not rather believe, that the Spirit of God, if rightly understood, would have protested against condemnation for a crime which does not exist?

But the mischief, if a proper distinction be not made between the agency of the Spirit and that of the will of man, may spread further, and may reach the man himself, and become injurious to his health, his intellect, and his usefulness; and the Divine Being may be made again the author of it all.

Many, we all know, notwithstanding their care and attention, have found that they have gone wrong in their affairs in various instances of their lives; that is, events have shown that they have taken a wrong course. But if there be those who suppose themselves in these instances to have been acted upon by the Spirit of God, what is more likely, than that they may imagine that they have lost his favour; and that, looking upon themselves as driven by him into the wrong road, they may fall into the belief that they are among the condemned reprobate, and pine away, deprived of their

senses, in a state of irretrievable misery and despair?

Others again may injure their health, and diminish their comfort and their utility, in another way. And here I may remark, that, if I have seen what the world would call superstition among the Quakers, it has been confined principally to a few females, upon whose constitution, more delicate than that of men, an attention to undistinguished impressions, brought on in a course of time by a gradual depreciation of human reason, has acted with considerable force. I fear that some of these, in the upright intentions of their hearts to consult the Almighty on all occasions as the sole arbiter of every thing that is good, have fostered their own infirmities, and gone into retirements so frequent, as to have occasioned these to interfere with the duties of domestic comfort and social good; and that they have been at last so perplexed with doubts and an increasing multitude of scruples, that they have been afraid of doing many things, because they have not had a revelation for them. The state of such worthy persons is much to be

pitied.

pitied. What must be their feelings under such a conflict, when they are deserted by human reason! What an effect will not such religious doubts and perplexities have upon their health! What impediments do they not throw in the way of their own utility!

I should be sorry, if by any observations, such as the preceding, I should be thought to censure any one for the morality of his feelings. And still more sorry should I be, if I were to be thought to have any intention of derogating from the character of the Supreme Being. I am far from denying his omniscience; for I believe that he sees every sparrow that falls to the ground, and even more, that he knows the innermost thoughts of men. I deny not his omnipresence; for I believe that he may be seen in all his works. I deny neither his general nor his particular providence, nor his hearing of our prayers, nor his right direction in our spiritual concerns, nor his making all things work together for good to those who love him. Neither do I refuse to admit him either into our journeys, or into our walks, or

into

1

into our chambers; for he can make all the things we see subservient to our moral instruction, and his own glory. But I should be sorry to have him considered as a clock, that is to inform us about the times of our ordinary movements; or to make him a prompter in all our worldly concerns; or to oblige him to take his seat in animal-magnetism; or to reside in the midst of marvellous delusions. Why should we expect a revelation in the most trivial concerns in our lives, where our reason will inform us? Why, like the waggoner, apply to Jupiter, when we may remove the difficulty by putting our own shoulders to the wheels? If we are reasonable creatures, we can generally tell, whether we ought to go forwards or backwards, or to begin or to postpone ; whether our actions are likely to be innocent or hurtful, or whether we are going on an errand of benevolence or of evil. In fact, there can be no necessity for this con-stant appeal to the Spirit in all our worldly concerns, while we possess our reason as men. And unless some distinction be made between the real agency of God and our

Own

own volitions, which distinction true Quakerism suggests, we shall be liable to be tossed to and fro by every wind that blows, and to become the creatures of a superstition that may lead us into great public evils, while it may be injurious to our health and intellect, and to the happiness and utility of our lives.

CHAP