life! Happy are they that meet with the true leader, and faithfully follow him, till they have travelled through and overcome all that stands in their way! For to them, and to them alone, is the promise of the possession of the everlasting inheritance; and such find and feel the Lord to be their God indeed, and themselves to be his children (brought forth in his holy life and nature), which to feel in truth and certain knowledge is more thau tongue can utter.

Christ saves only those that come unto him, and believe in him, and so are born of his Spirit; and by the faith, and through the strength and virtue of his Spirit, overcome the wicked one, his works, snares, and temptations in their hearts. And these feel in themselves the root of his life, the holy seed of his kingdom springing up in them, into which they are ingrafted, and become one with him, and so bringing forth the holy fruit, the living grapes, the new and righteous conversation wherein the life of God shines, and is glorified. Now it is not knowing, or believing, or receiving any thing into the old understanding that avails with God, or the reformation which is there wrought; but the new creature alone, created of God in Jesus Christ. This is born of God, this lives in him, this is clothed with him. This puts off the old man, with his deeds, and puts on the newness of the nature and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; so that this man is as really in Christ, in the Spirit, in the new Adam, found in him, formed in him, covered with him, as the first man, or nature, is in the old Adam. Therefore this is the main thing in religion, to mind the seed of the kingdom, the leaven of the kingdom, its growth in the mind, soul, and spirit, and the mind's, soul's, and spirit's gathering into, and growth in it. And here is faith, the true faith, the true love, the true hope, the true meekness and patience, the true justification and sanctification felt, and not elsewhere; but those that are out of this, out of Christ the seed, out of Christ the Word, out of Christ the wisdom, righteousness, and power of the Father, are only in a dream concerning these things, but know not the truth and real

nature of them, as they are felt in Jesus, by those who are truly ingrafted in him, and livingly grow up in him.

IV. THREE QUESTIONS ANSWERED CONCERNING JUSTIFICATION.

Quest. 1. WHAT is justifying, or justification with God? Ans. It is God's owning the state, works, or actions of a creature, either inwardly in his own mind, or manifestly to them. This is God's justifying of them, or his justification; his disowning or disallowing them is his condemnation. As for instance: God's owning Adam in the upright estate of his innocency, wherein God created him, and any thing he did in that state and spirit, was his justifying of him and his works. God's disowning and disallowing his hearkening to his wife and the serpent, and his eating the forbidden fruit upon their temptation, was his condemnation thereof. Quest. 2. What is it God justifies, and what is it he condemns?

Ans. That which God justifieth is the Spirit of his Son, the life of his Son, the nature of his Son, brought forth in any creature, the faith which is in him; and so the creature, as it is in the obedience which is of him, and the works that are wrought in him. But the fallen estate of man from him, and all that is done by man out of him, God condemns. Quest. 3. How is justification received, kept, and grown up in? and what is the preservation out of condemnation? Ans. Justification is only received by receiving him, who is the righteousness and justification, and only kept by abiding in him, and only increased by growing up in him. For as every one that is found in him is justified, so he that hath more of him, more of his life, more of his faith, more of his nature, more of his Spirit, more of the pure obedience, more of the garment of righteousness and salvation drawn over him, he is more justified. For there are degrees of justification, as the soul that is really in the thing, and is acquainted with the true nature and dispensation of it from God, feels and knows. A father is more or less

please with his children, yea, with the same child sometimes; which is a true figure to man who is come under God's teachings. And the preservation out of condemnation is by being preserved out of that which God condemns: for no man upon the earth, that hath the true sense and feeling, shall ever find the Holy and Just One justifying him in his sius; but as the heart is turned from them, and by the power of life kept out of them. He that will be kept in the justification must be kept out of that which the justification is not to: for there he is not justified; but in his being drawn again out of it, and turning again from it, his justification, in the tender mercy of the Lord, is renewed.

Justification under the law was according to that covenant. He that walks with God in that covenant, he that walks in and after the Spirit of Christ,—he is therein justified; but he that walks after the flesh, and doth any thing that is fleshly,—that is not justified with God, nor he in that; but in the faith, which cleanseth and giveth victory over it: in that is the justification from it, and the pure, heavenly peace with the Lord God of life witnessed.

He that is in Christ, and receiveth his knowledge from Christ, and is kept in the pure fear and sense of him,—he understandeth the truth of these things; but he that is erred in spirit, and holds up but a literal knowledge (though from, or at least accompanied with, some remembrance of former feelings and experiences),-he errs about these things also; and deceit and a lie hath prevailed over him, as he will find, when the Lord confounds his wisdom and present apprehensions of things, by awakening his witness in him. For religion, the true religion, is a mystery; life is a mystery; Christ is a mystery; the Spirit is a mystery; faith is a mystery; obedience (the pure obedience) is a mystery; worship (the spiritual worship in and according to the new covenant) is a mystery; hid from the eyes of all the wise searchers of the world, but revealed to the least babe that is of God, and abideth in the quickened life of his Son. But many that are out of the mystery of truth are in the mystery of deceit, and have a knowledge or profession con

cerning Christ, his Spirit, faith, obedience, the spiritual worship, &c., in that mystery of deceit, which they, for the present, account the true, and by it venture to judge, disallow, and condemn the truth itself; but that is not all to the hurt of the truth, or such as are in it; but rather to their own hurt and great danger. For the sparks which man kindles will never light him to God; the garments of man's righteousness (either according to his apprehensions of the letter of the law, or letter of the gospel) will never clothe him; but for all that, he must lie down in shame and sorrow, when the truth of God appears in his conscience, and all his shadows and deceits flee away.

Therefore hearken to the testimony from these, whom the Lord hath awakened, whom the Lord hath quickened, whom the Lord hath led out of the darkness of the night, into the light and brightness of the day; who have seen Jesus, and testify what they have seen, heard, felt, and handled of that eternal Word, which was from the beginning, which appeared in flesh, and afterwards in Spirit, before the apostasy, and hath again appeared, since the apostasy, as a shepherd, as a gatherer, as a seeker-out and preserver of his wandering sheep, who were driven from him in the cloudy and dark day. And if ye would hearken aright, breathe to the Lord in that which desires and longs after him, that he would circumcise the heart, and open the right ear in you, that the ear may hear his witness in you, that so ye may indeed know the voice of the shepherd, and in true understanding, sense, and constant experience, bear witness to that true testimony which Christ spake in the days of his flesh: "My sheep hear my voice, and follow me; but a stranger they will not follow; for they know not the voice of strangers,"

V. OF THE PURE, CONSTANT, ETERNAL, UNCHANGEABLE NATURE OF GOD'S TRUTH.

TRUTH is of God, and was with God, and in God, before any thing else had a being. Truth was before error or deceit: for it was from the truth that the error was, and it was about truth that the deceit was. There was somewhat which erred from truth, and brought in deceit into the world; but truth remains the same that it was, keeping its pure, eternal, unchangeable nature; and is not, nor ever was, nor ever can be, defiled or tainted with any error or deceit; but testifieth against it, reproveth it, and condemneth for it, draweth out of it, and delivereth from its bands and captivity, all those that hearken and cleave to it, in the faith which is of its nature and begetting.

The Father, the fountain of truth, is the same. The Son, his express image (whom he fills with himself, and in whom he appears), is the same. The Spirit, the anointing (who is truth, and no lie), is still the same. The principle or seed of truth is still the same. The doctrine and way of truth is still the same; for it was the same truth which was preached in shadows under the law, the substance whereof appears, and is witnessed in the gospel: and it was the same before the great apostasy, in the latter days from it, and all the time of the apostasy, and again after the apostasy. It hath the same nature still, the same properties, the same operations and effects, and gives forth the same testimony in the ears and hearts of all that are open to it. Indeed the minds of men, and the states of men, may often change in relation to truth; but truth itself changeth not, but is equal, fair, and just to all men upon the earth, in all ages and generations, always condemning that which is unjust, erroneous, and deceitful, and always justifying, what is pure, holy, and righteous.

Now is not this a pearl; Nay, is not this the pearl indeed, the precious pearl of price? Who would not buy it?