ruption, and the captivity thereof, into the liberty of the sons of God.

And he that is here meets with the substance of things, and that which all the types of the law shadowed out; meets with the one offering, the cleansing which is thereby, the imputation of righteousness, or of faith unto righteousness; yea, and with somewhat more, even with the everlasting righteousness itself brought into the heart, and dwelling there; insomuch as his nature is changed (truly changed) his spirit changed, his mind, heart, soul, and conscience changed, his conversation changed, the leopard's spots and the Ethiopian's skin washed away, the deceitfulness of the heart removed, and the new garments of righteousness, life, and salvation put on in the stead thereof; so that he is unclothed of the evil, unholy nature and spirit, and clothed with the Spirit of the Lord.

For Christ is really made unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. How is that? Why he that once was a fool, is now made wise unto God, and the things of his kingdom, by the mystery of his Son's life and power revealed in him. He is a child of wisdom, and he hath heard the wisdom of his mother, and learned wisdom of her. So putting on Christ, who is the righteousness, being ingrafted into him, being brought forth in him, he partakes of the sweetness and fatness of the olive-tree, and is renewed into the image of the true righteousness and holiness, and drinks in the virtue and life of the precious promises, wherein and whereby he is made partaker of the divine nature, and so cannot but witness redemption from the earthly, corrupt nature.

Now, it is not any striving, believing, or obedience of man's own spirit, which can effect this; he may will strongly, he may run hard, and yet never obtain; he may so cast himself upon the mercy of God, and hope concerning his mercy in Christ, as to miss of it.

But the principle of life which is from God, and faith in God from that principle, without fail effects this, and no other faith doth. But out of this are the mysterious imVol. III.-17

ages and idols, and subtle workings and devices of the cunning one, to take up the mind with somewhat which appears as substantial and truly excellent, but is not so indeed. His birth hath desires after the kingdom (and makes no question but it shall be his), wills, runs, strives, believes, hopes, prays, reads scriptures, observes duties and ordinances; and in these they meet with a wrong knowledge, a wrong sactification, a wrong joy, a wrong confidence and assurance, a wrong rest and peace; in which there may be a great warmth, and seeming life and pleasure, from the fire and sparks of their own kindling and blowing up, which the mind that is blinded by him can hardly suspect that it is not true; yea, may be taken with it, and strongly justify it in its own thoughts for the true, and set it above that that is indeed the true. This, this is the great mystery of iniquity, which hath great subtlety of deceivableness in it, to pick up and steal away the good seed out of the heart, and to steal in a false image and likeness thereof, which may have a more glorious appearance to man's eye than the true seed itself (for that is the least of all seeds, makes the least show of any), but hath not the same nature, virtue, and power.

Ah! the Lord God of tender mercy help all the poor souls that breathe after him, that they may not be thus deceived. And those that are thus deceived, and in the snare of the enemy (and do not witness the faith which hath the Son's dominiou in it, and gives victory over sin, Satan, and the world, and wherein the blood of sprinkling, which livingly washeth, is felt, in the light of life, wherein the redeemed walk to the praise of their Redeemer); the Lord guide them also to that wherein all deceits are made manifest, and where the truth which is of the Son, is made to shine in such who were once in the barren places, and in the thick darkness, but now are light in the Lord, and who have a dwelling-place with the Lord in his light, which is the pure and everlasting habitation. Amen.

A POSTSCRIPT,

CONTAINING SOME FURTHER QUERIES CONCERNING
THE NEW COVENANT.

Query 1. WHAT is the new covenant? Is it not an agreement between God and the soul in Christ, according to the law of faith, as the old covenant was an agreement between God and the people of the Jews, according to the law of works?

Query 2. Who is the Mediator of this covenant? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ? Doth not he prepare the heart for the covenant, bring into the covenant, keep in the covenant, preserve peace between God and the soul, and keep the soul in the way of truth and peace?

Query 3. Who is the Shepherd, King, and Prophet in this covenant? Is it any other than Christ, the Mediator? Is not he the King and Prophet raised up to rule in righteousness, and to instruct in the path of life? And is not his Spirit able to teach and instruct in all things, and able to govern and rule in righteousness all that are subject to his breathings, quickenings, and holy movings, and instructions in their hearts, who writes his law there, and guides and governs by the law which he writes?

Query 4. How come men into this covenant or holy agreement with God? Is it not by repentance and faith? Is it not by turning from the darkness, which is not of him, to the light which is of him? Is it not by turning from the Spirit of Satan to his Spirit,-from the standard and power of the wicked one, to the standard and power of the Holy One? What is it that God lifts up against the darkness of the enemy, but the light of his Spirit, which discovers where a man has been, and what he hath done, and gives him to repent thereof, and forsake all his dead works, and turn to the life and power which instructs and quickens him, in and by the Holy Spirit? And this is true conversion; and

thus a man feels the covenant of sin, death, and hell broken, and enters into a new covenant, a pure covenant, a living covenant, a powerful covenant, and comes to feel those things which the covenant contains, as his condition requires, and as his capacity is made able to receive.

Query 5. How do men come to abide in this covenant? Is there any abiding but according to the entrance? Is there any staying in the covenant, but in and by the faith that lets in? Doth not unbelief and disobedience keep out from it at first? And doth not unbelief and disobedience cut off from it afterwards? For there are sins against this covenant, as well as against the old? and the sins against this are more dangerous to the soul than the sins against the old. "Take heed (said the apostle) lest there be in any of you an heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God.” And saith Moses, speaking of the prophet, or angel of this covenant, "Beware of him, and obey his voice; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him, and whosoever hearkeneth not to this prophet, he shall be cut off." How can it be otherwise? For he speaks life, and he speaks it in the covenant to the circumcised ear, to the soul in the faith, in the obedience. Hear, and your souls shall live. So then he that hears not must needs abide in death; and he that departs from hearing him, must needs return to death.

Query 6. Whether there be any purifying of the heart, or any justification, or keeping the vessel clean, out of the obedience of the truth? "If a man keep my sayings," saith Christ, "he shall never see death." "If ye," saith the apostle, "through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." But if the deeds of the body be not mortified by the Spirit, if a man do not keep the sayings of Christ, doth he, or can he, live then? Is not this then the main thing in religion, that a man receive the truth in the faith, and that he feel the power of the Spirit of life bringing him into and keeping him in the obedience thereof? For it is the truth that saves; the living truth, the living knowledge, the living faith; the law of the Spirit of life that makes free

from the law of sin and death; and it makes free by its powerful working in the mind, working out, and preserving from, that which defiles, captivates, and destroys. For Christ comes with his power to save, with his power to break the bonds of darkness, and to set the captive free: with his power to dislodge and dispossess all the enemies, and sanctify the vessel to himself; and the effects of his power in and upon the heart are his salvation; and he that falleth short of the manifestation of the power of life to his soul, and of the effects thereof in his soul, is so far defective in point of salvation; for no man is saved further than he is redeemed and delivered from that which Christ comes to save him from.

Query 7. Whether the first thing of all to be witnessed in religion is not the Spirit of Christ? Is not the whole work to be done by him? And how can a mau be certain concerning any work wrought in him, unless he be certain that it is he that works? How can I be certain concerning the knowledge given me, unless I be sure it be he that gives it? How can I be certain concerning any prayers or breathings arising in my heart, unless I be sure they be from him? How can I understand any scripture concerning Christ, or the knowledge of any spiritual thing, unless I be sure he open it to me? And how can I be sure of any thing that he giveth or openeth to me, further than I know him, and have the true sense of him in his nature and operations? So then, if the Spirit be my leader, guide, teacher, instructor in the way of life, in the covenant of life, in the things of the kingdom, in the knowledge of scriptures, &c., it is of great concernment to me to receive that ear and heart from God, which knows and understands his voice; for, for want of this, are all the defects, mistakes, miscarriages, and errors, in and about religion. But as men come to this, they come out of error into certainty, and know the one Christ, the one faith, the one baptism, the one body, the one church, and assembly of the first-born, the pure love, which is of and in the truth, the pure path of the kingdom, the way of holiness, which the ransomed and redeemed walk