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by this Spirit, call it by what high name you will, is no more a part of the gospel state, nor will have a better end, than that which entereth into the mouth, and corrupteth in the belly.

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That one Light and Spirit which was only one from all eternity, before angels, or any heavenly beings were created, must to all eternity be that one only Light and Spirit by which angels or men can ever have any union or communion with God. Every other light is but the light whence beasts have their sense and 'subtilty; every other spirit is but that which gives to flesh and blood all its lusts and appetites. Nothing else but the loss of the one Light and Spirit of God, turned an order of angels into devils. Nothing else but the loss of that same Light and Spirit, took from the divine Adam his first crown of paradisical glory, stript him more naked than the beasts, and left him a prey to devils, and in the jaws of eternal death. What, therefore, can have the least share of

power towards man's redemption, but the Light and Spirit of God making again a birth of themselves in hum, as they did in his first glorious creation? Or what can possibly begin, or bring forth this return of his first lost birth, but solely that which is done by this eternal Light and Spirit. Hence it is that the gospel state is by our Lord affirmed to be " a kingdom of heaven at hand, or come among men," because it has the nature of no worldly thing or

creaturely power, is to serve no worldly ends, can be helped by no worldly power, receives nothing from man, but man's full denial of himself, stands upon nothing that is finite or transitory, has no existence but in that working power of God that created and upholds heaven and earth, and is a kingdom of God become man, and a kingdom of men united to God, through a continual immediate divine illumination. What Scripture of the New Testament can you read, that does not prove this to be the gospel state-a kingdom of God, into which none can enter but by being born of the Spirit; none can continue to be alive in it, but by being led by the Spirit; and in which not a thought, or desire, or action, can be allowed to have any part, but as it is a fruit of the Spirit?

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Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What is God's kingdom in heaven, but the manifestation of what God is, and what he does in his heavenly creatures? How is his will done there, but because his Holy Spirit is the life, the power, and mover of all that live in it. We daily read this prayer, we extol it under the name of the Lord's Prayer, and yet (for the sake of orthodoxy) preach and write against all that is prayed for in it. For nothing but a conti nual, essential, immediate divine illumination, can do that which we pray may be done.

For where can God's kingdom be come, but

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where every other power but his is at an end, and driven out of it? How can his will only be done, but where the Spirit that wills in God, wills in the

creature?

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What now have parts, and literature, and the natural abilities of man, that they can do here; just as much as they can do at the resurrection of the dead; for all that is to be done here is nothing else but resurrection and life. Therefore, that which gave eyes to the blind, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, and raised the dead, that alone can and must do all that is to be done in this gospel kingdom of God. For the smallest work or fruit of grace must be as solely done by God, as the greatest miracle in nature, and the reason is, because every work of grace is the same overcoming of nature, as when the dead are raised to life. Yet vain man would be thought to be something, to have great power and ability in this kingdom of grace, not because he happens to be born of noble parents, is clothed in purple and fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day, but because he has happened to be made a scholar, has run through all languages and histories, has been long exercised in conjectures and criticisms, and has his head as full of all notions, theological, poetical, and philosophical, as a dictionary is full of all sorts of words.

Now let this simple question decide the whole mat

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ter here: Has this great scholar any more power of saying to this mountain, Be thou remove hence, and cast into the sea," than the illiterate Christian has? If not, he is just as weak, as powerless, and little in the kingdom of God as he is. But if the illiterate man's faith should happen to be nearer to the bulk of a grain of mustard-seed than that of the prodigious scholar, the illiterate Christian stands much above him in the kingdom of God.

Look now at the present state of Christendom, glorying in the light of Greek and Roman learning, (which an age or two ago broke light that has helped the gospel to lustre that it scarce ever had before.

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forth), as a

shine with a

Look at this,

and you will see the fall of the present church from its first gospel state, to have much likeness to the fall of the first divine man from the glory of paradisical innocence and heavenly purity, into an earthly state, and bestial life of worldly craft and serpentine subtilty.

In the first gospel church, heathen light had no other name than heathen darkness; and the wisdom of words was no more sought after, than that friendship of the world which is enmity with God. In that new-born church, the "tree of life, which grew in the midst of paradise, took root and grew up again. In the present church, the tree of life is hissed at, as the visionary food of deluded

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enthusiasts; and the tree of death, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil, has the eyes and hearts of priest and people, and is thought to do as much good to Christians, as it did evil to the first inhabitants of paradise. This tree that brought death and corruption into human nature at first, is now called a tree of light, and is day and night well watered with every corrupt stream, however distant or muddy with earth, that can be drawn to it.

The simplicity, indeed, both of the gospel letter and doctrine, has the shine and polish of classic literature laid thick upon it. Cicero is in the pulpit, Aristotle writes Christian ethics, Euclid demonstrates infidelity and absurdity to be the same thing. Greece had but one Longinus, Rome had but one Quintilian; but in our present church, they are as common as patriots in the state..

But now, what follows from this new-risen light? Why, Aristotle's atheism, Cicero's height of pride and depth of dissimulation, and every refined or gross species of Greek or Roman vices, are as glaring in this new enlightened Christian Church, as ever they were in old Pagan Greece or Rome. Would you find a gospel Christian in all this midday glory of learning, you may light a candle, as the philosopher did, in the mid-day sun to find an honest man.

And indeed, if we consider the nature of our

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