yoke, which should break the spirit, and subdue it to God. Here the Lord shows the soul what its heart is, that he might humble it, and do it good in the latter end. Here the very law of God appears weak, through the strength of the flesh, which is not yet subdued. Now, here is mourning, and groaning, and crying to the Lord night and day, both because of the violence and multitude of the enemies, and because of the naughtiness, distrust, and unbelief of the heart.

3. There is a state of rest, a state of peace, a state of life, a state of power, a state of grace, a state of dominion, in the life, and through the power of the Lord, wherein the law of life is manifested in dominion in the heart over the law of sin and death. There is an everlasting kingdom, wherein God and Christ reign, in which God treads Satan down uuder the feet of the soul, and makes the soul a king and a priest in the Son of his love; and the soul feels it is one with, and accepted in, the beloved.

Now, friends, that ye may know this kingdom, travel faithfully towards it; feel and come into the reign of Christ in it; sit down in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and inherit substance; know the gathering to Christ in the name, and sit down in the name, where the enemy cannot touch you; but feel the preservation and powerful life and dominion of that seed which is over the enemy, and wherein and whereby the Lord scatters the enemy, bruising the serpent's head, and anointing the soul with the oil of gladness, and clothing it with the beautiful garments of his righteousness and salvation; and that ye may know the precious and glorious building of life in the Spirit, even of the holy house and city of God, where the walls are salvation, and the gates praise. For this end it is in my heart from the Lord to write these things unto you; and the Lord God of his mercy open the door of entrance to you into these things; for there is but one door of life, and there is not another; which door is Christ, the seed; which seed is revealed within, there to break the wisdom, strength, and head of the serpent; and so far as he breaks it there,

redemption and freedom is witnessed from it, and no further.

Oh that ye might receive an understanding from the Lord, and be taught by him to deny and part with the understanding which is not of him, that ye might see things (from him, and in his light) which ye have not yet seen; and consider aright of that, which the enemy hitherto, by his subtlety, hath prejudiced you against.

And now as for us, who experience the truth as it is in Jesus, and with the Lord our God in his light, and by virtue of his life and love shed abroad in our hearts,-I say, what is it to us to be judged by you in your day as persons that deny Christ, deny scriptures, deny ordinances, deny duties, &c.? We are satisfied in our hearts as touching your judgment, knowing from the Lord what it is in you that thus judgeth of us, even the same thing that judged amiss of Christ (in the Scribes, Pharisees, and professing Jews) in the days of his flesh. And indeed, that in you can never judge aright; but is to be judged, condemned, and destroyed by the life and power of the Lord.

And oh that ye knew (sensibly knew) what is to live, and what is to die in you, that ye might feel the rising of your souls out of the grave, through the immortal seed of God, and the bringing of all your wisdom and knowledge of the things of God (which ye hold, and make use of, out of the compass and limits of his holy life and covenant) into death!

For, friends, let me tell you, that which hath been parted with (for the kingdom's sake, and the righteousness thereof) in some, was more precious than what ye hold so stiffly, and so magnify in your own thoughts and reasonings against the truth. Yea, that which was once of high esteem, and very glorious in our eyes, is now become as dross and dung, for the excellency of the pure, living knowledge of, and fellowship with, Jesus Christ, our Lord; and if ye had the true measure and balance to weigh things in, ye would acknowledge it: but the letter, and little ordinances and duties, and apprehensions of things out of the life, kills you, and keeps you under the veil, and from the sight of the things which are within the veil.

Oh that God would rend the veil in you! Oh that God would give you the feeling of, and union with, that whereby he rends the veil! Oh that he would humble you, and bring down the mighty from his seat of judgment in you, to be judged and abased, and exalt the meek and lowly into that which is his proper place!

Oh that ye might feel the work of God, even the redemp-· tion of the soul, begun and carried on by him with power in your hearts! Then would ye know Christ indeed, the scriptures indeed, the ordinances indeed, the duties indeed, the everlasting sabbath, the everlasting worship; even the substance of all that was shadowed out under the law, and sit down under the wing of the Almighty, from whence the power, the life, the virtue, the healing, drops into the soul.

And now, to give a touch at those things before mentioned, which ye so stumble at, a little to help to remove them from your spirits, if it please the Lord.

1. We do not deny that Christ which died at Jerusalem; but own him, and no other: and own what he did, his obedience to the Father always, and in all things; his sufferings in the virtue and power of the Father, and the value of them with the Father. This the Lord our God teacheth us to own, and to bless the name of the Lord, for him who is the Captain, and worker out of our salvation; a measure of whose life and power we have received, and embrace in our hearts; and in this is He, the fulness, made manifest to us; and we, through this, and by this, and in this, ingrafted into him; and so come to partake of the sweetness and fatness of the olive-tree. Yea, this we certainly know, that Christ was not only made manifest in that body of flesh, but is also made manifest in our mortal flesh, as we are gathered into his life, and his life brought forth in us. And he is not only antichrist, that denieth Christ's appearance in that body of flesh; but he that denieth him (the hope of glory) in his saints, his spiritual body. Yea, I beseech you consider, whether it hath been the work of antichrist all long the apostasy to deny the appearance of Christ in that body of flesh, or to deny the appearance of his life and

Spirit in the flesh of his saints? "We know (saith the apostle John) that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true." How was he come? Was not he that was with them come in them? Did he not live in them, act in them, speak in them? And did not they that were of God hear the voice of Christ, the voice of the Shepherd, in them? But they which were not of God, which were not the sheep, could not hear the voice of Christ in his apostles and believers; could not own him come in their flesh, though they could preach the same Christ in words, and own his coming in that body of flesh which he had appeared in. 1 John iv. 6.

2. We do indeed really, heartily, singly, as in God's sight, own the scriptures; the scriptures written by the prophets and holy men of God under the law; the scriptures written by the evangelists and apostles in the time of the gospel; and we read them with delight and joy, and would draw no man from a right reading of them to the benefit of his soul; but only from giving their own judg ments on them without the Spirit of God; lest in so doing, they wrest them to their own destuction.

This is that which the Lord hath drawn us from, and which we know it would also be profitable to others to be drawn from too; to wit, from imagining and guessing at the meaning of scriptures, and interpreting them without the opening of that Spirit from which they were given forth; for they who so do, feed that part (with a gathered knowledge) which should be famished, die, and perish, that another thing might come to live in them, and they in it.

Now to us, being taught of God, and led by him into the things and through the conditions the scriptures speak of, the scriptures are very precious, the relation of things under the law precious, the instructions, promises, and comforts precious, yea, the very reproofs and denunciations of judgment to that part, nature and spirit which the judg ments are to, precious; and it is impossible for any heart to conceive (who hath not the experience of the thing) how life springs in us; and how sweet, pleasant, and profitable