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
And he says afterwards, in other parts of his work--"Devotion of mind is
itself a silent prayer, which wants not to be clothed in words, that God
may better know our desires. He regards not the service of our lips, but
the inward disposition of our hearts."
Monro, before quoted, speaks to the same effect, in his Just Measures of
the Pious Institutions of Youth. "The breathings of a recollected soul
are not noise or clamour. The language in which devotion loves to vent
itself, is that of the inward man, which is secret and silent, but yet
God hears it, and makes gracious returns unto it. Sometimes the pious
ardours and sensations of good souls are such as they cannot clothe with
words. They feel what they cannot express. I would not, however, be
thought to insinuate, that the voice and words are not to be used at
all. It is certain that public and common devotions cannot be performed
without them; and that even in private, they are not only very
profitable, but sometimes necessary. What I here aim at is, that the
youth should be made sensible, that words are not otherwise valuable
than as they are images and copies of what passes in the hidden man of
the heart; especially considering that a great many, who appear very
angelical in their devotions, if we take our measures of them from their
voice and tone, do soon, after these intervals of seeming seriousness
are over, return with the dog to the vomit, and give palpable evidences
of their earthliness and sensuality; their passion and their pride."
Again--"I am persuaded, says he, that it would be vastly advantageous
for the youth, if care were taken to train them up to this method of
prayer; that is, if they were taught frequently to place themselves in
the divine presence, and there silently to adore their Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier. For hereby they would become habitually
recollected. Devotion would be their element; and they would know, by
experience, what our blessed Savour and his great Apostle meant, when
they enjoin us to pray without ceasing. It was, I suppose, by some such
method of devotion as I am now speaking of, that Enoch walked with God;
that Moses saw him that is invisible; that the royal Psalmist set the
Lord always before him; and that our Lord Jesus himself continued whole
nights in prayer to God. No man, I believe, will imagine that his
prayer, during all the space in which it is said to have continued, was
altogether vocal. When he was in his agony in the garden, he used but a
few words. His vocal prayer then consisted only of one petition, and an
act of pure resignation thrice repeated. But I hope all will allow,
that his devotion lasted longer than while he was employed in the
uttering a few sentences."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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