fell upon the Gentiles,* as well as Jews; that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth; that a good conscience ariseth not from the practice of exterior rights;‡ that the unction from the Holy One is altogether sufficient to give instruction and true judgment;|| that the saving baptism is not that which can reach no deeper than the outside of the flesh, but that of the Spirit, which baptizes the heart, and produceth the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Christ, or his spiritual arising in or upon the soul.

It

8. It is no uncommon thing to hear the apostolic age styled the infancy of Christianity; and so it was in point of time, and also in respect to the temporary continuation of a few exteriors, not immediately seen through, and afterward retained for a season, in condescension to those new believers, who have been so much attached to symbolical practices, they could not readily be brought to disuse them. And, in our day, many of the present leaders and rulers, in divers of the most numerous churches professing the Christian name, seem to imagine, that though the assistance of the Holy Ghost was necessary to the introduction and support of the Christian religion in primitive times, it has no need of it now. is become so matured by man's wisdom and learning, which had no share in its origin, that it is fully capable to go alone. So that now it is, in great measure, become another thing, and stands upon another foundation than formerly. Though it still calls Christ its head, and accounts itself his body, it receives no immediate direction from him, nor feels the circulation of his blood, which is the life and virtue of true religion. Thus deservedly incurring the reproof of the apostle implied in this query: "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ?" In truth, it too evidently appears, in a general view, the professed Christian churches, instead of being in the maturity of Christianity, are greatly in the decline from that state, or they could not be so insensible, nor durst appear so opposite to the life of religion, as to reject and decry the vital part of it, and treat it as extinct, unnecessary, or at least insensibly, to be now received, as too many of their leaders and members do. Surely a church in this condition, is properly entitled to that address of the Spirit, to the degenerate church of Sardis; “I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead."** Yet, notwithstanding this seems to be too generally * Acts xi. 18. † Gal. v. 6. Heb. ix. 9. || 1 John ii. 20, 27. § 1 Pet. iii. 21. ¶ Gal. iii. 3. ** Rev. iii. 1.

the case, and that the religion of many high professors is little else but real Deism, covered with a superficial kind of Christianity, I hope, and verily believe, there are many living and sensible members of the body of Christ in those churches.

9. The vitality and glory of Christianity lies in the clear administration of the Holy Spirit, without any veil of legal or ritual adumbrations. School learning is but a human accomplishment, and though very useful as a servant, is no part of Christianity. Neither the acquirements of the college, nor the formalities of human authority, can furnish that humility which fitteth for God's teaching. Possessed of arts and languages, weak people are puffed up with a conceit of superiority, which leads from self-denial and the daily cross, into pride and self-sufficiency; and instead of waiting for, and depending upon the wisdom and power of God, into a confidence in the wisdom of this world, and a devotional satisfaction in the rote of external forms and ordinances. Whereas those that worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.* And why? Because it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.†

Whosoever deny that the Holy Spirit and its internal operations are now to be sensibly experienced, only demonstrate their own insensibility thereof. The true people of God, in all ages, have declared their own undoubted sense of divine illumination and help, and the apostle, in Rom. vii. and viii., before cited, testifies he had a strong, clear, distinguishing sense of the Holy Spirit throughout its operations. As it was then, it now is, and must remain to be, so long as men are upon earth. The same work, in due measure, is absolutely necessary to every one, and the like sense of it proportionably clear and certain to all who experience regeneration. No man can obtain felicity out of God's kingdom, nor can any enter the kingdom without being born of the Spirit, neither is the work of the new birth wrought insensibly in any. Whatever medium, incognitum, or unknown means, men imagine, insensible operation is not regeneration. It is a mere deception. The Holy Ghost, whether it operate by words and instruments, or without them, always comes in power; a power which gives an undeniable sense of it, perfectly distinct from, and above all other powers, and with a perspicuity, at times, as far exceeding all natural lights, as the radiant sun does the faint glimmer of the glow-worm.

This Holy Spirit of divine light, and power of life, is the

* Phil. iii. 3. † John vi. 63.

*

great fundamental principle of the reproached Quakers, and the only true saving principle for all mankind. It is Christ in Spirit, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and God's salvation to the ends of the earth;t who always became, and stands always ready to become, the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.‡

CHAPTER X.

1. S. Newton's Mistake, in asserting the Doctrine of the Quakers centres in the reprobationary Scheme.-2. God first sets Man at Liberty, often revisits him by the Spirit of Grace, seeks by all proper Means to prevail with him, without violating the Liberty he affords him, till his continued Backsliding demonstrates he will not turn from his evil Ways, and live. Then his Time of Visitation ceases, and he is given up to his beloved Delusions. -3. God is not the Author of Evil. Objections from Isaiah and Amos answered.-4. Men justified in Evil-Doing, if God be its Author. What Sin is. It is not the Effect, but the Cause of his Displeasure, and to be placed to Man's Account.-5. The Cause of Man's Salvation. The great Efficient of it. He operates toward it, both immediately, and by the Use of proper Means, all by Grace, through the Faith it communicates, which necessarily produceth good Works, not to be attributed to Man as Meritorious.-6. What Calvinism teaches.-7, &c. The modern Fatalists somewhat refine upon this, but unavoidably centre in the same Absurdity and Falsehood. This largely shown in Variety of Matter to the End of this Chapter.

1. HAVING endeavored plainly to show what the leading principles of the people called Quakers are, and that they are the genuine doctrines of true Christianity, I shall now proceed to take more particular notice of divers material parts of my opponent's treatise.

His insisting that the Quaker doctrine centres in the reprobationary scheme, and that Barclay was as much a predestinarian as John Calvin, is merely his own mistake. He grounds it not upon their doctrine, but what he improperly imagines to be so. Page 14, he says, "Barclay and his friend speak of no divine assistance which enables persons to be passive, that the light within may operate and save." Whereas, in my observations, p. 82, I quote Barclay, saying, "As man is wholly unable of himself to work with the grace, neither can he move one step out of the natural condition, until the grace of God lay hold upon him, so, it is possible to him to be passive, and not resist it, as it is possible for him to * Luke ii. 32. Acts xiii. 47. Heb. v. 9.

resist it." That is, by the power of divine grace laying hold of, or influencing the spirit of man, it first becomes possible for him to be passive, and resist its operation; which is the first step man takes in the way of salvation. "Without me,'

saith our Savior, "ye can do nothing."* I therefore added, "Man can not set one single step toward his salvation, without the assistance of the grace of God, as the first moving, and continually enabling cause, both of the will and the deed." So that though passiveness is the beginning of the work, he is previously disposed to it by virtue of the Holy Spirit. This manifests the untruth of S. N.'s assertion, p. 212, and the nullity of all his reasonings from it, that "the Apologist will not suffer the honor of the first "step of the soul toward salvation to be ascribed to the light or grace within." On the contrary we attribute the whole of man's salvation to it, first and last, without at all placing man's destruction to the account of his Maker, which John Calvin directly doth.

What our doctrine teacheth is, 1. That man has no ability to save himself, is not naturally in a state of equal freedom to good or evil at his pleasure, nor is in possession of that faith which is necessary to his salvation. 2. That the Redeemer affords a manifestation of his Spirit to the soul of every man, by which, at seasons, he checks his corrupt inclinations, stops them in their career, and puts it in his power to reflect upon his present condition, and become passive to the operation of this inward principle. If he resist it not, but stand in submission, it takes further hold of him, gives him so to believe in it, as to suffer it in some degree to unite with, abide in, and operate upon him. In this situation, he feels strength and comfort spring up from it, which increaseth his faith and trust therein, and gradually enables and engages him to become active; that is, to join heartily in concurrence with its operations, and to proceed from faith to faith, and from one degree of grace to another, till he attain to know the new birth of the Spirit, and to participate in degree of the glorious light, life, and nature of the heavenly kingdom.

2. God hath made man a reasonable creature, and therefore requires a willing obedience of him, in order to the high reward of eternal felicity; and if he repeatedly visits all with the reaches of his grace, and continues time after time to convict, persuade, and woo, as the Scriptures declare, that he may prevail upon him to come to repentance, doth he not go

John xv. 5.

as far as reasonable creatures can claim, without violating the rational liberty he affords? Let man but yield obedience to his convictions, and see if he can charge his Creator with partiality or hard measure. It is the unprofitable and unprofiting servant that doth this.

Education and tradition do certainly prepossess, and give a bias to the mind against every doctrine different to those it hath been taught; but the divine light, at times, darts in upon the soul unawares, as quick as lightning, penetrates through all its darkness and every false color, disturbs it in its polluted rests, and carnal gratifications, shows its bondage under them, and inspires the secret wish and heaving sigh to be delivered, attended with some degree of resolution against them. This being the openings of divine light upon the mind, is called the day of God's visitation, the time of grace unto man; wherein life and death are distinguished in him, and liberty is not only given him to choose life, which he could not do before, but also a suitable measure of ability to love and cleave to the grace he is visited with, and thereby to come to repentance and be saved. For this grace is the spirit of the Savior, and brings the power of salvation in it.*

66

These merciful visitations of divine grace are often repeated, by night as well as by day. "God," saith inspired Elihu, speaketh once, yeá twice, yet man perceiveth it not, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon man in slumberings upon the bed. Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man." He then proceeds to show how he operates upon the submissive soul, in the work of repentance and mortification, and what shall be its issue. Afterward he recapitulates the whole in these comprehensive terms: "He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightened with the light of the living.”‡

The Great FATHER OF MERCIES is pleased to continue his gracious visitations from on high to backsliding men, till they are become so determined in wickedness, and so habitually united to its servitude, that, like the servants in Exodus xxi. 5 and 6, they will not be freed from it. Then night comes upon them, the day of their visitation ceases; for God will

* Tit. ii. 11. † Job xxxiii, 14, &c. ‡ Ibid xxxiii, 27, &c.