In the time of Christ
it continued the same office, but it was then given more diffusively
than before, and also more diffusively to some than to others. Thus the
Evangelists and Apostles received it in an extraordinary degree, and it
became, through them and Jesus Christ their head, the author of the
Gospel. But, besides its office of a spiritual light and guide to men in
their spiritual concerns, during all the period now assigned, it became
to them, as they attended to its influence, an inward redeemer,
producing in them a new birth, and leading them to perfection. And as it
was thus both a guide and an inward redeemer, so it has continued these
offices to the present day.
From hence it will be apparent that the acknowledgment of God's Holy
Spirit, in its various operations, as given in different portions before
and after the sacrifice of Christ, is the acknowledgment of a principle,
which is the great corner stone of the religion of the Quakers. Without
this there can be no knowledge, in their opinion, of spiritual things.
Without this there can be no spiritual interpretation of the scriptures
themselves. Without this there can be no redemption by inward, though
there may be redemption by outward means. Without this there can be no
enjoyment of the knowledge of divine things.
Take therefore this principle away from them, and you take away their
religion at once.
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