13th
From the Episcopal Church, with her imposing ritual and elaborate ceremonials, down to modern Quakerism, with its professed abjuration of all forms, its rustic garb and look of “meek simplicity,” all seem deluded with the idea that the Church, being made after a Divine pattern, is supernaturally preserved from error. Even the Quaker regards the decision of his Yearly Meeting with a superstitious reverence scarcely inferior to that which the Catholic awards to the decrees of the Pope and the Cardinals.
Do his reason and common sense suggest that the Yearly Meeting has decided erroneously or unjustly, he banishes the thought as little less than im-pious, becomes silent if not acquiescent, and mayhap lays his reason and common sense a sacrifice on the altar of the Church.
Poor man! let him be once fairly convinced that ecclesiastical bodies, however sacred their professions, however worthy of esteem within their legitimate sphere, are yet only human, and without authority to bind the conscience even of the humblest of God’s children, and he will no longer dare to offer such a sacrifice, to dishonor his Creator by debasing his powers.
from the Exposition of Sentiments, a seminal statement of the spiritual principles of liberal Friends
I’ve been thinking about the dangerous idolatry of asserting that prayerful Quaker process leads inexorably to finding “God’s will”. God’s will is God’s alone to know— the best we can do is follow the measure of revelation we are given, tempered by mature human will.
As the above authors point out, the Church is not “supernaturally preserved from error”, and when the Church falls into error, divergent Friends must be faithful to the leadings that God reveals to them, laboring with the remnant to follow the promptings of love and truth.
