law written in his heart, which the carnal mind is not subject to, nor can be subject to, without doubt he is spiritual; without doubt he is a true Christian. Seventhly, He that lives by faith, who knows the faith which is the gift of God, hath received it, and lives by it; who can do nothing of himself, but only by faith in that holy power which doth all in him; so that he lives, and believes, and obeys from a holy root of life, which causeth life to spring up in him, and love to spring up in him, and the Lamb's meekness and patience to spring up in him, and all grace to spring up in him,-I say, he that lives thus, without doubt is ingrafted into the true vine, into the true olivetree; and the root bears him, and ministers sap unto him, and he is a true, fresh, green, living branch of the true vine, of the holy olive-tree. Many more things might be mentioned, as they are experimentally known and felt among us, who are true Christians; though the Baptists and others have represented us to the world as if we were no Christians; but that touching us not, their saying so is no more to us than the professing Jews of the same spirit, who said Christ had a devil. But these are to give a taste; and he that knows and feels these may also know and feel the rest, and he that doth not know or feel these would not know or feel the rest, if ever so many more should be mentioned. Now the way to feel these, and to become a true Christian (and to grow up in the Christian life), is to feel the seed of the kingdom, which is the beginning of the kingdom, the beginning of true Christianity; and then to feel the seed abiding (the seed which is of the Spirit, and which is Spirit), here is the constant seal of Christianity in my heart; here are true and certain evidences, day by day, of the Christian nature and spirit manifesting themselves undeniably inwardly. And now having the witness in myself, the testimony of him that begat life in me, testifying to his own work, and to his own birth, of what value are any testimonies of men without, against this? Christianity is a mystery, and he only can ruly see who is a Christian indeed, who hath the inward eye opened, and with that inward eye is taught of God to pierce into that wherein Christianity consisteth. There have been many Christians of men's making; there are also some Christians of God's and Christ's making; which Christians God and Christ will own, but not the other. Oh! let men have a care, that when God cometh to distinguish between cattle and cattle (between Christian and Christian), they be found such as God will make up as his jewels, and own as the sheep of his fold; such as shall be able to bear the trial of his searching judgment, and pure, impartial eye; and not such as still, notwithstanding all their profession of religion and Christianity, are found workers of iniquity, and so not created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and therefore not truly of him, nor true Christians in his eye. JEWS NATURAL, AND TO THE JEWS SPIRITUAL; WITHI A FEW WORDS TO ENGLAND, MY NATIVE COUNTRY. WHEREUNTO ARE ADDED THREE QUERIES TOUCHING THE RIVER AND CITY OF GOD, IS KNOWN AND EXALted. AS ALSO SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED CONCERNING THE TRUE CHURCH, MINISTRY, AND MAINTENANCE UNDER THE GOSPEL; AND LIKEWISE ABOUT THE LAMB'S WAR. Written in travailing bowels, by ISAAC PENINGTON. "Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a clean heart.” Ps. lxxiii. 1. "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." John i. 47. "For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. ii. 28, 29. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised, with the uncircumcised, Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." Jer. ix. 25, 26. 403 PREFACE. WHAT a day of distress, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, is to come upon the wicked and ungodly world (even upon man, who was created in the image of God, but is now fallen from it, and found out of it, and in another image very unlike it); the eye which the god of this world hath blinded, and the heart which he hath hardened by sin and transgression, hath no sense of. What a day of distress and misery some in this nation (and in other parts of the world) have already met with! how they have felt the weight of sin upon their spirits, and what a sore thing it hath been to them to feel their souls separated from that God that made them (who is the IIusband and Father, King and Preserver of souls that are found in his image and nature); how they have been inwardly captivated by a foreign power, and oppressed, and made to serve under sin, and could hear no effectual tidings of his appearance who was able to save, but their spirits were ready to sink, and their hope of redemption, from that which oppressed and captivated them, almost cut off,-this being an inward state and condition, hath been altogether hid from the eye which is outward. How the Lord at length appeared unto these (his bowels having long rolled over them, and he having long waited to be gracious to them, even till the full and acceptable set time was come); how his light hath shined in and upon them; how he gathered those dry bones together, and breathed life into them, and made them live,-this also is altogether a hidden thing from the eye of the world. How the Lord, who appeared to them, hath exercised and tried them; how he hath judged them, and how he hath saved them; what desolations he hath made inwardly in them, and what he hath built there, what a hammer, a |