cannot but be sensible, to what an extent the authority of some of your other peculiarities of sentiment and usage is involved in that of the "light within." In my apprehension, Quakerism and the inward light may be justly viewed as identically the same, and as standing or falling together. In reading the writings of Friends, with the exception of some of their more modern leaders, who discover in their statements a much greater degree of rational and scriptural simplicity, there is an incessant recurrence of this light -this universal, saving, inward light; and in such a variety of forms does it present itself, that one is greatly at a loss what to make of it. It is reason,it is conscience, it is grace,—it is the Word of God, -it is Christ,-it is the Spirit,-it is God,-it is a principle, a seed, a substance, in which the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dwells:-it is natural, -it is supernatural,—it mediates,—it propitiates,—it justifies,-it sanctifies,—it is, in theory and in effect, the whole of salvation. These various representations of the "light within" might be substantiated from the writings of your accredited and most esteemed leaders. I cannot but feel, therefore, that, in taking up this subject, I am taking up the essence of Quakerism; and that no inconsiderable proportion of the points of difference, both in sentiment and in practice, by which your Society is distinguished from other denominations, may find a place for appropri

ate notice in the course of its illustration.

Not that

By no

I shall

it is my intention to touch upon all of these. means. This would require a large volume. confine myself to two or three leading articles, of which the connexion with the inward light is the most immediate.

It is my wish to write freely and kindly. My respect for you is most sincere; but I should be unworthy of any return of that respect on your part, if my respect for truth were not still greater. We ought to cherish the conviction, and invariably to act upon it, that we cannot do each other a more valuable service, than that of displacing error from each other's minds, and substituting truth.-In the controversies at present in agitation amongst you, and which have been chiefly kindled by the "Beacon" light, it has grieved me not a little to perceive so much solicitude about the question, whether this and the other publication contain what is according to Quakerism. The principal, nay, in one view, the sole inquiry ought to be, whether they contain what is according to truth? What is the one question, compared with the other? There is not a greater danger to the mind, in its investigation of truth, than an excessive veneration for names. We cannot bear to think of finding those whom we thus venerate to have been in the wrong; and especially, if they have evinced their own sincerity, and increased our reverential attachment, by sufferings endured

for their opinions and practices. But, my respected friends, ought we to be more solicitous to find them in the right, than to find God in the right? It is not the mind of Fox, or Penn, or Barclay, we should, on any subject be anxious to ascertain :-it is the mind of God. In the preface to Mr W. Newton's "Remonstrance to the Society of Friends," I find the following statement:-" In a meeting which was held "at the late annual conference of the Society of "Friends in London, and intended especially for the "instruction of the young, their attention was directed "to the example of Penn, Barclay, and other ancient "Friends; and it was said by one of their ministers, "that those who did not follow the principles laid "down by them, who found any thing in the

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Scriptures which they had not found, were out of "the narrow way, and were going in a tract which "❝led to the same point with the broad way, and that

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was destruction." "This minister possibly might mean no more, than that he himself was so fully convinced of the sentiments of Penn and Barclay being the Gospel, that he regarded all who dissented from them as departing from the Gospel, and in consequent danger of perdition. But, assuming the correctness of the statement, I hope there are few amongst you who will not agree with me in thinking that he "spoke unadvisedly with his lips." Nothing could be more mischievous, than thus to throw the minds of either

old or young into the fetters of implicit faith in human infallibility;-the infallibility too of men, who differed from each other, who occasionally differed from themselves, who differed still more from some of the modern leaders of Quakerism, and, what is of most importance, who differed, I apprehend, in no trivial degree, from the apostles and prophets of the Lamb.

If

The author of the " Beacon" makes his appeal directly to the Scriptures, as the only standard by which he will consent to be tried,-because, in his estimation, the only authoritative test of religious truth. The question is-Is he right in this? another question is to be interposed-Does he speak according to Barclay?—let it be distinctly understood, that the object of interposing this question is, not to ascertain whether he speaks truth, but whether he speaks genuine Quakerism. The questions, whether Isaac Crewdson be in the right, and whether Isaac Crewdson be a true Quaker, are essentially distinct. To identify them, is to assume the infallible rectitude of Quakerism, and to settle every controversy by appeal to human authority. I do not question the right of the religious body to which the writer of the Beacon belongs, to press upon him the latter of the two inquiries. Every Christian community is, without doubt, entitled to say to each of its members, respecting any sentiments he may be

pleased to publish,-" These may be your opinions; they may be according to your views of the Scriptures:-but they are not the opinions of our body; -and if you hold them, consistency and duty require, not that you trouble and distract the body, but that you withdraw from it."-But while I grant this, it should surely be also admitted, that a man may, by various bonds,-both bonds of nature and bonds of grace,-be attached to a particular community; that he may still see not a little in it which he esteems good, and worthy of being preserved and cherished; and that he may be reluctant to break his connexion, and anxious, in the first instance, to do his utmost for the rectification of what is wrong; that so, should the issue be the necessity of withdrawment on his part, or exclusion on the part of the Society, he may, in either case, have "a conscience void of offence," as having "done what he could.". Genuine affection may thus be the instigator to disturbance. If the peace that prevails have not its basis in truth, the sooner it is unsettled the better. There cannot be a desire more purely the dictate of genuine love, than the desire to lead the objects of that love from error to truth; and if, the moment we deem them in error, we unceremoniously abandon them, the haste of relinquishment, being naturally interpreted as indicating the slightness of attachment, may diminish, if not even destroy and invert, the influence of our counsel.