OUR discussion, of the several religious sentiments and practices in great measure peculiar to the Society of Friends, being now brought to its conclusion, the reader is invited to take a short and general review of that train of reflection, which has been pursued in the present volume. For this purpose, his recollection will be assisted by the following summary.

However the members of any particular religious community may rejoice in those privileges, which, in consequence of the adoption of certain principles, attach in a preeminent manner to themselves, they ought never to lay aside a just and candid view of the spiritual blessings which are offered to all mankind, and of those, more particularly, which appertain to all the true members of the visible church of Christ. All men are the children of God by creation, and over all he extends his loving kindness and tender mercy. Christ died for all men; and all, as we may conclude from certain passages of Scripture, are endued with a measure of the moral light, and redeeming power of the Spirit of Truth. With respect to the true members of the visible church of Christ, these, to whatever name, sect, or country, they may belong, are the common participants of the especial favours of their

Lord. It is their happiness to love and serve an incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified, Redeemer. They enjoy a superabundant light; an exceeding grace; a revealed and established hope; and a preeminent degree of the communion of the Holy Spirit.

United, as all real Christians are, on the basis of fundamental truth, they are found to differ from one another in their view and estimate of various particulars in religion. Thus (for the present) do those principles which are essential to the salvation of souls pass to the various classes of true Christians, through as various mediums; and although some of these mediums are, evidently, purer and more spiritual than others, it may be acknowledged, (with gratitude to that Being whose mercies are manifold and whose resources are infinite,) that this consequence of human infirmity is overruled for good, and that there is permitted to exist, in the Christian church, a real and even useful variety of administration, under one Head.

Christians, however, while they abstain from judging one another on such matters, and rejoice in their great and common salvation, ought, nevertheless to endeavour after a full persuasion respecting their peculiar religious views;-to examine the foundation on which they rest; to leave hold of them, and suffer them to pass away, if their foundation is a bad one; but, if they are grounded, according to the decision of their deliberate judgment, on the unchangeable truth of God, to cleave to them with integrity, patience, and perseverance. Let us, who belong to the 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 enquiry 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 acknowledged 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 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 Gospel,—our declining to participate in the prevalent system of hiring preachers, or of otherwise making for the ministry pecuniary returns,-our allowance of the publick pray

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ing 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 dispensa tion of Christianity from that of Judaism, that we abandon all ceremonial and typical ordinances, all forms of 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 entirely 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,-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 requisitions 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 requisitions of the divine will, when rightly understood, that we abstain from lowering the standard of truth, and from a presumptuous cursing of self, by the utterance of oaths; from infringing the law of love, by taking any part either in offensive or in defensive warfare; from fomenting the pride of man, by the use of flattering titles, and expressions in their nature wholly complimentary; 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 certain plain Christian principles, but are, for the most part, found to derive no slight support and confirmation from particular passages of the sacred writings, and especially of the New Testament, which appear to bear to them, respectively, a precise and specifick 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