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reproves all things by his light, Eph. v. 13."*. Where is there any thing akin to this in the writings of the apostles? Where, in these writings, are sinners called upon to come and learn "the everlasting gospel" by "applying their minds" to a light already in them? Where are they taught to "sit down at the feet of a Jesus in their hearts," and thus to receive saving instruction, not from God's word, but from within themselves? What is this Christ within this light within-this seed within-which reproves all things, and makes all things manifest ?" What is the amount of knowledge, which, yourselves being judges, when the "swelling words" used in its eulogy are set aside, is actually derived from this "inward light"—this Jesus in the heart-this divine teacher, that preaches in every creature?-What does it teach-what does it preach? In the terms of your own committee, in their dealings with the author of the Beacon, it is "the light by which the law of God is in measure made known to all men.”† -This is all. Barclay makes no more of it than your committee does. Their language accords with that of all your accredited writers. This is what Barclay makes of the "grain of mustard-seed," Math. xiii. 31, 32. which, says he, "though it be

* Apology, page 179.

+ Correspondence between the Committee of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, and Isaac Crewdson, &c. page 27.

"small in its appearance, and that it be hid in the

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earthly part of man's heart; yet therein is life and "salvation towards the sons of men wrapped up, "which comes to be revealed as they give way to "it." And, in terms as extraordinary as any in his book (and that is saying not a little) he proceeds thus to set forth the wonders of this "least of all seeds :"-" And in this seed, in the hearts of all "men, is the kingdom of God, as in capacity to be produced, or rather exhibited according as it receives depth, is nourished, and not choked. Hence Christ 66 saith, that the kingdom of God was in the very Pha"risees, Luke xvii. 20, 21. who did oppose and resist "him, and were justly accounted as 'serpents, and a "generation of vipers.' Now the kingdom of God "could be no otherways in them than in a seed, even "as the thirty-fold and the hundred-fold is wrapt up “in a small seed, lying in a barren ground, which "springs not forth because it wants nourishment; "and as the whole body of a great tree is wrapt up "potentially in the seed of the tree, and so is brought "forth in due season; and as the capacity of a man

or woman is not only in a child, but even in the "very embryo; even so the kingdom of Jesus Christ, "yea Jesus Christ himself, Christ within who is the "hope of glory, and becometh wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, is in every "man's and woman's heart, in that little incorrupti

"ble seed, ready to be brought forth as it is cher

"ished and received in the love of it.

For there

66 can be no men worse than those rebellious and "unbelieving Pharisees were; and yet this kingdom

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was thus within them, and they were directed to "look for it there; so, it is neither 'lo here' nor 'lo "there,' in this or the other observation, that this is "known, but as this seed of God in the heart is "minded and entertained."* ·

I have called this a wonderful little seed. Is it not so? It is that "by which the law of God is in measure made known unto all men ;"-that is, from which those who are destitute of divine revelation derive the little knowledge they manifest of the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. And yet in this little seed, this least of all seeds, there lie, potentially enfolded, all the mysteries of the kingdom of God; the everlasting Gospel in all its truths and blessings; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; Jesus Christ himself, and the hope of glory!-so that the most ignorant heathen, and the very worst of human beings, has only to "mind and entertain this seed of God in his heart"-has only to attend to this light in his own mind-has only to "sit down at the feet of this Christ within him," and all is his :-if he only

"cherishes" this little seed, "hid in the earthly part of his heart," it will germinate, and unfold itself to all the fulness of evangelical knowledge, holiness, and blessing! All the mysteries of the gospel kingdom are wrapped up in this sense of right and wrong, this measure of the knowledge of God's law!-Now, do you believe this? can you believe this? To me it appears as strange a mystery in the world of mind, as the doctrine of transubstantiation in the world of matter. Granting that, in nature, the seed contains in its germ the miniature of the future tree, and that whatever is subsequently evolved was thus previously in the seed,—yet surely no seed can ever evolve that which it does not contain. How, then, can there ever be unfolded, from a seed that contains no more than "a measure of the knowledge of God's law," all the discoveries and all the effects of the Gospel? May you not as reasonably believe the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ to be contained in the consecrated wafer?

When Jesus says to the Pharisees, who asked him "when the kingdom of God should come”—“ behold the kingdom of God is within you;" the context shows that his object is to set before them the true nature of that kingdom, as a spiritual kingdom; -a kingdom, not such as they, in common with their countrymen in general, were expecting, but one which had to do with human hearts,-subduing

them to God, bringing them into willing and holy subjection;-a kingdom, of which the principles, and influences, and blessings, were specially internal. In the words used by him, therefore, he is not to be understood as stating a fact respecting the Pharisees, but as stating a fact respecting his kingdom. He tells them, that, while they were looking for something outward, something "coming with observation,"— that is, with external power and show,-they were looking for that which they should never find; that all who found his kingdom should find it within them; that if they themselves found it, it must be there,—in the power of its gracious principles in their hearts.I have no wish to rid myself of any difficulty by rendering the words as some do, "behold the kingdom of God is among you." I hold by our authorized version as the true one. But nothing can be more extravagant, than either to identify, as Barclay does, the sense of right and wrong possessed by the heathen, (howsoever communicated) with the discoveries and principles of the New Testament kingdom, as revealed by Christ and his apostles ;-or to insist upon it that that kingdom, wrapt up in its embryo seed, was actually at the time in the hearts of those who are elsewhere likened to "whited sepulchres, beautiful outwardly, but within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness,"-in hearts that were