them, be likely to take advantage of such notions as these, and whilst he is keeping them in a state of enmity, induce them, after they have, perhaps, exerted themselves in more or less of an ineffectual struggle, to feel satisfied with their darkness and ignorance, which they are mistaking for light and knowledge, and becoming inflated by their false notions, are built up their pride and folly? Our Lord says expressly, 66 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." It is by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart and mind, with “the word of the truth of the gospel," that regeneration is effected. "Of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth." James i. 18. Without this man cannot see the real nature and hatefulness of sin, nor can he be sensible of the inestimable value of the way of salvation by Christ: he cannot, therefore, submit or truly repent, neither can he believe, love, nor yield obedience. It is, however, by repentance towards God, and by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, not as the dark heart and unrenewed mind may happen to regard him, but as he is revealed to us in Holy Scripture, or made known to us by the preaching of the gospel, that we are justified and have peace with God. And it is because true believers are sons, that God doth send forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts. * We see then, even by this selected quotation from George Fox's journal, what will more fully appear in the sequel, that it really is the fundamental principle of Quakerism to "turn" men to their own hearts for light.* But is there safety in the direction of that which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked? And are we not expressly told, (Prov. xxviii. 26,) "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool?" That such doctrine had, from the earliest time of its promulgation by Friends, a strong tendency to inflate as well as to mislead, may be gathered from the following title of one of George Fox's tracts, (Doctrinals, page 131,) "The Pearl found in England. This for the poor distressed scattered ones in foreign nations. From the royal seed of God, and heirs of salvation, called Quakers, who are the church of the living God; built up together of living stones in England. he * It ought not to escape notice, that when George Fox preached, 66 turned" people to the "light within," that they might see Christ; but when John the Baptist preached, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He did not turn them to the light that they might see Christ, but he directed them to Christ himself. A visitation and uniting to the pearl of God, which is hid in all the world, that every one may turn into himself, and there feel it and find it." In the preface to his "Battledore," George Fox also wrote as follows: " All languages are to me no more than dust, who was before all languages were, and am redeemed out of languages into the power where all men shall agree." CHAPTER II. IS THE "LIGHT WITHIN" THE "FUNDAMENTAL IN page 3 of the "Letter," there appears to me to be an attempt to take off a great portion of the stress which Friends have uniformly laid on (I do not know what else to call it than) their fundamental principle; although, at page 22, the expression, "Through the holding of what thou calls the fundamental principle of the Quakers," is to be found; and at page 23, it is said, "I must here repeat my objection to thy term, the fundamental principle of the Society of Friends. Now, whether I have really used an improper term, the following quotations will show: a very large number of passages to the same purport might be selected from numerous publications issued by the Society, but I mean principally to confine myself to those which from early times have been most familiar to Friends. "Being to write of the light of Christ within, the great principle of God in man, the root and spring of divine life and knowledge in the soul; that by which salvation is effected for man, and which is the characteristic of the people called Quakers, their faith and testimony to the world." Penn's Christian Quaker, Fol. Edit. vol i. p. 523. "I have already touched upon their fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric; and to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic or main distinguishing point or principle; namely, the light of Christ within, as God's gift for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now mention in their natural and experimental order." W. Penn's preface to G. Fox's Journal. Third Edit. 1765. page x. 66 By this seed, grace, and word of God and light, wherewith we say every one is enlightened, and hath a measure of it, which strives with him in order to save him, and which may, by the stubbornness and wickedness of man's will, be quenched, bruised, wounded, pressed down, slain, and crucified, we understand not the proper essence and nature of God precisely taken, which is not divisible into parts and measures, as being a most pure, simple being, |