. The Quakers were at first, as a class, illiterate, but men from the educated classes soon joined them, and by their influence the irregularities connected with the movement were corrected, and the society reduced to a regularly organized form. The most promi- nent of these men were George Keith, Samuel Fisher, and William Penn. The last named, the son of a British admiral, proved his sincerity by the sacrifices and sufferings to which his adherence to a sect, then despised and persecuted, subjected him. From the in- fluence which he possessed, as the friend and favorite of James II., he was able to do- much for his brethren, and having received a grant from the crown, of what is now Pennsylvania, he transported a colony of them to this country and founded one of the most im- portant States of the American Union. The man, however, who did most to reduce the principles of George Fox to order, and to commend them to the religious and literary public, was Robert Barclay. Barclay was a member of a prominent Scottish family, and received the benefit of an extended and varied education. He was born in 1648, and died in 1690. His principal work, " The- ologiae Christianae Apologia," is an exposition of fifteen theses which he had previously written and printed under the title, " Theses Theologicge omnibus Clericis et praesertim universis Doc- toribus, Professoribus et Studiosis Theologioe in Academiis Europae versantibus sive Pontificis sive Protestantibus oblatae."
B. Their Doctrines.
It is impossible to give a satisfactory view of the doctrines of the Quakers. They have no authoritative creed or exposition of doc- trine which all who call themselves Quakers acknowledge. Their most prominent writers differ in their views on many important points. The opinions of no one, nor of several authors, can be fairly taken as representing the views of the Society. There are in fact three classes of Quakers.
First. Those who call themselves ortliodox, and who differ very little from the great body of evangelical Christians. To this be- longs the great majority of the Society both in this country and in Great Britain. This appears from the testimonies repeatedly issued by the " Yearly Meetings," the representative bodies of the Soci- ety. This is a much more satisfactory witness of the general faith of the body than the declai'ations of individual writers, however eminent, for which the Society is not responsible. A very clear and comprehensive summary of the doctrine of Friends i^ to be found in the " History of Religious Denominations in the United
90 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. IV. — Mysticism.
States," compiled by I. Daniel Rupp. The articles in this work were written by eminent men belonging to the several denomina- tions whose views are represented. That which relates to the Quakers was written by the late Thomas Evans, a prominent min- ister of the Society, and a truly repi*esentative man. Without referring to the peculiar doctrines of the Society, the following extracts show how near the orthodox Quakers (i. e., the Society itself, as represented in its yearly meetings) come to the common faith of Protestant churches.
Doctrines of the Orthodox Friends.
1. As to God, it is said, Quakers " Believe in one only wise, omnipotent, and everlasting God, the creator and upholder of all things visible and invisible ; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, the mediator between God and man ; and in the Holy Spirit which pi-oceedeth from the Father and the Son ; one God blessed forever. In expressing their views relative to the awful and mysterious doctrine of " the Three that bear record in heaven," they have carefully avoided the use of unscriptural terms, invented to define Him wdio is undefinable, and have scrupulously adhered to the safe and simple language of Holy Scripture, as contained in Matt, xxviii. 18, 19."
2. As to the person and work of Christ, " They own and believe in Jesus Christ, the beloved and only begotten Son of God, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary. .... They believe that He alone is the Redeemer and Saviour of man, the captain of salvation, who saves from sin as well as from hell and the wrath to come, and destroys the works of the devil. He is the seed of the woman that bruises the serpent's head ; even Christ Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the first and last. He is, as the Scriptures of truth say of him, our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and 'redemption, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved."
" The Society of Friends have uniformly declared their belief in the divinity and manhood of the Lord Jesus : that He was both true God and perfect man, and that his sacrifice of himself upon the cross was a propitiation and atonement for the sins of the whole world, and that the remission of sins which any partake of, is only in, and by virtue of, that most satisfactory sacrifice."
3. As to the Holy Ghost, " Friends believe in the Holy Spirit, or Comforter, the promise of the Father, whom Christ declared he