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abased, coyly shun and try to put away, judging ourselves unworthy his clemency! These things, and thousands more, which my poor soul has enjoyed, and with which the word of God abounds, are all couched under the seal; which no natural man, however bright his parts, or however profound his learning, can touch, much less discover and bring to the light. Natural men in the ministry are broken cisterns, wells without water, clouds without rain, lamps without oil, and a cruse without salt. One dead discourse from a minister of the letter is sufficient to cast the most lively soul into a deep sleep, to lay the most enlarged saint in irons, and to make a watered garden like a barren heath. Spiritual lethargy, legal bondage, and soul-beggary, are all that ever I got from such ministers; and I have formerly had enough of this hard fare. They turn a house of prayer into a prison, and freeborn citizens into slaves.

The believer, as a living epistle, has all the contents of God's laws written upon his heart, sealed and kept secret from the world; for the men of the world can neither see them no rbelieve them, though he declares them. He is sealed with the assurance of faith, which fixes his heart. He is sealed with the love of God in Christ Jesus, which is his circumcision, and a sure sign and seal of the righteousness of Christ being his; for love casteth out fear, and believeth all things. Christ, his foundation, is sealed; the covenant, and all its rich

contents, which are hid from the world, are sealed also and made sure to him; but not concealed nor hid from him.

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Every wholesome truth, promise, or doctrine of Christ; every reproof or rebuke that gives instruction; together with all the cautions, warnings, and secret counsels, which are given by the great Prophet of the church; are clothed with power, impressed upon the soul, and fixed, as with a seal, upon his heart. "For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction; that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man,” Job xxxiii. 14– 17. Without this sealing Satan and his heretics would soon steal away the word sown in the heart; as we often see in men of the greatest abilities, when the word is only received in the understanding and in the judgment. These are often seduced and led to believe the greatest absurdities; and so would the elect themselves, were it not for the seal which attends the word. Truth, when sealed, makes the conscience free; and such souls set to their seal that God is true. Truth, then, reaches the affections; it is received in the love of it. It is the word of healing that makes us whole; the word of faith which makes us believe; the word of power which makes us obey; the word of wisdom which makes us wise unto salvation; the word

of health which cures all our spiritual diseases, attended with the abundance of peace; a word of light to guide our feet into the way of peace. It is the word of righteousness which makes us just; and the word of reconciliation which makes us friends. It is the promise of adoption which makes us sons; the promise of life which makes us heirs; and the promise of victory through grace which makes us more than conquerors. All this, and much more, attends the sealing of our instruction. Hence the impossibility of the elect being finally deceived. Satan tries hard at the young believer, and sends the most wise and subtle servants in all his interest to do the same; but the young believer, just verged out of his bondage, and delighting himself in his liberty, and living upon little else but his divine comforts; and finding that these heretics bring nothing to his mind but confusion and bondage, which strip him of his sweet morsels; he soon begins to be afraid of them; he shuns them, and suspects them to be thieves and robbers; and he is quite right, for they are nothing else. And the Holy Spirit continues to revive and renew the work; this brings the soul again and again forth to the light. And every time the Lord shines into his heart the impostor is more and more discovered; while he feels his own heart the more strengthened, grounded, and settled in the truth.

By this seal the image of God is impressed; and this is done upon the soul by the Spirit, while

Jesus Christ is exhibited to the enlightened understanding, and to the eye of faith; as it is written, "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18. Various are the views that believers have of Christ Jesus while the Holy Spirit operates and makes this change, or impresses this image on the soul. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and Manoah, all saw him; for he appeared to each of these, and many more. Some saw him as an angel of the Lord, very terrible. Some in a human form, as Joshua; and in the clouds, as Job. Some as a flame of fire, as Moses. Some in suffering circumstances, as Isaiah. Others in his priestly habit, as Ezekiel and Daniel. Others in a war appearance, with garments dipped in blood, and upon a red horse, as John and Zechariah. Sometimes as the Ancient of days and venerable Judge, with his hair like the pure wool. Some upon his judgment-seat, as Daniel. And others upon his glorious throne, as King of Zion, and above the cherubims, as Ezekiel. He was seen also of Paul; and since that by Mr. Hart, and by me also, and by many others in the present day, who have seen him in his own light by the eye of faith, and, with the enlightened understanding, as man in suffering circumstances upon the cross, and shining, at the same time, in the fountain of eternal light. O most precious, most

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wonderful, and soul-transforming, view! Others see him in the light of the word. The word is attended with light and life. The Spirit testifies of Christ to the soul; at which time the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in his wings; which vision is promised to all them that fear his name, Mal. iv. 2; and it is a promise of gospel times. And this is attended with joy unspeakable and full of glory, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising," Isa. lx. 1, 3. Which promise will be fulfilled, and found to be true, as long as there is a chosen vessel among the Gentiles to be called. And, although we have many preachers who deny all vision, and of course all supernatural light, yet we know that such cannot be burning and shining lights, because they deny the light; nor ministers of Christ; for he makes his ministers a flaming fire, Psalm civ. 4. Nor are they children of light, nor of the day; but of the night and of darkness; for, if what they assert be true, there is nothing but damnation in all the country: for God says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," Prov. xxix. 18. Such blind guides have nothing to guide them but the light of nature, "They speak a vision of their own heart," Jer. xxiii. 16. To deny all vision is and all knowledge of

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to deny God, who is light,

him. God promises that all his children shall know him; but how? God gives us the light of

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