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
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
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
Knowledge 2 Pet. 3. 18. of our Lord Jesus Christ and a greater Acquaintance with that true inward Spiritual Communion and Fellowship Rev. 3. 20. with him wherein he sups with his Saints and they with him and receives Life by him who dwells in them Eph. 5. 30. and they in him as the Members are joyned to the Head and partakes of its Life and liveth by it or the Branches to the Vine which receives Joh. 15. 5. Life Vertue and Nourishment from him whereby Fruit is brought forth to the glory of God and well-pleasing to him 'T is not sufficient that we participate hereof once a Month or Quarter but as the Jews had their Manna Exod. 16. 21. fresh every Morning so ought we to receive a daily supply and renewing of strength in our inward Man by eating that Heavenly Bread that nourisheth up to Eternal Life and drinking plentifully of that Well of Living-Weter Joh. 4. 14. which in the Saints springs up to Life Eternal for as in God we live move and have our very being so is Christ the true and proper Life of the inward Man by which it truly lives to God nor can it live but by him Those that are begotten to God by the Word of Life and are born again of the Spirit are priviledged thus to feed on Christ and enjoy him which none can do that are not first quickened and made alive by him none can receive Life Sap and Vertue from him as Head and Vine that are not first joyned to him as Members and Branches of him nor is it sufficient to make People Members of Christ and give them admittance to feed on him in that they were sprinkled when Infants c. as we have already express'd though they should eat Bread and drink Wine all their days Since then we no less enjoy the Substance without the Sign why may we not omit it as either being but temporary or not of absolute necessity as well as our Opposers do that which was instituted to use their own term at the same time and with as great solemnity and greater formality and was no less positively commanded under the same pretence Why may not the same Authority absolve us from the use of this and excuse us from being chargeable with the breach of a Command of Christ as release them from washing one anothers Feet and secure Joh. 13. 4 5 8 14 15. them from the like censure As also that of the Apostles cencerning things strangled and Blood and that of James Acts 15. 20 29. Jam. 5. 14 15. anointing the Sick with Oil Why should they be thus partial Have we not good reason to conclude that if these had not been long since laid down they would have cleav'd as close to them and that had those of Baptism and Bread and Wine been then discontinued also they would be now as easie under its omission For Tradition Custom and Education makes greater impressions on Mens minds than perhaps every one may be sensible of nor is it an easie task at first to move them from those things to which they have been fastned by it Would but People wholly relinquish these Prejudices and consider it impartially 't is probable there may appear no such real difference as justly to omit the one and yet with equal reason to continue the other since 't is not that Bread that gives life to the Soul nor doth necessarily include it but that Christ may be and is received and sed on without it Nor that those can be thought to forget his Death and Sacrifice who sensibly partake of the Benefits thereof Tit. 2. 14. and pursue its Ends who are taught and assisted by him to live a godly Gal. 1. 4. righteous Life and bears about in them the Marks of the Dying of our Mat. 1. 21. 2 Cor. 5. 15. Lord Jesus who died for all that those who live should no longer live to themselves fulfilling the desires of their minds but to him that died for them that through the power of his Resurrection Phil. 3. 10. they may mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh and have Fellowship with his Sufferings in whom his Life is made manifest neither can those who acknowledge his Death and Sacrifice and partake from time to time of this Bread and Wine in memory of it and yet are not by him redeemed from a vain Conversation and made conformable to his Death and so feed on him as to participate of that Life that comes by him in anywise escape Damnation let their Pretensions be what they will Since then God hath replenisht our Hearts with his Grace and hath not with held his heavenly Manna from us but daily owns us by his comfortable Presence to our great satisfaction under the Omission of these things supplying our Wants and Necessities as we have recourse unto him in that which ever hath access unto him having our continual Dependancy on him who enables and strengthens those of us * For we intend not to Apologize for those who tho' they may be call'd by our Name yet live loosly and walk disorderly and are Blemishes and a Grief to us which yet ought to be imputed to their Insincerity or Unwatchfulness and not to the In-sufficiency of the Prin-ci-ple they pretend to that retain our Primitive Sincerity and Integrity to lead a Sober Pious Christian Life as becomes the Gospel of Christ which is the certain Product of Spiritual Grace and forasmuch as our Opposers acknowledge it to be but an outward visible Sign and dare not say that the inward Spiritual Grace is tied to it nor that 't is of absolute necessity to Salvation with what Reason do they Unchristian us and so load us with Calumnies and Accusations on this Account using it as an Instance to blacken us and condemn in gross our whole Christian Profession principally from hence as though 't were the chief thing that constitutes a Christian and entitles him to the Benefits that come by Christ What shall we think then of perhaps more than two parts in three of their own Assembly who no more practice this than do we and yet are many of them as sober People and if we may know as Christ directs us by their Fruits are doubtless as near the Kingdom and no less in a State of Grace than are those who so exult in and value themselves upon this Performance which however it may bound and distinguish particular Societies and Communions 't is certain no Observations nor Performances short of being ruled and governed by the Spirit of Christ as Head can entitle us to a Membership in him we may make a specious Shew and carry a System of Divinity in our Heads but if he rules not our Hearts we are none of his 'T were well they were as thoughtful to fulfil all Righteousness in every respect and as zealously careful and concern'd to observe and punctually perform all the Commands
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.
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
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
disobedience And in another place That Rom. 8. 13. those who live after the flesh shall die So that 't is for want of Peoples embracing the Means and bringing their Deeds to the Light of Christ in their Hearts and heeding the Reproofs of Instruction Prov. 6. 23. Gal. 6. 8. which is the Way of Life for want of sowing to the Spirit and by it mortifying the Deeds of the Flesh that People are lost and sentenced to Perdition and not because they were personally and inconditionally reprobated from all Eternity God who is Lord of all is 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. gracious unto all and would have all Men to be saved but they disobey the Call of God and reject his Offers and resist the Strivings of his Spirit and are deaf to those Knocks of our Saviour for Reception and Entertainment in their Rev. 3 20. Hearts and chuse and prefer the present World and will not deny themselves to follow Christ 'T is not as these Men say because Salvation was never within their reach if 't were not what must we think Were those feigned Tears then that our Saviour shed over Luke 16. 41 42. Matth. 23. 37. Jerusalem when the Day of its Visitation was over Saying also How often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathers her chickens but you would not not you could not If any Men can be so hardy as to entertain an Opinion so derogatory to the Justice Mercy Love and Paternal Care of God and repugnant to the Gospel-message we cannot but admire what should induce them to obtrude it upon others and urge it as though 't was a necessary Point to be believed in the Christian Religion for we cannot apprehend how this begets love to God increaseth Faith in Christ and raiseth our Veneration for him excites to Diligence and encourages Piety which is that which advanceth true Religion but on the contrary that it tends to the indulging some in a Security and procure in others a slight Esteem of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ as being partial and casts them into Despond and probably may encourage both to gratifie the Desires of their Minds to the full extent since nothing can alter such a supposed Decree of God one way or the other Yet we deny not the Prescience of God who fore-knows all things things past present and to come being at once present to him so that it may be said such who believe in Christ with that living active Faith that works by Love and excites to Obedience and persevere therein unto the end and so knows Salvation by him are in him in whom the Election is before the World began and that those who so believe not but reject the Tenders of his Love and by persisting in Disobedience neglects so great Salvation are condemned already Nor do we deny such a Preference as that some are made Stewards over more and some fewer Talents according to which their Improvement ought to be Where much is given much is required and where less is given less is required for God is just and equal in all his Ways he is not a hard Master that he should exact Matth. 25. 14 to the 28. or expect more than the Improvement of his own Had he that received but one Talent imploy'd it and made it two we doubt not but it had been accepted for we believe that none are from Eternity absolutely excluded without any Talent and that a Day also is afforded wherein 't is possible for them to improve it So that though the Grace may work more powerfully in some than in others yet are all left without Excuse There is yet another Opinion dependant on this which we cannot receive neither as they state it for which our Opposers think very ill of us that is once in a state of Grace and ever so that there is no total or final falling away from Grace How this Doctrine promotes true Zeal and Piety and improves Christianity we can't understand nor see no other reason why its Votaries should be so fond of it but because 't is concordant to that of Personal Election and Reprobation so that those who imbrace the one are bound to believe the other But otherwise certainly it tends rather to slacken than spur on People to that care and diligence and constant unwearied watchfulness to Prayer which our Lord so much exhorted to and the Apostles so solicitously presses the Saints every-where to be found in as of absolute necessity What else means those Promises of Reward in the Revelations to those who should overcome and hold out to the end but to ingage them to a constant Perseverance Or what needed it if 't were impossible for them to fall short who I suppose none will deny to have been in a state of Grace And the Church of Ephesus was threatned to Rev. 2. 5. 3. 16. have their Candlestick removed 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 Or that those were not call'd by Saving Grace Mat. 25. 8. in whose hearts the Heavenly Seed sprung up and for a time prosper'd Luke c. 8. v. 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 disentangled 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 1 Cor. 9. 27. while he Preach'd to others 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 12. Let us labour therefore to enter that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief Again Chap. 6. Verse 4 5 6. speaking of those who had been enlightned and had tasted of