and Fellowship they rend Yea oft proceed in their litigious Jars Till Wrath exerts it self in open Wars And there they seek each others Blood to spill This contradicts our Blessed Saviour's Will Who came not to destroy but Peace to send And Good-will unto Men this was his End What then to be his Will be signify'd As Gospel to Mankind doth still abide But some one Form alone to re-ordain Which Men in strife about it should retain Was to re-build what he before took down As in the Scripture is expresly shown With Men such Buildings do sometimes agree But cannot with th' Eternal Deity With him all Wisdom and all Pow'r doth dwell He can Effects in all their Causes tell He doth foresee them e'er they come to pass So could not be deceived in this Case From hence we may believe he would not lay The Ground for Envy which to take away He came and Power had that to prevent To make it then could not be his Intent Now if he did no more one Form erect Unto all Forms he hath a like Respect As Forms directing unto what is Good In which Sense this is to be understood And this to us doth certain Truth appear Since only they 're accepted that 's sincere This Doctrine is not strange nor is it new For it hath been in ev'ry Age as true It 's not more Truth because it is more seen For what 's a Truth as true has always been Yea even in the Jewish State at height Their greater ne'er condemn'd a lesser Light For ev'ry Man that feared God and wrought True Righteousness in ev'ry Age throughout The World Acceptance gain'd as Peter taught But God with his own Form a Fault did find In that it never could perfect the Mind And as that Form could not the Mind perfect No other Form can do 't in that respect The taking down of that doth plainly show That all should wait a greater Truth to know For best of Forms could only regulate The outward Man they reach no higher State The Branch they may cut off as 't springeth out But have no pow'r to reach unto the Root And tho' thus far they may be termed Good As outward evil is by them withstood Yet must there a more sublime Way be known As by our Saviour's Words is plainly shown Who told us That except we 're born again We in the Kingdom can no Place obtain No outward Guides can e'er compleat this Work For under that an Hypocrite may lurk Like Truth the Devil did get into those Who had God's Form but did his Pow'r oppose For ne'er was Form tho' 't was exactly Good But hath at last the Pow'r of Truth withstood Not from their Nature nor from their true Use But from their Weakness and their blind Abuse Thus outward Rules as set up to serve God Tho' they may disser in their Form and Mode All in the Ground agree alike in kind As they are made a Guide unto the Mind The highest State such can but Legal find So then their proper Use in them 's to wait To know the Gospel and the Legal State Tho all God's Dealings we may Gospel call Which he doth use to bring Man out o' th' Fall For what God addeth Man for to restore That we may put upon the Gospel Score And thus the Law the Gospel did begin But Gospel is o' th' Law a finishing For those Distinctions are to us as true As they were unto Israel or the Jew Since what was done i' th' Jewish Dispensation As Figures unto us they have relation For what God did that was not to remain It is the Substance that such Acts contain Which we should look for and inquire it out To find how our Salvation's brought about It was the Seed of Abr'am that God chose According to the Flesh and unto those He gave his Form that from Mount Sinai came And Christ came in the Flesh to end the same For as that Form measur'd and stinted was It could not end until it came to pass The Son of God from Heaven did descend An higher way to shew that Form to end He came not to destroy it but fulfill For Righteousness that was and is his Will And as he did then he doth now supply The lower Rules with Rules that are more high His Government goes on and doth not cease From good to better he doth it increase Whoever finds this Truth and in him trust They bring forth in external things what 's just Things strictly honest such both speak and do Not by compulsion of an outward Law Nor by Constraint but by a ready Mind For such are now to Good by Love inclin'd This last Appearance doth the first contain For in the last the Substance doth remain God's Work with Man doth in Progression run From less to more until the Work is done And when the Summ's computed at the last It comprehends the whole of what is past This nobler way that by our Lord was shown Was to the Jew and Gentile to be one And all Mankind in their whole Multitude He did in Jew and Gentile then include And of those twain doth one new Body make As of his Law and Gospel they partake The Jew as to the Flesh he did reject That in the Spirit he might him elect And he did Abr'am's fleshly Seed refuse That after th' Spirit he his Seed might chuse Thus all vain-glorious Boasting's laid aside None may in the defective Flesh confide For by Gods Spirit must Man's Works be try'd There none can on external Things relie That he 'll to all as to the Jew deny The Jew now inward is and so 's his Law Yea and in Spirit must he Gospel know For Law the Gospel it doth yet precede That Men might Gospel-everlasting read God's Holy Law in th' Hearts of every one The Substance is of what was writ in Stone For Moses Law we may a Transcript call Copy'd in Stone from this Original Christ to the outward Jew i' th' Flesh has been But so hereafter will no more be seen By them he was in that appearance slain Tho' in himself he alway did remain As now he is of him we ought to have Knowledge if him we know as from the Grave He rose to know Christ only as the Jews Is t' hear of him yet the right Way refuse To see him only as they did of old Is him and not his Myst'ry to behold The outward Law was needful good and true But by misuse became a Vail to th' Jew Which to this Moment doth obscure their Mind Nor can't be rent away but keeps them blind 'Till they are turn'd to Christ and know thereby 'T was the Messias they did crucifie Christ came i' th' Flesh 't was absolutely good For without that could not be understood The Mystery hid from the World's Foundation In all Mankind in every Generation This coming also may a Veil be made Which unperceiv'd draws on a gloomy Shade
O'er most as on him in a Creature-way Men look they know not his Eternal Day And whilst Men think he is not to be known As surely now as when to Jew was shown Or that he is not now to us so near As when he did to them i' th' Flesh appear Such know him not as everlasting King Nor yet as in his Death and Suffering Christ is and ever has a Myst'ry been Which Vult'rous Eye as yet hath never seen Whoever finds and sees whom they profess He is their Mystery of Godliness He was and is their undefiled way In which could never walk a Beast of prey Christ in the Flesh was vailed to the Jew To know him but i' th' Flesh's a Vail to you That Christ shall once be seen the Jews presume And you aright believe that he did come But whilst you know him not t' appear within Both are alike concluded under Sin 'T is true in a good Sense what both assert And into one new Man God will convert These two as they breathe after Christ and then Shall know that he puts off the Vail in Men. For all those Acts which heretofore he did He doth in Spirit now tho' they are hid Him still the legal Christian doth despise For in the Flesh he 's still a Cross to th' Wise He in the Flesh a Suff'rer alway was Since his being slain in Man came first to pass Christ is the same he was in every Case Who this believes doth a grand Truth embrace 'T is an authentick Truth that Christ is Lord But who so calls him of their own accord Without the Holy Spirit cannot find The truth of what they utter in their Mind In what they say true Witness is not born Nor th' Vail yet off their Understanding torn Now that the Lord the Spirit is was told Unto the Jew and true to all doth hold In Spirit then we must know Christ his Day Before the Vail in us be put away But we mistake that Christ expect to know As Jesus e'er we understand his Law The Law of God appearing in the Heart Of his great Work in us hath the first part This the Schoolmaster is which us doth bring To witness Christ in us as Lord and King This Holy Law in us must take a place Before we truly know what 's Grace as Grace This is affirm'd by the Apostle Paul And is no doubt acknowledg'd true by all I was said he without the Law alive But when th' Commandment came Sin did revive And then I dy'd was that made Death to me That was ordain'd to Life No verily But that Sin might as Sin be understood Death was in me wrought by that which was good This was the Law i' th' Heart there is no doubt For th' Law in Stone he never was without Nay further still we do in Scripture find He names th' aforesaid Law that of his Mind Which whilst not com'd unto we may believe His Sense of Sin and Death did not perceive An outward Good was to the outward Jew A Figure to the Spiritual that is true The outward Jews with Slavery opprest Before they could it see must be releast That is they could not see the promis'd Land Whilst shackled by imperious Phar'oh's Hand But were till more opprest as to it dead Nor could they cry to be delivered Thus Man in Death doth never Trouble know He 's dead to God and also to his Law The Law 's as dead to him till God revive Or by his Spirit make the same alive But when by God restor'd to Life it hath That Pow'r in us to manifest his Wrath From Heav'n against our Sin and what is Evil Wrought in 's by our malignant Foe the Devil For God Division makes by Judgment sure Betwixt the Soul of Man and Satan's Pow'r And Man in that Division doth partake Of Sorrow truly for the Evil's sake This is the Way the Father doth us draw Unto his Son that we his Love may know No other way the Righteous yet have found That saving Grace might unto them abound And they that know not thus the Work begin Their Knowledge has but superficial been Such then do well themselves to prove and try If they him know on whom they can relie Our Way th' Apostle here doth personate And to the Life sets forth the troubled State Thus he exclaim'd I in my Members find A Law that wars against that of my Mind And takes me Captive sore against my Will By which am forc'd to do that which is ill To what is good I readily consent But finds no pow'r the evil to prevent O wretched Man who shall deliver me From this body of Death and Misery The Law brought Wrath the Trouble Christ did bring Into his Flesh there to condemn the Sin His Soul to save by which he did espy Grace without Works and could it magnifie The Law of God the Creature doth condemn But Christ the Grace condemns the Sin in them God makes his Law alive this breaks Death's reign And Life we do receive by being slain Tho' all God's Dealings with us be in love Yet all his Acts we do not so approve For he doth kill before he giveth Life And in that dying there is found great Strife And yet this killing is to make us live But who in dying can that Truth perceive He makes us live but still we live in pain Because the Death and Evil doth remain We 're sure we live because we do endure The Sense of Grief which makes our living sure Our Trouble now proceedeth from within The Cause of it's the Knowledge of our Sin And Knowledge of our Sin and servile Yoke Is from the Law which we have truly broke And from 't we find cannot relieved be In this springs up the sense of Misery That fits us for the Gospel which is free Now then it is that we a Saviour want And do for him as th' Hart for Water pant Now we prepared are and Christ begins As Jesus now to save us from our Sins Sin he condemns i' th' Flesh and Pow'r doth give To serve him that has made our Souls to live A Type of this God did in Israel shew When the Aegyptian Host he overthrew I' th' Red-Sea and by that stupendious Deed His People from their Fear and Bondage freed Now unto God could Israel sacrifice What Aegypt could not stop tho' might despise Now Israel did rejoice and not before That their Oppressors they should see no more For now was their Deliverance atchiev'd From ev'ry thing that had in Bondage griev'd By this they were set free from all they knew That hindred them God's Worship to pursue Yet still before they could the Land possess Met various Troubles in the Wilderness Too tedious here and numerous to relate Which did concern them in their Servant-State This was to fit them and to lay them low In their own Eyes that they might truly know From God it was that now they did
ever meet Nor whilst their Work 's so much insisted on Know they the Rest in which the Work is done Nor whilst their Care 's so much i' th' outward Court Do they know that where th' Righteous do resort Whose Life as all is hid with Christ in God Where inwardly their Souls make their abode And as that which is hidden can't be seen So they have never in great Flourish been Their Kingdom as long since their Master said Of Worldly Things is neither form'd nor made They low and little are in their own Eyes And ne'er extol themselves as great or wise And as they 're low so they at little aim Of that which th' other boastingly proclaim They 're like unto the Daughters of the King Which altogether Glorious are within As for their Works they 're com'd unto an End That on God's Work in them they may depend They cease to work but never cease to shew These Works God has in them wrought that are true This Path is narrow and the Gate is strait And few there be that enter in thereat 'T is strait as Abr'am's off'ring up his Son In whom his Hopes and Comfort was begun He offer'd him in whom the Promise stood It was his All and yet the Act was good Whatever's good doth come from God it 's plain And when recall'd we should restor't again Nay he recalleth that which he did give That we might see by him we only live He lendeth help us to regenerate And with him we seem to co-operate That Work to perfect but when that is done It 's offer'd up as Abr'am did his Son Yea even as to Death at God's Command And this is done that we might understand Our Weakness and our Nothingness discern And th' Gate of true Humility might learn When this Act 's done we in another sort Receive that we may sensibly report Man sav'd in Mercy not by Works must be Yea by the Grace of God that 's ever free This we ne'er truly knew till we did meet Grace without Works in Love our Souls to greet Nor can that Act be done and truly known Till Works are unto their Perfection grown This Act is then as Ev'ning to that Rest Whose Morning is the Sabbath which is blest Concerning which much more might here be said But that my Letter would too long be made So shall defer my further Argument Until a sitter Season do present Mean while I will a little let thee see How with thy self thou still dost disagree In what hast written thou wouldst seem my Friend Until thou comest near the latter end What put thee out of humour whilst thou writ That at the Last thou should the First forget A Friend at first but at the last art none What Humour this deserveth to be shown 'T is like some foolish Fancy if not vain Which in thy next I pray thee well explain Thou sayst Dear John let 's not disturb each other Then shall my Heart and Spirit call thee Brother But if thou'll not thy raging Spirit curb But thou will still the Churches Peace disturb Then stand thee forth and hearken to the Doom Of holy Church which without doubt will come 'T is plainly in the two first Lines imply'd If I molest thee not we shall abide Without reserve in cordial Friendship ty'd And yet before I 'd given thee denial Or thou hadst made of me a further Trial Against me thou proceedest in the latter And threatens with some other awful Matter By which if thou or those thy Words agree It is as constant in unconstancy Likewise for Peace whilst thou did seem to speak Thou didst for War but an Occasion seek As to Holy Churches Doom From whence or from what People must it come And what 's the Fault and Crime which I have done That I am into so great Danger run Disturbance being a Word in general As oft besides as in the Truth doth fall Thou should therefore the Fact have specifi'd That by some Rule thy Charges might be try'd For I whilst in the Dark thou dost me shoot How to avoid the Danger am in doubt For thou shouldst not suppose I can be made Of what I neither hear nor see afraid And what is not and what doth not appear Are both alike as tho' they never were Of Holy Church thou dost begin to speak But where or what she is I 'm still to seek The World we know is of Pretenders full Describe her therefore by a certain Rule This I desire of thee to undertake Because I would to her a Journey make For if she Holy is I truly see None but the Heretick cut off must be An Heretick doth against Knowledge act For to be Self-condemned is his Fact This Cause with thee I would before her plead In hopes I might thy Judgment supersede For I for Proof would thy own Words produce Before her for my Service and my Use Since thou hast said my Way to me seems right And that thou know'st then I against my Light Act not therein as this thou must confess She cannot me for Heresie suppress Again I would desire of her to know If she Commission gave thee thus to do Or if she had selected and made choice Of thee to be the Oracle of her Voice For how canst thou be any other way Ascertain'd what she shall both do and say And if not certain is' t not Arrogance Or Folly thus thy Judgment to advance Thou saith It is your Creed Back into Bonds to drive the Holy Seed For where our Walls are weak if we repair Thou and such Men as thee disturbed are As were of old that subtil Hornet breed Who was the like unto old Jacob's Seed These Walls that 's weak are of Jerusalem And how can I compared be to them But then the Matter still which I should know Is whether 't is Jerusalem below Or that above thou should agree to this Least I might understand that Point amis This thou omitted but I ne'er did read Of more than two and therefore will proceed T' enquire which of these Cities it must be To which thy Words most fitly can agree As for Jerusalem that is above Her Walls are perfect good the Scriptures prove For God her Walls hath good and perfect made And none to that which he hath done can add Therefore it never can this City be Which the kind Mother is of all that 's free It then must be Jerusalem below Concerning which the Sacred Scriptures show When Men have done whate're they can as Men She is in bondage with her Childeren What Work is this or what do you intend When more you work still more you have to mend For is not this like them that 's learning ever But ne'er attain the Truth by that Indeavour Or like to them that found out Shinar's Plain A Babel's Tower to erect again And like to them will you not stopped be Until your Language you divided see Is' t not divided