It is a doctrine of the Quakers that none can spiritually exercise, and
that none ought to be allowed to exercise, the office of ministers, but
such as the spirit of God has worked upon and called forth to discharge
it, as well as that the same Spirit will never fail to raise up persons
in succession for this end.
Conformably with this idea, no person, in the opinion of the Quakers,
ought to be designed by his parents in early youth for the priesthood:
for as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can say which is the
vessel that is to be made to honour.
Conformably with the same idea, no imposition of hands, or ordination,
can avail any thing, in their opinion, in the formation of a minister of
the Gospel; for no human power can communicate to the internal man the
spiritual gifts of God.
Neither, in conformity with the same idea, can the acquisition of human
learning, or the obtaining Academical degrees and honours, be essential
qualifications for this office; for though the human intellect is so
great, that it can dive as it were into the ocean and discover the laws
of fluids, and rise again up to heaven, and measure the celestial
motions, yet it is incapable of itself of penetrating into divine
things, so as spiritually to know them; while, on the other hand,
illiterate men appear often to have more knowledge on these subjects
than the most learned.
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