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coincident. It is true that they are ranged under various banners, and are designated by a considerable diversity of denomination.-It is true, also, that they do not all possess the same measure of light; and that the sentiments of some amongst them are of a more spiritual character than those of others. Nevertheless, their ground of accordance is at once wide and substantial. Their footing is placed on the same Rock of ages; and that Rock is Christ. They enjoy a true fellowship one with another, even because their fellowship is "with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.". Love is the blessed principle by which they are united, and which animates them in the prosecution of joint efforts, conducted on common principles, in support of the same cause.

Such, then, are the religious privileges which appear to distinguish, from mankind in general, the members of the true visible church of Christ; and which, as it relates to them, are universal. They are in a peculiar manner brought out of darkness into marvellous light -they experience the exceeding greatness of the power of God revealed in Christ for their salvationthey are cheered by a prospect of immortal joy, clearly manifested to them by the Gospel; and in a preeminent degree they are brought into spiritual fellowship one with another. May the love, which cements together the varied members of this mystical body of Christ more and more abound; may the barriers which ignorance or prejudice have reared amongst them be broken through and demolished; may Christians be enabled increasingly to strive together for the hope of the Gospel; and, while they individually draw nearer to the Fountain of all good, may they be enabled yet more perfectly to enjoy "the communion of the Holy Ghost," to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!"

CHAPTER II.

ON RELIGIOUS PECULIARITIES.-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THOSE

OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

THE members of the true visible church of Christ, some of whose common religious privileges have now been described, are divided, as the reader cannot fail to know, into a variety of particular societies. United as they are in the fundamental principles of repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, these societies are distinguished from one another by different and sometimes even opposite views and practices, in connexion with several particulars in religion, of a less essential character."

When we consider the infirmity and deceitfulness of the heart of man, and remember how often the power of habit and prejudice is found to interfere with a just and enlightened apprehension of truth, it is no matter of wonder that such a result should have taken place. Nor ought we, in tracing the causes of

7 I am well aware that, in the various societies of professing Christians, many persons are necessarily included, who cannot, on any sound scriptural principle, be considered members of the true visible church of Christ. To such nominal professors of religion, under whatever denomination they may be ranged, I am not now alluding; and I must, in a particular manner, request my reader to observe that, in treating of the Society of Friends, as forming a part of that true church, my views are directed only to those persons, of our peculiar profession, who are really living under the influence of vital religion.

these differences, by any means to forget that, on many points of a merely secondary nature,-those particularly which relate to modes of worship and of church government,-there is to be found, in the divinely authorized records of the Christian revelation, very little of precise direction; and thus is there obviously left, in reference to such points, a considerable scope for the formation of different views.

However, indeed, the diversities which are permitted, in some degree, to divide from one another the servants of the same divine Master may afford many humbling proofs of weakness and imperfection, and, in some instances, of real degeneracy from the original strength and purity of truth, we ought, nevertheless, to acknowledge that, while Christians are preserved in the love and fear of God, these diversities are, in various respects, overruled for their good. The existence of different opinions, respecting minor points, entails on us the necessity of a careful selection of our own particular course, and thus operates indirectly as a stimulus, by which we are induced to bestow a closer attention on religion in general. Such a difference of sentiment brings with it, moreover, a course of moral discipline: for many occasions arise out of this source, which call for the exercise of Christian, charity-of mutual liberality, meekness, and forbearance: nor is it unreasonable to suppose that, as we rightly avail ourselves of this dicipline, it will be one means of preparing us for a perfect unanimity of sentiment in a better state of being. Lastly, while a reasonable hope may be entertained that, as the church militant proceeds in her appointed career, a gradual, yet certain, advancement will take place among her members to a state of greater unity and more entire simplicity, yet it can scarcely be denied that, in that variety of administration, through which the saving principles of re

ligion are for the present permitted to pass, there is much of a real adaptation to a corresponding variety of mental condition. Well, therefore, may we bow with thankfulness before that infinite and unsearchable Being, who, in all our weakness, follows us with his love, and who, through the diversified mediums of religion, to which the several classes of true Christians are respectively accustomed, is still pleased to reveal to them all the same crucified Redeemer, and to direct their footsteps into one path of obedience, holiness, and peace.

8

The particular sentiments and practices which distinguish respectively the different classes of true Christians, may be denominated religious peculiarities : & and, before I proceed to the discussion of those which distinguish the Society of Friends, I would invite the candid attention of the reader to two excellent rules, laid down by the apostle Paul, on the subject of somewhat similar distinctions in matters of religion.

The first of these rules enjoins that Christians, united as they are in the great fundamentals of doctrine and practice, should abstain from judging or condemning one another on account of their minor differences. "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be

8 The term, religious peculiarities, has been adopted for the sake of convenience and perspicuity; and I conceive it to be accurately descriptive of those opinions and customs which distinguish, from other parts of the church, any one community of Christians. It is far from my intention, by the use of such a term, to convey the idea that such distinctions are of little practical consequence. With regard to the religious peculiarities of Friends, it is the very object of the present work to evince their importance, and to show their real connexion with the fundamental principles of the Gospel of Christ.

holden up for God is able to make him stand;" Rom. xiv, 3, 4.

The differences of opinion and conduct, to which Paul was here alluding, were indeed of less magnitude, and appertained to matters of less practical importance, than many of those which now exist within the more extended borders of the church of Christ; but whatever change may have taken place in this respect in the circumstances of Christians, it is plain that the apostle's principle of mutual liberality still holds good; and that, while in our various allotments within the church we are respectively endeavouring to "live unto the Lord," it is our unquestionable duty to refrain from the crimination and condemnation one of another. Had this principle been uniformly observed among those who call themselves Christians, where would have been the vexatious disputes, the polemical severity, and, above all, the cruel persecutions, which have retarded the progress and disgraced the profession of a pure and peaceable religion.

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The apostle's second rule, respecting the different views maintained by Christians in his own time, is applicable, with an increased degree of force, to those more important religious peculiarities, by which in the present day the church is divided into classes. "Let every man," says he, "be fully persuaded in his own mind" —a rule to which may be added his emphatick remark, happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth ;" Rom. xiv, 5. 22. In order to obtain that “full persuasion" to which we are thus exhorted, it is plainly necessary for us to comply with another precept of the same inspired writer,-" prove all things;" I Thes. v, 21. That it is very generally. desirable for Christians, who are arrived at years of sound discretion, to prove those peculiar religious principles in which they have been educated,―to examine

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