11. Again, others there are, I make no doubt in all parts of the kingdom, both amongst clergy and laity, men and women, rich and poor, whose consciences are greatly awakened, who see the general apostacy from the religion of the gospel, whose souls are wanting and wishing nothing so much, as to know how all that they _are_, all that they _have_, and all that they _do_, may be one continual sacrifice, and service of love unto God; to know how, and in what manner, and to what extent, and by what means, they may and ought to _be perfect, even as their Father which is in heaven is perfect_.
Now, who can help looking with _love_ and _compassion_ upon those poor souls, longing for that which has been so long lost; asking after that, which scarce any one will tell them any thing of, and wanting to enter upon paths where there are few or no footsteps to be seen, nor any travellers in motion?
Had these awakened souls lived in the first ages of the church, nay, I may say in almost any till these very last ages of it, their zeal had not been in vain: they could have been at no loss to know _how_ they were to proceed in their heavenly purpose; because they would have been immediately directed to some living examples of the perfect spirit of the gospel, who were publicly known and acknowledged by all to be such, who had the same undisputed right, to point out the Christian profession, as _John_ the Baptist had to preach up _mortification_ and _self-denial_. Every age, and every sex, priests and people of all conditions, had their known standards to resort to, where every one was sure to be guided, assisted, and encouraged to live up to that height of holiness.
12. But now how does the Doctor deal with this sort of people? What _love_, _assistance_, and _encouragement_ does he reach out to them? Why, truly, he considers them as a _deluded_, _weak_, or _hypocritical_, or _half-thinking_ people, that disturb the Christian church with their projects; who are to be set right by returning to the instructions of common sense. He ridicules every step they must take in their intended progress, by adding absurdities of his own invention to it. There is nothing for such people throughout his whole discourse, but reproaches, and discouragement.
Are they desirous of all that _self-denial_, all such _mortification_ of bodily appetites and sensual passions, as may best fit them to be temples of the Holy Spirit? He ridicules them, as holding the sinfulness of _smelling a rose_.
Do they begin to discover the _deep corruption_ of their nature, the superficialness and weakness of their virtues, and to fear they have as yet scarce come up to the righteousness of the _Scribes_ and _Pharisees_? He tells them “The great enemy of souls adapts his temptations to all sorts of tempers and dispositions.” Those who are disposed to be good and virtuous, if he cannot prevail with them to be vicious, commonly so called, he labours to make them over virtuous, that is vicious, tho’ not commonly so called; and so involves them in dangers and mischiefs.
Are they such as are desirous of reforming their own lives, by bringing all their actions to the standard of the gospel, and wholly intent upon their own advancement in merely _practical piety_?
To these he shews, that they are in the very paths that lead, and always did lead to _fanatic madness_.
Thus says he, “To what a height of _fanatic madness_ in _doctrines_, as well as practice are some advanced, who set out at first with the appearance of more than ordinary sanctity in _practice only_?” And again, “I do say that in all ages enthusiasts have been _righteous over-much_; they began with the last mentioned, and ended with the other; _and is it not so now_?”
13. Further, are there others, who begin to feel the _mystery_ of their redemption discovered in their own souls, so that they hunger and thirst after the manifestation of the divine life in them, desiring that Christ may be wholly formed and revealed in them, that they may _put on_ Christ, _be_ in him _new creatures_, led by his spirit, _growing_ in him as branches in the vine, hearing the word of God written and spoken in their hearts, in his light _seeing_ light, and _tasting_ in the inward man _the powers of the world to come_?
* For such as these, the Doctor has this instruction: “That there is, says he, such a thing as the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our souls, tho’ we cannot distinguish it from the operations of our own minds, is not only granted, but insisted upon by all sincere and sober Christians. But what _reason_, what _scripture_, is there for this inward _seeing_, _hearing_, _feeling_?”