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 sanctify man; so they opened to them what
it was in itself, and what it was given to them for; how they might know
it from their own spirit, and that of the subtle 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
adhere to his 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 briers and thorns, might become as the
garden of God, cultivated by his divine power, and replenished with the
most virtuous and beautiful plants of God's own right-hand planting, to
his eternal praise.
But these experimental preachers of glad tidings 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 dry, and formal Pharisees.
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