These are the principal prohibitions, which the Quakers have
made on the subject of their moral education. They were suggested, most
of them, by George Fox, but were brought into the discipline, at
different times, by his successors.
I shall now consider each of these prohibitions separately, and I shall
give all the reasons, which the Quakers themselves give, why, as a
society of Christians, they have, thought it right to issue and enforce
them.
CHAP. II ...SECT. I.
_Games of chance--Quakers forbid cards, dice, and other similar
amusements--also, concerns in lotteries--and certain transactions in the
stocks--they forbid also all wagers, and speculations by a monied
stake--the peculiar wisdom of the latter prohibition, as collected from
the history of the origin of some of the amusements of the times_.
When we consider the depravity of heart, and the misery and ruin, that
are frequently connected with gaming, it would be strange indeed, if the
Quakers, as highly professing Christians, had not endeavoured to
extirpate it from their own body.
No people, in fact, have taken more or more effectual measures for its
suppression. They have proscribed the use of all games of chance, and of
all games of skill, that are connected with chance in any manner.
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