and other profitable things, and was sent in the great frosty winter. L. Spooner.

Dear Brother,

I had a great desire to see some of your faces, and a little comfort when I had obtained it, but this was much eclipsed by the little use I could be of unto you, as also with fears lest any should be weakened thereby, for that visit was stolen, and my spirit was straitened. Therefore I pray you take nothing ill. And now I long to hear of you, but especially how it is with my dear brother Fox, whom if it please the Lord to spare and restore, I hope it will be a great mercy both to you and me. But that will be the greatest of all, if the Lord would pour upon us a fresh anointing, that our horn might be exalted as the unicorn, and so return out of the wilderness, wholly leaning on and unto holy Jesus, for now our pleasant pictures are in a manner shaken or fallen. Therefore not Jesus, nor Elijah, nor Paul, but the Spirit of these, will quicken and animate our feeble and hungry souls. While they were here their lives were precious, their doctrine and miracles affecting, but their Spirit only is inspiring and renewing; and this only will profit, when there is no fruit in the vines, and the teachers are moved into a corner, which I doubt will come much to pass before these days be ended. And then who shall live when God doeth this; but only those who are in union with the Prince of Life in their soul and spirit, which I desire greatly may be more and more the state of you all that are serious, and of such others in every other place; for still the cloud seemeth to increase, which at first was but little, yet that sight (with respect to others) was then painful, but now greatly fearful. Yet light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart, and they shall reap in their spirits inward consola tion in the midst of outward troubles and these nocturnal miseries, the which how great or how long they may be visible upon us God only knoweth. However, his hand is lifted up, and our safest place will be at his feet, there to receive his sacred chains, as prisoners of the earth, that we may not be trodden down by him, but humbled and brought into the bond of the everlasting covenant. I am glad to hear you have so much quiet, and desire the Load may teach you how to use it, for this word resignation is easily spelt and written, but not without great difficulty performed. Yet within this narrow gate there is a goodly inheritance, and as a winter always doth follow a harvest, so, even so, it always comes before a spring, for God sendeth forth his frost by morsels and who can stand before his

cold? Then he sendeth forth his word and they are melted, and so the face of the church and of serious souls shall be renewed I hope I have no need to desire you (if sufferings come) to be neither rash nor stupid. The straitest line is the shortest way. My christian love to all friends with thanks for their constant love to me, but I would not have any yet to come to see me but let me now and then have a few lines from some of you, and always your serious prayers. And so I commit you to God, who is of infinite fulness, and to everlasting Jesus, by whom this fulness floweth forth, and unto that Spirit that can convey it into your souls, with desires that your participa tion thereof may be great. Farewell.

WILLIAM PARDOE.
IAM

The Moral Law the believer's Rule of Walk and Conversation.

My Dear Friend,

LETTER V.

If the argument of my second Letter be just, viz. that Revelation was given solely for the use of the elect, it must follow, that it can be of no profit but to them. For, as observed before, it cannot be supposed to be given with a design and purpose, which was foreknown would never be accom plished: for that would be a contradiction, and beneath the procedure of infinite wisdom. The whole of Revelation was for the advantage of the Church, considered as a body or the whole aggregate number of the elect. Which, no doubt is blessed to the whole, and each according as their circumstances and exigences require. This I think appears evident from 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, to them that are ignorant-for reproof, to them that are blame-worthy-for correction, to those that need chastisement-and for instruction in righteousness, to such as are out of the way, and walk not as becometh the gospel, or the vocation wherewith they are called, and do not maintain The end of good works, which is their reasonable service. which is, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to all good works.

The man of God is certainly a restrictive term, and belongs to none but those who are called according to the purpose of his own will, and can be no other but the elect: for none else are the called according to his purpose. If this was the design

The

of the inspired writings, they cannot prove abortive, as must be the case if this restriction be not allowed. But it must be allowed for the elect obtain, and the rest are blinded. scriptures, only, are able to make us wise unto salvation, and are profitable to the above purposes, by which the man of God is made perfect, throughly furnished to all good works. You see good works are the end, of which these things are the means; and for the soul to be perfect, he must be throughly furnished with them. But what are good works, but obedience to the perceptive will of God; or the walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and the maintaining of a conscience void of offence towards God and man? Now, to be furnished with these, is to be a Christian indeed, or a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then are ye my disciples,' says our Lord, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' 'Tis by these fruits, the believer is distinguished from the world. See Col.. i, 28; which speaks to the same purport. After the apostle had observed that, Christ in them was the hope of glory, he adds, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. The apostle here, could not mean every individual of mankind; but every man that had Christ in him the hope of glory which would be no other than the true believer. For no other could really have this hope in them.

If we trace scripture throughout, we find it exposes and opposes sin in every view. It is the butt of all its threatnings, and the source of every evil which creatures experience throughout their existence. It is that which God hates, and threatens with awful comminations and judgments, as being contrary to the purity of his nature, and the highest affront to his infinite majesty, and which his inflexible justice cannot suffer to go unpunished. He hath declared, he will in no wise clear the guilty-that the soul that sinneth shall die-and that every transgression shall receive a just recompence of reward. All the judgments poured out upon mankind, have sin for their foundation, and it is the meritorious cause of them all. The deluge; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah and the cities of the plain; the drowning of Pharaoh and his host; the many judgments on Israel in the wilderness; the casting out of the inhabitants of Canaan; and every calamity of wars, pestilence, and famine, have all their source in and from sin; yea such is its malignity and turpitude, that it is the foundation of all misery that shall exist to eternity.

If such, then, be God's hatred to sin, can it be supposed that

he indulges or connives at it, in the least degrée, in any of his people? (as must be the case if your sentiments are just) No! he has declared that, "If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they forsake my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes." Psalm ix, 30. Who are meant here, by his children? I apprehend those who are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ; those who were given of the Father in covenant to Christ: and therefore called his children. If then Christ's children forsake the law, and walk not in his judgments, the Father declares, he will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes; not as a penal punishment, but in a way of afflictive dispensation and chastisement for their good and profit-to shew them the evil nature of sin-to warn them to be watchful against it-and to incite them to bear fruit unto holiness. He adds, "Neverthe less my loving kindness I will not take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail, my covenant (with my Son) I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips; once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David, His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.” By David here, Christ is certainly intended, who is the beloved, as David signifies; he being an eminent type of Christ, is the beloved of the Father: for he says This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Matt. iii, 17. By David and his seed must I think be understood Christ and the children which the Father had given him; the church or the seed of whom he is the everlasting Father. Isa. ix, 6.

Christ and his church are one body, of which he is the head; and if any of his members suffer, he suffers with them: for he himself took our infirmity and bore our sickness. Matt. viii, 17. In all our afflictions he was afflicted. Isa. iii, 9. We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmites but in all points was tempted as we are, yet without sin. By the HIM above, I humbly apprehend, must be intended Christ the antitypical David, the beloved of the Father, the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, and one with him; he the head, they the members, and considered as one in the everlasting covenant of grace; for, as Christ is, so are we in this world. Thus viewed, Christ and his people are one body; and what, by the virtue of the union, is supposed to be done by the one, is placed to the account of the other, or as done by the whole complex body. What Christ has done in a way of obedience, was placed to the account of

his children; and what they do in a way of sin and transgres. sion, was placed to him, and he became responsible for the same. He was made sin for them,and suffered, the just for the unjust,that they may be brought to God, and made the righteousness of God in him. Being thus one, the acts of the one are considered as the acts of the whole, and dealt with as such by the Father. Christobeyed, and his obedience is imputed and placed to the account of his people, and they enjoy the blessing. They sinned, and their transgression was imputed to him, and he bore the punishment for it, in his own body, on the tree, and purchased them from the hands of avenging justice by his own blood! As he has thus purchased them, they are his reward; as promised by the Father; Isa. liii. 10, 11, 12. Was Christ to lose any for whom he suffered and died, he must be deprived of the purchase of his blood, which would be highly dishonorable to the Father, and to the Son, who fulfilled the conditions on which the promise was made. For the Father declares that, though his (Christ's) children should forsake his law, and walk not in his judgments; and though he would visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes, yet he would not take his loving kindness from his Son, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, but his (Christ's) seed should endure for ever, and his (Christ's) throne as the sun before him.

Here, I think, my friend cannot but observe that it is supposed that his (Christ's) children might forsake the law, and walk not after his judgments; might break the statutes of God and not keep his commandments; and if this was the case, he would visit their transgressions with a rod and their iniquity with stripes. But if they were under no law, they could not forsake it; and if there were no commands nor statutes, they could not break them; nor be visited with a rod for the breach of them. But as he doth visit them with the rod of chastisement (for if ye are without chastisement ye are bastards and not sons) they must be considered, in some sense, as under a law, and as transgressing it; or the above threatening, must be entirely useless. But this cannot be supposed; for nothing is written in vain.

By the above passage, I think it evidently. appears that, the believer is under a law which obligates him to obedience; the transgressing of which subjects him to the rod of affliction, and the stripes of his Father's hand. And though he will not cast his children off, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail; yet he will give them to feel his displeasure at their sins, by the stripes and chastisements with which he will visit them; yet his loving