before battle, in more modern times: and to admit that, while the Israelites were commanded to 'smite them and utterly destroy them,' there was no prohibition issued, nor any means used, to prevent their escape by flight.

But what does Hannah Barnard make of all this? She admits, to be sure, that the vicious passions of men have been, and are, permitted to become as mutual scourges, in order that when the judgments of the Lord are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness: and thus provides, in sufficient abundance, the original moving cause of all wars and fightings. But then she has in her contemplation the Sovereign Legislator of THE UNIVERSE, unchangeable, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;' and conceives that every dispensation, proceeding immediately from HIM, must bear upon it the stamp of the divine attributes-wisdom, justice, and goodness.' On such an assumption of the attributes of the Alinighty, she takes upon herself to controvert the plain historic facts recorded by Moses and Joshua, the authorized leaders and chief actors in what they relate; and to insist that though wars were permitted, yet they were never commanded by God.'

She brings no argument whatever to prove that these histories are either corrupt, or interpolated; or, that it was inconsistent with any known account or revelation we possess of his character and attributes, that the Sovereign Legislator of the Universe' should choose to himself a family, to make a nation of for his own ultimate, most wise and gracious purposes towards mankind; and that he should put himself at the head of such a people, retain them as his subjects by miracles, and issue his commands to them through a chosen captain; even though it were for the extermination of that race of abominable idolaters—of whom it was declared that the land itself vomited them forth [by forced emigrations?] because of their iniquities! Read Lev. xviii. the whole chapter, on this head.

No: she chooses to put it, that the Almighty, not staying to make one nation the punisher, by arms and conquest, of another, (reserving some of the latter, also, to be as a thorn in the side, to those of like dispositions in the first) did himself incite the moral subjects of his beneficent, mild and equitable government, to deeds of cruelty and bloodshed-making them, who were supposed to be his chosen and peculiar people, fiends indeed, actuated by all the dispositions which prompt to carnage and desolation !

THERE IS NOTHING OF ALL THIS IN THE RECORD OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, and no proof of it elsewhere. It formed, merely, the subject of the lofty conceits and fluent declamations of a deluded woman!

Let us now return to the narrative. It appears that with these sentiments, and, doubtless, with frequent occasion to publish them, Hannah Barnard was for twenty years a minister of our religious Society in America, having its full unity and concurrence; and in 1797 its certificate, as follows, to visit Friends in Europe:

"From our Monthly Meeting of Hudson, in the County of Columbia and State of New York, in America-to Friends on the islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

"Dear Friends: Our beloved sister, Hannah Barnard, having communicated to us, some time past, a concern which has rested on her mind for a considerable time, to pay you a visit in the love of the Gospel; which being solidly attended to, hath obtained our near sympathy and concurrence: We e may certify, on her behalf, that she is a Friend in esteem with us; and that her ministry is sound and edifying, attended with a comfortable evidence of her call thereto.

"We therefore recommend her to your affectionate care and sympathy, desiring that, in the course of the various trials and exercises that attend, she may be preserved humbly dependent, singly eyeing the pointings of truth in all her movements; so that when the portion of labour allotted her may be performed, she may return to her family and friends with that peace that is the never failing reward of faithful services. In the salutation

of love we are your friends, brethren, and sisters.

66

Signed in, and on behalf of said Meeting, held at Hudson, the 26th of 10th Mo. 1797: Francis Bunker, John Alsop, Elihu Bunker, Eliab Coffin, Barzillai Bunker, Job Webb, Peter Barnard, Hannah Jenkins, Judith Macy, Lydia Bunker, Priscilla Macy, Eliz. Comstock," [and 49 others.]

Indorsed (according to established order) by the clerks of Nine-partners Quarterly Meeting of Men and Women Friends; and by James Mott, clerk of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders (of men and women jointly) of New York; the latter held in Fifth Month, 1798; testifying the unity of said meetings with her concern.'

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She embarked for England in company with Eliz. Coggeshall, an approved minister from Rhode Ireland, and landed at Falmouth about the Seventh Month following. The narrative says, 'Their visits were generally satisfactory to the Society throughout England and Scotland; whether the exercise of their gifts was confined to our own members, or extended in more public meetings to those other societies.'

On leaving Ireland, she had the certificate of their Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders, in which, though there is now no mention of unity with her ministry, yet the tenour of the document is such, as might very well pass with strangers for a general approval of her conduct therein. Of her meetings with those of other societies, the Irish Friends only say, 'we believe' they were 'to general satisfaction.' I have no doubt their testimony' was granted under considerable hesitation as to the soundness of her pretensions and doctrine, both; and it is any thing but emphatic,' as termed in the narrative.

The very individual on whom it devolved, officially, to deliver it to Hannah Barnard, found himself constrained, when (at the London Yearly Meeting of like denomination) she asked further credentials, to oppose her further proceeding in travel, as a minister of our Society. The result I have already shown in the Chronological Summary: and have here to add to that account only, that the extent of her difference in doctrine and belief from Friends appears to have come out by degrees, in the course of the different conferences held with her on behalf of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders, and the Morning Meeting.' The Narrative complains, in her behalf, of the same Friends who had come forward as her accusers, being permitted afterwards to sit with those who had to judge in her case: an allegation which might be considered as of

greater weight, if the issue to be tried had affected rights more important than simply that of preaching as a minister of the Gospel, in unity with Friends, in these islands and elsewhere in Europe.

On the subject of a clause in the report of the Yearly Meeting's Committee, which says, it appears to us, that the said Hannah Barnard does not unite with our Society in its belief of the Holy Scriptures, the Narrative says:

"Difficult as it is to ascertain with precision, what the Committee understood to be the belief of the Society on this subject, the Appellant was unexpectedly furnished with an opportunity (after the reading of this report, and before it was confirmed) of asserting in the face of the Yearly Meeting, her entire accordance with the last exposition of the Society's faith, respecting what the Scriptures are, and what they are not, [in a pamphlet with this title, Some Animadversions on the supposition of the Scripture being the only principal and perfect Rule to Salvation, &c.' By Richard Morris; written about the year 1742;] published under the sanction of the Morning Meeting of Ministers and Elders; and specially recommended to the attention of the Society, by the Meeting for Sufferings, and the Quarterly Meeting, (in 1801,) which decided upon her appeal."

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This tract of thirty-two pages is furnished with a short Introduction;' in which the editor of the new edition (Morris Birkbeck, a minister of the Society) objects to the Scriptures having the title of THE WORD:'-and certainly with great propriety, if we put it thus in capitals and make a TITLE of it: but he goes on to tell us, next, what they are, thus: "Besides informing us of the works of creation and providence, they convey to us the history of Christ, his sufferings, death, and resurrection; they also set forth the interest we have in him as our Saviour; and the means by which the redemption of mankind, from the guilt and punishment of sin is to be accomplished." Thus making redemption an inward and future work, to the exclusion of the doctrine of the atonement.

No wonder this tract, which shows a great deal of special pleading, managed with considerable shrewdness, should agree with the taste of Hannah Barnard as far as it goes-but, alas! it does not go to the denying a single 'historical fact,' or controverting a single doctrinal proposition, of this outward and secondary RULE (as the author, somewhat misusing the term 'rule,' accounts it) of faith and practice: and therefore falls very short of her unbelief!

"On the 30th of the 8th Mo. 1801, Hannah Barnard embarked for her native land, and was accompanied to Gravesend by a considerable number of Friends from London; who were gratified in bearing this testimony of their sympathy with, and esteem for her. After a peculiarly solemn religious opportunity on board the ship, wherein she was reverentially engaged in testimony and supplication, they took leave of each other as friends and fellow-travellers, who were never to meet again in mutability; sorrowing therefore, but not as those without hope.

(To be continued.)

1836.

ART. I.-Remarks on an Epistle of Counsel,' from the Yearly

Meeting held in London-1836.

Formerly it was the practice of Friends, after deliberating on the 'affairs of Truth,' to convey what they had to impart to us on behalf of the Yearly Meeting in one document, containing (along with information as to the state of things at home and abroad) such Christian counsel, as they felt concerned to impart to the body. A few exceptions appear, in the first period of the society ending with the death of Geo. Fox, in favour of what may very properly be called the Homilies of that faithful minister of Christ, and overseer of the flock which he had been chiefly instrumental in gathering: they are the expressions of his own concern for the church in his own words.

Of late, we seem to have got into the way of writing also for the public. Our Epistles have been commended by some as morsels of lively, pertinent, affectionate Christian counsel; and in many instances may have merited that character: it is not for me, here, either to vindicate or depreciate them—my object is, simply, that they may be in future what they were formerly, as nearly as altered circumstances will permit. For it is evident that, in writing for the public along with our own members, we have not found it so convenient of late as formerly, to address the latter

VOL. V.

F

with that brotherly openness and confidence which the nature of our religious connexion requires. We have been putting, from time to time, an exhibition in print for the public, and sending forth besides, in manuscript, a real homily of the leading Friend or Friends. The manuscript has become lithography, and the lithography at last plain type; so that it may be asked with great propriety, whether of these two is the Yearly Epistle

now?

And not only have the two objects of information and advice been thus separated in the Men's Meeting, but the women have had their turn also at the work of counselling, separately from the men; and while we have been pressing Friends to a due attendance of meetings for Divine worship, they have ventured a step further, and strenuously advised our members, (as I am informed,) to beware how they seek for edification any where else! Such an injunction may have been as seasonable, as it is certainly consistent with the sentiments of the body. But how came it, if this were a right concern,' that it was not submitted to the MEN, (whom it may seem quite as much to affect,) to be issued in behalf and for the use of the body at large? One consequence of the separation appeared at our last Quarterly Meeting of York; the Epistle of Counsel from the men having been kept in abeyance, until this composition of their own had been read in the Women's Meeting! On the other hand, I have good information that the Printed Epistle,' the ancient established document of information and advice, has been in two Quarterly Meetings already objected to, and its distribution opposed; as not being in accordance with the principles of Friends:' but this attempt of a few mystics (I have not room here for paraphrases) to set aside an acknowledgment in the Society's behalf of the authority of Holy Scripture, was overruled in both.

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Let us now see what our homily contains. The full half of it (and which comes first) relates to the subject already alluded to, our religious meetings. The remainder is confined to topics, which might and ought to have been treated in the public document-the conduct of our members in any public office to which they may be chosen, (but which they are not encouraged to accept,) and a due sense of our duties, as stewards of the manifold temporal mercies of our God. Surely, now as on former occasions, moderation and disinterestedness, humility of mind and the avoiding of a party spirit, might have been publicly inculcated without fear of reproach! But this was not the end chiefly in view: the gist of the Epistle is, plainly, to fortify the attachment of our members to meetings now mostly held in silence, deprived of a true Gospel ministry, and, there is reason to fear, at present in an awful state of spiritual desolation. Having had in