who came in the fulness of time, in that prepared body, to do the Father's will (his coming into the world, doctrine, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, &c.) in plainness and simplicity of heart, according as it is expressed in the letter of the Scriptures.

Secondly, That we own no other Christ than that, nor hold forth no other thing for Christ, but him who then appeared, and was made manifest in flesh.

Now it would be nakedly inquired into by professors, what is the reason that their jealousies still remain concerning us, and why they are still so ready to cast this upon us. Certainly if they did know and own the same thing with us (in the Spirit, and in the power, in the life, and in the love, which is of the truth), this prejudice and these hard thoughts could not remain. But if they themselves do not know Christ in the Spirit (but only according to a relation of the letter), no marvel though they miss both of the Spirit, and of the true intent and meaning of the letter; and likewise be liable to clash against the truth, as it is made manifest in others.

And indeed the Lord hath shown me in Spirit several times, that they themselves are guilty of that very charge (and that he will so implead them at his judgment-seat) which they cast upon us, even of denying that Christ which died at Jerusalem to be the Christ. For he that owneth the words of scripture, as he apprehends or conceives them in the reasonings of his mind, and doth not wait to have them revealed in the Spirit, keeping out of his own reasonings and conceivings, and waiting patiently till the Lord open the thing in the Spirit, he setteth up his own conceiv ings, or an image in his mind, of the mind of the Spirit, but misseth of the thing itself, which alone is known in the Spirit, by them who wait upon the Spirit, there to receive it, and are not hasty to set up their own reasonings and imaginations concerning the thing in the mean time.

No man can in truth call Jesus the Lord, but by the Spirit. But any man that is any thing serious, and weighs the Scriptures in the natural part, may so learn to acknowl

edge his coming into the world, and that he is Lord and King, &c., and may thus call him Lord, yea, and kindle a great heat in his affections towards him; but all this (out of the life, out of the Spirit) is but man's image, which he forms in his mind, in his reading the Scriptures, and observing things therefrom. But the true calling Jesus Lord is from the feeling of his eternal virtue in the Spirit, and finding the Scriptures opened to him by the Spirit, in a principle which is above the reason, comprehends the reason, and confounds and brings it to nothing.

Again; there is no true knowledge of Christ, no living knowledge, no saving knowledge, no knowledge which hath the eternal virtue in it, but that which is received and retained in a measure of light given by God to the creature, in the faith which is the gift, in the grace which is supernatural and spiritual; whereas the reasoning part is but natural. And such as have received the spiritual understanding know it to be distinct from the natural; and we experimentally find a very clear distinction, between scriptures searched out by the reasonings of the mind (and so practices drawn therefrom), and scriptures opened by the Spirit, and felt in the life.

Now that professors generally have not received their knowledge of Christ from the Spirit, or from scriptures opened in the Spirit (and so know not the thing, but only such a relation of the thing as man's reasoning part may drink in from the letter of the Scriptures), is manifest by this, in that they are not able in spirit and understanding to distinguish the thing itself from the garment wherewith it was clothed, though the Scriptures be very express therein. Speak of Christ according to a relation of the letter, there they can say somewhat; but come to the substance, come to the spirit of the thing, come to the thing itself, there they stutter and stammer, and show plainly that they know not what it is.

Now the Scriptures do expressly distinguish between Christ and the garment which he wore; between him that came, and the body in which he came; between the sub

stance which was veiled, and the veil which veiled it. "Lo! I come; a body hast thou prepared me." There is plainly he, and the body in which he came. There was the outward vessel, and the inward life. This we certainly know, and can never call the bodily garment Christ, but that which appeared and dwelt in the body. Now if ye indeed know the Christ of God, tell us plainly what that is which appeared in the body,-whether that was not the Christ before it took up the body, after it took up the body, and for ever.

And then their confining of Christ to that body, plainly manifesteth that they want the knowledge of him in Spirit. For Christ is the Son of the Father; he is the infinite eternal Being, one with the Father, and with the Spirit, and cannot be divided from either; cannot be anywhere where they are not, nor can be excluded from any place where they are. He may take up a body, and appear in it; but cannot be confined to be nowhere else but there; no not at the very time while he is there. Christ, while he was here on earth, yet was not excluded from being in heaven with the Father at the very same time; as he himself said concerning himself, "The Son of man which is in heaven." John iii. 13. Nor was the Father excluded from being with him in the body; but the Father was in him, and he in the Father: whereupon he said to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." What! did every one that saw that body, see the Father also? Nay, not so; but he that saw Christ, the Son of the living God, whom flesh and blood revealed not, but the Father only (Mat. xvi. 16, 17.), he saw the Fa

ther also.

O friends! look to your knowledge of Christ, and to your faith and knowledge of the Scriptures, and to your prayers also; for it is easy missing of the living substance in all these, and meeting with a shadow; which may please, and make a great show in the earthly part, in the natural understanding and affections, but satisfieth not the soul, or that which is born after the Spirit, but still the cry goes out (where the soul is awakened) after truth, substance, life,

virtue from God's Spirit in the spirit which it alone can feed upon.

These four things following I am certain of; which he that cometh into the true light, shall infallibly experience them there.

First, That nothing can save but the knowledge of Christ, even of that very Christ, and no other, who took upon him the prepared body, and offered it up at Jerusalem.

Secondly, That no knowledge of Christ can save but the living knowledge. Not a knowledge of him after the letter (which the carnal part may get much of, and value itself much by), but a knowledge of him in the Spirit; which is only given to that which is begotten and born of the Spirit, and only retained by that which abides and remains in the Spirit, and runs not out into the fleshly reasonings, imaginings, and conceivings, about the things mentioned in the Scriptures.

Thirdly, That that man who knoweth not Christ in Spirit, nor keepeth close to him in spirit; but (through darkness and misguidance of the spirit of deceit) calleth the shinings of his light (his reproofs, his checks for that which is evil, and his secret motions to that which is good) natural; this man, though he seem to own Christ ever so much according to the letter, yet in truth denies him.

Fourthly, IIe that denies Christ, in his knockings and visitations of him in his own heart, and before men in the truths which he holds forth by his servants and ministers of his Spirit, him will he deny before his Father in heaven.

Oh! I beseech you do not trifle about these things (for they are exceeding weighty), lest ye perish from the way! For missing of the Saviour, ye must needs also miss of the salvation. Oh that ye knew your state, as God knows it to be, and as it is certainly known and felt, in the measure of his life and Holy Spirit, by those which God hath gathered thither, and whose eyes he hath opened, and preserveth open there! glory be to his name therefor: yea, glory, glory, glory, and everlasting praises be sung to him throughout all the holy land; yea, in the very heights of Zion, by the

souls of the redeemed, from henceforth and for evermore, amen: whose mercy, love, grace, wisdom, power, and rich goodness remaineth and endureth for ever; by and in which the redeemed lived to his praise, who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, whose blood they know what it is, and none else knoweth it, but they who feel the sprinkling and virtue of it. Lo! this is our God, we have waited for him, and how can we but be glad, and rejoice in his salvation! Oh! let all that live by the breath of thy power, and drink of thy streams, sing praise unto thee, and exalt thy great and wonderful name for ever and ever!

SOME PROPOSITIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS

CONCERNING THE NATURE OF CHURCH WORSHIPS AND ORDINANCES SINCE THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES, FOR THE SAKE

OF THE SIMPLICITY WHICH HATH BEEN LONG

HELD CAPTIVE THEREIN.

HE that would know the true state of the church, and ordinances thereof, must wait upon God in fear and humility of heart, who alone is able to give the true knowledge and understanding of these things. And he that cometh to the Spirit, waiteth in the Spirit, and receiveth the true light from the Spirit, he shall be able to measure ages and generations past as with a span, and see clearly, in that light, how things were before the apostasy, how while the church was in the wilderness, and how things shall be again after the apostasy, when the church cometh out of the wilderness. She herself is the same in all; but her state is different, according to the wisdom and good pleasure of him who variously disposeth of her. One while she is clothed, appearing in the beauty and glorious dress which the Lord had put upon her. Another while she is stripped of her outward garments, and the harlot dressed therewith, and appearing therein. After which season she is adorned again as gloriously (if not more gloriously) than before; but whether ever she appears more in those garments