our best Divines. The proposition will then run thus:

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

He made, by means of the same Christ, 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 means of the same Christ, the generation of all animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of

man.

He occasioned also, by the same means, 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 spiritual 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

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 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 outward, 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

senses.

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 He informed them of their corrupt 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

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Less is expected from the Gentile than from the Jews 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 capacity, 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 પ 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 accu

*Acts iv. 12.

rate?

rate? 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 the Spirit of God, there can surely be no doubt. In looking at Christ, we are generally apt to view him with carnal eyes. We

can seldom divest ourselves of the idea of a body belonging to him, though this was confessedly human, and can seldom consider him as a pure Principle or Fountain of divine Light and Life to men. And yet it is obvious, that we must view him in this light in the present case; for, if he was at the Creation of the World, or with Moses at the delivery of the Law, (which the proposition supposes,) he could not have been there in his carnal body, because this was not produced till centuries afterwards from the Virgin Mary. In this abstracted light the Apostles frequently view Christ themselves. Thus St. Paul: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me*."

* Galat. ii. 20.

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And again:

"Know