CHAPTER X.

SECT.  I._—­Ministers of the Gospel—­Quakers conceive that the spirit of God alone can qualify for the ministry—­Women equally qualified with men—­Way in which ministers are called and acknowledged among the Quakers._

SECT.  II._—­Quaker-ministers, when acknowledged, engage in family visits—­Nature of these—­and sometimes in missions through England—­and sometimes in foreign parts._

CHAPTER XI.

Elders—­Their origin and their office—­These are not to meddle with the discipline of the church.

CHAPTER XII.

SECT I._—­Worship—­is usually made to consist of prayer and preaching—­But neither of these are considered by the Quakers to be effectual without the aid of the spirit—­Hence no liturgy or studied form of words among the Quakers—­Reputed manner and character of Quaker-preaching—­Observations upon these._

SECT.  II—­Silent worship—­Manner of it—­Worship not necessarily connected with words—­Advantages of this mode of worship.

SECT.  III.—­Quakers discard every thing formal and superstitious from their worship—­No consecrated ground—­No priest’s garments—­No psalmody—­No one day esteemed by them holier than another—­Reasons for these singularities.

CHAPTER XIII.

Miscellaneous particularities—­Quakers seldom use the words “original sin,” or “Trinity,” and never “the word of God” for the Scriptures—­Believe in the manhood and divinity of Christ—­In the resurrection—­Their ideas on sanctification and justification.

CHAPTER XIV.

Quakers reject baptism and the Lord’s supper—­Indulgence solicited for them on account of the difficulties connected with these subjects—­These difficulties explained.

CHAPTER XV.

SECT.  I.—­Two baptisms, that of John and of Christ—­That of John was by water—­and a Jewish ordinance—­John the prophet left under the law.

SECT.  II.—­Baptism of Christ was by the Spirit—­This the baptism of the Gospel—­Authorities on which this distinction between the two is founded.

SECT.  III.—­Quakers conceive it was not the baptism of John which Jesus included in the Great Commission, when he ordered his disciples to go into all nations, and to teach them, baptizing in the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—­This shown from expressions taken from St. Peter and St. Paul—­and from the object and nature of this baptism.

SECT.  IV.—­But that it was the baptism of Christ—­This shown from a critical examination of the words in the commission itself—­And from the commission, as explained by St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul.