I

The Second Letter answered.

Object. 1.TT is faid to be dangerous so to hold forth the spiritual sabbatism, as to deny the weekly fabbath, wherein our Lord Jefus Chrift rested, &c. and which he bleffed and fanctified to Adam and his pofterity, &c.

Anfw. The gospel is a state of fubftance, of fulfilling the types and shadows of the law, by bringing believers into the poffeffion of that which they signified of. Canaan was a type of Christ, who is the land of the living, in whom every believer hath an habitation at prefent, according to the proportion of his faith: and the fabbath is the day of reft, which every believer is to celebrate to Chrift in this holy land, which he doth by believing and obeying his Spirit in the Faith, which keepeth him out of the fin, the unbelief, the unreft. But that the fabbath of the law, the reft thereof, which pointed to the faith, is ftill to be held up in the times of the gospel, I know no scripture which so teacheth, and I know fomewhat which teacheth me otherwife. The day is dawned, blessed be the Lord God Almighty; the eyerlasting day is dawned, and the fhadows of the law are flown away.

Object. 2. It is faid, 'that Heb. iv. speaks of three refts, the feventh day, or fabbath reft, Ifrael's reft in Canaan, and a remaining reft, whereof David fpeaks, Pfalm xcv.

Anfw. I grant it: there were two refts under the law, which were signs of the one reft under the gospel. The two under the law were outward and natural, the one under the gospel inward and spiritual, answerable to the ftate of the gofpel. David was not only acquainted with the law ftate, but with the free spirit, (Psalm li.) and the eternal law thereof. He knew the new creation, the creating of a new fpirit (with its travel through the law) and also the new reft. He knew the circumcifion of the heart, the spiritual facrifices of a broken heart and of praife; he could take the cup of salvation, and fing the fong of praife to the Lord, which none can do in the ftrange land, nor on any other day but the day of reft. And he incites Ifrael to this reft, that they might not harden their hearts against it; but in the day of their vifitation enter into it, by hearkening to the Word which was nigh them, which gives the entrance through the faith. To-day, if ye will bear his voice, harden not your hearts, &c. There is a reft ye are now called to enter into, as your fathers were called to enter into the land of Canaan: harden not your hearts as they did; but hear the voice, hear the word which calls to this reft, believe and enter. This reft remains, fays the apostle; the others were types of it under the law state, which was to pass away.

Object

Object. 3. It is faid, ceremonial figns are done away, but the ten commands under the mercy-feat are of another nature: and that there are figns which are not yet abolished (as the rain-bow, fun, moon, and ftars) but ftill remain for us to make good ufe of.

Anfw. The mercy-feat under the law is done away, and the fubftance thereof is come; and will ye not give him leave to write his law in the tables which he fhall chufe, where his difciples may read it with the eye which he gives? Is his law now to be read in the fhadow, or with the outward eye, or to be looked for under the old mercy-feat of the outward tabernacle? Or is it to be read with the eye of the new creature, with the eye of faith, with the eye of the Spirit, in the everlafting gofpel, where the life itself is read, and in other books or writings without, but tidings or relations of the life? Here Chrift, here the Spirit, here the eternal life, here the love, the joy, the peace, the reft, the purity, which is eternal, is feen, is felt, is handled, is enjoyed: for the true faith is indeed the fubstance of the things hoped for, giving victory over the enemies which disturb, and a quiet habitation in him who is the rest.

And as touching figns, I do not say that figns are fo done away as that there is now no good ufe to be made of them; but in reading the law, and fhadows thereof, the Lord may please, by his Spirit, to enlighten the spirit of him who reads in his fear to fee through them: but this I do not find, that so much as any one fign or fhadow under the law was to be continued in that way of service under the gofpel; (for indeed to what end fhould it? When that is come which it fignified, is not its work at an end?) And that that fabbath was given for a sign (as well as any other fabbaths of the law) I find exprefly, Exod. xxxi. 13, to 18.

Object. 4. It is faid, That though Chrift's law be a new law; yet it is alfo old, given of old to the Jews.

Anfw. Yea, it is older than fo; for it was written in Abel's and the other holy mens hearts, long before this covenant of the law in writing was made with the Jews. And confider well which is now to ftand in the times of the gofpel, the writing of the law by the Spirit in the hearts of believers, as it was written by virtue of the promise before the law was given, or the outward and visible writing under the law, which was done for the fake of, and as a fuitable difpenfation for, that outward people. It was not thus from the beginning; but after a long time: for when God chofe an outward people, he chofe alfo this way of writing to fignify fomewhat by; which fignification is concerning another state; in which ftate, that which was fignified is to be fet up and advanced, and not the fhadows which were fignificant of it.

It is further faid, That the Lord writes thefe things new in his peoples hearts, to know the Lord, as their God, and as the God and Father of Jefus Chrift, and as their Father in him; and to love their brethren as Chrift loved them. And he writes

writes this law also in their hearts, Thou shalt have no other gods but me; make no image, exalt my name, keep holy the fabbath, &c.

Anfw. If God write these things in the heart, are they not to be read there? If God write them in the new covenant, and in the new tables, fhall not I read them there? And if I can read there in this living book what God writes in it by his Sprit, is not this nearer to me and clearer, and read by a more certain eye, than what I can read with my outward eye in tables of ftone? Oh! do not turn the believer out of his way: do not hinder him from reading in the book, which is clear and infallible, the clear and infallible things of God. Will God write in my heart, and will he not give me an eye to read? Shall he give me an eye to read, and fhall I not read therewith? Thou haft here confeffed this to be the new writing, and the new writing belongs to the new covenant; both which are proper to the gofpel ftate, and to Chrift's mediation, who is Mediator of the new covenant, Heb. viii. 6. And in that he faith, a new, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, ver. 13.

Object. 5. It is faid, That love being the fum and fubftance of the law of the Spirit, makes no more against the fourth commandment than against the rest.

Answ. Love is the substance of them all, and they are all fulfilled in it; but they are not after this manner fulfilled; to wit, that a man should ftrive particularly to keep them in his eye, and fo labour to fulfil them in love; but rather thus, in waiting on the Lord, to receive love from him, and to be kept by him in the love; in this love received they are all fulfilled, and cannot be broken, and this is an eafy yoke. This is the new birth, and the path thereof; the other is but the old creature, with its ftriving after the path and inheritance of life. And as this love is the fulfilling of the law, fo the heart is the tables of this love, wherein God. writeth both the whole and all the parts of his law. Now I am not against any man, who in fingleness of heart applies himself to the letter; yet it is but the old way, and a converfing with Chrift after the manner of Mofes's. difpenfation; but I must confefs that I am for the new covenant, and for the miniftry of the Spirit, which is far beyond the letter: and though I have known Chrift and the laws of his life after the flesh; yet henceforth my defire is not after knowing him so any more, but to know him in the eternal life of his Spirit, and to drink of the fruit of the vine, new with hin in his Father's kingdom.

A BRIEF

A

BRIEF EXPLICATION

Of the MYSTERY of the

SIX DAYS LABOUR,

AND

SEVENTH DAY's SABBATH, For fuch to behold, the Eye of whofe Spirit is opened by the Pure Anointing; and who are not fo drowned in their Conceivings and Reasonings about the Sense of the Letter, as most of the Profeffors of this Age are.

MATT. xi. 28, 29, 30.

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find reft unto your fouls; for my yoke is eafy, and my burden is light.

E that hears the joyful found of the ever-living power, calling him Hby the voice of by the voice of his eternal light out of the darkness, out of the death, out of the mifery, out of the dominions, territories, and deep slavery of Satan unto himself, and cometh unto him in the virtue and power of that life which calleth, he hath a taste given him of the eternal reft, and a promife of entering into it.

But the entrance into the fulness thereof is not presently; but he hath a long journey to take from Egypt, the dark land; from Sodom, the filthy land; from Babylon, where all the veffels and holy things of God have been defiled, through the Wilderness unto Canaan, and many battles are to be fought with enemies by the way, and also with the enemies which poffefs the holy land; and many hardships to be undergone in following the cap

tain,

1

tain, who also leadeth his Ifrael by a pillar of cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night; and there must be a circumcifion and baptifm in the cloud and in the fea, and the falling of all those carcaffes in the wilderness, which are not to enter, nor fo much as fee, the good land, before the entrance be miniftered to the feed, and to that which paffeth through the water and through the fire with the feed. In plain terms, there must be a taking up of the yoke, and a learning of Chrift under the yoke, till the proud, the ftiff, the ftubborn, the wife, the wilful, the selfish spirit, the hard ftony heart, be wafted and worn out by the crofs, and nothing left but what becomes one with the feed, and fo is fit to be married to it, and to enter with it into the everlasting kingdom.

Now this bearing the yoke, this taking up of the crofs, this following of Christ in the wilderness, through the corrections of the Father, through the buffetings and temptations of the enemy, in the midst of all the weakneffes and frailties of the flesh, going when he bids go, standing still where he ftops, fighting when he prepares to the warfare, bearing the repulfe, when he fuffers the enemy to prevail, and hoping, even beyond hope, for his relief and victory in due feafon: here is the labour, here is the travail, here is the working under the life, with the measure of grace and power received from the life. So that, firft, the day-spring from on high visits; from that visitation there is light entered into the heart; by clofing with that light there is grace received; with this grace received there is work to be done for God; his talent is to be improved all the fix days, by all that will reft with him on the seventh, and that defire to ceafe from their labours in the fruition of the faith, the life, the power; the power living, becoming, and performing all in them. And he that doth not improve the talent; he that doth not follow on in the pure light, but either fits down by the way, or is deceived with an image of what once was true in him, he can never arrive at the land of reft (though perhaps he may arrive at that which he may call fo), but when the eternal witnefs awakes in him, he will find the want of it, and bitterly bewail his grievous mistake.

Now in this hard travail and grievous labour under the close laws and fpiritual commandments of the life (hard I mean, yea, very hard, to the unrenewed part, though easy and natural to that part which is renewed and born of God), it pleaseth the Lord now and then to give a day of refreshment, caufing his life fo powerfully to fpring up, that it even fenfibly is and doth all in the heart. This is a fabbath, wherein the foul rests in the powerful movings and operations of the life, and doth not find any stress of trouble, or hardship, or labour upon it; but fits ftill in the power, is at eafe in the life, in the eternal virtue, which lives, and moves, and is all in it; and no pain, no trouble, no grievoufness of any command is felt; but to it all is eafy, all is natural, all is purely pleasant; the life (to which all its own laws, ftatutes, ordinances, judgments, ways, and paths are easy) performing all it calls for, even as fast as it calls for it. And here not only a fabbath

VOL. I.

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