past sins are forgiven, is effected by this sacrifice, there will be little or no difference between the religion of the Quakers and that of the objectors, as far as it relates to Christ.*

CHAPTER X.

SECTION 1.

Ministers-The Spirit of God alone can make a minister of the Gospel-Hence no imposition of hands; nor human knowledge, can be effectual-This pro position not peculiarly adopted by George Fox, but by Justin the Martyr, Luther, Calvin, Wickliff, · Tyndal, Milton, and others-Way in which this call by the Spirit qualifies for the ministryWomen equally qualified with men.

HAVING now detailed fully the operations of the Spirit of God, as far as the Quakers believe it to be concerned in the instruction and redemption of man,

* The Quakers have frequently said in their theological writ ings, that every man has a portion of the Holy Spirit within him; and this assertion has not been censured. But they have also said, that every man has a portion of Christ, or of the Light of Christ, within him. Now this assertion has been considered extravagant and wild. The reader will therefore see, that if he admits the one he cannot very consistently censure the other.

I shall consider its operations, as far as they believe it to be concerned in the services of the church. Upon this Spirit they make both their worship and their ministry to depend. I shall therefore consider these subjects, before I proceed to any new order of tenets, which they may hold.

It is a doctrine of the members of this community, that none can spiritually exercise, and that none ought to be allowed to exercise, the office of ministers, but such as the Spirit of God has worked upon and called forth to discharge it; as well as that the same Spirit will never fail to raise up persons in succession for this end.

Conformably with this idea, no person, in the opinion of the Society, ought to be designed by his parents in early youth for the priesthood; for as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can say which is the vessel that is to be made to honour.

Conformably with the same idea, no imposition of hands, or ordination, can avail any thing, in their opinion, in the formation of a minister of the Gospel; for no human power can communicate to the internal man the spiritual gifts of God.

Neither, in conformity with the same idea, can the acquisition of human learning, nor the obtaining of academical degrees and honours be an essential qualification for this office: for though the human intellect is so great, that it can dive as it were into the ocean, and discover the laws of fluids, and rise again up to heaven, and measure the celestial mo tions, yet it is incapable of itself of penetrating into divine things, so as spiritually to know them; while

on the other hand, illiterate men appear often to have more knowledge on these subjects than the most learned. Indeed the Quakers have no notion of a human qualification for a divine calling. They reject all school divinity, as necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe, that if a knowledge of Christianity had been obtainable by the acquisition of the Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and Roman philosophers, the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the best proficients in it; whereas the gospel was only foolishness to many of these. They say with St. Paul to the Colossians, "Beware lést any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."* And they say with the same apostle to Timothy, "O Timothy! keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith."t

This notion of the Quakers, that human learning and academical honours are not necessary for the priesthood, is very ancient. Though George Fox introduced it into his new Society, and this without any previous reading upon the subject, yet it had existed long before his time. In short, it was connected with the tenet, early disseminated in the church, that no person could know spiritual things but through the medium of the Spirit of God; from

Coloss. ii, 8.

† 1 Tim. vi, 20, 21.

whence it was not difficult to pass to the doctrine, that none could teach spiritually, unless they had been taught spiritually themselves. Hence we find Justin the Martyr, a Platonic philosopher, but who was afterwards one of the earliest Christian writers after the Apostles, and other learned men after him down to Chrysostom, laying aside their learning and their philosophy for the school of Christ. The first authors also of the Reformation contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported it. Wickliff, the first reformer of the Eng lish church, and Tyndal the martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language, supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, master of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge, preached a sermon before the University, contending that the universities corresponded to the schools of the prophets, and that human learning was an essential qualification for the priesthood. This sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, master of Caius College in the same University; in which he stated, after having argued the points in question, that the universities did not correspond to the schools of the prophets, but to those of heathen men; that Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were more honoured there, than Moses or Christ; that Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics, and the Mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or the defence of the Gospel; that Christian schools had originally brought men from Heathenism to Christianity, but that the University schools were likely to carry men from Christianity to

Heathenism again. This language of William Dell was indeed the general language of the divines and pious men in those times, in which George Fox lived, though unquestionably the opposite doctrine had been started, and had been received by many. Thus the great John Milton, who lived in these very times, may be cited, as speaking in a similar manner with Dell on the same subject: "Next," says he, "it is a fond error, though too much believed among us, to think that the University makes a minister of the Gospel. What it may conduce to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now. But that which makes fit a minister, the Scripture can best inform us to be only from above, whence also we are bid to seek them. Thus St. Matthew says :'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers unto his harvest.'* Thus St. Luke: The flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.' Thus St. Paul: 'How shall they preach, unless they be sent?' But by whom sent? By the University, or by the magistrate? No, surely. But sent by God, and by him only."

The Quakers then, rejecting school-divinity, continue to think with Justin, Luther, Dell, Milton, and indeed with those of the church of England, and others, that those only can be proper ministers of the church, who have witnessed within themselves a call from the Spirit of God. If men would teach religion, they must, in the opinion of the So

* Matt. ix, 38.

† Acts xx, 28.

Rom. x, 15.

VOL. II.

R