I do not now speak to please men, nor to mortify them, but I know it to be true, my brother, and therefore speak it boldly. Are you offended? Will you stop here and throw down my letter with contempt, as though an ignorant upstart had abused you? If I write plainly, it is with deep and painful emotions. While writing I can hardly suppress a flood of tears. I know the dilemma in which many of my religious brethren are placed, and the extreme difficulty of approaching them; but whether they hear or forbear, I must tell them that it is out of their power to attain to any considerable knowledge of the true and living God. But, say they, have we not got the good old Bible, which makes men wise unto salvation? You have, indeed, those venerable truths which have many ages since made men wise unto salvation; and those truths will teach you, if you take heed to them, that the Gentiles have been broken off from the covenant favour of God as the Jews were. But these scriptures cannot impart to you the gifts of the Holy Ghost; they cannot ordain and qualify you to teach and preach the gospel, and administer the ordinances; they cannot give you promises and revelations that are expressly for _you_. When the apostle Paul was in danger of being shipwrecked with his crew (see Acts of Apostles), it would have been poor consolation to him to read the ancient history of Jonah's shipwreck, and pray over the subject in order to know how the voyage would result to him; but how much greater his consolation, and how much more certain his knowledge, when God ministers to him by visions and angels, and promises both him and the crew preservation. Philip wanted no better assurance of his duty to go to Gaza, than for an angel of God to tell him to go; but if he had pored over ancient revelations, with prayerful anxiety, in order to know the same, it would have been a poor guide. The New Testament Saints did not lean upon Old Testament revelations for the knowledge of present duties, or for aid in their present contingencies; they looked directly to God for present fresh instruction and aid--they obtained what they looked for. The ancient Jews (contemporary with Christ), that leaned on the venerated sayings of Abraham and Moses, and other old prophets, abode in darkness, and became the prey of foul spirits, while the advocates of present revelations were mighty through God, in signs and wonders, and marvellous deeds.