Quakerism Examined Author:John Wilkinson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. IS THERE GROUND FOR A BELIEF IN AN " INWARD LIGHT ? " Before bringing forward quotations from the writings of Friends to substantiate the posit... more »ions I have laid down in my Letter, let me just examine the very first extract which is given in the appendix to the "Letter" to which I am replying; and it may then be seen whether the extract is really calculated to answer the purpose for which we must conclude it has been brought forward—that of proving the soundness of the principles of Friends: and we must suppose that, for this end, the best passages that could readily be found would be selected. Alas! for every line that has an evangelical cast in Friends' writings, I question whether a page might not be found deplorably at variance with the genuine doctrines of the gospel. And the scarcity of good paragraphs may be argued by the fact, that, in very numerous in- tances, the same things in different publications are to be found prominently put forth; for instance, the address of George Fox and some others to the Governor of Barbadoes has of late so often caught my eye, that one may almost predict, if the scriptural nature of Friends' views is to be argued, some extracts from that document will make a conspicuous figure. Accordingly, we find it taking the second place in the appendix to the "Letter." (P. 32.) But it will be needless to examine more than the first of the "doctrinal extracts;" because the same remarks must apply to all, for the grievance lies at the root. I may, however, occasionally notice some of them. On referring to page 156 of George Fox's Journal, we find the passage from which Extract 1. is taken begins as follows: " From Worcester we went to Tewkesbury, where in the evening we had a great meeting, to which came the priest of the town with a g...« less