"of Christianity (commonly so called) have wholly "shut their ears from hearing, and their eyes from "seeing, this inward Guide, and so are become "strangers unto it; whence they are, by their own "experience, brought to this strait, either to confess "that they are as yet ignorant of God, and have "only the shadow of knowledge, and not the true knowledge of him, or that this knowledge is acquired without immediate Revelation."*

I should have little if any hesitation in subscribing to the entire contents of this paragraph. I believe in "the movings and actings of God's Spirit upon the heart." In a certain sense, I believe in "immediate and divine revelation :"—that is, I believe, that, in a way which we do not understand, and are warned against expecting to understand (John iii. 8.), the Holy Spirit operates upon the human mind, in imparting to it the spiritual discernment of the truth, excellence, suitableness, and glory, of the testimony of the Gospel contained in the Scriptures ;-so operates, as that, by the experience of the influence of this testimony, the enlightened subject of it comes to have "the witness in himself" of its divine original. And this spiritual discernment may, in a modified sense, be called the revealing of Christ to the mind. But when Barclay applies the terms used by him to

* Barclay's Apology, &c., pages 19, 20. Edit. London, 1780.

all who do not concur with him in his doctrine of the equal, or rather the superior, authority of immediate and independent revelations to those of the written word, and unchristianizes all such, as coming under the solemn sentence of exclusion-" if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;"-he either deceives himself, or he deceives others; he writes either ignorantly or jesuitically.-In proof of this, observe. By immediate revelation he means a revelation independent of the Scriptures,—not the spiritual discovery merely of the excellence of what the Scriptures contain, but a communication by the Spirit to the mind, without and above them. Now, he is quite correct in "distinguishing betwixt the certain "knowledge of God and the uncertain; betwixt the "spiritual knowledge and the literal; the saving "heart-knowledge, and the soaring, airy, head-know"ledge," and in affirming that "the former can be "obtained by no other way than the inward, imme"diate manifestation and revelation of God's Spirit, "shining in and upon the heart, enlightening and "opening the understanding."* This is language which I should have no objection to adopt; but it would be with the explanation, that the word im"mediate should be held as signifying, not that the "manifestation" of the Spirit was independent of the

* Ibid. page 20.

written word, but only that the Spirit's operation was directly upon the sinner's mind;-and the word "revelation" not as meaning the discovery of new and otherwise unknown doctrines, but the discovery of the truth and excellence of those made known in that word. This, however, is not the view of the case intended by Barclay :-and therefore, when he goes on to af rm, in unqualified terms, that this truth "hath been acknowledged by some of the most re"fined and famous of all sorts of professors of Chris"tianity, in all ages;" "who being truly upright"hearted and earnest seekers of the Lord," "and "finding a distaste and disgust of all other outward "means," "have at last concluded with one voice, "that there was no true knowledge of God, but that "which is revealed inwardly by his own Spirit;"he writes, I repeat, either ignorantly or jesuitically: -for the fathers and others whom he quotes certainly They did not hold the sentiment as held by him. might use terms resembling, or even the same with those which he uses; but it would not have been in the same sense in which he uses them. The immediate teaching of the Spirit meant by them, and which they might call revelation, is simply what I have mentioned, that divine illumination, by which the truth and excellence of the doctrine contained in the gospel testimony are discerned, and its power experienced. As an exemplification of what I mean, I

may select the case of Luther. His language, quoted by Barclay, is, that "no man can rightly know God, "or understand the word of God, unless he imme"diately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can

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any one receive it from the Holy Spirit except he "find it by experience in himself; and in this expe"rience the Holy Ghost teacheth as in his own pro"per school; out of which nothing

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taught but

mere talk."* It is obvious that this is not " reve"lation," or "immediate manifestation," in Barclay's sense of the terms (if it were, there would be no difference between the Quaker doctrine on this subject and that of evangelical believers of other denominations;)—it is only the spiritual discernment of that truth which, in the word of God, or the Holy Scriptures, is already revealed.

That there is at present, in the Society of Friends, a growing deference to the authority of these Scriptures,—that the disposition is gaining ground to make them the ultimate standard of appeal, in matters of religion, a comparison of your older with your more recent writers, as well as the progress of existing controversies, will not allow me to doubt; and you must excuse me for saying, that it is with special pleasure I admit the conviction into my mind. The authority of the inspired writings of the Old and

* Ibid. page 23.

New Testament, is a subject respecting which there appears amongst you an indefiniteness, inconsistency, and even contradictoriness of statement, such as would be marvellous, were it not that they are the unavoidable result of what I may call your double standard, your superior and inferior, your primary and secondary rule. I might here quote from writers in the present controversy; but I should then have it objected that these were not your accredited authorities. I therefore prefer Barclay. I may afterwards compare his statements with those of your most highly and justly esteemed author of the present day, Joseph John Gurney; but in the mean time, let us hear him who has, for so long a period, been appealed to as the Oracle of your Society.

In the statement of Proposition II. entitled "Of immediate revelation," after referring to the "testimony of the Spirit," as, in all ages, the source of the true knowledge of God, and affirming the continuance still of the same kind of revelation with that given to "patriarchs, prophets, and apostles," he says:"Moreover, these divine inward revelations, "which we make absolutely necessary for the build"ing up of true faith, neither do nor ever can con"tradict the outward testimony of the Scriptures, or "right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that these divine revelations are to be subjected to the test, either of the outward testi

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