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tfoiguished from the old , before he can reasonably expect to concert Us to ait opinion Scr frigid and Sterile ^ which grants us less of the divine presence under the Christian than under the Mosaic
crispefrsation ; bat he has not attempted to support his novel opinion by a single passage of scripture . The doctrine of divine influence is , indeed , expressed in such
indelible characters in th , e sacred writings , that it is admitted by the generality of Christians ; the principal difference between the Friends and others , consists rather in the mode and extent of the
influence ol the spirit ^ than in the thing itsel f * As our opponent has not attacked us on scripture ground , I shall be brief and only observe , nearly in the words of the apostle ; that if as the things of a man are only known by the spirit of man , so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God : then the scriptures , which relate to the things of God , cannot be known to man by his natural reason , unenlightened by the spirit of God ; . hence the apostle James recommends those who
tvant wisdom , not to himself nor to any outward writing , but to ask of God who giveth liberally and upbraidcth not ; v \ hich agrees with what our Saviour also says , that otir heavenly Father will give his holy Spirit to them that ask jfiim . The Spirit is , therefore , as Barclay observes * " the
foundation and ground of all truth and knowledge , and the primary rule of faith and manners . " Not as opposed to or contradicting the holy scriptures , which were written by its dictates , but as being that , without which , in various instances * % iicy cannot be under .
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stood and applied ^ o as to odify and build us up in the faith of the gospel . Not having Philo s paper before me , J cannot fuUy judge of tbe accuracy of the analogy he
has drawn , between human rea * son and the spirit of God , with respect to the laws instituted by each , but it must be admitted that the holy spirit is as much superior to the scriptures , as human reason is to the laws
instituted by it . As nothing can rise higher than its source , so human laws will partake of the fallibility of human reason and require revision ; but laws instituted by the holy spirit , cannot require ,
revision through any dcicct la the source whence- they , proceed ,, h ' iice " the infallibility ana permanency of the scripttues" are not affected by this analogy between them and human laws :
nevertheless the holy spirit is not limited by its own institutions , so as to be prevented abrogating them when they have answered the end designed ; thus the Mosaic dispensation which was only intended as a school-master to lead to
Christ , was abrogated by the holy spirit after its types and figures were fulfilled in Christ to whom they pointed . There must have been some confusion in the ideas of
Vcrifrcis , when he supposed that it would not be conte'ndcd for hy Philo , that tfie doctrinal parts of Christianity u exist inherently " in the holy spirit ' that gave them
forth . What Barclay says , is , that though the spirit can reveal " an historical faith and knowledge of the birth of Christ in the fle ! sh without the means of the scriptures / ' it -is ,, not . usually * & revealed .-neither ' is " to bo vx ~
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318 On the inward Light , in Reply to Veritas *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1808, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2393/page/26/
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