the spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus, and the most heaven-daring paper that hath been published by any set of men in Britain these hundred years past. Therein you declare the work of God to be a delusion, and the work of the grand Deceiver. Now, my dear brethren, for whom I tremble, have you been at due pains to know the nature and circumstances of this work, have you taken the trouble, to go to any of those places where the Lord hath appeared in his glory and majesty, and informed yourselves anent it from ministers, some of whom I can assure you would have concealed nothing from you? Have you ever so much as written to any of them to receive information from them, and have they declined or refused to give it? It is not consistent with common justice to condemn them as deceivers; but is it not amazing rashness, without inquiry or trial, to pronounce that to be the work of the Devil which, for any thing you know, may be the work of the infinitely good and Holy Spirit? Is not this too like the Scribes and Pharisees who ascribed the miraculous work of our Lord, wrought by the Holy Ghost, to an evil and unclean spirit? you not afraid lest you come too near this sin? to yourselves, yet should you thoughts of the blasphemous and ungodly speeches some of your people utter by your means, and which you most certainly account for as the sinful causes of them? One of your party, who had consulted one of your number, said, that if he thought the Spirit of God would come by the ministers of this church, he would not own it.

Are

Or if

you are secure as

not tremble at the

You say it is obvious that bitter outcrying, faint

ings, severe bodily pains, convulsions, voices, visions, and revelations, are the usual symptoms of a delusive spirit, that have appeared in Quakers, &c. This hath been answered already. As to voices, visions, and revelations, none of our people who are come to relief by faith in Christ pretend to them; and all are cautioned against such deceits. You say, no sound divine amongst us hath ever maintained these bodily distresses as agreeable to and concerned with the saving operations of the Spirit of God. How deceitful is this your reasoning? Can you say that sound divines amongst us maintain that they are inconsistent with a saving work of the Spirit of God, and that there can be no saving operations of the Spirit where these are? If you had said this, and proven it, you would have said something; but this is what you could not, what you durst not say.

You say further, that none of the fruits of this work which have been alleged are sufficient to difference it either from the common work of the Spirit of God upon hypocrites, or from the delusions of Satan. You should have instanced those fruits of this work which are alleged, and shown that they are not sufficient. Since you have not condescended upon them, I shall do it for you. The fruits of it in many are godly sorrow for sin, universal hatred of it, renouncing their own righteousness and embracing the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ, embracing him in all his offices, universal reformation of life, a superlative love to our blessed Redeemer, love to all they see bear his image, love towards all men, even their enemies, earnest desires and prayers for the conversion of all others. These are

the fruits of it in many, and do not these sufficiently difference this work both from the common work of the Spirit of God upon hypocrites, and from the delusions of Satan? I know from what you have preached and written you will not venture to publish that they do not? Will any believe that you knew not these are alleged as the fruits of this work, seeing you mention the missives, attestations, and journals, relating to this work which have been published? I leave it to the impartial reader, and to your own consciences, to pronounce judgment upon such unfair dealing.

As to what you alleged of those fruits of it which you say are undeniably evident, such as a warm aversion and opposition to your testimony, a close conjunction with their ministers, and a visible neglect of relative and social duties: The last is undeniably false in the sight of all who see the lives of these new converts, and who are the likest to Scripture converts of any I ever knew. As to the first two dare you tell the most furiously zealous for your testimony, and against their own ministers, that these things are marks and evidences of saving grace, and that they may depend upon them as such; or that the judging your testimony irregular, and what the Lord required not at your hands in the way and manner you have given it, and their close conjunction with their ministers, are certain evidences that they are Christless and graceless who do so? I am persuaded some of you have so much of the root of the matter in you that you dare not for a world say

either of these two.

And now, my dear brethren, can you find in your

hearts, after all the prayers you have put up in public and private for the outpouring of the Spirit from on high upon this poor church and land, to deny that it is he, and reject him when he is come, not for our sakes, but his holy name's sake, which we had profaned? Can you find in your hearts to be like the Jews, who prayed and longed for the coming of the Messias, and when he came, rejected and crucified him, because he came not in the way their prejudices led them to look for him? Can you be so unaffected with the glory of infinitely sovereign grace appearing towards a judgment-deserving generation, as to say, you "do well to fret and to be angry at it;" because you find your glory is lessened by it, and your credit beginning to suffer? Will be so fearless, can you be so cruel to thousands of perishing sinners, who begin to fly to Jesus Christ as a cloud, and as doves to their windows; as in the most solemn and public manner, with cyes and hands uplifted to heaven, to pray that there may be a restraint upon the influences of the Holy Spirit, and that this outpouring of his grace may be withdrawn, and not spread through the breadth and length of the land? I can assure you many godly souls will with tears cry as Moses did in the case of the rebellion of Korah, "Lord, respect not thou their offering;" and, after our Lord's example, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

you

Several ministers are charged by you, with imposing upon the people, and being at indefatigable pains, by their printed Missives, Attestations, and Journals, to deceive, if it were possible, "the very elect," &c. I rejoice to be associated with so many

worthy men, whose praise is every where in this church, and who, though they are as deceivers with you, yet are true, and shall by grace be found to be true at the coming of our Lord and yours. It is our comfort that we suffer in this what our great Master suffered for us. They called him, "This deceiver," and some of them said, "Nay, but he deceiveth the people." We are conscious to ourselves that we desire and design to preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord; "warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Let heaven and earth praise

God

him, that we may experience more of this now than ever we did before. If you go on to hinder and oppose us in this, and associate yourselves with other enemies to the cross of Christ, take heed lest you be found fighters against God. I cannot do better than put you in remembrance of an inference judicious Flavel hath in his sermon upon John, vi, 44: "What enemies," saith he, "are they to God and the souls of men, that do all they can to discourage and hinder the conversion of men to Christ! draws forward, and they do all that in them lies to draw backward, to prejudice and discourage them from coming to Jesus Christ in the way of faith : this is a direct opposition to God, and a plain confederacy with the Devil." As to my ends in publishing the Journals from Kilsyth, you might have seen them prefixed to the first Journal; I am sorry that in as far as they respected you they are not as yet attained, and do assure you that if they had you would not have been deceived.