And as without this secret Divine power there is no quickening and regenerating of dead souls, so the want of this generating and begetting power and life, is the cause of the little fruit that the many ministries that have been, and are in the world, bring forth. O that both ministers and people were sensible of this! My soul is often troubled for them, and sorrow and mourning compass me about for their sakes. O that they were wise! O that they would consider, and lay to heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting peace! Two things are to be briefly touched upon; the doctrine they taught, and the example they led among the people. I have already touched upon their fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric; and to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic, or main distinguishing point or principle, viz., the Light of Christ within, as God’s gift for man’s salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now mention in their natural and experimental order. First, Repentance from dead works to serve the living God; which comprehends three operations, first, a sight of sin; secondly, a sense and godly sorrow for it; thirdly, an amendment for the time to come. This was the repentance they preached and pressed, and a natural result from the principle they turned all people unto. For of light came sight; and of sight came sense and sorrow; and of sense and sorrow came amendment of life; which doctrine of repentance leads to justification; that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, through Christ, the alone propitiation; and to the sanctification or purgation of the soul from the defiling habits of sin present; which is justification in the complete sense of that word; comprehending both justification from the guilt of the sins that are past, as if they had never been committed, through the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and the creature’s being made inwardly just through the cleansing and sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the soul which is commonly called sanctification. From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of the high calling of all true Christians, viz., perfection from sin, according to the Scriptures of Truth, which testify it to be the end of Christ’s coming, the nature of his kingdom, and for which his Spirit was given. But they never held a perfection in wisdom and glory in this life, or from natural infirmities or death, as some have with a weak or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against them. This they called a redeemed state, regeneration, or the new birth; teaching everywhere, according to their foundation, that unless this work were known, there was no inheriting of the kingdom of God.