**& 
 
 -i\ 
 

THE 
 
 SURE FOUNDATION 
 
 OR, 
 
 PAST AND FUTURE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER 
 
 ON SOME OF THE ESSAYS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 W. C. WESTLAKE. 
 
 tTNIVERgiTT 
 
 . BUILT UrON THE FOUNI>TffWH»P^!EAPOS'ILES AND PROPHETS, JESt^S 
 
 Christ HIMSELF being the chief corner-stone. "— ErH. n. 20. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 A W. BENNETT, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT. 
 
 DUBLIN : HODGES AND SMITH. 
 
 MDCCCLX. 
 
 Price 2s. 6d. 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 The annexed advertisement, which appeared in the 
 public prints, will explain the origin of this essay : — 
 
 SOCIETY OF FTJTENDS. 
 
 PRIZE ESSAY. 
 
 A Gentleman who laments that notwithstanding the population of the 
 United Kingdom has more than doubled itself in the last fifty years, the 
 Society of Friends is less in number than at the beginning of the century ; 
 and who believes that the Society at one time bore a powerful witness to 
 the world concerning some of the errors to which it is most prone, and some 
 of the truths which are the most necessary to it ; and that this witness has 
 been gradually becoming more and more feeble, is anxious to obtain 
 light respecting the causes of this change. He offers a Prize of One Hun- 
 dred Guineas for the best Essay that shall be written on the subject, 
 and a Prize of Fifty Guineas for the one next in merit. He has asked 
 three gentlemen, not members of the Society of Friends, to pronounce 
 judgment on the Essays which shall be sent to them. They have all some 
 acquaintance with the history of the Society, and some interest in its 
 existing members ; and as they are likely to regard the subject from 
 different points of view, he trusts that their decision will be impartial ; 
 that they will not expect to find their own opinions represented in the 
 Essays ; and that they will choose the one which exhibits most thought 
 and Christian earnestness, whether it is favourable or unfavourable to the 
 Society, whether it refers the diminution of its influence to degeneracy, 
 to something wrong in the original constitution of the body, to the rules 
 which it has adopted for its government, or to any extraneous cause. 
 
 Rev. F. D. Maurice, Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn ; Professor J. P. 
 Nicholl, Glasgow ; and Rev. E. S. Pryce, Gravesend, have agreed to act 
 as Adjudicators. 
 
 This invitation was responded to by about one hundred 
 
IV PHEFACE. 
 
 and fifty writers, and a few months since the two prizes 
 were awarded. 
 
 It is an unusual circumstance for an admirer of any 
 sect to offer a public prize for discovering its failings 
 without reference to its excellencies ; and still more so, 
 to select as judges three eminent writers, none of whom 
 agree with its fundamental views. If the soundness of 
 the main doctrines of Friends had been the required 
 postulate upon which all essays should be based, the 
 result would have been less singular. By the present 
 mode, not only has full scope been given to those who 
 (like the author of the second prize essay) condemn 
 every thing which is opposed to Anglo-catholicism ; but, 
 on the other hand, those who would uphold Quakerism, 
 have, from the nature of the advertisement, been dis- 
 couraged from making allusion to its merits, and been 
 specially occupied in setting forth its faults. 
 
 The impulse, thus unintentionally given by the prize 
 donor, to write down the principle as well as the prac- 
 tices of this Society, has brought to light eight or ten 
 printed essays, all of which are of necessity more or less 
 fault-finding, and one or two directly antagonistic. 
 Such an one-sided contemplation of its tenets by one 
 hundred and fifty essayists would be an extremely severe 
 ordeal for any sect, but it is especially so for the Friends, 
 whose practices differ in many respects from other 
 Christian communities. No fair exposition can be 
 arrived at by looking only upon the dark side ; and 
 the present essay is published at the request of several 
 friends, who think it embraces a fuller and more just 
 view of Quakerism. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the Society of Friends has thus 
 been placed very disadvantageously before the religious 
 world of 1860, the writer is far from regretting the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 circumstances which have occasioned it. A Christian 
 church which had settled down too much at its ease 
 concerning the souls of perishing multitudes around 
 it, and which was hiding its light within its own narrow 
 borders, ought to profit from such an united assault 
 from friends and foes. If, instead of despising these 
 strictures, it proceeds in deep humility and contrition 
 to examine them, we shall find that, as of old, " out 
 of the eater shall come forth meat, and out of the 
 strong shall come forth sweetness." If turned to proper 
 account, such trials are blessed of God to the purifying 
 of the church ; but if unheeded, they increase its con- 
 demnation, and hasten it onwards to a condition yet 
 lower and more lifeless. 
 
 Whilst endeavouring to reach the real causes of de- 
 cline, the writer found that there was involved a still 
 more important question, viz., the causes of vitality. The 
 investigation into which he has thus been led, has re- 
 sulted in strengthening his convictions that the founda- 
 tions of Quakerism stand sure. It has shewn him the 
 excellence of many testimonies now half obscured by 
 formalism and tradition, and proved how entirely the 
 doctrines of Friends are in accordance with the deduc- 
 tions of reason, and with the truths of Holy Scripture. 
 It has also clearly convinced him that ordinary pursuits 
 and worldly avocations are not only compatible with a 
 daily life of faith, but with the exercise of every spiritual 
 gift in the church. 
 
 If, by the divine blessing on so slender a means, the 
 perusal of the following pages should confirm any of his 
 brethren in the same faith, the main object of publica- 
 tion will have been answered. 
 
 The essay having been composed during the active 
 engagements of a mercantile life, renders the style 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 somewhat detached and unequal, but it seeks no claim 
 on the ground of literary merit. Since its return from 
 the adjudicators it has been revised and somewhat 
 shortened, and a few fresh notes have been added. 
 
 There will probably be found within its pages much 
 that will be sympathized with by one class of his fellow- 
 professors, and suggestions that will be painful to others ; 
 it must also contain sentiments differing from those held 
 by his friends of other religious persuasions. Sensible 
 of his own imperfections, the author, whilst expressing 
 his convictions clearly and unhesitatingly, has endea- 
 voured to do it with that charity which should interflow 
 not only between individuals of the same sect, but be- 
 tween all members of the Church universal. 
 
 In now placing this volume before the public, it is 
 with the heartfelt prayer, that whatever it contains of 
 truth may be blessed of God the Holy Spirit unto the 
 comfort and edification of the reader, and that its human 
 errors may, by the same restraining grace, be prevented 
 from offending the least of His little ones. 
 
 Southampton, 
 
 4th Mo. 5th, 1860. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 Origin of the Society of Friends 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Fundamental Doctrines 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Testimonies 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Statistics 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Progressive Development .' 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Impediments — Essential 51 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Impediments— Superficial : 
 
 Part 1. — Misimpressions 55 
 
 Part 2.— Language and Dress 65 
 
 Part 3. — Deficiencies 75 
 
 Part 4. — Over-legislation 78 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Concluding Remarks 84 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER 100 
 
TO THE ADJUDICATORS. 
 
 In the following essay the writer has felt that, in 
 order to ascertain the causes of weakness in any struc- 
 ture (either material or spiritual), it is needful to test 
 every part of the building, and to probe the sound as 
 well as the unsound. 
 
 From the wording of the Advertisement he has also 
 considered that the intention of the donor is not simply 
 to procure a dry analysis or logical exposition of the 
 supposed "feebleness," but that restorative suggestions 
 are in accordance with the object desired. 
 
 Candide et Constanteb. 
 
TTNIVERtITT 
 
 PEESENT AM) FIJTUEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OKIGIN. 
 
 In considering the past and present state of the reli- 
 gious Society of Friends, a short account of its origin 
 and of its tenets and practices is needful, to enable 
 the general reader to understand the nature of those 
 hindrances which have operated against the spread of 
 its religious principles. 
 
 The period at which it arose (in 1650) was one of 
 great political and religious excitement. The Reforma- 
 tion of the sixteenth century had, by throwing aside 
 the accumulated and darkening corruptions of popery, 
 done much towards restoring Christianity to its original 
 purity ; and had established in this kingdom those two 
 great bulwarks of religious freedom — viz., the right of 
 private judgment, and the printing of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures in the vulgar tongue. But although much was 
 accomplished, much was left among the protestant re- 
 formed churches, which had no authority from scripture, 
 nor justification on the ground of a needful expediency.* 
 
 * The changes effected by Luther and his cotemporarles were so vast 
 and important, that, dazzled by their splendour, we are tempted to con- 
 sider them as a complete instead of a partial work, and to overlook the 
 
 B 
 
Z ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 Iii this country, the founders of the English established 
 church were men of great zeal, piety, and wisdom — 
 men who nobly offered up their lives, as well as their 
 possessions, for the cause of Christ, and for the spread- 
 ing of His kingdom on earth. But it was not to be 
 expected that they could accomplish everything that 
 was needful, or that they would perceive and sweep 
 away all the gross accumulations which had for centuries 
 bedimmed the Christian faith ; to the puritans and other 
 nonconformist divines was left the task of further purifi- 
 cation. These again retained amongst them views and 
 practices not in accordance with the spirituality of the 
 gospel dispensation. 
 
 The same blessed Spirit which called forth these various 
 servants of the Lord to labour in His vineyard, was the 
 origin and producer (as the first Friends believed) of a yet 
 further reformation in the Christian church — a reforma- 
 tion in its practices, as well as in its faith. The dissolute 
 lives of many high professors in that day, and their 
 neglect of the flock over which they were appointed,* 
 was in marked contrast to the external strictness of 
 the puritans ; but the great political and ecclesiastical 
 changes in this country produced very little permanent 
 
 many phases in which they fell short of apostolic simplicity. By regard- 
 ing either this epoch or that of the early Fathers as the fountain-heads 
 of truth, we merely quench our thirst at impoverished human cisterns, 
 instead of going back to that primeval source from which they drank, and 
 from whence alone their strength was gathered. Have we not the same 
 inspired volume to consult, and the same Holy Spirit to enlighten us ? 
 
 * Much has lately been written upon the violent language and conduct 
 of Fox and his brethren. In mitigation of this fault we must, however, 
 bear in mind, not only the violent character of the age itself, and the 
 thundering with which Huss, Luther, Knox, and other great reformers, 
 assailed their opponents ; but also the frightful state of irreligion and 
 immorality in which Lord Macaulay depicts the clergy of that day (History 
 of England, vol. i.). 
 
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 3 
 
 religious benefit to the people at large, whose lives were 
 passed either in the neglect of everything sacred, or else 
 in an over-estimate and pharisaic observance of the ex- 
 ternal forms of religion. 
 
 It was at this period that George Fox, a young man 
 of earnest life and strong convictions, after long prepa- 
 ration and a patient endurance of deep mental conflicts 
 — after close and prayerful searching of the Scriptures 
 and of his own heart, went forth to re-proclaim the 
 spirituality of the gospel dispensation, and to bring 
 about a revival of primitive Christianity and vital godli- 
 ness. A remarkable power attended his preaching, and 
 through his instrumentality very many others of all 
 ranks were raised up to declare, in a similar way, the 
 " unsearchable riches of Christ." Quakerism is there- 
 fore not to be regarded as a revelation of any new truth, 
 or as any addition to primitive Christianity. It was 
 stated by its founders to be that same Truth which was 
 declared from the beginning, but which the traditions 
 and maxims of men had, during the dark ages, overlaid 
 and obscured. 
 
 It must ever be borne in mind that whilst all the 
 works of God, both natural and spiritual, have a con- 
 stant progressive tendency towards perfection — "first 
 the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear" — 
 those of fallen man are constantly retrograde. However 
 clear the fountain, or pure the resolve, it is found with 
 churches, as with individuals, that impurity and apathy 
 creep in by steps gradual but sure, and (unless pre- 
 vented by divine grace) the machinery and adaptation 
 of man will multiply errors and imperfections. His- 
 tory would also seem to prove it to be in accordance 
 with the divine economy, that these subtractions and 
 additions of man should from age to age be counter- 
 
 b 2 
 
4 ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 acted by a re-formation or a returning to first principles. 
 Whilst the church of Christ ever remains the same, 
 every branch of it finds itself, as years roll on, to be 
 retrograde and not progressive ; e.g., the English pro- 
 testants abandoned the errors of popery, and two 
 centuries afterwards the Wesleyans, as holding a purer 
 and more zealous faith, emerged from the English 
 church ; then again we have the reformed Methodists 
 from out of these. 
 
 It is not my object here to discuss the extent or 
 soundness of these secessions, but to point to the fact 
 that nearly every instance of religious revival in any 
 church ends in the secession of many of its most 
 attached members, and in the establishment of some 
 new sect professing a nearer approach to apostolic prac- 
 tice than that from which they seceded. 
 
 We find that the same truths implanted in the minds 
 of the stern Roman, the wise Greek, or the strict Jew, 
 brought forth different (but not opposite) external fruits. 
 The admittance of the Gentiles into the fulness of the 
 Gospel blessing, which needed a vision from heaven 
 before the mind of Peter or James could be convinced 
 thereof, was by Paul comprehended without effort. Not- 
 withstanding the frequent declaration of our Saviour, 
 that the old law was fulfilled or closed hi Him, the 
 disciples clung to the necessity of outward rites as 
 accompanying salvation. Even eighteen years after the 
 outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 
 when the whole church met at Jerusalem (Acts xv.), it 
 was maintained by many of the believers, both in rela- 
 tion to Jewish and Gentile converts, " Except ye be 
 circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be 
 saved." So strongly was this doctrine upheld, that, to 
 subvert it, Peter had to refer to his divine mission to 
 
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 5 
 
 the Gentiles ten years before, and to the fact of these 
 having received the Holy Ghost without circumcision, 
 " their hearts having been purified by faith." This 
 statement was followed by a narration from Paul and 
 Barnabas of the wonders God had wrought amongst 
 the Gentiles through them ; and the proceedings were 
 summed up by the Apostle James, who proposed that 
 Gentile converts should not be interfered with ; because, 
 said he, " in every city Moses hath them that preach 
 him, being read in their synagogues every Sabbath- 
 day." Their views were so diverse, that but for this 
 conference, it is probable that separate churches of 
 Peter, James, or Paul, would have been then founded, 
 and sectarianism thus early commenced. It is, how- 
 ever, remarkable that whilst they refrained from offering 
 to Jewish believers any counsel upon the impropriety of 
 longer keeping the Mosaic law, they unitedly insisted 
 that all converts, whether Jew or Gentile, must " ob- 
 serve these necessary things" — viz., "abstaining from 
 meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things 
 strangled, and from fornication ;" thus upholding the 
 Jewish law respecting things strangled, and placing it 
 upon a par with the sin of fornication.* Again, a.d. 66, 
 James and the elders, speaking to Paul of the many 
 thousands of Jews which believe, state " They are all 
 zealous of the law, and are informed of thee that thou 
 teachest all the Jews which are amongst the Gentiles 
 to forsake Moses," &c. ; and instead of encouraging 
 
 • It is worthy of special note that, although the actions of Peter and 
 James were so strongly tinctured with Judaism, yet their written epistles 
 are not so. Even the epistle of James, which is full of minute instruc- 
 tions to believers, contains no allusion to outward ordinances of any kind. 
 As inspired writers of Scripture, they were the mouthpiece of the Spirit, 
 and infallible ; but at other times they were fallible as men. 
 
b OEIGIN OF THE 
 
 Paul therein, they unitedly urged him, by some overt 
 act, to repudiate what they felt must be a slanderous 
 and false accusation against any apostle of Christ. 
 
 These apostolic differences show us that those upon 
 whom the Holy Spirit has been outpoured may differ 
 in opinion on external requirements ; they also explain 
 the anomaly of every Protestant sect numbering amongst 
 its staunch supporters many pious and sincere-hearted 
 men, each of whom upholds his own church as the true 
 development of the gospel system. The comprehension 
 of all Christians under one form of church government 
 is but of little importance, compared with that of every 
 church being united to the one living Vine, and, as 
 different fruit-bearing branches, deriving all life and 
 nourishment from Him alone. This oneness of root 
 will ever produce an unity which, though it cause not 
 all men to see eye to eye, would prepare them to bear 
 with one another in their differences, and destroy that 
 sectarian bitterness with which Satan, under the guise 
 of zeal for God's truth, has embroiled us. 
 
 The early Friends, perceiving great diversity of creeds 
 amongst protestant professors, but finding no solace to 
 their own souls within the pale of any, endeavoured to 
 throw entirely aside the dust and rust which had accu- 
 mulated during successive ages. They sought in earnest 
 prayer for the guidance and enlightening influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, and in humble dependence thereon 
 they searched and studied those scriptures which " Holy 
 men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." So thoroughly, in their estimate, were the 
 traditions and adaptations of unregenerate man inter- 
 woven in all religious sects, that many Friends feared a 
 critical study of the bible, lest they should be in- 
 sensibly drawn away from that in which alone they felt 
 
SOCIETY OF FKIENDS. 7 
 
 security — viz., the Holy Spirit enlightening the seeking 
 mind to comprehend its truths. 
 
 They knew from experience, that no syllogistic or 
 historical belief in the bible could change the heart, or 
 purify the conscience from dead works. They dreaded 
 lest scholastic divinity should substitute, within them, 
 theology in the place of religion; — dry logical proofs 
 of the existence of a God, for that inward objective 
 revelation of Himself upon which their belief was im- 
 movably based. Possessed of this positive faith — a 
 faith which in its very nature is unassailable by atheist 
 or sceptic, and commencing with the postulate " God is 
 — because I feel Him to be ;" they felt that no circum- 
 stantial evidences, proofs, or historic doubts, could affect 
 this inward witness for God in the soul. Knowing also 
 that " Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God," they went forth, unlettered as many 
 of them were, to preach the gospel to every creature — 
 appealing, not to hereditary beliefs or school catechisms, 
 but to that Spirit of Truth within, of which the apostle 
 John declared " He that believeth on the Son of God 
 hath the witness in himself." Their belief in Jesus 
 Christ was built upon this foundation, and they boldly 
 maintained that, not by historical faith or ceremonial 
 observances, but by a heartfelt belief in Him alone, the 
 once crucified and now risen Lord, could man be saved. 
 They maintained that, under the Gospel dispensation, 
 there was by divine grace an inward witness in the 
 soid of every man,* which recognized as truth, instinc- 
 
 * * That true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world was the life in the world, and was divine and eternal, and not na. 
 tural ; and wicked men were enlightened by this Light, else how could 
 they hate it, as it is expressly said they did ?" — {Fox, Journal, p. 362.) 
 " They that believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life, 
 and became the children of it ; but they that hated it, and did not believe 
 
8 ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 tively and immediately, many of the New Testament 
 doctrines, and which gave response to that eternal truth 
 which is contained in the lively oracles of God ; and 
 that the appeal of the rightly authorized minister to this 
 unbiased inner conscience was direct and irresistible. 
 " By manifestation of the truth, they thus commended 
 themselves and their doctrines to every man's conscience 
 in the sight of God." 
 
 The steady maintenance of this principle caused the 
 grossest misrepresentations ; Friends were accused of 
 exalting an inward light or principle, in opposition to 
 the Holy Scriptures, of denying the outward coming of 
 our Lord, and of disparaging the letter of Scripture ; 
 and many partial quotations from their writings favour 
 these unjust attacks.* 
 
 But in the same way as the logical faculty of a man 
 is capable of embracing and recognising mathematical 
 
 in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ." 
 — {Fox, Journal, fol. ed., p. 20.) 
 
 " Unto all men is a visitation given, and they that do perish it is 
 because they do not believe in Christ ; and destruction is of a man's 
 self, but salvation is of God, through believing in his Son, who takes 
 away sin." — (Edw. Burroughs Works, fol. ed., 1672, p. 440.) 
 
 * "This most horrid accusation has been answered a thousand times 
 before, by declaring that He that laid down his life, and suffered his body 
 to be crucified by the Jews, is Christ, the only Son of the Most High 
 God.''— (Penn's Works, fol. ed., 1726, vol. ii. p. 65.) 
 
 "We do not hereby intend any ways to lessen or derogate from the 
 atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ ; but, on the contrary, do mag- 
 nify and exalt it. We believe all those things to have been certainly 
 transacted which are recorded in the Holy Scriptures, concerning the 
 birth, life, miracles, sufferings, resurrection and ascension of Christ. 
 Yea, it were damnable unbelief not to believe it." — (Barclay, Apology, 
 props, v. and vi. s. 15). 
 
 " As certainly as there was a Chief Priest, and Jews, and Pilate there 
 outwardly, so certainly was Christ persecuted by them, and did suffer 
 there outwardly under them."— (Fox, Journal, fol. ed., 1765, p. 48. See 
 also Declaration of Faith in next chapter.) 
 
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9 
 
 truths which it might be quite unable to originate ; or 
 as the mind perceives the harmony and beauty of poetic 
 thought, when placed before it, which it could never 
 have struck out for itself — thoughts which " lie dormant 
 or nebulous until the creative voice of genius condenses 
 and shapes them for us into distinct forms" — so also is 
 there a witness implanted in the original structure of 
 the soul, which, though extinguished under the fall, is 
 renewed under the gospel, and which, though it has 
 " no capacity to discover new truth, does respond to, and 
 is in harmony with, that which the Scriptures reveal. 
 Appealing to this alone, they cared neither for logic nor 
 syllogism ; but, discrediting all human calculations as to 
 how the soul of man could most effectually be reached, 
 they preached, like Peter of old, " in the ability that 
 God giveth." A similar effect followed ; their hearers, 
 recognising the truth when thus proclaimed with power, 
 were pricked in their hearts, crying out, " Men and 
 brethren, what must we do to be saved ?" It was from 
 no lack of historic knowledge* that these converts had 
 remained dead in trespasses and sins, but the Holy 
 Spirit now carried the word from the lips of the preachers 
 to the hearts of the hearers, and multitudes flocked to 
 the spiritual standard thus erected. f 
 
 * " There are two kinds of faith. The one says, I believe because good 
 men have told me so. The other, I believe because God hath visited me 
 by His love, and given me an assurance therein that He is my Saviour." 
 — {Stephen Crisp). 
 
 t "What is the difference between Paul's faith and the faith of pro- 
 fessing Christendom ? They believed in Christ Himself as their risen and 
 ever-living Saviour ; instead of which, do we not, in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury, direct our belief towards the circumstances of His incarnation, His 
 life, death, or resurrection, and take these as the objects of faith, instead 
 of Him in whom they all centre. We believe in certain facts, instead of 
 seeking to be brought into a living faith in the Son of God, Jesus my 
 Saviour, in whom all the facts unite." — (Fragments, &c.) 
 
 b3 
 
10 ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 The Friends explicitly and continually declared that, 
 like Luther and the sixteenth century reformers, they 
 had no new doctrines to advance, but only a renewing 
 of the old ones. R. Barclay states (Apology, prop. iii. 
 s. 9) : " So we distinguish betwixt a revelation of a new 
 gospel and new doctrines, and a new revelation of the 
 good old gospel and doctrines ; the last we plead for, 
 but the first we utterly deny." Again {Apology, prop. x. 
 s. 12) : "We need not miracles, because we preach no 
 new gospel, but that which is already confirmed by all 
 the miracles of Christ and his apostles, and we offer 
 nothing but that which we are ready and able to con- 
 firm by the testimony of the Scriptures." 
 
11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 I cannot set forth the tenets of the Friends better 
 than by the following extracts from the declaration of 
 faith, published, in 1671, by George Fox and others : — * 
 
 "Whereas many scandalous lies and] slanders have 
 been cast upon us to render us odious ; as that we deny 
 God and Christ Jesus and the Scriptures of truth, &c, 
 we do plainly and sincerely declare : 
 
 " That we do own and believe in the only wise, omni- 
 potent, and everlasting God, the Creator of all things 
 both in heaven and in earth, and the preserver of all 
 that He hath made ; who is God over all, blessed for 
 ever. 
 
 "And we own and believe in Jesus Christ, His 
 beloved and only begotten Son, in whom He is well 
 pleased; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and 
 born of the Virgin Mary ; in whom we have redemp- 
 tion through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins ; 
 who is the express image of the invisible God, the first- 
 born of every creature, by whom were all things created 
 that are in heaven and in earth. And we own and 
 believe that He was made a sacrifice for sin, who knew 
 no sin ; that He was crucified for us in the flesh, without 
 
 * This confession of faith was addressed to the Governor of Barba- 
 does. It has been frequently reprinted by authority of the London 
 Yearly Meeting, and forms part of the preface to their Book of Discipline, 
 published in 1834. 
 
12 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 the gates of Jerusalem ; and that He was buried, and 
 rose again the third day by the power of his Father, for 
 our justification ; and that He ascended up into heaven, 
 and now sitteth at the right hand of God. 
 
 " This Jesus, who was the foundation of the holy 
 prophets and apostles, is our foundation ; and we believe 
 that there is no other foundation to be laid than that is 
 laid, even Christ Jesus ; who tasted death for every man, 
 shed his blood for all men, and is the propitiation for 
 our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of 
 the whole world ; according as John the Baptist testified 
 of Him, when he said, ' Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sins of the world ' (John i. 29). 
 We believe that He alone is our Redeemer and Saviour, 
 even the Captain of our salvation ; who saves us from 
 sin, as well as from hell and the wrath to come, and 
 destroys the devil and his works ; He is the seed of the 
 woman that bruises the serpent's head, to wit, Christ 
 Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. 
 He is (as the Scriptures of truth say of Him) our wis- 
 dom and righteousness, justification and redemption ; 
 neither is there salvation in any other, for ' there is no 
 other name under heaven given among men whereby 
 we may be saved, and He is the Shepherd and Bishop 
 of our souls.' 
 
 " He it is that is now come in the Spirit, and hath 
 given us an understanding that we may know Him that 
 is true. He rules in our hearts by His law of love and 
 of life, and makes us free from the law of sin and death. 
 We have no life but by Him ; for He is the quickening 
 Spirit, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, by whose 
 blood we are cleansed, and our consciences sprinkled 
 from dead works to serve the living God. He is our 
 Mediator, that makes peace between God offended and us 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 13 
 
 offending ; He being the oath of God, the New Covenant 
 of light, life, grace, and peace ; the author and finisher 
 of our faith. This Lord Jesus Christ, the Heavenly 
 Man, the Emmanuel, God with us, we all own and be- 
 lieve in ; Him whom the high priest raged against, and 
 said He had spoken blasphemy ; whom the priests and 
 the elders of the Jews took counsel together against, and 
 put to death ; the same whom Judas betrayed for thirty 
 pieces of silver. — This we say is that Lord Jesus Christ 
 whom we own to be our life and salvation. 
 
 " Concerning the Holy Scriptures, we do believe 
 that they were given forth by the Holy Spirit of God, 
 through the holy men of God, who (as the Scripture 
 itself declares (2 Peter i. 21), ' spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost/ We believe they are to be read, 
 believed, and fulfilled (he that fulfils them is Christ) ; 
 and they are l profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
 correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the 
 man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto 
 all good works ' (2 Tim. iii. 16) ; and are ' able to make 
 wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus.' 
 -We believe that the Holy Scriptures are the words of 
 God ; for it is said (Exod. xx.), * God spake all these 
 words, saying,' &c, meaning the ten commandments 
 given forth upon Mount Sinai. So we call the Holy 
 Scriptures, as Christ and the Apostles called them, and 
 holy men of God called them — viz., the words of God." 
 
 Founded upon the Apostle's creed, " If thou shalt 
 confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt 
 believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from 
 the dead, thou shalt be saved," the Friends took their 
 stand upon these two essentials to salvation ; viz., a heart 
 belief in Jesus as the alone Mediator between God and 
 man, and an open acknowledgment of this belief before 
 
14} FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 all the world. The main distinctions between them and 
 others were — 
 
 lstly. Upon the immediate teaching of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Sndly. Upon all types and outward ordinances being 
 abolished under the gospel. 
 
 3rdly. In their form of worship, and appointment of 
 ministers. 
 
 4thly. In their manner of carrying out into daily life 
 and practice the commands of our Lord. 
 
 Believing that the New Testament contained all 
 needful instructions for the forming of churches or 
 congregations of believers, they took this as the basis 
 of order and discipline as a society ; but they regarded 
 the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, as the ordained means 
 whereby each member may know his individual path of 
 duty. Banishing all preconceived notions and practices, 
 and with their own wills and thoughts kept in sub- 
 jection unto this Spirit of Truth, which, saith Christ, 
 " proceedeth from the Father, and shall testify of me," 
 they sought to restore and place again before the world 
 that faith once delivered to the saints. 
 
 The fact of Christianity having been upheld by tem- 
 poral power and splendour for 1300 years, was to them 
 no proof that our Saviour so commanded it. The insti- 
 tution of distinct orders of priests and laymen, and the 
 dogma of a college education as a necessary routine for 
 all ministers of Christ, was no evidence to them of the 
 soundness of these un-apostolic practices. In like man- 
 ner the laws compelling attendance at the parish church, 
 tithes, a salaried ministry, a musical form of worship, 
 set forms of prayer,* the general adoption of water bap- 
 
 * It is a striking fact that under the Mosaic dispensation no forms of 
 prayer whatever were instituted. All supplications arose spontaneously 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 15 
 
 tism, and of the Lord's supper, as external rites,* 
 the custom of judicial swearing, of Christian professors 
 engaging in war, of keeping their fellow-men in slavery, 
 or of living a worldly life, gave no evidence to these 
 Friends that such things were necessarily in accordance 
 with the will of God. 
 
 Disregarding traditions and customs, they went 
 straight to the New Testament, to see what was therein 
 ordained by Christ, or commanded in the inspired writ- 
 ings of his Apostles ; and whilst pointing to the light 
 that enlighteneth every man, as that by which each 
 must individually be guided, yet in no instance during 
 their many disputes and controversies with others, did 
 they appeal to any standard but that of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, as the rule of faith and practice which must govern 
 all the followers of Christ, f 
 
 out of the special occasions which drew them forth, and their origin was 
 a sense of individual necessities and of God's blessings. If this was the 
 case in a religious system which, in its minutest forms and particulars, was 
 all ordained of God, it can scarcely he maintained that the same sense of 
 need of divine blessing is insufficient under the Gospel for the exercise of 
 heartfelt prayer without any set forms. 
 
 * Sprinkling was substituted for immersion about the middle of the 
 third century, and the baptism of infants about the same period. (See 
 Cave's Primitive Christianity, and Neander's History.) The baptism, 
 through sponsors, &c, of dead men, of unborn infants, as well as of inani- 
 mate things, such as bells, followed the age of Augustine. — (Lawsons 
 Baptismologia, ed. 1703.) The consecration of churches was unknown 
 until the time of Constantine (vide Cave) ; and tithes, though first 
 suggested at the end of the fourth century, were not made compulsory 
 until the age of Charlemagne. — (Hallam's Middle Ages, cap. vii.) 
 
 + " With this argument I shall try you all. Whatsoever is professed, 
 and practised for religion, for which there is neither command nor prece- 
 dent in Scripture, is not according to the Scripture ; let this fall where it 
 may, it is truth ; and therefore let all people come to trial, and receive 
 your judgment by this rule." — (E. Burroughs Works, fo. ed. p. 326.) 
 
 " We ever choose to express our belief of the Christian faith and doc- 
 
16 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 This is worthy of special notice ; for, though objecting 
 to every usage which the New Testament did not war- 
 rant, and at the same time testifying to the continuance 
 of that same guidance which existed in the days of the 
 Apostles, and was promised unto all future believers, 
 they never assumed this latter as the touchstone by 
 which doctrine was to be tested. To the Law and to the 
 Testimony, was their language to all opposers. 
 
 Barclay (Apology, prop, iii.), states, that they (the 
 Scriptures) contain a full and ample account of all the chief 
 principles of the doctrine of Christ held forth in divers 
 precious declarations and exhortations, which by the 
 moving of God's Spirit were spoken and written unto the 
 churches, &c. ; but that being a declaration of the foun- 
 tain, and not the fountain itself,* they are subordinate 
 to the Spirit of God that gave them forth. Their pri- 
 mary belief in the inspired volume being grounded not 
 on critical evidences, but on its accordance with the inti- 
 mations and wants of a regenerate nature, the Friends 
 considered also that the truths which it contains could 
 be comprehended only by the enlightening aid of that 
 Spirit by which they were given forth ; for " the natural 
 man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for 
 they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14). 
 It was, nevertheless, a clearly recognised doctrine of the 
 
 trine in the terms of Holy Scripture, and reject all principles and doc- 
 trines whatsoever that are repugnant thereunto." — {Penns Works, fo. ed., 
 vol. ii. p. 878.) In all of George Fox's controversies with priests and 
 others, the New Testament was the standard appealed to, and he very 
 frequently preached and disputed bible in hand. 
 
 * We may know the Scriptures, but do we know Him of whom they 
 testify ? They tell us of a city of habitation prepared for us, and they 
 tell us of the way to it ; but they are neither the way nor the city. 
 {Fragments, 8fc. p. 72.) 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 17 
 
 Friends, that "whatsoever any do, pretending to the 
 Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, shall be 
 accounted and reckoned a delusion of the devil." 
 (Barclay, Apology, prop. x. s. 6). 
 
 The doctrine of the inward guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, which they felt called upon especially to promul- 
 gate, is theoretically admitted by most Christians,* but 
 much difference exists in their views of the mode in which 
 its operations are perceived. As already stated, the 
 Friends held that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, doth 
 make his voice known to the humble believer, and if faith- 
 fully obeyed and followed, He will lead into a true con- 
 formity with the will of God, both in temporal and spiritual 
 things ; but they knew, from painful experience, that the 
 flesh was weak, and that they too often followed their 
 own wills and Satan's devices, in preference to that which 
 was the will of God concerning them. Thus, whilst the 
 Scriptures clearly portray the faith by which we must be 
 saved, and the way in which the disciples of Christ must 
 
 * * To those, lastly, who cannot help seeing that the doctrine of Christ 
 in every man, as the indwelling word of God, the light who lights every 
 one who comes into the world, is no peculiar tenet of the Quakers, but 
 one which runs through the whole of the Old and New Testaments, and 
 without which they would both be unintelligible, just as the same doc- 
 trine runs through the whole history of the early church for the first two 
 centuries, and is the only explanation of them. To all these this noble 
 little book will recommend itself." — (Kingsleys Preface to Theologica 
 Oermanica, p. 7.) 
 
 "We know the Spirit of God is present with us by the effects which he 
 produces in us." " He is lodged in our very essence, and is a soul within 
 the soul, to irradiate its understanding, rectify its will, purify its passions, 
 and enliven all the powers of man." — {Addison). 
 
 " The further a man advances in holiness, the more capable he is 
 rendered by the illumination of the Holy Spirit of distinguishing what 
 proceeds from the Holy Spirit, and what from the flesh, and of discerning 
 all the disturbing influences of the latter," — (Neander's Planting of 
 Christianity, p. 470.) 
 
 V 09 
 
18 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 ever walk, they point also to the law of God written in 
 the heart, by which our individual path is to be known. 
 " The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord ;" and 
 his spiritual guidance, they maintained, was clear, im- 
 mediate, and perceptible. 
 
 Many misapprehensions have arisen, both within and 
 without the pale of the Society, from the confused terms 
 and phrases employed by Friends in relation to the 
 inward light. Their doctrine has ever been, that " as in 
 Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive ;" 
 that whilst there is, by nature, a power constantly draw- 
 ing man down into sin and perdition, so also there is, by 
 grace, in every man, a light shining in this darkness, 
 which causes, remorse and sense of guilt for sins com- 
 mitted, although this light may be dimmed, and even 
 extinguished, by a long career of depravity. If man 
 is by nature " dead in trespasses and sins," that within 
 him which reproves sin and condemns it, cannot arise 
 from his own sin-loving and dead nature, but must be 
 divine in its origin. Christ, by his death, condemned sin 
 in the flesh, and by his resurrection justifies all them 
 that believe. 
 
 The development of their views on the spirituality of 
 Christ's kingdom affected so greatly the practices of 
 Friends, that it seems needful to examine the reasons 
 advanced in their justification. The more so, as, if 
 unsound, it would greatly affect the solution of the 
 question before us. The Friends maintained that our 
 Saviour came to fulfil or consummate the Mosaic law, 
 and to abolish all symbols and shadows, all Jewish 
 types, sacrificial ordinances, and priesthood ; (" which 
 stood only in meats and drinks, and 'divers washings, 
 and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time 
 of reformation,") and to introduce their antitypes or 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 19 
 
 spiritual realities. " When he (our Saviour) cometh 
 into the world, he saith, Lo, I come to do thy will, 
 O God. He taketh away the first (or typical), that 
 he may establish the second (or spiritual)." ■ (Heb. x.) 
 The Society of Friends held that under the Christian 
 dispensation God must be worshipped in the spirit, 
 (inwardly, not at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim) ; and in 
 truth (not by shadows) ; that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 never inculcated any special or new outward ceremonies, 
 to be applicable to Gentile converts, although he sought 
 to give a new meaning to those Jewish practices under 
 which his hearers had been educated, and to the con- 
 tinuance of many of which they so tenaciously clung, 
 both before and after the day of Pentecost. 
 
 John expressly declared (in contradistinction to the 
 water baptism which was a common outward recog- 
 nition amongst Jewish proselytes in that day* — a 
 
 * This ^ct has been disputed ; but the proselytes were of two descrip- 
 tions : " proselytes of the gate," who forsook idolatry and worshipped the 
 true God, but did not conform to the Jewish law ; and proselytes of 
 Justice, who went further, and embraced the whole legal and ceremonial 
 system. According to the learned Maimonides, it was the latter only 
 who were baptized, and the ceremony took place about three days after 
 that of circumcision. It was done like that of John, by immersion ; and 
 after a promise of faithful adherence to the Jewish institutions into which 
 by this ceremony the convert was admitted, he became a complete Jew, 
 and as a new or regenerate man. — (Issure Blah, cap. 13, 14 ; Selden, de 
 Synedriis, lib. i. cap. 3.) 
 
 Lightfoot also informs us that, according to the tradition of the Rabbins, 
 circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice, were enjoined on every male, and the 
 two latter on every female, convert from heathenism to the Jewish faith. 
 It was an acknowledged axiom, he further states, that no man could be a 
 proselyte until he was circumcised and baptized. Again, the Babylonish 
 Gemara (part of the Talmud) contains a disputation upon this question 
 between certain Rabbis, which, after arguments pro and con, concludes 
 thus : — He is no proselyte until he be both circumcised and baptized. 
 Paul's fearing lest he should be accused of baptizing in his own name also 
 proves the prevalence of this custom amongst teachers of new doctrines. 
 
20 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 baptism which he himself administered " unto repen- 
 tance") — " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost ;" 
 words which are emphatically repeated by each evan- 
 gelist. This difference was again clearly marked out 
 by our Saviour (Acts i. 5) : " For John truly baptized 
 with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost." The symbolical contrast between the bap- 
 tism of John (by water) and that of Christ (by fire) is 
 very striking, and leads to the impression that John 
 considered fire, and not water, as the symbol of the 
 new dispensation. Now, since Jesus Christ in no case 
 administered water baptism (John iv. 2), (although he 
 suffered his disciples to do so to the Jewish followers), 
 and since his disciples were never baptized with water 
 in the name of the Trinity (unless we are to imagine 
 they baptized one another), it is clear that the only bap- 
 tism ministered by Christ is that of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 When the Apostle speaks of the " like antitype, (marg. 
 reading) even baptism, which doth now save us," he 
 describes it as being an internal thing — " The answer of 
 a good conscience towards God." It is with this 
 construction that the Friends understand the words, 
 " Whoso believeth and is baptized shall be saved" — a 
 heartfelt belief and a conscience purified as by fire. But 
 even taken in a literal sense, as is usually done, and 
 remembering also that baptism was practised before the 
 Christian era, and therefore not instituted or originated 
 by our Saviour, this text and other similar ones* appear 
 
 * The command, " Go ye and baptize all nations into the name of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" (if taken literally), gives a new and 
 wider direction to an old and well-understood Jewish ceremony. The 
 emphatic words are, all nations, not Jews only ; and the new faith — the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The condition of Apollos and 
 disciples living at Ephesus exemplifies this view. They declared " they 
 had not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." They had 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 21 
 
 to indicate only that needful outward confession which 
 existed amongst proselytes of all kinds when they 
 changed their faith, and is therefore synonymous with 
 the Apostle's declaration, " Whoso confesseth with the 
 mouth," &c, "shall be saved." The word baptism 
 was a short term understood by all Jews as signifying 
 outward profession of adhesion to a new faith. The 
 Friends therefore held that the only saving baptism is 
 that of the Holy Ghost ; but that the Redeemer, as in 
 many other instances, allowed his Jewish disciples to 
 adopt that external mode of confession, which they and 
 the scribes and Rabbis would most clearly understand, 
 but which He never adopted himself. 
 
 A similar explanation applies to the ceremony of the 
 Lord's supper. Friends regarded its observance by 
 Jewish disciples and others, not as commanded by 
 Christ, but permissible to those who also, in their 
 observance of circumcision, purifyings, &c, clung to 
 the Mosaic ritual. This opinion is strongly confirmed 
 by the fact that Matthew and John, who were both 
 disciples and ear-witnesses of all that passed, would 
 undoubtedly have expressed it in clear terms, had they 
 understood that any new ordinance was established by 
 our Lord; but neither they nor Mark, who gives a 
 minute account of these events, have any allusion what- 
 ever to the perpetuity of any ceremony. Luke only, 
 who was not an apostle, reports the words which have 
 
 been baptized unto the faith of John, and were afterwards baptized unto 
 the faith of Jesus — the ceremony would appear to have been the same in 
 both cases, but its object very different. The command to baptize is 
 recorded only by Matthew ; and being accompanied by the power, " Lo, 
 I am with you alway," seems to point to the one baptism of Christ which 
 should be administered through them. Is not this meaning more con- 
 sonant with all His other spiritual teachings, than to suppose that our 
 Saviour's last words instituted a type instead of a reality ? 
 
22 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 been so construed. The inference therefore is, that 
 John, Matthew, and Mark, as inspired evangelists, 
 themselves regarded the words spoken by our Lord, 
 " This do in remembrance of me," as applicable only 
 to the feast then being celebrated, and they conse- 
 quently omitted them in their narration (a course of 
 acting which would have been utterly impossible for 
 these three inspired evangelists to have adopted, had 
 they understood the words as a command binding on 
 all future ages). The love-feasts of the early Christians 
 were of quite a different character ; and the great 
 question between Friends and others is not, Are such 
 things expedient or comforting? but rather, Is any 
 outward rite, new or old, specially commanded by our 
 Saviour as binding on all his followers ? The only dis- 
 tinct new command was that of washing one another's 
 feet ; yet, by applying to this the same test that 
 Friends apply to baptism and the Eucharist — viz., 
 the Christian religion is not ceremonial — all protestants 
 give it a figurative interpretation, and decline to per- 
 petuate the form. If the non-binding nature of these 
 ceremonies be admitted, the Friends have every justifi- 
 cation on the grounds of expediency. The conscientious 
 abstaining therefrom has never stood in the way of any 
 single person so travelling his heavenward journey ; but 
 their adoption has led millions to rely upon baptismal 
 regeneration, confession, the real presence, and extreme 
 unction, instead of a heartfelt saving knowledge of 
 Christ. 
 
 The spiritual truths symbolized by these types were 
 what Friends sought after and lived in.* They deeply 
 
 * In a paper entitled " Gospel Truths," and signed by William Penn, 
 Thomas Story, and others, they state, " We believe the necessity of the one 
 baptism of Christ, as well as of his one supper which he promiseth to eat 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 23 
 
 felt that, unless washed by Christ himself, they had no 
 part with him, and that unless they became so entirely 
 incorporated with Him as to partake of that true spiri- 
 tual feasting upon Jesus, whereof he himself declares, 
 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you," they could not 
 be amongst the number of those who, having seen the 
 Son, and believed on Him, shall have everlasting life, 
 and be raised up at the last day. 
 
 The same deep-rooted convictions on the reality of 
 religion led George Fox and his cotemporaries to uphold 
 the spiritual nature of gospel worship. Knowing also 
 the tendency there is in the mind Of man to stop short 
 at the symbol, or, in other words, to transfer to the 
 visible sign the feelings due alone to the thing signified, 
 they dreaded the introduction of anything not com- 
 manded in the New Testament, which, from its adapta- 
 tion to the a3sthetic emotions rather than to the religious 
 feelings, might draw the eye of faith away from the 
 Invisible, or produce that semi-sensuous delight in a 
 religious worship imposingly conducted with a tasteful 
 ceremonial, which may exist without any true reverential 
 love towards God, or for the essence and inner spirit of 
 religion. A devotional feeling may be produced by the 
 glory of the setting sun, the sublimity of the ocean, or 
 the majesty of night, without any drawing out of the 
 soul towards God our Saviour. 
 
 Friends were also, above all things, anxious that no 
 man-made or needless interventions should obtrude be- 
 tween the soul of the worshipper and the infinitely holy 
 
 with those who open the door of their heart unto Him ; being the baptism 
 and supper signified by outward signs ; which though we disuse, we judge 
 not those that conscientiously practise them." — (Perm's Works, vol. i. 
 p. 7.56.) 
 
24 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 object of its adoration ; and protested against the worship 
 of a whole congregation being dependent upon the pre- 
 sence or absence of any man. 
 
 So strong is the temptation to embody our inmost 
 feelings in forms tangible or visible, that all religions 
 are affected by it. The hugeness of the Ninevite and 
 Egyptian gods, the beauty of the Grecian and the gro- 
 tesqueness of the Indian idols, are all evidences of this 
 universal tendency to materialize spirit. The process by 
 which many Romanists have, through temples, crosses, 
 images, and sacred relics, gradually sunk into an idolizing 
 of the symbols themselves, is similar to that through 
 which paganism must have passed, from the original 
 worship of one God, — to, firstly, that of the works which 
 reveal His power, and downwards, finally, into the 
 adoration of stocks and stones, the work of men's hands. 
 
 Not only is this so, but, even in worldly things, the 
 mind inclines to estimate, for its own sake, that by which 
 pleasure or comfort is procurable, but which has no 
 value apart from what it instrumentally can effect. To 
 illustrate this we may point to the love of money which 
 haunts an avaricious man. In the first place he loves it 
 because of the gratifications which he can thereby pur- 
 chase ; then he values the thing itself for its own sake, 
 and the process goes on, until finally he cares nothing for 
 the end for which he originally sought wealth, viz., 
 corporeal ease and luxuries ; but his thoughts are intent 
 upon hoarding that which is consequently to him not 
 only utterly worthless, but is greatly adding to his 
 anxieties. So also with religion ; — the same tendency 
 exists to love the forms and rituals themselves, and for 
 their own sake, and gradually to lose sight of that on 
 account of which alone such forms were adopted. 
 
 The Friends held also that the spirituality of religion 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 25 
 
 could be most effectually maintained by having no out- 
 ward ritual or form of worship, and that God alone can 
 call and prepare for the true ministry of the gospel ; 
 that, as the prophet or teacher of the Old Testament 
 was sent of God, to teach and to preach unto His people, 
 so now is the office of the Christian prophet the same ; 
 being taught of God to declare His will to man. 
 
 The duty of prophets and prophetesses, under the old 
 dispensation, was not connected with any sacrifices or 
 ceremonial rites which pertained to the order of priest- 
 hood ;* but they were to rouse the spiritual feelings of 
 those they addressed, sometimes by foretelling future 
 trials and troubles, but more often by exhortation only ; 
 also to keep in the remembrance of their hearers that 
 Saviour who was to come. Although the gift of fore- 
 telling future events is no longer needed, yet all their 
 other spiritual gifts of exhortation, warning, instruction, 
 and reproof, and pointing to the " King who reigneth in 
 righteousness," are needed now as much or more than 
 they ever were, and the Christian preacher of this day 
 might almost adopt the very same language. 
 
 We know that the ancient prophets were men liable 
 to err, and of like passions with others. It is evident 
 also that the Christian prophets were not infallible 
 exponents of truth, since the Apostle Paul directs 
 others to judge of what was said (1 Cor, xiv.), and he 
 further adds, "For ye may all prophesy, one by one, 
 that all may learn, and that all may be comforted." 
 The spirits of the prophets were to be subject to the 
 prophets, clearly because, being only human instru- 
 ments, Paul could not regard them as perfect organs of 
 the spirit. This remark applies exactly to the views 
 with which ministers amongst Friends are regarded. 
 
 * Vide also Rev. Scott Surtees on " The Ministry of the Word." 
 
 C 
 
26 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 The gift of ministry is committed unto them ; but it also 
 follows that this treasure, being in earthen vessels, may 
 often be stained and corrupted thereby. 
 
 The Levitical priesthood was hereditary, and was in- 
 stituted, not for instructing the people, or warning them 
 against sin and idolatry, but to attend at the altar until, 
 by the one eternal High Priest, their appointment was 
 for ever abolished. We find, however, that the prophets 
 were called from various tribes, and of different worldly 
 occupations, — as Elisha from the plough, and Amos from 
 the dressing of vines. So also in the apostolic churches, 
 the learned Paul, the eloquent Apollos, and the devoted 
 Timothy, were preachers neither from college education 
 nor apostolic succession, but primarily because God 
 called them as individuals, and sent them forth to preach 
 the word ; their qualifications were, the gift of preaching 
 bestowed upon them, and obedience in its faithful exer- 
 cise. Peter (Acts ii. 18) expressly points to the increase, 
 and not to the diminution, of prophecy under the gospel 
 dispensation. — " On my servants, and on my hand- 
 maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and 
 they shall prophesy." Friends therefore maintained that 
 as in the Mosaic dispensation men and women of every 
 occupation were called to this work,* as in the time of 
 
 * That women both prayed and prophesied in the early churches is 
 evident from Scripture, and from the instructions given by Paul (1 Cor. ii. 
 4 and 5) as to how men and women should each conduct themselves whilst 
 so doing ; neither is this at variance to the command, that " women 
 should keep silence in the churches," and not " teach or usurp authority 
 over the man." Locke (Epistles of St. Paul, p. 137) states : u The women in 
 the churches were not to assume the personage of doctors, or speak there 
 as teachers, — this carried with it the appearance of superiority, and was 
 forbidden ; not even to ask questions in the church — this signified equality, 
 and was also forbidden. But this subordination to man, which God, for 
 order's sake, had instituted in the world, hindered not but that He might 
 make use of the weaker sex to an extraordinary function, whenever He 
 thought fit." 
 
FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 27 
 
 the Apostles the same thing existed, so in these latter 
 days, wherein we stand more than ever in need of thi s 
 continued outpouring of the Spirit, the gift of prophecy, 
 or preaching the word, is still bestowed. The setting 
 apart, the selection, and the preparation of all true 
 ministers, must be of Christ, who giveth to every man 
 severally as He will. 
 
 In harmony with this system of plurality of preachers, 
 the Friends regarded congregational silent waiting upon 
 God as the true form of gospel worship. By it not only 
 are the souls of individuals refreshed, but an unity of 
 spirit is felt to interflow amongst its participators, and 
 the living ministry has, as in the Apostle's days, proper 
 opportunity for expression. 
 
 There is no probability that the Apostles either wrote 
 prayers for the use of the churches, or composed any 
 formal hymns of praise for the help of others ;* neither is 
 it likely that any instrumental music was used when the 
 believers assembled together in the synagogue, or in an 
 " upper chamber," or when they went into temples and 
 theatres for teaching and preaching. It was upon the 
 gathering together in His name, and not upon any par- 
 ticular acts when gathered, that the Redeemer's pro- 
 mise was bestowed — " There am I in the midst of them." 
 A state of abstractedness from worldly thoughts ; the 
 prostration of our own selves, soul and will, before an 
 infinite God; and the holding communion with Him 
 through the Holy Spirit the Comforter, Friends con- 
 sidered the appointed means for Christian worship, and 
 that in it alone could the spontaneous language of 
 praise, prayer, and exhortation be freely offered. 
 
 * The earliest hymns of St. Hilary and others were not written until 
 the fourth century, at which period also a choir of singers was first intro- 
 duced. 
 
 c2 ' 
 
28 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 
 
 Much more might be said upon this and the preceding 
 subjects, if space permitted. Less would hardly suffice 
 upon that which forms the basis of church-fellowship. 
 
 My object has been not so much to combat arguments 
 advanced against these views, as to prove the Scripture 
 grounds upon which they stand, and to shew that there 
 is nothing unsound which must cause declension in 
 numbers or vitality. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 Much difference of opinion exists respecting the 
 particular way in which Christian testimonies are to be 
 borne before the world, but there is a general theoretic 
 assent as to what the New Testament declares these to be. 
 
 Although the practice of Friends is in many respects 
 different, I do not find that any distinct line of demar- 
 cation can be drawn between it and that of the sincere- 
 hearted of other denominations. As already observed, 
 there is a great variety in mental constitution, and dif- 
 ferent minds have ever developed the same principle in 
 different ways, according to what each felt to be most 
 consistent with the object to be accomplished. I will, 
 therefore, briefly enumerate those testimonies which the 
 Friends consider to have been committed to them as a 
 Society to uphold ; and afterwards investigate how far 
 their means of effecting this have been suitable or 
 adapted to the present age. 
 
 It will be generally admitted that national feelings, 
 notions, and habits, must shape the manner in which we 
 impart our sentiments to others. A costume which is 
 reasonable in one country, is ludicrous if adopted in 
 another ; and a mode of paying respect here, may be 
 disrespectful elsewhere. To the initiated, the sign re- 
 presents the thing it signifies, but to others it may be 
 meaningless ; and the three-cornered hat, long stockings, 
 and shoe-buckles of a consistent Friend sixty years since, 
 
30 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 would convey no more religious idea to a Hindoo or 
 Turk, than would the costume of a Chelsea pensioner. 
 The dress of a Christian woman, or plain Friend, of this 
 age, would have appeared highly indecorous and unbe- 
 coming to the Jewish ideas of Paul and Peter ; neither 
 would the robe and sandals of the latter be a respectable 
 and sensible attire for an English Christian.* So also 
 the bending of the body, or the removing of the hat, 
 as practised by English courtiers, would not be respect- 
 ful amongst the Siamese, with whom prostration is the 
 ordinary way of expressing obeisance. The intent of 
 the Gospel was to purify the heart. — " Cleanse first that 
 which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside 
 of them may be clean also." If we make the tree good, 
 there will be a similarity in the kind of fruit produced, 
 but there need not be a perfect uniformity in its ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 George Fox and his cotemporaries believed that 
 God was to be glorified by every man, in whatever posi- 
 tion of life he might be placed ; and that the courtier or 
 statesman, tradesman or mechanic, prince or peasant, 
 was each able, by honestly following his individual call- 
 ing, to magnify the name of the Almighty. This ap- 
 pears a slight thing to acknowledge; but it is nevertheless 
 
 * An attempt was made by the early Christians to carry the badge of 
 their religious profession upon their dress, by wearing a cross attached to 
 the ordinary national costume. This being applicable to all nations, and 
 conveying a distinct idea, would seem an open and justifiable mode of de- 
 claring their faith ; but when we reflect that out of this simple act arose 
 charms, relics, and rosaries, and a superstitious feeling bordering on idol- 
 atry; thatpeople prided themselves upon this outward cross-bearing as being 
 in itself meritorious ; and worst of all, when we see that this emblem of 
 a crucified Saviour is, in the guise of curious and costly ornaments, made 
 to pander to the vainest love of dress and worldly display, it suggests 
 that any attempt to convey to others, by dress, the feelings which ani- 
 mate a community, is very dangerous in practice. 
 
TESTIMONIES. 31 
 
 the greatest practical problem of life, — so to follow our 
 various avocations, that in doing our daily work we 
 may add to the glory of God.—" Not slothful in busi- 
 ness ; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' 7 Whilst many 
 regarded a secluded or monastic life as the best suited 
 to the growth of religion in the soul, and others consi- 
 dered certain orders, such as Jesuits, priests, clergy, and 
 divines, as the highest forms of spirituality, George Fox 
 promulgated the loftier Scripture doctrine, that all 
 may become priests unto God (Rev. i. 6) ; and that 
 whether as fisherman or tent-maker, male or female, each 
 might follow his own business ; and whilst daily doing 
 his duty " in that state of life unto which it has pleased 
 God to call him," might also be appointed by the one 
 Great Head, to fill any and every office in his militant 
 church. 
 
 The holding of any spiritual gift being thus compa- 
 tible with common worldly avocations, it also followed, 
 that any occupation, which in its nature would exclude 
 these gifts, was not lawful for a Christian professor, 
 however plausible or lucrative it might be. Being 
 thoroughly satisfied, from experience, as well as from 
 Scripture testimony, that whilst honestly engaged in sup- 
 porting themselves and their families by daily toil, their 
 souls might be hourly nourished by divine grace, they 
 endeavoured to " acknowledge God in all their ways." 
 The commands, " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
 unto you ;" and " Whether ye eat or drink, or whatso- 
 ever ye do, do all to the glory of God ;" were considered 
 literally binding upon every individual member ; and in 
 the selection of a business, of the locality in which they 
 settled, as well as in the choice of associates, and in mar- 
 riage engagements, the first thing to be considered was 
 
32 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 not, Will it conduce to my worldly position or hap- 
 piness ? but, Will it draw me closer unto God ? This 
 was a fundamental rule ; and, to keep it and other simi- 
 lar duties constantly in remembrance, annual epistles 
 were issued by the body. 
 
 During the first period of their existence, this law was 
 faithfully maintained and practised by the Society at 
 large, as it still is by many of its members. I do not 
 say that with many sincere-hearted Christians under 
 every denomination this same care does not exist ; but 
 I know of no community wherein it is so prominently 
 insisted on as amongst the Friends, or in which it has 
 been so conscientiously carried out. Any pursuit or 
 amusement upon which, as dependent children, they 
 could not ask God's blessing, and for which, when en- 
 joyed, they could not return Him thanks, was regarded 
 as unfit for a Christian to indulge in. Under this feel- 
 ing, many ordinary pleasures were foregone, such as 
 profuse entertainments, frivolous reading, concerts, balls 
 and other like recreations. By taking up the daily cross, 
 they strove to obey the injunction of the Apostle, anc 1 
 in " denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live 
 soberly, righteously, and godly." 
 
 The effects of thus testing all worldly engagements 
 by their harmony with a life of faith were strikingly 
 exemplified. With such a guiding principle, it is no 
 marvel that the integrity and honesty of a Quaker soon 
 became proverbial. They became very prosperous in 
 outward circumstances ; and in thousands of instances 
 they have proved that all the relations of life, the duties 
 of citizenship, and engagements in worldly occupation, 
 are compatible with the highest spiritual gifts and church 
 offices, and a life of devotedness unto God. 
 
 The next governing principle in their system has been, 
 
TESTIMONIES. 33 
 
 " Do unto others as ye would that they should do 
 unto you." This law not only excluded defamation of 
 character, but forbad their taking advantage of the 
 ignorance, obstinacy, or foolishness of their neighbour, 
 or advancing their own interests at another's expense ; it 
 led to a toleration of the opinions and practices, as well 
 as the amelioration of the woes, of others ; to the 
 abolition of slavery, and many other like consequences. 
 It affords also the mainspring to the philanthropic 
 efforts with which the Friends have been so nobly con- 
 nected, and is the basis which underlies their political 
 sentiments. How far their deductions are sound and 
 logical I need not investigate ; but the standard by 
 which, as a body, their decisions are governed, is one 
 not of expediency, but of the law of justice and right. 
 Considering the freedom and independence of judgment 
 which is encouraged amongst them, their views on all 
 political questions are on this account arrived at with 
 great unanimity. 
 
 The testimony on self-denial is equally prominent with 
 those already alluded to. — " If meat make my brother 
 to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth." 
 The loving one's neighbour as oneself, required them to 
 forego things lawful in themselves, but which, in prac- 
 tical operation, led other souls astray. Their objections 
 to music, theatrical entertainments, hunting or shooting, 
 to a high cultivation of the fine arts, and in many 
 instances latterly to the use of alcoholic drinks, were 
 mainly founded upon the conviction that the abstaining 
 from lawful indulgence, for the sake of a weak brother, 
 was required of them ; and that, as a religious body, 
 they ought to discountenance the use of all things which, 
 " though lawful, were not expedient." 
 
 Their testimony against war was based upon its clear 
 
 c 3 
 
34 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 antagonism to the commands of our Saviour, and to the 
 Gospel of love and peace.* Whilst other sects mystified 
 their consciences by distinctions of offensive and defen- 
 sive, provoked and unprovoked, warfare, they went to 
 the root of the matter, and protested against any man 
 being trained in the art of killing a fellow-creature, and 
 boldly declared that they would abide the consequences 
 of this obedience to the law of Christ. 
 
 Their objections to all oaths arose from what they 
 considered the command of our Lord, and from the 
 declarations of Christian men needing no appeal to 
 Heaven for confirmation. " Swear not at all ; but let 
 your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay." Out 
 of this same testimony to simplicity of language arose 
 many of the peculiarities by which Friends have been 
 distinguished. " Putting away lying, speak every man" 
 truth with his neighbour," implied with them, not 
 merely the absence of direct falsehood, but a truth- 
 fulness in action as well as in word. " Plainness of 
 speech" meant truthfulness in impression conveyed, as 
 well as in expression adopted. They considered that 
 all flattering titles were as injurious to the spiritual 
 sensibility of those who used them as of those who 
 received them— that the eulogistic inscriptions erected 
 over the dead, as well as the deceitful language often 
 
 * Although Paul declared the Christian warfare to he spiritual and not 
 carnal, and many of the early Christians refused to fight, a sad falling 
 away occurred before and after the era of Constantine. This was con- 
 summated finally by the preaching of Peter the Hermit (powerfully 
 seconded by Pope Urban II.), and none doubted but that wicked men 
 who perished in these " Holy Wars" received the reward of martyrdom. 
 Hallam {Middle Ages, cap. i.) states : " So many crimes and so much 
 misery have seldom been accumulated in so short a space as in the three 
 years of the first crusade. Cotemporary writers estimate the loss of 
 Christians alone at nearly a million, but at the least computation it 
 must have exceeded half that number." 
 
TESTIMONIES. 35 
 
 made use of in addressing the living, were to be alike 
 protested against ; and also that the use of the plural 
 number in speaking to a single individual was a practice 
 which had its origin in flattery and pride, and was 
 therefore not right for them to adopt. This same care- 
 fulness in speech caused them to object to the heathen 
 names by which the months and days of the week 
 were distinguished, lest they should thus perpetuate an 
 idolatrous feeling. 
 
 * Plainness of behaviour" meant an absence of every- 
 thing that was false in manner, or which would convey 
 an idea either of esteem or respect which was not really 
 felt. This scruple forbad their offering to men certain 
 external marks of reverence, such as bending the knee 
 and uncovering the head, which they considered as due 
 to the Almighty alone. 
 
 " Plainness of apparel" signified the simplicity of 
 external appearance by which a Christian should be 
 distinguished from a man of fashion, and the absence 
 of all that would be likely to add to the vanity of the 
 wearer. Its original design was not to give rise to a 
 sectarian costume, but as an outward profession of faith 
 before the world. By thus appealing to the two senses 
 of mankind which can alone take cognizance of inward 
 feeling — viz., to the eye by dress and to the ear by 
 language, there could at no time be any question 
 whether they professed to belong to the kingdom of 
 God, or to that of the world. 
 
 The non-observance of fast-days and holy-days, the 
 refusal to pay church-rates and tithes, and their objec- 
 tions to everything which would make religion com- 
 pulsory, all arose out of the general principles that the 
 types of outward fasts and feasts are superseded by 
 spiritual antitypes — that all days should, under the 
 
36 TESTIMONIES. 
 
 Gospel, be kept holy unto the Lord — and that it is not 
 the province of any State to dictate the forms in which 
 the Almighty is to be worshipped by its citizens. 
 
 In looking at these testimonies, it must, I think, be 
 acknowledged, that the spirit of every one of them is in 
 accordance with the New Testament ; and we find that 
 the most serious amongst every class of protestant 
 Christians uphold the same principles as binding upon 
 their own consciences, although many consider that the 
 Friends were needlessly strict, and went a little too far 
 in literally carrying them into practice. 
 
 If this explanation be correct, there does not seem to 
 be in these principles anything unsound or unscriptural, 
 which could account for the decline of the Society. On 
 the contrary, as the fullest development of the two great 
 commandments, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," they 
 contain the certain elements of endurance, and of ulti- 
 mate universal adoption. 
 
 How far the reader may unite with these conclusions, 
 I know not ; but to my own mind the conviction is strong, 
 that neither in origin, nor in fundamental doctrines, nor 
 in principles of action, can any inherent source of decay be 
 detected. All are based upon the same immutable 
 foundation ; and having ascertained that the inside is 
 clean, and the sources of action pure, (however much the 
 outside may be corroded), we may turn to those extra- 
 neous causes, which are unitedly combining to diminish 
 this Society, whilst they are powerless in checking the 
 progress of its principles. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 Before pointing out the obstructions to which the 
 spread of Quakerism has been subjected, a few statistical 
 observations appear desirable. 
 
 It may seem singular that a religious community, so 
 methodical and thoroughly organised, should not have 
 any numerical records; but at their origin the Friends had 
 no formal act of admission into church membership, and 
 all who united in their Christian testimonies and form of 
 worship, were considered as belonging to the body. 
 
 Whilst unable to offer much positive information of 
 their strength during successive periods, it is evident 
 that they are decreasing in numbers.* In the country 
 districts of the South and West of England, where 
 Friends were formerly rather numerous, they have al- 
 most disappeared ; and many of their meeting-houses 
 or chapels, once fully attended, are now used by other 
 religious bodies. On the other hand, their numbers have 
 increased in many of our larger towns ; thus evidencing 
 a strong and growing disposition to follow trading pur- 
 suits in which fortunes are amassed, in preference to 
 
 * This remark applies to England alone ; in America, as well as in 
 Norway and Australia, and other places, they are increasing. (From infor- 
 mation lately obtained, I find the present number of Friends is — in 
 England about 14,000, and Ireland 3,000.) 
 
38 STATISTICS. 
 
 that agricultural life, in which so many were formerly 
 engaged. This may in part account for the fact, that 
 whilst in 1800 the Friends had 413 meeting-houses in 
 use, in 1851 they occupied only 371. It is probable 
 that this general change of residence has, by unduly ab- 
 sorbing its members in worldly cares and money-making 
 anxieties, materially affected both the religious and 
 numerical status of the body. 
 
 The secession which took place at the time of the 
 " Beacon" controversy, in 1835, (of which an interesting 
 account may be found in the life of J. J. Gurney,) pro- 
 duced also a great change in many districts, more espe- 
 cially in the North of England. From the effects of this 
 separation they are gradually recovering ; but sufficient 
 time has scarcely elapsed for the filling up of the gaps 
 thus created. 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that, though the popu- 
 lation of the United Kingdom has doubled itself within 
 the last fifty years, the increase of church members 
 throughout the empire is by no means commensurate 
 with this. The fact is too painfully evident, that this 
 augmentation of human beings swells the ranks of the 
 irreligious world, in a much larger ratio than it does 
 those of the church of Christ. 
 
 Although their numerical declension may therefore 
 not be so extraordinary as would at first appear, there 
 can be no doubt that the English Friends have neither 
 increased, nor held their ground, in the same ratio as 
 other denominations. 
 
 Amongst the obvious reasons for this, we may point 
 to the large proportion of unmarried members, and to 
 the fact that one-fifth fewer marriages take place amongst 
 them, than is given by the average throughout the coun- 
 try ; and furthermore, that unless both parents are 
 
STATISTICS. 39 
 
 actually in church membership, their children are dis- 
 connected from the Society. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate the wide-spreading effects of 
 another law, which expels every one who marries " out of 
 the Society," as it is termed ; or, in other words, which 
 affixes the stigma of excommunication upon any one 
 who marries a Christian of another denomination ; and 
 not only so, but even recommends the expulsion of all 
 " parents and guardians who may have encouraged such 
 marriages."* The powerlessness of an indiscreet law 
 has been strikingly evidenced by the disastrous effects 
 attendant on its exercise. In the counties where mem- 
 bers are most numerous, it has been ascertained that six 
 out of seventeen of those who marry, have been obliged 
 to leave the Society from this cause ; and in country 
 districts, where Friends are thinly scattered, the pro- 
 portion is still greater. 
 
 From statistical records it appears that, during the 
 past fifty-five years, 9,068 members have been united in 
 marriage ; and in this same period, supposing the fore- 
 going data to be correct, no less than than 4,900 persons 
 must have been married against the rules, and (except 
 in very rare and peculiar cases) have been all disowned. 
 
 This harshness of expulsion from a Christian church 
 on grounds which have no warrant in scripture, tends to 
 alienate those who come under its operation, and there 
 are, consequently, but very few instances of re-admission. 
 
 The only statistical accounts with which I am ac- 
 quainted, give the number of Friends in England in 
 1800 as about 19,000, in 1840 as 16,277 persons, and 
 in 1847 as 15,345 ; and from the government census of 
 
 * This law was made in the year 1752 (vide Rules of Discipline, 
 p. 100). [Since this Essay was written, the marriage laws (and also the 
 poor laws) have ben considerably modified.] 
 
40 STATISTICS. 
 
 1851 it appears that at 343 chapels in the United 
 Kingdom, on the First-day (or Sunday) morning, there 
 were 13,361 persons present. 
 
 It must however be borne in mind that these meetings 
 are attended by few except their own members, whilst 
 at other dissenting chapels probably not a third of 
 those present are actually in church membership. 
 
 The average attendance at each of the churches and 
 chapels throughout England, according to the parlia- 
 mentary census in 1851, was — 
 
 Established Church, about 180 
 
 Baptists „ 130 
 
 Unitarians „ 120 
 
 Primitive Methodists „ 86 
 
 Independents „ 160 
 
 Wesleyans „ 101 
 
 Brianites „ 72 
 
 Irvingites „ 98 
 
 Eriends „ 39 
 
 (if we deduct eleven chapels of Eriends, which contained 
 more than 200 members, it leaves to each meeting-house 
 an average of thirty). 
 
 The individual growth in grace and spiritual life which 
 is evidenced in many of these very small gatherings, 
 proves the extraordinary vitality of their creed under 
 circumstances which would have extinguished the sec- 
 tarian life of any other Christian sect ; but it is a matter 
 of grave importance to consider whether a religious 
 community, under the canopy of which the soul can thus 
 thrive notwithstanding extreme outward discourage- 
 ment, is being repressed by over-legislation, or by any 
 other needless cause, which may check the expansion 
 from within, or turn aside the reinforcements from 
 without. There is a warmth and a quickening influence 
 
STATISTICS. 41 
 
 produced by contact with large bodies of co-religionists, 
 to which the Friends are particularly susceptible, and 
 which is most beneficial to the growth and prosperity 
 of every church. Were it not for the Annual Meetings 
 in London, at which every member is permitted to 
 attend, these scattered fragments in lonely districts 
 would have felt in a greater degree the disadvantages 
 of isolation from fellow-believers. 
 
 Organization and a certain numerical standing are 
 needful for the full development of any section of the 
 Church of Christ ; without these we can have individual 
 believers, but there can be no corporate power. It is 
 by bodies of men acting unitedly and in harmony, that 
 all great results in worldly affairs have been effected. 
 However strong the head may be, it requires body and 
 limbs to carry out its objects, and to overcome oppo- 
 sition. This law has ever been applicable to Christian 
 communities, from the days when the number of apostles 
 was increased to those in which we now live. 
 
 Another striking statistical fact is the very large pro- 
 portion of hereditary members. There is no Christian 
 sect in which so large a per-centage have inherited the 
 tenets of their forefathers; but the deficiency of con- 
 vincements far more than counterbalances any numerical 
 advantage which is thus obtained by the retention of 
 those brought up within the Society. 
 
 An encouraging feature may here be mentioned con- 
 cerning the establishment of Sabbath-schools for the 
 poor. In 1847 there were in the schools supported 
 by Friends, 228 teachers and 1868 scholars ; whilst in 
 1857 there are, in the twenty-two towns in which this 
 work is carried on, 470 teachers engaged in instructing 
 3847 scholars. If the same proportionate zeal existed 
 in all other places in which Friends reside, the number 
 
42 STATISTICS. 
 
 of those thus receiving tuition would be about 14,000, 
 or larger than that of the body itself. This increased 
 attention to supplying the spiritual necessities of the 
 poor, has been most beneficial in its attendant results. 
 The enlistment of the young in this self-denying work, 
 strengthens them openly to declare their faith, and, like 
 a Christian dress, tends to keep them from worldly 
 associates. It also fits them for religiously instructing 
 their own children in after-life (a power in which the 
 Friends are often very deficient) ; and many who thus 
 devote to the service of their Lord a part of those few 
 hours which they can call their own, have been abun- 
 dantly rewarded with that "blessing which maketh 
 rich, and addeth no sorrow with it." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 With all corporate institutions it occurs that, whilst 
 continually adding new laws and customs, they rarely 
 cast aside any of the past. The healthfulness of all 
 natural things consists in a perpetual addition of fresh 
 material, and in simultaneously throwing off the old. 
 The renewal of our bodily frame, or of vegetable and 
 animal life, would not be possible, unless former accumu- 
 lations were thus cast away the moment they become 
 lifeless. 
 
 As time rolls on there must be a perpetual addi- 
 tion to the original constitution of a society ; but if its 
 members unduly venerate, and refuse to part with, those 
 things which were life-producing only during a certain 
 stage of existence, the framework becomes at last (like 
 the English statute or ecclesiastical law) too formal and 
 unwieldy for the purpose it was intended to promote. 
 
 The Friends, though radical in their general views, 
 are extremely conservative in this respect. The obstacles 
 raised to altering or expunging any ancient rule which 
 the " wisdom of their ancestors " has devised, prove a 
 stumbling-block to many who regard things on account 
 of their intrinsic fitness and value only ; and who con- 
 sider more what the early Friends would have done, had 
 they lived and preached in this nineteenth century, than 
 what a reverential tradition for the past may demand. 
 In observing the growth and consolidation of Quakerism, 
 
44 PROGRESSIVE DEYELOPMENT. 
 
 this respect for the opinions and practices of those who 
 have gone before will be found a prominent and govern- 
 ing principle.* 
 
 As already expressed, the doctrines preached by 
 George Fox were very zealously and successfully pro- 
 mulgated in all parts of the kingdom ; persons of every 
 rank and condition, feeling no comfort in their own 
 priests or professions, joyfully embraced a religion which, 
 maintaining the supremacy of Christ alone as the head 
 of his own church, solved for them the all-important 
 doctrine, that the soul of every man has access unto God 
 through Jesus Christ, without the intervention of any 
 saint, any man, any altar, or any external rite. 
 
 Having no test of membership, they included within 
 their embrace all who came to them in sincerity ; they 
 neither established, nor allowed themselves to be called, 
 a distinct sect, but simply came together as a society of 
 friends. Surrounded, however, by professors of every 
 denomination, this theory of non-organisation was found 
 impossible in practice ; and they soon had to succumb 
 to the same laws that have governed other sections of 
 
 * The Friends, in spite of their protest against human standards and 
 authority, are very prone to contemplate the worthy deeds of their fore- 
 fathers with all the reverence of hero-worship, and to rejoice in the monu- 
 ments those have reared, instead of striving to raise around them other 
 fresh tributes to the same glorious cause. The invitation to " stand in 
 the ways, and see and ask for the old paths and walk therein," does not 
 consist merely in recurring to the dogmas or duties of the past age, but 
 in ascending anew, and for ourselves, to the principles of Eternal Truth, 
 drinking at those living fountains, and from thence taking a fresh depar- 
 ture. It will always be easier to admire and cling to what has been, than 
 to give new impetus to what is ; but as the world is ever shifting its 
 grounds of opposition to the church, so must the church change its atti* 
 tude, and attack the predominant sins which each age produces, instead 
 of traditionally opposing those which have either become obsolete, or been 
 stifled by grosser and more attractive enormities. 
 
PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 45 
 
 the church. Like Luther, Wesley, Irving and others, 
 they at first strove hard against it ; but it would seem 
 to be the sequence of every reformation, that its followers 
 should gravitate into distinct systems. 
 
 No sooner were their views spread throughout the 
 country, than a bitter persecution arose from all sides. 
 The natural effect of this was to bind them yet closer to- 
 gether ; and as in the first age of Christianity, under some- 
 what similar circumstances, the believers held all things 
 in common, so did the early Friends impart freely of 
 their substance, not alone to their fellow-professors in 
 the same district, but, as of old, sums of money were 
 collected, and frequently sent by well-esteemed Friends 
 to suffering brethren in distant parts of the kingdom. 
 
 Although at an early period George Fox found it 
 needful to institute meetings for carrying out a society 
 discipline, such as a method of proceeding with delin- 
 quents, marriage regulations, and care for the poor and 
 imprisoned, this was in consequence of a very peculiar 
 position, and not an original principle. Holding the 
 same views, Friends united together by common consent 
 for the purpose of the public spiritual worship of 
 Almighty God, and for the spreading of his truth ; but 
 there was no formal admission to the rights and privi- 
 leges of membership recorded by any meeting during 
 the first century of their history. 
 
 The attendance at the conferences for the promotion 
 of church discipline was by representation; and by 
 appointing only zealous Friends out of the various 
 meetings, the inconvenience of unsuitable persons taking 
 part in church affairs did not arise. Another practical 
 check was provided by their mode of deciding all ques- 
 tions propounded. During the two hundred years of 
 their existence, no conclusion has ever been arrived 
 
46 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 at by a majority of votes, or by show of hands ; Friends 
 are encouraged freely and succinctly to express their 
 sentiments, and afterwards the clerk records what he 
 considers the judgment of the meeting. An admi- 
 rable distinction is thus drawn between the "pillars 
 of the church " and its smaller props ; and the judg- 
 ment of the veteran is not set aside by the vote of the 
 tyro. It, however, renders the advocates of "laisser 
 /aire " unduly strong, and prevents any changes being 
 made without frequent postponements, or unless a nearly 
 unanimous feeling for change is expressed. Under the 
 present regulations every individual has a voice in dis- 
 ciplinary meetings according to his religious stature. 
 This alteration occurred simultaneously with the regis- 
 tration, as members, of all children born of Friends, and 
 with the establishment of temporal advantages and rights 
 in connection with it. Injurious and unlooked-for effects 
 have followed these changes. They have caused the dis- 
 tinction between members and non-members to be one 
 of earthly parentage instead of heavenly ; and the line 
 of demarcation thus set up, has grown broader and wider, 
 until, whilst the theoretic difference exists only in the 
 latter being excluded from the representative meetings 
 of the body, the real and actual division is wider than 
 that of any other protestant sect. The non-member 
 feels that he is unattached to, if not overlooked by, the 
 hereditary members, and that the " consistency " which 
 would justify his applying for admission, is of a very 
 different character from that which is required of one 
 born within the pale. 
 
 In tracing the progress of this Society, its history 
 exemplifies the truth of the saying that "The blood 
 of the martyr is the seed of the church." So long as 
 persecution continued, earnestness and zeal were every- 
 
PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPME^. 47 
 
 where apparent ; the Friends devoted their whole time 
 to the propagation of the truth, and to the comforting 
 of imprisoned brethren ; and their willingness to sacri- 
 fice their liberty, their possessions, and even life itself 
 for the cause of Christ, and for one another, gained them 
 many proselytes. It is not, however, by persecution that 
 any system can be tested ; the world's smiles or the 
 world's indifference is a far more severe ordeal to un- 
 dergo ; and unless it have the immutable foundation, a 
 century of toleration will generally extinguish its career. 
 After the Toleration Act of William III., in 1689, 
 and its confirmation by Queen Anne, in 1702, most of 
 the oppressive sufferings of Friends were removed ;* 
 but at this same period a reaction set in, and a lukewarm- 
 ness crept over the body. The published journals of 
 Friends of the eighteenth century, f their annual epistles 
 to members, and the recorded minutes of advice, all 
 shew the low condition into which the Society fell during 
 the middle age ; but it is not clear that this decline in 
 vitality has been continuous to this day. In connec- 
 tion with philanthropic exertions and Christian efforts 
 for the benefit of the whole family of man, Friends have 
 during the nineteenth century taken a nobler stand and 
 a wider sphere than at any former period, and have been 
 
 * See Sewell's History of Friends, fol. ed., p. 667, &c. 
 
 *j* Amongst others, the journal of John Griffith, who travelled in the 
 ministry up and down the country from 1748 to 1768, is full of evidence 
 to this effect. Speaking of Bristol, he says, " But very little is to be seen 
 or felt of that plainness, pure simplicity, humility, and contempt of the 
 world, so conspicuous in their worthy predecessors." Again, after a con- 
 siderable tour through many counties, he adds: "Alas ! the inordinate 
 love of worldly enjoyments, good in themselves, covers the minds of many 
 professors like thick clay. Many in our Society, as in others, having 
 departed from the life, rest satisfied in a profession of religion ; some 
 also have departed from the power and the form too, neither appearing 
 one thing nor the other." &c. 
 
48 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ready to unite with others in any cause in which they 
 could conscientiously engage. This labouring in the 
 "outer court" has increased their internal life, and power- 
 fully disseminated their religious views ; and although 
 some few may have been led away, it has enabled hun- 
 dreds of their most esteemed and consistent members to 
 solve for us the problem of a world-wide love and work, 
 being combined with a Quaker life and faith. 
 
 To what extent individual lifelessness has increased 
 or lessened it would be impossible to surmise. Many 
 who now read the lives of former devoted servants of the 
 Lord, look sorrowfully around upon the few in this day 
 who can compare with them, and with dismay at the pros- 
 pects of the succeeding generation ; whilst others, seeing 
 in those records continual allusions to a lack of zeal and 
 love, and judging of the life of the body, not by a few 
 extraordinary cases, but by the general health of the 
 whole, can see nothing in the present day which did 
 not exist to the same or a greater extent in the past. 
 
 To check the mediaeval declension, greater labours were 
 needed ; but we find the travelling ministers became 
 fewer, increase by convincement lessened, and large 
 secessions took place ; many who remained gathered 
 about them the reputation and noble endurance of their 
 ancestors, whilst a certain self-satisfaction displayed 
 itself amongst numerous prominent professors, who 
 relied more upon outward consistency with the past, 
 than upon the spirituality of their own day. Meetings 
 for divine worship on the week-day mornings were 
 neglected, and, though their profession forbad absorp- 
 tion in worldly amusements, very many members became 
 immersed in worldly pursuits, to the lasting injury of 
 the church, and of their own souls. 
 
 The usual method for restoring vitality was resorted to 
 
PEOGRESSIYE DEVELOPMENT. 49 
 
 as spirituality lessened, the means for holding it fast were 
 increased ; a frame-work of laws and civil organisation 
 was constructed, but it was powerless in effecting the 
 object desired. The body in London undertook more 
 and more the regulation of that which had previously 
 been left to the judgment of the district meetings ;* 
 general rules (issued under the milder term of advices,) 
 were constantly added ; the number of queries respect- 
 ing the external conduct of members was doubled ; more 
 and more stress was laid upon outward conformity, and 
 those whose exterior was most consistent obtained 
 thereby an undue sway. ' 
 
 Friends in the country looked increasingly for pre- 
 cedents and laws by which to decide those cases that 
 had heretofore been adjudicated upon their own merits. 
 Such centralising of the discipline had simultaneously the 
 effect of lessening private judgment, and of raising up a 
 church conscience, which might be universally appealed 
 to as the standard of right order. 
 
 This infringement weakened local meetings, by an 
 unwise removal of their responsibilities, and made them 
 dry administrators of written laws, instead of living 
 judges of each individual case. A comparison of the 
 three editions of their " Book of Extracts," will shew 
 
 * To illustrate this, I may mention the subject of grave-stones. For 
 the first seventy years Friends were allowed to exercise their own judgment, 
 and many simple head-stones were erected during that period. In 1717, 
 the Annual Meeting issued a paragraph, stating, "It is the advice of this 
 meeting that they may be removed, as much as may be, with discretion 
 and conveniency." In 1766, a stronger tone, and one which in the 
 opinion of Friends would be considered as imperative, is adopted : " We 
 earnestly recommend that the removal of them may become general." In 
 1850, although sanction is obtained for their adoption if desired, yet the 
 Yearly Meeting, not having confidence in its subordinate meetings, under- 
 takes to regulate not only what may be written upon them, but the 
 position in which alone they may be placed. 
 
 D 
 
50 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the great multiplication of rules, and the very few which 
 have been superseded or erased.* The exalting of a 
 central church government has not been beneficial in its 
 effects, and has evidenced that there is extreme danger, 
 even to a society without form or ritual, of loving the 
 frame-work and scaffoldings for their own sake, in pre- 
 ference to adhering to that individual conviction which 
 was so bravely advocated by George Fox. 
 
 Of late years there has been a reactive feeling upon 
 this system, and an increased disposition is apparent to 
 lay upon the shoulders of right-minded members through- 
 out the country, that share of the burden which is pro- 
 fitable for themselves, as well as helpful to the church ; 
 and to make each feel that he has a duty to perform to 
 his fellow-professors, beyond that of merely interpreting 
 laws, or seeing them rigidly enforced. 
 
 * The "Rules of Discipline" book, printed in 1783, contains 180 
 quarto pages, whilst that of 1852 contains 450 pages of same size. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IMPEDIMENTS ESSENTIAL. 
 
 Haying passed in review the fundamental doctrines 
 and special testimonies which the Society of Friends 
 has ever upheld, we will now look at those obstructions 
 to the rapid spread and reception of its tenets, which 
 are inherent and necessarily inseparable from the prin- 
 ciples themselves. 
 
 " The friendship of the world is enmity with God," 
 (James iv. 4) ; and it must ever be, that a sect requiring, 
 with an open confession of Christ, a perpetual self-denial 
 and an avoidance of lawful pleasures, if they lead others 
 astray, and the renouncing of every worldly honour or 
 emolument which would interfere with the health of the 
 soul, will have fewer followers than any which is less 
 strict in its personal requirings. It is probable also, that 
 the Society of Friends would number less than others, 
 because it can offer no worldly inducement, neither can 
 it attract the thoughtless or indifferent, by appealing to 
 their outward senses and emotions. Quakerism, like 
 Puritanism, must always remain an undesirable arena 
 for those who are primarily attached to the fashionable 
 world, and careless about religion. 
 
 Another large class who would be unlikely to look for 
 consolation within its borders, are those who not only 
 feel incapable of travelling the heavenward journey 
 without human supports upon which to lean, and upon 
 
 d 2 
 
5.2 IMPEDIMENTS — ESSENTIAL. 
 
 whose counsel they can unhesitatingly rely ; but who 
 have always looked upon the stimulants of outward 
 ordinances, music, singing, and eloquent sermons, as 
 necessary food for the Christian believer. The only way 
 of disproving these ideas is by shewing living examples 
 wherein the weakest and frailest amongst the Friends 
 do evidently grow in grace, by looking to the Lord 
 alone for help. It is impossible, logically, to convince a 
 lame man that he could do without his stick, or the 
 temperate that he would be better without stimu- 
 lants. Each must make the experiment for himself, and 
 be encouraged so to do by witnessing the effects on 
 others. The apparent absence of any clearly recognized 
 human counsellors for the bereaved and afflicted of soul, 
 has often appeared an insurmountable objection to many 
 whose life and education have been on an entirely dif- 
 ferent system. By those, however, who cease to regard 
 religious stimulants as absolute necessaries of life, the 
 Society of Friends has been found to contain an unusual 
 brotherly interest and sympathy as between all its mem- 
 bers, although it has none so exalted above the rest who 
 can interfere with or assist in the communion of the soul 
 with its Maker. 
 
 There are also other special hindrances to the uni- 
 versal spread of Quakerism, which operate to a small 
 extent only in other denominations. For instance, the 
 ordinary occupations for sons of the gentry are — physic, 
 law, divinity, army and navy, and government appoint- 
 ments. Of these five professions, the first alone is 
 entirely open to a Friend. 
 
 lstly. — Although he may become a solicitor or con- 
 veyancer, yet since, as a Christian, he could not advo- 
 cate a cause which he knew and felt to be wrong, or 
 make use of any argument in debate which he believed 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — ESSENTIAL. 53 
 
 to be false, a conscientious Friend could not become a 
 pleading counsel ; and it is from out of these that the 
 higher judicial offices are mainly supplied. 
 
 2ndly. — Preaching cannot be converted by any Friend 
 either into a source of emolument, or a means of obtain- 
 ing a livelihood, or of acquiring worldly position. 
 
 3rdly. — The profession of war, naval or military, he 
 cannot follow, because it implies the deliberate destruc- 
 tion of his fellow men ; and most of the government 
 appointments being closely connected with bearing arms, 
 there are few of such into which he could freely enter. 
 None of their members could, with propriety, become 
 connected with the stage or theatrical life j and their 
 objections to music combined with dancing would pre- 
 vent any amongst them from following these as a pro- 
 fession. Of late years only has it been considered by 
 them that the intensely ideal life of a sculptor, poet, or 
 painter, is compatible with the primary claims of a reli- 
 gious life ; or that (even if lawful) such soul-absorbing 
 pursuits can be profitable for a Christian to follow. 
 
 Whilst, therefore, the scruples of Friends against most 
 of the fashionable pleasures of life forbid their taking 
 part in them, the same conscientious difficulties close up 
 to them many of its most profitable and fashionable 
 avocations. How far these circumstances have induced 
 their numerical decline it would be difficult to say, but 
 they do unquestionably exercise a great influence ; 
 firstly in keeping the upper classes from joining, and 
 secondly, in enticing wealthy members away from them. 
 
 A sound education, business diligence, and provident 
 habits, enable many Friends to amass fortunes ; and it 
 is a natural sequence that they who inherit such will 
 seek an enlarged field for expenditure and worldly 
 honour. Unless occupied in philanthropic or religious 
 
54 IMPEDIMENTS — ESSENTIAL. 
 
 affairs, a rich Friend has but little employment either in 
 purse or pursuit ; and the barrier which this religious 
 profession offers to mixing in the ' best county society/ 
 is a sore drawback to many an aspiring heir ! 
 
 Let it not be said that such scruples render the uni- 
 versal spread of Quakerism impossible. If the views 
 themselves are in accordance with the New Testament, 
 they will prevail just in proportion as Christianity itself 
 prevails in the hearts of its professors. How far society 
 would thrive without counsellors who must plead on 
 either side, or without armies who must fight as their 
 rulers command them — how far theology could exist 
 apart from its emoluments, or whether fashionable life, 
 worldly honours, dancing, and theatrical pursuits, are 
 profitable for the Christian disciple, are subjects too wide 
 to be here touched upon ; neither could any arguments, 
 pro or con, affect the main proposition — that whatever 
 the New Testament commands must be obeyed by all 
 those who believe in its divine authority. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 Part 1. Misimpressions. 
 
 There is unquestionably a very indistinct idea amongst 
 the religious world upon what constitutes a real Friend. 
 To those who do not come into personal intimacy with 
 them, they appear a singular people, who, having ori- 
 ginally struggled hard for individual convictions and 
 rights, are now forgetting their mission, and, in striving 
 after an orthodox formalism, are exalting the conscience 
 of the sect above that of the person. 
 
 Having no initiatory ordinance, and being very diffi- 
 dent in discussing their principles, or explaining them ; 
 ignoring the sanctity of all material things, (such as 
 church, chapel, altar or cemetery) ; acknowledging neither 
 outward baptism nor outward supper; objecting to closing 
 their shops on the anniversaries of those events in the 
 life of Christ which are of vital interest to themselves, 
 and to all Christians ; refusing to acknowledge days 
 of national humiliation, fasting, or thanksgiving, when 
 ordered by the Queen as head of the church ; and being 
 the only Protestant sect which objects to the reading of 
 the Bible in its public assemblies ; — it is no wonder that, 
 notwithstanding their repeated explanations, they should 
 be regarded suspiciously, and find it difficult to convince 
 strangers of their gospel foundation. They negative so 
 many of the traditional notions and practices of other 
 
56 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 sects, that the prima facie evidence to the casual observer 
 is, that the Scriptures are not literally binding upon 
 them, but that they are a highly moral, rather than a 
 highly Christian, community. 
 
 The uniformity of their costumes, and their peculiari- 
 ties of speech and manner ; their extreme sensitiveness 
 respecting their corporate reputation; the difficulty of 
 admission into membership, and the summary way in 
 which delinquents, both civil and moral, have been ex- 
 pelled, and the distinct laws by which they are governed, 
 all confirm the impression that they are a religious order 
 desiring less the extension of their own borders than the 
 maintenance of a distinctive aspect. 
 
 Neither is this popular impression unfounded. From 
 the day the Society of Friends became a civil commu- 
 nity, as well as a religious one, there has been a constant 
 tendency to materialize its laws. The divine principle 
 of a church needed no human legislation ; but (as in the 
 days of the Apostles), the poor and imprisoned and suf- 
 fering required outward care. From these necessities 
 have arisen laws respecting property, insolvency, the set- 
 tlement of poor, marriages, births and deaths, rules for 
 arbitration, and numerous other civil regulations. So 
 much, indeed, is this the case, that were the whole of their 
 community now to emigrate in a body, they would 
 require few additional laws of government. 
 
 It is on account of these civil advantages, and not 
 because Friends wish to keep non-members from par- 
 taking of their spiritual privileges, that the modern 
 exclusiveness has arisen ; an exclusiveness which can 
 only be removed by the entire readjustment of the 
 respective claims of flesh and spirit. 
 
 There has of late been very little endeavour to gain 
 proselytes, and their rules upon this important question 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 57 
 
 are all founded on the text, " Lay hands suddenly on no 
 man." Out of 450 pages of counsels and rules, two 
 pages only are devoted to the subject of convincement, 
 and no clause has been added thereto since 1807. So 
 entirely has the number of converts dwindled away, that 
 for a stranger in the middle rank of life to become con- 
 vinced, and apply for membership, is in many districts a 
 rare and unexpected circumstance. 
 
 By their consistent and self-denying life the early 
 Friends established a high reputation as a moral and 
 conscientious sect ; but it is self-evident that no " name 
 to live" could keep even its most orthodox followers from 
 sin, or from denying the Lord who bought them. 
 
 It is not man that exalts the truth, but the truth that 
 exalts the man, so long as he clings to it. If he relax 
 his hold he must inevitably fall, and the higher he had 
 risen upon its pinions, the more severe and startling will 
 be the downfall ; but to maintain that such a catastrophe 
 proves either that he had never laid hold of the truth at 
 all, or that if earnestly and prayerfully clung to it could 
 not have supported him through every temptation, is 
 grossly fallacious. The shame must always (as with 
 Peter formerly) lie upon the transgressor himself, and 
 not upon the faith which he forsook. 
 
 By disregarding this fact, an over-sensitiveness — I 
 might almost say a Pharisaic pride — respecting their 
 "corporate reputation" has crept in, and they have 
 become not only too precipitate in repelling every attack 
 upon their moral standing, but have too hastily repu- 
 diated the wrong-doings of those who have brought 
 discredit upon the body. In many cases a harsh legis- 
 lation and unchristian severity has evidenced a greater 
 anxiety for the respectability of the Society before the 
 world, than for the good of the individual transgressing. 
 
 d 3 
 
58 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPEKFICIAL. 
 
 It may be argued that the cutting off of unsound 
 limbs tends to the preservation of the tree ; but a gentle 
 and judicious care over failing and fruitless branches 
 may restore such to life again, and, in the end, add to 
 the magnitude and healthfulness of the tree itself. 
 
 Whilst it is manifestly unjust to measure any sect by 
 the frailties of professors, many of whom have never 
 opened their hearts at all to receive the ingrafted word, 
 I admit that, concerning its living members, " By their 
 fruits shall ye know them." It is this absence of fruit 
 that gives rise to the opinion entertained by orthodox 
 Friends, that the decline of the Society is caused mainly 
 by a lack, more especially amongst the younger, of 
 religious individual life ; and that a faithful walking of 
 each one before God is the only means for restoring 
 their church, and of inducing others to join them. We 
 know that men must reach the kingdom of Heaven as 
 individuals, and not as corporations; and that if the 
 separate stones of a building are defective, or out of 
 place, the symmetry of the whole structure will be 
 marred. We know, also, that without personal faith- 
 fulness no true growth can be experienced, and that 
 the decline or extinction of a sect ever must depend 
 upon the decline of spiritual life amongst its individual 
 members. But these truths only push us backwards 
 one step farther to inquire — How is it that unfaithful- 
 ness should be more deadening amongst the Friends? 
 and why should not the power of God enable them to 
 hold fast their profession in the same ratio as other 
 sects ? 
 
 I am far from stating that the life of a true and 
 consistent Friend exercises no influence over his neigh- 
 bours ; but is he not generally regarded as a model to 
 be admired, rather than as an example to be followed ? 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 59 
 
 He is loved by all who know his humility and integrity 
 of heart, but he rarely attracts converts to the faith he 
 professes. Whether it be that his peculiarities hide his 
 principles from the eyes of others, and that they regard 
 his external appearance and manner as the foundation, 
 instead of the coping-stone, to his profession, may be 
 disputed ; but the fact remains, that by the serious and 
 self-denying of other sects he is looked upon as a 
 member of a "religious order or fraternity, who is not 
 anxious to induce them to enlist under the same banner, 
 on their road to the celestial city. 
 
 So long as the modern Friends superadd to their pure 
 spiritual views, a necessary external uniformity (which 
 was no part of original Quakerism) as the gate through 
 which converts should enter, they will be regarded as 
 upholding a system adapted to the few, but can never 
 become what Fox and his cotemporaries intended they 
 should be — viz., a religious community with open doors 
 gathering in the pious of every denomination, and with 
 principles adapted to men of every name and nation, 
 and of every rank and capacity. 
 
 It avails nothing that the strict and orthodox disci- 
 plinarian should content himself with the idea that 
 Friends are more enlightened than others in their reli- 
 gious views. The very confession of this belief renders his 
 condemnation the greater, if he do not strive, in season 
 and out of season, to impart its excellencies, and in his 
 Master's name compel the lame and the blind to come in. 
 No degeneracy of its younger members is so paralyzing 
 to a church as apathy in this respect amongst its elders. 
 Although there be salvation under every Christian name, 
 yet any individual knowing that he has found that upon 
 which his own soul can feast, is bound by love to God 
 and love to man to invite others to the same banqueting- 
 
60 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 house. This indifference has been most strikingly evi- 
 dent in many " pillars of the church," and has operated 
 very disastrously on the minds of younger members. 
 It encourages the notion that the duty of Friends is " to 
 leaven other bodies," instead of increasing their own ; 
 but unless they admit that their vocation is and was as 
 a religious order, and not as the " church of the Gentiles," 
 no satisfaction at a small portion of their principles 
 being embraced, should compensate for their pain that 
 many of what they regard as most valuable testimonies 
 are still unrecognized or rejected by others. 
 
 To be content with a partial inoculation, when they 
 declare their mission to be the re-establishment of 
 simple Christianity, — Christianity without diminution, 
 and without addition, — is denying in practice what they 
 uphold in theory, and is utterly opposed to the labours, 
 sufferings and hardships, which George Fox and the 
 early Friends endured for endeavouring to spread the 
 truth. Had these noble-hearted men been content with 
 having found the hidden treasure for themselves, their 
 path would have been smooth and unmolested ; but 
 because they would never rest, night or day, without 
 trying to bring others into the same blessed experience, 
 they were persecuted and imprisoned to the death. 
 
 If Quakerism be not really adapted to the spiritual 
 wants of all, then George Fox was under a delusion in 
 promulgating a faith which was not " simple Chris- 
 tianity," but one suited only to a certain class ; but if, 
 as there is abundant evidence to prove, from the past 
 histories of thousands, and from living evidences now 
 around us, it does meet the wants of the humblest and 
 least educated, as well as of the learned, the wealthy, 
 and the profound thinker ; no abstract ideas upon 
 toleration, or the universality of grace, can remove the 
 
f-0 ftWTT 
 
 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 61 
 
 weight of responsibility which rests upon every strict 
 Friend, to invite all men to share his special privileges. 
 
 No statement of mine can exaggerate the change in 
 practice between the first Friends and their representa- 
 tives of the present day. In the early life of the Society 
 every member was engaged, either publicly or privately, 
 in teaching the truth to those without the pale ; hun- 
 dreds of converts, from amongst the dissolute and the 
 good, were annually made ; but the impression is now 
 so engraven upon the minds of its staunchest and strictest 
 supporters, that the main work to do is to hedge in 
 those who are already members, and to keep themselves 
 a separate as well as a peculiar people ; that no alarm 
 from the watch-towers has yet been sounded, sufficient to 
 shake that civil compact of worldly advantage which 
 narrows the entrance to their community. My convic- 
 tion is, that this entire change in the object of Quakerism 
 is a principal cause of its decline. Laws framed upon a 
 desire to keep up something of a Jewish theocracy, and 
 an hereditary and distinct race, will only produce an 
 increase of pharisaic strictness and outward profession, 
 and members will be judged by their external con- 
 sistency instead of by their sincerity of heart. 
 
 No people can become great by themselves ; the help 
 from without, exciting and adding to the energy within, 
 is needful for the growth of every community. Unless, 
 therefore, the Friends abandon the doctrine of fortifying 
 their own citadel by the erection of bulwarks, fences, 
 privileges, and protection, and go back to the good old 
 open and world-wide principles of Fox and Barclay, 
 they will justly suffer from that greatest of all church 
 privations, the loss of converts gathered from on every 
 hand. They who have gone through darkest doubts, and 
 whose belief has cost them very much, outwardly and 
 inwardly, will ever be the staunchest and most zealous 
 
62 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 upholders of the faith ; and such men can impart to 
 hereditary professors a corporate life and energy which 
 they can never reach by themselves alone. 
 
 With the Friends there are no worldly inducements 
 for making proselytes. They need neither money to 
 support their system, nor numbers to swell their im- 
 portance. The sole motive must be to extend to others 
 the same glorious liberty of the gospel. Their work is 
 not to attack the religions of others, but to shew to all 
 professors a loftier and closer path — not dependent 
 upon man's assistance, and which man can neither make 
 nor mar. 
 
 The ordinary means of promulgating religious tenets 
 are : by preaching, by books, by personal intercourse, 
 and by teaching. 
 
 lstly, Preaching. — The public ministers in the So- 
 ciety are now but few, and their work is confined more 
 to imparting to the assembled congregations food suited 
 to their spiritual necessities, than in giving sectarian 
 dissertations or expositions of their special tenets. 
 
 2ndly, Books. — The controversial works published 
 by Friends are very numerous, but they form a theo- 
 logical literature very little read beyond their own pale ; 
 and the tendency of all sectarian writings is to fortify 
 respective partizans, more than to convince gainsayers. 
 
 3rdly, Conversation. — The private influence of Friends 
 is, as we have already observed, directed more towards 
 " leavening others " than to gathering them in; there 
 is also amongst them a great diffidence in speaking 
 upon or discussing sacred things. This arises, in part, 
 from a conscientious fear of speaking unadvisedly, or 
 of assuming a higher position than their religious 
 experience would warrant ; but it is very prejudicial 
 to the spreading of their principles. 
 
 Ithly, Teaching. — The important office of teacher 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 63 
 
 described in Romans xii. and 1 Cor. xii., has gradually 
 declined amongst Friends, and is now virtually extin- 
 guished. No vocal utterance is allowed in their assem- 
 blies but that of prayer and preaching, and they have 
 no meetings for the united reading of the scriptures. 
 In the early days of the Society the gifts of preaching 
 and teaching were often united (as they also were in 
 Timothy and Paul) ; but in many other instances the 
 gifts of expounding scripture and of exhortation existed 
 apart from a ministerial call.* 
 
 The devoting our intellectual and physical talents to 
 the service of Christ is an acknowledged duty; and, 
 whilst other sects have erred in allowing the office of 
 preacher to sink down into the lesser one of teacher, 
 the Friends have unduly relied upon the former, to the 
 almost entire exclusion of the latter. Both are clearly 
 of divine appointment, and any church ignoring the ex- 
 istence of either, or confusedly mingling them together, 
 must become dwarfed and suffer loss. 
 
 None being approved to speak in their meetings for 
 worship, but those who believe themselves, and whom 
 the church believes, to be rightly called to the work of 
 the ministry, there is no possibility for exhortation or 
 teaching, except on private occasions, or at their disci- 
 plinary meetings, at which but few attend of those most 
 needing instruction. " Exhorting elders," who formerly 
 gave valuable counsel to their younger and less advanced 
 brethren, have become fewer and fewer. There is ample 
 
 * The difference between preaching and teaching is a very important 
 one. The former is regarded by Friends as a special mission to special 
 congregations ; and the latter is the imparting to the ignorant around us 
 those general truths which, in the providence of God, we have been per- 
 mitted to lay hold of. The fact that, under the gospel, women are allowed 
 to preach, but not to teach (vide note, p. 26), also shews the fundamental 
 distinction that exists. 
 
64 IMPEDIMENTS-- SUPEEFICIAL. 
 
 material within the Society out of which rightly qualified 
 teachers could be gathered, if opportunity were afforded 
 for such appointments. The number of ministers of the 
 male sex has greatly decreased ; yet there can be no 
 doubt but that many teachers who thus dedicated their 
 intellectual talents to the Lord, and faithfully discharged 
 the lesser service, would be called, from time to time, to 
 exercise the loftier gift of preaching. 
 
 The re-establishing of teachers would also tend to 
 remove some of the dread and awfulness with which the 
 ministry is regarded amongst Friends. Many to whom 
 the truth is dear above every earthly thing, have been 
 unduly kept back by an impression, that inspiration in its 
 highest form is a needful prelude, and grey hairs have 
 overtaken them before their lips have been opened pub- 
 licly to declare the goodness of the Lord. Far be it 
 from me to advocate an unauthorized ministry ; but an 
 exposition, in modern language, of the nature of that 
 impression which rests upon the soul, when ministerial 
 service is required of it, would check the growing scep- 
 ticism of younger members concerning what is called " an 
 inspired ministry," and would shew to them how, when 
 a certain service is required of an individual, he may and 
 often does intermix with it his own human feelings. 
 These labours must be measured, not by the preacher's 
 own ideas of its authoritativeness, but by the effects on 
 his hearers ; or, in the admirable terms of counsel {Book 
 of Extracts, clause 9, p. 168) : "Let none lay too great 
 stress on the authority of their ministry by too positively 
 asserting a divine motion : — the baptizing power of the 
 Spirit of Truth accompanying the words, being the true 
 evidence." 
 
IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 65 
 
 Part 2. Language and Dress. 
 
 Language. — The objections advanced by the early 
 Friends to the use of the plural number in addressing 
 single individuals were, — that it had its origin in pride 
 — that it was not the language of the Scriptures — and 
 that it was ungrammatical. 
 
 The latter argument may quickly be disposed of, and 
 is to be regretted that Friends should have made it so 
 prominent. It cannot be the duty of any religious body 
 to undertake to rectify the laws of grammar or syntax, 
 more especially when its members are not of a learned 
 class, or deeply versed in philology ; and the universally 
 incorrect grammar spoken by the Friends themselves,* 
 renders them an undesirable tribunal to express a judg- 
 ment. This technical objection to a form of speech can 
 in itself have no more connection with a conscientious 
 testimony, than would a protest against the misuse of the 
 relative pronouns, or the placing the nominative case 
 after a verb or preposition. One of the greatest masters 
 of our language regards the singular number as being, 
 
 * This may be thought too sweeping a censure upon a well educated 
 people ; but whilst the middle classes in England do generally make the 
 verb agree with its nominative case, I have never met with a Friend who 
 in conversation did not break this first law of Lindley Murray. Thou 
 oughts, thou mights, thou goest, &c, are too formal and stilted for 
 ordinary speech, although they may appropriately be used for solemn or 
 poetical strains, histrionic addresses, or as terms of endearment. The 
 same cause which converted these two-syllabled verbs into one, viz., that it 
 is less formal, more easy to pronounce, and more euphonious, led, I believe, 
 to the ready adoption of the plural pronoun by all classes ; and has also 
 produced the ungrammatical "thee" instead of "thou" amongst Friends 
 in the south of England. Spoken language has an invariable tendency to 
 soften down its aspirate or rugged sounds. The past participle ed as in 
 loved, is now rarely uttered except in poetry, or religious reading. A viva 
 voce reading of Chaucer, or other early English poet, will exemplify the 
 great extent to which these and other obstructions to a smooth diction 
 have been removed. 
 
66 IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 from its grandeur, fitted especially for prophecy, and for 
 addresses to the Deity, but not for ordinary parlance ;* 
 and in accordance with this view modern grammarians 
 give the second person singular as " thou or you." 
 
 In the Holy Scriptures the singular number is inva- 
 riably adopted. It must, however, be acknowledged by 
 all, that though our translation may give the correct 
 rendering of these Hebrew and Greek forms of expres- 
 sion, Biblical peculiarities are not binding in perpetuity 
 upon any language. 
 
 We will now turn to that which formed the real ob- 
 jection in the mind of George Fox, viz., the pride in 
 which it originated, and to which it pandered. In his 
 day it was the custom throughout England (as it still is 
 in some parts of the northern counties), to use the term 
 " thou" in addressing equals. Believing that in the sight 
 of God there was no distinction of persons, Fox declined 
 using a different mode of speaking to any man, what- 
 ever his worldly position. The wealthy, regarding this 
 departure from ordinary custom as an intentional 
 insult, and indicative of contempt for their authority and 
 standing, were extremely incensed thereat, and blows, 
 abuse, and imprisonment, were freely administered to 
 the indomitable Friends. This angry opposition con- 
 firmed the latter in the supposition that pride was at the 
 bottom of the custom, and this " plain language" was 
 adopted, therefore, as a direct rebuke to haughtiness. 
 
 It is however, reasoned by many, that since then, lan- 
 guage has undergone great changes ; that the singular 
 number in the present day is never used towards equals 
 and inferiors as it then was; that the term "you" is not 
 intended as flattery by the speaker, nor is it so con- 
 sidered by the person addressed. The only objection, 
 
 * Dean Trench, on the study of words. 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPEKFICIAL. 67 
 
 therefore, to its use, must be, that although not now 
 laudatory, yet it once was so, and ought consequently to 
 be avoided ever afterwards. To this it is replied, that 
 external sounds are nothing in themselves ; the question 
 is, what is their meaning and intent ? It would be as 
 reasonable to object to living in a castle, or to using a 
 Roman road, because they had their origin in evil, as to 
 refuse to adopt a custom which once was wrong, but 
 which in the progress of ages has parted with its im- 
 purities, and to the millions of this country conveys no 
 idea either of pride or compliment. 
 
 The giving of flattering titles may all be measured 
 by a like rule. If Paul applies the term " most noble" 
 to Festus, we are justified in giving to each his usual 
 worldly titles, if they be not false in word, or unsuited to 
 humanity. 
 
 I cannot see how, upon the principles of Friends, that 
 which is not evil in design, nor evil in its effects, can 
 be inherently wrong ; nor that the title Mrs. to a mar- 
 ried, and Miss to an unmarried woman, Mr. to a man, 
 or Master to a lad, can be sinful, when applied, as they 
 now usually are, to both rich and poor. Without these 
 terms our language would be defective in its descriptive 
 power. 
 
 On the subject of days and months, the Friends are 
 wrong in their way of carrying out a true principle. — 
 They refused to adopt the ordinary mode, because — 
 first, the scriptures had the simple words, first, second, 
 &c, (although Moses speaks of the month Abib, and 
 others, as Zif and Adar, are elsewhere alluded to) ; — and 
 secondly, because they commemorated the names of 
 heathen deities. 
 
 It is true, that the Jews were repeatedly ordered to 
 abstain from everything that could tempt them to 
 
68 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 idolatry; and Moses commanded Israel to "make no 
 mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be 
 heard out of thy mouth." So great was this tendency 
 to heathenism before the Christian era, that the 
 Israelites, while under Mount Sinai itself, made the idol 
 of a golden calf. The Almighty was then known only 
 by his works, and the abstract worship of the invisible 
 and impersonal seemed almost impossible, even with the 
 accessories and splendour of Judaism ; but since the Son 
 of God " has been made manifest in the flesh," our 
 shadowy conceptions of the Eternal mind are able to 
 condense around One whom we may think of clearly as 
 the invisible and spiritual God, revealed personally to 
 man — " whom human eyes have seen, and human hands 
 have handled — who loved us with a human heart — who 
 spoke our human speech" — who, as the living Word, 
 "was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John i. 14). 
 This revelation in material form has destroyed that 
 tendency to polytheism which had previously prevailed ; 
 and rarely, if ever, has a Christian nation gone back to 
 paganism. 
 
 The two dispensations being in this respect so dif- 
 ferent, there probably could not be found any Friend 
 who deliberately believes that the slightest temptation 
 towards worshipping the wooden gods of our ancestors 
 is induced by their names being recorded in our 
 language. This fear of idolatry — the cause of the com- 
 mand to the Jews — being removed, the command itself 
 is not applicable to or binding upon us in this day. 
 
 If this argument be not a valid one, it may further 
 be observed that six out of the twelve months to which 
 the Friends object are not named after gods of any 
 kind ; and their designations are adopted by nearly 
 every civilized nation on the face of the globe. — To 
 
IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. bd 
 
 attempt to alter these six must evidently be beyond the 
 functions of a religious sect. 
 
 A similar scruple would also appertain to the pagan 
 names Pleiades and Orion mentioned in scripture — to 
 those of the planets, Jupiter, Neptune, &c. — and to the 
 use of words such as jovial, saturnine, cereal, mercury, 
 martial, and many others, with their compounds ; since 
 they are equally derived from the fictitious attributes of 
 false idols. 
 
 Language has been designated as fossil history ; and 
 in no way is this more strikingly illustrated than upon 
 this subject of months and days. It witnesses not only 
 that our progenitors worshipped "gods which are no 
 gods, " but that they apportioned days for the especial 
 honour of each. We also find, from the same enduring 
 testimony, that whilst most of the ancients united in 
 honouring the host of heaven, and had their " dies 
 solis" and " dies lunse ;" the other days of the week 
 were named after their respective national gods of whom 
 they had man-made images. Our ancestors thought 
 more highly of their Thor and Woden than of the 
 Roman " dies Mercurii," or the "Mardi" of Gaul. 
 
 This subject g^ould allow a much deeper investigation; 
 but sufficient has been expressed to show that we 
 have thus an imperishable record of the idolatry of our 
 forefathers. The annihilation of these Saxon words, 
 which are the existing proof of this fact, would be 
 similar to re-burying the Nineveh remains, or destroying 
 the relics of Druidical worship at Stonehenge. We 
 know, also, that the Jews were constantly commanded 
 to destroy idols and all heathen relics ; but that law 
 is not felt to be binding upon us when we preserve 
 Hindoo and South Sea images of gods. The temptation 
 to idolatry must however be greater in possessing 
 
70 IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL, 
 
 such visible embodiments, than in the mere engrav- 
 ing of their names upon the enduring tablet of 
 language. 
 
 Although the dictates of a tender and scrupulous 
 conscience produced these peculiarities in the first 
 Friends, * I submit that since then, two centuries 
 having obliterated the second person singular from our 
 spoken tongue, it is not a religious duty for us to revive 
 it either towards rich or poor ; and that the honour of 
 God is not infringed by the continuance of heathen 
 words or their compounds in our language. They exist, 
 not in deference to the idols, but as humiliating records 
 of the darkness, of our ancestors. 
 
 There are many sincere-hearted Friends who con- 
 scientiously believe in these practices, apart from the 
 illogical reasons adduced by the Society for their main- 
 tenance. With such individual scruples I have no wish 
 to interfere ; — but justice demands from them the same 
 charitable forbearance towards those who conscientiously 
 think otherwise. — " Let not him that eateth despise him 
 that eateth not ; and let not him which eateth not 
 judge him that eateth : for God hath received him." 
 (Rom. xiv. 3.) , 
 
 Dress. — The testimony of Friends against vain customs 
 and the spirit of the world, in apparel, furniture, or mode 
 of living, was, as we have seen, based upon the con- 
 viction that the cross of Christ must be in all things 
 borne. 
 
 * In connection with this subject it is somewhat remarkable, that, 
 though the serious-minded who leave the Society generally carry with 
 them some of its views, they have never upheld that of language ; neither 
 has a similar conviction overtaken the religious of any other sect. If the 
 singular number were not adopted as a matter of conscience, it would no 
 doubt still exist amongst the Friends as an affectionate form of speech, 
 similar to that in use amongst the French and Germans. 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 71 
 
 Simplicity in dress was insisted on, but for the first 
 fifty years a distinctive Quaker costume was never 
 recommended. In progress of time the idea arose, that, 
 as fashions were ever changing, a young man should 
 not adopt a garb such as was worn by the serious 
 people of his own time, but one which was usual in 
 the days of his grandfather or father. 
 
 The early Friends adopted the costume of their own 
 age alone, and we have no record that any of them 
 thought the latter course to be required. They wisely 
 refused to follow the absurdities and caprice of the 
 empty-souled mortals who made dress the great object 
 of existence, and declared that they should adhere 
 through life to the attire which they found in vogue 
 as young men, changing only for convenience sake. 
 If the Friends had existed for 1200 years, instead of 
 200, and had upheld the modern theory which has 
 crept in, of dressing like their ancestors, the effect 
 would now be very striking. Each generation possesses 
 a simplicity, as well as a fashion, of its own, but the 
 term is necessarily a vague one. To the African or 
 Malay, English clothes must appear complex in the 
 extreme. 
 
 Had first principles been clung to, the sectarian dis- 
 tinction which now exists would not have arisen. George 
 Fox held that the followers of Christ should be distin- 
 guishable from the world around them, but not that a 
 Christian of one sect should be recognized by his attire 
 from a Christian of another. If it be sound that a 
 Friend should be known by his external appearance, 
 it will apply equally to other denominations ; and 
 Baptist, Episcopalian, Independent, and all others, 
 should be known by their respective exteriors. As 
 professors of the same vital truths, would not their 
 
72 IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 united protest against vanity do more for religion than 
 sectarian badges could possibly effect ? 
 
 I am sensible of the great advantages which the 
 Friends 7 dress confers upon members. It enables them 
 to recognize each other at all times — through it, the 
 stranger often is invited to partake of the hospitality 
 and kindness of unknown brethren — it is an ever avail- 
 able passport, if not proof, of his respectability, and 
 very much social happiness is interwoven with this 
 external mark of membership. Moreover, it may form 
 a barrier from sinful amusements, and from gay and 
 wicked associates. From its opposition to " the lust 
 of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,' 7 it 
 also acts as a self-imposed mortification upon the mind 
 of the wearer, and is at all events less objectionable than 
 any bodily or secret penance that could be imposed. 
 
 It is painful to probe any practice the benefits of 
 which are so great and indisputable, and if its only dis- 
 advantages were that it makes Quakerism a hard pro- 
 fession, and that it encourages a pharisaic regard for the 
 outward, I could be satisfied in passing over this time- 
 honoured custom. If none but those who are inwardly 
 convinced of its propriety were asked or permitted to 
 adopt a Friend's dress, or if the form was not allowed to 
 precede the scruple, but made to follow it, the resulting 
 evils would be less.* But although many humble fol- 
 
 • John Griffith, in 1761, speaking of Pontefract Monthly Meeting, 
 says : — " Here was a very numerous body of Friends whose outward 
 appearance was very becoming our self-denying profession :. and I really 
 believe this plainness in a considerable number amongst them was the 
 genuine product of a well regulated mind ; yet, I fear, in too many it was 
 more the effect of education, which, however, I would not condemn where 
 people are not prevailed upon by the subtleties of Satan to take their rest 
 therein ; since the form must follow the power, and not the power follow 
 the form." — {Journal, p. 326.) 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL 73 
 
 lowers of Christ have felt, and ever will feel, called upon 
 by a plain apparel outwardly to evidence their faith — 
 although religious orders of monks, nuns, priests, clergy- 
 men, and pastors, adopt special costumes to show their 
 particular fraternities, it cannot be but that the imposing 
 on any member, or upon one who wishes to be so, an 
 outward development for which he has no individual 
 conviction, is subversive of ancient Quakerism. 
 
 An inward sense of what is right must precede the 
 open profession of it ; but the upholding of these scruples 
 on dress and language, by those who cannot plead a real 
 conscientious justification for so doing, is untruthful, and 
 assuming a false attitude before the world ; it beclouds 
 the religious sense, and scepticism as to whether con- 
 science dictates anything beyond mere educational beliefs, 
 has not unfrequently resulted. 
 
 Friends professedly desire to embrace every lover of 
 the Saviour, and to admit all within their fold ; but their 
 distinctive peculiarities have a direct effect in keeping 
 them an exclusive order, and are very adverse to the 
 general spread of their tenets. 
 
 Moreover when the young are called inconsistent, be- 
 cause they do not adopt the costume of a former century, 
 and are on this account thought irreligious or careless 
 by their stricter brethren, it creates a gulf between those 
 who think much and those who think little of sectarian 
 garb, which is damaging to the humility of both sections. 
 
 The world looking on, and seeing nothing in Christi- 
 anity which requires antiquated garments, or obsolete 
 terms of speech, refuses to investigate the real principles 
 of Friends, but regards these scruples as arising out of a 
 narrow education, and its members as rigid formalists, 
 who pertinaciously cling to the lifeless relics of a bygone 
 age. 
 
 £ 
 
74 131 PEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 These scruples cannot be tested by the law of ex- 
 pediency, nor by the benefits accruing to individuals 
 who are faithful to this or to any other supposed duty. 
 But looking at the results — the formality it leads to — 
 the false distinction it draws between members — the 
 loving the form for its own sake — the primd facie 
 hindrance which it offers to the universal spread of 
 Quaker principles — and, lastly, to the fair assumption, 
 that if the Society of Friends were just arising, and 
 George Fox now engaged in promulgating his doctrines, 
 he would neither adopt the plain language nor an 
 upright collar, I do not hesitate to place amongst the 
 main secondary causes of the decline of the Society the 
 corporate maintenance of these two usages; involving 
 as it must do the false principle, of many sincerely 
 attached members outwardly professing scruples because 
 the church thinks them to be right, but which they do 
 not themselves inwardly feel. 
 
 The subject of Christian deportment need not long 
 detain us. The uncovering of the head to a building 
 or church, was an acknowledgment of the holiness of 
 matter, and clearly inconsistent with the Gospel. 
 
 The refusal to stand bareheaded before those in autho- 
 rity was construed as intentional disrespect, and therefore, 
 contrary to the command : " Honour all men, fear God, 
 honour the king." A hat is a covering for out-of-door 
 use ; but if the postulate of Friends be admitted, that 
 the act of taking it off is " an homage due to God 
 only/' the solution of this question would be easy. The 
 sinfulness of such ceremonies must, however, depend 
 entirely upon the impelling motive — whether as an act 
 of worship of man, or as " honour to whom honour 
 is due." 
 
 The apostolic declaration that " There is nothing 
 
IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. VO 
 
 unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything 
 to be unclean, to him it is unclean;" and "He that in 
 these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God ;" is the 
 true basis of conduct. If the Friends would return 
 to their ancient doctrine, " I do it because I feel it to 
 be right ;" and cast aside the false dogma, " I do it 
 because the Society says I ought to •" all other things 
 would assume their proper places. 
 
 Part III. — Deficiencies. 
 
 The want of corporate action whereby the early efforts 
 of the young may be enlisted in philanthropic under- 
 takings, and of a systematic visiting of the poor and 
 afflicted, is much felt, and has induced many to unite 
 themselves with other communities in which their slight 
 services are appreciated and encouraged, and which 
 afford in their view greater scope for usefulness. 
 
 The education of Friends admirably fits them for 
 entering into the wants and woes of those around them. 
 Their reputation for charity and disinterestedness is 
 such, that the houses of the poor would be rarely shut 
 to them ; more correct impressions would thus be con- 
 veyed of their scriptural foundation; many would be 
 induced to examine for themselves the value of the 
 religion which their visitors practically displayed ; and 
 upon the minds of those so employed in visiting, the 
 blessed fruits of early dedication would be evidenced. 
 Their present casual care for the poor would be greatly 
 advantaged by regularly organized efforts for tract 
 distribution, clothing and sick funds, First-day schools, 
 needlewomen's societies, and many others. The em- 
 ployment of all the younger members in such active 
 engagements under the direction of the church itself 
 
 e2 
 
76 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 would greatly cement their attachment to it, and give 
 them an interest in all its other concerns. 
 
 The absence of all meetings authorized and promoted 
 by the body, at which the Holy Scriptures are publicly 
 read or expounded, has (as already stated) materially 
 affected its increase from without and from within. 
 R. Barclay {Apology, prop. 3, s. 6,) declares that " they 
 (the Scriptures) are the only fit outward judge of con- 
 troversies amongst Christians;" and, furthermore, "that 
 the use of them is very comfortable and necessary to the 
 church of Christ." 
 
 Now that which is " necessary for the church" should 
 be provided by the church, and not left to individuals. 
 Probably the Bible is more read in private amongst the 
 families of Friends, than in any other sect ; but this 
 does not meet the circumstances of those who are 
 unwilling or unable to read, who are invited to attend 
 their religious meetings, and thus lose their only oppor- 
 tunity of hearing elsewhere the contents of the sacred 
 volume. I am far from suggesting that the Christian 
 duty of public reading should interfere with the still 
 higher one of spiritual and silent worship of Almighty 
 God, but stated times might be appointed for each 
 service. 
 
 Very few of those who have small means of acquiring 
 knowledge, and feel some instruction necessary, will 
 make trial of a place of worship in which the Bible is 
 neither read nor expounded. Again : although most 
 Friends are well versed in the Scriptures, this cannot be 
 said of all, whether adults or children. As regards the 
 latter class, their Yearly Meeting of 1857 states, in its 
 " Address to Parents," " Children continue to enter 
 our schools very imperfectly instructed in their moral 
 and religious duties, and lamentably ignorant of the 
 
IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 77 
 
 contents of the sacred volume." It is one thing to 
 recommend the practice, and another to carry it out — 
 the latter can only be accomplished with certainty by 
 the church undertaking it publicly, as well as recom- 
 mending it privately. If all such readings or expositions 
 preceded divine worship, the dull mind might ponder 
 over truths which it had heard, even if it were too 
 listless and indifferent to excite itself to love and praise. 
 The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these occasions 
 might be the means of awakening some to a sense of 
 their lost condition, and others to the great reality of 
 the soul holding silent communion with its Maker. 
 Neither would this course be opposed to the real prin- 
 ciples (although it is contrary to the practice) of Friends. 
 The violent opposition which George Fox received from 
 all sects, evidenced such an irreligious spirit and bitter 
 fruits, that he condemned all their practices en masse, as 
 lifeless and unprofitable ; but this does not exonerate 
 the Friends of later days from seeing what sound and 
 scriptural practices in other churches might be advan- 
 tageously interwoven with their own. 
 
 It is not to be presumed that Fox, or any other man, 
 could provide for the wants of all future ages. His 
 system proved sufficient for the "scripture-versed members 
 of his own time — Jt is for his followers of the present 
 generation to see that whilst they maintain inviolate the 
 fundamental doctrines of spiritual worship, the abolition 
 of types, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, they do 
 their part in increasing that outward knowledge which 
 the wisest and best amongst them have so strikingly 
 possessed, and which, until some change has been made, 
 cannot be obtained by the poor and illiterate who desire 
 to worship God in the assemblies of their religious 
 society. 
 
78 IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 They having reversed the saying of Paley, " That 
 whatever is expedient is right," by declaring that 
 "whatsoever is right is expedient," the Friends must 
 either assume that it is not right to read the Scrip- 
 tures in public, or else confess that a fear of indirect 
 consequences prevents their consenting to perform a 
 right act. 
 
 It may be also that a secret undefined feeling exists 
 hat their profession does not supply all that the poor 
 equire ; and that instead of stirring themselves to pro- 
 vide the outward instruction needed, they sink down 
 into a state of indifference about bringing within their 
 fold those illiterate ones, whom, if invited, they are 
 bound also to instruct. 
 
 Part 4. Over-legislation. 
 
 The numerical increase of the Society of Friends has 
 been much affected by laws framed with undue severity, 
 or with reference to civil rights and privileges. 
 
 The penal laws of marriage have been already dis- 
 cussed, and proved to operate very injuriously. 
 
 Membership by birth must also be placed amongst the 
 list of unsound rules which are contrary to the funda- 
 mental tenets of the Society. Conviction of the truth of 
 its principles, and a general consistency in carrying them 
 out in daily life, were formerly the only basis of Church 
 fellowship. 
 
 Until some plan is adopted for distinguishing between 
 the convinced members and those who are merely here- 
 ditary, a great laxity of religious life will display itself in 
 their midst. Were all the children of Friends expected, 
 at a certain period of life, to investigate for themselves 
 the grounds of their educational faith before becoming 
 full members of the Church, it might not only strengthen 
 
IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 79 
 
 the body by separating those who prefer remaining pro- 
 bationers or half members, but also induce a closer study 
 of the lives and principles of Friends, and lead to an 
 honest examination of many things which are now re- 
 ceived on tradition, or on the faith of others. 
 
 Church fellowship being clearly ordained in the New 
 Testament, entails upon every Christian the duty of 
 attaching himself to that community in which his convic- 
 tions are most nearly professed ; but it was not formerly 
 required that a convert to Quakerism should subscribe 
 to every tenet. The applications for membership have 
 been, and now are, materially affected by an expected 
 conformity in non-essentials, as well as fundamentals ; 
 such requirement is not in accordance with that gradual 
 growth unto perfection that is a distinguishing mark ot 
 the Christian's path, which "shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day." It is asking of the Christian tyro 
 the same full development which has matured during 
 long years in those who have " fought the good fight 
 and kept the faith." The youthful David declined the 
 armour of Saul because " he had not proved them ;" and 
 it is injurious to press the perfect weapons of the veteran 
 upon the unpractised shoulders of the stripling. 
 
 Laws for the Poor. — The principle of district collec- 
 tions for the support of those in destitute circumstances 
 is admirable ; and it is a fixed regulation amongst the 
 Friends that they support and educate their own poor, 
 and that no member ever receives parish assistance. 
 There may perhaps be somewhat of pride in maintaining 
 this excellent law, which is, in theory, the same as that 
 upon which the poor-laws of this country are based, — 
 viz., the duty of the rich to support those who are in 
 penury. The Friends apply that care over their own 
 religious fraternity which the State professes to do over 
 its citizens. It does not seem more derogatory for a 
 
80 IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 Friend to receive help in part from a national fund, to 
 which all pay, than from one raised amongst themselves ; 
 but any parish allowance would be thought a disgrace to 
 the body at large. The great accumulation of legacies 
 for the poor, and the thorough way in which all members 
 are educated, prevent the charity of Friends from being 
 unduly drawn upon ; and it would not be worth moot- 
 ing whether the national, the Christian, or the sectarian 
 tie be the most fitting to supply bodily wants, if it were 
 not for indirect results arising out of the latter theory. 
 
 The absence of a labouring class amongst the Friends is 
 a great loss to them. None but such can fully realize the 
 prayer, " Give us this day our daily bread ;" and the 
 living faith of the poor of this world affords practical 
 lessons of a simple and confiding trust in God which can 
 be ill spared by any church. The real blessings of a 
 Christian life are most strikingly evidenced in the 
 families of toil-worn artizans, and without a large ad- 
 mixture of such a Christian sect does not thrive. 
 
 The law of compulso-voluntary support of their own 
 poor acts prejudicially in keeping such people away. 
 It is likely to deter honest but independent spirits from 
 applying for membership, lest they should be suspected 
 of seeking temporal provision ; and it renders Friends 
 unduly cautious concerning the worldly prospects of 
 those seeking admission. The expunging of this law 
 would not lessen the private claims of fellow-believers, 
 but it would break down the conventional civil barrier 
 which now divides members and non-members, and open 
 the door for free admission to all who were united with 
 the Friends in their religious views. Until these laws 
 are swept away, Quakerism can never become the church 
 of the poor ; for the admission of a few thousand opera- 
 tives and their families would render occasional parish 
 relief absolutely necessary. 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 81 
 
 The rules respecting Bankruptcy shew the indiscrimi- 
 nating character of the age that made them. Commer- 
 cial disasters and failures frequently occur without any 
 moral blame attaching to the individual ; but disownment 
 often succeeds, especially if it brings "discredit on the So- 
 ciet}r." If retained in membership, an insolvent continues 
 subject to harsh and unchristian rules. The Yearly 
 Meeting advice of 1721, that if, after a legal composition 
 with creditors, he should at a future time be blessed with 
 sufficient means to pay in full, it should be accomplished, is 
 strictly right ; but how different is the rule passed in the 
 dark age of 1780, which prescribes that, unless this be 
 done (no matter how uncontrollable the calamity, or how 
 purifying the ordeal of temporal affliction), such person 
 is henceforth forbidden to subscribe to the only fund of 
 the Society which has for its object the advancement of 
 Christ's kingdom upon earth ! Although his life should 
 be prolonged for half a century, and his self-denial be 
 ever so great, he may contribute nothing towards the 
 expenses of any minister travelling in the service of the 
 gospel, nor to any of the corporate Christian efforts of 
 the body. The elders and overseers of the present day 
 do not hesitate to ask for, and take, his subscriptions for 
 any private charities with which the Friends are con- 
 nected ; but he is not allowed to add his quota (be it ever 
 so small) to the district fund for the corporate support of 
 the poor. This pharisaic distinction between public and 
 private collections cannot be justified by any law except 
 that of cleansing the outside of the platter. These and 
 other similar legal niceties produce an unfavourable im- 
 pression upon those who are affected by them, and tend 
 to confirm the dissatisfied in their protests against the 
 outside profession which, since 1760, has been so pro- 
 minent. 
 
 e 3 
 
82 IMPEDIMENTS SUPERFICIAL. 
 
 There are other obstructive laws of this period to which 
 we might allude, all emanating from the same error 
 which has befallen other churches ; viz., that of making 
 civil privileges and civil penalties contingent on spiritual 
 profession. The disseverance of these two opposites 
 would moderate that church authority in secular things, 
 which has in many sects been converted into an instru- 
 ment of oppression and wrong, and which, by its rigid 
 exercise, has often (more especially amongst the Friends 
 in Ireland) been very detrimental to the real interests of 
 this community. 
 
 One great object of church discipline is to win back 
 and restore the wanderer ; but if carried out harshly, 
 and in an intolerant spirit, it becomes, like the Romish 
 Inquisition, an engine of persecution, hardening the 
 hearts of those who administer, and of those who suffer 
 from it.* A religious body may keep itself pure by 
 expelling all who are unruly ; but the loving spirit in 
 which faithful Friends plead with and compassionate the 
 fallen, and mourn over the loss of every brother, is the 
 true source of church vitality. 
 
 The non-authority of any man, or body of men, over 
 the consciences of others, was a prominent feature of 
 early Quakerism which the present age has too much 
 overlooked. To threaten any member who is attached 
 to the Society with expulsion, because he is unable to 
 see with Friends on a minor point, or because he differs 
 in opinion upon the way in which any testimony should 
 
 * The extent to which the authority of the Church may be exercised 
 upon its members is difficult to define. Church discipline amongst the 
 Friends was formerly confined to things immoral or sinful, and church 
 counsels and exhortations were directed against that which was inex- 
 pedient and liable to abuse. The legal spirit of 1760 to 1800 confused 
 this broad line of demarcation, and inflicted dealing and disownment for 
 acts not forbidden in Scripture or sinful in themselves. 
 
IMPEDIMENTS — SUPERFICIAL. 83 
 
 be outwardly borne, is demanding of each person an 
 exactness of religious development which cannot but 
 trench upon the rights of individual conscience. Much 
 of the present anxiety of Friends to preserve a unifor- 
 mity of practice in everything, arises from an extreme 
 desire to preserve themselves from charges of incon- 
 sistency. A " fear of what the world may say " was no 
 part of the creed of their predecessors, and is unworthy 
 of their own reputation ; and the laying down of detailed 
 regulations for the guidance of a people who are so 
 professedly conscientious and independent, can never 
 accomplish the proposed good. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 Having endeavoured, by a general examination of 
 the doctrines and practices of Friends, to ascertain the 
 causes of their strength as well as the causes of their 
 weakness, a few observations seem needful in conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 If I have any right apprehension of those things which 
 are producing a decline in a religious body, which, in 
 spite of present appearances, I believe to be destined to 
 occupy a far higher position amongst Christian sects 
 than it has ever yet attained, it is not the fundamental 
 principles of the Society that have been undermining 
 either its corporate or individual life ; neither is its 
 declension to be explained by an incorrect basis under- 
 lying any of the ancient testimonies which it has 
 upheld. 
 
 If we for a moment direct our attention solely to the 
 spiritual part of Quakerism, we see a faith simple and 
 evangelical, and a life devoted and self-denying ; and 
 year by year portions of its tenets are increasingly 
 acknowledged by other religious professors. 
 
 The main objections which have been raised against 
 its practical application are, 
 
 1st. That it is not adapted for human wants, because 
 mankind require outward helps and stimulus. 
 
 To this argument we reply that many thousands and 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 85 
 
 tens of thousands of Friends have proved experimentally 
 that such are not essential to the Christian believer ; but 
 that for every mental capacity, from the simple-minded 
 Samuel Bownas, Thomas Shillitoe, or John Upton, to the 
 erudite Thomas Lawson, Dr. Fothergill, or Joseph John 
 Gurney, it has been abundantly evidenced that Christi- 
 anity, as professed by the Friends, not only exalts every 
 soul, but makes a pathway in which the wise and the 
 ignorant, the wealthy and the wayfaring man, can travel 
 side by side, and add to each other's knowledge of 
 divine things.* 
 
 2nd. It is contended that if Friends admitted the two 
 ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, many 
 more would flock to their standard. 
 
 To this it may be replied, that the secessions from 
 the Friends upon these grounds, though very consider- 
 able, are by no means greater than upon some other 
 points. Moreover, two centuries have proved that those 
 who were outwardly baptized (before joining Friends) 
 have never felt that this privilege raised them one whit 
 above those who were not ; nor that the spiritual com- 
 munion with God in silent adoration was less real than 
 that of the communion service. On the contrary — when 
 with humble and contrited souls they have met to- 
 gether livingly to feed upon the body and blood of 
 Christ, and to offer living silent praises unto Him, He 
 hath ofttimes been in their midst, and, in the language of 
 the prophet, " hath opened the windows of heaven and 
 
 * In connection with this universal adaptation of Quakerism, it is some- 
 what singular that the three individuals who stand out the most pro- 
 minently, and are generally considered as its first representatives and 
 exponents ; viz., Fox, Penn, and Barclay ; should also represent the three 
 great divisions of society — the unlearned, the statesman, and the scholar. 
 The poor, the highborn, and the middle class are each undesignedly 
 typified by this, and the poorest class stands first in the category. 
 
80 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 poured them out a blessing that there hath not been 
 room enough to receive it." 
 
 Again : however great the loss of numbers may be in 
 this respect, their principle absolutely forbids relaxation. 
 So long as they read the New Testament with the pre- 
 conceived impression that Christianity is in its nature 
 and essence a religion of realities, and not of symbols — 
 that outward washings and baptism under the law typi- 
 fied the cleansing of the soul by the operation of the 
 Holy Ghost, and outward feasts and fasts the nourish- 
 ment and fasting of the soul — that the costliness of burnt 
 offerings symbolized those spiritual sacrifices acceptable 
 unto God through Jesus Christ— and that, though our 
 Saviour permitted his disciples to use types, He did not 
 institute any such as binding on them or the Gentile 
 converts — it is clear that the Friends could not conscien- 
 tiously admit as essentials two opposite things — those 
 which are typical and those which are real. Other sects, 
 reading the Testament with the preconceived idea that 
 two external symbols or sacraments, (or seven as the 
 Roman Catholics maintain) were attached by our Lord 
 to a religion that in every other particular supersedes 
 and excludes types, do not feel any contradiction in this 
 intermingling of shadow and substance. 
 
 3rd. The formality of Quakerism is stated to be a 
 powerful cause of decline. Upon this head it is not 
 needful to enlarge further. 
 
 4th. Individual unfaithfulness. — This term requires 
 explanation. Does it signify my unfaithfulness to the 
 light that is in me, or to the light that is in some one 
 else ? — to the principles of Friends, or to their practices ? 
 — to the inward or outward development of gospel 
 truth ? If the latter, I would ask whether that exter- 
 nalism which one class of objectors urge as the cause of 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 87 
 
 decline, and which another class support, as the main 
 source through which a revival can come, does not 
 operate injuriously, by causing those who do not unite 
 with it to be ipso facto considered unfaithful. The 
 arguments made use of in its support are often felt by 
 the young to be obsolete or illogical, and the education 
 of a Friend prohibits his blindly following his religious 
 superiors. 
 
 The feeling that by his elder brethren he is regarded 
 and talked of as inconsistent, because he does not 
 measure himself by another person's standard, is very 
 disheartening to the weak or wavering member. It 
 freezes within him the sense of mutual appreciation ; he 
 cools towards the body; and the badge of worldly-mind- 
 edness, thus prematurely affixed, not unfrequently works 
 out its own fulfilment. In other cases, where a sincere 
 attachment to the general principles of Friends enables 
 him to outlive this, a hearty co-operation with the body 
 is practically excluded. It has been, until very lately, 
 so taken for granted that every true Friend 'must think 
 it right to adopt a sectarian dress, and a peculiar lan- 
 guage, that those who do not have been excluded from 
 many of the most useful offices of the Church, such as 
 elders, overseers, clerks, and correspondents, or members 
 of the " Meeting for Sufferings." The alternative left 
 for one anxious to fill any post for which he may appear 
 otherwise qualified, has been either to acquiesce out- 
 wardly, or else to forego a life of serving the cause which 
 is most dear to him. 
 
 May it not therefore prove that " individual unfaith- 
 fulness to their principles" is not the cause, but the 
 consequence, of a corporate decline ; and that the germ 
 of future mischief was planted a century ago, when the 
 orthodox Friends forsook their foundation, and, forget- 
 
88 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 ting that the body without the spirit must be dead, tried 
 to build up a spiritual church by an external frame- 
 work? 
 
 5th. Riches. — The Friends being very generally a 
 prosperous people, and not given to worldly amuse- 
 ments, are especially prone to disregard the injunction, 
 " If riches increase, set not your heart upon them," and 
 to love mammon more than God. Wealth cannot, how- 
 ever, be called a primary cause ; since such admission 
 would simply be an acknowledgment that Satan had 
 made use of these secondary means to induce them to 
 love earthly more than heavenly things. Riches are a 
 blessing in themselves, and though our unwearied ad- 
 versary very often succeeds in converting these and 
 other outward blessings into temptations to forget God, 
 the evil root must lie deeper. There are abundant wit- 
 nesses, both living and departed, to prove that to the 
 true and consistent Friend the increase of riches will 
 brighten and strengthen, rather than undermine, his 
 religion. To the nominal member of every sect, a life 
 of ease and luxury must necessarily lessen or destroy 
 his religious stature. 
 
 6th. The Absence of fixed Ministers. — Many Friends 
 assert that this is a secondary cause produced by the 
 deadness of the members themselves ; whilst others, on 
 the contrary, declare that spiritual deadness is the result 
 of a lack of human ministers. There may be truth in 
 each statement ; but if admitted as a whole, the Society 
 of Friends is doomed to decay ; action and reaction will 
 become less and less, until lifeless ministers and lifeless 
 audiences respectively destroy each other. We do not, 
 however, find that Paul's preaching depended on the 
 " life" of his hearers for its exercise — his recorded labours 
 would seem to have been principally with lukewarm 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 89 
 
 audiences, and the greater their inanity the more earnest 
 and frequent were his pleadings with them. Was it not 
 also to the stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart, and 
 not to the elect and living, that Stephen preached ? 
 
 If (as all acknowledge) outward ministry was ordained 
 of Christ, it seems reasonable that the deadness of the 
 hearers should increase, rather than diminish, the exer- 
 cise of the gift. The Holy Spirit is the cause, preaching 
 the means, and conversion the end, of all church com- 
 munion ; and in the divine economy each is necessary, 
 and made instrumental to advance the other. 
 
 As already stated, the encouragement of the gifts of 
 exhortation and teaching would bring forward many 
 who now stand all their day idle as in the market-place, 
 pleading the ancient excuse, " that no man hath hired 
 them ;" but who, if rightly employed in the Lord's vine- 
 yard, and having proved " faithful in a few things, 
 would be made ruler over many things ;" and, finally, 
 be sent forth to sow " that seed, which is the word of 
 God."— (Luke viii. 11.) 
 
 7th. It is also said that the Friends rely so entirely 
 upon the " wisdom of their ancestors," that their pro- 
 fession does not adapt itself to the present age, and 
 from this circumstance they become smaller and smaller. 
 Having commented already upon this plea, it is not 
 necessary to discuss it further, beyond the general re- 
 mark that there is not always (as the Friends frequently 
 reason) " safety in standing still." If the world ad- 
 vances and we remain stationary, our position is retro- 
 grade. Many laws and usages suited for the religious 
 condition of the Roman and Greek in the first century, 
 may be ill adapted to the state of English society in the 
 seventeenth ; and externals which were significant and 
 right in the days of the Stuarts, may be meaningless or 
 
90 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 inappropriate now. Principles are unchanging, but 
 practices are ever varying. 
 
 Other lesser objections might be named as combining 
 to produce the declension of Quakerism, but sufficient 
 have been alluded to in detail to account for a far worse 
 state of things than really exists. Had there not been 
 very much that was sterling, sound and true, in those 
 principles which, in their original purity, induced mul- 
 titudes of religious professors of every denomination 
 to attach themselves to the despised and persecuted 
 Quakers, the Society could not have withstood the 
 effects of over-legislation combined with extreme con- 
 servatism, and a century and a half of State toleration. 
 
 I will therefore repeat that which appears to be the 
 real basis of decline in this community — viz., " The 
 departure of its orthodox supporters from the first faith 
 and creed." Whether Friends as a body may turn 
 again and rebuild the waste places of their city, or 
 whether the language shall be applied to them — " They 
 that are bidden shall not taste of my supper, for they 
 are unworthy" — it is not for me to predict : but of one 
 thing I can have no doubt — " That the wedding chamber 
 will be furnished with guests" and that the fundamental 
 principles originally promulgated by George Fox and his 
 cotemporaries, and the fundamental testimonies for which 
 they suffered, will be upheld, even though the people 
 themselves to whom the Lord hath given this goodly 
 heritage, and who for many generations have received 
 through it the choicest of earthly blessings and of 
 heavenly joys, should be driven from out the land. 
 
 Because they have for long years not invited all 
 around them to come and share their privileges — and, 
 misunderstanding their corporate duty, have substituted 
 for innate conviction, a something composed as of iron 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 91 
 
 and miry clay; and have tried to amalgamate that 
 which can never permanently unite, viz., an earthy 
 uniformity of development, with the iron strength of 
 inward spirituality ; — I say, because this has been done, 
 and the land flowing with milk and honey has thus 
 been made to appear barren, dry, and unfit for all the 
 tribes of the people to dwell in, it may be in the future 
 that lies before them, and to which my human reasoning 
 points, that Friends will wrap yet closer around them 
 the relics of formalism and exclusiveness as a garment, 
 and that a people of another name, may rob them of 
 their spiritual inheritance ! 
 
 As a member of the Society of Friends by birth, and 
 as a member by conviction — as one who owes, under 
 Providence, all his outward blessings and most of his 
 inward consolations to an education within its pale, and 
 to an acquaintance with some of its living members ; 
 and ardently desirous that they who follow after should 
 partake of the same inestimable social and religious 
 privileges, I earnestly long — nay, it is my fervent prayer 
 — that this may be averted. I cannot, however, close 
 my eyes upon the crisis that is as yet far off, but which 
 appears to be approaching ; wherein, if the consistent 
 Friends (I use the term conventionally) regard the " in- 
 consistent," as doing violence to their own internal con- 
 victions, or else as careless about religion ; and the latter 
 look upon their stricter brethren as " taking tithe of 
 mint, and anise, and cummin," and as judging them 
 who to their own Master must stand or fall ; if the 
 fall of the one or the irreligious life of the other be 
 construed as a type, instead of as an exception, to 
 the general correctness of each class, a division into 
 two sections may arise — mutual misunderstanding will 
 produce mutual distrust, and each regarding the case as 
 
92 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 hopeless, unless the other becomes more enlightened, 
 will, while thinking to do God service, be unwittingly 
 destroying the spiritual lives of His servants. If the 
 strictly educated Paul found that by indulging a judging 
 spirit he mistook Satan's work for the work of God, and 
 persecuted all who did not see with him ; and if the 
 .erring Peter was still loved and tenderly regarded, 
 until eventually he became the boldest advocate for the 
 truth ; may it not possibly result, that as between the 
 orthodox and the unorthodox, when they learn to judge 
 very honestly of themselves, and very charitably of all 
 others, each may have to confess witli gratitude, as 
 well as with astonishment, in the language of the 
 patriarch Jacob, " Behold the Lord was here, and I 
 knew it not !" 
 
 Of you, the young members of the Society,* of whom 
 it may be said in a truer sense than at many former 
 periods of Quaker history, " Ye are strong, and the 
 word of God abideth in you," I would ask earnestly, 
 Let not the formalism nor the traditions of any man 
 blind you to the intrinsic merits of the creed you pro- 
 fess ; examine for yourselves, and remember also that 
 your inner faith must in some way expand itself into an 
 outward confession of Christ, that " lie also may con- 
 fess you before His Father and the holy angels." " Faith, 
 if it have not works, is dead, being alone :" but let no 
 laudable desire to conform to the faith and practices of 
 others, rob you of the consolations which flow from doing 
 that which you individually believe to be required at 
 your hands. 
 
 To you, the eider brethren, who, having borne the 
 burden and heat of the day, are now faint with dis- 
 
 * This and the two succeeding paragraphs were erased by the writer 
 as unsuited for a general essay, but are now re-inserted. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 93 
 
 couragement, because so few come up to your standard, 
 the text may be applicable, — " Man looketh to the out- 
 ward appearance, but God looketh at the heart." It was 
 not one of the comely sons of Jesse whom Samuel 
 anointed, but one whose existence was hardly recognized 
 in Israel. If " the form be lifeless, unless animated by 
 the power," it must be primarily important to cultivate 
 the spiritual ; and though in your experience the frame- 
 work and outward props of the Society may have been 
 highly beneficial, ^others may find more vitality without 
 them. 
 
 Upon you, the middle-aged, will devolve the deepest 
 responsibility in connection with the future. You who 
 have the confidence of the aged, and the esteem of the 
 young, may be instrumental in closing and uniting much 
 that might otherwise produce alienation. By wise and 
 timely concession to what is strictly sound ; by the 
 gradual removal of every abuse and formality which has 
 crept in since the seventeenth century, and by the resus- 
 citation of much that has crept out ; by the cautious 
 admission of needful things, and by a Christian opposition 
 to needless ones, you may greatly consolidate and re- 
 vivify the church. By assigning a right place to every 
 member, "the eye cannot then say unto the hand, I have 
 no need of thee ; nor again the head to the feet, I have 
 no need of you." The body is not one member, but 
 many; and may every member be baptised by one 
 spirit into one body, and be all " made to drink into one 
 spirit." 
 
 I have stated that the principles of the Society of 
 Friends must remain. If, as protestant believers, we 
 look around upon the present aspect of Christianity, — 
 we see Roman Catholicism pressing at every point — 
 Jesuits engaged in every city promulgating their tenets j 
 
94 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 the Church of England, distracted on the one hand by 
 German rationalism, and on the other by discussions 
 between its highest professors, upon questions which its 
 former martyrs died in refuting; the re-establishment 
 of the confessional — of the priestly office — baptismal 
 regeneration — extreme unction — and prayers intoned in 
 a manner as unintelligible to the people as ever the Latin 
 tongue was formerly. All these things are fiercely con- 
 tended for, in addition to candles, altar, genuflexions, 
 and priestly surplices and ceremonial, resembling more 
 the splendour of the Jewish ritual than the religion of 
 the lowly Jesus, which was promulgated by fishermen in 
 their simple dress. We see dissenters more and more 
 seeking worldly honour and popular fame, to the detri- 
 ment of that honour which cometh from God only. 
 Their chapels increase in costliness and show ; and their 
 ministers, tempted by respective congregations, vie with 
 each other in intellectual acumen and oratorical display, 
 rather than, like Paul of old, " knowing nothing 
 amongst them but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified ;" — 
 doing and offering with a view to popularity, that 
 which should be performed only in humility and the 
 fear of the Lord. 
 
 Finally, we have around us, on every hand, a huge 
 mass of infidelity and scepticism, which will lay hold 
 upon every flaw and every weakness in the religion of 
 others, and out of this rotten and lifeless compound 
 endeavour to build up a negation of faith, or a nihilism, 
 baseless as a dream and barren as the desert; who, 
 adopting the worst forms of Benthamite philosophy, 
 attribute every act to a selfish motive, and refuse to believe 
 in the constraining love of Christ leading to a purely 
 disinterested care for the welfare of others. 
 
 Under such antagonisms, no earnest section of the one 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 95 
 
 universal church can be spared, and least of all that of 
 the Society of Friends. 
 
 A religion in which its ministers have, neither directly 
 nor indirectly, any worldly benefit from preaching ; 
 which seeks to gain no spiritual power over its converts ; 
 which acknowledges no human head to which all must 
 submit their consciences ; which, objecting to state patro- 
 nage as much as to state persecution, tolerates the creeds 
 and the conduct of all other sects, and rejoices so that 
 Christ be everywhere preached ; which allows the various 
 offices of the church to be filled by persons of every rank 
 and occupation, and measures each by his spiritual sta- 
 ture, and not by his classical lore or his worldly position ; 
 which desires its members to be mingling in the world, 
 though not of it ; and sees in Christianity a faith not made 
 for any man to live at ease under, or to gratify his 
 fleshly desires, but expects its ministers to support them- 
 selves as Paul did (Acts xx. 34, and xviii. 3), when not 
 actually engaged in travelling on Gospel service ; — 
 a sect which upholds that glorious Scripture doctrine 
 containing within it the highest development possible for 
 humanity ; — viz., that Jesus Christ, who hath "washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 
 and priests unto God," has thereby lastingly established 
 unto each of us the power of immediate communion with 
 God, without the intervention of any human priest, saint, 
 or altar. — A sect with such principles and such develop- 
 ment is a living rebuke to all scepticism, and of no small 
 importance to the progress of vital Christianity. 
 
 The early Friends practically carried out the duty of 
 self-denial, and regarded all mankind as stewards of God's 
 earthly gifts. In every philanthropic work, every gene- 
 rous action, they did it " not as unto men, but unto 
 God ;" not as moralists or utilitarians, but because the 
 
96 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 love of Christ constrained them." They sought not to 
 dishonour their Lord, by taking the credit of charitable 
 deeds to themselves ; but desired to cast all their crowns 
 at His feet, whose they were, and whom they served. 
 
 Under this feeling, the Friends are satisfied in per- 
 forming a required duty, although its effects may prove 
 fruitless. They proceed in faith, nothing doubting but 
 that God will bless the doers of a right act, although they 
 may fail in accomplishing the intended end. 
 
 The example of social life set by the Friends is also 
 valuable. Their domestic comforts and rational mode 
 of living have made them longer lived than others, and 
 provided great happiness at a small expenditure. After 
 no slight suffering and reproach they have shaken off 
 the wide-spread tyranny of fashion ; so much so, that 
 " being a Friend" is sufficient excuse to the world for 
 not adopting its customs. Their women are at liberty 
 to follow the remains of loved ones to the grave, and 
 they are not obliged to publish their grief to the world 
 by mourning costume, graduated according to public 
 opinion, and not by affection. 
 
 Their emancipation from conventional bondage pre- 
 serves them from hired mutes and mourners, and from 
 extravagant modes of interment ; also from mis-spending 
 their time or substance with reference to what others 
 might say of them. They are sheltered from the morti- 
 fications, envy, and detractions of a ball-room existence. 
 They prefer the love and respect of those around them, 
 to the passing admiration of strangers. The education 
 of their women is sound, domestic, and intellectual; 
 neither are they deficient in any physical accomplish- 
 ments, except those of instrumental music* and of 
 
 * Their discouragement of music seems needlessly stringent, although 
 Plato, in his Model Republic, rejects all music which either inflames the 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 97 
 
 dancing ; like the serious of other sects, they hold a 
 conscientious objection to the latter. 
 
 Much more might be added to these legitimate results 
 of Quakerism, but my object is not to extol the Society, 
 but to glance at what it really is — religiously, morally, 
 and socially. Its philanthropic labours are universally 
 lauded ; too much so, probably, for its own good ; and 
 require no description in these pages. The civil privi- 
 leges of its members have been won through long and 
 patient sufferings, and prove the irresistible force of pas- 
 sive resistance — they accomplished far more by offering 
 up a few devoted lives in testimony of their sincerity, 
 than the Covenanters did by the sacrifice and slaughter 
 of thousands. Again : the execution of one woman 
 Friend, Mary Dyer, at Boston, for the cause of religious 
 freedom, broke down a disgraceful and anti-Christian 
 law, which no armed force could have destroyed. 
 
 The ethics and metaphysics of Quakerism have yet 
 to be written. Should such a task ever be undertaken, 
 there will be found interwoven with its tenets the focus 
 from which many philosophic systems have radiated. 
 Its doctrines of the inward light, of conscience, of 
 moral law and of moral force, rightly understood, would 
 strip spiritualism of its human falsities, and materialism 
 of its excrescences, and might reveal that one centre of 
 
 passions or produces effeminacy ; or which, while soothing the ear, does 
 not improve the mind. Its exclusion amongst Friends has in practice 
 been beneficial, in inducing them to cultivate the intellectual, instead 
 of spending immense time over sensational gratification ; it has also 
 shielded them from many temptations consequent on musical indul- 
 gence. Since, however, no gift of Providence is bestowed in vain, the 
 Friends have yet to explain for what purpose (except a lawful exercise of 
 its powers,) the sense of harmony, or a "fine ear," has been bestowed, 
 throughout all ages, upon multitudes of every clime and tongue, as well 
 as upon their own members. 
 
 F 
 
98 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 absolute truth from which all the various and conflicting 
 theories have diverged or gone adrift, and in which 
 alone their distorted truths can ever harmonize. 
 
 If, both theoretically and practically, the results of 
 this profession are such as we have sketched out, can it 
 be said, either that its work is accomplished, or that its 
 decay would be good for Christianity, or for humanity ? 
 
 I have not intentionally added one iota to the original 
 New Testament doctrines and testimonies upheld by the 
 early Friends ; neither does it seem needful to take 
 aught from them, in order to account for the decline of 
 this Society. Had it not been immutably based upon 
 the one sure foundation, it could not have survived as it 
 has done. Conventional hindrances have been adduced, 
 sufficient to destroy a community far mightier than the 
 Friends have ever been ; yet, if the orthodox and the 
 heterodox will afresh study the first principles upon 
 which this Society was based, and cast aside all pre- 
 conceived notions or traditional maxims as to what these 
 were, it may be shewn to the former, that what they 
 have upheld as original basis, has been, to a great extent, 
 the innovation of the middle age ; and to the latter, that 
 the simplicity of Quakerism is, in reality, the majesty 
 and grandeur of a divine faith. 
 
 The kindly feeling evidenced towards the Friends by 
 those from whom they doctrinally differ is very pleasing. 
 There is much gospel work to be accomplished, and but 
 few labourers for the work. May every sect be found 
 occupying its proper place in the church militant here, 
 and their respective followers, whilst outwardly differing 
 from one another, be lovingly united under Christ, the 
 One great Captain of our salvation ; striving diligently 
 to advance the coming of His Kingdom, until the dawn 
 
CONCLUDING KEMAEKS. 99 
 
 of that glorious day, when, to all of us, " the Church and 
 the world shall become one — where work shall be wor- 
 ship, and labour shall be rest — where the worker shall 
 never quit the temple, nor the worshipper the place of 
 work ; because ' there is no temple therein, but the Lord 
 God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.' " 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 Since the preceding essay was penned, in 1858, an 
 increasing disposition has been evidenced within the 
 Society of Friends to value things by their intrinsic 
 importance, rather than by antiquity of origin. Con- 
 ferences composed of members from all parts of the 
 country have been summoned to consider the laws 
 relating to marriages and to the settlement of poor, and 
 the propriety of church dictation on matters of individual 
 duty ; and large committees have been formed to sug- 
 gest alterations on questions relating to internal govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The earnest Christian spirit evidenced on these occa- 
 sions has been very encouraging ; and the full discussions 
 which have taken place have shown a religious vitality 
 in its older and younger members, which justifies a more 
 hopeful view of the future. Amidst great diversity of 
 sentiment, a strong brotherly charity amongst them- 
 selves, and an increasing zeal to spread the gospel 
 amongst others, have been displayed ; and labourers from 
 on every hand have appeared ready to obey with joyful 
 alacrity the command to go forth once more in aggres- 
 sive array against the powers of darkness. 
 
 It would be premature to offer any opinion upon the 
 effects produced upon the Society by the published essays; 
 and in commenting on the contents of any of them, I 
 desire to do it, not as a critique on its merits or demerits, 
 but in order to examine the principal arguments advanced 
 against Quakerism as a creed. It has been well said of 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 101 
 
 theological controversy, that though it may fill the head 
 it will empty the heart ; and the unimpassioned and dry 
 manner with which an honest critic treats the most vital 
 subjects* is injurious both to readers and writers. 
 
 The conclusions at which the second prize essayistf 
 has arrived are in such singular antagonism to those 
 contained in the preceding pages of this volume as to 
 deserve careful analysis. Whilst study of the subject 
 has convinced me that Quakerism cannot and will not 
 fall, he has read himself into the belief that it will fall — 
 that " its salvation is impossible," and that he rejoices 
 that it is so. Our respective hopes and wishes may have 
 materially affected these opposite deductions ; yet it is 
 perfectly natural that an author who holds so strongly 
 as he does the dogmas of a " sacrificing priesthood and 
 apostolic succession" (see p. 235), should long for, and 
 rejoice in, the extinction of a sect whose very existence 
 is a perpetual protest against such assumptions ; neverthe- 
 less I cannot banish my own conviction that so long as 
 there are devout Romanists or Tractarians insisting in 
 words upon the necessity of ceremonies, and the efficacy 
 of outward rites, so long will there be devout Quakers 
 who by their lives will refute them. 
 
 The unity of bask which the author so carefully proves 
 to exist between the writings of Dr. Pusey and the prin- 
 ciples of Quakerism is undeniable ; and I should attribute 
 the vitality of both to their upholding those glorious 
 truths which T. Hancock states, "though witnessed 
 to in the liturgy of the crushed and hidden church, were 
 
 * " A desired result is no result. It is with the reason alone that 
 researches must be made. A perfect disinterestedness, a supreme indif- 
 ference, are the conditions of strictness. When you are sufficiently 
 indifferent, sufficiently dry, sufficiently dead, — you are able to examine. 
 Green wood smokes." — Vinet's Studies on Pascal. 
 
 f The Peculium, by T. Hancock. 
 
102 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 
 
 not witnessed to in the formulas of the dominant sects ; 
 but which it pleased God to make known and heard 
 through the preaching of the Quakers " (p. 141). These 
 were : 1st, " That Christ doth, through the Holy Ghost 
 whom He hath given unto us, dwell really and truly in 
 the hearts of the faithful, and in the individual soul. ,, 
 2nd, " The indwelling Spirit as the bond of church unity." 
 3rd, " His moving of the will as the principle of Chris- 
 tian conduct" (p. 235). The strong and distinct recog- 
 nition of these gospel truths has doubtless given to 
 Puseyism its expansive force. By this, rather than by 
 the maintenance of any " sacraments, rites, and written 
 offices," it has gained converts ; and by clinging fast to 
 these soul-satisfying truths it may continue to increase, 
 in spite of its human errors and church traditions. 
 
 In comparing Quakerism with Puseyism, we must not, 
 however, be content with discovering their points of 
 union only. We acknowledge that they do converge in 
 these three fundamental doctrines of the New Testament, 
 and the Friends desire nothing more ; — they will admit 
 of nothing less than that the same New Testament shall 
 become the standard for all practices and doctrines 
 wherein they differ, — that each may renounce all that is 
 contrary to and not contained in its divine teachings. It 
 may be thought that by this appeal the Friends might 
 have to add something to their no-forms ; but none can 
 doubt that Anglo-Catholicism would thus lose very many 
 of its forms. It would also be seen that the former 
 possesses those gospel realities which the latter seeks 
 after through symbols; and by abandoning the types, 
 and embracing the doctrinal antitypes, we should behold 
 an English church displaying not only an apostolic zeal 
 in spreading its principles, but an apostolic simplicity in 
 its practices. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 103 
 
 The way in which the New Testament is avoided as the 
 standard of appeal is painfully evident in The Peculium. 
 The whole volume is made to twine around one central 
 column of church formulas. It is comparable to a spiral 
 staircase, whose symmetrical proportions and carefully 
 selected materials are in strict harmony with the shaft 
 around which they revolve, and upon whose soundness 
 and strength the entire framework depends. Having no 
 power to expand beyond the radius of "church authority," 
 it is irrevocably bound to that standard for support ; but 
 had this central column been one of New Testament 
 doctrines, instead of church traditions, how different 
 would the superstructure have proved ! — how very diffe- 
 rent would have been his landing-place! In lieu of " a 
 sacrificing priesthood," we should have beheld the Chris- 
 tian prophet and preacher ; and the " ism of Dr. Pusey" 
 would have disappeared under the inspired writings of 
 the Apostles. 
 
 The High Churchman and the Friend unite also in idea 
 that the true and apostolic church alone can permanently 
 remain, but they differ widely upon its essential charac- 
 teristics. T. Hancock asserts its form to be best upheld 
 " when she sees most in sacraments, rites, and written 
 offices, and when she grasps most firmly a sacrificing 
 priesthood and apostolic succession." The Friends, on 
 the other hand, finding none of these things ordained in 
 those divine writings which, as Barclay declares, are " the 
 only fit outward judge of controversy amongst Chris- 
 tians," believe this church to be built wholly " upon the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
 himself being the chief corner-stone." " In whom (saith 
 the Apostle) ye also are builded together, for an habita- 
 tion of God through the Spirit " (Eph. ii. 20-22). No 
 church councils or edicts can overthrow the Scripture 
 
104 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 truth that every church, wheresoever existing, and under 
 
 whatever name, which is thus builded together in Christ, 
 
 and which through the Spirit becomes the " habitation 
 
 of God," is part of the one spiritual building — the church 
 
 apostolic — the temple holy unto the Lord. It is of this 
 
 universal church that it is also declared, "now ye are 
 
 the body of Christ, and members in particular ;" like the 
 
 hand with the foot, its members must be in intimate 
 
 relation to each other, and be all united with the living 
 
 Head. " For we, being many, are one body in Christ, 
 
 and every one members one of another" (Rom. xii. 5). 
 
 This is the one true church of the apostles, and no human 
 
 viaducts or hereditary channels can make or mar its 
 
 essential connection with Christ, neither can any outward 
 
 shibboleth represent or enclose all of its living members. 
 
 Innumerable attempts have been made to institute* a 
 
 visible system of church fellowship, co-extensive with 
 
 this invisible bond of union ; but of none can it be 
 
 averred either that it included all who were baptized 
 
 into Christ, or that it did not include many who were 
 
 " dead in trespasses and sins." Romanism, by preaching 
 
 regeneration through water baptism, may assert that all 
 
 within its pale are of the body of Christ, and all beyond 
 
 it are reprobates ; but the falseness of such theory is 
 
 self-evident, since it encloses thousands of unconverted 
 
 and carnal men, and excludes thousands of the converted. 
 
 A similar admixture in a greater or less degree exists in 
 
 every church community, including both Friends and 
 
 Tractarians. There are many who are dead within the 
 
 fold of each, and many who are living without. Whilst 
 
 it cannot, therefore, be avowed of any outward church 
 
 that all its members are thus builded together for the 
 
 habitation of God through the Spirit, the one test of 
 
 membership does interpenetrate every Christian sect. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 105 
 
 The attempt of any religious community to claim divine 
 authority or precedence on any other grounds than the 
 indwelling of Christ is unsound and dangerous. Every 
 church must be apostolic if Jesus Christ himself be the 
 chief corner-stone ; and every church is unapostolic 
 wherein His place is usurped, or wherein practices not 
 ordained in the New Testament are insisted upon as 
 needful or binding. 
 
 Various schemes have been adopted to bring all 
 Protestant denominations under one outward canopy or 
 evangelical alliance, but they produce a cessation from 
 hostilities rather than a vital unity. The simple apostolic 
 foundation of church fellowship, " Through Him we both 
 have access by one Spirit unto the Father," is not thought 
 a sufficient bond of union. In other words, a heartfelt 
 belief that there is One Being from whom all blessings 
 proceed — one Mediator in whom all blessings are con- 
 tained, and through whom they come — one Spirit by 
 whom alone they can be communicated to the church 
 and all its members, has been considered too lax a test ; 
 and outward acts, which may be shared in equally by 
 the hardened and by the penitent, have been substituted 
 in its place. The idea is nevertheless rapidly gaining 
 ground that unity of spiritual basis may co-exist with 
 disunity of church superstructure ; and that sectarian- 
 ism, or different outward development, is clearly dis- 
 tinguishable from- that spirit of faction and theological 
 rancour which is hateful in the sight of God. 
 
 So long, however, as the notion is permitted, that any 
 bodily forms or external conformities can either make or 
 maintain a Christian, there can be no lasting union 
 between sects. Men may in theory regard these as 
 secondary things only, but in practice they will ever be 
 held as rallying points of main interest. We can 
 
106 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 become Christians only by inward faith, and not by 
 compliance with any ceremonial acts, outward tests, or 
 church creeds, in which the flesh may unite, whilst the 
 soul is unquickened. If really subject unto Christ — 
 unto Him who is " the head over all things unto the 
 church, which is his body" (Eph. i. 22), the living 
 branches and living members will be everywhere known 
 by their faith and by their fruits ; and by these, and 
 not by external performances, will the church visible on 
 earth be recognized. 
 
 Communion with God, in the largest and fullest sense 
 of that word, (says Professor Maurice)* is not an instru- 
 ment of attaining some higher end, but is itself the end 
 to which He is leading his creatures, and after which 
 his creatures in all kingdoms, nations, and languages, by 
 all their schemes of religion, by all their studies of philo- 
 sophy, by art, by science, by watching, by weeping, by 
 struggling and by submitting, by wisdom and by folly, 
 in the camp and in the closet, in poverty and in riches, 
 in honour and in shame, in health and in sickness, — are 
 secretly longing and crying, and without which they 
 cannot be satisfied." 
 
 That this communion with God has been known and 
 felt by men in every Christian sect is an incontrovertible 
 fact ; and because it has been so felt, the believers in each 
 section have longed to bring others into their fold, that 
 they may enjoy the same blessed experience. This 
 justifies not only the extreme love we bear to that par- 
 ticular religious community wherein we ourselves have 
 realized the heavenly presence, but our anxiety to make 
 proselytes. It is nevertheless my firm conviction, that 
 as communion with God implies not only our access unto 
 
 * Eev. F. D. Maurice's Seven " Letters to a Friend," &c. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 107 
 
 God, but also the access unto us of the Holy Spirit, and 
 as it is upon the latter that our joy in the Lord must 
 depend, so the silent congregational waiting upon God 
 is the one form in which the " communion of the Holy 
 Ghost" (2 Cor. xiii. 14) can have the most unrestrained 
 and undisturbed exercise. 
 
 From these remarks on what I believe to be the 
 fundamental church-error which pervades The Peculium, 
 we will turn to the work itself. Had the author perused 
 the standard folios of Fox, Penn, and Barclay, instead 
 of the " dumpy quartos" of enemies and seceders, he 
 would have been preserved from many pitfalls. The 
 strong attempt made by him in many parts of his essay 
 to separate these three Quaker leaders is as unjustifiable 
 chronologically, as it is religiously. P. 14 states, " One 
 period we might call Foxite Quakerism, another Penn 
 and Barclayite Quakerism ; and p. 166 — " In their 
 second generation, their scholastic and apologetic period, 
 they grounded every tenet upon the Bible," &c. The 
 facts are simply these : Fox began to preach in 1650, 
 and continued in full vigour until 1690, when he died. 
 Penn joined the Friends in 1666, — they held intimate 
 and unbroken friendship for twenty years, and nine 
 tenths of Penn's theological writings were published 
 in Fox's lifetime. Barclay became a Friend in 1667, 
 and wrote his celebrated Apoloyy in 1675. He died in 
 1690, a few months before Fox ; and in 1677 these three 
 men travelled together on the continent, preaching and 
 spreading their Quaker principles, and distributing each 
 other's writings. 
 
 The second serious error made is (pp. 49, 50), that all 
 primitive Quakers believed " that every man or woman 
 who consciously submits to the light of the Lord in their 
 spirits, must, by the irresistible power of that Lord, be 
 
108 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 drawn into communion and fellowship with Quakers."* 
 P. 131 : — " George Fox and his fellows handed over to 
 the devil the whole of Christ's kingdom between the 
 death of the apostles and the reformation."! P- W5 
 speaks of " their implicit damnation of all the christened 
 and unchristened ;" and p. 172, that " they claimed 
 to be the one Holy Church, the only ark of salvation ;"J 
 and that modern Quakers " would be liars and deceivers 
 if they were again to proclaim their Society to be the 
 ark of salvation, the only church of God." 
 
 In refutation of these tremendous accusations, I reply, 
 firstly, that if any primitive Quaker ever asserted his. 
 Society to be the only ark of salvation, he was unques- 
 tionably a " liar and deceiver" against the first principle 
 of Fox, Penn and Barclay. These all denied that under 
 the gospel there was any outward "ark of salvation" at 
 all. They had no form of admission into church fellow- 
 ship, and did not even call themselves a distinct church, 
 
 * The following quotations disprove all of these charges : — 
 
 "All that believe in the light of Christ as he commands are in the 
 election, and sit under the teaching of the grace of God which brings their 
 salvation" (Fox's Journal, folio ed., p. 218). "These are members of the 
 true church who know the work of regeneration in the operation and 
 feeling of it. But they that live in the state that Adam was in the fall 
 come not to the church which is in God ; but are enemies to the cross of 
 Christ, which is the power of God" (Ibid, p. 253). 
 
 + There may be members, therefore, of this catholic church among all 
 the several sorts of Christians. ..." Now the church in this respect 
 hath been in being in all generations ; for God never wanted such wit- 
 nesses for him." ..." The outward profession is necessary to be a 
 member of a particular gathered church, but not to the being a member 
 of the one catholic church" {Barclay s Apology, prop. x). 
 
 + Neither is every visible society making profession of religion, nor all 
 of them together, the church ; but such alone who are washed in the 
 blood of the Lamb, and ingrafted into the true Vine, bringing forth the 
 fruits of holiness to the glory of Christ the Head" (Penn's works, folio ed., 
 vol. ii., p. 268). 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 109 
 
 but a society. Their assertion of the universality of 
 divine grace, through which even heathens and Turks 
 might be saved, was a doctrine for which they were 
 abused without measure. 
 
 The third charge is, " That the early Friends always 
 spoke of Quakerism as an infallible body " (p. 41). This 
 is an assumption of Rome, but not of the Friends. The 
 latter believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in every section 
 of the true church of Christ. They know, also, that He 
 is an infallible guide ; but they deny the sophistical infe- 
 rence of Roman Catholicism, that therefore the church is 
 infallible. It must first be proved that the church is 
 always guided by Him, and by Him alone. The apostles 
 Paul, Peter and James, were fallible as men (vide p. 4 in 
 present volume), and the churches they established were 
 fallible also ; and I can find no assertions from Fox or 
 his fellows maintaining that either they or their Society 
 were not liable to sin or error. 
 
 His fourth assertion, " That a Quaker must not 
 kneel down to pray with persons of another sect" (p. 114), 
 is contradicted by the author himself (p. 186) ; where he 
 states that, " in their second generation, their scholastic 
 and apologetic period (Barclay and Penn, see p. 152), 
 they grounded every tenet of Quakerism upon the Bible, 
 upon the testimony of the Catholic fathers, and of the 
 liturgy of the English church. This was a virtual con- 
 fession that . . . every faithful user of the national 
 prayer-book might have the inspiration and leading of 
 the Spirit, and yet not be led into the Quaker com- 
 munion." To these words of T. Hancock I will only 
 add, that a Friend can unite with the living prayers of 
 members of any Christian sect. 
 
 Fifthly, It is declared (p. 161), "that nearly all 
 enthusiasts believe (and therefore Quakers as enthusiasts) 
 
110 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 the exercise of divine powers and of divinely-ordered 
 signs is the one ever necessary witness of the divine 
 Spirit ; (p. 186) that they were to cast out devils, work 
 miracles, and administer divine judgments." 
 
 In refutation of this very illogical deduction,* I refer 
 to the quotation from R. Barclay at page 10 of this 
 essay, and would remark that modern or post-apostolic 
 miracles are contrary to the genius of Quakerism, 
 because they lead to the worship of the visible and the 
 material, whilst all the miracles of Scripture point to 
 Christ and to the invisible. 
 
 6thly. It is maintained (p. 162), "That the old 
 Quakers had a loose and uncertain view of the Incar- 
 nation, and feared being copiers of the Man Christ 
 Jesus ;" and (p. 220) " they could hardly bring them- 
 selves to believe that the Word was made flesh." 
 
 This assertion would, if true, be so deplorable, that I 
 would earnestly ask the reader to turn to page 8 of the 
 present volume, and see how far the quotations there 
 made from Penn, Barclay and Fox (which might be 
 increased ad libitum), and Fox's declaration of faith at 
 p. 11, repudiate such a charge. 
 
 If space allowed, many more quotations of a like 
 nature might be made from The Peculium ; but sufficient 
 has been done to show the great caution with which 
 this essay, to which the prize was awarded, should be 
 read by those who seek information on the Quaker creed. 
 It is pleasant to contrast with these the somewhat anta- 
 gonistic passages wherein the writer states, " No one 
 
 * The sophistry which lurks in parenthetic sentences is often dangerous 
 to a casual reader, e. g. The logical form of this sentence is : — 1st, Some 
 Quakers are enthusiasts. 2nd, Most enthusiasts believe divine signs, &c, 
 necessary. 3rd, Therefore all Quakers must do so ! This is not the only 
 instance of the kind in The Peculium. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. Ill 
 
 with only an hour's acquaintance with the lives and 
 books of the Quakers, could honestly doubt that the 
 true fruits of the Divine Spirit are to be found in 
 Quakerism (p. 1 1) ; or again, " I have no doubt that 
 their firm faith in Christ, the light and inspirer of every 
 human being, was the chief cause of their wonderful 
 successes" (p. 155). 
 
 We will now turn to the main causes adduced by 
 T. Hancock, as leading to the inevitable extinction of 
 Quakerism : — 
 
 1st. "If it be only a part of the Catholic church, it 
 is likely to decay" (p. 8) ; — " Parts must die for the 
 whole to live (p. 4). This assumption might apply to 
 every other Christian community; but may we not 
 prefer the old axiom, " that the whole is composed of 
 parts," and therefore, that the vitality of the parts must 
 add life to the whole? So long as they are parts or 
 branches in union with Christ the root, they will live, 
 even though bent and distorted by man's hands ; but 
 when disunited from Him, they wither and die. 
 
 2nd, The "prohibition of music, dancing, and theatre- 
 going" (pp. 114, 66 7 &c). Our author states that 
 "some of the early Quakers* pronounced all music 
 unlawful ; therefore Quakerism cannot be the universal 
 kingdom for men, for it must exclude musical men 
 (p. 66) ; in these things " the discipline of Quakerism 
 fights against God by its prohibitions" (p. 120). 
 
 In reply to these arguments, the " discipline" does 
 not say that sounds, sights, or movements of any kind, 
 are sinful, per se ; but it does assert that all three may 
 
 * The sophism of converting some Quakers into all Quakers, is again 
 apparent. In no recognized writings of the Friends is it asserted that 
 music is M unlawful" or sinful ; but it was condemned by them in the 
 seventeenth century, as inexpedient, and injurious in practice. 
 
112 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 
 
 be made pernicious by human contrivances. Fox and 
 his friends well knew that under the gospel " there is 
 nothing unclean of itself" (Rom. xiv. 14) ; and that to 
 the pure all things might be pure ; but they felt also, 
 with the apostle, that although it was the gift of God, 
 yet " if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no 
 flesh while the world standeth" (1 Cor. viii. 13). Yery 
 many of the grosser sins of the seventeenth century were 
 connected with music, dancing, and theatricals ; and the 
 irreligion and immorality to which they led in the 
 English Cavalier Court afforded ample justification for 
 their exclusion in that day. The early Friends not 
 only abstained from these open temptations to vice, but 
 exhorted their members to keep from everything else 
 which, in practice, did not conduce to the health of their 
 souls. The lapse of two centuries has produced a change 
 as regards music ; its exclusion from amongst the 
 Friends is no longer needful, although its undue culti- 
 vation is still very wisely discouraged. 
 
 T. Hancock states (p. 120) that the real Catholic 
 church, so far from entirely condemning the theatre, 
 says, " / accept it, christen it, use it." That the Romish 
 church has " used it," in the miracle plays and eccle- 
 siastical festivals, # is most true ; but there are very few 
 Protestants who would attempt to justify scenes so 
 
 * The " miracle plays" were instituted in the thirteenth century, and 
 dramatized (often in the grossest language and acting) the Annunciation — 
 the Birth of Christ — the Crucifixion, Kesurrection, and Ascension — the 
 creation of Adam and Eve, and other sacred mysteries — and irreligious 
 men personated the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Nothing seems 
 to have been too holy for a stage performance ; and the effects of such 
 blasphemous representations on the minds of those who acted them 
 needs no description. — (See Dr. Bumeys History of 3fusic, vol. iii), and 
 Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described.) These plays still exist in some parts 
 of Germany. —(See A. M. Howitt's Aii Student in Munidi, vol. i.) 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 113 
 
 irreverent and revolting. It is also implied (p. 66) 
 that this Catholic church can " bless and sanctify the 
 concert-room." I believe that no outward church can 
 " bless or sanctify" anything — it is the prerogative of 
 Christ alone to do this; and if none went to a 
 concert, theatre, or dancing party, but those who feel 
 that Christ does bless and sanctify it for them, such 
 places would be unobjectionable. 
 
 3rd. That the belief of modern Quakers is entirely 
 different from that of George Fox ; and that " they 
 have scarcely anything in common but their name and 
 their clothes" (p. 7). 
 
 Whether this remark is as true as it is sarcastic, I 
 will leave the reader of these pages to judge for himself. 
 The attempt to separate the two appears to me as 
 unfounded as the division of Fox from Barclay has been 
 proved to be. T. Hancock assumes that to the question 
 (p. 184), "Whether the Scriptures, or the Eternal Spirit 
 who gave forth the Scriptures, would bring men to 
 their gate ?" two opposite replies would be given by 
 the ancient and modern Friends. This assumption is 
 incorrect ; the writings of Fox, Penn and Barclay, as 
 well as those of Gurney, Allen, and Elizabeth Fry, give 
 one united response, viz., that both would. 
 
 4th, he asserts that the " tendency of the age is 
 toward an universal society, and that the only possible 
 religious developments of this tendency are communist 
 societies, the Evangelical Alliance, and the Catholic 
 church (p. 206) ; and that the vital question therefore 
 is, " Can Quakers translate this tendency to Catholicity 
 into Quakerism ?" (p. 206) — " Can Quakerism preserve 
 itself from verdict of ' Death by the tendency to Catho- 
 licity V " 
 
 If the idea of the one church of Christ shadowed forth 
 
114 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 in this supplemental chapter be a correct one, the Friends 
 may give an emphatic Yes to both of these queries. 
 Many branches, but one Root — many systems, but one 
 centre, has been the characteristic of the churches of 
 Jerusalem, Rome and Alexandria — of the seven churches 
 in Asia, — of the Waldenses, and other churches of the 
 dark ages — and of the different Protestant churches or 
 sects in the present day. The Quaker church upholds 
 this theory more clearly than any existing sect, and 
 though opposed to communist societies — though abso- 
 lutely shut out from the Evangelical Alliance, and though 
 entreated by Churchmen to return to the Anglo-Catholic 
 church, which professes the same fundamentals — yet, if 
 true to itself, and to its scripture doctrine of spiritual 
 regeneration and spiritual baptism, as the only evidence 
 of fellowship with Christ and with his church on earth, 
 Quakerism must yet exert an influence on the age, 
 mightier than that of the seventeenth century, and its 
 creed will become the centre of that catholicity towards 
 which the age is tending. 
 
 It is also maintained by the author of The Peculium that 
 " the tendency of the age is towards ritualism," and that 
 it is also aesthetic : that " Quakerism is pledged to an 
 incessant war against both; — and that in this war 
 Quakerism must lose" (p. 225). To this I might add (in 
 a similar form) that the " tendency of the age" is grasp- 
 ing, is warlike, is money-getting ; and that Quakerism 
 is, or ought to be, opposed to all of these. So far as an * 
 aesthetic life is consistent with a primary devotedness 
 unto God, the principles of Friends admit it ; but it is 
 the duty of every church to resist, and not to yield to, 
 the shoutings of the age towards ritualism, war, or any 
 other thing contrary to the New Testament. All those 
 tendencies which are in accordance with the teachings 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 115 
 
 of Christ, the Friends are bound to advance ; but all that 
 are opposed to it they are bound resolutely to withstand. 
 
 There are two other subjects not specially alluded to 
 in The Peculium, but which have been strongly insisted 
 upon by other essayists ; viz., the exclusion of church 
 music, and the want of a paid ministry. 
 
 1st, On Church Music and Singing. — In favour of the 
 almost universal practice of singing, it is urged that it 
 has an uniting effect upon a congregation — that its 
 harmonizing influence prepares the soul for worship — 
 that it is something in which all may join, and that it 
 was ordained of God as an integral part of divine wor- 
 ship amongst the Jews. 
 
 The fact of its having formed part of the worship in 
 the old temple renders its fitness very questionable now. 
 The Jewish temple itself is declared to be typical of the 
 living church of Christ — of that spiritual house composed 
 of lively stones (1 Pet. ii. 5), of which the Apostle Paul 
 declares, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
 and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? If any man 
 defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; for the 
 temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1 Cor. iii. 16, 
 17). The church in the third century having ignored 
 this, and reintroduced the sacredness of earthly build- 
 ings, very many of the ceremonies of the old temple were 
 also thrust, in their raw and untranslated state, into 
 Christian worship. The forms of that Jewish and typical 
 worship wherein the times, the places and the modes, 
 were all ordained of God, have been grafted on, and 
 made constituent parts of, a religion which needs them 
 not ; for at all times, in all places, and without ceremonies, 
 we may now " have access by one Spirit unto the 
 Father." The temple itself being changed, there must 
 
116 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 of necessity be a change also in the performances ;* and 
 every type and symbol of the old law, and the old 
 temple, with its altar, its services and burnt offerings, 
 its priests and its singers, its sacerdotal robes, candle- 
 sticks, incense and ornaments, must each be represented 
 by a doctrine, an antitype, and a reality, in the new 
 economy. 
 
 I am far from denying the stimulating effects of church 
 music in which all the congregation join ; but there are 
 great necessary difficulties connected with it. The un- 
 converted condition of very many who are engaged to 
 sing praises they do not feel — the appearance of a band 
 of instrumental performers in a Christian congregation, 
 and the employment of the musical machinery of an 
 organ or harmonium, seems scarcely apostolic in practice ; 
 whilst the blame bestowed upon devout Christians who 
 sing " out of tune," the praise to the irreligious who 
 excel in song, and the circumstance of many pious 
 believers being unable to sing at all, prove that for this 
 mode of worshipping God a good voice is more essential 
 than a renewed heart. It may be said that God hears 
 
 * There were 288 singers in the temple, all of the tribe of Levi, and 
 appointed like the priests " in their courses," twelve for every hour of the 
 day and night (1 Chron. xxv). Is not this typical of that spiritual song 
 of praise which all church members who are washed from their sins, and 
 made kings and priests unto God" (Rev. i. 6), should sing in the spiritual 
 building or temple of the Holy Ghost ? Songs composed of many voices 
 and notes, and many instruments of different hearts ; but all swelling into 
 harmonious chords, either of joy or sadness, prayer or thanksgiving. Is 
 not some such idea as this more correct as an antitype of temple singing, 
 than that of a choir of persons assembled to chaunt anthems, which, 
 beautiful as they may be and are, can be joined in and sung by the unre- 
 generate and irreligious whose human voices are musical ; and which often 
 descend into sacred musical concerts, publicly advertized, in which the 
 exquisite performance is the main attraction. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 117 
 
 only the hearts that breathe, and not the tongues that 
 utter song ; but that the former are quickened into 
 worship by the harmony of human voices. Whilst I 
 doubt not that many souls unite in hymns in which they 
 cannot vocally join, and do thus praise the Almighty 
 through this and other human stimulants, we have clear 
 evidence that music is not an esse?itial adjunct to the 
 worship of God through Jesus Christ. Without con- 
 demning others, the Friends consider it inexpedient to 
 adopt this practice, and that " the worship of the Father 
 in spirit and in truth" can be most truly performed 
 without it. 
 
 2nd. On a Paid Ministry. As stated in the foregoing 
 essay (p. 95), the Friends support their ministers when 
 travelling on the service of the gospel ; but they hold 
 also that a regular salary for preaching is opposed to the 
 command of Christ, and to the spirit of the gospel. The 
 objections made to this assumption are, that a spiritual 
 labourer is worthy of temporal stipend, and also that with- 
 out such provision God's vineyard would be neglected. 
 
 On the second difficulty, I would observe, that for 
 two centuries of their existence, the Society of Friends 
 has had a larger proportion of ministers than any other 
 Christian sect* — that these have been gathered from the 
 rich and from the poor — that they have been engaged 
 from home for months, and even years together, in 
 preaching the gospel of Christ. 
 
 That he who devotes time and talent for the souls of 
 others should reap carnal things in return, seems very 
 plausible ; but it is not so if we probe the matter a little 
 
 * The number of acknowledged ministers amongst the Friends is now 
 about 240, or one out of every fifty-seven members. Besides these, there 
 are many unrecognized as ministers who preach. 
 
118 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 deeper. The first and insurmountable objection is, that 
 it makes the service of Christ a matter of business, and 
 that young men are educated and trained for it in the 
 same way that they are brought up to earthly callings. 
 Although no Churchman is admitted into the ministry 
 unless he believes " he is inwardly moved by the Holy 
 Ghost to take upon him this office and ministration," 
 and also that "he is truly called according to the will 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ :"* and although a somewhat 
 similar declaration is required of Dissenters ; yet we have 
 abundant evidence, from the confessions of ministers 
 themselves, as well as from ocular demonstration, that 
 the education without the call is too generally thought 
 sufficient, f 
 
 * Book of Common Prayer — Ordination of Priests and Deacons. 
 
 + The descriptive terms made use of confirm this painful truth ; 
 e. g., The gospel ministry is styled a " profession ;" a cure of souls is 
 denominated a living ; and the invariable question on church preferment 
 is, " How much is it worth ?" while the occasional preaching of Christ's 
 gospel is called doing duty one for another, and the care of the flock is 
 an incumbency, or a " benefice." The conventional laws which permit a 
 clergyman to add to his income by taking pupils, and writing for news- 
 papers and periodicals, or by speculations in mines, railways, and Govern- 
 ment stocks, entirely forbid his engaging in ordinary avocations, which 
 are less absorbing than the former, and less hurtful than the latter. 
 Until lately, attendance at the ball-room and the theatre, fox-hunting 
 and banquets, have been sanctioned in a minister, in whom Paul's 
 occupation of tentmaker, or Luke's as physician, would be utterly con- 
 demned. These unapostolic ideas have also nourished the false impression, 
 that a holy or dedicated man cannot engage in business ; and as a 
 corollary, that business in any form is unholy, if not sinful (see ante) 
 The establishment of a clerical order, to whom " open business" is for- 
 bidden, has thrown a sacerdotal character over Christian preachers, often 
 making them as " lords over God's heritage," rather than " being amongst 
 them as him that serveth." Business pursuits are thought too absorbing 
 for parish oversight or for religious study ; but since many of the most 
 studious and scientific men are connected with trade, and since they often 
 devote more time to philanthropic and secular things than is given by 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTEK. 119 
 
 Having thus glanced at the main difficulties advanced 
 against Quakerism, I will recapitulate the work which I 
 believe it has yet to accomplish. In order to fulfil its 
 mission, it is of extreme importance that an equal value 
 should no longer be placed upon those inward principles 
 which are unchangeable, and upon outward practices 
 which will vary from age to age. The more the Society 
 binds itself to principles, and the less it binds itself to 
 practices ; the more it grows from the centre outwards, 
 and the less it tries to build from the circumference 
 inwards ; the greater must its expansive strength become. 
 The three primary truths for which it has specially to 
 contend are — 
 
 1st. That the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the 
 Church and in the believer is the source of all 
 spiritual vitality. 
 
 most ministers to theology or district visiting, it is evident that all that 
 is needful is to turn their superfluous time and talents to the service of 
 Christ, and to allow them to labour in the inner as well as the outer 
 courts. The advantages attendant on a paid ministry have been greatly 
 over-estimated. Pluralities of livings, and the chance of rich benefices, 
 have brought many carnal and irrehgious men into the church who have 
 done injury to the cause of Christ. But with hundreds of the most pious 
 and devoted men the pay is not the temptation. Many would become 
 ministers without it, because " the love of Christ constraineth them f 
 and they labour on, zealously and unheeded, and without hope of worldly 
 preferment. If the usages of society did not interfere with the laws of 
 Providence, and prevent their engaging in any business avocation, many 
 of these brave-hearted men, whose families now live in penury, would, 
 by the blessing of God on their temporal concerns, be living in com- 
 fortable independence. Satisfied am I that every preacher who is "truly 
 called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ," will be provided 
 for in temporal things ; and that, if human laws and notions did not 
 obstruct, it would be experienced by the ministers of all other denomi- 
 nations as it has been for two centuries by those of the Friends — " Seek 
 ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you*' 
 (Luke xii. 31). 
 
120 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 2nd. That every type of the old dispensation of 
 Mount Sinai represents a doctrine (not another type) 
 under the new dispensation of Mount Calvary. 
 
 3rd. That no intermediate helps, either of men, 
 places, or things, are requisite for divine worship, 
 under the gospel. That each individual soul may 
 draw nigh unto the Father, through Christ, and 
 needs no intervening mediums ; for the Spirit itself 
 helpeth our infirmities, and maketh intercession for 
 us (see Rom. viii.) ; and that in silent worship 
 would every Christian sect most fully realize the 
 words of John : — " Truly our fellowship is with the 
 Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). 
 
 The first of these truths must be unflinchingly upheld 
 by the Friends, but it need no longer be the battle- 
 ground of Quakerism. Churchmen of every grade, and 
 Dissenters of nearly every class, acknowledge its im- 
 portance ; and united prayers for the outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit on congregations and on individuals, are 
 now daily offered throughout the whole kingdom. 
 
 The second thesis is probably of more importance 
 now than it ever was, and , the whole energies of 
 Quakerism must be put forth in its support. " The 
 tendency of the age is ritual and aesthetic ;" fascinating 
 emblems and symbols are placed before us as repre- 
 sentations of unseen realities, which, as in past ages, 
 will lead to substituting the visible shell for the invisible 
 kernel. The insufficiency and non-necessity* of an out- 
 
 * As already observed, water baptism cannot be needful to a Christian 
 believer, since none of the twelve disciples were so baptized of Christ ; 
 neither could the water baptism administered by them (John iv.) have 
 been that " of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," because the Holy 
 Ghost was not yet given" (John vii. 39) ; and the disciples did not then 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 121 
 
 ward baptism and supper must be preached by the 
 Friends in a bolder form than ever. History abundantly 
 proves, that, whilst Christianity demands spiritual men, 
 forms have produced ceremonial ones. Christianity com- 
 pels change of heart, sacraments compel outward con- 
 formity. They who administer, and they who receive such, 
 have had, ipso facto, a halo of holiness thrown around 
 these which truth could not sanction ; and so long as 
 them types exist, so long will unregenerate men claim 
 for themselves, by virtue of certain mystical rites, those 
 blessed promises applicable to him who is " born of the 
 Spirit," and who, having eaten his flesh and drank His 
 blood, dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him (John vi. 56). 
 The gospel is a spiritual religion ; and no one ever 
 partook of these rites, spiritually, without becoming a 
 member of Christ's body ; but throughout every age, 
 men have partaken of them outwardly, and yet remained 
 reprobates. 
 
 Of the third proposition the Friends must also con- 
 tinue the firm and unwavering defenders. It strikes at 
 the root of all ecclesiastical intolerance and hierarchical 
 pretensions ; it denies that saints, sacred buildings, or 
 holy things, have any virtue in conveying prayer onwards 
 to heaven ; and proclaims the doctrine that the feeblest 
 
 believe in the crucifixion or resurrection of Christ, as we are told, 
 repeatedly, that " they understood none of these things,'' (Luke xviii. 39 ; 
 Mark ix. 32, &c). That the Friends unite with the apostle Paul's con- 
 struction of the words, " Go and teach all nations, baptizing them," &c, 
 is evident, since, in performing its first portion (viz., teaching all nations), 
 he only baptized about ten of all his Corinthian converts ; he also states 
 that " though in nothing behind the very chiefest apostle," Christ sent 
 him not to baptize. (1 Cor. i. 17). So many Jewish customs were 
 retained by the other apostles, such as casting lots, laying on of hands, 
 anointing with oil, purifications, circumcision, vows, &c, &c, that no 
 Gentile law can be educed from these practices. — (See also notes pp. 
 19 and 20). 
 
 a 
 
122 SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 
 
 prayer, breathed by a man as he walks the busy street, 
 may be heard on high. It also contains the blessed 
 principle of silent worship. This latter is to be 
 advanced, not by condemning other modes, but by 
 inducing other religious communities to intermingle it 
 with their own. The comfort of a few minutes' silent 
 prayer and praise from an united congregation would be 
 powerfully felt ; and it is to this amalgamation that the 
 attention of other sects should be invited. 
 
 To spread abroad these and other special views before 
 alluded to, the aggregate number of the Friends may 
 appear very small ; but in reflecting on the results 
 they accomplish in fields of philanthropy, I am brought 
 to the conviction that if their energies are once more 
 centred in the one object of advancing Christ's king- 
 dom upon earth, they have ample material of every 
 kind needful for the work. The Friends are not degene- 
 rate in principles, but in practices. If gospel truths are 
 still committed unto them, " it is not reason that they 
 should leave the word of God, and serve tables" (Acts 
 vi. 2). A great deal of time and strength is now lost in 
 discussing secondary questions, and "order and disci- 
 pline" absorb the minds of very many who are formed 
 for loftier occupation. Every member of the church has 
 a work also to perform towards the world ; and though 
 not " all prophets, nor all teachers, neither have all the 
 gift of tongues," it is the duty of every cleansed sinner to 
 " go and tell how great things the Lord hath done for 
 him." Human efforts are the ordained means for ad- 
 vancing the Gospel. The command, " Go ye, and teach all 
 nations," and the prayer that the " Lord of the harvest 
 would send forth labourers into his harvest" (Luke x. 2), 
 prove that man is the means appointed for bringing souls 
 unto Christ. George Fox declared that his mission was 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER. 123 
 
 to bring men to Christ, and to leave them there. Human 
 agency is thus clearly recognized. Although God mira- 
 culously struck down Paul, and appeared in a supernatural 
 vision to Cornelius, it was yet ordained that the Gospel 
 should be revealed to them by the lips of two fellow-men. 
 Ananias was sent to the former, " that he might be filled 
 with the Holy Ghost ;" and of Peter it was declared by 
 the angel to Cornelius, " He [not I] shall tell thee what 
 thou oughtest to do" (Acts x. 6). The besetting sin of 
 the Friends is not that they " run without being sent ;" 
 but that, " as good stewards of the manifold grace of 
 God," they do not freely impart their spiritual wealth 
 unto the hungry and the thirsty, the stranger and the 
 naked, the sick and the imprisoned of Satan. 
 
 Far be it from me to assert that man is the first cause 
 in conversion. The Spirit regenerates, but in effecting his 
 end He avails of human agents : preachers and teachers, 
 the learned and the ignorant, the old and the young, are 
 all invited to take some part or other in this agency. 
 " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as 
 the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. xii. 4). 
 
 FINI 8. 
 
 LONDON I A. W. BENNETT, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT. 
 

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