ned, their character
has been formed by the spirit of the New Testament, and perfectly
represents the effects of its principles fully carried out, and acted
upon. They never heard of Platonism, or of Pythagoras in their
lives, and, consequently, the polemic tricks, and evasions, which
have been, as hinted just now, resorted to by Protestant divines, to
shift from the shoulders of Christianity to those of Plato or
Pythagoras, the obnoxious principles we have been considering,
are of no use in this case, as, whatever the characters of these
Shakers may be, they were formed by the New Testament, and by
nothing else; and I believe, that every scholar in ecclesiastical
history, who reads Brown's history of the Shakers, will be
immediately and powerfully struck with the resemblance
subsisting between them, and the Christians of the two first
centuries.

As examples of the effects of those precepts of Christian morality,
which command us to hate father, and mother, and sister, and
brother, for the Bake of Jesus, take the following extracts from the
history referred to.

"According to their faith, natural affection must be eradicated; and
they say they must love all equally alike, as brothers, and sisters in
the gospel. It would exceed the limits of this work to give a
particular account of the various schemes that have been contrived,
to destroy all natural affection and social attachment between man
and wife, parent and child, brothers and sisters; especially towards
such as have left the society. Two instances that occurred about
this time, as specimens of others, may suffice. A mother, who had
renounced the faith, (i. e. left the society,) come to Niskeuna to
see, her daughter. Eldress Hannah Matterson told the daughter to
go into the room to her carnal mother, and say, ' What do you
come here for? I don't want you to come and see me with your
carnal affections!' 'The mother being grieved, replied, 'I did not
expect that a daughter of mine would ever address me in that
manner.'

'The daughter, in obedience to what she was taught, replied again,
'You have come here with your carnal fleshly desires, and I don't
want to see you,' and left her mother."

"Some time after, one Duncan Shapley, who had belonged to the
society, called to see Abigail, his sister, at Niskeuna, whom he had
not seen for six or seven years; but he was not admitted: he waited
some time, being loath to go away without seeing her. At last she
was or