Take therefore this principle away from them, and you take away their religion at once.  Take away this spirit, and Christianity remains with them no more Christianity, than the dead carcass of a man, when the spirit is departed, remains a man.  Whatsoever is excellent, whatsoever is noble, whatsoever is worthy, whatsoever is desirable in the Christian faith, they ascribe to this spirit, and they believe that true Christianity can no more subsist without it, than the outward world could go on without the vital influence of the sun.

Now an objection will be made to the proposition, as I have just stated it, by some Christians, and even by those who do not wish to derogate from the spirit of God, (for I have frequently heard it started by such) that the Quakers, by means of these doctrines, make every thing of the spirit, and [100]but little of Jesus Christ.  I shall therefore notice this objection in this place, not so much with a view of answering it, as of attempting to show, that Christiana have not always a right apprehension of scriptural terms; and therefore that they sometimes quarrel with one another about trifles, or rather, that when they have disputes with each other, there is sometimes scarcely a shade of difference between them.

[Footnote 100:  The Quakers make much of the advantages of Christ’s coming in the flesh.  Among these are considered the sacrifice of his own body, a more plentiful diffusion of the Spirit, and a dearer revelation relative to God and man.]

To those who make the objection, I shall describe the proposition which has been stated above, in different terms.  I shall leave out the words “Spirit of God,” and I shall wholly substitute the term “Christ.”  This I shall do upon the authority of some of our best divines....  The proposition then will run thus: 

God, by means of Christ, created the world, “for without him was not any thing made, that was made.”

He made, by means of the same Christ, the terrestrial Globe on which we live.  He made the whole Host of Heaven.  He made, therefore, besides our own, other planets and other worlds.

He caused also, by means of the same Christ, the generation of all animated nature, and of course of the life and vital powers of man.

He occasioned also by the same means, the generation of reason or intellect, and of a spiritual faculty, to man.

Man, however, had not been long created, before he fell into sin.  It pleased God, therefore, that the same Christ, which had thus appeared in creation, should strive inwardly with man, and awaken his spiritual faculties, by which he might be able to know good from evil, and to obtain inward redemption from the pollutions of sin.  And this inward striving of Christ was to be with every man, in after times, so that all would be inexcusable and subjected to condemnation, if they sinned.