A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) by Thomas Clarkson

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Now an objection will be made to the proposition, as I have just stated
it, by some Christians, and even by those who do not wish to derogate
from the spirit of God, (for I have frequently heard it started by such)
that the Quakers, by means of these doctrines, make every thing of the
spirit, and [100]but little of Jesus Christ. I shall therefore notice
this objection in this place, not so much with a view of answering it,
as of attempting to show, that Christiana have not always a right
apprehension of scriptural terms; and therefore that they sometimes
quarrel with one another about trifles, or rather, that when they have
disputes with each other, there is sometimes scarcely a shade of
difference between them.

[Footnote 100: The Quakers make much of the advantages of Christ's
coming in the flesh. Among these are considered the sacrifice of his own
body, a more plentiful diffusion of the Spirit, and a dearer revelation
relative to God and man.]

To those who make the objection, I shall describe the proposition which
has been stated above, in different terms. I shall leave out the words
"Spirit of God," and I shall wholly substitute the term "Christ." This I
shall do upon the authority of some of our best divines.... The
proposition then will run thus:

God, by means of Christ, created the world, "for without him was not any
thing made, that was made."

He made, by means of the same Christ, the terrestrial Globe on which we
live. He made the whole Host of Heaven. He made, therefore, besides our
own, other planets and other worlds.

He caused also, by means of the same Christ, the generation of all
animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.

He occasioned also by the same means, the generation of reason or
intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.

Man, however, had not been long created, before he fell into sin. It
pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in
creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiritual
faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to
obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin. And this inward
striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all
would be inexcusable and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.

It pleased God also, in process of time, as the attention of man was led
astray by bad customs, by pleasures, by the cares of the world, and
other causes, that the same Christ, in addition to this his inward
striving with him, should afford him outward help, accommodated to his
outward senses, by which his thoughts might be oftener turned towards
God, and his soul be the better preserved in the way of salvation.
Christ accordingly, through Moses and the Prophets, became the author of
a dispensation to the Jews, that is, of their laws, types, and customs,
of their prophecies, and of their scriptures.

But as in the education of man things must be gradually unfolded, so it
pleased God, in the scheme of his redemption, that the same Christ, in
fulness of time, should take flesh, and become personally upon earth the
author of another outward, but of a more pure and glorious dispensation,
than the former, which was to be more extensive also; and which was not
to be confined to the Jews, but to extend in time to the uttermost
corners of the earth. Christ therefore became the Author of the inspired
delivery of the outward scriptures of the New Testament. By these, as by
outward and secondary means, he acted upon men's senses. He informed
them of their corrupt nature, of their awful and perilous situation, of
another life, of a day of judgment, of rewards and punishments. These
scriptures therefore, of which Christ was the Author, were outward
instruments at the time, and continue so to posterity, to second his
inward aid. That is, they produce thought, give birth to anxiety, excite
fear, promote seriousness, turn the eye towards God, and thus prepare
the heart for a sense of those inward strivings of Christ, which produce
inward redemption from the power and guilt of sin.

Where, however, this outward aid of the Holy Scriptures has not reached,
Christ continues to purify and redeem by his inward power. But as men,
who are acted upon solely by his inward strivings, have not the same
advantages as those who are also acted upon by his outward word, so less
is expected in the one than in the other case. Less is expected from the
Gentile than from the Jew: less from the Barbarian than from the
Christian.

And this latter doctrine of the universality of the striving of Christ
with man, in a spiritually instructive and redemptive capacity, as it is
merciful and just, so it is worthy of the wise and beneficent Creator.
Christ, in short, has been filling, from the foundation of the world,
the office of an inward redeemer, and this, without any exception, to
all of the human race. And there is even [101] "now no salvation in any
other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved."

[Footnote 101: Acts 4. 12.]

From this new statement of the proposition, which statement is
consistent with the language of divines, it will appear, that, if the
Quakers have made every thing of the spirit, and but little of Christ, I
have made, to suit the objectors, every thing of Christ, and but little
of the spirit. Now I would ask, where lies the difference between the
two statements? Which is the more accurate; or whether, when I say these
things were done by the spirit, and when I say they were done by Christ,
I do not state precisely the same proposition, or express the same
thing?

That Christ, in all the offices stated by the proposition, is neither
more nor less than the spirit of God, there can surely be no doubt. In
looking at Christ, we are generally apt to view him with carnal eyes. We
can seldom divest ourselves of the idea of a body belonging to him,
though this was confessedly human, and can seldom consider him as a pure
principle or fountain of divine life and light to men. And yet it is
obvious, that we must view him in this light in the present case; for if
he was at the creation of the world, or with Moses at the delivery of
the law, (which the proposition supposes) he could not have been there
in his carnal body; because this was not produced till centuries
afterwards by the virgin Mary. In this abstracted light, the Apostles
frequently view Christ themselves. Thus St. Paul:[102] "I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me." And again,[103] "Know ye not your own
selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

[Footnote 102: Gal. 2.20.]

[Footnote 103: 2 Cor. 15.5].

Now no person imagines that St. Paul had any idea, either that the body
of Christ was in himself, or in others, on the occasions on which he has
thus spoken.

That Christ therefore, as he held the offices contained in the
proposition, was the spirit of God, we may pronounce from various views,
which we may take of him, all of which seem to lead us to the same
conclusion.

And first let us look at Christ in the scriptural light in which he has
been held forth to us in the fourth section of the seventh chapter,
where I have explained the particular notions of the Quakers relative to
the new birth.

God maybe considered here as having produced, by means of his Holy
Spirit, a birth of divine life in the soul of the "body which had been
prepared;" and this birth was Christ. [104] "But that which is born of
the spirit, says St. John, is spirit." The only question then will be as
to the magnitude of the spirit thus produced. In answer to this St. John
says,[105] "that God gave him not the spirit by measure." And St. Paul
says the same thing: [106] "For in him all the fulness of the godhead
dwelt bodily." Now we can have no idea of a spirit without measure, or
containing the fullness of the godhead, but the spirit of God.

[Footnote 104: John 3.6.]

[Footnote 105: John 3.34.]

[Footnote 106: Coloss. 2.9]

Let us now look at Christ in another point of view, or as St. Paul seems
to have viewed him. He defines Christ [107] "to be the wisdom of God,
and the power of God." But what are the wisdom of God, and the power of
God, but the great characteristics and the great constituent parts of
his spirit?

[Footnote 107: 1 Cor. 1. 24.]

But if these views of Christ should not be deemed satisfactory, we will
contemplate him as St. John the Evangelist has held him forth to our
notice. Moses says, that the spirit of God created the world. But St.
John says that the word created it. The spirit therefore and the word
must be the same. But this word he tells us afterwards, and this
positively, was Jesus Christ.

It appears therefore from these observations, that it makes no material
difference, whether we use the words "Spirit of God" or "Christ," in the
proposition that has been before us, or that there will be no difference
in the meaning of the proposition, either in the one or the other case;
and also if the Quakers only allow, when the spirit took flesh, that the
body was given as a sacrifice for sin, or that part of the redemption of
man, as far as his sins are forgiven, is effected by this sacrifice,
there will be little or no difference between the religion of the
Quakers and that of the objectors, as far as it relates to Christ[108].

[Footnote 108: The Quakers have frequently said in their theological
writings, that every man has a portion of the Holy Spirit within him;
and this assertion has not been censured. But they have also said, that
every man has a portion of Christ or of the light of Christ, within him.
Now this assertion has been considered as extravagant and wild. The
reader will therefore see, that if he admits the one, he cannot very
consistently censure the other.]

CHAP. X.

SECT. I.

_Ministers--The Spirit of God alone can made a Minister of the
Gospel--Hence no imposition of hands nor human knowledge can be
effectual--This proposition not peculiarly adopted by George Fox, but by
Justin the Martyr, Luther, Calvin, Wickliffe, Tyndal, Milton, and
others--Way in which this call, by the Spirit, qualifies for the
ministry--Women equally qualified with men--How a Quaker becomes
acknowledged to be a Minister of the Gospel._

Having now detailed fully the operations of the Spirit of God, as far as
the Quakers believe it to be concerned in the instruction and redemption
of man, I shall consider its operations, as far as they believe it to
be concerned in the services of the church. Upon this spirit they make
both their worship and their ministry to depend. I shall therefore
consider these subjects, before I proceed to any new order of tenets,
which they may hold.

It is a doctrine of the Quakers that none can spiritually exercise, and
that none ought to be allowed to exercise, the office of ministers, but
such as the spirit of God has worked upon and called forth to discharge
it, as well as that the same Spirit will never fail to raise up persons
in succession for this end.

Conformably with this idea, no person, in the opinion of the Quakers,
ought to be designed by his parents in early youth for the priesthood:
for as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can say which is the
vessel that is to be made to honour.

Conformably with the same idea, no imposition of hands, or ordination,
can avail any thing, in their opinion, in the formation of a minister of
the Gospel; for no human power can communicate to the internal man the
spiritual gifts of God.

Neither, in conformity with the same idea, can the acquisition of human
learning, or the obtaining Academical degrees and honours, be essential
qualifications for this office; for though the human intellect is so
great, that it can dive as it were into the ocean and discover the laws
of fluids, and rise again up to heaven, and measure the celestial
motions, yet it is incapable of itself of penetrating into divine
things, so as spiritually to know them; while, on the other hand,
illiterate men appear often to have more knowledge on these subjects
than the most learned. Indeed the Quakers have no notion of a human
qualification for a divine calling. They reject all school divinity, as
necessarily connected with the ministry. They believe that if a
knowledge of Christianity had been attainable by the acquisition of the
Greek and Roman languages, and through the medium of the Greek and
Roman philosophers, then the Greeks and Romans themselves had been the
best proficients in it; whereas, the Gospel was only foolishness to many
of these. They say with St. Paul to the Colossians,[109] "Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And they
say with the same Apostle to Timothy,[110] "O Timothy! keep that which
is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and
oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have
erred concerning the faith."

[Footnote 109: Coloss. 2. 8.]

[Footnote 110: 1 Tim. 6, 20, 21]

This notion of the Quakers, that human learning and academical honours
are not necessary for the priesthood, is very ancient. Though George Fox
introduced it into his new society, and this without any previous
reading upon the subject, yet it had existed long before his time. In
short, it was connected with the tenet, early disseminated in the
church, that no person could know spiritual things but through the
medium of the spirit of God, from whence it is not difficult to pass to
the doctrine, that none could teach spiritually except they had been
taught spiritually themselves. Hence we find Justin the Martyr, a
Platonic philosopher, but who was afterwards one of the earliest
Christian writers after the Apostles, and other learned men after him
down to Chrysostom, laying aside their learning and their philosophy for
the school of Christ. The first authors also of the reformation,
contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported
it. Wickliffe, the first reformer of the English church, and Tyndal the
Martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language,
supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, Master of Pembroke-Hall in
Cambridge, preached a sermon before the University, contending that the
Universities corresponded with the schools of the prophets, and that
human learning was an essential qualification for the priesthood. This
sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, Master of Caius College
in the same University, in which he stated, after having argued the
points in question, that the Universities did not correspond with the
schools of the prophets, but with those of Heathen men; that Plato,
Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were more honoured there, than Moses or
Christ; that grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, physics, metaphysics, and
the mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or
the defence of the Gospel; that Christian schools had originally brought
men from Heathenism to Christianity, but that the University schools
were likely to carry men from Christianity to Heathenism again. This
language of William Dell was indeed the general language of the divines
and pious men in those times in which George Fox lived, though
unquestionably the opposite doctrine had been started, and had been
received by many. Thus the great John Milton, who lived in these very
times, may be cited as speaking in a similar manner on the same subject.
"Next, says he, it is a fond error, though too much believed among us,
to think that the University makes a minister of the gospel. What it may
conduce to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now. But that, which
makes fit a Minister, the Scripture can best inform us to be only from
above; whence also we are bid to seek them. [111]Thus St. Matthew says,
'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
labourers into his harvest.' Thus St. Luke: [112] 'The flock, over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.' Thus St. Paul: [113] 'How shall
they preach, unless they be sent?' But by whom sent? By the university,
or by the magistrate? No, surely. But sent by God, and by him only."

[Footnote 111: Mat. 9.38.]

[Footnote 112: Acts 20.28.]

[Footnote 113: Rom. 10.15.]

The Quakers then, rejecting school divinity, continue to think with
Justin, Luther, Dell, Milton, and indeed with those of the church of
England and others, that those only can be proper ministers of the
church, who have witnessed within themselves a call from the spirit of
God. If men would teach religion, they must, in the opinion of the
Quakers, be first taught of God. They must go first to the school of
Christ; must come under his discipline in their hearts; must mortify the
deeds of the body; must crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts
thereof; must put off the old man which is corrupt; must put on the new
man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;"
must be in fact, "Ministers of the sanctuary and true tabernacle, which
the Lord hath pitched, and not man." And whether those who come forward
as ministers are really acted upon by this Spirit, or by their own
imagination only, so that they mistake the one for the other, the
Quakers consider it to be essentially necessary, that they should
experience such a call in their own feelings, and that purification of
heart, which they can only judge of by their outward lives, should be
perceived by themselves, before they presume to enter upon such an
office.

The Quakers believe that men, qualified in this manner, are really fit
for the ministry, and are likely to be useful instruments in it. For
first, it becomes men to be changed themselves, before they can change
others. Those again, who have been thus changed, have the advantage of
being able to state from living experience what God has done for them;
[114] "what they have seen with their eyes; what they have looked upon;
and what their hands have handled of the word of life." Men also, who,
by means of God's Holy Spirit, have escaped the pollutions of the world,
are in a fit state to understand the mysteries of God, and to carry with
them the seal of their own commission. Thus men under sin can never
discern spiritual things. But "to the disciples of Christ," and to the
doers of his will, "it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of
Heaven." Thus, when the Jews marvelled at Christ, saying [115] "How
knoweth this man letters, (or the scriptures) having never learned?
Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent
me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Such ministers also are
considered as better qualified to reach the inward state of the people,
and to "preach liberty to the captives" of sin, than those who have
merely the advantage of school divinity, or of academical learning. It
is believed also of these, that they are capable of giving more solid
and lasting instruction, when they deliver themselves at large: for
those, who preach rather from intellectual abilities and from the
suggestions of human learning, than from the spiritual life and power
which they find within themselves, may be said to forsake Christ, who is
the "living fountain, and to hew out broken cisterns which hold no
water," either for themselves or for others.

[Footnote 114: Coloss. 2. 6.]

[Footnote 115: 1 Tim. 6.20.21.]

This qualification for the ministry being allowed to be the true one, it
will follow, the Quakers believe, and it was Luther's belief also, that
women may be equally qualified to become ministers of the Gospel, as the
men. For they believe that God has given his Holy Spirit, without
exception, to all. They dare not therefore limit its operations in the
office of the ministry, more than in any other of the sacred offices
which it may hold. They dare not again say, that women cannot mortify
the deeds of the flesh, or that they cannot be regenerated, and walk in
newness of life. If women therefore believe they have a call to the
ministry, and undergo the purification necessarily connected with it,
and preach in consequence, and preach effectively, they dare not, under
these circumstances, refuse to accept their preaching, as the fruits of
the spirit, merely because it comes through the medium of the female
sex.

Against this doctrine of the Quakers, that a female ministry is
allowable under the Gospel dispensation, an objection has been started
from the following words of the Apostle Paul: [116] "Let your women keep
silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to
speak"--"and if they will learn any thing, let them ask their Husbands
at home." but the Quakers conceive, that this charge of the Apostle has
no allusion to preaching. In these early times, when the Gospel
doctrines were new, and people were eager to understand them, some of
the women, in the warmth of their feelings, interrupted the service of
the church, by asking such questions as occurred to them on the subject
of this new religion. These are they whom the Apostle desires to be
silent, and to reserve their questions till they should return home. And
that this was the case is evident, they conceive, from the meaning of
the words, which the Apostle uses upon this occasion. For the word in
the Greek tongue, which is translated "speak," does not mean to preach
or to pray, but to speak as in common discourse. And the words, which
immediately follow this, do not relate to any evangelical instruction,
which these women were desirous of communicating publicly, but which
they were desirous of receiving themselves from others.

[Footnote 116: 1 Cor. 14.34.35.]

That the words quoted do not relate to praying or preaching is also
equally obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers; for if they had related
to these offices of the church, the word "prophesy" had been used
instead of the word "speak." Add to which that the Apostle, in the same
epistle in which the preaching of women is considered to be forbidden,
gives them a rule to which he expects them to conform, when they should
either prophesy or pray: but to give women a rule to be observed during
their preaching, and to forbid them to preach at the some time, is an
absurdity too great to be fixed upon the most ordinary person, and much
more upon an inspired Apostle.

That the objection has no foundation, the Quakers believe again, from
the consideration that the ministry of women, in the days of the
Apostles, is recognized in the New Testament, and is recognized also, in
some instances, as an acceptable service.

Of the hundred and twenty persons who were assembled on the day of
pentecost, it is said by St. Luke that [117] some were women. That these
received the Holy Spirit as well as the men, and that they received it
also for the purpose of prophesying or preaching, is obvious from the
same Evangelist. For first, he says, that "all were filled with the Holy
Ghost." And secondly, he says, that Peter stood up, and observed
concerning the circumstance of inspiration having been given to the
women upon this occasion, that Joel's prophecy was then fulfilled, in
which were to be found these words: "And it shall come to pass in the
hist days, that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy--and on my
servants and handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and
they shall prophesy."

[Footnote 117: Acts, Chap. 1.]

That women preached afterwards, or in times subsequent to the day of
pentecost, they collect from the same Evangelist. [118]For he mentions
Philip, who had four daughters, all of whom prophesied at Caesarea. Now
by prophesying, if we accept [119]St. Paul's interpretation of it, is
meant a speaking to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, under the
influence of the Holy Spirit. It was also a speaking to the church: it
was also the speaking of one person to the church, while the others
remained silent.

[Footnote 118: Acts 21.9.]

[Footnote 119: 1 Cor. 14.]

That women also preached or prophesied in the church of Corinth, the
Quakers show from the testimony of St. Paul: for he states the manner in
which they did it, or that [120]they prayed and prophesied with their
heads uncovered.

[Footnote 120: 1 Cor. 11. 5.]

That women also were ministers of the Gospel in other places; and that
they were highly serviceable to the church, St. Paul confesses with
great satisfaction, in his Epistle to the Romans, in which he sends his
salutation to different persons, for whom he professed an affection or
an esteem: [121]thus--"I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a
servant of the church, which is at Cenchrea." Upon this passage the
Quakers usually make two observations. The first is, that the [122]Greek
word, which is translated servant, should have been rendered minister.
It is translated minister, when applied by St. Paul to [123]Timothy, to
denote his office. It is also translated minister, when applied to
[124]St. Paul and Apollos. And there is no reason why a change should
have been made in its meaning in the present case. The second is, that
History has handed down Phoebe as a woman eminent for her Gospel
labours. "She was celebrated, says [125]Theodoret, throughout the world;
for not only the Greeks and the Romans, but the Barbarians, knew her
likewise."

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