[131]If, during this vacation from all mental
activity, no impressions should be given to them, they say nothing. If
impressions should be afforded to them, but no impulse to oral delivery,
they remain equally silent. But if, on the other hand, impressions are
given them, with an impulse to utterance, they deliver to the
congregation as faithfully as they can, the copies of the several
images, which they conceive to be painted upon their minds.
[Footnote 130: Mat. 10.19. Acts 1.4.]
[Footnote 131: They believe it their duty, (to speak in the Quaker
language,) to maintain the watch, by preserving the imagination from
being carried away by thoughts originating in man; and, in such watch,
patiently to await for the arising of that life, which, by subduing the
thoughts of man, produces an inward silence, and therein bestows a true
sight of his condition upon him.]
This utterance, when it manifests itself, is resolvable into prayer or
preaching. If the minister engages in prayer, the whole company rise up,
and the men with the minister take off their hats, that is, [132]uncover
their heads. If he preaches only, they do not rise, but remain upon
their seats as before, with their heads covered. The preacher, however,
uncovers his own head upon this occasion.
[Footnote 132: 1 Cor. Ch. 11.]
There is something singular in the manner in which the Quakers deliver
themselves when they preach.
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