All
days with the Quakers are equally holy, and all equally proper for the
worship of God. In this opinion they coincide with the ever memorable
John Hales. "For prayer, indeed, says this venerable man, was the
Sabbath ordained: yet prayer itself is Sabbathless, and admits of no
rest, no intermission at all. If our hands be clean, we must, as our
Apostle commands us, lift them up every where, at all times, and make
every place a church, every day a Sabbath-day, every hour canonical. As
you go to the market; as you stand in the streets; as you walk in the
fields--in all these places, you may pray as well, and with as good
acceptance, as in the church: for you yourselves are temples of the Holy
Ghost, if the grace of God be in you, more precious than any of those
which are made with hands."
Though, however, the Quakers believe no one day in the sight of God to
be holier than another, and no one capable of being rendered so by human
authority, yet they think that Christians ought to assemble for the
public worship of God. They think they ought to bear an outward and
public testimony for God; and this can only be done by becoming members
of a visible church, where they may be seen to acknowledge him publicly
in the face of men. They think also, that the public worship of God
increases, as it were, the fire of devotion, and enlarges the sphere of
spiritual life in the souls of men.
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