there is no just occasion for any to despair. And they are living proofs in the second, as to what kind of character Christianity, where it is rightly received, will produce. They are living proofs, that it can produce sobriety, inoffensiveness, simplicity, charity, peace, and the domestic and other virtues. Now though every private Christian can show in himself an example of these effects, yet the Quakers show it, not by producing solitary instances, but as a Body; the temper of the great mass of their members being apparently cast in the same mould, and their character, as a Society, being acknowledged to be that of a moral people. for a moment, And here I cannot but stop to pay a just tribute to the Quaker-system, as one of the best modes of the Christian religion; for, whether the doctrines which belong to it, or whether the discipline which it promotes, or whether both of them conjointly, produce the effects which have been just related, certain it is that they are produced*. But that system of religion is surely Many of the Quakers in America, influenced by custom, adopted the practice of holding slaves. But, on a due surely the most excellent, which produces, first, the greatest, and, secondly, the most universal effect upon those who profess it. For, what is the use of any particular creed, or where is the advantage of any one creed above another, if it cannot give the great characteristic marks of a Christian, a subjugated mind, and a moral character? What signifies the creed of any particular description of Christian professors, if it has no influence on the heart; or if we see professors among these giving way to their passions, or affording an inconsistent example to the world? The Quakers have given, again, in the reforms, which in the first volume I described them to have introduced into legislation, a beautiful and practical lesson of jurisprudence to the governors of all nations. They have shown the inefficacy of capital punishments; that the best object in the punish due recurrence to their principles, they gave freedom to these unconditionally; thus doing another public good in the world, and giving another example of the power of religion on the mind. Some of the former masters of slaves gave them, with their freedom, a pecuniary compensation for the labour they had performed, over and above the necessary expenses attending their manumission. ment ment of offenders is their reformation; that this accords best with the genius and spirit of the Christian religion; and that while such a system, when followed, restores the abandoned to usefulness in society, it diminishes the number of crimes*. They have shown, again, by their own example, that it is not so difficult for men to live peaceably together, as has been usually believed; and they have exhibited the means, by which they have effected this desirable end in life. And as they have proved that this is practicable in private, so they have proved, as has appeared in this volume, that it is practicable in public life; or, which is the same thing, they have shown, that in the intercourse, which exists between nations, there is no necessity for wars. They have shown, and established, again, by the two latter instances, both of which relate to civil government, a proposition, which seems scarcely to be believed if we judge by the practice of statesmen, but the truth of which ought for ever to be insisted upon, that the policy of the Gospel is superior to the policy of the world. See vol. i. sect iv. p. 203. This is a portion of the good, which the Quakers have done since their appearance as a Society in the world. What other good they have done it is not necessary to specify. And as to what they would yet do, if they were permitted to become universal legislators, it may be a pleasing subject for contemplation; but it does not fall within the limits of the present chapter. CHAP CHAPTER III. General opinion, that the Quakers are on the decline as a Society-observations upon this subject-opinion believed upon the whole to be truecauses of this supposed declension-Mixed marriages-tithes-pursuit of trade as connected with the peculiar habits of the Society, and a residence in the towns-education. I HAVE often heard it suggested as matter for conversation, whether the Quakers were increasing or decreasing in their number; and the result has always been an opinion that they were a declining body. When we consider the simplicity and even philosophy of the Quaker-religion, the preservation it affords from the follies and difficulties of life, and the happiness to which it ultimately leads, we shall wonder that the progress of the Society in point of number has not been greater than we find it. And when we consider, on the other hand, how difficult it is to be a Quaker, how much it is against the temper and dis position |