The situation in which the Society of Friends has of late been placed, has, I have no doubt, attracted the attention of all its members; and that even those among you who have not been in the habit of attending its meetings for discipline, are no strangers to their proceedings, although you have not yet felt it your duty to take any part in them. And to you more especially I submit the observations contained in the following letters. When in my early days I sometimes attended these meetings, my

When I some time since addressed you, I expressed an anxious wish that you would submit to the consideration of your friends, your scheme of religion, in such a form as would enable them to examine it with deliberation; because I did believe that on this momentous subject, too much care could not be exercised. My wish has been gratified, not by your immediate agency, but by the zeal of your followers, who have caused a number of your discourses to be printed and published to the world. When I sa

It may now be proper to state the motives which have again induced me publicly to address you, and to inform you what course it is my intention to pursue; and as I have no standing in the church, and am aloof from those scenes which must sometimes give rise to asperities, even in the bosom of meekness, have no personal acquaintance with you, and have been taught to respect your private character, I enter upon the subject, uninfluenced by many of the passions and prejudices which sway and control

If, in my succeeding observations, I refer to the opinions held by any other sect than that in which I have been educated, I wish it to be understood, that it is neither to approve nor censure. Believing, (as I sincerely do,) that christianity consists not in forms or observances; neither in subscriptions to curiously contrived creeds, nor in confessions of faith; but in that worship which purifies and cleanseth the heart; so I believe that he who ministers to a congregation in this spirit, (wha

Every reader of your discourses, must be surprised at the extent to which you have carried the practice of allegorising the Scriptures: you declare your assent to them, and yet in practice, you seem to consider each part as a fable from which you can draw a moral to suit the purpose of the moment; and the belief which you profess in their divine origin, does not restrain you from indulging in all the licentiousness of fiction. "Sacred History, (says an eminent writer,) has always been read with

In reading your discourses my attention was particularly engaged by the sermon delivered at Newtown, in Bucks County, and it did seem to me so much at variance with the principles which induce the Quakers to assemble for public worship, that were there no other evidence, it would be sufficient to prove that you are not under the guidance of that spirit, by which, in former days, their ministers were governed. That society believe that the great object of such assembling is to endeavour, by shutt

The extraordinary and unhesitating confidence with which you state your opinions, even on the most important and solemn subjects, and the air of authority with which you endeavour to enforce them, is in such striking contrast to that humility and reverence with which we are accustomed to hear such subjects treated, that it naturally excites some suspicion that there are views and feelings in the mind of the preacher not in accordance with that meek and quiet spirit which is the necessary qualifi

When the early Quakers, dissatisfied with the formal worship of the existing protestant church, separated themselves and formed a society of their own, they were reproached by some with denying the authenticity of the sacred writings, and by others with setting up their own inspirations in opposition to them; and they seem at an early period to have discovered the necessity of recording their belief on this subject, not only to refute the calumnies circulated by their opponents, but as a guide t

When we consider the ingenuity of the mind of man, in drawing inferences from propositions to suit his present passions and prejudices, and how often they are perverted to the most injurious purposes, every person of reflection must admit that it is of the most serious importance that the ministers of religion should be extremely guarded in the terms they use, and not suffer a sentence to escape from their lips without a careful examination of its bearing and tendency. Nor is it any justificatio

Your assertion that "you cannot believe what you do not understand," is often quoted by your followers, as a proof of your having emancipated yourself from the thraldom of tradition, and risen superior to those prejudices, which early education, and the authority of antiquity have fastened on the minds of men; and yet when we examine and compare this assertion with the doctrines you inculcate, it appears evident that you have not a correct idea of the meaning of your favourite maxim. This unders

Religion being a subject of the greatest importance to man, and a matter solely between the Creator and the individual who worships him, its rewards and its punishments appertaining to that kingdom which is not of this world, and "the conscience of man being the seat and throne of God in him, of which He alone is the proper and infallible judge, who by his power and spirit can rectify its mistakes;" [72] and it being man's duty to worship according to the dictates of that conscience, it must fol

When I first undertook to review some of the prominent features in the sermons alluded to, I did expect to confine my remarks within a narrow compass; but the topics which the author discusses are so various and the applications so numerous, that it unavoidably led to their extension, and I have at last left many untouched which are entitled to very serious consideration. I know there are some very serious and pious men who lament that these sermons were published; but I am not of their opinion;