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of all, who is above all, through all, and in all.” This is the blessed end of all the appearances, manifestations, and dispensations, under all the variety of names, and various workings of the one eternal God towards mankind ever since the fall, mentioned throughout the holy scriptures, and witnessed to by the true Christian, who really enjoys the end of Paul's bowing his knees, or prayer unto the Father* of his Lord, his Jesus, and his Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephes. iii.

Now when the true Christian hath travelled through multiplicity into unity, through the various dispensations, operations, and workings of the spirit of God, before the law, under the law, through the law, to the prophets; and to the ministration of John, and so to Jesus the son of Abraham, David, and Mary, and hath followed him from the manger to the cross, and from thence to the grave,† and known a being dead and buried with him, and a rising with him; and not only seeking those things that are above, but hath found them, having known and experienced Christ in all his offices, as the great ordinance‡ of God, as a mediator, reconciler, intercessor, maker of peace, healer of the wound, and maker up of the breach the first Adam made, as a quickening spirit, and Lord from heaven; as a king, priest, and prophet; as a saviour, sanctifier, and redeemer; as a purifier and maker of an end of sin, and bringer in of everlasting righteousness; and as a high priest to present to God, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. When he is thus known to perform all these offices in and for his people, he is then by such known to sit down at the right hand of God, having accomplished the work the Father gave him to do, having put all things under, and restored all things into their primitive order.§ He then is also known to surrender up the kingdom to the Father, and God to become all in all. ¶ Here the first is known to be last, and the last first; the beginning the end, and the end the beginning; and the heavenly rest with him who is without beginning or end. I say, rest with him, in a pure celestial stillness, from all self-working, willing, running, and thinking. And though an innocency, or innocent self be attained unto, and a harmless will known, yet that must not act, work, will, run and think of itself, as the true Christian, who hath travelled and experienced, as before is

• Not to Jesus the son of Abraham, David, and Mary, saint, or angel, but to God the Father, all worship, honour, and glory is to be given through Jesus Christ, &c.

† The only pilgrimage of a Christian; all other pilgrimages to places, tombs, and relics are vain and fruitless.

These things are not only to be read, professed, and talked of, but experimentally

known.

§ This is the ascending of Christ up where he was before he descended, and before there was any cause for his descension. He that can understand let him.

¶ Thus the Lord is known one, and his name one.

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hinted, knows right well; being always of his elder brother's mind and frame of spirit, saying to his Father, "Not my will, but thine." Herein he receives wisdom to dress and keep the garden, power and strength to resist and overcome the serpent in paradise, and the dragon in heaven, and to keep his habitation in the heavenly city Jerusalem, which comes down from God out of heaven, whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise for ever and evermore.

Concerning the worship of a Christian, (or the Christian worship,) what it stands in, and how it is performed.

There is a great contest in Christendom, among the divers sects and bare professions of Christianity, about worship; and many are the modes, manners, forms, and ceremonies that are cried up among them; every sect conceiving, imagining, and supposing their way, manner, and fashion to be right, &c. all being full of dispute, contention, and quarrelling one with and against another, envying and hating one another, fighting, killing, and destroying one another about them, when they are all but of their own devising, forms and images of their own making; mostly from the example of Jews, Gentiles, and apostate Christians; and are not led thereto, nor guided therein, by the unerring spirit of God; as their fruits make fully manifest, to the great scandal of the Christian religion.

man.

Now the true Christian's worship is in the spirit; and in the truth, not in the letter, nor in the form barely, but was before all letters and outward laws and prescriptions were, before all inventions were, before all errors, and the spirit of them were. This was the worship in paradise; when mankind neglected this worship he fell into evil, into invention, into error, which was the cause of the outward law, and all other dispensations of God for the recovery of lost * And before he can witness a return out of his lost estate, he must come again to the same worship in the spirit, and in the truth, even the truth in the inward parts, for that is it which God loves,―to the word in the mouth, to the law in the heart, and the fear in the inward parts, from all fear towards God, taught by the precepts of men, from all traditions of men of corrupt minds; from all devices and inventions of men. This is the blessed estate the true Christian is come into, and is the end, sum, and substance of all holy writings, forms, and holy traditions, ministrations, and dispensations, before the law, under the

* Sin was the occasion (or cause) of the law, the labour of the prophets, and the coming and suffering of Christ.

law, and the prophets; wilderness, Jerusalem, and temple-worship, which stood in divers bodily exercises, outward works and services, variety of offerings, observing of times, days, months, and years, meats, drinks, outward washings and purifications, new moons, fasts, feasts, solemn meetings, and general assemblies, once a year at Jerusalem; all these things were but shadows and typical: and this is the anti-type and substance* shadowed forth by them all. To come to the worship in the spirit, in the truth, to Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to come to the general assembly and church of the first-born, written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect, &c. and to know the heavenly city that comes down from God out of heaven, even Jerusalem the mother of all the living citizens thereof, whose law and covenant are spiritual, and writ in their hearts; whose love, fear, and obedience to God, are engraven in their inward parts: and from hence ariseth the true worship in the spirit, and in the truth.

And this is the worship the primitive Christians came to, and were exercised in; they prayed in the spirit, not at any set time or appointed place only, but at all times, and in all places, according to the exhortations, "Pray always," "Pray continually," "Pray without ceasing,” “I will that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting," always breathing to the Lord in spirit, though never a word be uttered-in the closet when the door is shut. The Lord heareth, and answereth this prayer. And many times they were and are also led forth to pray in words publicly, but mostly for the sake of others, and in behalf of others, as Christ Jesus did.

The true Christian is also a preacher of righteousness, not only in words, sentences, and long sermons, at set times, and appointed places, but in life and conversation.† In this he is always a preacher, a teacher of that which is good, always as a candle burning, and set in the right place; his lamp trimmed, and his light shining, always as a city upon a hill, as the salt of the earth, and light of the world, to season and give light to others, by holy example, which preacheth louder than words.

The true Christian's singing or rejoicing is also in the spirit, and in the truth, and not in iniquity, and with a good understanding. He needs no art nor invention to bring words into metre or rhyme, that they may make a pleasant sound, and a joyful noise; his music doth not stand in outward sounds, made by art and air,‡ but his melody is in the heart, in the spirit, in the inward man, in the hidden man of the heart, which is the

* The substance of all shadowy services under the law.

† A true Christian is always preaching.

The Christian music is not made by art and air.

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anti-type and substance of all outward music used in the time of the law, under the first covenant, in the worship and service of God; and as far exceeds it, as the substance of a thing doth the shadow thereof. And he that hath this heavenly inward rejoicing, and pleasant melody in the heart, will never invent to himself instruments of music, like David, nor delight in the sounds thereof. Where this heart-melody is lost, the outward invented music is set up, among Jews, Gentiles, and apostate Christians, for the true Christian is come to know Christ Jesus, as a prince of peace, as a peaceable saviour, as the consolation of Israel, and joy of generations; as a giver of peace, which the world cannot give nor take away, which far surpasseth all the delights of the sons of men, which by nature, art, and invention they can attain unto.

Now the spirit of God is universal, and the truth is universal, and the true Christian worship that stands in it, is also to be universal; that is, at all times, and in all places; not only when people meet together in a solemn manner to wait together upon God, and to hear his word, preach, and be preached to, and to hear a prayer, psalm, song, or hymn, even from his own pure motion and spirit, one hour in seven, or one day in seven, (which is good and profitable in its place,) but every hour, and every day, bowing in spirit, worshipping in the truth, which makes free from all error, from all evil, from all vain observations, literal traditions, and human inventions about the worship of God; from all carnal ordinances, as music, meats, drinkings, washings, feasts, fasts, days, and times, which end, vanish, or perish with the using.* Though holy and significant in their first institution, these things are not to be touched, nor tasted, no nor so much as handled by the true Christian; these things are but beggarly elements, and worldly rudiments which had a beginning, and must have an end.

And the root or cause of a Christian, which is Christ, is the end of the law, and all the types and shadows of it, and fulfils all the righteousness of it, of the prophets, and of John also, and is a bringer in of a better hope, a better law, a better covenant, a better worship; which hope, law, covenant and worship are inward and spiritual, and not outward and carnal, formal nor traditional. And all that are come to this worship in the spirit and in the truth, which is one pure, eternal principle of light, life, and power, and have their hearts tendered by it, and their minds exercised in it, their thoughts and meditations guided by it, they are come to the mystery of the fellowship of the gospel,† to the blessed unity wherein is no strife, no wrangling, disputing, or contention; no

* The true worship of God stands not in any outward observation of time, or place, or any bodily exercise therein; but in doing the will of God, bowing in his spirit and obeying the voice thereof.

Let the professors of Christianity try themselves hereby.

treachery, wars, cruelty, or violence; because they are minding one thing, learning of one teacher, following of one guide, viz. the grace and spirit of God. And though they have diversity of gifts, and are attained to different degrees of faith, of grace, of knowledge, growth and salvation in the same, and are some as a foot, some as a hand, eye, ear, and mouth, yet are all as members of one body; and the meanest hath unity with the more noble, the greatest with the least, the lowest with the highest, the strongest with the weakest; nor is there any jar or schism, in this well framed body,* of which Christ, the unction, the anointing, is the head and teacher, &c.

This heavenly unity is the anti-type of the seamless coat of Christ, wove from top to bottom, (which the soldiers did not rend, tear, or divide, but cast lots for,) and of that law that forbad weaving linen and woollen together, and sowing mingled seed.

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Now there is no unity, no agreement, no concord betwixt light and darkness, sin and righteousness, (Christ and Belial,) these things of a different and contrary nature, cannot unite, cannot agree, though they are nigh to each other, sown in one field. God hath sown a good seed in the field of mankind, the enemy hath sown an evil seed, and in many it hath taken root, and sprung up above the good seed, even among those professing Christianity itself;† and from hence ariseth and groweth all the evil will, envy, hatred, strife, cruelty, violence, bloodshed, wars, and murders, in whole Christendom; and till the head of this evil seed be not only bruised by the promised seed which God hath sowed, but rooted out also of the heart of man, all these things will grow up; these evil effects can never cease till the cause be removed and taken away, as the true Christian knoweth right well by experience.

Now the Christians indeed, as they live and abide in this pure internal principle of light, life, spirit, and truth, they have unity one with another, and fellowship with God; they are the brethren whose living together in unity is comely to behold, who have the one mind, one heart, one soul, and have their minds, hearts, and souls always governed, ruled, and ordered by the good spirit of God. As every one lives and keeps this order, and under this heavenly government they cannot choose but live together in unity, in love, in good will, in peace, heavenly concord and agreement, every one within himself, with God and with each other, and in love to all mankind. Here is the end of strife, wars, and fightings come unto, both within and without, and this is the time and state wherein instruments of war and cruelty, are turned into instruments of necessary use; and as they abide herein, they can learn war no more,

Different states and growths in the truth, no cause of disunity.

† Before there can be true unity in and among mankind, the seed of the serpent must be bruised and rooted out of the heart.

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