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seem to include all the writers of the New Testament. How unlike must the doctor's system be to that of the apostles, to that of the Holy Scriptures, when he is forced thus to torture the oracles of the living God? One of two conclusions must here be drawn with respect to Priestley; either that he was a deist, or that he wilfully blasphemed the living God. The former is the more charitable inference. The result of his critical examination of the scriptures, was a persuasion that the writers were not inspired men; that they wrote merely as other men do, from the exercise of the powers of their own understanding; that the account which Moses gives of the creation of the world, was a mere theory, to be ranked with those of Fontenelle or Buffon, and that the portion of scripture in which it is recorded is to be compared with the fabulous ages of Grecian and Roman history; that the story of the miraculous conception is all untrue, whether introduced as a pious fraud by the evangelists, or interpolated by succeeding writers, he does not exactly state; and that there is no such thing in any instance as supernatural influence, from the Spirit of God, or from any angel, good or bad.

He opened a school for the education of youth after he began to preach these heresies; but so good was the state of moral and Christian feeling in England, at that time, that he could not obtain pupils. He again made a similar attempt in another part of the kingdom, but failed from the same cause, notwithstanding his acknowledged talents and learning. Parents could not trust their childrin in the hands of a heretic. His most intimate friends were Franklin and Bentley, who he says "were unbelievers in Christianity, but of excellent taste, improved understanding, and good disposition." His next step was to maintain that Christ was a mere man. As soon as he embraced this opinion, he attacked the Arians with great vehemence. In this downhill career, he was no doubt hastened by the instructions which he received from Dr. Turner of Warrington, a professed

Priestley's Life, Vol. I. P 54.

atheist, whose pupil he was for some time. He was intimate in the house of Lord Shelbourne, where he acknowledges that the most of the company that he saw, was infidel and atheistic. Such were the natural and appropriate associations of the Socinian doctor. He almost every year published a book, or several pamphlets. His rage for overturning every thing sacred was prodigious. The effusions of his pen are loose, often inaccurate, void of discrimination, but generally plausible, and sometimes eloquent.

He laid the greatest stress upon his History of Early Opinions, in which he attempts to make it appear, that the greater part of early Christians denied the divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of the atonement. His great antagonist was Dr. Horsely, who even in the opinion of Priestley's friends, gained a victory over him, not only in relation to early opinions, but on other great points of the Socinian system. Bishop Horsely indeed, with regard to early opinions, has left little to be done by those who follow him.

Dr. Priestley was not only anxious to overturn every doctrine which had been embraced by the British reformers, but, in subserviency to this ruling passion of his mind, laboured to overturn the British government too, and wished to see such a revolution as was going on in France. He became obnoxious to the mob, and suffered greatly from the riots at Birmingham; to the government, and to all Christians, and thence came to the resolution to emigrate to America; where we shall hereafter see him making a figure, prosecuting his chemical researches with assiduity, and propagating his heresies to some extent, with dreadful suc

cess.

The sect of Quakers arose about the middle of the seventeenth century, at the time of the civil commotions, in England. Its founder was George Fox, a shoemaker, a wild fanatic, who, by his extravagancies, attracted general attention, and soon collected around him a great number of followers. He and his disciples, at first, had no system of principles, and were agreed only in the rejection of the doctrine of a definite atonement, and in embracing the creed of

Arminius in relation to the moral power of man, the divine decrees, and original sin. To this they soon added the doctrine, that every man has a light within him from the spirit of God, by which he may be guided infallibly in the way of righteousness; and maintained that this light is of more importance for the direction of human conduct, than the Holy Scriptures. When all this is stripped of its mystical dress, it amounts to the same thing as the free-will of the Pelagians and Arminians, or the ability which they say every man has to obey all the commands of God. It is the same with the moral powers of the Socinians and Arians. The visionary mystic and the ungodly philosopher unite in attempting to elevate human rectitude, and to make the grace of God of none effect. They differ only in the costume in which they array their systems.

The first disciples of Fox were altogether illiterate, and recommended their heresies to illiterate men by their wild enthusiasm only. A few men of learning joined them; among whom was Robert Barclay, the author of an Apology for Quakerism, written in Latin and English. The author was a man of considerable learning, of great industry, and of plausible language. He maintains in the Apology, that Christ died for all men; that all the human family are put into a condition of salvation; that heathens, as well as Christians, may be saved by the improvement of the light of nature; that though man lost, by his fall, all power to obey the divine commands, yet through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus every man has his strength restored to him, so that he can believe and perform all good works. This he calls "the forming of Christ within us," and says, "it is by this inward birth of Christ that man is made righteous, and is so accounted before God: wherefore, to be plain, we are thereby, and not till that be brought forth in us, formally, if we must use that word, justified in the sight of God, because justification is both more properly, and more frequently in scripture taken in its proper signification for making one just, and not reputing one such, and is all one with sanctifica

tion." He declares, "that God ever reputed him" (Christ) "a sinner is denied: neither did he ever die that we should be imputed righteous."+"The imputed righteousness of Christ is not to be found in all the Bible." Barclay's Apology was first published in 1675. He has taken extraordinary pains to retain all the reveries of his predecessor George Fox; and at the same time to give them such a colour as might render them less odious, and more similar to the doctrines and creeds of the reformers and reformed churches. He speaks, in the early part of his book, in high strains of encomium on the death and sufferings of Christ, as a propitiation for our sins. He labours, through more than two hundred pages, to conciliate the favour of the reader, by many general expressions of respect for the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, before he ventures to assert that we are justified by our own good works. When he does come to this point, it is in an indirect and uncandid manner. Christ formed within us, he has explained to be the formation of good principles in our hearts, in the heart of every man, who improves the inward light imparted to all. Then he tells us we are justified by Christ formed within us. He allows the reader to draw the conclusion, which will be directly contrary to that of the apostle. The quakers, who embrace the Apology of Barclay, and it is in as much esteem among them as the Bible, must conclude, that a man is justified by the deeds of

that

I every man may boa the law, and that it is of works

It must be evident to the intelligent reader of his doctrines, that he availed himself largely of the writings of Arminius and the Salmurensian divines. His reasonings are substantially the same as theirs, in most points.

The quakers rejected the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, formed for themselves a dress as a distinctive badge of their society, and laid aside all the forms of church government, which had ever been known in the world. Had it not been for these external distinctions, they

Barc. Apo. Phil. Ed. p. 222.

+ Ibid. 228.

Ib. p. 229.

would long since have abandoned the mysticism in which they have enveloped Arminianism, and sunk into the methodist, episcopal, or Socinian bodies. The celebrity of William Penn, derived chiefly from his founding the colony of Pennsylvania, who in early life was an ardent and zealous declaimer among the quakers, has been a means of giving more reputation and permanency to this society, than it would otherwise have attained. It has now existed nearly one hundred and seventy years, but it is on the decline. A very plausible apology for quakerism has been lately published, by Clarkson, who pretends that he does not belong to the society. But the days of quakerism are nearly numbered. It is devoutly to be hoped that their simplicity of language, dress, and manners, the only things for which as a denomination they are to be commended, will not die at the expiration of their sect. The episcopal church is not otherwise responsible for the existence of this society than that the persecutions of high churchmen goaded the people on to such madness.

There is another class of mystics, which however has long existed in the very bosom of the episcopal church,the Swedenburghians, so called from Emanuel Swedenburgh, of Sweden. Swedenburgh was in the early part of his life a distinguished naturalist, especially a mineralogist and metallurgist. He wrote in Latin a treatise on mineralogy, which contains much useful information. Either through the influence of partial derangement, as some, or through fanaticism, as others suppose; or through pious fraud as others think, he pretended to have intercourse with angels. He commenced divine, and wrote very largely. His theological works fill twelve large octavo volumes, written in Latin. He denies the doctrines of divine decrees, of atonement, and of a trinity of persons. He asserts that he was inspired of God to instruct both angels and men; that the general judgment is passed; that he attended it; and that he was commissioned to restore to men the knowledge of the internal sense of the scriptures, which before his time, he says, was entirely lost.

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