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either prove that I have perverted Barclay's meaning, and drawn unfair confequences from his doctrine, or mifrepresented thofe paffages of Scripture on which he endeavours to found his hypothefis; then, what he offers to the world will deferve my further confideration. But, declamatory animadverfions, abounding more with folemn cenfures than argument ; manifeft perverfions; contemptuous epithets; and pious effufions, upon his own falfe fyftem, to captivate the affections of the ignorant; or copious enlargements upon any smaller defects, which do not relate to the main questions in debate-will not deferve from me any public answer.

Whatever may be found erroneous in this performance, must be chargeable upon myfelf, and not upon any with whom I am connected: For it has not been revised or corrected by an affembly of wife men, who had a right to curtail or add to it, before it dared to appear in public, as, I am most credibly informed, was the cafe with Mr. Phipps's obfervations. Should I then have mifreprefented the true fenfe of Scripture, or the meaning of Barclay or his defender, I am alone refponfible for it, and fhall think myself bound, in justice and honour, to correct fuch mistakes.

To conclude this long Introduction-You will find, reader, that Mr. Barclay and his friends appeal to Scripture and right reafon, for the proof of their fyftem; the connected and juft meaning of the former, and the plain maxims of the latter, are the ftandard, by which I defire alfo the controverfy may be determined: And if common sense does not enable you eafily to decide on which fide the truth lies, upon an impartial examination of this treatise and the writings which it opposes, either the queftions debated are of no confe

quence

quence to your hope, holinefs, and happiness, or we that have written upon them have not treated the subject fairly and explicitly.

May the Holy Spirit, by all thofe means of information which he now uses, lead both reader and writer into all evangelical truth! Amen!

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THE

Leading Sentiments, &c.

CHAP. I.

Things granted by Mr. Beasley and the Apologift, concerning Scripture and Right Reafon.

T

HE Author of the Letter to Dr. Formey concludes a paragraph thus, [It is the firft edition of Mr. B.'s letter is here ufed.] p. 8, "Therefore the New Teftament is to be regarded, as a standard of faith and manners religious and "civil, its doctrines to be confidered as free from "thofe ambiguities it hath by many authors been

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charged with, and itself to be confiftent with right "reason. This granted, I think, I can prove, that "the Quakers principles are all of divine authority, ડ as being deduced from the Holy Scriptures of the

"Old and New Teftament *."

* We really wish, that this fenfible, decent, and elegant writer had attempted to fupport this declaration, by replying to the letter addreffed to him; for it is evident to his opponent, from the specimen he has given of his manner of writing, that he could not have allowed himself to have written, in the unkind, unfriendly, nay, even illiberal and contemptuous ftrain, that a certain gentleinan has done.

B

Mr.

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Mr. Barclay alfo in his Apology expreffès himself in these words, Apol. P. 86, edit. 6th-" We do "look upon them (the Scriptures) as the only fit "outward judge of controverfies among Chriftians; "and that whatever doctrine is contrary to their tes❝timony, may therefore be justly rejected as false. "And, for our parts, we are very willing, that all our doctrines and practices fhould be tried by "them; which we never refufed, nor ever fhall, in "all our controverfies with our adverfaries, as the judge and the test. We fhall also be ready to admit it, as a positive and certain maxim, that what"foever any do, pretending to the Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, be accounted and rec"koned a delufion of the Devil." He also calls them, Prop. 3. §. 1. The moft excellent wri"tings in the world." And in the fecond Propofition, he has expreffed himself thus-" Moreover, thefe divine inward revelations, which we make "abfolutely neceffary for the building up true faith, "neither do nor can ever contradict the outward "teftimony of Scripture, or right and found reafon."

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Thefe conceffions authorize any perfon to bring every thing Mr. Barclay and his brethren advance, under the fuppofed immediate revelation of their Spirit, to the test of Scripture and right reafon. To these they appeal with a manifeft confidence, that they entirely coincide with their fentiments.

Barclay's zealous advocate, in his obfervation upon the former part of this paragraph, Phipps's Obfervations, P. 2. tells us, "That he does not un"derstand what the writer means by their spirit," and adds, "That the people called Quakers profefs no private fpirit peculiar to themfelves."

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They may profefs to be influenced by no other spirit than that which directed the Apostles, but this is no proof, that they are actuated by that spirit; their

own

own imaginations and affertions being no greater evidence of it to a ftander-by, than the firm perfuafion and confident affirmations of the French Prophets were, that they had the one effential Spirit of God influencing them. And though it be readily granted and firmly believed by Mr. Phipps's opponent (not withstanding all that he has infinuated to the contrary) that no man can be a true Chriftian, although he may bear the name and make the profeffion, without the special direction and influence of the Spirit of God, yet it does not follow, that every perfon, who thinks himself influenced by him, actually is fo.

The Apostle John; 1 Epift. 4. 6. fpeaks of fpirits which were to be tried and rejected, and has given Christians a criterion, which is a more certain one than their own feelings or imaginations, by which we may judge of them." We are of God: He that "knoweth God, heareth us [the Apoftles]. He "that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby "know we the Spirit of truth and the fpirit of er66 ror,

If then the writer of this treatise, confcientiously, thinks, the leading principles of the Quakers, as they stand in the Apology, are contrary to what the Apostles have taught and written, and is able to prove them to be fo; it will follow, that they are not, in the profeflion of them, influenced by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, though they may honeftly think they really are. Nay, Mr. Phipps himfelf fays, "That the fenfe of every perfon is not that of "the Spirit, and that whofoever, whether under the 66 pretence of the Spirit, or in oppofition to it, puts "a fenfe upon the Scriptures, which is not that of "the Spirit, must himfelf be of a wrong spirit,"

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