FRI 



FRI 



Tabbing the human body with a flesh, 

 brush, flannel, Sec. ; but the most impor- 

 tant purpose of this kind of friction is 

 for the introduction of mercury into the 

 habit by means of the skin, instead of the 

 mouth. 



FRI END, or quaker. A society of dis- 

 senters from the church of England ob- 

 tained the latter appellation in the middle 

 of the seventeenth century ; the former 

 they had before applied, and continue to 

 apply, to themselves. The first preacher 

 of this society was George Fox, a man of 

 humble birth, and illiterate. The un- 

 dertaking 1 to whieh he considered him- 

 self called, that of promulgating a more 

 simple and spiritual form of Christianity 

 than any of those which prevailed, and 

 of directing the attention of Christians to 

 immediate revelation, required little more 

 reading than that of the Bible. A con- 

 ptant reference to the scriptures, with 

 great zeal, courage, and perseverance, in 

 preaching and suffering, did more than 

 literature could have done to spread his 

 doctrine among the middle and lower 

 classes. The most prominent feature in 

 the Friends' view of Christianity, is this 

 seeing no man knoweth the Father, but 

 the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 

 \vill reveal him ; and seeing the revela- 

 tion of the Son is in and by the Spirit ; 

 therefore the testimony of the Spirit is 

 that alone by which the true knowledge 

 of God is revealed. In this doctrine they 

 agree, in substance, with the church of 

 England, and all others who acknowledge 

 the efficacy of grace. For in whatever 

 way this is afforded to Christians, it is 

 powerfully given to know and to do the 

 will of God ; and the communication of 

 grace may be termed, in strict consisten- 

 cy with the sense of the NewTestament, 

 a revelation of Christ in the Spirit. The 

 Friends receive the Holy Scriptures as 

 having proceeded from the revelations of 

 the Holy Spirit; they account them the 

 secondary rule for Christians, subordinate 

 to the word, and therefore not the word 

 of God. According to these they pro- 

 fess their belief in one God, as Father, 

 Word, and Holy Spirit ; in one Mediator, 

 the "Word made flesh, Jesus Christ ; in 

 the conception, birth, life, miracles, 

 death, resurrection, and ascension of 

 Jesus ; and in the remission of sins there- 

 by purchased for the whole world of fall- 

 en mankind. Christ's redemption they 

 believe to be perfected in us by his se- 

 cond coming in spirit ; in which they who 

 obey him are, through the obedience of 

 faith, restored from their state of aliena- 

 ' j'mj and reconciled to God. They affirm. 



that for this end there is given to tvtvy 

 man a measure of the light of Christ, 

 (called, by their early preachers, the 

 light within) a manifestation ot the Spirit 

 to profit withal; which discovers sin, re- 

 proves for it, leads out of it, and, if not 

 resisted, will save from it, and lead on the 

 Christian to perfection. In public wor- 

 ship, they profess to wait on God in this 

 gift, in order to have their conditions 

 made manifest, in silence and retirement 

 of mind. They look for an extraordinary 

 motion of it for social worship, and con- 

 sidering the qualification of a minister as 

 a further gift which God confers, and of 

 which the church ought to judge in the 

 same spirit, they do not limit its exercise 

 to any description of persons. They suf- 

 fer some inconvenience hereby, as they 

 acknowledge ; but they prefer bearing 

 this to the establishing of any form of 

 worship, save the fore-mentioned waiting 

 in silence. They do not baptize formal- 

 ly, or use the sign of the communion ; 

 they say, the one has ceased as to obliga- 

 tion, and that the true administration of 

 the other is by the spirit alone. They 

 deem it unlawful for Christians to swear 

 at all ; and their affirmation in civil causes 

 is made legal instead of an oath. They 

 refuse to " learn war, or to lift up the 

 sword," as well as to contribute directly 

 to military proceedings. Yet, as they in- 

 culcate implicit submission, actively or 

 passively, to Csesar, they neither resist nor 

 evade the legal appropriation of their 

 substance by him, as well to these as to 

 ecclesiastical purposes. Against the claims 

 of the clergy, as well as many other things 

 apparently lawful, they say, in their phra- 

 seology, they have a testimony to bear. 

 Some peculiarities mark them out from 

 their fellow-citizens. Simplicity in dress, 

 in some instances nearly amounting to an 

 adherence to their original, though not 

 prescribed, costume ; simplicity of lan- 

 guage, thou to one person, and without 

 compliments ; simplicity in their manners 

 of living; the non-observance of fasts and 

 feasts ; the rejection of those which they 

 call the unchristian names of days and 

 months ; and the renunciation of the thea- 

 tres and other promiscuous amusements, 

 gaming, and the usual outward signs of 

 mourning and rejoicing, may be consi- 

 dered as their shibboleth. They marry 

 among themselves by a ceremony, or 

 contract, religiously conducted, and bury 

 their dead in the most simple manner. 

 They maintain their poor, and enforce 

 their own rules, by means of an excellent 

 system of discipline, founded by G. Fox. 

 They receive approved applicants into 



