religious duties toward God himself. Again to recapitulate 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 Gospelour 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 followers, the highest standard of divine worship, but promulgated also a perfect code of practical morality. It is the deliberate opinion of Friends-a -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 understood, 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 ornamenting 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. While 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, respecting 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 Friends, and since they appear to be rightly grounded on certain essential principles in the divine law, and to be adapted, with singular exactness, to the purity and spirituality of the Gospel dispensation, I may venture, with humility, to express my own sentiment, that Friends, viewed as a distinct fraternity in the church universal, have been brought to a greater degree of religious light, and to juster views of the true standard of worship and conduct, than any other class of Christians with whom I have the privilege of being acquainted. While, therefore, I well know the value of that fellowship in the Gospel which subsists among all the true believers in the Lord Jesus, and while I hope never to forget the vastly paramount importance of those great and fundamental principles which are common to them all, I find myself, in an especial manner, attached to that particular Society, and the conviction which I have now expressed is the ground of this attachment.

While I would by no means underrate the usefulness of any existing class of serious Christians, and while I believe that they are severally permitted to occupy appropriate departments in the fold of the Great Shepherd, I nevertheless entertain the sentiment, (in unison, it may be hoped, with the views of many of my readers) that a peculiar importance attaches to the station maintained in the church of Christ by the pious among Friends; and for this reasonthat they appear to be the appointed depositaries of certain plain, practical, Christian truths, which are, at present, far from being generally received, but which, originating in the will of God, as it is both inwardly and outwardly revealed, may be expected, as the church on earth advances to a condition of greater spirituality, to become more widely diffused, and more fully allowed.

Small as are the numbers who properly belong to our Society, and who are connected by the wholesome rules of its discipline, it will perhaps, be admitted, that this result has already taken place, in a considerable degree. The inefficacy of all merely human forms and contrivances in the work of religion-the inconsistency of typical rites with the entire spirituality of the Christian law of worship— the propriety of waiting upon God, from time to time, in reverent silence the excellence and advantage of a ministry of the Gospel, neither appointed nor paid by man, but freely exercised under the direct influence of the Spirit of Christ-the danger and sinfulness of all swearing-the value of an undeviating principle of Christian love, forbearance, and peace-and the beauty of a correct and complete simplicity in word, appearance, and behaviour-are points, as we may humbly hope, gently yet plainly opening to the view of many serious Christians, of different names, and in various parts of the world. Nor can I conceal from myself, that any such approach toward the religious sentiments entertained by the Society of Friends must be of real and important advantage to the church at large: for, although the name of quakerism may be disregarded, and ultimately perhaps forgotten, the more general adoption of those principles by which Friends are at present distinguished, must, according to my apprehension, have a decided and very powerful tendency to the introduction of a better day;-a day, when all men shall cease to place an undue dependance upon the teaching of their neighbour, and shall know the Lord for themselves; when the government of his own church shall rest more exclusively upon him who is Won

derful, Counsellor, the Prince of Peace; when the sword shall be beaten into the ploughshare, and the spear into the pruninghook ; when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the lion lie down with the kid; when the glory of the Lord shall be more immediately and abundantly revealed, and when "all flesh shall see it together."

The reader can scarcely fail to understand that, in thus expressing my attachment to the Society of Friends, in preference to other Christian bodies, my attention is still directed, exclusively to the religious principles which Friends profess, and by which many of them sincerely endeavour to order their walk in life. I am very far from forgetting our deficiencies and imperfections, as a community, or how very apt we are to fall short, in our individual conduct, of that high spiritual and moral standard which so pre-eminently attaches to our profession. One great reason why the religious principles of Friends are not found to take a more rapid and extended course in the church and in the world, is probably this-that so many of us fail, in various respects, from properly regulating our practice according to those principles. I desire to apply this observation, in the first place, to myself; and, secondly, I cannot be satisfied to conclude these essays without urging on my young friends, and on all my brethren and sisters in religious profession, the importance, to ourselves, to the Society of which we are members, and to the church universal, of our walking worthily of the vocation wherewith we are called.

This subject may be considered, in the first place, as it relates to those Christian testimonies which distinguish our own body in the Church, and which have been considered, at large, in the present volume. Since we have so much reason to be convinced that these religious peculiarities have originated, not in the imagination of men, but in the will of God-that we have been led into the practice of them by the Spirit of Truth-that they accord with the dictates of the divine law, as it is recorded in the Scriptures-that they are of an edifying tendency, and are calculated to promote the spiritual welfare both of our own Society and of the church at large-and, finally, that they are, in a particular manner, deposited in our keeping, it unquestionably becomes us to maintain them, during our walk through life, with simplicity, sincerity, firmness, and diligence.