“Article VII.
“I believe that God, foreseeing some men’s nature will improve the grace which is given them, and that they will repent, believe, and be very good, elects them unto salvation.
“Article VIII.
“I believe that the love and favour of Him with whom is no variableness and shadow of turning, and whose gifts and callings are without repentance, may vary, change, and turn every hour and every moment, according to the behaviour of the creature.
“Article IX.
“I believe that the seed of the Word, by which God’s children are born again, is a corruptible seed; and that, so far from enduring for ever (as that mistaken apostle Peter rashly affirms), it is frequently rooted out of the hearts of those in whom it was sown.
“Article X.
“I believe that Christ does not always give unto His sheep eternal life; but that they often perish, and are, by the power of Satan, frequently plucked out of His hand.
“Article XI.
“Though I have solemnly subscribed to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, and have affirmed that I believe them from my heart, yet I think our Reformers were profoundly ignorant of true Christianity, when they declared, in the Ninth Article, that ‘the infection of nature doth remain in them which are regenerate;’ and, in the Fifteenth, that ‘all we, the rest (Christ only excepted), although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ This I totally deny, because it cuts up, root and branch, my favourite doctrine of Perfection; and, therefore, let Peter, Paul, James, or John, say what they will; and let reformers and martyrs join their syren song, their eyes were at best but half opened, for want of a little Foundery eye-salve; therefore, I cannot look upon them as adult believers, and fathers in Christ.”