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glaring, and yet so relatively concealed, that we must take the stand of martyrs, denouncing and abhorring it, and that practically reckless of good or evil report as the result. Those who see the difference are specially bound to be bold in confessing it; for the million see nothing but "an angel of light."

I make a corollary here of moment-Friends mistake the nature and design of all inspiration; especially in viewing it as having for its direct object to inspire our actions! Now, we know that the actions of the apostles were, many of them, as men, defective, fallible, wrong;-of course, not inspired. They were to be honored as inspired only when orally or scripturally they propounded the truth for our knowledge and government. Inspired actions make--inspired irresponsibleness, which is the character of Quaker inspiration. Hence, a preaching Friend is always right; walks in innocency and truth alone; has nothing to confess-except that God led and inspired all his actions; and thus morally identifies his agency with the divine agency, and finds marvellous peace in confessing no sin, having no gratuitous justification, knowing nothing of the way of salvation through the death of Christ, and preaching, "another gospel," totally and terribly another, all by inspiration!

Barclay in order to avail his argument, ought to have shown that there was only one conceivable way of being led by the Spirit, and that it was the identical way of Friends! he ought to have shown

that the Spirit does not lead "the sons of God" by means of his own word; or, that those who follow him in his recorded truth, are recreant to his authority, and do not follow him at all! he ought to have shown that Luther, and the noble colleagues of the Reformation, were not "sons of God," because they were led by the Spirit only through the word of God; and that they had the darkness to follow Christ in the matter of styling the scriptures "the word of God." He ought to have shown that the scriptures tell men to go away from their pages to find their author; and that it is not through the instrumentality of truth revealed in scripture that the Holy Spirit illumines, sanctifies, consoles, and perfects, the elect of God. Jesus Christ not only resolved the unbelief of the Jews into their prior disbelief of the scriptures; but he denounces them as hypocrites, because they lightly esteemed or disbelieved "the word of God." Compare John, 5: 46, 47, with 8: 47. "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? He that is of God, heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." Beside, the promise of salvation is made to him that believeth the gospel; while christians are said to be "born of the word" and "begotten of his own will with the word of truth." To this we may subjoin, "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

I here ask the reader to pause and consider the execrableness of the grand position of Friends,

who profess to walk by the Holy Ghost! by HIM as A RULE; by him IMMEDIATELY, and not by his written instructions! by him, as "a more noble" and principal RULE in religion! What is this but the darkness and impiety of making God himself a rule of action, and that for all men; their superlative rule, by which it is in the highest degree SPIRITUAL to walk in all things! They walk by the greater indeed! I have no words in which to express my horror at the sin and folly of the sentiment! Satan has discovered "a more excellent way," in these latter ages, of "sitting in the temple of God and showing himself that he is God," since Luther identified him in the pontificate and unmasked him to the world! His malignant majesty has always manifested a characteristic superiority to the word of God, since first he disparaged it to the mother of mankind, and "deceived" her with the incantation of his argument. He exhibited the same cast of character on the throne of the papacy and now among fanatical protestants of all sorts, Quakers, Shakers, Mormonites, and what not, who desert "the law and the testimony" because there is no light in them," he affects a gifted internal autopsy in religion, which, being superior to the Bible, renders it superfluous. This is one of his rare "devices!" To get rid of the law, he pretends to walk by the lawgiver! To supersede the word of God, he makes God himself a rule of action! This truly is (we hope) one of his last and rarest inventions :-it may also safely be pronounced one of his worst! He knows its

million-catching speciousness, and has proved its value in his modern policy. He will retain it as long as he can! It is however nothing but his most holy-looking device to prop a falling cause, and elude his tremendous enemy, the word of God. "Get thee hence, Satan; FOR IT IS WRITTEN, IT IS WRITTEN, IT IS WRITTEN," (thrice, said Jesus,) "thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou serve!-thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God!-man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!" This is the noblest life and the noblest food!

It is the unique and pervading and master policy of hell, and has been from the beginning, to put an extinguisher on the light of revelation; to vacate the holy scripture; to neutralise the word of God. To accomplish this is the central object; no matter by what means, if they will only reach it. The means are variable; the generalship astonishing; the resources and expedients endless. Supersede the voice of the authentic "oracles of God," and Satan can reign in state and safety. The atmosphere of night favors his domain. The most specious means are often the most apposite and the least suspected. Those which throw a verbal compliment on the Bible, and seem to reverence in order the more certainly to destroy its authority, are quite eligible. And what delusion equal to the spell of Quakerism to effectuate this end? "And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the

beard with the right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died." A left-handed trick! Many such sinister friendships have the foes of truth evinced for it. So dies the Bible with the kisses of Friends. In this country they are at this day mainly I fear-a community of infidels-only they would have us think that they love christianity.

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The only way in which Friends can elude, with any show of consistency, the force of this inference—that their superior law is the lawgiver himself, is to deny at once honestly that they are trinitarians, and to deny consequently that the "Spirit is God." Otherwise-God is their paramount rule of action! There is no possible escape. I consider this dilemma as fair and as conclusive as that to which Jesus Christ reduced the Sadducees, when they meanly said, "We cannot tell;" evading the premises because they dreaded the conclusion. It is this: either the Spirit, in their creed, is not God, is a mere impersonal influence or quality-and then they deny the trinity, deny their own admissions and averments, deny their 'orthodox' pretensions, deny every thing but Sabellian or Socinian heresy: or, their cardinal principle is one with the impious absurdity of making God himself a rule of action, "the saints' rule," the highest rule, and so forth! and hence, the only way that even they can invent, to detrude the scriptures from their divine supremacy or to show a superior rule, is to make

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