264 The Saints perfeti freedom, or Joh. 5.44 ! Cora 3.1 Mar.8. 34 Mar. 5.26 John 7.7. & c.15.20 How can I E E believe who thus Peek honour one of anotber,and not that honour which-cornmeth from Godonly ? Certainly thefe men vvhatcver they talkofChrift, and preachof Chrift, and make a great noifè in words, yet they will be found to be no other but 44- founding bra and tinkling Cymbals. They will undertake to invite others toChrift-, and never found Jefus in themfelves ; for no man can come after him , but he that denies himflfe , and takes up Ns crc(1 and follows him , and though they in words and notions, talk offelf-denial! and Jelling all for the PEARL, yet they are wife in themfelves, and holy in themfelves, and rich in themfelves ; and they have a power to aíì in thewaies of God, and to conform them Delves to therule : have thefe menfold all think you ? and though they fay men are dead in trefpaffes and fins , yet how many MVS'S do they lay upon them , and doeThus andThus ? Andwhence is all this, but becaufe indeed they neveryetfollowed Chrift, never yet found him, never yet be- lieved in him, never yet denied themfelves , were never re- duced to ernptineß and nothingne(l, but arc Will alive and whole in themfelves , except it be for a few outward ncgleas or onsillions now and then, and that they can makenp again with a little double diligence? and this is their way,and here- in lies the life and top of their Religion. And truly brethren, how can thefe things be otherwife ? Did the woman with the bloody Mile, ever come to Chrifi as longas the had any thing left ? neither doth any of the ions of men return to him fpiritually, till they arepoor;' empty , loft , naked , miferable andundone : And therefore, though they fay they are looking for this One and onely Deliverer, and talk much of him ; yet, all their waies and pra&ices declare the contrary ; And this true Deliverer is He that they (peak againft and oppofe; And as he was re- proached, hated,fpit open, and crucifiedby the Jews , fo is he in and by thefe men ; for the true Chrift, and the true Mefliah is alwaies abujed, flandered, crucified by the world ; Me it hates alwaies, and therefore it hateth you; even all thefe that hold him forth in the fpirit, it cannot but hate andper- fecute, becaufe they teflifie that all the deeds thereof are evil. And
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