FRIEND. 
Friction is also applied to the rubbing the 
human body with a flesh-brush, flannel, &c. ; 
but the most important purpose of this kind 
of friction is for the introduction of mercury 
into the habit by means of the skin instead 
of the mouth, \ 
FRIEND, or quuker. A society of dis- 
senters from the church of England obtain- 
ed 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 undertaking to 
which he considered himself 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 constant reference to the scriptures, with 
great zeal, courage, and perseverance, in 
preadhing and suffering, did more than 
literature could have done to spread his 
doctrine among the middle and lower clas- 
ses. The most prominent feature in the 
Friends’ view of Christianity, is this : seeing, 
no man knoweth the l ather but the Son, 
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
him, and seeing, the revelation of the Son is 
in and by the Spirit; therefore the testimo- 
ny 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 ac- 
knowledge 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 consistency 
with the sense of the New Testament, 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 profess their 
belief in one God, as Father, Word, and 
Holy Spirit ; in one Mediator, the Word 
made flesh, Jesus Christ ; in the concep- 
tion, birth, life, miracles, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension of Jesus; and in the re- 
mission of sins thereby purchased for the 
whole world of fallen mankind. Christ’s 
redemption they believe to be perfected in 
us by his second coming in Spirit; in which 
they who obey him are, through the obedi- 
ence of faith, restored from their state of 
alienation, and reconciled to God. They 
affirm, that for this end there is given to 
every man a measure of the light of Christ, 
(called by their eaVly preachers the light 
within) a manifestation of the Spirit to pro- 
fit withal ; which discovers sin, reproves 
for it, leads out of it, and, if not resisted, 
will save from it, and lead on the Christian 
to perfection. In public worship they pro- 
fess to wait on God in this gift, in order to 
have their conditions made manifest in si- 
lence and retirement of mind. They look 
for an extraordinary motion of it for social 
worship, and considering the qualification 
of a minister as a further gift which God 
confers, and of which the church ought to 
jtt ’ge in the same Spirit, they do not limit 
its exercise to any description of persons. 
They suffer some inconvenience hereby, as 
they acknowledge ; but they prefer bearing 
this to the establishing of any form of wor- 
ship, save the foreme,ntioned waiting in 
silence. They do not baptize formally, or 
use the sign of the communion ; they say 
the one has ceased as to obligation, 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 af- 
firmation in civil causes is made legal in- 
stead 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 inculcate implicit submission, 
actively or passively, to Caesar, 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 phraseo- 
logy they have a testimony to bear. Some 
peculiarities mark them out from their fel- 
low citizens. Simplicity in dress, in some 
instances, nearly amounting to an adherence 
to their original, though not prescribed, 
costume ; simplicity of language, thou to 
one person, and without compliments ; sim- 
plicity in their manners of living; the non- 
observance of fasts and feasts ; the rejec- 
tion of those which they call the unchristian 
names of days and months; and the renun- 
ciation of the thea tres and other promiscu- 
ous amusements, gaming, and the usual 
outward signs of mourning and rejoicing, 
may be considered 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 
rales, by means of an excellent system of 
Q 2 
