properly dies in men for their justification, although his spirit be both grieved and quenched in many; and many do lose the true sense of his living word in themselves, by suffering their souls' enemy, to draw out their minds from that Seed, that Word, that Light, that Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ in them, which (in itself, in its own being) never dies. The immortal Seed, the immortal Word, is of an immortal being, though many be dead thereunto in their trespasses and sins."-Pages 149, 150, 151.

"And if God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also, freely give us all things ?"—— Rom. viii. 32.

"Jesus Christ showed his own and heavenly Father's great love to all men, as he is the Light of the world, and given for a light unto the gentiles, and to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth; and also in his dying for all men; by the grace of God tasting death for every man; giving himself a ransom for all men, and in making intercession, both for transgressors and for the saints; also according to the will of God, even in Heaven itself, he appears in the presence of God for us, and also by his holy spirit in all true believers: his spirit maketh intercession, helpeth our infirmities, moves and assists us in prayer. They who are sons of God, are sensible that he hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galat. iv. 6.

"The humility, mercy, and condescension, of Jesus Christ, our blessed Mediator, are such that he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, weaknesses and temptations, and ready to succour, help, and relieve all them that are tempted, even by his grace and good spirit in their drawing near to the throne of HIS mercy and grace.

"O faithful Creator, O King of Saints, O merciful High Priest, O compassionate Mediator, let thy light and thy truth shine forth more and more to the glory of thy great and excellent name and power, and expel the great darkness of apostacy that has covered many nations and professions of Christianity, and greatly appeared in these latter times against thy light, thy truth and people, whom thou hast called and delivered out of darkness, into thy marvellous light. Glory and dominion be to thy great name and power, forever and ever."-Pages 211, 212. 1654.

"I always had a love to the bible, and to reading therein, from my childhood, yet did not truly understand nor experience those doctrines essential to salvation, nor the new covenant dispensation, until my mind was turned to the light of Christ, the living, Eternal Word, the entrance whereof giveth light and understanding to the simple. Yet I do confess it was some advantage to me frequently to read the Holy Scriptures when I was ignorant, and did not understand the great and excellent things or matters therein testified of; for when the Lord had livingly, in some measure, opened my understanding in the Holy Scripture, by my often reading the same before, having the better remembrance thereof, it was a help and advantage to my secret meditations, when a lively sense and comfort of the scriptures was in measure given me by the spirit, and thereby I was the more induced to the serious reading and consideration of

what I read in the Holy Scriptures, and the comfort thereof made known by the Holy Spirit enlightening the understanding: all the promises of God, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, being truly comfortable, when applied by the same spirit, for that will make no wrong application thereof; that spirit will never apply peace to the wicked, nor to persons living in their sins, nor tell the unjust that they are just or righteous in God's sight.

"It is through faith, which is in Christ, that the Holy Scriptures are said to make the man of God wise unto salvation, and profitable to him, for doctrine, reproof, admonition, and instruction in righteousness, that he may be perfect, and thoroughly furnished in every good word and work. Doubtless Paul esteemed Timothy's knowing the Holy Scriptures from a child, to be some advantage and help to him, but it was principally through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

"These things considered, I would not have Christian parents remiss, in educating and causing their children to read the Holy Scriptures, but to induce them, both to learn and frequently to read therein, (that is the bible.) It may be of real advantage and profitable to them, when they come to have their understandings enlightened, and to know the truth as it is in Christ Jesus."-Pages 15, 16.

"Question 2.-Whether the scriptures be the rule to try doctrines and spirits?

"Answer.-The Holy Scriptures are truly owned and esteemed a rule subordinate to the Holy Spirit, from which they were given forth, and by the help of the same spirit, doctrines and spirits may be tried; but the spirit is the supreme, universal guide and rule, which affords light and understanding to discern and try both spirits and doctrine, to the truly spiritually minded; for discerning of spirits is a spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. xii. 10.”—Pages 190,

191.

"When a person, fearing God and loving our Lord Jesus Christ, in sincerity and truth, confesseth his or her real belief, faith or hope, in terms of Holy Scripture, it is sufficient; whether it be of the suffering, death, resurrection or ascension, of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven and glory, or of his body being spiritual and glorious in heaven. And as the saints being spiritually united to him are his church and body also, and esteemed mystical, while here on earth, so their low or humble body shall be changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body: and of the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust, and of eternal judgment, according to Holy Scripture; I say, whosoever, fearing God, or friends of truth, are at any time questioned about these things, it will be sufficient and ought to be satisfactory, to answer them in plain scripture language, and keep to the same and I would advise all Friends to keep to the words, terms, language, AND DOCTRINE of Holy Scripture, and not to be wheedled or drawn from the same, nor suffer themselves to be imposed upon, either with unscriptural terms or unlearned questions, by any contentious or carping adversaries, whatsoever. For foolish and unlearned questions, as well as profane and vain babbling, must be avoided."-Pages 183, 184.

ISAAC PENNINGTON.

In "An Epistle to all serious professors," he has these remarks: "The first is concerning the Godhead, which we own as the scriptures express it, and as we have the sensible, experimental knowledge of it. In which there are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these Three are One, 1st John v. 7. This I believe from my heart, and have infallible demonstrations of; for I know Three, and feel Three in Spirit, even an Eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are but one Eternal God. And I feel them, also One, and have fellowship with them, through the tender mercy of the Lord, in their life, and in their redeeming power. And here I lie low before the Lord in the sensible life, not desiring to know and comprehend notionally; but to feel the thing inwardly, truly, sensibly, and effectually; yea, indeed, this is to me far beyond what I formerly knew notionally concerning them, and I cannot but invite others hither. "Now consider seriously, if a man from his heart believe thus concerning the eternal power and Godhead; that the Father is God, the Word God, the Holy Spirit God; and that these are one Eternal God, waiting so to know God, and to be subject to him accordingly; is not this man in a right frame of heart towards the Lord, in this respect? Indeed, friends, we do know God sensibly and experimentally, to be a Father, Word, and Spirit, and we worship the Father in the Son by his own Spirit, and here meet with the seal of acceptance with him. Nor would we contend with you about your crimes in this respect, but that ye provoke us thereunto, in laying to our charge, as if we denied the thing; whereas we do not, nor can deny the expressions which the scripture useth, nor our own sense and experience concerning the thing. I pray let this suffice and let us all strive to know God and his Son Jesus Christ, in his life, spirit, and power, wherein is unity and true demonstration, and not contend about such expressions concerning things, as are beside the scriptures. For would not ye yourselves think it hard, (I mean, such of you, as read the scriptures seriously, desiring to understand and observe what is written therein,) to have a belief of things imposed on you, otherwise than is there written, and otherwise than ye have the sense, knowledge and experience of them from the Lord ?

"The second is concerning the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, without the gates of Jerusalem. I do exceedingly honour and esteem that offering, believing it had relation to the sins of the whole world, and was a propitiatory sacrifice to the Father, therefor. And surely he that is redeemed out of the world, up to God, by Christ, cannot deny that Christ was his ransom, and that he was bought

with a price, and therefore is to glorify God, with his body and spirit which are God's, 1st Cor. vi. 20. And saith the apostle Peter, ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation, &c. but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, 1st Pet. i. 18, 19, who so offered himself up to God through the Eternal Spirit, Heb ix. 14. This we do own singly and nakedly, as in the sight of the Lord; though I must confess we do not lay the sole stress upon that which is outward and visible, (though we truly and fully acknowledge it, in its place,) but upon that which is inward and invisible; upon the inward life, the inward power, the Spirit within; knowing and experiencing daily, that that is it, which doth the work. The outward flesh is not the meat indeed, nor the out. ward blood the drink indeed, but it is the spirit, the life, the substance, which the birth that is born of the Spirit feeds upon and lives by. Oh! consider seriously, and wait on the Lord rightly to understand that scripture, John vi. 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. What doth this scripture lay the stress upon? Is it not upon the quickening spirit, and the words which the quickening spirit speaketh to the soul, which are living, and give life to those that hear them? Hear and your soul shall live! Hear his voice who giveth life and your souls shall live by him; but can any one live without hearing the voice of him, who alone is able to quicken and raise the soul from death and out of the grave of sin ?"-Vol iv. pages 450, 452.

In his treatise entitled, "The flesh and blood of Christ, &c." after speaking largely, of that mystical body and blood of Christ, which the saints feed upon, and asserting the necessity of a participation in it, he adds

"Now as touching the outward which ye say we deny, because of our testimony to the inward, I have frequently given a most solemn testimony thereto; and God knoweth it to be the truth of my heart; and that the testifying to the inward, (from which the outward came,) doth not make the outward void, but rather establish it, in its place and service. God himself who knew what virtue was in the inward, yet hath pleased to make use of the outward, and who may contradict or slight his wisdom and counsel therein? Glorious was the appearance and manifestation of his Son in flesh, precious his subjection and holy obedience to his Father; his giving himself up to death for sinners was of great esteem in his eye! It was a spotless sacrifice of great value, and effectual for the remission of sins and I do acknowledge humbly unto the Lord the remission of my sins thereby, and bless the Lord for it; even for giving up his Son to death for us all, and giving all that believe in his name and power, to partake of remission through him."-Vol. iii. p. 415.

"In the postscript to a work entitled Remarks upon some passages in a book, entitled Antichrist's transformations within, &c.' we find the following, viz:

First, As to his main controversy with Friends about the Christ that died at Jerusalem, he affirming that neither justification nor

N n

condemnation is by him, and reproaching Friends as having gone back to the professors' Christ and Saviour, who died without the gates of Jerusalem; this is in my heart to say

"Is Christ divided? Is there one Christ that died without the gates of Jerusalem, and another that did not die? Or is it not the same Lord Jesus Christ who died without the gates of Jerusalem, according to the flesh, and yet was then alive in the Spirit? Do we affirm that the Godhead died? (No-we do not so much as affirm that his soul died, as he doth page 19,) but according to the flesh he died; that is, he who was the resurrection and the life, laid down his life, and took it up again according to the commandment of his Father. "Thus we have been taught of God to believe, and thus to hold it forth. And we have no other Justifier, Condemner, Saviour, or Intercessor than HE that laid down the life of the body, offering it up a sacrifice to his Father without the gates of Jerusalem. Who is he that justifieth? Is it not God, in and through him? And who is he that condemneth? Is it not Christ that died? And where did he die? Was it not without the gates of Jerusalem? Yea, rather that is risen again,' &c. Rom. viii. 33, 34."-Vol. iv. page 370.

In an essay entitled, "A Visit of Tender and Upright Love," &c. he says

"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 judgments on them without the Spirit of God; lest in so doing, they wrest them to their own destruction.

"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."-Vol. iii. page 184.

RICHARD CLARIDGE,

In his essay on the doctrine of "Christ's satisfaction," says"And as we distinguish between a scripture Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which we unfeignedly believe; and that humanly devised trinity of three distinct and separate persons, which we receive not, because the Holy Scriptures make no mention of it: So we distinguish between scripture redemption and the vulgar doctrine of satisfaction. The first we receive, the second we reject."-Page

423.