Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ... how much worse they are for not doing so. I am also able to shew the reverse side of the picture; not by bare assertions, but by authentic history. There was another class of men that arose in England, about the same time as the Puritans; they came from the same walks in life; they spoke the same language, and were subject to the same persecutions. They were equally with the Puritans opposed to the doctrines of the Arminian church, and to the festivals and superstitions of the Romish see. There were also men among them of estate--men of capacity, of true hearts and undaunted courage. The conclusion would naturally be, that, under circumstances so similar, they must have been the same people. Nothing could be more unlike. Their principles were almost the antipodes to each other. The Puritan faith was founded upon the idea that the Christian religion consisted in obedience to written precepts, and in the knowledge and belief concerning the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ* The Quakers rested upon the perception of right and wrong in individual minds. This led one to books, and the other to their own hearts; principles so different could but lead to different results. The Puritans declared that " the form of govern * A work written by Robert Barclay, but a few days before his death, being a preface to a letter to a foreign ambassador. ment ordained by the Apostles was aristocratical, according to the constitution of the Jewish Sanhedrim, and was designed as a pattern for the churches in after ages;" and that the standard of uniformity, and which was to be supported by the sword, was not liberty of conscience and freedom of profession, but the "decrees of provincial and national synods."* They thus, as a natural...
