A Sermon and Prayer Delivered By JOHN VAUGHTON, In Grace-Church Street, April 1st, 1694.
Sermons by the People Called Quakers. A New Edition. London: Mary Hinde, 1775.
This is The Quaker Homiletics Online Anthology, Section One: The 17th Century.
It is a great mercy and kindness, that God hath been pleased to open the way of life and salvation
unto the souls of many people, that in this our day and generation were in great distress for want
of the knowledge of it; and this knowledge is given unto us through the blessed appearance and
revelation of the power and spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to which, my friends,
blessed be the Name of the Lord, we have been turned in our day and generation. This is the
message and testimony that God raised up his servants to bear among us in our day and time, who
came in the Spirit and power of our Lord Jesus Christ having been made the monuments of God's
mercy through faith in him that died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. That
blessed message and testimony which they bare among us, was in the evidence and demonstration
of the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus; for they came indeed to preach the Gospel to us in our
day, was the time way that the holy apostle Paul in his day was sent to preach the Gospel, who
said, we are sent of God to turn people from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan
unto God. The holy Apostle proposed the end for which they were sent, to turn the sons and
daughters of men from darkness to light, and front the power of Satan to the power of God, that
they might receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified
through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
O Friends! this faith in Christ is a living faith, it is a faith of the operation of God. God worketh it
in us by his own Spirit and Power. There are many that pretend to have faith in Christ, that are
strangers to the operation of the Power and Spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and so
do not know nor are made partakers of that faith which worketh by love, that giveth them victory
over the world, and preserveth them and keepeth them out of the Evil of the World.
Now friends, it is my desire that you may turn from darkness unto light; that you may all believe
in Christ, and walk in him, that you may be sensible that the blood of Jesus Christ, the dear and
blessed Son of God cleanseth from all sin, from all unrighteousness, and from all filthiness of
flesh and spirit. That so the end of the labour, travail, and testimonies of all the faithful
messengers and servants whom the Lord hath raised up in this our Day, and sent to turn men from
darkness unto Light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God; that their labour and
travail, I say, may not be in vain, we may all come to believe in the Light, that we be Children of
the Light and of the day, that so we may come to walk in the light. And then my friends, we shall
all come to be brought into heavenly fellow/hip; if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light, we
have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, the dear Son of God, cleanseth
us from all sin. And this is a work that will be profitable for all to know, seeing no unclean thing
shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God.
Friends, our justification is indeed in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake, not
our own. Any thing that we have done or can do, will not have a tendency to make our peace with
God, seeing that we can do nothing ourselves, that is acceptable and well pleasing to God.
Therefore we cannot in the least (as hath been unjustly charged upon us) dis-esteem or put a light
esteem on what the Lord Jesus Christ hath done for us, in his own person, without us, nor upon
what, by his own power and spirit, he hath wrought in our hearts: but we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, both as to his outward appearance, as he was God manifest in the flesh; and also, in his
inward and spiritual appearance in our souls. We believe in him that hath appeared by his Light,
and Grace, and Truth in our hearts, and we know the effectual working and operation of his
divine power to sanctify, and cleanse, and purify our souls; and thereby we come to have a real
sense of the benefit and advantage, that the souls of the children of men have in and by the death,
sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Till people come to believe in his spiritual appearance, by his light, and grace, and truth in their
hearts, and to receive him, and entertain him, and let him have a place .in their souls, that he by his
power may purge away sin and transgress; while men remain rebellious and stubborn, and will not
let him in, when he stands and knocks at the door of their hearts, that he may come in and sup
with them, and they with him; when men rebel against his heavenly light within them, and turn
away from his divine grace and holy Spirit, and turn the grace of God into wantonness,
lasciviousness, and run into uncleanness, drunkenness, envy, malice, and bitterness, and into those
things that are abominable and evil in the sight of the Lord; these men have no real advantage or
benefit by the death and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the satisfaction and atonement he
hath made for our sins, by that one offering and sacrifice of himself; and they do not truly know
the blessed end and design of his appearance and coming into the world, for this purpose was the
Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil, that he might finish
transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness.
My Friends, the end of the working of the invisible power and Spirit of Christ is, that he may a
place in all your hearts, and that you may entertain him; for the Lord will draw a line of judgments
upon all that go under the profession of Christianity, and own what the Lord Jesus Christ did
without them, but will not receive him, entertain him, believe in him, as he doth spiritually appear,
and shine into their hearts by his divine Light, grace, and spirit.
My Friends, remember the sore Judgments, miseries, calamities, and distresses, that came upon
Jews, because of their rejecting Christ in his outward appearance in that prepared body, in which
he came to do his Father's will; they would not own him in his bodily appearance, but rejected
him, and set him at nought, they crowned him with thorns, and crucified the Lord of life and
glory. He said unto them, except you believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins; and if ye die
in your sins, whether I go you cannot come. And thus he spake to Jerusalem, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not; behold your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall
not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. He
tells them of the calamity and distress that should come upon them and overtake them, and so it
came to pass, because they rejected the love of God, which in Christ Jesus was extended to them,
when he would have gathered them, and brought them into a state of reconciliation and peace
with the living God; but they would not.
So now, my Friends, in this day of Christ's inward and spiritual appearance, you have had the
testimonies of those that have been sent to you in the name, and power, and spirit of the living
God; and yet many will not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nor receive him inwardly and
spiritually appearing in their hearts, nor give way to him, nor wait and attend upon him, to do that
work in them and for them, which they cannot do for themselves: what work is that? The work of
sanctification. For none come to be justified freely by the grace God, through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ, as the apostles speaks, Rom. iii. 24. but they are also sanctified by the
spirit of Christ, and made partakers of the divine nature: so that it is absolutely necessary for us
to know Christ's power and Spirit, to renew and sanctify our souls, and purify cleanse us.
When we come to believe in the inward and spiritual appearance of Christ, and to know the work
of sanctification, we cannot have a light esteem of, nor disbelieve or undervalue, what the Lord
Jesus Christ hath done for us in his person; but we shall come to find the benefit, gain, advantage,
and profit of it redounding to our souls, through that one offering, when he offered himself
through the eternal Spirit, as a Lamb without Spot: he offered himself once for all, and we have
the benefit of it when we come to receive him, live in obedience to him, and answer his requirings,
and walk in the Spirit; and then as the apostle saith, if we walk in the spirit, we shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh, for all that is in the world, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the
pride of life, b not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof, but he that doth the will of God abideth forever.
Therefore see to it, you that make a profession of it, see that as you have received the Lord Jesus
Christ you walk as he walked, that you live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, and not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh; that you live not in malice, envy, or bitterness, and so grieve the good Spirit of
God, and bring a burthen upon the souls of the righteous.
We that are come to the sight and vision of heavenly things, and have the mysteries of the
Kingdom Of God opened to us, are come to be partakers of the gift of charity, which is a more
excellent way; if this be wanting, all is wanting. What doth the apostle say? Though I speak with
the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal; and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I
am nothing; and though I bestow all my goods to the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.
These things have been often said and declared to you, friends, and I have now this general
testimony to give, in the dread and fear of the Lord God; they that love God above all, will love
their neighbour as themselves, they will love those that are the friends of God and of his people;
nay, it is a duty incumbent on them, a new commandment, sayeth our Saviour, I give unto you,
that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. And we are not only to love one
another, but to love our enemies; this our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us, Mat. v. 44, 45. But I
say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven, for he causeth his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Now, my friends, that you may keep in this love of God and love to one another, is the desire and
breathing of my soul, that so your faith may stand not in the wisdom of men's words, but in the
power of God: this power will bring down every high thought and imagination into subjection and
obedience to Christ, that we may walk before him to all well-pleasing, that when we come to die,
we may lay down our heads in peace, and be found in him in Peace, without spot and blameless;
and, at the end of our days, we may receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our immortal
souls.
Friends, to the grace of God I commend you, the Lord God of life preserve and keep you, that
you may be safe in the hands of God, and abide under the shadow of his wing, and be surrounded
with his almighty arm, who hath hitherto preserved us in all our solemn meetings and assemblies,
when the enemies of God's Truth have risen up against us; the remembrance of it should be sweet
and pleasant to us, when the floods of the ungodly were muster'd up against us, and sometimes
hauled us out of our meetings to goals and prisons, for bearing testimony to the truth of God in
our day: O the sweet and comfortable presence of the Lord that then attended us! and, blessed be
his Name, he waited to be gracious to us, and did work manifold deliverances for us. Praise and
glory be given to the eternal and almighty God, whose divine power and providence hath brought
a calm over the nation, so that now we enjoy our meetings without trouble and molestation; O
that we may be sensible of the wonderful love and mercy of God to us!
And, friends, it greatly concerns us to be careful in the whole course of our lives, that we may not
give any occasion for the obstructing or hazarding of the present peace and liberty we enjoy; O !
there should be a serious care and tender regard to God's glory, and the honour of his great and
excellent name; and also, a care and concern for the reputation of our religion, and religious
societies, none may have any occasion, or just ground to bespatter and reproach us, and render us
odious to government under which we live.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord, for the freedoms and quiet seasons we enjoy, and that are
continued by the mighty arm and power of the Lord; let our souls bow before him, and let us walk
and live in a continual subjection to his divine wisdom and will, that our souls may be all bound up
in the bundle of Life, that we may serve the Lord with sincerity and perseverance to the end of
our days, that then an abundant entrance may be ministered us, into the everlasting kingdom of
our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Prayer:
Glorious God of Life, the visitations of thy love, in thy day of grace and salvation, are very sweet and precious to the souls of thy children; O Lord! we have cause to bless thy name, that thou haft: extended a day of mercy to us, a day wherein thou art visiting the sons and daughters of men, a day wherein thou hast caused the heavenly divine Light of thy Son Christ Jesus to shine into our hearts; thou haft given a remnant to believe in it, the eyes of our understandings have been opened by it, and we have come to see and partake of the visitations of thy tender love to our immortal souls. O! the shining of this divine light, hath made us see our way out of darkness, and the day of thy glorious power hath dawned upon us, when many have been in the region and shadow of death; and thou haft manifested thy loving kindness to the souls of men, in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord! be thou graciously pleased to be nigh to thy people, preserve them, and guide them in thy way, the way of holiness and righteousness, which thou hast led them into; O that they may persevere therein, and obtain salvation to their immortal souls! O eternal God of life and glory! we humbly pray thee, send forth thy Light and thy Truth, and open the eyes of the understandings of the sons and daughters of men, and make them willing, in this thy day, to embrace the appearance of the dear Son of thy love, in the shinings of his Light, and grace, and Truth in their hearts, they may be sanctified and purified, and made a peculiar people to thyself, zealous of good works. O eternal God of Power! let the souls of the children of men come to enjoy thy presence, that their bodies may become living Temples for thee to dwell in. O eternal God of life! exalt thy own Name and Truth, and make thyself known more and more to the nations of the earth, that they may come to believe in thy dear Son Christ Jesus, and that they nay come to know redemption and salvation, and the things that belong to the everlasting peace of their souls. O Lord! we pray thee, be with the families of thy children and people in all their exercises, in all their afflictions, and in all their temptations, be thou near to them, to preserve them, and keep them, and uphold them by thy free Spirit, that thou mayst guide them by thy counsel, and afterward receive them into glory. O eternal God of Life! be with the young generation of the children of thy servants, that they may serve thee in their day, and keep their hearts, O Lord! by thy mighty power, and let them receive the Word of thy Truth in the love of it, and seal them by thy good spirit to the day of redemption. And, O blessed God of Life! let thy work prosper in the midst of the Earth, and subdue all that is contrary to thy pure mind and heavenly will, and exalt the Kingdom of thy dear Son, and let his Name be known and trusted in, among all the nations of the world, that they may believe in him, who is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him; that so glory, and honour, and everlasting renown, and pure praises, and living thanksgiving may ascend to thee, and let all thy sensible ones offer them up to thee, through Christ the dear Son of thy love, in whom thou art well pleased, for thou alone art worthy to receive all glory and praise, who art God over all, blessed for ever and ever. Amen.