they believe it is that Noah is called by Moses a just and perfect man in his generation*, and that Job is described as a perfect and an upright mant, and that the evangelist Luke speaks of Zacharias and Elizabeth in these words: "They were both righteous before God, and walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."

That man who is renewed in heart can attain this degree of perfection, the Quakers think it but reasonable to suppose: for to think that God has given to man any law to keep which it is impossible for him, when aided by his Holy Spirit, to keep; or to think that the power of Satan can be stronger in man than the power of Christ; is to think very inadequately of the Almighty, and to cast a dishonourable reflection on his goodness, his justice, and

his power. Add to which, that there would not have been such expressions in the New Testament as those of Jesus Christ: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Nor would there

* Gen. vi. 9. + Job i. 8.

Luke i. 6.

have been other expressions of the apostles of a similar meaning, if the renewed man had not possessed the power of doing the will of God.

This doctrine of Perfection brought the Quakers into disputes with persons of other religious denominations at the time of their establishment. But however it might be disapproved of, it was not new in these times, nor was it originally introduced by them. Some of the fathers of the church, and many estimable divines of different countries, had adopted it. And here it may be noticed, that the doctrine had been received also by several of the religious in

our own.

In the Golden Remains of the ever memorable John Hales, we find that "through the grace of Him that doth enable us, we are stronger than Satan; and the policy of Christian warfare hath as many means to keep back and defend, as the deepest reach. of Satan hath to give the onset."

"St. Augustine," says this amiable writer, was of opinion that it was possible for us even in this natural life, seconded by the grace of God, perfectly to accomplish what

the Law requires at our hands." In the Golden Remains many sentiments are to be found of the same tenour.

Bacon, who collected and published Dr. Robert Gell's Remains, says in his Preface, that Dr. Gell preached before King Charles I., on Ephesians iv. 10., at Newmarket, in the year 1631, a bold discourse, yet becoming him, testifying before the king that doctrine he taught to his life's end, "the possibility, through grace, of keeping the law of God in this life.' Whoever reads these venerable Remains will find this doctrine inculcated in them.

Monro, who lived some time after Dr. Gell, continued the same doctrine. "So great," says he in his Just Measures, "is the goodness and benignity of God, and so perfect is the justice of his nature, that he will not, cannot, command impossibilities. Whatever he requires of mankind by way of duty, he enables them to perform it. This grace goes before and assists their endeavours; so that, when they do not comply with his injunctions, it is because they will not employ the power that he has given them, and which he is ready to increase and heighten,

heighten, upon their dutiful improvement of what they have already received, and their serious application to him for more."

Again: "Though of ourselves, and without Christ, we can do nothing, yet with him we can do all things ;" and then he adds, a little lower," Why should any duty frighten us, or seem impossible to us?"

Having now stated it to be the belief of the Quakers that the Spirit of God acts as an inward redeemer to man, and that its powers are such that it may lead him to perfection in the way explained, it remains for me to observe, that it is their belief also that this Spirit has been given for these purposes without any exception to all of the human race; or, in the same manner as it was given as an universal teacher, so it has been given as an universal redeemer, to man; and that it acts in this capacity, and fulfils its office, to all those who attend to its inward strivings, and encourage its influence on their hearts.

That it was given to all for this purpose, they believe to be manifest from the apostle Paul: "For the grace of God," says he, "which bringeth salvation, hath appeared

to

to all men*.” He says, again, that "the Gospel was preached unto every creature which is under heavent." He defines the Gospel to be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." He means, therefore, that this power of inward redemption was afforded to all. For the outward Gospel had not been preached to all in the time of the apostle, nor has it been preached to all even at the present day. But these passages are of universal import. They imply no exception. They comprehend every individual of the human race.

That this Spirit was also given to all for these purposes, the Quakers believe, when they consider other passages in the Scriptures which appear to them to belong to this subject. For they consider this Spirit § to have begun its office as an inward redeemer with the fall of the first man, and to have continued it through the patriarchal ages to the time of the outward Gospel, when

* Titus ii. 11. + Coloss. i. 23.

Rom. i. 16.

§ In the same manner Jesus Christ having tasted death for every man, the sacrifice or outward redemption looks backwards and forwards, as well to Adam as to those who lived after the Gospel-times.

there