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or Soul, to the Day of Redemption, may be grieved, or vexed, with our corrupt Communications afterwards: And, there is fuch a Thing as having even been Illuminated; having tafted of the Galeftial Gift; having been made Partakers of the Holy Ghoft; having tafted of the good Word of God, and of the Power of the World to come: And yet after all, there may be a falling away from all this; a drawing back to Perdition; a quenching, grieving, doing defpite to, the Spirit of Grace; a falling from Grace; a failing, or being deftituted, of Grace, in fuch manner, that it fhall not be poffible to renew them any more again for ever: That is, in fhort, Men may be Renew'd by the Holy Ghost, and yet may afterwards fall from this Renewal in fuch fort, as that it fhall not be poffible to Renew them any more again for ever. It implies that Men may be renew'd to their primary and general Chriftian State of Renewal, by new Acts of Repentance, Faith, Devotion, and the use of the Holy Eucharist, several Times; and, that they may finally fall from the fame, fo that they never can be renew'd again.

For, we are moreover told, that a Man may even be the Temple of God, and yet defile his Temple, and be deftroy'd; that he may make the Members of Chrift the Members of an Harlot; may put off the old, and put on the new, Man, which is renew'd after the Image of him that created him; and, fo, may become

a new Creature; and, yet, forfeit the Benefit of this, if he do not continue to walk by this Rule; that he may live in, or by, the Spirit, and it shall not fuffice, unless he walk, or perfevere alfo, in the Spirit, that he may be called to the Liberty wherewith Chrift hath made us free; and, yet, forfeit this Liberty, by abufing it for an occafion to the Flefb. Nay, the Apostle mentions fome, who were Children of Godin Chrift Fefus; who had put on Chrift; were Abraham's Seed, and Heirs according to the Promife; God having fent the Spirit of his Son into their Hearts, crying, Abba Father; and who notwithstanding all this, when even they knew God, or rather were known of God, were for turning back to the beggarly Elements, fo that he was afraid of them, left he had bestow'd on them Labour in vain. We are moreover exhorted, to make our Calling and Election fure: And, are promised, that we shall reap, but conditionally, If we faint not, &c.

All which does but follow the Condition of Man's Free-Agency generally given him, as has been above defcrib'd: With this there can, I fay, be nothing certain, but the Election and Obfignation in the Divine Prefcience of a Man's perfevering to the End in the right use of that Agency.

I think our Modern Efprits Forts (who Reason as if either Nature were God, or, at least, did give Laws to God) have no Notion of any Liberty but to follow Nature, that is, the ever

varying

varying Proteus of their own natural Instincts, and to live as they lift. By which Means they have ftoutly extricated themfelves out of all Intanglements. They have neither Law, nor Traditions, nor Reafon, nor Revelation, nor Philofophy, nor Religion, but to commit themfelves, at all Adventures, without Card or Compass, to the vaft Ocean of Imagination; to Think any thing, Talk every thing, and Believe nothing. And tho' this splits them (as it neceffarily muft) into a Thousand fantastic Sects, making them give the most different, and even contradictory, Accounts of Virtue, Vice, Liberty, Servitude, every Thing! As they are of different Complexions and Tempers amongst themselves; yet, are they ftill at Eafe! Such is the Advantage of an abfolute State of Indifference and Inertitude to every thing but that one to which they always are fufficiently eager and ftrenuous, viz. Oppofition to the Truth! The Truth, unknown, unfought! Not fo,

Their Heathen Fathers, the Philofophers, but, these Men more inquifitive Scrupulous and Tender (betwixt the Study of Morality; the Nature, Number, and Refidence, of their falfe Gods, and fome Traditions which they had of the true, but were refolv'd to ftifle and pervert; the fitness or unfitnefs of the vulgarly received Rites of Worship, &c.) were at their Wit's End: But, among all their Perplexities no one diftreffed them more than that strange Tradition which they had receiv'd of fome

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fort of Liberty from fome fort of Servitude, to be obtain❜d (by what Means they either cou'd not tell, or wou'd not acknowledge) to the Spirit or Soul of Man. The Epicureans made Liberty to confift in a negative kind of Happinefs, and indolent Freedom from Cares and Anxieties, by affecting an abfolute indifference to Events. The Stoicks made their Wife Man FREE, and all the reft of the World SLAVES: But, their Charter of Immunities lay in their own Prudence and Fortitude only; the laft Refource of which (when they were preffed with any Difficulty or Diftrefs beyond their Philofophical Bearing) was with a fullen, and defperate, Refentment to dispatch, and vindicate, themselves to Liberty with their Daggers. Plato, and his Mafter Socrates (who had fomewhere heard more than they wou'd tell, and often mutter'd more than they wou'd have understood) talk'd in Confufion of Vir tue, Wifdom, Purification, Liberty, and Reunion with their first Caufe, or God: But, not confeffing the true Spirit of God, but a certain (Supream) Spirit of Nature only; a Mind or Wifdom diffus'd thro' this Syftem, pervading and comprehending the whole, and every part of it; with certain familiar Damons of their own, and making their faid Re-union to be with fuch Spirit or Mind or Damon, they ftill laps'd into a Communion or Partaking with Devils and not with God, and fo, in all their Searches inflaved themselves more and more,

without

without ever attaining to any Tafte or Feeling of what true Liberty was. But, to

return:

In the true State of Enfranchisement by Chrift Jefus, there is ftill a Difficulty remaining, tho, from what has been faid, the Reader fees already how it may be foly'd. Faith is faid, as by our Homilifts above, to be Man's Part for Juftification, and yet to be alfo the Gift of God. Both which Affirmations again (howfoever feemingly Contradictory) are true. For, it is Man's Part, for Apprehenfion, by Recognition and Confeffion; and God's Part for Effect in Operation. Both which the Father of the Demoniac Child did exprefs in two Words-Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Mar. ix. 24.

But whereby (may we ask) doth Faith operate, as above? The Apoftle hath told us,→→ by Love. For, in Chrift Jefus, fays he, neither Circumcifion availeth any thing, nor Uncircumcifion, but Faith which WORKETH BY LOVE. Gal. v. 6. But this is done interme→ diately by that Divine Virtue, which is the proximate Iffue or Product of Faith, that is, by Hope, as the Anchor of the Sout, entring into that within the Vail of the true Sanctum Sanctorum in Heaven, and bringing back, glad Affurance of the Divine Love, to our Souls. And, at the fame Time to teach us, that this is not our Part, he fays again-the Love of God

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