not only their nature, but spirit, fhall live in you when they are gone. I fhall conclude this account with a few words to those that are not of our communion, into whose hands this may come; especially thofe of our own nation. FRIENDS, As you are the fons and daughters of Adam, and my brethren after the flesh, often and earnest have been my defires and prayers to God on your behalf, that you may come to know your Creator to be your Redeemer and Reftarer to the holy image, that through fin you have loft, by the power and Spirit of his Son Jefus Chrift, whom he hath given for the light and life of the world. And O that you, who are called Chriftians, would receive him into your hearts! 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 profeffion, 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 poffeffion and experience of what you profefs, all your formality in religion will ftand you in no ftead in the day of God's judgment. I befeech you ponder with yourselves your eternal condition, and fee what title, what ground and foun dation you have for your Chriftianity: if more than a profeffion, and an hiftorical belief of the gofpel? Have you known the baptifm of fire, and the Holy Ghoft, and the fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff in your minds, and carnal lufts and affections? That divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being received, leavens the whole lump of man, fanctifying him throughout, in body, foul, and fpirit? If this be not the ground of your confidence, you are in a miferable estate. You You will fay, perhaps, that though you are finners, and live in daily commiffion of fin, and are not fanctified, as I have been speaking, yet you have faith in Chrift, who has borne the curfe for you, and in him you are complete by faith, his righteoufnefs being imputed to you. But, my friends, let me intreat you not to deceive yourselves, in fo important a point, as is that of your immortal fouls. If you have true faith in Chrift, your faith will make you clean; it will fanctify you: for the faints faith was their victory of old: by this they overcame fin within, and finful men without. And if thou art in Chrift, thou walkeft not after the flesh, but after the fpirit, whofe fruits are manifeft. 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, de. fires, will, affections, and practices. It is not any longer thou that liveft; thou difobedient, carnal, worldly one; but it is Chrift that liveth in thee: and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal gain: because thou art affured, "That thy corruptible fhall put on incor"ruption, and thy mortal, immortality; and that thou haft a glorious houfe, eternal in the heavens, "that will never wax old, or pafs away." All this follows being in Christ, as beat follows fire, and light the fun. Therefore have a care how you prefume to rely upon fuch a notion, as that you are in Chrift, whilft in your old fallen nature. "For what communion hath light with darkness, or Chrift with Belial?" Hear what the beloved difciple tells you: "If we fay we "have fellowship with God, and walk in darkness, we "lie, and do not the truth." This is, if we go on in a finful way, are captivated by our carnal affections, and are not converted to God, we walk in darkness, and cannot poffibly, in that state, have any fellowship with God. Chrift clothes them with his righteousness, that receive his grace in their hearts, and deny themfelves, felves, and take up his crofs daily, and follow him. Chrift's righteoufnefs makes men inwardly holy; of holy minds, wills, and practices. It is, nevertheless, Chrift's, though we have it; for it is ours not by nature, but by faith and adoption: it is the gift of God. But ftill, though not ours, as of or from ourselves, (for in that fenfe it is Chrift's, for it is of and from him); yet it is ours, and must be ours, in posseffion, efficacy, and enjoyment, to do us any good; or Chrift's righteoufnefs will profit us nothing. It was after this manner that he was made to the primitive Chriftians, "righteousness, fanctification, juftification, " and redemption:" and if ever you will have the comfort, kernel, and marrow of the Chriftian 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 faving knowledge and teftimony; whom he has upheld and increased to this day, notwithstanding the fierce oppofition they have met withal. Defpife not the meanness of this appearance: it was, and yet is, (we know) a day of fmall things, and of finall 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 to know it, unless he will take the fame 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 ferve God as you fhould do, you muft come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose. Some feek it in books, fome in learned men; but what they look for, is in themselves, though not of themselves, but they overlook it. The voice is too ftill, the feed too fmall, and the light fhineth in darknefs: they are abroad, and fo cannot divide the spoil but the woman, that loft her filver, found it at home, after after he had lighted her candle, and fwept her boufe. luable in the fight of God. The light of Chrift within, who is the light of the world, (and fo a light to you, that tells you the truth of your condition) leads all, that take heed unto it, out of darkness, into God's marvellous light. For light grows upon the obedient: "it is fown for the "righteous, and their way is a fhining light, that fhines "forth more and more to the perfect day." Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I beseech you: where is the poifon, there is the antidote. There you want Chrift, and there you must find him; and, "Seek, bleffed be God, there you may find him. " and you shall find," I teftify for God. But then you must feek aright, with your whole heart, as men that feek for their lives, yea, for their eternal lives, diligently, humbly, patiently, as thofe that can tafte no pleasure, comfort, or fatisfaction in any thing else, unless you find Him whom your fouls defire to know, O it is a travail, a spiritual and love, above all. travail, let the carnal, profane world, think and fay as it will. And through this path you must walk to the city of God, that has eternal foundations, if ever you will come there. Well! And what does this bleffed light do for you? Why, 1. It fets all your fins in order before you: it detects the fpirit of this world, in all its baits and alJurements, and fhews how man came to fall from God, and the fallen eftate he is in. 2. It begets a fenfe and Jorrow, in fuch as believe in it, for this fearful lapfe. You will then fee Him, diftinctly, whom you have pierced, and all the blows and wounds you have given him by your difobedience, and how you have him to ferve with your fins; and you will weep and mourn for it, and your forrow will be a godly forrow. 3. After this, it will bring you to the holy watch, to take care that you do fo no more, and that the enemy fur prize prize you not again. Then thoughts, as well as words and works, will come to judgment, which is the way of holiness, in which the redeemed of the Lord do walk. Here you will come to "love God above all, "and your neighbours as yourselves." Nothing burts, nothing barms, nothing makes afraid, on this holy mountain. Now you come to be Chrift's indeed; for you are his in nature and fpirit, and not your own. And when you are thus Christ's, then Chrift is yours, and not before. And here communion with the Father, and with the Son, you will know, and the efficacy of the blood of cleanfing, even the blood of Jefus Chrift, that immaculate Lamb, which "fpeaks "better things than the blood of Abel;" and which cleanfeth from all fin the confciences of those, that, through the living faith, come to be "Sprinkled with "it, from dead works, to serve the living God.” To conclude: Behold the teftimony and doctrine of the people called Quakers! Behold their practice and difcipline! And behold the bleffed man and men (at leaft many of them) that were fent of God in this excellent work and fervice! All which is more particularly expreffed in the annals of that man of God: which I do heartily recommend to my reader's most ferious perufal; and befeech Almighty God, that his bleffing may go along with both, to the convincement of many, as yet ftrangers to this holy difpenfation, and alfo to the edification of God's church in general. Who, for his manifold and repeated mercies and bleffings to his people, in this day of his great love, is worthy ever to have the glory, honour, thanksgiving and renown: and be it rendered and afcribed, with fear and reverence, through Him in whom he is well pleafed, his beloved Son and Lamb, our light and life, that fits with him upon the throne, world without end. Amen! Says one that God has long fince mercifully favoured with his fatherly vifitation, and who was not |