Society of Friends, apply these remarks to our own religious peculiarities. They are, evidently, of a striking character, and of considerable importance in their practical results, and even, at first sight, they appear calculated to promote the tranquillity of the world, and the spiritual prosperity of the church of Christ. What, then, is the nature, what the authority, of those principles out of which they spring?

In reply to this inquiry, it may be observed, in the first place, that the great doctrine which lies at the root of them—a doctrine declared in Scripture, and admitted to be true by the generality of pious Christians is that of the immediate and perceptible guidance of the Holy Spirit. Whatever may be the experience of other persons, it is certainly our experience, that the very same guiding and governing Spirit which leads the right-minded amongst us into the practice of universally acknowleged Christian virtues, also leads into these peculiarities; and hence we derive a satisfactory conviction that they are truly consistent with the law of God, and arise out of its principles.

In order to the confirmation of this general argument, we cannot do better than bring our several peculiarities, respectively, to the test of that clear revelation of the divine will which is contained in the Holy Scriptures, and which more particularly distinguishes the New Testament. Such has been the work attempted in the present volume. The points first considered, in pursuance of this plan, have been those which have a more immediate connexion with our religious duties towards God himself. Again to re

capitulate the arguments adduced on the several particular objects alluded to, would be at once tedious and unnecessary; but the reader will recollect that our disuse of typical ordinances,-our refusal to admit any ministry in our congregations but such as flows from the immediate influences of the Holy Spirit,our views respecting the selection, preparation, and ordination, of the ministers of the Gospel,—our declining to unite in the prevalent system of hiring preachers, or of otherwise making for the ministry pecuniary returns,—our allowance of the public praying and preaching of females, and our practice of waiting together upon the Lord in silence,-are all grounded on the great Christian law, that they who worship God, who is a Spirit, "must worship him in spirit and in truth." We conceive it to be in precise accordance with the principle of this law,—a law which, in some respects, distinguished the dispensation of Christianity from that of Judaism,—that we abandon all ceremonial and typical ordinances, all forms of public prayer, all written and prepared ministry, all human interference in the steps preceding the exercise of the sacred office, and all purchase or hire of its administrations; that we attempt not the use of words when words are not required of us; and that, while we endeavour to place an exclusive reliance on the Great High Priest of our profession, we do not hesitate to make way for the liberty of his Spirit, and to suffer the wind to blow where it listeth.

The views thus entertained by the Society of Friends, on the subject of worship, arise from the entire spiritual principles, as we deem them, of the

Christian dispensation. We conceive, however, that the divine Author and Minister of that dispensation not only brought to light and instituted, among his A followers, the highest standard of divine worship, but I promulgated also a perfect code of practical morality. It is the deliberate opinion of Friends,—an opinion which they have often found it their duty to declare,

that this moral code ought to be maintained, by the followers of Jesus, in all its original purity; that no compromise ought to be made between the law of the world and the law of God; that the latter can never rightly yield, either to the dictates of human - wisdom, or to the demands of apparent expediency. : In consequence of the impression made on our minds by this general sentiment, (a sentiment which, however far it may be from being confined to ourselves, is, probably, maintained in our Society with a more than common degree of completeness,) we have been led to avoid various practices which are still usual, not only among worldly-minded persons, but among many sincere and even pious Christians. We conceive it to be in true consistency with the divine law, when rightly understoood, that we abstain from lowering the standard of truth, and from a conditional cursing of self, by the utterance of oaths; from infringing the law of love, by taking any part either in offensive or defensive warfare; from fomenting the pride of man, by the use of flattering titles, and other complimentary expressions; from addressing to mortals those acts of reverence which are, on other occasions, employed to mark our allegiance to the Deity himself; from gratifying our own vanity, by the useless orna

menting of the person or the apparel; and from a conformity with some other common customs which we consider to have an evil tendency.

Now, the reader will recollect that these several peculiarities-appertaining partly to worship, and partly to the conduct of common life—are not only, according to our apprehension, the natural and lawful results of plain Christian principles, but are, for the most part, found to derive no slight confirmation from particular passages of the sacred writings, and especially of the New Testament, which appear to bear to them, respectively, a precise and specific relation.

Such is a short and general summary of the contents of the preceding essays. It may now be remarked, that another general argument, in favour of the Christian origin of our religious peculiarities, is suggested, by the consideration of them as parts of a whole. The religion of Friends, when regarded as a system of doctrine and practice, may be described as consisting of many points, on which their views are coincident with those of their fellow-Christians, and of others; the holding of which is, more or less, confined to themselves. Now, among the various parts which constitute this whole, there exists an uninterrupted and very striking harmony. Whilst our peculiarities are in no degree inconsistent with those fundamentals in religion which are common to all true Christians, they will be found, in a remarkable manner, adapted to one another. Our high view, repecting the unprofitableness of religious ceremonies, and the abolition of types, is completely in accordance with views equally high, in relation to the true

nature and right exercise, the divine origin and absolute freedom, of the Christian ministry. And with our sentiments, in regard to the ministry, nothing can more properly coincide than our doctrine, respecting the value and usefulness of silent worship. Nor is it less evident, that the estimate which we have been led to form of Christian morality, as evinced in a practical testimony, borne against all swearing and fighting, and in favour of complete plainness and simplicity in conduct and conversation, is on a level with such of our principles as appertain to the subject of worship, and constitutes a necessary part of one complete and harmonious view of the purity, spirituality, and true perfection of the Gospel dispensation. We know that in systems of religion which are of merely human invention-which have no better authority than the wisdom of the creature-there are ever found some inconsistent and discordant particulars which betray the secret that the work is of man. In the absence of such inconsistency, therefore, in the nice adjustment of part with part, of sentiment with sentiment, of practice with practice, in the unbroken harmony which pervades the great whole,-I cannot but perceive a strong confirming evidence that the religious system of Friends results from the operations of the Divine Spirit, and is based on the unvarying principles of the law of God.

Since, then, the views and practices which have been considered in the present work are maintained, as a whole, by no Christian society except that of