our proceedings may be still more simplified; but any how, as it hath been practised at any time amongst us, there hath been nothing in it that I could have believed a man of thy talents and understanding would have stumbled at, or been offended with.

Thy definition and ideas of revelation, human reason, and conscience, appear to me confused and indistinct. Surely there was a time when thou couldst better have distinguished between human reason and Divine revelation. Thy remarks upon the Scriptures I heartily disapprove. There are, I think, very few of thy observations on that subject, that would meet the approbation of any man, who would make a right use of his reason; they are far from being new, or new to me. I have read, with pain, many such things in the works of unbelievers; but I wish thee to consider what sort of characters they have generally been, who have written against the Scriptures; and what sort of people they have generally been, who have given in to this infidelity. Consider the lives and conduct of these men, and contrast them with the lives of those

who have been the firmest believers, and most diligent readers of the sacred writings; and it will, I hope, afford thee some light on which hand the danger lics. I myself, as well as Timothy, have read the Holy Scriptures from the years of childhood; and by them, I believe, I can say truly, I have been often profitably instructed and comforted, but never received any hurt. I believe I have not a religious acquaintance in the world, that would not write the same testimony; and I am almost persuaded, that if thou wouldst consult thy own experience, and that of all the truly religious characters thou hast known, you would say very much the same thing. Are not then all the arguments against, confuted by facts and experience in favour of, the Scriptures?

in man,

Thou needest not have said, that our Society sometimes called the Divine principle "Christ within ;" thou mightst have said, (what thou canst not be ignorant of,) that this is the language and doctrine of the Scriptures. I believe it would make more for our peace, and preservation from error, to admit the express testimony of Holy Writ,

that there is no God but One, none good but One, no Divinity but One, and that Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son and Sent of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was united with this One Divinity; and thus united with Omnipotent Love, and receiving from His Father all power, both in Heaven and on the Earth, He became, by His state, character, and the Divine appointment, the Author of eternal redemption to us; for He, possessing in Himself all the perfection of the first Adam, in perfect union with the Divinity, became the Head and Fountain of all the regenerated human race, who derive their heavenly life, nature, and image from Him; and all that He did, and suffered, in His outward manifestation, was for our sake. Blessed be His name, He needed not to suffer for Himself, who was the Lamb Immaculate, in whose mouth was found no guile, being holy, harmless, and undefiled, though “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." No, it was on our account, according to the declaration of the prophet, Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him

stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Agreeably to this declaration, is that of the apostle Peter, 1 Peter, ii. 24. Let us then beware how we undervalue the merits (for I do not know a better word) of our Saviour's sufferings "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." I have no belief, I never had, that the sufferings of the Holy Jesus, when He poured out His soul unto death, were in order to satisfy or appease any wrath that was awakened in the pure Deity Himself. "God is love," "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;" but though we should not be able to comprehend the why and wherefore of our blessed Lord's miraculous conception, holy, self-denying life, sufferings and death; yet, unless we will reject the whole body of Scripture evidence, we must believe they were all neces

sary and indispensable to our complete redemption.

If mankind were better acquainted with, and more willing to believe, the fall of all mankind in our first parents, by whose transgression sin entered into the world, and death by sin; did we read more in the volume of our own hearts, the corruption and depravity of our fallen state by nature; how we have lost the image of holiness, and that pristine purity and heavenly nature in which man was first created, and to which we are called; we should see more clearly, and better understand what is meant by "the second Adam," "the Lord from heaven," "the quickening Spirit," "the Resurrection and the Life," and by the emphatic words of Ransom, Purchase, Salvation, and Redemption through Jesus Christ.

Whatever may be thy sentiments on these subjects, I am jealous of many, who, in these days, like the builders of Babel formerly, are exploring new ways to Heaven, by the exertion and power of their own reason, that they are too much strangers to the glorious dispensation of the Gospel, the reign and gov