A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
I shall now recapitulate in few words, or in one general proposition,
all the doctrines which have been advanced relative to the power of the
spirit, and shall just notice an argument, which will probably arise on
such a recapitulation, before I proceed to a new subject.
The Quakers then believe that the spirit of God formed or created the
world. They believe that it was given to men, after the formation of it,
as a guide to them in their spiritual concerns. They believe that it was
continued to them after the deluge, in the same manner, and for the same
purposes, to the time of Christ. It was given, however, in this
interval, to different persons in different degrees. Thus the prophets
received a greater portion of it than ordinary persons in their own
times. Thus Moses was more illuminated by it than his contemporaries,
for it became through him the author of the law. In the time of Christ
it continued the same office, but it was then given more diffusively
than before, and also more diffusively to some than to others. Thus the
Evangelists and Apostles received it in an extraordinary degree, and it
became, through them and Jesus Christ their head, the author of the
Gospel. But, besides its office of a spiritual light and guide to men in
their spiritual concerns, during all the period now assigned, it became
to them, as they attended to its influence, an inward redeemer,
producing in them a new birth, and leading them to perfection. And as it
was thus both a guide and an inward redeemer, so it has continued these
offices to the present day.
From hence it will be apparent that the acknowledgment of God's Holy
Spirit, in its various operations, as given in different portions before
and after the sacrifice of Christ, is the acknowledgment of a principle,
which is the great corner stone of the religion of the Quakers. Without
this there can be no knowledge, in their opinion, of spiritual things.
Without this there can be no spiritual interpretation of the scriptures
themselves. Without this there can be no redemption by inward, though
there may be redemption by outward means. Without this there can be no
enjoyment of the knowledge of divine things.
Take therefore this principle away from them, and you take away their
religion at once. Take away this spirit, and Christianity remains with
them no more Christianity, than the dead carcass of a man, when the
spirit is departed, remains a man. Whatsoever is excellent, whatsoever
is noble, whatsoever is worthy, whatsoever is desirable in the Christian
faith, they ascribe to this spirit, and they believe that true
Christianity can no more subsist without it, than the outward world
could go on without the vital influence of the sun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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