action, they ought to obey it, if it were to lead them to do evil that good might come?

The same may be said with respect to many of the bad laws, which are to be found in the codes of the different nations of the world. Legislators, no doubt, have often thought themselves spiritually guided when they made them. And judges, who have been remarkable for appealing to the Divine Spirit in the course of their lives, have made no hesitation to execute them. This was particularly the case with Sir Matthew Hale. If there be any one, whose writings speak a more than ordinary belief in the agency of the Spirit of God, it is this great and estimable man. This Spirit he consulted, not only in the spiritual but in the temporal concerns of his life. And yet he sentenced to death a number of persons, because they were reputed to be witches. But what true Quaker believes in witchcraft? or does he not rather believe, that the Spirit of God, if rightly understood, would have protested against condemnation for a crime, which does not exist?

But the mischief, if a proper distinction is not made between the agency of the Spirit and that of the will of man, may spread further, and may reach the man himself, and become injurious to his health, his intellect, and his usefulness; and the Divine Being may be made again the author of it all.

Many, we all know, notwithstanding their care and attention, have found that they have gone wrong in their affairs in various instances of their lives; that is, events have shown that they have taken a wrong

course.

But if there be those, who suppose themselves in these instances to have been acted upon by the Spirit of God, what is more likely, than that they may imagine that they have lost his favour; and that, looking upon themselves as driven by him into the wrong road, they may fall into the belief that they are among the condemned reprobate, and pine away, deprived of their senses, in a state of irretrievable misery and despair?

Others again may injure their health, and diminish their comfort and their utility, in another way. And here I may remark, that, if I have seen what the world would call superstition among the Quakers, it has been confined principally to a few females, upon whose constitution, more delicate than that of men, an attention to undistinguished impressions, brought on in a course of time by a gradual depreciation of human reason, has acted with considerable force. I fear that some of these, in the upright intentions of their hearts to consult the Almighty on all occasions as the sole arbiter of every thing that is good, have fostered their own infirmities, and gone into retirements so frequent, as to have occasioned these to interfere with the duties of domestic comfort and social good; and that they have been at last so perplexed with an increasing multitude of doubts and scruples, that they have been afraid of doing many trivial things, because they have not had a revelation for them. The state of such worthy persons is much to be pitied. What must be their feelings under such a conflict, when they are deserted by human reason!

What an effect will not such religious doubts and perplexities have upon their health! What impediments do they not throw in the way of their own utility!

I should be sorry, if by any observations, such as the preceding, I should be thought to censure any one for the morality of his feelings. And still more sorry should I be, if I were to be thought to have any intention of derogating from the character of the Supreme Being. I am far from denying his omniscience; for I believe that he sees every sparrow that falls to the ground, and even more, that he knows the innermost thoughts of men. I deny not his omnipresence; for I believe that he may be seen in all his works. I deny neither his general nor his particular providence, nor his hearing of our prayers, nor his right direction in our spiritual concerns, nor his making all things work together for good to those, who love him. Neither do I rerefuse to admit him either into our journeys, or into our walks, or into our chambers; for he can make all the things we see subservient to our moral instruction, and his own glory. But I should be sorry to have him considered as a clock, that is to inform us about the times of our ordinary movements; or to make him a prompter in all our worldly concerns; or to oblige him to take his seat in animal-magnetism; or to reside in the midst of marvellous delusions. Why should we expect a revelation in the most trivial concerns in our lives, where our reason will inform us? Why, like the waggoner, apply to Hercules, when we may remove

the difficulty by putting our own shoulders to the wheels? If we are reasonable creatures, we can generally tell, whether we ought to go forwards or backwards, or to begin or to postpone; whether our actions are likely to be innocent or hurtful, or whether we are going on an errand of benevolence or of evil. In fact, there can be no necessity for this constant appeal to the Spirit in* all our worldly concerns, while we possess our reason as men. And unless some distinction be made between the real agency of God and our own volitions, which distinction true Quakerism suggests, we shall be liable to be tossed to and fro by every wind that blows, and to become the creatures of a superstition, that may lead us into great public evils, while it may be injurious to our health and intellect, and to the happiness and utility of our lives.

* I hope the reader will consider me as confining my observations on this subject to trivial things. I by no means intend to say, that we ought never to ask help or directions of the Almighty, or that when we put our shoulders to the wheel, we should not look up to Him for a blessing on our exertions.

CHAPTER XII.

Morally defective traits-First of these is that of Obstinacy-this was attached also to the early Christians-No just foundation for the existence of this trait.

I COME now to the consideration of those, which I have denominated Morally Defective Traits.

The first of this kind, which is attached to the character of the Quakers, is that of an obstinate spirit.

This trait is a very ancient one. It was observed, in the time of George Fox, of the members of this Society, that they were as "stiff as trees;" and this idea concerning them has come down to the present day.

The origin of this defective feature must be obvious to all. The Quakers, as we have seen, will neither pay tithes, nor perform military service, nor illuminate their houses, like other people, though they are sure of suffering by their refusal to comply with custom in these cases. Now when individuals, few in number, become singular, and differ from the world at large, it is generally considered that the majority are in the right, and that the minority are in the wrong. But obstinacy may be defined to be a perseverance in that, which is generally considered to be wrong.

This epithet has attached, and will attach, to