received as truth because of its proceeding from another, is not to be accounted the principal ground and origin of all truth and knowledge. But the scriptures' authority and certainty depend upon the spirit by which they were dictated; and the reason why they were received as truth is, because they proceeded from the Spirit: therefore they are not the principal ground of truth. The same argument will hold as to the other branch of the proposition, that it is not the primary adequate rule of faith and manners. Thus, that which is not the rule of my faith in believing the scriptures themselves, is not the primary adequate rule of faith and manners. But the scripture is not, nor can it be the rule of that faith by which I believe them, &c.: therefore they are not the primary adequate rule, &c. The principal rule of christians under the gospel, is not an outward letter, nor law outwardly written and delivered; but an inward, spiritual law, engraven on the heart-the law of the Spirit of life-the word that is nigh, in the heart, and in the mouth. God is teacher of his people himself; and there is nothing more express than that such as are under the new Covenant need no man to teach

them: yet it was a fruit of Christ's ascension, to send teachers and pastors for the perfecting of the saints; so that the same work is ascribed to the scriptures, as to the teachers; the one to make the man of God perfect, the other for the perfecting of the saints. This is the great work of the scriptures, and their service to us, that we may witness them fulfilled in us; and so discern the stamp of God's Spirit and ways upon them, by the inward acquaintance we have with the same Spirit and work in our hearts: and for our parts, we are very willing that all our doctrines and practices be tried by them, which we never refused, nor ever shall, in all controversies with our adversaries, as the judge and test; for we look upon them as the only fit outward judge of controversies among christians; and that whatever doctrine is contrary to their testimony, may therefore justly be rejected as false." They object to calling the scriptures the word of God, as being a name applied to Christ, the eternal Word, by the sacred writers themselves, though too often misunderstood, and therefore misapplied by those who extol the scripture above the immediate teaching of Christ's Spirit in the heart; whereas without the last, the first can

not be profitably understood. 4. On the original and present state of man.-Wm. Penn says, "The world began with innocency; all was then good that God had made; and as he blessed the work of his hands, so their nature and harmony magnified him, their Creator. Not a jar in the whole frame: but man in paradise, the beast in the field, the fowl in the air, &c., worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness. But this happy state lasted not long; for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, and so fell below itlost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in; by which, being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of God, and was driven out as a poor vagabond to wander in the earth."-Respecting the state of man under the fall, Barclay observes, "Not to dive into the many curious notions which many bave concerning the condition of Adam before the fall, all agree in this, that he thereby came to a very great loss, not only in the things which related to the outward man, but in regard of that true fellowship and communion he had with God. This loss was signified to him

in the command: For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. (Gen, ii. 17.) This death could not be an outward death, or the dissolution of the outward man: for as to that, he did not die yet many hundred years after; so that it must needs respect his spiritual life and communion with God. The consequence of this fall, besides that which relates to the fruits of the earth, is thus expressed: So he drove out the man, and placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Now, whatever literal signification this may have, we may safely ascribe to this radise a mystical signification, and truly account it that spiritualcommunion and fellowship which the saints obtain with God by Christ, to whom alone these cherubims give way, and unto as many as enter by him who calls himself the door. So that though we do not ascribe any whit of Adam's guilt to men, till they make it theirs by the like acts of disobedience; yet we cannot suppose that men who are come of Adam naturally, can have any good thing in their nature, which he from whom they derive their nature, had not himself to communicate to them. If then we may

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affirm that Adam did not retain in his nature, as belonging thereto, any will or light capable to give him knowledge in spiritual things, then neither can his posterity; for whatever real good any man doth, it proceedeth not from his nature, as man, or the son of Adam; but from the seed of God in him, as a new visitation of life, in order to bring him out of his natural condition."

5. On man's redemption through Christ.--They believe that God who made man had pity on kim; and in his infinite goodness and wisdom provided a mean for the restoration of fallen man, by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of God in the flesh, was personally and fully accomplished in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer. He then overcame our common enemy, foiled him in the open field; and in our nature triumphed over him who had triumphed over it in our forefather Adam and his posterity: and that as truly as Christ overcame him in our nature, in his own person, so by his divine grace, being received and obeyed by us, he overcomes him in us.* -Respecting the doctrines of satisfaction and justification, Penn says, "I shall first speak

negatively what we do not own: We cannot believe that Christ is the cause, but the effect of God's love, according to the testimony of the beloved disciple: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We cannot say the death and sufferings of Christ were a strict and rigid satisfaction for that eternal death and misery due to man for sin and transgression; for such a notion were to make God's mercy little concerned in man's salvation: and as Christ died for sin, so we must die to sin, or we cannot be saved by the death and sufferings of Christ, or be thoroughly justified and accepted with God.-Now positively what we own as to justification: We believe that Jesus Christ was our holy sacrifice, atonement, and propitiation-that he bore our iniquities, and that by his stripes we are healed of the wounds Adam gave us in his fall-that God is just in forgiving true penitents upon the credit of that holy offering Christ made of himself to God for us-that what he did and suffered satisfied and pleased God, and was for the sake of fallen man who had displeased him—that through the eternal Spirit, he hath for

ever perfected them (in all times) who were sanctified, who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. See Rom. viii. 1."

6. On immediate revelation. -They believe that the saving, certain, and necessary knowledge of God, can only be acquired by the inward, immediate revelation of God's Spirit. They prove this from 1 Cor. ii. 11, 12. What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, &c. Upon which they argue thus: "That which is spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God. But the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the true and saving knowledge of him is spiritual therefore the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the true and saving knowledge of him, can only be known and discerned by the spirit of God." In confirmation hereof, they also adduce 1 Cor. xii. 3: No man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the holy Ghost. "Consequently (say they) no man can know Jesus to be Lord, but by the holy Ghost." From the nature of the new covenant, they likewise prove that "the Spirit teacheth the righteous immediately, objectively, and continually; for thus it is expressed by the apostle: For

this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, &c. (Heb. viii. 10.) The object here is God's law placed in the heart, and written in the mind, from whence they become God's people, and are brought truly to know him. In this then is the law distinguished from the gospel: the law before was outward, written on tables of stone; but now is inward, written in the heart. Where the law of God is put into the mind, and written in the heart, there the object of faith and revelation of God is inward, immediate, and objective: therefore the object of faith, and revelation of the knowledge of God, to every true christian, is inward, immediate, and objective. But these divine revelations, as they do not, so neither can they at any time contradict the scripture testimony, or right and sound reason:" (Barclay.)

7. On universal and saving light,-They say that "God hath given to every man a measure of the light of his own Son-that God by this light invites, calls, and strives with every man, in order to save him; which as it is received or not resisted, works the sal

vation of all, even of those who are ignorant of the death and sufferings of Christ, and of Adam's fall: but that this light may be resisted, in which case God is said to be resisted and rejected, and Christ to be again crucified; and to those who thus resist and refuse him he becomes their condemnation." They allege that, (1.) according to this doctrine, the mercy of God is excellently well exhibited, in that none are necessarily shut out from salvation; and his justice is demonstrated, in that he condemns none but those to whom he really made an offer of salvation, affording them the means sufficient thereunto. (2.) It agrees and answers with the whole tenor of the gospel promises and threats, and with the nature of the ministry of Christ; according to which the gospel is commanded to be preached to every creature.-(3.) It magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ, in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all, but declares them to be brought so nigh to all as thereby to be put into the nearest capacity of salvation. (4.) It exalts above all the grace of God, to which it attributes all good, even the least and smallest actions that are so; ascribing thereto not only the first beginnings and

motions of good, but also the whole conversion and salvation of the soul.—(5.) It con÷ tradicts and overturns the false doctrine of the Socinians and others, who exalt the light of nature, the liberty of man's will; in that it wholly excludes the natural man from having any place or portion in his own salvation, by any working of his own, until he be first quickened, raised, and actuated by God's Spirit.(6.) It makes the whole salvation of man solely and alone to depend upon God, and his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be of himself; in that he refused and resisted the Spirit of God that strove in his heart; and forces him to acknowledge God's just judgment in rejecting and forsaking him.

That God hath given to every man a measure of saving, sufficient, and supernatural light and grace, they prove, (1.) from Johni. 9: That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So that it is plain there comes no man into the world, whom Christ, who is the light of men, hath not enlightened in some measure, and in whose dark hearts this light doth not shine; though the darkness comprehend it not, yet it shines there; and the nature thereof is to dispel the darkness, where