Christ, and him crucified;"-when he exhibits the substance of the gospel preached by him as consisting in the facts that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;" I have something palpable, of which my mind has a distinct and firm apprehension. But when I am told of the "Lamb slain" meaning the "light or principle of life" in man "resisted and grieved;"-of the Christ within and his "spiritual flesh and blood;"—of this flesh and blood being "the same as the light that enlighteneth every man ;"—of "the outward Lamb" being but a type, or 66 showing forth of the inward Lamb;" in a word, as Mr Newton expresses it, of "inward mediation, inward atonement, inward spiritual blood;"-when from the Christ to whom the gospel bears testimony, the Christ born in Bethlehem, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on Calvary, as the atonement for the sins of the world, my attention is thus drawn to an undefinable sentimental something within myself,-not an exercise of mind relative to this external Saviour, by which, through the influence of the Spirit, I become interested in the merits of his obedience and sacrifice, but something that, under the various designations of spirit within, light within, Christ within, principle of life, inward spiritual blood, &c. &c. is my Saviour, my true and only Saviour, which the

outward Christ only represented and shadowed forth; -I feel that I am "moved away from the hope of the gospel," that which is the ground of my hope not being the very Christ that suffered on the cross, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, but a principle within, of which his name only furnishes one of the designations :-" Christ in you the hope of glory" being interpreted, not of Christ the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh, "dwelling in the heart by faith," as the object of that heart's devoted love, which is the plain and simple meaning of the apostle's words,-but of this abstract impalpable Christ within; of which the very variety of its designations shows how confused is the conception, and of which, the more is said to explain and define it, that conception becomes the more obscure, shadowy, and shapeless.-But I am forgetting myself; -I must not diverge further from the point I was discussing-namely, that by Barclay and others, proper inspiration is confounded with the ordinary illumination of the Spirit. The former was promised by Christ to his apostles; and the promise was fulfilled on the memorable day of Pentecost. The very terms of the promise, it might be farther observed, appropriate it to them; "bringing all things to their remembrance" applying with no propriety to any others than to those who had been the attendants on his ministry" all the while that he went in and out

amongst them,"-who had " seen, and heard, and looked upon, and handled" him. With regard to the latter, I would only say farther, that the Christ who is the object of saving knowledge and faith, is the Christ revealed in the gospel testimony, the Jesus of Nazareth, of whose birth, and life, and doctrines, and miracles, and sufferings, and death, and resurrection, and ascension to glory, the inspired apostles bear witness;and that it is neither by the Spirit independently of the word that this Christ is savingly known, nor by the word independently of the Spirit. It is by both; by the Word as the instrumental means, by the Spirit as the efficient agent. In the word, the person, character, and work of Christ are the subject of inspired testimony; by the Spirit, the moral blindness of the sinner to the glories of his person, the beauties of his character, and the divine wonders of his work, is, by an operation of which the nature and mode are to us inscrutable, graciously removed; and, the instant this "spiritual discernment" is imparted, he receives Christ, and Christ is "in him, the hope of glory." Thus Christ and the Spirit have their distinct and proper places. By you they are confounded and identified; the light within being used convertibly with both the Spirit within and the Christ within. Thus too inspiration and spiritual illumination are duly distinguished; the former being the direct and infallible revelation of

truth to the mind,—the latter, the discernment by the mind of the divine excellence and suitableness of the truth so revealed.

Under Proposition II., at the close of Section IX., Barclay says:-" What is proper in this place to be "proved is, that Christians now are to be led in"wardly and immediately by the Spirit of God, even "in the same manner (though it befall not many to "be led in the same measure) as the saints were of "old."—On the first reading of this sentence, I marvelled greatly. Understanding by the saints of old, those who lived under the former dispensation, it seemed very strange, and very inconsistent, to represent a dispensation, of which the characteristic distinction is its being "the ministration of the Spirit," as more restricted than the former in the abundance of spiritual influence; so that the possession of that influence in a superior measure should be found in cases of rare exception only to the average ratio. On looking forward, however, I perceived, from the passages of Scripture quoted in proof,-which are principally the promises already referred to in the gospel by John, and certain promises of the Spirit given by the Old Testament prophets in their anticipations of gospel days,-that by the "saints of old," when contrasted with saints now, he means rather those who lived in "the beginning of the gospel ;" and the restriction of the immediate communications

of the Spirit in more modern times, he must consider as arising, not from any limitation in the promises themselves, but from the prevailing want of faith in them among professed believers. But then, when he speaks of "Christians now being led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God, in the same manner as the saints of old," he takes it for granted that it was the universal privilege of the "saints of old" to be led thus" inwardly and immediately" by the Spirit. The question, then, comes to be, what does he mean by this "inward and immediate" leading? -and, from the entire tenor of his proofs and illustrations, it is manifest that he means the same kind of direct inspiration which was bestowed upon the apostles and others, to qualify them as the infallible messengers of truth to mankind. It is no wonder, that, with this conception of divine influence, he should represent an equal measure of it as now-adays a rarity!-limited, we may presume, to the Friends, who believe in it and look for it, and even amongst them, presenting itself only occasionally in instances of distinguished faith! But we distinctly deny that this immediate communication of divine truth to the mind, independently of the intervention of human teaching, was the common privilege of the saints of old, any more than it is of the saints now. We conceive that it was from those "holy men of God who spoke and wrote as they were moved by