God, elevated my soul above all considerations besides them and while I thank God, in Christ Jesus, as "the author and finisher of my faith, through whom, strengthening me, I can do all things," I record it here to his glory and my own ineffable joy, that I have never, for one moment, regretted that decisive initial measure! and would no more go back to Friends, than I would resign my hope and joy in Christ Jesus! 14

Shortly after this I came to the conclusion that God had called me to the work of the ministry. I pass over. the details of self-examination, and trials in this relation, through which I was enabled to pass, by the help of God speaking to me in his word, and comforting my soul at the throne of grace. I was licensed by the presbytery of New-York, in the month of October, 1816, to preach the gospel; and ordained to that office by the presbytery of Jersey, at Mendham, July 1, 1817. "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mispeh and Shen, and called the name of it EBEN-EZER, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.", 1 Sam. 7: 12. Having ever since felt that God hath invested me with an office of magnitude, and a commission of responsibility, I have equally felt that, as a minister of Jesus, I was bound to perform a service of point and plainness to Friends; that as I could have no personal access to their meetings, and as private conferences had often proved unavailing, having, from experience, very little hope in talking with a Friend, as it is mostly impossible to convince him, and having, therefore, for a long time, almost totally disconti

nued it; and convinced also, that ANY written treatise that should honestly attack the fundamental errors of their creed would be, of course, denounced by the Society, come from whom it might, and being written with whatever care and calmness, I felt that there was no alternative. Hence the present volume, in which my purpose is "nothing to extenuate, nor set down aught in malice;" to fear God only, and leave consequences with him. "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all!" I have, at different times, received letters from divers Friends, preachers and others; some commanding me to repent and return to the inward light; others arguing the matter, informing me that I know I am doing wrong, remonstrating, warning, prophesying, testifying; and all inspired. Some of them are documents of heresy worthy of exposure; and I have them all filed and at hand, whenever it may be necessary to publish them, when I can do it with names and dates entire, and suitable notes and illustrations. Some of them I have answered, and others, full of rampant infidelity and something worse, I have just filed in silence. Some have uttered divers predictions concerning me, with specifications of time, which I have already lived to confound. Some of their prophecyings used at first instinctively to frighten me; but, in the end, I was only strengthened by them, when I saw the time arrived in which they were at once due and dishonored. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass,

that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him." Deut. 18: 22. If there were no eternity, no heaven, no hell, no Savior, and no duty to perform, I would let them alone.

With respect to the style of this treatise, it is, perhaps, full of peculiarities, and those who know the writer will find them all his own. He is conscious also of their blemishes and faults. All he asks of the critic is to consider that the profession, on the score of taste, is quite as humble as the performance. A man should be himself at all times: peculiarities, eccentricities, and even inaccuracies, are more tolerable than mimicry, affectation, and false consequence; while, in respect to conscience, one ought to remember that his appetite or organs are diseased who cannot tolerate even the truth of the everlasting gospel, unless modernized, decorated with the beauties of artificial rhetoric, and spiced to the relish of a sickly taste. Such a reader desires not to know the truth, but to get rid of it; and this he covertly attempts under a demand for style. There is much of this silly and wicked capriciousness in the world. Its votaries, one would think, must perfectly nauseate the Bible! and retreat politely for respite in fresco to the profanely bewitching genius of Byron, or the brilliant romancing of Scott. I would rather be denounced by critics and Friends in league, than defer to this graceless appetite one single hair.

"The preacher sought," however, "to find out

acceptable words;" and if it be ultimately found that "that which was written was upright, even words of truth," its faultiness in minor respects will little disturb me. Some, and perhaps not a few, of the peculiarities of style and sentiment, however, result from the subject itself, the relations of the writer, the manner he prefers to adopt as best suited to arrest the thoughts, and the very peculiar singularities of the people called Quakers. For them, indeed, the work is intended, principally, if they will; secondarily, if they choose; and for others alone, should they universally refuse. "And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; he that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house." Ezek. 3: 4, 7-9, 27. Isaiah, 41: 15, 16. Hos. 6:5-7.

One great difficulty which every writer must feel on this subject, is polemically to ascertain precisely what that is which he opposes. That Quakerism is of difficult definition, has been the charge of christians against it from the beginning. They

have no authentic creeds or symbols of faith: and those who know them, know that their inspiration often differs from itself on many points, according to the number of its subjects, multiplied by the number of interviews had with them. Prove any thing wrong, which one of them has said; prove it to another of them, and you will probably hear the convenient answer: "O that is a mistake, it is not what Friends believe." If you insist, "What then do they believe?" you will meet some reply of ambiguity, evasion, or obscurity, which will convince you only of their general ignorance of their own tenets, and of the trust of each to the better inspiration of all the others. In general, they are, as a sect, marvellously ignorant of what the scriptures teach. Their contradictions have been shown by many writers. In order to attain some definite end, therefore, I have mainly taken Barclay's Apology; a book which deserves and receives, perhaps, more of their common confidence than any other of their public documents; and have assumed it as a standard of what Quakerism is, proving the positions that I oppose, by quotations from its pages, and valuing it as by far the most respectable performance of which the society can boast; the works of Penn IN TOTO, being postponed to it. In this, if I have been studious of convenience to myself, I have been equally favorable to them; for, not only in point of style and scholarship, but in approximation (though it be but fitful and occasional) to protestant orthodoxy, Barclay holds a high, perhaps a solitary, pre-eminence. I have read many books and ser