There is another Query of great Concernment, which springeth up in my Heart towards you.

Query. Is not the Spirit, or anointing, the great gospel promise, and the great gospel ordinance? Is not he truth, and no lie, and the leader out of all lies and deceits into the truth, and the preserver of the mind and spirit therein? "Little children," said the same apostle, who had directed to the anointing, "keep yourselves from idols." Is there any possibility of being kept from images and idols but by him? Can any understand the things of the Spirit, or the words spoken by the Spirit concerning spiritual things, but by him? And then, is not every apprehension, that ye take up from the Scriptures concerning spiritual things, which ye have not from him, but comprehend and gather of yourselves, an image, or conceiving of your own, concerning that thing, and not that true knowledge and understanding of the thing which he alone can give? Oh that all the chambers of imagery were thrown down in you, and every idol of the heart and mind discovered to you, and broken down by the light and power of the Lord! that ye might come to that which is pure and living, and by its purifying know the pure heart, the pure mind, the pure conscience, and offer up the pure, perfect offering; not the lame, blind, imperfect, &c., which were not accepted, in the figure, under the law, nor acceptable under the gospel. Mal. i. 11. 13. and chap. iii. 3.

Friends, ye must know that which is pure from God, and ye must come into it (out of that which is impure, into that which is pure). Now that ye may do so, ye must know the purifying; for nothing that is impure can enter into that which is pure. Yea, ye must become priests to God, and wear the priest's garment, the pure garment, the living garment, the fine linen, without mixture of the woollen. Ye must be born of the innocency, be clothed with the innocency. The stony, hard, desperately wicked heart must be taken away, and the tender heart of flesh received, the Vol. III.-8

mind renewed to God, the fear put within (which cleanseth and keepeth clean), the law written within, the Spirit of the Lord put in the inward parts, and felt powerfully operating and changing there. Yea, and the inside must not only be clean, but the outside also; for ye must be clothed with the Spirit, clothed with the Lamb's righteousness and holiness; and thus ye must appear before the Lord in his temple, which is the beauty of holiness, whose house holiness becomes for ever; where ye are never to appear in your own filthy rags, but in the nature, Spirit, righteousness, and life of Christ. And thus ye are well pleasing to God, even in that which is of God; being born of that, formed of that, found in that, appearing in that. But in his own, no man can be accepted; for it is determined of God, and stands irreversible for ever, that in his own (in his own knowledge, in his own faith, in his own obedience, in his own rightcousness, in his own willing and running, &c.) shall no flesh for ever be justified in his sight; but only and alone in the nature, Spirit, life, righteousness, faith, obedience, and holiness of his Son. Therefore wait for the seed, that ye may know the seed, feel the seed, the pure seed of life (the leaven of the heavenly kingdom), and may witness it arising and come in you to do the will, and you in it quickened and enabled to live to and serve the living God. And when ye know this seed, ye know Christ; and when ye receive this seed, ye receive Christ; and if it live in you, Christ lives in you; and in it (being in it, and abiding in it) are ye heirs of the life, kingdom, and power, which hath no end; and shall daily feel the promises and blessings belonging to the seed, flowing in upon your spirits. But if ye content yourselves with the knowledge of Christ which the erring and apostatized spirit of man from the life and power may gather out of the letter of the Scriptures, and feed thereon; that will not nourish you up to eternal life, but death and sin, and the gates of hell will have power over you notwithstanding that; but if ye, through the Spirit, receive power over that which is contrary to God, and through him mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Therefore wait

for the manifestation of the pure power of the endless life, which is now dispensed from on high (blessed be the name of the living one!), and wait to know and be joined to that seed of life, wherein and whereby it is dispensed, that ye may witness Christ's kingdom come to you, and the reign of your spirits with him therein, over all that captivateth from him, loadeth the soul, howeth down and oppresseth.

A POSTSCRIPT

Concerning Deceit and being Deceived.

THERE is that which deceives (where it is hearkened to), and there is that which is liable to be deceived by it. There is likewise that which deceiveth not; and there is also that which cannot be deceived. So likewise there is a pure fear and watching in the truth against the deceit, lest by any means it should enter and betray. As also there is a fear that is a snare (which the true faith preserves out of) whereby many are entangled in the very bowels of deceit, even concerning those very things about which they are afraid they should be deceived. This hath been experienced by those, who have been acquainted with the Lord's precious truth, and thereby are come to know and discern the wiles. and devices of Satan; who often hath quenched what the Lord hath kindled, by his stirring up a fear, lest it should not be of the Lord, but from the spirit of deceit.

It is true, that in the apostasy from the life and Spirit of truth, deceit did generally prevail and overwhelm the minds of people. And so far as people are yet in the apostasy (not being gathered and redeemed out of it, by the Spirit and power of the Lord), they are yet under deceit; though perhaps they little think so. Little did we think formerly (and little do they think now, who are now in that state we were then in), that while we so much feared being deceived, we were already deceived, being short of the life and power of truth, which alone is able to make free and preserve from deceit. When the Lord cometh to bring to

the primitive light and principle, that he might perfectly deliver out of deceit; what can the enemy do more advantageously towards keeping his hold in the mind, and towards keeping the mind in the deceits wherein he hath already entangled it, than to stir up and heighten a fear in it, lest the precious truth, which God maketh manifest to deliver the soul by, should be deceit? And they that hearken to, and let in, the voice of the deceiver, must needs believe it to be so. And thus with them light cometh to be called darkness, and darkness light. Yea, who is it, at this day, who escapeth this snare, of calling evil good, and good evil? Surely none but he, whose soul is led into and lives in the light and power of truth.

For most men take up principles, according to their own or other men's understanding of the Scriptures, and judge according to those principles; and so the Spirit and light of the Lord judgeth not in them, but they themselves judge according to an assumed knowledge. So that flesh is not silent, the man is not dead in them and brought to nothing, but only lives in a higher region than he did before. Before, he lived in an apparent unrighteousness; now he lives in an imagined righteousness and faith; but not in the Son's righteousness, not in the Son's faith, not in the Son's power, not in the Son's dominion; but at best only in that which he apprehendeth and strongly imagineth to be so.

Oh! happy is he, who is come through all his own imaginings and conceivings about the things of God, and his own apprehensions about scriptures and promises, and is come into the thing itself, into the Spirit of life (into the truth and into the power), and who walks with God therein, daily witnessing the redemption which is of him, through his Son Jesus Christ, who is known and partook of in the pure, quickening Spirit, and not otherwise. And he that is truly begotten of God, and dwells with him in the light which is eternal, knows that he is of God; which others may strongly imagine they are, but none else can truly know it, but may easily err and be entangled in the deceits of the enemy about the new birth, and other weighty things, while they

are greatly afraid of being deceived by him, and so, through that fear, fly the pure truth, which frees from deceits, lest it should deceive them.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT of my Soul's Travel towards the Holy Land, and how at length it pleased the Lord to join my Heart to his pure, holy, living Truth; wherein I have witnessed the New Covenant, and Peace with the Lord therein. With a few Words concerning the way of Knowing and Receiving the Truth: which is not done by Disputes and Reasonings of the Mind about it; but in waiting aright for the Demonstration and Power of God's Spirit to open the Heart and Understanding, and by submissive Obedience to it, even in its lowest Appearances in the inward Parts.

My heart from my childhood was pointed towards the Lord, whom I feared and longed after from my tender years: wherein I felt, that I could not be satisfied with (nor indeed seek after) the things of this perishing world, which naturally pass away; but I desired true sense of, and unity with, that which abideth for ever. There was somewhat indeed then still within me (even the seed of eternity) which leavened and balanced my spirit almost continually; but I knew it not distinctly, so as to turn to it, and to give up to it, entirely and understandingly. In this temper of mind I earnestly sought after the Lord, applying myself to hear sermons, and read the best books I could meet with, but especially the Scriptures, which were very sweet and savory to me; yea, I very earnestly desired and pressed after the knowledge of the Scriptures, but was much afraid of receiving men's interpretations of them, or of fastening any interpretation upon them myself; but waited much, and prayed much, that from the Spirit of the Lord I might receive the true understanding of them, and that he would chiefly endue me with that knowledge, which I might feel sanctifying