290 



QUAKERS. 



Quakers. Friends have the credit of being the first who reduced love and prefer them before all other , books in the Quakers. 

 s -iT*' those principles to practice. In the early times of this world, rejecting all principles or doctrines whatsoever y< "Y- ' 

 Society, a few individuals belonging to it were charge- that are repugnant thereunto; indeed, no society of 



able with irregularity and impropriety in some parts 

 of their conduct, but we believe that, on examination, 

 it will be found that such conduct was disapproved of 

 by the Society at large. The most notorious instance 

 of the kind is that of James Naylor, who was condemn- 

 ed on a charge of blasphemy by Cromwell's parlia- 

 ment ; but when it is considered that he was disowned misapplied, by those who extol the Scripture above the 

 as a member by the society, and was not reinstated un- immediate teaching of Christ's spirit in the heart ; 

 til he had publicly acknowledged his error, and given whereas, without the last, the first cannot be profitably 

 signs of sincere repentance, it is certainly unfair to af- understood. 



* iL: 4. On the Resurrection. They believe the resurrec- 



Christians in the world can have a more reverend and 

 honourable esteem for them than they have. (William. 

 Penn.) Nevertheless, they object to calling the Scrip, 

 tures the word of God, as being a name applied to 

 Christ as the eternal word by the sacred writers them- 

 selves, though too often misunderstood, and therefore 



fix any stigma to the Friends on his account ; yet this 

 has been done by several writers. 



The doctrines of the Society of Friends have been 

 variously represented, but we shall give the reader an 

 account of their tenets nearly in their own words, leav- 

 ing him to judge for himself. 



1. They believe that God is one, and there is none 

 other besides him, and that this one God is Father, Son, 

 and Holy Ghost, as in Matt, xxviii. 19. (R. Claridge.) 

 To the assertion that the Quakers deny the Trinity, 

 William Penn answers, " Nothing less. They believe 

 in the Holy Three, or the Trinity of Father, Word, 

 and Spirit, according to the Scripture : but they are 

 very tender of quitting Scripture terms and phrases for 

 schoolmen's, such as distinct and separate persons and 

 sbsistencies, &c. from whence people are apt to enter- 

 tain gross ideas and notions of the Father, Son, and 

 Holy Ghost," &c. 



2. They believe that Christ is both God and man, in 

 wonderful union, not a God by creation or office, as some 

 hold, nor man by the assumption of a human body only, 

 without a reasonable soul, as others, or that the man- 

 hood was swallowed up of the godhead, as a third sort 

 grossly fancy; but God uncreated, (see John i. 1, 3. 

 Coloss. i. 17, &c.) the true God, (1 John, v. 20,) the 

 great God, (Tit. ii. 13, &c.) and man, conceived by 

 the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary, (see 

 Luke i. 31, 35,) who suffered for our salvation, and 

 was raised again for our justification, and ever liv- 

 eth to make intercession for us. In reply to the 

 charge, that " the quakers deny Christ to be God," 

 William Penn says, " a most untrue and uncharitable 

 censure ; for their great and characteristic principles 

 being this, that Christ, as the divine word, lighteth the 

 souls of all men that come into the world with a spi- 

 ritual and saving light, according to John i. 8, 9, 12, 

 (which nothing but the Creator of souls can do,) it 

 does sufficiently show they believe him to be God, 

 for they truly and expressly own him to be so, accord- 

 ing to the Scripture, viz. in him was life, and the life 

 was the light of men, and he is God over all, bless- 

 exl for ever." And to the objection, that " the quakers 

 deny the human nature of Christ," he answers, " we 

 never taught, said, or held so gross a thing. For, as 

 we believe him to be God over all, blessed for ever, so 

 do we truly believe him to be of the seed of Abraham 

 and David after the flesh, and therefore truly and pro- 

 perly man, like us in all things, sin only excepted." 

 (William Penn.) 



3. Onthe Scriptures. They believe them to be of divine 

 authority, given by the inspiration of God through 

 holy men ; that they are a declaration of those things 

 most surely believed by the primitive Christians, and 

 that they contain the mind and will of God, and are 

 his commands to us, and therefore are obligatory on us, 

 and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, &c. They 



tion according to the Scripture, not only from sin, but 

 also from death and the grave ; they most steadfastly 

 believe, that as our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from 

 the dead by the power of the Father, and was the first- 

 fruits of the resurrection, so every man in his own or- 

 der shall arise, they that have done well to the resu- 

 rection of eternal life, but they that have done evil to 

 everlasting condemnation ; and as the celestial bodies 

 do far excel the terrestrial, so they expect our spiritual 

 bodies in the resurrection shall far excel what our bo- 

 dies now are. (William Penn and William Sewell.) 



5. On the Original and Present Stale of Man. William 

 Penn says " the world began with innocency, all was 

 then good that God had made ; man in paradise, the 

 beast in the field, the fowl in the air, &c. worshipped, 

 praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness. 

 But this happy state lasted not long; for man, the crown 

 and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above 

 his place, fell below it ; but the divine image, the wis- 

 dom, power, and purity he was made in, by which, 

 being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that 

 garden of God, and was driven out as a poor vaga- 

 bond, from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the 

 earth." Respecting the present state of man, Robert 

 Barclay observes, " we cannot suppose that men, who 

 are come of Adam naturally, can have any good thing 

 in their nature as belonging to it, which he, from whom 

 they derive their nature, had not himself to communi- 

 cate to them. If then we may affirm, that Adam did 

 not retain in his nature (as belonging thereunto) any 

 will or light capable to give him knowledge in spirit- 

 ual things, then neither can his posterity ; for whatso- 

 ever real good any man doth, it proceeds, not from his 

 nature, as he is man, or the son of Adam, but from the 

 seed of God in him, as a new visitation of life, in order 

 to bring him out of his natural condition. 



6. On Man's Redemption through Christ. They be- 

 lieve that God, who made man, had pity on him in the 

 fall, and in his infinite goodness and wisdom, provided 

 means for his restoration by a nobler and more excel- 

 lent Adam, promised to be born of a woman ; and 

 which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of .the 

 Son of God in the flesh, was personally and fully aa- 

 complished in our Saviour ; and that, as truly as Christ 

 overcame the spiritual enemy of mankind in our na- 

 ture in his own person, so, by his divine grace being 

 received and obeyed by us, he overcomes him in us. 

 They believe that there is no way of being saved from 

 sin and wrath eternal, but by that Christ alone who 

 died at Jerusalem ; there is no way of being saved by 

 him, but by receiving him into the heart through a liv- 

 ing faith. Respecting the doctrines of satisfaction arul 

 justification, William Penn says, " I shall first speak 

 negatively, what we do not own. We cannot believe 

 that Christ is the cause but the effect of God's love, ac- 



