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
_Quakers reject every thing formal, ostentatious, and spiritless, from
their worship--Ground on which their Meeting-houses stand, not
consecrated--The latter plain--Women sit apart from the men--No
Pews--nor priest's garments--nor psalmody--No one day thought more holy
than another--But as public worship is necessary, days have been fixed
upon for that purpose._
Jesus Christ, as he was sitting at Jacob's well, and talking with the
woman of Samaria, made use of the following, among other expressions, in
his discourse: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither, in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth."
These expressions the Quakers generally render thus: I tell you that a
new dispensation is at hand. Men will no longer worship at Jerusalem
more acceptably than in any other place. Neither will it be expected of
them, that they shall worship in temples, like the temple there. Neither
the glory, nor the ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones, nor
the splendid garments of the High Priest, will be any parts of the new
worship that is approaching. All ceremonies will be done away, and men's
religion will be reduced simply to the worshipping of God in spirit and
in truth. In short, the Quakers believe, that, when Jesus came, he ended
the temple, its ornaments, its music, its Levitical priesthood, its
tithes, its new moons, and sabbaths, and the various ceremonial
ordinances that had been engrafted into the religion of the Jews.
The Quakers reject every thing that appears to them to be superstitious,
or formal, or ceremonious, or ostentatious, or spiritless, from their
worship.
They believe that no ground can be made holy; and therefore they do not
allow the places on which their Meeting-houses are built to be
consecrated by the use of any human forms.
Their Meeting-houses are singularly plain. There is nothing of
decoration in the interior of them. They consist of a number of plain
long benches with backs to them; There is one elevated seat at the end
of these. This is for their ministers. It is elevated for no other
reason, than that their ministers may be the better heard. The women
occupy one half of these benches, and sit apart from the men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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