what Christ has done for us without us, placing us once more in a capacity to receive salvation-conveying to us a measure of Grace, which will bring salvation to all who do not reject it, but submit to its operations: and lastly, as this work is effected in us, and that change of heart is produced, which constitutes the new creature.

So then, when we consider the present condition of the human family, we find that on commencing our existence, we inherit, or receive two principles, one of evil and the other of good. These two principles are as seeds-not having yet germinated. The mind itself is very much in the same state; being without knowledge, and very much without understanding. As the capacities of the mind enlarge, and its faculties are brought into action, these two principles also begin to workand a conflict and warfare take place. The soul being distinct from both of these principles, has the power of choosing which it will serve. If the good is chosen, it being the stronger, binds-brings down, and casts out, the other, and brings the soul into complete redemption both from sin, and from its consequences. But if the evil is preferred-as we "cannot serve two masters"—the grace becomes rejected; and though it still, again and again, revisits the soul, breaking its fetters, and giving it ability to subdue the powers of darkness, yet if still slighted, or neglected, it finally leaves us to ourselves, and the goverment of that principle of evil which we have preferred-for the divine determination remains unaltered: "My spirit shall not always strive with man." Gen. 6. 3.

Thus we are left without excuse. Though we do not commence our existence with that degree of knowledge, that strength of intellect, and enlarged religious statue, which characterized the first man,

and in many other respects are sunk far, very far, below his primitive state, yet the grace afforded is sufficient for us-sufficient for our preservation from sin, from the first dawn of life, to its final close. And here it may be proper to apply the caution, "What God hath joined together, let no man put assunder." Matt. 19. 6. For redemption is only to be obtained through the means which God has provided by Jesus Christ. Had it not been for what Christ "has done for us without us," we could not have had the seed of grace; for it is "the gift of God" which we could not obtain for ourselves. Without this, the visitations and operations of the Spirit of God in our hearts, could never have been known, and consequently this redeemed state could never have been experienced. Neither on the other hand, (as moral agents,) can what Christ has done for us, without us, secure salvation. The grace afforded, must rule in us, or it cannot ultimately benefit us. Even the renewed visitations of his love, in our hearts, if resisted, will be so far from securing our final salvation, that they will add a heavy load to our condemnation.

The condition of man, before the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, has sometimes been brought into view. Divine Goodness, in providing the means of Salvation for fallen man, in sending his beloved Son into the world, to "taste death for every man," was pleased to defer that outward manifestation, until, by a course of instruction, mankind could be prepared to receive him. And he, whose view takes in, at once, the past, the present, and the future, made it apply, as respected salvation, before, as well as after the time of its advent. The fathers "drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" 1 Cor. 10. 4. Though light, knowledge, and many spiritual favors, have been

more abundantly diffused since the coming of Jesus Christ, yet, as a means of salvation, his Grace was dispensed before that time, as well as after. This, as W. Penn expresses it, was "on the credit" of what was promised in the very sentence pronounced on our prime ancestors.

Through all the early ages, the condition of the human mind, and its capacity for understanding in divine things, required that there should be much outward form and ceremony, addressed to the outward senses, and illustrative of the great work of redemption. From a low & servile state, they were to be led, like children, in the first rudiments of science, through several dispensations, until, "in the fulness of time" the Messiah came, and introduced a pure and spiritual dispensation-abrogating the types and ceremonies which were designed to lead to him, and granting a more copious affusion of his own divine influence, than had been communicated under the preceding dispensations.

Having thus briefly stated the doctrine of the original and present state of man; with a few hints relating to the different dispensations, it may not be improper to advert to another subject, which has been slightly brought into view.

In the account which is given in Scripture, of the transgression of our first parents, it appears they were tempted by an evil agent,* distinct from man: and that this agent, prompted them to sin, when they were in their original innocence.

Through all ages, and under almost all degrees of

*In using the term AGENT, I intend to convey the idea of a Being possessing the power of action.

darkness or light, which have prevailed, however the doctrines of religion may have been obscured, by successive innovations on those Truths, which God has been pleased to reveal, the great outlines of theology have been deeply impressed on the minds of men. Wherever we go, among civilized or uncivilized nations, we still find traces of the belief of a great First Cause, and Superintending Power-the source of all good, and the object of adoration. We find also, evidences of a belief that there is a principle, or spirit, malignant in its nature, and the source of all evil. The accountability of man for his actions, &c. is another sentiment extensively believed. These first principles, appear under various modifications, according as they have been viewed through the medium of light or darkness; but all retaining clear evidences of a common origin; which could have been no other than divine revelation. Even the darkest system of polytheism, if carefully investigated, discovers traces of such revelation. But the human mind, not resting satisfied with what is received through this medium, has, through all ages, possessed a strong disposition to bring down divine things, to the level of its own, unaided capacity. Hence, among heathen nations, the attributes of the Deity, and the virtues which adorn the human character, were personified and denominated deities; and then attempted to be made visible to the outward senses. Hence all those contemptible things that have been made the objects of veneration and worship, under the general term of idols. The human mind is not yet divested of the same propensity, leading it to leave the ground of all true knowledge in divine things, and in the strength, or rather weakness, of its own faculties, build up some system, which, like an idol, made visible to the outward senses, and at all times

accessible to the creature, is at all times open to creaturely comprehension.

But returning from this little digression, and without further pursuing the fables of the ancients, or the parallels between them and the more refined speculations of later times, it may not be improper to in troduce the sentiments of some of the first distinguished members of the Society of Friends, on the subject before us.

G. Fox, in his Journal, Vol. 2, page 22, says: "The Devil abode not in the truth. By departing from the truth, he became a Devil." "There is no promise of God to the Devil, that ever he shall return into the Truth again; but to man and woman who have been deceived by him, the promise of God is, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head: shall break his power and strength to pieces."

Page 402, he says: "The Devil, who is out of the truth, tempted man and woman to disobey God: and so drew them into the fall from the truth."

William Penn, in his Rise and Progress, in speaking of the original condition of man, says: "But this happy state lasted not long: for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity; and so fell below it, lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity, he was made in. By which, being no longer fit for Paradise, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and residence and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the presence of the Lord,to wander in the earth, the habitation of beasts. Yet God who made him, had pity on him: for he, seeing man was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, (but through the subtilty of the ser