it which I shall now mention in their Natural and Experimental Order First Repentance from dead Works to serve the Living God Which comprehends three Operations First a sight of Sin Secondly A Sence and Godly Sorrow for Sin Thirdly An Amendment for the Time to come This was the Repentance they preached and pressed and a Natural result from the Principle they turned all People unto For of Light came Sight and of Sight came Sense and Sorrow and of Sense and Sorrow came Amendment of Life Which Doctrine of Repentance leads to Justification that is Forgiveness of the Sins that are past through Christ the alone Propitiation and the Sanctification or Purgation of the Soul from the defiling Nature and Habits of Sin Present by the Spirit of Christ in the Soul Which is Justification in the compleat Sence of that Word Comprehending both justification from the Guilt of the Sins that are past as if they had never been committed through the Love and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus and the Creatures being made inwardly just through the Cleansing and Sanctfiying Power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the Soul which is commonly called Sanctification But that none can come to know Christ to be their Sacrifice that Reject him as their Sanctifier The End of his coming being to save his People from the Nature and Defilement as well as Guilt of Sin and that therefore those that resist his Light and Spirit make his coming an offering of none effect to them From hence sprang a Second Doctrine they were led to declare as the Mark of the Price of the High Calling to all true Christians viz. Perfection from Sin according to the Scriptures of truth which testifie it to be the End of Christ's coming and the Nature of his Kingdom and for which his Spirit was and is given viz. to be Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect and Holy because God is Holy And this the Apostles laboured for that the Christians should be Sanctified Through-out in Body Soul and Spirit But they never held a Perfection in Wisdom and Glory in this Life or from Natural Infirmities or Death as some have with a weak or ill mind imagined and insinuated against them This they called a Redeemed State Regeneration or the New-Birth Teaching every where according to their Foundation that without this Work were known there was no inheriting the Kingdom of God Thirdly This leads to an acknowledgment of Eternal Rewards and Punishments as they have good Reason for else of all People certainly they must be the most Miserable Who for about Forty Years have been exceeding great Sufferers for their Profession and in some Cases treated worse than the worst of Men yea as the Refuse and Off-scowering of all things This was the Purport of their Doctrine and Ministry which for the most part is what other Professors of Christianity pretend to hold in Words and Forms but not in the Power of Godliness which generally speaking has been long lost by Mens departing from that Principle and Seed of Life that is in Man and which Man has not regarded but lost the Sense of and in and by which he can only be quickned in his Mind to serve the living God in Newness of Life For as the Life of Religion was lost and the generality lived and Worshipped God after their own Wills and not after the Will of God nor the mind of Christ which stood in the Works and Fruits of the Holy Spirit so that which they prest was not Notion but Experience no Formality but Godliness as being sensible in themselves through the Work of God's Righteous Judgments that without Holiness no Man should ever see the Lord with Comfort Besides these General Doctrines as the larger Branches there sprang forth several particular Doctrines that did exemplifie and further explain the Truth and Efficacy of the General Doctrine before observed in their Lives and Examples As I. Communion and loving one another This is a noted Mark in the Mouth of all sorts of People concerning them They will meet They will help and stick one to another Whence it is common to hear some say Look how the Quakers love and take care of one another Others less Moderate will say The Quakers love none but themselves And if loving one another and having an Intimate Communion in Religion and constant care to meet to Worship God and help one another be any Mark of Primitive Christianity they had it Blessed be the Lord in an ample manner II. To love Enemies This they both Taught and Practised For they did not only refuse to be revenged for Injuries done them and condemned it as of an Unchristian Spirit but they did freely Forgive yea Help and Relieve those that had been Cruel to them when it was in their Power to have been even with them Of which many and singular Instances might be given Endeavouring through Faith and Patience to overcome all Injustice and Oppression and Preaching this Doctrine as Christian for others to follow III. Another was The Sufficiency of Truth speaking according to Christ's own form of sound Words of Yea Yea and Nay Nay among Christians without Swearing both from Christ's express Prohibition to Swear at all Mat. 5. and for that they being under the Tye and Bond of Truth in themselves there was no Necessity for an Oath and it would be a Reproach to their Christian Veracity to Assure their Truth by such an Extraordinary way of Speaking simple and uncompounded Answers as Yea and Nay without Asseverations Attestations or Super-natural Vouchers being most suitable to Evangelical Righteousness But offering at the same time to be punisht to the full for False-Speaking as others for Perjury if ever guilty of it And hereby they exclude with all True all False and Prophane Swearing for which the Land did and doth Mourn and the great God was and is not a little offended with it IV. Not Fighting but Suffering is another Testimony peculiar to this People They affirm that Christianity teacheth People To beat their Swords into Plough-Shares and their Spears into Pruning-Hooks and to learn War no more that so the Wolf may lie down with the Lamb and the Lion with the Calf and nothing that destroys be entertained in the Hearts of People Exhorting them to employ their Zeal against Sin and turn their Anger against Satan and no longer War one against another because all Wars and Fightings come of Mens own Hearts Lusts according to the Apostle James and not of the Meek Spirit of Christ Jesus who is Captain of another Warfare and which is carried on with other Weapons Thus as Truth speaking succeeded Swearing so Faith and Patience succeeded Fighting in the Doctrine and Practice of this People Nor ought they for this to be obnoxious to Civil Government since if they cannot Fight for it neither can they Fight against it which is no mean security to any State Nor is it reasonable that People should be blamed
nothing else would do but Christ himself the Light of his Countenance a Touch of his Garment and Help from his Hand who cured the poor Womans Issue raised the Centurion's Servant the Widow's Son the Ruler's Daughter and Peter's Mother And like Her they no sooner felt his Power and Efficacy upon their Souls but they gave up to obey him in a Testimony to his Power and that with resigned Wills and faithful Hearts through all Mockings Contradictions Confiscations Beatings Prisons and many other Jeorpardies that attended them for his Blessed Name 's Sake And truly they were very many and very Great so that in all Humane Probability they must have been swallowed up Quick of the Proud and Boisterous Waves that swelled and beat against them but that the God of all their tender Mercies was with them in his Glorious Authority so that the Hills often Fled and the Mountains Melted before the Power that filled them working mightily for them as well as in them one ever following the other By which they saw plainly to their exceeding great Confirmation and Comfort that all things were possible with him with whom they had to do And that the more that which God required seemed to cross Man's Wisdom and expose them to Man's Wrath the more God appeared to help and carry them through all to his Glory Insomuch that if ever any People could say in Truth Thou art our Sun and our Shield our Rock and Sanctuary and by thee we have leaped over a Wall and by thee we have run through a Troop and by thee we have put the Armies of the Aliens to Flight these People had Right to say it And as God had delivered their Souls of the wearisom Burthens of Sin and Vanity and enriched their poverty of Spirit and satisfied their great Hunger and Thirst after Eternal Righteousness and filled them with the Good Things of his own House and made them Stewards of his Manifold Gifts so they went forth to all Quarters of these Nations to declare to the Inhabitants thereof what God had done for them what they had found and where and how they had found it viz. The way to Peace with God Inviting all to come and see and taste for themselves the Truth of what they Declared unto them And as their Testimony was to the Principle of God in Man the Precious Pearl and Leaven of the Kingdom as the only blessed means appointed of God to Quicken Convince and Sanctifie Man so they opened to them what it was in it self and what it was given to them for How they might know it from their own Spirit and that of the Subtil appearance of the Evil one and what it would do for all those whose minds Should be turned off from the Vanity of the World and its Lifeless ways and Teachers and ad-here to this blessed Light in themselves which discovers and condemns Sin in all its appearances and shows how to overcome it if minded and obeyed in its holy Manifestations and Convictions Giving Power to such to Avoid and Resist those things that do not please God and to grow strong in Love Faith and Good Works That so Man whom Sin hath made as a Wilderness over-run with Briars and Thorns might become as the Garden of God cultivated by his divine Power and replenisht with the most Virtuous and Beautiful Plants of God's own Right Hand Planting to his Eternal Praise But these Experimental Preachers of Glad Tydings of God's Truth and Kingdom could not run when they List or Pray or Preach when they Pleased But as Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own Blessed Spirit for which they waited in their Services and Meetings and Spoke as that gave them utterance and which was as those having Authority and not like the Dreaming Dry and Formal Pharisees And so it plainly appeared to the serious Minded whose Spiritual Eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure opened So that to one was given the Word of Exhortation to another the Word of Reproof to another the Word of Consolation and all by the same Spirit and in the good Order thereof to the Convincing and Edifying of many And truly they waxed Strong and Bold through Faithfulness and by the Power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very Fruitful thousands in a short time being turned to the Truth in the inward parts through their Testimony in Ministry and Sufferings Insomuch as in most Counties and many of the considerable Towns of England Meetings were settled and daily there were added such as should be saved For they were Diligent to Plant and to Water and the Lord blessed their Labours with an Exceeding great Increase notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed Progress by false Rumors Calumnies and bitter Persecutions not only from the Powers of the Earth but from every one that listed to injure and abuse them So that they seemed indeed to be as poor Sheep appointed to the Slaughter and as a People killed all the Day long It were fitter for a Volume than a Preface but so much as to repeat the Contents of their cruel Sufferings from Professors as well as from Prophane and from Magistrates as well as the Rabble That it may well be said of this abused and despised People they went forth Weeping and sowed in Teares bearing Testimony to the Precious Seed even the Seed of the Kingdom which stands not in Words the Finest the Highest that Man's Wit can use but in Power The Power of Christ Jesus to whom God the Father hath given all Power in Heaven and in Earth that he might rule Angels above and Men below Who impowred them as their Work witnesseth by the many that were turned through their Ministry from Darkness to the Light and out of the Broad into the Narrow Way of Life and Peace bringing People to a Weighty Serious and God-like Conversation the Practice of that Doctrine which they Taught And as without this Secret Divine Power there is no Quickening and Regenerating of dead Souls so the want of this Generating and Begetting Power and Life is the Cause of the little Fruit that the many Ministries that have been and are in the World bring forth O that both Ministers and People were sensible of this My Soul is often troubled for them and Sorrow and Mourning compass me about for their Sakes O that they were Wise O that they would consider and lay to Heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting Peace Two things are to be considered the Doctrine they Taught and the Example they lead among all People I have already toucht upon their Fundamental Principle which is as the Corner stone of their Fabrick And indeed to speak eminently and properly their Characteristick or main distinguishing Point or Principle viz. the Light of Christ within as God's Gift for Man's Salvation This I say is as the Root of the goodly Tree of Doctrines that grew and branched out from
and of the most Repute for Religion and many of them of good Capacity Substance and Account among Men. And also some among them wanted not for Parts Learning or Estate though then as of Old not many Wise or Noble c. were called or at least received the Heavenly Call because of the Cross that attended the Profession of it in Sincerity But neither do Parts or Learning make Men the better Christians though the better Orators and Disputants and it is the Ignorance of People about the Divine Gift that causes that vulgar and mischievous mistake Theory and Practice Speculation and Enjoyment Words and Life are two things Oh 't is the Penitent the Reformed the Lowly the Watchful the Self-denying and Holy Soul that is the Christian And that Frame is the Fruit and Work of the Spirit which is the Life of Jesus Whose Life though hid in the fulness of it in God the Father is shed abroad in the Hearts of them that truly Believe according to their Capacity Oh that People did but know this to Cleanse them to Circumcise them to Quicken them and to make them New Creatures indeed Recreated or Regenerated after Christ Jesus unto good Works that they might live to God and not to themselves and offer up living Prayers and living Praises to the living God through his own living Spirit in which he is only to be Worshipped in this Gospel Day Oh that they that read me could but feel me For my Heart is affected with this Merciful Visitation of the Father of Lights and Spirits to this poor Nation and the whole World through the same Testimony Why should the Inhabitants thereof reject it Why should they lose the Blessed Benefit of it Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their Hearts and say from the Heart Speak Lord for now thy poor Servants hear Oh that thy Will may be done thy Great thy Good and Holy Will in Earth as it is in Heaven Do it in us do it upon us do what thou wilt with us for we are thine and desire to glorifie thee our Creator both for that and because thou art our Redeemer for thou art redeeming us from the Earth from the Vanities and Pollutions of it to be a Peculiar People unto thee Oh this were a Brave Day for England if so she could say in Truth But alas the Case is otherwise for which some of thine Inhabitants O Land of my Nativity have mourned over thee with bitter Wailing and Lamentation Their Heads have been indeed as Waters and their Eyes as Fountains of Tears because of thy Transgression and Stiffneckedness because thou wilt not Hear and Fear and Return to the Rock even thy Rock O England from whence thou wert Hewen But be thou warned O Land of great Profession to receive him into thy Heart Behold at That Door it is he hath stood so long Knocking but thou wilt yet have none of him Oh be thou awakened lest Jerusalem's Judgments do swiftly overtake thee because of Jerusalem's Sins that abound in thee For she abounded in Formality but made void the Weighty things of God's Law as thou daily doest She withstood the Son of God in the Flesh and thou resistest the Son of God in the Spirit He would have gathered her as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and she would not so would he have gathered thee out of thy Life-less Profession and have brought thee to inherit Substance to have known his Power and Kingdom For which he often knockt within by his Grace and Spirit and without by his Servants and Witnesses But thou wouldest not be gathered But on the Contrary as Jerusalem of old Persecuted the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh and Crucified him and Whipt and Imprisoned his Servants so hast thou O Land Crucified to thy self afresh the Lord of Life and Glory and done despite to his Spirit of Grace slighting the Fatherly Visitation and Persecuting the blessed Dispensers of it by thy Laws and Magistrates Though they have Early and Late pleaded with thee in the Power and Spirit of the Lord in Love and Meekness that thou mightest know the Lord and serve him and become the Glory of all Lands But thou hast Evilly entreated and requited them Thou hast set at nought all their Counsel and would have none of their Reproof as thou shouldest have done Their Appearance was too Straight and their Qualifications were too Mean for thee to receive them like the Jews of Old that cried Is not this the Carpenters Son and are not his Brethren among us which of the Scribes of the Learned the Orthodox believe in him Prophesying their Fall in a Year or two and making and executing of severe Laws to bring it to pass Endeavouring to terrifie them out of their Holy way or destroy them for abiding Faithful to it But thou hast seen how many Governments that rise against them and determined their Downfal have been overturned and extinguished and that they are still preserved and become a great and a considerable People among the Middle sort of thy numerous Inhabitants And notwithstanding the many difficulties Without and Within which they have Laboured under since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them they are an Encreasing People the Lord still adding unto them in divers Parts such as shall be saved if they persevere to the End And to Thee O England were they and are they lifted up as a Standard and as a City set upon a Hill and to the Nations round about thee that in their Light thou may'st come to see Light even in Christ Jesus the Light of the World and therefore thy Light and Life too if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways and receive and obey it For in the Light of the Lamb must the Nations of them that are saved walk as the Scripture Testifies Remember O Nation of great Profession How the Lord has waited upon thee since the Dawnings of Reformation and the many Mercies and Judgments by which he has pleaded with Thee and Awake and Arise out of thy deep Sleep and yet hear his Word in thy Heart that thou may'st live Let not this thy day of Visitation pass over thy Head nor neglect thou so great Salvation as is This which is come to thy House Oh England For why should'st thou die Oh Land that God desires to Bless Be assured it is He that has been in the mid'st of This People in the midst of Thee and not a Delusion as thy mistaken Teachers have made Thee believe And this thou shalt find by their Marks and Fruits if thou wilt consider them in the Spirit of Moderation CHAP. III. Of the Qualifications of their Ministry Eleven Marks that it is Christian I. THey were changed Men themselves before they went about to change others Their Hearts were Rent as well as their Garments and they knew the Power and Work of God upon them And this was seen by
to which others were continually exposed by the prevalency of the lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the pride of Life that wanted no Occasions or Temptations to excite them abroad in the Converse of the World I cannot forget the Humility and Chaste Zeal of that Day Oh how Constant at Meetings how Retired in them how firm to Truth 's Life as well as Truth 's Principles And how Entire and United in our Communion as indeed became those that profess One Head even Christ Jesus the Lord. This being the Testimony and Example the Man of God before-mentioned was sent to Declare and Leave amongst us and we having Embraced the same as the Merciful Visitation of God to us the Word of Exhortation at this time is That we continue to be found in the Way of this Testimony with all Zeal and Integrity and so much the more by how much the Day draweth near And First as to you my Beloved and much Honoured Brethren in Christ that are in the Exercise of the Ministry Oh feel Life in your Ministry Let Life be your Commission your Well-spring and Treasury in all such Occasions else you well know there can be no begetting to God since nothing can quicken or make People alive to God but the Life of God And it must be a Ministry in and from Life that enlivens any People to God We have seen the Fruit of all other Ministries by the few that are turned from the Evil of their Ways It is not our Parts or Memory the repetition of former Openings in our own will and time that will do God's Work A dry Doctrinal Ministry however sound in Words can reach but the Ear and is but a Dream at the Best There is another Soundness that is soundest of all viz. Christ the power of God This is the Key of David that Opens and none Shuts and Shuts and none can Open As the Oil to the Lamp and the Soul to the Body so is that to the best of Words Which made Christ to say My Words they are Spirit and they are Life that is they are from Life and therefore they make you alive that receive them If the Disciples that had lived with Jesus were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it much more must we wait to receive before we Minister if we will turn People from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God I fervently bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may always be like minded that you may ever wait Reverently for the coming and opening of the Word of Life and attend upon it in your Ministry and Service that you may serve God in his Spirit And be it little or be it much it is well for much is not too much and the least is enough if from the motion of God's Spirit and without it verily never so little is too much because to no profit For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately or through the Ministry of his Servants that teacheth his People to profit and to be sure so far as we take him along with us in our Services so far we are profitable and no farther For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us for our own Salvation much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the Conversion of others If therefore it was once a Cross to us to Speak though the Lord required it at our Hands let it never be so to be silent when he does not It is one of the most dreadful Sayings in the Book of God That he that adds to the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will add the Plagues written in this Book To keep back the Counsel of God is as Terrible for he that takes away from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life And truly it has great Caution in it to those that use the Name of the Lord to be well assured the Lord Speaks that they may not be found of the Number of those that add to the Words of the Testimony of Prophecy which the Lord giveth them to bear nor yet to mince or diminish the same both being so very offensive to God Wherefore Brethren let us be careful neither to out-go our Guide nor yet loiter behind Him since he that makes Haste may miss his Way and he that stays behind lose his Guide For even those that have Received the Word of the Lord had need wait for Wisdom that they may see how to divide the Word aright Which plainly implieth that it is possible for one that hath received the Word of the Lord to miss in the Dividing and Application of it which must come from an Impatiency of Spirit and a Self-working which makes an unsound and dangerous Mixture and will hardly beget a right minded living People to God I am earnest in this above all other Considerations as to Publick Brethren well knowing how much it concerns the present and future State and preservation of the Church of Christ Jesus that has been gathered and built up by a Living and Powerful Ministry that the Ministry be held preserved and continued in the Manifestations Motions and Supplies of the same Life and Power from time to time And where ever it is observed that any one does Minister more from Gifts and Parts than Life and Power though they have an Inlightned and Doctrinal Understanding let them in time be advised and admonished for their Preservation because insensibly such will come to depend upon a Self-sufficiency to forsake Christ the living Fountain and hew out unto themselves Cisterns that will hold no living waters And by degrees such will come to draw others from waiting upon the Gift of God in themselves and to feel it in others in order to their strength and Refreshment to wait upon them and to turn from God to Man again and so to make Shipwrack of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and of a good Conscience towards God which are only kept by that Divine Gift of Life that begat the one and awakn'd and sanctified the other in the beginning Nor is it enough that we have known the Divine Gift and in it have reached to the Spirits in Prison and been the Instruments of the Convincing of others of the way of God if we keep not as low and poor in our selves and as depending upon the Lord as ever Since no Memory no Repetitions of former Openings Revelations or Enjoyments will bring a Soul to God or afford Bread to the Hungry or Water to the Thirsty unless Life go with what we say and that must be waited for O that we may have no other Fountain Treasure or Dependence That none may presume at any rate to Act of themselves for God because they have long Acted from God that we may not supply want of waiting with our own Wisdom
Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God A most close and comprehensive Passage to this occasion You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews in that you bear the Name of God's People by being the Children and wearing of the Form of God's People And He by his Light in you may be very well said to come to his own and if you obey it not but turn your Back upon it and walk after the Vanities of your Minds you will be of Those that receive him not which I pray God may never be your Case and Judgment But that you may be thoroughly sensible of the many and great Obligations you lie under to the Lord for his Love and to your Parents for their Care And with all your Heart and all your Soul and all your Strength turn to the Lord to his Gift and Spirit in you and hear his Voice and obey it that you may Seal to the Testimony of your Fathers by the Truth and Evidence of your own Experience that your Childrens Children may bless you and the Lord for you as those that delivered a faithful Example as well as Record of the Truth of God unto them So will the Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Account with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know your Creator to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Holy Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart For there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you might let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff in your minds the Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Sanctified as I have been speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has born the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you For the Saints Faith was their Victory of old By this they overcame Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mould Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain Because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a Notion as that you are in Christ whilst in your old fallen Nature For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or Christ with Beial Hear what the beloved Disciple tells you If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth That is if we go on in a Sinful way are Captivated by our Carnal Affections and are not Converted to God we walk in Darkness and cannot possibly in that state have any Fellowship with God Christ Cloths them with his Righteousness that receive his Grace in their Hearts and deny themselves and take up his Cross daily and follow him Christ's Righteousness makes Men inwardly Holy of Holy Minds Wills and Practices It is never the less Christs because we have it for it is ours not by Nature but by Faith and Adoption It is the Gift of God But still tho' not ours as of or from our selves for in that Sense it is Christ's for it is of and from him yet it is ours and must be ours in Possession Efficacy and Enjoyment to do us any good or Christ's Righteousness will profit us nothing It was after this manner that he was made to the Primitive Christians Righteousness Sanctification Justification and Redemption and if ever you will have the Comfort Kernel and Marrow of the Christian Religion thus you must come to learn and obtain it Now my Friends by what you have Read and will Read in what Follows you may perceive that God has visited a Poor People among you with this saving Knowledge and Testimony Whom he has upheld and encreased to this Day notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal Despise not the Meanness of this Appearance It was and yet is we know a day of small things and of small Account with too many and many hard and ill Names are given to it But it is of God it came from him because it leads to him This we know but we cannot make another know it as we know it unless he will take the same way to know it that we took The World talks of God but what do they do They pray for Power but reject the Principle in which it is If you would know God and Worship and serve