perplexed. But let me not be understood in any respect to justify the deliberate and quiet continuance in a profession of religion, without strictly considering the ground upon which it is based, especially when there has been sufficient evidence that all is not right. One great object I have had in view, in wading through this most painful examination of the principles of Friends is, to enforce on every one who is concerned, the necessity of abandoning the profession of error, and of holding the truth righteously. I will, however, close this examination with a passage, which I highly value, from a living author of great piety. And, oh, may the boundless goodness and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, rescue every individual from the deleterious effects of that narcotic dose, with which, in early life, so many of those who have had their education in the Society are drenched; insomuch that their eyes being closed to the glories of the cross of Christ, they habitually look to their own hearts for the germ of salvation. Look, I earnestly beseech you, look to to JESUS as he is revealed in his word; and let mystical dreams no longer rob you of the peace of God which passeth understanding.

"The serpent of brass, in the form, but free

from the venom of that creature, was a symbol of the Messiah in the likeness of sinful flesh, but free from all sin. He was lifted up on the cross that every one who looks to him with the eye of faith may be delivered from death, and the injuries inflicted by Satan the fiery serpent. The sins of the redeemed, transferred to the Saviour, presented him who was holy and undefiled, as a sinner before God, and as such he bore the punishment of their iniquities; but as the innocent materials carried the resemblance of the noxious reptile, yet the impress of the latter was not attended by any internal, venomous influence, so the imputation of our transgressions produced no contamination in the Messiah. He sustained their weight and endured the wrath due to the offenders; but he continued the Minister of righteousness. There was no other means of escape from the effects of the bite of the fiery serpents, but by having recourse to the brazen one of God's providing; so there is no remedy for the evil of sin, or refuge from the assaults of Satan, but in the Saviour and Mediator whom God has provided; and as every Israelite, in whatever part of the camp he might be placed, and however weak his sight, could yet direct his eyes to the

typical healer of Israel, so every penitent sinner, in whatever place or station, may direct his faith to his crucified Redeemer, and experience the healing influence of him who was exalted that he might destroy him that had the power of death: nor will his safety depend upon the strength but the genuineness of that faith. The tremulous eye of infancy, or the feeble sight of old age, if only directed to the proper object, alike experienced its salutary energy; and the obscure and imperfect faith of those whose natural faculties may be insufficient to comprehend the mysteries of the kingdom, or even to explain the nature of their belief, yet, if humbly directed to the Author of Life, shall experience his power to save equally with their more highly-gifted brethren. "The wayfaring

men, though fools, shall not

66

err therein."

Typical Instruction considered and illustrated, by John Peers, A.M."

APPENDIX.

Within these few days I have had lent to me a publication that I have long been desirous of meeting with, viz. "The improvement of human reason exhibited in the life of HAI EBN YOKDAN: written in Arabic, above five hundred years ago, by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail: in which is demonstrated by what methods one may, by the meer LIGHT OF NATURE, attain the knowledge of things natural and supernatural; more particularly the knowledge of GOD, and the affairs of another life. Newly translated from the original Arabic, by Simon Ockley, A. M. Vicar of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire. London, printed, and Dublin reprinted by and for Sam. Fuller, at the Globe, in Meath-street, 1731."

Nothing can exceed the absurdity of this metaphysical romance, which, throughout the whole, has not any thing even bordering upon probability. Hai Ebn Yokdan is represented as having been the offspring of a private marriage

and as it was not convenient that his birth should be known, "his mother took him in the evening, and when she had suckled him she put him into a little ark, which she closed up fast," and set him afloat on the ocean. He was however safely

landed the same night on an uninhabited island,
for it fortuned that the water being high,
carried the ark a great way on shore, farther than
it would have done at another time, (for it rises
so high but once a year,) and cast the ark into
a little shady grove, thick set with trees, a
pleasant place, where he was secured both from
wind and sun. When the tide ebbed, the ark
was left there; and the wind rising, blew a heap
of sand together between the ark and the sea,
sufficient to secure him from any future danger

of such another flood. The violence of the
waves had loosened the joints of the ark;
the boy was hungry and cried.
It hap-
pened fortunately, at that juncture of time, that
a roe wandering about the island in search of
her fawn, which straying, was devoured by an
eagle, heard the boy cry; and following the
voice, (imagining it to have been her fawn,)
came up to the ark, which she immediately at-
tacked; and what with her beating it with her
hoofs without, and the boy's struggling within,