And the system

danfudf Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:37 pm

And the system of discipline he was led to establish, for the well ordering and managing the affairs of society, has been found sufficient to answer the purposes for which it was instituted; and to manifest the superiority of that wisdom by which it was dictated.Amongst other things which exposed George Fox and his fellow believers to personal abuse, was, that they viewed the customary modes of salutation, uncovering the head, bowing the body, and using complimentary speeches and titles, as owing their origin to pride on the one hand, and folly and parasitical artifice on the other ; and, therefore, esteemed it their duty to bear a public testimony against these customs, by declining compliance therewith.Their manner of address, though singular, and contrary to fashion, was neither absurd Dr Dre Headphones nor inconsistent with reason or propriety; yet it begat general dislike, filled the magistrates, ecclesiastics and laics with indignation, and exposed Friends to grievous abuse in their persons: being often beaten, buffeted, stoned, imprisoned and fined, for no other reason than their declining to take off their hats, and Beats By Dr Dre to give the customary titles of adulation to mien.Their doctrine, their circumspect conversation, their plain dealing and honest testimonies against religion without righteousness, carrying with them strong reproof to hypocrisy and lifeless profiMfrUji, were little less offensive to many of the ostentafMphd formal professors of the age.But what contributed as much as all the rest, to fasten in the minds of the people an aversion, too deeply rooted to be easily eradicated, was, their opinion that the gospel ministry was free; and that every true gosr pel minister ought to minister because it was his indispensable duty, arising from an immediate divine call and qualification; and that no person ought to preach lor hire: but that in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ they ought to give freely to the people. And their practice corresponded with their doctrine.They also declared that the Lord would britig down the antichristian ministry, and the antichristian means by which it was supported. And therefore believed it to be their indispensable duty to refrain from the payment of tithes, as unlawful in the sight Beats By Dre of God, whatever they might suffer from men on that account. These things touched the teachers >f every other denomination in a very tender parttheir interestsand, as Gongh expresses it, raised against them a combined host of foes, such as have been able to overturn kingdoms.