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brooded on each of them; and whose breath has blown a withering blast over the fair system of truth; whose damning theory has confounded the holy persons of the Son and the Holy Ghost; and who has blotted out of their " other gospel" the most holy doctrine of the Trinity; and who has dried up the last stream of hope and comfort to the sad soul; and who bids the fainting pilgrim go weep in despair! But this theory will never obtain currency. "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth !”

The "coming of Christ" is not "the mission of the Holy Ghost." Our Lord has ascended on high. And, according to his promise he has sent us the Holy Spirit. But, He himself, in human nature, is in the midst of the throne.* And he will remain there" till the restitution of all things." It will not help our mystic friends out of the difficulty, to refer this "coming of our Lord" to his secret communion with us. This he has vouchsafed to the pious of all ages. This he will not suffer to be interrupted at any period. In this manner, he will continue to come till the trump of God shall sound the last note of time. And, the Friends being witnesses, this is a "spiritual coming." Let them take it in either sense, in ours, or their own, they must, in consistency, yield the point; and admit the perpetual obligation of baptism and the Lord's supper, or wage war against the obvious assurances and precepts of the Holy Ghost. Let them choose the alternative of the dilemma.

* Revel. chap. v. † Acts iii. 21.

CHAPTER IX.

AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE MORAL TENDENCY OF THEIR RELIGIOUS

TENETS.

66 Πονηροί δε ανθρωποι, και γόητες προκόψουσιν επι το χείρον, πλανῶντες και 99 Travãμever.”—ST. PAUL.

THE moral man of the world, is not the moral man of the Bible; the virtues of the former are the virtues of its philosophy— those of the latter are produced by the spirit, and regulated by the precepts of the gospel. Those divine precepts are from the same throne whence issue the laws that govern nature. It would betray the act of a maniac to assume the liberty and power of changing the laws of nature. It does betray equal folly, and much more danger to trench on the prerogatives of Deity, to dictate to infinite sovereignty what actions should form the constituent parts of morality in the bosom and in the actions of his moral subjects. Christianity is at issue with the world on this point, and we shall not yield one inch of ground to the adversary; we shall not applaud that image, that phantom, which the world has set up in the place of morality. It is hollow; it is baseless; it is a body without a spirit. To set aside the peculiar doctrines of christianity which exhibit the aids and the motives to obey its precepts, we do contend, is to take away the soul and spirit of sound morals.

The Friends have been distinguished by the name of good moralists; whether justly or not on the above principles, I shall not now enquire. I will admit the morality and sound policy usually ascribed to them; I will not detract one grain from their justice, their integrity, their honesty. Their kind and amiable manners have secured them a right to the title of Friends; their females are distinguished for their prudence, their modesty, and elegance of manners; their attention to the wants of the poor, their deportment towards the Indian tribes, and their labours in behalf of bleeding Africa, call forth our applause. I will not detract ought from the laurels which have long and justly adorned the brows of some of their leaders. I revere the memory of

governor* Barclay as a man of letters, prudence and integrity. The name of Penn associates in my mind the ideas of wisdom and sound policy, built on strict national justice; while the memory of Cortes and Pizarro floats along the stream of time, they will bear along with them the execration of mankind. But the memory of Penn as a politician, will be embalmed in the recollection of millions of freemen, who will guard the honour and laws of that fair state which bears the name of its illustrious founder.

But the society of Friends do not come before the public merely as good moralists; they thank not the world for the negative virtues in which it has officiously clothed them; they stand forward with the highest claims of a christian society; they do claim apostolical honours and an apostolical commission to their ancient elders. In the ascent of reformation they have left the christian world far behind in the gloom of the dark ages ; they tour aloft in air; they plant their proud standard on the highest battlement of Zion; they throw around them a cloud of glory and perfection ;* they look down with inimitable complacency on the bustling sects crawling far below, and frown defiance to the proudest of them, to approach their height. Not as moralists do they take their proud stand, but as a new sect bearing a new modification of christianity. Christianity reformed even to sublimity! christianity stript of its peculiar institutions!

The moral tendency of their religious system may be considered in its effects on the mind; on their manners; on practical religion, and on learning. These moral effects are presented to our eyes with the historical evidence of a hundred and seventy years.

1. The doctrine of supernatural impulses, carried out in its legitimate tendency, lays their minds open to endless follies and deception.

Let a man be fully convinced that he carries in his bosom a power that dictates every proper measure, and guides him with infallibility, and he will seldom act like a sober and rational being. He will check, as intrusions, the dictates of reason; and

He was appointed governor of New Jersey in A. D. 1682, by Charles II. † Bar. Apol. Prop. x. sect. 11.

he will spurn from him the advices of friends. Even the holy counsels of the Bible will loose their weight with him. Never content with common means, and common things, nothing short of supernatural agency comes up to the measure of his taste. He will court with anxiety the dream, or the still voice of the awful midnight hour; or the solemn vision of the forest, or of the cave. He will be the child of superstition. A strong inclination, nursed by some particular bias, will have the force, with him, of a divine impulse. He will, by degrees, transfer the influence of these motions from moral objects to the common affairs of life. They will, in process of time, be put in requisisition to guide his appetites, his business, and even his gestures. Incidents are on record in the history of the sect, which do abundantly show that this is no theory.

One of these reforming inspirati was moved to carry off the sand glass from the priest's desk. He affirmed that he did it in obedience to the Spirit. And Fox insisted that that could not be theft which was prompted by inspiration.* One of these inspired few resided in major Hobson's family. Finding his mind inaccessible to argument, the major, by means of a long tube, carried into a trunk that stood in the chamber of the Friend, conveyed dismal sounds into his ears, about the witching time of night. His mind having been suitably elevated by this preparatory measure, he heard words distinctly calling on him to arise and go to a certain place. He arose and devoutly obeyed the oracle. Fox, when walking over a plain received a command from the invisible guide within to ascend the adjacent cliffs, and he promptly obeyed. When seated at the table, it said, "George eat not;" and he arose forthwith.§ Toldervy was the most implicit in his obedience. "He could not limit the holy one in him in any thing." He had been a dashing and gay servant in colonel Webb's family. But after hearing one Quaker lecture this spirit in him new modelled his whole life. Thou shalt not use "you and ye." And he thenceforth used the style of the sanctified. Thou shalt not use "points nor a hat-band, nor one

"Great mystery," old Edit. p. 77, and “Snake, &c." p. 94, Edit. 3, or p. 91. 2 Edit. † Faldo's "Quak. &c." p. 27, and Penn. vol. ii. p. Jour. vol. i. 173. § Vol. i. p. 172.

306.

unnecessary button." And he rejected them. He met the colonel no longer with an obsequious air, but under a huge hat and with "William Webb, how does thy body do?" While the colonel was entertaining a polite company, "I was moved by the spirit," said John, "to go and dine with them." Instead of waiting on his master, he walked into the hall, covered, and with a gravity that was not to be discomposed, he took his stool, placed it at the head of the table," and applied himself to his work." We next find him behind a counter. But the spirit moved him to give new names to certain articles that "were named by the will of man." This new nomenclature produced such confusion that he was again dismissed. In short, he eat when prompted by his spiritual guide: and refrained, scrupulously, from those viands which it proscribed.* Some were prompted to rid themselves of the shackles of clothes, and to act the Lupercus. Some were moved to take off the hat in prayer. Some were moved not to take off the hat. Some it moved to stand during devotion: some it moved to sit. Guided by these impulses, some laid aside the leading institutions of Christ. Muggleton, though not of the society, professed to follow the same infallible guide, and, outrageously consistent, he rejected the Bible, and teachers, and pastors, and sacraments, and assemblies for worship. In late times, Shackleton revived this principle in the society in Ireland; and rigorously followed it up, till he found himself precisely where this enthusiasm carries its votaries—in the train of Herbert and Hume, and the miserable Paine.†

2. The first grand tenet of the sect has a tendency to lead men into the wildering mazes of deism.

Their leading tenet elevates their revelations above the Bible: and the Holy Bible is made to sink into a secondary rule; liable to be interpreted by their revelations; and obeyed only so far as it corresponds with their impulses. These revelations, say they, do all that the scriptures can do-and in a superior manner. The scriptures are from the Spirit, but they have that very Spirit as their guide. And "propter quod unumquodque est

* See his book, "Foot out of the Snare," pp. 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, &c. See the Note D. Appendix I. † See The Snake in the Grass," sect. 21, for further specimens equally striking Penn. vol. ii. p. 515.

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