ant sorrow that such numbers of persons should have been misled by deluded men, whose officious hands, skilled in mangling the truth, could tear, sophisticate, disjoint, and patch the simple and clear directions of that adorable Saviour, who, before his agony and death, had said to his disciples, "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." (John xv. 15.)

After a careful examination of the extracts that have been given from the standard writings of Friends, I must leave the reader to judge whether the following declaration be well or ill-founded, ("Letter," pages 27 and 28,) “But this I am bold to maintain, as the result of some pains-taking investigation into their history and character, in connexion with the history of the church at large, that they did hold and maintain the truth as it is in Jesus; that they did not set up one portion of Divine truth in opposition to another; and that they were honourable though suffering instruments in carrying forward the work of true Protestant reformation. There may have been times in the history of the people who have borne their

despised name and testimony, in which partial and contracted views of Divine truth may have been taken by many; but never, I maintain, was there a period (as might be made to appear from our public documents) when the Society, as a body, excluded any part of truth, and did not afford evidence of its upholding the plain doctrines of holy Scripture; and in which there were not living testimony bearers to the truth, by whose instrumentality sinners were converted unto God, and the church edified."

CHAPTER VI.

IS THE DOCTRINE OF PERFECTION, AS HELD BY THE OF FRIENDS, SANCTIONED BY HOLY

SOCIETY

SCRIPTURE?

As, from the notion Friends hold, that the fall of man, so far from producing his entire ruin, left "something" in Adam that was no part of his soul and body, which could not degenerate, and which was in Adam by the fall reduced to a seed, it is no wonder at all that they entertain the views they have all along held with regard to perfection. It is not necessary for me to enter much into this subject, yet I cannot wholly omit alluding to it, because it appears to me to afford a striking additional evidence of the depth of the delusion in which Friends have been bewildered, and the mention of it may serve to bring more fully into view the nature and extent of the danger in which those who uphold the system are involved.

The apostle John, from whose Epistle Friends have gleaned many passages to support their views on this subject, expressly declares, (1 John i. x.) "If we say that we have not sinned we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." But this is not all, for he had said before, (verse 8,) "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Now the apostle by no means gives us to understand that the last declaration relates only to such or such a time of a man's life, or to such or such a state in the course of his life; but it surely means that, if any man at any time should say that he has no sin, the truth is not in him, he deceives himself. How, then, is the doctrine of practical perfection to be proved, if a man can never, at any time, or on any occasion, nor under any circumstances, say he has no sin, without departing from the truth?

Again, in the seventh verse, we must perceive that, so far from believers having it given them to suppose that their most careful and constant walk is one of perfection, that, although the consoling view is given of having fellowship one with another in walking in the light, yet it is the blood of Jesus Christ that is required to cleanse us from all sin. And let us be assured this is

not the mystical "spiritual blood" that is so much spoken of by Friends, as being brought into the heart, which spiritual blood, as by the extract from "Barclay's Apology Vindicated" has been shown, is nothing more or less than the supposed "something" compressed into a "seed" by the fall. No, truly; it is the atoning blood really shed for us by that blessed "SEED OF THE WOMAN," who gave himself for us, to which by faith we have constant need to have recourse for cleansing.

The apostle Paul also declares, "Ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Gal. v. 17.) Why? Because "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," and "these are contrary the one to the other." How, then, can there be perfection whilst there is the flesh to lust against the Spirit? No; sin has ruined the whole frame; and, although we have the sure hope that our vile body shall be changed and fashioned according to Christ's glorious body, yet, whilst we have this vile body, such is its influence that even the most watchful and the most devoted and energetic saints will ever be made sensible, to their deep humiliation, that, so far from perfection, their best actions, words, and thoughts