the blessed truth in the
life and power of it. For formality in religion is nauseous to God and
good men; and the more so, where any form or appearance has been new and
peculiar, and begun and practised, upon a principle, with an uncommon
zeal and strictness. Therefore I say, for you to fall flat and formal,
and continue the profession, without that salt and savour by which it is
come to obtain a good report among men, is not to answer God's love, or
your parents' care, or the mind of truth in yourselves, or in those that
are without: who, though they will not obey the truth, have sight and
sense enough to see if they do that make a profession of it. For where
the divine virtue of it is not felt in the soul, and waited for and lived
in, imperfections will quickly break out, and show themselves, and detect
the unfaithfulness of such persons; and that their insides are not
seasoned with the nature of that holy principle which they profess.

Wherefore, dear children, let me entreat you to shut your eyes at the
temptations and allurements of this low and perishing world, and not
suffer your affections to be captivated by those lusts and vanities that
your fathers, for the truth's sake, long since turned their backs upon:
but as you believe it to be the truth, receive it into your hearts, that
you may become the children of God: so that it may never be said of you,
as the evangelist writes of the Jews in his time, that Christ, the true
light, "came to his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as
received him, to them he gave power to become the children of God; which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God;" a most close and comprehensive passage to this
occasion. You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews, in
that you bear the name of God's people, by being the children, and
wearing of the form of God's people: and he, by his light in you, may be
very well said to come to his own, and if you obey it not, but turn your
backs upon it, and walk after the vanities of your minds, you will be of
those that received him not; which I pray God may never be your case and
judgment. But that you may be thoroughly sensible of the many and great
obligations you lie under to the Lord for his love, and to your parents
for their care: and with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your
strength, turn to the Lord, to his gift and Spirit in you; and hear hi