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times less to blame in venturing to differ from George Fox, than George Fox was in presuming to dissent from all before him. But, indeed, we should protest against all such calculations. The longer sentiments have been held, it is true, and the more numerous and respectable the names with which the profession of them stands associated, self-diffidence should render us the more cautious and considerate in impugning them. But still, there is no period of prescription by which error can be transmuted into truth,— no term, however long, that can bring us under an obligation to believe it.-The question now before us is, whether there be any authentic and permanent standard of religious truth and duty; and, if there be, what it is. To this question, with a special reference to the peculiar sentiments of Friends, I shall beg your attention in my next letter.

Meantime believe me,

Yours very respectfully,

D

R. W.

LETTER II.

ON THE STANDARD OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH

AND DUTY.

RESPECTED FRIENDS,

THE question to which this and probably another letter may be devoted, is, as I have already hinted, one of primary importance,-one, without the settlement of which it is impossible, with the smallest satisfaction, to move a single step in our inquiries after truth. I feel that I have no room to set down my foot, till we have come to some agreement here. I cannot reason with you, till we have some common principles as to the test by which our respective positions are to be tried, and truth to be ascertained. And indeed this very question is one, and a principal one too, of the articles of difference between us. I come, then, at once to the point. I affirm THE PRIMARY AND PARAMOUNT AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, as the only reasonable ground on which we can conduct any of our discussions, their SUPREMACY, and their COMPLETENESS, as the standard of truth and duty in all matters of

religion. Here we are at issue. You deny my position. You affirm that there is another and a superior standard or rule,-called by you the 66 INWARD LIGHT," or "LIGHT WITHIN,"-a phrase which, as I have before noticed, is used by your writers in strangely various though analogous senses, but which I may here, it is presumed, understand as meaning THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF IN HIS IMMEDIATE SUGGESTIONS TO THE MIND. This you regard as primary, and the Scriptures as secondary.

Distinct conceptions are here of essential moment. The manner in which some of your leading authorities have treated this subject, discovers at times an extraordinary confusion of ideas, and contradictoriness of statement; so that when at one time I have fancied I had got almost as much admitted as I could wish in behalf of the authority of the Scriptures, I have not proceeded far, till I have found the admission so qualified as in fact to nullify its meaning and its worth. There is, moreover, on this as on other points, so much of what is true and excellent mixed up with what is false and pernicious; so much that is true in one sense of the terms, but not true in another; and so much that is true to a certain point, but loses the attribute of truth by the excess to which it is driven; that, to me at least, it has been a task of no small perplexity, to winnow the false from the true, and to know with certainty what I should re

ceive as the doctrine of Friends, and what not. There is Jesuitism to be found elsewhere than in the Church of Rome. Socinians have many a time exposed themselves to the charge of employing the terms of truth in such a way as to convey the essential elements of error. I would not impute this unworthy artifice to any of your writers: but I have no alternative between this imputation and that of confused conceptions. It is always a suspicious symptom of the correctness of any doctrine, when it cannot be stated in explicit terms, and the plain import of these terms sustained throughout the discussion of it with unequivocal consistency.

To avoid confusion, I shall take up the doctrine relative to the authority of the Scriptures, as taught by BARCLAY,-leaving any notice of the difference between him and others to a future opportunity. And I shall begin with an exemplification, from this writer, of what I mean by using the language of truth to convey error. After having laid down his second proposition, which affirms the doctrine of immediate divine revelation, independent of, and superior to, not only natural reason but the Holy Scriptures, and possessing, to the mind that receives it, the same certainty as the first truths, that the whole is greater than its part, and that two contradictories can neither be both true, nor both false;―he opens his illustration thus:-" It is very probable that many carnal

"and natural Christians will oppose this proposition; "who, being wholly unacquainted with the movings "and actings of God's Spirit upon their hearts, judge "the same nothing necessary; and some are apt to "flout at it as ridiculous :-yea, to that height are "the generality of Christians apostatized and degen"erated, that, though there be not any thing more "plainly asserted, more seriously recommended, or "more certainly attested, in all the writings of the "Holy Scriptures, yet nothing is less minded or more "rejected, by all sorts of Christians, than immediate "and divine revelation; insomuch that once to lay "claim to it is a matter of reproach. Whereas of "old, none were judged Christians, but such as had "the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii, 9. But now, many "do boldly call themselves Christians, who make no difficulty of confessing they are without it, and "laugh at such as say they have it. Of old they were accounted the sons of God who were led by "the Spirit of God, ibid. ver. 14. But now, many 'aver themselves sons of God, who know nothing of "this leader; and he that affirms himself so led is, "by the pretended orthodox of this age, presently

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proclaimed a heretic. The reason hereof is very "manifest, viz. because many in these days, under the name of Christians, do experimentally find that

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they are not actuated nor led by God's Spirit; yea,

many great doctors, divines, teachers, and bishops,

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