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Cox, Samuel H. 1793-1880.
Quakerism not Christianity
or

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aUAKERISM

NOT CHRISTIANITY:

OR,

REASONS FOR DENOUNCING

THE

DOCTRINE OF FRIENDS.

IN THREE PARTS.

BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D.

Potior of the Laight-streei Presbyterian Church i and for twenty year* «
Member of the Society of Friends.

Judge not according to the appearances but judge righteous judgment. John, 7 : E5.
Lo, they have rejecte.l the word of the Lord ; and what wisdom is in thera ? Jer. 8 : 9.
We have renounced the liiddeu things of dishonesty ; not walking in craftiness, nor handling

the word of God deceitfully; Imt by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselve* to

every maD'a conscience in the sight of God. 2 Cor. 4 : 2.

PRINTED BY D. FANSHAW.

SOLD BY JONATHAN LEAVITT,
182 Broadway, New-York:

AND CROCKER & BREWSTER, 47 WASHINGTON-ST.
BOSTON.

1833.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by Samuel Han-
son Cos, D. D., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern
District of New- York.

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 scoi'c 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.

gcj- Other typographical Inaccuracies will be perceived, which it seems im-
possible wholly to prevent ; especially as a new orthography, half introduced,
mystifies the operatives at the printing-office, ever and anon, between the Walk-
erimi and Webslerian style and authority.

CONTENTS.

PART FIRST.

Harshness, ....

151

Page.

Sincerity, . . . .

160

Address to certain ministers of

Sentiments of Dr. Miller, .

165

the gospel, . •

Priest-craft, ....

167

Their probable estimate of Qua-

Confidence, . . • •

175

kerism, ....

1 f\
w

Irreligious sages, . . .

178

Sentiments of Dr. Alexander,

J.1

Changing one's religion, .

183

Friends a society, not a church,

Union of the evangelical ministry,

184

The author*s conversionj ■

Sectarianism, . . . •

190

Reluctance to leave Friends^ •

Orthodoxy not illiberal.

195

Success — a criterion,

197

Dealing's'* at Philadelphia,

Forbearance and evidence.

198

Decision to profess Christianity,

A A

Quotation from Dr. Woods,

199

Dedication to the ministry,

Quotation from Dr. Beecher,

202

Disownment by FriendSj note 14,

ftO

Quakerism, a synopsis.

207

Style of this workj •

AQ
fio

Iniidels prefer Quakerism, .

216

Barclay, the greatest author of

Trinity, . . . . .

217

Friends, ....

War, ....

234

Logic, . . . . •

Washington's opinion, •

246

Friends averse to classical learn-

The pacification of the world,

255

ingj

Conclusion, . . . .

256

UncharitablenesSy . . ■

Schism in the body, .

PART SECOND.

Believing what we cannot under-

stand,

Mottos, . . . . .

261

Distinction between the mode

Principles, ....

263

and the fact,

Quotation from Dr. Fitch, • .

267

George Fox, note 17,

Positions of truth,

268

Mystery,

Title of this work, what it means.

277

1 Tim. 3 : 16,

Definition of Christianity , .

279

Which party are primitiveFriends, 94

281

Journal of George Fox, . ' .

101

fnwnrH licVit tVii* cTfinH pt*mr

282

His miracles, . ' . .

104

Incapable of definition, . .

284

Apostates, . . . .

108

Conscience all the thing at which

Rom. 9 : 1-3, note 23,

111

they blindly aim,

286

Motives of the author,

112

The Spirit,

291

Predicament of a censurer.

115

1 John, 4 : 1-3,

292

Sophisms of Friends, •

118

Confession of Friends,

295

The Apostles, . . . .

121

Scriptures superfluous,

298

1 Tim. 6 : 24, 25, . . .

127

Different modes of getting rid of

Inspired Interpretation,

131

them, . . . . ,

299

Heb. 2:9,

133

Inward-light patriotism,

305

1 Cor. 15 : 22, .

134

Rom. 8 : 14, .

309

The resurrection of the body,

135

Inspired actions,

311

Education of Friends,

142

They make God himself to be — a

Their excellences, . ,

147

rule of action, ,

313

All they truly know comes from Sealing of the canon, . 490

the Bible,

816

Good things in the theatre.

. 501

Inward light among the heathen

322

Conclusion,

. 503

Anecdote,

. 328

No salvation but that of Christ,

337

PART THIRD.

Practice of the apostles,

. 339

Their preaching,

346

Mottos, . . . .

. 505

Influences of the Spirit,

. 347

A sacrament.

. 508

Views of Friends,

362

Baptism, . . . .

. 510

Quakerism chance-begotten,

363

Apostolic practice,

. 515

The catholic views not those of

1 Pet. 3:21,

. 51S

Friends, . . .

366

1 Cor. 1 : 14-17,

. 519

Texts not in the Bible,

369

Lay baptism, . . .

. 521

" Winked at,"

370

Matth. 3 : 13-15,

. 522

Dr. VVaugh, anecdote,

372

Subjects and mode, .

. 527

Sin of perverting the gospel,

376

Eph. 4:5,

. 530

The scripture vainly quoted to

In the name of, .

. 535

support their views.

377

The Lord's supper, .

. 537

Barclay's great proof-texts ex-

Friends' view.

. 560

amined, . . . .

379

1 Cor. 11 : 17-34,

. 562

Gen. 6:3,

330

2 Cor. 5 : 18-21,

. 567

Antediluvians,

334

' Friends,' three &c. .

. 574

Facilities of tradition,

394

Cardinal's hat, .

. 579

Rom. 10 : 8, . . :

395

Beauties of nature, .

. 583

The word of God, .

393

Restraint, . . .

586

Justification, . . . .

404

Quakerism waning and to wane.

589

Barclay's view,

417

Col. 2 : 20-23, .

. 591

John, 1:9,

424

The Christian ministry,

. 599

Mistakes of inspiration,

432

Life-devotement,

603

Tit. 2:11,

433

How Barclay was converted

608

1 Cor. 12 : 7,

438

A call to the ministry.

611

Plenary inspiration of Fox,

440

Temporal support, . .

614

Peculiar testimonies, ;

445

Matth. 10 : 8, .

620

Isai. 28 : 16,

448

Example of Paul,

625

Isai. 30 : 21, the inward teacher,

449

Anecdote,

628

2 Pet. 1:19,

450

Very ancient Friends,

631

Fox in Nottingham steeple-house.

451

The first gratis preacher, .

633

Naked " for a sign ;" note 55,

454

Value of the ministry.

635

Friend Bevan, . . . .

454

Female preachers,

636

Catacombs of Paris, .

460

The rule, . .

638

Sentiments of the General Assem-

Their prohibition not partia

,lo.

bly of the Presbyterian church,

462

cal, or temporary.

642

What saith the scripture, .

466

Flattery of the sex, .

644

Quotation from Bishop M'll-

The proper sphere of fem

ale

vaine's Evidences,

468

usefulness, . .

646

Quotation from Josephus,

472

Saying of Dr. Mason,

648

Isai. 8 : 19-22, ....

477

The Bible commended to Chris-

Accountability, . . . .

480

tians,

651

Barclay's vitiation of 2 Tim, 3 :

Conclusion, . ,

653

14-17, . = . , .

487

Notes, ....

656

THIS VOLUWIE

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. GriflSn, 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 Ist Pres. Church, Elieabethtown, 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 I refer to the late

Rev. John Holt Rice, D. D. of Virginia.

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 Tern. Soc. Andover, Mass.

• Now (lately inaugurated) Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass.
t Now Pastor (lately installed) of the Murray-street Presbyterian church,
N. York.

PART FIRST.

INTRODUCTION MISCELLANEOUS.

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 scriptures, which

ARE ABLE TO HAKE THEE WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS

IN Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 3 : 15.

God — spake in time past unto the fathers by 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 of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth the word or God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe. 1 Thess. 2 : 13.

And he said unto them. Full vrell [very piously] ye reject the command-
ment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition ; making the word 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, leaching 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. ;

QUAKERISM NOT CHRISTIARTITT :

OR REASONS FOR

RBirouivciirG the DOCTnms of fxiiends.

— »— @©e— f) —

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
with your names. From no spirit of ostentation,
and with 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 which 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 whc contradict or degrade them ; as I am per-
suaded of your enlightened disapprobation, in com-
mon with all consistent christians, touching the

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 peculiar
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,

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

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 7iameth
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 possihly 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

when they are so mangled aa 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 chnrch, 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 of 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 thai is deceived trust in vanity;
for vanity shall be his recompense," 31. But very
certainly do they know, whose knowledge has cost

them no labor, intellectual or moral ; and very clear-
ly do they see, who discern intuitively all mysteries,
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, arid 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 eveiy instance, prosper or fail, in accord-
ance— not in contravention — to the laws of his own
unalterable constitution.

The rock must fall, when loosened from on high
Or — gravitation cease, when uou 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

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." Isaiah, 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

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 M^as
my jealousy of influence from all Anti-Quaker in-
structors, that I received the books of their wisdom
with 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 exceUent, 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
obhgations ; 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. I attribute my conversion to Christianity

very much instrumentalhj to her wisdom, benevolence,
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, in
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 willing 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,) i-ery 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.

He was an example of universal temperance ; ten-
derly humane and self-denying in his offices 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 inculcatioil ; 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

" 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
believed 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 seen. 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 eveiy thing else, as
my supreme good, being then occupied in the office

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 book ! 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. / zcill
study, 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

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 will 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
study 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 topic respected 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 applicable to those who have a controversy to
settle with God. So I applied them ; and thought, O

that mine could be settled in the way before it comes
to bar ! O that there could be a liberty of im-
parlance, or licentia loqiiendi, 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 of 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
Ulla 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 love.

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 ancient 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 his 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 laic-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

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 ont of my hand. My Father, who gave
them unto me, is greater than all ; and none is able
to plnck 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 I Not at all ! There is rational space for self-

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 with
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
ought to accompany this treatise, I do very diffi-
dently consent to the sketching of its outlines as
herewith presented, 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

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 V 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 7ny 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-

shipped, 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 for ever ; 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

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 o'wn. — Cowper.

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-

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 affec-
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 character is in the objects,
and not in the mind. Nearly the same sentiment
is more scientifically given by that great father of
sound reasoning. Lord Bacon : " Omnes percep-

tiones, tarn sensus quam mentis, sint ex analogia
hominis, non ex analogia universi ; atque intellectus
humanus instar speculi incequalis ad radios rerumj
qui suam naturam natures rerum immiscet, eanfique
distorquet et injicit.^^ A little obstinate rationality,
as Dr. Johnson calls it, kept me then and since
from the profound or the sublime of rehgious 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
affections, or zeal in religion, however genuine, re-
quires the balance-wheel of sound scriptural in-

structiou 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 hi3i.

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 expe.ri-
ence in order to usefulness ; supposing I should al-
ways " walk in the light, as he 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 addressing 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-

lence of Christianity, or of the general meaning of
the scriptures. Reverses however I did experience
— 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 niy early and subsequent re-
ligion, was derived from its connection historically
with the tenets of Friends. I read the Bible,
meditated, prayed, conversed, and agonized sponta-
neously for their salvation. Thousands of times, in
thought, did 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 with
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-
lutionof 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

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 oracular 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 often be
witnessed in the communications of the light within.
Whether Friend Hicks was inspired just then, and

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 another 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 approacJiing Millennial State —
was he inspired 1 He speaks, without stooping in-
deed, on the very 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 aiid grief. Our main topic was
the death of Christ. He asserted most boldly that
Christ made no atonement for our sins on the cross ;

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 scripture, 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 more disgusted 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,

like ingratitude : for I was received and treated
every where with the kindest hospitality, 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 they feel safe, and wish others to think
them so, on account of these other things. Now, lam
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 boorishness and inclemency
when it takes the place and becomes the imposing 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 tlys volume ! A maturer
observation has confirmed my opinion of the general
emptiness of their christian pretensions. Many of

them, especially in the city of Philadelphia, possess
the social qualities comparatively in polish and per-
fection. "Their families, 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 meUorated 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 presumptions of men, their
graceless excellencies appear only the 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.

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 their
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 such
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 unwilling 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
God, and the disciples of the same Lord, we need
not be afraid of each other. I wish you, if you
please, to commence business, as time is precious,
and I am prepared. I regard you as the heads of

the meeting to which I 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 whole 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 V 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 I
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

hast so * vilified ' one of our noblest preachers in
thy letter to the committee, shouldst remain as a
member of the meeting." I replied, " Am I not a
member? Did I transgress any law I or has any one
member a right thus to expel another without law,
trial, or ceremony 1" He, however, was inspired and
inexorable. I thought it useless to return and state
the matter to the meeting, though I felt that it was
usurpation and oppression. 1 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 has lately been convicted, by the society
themselves, of some real or alleged iniquity, for
which they have degraded and " disowned " him. I
know of other oracles that once were like the urim
and thummim of old, and whom, when I doubted
audibly to my relatives, it was next to impiety and
treason ! But now where are they X 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

convincing. At last said C. very abruptly, " Samuel,
dost thou believe the doctrine of predestination 1"
I regretted the question ; for sure J was that neither
did they understand the subject, nor could I satis-
factorily explain it to them. Still, as it was a plain
question of fact, I replied, " I do." " What !" he
rejoined, " that horrible doctrine ! I am astonished !
I w^ould 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, intelhgence and
worth, than I commonly found among them, in argu-
ment about religion. " Hast 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 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 it?" said he, " As I never can undei-stand
it, I always turn over the leaf."" I answered, " If
one cannot at all understand it, why does it seem to
chafe you so 1 If we may turn over the leaf of an
inspired book that was written on purpose to in-

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 all 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, and 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

despised Messiah ! " As the vessels of a 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,
and 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 of
God, to hearken unto you more than unto God,
judge ye. Jf any man come to me, and hate not his

father, mid 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 fatJier, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's
sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. No man having put his hand to
the plough, and looking back, is ft for the kingdom
of God. (Acts, 4 : 19. 5 : 29. Luke, 14 : 26.
9 : 62. Matt. 19 : 29. Mark, 10 : 29, 30.) lintend
to take stage to-morrow morning, before day, and
return to Newark, where I expect soon to be baptized
as a christian confessor, and ^>«r^a^e at the com-
munion-table with them that believe and know the
Iruthr 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 hath 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

God, elevated my soul above all considerations be-
sides them : and while I 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 after 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, 1817. " 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-

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 vv^as 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
names 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 prophecyings used 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,

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

acceptable words;" and if it be ultimately found
that " that which was written was upright, even
words of truth," its faultiness in minor respects will
little disturb me. Some, and perhaps not a few,
of the peculiarities of style and sentiment, how-
ever, refeuh from the subject itself, the relations of
the writer, the manner he prefers to adopt as best
suited to arrest the thoughts, and the very peculiar
singularities of the people called Quakers. For
them, indeed, the work is intended, principally, if
they will ; secondarily, if they choose ; and for
others alone, should they universally refuse. " And
he said unto 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, and 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 shalt 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
rebellious 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

have no authentic creeds or symbols of faith : 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. Prove 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 not
what Friends believe.'''' If you insist, " What then
do they believe V you will meet some reply of
ambiguity, evasion, or obscurity, which will convince
you only of their general ignorance of their own
tenets, and of 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 contradictions 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-

mons of Friends, but never one that deserved a com-
parison with the real respectability of Barclay. In
many things that he says passingly, he speaks the un-
doubted truth of God ; and in his Theses TheologiccB,
the fourteenth proposition itself, " concerning the
power of the civil magistrate, in matters purely re-
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 respect him ; and con-
sidering his Roman Catholic training, his Jesuitical
education on the continent, in connection with liis very
youth, when (in his 18th or 19th year) the imposing
pretensions of Quakerism first entranced his devout
imagination, I rather 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 whica 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 pubHc

character as a religious teacJier, and in this alone,
do I denounce him and his peers. The great fault
of Barclay, as a reasoner, is, in my opinion, 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
though 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 " owght to be the logic and
philosophy wherewith a true christian minister
should be furnished, and for which they need not
be beholden to Aristotle.'''' And I infer it from the
fact, that he never once mentions Bacon, or alludes
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 priiiciples 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

m certainly exalt the Bihle and explode Quakerism.
That knowledge is not innate ; that inward light is
folly ; that any man is liable to err ; that we must
make inferences from facts, which theory must fol-
low and not precede, in order to the possession of
knowledge ; that men come into this world without
ideas, ignorant as brutes, and derive all they know
by means of sensation and rejlection ; that we must
guard our premises, and make them sure, before we
arrive at conclusions ; and that one fact is worth a
thousand theories, and good against a million : these
are the main principles of true reasoning, and the
foundation of the Baconian 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 Aris-
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 follow-
ing reasons : — 1. It is impossible to have none. Men
deceive themselves when they think that 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 is — whether our philosophy of thought shall be
favorable or adverse to truth ; ichether it shall be
true or false ? — 2. Barclay himself uses much of

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, which he commends, and at the same time
contra-distinguishes from that of the schools, which
he totally denounces. But is he right in this \ Can any
man suppose that statural 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 avails himself
with considerable address throughout his volume.
Friends 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 more 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 ?
What relation has that light to evidence t 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 connection be-

twecn premise and conclusion ; the necessity of
evidence to thought, to obhgation, 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 hominem
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 inspired 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 not 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, or without opportunity to study ; and
therefore he may set himself to disparage what
he does not possess, and would— ^rom 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 1 Almost as
much as learning has been also indebted to it ! Look

at the map of the world. What but learning ever
translated the Bible into our mother tongue, or any
other tongue, since " Babel was confounded V What
a prodigious effect on all the interests of society has
the art of printing exerted ! Look at the Friends
themselves. The writings of Barclay, Penn, 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 true 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-
gard 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 a^ppears 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-

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 within. 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 \ Shall we burn our colleges \ Why
not our primary school-houses too "? 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 :

1. 75 Quakerism friendly to the cultivation and
diffusion of scientific knowledge 1 2. If not, is it con-
genial any more icith Christianity than with the real
interests of the nation or the worldl 3. When would
the whole world he 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,

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 of what they believe. With them abstraction
is distraction ; the value of pi'inciples 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 X 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.

may possibly intoxicate them with the notion of 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
bound 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 so-
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

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 1 compared with the inspired answer covl-
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 purer by a thorough investigation of
the doctrine of Christ. I treated him kindly, and
felt what I seemed. He however was offended,
as I suppose, because I could not follow his advice,
since I felt obligated 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 1 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 f This word,

that abounds in their use, occurs in the New-Testa-
ment only in one chapter and one connection;
(John, 10 ;) 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 1"
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

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 '? — 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 not 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?
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

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 dealings,"
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 humanum 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

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
wyanri is rendered love very often, and should have

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 I
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 I 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

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 being 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,
where prejudice shall 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 ONCE 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

"the image and superscription of God." Of what
kind of love becomes it the destruction, practically
to honor such of his commandments 1 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
of evangelical light, which requires and portends other
revolutions. It has broke the charm of infallibility ,
in which the semi-papacy of the seventeenth century

(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 more? 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 to the real light. " A living dog is
better than a dead lion." Any thing but stagnation,
" silent meetings," and a sleepy congregation —
telhng 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
then 1 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
I think the preaching of either party is the pure truth
of the gospel, or that either properly " preach Christ "

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 indis-
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 he 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 against 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, in 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

jrou 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 controversy 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,
while I witness that accursed leaven 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 cliristain brother. It is this : perti-
naciously REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PARA-
MOUNT AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, AS
OUR RULE OF 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 V How know they one grand

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

which 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 avowed, 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 beginning — 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 wame of orthodox, have gloried in them,
and recognised them as christian brethren, vastly
increasing the satisfactions of the inward light ! It is

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,

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-eminence, 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 hy
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 :"

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 the reality of their pretensions as individual
christians. An opposite course would, I am per-
suaded, be a real injury to themselves. Their error
debilitates all 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-

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 \ I know what to think. He
will not wait for the evidence ! he is afraid to look
at it ! and 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 " secondary" 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

article, touching the rule of scripture in religion ;
that they can never be rectified till they surrender,
with all their heart, that npcdTov i^evbog^^ 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 light,
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
the 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 X
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-

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 th6m.
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, you 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 he 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 palliative 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.

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 knovirs 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 ; had 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 1 How then
ought the difficulty to be resolved 1 How does it

affect our moral relations to the mysteries of the gos-
gel 1 How does it consist with the criminaUty of
error and the obhgations of faith l

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 UNDERSTAND. I extend it to religion
and every thing else ; but prefer the apophthegm
that faith and intelligence must he 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 No, I do not — nor do I beheve 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 sol I understand nothing",

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 1 go farther.
I find every thing in the universe, as related to my
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 1 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

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-
telhgible 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 persons
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 1 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

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, / 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
" the glorious gospel of the blessed God ;" while it

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 w^ill 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 1 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 vGod ; 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 commands
us to believe. 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

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 Ave say. Lord, how can a man
believe what he cannot understand \ 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 offered it
practicably, sincerely, universally : and ye would not !
Ye loved your own superstition and tradition, moj:e
than my word ; which you wrested, dishonored,
made void, and treated at best as " a secondary
rule :" Wherefore, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into
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 \ 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

" 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
dehcately timid of the word even occasionally told
to them.

It seems impossible for Friends to distinguish
wisely between the figurative 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

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-
vein 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 /^:^^^/^, and saving faith also
if we believe them icith the heart. But the mode of
them, and the mystery of them, have nothing to do
with faith any more than with intelligence. Mysti-
cism draws a veil of its own weaving over the open
face of revelation. What God reveals, as far as he
REVEALS it, may be understood ; and in that re-
spect it maybe 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'? I
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 wliolly adverse to
those ends.

But some of you will say ; After all, your distinc-
tion is of little consequence ! Why l 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 ebuUitions 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 coveretli his
sins shall not prosper : but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy." Prov. 28 : 13.
Friends, however, have some peculiar ways of

covering " sin ; and very few ways of confessing

It. In the " Journal" of their founder there are
repeated asseverations of an ahnost immaculate
irinocency but scarcely such a thing as one humi-
liating confession of sin in all the two octavos !
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— especially 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 enlightened heathenism ; to contradict our
own moral organization and consciousness ; to con-
found the day of judgment and thp 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

it, contradicting it, and sophisticating it, or opposing
it with resolute antipathy ; if their impenitence or
unbehef 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 sinf^ 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 criminal and
blame-worthy in the 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 1 What shall
THE END BE of them that obey not the gospel of
God 1" 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 arc all parts of the great mys-

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 1 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 — for
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
violate 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 authetitic 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 (7iot 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-

lies 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
OF THE PROPHETS, ACCORDING TO THE COMMAND-
MENT OF THE EVERLASTING GoD, MADE KNOWN TO
ALL NATIONS FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF 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 whole : 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-hardiness, of irreli-
gious men!

One observation more in respect to the schism.
5. It has been made with both parties a capital
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

Giammalici certant ; et adhuc sub judice lis est. — IIoR,

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, llarclay 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. But, 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 ; my 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

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 their attainments, even should they suc-
ceed in making them ? 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 : 10-12. I hope in God for better things
in store for some of them !

I will here state numerically some reasons why
the ecclesiastical visibihty 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

meiiibers, those who from the birth have been lull
and entire members without any confession or cove-
nanting of their own : while fcio 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 rcHgious 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, exjjressly 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 cither sex, among
them. (9) They do not believe in the resurrec-
tion OF THE body; and they "overthrow the faith
of" many in this prime article of the creed of chris-
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-

SHIP of God, according to his word ; the diffusioi^
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 godliness, in hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the
world began, but hath in due times manifested hi»
word THROUGH PREACHING, which 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 refined will-worship and schismatical folly. See
synopsis infra, Art. 21 and note. (12) They have

DISTINCTIVE MARKS ONLY AS HERETICS AND MYSTICS

AND SECTARIANS ; NONE of a christian church. (13)
They excommunicate and denounce all visible

CHRISTIAN churches, RECIPROCATING NO RECOGNI-
TION WITH THEM, and preferring their own way
with jure divino et exclusivo claims to be themselves
the only authorized religionists and genuine 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 obstacles
that retard its advent. (16) I know not what body
OF perverted religionists we may not recog-
nise, if we may them ; nor on what principle

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 other 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 ' absohitely, as though Hicksites were
not ; allowing no partial or j^t^fty influences to affect
us. 2. To ascertain what they believe and profess,
the whole of it, and the necessary implications of
their system. 3. To compare the result with the
revealed criterion, fully, impartially, clearly. 4. To
decide, first, for eternity — and then, for time ! But
many a sentence will proceed, no doubt, from many
a person that is no judge.

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 wliich 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 toicard 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
ITiM — 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 ; CC/^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 an " 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 to me,
" 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 calci-
bus for ought I know, in the inspiration of George,
have sustained a very useful and honorable place
among " the professors of the healing art ;" with-
out possessing one iota of such extraordinary " open-
ings" or any science sublimated 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, and 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 the 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 some clas-
sifications known to your science. But if he was
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 Clauson 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, because they were out
of the Word of wisdom, by which they were made."
Of the j)riests 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 the lawyers, ruled the world out of the wisdom,
out of the faith, and out of the equity and law of
God ; 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 univcrsis, 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 ;
tlie lame made whole, I. 214 ; the diseased restored,
II. 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, 11.
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 hved. 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 Shakerism 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 of 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

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, mysticising, 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
ego."" Such an instance ought to convince man-
kind, without sacrificing another of the species in the
needless experiment, of the infinite importance
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 effectually 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] where thy strength of judg-
ment, thy sane integrity, thy virtue, thy wisdom l
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 flame 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 suck
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 religion is right and not wrong, is true and not
false, is wise and not fooHsh. 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 Quakerism 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 pro-
portion as they are strenuous and because they are
strenuous. Paul apostatized once for 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 X 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 I The inference is that all the talk, in which
many seem to glory, about apostacy, 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 sirenuousness is wrong. There are reasons
why such apostates should be strenuous.

(1) They are better acquainted with the evils of
the system than others. Their knowledge is expe-
rimental as well as theoretical. Their impressions
are comparatively 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
one of them. My knowledge of Quakerism could
never have been what it is, had I not 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 them as wrong,
they say truth : for I was ignorant of Christianity.
Not so, if they mean that I had never heard hun-
dreds of their 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 J 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 unbeheving relatives, or friends and
intimates, whom 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 continual
sorrow in his heart" on their account. It is rea-
sonable and natural that 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 \ Do they not owe it to
the Author of their own illumination in the truth, to
try to bring others to its blessings \ and especially
them with whom themselves were once associated \
Thus I have ever felt it my duty, since the com-
mencement of my ^' faith in Christ Jesus " and
knowledge of " the grace of God in truth," to try
to do something for Friends ; because, while 1
knew their sublime self-complacency in religion, I
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 my own powers to perform the difficult ser-
vice ; but without diffidence, real or professed, in
regard to the questions. What is truth ? Is Quaker-
ism Christianity ? Did George Fox preach the same
doctrine with Christ and the apostles ? 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-
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 lead 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 motives of the writer ? Is it not plain
that this is rather his concern than theirs? 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

iheirs 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
I 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 i still, I will venture here, to the best of my
knowledge, frankly and fully to state them : / am
actuated hy a sense of duty to the cause of truth and
its Author ; of duty to the souls of men, and es-
pecially to the iinmortal interests of the people, one

114

of whom 1 was bom 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 that is 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 or a feult-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 his 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 1 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-
ahze 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 with 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, and 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 for 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
specify 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 to abuse in 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 according to 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 sufficient, 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 obligations ; 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 passed 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 refer 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- .
ties. 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

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 formahsts
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, the

APOSTLES, AS SUCH, HAD NO SUCCESSORS ; 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 the 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 tliat 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 up venomous
serpents and fondle them with impunity ; why not
drink poison or other deadly thing without preju-
dice to heaUhl Their way of rejoinder we know,
having often Ustened 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 w^ant-
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 he established. His hand is not shortened, nor
his ear heavy: he can both hear and save. But
ivhere 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 the
position of its local obstinacy. No faith to be
found ! And what is to become of us all ] 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 parent 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 \ The Spirit of
God denounces those busy teachers, w-ho need them-
selves to be taught ; " understanding neither what
they sav, 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 THE3I 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 were
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 himself
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 \
and in thy name have cast out devils l 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, though
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 ■? 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 from 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 say 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) from 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 7i^ohyf?^og 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

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 J 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 know this for yourselves. Can you
say in truth and from your own assured expe-
rience, * My sins are open beforehand, going
before to judgment V 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 ?
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 commit-
ting the unpardonable sin, by thus exposing them.
My motive is with the Lord. As to the 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

130

vaporing cheat ! O dark and dreary meteor of light?
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 / 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 — whatever 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 +iimself, (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 prejudicing their perceptions ; and (2) their ne-
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 m 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
iohahesV^ And thus the whole meeting are con-
vinced ; all bowed under the influence ; all gathered
into the clear light 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 omnes.^^ It occurs in the
formal statement of the Jifth 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 alivey 1 Cor. 15 : 22.

These specimens I have purposely selected, as
being suited to my object, without 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, as 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 iirtep navtbi 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 will declare thy name
unto my brethren, in the midst of the church 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 it?

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 inuch 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 be 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" m
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 Christ'' s 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 spirituah-
zes the ideas of dying 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. Any man of sober sense may make
an inference by the way, in respect to the validity of
his claims to inspiration ! 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 I — 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 of 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 a Friend who believes it is a rarer phe-

138

nomenon 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 mere bearer
would 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, I
longed to say unto them, " ye do err, not knowing
the scriptures, nor the power of God ! why should
it be thought a tiling incredible with you that God
should raise the dead \ 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 Thou fool,
that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.
Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God 1"
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 basis into nothing f
I would just as soon turn atheist outright or — what
is the same thing — sadducee entire, 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 avaataaig. 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
immediately at death. So 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, hut who " sleep in
Jesus," 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 rules their darkness.

They do indeed use the word, passingly, in re-
ference to Christ, and even claim to believe 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 " Apology" to forget to mention
it"? Was it less important than the "plain lan-
guage," &c 1 or did inspiration lose its self-posses-
sion in the authorship of that lucid volume 1 I be-
lieve verily that I am uttering the truth, when I say,
they are either utterly ignorant or utterly infidel on
the point. And very cardinal is this, not only abso-
lutely, but as a matter 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 at SlW peculiar 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 1 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 ve^-y rarely even thus) that Christ
rose from the dead — and not that the 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 respectability. 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 1
The men who have been 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 He
says that in his day they only gratified 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 OF THEIR SECT. They subdue the
infant mind and awe the infant conscience, with the
direct rays of the inward hght. 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 what 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 the 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 must just bear it all for
righteousness^ sake ; not be afraid of the cross, but

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 religious
tyrannizing over the blighted attributes of mind !
It is a system exactly calculated 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 gives 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 sufl^er il, a sordid mind.
Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit
To be the tenant of man's noble form . — Cowfer.

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 ; and 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 homogcneous-
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
make 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 them in vain : they feel it not, they
know it not : and there they are, stagnant and im-
movable. This is a portentous character 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 me, my feelings are unuttera-
ble : — I have never spoken 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 " or 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. I did 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 terrible ! 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 all 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
feel 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
before he is live years of age ! the stamp of charac-
ter is impressed on a yielding surface so deeply, and
so seemingly by the hand of God himself, that its
print is indelible ! This I call the cement and the
secret of their system. In addition to this all their
children are born, not spiritually 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 becomes of mature
age. But when 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
convictions ! They were made such without cate-
chism, intelligence, or evidence. In some solemn

146

flashes of the light, they felt its reality and they
know (no religionists speak more confidently) that
it is true. If ever they refomi, 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 ! Hence a Friend is always established
and unalterable ; and this without examination,
without knowledge, and (I fear) without prayer!
Hence he never changes, but plods onward and dies
as he lives — a Friend ! In this Friends often, very
often, glory. If a man is once 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 ! But is
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 !
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, Jews, Romanists^
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 makes
an infidel, reasoning could much more convert him.

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 offices 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 with a fearful
amount of degenerate exceptions not equally recog-
nised hy ordinary observers. But what is all this
to an immortal, who must obey the gospel of Jesus

148

Christ 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 Christ'?
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 grant 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 trim.
Was better than royal robes to him,

149

Who looked on the inward part;
Foregoing the honors and wealth of earth ;
And emptied his breast of the praise of birth,
To seek the treasures of matchless worth

Reserved for the pure in heart. — Extracted.

In effect, the world is a great 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 few, 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, in which, hut 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 I 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. T, 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 crucijied/^ 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 without 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 every
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 \ 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 your friendship, your banqueting
and merriment, but mock the melancholy

Of liiin whose thought can stretch beyond an hour.

161

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 " wji-hout 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 t and compas-
sionate the softness that can mourn for such a
visionary absence ! " And they say unto her, Wo-
man, why weepest thou'? 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 immortality humbled in despair,
and abhorring her sins while crushed beneath the
burden ! It is penitence without pardon, religion
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
world."

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 I either deny or discsteem 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 the earth. I expect to be scarcely
credited by them, when I " protest unto them,"
that 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 myself 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 \ Solely the conviction that it is wrong !
Why did Paul oppose Judaism or Luther popery ?
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 Friends, 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
Jiving and so dying they will perish for ever; 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 imbecihty 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-

154

treme sensitiveness of the Quakers to the matter of
human approbation. I wisli 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 hardly 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 never (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 icholly to abjure the, use of carnal
weapons in its sliipport. The war must be con-
tinned, 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 estabhsh-
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 of 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 ; M'hen 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 with this, are taught and held by the society.

157

the known holders and teachers uncensured by their
authorities, I am reduced to the fair necessity of con-
tradicting the New Testament, or discrediting the
piety of the Quakers, or defiling 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 applica-
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 the only alternative of perdition 1 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 Lord^
" For we are not as many, who corrupt (dilute,
as wine is artfully reduced by dishonest mixtures)
THE WORD OF 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 troth, 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 1 say let
them feel it !

I have called their preaching, especially that of
the feminine department, tuneful ; for such it emi-
nently i^ : 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 preaching, and their praying — which sel-
dom occurs, almost all of it. Their inspiration moves
with difficulty when not on a canter. This ijispired
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 bot]i 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-
less, because they are sincere. 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 ; dress 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 \ Will such an one
go to heaven at death 1 " 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 \ Who has a better chance ? 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 lostV
Where is faith in Christ 1 Where repentance, humi-
liation, and the evidence of a change of heart?
Where self-knowledge, religious experience, or spi-
ritual joy 1 Where the Mediator, the covenant of
grace, the succor of the promises ? What distinc-
tive feature of christian piety does such a character
manifest \ 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 V Where is their professed faith in the
doctrine of regeneration 1 or are Friends all regen-

162

erated of course, because full members that have
retained their birth-right to — delusion 1 Suppose,
by possibility, in any given case, the individual
was at heart a true and spiritual v^^orshipper ; and
is saved, as Job says he escaped with the skin of
his teeth ;" still, the objections to this facile favor,
presumptuous charity, and uniform construction of
safety, are two-fold ; Jirst, 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 the dead.^

Still, they affect not 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 sinful dislike to it ;
that ignorance of duty is sin, where we have the
means of knowledge ; that ail 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 conversion 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 do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth, which things he also did in
Jerusalem," as when preaching among the nations
" the unsearchable riches 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 there is a perfection in the moral
government 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 ijipossible 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. Rom. 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 \ Hence the system
cheats the souls of men — cheats them of knowledge,
of sound doctrine, of mental liberty, of evidence,
of instruction, of Christianity; 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

as 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, and
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 God, 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-
street Discourses, he inquires, " Does error
spring from deficiency of evidence 1. Is there not, in
thp arguments by which 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 1
They never have been, they never can be, under-
mined or shaken. And as it regards the general
features of the system which the Bible has incul-
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 I 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 ! Fricuds are not
alone in the magnanimity, that likes truth onli/

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 feehngs ! 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 liberty, 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 — contrasting 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 ; imprison 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 suffocated 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 sanctimo-
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 female 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 diffidence itself, is taught to deny itself, and
brazen the looks of promiscuous thousands, sono-
rous and 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

into the authority of God alone. According to this
definition, it may be observed; 1. That priest-
craft IS AS OLD AS sm ; 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 Druids, as
Caesar's Commentaries 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 nature and im-
pious usurpations. I observe 2. That Christianity
IS THE ONLY CURE for priest-craft in the
WORLD. Man is " a religious animal," as philoso-

170

phers tell us. It is true. He has a conscience;
is a mass of wants and fears ; is weak and knows
it, even against his vanity 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 oimis neither ; as mutual censure,
and mutual crimination, and mutual ambition of
praise, every where demonstrate : 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! Yet, juSt ijl

proportion as you indulge his preference, you will
morally imbrute and degrade him ; you will make
him servile, superstitious, sanguinary ; you will in-
dulge priest-craft of some sort, and facilitate the
irruption of every sort and every degree of that
ruinous and soul-murdering leaven ! What shall we
do ? What is the inference 1 Where the alterna-
tive \ It is plain, as the vision of angels to the
shepherds of Bethlehem ; sweet, as the music of
their song ; efficacious, as the salvation of their
Prince :. Give him Christianity ; pure, lucid,,

full; AND MAN WILL BE NEITHER SLAVE, NOR SIM-
PLETON, NOR COMPARATIVELY SINNER. Christianity
is the grand cathohcon ; the only one under heaven
that deserves the name ; the only one that abhors
all quackery, all false profession, all forged certifi-
cates, all money-making imposture, all abuse ; the
only catliolicon 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, ft 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 other way, are its eternal re-
storative excellences divinely realized to a human
being. Where then or when was there ever a proper
instance of failure l 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 exposiug 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 slain ! 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 enemies ; "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-CRAFT. 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 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 1 Is Quakerism Christianity 1 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 the 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 diffusion 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 make manifest,
IS LIGHT. Wherefore 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 1
We must judge Quakerism by its fruits. I answer,
certainly, by its fruits ; but what is to he the crite-
rion % The whim of human softness, or the caprice
of the million, or the philosophy of infidels, or the
partiality of worldlings, or " the friendship of the
world which is enmity against God V or, his holy
word alone ^ 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, deceptive, fallacious,
and ordinarily any thing but genuine Christianity. I
sincerely believe that — Hickism 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 be
branded and condemned. How specious is the
practising of " them that glory in appearance, and
not in heart !" How imposing is their glorying ;
how superficial ; how irradiate with the glare that
betokens " an angel of 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-

115

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, fiducially, 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 I
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 1 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 I in any
thing of my own, as such; any thing to which I am
sufficient as of myself; any thing that is to hap-
pen as the mere result of what J can do 1. Or is it
confidence in God? I trust in God aloixe— in his
truth and his cause : in his purposes and prophecies
and providences and promises — that quadruple al-
liance of faith, that everlasting and harmonious
chain of strength omnipotent, in which 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 wicked 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 God ! 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 means, 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 lieareth,
speaketh constantly ;" i. c. he speaks with decision
and uniform steadfastness, because he listens and
learns of God. I will here request the serious reader
0?' To keep his Bible at hand, and peruse carefully
THE PASSAGE AND ITS CONNECTION, in everifcasc 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," which 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
liad no agency in the matter, for what the scrip-
tures teach ! He must then settle the controversy
with God — till wiiich 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 1 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

'■1.

178

RELIGIOUSLY, aiid iiot IVoiii aiiy 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 I Here is

179

die 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 1 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 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 wise 1
Where is the scribe 1 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 ; onc 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 ! As for the

182

' improvement' of Friends, to what does it all
amount religiously, if they are 7iot 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 abandonment 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 hfe,
and give a new dehght 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 ! 1
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 religion ; 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

tjment to which 1 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 he equally right, or safe, or
worthy 1 or, if not, whether such views will not be
overruled confoundingly in the day of judgment '!
2. Whether truth can he other than a unit, or pos-
sibly consist with contraries \ 3. Whether such a
sentiment obeys any precept of the decalogue \ or,
if it can possibly ohey the fifth by violating the
FIRST, second, third, and fourth 1 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 dY* instinc-
tive estimate \ 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 difficulties which it was framed to suit \ 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
cidventure a word of animadversion on a different
and yet a related subject ; if your kindness will
suffer it, from one so consciously your junior and
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 you all, and those
hundreds of kindred spirit whom yon properly 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
defaiiiation. 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 ; and they make common cause
against you.

Fas est ct ab hoste doceri.

'Tis wise and oft subserves the noblest ends

To learn of foes, that teacli us more than friends ;

Tlie act may profit, while its aim offends.

Is there no demonstration here of substantial
unity and general identity of sentiment I How use-
ful is christian union ! In what then do you possibly
differ ? and in what may you agree to differ ? 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 felicities of inculcation and defence.

180

This I solemnly and cordially believe. How great
and how many arc 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 ! In the great facts and
principles of a common system, you are certainly
united. What insipidity and stagnation and supine-
ness, might we not expect 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 and honor you all. So do thou-
sands of better judges. What I now write is
rather for others than yourselves. I believe you
hold the truth in common ; the truth of the Refor-
mation ; the truth of Christianity. I believe you all
hoM 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 Sabellius, Arius, Pelagius, Arm,inius, Soeinus^

187

and Fox — and from the more abstract errors of
antinomianism, stoicism, fatalism, fanaticism, radi-
calism, ultraism, 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 with 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 differ 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 and dimi-
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 tl;e 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 sense of personal responsibility to a common

188

and a reigning and a witnessing Lord ; more of an
unwillingness to misunderstand, suspect, inculpate,
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 reputation" for our sakes; 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 well 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 pcrishingly
needs ! Some of these results I could venture to
predict : such probably as these ; wc 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 ; that the churches would
more and more love their ministers ; that the wicked
would be confounded, and refuted by their 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 he written of its earlier and
its less honorable years.

Allow me to advert to some evils that especially
claim correction. 1. Sectarianism ; di\ove 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 terms 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 of 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 iioiior t!ie denomination to wliicli 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 \ 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 I 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
Jiving vigor of monstrous youth or more horrible
maturity. It dethrones the King of Zion, just iu
proportion as self is exahed to the supreme episco-
pate. If there is any sin denounced 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 opposeth 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 elements
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 Avhich 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 i
which 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 heaven ;" and subhmely 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

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 lowliness
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 heavenly
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 make 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 formef,
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 indifference 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 mem 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 l 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 here, with something possibly of wis-
dom, in show or in reality, 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 l or that successs in mischief
is all I or that success in " winning souls " to
Christ, and " turning many to righteousness,"
proves nothing"! 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
gospeU " 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 l They are not " the grapes of Sodom ;"
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 1 with the
giver of the increase 1 How then are his allies to
be known! By imperious indolence ? 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 1 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 reason, as sometimes exalted into a foil
of their glorious orthodoxy while they thus pervert
the argument, and 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 " 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 tlie 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 I 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 welco3IE,

EVERY 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 OF EXPLAINING ANI>
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

200

older divines seem to me 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 Avhatever
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 generically
and with good proof of soundness, the same evan-
gelical system, there ought to be — teste christo
■ — increasing union ; and as the means 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 wise 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-

202

cies, as to show a more child-like obedience to the
divine exhortation; "beseeching ns 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
myself 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 extensive observation, and a careful at-
tention to the elementary principles of the various
differences which have agitated the church, 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 Bible 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 ia every good
work. I would not be understood to say, that I
think the points of difference to be in every case of
little consequence ; or that, by beiivg made centres
of assault and defence, they may not be driven to
hurtful extremes ; nor yet that earnest discussion,
conducted with christian courtesy, is to be depreca-
ted. Without something of this kind the public

203

intellect might fall asleep, and truth be transmitted
by tradition through the memory ; and an unthink-
ing theology, cold as winter and powerless as the
grave, might extend a ' dead orthodoxy ' over the
land — a sure precursor, as in Germany, of a coming
age of heresy and infidelity."

Most heartily do I appropriate the sentiments of
the father ; and could add, were that decorous or
required, my junior experience in attestation of their
wisdom and their excellence. 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 rehgion 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
consummation for the sake of those wanderers from
" truth and soberness," in reference to whom these
pages appear. We need light in our atmosphere,
so pure and abundant, that heresy and extravagance

204

will die in it instinctively ; that infidelity will repent
and trust the name of Jesus exultingly — or, retreat
delirious to some far distant wilderness of night ;
and that sophistry and sorcery will be 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 the 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" mot^t affluently endow
you with his precious gifts ! 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 of 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 " another 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 ] I hsLViifelt 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 perfectionate our com-
mon creed, comparatively at leisure, and compara-
tively with a good 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 or document of their views ; for these are
thought to improve considerably as years and
months proceed. Aie you not willing that friend-
ism should grow better? 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 — as 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 compound of hurtful error. Hence,
2. Its character is 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 sacred writings
of Fox, Barclay, Penn, and others. 3. We are,
therefore, not to expect any revised editions, or mo-
dern emendations, or transformed improvements,
of that old and well established identity. Let those

206

paragons of light (I mean the orthodox) that are
swung from their ancient moorings, not deceive
themselves. If they improve — I am glad of it. In-
cumbite remis, pueri — bend to your oars, hoys, 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 now to
be repeated : only let not these changes, as they
proceed, be construed as if Quakerism was chang-
ing ! The idea of mutation is ruinous to its life.
In that respect it is like the permanent decrees of
the council of Trent. It professes to be based in-
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, exclusive, and
vain.

If any one object, that this is discouraging to
those that would reform, I reply ; no such thing !
Would they reform truly, or to salvation, who wish
to do it by stealth ! who desire to be smuggled
noiselessly into the kingdom, that prefers to " suffer
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
says— I knew it before ! A man who is unwilling to

207

" come out from among thera and 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 of truthless reformation, of which the ungodly
world is continually furnishing the apt and the
miserable examples.

I. In doctrine, it is at once the policy and the
character of the system, to be often vague and ne-
gative, in substance if not in form; more opposing
the things of others' faith, than magnifying aggres-
sively the positives of its own.

II. The CARDINAL 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," «fec. This
is said to be a certain divine influence, apart from
the substance and the faculties of the mind, resident
in every human being, in all ages and nations of
mankind, as " universal as the seed of sin."

III. 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,
salvation is attained infallibly and in the best man-
ner. "And indeed this is the surest way to become
a christian y

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 a consequence, the scriptures are only

208

" a secondary rule," 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.

VII. The scriptures are not " 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 building 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 objective manifestations 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 liave a common and compe-

209

tent origin ; they " neither 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 and 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 his 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 evert/
many

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 seed and light to take place (in which
light, communion with the Father and Sou 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

210

whom the Remonstrants of Holland have becfii
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. Deut. 30 : 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 qualified sense, that "admits of a
growth ;" connected with the possibility of sinning^
where the mind doth not most diligently and watch-
fully attend nnto the Lord."

XVIII. There is no such thing ordinarily as the
conservation of saints, or their infallible perseve-
rance 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 ;"^ in its exercises and services, no salary is
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 tradition."

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 ordinary signs of reve-
rence and respect ; " such as the taking off 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, icicked, 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 iDorship at other times."

This is a very evil feature, T think, of their ortho-
dox system. Those who know Friends, in this coun-
try at least, may judge of the principle by 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 severith 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— /or ma7i .' 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 of judgments 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 ^ WITHOUT THE
SABBATH, IS WITHOUT CHRISTIANI-

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
know only enough for implicit confidence, in what
their inspired leaders have, with care, concert, and
some perplexity, prepared ; as their "yearly epis-
tles," and other public 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 Avith
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 1
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 buried in their cemetery ! the dis-
tinguished praise of the sage of Lanark and his fe-
male coadjutors, lias 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! Seed:?' 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, 1
would offer some remarks on two topics in connexion
with the synopsis ; which, quoting from Barclay
alone, I have endeavored so to display as hopefully
to stand proof against even the suspicion of inten-
tional wrong.

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,' I
also would " show mine opinion."

218

1 . Penn utterly mis-states what he vihfies ; 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 ahsurdmn, with scintillating fire-
works and other " sparks " that his light " has
kindled," against t^ie absurdities that he makes him -
self ; 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 him, 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, is
Gur creed ; as if what is " distinct " in some re-
spects, must necessarily be " separate " in all or in
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 enUghtened 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
SabeHian errors, and canonize his revilings against

219

the truth ! who vindicate equally him, 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 scriptures:" 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 preaching 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 the 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.
Why \ Other professors are disentangled and re-
lieved by their use. Do they believe something very
different from the common faith, after all, ' ortho-

221

dox ' as they are 1 (3) But they say the terms are
"unscriptural." Which one? that of trinity but
this means only threeness or the quahty of being
three in some sense ! Do they believe 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 \ and yet do they be-
lieve in the sacred Three X Three — what \ 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 noun ] 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 shechinaii that
abides there, we might well adopt the facetiousness
of Penu, 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-
sonahty of the three that constitute it ! or does he
deny this only of the third, and not of the second,
or the first ^ Wiiat 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 ! To the Father \ what !
and deny it to the Son % To the Son — and have
two Gods, according to Fenn \ To the Father and
the Son, and not to the Spirit 1 or, to all three —
and have three Gods, according to the same in-
spired authority'? or, to some one or two of the
three, exclusively \ 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 the 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 X or, is it less than
atheism to resolve the divinity into an impersonal
existence ; tlie 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 believe " 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— ^chat ? 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 — debellarc superhos^^ — 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 hght" found, in

224

those scriptures \ Were it well in me to object to
it, merely on that ground \ or to silent meetings,
convincement, outicard 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 silly. 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 turns 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 as feel 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
beheve.

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 I Just here they

225

must have — nothing but scripture language ! Just
here " inward Hght " 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, Vv^e 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"? did
the Son accept the atonement \ did the Spirit pro-
nounce our absolution for his sake 1 Is it not in
certain aspects proi^er to one to perform what it is
not proper to the others to perform I Must we then
distinguish or confound I And can we be correct
while denuding the Godhead of all personality 1 or
restricting it to any one, and denying it of course to
two others of " the sacred three !" We use these
' unscriptnral ' terms, for reasons so valid and so

226

worthy, that we see no reason to intermit their
use; but more and more to retain it. They are fun-
damental in their archetypes ; and indispensable in
the symbols of " a good confession." But fom-th,
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 more 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 surges 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 (7tapax?^y!rog) 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 exeivog and the masculine 6v, 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 the 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 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, fifth, 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 thoology 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 real
DISHONESTY ; and wilhngly 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 lovetli or
maketh a lie " — as Quakerism is ! I have little or
no hope of their valid improvement until their
foundations of falsehood are exploded ; and so con-
vinced is my whole soul of this, that I avow 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 human 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 sense 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 I 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 the primary rule of faith and practice —
that it is the 05^ only medium ,-£3 through which
we can truly and livingly attain to the tt?' know-
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 solemn duty of vocal
prayer requires a special impulse. Whenever
the gospel is really preached, it is preached bap-
tizingly =,£3) 01?' 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 improted
specimens of Quakerism ; in which however, as the
last sentence shows, they identify themselves with
the whole foxian mass of by-gone inspiration :
evincing, what is morally necessary, that any con-
sistent Friend must go the ichole, 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 " 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 icithin, is the great leveller and Icavener
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, aad 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 7iot his word, and tell the world, as one of
its 'orthodox' statements on "the continent of
America," that the 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-
np watch, tending mechanically to start all the

233

vvlieels, "ready to expand and take the govern-
ment," and make all the subaltern machinery
hum again ; if one would just " retire inwardly "
and clear the way for it, and unfix the balance-
wheel of a sound mind. It is ignorant and void
of spirituality : — as spiritual as impulse, and sensir
hlc 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 power, 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 any false system of religion, it com-
mences its ingenious toils of devout sophistry and
specious lying to sustain it. Hence he that either
" loveth " or " maketli a lie," turns to it in confor-
mity, and is thereafter 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 or description cursed of God
and execrable to saints. I do not say that the ad-
vocates of Quakerism know that they are lying :
but convinced I am in the sight of 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-

234

neficence. In this way the mind feels, whatever it
thinks, as if it was prosperously ' working its pas-
sage ' to heaven : hence, the greatest enemy it
meets, is one that incorruptly liolds the truth and
manifests it. Hence the only way to make an
opposing demonstration of any value, is to with-
stand it courageously and with aggressive onset.
Half-way measures will only nourish the hydra till
more 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 shut, 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 of Friends in the
following formal proposition, on which he enlarges ;
" That it is not lawful 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 against apostolic
example. They appear to me, many of them, to
place their views of pacification, — ^just where Paul

235

puts "Jesus Christ and him crucified;" at the
centre of the system. The most important pacifi-
cation in the workl is that with God through the
glorious atonement ! Thus, often have I conversed
with a Friend about the way of salvation — when,
instead of any fixity of thought to the point, he
would go off 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 V Barclay in-
deed seems 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 devil, Christ with anti-
christ, light with darkness, and good with evil.
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 — Is war, or the taking of life in certain
cases, or all sorts of resistance of evil, positively
unlawful \ and 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 l 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"? if
a bandit, why not a banditti 1 and if a foraging
party of freebooters, why not an iniquitous or an
invading nation Friends say, ' Apprehend them,
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 ice
may not use the sword, or any hostile force, or
" resist evil in any case :" while they 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 nullification.
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
pruning hooks ;" so that the nations, becoming
quite friendly, are to " learn war no more !" So
we go, swimmingly along, down the stream of
prosperity, to halcyon moorings and a certain port I
We are all to become Friends, it seems.

237

3. Friends often speak of the present dispensa-
tion, as if the priiiciples 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 appear as respectable as Friends. (2)
That murder is properly distinct, and separate too,
from taking life ; so that it exists, in the immense
MAJORITY OF CASES, whorc 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 in possession; for God hath given us the
responsible usufruct or quasi ^° allodium, in the
magna 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, but spare the living brute ! — Cowper.

Brutes can feel. They suffer and enjoy ; and are
proper objects of benevolence, human and divine.
" A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast ;
but the tender mercies of the vi^icked are cruel."
Prov. 12 : 10. But does it necessarily infer cruelty,
in the man that takes their life, under this charter \
May not a man, with tender christian feelings, im-
molate them for food \ If he is cruel, is cruelty ne-
cessary to the actl and is not cruelty to brutes, of
the very same quality, though the form and the de-
gree may differ, with cruelty or malevolence in
higher relations 1 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 take life does not
necessarily make a murderer, or a fiend, or no
christian, of a farmer, or a butcher, or a fisherman,
we may here see in its lower relations the certain

239

difference between taking life — as one thing, and
malevolence — which is another. Whence,

6. God has frequently and in recorded instances
authorized the former, but never, 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 Canaanites and others : but did
he authorize malevolence to their persons'? or ne-
cessitate it, by the order or the service \ 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 hini
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.".^
Would not Barclay have denounced him, had he
been there "? 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 V 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 mercies," to the dishonor of the holy man
of God, who, with his own hand, sacrificed him
" before the Lord in Gilgal V Did Samuel hate
Agag, or was the act on his part malevolent 1 We

240

might almost as wisely ask, was God malevolent in
issuing the order which Samuel simply executed '!
or, was it not "murder" in Samuel to obey the
authority of Jehovah 1 or, was not Saul the better
man of the two, at least the calmer in the case, and
the more like — a Friend 1 How many frothy de-
claimers 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 selfishness, their education,
or their caprice ; 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-
vsers 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 and worthy allies 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 aflfinity or element congenial, between
punishment in time and punishment in eternity ;
punishment of law, human and 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

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'? 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 God I (3) All their reasoning is sufficiently
refuted 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; which 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 how could this be, if armed au-
thority in the state, with the power of life and death
in 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'? But such
an one is no Friend. 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, be 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 inahenably, and ought to
be a part of the reUgion, 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 C^^TOR 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 1"
And what respect deserves it from manl I an-
swer, just as much as it gets from God. It is
nothing better than a piece 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-
fore to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute
IS due ; custom to whom custom ; fear to whom
FEAR ; HONOR TO WHOM HONo 1." It was the mili-
tary government of the CAESARS 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 1 What are you
doing at the polls, but upholding that very power I
What moral right have you 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 suo 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 I
The Father of his Country, in answer to an ad-
dress of the society, congratulating him in their
way on his 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 other's 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 — 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
brought on this to act with equal light and love of
evidence ! " Render therefore unto Ceesar, the things
which are Csesar's ; and unto God, the things that
are God's." Mat. 22 : 21. (t^l Pet. 2 : 13-17. We
suppose it taught also (7) That the principles of

247

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-denial,
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 re-
gum*^ of ordinary safety or the legum^* of adequate
redress. Nor is there any need of anger or mahce
in 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 ; 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
such, 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 abundance. But on the pas-

248

sive endurance scheme, passive endurance is all !
When would this principle have achieved the liber-
ties of America ? 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 tornado 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 terrorem influence,
exists in this country in the civic majesty of the
ballot-boxes. Thus society is tempered, 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 views, show only in their hands *
what an interpreter the inward light is ! C?' Matt.
5 : 38-48. Must these orders be all literalized ; or,
interpreted in their spirit according to the analogy
of faith I 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 Philippic Acts, 16: 35-39. 22 : 25-30,
or to use legal measures, backed with a military
cohort, for his redress 1 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 alsoT' Is this the
way of Friends, Orthodox or Hicksites ] Witness
their mutual litigations for " the uttermost farthing "
in dispute between them ! Witness their 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 T'^^ 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 within them^ 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 formal and
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

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 hfe, 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 accordingly : I feel it to
be my duty to write it tty 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 numbered.
But 2. Does it say any such thing? — " shall perish
with the sword he shall die by a violence like that
which he exerts. Is this necessarily — perdition
everlasting '? Such navigators ought to look ahead
a 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
setthng 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 kis
own regime the power of the sword with that of
the keys — and how much of the 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 arms. " But how then shall the scriptures
be fulfilled that thus it must be 1" 54. .Tohn, 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? 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] Must we then go to the sky of Utopia
for all our ethical light l But it is not an extreme
case : far from it ! It occurs virtually every day in
the year ; our newspapers groan with the records
of violence, and society is bleeding in every mem-
ber Take 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
infancy 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 purpose 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 1
Would any jury of men or women condemn her \
She deserves to rank with Judith who decapitated
Holofernes, and " Jael the wife of Heber the Ken-
ite " who " shall be blessed " for the nail 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!"
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 with 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 their high utility, but of
their rapid prosperity and ultimate success. Let
them honor the principles of magistracy as laid
down in the New Testament ; maintain the recti-
tude of wdiX when strictly defensive, when abso-
lutely necessary in 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 shovi^ 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 aris 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 I 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 too might easily be settled in every
case, but for bad passions! And for all these
maladies, can nothing be done l 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 bclieve 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 diff'usion of "the
glorious gospel of the blessed God," and its ere-

256

deuce 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 own ultimate prevalence, or of its ever pacifying
the nations 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 3IANY PEO-
PLE : AND THEY SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO
PLOUGH-SHARES, AND THEIR SPEARS INTO PRUNING-
HOOKS : MATION 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 felicitous and acceptable : especially for
one so situated ; so interrupted and hurried 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 prayers 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

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 shpuld so err respecting
the nature of benevolqnce, 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 ; sinqe 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."

— QiO®—

THE GRAl^D ERROR.

Sint castae delieiae meae, scripturae luae ; nec fallar in e'la, nec fallam
ex eis. AuGusTiNF..
O be thy written Word my cliaste delight;
Guiding my earthly pilgrimage aright !
In it I know my soul is not deceived;
From it I speak the truth to be believed.

It was needful forme to write unto you, and exhort you that ye shouf.d

EiRNESTLr CONTEND FOR THE FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE DELIVERED
U!»TO 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. Hi 19.

Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked ;
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 thera to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Isa. 9: 16, 16.

The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my
word, let him speak my word faithfully. \Miat is the chaff to the wheat?
saith the Lord. Jer. 23 : 28.

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and WHOSOEVER LOVETH AND MAKETH A LIE.
Kevelalions, 22 : 15.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran : I have not spoken to thera,
yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in «♦ counsel, and had

CAUSED MY PF.OPr.B TO HEAR MY WORDS, THEN THEY SHOULD HAVE TURNED
THEM FROM THEIK EVIL WAV, AND FROM THE EVIL OF THEIR DOINGS. Jei".

23:21,22.

But though we, or an ancel 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
Gojpel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal. 1 ; 8. 9.

PART SECOND.

THE GRANO 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 which the parties are agreed. To state all
these might not be useful ; but some there are upon
which, 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 inimitably 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 tJie 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 empov/er the wicked to destroy
(by merely 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-

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 abuse presupposes its intrinsic
goodness and affirms the wickedness of its abusers
alone. For example : the ministry of the gospel ii;
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, but
the more so, because of his supreme regard for
truth, and for God,, its Author and avenger.

13. Purity is properly before peace, and properly
before unity; while purity, unity, peace,— Just in
that order of precedency, — are all desirable.

14. Communion of feeling is founded on com-
munion of sentiment ; so that doctrinal coincidence
always induces (or tends to induce) union of affec-
tion ; doctrinal contrariety or divergency equally
inspires alienation; and no combination of senti-

2G7

ment, 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 wisdom 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-
scendeth not from above ; but is earthly, sensual,
devilish." Here is the point of divergency ! The
great question is, shall purity or peace precede 1
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 5oes 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 rehgious
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..:5£3)
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 severaX principles of reason-
ing, by which to be governed in this work, I will
now state some positions of 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 when they are equalized or subordinated, to
reason, conscience, feelings, private spirits, dreams,

269

revelations, impressions, visions, or influences of
any other description.

2. The scriptures are given by that kind of di-
vine inspiration (I forbear all technical names)
which 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 pre-
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 specifically 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, aflfecting 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 growth 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) supey natural.

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 all 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
Baalam, 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, Avithout 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 measui-e 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 \

22. The office of huiman 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 OF 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 malignant ; 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 lugitiraate
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

274

Friends must necessarily be affected by the pnnci-
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 fn 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 successfully 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-
mony that ^describes them ; 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 dead, are realities, whether known or
unknown, whether believed or disbelieved, whether
revealed or unrevealed. The testimony of God

275

concerning them, affects us, 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 tha't they are so 1 Are we to
blame for their falsity, or for showing it l Is it a
privilege to be fundamentally wrong'? Is it the
interest of a man not to know things as they are 1
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 l 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 sufficiently
penetrating and impartial, truly. Nothing that is
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 ? 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 offer 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 partiaUty 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 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 rui-
nous, 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 shall 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

^ quahbrism: is not chrxstzanzt?.

My meaning is — not that Quakerism is, in ail 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,
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 neither 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 christian 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
timel

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.
Principia 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 hght 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 BhsAX 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 : 6-9 I 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 my faults, my

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 heliere the system of
their sires, as if it were true only because they
taught it to them \ or as if examination would ruin
iti A strange way to believe it! What is this but
disbelief of its ultimate truth ? 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

I commence with an investigation of their doc- ^
trine of the inward light. That doctrine is that
there is in every man, by the goodness of his Crea-
tor, a certain ' inward light,'' which is equally in all
men of all ages atid of all countries, by aitention
to the monitions of uhich 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 error 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, a 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
of 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 1" 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 will
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'! They do not mean the scripture, unques-
tionably. Do they then mean the intellectual fa-
culty 1 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 not in the thing itself— this light
of which we speak is not only distinct, but of a
diflTerent 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 pi'oclaim the day of the Lord that is arisen in
it," (the hght) in order " that others may come and
feel the same in themselves, and may know that
ff?" that little small thing that ^ reproves them in
their hearts, however they have despised and neg-
lected it ^ is nothing less than the gospel
preached in them ; Christ, the wisdom and power
of God, being in and hy 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 in 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
ho\t it substantially differs from the tmmystical
appeal often heard from our pulpits ; as when the
preacher says ; " Have you not often violated or
defiled your own consciences t done what you
knew was displeasing to God at the time, and so
sinned directly against his majesty and goodness!"
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
coiiscience ; 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 ? 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

288

to take root 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. e. the expansion
of this inward light it is that makes the inspiration
of their preachers. This is probable. But still the
question returns ; what is it V What is " that
which " and so forth ? Is it blind impulse, a mere
actuating of the mind t This they will hardly af-
firm. And yet / 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 d^eWweveA frequently before. Sometimes

289

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

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 1

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
evert/ 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 awfiiH Must the divine Author of the
Bible be made responsible for the lawless visions
of men "? and these visions of extravagance be held
co-ordinate with the written " oracles of God ;" nay,
paramount to them 1 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

oiis corruptions in Christendom,) what is its moral
influence on the abettors of the scheme ] Does it
make them cJvristians? does it sanctify them ac-
ceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord 1
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
OF 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 [ascertain ye — 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 cmistraint ; 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 sublime 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 Jesus Christ is come [has come]
in the Jiesh, 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 sense 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 Jiesh ; 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 Jiesh 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
Jiesh,^^ said he ; " Christ has come in the Jiesh : 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 whose letters I never an-
swer and whose positions I have ceased to deny.
Tale portentum refutationc 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 come to be raised, and have do-
minion in their hearts over all." — Barclay.

This mysticism and heresy is a true, but a very
moderate specimen of their general confession. Ai^
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.

29G

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 spii-it of anti-christ ? I do
not here accuse them, of what they disclaim. They
believe the 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 imcard 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 much as their pro-
perty, they would wisely resist the imposing fabrics
of the enemy. This, bible christians are taught
to do by the outicard 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 iudcx 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 a historical (as it
was before a prophetical) fact, should be divinely

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. An inserted flame 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 oxen moral agency,
which scripture every where describes as the me-
diate arbiter of character and destiny I It is not
spirituality at all I 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 and
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 ? 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 differ in the means,
to get rid of it. They all however require 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 intrinsically and relatively
superior to " the 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 their safety.
" For when they shall say ' peace and safety ;' then
sudden destruction corneth 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 responsibiUty 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 from 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 vv^hen 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 etfect of ignorance ; and
the Holy Ghost himself no person, no being; but a
mere attribute, energy, relation, quality, virtue,
influence. TIius he evades the whole power of
the gospel, and is — 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 lianfls 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 any one of the foregoing, and much more spe-
eiously. And why not, since he has something
better within ? why not, when the inward light is
paramount? 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?
They walk by the Lawgiver, and not by the law 1
Their preachers are just as really inspired as was
Paul ; and why go to his antiquated writings, when
they have fresh inspirations at hand \ 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 ho
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
Avith 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 \ 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 ride 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
Jaws, 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 poor. 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 within 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 worthy
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

306

with that of the legislature itself, it is quite 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'? 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 hypocrisy 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
and 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

cism, sublimed and ethereous, would make a foot-
ball of civic virtue !

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 1 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 1 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,
sentiments, 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 genius 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 hy 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, Rcftn. 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 sha-
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 \ 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 irresjjonsihleness,
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 only 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 helieveth 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 hy his icrit-
ten instructions ! hy him, as " a more nohle " 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 su-
perlative rule, hy icJiich it is in the highest degree
SPIRITUAL to icalk in all things! They walk hy
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 pontificate 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 argument. 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 testimony " be-
cause " there is no light in them," he affects a
gifted internal autopsy in religion, which, being
superior to the Bible, renders it superfluous. This
is one of his rare " devices !" To get rid of the
law, he pretends to walk by the lawgiver ! To
supersede the word of God, he makes God himself
a rule 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

314

million-catching speciousness, and has proved its
value in his modern policy. He will retain it as
long as he can ! It is however nothing but his most
holy-looking device to prop a falling cause, and
elude his tremendous enemy, the word of God.
" Get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, it is
WRITTEN, IT IS WRITTEN," (thricc, 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 hy every icord 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 astonish-
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 which throw a ver-
bal compliment on the Bible, and seem to reve-
rence in order the more certainly to destroy its
authority, are quite eligible. And what delusion
equal to the spell of Quakerism to effectuate this
end I " And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in
health, my brother I And Joab took Amasa by the

315

beard with the right hand to kiss him. But Amasa
took no heed to the sword 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— that 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 meanly 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 influence or quality — and
then they deny the trinity, deny their own admis-
sions and averments, deny their 'orthodox' preten-
sions, deny every 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 only way that even they can
invent, to detrude the scriptures from their divine
supremacy or to show a superior rule, is to make

316

their eternal Author — a rule ! Let any man of sense
and principle, who prefers not to swing, gored
through life, and " his offspring with him," on
either horn of this bellowing monster, deny him,
and take the word of God as his highest rule in
religion, in this world and in that which is to
come ! The absurdity of the soul of the system,
the putrid quality of its very heart, is such — but I
leave the reader, who can, to think that it is not
among impious absurdities and destructive errors
the most confounding and confounded !

Monstrum horrendum ! informe, ingens, ciii lumen ademptum.

ViRC.

A monster tremendous — misshapen — forlorn —
Whose fiction of light is the challenge of scorn !

III. The fact that all the real knowledge and
intelligible preaching of Friends are derived from
the scriptures, demonstrates the non-entity of their
inward light.

The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament had
all been extant for nearly five, and some of them
for nearly fifteen centuries, before the apostolic
age. They had been translated into the Greek
language for three centuries. Christ and his apos-
tles often quoted them, and always in a style of
commendation. " The scripture cannot be broken,"
said Christ. He also said, " think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto
you. Till heaven 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
their 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 \
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 \ If it have the two charac-
teristics above considered, we should be slow to
conclude against its claims. Has it then those
characteristics X Is each inspired preacher, inde-
pendent, in the sense explained, of his inspired

319

predecessors of the Bible I And is there equal
excellence of style and strength in what they speak
at large, in distinction from what they quote from
the scriptures 1 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 I Why not 1 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 oblivion 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 1 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
themi 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 them." 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 ichat
is not there, because so said the light within 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 w^as large. The effect 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 public 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 circumstance ; 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-

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 very distinguished 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 ]" 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

titute of the scripture, hut 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 \ 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." Just the reverse is true of those who think
of human nature that it is as had 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 Reform.ation, 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 insuffi-
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 \b
not all folly, or at least a most superfluous office
of the apostle, on supposition of this all-sufficient
universal inward light \ 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 \ 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 sunl 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
within " 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 1 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 ; " And even 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," &c. 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 Jeics ; these he subsequently
characterizes in the next chapter : and then, in the
third, asks the question, " Are we better than
they 1" are the Jews essentially and by nature any
better than the Gentiles \ " 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,
but 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. There is no ex-
ception of individuals. Pythagoras, Socrates, Pla-
to, Aristotle, all the rare hghts of pagan antiquity,
had then shone upon the darkness : but, it was so
nnrelieved 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 nngenial 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 rudo companion smiled, as if transformed.

CoWPEIt.

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 X 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 \ 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 iierfectly 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,
through 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 \ Are they charac-
terized in any way by the love of missions ?

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

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 wiiere is the itiward light? But — not
to press this question : admit that it exists — it is
manifestly inefficacious. What good does it ac-
complish 1 who is purified or enlightened or saved
by it 1 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 Friends
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 eyes 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 V 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" thenT 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 l 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 VANITY 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 ;

333

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 wanting 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
uncircumcised 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 " fellow-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, uas 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 tlie synagogue, and the
persons of the Jews. Though he held a military
commission (a case where piety and 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 Messiah'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 will 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 ChrisV 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-
nelius " 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 TIIOU AND ALL THY HOUSE SHALL

BE SAVED." What need of all this on the principle

336

of Friends I 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 water, that these should not be baptized,
who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we I
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 noi forbid
water 1 having the substance, what need of the
sign 1 Having the Holy Ghost, what need of water V
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 system 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 ice 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
jningled 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 pious?
Whatever we may allow for possibilities iii the
divine administration, there is no known or re-
vealed METHOD OF SALVATION OTHER THAN THAT

338

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; vv^hether 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 of 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 " suffocating " in every
creature that is under heaven," as if it meant " that
little small thing" and so forth, means demonstra-
hly 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 (xripvj^devtoi; ev Ttaaip tri xtioet
Tri vno 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 inward light to do ! How anti-spiritual,
how 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 missionary practice of the apostles,
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 he the
instrument of " salvation to every one that helievethy

Actions speak louder than tcords, 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 l How did they act ; what
was their common usage in reference to the hea-
then worlds I answer, they viewed it as full of
condemned sinners, who could be saved by the gospel
through faith, and in that 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,
throughout the whole family of nations.

340

If this be true, is the light of Friends true 1 If
it be, why are they not actuated toward the nations
as the apostles were ? why do they oppose mis-
sions \ why lend so feeble and so ambiguous an
aid at best to the noble evangelical charities of the
dayl 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," &c. —
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 X 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 sirnply
from the promise ; " Lo, 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 office 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 diffuse the
truth of the gospel, to propagate Christianity ; a

343

work of the King's commandment, 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 live is begin-
ning to awake to this business. One third of the
present century has gone, the brightest since the
Reformation, with the light of the angel's pinions,
" flying in the midst of heaven, having the ever-
lasting GOSPEL to preach unto them that dwell on
the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people." 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 unlight-
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 \ " He that be-
lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved." He that
minds the inward light — stay ! is that in the com-
mission 1 That 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 1

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 / hath
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world I
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
ministry to the end of the world. 2 Tim. 2 : 2.

I only ask any man of sense to tell me, in view
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 subject, will see how the
total scope of the book of God differs from the

346

total scope of Quakerism : what I have given un-
der this head, or indeed elsew^here, 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, ig wonclcrfully 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-viork 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 Avho 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 will 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 of reli-
gion.

These influences I distinguish into two great

348

classes as ordinary and miraculous ; of which
inversely :

First, MIRACULOUS influences. Under this head I
comprehend all extraordinary influences, whether
formally miraculous or not ; as his agency in crea-
tion, in providence and in the ancient church ; his
plenary 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, introducing 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 partial and temporary
than what was ordered to be written for coming
generations. Of 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

849

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 proposition ; 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 of pentecost,
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) ue 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 hohness of heart ! I observe (4) that whate-
ver tends to error in this relation, by leading men
to substitute the latter for the former, to prefer
gifts to graces, and miracles to mercies, and in-
spiratio7i 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
icith nonsense and to jrlunge 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 utihty of such influences \
Cessante causa, cessat res, the effect ceases with
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 I 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 !" Otherwise, 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 tcho are, the called accord-

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 hy ichich the mind is enlightened,
convinced, converted, sanctified, comforted, sus-
tained, actuated in obedience, edified in faith, ex-
panded with benevolence, martialed in duty, and
matured for heaven ; as also those that eternally
glorify the being of saints, and make their ever-
lasting conservation in blessedness to be infallible.
These I suppose are substantially the same in
every age, vitally and totally necessary to salvation.
I however subdivide them into objective and sub-
jective.

Objective ordinary influences. By these I
mean those influences of the Spirit in which the
OBJECTS OF RELIGION are afl'orded to the mind as
the occasions and moral causes of devout afl^eciion
and the stamina of usefulness in the world. Of
these I shall make some observations at the com-
mencement of successive paragraphs.

(1) These influences are all exerted through

THE instrumentality OF TRUTH ALONE, frOm

tvhatever medium accepted by the mind; — whe-
ther that medium be at the time the volume of God's
blessed and luminous word ; or the mighty works
of his hand ; or the senses in any way conveying it
to the thoughts ; as preaching heard, or the sacra-
ments seen, or pious example witnessed, or the ap-
peal of providential events of joy or grief consi-
dered, or — to one who knows the general truth — ■

352

" night visions may befriend " and dreams help us
awake. 2 Cor. 3 : 8, 11, 12, 18. In a word, God
may use almost any means to bring the truth into
living contact with the mind.

(2) All truth, that savingly influences, is derived,
since the first ages of Christianity, from the volume
of scripture alone ; and that directly or indirectly,
immediately or remotely, formally or virtually : so
that but for the scriptures, we should he sunk in the
profane barbarism and stupid idolatry of the hea-
then nations. Rom. 15 : 4. Prov. 29 : 18. John,
17 : 17, 19, 20. Eph. 6 : 17. James, 1 : 18, 21,
22. 1 Pet. 1 : 22-25. Rom. 3:1,2. 1 Thes.
4 : 5. There are other passages innumerable to
to the same point. These however may suffice.

(3) The grand manner in ordinary of truth's
access savingly to the mind, is through preaching ;
when the Spirit speeds the progress of his own truth
to the latent " springs and principles''^ of the mind;
not by altering the truth ; but by so presenting it to
the mind as to give the truth ^'■free course " and
efficacy through all its faculties. The truth, being
right, needs not the Spirit to convert or improve it ;
or to give it life, being itself " quick and powerful ;"
but the mind needs to be arrested, awakened, trans-
formed, through the truth, to perceive and love and
pursue the glorious objects of religion, the fixed
stars of the eternal firmament. 1 Thes. 1 : 5-7 ;
2:13. 2 Thes. 2 : 11-14. Whence we pass to treat,

2. Of SUBJECTIVE ordinary influences. By these
I mean all the influences of the Spirit on the sub-
jects or men ichom he affects, bringing them to con-

353

sider, seek religion, repent, obey, worship, believe,
practise holiness, and persevere to life everlasting;
including awakening, conviction, regeneration, sanc-
tijication, consolation, universal piety, and ultimate
salvation.

I call these subjective, because men are the sub-
jects of them, and because they are considered dis-
tinctly with respect to the subjects themselves. I
call them the influences of the Spirit, because they
are virtually so denominated in the word of God ;
and because he is the Grand Agent who produces
them and is immediately glorified in them ; since
all these belong to his revealed office-work. Of
these I remark,

(1) That the true order in our consideration of
them is, that objective precede subjective influ-
ences ; and not the contrary. Give to subjective
influences the precedency, and you have made an
inlet to all the enthusiasm, spiritual pride, and spe-
cious sin, that ever spurned the scriptures, hated
order, violated purity, misrepresented truth, de-
graded religion, glorified blundering ignorance, and
scandalized the souls of men. In such an inver-
sion knowledge is despised as infamous and Satan
enthroned in his celestial disguises. This is, no
doubt, the philosophy of all religious wild-fire and
spiritual extravagance, and pious ill manners, and
spurious illumination. Thus men learn to worship
their own experiences, to deify their feelings, and
to follow every imagination as the voice of God.
I am sorry to record that real christians, and even
christian ministers, are sometimes carried away — in

354

degree — with this lawless influence. The weak-
ness of the human mind, the infinite themes of re-
ligion, the infirmity of faith, opinionated ignorance,
silly credulity, the arts of false teachers, the stimu-
lus of a solemn occasion, spiritual pride, the deceit-
fulness of the heart, officious and erring counsellors,
and the devices of the devil, are the proper causes,
as the scriptures are only the innocent occasions of
all these scandals : which however may be resolved
into a principle which is in fact digested into the
creed of Friends and made the focal point of all
their religion ; that principle is the precedency of
subjective influences ! I believe that this was the pre-
cise inspiration of that lustrous son of moonshine,
George Fox. Whether he had piety or not beside, is
another question — and I leave it to him who knows.
Thus I do of all Friends, wishing their salvation.
I attack their tenets, not them. To be sure, they
are very much identified with their tenets; but this
is not my fault : — I wish they were more than the
moon's distance apart! But to return. Give to ob-
jective influences the precedency ; and then subjec-
tive follow in their place, and all is order, symmetry
and wisdom : the feelings are made to honor their
proper sphere in subordination to truth ; the intel-
lect is " exercised to discern both good and evil
the whole moral manhood is subjected to " the
glorious gospel of the blessed God ;" and the sub-
ject learns to " be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh him a reason of the hope
that is in him, with meekness and fear." 1 Peter,
3:15. I observe further —

355

(2) Subjective influences are never to he con-
sidered genuine hut as they may he seen to corres-
pond with OBJECTIVE. This result need not be
always immediate, formal or known, in order to be
real. We cannot conceive of gospel holiness but
as the counterpart of truth. Holiness is the image
of God ; and divine truth is the royal stamp on
which that image is cut, and which the Spirit uses
as the universal instrument of all his own impres-
sions. However he may melt or soften or prepare
the mass, before he coins it into heavenly currency,
it never gets the king's " image and superscription,"
till that unrivaled signet imparts it by the power of
the Spirit of God. I venture to translate Rom.
6:17, more as it ought to be, in favor of this view.
" But God be thanked that ye are not, though ye
were, the servants of sin ; seeing ye have obeyed
from the heart that mould of doctrine into which
ye were cast." It is elsewhere said ; " so we preach,
and so ye believed." And again we read of others
" that perish, because they received not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved." Says John,
" We are of God. He that knoweth God, hearetli
us ; and he that is not of God, heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error."

(3) The mode of subjective operation, essen-
tially considered, is equally inscrutable and unim-
portant. " Hoio can these things be"?" How does
the Spirit reach, open, impress, and actuate the
mind, so that now the same things engross and
enrapture it which once were insipid and even re-

356

pulsivel What wheel has he touched, what cord
relaxed, what veil removed I We only know the
fact that he does, not the mode hoic he does, the
glorious wonder. A wise man, who knows the
rational horizon of the mind, and can see to the
boundaries of human intelligence, in rebus — certi
denique fines, confesses his total ignorance, where
fools luxuriate in the pride of knowledge. Acts,
16 : 14. John, 3 : 8. Col. 2 : 18. This difficulty,
though practically it has no existence, resolves it-
self ultimately into the inscrutable mode of a most
palpable fact — the necessary and absolute depen-
dence of a created moral agent.

(4) The all-important matter is the result of
these influences. The process is valuable only for
the sake of the result. This is the grand deside-
ratum in self-examination. Whatever influence,
otherwise definable or not, brings its subject to
evangelical results, in thought, motive, conduct ;
that influence is to be ascribed to the Spirit of God.
Hence the criteria of discrimination that abound in
the sacred volume. Hence the results described
in such passages as the following ; " the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace," &-c. Gal. 5 : 22-24.
Eph. 5:9. 1 Cor. 12 : 3. Observe, how totally
devoid of all extravagance are these texts ! There
are thousands more in the Bible of the same kind.
It is plain then if a man love God, if he really love
him, if it be a fact that he loves God, that man is
a christian and will be saved, whether he can give
the history of the affection or not. " Believest thou
this," O reader 1 " Lovest thou meT'

357

(5) The subjects are conscious alone of the ob-
jective injiuence; while, by faith only, and not by
feeling, they ascribe it to the Spirit. I mean by
this that a man is conscious of the agent, only
through the instrument; or, he is solely conscious
of the action of truth on his powers and of his
own mental exercises and acts in view of truth ;
and is in no other way conscious (or "sensible," as
Friends say) of the influence of the Spirit. Psalm
55 : 5. Acts, 9 : 5. Heb. 4 : 12. Psalm 19 : 7.
John, 14 : 22, 23. The fancy of an immediate
consciousness of the Spirit evades every rational
criterion, and is most probably all delusion and ma-
terialism : — beside, its result is generally mystical
or corrupt or ambiguous.

(6) The forms, reasons, circumslances, and de-
grees of injiuences, perpetually vary, not only in
different subjects, but at different times in the same
subject ; nor may any form or style be prescribed
as a standard of genuineness, since nothing must
supersede the rule of judging by the result. "By
their fruits" alone, may the children of God be
discriminated; and this according to the rule of
the written word. The history therefore of the
mode and order of their experiences is at best of
very subordinate importance. 1 Cor. 12 : 6. Phil.
3 : 13. Heb. 10 : 32.

(7) The whole economy of these influences, as
of any others, depends supremely on the sovereign
pleasure of "the only wise God." I mean by
this not to exclude human agency or accountability
from their proper place and mediate influence in

358

the event ; nor to favor any notion of fatality, or
destiny independent of the voluntary conduct of
men ; but I do mean to deny the existence of ab-
solute chance, and to put the event, in common
with all other events, in the sovereign arbitration
of God. I mean to deny the Arminian view
which enthrones eternal chance and exalts the
autocrasy of the creature " above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped ;" and puts the Creator
in a posture of waiting ignorance or sincere dis-
comfiture, rather than of dominion " over all, bless-
ed for ever." All this as a fact, and as a doctrine
both of reason and scripture, I believe. It is an
article of faith, properly such ; not a rule of ac-
tion. It is one of the "things that we are to believe
concerning God ;" not otherwise one of the "du-
ties that God requires of man." Our duty is one
thing : the government of God is another. It is
also of immense importance to ourselves, and of
most auspicious bearing upon our own salvation,
to know the truth, and especially to love the truth,
in this sublime relation. No Friend however can,
I think, "receive the love of the truth" in respect
to the proper dominion of the Eternal — intelli-
gently receive it, without ceasing to be a Friend.
Though Barclay makes some exceptions in favor
of singular individuals, such as David, Paul, and
others, yet the system which he strenuously upholds
is diametrically opposite to the position at the
head of this paragraph : in this he is true to the
doctrine of the society, but false to the oracles of
God. "Let God be true, bnt^every man a liar, as

359

it is written." Without this enthronement of the
divine sovereignty in our faith, we shall worship a
being, as God, who is not the true and " only wise
God," who has not all and especially the grandest
events in his hand, and whom any freak of chances
may occur to frustrate and confound. Besides, we
shall be in perpetual collision with our own eternal
interests and with the God of the Bible. 2 Tim.
1 : 9. 2 Thes.2 : 13, 14. 1 Thes. 1 : 4, 5. 1 Cor.
3 : 5-7. Rom. 8 : 28-30. 9 : 16, 18. 11 : 5-7. I
just add that the doctrine of sovereignty in no aspect
excludes those whom the doctrine of regeneration
or faith would not equally exclude. Properly un-
derstood it militates not against any other doctrine
of scripture ; nor will it ever debar from the kingdom
of heaven one who does not also debar himself by
pride, prejudice, obstinacy, and love of the world.

What is adventitious in the experiences of a con-
verted sinner ; that is, what results from his tem-
perament, his history and circumstances, and not
from the nature of religion, being neither essential
nor proper to its possession ; and what is thus the
fruit of the subject and not " the fruit of the Spirit,"
to whatever degree it may extend, and however it
may modify those experiences, in time, form, or
intensity, I both distinguish from religion (con-
fused as they generally appear) and also omit at
present to consider. It is of importance however
to remark that what the Spirit produces ivc at the
same time suhordinatcly perform ; since his in-
fluence succeeds only to bring us to deeds and
courses of evangelical obedience. Holiness is not

360

an abstraction, nor a dormant principle, nor the off-
spring of physical influence — except possibly in a
subsidiary way. Hohness is an abstract word ; but
the thing is nothing other than a cordial self-con-
secration to God, in a way of obedience, not to our
own imagination or devices, but to his rational and
excellent will revealed in the gospel. The word
holiness is applicable, with all its cognates, sanc-
tify, sanctijication, saints, holy, and others, to
persons and things equally ; being so used abun-
dantly in the scriptures : their common import
being — set apart from a common to a sacred
use ; set apart for God. Thus, the temple
with all its premises, furniture, and service, was
holy ; and holitiess to the Lord is the motto of his
universal worship. Here then, is the clue to its
personal meaning ; those persons are holy who,
being enlightened to know and regenerated to love
the gospel, are willingly consecrated or set apart for
God. To produce and sustain this result is the
design of the Spirits influence and of the means
of grace. When any one finds himself thus serving
Christ, he is a saint, and the Spirit of God hath
hallowed him as a living temple of his influence.
In conversion itself the subject is brought to adopt
other views, feelings, motives, and ends of conduct,
than he previously ever knew. He is changed in
Ms estimate of objects and in his volitions concern-
ing them and in his relations to them. Before, the
world, in some form, was his idol, his pleasure, his
all ; and to it he sacrificed his conscience, his rea-
son, his salvation ; while God and religion were

361

objects- of practical neglect and steady dislike.
Now, he sees that such an estimate was false, cri-
minal, ruinous ; and that to choose the world for
his portion is to choose hell for his destiny : it is
the estimate corrected that revolutions the choice.
Now, he resolutely resigns the world and "chooses
that good part which shall not be taken away from
him." The estimate may exist imperfectly, without
the choice ; and so the subject revert from mere con-
viction to a worse apostacy : but it is not conceiva-
ble that the definitive choice should occur but as the
result of the estimate. Such a volition was never
his before, whom its occurrence defines " a new
creature." Thus the Spirit accords in his opera-
tions with the laws of mind, of which himself is
the creative author. He operates on moral agents ;
who are not the less such because previous trans-
gressors and enemies ; and they are not the less
such for what he does in reforming them, either in
the process or the result. Those who would see a
perfect picture of his influences in conversion,
sketched in their results alone, may consult the
parable of the prodigal son. After his voluntary
desertion of his father, after his riotous and profli-
gate courses, we see a pause, a consideration of
his state ; we see his rectified estimate of things,
his definitive and voluntary resolution, his practical
consistency, his humiliating and ingenuous confes-
sion, his gracious reception, his final restoration,
and the elevated rapture of his father and house-
hold at the event.

Having thus given an outline of this most impor-

362

tant doctrine, according to the scope of scripture,
I wish to characterize the views of Fi'iends as con-
tra-distinguished from it.

(1) They hold to continued miraculous injiu-
ences, or — what is much the same — to the prece-
dency of subjective impressions, or immediate "ob-
jective manifestations" in the mind. Their whole
system is subjective mainly. Saith Barclay, "which
revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by out-
ward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward
objective manifestations in the heart, were of old
the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so
to be ; since the object of the saini's faith is the
same in all ages, though held forth under divers ad~
ministrations. And what was the object of their
faith, but inward and immediate revelation, as we
have before proved. But further ; if the object of
faith were not one and the same both to us and to
them, then it would follow that we were to know
God some other way than by the Spirit." Sophis-
tical as ever ! as if the medium of knowing were
the same with the object known !

(2) They hold to the necessity of those, and to
that faith which is founded on them as their "for-
mal object^"" in order to salvation. " The true and
effectual knowledge, which brings life eternal with
it, — is no otherwise attained ; and none have any
true ground to believe they have attained it, who
have it not by this revelation of God's vSpirit."
What is this but eternally unchurching all who dis-
believe his doctrine !

(3) They hold that this is universal, all men

363

participating it in all ages of the world. " This
light enlightened! the hearts of all in a day, in or-
der to salvation, if not resisted : nor is it less uni-
versal than the seed of sin. "

(4) They hold that, as it is by consenting to
this internal light that one man " differs from
another " untu salvation, so it rests absolutely and
ultimately and wholly and only with his will to
consent or not, and so to self-arbitrate the event
of salvation ; yet, they maintain, that, as it is by
consenting to the influence that it saves us, so we
ought not to SAY that we save ourselves, but that
IT saves us. It might be proper to inquire how
happened Barclay to consent, when others refus-
ed 1 There was either a cause for it or there was
not : if the former, what was that cause ] " Who
makctli thee to differ from another 1 and what hast
thou that thou didst not receive l Now if thou
didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hadst not received it V 1 Cor. 4 : 7, and 2 Cor.
5 : 5. But if it was a mere hap, for which there
was no cause at all, then the following absurdities
result : (1) God himself could not foreknow it ; for,
that which had no cause was a mere fortuity. It
might have come to pass and it might not ; how
then could God have certainly foreknown that it
would come to pass, as now the event has taught
us all that it did 1 If we say he foreknew uncer-
tainly, what is this but affirming his ignorance,
since we all do the same with respect to future
events — of which we are all totally ignorant ! It
follows that God never foreknew that any one

364

would consent, or knew at all until he happen-
ed to find out that he had consented ! This is
next door to horrid impiety. (2) There is no cer-
tainty of the continuance of the church on the earth.
It is only by consenting to follow the Spirit that
any man becomes a member of the church invisi-
ble, as we all agree. If then it be an absolute con-
tingency, a matter of perfect chance, whether any
one consents or not, it is at best a chance whether
one more will ever be converted! The cons-e-
quence is plain. Again, (3) It is foolish to talk of
God's liaising up ministers to prosecute his work,
since if chance dont happen (without any cause) to
cause the will to submit to he willing to consent to
the impotent wishes of God, he can never raise up
another ! What a wonderful felicity of chances it
was in the first ages, that God happened to suc-
ceed to procure so many apostles just when he
happened to want them ; especially Paul ! And
when Friends think of Barclay, what a philoso-
pher he was, how grateful ought they to be to
chance, by whom he was converted, by his hap-
pening to consent to the light within ! Yea ! and
if Fox had not so happened to consent, what
would have become of the whole society \ It is
plain that Quakerism altogether, with its wonder-
ful light, is the mere result of chance ! But let us
hear Barclay expound the matter. " I say — that
as the grace and light in all is sufficient to save
all, and of its own nature would save all ; so it
shines and wrestles with all in order to save them ;
he that resists its striving, is the cause of his own

365

condemnation ; he that resists it not, it becomes
his salvation : so that in him that is saved, the
working is of the grace, and not of the man ; and
it is a passiveness [e. g. sitting still and placid in
silent meetings] rather than an act ; though after-
ward, as man is wrought upon, there is a will rais-
ed in him, by which he comes to be a co-worker
with the grace." This is rare inspiration and
most sublime philosophy ! Quakerism needs some-
thing more than an apology !

I now infer that the views of Friends concerning
the Spirit, are not the views of the Bible and re-
mark that Barclay continually assumes their iden-
tity and rashly reasons on that false assumption :
particularly (1) when he quotes the sayings of
scripture in reference to the Spirit ; and (2) when
he quotes from Calvin, Luther, and the early Fa-
thers, on the same topic. This is a very common
and most unfair practice of Friends.

It is plain that neither the scriptures nor the chris-
tian Fathers yield his doctrine any support, unless
it be true that their doctrine of the Spirit is itself
identical with his! As well might Friends quote
me, when I speak of the necessity of the influence
and maintain that all means will be ultimately vain
without it ; and because I say this, might they affirm
that I held their doctrine ! and this, though I abomi-
nate their doctrine, and believe it to be a mortal de-
lusion, and am convinced that the blood of souls by
thousands is chargeable to its ignis-fatuus corusca-
tions ! The assurance of Barclay and of Friends
generally on this article is truly wonderful! After

366

affirming, he says "truly," that ''iliis revelation of
God's spirit" is that without which there is no saving
knowledge, he avers, as follows; "the certainty of
which truth is such, that it hath been acknowledged
by some of the most refined and famous of all sorts
of professors of Christianity in all ages." He then
tries, awkwardly enough, to reconcile his theory with
their piety and salvation — whom he intends to ad-
duce as witnesses; and in a sort succeeds. But
mark! they were all hireling priests, doctors, and
schoolmen, whom he elsewhere abundantly denoun-
ces ; "justly divests of the noble title of christians;''^
and holds up to popular execration as the corrupters
of Christianity ! Noic he needs their aid ; and as
they have all spoken of the excellency of the Spirit's
influences, yea, of their necessity too, he first can-
onizes— how safe they are — and then quotes them !
Reader, take their names ; Augustine, Clemens
Alexaiidrinus, Tertullian, Hierom, Athanasius,
Gregory the Great, Cyrillus Alexandrinus, Ber-
nard, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Dr. Smith of
Cambridge, Plotinus, and Origen. All these, with
the exception of Plotinus, (a heathen platonic phi-
losopher of the third century, who much more pro-
bably held the doctrine of Barclay than the others,)
believed in the paramount authority of scripture ;
in the subserviency of the influences of the Spirit to
the progress of revealed truth ; in the pestilent en-
thusiasm of all pretension to "inward objective
manifestations " of the Spirit ; and in the total
darkness of every human mind that is not convert-
ed through the gospel, to "the marvellous light"

367

of God. Quakerism indeed did not arise till more
than a century after the Reformation ; still, we can
judge from no uncertain premises, that the Fathers
of that age of glorious memory would (more than
any other men perhaps whose piety is admitted by
Barclay) have denounced his doctrine in no mea-
sured terms. He has culled some of their loose
and hortatory notices of the excellency of the Spi-
rit's influence, has translated them — I think — icith
some accommodation, and then strung them together
as witnesses for his doctrine! The zealots, Stork,
Stubner, Cellary, Munzer, and others, whose se-
raphic enthusiasm clouded the Reformation and
seems for a time to have confounded Melancthon
and the Elector of Saxony, were in their preten-
sions the similars of Friends ; hence the judgment
of Luther in their case is in point, as it condemn-
ed them for impostors, and that on the sole au-
thority of scripture ; a test to which they were sub-
limely unanxious to be subjected.

The same may be said of the scripture authori-
ties quoted in Barclay. Unmystically interpreted,
they are loved, as well as understood, by his pro-
testant opponents. And what in sound argument
do they yield him, till he has shown a perfect
agreement in nature between his view of the Spirit
and the scripture view of the Spirit \ To me (and
I have studied the subject with full conviction for
more than twenty years) the two doctrines appear
just as different, and just as much hostile and mu-
tual rivals, as are a piece of gold coined by the
government and legitimated among the people and *

368

a brazen counterfeit that claims an equal, nay, a
much superior currency.

Before I leave this point I would solemnly warn
the christian community against a specious decep-
tion. It has been very successfully and very ex-
tensively practised already. Friends will proba-
bly say of the author, Why ! he criminates all oth-
er denominations, as much as he does us. For
the church of England, the Baptists, [and just as
much the Preshjterians,'] and others, hold to the
influences of the Spirit also. I reply 1. This is
only deception and evasion. The view of Friends
is their own foxian view, and not ours at all !
There is utter contrariety in nature, as well
as difference, between the catholic view and that
of Friends. Does the former inculcate immedi-
ate inspiration, as indispensahle to a preacher, and
to " the building up of true faith," so that without
it, all is vain ] or that the scriptures are " a secon-
dary rule" merely, and to be so " esteemed T' or
that their 'paramount is, by the Spirit, inserted, as
a seed, light, and so forth, in every man that ever
was born^ or that this non-entity is itself the very
vital influence of the Spirit"! or that our great
DUTY is, to "retire inwardly" and let it "expand
and take the government V Does the catholic
view admit that all other ways of concurrence
with the influence of the Spirit, except that of "si-
lent waiting " on " the immediate drawing and
moving of the Spirit" and his influences necessa-
rily sensible,'''' "are to be denied, rejected, and
separated from, in this day of his spiritual aris-

369

mg ?" does it deny the scriptures to be " the word
of God, the only infalhble rule of faith and prac-
tice 1" Does it make the Spirit, i. e. God himself—
a rule of action and the highest rule 1 Does it
find out a way of salvation for Turks, Jews, and
Heathen of all sorts, without the gospel, and
by " inward objective manifestations in the heart 1"
I reply 2. That I know of no more palpable dis-
honest?/ of argument than theirs, (unless their in-
spired ignorance may palliate the crime — as it can
no more — for their ignorance is itself a transcen-
dent crime in the eyes of God,) when they dare
to identify their view of the Spirit's influences, with
that of "the common faith!" It is just as much
like, as — folly is like wisdom ; or " Lucifer fallen "
resembles " the son of the morning," when he
shone among the stars of God ! The things are
two, not one ; they are contrary, not identical ;
they are as different as inspired presumption and
most ignorant ' sincerity ' are different from the
"truth and soberness" of Christianity.

There is one class of texts, by which Friends
defend their tenets ; such as this, for example, that
Christ has promised "to be to them mouth and
wisdom, tongue and utterance," (see orthodox tes-
timony, 1830,) whenever they preach ; which class
it is exceedingly difficult for me, as an uninspired
biblical student, to expound. I will promise to do
it, however, on one condition — that they will lend
me a concordance that contains them ! the one above
cited, is re7-y often quoted, " with indubitable clear-
ness and infallible certainty," by their inspired

370

holders forth ; and hence it convinces all mightily,
that eacli one, when speaking, is an example of its
truth. Now, / can account for all they say, much
better, on any other supposition, than that of di-
vine inspiration ! Let them cease to injure others
so much, as to aver that tJieir view of the Spirit's
influence, is at one with the view of protestant
christians generally. I know of no two senti-
ments, held by different religionists on the same
subject, more radically hostile and utterly diverse,
than theirs and oars on that grand article ! Theirs
too pervades and characterizes, as the grand er-
ror of the system, its total volume. It absorbs
every thing within, as the great sepulchre where
all is buried " in silence !" What is not within ?
Is it the Lord's supper, or Baptism, or justification,
or light, or the great " Teacher that cannot be re-
moved in a corner," or the strivings of the Spirit, or
the ministry of condemnation and righteousness,
or the seed, life, power, grace, principle, inspira-
tion, and so forth — to the end of the inspired vo-
cabulary 1 Friends often speak of sins to be
" winked at ;" as if God winked at them ; and as if
they did not icholly pervert the sense of Acts, 17 :
30, which they assume to use and explain. It
means only that in former times God did not, as
now notably he does, send out an official protest
and a demonstration of the preached gospel, against
all the wickedness of men ! and not that he ever
connived ahsolutcly at sin, though he can pardon it
through the sacrifice of his own Son. It means
that in other times he practically overlooked {hm^i-

371

$ov, see Doddridge ; note in loco) the sins of men,
or seemed to care nothing about them : " but now
commandeth all men every where to repent."

Now let us briefly try the question, Did the apos-
tles, with Christ at their head, actually preach on
the principle of the inward light as laid down in
the Apology? This question I have had in my
eye and in my heart, ever since by the grace of
God I came to know him in truth : for, "w^hen it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son
in me that I might preach him among " my coun-
trymen ; as the revelation and the vocation came
only through the outward "objective manifesta-
tions" of his written word and ordinances, so "im-
mediately I conferred not with flesh and blood ;"
but set myself to the devout and prayerful perusal
of his own incomparable oracles ; saying, " Deal
bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and
keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may
behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a
stranger in the earth : hide not thy commandments
from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that
it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Thou
hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, who do
err from thy commandments. Remove from me
reproach and contempt ; for I have kept thy testi-
monies. Princes also did sit and speak against
me : but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Thy testimonies also are my delight and my coun-
sellors." Psalm 119: 17-24.

All men are not, from whatever cause, qualified

372

to discriminate truth, and judge principles : but to
those whose intelligence is mature and who love
the God of scripture — and to none others — do I
make the present appeal, to judge in this matter
the pretensions of Quakerism ! For one, my own
conviction has steadily increased ; while my an-
guish is also increased that so many gifted and
socially lovely characters should be careering to
eternity in the confidence of the light within ! The
excellent late Dr. Waugh of London felt the same ;
when called to preach in a certain sea-port village
where many Friends reside, he used the follow-
ing pertinent figure, in a benevolent lament at
their infatuation in superseding the true gospel of
Christ. For the truth of the anecdote, I can
vouch ; having received the account from a re-
spected brother in the ministry, who enjoyed the
friendship, and was acquainted with the person, of
the good Doctor ; whom George III. is said great-
ly to have revered, going sometimes incognito to
hear him and calling him the King of Dissen-
ters. The words are my own : " I am told, my
friends, that your harbor is dangerous ; that it
abounds in shoals, rocks, and breakers, which
many a skilful mariner has braved in vain ; that
there have been numerous dismal shipwrecks on
your immediate coast ; but that of late there are
proportionately few ! Do you know the reason ]
Doubtless you do. The authorities of the country
have at great expense humanely erected a large
light-house, towering to the sky and shedding
without change its faithful radiance far and wide

373

on the ocean. Now, the pilots can bring a vessel
into moorings almost with no inconvenience ; and
simply by steering according to that fixed and
friendly light. This you know. But what would
you think of a proud East Indiaman, with a rich
freight on board, who, getting a strange aversion
to that light, should light a taper in the cabin and
steer by the light within ? Would you not remon-
strate, if you could I But suppose you had remon-
strated in vain, what would you apprehend from
such hardihood I What, but shivered timbers and
a dismal wreck, since all experience is in favor of
the light-house as the only safe mark to steer by 1
And I, my friends, am afraid of some of you in this
village ; afraid that your hopes and souls will pe-
rish on the rocks of error. Instead of steering for
the haven of eternity by the light-house of the Bi-
ble, which the Eternal King has provided to that
very end ; you are, I hear, many of you who re-
side in this place, abandoning your course to the
uncertain and insufficient guidance of a light with-
in ! Alas ! for the freight, the precious freight !"

But to the trial of the question. I first ask, what,
on the Friends^ theory, ought we to expect of con-
sistent men who were inspired to preach the truth ?
Undoubtedly, their preaching ought all to point,
like so many concentric rays, to the focus of the
inward light ; they ought to apprise men of its ex-
istence, explain its nature, and exhort them to fol-
low its suggestions. Thus Barclay, in his address
to Charles II. notwithstanding the known profligacy
of that wicked prince, tells him of that light that

3T4

'* shineth in his conscience :" terms it the Light of
Christ ; exhorts him to " apply himself to it," and
follow it as an unflattering and all-sufficient guide.
So did not the apostles. So did not their Lord !
They did indeed say to the visible church that Christ
was in them, except they were reprobates; but

NEVER THAT ChRIST WAS IN REPROBATES ! The

distinction of Barclay here between the inbeing and
inhabitation of Christ is a piece of learned fustian,
a miserable evasion ; and reminds one of his Je-
suitical education ! See his words after vehiculum
Dei below.

The apostles preached that " God now commands
all men every where to repent ;" no notice of the
light. Christ testified that they should " all perish,"
except they repented. Their common doctrine of
regeneration is very adverse to the idea of Friends.
Instead of telling men that the seed is in them, and
must be cherished and made to grow ; 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 is vehiculum Dei ; as God and
Christ dwclleth in it, and is never separated from

375

it ; and as it is received a7id closed icith in the 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 ! we
as creatures are in God, not God in us: "for we
are all his offspring." The apostles 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 world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
helieveth 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 that 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 expUcation 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 JNIoses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ;" they directed
men to look out of 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 om- 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 the 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 of the preaching of Paul, which is applica-
ble too, to all modern corrupters, and tremble for
them that vitiate the gospel. Acts, 13 ; 10. 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 V He then smote him with blindness by mi-
raculous agency; and all this because he "with-
Btood 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 ]
I come now to show

VII. The fallacy of 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. Bat this were perhaps impossible ; since
there is plainly no 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

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 sinnerwhose 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 w^ell 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 qiialijicatiotis. 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 vino
and his own fig-tree," with a private supply of 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 hght,
and refer us to them with as much confidence as if
«ny such doctrine was soberly taught in the word of
God ; or as if now they beUeved 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 ichole 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 affirming "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 thisj 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 / 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 hke 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 hght? 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 1 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 \ 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 most 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, censurably much, to his lore and correctness
as a Hebrean, 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 O^^^^, ren-
dered in our Bible with man, may safely be 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 y is rendered with by

382

our translators and in by Barclay. He says it ought
to be in. But how does he know this 1 Is it be-
cause the letter means in and only in, accord-
ing to general grammatical usage, when so prefixed
to nouns 1 If this icere 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. D 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
defiinition. 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, by means of, after, for, on account of, according
to, upon, above, are all given as forms of its mean-
ing in different circumstances. Now look at the
assertion ! He takes one meaning out of twenty,
and decides without 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 rendering, 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 mediate 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 be 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 : 3hj Spirit
shall not be 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 120 years of further
trial; at the expiration of ichich period I will
drown all the loorld with a flood. As if he had
said / icill not always and to no result be dealing
WITH man, and bearing 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 icoidd not be
alicays, and to no result, treating and contesting
WITH man. In common negociations between con-
tending parties, it is common, it is natural, for one
of them to say, you knoic my terms ; I icill not
waste time or dally with you, as if this treating
WITH you were to continue for ever. I will limit
(I 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 " liMJiEDiATE objective maiiifestation^^ to the
antediluvians, either within or without them, since
WE K.\ow of the existence of mediate ones, quite
adequate lo 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 Jehovali 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, dehver-
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
men spake, 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
does with us. 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 F'riends
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 serif ^

386

tures tcerc 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 1 But
their common longevity made them almost all
cotemporary tcith each other, and facilitated the
traditional progress of knowledge to a degree of
7chich ice can scarcely form an adequate concep-
tion ! The fifth chapter of Genesis warrants me in
saying the following things, according to the strict
calculations ofsimple arithmetic. Noah was 480 years
old when the period of awful probation commenced.
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 church 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 1 had they not traditional helps and faci-
lities altogether peculiar and wonderful for the pre-
servation of the oral word of God "! and if any
special want or waning of knowledge existed, could
not God inspire a prophet, as Enoch, Noah, or
others, to speak to them and communicate his will 1
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
easel Is there no way in which the Spirit could
strive with man, unless he strove in man, and in
every man of that age \ 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 heart and ears, ye do al-
ways RESIST THE HoLY GhOST : AS YOUR FATHERS

DID, so DO YE. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted 1 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 resisted
the Holy Ghost, not as inserted in them, but as

389

striving from without ; they resisted him in his
truth, quoted from " the lively oracles," as Stephen
calls them, (not the dead letter, as Friends alone
call them,) and ministered by a living preacher t(»
their rebellious " heart and ears." (2) Stephen says
that this was just the way of their fathers ! Hence
we conclude that their fathers resisted the Holy
Ghost speaking in his prophets or in his written
lively oracles. He adds in proof, " ichich of the
prophets have not your fathers persecuted f This
is " evidently and excellently" apparent as the way
of the Spirit's striving, and the way of resisting his
influences, in all ages of the world. But where
now is the mystical, interior, materializing thing,
called universal inward light ?

Let us return to " the years beyond the flood."
If it be demanded, why were not alphabetical
writing and the scriptures introduced sooner in the
ages of the world 1 I answer. The relations of
TRUTH WERE FEWER AND SI3IPLER, in those early
periods of time ; the facts that make up the sub-
strate (if I may so speak) of scripture history had
not many of them then occurred ; it was suitable
to the known wisdom of the divine economy gra-
dually to increase revelation's light, and multiply
its relations, to the times of Messiah ; as well as
to converge its radiations to their focus on Mount
Calvary, and to perpetuate its reflections thence,
through the medium of the written oracles, the
ministry of the word, and the christian sacraments,
to the end of time : while the singular facility of
communicating knowledge, by the common longevity

390

of those ancient patriarchs, completes the solution.

The building of the ark was a slow, prodigious,
and portentous operation. First and last, we have
reason to think, it filled the awful interval of the pe-
riod, 120 years, in which the world was plainly and
externally warned of the approaching inundation.
The matter was doubtless understood, and most
probably derided and scorned by them to the last.
" They did eat, they drank, they married wives,
they were given in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark ; and the flood came and
destroyed them all." Luke, 17 : 27. While it
evinces, among other proofs, the advance of those
" awful fathers of mankind," in civilization and the
arts, that such a structure as the ark could be rear-
ed and completed at all, as it would have been in
any age a wonder greater than the tomb of Mau-
solus ; the number of men directly and indirectly
engaged in its fabrication must have been prodi-
gious ! The difficulty stated in Calmet, (see arti-
cle Ark,') against this view of the long period of its
building, is imaginary ; and will vanish (though you
admit, as I do not, his premises) simply by reading
Gen. 6:18 prospectively with respect to his sons,
as the sense and the words plainly require : so that
it neither concludes nor militates against the gene-
ral idea of expositors, that the probationary inter-
val of 120 years was occupied in the monitory pre-
paration of the ark. And what was the intelligible
motto of this enterprise \ What the meaning of
Noah's conduct in its prosecution 1 What the
speaking portent of it all \ The answer is at hand.

391

" By faith Noah, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark
to the saving of his house, by the which he con-
demned the world, and became heir of the righte-
ousness which is by faith." Heb. 11 : 7, Noah also
explained himself, unquestionably : for he was a
minister of religion, a man of resources and influ-
ence, a character of probity and renown, and as
such well known by the whole world. " God spar-
ed not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth
person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in
the flood upon the world of the ungodly." 2 Pet.
2 : 5. Thus it appears that the whole world, by
outward means, and mainly through the preaching
of Noah, were warned ; were rebellious to the
known will of God ; and so perished for ever. This
seems to be, without doubt, the purport of the pas-
sage in 1 Pet. 3 : 19, 20, which afiirms that those
spirits, once rebellious "while the ark was prepar-
ing," are now " in prison," no more reached with
the ministrations of mercy and the offers of salva-
tion. See Macknight in loco. It affirms that
Chx'iBt preached to them; just as Paul affirms that,
after his ascension, Christ " came and preached
peace " to the Ephesians : he preached to these by
the apostles and their colleagues ; and to the anti-
delnvians by Noah and others. Thus the adage.
Quod facit per alium, facit per se : what one
does by another, he does by himself.

From all this, I infer that those ancients had a
correct knowledge of the creation of the world ; of
the temptation and fall of man ; of the promised

392

Messiah ; of the worship and murder of Abel ; of
the holy Sabbath ; (compare Gen. 2 : 2, 3. 8 : 10,
12, and other places where the number seven was
eminent as a symbol of perfection ;) of the charac-
ter, prophecy, and translation of Enoch ; of the
divine institution and typical import of sacrifices ;
of the influences of the Spirit ; of the perfections
and ways of Jehovah ; of the nature of religion ;
of God's "anger with them ; of the second advent of
Christ and eternal judgment ; (see Jude, 14, 15 ;)
and of innumerable other things, to a degree far
surpassing in some respects our outward privileges ;
and all this without any implication or sanction of
the fancy of an internal objective light whose mani-
festations were given to every man on the globe.

(3) There is nothing in the condition of the
church or of mankind, before the scriptures began
to be icrilten, that requires or warrants the theory
of Friends.

I am thus extensive on this point, because it is
one in which the genius of Quakerism triumphs, as
if all its rash assumptions were infallible truths.
This paper need not be loaded with quotations from
all their worhs in which they speak of periods be-
fore the scriptures brgan to be ti ritten, as those in
which their vieics of the light tcithin must be ad-
mitted. Who spake to Abraham, or Noah, or
Enoch, and others, say they, before there was any
Bible 1 And how did those patriarchs manage
who had no Bible and yet walked with God I
They make these bold appeals just as if their ques-
tions could be answered only by admitting their

393

answers ! only by adopting their doctrine ! only by
rejoicing in " the sparks that they have kindled !"
This absurd exultation looks so much like evidence,
argument, demonstration, in the eyes of those who
admit their inspiration while they thus exult, that
millions are captivated, convinced, converted, and
it may be also inspired, when they witness its
imaginings.

The apostle says that all these ancients were ac-
tuated by faith ; and with Barclay, 1 admit that the
great object of faith then and since is " Deiis lo-
quens," God speaking. But cannot God speak to
us, unless he speaks in us, and in each one of us ?
This is the question : and until they actually prove
the negative. Friends have proved nothing to the
purpose. Barclay himself admits that God, in all
that long tract of time, 2500 years, before the Bi-
ble or the Pentateuch was given, and before alpha-
betical writing was known, (or revealed, as some
think it was of inspired original and fjst made
known to Moses,) often spake to men by the minis-
try of angels, by " outward voices, appearances,
and dreams," and by the agency of human preach-
ers : and any one of these Jive modes will account
for the knowledge and piety of the ancients, with-
out all influence or agency of the light within !
Hence their own admissions answer their appeals :
while all their arguments are wholly destitute of
proof that such a universal internal light, or seed,
or vehiculum dei, or divine emanation, or para-
mount rule of action, has any existence.

Let it be remembered too that " Noah lived after

394

the flood 350 years ;" and that Abraham was born
two years after Noah's death, and Hved the coteni-
porary of Shem 150 years. These facts might be
extended : but enough is written to evince that tra-
dition must have been a great help from the be-
ginning of the world to the time of Moses. In
his time, it is thought, (see Psalm 90,) human life
was reduced to nearly its present span. The tra-
dition of theological truth could come, through
faithful channels, from Adam to Moses by six or
seven steps! and none can doubt the interest of
those ancient Fathers of the church in handing
down, from sire to son, a pure account of those
wonders and truths of God which themselves su-
perlatively loved, defended, and diffused. Friends
at least ought to admit the value of tradition, since,
to the exclusion of better lights in our day, it
makes so forceful a part of their own system of
education. Besides, in the period (427 years) af-
ter the flood till the calling of Abraham, the tradi-
tion, the credit, and the monuments, of that terrific
chapter of the divine judgments, were yet recent
and unquestionable. The deluge was then of mo-
dern memory. The fact that such a lesson was hy
many soon forgot, must indeed be admitted : it is
equally criminal, wonderful, lamentable ! But this
infers nothing against the sufficiency of the means
for "retaining" it in their knowledge. "Fortius
they willingly are ignorant of, that — the world
that then was, being overflowed with water, per-
ished." God is not answ^erable for the perverse
inconsiderateness of men. Where the evidence

395

is sufficient and the creatui'e accountable, God is
vindicated, whatever may be the result. The light
of nature every where teaches more than men any-
where learn from it; more than theologians have
generally admitted ; and quite sufficient to con-
clude against all the excuses of idolaters, "all the
nations that forget God," pre-eminently all the ene-
mies of revelation. This light does not interfere
with that of traditional, any more than with that
of scriptural truth. And here it requires, me-
thinks, only a little comprehension of the facts of
the case and a little ingenuousness of heart to-
ward God, to perceive the irrelevancy of the theo-
ry of Friends, the non-necessity of their universal
inward light. I have bestowed thus much to the
consideration of the subject, which is so plain and
rational as represented in the total scope of scrip-
ture that the theory of Friends is necessary to
make rather than solve its difficulties ; because
with them it is a capital subject, and one in their
view quite conclusive against the paramount claims
of "the oracles of God."

I pass to the next passage, in which Barclay af-
firms that the inward light is so "excellently and
evidently" taught.

2. This occurs in Deut. 30 : 14. " But the word
is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart, that thou mayest do it." As Rom. 10 : 8 is
virtually the same text, or rather a quotation and
amplification of the first, they may be considered
together ; though by Barclay separately noted, yet
simply in the order of priority in scripture. With

396

regard to either or both these passages, I affirm
that they neither teach nor contain the doctrine of
Barclay. Let us examine them ; and first that in
Romans.

In examining this passage, it would be preferable
to view it in extenso from the first verse of the
chapter to the tenth. The eighth verse, however,
is the hobby of Barclay. " The word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart." Quere, Is
the inward light in a man's mouth \ Is it also in
his heart 1 And at the same time \ What walk-
ing temples of phosphorescence must we be, espe-
cially some of us ? For aught one knows to the con-
trary we may be saturated with it, as men on glass
with electricity. There is hardly as much humor as
soberness, to a reader for example of Fox's jour-
nal, in the thought that he must have seemed to
himself, as he walked about on the dark earth, like
a charged conductor of etherial light, with scinti-
lations of glory streaming from him in all direc-
tions. But why is it called " the word V Why
not his own talismanic name of "inward light f
The charm is gone, however, as soon as you allow
the apostle to explain his own words ; " that is, the

WORD OF FAITH WHICH WE PREACH." He prOCCcds

farther to explain it thus, " That if thou shalt con-
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be-
lieve in thy heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved : for with the heart
it is believed unto justification, and with the
mouth it is confessed unto salvation." The liber-
ty I have taken with the tenth verse, is one to

397

which no honest scholar will object ; since it lite-
ralizes more strictly, as well as better renders the
sense of the original. How the word came " nigh,"
is told us by the implication or rather the very
words of the passage ; since it is " the word of
faith which we preach.'''' See verse 15 also. It is
in the heart, when it is there "believed ;" it is in the
mouth, when '\\. is there "confessed." It is origi-
nally then in neither. Thus says God to Moses ;
Dent. 31 : 19. " Now therefore write ye this song
for you, and teach it [to] the children of Israel :
PUT IT IN THEIR MOUTHS, that this song may be a
witness for me against the children of Israel."
Says David ; " Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee." Ps. 119: 11.
This is the genuine idea of "phylacteries" (pre-
servatives or defenders) and the proper style of
wearing them about with us ! And again ; " Take
not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ;
for I have hoped in thy judgments." 43. It were
well if Friends should ponder that Psalm, with its
176 verses. It is a devotional panegyric (with
eight stanzas for every letter of the Hebrew alpha-
bet— an acrostic in the original) on the written
word of God, as essentially subsidiary to vital
piety in the soul ; and as showing the way of the
Spirit in its production there ; and proving illustri-
ously how a truly spiritual worshipper values "the
word, the testimonies, the statutes, the judgments,
the precepts, the laws, the sayings," of God ! How
" excellently and evidently " then is their doctrine
"held forth" by Barclay's vaporing quotation!

398

What a deception to the unwary, to the ignorant
and unstable ! What a sin so to "wrest the scrip-
tures ;" and to do it under the forged claim of in-
spiration, the more to blind the mythic visionaries
that see with him ! The enemies of God may see
no sin in the perversion, as they see comparatively
none in themselves : but will the friends of God
sympathize or symbolize with them \

There is another proof to the same end. It is
taken from the etymology and scriptural usage of
the expression, here rendered in the chapter four
times, " the word." The original is pr^^a, not
The difference is that the former means specifically
what is spoken, enunciated with the organs of the
voice ; and occurs in the New Testament (I have
counted and examined them) about 70 times. The
latter is more generic and extensive : it means doc-
trine or discourse, a word collective (as speech) or
individual, written or spoken, heard or remembered
or imagined ; and it means also, by a grand and
most appropriate personification, the Son of God in
his pi'ophetical office, as the instructor of mankind
and " the light of the world." In this last sense
it is used by John in his gospel, 1 : 1, and in his
Revelation, 19 : 13. Here permit a digression in
place.

The Friends, Orthodox and Hicksites, the whole
of them, refuse to call the scripture the word of God.
One reason assigned is — that the title is appropri-
ated personally to Jesus Christ. But this reason is
most weak and sophistical. John so appropriates it
indeed, in the two instances above cited ; and in

399

these alone does it certainly or prominently occur.
He so applies it in a secondary and figurative sense,
and very rarely, i. e. but twice. But be it remem-
bered that as the expressions in the original are dif-
ferent, so py]fx.a rov Qeov is never applied personally ;
never once ; though for the uttered or spoken, or
subsequently written word of God, it occurs so veri/
frequently in scripture. What reason then is there
for their refusal 1 especially when we consider, (1)
that the inspired message of God, whether written
or spoken, contains identically his words, and in the
nature of things, could not have an appellation more
proper than " his word" for its collective record ; (2)
that Fox says he declared " the word of the Lord "
to the people ; and ^he did, and records what he
said identically, is not so much of it " the word of the
Lord" stiin (3) that the scriptures call themselves
" the word of God. "Paul after quoting with expla-
nations from the Old Testament, justifies the spiri-
tuality of the sense and its application, thus: "for
the word of God is quick (alive) and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, &c." Heb. 4 : 12.
Mark, he does not say it is " a dead letter," and not
to be understood but by inspired catechumens !
They are called "the lively oracles" once ; Acts 7 :
38 ; and " the oracles of God,'' three times ; Rom. 3 :
2 ; Heb. 5 : 12 ; 1 Pet. 4 ; 11. The word spoken and
heard is called " the word of God " veryfrequently.
Hundreds of passages might be collected — but quan-
tity is not our aim. (4) That Jesus Christ expressly
calls the scripture the word of God. See Mark, 7 :
13 ; where he refers, having just quoted it, to Exod.

400

20 : 12 ; and John, 10 : 35, where he refers, having
just quoted it, to Psahii 82 : 6. I could easily com-
mand more proof; but suppose that man to be un-
candid whom the evidence already adduced fails to
conciliate to the truth of the position that Friends
act without reason and against it, in refusing to call,
what God inspired to be "the law of his mouth" to
us, the holy scriptures, the word of God. (5) That
the word of God is properly and absolutely, (wheth-
er written or spoken or in whatever way conveyed,)
the highest or the paramount rule of action. It is
not true in this world peculiarly, that it holds su-
preme pre-eminence. It is the highest rule every-
where ; throughout the universe ; " in all places of
his dominion." It is the highest with- " angels, that
excel in strength, that do his commandments, hear-
kening TO THE VOICE OF HIS WORD." It is thuS

that all the illustrious hierarchies of heaven obey
him, walking by no higher rule, or rather flying by
it alone. Thus are they " all his hosts ;" sentient
of his will as indicated in his word ; " ministers of
his, that do his "pleasure." And what know we of
God in a way of worship, or as it respects his as-
certained will concerning us, except from his written
word ^ " whereunto we do icf// that we take heed,
as unto a light thatshineth in a dark place, until the
day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts."
What know Friends without that glorious and ple-
nary informer"! Nothing at all in religion! Nothing
that is true or distinguishingly Christian ! Why then
refuse they to call it what it is, the word of God 1 O
how much do they lose by their error here ! Where-

401

fore, consider (6) That the reason they allege is not
credibly the one that influences their refusal. I do
not say they know the fallacy and practise it contrary
to what they know to be right. Sin is deceitful ; is
deceit itself. Millions that are posting to hell, ac-
cording to the testimony of scripture, are full of vain
and presumptuous hopes ; mistaking themselves for
the servants of Christ, it may be, vi^hen he knows
them to be the servants of the devil. But there is
little use here in proving this. I only allege that
the real reason of refusal with the Friends is the en-
mity of the seed of the serpent against the seed of
the kingdom. It is sin itself ; opposition cloaked
from sight, yet mortally set against " the truth as it
is." If the Bible was a. friend to Friends, they would
insist on its meaning more and commend it to the
universal reception of mankind. The word of God
is that tremendous panoply in which " the sacra-
mental host of God's elect" are clothed, and the
elherial point of which is intolerable to the spirits of
rebellion, human and infernal. It disposes of them
too summarily. Like its Author, it respects no man's
person. It fears nothing, conceals nothing, disguises
nothing ; but makes manifest the character and the
doom of the wicked, in light of the eternal throne
and the Sovereign that reigns on it. I believe it is
the policy and the temper of sin, and nothing better,
no matter in whom, that resolutely and knowingly
refuses to recognise the word of God, as such : and
while they continue so to do, I for one can recognise
them only as those who, I fear, are the disguised
enemies of Jesus Christ, and " wolves in sheep's

51 ^

402

clothing," notwithstanding their smooth and oily arts
of seeming goodness, by which they are wont to in-
gratiate themselves with strangers, the simple or the
ignorant. I return to the passage in Romans.

It is fortunate or otherwise as we think, I pro-
nounce it, however, fearlessly, to be a fact, that in all
the prime quotations of the Friends, their champions
and smaller heralds, a cool analysis of the passage
not only dissipates the evidence on which they rely,
but converts it into a damper of their flame — and an
extinguisher of their light. With astonishing in-
felicity, equalled only by the impious presumption
of his inspired arrogance, does Barclay refer to the
passage in question. He touches a spring, and
fires a train, and ignites a mine, of explosion and
ruin to his total Quakerism. It is the doctrine of
justification.

Of this glorious cardinal point of Christianity, the
whole epistle to the Romans may be entitled an in-
spired elucidation. To understand it as it is re-
vealed, and to have hope toward God in that in-
comparable way, will always, in a mind of compre-
hension and consistency, induce substantially the
following results : It will endear the scripture to all
that is human in him, to all his faculties and affec-
tions, to his influence and his praise, in a degree
transcendent and supreme ; it will give him such
hope in God through Jesus Christ as never was
without it ; it will make holiness the passion of his
life and the element of his motion, mental and cor-
poreal— it will facilitate universal duty and fiimili-
arize it to the practice ; it will demonstrate that in-

403

stead of leading to licentiousness, as infidels and-
sciolists pretend to be conscientious in alleging, it
is the best and the only way of prosecuting " true
holiness ;" it will give a clearness and fixity of
vision in the things of God, a clew of interpretation
to the whole volume of revelation, and inspire an
immutability of character, while it communicates
to the mind that unequaled excellence which Sir
Humphrey Davy justly pronounces the grand de-
sideratum of human nature, a sound and established
religious faith ; it will impart a clear perception of
the attributes of God, of his law, of human account-
ability and depravity and ill-desert, of the glorious
atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ on the accursed
tree, of the principles of the divine moral govern-
ment, of the nature and laws of the mediatorial
system, of the duties and dangers of men as " pri-
soners of hope," of the offers and promises, of tho
threatenings and denunciations of the word of God,
and of the diverse eternal destinies of the two great
MORAL CLASSES into whicli the species are divided
here and hereafter ; it will commend the way of
acceptance and justification through the Mediator,
to the unalterable convictions of the soul, as the
only possible way in which a sinner can be saved ;
it will demonstrate immutably the divine origin of
the gospel, as a thing not to be rationally referred
to an architect inferior to Him who arched the fir-
mament, and stored immensity with innumerable
worlds in solemn order perfectly arranged ; and
it will every way accomplish and confirm him as a
christian, as never was there one on earth without it :

404

making moral courage " hard as adamant" against
prevaricating error, and tender as the gentlest
offices of love toward penitence or candor ingen-
uously seeking for the truth.

The scriptural doctrine of justification is one
which, I am bold to say at least, is not understood
by Friends. It is perverted by them sadly; and
here, speaking experimentally as a witness, my
whole soul adores the God of all grace about equally
for my own conversion from old Adam and George
Fox! Through the one, condemnation reigns over
all his depraved posterity ; through the other, I feel,
as well as think, that it becomes well nigh eternized
on all his perverted votaries. It is impossible for a
Quaker consistently to learn and love the scripture
doctrine of justification ; for, accepting it, he would
in all consistency renounce Quakerism.

Without delivering a dissertation on the subject,
I shall advert to some of its important principles.

1. It is founded on the distinction between the
person and the character of an individual. Paul, for
example, is the same person that he ever was, and
so continues immutably and eternally. But his
character is not the same that it was. Conversion
was its first incipient change ; sanctification pro-
gressively advanced it in the divine similitude;
glorification hath consummately expanded it in the
perfection of heaven. He who now emulates a
cherub in clearness of vision and a seraph in purity
of zeal, was once the dark and bloody persecuter
of Jesus Christ and his church ; " breathing out
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of

405

the Lord verily thinking " that he onght to do
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Na-
zareth." But, remember, he is the same person ;
the sinner that did all those things ! His person is
unchangeable and identical ; and so is that of every
other individual.

2. The moral account of every human being ia
retrospective, as well as present, and includes the
charge of every sin, with its legislated curse against
the person by whom it was committed. How enor-
mous and tremendous the account ! Like the ma-
nifesto of a correct creditor, to whom we have been
plunging deeper and deeper in debt for a long
course of years, the items are there that we had
forgotten and each one contributes to the appaling
sum total : while the claim demonstrates our bank-
ruptcy, and holds our person justly a prisoner to its
power. " The strength of sin is the law." Our
insolvency — is a disagreeable thing to look at.

Hence men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon 't. — Butler.

Hence the doctrine of justification is so meanly and
universally detested by the men of the world. The
felons of the curse can ill endure a settlement, even
by grace in Christ Jesus, if it honors law and re-
quires them to confess the utter and terrible ruin of
their circumstances.

Hence all that is in man, pride, passion, art,
Powers of the mind, and feelings of the heart ;

406

Insensible of truth's almighty charms,

Starts at her first approach, and sounds, to arms !

While bigotry, with well-dissembled fears,

His eyes shut fast, his fingers in his ears,

?<Iighty to parry and push by God's word,

With senseless noise, his argument the sword.

Pretends a zeal for godliness and grace.

And spits abhorrence in the christian's face. — Cowper.

3. Justification, as such, strictly taken, respects
the person alone, and not the character; while to
commix these in the view, is the very chaos of all
confusion to a subject worthy of the most correct
discrimination of which the intellectual powers are
capable. It consists in the release of the person,
on account of Jesus Christ alone, from all his penal
responsibilities ; remitting all his sins for that dear
sake ; and accepting the party as righteous, and so
engaging faithfully to treat him, through the Media-
tor, to the glory of God. It is a forensic or judicial
declaration of indemnity forever, in their behalf
who believe ; and a consequent public treatment of
them as if they were in no sense deserving of the
executed penalty of law.

4. It were easy in thought to separate, what is
in fact inseparable, the person and the character, in
respect to justification ; that its glorious theory
might become more clearly discernible. The arch-
fiend of pandemonium, for example : his character
is totally bad, and his person under eternal sen-
tence. Suppose this were reversed, without re-
versing or altering that : he would be personally
free and uncondemned, and yet as bad as ever.
Or, suppose his character was reversed and melio-

407

rated into perfect holiness, his person would still be
liolden for the sins that are past : and he would
then be sanctified but not justified, not absolved.
This anomaly often occurs in the jurisprudence of
human society. A person of perfect innocence is
convicted of crime, is not justified but condemned ;
while the villain escapes, in the eye of law, justified.
To absolve a person of all his sins, to release him,
is the justifying act by which a sinner becomes ac-
cepted in the sight of God : and is specifically
the proper idea of redemption anoXvrpojaig — which
Friends define to be a cleansing of the interior
from sin ! It contemplates us as captives, slaves
to the curse, sold to punishment, and justly exposed
to " everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord." Hence Christ dies for us ; "in whom we
have redemption through his blood, (that is — his
DEATH,) the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace." Eph. 1 : 7. Rom. 3 : 24. 8 :
1, 30. When our moral relations are adjusted,
and we are accepted as righteous in the sight of
God, righteousness is said to be " imputed " to us,
or reckoned or counted or accounted : for the orio-i-
nal word is the same or a cognate, wherever those
various forms occur in our translation. Yet this
subject of "imputed righteousness" is the perfect
horror of Friends, all of them ! And they must
all — as they know that they do — degrade it ; for
their inspired patriarchs all did it. And why 1 Be-
cause it is unscriptural 1 Was the epistle to the
Galatians, and Luther's immortal commcntarv
thereon, written for any other end than to disabuse

408

it of what its enemies had said of it, and vindicate
it as the only way of hope \ How will a Friend be
justified without imputation] O, he will repent
and mind the inward teachings hereafter. Will
he 1 and how is this to repair his former obliquity
and defalcation 1 Will present repentance atone
for past sins I Just as much as for future and no
more. Suppose he was truly to repent, that is, not
merely be sorry, dress plain, and " get still ;" but
turn from all sin like a man, with full purpose of
heart to practise universal righteousness : suppose
he were "renewed up" to the perfect sanctimony
of Fox ; still is he the same person that committed
those former sins ; and is he righteous 1 But God
will pardon ! Will he ] Yes, for Christ's sake
alone ; and he will impute righteousness also where
he pardons ; or, every sinner of the species would
be lost forever, all his pharisaism and all his holi-
ness and all his "sincerity" to the contrary not-
withstanding! See Rom. 4 : 1-8. Gal, 3: 6-14.
Read, understand, believe, and love — or, reader,
lay your account with eternal condemnation !

5. The evangelical system, however rejects with
justindignation the hypocritical inuendo of infidelity
and heresy conjoined, for their cause is one, against
the only method of possible justification for men,
that it tends to licentiousness ; and lays, in the very
centre of the fabric, the basis of holiness, by defin-
ing the nature of faith, and making its requisition
absolute and universal, and giving the very means
of its production and nutrition in the grace of the
Spirit. " This only would I learn of you, received

409

ye the Spiiit by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith V Gal. 3 : 2. Faith generally
means — confidence in testimony. Evangelically it
means this and more ; namely, a cordial confi-
dence in the testimony of God as contained in the
scriptures, especially in respect to the way of justi-
fication. It is "with the heart " indispensably that
we believe unto life eternal. We trust affectionate-
ly, and love what we trust ; and thus assimilate, and
are " sanctified by faith that is in Christ." Acts, 26 :
18. Now hope becomes the lovely inspirer of holi-
ness— for " every man that hath this hope in him" —
that is, in Christ, and not in himself, as Friends
misinterpret it ; see the original — " purifieth him-
self, even as he is pure." 1 John, 3:3. " The de-
vils also believe and tremble." Yes, but they never
love and " go on their way rejoicing." A man must
have a religion better in kind, as well as greater in
degree, than devils, in order to escape their prison.
What shall we say then of some who have not so
much religion as they 1 Who do not even believe !
A christian however knows what it is to love God,
as well as fear him ; and his very fear is " clean, en-
during for ever." Says Paul, " For God hath not
given us the spirit of fear ; but of power, and of
love, and of a sound mind." 2 Tim. 1 : 7.

It is a great proof of the stupidity of the human
mind in the things of God, and proper to infidelity
alone, to insinuate that the apostles were at variance
on this article, especially Paul and James. The
latter more insists on the holy nature of justifying
faith ; the former more assumes it. Paul never

410

meant to say that a " dead" aiitinomian faith could
save us ; nor James that " the righteousness of
God" should be superseded or mended by our own
doings, in order to perfect the way. James in-
veighs against the faith that produces no good
works, which " is dead, being alone." Paul shows
that justification is gratuitous to the person, who
believes " with his heart." Our present piety and
our future, even if it were perfect — as it never is in
this world, could only answer the preceptive claims
of the law for the time being : in respect to time
past, it could not cancel sin, or atone for it, or ex-
cuse it, or reverse the facts of its history, or annul
the moments of lime in which it was perpetrated,
or diminish the ill-desert of the person for having
committed it ; and in respect to the future, in two
words, what could it do to counterpoise the sins al-
ready perpetrated, or — more impious imagining ! —
to DESERVE, as its proper " wages," that " exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory " which constitutes
splendidly " THE GIFT or god in Christ Jesus 1"
How excellent is the enlightening and sanctifying
virtue of this doctrine- of " the eternal Spirit !"
How does it discriminate a true hope from a false
one ! How reveal the upstart impudence of those
human spirits whose latent pride were otherwise
unsuspected and asleep ! How excellent must their
service be, who never obey the gospel ; who in their
unbelief never please God or do a single thing in
pure obedience to his will ; and who for all this so
estimate service by them done or to be done, in fact
or in abeyance, especially and pre-eminently the

411

latter, as to think eternal glory but a fair and right-
eous compensation for it all ! Give me and mine
that better hope of the gospel ; " being justified
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is .
in Christ Jesus !" There is no other hope that de-
serves the name. To be justified possibly in any
other way is — always to he and to have been without
sin in the sight of God ! Every mortal is a sinner :
and must be justified imputatively and for Christ's
sake alone, by an act of pure and infinite grace ;
or condemned distributively and for his own sake
alone, by an act of simple and sovereign justice
forever.

6. The conditions of justification and salvation,
respectively and inseparably, as here propounded to
us, are worthy of special observation ; namely, to

BELIEVE WITH THE HEART, and tO CONFESS WITH

THE MOUTH. Thcsc are plainly the terms of life

ETERNAL !

To " believe with the heart," is the precise way
in which the things of religion are felt or realized,
spiritually and practically, by christians. It is a
better way than all the acts and orgies of fanati-
cism, than all the dreams of delusion, or the inspi-
rations of sorcery, or the imaginations of credulity,
or the artifices of impenitent remorse, or the got up
sensations of animal zeal, can ever substitute or
furnish. It is sober ; principled ; rational without
neology ; fervent with no extravagance ; and happy
without affectation. It is also useful ; delighting
in evidence ; capable of conviction ; firm in its po-
sitions ; noiseless and immutable. This is the kind

412

of christians we desire to see. " The Father seek-
eth such to worship him."

To " confess with the mouth " is to honor Christ
before men ; to own the blessed Redeemer in pub-
He ; to join his standing army and espouse his
cause ; and to furnish, by his command, such pro- •
per indications and signals to his officers and others,
as are made justly requisite to a recognition of us
on their part. Without a sound confession

THERE IS NO RECOGNITION AUTHORIZED. BcsidcS,

confession is said to be " unto salvation." This is
a terrible impeachment of their hopes who shun to
confess the Savior, or whose confession is so vi-
tiated that it were difficult to know what is to be
inferred from it. Is it Christ that they confess 1 or
Mohammed 1 or Confucius 1 or Zoroaster l or Swe-
denburgh I or George Fox 1 or some new impos-
ter 1 Is their confession enlightened or ignorant,
is it sound or heretical, is it intelligible or steeped
in stupid mysticism 1

But the things are connected. If we believe
aright, we so confess also. The faith governs the
confession, as good or bad. When both are right,
the party is diaphanous, clear as crystal, in religion ;
and God is " glorified in him." Then the heart
and the mouth respond to each other and to truth,
in happy concert. The mind and the manners, the
feelings and the words, what is within and what is
without, the soul and the body, in a word, the total
man, is Christ's, consistently, practically, influen-
tiaily, joyfully, and for ever ! This is religion.
Would to God that I could think, for then would

413

I cheerfully " confess," that such is the appropriate
religion of a Friend !

" Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature : old things are passed away ; behold,
all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17. Wo,
wo, wo, to the misery-making delusion of inward
light !

7. There are but two ways possibly of justifica-
tion before God : the first is to demonstrate that we
are and always have been perfect in holiness, ac-
cording to the requisitions of the law of God; that
is, to demonstrate here and hereafter that we have
never sinned ; for, if we have, we fall under the
curse of eternal justice. The other is — the way
of grace and righteousness by imputation in Christ
Jesus. Thus in the passage Rom. 10 : 1-10, the
apostle declares two ways only; and resolves the
self-righteousness of the Jews into their ig?iorance
of the divine method of justification, while he weeps
over them without hope, notwithstanding the " zeal
of God" which he bears witness that they had.
" For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about ta establish their own righteous-
ness, have not submitted themselves unto the righ-
teousness of God." The word " righteousness "
in all this connection respects the person rather
than the character ; and were better rendered "jus-
tification " in every instance. Thus; "the righ-
teousness of God," of which a whole nation was
" ignorant " and remains so to this day, means —
not the intrinsic equity of his nature, nor the rectitude
of his moral administration, nor any general aspect

414

of his justice ; though it implies them all ; but it
means the method which God has invented, adopted,
revealed, and provided in Christ Jesus, and from
which HE will never depart ; the evangelical me-
thod of justifying sinners. " For Christ is the end of
the law'' (as good as legal justification could be, to
all intents and purposes — to say the least of it) " for
justification, to every one that believeth." The dis-
closure of THIS GLORY OF THE GOSPEL is CXpreSsly

assigned by the apostle, Rom. 1 : 13-17, as one of
his chief reasons for wishing to preach it at Rome.
By the light of nature and the sagacity of men, it
never could be known. It was in the gospel alone
that it was revealed. "For therein is the righteous-
ness of God," that is, his method of justification,
" revealed to faith to be by faith : as it is written.
The just by faith (or the man who is justified by
faith) shall live ;" or be accepted, and saved in
Christ. The liberties I have taken with our trans-
lation, only exhibit the sense of the original more
plainly, as the scholar will see, and as many learned
commentators have shown. But what do Friends
know of this glory of the gospel of Christ ] I an-
swer, nothing, or next to nothing and worse than
nothing. Their system precludes it. Their igno-
rance is organized in its alienation. They con-
found it with sanctification, through their tradition
and their educated lack of competent instruction.

"I wot that through ignorance they did it, as did
also their rulers." And I would fairly warn a
Friend not to learn the doctrine of scripture on this
fundamental article — if he means to keep his cast:

415

for the two things are utterly incompatible. Be-
lieve the true doctrine of justification according to
the word of God, and it will give you a solid an-
chorage. By it both pharisaism and fanaticism will
together die. Its influence is steadily the same :
" that we henceforth be no more children, tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning crafti-
ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; but speak
ing the truth in love, may grow up into him in all
things, who is the Head, even Christ."

Barclay has written between 40 and 50 pages of
his "Apology" under the head of "Justification;"
in which he proves mainly this — that he never un-
derstood the subject !

It is with a perpetual mixture of pity and grief
and indignation that I plod through the desert of
his dreary and jesuitical lucubrations on this impor-
tant theme — to which pilgrimage I have condemn-
ed myself several times. I pronounce it mystical,
confused, fallacious, arrogant, heretical, and of no
solid perspicacity in the things of God. But he
must keep up the dignity of the inward light; and
by pretending to know every thing, vindicate the
honor of inspiration, his own and theirs. Hence
this quondam jesuit, trained as his noble mind had
been to a sophistry which ceased not to be the be-
setting sin of his life, blunders and flounders and
splashes along, like Bucephalus in a quagmire at
midnight. He reminds me constantly of honest
Considius, one of the lieutenants of Ccesar in his
Gallic wars, who reported to him an interesting

416

matter of fact, respecting the position of the enemy ;
Avhich he had just observed "with indubitable clear-
ness," and therefore " testified to " all in a hurry:
upon which report, a military movement of some
consequence was immediately ordered ; the whole
army was set on march ; a lofty hill-top eminence
was stoutly gained ; and the victorious troops ex-
nlted without a battle — for no enemy was there !
the lieutenant, in the inspiration of his zeal, having
reported an nnreal spectacle ; " quod non vidisset,
pro viso, sibi renunciasse ;" but with all the cer-
tainty of a man who misleads a multitude, and
even trepans a great commander, because he moves
too fast in his observations to possess himself of
the truth as it is, or to understand the subject of his
sanguine communications.

Not unwisely therefore does the saying of Luther
receive the homage of succeeding ages in reference
to this grand fundamental of Christianity — " ar-

TICULUS STANTIS VEL CADENTIS ECCLESIAE ;" THE
DOCTRINE BY WHICH THE CHURCH OR STANDS OR

FALLS : — a sentiment of which I scarce know whe-
ther more to admire the solemnity, the poetry, the
validity, the utility, or the piety! It deserves the
respect of the universe, as it conciliates the testi-
mony of the wise. To understand the doctrine of
justification ; to master the science of its relations
to the law and to the gospel, with correct and pro-
found discrimination ; to adjust it in the revealed
system, as it respects the atonement and the righte-
ousness of, Christ, the moral government of God,
the duty of sinners, and the hopes of men ; that

417

same great and wise Reformer also justly made hi;<
criterion of a qualified theologian and an accom-
plished minister. O how justly ! No man is fit
to preach who does not understand it ; who does
not aggrandize it to the perceptions of his hearers ;
who does not glory in it surpassingly himself! But
when was Quaker preacher such 1 I never knew
or read of an instance, even by approximation ! To
be such, is to be a Quaker no more. They do not
understand the subject. Barclay does not — pro-
batum sit.

C?" " It is by tills inward birth of Christ i7i man
that man is made just, and therefore so accounted
by God : wherefore, to be plain, [who ha« a better
right 1] we are thereby, and not till that be brought
forth in n^, formally, if we must use that word, jus-
tified in the sight of God ; because justification is
both more properly and frequently in scripture ta-
ken in its proper signification for making one just,
and not reputing one merely such, and is all one
with sanctification.^^ The italicising is his own. f
[ however will capitalize this sentiment — justifi-
cation IS ALL ONE WITH SANCTIFICATION ! And

sanctification, it seems, is all one with the mystic
"seed" in us set a growing ! What shall I say 1
Is this the way to expound the word of God ; to
sustain the protestant cause ; and to diffuse Chris-
tianity in the world I

Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis
Teinpus eget. . Vina.

418

Not such defenders can sustain llie cause ;

Or vindicate the truth's eternal laws ;

Or suit the age, or claim our just applause.

Reader, the whole dissertation is " a continent of
mud," resolvable into the substance of the precious
morceau I have quoted. It is a specimen of the
whole territory. It is the seminal nucleus whereof
all the total quantity is but the homogeneous ex-
pansion.

On the above, I would remark,

1. That he evidently dislikes the word justified.
" If we must use that word." Indeed ! How reluc-
tant to use one of the " words which the Holy Ghost
teacheth !" one of the richest in the vocabulary of
Jesus Christ ! one of the most glorious to authentic
hope ! I know the reason — neither the word, nor
the thing, suits the system he advocates. It ex-
plodes that system with mutual repugnance. The
matter is in his w'ay ; and yet he vaunts as if it
were an exact fit. If the word be " all one with
sanctification," how great the infelicity of its use !
Why say any thing in the Bible about justification 1
why not use one word only 1 and why does he write
so much to tell us that both are one and the same 1
" As many as resist not this light, but receive the
same, it becomes in them an holy, pure, and spirit-
ual birth — by which — as we are sanctified, so are
we justified in the sight of God." Thus his seventh
proposition, " concerning justification," proceeds, as
the thesis of his essay : in which there are twenty-
one lines of mythologic wisdom, without even the

419

word faith ia all his formal statement. The doc-
trine of evangelical faith is another enemy of their
system.

To behove in that light — is all they know of faith ;
and what they steal from the word of God to con-
firm their error, they pervert to the same end. The
faith of the gospel is intelligent ; is rational ; is
steady ; is above the feelings, as their balance and
their guide ; is just as devoid of fanaticism as of
infidelity ; is happy and peaceful ; " full of mercy
and good fruits, without partiality and without hy-
pocrisy." But how terrible is the delusion of sin !
The maniac maintains his sanity in the first place,
and construes his friends as his foes. The spirit
of false religion rejoices in the sparks of its own
kindling, and refuses to see itself as it is, in the
light of truth ! But its sentence will soon be exe-
cuted !

2. It is plain that Barclay confounds the distinc-
tion between person and character, between sancti-
fication and justification ; and is either ignorant of
the truth or worse — such a vender of " another gos-
pel" that if he were also " an angel from heaven"
he ought not to be countenanced in his darkness
and delusion ; in the destructive malaria of the in-
fluence he emits ! On one occasion this doctrine
of justification was disguised and incidentally vitia-
ted, by the apostle Peter himself, at Antioch in Syria.
It occurred in a way of practical " dissimulation" and
temporizing. But Paul would not endure it. "To
whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an
hour ; that the truth of the gospel might continue

420

with you." Hence, says Pau], "I said unto Peter
before them all," &c. He "withstood him to the
face, because he was to be blamed." He set him right
too, in a way magnanimous andpaulian indeed : and
Peter seems to have received the correction with a
" meekness of wisdom " which no one of his pseudo-
successors is known to have exemplified. Gal. 2.
The inference is — the cardinal importance of the in-
corrupt doctrine of justification, and the necessity of
resisting its corruption and its obscuration too wher-
ever they occur, no matter in whom and however in-
cidentally. What then are we to think of a whole
system that is destitute of the true doctrine ; that
wretchedly sophisticates it ; that supersedes and vir-
tually denies it ; and that, in its whole compagina-
tion of principles and its wordy ambages of ex-
planatory labor, does nothing but annihilate its
character and its glory 1 Let any enlightened
christian, ask Quakerism, where is my hope, where
my indemnity, where my Redeemer 1 But blindness
is contented — for it sees not what it loses : igno-
rance has no conception of what is to be known ;
and where the soul is removed from the knowledge
of the true gospel, and is habituated (for the devil's
greater pastime) to be amused with "another," it is
awfully probable that the siren will continue to sing,
and the song will not cease to enchant, and the en-
chantment will prevail till * outer darkness ' ends
the career. " O my soul ! come not thou into their
secrets : unto their assembly, mine honor, be thou
not united !" I bless God that I am no more one

421

of them. Let no man rashly censure me for
repeating this declaration !

3. "Because" — says he, "justification is both
more properly and frequently in scripture taken in
its proper signification for making one just and not
reputing one merely such, and is all one with
sanctification" — wonderful ! " Now the man Mo-
ses was very meek, above all the men which were
upon the face of the earth." How much meekness
does it require to deal with spiritual sorcery and
corruption! "Justification is all one with sanctifi-
cation ;" that is " its proper signification ;" it is
" more frequently in scripture taken " for sanctifica-
tion ; it does not mean " merely reputing one " to
be just; and "because" of this —

cui lumen ademptum !

The monster roars tremendous in his pain
Without an eye, and strives to see in vain !
Light is extinguished and he gropes insane.

Think, reader, how profanely he caricatures the
doctrine of God ; as if justification, as he would
vilify it, means to "repute merely" that one is just!
as if he were not justified by an act of God ! as if
it consisted in giving currency to a false report! a
fact without existence ! This is inspiration, I have
no doubt; but not divine inspiration. It is a fact,
and a glorious one, that every christian is justified
in Christ Jesus, and that this is the only way. It
is a fact that " God justifieth — and whom he justi-
fied, them he also glorified."

But justification is taken for sanctification "both

422

more properly and frequently in scripture "than —
what 1 where is the other subject of comparison 1 It
is at once implied, by necessity ; and slighted into
oblivion, by design. What then is that sense of justi-
fication which Barclay teaches is both infrequently
and less propci-ly connected with the word in scrip-
ture ] It is the sense which he dislikes, obscures,
and supersedes, with the darkness of his foxian
scheme of light. It is the sense of luther's all ;
the foundation of the church ; and the glorious con-
stitution of Jehovah! I have "searched the scrip-
tures " often with this very idea in my eye ; and
now I feel perfectly authorized to contradict his as-
sertion, and assert the contrary. The personal and
forensic sense of the word, justification, as opposed
to condemnation, is the primary and pervading sense
of the word in scripture. The obscuration of this
truth is like an eclipse of " the sun of righteous-
ness." But such obscuration is — Quakerism ! Take
an induction by the way — They know next to noth-
ing of atonement, whatever they say of it, using the
word and referring to the death of Christ ; as little
know they of the law of God, of the nature of hu-
man accountability, of the perfection of the divine
moral government, of the ill-desert of sin, of the
immutable principles of the gospel, and the method
of acceptance with God : — or they could not be so
dark, vacant, and erroneous, on that capital and
central doctrine of " Jesus Christ and him crucifi-
ed !" I summon the world to look at this and exa-
mine it for themselves. Those who understand the
gospel, and love it, as the thrice excellent truth

423

of God ; and who give themselves the trouble to
understand Quakerism and "judge righteous judg-
ment " concerning it, and such only, can appreciate
what I aver. As for others — I pity them ! Prov.
18 : 12, 13, 17. 20 : 25. 21 : 2, 3, 30. 26 : 12. Er-
ror is often very good-looking and sometimes ele-
gant in manners. It has the face of an angel,
the voice of a siren, and the heart of a fiend. The
truth of God is our only safety against its specious
and captivating arts. There is but one way of
being right, and many of being wrong. Rectitude
is one thing ; deviation is manifold. One way to
be straight ; many to be crooked ; one way only to
heaven — but how many millions make up the laby-
rinth of ways that lead to hell !

The word justification occurs thrice only in the
total volume of God : Rom. 4 : 25. 5 : 16, 18. and
there it means not sanctification in any instance ;
but the act of imputing righteousness to the person
of a believer. Its cognates, justify, just, righteous-
ness, righteous, and so forth, refer very often as
they occur, generally to the character indeed ; but
perhaps never to the exclusion of that justifying
" righteousness of God" as the primary idea, which
it was the hope of Abel and the zeal of Paul to at-
tain in consummation at " the resurrection of the
dead ;" saying, " that I may win Christ, and be
FOUND IN HIM, uot having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith." Phil. 3 : 9. and the whole chapter !
'* Even as David also describeth the blessedness of

424

the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
WITHOUT WORKS ; Saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not im-
pute sin." Rom. 4 : 6-8. What is this but the
beatitude of the man whose person is imputatively
righteous I who is accepted as righteous, nay " the
righteousness of God" in Christ? — in the only
WAY in which it is possible for a human being to be
justified in his sight ! But we need not quote the
whole Bible to convince a man of sense and can-
dor that Quakerism here at least is not Christianity.
In this central matter it is perverse and ignorant,
presuming and empty, deceptive and false.

There are two more cardinal proof-texts of Bar-
clay yet to be examined : and I premise that they
are quite considerable ones, in which their doctrine
is about as " excellently and evidently held forth "
as in any other passages in the total scripture ;
where the imperfection or plain mistake of our ve-
nerable and learned but not inspired translators
(more than two hundred years ago) may have given
unwittingly to Friends, just then soon about to rise
with their light, the specious appearance of a vindi-
cation and a sanction. I take them in order. The
first is John, 1:9. " That was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

Respecting the true sense of this passage, I ob-
serve, in opposition to their view ;

1. The text literally and strictly interpreted as
Friends are wont to have it, is entirely solitary and
without a parallel, I think, in the whole Bible. The

425

analogy or "proportion of faith" then, is against
it. Rom. 12 : 6.

2. It utterly fails them in respect to internal loca-
tion ; inasmuch as it does not say an inward light,
a light whose site is the soul's interior : and this it
ought to be shown to assert, before it can be legiti-
mately accounted to prove their hasty inference. It
tells of no such light. 3. There is positive evidence
to the contrary ; or, that it is an external light, as
one that casts its radiance upon an object, rather
than one that shines within a subject. This evi-
dence I draw from the meaning and use of the
original word <pLjri^ei, which had been rendered
with stricter accuracy, shines upon, than enlighteneth
or " lighteth ;" and so, being an external light, it
cannot favor the theory of Friends or be properly
called a divine emanation in the soul, or spiritual
instinct within us, or any such mystical foolishness.

The scholar will observe that the word is a de-
rivative and diminutive formation from ^cjg, light ;
and so means to throw some of its beams on a dar-
kened surface, as a candle in a large room enlight-
ens it, but is itself a light and much brighter than
the effalgence it emits. This view accords very
well with our unmystical theory of gospel light, but
not with their position.

I propose here to refer in order to all the other
places where the word occurs, that we may have
the usage of the sacred writers to show its mean-
ing: these places are ten only ; as Lnke, 11 : 36.
1 Cor. 4 : 5. Eph. 1 : 18. 3 : 9. 2 Tim. 1 : 10.
Hcb. 6 : 4. 10 : 32. Rev. 18 : 1. 21 : 23. 22 : 5.

426

There are besides two substantive formations from
the verb ; 2 Cor. 4 : 4, 6. or rather one that occurs
twice, and which it may be well to examine. How
does "the bright shining of a candle give us light 1"
4. There is no necessity of any sort that we
should so interpret the passage, as Friends, in their
rapid d priori presumptions or inspiration-way, are
wont with singular audacity to affirm its meaning :
this however is their way ; a perfectly homogene-
ous one ; like their first error and whole system.

(1) It may be diffi^renily rendered, without any
outrage to the laws of language, to read thus ;
" which coming into the world, lighteth every man ;"
where the participle comuig is construed to agree
with light and not with man. This version has had
the sanction of many respectable names, and espe-
cially of Dr. Campbell, that prince of philological
learning.

(2) It may simply refer to the catholic largeness
of the new dispensation, whose jurisdiction is pro-
perly all the world," and whose formal object is
" every creature ;" without all distinction of nation,
sect, or party ; it thus " enlightens " or shines upon
or toicard " every man that cometh into the world."

(3) It may signify merely that every one that ever
zvas truly enlightened obtained from " the word " all
his light ; which is plainly true. This appears pro-
bable when we reflect on the obvious scope of the
passage. The design of John, in the sublime in-
troduction of his gospel, is evidently to describe
and signalize the Eternal Word. He tells us
one thing and then another, all tending to evince

427

his divine eminence and the consequent inferiority
of all other hghts as dependent on him. On this
hypothesis, it may be thus paraphrased ; " never a
man entered the world, who was truly informed in
the things of God, but as the result of light commu-
nicated by Jesus Christ." This view makes the
sentence elliptical, and requires us to understand
after it, " who ever was truly enlightened." It also
accords with the known style of John. He abounds
with ellipses and bold expressions ; and his style
ought to be studied and understood, before a de-
tached passage is hastily interpreted against the
general scope of all his and all the other sacred
writings. Take one instance. " All that ever came
before me, are thieves and robbers." John, 10 : 8.
This is a plain and a bold ellipsis. Supply the words,
" professing to be the Messiah," after the first clause;
and you have the meaning. These words the
writer expects the reader to supply. Otherwise,
Moses, David, and Elijah, to speak of no others,
were " thieves and robbers." Friends sometimes
literalize extravagantly.

That one, or possibly all (for they are related) of
these three renderings are the truth, I am confident.
The style is dense ; the meaning manifestly gene-
ral and comprehensive. With respect to the first
version, it may be remarked that our translation
( that Cometh ) is unauthorized by the original. In-
stead of the relative and the verb there ought to
have appeared simply the participle active of the
verb come ; thus, " every man coming into the
world." Then, if coming agrees with man instead

428

of light, it proves too much — it proves that the man
is enhghtened in the act or moment of entering the
world ! If this be admitted, it may be inquired
what possible good can it do him \ and also, what
becomes of him afterward 1 Is he enlightened just
then, once for alH Is it a natal inserted light?
But if coming agrees with light, (and grammatical
law does in no way reclaim at the supposition,) then
the first rendering seems valid. Also, the next
verse favors the view. There the light becomes
personal, changing the neuter to the masculine ;
thus, " He was in the world, and the world was
made by him, and the world knew him not."

5. If the interpretation of Friends be correct,
then it was antecedently the design of the Apostle
and of the Holy Ghost to express their view ; but,
supposing such design, is not the text an evident
failure 1 or at best a very imperfect expression \ I
think it might be materially improved, especially by
Barclay, who, when he wishes to express the same
thing, uses such language as the following ; " the
saving and spiritual light, wherewith every man is
enlightened — there is an evangelical and saving
light and grace in all — the universality of the love
and mercy of God toward mankind (both in the
death of his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and in the manifestation of the light in the heart)
is established and confirmed against all the objec-
tions of such as deny it." I think, if I had been
about to express the doctrine of Friends just there,
that I should have used language, on such an im-
mensely important article, like to this : Every hu-

429

man being since the fall, that enters the world, has
an internal seed or principle of divinity in his heart,
hy attending to whose " objective manifestations "
he comes to the saving knowledge of God; either
with or without the assistance of outward means.
This is surely their doctrine. It is also very differ-
ent from that taught in the text. I consider it a
"damnable heresy." 2 Pet. 2:1.

This remark may be extended to the whole scrip-
tures. Why were they written at all, since a para-
mount rule, a superior light, pre-existed universally 1
why was so much written, when ten sentences or
none might have sufficed to put men upon their in-
ternal resources? and why was such a book writ-
ten, when the only possible use of any book could
be to inform men of a superior light, which they
could not see by its own beams, nor feel by its own
fire 1 Those best acquainted with the sober con-
tents of the whole Bible, are best qualified to an-
swer these questions — especially if (which is a rare
thing) they happen also to understand Quakerism.

6. But suppose it proves the reality of a univer-
sal inward light, shining constantly and yet near to
suffocation, somewhere above or below the dia-
phragm— not to be too nice on questions that tend
to researches topical and physiological, I discern
another difficulty. I could not descend into their
mine, without a better safety-lamp than Sir Hum-
phrey Davy could invent, against the detonation of
subterranean gases ! I have no " faith in the
effectual operation" of the non-descript glimmer
within.

430

Why 1 Plainly, because an old man might believe
in the existence of " a reed shaken with the wind,"
without making a walking-cane of it. Even if the
light within exists, and if this text proves it, the
very same connection proves that — it is not a rule
at all or a totally insufficient one, and in either case
disproves the doctrine of Friends. For (1) it is
not discernible by its own light. " The light shin-
eth in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended
it not." Hence the ministry is necessary, by the
word of God to teach men ; as John " was sent to
bear witness of that light," else undiscoverable.
But (2) John did not point out that light ; the idea
of such a splendor or spark within, seems never to
have entered his mind. He testifies of Jesus
Christ, points to " the Lamb of God," and tells the
people to "behold "him. v. 15-36. Hence (3) the
word of God is the rule, and this light, whatever
else it is, is plainly no rule at all ; but that word is,
led by which, we see the light and walk in it. I am
here not explaining the text, so much as confuting
their view of it. (4) The light, construed by ad-
mission as that of Friends, is plainly inefficacious.
Not one in fifty millions of its subjects ever knew
of any such thing in them, or even thought they did.
Hence it is insufficient and ineffectual. It is not
" able to make us wise unto salvation," without be-
ing ' outwardly' taught by Friends what to do with
it ! Hence it cannot be so superior to the " holy
scriptures " as to take precedency of them and re-
duce them to the rank of " a secondary rule." (5)
Soberly, we allege that there exists no supernatural

431

light in men ; and consequently, as the word of God
is the supreme law, the action of the living minis-
try commending that word to our cordial and prac-
tical regards, is reasonable and requisite. But
plainly the whole connection including the text,
"excellently and evidently" shows no inward light
in men or inward light at all. Least of all does it
support the heretical madness of a rule in men
superior to the inspired scriptures : and on the
whole, it is certain that there is not a particle of
distinctive Quakerism in that noble chapter —
which some have dared to defame by calling it
" the chapter of Quaker light !"

It may seem strange to all but Friends, or those
who know them, that I have spent so much time in
correcting their interpretation. But a few words
of error, especially when widely circulated and de-
voutly believed, require many words to refute them.
What an encyclopedia of vol uminoiis tod would
it properly require to follow Barclay through the
almost 600 octavo pages (densely printed — as this
is not) of his elaborate work, and refute all the
specious theological nonsense and error with which
an unprejudiced christian reader can see that it
abounds !

The only remaining passage to which Barclay
refers for " excellent and evident " proof, of a uni-
versal INWARD LIGHT in depraved sinners, " dead
in trespasses and sins " as they walk on the foot-
stool of God, which is cursed for their sake, Gen.
3 : 17. 6 : 5, 11, 12, is found in Titus, 2:11. " For

432

the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap-
peared to all men, teaching us," &c.

I know exactly how they use this text, and how
much they fondle it, and how often their inspiration
starts from its list to run the race of folly, fiction,
forgery and — devotional sm ! Often have I heard,
and seen, and wondered, and been mightily con-
vinced and moved, as many another deluded igno-
ramus was, while some spiritual sooth-sayer, male
or female, " borne sublime upon the cherub wings
of ecstacy " and soaring beyond all truth and evi-
dence, was inspired to convey to us its true import
exegetical. Often, as I well recollect, have I been
solemnly duped, as well as others, with the fallacy.
Does any one say, Well ! forgive them. We are all
liable to make mistakes. We must bear with one
another. Answer, I bear them any thing but per-
sonal ill-will ; God is witness : and in this sense, I
pardon them with all my heart, for deluding my in-
fancy, infatuating my education, and jeoparding my
soul — and for doing more mischief to some of my
own flesh and blood yet steeped profound in the
spell of their delirium ! I can compassionate and
would kindly repair the mistake of a fellow mortal,
black or white. But when he dares to charge his
errors and his moral agency identified upon his
Maker ; make him alone accountable for them ; and
claim the impunity of assumed, and most falsely
assumed, inspiration ; and this is, in cool and un-
exaggerated fact, their universal claim when-
ever THEY preach ; I feel as if a calm reprehen-
sion merely of their fault were criminal in me, es-

433

pecialjy as the error is of a kind at once so delete-
rious to the interests of souls, so dishonoring to the
great God, so impalpable to the populace and even
to the more intelligent of the general community.

Their argument now to be examined is much on
thiswise: Here it hath "appeared to all men;"
that is, " the grace of God that bringeth salvation "
hath : but how hath it so appeared ] Have " all
men " the scriptures and other outward means 1 not
so ! but all men have the witness of the Spirit in
their hearts ; and in that temple of the heart has this
grace appeared, &c. Then they appeal to their
hearers and apply their version, by confounding the
mere actings of conscience (armed it may be with
some remembered passages of " the word of God ")
with the agency of the Spirit in all men : and say,
Hast thou never felt something that reproved thee
in doing wrong, that commended thee in doing right,
and that could not be bribed or "removed into a cor-
ner]" And so forth to the end; while listening
hundreds are convinced, refreshed, and — deluded.
They often make episodes at such a time, when a
lucid interpretation moves that way their bowels, in
praise of the scriptures : as "given forth" by that
light ; as an outward testimony to be sure ; but still,
one in which the doctrine and views of " ancient
Friends" are "excellently and evidently" mani-
fested ; and as being, on the whole, "a secondary
rule " of considerable respectability.

But it is time to explode their fallacy. It may be
premised that the text truly yields them not the least
particle of support. The abstract proposition, that

434

such " grace hath appeared to all men," I fearlessly
pronounce to be as flat and certain an impossibility
IN POINT OF FACT as is the .monstrosity of transub-
stantiation. But still I should not so assert its fal-
lacy were it not for this cardinal fact — that THE
PASSAGE IS FALSELY TRANSLATED.
There is no such proposition in the original. Genu-
ine inspiration NEVER taught such a sentiment,
since the birth of time or before. Does the reader
say, How are Friends to blame for that 1 I answer,
they are not to blame for that. It was done before
they were born ; or George Fox either, eleven years
before the important epoch of his birth. But — what
is inspiration that is not to bla3IE for blundering
most egregiously, where a little honesty with the
school-taught " gift of tongues " perusing the ori-
ginal, exclaims, why no such proposition is there!

It is perhaps an error, though comparatively of
no importance, to render the adjective, one word,
acdrrjpiog, " that bringeth salvation." It seems ra-
ther too strong. Still, its strict English synonyme,
salutary, is not strong enough. It means " tending
to salvation ;" and perhaps " salvation-bearing," as a
compound epithet or qualifier, were nearl}' the sense
of the original.

In grammar, theology, and fact, I have now a
graver error to expose. Why is the word, " ap-
peared," made to govern (as if it did in the Greek)
the phrase, " to all men 1" It does not ; and it can-
not be so construed legitimately. The Greek does
not say that it "hath appeared to all men ;" but it
says that it is " salutary or salvation-bearing to all

4-35

men," wherever it comes, or (like the rising splen-
dors of the sun) wherever it appears.

Admit a digression here, (such an oasis is grateful
to the christian traveller in the sandy desert of con-
troversy,) to ask. What if men should respond to
the gospel appositely and heartily wherever it ap-
pears 1 Is it not what God cordially desires them
to do 1 It would bear salvation into their bosoms
universally ! It would roll its volume of blessedness
gloriously round the globe ! It would emparadise us
all in its large enclosures, as primeval Eden could not
our first progenitors ! And whose is the fault that it
fails of this splendid resuk ? Rom. 9 : 32, 33. The
gospel is in no sense at fault. Still, how glorious,
and jin grace how pre-eminent, is that discriminat-
ing sovereignty, supervening just here, "according
to the election of grace !" Rom. 11:5.

I will render it, as nearly as our idiom will admit,
(and that is very near, in this instance,) precisely
as the words occur in the original, though necessa-
rily with diminished force and certainty ; thus :
" For hath appeared the grace of God, which is sal-
vation-bearing to all men, teaching us," &c. In
the Greek the word hath appeared (Ejts^avyi) occurs
first of all in the sentence ; and cannot in any right
way affect the syntax or the sense of " all men ;"
which occurs at the end, in the dative, plainly go-
verned by the adjective which I have rendered "sal-
vation-bearing." If there is any defect in this evi-
dence, it is wholly relative. It respects simply the
fact that ordinary readers cannot appreciate an ar-
gument drawn from the Greek language. Still, or-

436

dinary readers may believe the facts which I allege ;
and no scholar, tyro though he be in Uteris graecis,
can help seeing the truths of the facts, if he will
open his Testament at the place. But if the facts
are true, so are the inferences : this any common
mind of common honesty can well discern ; and
all that is 'excellently and evidently' proved, by the
passage of Barclay's inspired and confident quota-
tion, is — that the inspiration of the Quakers is sor-
ry imposture, and that ihe word of God yields them
no support. Quakerism is NOT Christianity.

The apostle had been mentioning relative du-
ties, and enjoining their performance on different
classes and conditions of men, in the previous con-
text. He had specified " aged men, and women,
young women, young men, servants, masters,"
and others : then the text is introduced which de-
clares that " the grace of God hath appeared
that it brings salvation " to all men ;" and that it
" teaches us," &c. Mind, reader, it is one thing
for salvation to be brought to you ; and another
for you to accept it. Tendency is one thing ; ef-
fect another. Yet both are necessary to a realized
salvation. Again, what a dreadful error it is, which
the gloss of Friends, from the mere surface of a
mistaken and unskilful rendering, maintains ! Fare-
well, all missionary hopes and efforts ! " The grace
of God which bringeth salvation iiath appeared
TO ALL MEN !" This proposition, as such, is ab-
solutely and eminently false ! In the previous chap-
ter, verse 3, it is said that God hath " manifested his
word THROUGH PREACHING ;" but this is doubtful or

437

superfluous, if it is manifested in every heart ; if
it hath actually " appeared to all men " in their
minds ; if it hath a universal location in that
dark interior ! I cannot help censuring the error ;
and blaming, in the name of Jesns Christ, the peo-
ple that propagate it. It is a dreadful forgery against
the life of souls. Its central point, its fulcrum, and
its rest, that saving grace has appeared to all
men," is a most palpable falsity ; and deserves
to be displayed, that it may be known by those
who are now " ignorant of his devices " and blindly
accessary to his homicidal reign, who " was a
murderer from the beginning." And yet I know
that if the evidence takes hold of a Friend, it will
draw blood ! How can he give up his faith in the
" effectual operation," and the " objective manifes-
tations," of a " universal inward light 1" How ad-
mit the serene delusion of " early Friends V How
withdraw his confidence from Barclay, whose per-
formance in his esteem has been such a master-
piece as to non-plus forever the whole " CLERGY,
of what sort soever, unto whose hands his volume
may come ; but more particularly, the doctors,
PROFESSORS, and students of divinity in the univer-
sities and schools of Great Britain, whether pre-
latical, presbyterian, or any other;" to whom it is
thus pompously addressed, with all the holy defiance
of a man whose inward light renders him at least
infallible !

Having gone through the examination of the
illustrious proof-texts to which he refers us, in the
end of his " sixth proposition," as if they were not

433

all witnesses against him only, I shall conclude this
chapter with the inspection of some others ; almost
as illustrious and as powerfully in their favor, as
those we have just considered. Some stars are so
brilliant and beautiful that it requires a practised
astronomic eye to see it, if they do not belong to
the first-magnitude class. I here claim again to
speak as a witness ; and shall mention some that
occur indeed in their books, but which I have more
felt in their public ministrations, and which now I
know to be nothing but stupefactions of the truth —
as they inspire and enunciate them. O what a spec-
tacle for angels to weep at, is — a large Quaker
meeting of deluded souls, believing in things that
have no existence ! and disbelieving, as priest-craft,
the demonstrable realities of God! and trepanned,
the whole of them, with the conceit of immediate
inspiration, as the infallible light of their miserable
dreams and devout hallucinations ! Will George
Fox defend them in the day of judgment 1 Will he
be their " advocate with the Father V " But if any
man be ignorant, let him be ignorant." 1 Cor. 14 : 38.

"A portion of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal ;" as I have often heard them say, and
then dilate on the imagination. It is so quoted fre-
quently by Fox, Penn, and others. Some however
quote the passage as it is, 1 Cor. 12: 7. "But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal." Their meaning is plain. It is that
every one of us is distributively furnished with a
quantum sufUcit of inward light, as a starting capi-
tal for spiritual augmentation and "profit" to our-

439

selves ; that this is a gift of the Spirit in us all uni-
versally, not only " every maw," but every one of
the species, of whatever age, sex, or description ;
and that the grand business of life is — to walk by
that internal light as our " more excellent way," our
chief and paramount rule in religion ; the word of
God being sublimely postponed to it. So say Mar-
tha Rowth, Sarah Grubb, Job Scott, Robert Bar-
clay, and ancient Friends, Hence Quakerism
makes its regards chiefly concentre every way to-
ward the very penetralia of the soul, the blazing
focus of the light within ! And why not \ This
is consistency.

Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam
Posthabita coluisse Samo : hie illius arma,
Hie currus fuit : hoe regnum Dea gentibus esse,
Siqua fata sinant, jam turn tenditque fovetque. — Virg.

The goddess this is said to have preferred
Above all lands alone ; and to have cared
Less for deserted Samos : here her arms,
Her chariot here, her treasures, and her charms.
This for the nations she designed the port ;
The world's chief glory and its loved resort.
Would but the fates -permit ! and hence she tends
And cherishes its interests and defends !

Excuse the bathos of the application. It is like
falling from the chariot of the sun, into the inward
light (to say nothing of the fire) of the crater of
Vesuvius. I am not sure but a little of the ridicu-
lous may be of service. And if so, no thanks to
me ! No invention of mine has the right to be
credited. I can say with Young as pompously,

440

1 find my inspiration in my theme :
The grandeur of my subject is my muse.

Soberly, however, / am not inspired at all ; and
shall proceed in a common sense way, as Friends
do not — why should they 1 — to show them, or others
as the case may be, that the passage in question
belongs all to " the steeple-houses and the world's
people and hireling priests ;" at least that it is none
of theirs. It is not felonious to reclaim one's own
from pillagers ; however " sincere " they were in
finding what was not lost, or in making mistakes
systematically in the way of their vocation. But
who can forgive inspiration for making mistakes 1
Had I that plenipotentiary gift of God, I would care
nothing for critics of any sort, nor stoop to ask cle-
mency of the intellect, the feelings, or the con-
science of the reader.

Take a few specimens of high pretension from
the fountain head. Only a few, where hundreds
similar, with disgusting repetition, are seen. It is
not generally believed how high their claims rise.

" I saw," says Fox — meaning by plenary inspira-
tion, "that the grace of God, which brings salva-
tion, had appeared to all men, and that the mani-
festation of the Spirit of God was given to every
man to profit withal. These things I did not see
by the help of man, nor by the letter, though they
were written in the letter: But I saw them in the
light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immedi-
ate Spirit and power, as did the holy men of God by
whom the holy scriptures were written." On the

441

same page he says, " When the Lord God and his
Son Jesus Christ sent me forth into the world to
preach his everlasting gospel and kingdom, I was
glad that I was commanded to turn people to that
inward light, spirit, and grace, by which all might
know their salvation and their way to God ; even
that Divine Spirit which would lead them into all
truth, and which I infallibly knew Avould never de-
ceive any." Here is inspiration, infallibility, and
full equality with apostles and prophets "by whom
the holy scriptures were written !" Again, " The
Lord God opened to me by his invisible power, how,
' every man was enlightened by the divine light of
Christ.' I saw it shine through all, &c. This I
saw in the pure openings of the light without the
help of any man ; neither did I then know where to
find it in the scriptures ; though afterward, search-
ing the scriptures, I found it." Is this the kind and
degree of inspiration that must be excused and com-
passionated for mistakes, blunders, lying, and sor-
cery 1 for vending " damnable heresies " in the name
of God 1 for deluding thousands of silly and credu-
lous persons, the unstable and the ignorant, and
sometimes the educated and the respectable I Is it no
sin to poison the waters of the sanctuary 1 None —
but I forbear! I write for sober and unprejudiced
readers ; and am willing to rest the appeal with
them whether one can have too much zeal in the
exposure and extirpation of such a system? It is
not " an iniquity to be punished by the judges ;" but
it is an iniquity of aspects and relations infinitely
terrible, ff?' To expose their inspiration, as the

442

centre of their system, is one chief design of this
pubhcation. I view it as spiritual falsehood, sor-
cery, and delusion — almost without an equal in the
world. Modern cheats and inventions are quite in-
ferior. Mormonism is more gross and revolting.
St. Simonism, with its " family," is palpably ridicu-
lous and false. But Quakerism is more specious,
more seraphic, more impalpable every way, more
refined, a better counterfeit, more imposing : but in
some respects more criminal, more destructive and
subverting than either!

In respect to the true sense of the passage, I re-
mark,

1. That "every man" in that place, does not
mean every human being ; but every one of those
only, concerning whom demonstrably the apostle
speaks : every christian, or every member, and es-
pecially every officer, of the church of God. Read
the context and take the drift of his homily. He
speaks to the church and of the church collectively,
as " the body of Christ" with its many " members ;''
and each member, as appointed to a peculiar office ;
and each office, as differing in form and in magni-
tude, in honor and in importance, from the others ;
and all the offices, as having a common scope, a
common spirit, and a common glory in Christ.

2. Besides, "the manifestation" given is not a
passive one; not an objective revelation made to
us: but AN ACTIVE manifestation made hyus; "the
manifestation of the Spirit" to others. It were bet-
ter rendered or paraphrased thus ; " The duty and
office of manifesting the mind of the Spirit to others,

443

and so of diftusing his homogeneous ligfit in this
dark world, is confided responsibly to every one of
you, to every member of the body of Christ, in this
and all coming ages. True, all have not the same
office, nor each an office of honor equal to that of
others ; still, all are honored, all are obligated, all
are called and qualified for some appropriate service
in the church ; each is " necessary " to the others :
and by all in different ways, the Spirit is 'mani-
fested,' and his influence diflTused." The original
word, rendered " the manifestation," n (pavepQCig, oc-
curs only in one other place ; where the sense is
quite parallel and perfectly clear : 1 Cor. 4 : 2.
" by manifestation of the truth," i. e. actively man-
ifesting IT, " commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God." A preacher has a
noble office of " manifesting the Spirit," confided to
him ; and a poor, sequestered, pious old woman,
such as my eye at this moment mentally sees, on
her couch of debility, or in her chamber of privation,
a prisoner, (I mean a real individual — and many
others thei*e are,) has an honorable office also ;
manifesting the Spirit in a way of holy exemplifica-
tion, of cheerful and lucid faith in Christ, of patience
and pain, of resignation, constancy, prayer, and
words of grace, " seasoned with salt, that minister
grace to the hearers," and that are " good to the
use of edifying." Eph. 4 : 29. Col. 4:6.

3. The end of this distribution is declared, npog
ro dvfKpspov, " for the common benefit ;" or, as Dr.
Macknight has it, " to each is given the manifesta-
tion of the Spirit, for the advantage of all." This

444

is very diverse from the view of Friends. Accord-
ing to them, it is, as I said, a private capital at
starting, to be improved for the individual behoof
of its possessor in every case ; it is that without
which we should scarce be accountable, and with
which our grand business in life is —

" To turn our optics tji upon't.
# « * # «

" Strange too that men of inward light
" Dont draw bonds and mortgages by't !"

If this is ridiculous, I cannot help it ; it is the
folly of Quakerism, a monstrous spiritual hoax, that
more injures thousands than telling them of it can
injure any. Clear is my own conviction that the
good of souls and of society requires its exposure ;
and that / am " manifesting the Spirit," according
to the office given me, in some humble degree,
when I hold it up to the scorn of conscience and
the abhorrence of mankind. I do it " for the ad-
vantage of all ;" or, the common benefit.

We may here see the causes that freeze the feel-
ings of Friends in respect to the christian charities
of the day. They believe that " the grace of God,"
the very grace " that bringeth salvation," hath ac-
tually " appeared to all men ;" and that every hu-
man being has an inserted quantum or " manifesta-
tion of the Spirit :" and if we or the apostles be-
lieved so — why, what silly dotards, to " go into all
the world and preach (audibly proclaim and orally
communicate) the gospel to every creature," at such
hazard, pain, and cost of every sort ! Hence their

445

equivocal love, (with very few exceptions,) rather
their ill disguised antipathy, to Bible societies and all
such institutions of purely spiritual charity ! Hence
I endeavor to show the real or more potent moral
causes of their armed neutrality. All however ought
to concur with me and do the same. Christians are
one. 1 might anglicise the original word, rendered
"to profit withal," and say that christians are a sym-
PHERiAN SOCIETY ; a Spiritual corporation, for mu-
tual aid and mutual action, against a common foe,
and with a common motive, bond, and ultimate re-
ward. Glorious community ! Blessed common-
wealth ! " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ; thy
tabernacles, O Israel ! Surely there is no enchant-
ment against Jacob, neither is there any divination
against Israel : according to this time it shall be
said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God
WROUGHT ! Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and
cursed is he that curseth thee !" One reason that
Friends adduce or feel, why they are so sparsely
and so seldom seen in the operations of the Bible
cause, is — the peculiar testimonies given them to
maintain ! A better version of the matter is — their
abandoned sectarianism ; the misrepresentation (not
" the manifestation) of the Spirit " in their charac-
teristic way ; the important duty of sustaining their
clanish singularities ! And pray, do they think it
the best way to fight — to keep out of the way ! can
they best " maintain" ihe'xr: singular way of speech,
behavior, and attire, and other important testimo-
nies, by withdrawing from their presence whom
such lucid examples and protests as theirs were

446

given on purpose to instruct or improve or w^arn 1
What martyrs of a peculiar order, these modern
ones, for the sake of " weighty testimonies !" The
fact is, they have ordinarily too much good sense
or morbid sensitiveness, not to be ashamed — as
they certainly are, and in this I praise them — of
their own testimonies, in good and intelligent so-
ciety ! They have a great many ingenious circuities
and evasions, by which to slip along with their " tes-
timonies," without collision, and without manifest-
ing a single ray or particle of light from the illumi-
nated interior, that might as well be " under a
bushel" at once, for all the demonstration it makes!
" For whatsoever doth make manifest is light."

Truth is properly the monopoly of no man. I
have no private creed in religion ; nor do I suppose
that any man ought to have. Truth is the testi-
mony of the Spirit, given for " manifestation " uni-
versally ; and when purely manifested, " the Spirit"
is manifested too, just as much and identically.
With the light of the Spirit of God I identify myself
morally ; the whole of me ; to live and to die, for
this world and the next. O for grace to be thus
purely and perfectly devoted ! The man that coun-
teracts that light, is no ally of mine, whoever he
may be ; I am his moral enemy, because I oppose
him as such, toto caelo, toto orco ; and " go the
whole " in the argument. " What concord hath
Christ with Belial 1 or what part hath he that be-
lieveth with an infidel ?" 2 Cor. 6 : 15. And we
may add emphatically ; " what communion hath
LIGHT with darkness 1" or legitimacy with usurpa-

447

tion and imposture ? Let the insipidity of a semi-
christian answer.

This text of " manifesting the Spirit," as refer-
ring to the duties of " every man " in the church,
is one of immense practical concern ; rich in its
moral treasures ; a grand theme for a sermon ap-
posite to the present state of the churches ; and
worthy of large and thorough application : but I
forbear, having other ends that now invite me to
their pursuit.

The passages of scripture which Friends pervert
are very many. Their leaders do it, " and hold
themselves not guilty ; and they that slay them
say, * Blessed be the Lord ; for I am rich :' and
their own shepherds pity them not." It were easy
for me to write another book, of texts disabused of
their corrupting glosses and shameful sophistry.
To sophisticate however is " not a vain thing " for
them ; it is their " life." Quakerism must die the
moment it understands the subject and learns to
reason fairly. I will select a few passages, say
three ; of whose gross perversion I have been ex-
perimentally connusant ; and the last in the series
of which is worthy of distinguished consideration —
since it seems to me, as certain as any mathema-
tical proposition that can be named, to explode the
foundations of Quakerism, and to demonstrate the
supremacy of the scriptures forever.

" He that beheveth, maketh not haste." That is,
he sits " still " in Friends' meeting. A kind old
Friend, a preacheress, for whom indeed I feel a re-
ciprocal kindness, (for she is very " sincere " in her

448

errors,) once quoted it to me with great tenderness,
just before I left the society. It meant, pause, " get
still," and show the temper of him "that believeth,"
by — holy inaction, serene stagnation, a do-nothing
kind of piety ; avoiding "the activity of the creature"
and the learning of the colleges ! Ah ! this tenderness
of a refined and elegant, a really kind and clever
Quaker lady! It is very persuasive. It is a charm of-
ten of sovereign fascination and success. It is much
more potent than argument. I bear them record
that their ladies are, some of them, characteristically
refined, chaste, and stainless in purity of behavior ;
possessed of qualities that adorn private life, gild the
social circle with a lustre of comparatively innocent
delight, improve the manners and sentiments of
youth, and constitute about as fine a substitute for
the religion of the gospel as one will find any where !
But — to the text. It occurs in Isaiah, 28 : 16. Com-
pare it with Rom. 10 : 11. 1 Pet. 2 : 6. Its true sense
is plain, as quoted in the New Testament. Friends
quote it wrong in form, as well as substance. It is,
He that believeth, shall not make haste." It is
future, not present ; and it means, he shall not
retreat, run away in clandestine " haste," " be
ashamed," or "confounded," in the day of judg-
ment : that is, he shall not, who " believeth on Him"
that is the foundation-stone of Zion, laid there as
the basis of the church by the Eternal Master
Builder. It has no affinity with the softness and
the insipidity of what they chiefly value and inspire.

There is another, which they quote as it is not,
in favor of their light, with very great unction and

449

frequent enlargement. It respects " the great in-
ward Teacher " of their faith ; as one that cannot
" be removed into a corner," they say. Paul was
once put into " a basket " and " through a window "
" let down by the wall ; and in that way escaped
the hands" of "the governor under Aretas the
king." This was as bad to the poor Damascenes
or the christians of that city, as *' removing their
teacher into a corner."

Quere, Is the cavity interior, where the elegant
little light is inserted, and where it burns almost
suffocated sometimes by " the activity of the crea-
ture," is it triangular, quadrangular, oval, spherical,
cylindrical, or of some other and better propor-
tions 1 It gets into " a corner," it seems, only by
removal. But we will not press the inquiry. We
have a promise to consider. " Thine eyes shall see
thy Teacher;" i. e. the eyes that see the flame of
the inward light. " And thine ears shall hear a
word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye
in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye
turn to the left." Isaiah, 30 : 20, 21. To cut short
the riddle, and some treasured anecdotes of curious
fact that I could pleasantly rehearse in its solution,
the word teacher happens to be plural in the text !
and the original more evidently demonstrates that
ouTWAKD HUMAN TEACHERS are meant, in both
places where the word occurs in the 20th verse.
Thus and nix:-nj<. How they dislike the

plural ! In view of the denounced invasion and
calamity of the Jewish nation, and especially of the
metropolis, the prophet consoles the church with

450

this assurance : " Though the Lord give you the
bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet
shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner
any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers :
and thine ears shall hear," &c. How unfortunate
in proof-texts are ancient Friends and modern ones
too ! We may infer from this passage the follow-
ing things : that competent religious teachers are
meant ; that it is a great and precious gift of God
to have them ; and that it were better to lose all
temporal riches than the privilege of their ministra-
tions, which are to be esteemed an appropriate com-
pensation in times of worst calamity. Jer. 3 : 12-15.
It puts out the light that is in every man, superior
to the scripture as a rule ! At least it takes no note
of that inserted little focus that " boasteth great
things." How confounded I once saw a really es-
teemed and honored Friend, by producing the pas-
sage in a parlor and reading it coolly to the eye
and ear ! Confounded, sorry, frightened ; — but " of
the same opinion still !"

I now come to the last text to be considered
here ; and to which I have already alluded. It is
found in 2 Pet. 1 : 19. After quoting it, I shall re-
mark on its history as connected with Friends ; and
then on its meaning, as subverting their system.
The translation is in the main good ; but I will
change it a little, by way of expressing more truly
the sense of the original. " We have also the pro-
phetic word made more firm : to which word ye do
well taking heed, as to a light that shineth in a dark

451

(and dreary) place, until the day dawn, and the star
of morning rise in your hearts."

That Friends do not feel quite certain that they
know what this means, is evident in one instance at
least ! and yet it is an awkward position for them
to take, on more accounts than one. In an edition
of Dr. Maclaine's Mosheim, published in " New-
York, 1821," I find near the end about 45 pages of
"VINDICATION OF THE QuAKERS," Smuggled iuto
the fourth volume ; where, among other documents,
is one of " Joseph Gurney Bevan," of London, in
which he alludes to this text, in connection with
George Fox's career, and makes in the margin
the following note : "It seems by the way, not
easy, in our translation, to find what constitutes
the comparison, in this passage." Poor man, "not
easy " — had he been trying hard to find it, preacher
as I suppose he was ! A very little sane contem-
plation of the context, I should judge, would relieve
his difficulties, even if he could search only " in
our translation." But his mighty master Fox was
in the same predicament or a worse one. Bevan is
commenting, in connection with the note above
cited, on Fox's exemplary and singular trials in re-
ference to this noted text. In the journal of Fox,
he records his own exploits in his own incompara-
ble way ; and I ask leave to transcribe the total
paragraph. The importance of the principles in-
volved will warrant it.

'•' As I went toward Nottingham on a first-day in
the morning, with friends to a meeting there, when
I came on the top of a hill in sight of the town, I

452

espied the great steeple-house ; and the Lord said
unto me, ' Thou must go cry against yonder
great idol, and against the worshippers therein.' I
said nothing of this to the friends, but went with
them to the meeting, where the mighty power of the
Lord God was amongst us ; in which I left friends
sitting in the meeting, and went to the steeple-
house. When I came there, all the people looked
like fallow ground, and the priest, like a great lump
of earth, stood in his pulpit above : he took for his
text these words of Peter, ' We have also a more
sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in
your hearts.' He told the people this was the scrip-
tures, by which they were to try all doctrines, reli-
gions and opinions. Now the Lord's power was
so mighty upon me, and so strong in me, that I could
not hold ; but was made to cry out, ' Oh ! no ; it is
not the scriptures ;' and told them it was the holy
Spirit, by which the holy men of God gave forth
the scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and
judgments were to be tried ; for it led into all
truth, and so gave the knowledge of all truth.
The Jews had the scriptures, yet resisted the
Holy Ghost, and rejected Christ, the bright morn-
ing-star. They persecuted him and his apostles,
and took upon them to try their doctrines by
the scriptures, but erred in judgment, and did not
try them right; because they tried without the Holy
Ghost. As I spoke thus amongst them, the officers
came, took me away, and put me into a nasty stink-

453

ing prison; the smell whereof got so into my nose
and throat that it very much annoyed me." Thus
far George.

We may now observe certain things that explain
the text ; that demonstrate the perfect correct-
ness of the preacher, called by his invader and re-
viler " a great lump of earth," in the position he ad-
vanced ; that conclude absolutely against the inspi-
ration of Fox and show of consequence his wicked
fanaticism ; and that make the passage before us a
luminous protest of heaven against their whole sys-
tem, and in favor of the scriptures as the only book
of inspiration in our world and the highest rule of
action in religion. If these things appear, one may
ask the nature of that morality that disturbs wor-
shipping assemblies of christians in the very time
and action of divine service ; that pronounces the
service "not divine ;" that raises riot and confusion
in the house of God ; that molests (and this it did
in numerous instances at first, and as long as it
could conveniently or with impunity, and would
now do with the worst kind of persecution if it
dared) others in their conscientious public devo
tions ; and that, after having provoked the inter-
ference of the civil authorities, complains of severi-
ty, and uses its ostentatious sufferings to elicit the
sympathies of the ignorant, to practise on the weak,
and to facilitate the imposture of its own delusion !

I do not say that Friends never suffered wrong-
fully ; or that justice was not often perverted in
their punishment ; or that they were not cruelly
persecuted in many instances : but I do say that

454

they were too often the aggressors, and the consci-
entious spiritual persecutors of the first part ; and
that such persecution as theirs, characteristically
theirs, is perhaps the most intolerable in the world,
as themselves would now evince, I fear, if theirs
were the power and the ascendency in the state
— for we may hardly trust the "tender mercies"
of men irresponsibly any where I I say also
that in either hemisphere they were punished by
the civil arm less for their doctrines as religionists,
than for their practices as religionists, against the
rights of others and the laws and order of civil so-
ciety, going " naked for a sign,"^^ disturbing the
worship of others, religious railing and abuse,
calumniating all modes and ministers of religion
except their own, and denouncing others in the
coarsest and most offensive style. What could be
worthier of censure from "the officers," and of
their power interfering in the case, than the con-
duct of Fox in the occasion himself describes 1
But that occasion was only one of hundreds ; in all
which he was inspired ; the inspirer only was ac-
countable ; he was identified with God ; and to ani-
madvert on his ways and doings were sacrilege !

" We have also the prophetic word made more
firm " or permanent : ^sSaiorepov tov npo^yirixov
Tjoyov. " More firm " — than what \ What is the
other subject of comparison, which is disparaged
in the argument \ Friend Bevan, we remember,
thought it "not easy to find." A fox hunter of
this sort, is often at fault when the game is near
him, and quite visible to those who prefer the light

455

of heaven to inward darkness. Read the previous
verses, where it is as plain as day ; and as " easy
to find" as it is to attend to what "the Spirit saith
to the churches," even "in our translation." Alas!
how hard for some illuminees "to find" the sense
of revealed truth ! The reason is plain. The re-
cipe of their darkness and mistake, the amulet of
their preservation from its influence, is that forgery
and folly — " the light within !" well may they take
up the lamentation; "Therefore is judgment far
from us, neither doth justice overtake us ; we wait
for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but
we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like
the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes : we
stumble at noon-day as in the night ; we are in
desolate places as dead men." I have no words in
which to express my grief, shame, pain, and indig-
nation, at a system of delusion so deceitful and so
fixed with its talons in the blood of its prey !

In the previous verses of the chapter, 16-18, Pe-
ter refers to the glorious scene of the transfiguration,
which himself and James and John were the privi-
leged triumvirate to witness. See Matt. 18 : 1-9.
Mark, 9 : 2-10. Luke, 9 : 28-36. These three were
several times selected to witness scenes of privacy
and wonder, which they were especially to attest
afterward to others, for the confirmation of their
faith. Matt. 26 : 37. Mark, 5 : 37. So here. The
noble apostle tells what they saw and what they
heard ; " when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, ' This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.' And this voice which

456

came from heaven we heard, when we were with
him in the holy mount." O privileged place ; dis-
tinguished hour ; exalted and glorious converse !
What would we give to share such transcendent
favor ! So near to heaven ; " eye-witnesses of his
majesty ;" hearing the very attestation of the voice
of God !

While his readers might so indulge or frame
their sentiments, the apostle interposes, as if to
say ; " The pageant was indeed gorgeous and as-
tounding. I almost swooned at the glare of its
radiance ; and knew not what to do or where I was.
But let none envy us ; none especially who have the
Bible ! There " the prophetic word is " made " more
firm," more permanent, more complete for every
desirable purpose. Jesus Christ is its all pervading
theme : and instead of a voice so transient, so se-
cluded, so dense and brief in its comprehensive.im-
port, commending him to your confidence ; you have
a volume of accomplished and accomplishing truth,
equally divine, equally from heaven, equally intelli-
gible. Peruse it, meditate it, follow it forever."

The prophetic word as spoken on mount Tabor,
and the prophetic word made "more firm" in the
scriptures ; these are plainly the subjects of com-
parison : as Friend Bevan himself might have seen ;
or any other ignorant man that could look at the
context, and take the scope or simply the continuity
of the argument. Does any man doubt that the
Bible is meant, by the " light that shineth in a dark
place !" The immediately following verses make
it obvious : "knowing this first, that no prophecy of

457

the scripture is of any private interpretation ; [or
origin, as some prefer ;] for the prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
verses 20, 21. This we ought to "know first"
or chief!

I have said that the true and plain sense of this
text is ruinous to the pretensions of Quakerism.
For—

1. It shows the superiority of the scriptures as a
rule. The voice miraculous that he had just pane-
gyrized to our wonder and our faith, is less firm,
less permanent, less full, less satisfactory, less every
way to be desired, than the prophetic word of scrip-
ture. Will any one now say that his own ' inward
light' is superior 1 But grant for a moment that it
is — how it demonstrates the ignorance or mental
weakness of the apostle, who in commending his
readers to a superior light to that on the mount,
never mentioned the glorious rule of Friends, which
makes the scriptures " secondary" by its own nobler
effulgence ! He surely knew nothing of it.

2. It shows the practice of primitive christians ;
" whereunto — ye take heed ;" in walking by the rule
of scripture. It shows also the commendation of
God for that cause. " Ye do well," says the apostle ;
encouraging their adherence and piety. But he
does more. He puts an imprimatur upon the excel-
lence of the scripture, and its spiritual utility in the
scheme of salvation, its subserviency in the constitu-
tion of God throughout the whole process of piety
in the soul, that seals its value as supreme ; that

458

shows it, from the very nature of its office and its
use, the paramount rule in rehgion ; and that shows
as well the nature of religion, vital, genuine, sober,
enlightened, and true religion, as distinguished from
all counterfeits ; for we "do well taking heed to its
light" as long as we sojourn in this "dark place
and " till the day dawn and the star of morning
arise in our hearts." The morning-star, " sure
pledge of day, that crowns the smiling morn," is
used in scripture as the sparkling image of hope.
Rev. 2:28. 22:16. Col. 1 : 27. 1 Tim. 1 : 1. It
rises here "in the heart;" implying delighted and
purified affections in religion, as connected with
the influence of hope in Jesus Christ. 1 John, 3 : 3.
It is plain that this experience is consequent upon
rightly " taking heed " to the light of scripture.,
" The dawning of the day " is much cotemporane-
ous in nature with the rise of the star of morning ;
that beauteous phosphor (<pa)a(popog) of the dappled
orient, that glittering harbinger of splendid day,
that bright precursor of the sun, shining in his glory!
I care not to analyze poetically or rhetorically the
force and finish of the figures, picturesque and glow-
ing and apposite as they are : but v/ould say in
brief, they evidently refer to the whole of experi-
mental i-eligion ; they claim the instrumental cause
of scripture truth for all that is genuine in our ex-
perience ; they require us to elevate and honor that
" light " as paramount ; and there is no reasonable
fear of dishonoring the agency and office-work of
" the eternal Spirit," by following " what he saith
unto the churches," respecting the end for which he

459

furnished us with his own thrice blessed word ! It
appears evident that the figures, of the " day dawn-
ing" and " the star of morning arising in our hearts,"
are in apposition ; the latter being an expUcation of
the former, and both referring to piety in this world,
as viewed in connection with its consequent and cer-
tain glorification in the next. Here at best it is but
the progress or the perfecting of authentic hope ; it is
comparative night or the dawning only, of the day
of everlasting holiness and glory. " The way of the
wicked is as darkness : they know not at what they
stumble. But the path of the just is as the shining
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day." Reader, do you hope on a death-bed to say,
I have fought a good fight," unless you can also say,

" I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH T' If UOt, then ' TAKE HEED

to the light that shineth in a dark place ;' and beware
of false lights, inward lights, and blind guides —
however smooth and affectionate they seem !

Errors not soon corrected :
Though few learn not in riper years
That man when smoothest he appears,

Is most to be suspected. — Altered from Cowper.

Give me a man of wisdom, of principle and moral
courage, of honesty and steadiness.

3. It represents the scripture as a most precious
treasure, invaluable and solitary ; and the ruin of
the world without it: "a light that shineth."
It shines steadily, purely, benignly, certainly, su-
perlatively. And it is one, not many ; a unit, not a
plurality ; its light is all homogeneous, unique, di-

460

vine. Besides, It shineth " in a dark place ;" a
place of darkness and pollution : sv avx^-zipci totiw.
Such is our world. So God views all the inward
light of nien. Reader, suppose you were travers-
ing, for instance, the tunnel of the Thames, or
some hideous mine or cavern of the earth, or rather
the catacombs of Paris ; were marching whh one
lighted flambeau only, along the well described but
narrow path of that awful subterranean receptacle
of " dead men's bones " if not of " all uncleanness ;"
and had advanced some one or two miles of your
way from the aperture of yom facilis descensus, and
were beginning to think of the returning process ;
revocare gradum ; would you not look at the pre-
cious light in your hand with a high and hearty
estimate, " midst upper, nether, and surrounding
darkness 1" How dependent you would feel on its
friendly beams! Now, suppose two strangers should
appear, or two voices greet you in the dark ; one
would assure you of a superior light to be seen by
just shutting your eyes and looking at the interior
of yourself ; the other would commend you to
value that in your hand, as " a light that shineth in
a dark place," to " take heed " to it, and trust no
other medium of vision or of conduct, till you ar-
rived at open day, or saw clearly the peering light
of the aperture above : would you not require to be
made very sure indeed of the comparative infe-
riority of the light in your hand, before you would
either throw it away or trust the other, in such " a
dark place f There truly some visitors are said
to have lost their way and left their own bones in

461

pledge to the ghastly populace around them. But
what of thatl To lose one's way as a pilgrim to
the world of spirits ! to be guided wrong in our
blindness by one as blind ! to be deluded of the
path of life, and to forfeit our hope and our soul as
the price of reckless credulity, " believing a Ue !"
This is terrible. — Often is it — history too.

4. The preacher who took the text, and whom Fox
so abused, interrupted, contradicted, while peacea-
bly officiating in his own desk and to his own peo-
ple, and according to his own and their conscience

of duty, WAS MOST CERTAINLY RIGHT IN HIS POSI-
TION ; he was telling the truth, the pure and proper
sense of his text to his hearers ; and more truth
than Fox ever told ; when that foolish and rash
zealot commenced his offensive insolence, as " the
Lord said unto " him ! This is evident from the
showing of Fox himself. Whence, I would de-
mand, with feelings of tenderness to them,

5. What degree of silliness or sinfulness does it
require to accredit his inspiration ! If here deluded ;
if here demonstrated infallibly to have been a mere
mountebank of spiritual fanaticism at large, and
furious in annoying others and all others that would
not follow him ; if here his certain converse with
" the Lord " turns out to be an abominable decep-
tion, a pre-eminently stupid falsehood : who knows
that on other occasions, where he manifested the
same temper, manners, principles, he was any more
inspired 1 Where is the proof of his inspiration at
all ] Shall we go to his " miracles to find it 1
His " prophecy " certainly came " by the will of

462

man." That of "the Holy Ghost" is of a kind
every way different, superior, accompanied with
complete rational evidence.

The general assembly of the presbyterian church,
at their annual sessions, A. D. 1804, passed the
following declaration of their sober views on this
subject : and if it had been legislated on purpose,
it could not more aptly condemn the principles of
Quakerism, as exemplified in this and like outra-
ges of Fox and his similars of the society. " We
strongly bear our testimony against those persons
who pretend to immediate impulses and revelations
from heaven, those divine communications which
were given only to the prophets and apostles, who
were appointed by God to reveal to mankind the
way of eternal life. When men presume that the
Holy Spirit, contrary to the established order of
Providence, interferes, by particular impulse, to
direct them in all the common affairs of life ; when
they deem themselves to be impelled by him, to
particular acts, or particular religious exercises,
contrary to the established order of the gospel and
the obvious duties of the moment ; when finally,
they pretend lo miraculous powers or prophetic in-
fluences and the foretelling of future events : all
these are evidences of a wild enthusiastic spirit,
and tend, eventually, to destroy the authority of the
word of God, as the sole rule of faith and practice."
I bless God that such remains to be the unanimous
averment and testimony of that large denomination,
whose divisions are all on smaller and compara-
tively inconsiderable points, for the most part : — and

463

whose very dissidence not more evinces the imper-
fection of christians and even christian ministers in
this world, than it demonstrates also, in respect to
presbyterians, their common freedom of thought,
their principled teimc'ity of right, their high common
estimate of the value of truth, and their charac-
teristic purpose, by the grace of God, to " strive to-
gether"— and may it ever be " standing fast in one
spirit, with one mind ! — for the faith of the gospel :
and IN NOTHING terrified by their adversaries ; which
[fact of opposition for the sake of the truth] is to
them an evident token of perdition, but to us of
salvation, and that of God." I bless God, not only
that I am converted, as I trust, from Quakerism to
Christianity, but that I belong to this very denomi-
nation of the church of Jesus Christ ! And my
soul's 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 1"

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 every
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 " 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 learning, 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 sinc-qua-non of office not
only, but of standing also in tlie 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 X
For Fox makes the Lmcgiver every where his su-
perior ri^Zf; 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-

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 X 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,

nnderstandeth it," (Matt. 12 : 23,) loves it, trusts
it with his heart, and gives his life cordially 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 Kmg of kings.

It now occurs to consider, in relation to the 'lu-
ciferous aura' of Friends,

8. The powerful decision of many passages
OF the word of God against it.

After treating this branch of the subject, it would
remain to despatch two others ; namely, accord-
ing to original announcement,

467

9. The innu3ierable contradictions of that
LIGHT AS it shines from 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 scaixe 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 uso the word PARAMOUNT, becausc
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 fujvdamentally important.
The only hope I can have for the salvation of a

469

Friend — I speak my own conviction as it is — re-
poses in this one qualifier; for ought I know he
may be better in his feehngs 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 1 " 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 !^ 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 ouffht 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 by]" Edward Burroughs says; "that
we own to be the rule of our conversation, which
they [Abel, Moses, and others] walked by, 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 JeiD 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 read 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 m autho-
rity 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 those are the pro-
phets of the devil who claim our charity and scorn
our communion, and who vaunt themselves ckris-

472

iians of utmost purity and genuineness, as Avell as
preachers 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 worse 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 3IY SOLE3IX PROTEST AND WARMXG 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 snpremacy 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 them 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 m4)unt 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

474

" For verily, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from
the law, 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 T' 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 em masse, exalting a certain interior
light, said to be universal, " above " them X 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 familiarly 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

m 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 religion.
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

478

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.".-£o 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 V 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 Godl" 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 I The Spirit of God
answers in effect ; no ! you shall seek to God ; as
he speaks to you in the scriptures. Would not aity
nation seek to their 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 ] 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 accountableness ; 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 ? things that really unprejudiced learners could
never find \ and that profound scholars in " the law
of their God" know it no where contains] 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 his censures, his criticisms, his criminations :
and these common, mutual, universal ! He says al-

482

SO that these demonstrate (what philosopheris call
the law of nature ) the accountable constitution and
moral organization of every individual of the spe-
cies, whether 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 wayl" He proceeds;
**For what if some did not believe 1" believe what I
"the effectual operation of the light that is in eve-
ry man T' no ! but " the oracles of God." Well ;

483

'•'shall their unbelief make the faith (faithfulness)
of God without effect I 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
judgest. 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

effectually and 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 Tiiou 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 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 beliemng 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, infallibly, 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 : 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 iniqiiity ; 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 ? I think
it is. What want we more 1 What other rule,
what "more noble and excellent" one do we need,
who have one divinely commended to us, as " the
HOLY SCRIPTURES THAT ARE ABLE TO MAKE

48G

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 1 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
dixit of a Quaker 1 (3) Ought you not to have
more and greater evidence in favor of the
" light," than you now have so amply in favor of
" the holy 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"! (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 scrips
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 C0NFIR3tATI0N of the CXCcl-

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? 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 man's 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 1 I answer, jesuitically and shamefully alone I
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 npog
£;if)';^oi'for(I?"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 I The scripture 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 powerful propositions into one dilute
and quakerized ; to the utter ruin of the sense ! In
his hands it informs us simply that " all scripture
[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 ;" 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 alsol and if
lie 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 \ 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 tv/o ; and the con-
junction xat and demonstrates it, though Barclay,
in his sincerity," 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 number, 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 X What a fine time
indeed, if all the world would thus come to the
^ light!'' And would it make a fine eternity tool

490

(4) While I truly leave it with God what 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 aSSUme

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 creduHty 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 cotemporary, 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 alreacly 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 shall occur " quickly,"
or with as much rapidity as infinite providence,
rolling on the events of things, can 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 HmSELF : nOr is

it HIS BRIDE that will encourage a forgery in his
name. What then are we to expect in the mean-

493

time 1 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 icritings of the Quakers, with their voluminous
simulation and their virulence of error, among the
most successful counterfeitings 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 profouindly
STUPID TONGUES of the British metropolis, and
others, thousands such, have since appeared with
their very authentic inspirations ! nor is 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 hght : 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 universaUzed 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 mighty congrega-
tion of the dead ; and " shall sit upon the throne
of his glory." Matt. 25 : 19, 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 3iost " 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 sin and danger of mutilating
" THE ORACLES OF GoD !" Tliis 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 "? d/^ " 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 \ 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 Apollyon ;" in the English,
whose name is Destroyer. But are Friends ob-
noxious to this awful commination \ I answer,
promptly, 05^ 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 1 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 1 Is there any sense in which
they " take away from " the canonical scriptures 1
I answer, There are several ; Jirst, 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, agaiust 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 valuc 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

498

day." The scriptures are not read at all in their
pubHc 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 few and fitful visitations of tra-
velling inspirati, now and then, to teach them com-
paratively nothing. To " take away " from " the
holy scriptures" their admirable use, is richly to
deserve the curse written for the deed! It is to
entail curses by wholesale on the souls of sinners
around us ! It is to marshal the way of the unre-
conciled, in everlasting deviation from God ! And it
is to satisfy and to secure them with a piece of
hateful treachery within them, by which they are
to walk, as " a more noble and excellent rule !"
Hence, in effect, in ways other than I have here
mentioned, (that I know,) in the common sentiments
and conversation of many of them, they take away
from " the word of God" all its proper virtue, all its
best results, all its glorious hopes ! Is this no sin 1
" For I TESTIFY," says Jesus Christ, " unto every
man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this
book !" He testifies the sin of mutilation, and the
doom of its perpetrator !

Very well do I know, here and elsewhere, what
Friends allege against these charges. They say;
Why, we do verily esteem the scriptures as the
noblest writings in the world ; we read them fre-
quently, and exhort our youth to do the same, as
they all can witness : so that it is rank calumny
thus to blaze us abroad as contemners of the scrip-
tures. This is perhaps the substance of their an-

490

swer, as I have often " witnessed " it. Well, grant
that this is all to some extent — possibly — true : I
will tell you, Friends, what else ye do, abrogating
all the good. You tell them (1) That they are only
" a secondary rule ;" a good book, but not " the
word of God." (2) That each of them has their
paramount in his own heart, " by attending to whose

clear manifestations " than which a worse error

could scarcely be told to them, or believed by them '.

(3) That inspiration has not ceased at all ; but that
the writings of inspired Friends are very ' profit-
able,' being fresher " given forth " by the same
Spirit, and worthy to be pondered by all Friends.

(4) That Friends value the scriptures, not as the
priests and hirelings and world's people do ; since
the Bible is not the gospel, but only a record of the
things of previous ages and dispensations in rela-
tion to the living principle, " a measure of which is
given to all to profit with." Penn. And, (5) You
DO NOT TELL THEM, for this is Contrary to your prin-
ciples, of THE INFINITE IMPORTANCE of bcCOming

acquainted with their contents ! the guilt and sin of
their condition, till converted heartily to God ! the
certain perdition of their " dying in their sins!" the
necessity of loving that truth identically, which is
there revealed, in order to the existence of piety in
the soul ! the fact that God uses his written truth as
the universal instrument, directly or indirectly, of all
the ascertained piety in the world ! the evil of igno-
rance, error, indifference, and unbelief ; and the utter
hopelessness of continuing in impenitence ! the ne-
cessity of application, without prejudice, indolence,

500

or intermission ; and the equal necessity of prayer,
hearty believing prayer, to "the Father of hghts "
and the Maker of mind, without intpiously waiting
for " a special impulse " to pray, in order to profi-
cien(;y in the knowledge of the truth. And (6) you
give them no adequate helps, motives, and really
learned instruction, calculated to interest their
minds and affect their thoughts and attach their
feelings with practical intensity. How could you
give, what you do not possess ; or adequately recom-
mend what you never experienced l Hence there
is next to none of sound biblical instruction enjoy-
ed by your children ; while they are conscientious
against trusting all it says, lest they should fall
into the snare of preferring it to the inward light ;
which is " a more noble and excellent rule !" This
I know is fact !

The conclusion is that the charge of mutilation
of the scriptures is good against you ! and now I
increase it perhaps, by adding my own conviction
that no other heresy does this more effectually ; and
that the good things, that you say in praise of the
Bible and compound with your poisonous heresy,
only enhance the evil ! for no one then suspects you
of any injurious influence. "Art thou in health,
my brother 1" You kiss while you betray the Son
of man ! You smile when you stab him to the
heart! You very sincerely "crucify him afresh and
put him to an open shame !" While doing the work
of an enemy, you claim to be pre-eminently a friend !
You prevent, in your own incomparable way, that
just estimate of " the oracles of God," without

501 %

which not one man in a thousand is ever actu-
ated in devoutly reading them to the benefit of his
soul ; and then say many fine things about such fine
writings ! In this way too you deceive yourselves :
and you as well deceive others. The superficial
beholder thinks better of you than the truth. Ma-
ny an infidel Friend, and I have known such mem-
bers of meeting and " plain " ones too, passes for a
believer and a christian, because of his dress and
his address alone ; just as wretched brass often
passes for gold, because of an exterior stamp, at
making which counterfeiters are expert, but which
does not change its nature. So may an enlighten-
ed christian say of the theatre, when one of its fa-
natical votaries blames him for his censure of it :
thus — That there are many good things in it, I do
not deny or doubt. Its sentiment is often as good
identically as the gospel of God, which it correctly
quotes ; often as refined and poetical as Milton or
Watts ; often full of manly and generous incite-
ment ; often delightfully rhetorical, displaying some
of the finest examples of true eloquence ; often
mentally improving and rationally entertaining ;
and sometimes possibly affording a less censurable
way of spending or rather mis-spending a whole
evening — than some others that could be named.
What then 1 Is the theatrical system good ? I an-
swer, far from it. It is a school of vice ; a system
of ruin ; as Tillotson said, * the chapel of the devil
the antechamber of hell ; as bad as gambling and
swindling and methodized impurity can make it ;
the royal exchange of universal profligacy ; the place

502

where all young men almost, who go to perdition
before they die as well as afterward, in our large
cities, commence their dissolute courses and enter
their novitiate of vice ; a system which, stern statis-
tics and matter-of-fact experience have demonstrat-
ed, could not exist a year, but for that thorough
alliance with sensual iniquity and other abomina-
tions, which has always characterized it in both
hemispheres. If this account be correct, I ask any
sober reader, if the virtues of the stage are not as
helpful to the system as the opposite parts of it ! if
the system is not worse (because at once sustained
and disguised by them) on account of the inciden-
tal excellencies involved ! if the very courtezans
that haunt it, as their devoted temple, are any more
necessary to it as a whole, than are those cunningly
intermingled excellencies 1

I say the same of Quakerism. As a system, it
is a cheat, a spiritual hallucination. It is not Chris-
tianity. It takes away salvation ; and teaches you
to be smooth and soft ! It robs you of the only
hope of a sinner ; and gives you " inward light "
for your "more noble and excellent" compensation.
It supersedes the Redeemer and his offices ; and
requites the felony with — a plain and peaceful garb !
It does this — and says and does a great number of
other things which are quite good and worthy of in^-
mense commendation ! And because of these other
things, it requires all men to approve the system, and
fellowship its votaries, and have a perfect fraternal
charity toward all " the blind leaders of the blind,"
that mean no harm, are very sincere, and see no

503

danger in that way ! I confess that it nauseates
my soul to read or hear a Friend praising the scrip-
tures. To betray Christ was hardly as great a sin
as that affectionate kiss the traitor gave him ! Nor
can I dispassionately believe that my present deci-
sion results from any greater or worse cause than
a peculiar acquaintance with the reality of the case,
and with both sides of the unappreciated argument.
So far am I from any personal exasperation, that it
is love for their souls — God is witness — that in-
duces me both to abhor their errors and to give
"voice and utterance" to that abhorrence. But
they will not credit this averment ; far otherwise !
— a sentiment which it more grieves than surprises
me to discern the necessity of entertaining. " The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant
above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that
he be as his master, and the servant as his lord !
If they have called the master of the house Beelze-
bub, how much more shall they call them of his
household !" Jesus Christ never found out the way
of speaking the truth faithfully to unconverted men
without displeasing them.

I conclude with the remark, that now for more
than twenty years, have I been strongly and increas-
ingly convinced that the errors in which I was nur-
tured and which (though I neither did my duty nor
thought myself a christian) I sincerely believed,
identifying them with all the Christianity I knew,
are radical and destructive ; worse for their specious
appearances, their interesting and conciliating ac-
companiments, and the things truly good embraced

504

in the system as a whole : and that the experience
I have really had of them and of Christianity in
competition, and the spiritual perils I have neces-
sarily encountered in consequence, authorize me at
least to speak and publish my own solemn convic-
tion respecting them. If in doing this, I have ap-
peared to use more severity and rigor than were
properly allowable, I can only say I will repent of
what I have written, the matter of it, as soon as I
am convinced of its impropriety ; while the motive
of it, I refer to the Judge eternal — and the manner,
to those who choose to criticise it : since well I
know that no man is competent to condemn this
performance, who is not a sound and practical chris-
tian ; and who, to a correct knowledge of the doc-
trine of the scriptures, does not unite such an ac-
quaintance with the contrasted errors of Friends,
as to be thence qualified impartially to estimate and
incorruptly to pronounce on their high pretensions.
"Fear them not therefore : for there is nothing co-
vered that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall
not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that
speak ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear, that
preach ye upon the house-tops. And fear not them
that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul :
but rather fear him, who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell."

—

THE SACRAMENTS: THE MINISTRY.

The love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Cor. 5 : 14.
Tut will ise done in earth as it is in heaven. Matt. 6 : 10.
The testimo.mt of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev. 19 : 10.
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the

ordinances as I DELIVERED THEM TO YOU. 1 CoT. 11:2.

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ ; not by water only,
hut by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit
is truth. 1 John, 5 : 6.

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sins, and ye sliall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts, 2 :

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them,
^*y'"g) This is my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance
OF ME. Likewise also the cup after supper, saj'ing, This cup is the new testa-
ment [covenant] in my blood which is shed for you. Luke, 22 : 19, 20.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink
of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketli
damnation [judgment] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 1 Corin-
thians, 11 : 28, 29.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Ye are my friends, if ie do whatsoever I command you. John,
15 : 13, 14.

For thus IT becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Matt. 3 : 15.

.\nd he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they who are called to the mar-
riage-supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings
of God. Rev. 19:9.

And thou hast tried those who sat they are apostles, and are not ;
and hast found them liars. Rev. 2 : 2.

Even from the days of your fathers yo are gone away from mine ordinances,
and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith
the Lord of hosts. But ye said. Wherein shall we return ? Mai. : 37.

Wo unto them that arc wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
bight ! Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he
hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smilten them. There-
fore as the fire devourcth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so
their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: be-
cause tiiet have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and des-
pised THE WORD of the Holt One of Israel. Isai. 6 : 21,24, 25.

Now as Janes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the
truth : men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall
proceed no further : for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs
also was. 2 Tim. 3 : 8, 9.

PART THIR1>.

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 mention just here no other and possibly more po-
tent causes, may well account for its unsufFering
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, as
they love to regard them ; — these divine institu-
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 corn-
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. To
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
(c plurimis unum ) that Quakerismis not Christia-
nity, is derived from the sacraments. I am sure that
these are divine ordinances ; and that the evidence
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 ichich, hy 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
these 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
loith 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, worst 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
siGNiFicANCY — the salvatiOTi of God in Christ Jesus,
especially that moiety of it which is termed sanctif-
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. lihefact 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 universaU
what trace of its introduction? who introduced it"?
where \ who opposed, or did none oppose, such
childish degeneracy"! 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 by 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, (j.aQY}tevtsati\ 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 datnned."
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 is hard to see how a true believer,
having the opportunity, could refuse baptism.

(3) That in such a formal instrument as the com-
mission of the Christian ministry, we have reason
to think that nothing of small moment would be in-
serted : but baptism is inserted ; while the general
order to inculcate whatsoever I have commanded you
covers all the minor matters of Christianity, and at
the same time more palpably includes baptism.
Whatsoever Christ has ' commanded ' must be for that
reason enforced by his ministers. It is the best
reason in the universe. What matter is it what
Friends and others choose to think or speak ? a true
minister is mainly concerned to know and vindicate
the will of Christ. How any person, considering
the solemnity and perspicuity of this instrument, can
disparage baptism and deny its purely divine au-
thority, appears only to those who have some ac-
quaintance with the facts of religious frenzy and
with the darkness and infidelity of the human mind !
The fancy of one's own inspiredness marvellously

514

disqualifies its subject for all sober thought. The
illusions of religious vision shed their powerful
pictures on all the objects of contact; and instan-
taneously the total system of written truth assumes
a correspondent hue. But the spirit of sound and
rational investigation is very different from a vision-
ary inspiration.

But how do Friends interpret or evade this order
of the Highest \ Answer — by spiritualizing in spite
of evidence. They say it means spiritual baptism
alone ! But is it not claimed as the prerogative of
Jesus Christ alone to " baptize with the Holy
Ghost f To talk of delegating this power, is about
as wise as the conceit of some who, to rationalize
away the divinity of Jesus Christ, suppose that the
work of creation was delegated to a creature. But
what is this fancy other than a begging of the ques-
tion] That there is such a thing as spiritual bap-
tism is granted — for otherwise the rite could have
no meaning or use ; that it is greater than that which
is merely its instituted sign is also foreign to the
controversy ; and that God is wont to baptize with
his grace the spiri-ts of men, through the co-agency
of his ministers, is equally admitted : but the ques-
tion is. Has he appointed a visible sign of this and

commanded^'' our obedience to it? We affirm;
they deny. Observe, (1) He orders them to do it ;
" baptizing," as preaching, teaching, &c. (2) Spi-
ritual baptism is always identified in substance or
effect with the exercise of that faith which is " the
fruit of the Spirit" and to which the promise sal-
vation is made : why then the tautology of saying

515

he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ? On
our view, its meaning is plain and fair: he that be-
lieveth and submits to the administration of baptisin,
as the seal and sign of the covenant of grace, thus
ivitnessing a good confession, shall be saved.

But hear Friends. " There is no baptism to con-
tinue now, but the one baptism of Christ. There-
fore water baptism is not to continue now, because
it is not the one baptism of Christ." Barclay. Was
it not in the christian commission of the ministry,
and for the new dispensation, that they were to " go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, baptizing them," Slc.X Or was this not
christian baptism ? or could they baptize with the
Holy Ghost 1 or if both they and Christ were to bap-
tize, where then is the " one baptism," about which
Barclay reasons so jesuitically? Jesuitism itself!

But the true meaning is plain,

3. From the practice of the apostles and primitive
preachers of Christianity under that same commis-
sion. None but an infidel can doubt that the inspired
apostles understood this fundamental matter — their
commission! How then did they aci? Look at
Peter in the house of Cornelius, urging the admi-
nistration of the sign on the express ground that his
hearers had received the substance ! " Can any man
forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we V He
does not say who always had a light withiti ; but
" who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we !"
The whole phraseology of the New Testament is
plainly at war with that prime error of Friends. If

516

the apostles had believed Friends' doctrine, they
would have expressed themselves in different lan-
guage— -foxian, for example. " And he commanded
them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." Acts,
10 : 47, 48. Is there any need of comment or could
pi'oof be more conclusive 1 Is Quakerism Christian-
ity ? Look at the case of the thousands of Pente-
cost; Acts, 2:41, of the converts at Samaria; 8:
12, of the Ethiopian eunuch; 33, of Paul; 9: 18,
of Lydia and the jailer ; 16 : 15, 33. and others re-
corded in the book of the practice of the apostles,
and recorded to this very end, that we might com-
pare actions with words, and so ascertain the mind
of the Holy Ghost ! How much inward light and
inspiration must be requisite to convince a man that
water baptism is not a divine institution !

If it be said Peter misunderstood the ministerial
commission, in thinking that the gentiles were not
included ; I reply, (1) Peter was not all the apostles;
and his prejudice as a jew on the article of commu-
nion with the uncircumcised, though common to his
nation, is a mere exception to the rule, but one that
was not lasting. At first he thought as a jew. It
was his personal infirmity, his private imperfection.
God wrought a miracle indeed to correct it ; but his
views of baptism were not corrected, for he baptized
the household of Cornelius immediately after the
miracle. (2) Paul was miraculously converted, was
baptized and never misunderstood his conimissiou
in any thing on record. He also practised baptism;
and though his colleagues, Silas, Timothy, Titus,
Barnabas, and others, most probably officiated

517

oftener than himself in the rite of baptism, yet was
it done in his presence and with his authority. No
miracle was ever wrought to correct the administra-
tion of baptism : and if the exception (a transient
one) confirms the rule, it is true that the apostles did
understand their commission. Their public practice
too is without exception, uniform, decisive. This
was especially true after the gospel began to be
preached to the nations by universal consent.

Besides, the position, to which we now refer, re-
spects the inspiration of the apostles in their public
administration. This indeed is the only proper idea
of their inspiration. The private actions and words
of the apostles were not inspired. Inspired actions,
that abortion of moral agency, is one of the inven-
tions of the religious society. They were inspired
only when they professed inspiration ; only when au-
thoritatively delivering, by word or writing, the will
of God to others, or when they received it for their
own official government. Inspiration did not re-
move or impair their personal accountability or con-
secrate all their individual conduct; but where they
spake or wrote professedly the will of God to bind
the consciences of others, where they all concurred
in the measures and duties of his worship, and
where their recorded practice under the high seal of
heaven proposes to illustrate the duties of men, there
the position is in its place — plainly none but an infi-
del can doubt that the inspired apostles understood
this fundamental matter, their commission !

Three of their objections I will here consider ;
premising that I have often heard them urged by

518

their leaders ; that they are the strongest with whicl^"'
I am acquainted ; and that properly expounded they '
are totally against themselves. They are all texts
of scripture.

Objection 1. " The like figure," &c. 1 Pet. 3 : 21.
From this they infer that water baptism is not meant ;
that " a good conscience" is all ; and that this they
can have in perfection while they entirely omit the
" figure."

Without circumlocution I will give what /am sz<rc
is the plain and proper meaning of this passage, in
a paraphrase ; adverting to its connection with the
preceding verses: As eight persons were saved in
the ark, when the whole world perished by the just
judgment of God ; so now, those who duly submit
to the ordinance of baptism find that to he figura-
tively an ark of safety to them : not that the mere
mechanical action which removes " the filth of the
flesh," or mere symbolical washing, comprehends
the important matter ; the substance must ever ac-
company or rather precede the sign, in order to its
salvation: but how could we feel safe were we to
neglect it \ how could we possess " the answer of a
good conscience toward God " if we were to omit
what HE hath commanded I In order to be assured
of his favor, we are ever to icalk in all the command-
ments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless : Luke,
1 : 6, for " a good conscience toward God " is
always the concomitant and consequence of uni-
versal obedience.

This " figure " gives a terrible implication against
the hopes of those who neglect baptism. It is the

519

"ark" in which the church is saved ; while a worse
dehige than that of the days of Noah awaits the
souls of them that contemn God, and who yet boast
of their " good conscience " while they deny HIS
ordinances ! Many a poor dupe of the light within
has vaunted his mistake (and now continues to do
it) as if it were his piety : and boasted or believed
in "a good conscience" as his own, while he
refused the very thing to which the passage refers
as constituting it.

In proof of the validity of the exposition, let it be
remembered (1) generally, that Christianity and
truth are always self-consistent ; (2) that this Peter
is the same who officiated in the house of Cornelius,
and who thus called to the thousands on the day
of Pentecost ; " Repent and he baptized every one
OF YOU in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis-
sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost." Besides, the drift of the context ob-
viously requires this interpretation.

Objection 2. "I thank God that I baptized none
of you, but Crispus and Gaius ; lest any should
say that I had baptized in (into) mine own name.
And I baptized also the household of Stephanas ;
besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
For Christ sent me not to baptize ; but to preach
the gospel." 1 Cor. 1 : 14-17. From this they ga-
ther that baptism is at best a small affair; that it
was no part of Paul's proper office to perform it ;
and that it can be no very culpable matter for them
wholly to dispense with it. To which I reply —

(1) That this is wholly changing their ground ;

520

it is a fair concession of the fact that the rite was
practised by the apostles of God : for if spiritual
baptism be all, then this is meant ; and if so, are
Friends to be seen disparaging its importance!
Paul must have meant the rite, and not that signi-
fied by it — or, he regretted the salvation of men !

(2) There is no such thing in the passage as any
disparagement of the rite. Paul does not say that
it was not his proper business ; for then why did he
baptize at all \ Did he perform what was improper
and wrong 1 If his had been the notion of Friends,
would he have baptized Crispus, and Gaius, and
Stephanas and his household 1 He does indeed say
that it was not his principal business or the duty
most appropriate to his office as the Apostle of the
nations. But is this depreciating or impeaching bap-
tism as a divine ordinance"! Far from it. See him
at Ephesus, Acts, 19 : 1-7, imposing christian bap-
tism upon twelve of John's disciples : — 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 "? 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 nnmbers to be baptized by his associates in
the ministry 1. O the darkness of a certain light!

That baptism ought 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 contained in the ministerial 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 Fricndism ! 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
'phobia on this topic (I might say — hydrophobia) is
wonderful ! Hence a total retrenchment of what-
ever seems to sanction or require 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."

522

3. 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 \ 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 noiD it is no longer to be "suffered." The
substance has come ; the shadows and symbols re-
tire. I answer,

(]) It was not dimne 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 him
to suffer it to he so note ; whereby he sufliciently in-
timates that he intended not thereby to perpetuate
it as an ordinance to his disciples." Inspired! I
deny that it "sufficiently" or at aU'int'imates any
such thing. Wo be to him " that loveth or maketh
a lie !" This is only another instance — one of mil-
lions, where a certain light perverts evidence and

523

sanctions mistake ! It is another demonstration
against Quaiierism : for inspiration is their basis ;
but inspiration, when genuine, is infaUible ; 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, noyie 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;"

524

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
Avhole 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 !"

0 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-sufficient Pleader,
Having thee I feel no loss !

(2) The reason which the Savior assigns silenced

525

the scruples of the Baptist, and ought foreveu to
silence the reasoning of Friends ; " Suflfer 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 dnties. 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 liis
followers. He speaks of thc7n, in delightful asso-
ciation with himself, 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 lighting upon him :
and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my be-
loved Son, in w^hom I am well pleased." Observe,
second, that he had not then commenced, but veas
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. Observe, third, how sedu-
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, ffth, 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 may 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

fill 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 other 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-ofte rings and sacrifices as
in obeying the voice of the Lord \ 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 he

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?" 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 ? 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 eternity
to convince them of this ! I add, the utihty of any
measure or observance in rehgion 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
Jiome, because the utilit?/ 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 r' To be such a Friend, is worthy the ambi-
tion of immortals and 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 was 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
not 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 a 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 of every
otf^er conceivable institution of God ! Whatis j^mycr,

530

when not sincerely used ^ Shall we then say that
grace is not conferred and received by prayer ^ 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 operato^° 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

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

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, I 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 text of 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 hy possibility co-
exist and mutually aid each other ; and so that, the
things being mortally repugnant and opposite, aa
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
direfuUy 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, (fee. 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 X 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 : bur, he has
two EQUALLY 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
to 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 but 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 in 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 one incommu-
nicable NAME, and not into different 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 into which we are introduced by it ; " were
ye baptized into the name of Paul l — 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 with 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
he 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
UPON 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

536

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, there the original ev ro ovofxati 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 not pertinent. It is calculated to
misrepresent the purport of the ordinance. It im-
plies that the rite is ultimate and virtual. Again,

4. The proper grammar of the original eig to
ovofxa 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 sig ro e^v ovo^a
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 which he is known. It includes whatever

537

manifests him. Thus is it the object of worship
and of praise, of conformity and aspiration, as wfill
as of knowledge and profession. The party is
henceforth to be educated to Christ. He has sym-
boHcally " put on Christ." He has been publicly
devoted "to the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." To the same high
and holy name, assumed as his, he is now to live.
It becomes the obligation of his life to honor that
name. Not to do it, is sacrilege. It is desecra-
ting what is relatively holy. It is robbery of God.
It is manifest and awful sin. And yet — it not so
much makes the obligation, as recognises it. It is
the obligation which rests equally in fact on all men.
I do not say that there is not a special degree and
form of obligation resulting from the solemnity — as
an increase of light and privilege always enhances
obligation, and as vows enhance it.

By the way, we may see in what sense the nam-
ing of the subject is connected with baptism. Chris-
tening, as the rite is very improperly called, means
with many only giving a name. If so, I say, it is
not its human name, (which is strictly no part of
the rite,) but its divine one alone. Acts, 15: 17.
How very superior are the implications !

OF THE lord's SUPPER.

Other denominations are accused by Friends, in
reference to the sacraments, not only of general
darkness, but of a judaizing and romanizing pro-
pensity. In this they assume, not prove, that

538

Christianity has no appropriate symbohcal institu-
tions. But this is exactly the question in dispute !
Whatever is properly Jewish or mosaic must indeed
depart with the abrogated economy to which it be-
longs. But may they not be too hasty in cashiering
every thing on the assumption that it is Jewish, and
as such annulled 1 Not indeed if they are inspired;
for when was any one ever too hasty in obeying
God ? If I could grant their inspiration, there would
be at once an end of the argument. But as I sin-
cerely believe them mistaken in that grand particu-
lar, it will be at least consistent to argue the matter.
If they say how shall we know what is abrogated
and what is perpetual? I answer, 1. This is Just
such a question as Friends are fond of asking, sim-
ply because they cannot answer it themselves. They
have no " pastors and teachers " among them, who
learn and hence are qualified to teach ; they are all
inspired, and thence study and investigation are at
war with the duty of waiting for the responses of
the internal oracle. Thus they " have taicen away
the key of knowledge." This is the real cause of
the doctrinal ignorance of the society ; and it is the
inglorious occasion of thousands of questions, which
they would be ashamed to ask if the inward light
had not paralysed their powers and suspended with
them the sources of instruction, which God hath
ordained and blessed as ordinarily indispensable to
doctrinal proficiency. How shall we know 1 they
often ask ; how shall we discriminate I Ansv/er,
how can you help knowing, how can you fail to
discriminate, if you have this omniscient light within

539

you ? If you wish to know how we uninspired
people come by our knowledge, we answer, hy stu-
dious and honest and prayerful application of mind
to the inspired scriptures, and in no other way. This
way you have never tried, and never can try, while
you beheve in your own inspiration. But 2, the
scriptures fully enable us to discriminate ; though
this is not vital to our present argument, which is to
prove that Christianity hath its own symbolical insti-
tutions, and that the holy eucharist is one of them.
Many things were imposed on the jews " till the
time of reformation ;" but when that " time " oc-
curred, it brought with it baptism and the Lord's
supper, too easy, significant, unbloody observances ;
which in no wise encumber, and in many ways
assist, the spirituality itself of the worshippers.
This I can heartily and experimentally, I iu pe,
attest.

I define the Lord's supper thus ; A solemn cere-
monial observance in which, by the distribution and
participation of bread broken and wine poured, the
church obey God in " showing forth the Lord's
death " as the only and the ample atonement for
the sins of men ; coynmemorating the expiatory death
of Jesus Christ as the only medium of the remis-
sion of sins ; confessing their ill-desert as trans-
gressors of the law of God, and their grander sins
as having been neglecters of his glorious gospel;
professing their faith in his doctrine, and their hope
in his grace and advocacy; devoting themselves to
his service forever ; expressing their love for each
other, their benevolence to all men ; and expecting

540

from his infinite fulness, as exacted to the throne of
the universe, a full supply of all that they need for
time and for eternity, according to his promises.

That this is a sacrament of the New Testament
according to the will of God, and as such incumbent
on all men, I prove, by the worthiness of the event
commemorated ; by its manifest tendency to sanctify
and console the spirits of his worshippers ; by direct
evidence from scripture.

1. I begin with considering the icorthiness of the
event commemorated in the Lord's supper.

Whoever understands and accredits the nature
of the atonement, and sees its immense importance
in all our moral relations, will admit not only that it
deserves to be commemorated or that no event ever
did or ever can deserve such honor ; but also that
an institution, such as that now under considera-
tion, is most worthy at once of the wisdom of God
and the universal approbation of man. I trace the
disaffection of Friends, therefore, to their real ig-
norance of the nature and glory of the atonement.
But here it will be replied that Friends do beheve
this article of the catholic creed. To this I answer,
1. That this is not true of all or of a very numerous
portion o them. Many with whom I have con-
versed are pure infidels on this prime topic. One
of their most notable preachers in my own vicinity
has publicly vilified the doctrine, and said in the eye
of day, (the letter that contains it has been printed
in our public journals,) that he would prefer to
receive the punishment due to his iniquity, rather
than accept of pardon on the terms of a suffering

541

substitute. He was no doubt in earnest in this
declaration, and as much inspired as he is on any-
other article. I sincerely pray that his preference
may not be his perdition ! What kind of a chris-
tian community is that with whom such a vaunted
preacher of Christ is still suffered to exercise an
uncensured ministry"!®' But 2, I am scarcely
convinced that one of them, with whom I have
ever conversed, or whose writings*^ I have ever
read, either clearly understands or properly believes
the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Barclay,
Fox, and others do indeed say, now and then, that
Christ died for us and was our sacrifice ; but this is
so infrequent, so general, so transient, so opaque a
confession, that it serves little other purpose than to
prove how deeply they disparaged, and how superfi-
cially they comprehended, that glorious transaction.
A writer on astronomy, if he intelligently receiv-
ed the copernican system, would not merely glance
at the cardinal fact of the central position of the
sun and the tributary movements of surrounding
orbs ; he would signalize the illustrious truth, and
make it as renowned in his treatise as it is in the
economy of the firmament. What that fact is to
the solar system, such is the doctrine of atone-
ment to " the truth as it is in Jesus." To deny it,
to omit it, to obscure it, to disparage it, is to quench
the glory of the gospel and the hopes of the world.
" In him was life, and the life was the light of men."
In the sententious language of the beloved apos-
tle, life and light are his accustomed tropes for sal-
vation and knowledge. Thus, in Christ was salva-

542

tion through his atonement on the cross ; and this
salvation properly understood, so illumines the mind
that one knows, understands, sees, the things of
duty and of God with correctness and unto salva-
tion. " In him was life and the life was the light
of men." The sentence is dense, but not mysti-
cal ; it ever was and ever will be true. Observation
perpetually confirms it ; they understand duty who
have learned salvation. The cross is itself the key
and the torch of all sound philosophy in universal
ethics. It is "the light of men," because it is "the
life " likewise : for Christ becomes " our life," be-
cause he died for us, as an expiatory sacrifice to the
glorious justice of God. Hence, when we hear of
a religious teacher who transiently adverts to the
death of Christ, but sees no attraction there to de-
tain his thoughts, we know at least that he is so
uninstructed in the central glories of the kingdom
that he is incompetent to the work of the ministry,
as one of those who "understand neither what they
say, nor whereof they affirm." To this I can affix
the seal of my own experience — and of my perfect
conviction. I once sincerely compassionated the
emptiness of the communion-service and the super-
stition of those who revered it : but then I knew not
the Father or Christ, and was deplorably ignorant
of the atonement. When my mind was revolution-
ed by the truth on that excellent doctrine, I repent-
ed of my compassion "in dust and ashes," and sin-
cerely " abhorred " my arrogance before God : hav-
ing no hope except in " Jesus Christ and him cru-
cified " as "an offering for sin," and having posi-

543

lively a sweet and glorious hope of " redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace."

As to the importance of the atonement, it can
easily be proved from the scriptures that not a sin
could be remitted without it ; that all the remissions
ever granted previous to the advent of Christ, from
Abel downward, were " for Christ's sake," who was
to appear and suffer in behalf of sinners ; and that
all that have been since granted were equally for his
sake, who has appeared, and has "put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself;" that he is the Savior and
the only Savior of men ; that his principal design
in coming into the world was " to save sinners " by
dying for them ; for though he " left us an example,"
this was not the principal end of his manifestation.
His example was not his atonement ; and " without
shedding of blood is no remission." All the ap-
pointed hundreds of millions of symbolical sacrifices
that bled for 4000 years on the altars of God, were
prejigurative of Christ and derived all their efficacy
from their relation to him. They were all prospec-
tively typical of " the Lamb of God, that taketh
away the sin of the world ;" even as " the Lord's
Supper" is commemorative and retrospectively typi-
cal of the same self-offered victim.

The philosophy of the atonement is — I must
think — intelligible ; and, when understood, the most
stupendous spectacle of moral grandeur of which
in all our knowledge there is any example. The
ineffable glory of God is no where apparent to our
perceptions as it shines reflected from tlie cross.

544

H s unsuffering justice, his unspotted purity, his in-
finite benevolence, his wonderful philanthropy, his
eternal faithfulness, his unfathomable mercy and
grace to guilty men, his consummate wisdom, his
absolute supremacy, his perfect nnchangableness,
his inconceivable power, his matchless condescen-
sion, his greatness and his glory ; all his perfec-
tions, natural, moral, communicable, incommunica-
ble, there harmonize, and blend, and blaze, with an
effulgence which nothing else can illustrate. That
God is a most perfect moral governor ; that his law
is not to be broken with impunity; that his admi-
nistration is at once infinitely authoritative and in-
finitely benign ; that he punishes, not for the sake
of punishing, but for the sake of preserving the
moral order of the universe; that the whole human
race is sinful and so exposed to punishment ; that
sin deserves the awful curse which the law of God
denounces against it ; that his kindness to sinners
shall never be exercised at variance with his kind-
ness to the universe, nor mercy triumph at the ex-
pense of justice; that mercy is that to which a sin-
ner has no claim, no right, no title, from the law-
giver ; that God is under no obligation to provide
a Savior for the guilty, and that it was therefore
grace, not debt, that one is provided ; that the law
of God is *' holy, just, and good," and that its pre-
ceptive claims are never repealable ; that men must
hence be brought to love the law in order to ap-
prove of the gospel ; that the gospel is not merciful
and gracious, if the law is not just and excellent ;
that it is hypocrisy to profess love for the gospel

545

while we secretly dislike the perfection of the law;
that God pities whom he punishes, and " delighteth
not in the death of him that dieth ;" that when God
can answer, by an expedient of his own adoption,
all the ends of punishment, through atonement and
properly without punishment, he is then ready to
pardon with eternal and infinite and generous be-
nignity ; that the atonement did not make him
essentially placable, since this was his character
from everlasting, but that it qualified his adminis-
tration to show the mercy of his nature in the sal-
vation of sinners ; that he procured the atonement
at an infinite expense, and will not suffer it to be
made in vain ; that his providence is higher, and
deeper, and larger, and stronger, than all the skill
of his adversaries, and that his pleasure shall be
accomplished in their overthrow, except they re-
pent and become his friends ; that he is an infin-
itely glorious and all-perfect being, a God of un-
fathomable wisdom and illimitable intelligence,
" over all and blessed forever :" these are some,
and only a few, of the living truths which radiate
from the cross as from their proper focus, and im-
press the image of their own loveliness on the
spirits of christians. They give us a glimpse of
that glory which will enlighten the perceptions of
the church triumphant forever. Many other truths
are taught most impressively in connection with
the cross ; many of a speculative, experimental, and
practical character, which are all excellent, but
which we cannot now enumerate. Suffice it that
a genuine estimate of the moral glory of the atone-

546

ment and of the salvation of the gospel, wilfalways
lead us to exclaim intelligently with Paul ; " But
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
OF OUR Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

An atonement has actually been made for sin,
"that God might be just and the justifier of him
that believeth in Jesus and it is important that the
fact with all its instructive accompaniments should
be universally remembered. Christ has accordingly
instituted that significant festival of faith, called
" the Lord's Supper," saying ; " Do this in remem-
brance of me." The commemoration of the love of
Christ in the atonement is the commemoration of
the sum total of religion. Not a duty, a privilege,
a relation, but connects itself with that glorious af-
fair ; and derives from it light, consolation, and en-
couragement. Can any man degrade or doubt the
symbol, who duly estimates the reality \ Friends
often demand why we do not practise the papal pe-
diluvium or feet-washing, since this is equally
enjoined by Christ 1 I answer, because it is not
equally enjoined, nor enjoined at all as a positive
observance ; because it was merely a symbolical or
exemplary action of Christ, enjoining, as its whole
moral force, kindness and service toward each other
among all his disciples ; and enjoining this in the
most affecting circumstances. John, 33: 13-16.
What then is the wisdom of that man, Barclay or
any other, who can liken the atonement to the pedi-
luvium, and calmly ask, if one is to be commemo-
rated, why not the other ^ I adduce this as a proof

547

that none of them see the infinite worthiness of the
atonement, that none of them properly understand
or appreciate the vicarious death of the Son of
God ! Or, if any of them do see its glory, their
vision is fitful and faint. Their atmosphere is so
misty and hazy that the very sun looks like the
moon eclipsed through such a medium. I scarce
ever saw or heard or read a man or woman of them,
whose knowledge of the matter was not shallow
and puerile ; even when comparatively most sound.
How could it be otherwise I Those who never
learn, can never teach : and their inspiration does
not vacate the sentiment. The orthodox of them,
so called, as to the real science of the subject, the
intellection of the things, the knowledge of the
atonement with its relations and implications and
glorious excellencies, are weak as water, shallow as
the surface, almost as empty as mere verbiage can
make them. Just so long as their preachers refuse
to study theology, count it as a sin, get no know-
ledge but what they steal from better sources and
then credit it to the honor of the light within ; so
long will their spiritual pedantry and religious
quackery and doctrinal sottishness continue !

If Friends had obeyed Christ in this observance ;
if they had " often " and every where commemo-
rated his dying love, at the communion-table ; if
they had followed the wisdom of scripture, instead
of their own illusory light ; if this ordinance had
been duly observed, explained, estimated among
them from the beginning, they would not now

549 ^
V.

have — preachers who denounce the doctrhie of
atonement, the only foundation of hope, and so
"deny the Lord that bought them!" It may be
safely affirmed that to shght the distinguishing
truths contained in that observance, is a uniform
and certain symptom of fatal degeneracy ; and that
it can no where be duly understood and honored
where those truths are not ascendant and believed.
It preaches the gospel to the very senses of men.
In the bread that is broken, representing his man-
gled body, and the wine that is poured, represent-
ing his blood shed for our sins, are contained the
hieroglyphics of redemption. It signifies the very
vitals of evangelical religion. It has the same reve-
lation to the scripture doctrine of justification which
baptism sustains to that of sanctification ; and both
these united are the religion of the Bible in epitome.
" O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that
ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Je-
sus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you 1" Gal. 3:1. It could have been mani-
fested to their " eyes," only symbolically, in the or-
dinance of the Lord's Supper.

2. The manifest tendency of commemorating the
death of Christ at the communion-table, is an argu-
ment for its divine authority.

If its tendency is good and not evil, then cer-
tainly nothing contrary to goodness is contained in
it. But if that good is positive, great, favorable to
the purest celebration of divine worship, this is of
itself no mean argument in vindication of its divine

549

■»

origin ; and, in connection with other and greater
evidence, it is most veritable proof. " Prove all
things ; hold fast that which is good."

The actual tendency of a divine enactment is
answerable to the design of God in its legisla-
tion. What then was the design of the communion
serviced I answer — to diffuse and perpetuate the
devout knowledge of Jesus Christ to the end of time.
" This do in remembrance of me. For as often
as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show
the Lord's death till he come." 1 Cor. 11 : 24-26.
" O foolish Galatians," &.c. Gal. 3:1. 1 Cor. 10 :
16-21. The tendency of this service then is seen
in its nature and design. It tends to define, estab-
lish, and promulgate Christianity. It tends to the
vindication of true religion in the earth. It tends
in the same precise ratio to save the souls of men ;
to promote all their real temporal interests ; to con-
sole the hopes and edify the faith of christians ; to
designate the church ; to instruct all beholders in
the cardinal things of the gospel ; to maintain gra-
titude in the bosoms of men for the love of Christ ;
to aid the just interpretation of the scriptures ; to
symbolize salvation ; to impress the mind with the
very essentials of revelation ; to preserve the dis-
tinguishing features of evangelical worship ; to
show the nature of that one hope (founded on the
only medium of salvation) which alone the truth
of God authenticates ; to rebuke all heretical in-
novations in doctrine, experience, or practice ; to
strengthen the trust of the believer; to bind in one
the body of the faithful ; to afford a most affecting,

550

appropriate, sanctioned way of professing, and re-
professing, the faith of Christ ; to afford a visible, a
universal, and a frequent discrimination between the
church and the world, between " the sacramental
host of God's elect " and the bewildered tribes of
the ungodly; to induce humihty, self-examination,
prayer, praise, and joy in God ; to habituate chris-
tians to remember Christ and their infinite obliga-
tions to his love ; to remind them continually, " as
often " as they so commune, of all their spiritual
relations and prospects ; constantly to revive in
their feelings the grand object of apostolic toils
and cares, "Jesus Christ and him crucified;" to
make them think of others, imitate the love of
Christ, and communicate the gospel to the desti-
tute ; to deepen all their devout impressions ; to
affect them with the expectation of their own death ;
to mature them for tlie heavenly state ; to deaden
them to the world and its evanescent glory ; to per-
petuate all the moral lessons of the cross ; to testify
the glorious fact of the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead ; to endear his name
to his people ; and to promote the conversion of
sinners.

In short, what good end does religion sanction
that the ordinance we are considering does not tend
to produce I It symbolizes the atonement of our
crucified Lord : and what the atonement was in fact,
such symbohcally is the Lord's Supper. To this
view I will anticipate two objections, which how-
ever have been often urged. How, it is said, if the
atonement was such in itself, such toward God, does

551

it hence follow that we should commemorate it in
the symbol, since, what it was, it is and remains to
be ; and since its nature would be just the same if
the event was not so commemorated I To this I
rejoin, that in addition to its influence upon the mo-
ral administration of God and in the ultimate bless-
edness of the faithful, it is adapted and designed
indispensably to have a moral influence (of ill ami-
nation, sanctification, consolation, and worship) up-
on the church and the world, which influence cannot
be exerted or felt but by the due celebration of the
Lord's Supper : so that while we have no idea (as
have the Romanists) that there is any expiatory
virtue in the symbol or the service, and none that
our actions can at all alter or affect the intrinsic
nature of the atonement, we do believe that our
characters are altered in relation to the atonement,
and the atonement changed in its relations to us, by
our celebration of the Lord's Supper according to
his appointment. Besides, in devout subserviency
to Christ in his own ordinances, we receive " the
Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that
obey him." Acts, 5 : 32. Hence, as it is the will
of God that such commemoration should be perpe-
tual in the church, he blesses its due administra-
tion, and produces, through the sanctifying virtue
of his own most holy Spirit, that moral influence
(which also the ordinance itself tends to exert) in
the bosoms of the pious, under which they make
a juster and clearer estimate of religion, and are
progressively transformed into the divine similitude.
2 Cor. 3:18. The objection rests on a total and

552

a very common mistake as to the nature of the
atonement ; which is not that measure of licentious-
ness which some seem fatedly to suppose. The
atonement was not intended to accompUsh the sal-
vation of men in, but ^'■from, their sins." Hence
there is space intentionally left, after the atonement
as such is consummated, for the action of moral
influence and the scope of moral agency. Hence
a man must still repent of his sins, and believe
with his heart, notwithstanding the atonement ; or
Christ shall profit him nothing." The only way
to be savingly interested iu the atonement, or in
Him who made it, is to — " repent and believe the
gospel." A moral effect then must still be pro-
duced on the spirits of men, and no less than that
which the Holy Ghost denominates regeneration,
or there can be no salvation even through the atone-
ment. How worthy of the wisdom of God to make ■
the doctrine of the atonement and the frequent
symbolizing of its truth to the senses of men, to
become the very means and the objective causes of
producing that moral effect on their spirits ; by
bringing them to consider, believe, approve, resem-
ble, enjoy, inherit, and communicate, " the glorious
gospel of the blessed God !" Here we see two ex-
tremes of error (and which is more hurtful I do
not take on me to decide) to which men have
been alternately propense, and that in every age.
Some must have all atonement, and nothing else :
others, all internal subjective practical holiness, and
nothing else ; no atonement. The former depre-
ciate "the fruit of the Spirit," the necessity of per-

553

sonal obedience, the lasting obligation- of righteous-
ness, and the perfection of the law of God : the
latter dishonor the law in another way, see not the
necessity of the perfect moral government of God,
substitute their own doings for the atonement, array
mercy against justice, or make mercy in Jehovah
such an attribute of weakness and variableness as
would disgrace a man; and so put the extinguisher
of their own ignorance and effrontery on the glory
of the gospel. Both extremes are wrong.

Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim.

He sinks in Scylla, who would more avoid
Charybdis' whirlpool, equally destroyed.

They constitute the Scylla and Charybdis of the
subject : — not so however as desperately to endan-
ger the bark of faith, of which God is the pilot,
truth the guiding star, and safety the course equi-
distant from either of the ruinous alternatives. John,
3 : 17, 18. 1 Tim. 1 : 15. Our Palinurus never
sleeps, and when waking never errs.

The other objection is one in which Friends pe-
culiarly delight. It is this — of what avail is it to
speak all these good things about the tendency of
the ordinance, if it is still wanting in efficacy? if
thousands who observe it have never realized those
excellencies to which the ordinance is said to tend?
if millions even who have regularly eaten of that
bread and drunk of that cup, have been bloody,
persecuting, impure, incorrigible sinners, perpetrat-

554

ing, as occasion served, all manner of sin, and be-
ing at once a nuisance to society and a degradation
to human nature 1 Version — if a good thing is
abused, it ought to be disused ; if a divine institu-
tion is not duly honored, it ought to be abrogated.
Let us then abrogate marriage and every other di-
vine institution.

In order to make the objection available, or give
it any efficacy, it ought to be shown (1) that such
miscreants were intelligent and devout communi-
cants ; and not merely that they did the material
thing : for no ordinance of Christianity, nor even
of Quakerism, professes any efficacy but by faith
in its divine authority. Christianity tends manifest-
ly, tends pre-eminently, to sanctify and save the
world : but still, it has efficacy to save only where
it is clearly and cordially accredited. Now, is it
any proof against the ordinance that hypocrites
have celebrated it, that apostates have dishonored
it, that infidels have remained unblest by it 1 And
it ought to be shown (2) that a divine ordinance
is not to be estimated according to its own evi-
dence, nature, and tendency ; but depends for its
character upon the treatment it receives in a
world of dark and ignoble traitors against heaven !
What, upon this principle, should we think of Christ
himself] Was he as bad as the treatment he re-
ceived ? Thus the tendency of the Lord's supper
is excellent, and remains an everlasting argument
for its worth. We are not advocating its abuse or
apologizing for its abusers. To say, as some have
done, that there is no distinction or difference be-

555

tween tendency and efficacy, and that there is in
any subject just as much of the former as of the
latter, and no more, is just saying of every divine
ordinance that it has no intrinsic character — that
the Bible itself has none — and that its adorable
Author himself, unless where his name commands
its due efficacy — but, I forbear! In the tendency
of the ordinance, which to faith becomes its efficacy
too, thousands and millions of God's elect have re-
joiced before him, whose lives have evinced the
proper fruits of worship and the reality of genuine
faith in the atonement, which they were wont to
commemorate. With ineffiible delight have they ap-
proached that sacred festival, and repeated " often "
the privileged obedience. / never come to it but
with an estimate which 7-ecollection deepens and ex-
alts. " Herein is love : not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propi-
tiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another." 1 John, 4 : 10,
11. 2 Cor. 5 : 14, 15. Gal. 2: 20. I proceed fur-
ther to evince the fact of the divine authority of the
observance,

3. From direct scripture evidence. Here allow
me to pause, and wonder at the infinitely foolish
anomaly of Quakerism. I do it too not without
humiliation mingled with curious inspection ; for I
was a Quaker and am a man. Poor human nature!
philosophy, by which I mean religion, requires me
to look at thee by engrossment, as well as in detail ;
and whenever thou art visible in the back-ground
of the mirror of truth, to say — it reflects a picture

556

of which I am generically the original. Ought we
not all to be humble'?

And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blusli,
And hang his head to think himself a man ! — Cowper.

Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem moi talia tangunt. — Virg.

No fictions these, but stern realities!

We weep at things — who would not that is wise?

Cur kind is sul'.ering; and we sympathize.

Homo sum ! huniani nil a me alienum puto. — Ter. .

I am a man ! a common tie
Unites me to humanity.

We may well question whether men ever saw
the exact parallel of Quaker presumption and folly,
error and pretension, all confounded in one re-
ligious system,

" Since Abel M orshipped or the world began !"

Fox, who pioneered the way, was a spiritual
nonesuch. He boasts the highest kind of inspira-
tion— God and he talking together with infinite fa-
miliarity on every subject. One would think that
all heaven was bent upon making his acquaintance,
and crowding into his company. I would not here
insinuate that he was not a curiosity in sober fact,
even to angels. What wonderful "openings" he
had ! and these not in theology alone; but also in
law, metaphysics, languages, arts, and sciences ;
and especially in botany, chemistry, materia-me-
dica, and astronomy so that he once seriously

557

thought of becoming a practitioner of physic !
What a prize would such a Galen prove in these
days of cholera! Is it any wonder now that his
skill, (which was not original at all in Barclay,
Penn, and Sarah Grubb, for they learned the most
of what they knew about tlie light within — they
learned it all from George,) is it, I say, to be won-
dered at that he should have skill, quite as extraor-
dinary at least, in biblical antiquities, sacred her-
meneutics, and theological criticism"! or that the
demonstration of these (inspired furniture though
they be) should be constituted in part — and no
very inconsiderable part either — by the result, as-
certained to his own satisfaction and that of divers
others equally or homogeneously wise, that the
scriptures of the New Testament contain no such
divine institution as the sacrament or religious ob-
servance of the Lord's supper 1 Soberly — if nothing
else existed in my knowledge as a criterion by
which to stamp fallacy and stupidity on their claim
of inspiration, I should not hesitate, as a man and
a christian and a minister of Christianity, to de-
nounce the pretension of Fox and all his retinue,
as equally preposterous in reason, monstrous in his-
tory, and deleterious in practice ! Among other ill
effects of the abominable whim of the society is
this — to degrade all inspiration in their thoughts. I
never saw a Quaker who could be held with a text
*of scripture, against the current of his prejudices.
Tell them of what is declared in " the oracles of
God" against a female ministry, and they will
sometimes say — " O that was only the opinion of

558

Paul /" Was it \ How convenient for garrulous
dames and spinsters of the society, that George
could furnish them with a counter inspiration ! And
what if Paul was inspired to deliver to the church
of God the glorious and most affecting eucharist,
the Lord's supper 1 The answer is at hand. Since
the new dispensation of the weaver's son, George
the cordwainer, of Drayton in the Clay, Leicester-
shire, the spirituality of matters hath been so asto-
nishingly improved, so " clearly seen and testified
to," that now no more are such " outward things of
the letter" availing or obligatory. This George
plainly testifieth. " And behold," saith William
Penn, " behold the blessed man and men that were
sent of God in this excellent work and service !"
Truly ordinary reformers and iconoclasts wore cy-
phers to them. Luther was not inspired ; Melanc-
thon was his pupil and the neophyte of his instruc-
tions ; and as for Calvin and Cranmer, down to
Baxter, Howe, and Jeremy Taylor, they confessed
their knowledge to be mainly derived from the de-
vout application of their powerful minds and pon-
derous scholarship to the pages of a book, which,
after all, they knew no better than to denominate,
with religious and complacential awe, the word
OF God! Hence all the celebrated chieftains of the
church, and lights of former ages, from whom THE
GLORIOUS REFORMATION under God re-
sulted AND ADVANCED, with all our peerless pro-
testant immunities, retire aghast ; their fame col-
lapses and their brightness dies, in contrast with the
inspired oracles of Quakerism — oracles that throw

559

their collective splendor into dim obscurity, before
that lucid welkin of day which has shone upon us
so ravishingly, since the luminaries of the inward
light have favored all Christendom with their in-
spired discoveries ! It is a demonstrable fact, how-
ever disgraceful to the spirituality of all the wor-
thies above named and thousands of others it may
possibly appear, it is nevertheless a fact that all of
them, each to the day of his death, remained unde-
livered from the serious faith of the divine institu-
tion of the supper ! Is it any wonder then that such
lights of science,

Sagacious readers of the works of God,
And in his word sagacious,

as Bacon, Lock, Boyle, Milton, Newton, and their
cotemporaries ; not to mention the more modern
ones of Edwards, Dwight, Scott, Hall, Jay, Chal-
mers, and others, equally splendid in the world of
letters and in the firmament of piety ; is it any
wonder that they should have been held in the same
persuasion 1 I suspect, however, that if the veil
could be lifted that secretes the inefilible glory,
there might be witnessed, in the recollections and
the praises of the entire celestial host of ransomed
men, some manifest resemblance to the eternal ce-
lebration, even there, of the same ceremonial! They
have all " washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they
before the throne of God, and serve him day and
night in his temple ;" while " worthy is the Lamb
that was slain," is their song.

560

If any Fnend may chance to read this book as
far as this, and cares candidly to examine the scrip-
tural evidence in the case ; though I must confess
to him that it is rather "outward" after all; I do
most kindly intreat him, notwithstanding the sport
I have designedly made with that delirious enthu-
siast whom he so religiously reveres, I entreat him
candidly to consult and compare the following scrip-
tures— remarking, that they are only a few of many
that might be advanced ; and that the whole Bible,
taken as one complete system of revealed truth,
teems with the subject from beginning to end ; as
eternity also does ! Matt. 26 : 26-30. Mark, 14 :
22-26. Luke, 22 : 14-20. Acts, 20 : 7. 1 Cor.
5 : 7, 8. 10 : 15-22. 11 : 17-34. Gal. 3 : 1. Rev.
3:20. 19:9. 22:12-15.

Friends ordinarily say, in regard to the alleged
proof of scripture ; (1) that we do not understand
it ; (2) that it is " not in the letter" or "outward
act " that the festival is to be celebrated ; (3) that
it is not '•' the physical blood " [what other kind of
blood is there '!] of Christ that we are to drink ; (4)
that it is all spiritual, and in the heart to be seen
and done ; (5) that possibly the apostles might, in
tenderness to the prejudices of the jewish converts,
have allowed or even for a time performed it ; (6)
that in this age, however, it is of no necessity or
use ; (7) that they enjoy sweet communion with God
apart from all such gross and visible forms, and
withal such cumbrous and expensive observances ;
(8) that symbols and outward signs are childish un-
der the gospel, and impede rather than aid puro

561

spiritual enjoyment, which dehghts iu freedom and
abstraction ; (9) that there is real elevation and
sublimity in their spiritual way of keeping the feast ;

(10) that one can scarcely imagine what horrid per-
secutions, malignant superstitions, and bloody wars,
have been occasioned by those " outward " things ;

(11) that they know by happy experience every way
the superiority of the manner of Friends ; (12)
that it was only the Jewish passover that the Savior
attended " the same night in which he was be-
trayed ;" (13) that there he spoke only inciden-
tally, as it were, and hence only one of the evange-
lists records it, the order which modern professors
so superstitiously over-rate. Do this in remem-
brance OF ME ; (14) that we ought to celebrate the
pediluvium or feet-washing, to take young children,
in our arms and put our hands on them and bless
them, or to mimic any other public action of the
Savior in a religious way and " in remembrance of
him," as well and as much as to celebrate "often "
the festival of " the Lord's supper ;" and (15) that
there can be no conceivable sense or religious pro-
fit in eating a crumb of bread and sipping a few
drops of wine, now and then, and calling the super-
stitious custom an act of piety and worship, well
pleasing and acceptable to God ; v/hich all that are
enlightened in their waij know much better how to
appreciate as it deserves.

O lux Bardaniae ! spes o fidissima Teucrum ! — Viro.

O light most trusty, excellent, and wise ;
How liappy they who see it with their eyes !
71

562

O light transcendent, most benignant light —
No wonder learned sages grope in night !

Once I actually believed in precise coincidence
with their views : and I know that many, or perhaps
all, of them, " verily think " the synopsis, substan-
tially as I have given it above, is truth. God forbid
that I should charge them with duplicity and hypo-
crisy, as if they were practising for wordly ends a
known system of imposture ! God is my witness
that I love their persons and their souls ; and that
in the spirit of love I have written the severest
things, if such there are, in this treatise. But I
have deliberately ridiculed their fundamental fan-
cies— because it seems as if sober argument would
less affect or expose their follies. This is my mo-
tive— and nothing which they can say will deepen, I
assure them, the sense I now have of accountability
at " the judgment-seat of Christ." My reasons are
already given for thinking irony and even sarcasm
sometimes proper and in place, even in sacred mat-
ters. Aeternitate pingo : my interests in time are
few, and fast receding.

What I have yet to offer, as it respects scripture
evidence of the divine institution of " the Lord's
supper,'' shall be confined mainly to a passage
already referred to, 1 Cor. 11 : 17-34. All the
postulate that I here propose is — 1. That this pas-
sage contains truth, and that it is contradicted con-
sequently by no other truth in the Bible or the
universe ; 2. That if it puts down, contradicts,
utterly refutes the whole synopsis aforesaid, the

563

views of Friends are equally nullified, and the folly
of their assumed inspiration proved. It was this
very passage that first killed my own stupid dotage
on the subject : and it would do the same ser-
vice for any other educated and sincerely believ-
ing Friend, if he would only dare to " come to the
light" of its plain and certain sense, soundly and
yet palpably interpreted. With as much confidence
as ever Friend possessed, and infinitely better evi-
dence than they ordinarily command, I declare that
this simple passage ruins their whole system ; and
that it is false, as by consequence Christianity is
false too and all inspiration false, if their system is
true. Unless a Friend will admit, for example, the
possibility that this passage may condemn his views,
he is NOT a candid inquirer ; if he will, let him can-
didly inquire — and the result will ensue. To pre-
judge may be imcard light; but it is not honesty.
" He that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his
deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought
in God." Or, let Friends beware of " the light,"

if they wish to remain Friends ! I know of no

better way. It is simply a mode of that way — to
fix their orbs of vision wholly within!

I submit the following observations on it.

1. It was no impalpable spirituality, such as
Friends arrogate. There were sensible elements
in the feast, called "bread" and the "cup of the
Lord ;" and these connected with the actions of
" taking and eating and drinking," what is called
by the Holy Ghost, " the Lord's supper," and sym-
bolically " the body and blood of the Lord."

5G4

2. It was instituted, however, not to satisfy the ap-
petites; but for religious ends. "What! have ye
not houses to eat and to drink in 1"

3. It was abused by the Corinthians, for which
they are sharply rebuked, though the institution
itself is not revoked on account of it. 20-22.

4. The abuse itself demonstrates the fallacy of
the etherial view. " For in eating every one taketh
before other his own supper : and one is hungry,
AND ANOTHER IS DRUNKEN." Did this abuse ever
occur at a Friend's communion-table — in the heart 1
Were spirituality and abstraction ever capable of
an abuse of the sort 1 If there had been no bread
to eat, and no wine to drink, and no bona fide table
spread, and no service palpable to the senses per-
formed, how could the perversion occur'? a perver-
sion so great that the apostle declares it was " the
Lord's table " no longer, to such an one, but " his
own supper ! One is hungry and another is drunk-
en." Why'? Because they "sat still," and consi-
dered, and enjoyed " inward" communion'? What
scandalous impudence does it require, in the nine-
teenth century, to assert any such thing! What
mental sottishness or romanizing servility to be-
lieve it !

5. Does the apostle annul the observance or drop
one disparaging inuendo against it, because of the
evils it had already occasioned '? Just the contrary.
He assures them of its sanctity ; exhorts them to
prepare for it; 27, 28, threatens them with "judg-
ment " for their abuses ; surrounds it with the high-
est sanctions in the universe ; 29, and declares its

565

perpetuity to the end of time. 26. He declares also
the propriety of its frequent observance. In all
grave discourse, the comparative implies the posi-
tive. " As often " as ye do it, implies that it is
'* often " to be done ; and other evidence of the
word of God proves that it was ordinarily observed
every week, on " the Lord's day," by primitive be-
lievers. Besides ; it characterized the acts of as-
sembling. The church " came together to eat
33, '•' to break bread," &c. Acts, 20 : 7.

6. Their abuse of it had brought down on them al-
ready the divine Judgments of sickness and prema-
ture death, in many instances. " Foil this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many
sleep." Christians were cut off judicially, as Moses
was, for an example to others ; although it was well
with them in the end or rather after it. There was
an epidemic at Corinth, on account of this abuse of
the Lord's supper, and " many" were afflicted with
it, even unto death. I have no doubt at all that mo-
dern pestilences, and remarkable instances of wan-
ing health and sudden or untimely death, may often
have a relation to a similar abuse, which ought to
make us all " examine ourselves." To contemn
the death of Christ is to defy our own. " For if wo
• would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."
Our health and life are held absolutely in the hand
of God.

Friends will here probably smile. And why 1
Because they spiritualize the words " sickly, weak,
sleep," and so forth. I only say, smile on. I did
not undertake this treatise, to pursue the serpent of

566

error through every sinuosity of his labyrinth ; or
the soaring genius of presumption through all the
sublimities of its flight. By literalizing or spirit-
ualizing one or the other, as suits them, they often
succeed, with great sincerity and some specious-
ness, in evading the truth.

7. The great end for which "the Lord's Supper"
was instituted is here declared: to "show the
Lord's death till he come." His second coming
in the end of time is here referred to demonstrably.
The interval then is to be occupied in his church by
commemorating his death and anticipating his last
advent. If the death of Christ be a matter of in-
finite importance and glory ; if God and man are
both incalculably interested in it ; if it was expect-
ed in prophecy, prefigured in rites and types and
sacrifices, desired and respected in the worship of
the ancients since infant time ; if from everlasting
it entered into the all-wise scheme of God that his
Son should thus "die, the just for the unjust;" if
he " verily was fore-ordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times
for us," as " a lamb without blemish and without
spot," that "with the precious blood of Christ" we
might be "redeemed ;" if these things are true ; if
the crucified Savior is the centre and the sun of
the redemption system, around whom all other lus-
tres revolve dependent and tributary ; I can see a
little of " the manifold wisdom," and the manifest
condescension of God, in the enactment of " the
supper of the Lamb."

567

" Glory be to God who gave us,
Freely gave his Son to save us ;
" Glory to the Son who came !"

Suppose Friends had always understood, profess-
ed, and honored " the Lord's Supper," as we main-
tain that God here requires them to do ; would it
ever have become questionable — to use no sterner
word — whether they were infidels or not \ Whe-
ther their preachers knew the simplest characteris-
tic elements of Christianity or not 1 Would such a
schism on cardinal points, as now exists among
them, ever have probably occurred 1 Still, possibly
it might ; as we have reason to know.

Look at 2 Cor. 5 : 18-21, and see what a centre
it occupies, and what a circumference it fills, in the
high diplomacy of the ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
" God was in Christ reconciling (or atoning) the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them." This is the grand fact of Christianity.
The proposition refers to the crucifixion. What a
scene ! How dark, inscrutable, portentous ! All
nature sympathizes and sickens. The heavens are
bathed in darkness. A night, terrific and unnatu-
ral, hangs on the firmanent. The sun suffers an
unwonted eclipse or retires in deepest shades ; and
day dies too. And "Jesus, when he had cried
again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And
behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain
from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did
quake, and the rocks rent ; and the graves were
opened, and many bodies of the saints that slept,

568

arose." Who can interpret a scene like this ? Is
the universe confounded '! Are the dead and the
living changing places \ But greater are the moral
wonders than the natural. Behold that sufferer on
the cross, midmost of the three ! There is inno-
cence, perfect, stainless, unparalleled innocence !
tSee that ibrm ! The hands and feet stream blood.
The head is bowed in death. Why was it so I
Was heaven conscious of the mutiny that bore him
olf^ Why did not God prevent it 1 Why did not
" ten legions of angels," the armed soldiery of the
heavens, Luke, 2 : 13, Tviyjdog arpanag ovpaviov, in-
terpose for his rescue 1 Is it a crisis beyond the
reach of providence, a dilemma too terrible for the
wisdom of God I Is it the unmanageable uproar
of hell ; and is all creation flying off from the Crea-
tor 1 Is there no virtue, no power in the universe,
equal to the exigency 1 Or, is sin culminating above
the throne of God, and menacing the catastrophe
of all things 1 Hark ! a voice, and an inspired one,
solves the mystery forever. " God was in Christ

RECONCILI^'G THE WOULD UNTO HIMSELF, NOT IMPUT-
ING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM." The plot is

now developed ; the tragedy performed. Surely
wo ought to " be reconciled to God," who gives
such demonstration that he is cordially willing to
be reconciled to us. "Only acknowledge thine ini-
quity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord
thy God :" saith the prophet. Truly he will "not
impute iniquity" to us who believe in his name,
since he has imputed it to one who died for us.
" For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew

569

no sin ; that wo might be made the righteousness
of God in him."

All was willing, love inspired it ;
Jesus chose it ; God required it ;

Love the prompter, love the spring :
Who was injured by the measure 1
He whose love esteemed it pleasure ?

He who chose the suffering ?

I should hke to see the christian who thinks such
benefit as this deserves not to be commemorated
appropriately, and in all its affecting and glorious
implications, to the end of time. " The Lord's
death " — what an expression ! " For as often

AS YE EAT THIS BREAD, AND DRINK THIS CUP, YE DO

SHOW THE LORD'S DEATH till he come."
Consequently,

8. Paul instituted it at Corinth originally,
when he there first " planted " the gospel. Co-
rinth was from Jerusalem about one thousand miles.
When Paul entered that voluptuous metropolis of
idolatry and heathenism, his future converts were
" gentiles carried away after dumb idols even as
they were led." Here he built on no other man's
foundation ; but " as a wise master-builder he laid
the foundation " himself What a fair field for the
etherial spirituality of Quakerism ! He could now
have instituted "silent meetings," a female ministry,
and a most impalpable worship ; without sacraments,
ordinances, instruction, or forms of any kind. He
could have told them of " the seed, the life, the
principle, the fund of the soul, the silence of all

570

flesh," and all that heathen nonsense — if his inspi-
ration had only been identical with that of Fox.
Instead of all this counterfeit imposture, he preach-
ed to them " the unsearchable riches of Christ ;"
tauffht them to render " thanks to God for his un-
speakable gift" — by which he meant (not the in-
ward light, but) the gift of his Son to die for us ;
instituted baptism and " the Lord's supper," and
adverts to the circumstance that he had so done,
when he blames them for the sin of abusing so sa-
cred and precious a favor. This he asserts, and at
the same time,

9. He solemnly testifies the divine authenticity of
the ordinance. " For I have received of the
Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was
betrayed, took bread," &c. Not only did Paul en-
act it at Corinth, but this he did as the result of
special revelation before received from the Lord.
Paul never saw Christ in the days of his flesh. He
saw him indeed by miraculous apparition after the
Lord was glorified. The Savior appeared to him
on purpose ; told him of this institution ; and or-
dered him to erect, honor, explain it, in his church.
Is this true 1 Then what a fiction is Quakerism !
What a synopsis of errors do their reasonings fur-
nish ! How wild and jaundiced are their " views "
in religion!

10. The order, " This do in remejibrance
OF ME," is here amplified and confirmed. It is
repeated TWICE by Paul ; once after either ele-
ment. Of what avail is it for infidelity in drab
now to insinuate, that it was spoken incidentally ?

571

that it occurs in Luke alone, and that v^e estimate
its importance extravagantly 1 Is not the inspira-
tion of Paul as good as that of Luke 1 Neither of
them was present at the scene ; but were they both
inspired 1 Then is their testimony one, and that
the testimony not of man but of God. Has God
then changed his mind since Quakerism arose to
arrogate its oraculous interpretation I Has he as-
certained by experience, that his original plan of
perpetuating these blessed memorials till the end
of the world, and the second coming of our glorious
Redeemer, was too defective and short-sighted to
be sustained 1 O Quakerism ! "how long wilt thou
not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord 1
And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon
thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun !"

I call heaven and earth to witness that Quaker-
ism IS NOT CHRISTIANITY : and while as a witness I
testify against them, in the name of my own glorious
Master, I ask all men to tell what are their protes-
tations worth of respect for the scriptures 1 The
Bible is the word of God, and it will be highest
or — under foot ! It is paramount or nothing.

Through faith ho [Moses] kept the passover, and
the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the
first-born should touch them. Heb. 11 : 28. Ye
are come — to the blood of sprinkling. Heb. 12 : 24.
For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us :
therefore let us keep the feast. 1 Cor. 5 : 7, 8.

Do Friends object, that the use of such obser-
vances after all does not appear 1 I answer, That
is not the question. It is simply— are they divinely

572

instituted 1 If they are, then their obligation in-
stantly results ; and that whether we can see the
wisdom of them or not. But perhaps a number of
uses may be discerned, even by us. They are di-
vinely appointed badges of subjection to the gospel ;
and as such they discriminate appropriately the vi-
sible disciples and family of Christ, methinks that
one of their uses appears just now : they serve to
detect a certain spurious Christianity that would
pass current for divine ! they expose a sui generis
style of piety that pretends a more perfect intimacy
with God, while it despises them ! they demonstrate
the temper of Quakerism.

The sacraments are a plain and divinely insti-
tuted test of our obedience. They are like " the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil ;" that is,
the tree that gives knowledge, or makes known,
or indicates, or stands as a test, " in the midst of
the garden." God has employed such outward and
easy indices of piety from the beginning. Only, the
primitive tree condemned them that touched it, and
ordered men away : these condemn them that ne-
glect it, and order men to approach " with a true
heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water." I knew one compara-
tively eminent preacher of the society, who used to
say, in his public communications, something of
this sort ; showing that his convictions were at least
lamed and limping with an half-perception of the
sense of scripture on the article ; " However,
Friends, let every man be fully persuaded in his

573

own mind. Some that go to these outward sacra-
ments are, I doubt not, sincere. It is as far as they
see ; and I would not condemn them. But for one,
and for me, I can say that it appears not required !"
Alas ! more inspiration ! Is it then "required " of
others 1 and not of him 1 Where has God issued a
dispensation for rebels of the society I God does
-not require it of some ! Does he then require it of
others 1 What ! and license some to disobey his
own ordinances ; that is, license some to sin against
his authority, to depose the Lawgiver of the uni-
verse, and erect George Fox in his place 1 " It is
not required of me !" What a discovery I He is to
be excused from the family-table of the children of
God! absolved from the duties, and yet instated
in the privileges of salvation ! Nay, privileged sub-
lime to ride in the car of his own lucid imaginings,
" above all that is called God, or that is worship-
ped." And why is he so privileged 1 Plainly because
of his attainments. Paul was a dwarf, a pigmy, a
babe, to him ! What a pity he had not lived about
eighteen centuries earlier ; the whole college of
apostles and evangelists might have gone to school
to him ! Seriously — I knew the man, and respected
him. He used to say in my hearing many sound
and good things. I am as far from being his foe,
or his personal contemner, as I am from believing
his system. My heart pities his memory! He knows
better now. Eternity has taught him the truth — I
even hope in Christ to his exceeding and eternal
joy, as well as to his wonderful correction and re-
form ! I so hope, however, not on account of his

574

Quakerism, but in spite of it ; and submit the ques-
tion to God.

Say the apostles of the Lamb, " We are of God.
He that knoweth God, heareth us ; he that is not
of God, heareth not iis. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error." By the christian
sacraments, I think, the spirit of Quakerism may
be known. In their crucible, its gold comes out
dross. It is " the spirit of error." And if" error"
betokens a congenial " spirit," it is not innocent.

But while Friends retrench all the ordinances of
Christianity, they perpetuate their own. Plain lan-
guage, plain dress, and plain address, are their
three sacraments. The pope has seven : Christianity
only ttco. Theirs are the badges, however, not of
Christianity, but of Quakerism. They indicate
only — a Friend. I believe they are absolutely anti-
christian. Who ever commanded such things? "Nei-
ther shall they wear a rough garment to deceive."
See Zechariah, 13. OJ^with Dr. Scott's notes. The
subject is almost too low and disgusting to treat
seriously. I will, however, briefly examine some of
their positions, in a style free, perhaps colloquial.

As to plain language, they say, that it is gram-
matical, as ours is not ; that it is scriptural ; that
ours originated in pride, and therefore ought not to
be upheld ; that if Friends do not maintain singu-
larity in these things, they will be more in danger
of losing their distinctive character and mingling
with the world ; that their plainness restrains, in a
salutary way, their youth and others ; and that the
Master wore a seamless coat.

575

The pretence of a grammatical conscience, is ra-
ther ridiculous ; especially when all their correct-
ness regards the number only ; for notoriously they
abuse the case and person more than others — How
does thee do 1 Let us parse it at our leisure ; remem-
bering that it is a sample of their address to one
individual, in the second person ; a specimen of
their common mode of conversation. Docs is not
second person at all ! thee is in the objective, not
nominative case — what governs it"? and there is no
nominative in the sentence for the verb does do I
Instead of How doest thou ? which they almost ne-
ver say ; and instead of Hoic are you ? which the
world's people say : they conscientiously say, all for
the sake of grammar, How does thee do ? Is thee
going out to-day 1 Will thee ride ?

With Friends it seems a good saying for polemi-
cal ejSect, to allege its scriptural character. But is
this valid in their service 1 (1) There is nothing
analogous in the fact. When the Bible was writ-
ten, the comparatively modern usage, that makes
the singular and plural one in addressing an indi-
vidual, or rather substitutes the latter for the former,
was unknown to all languages : at least no such
use obtained on earth as that now almost universal.
Consequently, there was only one way. If the
same state of things had then existed, which now
exists touching the matter, and the scripture had
then employed the singular alone, and laid great
stress on the observance, where all the world used
the plural ; and if the scripture had so made itself
singular on the point, the case would have been,

576

as now it is not, worthy of citation. (2) An argu-
ment from their " secondary rule " always seems
like condescension in them ; a conformity to our
way. If we only had an inspired sentence in the af-
fair, as Fox said he had when his conscience and his
preaching stickled on the article so pertinaciously,
it might be vastly convenient ; for then we should
know. But (3) if Friends go to the scripture, let
them honor the whole precedent. " And Abraham
bowed himself to the people of the land, even to
the children of Heth. And he lifted up his eyes
and looked, and lo, three men stood by him : and
when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the
tent-door, and bowed himself toward the ground."
Abraham was a gentleman ; a man of good man-
ners, who thought it right, by customary indica-
tions, to express outwardly his inward regard for
others. So was Paul ; so were all the saints of
scripture. " Most excellent Theophilns. I am not
mad, most noble Festus :" which last was spoken
to a heathen and a profligate magistrate, out of re-
spect to his station and office in society. " Be cour-
teous : in honor preferring one another ; honor all
men ; honor the king ; pay ye tribute also," a mili-
tarij tax or impost to a military and heathen empe-
ror ! ! " Render to all their dues : honor to whom
honor." But citations endless might be made to
show that ill manners, rudeness, voluntary awk-
wardness, a studious plainness of demeanor, gra-
tuitous singularity, refusing all sensible expressions
of respect for others, the utmost formality in op-
posing all forms, and the like notions, are entirely

577

unlike the scriptural way. Acts, 16: 30. 27: 10,21,
25. 1 Pet. 3:6.; I believe they are often the mere
cloak of elements as unlovely as spite, envy, sordid
feeling, pride, ignorance, bigotry, and very much
of bad habits and ill breeding : and that all these
things are precisely contrary to the temper and
manners of the gospel.

Now suppose I grant, what Penn especially so
much asserts, that the plural form originated in
pride — what of it ? Is not usage the arbiter of lan-
guage, and has it now any such affinity ?

usus

Quern penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi. — Ho«.

With usage is the dynasty of speech ;

Its power and right, its rule and sense, to teach.

Besides, it is wretched casuistry, passing over the
nature and utility of a thing, to reject it, because, by
burrowing into antiquity, it may appear that some-
body introduced it in connection with a matter of mis-
chief, or from an evil motive. The position proves
too much. It proves that the word solcmn^^ and a
thousand others ought never to be used in christian
worship. It proves that one ought conscientiously
to differ from universal usage in any thing, whose
origin appears, on thorough and learned inquest, to
have been connected with evil, or which was intro-
duced from a bad motive. This would retrench for
for us a multitude of innocent usages. On a more
enlightened principle have Friends acted in one in-
stance at least — in adopting the title of Quaker.

o;8

Its good origin is more than questionable. Gervas
Bennet, Esq. the Derbyshire justice, (none the bet-
ter he for the good origin, Benedict, blessed, which
his surname certainly had,) gave it to them in 1650,
from motives which Friends would have to take
leave of their inspiration before they could refer to
a good origin. Well, let us see. The inquisition
is evil ; indulgences are no better ; the crusades
were not very good; the institution of cardinals is
bad enough : and all these papal evils, from no good
motive, were introduced within about a century of
each other, some six or seven hundred years ago,
in the midnight of the dark ages. We have all
heard of the dignity and " eminence" indicated by
a cardinal's hat, and of the farcical ceremony of its
presentation. It is a large umbrageous broad-brim,
whose associations of venerableness, since first in-
troduced into England, have bordered broadly upon
sacred, in the estimate of our ancestors. Hence the
almost instinctive awe which some of us have for
such a religious covering of the head mascuUne. It
is questionable if any other cope or canopy of the
kind indicates as much piety and wisdom and ven-
erableness. Antiquarians tell us that previously
there were no hats in England, Scotland, or Ireland,
of that expressive, right reverend, and most patri-
archal cut and fashion. Besides, they have ano-
ther advantage — the instinctive associations of in-
fallibility ! It is all owing to a proud origin that
such hats appear even in our own days. But will
Friends insist that they are intrinsically wicked ; and
call every man a caudinal that appears abroad so

579

qualified ; and suspect an inoffensive citizen possi-
bly, of a treasonable league with the tyrant of
Rome, either prospective as a candidate or consum-
mate as an ally, should he be seen in the street per-
ambulating, under the dignified circumference of
such a worthy conservatory Broad-brims, for
aught I know, are as innocent as umbrellas ; if not
of the same species. They are very innoxious
things ; and for the life of me, I cannot see the ma-
lignity intrinsical, resulting simply from the evil
origin they unquestionably had ! I confess that I
always think of a cardinal astrut, when I meet a
specimen of very large dimensions ; although it
differs in color entirely from the canonical one, and
although its owner may be too solemn in his con-
templations to think or mean any such thing. But
I pass to another illustration. Shaving the beard
certainly originated in pride. It is a comparatively
modern custom, wholly unscriptural — so far as ge-
neral precedent extends ; 2 Sam. ] 0, and was in-
vented notoriously by the exquisites and petit-mai-
tres of a by-gone age. When first introduced, it
was scouted as fantastical, effeminate and unnatu-
ral, degrading and unmanly ; and to this day some
of us know, by our conformity to the degenerate
custom, that it is expensive, time-consuming, trou-
blesome, and often painful. Still, Friends them-
selves are all in that 'outward' observance. On
their own principle, it is very unspiritual, to say the
least of it ! Is it not a useless conformity too to
" the way of the world's people f What an evil

580

origin it had ! With how many is it a toilet busi-
ness of pride and vanity and wasted time !

That we ought to be singular gratuitously, sin-
gular for its own sake, is a sentiment fit for the
creed of misanthropy alone. I consider it an evil
to differ from any man on any subject. Plainly I do
it only because on some points it is a greater evil
not to differ. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself," is the rule. " And who is my neighbor 1"
Answer — any one whom you can benefit or injure ;
any man who is related to you in any proximate
way : a Jew, if you are a Samaritan ; a Samaritan,
if you are a Jew ; and any human being, black or
white, swarthy or florid, if you are a christian. A
christian is the only genuine friend of the species on
the foot-stool of God. He loves them not less, but
more, because he tries to frustrate their errors, to
convince, correct, and reform them. And shall he
advertise an opposite creed in his manners or his
dress 1 If he dresses conscientiously, as unques-
tionably he ought, his conscience is open to evi-
dence, and ready to be rectified " by manifestation
of the truth."

Not that he peevishly rejects a mode
Because the world adopts it. If it bear
The stamp and clear impression of good sense,
And be not costly more than of true worth,
He puts it on, and for decorum sake
Can wear it e'en as gracefully as she.

Some friends, I well know, allege that we err, in
what we here aver of them, in point of fact ; that

581

they do not lay stress upon the fashion of the rai-
ment ; that they leave every one to himself in the
matter. This I beg leave to doubt. I remember
too much to beUeve it. Why have Friends written
such a quantity about it, if it were a thing compa-
ratively indifferent with them 1 Does inspiration
treat of trifles so voluminously 1 Do they wish to
provoke me to tell and to quote all I know on the
subject 1 I hope not. Meanwhile, Actions speak
LOUDER THAN WORDS ; as saitli the proverb. I pro-
pose a test — Show me " a public Friend," approved
and eminent in labors, with clothes decently and
moderately similar to those of other gentlemen —
not quakerized notoriously ! Show me such an one
with a comfortable double-breasted surtout, or with
coat and under-dress of blue, or black ! Pro-
duce me such a sample, and I will believe that
you state the subject authentically ! Till then, I
must really believe that such a rara avis in terris is
a bird of Utopia only ; and that, should such an one
actually appear, and exercise his "openings" among
you, it would mystify the light, and grieve the bow-
els, and incur the rebuke, of a whole society. To
be plainer — it is all frivolous to aver that you care
nothing for " plain " conformities ; and you know
it ! Have I forgotten one of your periodical " que-
ries," about " plainness of speech, behavior, and
apparel V and the " careful " observance of the
same which it solemnly enjoins \

But, you say, our reasons are religious. Are
they 1 Why then are they not christian too \ Has
the Captain of salvation appointed a religious uni~

582

form for his soldiers 1 If not, how dare others do it
in his name \ How dare they misrepresent his mind
and will on the point \ How dare they caricature
his religion along the streets'! How dare they make
their youth ridiculous in dress and address, distress
their feelings, and subject them to wanton jeering,
insult, outrage, from the brute mob % " Ah ! how
the cross is slighted ! Is it ? What cross 1 One
of your own making, your own will-worship, and not
at all the cross of redemption or of the Redeemer !
" Why ! did not he wear a garment without a
seam 1" Indeed he did : — but it differed as much
from broad-skirts and buttonless drab, as reason
differs from fanatical ignorance. He wore, beside
his under-dress which the soldiers parted among
them, John, 19 : 23, 24, a large flowing robe or
over-garment, called by Dr. Campbell " a mantle :"
this the soldiers would not rend, obviously because
of its texture of excellence, curiously woven. They
cast lots for it whose it should be. It was too valu-
able to be torn. It had probably been presented to
him as an expression of esteem and reverence, or as
an offering of pious gratitude. Its seamless cha-
racter proves not its plainness, but rather its taste-
fulness, its worth and splendor. In short, we have
no reason to think the Savior or his disciples were
ordinarily distinguished by their costume. The fine
rule of Dr. Watts, Dress so as to escape observation,
avoiding singularity and extremes, seems to have
been theirs. I would add — Dress moderately, mo-
destly, comfortably, honestly. Peter was known by
his speech as a Galilean ; and perhaps the others.

583

I know of none but the Pharisees whose dress dis-
tinguished them. Matt. 23 : 5. These put much of
their religion in the shape and possibly the color
and size of their clothes. It is a cheap mechanical
sanctity, very ostentatious and rather spurious, to
advertise one's religion in the appearance of his hat,
coat, and equipage. There may be such a non-
descript as a spiritual dandy! and such a quality as
holy finesse. If a man has religion, and cares to
have it, it will ordinarily appear in a proper way and
at a proper time. And much more should we care
for appearances in the sight of God than in the
sight of men. We should take care of our reputa-
tion— in heaven ! But how great, and " outward "
truly, how over done and spiritually fantastical, is
the pains-taking of men and women Friends to
dress — precisely so !

Truth is truth, whoever says it : and on this prin-
ciple I advert to the saying of a very worthless man ;
conceding its bad origin, while I commend the sen-
timent it contains. " If the Maker of all had been a
Friend, what a drab-colored creation we should
have had !" Instead of this, the eternal architect and
original of all things, has implanted the principles
of taste, and the sense of beauty, as well as of uni-
versal harmony and elegance, in every human being :
and stored the world with an exuberance of well-
adapted objects to attract and gratify so pure and
innocent an endowment. God hath thus made man ;
and thus made all nature " beauty to his eye and
music to his ear." How inimitable, how rich, how
variegated, the hues of a flower-garden ; an autum-

584

nal forest ! or the tints of glory that adorn the Occi-
dent on a fine summer's evening. How grand and
imposing a spectacle is old ocean, rolling in its own
expanse. How ravishing ^nd splendid the scene
of the firmament, glowing with innumerable stars ;
" with living sapphires," as Milton calls them — at
(as Barbauld gives it) " the dead of midnight and
the noon of thought !" how gorgeous the counter-
part of all these glories, peering as from an equal
subterranean vault, seen thousands of leagues be-
low the reflecting surface of some sylvan lake !
How inspiring and symphonious the songsters of
the wood ! They praise the Creator, while man is
mute and inconsiderate of him. But we speak of
clothing, not minstrelsey, " Consider the lilies how
they grow — Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass,
which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast
in the oven ; how much more will he clothe you,
O ye of little faith." Thus all his works concur
and speak his praise.

And all are under One. One spirit — His,
Who wore the plaited thorns with bleeding brows,
Rules universal nature. Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain
Of his unrivalled pencil. He inspires
Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues.
And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes,
In grains as countless as the seaside sands.
The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth.
Happy who walks with him ! whom what he finds
Of flavor or of scent in fruit or flower.
Or what he views of beautiful or grand

585

In nature, from the broad majestic oak

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,

Prompts with remembrance of a present God.

His presence, who made all so fair, perceived.

Makes all still fairer. Cowper.

The senses are not sin ; nor is their regular and
temperate gratification wrong. Is any man so sto-
ically philosophical in his pseudo-christianity as to
profess that he eats, for example, merely from a
consideration of ulterior results, as the health and
strength of his physical system ; and counts it sin
to relish his food in the process of mastication?
It is the inordinate indulgence of the bodily appe-
tites, or their irregular and iniquitous gratification,
that constitutes sin in the sight of God. Christianity
is intended to suit and discipline, to tutor and per-
fectionate our total manhood, in the best possible
manner and to ends equally and superlatively good.
We are to " use the world as not abusing it ;" to
enjoy without excess or waste or ingratitude, his
bounties who so munificently furnishes us with good
of every sort. " For every creature of God is good,
and nothing to be refused, if it be received with
thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of
God and prayer :" that is, the authority of " the
word of God " hath set it apart for our use, and
" prayer" concurring receives his blessing with the
gift ; and both constitute the appropriate " sancti-
fying " of these donations to their legitimate end —
the use of man. Hence we are not to invent crosses
that we may carry them, as if they were divinely
commanded ! especially to invent them for others ;

586

and dogmatize them on niaukiud, proscribing or
legitimating what we will — as if will was law!
Others are as free as we are ; we as obligated
to subjection as others. Legislation in such things
belongs underived to the prerogative of the Great
King of consciences ; and belongs to him alone.
Besides, there are two other reasons against the
usurpation of our legislating in the case : first, we
never engage in making or doing such laws, without
so neglecting, as practically to unmake and undo,
the really obligatory laws of God : the commanded
sacraments, for example ! The attention we give
to uncommanded forms, always subduces propor-
tionately from our obedience to what is commanded.
Second, As it is wi'ong in principle for any man to
popiFY himself as a lawgiver, in the church espe-
cially, so, as Paul avers and as experience shows, it
ought to be resisted in its beginnings and crushed
in the quickening ; or it will increase, mature, and
become at last a living monster of mischief and
impiety So prohfic is the progeny of abuses, when
allowed ; superseding Christianity as God gave it to
us, in its completeness and adaptation, in his word.

Sut the plainness of the society often operates as
a salutary restraint. I question this altogether.
Besides, restraint is not virtue. A tiger may be re-
strained, till in effect he becomes as inoffensive as
a lamb : but still he is a tiger. How much virtue
is there in a restrained Quaker ] as much as there
is of sanity in a maniac dressed in strait vesture.
Such restraint is not salutary, except possibly for
the repose of the community. It cramps the mind ;

587

makes servile the temper ; irritates the feelings ;
contradicts the wishes, without at all convincing the
judgment or enlightening the conscience ; generates
cowardice ; acts as a constant mentor of degrada-
tion ; exposes its subjects to the cruelty and sport
of the foolish, without at all commending them to
the confidence of the wise ; and is calculated to
foster self-deceit, contractedness of thought, latent
malice, envy, and sly duplicity. I solemnly believe
that Quakerism tends to degrade the human mind ;
to strengthen its vulgar and low propensities, to
alienate mental manhood and the honest love of
moral evidence ; to inspire cant, religious whining,
holy moping, artificial distortions of the counte-
nance, perversion of doctrine, solemn vacuity, and
even desperation, insanity, and suicide ! Of the
insanity of its tendencies — I can only record that I
have long believed it from actual observation. I
could give names — a number — now at my com-
mand and of my acquaintance, of Friends, who,
under the influence of their most reasonless and
proofless scheme of mysticism, have gone lunatic
and died maniacs — some, and these their preachers,
by self-violence. The I'easons are, I think, mainly
such as these : it stimulates the mind, when spiri-
tually exercised, to the intensity of fanaticism ; puts
it upon the quest of things impracticable; deprives
it of the strength and satisfaction of rational evi-
dence ; shows it not at all, for it does not know,

THE GLORIOUS DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

IN Jesus Christ, or the scriptural way of war-
ranted ACCESS to God ; fills it with a host of

588

morbid prejudices ; perverts its sober thought, and
inspires a feeling that rational investigation is in-
imical to spirituality and offensive to the grace of
the Spirit ; destroys, as I believe, the proper and
glorious use of scriptural and evangelical guidance,
by telling them — and let no Friend deny this — that
the scriptures are " a secondary rule !" and the
Spirit speaking in them " the primary rule " in re-
ligion ; yea, that the Spirit, i. e. God himself, is a
rule of action, and infinitely the highest and best
rule of action ! I speak as a witness and know that
I speak truth — though well I know also how their
serpentine sophistry will declaim, and throw dust in
the air, to darken the vision of others ! The best
restraint in the world is — pure Christianity.

But one of their esoteric^* arguments is — that if
they do not maintain the characteristic plainness of
the society, they will lose cast and come to nothing !
Will they \ Well, I think this must be admitted.
It is my own opinion. Hence we see the import-
ance of "working out their own " Quakerism, with
punctilious conformity ; for, otherwise, they may
stand a chance to find out the truth and get con-
verted to Christianity ! But — I would tell them,
1. That they will come to nothing, at all events, so
far as Quakerism is concerned. They are now so
much altered, from a thorough-going Quaker of the
seventeenth century, that if the two kinds should
coexist in Philadelphia next year, or even in Lon-
don, they could not mutually endure each other.
Which of them is sufliciently " faithful " in these
days, to enter Christ church " steeple-house " in

589

that city and interdict the worship there, in the
name of the Lord 1 I do not believe that if George
Fox were to enter Arch-street meeting, in the city
aforesaid, he would be either welcome or endured ;
i. e. if he should be just what he formerly was.
There is no persecution in this free and happy
land, to elevate them into sectarian prosperity.
Nor is any man more glad of this every way than
myself. But mark my word, and remember it when
I am in the other world — In this country of

LIGHT AND CIVIL FREEDOM THEY WILL CONTINU-
ALLY WANE, ASSIMILATE TO BETTER MODELS, AND
ULTIMATELY COME TO NOTHING AS A SECT.

Every generation will probably improve in men-
tal freedom and the temper to examine. The
circumambient light, made by reflections and re-
fractions from the word of God, will compel them
progressively to see things as they are. They
will then begin to reason ; and I hope, to pray —
without waiting profanely for a motion of their
sluggish internal prompter. It will then be enough
for them to know what is the will of God on the
subject. And if they can possibly ascertain from
his living oracles, by studious searching and a little
common sense, that Jesus Christ once " spake
a parable to this end, that men ought always to
pray and not to faint," they may at last come
to see that the invitation, the order, the pro-
mise, of God, to prayer, constitute the identical
ALL-SUFFICIENT WARRANT " to cvery ouc that be-
lieveth." This will instantly break up the waiting
system ; it will make their silent meetings seem to

590

them as empty and heathenish as they are ; and
learning to follow the Spirit where he truly leads,
they will obey the written word of ijispiration, as
their highest rule of action, and come experimen-
tally to know, much better than Barclay ever did,
the meaning of that grand aphorism which he mys-
tically abuses — As many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Rom.
8 : 14. Heb. 4 : 14-16. Many an old man pro-
bably will hug his prejudices "inwardly" to the
grave ; but his posterity may not always " approve
his sayings." The signs of the times indicate the
progress of things and their improvement too.
Their educated young men will think and speak
and influence others. Friends have altered since I
can remember. They are shaken, the whole of
them — except the mere mental and moral sediment
of the society, the ignorant and the dull prover-
bially. They begin to see that there is no sin in
classical education and mental discipline ; that La-
tin and Greek may be learned from good motives,
and without contamination ; that there is more
temptation in ignorance than in sound learning ;
and that all correct knowledge may be acquired in
subserviency to piety. Let real light advance. It
never had such a fair field as in this land. God is
the Great Patron of all true knowledge ; and Chris-
tianity is a system of rational evidence, as well as
of " grace and truth."

I must add, 2. That they ought to repent of their
sectarianism. It is a shame to any people, espe-
cially in this age and in this unique and happy land ;

591

and especially as they have more of sect and less of
Christianity. It is the very mind of anti-christ.
And, Friends, allow me to ask, why will you labor,
and metamorphose your humanity, and exhort or
assist each other in upholding that excrescence of
a darkling and troubled period, not half-reclaimed
from the traditional popery of ages ; why will you toil
to uphold a system which can never uphold youl
Let it alone ; give it up. Take the religion of Je-
sus Christ just as he has given it to us, and made
it for us, in the holy scriptures. Conform to it ; it
is greater than you : and it will make you happy ; it
will save you. This, my dear fellow creatures and
friends, I know by experience. I have proved it ;
I commend it to you. Will you not conform to
Christianity I Well ! take the consequences then !
This is all — and surely it is enough. There is no
indecision in God. The alternative is before you.
Christianity will never conform to you, not a jot or
a tittle of it. Again, I say, it never willcoivfokm
TO YOU OR TO ANY MAN. Coufomi to it ; to thc
whole of it ; just as it is ; cordially ; confidentially ;
constantly; and you will be saved long enough
before you get to glory ! The salvation of Jesus
Christ is a present salvation, as well as an eter-
nal one. " He that hath the Son, hath life ; and he
that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." Rea-
der, is this possession yours I Take care of your
title. Many will be disappointed for the want of a
good one. Nothing but truth is indisputable.

This chapter shall conclude with the considera-
tion of a passage. Col. 2 : 20-23, on which the so-

592

ciety are wont to lay much emphasis ; as they do,
most tenaciously, on any and every one that seems,
in their hght, to vindicate their views : so that I think
it a good inference that they would adhere as close-
ly to the whole volume, if they only liked it all, as
well and as much as they seem to like some spe-
cial passages, which they misunderstand and plau-
sibly pervert. This real reason, for the selectness
and delicacy of their scriptural taste, may possibly
not be known to themselves. It is not in money-
getting or the principles of arithmetic, but in reli-
gion pre-eminently, that "the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked."

Every one can see the use to which Friends put
it — to denounce the sacraments ; warn and encou-
rage themselves in the holy disobedience of reject-
ing them ; and fix on consistent worshippers the
charge of judaizing and formality. And truly they
can throw^ over their version of it a cloud of spe-
ciosity in favor of their usages, as if it was written
on purpose to sanction them.

Intending now to attempt its disabuse from
their glosses and their mistakes, their ignorance
and their inspiration, by showing its proper mean-
ing ; I observe,

1. That the passage is comparatively of difficult
solution. Often have I witnessed its mistaken use
in the pulpit, in religious publications, and in the
noble speeches even of senatorial eloquence, en-
gaged in the cause of temperance and thundering
in the capitol. On this account Friends ought to
be treated with special lenience, just here, were it

593

not for their notorious inspiration when tliey preach !
Inspiration deserves no quarters ; needs none ; and
were more injured by the offer than the want. Still,
of mere grace I will award it to them — thinking it
a good instance in illustration of the nature of grace,
as favor to the ill-deserving ! for they always affect
to know all about it, and all about every thing else
almost, as inspiration might.

2. Much of the darkness and mistake which ge-
nerally accompanies the passage may be traced to
a demonstrable infelicity of our translation. I will
render it, as seems just and necessary, thus : If
then ye have died with Christ from the elements of
the world, why, as those that live with the world,
do you subject yourselves to the arbitrary enact-
ments of men I Thou shalt not eat, thoushalt not
taste, thou shalt not handle ; which things are all
corrupting by abuse; according to human authority
and inclination ; which things have indeed the ap-
pearance of wisdom, by will-worship, and formal
humiliation, and unsparing severity to the body,
(though with no real profit) for the satisfaction of
the flesh." That I have rendered the above per-
fectly as it should be, I do not affirm ; but that the
general sense is correctly given, I am confident.
The learned reader may consult the original at his
leisure. He may also ponder Dr. Macknight, Park-
hurst, Robinson's Wahl, Schleusner and others, with
advantage. The original is so densely written ; so
idiomatically, in the free style of Paul ; that one
may well confess in details its intrinsic difficulty,
after all.

594

To be inspired sometimes, would be vastly con-
venient ; it would at least save many an honest
student from the incessant toil and occasional head-
ache of patient investigation.

3. The passage, so far from favoring Friends, is
entirely opposed to them. Tt forbids christians to
allow any human authority to speak to them with
its own dogmas. ^oy^atL^toQe. It will not allow
them to be Pythagoreans, bowing to mere authori-
ty. It absolves them, as the subjects of Christ, from
all the orders of men in religion. Col. 3 : 23-25.
It respects " ordinances" such possibly as these;
" Thou shall use the plain language ; thou shalt
wear clothes of a precisely given description ; thou
shalt go to Friends' meetings only ; thou shalt vilify
all other ministers as " hirelings," and not learn
even the truth from them ; thou shalt believe, with-
out any evidence, that there is, in thee and in all
men, a certain inward * light, seed, life, principle,
fountain, power, grace, and portion of the divinity,'
which is ' above all' and * hath dominion over all,'
by attending to the voice of which, thou mayest
come to the full knowledge of salvation." Those
obey it who refuse utterly to be " subject to ordi-
nances " such as the above ; and who continue to
deny all the fleshly wisdom and presumptuous le-
gislation of creatures in the church, of which Je-
sus Christ alone is the all-sufficient head.

4. Suppose for a moment it did refer to " the or-
dinances " of baptism and the Lord's Supper, (1
Cor. 11 : 2,) I beg leave to observe, doubt it who
may, and I shall only observe, that then the scrip-

• 595

tores would contradict themselves flatly and de-
monstrably— a consequence which in point of fact
(not of words) seems to affect Friends very little.

5. The passage refers, from the previous context,
it is thought, to all the desired innovations of heathen
schoolmen and Jewish corrupters ; while its princi-
ple is of universal application, exalting the authority
of Jesus Christ alone and exclusively in the church
" which he purchased with his own blood." It will
not admit the philosophy of Pythagoras or Plato
to domineer ; or the enactments of Jewish impos-
tors to deform. It allows no distinction of meats ;
it favors no will-worship, no maceration of the body,
no strait vesture of religious singularity or clanship,
no self-inflicted austerities, no profitless and me-
chanical observance. It pronounces all these to be
human fabrications, fleshly wisdom, injurious, and
tending to destruction in many ways. It will be per-
ceived too that the inhibitory clause, rendered in
our translation, " Touch not, taste not, handle not,"
is not plural, as if the apostle commanded it ; is it-
self no integral part of the inspired scriptures, but
a mere quotation by the apostle of a judaical man-
date for the purpose of annulling it ; and that it is
often improperly used in the cause of tempe-
rance— a cause too glorious and too affluent in
resources to need any perversion for its assistance,
since perversion alone sustains the arguments that
oppose it. It is a cause too, I am happy to add, in
which Friends have been nearly right from the be-
ginning ; and in which their example, taking prece-
dency of others, has been comparatively excellent

596

and of praiseworthy consistency. Still, it is not a
perfect example in several respects. None of their
members are allowed to vend the intoxicating poi-
son—in small quantities ! But some of them "feel
easy," or uneasy, while they trade in it by wholesale!
And why, knowing this, in a yearly meeting, full
of inspiration and other wonderful qualities, do they
every year groan over the matter, or squint at it,
with a half resolved menace of action, and then do —
nothing 1 Is it that in such an assemblage " there is
not strength enough in the body" to act in that busi-
ness"? or will they always adjourn it till next year I
Or, is it better "to get still," and hold silent meet-
ings only, on that subject 1 reaching it galvanically
or otherwise, " without words 1"

On the sacraments, Barclay has written nearly 80
octavo pages. To follow him, especially in his pa-
rade of sanctions from the word of God by refer-
ences that are all against him, would be vexatious
and useless. I only aver that I have stated the
strongest of his seeming arguments that I can
find — though I solemnly believe, and for reasons
already given, that his whole dissertation on the
subject is a tissue of sophistry, a flying from the
point, a mystification of evidence, and a disingenu-
ousness of procedure throughout ! It oftentimes
induces the indignation that would — almost— de-
nounce him as a wanton perverter and libeller of
the truth ! I boldly write my thoughts, just as they
are ; and know that I must answer for it to God. It
is out of my power to think that he was not a wil-
ful sophist or a deluded errorist, considered as a

597

religious teacher. In no other aspect would I dis-
pose of him. As one of my relations is that of a wit-
ness, I record it for those whom it may concern that
what he writes induces in my mind only a deeper
sense of his perversion, and of the anti-evangelical
and even infidel tendencies of Quakerism ! I believe
Hicksism belongs to its substance, and is one of its
common and proper fruits. Let men scout it, if they
will ; let them treat it as empty assertion, after all the
scriptural decision of the Holy Ghost that has been
adduced, and that the genius of Quakerism syste-
matically neglects or instinctively disguises ; still, it
shall be recorded — I am sincere too — that the whole
scheme, here and elsewhere, is " another gospel ;"
is homogeneously hostile to the doctrine of justifi-
cation, of atonement, of salvation by faith, and of
eternal and manifest perdition as the sure result of
obeying not the gospel : and these are the funda-
mentals of Christianity, which the Bible continually
brings into view ; which Quakerism continually
puts out of view ; which it is the policy of hell for-
ever to supersede and obscure ; and equally the
duty of the church and the ministry to maintain, pure
and inviolate. " Ephraim compasseth me about with
lies. — I have written to him the great things of
MY LAW, but they were counted as a strange thing. —
Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall
bear no fruit. — Ephraim also is like a silly dove,
without heart. — They return, but not to the Most
High : they are like a deceitful bow : their princes
shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

598

They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. When they
shall go, I will spread my net upon them ; I will
bring them down as the fowls of the heaven ; I will
chastise them, 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. 1 will gO

and return to my place, till they acknowledge their
offence, and seek my face : in their affliction they
will seek me early."

599

1?HB CHRISTIAN? IVIimSTRV.

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. Who will may preach,

And what they will. All pastors are alike

To wandering sheep, resolved to follow none. Cowpkr.

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospe! of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things.

So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearmg by the word of God. — Rom.
10: i5-17.

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 lips shall utter
knowledge clearly. Tlie Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the
Almighty hath given me life. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order
before me, stand up. Behold, 1 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 shall 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
faithful.— 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
AL«o!— 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 Cor. 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 : J4, 15.

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over
them. O 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 pecuhar 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 whom 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. What 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

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 you 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 woman, 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

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 heading, 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 it] The man who gives no " attendance
to reading 1" who abhors religious study 1 who de-

604

nounces theological application, as a profane way
of preparing for public duty 1 who is a layman,
while he preaches"? 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 f and that, "in all" the
varied and lofty ramifications of the ministerial
office l in interpretation, in knowledge, in doctrinal
discrimination, in lucid developement, in richness of
furniture, and so on ? " 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 " Jesns saitli unto them, Have ye un-
derstood all these things I 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 that 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 discipline 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 comprehension, 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
hke 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 ihey 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 otlen-
times, through the working thereof, the body will
be greatly shaken, and many groans, and sighs,

008

and teai'3, even as the pangs of a woman in travail,
will lay hold upon it." Hence, he says, OaYwo7'k
then and icorship 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 might 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
requires,

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, and 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 \ 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

610

sacraments. To come together into one place — to
sit still, to reflect, to be mute, to hear no preaching
of the word, and to celebrate no evangelical or-
dinance ; this is — Quakerism. Acts, 13 : 38-44.
Matt. 13 : 3. " Be instant," i. e. urgent, aggressive,
" compelling them to come in :" Luke, 14 : 23, does
this mean — 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 one will be as a
midwife through the secret travails of his soul to
bring forth the life in them, just as a little water
thrown into a pump brings up the rest, whereby life
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 than sorcery, peculiarly refin-
ed X It is no more the gospel than the fooleries of
the Koran are ! *' In season :" does this mean that
it is wrong to have regular 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 God \ " 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 /<?e? yourself " cloth-
ed " with the living influence 1 only when you can
take out a new commission, like bread hot from
the oven 1 only when your nerves and your imagi-
nation have become charged with the light of
Quakerism, the foxian touchwood or flame of an

611

ultra-spiritual vision 1 Quakerism, whatever else
it may be, is not Christianity.

5. A genuine call to the duties of the ministerial
office, is one thing with Quakerism, and another
thing with the religion of the New Testament. It
was in the " openings " of a marvellous inspiration
that George Fox was first called from the last, to
preach about the light. In just such a way only,
do Friends allow any other preacher to be desig-
nated. All that are not called in this way of theirs,
are man-made preachers, and "divested of the no-
ble name of christian^

On this subject, after I had obtained a hope in
Christ Jesus, and felt "joy and peace in believing,"
according to the glorious written gospel of God, I
was perplexed for a time with the recurrence of the
old leaven, the secret influence, which they think
the very artery of spiritual life, thrilling with its
freshest circulations. The word of God was my
universal solvent, my panacea, my philosopher's
stone, my elixir of life ! I was " thoroughly fur-
nished " by its wisdom. There I soon saw that the
way of fanatical imposture was that which troubled
me, and quite another way that indicated in the ge-
nuine oracles. To be possessed of the proper
QUALIFICATIONS — this was the criterion, according
to that volume of "truth and soberness:" and this
question was to be 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 resolved
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 sense 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 qualifications 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 still \ does
he give himself " wholly" to his work? 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 EXHORT
AND TO CONVINCE THE GAINSAYERS 1" DoeS he

" give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to
DOCTRINE 1" Has he any official "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'?
Let men of sense, unprejudiced and independent,
answer the questions.

II. On THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE AS A

MEANS OF GRACE, I havc 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 rational — if they mean their own ! It is 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 become of the heathen 1" An-
swer, they are all to be converted by Friends' mis-
sionary efforts — or saved by the light in every one of
them ! I also will ask them a question ; What is to
become of "the whole world" that " lieth in wick-
edness ?" 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 indispensableness, but
of the mode of its occurrence. " So then, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the [spoken]
word of God." The gloss of Barclay on the con-
text I pronounce false and contemptible. Paul is
introducing no objector ; in that lucid chain of in-
terrogatories, which leads to the conclusion I have
cited. He is only preparing the way to show, vs.
18-21, that salvation does not follow without faith,
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 according to
human and divine laws equally. If the work is one
that engrosses the " laborer ;" that requires self-de-
votement for life ; that absorbs most properly all
his time and talents ; that occupies him wholly for
the good of others : — why ought he to be starved to
death for conformity to the divine requisitions 1
Tell me not of abuses — I am treating of uses only ;
besides, from abuse to disuse, of a good thing, is a

615

fool's argument. A worldly establishment, a sordid
money-making traffic 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 work 1"
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 probably. Are
there none of your own laity in the same condemna-
tion l Know ye not that if a man practise physic and
love the wages supremely, " mamnlon," and not " the
Father," is his God ; and "wrath abideth on himl"
Friends often argue as if the sacred service was the
only one in which it were sin to prefer emolument
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 competent income from the
congregation he serves — without loving it or valuing
it inordinately at alii A physician ought 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 pretenders
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 founds 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 j!?(?S5^7>Z^/ 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) gpes 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 !

G18

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 otlier men's sins : keep
thyself pure." How guilty 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?
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 them]
did it all " in tlie will of man," were paid hand-
somely for doing it, and never pretended to be
helped by " inwaf d light," which was then at least •
one-third of a century earlier than the epoch of ita
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 I I leave the so-
lemn casuistry with their conscience ; only remind-
ing them of the had 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 with 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 affluent
' inward light,' and a consequent splash in busi-
ness, has often terminated in a subsequent crash of
bankruptcy, and " dealings," and even " disown-
ment f that particular favor and enlargement " 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 my
honor and pleasure to 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 may 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 not 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
it 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 ! Why 1 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 your powers.
Heal and cure all you can ; and do it gratuitously.
You must not be mercenary, or sordid ; you must
not think to make your fortunes, or exercise these
gifts in any worldly money-making 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, even 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 ! 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-

G22

formed with labor, sacrifice, toil ; and a reprobate
and " hireling " delinquency in office ! Besides,
What was it that they had " freely received ]" I
answer, the poicer of miracles sjjecijically ! And how
is it that a competent ministry in our day becomes
such 1 how gets it the qualifications plainly requi-
site 1 Is it by native talent, by intuition, by con-
struction", by miraculous endowment 1 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 ; 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
knoiDS that makes them, have never come to us

C23

" freely " in the sense of the passage. Just the re-
verse. Under God, we have attained them (our
official furniture — I mean) by our own self-denying
personal effort, through a term of devoted years !
Under God, 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 palliation 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 • Hoio often would
you be willing, and hoio much as related to the wants
of life, to pay for the support of the ministry 1 How
long ought the intervals of starvation to be ; and
how certain the instances of ' something' grudgingly
afibrded, to encourage the appetite, or to clothe the
limbs, or to house the person, in the mean time ? I
would know too who gave you what you have '! wiio
" gave himself for you!" and whom do you "rob,"
if you starve or straiten meanly the ministers of his
religion, who is " a jealous God?" 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 l 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 1 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 le.ast, 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-

626

ly illustrious, that preachers of the society, male
and female, expect the reward of everlasting life X
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 free ]"
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 \ 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 1 ) or I only
and Barnabas," are we specially excluded from it 1
have not we power to forbear working \ Who go-
eth a warfare [he might perhaps afford to " sit still "
in meeting] at any time at his own charges \ Who
planteth a vineyard, and eatetli not of the fruit
thereof] or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of
the milk of the flock X Say I these things as a man \
or saith not the law the same also \ For it is writ-
ten in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle

628

THE MOUTH OF THE OX THAT TREADETH OUT THE

CORN. Doth God take care for oxen ] or saith he
it ALTOGETHER FOR OUR SAKES 1 For oiir sakcs, no
doubt, this is written : that he that ploweth, should
plow in hope ; and that he that thresheth in hope,
should be partaker of his hope. IF WE HAVE
SOWN UiNTO YOU SPIRITUAL THINGS,
IS IT A GREAT THING IF WE SHALL
REAP YOUR CARNAL THINGS 1" 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 listen 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 fhe 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

lives ; denied his apostleship ; derided his preten-
sions ; tried to supersede his influence, to defame
his orthodoxy, to degrade his person, and to ruin his
usefuhiess. Among other things, they accused him
of being a " hireling " 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 unwilling 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 is 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^ because I love you not?
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 just account. " But what I do, that I
will do, that I may cut off occasion from them
that desire occasion ; that wherein they glory, ^Jji
05^ they may be found even as we. For such
(Cr'are false apostles, 05^deceitful workers, Ol/^trans-
forming themselves into the apostles of Christ. —
(t?* 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 OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ; whoso 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

)f elated to the salvation of souls- 2 Cor. 11 : 1-6.
" 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, which ye have not received,
or ANOTHER GOSPEL, which ye have not accepted ;
ye might well bear with me." The last word is im-
properly him 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 " o->ca-
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, cxcept it be that I myself was
not burdensome to you 1 Forgive me this wrong^'
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
itnpeached Paul and the " other apostles " (1 Cor.

033

9 : 5.) of hireling " baseness. Like satan too,
whose ministers they were, they preached without
a salary : for he has been notoriously engaged in
preaching gratis from 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 example !
Could a real " angel of light " set off 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 imijrojperly, " the word of God !"
They must at Corinth have put the epistles of
Paul, I ween, very low down as " a secondary rulel"
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 SCRIP-

634

TURES. One object, a great one, of tlie 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 I By their own inspiration \ that ora-
cle sustains them. By their smoothness 1 You can
as soon condemn " an angel of light." By their
good works t 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 tovovroi, meaning all
such, no matter where or when they live. ' Behold,
the picture. Is it like— like whom 1' It is not 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 OF THE GOSPEL." If this WBYB 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 theoi'y 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 infidehty,
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
boys ! 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 very valuable gifts, that ought not
to be lost to the church. True. For one I am less
offended 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 (t?* ever

ORDAIN OR AUTHORIZE A WOMAN TO PREACH THE

GOSPEL. (5) 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 word prophecy with 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 !*^*^ The passage
quoted from Joel, refers mainly to the ordinary cha-

638

racters of a trne 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 way begins to
" prophecy ;" for, " ont 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, we 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 maybe delivered." If
any man or woman is resolved, at all events, in the
true temper of the Jides 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 pubhc ministers are to exercise
their gifts : mark, the prophets or regular ministry ;
not the people or all indiscriminately. But are fe-
males authorized I 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 propliet'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 CCr" 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?" 1
replied substantially thus ; Not in these times. And

G40

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 T' 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 l " 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 05^ the comxMANdments of 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 : 3-16, 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 moi-e 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 C?" 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 contimi-
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 \ 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 such jjossessed 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

642

not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over
the man, but to be in silence." He of course refers
here to pubhc 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 afterward, im-
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
scripture ; and the Cleopatras, the Marys, and even
the Elizabeths, of profane history, commend the
wisdom of the doctrine. But 5. What reasons arc
assigned 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, for aught
I know. But I suppose them ordinarily nearer
heaven before than afterward. It was so with the
first effort 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 nsefuhiess 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 ifl 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 which 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 alternative ! 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, nullam 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
absohitely for their 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 Cau

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 mau ;" 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 less 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 1 " 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 ovdinarWy patter7is for others in several
respects : in delicacy of attire ; in neatness, with
little comparative extravagance ; in comfort and
prudence, in respecting health and the proper ends
of dress ; and in being in a good degree independ-
ent of the caprices of the ton. But far more than
this is necessary mentally and morally in the educa-

647

tion of woman. Deserves she no intellectual cul-
ture 1 no mental discipline, no science, no cultivated
vigor of thought 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 ; qualified to in-
struct, as well as sparkle ; to last, as well as shine 1
Ought she not to know that gems and drapery,
and all the courtly 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
knoio 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 unconiputed efiicacy, 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 wisdom ; 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 1 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 purpose firm is equal to the deed.

Who does the best his circumstance allows,

Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more. — Young.

649

Tliu3, 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 are we to think of her usurpations I
That they are inspired I By whom l 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 resumiug 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 !

* * * *

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 v. ith 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 ! 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 And 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 which 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 professing 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 even 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-

C53

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 that 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 wonder-
ful adaptation to the states and wants of fallen pro-
bationary man ; in their absolute supremacy, on the
principle that the word of 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."

NOTES.

1. Dr. Alexander's inaugural discourse.

2, 3. Parents of the present Professor Douglass 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 wliich he had a few years before removed, and wlierehe
had recently arrived on business. I may be excused for transcribing in
this place — for special reasons — an obituary that appeared in Foul-
soil's Daily Advertise!'. It proceeded (I judge) from the pen of an ho-
norable citizen of that metropohs, who well knew him, who is still alive,
and whom his cotemporaries universally and justly esteem.

•' Died, 1st month, 4tii, 1801, of an inflammation of the heart, James Cox,
of Railway, 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 (o the attainment of old age : his prospects were bright
and his conscience unsullied. He was in the prime of life ; and blessed willi
a lovely wife and five 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 trails of charac-
ter, and his last moments were gilded with the serene hope and confidence
of the Christian."

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 iuc
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 Avise man's heart disccrnelh both time and

656

judgment. " Eccles. 8 : 5. In this way, without affectation, indelicacy,
disorder, or ill manners, the wisdom and the usefulness of christians
might be augmented ten fold, to the infmile benefit of the world ! For
God will bless ordinarily wherever and wliatever 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 effects ; what will be thought to-morrow 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 clearness
of vision which you do not possess. Acknowledge the ditficulty, 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 effect.
" 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 confess 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, faitli
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 Bhall be ahke 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 successes 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 oharge, 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 eflicacy ; 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, 26, 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 hia
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!" 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

658

earthly spirit of the priests wounded my hfe : and when I heard the bell
toll to call 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-
m ^ mbrancer 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. H here 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 xohoUy and always, to the arbitrati jii cf 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 ? 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
THEEE wonders there: first, 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
juBlice 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 sworxl 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 PARAMOUNT 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 simplicity, is a most important
development. It reveals, I think, purely, what is more valuable because
indeliberate, the character 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-
epected : 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 conscientiotis in
it all. " And pray," said one of his judges, " What is conscience ? 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 !" Humor apart, I
Bincerely 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 foolish
and unfair to charge its alleged difficulties, 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 sse 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 pass
immediately and infallibly, yet, by the same providence, he ordereth
them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either neces-
Barily, freely, or contingently." Presbyterian Confession of Faith. Chap.
5, sect. 2. No absolute contingency exists ; yet all relative contingen-
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 arc reciprocally connected and mutually dependant
in the constitution of God. He has no purpose, for example, to fill a
barn with the fruits 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
of fate, and moreover — it is eternal trdth ! 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 earher in infinite preterition.
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, II, 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 simple, 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 jdst 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 easily 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 counsel shall stand

661

AND I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE." Isaiah, 46 : 10. Shall we hata him for
being infinitely wise and good in governing the universe?

4. If it be said — Then he makes some men on purpose to damn them i
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-
eerve — 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 himi (2) The difficulty, if it be one, is just as
GREAT — to say the least — with those who deny the doctrine and are not
universalists. The God whom they profess to worship, created the
finally reprobate knowing 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 </iej> agency; their own wanton wickedness is
THE reason. Second, touching the agency of God — why does h-^ not
interpose preventively and save them ? Answer — Because he cannot in
wisdom and righteousness ! because he sees it better to punish some lor
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 HE CAN ; AND WOULD DOUBTLESS SAVE ALL IF HE
DID NOT SEE THAT IT WAS PREFERABLE FOR HIS INFINITE BENEVOLENCE
TO PUNISH SOME, AND AS FEW AS POSSIBLE, FOR THE GOOD OF THE UNI-
VERSE OP BEING FOREVERMORE ! GoD IS LoVE.

13. Now under the pastoral care of my spiritual cotemporary, my early
and excellent friend, Rev. Phihp Cortlandt Hay, A. M.

14. I 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
disownment 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 ua ;

662

but, having joined another religious society, we therefore testify our dis-
union with liim: but desire, nevertheless, that by tlie clear inshining of
divine liglit, 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 Montlily Meeting.

PMlad. 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 ; I Jirst and conscientiously disoicned 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 tlie 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
the divine light " 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 1 know my own lieart in the sight of God, I can
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 he.

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. Ail things were new ; and all the
creation gave another sinell unto me than before, beyond what words

663

can utter. I knew nothing bdt pureness, innocency, and righteous-
ness, BEING RENEWED DP INTO THE IMAGE OF GoD BY ChrIST JeSUS ; SO
THAT I WAS COME UP TO THE STATE OF AdaM, WHICH HE WAS IN BEFORE

HE 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 the 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 tha
eternal power of God; and fear surprised the hypocrites." Vol. I. p. 158.

I should think that othei' causes, than depravity and a reprobate con-
sciousness, might 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. (C Prov. 26 : 6.

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. 1832." 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 parlies 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
riglit, touching the questions then pending. Of this I have no doubt.
But it is secular in the main ; and leaves the society unv indicated 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 !

♦ Some confusion has occurred in the text, in numbering the notes ; there is no 18, and CO
occurs twice : 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 their doctrinee were,
and so joined no issue on the theology of the dispute ; which was plainly
subordinate to the matters of " bond and mortgage,'' " principal and
interest."

(4.) That the unitarian hicksism 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. 24, 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 repubhc.

19. p. 96. Opposition to the cause of mission*.

20. p. 101. In so 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-fire 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 say, avouching his sincere and tender bene-
volence toward their spiritual interests. 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 for
his peculiar feelings toward them, from the fact that he was their kins-
man, that he had been one of tliem, that he formerly gloried to act aa
they were acting ; as madly, as desperately, as if practically or con-
structively glorying in the cause !

24. Vide, Robinson's Wahl in voce.

25. And from one error learn them all.

26. It is rather surprising to see certain limilarians sometimes arro-
gate to themselves, at least by implication, the honor of exclusive Cal-
vinism,as well as exclusive 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 25 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-
etrictive views of the nature of atonement. In his commentary, which
was his malurer work and the rich mine whence many modern writers
have taken 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 : 2, 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-
sition 60 monstrous deserves no refutation. But olher.», who have no
such purpose, affirm that Christ suffered siifficienlli/ for a'l men ; but
efficienthj 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. (2) 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 praelcxtu repro'.ics omnes, adeoque Satanam
ipsum in salutem adinittunt: tale porteiitum refutatione indignum est.
Q,ui hane absurditatem volebaut effugere, dixerunt ; Sufficienter pro

666

toto munJo passam esse Christum : sed pro electis tantum efHcaciter
Vulgo haec solutio in scholis obtinuit. Ego quanquam verum esse
illud dictum fateor ; nego tamen praesenti loco 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 evangelii doctrina apud nos maneat, hoc animis nostris infixum
eit, redemptos esse nos a Christo ut vitae simul et mortis nostrae sit Domi-
nus ; itaque nobis hunc finem esse propositum ut illi vivamus ac mori-
amur.

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 justific ition of life." Stuart's translation. Cal-
vin says, " The apostle here makes 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 indifferenter Dei benignitate^Toffertur, non tamen omnea
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 many 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 mullorum nomine non partem mundi tantum designat,
Bed totum humanum genus. Ergo d um ad suam mensam accedimus,
non solum haec generaliscogitatio in mentem veniat, redemptum Christi
^anguine esse niundum ; sed pro se quisque reputet pcccata sua expiata
esse.

In modern technology (which I approve) they only are said to be
redeemed 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 sufficienc}' and applicability of the atonement areexten^
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 1
Yes — if all repent and believe the gospel ! Do they this ? 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 making it, which no event
should frustrate. Christ eternally designed the salvation of the 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 : 3G-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 into
his favorite strain of vituperation against the " hirelings or divines aa
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 gratuitous kind of protestant
canonizing of the dead, against which christians ought to show them-
selves decisive protestants ; and blame not the Q,uakers alone.

De mortuisnil nisi bonum, 'tis said:
Say notliing but good of the men thai are dead.
More cliristian tlie adage if tli"s it had come —
Say truth or say nothing, 'lo matter of whom !

It is a common and most perverse error. Men are often blessed and
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 of dying- in the Lord —
and that is, the way of living in the Lord ! Let a man pass this divine

C68

limit, 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 ;
Miglit ail 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 haa
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 malice) that the
Spirit persuadeth, that hath taken up his abode in us?"^

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 toe can bKow (1) p ecisely tchen the soul begins to exist, that is
to endure forever ? {Z) precisely when the subject becomes a moral
agent ? (3) precisely how n ig affected by the sin of Adam, whenever
it commences the perpetration of itqown? and (4) precisely how we are
metaphysically to reconcile the facts ascertained, with all the known
principles of the divine moral government ixrid the certainly revealed
doctrines of the mediatorial economy ? Surely here is some "debateable
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 specially marring " the unity of the Spirit."

669

Only I believe that to settle such questions is about as impossible as to
attempt it is ordinarily useless. The difficulties are metaphysical alone —
not practical, I take it. Tliey respect modes more than facts.

2. Without using any of the many technicalities tliat 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;" grouping the whole species in the dire catastrophe.

(3) That depravity, or personal wicl<ednessin 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 tlie grace and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have some special reasons (with^re 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 1 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 murmuring?, 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
theoloffiae— 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, the Jifth of Romans, ihejirst
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 partes 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 obnoxios 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 debetur.

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."
I have given his words baldly in English, where I could ; and I need not
Bay 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

tains 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 indieQA impossible forme not to distinguish between p/iysicaZ 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 of 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 either the malady or
the remedy of our fallen condition, ordinarily misunderstand both; and
discern not the glorious symmetry of the scheme of redemption. God
imputes to us all the sin we have and 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.

i 34. Q,uere — Is there any intcard 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

nonical. The avalanche of inspiration clears the way for itself, by its
own momentum, wherever it comes. It scorns to be anticipated by out-
ward light 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. TJieir
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 the informed and cultivated 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; 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 ireacherous 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 mo-
dern Friends. What is its bearing on the piety or profession of all other
denominations ? It explodes all others, anixE as perfectly as this pub-
lication denounces Quakerism. 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 conies not,) and feel^its 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
vraters alone. But his strength will last some moments or minutes.

673

— Shall he pray or not ? II' he were lo 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 forth, " to be denied, rejected, and
separated from, in this day of his spiritual arising 1" Is it " will-worship "
or " superstition ?" O yes ! for Barclay's " eleventh proposition " or
thesis says that " all other worship," and especially " prayers 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?" or
Dick's philosophy of religion ? or Dwight's five sermons on the fourth
commandment ?

38. From the third cardinal numeral, tres, is formed, t)-i>ius ; and
thence, trinitas ; (as unilas from imus or universitas from universus ;)
I judge ; without the word unus as an etymon of its composition ; though
Dr. Webster and others think difierently.

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.

42. The last argument —

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 sufficient 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 1832. A large parochial charge, in
6uch a proverbially busy city as that of his residence, may convince

674

any thoughtful person, in some small degree, of the impossibihty 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 the manuscripts were indebted to
notes incidentally taken througii previous years. In the near approach
(as it seemed) 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 public du-
ties. He repeats the declaration that it aspires to no superiority on the
score of fine 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 matter of
THE performance, 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, fausing
longer, heard the voice of his supplantress about 50 feet to his left, (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, 1821.

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 Friends, it is destitute of all evidence and truth: for,
the question to be tried is not the consistency of the Eternal iSpirit in
all his genuine revelations, which none but an atheist can deny ; but
whether Friends are in fact thds inspiredl " Try the Spirits."

" Moreover, these divine inward revelation?, 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 exanllnation either of the outward testimony
of the scriptures, or of the natural reason of man." — Barclay.

According to this it is plain, 1. That the deniers (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 insph-ed without any evidence. 4. That
we are required to believe this alleged fact withotU any scrutiny ; for
these "revelations" are not "to be subjected" to scripture or reason.
This is fact — as well as argument ! What a paralysis of mind does this
pj-stem inspire ! What miserable credulity does it demand ! Barclay
is " no imitator and admirer of the school-men, but an opposer and de-
spiser of them as such; by whose labor," says he, "I judge the christian
religion to be so far from 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 Christiana
value learning ; and make it, in its place, a part of their religion !
They are recreant to Christianity, if they dishonor that philosophy,
which is ?io<" 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
Quakerism, in a sort, for^my deep conscientious estimate of 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, 15-24. 31 : 8.
Josh. 13 : 22. 24 : 9, 10. Micah, 6:5. 2 Pet. 2 : 15, 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. Matt. 7 : 21-23. John, 6 : 70,
71. 1 Cor. 13 : 2. Remembering that the word charity ought to have
been translated love, wherever it occurs in the New Testament.

52. Errors on the subject of 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-

076

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 inspiration, RlncWy
Kiich.

2. Miraculous influence or inspiration is not nobler and to he preferred
to ihat which mainly sanctifies and cleanses the soul as the "living
temple" of God.

3. They are not with generations, as such; but with individuals.

4. They are not f^iven to saints alone, or to the elect alone ; but lo
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
affirmed, 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 which abso-
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 effeclual
— 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. l^^Tatt. 13 : 20, 21.
2 Pet. 2: 1,20-22. The things 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 aflTect 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-
cial and saving influences are not always identified in the event, how-
ever they may be in general nature.

8. They are; not irresistible. The error results from confounding
them with the purposes of God, after misconceiving their nature, (ij
Sinners resist them notoriously. (2) So do saints in some respects, every
day. Will any christian deny this in his own case? (3) They are
resistible in their very nature, even when not resisted. They were
better said in such case to be effectual ; because they then secure the
event, because they were faializing otherwise, and because this is about
all that orthodoxy means. It is also, I think, the usage and the meaning
of scripture. (4) I know not what beside can be 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 otKer. The Bible no where
represents them as irresistible ; as might be shown.

9. They are not physical or mechanical, instead 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 false — 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 feelings 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 by 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 feelings to control him in religion or — almost — in any thing
else!

t , 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 absolutely necessary to salvation. Are not
regeneration, sanctification, illumination, necessary ?

15. We are not passive 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 trutli.

16. We need not wait for them. In fact they are waiting for us

and the wailing system on our part is compounded only of false views,
contracted thoughts, and disobedient feelings, combining for an excuse
in sin ! The waiting system is 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 fo inspire our actions, or prerhule 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; 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 his 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 into our public assemblies, and they
were {baggages that they were!) adjudged unto the whipping-post for
that piece of devilism.^^ 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 undenvriter 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 amonget.
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 of devilism" was repeated in the
new. Says Fox, " Some have been moved [no doubt — moved'] 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 them." 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 to think they can do almost any
thing — when inspired. The moving of inspiration is the very soul of
the orthodoxy of their sySlem — 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 and 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 truth, 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 H.^D, AND NEVER CAN HAVE, ANY IN-

680

( .t.PTiON OR EXISTENCE l/fPresbyLerians would have more to lose and lets
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 constitution 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 eclaircissement, and a most convincing de-
monstration, of the whole matter, to the infallible showings and guid-
ings and leadings and dreamings especially — of the inward light!
aince it, as Fox says, " hath dominion over all and deceives nobody."

57. Rt. Rev. Chas. P. M'llvaine, D. D. in his Evidences of Chris-
tianity.

58. Dr. Campbell's translation ; 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
iloctrinal 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-
HAY. 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: lie so honored the LORD JESUS CHRIST and his
GLORIOUS atonement, that I feel singular freedom and pleasure,
uniting with the popular voice of two hemispheres, in acknowledg-
uig, as the peerless crown to the many accomplishments of a highly
linished 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
lionored relatives in this city ; while I know that he inculcated too much
fiound 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 scriptures as the
WORD OF God, with all the consequent obligations and duties of such
" a good confession ;" and my conviction that the reliquiae of his Qua-
kerism constituted a real and even a great defect in his otherwise exalt-
ed and very amiable character, duakerism would be still wrong and
false, if every one) of its nominal members were — in spite of it — aa
sound 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," as
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 a member of the society. Its
simple classic excellence of diction, constitutes not at all its highest
claim — it is generally so clear and sound in its matter! Still, I object
to it; (1) that it is 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 fatlier, 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 wholly founded on the recognition of qualities de-
rived from Christianity, as contradistinguished from Q,uakerism ; 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 anraiuersar?/ 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 worda.

Solemnes turn forte dapes et tristia dona
Ante urbem in luco, &c.

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

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 particularly ambitious. Any usage of theirs,
which seems to me to be a limb of their system and properly no limb or
member of Christ, I think it just to bring into the animadversion of the
community.

Nullius 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 oa which I might volu-
minously enlarge — not so much the mystic, as the mythic or fabulous
character. Their old men, as well 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 ; Avhile the younger, with
"ductile minds" intent, listen, wonder, believe, and become edified in
their turn to — transmit the precious treasure to their heirs of a coming
generation. These goodish stories are very entertaining, 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 mytliology,
Irom 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 think 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 eundo. — 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 knows :
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 made 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 I

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
HEFORM. I would Suggest a thirteenth reason — Because the church ia
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.
Because —

L The cause of God and truth ought to be supported by the volunta-
ry contributions of its adherents— and is disgraced when compulsory
measures are adopted.

2. It is compelling Dissenters to support a system which they con-
scientiously view as unscriptural.

3. Dissenters derive no commensurate advantage in return from the
Church.

684

4. Dissenters bear all the expenses connected with their places of
worship without asking 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 has 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 ?

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 henesty, can the exaction be
defended, and therefore reform here must ensue.

On a moderate calculation, the washing 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 itetl 1

" 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 minis-
ters ; which support their own 'colleges, to the number of nearly 20 ;
which conduct the tuition of perhaps 7,000 Sunday Schools ; and which
expend nearly £150,000 in support of 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 becometh saints, and assist lier
ya whatsoever business she hath need of you ; for she hath been a sue-

685

corer of many and of myself also." An honorable testimony — 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 of one of its honored eldership) who, when I was " perplexed, but
not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,"
60 kindly and 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 — and, if it were equally pertinent, I should have previ-
ously named her excellent husband, Mr. Isaac Sayrs ; both remembered
by many 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 need, according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus." And to many other friends indeed, do I extend the hope and
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 ? 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.

^ 69. Venfum erat ad limen, cum virgo, Poscere fata

Tempus, ait : Deus, ecce, Deus ! Cui talia fanti

Ante fores, subito non vuUus, non colour unu3,
_^ ^ Non coraptae mansere comae : sed pectus anhelum,

Et rabie fera corda tument ; majorque videri,

Nec morlale 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.

7L 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 believe 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 " business results
from the system, and eo 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 booli 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.

Q,uakerism is not Christianity : and let the man who can see no dif-
ference, read the inspired mottos of this book, and refer the 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."

ahvvatbv i^ewyao^ai 0eoy - ■ '

THE END.

■

Date Due

Mr 28*38

_ ^ _

(|)!

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