APPENDIX, CONTAINING A COMPARISON OF SOME OF THE DOCTRINAL VIEWS OF J.J. GURNEY, WITH THOSE OF SEVERAL STANDARD WRITERS AMONG THE EARLY FRIENDS, AND SEVERAL TESTIMONIES AND LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE DOCTRINES AND CONDITION OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

[3: UNIVERSAL AND SAVING LIGHT, PAGES 286-288]


John Wilbur

Wilbur, John. A Narrative and Exposition of the Late Proceedings of New England Yearly Meeting, With Some of its Subordinate Meetings & Their committees, in Relation to the Doctrinal Controversy Now Existing in the Society of Friends: Prefaced by a Concise View of the Church, Showing the Occasion of its Apostacy, both Under the Former and Present Dispensations, With an Appendix. Edited from Record Kept, From Time to Time, of Those Proceedings, and Interspersed With Occasional Remarks and Observations. Addressed to the Members of the Said Yearly Meeting. New York: Piercy & Reed, Printers, 1854, pages 277-325.

(All italics added by J.W. for emphasis. All words supplied in [Square Brackets] by J.W.
Page numbers from original publication by -pds in {Set Brackets.}

This Document is on The Quaker Writings Home Page.



J.J. Gurney (Essays, American edit, p. 366): "The multitude of the Gentiles, who gave themselves up to idolatrous and other vicious practices, were condemned for this very reason, that they sinned against the light of naturemaud both practised and promoted iniquity, although they knew the judgment of God, that they which commit such things axe worthy of death."--[In a note at the bottom of the page ] "I beg it may be understood, that by the light of nature, I mean, simply, the light which God has communicated to the souls of men, independently of an outwardly revealed religion."
(p. 392.) "God has written his moral law on the hearts of all men, or in other words, has interwoven a sense of it with their very nature."
(Portable Evidences, p. 23.) "Yet it must be allowed that it is chiefly through revelation that we are thus led to reasonfrom creation and providence, and that merely {p. 287} natural religion, even with the additional light of tradition, has left the heathen world in all ages, in a state of great darkness respecting the Supreme Being."
(p. 164.) "Their case is not to be confounded with that of the uninstructed heathen, who have never heard the truth. To these [viz. instructed persons] the gospel has been preached," [plainly implying that it has not to the others.]

Contrast the above with

George Fox (Journal, Vol. I. p. 112): "I saw that Christ died for all men, and was a propitiation for all; and enlightened all men and women with his divine and saving light, and that none could be a true believer, but who believed in it. I saw that the grace of God, which brings salvation, had appeared to all men, and that the manifestation of the Spirit of God was given to every man to profit withal."
(p. 224:) "I declared to them, that every one that cometh into the world, was enlightenedby Christ the life; by which light they might see their sins, and Christ, who was come to save them from their sins, and died for them."
(p. 420.) "Now I was speaking of the heavenly, divine light of Christ, with which he enlightens every one that cometh into the world, to give them the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus their Saviour."
Robert Barclay (Apol. Prop. V. & VI.): "And this light enlighteneth the hearts of all for a time, in order to salvation; and this is it which reproves the sin of all individuals, and would work out the salvation of all, if not resisted. Nor is it less universal than the seed of sin, being the purchase of his death, who tasted death for every man, &c. For as hence it well follows that some of the old philosophers might have been saved, so also may some, who by Providence are cast into those remote parts of the world where the knowledge of the history is wanting, be made partakers of the {p. 288} divine mystery, if they receive and resist not that grace, a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal. This most certain doctrine being then received, that there is an evangelical and saving light and grace in all, the universality of the love and mercy of God towards mankind, both in the death of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the manifestation of tho Light in the heart, is established and confirmed, against all the objections of such as deny it. Therefore, Christ hath tasted death for every man; not only for all kinds of men, as some vainly talk, but for every man of all kinds; the benefit of whose offering is notonly extended to such who have the distinct outward knowledge of His death and sufferings as the same is declared in the Scriptures, but even unto those who are necessarily excluded from the beliefit of this knowledge by some inevitable accident; which knowledge we willingly confess to be very profitable and comfortable, but not absolutely needful unto such fi'om whom God himself hath withheld it; yet they may be made partakers of the mystery of His death, though ignorant of the history, if they suffer his seed and light, enlightening their hearts, to take place, in which light, communion with the Father and the Son is enjoyed," &c.
 

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