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liantly in the fight; and I fear not but he will turn to flight my enemies, and stop the mouths of the lions, quench the flames of fire, escape the edge of the sword. This he hath quoted in the 16th page, that the Lord will do for them where their faith is strong in him. Then does not this man build up with one hand what he is trying to pull down with the other? as he has pretended to judge of a thing he knows nothing about, as he does not know me; and, I fear, does not know my Master; yet, God forbid I should deal as harshly with him, as he hath with me; for I trust the Lord may, at some places, be working in his heart, to bring forward Scriptures to strengthen my faith, and to clear me, while he is trying to condemn me, that he hereafter may see his own folly, and that he has but a notion of faith, a dead faith, without a lively sense of faith; for if he was acquainted with the Scriptures, and knew what was the duty of a Christian, he would never have acted with such gross errors, to pretend to write against my books, and confess himself he had read but little of them. How unjustly should I publish against the man, or condemn his book, before I had read it through and had seen what to cond mn in it? I do not condemn the texts of Scripture he has brought forward; but I condemn the manner he hath explained most of them; though I grant his explanations are short; but in the 15th and 16th pages, I confess his explanations are wise and just and perfectly true; which I can prove by happy experience.

And now I shall came to his observation on Sealing. He says, mine is a new fashioned mode of sealing, "which I vainly imagine as a Type of the Israelites "sprinkling the blood:" he says, " that passage refers "to the blood of Christ." Does the ignorant man suppose I did not know that as well as he did? a thing I was taught from my cradle, that the sprinkling of the door posts was the sprinking of the blood of Christ, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the

REMARKS ON WHAT B. H. SAID ABOUT SEALING. 301

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world; and to sprinkle our hearts from dead works, that in and through the merits of HIS Blood we might be saved. But could not HIS Blood cleanse us without Types and Shadows? Could HE not have saved us if the blood had not been sprinkled upon the door posts? You will answer, Yes; the Lord could have done it; but he did not choose to do it without setting a temporal sign for a spiritual salvation. Then what have you to marvel at the Sealing, if the Lord should require a temporal love of man, that they should shew their love to God, by subscribing with their hands unto him, to fulfil the words of the prophet*? And now to fulfil that word, believers are required to sign with their hands unto their Lord, that they wish for Christ's kingdom to come, and HIS will to be done on earth as it is in heaven; and Satan's power to be destroyed; then to have a temporal seal, they are the sealed of the Lord, whereby they are sealed to the day of Redemption; so that the things temporal and spiritual n ay stand together of sealing, as the things temporal and spiritual stand together of the blood of sprinkling. Now if the sealing be not a temporal thing, why is it said in the Revelation, hurt not the earth, nor the sea, till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads? He does not say, till they are sealed in their hearts, but in their foreheads, meaning their names are sealed-as every man's name is signed in his forehead when he is baptized; and a particular number was mentioned; but that number can never be known from the heart-who is sealed, and who is not: but by the names the number is known. Now do men vainly suppose, when it is said these dreadful judgments should be prevented until the number were sealed by their names, and that those that were not sealed had the mark of the beast in their

• Isaiah xliv. 5.

foreheads, (which is a thing easily to be understood) they are signed with the sign of the cross on the forehead in token hereafter that they shall fight manfully under Christ's banner, against the world, the flesh, and the devil; but now that they are called forward to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, they refuse to let their names be seen in public, that they have a desire for the kingdom of Christ? Though they receive their names in the forehead, to fight manfully for him; but let them know, the cross of Christ came through the sinfulness of the the beast; then if they are willing to wear that mark of the cross, but refuse to sign for Christ to come and wear the crown, and possess the kingdom he died to purchase and redeem, they must remain with the mark of the beast in their foreheads; whose mark they are willing to continue, and their pretended love is but hypocrisy. I could enlarge much on this subject, as our Saviour compares things temporal with things spiritual and the sealing is made plain to me, that it is a command from the Lord to those, who wish for his coming. But I am sorry to say there is one fatal truth in his bookthat some of the of the sealed people are just like the Calvinists, that when they think they are the elect of God, they may commit what sin they please-they are the elect, and they shall be saved. This erroneous belief I have seen in many of the Calvinists, and have heard them say, they knew they were the elect of the Lord, when their lives and conduct have been such as a moral man would have been ashamed to live in, if he had any regard for his honour amongst men. I heard one of them say myself, when he was reproved for swearing: "he was in no sin, it was not he swore, it was sin that dwelled in him swore." The same excuse I heard made for drunkenness; and another who judged himself elect, for stealing, when he was found out, said"The devil would tempt the children of God, so the

REMARKS ON TEXTS QUOTED BY B. H. 303

sin could not be imputed to him; for he knew he was the elect, and was sure of being saved. This I have heard and known. All manner of sins and the blackest crimes have been committed by these men, that call themselves the elect, and said, they were sure of being saved do what they would. Now I fear this erroneous and mistaken notion is in some of the sealed; for the net was cast into the sea gathering in good and bad; and to fulfil the Scriptures perfectly, many put their hands to the plough and drew back; that meaneth, after they had signed their names for Christ's kingdom to be established, and Satan's destroyed, they drew back and destroyed their seals. Then how can they be fit for the kingdom of heaven? Now I shall end with one observation more, on page 23, where this wise writer brings every word against himself: How can a man handle the Scriptures so deceitfully, and not have his own conscience condemn him? I shall go from the Scripture he quotes from Jeremiah xiv. 14, 15-Then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them they prophesy unto you a false vision, divination, and a thing of nought; and from the deceit of their hearts. Here this man must make himself a prophet, whom the Lord hath spoken to; or bring himself under the very character that he hath here mentioned, whom the Lord hath not spoken unto, but who is prophesying out of the deceitfulness of his own heart. Then let him tremble at the following words, which he has brought against himself: Therefore thus saith the Lord-By sword and famine shall these prophets be consumed. Here he points the reader to Jeremiah xxiii. 16-They make you vain, they speak a vision out of their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Now this man, if he does not make himself a prophet that the Lord hath spoken to, must make himself the false prophet, that prophesieth lies in God's name; saying, I have

dreamed, I have dreamed; but what a dream, of what a delusion must this man be in, to place the Scriptures in this manner against himself, thinking to make the people err by his lies, and his lightness? If he say, the Lord hath not spoken to him, the following lines condemn him-Yet I sent them not, nor, commanded them. Then if the Lord neither sent him nor commanded him, out of his own mouth he is condemned to be fed with wormwood, and drink the waters of gall. To walk in lies, and strengthen the hand of evil doers, that none may turn from the evil of their ways, he says, they are all unto the Lord as Sodom and Gomorrah-and like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah this man hath made himself: who went to destroy the angels, when they came to Lot, and despised the warning of Lot, till the fire came down from heaven to destroy them. Now if this man had one grain of sense or reason, his own handwriting would come against him, and make him tremble like Belshazzer of old, and his knees site one against another, with the consciousness of his own guilt-that, he hath either made himself a prophet of the Lord, or he has brought every text of Scripture against himself, to condemn himself: how is he wresting the Scriptures to his own condemnation! Now let him mark Ezekiel xiii. 18 -Thus saith the Lord God, woe, woe to the women, that sew pillows to all arm-holes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every statue, to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people? And will ye save the souls alive that come unto you? Here, vain and simple man with all the art you can invent, you are trying to hunt the souls of those who wish to flee from the wrath to come, and are warned to prepare for the coming of their Lord, that they may be able to stand in the evil day. But you are telling them you can save their souls alive, if they will come unto you; but can you save your own soul in that day, when you have mocked the visitation of the Lord, despis

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