Imatges de pàgina
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day; yet their matter is of the deepest importance, and their manner has much of that peculiar force, which a mind deeply impressed with the subject on which it treats seldom fails to infuse into its composition. There will also be found in some of the writings of which we are speaking, passages not devoid of that peculiar richness of expression, which distinguished many English compositions of that age.

But there are other grounds on which the writings of our early friends demand our attention. We profess, as regards the essentials of our faith and the grounds of our dissent from other societies, to be one with them; and, though we are not bound by every opinion which they express, or required to defend every circumstance of their history, filial regard claims for them respectful consideration; and, whilst each of us should follow their example in the careful study of the Holy Scriptures for himself, and in seeking for Divine illumination upon that study, it may be of eminent service to us, to trace the.history and causes of our dissent; to compare our present opinions and practices with theirs; and to see whether we have abandoned any thing which they held, or have ceased to do any thing which they practised. In no case is the reference to first principles of greater importance, than in matters of religion. Religious

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history has shown that it is possible to retain the name and form of the true Church, when its spirituality has been lost, and its great doctrines abandoned.

These remarks may perhaps be deemed too general for an Introduction to the present Selection. They have, I confess, a more extensive reference, and art intended as a sort of apology for a series of Selections from the works of our early Friends, which I much wish to see produced; and to which, if life and health are permitted me, I hope to make some further contributions.

The

The volume of Epistles from which the present selection is made, was published in folio, in the year 1698. It is now extremely scarce. letters which it contains were written from about the years 1648 to 1690. They embrace a period of full forty years; and, being composed at such different times, and on such various occasions, they serve materially to illustrate the early history of our Society, and the real character and views of the chief instrument of its formation. This character and these views are, in the present day of ease, well worthy of our study. They exhibit this good man in one uniform character, that of a Christian Apostle,

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over labouring to promote "glory to God in the highest—peace on earth—and good will to men." With what zeal does he appear, from these letters, to have watched over every part of that flock over which he was more peculiarly a shepherd! But his Christian love and zeal were not confined by any sectarian boundaries; they extended to every part of the human family: and many of the letters evince a great desire for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the heathen world. He had himself been in the West Indies and North America, in both which countries the instruction of the African slaves in the great truths of the Gospel, and the improvement of their condition, deeply interested him.

In America, the state of the Indians claimed much of his attention, and the letters to his friends there prove, that such was his high estimate of the truths of Christianity, and of the adaptation of the Gospel of Christ to man under every circumstance, that the want of civilization does not appear to have occurred to him as an objection to the instruction of the Indians, in that way wherein the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err. "All friends every where," says he, "that have Indians or Blacks, are to preach the Gospel to them and other servants, if you be true Christians; for the Gospel was to be preached to every creature under heaven." p. 322.

"And also yon must instruct and teach your Indians and Negros, and all others, that Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man, and gave Himself a ransom for all men, to be testified in due time; and is the propitiation, not for the sins of Christians only, but for the sins of the whole world." p. 323. And again: "You are to open the promises of God to the ignorant, and how God would give Christ a Covenant, a Light to the gentiles—the heathen, and a new Covenant to the house of Israel; and that He is God's salvation to the end of the earth; and that the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." p. 324.

You," says he, "that are and have been faithful, spread the Truth abroad: let not prin eipalities and powers separate you from the love of God which you have in Christ Jesus, who hath all power in heaven and earth given unto Him. Mind his reign, his teaching, his kingdom, which hath no end: for God hath some to be brought out amongst those heathen, if you be faithful among them, answering the witness of God in them; for the Lord saith, I will give Him for a Covenant to the gentiles.'" p. 222. And writing to the friends in the ministry in America and the West India Islands, he presses upon them to take some upright

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friends, and go and discourse with some of the heathen kings; desiring them to gather their council and people together, that God's everlasting way of life and salvation, through Jesus Christ, might, be declared to them. p. 169.

The same enlarged views are evinced in his letters to the friends who, from being engaged in a seafaring life, had become captives on the coast of Africa. He wishes them to acquire the language of the Turks, that they might be able to communicate to them the glad tidings of salvation, by speaking, and by translating books into their language. The horrors even of Algerine slavery appear to have been lessened in his view, by the hope that it might be the means of good to the captors. It seems that the captives were allowed to meet together for the purpose of divine worship. George Fox exhorts them to the firm support of their Christian testimony, and in one letter observes: "I think you have more liberty to meet there than we have here, for they keep us out of our meetings, and cast us into prison, and spoil our goods."

The religious Society of Friends was, at that time, a laborious and, in England, a very suffering body many of the letters in the present collection

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