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Untitled Article
loosen on earth to : be loosened m heaven . " * The " Meeting for Sufferings' * of the Friends , in 17 SS , say of their Book of Extracts , " Although this collection is printed solely for the use .
of our own society , yet should it get abroad and meet the public eye , it is not doubted but every serious and candid reader will observe , throughout the whole , the constant and earnest endeavour of the yearly meeting
for the promotion of virtue and religion / ' How graceless a proselyte must I appear , then , in thus bringing under the public eye what is " printed solely for the use of our society" ! In Umine , then , let me observe , that such masonic measures I consider to
be totally opposed to the Catholic principle they profess ; their secret meetings better suited to the narrow policy of the legislator of the Hebrews or the Hindoos , than to the liberal ceconomy which ought to exist among the associated people , who alone have
always , unequivocally , professed their faith in the universal saving light , i . e . in the Divine light or grace vouchsafed to every human creature . The book has been presented , however , to a late character whom the king tlelighted to honour , who was
twice a viceroy of Ireland , while that country was yet an independent kingdom ; and , highly laudatory acknowledgment of the wisdom and goodness of the society , was gratefully returned by letter to the " Public Friend , " in Buckinghamshire , who made so acceptable a present to the nobleman .
* I noyv write from mnembranee only of what I read nearly forty years ago . The Apologist appears to me to have be « n too learned a man for the Author of a work on so simple a subject as Quakerism . Conscience , I think , has been compared by him . only to a Ian thorn in which the
light may shine , but which is not the light . Indeed , amid the sublime and infinitely important triiths set forth in that Author ' s celebrated work , dedicated to Charles II ., this is not the only part of his polemics , which seems much better suited to the learned casuists of the
school of Ignatius Loyola f than to the followers of simple Quakerism , the unique character of which is , that it requitath not any lcaTning- whatever for its comprehension .
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The , heads of the minutes and advices aie given alphabetically in the Book off Extracts . Affirmation . — " We cannot but with great humility acknowledge the
goodness of God in disposing the legislature to grant us , the last session of parliament , such form of Affiraia * tion . as , by accounts received , w ^ find very satisfactory to all the brethren : for which we are truly thankful io God and those in authority //
17 & 2-How heavenly must have been the overshadowing of that meeting that could , with great humility , acknowledge Divine goodness to have disposed such ar * instrument as Parliament , ( every member of which , not
excepting the King , is by law obliged , officially , to violate the precept of Jesus , « swear not at all , " ) to grant that for which they were truly thankful to the Supreme Being ! I sjuspect their being * ' truly thankful" to those in authority , was a feeling that ought not to have been associated with the
expression of the same feeling to the Source of all good . " Form of Affirmation , ( 8 Geo . I . Gap . 6 . ) " / , A . B ., do solemnly , sincerely
mid truly declare and ajffirm , that t " &c [ . Here is to follow , without any other addition , the subject matter to be affirmed . ] It would have been better the
epithets had been omitted in the form of the affirmation , that their simple yea had been admitted yea ; and their nay , nay . Sincerely and truly , speaks every honest man , habitually .
Solemnly implies a frame of mind which it may be difficult for an ingenuous character to possess atnid the fiweas of a court of law , an arena where the hired combatants would consider it
unprofessional to decline a cause , becaase of its not being strictly or sternly accordant with truth or justice . " Note . —By an Act , ( 22 Geo . II . cap . 46 , ) our affirmation is to operate in all cases wherein an oath is
required by any Act or Acts-of Parliament now in force , or hereafter to be made , although no particular or express mention be made for tLat purpose in such act . or acts , with the same force aa an oath ; except in cri-
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Dr * John Walker onthe Quakers' " Minuter" & §
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1819, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1769/page/21/
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