their philosophy for the school of Christ. The first authors also of the Reformation contended for this doctrine. Luther and Calvin, both of them, supported it. Wickliff, the first reformer of the English church, and Tyndal the martyr, the first translator of the Bible into the English language, supported it also. In 1652, Sydrach Simpson, master of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge, preached a sermon before the University, contending that the universities corresponded with the schools of the prophets, and that human learning was an essential qualification for the priesthood. This sermon, however, was answered by William Dell, master of Caius College in the same University; in which he stated, after having argued the points in question, that the universities did not correspond with the schools of the prophets, but with those of heathen men; that Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were more honoured there, than Moses or Christ; that Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics, and the Mathematics, were not the instruments to be used in the promotion or the defence of the Gospel; that Christian schools had originally nally brought men from Heathenism to Christianity, but that the University-schools were likely to carry men from Christianity to Heathenism again. This language of William Dell was indeed the general language of the divines and pious men in those times in which George Fox lived, though unquestionably the opposite doctrine had been started, and had been received by many. Thus the great John Milton, who lived in these very times, may be cited, as speaking in a similar manner on the same subject: "Next," says he, "it is a fond error, though too much believed among us, to think that the University makes a minister of the Gospel. What it may conduce to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now. But that which makes fit a minister, the Scripture can best inform us to be only from above, whence also we are bid to seek them. Thus St. Matthew says: Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers unto his harvest *. Thus St. Luke: "The flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath Matt. ix. 38. made How made you overseers*.' Thus St. Paul: shall they preach, unless they be sent t?' But by whom sent? By the University, or by the magistrate? No, surely. But sent by God, and by him only.” The Quakers then, rejecting school-divinity, continue to think with Justin, Luther, Dell, Milton, and indeed with those of the church of England, and others, that those only can be proper ministers of the church, who have witnessed within themselves a call from the Spirit of God. If men would teach religion, they must, in the opinion of the Quakers, be first taught of God. They must go first to the school of Christ; must come under his discipline in their hearts; must mortify the deeds of the body; must crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof; must put off. the old man, which is corrupt; must put on the new man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" must be, in fact, "ministers of the sanctuary and true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man." And whether * Acts xx. 28. † Rom. x. 15. those ¡. those who come forward as ministers, are really acted upon by this Spirit, or by their own imaginations only, so that they mistake the one for the other, the Quakers consider it to be essentially necessary, that they should experience such a call in their own feelings; and that purification of heart, which they can only judge of by their outward lives, should be perceived by themselves, before they presume to enter upon such an office. The Quakers believe that men qualified in this manner are really fit for the ministry, and are likely to be useful instruments in it. For, first, it becomes men to be changed themselves, before they can change others. Those, again, who have been thus changed, have the advantage of being able to state, from living experience, what God has done for them; "what they have seen with their eyes, what they have looked upon, and what their hands have handled of the Word of Life*." Men also, who by means of God's Holy Spirit have escaped the pollutions of the world, are in a fit state to un *John i, 1. derstand derstand the mysteries of God, and to carry with them the seal of their own commission. Thus, men under sin can never discern spiritual things. But "to the disciples of Christ," and to the doers of his will, "it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven." Thus, when the Jews marvelled at Christ, saying, "How knoweth this man letters (or the Scriptures), having never learned*? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Such ministers also are considered as better qualified to reach the inward states of the people, and to " preach liberty to the captives" of sin, than those who have merely the advantage of school-divinity, or of academical learning. It is believed also of these, that they are capable of giving more solid and lasting instruction, when they deliver themselves at large; for those who preach rather from intellectual abilities, and from the suggestions of human learning, John vii. 15, 16, 17. than |