no time for reflexion or for the consultation of our guide:-that, in such circumstances, the believer should look to God for the influence from above of which he feels his need, who will deny? He will do it, I had almost said, instinctively. But even in such cases, what is his first duty? Is it to look for the Spirit independently of the word? I say, no. His first duty is, to try to recollect the principles and precepts of that word, which bear relation to the circumstances in which he is placed, and to look for grace rightly to apply them. The exceptions supposed are cases wherein such recollection fails, or leaves the mind in perplexity. What I complain of is, that the Friends reverse the proper order of proceeding; making the general rule the exception, and the exception the general rule. The general rule is "Thy word is a light unto my feet, and a lamp unto my path."* The use of the Spirit is, chiefly, to give us simplicity of heart in following this light; -to remove or counteract those perverse influences which so distort or dim the vision as to prevent our seeing clearly whither it leads us, or by which we are disinclined from following its guidance;-to impart that humble submission of mind and heart to divine dictation, to which, under the designation of meekness, the promise of divine direction is given: Psalm cxix. 105. "The meek he will guide in judgment; to the meek he will teach his way."* But how does he teach him?" Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law." And what was the method adopted by the Psalmist for his preservation from evil?" Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." + And this he represents as one of the characteristic distinctions of the righteous man: "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide."§ -I greatly fear, that the principle held by Friends on this subject is, in more respects than one, eminently pernicious. It prevents them from feeling the necessity of cultivating that familiarity of acquaintance with the principles and precepts of the divine record, which is so very desirable; the word of God, dwelling in the heart, being the true "light within for the guidance of the conduct. And, by inducing them to give themselves up to a system of impressions, to surrender their conduct to the guidance of present impulses,-under the notion of obeying the Spirit, to expose themselves to many an illusion, and to the danger of many a false step. I should tremble to say this, did I think their way was the way prescribed in the word. But I think otherwise. * Psalm xxv. 9. L + Psalm xciv. 12. دو And I am persuaded that, in not a few cases of truly serious Friends, who have been found to ascribe, with thankfulness, their preservation in the right way to the immediate suggestions of the Holy Spirit, there has not, after all, been any material difference, in point of fact, whatever there may have been in point of theory, between them and those Christians who have sought to follow the word with the Spirit's aid; that the dictates of conscience, and the "word of Christ dwelling in them," have been what the one as well as the other have actually obeyed, although under different appellations. As to those prototypes of Quakerism, who have professed to live under the constant guidance of a direct inspiration, of the same nature with that possessed by apostles when they "assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not," and "were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia," I apprehend they exalt themselves in professing to exalt the Spirit; at any rate, they exalt the Spirit in themselves at the expense of the Spirit in the apostles, by preferring his immediate suggestions to his recorded counsels :and by themselves, and by the influence of their example, the work of the Spirit has too often been degraded, through the frequent littleness, and occasional ludicrousness, of his alleged intimations, as well as, at times, through their very questionable propriety. In my next Letter, I shall take the liberty of examining the doctrine of Friends respecting the “in ward light." Yours respectfully, R. W. LETTER IV. ON UNIVERSAL INWARD LIGHT. RESPECTED FRriends, WHEN I first thought of addressing these letters to you, my impression was, that I should not experience any great difficulty on such points of the controversy between you and other bodies of professing Christians, as it was my design to take up. I never found myself more mistaken. But observe wherein the difficulty has lain. I fancied, that, at each step of the controversy, I should have something definite with which to grapple. It is here I have been disappointed. Those views which have been considered as distinctive of the Friends, I have found assuming so great a variety of aspects and modifications among their own writers; the phraseology used, with apparent explicitness, by one, employed by another in a sense, however analogous, yet so materially different; that I have been greatly at a loss, and have at times been about to relinquish my purpose, in fretfulness and disgust. For after having, in my own mind, and to my own satisfaction, met |