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God Almighty, according to Psalm xxxvii. 5; Commit thy way unto the Lord : trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.'

"The first instance which the author brings to prove the Scriptures cannot be a rule to us is, that some are called to the ministry of the word, and a necessity laid upon them, as St. Paul said there was a necessity upon him, to preach the Gospel. 'Woe unto me,' said he, if I preach not;' which necessity, as it may be incumbent upon particular persons, the Scriptures neither do nor can declare.

"Answer. That every faithful minister of the Gospel hath a necessity laid upon him (providing that external impediments that may hinder him be removed) to preach the Gospel, is granted; but that he hath it in the same immediate manner and kind of immediate revelation as St. Paul had it, it follows not. And granting that all faithful ministers have this necessity laid upon them by an inward motion or impulse of the Holy Ghost, working by and with the external word itself, whereof he is called to be a minister, yet this is not that immediate revelation that the authors in the Quakers generally contend for, which they hold to be so immediate as to be without the written word, as a concurring instrumental cause, working together with the Holy Spirit as the principal cause, in producing that internal motion or impulse; the manner of which production may be thus conceived, without immediate revelation, in the Quakers' notion of it, as the prophets and apostles had.

"1st. It pleaseth God, by his Holy Spirit, to beget the true faith of the Gospel in certain persons, by the external word, preached, or read, or meditated upon.

"2nd. By their great industry of hearing, reading, and meditating in the holy Scriptures, and using other profitable means of good instruction, by the blessing of God upon their pious labours, blessing them with the illuminations of his Holy Spirit, such as above described, that accompany the external word, and work upon their minds and hearts with it and by it, they acquire a more than ordinary degree of sound knowledge in the doctrines and principles of the Christian religion, above what the attainment of ordinary true Christians arrive at, with other suitable ministerial qualifications, not common to ordinary, though true and sound Christians.

"3rd. It pleaseth God to work in those persons, thus qualified as above described, a more than ordinary love and zeal to God's glory and the good of souls.

"4th. This love and zeal for God's glory, begot in them not by the word alone, (I mean the external word and doctrine contained in the holy Scriptures,) nor by the Holy Spirit alone, but by both jointly working together; the Holy Spirit, as the principal cause and author, and God's holy word and doctrine, as the instrumental, doth powerfully, and yet sweetly and gently, move and incline them to dedicate and give themselves up to the work of the ministry; which motive and inclination, or impulse, doth as really proceed from the Holy Spirit, though not so immediately, or in that immediate manner, as the apostles and prophets had it, and as the author and the Quakers contend that all ministers of the Gospel should have it.

"5th. They who have this motion, inclination, or impulse of the Holy Spirit, begot in them by means of the external word, may be as certain, and sufficiently persuaded of it, as those who have it more immediately, though after another manner, to wit, by the Holy Spirit shining upon this holy zeal, begot in their hearts by the ministry of the word, and discovering the truth and sincerity of it; which manner of discovery the author ought to grant, and to be sufficiently

certain, from his like manner of describing the living and spiritual knowledge that he and his brethren (as he supposed) had of Christ's birth, life, &c., by the medium of the written word, the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit moving the mind to assent to the same.

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"As to his objection, page 75, Apology, By what rule shall I judge if I be so qualified? Answer. As well as by what rule he might be sure he had the living and spiritual knowledge and faith of Christ's birth, life, &c. which he grants is by means of the holy Scriptures concurring as the material object, and the Spirit's illumination as the formal.

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Objection. But no Scripture saith, that I Robert am so qualified.' Answer. Nor doth any Scripture say, that I Robert have a true, living, and spiritual knowledge and faith in Christ's birth, in the flesh, life, death, &c. And yet the author grants that this is had by means of the Scripture, with the joint operation of the Holy Spirit's internal illumination."

Page 19." In his (R. Barclay's) last treatise on the possibility and necessity of immediate revelation, page 895 of his works in folio, he saith, 'If, by immediate revelation, he understood such a revelation of God as begets in our souls an historical faith and knowledge of the birth of Christ in the flesh, without the means of holy Scripture, we do not contend for such a revelation as commonly given or to be expected by us.' Apol., Prop. x. § 4. To be a member of a particular church of Christ, as this inward work is indisputably necessary, so is also the outward profession of, and belief in Jesus Christ, and those holy truths delivered by the Spirit in the Scriptures.' Prop. v. vi. § 15. It were damnable unbelief not to believe it when so declared.""

Page 121. Seeing that the author holds that the inward, immediate revelations that he pleads for are the primary and adequate (i. e. full and entire) rule of all faith and practice, and that the Scriptures are but the secondary, he must grant that all the contents of the Scriptures, to wit, all the integrals as well as essentials of the Christian faith and religion, are contained in the primary rule, as well as in the secondary; and that the primary hath them all, and doth propound them all to the minds of the faithful, without the secondary, to wit, the Scriptures: but this is contrary to his former plain assertions above quoted, that the historical knowledge and faith of the birth of Christ in the flesh is not manifest to them by inward immediate revelation, but by the Scriptures; which clearly overthrows his whole fabric that he hath been so laboriously constructing in both his second and third propositions, viz., that inward (&c.) revelation is the primary and adequate rule of all knowledge and faith of all the essentials and integrals of the Christian religion; for, seeing he will have it to be primary, being compared with Scripture, it must be at least as full, adequate, and comprehensive in the contents of it as the Scripture, and that as well in integrals as essentials: as the original or primary picture of a man's face must have all the parts in it, or lineaments, that the copy or secondary hath, otherwise either it is not a true original, or the secondary is not a true copy.

"Now, if we set aside all these doctrines of Christianity, which the author calls integrals, and not essentials thereof, as the doctrine of Christ's birth in the flesh, and all others necessarily depending thereupon, and most necessarily connected therewith, we shall leave behind very few doctrines or principles, such as he will have to be all the essentials of Christianity; indeed, none but the mere and bare principles of deism and natural religion, to be all the essentials of Christianity. At this rate, all the articles of the Apostles' Creed are to be excluded from the essentials of Christianity; and thus deism, or natural religion,

i.e., reformed paganism, containing only some general notions of a supreme power and godhead, together with some few precepts of morality, shall be Christianity in all its essentials, and differing only in some integrals.

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'But, again, the author is greatly inconsistent with himself in allowing these doctrines he calls the integrals of Christianity, to be necessary to be believed by us for our salvation, to wit, the doctrines of our Saviour's birth in the flesh, his death for our sins, remission of sins by the merit of his death; for, by his former assertion, that inward and immediate Divine rule is the primary rule of their faith, and the full and adequate rule, as above quoted and proved; and yet doth not teach them by itself without Scripture, one of those integral parts of Christian doctrine; it necessarily follows, they are under no necessity to believe them at all, because not contained in the contents of their primary rule; nay, they had no necessity to believe them at all, nor can have any certain faith of them, according to him, because all certainty of faith depends on the inward revelation of the Spirit, not only by way of seal, as Calvin and other Protestants assert, but by proposing to them the material objects of faith, without the means of the Scripture; but this their inward and immediate revelation not doing, it can give them no certainty thereof by his way of inquiry."

MAIMONIDES ON REPENTANCE.

THIS treatise is divided into ten chapters, and is written in the Hebrew language. As the author is of the highest renown in the Jewish school, and is certainly the most judicious and learned author of his nation that has appeared since the destruction of Jerusalem, it will be interesting to see what such a writer teaches on the important doctrine of repentance. For this purpose we have translated some passages from his work on repentance, which contain the spirit of the whole treatise.

In the first chapter Maimonides begins his theological thesis thus:

"Every one who intentionally, or through error, transgresses any preceptive or prohibitive commandment of the law, but ceases from that sin through a feeling of penitence, is obliged to confess his sins before God. This is what is taught in Numb. v. 6, 7, Then they shall confess the sins which they have done.' This confession must be expressed in words vocally, and to this duty we are bound by a positive command. But how is this confession to be uttered? As thus: O Lord, I have sinned; I have been disobedient and have rebelled against thee, for thus or thus have I done. Behold, I repent of this sin, and I am covered with shame on account of my evil doings, and, for the future, I will not do the like again' This is the sum of right confession; and he that oft makes confession, and is much occupied in this duty, is praiseworthy," [or, is heaped up with praise.]

In the sixth clause of this chapter he says,—

"Since we have no temple nor altar, there is no expiation now for our sins, but only repentance, or penitence; for penitence expiates all transgressions. For though a man should have been wicked all his life, yet, if he at last repents, his

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sins are not imputed to him, as it is written in Ezekiel xxxiii. 12, As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turned from his wickedness.'... ... ... But if any one shall have profaned the holy name of God, although he should repent, and the day of expiation should be at hand, and he should continue uninterruptedly penitent, and be chastised with afflictions, nevertheless he will not be fully absolved till he dies, and then death will expiate his offence, as it it written in Isaiah xxii. 14: Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.""

In the second chapter Maimonides inquires what is true penitence; and he defines it to be this: that when a man shall have committed a sin, but shall have repented of it, but afterwards shall have full opportunity to commit the same sin again, without fear of detection, but nevertheless shall abstain, then, in that case he will be really penitent. Speaking of a great sinner, he says,

"It is required of him that, in his repentance towards God, he should continually cry out aloud, and weep, and pray, [or deprecate,] and distribute alms to the poor according to his ability, and go as far away as possible from the locality where he has committed the sin, and even change his name, as if he meant to say, I am another person, I am not that person who did those crimes; and then he must change all his actions, (or works,) and do better, and walk in the right way, and go away from his accustomed place; for an emigration from his usual residence expiates sin, because it lowers a man, and renders his heart afflicted and humble."

Divers other methods of humiliation and atonement Maimonides then suggests; such as the public confession of a sin done to a neighbour, and that very clearly, specifying the sin in all its particulars :

"And this," says he, "will give the penitent much consolation, and all men will highly praise him."

He forbids, however, public enumeration of sins done to God; for this, he says, would be rather a proof of impudence than true repentance; and he adds,

Although penitence, and crying out aloud to God, are always most comely and excellent acts, they nevertheless have a peculiar merit, and are more readily attended to, in the days between the beginning of the year and the day of expiation; for it is written, Isaiah lv. 6, Seek the Lord whilst he may be found.""

On the forgiveness of sins, according to his scheme, he thus teaches, in the seventh chapter:

"Let no penitent imagine that he is far distant and separated from the righte ousness of the just owing to his iniquities and transgressions, for it is not so; but rather he is not less pleasing to the Creator, or less accepted by him, than if he had never sinned at all: nay, more than this, his reward will be great, because he has abstained from his sin, and has conquered his passions, and mastered them, after he had tasted the sweets of sinning."

In the eighth chapter he teaches what is the future life:

"The future life is that good thing which is laid up for the holy and the just. In that life no one will die, and no evil enters into its condition; and therefore it is written in the law, Deut. xxii. 7,' that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days;' for we learn by tradition, that' to be well with thee,' means a state of perfect good, and to prolong thy days,' means that state of which there will be no end; and in these two consists eternal life that is to be."

He then teaches that the fruition of the future life is "not corporeal or material;" but the just shall be freed from their bodies, and become like the ministering angels.

In the ninth chapter he says,

"The Almighty has kindly given us his law. This law is, as it were, the tree of life to every one who keeps all the commandments which it enjoins; and whosoever acquires a perfect and certain knowledge of the law, shall, by virtue of it, come to eternal life, and by reason of the excellence of his work, and the abundance of his knowledge, will be worthy of that life. For we are taught by the law to hope, that if we observe it with a willing mind, and, by pondering on it, make further progress in the knowledge of it, we shall in this life be freed from all those evils which may distract us from the due observation of it, such as ill health, war, hunger, and the like; and that all those good things will be heaped upon us which may render us more fit to observe the law, such as abundance, peace, and plenty of gold and silver, so that it will not be necessary for us to give ourselves any trouble in procuring things necessary for the body; but we shall be indulged with leisure, which we may dedicate to acquiring wisdom, and observing the precepts, so as to render ourselves worthy of eternal life.”

On this doctrine he enlarges, repeating much of what he had already said; only adding, that those who give themselves up to gluttony, drunkenness, and fornication, shall be troubled with external evils in this life, and be shut out from life eternal. He concludes with this passage:

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"For this cause chiefly, (that is, the ease and tranquillity to be secured to the doers of the law,) the prophets of Israel, and the wise men, have insisted that, in the days of Messiah, there should be a cessation for the righteous from those things which may prevent them from studying the law and keeping its precepts, so that they shall be able to pass their life here in tranquillity, increase their stock of wisdom, and so make themselves more fit for eternal life; for, in the days of Messiah, knowledge, wisdom, and truth shall flourish; as it is written, in Isaiah xi. 9, The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord;' and Jer. xxxi. 34, They shall not teach any more every man his neighbour, and every man his friend ;' and Ezek. xi. 19, ‘I will take away the stony hearts from your flesh.' For since the Messiah is the king who is to spring from David, he will excel Solomon in wisdom, and be almost equal to our Rabbi Moses, and therefore he will teach all people in the ways of the Lord, and all nations will come to hear him; as it is written in Micah iv. 1, But it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it.' As for that last reward, and the supreme felicity, of which there is no change or diminution, that only will be found