A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2

A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2

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by Thomas Clarkson
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Title: A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3)
Author: Thomas Clarkson
Release Date: March 4, 2005 [eBook #15261]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM, VOLUME II
Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
by
THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. Author of Several Essays on the Slave Trade
New York: Published by Samuel Stansbury, No 111, Water-Street
1806

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
PECULIAR CUSTOMS.

CHAPTER I.
SECT. I.--Marriage--Regulation and example of George Fox, relative to Marriage--Present regulations, and manner of the celebration of it among the Quakers.
SECT. II.--Those who marry out of the society, are disowned--Various reasons for such a measure--Objection to it--Reply.
SECT III.--But the disowned may be restored to membership--Terms of their restoration--these terms censured--Reply.
SECT IV.--More women disowned on this account than men--Probable causes of this difference of number.

CHAPTER II.
SECT I.--Funerals--Extravagance and pageantry of ancient and modern funerals--These discarded by the Quakers--Plain manner in which they inter their dead.
SECT II.--Quakers use no tomb-stones, nor monumental inscriptions --Various reasons of their disuse of these.
SECT. III.--Neither do they use mourning garments--Reasons why they thus differ from the world--These reasons farther elucidated by considerations on Court-mourning.

CHAPTER III.
Occupations--Agriculture declining among the Quakers--Causes and disadvantages of this decline.

CHAPTER IV.
SECT. I.--_Trade--Quakers view trade as a moral question--Prohibit a variety of trades and dealings on this account--various other wholesome regulations concerning it._
SECT. II.--_But though the Quakers thus prohibit many trades, they are found in some which are considered objectionable by the world--These specified and examined._

CHAPTER V.
_Settlement of differences--Abstain from duels-and also from law--Have recourse to arbitration--Their rules concerning arbitration--An account of an Arbitration Society at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles._

CHAPTER VI.
SECT. I.--_Poor--No beggars among the Quakers--Manner of relieving and providing for the poor._
SECT. II.--_Education of the children of the poor provided for--Observations on the number of the Quaker-poor--and on their character._

RELIGION.
INTRODUCTION.
_Invitation to a perusal of this part of the work--The necessity of humility and charity in religion on account of the limited powers of the human understanding--Object of this invitation._

CHAPTER I.
_God has given to all, besides an intellectual, a spiritual understanding--Some have had a greater portion of this spirit than others, such as Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and Apostles--Jesus Christ had it without limit or measure._

CHAPTER II.
_Except a man has a portion of the same spirit, which Jesus, and the Prophets, and the Apostles had, he cannot know spiritual things--This doctrine confirmed by St. Paul--And elucidated by a comparison between the faculties of men and of brutes._

CHAPTER III.
_Neither except he has a portion of the same spirit, can he know the scriptures to be of divine origin, nor can he spiritually understand them--Objection to this doctrine-Reply._

CHAPTER IV.
_This spirit, which has been thus given to men in different degrees, has been given them as a teacher or guide in their spiritual concerns--Way in which it teaches._

CHAPTER V.
_This spirit may be considered as the primary and infallible guide--and the scriptures but a secondary means of instruction--but the Quakers do not undervalue the latter on this account--Their opinion concerning them._

CHAPTER VI.
_This spirit, as a primary and infallible guide, has been given to men universally--From the creation to Moses--From Moses to Christ--From Christ to the present day._

CHAPTER VII.
Sect. I.--_And as it has been universally to men, so it has been given them sufficiently--Those who resist it, quench it--Those who attend to it, are in the way of redemption._
Sect. II.--_This spirit then besides its office of a spiritual guide, performs that of a Redeemer to men--Redemption outward and inward--Inward effected by this spirit._
Sect. III.--_Inward redemption produces a new birth--and leads to perfection--This inward redemption possible to all._
Sect. IV--_New birth and perfection more particularly explained-New birth as real from "the spiritual seed of the kingdom" as that of plants and vegetables from their seeds in the natural world--and goes on in the same manner progressively to maturity._

CHAPTER VIII.
SECT. I._--Possibility of redemption to all denied by the favours of "Election and Reprobation"--Quaker-refutation of the later doctrine._
SECT. II._--Quaker refutation continued._

CHAPTER IX.
_Recapitulation of all the doctrines advanced--Objection that the Quakers make every thing of the Spirit and but little of Jesus Christ--Attempt to show that Christians often differ without a just cause--Or that there is no material difference between the creeds of the Quakers and