of his own heart, or of any principle within him; it woos him away from every false hope, and directs him to the exalted Saviour in heaven; it paints in proper colours the vanity of all sublunary objects; it supports the pilgrim when ready to sink in despair under the pressure of human woes; it guides him through the mazes of folly by the pure and steady light of truth; it leads him into the possession of all that is virtuous and lovely; it refreshes him from the living streams of salvation; it cheers his drooping spirit in the last fearful conflict; it lights up with holy joy the countenance of the dying christian, and throws its lovely beams of hope on the soul of the bending mourner as he conveys the dead to the silent tomb; it carries the soul of the sleeping pilgrim to the bright realms of glory, and thither it guarantees the certain ascension of the same body which he lays in the grave; there to reap the rich rewards of the divine love in pure and perpetual bliss.

But on the other side, turn your eyes on these prospects set before our pilgrim. There lovely nature ceases to smile; a withering blast has passed over the face of the land; the herbs have perished; the flowers have faded; the forest has shed its leaves; the whirlwind has swept them away; the pestilence has walked in secret, and spent its energies on animated nature; desolation scowls from his throne of darkness.-For oh! the sun has set over that world. His kindly influences are gone-and gone is that divine person who redeemed by purchase and by power, the trembling pilgrim; and gone too is that divine person who led his steps into the paths of righteousness. The lamp of truth flashes in the socket, and threatens to leave him in the gloom of despair; every object presents a dreary aspect; he moves through darkness to a land unknown; shifting phantoms hover round him; unearthly voices tempt him to turn inward on the energies of his own mind, and seek what is necessary there. At the sight of the moral chaos within, he is thrown back with encreasing sorrow on what is without. The pitiless storm mingles its terrors with the ragings of the mountain stream: the thunders roar; the lightning's livid glare reveals the face of nature in her new deformities; the demon of the storm mingles his unearthly shrieks with the roaring of the thunder, and lashing the whirlwind into

fury, he rides over his head, and threatens to "carry him away in a tempest of the night !" Return, O pilgrim! from the valley of the shadow of death; return to the valley of vision. This is the land of light; hither thy God beckons thee; here thy Saviour stretches out his arms to receive thee; here the Comforter will dry up thy tears. And when the years of thy life shall be numbered he will bear thee away to the land of the blessed; and the church will embalm thy memory in her sweet remembrance, while with a tear she pronounces "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PROEM.

THE immortal author of a Tale in a Tub has indubitably been unjust to brother John in the matter of brother Peter's coat. He makes the said John Presbyter to fall outrageously on Peter's coat, and despoil it of every portion of its embroidery, of its unnecessary foldings and loop-holes and buttons. And, moreover, he makes him, through the excess of zeal, to displace these supernumeraries, actually to tear and rend the garment in sundry places. Now to whatever lengths the zeal of John did carry him—and he went great lengths (lauded be his zeal,) in reducing brother Peter's coat to a christian-like shape and condition, I aver, and I offer to prove it, that the action which the aforesaid immortal author ascribes to brother John, was in its literal extent done by brother George. John's coat possesses not only every necessary item of loop and button, durability, and gracefulness, but moreover, it is modestly equipped with a just apportionment of embroidery; but George's violence has not only stript off all ornaments, and all necessaries, but it has rent and mangled it to such a degree that it has no earthly resemblance to a coat; nor is it even fit to cover his nakedness! The proof of this is forthcoming.

And with my reader's permission, dropping this figure, I shall enter on the proofs OF THE DEFECTS OF THE QUAKER SYSTEM IN

POINT OF Religious inSTITUTIONS.

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§ 1. Of the Lord's Day. “ Περι της έβδομης ἡμέρας ἣν παντες άνθρωποι evoμov.-THEOPHILUS ANTIOCH.-The Quakers reject the fourth commandment; and of course they deny the morality of the Sabbath. With them all days are alike holy; with them "every day is the Lord's day." "The immediate movings of the spirit are not limited to time or place ;"* and they strenuously assert that there is no authority from scripture making or declaring the first day of the week the christian Sabbath.

*Bar.

It is admitted by all that a portion of our time must be devoted exclusively, to the service of Almighty God; and it is very evident that this time ought to be so fixed and universally understood, that the christian world may enter on its solemn services without distraction or misunderstanding. If divine authority has not fixed a day, what earthly power could dictate to the whole christian world? And if all men are left to fix their own time, what a scene of confusion and disorder would be produced in society!

The testimony of the Bible is clear and definite that "the God of Order" has not left such an important point unsettled. From the beginning" God blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it;” or set it apart. The observance of this "rest" could not be designed for the Most High in any other respect than that it should be sacred to his service. Hence it was ordained for man's favour and benefit.

This "rest" or "Sabbath" is noticed as existing and actually observed by public consent, previous to the publication of the fourth commandment. And in that precept the injunction is so expressed as to recognise a former precept on this subject. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

Now, this precept is enrolled with the other nine which are exclusively moral. And as it has a special reference to the divine worship, it is most certainly a moral precept. But even admitting that we were to give up what is called its morality, the weight of its obligation would not be lessened in a single grain by the admission; far less would it thereby be abrogated. It would still be a divine precept; and as a divine precept it is as positive and as binding as that which enjoins Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

The keeping of the Sabbath is an ordinance of perpetual obligation in the church. Its existence in the church after the introduction of the christian dispensation, and the conversion of the Gentiles, is distinctly foretold by a prophet. Our Saviour's discourse assumes it as a matter of fact not to be questioned, that

* I have made a free use of President Edwards' Sermon on the Sabbath, to illustrate and confirm our views on this subject.

+ Exod. xvi. v. 23, 26.

Isa. lvi. 6, 7, 8.

the Sabbath would be observed as usual when the Jewish ceremonies and legal rites should have ceased.* And all these are predicated on the most certain truth, that the precept "Remem ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy," stood unrepealed—and should maintain its authority till the last trumpet should sound the last note of time.

The Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; or rather we should say, it has probably now reverted to that day on which it was observed by Adam and the patriarchs. It is certain that the Sabbath of Adam, though the seventh day of time, was yet the first entire day that he saw.f And it is most natural to suppose-and there is nothing repugnant to it in scripture, that he began the computation of the days of the week from the first entire day that he beheld. Thus it may be fairly said that the Sabbath became, in future computions, the first day of the week. This argument receives additional strength from the following historical facts: When the descendants of Adam apostatized from the worship of the true God, they substituted in his place the sun; that luminary which, more than all others, strikes the minds of savage people with religious awe, and which, therefore, all heathens worship. They carried with them indeed the day on which their fathers worshipped; but they worshipped the sun. Hence the day was called the sun's day in the language of their respective nations.‡ Hence as the learned Selden has shown, Sunday, the day observed by the patriarchs as their Sabbath, was the first day of the week in the nations of the east, and is so still. Thus the Sabbath of the

* Matth. xxiv. 20.

He was created the last of living things, after the morning of the sixth day. Hence the Jewish doctors say "man was created in the evening," i. e. the beginning" of Sabbath." Talmud. See Witsius Econ. of the Cov. vol. i. book i. ch. 7.

Η “Η του ήλιου λεγομενη ημερα.” The day called Sunday. Justin. Mart. Apol. ii. sub fin. Paris edit. or Apol. i. Thirlby's edit. p. 98. In the same place, J. Martyr makes the day on which God rested, and the day on which our Lord rose, the same, or first day.

§ Seld. Jus. Nat. et Gent. lib. iii. c. 22. That the ancient nations of the East computed time by seven days, Dion Cassius asserts, lib. 33. That this was a very ancient custom, Herodotus declares, lib. 2. Josephus against Appion. ii. ad fin. says that no city of the Greeks, that no city of the Barbarians was ignorant of the custom of observing the seventh day or portion of time. See Grotius de Veritate lib. i. sect. 16.