do. do. South Dutch Church, do. N. York. Samuel Fisher, D. D. Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Patterson, N. J. *Thomas H. Skinner, D. D. Pastor of the 5th Presbyterian Church, Philad + Thomas McAuley, D. D. LL. D. do. 10th James M. Mathews, D. D. and Chancellor of the University of the city of New York. Thomas De Witt, D. D. Assoc. Pastor of the Coll. Dutch Churches, N. Y. John Woodbridge,'D. D. Pastor of the Bowery Presbyterian Church, N. Y. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D. Sec. of the Am. B. of Com. for F. Missions. Benjamin H. Rice, D. D. Assoc. Sec. of the American Home Miss. Society. Justin Edwards, D. D. Cor. Sec, of the American Tem. Soc. Andover, Mass. * Now (lately inaugurated) Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass. + Now Pastor (lately installed) of the Murray-street Presbyterian church, N. York. PART FIRST. INTRODUCTION MISCELLANEOUS. YEA, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written. Rom. 3:4. And that from a child thou hast known THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE THEE WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. 2 Tim. 3: 15. God-spake in time past unto the fathers BY THE PROPHETS. Heb. 1: 1. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Psalm 138: 2. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received THE WORD OF GOD which YE HEARD OF us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as IT IS IN TRUTH THE WORD OF GOD, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 1 Thess. 2: 13. And He said unto them, Full well [very piously] ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition; making THE WORD OF GOD of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. Mark, 7: 9, 13. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mark, 7:7. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. Luke, 16: 17. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John, 4 : 1. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah, 8: 20. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. Jer. 48: 10. ; يا QUAKERISM NOT CHRISTIANITY: OR REASONS FCR RENOUNCING THE DOCTRINE OF FRIENDS. FATHERS AND BRETHREN, My veneration for your common character as ministers of the gospel of our glorious Lord, induces the present liberty which I adventure to take with your names. From no spirit of ostentation, and with no desire to commit you before the public for the contents of these pages, do I avail myself of the privilege. Nor, much as I esteem the depth and the correctness of your theological erudition, do I addict myself to call any one of you Father, in a sense which may imply a diminution of my own responsibility to Christ, or his obscuration as the only Bishop of bishops rightfully acknowledged in the church. But, as I suppose there is a substantial oneness of theological sentiment among you, in which I may humbly account myself to participate; as I know you will approve of every reasonable attempt to vindicate "the holy scriptures" against all who contradict or degrade them; as I am persuaded of your enlightened disapprobation, in common with all consistent christians, touching the erroneous conceptions of the Society of Friends, especially in the matter of the end and office of scriptural Revelation; as I know you can as well appreciate my feelings and sentiments in the premises, perhaps, as any persons who have never been by education faithfully imbued with their peculiar mistakes; as I sincerely value your christian and official qualities, and am delighted on any occasion, as on this, to publish my deep reverence for both; though you are distributed to different spheres and distant scenes of usefulness; yet, aiding one cause, preaching one gospel, having the same Master, the same motive, the same glorious and incomparable hope, I have judged it proper to prefix your names to this Introduction, and formally to address its pages, and virtually the entire publication, to yourselves "though it may serve no other end" than to evince unity in the greatest and best pursuits, the communion of christian brotherhood, and the joint inheritance of all the disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is certain, moreover, that your concurrence, in reprobating the errors of the Quakers, is in the main entire. I consider you, therefore, as representing the common creed of christendom, or rather of all enlightened protestants, in opposition to the system of Friends. I consider you as constituting for the time a moral court, before whom I may plead the cause of truth, and whose award, whether tacitly or formally announced, the christian public will respect, I doubt not, as well advised, principled and unanimous; for, in such a case, it is not learning, |