So
that the light, spirit, and grace, that come by Christ, and appear in
man, were that divine principle the apostles ministered from, and turned
people's minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the church
of Christ in their day. For which cause they advise them not to quench
the spirit, but to wait for the spirit, and speak by the spirit, and pray
by the spirit, and walk in the spirit too, as that which approved them
the truly begotten children of God, born not of flesh and blood, or of
the will of man, but of the will of God; by doing his will, and denying
their own; by drinking of Christ's cup, and being baptized with his
baptism of self-denial; the way and path that all the heirs of life have
ever trod to blessedness.
But alas! even in the apostles' days, those bright stars of the first
magnitude of the gospel light, some clouds, foretelling an eclipse of
this primitive glory, began to appear; and several of them gave early
caution of it to the Christians of their time, that even then there was,
and yet would be more and more, a falling away from the power of
godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dispensation, by such as
sought to make a fair show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of the
cross ceased.
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