Christians, and even by those, who do not wish to derogate from the Spirit of God, (for I have frequently heard it started by such) that the Quakers, by means of these doctrines, make every thing of the Spirit, and but little of Jesus Christ*. I shall therefore notice this objection in this place, not so much with a view of answering it, as of attempting to show, that Christians have not always a right apprehension of scriptural terms, and therefore that they sometimes quarrel with one another about trifles; or rather, that when they have disputes with each other, there is sometimes scarcely a shade of difference between them.

To those who make the objection I shall describe the proposition, which has been stated above, in different terms. I shall leave out the words "Spirit of God," and I shall wholly substitute the term "Christ." This I shall do upon the authority of some of our best Divines. The proposition will then run thus:

* The Quakers make much of the advantages of Christ's coming in the flesh. Among these are considered the sacrifice of his own body, a more plentiful diffusion of the Spirit, and a clearer revelation relative to God and man.

God,

God, by Christ, created the world," for without him was not any thing made that was made."

He made, by Christ also, the terrestrial globe, on which we live. He made the whole host of heaven. He made therefore, besides our own, other planets and other worlds.

He caused also, by Christ, the generation of all animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.

He occasioned also, by the same Christ, the generation of reason or intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.

Man, however, had not long been created before he fell into sin. It pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiri-, tual faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin. And this inward striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all would be inexcusable, and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.

It pleased God also, in process of time, as the attention of man was led astray by bad customs, by pleasures, by the cares of

the

the world and other causes, that the same Christ, in addition to this his inward striving with him, should afford him outward help, accommodated to his outward senses, by which his thoughts might be oftener turned towards God, and his soul be the better preserved in the way of salvation. Christ accordingly, through Moses and the Prophets, became the author of a dispensation to the Jews, that is, of their Laws, Types, and Customs, of their Prophecies, and of their Scriptures.

But as in the education of man things must be gradually unfolded, so it pleased God, in the scheme of his redemption, that the same Christ, in fulness of time, should take flesh, and become personally upon earth the author of another, but of a more pure and glorious dispensation than the former, which was to be more extensive also, and which was not to be confined to the Jews, but to extend in time to the uttermost corners of the earth. Christ therefore became the author of the inspired delivery of the outward Scriptures of the New Testament. By these, as by outward and secondary means, he acted upon men's senses. He informed them of their corrupt

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nature,

nature, of their awful and perilous situation, of another life, of a day of judgment, of rewards and punishments. These Scriptures therefore, of which Christ was the author, were outward instruments at the time, and continue so to posterity, to second his inward aid. That is, they produce thought, give birth to anxiety, excite fear, promote seriousness, turn the eye towards God, and thus prepare the heart for a sense of those inward strivings of Christ, which produce inward redemption from the power and guilt of sin.

Where, however, this outward aid of the holy Scriptures has not reached, Christ continues to purify and redeem by his inward power. But as men, who are acted upon solely by his inward strivings, have not the same advantages as those, who are also acted upon by his outward word, so less is expected in the one than in the other case. Less is expected from the Gentile than from the Jew, less from the Barbarian than from the Christian.

And this latter doctrine of the universality of the striving of Christ with man, in a spiritually instructive and redemptive ca

VOL. II.

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pacity,

pacity, as it is merciful and just, so it is worthy of the wise and beneficent Creator. Christ, in short, has been filling, from the foundation of the world, the office of an inward Redeemer, and this, without any exception, to all of the human race. And there is even "now no salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved *."

From this new statement of the proposition, which statement is consistent with the language of divines, it will appear that, if the Quakers have made every thing of the Spirit, and but little of Christ, I have made, to suit the objectors, every thing of Christ, and but little of the Spirit. Now I would ask, Where lies the difference between the two statements? Which is the more accurate? or whether, when I say these things were done by the Spirit, and when I say that they were done by Christ, I do not state precisely the same proposition, or express the same thing.

That Christ, in all the offices stated by the proposition, is neither more nor less than

*Acts iv. 12.

the