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I find it almost impossible to proceed to the great courts or meetings
of the Quakers, which I had allotted for my next subject, without
stopping a while to make a few observations on the principles of that
part of the discipline, which I have now explained.
It may be observed, first, that the great object of this part of the
discipline is the reformation of the offending person: secondly, that
the means of effecting this object consists of religious instruction or
advice: and thirdly, that no pains are to be spared, and no time to be
limited, for the trial of these means, or, in other words, that nothing
is to be left undone, while there is a hope that the offender may be
reclaimed. Now these principles the Quakers adopt in the exercise of
their discipline, because, as a Christian community, they believe they
ought to be guided only by Christian principles, and they know of no
other, which the letter, or the spirit of Christianity, can warrant.
I shall trespass upon the patience of the reader in this place, only
till I have made an application of these principles, or till I have
shewn him how far these might be extended, and extended with advantage
to morals, beyond the limits of the Quaker-society, by being received as
the basis, upon which a system, of penal laws might be founded, among
larger societies, or states.
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