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THE 
 
 ORIGINAL 
 
 AND 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF MAN, 
 
 BRIEFLY CONSIDERED; 
 
 WHEREIN IS SHEWN, 
 
 THE NATURE OF HIS FALL, AND THE NECESSITY, MEANS, AND MANNER 
 
 OF HIS RESTORATION, THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST, AND 
 
 THE SENSIBLE OPERATION OF THAT DIVINE PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH, HELD FORTH TO THE WORLD 
 
 BY THE 
 
 PEOPLE CALLED aUAKERS, 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 SOME REMARKS ON THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION, THE 
 TURES, WORSHIP, AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 BY JOSEPH PHIPPS. 
 
 ii 
 
 We both labour, and suffer reproach, because We trust in the 
 living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that 
 believe. 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY BENJAMIN & THOMAS KITE 
 
 NO. 20 ? NORTH THIRD STREET. 
 J. R. A. SKERRETT, PRINTER, 
 
 1818. 
 
3 %7's 
 
 
/ 
 
 THE 
 
 ORIGINAL AND PRESENT STATE 
 
 OP 
 
 M A N, &c. 
 
 CHAP, I. 
 
 1. Man was originally created in parity, and in a 
 State of due Order and Rectitude. 2. He was in- 
 spired with a sense of his duty ; and 3 and 4, im- 
 powered to perforin it, 5. Being tempted, lie laps- 
 ed from his proper guard, the preserving power 
 of God, into Sin. 6. He fell from the image of 
 the Heavenly, into the image of the Earthly. 
 How unlawful Self rose in him. 7. That he really 
 suffered death in Spirit, in the Day of his trans- 
 gression. What the Life and Death of the Soul 
 are. 
 
 1. In the beginning God created all things 
 good. Inherently and immutably good himself, 
 every production of his must necessarily be so, 
 according to the several kinds wherein he cre- 
 ated them. As man was wholly made by him, 
 he must have been made wholly good; his na- 
 ture clear of all impurity, and free from all de- 
 fect and disorder. His faculties were not im- 
 perfect, but limited to their proper sphere, and 
 every part of his composition constituted in its 
 
2 
 
 due rectitude ; the body placed in subservience 
 to his rational spirit, or soul, as to the more no- 
 ble and excellent, and therefore the superior 
 part, made for immortality, and in subjection 
 only to the guidance of its Creator. 
 
 2. The human faculties, or powers of capa- 
 city, must then be clear, unprejudiced, and fit 
 to receive impressions, yet void of any but those 
 of immediate sense. Man, merely as man, 
 could not originally bring any real knowledge 
 into the world with him. That must either be 
 immediately communicated to him by his Ma- 
 ker, or afterwards acquired by himself, through 
 observation and experience. The latter re- 
 quired time to effect ; and as it was requisite 
 to his situation, that he should be immediately 
 endued with such an understanding of himself, 
 and his Creator, as related to his present duty, 
 and affected his felicity, he certainly was, by 
 divine wisdom and goodness, timely furnished 
 with it. 
 
 3. Man must not only then be supplied with 
 a due degree of light and understanding, but he 
 must also be impowered to act up to it, else his 
 knowledge would have been afforded him in 
 vain. Yet, though he certainly was thus im- 
 powered, the sequel manifested he was placed 
 in a state of probation, otherwise, he could never 
 have been guilty of the least failure ; for his 
 Maker being essentially and unchangeably 
 good, must have fixed him in a state of immuta- 
 ble virtue and goodness, had he determined to 
 fix him at all. 
 
 4. As the omniscient Creator most certainly 
 foresaw what a subtle adversary man would 
 
have to encounter, lie has surely furnished him 
 with means sufficient to discover his snares, and 
 resist his assaults. If Satan was suffered to 
 use his subtlety and influence to deceive him, 
 doubtless he was not only warned, but also en- 
 dued, with a sufficiency of divine light and influ- 
 ence to withstand his attempts, as he kept duly 
 upon his watch. 
 
 Nothing but the divine nature can enable 
 any intelligent creature to resist temptation, and 
 act up to the divine will. If therefore any cre- 
 ated being is required to keep up thereunto, it 
 must be assisted by divine power so to do. 
 God created man for a purpose of his own glo- 
 ry. To glorify God, and to partake of his glo- 
 ry, man must walk in obedience to his will. 
 Man could neither infallibly know his will, nor 
 constantly perform it, merely by the strength of 
 his own faculties ; he must therefore, necessa- 
 rily, have been assisted by the spirit of God, to 
 enable him to perform his will, and so to obey 
 him as to glorify him, aud enjoy a blessed in- 
 heritance in him ; otherwise, the end of man's 
 cyeation could not be answered. Hence it is 
 concluded, the first man Adam was made a liv- 
 ing soul by the inspiration of the second Adam, 
 Christ, who is a quickening spirit ; for "That 
 was not first which is spiritual, but that which 
 is natural ; and afterward that which is spi- 
 ritual." 3 That is, Adam was first created a 
 natural man, and then rendered a spiritual one 
 by the quickening power of the spirit of Christ, 
 
 1 Cor. xv, 45, 46. 
 
4 
 
 which is the true life, and proper element for 
 immortal spirits to live and move in. 
 
 Thus the parents of mankind, in their origi- 
 nal uncorrupted state, being fit temples for the 
 Holy Ghost to dwell in, were, as well as the 
 sanctified in Christ afterwards, partakers of the 
 divine nature, 1 by the internal quickening of 
 divine life. The author of the book of wis- 
 dom observes, that wisdom in all ages, and cer- 
 tainly in the first and purest, entereth holy souls; 
 which wisdom he describes to be the breath of 
 the power of- God, a pure influence flowing 
 from the glory of the Almighty, the brightness 
 of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror 
 of the power of God, and the image of his good- 
 ness 2 . This clearly denotes the spirit of the 
 eternal Son of God himself, and evidently con- 
 curs with those parts of the New Testament 
 which declare him to be, the power of God, and 
 the wisdom of God, the true light, and life of 
 men, the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
 the image of the invisible God. 3 
 
 It was undoubtedly in the light of this pure 
 influence that Adam had such an intuitive dis- 
 cerning of the creation, as Enabled him to give 
 names to them according to their several na- 
 tures. For we read, " The Lord God formed 
 every beast of the field, and every fowl of the 
 air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what 
 he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam 
 called every living creature, that was the name 
 thereof." 4 
 
 1 1 Pet. i. 4. 2 Wiscl. vii. 3 1 Cor. i. 24. Col. 5. 15. 
 John. i. 4. 9. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 4 Gen. ii. 19. 
 
.. Under this celestial enduement, the sacred 
 impression of the divine image conspicuously 
 appeared in the first of mankind. " In the im- 
 age of God created he them." 1 
 
 5. Had man kept in faithful obedience to his 
 heavenly guide, and rejected the efforts of the 
 tempter, he might undoubtedly, in due time, 
 have been advanced to a degree of establishment 
 beyond all possibility of falling ; but not con- 
 tinuing strictly upon his watch, and, contrary 
 to the warning before given him, turning his at- 
 tention towards the temptation, when alluringly 
 presented, he slipped from his proper guard ; 
 leaving hold of that spirit wherein his life and 
 strength lay, he fell from it, and ail its advan- 
 tages, out of the liberty of the sons of God, into 
 the bondage of corruption : a sure introduction 
 to misery. For as holiness and happiness are 
 inseparably united, so sin and misery are indi- 
 visibly connected. 
 
 To suppose, that the Almighty author of all 
 good, originally subjected roan under a moral 
 necessity to transgress upon the appearance of 
 temptation, is an imagination too injurious to 
 the divine character to be admitted. Our first 
 parents were unquestionably enabled by their 
 Maker to abide in due watchfulness, which 
 would have entitled them to preservation : their 
 defection from which, was certainly not of him, 
 but of themselves. Had their lapse been 
 through his will, or intentional disposition of 
 circumstances, so that it must inevitably fol- 
 low, he could not consistently have sentenced 
 
 1 Gen-i.2f. 
 AS 
 
tliem to punishment for it ; because, in so doings 
 they performed his will, which could not be a 
 sin against him. 
 
 A dangerous fondness to become knowing iu 
 things hurtful, and no way necessary, seems to 
 have had an early entrance into the human mind. 
 "In the day ye eat, your eyes shall be opened, 
 and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
 evil." x By the suggestion of this flattering false- 
 hood, Eve was deceived. Knowing nothing 
 but good, she might have remained happy ; but 
 experiencing evil, she became otherwise. This 
 knowledge is as opposite to that of the divine 
 wisdom, as darkness is to light. It is certain 
 the Omniscient knows both good and evil, but 
 he knows the first by immutable possession and 
 perfect enjoyment, and the last he beholds with 
 abhorrence, in eternal opposition to, and infi- 
 nite distance from the purity of his nature. 
 With sinful man the case is reverse ; evil having 
 immediate possession of him, and good being 
 out of his reach, without divine mercy, he must 
 be completely wretched. This is the necessary 
 consequence of that boasted knowledge of the 
 world, which men acquire by tasting the per- 
 nicious and poisonous sweets of temptation. 
 
 6. The consequences of this primary lapse 
 were immediately affecting to the actual trans- 
 gressors, and remotely to all their posterity. I. 
 They lost the bright impression of the divine 
 image, and the felicity attending it. Forfeiting 
 the immediate indwelling and pure influence of 
 God's Holy spirit, they lost that divine simili- 
 
 i Gen. iii. 5 
 
tude, wherein they had enjoyed internal light, 
 life, love, goodness, righteousness, holiness, and 
 happiness. That omnipresent spirit of power, 
 truth, and virtue, which in their original state 
 had been their comforter, disunited from them 
 through transgression, now became their accuser 
 and convictor. 2. Lapsing from under due and 
 constant subjection to the mind and spirit of his 
 Creator, the will of man separated from the will 
 of God, and became self-will. Self-love in 
 man was originally and properly placed in sub- 
 servience to the love of his maker, who being 
 in all respects justly supreme, had, whilst man 
 stood in cheerful obedience, the supremacy in 
 his affection ; but by his undutiful self-gratifi- 
 cation, and letting in the suggestion of the temp- 
 ter, his chief love turned from his maker to 
 himself. Thus probably inordinate self-love 
 and self-will originated in man, and they al- 
 ways stand in a will separate from the will of 
 God, and a spirit contrary to his holy spirit. 
 This mental separation opened an easy road of 
 access for the evil spirit to influence the human 
 mind towards exterior objects, and rendered 
 them the subjects of temptation. By giving 
 way to carnal inclinations, man became car- 
 nally-minded ; and " to be carnally- minded is 
 death." 1 
 
 7. When the Sovereign Legislator first added 
 a positive law to Adam, he predenounced im- 
 mediate death upon him in case of his trans- 
 gression ; " in the day that thou eatest thereof, 
 thou shalt surely die." 2 This seems to imply a 
 
 1 Rom. viii. & 2 Gen. ii. IT. 
 
8 
 
 mucli deeper and more important meaning than 
 what relates to the body ; a meaning more im- 
 mediately affecting to the rational sonl ; the pri- 
 vation of a life which before transgression it 
 happily enjoyed, and which, by disobedience, 
 it must certainly lose. What then is the pro- 
 per life of the soul, and what is the death of 
 that which must for ever exist ? Merely to be, 
 cannot be the life intended. It must be, to live 
 in that life which immutably exists only in the di- 
 vine nature 9 and which is not to be enjoyed but 
 by partaking of the divine nature, the spirit of 
 him who is the life, and our life ; that life the 
 Evangelist declares to be the true light of men. 1 
 This supernatural, spiritual, heavenly power 
 and virtue of the great illuminator, and quick- 
 ener, is the true life of the immortal spirit of 
 man ; and the total want, or deprivation there- 
 of, is its death. Turning from this to embrace 
 temptation, our first parents did surely, in the 
 day of transgression, deviate from, and die in 
 spirit to that divine life by which they had been 
 quickened. For, it is the spirit that quickeneth, 
 or giveth life f and when life departs, death 
 ensues of course. As the body dies when de- 
 prived of its animal life, so the soul is left in 
 a state of spiritual death, when that which is its 
 proper life departs from it ; saving this differ- 
 ence, that the deceased body remains wholly 
 insensible ; but the soul, in the full state of its 
 death, still exists under the unavoidable sense 
 of its guilt and misery. Thus, according to wis- 
 
 1 2 Pet. i. 4. John, xiv. 6. Col. iii. 4. John, i, 4. 2 John, 
 vi. 63. 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
9 
 
 dom, man found death in the error of his life. 1 
 — " For God made not death, neither hath he 
 pleasure in the destruction of the living" — But, 
 " through envy of the Devil came death into the 
 world." 2 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 1. The Fall of Adam and Eve affected all their Pro- 
 geny, not with Guilt, but with Infirmity. 2. How 
 this accrues. 3. The State of Infants. 4. The 
 common Ascendence of the sensitive Powers over 
 the rational. 5. How the Creature is said, Rom. 
 viii. to be subjected to Vanity by its Creator. 6. 
 When arrived to years of Understanding, we add 
 Sin to Infirmity. 
 
 1. It appears from holy writ, that previous 
 to our own actual offences, we are all naturally 
 affected by the transgression of our primogeni- 
 tors. " By one man sin entered into the world, 
 and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, 
 for that all have sinned." 3 This is not to be 
 understood of the death of the body only ; for 
 all come into the world in the image of the 
 earthly, or, void of the quickening and sensible 
 influence of divine life. But this disadvantage, 
 through the supreme goodness, is amply pro- 
 vided for, and there appears no necessity to 
 conclude, that we all come into the world justly 
 obnoxious to divine vengeance ; for an offence 
 committed by our primogenitors, before we came 
 
 1 Wisdom i. 12, 13. 2 Ibid. ii. 24. 3 Rom. 5. 12. 
 
10 
 
 into the world. With what propriety can an 
 infant incapable of committing any crime, be 
 treated as an offender? The scripture positively 
 
 assures us, God's ways are equal 1 that the 
 
 soul that sinneth it shall die, and not the son 
 for the fault of the Father — that ichatever 
 Adam's posterity lost through him, that and more 
 they gain in Christ; 2 and undoubtedly, his 
 mercy and goodness, and the extent of his pro- 
 pitiation, are as applicable to infants, who have 
 not personally offended, as to adults who have. 
 3. The immortal reasonable soul of man, in 
 every individual, appears to be the immediate 
 production of its Creator j for the prophet Ze- 
 chariah, speaking of the great acts of God in 
 creation, asserts, that " he formeth the spirit of 
 man within hiin." 3 And in Eccles. xii. 7> we 
 read upon the death of the body, " Then shall 
 the dust return to the earth as it was, and the 
 spirit shall return unto God who gave it" The 
 soul therefore, receiving its existence immedi- 
 ately from the perfection of unchangeable pu- 
 rity, can have no original impurity or intempe- 
 rature in its nature ; but being immediately and 
 intimately connected with a sensitive body, and 
 of itself, unable constantly to withstand the ea- 
 gerness of the animal passions after gratifica- 
 tions of a carnal nature, is liable to be so influ- 
 enced by them, as to partake with them in their 
 sensual indulgencies. In this state the descend- 
 ants of Adam come into the world, unendued 
 with that divine life which Adam fell from. And 
 who can say, this might not be admitted in mer- 
 
 1 Ezek. xviii. * Rom. v. 15 to 20. 3 Zech.xii. 1. 
 
11 
 
 cy to all the future generations of mankind ? 
 1st. That each succeeding individual might be 
 prevented from incurring the guilt of repeating 
 the sin of our prime ancestors, and falling from 
 the same degree of innocence, purity and divine 
 enjoyment. 2d. That, by feeling the infirmity 
 of our own nature, and the want of divine as- 
 sistance, we might become the more sensible of 
 our danger, and necessary dependence on our 
 Creator, and thence be continually excited to 
 seek after, and cleave to him, in watchfulness, 
 circumspection and prayer, in order to obtain a 
 state of restoration. 3d. That having in part 
 attained such a state, our prudence might be 
 useful towards our preservation and growth 
 therein ; since we should certainly be more as- 
 siduously concerned, to secure to ourselves a 
 good condition obtained through pains and dif- 
 ficulty, than one we might have been originally 
 placed in without any care or trouble to our- 
 selves. 
 
 3. Whatever were the peculiarities attending 
 the fall of the first man and woman, or those 
 consequent upon it, this is certain, that their 
 progeny do not come into the world in that 
 same state of brightness themselves were consti- 
 tuted in after their creation. It cannot escape 
 the notice of those who have had the care of 
 infants, that the earliest exertions observable in 
 them, evidently arise from the powers of animal 
 desire, and animal passion ; how prone these 
 are to increase in them, and to predominate as 
 they grow up, and the solicitude it requires to 
 keep children out of unruliness and intempe- 
 rature, as they advance to youth's estate ; how 
 
IS 
 
 much too potent their inordinate propensities 
 are for the government of the rational faculty ; 
 what pains are necessary to regulate, and often 
 but to palliate them, by a virtuous education, 
 and improving converse ; and the impossibility 
 they should ever be radically subdued and ruled, 
 without the application of a superior principle. 
 
 4. In the present state of our nature, the sen- 
 sitive powers take the lead of the rational in the 
 first stage of life, as the soul brings only a ca- 
 pacity, without any real knowledge, or potency, 
 into the world with it. It acquires its know- 
 ledge by degrees, enlarging also in capacity to 
 receive it gradually. Every one knows, it is 
 not capable at five or ten years of age, to com- 
 prehend the same ideas in the same extent, as in 
 riper and more advanced years. It first becomes 
 impressed with the images of external things, 
 presented through the corporeal organs, and 
 afterwards with those mental ideas inculcated 
 by its primary instructors, whether true or 
 false. Hence the bias of education becomes 
 strong, either to right or wrong, according 
 as the instructions received are agreeable to 
 either ; and the passions being enlisted in their 
 service, occasionally exercise their warmth in 
 favour of the prevalent idea or impression, how- 
 ever wrong it may be ; unless the mind, through 
 Divine illumination, discover its error, and sub- 
 mit to its rectification. 
 
 5. Previous to the reception of knowledge, 
 the soul is joined to the body, by the power of 
 its Creator ; who, in consequence of the fall, saw 
 fit it should be so. " For," saith the Apostle, 
 " the creature was made subject to vanity, not 
 
13 
 
 willingly, but by reason of him who hath sub- 
 jected the same in hope ; because the creature 
 itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
 corruption, into the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God." 1 
 
 The rational soul is here intended by the 
 creature, and properly denominates the man. 
 Herein the true distinction lies, betwixt the hu- 
 man species and creatures of inferior kinds. 
 This descends not with the body from parents 
 to children ; the soul being an indivisible imma- 
 terial substance, cannot be generated. The soul 
 of the child never was in the parent, and there- 
 fore could never sin in him, nor derive guilt 
 from his transgression. Neither can guilt ac- 
 crue to it, merely from its being joined to a body 
 descended from him, because that junction is the 
 act of the Creator. 
 
 To account a child guilty, or obnoxious to 
 punishment, merely for an offence committed by 
 its parents, before it could have any conscious- 
 ness of being, is inconsistent both with justice 
 and mercy ; therefore no infant can be born with 
 guilt upon its head. 
 
 6. Besides our natural alienation from, and 
 ignorance of the internal Life of God, 2 in our 
 fallen state, it must be acknowledged, that all 
 who have arrived to such a degree of maturity 
 as to be capable of receiving a right understand- 
 ing, and of distinguishing the inward monitions 
 of Truth in their conscience, have also increased 
 and strengthened the bonds of corruption upon 
 themselves, in different degrees, by a repeated, 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 20, 21 . * Eph. iv. 18. 
 B 
 
14 
 
 and too frequently an habitual indulgence of the 
 carnal part, against the sense of duty received ; 
 and are more deeply entered into the dark re- 
 gion of the shadow of death, through their own 
 trespasses and sins. l Thus, " all have sinned, 
 and come short of the glory of God." 2 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 1. The State of. Man in the fallen Nature, and the 
 Necessity of his Renovation. 2. His inability to 
 accomplish it for himself, and the necessity of Di- 
 vine Assistance thereunto. 3. What moral evil 
 is — that it both may, and must be removed from 
 Man in order to his Felicity. 4. Without this, 
 Man is not fully acquitted by the one offering of 
 our Saviour at Jerusalem. 5. The Spirit of God 
 is absolutely necessary to effect this great work. 
 6. What perfect Redemption from Sin consists in — 
 The Term World, John iii. 16. is not to be confined 
 to the Elect — Christ tasted Death for all Men with- 
 out Exception. 
 
 1. Whatever we may have derived from 
 our parents, we certainly accumulate to our- 
 selves additional corruption. " All flesh hath 
 corrupted his way upon the earth. " 3 Every 
 adult person, in his common natural state, must, 
 upon serious introversion, find in himself a 
 proneness to the gratification of self, and the 
 sensual part; an eager inclination at times to 
 forbidden pleasure, an aversion to piety and 
 holy walking, a consciousness of guilt, and a 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 1. 2 Rom. iii. 23. 3 Gen. vi. 1 7. 
 
IS 
 
 fearful apprehension of the approach of death. 
 Men generally confess they have erred and 
 strayed, like lost sheep, from the salutary paths 
 of virtue and duty ; and that, such is their frailty, 
 it is an easy thing for them to fall in with temp- 
 tation; but hard, if not impossible, effectually 
 to resist it. Nay, even the high rewards pro- 
 mised to virtue and a good life, and the sore 
 punishments annexed to vice and folly, are al- 
 together insufficient to retain them in the practice 
 of the former, or to enable them to conquer the 
 force of their inclination to the latter. This 
 demonstrates the corruption of their nature; and 
 as " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh;" 1 so from what lodges or presides 
 within, the exterior practice arises. The cor- 
 ruption in the heart corrupts the actions, man- 
 ners, and language. Hence all the irregularities 
 in conduct, all the profane and untrue speeches, 
 all the common complimental falsehoods, to gra- 
 tify the pride and folly of vain minds. 
 
 As the origin of evil in man, came by trans- 
 ferring his attention and desire from his Crea- 
 tor to the creature, dividing his will from the 
 will of God, and his spirit from the spirit of 
 trod; so the continuation of evil in man is by 
 the continuance of this separation, and must 
 abide so long as that remains. In this situation, 
 commonly called the state of nature, we are 
 both unfit for, and unable to enter the heavenly 
 kingdom, which admits of nothing sinful, or 
 unclean, 2 It is therefore absolutely requisite 
 that man should be made holy, in order to bre 
 
 1 Mat. xii. 34. 2 Eph. v. 5. 
 
16 
 
 happy. Holiness cannot unite with unholiness ; 
 nor can ability arise from infirmity. If pollu- 
 tion can cleanse itself, if evil can produce good, 
 if death can bring forth life ; man thus corrupt- 
 ed, debilitated, and deadened, may disengage, 
 reform, quicken, and restore himself. But it is 
 not in the power of man, as such, to extricate 
 himself from the bonds of sin and death. Yet, 
 as impurity is the bar, it must be removed. As 
 sin separates man from his Maker, 1 man must 
 be separated from sin, or he cannot be reconcil- 
 ed and united, to him. Without restoration to 
 a state of holiness, he cannot enjoy the felicity 
 pertaining to that state ; for, " without holiness 
 no man shall see the Lord." 2 
 
 How then shall corrupt man become holy ? 
 how shall he, in a state of utter incapacity, 
 enter into and maintain a warfare against his 
 many and mighty adversaries, which beset him 
 within and without? what ability has he to 
 fight his enemy who is already enchained by 
 him ? a power too strong, for man has got pos- 
 session ; it must be a superior power to dispos- 
 sess him, to rescue and restore man ; and who 
 is sufficient for these things ? None but his 
 Omnipotent Creator was able to unbind and 
 extricate him. But his will Adam had separa- 
 ted from, his law he had transgressed, his com- 
 mand he had disobeyed, and against him alone 
 he had committed this high offence. Yet, be- 
 hold the astonishing compassion and kindness 
 of infinite goodness ! an all-sufficient means 
 was straightway provided, for the redemption 
 
 1 Tsa.lix.S. 2 Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 
17 
 
 both of the actual offenders and all their pro 
 geny. The eternal word, the son, the lamb of 
 (tO(1 Almighty, gave instant demonstration of 
 the greatness of divine love and mercy, in then 
 concurring with the father, to yield himself up 
 in due time to take the nature of man upon 
 him, 1 and, by resigning it to suffering and deaths 
 to make it a propitiation for the whole species; 
 and also, in immediately, and all along, afford- 
 ing a manifestation of his holy spirit to every 
 man to profit withal, 2 in order to their present 
 deliverance from the power of sin, and their 
 everlasting salvation from the certain effect of 
 abiding therein to the last, namely, the second 
 death. 
 
 That man should, of himself, empower him- 
 self to live in the constant practice of crossing 
 his natural inclinations and propensities, is a 
 wild presumption ; but that a spirit infinitely 
 good, and more powerful than all his enemies, 
 should so influence, incline, and enable him, is 
 highly reasonable to believe, because absolutely 
 necessary. By the help of (rod's Spirit, man 
 may, like the Apostle, be assisted to keep hw 
 body under, and bring it into subjection,* before 
 the strength of its passions and affections lessee 
 by decay of nature ; which the rational faculty 
 can never effectually accomplish, even under 
 that decay, without superior assistance. 
 
 3. Neither the possibility, nor probability, of 
 man's purification and sanctification by the holy 
 spirit, can reasonably be doubted; for, first, as 
 physical evil, or bodily pain, has no substantial 
 
 VHeb.iU&. * I Cor. xii.7. * I Cor.ix.£T. 
 
18 
 
 existence of its own. but is purely incidental to 
 corporeal nature ; so moral evil is to the soul, 
 a disorder which it has improperly lapsed into. 
 It is no part of God's creation, nor has any real 
 existence by itself: but is the fallen, defective, 
 distempered condition of beings, once created 
 without intemperature, or defect. Evil there- 
 ^fore, though it be in man. is no constituent part 
 of man, but an imperfection adventitious to his 
 nature, which by au all-powerful principle, he 
 may be recovered from, and his nature restored 
 to a state of #tness for union with his Maker. 
 Secondly, uncreated omnipotence* is certainly 
 mare able to cleanse, than the creaturely, cor- 
 rupt, and fallen powers of darkness are to defile ; 
 and infinite goodness must be as willing and 
 jready to effect the first, as limited envy the 
 last. Did not the Sovereign Lord intend man 
 should be made holy, he would not require it ; 
 nor would he require it without affording him 
 the assistance requisite to accomplish it, for he 
 enjoins no impossibilities. That he doth require 
 it, the sacred writings sufficiently witness. 
 ■"God," saith an apostolic writer, "hath not 
 called us unto uncleanness, but unto holi- 
 ness." 1 And, " Christ also loved the church, 
 and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify 
 and cleanse it, with the washing of water by 
 the word," 2 (or the purifying efficacy of the 
 holy word, or spirit, which cleanseth the soul 
 as water doth the body) "that lie might present 
 it to himself a glorious church, not having spot 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should 
 
 1 i Thes. iv. 7. * Eph. v. 25, &c. 
 
19 
 
 be holy and without blemish." In another place, 
 he gives this exhortation, " Abstain from all 
 appearance of evil," 1 — then proceeds — " And 
 the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and 
 I pray God, that your whole spirit, and soul, 
 and body, be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And to en- 
 courage them to seek and hope for it, he imme- 
 diately assures them, " faithful is he that cal- 
 leth you, who also will do it." 
 
 4. Vain is that imaginary pretence, that 
 Christ has paid the whole price for us, by which 
 we stand fully acquitted in the sight of God ; 
 that we have complete redemption in him with- 
 out sanctijication in ourselves ; and that by the 
 external offering up of his body, he hath per- 
 fected the work for us, and we are already re- 
 conciled thereby. For, was this the real truth, 
 Christ only paid the price of man's redemption, 
 that he might continue in a state of pollution, 
 and practice evil with security; or be justified 
 in breaking the known commands of God, and 
 serving Satan during the whole term of this 
 life. Contrary to this, the apostolic doctrine is, 
 " His own self bore our sins in his own body 
 on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should 
 live unto righteousness." 2 — "He died for all, 
 that they which live should not henceforth live 
 unto themselves, but unto him who died for 
 them." 3 — "How shall we that are dead to sin 
 live any longer therein ?" 4 — " Let not sin there- 
 fore reign in your mortal body, that ye should 
 
 1 1 Thes. v. 22, 24. 2 1 Pet ii. 24, 3 2 Cor. v. 151 
 4 Rom. vi. 2, 12, 21, 22. 
 
20 
 
 abey it in the lusts thereof." — <•' What fruit had 
 ye then in those things whereof ye are now 
 ashamed ? For the end of those things is death. 
 But now being made free from sin, said become 
 servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holi- 
 ness, and the end everlasting life." 
 
 It is true, the apostle saith, " By one offer- 
 ing he hath perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified." 1 But this doth not imply, that his 
 sacrifice perfected those who never came to be 
 sanctified. Applying it to this case, it can mean 
 no more than, that such who have so experi- 
 enced the effectual operation of divine grace, as 
 to become sanctified, have remission by that 
 one offering for sins committed before their 
 sanctification, which perfects their redemption ; 
 and also for transgressions after, upon repent- 
 ance. For sin once committed cannot be un- 
 done ; present and future obedience is no more 
 than duty ; and past offences must still re- 
 main against us without forgiveness. Our 
 Saviour therefore, by his sacrifice, manifested 
 the mercy, love, and kindness of God ; " by 
 whom," saith the apostle, < k he was set forth to 
 be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
 declare his righteousness, for the remission of 
 sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
 God." 2 Herein he shewed, that a door of re- 
 conciliation is opened to all men ; but those 
 who through unbelief of, and disobedience to 
 divine grace, never experience the work of sanc- 
 tification, deprive themselves of that unspeaka- 
 ble advantage ; for it is through sanctification 
 
 J Heb. x. 14. 3 Rom.iii.25. 
 
21 
 
 that any come effectually to enjoy the benefit of 
 the sacrifice of Christ. That outward offering 
 for all, shewed the love of God towards all ; 
 and that he stands ready to pardon past trans- 
 gression, in all who sincerely accept his terms 
 of true repentance and reformation; but our 
 salvation is not completed by that single act 
 only, and the w r ork of redemption finished for 
 us without us. Though Christ died for us, that 
 Ave might be brought unto glory, yet we are not 
 actually purified, fitted for, and introduced into 
 the kingdom merely by that one offering. The 
 way to reconciliation was opened by the death 
 of Christ ; but we are not saved by his life till 
 we livingly experience the work of salvation in 
 our own particulars. 
 
 5. It is always requisite that the means be 
 adequate to the end, the cause sufficient to the 
 effect ; therefore as all men throughout all na- 
 tions, and every generation, originally stand in 
 equal relation to their Creator ; have been, and 
 must naturally be, in absolute need df his help, 
 in order to purification and salvation, the means 
 afforded for this purpose must be universal to 
 reach all. It must be a principle of real and 
 powerful holiness and goodness, to change the 
 condition of man from evil to good. It must 
 be omnipotent, to enable him to overcome his 
 adversaries, the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
 Nothing but a spirit superior to all these can 
 effectually cleanse the soul, and operate to the 
 expulsion and exclusion of those subtle and 
 powerful enemies which continually seek to hold 
 men in the bondage of corruption; therefore 
 nothing but God's holy, universal, almighty 
 
as 
 
 spirit can effect this necessary alteration in man, 
 rectify the disorder sin has introduced into his 
 nature, and raise him up from a state of spiritual 
 death, by producing a new and heavenly birth 
 of divine life in him, by which he may be cre- 
 ated anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and 
 restored to the image of God in righteousness 
 and true holiness. 
 
 6. Perfect redemption consists, first, in pay- 
 ing the price of ransom; and second, in bring- 
 ing out of bondage, and setting the prisoner at 
 liberty. Our Saviour paid the first by his suf- 
 fering and sacrifice ; and he performs the last 
 by the effectual operation of his spirit, in the 
 hearts of those who receive him, and resign 
 wholly to him. 
 
 None have cause to murmur at, or complain 
 against the dispensations of their benovelent 
 Creator; for in Christ he hath rendered to eve- 
 ry child of Adam a full equivalent for the loss 
 sustained through his unhappy fall. " God so 
 loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." 1 I know 
 some alledge, that the World here intends not 
 all men, but the elect only. But we find the 
 term world, when confined to men, in the New 
 Testament, is used either for all mankind in ge- 
 neral, for the majority of mankind, or for the un- 
 believing part of it ; and where it intends a part 
 of the species, it is often used to signify unbe- 
 lievers, and to distinguish them from believers, 
 but is never spoken of believers only. Besides, 
 
 1 John, iii. 16. 
 
 
S3 
 
 sucli an acceptation would turn the text into 
 nonsense, for then it must be thus understood ; 
 **' God so loved the elect that he gave his only be- 
 gotten Son, that whosoever of the elect believeth 
 in him, should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life." This would imply, that some of the 
 elect would not believe in him, and all the con- 
 sequeht absurdities of that position. But read 
 the text as it stands, and the particle whosoever 
 properly distinguishes the world into believers, 
 and unbelievers, or faithful and unfaithful ; and 
 shews that God so loved the whole of his rational 
 creation, that he gave all an opportunity of be- 
 ing saved through believing ; and if any did 
 not so embrace it, their refusal was the cause 
 of their condemnation, and not the want of GodV 
 love, nor of an opportunity of closing in with, 
 and receiving the benefit of it. This the four 
 succeeding verses plainly declare. " For God 
 sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through him might be 
 saved. He that believeth on him is not con- 
 demned ; but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already, because he hath not believed in the name 
 of the only begotten Son of God. And this is 
 the condemnation, that light is come into the 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds were evil. For every 
 one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither com- 
 eth to the light, lest his deeds should be reprov- 
 ed." 1 It is not reasonable to conclude, the 
 whole world can mean less than the whole hu- 
 man species* 
 
 1 John,iii. 17. &c. 
 
24 
 
 The apostle Peter saith, " The prophecy 
 came not in old time, or rather at any time, by 
 the will of man, but holy men of God spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But there 
 were false prophets also among the people, even 
 as there shall be false teachers among you, who 
 privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even 
 denying the Lord that bought them, and bring 
 upon themselves swift destruction." 1 This in- 
 dicates that Christ died not only for those who 
 come to be saved, but also for those who bring 
 destruction upon themselves; otherwise it can- 
 not be understood that, by his sacrifice, he 
 bought, or paid the price of redemption, condi- 
 tionally for them as well as others. But if he 
 thus bought those who denied him, who yet oc- 
 casioned their own destruction, it is truly as- 
 serted in the full extent of the words, that " He 
 by the grace of God should taste death for every 
 man;" 2 and that " He is the propitiation for our 
 sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins 
 of the whole world." 3 
 
 1 2 Pet. i. 21. and ii. 1. 2 Heb. ii. 9. * 1 John, ii. 2, 
 
25 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 1. The Progeny of Adam not condemnable for his 
 Transgression, but their own. 2. The vital part 
 of Religion is internal, and may be experienced by 
 People under every religious denomination, and in 
 every part of the World — Pagans not necessarily 
 excluded from all Share in Christ and Christianity; 
 which, 3. Consists not essentially in Exteriors, or 
 an imagery of Religion, but in being endued with 
 a new Nature. 4 and 5. This is certainly and sen- 
 sibly to be known, through the operation of Divine 
 Grace. 6. Christ waits to be gracious at the door 
 of every Man's Heart, causeth the Dead to hear his 
 voice, quickens the observant, and renders them 
 Partakers of his Heavenly Communion. 
 
 1. However public a person Adam may be 
 accounted, and however his posterity might, 
 without a Redeemer, have been by any thought 
 chargeable with his sin, though I am unable to 
 conceive how any man should deserve condemna- 
 tion for what he could not help ; yet our Saviour 
 having paid the price of our redemption, by 
 tasting death for every man, 1 there cannot be 
 any thing chargeable to Adam's descendants, 
 merely on account of his transgression, exclu- 
 sive of their own. Original sin, therefore, in 
 that sense which implies guilt in them for his 
 offence, I apprehend, has no foundation in truth. 
 Nor, was it really so, could any ceremonious per- 
 formance of men, or even all the water of Jor- 
 dan wash it away. All exterior forms, how- 
 ever mistakingly exalted, or celebrated amongst 
 
 1 Heb. ii. 9. 
 
26 
 
 mankind, are but outward and visible signs, and 
 altogether ineffectual towards any real change 
 or reformation of the subject. And respecting 
 little children who are taken away before they 
 have personally offended, they cannot in equity 
 be chargeable, but may with just confidence be 
 resigned, as perfectly safe, in the arms of their 
 Saviour, who declared, " Of such is the king- 
 dom of heaven ; m and also told his followers, 
 *' except ye be converted, and become as little 
 children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." 2 
 
 2. The vital part of man's religion and duty 
 stands, principally, in a right attention to, and 
 a faithful obedience of the manifestation of the 
 spirit of Christ in the heart and conscience. He 
 who pays due and constant regard to this, is in 
 his measure a follower of Christ, and has, in 
 some degree, the reality of Christianity in him ; 
 live under what mode of profession, or in what 
 part of the world soever he may. For who is a 
 servant of Christ but he that willingly obeys 
 him ? Is he who willingly acts according to his 
 verbal precepts, a follower of Christ ; and is 
 not he who, without the knowledge of these, 
 with equal willingness follows the leadings of 
 Ms spirit, also his servant ? Of this spirit the 
 truly virtuous tnd religious amongst the gen- 
 tiles were, in degree, partakers ; " for," saith 
 holy writ, " when the gentiles which have not 
 the law, do by nature the things contained in 
 the law, these, having not the law, are a law 
 unto themselves 5 which shew the work of the 
 
 1 Mat. xix. 14. *lbid.-rviii. S. 
 
27 
 
 law written in their hearts ; their conscience also 
 bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
 while accusing or else excusing one another." 1 
 The words by nature here, I apprehend, are 
 not to be understood as if the apostle intended 
 the gentiles became virtuous by any goodness 
 in their fallen nature, which must be the same 
 as all other mens. The context shews, he was 
 here distinguishing between those who enjoyed 
 the ministration of the Mosaic law, and those 
 who had it not ; and he useth the expression, 
 by nature, in the same sense as if he had said, 
 without an education under the law ; and pro- 
 ceeds to shew, that though they had it not, yet 
 they practised the substance intended by the 
 law. This shewed not, that their own hearts 
 were their law, but as the apostle explains it, 
 that the work of the law was written in their 
 hearts, and that they had a part in the new co- 
 venant ; in reference to which it is said, " I will 
 put my law in their inward parts, and write it 
 in their hearts." 2 Though they were without 
 the law of Moses, they were not without law 
 to God. For, by receiving and retaining the 
 divine impressions in their consciences, they 
 were under the law to Christ, or subject to the 
 manifestation of his spirit in their hearts ; and in 
 proportion to their obedience, partakers of the 
 nature of the divine frincifle within them. 
 By the internal operation of this nature it was 
 that they became reformed in heart, and rectified 
 in life and practice, so far as they were so ; or 
 as the text has it, enabled " to do the things 
 
 iRom, ii. 14, 15. 3 Jer.xxxi S3- 
 
2S 
 
 contained in the law." Originally disordered, 
 and actually depraved, their own nature as men 
 could never have led and empowered them to 
 this ; for, since the primary lapse, it is prone to 
 evil, 1 and true reformation and religion arise 
 not from that disordered and corrupt ground. 
 They come not by nature, but by grace. They 
 are the fruit of that good seed universally sown 
 in every heart, by the great and good Husband- 
 man for that end. Were it not for the notices 
 and powers communicated by this internal prin- 
 ciple, man must have continued to proceed in 
 the increase of corruption, irreligion and misery ; 
 as appears too evidently by the conduct of such 
 as disregard it. Not by following their own 
 nature therefore, but by obedience to the inward 
 law of the divine nature written in the heart, 
 the conscientiously virtuous amongst the gen- 
 tiles, as well as others, were enabled to perform 
 the things, or just morals, contained in the Mo- 
 saic law; and thereby to evidence in their mea- 
 sures, the effectual operation and authority of 
 the divine lawgiver within them. 
 
 The gentiles therefore partaking of the law 
 written in the heart, cannot properly be said to 
 be excluded from all share in the new cove- 
 nant, or dispensation of the gospel. The gos- 
 pel, taken in its full extent, is the revelation of 
 the love and mercy, and the offer and operation 
 of the grace of God, through Christ, to fallen 
 man, in his natural and corruptible state, in or- 
 der to his restoration and salvation. It is not 
 wholly contracted into the mere tidings f but, 
 
 1 Rom. vii. IS. 
 
9$ 
 
 including these, goes deeper, and essentially 
 consists in the thing declared by "-them; the 
 power of God administered to the salvation of 
 the soul. l By this the outward coming of Christ 
 is rendered truly and fully effectual to each 
 individual. Those who believe in, and obey 
 him in his inward and spiritual manifestations, 
 by which the gospel is preached in every ra- 
 tional creature under Heaven, may come to be 
 partakers of his life, and be saved by him from 
 the second death of eternal misery, though pro- 
 videntially incapacitated to know the exterior 
 history of his incarnation, &c. 
 
 That virtuous and devout gentiles were ap- 
 proved of God, appears in the case of Cor- 
 nelius; 2 for we find that before his reception of 
 historical and verbal Christianity, his sincere 
 devotion, and reverence towards his Creator, 
 and charitable acts to the needy, " came up for 
 a memorial before God," who also now taught 
 Peter, Verse 15, the gentiles he had thus 
 cleansed were no more to be esteemed common 
 or andean than the believing Jews, and gave 
 him, of a truth, to perceive, H that God is no re- 
 specter of persons ; but in every nation, he 
 that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is 
 accepted with him." 3 
 
 Hence it appears, those who conscientiously 
 obey the spiritual manifestations of Christ in 
 them, are internally, though not by outward 
 profession, his disciples and followers, and 
 truly believe in him so far as he is revealed to 
 them ; for obedience is the certain proof of a 
 
 1 Rom. i. 16* 2 Acts, x. 2, 3, 4. 3 Ibid. S4, 35. 
 
30 
 
 right faith. And I make no question, but those 
 iu any part of the globe, who, from invincible 
 obstacles, have not the opportunity of historical 
 Christianity, in their obedience to the spiritual 
 appearance of Christ in their hearts, are accept- 
 ed, and partake of the benefits of his death. 
 Why should they not be as capable of receiving 
 advantage by the sacrifice of Christ, as disad- 
 vantage by the fall of Adam, whilst they are 
 equally strangers to the history of both ? But 
 certainly, those to whom the sacred writings 
 are providentially communicated, are under 
 double obligation, since they are favoured with 
 that additional instrumental advantage ; and it 
 will tend to their greater condemnation, if they 
 believe not unto obedience. For, however high 
 the profession of such may be, they are but im- 
 perfect, superficial, ineffectual believers, who 
 hold with the external part, and experience not 
 the internal : christians in name, but not in deed 
 and in truth. It is essential to us who have 
 the scriptures, to believe both in the outward 
 coming, and inward ministration of our Saviour; 
 resigning to him, and trusting in him, with that 
 faith of the operation of God, which works by 
 love to the purification of the heart, and is the 
 saving faith of the gospel. 
 
 Complete Christianity has both an inside and 
 ail outside ; a profession or bodily appearance, 
 and a life and virtue, which is as a soul to 
 that body. Those who are in possession of 
 both, are complete christians. Those who have 
 the inward part without the outward, though 
 incomplete in that respect, will, in the sight of 
 perfect equity, certainly be preferred to such 
 
31 
 
 as have the latter without the former ; and it 
 would be well for all who have the history, 
 and profess the christian religion, yet walk 
 contrary to its requirings, could they change 
 conditions at last with such conscientious gen- 
 tiles. Let those who are so deeply affected with 
 absurdity, as to believe or imagine, that infinite 
 wisdom, goodness and equity, has confined sal- 
 vation to such of his creatures as happen, with- 
 out any choice of their own, to inhabit parti- 
 cular spots of the globe, are formalised after a 
 peculiar manner, or entertain one particular 
 set of articles and opinions, let such duly con- 
 sider the following texts. " Verily I say unto 
 you, I have not found so great faith, no not in 
 Israel ; and I say unto you, that many shall 
 come from the east and west, and shall sit down 
 with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
 kingdom of heaven ; but the children of the 
 kingdom," by education merely, " shall be cast 
 out into utter darkness ; there shall be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth." 1 " After this I beheld, 
 and lo, a great multitude, which no man could 
 number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peo- 
 ple, and tongues, stood before the throne, and 
 before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and 
 palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud 
 voice, saying, salvation to our God, who sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb !" 2 
 
 3. Real Christianity consists not in the pro- 
 fession of any framed articles of belief, nor in 
 the practice of signs and ceremonies, however 
 displayed with exterior pomp, or whatever sig- 
 
 1 Mat viii. 10, 1 1, 12. 2 Rev. vii. 9, 1Q. 
 
32 
 
 nificance may be fancifully attributed to them 
 by their supporters. Form and profession make 
 not a real christian, but the putting on of a 
 new nature. " They that are Christ's, have 
 crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." 1 
 " If any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
 ture ; old things are past away ; behold all 
 things are become new, and all things are of 
 God." 2 The necessity of regeneration, the 
 power by which it is effected, and the co-ope- 
 ration of God and man therein, are all included 
 in that text ; " If ye live after the flesh, ye 
 shall die ; but if ye through the spirit do mor- 
 tify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For 
 as many as are led by the spirit of God, they 
 are the sons of God." 3 
 
 4. The new birth is not brought forth in par- 
 ticulars imperceptibly. The new man is re- 
 newed in knowledge ; 4 in a certain and sensible 
 experience. The soul in whom it is going for- 
 ward, has an internal sense of it through its 
 whole progress, and must keep a steady eye 
 thereunto, that it may go forward. "We all," 
 saith the apostle, " with open face beholding as 
 in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed 
 into the same image, from glory to glory, even 
 as by the spirit of the Lord." 5 By looking at 
 the deceitful beauty of temptation, men fall into 
 sin, and by keeping a steadfast eye inwardly 
 unto Christ in spirit, with humble resignation 
 to him, and earnest desire after him, man finds 
 preservation, and gradually advanceth from one 
 degree of grace to another, till he really expe- 
 
 1 Gal. v. 24. 2 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. 3 Rom. viii. 13, 14. 
 *Col.iii.lO. 5 2 Cor. iii.18. 
 
33 
 
 rienceth a renewal of the Divine likeness upon 
 his soul, and an inward translation out of sin, 
 darkness, and death, into Divine light, life and 
 holiness ; and thereby, in conclusion, from 
 anxiety and misery, to peace and felicity. 
 
 5. The natural man may polish and adorn 
 himself with variety of literature, arts and breed- 
 ing; but in his best accomplishments, he is but 
 the natural man still, which the apostle declares, 
 receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, 
 neither can he know them. * This is the natural 
 condition of all men, before the work of reno- 
 vation is begun in them ; and seeing all stand in 
 need of divine grace to effect it, and that " God 
 will have, or willeth, all men to be saved, and 
 to come unto the knowledge of the truth f 92 so, 
 u the grace of G od that bringeth salvation, hath 
 appeared to all men, teaching us," by its con- 
 victions, " that denying ungodliness, and world- 
 ly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly in this present world." 3 Thus, " the 
 mighty God, even the Lord hath spoken, and 
 called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto 
 the going down thereof/' 4 All the personal 
 instructions, and writings of the prophets, apos- 
 tles and their contemporaries, taken in their full 
 extent, have never been any thing near so uni- 
 versal amongst mankind, as this grace and 
 power of God ; for it always hath been, and is 
 present to every individual in all nations, and 
 throughout every generation. 
 
 6. He who is given for a light to the gentiles, 
 and God's salvation to the ends of the earth, 5 not 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 14. 2 1 Tim. ii. 4. * Tit. ii. 1 1 , 13. 4 PsaL 
 1. 1. 5 Isa. xlix. 6. 
 
34 
 
 only dispenseth of his grace universally and in- 
 dividually, but even waits to be gracious. " Be- 
 hold," saith he, "I stand at the door and knock : 
 if any man hear my voice, and open the door, 
 I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
 and he with me." 1 This is Christ in spirit, 
 who proclaimeth, He that hath an ear, let him 
 hear. 
 
 Query. But if man in his fallen estate be 
 dead, how r can the dead hear ? 
 
 Answ. When the Saviour called, " Lazarus 
 come forth VI 2 the dead was quickened, and 
 immediately obeyed. The voice of him who is 
 a quickening spirit* is a quickening power. 
 " The hour is coming, and now is, when the 
 dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 they that hear shall live."* 
 
 Query. What is meant by his standing at 
 the door ? 
 
 Answ. His wonderful condescension, pa- 
 tience and long forbearance, in waiting upon 
 the soul of man, as for an entrance ; that as he 
 is a rational creature, he may be prevailed 
 with willingly to open his heart to his Redeemer 
 and receive him. 
 
 Query. How doth Christ in spirit knock, or 
 call? 
 
 Answ. By influencing the soul in its seasons 
 of quietude, so as to excite inclinations and 
 desires towards good; and also at other times, 
 by distressing it with the painful sensations of 
 guilt and remorse, for its sinful pursuits and 
 practices. 
 
 1 Rev. iii. 20. 2 John xi. 43. 3 1 Cor. xv. 45. 4 John 
 v. 25. 
 
35 
 
 Query. How shall man open to him, and re- 
 ceive him ? 
 
 Answ. By resigning his attachment to self, 
 and the propensities of sense, and humbly ad- 
 hering to the voice, or present manifestations of 
 the spirit. 
 
 Query. How doth the Lord come in and 
 sup with man, and make him a partaker of his 
 supper ? 
 
 Answ. When the spirit of Christ is received 
 by the soul in faith, love and due submission, 
 he proceeds by degrees to set it at liberty from 
 the bondage and influence of corruption ; for, 
 u where the spirit of the Lord is," in posses- 
 sion, "there is liberty;" 1 and when he hath 
 brought the soul into a proper degree of purifi- 
 cation, he sheds the comfort of his love into it, 
 and makes it a partaker of the communion of 
 saints, which is inward and spiritual. This is 
 the true supper of the Lord. He who partici- 
 pates of this, discerns and tastes the Lord's spi- 
 ritual body, and experienceth it to be meat in- 
 deed, and his blood to be drink indeed. 2 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 17. 2 John, vi. 55. 
 
36 
 
 CHAR V. 
 
 1. God's true and faithful Witness in the Conscience 
 a Divine Monitor, and Daily Preacher to Man. 2. 
 It produceth the New-birth in the Obedient; and, 
 S, promoteth its growth in them. 4. This no in- 
 dignity to Man, but the contrary, and of absolute 
 necessity to his Ascendence above sublunary con- 
 siderations. 5. It is not beneath the dignity of 
 the Creator to make Man so far the subject of his 
 especial regard, as jfco enable him to answer the 
 end he created him for. The same Power that 
 created, requisite to the support of his Creation, 
 and his continual Superintendance necessary to 
 Mankind. 
 
 1. Mankind are not left to Satan, nor to 
 their own lusts, nor to live without God in the 
 world. A way is cast up. A means is provid- 
 ed. Besides the natural, and traditional con- 
 sciousness of mere moral good and evil in every 
 breast, God hath a divine witness in the heart 
 of each individual, which will truly manifest 
 right and wrong in the consciences of those who 
 faithfully attend thereto, afford light and power 
 to set them free from the mists of prepossession 
 and prejudice, and become to them a safe con- 
 ductor, and an able supporter in the paths of 
 religion and virtue. 
 
 What instructor can we have equal to this 
 most intimate witness ? A monitor so near, so 
 constant, so faithful, so infallible ! This is the 
 great gospel-privilege of every man : the ad- 
 vantage of having it preached day by day in his 
 own heart, without money, and without price,, 
 yet with certainty. Is it reasonable to conclude, 
 
3? 
 
 this nice, true, and awful discerned should be* 
 less than divine? Can any person, upon serious 
 consideration, imagine it to be the nature of the 
 fallen man himself? Is there the least probabi- 
 lity that any thing so corrupted and clouded, 
 should so clearly and instantly distinguish, and 
 would the heart of man, which is declared by 
 inspiration to be deceitful above all things, and 
 desperately wicked, 1 so faithfully reprove it- 
 self? Would that which delights in its own in- 
 dulgence, and is impatient of restraint, act in 
 daily control to its own inclinations ? Is it the 
 property of evil to do good? Here is a just 
 criterion. That which is natural leads according 
 to nature ; that which is spiritual according to 
 the spirit. These are distinguished in scripture 
 by the terms flesh and spirit, 2 and are truly 
 said to war against each other in man. As sin 
 wars against the spirit to destroy the soul, the 
 spirit wars against sin to save the soul. 
 
 Let me query with you who, instead of em- 
 bracing in humility, love, and thankfulness, this 
 upright principle as divine, are exerting your 
 abilities to depreciate and revile it. Whilst you 
 confess it distinguishes right from wrong in 
 your own breasts, by its approbation of the first, 
 and rebuke of the last ; can you thus acknow- 
 ledge it to be infallibly good, and at the same 
 time attribute it to yourselves ? "I know," 
 saith Paul, " that in me, that is in my flesh/* 
 or belonging to my nature, " dwelleth no good 
 thing." 3 Is your nature in a better condition 
 than his was ? Is there any good thing in yours, 
 
 1 Jer. xvii. 9. 2 Rom. vii. 23. Gal. v. 17. z Rom. viL 18. 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 yet was there none in his ? He confessed he 
 had none as man. I presume you have no 
 more that he had. Whence then this quick and 
 righteous discriminator appearing in your con- 
 sciences ? You will not say, it is of Satan ; it 
 must therefore either he of man, or of God. 
 For the reasons above hinted, it cannot be of 
 man ; it must therefore be of God. Wonder- 
 ful is the mercy, and great the advantage to 
 every man, that God himself, according to the 
 scriptures, thus condescends to be the teacher 
 of his people, 1 by the manifestation of his spirit 
 in every heart ; and certainly it ought to be ac- 
 cepted and observed with the greatest reverence 
 and thankfulness. 
 
 2. The increase and operation of this living 
 principle becomes a new life in and to the obe- 
 dient soul, quickening and refreshing it with a 
 sense of divine love, strength, and comfort. This 
 life being begot and brought forth by the holy 
 spirit in the willing mind, is called a birth of 
 the spirit, and being its new production there, 
 it is stiled the new -birth ; and seeing our first 
 parents, immediately upon their creation, were 
 favoured with this spiritual birth in them, and 
 lost it by disobedience; the renewal of it, both 
 in themselves and in their posterity, has taken 
 the terms of regeneration and renovation^ or 
 the birth of divine life renewed in man. Being 
 inheritors of spiritual death in Jldam, or in the 
 fallen state and nature, we can only be born 
 again to life in Christ, by the power and virtue 
 
 1 Isa. ii. 3. and liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 34. John, vi. 45. and 
 xvi. 13. 1 Thes. iv. 9. 1 John, ii. 27.* \ 
 
■ 39 
 
 of his holy spirit, who is the resurrection and 
 the life. 1 
 
 3. Every productive power brings forth its 
 own likeness ; the evil spirit an evil birth, and 
 the good spirit a birth answerable to its good- 
 ness ; and as every natural birth admits of a 
 growth, so doth this spiritual birth in the soul. 
 Our Saviour represents its gradual progression, 
 in those similies of the increase of the mustard- 
 seed, the process of leaven, and the springing 
 up of living water into everlasting life. 2 The 
 apostles Peter and John also shew the several 
 gradations experienced amongst the believers, 
 under the similies of new-born babes, children, 
 young men, and fathers. 3 There is likewise 
 not only a progression from the lowest of these 
 states to the highest, but even that of fathers 
 admits of continual advances, as Paul witness- 
 eth ; who, though he truly asserted, that the law 
 of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had set him 
 free from the law of sin and death, 4, yet he was 
 sensible of higher degrees of attainment still be- 
 fore him ; and therefore, after he had been near 
 thirty years in the apostleship, he makes this 
 acknowledgement; "Not as though I had al- 
 ready attained, either were already perfect, but 
 I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for 
 which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 
 Brethren, I count not myself to have appre- 
 hended ; but this one thing I do, forgetting 
 those things which are behind, and reaching 
 forth unto those things which are before, I press 
 
 1 John, xi. 25. 3 Luke, xiii. 18, 22. John, iv. 14. 
 3 .1 Pet. ii. 2. 4 Rom. viii. 2. 
 
toward the mark, for the prize of the high call- 
 ing of God in Christ Jesus." 1 
 
 4. Those who treat this doctrine, of the ne- 
 cessity of man's being renewed, led and guided 
 by the spirit of his Maker, as a disparagement 
 to human reason, put the highest indignity upon 
 the supreme wisdom, goodness, and power. 
 The dignity of human nature consists not in 
 self-sufficiency. The most exalted of created 
 beings neither exist, nor act independent of their 
 Creator ; much less man, who in his primitive 
 purity was made lower than the angels. 2 He 
 stands in continual need of divine help ; and 
 his true dignity consists in being, by his reason, 
 above all inferior creatures, capable of conscious- 
 ly receiving thai assistance, and of being thereby 
 preferred to, and preserved in a blessed union 
 and communion with his Maker. It cannot be 
 any lessening to an inferior to be directed and 
 guided by a superior being ; especially by th$ 
 supreme Lord, and sole author of all existence, 
 infinite in excellency, power and wisdom, and 
 immutable in glory. Indued with his spirit, in 
 any degree, the creature is raised above the 
 highest elevation of its own nature ; and the 
 more it is clothed with it, the more it is dignified 
 and exalted. 
 
 No created being, by its natural powers, can 
 rise above its natural sphere. To reach a sub- 
 limer station, it must be assisted by strength su- 
 perior to its own ; a power equal to the height 
 jo{ its ascent. It is only when the sun of righte- 
 ousness sheds forth its quickening beams upon 
 
 * Phil iii. 12, 13, 14. 2 Hob. ii. 7. 
 
41 
 
 the spirit of man, that the poor worm is capaci- 
 tated in reality, to take wing and mount above 
 its sublunary limits, towards the regions celes- 
 tial. 
 
 5. Some writers of the epicurean cast, have 
 imagined it beneath the divine greatness, for the 
 sovereign Lord of all, to stoop so low as to 
 make man a peculiar object of his notice and 
 regard. To such as mistake those sure marks 
 of degeneracy, pride and haughtiness, for great- 
 ness of soul, this may seem reasonable ; but in 
 him to whom pride is abomination, 1 and as dis- 
 tant from his similitude as darkness is to light, 
 it cannot have any place. What it is not be- 
 low him to create, it cannot be beneath him to 
 regard, proportionably to the end he made it 
 for ; and seeing man was created for a pur- 
 pose of his glory, 2 and to partake of his felicity, 
 it would derogate from his wisdom and good- 
 ness, to suppose he should look upon it as below 
 him to enable man to answer the great ends of 
 his creation ; which he could not by any means 
 do, without a competent assistance from his Ma- 
 ker. Pride was the cause of the degeneracy of 
 angels, and its natural consequence is the de- 
 struction of peace and felicity to all that enter- 
 tain it. By being something in our own con- 
 ceit, attributing any good to ourselves, or as- 
 piring above our place and due order, we cen- 
 tre in pride and arrogance. Created beings 
 may be guilty of this ; but it is impossible to 
 that all-perfect Existence, who is infinite, omni- 
 potent, and immutable. 
 
 * Pro. xvi, 5* z Isa. xliii. 7. 
 
42 
 
 
 This visible world demonstrates, it was madfc 
 by an Omnipotent Power, and is preserved by 
 the same power. Without power it could not 
 be made ; and as Thomas Sherlock justly ob- 
 serves, " That which owes its very being to 
 power must depend upon the power that made 
 it, for it can have no principle of self-subsistence 
 independent on its cause." 1 What doth not 
 necessarily exist, must both be originally crea- 
 ted, and continually upheld by the power that 
 tnade it. It had no being before its creation. 
 It cannot retain its being against the will of its 
 Creator. Its existence and support stand equal- 
 ly in the power of its Maker; without whom 
 it was nothing, could never have existed, nor 
 can continue its existence. It was made by his 
 power, is preserved by his power, and upon the 
 withdrawment of his power would dissolve and 
 evanish into its original nothing. There is no 
 medium between self- existence and dependence 
 on its cause; therefore a cessation from it of 
 the power that made it, is annihilation to it. 
 Thus, as all created things were made, and still 
 subsist solely by the energy of the Creator's will 
 and power, he must necessarily, whilst they ex- 
 ist, be omnipresent with them, in them, and 
 through them ; therefore cannot be ignorant of 
 any thing relating to them, nor unconcerned 
 about them, or any part of them. 
 
 The continual interposition and superintend- 
 ence of the spirit of God, was always requisite 
 to man, both to preserve him whilst in innocence, 
 and to recover him from under his fallen estate, 
 
 * Discourse on Providence* 
 
43 
 
 by governing the effects of natural causes ; and 
 to counteract the wiles, and oppose the influences 
 of the evil spirit. Therefore the great Media- 
 tor for, and Redeemer of men, was from the 
 beginning, not only incarnately and corporeally 
 given for a propitiation for the sins of the whole 
 world, to be testified, or verified, in due time ; 
 but he was also as universally given, in a spi- 
 ritual manner, to be a witness, a leader, and 
 commander. 1 1. He is spiritually given for a 
 witness, to testify against sin in every breast, by 
 his smitings there for evil conceived or com- 
 mitted. 2. For a leader and commander, to 
 such as pay due regard to his convictions, by 
 turning from iniquity to him that smites them, 
 and cleaving to him in that faith and love he 
 produces in them. These he leads in a cross 
 to all the corrupt nature, and empowers them to 
 follow him in the regeneration. This is the 
 true doctrinal Cross of Christ. 
 
 1 Isa. lv. 4. 
 
44 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 1. Regeneration not only necessary, but really expe- 
 rienced by the primitive Christians. 2. Paul's 
 comprehensive description of this great work. It 
 answers to the original Work of Creation, and is 
 effected only by the Holy Spirit. 3. An Objection 
 against the Sensibility of this Work answered. 
 4. The same continued. 5. Who it is that disbe- 
 lieves it. The Renunciation of human Reason not 
 required, but the yielding it to an infallible In- 
 structor, in order to its Rectification and Im- 
 provement, r 
 
 1. Now, O man ! what is the great business 
 of thy life in this world, but to regain thy place 
 in the paradise of God ; to secure an everlast- 
 ing establishment in that inheritance which is 
 incorruptible, undefiled, andfacleth not away? 1 
 To accomplish this, thou must be stripped of all 
 that which unfits thee for an entrance. What- 
 ever has been the cause of exclusion must be 
 removed. Whatever can have no place nor 
 habitation there, must be separated from thee, 
 or thou canst not be admitted. That which lets 
 will let till it be taken out of the way. What- 
 ever thou hast in thee or about thee, that thou 
 art attached to, in consequence of the fall, all 
 separate self and the carnal mind thou must 
 resign, or thou canst never know a restoration. 
 The gospel-axe, the power of the spirit of God, 
 must be laid to the root of the tree of corruption 
 in thee, that it may be extirpated, and the vine 
 of life implanted in its room ; that in the heart, 
 
 1 1 Pet. i. 4. 
 
45 
 
 where the sinful nature hath spread its poison- 
 ous produce, the engrafted word, which is able 
 to regenerate and save the soul, may flourish, 
 and bring forth its heavenly fruits; 1 from 
 whence ariseth happiness to the creature, and 
 praise to the eternal author of all virtue and 
 felicity. 
 
 The necessity of regeneration was not only 
 preached to the people in the primitive times, 
 but was actually experienced by the believers. 
 A clear and pregnant instance we have in 1 Cor. 
 vi. 9, 10, 11. " Know ye not that the unrighte- 
 ous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be 
 not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, 
 nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers <rf 
 themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor co- 
 vetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extor- 
 tioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God ; and 
 such were some of you : but ye are washed, but 
 ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name 
 of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." 
 Here the apostle plainly testifies, that some (rf 
 the Carinthian brethren, who had been of pol- 
 luted hearts and vicious lives, were become re- 
 generated, made clean and holy ; and shews this 
 .great change in them was wrought in the mime, 
 or power of the Lord Jesus, which he explains 
 to be, by the spirit of our God. The apostle 
 Peter concurs with Paul in bearing the like 
 testimony. " Seeing ye have purified your 
 souls in obeying the truth, through the spirit, 
 unto unfeigned love of the brethren ; see that 
 ye love one another with a pure heart fervently^ 
 
 1 Jattyes,i.21» 
 
46 
 
 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but 
 incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth 
 and abideth for ever." x To the like purpose 
 might be added Eph. ii. 5, 6. Col. i. 13 — ii. 10, 
 11, 12, 13— iii. 9, 10. with the 6th chapter of the 
 epistle to the Romans, and many other texts. 
 
 2. The apostle particularly shews the nature 
 and manner of this work in Romans the viith and 
 viiith ; which, for want of a real experience of, 
 many have been led to imagine, were intended 
 by him, as only descriptive of his own condition 
 at the time Jie wrote them ; yet it is manifest, 
 they comprehend diverse, and even contrary con- 
 ditions, which himself and others had experi- 
 enced in their christian progress, and which it 
 was impossible he should be in at one and the 
 same time ; viz. a state of darkness, and a state 
 of light ; a state of uncleanness, and a state of 
 purity ; a state of bondage, and a state of liberty; 
 a state of life, and a state of death. 
 
 Chap. vii. 5. he saith, " When we were in 
 the flesh," under the dominion of the carnal 
 nature " the motions of sins which were" ma- 
 nifested " by the law, did work in our members 
 to bring forth fruit unto death." Here he refers 
 back to that state of sin and death, they had for- 
 merly been enthralled in, but were now past ; as 
 fully appears by the succeeding verse, which 
 saith, " But now we are delivered from the law, 
 that being dead wherein we were held, that we 
 should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the 
 oldness of the letter." Vefse 7- he returns to the 
 former state again, and becomes more particular. 
 
 1 1 Pet. i. 22, 23. 
 
47 
 
 " I had not known sin," saith he, a but by the 
 law." Before he became sensibly convicted in 
 his own conscience, where the sense of the law 
 was opened to him, he remained in his first 
 state of natural blindness ; yet knew it not to 
 be such, notwithstanding his learned education, 
 and legal strictness. Though dead as to any 
 sense of divine life, yet he was alive in the spi- 
 rit of the world. " For," saith he, " I was 
 alive without the law once ; but when the com- 
 mandment came, sin revived, and I died." 1 
 Opposed by the internal administration of the 
 spiritual law, which brought conviction, the sin- 
 ful nature was afresh excited by the powers of 
 evil, and sprung up as with new life and vigour, 
 to obstruct his escape from it; "for without the 
 law sin was dead." 2 That is, its nature re- 
 mained quiet and undisturbed, enjoying its in- 
 dulgence without interruption, till the law of 
 life was administered against it. Then " the 
 commandment which was ordained to life, I 
 found," by the resistance of that nature, " to 
 be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the 
 commandment, deceived me, and by it slew 
 me." 3 Or, darkened me, and brought a sense 
 of death over me. It seems to have deceived 
 him at first into a belief that the law brought 
 forth death, because he found a sense of death 
 ensue upon the convictions of this law ; but 
 death is the fruit of sin, which is condemned bv 
 the law. For saith he, " the law is holy, and 
 the commandment holy, just, and good. Was 
 then that which is good made death unto me? 
 
 1 Rom. vii. 9. * Verse 8. s Verse 10, 1 L 
 
m 
 
 God forbid." 1 He found it was that which so 
 violently opposed it that produced death, and 
 occasioned the condemnation of the law to come 
 upon him, which discovered this death in him. 
 This was permitted that sin might appear sin, 
 and that by the convicting force of the command- 
 ment it might become exceeding sinful in his 
 view, or be held by him in abhorrence. He then 
 feelingly expresses the enthralled situation of 
 this convicted, but unconverted state. " The % 
 laic is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under 
 sin." 2 That is, he found himself as really in 
 captivity under sin, as those are to their pur- 
 chasers who are sold into slavery. " For that 
 which I do, I allow not." 3 I am convinced it 
 is evil, and would gladly be delivered from it ; 
 but notwithstanding my convictions, am under 
 its power, and unable to extricate myself. " For 
 the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil 
 which I would not, that I do." 4 Yet, in patient 
 submission, and fervent cleaving to God, some 
 consolation attends this awakened condition ; 
 for, " If I do that I would not, it is no more 1 
 that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I 
 delight in the law of God after the inward man ; 
 but I see another law" or power u in my 
 members, warring against the law of my mind, 
 and bringing me into captivity to the law" or 
 power of sin, which is in my members." 5 Thus 
 prevented of what I love, and enthralled by 
 what I hate, what a miserable slavery am I in! 
 " O, wretched man that I am ! Who shall de- 
 liver me from the body of this death?" 6 
 
 1 Rom.vii. 12, 13. 2 Verse 14. 3 Verse 15. 4 Verse 
 19. s Verse 20, 21, 22," 23; 6 Verse 24. 
 
41) 
 
 He then, still personating one in this strug 
 gling situation, thanks God through Jesus Christ, 
 for having brought him thus far on his christian 
 course and warfare, that he could will to do 
 good, though yet unable actually to perforin it. 1 
 Hence he had a ground of thankfulness, in hope 
 that he who had wrought the will in him, would 
 also in due time perfect the deed by him. In 
 conclusion, he proceeds to shew, though this had 
 once been his condition, he -now experienced 
 perfect deliverance, from all the perplexing and 
 afflicting circumstances of this, and the several 
 exercising states he had formerly passed through, 
 and had just been giving so lively a description 
 of. "There is therefore," saith he, " now no 
 condemnation to them which are in Christ Je- 
 sus," as he then certainly was, " who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the spirit : For the 
 law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath 
 set me free from the law of sin and death." 2 
 This again testifies his deliverance, and answers 
 to that first cited, "Now we are delivered from 
 the law," which condemneth for sin ; * that," 
 sinful nature, "being dead wherein we were 
 held, that we should serve in newness of spi- 
 rit, and not in the oldness of the letter." 3 With 
 these accords that of Colos. i. 12, 16. u Giving 
 thanks unto the father, who hath made us meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
 light : Who hath delivered us from the power 
 of darkness, and hath translated us into the 
 kingdom of his dear son" 
 
 In the passages above cited from Rom. vii. 
 
 1 Rom. vii. 25. * Rom. viii. 1, 2. 3 Chap. vii. 6. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 and viii. the experienced apostle evidently in- 
 cludes a representation of three very different 
 conditions, in their course of progression and 
 state of disparity from each other. First, a na- 
 tural blind unconvicted state ; which is that of 
 darkness and death/ answering to the original 
 chaos before light was brought forth. Second, 
 a state of illumination and discovery, of convic- 
 tion and internal warfare, in order to a complete 
 conversion ; which partakes of a mixture, and 
 shews light and darkness in the act of separa- 
 tion, like that: in Gen. 1, 3, 4, 5. Third, a state 
 of redemption from the power of sin, through 
 purification, and a translation into the spiritual 
 kingdom of Christ ; which is the state of the 
 perfect christian, and completes the new crea- 
 tion, wherein every thing takes its due place, 
 and moves in its proper order. I now refer it 
 to the intelligent reader, whether it is not an ab- 
 surdity to imagine, that these three diverse, and 
 in some respects contrary states, should all sub- 
 sist together, at the same time, in the same 
 subject. 
 
 By this representation, which contains a brief 
 and comprehensive delineation of the work of 
 the new-birth, the apostle shews to such as are 
 young in the faith, what different states they 
 have to pass through in that preparatory travel ; 
 and also reminds the regenerate of what they 
 have witnessed, in the lines of his own expe- 
 rience. He describes the various steps, and 
 principal leadings of the holy spirit, till by its 
 effectual operation, the soul is rendered a new 
 
 1 Gen. 1, 2. 
 
51 
 
 creature, and iatroduced into the kingdom of 
 God ; which being inward and spiritual, is en- 
 tered by an inward and spiritual way. Hence 
 it is clear, a man may acquire all the learning/ 
 and receive all the degrees that schools and col- 
 leges can bestow, with all the authority men can 
 afford him, and may be strict in the practice of 
 all the forms and exteriors of religion ; and yet 
 remain the natural man still. These can bring 
 him no nearer to true regeneration, than he was 
 the moment of his birth ; for the new-birth is the 
 work of the holy spirit only. Nothing but the 
 spirit of holiness can make a man holy ; for 
 nothing can communicate what it hath not. No- 
 thing can set men free from the power of sin, 
 and its wages, death, but the law, or power, of 
 the spirit of life in Christ Jesus individually 
 administered. This, which turneth sinners in- 
 to saints by a real purgation, and renders them, 
 as to their inward state, new creatures, remains 
 to be their light and leader, and the primary 
 guide of their life and conduct, by its imme- 
 diate manifestations in the heart; whereby it 
 frequently brings scripture-truths to their re- 
 membrance, and opens the sense of them pro- 
 fitably to their understandings, at the same time 
 influencing the mind to a practice answera- 
 ble. 
 
 3. Evident as it is, that the apostle, in the 
 foregoing scriptures, describes divers changes of 
 condition, which through the operation and ef- 
 fect of the holy spirit, he had certainly known 
 and sensibly felt ; yet some have appeared, even 
 amongst the leaders of the people, who acknow- 
 
52 
 
 ledge ;* "The influence of God's spirit enables 
 us to render him an acceptable service/' but as- 
 sert, that it is in a way imperceptible to us : that 
 the sacred writings are utterly silent concern- 
 ing any sensible demonstrations of its ivorlcings 
 within us; that they cannot be distinguished 
 from the efforts of our own reason ; that all 
 pretences to it are suggested by an enthusiastic 
 or distempered fancy ; and that there never wai 
 a christian with a cool head, and a sound judg- 
 ment, that in any instance of a change of life, 
 would presume to say, which part of his refor- 
 mation was owing to divine help. 
 
 The truly sound reformed christian knows 
 and acknowledges, every part of his reforma- 
 tion is owing to divine help ; and whoever pro- 
 pagate the above-cited anti- scriptural doctrine, 
 demonstrate their ignorance of true regeneration, 
 and that their wisdom is but the superficial wis- 
 dom of words ; which can only enable them to 
 make a shew of knowledge, by talking about 
 the things of God, without any right under- 
 standing of them. The pomp of science, and 
 the flourish of eloquence, have no more alliance 
 to truth than the pride of life. They belong 
 to the wisdom of this world, by which God is not 
 to be known ; " For the world by wisdom knew 
 not God, nor the things of God." 1 All the 
 knowledge of the natural man, the man whose 
 nature remains unchanged, whether called Pa- 
 
 * See a quotation from Sermons published under the lu- 
 dicrous title of Yoric's, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 
 Jtprtty 1766. 
 
 »1 Cor. i.21. Ibid.ii.lt. 
 
53 
 
 gan, Jew, or Christian, and whether it be styled 
 philosophy or divinity, is but the ineffectual 
 ideal wisdom of this world : the vaunting 
 head-knowledge. It is not the wisdom from 
 above, by which alone God and the things of 
 God are to be known; that is, experienced, 
 These are out of the reach of arts, languages, 
 and sciences ; and are discovered only by the 
 manifestation of the spirit of Christ in the heart, 
 " In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge/' 1 Yet though the world, by all 
 its admired and celebrated wisdom, knows not 
 God, there is a wisdom communicated by which 
 he is known. "For God," saith holy writ, 
 " who commanded the light to shine out of dark- 
 ness, hath shiiied in our hearts, to give the 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 the face," or inward appearance " of Jesus 
 Christ." 2 The apostle adds, •• We have this 
 treasure in earthen vessels ;" we enjoy it now 
 whilst in these bodies of clay, " that the excel- 
 lency of the power may be of God, and not of us. ,r 
 This luminous and excellent power operates 
 upon the humble thankful acceptor, so as to 
 open an understanding of what he reads, both 
 in scripture and other experimental writings ; 
 often giving him to feel that concering which he 
 reads, and rendering it of improving effect to 
 him. But he who rejects the means can never 
 attain the end. He who refuses or flies from the 
 light of life, when it offers itself to him by re- 
 proof and conviction ; not believing it to be of 
 God, nor receiving it as such, stops its opera- 
 
 1 Col. ii.3. 5 2 Cor. iv. 6, 7. 
 E 2 
 
SI 
 
 tiou, prevents it from opening itself to him, and 
 enlarging in him. For the unbelieving heart 
 shuts up its own way, 1 and therefore remains 
 insensible of the internal power of the Saviour. 
 
 4. What man upon earth can say, he has not 
 had convictions? Or, that he has had them 
 without any sense of them ? Who could have 
 a sense of them, and not distinguish it from the 
 efforts of his own reason ; not distinguish the 
 reprover from the reproved ? Unfelt convictions 
 are impossibilities. In what manner is the work 
 of renovation known, without any perception of 
 it in its progress? Did the apostle Paul so 
 pathetically describe the painful states he had 
 travelled through, and the opposite powers en- 
 gaged within him, without ever having a certain 
 sense of them ? Or is the coolness of his head, 
 and the soundness of his judgment now to be 
 arraigned ; and are his christian experiences to 
 be treated, only as the issues of an enthusiastic 
 or distempered fancy? 
 
 How could any witness repentance unto life, 
 remission of sins, and the times of refreshing 
 from the presence of the Lord, without an in- 
 ward sense of them ? Were all the cries, the 
 pantings and thirstings after the Divine presence, 
 uttered by the sacred writers icithout a sense of 
 that want; and were all their triumphant re- 
 joicings in the consolation of his presence, ex- 
 pressed under a total insensibility of it ? Were 
 the kindly fruits of the spirit, and the comforts 
 of the Holy Ghost unfelt by those who enjoyed 
 them ? Who can affirm these absurdities ? 
 
 1 Mat. xiii. 58. Mark, vi. 5, & 
 
55 
 
 Where can such blind leaders bring their blind 
 followers to? Those who turn their backs on 
 the light must walk in darkness. It is the sole 
 property of the spirit of Christ, the light of men, 
 to make true discoveries to the mind, both re- 
 specting itself and every thing else that concerns 
 it. Hence he is rightly styled the Sun of 
 righteousness; the same thing to the soul of 
 man, that the Sun in the firmament is to his 
 body. The one is the light without, the other 
 the light within; and therefore is properly so 
 denominated. 
 
 5. It is the unbelieving unrenewed man, un- 
 acquainted with the effectual operation of this 
 heavenly principle, that unwittingly rejects and 
 disparages it, and thereby contributes to keep 
 both himself and others in blindness concerning 
 it, and prejudice against it. " The natural 
 man," saith the apostle, " receive th not the 
 things of the Spirit of God, for they are fool- 
 ishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned." 1 
 
 What! saith the mighty man of reason, must 
 I put out my eyes in order to see ? Must I lay 
 aside and renounce my reason, to obtain a bet- 
 ter understanding? It is impossible, absurd, 
 and preposterous. Very true, and it is equally 
 true, that no such absurdity is required. It is 
 neither right reason, nor the proper use of man's 
 reason, that is objected to and advised against. 
 For right reason is truth, and is ever corres- 
 pondent with the inward motions of the spirit 
 of truth; and man's rational faculty is what 
 
 ^lCor.ii. 14, 
 
56 
 
 renders him capable of receiving Divine influ- 
 ence and instruction, without which it is impos- 
 sible to conceive he could be a fit subject for it; 
 aud was his reason in such a perfect state as to 
 merit the name of right reason, he would not 
 stand in such absolute need of it. But it evi- 
 dently appears, from the various biasses and pre- 
 possessions men are generally under, the weak- 
 ness and mutability of their understandings, and 
 the innumerable and irreconcileable differences 
 amongst them, especially the learned and leading 
 part of mankind, that human reason is far from 
 being always agreable to right reason, which is 
 unchangeably true. What is cautioned against 
 therefore, is the setting up human reason above 
 its due place in religion, making it the leader 
 instead of the follower of revelation, the teacher 
 instead of the learner; and esteeming it vested 
 with a kind of self-sufficiency, independent of 
 the direction and help of God's holy spirit. 
 
 We are not required to lay aside our under- 
 standings, either in order to, or under the in- 
 fluences of the spirit; but, as prudent and docile 
 scholars, to submit them to the necessary in- 
 struction and improvement of that infallible 
 Master of infinite wisdom and knowledge, who 
 is the universal teacher of his people ;* that we 
 may be enabled rightly to obey and worship 
 him with the spirit, and with the understanding 
 also. 2 The spirit of God and a right under- 
 standing must infallibly concur. 
 
 As the light of the sun is so agreeably dis- 
 pensed by the sovereign wisdom, that it doth not 
 
 1 Isa.liv. 13. Jer. xxxi. 34. John, vi. 45. Heb. viii. 10, 11. 
 and x. 16. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 
 
57* 
 
 put out or blind men's eyes, but assists to the 
 proper 4 use of them; so the divine illumination 
 and influence is administered by the same wis- 
 dom, in such due degrees, that it neither banishes 
 man's reason, nor deprives it of its utility; but 
 restores it to its full and proper use in religion, 
 by dispelling the fogs of prejudice and passion, 
 giving it a clear sense of duty, and furnishing 
 ability to perform it. The holy men of God 
 were not deprived of their understandings, when 
 they spoke and wrote as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost, 1 but found them illuminated and 
 highly improved by it. They were not used by 
 the spirit as senseless machines, nor remained 
 as vegetables, imperceptive of the virtue arising 
 in, and enlarging them. Their faculties were 
 brightened, and raised to an higher pitch of 
 usefulness, than could ever have been reached 
 by them whilst unassisted by the power of divine 
 grace. With good reason, therefore, hath one 
 of the inspired writers given this necessary ex- 
 hortation; " Trust in the Lord with all thine 
 heart, and lean not unto thine own understand- 
 ing." 2 And he further saith, " He that trusteth 
 in his own heart, is a fool." 3 
 
 1 1 Peter, L SI, 2 Prov. iii. 5. 3 Ibid, xxviii. 26. 
 
58 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 1. Whence true Religion ariseth. 2. How God is 
 to be known according to the New Covenant. Of 
 whom the Body or Church of Christ is composed, 
 p and the Life it enjoys. 3. Whence this Life is re- 
 ceived. 4. That which brings forth the New-birth 
 must maintain it. 5. True Religion always essen- 
 tially the same. Exterior Institutions only super- 
 additions to lead the Darkened and Degenerate to- 
 wards it. 6. Man has no pretension to Merit, 
 but through Faithfulness, is graciously allowed a 
 filial Claim. ' 7. The Nature of God's Covenants 
 with Man. 
 
 1. Notwithstanding too many are taught 
 to imagine importance and efficacy, in mode, 
 ceremony, sign and shadow, the mint, anise 
 and cummin of the legal dispensation ; yet it is 
 certain, that " in Jesus Christ, neither circum- 
 cision availeth any thing, nor uncircu incision, 
 but faith which worketh by love." 1 Neither 
 the practice, nor disuse of forms and rituals, are 
 of any availance with God. But the first may 
 more than unprofitably busy their practisers, if 
 they are so dangerously deceived, as to place 
 confidence either in their own performances, or 
 those of their leaders. The religion of the true 
 christian consisteth not in form, but substance ; 
 and ariseth not from the activity of human rea- 
 son, imagination, or opinion, but from an heart- 
 felt sensation of divine love in the light of life. 
 Its foundation is no less than the immediate ad- 
 ministration of God's holy spirit to the spirit of 
 
 1 Gal. v. 6. 
 
59 
 
 man. This shews unto man what his thoughts 
 are; 1 what himself, and what the Lord is, so f^v as 
 properly concerns him. It opens the understand- 
 ing, and directs the duty of the obedient ; " for 
 the way of man is not in himself; it is not in 
 man that walketh to direct his steps. " 2 It fe 
 the light of the lamb which sheweth the way of 
 salvation ; the one great light appointed to rule 
 the day or spiritual dispensation of Christianity ; 
 wherein the nations of them which are saved 
 must walk. 3 
 
 2. Men in their natural state may, by read- 
 ing and study, collect abundance of notions 
 concerning the Supreme Being ; but as light 
 discovers all things, yet cannot be really known 
 but by its own appearance ; so (rod, who, in 
 the most perfect and superlative sense, is light, 4, 
 can only be truly known by his own immedi- 
 ate manifestation. What is ordinarily called 
 the knowledge of God, 5 is but a series of ap- 
 prehensions concerning his essence, his attri- 
 butes, and his providence ; but what our Sa- 
 viour called so, is the real experimental sense 
 of his life. "This is life eternal, that they 
 might know thee the only true (rod, and Jesus 
 Christ whom thou hast sent." Truly to know 
 him, is to participate of the quickening sense of 
 his life, through the communicated influence of 
 his eternal spirit. Thus to know him, is to par- 
 take of the new covenant, or true gospel dispen- 
 sation; for therein it is declared, " They shall 
 all know me, from the least of them to the great- 
 est of them." 6 Accordingly the living christian 
 
 1 Amos, iv. 13. 2 Jer. x. 23. 3 Rev. xxi. 14. 4 1 John i. 5, 
 5 John, xvii, 3. 6 Jer. xxxi. 34. 
 
60 
 
 has a certain sense of divine life in his own 
 breast, which affords him instruction, strength 
 and comfort; in such a manner, as he waits in 
 faithfulness upon it, that he is under no abso- 
 lute necessity to lean upon the teachings of 
 other men ; yet when they come in a degree of 
 the same life, he accepts them as instrumentally 
 from God. 
 
 This life of God in Christ is the very soul of 
 Christianity ; without which the best forms and 
 highest professions are but as members of a dead 
 body, unavailable and unacceptable. " He that 
 hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the 
 son of God hath not life." 1 " Because I live/* 
 saith he, " ye shall live also. At that day, ye 
 shall know, that I am in my Father, and you in 
 me, and I in you." 2 It is because he lives in, 
 and communicates of his life to his spiritual 
 followers, that they live also. Of these the true 
 church, the adopted body of Christ under all 
 denominations is composed. These alone are 
 his peculiar heritage or clergy. This ecclesi- 
 astical body of Christ, is a living body, ren- 
 dered such by the inspiration of his life. He 
 is the life common to all his true members. 3 Bv 
 his vital influence he communicates a living 
 sense of Truth to them, inclines them to him- 
 self, and inspires them both with the desire and 
 power of obedience ; and as they advance in 
 faithfulness, he favours them with increasing 
 tastes of divine grace and love, the savour of 
 the holy unction, and the indwelling virtue and 
 glory of his heavenly presence. " There is 
 
 1 1 John, v. 12. 2 John, xiv. 19, 20. 3 Col. Hi. 4. 
 
61 
 
 one body, and one spirit." 1 Was there not one 
 and the same spirit throughout the whole church, 
 it could not be one body, nor a living body, 
 " Non potest vivere corpus Christi nisi de spi- 
 ritu Christi" 2 saith Augustine ; The body of 
 Christ cannot live but by the spirit of Christ. 
 He who partakes not of the same spirit with the 
 head, is no true member of the body. His spi- 
 ritual influence is the precious blood, or spring 
 of life which renders all his members living, 
 and what gives life gives a sense of that life ; 
 but though their life is most surely Jcnoicn to 
 themselves, it is hid with Christ in God, 3 from 
 the knowledge of those who remain unquicken- 
 ed by it ; and hence ariseth all their opposition 
 to it. 
 
 3. We are all by nature strangers to this di- 
 vine life, and we cannot by any means obtain 
 it for ourselves. It is not of man's acquire- 
 ment, but God's communication : and as far out 
 of the reach of the most learned, as of the most 
 illiterate. It is hid from the wise and prudent, 
 in their own eyes, and revealed to those who 
 are as babes, to the world's wisdom. It is not 
 the high learned, but the humble that God 
 teaches, and the meek that he guides in the paths 
 of truth and judgment. Every one's eye there- 
 fore ought to be humbly to God alone, and no{ 
 to be fixed upon the wise, the scribe, the dis- 
 puter of this world ; for God hath, by the power- 
 ful simplicity and purity of his gospel dispen- 
 sation, made foolish the wisdom of this world.* 
 
 1 Eph. iv. 4. 2 In Joh. Tract. £6. 3 Col. iii. 3. 
 
 4 1 Cor. i. 20. 
 
 F 
 
62 
 
 Yet so fond is the world of its own wisdom, 
 that it has in great measure detruded the cross 
 of Christ, and true spiritual religion, and erect- 
 ed and supported this idol in its room. After 
 this image the world has wondered ; and indeed 
 it hath been a means wonderfully to blind, en- 
 snare and deceive its worshippers, whose faith 
 stands in the wisdom of men, and not in the 
 power of God, 1 and is therefore the reverse of 
 the faith of the gospel. 
 
 4. From a due consideration of the debased 
 and corrupt state of mankind, since the fall, and 
 of the great and good end of their creation, it 
 must evidently appear, that regeneration hath 
 ever been the one thing needful ; a work es- 
 sential for all to experience. And as the birth 
 of the spirit cannot be brought forth by any thing 
 but the spirit, so it must also be preserved in 
 its growth and accomplishment by the spirit. 
 Hence the abiding, or indwelling of the spirit, 
 remains to be of absolute necessity to the rege- 
 nerate ; that as their souls are quickened into 
 the divine life by it, they may continue to live, 
 move, and have their being as christians therein, 
 and be sustained in a spiritual union, and bles- 
 sed communion with their Maker. 
 
 5. The essentiality of true religion hath ever 
 been the same, primarily consisting in the life 
 of God being raised up, and the love of God 
 shed abroad in the heart, operating therein to its 
 renovation, and to every virtuous and benevo- 
 lent end. Whatever of externals or ceremo- 
 nials have, at sundry times, been super-added 
 
 1 X Cor. ii. 5. 
 
68 
 
 by divine direction or command, were not in- 
 tended to alter, or unsettle men from due and 
 constand attention to vital, spiritual religion ; 
 but when they were become greatly degene- 
 rated from it, and darkened concerning it, the 
 merciful Creator was pleased, by means suited 
 to their estranged and carnal condition, to point 
 it out to them, and lead them by signs and sym- 
 bols towards it. Thus the Mosaic law was not 
 meant to be the whole of religion to the Is- 
 raelites, 1 or to supercede the internal religion of 
 grace ; but only to be as a schoolmaster to 
 bring them to Christ in spirit, in whom all is 
 included and fulfilled, and whose presence was 
 then with the faithful amongst them, who had 
 spiritual communion with him ; for, according 
 to scripture, " they did all eat the same spiritual 
 meat, and did all drink the same spiritual 
 drink ; for they drank of that spiritual rock that 
 followed them ; and that rock was Christ" 2 
 
 It is a vain thing to imagine, that religion 
 ever wholly consisted in mode or form ; or that 
 the All-perfect Lord at any time dispensed with 
 the substance for the sake of the shadow ; or 
 ever made any alteration therein, by diversity 
 of institutions, from arbitrary will and pleasure, 
 merely to exercise his sovereignty, as though 
 power was a darling attribute, and more re- 
 garded by him than wisdom, righteousness, and 
 goodness ; or as though his attributes could he 
 divided in him. No ; he is God and changeth 
 not. His law is his own spirit of eternal rec- 
 titude, and his retribution according to every 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 24. 2 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. 
 
64 
 
 man's state and works. The different modifi- 
 cations that have appeared amongst men in 
 point of religion, have been occasioned by the 
 different alterations in the conditions of man- 
 kind. The All-wise God hath directed some 
 for a time, in condescension, for the good end 
 above-mentioned ; and divers combinations of 
 men have invented and enjoined abundance 
 more, according to their own carnal misappre- 
 hensions of spiritual things, or to advance their 
 own sinister purposes. 
 
 Exterior forms are but temporary matters. 
 They are no essentials of true Christianity. The 
 great author of it represents it as a well of wa- 
 ter in man springing up into everlasting life. 1 
 It radically ariseth from a living, abiding, in- 
 creasing principle in man, of a pure, spiritual 
 and heavenly nature. As this is cordially em- 
 braced, it enlarges in the soul, expels the works 
 and power of darkness, and produceth its own 
 genuine fruits of humility, self-denial, patience, 
 resignation to God, and trust in him alone; 
 righteousness, holiness, meekness; gentleness, 
 temperance, goodness, brotherly-kindness, cha- 
 rity. It derives its origin from heaven, and 
 leads to heaven. It carries the soul out of all 
 formalities and false rests, up to the supreme 
 good himself. It breaks down all our own self- 
 will, and brings into perfect resignation to the 
 divine will. In this humble contrited frame, 
 and no other, can we sincerely and truly say, 
 thy kingdom come ! thy will he done ! for whilst 
 our wills stand in separation from the will of 
 
 John.iv. M 
 
65 
 
 God, we cannot address him in these terms 
 with propriety ; or in spirit and truth. 
 
 6. The pride of man is naturally averse to 
 this abased and broken situation. It knows 
 not how to submit to be, or to think itself, no- 
 thing ; though it is worse than nothing. It 
 would fain erect and plume itself upon some 
 importance, some estimation, or deserving of its 
 own ; yet all its pretences to merit are false 
 and vain. Man being nothing as such, but 
 what God has made him, and possessing no- 
 thing but what he affords him, is wholly God's, 
 and not his own ; and is therefore in duty bound 
 to walk in obedience to him, every moment of 
 his life, which is given him for that end. And 
 seeing man has fallen short of his duty, and 
 hath sinned against his sovereign by disobe- 
 dience, it is neither in his power, by any thing 
 he can perform, to merit heaven, nor to purchase 
 remission for himself. He can neither undo 
 what he has misdone, nor render to his Maker 
 an equivalent for the trespasses he hath com- 
 mitted against him. But such is the merciful 
 goodness, and free grace of God towards his 
 helpless creatures, that he offers both forgive- 
 ness and felicity upon the most reasonable 
 terms of repentance and amendment. To the 
 willing and obedient, to him who is faithful 
 unto death, to him that overcometh, through 
 divine assistance, are the promises of eternal 
 life. Upon the foundation of these free and 
 voluntary offers of the divine goodness, and 
 man's compliance with the conditions, stands 
 his title. " Blessed are they that do his com- 
 rriandments. that they may have right to the 
 
66 
 
 tree of life, and may enter in through the gates 
 into the city/? 1 
 
 7. The laws and requisitions of God to man 
 are in scripture often styled covenants. Not 
 meaning that man has personally bound himself, 
 on his part to perform the conditions, but that 
 he is really in duty as deeply obliged, and as 
 firmly bound to do the will of his Creator, as 
 if he had voluntarily bound himself in the 
 strongest obligations possible. The reason is, 
 man owes his very being, and all the good he 
 receives, spiritual and temporal, to his Maker, 
 to whom he stands indebted for all, and who 
 therefore hath an unquestionable right to claim 
 all affection, gratitude, and obedience from him; 
 and more especially as it is all for his own ever- 
 lasting advantage. There is also an internal 
 spiritual covenant, a divine connection, which 
 the heart of man feels, in his faithfulness, to his 
 Creator. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus, 
 which sets free from the bonds of sin and death, 
 and unites the soul to its Saviour, in the pow- 
 erful covenant of divine love. By this, through 
 faith, it becomes engrafted into Christ ; and by 
 obedience it remains in him as a branch in the 
 vine ; or is incorporated with him as its head ; 
 for " he that is joined unto the Lord is one 
 spirit." 2 Of this vital union regenerate souls 
 have a certain sense, in proportion to their pro- 
 gress. " Hereby know we that we dwell in 
 him, and he in us, because he hath given us of 
 his spirit" 3 — " Hereby we know that he abid- 
 
 1 Rev. xxii. 14. 2 1 Cor. vi. 17. 3 1 John, iv. IS. 
 
67 
 
 eth in us, by the spirit which he hath given 
 us." 1 Hence it is clear, that the gift of the spi 
 rit communicates this intelligence. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 1. Religion the same both to the Learned and Un- 
 learned — The Holy Spirit requisite to every Man, 
 as the universal Reformer. 2. It was such to the 
 Israelites, and, 3. The best part of their Divine 
 Legation. 4. Why Statutes of an outward and 
 temporary nature were added. 5. They are taught 
 to look through them to Christ, of whose Spirit 
 they partook. 6. But it was not dispensed to them 
 in that degree of purity and splendour with which 
 it broke forth at the Christian sera. 7*. How this 
 was witnessed to by the law. 8. How by the Pro- 
 phets. 9. The Spirit was in all ages administered, 
 and the truly humble favoured with its indwelling. 
 
 1. Religion here, and salvation hereafter, 
 are as much the concern and duty of the illite- 
 rate and ignorant, as of the wise and learned. 
 And as those are by much the greater number, 
 religious duty must undoubtedly consist in some- 
 thing equally attainable and practicable by all ; 
 for God is no respecter of persons. It cannot 
 lie essentially in literal knowledge, nor in any- 
 peculiar mode of education ; for these are the 
 lot of few, in comparison of the whole of man- 
 kind. Happiness being the end of man's crea- 
 tion, and the universal indispensable concern of 
 every man, the effective means of regeneration 
 and salvation must be attainable by every man. 
 
 1 1 John, iii. 24. 
 
68 
 
 Nothing but the omnipresent and all-effective 
 spirit of God can be this means ; for nothing 
 else is universal/ nor any way adequate to the 
 work. The spirit of God therefore, being ne- 
 cessary to every man, is afforded to every man, 
 by him who with-holds nothing necessary. 
 
 This holy operative spirit, Solomon, under 
 its influence, with great propriety, styles wis- 
 dom, and represents it, in familiar language, as 
 calling upon mankind, to turn at its reproofs, 1 
 with a promise, to pour out its spirit unto them. 
 He also impleads those as fools who reject or 
 slight its reproofs, or convictions, in their con- 
 sciences ; by which he shews, it accompanies 
 them even in the streets and places of con- 
 course. 2 Recounting the great works of this 
 spirit of wisdom, be elsewhere testifies, " She 
 preserved the first formed Father of the world, 
 that was created alone, and brought him out of 
 his fall." 3 She was not only his preserver be- 
 fore his fall, but his re-quickener and restorer 
 out of that death, he through transgression fell 
 into ; and seeing the whole rational progeny of 
 Mam are naturally under the like necessity of 
 being born of the spirit, its administration is of- 
 fered to all, in due degrees ; and every indivi- 
 dual in all ages, who have experienced the new- 
 birth, by which right reformation is wrought, 
 have known it to be effected by the operation of 
 the spirit. This the wise author above-cited 
 witnesseth, in his acknowledgment to Almighty 
 goodness ; when he saith, " Thy council who 
 hath known, except thou give wisdom, and send 
 
 1 Prov. i. 2 Verse, 20. 21. 3 Wisd. x. 1. 
 
69 
 
 thy holy Spirit from above ? For so the ways of 
 them who lived on the earth were reformed, 
 and men were taught the things that are pleas- 
 ing unto thee, and were saved through wisdom"* 1 * 
 
 2. Evident tokens of internal religion, and 
 the immediate manifestations of the spirit for 
 that end, appear throughout both the Old Tes- 
 tament and the New. Before the flood, the old 
 world was favoured with the manifestation of 
 the holy spirit, as it is implied, Gen. vi. 3. "My 
 spirit shall not always strive with," or rather in, 
 " man." For so Hebreans say it ought to be 
 rendered. And indeed, where could the spirit 
 so properly strive as in the soul of man, where 
 the seat of corruption is, and to which the sug- 
 gestions of evil are applied ? And to what end 
 should it strive with them, but to bring them to 
 repentance and reformation, and to become, 
 through their obedience, the kingdom, or ruling 
 power of God in them. 
 
 Renovation of heart by the holy spirit, and 
 its genuine fruits of repentance towards God, 
 faith in him, and obedience to him, was the prin- 
 cipal and essential part of religion also among 
 the Israelites. Deut. xxx. 10. Moses repre- 
 sents the conditions on the performance of which 
 they should be entitled to the promises. " If 
 thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord 
 thy God, to keep his commandments and his 
 statutes, which are written in this book of the 
 law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God, 
 with all thy heart, and with all thy soul." 
 These are the terms ; first, that they should keep 
 
 > Wisd*ix. 17,18. 
 
70 
 
 the law ; this was the external and legal part 
 of their duty. Second, that they should turn 
 their whole hearts and souls to God ; this was 
 the internal and evangelical part. He leaves 
 them not here in a state of uncertainty, but pro- 
 ceeds to shew them to what their inward atten- 
 tion should be turned. " For," saith he, " this 
 commandment which I command thee this day/' 
 or this which I command thee to turn thine 
 heart unto, " is not hidden from thee, neither is 
 it far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldst 
 say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and 
 bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? 
 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst 
 say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring 
 it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? but 
 the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, 
 and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." 1 The 
 apostle assumes and explains this passage, 
 Mom. x. 6, 7> 8. " The righteousness which is 
 of faith speaketh on this wise, " Say not in 
 thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven ? that 
 is to bring Christ down from above. Or, 
 who shall descend into the deep? that is to 
 bring up Christ again from the dead. But what 
 saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy 
 mouth, and in thy heart. That is the word of 
 faith which we preach." 
 
 By this explanation of the apostle it appears ; 
 1st, that, besides the law, Moses then preached 
 to Israel the same word of faith, which himself 
 and his evangelical brethren did. 2d, That 
 this word is Christ in spirit, calling for atteu- 
 
 1 Wisd.ix. 11, &c. 
 
 
71 
 
 tion and obedience in the heart, or conscience 
 of man, in erder to effect his restoration and 
 salvation. 3d, This is not a local, or tempo- 
 rary, but an inward visitation of the Saviour of 
 mankind, by his spirit in the heart. 
 
 The word of faith is the word of truth, the 
 word of the everlasting gospel ; and not a com- 
 position of letters. The term word y like many 
 other words, is used in various senses ; as a 
 speech or saying, an engagement, a report, a 
 command, an exhortation, an instruction, &c. 
 because these are composed of words. And as 
 men use to convey their sense to one another by 
 words, so God conveys his to men by Christ, 
 who is peculiarly and emphatically styled in 
 scripture, the ivord of God; 1 and as the way 
 men receive words from the mouths of one 
 another is by hearing, so the manner by which 
 the soul receives internal instruction, reproof, 
 &c. from the Holy Spirit, is metaphorically 
 called hearing. Thus faith, which is the gift 
 of God, is said to come by hearing, and hearing 
 by the word of God. 2 That is, I apprehend, 
 the internal sense itself is opened in the soul, 
 as well as subjects communicated, by the spirit 
 of Christ. 
 
 3. Hence we see, the divine legation to the 
 Jews, consisted not in the outward written law 
 only. Nor were they kept in ignorance of in- 
 ward spiritual religion, or of a future state of 
 rewards and punishments. For, if so, to what 
 purpose did Moses press the consideration of 
 their latter end upon them, with so much fer- 
 
 1 John, 1. and Rev. xix. 13. *Rom. x. 17 
 
72 
 
 vency ? " O that they were wise, that they un- 
 derstood this, that they would consider their lat- 
 ter end /" l What material consideration should 
 their latter end, or time of death, be of, to such 
 as know no better but that it would be the pe- 
 riod of their existence? Or, why should he com- 
 mand their attention to the living word of faith, 
 Christ in the heart, as well as to the written 
 code ? He was an eminently inspired prophet, 
 and well knew that salvation is by Christ alone ; 
 and that his inward spiritual law is as prefer- 
 able to the exterior one, as the substance is to 
 the shadow. Obedience to the outward tempo- 
 ral law, had outward and temporal promises ; 
 but obedience to the inward spiritual law, hath 
 promises of an internal and eternal nature. By 
 the works of the first no man could be justified; 
 but by the operation of the last, sanctification is 
 wrought, and salvation experienced. Moses 
 was a type of Christ, and the temporal law with 
 its temporal rewards, a type of the law of the 
 spirit of life in Chxist Jesus, and its eternal re- 
 compence. 
 
 4. But it may be queried ; if the spiritual 
 law was always afforded, what occasion was 
 there for the addition of temporal statutes? 
 Answ. The Israelites by living under servi- 
 tude to a most superstitious and idolatrous peo- 
 ple, were become prone to superstition and idol- 
 atry themselves ; " They were mingled among 
 the heathen," saith the Psalmist, " and learn- 
 ed their works ; and they served their idols, 
 which were a snare unto them." 2 Out of this 
 
 1 Deut xxxii. 29. 2 Psal. cvi. 35, 36. 
 
73 
 
 idolatry they were to be brought, and by their 
 obedience to the only true God, were to become 
 an example to the nations round them, to in- 
 fluence their return likewise. Though all had 
 the word nigh in the heart, yet having lost the 
 right sense of what it is, the law was added be- 
 cause of their transgression and corruption, till 
 the coming of Christ in the flesh. 1 
 
 Seeing their habitual attachment to the forms 
 and superstitions of paganism, was too strong 
 to admit of their being willingly and clearly 
 brought of them at once, divine wisdom conde- 
 scended to meet them in the state they were 
 in, and to proceed gradually with them, by al- 
 lowing them some forms and ceremonies like to 
 those they had been inured to ; but more regu- 
 lar and significant. The Supreme Lord of the 
 universe first observes to them ; " I am the Lord 
 thy God which have brought thee out of the land 
 of Egypt, out of the house of bondage ;" and 
 then commands, "Thou shalt have no other 
 gods before me," 2 Thus he draws their atten- 
 tion off from the idols of the heathen, and places 
 it wholly upon himself, as the sole object of 
 their adoration and obedience. And to give 
 one instance for all ; as the heathens, whose 
 manners they had imbibed, were accustomed to 
 swear by their false gods, he did not see fit to 
 prohibit all solemn oaths at once, but confined 
 them to swear by himself alone, exclusive of 
 the pagan idols ; not requiring the perfect prac- 
 tice of the christian precept, Swear not at all, 
 neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any 
 
 1 Gal. iii.19. 2 Exod.xXc 
 G 
 
other oath, of them, whilst not in a christian 
 state, nor under its clear dispensation ; but only 
 entering them into the path appointed for them 
 towards it, and to prepare the way for its es- 
 tablishment. Thus he made the law a tempo- 
 rary expedient, to bring them gradually towards 
 the practice of that perfect religion, he intended 
 in due season to introduce, and to set up in its 
 purity, for all men to come into, and to walk in. 
 5. In the meantime, the sovereign wisdom 
 was pleased to sound an alarm, and set up an 
 ensign to the rest pf mankind, amongst the de- 
 scendants of Israel. He wrought wonders for 
 their deliverance and support ; and, besides 
 many excellent moral precepts, dispensed to 
 them a form of knowledge and of the truth in 
 the law ; x symbolically denoting the nature and 
 manner of redemption and salvation through his 
 Son, by many significant types, allegories, and 
 similitudes, accommodated to the religious 
 modes, and apprehensions they had espoused ; 
 which, though semblances of a distant, because 
 of an exterior kind, yet were intended, and 
 wisely adapted to be to the superstitiously dis- 
 posed, as a schoolmaster 2 to lead them gradu- 
 ally to Christ. That is, to the knowledge of 
 Christ ; then to come outwardly as a propitiatory 
 sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and also to the 
 knowledge of Christ within, the hope of glory, 
 as the actual sanctifier and Saviour of men. For 
 though they were all baptized unto Moses in 
 the cloud, 3 or dipped into his exterior dispensa- 
 tion as under a veil ; yet the spiritually-mind- 
 
 1 Rom. il. 20. 2 Gal. iii. 24. 3 1 Cor. x. 2. 
 
 
75 
 
 ed amongst them, were enabled to penetrate 
 through the veil to the internal reality, and 
 " did," as before observed, " all eat the same 
 spiritual meaty and did all drink the same spi- 
 ritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual 
 rock that followed them, and that rock was 
 Christ." 1 
 
 Still further to assist them, divine goodness, 
 at times, inspired divers of the most regenerate, 
 and most devoted of both sexes with the spirit 
 of prophecy; and engaged them to preach the 
 necessity of righteousness and holiness to them ; 
 and to direct their view, through the figures and 
 outward similitudes of the ceremonial law, to 
 the truth signified by them, and plainly to in- 
 struct them in, and exhort them to inward and 
 spiritual religion ; which was the ultimate in- 
 tent of the Mosaic, and every other dispensa- 
 tion of God to mankind. For the rituals of the 
 law were not instituted to supercede but to 
 serve, as an index to the law of the spirit of 
 life in Christ Jesus. 
 
 I do not apprehend, that the mystery of god- 
 liness, and its internal life and virtue, was ever 
 intended by divine wisdom to be concealed from 
 mankind ; but was always held forth, though 
 sometimes obscurely under typical forms ; on 
 account of the numbers of degenerate minds, 
 who were too much prepossessed and darkened, 
 to behold the splendour of the gospel in its clear 
 manifestation. For, throughout all generations, 
 to as many as rightly received Christ, he gave 
 power to become the sons of God ; 2 yet the spi~ 
 
 1 1 Cor. x. 2, 3, 4. * John, I, 13. 
 
 J 
 
76 
 
 ritual powerful gospel of our Lord, was not so 
 publicly promulgated, without some kind of 
 ceremonial shadows, till the full display of the 
 christian dispensation, at the time of the Jewish 
 feast of Pentecost ; when the disciples, waiting 
 together in obedience to the command of Christ, 
 were, according to his promise, baptized with 
 his one true permanent baptism ; that of the 
 Holy Ghost, which fulfils and supercedes all 
 other baptisms, and remains the standing ordi- 
 nance of God to his church for ever. Then by 
 revelation was the mystery conspicuously and 
 powerfully disclosed : " which," saith the apos- 
 tle, '* in other ages was not made known unto 
 the sons of men, as," or in the same degree, 
 " it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and 
 prophets, by the spirit ; that the gentiles should 
 be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, smd par- 
 takers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." 1 
 — "For now the righteousness of God without 
 the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the 
 law and the prophets." 2 
 
 7. The law witnessed to the gospel ; 1st, by 
 its various offerings and sacrifices ; pointing out, 
 and keeping in remembrance, that the Messiah 
 should come in the iiesh, in order " to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of himself. 5 * 3 This was the 
 real use of the sin and trespass offerings ; for, 
 " It is not possible, that the blood of bulls and 
 goats should take away sins." 4 No ; they had 
 reference to the precious blood of Christ, both 
 corporeal and spiritual; who, "by one offering, 
 hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified," 5 
 
 1 Eph. iii. 5, 6. 2 Rom.iii. 21. 3 Heb.i*. 26. 4 Ibid. X, 4' 
 5 Heb. x. 14 
 
77 
 
 thereby putting a final period to the legal sacri- 
 fices. 2d, The law witnessed to the gospel, 
 by its divers sprinklings, washings, and purifi- 
 cations, which had no more efficacy towards the 
 removal of sin and guilt, than the blood of bulls 
 and goats ; but must be understood to denote 
 the necessity of real holiness, and to signify the 
 spiritual administration of Christ; who gave 
 himself for us, that he might redeem us, not 
 only from guilt and condemnation, but also jTrofrc 
 all iniquity, the cause of them; and purify unto 
 himself a peculiar, or sanctified, people, zeal- 
 ous of good works. 1 This he doth by the wash- 
 ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost. 2 
 
 8. The prophets witnessed to the gospel, 1st, 
 by their predictive declarations concerning the 
 coming, sufferings, and offices of the Messiah. 
 2d, By instructing the people in the necessity of 
 internal, essential, effectual religion, in prefer- 
 ence to the written law, even during the time 
 that stood in force ; as that weightier part and 
 superior duty, which ever necessarily remains 
 throughout ail generations. 
 
 Samuel saith, " To obey is better than sa- 
 crifice." 3 Hosea, I desired mercy, and not sa- 
 crifice," or not in comparison with it, " and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings." 4 
 David acknowledges to the Lord, " Thou de- 
 sirest not sacrifice, else, would I give it : Thou 
 delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices 
 of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a con- 
 trite heart, O God, thou wilt not despire." 5 In 
 
 1 Tit. ii. 14. 2 Ibid, iii. 5. 3 1 Sam. xv. 22. 4 Hos. vi. Q 
 'Psl.li, 16, If. 
 
78 
 
 Lis pathetic address to the Almighty, verse 6. he 
 saith, " Thou desirest truth in the inward parts;" 
 and vers. 10, he prays, " Create in me a clean 
 heart, and renew a right spirit within me." 
 Micah queries, " Will the Lord be pleased 
 with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands 
 of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for 
 my transgression, the fruit of my body for the 
 sin of my soul?" 1 And then answers; " Ho 
 hath shewed thee, O man, what is good ; and 
 what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 
 justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with 
 thy God?" 2 Moses exhorteth the children of 
 Israel, to circumcise the foreskin of their heart; 
 and told them, " The Lord thy God will cir- 
 cumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, 
 to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, 
 and with all thy soul." 3 Here he shewed them, 
 though they had received the sign of circumci- 
 sion,* the reality most required was that of the 
 heart in the spirit ; which is the work of re- 
 generation, the christian circumcision of the 
 apostle ; who asserts) " He is not a Jew who is 
 one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which 
 is of the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one in- 
 wardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, 
 in the spirit and not in the letter." 5 He also 
 observes to the Colossians ; that in Christ they 
 were circumcised, " with the circumcision made 
 without hands, in putting off the body of the sins 
 of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ." 6 
 That the necessity of the knowledge and love 
 
 * Micah, vi. 7, 8. 2 Deut.x.l6. 3 Ibi<Lxxx.6 *Rom, 
 iv. 11. * Ibid. ii. 28, 29. • Col, ii. 1 L 
 
70 
 
 t)f (rod, and of a change from sin to holiness, 
 by the internal circumcision of the spirit, was 
 both taught and pressed upon the Jews, as that 
 without which the observance of the law would 
 little avail them ; nay, the prophet Isaiah 1 plain- 
 ly shews, that the latter without the former, ren- 
 dered the practice of it, though divinely insti- 
 tuted, abominable even to its institutor. 
 
 9. Regeneration, or the circumcision of the 
 heart in the spirit, being always required, the 
 spirit by which alone it is wrought, must have 
 been always dispensed to mankind for that end. 
 This is the gracious gift of the Father Almighty, 
 through the Redeemer ; to whom the psalmist 
 saith, " Thou hast ascended on high ; thou 
 hast led captivity captive; thou hast received 
 gifts for men ; yea for the rebellious also ; that 
 the Lord God might dwell among them." 2 This 
 was the blessed experience of those that hum- 
 bled themselves under his mighty hand. " For 
 thus saith the high and lofty One that inha- 
 biteth eternity, whose name is Holy ; I dwell in 
 the high and holy place, with him also that is 
 of a contrite and humble spirit ; to revive the 
 spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of 
 the contrite ones." 3 
 
 1 Isa.i. 11, to 19. and Chap. IxyL 3,4* 2 Psal. Ixviii.lS, 
 3 Isa. lvii. 15, 
 
80 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 1. The Mosaic Law a new form of Theocracy, there- 
 fore introduced by miraculous appearances. The 
 Abolition of the Law, and the setting up of the 
 Gospel in its genuine purity, was necessarily at- 
 tended with equal demonstration of the like won- 
 derful powers. 2. All the primitive Ministers had 
 the Spirit, but their Gifts were different. All were 
 not workers of miracles, therefore these were extra 
 powers, not essential to an inspired Ministry. In- 
 spiration always requisite to true Ministry ; but 
 Miracles not. 3 and 4. Miracles were temporary 
 sanctions requisite to the Abolition of the Law, 
 and Institution of the Gospel, but not essential to 
 be continued for its support. Yet under all Dis- 
 pensations, at times were occasionally wrought. 
 The want of them no proof a Minister is not in- 
 spired. 5. The Institution of Christianity once 
 confirmed by them, the future Promulgation of its 
 Doctrine stands not in need of their continued re- 
 petition. The excellency of the Gospel consists in 
 its being a ministration of the Spirit, clear of all 
 exterior signs and shadows. 6. True Christians 
 are baptised by one Spirit into one body. 7. The 
 Primitives not opened at once into the perfect 
 clearness of the Gospel, but gradually enlighten- 
 ed. 8. Hence many Professers to this day, mis- 
 take the first initiatory mixture for the complete 
 state of Christianity. 9. This consists in the 
 total removal of outward signs and shadows, and 
 the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness it- 
 self. The Vanity of superceding this by human 
 Learning. 
 
 1. After the wonders of creation and provi- 
 dence were displayed, in producing and estab- 
 lishing the stupendous system of external na- 
 
81 
 
 ture, its great author was pleased, at distant 
 periods, to shew forth the visible effects of his 
 miraculous power, amongst the sons of men ; but 
 when the time came wherein he saw fit to recal 
 the degenerate world from the corruptions it 
 was immersed in, by a public assumption and 
 manifestation of his own just dominion amongst 
 a people chosen for that purpose, he raised up 
 the children of Israel as an exemplar to the 
 rest of mankind. He brought them out of their 
 Egyptian bondage by an high hand, and 
 through many admirable strokes of his power; 
 and upon his institution of the Mosaic law ; 
 which being the introduction of a new form of 
 theocracy, unknown to the world, it was requi- 
 site it should be attended by such extraordinary 
 marks of divine authority, as might be sufficient 
 to authenticate and enforce it, as coming from 
 himself. He therefore, on that great occasion, 
 appeared to the Israelites in a manner answer- 
 able to his Almighty Sovereignty ; and also to 
 the nature and solemnity of that law ; which 
 being a ministration of condemnation, was 
 ushered in by the most dreadful and astonishing 
 tokens of terror ; with thunderings and light- 
 nings, blackness, darkness, and tempest; the 
 mountain flaming with fire, the alarming sound 
 of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, and 
 the voice of words so terrible, that not only the 
 people, but the whole mountain quaked exceed- 
 ingly. This being an obvious, and most solemn 
 act of the Supreme Legislator of the universe, no 
 less authority than his own, could either abolish, 
 or alter it : and when the period arrived, where- 
 in he saw fit to set aside, and supercede this law 
 
8& 
 
 i>f outward and carnal ordinances, by bringing 
 forward into full view, and sole obligation, the 
 substance pointed to by it, his spiritual and 
 more excellent covenant ; it was necessary that 
 it should appear to be done, by clear demon- 
 strations of the same sovereign authority, in as 
 public a manner, and at the most proper season 
 for it. Accordingly, the gracious dispensation 
 of the gospel was introduced by evidences of 
 divine authority equally extraordinary, and 
 equally suited to its placid and salutary nature. 
 Besides the numerous predictions of prophets 
 concerning the Messiah, the advent of his fore- 
 runner the Baptist, and the miraculous concep- 
 tion of our Saviour by the blessed virgin ; wit- 
 ness the many wonderful works he performed, 
 the unaccountable darkness, and the rending of 
 the veil of the temple throughout from top to 
 bottom, upon his giving up the ghost ; denoting 
 the separation, conclusion, and passing away of 
 all sign and ceremony, and the disclosure of the 
 substance in spirit and truth ; his astonishing 
 resurrection, and that of the bodies of buried 
 saints which arose and went into the city ; and 
 his visible ascension, attended with the glorious 
 ministration of angels. After all this, at the 
 time of the Jewish feast of Pentecost, annually 
 observed in memorial of the giving forth of the 
 law on Mount Sinai, the apostles and disciples, 
 male and female, being assembled together ac- 
 cording to the Lord's command, the holy spirit 
 gave a two-fold demonstration of its advent, as 
 the administrative power of the christian dis- 
 pensation, then to commence without any mix- 
 ture of a legal or shadowy nature 5 first, by 
 
83 
 
 the appearance of cloven tongues, as of fire, 
 which sate upon each of them. Second, by 
 filling their hearts with the Holy Ghost, 1 to 
 such a degree that they began to speak with 
 other tongues, or in other languages besides 
 their own, as the spirit gave them utterance* 
 Indued with heavenly wisdom and power, and 
 inflamed with divine love and fervour, they were 
 now qualified to put in practice the commission 
 before given, in a verbal manner, by the great 
 Lord and law-giver. To divers of them were 
 likewise added, the miraculous powers of heal- 
 ing all manner of diseases ; the dumb were 
 made to speak, the deaf to hear, the lame to 
 walk, the blind to see ; demoniacs were dispos- 
 sessed, and the dead were raised and restored 
 to life. 
 
 But these extraordinary powers were neither 
 conferred upon all, nor confined to the apostles 
 only ; yet a measure of the same spirit was 
 communicated to every one of them, women as 
 well as men ; otherwise Peter's application of 
 the prophecy of Joel had not been true. They 
 were all filled with the Holy Ghost, but differ- 
 ently gifted, and qualified by it, for different 
 services, according to the will and wisdom of 
 the great dispenser. " To one is given by the 
 spirit the word of wisdom; to another the 
 word of knowledge by the same spirit ; to an- 
 other faith by the same spirit ; to another the 
 gift of healing by the same spirit ; to another 
 the working of miracles by the same spirit ; to 
 another prophecy ; to another discerning of spi- 
 
 1 Acts, ii. 
 
8*± 
 
 rits ; to another divers kinds of tongues : to an- 
 other the interpretation of tongues. But all 
 these w orketh that one and the self same spirit, 
 dividing to every man severally as he will." 1 
 
 Hence it appears, that what are commonly 
 called miracles are not necessary or essential to 
 divine inspiration, but only adjunctive opera- 
 tions of the spirit thereto, which have been oc- 
 casionally super-added; and therefore may either 
 totally cease, when the occasions for which 
 they were added are over, or continue to be 
 used as it shall appear requisite to divine wis- 
 dom. When therefore the gospel was so far 
 spread and established, in the parts then in- 
 tended, that the end for which those extraordi- 
 nary powers were afforded was answered, they 
 were gradually withdrawn from the church; 
 which was left, in the general, upon its proper 
 and permanent bottom, the immediate inspiration 
 of the holy spirit. No necessity therefore can 
 be pleaded for the constant continuance of mira- 
 culous powers, or such a spirit of prophecy as 
 signifies a peculiar gift of foretelling future 
 events; but only of those supernatural influ- 
 ences, which are requisite to enlighten, quicken, 
 regenerate, sanctify, bring forth the fruits of the 
 spirit in man, enable him to fill up his duty, 
 and finally prepare him for a celestial mansion. 
 These are indispensably necessary to be con- 
 tinued. They are of moral consideration, and 
 immediately influential to the prepai*ation and 
 salvation of every man, which miracle and pre- 
 diction are not. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 8. &c. 
 
 1 
 
85 
 
 3. Notwithstanding manifest appearances of 
 extraordinary power were added, both to the 
 introduction of the law, and that of the gospel, 
 they are not to be considered as parts of either, 
 but as sanctions requisite to their institution ; 
 so I believe, some divine exertions of a miracu- 
 lous nature have been evidenced, at times, un- 
 der both administrations, as well as before them; 
 either for the convincement of doubtful persons, 
 or to give additional weight and authority to the 
 ministry of some inspired servants of (rod, 
 amongst those present with them, or to encou- 
 rage and confirm them in their service. Though 
 I doubt not but this hath sometimes been the 
 case since the first century, and may remain to 
 be so to the end of time, for neither the power 
 nor goodness of the Almighty is shortened ; yet 
 I am also of opinion, that miraculous appear- 
 ances have been less public, and more sparingly 
 afforded since the first century than before it ; 
 which may be in part owing to the declension 
 of the professing churches. I also believe, ac- 
 cording to the prophetic declarations of the 
 apostles ; that under the declined and darkened 
 state of both teachers and hearers, many strange 
 signs, and lying wonders have been, and still 
 may be suffered to be imposed upon the credu- 
 lity of a disobedient people, by false pretenders, 
 for the support of a corrupt interest, and the ag- 
 grandisement of the conductors. Undoubtedly, 
 those mysterious delusions have been abundant- 
 ly more numerous for many centuries past, than 
 the exertions of divine power in an extraordi- 
 nary way. 
 
 4. The continuation of exterior miracles is 
 
 H 
 
86 
 
 not essential to the ministration of the gospel ; 
 for was it so, Christianity could not subsist with- 
 out them. Yet, though they are not of abso- 
 lute necessity thereunto, they may be occasion- 
 ally used, or not, as the Sovereign Wisdom sees 
 meet. But that they are still constantly, or pe- 
 riodically continued in any particular church, 
 as a peculiar mark of its being the only true 
 church of Christ, above all others, I find no 
 warrant to believe. Pretensions of this kind, 
 naturally put thinking minds upon looking for 
 a superior excellency in the doctrines, and prac- 
 tices of such a church ; and when they find it 
 abound in superstition and pomp, coercive impo- 
 sition, proud hierarchy, craft, lucre, and idolatry, 
 even bordering upon polytheism ; for what else 
 is the adoration of saints, and sinners under that 
 title, by attributing a kind of omnipresence, and 
 influence in the court of heaven to them ? When 
 they find these, and other monstrous absurdities 
 in the established doctrines of such a church, 
 instead of the simplicity, purity, humility, love, 
 and life of the gospel ; what can they conclude 
 of those pretensions, but that they are the de- 
 ceitful juggles of imposture, and the legends of 
 folly ? The very ends most of them are calcu- 
 lated to answer, sufficiently evidence their false- 
 hood, and shew, whatever they are, that they 
 are not divine. 
 
 It doth not appear, that in the primitive age 
 of Christianity, those who were sometimes at- 
 tended with miraculous powers, were always so 
 accompanied in their ministry; nor that all in- 
 spired ministers were ever enabled to work mi- 
 racles in the sight of the people. Seeing there- 
 
87 
 
 fore it is evident, that these extraordinary pow- 
 ers are not essential to an inspired ministry, they 
 are not the necessary proofs of it ; nor the 
 want of them an argument that a minister is not 
 inspired. But though these are not essential 
 to Christianity, immediate inspiration is consti- 
 tutionally so. The excellency of the gospel 
 dispensation is, that it is not a mixture of sign 
 and substance, as that of the Jews was, nor a tem- 
 porary, but a standing ministration of the spirit. 
 5. Seeing no further change of dispensations 
 is ever to be made, nor any other doctrine to be 
 preached, but that of our Saviour and his apos- 
 tles ; which, upon its commencement, i*eceived a 
 miraculous confirmation sufficient for its lasting 
 establishment, people are not now to expect, or 
 call for miracles from those who preach the chris- 
 tian doctrine ; but to turn to, and attend upon 
 that divine principle pointed out in the scrip- 
 tures, as manifested in the breast of each indi- 
 vidual, the ministration of Christ in spirit. This 
 will give the' sincere and humble receiver more 
 clear and particular demonstration than outward 
 signs and tokens could do ; for the powers 
 whence they proceed may be disputed, but the 
 internal evidence of the light of Christ, the life 
 of men, as rightly waited for, and adhered to, 
 leaves no doubt in the mind concerning its di- 
 vine nature and authority. Hence JR. Barclay 
 asserts, in the words of the primitive protestants, 
 there is no need now of outward miracles to 
 avouch the doctrines of the gospel ; yet acknow- 
 ledges, that some did appear upon its revival 
 in the last century. But to return. 
 
 The apostle, 2 Cor. in, shews that the mini- 
 
88 
 
 siration of the gospel far excels that of the law, 
 and that its excellency stands in its spirituality. 
 Having spoken of the law, verse 7- he subjoins, 
 " How shall not the ministration of the spirit 
 be rather glorious ? For if the ministration of 
 condemnation be glory, much more doth the 
 ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 
 For even that which was made glorious, had 
 no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory 
 which excelleth. For if that which was done 
 away was glorious, much more that which re- 
 maineth is glorious." 1 Why is the gospel thus 
 super-eminent above the law, seeing that was a 
 divine institution ? Principally, because it is not 
 an outward code as the law was, but an inward 
 law of life, 2 , " written, not with ink, but with 
 the spirit of the living God ; not in tables of 
 stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart ; and be- 
 cause it makes able ministers, not of the letter, 
 but of the spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the 
 spirit giveth life." 3 
 
 No man can be a true christian without the 
 spirit of Christ ; for, " If any man hath not 
 the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 4 
 
 Every christian ought to experience the in- 
 dwelling of the spirit. " Know ye not that 
 your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, 
 which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye 
 are not your own." 5 
 
 It is requisite to every christian, that he should 
 know the spirit to be his guide and leader ; for, 
 only " as many as are led by the spirit of God, 
 are the sons of God." 6 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 8, 9, 10, 11. 2 2 Cor. iii. 3. 3 Verse, 6. 
 4 Rom. viii. 9. 5 1 Cor. vi. 19. 6 Rom. viii. 14, 
 
89 
 
 No man can be a sheep of Christ without a 
 distinguishing sense of the spirit of Christ. " I 
 am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, 
 and am known of mine" — " My sheep hear 
 my voice } and I know them, and they follow 
 me." — " The sheep follow him, for they know 
 his voice, and a stranger they will not follow." 1 
 The voice of Christ is the manifestation of his 
 spirit to the soul. 
 
 Without being born again of the spirit, no 
 man can enter the kingdom of God, 2 and with- 
 out the spirit, no man can be born of it ; conse- 
 quently the spirit is altogether as requisite to us 
 as it could be to the primitives. It is no more 
 in our ability to regenerate and prepare our- 
 selves for the kingdom, than it was in theirs. 
 No powers, natural or acquired, in our unrege- 
 nerate state, are sufficient for so great a purpose ; 
 and to enable us truly to say, with the people 
 of God in former times, " Lord, thou wilt or- 
 dain peace for us ; for thou hast wrought all 
 our works in us." 3 
 
 Without the spirit, no man can be a minister 
 of the spirit. The apostolic direction is, " As 
 every man hath received the gift, even so mi- 
 nister the same one to another, as good stewards 
 of the manifold grace of God. If any man 
 speak, let him speak as the oraclefe of God ; if 
 any man minister, let him do it as of the ability 
 which God giveth ; that God in all things may 
 be glorified through Jesus Christ." 4 
 
 6. Every true believer and faithful follower 
 of Christ, in the apostolic age, received a por« 
 
 1 John, x. 14, 27, 45* * John, iii. 3 Isaiah, xxvi. Ifi. 
 4 I Pet. iv. 10 r ll. 
 
90 
 
 tion of the same holy spirit which the prophets 
 and apostles did, though in less degrees ; " for," 
 saith Paul, " by one spirit are we all baptised 
 into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, 
 whether Ave be bond or free ; and have been all 
 made to drink into one spirit." 1 This one spi- 
 rit rendered them one body, and joined them to 
 the one living head. " There is one body and 
 one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
 your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
 one God and Father of all, who is above all, 
 and through all, and in you all." 2 Thus, ac- 
 cording to the several measures allotted them, 
 they were all partakers of the same holy spirit ; 
 and as it was then, so it is now, and ever must 
 be in the true spiritual universal church of 
 Christ. 
 
 7. The gospel sun arose in great splendour; 
 yet it appeared not in its full meridian at once, to 
 any. The openings of truth in the minds of the 
 primitive christians, apostles as well as others, 
 were gradual. As they advanced forward in 
 the new nature they saw further and further. 
 For a time, they occasionally circumcised, en- 
 tered into vows, anointed with oil, baptised 
 with John's baptism ; all which were of an ex- 
 ternal and legal nature. Nay, at first, they 
 perceived not the Holy Ghost was to be given 
 to Gentiles as well as Jews ; though Joel had 
 plainly prophesied it should be poured out up- 
 on all flesh. But afterwards, as their concern 
 continued to press forward, they were led be- 
 yond the first initiatory mixture of things; they 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 13. 3 Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. 
 
91 
 
 saw clearly and declare d, thai the holy spirit 
 fell upon the Gentiles as well as Jews j 1 that 
 neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avail- 
 eth f that a good conscience ariseth not from the 
 practice of exterior rights ; 3 that the unction 
 from the holy one is altogether sufficient to give 
 instruction and true judgment ;* that the sav- 
 ing baptism is not that which can reach no 
 deeper than the ontside of the flesh, but that of 
 the spirit ; which baptises the heart, and pro- 
 duceth the answer of a good conscience towards 
 God, by the resurrection of Christ, or his spi- 
 ritual arising in or upon the soul. 5 
 
 8. It is no uncommon thing to hear the apos- 
 tolic age styled the infancy of Christianity ; and 
 so it was in point of time, and also in respect to 
 the temporary continuation of a few exteriors ; 
 not immediately seen through, and afterwards 
 retained for a season, in condescension to those 
 new believers, who had been so much attached 
 to symbolical practices, they could not readily 
 be brought to disuse them. And, in our day, 
 many of the present leaders and rulers, in divers 
 of the most numerous churches professing the 
 christian name, seem to imagine ; that though 
 the assistance of the Holy Ghost was necessary 
 to the introduction, and support of the christian 
 religion in primitive times, it has no need of it 
 now. It is become so matured by man's wis- 
 dom and learning, which had no share in its 
 origin, that it is fully capable to go alone. So 
 that now it is, in great measure, become another 
 
 1 Acts, xi. 18. 2 Gal. v. 6. 3 Heb. ix. 9. 4 1 John, ii, 
 20,27. 5 lPetiii. 21. 
 
92 
 
 thing, and stands upon another foundation, than 
 formerly. Though it still calls Christ its head, 
 and accounts itself his body, it receives no im- 
 mediate direction from him, nor feels the circu- 
 lation of his blood, which is the life and virtue 
 of true religion. Thus deservedly incurring 
 the reproof of the apostle implied in this query ; 
 " Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made 
 perfect by the flesh ? m In truth, it too evidently 
 appears, in a general view, that the professed 
 christian churches, instead of being in the maturi- 
 ty of Christianity, are greatly in the decline from 
 that state ; or they could not be so insensible, 
 nor durst appear so opposite to the life of reli- 
 gion, as to reject and decry the vital part of it, 
 and treat it as extinct, unnecessary, or at least 
 insensibly to be now received ; as too many of 
 their leaders and members do. Surely a church 
 in this condition, is properly entitled to that ad- 
 dress of the spirit, to the degenerate church of 
 Sardis ; " I know thy works, that thou hast a 
 name that thou livest and art dead." 2 Yet, not- 
 withstanding this seems to be too generally the 
 case, and that the religion of many high profes- 
 sors is little else but real deism, covered with a 
 superficial kind of Christianity, I hope, and ve- 
 rily believe, there are many living and sensible 
 members of the body of Christ in those churches. 
 The vitality and glory of Christianity lies in 
 the clear administration of the holy Spirit, with- 
 out any veil of legal or ritual adumbrations. 
 School-learning is but an human accomplish- 
 ment; and though very useful as a servant, is no 
 
 1 Gal.iii. 3. a Rev. iii. 1. 
 
as 
 
 part of Christianity. Neither the acquirements* 
 of the college, nor the formalities of human au- 
 thority, can furnish that humility which fitteth 
 for God's teaching. Possessed of arts and lan- 
 guages, weak people are puffed up with a con- 
 ceit of superiority, which leads from self-denial 
 and the daily cross, into pride and self-suffi- 
 ciency ; and instead of waiting for, and depend- 
 ing upon the wisdom and power of God, into a 
 confidence in the wisdom of this world, and a 
 devotional satisfaction in the rote of external 
 forms and ortlinances. Whereas those that 
 worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ 
 Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 1 
 And why ? Because it is the spirit that quick- 
 eneth; the flesh projiteth nothing. 2 
 
 Whosoever deny that the holy Spirit, and its 
 internal operations, are now to be sensibly ex- 
 perienced, only demonstrate their own insensi- 
 bility thereof. The true people of God in all 
 ages, have declared their own undoubted sense 
 of divine illumination and help ; and the apostle, 
 in Rom. vii. and viii. before cited, testifies he 
 had a strong, clear, distinguishing sense of the 
 holy spirit throughout its operations. As it 
 was then, it now is, and must remain to be, so 
 long as men are upon earth. The same work, 
 in due measure, is absolutely necessary to every 
 one, and the like sense of it proportionably clear 
 and certain to all who experience regeneration. 
 No man can obtain felicity out of God's king- 
 dom, nor can any enter the kingdom without 
 being bora of the spirit ; neither is the work of 
 
 *Phil. iii. 3. 2 John, vi. 63. 
 
94 
 
 the new-birth wrought insensibly in any* What- 
 ever medium incognitum, or unknown means 
 men imagine, insensible operation is not rege- 
 neration. It is a mere deception. The Holy 
 Ghost, whether it operate by words and instru- 
 ments, or without them, always comes in power; 
 a power which gives an undeniable sense of it; 
 perfectly distinct from, and above all other pow- 
 ers ; and with a perspicuity, at times, as far ex- 
 ceeding all natural lights, as the radiant sun 
 does the faint glimmer of the glow-worm. 
 
 This holy' spirit of Divine ligjftt, and power 
 of life, is the great fundamental principle of the 
 reproached Quakers, and the only true saving 
 principle for all mankind. It is Christ in spi- 
 rit, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and God's 
 salvation to the ends of the earth; who always 
 became, and stands always ready to become, 
 the Author of eternal salvation to all them that 
 obey him. 1 
 
 % Luke ii, S2. Acts xiii. 47. Heb. v. 9, 
 
95 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1. Man, without Divine Grace, wholly unable to take 
 one step towards his salvation. 2. God first sets 
 Man at Liberty, often revisits him by the Spirit of 
 Grace, seeks by all proper means to prevail with 
 him, without violating the Liberty he affords him, 
 till his continued backsliding demonstrates he will 
 not turn from his evil ways, and live. Then his 
 time of visitation ceases, and he is given up to his 
 beloved delusions. 3. God is not the author of 
 evil. Objections from Isaiah and Amos answered. 
 
 4. Men justified in evil doing, if God be its author. 
 What sin is. It is not the effect, but the cause of 
 his displeasure, and to be placed to Man's account. 
 
 5. The cause of Man's Salvation. The great ef- 
 ficient of it. He operates towards it, both imme- 
 diately, and by the use of proper means ; all by 
 Grace, through the Faith it communicates ; which 
 necessarily produceth good works, not to be attri- 
 buted to man as meritorious. 6. What Calvinism 
 teaches. 7, &c. The modern Fatalists somewhat 
 refine upon this, but unavoidably centre in the 
 same absurdity and falsehood. This largely shewn 
 in variety of mattter to the end of this chapter. 
 
 1. Having endeavoured plainly to shew what 
 the leading principles of the people called 
 Quakers are, and that they are the genuine 
 doctrines of true Christianity, I shall now pro- 
 ceed to take notice of divers matters more par- 
 ticularly. 
 
 Robert Barclay says, " As man is wholly un- 
 able of himself to work with the grace, neither 
 can lie move one step out of the natural condi- 
 tion, until the grace of God lay hold upon him, 
 so, it is possible to him to be passive, and not 
 
96 
 
 resist it, as it is possible for him to resist it. " 
 That is, by the power of Divine grace laying 
 hold of or influencing the spirit of man, it first 
 becomes possible for him to be passive, and not 
 resist its operation ; which is the first step man 
 takes in the way of salvation. " Without me," 
 saith our Saviour, " ye can do nothing." x " Man 
 cannot set one single step towards his salvation, 
 without the assistance of the grace of God, as 
 the first moving, and continually enabling cause, 
 both of the will and the deed." So that, though 
 passiveness'is the beginning of the work, he is 
 P'reviously disposed to it by virtue of the holy 
 spirit. We attribute the whole of man's sal- 
 vation to it, first and last, without at all placing 
 man's destruction to the account of his Maker. 
 Our doctrine teacheth, 1. That man has no 
 ability to save himself, is not naturally in a state 
 of equal freedom to good or evil at his pleasure, 
 nor is in possession of that faith which is ne- 
 cessary to his salvation. 2. That the Redeemer 
 affords a manifestation of his spirit to the soul 
 of every man, by which, at seasons, he checks 
 his corrupt inclinations, stops them in their ca- 
 reer, and puts it in his power to reflect upon his 
 present condition, and become passive to the 
 operation of this inward principle. If he resist 
 it not, but stand in submission, it takes further 
 hold of him, gives him so to believe in it, as to 
 suffer it in some degree to unite with, abide in, 
 and operate upon him. In this situation, he 
 feels strength and comfort spring up from it, 
 which increaseth his faith and trust therein, and 
 
 1 John xv. 5. 
 
97 
 
 gradually enables and engages him to become 
 active ; that is, to join heartily in concurrence 
 with its operations, and to proceed from faith 
 to faith, and from one degree of grace to ano- 
 ther, till he attain to know the new-birth of the 
 spirit, and to participate in degree of the glori- 
 ous light, life, and nature of the heavenly king- 
 dom. 
 
 2. God hath made man a reasonable creature, 
 and therefore requires a willing obedience of 
 him, in order to the high reward of eternal fe- 
 licity ; and if he repeatedly visits all with the 
 reaches of his grace, and continues time after 
 time to convict, persuade, and woo, as the 
 Scriptures declare, that he may prevail upon 
 him to come to repentance; doth he not go as 
 far as reasonable creatures can claim, without 
 violating the rational liberty he affords ? Let 
 man but yield obedience to his convictions, and 
 see if he can charge his Creator with partiality, 
 or hard measure. It is the unprofitable and 
 unprofiting servant that doth this. 
 
 Education and tradition do certainly prepos- 
 sess, and give a bias to the mind against every 
 doctrine different to those it hath been taught ; 
 but the divine light, at times, darts in upon the 
 soul unawares, as quick as lightning ; penetrates 
 through all its darkness and every false colour ; 
 disturbs it in its polluted rests, and carnal gra- 
 tifications ; shews its bondage under them, and 
 inspires the secret wish, and heaving sigh to be 
 delivered, attended with some degree of resolu- 
 tion against them. This being the opening of 
 divine light upon the mind, is called the day of 
 Good's visitation, (he, time of grace unto man; 
 
 i 
 
 
98 
 
 wherein life and death are distinguished in him ; 
 and liberty is not only given him to chuse life, 
 which he could not do before, but also a suitable 
 measure of ability to love and cleave to the 
 grace he is visited with, and thereby to come 
 to repentance, and be saved. For this grace is 
 the spirit of the Saviour, and brings the power 
 of salvation in it. 1 
 
 These merciful visitations of divine grace are 
 often repeated, by night as well as by day. 
 " God," saith inspired Elihu, " speaketh once., 
 yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not ; in a dream, 
 in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth 
 upon man, in slumberings upon the bed. Then 
 he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their 
 instruction ; that he may withdraw man from 
 his purpose, and hide pride from man." 2 He 
 then proceeds to shew, how he operates upon 
 the submissive soul, in the w 7 ork of repentance 
 and mortification, and what shall be its issue. 
 Afterwards, he recapitulates the whole in these 
 comprehensive terms. " He looketh upon men, 
 and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted 
 that which was right, and it profited me not ; 
 he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, 
 and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these 
 things worketh God oftentimes with man, to 
 bring back his sotil from the pit to be enlighten- 
 ed with the light of the living." 3 
 
 The great father of mercies is pleased to 
 continue his gracious visitations from on high 
 to backsliding men, till they are become so de- 
 termined in wickedness, and so habitually 
 
 1 Tit. ii. 11. 2 Job.xxxjii. M,&c. 3 Ibid 27, &c 
 
99 
 
 united to its servitude, that like the servants in 
 Exodus, xxi. 5, 6, they will not be freed from 
 it. Then night comes upon them, the day of 
 their visitation ceases ; for God will not always 
 strive with those, who have been long and often 
 reproved, and still harden their necks, 1 to no 
 purpose ; but after long forbearance, he with- 
 draws the reaches of his merciful loving-kind- 
 ness, and suffers them to incur that dreadful 
 sentence, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust 
 still ; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy 
 still." 2 
 
 When persons are thus judicially hardened, 
 and given up to their own hearts lusts, aud be 
 loved delusions, and left in a state of insensi- 
 bility of the divine principle, they may blindly 
 mistake it for peace and security. To such, 
 conscience becomes, for the present, obscured, 
 and al a book shut up, wherein they cannot 
 read ; but in the day of the righteous retribu- 
 tion of the great judge of quick and dead, this 
 bidden volume will again be unfolded, by him 
 who openeth and none can shut, and a just dis- 
 tribution made to every one according to what 
 is written therein ; for it will prove either a book 
 of life or of death to every man ; to them who, 
 by patient continuance in well-doing, have 
 sought the glory of God, their ow n salvation, 
 and the good of others, immortality and eternal 
 life ; but to those who have continued in disobe- 
 dience and rebellion against God, tribulation 
 and anguish both inexpressible and intermin- 
 able. 
 
 1 Prov. xxix. 1 2 Rev. xxii. 11. 
 
- 
 100 
 
 3. Can any reasonable creature think it pos- 
 sible, that the same spirit and power of good- 
 ness which condescended to take our low na- 
 ture upon him, suffer in, and sacrifice that na- 
 ture whilst connected with it, a propitiation for 
 the sins of the whole world, 1 could ever inten- 
 tionally consign the majority, or any part of 
 the same world, to unavoidable unconditional 
 misery ? It appears from his attributes of truth, 
 equity, wisdom, mercy, and goodness, impossi- 
 ble that he should either actually oblige any of 
 his creatures to sin, that they might be misera- 
 ble ; or, when he has created them, to desert 
 them to sin and misery, by entirely withhold- 
 ing from them that which is necessary to their 
 help and preservation. We therefore rationally 
 conclude, that he doth not only set good and 
 evil before man in their just distinctions, but at 
 the same time, enables him 10 chuse which he'll 
 fdllow; and further, that he stirs up and as- 
 sists man to desire after true felicity ; and as he 
 abides in this desire, he empowers him to strive, 
 press, and wrestle effectually for deliverance 
 and preservation. 
 
 The primary motions of volition in the mind 
 being very nice and delicate, are not easy, if 
 possible, for men to form a precise idea of, with- 
 out the light of (rod's spirit ; whence some have 
 taken occasion to charge the different disposi- 
 tions of men towards the visitations of divine 
 grace, to God's account ; by which they render 
 him the primary author of evil, who, by the 
 special peculiarity of his essence, is too un- 
 
 1 1 John. ii. 2. 
 
101 
 
 changeably perfect in all his attributes, ever to 
 warp from perfect rectitude. But is it not ab- 
 surd to suppose, that any intelligent being can 
 voluntarily produce what is contrary to its na- 
 ture ; especially an omnipotent existence, whose 
 power must be irresistable by all objects and 
 occurrences? Is not sin the transgression of 
 God's will, and vice contrary to his nature ? How 
 then could these be produced by an act of his 
 will, or be the genuine fruit of his power, either 
 mediately or immediately? Can a right under- 
 standing lead any man to think, that the will of 
 God is possible at any time to be contrary to 
 his nature ? 
 
 From purity, goodness, and virtue, no impu- 
 rity, vice, or evil could naturally arise. But 
 that text hath been objected, "It is impossible 
 but that offences will come." 1 True; but 
 whence come they ? Not from God, but from 
 that root of corruption which hath entered and 
 overspread the world. Whilst this corrupt root 
 remains, they will naturally spring from it ; and 
 the same text pronounces, "Woe nnto him 
 through whom they come." " But God saith, 
 I create evil." 2 And the prophet saith, " Shall 
 there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not 
 done it ?" 3 Moral evil is not here intended, but 
 the natural evil of pain and distress, through 
 hostility, sickness, famine, &c. which are the 
 judgments of God upon men for disobedience 
 and the commission of moral evil. 
 
 4. To say, that God originally so constituted 
 and ordered things, that evil must necessarily en- 
 
 1 Luke, xvii, 1, 2 Isa, xlv. 7. 3 Amos, iii. 6, 
 
 IS 
 
 / 
 
103 
 
 $ue in consequence of such constitution, is to treat 
 him both as the designing and potential author 
 of all evil. Wherein then are the wickedest 
 creatures, whether angelical or human, to 
 blame ? If they cannot be otherwise than they 
 are, nor act otherwise than they do ; in point of 
 equity, all their ivickedness is justified by the 
 necessity they are originally subjected to by 
 their Creator ; whom this doctrine renders the 
 real author of it, either immediately or remotely. 
 If God himself laid the ground work of all evil, 
 he must be the author of all that follows by ne- 
 cessary consequence upon it. 
 
 According to my apprehension, sin consists 
 in the creature's preferring the indulgence of 
 its depraved nature, to the obedience of divine 
 grace ; which indulgence leads it to the abuse 
 of that grace ; and to think, speak and act 
 against the manifested will of its Creator. 
 Neither the origin, nor continuance of sin hi 
 the world can be the fruit of God's will ; for it 
 always brings his displeasure upon the crea- 
 tvire. It is not the effect, but the cause of his 
 displeasure. A Being, perfectly holy, just and 
 good, can neither do evil, nor delight in seeing 
 his creatures doit. It is contrary to his nature, 
 therefore against his will, and what he could 
 not suffer to originate without offering means to 
 prevent it, and shewing his displeasure with it ; 
 nor can he consistently be conceived to extend 
 personal approbation or aversion to any, ex^ 
 elusive of the state of the parties respecting 
 good and evil. 
 
 That some obey, and others refuse obedience 
 to the manifestations of divine grace, is cev- 
 
103 
 
 tainly true ; and we believe, the cause of this 
 difference is not of God, but entirely owing to 
 man. Let him that doubts it enquire in his 
 own conscience. The faithful witness there, by 
 its condemnations for evil, will plainly shew 
 him, that the fault is his own. What man is 
 there upon earth without these compunctive 
 strokes ? Who has not, also, felt at times in- 
 clinations and dispositions excited in him to- 
 wards virtue and a good life ; and who knows 
 not, that when he followed them, he found 
 peace in his obedience ; and when he turned 
 from this salutary pursuit to one of a contrary 
 nature, he incurred trouble and condemnation ? 
 Can a reasonable creature need further proofs, 
 that both those convicting reprehensions and 
 comforts, are the internal immediate adjudica- 
 tions of a just, good, powerful, omnipresent, all- 
 intelligent principle? And what is this but 
 God ; and for what end doth he thus attend 
 every soul and conscience, but that all may come 
 to repentance and experience salvation P 
 
 5. The first moving, true, and proper cause 
 of man's salvation is the goodness and love of 
 God to him. The essential means by which he 
 effects it, is the operation of his own holy spirit 
 on the soul of man ; often immediately, and 
 sometimes instrumentally, by making use of 
 exterior and incidental things, and working by 
 them as secondary means ; such as preaching, 
 reading the scriptures and other good books, 
 pious conversation, worship, mercies, distresses, 
 &c. After this manner it pleaseth Divine wis- 
 dom to exercise the body in the service of the 
 soul, whereby both are bettered divers ways. It 
 
t 
 
 104? 
 
 is God by his holy spirit who worketh all good 
 in man, both as to the will and the deed. It is 
 by grace we are saved, through faith, or in the 
 way of faith. That faith which worketh by the 
 love of God to the purifying of the heart, and 
 the production of good works. These are the 
 genuine fruits of it, and inseparable from it: 
 therefore without works we cannot be saved. 
 Yet it is not by the works that we are saved, as 
 the cause of salvation to us, but by grace through 
 the root of them, the faith, by which we believe 
 in God, open -to, and receive him, cleave to him, 
 trust in him, and so lay hold of eternal life. 
 This faith is not our faculty, but the gift of God 
 to us. It comes by grace, the free grace of 
 God, who is " not willing that any should pe- 
 rish, but that all should come to repentance." 1 
 He whose works are evil, hath not this saving 
 faith, believe what propositions he will; for 
 where it is, it necessarily produceth good works. 
 This root is never without its fruits. " Shew 
 me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew 
 thee my faith by my works, " 2 saith the apostle 
 James. Yet these works do not render us me- 
 ritorious of salvation, for they are not to be at- 
 tributed to us, but wholly to him, who, through 
 his grace, hath brought us into this blessed state 
 of living faith wherein they are produced. <« For 
 by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that 
 not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not 
 of works, lest any man should boast : for we are 
 his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works, which God hath before ordained, 
 that we should walk in them." 3 
 
 1 2 Pet. iii. 9. 2 Jam. ii. 1 8. 3 Eph. ii. 8. 9, 1 0. 
 
105 
 
 6. The reprobationary scheme demonstrates, 
 to what a pitch of absurdity the minds even of 
 sensible and pious men may be carried, when 
 they follow their own cloudy reasonings instead 
 of the illuminations of the holy spirit. Calvin 
 asserts that/ by the ordination and will of God 
 Adam fell. God would have man to fall — and 
 that the highest or remote cause of hardening 
 is the will of God. Beza saith, God hath pre- 
 destinated not only unto damnation, but also 
 unto the causes of it, whomsoever he saw meet. 
 Zanchius, that God is the first cause of obdu- 
 ration. Zuinglius, that God moveth the robber 
 to kill. He Jcilleth, God forcing him thereunto. 
 But thou wilt say, he is forced to sin; I permit 
 truly that he is forced. Piscator, that repro* 
 bate persons are absolutely ordained to this two* 
 fold end ; to undergo everlasting punishment > 
 and necessarily to sin, and therefore to sin, that 
 they may be justly punished. 1 It is a mystery 
 to me, how the poor reprobates can be justly 
 punished, for actions they are divinely obliged 
 to commit ; or how they can sin by necessarily 
 doing the will of God. 
 
 7- Our modern writers of this class, refine a 
 little from the barbarism of their predecessors 
 in expression, but their refinements ultimately 
 centre in the like accusation of their Creator. 
 Jonathan Edwards, M, A. in his careful and 
 strict enquiry into the modern prevailing no- 
 tions of that freedom of will, 8£c. has these ex- 
 pressions : " If by the author of sin be meant 
 
 • i Cap. 3. Gen. 1 Inst C. 18, S. 1. Lib. de Pned. Lib 
 de Prov. Lib. de Prsed. De Eccaut. Q. 5. Lib. de Pro 
 vid. C. 5. Resp. ad Verst Part fc p. 120, 
 
106 
 
 the sinner, the agent, or actor of sin, or the 
 doer of a wicked thing ; so it would be a re- 
 proach and blasphemy to suppose God to be the 
 author of sin.— -i*ut if by the author of sin is 
 meant the permitter, or not a hinderer of sin ; 
 and at the same time, a disposer of the state of 
 events in such a manner, for wise, holy and most 
 excellent ends and purposes, that sin, if it be 
 permitted, or not hindered, will most certainly 
 and infallibly follow : I say, if this be all that 
 is meant by the author of sin, I don't deny that 
 God is the author of sin" — " It is no reproach 
 for the Most High to be thus the author of sin. 
 This is not to be the actor of sin, but on the 
 contrary, of holiness. What God doth herein 
 is holy, and a glorious exercise of the infinite 
 excellency of his nature" — " That it is most 
 certainly so, that God is in such a manner the 
 disposer and orderer of sin, is evident, if any 
 credit is to be given to Scripture ; as well as it 
 is impossible in the nature of things to be other- 
 wise." 1 
 
 I think I have already shewn, in the preced- 
 ing part of this discourse, that it is not only 
 possible, but most probable to be otherwise ; 
 and now shall proceed to shew, it is impossible 
 to be according to this author's assertion. 
 
 8. If God disposeth the state of events in such 
 a manner, that sin will most certainly follow, 
 and that he also permits, or doth not hinder it, 
 he must be the sole author of sin himself ; and 
 those who are called the actors, or committers 
 of evil, are only subjects by whom he effects it. 
 
 * P. 357-8. 
 
107 
 
 They are nothing more, in the case, than the 
 necessitated instruments of evil. If he hath 
 so ordered the nature and concerns of his ra- 
 tional creation, that they must most certainly 
 and infallibly sin, he must be the cause of sin, 
 and not they ; and it cannot be righteous in him 
 to charge the blame of what must infallibly fol- 
 low, from his own determination and disposal, 
 upon those to whom he has rendered it un- 
 avoidable. 
 
 If the Almighty, from the beginning, so or- 
 dered his creation, that evil must necessarily 
 ensue in it, it must be designed by him, or he 
 would not have so ordered it ; and every sup- 
 posed transgressor necessarily acts according to 
 the Divine will, in every sin he commits; and 
 the Divine being takes pleasure, first in his sin, 
 and next in his eternal misery ; for he is cer- 
 tainly pleased when his will is done. What 
 worse can be said of the worst of beings, than 
 this doctrine implies of the best. 
 
 If man be allowed no choice, he can incur no 
 guilt. He must at some time be at liberty, or 
 he can never do amiss. If he do only what he 
 is obliged to do, by a constitution of things lixt 
 by his Creator, he cannot sin against him^ for 
 what he obliges him to do, he wills him to do, 
 and it can be no transgression against him to do 
 his will ; because to sin, is to offend him, and 
 to offend him is to act contrary to his will. 
 Whatever a man doth from the necessity of his 
 nature, let that necessity be the consequence of 
 the lapse of his first parents, or not, if a remedy 
 be not in his power, it is the same thing to him. 
 It was not himself that subjected himself to such 
 
108 
 
 a faulty or defective nature ; therefore he can- 
 not, in equity, be condemned for what he could 
 no way help or avoid. To assert, that a person 
 may be justly punished for being what he is 
 obliged to be, or doing what he is inevitably 
 forced to do by his Maker, may pass upon blind 
 inconsiderate people for rmjstery; but to others 
 it must appear a manifest absurdity, and a most 
 daring one, when attributed to the eternal foun- 
 tain of all truth and justice ; a reproach to him, 
 and blasphemy against him. 
 
 9. It is impossible God should commit any 
 act of sin, because it is against his nature, and 
 consequently impossible he should will it. Sin 
 is the transgression of his will, and if he could 
 neither will nor act it, he cannot be any way the 
 author of it. Barely suffering it to arise, is not 
 causing it to be. All that can be allowed is, 
 that by forming reasonable creatures, and con- 
 stituting them in a state of rational freedom, he 
 afforded them the opportunity of making their 
 duty their choice ; but never willed them to abuse 
 it, by lapsing from the grace he favoured them 
 with for their preservation, dividing their wills 
 from his will, and counteracting his salutary 
 laws, to whom they owed their being, and on 
 whom they must absolutely depend for all the 
 good they ever could enjoy. And notwithstand- 
 ing he foresaw they might be prevailed on to 
 make a wrong use of their liberty, he certainly 
 intended to favour them with means amply 
 sufficient for their recovery and restoration. 
 Though he forebore forcibly to hinder them 
 from falling into iniquity, he did all that could 
 be done to prevent it in rational creatures. He 
 
109 
 
 forewarned them against it, shewing them the 
 dreadful consequence of it, and unquestionably 
 armed them with power, by his spirit, to with- 
 stand all temptation to it, had they kept under 
 it. He never could so permit, as to license 
 their departure from their reasonable duty, and 
 true interest. By the power and goodness dis- 
 pensed to man, he might have stood without sin ; 
 and now that he has fallen into it, by a renewal of 
 the same power and goodness still afforded him, 
 he may be recovered from it, and brought to feli- 
 city. His Redeemer both offers and assists him ; 
 vet he backslides, and refuses to abide under 
 the guidance of his great benefactor. Man's 
 destruction, therefore, is of himself, and in the 
 Lord alone is his help. l 
 
 10. We are told, the will is always deter- 
 mined by the strongest motive. Has the will 
 no liberty then, at any time ? Is it always so 
 forcibly determined, in all its motions, by cir- 
 cumstances and motives successively arising 
 upon it, from the original constitution of things, 
 that every man is necessarily obliged to think, 
 speak, and act just as he doth ? No, it is an- 
 swered, in temporal matters the mind has a li- 
 berty of choice. Why not in spirituals as well 
 as temporals ? How are the motives and cir- 
 cumstances which determine the will in tempo- 
 ral concerns, more in its power than those that 
 determine it in spiritual ones ; and how do we 
 know it to be so ? Was this really the case, our 
 inevitable acts would certainly render us no pro- 
 per subjects of reward and punishment : of come 
 
 1 Hos. xiii. 9. 
 K 
 
110 
 
 ye blessed, or go ye cursed. We must be 
 equally unentitled to approbation and censure. 
 
 Those who alledge, that motives arise from 
 the circumstances we are placed in, and the oc- 
 currences we meet with, which necessarily oblige 
 us to think, speak, and act as they impress our 
 minds, do not appear sufficiently to consider, 
 that there is a supreme all-powerful Controller 
 of circumstances and events, who can, and un- 
 questionably doth, in due season, by his poten- 
 tial influence upon the mind of man, counterba- 
 lance every other influence. Can we think that 
 he placeth good and evil, life and death before 
 men, as the sacred records testify, and calleth 
 them repeatedly to choose life and good, and 
 yet that he doth not enable them so to do? 
 Every divine precept, every exhortation, every 
 command, every commination, implies a liberty 
 afforded to the subject, to comply or refuse ; to 
 obey or disobey. 
 
 11. In the supposition before us, the will of 
 man is effectually deprived of all freedom in his 
 main concern. For it is the same thing to the 
 sufferer, whether the superior power subject him 
 under this irresistible fatality, by an immediate 
 and unalterable decree, or by the means of mo- 
 tives and inducements, so powerfully suited to 
 his natural inclinations and passions, that he 
 must necessarily be carried away with them. 
 The man is equally in bondage either way. 
 To tell him that his will is free, because he doth 
 as he pleases when he acts agreeable to those 
 motives, and the dispositions they necessarily 
 excite, or enlarge, whilst at the same time, they 
 *\v, unavoidable by him, and so irresistibly in- 
 
Ill 
 
 ftuential to his corrupt inclinations, that they are 
 rendered eagerly concurrent with them ; to argue 
 in this case, that because the party pursues the 
 gratification of his present desires, he acts upon 
 a principle of freedom, is to assert an evident 
 falsehood. For, the man is first deceived, over- 
 powered, and so unwittingly captivated, that he 
 cannot avoid willing the evil he is insnared in- 
 to; and though he wills it, it is because his 
 will is not at liberty, but previously deceived 
 and captivated, though he sees not how ; and 
 instead of being a moral agent, is merely the 
 Instrument of an unseen superior power, who 
 artfully obliges him to an evil course, and to 
 the infelicity consequent upon it. 
 
 The nature of liberty supposes no absolute 
 necessity, but such a freedom as may admit of 
 choice, without a predetermining power oblig- 
 ing one way only. *Tis true, the powers of 
 men, as well as those of all other creatures, are 
 necessarily limited to their proper sphere. No 
 creature can exceed the bounds of its proper 
 element, yet it can act with freedom therein, as 
 a bird in the air, or a fish in the water; so man, 
 though unable to stretch beyond the compass of 
 humanity, is enabled to act at liberty within it ; 
 and I conceive, a wise and good being, though 
 omnipotent, would not put any restraint or force 
 upon him there, but for his good. It is barba- 
 rous to suppose, he would restrain him from 
 good in order to his hurt. " Far be it from God, 
 that he should do wickedness ; and from the 
 Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. For 
 the work of a man shall he render unto him, 
 and cause every man to find according to his 
 
112 
 
 ways. For he will not lay upon man more 
 than right ; that he should enter into judgment 
 with God." 1 
 
 12. I cannot perceive any ground for a de- 
 structive partiality in Almighty wisdom, and 
 perfect equity. Can he who prefers mercy to 
 sacrifice* exalt cruelty above mercy ? To sup- 
 pose, that the Supreme Excellence should create 
 Ml the millions of mankind of one nature, and 
 for eternal duration, and that he should, either 
 immediately jor remotely, necessitate a minority 
 of them to everlasting happiness, and at the same 
 time determine to give the major part no other 
 opportunity, but to be inevitably and eternally 
 miserable ; is to suppose, that there is more 
 cruelty than goodness, more rigour than wisdom, 
 and more inequality than mercy in the divine 
 nature* I therefore must conclude, that the 
 supposition is irrational, unjust, and grossly in- 
 jurious to the divine character. 
 
 Is it to be understood, that he who is sup- 
 posed to act in this contrary manner, towards his 
 creatures in the same state and nature, doth it 
 from one and the same nature in himself; or 
 that he is differently determined towards them, 
 from two different natures of contrary disposi- 
 tions in himself? I am utterly unable to con- 
 ceive how opposite wills can subsist in the same 
 nature, and how two contrary natures can exist 
 iu a being of perfect and immutable simplicity 
 and purity ; or that such contrary procedures con- 
 cerning his rational creatures, can arise from 
 unity, equity, and goodness, in the utmost per- 
 
 1 Job,xxxiv. 10,11, 93. 
 
113 
 
 fection? But no difficulty attends the supposi- 
 tion, that the same nature should operate to dif- 
 ferent effects, upon subjects in different condi- 
 tions. It is evident to every man's observation, 
 that the most glorious inanimate object of crea- 
 tion, the sun, by its beams will soften pitch and 
 harden clay; but these contrary effects arise 
 not from different natures in its own rays, but 
 are different effects of the same beams, occasion- 
 ed by the contrary dispositions of the pitch and 
 clay to receive them. So, I apprehend, the 
 holy spirit operates differently on different per- 
 sons, by reason of their different states and dis- 
 positions to receive its influences. 
 
 It is not a little affecting, to behold allega- 
 tions so injurious to the great dispenser of all 
 good, set forth with subtlety of sentiment, and 
 elegance of language, which can hardly fail to 
 operate to the deception and hurt of those who 
 embrace and allow them a place in their minds. 
 To assert, that God either originally, or after- 
 wards, disposed the course of things, and state 
 of events in such a manner, that sin must cer- 
 tainly and infallibly follow, is to render him the 
 intentional and primary author of all the evil 
 that ensues. For he that raises a building, caus- 
 eth it to be filled with combustibles, and sets fire 
 to it by a fuse, or a train of powder of the great- 
 est extent, which must infallibly burn it down, 
 is as certainly the destroyer of the edifice, as if 
 he fired it immediately without such means. 
 
 13. It hath been alleged, If God had not 
 given man liberty, he could not have abused it. 
 Very true. If the artificer had not made, nor 
 the shopkeeper furnished the suicide with the 
 
114< 
 
 knife he cut his throat with* he could not have 
 misused it ; but is he who made or sold it him, 
 for better purposes, entitled to any part of his 
 guilt? Without liberty man could not have sin- 
 ned, and without the knife the suicide could not 
 have made such a self- injurious use of it ; yet 
 it is not the knife, nor those who furnished it; 
 neither is it the liberty, nor he who afforded it; 
 but the ill-conceived disposition of the perpe- 
 trator from whence the default ariseth, and to 
 which it is, in justice, wholly to be imputed. 
 
 14. All the souls that God has made are 
 equally his ; and he whose mercies are over all 
 his ivories, overlooks none of his creatures in 
 the distribution of his mercies. He withholds 
 his talents from none; but dispenseth them in 
 different portions to different persons ; that so- 
 cial communication and connection may be pre- 
 served amongst us in this life. To one he gives 
 five talents ; to a second, two ; to a third, one ; 
 but to every one a degree of divine manifesta- 
 tion sufficient, if believed in and obeyed, to ope- 
 rate to his salvation. He justly requires a pro- 
 fiting answerable to the measure he affords ; and 
 as he perfectly knows to what degree of im- 
 provement each might have attained, he will 
 finally judge all according to their increase, 
 their negligence, or their rejection of the talent 
 received. 
 
 15. The rational immortal soul, is principal- 
 ly and essentially the man. This, as I have al- 
 ready shewn, is the immediate creation of God, 
 and descended not from Jldam and Eve, nor 
 passeth from parents to children, like the mor- 
 tal body ; and seeing it never was in them, it 
 
115 
 
 never sinned in them. The doctrine of prete- 
 ntion therefore, which supposes, that all sinned 
 when Adam transgressed, and deserve condem- 
 nation for the sin he committed, and thence con- 
 cludes, that God doth justly withhold his sav- 
 ing grace from the majority of mankind ; is a 
 conclusion drawn from untrue premises, and 
 consequently a false doctrine. First to create 
 the rational soul, and then to forsake it, is not 
 preterition, but dereliction. And this doctrine 
 is not only false, but dangerous. For when 
 some feel the comfortable touches of divine vi- 
 sitation, instead of humbling themselves under 
 it, that the work of regeneration may go for- 
 ward, this opinion leads them to imagine it to be 
 a mark of their election, and perhaps to add 
 other marks to themselves from mistaken scrip- 
 tures ; by which they increase their natural 
 pride, self-conceit, and presumption, which de- 
 feat the good intention of God's grace towards 
 them. Others, of a melancholy turn, when con- 
 victed and distressed in their minds for sin, are 
 led, by this opinion, to think it a mark of per- 
 sonal reprobation, aud thence into despondence, 
 with all its dismal consequences. Thus, what 
 the merciful Creator intends for mens' benefit, 
 they turn to their own great disadvantage. 
 
 16. Whatever doctrine contradicts the evident 
 sense, of those clear and express portions of the 
 sacred record, which, by divine commission, 
 professedly and directly treat upon this point; 
 such doctrine must be false, and ought to be 
 rejected. It answers no good purpose to increase 
 disputation about things hidden, or texts obscure 
 and ambiguous ; but this is certain, and certainly 
 
116 
 
 to be relied upon, that where the Almighty plain- 
 ly declares his will respecting his creatures, he. 
 who cannot be mistaken, is surely to be credited 
 in preference to the contra-positions of mistaken 
 men, who presume to interpret his words so as 
 to contradict his most clear, and most solemn 
 asseverations. 
 
 Through a misapprehension of the second 
 commandment, the people of Israel, in Eze- 
 TcieVs time, had espoused this reprobationary no- 
 tion, that the children were punished for the sin 
 of their parents ; so that it was become a maxim 
 among them, " The fathers have eaten sour 
 grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge." 
 The prophet, therefore, was especially commis- 
 sioned to declare God's immutable will and de- 
 termination in opposition thereto. " As I live, 
 saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion 
 any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, 
 all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so 
 also the soul of the son is mine : the soul that 
 sinneth it shall die. 1 The son shall not bear 
 the iniquity of the father, neither shall the fa- 
 ther bear the iniquity of the son ; the righteous- 
 ness of the righteous shall be upon him, and 
 the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon 
 him. 2 — Yet ye say, the way of the Lord is not 
 equal. Hear now, O house of Israel ! Is not 
 my way equal ? Are not your ways unequal ? 
 When a righteous man turneth away from his 
 righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and 
 dieth in them, for his iniquity that he hath done, 
 shall he die. Again, when the wicked man 
 
 1 Ezek. xviii. ver. 2 to 5. a Yew 20* 
 
117 
 
 turneth away from his wickedness that he hath 
 committed, and doth that which is lawful and 
 right, he shall save his soul alive. Because 
 he considereth, and turneth away from his 
 transgressions that he hath committed, he shall 
 surely live, he shall not die. 1 — I will judge 
 you, O house of Israel, every one according 
 to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, 
 and turn yourselves from all your transgres- 
 sions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin." 2 
 The prophet repeats more to the like purpose, 
 both in this chapter, and in the 33d. " As 
 I live, saith the Lord God, I have no plea- 
 sure in the death of the wicked, but that the 
 wicked turn from his way and live. Turn 
 ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will 
 ye die, O house of Israel ? 3 — Yet the children 
 of thy people say, the way of the Lord is not 
 equal ; but as for them, their way is not equal. 
 When the righteous turneth from his righteous- 
 ness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die 
 thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wick- 
 edness, and do that which is lawful and right ; 
 he shall live thereby." 4 
 
 It is manifest, the death denounced in these 
 scriptures, is not the common death of the bo- 
 dy ; for in that respect, one event happeneth to 
 the righteous and the wicked ; but that state of 
 everlasting infelicity peculiar to those who go 
 out of time into eternity, without repentance and 
 regeneration. 
 
 From all these express declarations, it evi- 
 
 1 Verse 25 to 29. a Verse SO. 3 Chap. xxxiii. U. 
 4 Verse 17, 18* 19. 
 
118 
 
 dently appears, that the Almighty " doth not 
 afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of 
 men;" 1 that he is not icilling that any should 
 perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 
 These are all plain manifestations of the mind 
 of God professedly on the point ; and to all who 
 intend not to deny his uprightness and veracity 
 they ought to he decisive. The sins of men 
 are placed to the account of their own will and 
 not to the will of (rod, in that pathetic expos- 
 tulation, Why will ye die ? And indeed, it is 
 impossible he should will that which is a trans- 
 gression of his will. It is clear, he doth all 
 that can be done by fair means to prevent it. 
 By that pressing repetition, turn ye, turn ye 
 from your evil ways, it is manifest, he puts it in 
 the power of men to turn from them. Who 
 then can justify their perverseness, by any way 
 charging their sin, either immediately or re- 
 motely, to his account ? 
 
 Men are not destroyed through any malevo- 
 lence in their Creator towards them ; but are 
 saved by his grace, which he dispenseth to all 
 from that unparalleled benevolence,which ariseth 
 purely from his infinite goodness. Sinful man 
 hath nothing to offer ; God therefore, will have 
 mercy, because he will have mercy ; because he 
 is full of mercy, he will dispense it to his help- 
 less and unworthy creatures. "I," saith he to 
 the repenting sinner, " even I am he that blot- 
 teth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, 
 and will not remember thy sins." 3 
 
 17. Detachments of various texts and portions 
 
 # 
 
 1 Lam. iii. 33. 2 2 Pet. iii. 9. 3 Isa. xliii. 25. 
 
119 
 
 of scripture, though indirect to the subject, and 
 alluding to different considerations, have been 
 pressed, and marshalled under divers colours, 
 to fix a cruel partiality on our common Creator 
 and benefactor. We are told, that he ordered 
 the obstinacy of Pharaoh, the sin and folly of 
 Sihon, and the kings of Canaan, the treache- 
 rous rebellion of Zedekiah against the king of 
 Babylon, the rapine and ravages of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, &C 1 Bat, properly considered, this 
 was ordering punishment for sin, not sin for 
 punishment. He hardeneth none till they have 
 hardened themselves past all probability of re- 
 pentance, and then he leaves them to the mis- 
 rule of their own beloved lusts and vices ; and 
 what are treated as uni'ighteous ravages, though 
 really such in the committers of them, are, re- 
 specting the Almighty, the righteous execution 
 of his justice against those who have filled up 
 their measure of iniquity , and abused his gracious 
 goodness and long forbearance towards them, 
 till he sees fit no longer to continue it to them. 
 Thus he punisheth the settled wickedness of 
 some, by the wickedness of their enemies, which 
 he permits to be turned upon them ; and after- 
 wards proceeds in like manner with their chas- 
 tisers, when they also have filled up their mea- 
 sure. 
 
 I shall omit at present to proceed further with 
 the scriptures alleged against the universal ex- 
 tension of divine goodness to the souls of men; 
 and acknowledge my inability to conceive, what 
 wise, holy, and most excellent ends and pur- 
 
 1 Edward's, p. 358, &c. 
 
120 
 
 poses could be answered, by the Almighty's dis- 
 posing the state of events in such a manner, 
 that sin will most certainly and infallibly fol- 
 low, and eternal misery to innumerable multi- 
 tudes of his creatures in consequence ; and also 
 what glory can accrue to a being infinite in wis- 
 dom, power and goodness, from his continually 
 creating immortal and reasonable creatures, with 
 no better intention towards them but that most 
 barbarous one of irredeemable infelicity. I am 
 also at a loss to discover, what comfort can arise 
 to an humane, virtuous and charitable mind 
 from such a cruel consideration. Those hearts 
 must be very unfeeling for others, and their con- 
 ceit in their own favour very strong, who, fan- 
 cying to themselves a personal election, can 
 pride and console themselves in their own ima- 
 gined security, and the inequitable destruction 
 of the major part of their species. Misled men, 
 like the unprofitable servant, may imagine such 
 unjust severity in the unchangeable perfection 
 of equity ; but those who have the love of God 
 shed abroad in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost, 
 find it to flow freely towards all mankind with- 
 out exception, and to engage them to wish the 
 salvation of all. This is a stronger proof to 
 them of the universality of God's good-will to 
 men, than all the sophistical reasonings of those 
 who remain insensible of it, to the contrary. 
 
 19. We read, Isaiah, lv. 8, 9, " My thoughts 
 are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my 
 ways, saith the Lord ; for as the heavens are 
 higher than the earth, so are my ways h igher than 
 your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." 
 And chap. xl. 28. the prophet saith, " There 
 
i2i 
 
 is no searching of his understanding." Yet our 
 christian fatalists appear to think themselves 
 wise enough to discover the very precise mode 
 and manner of (rod's prescience ; and because 
 they can see but one way how omniscience 
 should foreknow, they seem to conclude there 
 can be no other in the unlimited expanse of 
 infinite ability. But, " Who hath known the 
 mind of the Lord, or who hath been his coun- 
 sellor?" 1 To whom hath he revealed those 
 unsearchable, and incomprehensible secrets of 
 the Divine essence, which belong to himself 
 only ? A due degree of modesty would teach 
 us, there is something in the mode and manner 
 of infinite comprehension, as much beyond the 
 reach of our limited capacities, as the extent of 
 omniscience itself; and attempts to unveil in- 
 scrutable mysteries, are more evident demon- 
 strations of human presumption and folly, than 
 of wisdom and piety. Are those men sure there 
 is no way possible for God to know, but what 
 is open to the perception of their imperfect mo- 
 dicum of reason ? The arguments they ground 
 upon this imaginary foundation, are sufficient to 
 impeach their basis ; for they carry an evident 
 face of falsehood. They ultimately and una- 
 voidably render the undeniable source of all 
 good, and centre of all perfection, the real and 
 intentional author of all imperfection, vice and 
 wickedness, and all the misery consequent 
 thereupon ; which it is impossible for unchange- 
 able toth and goodness to be. " Wilt thou," 
 saith 1*0, " disannul my judgment ? Wilt thou 
 
 1 Rom.xi.34. 
 
122 
 
 condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous ? m 
 u God forbid," saith the apostle, " yea let God 
 be true, but every man a liar." 2 
 
 From the certainty of the premises the cer- 
 tainty of the conclusion ariseth. From uncer- 
 tain premises no certain conclusion can be drawn. 
 There is something in the Divine prescience 
 which always hath been, and is ever like to re- 
 main an impenetrable secret to human under- 
 standing. What no man knows, no man can 
 properly argue from. We know the Divine 
 fjeing is but one essence, perfectly pure and 
 simple. One eternal, immutable, central power, 
 making and supporting all other beings, and 
 operating variously according to the subjects, 
 and the state of the subjects of its operation ; 
 but never contrarily towards subjects in the 
 same condition. As all souls are equally his 
 immediate creation, no just reason can be ad- 
 vanced why he, who is righteous in all his ways, 
 and holy, or merciful, in all his works, 3 should 
 deal so unequally with them, as to predetermine 
 some to eternal happiness, and others to inevi- 
 table misery. Mere will and pleasure, implies 
 an unaccountable severity, though under the 
 guise of sovereignty. The condemnation of 
 men, according to our Saviour, is neither the 
 fruit of God's previous decree, nor his preten- 
 tion; for, "this is the condemnation, that light 
 is come into the world, but men loved darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds were 
 evit" 4 
 
 1 Job, xl. 8. 2 Rom. Hi. 4. 3 Psal. cxlv. 17. 4 John 
 . 19. 
 
128 
 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 1. The sufficiency of the Spirit of Christ, for the in- 
 struction of his rational creation asserted, but it 
 is not limited to the Scriptures nor to any other in- 
 strumental means. 2. The Scripture not clearly 
 and fully understood without the illumination of 
 the Spirit that gave them forth. 3. Authors cited 
 to this purpose. 4. Barclay's assertion defended. 
 5. No disagreement or clashing in the different 
 degrees of Divine evidence. 6. The infallibility 
 of the Scriptures as given forth by the Spirit, and 
 the fallibility of human understanding concerning 
 them. 7. None but the Divine author able to as- 
 certain his own sense in the Scriptures. 8. The 
 Scriptures rightly understood, a Rule; but not the 
 sole, the primary, and universal Rule. The Holy 
 Spirit alone is such. 9. The Scriptures allowed 
 to be the primary written rule, to which, in all 
 disputes we therefore refer, as well as others ; but 
 the immediate illumination of God's Spirit, is a 
 more certain criterion to each individual in bis 
 own breast. 
 
 1. Christ is with his true followers, and will 
 be to the end of the world. To say, he is al- 
 ways with them in the scriptures, appears to 
 me too great a strain of language for truth to 
 accompany. If the spirit of Christ be so con 
 nected with the text, as always to atte*^ *S * 
 apprehend no sincere and sens^e reader could 
 mistake the sense of % ^r auy such differ to 
 an opposition of each other about it; yet what 
 is more ©oinmon ? We have frequently expe- 
 rienced, and always allowed, that the spirit of 
 truth often useth, and openeth truth by the scrip- 
 tures, as an instrumental means ; and we also 
 
124 
 
 assert, that tlie same spirit often hath opened 
 f ruths, given a sense of their conditions, and ad- 
 ministered help to sincere and attentive minds, 
 without the instrumentality of the scriptures. 
 This is the universal gospel-privilege, foretold 
 by Jeremiah through Divine inspiration. " I 
 will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts, and will be their Godj 
 and they shall be my people. And they shall 
 teach no more," of necessity, " every man his 
 neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
 know ye the Lord ; for they shall all know me," 
 each man for himself, u from the least oftherjft 
 to the greatest of them, saith the Lord." 1 
 
 Is it rationally to be understood, that this Di- 
 vine internal teacher, is so absolutely bound to 
 the instrumentality of scripture, in his immedi- 
 ate legation to the soul of man, that he never 
 opens or instructs without it ? The text implies 
 no such matter. The apostle John, Anno Dom. 
 90, treats of this immediate teacher under the 
 title of an unction from the holy one. " Ye 
 have an unction from the holy one, and ye know 
 all things." 2 That is, I take it, ye have the 
 spirit, which as you attend to it, gives you a 
 right discerning of all things that concern you ; 
 for, " The anointing which ye have received 
 iiv,^ hio^ abideth in you, and ye need not that 
 any man teuoh yotl • but as the same anointing 
 teacheth you of ail tk<* n % s , and is truth," the 
 spirit of truth, " and is no \W % and even, as it 
 hath taught you, ye shall abide in hhn or it*" 
 This shews the complete sufficiency of this in 
 
 1 Jer. xxxl 33, 34. 2 1 John., ii. 20, Z7. 
 
125 
 
 ward, immediate instructor, without any instru- 
 mentality of an exterior kind. The eternal 
 spirit of truth cannot stand in need of any such 
 assistance ; consequently, is not to be under- 
 stood as confined to any, but operates either by 
 the scriptures, or without them, at his pleasure. 
 
 God hath always afforded instruction to his 
 people ; but his teachings by the law to the 
 Jews, were through instrumental means. The 
 prophet declares, this new covenant of the gos- 
 pel should not be according to the old covenant 
 of the law ; it should not consist of instrumental 
 teaching, though that might be occasionally 
 used ; for God himself would put his law in 
 their inward parts. 1 This implies his own im- 
 mediate communication to the soul, of that law 
 which is not according to the literal nature of 
 the old covenant, but is really and truly, the 
 law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus ; the 
 illuminating quickening law, immediately and 
 mentally given to man by the spirit of life it- 
 self; which therefore is, and ever must be, the 
 constitutional establishment of the gospel dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 Isaiah, in a prophetic address to the gospel 
 church, saith, " all thy children shall be taught 
 of the Lord." 2 In reference to this, and other 
 like prophecies, our Saviour saith, "it is written 
 in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of 
 God. Every man therefore that hath heard f 
 and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto 
 me." 3 And in the preceding vfcrse he saith, 
 *• no man can come to me except the Father who 
 
 1 Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. 2 Isa« liv. 13. 3 John, vL 45, 
 
 l3 
 
120 
 
 hath sent me, draw him." 1 This drawing, 
 hearing and learning of the Father, and coming 
 to Christ, are all spiritually to be understood ; 
 as I have shewn in the former part of this dis- 
 course. This doctrine is witnessed to, 1 Thess. 
 iv. 8, 9. Beginning with those who had so little 
 understanding of it, as to treat it with contempt, 
 the apostle declares, " he therefore that despis- 
 eth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also 
 given unto us his holy Spirit. But as touching 
 brotherly-love, ye need not that I write unto 
 you ; for ye 'yourselves are taught of God,- to 
 love one another." The apostle was then writ- 
 ing to them mediately from God, by divine in- 
 spiration ; and he makes a manifest difference 
 between this mediate manner of teaching, and 
 what he intended by their being taught of God ; 
 the direct and obvious sense of which is, Grod's 
 own immediate illumination and instruction. 
 
 By necessary consequence from these pre- 
 mises, and abundance more that might be added 
 -from the scriptures, it appears to be both an ex- 
 perimental and a scriptural truth ; that God 
 teacheth immediately by his spirit, as well as 
 instrumentally by external means; and that 
 this is an indispensable doctrine of the gospel. 
 
 2. Man, without divine illumination, has not 
 sufficient ability to ascertain the genuine sense of 
 doubtful and disputed texts ; which being very 
 numerous, together with the diversity of senses 
 wherein those texts are understood, by persons 
 apparently of equal sincerity, and of the best 
 natural and acquired parts, under the same, as 
 
 1 John, vi. 44, 
 
127 
 
 well as different denominations, are plain indi- 
 cations, that the assistance of the Divine author 
 himself is requisite to the right understanding 
 of them. Man's reason is too much clouded, 
 and biassed by his passions and prepossessions, 
 to be justly denominated right reason; and its 
 diversity concerning spiritual matters, and its 
 mutability in the same person is very evident. 
 Might reason is truth, unchangeably the same, 
 and incapable of error, and therefore exists only 
 in the divine nature; which men must, in mea- 
 sure, become partakers of, in order to the recti- 
 fication of their fallen and fallible reason. 
 
 Respecting the scriptures, we are so far from 
 lessening them, or opposing the true sense of 
 them, that we verily believe, and sincerely as- 
 sert, that the holy Spirit, in what degree of il- 
 lumination soever it appears, never can contra- 
 dict them; for difference in degree makes no 
 contrariety. It is the private, or particular 
 interpretation of man without divine illumina- 
 tion, that we object to, as insufficient to assure 
 the sense of disputed scriptures. Besides man's 
 natural inability, the various prejudices, the pre- 
 vailing passions, the different interests, and the 
 diverse leaders of the people, all contribute to 
 give different, and sometimes opposite senses of 
 the sacred text. Many have the words of the 
 spirit in scripture, who have not the mind of the 
 spirit in their hearts. 
 
 3. Neither nature nor education can give a 
 man the sense of the Holy Ghost; nor, of con- 
 sequence, interpret its expressions with certain- 
 ty. It is therefore truly asse&te^i nj&^ly^y 
 
 ~ver : Open mine eyes, 
 
128 
 
 the Quakers, but also by abundance of distin- 
 guished writers of various professions, ancient 
 and modern, that the internal illumination of 
 God's holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to 
 every man, in order to his right understanding 
 of the scriptures. Let me advance a few out of 
 many more now before me. 
 
 " The holy scriptures, opened by the Holy 
 Spirit, shew Christ unto us, the Holy Spirit is 
 therefore the opener of the scriptures." Theo- 
 phylact in Joan. 10. 
 
 " What men set forth from human sense, may 
 be perceived by the wit of man ; but what is set 
 forth by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, re- 
 quires an interpreter inspired with the like 
 spirit." Erasmus , Paraph, in % Pet. i. 20, SI, 
 And Coll. in Ixthuophagia prope Finem, he 
 eays, " They expound the sacred writings from 
 the pulpit, which no man can either rightly un- 
 derstand, or profitably teach without the inspi- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " The scriptures are of no private interpre- 
 tation ; i. e. not of every private man's inter- 
 pretation out of his own brain, because they 
 were dictated by the Holy Ghost; and by the 
 Holy Ghost, the meaning of the Holy Ghost in 
 them only can be expounded." Obad. Walker's 
 Disc, concerning the Spirit of Martin Luther, 
 
 p. 97. 
 
 " The scriptures are not to be understood, 
 but by the same Spirit by which they are writ- 
 ten." Luther, Oper. Tom. 2. p. 309. 
 
 " The Spirit of God, from whom the doc- 
 trine of the Gospel proceeds, is the only true in* 
 
129 
 
 terpreter to open it to us." Calvin's Coin, ia 
 1 Cor. ii. 14; 
 
 " The apostle teacheth, 1 Cor. 2. that the 
 scripture cannot be apprehended and under- 
 stood but by the Holy Spirit." Zanchius, De 
 Sacra Scriptura, Tom. viii. p. 430. 
 
 " The things of the spirit of God, are under- 
 stood and perceived by the powerful inspira- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit alone." Beza, Annotat. 
 in 1 Cor. ii. 14*. 
 
 " As the scriptures were written by the Spi- 
 rit of God, so must they be expounded by the 
 same. For, without that spirit, we have neither 
 ears to hear, nor eyes to see. It is that spirit 
 that openeth, and no man shutteth, the same 
 shutteth, and no man epeneth." Bish. Jewel's 
 Defence of the Apology, p. 72. 
 
 *' The outward reading of the word, with- 
 out the inward working of his spirit, is nothing. 
 The precise pharisees, the learned scribes, 
 read the scriptures over and over again; they 
 not only read them in books, but wore them 
 on their garments; they were not only taught, 
 but were able to teach others. But because this 
 heavenly Teacher had not instructed them, their 
 understanding was darkened ; their knowledge 
 was but vanity." Archbp. Sandys 9 s Sermons, 
 printed 1616, p. 48. 
 
 " The holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost; it followeth, that 
 all the scripture ought to be expounded by 
 God, because it is inspired of God — We do 
 acknowledge, that all means are vain, unless 
 the JLord give eyes to sec 5 to whom therefore, 
 the prophet made his prayer : Open mine eyes, 
 
130 
 
 that I may see the wonders of thy law." 1 Rai- 
 nolds's Conference with Hart, p. 81. 
 
 "The internal light whereby we come to 
 see the sense of the scripture, is the holy spi- 
 rit." Weemse J s Christian Synagogue, lib. i. 
 p. 31. 
 
 " The anointing of the holy spirit teacheth 
 the faithful to understand those truths, which 
 they have received from the apostles." Ame- 
 sius, Bellarm. enervatus. Lib. i. c. v. n. 32. p. 
 60. 
 
 " It is not possible that supernatural know- 
 ledge should be rightly received, without su- 
 pernatural light." Fra. Rous Interiora regni 
 Dei Coelest. Academ. chap. ii. p. 12. 
 
 u God is the author of all divine truth, and 
 of the discovery of it made to us. An inward 
 enlightening and irradiating the mind by the 
 holy spirit, is absolutely necessary for the ap- 
 prehending of the divine mysteries, which are 
 contained in the doctrines of the gospel." John 
 Edwards's Free Disc, concerning Truth and 
 Error, p. 481. 
 
 " In regeneration the understanding is illu- 
 minated by the holy spirit, that it may under- 
 stand both the mysteries and will of God." 
 The Helvetian Confession, and Expos. Fidei 
 Christians, chap. ix. 
 
 u The gift of interpreting scripture, is not of 
 human prudence, but of the Holy Ghost." Wir- 
 tembergica Confessio, de Sacra Scrip tura, in 
 Corp. Confess. 
 
 " We acknowlege the inward illumination of 
 
 'Psal. cxix. 18. 
 
131 
 
 the spirit of God, to be necessary for the sav- 
 ing understanding of such things as are reveal- 
 ed in the word." Confession of Faith by the 
 Assembly of Divines at Westminster, since 
 approved by the Kirk of Scotland, and the 
 same with that of the Independants, and parti- 
 cular Baptists. 
 
 Barclay's assertion, that neither the scriptures, 
 nor the natural reason of man, are a more noble, 
 or certain rule or touchstone, than the immediate 
 revelation of God's holy spirit, relates only to 
 such as are sensible of its immediate rfevelations, 
 and to the evidence of these revelations in the 
 parties themselves to whom they are immediate. 
 To these he asserts, they are more noble, be- 
 cause divine ; and more certain, because imme- 
 diate, than their own private interpretation 
 of scriptures, by reading and study, without the 
 illumination of the holy spirit, can be. The 
 spirit only can ascertain the sense it intends. 
 Sometimes it communicates a literal, sometimes 
 an allegorical sense, a direct, or an allusive 
 sense, a theoretical, or an experimental sense. 
 Men are liable to mistake one for another ; and 
 without a sense of the spirit, must often miss of 
 the mind of the spirit. 
 
 In the next proposition, Barclay demonstrates 
 the truth of his assertion, by shewing from 1 
 Cor. xii. 12, &c. that though the body or church 
 of Christ is one, it is composed of many mem- 
 bers, who have each their several services ap- 
 pointed, and directed by the Holy Spirit in 
 that body ; and each must therefore attend to the 
 spirit for his own proper direction. He after- 
 wards instances the special duties of particu- 
 
433 
 
 lars ia (lie church. Barclay therefore gives 
 frequent advices, to a waiting for, and due at- 
 tention to, the Holy Spirit. 
 
 We are well apprized of, and have always 
 asserted, that greater and lesser degress of di- 
 vine illumination have been communicated to 
 different persons ; but we also believe, there 
 cannot be any contrariety, clashing, or disso- 
 nance in any of its degrees ; because it is from 
 one and the same spirit ; and in what degree so- 
 ever it appears, it speaks one and the same thing 
 in point of cbngruity, and carries its own divine 
 authority with it in every degree. Hence, to 
 suppose a disagreement between one degree of 
 it and another, whilst it can differ in nothing but 
 degree, is untrue and absurd. As to our own, 
 or any man's own pretended, or any pretended 
 divine revelations, we utterly and equally dis- 
 claim, as being of any authority, or advantage 
 whatsoever ; for such mere pretensions are al- 
 together as unequal to discover and assure the 
 true sense of dubious parts of scripture, as the 
 unenlightened reason of the natural man. It is 
 a vain thing in any person to pretend he has the 
 true sense of the holy scriptures, whilst his 
 performances demonstrate his mistakes concern- 
 ing it 
 
 6. When any press their own particular opi- 
 nion of the sense of any part of scripture, as 
 the true sense of the Holy Ghost, yet deny all 
 sense of the Holy Ghost in their hearts, who 
 that observes a diversity of senses amongst these 
 gan give credit to their assertions ? But they 
 allege, the scripture is infallible. I allow it.; 
 but how is its true sense to be infallibly con- 
 
133 
 
 veyed to every reader ? By human study and 
 instruction ? That has led into all the differ- 
 ences and disagreements about it. The plain 
 truth of the matter is, nothing but the spirit of 
 Divine wisdom, whence the scripture came, 
 can give the genuine sense of it. For, " The 
 things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit 
 of God." 1 What is the infallibility of scrip- 
 ture to him, who has not the infallible sense of 
 it? If all had this, who have the scriptures, 
 none could mistake them, nor differ with each 
 other about them ; yet it is too manifest, by the 
 differences among christians, they do mistake 
 them. This is not to be imputed to any defect 
 in the sacred writings, but to the common un- 
 fitness of mens' understandings to discover the 
 right sense of them. What then can open it to 
 man's capacity but the holy spirit ? 
 
 The question is not, whether the scriptures, 
 as written by Divine inspiration, are infallibly 
 right, for such must be so ; but whether every 
 one that reads them, is able infallibly to under- 
 stand them ? To pretend, if they are not clearly 
 to be understood without the assistance of the 
 spirit, they are given in vain, is to contradict 
 the scripture, which declares that, " the mani- 
 festation of the spirit is given to every man to 
 profit withal." 2 It may as truly be asserted, 
 that the Divine being, whilst he knows we are 
 in darkness, gives us a chart to direct our way, 
 and at the same time withholds the light, by 
 which alone we can discover its true contents ; 
 which is. .merely to mock and tantalise us, and 
 
 1 1 Cor.ii. 11. * lCor. xii. 7. 
 M 
 
131 
 
 also to render our situation worse than that of 
 the Jeics ; for all the written precepts of their 
 law were plain and evident. Yet God gave 
 them of his good spirit to instruct them ; l all 
 the written doctrines of the gospel are not so, 
 and is not the holy spirit as requisite to us as it 
 was to them ? 
 
 7- Scripture doctrines are of divers classes. 
 They exhibit just morals, and benevolent con- 
 duct between man and man, in a manner supe- 
 rior to the best ethic writers in all ages and na- 
 tions. These are generally and justly allowed * 
 to be of natural, universal, and unalterable obli- 
 gation, and are sufficiently plain and clear to the 
 common sense of every man. But matters re- 
 lating to faith and worship, having admitted of 
 many circumstantial additions and alterations, 
 according to the different dispensations of Divine 
 wisdom, have not been so level to mens' under- 
 standings, nor have they been so united in judg- 
 ment concerning them, as in the case of moral 
 duties. Ever since the collected publication of 
 the New Testament, differences in opinion about 
 the true sense, especially in matters of faith, 
 have subsisted and abounded; and what can de- 
 termine these differences? The learned A. saith. 
 such a text means so and so. The learned U. 
 asserts, it is to be accepted in a different, per- 
 haps a contrary sense. They apply to the con- 
 text, and remain still as different in opinion, 
 and as positive of being in the right. They 
 recur from text to text, and from critic to com- 
 mentator, till they have exhausted every one 
 
 * Ncfc.hr. ft 
 
139 
 
 they can find or force to their purpose, and still 
 remain equally, if not more at a distance than 
 at the beginning. What is there left to deter- 
 mine the matter ? Will churches or councils 
 do it ? They jangle from year to year, or from 
 age to age, and leave the difference as wide as 
 they found it. The true sense still remains 
 only with the Divine author of the disputed 
 texts, and he alone is able to communicate it. 
 Would it not be a wild presumption in either 
 A. or JS. to boast that he will try his opponent's 
 opinion by the true sense of the spirit, and at 
 the same time deny, that either himself, or man, 
 can have any real sense of the spirit? I have 
 not here supposed a nonentity, but a case that 
 has subsisted for a great many eenturies ; and 
 which must always continue, whilst men prefer 
 their own prejudices, imaginations, and reason- 
 ings, t6 the internal leadings of the spirit of 
 truth. 
 
 8. We hold the scriptures to be a rule to all 
 that have them, so far as they have a right un- 
 derstanding of them, and also that they are 
 adequate to the purpose intended by them: 
 but we cannot aver, they are the sole, the pri- 
 mary , and the universal director of mankind in 
 matters of religious duty. 1. They are not 
 the sole director ; because the spirit of God in 
 the heart and conscience of man is also an un- 
 deniable director. 2. They are not the prima- 
 ry director; because the illumination of the 
 holy spirit that gave them forth, is requisite to 
 open the true sense of those numerous parts of 
 them, about which the apprehensions of men so 
 much differ. The spirit also from which the 
 
136 
 
 scriptures tame, is original, and therefore pri- 
 mary to them ; and as the spirit only can open 
 its own true sense included in them, they are 
 secondary to the spirit, as an instrument in its 
 hand. 3. They are not the universal director; 
 because it is not probable that one in ten, if one 
 yi twenty, of mankind, have ever had the op- 
 portunity of possessing them. Seeing there- 
 fore this is the case, they cannot properly be 
 pronounced, the complete, adequate, universal 
 rule of mankind. 
 
 Hence we esteem them the secondary rule or 
 guide of christians ; which being divinely com- 
 municated for the use of all to whom they may 
 come, and also being intrinsically superior in 
 excellence to all other writings, we prefer tbeih 
 above all others, and as thankfully accept, and 
 as comfortably use them, as any people upon 
 earai ; verily believing, with the holy apostle, 
 that they " were written for our learning, that, 
 we, through patience, and comfort of the scrip- 
 tures might have hope/ 91 
 
 This is not to depreciate the scriptures, but 
 to hold them in their proper place, and due su- 
 periority to the works of men, and subordina- 
 tion to their Supreme Communicator, and only 
 sure expounder. For the holy spirit is requi- 
 site to the use of them, as the agent to the instru- 
 ment ; and what is an instrument without a hand 
 to guide and enforce it ? And which is supe- 
 rior, the agent or the instrument? The holy 
 spirit is the original wisdom whence the scrip- 
 tures came, and the sole power that can open* 
 
 1 Rom. xv. 4. 
 
137 
 
 and give right effects to them. The spirit of 
 truth is given to guide into all truth; 1 is the on- 
 ly thing that can do it, and consequently the 
 supreme guide afforded to mankind. It is both 
 unwarrantable and irrational, to assert any thing 
 else is the sole, or primary director, whilst the 
 spirit of God is communicated for that purpose. 
 
 The same scripture-truths appear as differ- 
 ently to each person, as their understandings 
 differ one from another. Human intellects 
 therefore must be rectified, to enable them to see 
 those truths in the same sense. The rectifier is 
 the spirit of truth, which alone can unite them in 
 the true sense. 
 
 We stick not to stile the scriptures collec- 
 tively, a divine, or christian rule ; but we ob- 
 ject to call them, The rule of faith and prac- 
 tice; lest that should be understood to imply we 
 are to look for nothing further to be our guide 
 or leader. The scriptures themselves abun- 
 dantly testify, there is something superior to 
 them which all ought to look for, and attend 
 unto ; that is, the holy spirit of the Supreme 
 Legislator of men, and prime Author of the 
 sacred writings; in and by whose light and 
 power they are made instrumentally useful, and 
 adequate to the purposes intended by them. 
 Like a good sun-dial, they are true and perfect 
 in their kind, that is, as writings ; but, respect- 
 ing the parts differently understood, they may 
 justly bear the same motto with the dial : Non 
 sine lumine. 2 For as the dial, without the cast 
 of the sun-beams, has not its proper use, to tell 
 
 1 John, xvi. 13. 2 Useless without light. 
 MS 
 
138 
 
 the time of the day ; neither doth the ambiguous 
 text answer its true end, infallibly to communi- 
 cate the mind of the holy spirit to different un- 
 derstandings, except the luminous beams of the 
 sun of righteousness discover it to the attentive 
 mind. 
 
 9. Our opposers call the scriptures the pri- 
 mary rule. We allow it is the primary written 
 rule, and in all disputes betwixt them land us, 
 we abide by its decision, according to our under- 
 standing of the sense of it, which they profess 
 to do likewise by theirs. In all public differ- 
 ences therefore we refer intentionally to the same 
 rule with them. But we have both plain scrip- 
 ture and experience to support our belief, that 
 respecting the particular duty of individuals, 
 every one hath in his own breast, a nearer and 
 more certain rule or guide of conscience than 
 the scriptures ; the manifestation of the spirit 
 given to every man to profit withal; which, duly 
 observed, gives a right interpretation of scrip- 
 ture, so far as is necessary for them, and also 
 the truest sense of each particular person's duty 
 to him. When a person feels the faithful wit- 
 ness of God in his conscience, condemning him 
 for what is wrong, and approving him for 
 what is right, does he not find it to speak 
 more clearly, particularly, and convictingly to 
 his case and state, than he can read it in the 
 scriptures? Can he then conclude, that this tru- 
 ly-distinguishing and most striking witness, is 
 less than that spirit of truth, or comforter, which 
 convinceth the world of sin, $f righteousness, 
 mid of judgment P l 
 
 y John, xvi. 8. 
 
139 
 
 When Christ, after his resurrection, opened 
 the understandings of his disciples that they 
 might understand the scriptures, 1 was not the 
 divine illumination in their understandings, a 
 more clear, certain and superior evidence of the 
 sense -of them, than all their reading and study 
 could have afforded them, without such illumi- 
 nation? Are mankind now become so much 
 more wise and penetrating, than those who far 
 years had the benefit of hearing him who is per- 
 fect in wisdom, that they have no need of his 
 assistance to open their understanding ? Or is 
 their school and college learning so perfect, as 
 to render God's illumination quite needless? 
 Are the innumerable clashings and j anglings of 
 the book-learned about the sense of scripture, a 
 proof of the unity of their sentiments, and the 
 verity of their sense of disputed texts ? If so, 
 discord may be a proof of harmony, and fight- 
 ing of agreement. 
 
 It is certain, without divine illumination, 
 every reader of texts of a dubious sense, ac- 
 cepts them in the sense his prepossessions make 
 for him; which is the cause of tl*e innumerable 
 differences amongst professing christians. R. 
 Barclay therefore justly denies, that Divine in- 
 ward revelations are to be subjected to the test 
 either of the outward testimony of the scrip- 
 tures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a 
 more noble, or certain rule or touchstone. 
 
 T Luke, xxiv. 45. 
 
140 
 CHAP. XIL 
 
 1. The 2 Tim. iii. 15. &c. explained. 2. What true 
 Gospel-Faith comprehends. 
 
 1. The apostle writing to his beloved brother 
 in Christ, Timothy, who in his former epistle, 
 he stiles a man of God, addresses him in par- 
 ticular with this expression. " From a child thou 
 hast known the Holy scriptures, which are able 
 to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus. *A11 scripture given 
 by divine inspiration, is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness, that the man of God may he per- 
 fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." l 
 To add wisdom to the man of God, the rege- 
 nerate man, in order to his perfection in divine 
 knowledge, appears to me a very different 
 thing from the making a sinful corrupt man 
 holy, or turning a gross and miserable sinner 
 into a saint ; for this, according to scripture, is 
 the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit ; as I have 
 already made appear. 
 
 The scriptures Timothy had been instructed 
 in from his childhood, could hardly be any 
 other than those of the Old Testament ; and all 
 they could here be meant to do for the man of 
 Grod, must be to afford him instruction in the 
 way of righteousness ; to add to his own expe- 
 rience, the experiences of those before him in 
 that line. For to suppose they were sufficient 
 
 *I cite this as it ought to be translated. '11 Tim. 
 \\\. 15,16, 17. 
 
141 
 
 to regenerate and perfect the sinful corrupt 
 man, is more than they are able now to do, even 
 with the New Testament added to them. 
 
 The sinful corrupt man is certainly he that 
 abides in sinful practices ; and the apostle saith, 
 "He that committeth sin is of the Devil." 1 
 
 I judge this a proper opportunity to caution 
 against such corrupt and dangerous positions 
 as some have publicly avowed. 
 
 1. That man, at the same time he is actually 
 unrighteous in himself, is righteous in Christ 
 That is, he is not what he is in reality, but 
 what he persuades himself to be, by a false 
 imagination concerning the sacrifice of Christ ; 
 like that generation who are pure in their own 
 eyes ^ yet are not washed from their jilthiness.* 
 
 2. That the supreme essense of immutable 
 Truth, looks upon man in a false light ; esteem- 
 ing him pnre, whilst he knows him to be sinful 
 and corrupt. 
 
 3. That Christ, the truth, is a false medium, 
 shewing the states of men contrary to what they 
 are in reality. 
 
 4. That man is the servant of Christ whilst 
 he is under the influence of Antichrist ; that he 
 is imputatively" holy, whilst he is ruled by the 
 author of pollution, the adversary of all holi- 
 ness ; and that he is acting iii the will of God, 
 whilst he is doing the works of the Devil ; not- 
 withstanding we read, "To whom ye yield 
 yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are 
 to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death, or 
 of obedience unto righteousness." 3 
 
 1 1 John, iii, 8. *Prov. xxx. 12. 3 Rcm. vi. 1 6. 
 
143 
 
 It is a vain delusion for any to expect, that 
 purity in the highest perfection should unite 
 with them, whilst they remain in the very cause 
 of separation from him. Sin made the separa- 
 tion at first, and the continuance of it continues 
 the separation. If it be queried, Did not Christ 
 die to reconcile sinners to God ? I answer, yes ; 
 but not to reconcile God to sin, nor to save sin. 
 He suffered not to purchase a license for sinners 
 to continue such, but to open the way for them 
 to come to repentance, through the gift of God 
 procured by' him ; for, saith he, " Except ye 
 repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 1 He 
 came, not to uphold, but to destroy the works of 
 the Devil ; which include all manner of sin and 
 corruption. " Know ye not," saith the man of 
 God, " that the unrighteous shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God ? Be not deceived ; neither 
 fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 
 effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with man- 
 kind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, 
 nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the 
 kingdom of God." 2 The notion of imputa- 
 tive righteousness to such as remain in the com- 
 mission of these evils, therefore, is a vain and 
 pernicious error. 
 
 We must die to sin, or we cannot live to God : 
 and in proportion as we die to sin, we live in 
 Christ, and no further. We must put on Christ, 
 by true faith and obedience, which are never 
 separate; for that is a false faith, which abides 
 in, or satisfies any, without obedience. " Faith 
 without works is dead," 3 saith the servant of 
 
 1 Luke, xiii. 5. 2 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. 3 James, ii. 20. 
 
143 
 
 Christ; and " shew me thy faith without thy 
 works, and I will shew thee my faith by my 
 works." 1 
 
 The law saith, do, or avoid, this, and live. 
 The gospel not only forbids the outward act, 
 but also restrains the inward desire and motion 
 towards it. The law saith, Thou shalt not 
 kill ; nor commit adultery ; nor forswear thy- 
 self, &c. The gospel commands, give not place 
 to anger; thou shalt not lust; swear not at all, &c. 
 In this manner, the gospel destroys not the mo- 
 ral law, but fulfils it ; by taking away the ground 
 of sinful acts, and laying the axe of the spirit 
 to the root of corruption. 
 
 Can the considerate imagine, that the ever- 
 lasting source of wisdom and might, can be at a 
 loss how to expel Satan's kingdom in man whilst 
 upon earth? Or can they think him so de- 
 lighted with mens' offences against his purity 
 and goodness, as to will that Satan should reign 
 over his creatures to the last moment of their 
 lives? Is it not more to his glory to deliver 
 from the power of evil, and to save both from 
 sin here, and misery hereafter, than to save 
 only from wretchedness in futurity ? Is a part 
 greater than the whole ? Or, is an incomplete 
 deliverance preferable, or more glorious, than 
 that which is perfect ? 
 
 When doctrines opposite to purification of 
 heart, and holiness of life, are industriously 
 propagated, it stands every one in hand to be 
 alarmed, lest, by giving place to them in their 
 minds, they become blinded through the deceit - 
 
 1 James, ii. IS. 
 
144 
 
 fulness of sin ; which will centre them at last 
 m a fool's paradise, instead of the city of God, 
 the heavenly Jerusalem, into which nothing that 
 dejileth, that worketh abomination, or maketh a 
 lie, shall in any -wise enter. 1 
 
 2. The ability in the scriptures, as before 
 cited, to enlarge the man of God in saving 
 wisdom, the apostle saith, is through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 What true gospel faith is, let us a little con- 
 sider. As the entrance of the Divine word 
 quickeneth the soul, so it first communicates a 
 degree of faith, through which it operates; for 
 true faith is the gift of God, 2 and the holy spi- 
 rit is the spirit of faith ; 3 which is not a bare 
 belief of truths concerning Christ, but a faith 
 in him. 4 The faith in Christ is not comprised 
 in giving credit to narrations and doctrines, and 
 a mode of practice framed by the wisdom of 
 men upon it; for that centres short of the es- 
 sential substance of faith. Gospel faith ki man 
 believes the truth of all that is revealed by the 
 spirit, both in the heart, and in the sacred writ- 
 ings : because it feels it, savours it, and is one 
 with it. It not only assents to the scriptural 
 accounts of the incarnation and whole process 
 of Christ in Judea; but it also receives his in- 
 ternal appearance, consents to his operation, and 
 concurs with it. 
 
 That faith which stands wholly upon hearsay, 
 tradition, reading, or imagination, is but a dis- 
 tant kind of ineffectual credence, which permits 
 
 1 Rev. xxi. 27. 2 1 Cor. xii.9. and Col. ii. 12. 3 2 Cor. 
 iv.13. * 2Tim.iii. 17. 
 
145 
 
 the soul to remain in the bondage of corruption? 
 The wicked may go this length towards gospel 
 faith ; but the true faith lays hold of, and cleaves 
 to the spirit of truth, in its inward manifestations; 
 wherein it stands, and whereby it grows, till the 
 heart is purified, the world overcome, and sal- 
 vation obtained. 
 
 This faith is as a flame of pure love in the 
 heart to God. It presseth towards him, panteth 
 after him, resigns to him, confides and lives in 
 him. The mystery of it is held in a pure con- 
 science, 1 and in the effective power of the ever- 
 lasting gospel ; whence the christian dispensa- 
 tion, in holy writ, is often distinguished from the 
 exterior dispensation of the Mosaic law, and 
 the prior administration of angels in visible ap- 
 pearances, by the appellation of Faith. 
 
 Though the term faith is occasionally used 
 by the penmen of scripture in divers, yet not 
 contrary, but consistent senses, this seems to be 
 the one standing faith mentioned, Eph. iv. 5. 
 which is in Christ Jesus, as it is the fruit of his 
 grace and good spirit in the heart. Through 
 this the scriptures become effectually instructive 
 to the man of God, and helpful to the real chris- 
 tian in the way of life and salvation. It is the 
 faith by which the members of Christ truly live, 
 and ubide as such* It is their invincible shield; 
 and the knowledge of Christ in them is the 
 proof of their possessing it. 2 Abundance is said 
 of the nature, power, and effects of this all-con- 
 quering faith ; but I hope this will be sufficient 
 
 1 1 Tim. iii. 9. 2 Rom. i. 17. Gal. ii. 20. and iii< 11. 
 Heb.x.38. Ephrvi. 16. 2 Cor. xiiL 5. Heb.xi. - 
 
 N 
 
tO! 
 
 146 
 
 shew, though, in its complete sense, it includes 
 a belief of all that is said of Christ, and by 
 Christy in holy writ, it goes deeper, and ariseth 
 not in man merely from the man, but takes its 
 birth, and receives its increase from the opera- 
 tion of the holy spirit in him ; which works by 
 it to the sanctification of the heart, and the pro> 
 duction of every christian virtue. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 1. Spiritual things how understood* The true Gos- 
 pel shewn. 2. Concerning the economy of the 
 Quakers, wherein the Nature and Manner of their 
 worship is explained. S. The Scriptures placed 
 in their proper light. 4. Concerning Revelation 
 objective and subjective, immediate and instru- 
 mental. 
 
 1. " The things of God knoweth no man, but 
 the spirit of God;" 1 therefore the apostle de- 
 clares, " We have received, not the spirit of the 
 world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we 
 might know the things that are freely given to 
 us of God." 2 — " But the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the spirit of God, for they are 
 foolishness unto him; neither can he know 
 them, because they are spiritually discerned." 3 
 Hence it is clear, that he who hath not the know- 
 ledge of spiritual things by the manifestation of 
 (he spirit of God, hath not the true knowledge 
 of them, imagine what he will of his other m& 
 
 1 1 Cor. \u 11 . 2 Verse 12* 3 Verse 14. 
 
147 
 
 quiremcnts ; and he must find himself at last 
 upon the sandy foundation of vain opinion. 
 
 The apostle follows this by asserting, " The 
 spiritual man judgeth all things." * That is, 
 the man who is rendered spiritual, by the renew- 
 ing influence of the Holy Spirit, has, through 
 the shining of divine light upon his mind, a 
 clear discerning of all those spiritual matters it 
 concerns him to know ; which it is impossible 
 for the natural man rightly to comprehend. 
 
 We read, that "life and immortality are 
 brought to light by the gospel." 2 But what is 
 this life and immortality ? Did not mankind 
 believe in a future state before the incarnation 
 of Christ? Yes certainly. Both Jews and Gen- 
 tiles believed and held the truth of it. What 
 life and immortality then is that which is pecu- 
 liar to the gospel, and which it is its particular 
 property to unveil? It consists not wholly in 
 the relation of the external procedure and doc- 
 trines of our Lord, but mainly in that spiritual 
 gift he procured for us through his sufferings, 
 which is the life and power that the immortal 
 spirit of God manifests in the believing and obe- 
 dient soul ; that spirit which quickens those who 
 have been dead in trespasses and sins, and there- 
 in alienated from the life of God. 3 The very 
 essence of the gospel, is the issuing forth of this 
 spirit of life to the hearts of men. i' Keep thy 
 heart with all diligence," saith the wise man, 
 " for out of it are the issues of lifeP* This 
 teacheth that these living issues arise in the 
 lieart of man, but not from the heart itself. 
 
 1 1 Cor.ii 15. 2 2 Tim. i. 10. 3 Eph iv. 18. 4 Prov. iv.28, 
 
148 
 
 Was it so, the heart or soul would be its own 
 quickener and saviour, and Christ would he ex- 
 cluded as such ; but he alone is the way, the 
 truth, and the life; 1 therefore the issuings of life 
 to the beaut are from the spirit, and in and 
 through it by his spirit. The divine influence 
 of it is the life of the soul, that which renders it 
 living ; and void of this, it cannot be in a gospel 
 sense, a living soul. It may endure to eternity, 
 but mere duration is not this divine life. To 
 exist without this life, is to be scripturally dead; 
 it is therefore requisite for the soul to wait for, 
 feel after, and find this immortal life, and also 
 to keep to it with all diligence, that it may ex- 
 perience the daily issues thereof to its comfort 
 and preservation ; and to be as " a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." 2 
 
 I understand the propitiatory sacrifice of 
 our Saviour, by which he opens the door of re- 
 conciliation for us, to be the initiatory part of 
 man's salvation, and the internal work of rege- 
 neration by his spirit, to be its actual completion ; 
 for thereby an entrance is administered into the 
 heavenly kingdom. 
 
 No man can have the influence of the inspir- 
 ed sentiments of the book of God, without re- 
 ceiving those inspired sentiments, which I have 
 sufficiently shewn, no man hath who reads with- 
 out the inspiring power. Every reader hath 
 only his own conceptions about the sentiments 
 inspired of God, and not those real sentiments, 
 without a degree of inspiration from him ; which 
 the manifest mistakes and contradictions of many 
 demonstrate they are strangers to. 
 
 * John, xiv. C\ 2 John. iv. 14. 
 
149 
 
 2. The people called Quakers give such 
 preference to the scriptures above all other 
 writings, that they strictly press the frequent 
 reading of them, and call for answers at every 
 quarterly-meeting throughout the Society, and 
 at the general yearly- meetings, from every par- 
 ticular quarterly meeting, whether the holy 
 scriptures are constantly read in their families, 
 or not; which they neither do, nor ever did, 
 respecting any of their own writings, or any 
 ethers. 
 
 They recommend silence and stillness in 
 their religious assemblies; and as our manner 
 of worship is misunderstood by many, and of- 
 ten treated with ridicule, I shall take this op- 
 portunity to offer some explanation of it. 
 
 We look upon divine worship to be the most 
 solemn act the mind of man is capable of being 
 engaged in; and in consideration of the high 
 and inconceivable majesty of Almighty God, 
 think it our duty to approach him with the 
 greatest reverence. Every thinking person, 
 who is in any degree sensible of the love and. 
 fear of God, must esteem it an awful thing, to 
 present himself to the especial notice of the in- 
 finite omnipresent Eternal Being. Under a sense 
 of this, the wise man adviseth, " Keep thy foot 
 when thou goest to the house of God" or enters 
 upon worship, " and be more ready to hear, 
 than to give the sacrifice of fools ; for they con- 
 sider not that they do evil. Be not rash with 
 thy month, and let not thine heart be hasty to 
 utter any thing before God; for God is in hea- 
 ve% and thon upon earth, therefore let thy 
 
 n £ 
 
"WC 
 
 150 
 
 ords be few." 1 He Avell knew, as be ex 
 presses it, that both " the preparation of the 
 hearty and the answer of the tongue is from the 
 Lord." 2 This accords with what our Saviour 
 saith, "Without me ye can do nothing." 3 We> 
 therefore, cannot perform divine worship ac- 
 ceptably but by his assistance. This must be 
 received in spirit ; for, saith the apostle, " The 
 spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know 
 not ichat we should pray for as we ought." 4 * 
 This being as certainly our case, as it was that 
 of the apostles and primitive believers, it is in- 
 cumbent on us to wait for that spirit which is 
 requisite to help our infirmities, in order to pray 
 as we ought. No forms of devotion of mens' 
 invention can supply the place of the spirit. 
 The same apostle further saith, " Through him 
 we both have an access, by one spirit unto the 
 Father." 5 Seeing therefore, that both our help 
 and access is through the spirit of Christ, the 
 renewal of which is at his pleasure, and not 
 ours, we must necessarily wait for it. This 
 waiting must be in stillness of mind from the 
 common course of our thoughts, from all wan- 
 dering imaginations, and also in silence from 
 the expression of words; for the utterance of 
 words is not waiting, but acting. 
 
 Words are requisite to convey the sense of 
 one person to another, but not to that omniscient 
 Being who is an universal spirit, and every w here 
 Almighty; who therefore stands not in need, 
 either of the use of corporeal organs, instru- 
 
 a Eccles. v. 1. 2 Prov. xvi. 1. 3 John, xv. 5. 4 Rom. 
 viii.26. 5 Eph.ii. 18. 
 
151 
 
 inents, or the sound of words, to communicate 
 with the spirit of man. 
 
 If, in order to worship, the mind do not set- 
 tle into stillness, the passions will be at work, 
 and may agitate it into enthusiastic heats, and 
 vague imaginations. But in true stillness, and 
 singleness of soul towards God, they are si- 
 lenced and subjected. The still small voice of 
 the inspirer of all good then comes to be heard, 
 and the mind being closely engaged in attention 
 thereunto, and answering it in faith and humble 
 submission, feels divine life and love spring up, 
 and receives ability therein, truly to worship the 
 great author of its existence, and heavenly sup- 
 plier of its wants, with a devotion no forms can 
 reach. 
 
 This worship is not entered upon by totally 
 laying aside our faculties, and falling into a 
 senseless stupor, as superficial observers have 
 imagined ; but by a real introversion of mind, 
 and an attention fixed singly upon the alone ob- 
 ject of all adoration, in patient yet fervent desire 
 after him. Thus, according to the Hebrew, the 
 experienced psalmist advises, " Be silent to the 
 Lord, and wait patiently for him ; ?n and respect- 
 ing his own practice, he saith, " Truly my soul 
 is silent upon God," adding this cogent reason, 
 " from him cometh my salvation." 2 Verse 5, he 
 applies the exhortation to himself, " My soul, 
 wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is 
 from him." Great encouragement he had thus 
 to wait, as appears, Psal. xl. where he saith, "I 
 waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined 
 
 1 Psal. xxxvii. 7. 2 Ibid, Ixii. 1. 
 
152 
 
 unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up 
 also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, 
 and set my feet upon a rock, and established my 
 goings; and he hath put a new song into my 
 mouth, even praise unto our God." This was 
 no new song in itself, but being sensibly renew- 
 ed to him in his acceptable waiting, he, with 
 sufficient propriety, stiies it so. 
 
 To the same practical and profitable doctrine 
 Jeremiah bears testimony. " It is good that a 
 man should both hope, and quietly wait for the 
 salvation," or saving help, " of the Lord. It 
 is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his 
 youth. He sitteth alone, and Jceepeth silence, 
 because he hath borne it upon him." 1 
 
 Silent waiting was in practice among the pro- 
 phets, and those that attended them, as appears 
 in the prophecy of Ezekiel. We find the spirit 
 of the prophet was engaged in divine vision, 
 whilst the elders of Judah sate before him, as it 
 is described from the 1st verse of the viiith chap- 
 ter, to the 4th of the xith chapter. During the 
 time of which vision, it cannot be consistently 
 supposed, that he was either speaking to them, 
 or they to him, or to each other. This was not 
 a singular instance of their meeting together; 
 for it was the manner of God's people to con- 
 gregate with the prophets, as that close repre- 
 hension plainly indicates. " They come unto 
 thee as the people cometh, and they sit before 
 thee as my people, and they hear thy words, 
 but they will not do them." 2 
 
 In this solemn practice, we have often been 
 
 1 Lam.iii. 26, 27, 28. 2 Eze. xxxiii, 31. 
 
153 
 
 enabled thankfully to acknowledge the verity of 
 that gracious declaration of our Lord, " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them;" 1 the fulfill- 
 ing of that promise, " They that wait upon the 
 Lord shall renew their strength ;" 2 the certainty 
 of that assertion, " The Lord is good unto them 
 that wait far him, to the soul that seeketh him;" 3, 
 and the necessity and authority of that just com- 
 mand, " Be still, and know that 1 am God." 4 
 
 As silent waiting appears to us, in the first 
 place, requisite to the worship of Grod in spirit 
 and truth, it is always our practice, for we be- 
 lieve he ought to have the direction of our hearts 
 therein ; and if he please to influence any one, 
 under due preparation, vocally to appear, either 
 by way of address to himself in prayer, or to us 
 in preaching, we never preclude such appear- 
 ances, but silently assist according to our mea- 
 sures. If it prove that none are so concerned 
 to speak, we sit the time through in silence, 
 wherein true mental worship is often experi- 
 enced ; but never appoint any meeting, with in- 
 tent, that it shall be held throughout in silence, 
 as some have mistakenly imagined ; for we be- 
 lieve that all ought to be led and guided by the 
 good spirit of God, more especially in the so- 
 lemn acts of divine worship. It would be an 
 happy thing, were all so led, amongst us as well 
 as others ; but the case appears otherwise with 
 too many, who sit unconcerned, in expectation 
 of hearing the ministry, instead of waiting upon 
 
 *Mat. xviii. 20. 2 Isa. xl. 31, 3 Lam. iii. 25. 4 Psal. 
 slvi. 10. 
 

 154 
 
 God, and therefore often meet with disappoint- 
 ment. The apostle said in his age, " they are 
 not all Israel, which are of Israel" 1 So we 
 must acknowledge, all who have descended 
 from faithful ancestors, are not themselves faith- 
 ful ; but the defect is in themselves, and not in 
 the principle, 
 
 3. We profess, that the spirit of truth ought 
 to be ours, and every man's leader ; and that 
 this spirit is an infallible principle, and that so 
 far as any faithfully follow it, they are infallibly 
 led, and no further ; but we never did, nor do 
 profess that all in society with us are so led, or 
 even sufficiently seek to be so. Nor was it the 
 case amongst the primitive christians them- 
 selves. We well know, and freely own, that 
 we have all sinned, and come short of the glory 
 of God, and that without repentance and re- 
 generation, we must for ever fall short of it. 
 We are also sensible, that upon due confession, 
 submission, and sincere obedience to the mani- 
 festations of Christ, the light of men, " he is 
 faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness ;" 2 and if 
 we " walk in the light, as he is in the light, we 
 have fellowship one with another, and the blood 
 of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." 3 
 
 With regard to the scriptures, I have declared 
 our sense concerning them ; and shall only add, 
 that we hold them to be the best written stand- 
 ard of belief and practice that we know of in 
 the world. We venerate them for the sake of 
 the great Author they came from, and seek to 
 
 1 Rom. ix. 6. * 1 John, i. 9. 'Verse 7, 
 
155 
 
 him for the right understanding and proper use 
 of them ; believing him who alone can open the 
 true sense of them, and accompany it with 
 power to enable us effectually to put it in prac- 
 tice, to be the primary guide, and therefore 
 ought always to have our principal attention ; 
 ever esteeming ourselves in duty bound, in the 
 first place, to look unto Jesus, the author and 
 finisher of our faith. 1 As "the life is more 
 than meat, and the body than raiment," 2 so is 
 the immediate influence of the Spirit of Christ 
 more than the scriptures, or than any man's, or 
 people's private or partial interpretation of them; 
 from whence have arisen all the differences that 
 subsist about them, and which must ever re- 
 main to be the case, till the Holy Spirit itself 
 is applied and attended to, as the right inter- 
 preter, and supreme standard of faith and prac- 
 tice. This is the original essential primary 
 guide ; and that revelation which comes imme- 
 diately from the Spirit of God into a man's 
 heart, is certainly the primary one ; and that 
 which he receives through instrumental means, 
 is as certainly but a secondary one. 
 
 % Barclay distinguishes revelation into objec- 
 tive, and subjective, and sometimes he speaks of 
 the one, and sometimes of the other. In order to 
 shew the propriety of this distinction, let me 
 observe, that the soul of man hath not only a 
 faculty of cogitation, by which it ordinarily 
 thinks, unites, divides, compares* or forms ideas, 
 but also a latent power of internal sensation, or 
 of perceiving spiritual objects by an inward and 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 2, 2 Luke, xii. 23. 
 
136 
 
 spiritual sense, when presented through a pro- 
 per medium; which, till the beams of divine 
 light shine upon it, it must be as totally unac- 
 quainted with, as the child in its mother's womb 
 is with its faculties of sight and hearing. For 
 though in that situation, it may be completely 
 formed, and possess every organ proper to cor- 
 poreal sensation, yet it is not empowered to ex- 
 ercise them, or really to know it hath them, till 
 it be brought forth into the medium necessary to 
 the use of them, composed of the light and air 
 of this world. Then it first finds the peculiar 
 sense, and exercise of those natural powers, 
 which, before its birth, it could not have the least 
 understanding, or proper use of. In like man- 
 ner, the natural man must be delivered out of his 
 natural darkness, into the luminous and quick- 
 ening influence of that divine word, or spirit, 
 which is most emphatically stiled the true light 
 and life of men. Thus born of the spirit, into 
 this proper medium of divine knowledge, the 
 soul is made acquainted with that spiritual 
 sense it could neither discover, nor believe per- 
 tained to it, whilst in its natural state. This is 
 no new natural faculty added, but its own men- 
 tal power newly opened, and brought into its 
 due place and use. 
 
 Words are inadequate to the expression of 
 this internal sense felt in the soul under divine 
 influence. It cannot be ideally conveyed to the 
 understanding of the unexperienced ; for it is 
 not an image, but a sensation, impossible to be 
 conceived but by its own impression. So true 
 is that of the apostle, " Eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
 
 
157 
 
 man, the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him; but God hath revealed 
 them unto us by his spirit," 1 It was upon this 
 consideration that I said, divine light is the sub- 
 ject of inward sensation, " and is not to be com- 
 municated from one to another by reasoning, or 
 verbal description." For should any person 
 give the most clear and lively description pos- 
 sible of the light of the sun, to a man blind 
 from his birth, it would only be communicating 
 an ideal notion of the light, but not the light 
 itself. It might be called a subjective revela- 
 tion concerning the light to him, but not an ob- 
 jective one of the light itself. This no man can 
 have but by his own immediate sensation. 
 
 Divine revelation is a disclosure of something 
 to the rational mind by the Holy Ghost, not in 
 the mind's own power to discover. This the 
 Holy Spirit doth, either by unveiling of itself 
 by its influence in some degree to the soul, and 
 giving it an internal sense of its presence ; or 
 by favouring it with the vision of other objects, 
 real or representative, through the communica- 
 tion of divine light and power ; or by giving 
 the soul a clear sense of its own state and con- 
 dition. All this being a discovery of objects, is 
 called objective revelation. 
 
 Subjective revelation is a disclosure of sub- 
 jects, or things relative, through the inspiration 
 of the Holy Spirit ; by which the mind is open- 
 ed into the knowledge of the divine will con- 
 cerning persons or things, led into the true sense 
 of scriptures, or into a deeper understanding of 
 
 MCor.ii. 9, 10. 
 o 
 
158 
 
 doctrines than it could ever reach without di~ 
 vine illumination. Of (his kind was the origi- 
 ginal revelation of the scriptures to those who 
 penned them. 
 
 All this, both objective and subjective, is truly 
 internal immediate revelation. What is now 
 modishly treated as the only revelation still ex- 
 isting, and to exist, is rather the fruit of reve- 
 lation than the thing itself; a scriptural record 
 of things revealed, for they certainly were so 
 to those to whom they were immediately dis- 
 closed ; but the different senses put upon the 
 many disputed parts of them, for many genera- 
 tions past, demonstrate those parts are not truly 
 a revelation to those who mistake them ; nor 
 can they ever become such to them, till they 
 know the Holy Author to be their interpreter. 
 For, "No prophecy of scripture is of any 
 private interpretation. For the prophecy came 
 not in old time," or rather, at any time, u by 
 the will of man, but holy men of God spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 
 
 1 l Pet. I £0,21. 
 
159 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1. Impious Idolaters, &c. not in Christ; but he ap- 
 pears in them as a swift Witness. To whom he 
 communicates saving Knowledge. 2. The Gos- 
 pel comes not in Word only, hut in power, and 
 Christ not only came outwardly, but also appears 
 inwardly; and by the powerful operation of his 
 Spirit effects all our Works in us. He is the real 
 Efficient of all Good in Man. 3. The Gospel 
 sensibly preached in every Man. The Office of 
 the Spirit of Truth. 4. Concerning our T^rms 
 of Admission. 5. A day, or time of Visitation to 
 Man demonstrated. 
 
 1, 1 believe that idolaters, and those guilty 
 of immoralities, have all at times felt the re- 
 proving witness of God in their consciences, 
 which gives them a convicting knowledge of 
 him ; and if they continue to rebel against this 
 light, they become so darkened towards it, that 
 " they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in 
 the paths thereof." 1 Not liking to retain God 
 in their knowledge, after long forbearance, he 
 gives them over to a reprobate mind. 2 Our 
 principle teaches, that the grace of God that 
 bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, 
 first as a convictor, or convincer of sin. Thus 
 it stands at the door of man's heart and knocks 
 for entrance ; and if the heart opens to it, and 
 abides in the ability it furnishes, sincerely de- 
 siring, and seeking to obey its motions, it will, 
 by due degrees, increase that ability therein, till 
 
 1 Jeb, xxiv. IS. z Rom. i. £8, 
 
160 
 
 it prove itself the power of God unto salvation 
 to it. Then, and not till then, the mind is sen- 
 sible of the saving knowledge of this Divine 
 principle ; yet, before this, whilst the soul knew 
 nothing more of it than merely its convictions, it 
 could not be said to be totally ignorant of an in- 
 ternal immediate sense of that grace which is 
 saving, both in its nature and intention, though 
 it was not indued with the saving knowledge 
 of it. 
 
 2. We have all along uniformly acknowledg- 
 ed, the Gospel came in word as well as in 
 power ; but not in word only, but also in power, 
 even in the power of the Holy Ghost. 1 And, 
 we are sensible, that this Divine power, from 
 whence the words sprang, is the very essence 
 of the gospel, and the words but the outward 
 expression, or exterior declaration by which it 
 is preached and recommended. To this essen- 
 tial internal grace, power and spirit of God, the 
 apostles called and pressed their hearers, as 
 well as to the belief of the outward advent and 
 process of the Messiah then past. They taught 
 them, that " Christ was once offered to bear the 
 sins of many, and unto them that look for him, 
 shall he appear the second time, without sin 
 unto salvation" 2 This second appearance of 
 Christ, we do not understand to intend his 
 coming to judgment at the great day of general 
 decision; for then he will come both to deter- 
 mine the final state of the righteous and un- 
 righteous ; not to salvation only, but to con- 
 demnation also. But this second appearance 
 
 1 1 Thes. i. 5. 2 Heb. ix. 28, 
 
161 
 
 is in order to the salvation of those who look for 
 him to that end. Accordingly, the apostle thus 
 prays for* the believers; "The Lord direct your 
 hearts into the love of God, and into the patient 
 waiting for Christ;" 1 and he describes the Co- 
 rinthians as " waiting for the coming," or 
 renewed appearance, " of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 2 
 
 Notwithstanding our Saviour empowers and 
 employs his messengers to declare his will, and 
 to call people to the work of repentance and 
 regeneration ; yet he constitutes them not as 
 deputies to do the work for him. It is not the 
 words they deliver, nor any application man, 
 by his own powers, can make of them, which 
 can perform this great business. " Lord" saith 
 the prophet, " thou wilt ordain peace for us ; 
 for thou also hast wrought all our works in 
 us." 3 The Spirit of the High and Holy One is 
 the true efficient of all the real good that is done, 
 all the virtue that is wrought, either in the 
 church in general, or any of its members. It is 
 the spirit that (a) giveth understanding, and 
 unveils the knowledge of the things of God; 
 
 1 2 Thes. Hi. 5. 2 1 Cor. i. 7. 3 Isa. xxvi. 12. 
 
 a u I said, days should speak, and multitude of years 
 should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man, and 
 the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understand- 
 ing." Job. xxxiL 7. 8. ''Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the tilings 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him. But 
 God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit ; for the 
 spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 
 For whatman knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit 
 of man which is in him ? Even so, the things of God know- 
 eth no man, but the spirit of God." 1 Cor. ii. 9 5 10, 11. 
 
 o8 
 
(ft) quickeneth and mdketh alive, (c) mortifies, 
 (d) circumcises, (e) baptizes, (f) sanctifies, (g) 
 regenerates, (h) sets free, (i) strengthens, and 
 enables to obedience. In the Spirit is (k) the 
 true light, (I) the life, (m) the love, {n) the 
 
 b " It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth 
 nothing." John, vi. 63. " Tke letter killeth, but the spirit 
 givethiife." 2 Cor. iii. 6. " If the spirit of him that raised 
 up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up 
 Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bo- 
 dies, by his spirit that dwelleth in you" Rom. viii. 11. 
 
 c 4< If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye 
 through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye 
 shall live." Rom. viii. 13. 
 
 d " Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and 
 not in the letter." Rom.u. 2. 
 
 e " By one spirit we are all baptized into one body/ 5 
 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 f " But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
 justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit 
 of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
 g " Except a man be born of water and the^spirit, he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is 
 born of the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of the spi- 
 rit, is spirit." John. iii. 5. 6. 
 
 h " The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath 
 made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2. 
 
 i " That he would grant you, according to the riches of 
 his glory, to be strengthened with might, by his spirit, in 
 the inner man." Eph. iii. 16. 
 
 k " In him was life, and the life was the light of men." — 
 "That was the true light which lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world." John, U 4. 9. " God who com- 
 manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
 our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
 God, in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 I " The spirit giveth life." 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
 m " Who also declared unto us your love in the spirit." 
 Col. IS. 
 
 n " We through the spirit wait for the hope of righteous- 
 ness, by faith." GaL v* 5. 
 
163 
 
 waiting, (o) the walking, (p) the fellowship, 
 and communion of the gospel; in the Spirit (q) is 
 true prayer made, (r) access to the throne of 
 grace opened, and acceptable worship perform- 
 ed. The Spirit is (s) the covering of God's 
 people, (t) their guide, (u) their leader, (w) 
 their comforter, (x) their seal, the infelt earnest 
 of an everlasting inheritance to them ; and, in 
 sum, the all-effective power and virtue of the 
 gospel ministration; all which the scriptures 
 here under cited undeniably evidence. 
 
 o * If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." 
 Gal. v. 25. 
 
 p "If any fellowship of the spirit." Phil. ii. 1. "Have 
 been all made to drink into one spirit." 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 q " The spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know 
 not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself 
 maketh intercession for us," &c. Rom. viii. 26. " Pray- 
 ing always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, 
 and watching thereunto with all perseverance." Eplu vi. 1 8. 
 Praying in the Holy Ghost." Jnde, 20. 
 
 r " Through him we both have an access by one spirit 
 unto the Father." Eph. ii. 18. 
 
 s " Wo to the rebellious children — that cover with a co- 
 vering, but not of my spirit." Isa. xxx. 1. 
 
 t " When he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide 
 you into all truth." John, xvi. 3. 
 
 u " If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law." 
 Gal. v. 1 8. " As many as are led by the spirit of God, they 
 are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14. 
 
 w " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another 
 comforter that he may abide with you for ever ; even the 
 spirit of truth." John, xiv. 1 6, IT. 
 
 x " God who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest 
 of the spirit in our hearts." 2 Cor. i. 22. — " In whom also, 
 after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
 of promise." Eph. i. 13—" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
 God, whereby ye are sealed, unto the day of redemption.' 9 
 Ibid. iv. 30. 
 
164 
 
 3. In all these respects the holy spirit ope- 
 rated in common amongst the primitive believ- 
 ers. For the continuation of the same spiritual 
 operations, it is that we plead, and not that of 
 miraculous gifts ; which were always extraor- 
 dinary, and afforded but to few in comparison 
 of the whole number of the primitives. 
 
 When any man does right, conscience ap- 
 proves, and when he does wrong, it condemns 
 him. This is generally called conscience, be- 
 cause it is something of God appearing in the 
 mind, and giving it a conscious sense of right 
 and wrong respecting its own acts. No man 
 could know it makes these just distinctions with- 
 out a sense of them. What is inward convic- 
 tion for evil but a sense of guilt? And, what 
 is the genuine effect of guilt, but remorse? 
 What does remorse lead to, but repentance ? 
 And what is repentance, but the doctrine of the 
 gospel ? Every rational creature under heaven, 
 therefore, having this sensation, hath the gospel 
 preached in him or her by this righteous princi- 
 ple, agreeable to Col. i. 23. But we always un- 
 derstand the natural conscience, and the light 
 of God's spirit appearing in the conscience, as 
 different principles. 
 
 Our Lord shewed his disciples that the spirit 
 of truth, the comforter, should not only bring to 
 their remembrance what he had told them, shew 
 them things to come, and lead them into all 
 truth ; but it should likewise reprove the world 
 of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. 1 
 Whether this Divine visitor appears to the mind 
 
 1 John, xv. and xvi. 
 
165 
 
 of man, in words, or without words, by the sen- 
 sations of compunction and remorse ; whether in 
 the sharpness of reproof, or the healing touches 
 of consolation ; whether it manifests itself as 
 light, or sheds its life and love into the heart ; 
 whether it darts upon it as lightning, or settles 
 it in a holy serenity ; fills it with faith, or in- 
 flames it with zeal : in all these ways, seeing it 
 proceeds not by messenger, but by its own im- 
 mediate communication to the rational soul of 
 man, it is properly stiled internal immediate 
 revelation. 
 
 This Divine principle is a living source of 
 truth and virtue in man, without which, exterior 
 laws and precepts would little avail ; and when, 
 through faithfulness thereunto, it is enlarged and 
 advanced over all in the soul, it is found to be 
 a sure foundation, which neither the wisdom of 
 the wise, the reasonings of the confident, the 
 jugglings of the crafty, the derision of the revi- 
 ler, the rage of the persecutor, nor even the 
 gates of hell can prevail against. 
 
 4. Our terms for the admission of members, 
 are, a free and unforced conscientious acquies- 
 cence upon principle, with the essential doctrines 
 of truth and real Christianity, and the rules of 
 the society founded thereon, and not upon mere 
 external appearances. The Divine principle 
 itself is our bond of union, and the holy scrip- 
 tures are our articles. Christ once in the flesh, 
 and always in spirit, are fundamentals with us. 
 We require no subscription to articles of human 
 invention. 
 
 As to differences in opinion amongst us ; 
 whilst professors of the same faith differ in 
 
166 
 
 years and experience, in capacity and opportu- 
 nity, in education and associates, in faithfulness 
 or unfaithfulness to their principles, there must 
 be different opinions and practices. When the 
 believers in the primitive age of Christianity 
 grew numerous, it was the case amongst them, 
 and in all societies ever since. What we assert 
 is, that the one holy spirit leads all that faith- 
 fully follow it into sameness of doctrine, and 
 unity of love; and that all who profess to be 
 followers of Christ, ought to be led by his spi- 
 rit ; but that all, either of our own society, or 
 any other, are so led, we are far from asserting 
 or believing. 
 
 5. Men ought carefully to embrace the day 
 of their visitation, and follow the advice of our 
 Saviour, who saith, " While ye have the light, 
 believe in the light, that ye may be the children 
 of light." 1 This is the only way to escape the 
 dreadful consequences of continuing in rebellion 
 against it. And, is it not a comfort to all men, 
 that they are allowed this opportunity ? 
 
 That there is such a time and opportunity, 
 and that it may be lost to apostatisers past re- 
 demption, is evident from that awful passage, 
 Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. " It is impossible for those 
 who were once enlightened, and have tasted of 
 the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of 
 the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good 
 word of God, and the powers of the world to 
 come; if they shall fall away, to renew them 
 again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to 
 themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him 
 to an open shame." 
 
 * John, xii. 36. 
 
167 
 
 This passage evinces, 1st. that persons may 
 become sensible partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
 and taste of that Divine power which is the 
 eternal life of the blessed in the world to come. 
 3d. That they may apostatise from this condi- 
 tion to such a degree, that repentance, and con- 
 sequently salvation, shall become impossible to 
 them. 3d. That they bring this upon them- 
 selves, because they crucify to themselves the 
 Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
 shame ; they reject and rebel against the invi- 
 tations of his spirit in themselves, till they oc- 
 casion it to forsake them ; whereby the Divine 
 witness is spiritually crucified and slain as to its 
 life in them, and the christian name openly re- 
 proached through their evil conduct and exam- 
 ple. This is further illustrated by a simile in 
 the two succeeding verses. " For the earth 
 which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon 
 it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by 
 whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. 
 But that which beareth thorns and briers is re- 
 jected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is 
 to be burned." 1 The rain that cometh oft upon 
 the earth, denotes that the Divine visitation is 
 frequently renewed to the soul of man; and 
 the earth which drinketh it up, and bringeth 
 forth herbs, the soul that affectionately receives, 
 and faithfully retains it, so as to bring forth the 
 fruits of the spirit, whereby it inherits the bless- 
 ing of God's salvation. By the earth, tvhich 
 beareth thorns and briers, is pointed out the soul 
 that so repeatedly continues to resist, and back- 
 
 1 Heb, vi. 7 and 8, 
 
168 
 
 slide from the Divine visitor, as to bring forth, 
 and abide in, wicked works, which occasions 
 him to reject and forsake it; the consequence 
 whereof must be its final condemnation and de- 
 struction. 
 
 This portion of scripture thus demonstrates, 
 both the certainty of a day of Divine visitation 
 to the souls of men, and the possibility of its 
 being discontinued, whilst they remain in the 
 body. 
 
 
 
169 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 L. The essential Gospel. 2. Christ the light and 
 life of Men before his Incarnation. These terms 
 not to be confined to his corporeal appearance 
 upon earth. 3. Nor to the Scriptures. What 
 their proper use is. 4 and 5. Of Christ, the word. 
 6. A material difference between light afforded in 
 order to Salvation, and a real embracing of it so 
 as to be saved by it. Christ as truly the light of 
 the souls of Men, as the Sun is to their bodies, 
 whether they keep their eyes open to it, or shut 
 them against it. 7. Christ as the Divine word, 
 the creating, upholding, and saving power of God 
 to mankind; the elect, the gracious administrator 
 of life and salvation, through his external sacrifice, 
 and by the communication of his spirit. The true 
 sense of unlearned writers, not to be ascertained 
 by the rules of grammar, or criticism. 8. The 
 kingdom of God is within, Luke, xviL The true 
 Christian is the Temple of Christ, wherein he 
 manifests himself by his spirit. 9. What the king- 
 dom of God is. 
 
 1. Without troubling myself with the unne- 
 cessary pedantry of etymologies, I shall say, 
 we allow the word gospel, in an extended sense, 
 may include both the mystery and the history, 
 the inward and outward process of our Saviour; 
 for the gospel comes not in word only, but also 
 in power, and in the Holy Ghost. 1 We believe 
 this power of the Holy Ghost to be the internal 
 essential part, and the words the exterior, de- 
 clarative, and occasional expression of it. We 
 admit the history, metonymically to a share in 
 
 1 1 Thes. i. 5. 
 P 
 
170 
 
 the title, but not to engross it ; lest the power, 
 which is the life and reality of it, should be ex- 
 cluded, and people be deceived into a belief, 
 that the gospel essentially consists of nothing 
 but words. 
 
 We are far from denying, that Paul, Peter, 
 or any other true minister or messenger of Christ, 
 preached the gospel, when, by inspiration, they 
 preached concerning the historical process of 
 Christ ; but we cannot allow, that this compre- 
 hends the whole of the gospel they preached. 
 For we read in their writings, that the gospel 
 is the power of God unto salvation, and that 
 it shines as a light in the heart, to give the 
 knowledge of the glory of God. 1 The doctrines 
 of the gospel, are also called the gospel, and the 
 preaching of them, is termed preaching the gospel, 
 but it is evident, neither the history nor the doc- 
 trines, are the essential gospel intended in Gal. i. 
 For, we find, after the apostle had said, " If 
 any man preach any other gospel unto you than 
 that ye have received, let him be accursed," 8 he 
 shews what he meant by the gospel they had 
 received, in 11, 12, 15, and 16th verses. " I 
 certify you brethren, that the gospel which was 
 preached of me, is not after man. For, I net- 
 ther received it of man, neither was I taught 
 it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." — 
 But when it pleased God, who separated me 
 from my mother's womb, and called by his 
 grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might 
 preach among the heathen, immediately, I con- 
 ferred not with flesh and blood." The gospel 
 
 1 2 Cor. 4. 6. *Gal.i. 9. 
 
171 
 
 here in tended/ is plainly, the immediate revela- 
 tion of the Son of God within him, and neither 
 an historical nor doctrinal relation of things 
 without him. It is against the oppugners of this 
 internal essential gospel which is not of man, 
 nor by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ 
 within man, that the apostle twice pronounces, 
 anathema. 
 
 In demonstration of this gospel spirit and, 
 power, 1 Paul preached, that the faith of his hear- 
 ers might be fixed in this power of God, and 
 not in the private interpretations of mens' wis- 
 dom. His fellow-labourers preached under the 
 influence of the same divine power, which prick- 
 ed their hearers in their heart f and so must all 
 that ever truly preach the gospel. The apostle 
 declares, he would know not the speech of them 
 that are puffed up, but the power. For the 
 kingdom of God is not in word but in power. , 3 
 This everlasting power is the spirit of the gos- 
 pel, wherein it mainly and most essentially con- 
 sists ; as the essentiality of the man doth of the 
 rational soul ; and the words and matters preach- 
 ed or written, are as the body, or present out- 
 side. 2 Tim. iii. The apostle describes what 
 kinds of men those would be who, " having a 
 form of godliness, would deny the power ;" and 
 directs " from such turn away." 
 
 We read, % Cor. iv. 3. &c. " If our gospel 
 be hid, it is hid, in eis, in them, that are lost ; in 
 whom the God of this world hath blinded the 
 minds of them which believe not, lest the light 
 of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5. I Acts, ii. 37. 3 J Cor. iv. 19. 20. 
 
172 
 
 image of God, should shine unto them. For 
 we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
 Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus's 
 sake. For God who commanded the light to 
 shine out of darkness, hath sinned in our hearts, 
 to give the light of the knowledge of the glory 
 of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Here 
 the apostle teaches, that the gospel they preach- 
 ed was Christ, shewing his face, or manifesting 
 himself as the image of God in their hearts ; 
 and that it was only hid, or obscured in the 
 minds of those, who through unbelief therein, 
 or unfaithfulness thereto, were become blinded 
 towards it by him who is called the God of this 
 world, because he is obeyed by those who walk 
 according to the course of this world. l 
 
 2. The prophecy of the gospel-covenant declares 
 ** I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts." — " For they shall all 
 know me from the least of them, to the greatest 
 of them." 2 This could not intend the know- 
 ledge of Christ incarnate; for that appearance 
 was too exterior, and of too short duration. Nor 
 could it mean the knowledge of the scriptures ; 
 for a man may know them from beginning to 
 end, believe them to be true, and frame his prac- 
 tice according to his apprehensions of the sense 
 of them, and yet not know the Lord. The Jews 
 had the law, the prophets, and the scriptures 
 extant in their time ; yet the Almighty by the 
 mouth of the same prophet, declares, " My peo- 
 ple are foolish they have not known me." 3 Nor 
 was it possible they should without divine assist- 
 
 • RpU. ii. 2, 2 Jor. \xxi. 33, 34. 3 Jcr.iv 2 
 
i73 
 
 ance ; therefore he saith, " I will give them a heart 
 to know me." 1 And in Ezekiel, " A new heart 
 also will I give you, and anew spirit will I pat 
 within you" — " I will put my spirit within 
 you." 2 Thus the true knowledge of God is 
 to be received, by the internal writing of the di- 
 vine word in the heart, which puts the law of 
 light and life within man, and thereby lighteth 
 every man coming, or that cometh into the world. 
 3. To imagine the universal light and life of 
 the immortal word is at all meant of the scrip- 
 tures, is absurd. For it appears to have been, 
 at least two thousand four hundred years after 
 the creation, before any part of the scriptures 
 were written ; and the several pieces that com- 
 pose them were occasionally written at divers 
 times, and by different penmen; taking up about 
 sixteen hundred and thirty years more, from the 
 publication of the first of them by Moses, to the 
 last by John the Divine ; considering also, that 
 the abundantly greater part of mankind in these 
 latter ages, since they have appeared in Chris- 
 tendom, have never yet had them; and how ma- 
 ny millions therein, have been wickedly debar- 
 red from the use of them in their own language, 
 by an interested and designing priesthood; it 
 undeniably appears, that a vast majority of man- 
 kind never had the benefit of them. And, amongst 
 those who are favoured with them, the variety, 
 and even contrariety of opinions and practices 
 which have all along subsisted, especially among 
 the high pretenders to, and possessors of lite- 
 rature, all contribute to demonstrate, that though 
 
 1 Jer. xxiv. 7. 2 Ezek. xxxvi. 26,57. 
 
174 
 
 the sacred records, opened by the spiritual key 
 of David, are profitable and excellent above all 
 other writings, yet a more adequate universal 
 guide than themselves, ever hath been, and now 
 is, absolutely necessary to the salvation of man- 
 kind. 
 
 4. John, i. 1. The evangelist shews first, what 
 the word, Christ, was in himself, and asserts he 
 was God; and next what he was in and to the 
 world. First, he w as the Creator of all things; 
 and second, the light of men ; and both these 
 he was in the' beginning, 1 or early part of time 
 to this creation, four thousand years before his 
 coming in the flesh. As he then began to be 
 the light of men, he hath all along continued to 
 be so. As he made the sun to be the light of 
 our external world, whether people keep their 
 eyes open, or shut them against its shining ; so 
 is he the true light of the spirit of men, whether 
 they open to him, or not. This he is by the 
 inward manifestation of his spirit in every man's 
 conscience. " In him teas life, and the life was 
 the light of men." 2 This was in the beginning, 
 and hath been from the beginning. It is the one 
 living eternal word, or energetic spirit, appear- 
 ing in both modes, when truly believed in and 
 properly received. 
 
 5. " The light shineth in darkness, and the 
 darkness comprehended it not." 3 " He was in 
 the world, and the Avorld was made by him, 
 and the world knew him not." I take the 
 darkness to be the corrupt state of mankind, 
 Gentiles as well as Jews. 
 
 Uohn,i. 3,4. 2 Verse 4. 3 Verse 5. 
 
175 
 
 6. Those who did not receive him, could ne- 
 ver be born of him ; for he that is born of him, 
 is both enlightened and quickened by his spirit. 
 The Saviour, as the light of the world, dis- 
 penseth of his light to every man that cometh 
 into the world, to give him a sight of his captive 
 condition ; this sight producing that godly sor- 
 row which worketh repentance, 1 salvation en- 
 sues. So, though the light of the Saviour 
 ariseth upon all, in order that all may come 
 to repentance and be saved, yet those who 
 are so attached to their evil courses, that 
 they love darkness rather than light, shut it out 
 from them, and therefore do not come to the 
 saving knowledge of him, who is the author of 
 eternal salvation to all that obey him. 2 
 
 When we speak of the light's being of a 
 saving nature, we do jnot intend, that salvation 
 is effected merely by light abstractively consi- 
 dered, though it is the light of life. The eter- 
 nal word operates both as light and as life. It 
 gives true discovery and discrimination, as 
 light ; and empowers to live and act suitably, 
 as life. This light and life being the very na- 
 ture of the Saviour, are properly said to be of 
 a saving nature. Men may be so enlightened 
 as to see the way of salvation, and yet refuse to 
 walk in it ; yea, they may be led into the way, 
 yet not abide in it. Will their refusal, or de- 
 fection alter the nature of the light, or prove it 
 is not saving? Would any shutting out the 
 light, be a proof that it would not shine upon 
 me ; or of the contrary ? Food is not such to 
 him who refuses to eat it ; but is it not food in 
 
 1 2 Cor. vii. 10. 2 Heb.y. 9. 
 
176 
 
 its nature, because he refuses it? And might 
 it not be food to him if he would be wise enough 
 to take it ? 
 
 7- " In the beginning was the Word." 1 This 
 divine word had no beginning. It was no part 
 of the creation. All created things were made 
 by him, and called from inexistence into being ; 
 but the Word is without beginning or end of 
 days. The Word inexpressible by words, and 
 incomprehensible by thoughts and imaginations. 
 The orthos logos, or rigfit reason, infinite in 
 wisdom, goodness and power ; from the begin- 
 ning issuing forth, and acting in the work of 
 creation and providence, and also from the time 
 of the fall, in mediation and regeneration. 
 
 As man was the only part of this lower crea- 
 tion designed for immortality, the favours he 
 then received were answerable to the high pur- 
 pose of his Maker in creating him. The cre- 
 ating and conserving word, immediately became 
 his illuminator, and quickener. " All things 
 were made by him, and without him was not 
 any thing made that was made. In him was 
 life, and the life was the light of men." 2 
 
 After man's transgression, and defection from 
 this divine light and life, this gracious Word 
 astonishingly condescended to offer himself to 
 repair the breach; by determining, in due time, 
 to take the nature of man upon him, and to 
 give it up to excruciating pains and the death 
 of the cross, as a propitiation for the sins of the 
 whole world. Hereby he sheweth the great- 
 ness of divine love and mercy to poor helpless 
 man, and also, by then immediately renewing* 
 
 s John,i.l. -Verse 3, 4. 
 
 
177 
 
 £nd thence -forward continuing, to afford a 
 manifestation of his light to man in his fallen 
 estate. For, before his incarnation, " He was 
 in the world, and the world was made by him, 
 abd the world knew him not." 1 The gene- 
 rality, though they felt his inward convictions, 
 the reproofs of instruction, they distinguished 
 them not to be his, but might flatter themselves, 
 they were only the effects of tradition early in- 
 stilled into their minds ; and not having their 
 habitation in the light, were become as dark- 
 ness ; yet the light shined in their darkness,, 
 though their darkness comprehended it not. 2 
 They thought too meanly of this light, had no just 
 conception of it, knew it not to be the visitation 
 of the Son of God ; and though they were his 
 own, Gentiles as well as Jews, by creation, and 
 intentional redemption, they received him not. 
 " But as many as received him, to them gave he 
 power to become the sons of God." 3 
 
 The evangelist having spoken of him as the 
 universal, illuminating, effective Word, verse 14* 
 he comes to speak of his incarnation, saying, 
 " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us." We are not here to understand, 
 that the sovereign word, or spirit, was transub- 
 stantiated into flesh; but that for man's redemp- 
 tion, he took the nature of man upon him, and 
 appeared amongst men, as a man, and undoubt- 
 edly in the eyes of most, seemed not more than 
 man ; but saith his enlightened follower; " and 
 ice beheld his glory, had a sense of his divinity, 
 as well as a sight of his humanity^ " the glory 
 as of the only begotten of the Father," the only 
 1 John, i. 10. 2 y erse 5# 3 y erse 11, IS. 
 
178 
 
 one of his own essence and eternity, "full of 
 grace and truth— and of Ms fulness have all we 
 received , and grace for grace. 1 
 
 When persons read, and presume to expound, 
 the scriptures with school and college- methods 
 uppermost in their heads, it is no wonder they 
 mistake them. The inspired writers observed 
 no such rules, even those of them who might 
 have a competent share of literature; which 
 most of them had not. Learned, or unlearned, 
 the light and motion of the Holy Spirit was 
 their guide ; not the rules of rhetoric, logic, or 
 grammar. Not school-learning, but the light 
 of the Holy Ghost gave them a right under- 
 standing, and the same is requisite to the right 
 understanding of their writings. They spake 
 not the wisdom of this world; 2 therefore are not 
 to be understood by its wisdom, yet nothing is 
 more busy to explain them. They often treat 
 of things promiscuously ; even as our Saviour 
 himself spoke, intermixing the internal spiritual 
 sense with the external, both respecting him- 
 self 3 and the matters he touched upon. This 
 John doth in his first chapter, sometimes 
 speaking of Christ as the Word, which respects 
 his divinity, sometimes as man, or as in the flesh, 
 and sometimes "comprehending both senses in 
 the same words. For want of a right under- 
 standing properly to distinguish them, men are 
 apt to jumble, and mistake one for another. 
 Hence arise disagreement, clashing, and jang- 
 ling about the true sense of scripture; and 
 trying it by the notions of systems they have 
 espoused, instead of trying them by the truth, it 
 
 UolmJ. 16. 2 lCor, ii.6. 
 
179 
 
 is no wonder there is so much controversy. 
 The only way to put an end to it, is for all to 
 come to the spirit of truth in their own hearts, 
 that they may he led into all truth ; which till 
 they do, they never can be. 
 
 8. " The kingdom of God cometh not with 
 observation, neither shall they say, lo here, or 
 lo there; for behold the kingdom of God is 
 within you." Christ appears by his spirit in 
 the minds of all, either as a comforter, a puri- 
 fier, or a convictor and reprover, in order that 
 they might believe in, and obey him under this 
 appearance, through which they would find him 
 to become the hope of glory in them. 
 
 In matters of such high concern as relate to 
 our eternal state, it is incumbent upon all, to be 
 more cautious than confident about the exclusion 
 of their fellow -creatures from the grace and 
 salvation of God ; lest by asserting the non- 
 existence of that experience in others them- 
 selves have not yet known, they become of those 
 to whom our Saviour declares, « Ye shut up the 
 kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither 
 go in yourselves, neither sufFer ye them that 
 are entering, to go in." * 
 
 9. If any ask, what is the kingdom of hea- 
 ven, or of God ? I answer ; notwithstanding he 
 is the Almighty Sovereign of the universe, yet 
 that is more peculiarly stiled his kingdom, 
 wherein he so completely governs as to be always 
 cheerfully and perfectly obeyed ; where he is 
 the sole mover of all that is done, where he is 
 glorified in all that is done, and where he com- 
 municates of his glory and felicity without mix- 
 
 ^afcxxiii. 13. 
 
 
 

 180 
 
 ture. This kingdom can neither be entem 
 nor at all seen into by man, but through tl» 
 new-birth of the Holy Spirit, whereby the soi 
 experienceth a being born into it ; a being del 
 veredfrom the power of darkness, and tram 
 lated into the kingdom of the dear Son of God 
 Hereby alone the spirit of man enters it ; an 
 through faithfulness, is enabled to make a* 
 vances therein whilst in the body. This kin; 
 dom stands not in locality, not in any here < 
 there : therefore it is in vain to direct to it b 
 lo here or lo there. It stands in an infinite at 
 heavenly spirit, life, and nature, wherein n< 
 thing impure can live or enter. It is the inte 
 nal dominion, or ruling power of the Holy Gho> 
 in men and angels ; that pure influence so beau 
 tifully and sublimely described in Wisdom, vii 
 flowing from the glory of the Almighty, whir, 
 in all ages entering into holy souls, maketh 
 them friends of God and prophets. In fine, 
 this kingdom of God is the dominion of the 
 light and life of the spirit of God. Whoever 
 lives under the sensible influence and govern- 
 ment of it, lives in this kingdom. This is the 
 kingdom of the saints militant on earth, and of 
 the saints triumphant in heaven ; it being ex- 
 perienced by the sanctified in Christ Jesus, in 
 part whilst in this world, and enjoyed in its ful- 
 ness in the world to come. 
 
 I shall now r close, sincerely wishing that all 
 men may come really to know the only true God, 
 and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, that they 
 may experience life eternal. 
 
 1 John, iii. Col.i. 13. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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