INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER TO THE Seventh Edition. IN presenting to my young friends and the public at large, a new edition of the " Observations," I wish to make a few preliminary remarks on its contents, as well as on some subjects with which they are connected, and which I deem to be of vital importance to the welfare of our religious body. First, with respect to the language and style of the volume,-I have endeavoured to simplify many of the sentences, and have exchanged a number of long words of foreign origin, for others which are at once shorter and plainer. The experience of more than ten years, since the work was first published, has convinced me of the importance of aiming, as far as possible, at a simple style, that the meaning of the writer may be clear to all men; and especially to a large class of readers, who have not enjoyed the opportunity of much mental cultivation, but to whom B religious truth, in all its branches, is, I trust, increasingly precious. Frequent complaints having been made to me of the title of the work, I have ventured in the present edition to take the somewhat unusual step of changing it; and for the term "Peculiarities," in the title page, I have substituted "Distinguishing Views and Practices." The reader will observe, that in the present edition I have added some new passages and notes, which I have marked with a double asterisk. These are the results of farther reflection and observation; and will, I trust, be found to strengthen the several arguments to which they are attached. I propose also to add, as an appendix to the volume, a brief essay on one part of our system, which, although it is of considerable importance, I have not hitherto noticed;-I mean the nature, origin, and effect of our Christian Discipline. I am persuaded that the more diligently our young friends inquire into the subject, the more they will find cause to believe that our plan of discipline was very wisely formed, and that its provisions, in their scope and intention, truly agree with the order of the gospel. May they be led to place a right value on its wholesome checks, and to account the protection which it affords them, one of their most valuable privileges! In confining my attention, in the present work, chiefly to those points in religion, by which Friends are distinguished from other bodies of true Christian believers, nothing can be farther from me than any desire to throw into the shade those fundamental doctrines, in which all such believers agree. To unfold these doctrines, and to prove their truth from Scripture, is, in some other works, the sole object which I have pursued; and to maintain them fully and freely (as ability is afforded) in the presence of all men, I deem to be my first duty, and my dearest right. When we reflect on the unutterable importance of eternity, on the value of never-dying souls, on the pains of hell, and on the joys of heaven, we cannot deny that to dwell on essential, saving truth, is the main business of every religious teacher. Dearly ought we to prize the many noble testimonies which have been borne by the Society of Friends, not only in the present day, but from its earliest rise, to the truth and importance of the doctrines of the New Testament. Christ has been the centre around which they have delighted to gather; and those who have quitted that centre have never failed to lose, in a spiritual sense at least, their unity with the body. Since the Holy Scriptures contain a divinely authorized standard of revealed truth, and are fully sufficient for their purpose, Friends have always refused to bind themselves by any other written creed. Nevertheless, in every period of the Society's history, the acknowledged faith of the body has been sound and unquestionable. Repeatedly have they confessed their belief in one ever-living God, all-wise, almighty, om |