This first case will comprehend all those uses of
things, which go under the denomination of gaming.
If again, the use of a custom be either through the influence of
fashion, or its own seductive nature, or any other cause, very generally
(which is the second case) connected with its abuse, and the abuse be
also of the nature supposed, then the user or practiser, if the custom
be unnecessary, throws himself wantonly into danger of evil, contrary to
the watchfulness which christianity enjoins in morals; and, if he falls,
falls by his own fault. This watchfulness against moral danger the
Quakers conceive to be equally incumbent upon Christians, as
watchfulness upon persons against the common dangers of life. If two
thirds of all the children, who had ever gone to the edge of a precipice
to play, had fallen down and been injured, it would be a necessary
prudence in parents to prohibit all such goings in future. So they
conceive it to be only a necessary prudence in morals, to prohibit
customs, where the use of them is very generally connected with a
censurable abuse. This case will comprehend music, as practised at the
present day, because they believe it to be injurious to health, to
occasion a waste of time, to create an emulative disposition, and to
give an undue indulgence to sensual feeling.
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