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
It will appear from the foregoing observations, that it Is the belief of
the Quakers, that every man has the power of inward redemption within
himself, who attends to the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and that as
outward redemption by the sufferings of Jesus Christ extends to all,
where the inward has taken place, so redemption or salvation, in its
full extent, is possible to every individual of the human race.
This position, however, is denied by those Christians, who have
pronounced in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation;
because, if they believe some predestined from all eternity to eternal
happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, they must then believe that
salvation is not possible to all, and that it was not intended to be
universal.
The Quakers have attempted to answer the objections, which have been
thus made to their theory of redemption; and as the reader will probably
expect that I should notice what they have said upon this subject, I
have reserved the answers they have given for the present place.
The Quakers do not deny the genuineness of any of those texts, which are
usually advanced against them. Of all people, they fly the least to the
cover of interpolation or mutilation of scripture to shield themselves
from the strokes of their opponents. They believe, however, that there
are passages in the sacred writings, which will admit of an
interpretation different from that which has been assigned them by many,
and upon this they principally rely in the present case. If there are
passages, to which two meanings may be annexed, and if for one there is
equal authority as for the other, yet if one meaning should destroy all
the most glorious attributes of the supreme being, and the other should
preserve them as recognized in the other parts of the scripture, they
think they are bound to receive that which favours the justice, mercy,
and wisdom of God, rather than that which makes him appear both unjust
and cruel.
The Quakers believe, that some Christians have misunderstood the texts
which they quote in favour of the doctrine of election and reprobation,
for the following reasons:--
First, because if God had from all eternity predestinated some to
eternal happiness, and the rest to eternal misery, the mission of Jesus
Christ upon earth became unnecessary, and his mediation ineffectual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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