plainly and possitively that none knows the Mat. 11. 27. Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him That these strugglings in us should be the suggestions of Satan that he should disquiet and disturb people for their sins for serving him and put them upon endeavouring to be freed from their vassalage under his power were absurd to imagine no our Saviour puts that beyond a question when he asks Can a Kingdom divided against it self stand Mark 3. 24. 27. And by and by saith plainly that whilst the strong man arm'd keep the house his Luk 11. 21 goods are at peace till a stronger than he comes to bind him c. So that 't is clear it 's not the devil but the approaches of a superiour power that breaks the peace of people for sin and that follows and condemns them for Disobedience and Trangression and is the same that would and only can redeem their minds out of that miserable state and bind that strong man and break his power and cast him out would they but joyn thereto and accept of deliverance by it Nor does its being Extended to all men through all Ages from their youth upwards bespeak it to be therefore natural or contemptible but on the contrary of the greater moment to all men 1 Cor. 12 7. for besides that the Apostle saith a manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal the blessings and gifts of God are free and valuable from their intrinsick worth God in nature ordain'd nothing in vain but by how much any thing is of the greatest use to us for sustaining and accomodating our natural life the more common it is as the Sun that gives Light to all thro' all Ages c. 'T is we fondly rate things according to our fancies and esteem and prize them more for their rarity and curiosity than usefulness but God bestows most universally that which is of the absolutest necessity to man Are not all men that are born strangers and enemies to God in the dark and at a distance from him in the State of Nature Io. 3. 3. 5. and must therefore be enlightned converted and born again and made spiritual before we can be reconciled to him 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. shall not God then that would have all repent and be saved cause the Light of the Son of Righteousness to shine upon all and give a measure of his grace and spirit to all to assist them in the accomplishment of that in themselves which they cannot do of themselves and yet is of indispensible necessity to our Salvation Wherefore God by his spirit strives with man so long as his day of visitation lasts Since then our opposers acknowledge the spirit and grace of God which also is Light to be in Man unless they can shew it by its manifestly different and superiour nature tendency and operation to be contradistinct from that we have been speaking of we see neither absurdity nor error in concluding it to be one and the same grace and free-gift of God to all which is always the same in nature though it differs in degree and is that Heavenly Treasure which God hath committed to our trust and blessed will they be who rightly employ and improve it and gives place and room to this seed of the Kingdom in Mat. 13. 31. 32. their hearts where though it may appear at first contrary to the expectation of man little mean and contemptable scarcely regarded amongst the stuff wherewith mens minds are filled yet joyn but to it that it may exert its power and force and 't will grow increase let but this leaven have its perfect work and 't will leaven the whole lump into its Mat. 13. 33. own nature Be pleased to consider whether we have justly merited the invidious invectives of our adversaries in believing that the Lord searches the heart of man and Luk. 13. 21. Jer. 17. 10. Ro. 8. 27. Rev. 2. 23 Amos. 4. 13. Jer. 31. 33 34. Ezek. 36. 26. 27. Joel 2. 28 29. Act. 2. i6 17 18. Isa 54. i3 Mat. 11. 27. Isa 42. 7. 61. 1. shews him his thoughts that he hath and will remember this latter age of the world and hath not forgotten to be gracious in performing those bountiful promises made in times past to the off-spring of the Gentiles in placing his Law in our Hearts and putting his truth in our inward parts in pouring out of his spirit upon all the Sons and Daughters of men in becoming our teacher and giving us the knowledge of himself through the Revelation of his Son Jesus Christ who is come to open our blind eyes and to bring us that were bound in darkness out of the prison-house who hath promised to be with his people to the end of the World in believing that God hath sent Joh. 14. 16 17 26. 16. 3. us the Comforter the spirit of Truth to be our Remembrancer and to guide and direct us in the way of Truth in attesting the sufficiency and utility of the 1 Joh. 2. 20. 27. Teachings of this Holy Unction sent into our hearts in believing that though Christ be in his glorified Body in Heaven yet that he is present also in the hearts of his People who is King of Saints and shall he not then rule in Joh. 14. 17 20 23 17. 23 26. Isa 57. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Prov. 8 31. them The High and Holy One that inhabits Eternity hath promised to dwell also with the Humble and Contrite to revive and comfort them shall not he whose presence fills Heaven and Earth be present in the Heart of Man Shall not he that rejoyceth in the habitable parts of the Earth and delights in the Sons of Men reside in his People Are they not Members of him and he their Joh. 15. 4. 5. Head Can there be a more intimate Union and Communion than between the 1 Cor 6. 15 17 19. Head and the Body the Vine and the Branches The same Spirit of Life that is in the Head is the Life of the Body also and acts it he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit doth not the Life that is in the Root pass to the Branches also and preserves them living Are not all dead Branches in whom this Life is not Whosoever hath the Son of God and feeds on him hath Life by him and Joh. 6. 56 57. 1 Joh. 5. 13. those that have not Christ who is the Life of his Saints hath not Life How could his People in all Ages partake of him if he were not present in them Surely this Doctrine doth not deserve to be scoft but is most comfortable to those Ro. 10. 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Col. 2. 20 who are sick of Love and thirst ardently after the Enjoyment not Hear-say of him Consider seriously these things which are agreeable to
under the power of him that hath enthrald us and leads Captive at his will Mar. 3. 27 those who lives in the vanity of their minds to know him bind this strong man to spoil his goods and dispossess Mal. 3. 2. 3 and cast him out to know Christ to sit in the soul as a refiner to burn Luk. 3. 16 17. Ro. 15. 16. Joh. 13. 8. 1 Thes 5. 23. 1 Cor. 1. 2 Joh. 14. 23 Heb. 13. 21 up consume and destroy to purify and throughly to purge out whatsoever is contrary to him to wash us and make us clean that we may have rightto a part in him that being cleansed and sanctified he may take up his abode with us exercising his Kingly power and working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure The mind being thus disentangled and having cast off its former yoke the old things being done away all things now become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. Ezek. 36. 26. a new tender heart of flesh according to the promise new thoughts desires inclinations affections words actions this new inside producing a new outside also even throughout a new Creature Mat. 23. 26. now in Christ indeed and really entitled to those benefits that accrue to men through him that living faith that pleaseth God and gives victory Jam. 2. 18 to the end Heb. 12. 2 and is ever fruitful to him in good works being begotten and this work of Redempton and Regeneration thus wrought in the soul by Jesus Christ together with that most precious sacrifice he offer'd up when his Precious Blood Shed upon the Cross for us we believe compleats the salvation of every soul that is thus awakened and made alive and set free by the power Ro. 6. 11. 13. Joh. 8. 36 and spirit of him that is the way the truth and the life of every soul that truly lives to God to walk in that holy way of life truth and peace that was prepared of old for the ransomed Isa 35. 8 9. and redeemed to walk in And we believe that he graciously waits with exceeding great kindness and long suffering that men may repent knocking at the door of every Rev. 3. 20 mans heart freely offering but not imposing his assistance to this most Mat. 23. 37. concerning work and change in the minds of men so that in the day wherein God will judge the world by Jesus Christ and every secret thing will be made manifest God will be justified and clear of the Blood of all Men and every mouth will be stopped and every Man's Condemnation will be of himself for having rejected the day of his visitation wherein God calls to Man and offers to be reconciled to him for resisting the strivings and slighting the reproofs of his spirit Neh. 9. 20. which in matchless mercy he hath given man to instruct him and shew and lead him in the way of life and peace We believe that though the pravity of mans nature in the fall is such that the Natural or Carnal Man that is enmity against God in the state of meer nature minds only the things of the Ro. 8. 5. 7. 8. flesh and naturally brings forth the works thereof and cannot please God nor keep and observe his Laws but is prone to evil yet that those who embrace the visitation of God and are 1 Pet. 1. 23. really regenerated and born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God Heb. 4. 12. that lives and abides forever that ingrafted Jam. 1. 21 word that is quick and powerful and able to save and sanctify the Joh. 17. 17. 19. soul are born into a new life and invested with another and higher power and becomes spiritually minded and by the spirit are set at liberty to walk after Joh. 3. 6. the spirit and bring forth it's fruits and receives ability from the spirit to serve God acceptably being now led Ro. 8. 14. 15. by the spirit of God and become his Children taught of him and through the spirit of adoption receiv'd into their hearts have right to call God Father 1 Cor. â—2 3. Ro. 8. 13. 6. 6. Eph. 4. 22 23. 24. Gal. 5. 24 Col. 3. 9. 10. and Jesus Lord for having through the spirit mortified the Old Man or first Nature with his corrupt and depraved inclinations and evil deeds and put him off having crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof they put on the New and Heavenly Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness and being renewed in the spirit of their minds they now walk in Ro. 6. 4. 7. 6. Newness of Life and are really in Christ and therefore are changed and become new Creatures and now thinks and acts under the conduct of a principal Superiour to that which formerly governed them having their minds raised to a Region above that of fallen Nature so that now the stream of their thoughts desires and actions runs in another current and the bent of their affections are after those things that are above where Christ is that eye being Col. 3. 1. 2. now open'd that sees a more transcendent beauty and desireableness in the invisible and durable treasures of him than all the transcient felicities of this world can afford And we believe that whosoever expects the blessed imputation of Christ's Ro. 13. 14. righteousness ought thus to put on the Lord Jesus and to be thus cloathed upon and covered with his righteousness and in measure have his Holy Life brought forth in and through them and and know him to enliven and influence their minds and to work in and for Isa 26. i2 Phil. 2. i3 Phil. 4. 13. Joh. i5 5. them and that without him they can do nothing but thro' him that strengthens them they can do whatsoever he commands them that as they abide living branches in him through that sap and vertue they dayly receive from him Joh. 15. 5 8. they are made able to bring forth fruits well-pleasing to God whereby he is glorified For though God the Father accepts us in Christ and for his sake yet is the New-Birth the indispensible Qualification and true distinguishing Mark of those that are really in him He 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. i5 1 Joh. 2. 6. 30. 7. 8 9. that is in Christ is a new Creature 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 but attribute all power to do that which Joh. 15. 4 5. 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 and work that Righteousness Acts 10. 34 35. which is acceptable to him
of men but expects they should improve those talents distributed to them in not only sending forth the Son of his love to dye for their sins that they should not longer live therein but also in sending Joh. 14. i6 i7 26. i6 i3 Tit. 2. ii 12. forth his Light and Spirit of Truth into their hearts to lead and guide them into all Truth and causing his Grace that brings salvation to appear to all men to instruct and teach them to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts to forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps Vanities of this wicked World to rescue and save them from living in the sinful Lusts of the Flesh and help and strengthen them to return to their Obedience and live a sober righteous and godly Life to keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of their Lives Which gift from God to man the Holy Scriptures plentifully testify to under various denominations as Spirit Light Word Grace Seed Leaven Anointing c. By all which we understand that Spirit or Heavenly Talent with which Mat. 25. 14 15. God hath endowed Mankind in some degree or other that he may profit with it in the improvement whereof by a diligent Co-working therewith to the answering those holy ends for which we receive it we doubt not but to be happy in rendring a good account of our Stewardship and entring finally into the Joy of our Lord. Our opposers themselves also pretend to the spirit and grace of God or else what means their praying for its assistance and those plausible fine-spun discourses of it wherewith they sometimes entertain their Auditory We Charitably hope 't is more real than only to beautify and recommend them to the hearers as what they cannot well avoid for that the Scriptures are so full of that Language and if indeed it be real why is that a fault and error in us which is so sound and ornamental in them And we think it very strange that they should apprehend any incongruity in granting this Divine Principle to be a Divine Light to the mind since its proper Office is to teach and Instruct to manifest and point to us our duty as well as to dispose and enable us to perform it and ought to be our leader and governour If the Tit. 2. 11 12. Joh. 14. 17 24. 16. 7 8 13 14. 1 Joh. 2. 27. godly admonitions and exemplary lives of good men were rightly called lights to the world surely much more properly may this whose fountain is light and does more nearly illuminate and inform the understanding and renders those effectual justly challenge that necessary and acceptable appellation If then the Grace and Spirit of God be in the hearts of men surely 't is not wholly unactive there but will be making some attempts towards accomplishing the end for which 't is placed there 't will be at times attacking the enemies and endeavouring to supplant its contrary which being holy and pure in its nature is never reconcileable to sin and evil but ever strives against it and may as men regard it be infallibly known by the nature of its efforts And we dare appeal even to all mankind whether they find not something placed in their minds and Consciences which though perhaps not regent there yet never mingles with nor Consents to their evil deeds but always remains undefiled and testifies against them and convicts reproves and Joh. 3. 20 21. Ephes 5. 13. condemns them for it and also oft-times in the cooler temper of their spirits manifests their states to them and as 't were reasons with them discovering the evil of their ways secretly calling to them to come out of it begetting desires and inclinations sometimes to seek after God and to make their peace with him Now since man in his meer natural State is Totally dead and fallen from God that he cannot as of himself think a good thought and that God only is essentially good and as that which is truly so must needs proceed from him this principle in us that ever convicts us Joh. 16. 8 13. for vice and evil whether in thought word or deed and disposeth us to consider of our latter end and oft makes Prov. 14. 13. men sigh in the midst of laughter reminding them that for those things they must give an account that draws us heaven-ward and inclines us to vertue and goodness to do to all men as we would be done unto to be just sober merciful temperate c. Must needs be something that is not of us but is pure and immaculate and of a divine nature ever aspiring and raising the mind towards its Original Whence it cannot be a Natural Light or meer light of Nature as very many would have it who yet talk of the spirit of God being in Man for 't is an undoubted truth that no agent can act beyond its own sphere and raise its object to a state more noble than it self nor produce effects of a nature more sublime Job 21. 17. Psal 18. 28. than its own Original Besides 't is very clear and evident from Scripture that the mind of man is oft lighted by a light Superiour to that of meer reason and that man by the utmost power and extent of human reason speculation though he may arrive to implicit knowledg that there is a God yet can never attain to a true spiritual and saving knowledge of God without the Concurrence of a Divine Ro. 1. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Prov. 20. 27. Luk. 24. 45. Joh. 1. 9. Ephes 5. 13 14 17. and supernatural Agent For though the mind of man as a rational Being be that Capacity or Candle that is to be Lighted yet 't is Christ that must so enlighten it as to give us a true discerning of those things that appertain to him and his Kingdom and by adhering and yielding obedience to its discoveries we shall know an Accession of more Light Psal 369 Prov. 4. 18. 1 Cor. 2. 10. to the end And the Apostle speaking of what God by his spirit had revealed to them saith expresly that the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God and that as none knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him so the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God That the natural man neither knoweth nor receiveth the things of the spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned and to that end they had received the spirit which is of God The Light of Nature is occupied about natural Objects those things that are within its own Region acting within its own proper Orb but reaches not to that knowledg of God which is life eternal except our natural powers or human capacity be illuminated by the rays of divine light 1 Cor. 1. 20. for the world by humane wisdom knows not God And Christ saith very
Scripture and with what reason People have derided us for our Belief herein terming it the Quakers Christ as though his manifesting himself in our Hearts were another or distinct from Jesus Christ of Nazareth that is glorified with God the Father in Heaven which we deny For though he be ascended into Heaven and sits at Col. 1. 16. Eph. 1. 23. 3. 9. the right hand of God far above all Principalities and Powers yet is not he so circumscribed but that as by him all things were made and created he is the life and filleth all in all in his Church and People Is the Divinity and Humanity of Christ divided Is not their inseparable Union the true and intire Christ Can then his God-head be present and he who is the Heavenly Man be absent What think you of him that appear'd to John and gave him his Commission to the Seven Churches whom he describes Rev. ch 1. who saith Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the Rev. 3. 20. 2. 23. door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me The same saith I am he which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Was not this Acts 17. 31. Rom. 2. 16. John 1. 16. the true Christ the Mediator by whom God will judge the World And can he make this near Inspection into the innermost part of the Minds of Men so as no Thought can escape his notice if he be not present there What made Paul desire that our Lord Jesus Christ 1 John 4. 13. might be with Timothy's Spirit if he thought it impossible Do not all acknowledge the Spirit of Christ who is the Anointed to be in his People and is he then absent Is its being a Mystery far beyond our comprehension to conceive how it can be a sufficient Argument that therefore 't is not so Ought we not in such cases to exercise Faith and acquiess in the Testimony of the Holy Ghost exprest in the Sacred Scriptures rather than interpose with our nice and curious Subtilties prying unnecessarily into things that are too high for us remembering that Secret Things belongs to God and that those that know most here know only in part the things that are invisible 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. and see them but as through a Glass Shall Men that neither know themselves nor have any intuitive knowledge of the Essences even of the meanest things wherewith Nature every-where presents us which are obvious to our Senses yet aspire to those more abstruce and undertake to account for that which is beyond the reach of the most pregnant Wits to penetrate We hope it 's no Error to avouch the Power of Christ to be stronger than that of the Devil that he is able really to Gen. 3. 15. bind him to bruise his Head and break his Power to dispossess and cast him out to fulfil to the uttermost the end of his coming to destroy the Works of the Devil and to save those from their sins who shall have true Faith in his Name and Power Surely it 's not inconsistent with Christianity to believe that Christ can or will throughly purge his Floor that he can indeed deliver out of 1 Thes 5. 23. the Prison-house and restore Man out of the Fall to God again and give him power to forsake the Devil and all his Works c. We find it consonant to Scripture and the Gospel-dispensation to believe that those who are regenerated and Rom. 6. 6 7 11. 2 Pet. 1. 4. born again of the Spirit have through the Spirit mortified the first carnal corrupt Nature which cannot please God and if dead and slain and buried too Eph. c. 4. v. 22 23 24. Colos c. 3. v. 9. 10. surely then it no longer lives but the mind is at liberty and restored to act in a new Life to walk after the Spirit and fulfil the Righteousness of the Law the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Rom. 8. 2 4. Jesus having set them free from the Law of Sin and Death which is its Wages 'T is for want of Peoples experiencing this real Birth of the Spirit brought forth and knowing Freedom in themselves by it which no Duties or Performances in the Will of Man nor entertaining of the most resined Opinions in Religion can administer short of the Law of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts 't is for want of this that People are so very apprehensive of difficulty even to impossibility of living a Holy Righteous Life which yet is so necessary to our Salvation that without Mat. 5 8. Heb. 12. 14. 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 absolutely impossible for them to walk therein while they are immerc'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 follows 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 out of the good treasure of his Mat. 12. 35. 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 in another Nature and are in their measures Partakers of the Divine Nature which only can work the Will 2 Pet. 4. 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 Col. 1. 13 fashioned anew by the Power and Spirit of Christ working mightily in them 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 so let 2 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 2. 11