Imatges de pàgina
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pleaseth the corrupt part in themselves? Will they not be separated, when they go out of this world, from God, who is light, and have their portion with dark spirits, in utter darkness? 2 Thess. i. 6, to 10. See also Matt. xxv. 30.

Oh, consider these things, while ye have time, for your souls' eternal good! that ye miss not of the holy way of life and salvation, and so perish; whom God would not have perish, but stretcheth forth his hand of love, by his inward. "light of life," effectually to save your souls.

Astrop, 20th of Sixth Month, 1678.

I. P.

TO ONE WHO SENT A MESSAGE TO HIM FROM ASTROP Wells.

I HAD no end in writing or sending those papers, but true love to your immortal souls; that ye might seriously consider thereof, and be found in the practice of them, and so be happy for ever. For as Christ said to his disciples, so it is with me in this case towards you, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." I have felt the sweetness and great benefit of the practice of them, which I heartily desire ye may also experience.

I here send enclosed a token of my love to thee in particular, which thy courteous message drew from me. It contains, in a few words, the true path-way of salvation; which, though thou mayst know already, yet the reading and serious consideration thereof may not be unserviceable to thee. I am thy friend, in true love and desires for thee,

I. P.

THE PLAIN PATH-WAY OF SALVATION.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.

Grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ saves by the grace and truth which comes by him.

For it is the grace of God that brings salvation, and it is the truth, as it in Jesus, which makes free indeed.

He, therefore, that would be saved from sin and condem

Vol. III.-44

nation, must wait for the inward manifesting and revealing of the grace and truth in his heart; and must receive it, and be subject to it, learning of the grace, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts in every kind; and he must learn of the truth as it is in Jesus, to deny whatever is contrary to the life, nature, and Spirit of Jesus. He must likewise learn of the grace and truth to fear God; to turn from all false, invented worships and ways of men, and to worship God, the Father of spirits, in spirit and in truth: and as he learns and practises this, he will also learn of the grace and truth to live soberly and righteously in this present world, yea, and godlily also, even as the holy God would have him; for God would have men live no otherwise, than as his grace and truth teaches them. Now God's grace and truth, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is written in the inward parts, do not only teach that which is good, and to deny and depart from that which is evil, but give ability so to do. "My grace is sufficient for thee," said God to Paul. And the truth of Jesus, revealed inwardly, hath virtue and power in it; insomuch that they who receive the grace and truth which comes by Jesus Christ, receive power to become sons to God. For the grace, the truth, is not a notional thing, but hath the virtue and power of life, and mortification in it; and they that truly receive it, partake of its virtue and power in operation and exercise of it in their hearts, and are thereby really made dead unto sin, and alive unto God.

So then, he that knows the grace and truth which comes by Jesus Christ, receives it, learns of it, is subject to it, and partakes of its virtue and power, he knows Christ unto salvation; but he that knows not, receives not, is not subject to the grace, doth not experience the sufficiency of the grace, nor witness ability and power through it to become a son to God, and to do the will of God,-he doth not yet at all know the Lord Jesus Christ unto the salvation of his soul, notwithstanding whatsoever he may profess or believe concerning him.

Astrop, 28th of Sixth Month, 1678.

I. P.

TO THE WOMEN FRIENDS THAT MEET AT ARMSCOT IN

DEAR FRIENDS,

WORCESTERSHIRE.

In your meetings together to do service for the Lord, be every one of you very careful and diligent in watching to his power, that ye may have the sensible, living feeling of it, each of you in your own hearts, and in the hearts one of another; and that ye may keep within the limits of it, and not think, or speak, or act beyond it. And know, oh! wait more and more to know, how to keep that silence, which is of the power; that in every one of you, what the power would have silent, may be silent. Oh! take heed of the forwardness of the flesh, the wisdom of the flesh, the will of the flesh, the talkativeness of the flesh; keep them back, oh! let them for ever be kept back in every one of you, by the presence and virtue of the power.

The power is the authority and blessing of your meetings, and therein lies your ability to perform what God requires; be sure ye have it with you. Keep back to the life, keep low in the holy fear, and ye shall not miss of it. You will find it easy to transgress, easy to set up self, easy to run into sudden apprehensions about things, and one to be of this mind and another of that; but feel the power to keep down all this, and to keep you out of all this; every one watching to the life, when and where it will arise to help you, and that ye may be sensible of it when it doth arise, and not in a wrong wisdom oppose it, but be one with it. And thus, if any thing should arise from the wrong wisdom in any, ye may be sensible of it, not defiled or entangled with it, but abiding in that which sees through it and judges it; that so, life may reign in your hearts and in your meetings, above that which will be forward, and perking over the life, if ye be not very watchful.

So the Lord God of my life be with you, and season your hearts with his grace and truth, and daily keep you in the savor thereof; that ye may be blessed by him, and a bless

ing in his hands; all that is evil and contrary to truth being kept down in your own hearts, ye will be fit to keep down evil in the minds and hearts of others; and if any thing be unsavory anywhere, it will be searched into, judged, cast out, and the recovery of the soul which hath let it in sought, that if possible it may be restored; and then, ye will know the joy of seeking out and bringing back the lost sheep. And be tender to others, in true compassion, as ye would be tendered by others, if ye were in their conditions.

There is that near you, which will guide you; oh! wait for it, and be sure ye keep to it; that, being innocent and faithful, in following the Lord in the leadings of his power, his power may plead your cause in the hearts of all his tender people hereabouts; and they may see and acknowledge, that your meetings are of God,-that ye are guided by him into that way of service, in his holy fear, in which he himself is with you, and by the movings of his Holy Spirit in your hearts, hath engaged you. Be not hasty, either in conceiving any thing in your minds, or in speaking it forth, or in any thing ye are to do; but feel him by his Spirit and life going along with you, and leading you into what he would have any of you, or every one of you do. If ye be in the true feeling sense of what the Lord your God would have done, and join with what is of God, as it riseth in any, or against any thing that is not of God, as it is made manifest among you; ye are all in your places and proper services, obeying the blessed will, and doing the blessed work, of the Lord your God.

I had somewhat upon me yesterday to you, but my weakness was great. This morning, this lay as a weight upon my spirit to lay upon yours; may the weight of it come upon you, to weigh down whatever is light or chaffy in any of you, that the seed of life may come up over it, and ye may be weighty before the Lord, in the weighty seed of life. The Lord make you rightly serviceable to him, and truly glorious in your meetings, and in your several places. Ye will find a great work to keep one part down, that that

which is pure and living of God may come up in you, and ye act only in it, not exceeding the limits of it.

Written at John Hawford's,

7th of Seventh Month, 1678.

I. P.

To S. W.

DEAR FRIEND,

I ever had a love to thee, and a deep sense of the serious work of God upon thy heart, and the upright desires of thy soul after Him. And, that the Lord should yet preserve thee alive, in the midst of so great and languishing weakness, is wonderful in my eye, and I hope, hath a tendency of some honor to his name, and good to thee. I have often inquired of late concerning thee, and was glad to understand what I inquired after, by a letter from thy own hand; upon reading whereof, in the retired sense of my heart, I felt love arise to thee, and breathings to the Lord for thee; and, oh that thou mayst fully feel, and be joined to the seed of life, the seed of the kingdom, which our Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of his flesh, did not disdain to be a preacher of.

O my dear friend! let not any part of thy life lie in notions above the seed, but let it all lie in the seed itself, in thy waiting upon the Lord for its arisings in thee, and in thy feeling its arisings. Oh! what becomes of flesh, and self, and self-righteousness, when this lives in the heart? My religion, which I now daily bless my God for, began in this seed; which, when I first felt, and discerningly knew from the Lord, my cry to him was, oh, this is it I have longed after and waited for! Oh, unite my soul to thee in this for ever! this is thy Son's gift from thee, thy Son's grace, thy Son's truth, thy Son's life, thy Son's Spirit! I desire no more, than to be made nothing in myself, that this may be all in me: and what I meet with and witness here, what I feel the Lord Jesus Christ to be made to me here, none knows, or possibly can know, but they that have felt the

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