'that The testimony of the spirit is that alone by 'which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be revealed and confirmed, and this not only 'by the outward testimony of Scripture, but also 'by that of Tertullian, Hierom, Augustin, Gregory 'the Great, Bernard, yea also by Thomas à Kem'pis, F. Pacificus Baker, (1) and many others of 'the Popish Communion, who, says Robert Bar'clay, have known and tasted the love of God, 'and felt the power and virtue of God's Spirit 'working within them for their salvation!'(?)

I will first consider the arguments of Friend Rankin. I grant him, then, that his Founder, George Fox, does blame certain extravagancies of Naylor, Perrot, and others his followers, at the same time that he boasts of several committed by himself, by Simpson, and others.(3) But how does he confute them, and guard others against them? Why, he calls their authors Ranters, and charges them with Running out! (4) Now what kind of argument is this in the mouth of G. Fox against any fanatic, however furious, when he himself has taught him, that he is to listen to the Spirit of God within himself, in preference to the authority of any man and of all men, and even of the Gospel? G. Fox was not more strongly moved to believe that he was the Messenger of Christ, than J. Naylor was to believe that he himself was Christ; nor had he a firmer conviction that the Lord forbad Hat-worship, as it is called, out of prayer, than J. Perrot (5) and his company had

(1) An English Benedictine Monk, author of Sancta Sophia, which is quoted at length by Barclay. (2) Apology, p. 351.

(3) See Journal of G. Fox, passim. (4) Speaking of James Naylor, he says: I spake with him, for I saw he was out and wrong-he slighted what I said, and was dark and 'much out. Journ, p. 220.

(5) Journ. . 310. This and another friend, J. Love, went on a mission to Rome, to convert the Pope to Quakerism; but his Holiness not understanding English, when they addressed him with some coarse English epithets in St. Peter's Church, they had no better success than a female friend, Mary Fisher, had, who went into Greece to convert the Great Turk. See Sewel's Hist.

that they were forbidden to use it in prayer. (1) -2dly, with respect to the excesses and crimes committed by many Catholics of different ranks, as well as by other men, in all ages, I answer, that these have been committed, not in virtue of their Rule of Faith and Conduct, but in direct opposition to it; as will be more fully seen when we come to treat of that Rule: whereas the extravagancies of the Quakers were the immediate dictates of the imaginary spirit, which they followed as their guide. Lastly, when the Doctors of the Catholic Church teach us, after the inspired writers, not to extinguish, but to walk in the spirit of God, they tell us at the same time, that this Holy Spirit invariably and necessarily leads us to hear the Church, and to practise that humility, obedience, and those other virtues which she constantly inculcates: so that, if it were possible for an Angel from heaven to preach another gospel than what we have received, he ought to be rejected, as a spirit of darkness. Even Luther, when the Anabaptists first broached many of the leading tenets of the Quakers, required them to demonstrate their pretended commission from God, by incontestable miracles, (2) or subinit to be guided by his appointed Ministers.

I have now to notice the letter of Mr. Topham. (3) Some of his objections have already been answered in my remarks on Mr. Rankin's letter. What I find particular in the former is the following passage: Is it possible to go against "conviction and facts? namely, the experience

(1) Now he (Fox) found also that the Lord forbad him to put off his hat to any men high or low; and he required to Thou and Thee every Iman and woman without distinction, and not to bid people Good Morron or Good Evening; neither might he bow, or scrape with his leg.' Sewel's Hist. p. 18. See there a Dissertation on Hat-worship.

(2) Sleidan.

(3) It was originally intended to insert these and the other letters of the same description: but as this would have rendered the work too bulky, and, as the whole of the objections may be gathered from the answers to them, that intention has been ab: doned.

'that very many serious Christians feel, in this day of God's power, that they are made partakers 'of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, and who hear him say to the melting heart, with his still, small, yet penetrating and renovating voice, Thy sins are forgiven thee: Be thou clean; Thy faith hath made thee whole? If an exterior proof were 'wanting to show the certainty of this interior conviction, I might refer to the conversion and 'holy life of those who have experienced it.'To this I answer, that the facts and the conviction, which your friend talks of amount to nothing more than a certain strength of imagination and warmth of sentiment which may be natural, or may be produced by that lying spirit, whom God sometimes permits to go forth, and to persuade the presumptuous to their destruction. I Kings, xxii. 22. I presume Mr. Topham will allow, that no experience which he has felt or witnessed, exceeded that of Bockhold, or Hacket, or Naylor, mentioned above; who, nevertheless, were confessedly betrayed by it into the most horrible blasphemies and atrocious crimes. The virtue most necessary for enthusiasts, because the most remote from them, is an humble diffidence in themselves. When Oliver Cromwell was on his death-bed, Dr. Godwin, being present among other Ministers, prophesied that the Protector would recover. Death, however, almost immediately ensuing, the Puritan, instead of acknowledging his error, cast the blame upon Almighty God, exclaiming, Lord, thou hast deceived us; 'and we have been deceived!' (1) With respect to the alleged purity of Antinomian Saints, I would refer to the history of the lives and deaths of many of our English Regicides, and to the gross immoralities of numberless Justified Metho

(1) See Birch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 17.

dists, described by Fletcher in his Checks to Anti

nomiansim. (2)

LETTER VIII.

To JAMES BROWN, Esq.

THE SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE OF FAITH.

DEAR SIR,

I TAKE it for granted that my answers to Messrs. Rankin and Topham have peen communicated to you, and I hope that, in conjunction with my preceding letters, they have convinced those Gentlemen, of what you, Dear Sir, have ever been convinced of, namely, the inconsistency and fanaticism of every pretension on the part of individuals, at the present day, to a new and particular inspiration, as a Rule of Faith. The question which remains for our inquiry is, whether the Rule or Method prescribed by the Church of England and other more rational classes of Protestants, or that prescribed by the Catholic Church, is the one designed by our Saviour Christ for finding out his true Religion. You say that the whole of this is comprised in the Written word of God, or The Bible, and that every individual is a judge for himself of the sense of the Bible. Hence in every religious controversy, more espe

(2) This candid and able writer says, The Puritans and first Quakers soon got over the hedge of internal activity into the smooth and easy path of Laodicean formality. Most of us, called Methodists, have already followed them. We fall asleep under the bewitching power: we dream strange dreams; our salvation is finished; we have got above legality; we have attained Christian liberty; we "have nothing to do; our covenant is sure." Vol. 1. p. 233. He refers to several instances of the most flagitious conduct of which human nature is capable, in persons who had attained to what they call, finished salvation,

cially since the last change of the inconstant Chillingworth, (1) Catholics have been stunned with the cries of jarring Protestant sects and individuals, proclaiming that, The Bible, The Bible alone is their religion: and hence, more particularly at the present day, Bibles are distributed by hundreds of thousands, throughout the Empire and the four quarters of the Globe, as the adequate means of uniting and reforming Christians, and of converting infidels. On the other hand, we Catholics hold that The word of God in general, both written and unwritten, in other words, The Bible and Tradition, taken together, constitute the Rule of Faith, or Method appointed by Christ, for finding out the true Religion; and, that, besides the Rule itself, he has provided in his Holy Church, a living, speaking Judge, to watch over it and explain it in all matters of controversy. That the latter, and not the former, is the True Rule, I trust Í shall be able to prove, as clearly as I have proved that Private Inspiration does not constitute it: and this I shall prove by means of the two maxims I have, on that occasion, made use of; namely, The Rule of Faith, appointed by Christ must be CERTAIN and UNERRING, that is to say, it must be one which is not liable to lead any rational and sincere inquirer into inconsistency or error: Secondly, this Rule must be UNIVERSAL: that is to say, it must be proportioned to the abilities and circumstances of the great bulk of mankind.

1. If Christ had intended that all mankind should learn his Religion from a Book, namely, The New Testament, he himself would have written that Book, and would have enjoined the obligation of learning to read it, as the first and fundamental precept of his Religion; whereas, he

(1) Chillingworth was first a Protestant, of the Fstablishment: he next became a Catholic, and studied in one of our Seminaries. He then returned, in part, to his former Creed; and last of all he gave into socinianism, which his writings greatly promoted.