our minds, can teach us the way to life and salvation, appears indeed to me to be "making shipwreck of the faith," and perhaps upon a more dangerous coast than that of the mere letter of Scripture; I wish it therefore to be clearly understood, that whilst I perceive all these Reviewers have rejoiced at the "Beacon-light" blazing upon Scylla, I believe them to have been either blind or indifferent to the dangers of Charybdis. I have never read the writings or heard the sermons of Elias Hicks, or to the best of my knowledge, any of his followers. I know of his opinions only by report; and the "" Extracts from Periodical Works," have furnished me with the fullest. So far as my own opinion goes, I do not see that any ostensible cause existed, to lead us to suppose that there was any tendency of the Society in this country to fall into "the gulf of Hicksism, or deism." To, I believe, a very great majority, the very existence of such gulfs were unknown; or if known-I trust I speak truly when I say, that there has been but little inclination to explore the paths that lead to them. Beacon" appears to me to have been needed, where no real danger has existed, and it affords cause for deep regret, that any thing with so attractive a name should have appeared with the obvious, if not the avowed tendency and object, to attract us to the reflected beams of Scripture truth, for that full and glorious display of light, which comes direct only from the Sun of righteousness" himself. The leading character of the testimonies, that the ministers of the Society have usually borne, since and before the days of Hannah Barnard, has been that of an implicit faith in the divinity and all-sufficiency of Christ, and a just No veneration and deference for Holy Writ. Although it forms a part of the plan of infinite wisdom to place good and evil before his weak and erring creature, man, I much doubt the propriety of our placing the latter before each other, unless in cases where it cannot be avoided, or pointing by way of warning or comparison, when it is placed there already. I think I am safe in saying, that such was a feature of our Saviour's ministry, and of the apostles that succeeded him. It is better to "let the time past suffice,"- -"to leave the things that are behind, and press forward to those that are before," looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Elias Hicks and his opinions, might, I think, therefore, have been safely left behind. It must, I am satisfied, be cause of deep grief to many, that those excellent and precious testimonies, which the early members of the Society were called upon to bear in the face of a corrupt and sinful world, exposed to buffetings and whippings, sore imprisonments, heavy fines, banishment, malignant tortures, and cruel deaths, should, by an acknowledged minister of that Society, be asserted to be the source from whence has ORIGINATED 66 that desolating heresy, which, in the United States of America, has lately swept thousands after thousands of our small section of the Christian Church into the gulf of Hicksism and deism." And it is not more extraordinary than true, that those testimonies are repudiated upon the self same ground, (though urged, so far as I have seen, with a freedom from bitterness, and, PERHAPS, in a spirit of less derision), upon which they were opposed by some of the most malignant and stanchest foes, that enlisted against the Friends of those days. No-No, my young Friends; read, try, examine, judge for yourselves the writings, the labours, the travels, the sufferings, the experiences, the joys which the world could neither give to nor take from the worthies of those days. Read of 66 the gift of grace" that was upon them-of the holy love that knit their hearts together, as the heart of one man—“ fully know their doctrines, see their manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience;" and then say whether that blessed and sanctified testimony to "the light within, has led, step by step, into the deadly gulf of deism !" I cannot adopt the opinions conveyed, in the prefatory remarks, to the Extracts from Periodical Works," that such discussions as religious controversy "" are the chief, if not the only, means whereby, humanly speaking, the errors which have, from time to time, crept into the Christian church, can be eradicated." If any errors have ever been eradicated by what is termed "religious controversy," I think such eradication has formed the exception, and not the rule. One assump tion, at all events, is entitled, from a third party, to as much deference as another; and I think, upon sober reflection, it must be admitted on all hands, that "knowledge has been darkened by words without wisdom;" and that controversy, though recommended to us by the appendage of the hallowed term, "religious," has produced, amongst the professors of Christianity, more ill-will, confusion of ideas, MYSTICISM of thought, word, and deed; in short, has been the means of introducing not only a great variety of conflicting, inconsistent, and anti-scriptural opinions amongst men, but 66 has been one of the chief causes of those errors, both in ง here ask, make this great truth clearer? Surely the Scriptures, which the Reviewers say, are "the only rule of faith and practice," may be allowed to speak for themselves to stand as they are, whole and unmutilated, without this man's commentary, or that man's conjecture! And let me appeal to the honest conviction of every man, whether there is not a something within him (whatever name they may give it, which something I know by the name of "the light within"), that bears its testimony to the testimony of Scripture, that to " fear God, and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man?" Has not, I repeat, every sane person, unless " given over to a reprobate mind," something within him that declares this testimony of Scripture to be the truth; and that acquits or condemns him independently of his own volition, his own wishes and strivings with it, according as he walks in obedience or disobedience thereunto? If such evidence be disregarded, and errors be allowed to creep in, how can disputations and learned janglings, commentaries, interpretations, and explanations, adapted to the systems of the various originators and defenders of them, tend to anything else, but to lead us from the simplicity of the Truth as it is in Jesus"-to conduct us to a labyrinth of endless mazes, instead of that path that "a wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein."!! It is highly necessary that the meaning we attach to certain words should be distinctly explained, or the arguments we adopt, and the views we take, are liable to be misconstrued or misunderstood. From this consideration, therefore, I deem it incumbent on me, in |