…O professors of Christianity! and do not despise the hand which is stretched forth to you in the love of God, and in the motion and guidance of his Spirit, who condescends to you exceedingly, that he might reach to his own in you, and scatter your apprehensions, imaginations and conceivings about the meanings of scriptures (which are as so many chains of death and darkness upon you), that ye might come to him in whom is life, and who gives life freely to all who come to him. Oh, observe what bars were in the way of
the Scribes and Pharisees! They would not come to him that they might have life; nay, indeed, they could not, as they stood. There are greater bars in your way; yea, it is harder for many of you to come to him, than it was for them. My upright desire to the Lord for you is, that he would remove the stumbling-blocks out of your way, that he would batter and knock down the flesh in you, that he would strip you of all your knowledge of scriptures according to the flesh, that ye might be made by him capable of knowing and receiving things according to the Spirit, and then ye will know how to understand, honor, and make use of the letter also; but till then ye cannot but make use of it both against your own souls, and against Christ and his truth….
…8. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE PERSECUTED
The disciple of Christ, who is persecuted for conscience' sake, who suffers from men and their laws for the uprightness of his heart towards, and for his obedience unto, Christ, that man is precious in the eye of Christ, and hath his blessing with him; yea, the more men disesteem and hate him upon this account the greater is his blessedness. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." Mat. 5:11,12. He is blessed in several respects….
…Read then this riddle, with a true understanding: the tender one cannot yield, the flexible one cannot bow; but naturally standeth upright and straight towards God, even in every thing it hath learned of him, and which he requireth of it. Thus in the apostles' days, the Christians, though meek, though sweet, though pliable to the Spirit of God, and to all good, yet could not bow to so much as an appearance of evil anywhere, but shun and avoid it everywhere. And if it were not for this kind of stiffness and unbendedness, the children of God could never be preserved in their departure out of the world's spirit, ways, worships, and practices; but would soon be ensnared and drawn back again, by the enticements and subtleties of the worldly nature, either in themselves or others.
3. A stiffness then I grant, an unbendedness I grant; but not of the earthly, not of the self-will, nor according to the earthly; but such as ariseth from truth in the heart, and from tenderness of spirit towards God; such as is begotten in his fear, preserved by his power, and is necessary towards their preservation who are born of him, and called by him out of the world. And if those, who are apt and liable to misjudge of them, did but see the sincere desire of their hearts not to offend man, but to be subject to the utmost according to the will of God, and knew what breathings there are in their hearts to God (in relation to the magistrate, and when they appear before him), that they may be preserved in the pure fear, and in righteousness and inoffensiveness, and how they cannot but refuse to break any of God's commands, because he is their Supreme Lord, and they dare not disobey him to please man, or avoid their own sufferings from man: I say, if men did see this, surely they would not call it stubbornness and self-willedness, but a pure subjection and denial of the self-will in God's fear, joined with a holy and humble boldness in his power…
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