rescuing the true meaning of a multitude of pas- sages from the profane and audacious glossings of a pseudo-inspiration. We pass to consider, V. The MISSIONABY practice of the APOSTLfS, in carrying the gospel to distant nations and preaching it to all the world, as if the gospel so preached, and not any interior light, was to be the instrument of " salvation to every one that believeth." Actions speak louder than words, as saith the proverb of the ancients ; and in reference to the meaning of the apostles, if we can ascertain their official conduct, the result should be conclusive. How then did they understand the kingdom of heaven in this respect 1 The same criterion might aid our investigation of other points. Were they Quakers'! Did they think, and act, and look, and preach, like Friends \ How did they act ; what was their common usage in reference to the hea- then world? I answer, they viewed it as full of condemned sinners, who could be saved by the gospel through faith, and in tliat way alone; and they accordingly acted toward them, inculcating both by their preaching and practice the solemn duty of Christendom, and especially of the church, to dif- fuse the light of the gospel, mainly by preaching, througlwut the whole family of nations. 340 If this be true, is the light of Friends true \ If it be, why are they not actuated toward the nations as the apostles were? why do they oppose mis- sions 1 why lend so feeble and so ambiguoxis an aid at best to the noble evangelical charities of the day] why not favor Bible societies and all kindred institutions, with their personal and pecuniary in- fluence ] I know there are a few — very few — la- mentably few — exceptions ! But look at the society at large. The frost of stagnation hath settled on their energies and the winter of stoicism hath frozen all its depths ! If the apostles had acted as they do (and that not in one respect alone) Christianity had NEVER been propagated among the nations ! From the commencement of the Acts of the Apostles to the end of the inspired canon, com- prising twenty-three distinct original volumes, we have a continual history of the missionary prac- tice of the apostles. Not only in person did they travel and preach, but they encouraged and pre- pared others, evangelists and preachers, to go forth, fulfilling that ancient prophecy ; " The Lord gave the word; great was the company of them that published it." So many and so " mighty through God " were these heralds of the cross, that the pro- pagation of Christianity in the first ages remains to this day a wonder of divine achievement. It is unparalleled in the pages of universal history. The whole Roman empire felt the vital shock of the gospel, circulating, like the tide of life in the human frame, from the centre to the extremities. When Paul wrote his glorious epistle to the Ro^ 341 mans he had indeed never visited that proud me- tropolis, though his pilgrim labors had filled the world, in almost every other direction, with the renown of his Master. He says to the Romans, " from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation ; but as it is written," «fec. — 15 : 19-25. We know that many others, though less eminent,*were engaged in the same identical cause. And here we see the instrumentalities which God from the beginning employed to propa- gate the gospel ; and which, through his blessing, were astonishingly successful. " Within about thirty years after our Lord's death, the gospel was spread, not only throughout almost all parts of the Roman empire, but even to Parthia and India." Pliny to Trajan complains of the ascendant influence of the superstition, as he calls it, and of the conse- quent desolations of heathenism. Tacitus speaks of an ingens multitudo, a huge multitude of chris- tians, in the city of Rome in the time of Nero. Thus onward proceeded this kingdom of the High- est, till it speedily included the whole Roman empire, with the Emperor himself, not only in its territory, but nominally at least in its bosom. Could Quakerism thus have moved a world 1 What — by inward light, passivity, and silent meetings ] That they must have thus labored to evangelize the nations is further evident /rom the tenor of their commission. " Go ye therefore," &c. Matt. 28 : 342 18-20, and Mark, 16: 15, 16. On these words allow a few remarks. (1) The commission was designed to be (and therefore is) of permanent authority in the church. This might be argued from many considerations ; we infer it here simply from the promise ; " Lp, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." This could not apply to the apostles, or to the men of any one generation, exclusively. True, the apostles as such had no successors, no predecessors, no. equals, no official similars. As preachers, however, they are comparatively common — they are at the head of a long succession of faithful ministers of the cross of an atoning Savior, from whom each derived his tantamount authority. This shows the permanent constitution of the gospel, and infers the perma- nent wants of men, as well as the permanent duty of the church. (2) The original word rendered preach is taken from the ofiice of a commissioned town crier, who makes proclamation aloud with the authority of the commonwealth, and arrests the attention of all to his message. In this way is the order to preach the gospel in all the world and to every creature. Not a word in the commis- sion about the light within ! The word teach means to instruct by oral incul- cation ; and thus to preach and teach the gospel to mankind is the sum of this stupendous order, that remains to this day binding, directly or indirectly — binding in its spirit on every human being to whom it comes, greeting. It is an order to diflFuse the truth of the gospel, to propagate Christianity ; a 343 work of the King's commandmejal, in which every subject of his realm is bound to be aiding and assisting ; and at least to give it his blessing and his prayers. The age in which we Uve is begin- ning to awake to this business. One third of ih'' present century has gone, the brightest sip^ -*Qe Reformation, with the light of the ap^*'' ^ pinions, " flying in the midst of heaven»>^flg the ever- lasting GOSPEL to preach^t""^ them that dwell on the earth, and to ejj*^ .^tttion, and kindred, and tongue, and .f eopu. *■" Here we see the appointed means of the conversion of the world. Luke, 10 : 1, 2. The scriptures are to be translated into all the languages of the peopled earth ; missionaries are to go forth by thousands ; like candles linlight- ed, though distributed in a large house, the Jewish manuscripts of " Moses and the Prophets " (in every synagogue under heaven,) are to" be touched and lighted with the torch of Christianity, kindling a thousand central fires throughout the world, but shedding one sole light upon the darkness of its inhabitants. But I digress. (3) We see the duty of all who hear the gospel — to believe it, to learn it, to love it, and practise it to the glory of God. (4) The sanctions of the preached gospel are at once ultimate and tremendous : they are salvation to the believer, damnation to the infidel ; and no alternative ! It contains no apology for harshness, no compromise, no ceremony, no respect of per- sons, no double dealing, no concealment. Let the world tremble — rather let the world obey! (5) There is nothing mystical, or even figurative, in 344 all this high concern of truth and destiny. It is all intelligible. The meaning of every word is plain. It is marked with " truth and soberness." No enthusiasm, no weakness, no artifice, appears ; but the signals of mercy and majesty divine ! How totally unlike Quakerism ! My last remark is (6) that the gospel so propagated is alone recognised as the grand instrument of salvation. As it in- volves no uncertainty, we know that by this men may he saved ; for so says Jesus Christ. Can we know as much of inward light 1 " He that be- lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved." He that minds the inward light — stay ! is that in the com- mission \ *rhat instrument of God is a manifesto of duty to the world, as well as a charter of office to the ministry ! Whatever we may guess^ or " Friends believe " about the inward light, what divine certificate have we for any thing but faith in the simple gospel \ All the history we have in the case shows that the apostles understood this commission just as we do. Their practice is a commentary which verbal criticism cannot corrupt, nor any thing but infatua- tion resist. The light within may clearly see some- what different, since covetousness and sensuality see the same thing. But genuine piety listens to declarations such as these : " For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness ; but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise ■? where is the 345 scribe 1 where is the disputer of this world f hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 1 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. 1 : 18-24. Besides, we have a standing order for the recruiting of the miaistry to the end of the world. 2 Tim. 2.: 2. I only ask any man of sense to tell me, in meto of all this, what are we to think of the inward light ? of that inspired sanctimony which denounces all this structure of God, as prosecuted ** in the will of the creature " and as a system of will worship and idolatry ? " Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight." Is. 5 : 20, 21. A correct view of the commission, work, impor- tance, and ends, of the evangelical ministry, might revolution the mind of any Friend, in respect to the distinctness and dignity of the ministerial or- der : and he who reads the scripture with an eye critically awake to the subjectj will see how the total scope of the book of God differs from the 44 346 total scope of Quakerism : what I have given un- der this head, or indeed elsewhere, is more an ex- hibition of principles and specimens than a full synopsis of the subject. VI. The character of apostolic preaching, AND ALSO OF HIS WHO COMMISSIONED AND PRECEDED THE APOSTLES, is Wonderfully destitute of all force and propriety, in respect to the doctrine of in- ward light, if that doctrine be true. That these all preached the doctrine of the per- son and office-work of the Holy -Ghost, as vital to all saving knowledge of God, is a momentous and indisputable fact. No man believes this fact per- haps more really than I do. It is the catholic faith of protestants : and he is no christian who doubts or denies it. Let not Friends assume that I am opposed to the scripture doctrine of that important article of the creed of all saints ; because I distin- guish it from their doctrine which I consider not scriptural at all : — for, I believe the Quaker spirit to be another spirit, the Quaker influence another influence, and the Quaker doctrine another doc- trine. It seems necessary, as I wish neither to deal in negatives nor to become voluminous with positives in this treatise, to give a statement of what I con- sider the catholic doctrine on this subject — the im- portance of which can scarcely be exceeded. Here also I wish to commit no individual or denomina- tion for my views of the catholic doctrine. If I show a very different doctrine from that of Friends, then the reader has only to " search the scriptures ;" and 347 if he finds it there in substance as here represented, he will be at no loss to account for the zeal mani- fested in these pages against its placid counterfeit. Perhaps also some scriptural evidence accompany- ing the statement may aid his conviction of the truth. It MviW be impossible, however, within the allotted space, to adduce the full proof of every position ; nor will an approximation to this be at- tempted. That the Spirit of God has a mighty and uncom- puted agency in preparing the church for glory and eternally sustaining them in that sublime fruition ; and that this agency is substantially the same in all ages of the world — from Abel to the last ran- somed soul before " the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be 'dis- solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ;" are positions of sacred and evincible truth. But the Spirit has done many things without us, as well as in us ; and many preliminary, as well as consummate ; and circumstantial, as well as vital, in effectuating the salvation of men. All his in- fluences, however, are necessary in their place ; nor does it accord with his perfect wisdom to do any thing in vain or any thing superfluous. By his in- fluences I mean all that he does, in whatever aspect, in accomplishing the salvation of the saved : a cor- rect view of which affords at once the theory and the vindication of those blessings of salvation, called, somewhat technically, revivals op reli- gion. These influences I distinguish into two great 343 classes as ordinary and miraculous ; of which inversely : First> MIRACULOUS influences. Under this head I comprehend all extraordinary influences, whether foTfHcdly miraculous or not ; as his agency in crea- tion, in providence and in the ancient church ; his plenaiy revealing influence, in all the " holy men of God " by whom the scriptures were written for the benefit of the world ; his influences strictly miraculous in the first ages of the Jewish and the christian church ; particularly of the latter, when the preachers of the gospel, introdvx.ing Christianity and "planting it, in a world of ignorance and hos- tility unallayed with better qualities, " went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs follow- ing — God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy' Ghost, according to his own will ;" and his suggestive influences, in many merely oral communications of his prophets and apostles, occa- sional or regular, public or personal, brief or ex- tended, for purposes more p&rtial and temporary than what was ordered to be written for coming generations. Oi these influences, called miraculous, I would observe (1) that they are all gifts and not graces, all helps and not parts, all auxiliaries and not constituents, of vital religion. A man may have inspiration and work miracles, and be " a devil," as were Judas and others : because he may know and experience all these things, and never love God or forsake sin, or have one good motive. Piety does 349 not consist in being inspired or working a miracle ; but in obeying the gospel, departing from iniquity, and practising the will of God."' How would the opposite, or the doctrine of Friends, affect us, re- duced to the simple propbsition ; Except a man he- comes inspired, as the prophets and apostles were, he cannot be saved! This however is the doctrine of Barclay, as I shall hereafter show. More to evince the absurdity of the position, let us alter it, thus ; Except a man have the gift of miracles and of lan- guages, as the apostles had on the day ofpentecost, he cannot be saved. I observe (2) that all the mira- culous influences, as they are distinct, so are they all SUBSERVIENT to the ORDINARY influences, and of ultimate worth only as related to the triumphs of truth and holiness. Miracles and inspiration are to piety just what scaffolding is to a building or husks to growing corn : — of no utility after their end is ac- complished. Miracles however are still of use to us ; established by testimony and vindicated by rational evidence, all ages, since the last one was performed, may be certified of their verity ; may infer the truth of the system which they were given to authenticate ; and enjoy in thought and feeling (not in sense) all the moral advantage of the whole series from the beginning ; this their noblest benefit and end. If they were thus subsidiary to the more noiseless, less ostentatious, untransitory influences, called ordinary, then (3) tee ought to value and expect the ordinary influences, as at once attaina- ble by all, and infinitely more profitable to THEIR POSSESSORS, than the extraordinary and mi- 350 raculous influences. These one might have and — perish ; those to have, is to be saved — if the degree involve holiness of heart ! I observe (4) that whate- ver tends to error in this relation, hy leading men to substitute the latter for the fotmer, to prefer gifts to graces, and miracles to mercies, and in- spiration to a moral change of the affections, tends equally to deceive and ruin the soul ; tends to make zealots and fools instead of saints and christians ; tends to fascinate the immortal mind with nonsense and to plunge it into death. Once more (5) there is no evidence either of the necessity or the reality of miraculous influences since the apostle's day, nor of one instance of proper in- spiration since the death of the beloved John. Where is there any utility of such influences 1 Cessante causa, cessat res, the effect ceases vpith its cause. The power of miracles continued and permanent, is at once the claim and the stigma of antichrist. 2 Thes. 2 : 9, 10. And why is there not just as much evidence of miracles, as of inspi- ration, continued \ Friends strangely separate, what God has generally joined ; and are — of late — quite as remarkable for declining to work miracles as for professing to be inspired. O that they would learn to " refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise themselves rather unto godliness !" Otherwisie, it will be their doom, as it is their history, to " turn away their ears from the truth, and ' be turned unto fables." " And we know that all things work together for-good, to them that love God, [whether inspired or not,] to them who ar& the called accord- 351 ing to his purpose:'" and these are identified with them that love God. Secondly, I come now to speak of the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit. By these I mean all those influences by which the mind is enlightened, convinced, converted, sanctified, comforted, sus- tained, actuated in obedience, edified in faith, ex- panded with benevolence, martialed in duty, and m,atured for heaven ; as also those they told them that they were all sinners, "dead in tres- passes and sins," and must be totally changed in their moral nature, or perish ; without one glance at any such thing as the seed ! The order of God, which they every where resounded, was. Repent AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. Paul indeed told the Athenians that God is "not far from every one of us ;" and here what a fine opening he had for the seed doctrine ! how he m'ght have added, in Bar- clay's words, by way of explanation, for " a divine spiritual, and supernatural light is in all men; which light or seed «s vehiculum Dei ; as God and Christ dwelleth in it, and is never separated from 375 it ; and as it is received and closed toith in th^ heart, Christ comes to he formed and brought forth.^^ In- stead of this, his explanation is merely of the natu- ral presence and ubiquity of God ; "for in him we live, and move, and have our being :" Mark f we as creatures are in God, not God in us : " for we are all his offspring." The apos.tles preached that " the whole world lieth in wickedness ; that every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God ; that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ; that God so loved the would that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have ever- lasting life ; that the stone which was set at naught of the builders, is become the head of the corner ; NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER : for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN given among men, whereby we must be saved ; that this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his Son : he th.at hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life ; that he that believeth not the gospel, shall be damned ; and that the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified in "his saints, and to be admired in them that believe ;" and that to reject or sophisticate the gospel is the criterion of* eminent wickedness. In all these specimens of genuine inspiration, as taken from the preaching of Christ and the Apostles, it is observable that not only is nothing said about 376 this seed or light of Friends, either in a way of reprehension or explication or alhision, but the pro- positions themselves exclude the possibility of its existence. They preached an outwakd Christ to a world inwardly dark and lost ; even " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ;" they directed men to look out o( themselves for salvation, to " Jesus Christ and him crucified," whom they preached as the only hope of the world; they called upon men to exercise "repentance toward God and faith to- ward our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and they fully warned the impenitent and the unbelieving not only of the terrible guilt of their courses, but of eternal damna- tion as the certain consequence of remaining in them. I will add, if there was any sin that induced-the more dreadful denunciations of these missionaries of hea- ven, it was undoubtedly fAe sin of corrupting the doctrines of religion. How tremendous are the rebukes of Jesus Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees for neglecting, superseding, or misinter- preting, the holy scriptures ! Read the seventh of Mark, and the twenty-third of Matthew, and ponder their meaning, ye who doubt it. Again, take one example ofthe preaching of Paul, which is applica- ble too, to all modern corrupters, and tremble for them that vitiate the gospel. Acts, 13 ; 10. " O full of all subtlety, and all mischief, thou child of the ' devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou NOT CEASE TO PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE Lord t" He then smote him with blindness by mi- raculous agency; and all this because he "with- stood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from 377 the faith." If it be such sin to "turn away" one soul " from the faith," what kind of responsibility is theirs who actually divert thousands from the same 1 I come now to show VII, The fallacy op all the evidence upon which the doctrine affects to he supported hy scripture. This proposition might imply or seem to require that I must follow them in the examination of all the evidence which they adduce, in order to evince its fallacy. But this were perhaps impossible ; since there is plainly ilo end to the perversion of the sense of scripture, by the application to its pages of some fond and false principles of interpretation. There never was a book more susceptible of specious per- version than the Bible. Not that it is waxen and flexible in its own native structure. Just the reverse. But there are many causes which enable a wrong- headed fanciful expounder to wrest its meaning with plausibility and verisimilitude. The ancientness of the style ; the peculiarities of the Jewish nation to whom it was first communicated ; the facts and usa- ges of oriental antiquity; the dependence of its parts on each other ; the truth-fraught boldness of its phraseology ; the latitude and strength of its figures ; the fulness of its mercy ; and other characteristics not to be numbered ; so appear on the face of its pages, as to give ample scope to the action of a lawless, theory- loving, imaginative mind, and seem (and only seem) to yield to an influence upon them, all plastic and coercive, which the graceless interpreter ingeniously emits. But let it be remembered that if probation is here, retribution is hereafter. Every thing in the 48 378 divine constitution, and the Bible more especially, is purposely designed to try the reins and heart ; and while God gives all needed scope to the exercise of our moral powers, and preserves perfect our proper •freedom, he proportionately augments our personal responsibility ! Wo be to the sinner whose rashness or whose malevolence trifles with the truth of Jeho- vah and vitiates the meaning of his written oracles ! The Bible is capable of the most clear, full, and sa- tisfactory exposition. Holy ingenuousness of heart, and a well disciplined mind, are the grand qualifi- cations of an interpreter. Learning, patience, col- lateral helps, a knowledge of the hermeneutic art founded . as it is on the soundest principles of science, a correct philosophy, and especially a thorough and critical knowledge of the original languages ; these are subordinate, but most desira- ble ; and for a public teacher of religion they are to a certain degree indispensable qualifications. May the church be ever saved from the interpretation of ' sincere ' and blundering ignorance ! To say this, is consistent for us, who profess an utter indebtedness to the scriptures for all we have of divine revelation. But — Friends^their relation is widely different every way to that Book of Books. One would be likely to inquire why they value scripture supports, conjectured or real, even as much as they appear to do, seeing they are so sub- limely furnished, every man " under his own vine and his own fig-tree," with a private supply oi pa- ramount authority and excellence ! But they do indeed affirm that the scripture teaches their very 379 doctrine. They name the texts that contain a tes- timony to their creed of a universal inward light, and refer us to them with as much confidence as if any such doctrine was soberly taught in the word of God ; or as if now they believed the Bible to be of supreme authority. I commence by flatly denying their assertion : and am bold to pledge myself that there is not one text in the whole Bible that, in its native and proper import, contains any such doc- trine. Nay, more ; I aver that any other heresy that ever darkened tHe air, is just as able to support it- self on the basis of the Bible, as the awful, good- looking, pestilential heresy of Quakerism. The re- sult is that the text must first be perverted in its meaning (and that may be done in many ways) be- fore it favors the doctrine of Friends. Barclay's sixth proposition, after blaming his Arminian allies, the Remonstrants of Holland, for that in which they had been chiefly wanting, in that, though they had said so many good things that suited him, they 'have erred in afSrming " the absolute necessity of the outward knowledge" of the gospel ; (where they were manifestly evangelical and right;) concludes with a censure of them " and many other assertors of Universal Redemption, in that they have not placed the extent of this salva- tion in that divine and evangelical principle of light and life, wherewith Christ hath enlightened every man that comes into the world ; which is excellently and evidently held forth in these scriptures ; Gen. 6 : 3. Deut. 30 : 14. John 1 : 7, 8, 9. Rom. 10 : 8. Tit. 2 : 11." 380 In this passage of the Apology, and in a very formal part of it, (in a proposition, not the discus- sion of it, in the conclusion of one of his theses the- ologicae,') we have some six or seven verses selected from the whole Bible, which — he says — contain the proof that outward knowledge of the gospel is not necessary ; that the extent of Christ's salvation is placed in the inward-light principle which is in every man ; and all this " is excellently and evi- dently held forth " in the passages he has cited. To these then let us go, much in the order pro- pounded, to see this blazing and excellent evidence, which, we believe, was all in his own enlightened imagination. After considering these, we shall no- tice a few other of their vaunted proof-texts. Why should any man be allowed to vend such ruinous imposture, without animadversion'? 1. We begin with Gen. 6:3. " And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man ; for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Barclay's comment, in discussing his proposition, is simply this, so far as interpretation extends ; " my Spirit shall not al- ways strive in man ; for so it ought to be trans- lated." Why did he not condescend to give us some proof of this 1. He makes an assertion, bold, new, contrary to received opinion, based on philo- logical criticism or the implication of it, a most im- portant assertion and one fundamental to his in- ternal scheme ; and yet, never offers a single par- ticle of proof of his version ! This might answer, if he was really inspired to say so : but then he ought 381 to work a miracle to prove his inspiration. Other- wise we must just treat him like another man. Mark ! the point of difference here is not whether the Spirit strives with men ! This is admitted. But it is whether he strives in every man and without outward means, according to the scheme of the in- ward light 1 So says Barclay : — he asserts that he does. We call for proof : — there is none! Why then does not his assertion fall by its own sluggishness, having nothing to support it ] O — Because he is inspired! We 'call again for proof: — there is NONE ! Why then must we believe him ■? Is it be- cause he was so learned 1 We answer, whatever his general learning might have been, it was all nothing unless he was specially well versed in He- brew philology and criticism ; and even then his assertion is insufficient. When a man tells how a text ought to be translated, a m9St important text and a most cardinal alteration, and yet gives us not one syllable of evidence on which to found his as- sertion, we ought to be wont to defer very much indeed, censurahly much, to his lore and correctness as a Hehrean, or more to his inspiration, in order to give any confidence at all to his opinion ! Bar- clay's Hebrew knowledge however is very question- able. It is my opinion that he knew little or nothing of the language. Our translation of the original word 0"7$^?, ren- dered in our Bible with man, may safely he pro- nounced a correct one. If there be a question in the case, it all turns on the first letter of the word. The prepositional prefix 3, is rendered with by 382 our translators and in by Barclay. He says it ought to be in. But how does he know this \ Is it be- cause the letter D, means in and only in, accord- ing to general grammatical usage, when so prefixed to nouns 1 Jfthis were a fact, it would seem to jus- tify his assertion and greatly assist him. But the misfortune of his predicament is that the fact is otherwise. To mention one case of a thousand, it is rendered with six times in one verse ; Exod. 10 : 9. ^ means almost any thing, as it is situated. It is a preposition of notoriously large and generic signification. One must always look at the nature of the case to know how to render it. Our Lexi- cons give a numerous retinue of meanings in its definition. Parkhurst has numerically thirteen ! For the sake of general readers we will state them and others. In, within, among, when, because, to, against, with, together with, concerning, of, into, by I by means of, after, for, on account of, according to, upon, above, are all given as forms of its mean- ing in diffierent circumstances. Now look at the assertion ! He takes one meaning out of twenty, and decides vnthoui any reason offered that such is what it ought there to have ! The Lexicon of Ge- senius by Gibbs contains the following remarks, on 2 as a prefix preposition ; it is one "occurring in various connections and significations, which in other languages must be expressed by many diffe- rent particles." It then proceeds to give the dif- ferent meanings and formally enumerates nineteen with references and proofs. At best it can deter- mine nothing in the case. On the score of philo- 383 logy therefore the assertion of Barclay is good for nothing. The error is the more reprehensible that the matter is so important ! It is all in the contro- versy, if it decides the point in favor of his doctrine of the light within. I allege further that it is an awkward and unna- tural renderifig, which it ought not to have ; that there is no necessity of supposing any immediate objective manifestation to the antediluvians either within or without them, since we know of the ex- istence of medidte ones, quite adequate to answer the demands of the case ; and that there is nothing in the condition of the church or of mankind, before the scriptures began to be written, that requires or warrants the theory of Friends. A word on each of these, superfluous indeed for the critic, but per- haps needful for others. (1) The passage ought not to he rendered as Barclay decides, because his way is awkward and unnatural. We have seen that there exists no grammatical necessity for his version. I now assert that it is destitute of all intrinsic propriety. The sense of the verse is liberally this : My Spirit shall not he striving with man forever or for an indefinite period ; for he is mortal, carnal, rebel- lious : I will bring the matter to some end and issue, and thence appoint him ] 20 years of further trial; at the expiration of which period I will drown all the world with a flood. As if he had said / will not always and to no result be dealing WITH man, and hearing with him. My Spirit of truth and mercy shall not always be treating, and 384 striving, and forbearing, with him to no purpose ; I icill take measures to cut it short in judgment : the controversy shall be settled. The longevity of the antediluvians made such a procedure aptly pro- per ; and 120 years was to them but a short respite, so long was their life. It was but a brief appen- dix to the age of one of them who. was old ; but when it was for all, young and old together, it was solemn, it was terrible ! The reason was, and this is the natural rendering, that God would not be always, and to no result, treating and contesting WITH Tnan. In common negociations between con- tending parties, it is common, it is natural, for one of them to say, you know m,y terms ; I will not waste time or dally with you, as if this treating WITH you were to continue for ever. I will limit It time, say one month, within which you must de- cide. This will better appear, when we consider, (2) That there is no necessity of supposing any " immediate objective manifestation " to the antediluvians, either within or without them, since WE KNOW of the existence of mediate ones, quite adequate to answer the demands of the case. We are informed of the preaching of Noah to them ; of the vast operations, constantly advancing through the whole period, in the building of the ark, which solemnly warned them of the approaching deluge ; and of other means which they enjoyed in wonder- ful advantage and perfection : — ^by all which means the Spirit of Jehovah strove with that evil genera- tion. The facilities of tradition, connected with the fact 385 of genuine and decided piety, down to the period to which the text refers, and even after it, demonstrate the plenitude of outward means. Our positions here are that outward means are necessary ; that the word of God is the grand instrument for ever ; and that, whether this word he written or spoken, deUver- ed by oral prophecy or oral tradition, it is the out- wardly ministered word of God, and not any in- ternal objective manifestation apart from it, by which his Spirit strives with men in all ages. We believe indeed in the inward objective manifestation occa- sionally and extraordinarily made to his prophets by the Spirit : but then we also hold that these were most generally made to be written or spoken for the sake of others, and so were peculiar to the prophet as such ;" of course they were not, as such, a universal inward light; and when communicated, though they were objective, they were not immediate ; since holy menspake, preached, taught, worshipped, and labor- ed for the souls of men : and thus God strove with them, in kind, not in degree, and form, exactly as he dops withus. Our knowledge of those ancient ages is indeed very general and limited. But it is not there- fore indefinite ; we know enough to authorise the inference that they well knew the will of God by or- dinary outward means and the occasional inspiration of a prophet ; either (and much more both) of which ways shows the non-necessity of the theory of Friends to account for the whole matter ; for it is obvious that Barclay and others suppose (wild as is the sentiment) that the mere fact that God strove with men, and communed with them by his Spirit, before the scrip-^ 49 386 iures were written, is proof positive of their doctrine ! This might be probable, if we could think of no alternative much more rational, adapted to accounta- ble agency, and like the known and common ad- ministration of the reigning Jehovah. But suppose that generation had all been cotemporary with Adam, Seth, Enoch, and perhaps thousands of others, who were truly pious, benevolent, and en- lightened in the ways of God ; was there any ne- cessity that the inward light should then, more than now, be afforded to make them completely account- able, and vindicate the moral empire of God, whose Spirit strove with them by these instruments I But their common longevity made them almost all cotemporary with each other, and facilitated the traditional progress of knowledge to a degree of which ICC can scarcely form an adequate concep- tion ! The fifth chapter of Genesis warrants me in saying the following things, according to the strict calculations of simple arithmetic. Noah was 480 years old when the period of awful probation conimenced. He was born only 126 years after the death of Adam. He was cotemporary with Enos, the third from Adam, 84 years ; and with all his other an- cestors, after Seth, till their exit from the world : Seth only and Adam had he not seen, and Seth died only 14 years previous to his birth. Enoch however, who was translated at the early age of 365, is an exception to the above, as he is to almost every other statement. The venerable Methuselah survived his son Lamech about five years ; and was cotemporary with Adam 243 years and with his 387 grandson, Noah, 600 : as he died the very year of the deluge ; and most probably many other, pos- sibly thousands, of pious persons, shortly before the terrible desolation of the flood. Let us re- member that these were all our ancestors, as well as of Noah and of Christ ; let us consider that they were men like ourselves, only that their prodigious vigor of body and mind made them all giants in those days, of whose prowess we can scarcely form a fitting conception : let us recollect that God has always had a churfifi on the earth, " a seed to serve him " that is " accounted to the Lord for a genera- tion ;" Psalm 22 : 30, and then let us inquire, is it probable that their need of the Bible was as great as is ours ? had they not traditional helps and faci- lities altogether peculiar and wonderful for the pre- servation of the oral word of God 1 and if any special want or waning of knowledge existed, could not God inspire a prophot, as Enoch, Noah, or others, to speak to them and communicate his will ? Is there no solution in reason or probability, with- out that wild one of Friends ? Must we suppose internal objective manifestations in every man. — a universal inward light, in order to understand their case? Is there no way in which the Spirit could strive tcith man, unless he strove in man, and in every man of that age 1 How then does the pas- sage in question so " excellently and evidently hold forth" the doctrine of Friends 1 I solemnly declare that I cannot see, and do not at all believe, that it teaches or favors in the least any such doctrine as that which Barclay's sanguine assertion declares it 388 so excellently and evidently to inculcate ! The Holy Ghost is said to be resisted or striven against when a prophet of God dehvers his message to a rebel- lious auditory or nation. " They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit : therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them." Is. 63 : 10. " Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them : yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck : they did worse than their fa- thers." Jer. 7 : 25, 26. This same principle is proved in the concluding words of Stephen before the council. After a long sermon, made up al- most wholly of scripture references, in which he proved that Jesus was the Messiah and confound- ed and even exasperated (he did it innocently) his auditors ; he perceived their perturbation and their malice, and thus in the conclusion of his discourse applied the subject : " Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in hear4; and ears, ye do al- ways RESIST THE HoLY GhOST : AS YOCR FATHERS DID, SO DO YE. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted \ and they have slain them that showed before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and mur- derers ; who have received the law by the disposi- tion of angels, and have not kept it." Acts, 7 : 51-53. On this excellent and evident passage, I remark, (1) that the hearers of Stephen rmsfcs most unsectarian prayer for all my brethren and fathers of the presbyterian church, is — that they may kindly and charitably appreciate each other ; that they may know and honor their high .obligations to their Great Head ; and that divine prosperity may attend, preserve, and bless them all, forever.'® There may be some implication or confusion of the truth, in respect to what Fox avers in his speech about the Jews, and even the great men of their nation, rejecting the Messiah. But the sentiment that this resulted from their fondness for the oracles of God, is not merely gratuitous ; it is impiously false. " Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words!" 464 Again, Abraham said unto him, " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- suaded though one rose from the dead." They were so occupied in " teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" and in propagating their " own traditions," that they neglected " the word of God " and were (as they are to this day) as ig- norant of the real sense of the Old as of the New Testament. But " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." True ; but what has this to do with " a universal inward light 1" a light " in tvery man V It refers to saints alone, whom the Spirit of Christ hath marked and sealed for his own eter- nal kingdom. It discriminates saints from " the whole world " that J' lieth in wickedness." It re- spects not the influence miraculous or extraordin- ary ; but that which is through the truth, common to all saints in every age, producing "the fruit of the Spirit " in the living character ; according to Gal. 5 : 22-26. and Eph. 5:9. It is the Spirit influ- ential, not the Spirit personal ; it is not conscious converse, but moral purity produced ; it is not in- spiration, but holiness ; not revealing new truth fresh to the mind, but bringing one to see and love the truth already " written for our leamingi that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." This is true of the subserviency of the whole Bible. The Spirit uses his written truth as the medium of all his illumining and sanc- tifying influence. " For whatsoever things were written aforetime," have a common relation to the 465 people of God. John, 17 : 17. Rom. 15 : 4. Now, if in this sense, Fox had avered that the rejectors of Christ had the scriptures insufficiently, not hav- ing also his Spirit ; and that if men had his Spirit they would not reject him ; his position were true : and after this truth possibly the moral instinct of Friends may be often blindly groping, when they know " neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." This grace in the heart is piety. It is often called " the fruit of the Spirit ;" often by the name of some one of its multifarious branches ; often by the name of " the Spirit ;" because the Spirit of God produces and sustains it all. This grace is an indispensable in religion — universally. It is a qualification and a sine-qua-non of ofiice not only, but of standing also in the church invisible. The Jews that rejected Christ were destitute of this qualification. But see how Fox confounds things ! With him the qualification of a judge, is a rule of judging ! As if the competency of Hale as chief justice, were the supreme law of the realm ; the statute-book being nothing to it ! " They took upon them to try their doctrines by the scriptures." Were it not then more presumptuous for them or others to " take upon them " to try Christ and his apostles by a still more holy and superior rule \ For Fox makes the Lawgiver every where his su- perior rw^c; to which the scripture, that was " given forth " from that, is " a secondary rule !" Truly, it was no part of their sin or of ours to pay too much court to " the word of God, the sword of the Spi- rit ;" the universal instrument of his saving opera- 59 466 tions. " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. 12 : 3. Certainly — and yet this text is just as much in favor of Friends as the others we have considered. The fact is in- contestable — no man can so say approvingly, wise- ly, knowing what he says, but by the Holy Ghost. The only question is — How does he induce the re- sult \ With or without his written word \ With- out it, says Fox. So he came by his knowledge, he tells us ; and we in part credit him. With it only, and in no other way, says the consistent chris- tian. A man who knows the testimony .of the Spirit, " understandeth it," (Matt. 12 : 23,) loves it, trusts it with his heart, and gives his life cordiallj"^ to its influence, is the one and the only one who can say "by the Holy Ghost" that "Jesus is Lord." He is a true christian. He walks by " the word of God," the scriptures, as his highest rule in religion. He owns the Lawgiver, as greater than the law ; but not as a greater law ! not as a law at all ! He has "the Spirit of Christ." He belongs to the glory of the species, the noble company " of whom the world was not worthy," the ransomed of the Lamb, the saved "in Christ Jesus," the legion of honor de- voted forever to the glory of the King of kings. It now occurs to consider, in relation to the 'lu- ciferous aura' of Friends, 8. The powerful decision op many passages of the word of god against it. After treating this branch of the subject, it woijld remain to despatch two others ; namely, accord- ing to original announcement. 467 9. The innumerable contradictions of that LIGHT AS IT SHINES PROM Friends ; and, 10. The PARAMOUNT OFFICE OF SCRIPTURE, AC- CORDING TO ITS OWN CLAIMS, AS OUR RULE IN RE- LIGION. Willing to condense, rather than amplify, the topics of discussion, I refer the ninth article mainly to the pervading exhibitions of this volume for some evidence of its truth : subjoining, that while the de- tails of that evidence would be sometimes in mini- mis, concerning things of small moment if not of frivolous import ; while I have letters on file receiv- ed from their inspired preachers, and have heard oral predictions from "the fountain-head" uttered concerning myself, which I have been spared to con- tradict and by the grace of God have lived to con- found : I forbear for the present to pursue a path of illustration which is very far from grateful to my own feelings and may be irritating to theirs. This pre- mised, I shall consider the eighth and tenth articles as one in substance ; treat them together ; and en- deavor to vindicate their common truth and related sentiment, by an array, apt though brief, of scrip- tural declarations inconsistent with the arch heresy in which all Friends are agreed ; and in which, as such, they must necessarily remain ; and which is of itself sufficient to require our non-recognition of their claims, whatever else they say, as profess- ing christians: — the arch heresy that denies the paramount relation of the scriptures as our rule in religion. '^Christianity and the scriptures are essentially 468 associated. Without the latter, we should not have received the former. — In examining into the degree of authority to be attached to the scriptures, we are favored with a very direct appeal. We may go to the scriptures themselves." In these sentiments of an excellent cotemporary," I need scarce record my own most hearty concurrence. It is more to the point to say, they suit our purpose admirably ; they are just such as the sacred volume, intelligently and devoutly and thoroughly perused, never fails to in- spire. What then is that " degree 1" It is often said loosely by excellent writers, that the scriptures are our only rule in religion. This is not accurate ; it is incorrect. We have other rules; as reason, experience, observation, history, the general facts of life, philosophy, the love of happiness, the light of nature, the moral sense, the maxims of wisdom, the law of the land, the precepts of morality ; and those innumerable laws, collateral and subordinate, which flow from these in endless ramifications and forms. But among many, among myriads or millions, one only can be supreme or PARAMOUNT. I use the word paramount, because it is definite and apposite exactly to the grand idea to be conveyed — superior to all others. This is the sense in which the word is used ; attributing SUPREMACY UNRIVALLED to the authority of the in- spired scriptures, in the position, the Bible is to BE REGARDED AS OUR PARAMOUNT RULE IN RELIGION. Not only do I view the position as sound and de- monstrable ; but as fundamentally important. The only hope I can have for the salvation of a 469 Friend — I speak ray own conviction as it is — re- poses in this one qualifier; for ought I know he may be better in his feelings than his philosophy or the ordinary symbols of his creed. This I often fondly hope. Hence I think deliberately, and by moral necessity, that if his feelings ultimately put any other rule above " the word of God," and if he is as bad in his real principles as in his doctrinal statements, he is also " in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity ; his heart not right in the sight of G d, and himself with no lot or part — as yet — in the matter" of salvation by Jesus Christ. Be-" sides, if " the oracles of God " are not paramount, then some other rule is " above them ;" and what is that ] " The scriptures cannot be the rule of faith, because they cannot give faith ; for faith is the gift of God, which overcomes the world." The rule of faith then is — God himself, because He can give faith \,JJi Hence the Bible can be the rule "nei- ther of practice, because it cannot distinguish of itself, in all cases, what ought to be practised, and what not, since it contains as well what ought not to be practised, as what ought." The Bible then " cannot be the rule of faith or practice !" This is 'orthodox' Quakerism: for, so says that inspired mystic, William Penn ! ! Again; "George White- head says. That which was spoken from the Spirit of truth in any, is of as great authority as the scrip- tures or chapters are, and greater, as proceeding immediately from that Spirit; as Christ's words were of greater authority when he spoke, than the Pharisees reading the letter." Penn here quotes 470 approvingly what Whitehead says. Hence Qua- ker inspiration "in any," is of greater authority than the Bible ; especially as it is fresher ! ! ! Hub- berthorn, another piece of inspired heresy, says, " The Spirit of God is the saint's rule, and that is greater than the scriptures ; and the rule of the Spi- rit of God is above the scriptures." An opponent had objected to him that, " The scripture was given by the Spirit for a rule :" to which Hubberthorn re- plies ; " This we desire a proof of, by plain scrip- ture, and till then we deny it" Humphrey Smith ■says, " God changeth not ; and where doth the scrip- ture say, that the scripture is to be a rule to walk or be led byl" Edward Burroughs says; "that we own to be the rule of our conversation, which they [Abel, Moses, and others] walked hy, the im- mediate Spirit of God which was before the scrip- ture was written. And all you who profess the scripture to be your rule, your own rule shall testify against you when the eternal judge judges you ; and they who witness that to be their rule which gave forth the scripture, walk up in the life of the scripture more than you all ; and you are proved to be but the Jew outward, who boasts of the ordinances from the letter, but persecutes them by slanders and false reproaches, who witness the substance." Another says, " This I witness to all the sons of men, that the knowledge of eternal life I came not to by the letter of the scripture, nor hearing men speak of the name of God." Dewsbury. I quote once more, from Fox ; " the scriptures — will not give the knowledge of Christ. That which comes 471 from him and shines in the heart, doth give the knowledge of Christ the light ; the Jews had the scriptures, but had not the knowledge of Christ. Nothing gives nor makes manifest the knowledge of the Savior, but the light which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world. And none can know Christ by the scriptures ; they testify of him ; but none can know Christ but by revelation ;" that is, immediate revelation in one's own soul! What could be more subversive of Christianity 1 When I react such mysticising sophistry and pre- varicating infidelity, as the specimens above, I feel as if Quakerism' was entitled to the horror of the whole community ; to the public execration of man- kind ! The scriptures "a secondary rule" — and then no rule at all, neither of faith, nor of practice, according to Penn— and then incapable of impart- ing the knowledge of Christ — and then adverse to (not homogeneous with) their higher rule — and opposed in influence to the light within — and re- duced to nothing by immediate revelation — and this made indispensable universally to faith and salva- tion — and the Spirit of God himself a rule of ac- tion and "the saints' rule" — and the fresh inspira- tions of these " deceitful workers " declared by Whitehead and Penn to be GREATER in autho- R'lTY than the scriptures themselves — and the know- ledge of eternal life " witnessed " to be acquired independently both of scriptural revelation and the preaching of the gospel ! and these are the pro- phets of the devil who claim our charity and scorn our communion, and who vaunt themselves chrig- 472 iians of utmost purity and genuineness, as well as preaciiers of soundness infallible and of furniture inspired ! Here a christian may well stand for his life. I cannot conceive what heresy is cardinal and infinitely pestiferous, if Quakerism is not such ! and only wonder that Christendom has cared so little for it ! or endured so courteously a satanic delusion of the sort for scores of years ! The more I exa- mine it, the woi-se it shows. It is a system of sinu- ous sophistry ; a philter of deception, a chalice of sweetened poison. I should be unwilling to die till I had stood up as a witness against it, and writ- ten MY SOLEMN PROTEST AND WARNING for the pre- servation of others from its murderous snares ! If there happens to be a state eternal, a thorough and consistent mere Quaker may well wish that he had never been born! In that world "Moses and the prophets" are more respected. There his arguing can no longer deceive others or himself. His pro- fane sophistry will be eternally overruled ; and his refined sorcery reduced to common-sense convic- tion. He may there too late discover — if he fails to do it here — that Jesus Christ meant something, by " hell-fire, where their worm dieth not and their fire IS not quenched !" Mark, 9 : 43-50. It will aid our conviction of the just supremacy of the scriptures as our rule in religion, if we can as- certain, simply as an auxiliary fact, the estimate of the Jewish nation respecting them at the time of the appearing of Christ. "How firmly we have given credit," says Josephns, "to these books of our own nation, is evident from what we do ; for during so 473 many ages as have already passed, no one hath been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them ; but it is become natural to all Jews, im- mediately and from their very birth, to esteem those books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and if occasion be, willingly to die for them." Thus, Josephus, Philo, and others, speak of them, with ultimate reverence ; as " the scripture," or " holy scriptures," and " the divine scriptures." Thus Paul speaks of t&em to Timothy, who was educated by his pious mother in "the holy scriptures " of the Old Testament ; for then the books of the new were not written. Other proof to the same effect is at once abundant and not necessary. These senti- ments were common to the nation. It was the uni- versal public sentiment of the country. They knew of no superior rule to the word of God ; nor had such a refinement of error then appeared. Let it here be observed that this ecumenical per- suasion of his countrymen, Jesus Christ did no- thing to reprove ; but, on the contrary, every thing to enlighten, confirm, and establish. If this is so, the conclusion is inevitable. Let us examine the premises. In his sermon on the mount in the very outset and opening of his public ministry, Matt. 5 : 17, 18, he thus addresses a Jewish auditory ; " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to ful- fil." I ask — does this import " the secondary rule ;" or indicate any rule paramount to the scriptures, for us to honor in religion 1 He immediately adds 60 474 " For verily, I say nnto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no w^ise pass from the lavif, till all be fulfilled." Hence, the whole of the Old Testament, which comprehended all that was then written, is confirmed as a document of truth eternal, which is to be punctiliously accom- plished ; and this necessarily, as being more firm than the physical fixtures of " heaven and earth." This too the Savior teaches explicitly in the very commencement of his ministry, and to an immense congregation, " multitudes " from all parts of the land ; " from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jor- dan." But why did he not reprove them for over- valuing " the oracles of God V a sin of which no evidence convicts them. For though their rulers and scholars sinned plentifully against " the oracles of God," yet it was in other ways than in the sen- timent of their paramount authority or the sacri- lege of textual mutilation. They practically neg- lected and transgressed them ; they vacated their meaning by glosses, superficial and erroneous ; and they superseded them by their manifold " tradi-' tions," which in effect were criminally promoted to the priority or the primacy of all. But they were a paragon and an example to mankind, in preserv- ing pure the integrity of the text and in sentimental- ly regarding their inspired books as the highest rule in religion. Christ himself adverts, not reprehen- sively, to their almost doating scrupulosity, in num- bering the letters and the points, as well as the lines and larger divisions of the scriptures ; in what he 475 says about "one jot or one tittle" not passing " from the law till all be fulfilled." He alludes evi- dently to the Yod, the smallest letter of their alpha- bet ; and to any smaller mark or apparently incon- siderable point, originally connected with the sense of inspiration : and he alludes as well and approv- ingly to the accurate pains-taking of their learned men, in the preservation of every particle of the authentic scriptures. But he goes farther. In the very next verse he makes a practical application of the doctrine. "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do, and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." He here speaks mainly of evangelical teachers, his own true ministers ; and declares of them that each shall be graduated in his kingdom according to the respect he pays to the sacred writ- ings, even the most inconsiderable portions or enactments of their code : he shall be exalted as "great" or degraded as " least," according to the respect he shows them, even the comparatively mi- nor parts. What then are we to think of those who put them down en masse, exalting a certain interior light, said to be universal, " above " them \ and at the same time professing to be incomparably the best friends of the scriptures in the world ! I would say of them ; so did not Christ. He plainly had no such view as theirs cardinally is. His views are totally incompatible with it. The air and the savor and the scope of his doctrine is far different from 476 theirs. When they pretend that Christ came to in- troduce a dispensation more spiritual than the scrip- tures, and far enough above them, according to their own most erring notions of the Spirit, they show him as coming to dissolve, annul, "destroy, the law and the prophets ;" so that not " a jot or a tittle " remains what it was, in majesty pre-eminent, as the immovable legislation of Jehovah. I add ; he here inculcates the grand idea, sublime in its simplicity, of the unity of revelation — the unity of the scrip- tures — " the unity of the Spirit." Though the por- tions are different, and the parts multifarious, they all constitute collectively one revealed system ; the code of inspiration ; the written infallibility of hea- ven. Hence, they were then complete as consti- tuting the Old Testament : but consummate as a whole, only in that connection with the New, which makes both to be one volume of perfect and PARAMOUNT LAW IN THE MATTERS OF RELIGION. This evinces the cumulative majesty of the doc- trine of Christ, when applied to the whole volume, the Greek and Hebrew scriptures combined ! Jesus Christ famiUarly called the scriptures, as such, " the word of God ;" and one of his apophthegms it was that "the scripture cannot be broken." But a higher rule he no where inculcates or implies or recognises ; neither did his Jewish countrymen, whose sentiments on that point it was the spirit of his total ministry to sanction and diffuse. In this sermon he elsewhere utters a monition, which ought to be commended to the serious intelli- gence of Friends : " If therefore the light that is 477 IN THEE be darkness, how great will the darkness be !"°^ chap. 6 : 23. The context shows that this is moral darkness only, resulting from pride, preju- dice, and the obliquity of the feelings in rehgion. Wrong motives often obtain the ascendency of right ones, and doubly darken the mind. The worst per- version that error accomplishes is when it procures darkness to be mistaken for light, and so to be re- ligiously maintained to the very last. This is, I verily believe, the precise condition to which the whole system of Friends most efficaciously tends to reduce its votaries. " There is a way that seemeth RIGHT unto a man," according to his own inward illu- mination at the time ; if it seemed wrong to him, wrong as it absolutely is, he would not follow it ; " but the end thereof" — and every way has an end, though all travelers do not think of it; and thought- lessness or presumption is no proof of safety : " the end thereof are the ways of death." This is death eternal — " the end of them that obey not the gospel of God !" Friends often assume that the way is right, because it " seemeth" to be ; and hence they trust their own wisdom, and " the light that is in " them leads them speciously to ruin. It is right, ac- cording to their paramount rule ! and it is the way of " death " in the end, according to the law of God ! Here is contrariety. Let us recur to one of " the prophets," all whose words must be "fulfilled," according to the preacher on the mount. Isai. 8: 19-22. The twentieth verse is itself, notwithstanding the impertinent salvos and palliatives of Barclay, a record of ruin to the light 473 of Quakerism : " To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is be- cause there is no light in them.".;^ The law means plainly, not the mystic law of Friends that is " within " us ; but in general the written scriptures, the " word " and " the testimony " of " the oracles of God." Thus says Christ to the lawyer ; " What is written in the lawl how readest thou f ' Luke, 10 : 26. See also Hosea, 8: 11,12. The law more gen- erally indeed referred in strictness to the pentateuch alone ; when joined with " the testimony " however, the whole scripture is plainly meant. Now, mark the appeal, to which the Holy Ghost directs the faithful of the nation ; that they should promptly and per- petually make it ! From what is it to be made 1 I answer, from mysticising pretenders who had found out "a more noble and excellent rule " — very much like if not identical with that of Friends. " And when they shall say unto you, ' Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter:' should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living to the dead ■! To the LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY." The appeal then is from these sorcerers ; whom the Spirit of God de- nominates "wizards," &c. not as though they owned or anticipated the title. When they thus practise, the appeal is to be instantly made : and to make it, ob- serve, is described as "seeking to God !" and this in contradistinction to the course of listening to these spiritual mummers and impostors ! Should a people resort to such upstarts \ nay, on the contrary, " should not a people seek unto their God 1" well ! 479 granting that they should ; how is this to be done 1 Answer, by resorting " to the law and to the testi- mony !" by carrying the immediate and the ultimate appeal to the written law of the kingdom ! Besides ; how contrary this to the common gloss of Friends, that calls the scripture " a dead letter," and their own light, a living oracle ! The question was, shall we seek to these spiritual sages'! The Spirit of God answers in effect ; no ! you shall seek to God ; as he speaks to you in the scriptures. Would not any nation seek to fheir own God 1 And should you go " for the living to the dead ;" from the lively oracles to the stupid gastromancy (see Septuagint) or in- ward light, of men " dead " to wisdom and deceit- fully counteracting God 1 Bring them and their muttered mysticisms to the divine criterion, and it will ruin them. "Yes ! but if they had only attended to the clear ' inshining ' of the light in their own hearts" — ! To be sure : but Isaiah was not informed on that sub- ject. He had not been " renewed up " to the sub- limities of George Fox in his day ! True : And, what is worse, Dr. Scott seems to be very little before him, if not precisely in the same leading-strings of the spiritual nursery ; for he says, " Philosophical illu- minators and enthusiastical pretenders to new reve- lations, which are not to be judged by * the law and the testimony,' are alike concerned in this decision." To be plain ; this is just what I solemnly think that every mere Quaker will "believe and tremble," when he stands at "the judgment-seat of Christ;" if his light be not sooner renounced ! " They shall 480 fret themselves, and curse their king and their God> and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth ; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish ; and they shall be driven to darkness." vs. 21, 22. "He that despised Moses, law, died without mer- cy under two or three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy," who disobeys the completed canon of in- spiration ! see Luke, 16 : 29-31, where Christ de- clares that he who has the former, or the Old Tes- tament alone, and refuses to "hear them," would not " be persuaded, though one rose from the dead !" Alas! it was not "inward light" that ultimately convinced the wretch, who said, "I am tormented in this flame !" and who is pictured before us, by the great master of moral painting, as a neglecter merely of "Moses and the prophets," before he was conveyed to the eternal world, where he "lifted up his eyes, being in torments !" Man is an accountable being, prior to the exten- sion or the relations of grace in Christ Jesus. Grace is given to save a sinner; not to make a man accountable ! he was accountable before ; in the very structure of his being ; in the very organi- zation of his mind ; in the faculties and endow- ments of his mental constitution. Accountable he is to all eternity : he remains such forever in hell or forever in heaven ! and forever on principles of abso- lute law. Now, the oppugnation of the whole rebel species, against this absolute accountability, is the soul of all the heresy in the world ! Friends re- 481 gard grace as necessary to accountableaess ; and hence they take special pains to provide "every man" with a precious little inserted viaticum or modicum of gracious influence; "by attending to the inward teachings of which light" he comes to "see clearly" all the mysteries in the universe ! Hence, whenever they search the scriptures, it is, as Fox confesses, having made these discoveries an- tecedently, and without knowing that they were to be found in them ! Is it any wonder then that their light should enable them to see marvellous things in the Bible, which its author never meant to put there 1 things that really unprejudiced learners could never find'J and that profound scholars in "the law of their God " know it no where contains X In the first chapter of Romans the apostle- assigns, as the reason for his strong desire "to preach the gospel" in that imperial city, the fact that in it alone is re- vealed the doctrine of justification by faith : aver- ring that the light of nature indeed was luminous, in respect to the being and perfections of the " God- head ;'' the accountability and depravity of man ; and the justice of God, as his moral governor and righteous condemner for sin. In the second chap- ter he proceeds to show, at large, the absolute ac- countability of all men, jews and gentiles, as they shall be seen "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." verse 16. This he does by showing that each man believes it in reference to every other one ; witness bis censures, his criticisms, his criminations : and these common, mutual, universal ! He says al- 61 482 SO that these demonstrate (what philosophers call the law of nature) the accountable constitution and moral organization of every individual of the spe- cies, vi^hether heathen, christian, or jew. He says that hence those without law " are a law unto them- selves ; who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another." But Friends " see clearly" that this means the workings of "the good princi- ple" in them'; namely, their own interior taper burning all beauteously, and darting its radiations "through all!" I only remark, by the way, that their light is evidently cursed with the spirit of per- version and error ; " conclusion retrograde and mad mistake!" In the second of first Corinthians the apostle is showing mainly the necessity every WAY OF A REVELATION FROM GoD, SUCh aS the apOS- tles and prophets were empowered to produce : but Friends stupify the sense of the whole argument with the mysticism of their light ! In the third of Romans, having shown the accountability and crimi- nality, of all men, he inquires; "What advantage then hath the jew ? or what profit is there of cir- cumcision \ much every way : chiefly, because THAT UNTO THEM WERE COMMITTED THE ORACLES OF God." Here, I ask, if the inward light be a para- mount rule, where after all is the demonstrated ad- vantage, as "much every wayf' He proceeds; " For what if some did not believe 1" believe what 1 " the effectual operation of the light that is in eve- ry man V no ! but " the oracles of God." Well ; 483 "shall their unbelief make the faith (faithfulness) of God without effect 1 God forbid ! yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and might- est overcome when thou art judged ;" or, when thou jndgest. Here we see that men are accountable absolutely ; that they perish when they have the signal "advantage" of the scriptures, because they do not "believe" them; that the veracity of God does not depend for its honor on their piety that credits it ; that unbelief is really a sin and a damn- ing one ; and that the " advantage " of the means of grace is intrinsical and absolute, even when it is not improved, or when, through perversion of un- belief, it becomes an occasion of augmented guilt and ruin, "a savor of death unto death!" If Friends hate this, it only identifies them with that very class to whom said Jesus Christ ; " And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life !" Ye have " both seen, and hated, both me and my Father." Let them beware of " the way of Cain"— and of Paine ! " Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered ; and many such like things do ye." Mark, 7 : 13. Jesus Christ here calls the scripture " the word of God ;" which Friends are too pious and too wise to do, "through their tradition, which they have delivered ; and many such like things do they !" Besides, to " make it of none effect" in any way, is here branded as distinguished crime ! The jews did it by false interpretation : Friends do it more 484 effectjjally aad by a wholesale process, by defaming its superlative dignity, denuding it of its proper title, and recommending men to "sit still" and listen to the informations of " a more noble and excellent rule " within them ! Again, I say an anathema, in. the name of the Lord, upon their arch and horrible heresy ! I can scarcely conceive a more foolish or a worse one. " But CONTINUE THOU in the things which thou HAST LEARNED AND HAST BEEN ASSURED OF, know- ing OF WHOM [of GOD] thou hast learned them ; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise un- to SALVATION through FAITH WHICH IS IN ChRIST Jesus." 2 Tim. 3 : 14, 15-17. I should want the competency of the inward light divinely endorsed, in language better than this, before I would desert " the holy scriptures " for its profane and wildering elucidations I I should wish to see it written, by inspiration as certain, in language tan- tamount to this : " but still there is ' a more noble and excellent rule,' greatly superior to the holy scriptures, ' a light in every man,' that is ' above them' and far more useful and certain in the direc- tion of souls to salvation and to God." Instead of any such diabolical folly and falsehood, either here or elsewhere to be found in " the holy scriptures," they are elevated above all proper competition and equality ; they are declared to be " able to make us wise," and that the best kind of wisdom and the best degree of it too ; " WISE UNTO SALVA- TION ;" and this, in the simple and rational way 485 of believing them heartily ; " through faith ;" and this faith is said to be " in Christ Jesus," for he is the pervading theme of them all ! Besides, Timo- thy is congratulated on this " chief advantage " of a jew, the possession of " the oracles of God ;" and that he had known them "from a child." It is not the style of inspiration to conform to our technicalities of thought. It exhibits great truths, facts, realities ; and leaves every man, accountably and at the peril of his soul, to make his own infe- rences : yet so, that a spirit really unprejudiced and ductile to the divine instructions, will be led, substantially, progressively, infaUibly, to the know- ledge of the truth. " Good and upright is the Lord : therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The MEEK WILL HE GUIDE IN JUDGMENT I AND THE MEEK WILL HE TEACH HIS WAY. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity ; for it is great. What man is he that feareth the Lord 1 him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease ; and his seed shall inherit the earth ;" or the land, i. e. the land of promise ; typi- cally, heaven. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; and he will show them his covenant." Ps. 25 : 8-14. I now ask if the pas- sage in Timothy is not perfectly decisive 1 I think it is. What want we morel What other rule, what " more noble aad excellent " one do we need, who have one divinely commended to us, as " the HOLY SCRIPTURES THAT ARE ABLE TO MAKE 486 US WISE UNTO SALVATION, THROUGH FAITH THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS !" It is impossible to conceive of a rule superior, either in its competency or its evidence ! And how do Friends contrive a superior one I I answer, by profanely substituting the legislator for the law ; making the Spirit of God a rule of action; and so honoring the greater, as to supersede the less — to detrude it from its proper dignity as if it was not " able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus !" I also wish to ask the rea- der, especially if he happens to belong to the rare company that value their souls, the following ques- tions : (1) Are you sure that as much can be said of the interior light of Friends 1 is it " able to make us wise to salvation" — 'by faith in its effectual opera- tion V (2) By what evidence can you be rationally convinced of it 1 or will you believe it on the naked dmf of a Quaker ] (3) Ought you not to have MORE AND GRisATER EVIDENCE in favor of the " light," than you now have so armply in favor of " the hdly scriptures," before you venture so to desert them for it, as to call them "a secondary rule" and give to it the desired pre-eminence 1 (4) Have you not A DUTY TO DO FOR OTHERS, as Well as yourself, in resisting a " damnable heresy " that would de- grade and in effect annul forever " the holy scrip- tures," in behalf of a moon-struck non-entity ima- gined to reside " in every man " and fabled to be vastly superior to them ! (5) Have you well con- sidered THE GREATER CONFIRMATION of the excel- lency of " the holy scriptures," as our paramount 487 rule in religion, in that the apostle proceeds imme- diately to state, vs. 16 and 17, that the whole SCRIPTURE IS DIVINELY INSPIRED ; and is PROFITA- BLE for ALL THE ENDS which the chief rule in reli- gion could be desired to answer ] " profitable," not injurious or useless or of small utility, to those noble ends ! " profitable for instruction, for convic- tion, for correction, for education in righteousness ; that the man of God might be complete, accom- plished perfectly for every good work." If he is so accomplished by "the holy scrip- tures," what other and superior rule does he at all require t Quakerism is here "weighed in the balances, and found wanting." Its proper epitome, and its future epitaph, is TEKEL. But Friends are afraid of the mavCs hand that writes their doom upon the wall — afraid calmly and closely to see the evidence, that the scriptures themselves furnish, in contrariety and in extinction to their light ! Barclay refers indeed to the verses just quoted ; but in what way ■! I answer, jesuitically and shamefully alone ! He glides by the noble and the glorious passage, as if it had little or no relevancy to the argument : he translates it wrong, and omits the first two uses specified, for which " the holy scriptures " are de- clared to be "profitable." Thus; "All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable — for cor- rection, for instruction in righteousness," &c. And pray, is it not profitable for " doctrine V and also for conviction, " reproof," or perhaps more correctly Ttpog £/LEy;^cn'forC?°polemical authority and decision: since the word is properly forensic, referring to arguments 488 used in a court of judicature for the demonstration of points contested 1 The scriptore is thus the ar- biter of controversy. But mark the serpent coiled in the "silence'' of his lillies ! He perverts the sense and alters the proposition ; reasoning in a circle, and making the premises uncertain, and changing two pow^erful propositions into one dilute and quakerized ; to the utter ruin of the sense ! In his hands it informs us simply that " all s:criptnre [that is] given by inspiration of God, is profitable " for a thing or two ! instead of the true proposition, that refers, as a solemn imprimatur of the Spirit to the canonical perfection of his own work, to " the holy scriptures," and pronounces them de facto, first, to be " given by inspiration of God j" and se- cond, to be " profitable " for all the ends requisite and competent to a paramount rule in religion ! But, it may be said to me ; Did you not make a transla- tion for yourself! and if so, why not he also] and if he might, why not omit the is where it first occurs^ since it is not in the original 1 I answer, why insert it in the second place, " is profitable," since neither there is it found in the original T Why not omit it till after the whole, thus elongating and qualifying the subject of the proposition, and postponing the predicate — forever ! The fact is that the proposi- tions are two ; in the original distinctly marked, and in our version correctly given. The grammar of the Greek obviously requires two ; and the con- junction Kox and demonstrates it, though Barclay, in his " sincerity j" ventures wholly to omit that word, and so, designedly or otherwise, emasculates 489 the sentence and palms upon his reader a most sleepy and silly forgery ! One of his ends in this can be seen, yea two of them, and perhaps more. As he has serenely changed the sense ; (1) It has no particular applicability to " the holy scriptures," as the received volume of God, known and honored by the whole church, then and since, as well as be- fore. (2) It is a proposition of total insipidity, as- certaining practically nothing ; as if he had said, light is light, and good to see by ; whatever is di- vinely inspired is divinely inspired, and furthermore of considerable utility on one or two accounts ; " all scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable" — Is it ] what a discovery ! I should rather doubt it, in some instances at least, if I could judge only from the influence allowed to its truth by certain luminous characters ! (3) As he has widened the circumfer- ence of the passage, and set it to spinning in the air round an uncertain centre, it becomes rather " pro- fitable" than otherwise to Friends! for now all their illumined writings, that were " given forth by that that made the scriptures," are equally within its sanction and enclosure'! " All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable :" hence the writings of George Fox, Robert Barclay, William Penn, Job Scott, and others, men and women, more than we can numbet, become canonical at once ! Quere — Would Friends have any special objection to the whole world walking by Barclay's Apology, as their paramount rule in religion 1 What a fine time indeed, if all the world would thus come to the 'light!' And would it make a fine eternity tool 62 490 (4) While 1 truly leave it with God wh9,t were his motives in this perversion and imposture, I charge him in effect with the ends alleged, and suppose that in this I only show, as it is, the prevaricating nature of Quakerism. It is not evidence that makes the system, that constitutes, upholds, or diffuses it. I could fill a volume of commentary with similar crit- icisms on similar perversions of its own ; perversions belonging to the light, as children to a parent, in its other exhibitions of " darkness visible." It were easy to multiply instances of scriptural de- claration, utterly at variance with the huge heresy here opposed : but I will conclude this last division of the subject with the consideration of one that seems apposite to the place as well as suitable to the argument. I allude to those solemn words with which the sacred volume concludes ; Rev. 22 : 18- 21, especially the former verses of the four. On these, without caring to quote them in order, I sub- mit the following observations. 1. They exhibit a SOLEMN SEALING OF THE SACRED CANON. (1) I aSSUmO here that the Apocalypse was written last of the books of the New Testament ; and though I know that biblical antiquarians have differed on the point, I do not know that the opposite arguments have any solid respectability. (2) The sanction respects the sin of changing or mutilating the sacred text, so as to corrupt Christianity, and pass off a forgery against heaven on the credulity of men ; and this either by adding or subtracting, or in any other way vitiating its divine integrity, Hence, as it respects the quan- tum of the sin and its nature, no reason can be 491 given why it should be interpreted restrictively to this particular book ; since the sin is much the same, to whatever portion it refers of the sacred canon. It is like forging or erasing the signature of God. The inference is that at all events it extends morally to the whole Bible. (3) It imports that more inspi- ration is neither necessary, nor probable, nor at all to be expected. (4) It requires us to take heed to what it thus seals, as sufficient for its end and of infinite utility to us. " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein : for the time is at hand." 2. The four concluding verses, taken in connection, prospectively refer to the end of time, to the second coming of our Lord. The sealing of the canon evidently contemplates the in- termediate ages : it is sealed finally, as the finishing of inspired prophecy ; " always, even unto the end of the world." This I take to be both evident and important. Other scriptures also, and I may say the total tenor and scope of prophecy, declare the same thing. It is precisely analogous to the manner and the certain truth of its import, in which the Old Testament scriptures were sealed by the concluding verses of Malachi. Chap. 4 : 4-6. Those words sealed the prophetic disclosures for more than four hundred years ; and plainly till the first coming of Messiah, or especially till the times of his precursor and coteraporary, John the Baptist ; who was per- sonally the predicted " Elijah the prophet," of that eventful period . Till then, the church was distinctly apprized that the prophetic gift would retire and its 492 oracles no more be communicated ; consequently they were referred to those ah-eady copious scrip- tures for their paramount rule in the portentous in- terval. "Remember ye the law of Moses my ser- vant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for ALL Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Consequently, we have the best reason to believe historically, that the fact corresponded with the prediction. Many pseudo-sacred books were indeed written ; but they were utterly rejected from the canon of the church. The books that consti- tute what we call the Apocrypha, were all written in this interval ; and are on that account alone, if other cardinal proofs were not demonstrative and abundant, condemned as spurious ; notwithstanding their canonized validity according to the council of Trent. So is sealed the New Testament canon, and with it the total volume of inspiration, till the second coming of Christ in the end of the world : an event which he declares shair occur "quickly," or with as much rapidity as infinite providence, rolling on the events of thinga,xai well and wisely order in their course. The church also responds with kindred rapture, as the bride beloved salutes "the appointed hour of her bridegroom's return ; " Even so, come. Lord Jesus." And till he come, according to his own engagement, the canon of prophecy is plainly sealed by himself : nor is it HIS bride that will encourage a forgery in his name. What then are we to expect in the mean- 493 time \ I answer, our anticipation ought to be two- fold ; (1) That spurious prophecy will abound. This is the fact. In every age since, we have seen the sibyl leaves of sorcery scattered on the winds of heaven for the ruin of the nations : so that the Apocryphal writings of the new dispensation are more numerous and more execrable, and some of them more specious, than those of the old.''* I place the writings of the Quakers, with their voluminous simulation and their virulence of error, among the most successful oounterfeitings of Satan in these latter ages. They are plainly spurious pretenders to an equal, nay " greater," because fresher, autho- rity, than " the holy scriptures." They are specious and plausible, as the " angel of light " apparent, by whom they were inspired. They intoxicate with their potations all by whom they are imbibed ; in- troducing " another Jesus, another Spirit, another gospel," and not those of the scriptures of truth. The Quakers, the Mormonites, the profoundly STUPID TONGUES of the British metropolis, and others, thousands such, have since appeared with their very authentic inspirations ! nor ii this the end. "False Christs " and every kind of false prophets and false doctrines, will crowd the pro- cession of the future, till the millennium. (2) That we ought to expect no more genuine prophecy; no, not till the end of time. The spurious has been easily identified hitherto, even summarily, by inter- nal evidence. It seems almost obvious absolutely, that no more of the true is needed, nor will ever be given. I do not say that " knowledge " will not 494 " be increased," both by the improvement and the diffusion of light : but both shall proceed from the perfect volume that God hath " sealed till the time of the end !" The Bible will be more and more perfectly understood ; more and more purely and faithfully interpreted; more and more extensively pondered and known; more and more translated into different languages ; more and more commu- nicated to the nations, and universalized in its glorious benefits. We live in the last dispensation, most certainly : and though the most eventful and the best of its portentous series is probably to come, yet the " paradised ages " before us will con- stitute not a new dispensation, but only the more " blessed and holy " consummation of the present. I expect such a consummation ; and by such means induced — together with intermingled judgments, some or many of which will electrify the world ! and things more terrible, in executing summary wrath on the multitudes of the post-millennial apos- tacy ; just as time and eternity meet, and " the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him ;" shall raise the niighty congrega- tion of the dead ; and " shall sit upon the throne of his glory." Matt. 25 : 1&, 31. Acts 1:9-11. 1 Cor. 15 : 24-28. Phil. 3 : 20, 21. 1. Thess. 2 : 19. 3 : 13. 4 : 13-18. 2 Thess. 2 : 1, 2-5. 1 Tim. 6 : 13-16. 2 Tim. 4:1. Tit. 2 : 12, 13. Heb. 9 : 28. 2 Pet. 3 : 7-14. Rev. 1 : 7, 8. Then indeed will come that most " great and terrible DAY OF THE LoRD," to which all similar days had been typical and tributary. 3. We ought to trem- 495 ble indeed at the sm and danger op mutilating " THE ORACLES OF GoD !" This may be done in many ways : but in two principally, which are spe- cified distinctly in the obsignation. (1) By addi- tion. " If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are writ- ten in this book." If " any man " will examine these " plagues " in detail, he will soon find them to transcend all ordinary damnation ; yet they shall be added to him who adds to the inspired canon the forgeries of his own imagining : and WHO shall add them % C?" " GOD shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book !" Is it any venture here to infer the distinguished wicked- ness, beyond all powers of language or of thought to express, of such profanation ! such felony against heaven ! such forgery of the seal royal of " the only wise God!" Whose cause is subserved by such systematic sorcery 1 the cause of truth or error, of salvation or perdition, of Jesus Christ or of that chieftain " of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue, is Abaddon ; but in the Greek tongue, hath his name Apollton ;" in the English, whose name is Destroyer. But are Friends ob- noxious to this awful commination 1 I answer, promptly, C?* NO — if their claims to inspira- tion ARE valid and CORRECT ! BuT, IF THEY ARE NOT, THEY ARE MORE PERFECTLY ENTITLED TO ITS VOLLIES OF WRATH DISCHARGED UPON THEM THAN ANY OTHER RELIGIONISTS KNOWN TO ME IN THIS AGE. It is undeniable, and it were monstrous to deny, that their claims are as high as any claims 496 ever were. The only difference is, that, as all false pretension overacts and becomes more such in ap- pearance than that which is true, Quakerism claims more, and that much more importunately, than real inspiration does ! George Fox has almost every sentence first or last fenced with the averment, " The Lord said to me ; the Lord told me ; the Lord showed me ;" and such like claims to an inspiration of the highest kind, that of direct suggestion, plen- ary, constant, perfect, reaching to all his inspired ACTIONS as well as all his words ; and (as Barclay claims) becoming alone competent as the rule of universal practice. This then is "adding" with a witness ! On supposition that their claims are de- lusive and false, they are in a condition at once most guilty and horrible — none the less because they " say, peace and safety." I press the power of this dilemma ; for it is no fiction, or invention, or artifice, but the solemn truth of the matter. If their preachers and authors are inspired, their communi- cations are, as Penn declares, confirming the oracles of another spiritual ventriloquist, of equal, yea, "greater authority ;" because more 'immediately' or recently given : if not inspired, they are entitled to all the plagues written in this book ! Reader, on which horn do you prefer to swing? I know with what lubricity they can manage to slip away from the conclusion — but I know too that there are others who care for the truth. But the scriptures may be mutilated, and the sin and peril incurred, (2) By subtracting from their finished code. For " if any man shall take away from the words of the book 497 of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." This is plainly a threat of equal awe. I ask ; Are Friends exposed to it ? Is there any sense in which they " take away from " the canonical scriptures t I answer, There are several ; first, They supersede them with their own spurious inspiration, in whole or in part, in principle or in effect, by pre-occupying the minds of the people and bewitching them with their ephemeral and fresh supplies of inspiration ! Second, They give the people such an idea of the NATURE OF INSPIRATION, against its true dignity and perfection, by intruding their miserable speci- mens continually on their notice, that the conclusion is natural, and even necessary, that all inspiration is equally childish, moonstruck, insipid ! and this is " taking away " from the true " oracles of God " their proper excellency and use. Third, It comes to pass by the whole influence of their notions and their scheme that " the holy scriptures " are very MUCH REDUCED in value and in efficacy, in the practical estimate of their people, especially their youth ; who, with some rare exceptions, are prover- bially ignorant and almost paganized in respect to the contents of that book of God ! They have no catechisms or creeds ; no bible-classes of parochial exercise and insight in the treasures of the truth ; no Sunday-schools (unless quite recently " pro- voked " to that good work — though quakerized) in which to teach their children ; and no pastoral care, instruction, and sound indoctrination on "the Lord's 63 498 day." The scriptures are not read at all in their public meetings : nor have they any such thing as the domestic altar or regular family religion, or social worship of any kind in their domestic scenes — except some equally fe. THE SACRAMENTS. The high spiritual pretensions of Friendism and its instinctive absorbing tendency to the interior, which may be termed (for we may make a word in such a case of singularity) its interiorizing cha- racteristic, its pervading fondness for the invisible penetralia of the human tabernacle, where best its indefinite and mysticising orgies can be performed, to xnentAon just here no other and possibly more po- tent causes, may well account for its unsuiFering antipathy to the christian sacraments. Few how- ever, to whom Friends and their writings are not both known, can imagine how great their devout aversion is towards these abrogated shadows, aa they love to regard them ; — these divine institd- TioNS, as they are fully demonstrated and justly termed. The importance of the christian sacraments may be inferred absolutely from the fact, when proved, of their divine origination and authority. It may be subordinately shown from their proper nature, their true significancy, their instructive implications, the experience of communicants, the history and character of some who have rejected them, and the testimony of the most learned and excellent writers in the church ; as well as from their catholic preva- 508 lence and certain antiquity as adjuncts of the chris- tian religion. But — we repeat it — if the bare fact of the pleasure of God in the matter will not com- mend them to the mind of the reader when duly vindicated as divine ordinances, we may almost de- spair of lower considerations, and leave the incor- rigible to the judgment of God. Their importance in relation to Friends, however, is peculiar, ^o affirm or deny their claims affects a system of doc-, trine. The Friend could not be convinced of their divinity, without supposing that spiritual duty had some (and possibly more) exterior and formal rela- tions. It would then induce him to consult external evidence. It would obligate his conscience to some outward religious performances. It would explode his total system. It would teach him not to call that common, which God had called holy. He would hence desire instruction ; he would consult scripture, become candid, value exposition and all proper helps to the just and full investigation of the sense of scrip- ture, and feel bound by any outward lights which God has evidently lighted and sustained for direc- tion in the way of his will. One great proof with me (e plurimis unum) that Quakerismis not Christia- nity, is derived from the. sacraments. I am sure that these are divine ordinances ; and that the evidenqe that they are such is perfectly conclusive. Quaker- ism rejects that evidence; and I reject Quakerism. By a sacrament, I mean, a divinely appointed form of worship in the church of Jesus Christ, with respect to the covenant of grace, in which, by sensi- ble signals mutually approved, either party is 509 plighted to the other according to the tenor of the promises ; God to the believer for his salvation, and the believer to God as the object of his choice, his joy, his worship, his praise, and his inheritance. Protestants justly affirm that there are two sa- craments, and only two, under the gospel. There are many other matters, which, though divine or- dinances, (as magistracy, marriage, divorce in cer- tain cases, and others,) are still not sacraments : because they refer rather to human society and secular order than to the covenant of grace ; or, the spiritual stipulations of the parties and the im- mediate interests of the soul. The names of those, as sacrament, eucharist, baptism, washing, the Lord's supper, sealing ordinances, and the like, are comparatively of small concern. We write of things. If the fact can be proved, according to the defini- tion given above, our main purpose is gained. I believe in the things, and can assign competent rea- sons for the names by which they are distinguished. If Friends could be brought to see the divine wis- dom of the things themselves, they could also be brought, and that with ease, to own the propriety of the names. The matters themselves are their aversion- — to such a degree that demonstration is often found powerless to remove it. My great object here is to evince the reality of tliese sacraments in general ; that they are, impor- tant adjuncts of the christian religion, as it came from God, as it still is, and as it shall be to the end of time or the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world. 510 Friends regard them as vanities of no warrant or profit ; as traditionary relics of Romanism or Juda- ism or both, which it becomes all christians to dis- esteem and deny. They often speak of those who are better instructed, compassionating the earthli- ness of others — who obey God in the sacraments : these are thought to be mere children and dotards in comparison of their own enlightened superiority to such obsolete or barbarian usages : and they often speak of the wars and bloodshed which the sacraments may have occasioned, as proofs of their evil tendency and empty character. Many speak of them with levity and insult, as if no proof could establish their claim to divine authority ; so evident is their absurdity in the d priori radiance of the inward light ! Our grand position is, God is their author, as the scriptures perfectly aver : if we can prove this, let the reader judge what kind of mo- dern inspiration it is that contradicts, and that with fanatical self-complacency, the written orders of the Spirit of God ! Wretched delusion ! Presumptuous and guilty sanctimony ! I begin with christian baptism. This sacrament may be defined to be, a typical washing of the body with water, (I suppose neither the quantity, nor the mode of application, to be at all essential ; the divine and human intention being the main concern,) as an act of appointed worship, devoting the subject to " the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost :" into the visible profession, wo rs/ ip, and in- heritance, of which "name," the party is thus form- ally introduced ; while its implication is — the moral 511 impurity of the subject that requires ablution ; its siGNiFicAjvcY — the salvatioti of God in Christ Jesus, especially that moiety of it which is termed sanctifi- cation. On this, and its twin companion, much has been and might be written. My present aim however is to evince their reality as divine institutions, or to show why I thus esteem them ; and in doing this, to oppose the sentiment of Friends that spirituaHzes and refines away the plain import of scripture re- specting them: I argue the reality of baptism, as a divine institu- tion, from its high antiquity and general prevalence in the church ; from the apostolic and ministerial commission ; and from the certain practice of the apostles and primitive preachers of the gospel. 1 . From its high antiquity and general prevalence in the church. Long before the corruptions of the papacy began to add its heathen honors to the simple vesture of Christ, acting always (as is the immemo- rial course of superstition,) on the principle of in- crease, baptism was notoriously universal in the church, and received as an apostolical tradition of the pure institute of God. T^hefact none will deny. I therefore omit proofs: or refer for them to the unanimous voice of ancient ecclesiastical history. Now, as this was all in the first three centuries of the christian era, so was it anterior to the hierarchy and establishment of papal Rome. It could not therefore have been a degenerate innovation after the apostles "fell asleep," but must have been known and approved by themselves. Or, if it were a cor- 512 rupt innovation, where is the proof of this % How came the corruption to be immediately so universal] what trace of its introduction? who introduced it? where \ who opposed, or did none oppose, such childish degeneracy t These questions are of more force, when we consider the evidence which is fur- nished in the New Testament in favour of the inspired apostolical origin of baptism. Whence, 2. The commission, given hy Jesus Christ to his apostles and to their successors in the ministry of the gospel to the end of time, authorizes it as a divine institution. Matt. 28 : 19, 20. Mark, 16 : 15, 16. It is hard to prove what is palpable and self-evident. It is so plain from the compared and concurrent tes- timonies of these two Evangelists, and that in the important respect of the ministerial commission, that it seems certain that no unprejudiced person, who understands especially the original, and is of mental force sufficient to appreciate evidence, could read and study both passages without acknowledging their conclusiveness. " Go ye therefore and teach [disciple, ^rttevaats] all nations, baptizing them in [into] the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. — And he said unto them. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- ture. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." On these passages I remark, (1) That, though they were originally given to 513 apostles, they were evidently designed for all suc- ceeding ages, " even unto the end of the world." They therefore comprise the only true preachers' commission through the whole dispensation. Its power to bind us has lost nothing, it has rather gained, by age. (2) That baptism is formally included (in the latter passage by necessary implication, in the former by express order,) in both and either of them. The promise of salvation is not made to him that be- lieveth merely ; -the words and is baptized are ad- ded : though it ia hard to see how a true believer, having the opportunity, comZ — who had been before baptized by the Baptist ; as 1 must be- lieve, notwithstanding the show of venerable names, (and nothing else,) in favor of a different view. But the church was divided into parties ; and some (we may guess who) piqued themselves not a little on their conversion under the ministry of Paul, and es- pecially that they had received their baptism at his hands. By the way, they valued baptism and asso- ciated it with their conversion to God ! Paul then rejoiced in the circumstance that he had baptized very few of them, " lest any should say that he " was accessary to their partizanships. But did he assert or imply that the others were not baptized 1 or that 521 God was about to abolish the ordinance ! or that he had not baptized thousands of other persons, in dif- ferent places, with his own hand, or caused still greater numbers to be baptized by his associates in the ministry 1 O the darkness of a certain light! That baptism ouglit to be performed only by a regular minister of Christ, and not by any other person, we infer from the obvious propriety of the case ; from immemorial usage ; from the evils and disorders incident to an opposite practice ; from the fact that it is coiftained in the ministeTial commis- sion ; and from the total absence of all example or authority in the New Testament for its administra- tion but by a public minister of Christ. We there- fore deny totally the validity of lay baptism. This is a troublesome consideration to Friendism! Those whose characteristic it is to deny the distinct order of the evangelical ministry, would be slow to ac- credit a divine ordinance (not to speak of many others) which ministers, and men only, can compe- tently perform ! This is the fountain of their in- spiration on several articles. Their dislike of the clergy is unfeigned, conscientious, pervading : their phohia on this topic (I might say — hydrophobia) is wonderful ! Hence a total retrenchment of what- ever seems to sanction or reqijire them. Their reforming was radical and their revolutionizing en- tire ! They have retrenched the commission itself, as antiquated and lifeless ; always taking out a new one for every special piece of service they perform : I think however it is just as vain and sanctionless as any other "sparks which they have kindled." 66 522. 6. I come now to another argument or Objection of theirs, taken, very confidently, from Matt. 3 : 13-15. " Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jor- dan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me 1 And Jesus, answer- ing, said unto him. Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him." They say in substance this : Christ suffered it then, because of the ignorance and blind- ness of the people, who were addicted to the cere- monial of the Jews and the impositions of the rab- bins, and who could not have brooked the introduc- tion all at once of a system of total spirituality. It was then a merciful compliance with their weak- ness ; but now it is no longer to be " suffered." The substance has come ; the shadows and symbols re- tire. I answer, (1) It was not dicine inspiration that dictated such a miserable gloss. Hear it from their prince of the Apology, a very chandelier of illuminations for the whole church to see by : " It will not thence follow that christians ought to do so now ; and therefore Christ, Matt. 3 : 15, gives John this reason of his being baptized, desiring hirh to suffer it to he so noio ; whereby he sufficiently in- timates that he intended not thereby to perpetuate it as an ordinance to his disciples." Inspired! I deny that it " sufficiently " or at all intimates any such thing. Wo be to him " that loveth or maketh a he !" This is only another instance — one of mil- lions, where a certain light perverts evidence and 523 sanctions mistake ! It is another demonstration against Quakerism : for inspiration is their basis ; but inspiration, when genuine, is infallible ; a mis- take therefore subverts the basis, by evincing that it is not of God, but an illusion of men. Whatever clemency is due to the mistakes of men, who ac- knowledge their fallibility and profess their sub- jection to the ordinary laws of mind, none ought to be granted or claimed in the case of those who boast of plenary inspiration from God, just such as that of the apostles : for, if their main position be true, they need no clemency — it is insolence to offer it ! This sing-song of Barclay is often re-echoed in their meetings. I well remember to have wit- nessed, and often to have felt, the incantation, thus : Jesus suffered it to be so then. And even now, my dearly beloved, must we forbear with those who are in the outward and who practise it in this day when the true light shineth. Alas \ they are in shadows indeed. . They see not where is the life, the liberty, the power ! But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear ! Need I characterize the perversion ! Blessed be the ears that hear such cheap inspiration, and rare spirituality. They have totally mistaken the facts of the case. When Christ says, " Suffer it to be so now," he does not by it mean the ordinance itself, for that was no part of the noble dispute ; but he means the anomaly of the master being baptized by the ser- vant! A grammatical conscience ought more shrewdly to have scanned the antecedent of "it;" 624 which is palpably not baptism ; but the totally un- paralleled relative incongruity of its administration in that wonderful instance. " Without all contra- diction the less is blessed of the better ;" and the implication is the same in the action of baptism. John was too humble and too sensible to bear the implication, without a proper confession of his in- feriority. Hence " John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ?" But afterward " he suffered him," and Je- sus was baptized of John in Jordan. Thus the whole view of Friends is fundamentally false. It is founded on a total perversion of the monosyllable it in the sentence. They assume that it means the ordinance itself; and not the passing paradox of its administration, that never before or since had its counterpart, of a sinful man administering a reli- gious and official qualification to the sinless and only-begotten Son of God ! How great the humili- ty of John ; how much greater the humiliation of his Lord, " the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose !" thou glorious Mediator ! Who thy pattern would desert ? Who is purer, better, greater. Or in wisdom more expert ? 1 will follow thee, my Leader ! Glorying only in thy cross ; Thou my all-suf5cient Pleader, Having thee I feel no loss ! (2) The reason which the Savior assigns silenced 525 the scruples of the Baptist, and ought forever to silence the reasoning of Friends ; " Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all RIGHTEOUSNESS." This sentence is worthy to be printed on the heavens in capitals of gold ! Its applicability is illimitable. It applies to all persons, at all times, and for all duties. It includes all the objects and subjects of religion. It comes from the lips of our glorious Lord, and enforced by his own illustrious example in the most expressive circum- stances. Observe, ^rs^, his motive in the transaction. It was to fulfil a branch of " righteousness." Bap- tism was a divine ordinance ; and as such obligatory on every worshipper of God, on every man. Jesus Christ was a man. He had been " made of a woman, made under the law," and as such was absolutely obligated to obey it, as he did, in perfection. It would have been a dreadful defect in his character to have omitted that (as he omitted no other) branch of righteousness. He could have had no other motive than to honor his Father in all the ways of his appointment. He had no sin to wash away ; no personal fitness to the rite as to its implication — the impurity of the subject : but he had duties to perform, and a perfect example to complete for his foUpwers. He speaks of them, in delightful asso- ciation with hinjself, when he says, . " thus it be- cometh US to fulfil all righteousness ;'' to do any thing and every thing whatsoever God has ap- pointed ! Hence the prodigies of divine approbation that followed his baptism. "And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of 526 God descending like a dove, and ligiiting upon him : and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my be- loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Observe, second, that he had not then commenced, but was soon to commence, his public career as a preacher and minister of religion. He was just then emerg- ing into publicity, being "about thirty years of age." Hence the scene of his baptism has been styled that of his inauguration or formal introduction to office. Still, he was a private character when he was bap- tized — as all others are. Ghseixe^^ third, how isedu- lous he was to receive baptism. He came incognito from Galilee to John, a distance of nearly 100 miles, to receive it; and then insisted on its performance. Observe, fourth, that the principle was old, though its application was then peculiar, in his practice. He was circumcised ; he attended the passover ; obeyed his parents ; wrought at an humble trade ; inhabited an obscure and disreputable village ; waited patiently and unknown till the lawful age ; celebrated the passover, and instituted its counter- part, the very night before he suffered ; and in all " left us an example that we should follow his steps ; who did no sin." Observe, fiflh, the force of the sentiment that thus " it becomes us " to do ! It is proper, obligatory, honorable, necessary*! It every way becomes us ! How unbecoming then for us to keep an inward light that contradicts both his example and his commandment ! We niay do other things innumerable. We may do them scru- pulously and in vain. It is no part of " all righ teousness " unless divinely commanded. It is dire- 627 ful to have our wisdom in collision with the wis- dom of God. We never can compensate for ne- glect or violation of positive duties by a multitudi- nous observance of oiAer matters. Poor King Saul tried this sort of piety to his sorrow on more than one occasion. " And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-oft'erings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord l Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft ; and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Be- cause thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." Again, " not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but Hii THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FaTHER who is in heaven. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Other objections of Friends to the ordinances of God, I am little careful to answer. But, in rela- tion to the subjects and the mode of baptism, I have only to say that it will be time enough to dis- cuss them when they cease to deny the rite itself. It were frivolous to investigate how or to whom a service is to be performed, while we doubt or de- ny that it is to be performed at all. Let Friends acknowledge the fact ; and then we will attend to their subordinate queries. The same may be said in regard to the uses of baptism. " What good does it do thee T' is a very common question with them. It is very much like the question often put in respect to " the forbidden fruit," What harm 528 could it do for Eve to eat an apple f The divine sanction is every thing. To honor it has a vital connection with good, and to dishonor it, with harm. I sincerely pity the men who must wait for etei-nity to convince them of this ! I add, the utiHty of any measure or observance in religion is not, as such, our first question respecting it ; but this, Is it the pleasure of God ? To question the excellency of a divine enactment is absurdity, equalled only by its impiety. Suppose Abraham had doubted and hesitated when ordered to forsake his country, his paternal mansions, and all the peerless charities of home, because the utility of the mandate did not appear to him ! Suppose he had preferred his own eye-sight in the matter of sacrificing Isaac, and had plausibly and naturally enough questioned its ex- pediency and uses ! Would he ever have been called " the Father of the faithful and the Friend of God 1" To be such a Friend, is worthy the ambi- tion of immortals arid the competition of mankind. " By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac : and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it w^as said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called : accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure." The utilities of baptism however are hot inscrutable, not paradoxical or severely trying to our faith ; though it is no part of my present pur- 529 pose to discuss them. To be publicly devoted to God according to his own appointment ; to have " the answer of si good conscience toward God " by duly respecting his own appointed signals of alliance with himself; to feel that we have been typically washed according to his own order, and at the same time sensibly admonished of our natural defilement — of the purity of God — of his purifying grace — of " the washing of regeneration and re- newing of the Holy Ghost," which is the great archetype of baptism — of the conservative " ark " into which baptism symbolically places us — and of the obligations and solemn commitment to holiness of life which baptism implies ; and to understand and appreciate the import of being baptismally allied "to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," in duty, profession, worship, covenant and hope, are a few of the intelligible advantages of this branch of " righteousness :" and however baptism, in common with every other item of Christianity, may be or has been abused, per- verted, mistaken, dishonored, prostituted, or igno- rantly observed, by professors of religion, its utilities, like its authority, are wholly independent of the actions of men and entirely resolvable into the con- stitution of God. If it be demanded whether grace is conferred or only signified by this sacrament ; I answer, both ! not indeed that grace is necessarily conferred by the sign or always accompanies it ; because, as in the case of Simon Magus, it is not always sincerely received. But this is true oi every other conceivable institution of God ! VfhsXia prayer, 67 530 when not sincerely used 1 Shall we then say that grace is not conferred and received by, prayer 1 or reading the scriptures 1 or performing any other duty? In all these cases, grace is not necessarily connected with the service ; it is not mechanically connected ; it is not found ex opere operate ^ with the mere performance. Shall we then, through an ultra spirituality, renounce the total service of God \ We must do this, or remain inconsistent and wrong in the rejection of divine ordinances in general, or that solemnly commissioned one of baptism in particu- lar. For thus it becometh us to fulfil all KIGHTEOUSNESS. Barclay devotes nearly 40 pages to the treat- ment of baptism ; and it would require 400 fully to notice all the sophistry of his argument. When I read him on the sacraments, 1 confess that I am led to doubt whether he himself believed what he wrote; though upon reflection, I am unwilling to deny his sincerity. If the positive evidence alrea- dy adduced will not convince the reader of his per- version, I leave him to his responsibility; only ob- serving that positive evidence has not been exhaust- ed. I have only given a few items of proof, des- pairing of conviction where these fail to produce it ; and remembering that truth is independent of the stupidity of men. One argument of Barclay deserves some sepa- rate notice. It is fundamental in his reasoning, and very plausibly treated. The textof Ephesians, 4 : 5, " There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism," sug- gests his position that there is only " one baptism ;" 531 hence he would hang us all on some horn of a di- lemma which he constructs for the purpose. He would have us admit from our view — as he states it — that water baptism is that only " one," and that hence there is no such thing as spiritual influence or the baptism of the Holy Ghost : that is, if we hold to the instituted sign we must mistake it for the thing signified ; or if we hold to the signal, di- vinely appointed, we must necessarily forego or deny the substance. This is strange reasoning ; and (if I can understand the drift apart from the drapery or the disguise of his argument) it is just that which he employs. He assumes that there is no connection between the sign and the substance, but rather a contrariety ; so that both cannot by possibility co- exist and mutually aid each other ; and so that, the things being mortally repugnant and opposite, as well as distinct, he who " holds to the one " must of necessity " despise the other :" he assumes vir- tually that " God and mammon " might as easily and compatibly be both at once pursued by men, as water baptism and spiritual baptism be both at once believed by them ; and hence we are called to take sides with Friends against the ordinance, or against God with the inimical sign. Any one that wishes to see and feel the force of his argument is advised to commence with believing that all signs are mar- vellously at war with all their corresponding sub- stances, all types with their archetypes, and all words with the sense conveyed by them. They will then believe, by parity or consequence, that if a man hangs out on his vesture the signals cap-a-pie 532 of honesty, soberness, and religion ; he must be the. certain enemy of all these excellencies : and also that all the divine hieroglyphics of preceding ages were direfirlly inimical to " Jesus Christ and him cruci- fied," whom they were all designed to adumbrate and in whom their rays all converged for their ac- complishment. Hear Barclay. " As for the first, viz. That there is hut one baptism, there needs no other proof than the words of the text, Eph. 4 : 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism : where the apos- tle positively and plainly affirms, that as there is but one body, one spirit, one faith, one God, &c. so there is but one baptism.''^ I answer, the apostle " affirms" no such thing ; he does not say but one. He only asserts its unity. But what is unity \ Al- most every subject is one in some respects, and not in others. A man is an animal and a spirit, one in person, more than one in nature and composition. Jesus Christ is one person and only one : but he has two ECIUALI.Y appropriate natures, as "the man Christ Jesus," and as " God over all blessed for- ever." 1 Tim. 2 : 5. Rom. 9. Thus, we have " one Lord," who is both human and divine. Sup- pose I should follow Barclay's reasoning in respect tp this article, which the apostle affirms in the same place, thus : Jesus Christ is Lord and we have but "one Lord," therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is but one ; but if he is man proper and God proper he is not hut one, and hence not the Lord : therefore he is God only and not man, and those who hold his humanity oppose his deity ! Thus, in reference to baptism, it is " one " — and hence there is no such 533 thing as water baptism ; and " there needs no 'other proof," as " the apostle positively and plainly af- firms " the premises, " one baptism !" The apostle in the connection is enforcing union among the christians of Ephesus : " endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit ia the bond of peace." To this end, he tells them of the oneness of their baptism and of other unities, which all inspire one- ness of sentiment and feeling : by which I under- stand that as they were baptized into on^ incommu- nicable NAME, and not into difierent names of wor- ship, they were hence baptismally obligated to union in all things, universally honoring " the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Baptism is evidently characterized from the name ixkio which we are introduced by it ; " were ye baptized into the name of Paul 1 — Lest any should say that I had baptized into mine own name. When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts, 19 : 5. As baptism introduced converts, as it respects its proper import, their own profession, their worship, and obligations, into one name ; so it was one cause that it subserv- ed and owned, and so the apostle here refers pri- marily to the rite of baptism as connected vdth the name of " the only wise God " and the obligations of all true worshippers. Here is moral unity ; one household, one brotherhood ! — a community to which "Friends" do not visibly belong! Barclay and other Friends generally beg and push the question by reason of their assumptions at starting. Hence they bring the incautious into 534 their dogmas with marvellous plausibility and with a great display of logical fairness. One instance of this is the assumption that the primary meaning of a word is always one with its most important meaning. But it often happens that the secondary meaning of a word, as baptism, is at once its most important and its least frequent sense in scripture. Like circumcision, its primary meaning is the sign only ; its more important is its secondary sense, and refers to the heart and its purification. The phrase " The sure mercies of David " is also an example. Its secondary sense, referring to Christ, is the important one ! Thus, the. primary sense of baptism respects the rite only ; it is used however for its archetype by a very fair metonomy, without merging its existence or its distinctness in its great- er. But Friends begin with the secondary mean- ing, and hence try to do away with the primary ; they think they seize the substance, and then they deny the entity of the sign. Let the candid judge ! Because they see us contending for the sign, they often infer that we oppose the substance ; they often say, ' if they had the experience of the matter, they would care less for externals :' — which might be true, and yet externals be of divine authority. We say, they are of divine authority; and therefore mainly do we, from conscience toward God, main- tain them. There is a meaning in the rite baptismal, in its relations and implications, which is justly dear to the enlightened sensibilities of the christian. It is peculiar too — and little, it may be, understood even 535 by the church and the ministry. God has a visible family in the world, in which he regards his people " and their offspring with them," as " the seed of the blessed of the Lord." Is. 59 : 20, 21. Their relation to Him, and correlatively his to them, is most wonderful, gracious, and full of moment. Baptism does not make it. It pre-exists in the economy of gracious administration. Baptism finds it, owns it, illustrates, seals it. It is instituted in the order and offices of the church visible of Jesus Christ by his own most gracious appointment, in subserviency to the triumph of his mercy and " the fruit of the Spirit." It exists " that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the gentiles tipoN WHOM MY NAME IS CALLED ; saith the Lord, who doeth all these things." Acts, 15 : 17. It is in baptism appropriately that "this glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD," is called upon the members of his visible family. This re- cognises the family relation. He who adopts them, as their Father, communicates his own name of glory and supersedes their former names of shame. Is. 44 : 1-5. Hence the proper form of the action should be, " Baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The reasons of this, as contra-distinguished from the method of our translation and of current usage, I will briefly state. 1. The common phrase in the name of means merely hy authority of. There is not so evident a propriety in expressing and repeating this in every instance of the performance, which is sufficiently S36 . implied and proved without it. It is plainly done by divine authority. 2. Where the sense of the phrase in the name of is found, thei-e the original ev tct avtiuxti is different. Acts, 3 : 6. 1 Cor. 5 : 4. 3. In this sense something- ultimate, not mediate, is meant. If baptism wrought salvation, as infalli- bly as a miracle accomplished a cure, it would be ultimate ; and the propriety of saying, I do this ef- fectual thing in the name of Jesus Christ would be sensible. But baptism is not ultimate. It is me- diate, initiatory, symbolical alone. The phrase in question then is hot pertinent. It is calculated to misrepresent the purport of the ofdruance. It im- plies that the rite is ultimate and virtual". Again, 4. The proper grammar of the original sig to ovofia requires a different phrase ; as, to, unto, or into. It refers to the family designation. When one is adopted into the household of another, the name of the family is assumed. The adopting act confers it ; the adopting ceremony signifies or de- clares it. Hence we are adopted and baptized into the family of God. We become visibly his chil- dren ; he, our Father. We are called by his name. Baptism enunciates this. Hence Paul dreaded even the impeachment of baptizing "into st^ to E/xdv ovofia his own name ;" as if he were about erecting a pri- vate concern, a separate and rival interest of his own ! a church of Paul, not of Christ. 5. The meaning of the proper phrase is compre- hensive and excellent. The name of Jehovah is that by v as their congregation hath heard. Wo unto them ! for they have fled from me : de- struction unto them ! because they have transgressed against me : though i have REDEEMED them, YET THEY HAVE SPOKEN LIES AGAINST ME. — I Will go and return to my place^ till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face : in their aiiliction they will seek me early." 599 VBB OBKXSSZAZr BXZXnSTILir. The infidel has shot his bolts away, Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none, He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled, And aims them at the shield of Truth again. ****** The world takes little thought, TVho wilt may preach, And what they will. AH pastors are alike To wandering sheep, resolved to follow none. Cowper. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. So then, faith contfth by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. — Rom , 10:15-17. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. — 2 Cor. 4:1-7. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart : and my lipe shall utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given mc life. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead : I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, nei- ther shaU my hand be heavy upon thee.— Job, 33 : 3-7. Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found fiithftil.— 1 Cor. 4 : 1-5. .And THE THINGS THAT THOU HAST HEARD OF ME among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others ALSO 1—2 Tim. 2 : 2. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. — 2 Cgr. 5 : 20. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. — 1 Pet. 4:11. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive : but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ. — Eph. 4 : 14, 1 5. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over THEM. my people, they who lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.— Isai. 3 : 12. On the subject of the christian ministry, Friends are very peculiar in many respects, and wrong in 600 about as many. The theme is inviting, fertile, and important ; but it is so well understood compara- tively in this country, that I thought at first wholly to omit its treatment. Its connection with Quak- erism, however, has determined me to the present course ; in which I shall attempt little more than to expose the anti-scriptural perversion of their scheme : and this generally as it respects the nature of the office ; its importance as a means of grace ; a competent temporal support ; the right of females to officiate ; and the probable salvation of their pre- sent and proper ministrations. Their views and usages here are so well known, as not to require many quotations from their authors : indeed the way to put down error is to establish truth ; and not to waste time and strength in chasing a serpent through all the windings of his flexile and lubri- cated path. Speaking however as a christian wit- ness, and knowing my account in the eternal world, I record my hearty protest against their peculiar views ; as false, specious, purely fanatical, and eminently ruinous to those vvhom they avail to in- fluence ! I. The nature of the ministerial office oc- curs to be considered. Its nature as God has made it, and as the scriptures evince it, I mean ; and not as it has been abused by anybody : its nature, as involving distinctness of office ; life-devotement to its service ; constancy and regularity of officiating ; a genuine call to its duties ; the commission of its authority ; the sanctions of its administration ; its perpetuity in the world. I shall not think it neces- 601 sary distinctly and in form to treat of all these ; nor to care specially for the order announced. 1 . The distinctness of the ministerial office, re- sults from the nature of its duties ; their sacred im- portance ; the necessity of adequate qualifications ; the inhibition of the incompetent ; the duty of the church to try, and prove, and recognise, the com- petent ; and the whole tenor of scripture, . speak- ing of the order and the office, its appropriate duties and solemn responsibilities, in a style suited to no other idea. WJhat Barclay says about the distinc- tion between the clergy and the laity, is little other than religious trifling and logomachy. If the order exists distinctly, then every one belongs to it, or — he does not. In this there is nothing disparaging or invidious, especially in our times. The latter class are called, by secular usage and common law, the laity, or people ; and the former, the clergy, or the order of clerks or scholars ; for reasons which history has told to all men. 2. The ministerial commission. In general, this is the whole written word of God ; in particular, those passages that condense the authority and the in- structions of the service, in few and comprehensive and appropriate words; and that declare the salva- tion or the damnation of men, the savor either " of death unto death" or " of life unto life," according to their treatment of the gospel ; and these as the sanctions of God, to those to whom their ministra- tions are addressed. Thus, the whole volume is declared to be inspired eminently to this end, the accomplishing of the ministry ; " that the man of 76 602 God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Hence every preacher is required to conform his doctrine to that ' outward ' rule ; " If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." He is required also to observe coherency, and the essential harmony of truth, and the analogy of faith in its proper outline, in all that he delivers ; " Let us prophecy according to the proportion (ob- jective symmetry or analogy) of faith." "And lo, 1 am with yon alway, even unto the end of the world," says the Savior : a sentence sufficient of itself to show the perpetuity of the office to the end of time ; did not the spiritual wants of men, the same in all ages and in constant succession of ge- nerations, and the evident seal of the Spirit on a pure ministry in our own day ; the experience of all genuine and accomplished christians ; the his- tory of those countries where such a ministry is en- joyed, in contrast with others that perishingly want that excellent ascension-gift of Christ ; perfectly demonstrate the truth. The right and the duty and the responsibility of private judgment, however, is fully given in the scriptures : and there is it better guarded too than it can be possibly elsewhere. 2 Cor. 1 : 24. Acts, 17 : 11. 1 John, 4 : 1-5. John, 5 : 31-47. No protestant and no christian can pro- bably over-estimate the importance of this right or the solemnity of this duty. To God we answer for its abuse. Liberty and responsibility ought always to accompany and mutually to qualify each other. Men are free — and they are accountable too! No claim of inspiration entitles a man, or a tcoman, to 603 be believed implicitly. " To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." " Consider what I say ; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." The commission of Friends where is it 1 In the inner man ! in the anointing felt at the time ! in " the fund of the soul !" in light ! 3. A minister of the gospel must be devoted with his all and for life to the service. The very nature, magnitude, difficulty, glory, of the work, demon- strate this. To what ought a man to be devoted for life ; with all his powers absorbed, all his affections enamored, all his time employed, if not to this in- comparable service 1 I will quote only one passage here. It is addressed to a young minister, and through him as well to every other minister of Christ. " Give attendance to reading, to ex- hortation, TO doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; GIVE THY- SELF WHOLLY TO THEM; THAT THY PROFITING MAY APPEAR TO ALL :" or, " IN ALL," as is the original, with manifest pre- ferableness ; meaning, in all the branches and parts of the comprehensive office-work. From innumerable other testimonies of the " secondary rule," might the same be verified. But this is plain, full, indisputable. I only ask, What Quaker minis- ter obeys iti The man who gives no " attendance to reading 1" who abhors religious study \ who de- 604 nounces theological application, as a profane way of preparing for public duty'! who is a layman, while he preaches 1 and who, instead of " giving himself wholly" to the things of the ministry, drives a prosperous trade all the week, and now and then on " first-day " delivers a rhapsody of in- spired nonsense, to an edified assemblage, for ten or twelve minutes, or possibly only two sentences in three or ten months'! The difference between a minister of the New Testament stamp, and an or- dinary Quaker holder-forth, is so great and palpa- ble, that to one who knows the appropriate charac- teristics of both, the attempt to prove it were su- perfluous and to illustrate it ridiculous. Some of the most ignorant simpletons in. civilized society get inspired to preach among them ; and " shear nonsense " indeed do they deliver : while tremulous gesticulation, groaning, drawling, whining, grimace, and most unearthly tunes of vocal sing-song, are the relief, and the accompaniment, and the com- pensation. I might here record some recollected specimens in point — but I forbear, with pity super- seding the indignation it produces! Do they so obey the order of God, that their " profiting," their proficiency, "appears?" and that, "in all" the varied and lofty ramifications of the ministerial office ■! in interpretation, in knowledge, in doctrinal discrimination, in lucid developement, in richness of furniture, and so on 1 " Take heed unto thyself and to the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." Is this like their ministry, masculine or 605 feminine 1 " Jesiis saith unto them, Have ye un- derstood all these things 1 They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe who is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matth. 13 : 52. "And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season 1 Blessed is thai servant whom his lord when he Cometh shall find so doing." Luke, 12 : 42, 43. There is no such ministry among Friends, no- thing like it in all the estate of their officers ; elders or ministers ; male or female. Some of their preachers, I speak of the best that I ever heard, have indeed a native vain of eloquence, and mental gifts of no ordinary respectability : still, their sermons are without method, concentration, or point. They show pathos and poetry of a certain kind ; but equally evince the folly that abhors men- tal disciphne in preaching ; that calls it " forbidden fruit" (what a foolery) to premeditate and mature their message ; and that sincerely acts as if the Deity were just using their organs of utterance for his own speech, while they piously suffer it to " go through" them. Their edification, I deliberately believe, is mainly physical ; as much so as social sympathy, theatrical effect, pantomime, good ani- mal spirits, nervous excitement, a solemn nap, " re- newing one's strength " by tranquil inaction, se- rene feeling, or electrical saturation ! See Barclay's 606 physical analysis of " worship," in which he soberly proves its contagiousness, or that the inference is catching in their society! I often think of a charged battery of Leyden phials and a secret conductor, when I read him. To mysticise below the bathos or the abyss of all conaprehension, wonderfully re- freshes them. They are very fond of figurative rea- soning and analogical illustration, incoherent and declamatory. In fact there is no particular need of their proving any thing. Inspiration " dwells like Uriel in the sun ;" and must be right. They have no " Evangelists, or Pastors and Teachers," after the pattern of the New Testament. Their preachers often produce a great effect — on the nerves ! Their incantations or cantillations are so- norous and affecting quite. But it is very much a physical effect, instead of a moral one : and their sages know little of the difference. To explain, demonstrate, define, instruct, and edify, in the pure faith of the gospel, is what the best of them do not. The scriptures they never read in public worship. Their quotations are loose, disjointed, and almost all by common plagiarism from their books or their cotemporaries or recent predecessors — yet they vend it all for fresh inspiration, very sincerely. My own conviction is, after a full and perilous experience of their ways, that their ministry is altogether another sort of thing from that, described in the New Tes- tament ; and that ordinarily a man might sit under it for half a century, and get all the good it was adapted to afford, and be mightily affected on every occasion, and considerably restrained and softened 607 and attenuated in his living practice ; without ever coming to know the way of salvation through Jesus Christ as it is, and without all the proper ends rea- lized to his soul for which the evangelical ministry was divinely and certainly appointed. Not only does their influence omit to demonstrate — since it knows not^-the real vitals of the gospel as they are; it so blunts the edge of thought, mystifies the judgment, and pre-occupies the perceptions, that the devotee or disciple of their ways now spontaneously calls good, evil ; bitter, sweet ; and light, darkness. At- tempt to reason the. case — ah ! that is all in the will of man, in the wisdom of the schools, in the way of divines and doctors. Thus they are attached to the system as it were by infection communicated, or the virtus inoculated into the constitution : as Barclay says, " it must be rather by a sensible [not spiritual] experience, and by coming to make proof of it, than by arguments," that we are " convinced " of the excellence of their style of things. The senses, in- ternal or external, have often a greater effect in con- vincing some persons, than evidence, even if it be the word of God ! " Yea, and we doubt not, but assuredly know, that the meeting may be good and refreshful, though from the sitting down to the ris- ing up thereof, there hath not been a word as out- wardly spoken ; and yet life may have been known to abound in each particular, and an inward grow- ing up therein and thereby." He speaks of such an encounter in these silent meetings, "that often- times, through the working thereof, the body will be greatly shaken, and many groans, and sighs, 608 and tears, even as the pangs of a woman in travail, vpill lay hold upon it." Hence, he says, " Our work then and worship is, when we meet together, for every one to watch and wait upon God in them- selves, and to be gathered ** from all visibles there- unto." And then it is that " the good seed, as it ariseth, will be found to work as physic in the soul." Thus Barclay himself was physically converted to Quakerism — precisely as I was not converted from it to Christianity : " not by strength of arguments, or by a particular disquisition of each doctrine, and convincement of my understanding thereby." Not so : " but by being secretly reached by this life." He adds, as a true and graphic auto-biographer ; " for when I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the good raised up, and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the in- crease of this power and life, whereby I iMght feel myself perfectly redeemed. — And indeed this is the surest way to become a christian^ -but enough ! or, I will just add, this is the method of their admi- nistered ordinances ! for " thus we are often greatly strengthened and renewed in the spirits of our minds without a word, and we enjoy and possess the holy fellowship and communion of the body and blood of Christ, by which our inward man is nou- rished and fed ; which makes us not to dote upon outward water, and bread, and wine, in our spiri- tual things." They only dote upon inward water, 609 and bread and wine. But the christian ministry reqnires, 4. Constancy and regularity of officiating : this, ordinarily ; as well as all the extraordinary and in- opportune and nameless ways in which one is re- quired, seeking and watching all proper occasions to exert a wise but an aggressive and positive influ- ence in favor of the gospel. It is plainly the duty of every preacher of the gospel to honor the fol- lowing order of the Holy Ghost : " I charge thee therefore before* God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his ap- pearing and his kingdom ; preach the word ; be in- stant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, ex- hort, with all long-suffering and doctrine," &c. 2 Tim. 4 : 1-4. Does this mean — keep silent meetings, that the spirits of the people may be " renewed without a word," by a secret influence, galvanic, atmospheric, or physical of some other sort 1 Friends often allege the importance of re- flection«(p,nd the value of silent meetings as assist- ing it. But is this wise 1 Why come together so- cially, for the sake of solitary thought 1 We are indeed exhorted to " commune with our own heart and be still ;" but then it is " on our bed," and not " in the great congregation." Such duties are pri- vate and personal in their nature, and ought to be done in the " closet." But public meetings are social ; and fit, as they were instituted by the great Head of the church, for public actions of worship ; such as preaching, prayer, singing, reading the scriptures, and the administration of the christian 77 610 •^aci'a'tiierits. To come together into one place— to sit still, to reflect, to be miite, to hear no preaching of the tvord,^hH to celebrate ho evangelical or- dinance ; this is — Quakerisitn. Acts, 13 : 38-44. Matt. 13 : 3. " Be instatit," i. e. urgent, aggressive, " compelling them to cottie iii :" Luke, 14 : 23, does this miean^^that the preacher should wait for inspi- ration, an inward motion of life in the soul, by silent stillness, till " the rest Will find themselves secretly smitten without Words, and that orie will be as a mitiioi/c 'thtough the secret travails of his soul to bring forth the life in them, just as a little water thrown into a pump brings tip this rest, whereby hfe will come to be raised in all,— and such a one is felt by the rest to minister life unto them without Words !" What competent and impartial judge can think this to be other th&ri sorcery, peculiarly refin- ed % It is no more the gospel than the fooleries of the Koran are ! " In season :" does this mean that it is Wrong to have Yeguldr seasons of preaching the word ] that to appoint such seasons and punc- tually to meet them, is all "in the will of man" and abominable to Godl " Out of season ;" does this mean — only when you have been sitting still for a length of time, to get the life into play and ■pulsation ] only when you can feel yourself " cloth- ed " with the living influence 1 only when you can take out a new commission, like bread hot from the ovenl only when your nerves and your imagi- flation have Taecome charged with the light of Quakerism, the foxiari touchwood or flame of an 611 ultra-spiritual vision/! Quakerism, whatever else it may be, is not christiani^ty. 5. A geniiine call to the duties of the ministerial 4iffk(e, is one ^hiog with Quakerism, an(J another thing with the ijeligion of the New Testatnent. It wa? in the " openings " of a marvellous inspiration that George Fox was fir^t called from the last, to preach about the light. Jn ju?t such a way only, do Friends allow any ot^ier preacher to be desig- nated. All that are not called in this way of theirs, are m^n-made jyeachers, and " divested of the no- ble name of christian." On this subject, after I had obtained a hope in Chrigt Jesus, and felt "joy and peace in believing," according to the glpripus written gospel of God, I was perplexed for a, time with the recurrence of the old leaven, the secret influence, which they tliink the very artery of spiritual life, thrilling with its freshest circulations. The word of God wft^ V^V universal solvent, my p^pace^, my philpsppher's stone, my elixir of life! I wa§ "thoroughly fur- nished " by its wisdom. There I soon s^w that the way of fanaticfil imposture was that which troubled me, and guite cmQt-her tpay that indicated in the ge- nuine oracles. To be possessed of the PRopE/a QUAWFicATtoNS,— this wfts the criterion, according to that volume Qi "truth artd soberness:" and this question was to he judged for myself and by my- self in the first instance,, and then for others by my spiritual superiors in the church of God. I ^e^olved these qualifications into the following ; (1) sincere 'piety, as a lover of God and a disciple of Jesus 612 Christ ; (2) a desire of the office, enlightened, prac- tical, predominating, hearty, and in a sensjB inextin- guishably strong ; (3) competent intellectual talents, natural and acquired ; (4) suitable bodily powers, as health, vigor, voice ; (5) a willingness to submit to authority, and to honor the proper power of go- vernment in the church, by being subject to it for Christ's sake, as well as by exercising it on the same account ; and (6) the sanction of the church of God, on due experiment as a probationer. These I approved as constituting the qualifications, from which the inference is valid that he who possesses them is ordinarily called of God to the work of the ministry. [^Extraordinary calls, such as that of Paul, are never to be looked for, and are now never repeat- ed. Hence on the matter of qoalifications the burden of the New Testament pervadingly reposes. As soon as we hear of "desiring the office," it is pronounced " a good work ;" and the qualifications are specified that authorize incumbency and inves- titure. The candidate must look to these solemnly, for his own satisfaction ; then must the church and all men, for their satisfaction. 1 Tim. 3 : 1-7. Tit. 1 : 5-11. 2 Tim. 2: 1-26. 3 : 1-17. 4: 1-8. Now nothing is plainer to me than this — that no Friend either does or can possess the requisite qualifica- tions ; and consequently no Friend, as such, is called of God, or has any right to be owned by man, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is a Friend, for example, " apt to teach" or to — sit stilll does he give himself "wholly" to his workl or only partially, fitfully, and as his more absorbing secular 613 profession permits 1 Is he seen " holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he MAY BE ABLE BY SOUND DOCTRINE BOTH TO EXHOKT AND TO CONVINCE THE GAlNSAYERsf DoeS he " give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to DOCTRINE 1" Has he any oflBcial " gift," with " the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1" Does he even profess to act or officiate under the high commission of the volume of inspiration, which, its author declares, was written on purpose and mainly to equip and accomplish the christian ministry t Let men of sense, unprejudiced and independent, answer the questions. II. On THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE AS A MEANS OP GRACE, I have little to say. Brevity will suffice. I think the word of God very clearly au- thorizes this declaration, that, extraordinaries APART, the christian MINISTRY, POSSESSING THE COMPETENT QUALIFICATIONS, IS INDISPENSABLE TO SALVATION. All history and observation confirm the whole tenor of scripture in these two positions ; 1. That man is an apostate and desperately wicked creature universally ; 2. That God ordinarily uses the ministry of the gospel, as his way of bringing sinners to exercise " repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." This view is the antipodes of what "Friends be- lieve." And truly, when they value the ministry as of very little worth, I grant that their estimate is wise and xaxional— if they mean their own ! It\s of very little worth, sure enough ! They could get to heaven by the light within, just as soon, or sooner, 614 without as with it. And, say they, when they hear our view^ "what will becooje of the heathen 1" An- swer) they are aJU to be converted by Frieads' rms- sionary efforts-^or saved by the light memryQne of them ! I also will ask them a q.«estioB; What is to become of "the whole; would" that "lieth in wick- edness 1" What will become of some worse hea- then at home, who need to be taught "^^ which be the first principles of the doctrine of Christ 1" See Rom. 10 : 11-17, where we are told not only of the efficacy of faith, and of its indispenaabl£ness> but of the modie of its occurrence. " So then, faith Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the [spoken] word of God." The gloss oi" Barclay on the con- text I pronounce false and contemptible. Panl is introducing no objector ; in that lacid chain of in- terrogatories, which leads to the conclusion I have cited. He is only preparing the way tff show^s vs. 18-21, that salvation does not foUow witha^t ffajh, even where the gospel is enjoyed. 1 Cor. 1 : 18-^31. Rom. 10 : 20-22. Luke, 10 : 1, 2. Rom. 1 : 20-32. 2 : 1-12-16. But I proceed, III. To consider the topic of a competent tempo- ral support, as the due of the ministry acco,r4^ing to human and divine laws equally. If the work is one that engrosses the "laborer;" that requires sjslf-de- votement for life ; that absorbs most properly all his time and talents ; that occupies him wholly for the good osf others :^— why ought he to be starved to death for conformity to the diviae requisitions 1 Tell me not of abuses — I am treiating of uses only ; besides, from abuse to disuse, of &. good thing, is a 615 fool's argument. A worldly establishment, a sordid money-making traflSc in benefices, the abominations of simony, the sin of pluralities, the distraint and the modern doctrine of tithes, a secular enforce- ment of " church rates," or an implication against the fundamental principle that "the kingdom of Christ is not of this world ;" none of these is in the argument or need be in the objection. " But Sup- pose one loves the wages more than the worki" Why — THEN HE IS AN " HIRELING ;" and dying so, he will be lost-forever ! But are there none of your own clergy in that predicament 1 Very prohably . Are there none of your own laity in the same condemna- tion 1 Enow ye not that if a man practise physic and love the wages supremely, " mammon," and not "the Father," is his 'God ; and "wrath abideth on him 1" Friends often argue as if the sacred service was, the only one in which it were sin to prefer eimdlument to higher considerations ; or in which there was any temptation to covetousness. I pray they may not wait for the ' outward ' light of eternity to teach them, that, in whatever profession or sphere a man maybe placed, he is obligated to love God supreme- ly ; and has no piety without doing it ; and is " an idol- ater," and so with "no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," if he be " a covetous man." Now, why cannot a man from motives as pure as those of Paul, accept a coiiipetent income from the congregation he-serves — without loving it or valuing it inordinately at alii A physician ow^Af to be as really benevolent as a minister of the gospel. He ought to love his patient, seek his good in the ex- 616 crcise of a pure and a divine benevolence ; and he ought to he paid for his services ! And suppose this is the case, in reference to many of that noble and godlike calling ; as I believe it is ; for I have the hap- piness to know certain members of the profession whose real piety and whose unobtrusive self-deny- ing beneficence, will receive, I think, a gracious and a glorious premium at " the resurrection of the just:" now, in reference to such, how reasonable would it be to call them " hirelings !" to say they ought "to work for nothing and find themselves !" to vilify their motives as pre-eminently base, be- cause they receive for their services, (not for their benevolent feelings,) a proper compensation ! or to object to such that the business is often abused ; and- that knaves and quacks and false preteiiders in abundance impose upon the public most feloni- ously ! The doctrine of motives, however, is not more cardinal here than every where ! it is applica- ble alike to every man in the world ! Is it in the ministry, or the learned professions, alone, that " hirelings '' are to be found'? or is it no sin out of the sacred office, and in the common callings of life \ Friends indeed ought in justice to receive no sup- port under the law of Christ's house, that they " who preach the gospel should live of the gospel :" for, first, the amount of service they render plainly and equitably deserves, in ordinary, no compensa- tion. They are not devoted " wholly " or devoted at all, in their occasional and incoherent speakings ; nor can they be ! inspiration is too unmanageable 617 and uncertain, as well as too dignified ! Second, They ought not to receive any compensation, be- cause THEY DO NOT " PREACH THE GOSPEL." They do not even preach! They only jump up and let the Spirit use their devoted organs, now and then, to convey a fresh message to a meeting, other- wise " silent," and dreaming possibly more at ran- dom. Besides, the matter conveyed is — Quakerism and not the gospel ! But, we will change the aspect of the subject. 1. It is a fact that Friends sometimes, on a tra- velling expedition in behalf of the light, do prac- tically RECOGNISE almost THE IDENTICAL PRINCI- PLE FOR WHICH WE CONTEND ! and that not merely when a " sincere " foreigner (I particularly respect the individual to whom I refer) goes from America to Europe, and even to the presence of the northern Czar, (Alexander,) to diffuse the light, or to blow on the almost expiring flame " within " somebody ; or when a public Friendess gets an oracular im- pulse to go to London (never to Shiraz or Constan- tinople) on such lucid errand, whether her husband and her nursery cares permit it or not ; but even on a tour of domestic missionary crusading, such as occasionally occurs, as a work very like supereroga- tion ; there is a bill of traveling expenses and so forth,' sometimes pretty large, to be " silently " de- frayed by the society! There are other- ways too, (some of which I know,) of doing the thing, that better save appearances ! 2. It is strange that Friends do not carry out their principles more thoroughly and impartially! 7S 618 If it is wrong to be a " hireling " or " a priest," and to perform their services, is it not wrong to be partakers with them too 1 Hear the order of God ; " neither be partaker of other men's sins : keep thyself pare." How gqilty then are the whole so- ciety in many respects ! for example, on supposition that they read their English Bible as much as they would have us all infer ! for who made that Bible 1 Alas ! it was notoriously made by learned Priests, Hirelings, Bishops, Professors, and others, from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge ; and at the orders of a warlike worldly king,, called, profanely enough. Defender of the faith, Head of the church, &c. &c. The convention of translators [54 of iheip] did it all " in the will of man," were paid hand- somely for doing it, and never pretended to be helped by " inward light," which was then at least one-third of a century earlier than the epoch of its foxian radiations. Now, to say nothing of the ser- mons, hymns, and other devout publications that they sometimes read and teach their children, and which were all made by notorious Priests, Hirelings, Bishops, Doctors, and such like, is it right for Friends to encourage that Bible 1 I leave the so- lemn casuistry with their conscience ; only remind- ing them of the bad origin it had ! almost as bad as you to one person ! 3. I would ask Friends especially in the city of Philadelphia, to consider at their leisure the history of many of their inspirati since the commence- ment of the present century ! those that have been rather distinguished preachers and more distinguish- 619 ed merchants — in different departments of trade! Are there none to prove that, even vpith their saga- city in business, seculars and sacreds do ill agree when mixed in a profession \ — that confidence ob- tained and money loaned on the capital of afiiuent * inward light,' and a consequent splash in busi- ness, has often terminated in a subsequent crash of bankruptcy, and " deaHngs," and even " disown- ment 1" that particular favor and ejalargement " in the gallery," though it may show the extraordinary illuminism of the preacher, is not equally a qualifi- cation for merchandizing to ultimate advantage'? and that when Friends in " easy circumstances," have been found willing specially to aid a " public Friend " in his commercial enterprizes, they have sometimes hazarded their funds upon an endorse- ment that neither heaven nor earth would make good to them ? In the church of which it is mjr honor and pleasure t6 be a member and a servant, the reason assigned canonically of a competent maintenance, for a located and wholly devoted pas- tor, is that " he ma:y be free from worldly cares and . avocations ;" while entirely occupied in a holy and laborious " work," the weight of which might well crush the shoulders of an angel, without the accompanying and all-sufficient grace of " the Lord God omnipotent !" But did riot Christ himself say, " Freely ye have received; freely give." How is this to be recon- ciled with the common positions of the clergy 1 I answer, 1. Not by interpreting it to contradict other 620 things that he said ; and especially as if it were designed to nullify the certain law of his house, in many places laid down and most incontestably de- monstrated ; as shall be amply shown hereafter. 2. The sentence occurs once only in the New Testament; and that under circumstances quite peculiar and extraordinary. Matt. 10 : 8. See from verse 7 to 15. How much oftener is it found in the writings and preachings of Friends — who like no other verse of the nine as well as that, which en- ables them so piously to denounce the clergy ! I would however inform them of one other verse or sentence there contained, which they may find it very mysterious or difficult to comprehend. 3. Jesus also said, verse 10, " for the workman is worthy of his meat ;" as elsewhere, Luke, 10 : 7. " for the laborer is worthy of his hire." Now ob- serve, unless a moral inability should disqualify (as ilf cannot exonerate) the reader, the argument of the Redeemer : he lays down a universal law that service should be compensated ; and he applies this to the ministry on the same occasion. It is " the workman," not one who is no workman ; it is " the labourer," not the man who "sits still" and never really makes a business of his duties or ever pro- perly performs them, that is pronounced " worthy " of a temporal support. For observe, Christ introdu- ces this canon of universal righteousness to seal and sanction his charge to them to make no provision for their journey! Whyl because, others must make it for them ! because, " the workman is wor- thy of his meat !" Other reasons also appear. 621 4. They were empowered in plenitude to work all kinds of miracles ; to " heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils :" all this he charges them also to do ; and then immediately adds, " Freely ye have received, freely give." The reason is obvious, and the consistency of the whole is plain. It means. Do not make merchandise, nor aim at wealth, nor sell at a specific cost, nor sell at all, in the benevolent exercise of yonr powers. Heal and cure all you can ; and do it gratuitously. You must not J)e mercenary, or sordid; you must not think to make your fortunes, or exercise these gifts in any worldly money-makiijg way or for your own secular behoof. " And Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him," was one of them. We can easily see how propense he might have been, and how tempted even the others, to make a fortune; a princely one, as (humanly speaking) easily they might, with such powers and functions at their con- trol ! Let us here distinguish between a support while occupied in the work ; and a money-making career of avarice and sacrilege. The latter is wholly forbidden, eyen in its first principles ; the former, is approved and inculcated : both in the same con- nection, in the same charge, and by the authority of the same Savior ! How impartial is Quakerism ! How sharp-sighted ! How disinterested i How mag- nanimous ! How candid ! How inspired ! Accord- ing to the light, the workman is not worthy of his meat ! nor the laborer of his hire ! there is no dif- ference between receiving a competent support, for service of the most exalted and beneficial kind, per- 622 formed with labor, sacrifice, toil ; and a reprobate and " hireling " delinquency in office ! Besides, What was it that they had "ffefely received?" I answer, the power of miracles specifically ! And how is it that a competent ministry in our day becomes such \ how gets it the qualifications plainly requi- site 1 Is it by native talent, by intuition, by con- struction, by miraculous endowment \ Not so : but by the most exhausting and devoted application comparatively ever exemplified ! by study, medita- tion, midnight vigils, years of thoughtful and de- bilitating care ; by prayer ; by fasting 5 by aflSic— tions ; by spiritual exercises of their own inten- sity and solemnity ; by self-denial ; by ignominy, persecution often, contempt in some relations, slan- der of motives, mean prevaricating envy, being made the theme of infidel jargon and debate, "the song of the drunkard," the jest of the mirthful, the raillery of the profane, and the object of inspired denunciation. The very butt of slander, and the blot For every shaft that malice ever shot ! — Cowper. A competent education for the ministry, where no miracles are, cannot, I maintain, be acquired by any man on the globe, without cost, time, occupa- tion, and absorption of soul, through a process of seasoning and preparation.; which ought in ever- lasting equity to be considered in the argument ! so that our non-miraculous acquisitions, as every one knows that makes them, have never come to us 623 " freely " in the sense of the passage. Just the re- verse. Under God, we have attained them (our official furniture — 1 mean) by our own self-denying personal effort, through a term of devoted years! Under Godj we have made them painfully our- selves ! Under God, whose strength has been our all in the agony, we are self-made and self-qualified "stewards of the mysteries of God." God qua- lifies men for glory and for office both, in a way which gives no premium to idleness, no sanction to presumption, no paUiation to the hateful sin of su- pineness. Drones, idlers, usurpers, he abhors to- gether ; and he abhors " sorcerers " too, however ■ refined their principles, or covert their address, or unknown to men their secret practisings ! Rev. 21 : 8, 27. I say more on this topic, because Friends have it stereotyped and docketed, for in- exhaustible service in calumniating the ministers of God. But we cannot think a fixed salary, a regular in- come, proper; we object to stated compensation and a stipendiary ministry. Do you X How often would you be willing, and how mmch as related to the wants of life, to pay for the support of the ministry \ How long ought the intervals of starvation to be ; and how certain the instances of ' something' grudgingly afforded, to encourage the appetite, or to clothe the limbs, or to house the person, in the mean time 1 I would know too who gave you what you have 1 who " gave himself for youl" and whom do you "rob," if you starve or straiten meanly the ministers of his religion, who is " a jealous God 1" Mai. 3 : 8-18. 624 Where service is regular ; where all the hours and powers are absorbed " wholly " in it ; where wants are constant and inevitable to " men in the body ;" where a family as dear as others is dependent ; where all. the reasons of support exist uniformly : why should " a competent worldly maintenance " be denied by those very persons who enjoy the di- vine advantage of the ministry ■? It will be seen that we are not eleemosynary in our argument. We are not mendicants, paupers, alms-askers, or place- men. We believe it just, not kind ; right, not cha- ritable ; due, not given I and this by common equi- ty and divine authority united ! We mean that the *' workman is worthy of his meat ; the laborer, of his hire." We mean that while the rich and the poor should contribute together, " according to their several ability," so that there might " be an equali- ty " of assessment ; it should be done by both as a holy offering, a privilege, a duty, an act of worship to the Lord ; as that to withhold which were as bad as simony, as wrong as sacrilege. We mean, how- ever, that every man should be left to his perfect freedom and responsibility in the matter ; that no secular tax should be levied for collection by the magistracy ; that no coertion should be used in the church of God, forcing them to honor the laws of Christ — that is, to dishonor them. We place the position upon the basis of moral and evangelical law alone : and say, if any man scorn, let him an- swer it to God. We want no grudging contributors ; no press-gang for recruiting volunteers ; no civil legislation or taxation on the subject " My king- 625 dom is not of this world." Wo be to the system that denies it" \^ But did not Paul refuse to receive such compen- sation t Answer, 1. That he did on several occasions ; and the same is often done, to my certain knowledge, by the ministry of our day. There are occasions that demand, and others that become, a surrendry of right in the premises. These occasions existed more in the case and work and relations of the apostles, and the preachers of the first ages, intro- ducing and establishing Christianity with its lasting jurisdiction in the world, than to the same extent they ever can in all probability again. But mark the difference. Friends (1) argue from the excep- tion, and not from the rule. (2) They deny the law of Christ respecting support, because some of his noble servants occasionally decline the claim it gives them. (3) They nullify the virtue of the acts they panegyrize ; for, if there be no law in favor of support, there is plainly no right to it ; if there is prohibition of a maintenance, it were treason and perjury to demand it ; if it were sin and gross ini- quity to receive it, where, I ask, is the great virtue of declining it 1 In what a ridiculous light do they place those generous men, who tell us, as if it were worthy of approbation at least, that they voluntarily forewent — that to which they had no right ! they magnanimously forebore — from the sin of sacrilege ! their exalted apostolic virtue most exemplarily^ omitted to rob the church of God ! Is it for such distinguished virtue as this, or for self-denial equal- 79 620 ly illustrious, that preachers of the society, male and female, expect the reward of everlasting life 1 Well ! We may soon expect to see men claim- ing statues, obelisks, and monumental honors, from congress, for the enormous civic virtues of not set- ting houses on fire, or practising assassination, or robbing banks, or for denying themselves from such desired gratifications ; if these principles of illu- mination become prevalent ! But, (4) Paul did something beside demit his claim magnanimously, when just occasion offered : he laid down the law of Christ's house on the subject at large ; main- tained his own right to what he spontaneously de- clined ; accepted " wages " of the better minded, -at the very time, that, thus supported, he served others, and these wealthy as those were not, from whom (and it was their " inferiority " and dishonor) he re- fused to receive any thing. All this is most certain truth. I am both sure of it, and sure that I can prove it against all sober objections ; and that from many passages : I will however refer only to two. The first occurs in 1 Cor. 9 : 1-16. The reader may peruse it all, to verse 27, if he will : for the argu- ment is continuous and glorious. I shall give its scope with select quotations. Corinth was the rich and niggardly community whom Paul served at the charges of the Macedo- nian churches, who were comparatively poor. In that city he was their missionary ; and also in his extremity, he there " wrought " at tent-making for a time, rather than receive any thing from them. Acts, 18 : 3. His reasons we shall see hereafter — 627 Friends may well dread to look at them ! In the eighth chapter he is discussing the casuistry of using " things offered unto idols ;" and after des- patching the main points, he introduces and large- ly enforces this principle ; that christian liberty ought not to he abused ; and that often one's own rights are to be foregone and surrendered for the sake of the gospel. This principle he illustrates in the whole of the ninth chapter, and then more ap- plies it in the tenth and onward. But how illus- trates he it 1 .Mark ! by citing his own example toward themselves. He had the perfect liberty and the perfect right to a competent temporal support ; but he was so far from insisting on it from them, that from them he refused it perse- veringly. " Am I not an apostle? am I not freef he inquires. " Mine answer to them that do exa- mine me," (they were probably Friends — so ancient is the sect substantially in several aspects,) " is this ; Have we not power (right, authority) to eat and to drink 1 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas 1 (Peter?) or I only and Barnabas," are we specially excluded from it 1 " have not we power to forbear working 1 Who go- eth a warfare [he might perhaps afford to " sit still " in meeting] at any time at his own charges 1 Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof! or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also 1 For it is writ- ten in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle 628 THE MOUTH OP THE OX THAT TREADETH OUT THE CORN. Doth God take care for oxen '? or saith he it ALTOGETHER FOR OUR SAKES 1 For our sakes, no doubt, this is written : that he that ploweth, should plow in hope ; and that be that thresheth in hope, should be partaker of his hope. IF WE HAVE SOWN UNTO YOU SPIRITUAL THINGS, IS IT A GREAT THING IF WE SHALL REAP YOUR CARNAL THINGS f Yes! Paul. Friends know by inspiration that such a reap- ing would prove you a base reprobate, a hireling, a hypocrite ! But let us farther hsten to Paul's heresy. " If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather 1 Nevertheless we have not used this power ; but suffer all things, lest we should hin- der the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they who minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple ; and they who wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar 1 EVEN SO HATH THE LORD ORDAINED THAT THEY WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL SHOULD LIVE OF THE GOSPEL." What could be plainer or more decisive 1 Friends have a method of evading it however which is sufficiently mean. It is by saying that it is a spiritual " living of the gospel ;" and the compensation of enjoying "holy things" more than others, that is meant. I will tell an anecdote. A Friend, in one of his moon-struck peregrinations of preaching, came with his retinue to a village and held a conventicle. There he denounced the wick- edness of supporting the regular ministrations of the gospel, and especially his who statedly officiated 629 in the place : and among other things, " clearly seen in the light" which " makes manifest and deceives nobody," was this gloss, just given, about spiritual living and "holy things" in the ministry. After the sedentary engagement was adjourned, a layman asked an interview with the preacher. O yes ! was the reply; all kindness and good will to men: perfectly willing to see the friend. I thought, sir, said he, that Paul was a christian, till I heard your sermon this afternoon. The Friend looked, and an- swered, O certainly ; I never meant to say he was not a christian. Thee is in a mistake surely. Re- joined the querist, Well, possibly. But let us see. You said that they were ' holy things ' alone that Paul respected. I did. But Paul immediately de- clares ' But I have used none of these things-' Now, if he never used them, and they were essen- tially spiritual and holy things, and he even ' gloried,' V. 15. in total abstinence from them, how could he be a christian \ Will you, sir, who know, inform me \ O Friend, I see thee is in no mind to be in- structed. Farewell. Thus endeth the story. I now pass to the other passage to which I refer- red ; premising its historical as well as moral con- nection with the former. Before I quote, I will beg the serious or the honest reader to peruse it carefully once: 2 Cor. 11 : 7-15. The outline of its history is this. In Paul's absence from Corinth, where he first broke ground and " planted " the church alone, many false teachers had " unawares crept in ;" and were bent upon decoying or rather reforming the church away from Paul. They impeached his mo- 630 tives ; denied his apostleship ; derided his preten- sions ; tried to supersede his influence, to defame his orthodoxy, to degrade his person, and to ruin his usefulness. Among other things, they accused him of being a " hireUng " in his general practice, and of preaching for money; and to put him down and keep the elevated vantage-ground above him, they gloried in their own preaching without fee, emolu- ment, or reward ! they were as disinterested exactly as Friends — in vilifying the ministry of God. And they seem for a time to have prospered in their cor- rupting influence. On these accounts, be it known, he would receive nothing in the way of salary from the church at Corinth. Not that, many pious per- sons there were unwilHng to do their duty : he would accept nothing from them, because of these inno- vating competitors. He preferred to receive a salary from the poor churches at the North ; this was the dishonor of the one, the lasting renown of the other. With this exposition, .take his words ; and observe how charitable real inspiration is, toward those who corrupt the truth, traduce the ministry, and " per- vert the right ways of the Lord." Thus ; " Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted," i. e. with the benefit, " because I have preached unto you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, ,=^taking wages of them, to do you service. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man : for that which was lacking to me, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied : (see chap, 8 : 1-6, for the resources and the financiering of their be- 631 nevolence :) and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ ia in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia :" i. e. in Corinth and its wide vicinity. He proceeds. " Wherefore 1 because I love you not T God knoweth." He means to deny that want of love to them was the reason of such ill-looking independ- ence. The real reasons of it he next specifies ; let Friends hear it and tremble in a new vocation, and quake on a jqst account. " But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire occasion ; that wherein they glory, ,-£B tt?° they may be found even as we. For such .-go Q^are false apostles, ttT^deceitful workers, OI?°'trans- forming themselves into the apostles of Christ. — (C?" And no marvel ; for satan himself is transform- ed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if HIS MINISTERS also be transformed as the MINISTERS OP RIGHTEOUSNESS ; whose end '' — alas ! they little think of it — " shall be according to their works." On this I remark, 1. That Friends are a very ancient society in some of their peculiarities. The opposers of clerical influence at Corinth were enlightened much in their way. Their leader re- sembled " an angel of light," more luciferous, for aught I know, than Fox himself. The apostle very often sketches their portrait, or traces a limb of their body, in other places of his epistles to the Co- rinthians. He felt about their preaching, which I suppose was equally sincere with theirs, very much, to be plain, as I do respecting that of Friends, as 632 related to the salvation of souls. 2 Cor. 11 :'l-6. " But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent be- guiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached ; or if ye re- ceive ANOTHER spirit, whicli je have not received, or ANOTHER GOSPEL, which ye have not accepted ; ye might well bear with me." The last word is im- properly Aim in our translation. 2. They resem- bled Friends in the distinguishing doctrine that the christian ministry, apostles and all, had no right to a temporal support ; and in this immense and va- poring disinterestedness (pride with a holy mask) " they gloried." A style of masquerade this, that has been long in vogue and appears to admirable advantage ! Hence Paul, to " cut off " the " occa- sion" of their boasting, and fix himself on the same level with them in that particular, would never ac- cept any maintenance from Corinth. "For what is it," he inquires, " wherein ye were inferior TO OTHER churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you 1 Forgive me this wrongI" 12 : 13. 1 Thess 2 : 6, 9. It was not I, Friends, that made the truth ! 3. They are denounced as ministers of the devil; denounced by an apostle of God ! This is solemn sentiment indeed! My pen seems to loiter and its ink to freeze. Like the arch- fiend himself, their light was very much annoyed by " the word of God." And yet their characteris- tic glorying was in their gratuitous ministry ; as it impeached Paul and the " other apostles " (1 Cor. 633 9 : 5.) of " hireling " baseness. Like satan too, whose ministers they were, they preached Avithout a salary : for he has been notoriously engaged in preaching gratis frona the beginning ! Who gave him a call to the see of Eden '? who paid him for his first sermon there I It was all disinterested, all without fee, all opposed to a stipendiary ministry ! What a veteran he, in the anti-salary cause ! What a venerable precedent ! What an ancient examplp ! Could a real " angel of light " set ofi^ the matter more luminously as it ought to be ! Hence all the whole succession of ministerial agents, that have taken orders under his renowned authority, and gloried in their amazing virtue in abstaining from that to which they had (they said) no right, and which it were spiritual felony (they said) to touch ; have resembled each other not only in that particu- lar, but peculiarly, since the christian era, in their organized antipathy to Paul ! and generally in their devout and spiritual objection to the ' outward ' tes- timony, called improperly, " the word op God !" They must at Copinth have put the epistles of Paul, I ween, very low down as " a secondary rule !" They did all they could to show the people there " a more noble and excellent rule," than the ' out- ward ' one of Paul's ministry. It was a fine occa- sion for some such " opening " as that of " the light in every man." I remark, once more, on this tremendous passage, which not one Friend in ten thousand understands ; 4. That the criterion of their development and detection was, what it is, SIMPLY THE WORD OF GoD,. THE INSPIRED SCEIP- 80 634 TURES. One object, a great one, of the second epis- tle to the Corinthians, was to apprise the church of the real character and correspondence of the in- novators, and help them to the proper criterion of discrimination. The same etherial test remains to this day ! The principles involved are precisely the same. All the children of false light tremble at its inquisition and degrade its dignity. By what other, not to say better, touchstone, shall corrup- ters be tried 1 By their own inspiration 1 that ora- cle sustains them. By their smoothness 1 You can as soon condemn "an angel of hght." By their good works 1 Why, they are " transformed as the ministers of righteousness ;" and they know how to act their part so as " to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." Blessed be God, this is ultimately impossible ! The main reason, however, as the means of their conservation in the truth, is this ; they judge not by " the appearance ;" they judge " righteous judgment," impartially using in all di- rections " the measuring reed " of angels and of saints, which is THE WORD OF GOD. Ob- serve the style in which the Spirit of God denounces these gratuitous preachers : he denounces them in a class ! "for such are false apostles." He says not these, as if referring personally to the men at Co- rinth : but such as these 6i yap tovovtoi, meaning aU such, no matter where or when they live. ' Behold, the picture. Is it like — like whonil' It is no£ like the original of a true minister of the true God. In Palestine there were forty-eight cities of the Le- vites ; a tribe (one-twelfth of the population) devot- 635 ed to sacerdotal service, maintaining the wor- ship of God ; and the whole population required to contribute proportionately to sustain the provision- ary institute. " Even so hath the Lord or- dained THAT THEY WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL SHOULD LIVE OP THE GOSPEL.'' If this Were not " a secondary rule," and to be so " esteemed," I should think its evidence quite conclusive. No doubt at all have I, possessing no light within that can nullify the word of God, that it is indeed his ordi- nance divine that the ministry of his gospel should be supported as competently and regularly as their wants recur ; that it is the duty of every person in the world in some way to contribute heartily to this end ; that a faithful ministry deserve such a sup- port, if any other class of " workmen " in society de- serve it ; that it is the direct and supreme interest of all men, and of all communities, to honor this constitution ; that no local community can afford to do without its permanent influence ; and that every other theory in the case is human and not divine, wrong and not right, and as much opposed to the temporal as it is more terribly to the eternal interests of our kind ! Every place in the world needs the benefit and the blessing of a competent and regular christian ministry — infinitely more than they need — in contrast or competition' — wealth, health, or any sublunary good! But I have no more to say, rich as the subject is — except this : to oppose the competent temporal maintenance of the christian ministry, is the work of the murderer of souls ; is unreasonable ; unscriptural ; is ad- 636 verse to the highest interests of probationary man ; and to be resolved into the unity and the infidelity, the deceit and the real irreligion, of the reign of antichrist and the empire of death. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." IV. On the right of females to the ministerial office, equal with that of the other sex, as alleged by Friends, I shall remark in conclusion. 1. They say, " male and female " are all one in Christ ; therefore they are alike competent. An- swer, for the same reason, so are " barbarian and scythian, bond and free, wise and unwise," girls and boyB ! The premises do not warrant the conclu- sion. They refer to membership and communion ; not to office and station in the church. Nor do such expressions refer at all to the subject of the ministry ; and where such reference is plain, women are as plainly prohibited. But, 2. They have vdry valuable gifts, that ought not to be lost to the church. True. For one I am less oflFended rather, to hear an inspired woman than man ! But is there no way for their gifts to be ex- ercised, economized, and honored ; but by publi- city, headship, office, and a face; of nudity staring at hundreds of men ! " for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."*' 3. The Lord has used them aforetime, as say the scriptures. I reply, (1) You here argue from the exception, not the rule. Deborah, Huldah> and a very few others, were occasionally and rarely em- ployed in extraordinary circumstances and for ends as uncommon. But, was this ordinary at all \ Who 637 ever heard of such a monster, in the history of the Jewish priesthood, as a priestess ! A heathen py- thoness or vestal indeed — but no such order, no such thing, among the Israel of God ! With Friends the order exists. Ordinarily too the inspiratae — inspired women — are far the more numerous bench. Matrons and spinsters sometimes doubly out-num- ber their masculine co-presbyters ; and often out- preach them too, in quantity and quality, matter and manner ! (2) When they allege it as proper to the new dispensation peculiarly, to equalize the sexes in office, they argue again from most questionable premises. Jesus Christ often sent out preachers, on one occasion " seventy " at once ; but, in no recorded instance of his ministry did he C?' ever OKDAIIV OR AUTHORIZE A WOMAN TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. (3) When they speak of a woman '^pro- phecying," and quote Acts, 2: 17, 18. 21:9. and possibly a few less considerable places ; we can easily reply (what no evidence can answer or refute) first. That such an inference as theirs would de- monstrate the worst kind of absolute contradiction in the scriptures ; where it is a proper rule of inter- preting, to compare related passages, to let the book speak for itself, to prefer the clear to the doubtful, the certain to the uncertain, the easy to the difficult ; and not the contrary. And, second. That the yiotd ^prophecyw'ith all its cognates, is used throughout the Bible with such latitude as to show that it is generic, not specific ; and of. itself deter- mines nothing in respect to office ! ®^ Th& passage quoted from Joel, refers mainly to th« ordinary cha- ractera of a true revival of religion, where the young and the old of both sexes are brought to believe and love the gospel. Hence their speech is differ- ent. Every one of them in some vpay begins to " prophecy ;" for, " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Third. In that age of miracles and prodigies and portents, no doubt, the exceptions were to be more expected, and were probably more frequent ; still, they were exceptions to the rule, and exceptions only, that confirmed it. My main position is. That the rule is laid down in the New Testament as clear as day, and as abso- lute as the authority of God, against a female mi- nistry. If this is proved, vre must infer the fallacy of their whole System too ; for it stands on a kind of inspiration — " strange fire " — that sanctions such a ministry. I will here refer to two passages, each of which, and more especially both, are conclusive. If any one will not consent to this, I am sure that it is of no use to argue with him. There are multitudes of " unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith ;" 2 Thess. 3 : 2, from whom we may well pray, as did Paul, " that we may be delivered." If any man or woman is resolved, at all events, in the true temper of the fides carhonaria or believing what others believe with whom we were educated ; I can only say, my mind is not so disciplined. I prefer evidence, truth, divine authority. To believe without evidence or against it, may justly define an infidel, but never a christian. The first passage occurs in 1 Cor. 14 : 29-40. 639 Here the apostle speaks of the manner in which " the prophets " or public ministers are to exercise their gifts : mark, the prophets or regular ministry ; not the people or all indiscriminately. But are fe- males authorized l Hear ! " Let your women keep silence in the churches ; for it is not permitted unto them to speak : but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." I infer, 1. That both dispensations are alike in this matter. The gospel forbids them; "as also saith the law." Shall we charge the Holy Ghost with judaizing? 2. That women, as such, are forbidden " to speak ;" which " is NOT permitted unto them." They are positively commanded to " keep silence in the churches :" — not " a silent meeting ;" for the other sex speak. Barclay, and other phosphors "whose fire was kindled at that prophet's lamp," allege that this was only a special interdict under which the ladies at Corinth were put, because of their re- markable garrulity and forwardness ; with a few other things about as wise. I reply^-the allegation is manifestly false ! It is a shameful fabrication AGAINST the plainest evidence. The reasons alleg- ed by the apostle, here and elsewhere, are plainly universal ; no honesty with its eyes open can re- strict them to the females of any particular church. "And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home ; for tt?° it is a shame for wo- men TO SPEAK IN THE CHURCH." A young Spinster of the vocation, once asked me if I would literalize the order above as to "asking their husbands'!" I replied substantially thus ; Not in these times. And 640 if you demand, why virgin ladies were not prohibit- ed by statute, the only reason of which I can think is this — there was then no occasion for it : the young females of that church and that age, were too sen- sible and modest ever to think of the shameful usurpation ! " What ! came the word of God out from you ■?" Are you the centre and the metropolis of all Christendom, from which the word of God ra- diated toward others 1 or rather, a place on its dis- tant frontier, that ought to aspire to learn, rather than teach, what practices are fit 1 " or came it unto you only 1" Are you the only pagans that it reach- ed and christianized, that you should innovate and be examples in the matter 1 " If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual," yes, if he hap- pen to think himself peculiarly full of light, " let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are tt?* the cobtmandments op the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant." I omit the consideration here of a passage of more difficulty, for that reason alone. I allude to 11 : 8-16, of THE SAME EPISTLE; and remark, 1. That having faithfully pondered its meaning, I have no doubt of what it is ; and none that it is more than consistent with what occurs soon after in the passage we have considered. 2. That "^praying and pro- phecying " there, refer generally to the offices of public worship, and determine nothing, at most, about what is law on the point : though they might refer to what was practice or innovation and disor- der in that church. The law he reserves, and lays down in order in the fourteenth chapter (t?° soon 641 following. 3. The headship of man ; the proper sub- ordination of woman, especially in public worship ; the modesty and reserve, without which her sex has foregone at once its most necessary safeguard and its finest ornament ; and the sin against Christ of violating these high principles of relative decorum : are clearly deducible and amply demonstrated in the "argument. The other proof-passage to which I referred is found in 1 Tim. 2: 9-15. 3: 1, 2, read continu- ously as it is written. I commend it to the eye that reads this, in the opened Bible ; while I observe, 1. That audacity itself will hardly say that it is not as wide in its jurisdiction as the species or the sex. 2. That it is all a continuous argument, though se- parated by the chapters and verses through which it extends. Hence there is special force in the ex- pression, "If a man desire the office of bishop," (by which I very certainly understand the pastor of a congregation, or a pastor at large,) " he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife" — why not the wife of one husband t Because, 3. He had forever precluded such a supposition, as not more monstrous in na- ture than contrary to express and luminous statute, which he had just before laid down : where, having enjoined on the sex who "profess godliness" (would to God that all Buch possessed it too) to " adorn them- selves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety ;" he proceeds to utter the following sweep- ing and universal prohibition ; " Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer 81 642 not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority, over the man, but to be in silence." He of course refers here to public teaching, that of office alone ; for elsewhere he enjoins the sex to be "teachers of good things." Tit. 2 : 3-5. The office of a teacher implies superiority ; and its public duties would convey the headship of the man, and of the whole congregation, for the time and even afterwardfvca- properly to a woman ! 4. The inhibition from the ministry is as express as words can make it, while the whole argument is comprehensive and com- plete. By implication too it is applicable not re- motely to the magistracy — -which is properly incom- petent to a woman in public and in private ! Mi- chal, Jezebel, Athaliah, and other specimens in scriptnre ; and the Cleopatras, the Marys, and even the Elizabeths, of profane history, commend the wisdom of the doctrine. But 5. What reasons are assigned I I answer, universal ones alone ! (1) "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." The man is the senior, the principal, the head. " For the man is not of the woman ;" that is, originally ; " but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man." 1 Cor. 11 : 8, 9. This is the order of God ; the order from the beginning ; the proper order of our first parents and of all their posterity ; although the laws of worldly gallantry, and feudal chivalry, and foxian usurpation, constitute the principles of its violation in modern ages. (2) " And Adam was not deceived." Here is another reason. It is a , fact that Adam was not duped by Satan at all. He 643 " hearkened to the voice of his wife," resigned his headship for the time to her instructions, and sinned with her, probably more from inordinate affection merely than intellectual infatuation. But (3) " the woman being deceived was in the transgression ;" that is, she lent her easy confidence to the argu- ments of the devil, sophisticating the word of God in the way of his vocation : and she frequently does this yet with such tender feminine facility that she must not have the ministry " committed " to her ! This reason, though densely stated, plainly indi- cates the necessity of intellectual strength and the vigor of a well disciplined and masculine mind, in the high and holy trust of the christian ministry. The soft and silly sentiment that sincerity and singleness of heart is all, may be Quakerism — but is not Christianity. Let simpletons go to congress or write an encyclopedia or glitter on a throne ; but keep them forever from the christian ministry ! How many facts have I witnessed of softness and sympa- thy, elegantly perverting the truth, to accommodate the feelings of distress, by the kindred feelings of a lady oracle ! Their feelings almost govern them : their influence is often a kind of fascination ; musi- cal as that which first seduced the mother of man- kind. And who could resist such refinement of in- fluence, when every nerve was a conductor, every feeling an advocate ! They make converts, fpr aught I know. But I suppose them ordinarily nearer heaven before than afterward. It was so with the first efibrt of mother Eve ! The sex in their places, I honor and respect as much as any man. " There 644 they are privileged ;" there their tenderness, their fine attractive courtesy, the kind assuasion of their manners, their dignity and majesty of movement^ their usefulness and high desert, especially when the gem of piety radiates through an eye of sound intelligence — when education and modesty, pru- dence and self-control, charity and sentiment, com- bine to bless the spheres of private life, to make of home a sublunary heaven, and to train a household in the ways of wisdom for the happier state eter- nal ! I am too much the friend of the sex to flatter them — which never yet was done from a good mo- tive ! and consulting their happiness for both worlds, I would have them at once fully honored in those rights, powers, and immunities, all and singular, which their benevolent Maker originally ordained for them ; and at the same time guarded and re- stricted to those spheres, for which exclusively and obviously they were designed, and from whiqji ad- venturing, the word of God considers them as " usurping authority," doing violence to their pro- per delicacy, incurring " shame " before the uni- verse. It must be an amazon temper alone, one would think, and very unlovely in the conjugal re- gards — but, inspiration has no alterna:tive ! God takes hold of them ; the divinity possesses and overwhelms them ; when it is all passivity and suf- ferance, and wrong is right ! ^^ Una salus victis, nuUam sperare salutem. — Virg. The only hope the vanquished can command Is desperation or, submission bland. 645 I cannot admit, however, that God is to answer so absolutely for tljeir wrong actions. Their agency is quite distinct, much their own, and very absolutely accountable ! I know — and alas ! often have I WEPT WITH REASON AT THE FACT, that they can throw off the whole responsibility. God is surety for them! He inspired them. This they know — as well as Eve, when, " being deceived she was in the transgression." This they know — and could never survive the discovery of the opposite ! This some of them^ have been heard to affirm : a pretty frame of mind for impartial investigation ! ■ Preach on then ! Tell the people how clearly you see " that the tree is good for food, and that it is plea- sant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise ! and take of the fruit thereof and eat ! and give also to others whom you can influence : and fear not .' Remember who has assured you that " you shall not surely die ;" and call to mind the ancient and venerable example of that lady, first of her sex, who acted so before you ! She was the first female preacher that " usurped authority over the man ;" but not the first preacher whose labors were spontaneous and without salary! There is another reason for the prohibition, which deserves to be considered ; (4) " notwithstanding, she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." I would thus at large explain or paraphrase it.: She is in- deed restricted from the offices of authority, head- ship, and hardier, toil ; but there is ample compen- sation and honor in her case. If the scenes which 646 her presence illumines are more retired, they are not lesa dignified, or useful, or influential. To her especially is committed the nurture of children. Her downy lap is the cradle of their infancy ; her bosom their pillow and their nutriment ; her arms their vehicle and defence. And their minds, in the very forming time of life, yield to her plastic influ- ence. She stamps their characters ; forms their man- ners ; and almost fixes their destinies ! And what kind of an education ought she to have, fitting her for this high and more than senatorial trust 1 That kind that so expands the mind, and elevates the ideas, that now her highest regards are to shine in the eyes of fools 1 to be commended in the vapid circles of fashion, for her manners, her brilliants^ and her dress l " whose adorning " is mainly that of " plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel 1" Or ought she to learn that " the body is more than raiment," and the soul more than the body ; and that her best ornaments are those that last forever — "that which is not cor- ruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." I am' here rebuking many that are not Friends, more than them — for I bear them record that herein their ladies are ordinarily patterns for others in several respects : in delicacy of attire ; in neatness, with little comparative extravagance ; in comfort and prvidence, in respecting health and the proper ends of dress ; and in being in a good degree independ- ent of the caprices of the ^on. But far- more than this is necessary mentally and morally in the educa- 647 tion of woman. Deserves she no intellectual cul- ture? no mental discipline, no science, no cultivated vigor of thoiight 1 Ought not her understanding to be marshalled in its operations, wonted on common and on sacred subjects to philosophize correctly, enriched with the spoils of solid learning rather than the tinsel accomplishments of lifel Ought she not to be fitted for her noble sphere ; qiialifipd to in- struct, as well as sparkle ; to last, as well as shine 1 Ought shp not to know that gems and drapery, and all the cqurtly foppery of the worldly and the gay, degrade rather than dignify; becoming the cause, as they were at first only the effect, of vanity and pride 1 How ought woman to be promoted in all that is excellent and useful 1 How ought her breath to be prayer and her actions piety ! How skilfully should she plant the seeds of life eternal in a soil comparatively unoccupied ! How well should she understand the nature and the ruin of the com- mon apostacy; and the " new and living way" by which we are restored through the rent veil of the Redeemer's flesh ! Like the mother of Dodderidge, she should know how to lecture from the tiles around the fire-place and the common objects of life ! and like the mother of Timothy, should she take care that each one of her charge may "from a child know the holy scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." This is the exalted service to which God promotes her ; and I have no doubt that her real influence on the salvation or destruction of souls is of immense and uncomputed efficacy, in 648 the development of their destiny forever ! That influence is wrong, if not right. It is bad, if not good. It is neglect, if not assiduity, it is vanity, if not vrisdom ; wickedness, if not religion. Be- sides, impressions here are strongest. They are first, and ordinarily indelible. Tell me — Is not this enough for her ? If she did this well," or compe- tently prepared to do it, would she wish to be a ma- gistrate or a minister 1 would she have time for the duties of the foreign office 1 could she be a physi- cian, a lawyer, or a judge l Let her magnify her appropriate work. Let her love her proper sphere ; " looking well to the ways of her household and eating not the bread of idleness." I scarce ever knew, said the late Dr. Mason, a fine man, but, upon inquiry, I ascertained that he had a fine mother. So is it almost universally. If all mothers were wise and faithful, there would be more Jacobs and fewer Esaus in every family. What a charge ! How competent ought she to be to this high work ! It is that to which God hath appointed her. As such she should appreciate it well ; realize it solemnly ; oc- cupy her place, with serene self-devotement and re- signed piety ; prepare herself to suffer, as well as do, all the will of God. Our outward acts indeed admit restraint ; 'Tis not in things o'er thought to domineer. If nothing more than purpose is our power, Our piirpose firm is equal to the deed. Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more. — Young. 649 Thus, well and wisely should a christian female know her place and keep it. For her reward is rich and her salvation sure. " She shall be saved " in this way of real excellence, glorifying God ; that is, if she "continues " in it and sustains her duties there, in faith and benevolence, with real wisdom joined, vindicating the grandeur of her being as originally produced, and the splendor of her desti- ny as an immortal, though a sinner, restored for- ever through the grace that is in Jesus Christ. What now q.re we to think of her usurpations 1 That they are inspired 1 By whom 1 Him who inspired the first example of the sort ! What mur- ky and mischievous inspiration ! It is well adapted to ruin domestic scenes ; to kill the charities of na- ture that love the circle of " sweet home ;" to out- rage, invert, defeat, all the ends of order in society ! to make confusion, folly, misery — infidelity in the end ; where God had appointed order, beauty, bless- ing ! For if a woman desire " the office of a bi- shop," she is only resuming her old way, desiring or taking the fruit that is — forbidden. Nor reigns ambition in bold man alone ; Soft female hearts the rude invader own. But there, indeed, it deals in nicer things Than routing armies and dethroning kings. * * * * The sex we honor, while their faults we blame ; Nor thank their faults for such a fruitful theme. * * * * A dearth of words a woman need not fear ; But 'tis a task indeed to learn — to hear ! * * * * 82 650 Doubly, like echo, sound is her delight, And the last word is her eternal right. * * * * She strikes each point with native force of mind ; While puzzled learning blunders far behind. * * * * What angels would these be, who thus excel In theologies — could they sew as well ! * * * * An angel ! pardon my mistaken pen, A shameless woman is the worst of men. * * * * Naked in nothing should a woman be. But veil her very wit with modesty. Let man discover, let not her display ; But yield her charms of mind with sweet delay, Or, " for a sign," if " naked " one must go,""" Select some sterner victim for the show. But test the claiming inspiration well ; Or trust too soon a forgery from hell. Things that are lovely and of good report But ill consist with such outlandish sport. I would, were he alive, prefer that Fox Should be "a sign" to teach the orthodox. And " testify " to hesitating Friends Where inspiration or begins or ends. But know such duties of rare piety. My lady Friend, may next solicit thee ! Alas ! how few, in these degenerate days, Would own the mandate in its equal ways ! Still, for the best we hope and should prepare ; Some, if th' occasion called, perhaps there are ! In times like ours, few striking " signs " are found : But soon with Friends, who knows ? they may abound! * * * * Frown not, ye fair ! so much your rights we prize We hate those arts that take you from our eyes : Those arts deceptive, which, though well refined. Infect your manners and pervert your mind ; 651 Transform your husbands into passive drones, And for like tameness educate your sons ; Depose the headship of your proper Lords ; Who love you less for your usurping words : The arts that metamorphose and disguise Your tender womanhood, in wisdom's eyes ; That clash with all the institute of God, And challenge from his righteous hand — the rod ! True to your duty, thank the christian code For all your dignity, your safe abode ; And, in his church, hear others preach I be still, and worship God ! " In the conclusion, I commend the Bible to the higher and more devout estimate of every reader. To the worldly or fanatical neglecter of " the word of God," I would say — Retire, and read thy Bible, to be gay. There truths abound of sovereign aid to peace : Ah ! do not prize them less, because inspired ; As thou, and thine, are apt and proud to do. If not inspired, that pregnant page had stood. Time's treasure, and the wonder of the wise ! * * * * 'Tis easy ; it invites thee ; it descends From heaven to woo and waft thee whence it came. Read and revere the sacred page ; a page Where triumphs immortality ; a page Which not the whole creation could produce : Which not the conflagration shall destroy. In nature's ruins not one letter lost : 'Tis printed in the mind of God forever. — Young. * " He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to en- 652 ter into his. glory 1 Aad beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things MUST BE FULFILLED wMch Were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understand- ing that they might understand the scriptures." Luke, 24 : 25-27, 44, 45. Thus, the illumination of Christ is always in subserviency to our knowledge of the scriptures. It is so now, as it was and will be. He illumines our minds not without his writ- ten word, nor in opposition to it, nor as if the illu- mination itself were a rule — since it is only bringing mind to take purely the sense of scripture and to act accordingly in honor of that supreme rule, with affectionate faith in the eternal testimony of God. To all prQfessing christians, members of the church visible of the Redeemer, I would say — ^think of your high duty, to this charter of your hopes, this mirror of the divine glory, this development of infinite grace ! and hold it, not only, — but " hold it fast : — contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ; — striving together for the faith of the gospel." In one short epistle, Paul thrice enjoins it on the church, to maintain the truth of scriptural re- velation eveu against any members of their own body, baptized and regular professors, who should in any way occasionally dishonor it. He says, " Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epis- 653 tie." The " traditions " of inspired men, the apos- tles of the Lamb, it is orthodoxy itself to maintain ; as well as to resist all other traditions, as those of human invention and authority. " Now we com- mand you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every bro- ther that walketh disorderly, and not after the tra- dition which he received of us.'' We are here so- lemnly required to "withdraw" fellowship from such ! " And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note tjjat man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." Is it then a lower rule than something in him? All these passages occur in 2 Thes. 2 : 15, and 3 : 6, 14. It is the pervading exhortation, and the most solemn injunc- tion of the whole word of God. Experience, rea- son, history, and the nature of the case, concur 'with all other sources of right influence known to us, to urge the momentous duty of guarding, in this hostile world, the invaluable deposit of the oracles of God ! — for ourselves, for our cotempora- ries, for our children, for our posterity, for eternity, and for the glory of their adorable Author ! guard- ing them in their unrivaled excellency ; in their ce- lestial fulness of grace and truth ; in their vvonder- ful adaptation to the states and wants of fallen pro- bationary man ; in their absolute supremacy, on the principle that the word op God is the highest law in the universe, equally for saints and angels, in this world and that which is to come — and that the mere circumstance or incidental fact that his word to us is written, printed, contained identically in " the 654 holy scriptures^'' only defines more steadfastly our duty, while it also facilitates its performance. "Who- soever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in hea- ven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven." XOTES. 1. Dr. Alexander's inaugural discourse. 2, 3. Parents of the present Professor Dodglass of the University of the city of New- York. 4. My father died at thirty-four years of age, in the city of Phila- delphia; from which he had a few years before removed, and where he had recently arriyad on business. I may be excused for transcribing in this place — for special reasons — an OEiTnAHY that appeared in Paul- son's Daily Advertiser. It proceeded (I judge) from the pen of an ho- norable citizen of that metropolis, who well knew him, who is still alive, and whom his cotemporaries universally and justly esteem. " Died, 1st month, 4th, 1801, of an inflammation of the heart, James Cox, of Rahway, East New-Jersey. He left home about three weeks since, appa- rently in the enjoyment of vigorous health ; having possessed an excellent constitution, and lived in the habits of strict temperance. He seemed to have a peculiar claim to the attainment of old age : bis prospects were bright ani^is eonsdence unsullied. He was in (he prime of life ; and blessed with a lovely wife and live small children, who, by his early and unexpected exit, are bereaved of an excellent husband and father. His mind was uncom- monly energetic, his heart warm and affectionate, and his principles sound and correct. His life was marked with valuable and manly traits of charac- ter, and his last moments were gilded with the serene hope and confidence of the Chkistias." 5. As whose colleague the venerable Ashbel Green, D. D. LL. D. now in his seventy-first year, was ordained in April, 1787. 6. The opposers of a female ministry, as all enlightened christians are, in obedience to the plainly revealed will of God, are very far from deny- ing either that they are sisters in Christ Jesus, or that they are endowed with very valuable gifts to be exercised in his service, or that there are appropriate spheres in which their talents and their virtues may shine together, with his reflected light and to his purest praise. If a christian lady has the talents of a Miriam, she need not have her usurpation too, Numb. 12, or incur her terrible rebuke, in arriving at distinguished usefulness. She need not become amazonian in order to be christian. In fact every private christian, of either sex, may wisely occupy a place or improve an occasion, always to be found, of service to souls and of honor to God. " And a wise man's heart discerneth both time and 656 judgment." Eccles. 8:5. In this way, without afFectationj indelicacy, diaorderj or ill manners, the wisdom and the ueefulness of christians might be augmented ten fold, to the infinite benefit of the world ! For God will bless ordinarily wherever and whatever he approves. The way to get good, is to do good ; the way to increase and retain personal religion, is to communicate and dispense what we have. " And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them !" Numb. 11 : 29. And no one knows how much good may sometimes result from "a word fitly spoken." In all such converse, it were well to observe certain rules and prin- ciples, as perhaps the following ; 1. Speak wisely and to the point, or not at all. 2. Time things well and consider the characteristics of those whom you address. Sometimes silence is eloquence ; and leaving the company, the best refutation. 3. If you would reprove, endeavor to do it so as to make the party reprove himself. 4. Regard ultimate more than proximate efiects ; what will be thought to-morrme or long after- ward, of what you now aver ; and what reflection will attest, when sen- sation has utterly subsided. 5. In teaching, take care to tell only what you know. David would use none but the armor he had " proved." Some subjects may be new to you ; or plainly superior to your attain- ments ; or they may require an investigation and a library not at your command ; or involve a difficulty which you see no way of solving : in such cases never attempt presumptuous solutions or arrogate a cleai»esB of vision which you do not possess. Acknowledge the difficulty, and your own ignorance ; as well as your persuasion that it is not insuper- able, but with proper helps might be and doubtless has been often and fully explained. This will commend your ingenuousness, as well as evince your confidence in Christianity. 6. Beware of wrong motives. Right ones are the eloquence and the unction and almost the eflfect. " Let love through all your actions run." Still, care rather to profit than to please : and respect God more than man. If you really love the soul, you will show it, incidentally if in no other way ; and in proportion as this temper is seen, it will also be felt and honored, at least in the privacy of conscience, where the effect is often wonderful and astound- ing! Besides, every man has a conscience; every man thinks more and feels more, occasionally, on the supreme subject, than- he is willing to confer even to himself And God uses the wise efforts of his people. They are the chosen sub-agents of his own glorious action, in concilia- ting souls. Thus he replenishes the empire of his grace. Hence, faith acquires a kind of omnipotence, by availing itself of the resources of God ! " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand : for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that, 657 or whether they both shall be alike good." Eccles. 11:6. And what service possible to men, can for a moment be compared to-this, for "glory, and honor, and immortality;" or for certainty and richness of reward ? The laurels and stars of vulgar ambition are here demon- strated puerile and contemptible; while the grandeur and worth of such subserviency can be impoverished or reduced by no competition, nor by any increase or success of numbers. The cause is common, unique, eternal. The more the happier. Each contributes to the riches of all ; and all rejoice in the bucccbscs of each. The tender female here be- comes a champion ; the contest and the victory alike exercise the good- ness and improve the character : Heaven is enjoyed and Christ is glo- rified in two worlds, one of them "without end!" The author is happy in the acquaintance of many excellent and " elect ladies " among his countrywomen, not restrictively those of his parochial charge, whose example is luminous and beneficent in an emi- nent degree; and with whom, as living "epistles of Christ," and amia- ble specimens of the religion of his gospel, the unchanging principles of truth and grace, are discernible in their truly refining efficacy ; com- mended to the approbation of the world in kindred fellowship with the softness and the sympathy, the instinctive purity and the tender attrac- tion, of the female character. " A virtuous woman ; her price is far above rubies ! She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain : but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." Prov. 31 : 10, 36, 30. 7. See Blackstone, vol. 1, pp. 301 and 441, et alia. ' 8. " He thought he saw an unusual blaze of light fall on the book while he was reading, which he at first imagined might happen by some accident in the candle. But lifting up his eyes, he apprehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was before him, as it were suspended in the air, a visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded on all sides with a glory ; and was impressed, as if a voice, or something equivalent to a voice, had come to him, to this effect, (for he was not confident as to the very words,) O sinner, did I suffer this for thee, and are these the returns 1" Life of Col. Gardiner, by Dr. Doddridge, p. 25. The influence may be genuine, divine, saving ; and yet our imagination and judgment may be erring and extravagant, in what they attribute to it. The luminous quality may be all in the mind, and the images or representations be there only delineated and enstamped. 9. But this feeling of the preacher was not peculiar to him. Fox was the primate of their whole system of sympathies as well as sentiments. " I was moved also to cry against all sorts of music" — " But the black 83 658 earthly spirit of the priests wounded my life : and when I heard the bell toll to 0^11 people together to the steeple-house, it struck at my life; for it was like a market-bell to gather people together, that the priest might set forth his ware to sale." Journal, vol. 1. pp. 114 and 115. In England, it is well known, that a steeple always indicates a church of the esta- blishment: the dissenters having none, according to law, and their places of worship being called chapels or meeting-houses. The antipa- thy of early Friends against " steeple- houses" became one of their cha- racteristics. It was a signal of the justly odious tithe system, and a re- membrancer of their own frequent amercement. 10. This, and some other parts of this volume, were written as early as 1824 ; before the schism, and while its main occasion was yet alive. He is now no more in this world. Where he is, in that which is to come, I am very far from deciding even in the privacy of thought. God knows what to do, and will do what is gloriously right, with each one of us and with all men. In the text I mean only — that I am now relieved from any sensible obligation to account for his errors on the supposition of his genuine christian piety. Equally cautious would I be in resign- ing wholly and always, to the arbitration of the Great God, the destiny of individuals or persons; as courageous in the treatment of principles, whatever their application to myself or others, and in the confession of the truth, whatever the consequences to be apprehended. I desire here to assure the reader, that with me the idea of denouncing persons as absolutely graceless, or passing judgment on the eternal condition of any individual of the mighty congregation of the dead on whom scrip- ture hath not expressly passed the judgment of God, is both alien and awful ! I denounce only — a system. It is one of the most happy cogi- tations of my life, that I know not concretely or in reference to particu- lar individuals, who may not be pardoned and saved in spite of his errors and his sins ! or who may not be brought to repentance and faith in Christ, before he leaves the world 1 There are several things in the characters of Fox and Barclay that' I very sincerely respect and even admire— and far enough should I be from daring to say of either of them — He is lost forever ! No man knows any such thing in fact ! and my soul is very very far from wishing it— I need not declare ! It was wise in one who said, to his circle of christian companions ; If any or all of us shall actually arrive in heaven at last, we shall see THREE wonders there :_^rs«, many whom we never expected to meet there; second, many not there whom we did expect to find ; and third the greatest wonder to find— ourselves there ! In treating of truth and principles, however, I know not how to do justice to the subjects of revelation without free thought and unrestrain- 659 ed argument. If this wounds, lacerates, or even injures some, I can only say — I know of no alternative ! truth will never surrender to error; and truth will hurt some spirits, and only hurt them, world without end ! " The keen vibration of bright truth, is hell." The sword of the Spirit is sharp, refulgent, piercing. 11. Remarkably characteristic and Quakerian! I have often been asked by others, "How do they get over such and such passages'?" Answer — You know nothing of their way, or you would not ask the in- apposite question. A man who carries about with him a light within which is PABAMOUNT to reason and the oracles of God, can nullify at pleasure, and that as easily as by " turning over the leaf," whatever it may have pleased " the eternal Spirit " to reveal and record " for our learning." The confession, made in great eimplioity, is a most important development. It reveals, 1 think, purely, what is more valuable because indeliberate, the cha'tacter of the sect, the nature of their inward lumi- nary, and the connection that exists between their views and evidence. It shows the way which some have of pleading conscience, when they wish to escape responsibility or do what Ihey dare not allow to be in- spected : and reminds me of an anecdote that I have somewhere known, of a certain miserable and ignorant man, who, having done a reprehensible action publicly in church, was arraigned for it before his ecclesiastical superiors, where he pleaded that he was conscientious in it all. " And pray," said one of his judges, " What is conscience 7 or what do you mean by it, if you mean any thing or know what you mean?" He answered, "O yes! I know, very well. Conscience is something," putting his hand significantly on his stomach, '' something down here that says, every now and then, I wont 1" Humor apart, I sincerely suspect that Barclay's "little small thing" that " boasteth" such " great things," is not only resident in the same locality, but is very much of one identity with the famous definition of conscience above recited. It is the conscience of nullification — a principle that might, for aught I know, have "originated in heaven:" but sure I am it did not long remain there. 12. Respecting predestination, without discussing a subject so exten- sive, so " sinned against " — not sinning, and so glorious and fundamental, I would affectionately suggest the following things : 1. It is both foohsh and unfair to charge its alleged difliculties, as is often done in this coun- try, on presbyterianism or Calvinism. Before either of these existed, the very difficulties — which are wholly relative and result from our igno- rance and folly and unbelief alone — existed and were amply known. The premises of the doctrine ave fully contained in Barclay's Apology : since they are ultimately resolvable into the attributes of the infinite God, 660 Omniscience — who can deny? — eternally knows all things, and antici- pates them infallibly, in a system over which God presides, which he created and constantly upholds. For " although in relation to the fore- knowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pasa immediately and infallibly, yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either neces- sarily, freely,.or contingently." Presbyterian Confession of Faith. Chap. 5, sect. 2. No absolute contingency exists ; yet all relative contingeff- cies, such to us, (and the world is full of them,) are infallibly and econo- mically foreknown in the system, and most wisely ordered and over- ruled by the eternal Owner of all things. The means and the end of every related series are reciprocally connected and mutually dependant in the constitution of God. He has no purpose, for example, to fill a barn with the frails of autumn, that does not as well imply his purpose of antecedent toil, forecast, perseverance, care, and skill, on the part of the husbandman. A correct view of this subject is not only noble and philosophical, expansive to the mind and salutary in an infinite degree to the heart ; but, it rectifies the conduct, is the best cure of the natural fatalism of men, the wisest corrective in the world of the whole doctrine oifate, and moreover — it is eternal truth ! God knows all events, with just as much precision and exactitude, and knows them just as histori- cally, as he knows those of yesterday and earlier in infinite pretention. He knows you, reader, and all your voluntary conduct, perfectly and from everlasting. It is indeed to me a wonder of difficult solution (much more difficult than the revealed doctrine of predestination) that any man of sense and honesty can at once believe the Bible, and read it, and doubt the doctrine. If not contained in Romans, 9, 10, 11, nor in Ephesians, 1, 2, I am sure it is to be found almost every where else, expressly or by implication, in the whole Bible. If somewhat medi- cinal and painful, it is still a most salutary doctrine. 2. Our moral relation to it is slmple, encouraging and ENTIRELY PRACTI- CAL — whence our duty is to submit to it believingly and to believe it affectionately, to the glory of the eternal and infinitely benevolent Foun- der of the system. To do this, is just as easy as it is to love God or cordially to say, " Thy will be done." Without such unqualified sub- mission, we are, however disguised, only the enemies of God — because we wickedly choose to be ! With it— we are his friends, his children, his elect for ever. The doctrine can be easdy abused, however, by any one so minded. Hence 3. There is no proper difficulty practically, or just repulsion, in the doctrine. If we can love God sincerely at all, why hate him because of the infinite sovereignty in which he describes him- self as " declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My codnsel shall stand 661 AND I WILL DO ALL MT PLKAScnE." Isoiah, 46 : 10. Shall we hate him for being infinitely wise and good in governing the universe? 4. If it be said — Then he makes eome men on purpose to damn them \ I answer, (1) This is no logical result from the premises. It is more- over an averment of guilt and blasphemy, when absolutely uttered. He made all men for. his own glory and the good of the universe : and this end he is most wisely determined that they shall in some way sub- serve— either in their punishment or pardon, according to their own moral agency in this world. Gal. 6 : 7, 8. He might know a thing and order it in the system, without at all making it an end desired. He knew from everlasting that Paul would persecute the church; and eter- nally ordained the system in which it should occur : was that the end for which he created him? (2) The difficulty, if it be one, is just as GREAT — to say the least — with those who deny tlie doctrine and are not universalists. The God whom they profess to worship, created the finally reprobate litowing infallibly that they would be lost forever. Did He create them for this end— or, for no end— or, to confound him- self? (3) Election, as a branch of predestination, damns nobody; it only INSURES the piety and salvation of an innumerable multitude. If you say, why are so many lost or. left to their own way, which is at last the same thing? I reply — The question is based on facts which all must admit in common, namely, that many do perish. The reason is two- fold; first, touching <;iei> agency; their own wanto.n wickedness is THE REASON. Second, touching the agency of God — why does he not interpose preventively and save them ? Answer — Because he cannot in wisdom and righteousness 1 because he sees it better to punish some for their iniquity than that he should exert such an agency in the circum- stances. It is not because he could not do it absolutely ; but because he could not do it morally. In this important sense we may say, God SAVES as many as BE CAN; AND WOULD DOUBTLESS SAVE ALL IP HE DID NOT SEE THAT IT WAS PREFERABLE FOR HIS INFINITE BENEVOLENCB TO PUNISH SOME, AND AS FEW AS POSSIBLE, FOR THE GOOD OF THE UNI- VERSE OF BEING FOREVERMORE ! GOD IS LoVE. 13. Now under the pastoral care of my spiritual cotemporary,my early and excellent friend. Rev. Philip Cortlandt Hay, A. M. 14. 1 was regularly " disowned " on my birth day, (after a respite of six months, in which they neither said nor wrote anything to me,) accord- ing to their laws in such cases made and provided. A certified copy of disovmment was sent me, which I received and kept for several years, but which is now mislaid. I can recollect, however, and shall endeavor to transcribe it (not with perfect exactness) from memory. Whereas, Samuel H. Cox, had a birth-right membership among us ; 662 but, having joined another religious society, we therefore testify our dis- union with him : but desire, nevertheless, that by the clear inshining of divine light, he may come to know the voice of the true Shepherd and thereby experience preservation from the snares of the enemy of all good. Signed in and on behalf of the Pine-street Monthly Meeting. Philad. Aug. 25, 1813. , Clerk. On this I remark, (1.) That thus far I have had no inshining, (their own word,) " clear " or otherwise, that does not confirm my conviction that their system is illusory and wrong. (2.) That their charitable insinuation sagainst the whole presbyterian denomination, when they speak of " the true Shepherd," and " the snares of the enemy of all good," are quite comprehensible. (3.) That I do not reprehend or at all regret the fact that they have " disowned " me ; \ first and conscientiously disowned them : but I have often asked myself why, in the times of worldly foolery, when they knew, (their preachers, I mean,) that I and hundreds of others of their youth were habituated to attend the theatre and to follow other godless prac- tices, why did they not then " disown " or even "deal with " me? The only unpardonable offence I have committed was — to believe the Bible with some degree of practical consistency ! My soul's most ardent be- nevolence prays that they may come to the same experience ; thus "knowing the voice of the true Shepherd," and realizing "preservation from the snares of" Quakerism. And that " by the clear inshining oi the divine light " of outward scripture testimony ! May the God of all grace bring them to taste his salvation in Christ Jesus ! 1 feel compassion for them, abhorrence only of their system, and anguish of heart on their account : but so far as I know my own heart in the sight of God, I cein aver that I am very far from any vindictive feelings toward them — whatever I sometimes think of their manner of treating me. Jesus ! have mercy on my soul^ And give me grace to do thy will: Keep me in truth's divine control And be my God and Savior still ! 15. This is hating human nature. 16. Cardinal lie. 17. Though it is revolting to the feelings of real piety and disgusting to all enlightened sense, even to peruse his infatuated " Journal " of vanities, I will here append only a specimen, of hundreds that might easily be furnished. " Now was I come up in Spirit, through the flam- ing sword, into the paradise of God. All things were new ; and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words 663 can utter. I kmew notbimo but pureness, innocenov, and righteous- ness, BEING RENEWED UP INTO THE IMAGE OF GoD BY ChRIST JesUS ; SO THAT I WAS COME UP TO THli*feTATE OF AdAM, WHICH HE WAS IN BEFORE BE FELL." Vol. I. p. 104. Far enough beyond any saint or apostle of whom we have scriptural memorial. Paul was nothing to him ! And his ministerial influence was equally pre-eminent. When he spake, he says, " The Lord's power came over them. Yea, the Lord's everlasting power was over the world, and reached to t]»e hearts of people, and made both priests and professors tremble. It shook the earthly and airy spirit, in which they held their profession of religion and worship ; so that it was a dreadful thing to them, when it was told them, ' The man in leathern breeches is come.' At the hearing thereof the priests in many places got out of the way; they were so struck with the dread of the eternal power of God ; and fear surprised the hypocrites." Vol. I. p. 158. I should think that other causes, than depravity and a reprobate con- sciousness, miffhi account for their aversation to an interview with such a column of light ! O why were people made so coarse ; Or clergy made so fine ? A kick that scarce could move a horse Would kill a sound divine! Cowper. iJ-i" Fkot. 26 : S. 19.* An intelligent and respected ministerial brother, whom I thank for his kindness, has lately put in my hands a volume entitled, " The society of Friends vindicated ; being the arguments of the counsel of J H , in a cause decided in the court of chancery of the state of New Jersey, between T L S complainant, and J H and S D , defendants. By George Wood and Isaac H. Williamson, counsellors at law. To which is appended the decision of the court. Trenton, N. J. 1833." Of this interesting volume, I would remark, (1.) That it can be held to decide nothing theologically, or next to no- thing; since the object of the court was not to determine what doctrines were true absolutely, but only the doctrines in point of fact held respec- tively by the parties litigant. (2.) That the process and the result of that singular trial (as it once would have been counted) have been evidently wise and luminous and right, touching the questions then pending. Of this I have no doubt. But it is secular in the main ; and leaves the society unvindicated in those high spiritual relations, where christian philosophy will not cease to compare Quakerism as a whole, with " the secondary rule " of Chris- tianity as a whole I * Soma confasiou hai occurred Id the text, in numbering the notes ; there ia no IS, and EO Mcurj twi«e i hence the page will be specified to which each of these refers— this to page 94. 664 (3.) That the Hicksites there refused to show what tlieir doctrines wer6, and so joined no issue on the theology of tto dispute ; which was plainly subordinate to the matters of " bond an*mortgage,'' " principal and interest." (4.) That the unitarian Mcksism of Penn, appears to have laid palpably in the orbit of one of the counsellors of the other party, and to have tasked, as well as taxed, his erudite ingenuity to'dispose of it. p. 34, and on- ward. He admits however that his writings have, not first recently " subjected him to the charge of socinianism and sometimes of unquali" fied infidelity :" and though he wittily refers this to " the want of at- tending sufficiently to the drift of the author," yet I must beg leave to express a conviction precisely opposite to the learned advocate ; and as- sert that the impartial inquirer, who reads the writings of Penn so as to come most intelligently into " the drift of the author," and who has read as well and on the same principles " the Holy Scriptures," is the very man of a thousand who will soonest discard his pretensions as a christian teacher, and deny his soundness in the faith, whatever honor he may accord to his established fame as a man, and a general philan- thropist, and the lauded founder of a noble one of the confederate states of this mighty republic. 19. p. 96. Opposition to the cause of missions. 20. p. 101. In BO many words. 21. With all their might and main. 22. Let dotage accredit his pretentions, I cannot. 23. This is probably a clew to the true meaning of that much ob- scured, controverted, and certainly difficult passage, Rom. 9 : 1-3. I will give simply the result of some pains-taking, and 'show mine opi- nion,' as to its proper meaning : thus ; " I say the truth in Christ, and lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continued sorrow in my heart (for I myself was wishing [or glorying] to be accursed from Christ) for my breth- ren, my kinsmen according to the flesh ; who are Israelites," &c. This version is grammatical and almost literal. . It is the only one that I have ever seen against which insuperable objections do not lie. The asseveration of the apostle ill comports with the supposition of a gross- ly extravagant and utterly unheard of hyperbole or poetical oriental- ism ; as it were madly and officiously conditionating his own eternal damnation as the price of the salvation of his countrymen, and thus en- tirely transcending the " unspeakable" love manifested in the cross of Christ ! Absurd too, as the fancy of papists and universalists that hell-fiie is a capital means of grace. The Jews hated Paul for deny- 665 ing iheir doctrine, their doings, and their hopes : they would not easily believe any thing he could b^, avouching his sincere and tender bene- volence toward their spirituannteresls. Hence he assumes the solemn sanction of an appeal to the witnessing God; he panegyrizes their na- tional eminence and relative dignity : and accounts most naturally lor hia peculiar feelings toward them, from the fact that he was their kins- man, that he had been one of them, that he formerly gloried to act as they were acting ; as madly, as desperately, as if practically or con- structively glorying in the cause ! 84. Vide, Robinson's Wahl in voce. . j • 35. And from one error learn them all. 26. It is rather surprising to see certain limiiarians sometimes arro- gate to themselves, at least by implication, the honor of exclusive Cal- vinism, as well as exelusive orthodoxy. They are certainly in an error there, if what Calvin believed and taught may be viewed as the crite- rion of what Calvinism is. In his institutes of the christian reli- gion, written (when about 35 years of age) in his theological youth, although they were less express on the point tlian his subsequent writ- ings, I recollect no sentence which determines any thing in favor of re- Btrictive views of the nature of atonement. In his commentary, which was his maturer worlt and the rich mine whence many modern writers have talcen their second-hand wisdom, and which has never (so far as I know) been rendered into English and published, his sentiments are full, frequent, conclusive, in favor of a full atonement. It may be well to transcribe a few of these. I could easily give more. 1 John, 2 : 3, where Christ is said to be " the propitiation — for the sins of the whole world." Calvin says indeed that " he would not stoop to answer the ravings of those who hence declare all the reprobate and even the devil himself to be the ultimate subjects of salvation. A po- rtion so monstrous deserves no refutation. But others, who have no such purpose, affirm that Christ suffered sufficiently for all men ; but efficiently for the elect alone. And this solution of the matter is com- monly received in the schools. I question however its relevancy to the present passage, while I confess its absolute truth." Hence (1) Calvin believed the fulness of the atonement, and made it a part of his chris- tian confession. (3) Just as obviously is it no modern speculation ; since it had obtained in the schools of protestant orthodoxy, even commonly, three hundred years ago. I subjoin his own words. Sed hie movetur quaestio, quomodo mundi totius peccata expientur. Omitto phrenetico- rum deliria, qui hoc praetextu reprobcs omnes, adeoque Satanam ipsum in salutem admittunt : tale portentum refutatione indignum est. Q,ui hane absurditatem volebant efFugere, dixerunt ; Sufficienter pro 84 666 toto mundo passum esse Chrietum : Bed pro eleetis tantum efficaeiter Vulgo haeo solutio in scholis obtinuit. Ego quanquam verum esse illud dictum fateor ; nego tamen praesenftoco quadrare. 2 Pet. 2:1. " Even denying the Lord that bought them.'' He says — "those therefore who, despising restraint, have abandoned themselves to all licentiousness, are deservedly said to deny Christ by whom they were redeemed. Moreover, that the doctrine of the gospel may remain safe and entire in our hands, let us fix it in our minds that we have been redeemed by Christ to this very end — that he may be at once the Lord of our life and our death : and so let us propose to ourselves this end, that to him we may live, and to him we may die." His words are — Q,ui igitur excusso freno in omnem licentiam se projiciunt, non immerito dicuntur Christum abnegare a quo redempti sunt. Proinde ut salva et Integra evangeUi doctrina apud nos maneat, hoc auimis nostria infixum sit, tedemptos esse nos a Christo ut vitae simul et mortis nostrae sit Domi- nus : itaque nobis hunc finem esse propositum ut illi vivamus ac mori- araur. Rom. 5 : 18. " Therefore, as by one offence [sentence came] upon all men unto condemnation, so by the righteousness of one [sentence came] upon all men unto justification of life." Stuart's translation. Cal- vin says, " The apostle here maltes it the common grace of all, because to all it is exhibited, though to all it is not realized in eventual fact. For although Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and to all without discrimination is he offered by the benignity of God, yet all men do not apprehend him." His words are — Communem omnium gratiam facit,' quia omnibus exposita est, non quod ad omnes extenda- tur re ipsa : nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi atque omnibus indifierenter Dei benignitate^offertur, non tamen omnes apprehendunt. Matt. 26 : 28. " For this is my blood of the new testament, [covenant,] which is shed for many for the remission of sins." He says, "Under the word mamj Jesus Christ designates not a part of the world only but the total human race. Therefore, when we approach 'the table of the Lord, not only should this general thought occur to our mind, that the world has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but each for himself ought to consider that his own sins have been expiated." I give his words. Sub multorum nomine non partem mundi tantum designat Bed totum humanum genus. Ergo dum ad suam mensam accedimus' non solum haec generalis cogitatio in mentem veniat, iredemptum Christ! sanguine esse miindum; sed pro se quisque reputet peccata sua expiata esse. In modern technology (which I approvp) they only arc said to be redeemed vfho are actually accepted in Christ: for all, atonement is 667 made ; to all, is it offered ; the Spirit striving through the truth as ex- tensively, as the sufficiency and applicability of the atonement are exten. sive. Still, to accept the offer and correspond with the offerer, is, in the very nature of things, the only way to be saved. Are all men saved ? Yes — if all repent and believe the gospel ! Do they this 7 He that believes men are saved in sin, or that all men renounce it, must have very strong faith ! We however do not believe that the atonement was INDEFINITE in the sense of the Remonstrants of Holland or any other Arminians. God had a design in maldng it, which no event should frustrate. Christ eternally designed the salvation of th^ elect ; and for these, in this sense exclusively, he gave his precious life. But this makes not the atonement less full, or alters its nature at all. When THE ELECT are all brought to piety and heaven, by supposition, the OTHERS — whoever they are — have just as good an opportunity every way to realize the same bleSsedness, as all the world have on the theory that denies election. Election is one thing, atonement another. Election is all gain and no loss — and the reverse precisely is true of the error that denies election. See John, 6 : 36-40, 44, 65. 10 : 11, 15, 26-30. 17 : 2. Eph. 5: 25-27. Rev. 17: 8. Matt. 25 : 34. Rom. 9 : 29. 27. This same one, as I have heard, once attended a funeral at the house of a pious Methodist, as no other minister could be procured; As he sat colloqually preaching to a circle in the room, he soon glided inio his favorite strain of vituperation against the " hirelings or divines as they call themselves." He concluded by warning his hearers to be- ware of them. "Yea," said he with an oracular whine, " beware of the scribes and pharisees, hypocrites." Rejoined a venerable old Metho- dist, " yes, my friends, and I think you ought also to beware of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection." 28. Such a custom is most pernicious— a gratuitouskind of prote^ant canonizing of the dead, against which christians ought to show thefti- •elves decisive protestants ; and blame not the duakers alone. De mmtuisnil nisi homim, 'lis said: Say nothing but good of the men that are dead. More christian the adage if thus it had come- Say truth or say nothing, no matter of Whom ! It is a common and most perverse error. Men are often blessed arid sainted at death, in a style flatly infidel and plainly false. " The dead that die in the Lord," and no others, does "the Spirit" order to be written "blessed:" and we know of but one way o^ dying in the Lord — and that is, the way of living m the Lord ! Let a man pass this divine 668 Umit, and he has lost all rule, certainty, truth : and so far as his malign power extends, he will deceive credulous multitudes with the hope of rottenness that rushes to ruin. In the words of a forgotten author, Turk, Jew, and Papist, Infidel and Atheist ; Might all enter in. With scorn and with sin ; If such graceless trust {Gets part with the just. 29. Let every one keep to his own vocation. 30. The strict and true exegesis of this passage is difficult, and has been critically controverted. It is here used in its ordinary and popular acceptation. The moral, however, is much the same, whatever view we adopt. Possibly " the Spirit" is to be taken in a good sense, for the grace of the Spirit of God inhabiting the mind of the christian. On that hypothesis, which seems to me probable at least, it ought to be ren- dered in parts as two questions, and not one merely ; thus, " Think ye that the scripture testifieth falsely? Is it to envy (or ma;iice) that the Spirit persuadeth, that hath taken up his abode in usV\ 31. Conscious rectitude. 32. The subject of original sin is often regarded, too grossly, or with- out due concessions and discriminations, as a cardinal point, on which if a brother comes not to my views and phrases, I am at liberty and at duty too in denounciation or impeachment. On this important article, I would remark, 1. That there are difficulties in the philosophy or metaphysics of it, which it is either not easy or not possible to resolve ; and which are al- most equally great on every theory that does not utterly deny the doc- trine — which were an alternative of much more and greater difficulties ! We ought perhaps to be modest and forbearing toward others — espe- cially till we can show (1) precisely when the soul begins to exist, that is to endure forever 1 (2) precisely when the subject becomes a moral agent 1 (3) precisely how it is affected by the sin of Adam, whenever it commences the perpetration of its own 1 and (4) precfseZy Aoic we are metaphysically to reconcile the facts ascertained, with all the known principles of the divine moral government and the certainly revealed doctrines of the mediatorial economy'? Surely here is some "debaleable ground ;" and debateable it will long remain ! Nor can I see why we may not differ and debate in such aspects, without disturbing " the bond of peace," and Without epecially marring " the vmity of the Spirit." 669 Only I believe that to tettle such questions is about as impossible as to attempt it is ordinarily useless. The difficulties are metaphysical alone — not practical, I take it. They respect modes more than facts. 3. Without using any of the many technicalities that have obtained, / -would impeach or doubt the soundness of no brother who should give evidence of intelligent and honest faith in the substance of the following propositions : (1) That the whole species are'morally fallen and sinful ; " by nature children of wrath " and destitute of all conformity to the law of God. (2) That this condition results, in the grand economy of things, from the sin of our first parents; so that their sin was quasi ours, was in effect ours, was in certain consequence the sin and ruin of human nature ; so that angels, could they have known the future historical relations of the matter, would have wisely and well exclaimed ; " man is ruined, is fallen, is lost;" gro\jping the whole species in the dire catastrophe. (3) That depravity, or personal wickedness in some form, commences whenever moral action commences ; and this in every instance of our moral history. (4) That no memoer of the race, old or young, can be in fact saved in any other way than that of " the common salvation," or as all others are, through the grace and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have some special reasons (with_^ue dear infants — I trust — in glory, of whom the oldest was not as many years of age) to feel and love the doctrine or implication of the fourth proposition; which however I have neither made nor modified since their tenderly remembered exit — when I gave them cheerfully and tearfully back to the hands of Jesus Christ ! 3. There are questions and facts unresolved, on this article of " the common faith," which embarrass, really, if not equally, every theory that was ever soberly framed for its elucidation : such as these — Have idiots souls? What becomes of them? and monstesr, what of them? And so of millions of unborn children, of dead-born, of destroyed embryos, &c. Were all these represented in Adam ? how are they related to him — how to Christ ? Where there is no evidence, we had better have no theory. The scripture is often eloquent in its omissions. If, for ex- ample, it had affirmed the salvation of all infants, or any class of them, Under a certain age, the consequences had been terrible ! What fears for those who should die ever so little past that age ! What tempta- tions to infanticide under it, especially to guilty parents ! What vain repinings and murraurings, among some, that they did not die earlier ! How were the value of life cheapened, and a due preparation for death obstructed and postponed ! These difficulties are not properly the opprobria theologiae — they are only " the secret things that belong to God." All the principles on the topic which we need to know and thoroughly to 670 digest as theologians, seem to be contained correlatively in the eigh- teenth and thirty-third chapters of Ezekiel, ihejifth of Romans, the_^rs< three of Genesis. But — hie labor, hoc opus est. 4. The definition of original sin contained in the Institutes of Calvin, popular rather than philosophical or metaphysical though it be, is not very objectionable, I should think, to any soundly thinking theologian ; especially as explained in the second quotation below : Videtur ergo pec- catum originale haereditaria naturae nostrae pravitas et corruptio, in omnes animae jrtirtes diffusa : quae primum^facit reos irae Dei, turn etiam opera in nobis profert, quae scriptura vocat opera carnis. — Neque ista est alieni delicti obligatio ; quod enim dicitur, nos per Adae pec- catum obnoxioe esse factos Dei judicio ; non ita est accipiendum, acsi insontes ipsi et immerentes culpam delicti ejus sustinerimus ; sed quia per ejus transgressionem maledictione induti sumus omnes, dicitur ille nos obstrinxisse. Ab illo tamen non sola in nos poena grassata est, sed instillata ab illo lues in nobis residet, cui jure poena debetun Not a bad definition for three hundred years ago, and by a young man who had lived just the fourth of a century. Contrary to my first purpose, I venture to translate it : I say venture, because some may question any rendering as to the exact sense conveyed. " Original sin therefore appears to be the hereditary pravity and corruption of our nature, diffused through all parts of the soul ; which renders us primarily liable to the wrath of God, and then produces in us those works which are called in scripture " the works of the flesh." This bond to punish- ment however is not for the sin of another ; for, when it is said that we are by the sin of Adam rendered obnoxious to the judgment of God, it is not so to be taken, as if we, being innocent and without all personal ill-desert, were necessitated to suffer the blame of his defection : but, as by means of his transgression, we are all indued with the malediction, he is said to have devolved it on us. By him however not the penalty alone hath overwhelmed us : for, by him instilled the moral mischief inhabits us, which is on its own account justly deserving of the penalty." 1 have given his words baldly in English, where I could ; and I need not say that the sense is rendered with an honest aim, at least. My original design in quoting Calvin here, was simply to supply those who cared for it, with his own definition in his own words. Since writing all the above, I have compared the translation, with the more easy and familiar one of Allen, and see no reason to alter it. I have no sympathy with those hyper-orthodox — whoever they are — who assume that they know (what God alone knows) precisely when the soul commences ; and precisely when moral agency begins. I know that they know nothing about it ; and that more knowledge or more candor would bring them to own, as many of the noblest living chief- 671 taina of the truth have done, their utter ignorance on such obscure points of metaphysical uncertainty — instead of presumptuously deciding, and even erecting them into cardinal and rallying points of party or- thodoxy. It is indeed impossible fur me not to distinguish between physical de- pravity, and that which is moral in its proper nature : and hence by lues I interpret that excellent reformer to mean, moral evil with its conse- quent misery and exposure. And according to his own definition and the very reasoning of President Edwards, God, in the day of judgment, will charge individuals with their personal sinfulness and with this alone respectively, in the light of his own spiritual eternal law ; condemning the wicked and pardoning, through Christ, the good, according to the measure of that unalterable- standard. 5. A denial de facto of this doctrine ought to be matter of offence to the whole church (jf God, no matter who broaches or advocates the op- posing heresy. To say that men are by nature pure and innocent, is abominable ignorance and infidel error. To say that their sin is merely incidental, owing to circumstances or evil example or education or ne- glect, and might be prevented by pious prophylactic care, is the very sum and substance of pelagianism — a fundamental heresy ! On this article of faith Friends are mystical, evasive, ignorant, false ; as Fox denies what he calls " the entail of sin," and charges " the hireling priests," with defending and advocating sin itself; because they merely maintained the true doctrine against his heresy, that denies original sin in toto and affirms the infatuated conceit of sinless perfection attained in the present life. Barclay says that we are involved (in some incon- ceivable style) in the fall of Adam ; " nevertheless, this seed [of depra- vity] is not imputed to infants until by transgression they actually join themselves therewith." Those who misunderstand eifAer the malady or the remedy of our fallen condition, ordinarily misunderstand bothj and discern not the glorious symmetry of the scheme of redemption. God imputes to us all the sin we have axid all the seeds of it, in every case, and continually, till we are pardoned and justified in Christ Jesus. The lues is the sin itself: and sin is — sin, universally ; and this when par- doned as really as when punished. 33. This proposition would be comparatively unobjectionable, if the sacred name were superseded by that of the arch enemy. [ 34. Q,uere — Is there any inward testimony of the scriptures. 35. Of which the plain English version is — That any ignoramus, of either sex, may preach, any where and at any time; under internal in- fluence and responsibility alone. See 21, Infra. This is pretty large license. Learning, knowledge, probation, and order, are not quite ca- 672 nonic&l. The avalanche of inspiration clears the way for itself, by its own momentum, wherever it comes. It scorns to be anticipated by out- ward hght of any sort ; and it can be read and remembered afterward, mainly from the records of desolation which its own fury makes in the formidable rush ! It seems not improper to remark that the very history of Friends demonstrates ihe opposite of their creed on this article. Their worst influences have emanated from their most ignorant pretenders ; their respectability, from the labors of the more intelligent and the better educated. This may be seen as a criterion-principle in the schism. With few exceptions ihe informed and cultivaCed went one way ; the igno- rant and intractable, the other. Nor do I think it wrong to record that the heresiarch who led the latter class was a grossly illiterate and ig- norant man J and touching his intellectual character, as sublimely ele- vated in his own imagination, as he was compassionated by all compe- tent judges. I have heard him preach twice, conversed with him often, and corresponded on several occasions. I have three letters of his now in my possession, which fully warrant these reflections ; as sordid and vicious in their literature, as false and treacherous in their doctrinal po- sitions. " That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good." Prov. 19 : 2. What kind of inspiration is it that makes ignorance almost a neces- sary qualification for the ministry? 36. This is an article which, though fundamental to Quakerism, is not carefully protruded, or zealously pressed into public view, by m,o- dern Friends. What is its bearing on the piety or profession of all other denominations ? It explodes all others, aciTE as perfectly as this pub- lication denounces duakerism. It is however theoretically, practically, continually, in the very heart of their system. The result is that prayer — except in instances " few and far between '' of apprehended motion, " the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit," prayer is almost wholly omitted by Friends ; as it never can be statedly performed, in the closet, the family, or the meeting! This is fact, they know ! Very few families notoriously have any domestic worship or re- ligious order in them, they know ! They must always '' get still," and wait in silence for a motion, (which often comes not,) and feeljits inspi- ration in full glow, before they worship at all. This is horrible delu- sion AND WHOLLY ANTI-CHRISTIAN. Luke, 18 ; 1-14, and especially, 1. I will put a case — such as occurs in substance'often in the life of every individual and occurs even ordinarily, where " man's extremity becomes God's opportunity:" suppose a passenger in a ship at sea should fall astern overboard, and swimming " with heart of controversy " should see the vessel glide diminished on her way, evidently ignorant of his condition. It remains for him — to die and sink in the vast sepulchre of waters alone. But his strength will last some moments or minutes. 673 —Shall he pray or not i If he were to invoke the great God, by the faith of Jesus Christ, and pray for mercy and salvation for his name's sake, " coming boldly to the throne of grace " accessible then and in every Other " time of need," and entreat for " grace to help " him ; would it be " abominable idolatry " and so firth, " to be denied, rejected, and separated from, in this day of his spiritual arising?" Is it " will-worship " or " superstition V O yes ! for Barclay's " eleventh proposition " or thesis says that " all other wobship," and especially " prayera con- ceived extemporarily," are in this condemnation. This is impiously nul- lifying the revealed system of the grace of God ; and needs only to be universally and consistently believed, to banish true worship from the world. 37. I wonder if they ever attentively study such a valuable work as the treatise, by the present excellent Bishop Wilson of Calcutta, on " the divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's day V or Dick's philosophy of religion? or D wight's five sermons on the fourth commandment 1 38. From the third cardinal numeral, tJ'es, is formed, trinua; and thence, trinitas j (as unitas from umis or universitas from universus ;) I judge ; without the word units as an etymon of its composition ; though Dr. Webster and others think differently. 39. To subdue the proud. 40. As if in independent or absolute possession — for the time. 41. Some are so conscientious or consistent that they never vote; viewing it as unlawful for them and for all men. 43. The last argitmeni — 43. — of kings — 44. — of laws. 45. A great Preacher once said thus to me, and refused every an- swer but his own. 46. For our altars and firesides. 47. Some may suppose that the author has had suflicient time or leisure, in which to give his work the last and the best touches of cor- rection. The facts are otherwise. While contemplation on the topics involved has been long habituated, leisure he scarcely knows : and most of this volume has been written at intervals and fragments of time, in the last four months of the year 1833. A large parochial charge, in such a proverbially busy city as that of his residence, may convince 85. 674 any thoughtful person, in some small degree, of the impossibility that he should prepare a work, such as, in other circumstances, might seem comparatively worthy of public approbation. No part of it has been re-written for the press ; except as tfie manuscripts were indebted to notes incidentally taken through previous years. In the ngar approach (as it seeiried) of eternity, toward the end of July last, when the cho- lera was upon him, the thought that death might supervene before the purpose of publication was executed, determined him, if spared and pros- pered to recover, to " perform the doing of it" as soon as practicable. It has cost him, with, reduced strength, some effort, made often when others were sleeping ; and without any intermission of his pubKc du- ties. He repeats the declaration that it aspires to no superiority on the score of tine writing; being too sensible of its real defects and those of its author to indulge such a vanity. In regard to manner, if due allow- ance be accorded him, the graver questions, touching the matteh of THE PEKPORMANOE, may find a wiser tribunal and a more candid audit, as well as an equitable decision, at the court of public sentiment — from which, however, the christian knows, when he needs it, to what higher JUDICATORY he may carry his ultimate appeal. 48. Sometimes two at once— both inspired ! Of this I have often heard, and have myself once seen it. The result on that occasion, when a man and woman rose at different ends of their " gallery " or long continuous pulpit, was (if I rightly remember) that the man, pausing- longer, heard the voice of his supplantress about 50 feet to his lefl, (In Arch-street meeting,) at which he was startled, looked at her, and then composedly sat down till that head feminine of the whole assembly, that female "master of assemblies" was done! Their commission to " usurp authority " of this sort will be investigated hereafter. 49. See summary of their doctrine, &c. "written at the desire of the meeting for sufferings in London 1800 " appended to Mosheim, New- York edition, 1831, 50. A proud a priori argument, which, though abstractly true, inas- much as it is evident that no contradiction can proceed from the Holy Ghost ; yet, in reference to the assumed matters of fact connected with the inspiration of Friends, it is destitute of all evidence and truth : for, the question to be tried is not the consistency of the Eter-nal Spirit in all his genuine revelations,. which none but an atheist can deny ; but ■whether Friends are in fact thus inspired 7 " Try the Spirits." "Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow that these divine revelations 675 are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward testimony of the scriptures, or of the natural reason of man."— Baholat. According to this it is plain, 1. That the deniera (and I am one of them) of "these divine inward revelations" are all destitute of the grace of God, because destitute of that which is " absolutely necessary to true faith." 2. That all such will be lost ; for, " he that believeth not shall be damned." 3. That we are required to believe the vaunted fact that Friends are thus inspired without any evidence. 4. That we are required to believe this alleged fact without any scrutiny ; for these " revelations " are not " to he subjected " to scripture or reason. This is fact — as well as argument ! What a paralysis of mind does this system inspire ! What miserable creduUty does it demand ! Barclay is " no imitator and admirer of the school-me^., but an opposer and de- . spiser of them as such; by whose labor," says he, "I judge the christian religion to be so fin^rom being bettered, that it is rather destroyed." And this is an inspired judgment, remember. No wonder that he deprecates " examination " and all learning that is equal to it. Having utterly perverted Christianity, he has reasons for degrading the wisdom that could expose his deeds and manifest his darkness. Let christians value learning ; and make it, in its place, a part of their religion i, They are recreant to Christianity, if they dishonor that philosophy, which is «o« "falsely so called." I bless "the Father of lights " for "the good and perfect gifts" of sound learning and true science — and value them religiously and for Christ's sake, more than in any other re- lation incomparably : and am indebted, by the rule of contraries, to Q,uakerisra, in a sort, for^my deep conscientious estimate qf their im- mense subsidiary value. O that all christians were sufficiently wise to abhor ignorance as they ought, and cultivate its genuine opposite de- voutly and universally ! For myself, I know enough to feel the value of learning ; and much more to feel, to my dying day, distressingly, the defects of my own attainments. 51. If any doubt it, let him examine the following scriptures and digest their common scope; Numb. 23: 16. 24: 2-4, J5-24. 31 : 8. Josh. 13:22. 24:9,10. Micah, 6:5. 2Pet. 2:M, 16. Jude, 11. Rev. 2 : 14. 1 Sam. 10 : 9-12. 28 : 5, 6-25. 31 : 4. 1 John, 3 : 15. 1 Kings, 13 : 20-22. John, 11 : 49-53. Mp«. 7:21-23. John, 6:70, 71. 1 Cor. 13 : 2. Remembering that tHe word charity ought to have been translated love, whebeveb it occurs in the New Testament. 52. Errors on the subject o^the influences of the Spirit are multiform ; and not confined to any one aspect, or monopolized by one description of men. It may be well here to state some sentiments that have their re- spective advocates, and which, it is thought, may easily be proved erro-: 676 neous — some of them dreadfully erroneous. We will state, however, in positive form, the views we deem correct, and the opposite of which will show the errors to which we refer. 1. There is no proper miracle in these times connected with them or to be expected from them : the same is true of inspiration, strictly such. 2. Miraculous influence or inspiration is not nobler and to be preferred to that which mainly sanctifies and cleanses the soul as the "living temple" of Grod. 3. They are not with generations, as such; but with individuals. 4. They are not given to saints alone, or to the elect alone ; but to all men who hear the gospel. Were all the antediluvians, or the hear- ers of the protomartyr, saints? 5. They are not independent of "the word of God," which is ever "the sword of the Spirit:" as if the agent and the action were to be aflirmed, in exclusion of the uniform manner and the known instrument of his wor ing in all. We know of no such influence, except in what may be called the natural and universal energy of God — to whichabso- lutely we have no moral relation. Mediately, it is our privilege and our duty to believe it, as a doctrine of the word of God. 6. They are not to be identified with what is purposed and effectual — with the executed "purpose of God according to election ;" as if with them we are certainly saved : as if one could in no sense be "made par- taker of the Holy Ghost " even, and perish. Heb. 6 : 4. Matt. 13 : 20, 31 . 2 Pet. 2 : 1, 20-22. The tilings are twain and to be distinguished — as often they are not. 7. They are not general only; but special also: these are as and when the influences take hold of an individual ; as distinguished from others that aflfect the subject little or not at all. Still, special influence must be in a given degree powerful or it will be resisted fatally : for spe- citd and saving influences are not always identified in the event, how- ever they may be in general nature. 8. They^B4;e] not irresistible. The error results from confounding them with thepxiq^oses of God, after misconceiving their nature. (1) Sinners resist them n^^tpriously. (2) So do saints in some respects, every day. Will any chrisiit,«(Aeay this in his own case? (3) They are resistible in their very natur^ven when not resisted. They were better said in such case to be e^^et^tal; because they then secure the event, because they -weTefatalizing 6*^ise, and because this is about all that orthodoxy means. It is also, I thifflythe usage and the meaning of scripture. (4) I know not what beside caivbe so easily resisted as the influence of the Spirit! such delicacy, tenderness, refinement, holi- ness, and cordiality, combined, on the one part; with such grossness 677 presumption, instability, and impurity, on the other. The Bible no where represents them as irresistible; as might be shown. 9. They are not physical, or mechanical, instead of moral and spiritu- al, in their nature. Some theologues identify their error here — angrily enough— with orthodoxy. 10. We need not be immediately and always conscious of them : the idea is enthusiastical, or rather fanatical and felse — as well as very ruin- ous. Many a man under the influence of the Spirit knows not what is the matter with him, and is sensible only of— moral wretchedness or some other revealed truth. The Spirit brings us to honor heartily his own word. 11. Internal sensation is not to govern us, or our leelings to be our leaders — instead of being led and governed by " the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." We are to walk neither by internal nor exter- nal sensation — but l§ faith; and the word of God is our highest rule al- ways. Wo to the man who, inverting the proper symmetry of his be- ing, allows/eeKng's to control him in religion or — almost — in any thing else! I. 12. Their genuine fruit or result is identified with all the moral ex- cellence or evangelical holiness ever found in ransomed men. 13. Their mere restraining power, however vast or excellent it may be in certain aspects, infers not grace in the .heart of its subject. Gra- cious affections are spontaneous, positive, free, happy, joyous, and com- paratively unrestrained. 14. They are in any wise ahsdutdy necessary to salvation. Are not regeneration, sanctification, illumination, necessary ? 15. We are not fassive under their action — when all their efficacy consists in actuating us in goodness ! Not Friends only have made this mistake ! I have some reason for knowing that passivity doctrines are not the legitimate progeny of truth. 16. We need not wait for them. In fact they are waiting for us — and the waiting system on our part is compounded only of false views, contracted thoughts, and disobedient feelings, combining for an excuse in sin ! The waiting system iB_ ordinarily subverted before conversions or revivals ensue. 17. They are not necessary to make us accountable, or necessary to accountableness. They may increase, not constitute, our accountable- ness. We are accountable absolutely and universally, perfectly and eternally. 18. They are not given to reveal, new truths ; but to illumine our minds and vivify our feelings, by faith, toward old, fully revealed, and well known ones. 19. They are not given to inspire our actions, or preclude our vigi- 678 lance or prudence or responsibility in the "ordering of our affairs with discretion." 20. They are not given independently of the means of grace j or, otherwise than in connection with them, and in proportion ordinarily to their purity and due improvement; or, as if involving contrariety, in- stead of coincidence, with them. They honor those means as their le- gitimate conductors; and every christian needs to be "educated in righteousness," in a way of child-like trust and duty attending on them ; expecting God to meet us in his ways and lead us in his paths ; being constituted " righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Isaiah, 64 : 5. Exod. 20 : 24. " The unity of the Spirit " means his consistency or identity with him- self, and the homogeneousness of all hia proper influences. The reveal- ed system is one ; He hath inspired it ; and " the fruit of the Spirit " in us conforms to that unity and " keeps" it. 53. In all respects and at all hazards. 54. No recognition of its existence in the title page. 55. In New England, says Cotton Mather in his " Magnalia," the Quakers were punished, "non qua errones, sed qua turbones," for what they did, not what they taught, by the magistracy : and among other offences of intolerable abomination, which they practised against the peace and decency of the commonwealth, the pious nudity of females, like the naked goddess of Reason worshipped in revolutionary France, or the miserable lupercalians of Rome, was conspicuous. Mather justly condemns their capital punishment by the civil authorities ; though the instances were few and in circumstances of provocation singularly high ; but insists on their tumultuary proceedings, and inspired obstinacy in " crying against " all authority of the laws, as deserving and as abso- lutely requiring the intervention of the magistrates. " I would also en- treat the world,'' says that excellent and learned man, " that they would not be too ready to receive all stories told by the Quakers about their New. England persecution; because the Quakers have in print com- plained of such an one upon two women of their sect, who came stark NAKED AS EVER THEY WERE BORN iuto our public assemblies, and they were {fiaggages that they were !) adjudged unto the whipping-post for that piece ofdevilism." The same scene was acted, with equal inspi- ration, (as Mosheim and other writers also assert,) in Old England, how often I know not ; Fox himself (and all Friends have to sanction and must defend it) being the underwriter of the history. He charges it all on the agency of God, who, he says, inspired it ! These are his words : " The Lord made one to go naked among you, a figure [a figure in- 6T9 deed !] of thy nakedness, and of your nakedness, and as a sign amongst you, before your destruction cometh; that you might see you were naked and not covered, with the truth." I have no doubt that all this belongs legitimately to the ' orthodox ' system, and may result from it again. Such things, generally such, that is, grotesque symbolical ac- tions and " figures," made each " for a sign," in some conspicuous place or august presence, were common among them in the seventeenth cen- tury. Many more specimens might be given, and many authors quoted. I have reason to think that the spectacle of naked females, to be piously looked at " for a sign," was often repeated, and in a sort familiarized, in the old country, before " that piece ofdevilism" was repeated in the new. Says Fox, " Some have been moved [no doubt — movecn to go naked in their streets,-in the other power's days, [meaning Cromwell's,] and since, [i. e. it was all along common in the days of either power,] as signs of their nakedness ; and have declared amongst them, ' That God would strip them of their hypocritical professions, and make them as bare and naked as they were.' But, instead of considering it, they have frequently whipped," or otherwise abused them ; and sometimes impri- soned tliem." Terrible magistrates these ! Where was their tolera- tion'? their charity, their faith, their regard for tender consciences, or their respect for inspired actions and the fair sex 1 There is reason to fear however that Friends themselves have degenerated, very conside- rably, since these pure and spiritual times ! Very few modern female preachers are favored with such inspiration " for a sign," and few per- haps would be found sufficiently faithful to make the demonstration. Ah ! this worldly refinement ! But I would not presumptuously decide against them. I have witnessed myself enough Ho think they can do almost any thing — when inspired. The moving of inspiration is the very soul of the orthodoxy of their system — though they will little thank me for telling the truth as it is in this publication. 56. In respect to a pre-eminently stupid calumny that " Friends be- lieve " quite extensively, concerning a conspiracy in the Presbyterian denomination, to unite Church atid State, and all that, I can only say, being about as deep in the plot as Dr. Green himself or Dr. Ely even, that we should all utterly despair of accomplishing the important object during the present century, were it not for one circumstance — which I feel some hesitancy in evulgating ! But it is trdth, I know ; and hence, without consulting one of my fellow conspirators, or divulging my present purpose to any human being, I will — I think — just write it here, come what may ; and say with Pilate, " what I have written, I have written." Take it then. We do not despair of the enterprize, be- cause — WE CANNOT ; FOR IT NEVER HAD, AND NEVER CAN HAVE, ANY IN- 680 CKPTlON OR EXISTENCE 1 Presbyterians would have more to lose and less to gain, than any other sect probably by such adulteration ! Any man who wishes more information on the subject may call at my house at his leisure — any time after the 29th of February, 1833 : and in the mean time I would refer him to the constitdtion of the Presbyterian church; Confession of Faith, chap. 23, and Form of Government,"chap. 1, or, if this should not satisfy his deep patriotic suspicions, I refer him, for a full exposition, and a thorough eclaircissenient, and a most convincing de- monstration, of the whole matter, to^e infallible showings and guid- ings and leadings and dreaming^ especially — of the inward light ! since iV, as Fox says, " hath dominion over all and deceives nobody." 57. Rt. Rev. Chas. P. M'llvaine, D. D. in his Evidences of Chbis- TIANITY. 58. Dr. Campbell's tranMation ; the degree of the darkness, as total, is plainly the sense of the text. 59. See the learned reasoning of Jones on the Canon of the N. T. — a very valuable work ! 60. The work done, irrespective of the motive. 61. This was written previous to the schism, when Friend Hicks was living and prosperous. It is not at present — far from it, I am persuad- ed — wholly without application ! 62. To this there are some exceptions, (perhaps many to me un- known,) who, as such, had been more complete and mighty, if their doctrinal views of the nature and relations of the atonement had been thorough and discriminating. Among these I am happy to name our truly venerable and excellent late countryman, Lindley Mur- ray. In his "Compendium of religious faith and practice;" in his numerous and useful compilations ; in his private writings inserted in his " Memoirs ;" and in his constant experience and conversation : to say nothing of his long and most exemplary sufferings as an imprisoned invalid: he so honored the LORD JESUS CHRIST and his GLOBious ATONEMENT, that I feel singular freedom and pleasure, uniting with the popular voice of two hemispheres, in acknowledg- ing, as the peerless crown to the many accomplishments of a highly fini^ed character, that the title of christian belongs to him. Would to God that every Friend, and every baptized person, were equally en- lightened and sincere! While I really reverence and love his me- mory, and am one of thousands whom his publications have benefit- ed, and have much reason tenderly to esteem in the Lord several of his honored relatives in this city ; while I know that he inculcated too much sound truth, and elevated the standard of orthodoxy too near its proper 681 altitude, to be very acceptable in his doctrinal influence to Friends general- ly : I am compelled to record my regret that he did not proceed farther ; that he did not avow the paramount authority of the ecriptures as the' WORD OF God, with all the consequent obligations and duties of such " a good confession ;" and ray conviction that the reliquiae of his Qua- kerism constituted a real and even a great delect in his othervrise exalt- ed and very amiable character. Quakerism vyould be still wrong and false, if every one," of its nominal members were — in spite of it — as Bound and christian. His many redeeming excellencies, however, form a capital that may well sustain (as few others could) the brunt of the allegation in our impartial estimate. I could not do justice to my own sense of duty were I to say less : and great is the joy of my soul in hoping to meet all the pious dead in the eternal world, and in that palace of " light ineffable" where " the spirits of just men are made perfect," aa well as — through the blood of the Lamb — admitted and forever glorified together. The COMPENDIUM of Mr. Murray I take to be, every way, one of the most worthy documents I ever saw from 9, member of the society. Its simple classic excellence of diction, constitutes not at all its higliest claim — it is generally so clear and sound in its matter! Still, I object to it; (1) that itis so wary in not asserting the supremacy of the scrip- tures : and (2) that its other defects, resulting from that prime one, are such and in detail so many. If my own father, or any nearer relative, were the subject of animadversion here, I could not suppress or qualify this censure ! — or record it with scarcely more anguish of heart ! And as for the praise — it is wftoHy founded on the recognition of qualities de- rived from Christianity, as contradistinguished from Quakerism ; quali- ties that have rendered the compendium unacceptable and useless, where it was designed to be especially adapted and serviceable ; qualities that have commended their subject to the esteem of christians everywhere, not more than they have discommended him to many of his own de- nomination. 63. With the anniversary abominations of heathenism — sol et annus — was its known and base and proudly pompous original : and much the same could be said of myriads of other excellent and even holy words. Solemnes turn forte clapes et tristia dona Ante urbem in luco, he. Annua vota tamen solemnesque ordine pompas Exsequerer, strueremque suis altaria donis. — ViRO. 64. Pythagoras divided the doctrines of his dogmatism into two classes : the exoteric, which were publicly avouched and inculcated ; and the esoteric, which were entrusted to the initiated alone. I do not 86 682 mean, however, by this allusion to the sage of Crotona and the father of dogmatic philosophy, that Friends resemble him in all his errors, or that they practise a systematic legislation of one code of principles for the nation and another for the clan : but only that some of their sages see, and sometimes confess to each other, certain truths, of whose exoteric currency they would not be particvdarly ambitious. Any usage of theirs, which seems to me to be a hmb of their system and properly no limb or member of Christ, I think it just to bring into the animadversion of the community. Nulllus addictus jurare in verba magistri. — Hon. To no dogmatic master am I sworn ; To think and act, a freeman, was I born. There is one hidden feature of their system on which I might volu- minously enlarge— ^not so much the mystic, as the mythic or fabulous character. Their old men, as vi^ell as "old wives," have " fables" of the marvellous, as " a secondary rule" almost, a store of them. These they relate and interchange, with very placid satisfaction, in select cir- cles around the fire of a winter's evening ; while the younger, with " ductile minds " intent, listen, wonder, believe, and become edifled in their turn to — transmit the precious treasure to their heirs of a coming generation. These goodish stories are very entertainmg, romancing if not quixotic — only that it is so spiritual and so inspired and. so fresh in the experience of Friends, that " the truth " in comparison is plausibly and practically disgraced — Loses discounteuanc'd and like folly shows. In this way they illustrate, manifest, and enforce " what Friends be- live," more impressively than " truth and soberness " could ever affect them. I might almost compose a distinct volume of Quaker mythology, from notes and my own memory; recollecting a score at least of quite interesting stories, all luciferous and tributary to the interior light with its prodigious efficacy and feats. Their stories seem all true — to those who thinii it ' carnal reasoning ' to apply the known laws of evidence : and the inference is hence all ' in the light,' very sincere, and no very bad logic either, that — their system is tnie! They believe it; and so did their fathers before them, who knew when and where it happened and all about it : and their children believe it in their turn, and transmit the precious information to their children, and so on progressively ; while. 683 like old wine, it continually improves by time and travel. All this, and a thousand other things of the sort, result, I think, from the system- Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit euiic(o. — ^Virg. By motion increasing, it prospers and grows ; New vigor acquires and new speed as it goes ; Believed and rehearsed, till each trusts it and laioma : But tells it to Friends — since, why should they to foes ? 65. The italicising is all his. 66. Since writing the above, I have received from a respectable hand the following bill of exhibited abuse in England, which I am as willing as any man in the world to denounce and expose. Where the kingdom of Christ is secularized, subordinated to the mere ends of intriguing statesmen, and maSe a mighty wheel in the machinery of political oppression, I say with any others — it is Christianity no longer: no more of it ! Let its end come ! Religion can best flourish and protect the state, when left free and independent of all such perilous and polluting influence. If God will not uphold Christianity, let it fall ! Only spare it from the embrace in which it perishes ; from the communion that is its dishonor ; from the ignoble and rickety supports that prevent a safer basis and portend a dreadful fall ! It is one of the hand-bills that were circulated through the kingdom by thousands, during the late pendency of the spirit-stirring question of REFORM. I would Suggest a thirteenth reason — Because the church is not the state, and the state is not the church ; and since God hath not joined them together, it is lawful for man to put them asunder. What a horrid misnomer, to call a collection of worldly and greedy aspirants, the church ! as they often do, meaning ultimately themselves alone. I know there is " salt " in the church of England ; possibly even in some of its high places, where the King of heaven is duly honored as its proper and only legitimate head. TWELVE REASONS why Dissenters should not be compelled to pay church rates, tythes, or in any way to contribute toward the support of the Establishment. Becadse — 1. The cause of God and truth ought to be supported by the volunta- ry contributions of its adherents — and is disgraced when compidsory measures are adopted. 3. It is compelling Dissenters to support a system which they con- scientiously view as unscriptural. 8. Dissenters derive no commensurate advantage in return from the Church. 684 4. Di^enters bear all the expenses connected with their places qf worship without asliing or receiving any aid from the Church. 5. There is nothing more fair, equitable, and unobjectionable, than that every denomination of professing christians should meet its own expen- diture. 6. The Church liss resources in herself amply sufficient to defray all her pecuniary engagements. 7. It is taking from Dissenters an amount which they might much more profitably employ in the cause of christian philanthropy. 8. It is an infringement of religious liberty, and in direct violation, of the divine mandate, " As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." How would Churchmen approve a compulsory tax for the support of Dissenting places of worship 1 9. The remission of this claim by Churchmen, would efface one foul blot which now attaches to the Establishment. 10. Many Churchmen see the impolicy and injustice of thus taxing Dissenters, and are prepared to concede the point. 11. Dissenters now equal, if they do not exceed in number, Church- men. 12. On no principle of honor, justice, or hsnesty, can the exaction be defended, and therefore heform here must ensue. On a moderate calculation, the washpig of surplices costs this nation annually, upwards of £13,000! A considerable proportion of this amount is exacted from Dissenters. Might not the whole be much more beneficially appropri ited ? " There are probably in England, Scotland, and Ireland, not including the Roman Catholics, not less than 8,000 congregations of Dissenters ; which build their own places of worship ; which sustain their own minisr ters ; which support their own 'colleges, to the number of nearly 30 j which conduct the tuition of perhaps 7,000 Sunday Schools ; and which expend nearly £150,000 in support pf Foreign Missions." 67. But in other ways and in thousands of forms, can they be nobly useful and excellent auxiliaries to the ministry. They can sometimes speak well and effectually, as also eloquently, in private circles and to individuals, for their Master's honor; witness the lady mentioned page 16 of this volume. They can subserve most valuably the usefulness of others. For we need " helps," as well as " governments," in the church of God. Thus Priscilla, the beloved Persis, Junia and Phebe, Euodias and Syntyche, with other " honorable women not a few," helped the apostles usefully and acceptably ; as Paul says of one of them to the church : " Receive her in the Lord, as beconjeth sahats, and assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you ;^ she hath been a smc- 685 corer of many a,nd of myself aUo." An honorable lestimony-^which I could bear in favor of many, who have in different ways assisted me in the Lord ; and of one (now a member of my own church and the wife pf one of its honored eldership.) who, when I was « perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed," so kindly ^nd wisely, in the love of Christ, " ministered unto me of her substance," Luke, 8 : 3, and in other ways encouraged me in God, when I first knew, him, that my heart will never forget its obligations to Mrs. Sarah Sayrs—a.nd, if it were equally pertinent, I should have previ- ously named her excellent husband, Mr. Isaac Sayrs ; both remembered by mq.ny with similar sentiments and feelings. " The Lord grant unto" them and their large household, that they " may find mercy of the Lord in that day !" However little it may be in my power to compensate their generous and christian kindness, I rejoice to think that " my God shall supply ALL THEIR SEED, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." And to many other friends indeed, do I extend the hope £ind the invocation that God would crown them with grace and glory, in his own perfect kingdom. 68. On one occasion a dumb animal of the sex prophecied " with man's voice." Shall we argue here from a rare exception, to a gene- ral rule of prophetic investiture, and instate an order of such officers in the church 1 I know of no other instance in the scriptures, where in- spiration ever authorized their preaching : and have no idea that a solitary precedent of the sort ought to be pleaded in favor of their regu- lar ministration. Numb. 22 : 25. 1 69. Ventura erat ad limen, cum virgo, Poscere fata Tempus, ait : Deus, ecce, Deus ! Cui talia fanti Ante fores, subito non vultus, non colour unus, Non complae mansere comae : sed pectus anhelum, Et rabie fera corda tument ; majorque videri, Nee mortale sonans : afflata est numine quando Jam propiore Dei. — Virg. Their inspiration often shows some of the contorsions and gesticula- tions of the Cumaean sibyl — shivering, transported, tremulous, unnatural in voice, as if borne along by a tide of irresistible influence, in spite of themselves. It is heathenism ! How " gross " are their conceptions who see no sin in forging the signature of God ; declaring one's self inspired — when it is not so ! 70. See note 55. 71. I have taken these lines chiefly from the ' Universal passion,' by Dr. Young. Those referring to the nudity of females "for a sign," I have mainly supplied, (referring to note 55,) for the following reasons : 686 (1) Very few have heard or beUeve the facts of the case, as they are well authenticated. (2) I not only believe that they occurred, and that often, in the times of Cromwell and the second Charles; as well as on several occasions in New England, but that they are legitimate fruits of the system I put this torvous dilemma to Friends : Either this " sign " biisiness results from the system, and so may occur again ; or, the system is false ; for, its capital foxian inspiration authenticates it as true, solemnly sanctions it, and refers it absolutely to the agency of God, who " made " them do it. If the latter — the proposition in the title of this book is demonstrated : if the former, then let the public judge a system that inspires such ac- tions and may unexpectedly at any time turn droves of naked females into " your streets," as Fox says, " for a sign before your destruction Cometh !" I think indeed that the title of this book is fully proved by either alternative : for when did Christianity ever inspire " that piece of devilisml" If a Friend admits the facts, and condemns them too — ^he condemns Fox, and his inspiration, thus blowing up the system at once ! In fact a Friend must go the whole ; and in all consistency every other person must canonize — or cannonade the total mass. Quakerism is not Christianity : and let the man who can see no dif- ference, read the inspired mottos of this book, and refer tlie matter, if he chooses, to the unalterable decision of the judgment-seat of Christ, staking the hope of his own salvation on the forlorn expectancy that there it will not be exploded and anathematized forever ! " If we be- lieve not, yet he abideth faithful ; he cannot deny himself." -aJSwatbv •^evacusQai Oeov- THE END.