For where
the divine virtue of it is not felt in the soul, and waited for and lived
in, imperfections will quickly break out, and show themselves, and detect
the unfaithfulness of such persons; and that their insides are not
seasoned with the nature of that holy principle which they profess.
Wherefore, dear children, let me entreat you to shut your eyes at the
temptations and allurements of this low and perishing world, and not
suffer your affections to be captivated by those lusts and vanities that
your fathers, for the truth's sake, long since turned their backs upon:
but as you believe it to be the truth, receive it into your hearts, that
you may become the children of God: so that it may never be said of you,
as the evangelist writes of the Jews in his time, that Christ, the true
light, "came to his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as
received him, to them he gave power to become the children of God; which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God;" a most close and comprehensive passage to this
occasion. You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews, in
that you bear the name of God's people, by being the children, and
wearing of the form of God's people: and he, by his light in you, may be
very well said to come to his own, and if you obey it not, but turn your
backs upon it, and walk after the vanities of your minds, you will be of
those that received him not; which I pray God may never be your case and
judgment.
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