Mat. 5.8 Heb. 12.14 that without it we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven nor see God Nor is the way broader or its Passage less strait and difficult than they imagine nay 't is utterly impossible for them to walk therein while they are immers'd in their first corrupt unbridled Nature which cannot keep the Law of God while their Lusts and Passions are rampant their Affections inordinate and Wills unsubjected and follow the Desires and evil Inclinations of their Minds without restraint But if they come to know another Principle and Power to govern their Minds to create in them new clean Hearts to regulate and subject their Wills to subdue and tame their Passions to limit their Desires and direct their Affections and Inclinations wholly after that which is good to meliorate their Spirits throughout and make them Heavenly Minded having an aversion to all Evil and a great love to Vertue and Goodness Being thus perfectly transformed where is the extream difficulty now for the good Man Mat. 12.35 out of the good Treasure of his Heart to bring forth good things Will not this new well-inclin'd inside that now detests Evil and loves and delights in Righteousness as naturally follow after and bring forth that which is Good as before he did Evil Here is no force upon Peoples Natures but they are converted and throughly leavened into another Nature and are in their measures Partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 which only can work the Will of God We request our piously-inclined Neighbours well and seriously to weigh and consider the absolute necessity there is for every true Christian thus to know their Minds moulded and fashioned anew by the Power and Spirit of Christ working mightily in them Col. 1.29 in order to their pleasing God by a Holy Righteous Life having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust and considering that 't is not so soon attained as apprehended in the Understanding to be necessary That with all diligence they address themselves to the performing that which is the main and proper business of our Lives Wherefore as it hath pleased the Divine Power to give us all things pertaining to Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 Tit. 2.11 12. Phil. 2.12 13. so let us with a vigilant attention to and co-working with that Grace which to that end is given work out our Salvation with a reverend fear since a good degree of attainment herein is soon lost except there be a constant sedulous watchfulness upon the Mind amidst all Business and Concerns to have a check upon our Words and Thoughts and a diligent pressing forward Mat. 26.41 For while we live in this World we are liable to Temptations and may enter thereâ—nto also without a strict care and watchfulness our Senses presenting many Baits to our Minds on every and which Satan makes use of to â—eguile and many Provocations offer â—hemselves in our Pilgrimage 2 Cor. 12.9 against â—ll which God's Grace is sufficient Armour as our Minds are seasoned by â—t so that where any shortness is 't is â—hrough Insincerity Negligence or Inâ—dvertency Or is it a dangerous heinous Heresie that we with very many Professors of Christianity Psal 145.9 believe the Universaâ—ity of the Love of God to all Mankind that God who is good to all whose Mercies extend to all the Works of his Hands is sincere in his Intention and Attestation thereof and doth not design to delude us when he affirms That as certainly as he lives he desires not the death of a Sinner Ezek. 33.11 18.23 Joh. 3.14 15 16 17. Isa 55.1 Rev. 22.17 Ro. 5.18 but rather that he would return and Live that God whose Love and Mercy is unlimited doth graciously and generously offer Salvation through Jesus Christ upon certain Conditions to be performed on our part to all Mankind to every individual Man and Woman upon the face of the Earth which is the true Gospel-message Luke 2.10 14. good Tydings of great Joy which shall be to all People Peace on Earth and good will towards Men good cause indeed to rejoyce Isa 55.7 Ezek. 18.21 22 to the end Act. 10.34 35. 1 Joh. 2.2 Heb. 2.9 that all are within the verge of Mercy and free Pardon that God is indeed no Respecter of Persons but among all Nations and People he or she that fears him and works Righteousness is of him accepted and that Christ died for the Sins of the whole World yea for every Man surely then all for whom he died Tit. 2.11 are thereby put into a capacity for Salvation 1 Cor. 12.7 See Pro. 1. from 20 to the end that Saving Grace hath appeared to all Men and a Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal And that none are Reprobated but those that continue to be deaf to the Calls of this Grace Mat. 23.37 and resist the Spirit and hide and neglect their Talents till the day of their Visitation be over and Christ so withdraws himself as to cease longer to strive with them Neh. 9.20 26. so that the means being taken away they are left to themselves Isa 63.10 Psal 81.11 12 13. and given up to Hardness of Heart that being absent that should prepare tender and mollifie it that now they cannot Repent Believe and be Converted If thus to believe be a dangerous â—nd pernicious Error we confess we are Guilty and not like to be otherwise for we cannot perswade our selves to embrace that Anti-evangelical Opinion That God from all Eternity hath personally and inconditionally without respect to their accepting or rejecting the Salvation offer'd in Christ elected some and reprobated others by an immutable Decree so that those who are so elected shall certainly be saved let them do what they will for God's Decree can't be revers'd let the unstable Mind of Man vary as it will And those that are Reprobated were in in effect damned Thousands of Years before they were born so that their Salvation is put beyond all hope let them seek it never so earnestly and diligently and be never so desirous to serve and please God For besides that this sad Tidings instead of glad Tidings if it were really true in it self puts an end to the whole business of Religion by rendring all Worship and Devotion all Preaching Praying Assembling together and Holy Living as 't were useless by invalidating all whatsoever on Man's part as nothing contributing as a necessary Condition on his part to be performed or neglected towards his Salvation or eternal Destruction We dare not take up an Opinion so diametrically opposite to the very Attributes of God and his repeated Protestations to the contrary and with some Men thus presume to arraign his Justice Mercy and Goodness We cannot believe that God who is Love it self and Goodness it self and hath always manifested a wonderful Care and Concern for Man as his darling Creature Wis
3.16 if they repented not and did their first works and that of Laodicea to be spewed out of his Mouth Who can say those foolish Virgins in the Parable were not once in a state of Grace whose Lamps were once lighted and burning as well as trimm'd or else they could not properly be said to be gone out Mat. 25.8 Or that those were not called by Saving Grace in whose Hearts the Heavenly Seed sprung up and for a time prosper'd Luke 8.7 8 14 15. 'till the Bryars and Thorns the over-care and concern about the things of this Life choak'd it 't was not that they had no day of Visitation from God wherein they might have wrought out their Salvation had they continued to make the Kingdom of Heaven and its Righteousness their first and chiefest Choice and placed their Treasure there and disintangled themselves from those unnecessary Cares the Seed that was sown and sprung up was the very same with that which in the honest Heart brought forth Fruit abundantly Surely Paul that Great Apostle was not of these Mens Opinion when after he had long laboured in the Gospel takes care to keep under his Body least while he Preach'd to others 1 Cor. 9.27 he himself should be a Cast-away whom yet we doubt not but they will grant was then effectually called and in a state of Grace And the Author to the Hebrews writing in the Third Chapter to those he calls holy Brethren and Partakers of the Heavenly Calling Verse the 12th exhorts them to take heed lest there was in any of them an evil Heart of Unbelief in departing from the Living God And again Chap. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring his rest surely then not eternally reprobated any of you should seem to come short of it Verse 11. Let us labour therefore to enter that rest lest any Man fall after the same example of Vnbelief Again Chap. 6. Verse 4 5 6. speaking of those who had been enlightned and had tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and that had tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come shrewd signs that they were effectually call'd and in a State of Grace that if they should fall away 't would be impossible to renew them again to Repentance not because they were eternally reprobated but because they Crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh because they grieved his good Spirit and rejected the Means Hath not the Lord said Ezek. 18.24 26. and c. 33. v. 18. If a Righteous Man turns from his Righteousness he shall die Who can be Righteous without the assistance of God's Grace No Man can make himself so 't is not in Man to direct his own Ways and yet it seems 't is possible for him to fall from it after he hath lived so long under its conduct as by it to be made Righteous and one would think should then be sanctified too Our Saviour saith of himself John 15.1 2 5 6. I am the true Vine ye are the Branches my Father is the Husbandman every Branch in me that beareth not Fruit he taketh away Again If a Man abide not in me he is cast forth as a Branch and is withered Surely those who are Branches in Christ while so are accepted of the Father and yet it seems 't is possible for them to fall away and be cut off as wither'd Branches whence he often repeats this Condition if ye abide in me and presently he saith Joh. 15.10 the way to continue in his Love was to do his Will as he had that of his Father's and continued in his Love But though we can't embrace their Opinion for their Reasons and as they state it but own that 't is possible for People to make a considerable Progress in Grace and yet for want of a careful and constant Watchfulness to that Grace they may fall away Yet we believe such a State and Growth in Grace through a vigilant Attention thereto and such a degree of Faith attainable as that there is no more going forth Though we speak of God's tendring and Man's accepting or rejecting the Offers of his Love yet far be it from us to assert that fallen Man in his own Natural Estate can of himself think a good Thought much less will a good Deed or in his own power convert his own depraved Will to God any more than the Needle can turn and direct it self towards the Pole without being impregnated by the Loadstone For though Adam's Fall introduced no such real change in the Faculties of Man's Soul as to subvert their natural order and so destroy the natural liberty and freedom of his Will but that what he wills he wills freely and not by constraint yet forasmuch as he died from that Divine Life to which he was united and thence derived power and ability to will and do that which was good he became thenceforth utterly incapable so to do as of himself otherwise than as he is influenced by and assents and yields to the drawings of that Divine Grace which God in his great Love hath liberally bestowed on Mankind both to illuminate their Understandings and also incline their Wills Which is both sufficient and freely offers to reclaim Man and convert his Will and finally unite his Mind to it self and therein restore to him the power of willing and doing good which Man never had nor never can have â—ut in conjunction with this pure principle of Divine Light and Life but â—e may and is most inclinable to slight â—ts Offers and resist its Endeavours â—nd while so can't experience that power and vertue that is found in it where it freely exerts it self So that as it must be acknowledged that Man acts as a free Agent and as having an Elective Power and that God in his various Dispensations treats him as such yet is this Gift of God the first mover in all his motions towards that which is truly good and acceptable to him which is always so near and ready to help and assist a Man while it continues to strive with him that probably none that neglect its assistance and do evil but upon reflection plainly perceive they may do otherwise Whence 't is clear Man's destruction is of himself and his only sufficiency and help is in God who never requires any Duty of him but he furnishes him with a suitable power to perform it would he but regard and close with it But that which seems to be our capital Error and the top of all their Charge and that which is to silence all Plea's in our behalf is our omitting the use of the Ordinances so called of Baptism and Bread and Wine John indeed as the next immediate Forerunner of Christ to prepare his Way gave an Alarm to the Jews that were so secure under the Law of Moses and proclaim'd the Kingdom of Heaven at hand Mat.
Lusts and Affections and bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit adorning the Doctrin of God our Saviour by a Sober Godly Righteous Life are of God 1 Joh. 3.10 for herein the Children of God are manifest from the Children of the Devil Thus have we candidly though briefly exprest our real Opinion and Belief in those Points in which we apprehend our Adversaries have endeavour'd most to expose us which we hope may prove satisfactory to those who are not resolved to think ill of us But to speak fully to every critical trifling Objection were a tedious Task as well as vastly beyond the Extent of our Design We request our serious Neighbours to hear and see for themselves and not take things upon trust from others and judging the things they know not condemn us by hear-say Don't be imposed upon by those whose peevish Humours would have all do like themselves who either look not at all or but very coyly into the Books of those they have taken a Pet against whose Perswasion in some things differs from what they have pronounced Orthodox as tho' Truth were their peculiar inclosure which yet certainly argues either a great deal of Prejudice or a feeble and fleeting Judgment that dares not trust it self Were our Books stuft with such palpable Errors as is suggested surely 't were not so dangerous Reading them Who fears to read the Alchoran But on the contrary 't is a strong indication that they contain much truth for as 't is the proper Object of the Understanding so where it appears with a clear Evidence answering to Peoples own Experience 't is very forcible and prevalent upon the Minds of those who diligently seek it for love of it and willingly deposit all pre-ingagements of Mind in its disquisition Be then so just to us and kind to your selves as to relinquish all Prejudice and Prepossessions and impartially examine the truth of these things search the Sacred Scriptures diligently with an inclination rather to find and embrace Truth than to support a received Opinion try whether 't is so or not comparing it with your own Experiences and the Witness of God in your own Hearts Though our Belief in some of these Particulars don 't exactly quadrate to that of our Opposers it don't therefore necessarily follow 't is not agreeable to Truth and Scripture Nor can they give us any infallible assurance that their Conceptions are a true Standard of Truth notwithstanding they vend their Apprehensions as the only Orthodox yes and are displeased too with those that can't be determined by them We have no Design carrying on behind the Curtain howsoever our Sober Demeanour may be uncharitably not to say maliciously insinuated as only a Cover of Sheeps Cloathing upon the Wolves Nature and our most Solemn Declaration of our Belief in several Religious Points being undeniable Truths construed and suggested by some Men as only a fair Cover wherewith we guild over our Poyson that it may pass the less suspected and be the more glibly swalâ—owed What think you is not this â—he heighth of Prejudice and Envy in â—he abstract Would they themselves be content to be thus interpreted We have no intent to decoy and traâ—an People that we should walk under a Disguise which Intreagues usually have interest at one end of them which can't be our case who neither give nor take Money for Preaching so that the increase of our Numbers won't fill our Coffers We have no other Interest to promote but the Advancement of True Piety and Christianity And having Love and Good-will to all People more especially to those whose Minds are awakened and Hearts warmed having true fervent Desires and living Breathings towards God thirsting after a nearer and more satisfactory knowledge of and acquaintance with him than barely a profession and hear-say of him and therefore what we have found advantageous assistant and satisfactory to us in our unwearied pursuit after Peace with him that we recommend to others We call People home to the Gift of God in themselves which only can do them good that every one may know the good Shepherd and Bishop of Souls for themselves and hear and know his Voice in them from that of a Stranger and learn of him and follow him who is pure and ever leads to Purity and Holiness that so his offering up of himself for them may be of benefit to them and they experience the great Salvation of God For impress this upon your Minds and take it along with you That notwithstanding our Saviour hath paid a Ransom for us and made an Atonement through the precious Blood of his Cross yet if we experience not the end of his Coming and Death effected and answered in our selves it shall avail us nothing except we know him a Saviour and Supporter near except we know a Principle of Divine Light and Life to illuminate our Minds to revive and warm our languishing Hearts to beget and increase true Love to God and the living Faith that gives Victory to convert us and govern our Thoughts to renew and regulate our Wills and limit our Desires and bridle our Tongues to excite holy Inclinations and keep up a due Heat in our Christianity and strengthen our Minds in that which is good and well-pleasing to God Except we know these things in and for our selves all our outside shew of Religion is but vain and our profession of Christ shall profit us nothing but we shall lye down in sorrow at last For none are Christ's Ro. 8.9 14. but those that have his Spirit and are influenced by it nor are any Children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God which begets in the Mind a detestation of Sin and Evil and a love to Purity Goodness and Vertue Wherefore laying aside all Strife and Animosities all Envying and Evil-speaking let us abhor that which is Evil Ro. 12.9 and cleave to that which is Good and address our selves with a due and humble Application to the accomplishment of that most concerning and important Affair of our Lives the working out our Salvation And let every one follow the Lord faithfully according to what is made known to them knowing that we shall be judged according to our Knowledge and that 't will be happy for those whose Wills and Performances correspond with their Understandings in that Day when all must stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ and give an Account of their Deeds done in the Body and receive a Sentence thereafter either Come ye blessed or Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity It won't be then of what Congregation or Confession of Faith or of what Perswasion amongst the many wast thou Among all which there will then be but Two sorts the Sheep and the Goats those that heard the Shepherd's Voice and followed him who were guided and governed by the good Spirit of God in their Hearts and those who wrapping their Talent in a Napkin stifled Convictions and
Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Gal. 6.15 1 Joh. 2.6 39.7 8 9. Old things are past away behold all things are become New John says He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked We ascribe nothing to Man as having any power or ability in or of himself to please God Joh. 15.4 5. but attribute all power to do that which is good to Christ alone in whom only the Father is well-pleased 'T is through him that Men so love and fear God as to eschew evil Acts 10.34 35. and work that Righteousness which is acceptable to him upon whom therefore Mans dependance ought to be daily to receive from him such suitable supplies as through a constant watchfulness may enable them so to walk as to continue in his favour and enjoy his smiles For 't is not as too many seem either to imagine or would gladly have it to be that they may live in sin and disobedience here and indulge their corrupt inclinations 1 Pet. 4.18 and yet hereafter have Christ's Righteousness imputed to them For though we are not under the Mosaical Law so as to be obliged to its Ordinances diverse Washings and Levitical Priest-hood Christ our High-Priest having offer'd up himself once for all and abolish't it Mat. 5.20 yet are we not so under Grace as to be discharged from living well though we are not tyed to its Rites and Ceremonies yet are we obliged to fulfil its Righteousness which Christ came not to destroy but to establish Ro. 3.31 8.3 4. For though God be gracious and mercifulâ— to forgive us our Trespasses through the mediation of Christ upon our true and hearty Repentance Isa 55.7 and turning from them yet 't is not that we should take a liberty to go on in Sin and Rebellion against him We are not to sin because he is gracious Ro. 6.1 2. that his Grace may abound if so Where is the straitness of this way If this be to take up a daily Cross to our own Wills that we may perform his Pray where is the liberty of the Flesh Those that are vertually in Christ which renders them acceptable to the Father and compleatly espoused to him must needs have resigned their Wills as an effect of true love and requisite to so strict an union opposite Wills being inconsistent therewith whence Obedience necessarily follows The Apostle John after having signified that God is Light and that those that would know the Blood of cleansing 1 Joh. 1.5 7. and true fellowship with him and one another ought to walk in the Light as he is in the Light tells the young and weak in the Faith whom he calls Children that he writ those things that they should not sin but yet if any through weakness or inadvertency should sin and so fall under the Fathers displeasure he tells them that Christ the Righteous is both a Propitiation and also an Advocate that intercedes with the Father Chap. 2. and first 6 Verses and that their keeping his Commands was the surest evidence of their knowing and being in him but of the strong whom therefore he calls young Men he says That the word of God abode in them and that they had overcome the Evil one These things may soon be spoken and comprehended in the Understanding but to experience them fulfill'd in our selves is our highest interest and only can make us sharers in them The essence of Christianity and happiness of Christians don't consist in having our Heads stuft with knowledge only to lodge there and feed upon but to have our Hearts filled with divine love Joh. 14.21 23. which animates us to diligence and inspires us with courage and vigor to observe and perform the Will of God who looks not at what People profess only or by what name they are call'd but regards the Heart and what Principle governs there People may make a profession of the best things and yet continue alive to themselves they may alter Opinion or Perswasion and yet not turn from Darkness to Light from the power of Satan to God There hath not been wanting a very large and splendid Profession of Christianity adorned with curious elaborate and elevated Notions polish'd with Rhetorick and Oratory but that power and life that reaches the Heart and gives Victory and Dominion over its lusts and affections which war against the Soul is that which too many are yet strangers to When yet to know our lapsed Souls restored from their first fallen state in Adam and raised to a station where we may both perceive the things of God and receive power to work his Will to know our Minds redeemed and that power vanquisht which led us captive and we leaven'd by the Heavenly Gift into its own nature as 't is the very Life and Marrow of that Religion about whose exterior parts the world is filled with Noise so 't is the proper and most concerning-business of our lives to find this great salvation accomplish'd in us The experimental working out whereof in the Heart by the saving Grace and Spirit of God that is given to Man to profit with Gal. 6.3 4. will yield more satisfaction and true contentment to that Soul that sincerely seeks the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof in whom 't is begun and carrying on than to hear or read all their days of what God hath done through all Ages for those that truly love and fear him For want of which 't is that the profession of Christianity is generally so empty and barren in producing a real Pious Life attended with the fruits of the Spirit and a due Obedience proceeding from the birth of the Spirit without which the most refined Methods of Worship and Devotion will not recommend us to God who is inaccessible by the birth of the Flesh Nor do we believe that 't is acceptable to God for People to sing before him those Songs and Psalms that were the Experiences and spiritual Exercises of Holy Men in times past without having some living Experience of the same things in themselves or that People can properly and truly speak more or farther of the things of God than what they have known and experienced Where amongst all these sound Gospel-Scriptural-Truths is lodg'd that latent Venome so much fear'd and talk'd of by our Adversaries that is so dangerously contagious and apt to infect the Minds of those that shall incline to converse with Us or our Books touching our Belief in these necessary Points of Christianity Which of them is it that being imbibed As said Tho. Vincent is more mortal and destructive to the Soul and defiles it more than drinking a Draught of Poyson or going to a Bawdy-house Where are those damnable Opinions and Heresies wherewith you have been terrified Which of them is it that being persisted in does necessarily lead to Damnation and for which the * T. R's unsavory