To this observation I must reply, that the Quakers never recommend an
abstinence from any custom, merely because the use of it may lead to its
abuse.
Where a custom is simply liable to abuse, they satisfy themselves with
recommending moderation in the use of it.
But where the abuse of a custom is either, in the first place,
necessarily, or, in the second very generally connected with the use of
it, they generally consider the omission of it as morally wise and
prudent. It is in these two cases only that they apply, or that they lay
any stress upon the species of argument described.
This species of argument, under these two limitations, they believe to
be tenable in christian morals, and they entertain this belief upon the
following grounds.
It may be laid down as a position, that the abuse of any custom which is
innocent in itself, is an evil, and that it may become a moral evil. And
they conceive it to become a moral evil in the eye of christianity, when
it occasions either the destruction of the health of individuals, or
the misapplication of their time, or the excitement of their worst
passions, or the loss of their moral character.
If therefore the use of any custom be necessarily (which is the first of
the two cases) connected with its abuse, and the abuse of it be the
moral evil described, the user or practiser cannot but incur a certain
degree of guilt.
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