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 most miserable, who, for above 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-scouring
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 men's 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 quickened 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 these pressed, was not
notion, but experience; not formality, but godliness; as being sensible
in themselves, through the work of God's righteous judgments, that
without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord with comfort.
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