formed to the truth? Or rather, is it not because ye have been conformed to the world, that ye have been so barren and unfruitful? How is it that the way of truth is evil spoken of? How is it that your PRINCIPLES are charged with a "tendency to engender a spirit of pharisaical self-estimation, that is far from being in harmony with the lowly-mindedness of the Gospel?" How is it that ye are “in imminent peril of loving the praise of men, more than the praise of God?" How is it that you stand charged, Friends, with being "in imminent peril of being more solicitous to maintain your reputation in the world, than humbly to approve yourselves to your divine Master ?" How is it, Friends, that the leading principle of your religious faith stands charged with "sweeping thousands, and thousands, of our small section of the Christian Church into the gulf of Hicksism and deism?" Are you prepared to charge the doctrine of the light of God in the conscience, with leading to consequences so awful and deplorable? Are you

prepared to add to the number of your transgressions, this most ungrateful and heaviest of them all? Are you ready to charge infinite love and mercy, with indifference and neglect; and to say that the eye of Him who

never slumbereth," hath been closed upon you whilst ye have thus been hastening to destruction? Will ye? No-ye cannot, surely, be lost so far, as a body, as to charge your unfaithfulness, your pride, your lusts, your love of the world and of the god of it, to the effect of those pure and simple principles of Christian truth, for which your predecessors were visited with cruel beatings, stonings, cutting off of ears, branding with irons, imprisonments, even unto death.

These were the things which the professors of Friends'

principles were, in a day gone by, "in imminent peril" of encountering. The rigour and cruelty of those days, indeed, are past; but that they are past never again to be revived, is, probably, known to Him alone who keepeth the seals of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." Bitterness, intolerance, and hatred of good, still roll along their troubled streams in darkness. The fiend of religious persecution, no thanks to him, or to the vaunted influence of superior knowledge and more refined cultivation, is kept in abeyance by a higher power than man is willing to acknowledge. "The Prince of the power of the air" still " reigns in the hearts of the children of disobedience." Satan is the same he ever was, a liar and a murderer from the beginning;" and if, through the over-ruling agency of Him" who inhabiteth eternity," and in whom dwelleth all might, and majesty, and dominion, he is not suffered to blast with the lightning and the hail, and to afflict with the boil and the scab, his envy and his malice remain the same, and he is still permitted to oppress the suffering seed of the kingdom. The world has not yet embraced the spirit of Christianity, however that part of it which assumes the name, may extol and magnify the book which records the mighty deeds that have been done in its power. They read and they talk about these things, but do them not. They will tell you that the Bible is their standard and their ultimate rule; and since it contains the greatest possible variety of instructions, that can be adapted to the greatest possible variety of circumstances in which man can be placed, none find a difficulty to produce authority for the views and principles that conform with their interests or their prejudices; and thus is it torn piecemeal asunder at the headstrong will of any, instead

of being sought for as an aid in the discovery and further prosecution of those things which have been already "made manifest by the light;" and hence we find that those principles of moral action, which are most clearly revealed in the hearts of all, and distinctly testified of in the Scriptures, are, nevertheless, obscured or subdued, misunderstood, or entirely neglected, by bringing down their authority to be tested by a standard which our own carnal desires or interests have erected.

It is thus that some men assert a spiritual supremacy over others, erect themselves into a tribunal, from whence alone, they tell you, can issue the great truths of God. It is thus they constitute themselves the only legitimate revealers of His will-the learned Rabbies, Scribes, and Doctors of the Bible. It is thus they press into their service the arm of secular power, and force a worldly maintenance from the deluded people, upon the false pretence that they are the only true and authorised venders of wholesome spiritual food. Yes, they direct you to the Bible, as a voucher for their authority; they point to the Bible as their fixed, and certain, and highest appeal; THEY say, what it nowhere says of itself, that it is the Word of God; that they are the true interpreters of it, and that it declares them to be so: ay, the " thirtynine articles," said an Arch-bishop, according to a reported speech, the other day, are founded, some on

the natural principles of religion; others, though at first they might appear startling, were capable of being proved by a reference To SCRIPTURE; and who could wish for more than that they should be borne out by Scripture ?"

Then come the "Scotch Congregational" men, with the same book in their hands, declaring it to be "the

ultimate appeal for the truth of every doctrine, and the propriety of every practice." Then the Wesleyan, the Baptist, the Ana-Baptist, the Primitive Methodist, the Muggletonian, the Southcotian, the Independent, the Irvingite, and the rest of the numerous sects, all distinct, and completely averse to the views and interpretations of each other, upon the same texts of their “ ultimate appeal,” and “ only sure foundation;" each following some learned Scribe or Rabbi of their order, till somebody else starts up, with some fresh interpretation, and causes another separation. These all have their "distinctive peculiarities," arising from "suggestions which most comport with their own particular bent of mind." Some say you are justified one way, some another. Some assert certain ceremonies to be essential, which others assert to be non-essential. Some, that have universities, invested by the legislature with exclusive privileges, altogether supported in their anti-christian pomp and grandeur by alliance with the State, hold up the Bible, and tell you, there are the records of their rights. Others, who are debarred entrance, hold up the same Bible, and tell you, there are the proofs that they are unjustly excluded from a participation in these temporal and merely civil benefits: they hold up the Bible, and tell you that it forbids all forced maintenance, such as tithes, and the like; but THIS, they tell you, is ALL that it does forbid. It ends here. Its proscriptions extend only to the mode of payment, and NOT to the payment itself. Pay you must; for the Bible nowhere authorises the GENTLEMEN preachers of the present day, to degrade themselves by following the menial occupations (at least if they can possibly avoid it) of Simon, the tanner; of Paul, the tent-maker; of Lydia, the pur

ple-seller; or of James and Peter, the fishermen.

No, no! although none of these traded out of the Bible, staying in one place, and obtaining as much money as they could from their hearers, for feeding them with their own suggestions," until they could hear of another place where their "suggestions" and thoughts (given out twice or three times a week upon some few words that had been written or spoken by some prophet before them) would fetch a higher price-although none of these old fashioned preachers (and such are the only true ones) were wont thus to preach the gospel, to force an outward subsistence from the means of the people, whether they preached to them or not-yet the “ voluntary system," say these, is not only sanctioned, but positively enjoined by our "highest rule," the Bible, -which is our " ultimate standard for the truth of every doctrine, and the PROPRIETY OF EVERY PRACTICE."

Thus we see how the different professing sects handle their " highest" and "ultimate rule." I believe that they mostly agree in this; that the Bible is the “ Word of God," and that some men should be set apart from the rest of the community, and be handsomely paid for what they call explaining it-one party affirming that they ought to take a remuneration, if the people refuse to give it; and the other party, not having the power to enforce the payment, affirming they have a right to take so much as they can persuade the people to give them. There is scarcely another important point upon which they approach so nearly to unanimity. Their readings, their preachings, their forms of praying, their ceremonies, all vary more or less from each other; and yet they have all the same "standard of religious truth," the Bible. Still, for all this, differing as they