The peculium; an endeavour to throw light on some of the causes of the decline of the Society of Freinds, especially in regard to its original claim of being the peculiar people of God.

Front matter

A"

"W

-* *

BOOK I. The Idea of Quakerism

CHAP. PAGE

II. Tlie Divine Seed in Christian Sects, and the Ways in

which it is conditioned by outward Causes . . 22

III. The Divine Principle of Quakerism, and the two lead-

ing Quaker Doctrines 29

IV. The Principle of the Quaker Church . . . .45 V. The Reflection of the Quaker Idea in Modern Quakerism 53

Book II

The Quaker Schism; or, Formal Quakerism. I. The Divine Element, or Contribution, in Quakerism 63

II. The Foxite Contribution 70

III The Secular Contribution .82

book in;

The Discipline of Quakerism.

4 CONTENTS.

Book IV

Quaker Conduct, chap. PAGE

I. The Principle of Early Quaker Conduct . . .128

II. Enthusiasm of Early Quaker Conduct . . .136

III. Fanaticism of Early Quaker Conduct .... 147

IV. Intensity of Early Quaker Conduct . . . .160 V. Reflection of Early Quaker Conduct in Modern Quakerism 167

BOOK V. The World Without : External Causes of Quaker

Decay.

I. Sympathy and Antipathy of the Eighteenth Century 175

II. Quakerism and the Nineteenth Century . . . 184

III Ibid 194

IV. Ibid 203

Preface

A few sentences only are needful to explain the origin of the accompanying Essay. In the month of March, 1858, there appeared in the public prints the following announcement : —

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.— PRIZE ESSAY.

A GENTLEMAN who laments that, notwithstanding the population of the United Kingdom has more than doubled itself in the last fifty years, the Society of Friends is less in number than at the beginning of the century ; and who believes that the Society at one time bore a powerful witness to the world concerning some of the errors to which it is most prone, and some of the truths which are the most necessary to it ; and that this witness has been gradually becoming more and more feeble, is anxious to obtain light respecting the causes of this change. He offers a PRIZE of ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS for the best ESSAY that shall be written on the subject, and a PRIZE of FIFTY GUINEAS for the one next in merit. He has asked three gentlemen, not members of the Society of Friends, to pronounce judgment on the Essays which shall be sent to them. They have all some acquaintance with the history of the Society, and some interest in its existing members ; and as they are likely to regard the subject from different points of view, he trusts that their decision will be impartial ; that they will not expect to find their own opinions represented in the Essays ; and that they will choose the one which exhibits most thought and Christian earnestness, whether it is favorable or unfavorable to the Society, whether it refers the diminution of its influence to degeneracy, to something wrong in the original constitution of the body, to the rules which it has adopted for its government, or to any extraneous cause.

Rev. F. D. MAURICE, Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn; Professor J. P. NICHOL, Glasgow ; and Rev. E. S. PRYCE, Gravesend, have agreed to act as Adjudicators.

The number and ability of the Essays which this announcement elicited, while it afforded gratifying testimony to the interest which the subject has excited, added greatly to the labor and responsibility of the adjudicators. The illness of Professor Nichol, which has since terminated in his lamented death, was one of the " unforeseen hindrances" which occasioned the delay of the adjudicators' decision. It was given in August, 1859, in the following terms : —

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.— PRIZE ESSAYS.

The adjudicators of the Prizes for the best Essays on the Causes of the Decline in the Society of Friends regret that they have been prevented from arriving at an earlier decision by unforeseen hindrances, by the large number and extent of the Essays submitted to them, and by their exceeding desire to deal justly. The terms of the original proposal do not permit the adjudicators to specify more than the two Essays which appear to them to have the superior claims ; but they feel it right to bear testimony to the great ability displayed by many of the other writers, and to record their conviction, that the publication of what they have written, by the individual authors, would, in many cases, be advisable, and for the public advantage. In performing the painful duty of setting aside so many estimable and elaborate productions, the adjudicators have necessarily been influenced by various classes of considerations : they have been deterred, in some cases, by the presence of irrelevant disquisitions, and they have been especially solicitous that the spirit manifested by the successful candidates be such as seemed most in accordance with the object for which the prizes were offered, as plainly set forth in the general advertisement. It has, after careful consideration, been determined that an Essay, bearing a motto from a report of the York Quarterly Meeting of the year 1855, should receive the first prize ; and one bearing the motto Verbum, vita, lux, the second prize. A degree of hesitation having been expressed by the adjudicators as to the relative place which ought to be assigned to the two successful essays, the donor of the prizes has generously offered to make the second prize equal to the first. The writers of these Essays evidently belong to different schools, and contemplate the subject from entirely different points of view. No one of the adjudicators wishes to be held responsible for the sentiments of either writer. But they are unanimous in hoping that, in choosing both, they are doing their best to promote the objects of the giver of the prizes, and to fulfill their trust.

J. P. Nichol.

F. D. Maurice.

E. S. Pryce.

The Essay to which the second prize was adjudged is printed in the present volume.

Whatever hope I may have had when I commenced, — when I had finished the following Essay I certainly had no hope at all of seeing my name set forth as one of the successful competitors. I felt convinced that my work could not answer to the real heart's desire of the generous offerer of these prizes. His ultimate hope must have been that some expedient might be brought forward by which Quakerism could be saved. The whole tenor of my Essay goes to prove that its salvation is impossible. The donor "laments that the Society of Friends is less in number than it was at the beginning of the century." The reader will see that my own convictions, as expressed in this Essay, compel me rather to rejoice.

I know that this language must seem strange (perhaps pitiable) to those who have been born, who have been trained, who have lived their life in Quakerism ; to those to whom it has been the universe, who have known nothing outside of it ; to those, above all, who have found God within it and through it — found Him as their loving Father, their hourly Teacher and Saviour. Perhaps, too, they will be surprised to find that which they believed to be peculiarly their own, their Society's, here spoken of as least so. Perhaps they will be still more surprised to discover so many and such vital points of affinity between themselves and those whom they have always fancied to be (and who, in one sense, are) at the very greatest distance from them. I should, indeed, be glad if I could but know that this Essay would make any Quaker feel that there are fewer obstacles than he supposes (even in the principles of his own Society) to the universal union of all Christians. But I dare hardly hope so much as that this Essay will lead any one Quaker to take, as his first step toward the re-binding of Christians, that step which our Blessed Lord Himself made the visible bond (as his indwelling Spirit is the invisible bond) of Christian union — the humble and solemn reception of Holy Baptism in the Name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, at the hands of those whom He, by the rulers. and throne-holders of His Spiritual Israel, has appointed. Any union that comes from our wills, our compromises, our intolerant tolerations, will have no binding power, will soon snap. A baptism that is dependent upon our conversion, our repentance, our faith, our excitement, our consciousness, our choice — whether, like that of the Anabaptists, it be a baptism of water, or, like that of the Quakers, a baptism of imaginary fire — will derive its virtue from us, and not from the Holy Ghost — will be (as each of these baptisms has been) the cause of another separation, instead of the bond of union.

The purport of this Essay is historical rather than doctrinal, a consideration which has made me keep out of it any dissertation on that Regeneration by Baptism of which the profoundest and holiest of the first Quakers have written.* Their constant Idea of Baptism is the Idea of the Catholic Church, the Idea expressed again and again by S. Augustine. I will give two instances, both of them from his Homilies on the Gospel of St. John. " It may be," he says, "a minister baptizes who belongs not to the number of the sons of God, since he lives wickedly, and acts wickedly ; what, then, shall console us ? He it is Who baptizes."1[ Again, "We confess that both good and wicked men are in the Church, but only in the manner of grain and chaff. Sometimes he who is baptized by the grain is chaff; and he who is baptized by tlje chaff is grain. Otherwise, if he who is baptized by the grain does well, and he who is baptized by the chaff does ill, then it is false, — He it is Who baptizes."%

* Especially the Baptismologia ; or, Treatise concerning Baptisms, by Thomas Lawson.

f " Licet baptizet minister, &c. &c. Hie est qui baptizat."— Horn. vii. c. 4, p. 6, torn. xv. [Ed. Caillau.]

t u Nos fatemur in Ecclesia et bonos et malos, &c. &c. Hie est qui BAPTIZA.T."— Horn. vi. c. 12, pp. 472, 473, torn. xiv. [Ed. Caillau.] Omnia Opera S. August,

No words, no man, could make a fitter passage for me to that second class of readers whom I hope my Essay will reach : I mean my fellow Churchmen. They will soon see with what hope and thankfulness I look upon that great revival of the Church and of churchliness which is giving so marked a characteristic to our own century. Puritanism, Quakerism, Methodism, did great good to special times, to special classes, to special places. But a revival of the Catholic Church must bear blessing for all men, all peoples, all places, all future time. This thought it is, which makes me dread lest we should, by any fault of ours, cripple this Catholic work by mere Sectarian limitations. The Adversary's work is always close to the Redeemer's work ; wherever we see the Good Seed falling, we may be sure that the Sower of Tares is not far off. Brethren, we do not belong to ourselves, we are not our own witnesses : we belong to the whole world, our witness is in every man's conscience. Our cause is not Protestantism, Puritanism, Quakerism, nor Methodism, — but one Body. Brethren, every man, woman, and child in this world was created by the Father to be baptized into the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Jesus Christ has given all mankind to Her ; He has given all mankind a claim upon Her. Our charity, as her children, ought to be

12 PKEFACE.

greater than the charity of other men; our toleration ought to be wider, more tender, more inviting than the toleration of Separatists. The Catholic Church called the Donatist schismatics " brethren. " She had none the less hatred of Schism. The more the charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts, the more hateful Schism will be to us. She, the living Representative of Jesus in this world, ought to be to men all that He was. No assumption, no pride, no untender or insulting phrases, ought to pass her lips in her dealings with the Samaritans who surround her.

No forgetfulness that she is the everlasting Judah, the real Kingdom of the Son of David, need be involved in her acknowledging as the gift of her King all the grace and the piety that she finds in Samaria. Samaritans will not more truly rise up in judgment against Jews, than will Separatists against Churchmen. Oh, that we could always remember that the Separatist mentioned in the Gospel was casting out devils in the Name of Jesus, when the Apostolical College could not cast them out ! I should be very thankful if this little book would lead a few Churchmen to know one section of Schismatics better ; to find in them more to love, more to reverence ; to recognize in them the gift of that Son of God who was Incarnate in all Flesh ; Who tasted death for every man ; Who lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; in Whose Mystical Body, as we are saying at this season, Almighty God has knit together His elect in One Communion and Fellowship.

Nottingham, Thursday in the Octave of All Saints, 1859.

THE PECULIUM.

Book I. The Idea Of Quakerism

CHAPTER L

i. Introductory — Necessary Decay of Human Societies — Presumptive Decay of the Quaker Society. ii. Decay of Spiritual Societies. iii. The Catholic Church, the Universal Society, alone exempt

from the Law of Social Decay. iv. Testimony of all Christian Societies to this Exemption —

What is the Catholic Church ?

T. Quakerism originally claimed to be the Catholic Church- Modern Quakers have given up the Claim — This Concession a Prognostication of Quaker Decay, vi. Difficulties of Modern Quakers from this Concession —

Quakers have lost faith in Quakerism. ▼ii. Decay of Quakerism to be expected.

i. It is the lot of societies made up of men and women to be subject to a, law of decay. No age or nation has ever given birth to a body, guild, association, or church, fitted for every time and all races. Indeed, times and nations themselves, being but greater societies, are always obeying this very law. The old Ethnic age died a natural death ; the Renaissance could not revive it — it only galvanized an imitation of it. The Mediaeval age could not keep itself alive ; and all the earnest and romantic men in Christendom, striving unitedly, would never revive it: Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Gothic kingdoms died, as our friends have done — as we ourselves shall do — because they must. So far as Quakerism is a society made up of men and women, we should expect to see it obey the universal law of social death. It would appear strange and disorderly if it alone continued fresh, lively, and bearing fruit.

ii. Nor does the comprehension of a diviner purpose and of spiritual strength, exempt any society from this imperturbable law. The State and the Church have been served and thwarted by society after society, which begun in the spirit and ended in the flesh. Old philosophical schools, Hindoo and Chinese brotherhoods, early anchorites and monks, the Benedictines, the Franciscans and Dominicans, the first Protestants, the Puritans, the Methodists, banded themselves together to know wisdom, to do the will of God, to fulfill all righteousness, to become the most utter and unresisting organs and instruments of the Spirit, to save the world, to reform the Church, to live an entirely spiritual life, to taste the eternal life into which death cannot enter; yet these awful intuitions, these sublime purposes, could not preserve them ; they are all either dying or dead. The morbid and unspiritual societies which Quakerism arose to witness against, had assumed at their birth that very position toward older

Chap. I.] The Idea Of Quakerism. 17

societies which Quakerism was assuming toward them. They believed and proclaimed the same things against prior societies which Quakerism was proclaiming against them. We should naturally expect that Quakerism would follow them, and that it is even now marching with more or less haste, overtaken by some, but overtaking others, in that valley of the shadow of death where the old spiritual societies of the world are either lying dead or dying. It would be wonderful indeed, if, like the prophet Ezekiel in the valley of dead bones, Quakerism alone were seen living and vigorous in that most solemn of all the pathways of history and society, the way of perpetual decay and death. I know only one premiss upon which such a sight is possible.

iii. For there is a Society above the reach of this law, uncontemplated in the promulgation of it, and unaffected by any of its penalties. The Elect Body of which the Divine Uniter of God and mankind is the Head, has the promise of eternal continuance. If it appears (as it has appeared a hundred times) to weary, decay, or die, in one time or one place, it is only to revive or blossom forth in another. As the Asiatic and African branches of the Church sicken with idolatry or worldliness, or are cut down by Mahometanism, the European branches are reformed ; as heresies canker and blight one fair bough or another of the great tree of the Church, vigorous shoots sprout out in unexpected places, and races who have never known anything but weariness, rest themselves and are refreshed under the shadow of Christ. This is the Catho- 2 lie Church, the Peculium, the Lord's Body, the People of God, the Holy Nation, the Spiritual Israel.

iv. All the Christian Societies which have ever existed, agree in acknowledging the everlasting continuance of the Catholic Church. They differ when they come to determine what the Catholic Church is. Some say it is one of these societies — their own society ; all of them have, at some part of their history, claimed, or do now claim, to be the Church. Others say that it consists visibly of all societies except those they like least — most likely of all except Romanism and XTnitarianism ; invisibly of all those in a state of grace in any of these societies, even in Romanism and Unitarianism. Others declare that no society existing is the true Seed and People of God ; and, consequently, proceed to found the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church upon their own fancies, upon private experiences, upon misread history, upon the Bible, or upon all together.

v. The first Quakers announced this claim for their Society in its most uncompromising and intolerant form. Many of the Quaker leaders would not grant even the name of Christian to any one who worshipped apart from themselves. Quaker and Christian were mere interchangeable terms. Common-prayer-men and Christian, Presbyterian and Christian, Independent and Christian, Anabaptist and Christian, Ranter and Christian, were not interchangeable terms.* The distinction is of immense

* Edward Burroughs' Works, fol., 1672, p. 416.— "All you churches and sects, by what name soever you are known in the world, you are the seed of the great whore." And the

CHAP. I.] THE IDEA OF QUAKERISM. 19

importance. No one can understand the decay of Quakerism, who leaves out this mighty contradiction which the sons give to the fathers of Quakerism. The primitive Friends said that Quakerism was the Church. Modern Friends say it is apart of the Church. Parts must die for the whole to live. If Quakerism be a part, it can only have a particular, dependent, contingent life ; we can have little doubt of its ultimate decay, we can have no certainty of its continuing life. "When that which is perfect is come," the Apostle says, "that which is in part shall be done away. "* In the natural or physical sphere of the Kingdom of God we see it is so. The life of the body exhibits perpetual death and decay of parts : we cut off the boughs that the tree may live. So the Great Husbandman of the Church is perpetually lopping His own tree that it may bring forth more fruit. A time comes to every bough when it brings forth nothing, or brings forth leaves only. If Quakerism be merely a branch (and not alone the retractations of Quakers, but the course of the world also, show that it is not the Church), a time will surely come when He will lop off Quakerism. It has

whole of his tract, A Measure, of the Times, 4to., London, 1657, pp. 40. See, too, A Testimony from Northampton Prison. By William Dewsbury, Joseph Storr, and John Whitehead. " The English Church held up by you, the English teachers (that is, the Puritan Schism of the Commonwealth), who are made by the will of man, those who are come to the Church of God, whom you call Quakers, deny such." 4to., London, 1655. Also, A Return to the Priests (Ministers) about Beverly, 4to., 1653.— &c.

* 1 Corinthians xiii. 10.

certainly been pruned very many times. The schisms of Perrot, Pennyman, Keith, Bugg, the White Quakers, the Hicksites, the Progressive Friends, are all indications of the pruning hand of the Lord.

vi. The full realization of this change of the relation of Quakerism to the Catholic Church must bring a great deal of conflict and doubt to any Quaker who has begun to search the early records of the Society for light on its present decay. He would scarcely know whether to retain George Fox and Edward Burroughs, or Joseph John Gurney and William Allen. He would soon see that he must give up the one or the other. They have scarcely anything in common but their name and their clothes. The two former are connected w r ith astonishing success, with apostolic earnestness, but also with fanaticism and intolerance ; they would lay a burden upon him which it would have been easier to carry in the seventeenth century than he would find it in the nineteenth. The two latter are connected with peace and serenity, with earnestness also, though of a weaker kind ; with the most placid tolerance, but also with evident decay. He would be inclined, perhaps, to doubt whether this determination of the later Quakers, that Quakerism is not the Catholic Church, but a part of it, is a desirable one. He might ask himself, Is it even one that can be made ? Who made the change? Preachers of sermons, writers of advices, yearly epistles, men and women with their ''concerns" hither and thither? Gould men and women make such a change, not in the outward form, but in the very nature and essence of the Household of God ? Or, perhaps, an

CHAP. I.J THE IDEA OF QUAKERISM. 21

evangelical education might lead him to conclude that Fox and Burroughs were good men, but not well instructed in the doctrines of grace ; and that Gurney and Crewdson were improvers of Quakerism.

These, then, are the two great characteristic features of the body in the periods of extension and decay : in the period of its growth it proclaimed itself to be the One Church, moved and guided by the Inspiring Light, to which every one who was led by that Light was sure to join himself; in the period of decline it proclaims itself to be only a fraction of the One Church. In 1658 there was not a Quaker living who did not believe Quakerism to be the one only true Church of the living God. In 1858 there is not a Quaker living who does believe it.

vii. Whether it be or be not a part of the Catholic Church, I neither ask nor answer here. If it be not, it is sure to decay; if it be, it is likely to decay. No one will deny that the Church of Jerusalem was a true and living part of the Catholic Church, and yet the Church of Jerusalem has decayed. Decay, under the first supposition, would spring from the necessary sentence and seed of death in the body itself; decay, under the second supposition, would proceed from degeneracy.

The purpose of this chapter is to show — first, that there is but one condition upon the exhibition of which Quakerism could continue perpetually, on which its decay could not be expected ; and, secondly, that Quakerism, by its own confession, does not exhibit this condition, and therefore the death of Quakerism must be expected. I shall not enlarge upon it here, because I believe all the afterpart of this Essay will throw back light upon it.

Chapter II

THE DIVINE SEED IN CHRISTIAN SECTS AND THE WAYS IN WHICH IT IS CONDITIONED BY OUTWARD CAUSES.

i. The Divine Seed.

ii. This Seed the Source of all Divine Fruits in Quakerism, iii. The Divine Seed conditioned by the Human Sower — Individualist and Personal Influences instanced in Quakerism, iv. The Divine Seed conditioned by the Character and Changes of the Soil Without — The Eternal and Transient in Quakerism. v. The Divine Seed conditioned by a Divine Edict — Given for a time and in measure.

i. Our Lord Jesus Christ compares the growth of the Kingdom of Grace to the growth of natural seed. He carried out the analogy so fully that I shall be in nowise departing from His method, but keeping most strictly in the line of it, if I take it as my guiding rule along the series of inquiries upon which we are now entering. The mystic theologians assert that the natural and supernatural seeds of God have affinities and points of touch more subtle and inherent than the unenlightened eye can perceive. Whatever modern Quakers are, their earliest representatives were certainly mystics; and, after the idea of

Chap. Ii.] The Idea Of Quakerism. 23

Light, the idea of Seed is that by which they most frequently express the working of the Divine Principle in the heart of a man or of society.

ii. Of this seed of the Kingdom of Grace our Lord Himself has always been understood by Christian people to be the Provider and the real Sower. It has been His Spirit exciting and aiding prophets, apostles, missionaries, founders of orders, reformers, witnesses for righteousness' sake in every age, which has made them effectual sowers. The Seed they sowed was the Word of God*, that is, in the most solemn sense, the First Begotten of the Father, God Himself. But who could plant God in men's hearts ? None, except God Himself. God has been the true Sower. Wherever love, truth, wisdom, or righteousness, or any fruit of the Holy Spirit is found, there the Seed of the Holy Spirit must first have been. No one, with only an hour's acquaintance with the lives and books of the Quakers, could honestly doubt that the true fruits of the Divine Spirit are found in Quakerism. Quakerism, therefore, contains a true Seed and Principle, one which existed before and apart from George Fox and the seekers of the Commonwealth era, one which he himself declares he was given, and neither discovered nor made, but which the Light of Christ discovered to him in himself, and enlightened him to perceive in all other men. The causes of the decay of Quakerism cannot, of course, be found in this. The Divine Seed of its life and truth must be of the Divine nature, eternal ; it must not only be quite above all the conditions of time, alteration, and decay ; but also, on the other hand, the very cause of life, growth, and fruition wherever it is sown.

iii. But since the Divine Seed of the truth passes through the hands of men, and since men are so different, it could not be but that it is given a preparatory coloring, a mental chemistry of some kind, from the human sower. This may be more clearly understood in our time than it was in that of the rise of Quakerism. The claimants to direct revelations or illumination at that period, which was so full of them, were expected to manifest their claims in a non-natural and non-rational manner; everything individual and characteristic about them was expected to be suppressed ; they were to be moved by the Divine Spirit as machines,* not as human spirits with a reason and a will. Multitudes of the first Quaker converts responded to this demand in the most extraordinary fashion. But the tendency of our own time sets in quite the opposite direction. Writers who firmly believe in the unity of that Spirit from Whom the Scriptures proceed, seem to take an almost pedantic delight in showing their discernment of the difference of manifestation : they tell us that this expression is Hebrew — I should say Hebraic ; that this is Greek — Hellenic, I mean ; that certain churches and times are characterized by the predominance of the Pauline, some of the Petrine, others of the Johannine element. However, the fact is true that the

* Thus Henry More defends himself from the charge of being an Enthusiast: "For God doth not ride me as a horse, and guide me I know not whither myself ; but converseth with me as a Friend. " — Second Lash of Alazonomastix. London, 1656.

CHAP. II.] THE IDEA OF QUAKERISM. 25

Divine Seed is affected in some degree by the human sower, and may grow or decay according to the method in which he handles, casts, modifies, interprets it, — internally, by the tone and character of his mind and circumstances of his life ; externally, by his energy and enthusiasm : first, as an opinion or doctrine ; secondly, as a growing body or society.

No one, I suppose, would be inclined to deny that original Quakerism carries very strong personal characteristics upon every corner of its being. Its form, its discipline, its language, its customs, are not the characteristics of any time or of all times, they bear the unmistakable mark of one peculiar century. Neither are they the form, discipline, opinions, or customs likely to arise from any spiritual man. They bear the characteristic marks of one peculiar and representative man. And, indeed, we might legitimately divide the history of Quakerism into periods or into schools, each time or each section being distinguished by the preponderance of some personal element. One period we might call Foxite Quakerism ; another, Penn-and-Barclayite Quakerism ; a third, Joseph- John- Gurneyite Quakerism. Or, we might name the first kind spiritual Quakerism ; the second, doctrinal or scholastic Quakerism ; the third, Puritan or modern evangelical Quakerism.