They declare of
religion, say many things true, in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit;
of holiness and heaven; that all men should repent and amend their lives,
or they will go to hell, &c. But which of them all pretend to speak of
their own knowledge and experience; or ever directed to a divine
principle, or agent, placed of God in man, to help him; and how to know
it, and wait to feel its power to work that good and acceptable will of
God in them?
Some of them, indeed, have spoken of the spirit, and the operations of it
to sanctification, and performance of worship to God; but where and how
to find it, and wait in it, to perform our duty to God, was yet as a
mystery to be declared by this farther degree of reformation. So that
this people did not only in words, more than equally press repentance,
conversion, and holiness, but did it knowingly and experimentally; and
directed those, to whom they preached, to a sufficient principle; and
told them where it was, and by what tokens they might know it, and which
way they might experience the power and efficacy of it to their souls'
happiness. Which is more than theory and speculation, upon which most
other ministers depend: for here is certainty; a bottom upon which man
may boldly appear before God in the great day of account.
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