Imatges de pàgina
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alluded to at page 28 of the "Letter;" and this subject must again be adverted to, for never was I more astonished at any statement than at what is to be found in that page, especially when I considered that the Friends who had been engaged in drawing it up knew of the almost insuperable obstacles that are thrown in the way of the preaching of the gospel amongst Friends, if it be wholly unaccompanied with the profession of "inward and immediate revelation," which, although it may be apparently diluted and modified, I must be allowed to express my firm conviction, will ever be found to have a most powerful tendency to neutralize the gospel, and produce a spurious religion.

It is, I am sure, a painful duty to me to have such statements as these to make; but, as a conscientious man, I could not withhold them, when I see such a tendency to pass over the most pointed lessons without accepting instruction from them. It is especially trying to me, because the bringing these things forward may seem like reflecting upon the estimable persons who have been alluded to as having many years ago visited this country; but I can truly say, that I remember them with affectionate regard, and can only mourn that such valuable characters should, by

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the powerful operation of false principles, have been led into a course which with the utmost sincerity they were pursuing, but which events have, beyond all question, proved to be erroneous. Deuteronomy xviii., 20-22, may well put persons on their guard with respect to prophesying: "But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

Now, when even these painful subjects are viewed in a proper light, we must surely be induced to accept the Holy Scriptures with increased gratitude to God; for we see that persons of the very best moral character, and with unquestionable sincerity, led by wrong principles, are induced to go on from year to year in the exercise of what they have supposed to be a spiritual gift, and yet the result undeniably proves they were deluded; for notwithstanding

appearances were such at the time they gave forth their sombre predictions, that some, perhaps, might think, although they were delivered as if it were under plenary inspiration, the spirit of prophecy was scarcely required to enable them to foresee what seemed to be just at the very doors, yet the justly apprehended events never came to pass. But, on the other hand, look at the Scripture prophecies. In them we see events foretold, the most complicated and the most improbable that could have been conceived, but which have been fulfilled in every particular, to the very letter. Is it really, then, the same spirit by which the true prophets, and those who, by the reception of false doctrine, believed themselves to be true prophets, were inspired?

Now, unless these things be properly considered, and the lesson they are calculated to teach laid to heart, the weight of responsibility that will rest on those who are influential in the Society, appears to me to be absolutely frightful: for what are they upholding? Surely, when we see the effect which the spurious doctrine of inward and immediate revelation is producing, by its direct tendency to keep the minds of those who hold it from building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and from the scrip

tural view of the whole glorious doctrine of mediation; for, however a man may acknowledge in words the benefit of the gracious office of a Mediator, how can he feel it in his inmost soul, when the office is virtually sunk in the notion of inward and immediate revelation? When we see also the effects it has produced, and is still producing, by putting persons completely on the wrong road, as it relates to the ministry; for, as it keeps them from the knowledge of the gospel, how are they likely to preach the gospel, if they speak from what arises in their own minds? I say, when we see these effects, it is really frightful to have any thing to do with upholding such a system of error and delusion. And I do conceive it is hardly possible for persons to imagine, unless they have had much experience of the working of this system, the extent of the mischief that is produced by it; for no transient observation can give an idea of its deadening effect, when its fallaciousness is begun to be discovered.

CHAPTER III.

ARE THE SCRIPTURES HELD IN PROPER ESTIMATION BY THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS?

Ir is necessary now, however, more particu larly to examine the root of this fatal error, which I must say it appears to me that the writers of the "Letter" have very slightly touched upon, although it is the main point in my Letter; and I think it must strike every judicious and impartial Christian, who has taken the pains to read the whole, that nothing like an answer is given to it. Indeed, that great authority Barclay, to whom I refer, and whose Apology is almost instinctively appealed to by the Society universally, and I understand has lately been held up by Friends in America, on some legal questions, as containing their creed, is not, that I have observed, even adverted to. But it will be seen how necessary it is to take this writer into account, because in his work are to be found embodied, in a systematic manner, the principles which Friends, from the earliest time, have held up to the world as "the

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