speak or to pray where the heart feels no impulse to do it, would be, in the opinion of the Quakers, to mock God, and not to worship him in Spirit and in truth. They sit therefore in silence, and worship in silence*. And they not only remain silent the whole time of their meetings, but many meetings take place, and these sometimes in succession, when not a word is uttered.

Michael de Molinos, who was chief of the sect of the Quietists, and whose "Spiritual Guide" was printed at Venice in 1685, speaks thus:." There are three kinds of silence; the first is of words, the second of desires, and the third of thoughts. The first is excellent; the second is more excellent; and the third is most excellent. In the first, that is of words, virtue is acquired. In the second, namely, of desires, quietness is attained. In the third, of thoughts, internal recollection is gained. By not speaking, not desiring, and not thinking, one arrives at the true and perfect mystical silence, where God speaks with the soul, communicates himself to it, and in the abyss of its own depth teaches it the most perfect and exalted wisdom."

* See note †, page 279, in the preceding Section.

Many

Many people of other religious societies, if they were to visit the meetings of the Quakers, while under their silent worship, would be apt to consider the congregation as little better than stocks or stones, or at any rate as destitute of that * life and animation, which constitute the essence of religion. They would have no idea that a people were worshipping God, whom they observed to deliver nothing from their lips, It does not follow, however, because nothing is said, that God is not worshipped. The Quakers, on the other hand, contend that these silent meetings form the sublimest part of their worship. The soul, they say, can have intercourse with God. It can feel refreshment, joy, and comfort in him; it can praise and adore him, and all this without the intervention of a word,

This power of the soul is owing to its constitution or nature. "It follows," says the learned Howe, in his Living Temple, “that having formed this his more excellent creature, according to his own more express likeness, stamped it with the more glorious

* Some, however, of other religious societies have been particularly struck with the solemnity of such meetings.

characters

characters of his living image, given it a nature suitable to his own, and thereby made it capable of rational and intelligent converse with him, he hath it ever in his power to maintain a continual converse with his creature, by agreeable communications, by letting in upon it the vital beams and influences of his own light and love, and receiving back the return of its grateful acknowledgments and praises. Wherein it is. manifest he should do no greater thing than he hath done. For who sees not that it is a matter of no greater difficulty to converse with than to make a reasonable creature Or who would not be ashamed to deny that he, who hath been the only author of the soul of man, and of the excellent powers and faculties belonging to it, can more easily sustain that which he hath made, and converse with his creature suitably to the way wherein he hath made it capable of his converse ?"

That worship may exist without the intervention of words, on account of this constitution of the soul, is a sentiment which has been espoused by many pious persons who were not of this Society. Thus the learned

and

and virtuous John Hales, in his Golden Remains, expresses himself: "Nay, one thing I know more; that the prayer, which is the most forcible, transcends, and far exceeds all power of words. For St. Paul, speaking unto us of the most effectual kind of prayer, calls it sighs and groans, that cannot be expressed. Nothing cries so loud. in the ears of God as the sighing of a contrite and earnest heart."*

"It requires not the voice, but the mind; not the stretching of the hands, but the intension of the heart; not any outward shape or carriage of the body, but the inward behaviour of the understanding. How then can it slacken your worldly business and occasions, to mix them with sighs and groans, which are the most effectual kind of prayer."

Dr. Gell, before quoted, says, Words, conceived only in an earthly mind, and uttered out of the memory by man's voice, which make a noise in the ears of flesh and blood, are not, nor can be, accounted a prayer, before our Father which is in Hea

ven.

Dr. Smaldridge, bishop of Bristol, has

the

2

the following expressions in his Sermons : "Prayer doth not consist either in the bending of our knees, or the service of our lips, or the lifting up of our hands or eyes to heaven; but in the elevation of our souls towards God. These outward expressions of our inward thoughts are necessary in our public, and often expedient in our private devotions; but they do not make up the essence of prayer, which may truly and ac, ceptably be performed, where these are wanting."

And he says afterwards, in other parts of his work, "Devotion of mind is itself a silent prayer, which wants not to be clothed in words, that God may better know our desires. He regards not the service of our lips, but the inward disposition of our hearts."

Monro, before quoted, speaks to the same effect in his Just Measures of the Pious Institutions of Youth; "The breathings of a recollected soul are not noise or clamour. The language, in which devotion loves to vent itself is that of the inward man, which is secret and silent, but yet God hears it, and makes gracious returns unto it. Sometimes

the