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Qua. Thou speakest truth, notwithstanding thy intention.
Cler. Then why are you singular in your habits?

Qua. Why art thou?

Cler. I am a minister of the gospel.

Qua. Which never gave thee that tippit, nor that long and unhandy coat with many plaits.

Cler. But it is decent.

Qua. My coat is more decent, and would become thee better. It
n and warm, and hath no long train, nor vain superfluities.
. That solemn gate and mein too is very becoming.

Wouldest thou have me cut capers, and practise smiles?
r. And be sure never alter the figure of that broad hat.
a. It is not broader than thine.

I tell you I am a minister.

Thy hat is none, and I make no ministerial use of mine. I go to my neighbour, and say: Neighbour, I demand the tenth substance, by virtue of this broad hat.

er. Sir, who does?

a. Friend, thou art very passionate. I am only defending my
whereof I make no other use but to keep my head warm.
ler. Why don't you pull it off upon occasion?

Qua. I do upon proper occasion, that is, when I seek God.
Cler. But never to man.

Qua. Therefore I do not, because I do it only to God. I think that the acts of worship, which we pay unto God, ought not to be confounded with ceremonies of civility paid unto men. Thou bowest at the name of Jesus, dost thou bow also at the name of the king?

Cler. But you are inconsistent with yourselves. Your style to God and man is the same, and you thee and thou them both alike.

Qua. We speak properly to one God as one God, to one man as one man. Thou art more inconsistent with thyself. Thou reckonest thee and thou disrespectful to man; why usest thou the same language to God?

Cler. It is the Scripture style.

Qua. To man as well as to God. Besides, friend, let me tell thee, that the using the plural number to single persons, was begun in flattery to princes and great men; as was also the ceremony of the hat and the knee, and came to be practised as marks of adoration paid to men, who were thereby set up in God's stead; and where they cannot go that length, yet they feed natural pride, and make differences amongst men, where nature hath made none.

Cler. We do not use them as marks of adoration.

Qua. I believe thee; but still they are marks of insincerity, and of a submission which is not due from man to man. Friend, these civil ceremonies are of evil efficacy, and apt to deceive the mind into a slavish and superstitious veneration for persons. They make unnatural distances in society, and set men too far above and below one another. By such steps kings came to be worshipped as Gods; as several of the Roman emperors formerly, and lately thy friend Louis was deified by many of thy French brethren.

NUMBER 73.

Dialogue between a Country Clergyman and a Quaker, continued.

Cler. Does the light within teach you all this?

Qua. My natural light, which thou callest reason, sufficeth to confute thee. The other light seemeth to be withheld from thee, and therefore thou mockest it; it better becomes a Christian to pray for it.

Cler. You are an impudent man. Is it from your inward light thaf you reproach me, as if I were not a Christian?

Qua. Thou art very tender. I do not reproach thee with any such thing; but I am sure that Christianity teacheth no man to deny the inward light, and to wax angry and revile.

Cler. I do not deny that there is such a thing as the light of the Spirit, but I deny that you have it.

Qua. Thy censure is rash.

How knowest thou what is within me?

Cler. By what comes out of you.

Qua. I judge not of thee by the same rule; I hope thou hast charity, though I see it not. But I will abide by thy rule in relation to myself. What bast thou heard me utter but the words of truth and soberness? Cler. Not a word of the Spirit, I am sure.

Qua. Knowest thou him? If thou dost, thou must know that he is the author of truth.

Cler. But not of sauciness and schism.

Qua. True, doctor; and therefore the Quakers do not saucily insult, nor uncharitably damn all those, or any of those who differ from them. That is the only anti-christian schism, which damneth all men as schismatics, except its own cruel club.

Cler. A smart casuist, I'll assure you, to vindicate the Quakers from schism!

Qua. I wish thou couldst vindicate thyself as well upon the same pious and benevolent principle.

Cler. What, do you charge the established church with schism? Qua. God forbid; I only wish thee, and such as are like thee, a more peaceable and more merciful spirit. Thou art not the established church.

Cler. And dare you say that the Quakers are not schismatics?

Qua. Yes, certainly; I think that all good men, of all professions, will be saved. This is charity; I separate from no church out of pride or interest, and am therefore no schismatic.

Cler. And herein, I suppose, the Spirit is your voucher.

Qua. I desire no other, and can have no other for the thoughts of my heart.

Cler. For which we are to take your word, for I think you never

take oaths.

Qua. The Scripture forbiddeth us to swear at all.
Cler. It forbids profane cursing and swearing.

Qra. Doctor, it forbids all swearing.

Cler. But the solemnity of an oath in the presence of God is an act of religion.

Qua. All speaking is in the presence of God, and speaking the truth is an act of religion. When we are called upon to give our testimony to the truth, we never refuse it.

Cler. I should be sorry to have my property depend upon your affirmation.

Qua. If I am a good man, thou needest not distrust me; if I am a bad man, my oath will not secure thee.

Cler. I believe, indeed, the affirmation and oath of a Quaker are much alike.

Qua. They ought to be alike amongst all Christians, and all moral men; and therefore let thy meaning be ever so bitter, thou givest an honourable testimony to Friends. I hope thou findest the same faithfulness and sincerity amongst thine. Is not the word of a churchman as good as his oath?

Cler. I hope better than a Quaker's, at least.

Qua. Not if a Quaker speaketh the truth.
Cler. That if was well put in.

Qua. Be it so; though thou mightest have spared thy reproach, by which thou wo't gain nothing. None of us have been accused of false evidence, and doubtless thou hast heard of many churchmen punished with public infamy for perjury.

Cler. I suppose you do the thing more slyly.

:

Qua. I thank thee for allowing us to have more discretion than thy disciples if they have, at least, as few restraints, and more folly than we have, how are they bettered by thy teaching? and how is their oath better than our affirmation?

Cler. I cannot answer for profligates

Qua. Nor oughtest thou to suspect us for profligates without cause. Cler. I must beg leave not to value 'a Quaker's affirmation so much as a churchman's oath.

Qua. I will value it as much without leave. Friend, are thy brethren more loyal by taking oaths, than men of our persuasion are without taking any?

Cler. I'll take my oath that thou art a saucy fellow.

Qua. I am not so the more for that.-But is that thy best answer? I could easily have given thee the same, had it been suitable to good

manners.

Cler. Manners! O my sides! Why, you are the most unmannerly of all sects: so unmannerly, that there is no living with you; and all that do, despise you.

Qua. Friend, I in particular have given thee no case for thy accusation, nor for thy contempt; and what thou sayest of us in general, thou sayest passionately, and it comes from prejedice, or ill information. In Pennsylvania, where we have the power, we do not molest nor revile any man of any religion; and thou thyself, for all thy intemperate spirit, mightest live there with full freedom.

Cler. I live amongst you! I live amongst fanatics!

Qua. I do not invite thee. There are no tithes there to allure, but there are ludians to convert. How likest thou the employment,

and the terms thereof ?

Cler. Sir, I have no call there; I have employment in my own parish.

Qua. I hope thou hadst a call thither.

Cler. Yes, Mr. Pert, to preserve peace and religious order; though you are an enemy to all order.

Qua. Thou hast not a more orderly man in thy parish: and many of thy flock are very disorderly, especailly upon holidays, which, I think, are part of your order, and celebrated with drunkenness and with breaking my windows.

Cler. Did I exhort them to it?

Qua. No; thou didst only paint out Quakers to them, as a people not fit to live amongst Christians.

Cler. I preached what I thought it my duty to preach.

Qua. And they practised what they thought thou hadst taught them to practise.

Cler. If you would wisely remove to Pennsylvania, you might live there with freedom, you know.

Qua. So I would, if my affairs would let me ; as I might here, under the protection of the law, if thou wouldst let me. Let me tell thee, friend, for the credit of the Quaker's government in Pennsylvania, there is not a more thriving colony in America. They encourage and protect all men, and persecute none: They are friendly to the savage Indians, who come freely into their houses by day, and by night; and any man in a Quaker's habit may travel safely and singly through all the nations of North America, who will be ready to receive and assist him.

Cler. The Quakers are obliged to live peaceably with their neighbours. You know they must not fight.

Qua. Knowest thou any better way to avoid fighting, than a peaceable spirit? And ought not all men to avoid fighting? The Quakers, since their first establishment there, have had no wars. It is not so in in New England, where men, like thee, are for spiritual dominion, and trust to the sword. There they use the poor natives ill, who therefore make frequent incursions upon them. Men who will take away by violence the lands and goods of others, and domineer over them, must fight to defend what they do. The Quakers have burt no man, and no man offers to hurt them.

Cler. Commend me to their human prudence! the Quakers will make no man their enemy by their zeal for Christianity.

Qua. Friend, thy abuse ends in praise. The Quakers use no man as an enemy for his religion; and they who do, have not zeal, but fury and fanaticism. Our Saviour and his apostles had no such zeal. Ill usage, fierceness, and barbarity, convince no man; nor is any man made a Christian by rage and power.

Cler. It would be great pity that such as you should make any. A Pagan converted into a Quaker makes but a sorry exchange.

Qua. Those words would fit the mouth of a Pagan better than thine; and a Quaker is better qualified to reason with a Pagan, than thou art. We have nothing to desire of him but to be a Christian, and we gain neither money nor authority by his conversion. But with what face can such as thou art tell a nation of heathens: "Gentlemen, be of my religion, and in requital I will be your Lord and master, and take

the tenth of all you have, and all else that I can get. None of which can ever return to you again, let me use it, or abuse you how I will." And yet can men of thy spirit and pretensions reason in sincerity at any other rate with any set of men in the world?

Cler. The man raves. Can people pay too much for their souls? Qua. They ought to pay nothing. The blood of Christ is already paid. Is not that sufficient? And dost thou really confess that thou wouldst not save souls without payment?

Cler. I will bear no more.-This is audacious beyond human patience.

Qua. Doctor, nothing is beyond Christian patience.

Cler. Too much liberty makes you insolent.-We shall find some other way of confuting you.

Qua. Thou meanest force, which is the champion of bad reasoning, and a bad cause.

Cler. Hold you tongue, prater.

Qua. I have liberty of speech from Christ and the law.-Wouldst thou restrain it by thy breath?

Cler. It is pity thy breath were not restrained.

Qua. Friend, may God of his great mercy forgive thee. Farewel.

NUMBER 74.

Of the Character and Capacity of the Fathers of the Church.

THE reading of the fathers, and an acquaintance with the fathers, has made a great noise in the world, as a momentous study, entitling the proficients in it to a high character, and the reputation of learning. Few people had leisure to read them, and fewer would take the pains; and now I think most men agree, that the pains are not worth taking; and he who employs his time that way, whatever industry he may have, is neither envied for his taste, nor admired for his acquirements, unless by those whose applause men of genius are not fond of. There is not much glory to be got in an employment, where, to excel in it, nothing is required but great drudgery, eminent patience, and no taste, or a wrong one. A clown may exult and swagger, because he is an accomplished ploughman; but I would rather he should have the renown than I ; though a good ploughman is a good character in a country, and, in some instances, a drudging pedant, who is the ploughman in the learned world, is likewise an useful character. It might be, however, wished, that they would preserve the distance and humility of ploughmen, and not value themselves so much upon mere sweat and digging.

As to the fathers, there is so little to be learned from them, that they who know much of them, are only esteemed by such as know little of any thing. Nor was there ever any thing more insolent and dishonest,

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