MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
God; and hence those doctrines 
which their adversaries have held 
to be the most profane, as they 
were calculated to establish a 
degree of equality of nature 
between the created and the 
Creator. 
The Sooffee doctrine teaches 
that there are four stages through 
which man must pass before he 
can reach the highest, or that 
of divine beatitude; when, to 
use their own language, ‘ his 
corporeal veil will be removed, 
and his emancipated soul will 
mix again with the glorious es- 
sence, from which it had been 
separated, but not divided.”’ The 
first of these stages is that of 
humanity, ,which supposes the 
disciple to live in an obedience 
to the holy law, and an ob- 
servance of all the rites, cus- 
toms, and precepts of the esta- 
blished religion; which are ad- 
mitted to be useful in regulating 
the lives, and restraining within 
proper bounds the vulgar mass, 
whose souls cannot reach the 
heights of divine contemplation, 
and who might be corrupted and 
misled by that very liberty of 
faith which tends to enlighten 
and delight those of superior in- 
tellect, or more fervent devotion. 
The second stage, in which the 
disciple attains power, or force, is 
- termed the road, or path; and he 
who arrives at this, leaves that 
condition in which he is only 
admitted to admire and fol- 
low a teacher, and enters the 
pale of Sooffeeism, He may 
now abandon all observance 
of religious forms and cere- 
monies, as he exchanges, to 
use their own phrase, “ practi- 
eal for spiritual worship ;” but 
463 
this stage cannot be obtained 
without great piety, virtue, and 
fortitude; for the mind cannot 
be trusted in the neglect of usages 
and rites, necessary to restrain it 
when weak, till it has acquired 
strength from habits of mental 
devotion, grounded on a proper 
knowledge of its own dignity, and 
of the divine nature of the. Al- 
mighty. The third stage is that 
of knowledge; and the disciple 
who arrives at it is deemed to 
have attained supernatural know- 
ledge ; or, in other words, to be 
inspired: and he is supposed, 
when he reaches this state, to be 
equal to the angels. The fourth 
and last stage is that which de~ 
notes his arrival at truth; which 
implies his complete union with 
the Divinity. 
The Sooffees are divided into 
innumerable sects, as must be 
the case in a doctrine which may 
be termed the belief of the ima- 
gination. By enumerating a few 
of the most remarkable of these 
sects, the character of the whole 
will be understood: for though 
they differ in name, and some 
minor usages, they are all agreed 
in the principal tenets; and par- 
ticularly in those which incul- 
cate the absolute necessity of a 
blind submission to inspired 
teachers, and the possibility, 
through fervent piety and en- 
thusiastic devotion, of attaining 
for the soul, even when the body 
inhabits the earth, a state of ce- 
lestial beatitude. 
Authors are divided whether 
there are two or seven of what 
can be deemed original sects 
among the Sooffees: but a very 
learned writer, whose hostile 
bigotry made him direct all his 
