Query 5. Who is this, whose stones God lays with fair colors, and her foundation with sapphires? Whose windows God makes of agates, and her gates of carbuncles, and all her borders of pleasant stones? Was not the covenant of life so adorned in the apostle's days? And is she not so adorned now again? Query 6. Whose children are they, who shall be all taught of the Lord, and whose peace shall be great, who shall be established in righteousness, who shall be far from oppression, so that they shall not fear; and from terror, so that it shall not come near them? Is there such a generation of the heavenly birth, of the covenant of life, brought forth in this our day, who sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and make him their fear and their dread, but are not terrified with the wicked one, nor with the snares and engines of the ungodly? Surely they who are taught of God, have peace from him and in him, and are established in the righteous Spirit and life of his Son; they are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken or removed, by all the terrors and oppressing devices of the ungodly. Query 7. By whom do they gather together, who gather together against such a people? Certainly it is not by the Lord, nor by any advice or counsel from him; but by the advice of that spirit which opposeth himself against the power and work of the Lord: and that spirit must fall for the sakes of those whom God hath raised up by his power, and undertaketh to defend. How tender was God of Israel after the flesh in the day of his delivering them! See 1 Chron. xvi. 19, &e. And will he not be as tender of his spiritual Israel, in the day of his redeeming and delivering them? Indeed, the opposition will be very great, but consider who shall have the victory, see Rev. xvii. 14. Certainly it is true, and sealed by the Spirit of the Lord, that patience, meekness, innocency, love, righteousness, &c., shall at length overcome all unrighteousness, enmity, oppression, cruelty, wrath, &c., and that spirit from which they proceed; and as they are overcome, and when they are overcome, the Lamb's Spirit shall reign and shine in the glory of the Father. Oh! the sweet sense of this day, and further hope thereof; how doth it bear up the suffering lambs, in the midst of all their trials and tribulations! Query 8. Hath not God created the waster to destroy? And hath not he power over him? And doth not he limit him in the midst of his destroying work? But did God create him to destroy his heritage? or will God suffer him so to do? They may indeed destroy the buildings which are not of God? but God is the wise, great Master-builder, who counted his cost before he began, and knew he was able to maintain his building, against all the oppositions and opposers, which could rise up against it. Query 9. Can any weapon formed against the covenant of life, and the children thereof, who are taught of God, and have peace from him, and who are established by him in righteousness,-I say, can any weapon formed against these prosper? Every tongue that riseth up in judgment against them, doth not the holy tongue condemn? Is not this the heritage of the servants of the Lord, in this our day? And doth not the Lord say (whatever men say to the contrary) that their righteousness is of him? Indeed, whoever receiveth the true righteousness, receiveth it from the hand of the Lord, and knoweth it to be of him. And this testimony we have, even from the Spirit of the Lord, who taketh away our unrighteousness and filthy garments, and giveth us righteousness from and in his Son's righteousness, even the very same wherewith the Son himself was clothed. For as the seed is but one, and of one, Heb. ii. 11. so the righteousness is but one also. Be not hasty in spirit, but wait to understand in the light and Spirit of the Lord, which is wisdom's place of giving true understanding to her disciples. It is true, there hath been great darkness, and the true church hath been in the wilderness, and the remnant of her seed hunted and persecuted up and down the earth by the false church, which hath been cried up for the true. But, blessed be the Lord, the darkness is passing away, and the true light shining again; which light discovers and redeems out of all that is false, into that which is true; so that he that is truth, and no lie, is again known, and he speaketh truth and no lie, and he anointeth with the true and holy oil of life and salvation, all that are truly living. And now the kingdom of darkness is going down, and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ raising up and exalting; which is an inward kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of life, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of holy power and dominion over sin and death in the heart. And this will spread and increase, to the blessing of persons, families, and nations (as they come to be sensible of and subject to the holy light and power thereof), with the blessings of Abraham, wherewith all families and nations are to be blessed, as they come to be unleavened from the serpentine spirit and wisdom, and leavened with the innocency and righteousness of the Lamb's nature and Spirit. The mighty God carry on his work, by the same mighty arm of strength wherewith he began it; and open the eyes of this nation, that they may see their proper hope and interest; for indeed the Lord hath great love to this nation, and blessing in store for it (for the seed's sake which he hath sown and caused to spring up in it); though many trials and tribulations must first be passed through, and the spirit of enmity and opposition against the appearance of God's Holy Spirit and power worn out. Oh that men could come to that which gives the eye-sight, that thereby they might see aright, and no longer take the rise of their seeing from that spirit and wisdom, which misrepresents things. Written in Reading jail, in the tender love, true innocency, and uprightness of my heart; which the Lord hath given me to suffer with for his truth's sake; about the latter end of the 4th month, 1671. ISAAC PENINGTON. Vol. III.-18 Chief Passages in a LETTER, written to me, and replied to by me, before my Imprisonment in this Place. Where I have been a Prisoner above a Year and a Half, without any Law broken, or Cause given on my Part, who only came Innocently and Peaceably to Visit my Friends in Prison. BY ME ISAAC PENINGTON, Prisoner for the TESTIMONY OF TRUTH (for could I have denied TRUTH, I might have avoided the SNARE), at Reading Jail. The Bows of the Mighty are broken; and they that |