days, and months, and times, and years," so the Quakers think it their duty, as Christians, to attend to the same injunction. They never meet upon saints' days, as such, that is, as days demanding the religious assemblings of men, more than others; first, because they conceive this would be giving into popish superstition; and secondly, because these days were originally the appointment of men, and not of God; and no human appointment, they believe, can make one day holier than another.

For the latter reason, also, they do not assemble for worship on those days, which their own government, though they are particularly attached to it, appoint as fasts. They are influenced also by another reason in this latter case. They conceive, as religion is of a spiritual nature, and must depend upon the Spirit of God, that true devotion cannot be excited for given purposes, or at a given time. They are influenced again by the consideration, that the real fast is of a different nature from that required, "Is not this the fast," says Isaiah,† "that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor, that are cast out, to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?" This the Quakers believe to be the true fast, and not the

* Gal. iv, 10.

Isaiah lviii, 6, 7.

work of a particular day, but to be the daily work of every real Christian.

Indeed, no one day, in the estimation of this people, can be made by human appointment either more holy or more proper for worship than another. They do not even believe that the Jewish Sabbath, which was by the appointment of God, continues in Gospel-times, or that it has been handed down by divine authority as the true Sabbath of Christians. All days with the members of this Society are equally holy, and all equally proper for the worship of God. In this opinion they coincide with the ever-memorable John Hales. "For prayer, indeed," says this venerable man, แ was the Sabbath ordained. Yet prayer itself is sabbathless, and admits of no rest, no intermission at all. If our hands be clean, we must, as our apostle commands us, lift them up every where, at all times, and make every place a church, every day a sabbath-day, every hour canonical. As you go to the market, as you stand in the streets, as you walk in the fields,-in all these places, you may pray as well, and with as good acceptance, as in the church; for you yourselves are temples of the Holy Ghost, if the Grace of God be in you, more precious than any of those which are made with hands."

Though, however, the Quakers believe no one day in the sight of God to be holier than another, and no one capable of being rendered so by human authority, yet they think that Christians ought to assemble for the public worship of God. They think they ought to bear an outward and public tes

timony for God; and this can only be done by be coming members of a visible church, where they may be seen to acknowledge him publicly in the face of men. They think also, that the public worship of God increases, as it were, the fire of devotion, and enlarges the sphere of spiritual life in the souls of men. "God causes the inward life," says Barclay, "the more to abound, when his children assemble themselves diligently together to wait upon him; so that, as iron sharpeneth iron, the seeing of the faces of one another, when both are inwardly gathered unto the Life, giveth occasion for the Life secretly to rise, and to pass from vessel to vessel. And as many candles lighted, and put in one place, do greatly augment the light, and make it more to shine forth; so, when many are gathered together into the same Life, there is more of the glory of God, and his power appears to the refreshment of each individual; for that he partakes not only of the Light and Life raised in himself, but in all the rest. And therefore Christ hath particularly promised a blessing to such as assemble in his name, seeing he will be in the midst of them." For these and other reasons, the Quakers think it proper that men should be drawn together to the public worship of God.

But if so, they must be drawn together at certain times. Now as one day has never been in the eyes of the Quakers more desirable for such an object than another, their ancestors chose the first day in the week, because the Apostles had chosen it for the religious assembling of themselves and their followers. And, in addition to this, that more fre

quent opportunities might be afforded them of bearing their outward testimony publicly for God, and of enlarging the sphere of their spiritual life, they appointed a meeting on one other day in the week in most places, and two in some others, for the same purpose.

CHAPTER XIII.

Miscellaneous particularities-Quakers careful about the use of such words as relate to religion-never use the words " Original Sin"-nor "the Word of God" for the Scriptures-nor the word "Trinity"-never pry into the latter mystery-believe in the manhood and divinity of Jesus Christ-also in a resurrection, but never attempt to fathom that subject-Make little difference between sanctification and justification—their ideas concerning the

latter.

THE members of this Society are remarkably careful, both in their conversation and their writings on religious subjects, as to the terms which they use. They express scriptural images or ideas, as much as may be, by scriptural terms. By means of this particular caution they avoid much of the perplexity and many of the difficulties, which arise to others, and escape the theological disputes, which disturb the rest of the Christian world.

They scarcely ever utter the words "Original Sin," because they never find them in use in the Sacred Writings.

The Scriptures are usually denominated by Christians "the Word of God." Though the Quakers believe them to have been given by divine inspiration, yet they reject this term. They apprehend that Christ is the Word of God. They cannot therefore consistently give to the Scriptures, however they reverence them, that name which St. John the Evangelist gives exclusively to the Son of God.

Neither do they often make use of the word "Trinity." This expression they can no where find in the Sacred Writings. This to them is a sufficient warrant for rejecting it. They consider it as a term of mere human invention, and of too late a date to claim a place among the expressions of primitive Christianity. For they find it neither in Justin Martyr, nor in Irenæus, nor in Tertullian, nor in Origen, nor in the Fathers of the three first centuries of the Church.

And as they seldom use the term, so they seldom or never try, when it offers itself to them, either in conversation or in books, to fathom its meaning. They judge that a curious inquiry into such high and speculative things, though ever so great truths in themselves, tends little to godliness, and less to peace; and that their principal concern is with that only which is clearly revealed, and which leads practically to holiness of life.

Consistently with this judgment, we find but little said respecting the Trinity by the Quaker-writers.