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his idol as a delirious will-in-the-wisp, that claimed a
heavenly descent for the offspring of earthly passions; and
Fox, and
Barclay, and
Penn, earnestly denounced ‘the idolatry which hugs its own conceptions,’ mistaking the whimseys of a feverish brain for the calm revelations of truth.
But, ‘How shall I know,’ asks
Penn, ‘that a man does not obtrude his own sense upon us as the infallible Spirit?’
And he answers, ‘By the same Spirit.’
The Spirit witnesseth to
our spirit.
The
Quaker repudiates the errors which the bigotry of sects, or the zeal of selfishness, or the delusion of the senses, has engrafted upon the unchanging principles of morals; and accepting intelligence wherever it exists, from the collision of parties and the strife in the world of opinions, he gathers together the universal truths which of necessity constitute the common creed of mankind.
There is a natural sagacity of sympathy, which separates what belongs to the individual from that which commends itself to universal reason.
Quakerism ‘is a most rational system.’
Judgment is to be made not
from the rash and partial mind, but from the eternal light that never errs.
The divine revelation is universal, and compels assent.
The jarring reasonings of individuals have filled the world with controversies and
debates; the true light pleads its excellency in every breast.
Neither may the divine revelation be confounded with individual conscience; for the conscience of the individual follows judgment, and may be warped by self-love and debauched by lust.
The
Turk has no remorse for sensual indulgence, for he has defiled his judgment with a false opinion The Papist, if he eat flesh in Lent, is reproved by the Inward monitor, for that monitor is blinded by a false belief.
