: 
1811.) Aphorisms relative to Public Currency and Credit. ' 931 
such was not the case, the husband 
whose admiration of the marvellous 
would probably have been better pleased 
had Jonah swallowed his deliverer, was 
so much shocked at his wife’s impiety in 
doubting the personality of the whale, 
that he informed the members of the se- 
lect meeting of her erroneous opinions 
on this important article of faich ; she was 
immediately suspected of being tainted 
with the heresy of Hannah Barnard, she 
was degraded from her rank as minister, 
her fair character and peace of mind 
were wounded, and, if I am rightly in- 
formed, she narrowly escaped public ex- 
pulsion from the society, for thus daring 
to exercise the right of private judgment. 
‘The circumstance is of recent date. 
Were the reformation I have suggested 
to take place, respect for liberty of con- 
science and honest independance of 
mind, would prevent such illiberal per- 
secutions from disgracing the proceedings 
of a society, whose genuine doctrines are 
mild and tolerant. 
I am well aware that the attempt to 
sound an alarm in their spiritual Zion, 
to turn out the Pharisees and money- 
changers who defile the sanctuary, and 
thus to reform the church government of 
the Quakers, will be considered by many 
of their self-appointed rulers, as an act 
of daring impiety. They will imme- 
diately cry out, ‘Our forefathers were 
directed by the unerring spirit of truth, 
to adopt the form of~church discipline 
which we now enjoy, and we have mea- 
-surably been influenced by the same spi- 
rit to preserve it to the present day. 
Shall erring and finite creatures op- 
pose the dictates of that divine light 
with which we have been so highly fa- 
voured as a people?” It may, however, 
be right for all who have such high pre- 
tensions, to examine well the foundations 
on which they rest. George Fox, the 
founder of the society, laid claim to as 
plenary an influx of the holy spirit as any 
of his followers. He informs us in his 
Journal, that he was one day passing 
through a field, in which were several old 
women seated round a fire, when the 
spirit of the Lord came upon him, and 
ordered him to go another way, for these 
‘women were witches, ‘ Ex pede Her- 
sulem |” 
From this we may judge whether the 
spirit by which he was inspired, was the 
unerring spirit of truth or no. Some 
may perhaps be more inclined to believe 
that the man who supposed himself in- 
“spired to discover these old women avere 
“witches, was himself no conjuror. 
Tt is an invidious task to expose unne- 
cessarily the weakness of a good but 
mistaken man (for such I conceive 
GeorgeFox to have been); but it becomes 
a sacred duty to detect the errors of in- 
dividuals when they retard the progress 
of truth, in any class of our Christian 
brethren. Amidst all the eccentricities 
of this extraordinary man, he had one 
excellent object in view, which was to 
lead mankind from the superstitious ob- 
servance of external forms, to the operas 
tion of religious principle upon the mind, 
In pursuing this object, however, he fre- 
quently appears to have mistaken his 
path and exchanged superstition for en. 
thusiasm ; and, as an elegant historian has 
well observed, “the road from enthu- 
siasm to imposture is short and slippery.” 
Was it the unerring spirit of truth, by 
which he professed to be invariably 
guided, that dictated this account of his 
miracles? A withered arm immediately 
healed by his potent command, “ Arise 
and stretch it forth”; a stone in the blad- 
der dissolved by the efficacy of his prayer ; 
a broken neck ‘set straight; and, as El- 
wood, his revisor, observes, “ many more 
things did he which would oot be believed 
in that unbelieving ave.”* After the 
lapse of one hundred and fifty years, we 
may presume the present generation is 
not more credulous than that which wit- 
nessed with disbelief such astonishing 
manifestations of supernatural power, 
These miracles of George Fox will now 
be considered ‘as proofs of the weakness 
and presumption of all modern claims to 
the guidance of an infallible spirit. _ They 
are more suited to impress the minds of 
his followers with humility than to en- 
liven their faith. Verus. 
Sas 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
APHORISMS rclative {o PUBLIC CURRENG¥ 
and CREDIT. 
1. 
ee the medium by which 
the exchange of commodities 1s 
effected, and, being intended’ to pass 
as the representative of property, it 
ought to be of intrinsic value, and al- 
ways worth the property .which it ree 
presents, ; 
2. 
The stability and intrinsic worth of 
currency is the foundation of the com- 
mercial system, and the basis of public 
confidence in all transactions and cone 
siderations relative to property. 
LLL LLL TCC ED, 
* Vide Fox’s Journal; consult the Index 
vader the head ¢* Miracles,’ 
3. 
