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
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
same and shall so believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and love him as for the future to live a holy Circumspect Christian life and obey his commands thereby continuing in his love Which holy life so much Celebrated and strictly kept to in the Primitive Ages of Christianity that whosoever named the name or took the name of Christ upon them were to depart from iniquity we believe ought to be inseparable from a true and faithful Christian as ever accompanying a true living and active Faith and it seems was thought no less necessary by those who composed the promise that should be made in behalf of infants before they were admitted into that once sacred Catalogue to wit that as they Tit. 2. 11 12. came to years of discretion they should forsake the devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the Luk. 1. 75 flesh and keep Gods holy will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of their lives This we believe Ro. 6. 18 19 22. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Eph. 4. 24 Thes 3. 13 4. 7. Heb. 12. 10. 14. 1 Joh. 4. 4. to be the bounden duty of mankind and though our Opposers have scoft us and branded us with error for holding perfection because in pleading for a holy righteous life as that which is well-pleasing to God and avouching his power to be stronger in man as man cleaves to it and believes to rescue him from under the power of Satan than is that of the devil to retrain him in Thraldom we have sometimes made use of the words of Christ and his Apostles as be you perfect as Mat. 5. 48 Col. 4. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 3. your Father which is in Heaven is perfect he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure c. Yet have we never pretended to a moral perfection beyond what is contained in the above promise which is sound and true in it self and is that which God requires of us and therefore 't is that we frequently press it's necessity and fervently exhort people to its performance And notwithstanding we have hence been falsely accused that we expect to be saved by our own works as being Meritorious yet we don't acknowledge a holy life as the Efficient and procuring Cause of our Salvation which we no less than you totally refer to the free Grace and mercy of Eph. 2. 8. God in Christ without any merit in Man but we esteem it as a constant companion James 2. 18. to the end thereto and a necessary condition on our part in complyance with God's gracious offer without which we may not obtain it being inseparably annext Heb. 11. 6. Ro. 12. 1. 2. to that Faith which only pleaseth God and is but our reasonable duty And we believe that although Christ Heb. 2. 9. 10. 12. thus offer'd up himself once for all for the sins of all men to the end of the world thereby rendring repentance and amendment of life prevalent with God yet that the Traditional Belief of that alone is not sufficient to entitle us to that common Salvation that comes by him but that 't is of necessity that we truly repent and be converted from Act. 3. 19 the evil to the good and therefore 't is no less necessary for us now than 't was for believers in the Apostles days that 26. 18. 20. we be turned from darkness to light or in otherterms from the dark power of Satan to the power of God who is light that thereby we may every one know the work of Redemption and Salvation wrought in and for our selves For 't is not enough to believe that Christ dyed if we feel not the blessed effects of his death who came to save us from our sins and bless us by turning Mat. 1. 21. Act. 3. 26. Tit. 2. 14. us from our iniquities and gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For we believe such to be the natural Gen. 2. 17 Ro. 5. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Gen. 6. 5. Ro. 7. 5. State of Man in the fall that by nature we are dead as to God at a distance from him prone to evil and to gratify the desires of our sensual minds sway'd by the corrupt and sinful Eph. 2. 2. lusts of the flesh and under the power of a strange King rul'd by the 2 Tim. 2. 26. Prince of the Power of the air so that our inward man being thus dead from God we cannot exercise our spiritual senses towards him nor can this natural 1 Cor. 2. 14. man perceive know or savour the things of God which only arc spiritually discerned wherefore notwithstanding our Saviour dyed for us we are yet by nature in a miserable undone condition in Captivity to our souls Enemy except we know the second 1 Cor. 15. 45. 47. Eph. 2. 1. 5 Col. 2. 13. Ro. 8. 11. Eph. 5. 13. 14. Joh. 1. 9. Adam the Lord from Heaven that quickning spirit to quicken our souls and make us alive to God again that being restored to the use of our inward senses we may by the assistance of his Divine Light wherewith for that end he hath blest all the Sons and Eph 2. 3. 5. 6. Daughters of Men see our selves in this sad and lost state under the wrath of God and abhor our selves therefore and under this living sense wherein things will appear with another aspect than before cry to God for deliverance therefrom with such and inward 2 Cor. 7. 10. hearty sorrow as works a true repentance for the same 'T is not our being sprinkled when infants that will make us true Christians convert us from Joh. 1. 12. 13. Ro. 8. 14. being children of wrath to become children of grace and Sons of God and members of Christs Church and invest us in an interest in him 't is not learning our Catechism and subscribing to certain Articles of Faith though never so Orthodox and being educated in a historical belief of what Christ did for us above sixteen hundred years ago 't is not this only that will administer a sufficient true and saving knowledge of Christ and really interest us in his death and sufferings all which people may talk of and please themselves withal and yet continue as fast bound under the dominion of Satan who still rules where disobedience is as those less perfect in that lesson but the true and saving knowledge of Christ is to know our selves Act. 26. 18 turn'd from darkness to light from the power of Satan to the power of Col. 1. 13. God that by it we may be delivered from the power of darkness and be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son to know his saving power really to rescue and redeem us from Joh. 8. 32. 36.
upon whom therefore mans dependance ought to be dayly 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 and yet hereafter 1 Pet. 4. 18. have Christ's Righteousness imputed to them For though we are not under the Mosaical Law so as to be obliged to its Ordinances diverss Washings and Levitical Priest-hood Christ our High-Priest having offer'd up himself Mat. 5. 20. once for all and abolish't it 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 For though Ro. 3. 31. 8. 3 4. God be gracious and merciful to forgive us our Trespasses through the mediation of Christ upon our true and hearty repentance and turning from Isa 55. 7. them yet 't is not that we should take a libertyto go on in sin rebellion against him We are not to sin because he is gracious that his Grace may abound Ro. 6. i. 2. if so Where is the straitness of this way If this be to take up a dayly 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 us 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 a 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 and true fellowship 1 Joh. 1. 5. 7. 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 Chap. 2. and first 6 Verses the Fathers displeasure he tells them that Christ the Righteous is both a Propitiation and also an Advocate that interceeds with the Father 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 ourselves 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 it but to have our hearts filled with divine love which animates Joh. 14. 21. 23. 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 exteriour 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 Gal. 6. 3 4. of God that is given to man to profit with 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 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 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 Psalms that were the experiencies 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't 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 is more mortal and destructive As said Tho. Vincent 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 necessorily lead to damnation and for which the * T. R's unsavory uncharitable Expression Devil must needs carry us a pick-pack to Hell Is it in that we hold-forth the infinite Love of God to mankind in not only freely of his meer Grace and Favour providing a Sacrifice thro' which an Atonement is made for the past Transgressions of man who was never at all in a capacity to make any for himself which is applicable to Joh. 3. i5 16. Act. 10. 43 1 Cor. 12. 7. every one who shall believe repent and return but hath also afforded to all the means of Faith Repentance and Conversion for God requires not impossibilities