I am not so ignorant of the situation of the Society of Friends, as to be uninformed of the uneasiness which is felt by some of its members under its established rules of order and discipline; and as I know that your preaching was one of the principal causes of it, I did think it of some importance to endeavour to ascertain your opinions on the subject. It was indeed a laborious work to travel through the many pages over which they are dispersed; to remove the various matters with which they were encumbered, and collect the scattered fragments. Yet after all my toil, I found my work not half accomplished. These fragments when brought together, were of such various sizes and colours, so diversified in shape, and heterogeneous in their materials, that it surpassed my skill to arrange them in any way consistent with order and propriety; and if the knowledge of them can afford any instruction, it must be from the striking contrast between their wild deformity, and the rational rules of order and discipline which they are intended to supersede.
You say that all aversion to order and discipline arises from the want of a right knowledge of ourselves: that when we come to this right knowledge, we shall be so perfect in these things, that there will be no contests or divisions among us: that all order and discipline must be fixed by the divine Lawgiver, and that then it cannot be violated; and therefore that all attempts to censure or control a member must proceed from those who counterfeit its meaning, in order to lord it over others: that each member of society is in himself a little world, which, if kept in right order and subjection, all would be harmony and discipline; but, when this is not the case, all attempts to enforce them tend to increase the confusion: that we all have the law within ourselves, therefore order and discipline must never be contrived by mortals: that the Quaker discipline is unsound, because it is in the letter; but that there are some true Quakers, and that each of these has all discipline and order within himself.
Now what is all this? Is it not a second growth of that Fungus which was engendered in the hot bed of fanaticism many years past; and has not the sober sense of the humble Christian, or the wit and humour of a Butler, been able to eradicate it from the soil of the Christian church? Are we again to have among us those men above ordinances, who mistake confusion for order, and the destruction of our faith for the consummation of religion?
These questions must present themselves to every mind when examining your opinions; for, when stripped of all glosses, and exhibited in their genuine colours, they mean that all written rules of order and discipline are restraints upon the liberty of the saints: that no rules should be established by men, for that every man has the rule written in his own heart, and that there alone he is accountable.
That no man is accountable to another for his religious belief, and that every man has a right to worship in the way which he may believe most acceptable to his Creator, are undeniable truths; but as the different Christian sects have congregated on account of a unity in their religious tenets, and assemble together for the purpose of uniting in divine worship, they have a right, and, (if they are firm in their belief,) it is their duty, to establish such rules and regulations as will best preserve their religion in, what they believe to be, its greatest purity; and in an especial manner to prevent the preaching of doctrines adverse to it. And this is no infringement of the liberty of conscience; for any man who dissents from their doctrines may separate himself from them; he may unite himself with any other sect; or if, in his career, his spiritual knowledge has set him above all ordinances, he may erect his own standard, and, unrestrained by forms and unfettered by creeds, he may give the utmost strain to his imagination, and perhaps become himself the head of a sect. But no casuistry can justify, or pretence excuse a man, who continues to be ostensibly the member of a religious community, for the purpose of undermining its principles or destroying the belief in its tenets. Let him believe them erroneous and the substitutes he offers unquestionably true; it alters not the case. The source will be impure, and the waters which flow from it, tainted.
If the mind can be brought to conceive the possibility of the existence of a society formed according to your rules and orders of discipline, it must present itself to the imagination in all the sublime confusion of another chaos—you may offer yourself to explain the word of God, and you will be reminded that this is all in the letter: you may tell them that the Scriptures may be read to advantage, when all things in them have been previously revealed;[[21]] and they may reply, that reading them will then be quite unnecessary—you may exhort them to assemble together for the purpose of divine worship, "for that then we should be instructed what to do, and how to bring our offerings, to be handed over to the priest, so that they may be made acquainted with our state, and may preach the true gospel to us;"[[22]] and they may tell you "that such assemblies are not the places to gather spiritual food."[[23]] If you are asked why you waste so much time in preaching, you will tell them "the reason is plain; that although the letter directs us to the law, and nothing else can teach us, yet we flee from it; and therefore outward instruments are raised up and clothed with power:"[[24]] and they may reply that this is also the letter, and "that the Lord is too kind to send them away for instruction; and that he is always present, a schoolmaster to every soul."[[25]] If you explain to them your own growth and experience in spiritual knowledge, they will ask you of what use it can be to them, and tell you, "that each individual requires a law peculiar to himself; and that the law of the Spirit of Life in one, is not the law of the Spirit of Life in another"[[26]]—and if, (adopting this opinion,) you should declare to them that the law of the Spirit of Life is different in each individual, some of your audience may assert, "that the divine law which is written by the finger of God upon the tablet of our hearts, is the same to every individual"[[27]]—and if fatigued with these objections, you should express your surprise at their number, inconsistency and futility, you will be told that they are all furnished by yourself.
If, then, the great founder of the sect is yet so indistinct in his vision, what must be the situation of those who are less advanced in the religious experience of your new school? If he is so frequently involved in contradictions, what must be the accumulated mass when collected together?
Should your project be realised, and such a congregation assembled, those who, like yourself, search the Scriptures for types and figures, may, with much less violation of probability than occurs in your discourses, consider the meeting as a consummation of that confusion of tongues typified in the building of the Tower of Babel.
LETTER VI.
The extraordinary and unhesitating confidence with which you state your opinions, even on the most important and solemn subjects, and the air of authority with which you endeavour to enforce them, is in such striking contrast to that humility and reverence with which we are accustomed to hear such subjects treated, that it naturally excites some suspicion that there are views and feelings in the mind of the preacher not in accordance with that meek and quiet spirit which is the necessary qualification of a Christian teacher: and when we turn from the tone and manner of the discourse to some of the opinions delivered, I am afraid that suspicion will ripen into certainty, and that there will be too much evidence of a mind not habituated to reflections on its own infirmities, but proud[[28]] in its acquirements, and vaunting in its own strength. For we find you glorying in the ability to withstand the enemy of your peace, and gratifying yourself with the honour to be derived from the victory.[[29]] In this elevation of mind you say, that it would be a debasement to man, were he placed by the Almighty in a situation from which he could not fall;[[30]] and that had we been content to remain in a state of innocence, we should have continued to be but as mere machines.[[31]] To rely on any other than your own exertions you think degrading, and would not accept the sacrifice which is offered for your sins by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.[[32]]