The Sure Foundation Or Past And Future Of The Society Of Friends With A Supplemental Chapter On Some Of The Essays Already Published PDF Download

Excerpt from The Sure Foundation: Or Past and Future of the Society of Friends With a Supplemental Chapter on Some of the Essays Already Published It is an unusual circumstance for an admirer of any sect to offer a public prize for discovering its failings without reference to its excellencies; and still more so, to select as judges three eminent writers, none of whom agree with its fundamental Views. If the soundness of the main doctrines of F riends had been the required postulate upon which all essays should be based, the result would have been less singular. By the present mode, not only has full scope been given to those who (like the author of the second prize essay) condemn every thing which is opposed to Anglo-catholicism but, on the other hand, those Who would uphold Quakerism, have, from the nature of the advertisement, been dis couraged from making allusion to its merits, and been specially occupied in setting forth its faults. The impulse, thus unintentionally given by the prize donor, to write down the principle as well as the prac tices of this Society, has brought to light eight or ten printed essays, all of which are of necessity more or less fault - finding, and one or two directly antagonistic. Such an one-sided contemplation of its tenets by one hundred and fifty essayists would be an extremely severe ordeal for any sect, but it is especially so for the Friends, whose practices differ in many respects from other Christian communities. No fair exposition can he arrived at by looking only upon the dark side; and the present essay is published at the request of several friends, who think it embraces a fuller and more just View of Quakerism. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.