wherein I am renewed in him is my Acceptance with the Father he is my Advocate he is my Hope and Joy for ever He hath destroyed that in me which was contrary to God and keepeth it down for ever He is my Shepherd his Arm hath gathered me and his Arm encompasseth me day by day I rest under the shadow of his Wings from whence the healing virtue of his saving health droppeth upon my Spirit day by day Oh I cannot tell any man what he is unto me But blessed be the Lord I feel him near his Righteousness near his Salvation daily revealed before that eye which he hath opened in me in that true living sense wherewith he hath quickened me And now ye that have high Notions and rich comprehensive Knowledge concerning these things but not the thing it self the Life it self the Spirit it self the new and living Covenant and Law of Life it self wherein alone Christ is livingly revealed Ah how poor miserable blind and naked are you in the middest of all your Traditional Knowledge and pretended Experiences concerning these things Come be quiet a while and cease from bitterness of Spirit and reviling the Work and People of the Lord For the Lord knoweth and will make manifest both who are his and who are not his All the living Stones are his but the great Professors of the Words of Scripture without the Spirit and Life of the Scriptures are not his nor never were nor never will be owned by him Come learn to distinguish from God by his Life by the Anointing by the everlasting infallible Rule and not by words without Life where the great error and mistake hath been in all Ages and Generations The great Way of Deceit hath long been and still is a by Form of Godliness without Power Be sure ye be not thus deceived for if ye miss of the Power which saves ye cannot but pâ—rish for ever And what if the Appearance of the Spirit and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ Inwardly which is that which saves be as strange to your Sence Understanding and Judgement as his Outward appearance was unto the People of the Jews Take heed of their Spirit take heed of their Judgement who judged according to the appearance of things to them which they imagine and conceive from the Scriptures but judged not the true and righteous Judgement which only the Children of the true Wisdom can A Post-script THERE are four or five things very pretious which were generally witnessed in the dayes of the Apostles among the true Christians which are all mentioned together Heb. 6.4 5. First They were truly enlightned The Ministers of the Gospel were sent by Christ to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.18 1 Joh. 1.5 and they were faithful in their Ministry and did turn men from the darkness and power of Satan to the Light of Gods holy Spirit and they were enlightned by it and received power through it and so came to be Children of the Light and to walk in the Light as God is in the Light Secondly They tasted of the heavenly gift What is the heavenly gift which Christ gives to those who come unto him and become his sheep He gives them Life Eternal Life Joh. 10.27 28. He brings them out of death and gives them a savour and tast of the Life which is Eternal This was it which the Apostles testifyed of even of the Life which was manifested in that body of flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.2 and they that turn from the darkness to his Light he gives them a tast of the same Light Thirdly They were made pertakers of the holy ghost The Gospel is a day of bringing forth the Spiritual Seed and of pouring out the holy Spirit upon them The Law State is a State of Servants the Gospel of Sons And because true believers in Christ are Sons God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts to cry Abba father And God cannot deny his own Spirit to his Children that ask it of him he knoweth how absolutly necessary it is to the state of a Son And whosoever truly receiveth Christ Christ doth give him power to become a Son which power is in and with and cannot be separated from his Spirit Yea the Spirit of Christ is so necessary and inseparable from him that is Christs that the Apostle expresly affirms That if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Fourthly They tasted of the good word of God Of that Word from which the gift comes of that Word which was in the begining of the Word which is ingrafted into the hearts of those that truly believe Which Word is able to save the Soul Fifthly They tasted of the powers of the world to come Of the power of the endless Life whereof Christ is the Minister and according to which he ministers Life in that Holy True Living Inward Spiritual Temple which he pitcheth and reareth up for an habitation to God in his own Spirit Now in the Apostacy and night of darkness which hath come over the Christian state these things have been greatly lost For there hath bin none that have bin found able to turn people to that Light which the Apostles directed to None could tell men where the Light is to shine and where men were to expect it and wait for it None were able to direct men to the Seed of the Kingdom within to the Word of Faith the Word of the Kingdom nigh in the heart and mouth Much less were they able to instruct men how they might know and distinguish it from all other Seeds and the voice of the Sheepherd from all other voices Here it came to pass that though at times God visited and opened mens hearts a little warming them by the breath which came from himself yet they not knowing how to turn to the Lord and wait upon him for preservation in the gift and measure of his own Grace the good hath soon been stolen away from them and the building which hath been raised up in them hath not been a building of Life according to the Spirit but a building of Wisdome or Knowledge concerning the things of God according to the flesh and so the building that hath been raised up in mens Spirits hath been Babylon in stead of Sion But the Lord hath had a remnant all along the Apostacy who felt some begettings of Life and had in measure some sence and tast of the heavenly things These mourned after that state which was once enjoyed and felt their want of it travelling from Mountain to Hill seeking their resting place which none could rightly inform them of Now for the sakes of these God hath at length appeared How appeared may some say Why thus He who is Light hath appeared inwardly causing his Light to shine inwardly causing his Life to spring inwardly So that he who is Light who is Life who is Truth is felt and known in his own inward visits breakings forth and appearances For God who is a Spirit his appearance is Spiritual his day is Spiritual his kingdom is Spiritual his Light is Spiritual his Life is Spiritual his day-star is Spiritual and his day dawneth and his day-star ariseth in the heart Thus The Day-spring from on high did visit us who satt in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death And here we have met with what the Apostles met with the very same Light of Life the very same enlightning Spirit and Power and have been enlightned by it and tasted of the same gift The very same grace that appeared to them and taught them hath appeared to us and taught us and of it have we learned the same lessons in the same Covenant of Life wherein they learned and now can we seal to their Testimony in the same Spirit wherin they gave it forth and witness to the same eternal Life and the same holy oyl and anointing our eyes having been opened and being kept open by it And though their be great disputes about our Testimony in this our day and the present Professors rise up against us as the former Professors did against them yet let but any man come rightly to distinguish in himself between that which God begets in the heart and all other births and let that speak and judge in them that will soon confess that our Testimony is of God and given forth in the authority and by the commission of his own Spirit True wisdome is justified by the Children that are born of her It is the other birth that doth not nor can own her The other birth can own former dispensations according to the Letter of them but not the Life and Power of the present I have known the breaking down of much in me by the powerful hand of the Lord and a parting with much though not too much for Christs sake The Lord hath brought the day of distress and inward judgment over my heart He hath arisen to shake terribly the earthly part in me yea what if I should say that the powers of heaven have been shaken also That he might make me capable to receive and bring me into that Kingdom which cannot be shaken And now that which God hath shaken and removed in me I see others build upon and they think it shall never be shaken in them But such know not the day of the Lord nor the terrible searching of his pure Light nor the opperation of his Power which will not spare in one what he hath reproved condemned shaken and overturned in another He that knows the Living Stone within and comes to him as to a Living Stone and as built upon the revelation of his Spirit Life and Power revealed inwardly against the power of darkness is not deceived all that otherwise build I mean upon an outward knowledge concerning Christ and not upon his inward Life their building will not be able to stand in the day of the Lord. I wish they might have a sence of it in time that they might not perish for ever but experience that Life and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ which redeemeth and preserveth out of the perishing state for ever and ever Amen THE END
inwardly revealed yours but as outwardly conceived of We believe with the Faith which is of the natrue of him whom we bâ—lieve in which Faith is mighty through God and works through all the Powers of Darkness giving victory over them all in Gods way and time ye believe with a Faith which esteems victory and a perfect and entire State wanting nothing as impossible while in this world And as our Root differs so all that grows up in us differs from yours So that indeed all is singular that is in us and all also is singular that is brought forth by us as the Spirit of the Lord who knoweth the difference of things witnesseth Have we so long walked in the Name and Spirit of our God amongst you shewing the singular virtues of his Spirit daily in our faithful Testimony Sufferings Patience and Conversation and do ye still cry What singular thing do ye Just like the Jews who after all Christs mighty Works and demonstrations of his Fathers Virtue and Power outwardly asked for a sign O that your eyes and hearts were opened by the Spirit and power of the Lord for then ye would soon see otherwise in this respect than now ye do And then as for that expression Of audatiously lifting up a Standard against the sealed and experienced Truths of the Gospel that is but an over confident expression through prejudice and mistake of judgment at least for I can truly testify I have never learned since the pure heavenly Light of the Lord Jesus Christ hath shined on my Spirit to deny any one Truth that ever was sealed to me or experienced by me in the dayes of my former profession For whatsoever was then of God hath been restored to me and that onely which was of the flesh pared off And I have ground also to believe that it is so wiâ—h others in this respect as it hath been with me He speaks As if our difference or talk were about words Nay it is about things For though we own the same Lord Jesus Christ to be the foundation of Life yet after a different manner ye as ye notionally apprehend concerning him we as we experience him to be the precious stone and foundation of Life in us And we testify of Justification and Sanctification as we witness him bestowing it upon us and working it in us But for boasting of Perfection I wonder how he dares speak thus What is their no fear of God before his eyes or in his heart that he dares charge us with that which is so utterly false Where is any of us that did ever boast of Perfection But that Gods Power and Covenant is able to make Perfect and that Gods will is our perfect Sanctification in Soul Body and Spirit Even that we be wholly leavened with the Salt of the Kingdome and become a fit Temple for him this we humbly and reverenâ—ly testify of and press towards in his holy name and fear And as for that humble sence Of a mans own nothingness dâ—iveing him out of himself to live and glory in Christ alone This we meet with and witness in that Light which this generation of Professors dispiseth But others though they may talk of it can never come truly to witness it but in that Light wherein God bestoweth and preserveth it Well the Professors of this Age who despise the Light shall one day find that what they take themselves to be they are not in Gods sight nor are we before him what we are reproachfully represented by them But we are his workmanship in Christ Jesus created by him unto good works and that it is natural to us to bring forth the fruits of Righteousness and Holyness to our God however men reproach us As for his zeal for my Soul Which he desired me to except It is strange zeal and would tend to my utâ—er destruction had it power over me But blessed be my God who hath called me into the Light of his Son and I am satisfied that he will preserve me therin even in that holy Spirit of Life which he hath gathered me into from all deceiveable Spirits of darkness whatsoever in that holy Covenant wherein his strength appeares to me and is revealed in me And O! That he might know what that Spirit is wherin he hath thus appeard against the Lord though under a pretence as if it were for him and bring forth no more the fruits of it For a close I shall add a few words on that Scripture Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcission which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh It is a precious thing to witness this Scripture fulllefid in the heart To experience that there which inwardly circumciseth which cutteth off the foreskin of the heart which lieth over it and vaileth till it be cut off by the inward appearance of the Life and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ inwardly revealed Then when this is done I can truly and sensibly say I am a Jew inward How so How can that be proved Why I am inwardly Circumcised I have felt that within which Circumciseth the heart and have born the inward pain and cutting thereof and am Circumcised by it That which stood between me and the Lord is cut off the vail is taken away the stiffeneckedness and unsubjection to God removed the Wall of seperation is inwardly broken down and now I am in true unity of Spirit and comunion with my God even with the Father and the Son in that one holy Spirit wherein they are one Now I can bow before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and worship him in his own Spirit even in the new and fresh Life thereof day by day Now my rejoycing is in Christ Jesus whom the Father hath sent both outwardly in a body of flesh to fullfil the holy will and do what therein the Father had for him to do and also inwardly in his Spirit and Power into my heart to destroy the works of the Devil there and so to work me out of the enmity and unreconciled state into the love and reconciliation And I cannot but rejoyce both in what he did in his body of flesh for me and in what he doth by his Spirit and Power in me And blessed be the Lord I feel him near his Spirit near his Life near his Power near his pure Vertue nâ—ar his holy Wisdome near his Righteousness near his Redemption near For he is my Rock and my Strength and my Salvation day by day And I have no confidence in the flesh in what I am in what I can do after the flesh but my confidence is in him who hath weakened me who hath stripped me who hath impoverished me who hath brought me to nothing in my self that I might be all in him and that I might find him all unto me He is my Peace he is my Life he is my Righteousness he is my Holiness he is the Image
committed before For though the Lord visit me with Life quicken me thereby make a change in my heart and state yet it is his Mercy to acccept me and to pass by for his name sake my former debts and trespasses against him Alas the new Covenant is wholly a Covenant of Grace and Mercy and the giving of Christ drawing the mind to him accepting and Justifying in him are works of Grace and Mercy towards this So the Spiritual Israel may well sing this Song in the Land of Holyness and Redemption O praise the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever I can truly set my Seal to this thing that the more Holy and Righteous the Lord maketh me in his Son the more sensible am I of his Love Grace and Mercy in Justifying of me And it is pretious to me to witness Justification and acceptance with him in and through his Son He saith further But this is the Bounty the Freeness the Munificence the Richness of the Grace of God to call things that are not as though they were Answ Take heed of abusing that Scripture God sent Christ to Renew to Redeem to Change to make Holy and Righteous to make people such as the Father might be pleased with accept and Justifie And as Christ maketh them so the Father receiveth and accepteth them as such But God doth distinguish and call things as they are He doth not call an ungodly man an holy man a justified man But when he hath changed him new created him in Christ Jesus took him out of his old stock and planted him into the new then he accounteth and calleth him so and not before It were better for men to wait upon God to understand what his Spirit meant in what he spake then to put formed meanings of their own upon his words He wrests my words charging and reproving me as if I said The Love of God was a bare thing Answ Those were not my words nor did my words so signifie but my words were that it is not by bare Loving or meer Loving or only Loving that God makes a man Righteous which is very true manifest For there is besides his Love in and through that Love the sending of his Son and revealing of his Son drawing to and Transplanting into his Son to make Holy and Righteous in him For Holyness though it may be distinguished yet it cannot be devided from Righteousness nor can a man posibly be Righteous in Gods sight unless he be also Holy in some measure His reflecting words hereupon I pass by though very unjustly and unchristianly cast upon me without any just occasion given him by my words which I desire the Lord may make him sensible of that he may be forgiven it He blameth me for saying we make no finite thing our Righteousness and yet he saith We make the measure of the Spirit which each member of Christ receives our Righteousness Answ A measure hath the same nature with the fulness A measure of the Spirit and Life of the Grace and Truth which comes from Jesus Christ hath the same nature that the fulness haâ—h All the Life all the new Creation that comes from him and dwels in him is Righteous and found Righteous where ever it is found Yet I do not remember that we have thus expressed it that that measure is our Righteousness but it is he who is the fulness who is revealed in that measure and it is he who is our Righteousness our Wisdom our Sanctification our Redemption But it is in the holy pure measure of the heavenly gift that he is made thus of God to us not out of it He saith The Lord our Righteousness Redeems us not properly by the Life and Spirit of his Godhead though that was in the work supporting enabling him and carrying him up in that great undertakeing but by the death and sufferings of his manhood Answ This is strange Doctrine to make the manhood the main Redeemer and the Life and Spirit of the Godhead but the supporter and the carrier up of the man in the work of Redemption Whereas it was the Word which Created all which also Redeemed he that left his Glory and made himself of no reputation but came in the form of a servant to do the will It was the Spirit and Life of the Father even the Eternal Son which took up that body appeared in that body offered it up a pure and acceptable Sacrifice to the Father finishing the work therein which the Father gave him to do Joh. 17.4 5. He saith Shall we think to answer the Law by our obedience Answ We do not look upon the Law of Moses which was given to the Jew outward to be the dispensation of the new Covenant or to be the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus But those who are in the new Covenant and have Gods Law writ in their hearts and his fear put there which preserveth from departing from him and his Spirit put within them to cause them to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and Judgments and do them and who live in the Spirit and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in these Yet they do not magnifie and cry up their own obedience nor call it their Righteousness but him from whom their obedience comes For in the measure of his Grace and living Truth the Soul is one with him and all that he is and all that he hath done is theirs and it is he himself that is the Righteousness of all that are in him And they that abide in him parâ—ake of his Righteousness from day to day which floweth in like a stream upon them I wish he could consider in what Spirit it is that he calls the white Stone a Ticket for the Righteousness Doth he know the white Stone with the new name It is no less then the Foundation Stone then the Righteousness it self And what doth he talk of bringing that as a Ticket for the Righteousness He seemeth to pass by some things which I spake in tender love and weightiness of Spirit to him as the Judgment of man in his day but let him take heed least when be comes to appear before God he then find it was the Judgment of Gods Spirit in the Light of his day Which day is inward and Spiritual which believers are to hasten to and which approacheth in every heart as the night spendeth and passeth away And all true Christians and Believers ought to wait for the passing away of the night and the dawning of this day and the arising of the day Star in their hearts He saith Christ is now ready to be revealed Answ I believe he is to be revealed fuâ—ther and in fuller glory But he is truly already revealed as the Saviour Shepheard and Bishop of the Soul and many are gathered home to their resting place in him which while they were
of sin by the new and pure Law of the new Covenant and the Advocate known and Repentance given by him upon all occasions to those that wait upon him and the Sprinkling of the Blood and Remission upon Repentance This is the new and Living Way of the Lord Jesus Christ which he hath consecrated for all his made known in the dâ—monstration of his Spirit which will stand for ever Whereas mens aprehensions about those things which they have gathered and comprehended of themselves out of the Scriptures in the supposed Light of their natural Reason and Understanding are but Dreams and will vanish even in their own hearts if ever the true Light arise the e. He saith This state can never fall nor be finally fallen from Answ There is a way of coming to Christ and there is a way of preservation in Christ For there is a Power that Redeems and men are preserved by that Power in subjection to it And so every one That thinketh he standeth is to fear and take heed lest he fall And not to boast and say I am in a state of Justifycation which is firme and cannot be moved and it cannot fall nor be finally fallen from For ye are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Keep to the Power which preserves Hold that fast which thou hast let no man take thy Crown Keep the faith make not shipwrack of it and of a good Conscience O that men knew the right Doctrine and way of coming to Christ which they cannot do till they are taught of the Father Joh. 6.45 and the right Doctrine and Way of standing and abiding in him For truly mens professed coming to Christ believing and standing at this day is generally notional outward without but not in the inward Life and Power it self without which no man can come to him nor stand and abide in him He chargeth us With setting up a Covenant of Works alwayes doing and never done a Covenant to be performed by us for our selves not by Christ for us Answ I would he saw in the true Light how unjust and untrue this charge is For the Lord God of Life knoweth that he himself hath taught us the new Covenant and thereby taught us to wait upon himself in his Son to work all our works in us and for us And this we dayly experience that we can work nothing but as he works in us Therefore our whole course is a waiting on him in stilness to witness him appearing and doing all in us And blessed be his Name we do not wait in vain But if he think all works are excluded out of the new Covenant he greatly erreth For the Works of Gods Spirit are required and have a place therein And God and Christ the King and Shepherd is the Judge of his People in the new Covenant and justifieth or condemneth according to the Law thereof In the faith and obedience he justifieth In the unbeliefe and disobedience he condemns without respect of Persons And it is a pretious thing in the Gosple Ministration to come to God the Judge of all and to witness true judgment set up by God in a mans own heart that by the ministration of the pure judgment there the Soul may come to learn Righteousness of the holy Teacher and Shepheard even the Lord Jesus Christ who is just and faithful under his Fathâ—r in the impartial Ministration of the new Covenant Hereupon several charges he brings against us through his own mistakes and misapprehensions of us As First That our Doctrine imployes Free Will and power in the creature Answ We have never experienced Free Will nor Power as of our selves but as we have bin turned to Gods Power and received it from him nor did we ever testifie to others that they could receive and embrace Truth in their own will by their own power O that this Person had true discerning of and were severed from that Spirit which thus chargeth us For whoever receives this Testimony concerning the inward Light of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never find himself able to do any thing therein by his own will and power But there witnesseth Gods begetting him out of his own will by the Life and Power of Truth Secondly He chargeth it That it maketh the Election of God altogeâ—her frustranious Answ Election of the Seed in the Seed it doth not at all make frustranious But mens wrong apprehensions concerning Election out of the Seed the true Doctrine of Election doth not conâ—â—â—â— with He hath chosen us in him so that in him to wit in Christ the choice is and he that will make his Election sure must make the Seed sure to him growing in the nature thereof wherein the Election is to the truely obedient He saith Our Righteousness with God is the Foundation Answ But is there not somewhat which is the Foundation of our Righteousness with God And can we be Righteous with God til we come to that Foundation and be made Righteous by it Must we not first believe in him And is not faith a gift which comes from the holy Root and maketh a change in them in whom this gift is found Doth not Faith make a difference between them that believe and them that believe not So that so soon as ever there is true faith and it thus works the State is changed And there is no Justification before faith For in the unbelief is the condemnation for ever He that believeth not is condemned already And what is he justified there too at the same time Was Abraham our Father justified in the unbelief and disobedience Or in believing and obeying God for what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness That which I spoke of he saith Is but the fruit and superstructure Answ When Christ directs men to the Seed of the Kingdome doth he direct unto the fruit and superstructure I spoke there of the Seed of the Light of the holy Spirit of the quickening Virtue Is that the superstructure Or is that the fruit of mens being made Righteous Nay must they not turn to that receive that believe in that even in the Light of Gods Spirit for they are the true and right believers before a man can come to be made Righteous or accounted Righteous in the eyes of the Lord For none are Righteous but in him And all are out of him till they be gathered into him He instanceth in one passage of mine in a Book entituled The Sum or substance of our Religion who are called Quakers the words are these This is the sume of all even to know and experience what is to be brought down into death and kept in death what to be brought up out of the grave to live to God and Reign in his Dominion and what to be kept in subjection and obedience to him who is to Reign Now to experience it thus done in the heart the flesh brought down the
midst of them and the fruits of the earth excellent and comely for them And then they that are thus purged shall sit with Christ in the heavenly places there being an abundant enterance ministered to them into the everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 Thirdly He chargeth it with making the obedience and suffering of Christ superfluous except onely as a pattern Ans Christ came to do the Fathers will â—o obey to suffer Totast death for every man to fight with and overcome the devil to offer an holy spotless Sacrifice for all mankind that through him they might witness atonement and acceptance And the Lord saw the use of this and we witness the use of this and find every thing in its proper place and service in him who is Gods Covenant of Life and Peace in us and to us But the work of this day is not to Preach up a notional knowledge of these things the Christian World so called hath been drowned and dead in them long enough but to bring to that measure of the Spirit to that sence of Grace and Truth which is by Jesus Christ wherein the benefit of these things is truly reaped and injoyed And indeed that is the work committed unto us from the Lord who gave us this Testimony to bear whatever men may think or speak of us And whereas he speaks of our laying hold of passages in his Printed Sermons to favour our Cause Answ That is his mistake as to me It was for his sake I mentioned it There was indeed at that time somewhat stirring in him which would have gathered him had he known and obeyed its voice and not run out into lofty notions concerning it He had some sence then of a Glory aproaching which he might have from the true Prophet Though even then he ran out in his imaginations concerning it and did not rightly apprehend nor know how and when it appeared He hath further charges against us Of crying up Works against the workman mans grace and righteousness against Gods Conformity to Christ against Christ Yea to make a Christ of our righteousness a Saviour of our Conformity Answ O what will this man do when the Lord shall shew unto him that he hath charged not so much us as the Spirit and Power and pretious appeaâ—ance of the Lord Jesus Christ with these things We cry up works no otherwise then we are taught of God and as the Apostles and Prophets have cried them up Faith is necessary and Works are necessary in their places And the Justification of each follow them And he that receiveth the Spirit of the Son and therein doth Righteousness is therein estâ—emed of God Righteous as the Son â— righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 God Justifieth us in his Son and loveth his holy Seed to therein and the Faith that comes from him and all the Works that are wrought in him and out of this holy Root of Life and Power is no man nor his Faith nor his Works Justified Then for mans Grace and Righteousness Where doth he hear us speak of mans Grace O what doth he mean Will he misrepresent the cause of his neighbour or brother to make it bad And for mans Righteousness we do not cry it up or put it on but testifie men must be uncloathed of it And we our selves were fain to part with it and put it off before we could be cloathed with Gods Righteousness But the Works of Life the Works of Gods Spirit the Works of the new creature the Works of the new Covenant these are not mans Works nor unrighteous Works condemned by God but Justified in and through him that works them The Works wrought in us are truely acceptable and we in him who Works them who is our Righteousness And concerning this Peop e these Children of the new Covenant which the Lord hath Begotten and brought forth in this our day that Scripture is fulfilled in them and upon them Their righteousness is of me saith the Lord. Isa 54.17 Well as long as the Lord saith so we matter â—ot though others say that our Righteousness is of our selves and that it is our own Righteousness being assured that Gods Testimony in our hearts as to this thing will stand He aggravateth this charge thus And this to be done by those that have been so far enlightened and that account all the Relig on and Profession in the world below them as carnal Answ Indeed we magnify Truth Life the Anointing the Spiritual the inward appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to which we have been turned and in it made Spiritual And all other Knowledge Faith Profession Religion which hath not its rise here we cannot but call carnal For the enlightning Spirit of the Lord hath given us this Testimony to bear against all the dead notional Professors of this Age who build from the Letter or rather their apprehensions of the Letter out of the Life all which cry up names of the Foundation and corner Stone but refuse reject dâ—ny and turn frâ—m the corner Stone himself and have neither skill nor patience to try what he is in this his Pure Pretious Living Powerful and Glorious Appearance in the Spiritual Light of his inward day after the long thick Darkness of the foregoing night And wo would be unto us if we did not thus testify For for this cause we were bâ—rn and brought into the world to testify to the present appearance of our God and of his Christ in this our day Glory to him who hath called and chosen us to and in a true and pretious mâ—asure and degree of his own pure Life made us faithful therein This saith he is so far from giving us a list nearer heaven that I cannot more properly resemble it then to the coming forth of Amalâ—ck who met Israel by the way when they were come forth out of Egypt and smot the hindmost of them c. Answ Do not talk of having a list nearer heaven O learn the Way the holy Way the living Way wherein no dead unclean thing can walk Learn to know Gods Spirit in your selves from that which opposeth his Spirit Ye have been long learning after your old conceivings and apprehensions of the Letter O at length come to learn the Truth as it is in Jesus which discovers sin and death and the body of it and crucifies and puts it off and makes room in the heart for him that is true and pure And then for Amalecks smiting Israel O how greatly are ye mistaken ye take your selves for Israel and us for Amaleck whereas if your eyes were annointed ye would see that we have been begotten and born of Gods Spirit through the Word of Life which was from the beginning wherein we have been Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands that we might worship God in his own pure Spirit and in his living Truth and that our God hath inwardly appeared to us and led us out of Egypts Land and out of Babylon also and all
Land He addeth I firmly believe and so have all the Saints that have gone before that Christ is a Person and his Spirit is a living Principle in the hearts of all the faithful but it is not the Spirit or Principle in us that did redeem us but the man Christ Jesus Ans If he mean by the man Christ Jesus The second Adam the quickening Spirit the heavenly Man the Lord from heaven he who is one with the Father the Word which was in the beginning which created all things I grant him to be the Redeemer for it was he who laid down his glory wherewith he was glorified before the World was and made himselfe of no reputation but took upon him the form of a servant and came as a servant in the fashion of a man to do the will But if he distinguish Christ from this Word and Spirit and make the Mans Nature the Saviour and the God-head only assistant to him as he seemed to word it before and as these his words seems to imply that I utterly deny For so testifieth the Scripture I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour I am a just God and a Saviour c. So that Christ is the Saviour as he is one with God It was Gods Arm and Power revealed in him that effects Salvation Yea if I may so speak his obedience was of vallue as it came from the Spirit and it was the offering it up through the Eternal Spirit that made it so acceptable to God So that we must not attribute Redemption originally to him as a man but as he came from God and brings the honor all back to the Spring and Fountain from whence he had all that God may be all in all and the very Kingdom of Christ may endure and abide for ever in the Root of Life from whence it came And so he is not a Foundation or the Corner-stone distinct from God He as the Foundation was and is the Rock of Ages the Spiritual Rock both before and since he took upon him the body prepared for him It is the Spirit the Life which was revealed in that Man by which he did his Fathers will which was and is the Foundation whereupon all the living Stones are built There is a Foundation of Death and that 's the wicked Spirit There is a Foundation of Life and that 's the holy Spirit by which Christ himselfe was led and guided in that his appearance in the flesh which descended upon him and he was annoynted with and all his are to be annoynted with and live in the same Spirit And he that knows Christ in this Spirit he hath the true and abiding knowledg of him and no otherwise And though the names Messiah Jesus Christ Saviour Annoynted c. were given to him as in the flesh or as man they most properly and originally belong to him with respect to the Divine Life and Birth in him as the sent one And only Begotten Proceeding from the Father the Brightness of his Glory c. for he as the Eternal Son of God was the Spiritual Rock before he took upon him that Body which was prepared for him which expresly was called the Body of Jesus and which he called This Temple and distinctly he being called Jesus Christ come in the flesh which every Spirit that confesseth not is not of God but is that Spirit of Antichrist 1. Joh. 4.3 He speaketh of sitting on the Throne of David Ans It is a great matter to know that Throne which Davids Throne signified and Christ sitting thereon His Kingdom his Throne are not of this outward worldly nature but inward and spiritual and his Throne is in his Kingdom and Temple where he reigns and is worshiped He that knoweth Sathan disthroned and cast out knoweth also Christ come in and sitting on his Throne O that men did give over their dreaming about the heavenly Glory and come thither in the leadings of Gods Spirit where it is revealed Was that Scripture written in vain concerning the glorious state of the Gospel But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 He putteth up a prayer for us That the Lord would awaken us and make us do our first works and return to our first Love Answ Ah poor man how is he blinded not discerning how the Lord hath don this for us and much more but it is he himselfe that hath lost his first love and doth not do his first works but is found short of that tenderness quickness and savour that once was in him O that he might see it and return to him whose quickening virtue restores and heales He concludeth with the words of the Prophet Jer. Chap. 13. ver 15 16 17. Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark Mountains and while ye look for Light he turn it into the shaddow of death and make it gross darkness But if ye will not hear it my Soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine Eyes shall weep sore and run down with Tears because the Lords Flock is carried away Captive Answ How doth this man mistake in his sight and applycation of Scriptures Seeing and applying in a wrong Spirit It is true the Lord hath spoken but he himselfe and many such as he is have not given eare And what is the reason but because they are exalted above the pure Principle of Life in their own hearts And are not such proud Hath not he brought forth these weapons the e false charges and reasonings in this paper against the heritage of God in the pride of his heart As for us the Lord God hath humbled us and taught us who have learned and dayly learn of him in the humility and in humility and fear do we give forth our testimony though also in the Authority and Majesty of our Masters Name whose Name stands over and is exalted above every Name and his Mountain and gathering is in the pure Authority and Power of his Spirit above all other Mountains and gatherings whatsoever And as for Gods causing darkness let him and such as he is look to it for God doth not nor will cause darkness to them whom he hath gathered into the Light of his Spirit but saith to them Arise shine for thy Light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee O City and dwelling place of the living God But those that know not or turn against his appearance and cry up former dispensations of the same Life and Power but reproacheth and blasphemeth the present on them doth he cause the gross darkness to fall and cover them And this which he thretneth us with is already fallen upon himselfe for his feet are
fallen upon the dark mountains and whilst he looks for Light he ha h lost that which once he had and his very Light as he esteems it is become obscurity and gross darkness as this dark paper of his from the dark Spirit and Principle makes manifest to all that shall read it in any measure of true sence or discerning And truly my oul doth weep in secret for his pride and height of Spirit in opposing the Lord his Truth and People And for this cause shall those who have looked upon themselves as the Children of the Kingdom and flock of God be laid wast and know that as it was a dreadful thing to oppose Christ Jesus the Lord in his appearance in flesh so it is also dreadful to oppose his appearance in his Spirit and Power wherein he is arisen to set up his Kingdom and to throw down Babilon which is built in the likness of Sion but by and in another Spirit Those in whom there is any tenderness towards God and true breathings after him left the Lord give them the sence and true understanding of this inward spiritual appearance of his Son and of what they have been doing and are doing against it that they may not continue to fight against the the Lord and kick against that which is able to wound and prick to their own hurt and eternal ruine For there is not Salvation in any other name then in that which is now revealed Blessed are all they that trust therein it being not another but the same that ever was To His POST-SCRIPT HE beginneth it with the justification of that passage of his in a foregoing letter of his to me wherein he said Christ is Heaven and I am Hell Answ When God visiteth man he finds him in union with Hell Death and darkness and the man is Dead is Dark is of an hellish Nature and Spirit in that state But when the Lord hath converted him cut him off from that root leavened him with the Spirit and Nature of his Son is he Hell still Ye were Darkness saith the Apostle but now are ye Light in the Lord. And such were some of you but ye are Washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God A man can be but Hell before he is washed before his filth be purged away by the Spirit of Judgment and Burning before the old leaven is purged out and he sanctified and made a new lump but after the Lord hath thus changed him and new created him in Christ Is he still Hell He saith He doth not call the new Creature Hell but there is an Old Man an Outward Man as well as the New Man the Inward Man Flesh as well as spirit in the Regenerate Answ What doth he mean by the Outward Man the Sinful Body The Body of Flesh is within The outward Body that 's not Hell that 's the Temple of God where the heart is Sanctified And the pure Word of Life Sanctifies throughout even in Soul in Body in Spirit those that are subject to it Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temples of the living God and your Spirits much more for God is a Spirit and he dwels in a Spiritual Temple and his Temple is holy He addeth And unless your attainment be beyond Pauls he found that in him that is in his flesh dwelt no good thing and the Flesh lusting against the Spirit so that he could not do the thing that he would Answ Paul did once experience such a state that he felt himselfe Carnal Sould under Sin when he did not find how to perform that which was good but did what he hated the Law of Sin being strong in his members against the Law of Life in his mind which state he calleth A state of captivity to the Law of Sin in his members and calleth it a wretched state Rom. 7.23 24. But did Paul never experience another state Did he never witness the virtue and power of the new Covenant even the Law of the Spirit of Life and the Power thereof freeing him from the strength and captivity of the Law of Sin in his members There were young men John speaks of who were strong and had overcome the wicked one Did Paul himselfe never attain to that state He bid others be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might and shewed them how to resist in it so as to overcome Did he never experience and witness it himselfe He said He had fought a good fight and was more then a Conqueror What was he then a captive to the Law of Sin in his members and did he then cry out Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death He said He could do all things through Christ that strengthened him was not that a state different from that other wherein he found only to will And could not do the good he desired but did the evil he allowed not but hated And blessed be the Lord there are many at this day who witness a farther state of redemption and deliverance from Sin and the Law thereof in the members then that state of captivity was which Paul there expresseth his former groanings and complainings under For he was not in that state of captivity when he writ that Epistle but knew the Dominion of Grace over sin and bid that Church be subject to the Grace and not give way to sin but yeeld their members servants to Righteousness unto Holiness Ch. 6. For that other place Of the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 He doth not there speak of himselfe but of the Galatians who were in a weak low and indeed fallen state from the Spirit and Power of the Gospel having let in that which was contrary thereunto And so he strives to gather them into the Spirit again and bids them Live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and so they should not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For in the new Covenant man is taught of God the holy lesson of ceasing from evil and doing good and taught in the virtue and power of the Covenant so that he learns daily and grows daily out of Deceit into Truth until he come to be a true Israelite in whom there is no Guile And so in the spiritual War The house of Saul grows weaker and weaker and the house of David stronger and stronger until Sauls Kingdom be at length overturned and wholly destroyed and the Kingdom of David established in Righteousness for ever and ever Then Jerusalem the holy building the City of the living People the City of Righteousness the Habitation of Righteousness and Mountain of Holiness is known and Jerusalem is witnessed a quiet habitation there being peace in all her borders Then the mind is fully stayed upon the Lord in all conditions and he keeps it in perfect pâ—ace Then the Soul is careful for nothing