Of the same mind was the learned bishop Taylor, as we collect from his sermon de Via Intelligentiae.  “For although the scriptures, says he, are written by the spirit of God, yet they are written within and without.  And besides the light that shines upon the face of them, unless there be a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, and interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit, convincing our consciences, and preaching to our hearts; to look for Christ in the leaves of the gospel, is to look for the living among the dead.  There is a life in them; but that life is, according to St. Paul’s expression, ‘hid with Christ in God;’ and unless the spirit of God first draw it, we shall never draw it forth.”

“Human learning brings excellent ministeries towards this.  It is admirably useful for the reproof of heresies, for the detection of fallacies, for the letter of the scripture, for collateral testimonies, for exterior advantages; but there is something beyond this that human learning, without the addition of divine, can never reach.  Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians; and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order, motion, and influences of the heaven; but, besides all this, they were taught something far beyond these prettinesses.  Pythagoras read Moses’ books, and so did Plato, and yet they became not proselytes of the religion, though they were the learned scholars of such a master.”

CHAP.  IV.

The spirit of God which has been thus given to man in different degrees, was given him as a spiritual teacher, or guide, in his spiritual concerns—­It performs this office, the Quakers say, by internal monitions—­Sentiments of Taylor—­and of Monro—­and, if encouraged, it teaches even by the external objects of the creation—­William Wordsworth.

The Quakers believe that the spirit of God, which has been thus given to man in different degrees or measures, and without which it is impossible to know spiritual things, or even to understand the divine writings spiritually, or to be assured of their divine origin, was given to him, among other purposes, as a teacher of good and evil, or to serve him as a guide in his spiritual concerns.  By this the Quakers mean, that if any man will give himself up to the directions of the spiritual principle that resides within him, he will attain a knowledge sufficient to enable him to discover the path of his duty both to God and his fellow-man.

That the spirit of God was given to man as a spiritual instructor, the Quakers conceive to be plain, from a number of passages, which are to be found in the sacred writings.