This
institution therefore of elders fixes the offices on individuals. It
makes it their duty to watch and advise--It makes them responsible for
the unsound doctrine, or the bad conduct of their ministers. And this
responsibility is considered as likely to give persons that courage in
watching over the ministry, which they might otherwise want. Hence, if a
minister in the Quaker church were to preach unsoundly, or to act
inconsistently with his calling, he would be generally sure of being
privately spoken to by one or another elder.
This office of elders, as far as it is concerned in advising ministers
of the Gospel, had its foundation laid by George Fox. Many persons, who
engaged in the ministry in his time, are described by him as "having run
into imaginations," or as "having gone beyond their measure;" and in
these cases, whenever they should happen, he recommended that one or
two friends, if they saw fit, should advise with them in love and
wisdom. In process of time, however, this evil seems to have increased;
for as the society spread, numbers pressed forward to become Gospel
ministers; many supposed they had a call from the spirit, and rose up,
and preached, and in the heat of their imaginations, delivered
themselves unprofitably. Two or three persons also, in the frenzy of
their enthusiasm, frequently rose up, and spoke at the same time.
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