wait, Oh! wait, to overcome it with good. Oh! let us not spend the strength of our spirits in crying out of one another because of evil; but watch and wait where the mercy and the healing virtue will please to arise. O Lord, my God, when thou hast shewn the wants of Israel in any kind sufficiently (whether in the particular, or in the general) bring forth the supply thereof from thy fulness, so ordering it in thine eternal wisdom, that all may be ashamed and abased before thee, and thy name praised in and over all.

[The spiritual eye beholdeth things aright, beholdeth things in the Lord, and tasteth sweetness therein, and is pleased with that which is spiritual. If every one did eye the Lord, subject to the Lord, answer the light and Spirit of the Lord in their own hearts, though the forms in the school of Christ be higher or lower, the lessons different, and the practices answerable, yet every one minding his own place and lesson, and performing his own peculiar service, the spiritual eye would be delighted therewith. And those that are of the true seed and birth do know, own, and love one another in their several places, and different performances to their Master, to whom they are to give an account; and do not quarrel with one another about their different performances. Oh! how sweetly is this practised and experienccd among us at this day!

And unity in the life is the ground of true brotherly love and fellowship. Not that another man walks just as I do; but though he be weaker or stronger, yet he walks by the same principle of light, and is felt in the same Spirit of life, which guideth both the weak and the strong, in their several ranks, order, proper way, and place of subjection, to that one Spirit of life and truth, which all are to be subject to.

Nay, he that is truly spiritual and strong in the light and Spirit of the Lord, cannot desire that the weak should walk just as he does; but only as they are strengthened, taught, and led thereunto, by the same Spirit that strengthened, taught, and led him.

But if the Lord hath taught a man, opened the same eye in him that he opened in others, and brought him into unity and uniformity with the church, in the practices which the Lord hath taught it; and he afterwards let in another spirit, and fall from these practices, and judge the very church itself for continuing in them; may not the church testify to this person, that he is erred from his guide, hath lost the light in himself, and so judgeth amiss, both concerning himself, and concerning the church of God? This hath been the state of some who went out from among us formerly, and may also be the state of some who go out from us now. For as there is one that gathers to the true church; so there is another that endeavouts to draw and scatter from it, and then to cause men to turn head

against it, as if it were not of God, but apostatized from the Spirit and principle of truth, which indeed is their own state and condition in God's sight.]

SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, CONDUCING TOWARDS THE FURTHER MANIFESTATION AND OPENING OF THE PATH OF REDEMPTION AND ETERNAL LIFE TO THE EYE OF SPIRITUAL IS

RAEL. [ABRIDGED.]

How doth the Son of God, or Eternal Word, in whom is the light of life, redeem man out of the fallen estate, out of the kingdom of darkness and death, into the kingdom of everlasting righteousness and peace in the life?

Ans. Three ways. First, by wounding him in the natural and corrupt estate, and so breaking his peace and pleasure in the kingdom of darkness, and making him weary thereof. Secondly, by weakening him under the teachings and chastisement of the law.Thirdly, by healing and binding him up with the oil of salvation, in the power of the endless life, which is the gospel.

How doth God wound him in the natural and corrupt state?

Ans. By pursuing him with his light, which letteth him see what it is, discovering the evil and danger of it, and so weaning his heart from it, and making him look out after and long for a Redeemer. Oh! how burdensome is the captivity to the awakened soul, when

he hath a glimpse of what man was before his fall, (when he had a place and being in the life, with a spirit suitable to the life) and what he is now in his estate of estrangedness and alienation from the life; and whither he is going in his paths of unrighteousness, estrangedness, and alienation! And while his heart is thus returning from the land of death and captivity, and longing after the redeeming power and virtue of the life, the enemy (the power of darkness) lays loads upon him, drawing him more and more under the chains and bonds of iniquity, to the utmost of its strength. So that now lusts abound, evils. increase, temptations and snares multiply; and in the land of captivity their strength is great, the soul weak and faint, and the redeeming power and virtue seems very far off. Now this is the estate of conversion; when the Lord, in the midst of the powers of death and darkness, turns the heart from them towards himself, causing it to wait (under the captivity) for the appearance of the arm of his strength, to break the yoke of the oppressor from off the necks of the oppressed, and so to bring out of the land of death and darkness, into the travels towards the land of promise; where the peace, the life, the liberty in the Lord, the rest, the joy, the full content and happiness is reaped by the soul, which follows the Lamb thither.

How doth God weaken the creature under the teachings and chastisements of the law? Ans. By exercising him towards good and evil, and correcting him for his unbelief and

disobedience, as he finds good, just, and necessary for him.

How doth God exercise him towards good and evil, and correct him?

Ans. When he hath brought him from under the power of darkness in some measure; and in some measure set the spirit free therefrom, by the virtue of his life springing up in the heart, then he exerciseth the heart and conversation towards the good and from the evil; then he giveth out laws for or against things, according as he findeth most proper to the estate of every particular soul. Now upon the giving forth of the law, (the life being in some measure raised,) there is that which loves its teachings and pure path, and there is that also which draws back from it; and that being yet strong, there come many strokes and chastisements from the Lord, upon his own dear child. And these are bitter; and to be forced into the sin which it lothes, and in heart is turned from; and to be kept from the good which it longs after, and in heart is united to, (partly by the strength of the enemy, and partly by reason of its own weakness and negligence,) this is bitter also; insomuch as it crieth out day after day, and findeth this administration of the law almost as heavy a yoke as the land of captivity itself was, because of the weakness of it through the flesh, and the strength and advantages which the corruption of the heart and prince of darkness gather thereby.

What is the benefit of these exercises upon the soul?