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The Quakers try the lawfulness of these diversions again by the morality
of the New-Testament They adopt, in the first place, upon this occasion,
the idea of George Fox and of Edward Burroughs, which has been already
stated; and they follow it up in the manner which I shall now explain.
They believe that a man under the new covenant, or one who is really a
christian, is a renovated man. As long as Adam preserved his primeval
innocence, or continued in the image of his Maker, his spiritual vision
was clear. When he lost this image, it became dim, short, and confused.
This is the case, the Quakers believe, with every apostate or wicked
man. He sees through a vitiated medium. He sees of course nothing of the
harmony of the creation. He has but a confused knowledge of the natures
and ends of things. These natures and these ends he never examines as he
ought, but in the confusion of his moral vision, he abuses and perverts
them. Hence it generally happens, that an apostate man is cruel to his
brute. But in proportion as he is restored to the divine image, or
becomes as Adam was before he fell, or in proportion as he exchanges
earthly for spiritual views, he sees all things through a clearer
medium. It is then, the Quakers believe, that the creation is open to
him, and that he finds his creator has made nothing in vain.
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