Again—­“Though of ourselves, and without Christ, we can do nothing; yet with him we can do all things:  and then, he adds a little lower, why should any duties frighten us, or seem impossible to us?”

Having now stated it to be the belief of the Quakers, that the spirit of God acts as an inward redeemer to man, and that its powers are such that it may lead him to perfection in the way explained, it remains for me to observe, that it is their belief also, that this spirit has been given for these purposes, without any exception, to all of the human race:  or in the same manner as it was given as an universal teacher, so it has been given as an universal redeemer to man, and that it acts in this capacity, and fulfils its office to all those who attend to its inward strivings, and encourage its influence on their hearts.

That it was given to all for this purpose, they believe to be manifest from the Apostle Paul:[56] “for the grace of God, says he, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men.”  He says again,[57] that “the Gospel was preached unto every creature which is under Heaven.”  He defines the Gospel to be[58] “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”  He means therefore that this power of inward redemption was afforded to all.  For the outward Gospel had not been preached to all in the time of the apostle; nor has it been preached to all even at the present day.  But these passages are of universal import.  They imply no exception.  They comprehend every individual of the human race.

[Footnote 56:  Titus 2.11.]

[Footnote 57:  Coloss. 1.23.]

[Footnote 58:  Rom. 1.16.]

That this spirit was also given to all for these purposes, the Quakers believe, when they consider other passages in the scriptures, which appear to them to belong to this subject.  For they consider this spirit to have begun its office as an inward redeemer[59] with the fall of the first man, and to have continued it through the patriarchal ages to the time of the outward Gospel, when there was to be no other inward redemption but by the same means.  Thus by the promise which was given to Adam, there was to be perpetual enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, though the latter was to vanquish, or as, the Quakers interpret it, between the spirit of sin and the spirit of God, that was placed in man.  This promise was fully accomplished by Jesus, (who came from the woman) after he had received immeasurably the spirit of God, or after he had become the Christ.  But the Quakers consider it to have bean partially accomplished by many from the time of Adam; for they believe that many, who have attended to the seed of God, or, which is the same thing,[60] to the portion of the spirit of God within them, have witnessed the enmity alluded to, and have bruised, in a great degree, the power of sin within their own hearts, or have experienced in these early times the redeeming power of the spirit