Even vicious men, deeply plunged in sins, can become and remain preachers, provided only they have a human calling! From such men the Spirit cannot come out, because they are void of its influence. Lastly, through the establishment of a separate ministry, the preaching of the doctrine of salvation, was debased into an instrument to the meanest ends; since, rich revenues and certain advantages of outward rank and social position, were connected with it. The Lord will have another kind of preaching; and whosoever, young or old, man or woman, high or low, learned or unlearned, shall be moved by the Spirit, may, and ought to preach, pray, and praise God publicly in the congregation.*

2. Another equally natural consequence from the aforesaid premises, is, that all set forms of liturgy are proscribed; as every prayer must spring immediately out of a heart, moved and incited by God. The meetings for divine service are, according to Barclay, solemnized in the following manner. In a plain, unadorned room, filled only with benches, in which no outward object can excite any religious feelings, the Friends of Light sit in the profoundest silence, in order to withdraw the mind from all earthly distractions, to free it from all connexion with the relations of every

The English Protestants required of the Quakers, that, as they despised the existing ministry of teachers, they should prove their mission by miracles, as, at an earlier period, the German Protestants had demanded of the Anabaptists. Their answer was the same, as that which Luther had given to the Catholics. Barclay, p. 245, "Yet, in order to preserve the purity of doctrine, the Quakers saw themselves compelled, by degrees, to admit a kind of itinerant teachers, and even to exercise a superintendence over them, by means of human ordinances." See Clarkson, vol. ii. Rel. c. x.-xi. p. 217, 276.

day life, and by this inward recollectedness, to fit it for hearing the voice of heaven. The spirit, however, in this abstraction from all outward things, ought not to strive after independence; nay, it must renounce itself, and act quite passively, in order to receive, in their untroubled purity, the Divine inspirations. This solemn stillness may last a half or whole hour, without experiencing any other interruption, save the sighs or groans of some souls agitated by the Spirit, until, at last, some member shall feel himself moved, by heaven, to communicate in a discourse or a prayer, according as the Spirit directs, the inward revelations he has received. It may even happen, that the meeting separates, without any individual having been moved to hold a discourse. Yet, nevertheless, the Quakers assure us, that their souls have, in the meantime, been saturated, and their hearts filled, with mysterious feelings of the Divine power and the Divine Spirit.* It also

* Barclaius, p. 297. "Imo sæpe accidit integras quasdam conventiones sine verbo transactas fuisse, attamen animæ nostræ magnopere satiatæ, et corda mire secreto divinæ virtutis et Spiritûs sensu repleta fuerunt, quæ virtus de vase in vas transmissa fuerit." Clarkson gives the following account (vol. ii. Rel. c. xii. p. 279):—“ For this reason (that men are to worship God only, when they feel a right disposition to do it), when they enter into their meetings, they use no liturgy or form of prayer. Such a form would be made up of the words of man's wisdom. Neither do they deliver any sermons that have been previously conceived or written down. Neither do they begin their service immediately after they are seated. But, when they sit down, they wait in silence, as the apostles were commanded to do. They endeavour to be calm and composed. They take no thought as to what they shall say. They endeavour to avoid, on the other hand, all activity of the imagination, and every thing that rises from the will of man. The creature is thus brought to be passive, and the spiritual faculty to be disencumbered, so that it can receive and attend to the spiritual language of the Creator. If, during this vacation from all mental

sometimes happens, that, when the images of this lower world will not depart from a soul, that is looking forward to the manifestation of life (vitæ apparitionem expectare), a violent, convulsive struggle ensues, wherein the powers of darkness wrestle with those of light, like Esau and Jacob in the womb of Rebecca. The inward conflict (prælium) is outwardly evinced in the heaviest, most deep-felt groans, in tremblings, in the most convulsive movements of the whole body; until at last victory inclines to the side of light, and, in the excess of luminous outpourings, manifests itself with holy jubilee. In virtue of the union of all the members of a community in one body, the agitations of an individual, particularly if he be one of the more excited, are frequently imparted to the whole congregation; so that (to use the words of Barclay) "a most striking, and fearfully sublime scene is displayed, which of itself has irresistibly drawn many over to our society, before they had obtained any clear insight into our peculiar doctrines," From such trembling and quaking, the Quakers have derived their name.* In this way, they think to get rid of all superstition in ceremonies, and of all man's wisdom, which might so easily intrude into divine service, to abandon all things to inspiration from

activity, no impression should be given to them, they say nothing. If impression should be afforded to them, but no impulse to oral delivery, they remain equally silent. But if, on the other hand, impressions are given to them, with an impulse to utterance, they deliver to the congregation, as faithfully as they can, the copies of the several images, which they conceive to be painted upon their minds."

* Loc. cit. p. 300. Others give other explanations: Clarkson, for instance, (vol. i. Introduct. vii.) says with other writers, "George Fox, on one occasion, called upon a judge to quake before the word of God; whereupon the judge called him a Quaker."

heaven, and to establish a pure worship of God in Spirit and in truth.*

§ LXX. Peculiar manners and customs of the Quakers.

We must now draw the attention of the reader to certain peculiarities of the Quakers, which have reference merely to civil life, and to certain habits and customs in their social intercourse. They refuse taking oaths to the civil magistrate, (to whom, however, except in matters of religion, they confess they owe obedience); and for conscience' sake, they abstain from all military service. The austere spirit of Quakerism totally interdicts games of hazard, since a being, endowed with the faculty of thinking, should be ashamed of them, and still more, because they are beneath the dignity of a Christian. With equal reason they add, that such-like games awaken passions, that obstruct the reception of religious impressions, and establish a habit immoral in itself. Not content with this, they declare themselves averse from games of every kind;-a declaration which we should be disposed to praise, did they not condemn, without restriction, all holding a different opinion in this matter. On the other hand, they are much to be censured for banishing, from their society, all music, vocal as well as instrumental. This, indeed, will not surprise us, when we consider that they employ neither kind of music for awakening and cherishing religious emotions (§ 68); and that any regard to the refining of

* Loc. cit. p. 297. "Hujus cultûs forma ita nuda est et omni mundanâ et externâ gloriâ expers, ut omnem occasionem abscindat, quo hominis sapientia exerceatur, neque ibi superstitio et idololatria locum habet."-Compare pp. 293, 304.

the feelings, and to the culture of the sensibilities in general, still less any appreciation of music as an art, was not of course to be expected from the Quakers. Attendance at all theatrical shows, which on account of their connexion with idolatry, and of their gross nature not seldom shocking every tender feeling, were formerly interdicted in the ancient Church during her conflict with Heathenism;* and which from their, at all events,equivocal moral tendency, have,in subsequent ages, been ever regarded with a suspicious eye by men of piety; attendance at all theatrical shows, we say, is in the community of Quakers likewise not tolerated. In this particular they were certainly led by a good spirit. With the progress of intellectual cultivation (to view the subject only from a lower point of view), theatrical entertainments will certainly disappear, or at least will be aban

*Lact. Instit. div. i. lib. vi. c. xx. "Si homicidium nullo modo facere licet, nec interesse omnino conceditur, ne conscientiam perfundat ullus cruor comicæ fabulæ de stupris virginum loquuntur, aut amoribus meretricum: et quo magis sunt eloquentes, qui flagitia illa finxerunt, èo magis sententiarum elegantia persuadent, et facilius inhærent audientium memoriæ versus numerosi et ornati. Item tragicæ historiæ subjiciunt oculis parricidia, et incesta regum malorum et cothurnata scelera demonstrant. Histrionum quoque impudicissimi motus, quid aliud nisi libidines docent et instigant? Quorum enervata corpora, et in muliebrem incessum habitumque mollita, impudicas fœminas inhonestis gestibus mentiuntur. Quid de mimis loquar corruptelarum præferentibus disciplinam? Qui docent adulteria, dum fingunt, et simulatis erudiunt ad vera. Quid juvenes aut virgines faciant: cum et fieri sine pudore, et spectari libenter ab omnibus cernunt? Admonentur utique, quid facere possint, et inflammantur libidine, quæ aspectu maxime concitatur: ac se quisque pro sexû in illis imaginibus præfigurat, probantque illa, dum rident," etc. When Lewis XIV, an admirer of the theatre, once asked Bossuet, whether attendance at the same were permitted, the prelate replied, "there are incontrovertible reasons against, but great examples for it."