SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIFE OF GEORGE FOX, CONTAINING A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE DOCTRINES and PRACTICES INCULCATED BY HIM, SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIFE of GEORGE FOX, &c. ALTHOUGH the Biographical Notice which has been taken of George Fox, contains an occasional statement of the principles and practices which he propagated, it seems a proper, in the conclusion, to draw them into one point of view, and exhibit them in such a manner, that the reader may be capable of forming a judgment of their rectitude, and of the beneficial effects resulting from them... The fundamental principle which he was most concerned to inculcate, was the universality of the Light, Grace, or Spirit of Christ, and its sufficiency to teach men all things necessary to salvation. Yet, while he bore testimony to this Divine principle, as the anointing, which the Apostle Johu told the primitive Christians, taught them of all things, he was far from denying the use of other means, which God has condescended to afford for the instruction of mankind; whether through the Holy Scriptures, the Preaching of the Gospel, or any other outward instruction, consistent with the Christian dispensation. The principal use, however, of all these means he considered to be, to bring the minds of those who partook of them, to an acquaintance with the inward teacher, the Light of Christ manifested in the heart; by an attention to which, the benefits of the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer come to be experienced, according to the testimony of one Apostle on behalf of himself and his fellow la-bourers in the Gospel; 1 John i. 5. 6. 7: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you; that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin." George Fox and our early friends might, and often did, adopt these words of the Apostle, ast the peculiar message given to them. For, however they may have been charged to the contrary, they fully believed in the benefits to be derived. from our Saviour's sufferings and death; both as a propitiation for the sins of mankind, and as the Mediator between God and man. |