DISCOURSES O N The following Subjects: I. On Man's Original State. II. On the Fall of Adam. III. On Jefus Chrift as a Saviour, IV. On Juftification by Faith. V. On the Spirit and its Fruits. By NICHOLAS MANNERS. I allo will fhew mine opinion. Job xxxii. 10. Ye must be born again. John iii. 7. Y OR K: Printed for the AUTHOR, By N. NICKSON in Blakeftreot And fold by R. SPENCE, Bookfeller, upon Oufe, Bridge. M.DCC.LXXV 1 The IF vit PREFACE. F it be afked, why I expofe thefe difcourfes to the view of the public? My answer is, I believe them to be according to the truth of the gofpel. Which, if fo, the matter of them, whatever may be faid of the manner, may pass without an apology. However, they contain the doctrine which I was convinced of, and seriously embraced above twenty years ago; and from which I have not yet feen caufe to recede. And having spent the last feventeen years in inculcating them upon others; in which time, having gone through moft parts of this, and fome parts of another nation, I have not wanted occafion to try them; having met with many oppofitions from men, and read much of their reverfe in books: The iffue of which is, I am fo confirmed in the belief of them, as to be free from all fufpicion of the truth of them. But right notions, without experimentally knowing the things fignified by them, can be but of little fervice. Orthodoxy, fo called, may pafs for chriftianity with the crowd, but not in the account of GOD. As fuch, though falfe doctrine be deftructive, as it prevents a fight of, and profiting by the truth, and leads to error in principle and practice; yet good doctrine, unaccompanied by the fpirit of GOD, will not be effectual, will never bring a foul to heaven. So, though I recommend thefe difcourfes on the fuppofition of their containing the truth; yet more especially I wish them to be inftrumental in fhewing men their condition as finners, and their previlege in the Saviour; what what they are by nature, and what they may be by grace; that, being fenfible of their finful, guilty, miferable, and dangerous ftate, and of the fufficiency of CHRIST to fave and fatisfy them, they may be excited to feek and receive whatsoever he has promifed to give. And, if I may be believed in a matter which concerns myself as well as others, I do profefs to have profited more in the grace of GoD, by means of these doctrines, than I would give for a thousand fuch worlds as this. I wish all who read them may profit as much by them as I have done. They need, they can have no more, falvation being heaven's best gift. And I much pity thofe who are ftrangers and enemies to, who are deftitute of, and have no defire for spiritual and eternal thing, well knowing, that whatever their outward condition of life may be, they are unhappy now, and hell awaits them in the end. I fend this fmall performance, fuch as it is, into the world. If it does any good, I fhall have my defire: But be this as it may, I remain nevertheless a well-wisher to all orders and degrees of men, touching things temporal, fpiritual, and eternal. N. MANNERS. DERBY, May 20, 1775. } MAN's |