EXTRACT V.
Law written on the heart.
"Here again we learn the great and deep wisdom of Almighty Goodness and Mercy, that he does not make one law for all men. But the divine life makes a rule in every mind, and gives a law that will counteract all the evil propensities of the mind. Our propensities, opinions, and actions, are different; therefore, if we had but one law, it might be written, as to Israel, on tables of stone. But what would that do for us? it would not do for the children of men universally; no not for any two, unless they were all exactly in the same state.' 'So here we learn, when thus enlightened,—that no creed, or profession of faith, can ever be made to suit the Christian dispensation; because it limits the Holy One, and fixes the ground and rule, and it never suits the purpose of one individual of the whole, because it dont reach to the matter, to the heart.—But when the Almighty enters into our souls by his light and life, he sees the evil and the good, and in his abundant mercy, and loving kindness, he make up a rule for us; we learn his commandments.—We have the law in us, that goes with us every day, and we are to teach it to our children, and to recommend them where the law is, and where it must be sought for, and not recommend them to an outward law, made by man, that cannot suit the inward state of any two in 'the world.'—'Here we learn the inefficacy of all human means, be they what they will, whether the reason of man, without being governed by the divine light; or whether it be the Bible, which some call a complete rule of faith and practice, and even some highly professing Christians.—But it is not a complete rule of faith and practice; it never made a Christian in the world, neither that, nor any man that ever lived, had power to do it. There is nothing but the immediate manifestation of the divine mind, through the revelation of his own spirit, that we can build any thing on, upon which we can depend." p. 94.
