Observations on the religious peculiarities of the Society of Friends

Chapter I

ojv THE GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS UNION WHICH SUBSIST AMONG MANKIND IN GENERAL, AND MORE ESPECIALLY AMONG TRUE CHRISTIANS.

To a series of observations on the particular tenets and peculiar religious advantages (as I deem them) of a comparatively small body of persons, I know of no more salutary introduction, than a survey of those grounds of union in matters of religion which subsist, first, among mankind in general, and secondly, among the true members of the visible church of Christ. Such a survey will, I trust, produce the effect of animating our hearts with the love of our neighbour, and will prepare us for a calm and charitable discussion of those particulars, which appertain more or less exclusively to our own religious situation in the world and in the church.

I. Let us then, in the first place, endeavour to form some estimate of the breadth of that foundation in religion, on which we are standing in common with

A mankind in general. God is the Creator and merciful Father of us all. Christ died for us all. A measure of the influence of the Holy Spirit enlightens, and, if obeyed, would save us all. Upon these successive positions I will venture to offer a few remarks, and will adduce a selection of scriptural declarations by which they appear to me to be severally established.

1. That God, to whom alone can be attributed the existence of the universe, and of every thing which it contains, — " from whom, and through whom, and unto whom, are all things," — is the creator of all men, is a point which none but atheists deny, and which I shall therefore take for granted. Now it is expressly asserted in Scripture of this omnipotent Author of our being, that he is. "Love," I. John iv. 8; and again, the character in which he proclaimed himself to his servant Moses, was that of "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;" Exod. xxxiv. 6. Hence we can scarcely fail to conclude, that, as the Father of the whole family of man, he extends over them all the wing of his paternal care, and graciously offers to them all his help, his protection and his mercy. It was on this principle, or on a principle still more comprehensive, that the royal psalmist, after describing Jehovah as " merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy," calls upon "all his works in all places of his dominion to bless his holy name ;" Ps. ciii. 22. And again, on another occasion he expressly declares that " the Lord is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his ivorks .;" Ps.

cxlv. 9. The attributes of God, as the Creator and Father of all mankind, were admirably unfolded by the apostle Paul, in his address to the philosophical Athenians : " God," said he, " that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us ; for in him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said,ybr we are also his offspring" Acts xvii. 24 — 28.

Let it not be imagined that^God is the merciful Father of all mankind, only, inasmuch as he makes his rain to fall, and his sun to shine for them all, and bestows upon them all a variety of outward and temporal benefits. The Scriptures plainly declare that he wills for them a happiness of a far more exalted and enduring nature. Fallen and corrupt as they are, and separated by their iniquities from the Holy One of Israel, " he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance ;" II. Pet. iii. 9. And to all mankind he proclaims the same invitation ; "let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon;." Isa. Iv. 7. The apostle Paul expressly assures us, that "the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" Tit. ii. 11; that God our Saviour would " have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth;" I. Tim. ii. 4. And again, he exclaims, "we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men;" I. Tim. iv. 10. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" said Jehovah himself, "for I am God, and there is none else;" Isa. xlv. 22. Nor are these expressions to be understood as being of a merely general and undefined character. He who offers deliverance to all men, has appointed for all men a way of escape; he who would have all men to be saved, has provided for all men the means of salvation. " God was in Christ, reconciling the ivorld unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ;" II. Cor. v. 19. " God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world ; but that the world through him might be saved, John iii. 17.

2. This concluding observation naturally leads to my second proposition, that Christ died for all — a proposition in order to the proof of which, I need do nothing more than simply cite the explicit declarations, on this subject, of inspired writers. " My little children," says the apostle John in his general epistle, " these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only (that is, not only for the sins of christians, to the whole company of whom this epistle was probably addressed*) but

* See Michadis Introd. N. T. by Marshy vol iii. clt. 30.

also for the sins of the whole world ;" I. John ii. 1, 2. The same doctrine is affirmed by Paul ; " There is one God," says he, in his first epistle to Timothy, " and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time ;" chap. ii. 5, 6. We may presume it is the same apostle who writes as follows in the epistle to the Hebrews, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man;" chap. ii. 9. Lastly, in his epistle to the Romans, after declaring that we are "reconciled unto God by the death of his Son," and in drawing the comparison between Adam in whom man fell, and Christ, by whom he is recovered, Paul argues as follows, " Therefore as by the offence of one (judgment came) upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, (the free gift came) upon all men unto justification of life; for as by one man's disobedience, many (or as in the Greek "the many"*) were made sinners : so by the obedience of one, shall the many be made righteous* Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound : but where sin aboundeth, grace did much more abound : that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord;" chap. v. 1 8 — 2 1 . The complete parall elism observed in this passage, between the effects of Adam's transgression on the one part, and those of the righteousness of Christ on the other, appears to afford a plain and

U 7T0hX.il.

I> ON THE GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS UNION

satisfactory evidence for the truth of the doctrine of universal redemption. The two things are described as being in their operation upon mankind absolutely co-extensive, and as it is true, without limit or exception, that all men are exposed to death through the sin of Adam, so it is true, without limit or exception, that all men may obtain eternal life through the righteousness of Christ. Multitudes there are, undoubted!}^ by whom this free gift " unto justification of life" is despised, disregarded, and rejected. Nevertheless, among the children of men there are none " upon" whom it has not " come" — none to whom it is not freely offered.

3. Since Christ died for all men,and has thus placed within their reach the free gift of justification unto life ; since such is the natural proneness of mankind to sin, that none can avail themselves of the benefits of the death of Christ, or receive the free gift of God, except through the influence of the Holy Spirit; and since it cannot without great irreverence be imagined that the mercy of God in Christ, thus gratuitously offered, should in any instance be merely nominal and nugatory in point of fact; I cannot but draw the conclusion that a measure of this influence of the Spirit is bestowed upon all men, by which they are enlightened, and b}^ which they may be saved.

Christians can have no difficulty in acceding to the doctrine of Elihu, that " there is a spirit in man," and that " the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding," Job. xxxii. 8 ; nor will they fail to form a just estimate of the words of the Wisdom of God, as recorded in the Book of Proverbs, " I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you;" chap. i. 23. That the Spirit which in these passages is probably alluded to, and which dwelt in the servants of God during the early ages of the world, was that very Spirit, the more abundant effusion of which was the most distinguishing feature of the christian dispensation — that this Spirit was the true enlightener and sanctifier of men, before as well as after the coming of Christ in the body — and that multitudes of those who lived previously to the christian era, and whose view of the character and mediation of the Messiah was comparatively faint, were really saved by its influence from the power of sin and fitted for eternal life, — will not be disputed by any persons who esteem as sacred the records of the Old Testament. Since therefore so many persons in those ancient times were saved by the operation of the Spirit of Christ, who for the most part possessed nothing more than an indistinct apprehension of the person and offices of the Messiah, it seems a very reasonable inference that the outward knowledge of Christ is not absolutely indispensable to salvation, and that other persons who are altogether destitute of that knowledge, may also be saved from sin and from the penalties which are attached to it through the secret operations of divine grace.

To this argument from analogy, may be added another of no inconsiderable weight. Between the effects of Adam's sin and those of the obedience of Christ, there is, in various respects, a perfect coincidence. The doctrine of universal redemption has already been deduced, on the authority of the apostle

Paul, from the universality of the fall ; and it appears to have been provided by the mercy and equity of God, that, in both the extent and manner of their operation, the analogy should be preserved between the disease and the remedy — that the operation of the one should still be adapted to the operation of the other. Now, as men participate in the disease arising from the sin of Adam who are totally ignorant of its original cause, so we may with reason infer, that men jnay also participate in the remedy arising from the obedience of Christ who have received no outward revelation whatever respecting that obedience.

The inference deduced from these premises appears to derive, from certain passages in the New Testament, substantial confirmation. However Cornelius the Roman centurion, previously to his communication with Peter, might have been aware of the events recorded in the gospel histories, it is obviously improbable that he knew Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of men; yet that he had received the gift of the Spirit of grace is indisputable, for he was a just man living in the fear of God; Acts x. 22. And what was the remark suggested by the case of Cornelius to the Apostle Peter ? — " Of a truth I perceive," said he, " that God is no respecter of persons ; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him ;" ver. 34, 35. When the apostle used these words, the truth which he contemplated appears to have been this : that amongst the nations of the Gentile world, ignorant as they generally were, both of the institutions of the Jews and of the offices of the Messiah, there were individuals who, like Cornelius, feared God and worked righteousness* — who had experienced, therefore, in some degree, the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit — and that such individuals were accepted by the Father of mercies, who is no respecter of persons. It is true that the mercv of God towards Cornelius was displayed after a particular manner, in his being brought to the outward knowledge of his Saviour : but before he was introduced to that outward knowledge, he was accepted of the Father, and, had he died in his condition of comparative ignorance, we can scarcely doubt that he would have received, with all the children of God, his eternal reward through the merits and mediation of Christ. And such, also, we may believe to have been the happy experience of all those Gentiles whom the apostle was considering, who might be so influenced by the power of the Lord's Spirit, as to live in the fear of God, and to work righteousness*

That this was, to a considerable extent, the character of some of the most virtuous of the ancient gentile philosophers, their recorded sentiments and known history afford us strong reasons to believe : and that it was the character also of many besides them, who were destitute of an outward revelation, we may learn without difficulty from the apostle Paul. " Not the hearers of the law are just before God," says this inspired writer, " but the doers of the law shall be

B justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another ;" Rom. ii. 13 — 15. Upon this striking and very lucid passage of scripture, it may be observed, first, that the law here mentioned is not the ceremonial law, as the whole tenor of the apostle's argument plainly evinces, but the moral law of God, which was outwardly revealed to the Jews, and was with still greater completeness unfolded under the christian dispensation ; secondly, that the Gentiles, here brought into a comparison with the Jews, were not those Gentiles who had been converted to Christianity ; (for, of persons who had received the most perfect outward revelation of the moral law, it could not, with any truth, be asserted that they had not the lata ;) but they were Gentiles who had received no outward revelation whatever of the moral law of God ; thirdly, that the work of the law was nevertheless written on their hearts, and that many of them (according to the apostle's obvious supposition) were thereby actually enabled to become doers of the law : and lastly that these persons were justified or accepted of the Father.*

* A curious exemplification of the apostle's doctrine respecting- the practical excellence of some of those Gentiles who are destitute of any knowledge either of the Jewish law or of the christian revelation, will be iound m the following- extract from an account of the Sauds, a moral sect of the Hindoos, who dwell in the north-western part of Hindoostan. It has been kindly communicated to me by W. H. Trant, a gentleman of great respectability, who once occupied an important post in the civil service of the East India Company, and who personally visited this singular people.

Those who accede to this view of the passage before us (and such a view is surely just and reasonable,) will probably find no difficulty in admit-

" In March 1816, 1 went with two other gentlemen from Futtehgurh, on the invitation of the principal persons of the Saud sect, to witness an assemblage of them for the purpose of religious worship, in the city of Furrukhabad, the general meeting of the sect being held that year in that city. The assembly took place within the court yard (Dalan) of a large house. The number of men, women, and children, was considerable : we were received with great attention, and chairs were placed for us in the front of the JDeorhee or hall. After some time, when the place was quite full of people, the worship commenced; it consisted solely in the chanting of a hymn, this being the only mode of public worship used by the Sauds.

The Sauds utterly reject and abhor all kinds of idolatry, and the Ganges is considered by them with no greater veneration than by christians, although the converts are made chiefly, if not entirely, from among the Hindoos, whom they resemble in outward appearance. Their name for God is Sutgur, and Saud, the appellation of the sect, means servant of God ; they are pure theists, and their form of worship is most simple, as I have already stated.

The Sauds resemble the Quakers in their customs, to a remarkable degree. Ornaments and gay apparel of every kind are strictly prohibited; their dress is always white ; they never make any obeisance or salam ,• they will not take an oath, and they are exempted in the courts of justice, — their asseveration, as that of the Quakers, being considered equivalent. The Sauds profess to abstain from all luxuries, such as tobacco, pawn, opium, and wine ; they never have natches or dances. All attack on man or beast is forbidden, but in self-defence resistance is allowable. Industry is strongly enjoined. The Sauds, like the Quakers, take great care of their poor and infirm people; to receive assistance out of the punt or tribe would be reckoned disgraceful, and render the offender liable to excommunication. All parade of warship is forbidden; secret prayer is commended; alms should be unostentatious; they are not to be done that they should be seen of men. The due regulation of the tongue is a principal duty.

The chief seats of the Saud sect are Delhi, Agra, Jypoor, and Furrukhabad, but there are several of the sect scattered over the country. An annual meeting takes place at one or other of the cities above mentioned, at which the concerns of the sect are settled.

The Magistrate of Furrukhabad informed me that he had found the Sauds an orderly and well conducted people. They are chiefly engaged in trade.

Bhuivanee Dos (one of their leaders) was anxious to become acquainted with the christian religion, and I gave him some copies of the New Testament in Persian and Hindostanee, which he said he had read and shown to his people, and much approved. I had no copy of the Old Testament •in any language which he understood well, but as he expressed a strong desire to know the account of the creation, as given in it, I explained it to him from an Arabic version of which he knew a little. I promised to procure him a Persian or Hindostanee Old Testament if possible. I am of opinion the Sauds are a very interesting people, and that some intelligent and zealous missionary would find great facility in communicating with them.

12 ON THE GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS UNIOIT

ting this additional proposition — namely, that the work of the law written on the hearts of these Gentiles, through which they were thus enabled to bear the fruits of righteousness, was nothing less than the inward operation of the Spirit of truth; for Christianity plainly teaches us that without such an influence there can be no acceptable obedience to the moral law of God.* Here it may be observed, that this inward work of the Spirit ought not to be confounded with the operation of the conscience. The two things are separately mentioned by the apostle, and I would submit that they are in fact totally distinct. The law written on the heart is a divine illumination ; the conscience is a natural faculty by which a man

W. H. Trant informs me that, previously to the adoption of their present views, the Sauds do not appear to have received any christian instruction. The head of their tribe assured him that they knew nothing of Christianity.

* This consideration is strong and palpable enough to afford, in itself, a sufficient evidence, that when the apostle makes mention of their performing the works of righteousness " by nature," he cannot be understood as alluding to nature unassisted by divine grace. The fruits of the flesh — that is, of the carnal and unregenerate state of man — are not righteousness; but, as the apostle himself declares, "adultery, fornication y uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry," &.c. Gal. v. 19: and, when speaking of men in their fallen condition, without grace, he expressly asserts that they are the " children of wrath," Eph. ii. 3; " that there is none that doeth good, no, not one;" Rom. iii. 12. Besides, after using this expression, he goes on to attribute the righteousness of the Gentiles, not to their natural reason or acquired wisdom, but to the law written in their hearts." Now this law of God written in the heart can be nothing less than a divine illumination; and the larger measures of such illumination are described in the very same terms, as one of the choicest blessings of the christian dispensation; Jer. xxxi. 33. The word qv<nt, appears to refer to that natural condition of the Gentiles, by which they were distinguished from the Jews— a condition of comparative darkness, and one in which they did not enjoy the superadded help of a written law,, or outward revelation. Not having a law, they performed the works* of righteousness by nature, i. e. " without the law." Just on the same principles, in verse 27, the uncircumcised Gentile in his natural condition, and fulfilling the law, is compared with the Jew, who possesses the letter and the external rite, and nevertheless infringes the law. In both passages, the state of nature is placed in opposition, not to a state of grace, but only to one of outward light and instruction.

judges of his own conduct. It is through the conscience that the law operates. The law informs the conscience. The law is the light ; the conscience is the eye. The light reveals the beauty of any given object; the eye "bears witness" to that beauty; it beholds and approves. The light is of a uniform character, for, when not interrupted, it never fails to make things manifest as they really are; but the eye may be obscured or destroyed by disease, or it may be deceived by the influence of surrounding substances. So the law written on the heart, although capable of being hindered in its operation, is of an unchangeable nature, and would guide invariably into righteousness and truth : but the conscience may be darkened by ignorance, deadened by sin, or perverted by an illusive education. The conscience indeed, like every other natural faculty of the human mind, is prone to perversion, and the law written in the heart is given not only to enlighten but to rectify it. Those only have "a good conscience," who obey that law.

As the Gentiles to whom the apostle was here alluding were, according to their measure of light, sanctified through the spirit, and when sanctified accepted, so I think every christian must allow that they were accepted, not because of their ow T n righteousness, but through the merits and mediation of the Son of God. Now the benefit, of those merits and that mediation, is offered according to the declarations of Scripture, only to those wfro believe: for " without faith it is impossible to please God." The doctrine, that we are justified by faith, and that without faith none can obtain salvation, is to be freely admitted as a doctrine revealed to mankind on the authority of God himself. Let it, however, be carefully kept in view, that God is equal. It is unquestionably true in great as well as in little things, that " if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not;" II. Cor. viii. 12. The extent of faith required in man, in order that he may be accepted with the supreme Being, will ever be proportioned to the extent of light communicated. Those to whom the merits and mediation of the Son of God are made known, are undoubtedly required to believe in the merits and mediation of the Son of God. Those from whom the plan of redemption is concealed, and to whom the Deity is manifest only by his outward works, and by his law written on the heart, may nevertheless so believe in God, that it shall be counted to them " for righteousness."

The reader will observe that I have already deduced the universality of saving light from the declarations of Scripture, that God's tender mercies are over all his works, and that Christ died for all men. The most plausible objection to this inference, arises from the notion, so prevalent amongst some christians, that the Spirit of God operates on the heart of man only in connexion with the outward knowledge of the Scriptures and of Christ, and that consequently such outward knowledge is indispensable to salvation. Having, therefore, endeavoured to remove this objection, and to show on apostolic authority, that there were individuals in the Gentile world who had no acquaintance with the truths of religion as they are revealed in the Holy Scriptures, but who were nevertheless enabled to fear God and work righteousness, I consider there is nothing in the way to prevent our coming to a sound conclusion, that, as, on the one hand, God is merciful to all men, and Christ is a sacrifice for all men, so, on the other hand, all men have received a measure of that spiritual influence, through which alone they can permanently enjoy the mercy of God, or participate in the benefits of the death of Christ.

In confirmation of this conclusion it remains for me to adduce the apostle's memorable declaration respecting the Son or word of God, that he was " the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" John i. 9. In order to apprehend the true force of these expressions, it will be desirable to cite the entire passage of which it forms a part. 1. "In the beginning," says the inspired apostle, " was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him ; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended (or received) it not. 6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. 8. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. 9. That teas the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the ivorld. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe (or believed) on his name. 13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

In this solemn and emphatic preface to his gospel history, John has unfolded the character and attributes of the Word of God ; that is of the Son in his original and divine nature. That this is the true meaning of that title, is almost universally allowed by christian commentators both ancient and modern ; and is in my opinion amply proved by the known theology of the Jews, at the time when the apostle wrote. At the conclusion of the passage, we are informed that this divine Word was made flesh (i. e. man,) and dwelt amongst us ; and that so his glory, as the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, became visible. But the order in which the apostle has treated his subject, plainly leads us to suppose, that, in the previous verses, he is speaking of Christ in his condition of pre-existence, or at least solely with reference to this original and divine nature. I would suggest that the declarations respecting the Word contained in verses 10 and 11, that he was "in the world" and "came unto his own," form no exception to this observation ; for these declarations may very properly be explained of the appearances and visitations of the Son of God, (whether visible or merely spiritual) before his incarnation. But even if we interpret these verses as connected with verse 14, and as forming a part of the apostle's account of the incarnation, it certainly appears most probable, that the preceding doctrine, respecting Christ, relates to his operations, only in that glorious and unchangeable character, in which he was with God in the begin- ?ii?ig, and in which he was God.