spirit of God in their own hearts, that he poureth upon them, young and old, sons and daughters, servants and handmaids, that in and with the manifestation of the spirit, daughters, servants, young men and old, may profit in their heavenly visions, dreams, and prophecies, and so all to drink into one spirit, being baptized all with one spirit, into one body; so in the spiritual communion, unity, and fellowship in the spirit of God; and in the same spirit you will all serve and worship the eternal infinite everlasting God that made you, in his new covenant, and new testament. 'Behold, the days come,' saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,' &c. Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. Now here you may see the new covenant is not according to the old, with their priests, whose lips were to preserve people's knowledge, and circumcise the males outwardly, who had their outward Jerusalem, and outward temple worship, and had their outward law given to them in tables of stone, and the priest had a pulpit to read it in; and he had his tenths, and offered offerings and sacrifices; and had their holy days, and sabbath days, and their outward sacrifices, and outward altars, lights, and lamps; but the Lord saith, the new covenant that he would make should not be according to the old, for in the new covenant circumcision is of the spirit, not according to the flesh, and such worship God in the spirit and truth, and their bodies are the temples of the holy spirit of God, and Christ is the one offering for sins, once for all, and his blood cleanseth from all sin, and God writes his law in their hearts, and puts it in their minds that all may read the law in their hearts and minds, and know the Lord. Heb. viii.

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And the old covenant commanded them to take oaths, and swear, but in the new covenant Christ saith, Swear not at all.' And in the old covenant the priests took tithes; but in the new covenant Christ saith, Freely ye have received, freely give.' And in the old covenant, they stood up to bless the obedient, and curse the disobedient; but in the new covenant it is said, bless, and curse not. In the old covenant they were to love their neighbours, and hate their enemy; but in the new covenant it is said, love your enemies. Here you may see the new covenant, that God had not made it according to the old, and we are in the days of the new covenant and new testament.

The apostle exhorted the christians to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith; for he saith, 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Heb. xii. 2. xiii. 8.

Now Jesus Christ is the rock of ages, and the foundation of many generations. So then in every age and generation, all the true chris

tians for ever must look unto Jesus, who is the author and beginner, and finisher of their faith.

And now here it is clear, that the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, in all their councils and meetings, they did not make faiths for the true christians in the first primitive times; but bid them look unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith. And all true christians must observe the apostles' teaching and exhortation, in every age and generation for ever. For Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, and so lost the image of God in righteousness and holiness, and so forsook God's teaching, and the liberty God had placed them in, and followed the serpent's teaching, who led them into a false liberty, which brought death, corruption, and destruction.

God gave the Jews his righteous, just, holy, and good law, and gave them his good spirit to instruct them; but they rebelled against his spirit, and turned from God and his law, and were led by the evil spirit, the serpent, into a false liberty, which led many of them into captivity, death, and destruction.

And God pouring out of his spirit upon all flesh in his new testament and new covenant, by which spirit all may know God, and Christ; but all christians that are gone from the spirit, they are gone out of unity and fellowship, and true worship, into confusion, and into false liberty in the flesh; for the spirit that God poureth upon all mankind, is the only means to bring all into unity, and to serve and worship God in his spirit and truth, if they believe and obey it; and Christ, enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world with his true light, which is the life in himself, that all might believe in the light, and come to have life in Christ. But they that hate the true light, which is the life in Christ, and love the darkness more than the light, because their deeds are evil, and will not come to it, because it will reprove them; this light doth condemn them, and their evil deeds, in their darkness and false liberty, and false worship; seeing they will not receive, nor hearken to the reproofs of the light of Christ, and turn and have life in him, therefore they are condemned by the true light of Christ.

And Christ bids his disciples go preach the gospel, to wit, of life and salvation to, or in every creature under heaven. Now the gospel, the apostle saith, is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believes. So now every one that doth not believe and receive his gospel, and them that receive it, and after disobey it, all such go into, and are in a false liberty of death, and destruction, from life and salvation, and peace with God; and upon such, judgment comes from God, according to the gospel. And the grace of God which brings salvation, hath appeared unto all men; and if all men do not receive this spirit of

grace, and walk in it, which will teach them to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and godly, and will bring their salvation, and bring them into favour with God, but turn the grace of God into wantonness, and walk despitefully against the spirit of grace, such go out of favour with God, and from the grace which is sufficient to teach them, and bring their salvation; and such go into a false liberty, into death and destruction, turning the grace of God into wantonness, and walking despitefully against the spirit of grace, which is sufficient to teach them, and bring their salvation, if they obey it, and walk in it: and such are condemned with the light and spirit of God, and such lie under condemnation that do not walk in it, and obey it.

But all they that walk in the light, and in the spirit of grace, and in the gospel, and obey it, such know their true liberty in the spirit, and gospel, and in Christ Jesus, and stand fast in that liberty, in which Christ hath made them free from the yoke of bondage, from the devil, and the world, that lieth in wickedness. And the Lord preserve all his people in Christ Jesus, in whom true liberty is, in whom they have life, and peace with God. Amen.

G. F.

Here you may see how several of the Prophets and the Apostles were Shepherds, Husbandmen, and Tradesmen, who preached the word of God, and set forth his glory, and were despised and persecuted by the world, and the ministers of the letter without life.

RIGHTEOUS Abel was a keeper of sheep, or a shepherd; and by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, and dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for they looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. Heb. xi. 9, 10.

So these did not build great outward cities, but kept great flocks of cattle, and dwelt in tabernacles; and Abraham was the father of the faithful, and in Isaac was the seed called, for he was the seed of the promise. Gen. xxi. 12.

And Jacob he sold pottage. Gen. xxv. 19. 30, 31. And Jacob the second birth was a keeper of sheep, for he kept Laban his father-inlaw's sheep twenty years. Gen. xxxi. 41. And Rachel kept her father Laban's sheep, and watered them, and Jacob helped Rachel to water them, and rolled away the stone. So those two, Jacob and Rachel, married one another; and Jacob, the second birth, rolled away the stone that the sheep might drink. And the first uncircumcised birth stops VOL. VI.

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the well, but the good nature doth open them, and it naturally, and the divine nature doth it divinely.

And when Moses was full forty years old, he fled from Pharaoh into the land of Midian to Jethro. And Jethro had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's sheep; and Moses sat at the well, and the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And Jethro sent for Moses, and he went to him, and married Zipporah, Jethro's daughter, and kept his sheep. And when forty years were expired, the Lord appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai and Horeb, in a flame of fire in a bush. Acts vii. 23. 30. Exod. ii. 13. and iii. 2. So Moses kept sheep forty years, for he was forty years old when he departed out of Egypt, and fled from Pharaoh; and he was eighty years old when he left Jethro his father-in-law, and when he came into Egypt to speak to Pharaoh, to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt, to worship and serve the Lord. And Moses was forty years keeping the Lord's people, the children of Israel in the wilderness, and he was forty years Jethro's shepherd, keeping and watering the sheep of his father-in-law; and forty years the Lord's shepherd, keeping of his people, and watering them, as before. And David was a shepherd, and kept his father's sheep in the wilderness. And the Lord called him from keeping and feeding of outward sheep, to feed his people the children of Israel. 2 Sam. vii. 8. And thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep-cotes, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel.' And as the Lord called Jacob from keeping Laban's sheep; so the Lord called Moses from keeping of Jethro's sheep, to feed and keep his sheep, and his people.

And Elisha was a ploughman, and when he was ploughing with his servants, and his twelve yoke of oxen, he forsook them, and obeyed the Lord, when he called him to be his spiritual ploughman, to plough up the fallow ground of their hearts. 1 Kings xix. 19. And Amos said, 'I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, or wild figs; and the Lord took me as I followed the flock; and the Lord said unto me, go and prophesy unto my people Israel.' Amos vii. 14, 15.

And the words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoah, which he saw concerning Israel, were, 'The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn.' Amos i. 1, 2. And you may read the book of Amos, and see how the Lord caused him to declare many dreadful prophecies, not only to the Jews, but to other countries and nations. So the Lord made him his herdsman, and to gather his fruit, and to watch over his people.

And as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw Peter, and

Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers, 'And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men ; and they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw James and John, two sons of Zebedee, in a ship with their father, mending their nets, and Jesus called them, and they immediately left their ship and their father with their hired servants, and followed Jesus.' Matt. iv. 18, 19, 20, 21. Mark i. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. And Christ did make these fishers of men, and they did fish them out of the great sea, the world; and sometimes they did drag out of the sea of the world, some thousands at a time; as you may see about three thousand was converted at one time, in Acts ii. 41. Though the Jews, priests, rulers, and elders, did with all their power and might, keep men in their sea, howbeit, the number of them that did believe, and heard the word, were about five thousand men. Acts iv. 4, 5.

And Christ said, 'that the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to the shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.' Matt. xiii. 47, 48.

And do not you read of Simon Magus, Acts ix. 10 to the 21st; and Ananias and Sapphira, Acts v. 1. and Nicholas, Acts vi. And were not these drawn out of the sea and then after cast away. But what a glorious work they did, that Christ made fishers of men, and gave them a net that would hold and never want mending-his power; for they were to preach the gospel to all nations, and to every creature. So their net, the power of God, would reach over the sea, the whole world, to gather the good, and cast away the bad.

The apostle Paul met with Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth, and because Paul was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. Acts xviii. 1, 2, 3.

But did not Paul bring many to the grace and truth, and power, and spirit of God in their hearts; who turned them from darkness, to the light of the gospel of Christ; and from the power of satan to God; and so brought them to the inward tent and pavillion, where dwelleth the grace, truth, spirit, and light of Christ, by which they receive him to rule in their hearts by faith.

And the Jews said of Christ, whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? is not this the carpenter's son, and is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joses, Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?' Matt. xiii. 54, 55, 56.

And again, the Jews said, 'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses, and of Judas and Simon; and are not