_O God for as much as without thee_, we are not able to please thee, grant _that_ thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts. Again _we pray thee, that thy grace may_ ALWAYS _prevent_ and _follow us, and make us_ CONTINUALLY _to be given to all good works_. Again, _Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the Spirit to think and do_ ALWAYS _such things as be rightful, that we, who cannot do_ ANY THING that is good, WITHOUT _thee_, may, by thee, be enabled to live according to thy will. Again, _Because_ the frailty of man, WITHOUT _thee_, CANNOT BUT FALL, keep us EVER, by thy HELP, from all things hurtful, and LEAD _us to all things profitable to our salvation_, &c. Again, _O God from whom all good things do come, grant to us, thy humble servants_, that by THY holy INSPIRATION, _we may_ THINK _those things that be good_, and, _by thy merciful_ GUIDING, _may_ PERFORM _the same_.
And now, _Eusebius_, how is the great controversy about religion, and salvation, ♦shortened.
♦ “shortned” replaced with “shortened”
For since the _one_ work of Christ as your Redeemer, is to take from the earthly life of flesh and blood, its usurped power, and to raise the smothered spark of heaven, out of death, into life, your _one_ work also, under your Redeemer is fully known. And you have the utmost certainty, _what_ you are to do, _where_ you are to seek, and in _what_ you are to _find_ your salvation. All that you have to _do_, is to oppose, resist, to renounce the evil tempers, and workings of your earthly nature. You want no deliverance, but from the power of yourself. This is the one murderer of the divine life within you. And every thing that your earthly nature does, is under the influence of _self-will_, _self-love_, and _self-seeking_, whether it carries you to laudable, or blameable practices, all is done in the nature and spirit of _Cain_, and only helps you to such goodness, as when _Cain_ slew his brother. For every action and motion of _self_, has the spirit of _antichrist_, and murders the divine life within you.
Judge not therefore of yourself, by considering how many of those things you do, which _divines_ and _moralists_ call virtue and goodness, nor how much you abstain from those things, which they call sin and vice.
But daily and hourly, in every step that you take, see to the _spirit that is within you_, whether it be heaven, or earth that guides you. And judge every thing to be sin and Satan, in which your _earthly nature_, has any share of life in you; nor think that any goodness is in you, but so far as it is an _actual death_ to the pride, the vanity, the wrath, and selfish tempers of your fallen, earthly life.
Again, here you see, _where_ and how you are to seek your salvation, not in taking up your travelling-staff, or crossing the seas to find out a new _Luther_ or a new _Calvin_, to cloath yourself with their opinions. No. The _oracle_ is at home, that _always_ speaks the truth to you; nothing is your truth, but that good and that evil which is within you. For salvation or damnation is not an outward thing, but springs up within you. What you are in yourself, what is doing in yourself, is either your salvation or damnation.
Again nothing that we do is bad, but for this reason, because it _resists_ the power, and working of God within us; and nothing that we do, can be good, but because it conforms, to the Spirit of God within us. And therefore, you have the utmost certainty, that God, salvation and the kingdom of heaven, are within you, and that all _outward religion_, from the fall of man to this day, is not for itself, but merely for the sake of an _inward_ and _divine_ life, which was lost when _Adam_ died his first death in paradise. So that it may well be said, _circumcision is nothing_, and _uncircumcision is nothing_, because nothing is wanted, but a _new creature_, called out of the death and darkness of flesh and blood, into the light, life and perfection of its first creation.
And thus also, you have the fullest proof in _what_ your salvation precisely consists. Not in any historic faith, or knowledge of any thing absent, or distant from you, not in any variety of restraints, rules, and methods of practising virtues, not in any formality of opinion about _faith_ and _works_, _repentance_, _forgiveness_ of _sins_, or _justification_, and _sanctification_, not in any truth, or righteousness, that you can have from yourself, from the best of men or books, but wholly and solely in the life of God.