raging of those writings. To preach Christ, to proceed step by step in spiritual knowledge, as his Divine voice speaking in the secret of the soul shall direct, they pretend will lead us to undervalue the lessons of his Prophets and Apostles, that have been learned in the same school. Oh, no! those lessons are dear and precious to all those who are taught by the same Master. But because we do not sell them to others to obtain a livelihood for ourselves, and descant upon them for that end with all the force, subtlety, and ingenuity that wit, learning, and reason can command; the hirelings, their friends, and their credulous dupes, charge us with undervaluing the records of those testimonies, which the Almighty Spirit of God hath given to his servants of all ages, more or less, to bear.

Presumptuous men! who authorised you to select a certain portion of those precious testimonies, (or, more properly speaking, the records of those testimonies,) to decide between the delusions of Satan, and the influences of God's Holy Spirit? Where and when did the commission issue forth from "the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords," that any man, or body of men, should appoint a standard and a test out of such writings as they should approve; that these should take the judgment seat, and that the Holy Spirit, before his influences are to be heeded, must be brought up to the bar and judged by the judge that you have appointed? What!" is the Lord's arm shortened then, that he cannot save, or his ear grown heavy that he cannot hear?" Have you stopped up the old road to the kingdom? Can you prevent the intercourse of the souls of your fellow creatures with the " great God and Father of all," except by such a way as you choose

to cast up? Cannot the Shepherd call to the sheep, nor the sheep hear his voice, but under the conditions that hireling priests, and diviners for money have prescribed for both sheep and Shepherd ? Verily "a lying spirit" is in the mouth of these thy prophets." "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect before him."-2 Chron. xvi. 9.

I again deny that I have attempted to disparage Holy Scriptures, either directly or indirectly, in one single passage throughout the whole of this book. I have only attempted to thrust down man's imaginations concerning them; to take from them the imperial robes, with which Anti-christ through the instrumentality of mercenary and rapacious priests, for lucre's sake, have decked them out; and whilst thus displacing them from that throne in man's heart, where Christ Jesus our Lord should alone have the right to preside, I have not derogated from their rightful authority, by depreciating their excellency, denying their worth, or calling in question one blessed truth that they contain.

The sentiment, "that we have now nothing to do with the records of events, written eighteen hundred years ago," is not contained in this book, as the Friend is reported to have said at Liverpool Quarterly Meeting. This statement is erroneous, extremely erroneous, and I can scarcely think that any candid mind could allow himself to give utterance to such a statement. I have in many passages declared in positive terms, that we have to do with them, and have expressed a thankfulness of heart, 'that these memorials of former mercies and wondrous works--of things past, present, and

66

to come,—have been thus preserved amidst the revolutions of empires and kingdoms; and that the wish to extend the blessing, is worthy of the Christian character*." And not only do I maintain, that the true and proper position of the Scriptures has been exhibited throughout this volume, (which, if permitted, I intend in a future publication to make more forcibly appear;) but I am prepared to prove in total contradiction to the assertion of the Friend or Friends, at Liverpool, that the sentiments herein avowed are not opposed to the principles of the Society, from its commencement to the present period."

I have not in my possession the works to which this Friend referred, nor have I, (where I am at present staying) the means of gaining immediate access to them, and, therefore, am not able to make any literal quotations from them. I have by me, however, a work, written by a cotemporary and fellow labourer with those excellent men, namely, Samuel Fisher, an attentive perusal of which I would submit to the consideration of these Friends, and in the words of William Penn, recommend them to the work itself, that they may plainly see and cordially embrace those great Apostolic Truths therein handled and maintained.' +

66

But what if this Friend has not seen such views in the Epistles of George Fox, the Letters of William Penn to his family, nor in the Catechism or Confession of Faith of Robert Barclay? Had the Friends to whom George Fox wrote his Epistles, denied the supremacy of Christ?

*Chap. vii, page 167.

+ William Penn's Testimony of S. Fisher, prefixed to his Works.

X

No;

Had they syllogised the writings of holy men into the "highest rule ?" Had they put forth to the world that it was "an incongruity" to speak of God or the Holy Spirit, as a rule? Had they asserted that "it is laying ourselves open to the delusions of the Devil," if we unhappily flatter ourselves that we have the knowledge of the will of God, independently of the written revelation, by which it has pleased him to convey it? they had proclaimed no such doctrines as these ; Christ with them was "the way, the truth, and the life.” And if, from the frequent perusal of those records which contain the experiences of departed Saints, they were instructed and consoled, yet is it true that their sufferings were made perfect, and that their joy did abound in Christ. George Fox was writing to those who acknowledged Christ as their leader. The testimony of George Fox, therefore, in his Epistles was, " as ye have received the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in him." And with respect to Barclay's "Catechism and Confession of Faith," the same reasons, in a measure, might have operated here. So far as my memory serves me it was an affirmative, and not a negative "Confession." It was a confession of what he did believe, rather than what he did not believe. Not induced, by way of refutation to any particular notions that had been advanced by a member of the same Society as himself, on the comparative authority of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit; but it was rather an exhibition of the ground and nature of his Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the consequent obligations, which, as a Christian, that faith imposed, both towards God and man. Still less I apprehend was there any necessity for William Penn,

in his Letters to his family, with those practical lessons of immediate dependence upon Christ, which his own life continually exhibited before their eyes, to enter into any discussion of the sort. It certainly was not necessary to attempt to disprove that which was not credited ; to enter upon a service that was not required; to broach false doctrines, in order to confute them. He had no occasion to tell “his family” that the Scriptures were not the highest rule; nor enter into a laboured dissertation to demonstrate the truth of his assertion, when his children had been already taught, both by example and precept, to build on that foundation, which those who wrote the Scriptures had themselves been built upon, even "the Rock of Ages." No; the tendency of his testimony to them was, "that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”Col. ii, 2.

But what was it, I would ask these Friends, that, above all other things, provoked the malice and enmity of the hirelings of those days? What was it but the call, the lively, the earnest, the extended call from the dead ministrations of the "word stealers" to the free teachings of Christ's Spirit, that induced the Owens, and Baxters, and Tombses, and the rest of the idol shepherds to vilify the Friends and their principles, and to invoke the arm of the magistracy in support of their rotten foundations, their nefarious system of traffic out of their own authorised stock of holy men's writings?