REMARKS ON TEXTS QUOTED BY B. H. 295 for they said they saw the heavens opened, and the Holy Ghost descending like a dove, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now if this is false altogether, how can I believe the Gospel? Yet such belief is in many of the prophets of this day, that this wise mechanic calls prophets; I mean the preachers of different sects; for they are universal throughout the world and is this the Spirit I am not to quench are these the prophecies I am not to despise! then to what pit of destruction must this wise mechanic lead me! I must retort back on his head his own words; he must know he is a bold impostor, who imposes on weak minds to believe such doctrine as this: because a man preaches repentance, that he hath the Spirit of God and is a prophet!!! for I have heard these very men, with the sentiments I have mentioned, preach repentance as much as any other men; the reason their pernicious doctrine is believed is, because they mix honey with their poison, and deceive the people by this preaching of repentance, and by which reason these false prophets are believed. There is another set of false prophets among the preachers, who profess to believe the Gospel of Christ in its truth concerning our Saviour being what he said he was, and believing him truly the Son of God, and yet they sayHE only died to save those whom the Lord had elected before the foundation of the world, and all the rest were ordained by the Lord to be lost!-And are these also the prophets I am to believe! when it is written-As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather in them that repent and turn: turn ye, turn ye, for why will you die, O house of Israel! saith the Lord. Here the judgment of man must say, the Lord said what he never meant-to say HE had no pleasure in their death, if HE created them to be lost, and they could not be saved; then they must say it was HIS pleasure, thus to create them to perish; and if the

decrces of heaven were so fixed, why should the Lord mock them, to invite them to return, when HE knew HE had made them so as they could not return? Does not, the Lord say, Oh! that there was such a heart in them as I could wish? But if the Lord made them so at first, and designed they should be so before the creation of the world, or before they were born, then they had the heart that it was the will of the Lord they should have; yet such preachers are common in the world, that call themselves spiritual preachers: and yet their doctrine is full of blasphemy; for they say, the Lord saith what he never meaneth. And yet I know, they would answer, they never said such a thing in their lives. This I grant; they do not speak the words so plain as I have explained it, and yet their meaning is to the same purpose. Now if these are the prophets I am to believe, then what road am I to take for there are three different roads that are already known to the world from these spiritual preachers; and now I shall point out the fourth : those are they who declare all the power and will to be in man, to do either good or evil, as he likes. Now though this doctrine is not so against the Lord, to point out his cruelty like the former, yet it is a mistaken and false notion in man, to think he hath power of himself to withstand all the temptations of the devil. This, I know by experience is false; for without the Lord we can do nothing; and we are commanded from the Scriptures to seek the Lord and HE will be found of us; to draw nigh unto Christ, and E will draw nigh unto us; to commune with God in our hearts, and HE will commune with us; but without him we can do nothing; but if we are workers with God, HE will be a worker with us; and that faith is the gift of God, and not of ourselves. Then how can man have all power, to will and to do, without the grace of God assisting him? Yet such doctrine I have heard preached

REMARKS ON TEXTS QUOTED BY B. H. 297 therefore, among all these spiritual prophets, that are called ministers, I never heard one of them in my life but what their opinions led them to err from the Bible in some things; or in others to go from the truth of the Gospel; for I never heard a minister in my life that ever preached to the perfect truth of the Gospel; and since my writings have gone out in the world, I find the ministers themselves, and these spiritual preachers, wrest the Scriptures more than any men, denying all spiritual gifts, and all revelation, and all visitation from the Lord; as though the Spirit of the Lord had entirely forsaken us, ever since our Saviour died. Then the Apostles must be false, who so often affirm, that the Lord will visit us again in the Spirit, and all hidden mysteries, that are concealed from man, shall be revealed by the Spirit of God. But this is now denied by these spiritual prophets, as well as by this wise thechanic; then where is the prophet that I can trust to? But does this wise man observe that spiritual gifts are called one thing, and prophecies are called another? so that a man may have spiritual gifts to teach his people, without having the spirit of prophecy to warn them of what is hastening on; besides, every man must stand in his place; and the Scriptures must be fulfilled as they are spoken. Then how can this wise mechanic, with the ablest English divines, say, that the Woman in Revelation xii. means the church in all its splendor? How then can she be travailing in birth, crying to be delivered from all this splendor, and Satan standing before her, and also the earth persecuring her, that she is forced to flee into the wilderness; and the dragon casting out floods against her; and the earth helping the Woman? When he says the earth is trampled under her feet, and the church of Christ is in all its glorious state, how then is all this persecution to come, when, as he says, the sun of righteousness, "the Lord Jesus Christ, of his

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"righteousness imputed, and imparted, and the moon, "that is the earth, and its sublunary vanities, under "her feet?" Where is the man can make this join together, that the church is in this glorious state as he mentioned? that Christ hath subdued all vanity? and that all evil is thrown beneath him? and the glorious Gospel and the Apostles shining bright, as they are prophesied to the end to be in this persecuted state, as mentioned in the Revelation? Oh, what an impostor must such a man be, willingly and knowingly to impose on weak minds! Men should discern what they are writing, before they take upon them to correct what they cannot mend, or understand. And now I shall come to the 14th page: Hebrews xi. where he speaks of a living Faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; and without the evidence of this Faith upon the heart it never can be called a living Faith. Here this wise pretended corrector, with his plain remarks, has turned the weapon back on his own head, and has shewed himself to have a dead faith. But from the evidence that I have had of things not seen, and before they sprang forth I told men of them, and the faith that is planted in me, that I should see the substance of things I hoped for, he assures me this faith is the gift of God, it comes from God, and it leads to God; then he must allow my teaching is of God; for he adds, if any man have evidence of this Faith in the soul, though in ever so small a degree, it is utterly impossible for that man to be lost; then it is certainly impossible for me to be lost, when the Lord hath so strongly implanted that Faith in my breast-that the gates of hell should never prevail against me; and in opposition to men and devils, HE would carry on Hrs WORK in me and by me; and to His honour and glory he has done it; for he that trusteth in the Lord is as Mount Zion, that cannot be moved. But now see what this wise writer says fur

REMARKS ON TEXTS QUOTED BY B. H. 299 ther:-Without this Faith it is impossible to please God. Then where is his faith to please God, if he believes the Lord will go from all His words and all his promises? But when I see the Lord has not gone from HIS words or promises in the past, I shall surely trust HIM for the time to come; therefore he might well add-The Lord is the author and finisher of this Faith. Here he brings forward the Gospel to strengthen me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. This, he remarks, is a true and lively faith. Then now be wise, Oh simple man, this living and strong faith was planted in me more than thirty years ago; or I never should have had faith in ninety-two, to believe it was the visitation of the Lord, to leave my work to write what was coming upon the whole earth, when there was no appearance of it, if the Lord had not been the author of my faith before to trust in HIM, and obey His word: and so HE has carried me on to be the finisher thereof. Therefore this wise writer might well say, the effect this living faith has upon the heart, is wonderful--and wonderful effects has this faith had upon me. He further adds, whenever this faith is planted in a man's heart, by the operation and influence of the Holy Spirit, there is an effectual change in that man's life:And I am the witness for myself (and the Lord is witness for me) that I have been dead to the world as to all its pleasures and vanities, and the world to me; and the desire of my soul, for thirty years past, has been to wish to live to God, and to God only; so this man has assured me, my calling is sure; that the Lord hath called me with an effectual call; and that HE will save me with an everlasting salvation, who died for me, and has fulfilled the law and made it honourable that never said to the sceking seed of Israel, seek ye my face in vain: but out of my weakness HE hath made me strong, and to war va