To the same point Thomas Beaven quotes the ever memorable John Hales, who, in his golden remains, writes in the following manner:  “The love and favour, which it pleased God to bear our fathers before the law’, so far prevailed with him, as that without any books and writings, by familiar and friendly conversing with them, and communicating himself unto them, he made them receive and understand his laws, their inward conceits and intellectuals being, after a wonderful manner, figured as it were and charactered by his spirit, so that they could not but see and consent unto, and confess the truth of them.  Which way of manifesting his will unto many other gracious privileges it had, above that which in after ages came in place of it, had this added, that it brought with it unto the man to whom it was made, a preservation against all doubt and hesitancy, and a full assurance both who the author was, and how far his intent and meaning reached.  We who are their offspring ought, as St. Chrysostom tells us, so to have demeaned ourselves, that it might have been with us as it was with them, that we might have had no need of writing, no other teacher but the spirit, no other books but our hearts, no other means to have been taught the things of God.”

That the spirit of God, as described by Thomas Beaven and the venerable John Hales, was the great instructor or enlightener of man during the period we are speaking of, the Quakers believe, from what they conceive to be the sense of the holy scriptures on this subject.  For in the first place, they consider it as a position, deducible from the expressions of Moses[33], that the spirit of God had striven with those of the antediluvian world.  They believe, therefore, that it was this spirit (and because the means were adequate, and none more satisfactory to them can be assigned) which informed Cain, before any written law existed, and this even before the murder of his brother, that[34] “if he did well, he should be accepted; but if not, sin should lie at his door.”  The same spirit they conceive to have illuminated the mind of Seth, but in a higher degree than ordinarily the mind of Enoch; for he is the first, of whom it is recorded, that[35] “he walked with God.”  It is also considered by the Quakers as having afforded a rule of conduct to those who lived after the flood.  Thus Joseph is described as saying, when there is no record of any verbal instruction from the Almighty on this subject, and at a time when there was no scripture or written law of God, [36] “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” It illuminated others also, but in a greater or less degree, as before.  Thus Noah became a preacher of righteousness.  Thus Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were favoured with a greater measure of it than others who lived in their own times.

[Footnote 33:  Gen. 6.3]

[Footnote 34:  Ib 4.7]

[Footnote 35:  Gen. 5.24.]

[Footnote 36:  Ib. 39.9.—­The traditionary laws of Noah were in force at this time; but they only specified three offences between man and man.]