I say then, once for all, that the root of brambly bastard Calvinism is letter-knowledge.

"But", say some, "faith in Christ is taking God at His word, as revealed in holy Scripture." That I call letter-faith; it is man’s taking, namely, taking God at His word. O, awful! I believe all these takers! will be in hell, if they die as they are, as surely as each of them has a head on his shoulders. Thus, what these takers get to build their brambly bastard Calvinism with. I believe they will be executed for, with all the rest of the non-elect, under the universal statute of heaven: namely, that "the wages of sin is death." For, if invading the prerogative of the Holy Ghost is not death, I know not what is. Thus, bastard Calvinism, for every one of its opinions, will be executed or theft in taking them out of the letter of holy Scriptures without the seal of the Holy Spirit in the work of experience in the soul, which is the only royal way pursued by the court of hea*ven towards its favourites, the elect. Thus the capital charge on which bastard Cal*vinists will be executed in their conscience, under the wrath of God, will be for taking their religion out of the letter of the holy Scripture in the face of the warnings to the contrary therein contained, namely, that "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly," in the letter, and that he alone is a manifested elect soul, who is "builded for an habitation of God, through the Spirit," in experience alone: for the experimental knowledge of God and Christ in the heart is through God the Holy Ghost alone. Therefore. I say, bastard Calvinists will all be executed for high treason against God the Holy Spirit, which is the unpardonable sin (sic). One might, indeed, have thought that the poor wretches might have been staggered out of letter-Calvinism by reading, in the letter, that a true saint in God’s account is one who is "Gods husbandry building, and habitation;" and for whom Paul accordingly prays. "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eves of your understanding being en*lightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power!" (Eph. 1:16,etc.) O, no; bastard Calvinists live in a different day to what the apostle Paul did! God had to teach the apostle Paul, but "the Scriptures can teach me," says the bastard Calvinist. Thus, in London, and in various of the counties in England, these bastard Calvinist preachers and churches are getting more common every day.

Thus (reverting again to the hill I might suppose myself standing on in the natural world) all these works of man which I can see, will be burnt up to utter desolation. "The things that are seen are temporal;" all mere letter-knowledge of Scripture, all mere letter-knowledge of God, all mere letter-knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, "for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly;" all mere bastard Calvinism which stands in the cold letter, and not in the Spirit’s work internally; in the glorious experimental kingdom of God, in the soul experience; I say, under the mighty teachings of God alone, and not taken by mere reading; all bastard Calvinism, I say, will go off at the last day like a crack of thunder in a thunder storm; a sound, and nothing else. Thus, all things which I see from hence, trees, woods, hedges, towns, villages, grand mansion houses; the humble cottage of the peasant, and the swelling castle of the lord; the park of the square, the blazing grandeur of the duke’s high revelling hall, and the poor poverty-pinched cot of the day labourer; all these, the whole visible creation, every thing I see, must come down! "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven." (Heb. 12:26) "The heavens shall pass away also with a great noise." Then, where will bastard Calvinism be? Far be it from me to say one word against the letter of holy Scripture. I know it to be true, but I equally know that it cannot save any one. Salvation stands in power, and in power only. Accordingly. Paul says of the Corinthians, "I will not know your speech, but your power; for knowledge puffeth up; but the demonstration of the Spirit and of power in the conscience and soul, is alone salvation." (See I Cor. 1-5) For "the kingdom of God," in the souls of the really elect, "is not in word, but in power." Now, the Psalmist says. "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God." (Psa. 62:11) Now, what becomes of bastard Calvinism? Now, what becomes of "you ought" and "you ought not"? Now, what becomes of free will masked under good John Calvin? Now, what be*comes of those taking truth out of the letter, and who are never compelled to wait only upon God? "My soul, wait thou only upon God." (Psa. 62:5) for the letter of holy Scripture is only the echo. "The voice of the Lord Himself, powerful and full of majesty," experienced in the soul, in the all and in all to the elect. (Psa 29:4; II Cor. 2:4, 3) And the inward teachings of God in the elect soul exactly agree with holy Scripture. The incarnate, inward, and written word agree. (Rev. 19:13)

Thus, the apostle cuts all bastard Calvinists off at a stroke; "As many as have not the Spirit of Christ are none of His." By this stroke He cuts off the whole family of bastard Calvinists, who shall find, at the last day, to their carnal and everlasting confusion, that crowds in hell, as well as they, have had the letter of holy Scripture, and have been as wise, more or less, as Ahithophel, too, in it; and have been damned, all one for that. (Matt. 6:22) The Bramble Bush