| Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have | heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world." 1. Jno. iv. 1-3. |
The foregoing extract from the Sermon, [see page 58] compared with the above quotations from Scripture, exhibits in a striking manner how recklessly the positive assertions contained in the extract are made, and how easily we may, whilst making high pretensions to divine guidance, put the imagination of man above the revelation which God has given us in the Holy Scriptures.
EXTRACT VII.
Quietism unauthorised by Christ and his Apostles.
"But time would fail me to open all these things.—I feel my own infirmity. I felt nothing when I came into this meeting, nor had I a desire after any thing, but to centre down into abasement and nothingness. And in this situation I remained for a while, till I found something was stirring and rising in my spirit. And this was what I laboured after—to be empty,—to know nothing—to call for nothing—and to desire to do nothing.* Now my whole drift is, to gather the minds of the people to the light within, which is the same as the grace of God, the manifestation of the spirit that reproves for evil." p. 47.
* Such notions as the above, are to be found in the works of some mystic Roman Catholic writers; but very little attention will enable us to discover, how entirely they are unauthorised by Christ and his Apostles.
We are indeed not sufficient of ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves; it is God who worketh in
