Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century

by Caroline Frances Cornwallis

The Declaration of Indulgence in 1663 stopped for a short time the persecution of the Quakers, but by the Conventicle Act of 1664, numbers of them were condemned to transportation: in 1666, however, their condition improved, when the celebrated William Penn, the son of Admiral Penn, joined them.

The discipline of this society is kept up by monthly meetings, composed of an aggregate of several particular congregations, whose business it is to provide for the maintenance of their poor, and the education of their children; also to judge of the sincerity and fitness of persons desirous of being admitted as members; to direct proper attention to religion and moral duty; and to deal with disorderly members. At each monthly meeting persons are appointed to see that the rules of their discipline are put in practice. It is usual when any member has misconducted himself, to appoint a small committee to visit the offender, to endeavour to convince him of his error and induce him to forsake it. If they succeed, he is declared to have “made satisfaction for his offence,” otherwise he is dismissed from the society. In disputes between individuals, it is enjoined that the members of this sect should not sue each other at law, but settle their differences by the rules of the society.

Marriage is regarded by the Quakers as a religious, not a mere civil compact. Those who wish to enter into that state appear together, and state their intentions at one of the monthly meetings, and if not attended by parents or guardians must produce their consent in writing duly witnessed; and if no objections are raised at a subsequent meeting, they are allowed to solemnize their marriage, which is done at a public meeting for worship; towards the close of which the parties stand up and solemnly take each other for man and wife. A certificate of the proceedings is then read publicly and signed by the parties, and afterwards by the relations as witnesses. The monthly meeting keeps a register of the marriages as well as of the births and burials of the society.

Children are named without any attending ceremony; neither is it held needful that there should be any at burial, though the body followed by the relatives and friends is sometimes carried into a meeting house, and at the grave a pause is generally made to allow of a discourse from any friend attending if he be so inclined.

The women have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own sex, but without the power of making rules. “As we believe,” they say, “that women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, we also think that to them belongs a share in the support of Christian discipline; and that some parts of it wherein their own sex is concerned devolve on them with peculiar propriety.”

But what, you will ask, are the religious tenets of this sect? The question will perhaps best be answered by an extract from their “Rules of Discipline,” a work published under the sanction of the society. “The original and immediate ground of the religious fellowship of the early Friends,” says the writer of this manual, “was union of sentiment in regard to Christ’s inward teaching.” They were firm believers in all that is revealed in Holy Scripture respecting our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; nor would they have allowed that any one held the truth who denied his coming in the flesh, or the benefit to fallen man by his propitiatory sacrifice. “We believe that, in order to enable mankind to put in practice the precepts of the gospel, every man coming into the world is endued with a measure of the light, grace, or good Spirit of Christ, by which, as it is alluded to, he is enabled to distinguish good from evil, and to correct the disorderly passions and corrupt propensities of his fallen nature, which mere reason is altogether insufficient to overcome. For all that belongs to man is fallible, and within the reach of temptation: but the divine grace, which comes by Him, i.e. Christ, who hath overcome the world, is, to those who humbly and sincerely seek it, an all-sufficient and present help in time of need . . . whereby the soul is translated out of the kingdom of darkness, and from under the power of Satan into the marvellous light and kingdom of the Son of God. Now as we thus believe that the grace of God, which comes by Jesus Christ, is alone sufficient for salvation, we can neither admit that it is conferred upon a few only, while others are left without it; nor thus asserting its universality, can we limit its operation to a partial cleansing of the soul from sin even in this life.”

Baptism and the Lord’s supper are regarded by this sect as mere types or shadows, representing in a figurative manner certain great particulars of Christian Truths, but not intended to be of permanent obligation. They consider the former to have been superseded by the baptism of the Spirit: of the latter they say, “the emblem may be either used or disused as Christians may consider most conducive to the real advantage of the church: the only needful supper of the Lord is altogether of a spiritual nature.” They conceive that a reliance on the eucharist as a ‘viaticum or saving ordinance,’ is a dangerous tenet, as well as the connecting the rite of baptism with regeneration. They think that “ordinances so liable to abuse, and the cause of so many divisions and persecutions, cannot truly appertain to the law of God.”

Quakers consider all holidays as “shadows” which ceased with the shadowy dispensations of the law, and that neither the first day of the week, nor any other, possesses any superior sanctity; [20] but as a society they have never objected to “a day of rest,” for the purpose of religious improvement. They consider the Christian Dispensation to have superseded the use of oaths, and contend that our Lord’s precepts [21]extend even to the swearing of witnesses in courts of law. War they hold to be altogether inconsistent with the spirit and precepts of the gospel, and urge that the primitive Christians during two centuries maintained its unlawfulness. They object on the same principle to capital punishments, and the slave trade.

The members of the society are bound by their principles to abstain entirely “from profane and extravagant entertainments,” from excess in eating and drinking; from public diversions; from the reading of useless, frivolous, and pernicious books; from gaming of every description; and from vain and injurious sports (such as hunting or shooting for diversion); from unnecessary display in funerals, furniture, and style of living: from unprofitable, seductive, and dangerous amusements, among which are ranked dancing and music; and generally from all “such occupations of time and mind as plainly tend to levity, vanity, and forgetfulness of our God and Saviour,” and they object to all complimentary intercourse.

In the sketch I have now given of the tenets of this sect, you cannot have failed to observe how closely their notions with regard to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity tally with those of the great body of the church; the differences being all on points of minor import, if we except the ceremonies of baptism and the Lord’s supper; which, being the appointment of Christ himself, we are not at liberty to reject. And yet, be it observed, the Quaker does not presumptuously reject them, but merely acts upon, as we suppose, an erroneous view of their nature.