How much more sensible must you be of this, if you do not rest on the surface, but enquire into the bottom of religion, the religion of the heart? For, what inward unholiness, what evil tempers are among us, which have not a place among you also? You likewise bewail that ignorance of God, that want of faith and of the love of God and man, that inward idolatry of various kinds, that pride, ambition and vanity, which rule in the hearts even of those who still have _the form of godliness_. You lament before God, the deep covetousness that _eats so many souls as doth a gangrene_; and perhaps are sometimes ready to cry out, _help, Lord, for there is_ scarce _one godly man left_. Lay to thine hand: _for the faithful are minished from the children of men_!
2. And yet you retain _the truth that is after godliness_, at least, as to the substance of it. You own what is laid down in scripture, both touching the _nature_ and _condition_ of _justification_ and _salvation_. And with regard to the _author of faith and salvation_, you have always avowed, even in the face of your enemies, that _it is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure_: that it is his Spirit alone who _teacheth us all things_, all we know of _the deep things of God_: that every true believer has _an unction from the Holy One_ to _lead him into all_ necessary _truth_: that _because we are sons, God sendeth forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father_; and that _this Spirit, beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God_.
How is it then, my brethren (so I can call you now, although I could not have done it heretofore;) how is it, that the generality of you also are fallen from your stedfastness? In the times of persecution ye stood as a rock, tho’ _all the waves and storms went over_ you. But who can bear ease and fulness of bread! How are you changed, since these came upon you! Do not many of you now (practically I mean) put something else, in the room of _faith that worketh by love_? Do not some of you suppose that gravity and composedness of behaviour, are the main parts of Christianity? Especially, provided you neither swear, nor take the name of God in vain. Do not others imagine, that to abstain from idle songs, and those fashionable diversions commonly used by persons of their fortune, is almost the whole of religion? To which if they add family prayer, and a strict observation of the sabbath, then doubtless all is well! Nay my brethren, this is well, so far as it goes: but how little a way does it go toward Christianity? All these things, you cannot but see, are merely _external_; whereas Christianity is an _inward_ thing; without which the most beautiful outward form is lighter than vanity.
Do not others of you rest in _conviction_? Or good _desires_? Alas, what do these avail? A man may be _convinced_ he is sick, yea deeply convinced, and yet never recover. He may _desire_ food, yea with earnest desire, and nevertheless perish with hunger. And thus I may be _convinced_ I am a sinner; but this will not justify me before God. And I may _desire_ salvation (perhaps by fits and starts, for many years) and yet be lost for ever. Come close then to the point, and keep to your principles. Have _you_ received the Holy Ghost; the Spirit which is of God, and is bestowed by him on all believers, _that we may know the things which are freely given to us of God_? The time is short. Do you experience now that _unction from the Holy One_? Without which you confess _outward_ religion, whether negative or positive is nothing. Nay, and inward _conviction_ of our wants is nothing, unless those wants are in fact supplied. Good _desires_ also are nothing, unless we actually attain what we are stirred up to desire. For still, _if any man_ have _not the Spirit of_ Christ, whatever he desires, _he is none of his_. O my brother, beware you stop not short! Beware you never account yourself a Christian, no not in the lowest degree, till God _hath sent forth the Spirit of_ Christ _into_ your _heart_, and that _Spirit bear witness with_ your _spirit, that you are a child of God_.
3. One step farther from us, are you who are called (though not by your own choice) _Anabaptists_. The smallness of your number, compared to that of either the _Presbyterians_, or those of the _church_, makes it easier for you to have an exact knowledge of the behaviour of all your members, and to put away from among you every one that _walketh not according to the doctrine you have received_.