of INTOLERANCE, in its sayings and doings of a century and a half ago, and thence, in more limited measure, down to a pretty late period of English history: 2.-The character, acts and sufferings, the blessed lives and peaceful ends of many of God's witnesses to the TRUTH:witnesses in things, the importance of which to the Christian faith is but of late acknowledged, and which are as yet far from being received as they deserve, for Religious maxims among Christians at large: 3.-A Chronological view of quaker-history; chiefly in its bearings upon the public, and not comprehending a further respectable share of private worth, or of literary or scientific eminence, which might by adopting a larger scope for biography have formed part of the annals of this people: 4.-The great question of Tithes and Church maintenance pretty fully treated, on the principles of dissent from a Stateestablishment: 5.-Other points of Church-business, which of late time have become of public importance, elucidated by original remarks and documentary records-especially those relating to Marriage, &c., among the Friends: 6.-War, Slavery, Temperance, Oaths, African education, the habits past and present, and manners of the quakers ; their doctrine, what it was at the first, what it has become by lapse of time, and what it ought now to be made by voluntary concessions and reforms : 7.-Remarks on Scripture passages, extending through a considerable portion of the sacred records, and including a full refutation of the Unitarian scheme of doctrine: 8.-Morsels of etymological enquiry into the meaning and origin of certain words and terms. with a view to their more correct use, and more fruitful and charitable application 9.-Morsels of verse, original and translated, mostly of the Editor's composing, and calculated to promote an ingenuous moral feeling. : What to say to commend all this to the Reader's favorable notice the Author knows not, save that it has cost him a world of pains, in the composition and issue of the one hundred and twenty numbers of which it consists. And this labour having been performed, at times, under the disadvantages of remoteness from the press, of personal and domestic affliction, of the perplexities attending serious doctrinal differences with others professing the same faith,—the Reader is entreated to carry with him this apology for its defects in his perusal of the work which may God bless to him, if it be His will, for the purpose of Christian edification! : The Villa, Ackworth, Yorkshire, 25th August, 1837. THE YORKSHIREMAN, A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL BY A FRIEND. PRO PATRIA. No. I. [2nd Ed.] FOURTH DAY, 25th SEVENTH MO. 1832. PRICE 4d. INTRODUCTION. This publication is designed in the first instance for the use of the people called Quakers, of which Society the Editor has been a member from his birth-for their perusal, should they incline to patronise it, but not for their exclusive benefit: for it is hoped that through their hands it may reach the eyes of others also, who, though not united to them in avowed religious fellowship, are yet by them esteemed as Fellow-citizens' of no mean city,' and equally entitled with themselves to the practical benefit of those great truths which this Society has been endeavouring, from its first gathering until now, to draw out of the obscurity of tradition and ceremonies, and proclaim, not by precept only but with the stronger voice of example, to the World at large. It is well known that the Quakers refuse to bear arms or be concerned in warlike practices, alleging that the Gospel of Christ is a dispensation of peace, proclaiming from heaven the message of benevolence to mankind—also, that they refuse to take an oath in any case, conceiving that Christ and his Apostle James expressly forbid Christians to swear, whether by the great God himself, or by any place in which He might put his name, or by any creature which He has made-again, that they advocate and practise a free ministry of the word of God, of those doctrines which it hath pleased Him freely to publish to all, and of that healing power which, through the same chosen instruments, He freely dispenses for the benefit of all. These are the Cardinal points of the doctrine peculiar to this Society, the Testimonies which they believe to be committed to their keeping, the foundation of their dissent from the multitude of their Fellow professors of the Christian faith. To advance these to notice, to enforce them by arguments, to recommend them by instances, to persuade to their sincere practice, must be the endeavour of the Editor of this work-a work in which he trusts he shall not by his fellow labourers in former days be now left alone: and he thus pledges himself in the outset to the task, in order that, should he be found at any time swerving from his duty, and quitting the path which he sees open before him, to go into other concerns, and engage in other controversies, it may be in the power of the least considerable of his Readers to recall him to the original engagement, and require its faithful execution. But it is one thing to bear a burthen along the road, conscious of nothing but the toil and difficulties of the way, another, to proceed on a journey with affairs to attend to, and commissions to discharge, yet with time and leave to make observations on whatsoever may please and instruct the Traveller, and (what is still more to his advantage) with company to whom to impart them. It is in this way, Reader! that I purpose to travel with thee. We will try, as we go along, if we cannot be cheerful in our communication with each other: and I trust we shall be enabled innocently to relieve, with many a pleasant though short excursion, the severer labours of this engagement. Hast thou seen (for many a man looks and sees not) the Latin motto which I have placed at the head of my paper? Imagine now above it a Lion rainpant, with a sword in his paws-such a device as thou mayst have seen, if thou be forty, in the water-mark of a sheet of old Dutch foolscap. I durst not insert it in type, but it is the device to which my motto belongs, and it imports that I appear for my country. If But what has this to do, thou wilt say, with this work, or with the peaceable principle and general inoffensive demeanour of the Quaker— dost thou mean to go to war indeed? I will tell thee Reader! thou wilt turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter the forty-ninth, verse the ninth, thou wilt read, there, that he whom his brethren shall praise, and whose hand shall be in the neck of his enemies, must be 'a Lion's whelp;' and when he shall have gone up from the prey, and have couched as a Lion, and laid him down as a strong Lion, it is triumphantly asked, 'Who shall rouse him up ?" Now this my Lion, my defence and sword bearer, (by a spiritual application of my text, and with reference to present and future time) is He who in the last book of the Bible is expressly called 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah,' the opener of the seals of the book of God. Rev. v, 5. And this person of so great might and courage, is also in the very same passage called the Lamb of God: his meekness being as conspicuous in past acts, as will be found his strength, his invincible strength, in his future. This person is, eminently and emphatically, the TRUTH, he is the very truth of God, in every one of God's children and servants,— in suffering, meekness itself, and constancy and faith-but in righteous controversy for the cause of God, he is a Lion roused and sure of the prey: Est magna Veritas et prævalebit! 6 But the Lion in that device bears in his paws a faulchion-what need of that? It is put there, Reader! for this plain reason (plain when mentioned, though at first not obvious) that it is not by force of teeth and claws that Truth is to do the business, but by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God'—not by a recourse to the Civil power, and to Acts and Ordinances of the Rulers of this world (however lanful, which the greater part of the force exercised upon conscience hath been, as to human authority) but by the intimate persuasion of the mind and conviction of the judgment, through the mighty strokes and irresistible piercings of this the Christian's weapon. But not his to wield unless the Spirit hold it with him : for it is in the hand of the Spirit, being the sum of history and doctrine, and precept and prophecy, which God hath put on record in past ages, and by his providence kept for our use under the guidance of his Holy spirit, until We must not be so dull as to confound the sword with the hand that uses it—the sword of the Spirit is, that which is contained in the scriptures of truth. now. 6 This, then, is our warfare, and after this manner it must be waged -in which, who among us will now come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty? For they are mighty who oppose. We have now, as the believers had formerly, to contend' against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Intolerance is what it ever hath been and will be ever, (when and where it finds the occasion and the means,) at its old work of putting down the truth. That sword is its dread and terror, for, against it, established error and prejudice has nothing but its hide for a defence: yet such is the toughness of this, that often nothing but the point will enter-and with this we must thrust home. Nor should we faint because they are few who engage on our side. It was Gideon's three hundred men that lapped' (the more discreet and temperate of the people) who, merely by showing lights and blowing their trumpets at a suitable moment, put that great host of Midianites to the rout. The sword of the Lord,' then, let us say |