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THE

DOCTRINES OF FRIENDS:

OR

PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION,

AS HELD BY

The Society of Friends,

COMMONLY CALLED QUAKERS.

BY ELISHA BATES.

Mountpleasant:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.

1825.

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BE IT REMEMBERED, that heretofore, to wit, on the twenty-fifth day of March eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and in the forty-ninth year of American Independence, ELISHA BATES, of said district deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author in the words and figures following, to wit:

"THE DOCTRINES OF FRIENDS: OR PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN "RELIGION, AS HELD BY THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, COMMONLY CALL"ED QUAKERS. BY ELISHA BATES."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled "an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietor of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" & also of the act entitled "an act, supplementary to an act, entitled an act, for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, ånd etching, historical and other prints." HARVEY D. EVANS, Clerk, District of Ohio.

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L. S.

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M

PREFACE.

I publishing, at the present day, a treatise of the Doctrines of Friends, it is not intended to convey an idea, that the works of this kind, already extant, are not judiciously written. Nor is it intended, by the present performance, to supercede those valuable writings. On the contrary, I would recommend them to more general attention than they now receive. Nor is it to propagate or defend new principles, that I have entered into the present engagement: but to present, in a concise, and yet explicit manner, an account of the acknowledged doctrines of the Society. For though I consider the doctrinal works, that have been published, (with the consent of the Society,) are all well adapted to the particular views of the respective writers, and to the times at which they were written: yet it may be noticed, that the writings of our primitive Friends are voluminous and scarce, while those of modern date do not notice many points of doctrine, which sometimes become interesting, from the particular course of religious inquiry.

It has long been a settled sentiment in my mind, that a work, setting forth clearly the acknowledged principles of the Society, in all material points, without being tedious or expensive, would be useful, both to the members of the Society itself, and to serious inquirers, of other religious denominations. With this sentiment, I cherished, for several years, a hope that some qualified individual, would undertake the task. Finding however this hope not realized, and feeling, more impressively, the importance of the work, the apprehension of duty, gradually, and permanently settled on my mind, to make the attempt.

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