who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ." To this one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, that Paul testified of, do we testify. The same “gift of Christ" that Paul speaks of, do we speak of. If you mean another we do not. If our doctrine, then, is "mysticism," so is Paul's; if our principle is Deism," so is Paul's. We mean, and you know that we mean, when using the terms" Light of Christ," and " Spirit of Christ," no other light and spirit than that which the literal and genuine sense of the words conveys. We mean, whatever you say we mean; and you know it, too: no false or imaginary Christ; no evil, human, or other spirit, but that Light, Christ, and Spirit, which is testified of in the Scriptures, as being " in the beginning with God;" and from whence all that we know of God hath proceeded. "No man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." And yet these men exclaim," enthusiasm," "mysticism," "Deism." Men, who would take this very passage of Holy Writ, (clear as it is to the single eye,) and after descanting upon it for a set time, and mystifying the simplicity of the truth, by their own surmises and conjectures, vehemently and dogmatically asserted, call it preaching the everlasting Gospel, and demand or solicit a pecuniary reward for their labour; yes, these are the loud brawlers of "mysticism," "enthusiasm," and "Deism," against those whose principles would lead them from the truly mysterious and enthusiastic practice of paying our fellow creatures money for the salvation of our immortal souls, when Christ has already purchased it for us, without the intervention of human means and authority; and who, rich in mercy, love, and compassion, " is not far from every one of us." But it is the shout of the Philistine; the loud cry of the hireling the uproar of Baal's priests, and their deluded followers;-it is the mercenary complaint of the gold and silver shrine men; it is the reviling of Scribes and Pharisees-hypocrites, that may be seen, and heard, and felt, in all these "hard speeches and ungodly sayings" against Christian truth. Where this prevails; where Christ is

really as well as nominally the Head of the Church, all idols fall to pieces; the groves and the altars are destroyed; the Scribes, and the Pharisees, and the Textmen, and learned Doctors of the Law, are confounded; the money-changers are driven from the Temple; and with them "mysticism, enthusiasm," and the rest of the priestly fraternity, are seen to take their departure; and that only remains, "which cannot be shaken."

The hirelings may revile-may bluster, rage, and stand up, Goliah-like, in haughty defiance of "the armies of the living God;" but the smallest pebble from the sling of Truth, guided by the never-failing Arm of Omnipotence, can bring their faces to the earth, and scatter their bravado hosts, though their armour be bright and strong, and wrought with the utmost skill and wisdom that the prince of the kingdoms of this world can command. It has, indeed, been permitted by Almighty Power and Wisdom, as well since, as before the days of our Saviour's personal appearance upon earth, that the great body of mankind should be the willing dupes of some of the rest, who, through superstition, or avarice, or ambition, have made a market of their own conjectures, opinions, and fabrications, upon the very Truth itself, which it has pleased the Almighty, at different times, to declare through his Prophets, Apostles, and Ministers. And although it is not for man, unaided by the "Spirit of prophecy," to affix the precise line at which this chaos, this spiritual darkness, shall terminate; though it remaineth with Him, who, amidst darkness sent forth his Word, and said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT; and there was light," to reconcile the conflicting elements of human thought and feeling, by his Holy Spirit, moving on the face of the agitated waters; although, I say, it is not for man, from the highest efforts of intellectual power, to point with any thing like certainty to that period, when the 66 glad tidings of salvation," which have been proclaimed, shall so far prevail throughout the world, as to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness, for men to become Christians in deed; as well as in name; when all the lusts of the flesh enumerated by the Apostle, shall give place to the fruit of the Spirit-to

Ay, this is " mys

"love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," and all those things "against which there is no law;" yet even by the unassisted efforts of human reason, it is not difficult to believe, that the day is not far distant when the dark spirit of Priestcraft shall be no longer able to assume its delusive shapes, and hold the human mind in the most abject and degrading bondage. ticism," this is" enthusiasm," this is worse than “Deism or Hicksism." What more do the idol priests of uncivilized nations than you? They only exert their evil influence so far as they are permitted by the Almighty, or the credulity of the people can be practised upon; and do not you the same? I admit that some of their practices are more cruel, though many little less ludicrous, so far as religion is concerned, than your own; but do you not both-do ye not all, ye almost numberless individuals of the same species, seek a livelihood out of the means of others, upon the pretence of a commission from God, to show those others how they may obtain his favour and secure eternal life? Are ye not rival competitors in the same profession? Do ye not, like all other traffickers, seek to enlarge your connexion? Do you not seek to increase the number of your simple and pocket-picked customers? Very humble, very Evangelical, indeed, to talk about "mysticism," "enthusiasm" and the like, in those who prefer the free teaching of Christ's Spirit, to paying the extravagant and exorbitant sums demanded for your spurious and worthless concoctions, palmed off upon the public, like patent medicines (with the purchased permission of licence of worldly authority,) as most certain and efficacious remedies for the disease of the soul! Compulsory Priests! Voluntary Priests! You are all alike-alike in kind, if not in degree. You learn your divinity, the same as you learn other things, at each others schools. You pay for it, the same as for any other branch of knowledge that man is capable of teaching: you practise in it, the same as in any other art or profession, to make a worldly provision for yourselves and families: you lean on the "arm of flesh," for your support; and, whilst professing the authority of God, for the exercise of your

wiles and stratagems; whilst boasting a reliance upon his Providence for support, you disdain not to take the mite of penury from its palsied hand, in order that your barns may be filled with corn, and your tables overflow with oil.

This is your picture: it is not overcharged. Such you are; and such are your deeds. You talk about the call of the Holy Spirit; and by virtue of this call, in numerous shapes, you plunder, openly or by stealth, all that you have power to obtain ; and yet you speak contemptuously and arrogantly of, ay, you vilify and abuse the very name itself, in all those who dare not make it the impious pretext for a systematised course of selfishness, greediness, and extortion.

If you do not believe in the existence of God's Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, upon what ground do you stand forth as Gospel Ministers? When you make the profession, that you believe yourselves called upon by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel, lie you unto God or unto men? or are you the blind, and self-immolated victims of your own fanaticism and superstition? If you are the latter, Christian charity must lament over you; if the former, Christian truth will condemn you.

But your revilings are nothing new. The same generation reviled the ministry of our Saviour, and the free preachers whom he personally ordained. Like the disputing and scripture-searching sects of that time, contending for your various senses, in the depths of your own shallow thoughts, your mutual animosities partake of a momentary suspension, in order that your united strength may be directed with accumulated force against the simplicity of truth.

Although your Babylonish furnace is always burning with the fire of persecution, yet do you heat it seven times hotter than it is wont to be heated, when the Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos, refuse to fall down before the brittle image, which the Nebuchadnezzars, and the Priests of Bel and of Dagon, have ordered to be set up.

Violent, malicious, and bitter towards each other, however fair and specious you may appear, yet is your enmity almost

b

wholly undisguised, when, joining your rage" with the multitude to do evil," you are permitted, for some inscrutable reason, like "grievous wolves," to " worry the flock of Christ."

I know, as I have said before, that in the present day, your power to persecute is considerably repressed. How far the extension of natural knowledge has contributed thereto, I shall not now seek to discover; but this we may believe, if the statements of historians can lay just claims to our credence, that the power of Priestcraft—the power of the spirit of falsehood and darkness, has never been more triumphant, than where the elegancies and luxuries of polished society have left scarcely a wish of the most refined voluptuary ungratified; where the labours of wit, the discoveries of science, and the triumphs of genius, have all combined to shed a certain description of lustre and glory, (which the lapse of many ages has not been able to extinguish,) upon the names of countries, and cities, and persons, that had with them a contemporaneous existence. When giving, therefore, our own mere opinions, as to how far, what is flippantly called "the march of intellect," has contributed to restrain the power of persecution, we should remember, that in those very countries, the splendour and magnificence of whose ruins strike the most scientific beholders with astonishment and admiration, the most disgusting and revolting superstitions were practised, and the persecuting spirit of Priestcraft sat brooding in triumph over the miseries and cruelties she inflicted. But let this pass. I am content to thank Him, "whom both winds and storms obey," that this oppressive and tumultuous spirit has been bound, if not hand and foot, at least so far, as considerably to abate the effects of its violence.

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Thus far at present, as to the charges of "mysticism," "enthusiasm,' Hicksism," and the like. Desirous of speedily going to press again, I must restrain much that I had intended to say; which, if permitted, I will endeavour to publish at a future time. I have not seen any review of my work, but so much as has been contained in a short extract sent to me by a friend, from two papers, or books, or something of the sort,