QUAKERS.

1

THE Quakers appeared in England about the year 1650. Their origin will be best given in their own words—“ The beginning of the seventeenth century is known to have been a time of great dissention in England respecting religion. Many pious persons had been dissatished with the settlement of the Church of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth Various societies of Dissenters bad accordingly aris; some of whom evinced their sincerity by grievous sufferings under the intolerance of those who governed church affairs. But these societies, notwithstanding their honest zeal, seemed to have stopped short in their progress towards a complete reformation; † aud, degenerating into formality, to have left their most enlightened members still to Jament the want of something more instructive and consolatory to the soul, than the most rigorous observance of their ordinances had ever produced. Thus dissatisfied and disconsolate, they were ready to follow any teacher who seemed able to direct them to that light and peace of which they felt the need. Many such in succession engaged their attention; until, finding the insufficiency of them all,

* Sewell, p. 5, 6. ed. 1722. 212. ed. 1782.

+ Penn, vol. v, 211,

they withdrew from the communion of every visible church, and dwelt retired, and attentive to the inward state of their own minds: often deeply distressed for the want of that true knowledge of God, which they saw to be necessary for salvation, and for which, according to their ability, they fervently prayed. These sincere breathings of spirit being answered by the extension of some degree of heavenly consolation, they became convinced, that as the heart of man is the scene of the tempter's attacks, it must also be that of the Redeemer's victory. With renewed fervency, therefore, they sought his appearance in their minds; and thus being renewedly furnished with his saving light and help, they not only became instructed in the things pertaining to their own salvation, but they discovered many practices in the world, which have a shew of religion, to be nevertheless the effect of the unsubjected will of man, and inconsistent with the genuine simplicity of the truth.

"George Fox* was one of the first of our Friends who were imprisoned. He was confined at Nottingham in the year 1649, for having publicly opposed a preacher, who had asserted that the more sure word of prophecy, mentioned 2 Pet. i. 19. was the Scripture; George Fox declaring that it was the

Besse's Sufferings of the People called Quakers, ch. 6, and 29, et passim.

Holy Spirit: and in the following year, being brought before two justices in Derbyshire, one of them, scoffing at G. Fox, for having bidden him, and those about him, tremble at the word of the Lord, gave to our predecessors the name of Quakers,* an appellation which soon became and hath remained our most usual denomination; but they themselves adopted, and have transmitted to us, the endearing appellation of Friends." See A Summary of the History, Doctrines, and Discipline of Friends, written at the desire of the Meeting for Sufferings in London. This pamphlet was published at the end of a work, entitled A Refutation of some of the more modern Misrepresentations of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, with a Life of James Nayler, by Joseph Gurney Bevan. Dr. Toulmin, in his new edition of Neal's History of the Puritans, has taken pains to give the public just ideas of the Quakers; it does honour to his impartiality. See also Dr. A. Rees's valuable and improved edition in Quarto, of Chambers's Encyclopædia, on the subject.

It is difficult to give a specific statement of their tenets; but they may be found in a well-written Apology by Robert Barclay, a learned Quaker, who died in Scotland, 1690. George Fox, the founder of this sect, was born 1624. He exhibited few articles of faith, and insisted mostly on morality,

* Besse. Suff. 29.-Sewell, 35.]

mutual charity, and the love of God. The religion. and worship he recommended was simple and with out ceremonies. To wait in profound silence for the influence of the Spirit, was one of the chief points he inculcated. "The tenor of his doctrine," says John Gough, "when he found himself concerned to instruct others, was to wean men from systems, ceremonies, and the outside of religion, in every, form, and to lead them to an acquaintance with themselves, by a solicitous attention to what passed in their own minds; to direct them to a principle in their own hearts, which, if duly attended to, would introduce rectitude of mind, simplicity of manners, a life and conversation adorned with every Christian virtue. Drawing his doctrine from the pure source of religious truth, the New Testament, and the conviction of his own mind, abstracted from the comments of men-he asserted the freedom of man in the liberty of the gospel, against the tyranny of custom, and against the combined powers of severe persecution, the greatest contempt and keenest ridicule. Unshaken and undismayed, he persevered in disseminating principles and practices conducive to the present and everlasting well-being of mankind, with great honesty, simplicity, and success.”*

The Quakers have places of worship, where they regularly assemble on the first and other days of the

Gough's History of the Quakers, vol. I. p. 56.

week, though sometimes without vocal prayer, or any religious exhortation. They reject the celebration of water baptism and the Lord's Supper as outward ordinances, have no distinct order of ministers, though their speakers are under certain regulations; and being firm opposers of the Calvinistic doctrines of Election and Reprobation, are advocates of the Arminian system of doctrine, so far at least as respects the universal love of God to man, in order to his salvation.

Their internal government is much admired, their own poor are supported without parochial aid, and their industry and sobriety are deserving of imita tion. They also reprobate the destructive practice of war, the infamous traffic of slaves, and profess their abhorrence of religious persecution. Refusing to pay tithes as an antichristian imposition, they suffer the loss of their goods and of their liberty, Tather than comply with the demand, and their losses are emphatically termed by them sufferings. Many have endured long imprisonments on that account. The Quakers object to all oaths, as having been prohibited by Christ, when he said, swear not at all: and their affirmation is permitted in all civil, but not in criminal cases. In the tyrannical reign of the Stuarts, the Friends suffered, in common with the Puritans, the severest persecution. Even the famous William Penn was tried at the Old Bailey; and his defence on the trial, an account of which is to be

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