News from the new-Jerusalem sent by letters from severall parts, relating some hints and observations of that citty, all conspiring in a testimony that renders it exceeding glorious.

27. Letter.

To I. I.

DEARE and loving Friend; whom I desire to own and to be one with & in the fellow∣ship of the Father, and the Son, in one eternall invisible and ever-ruling Spirit, in and with which Spirit we are to walk, live & abide in, after we are made one with it, which is and must bee an inward, true and invisible walk∣ing, and according to an inward, true and in∣visible rule, and not after an outward and worldly manner, as the worldlings doe; For my Kingdome is not of this world, saith Christ, my Kingdome is not of observation, and world∣ly rudiments, for it is within you that consists not in any outward rule or practise, all the true rules and directions of the Spirit is within, it is visible, the truth of all things is within, the outward is not the truth, but an Image of the truth, therefore to walke in outward forms, or ordinances, is but to walke in an Image and

not in the truth it selfe, but to walke in the truth is to walke in the spirit, and if in the spi∣rit then in God, for God is a spirit, and hee is the truth of the spirit and he that will be one with God must bee one with him in the spirit and in truth, as it is essentiall in God, or else there can be no perfection, and then no true walking with God, to be one with God, is to be nothing ones selfe, and to walk with God, is to walke out of ones selfe: Enoch walked with God and was not, for God tooke him, he was not; that is, hee was not himselfe: No man can walke with God while he is himselfe, a man as man cannot be said to walke with God; he may walke with man, but not with God, nothing can be said to walke with God, but what is one, in and with God, and there∣fore must bee as God; for none can walke with God, but God; No man hath seen the Father, but the Sonne; hee that ascended is the same that descended, no man hath nor never shall see the Father, but the Sonne: Then none can be said to walke with God, but Jesus Christ who is God. And this walking is invisible, that is, a communion of spirit in man; one man may have communion with another as man, but none can have communi∣on with God, but God; light cannot have

communion with darknesse, nor darknesse with light, but light hath communion with it selfe: Therefore that we are in the light, let us walk as Children of the light, and not as the Chil∣dren of darknesse. But you will say, Doe wee not walke with God in Ordinances? I answer, that ordinances are not light, truth nor spirit, and therefore wee cannot walke with God in them; wee cannot walke with God in any thing but in the light, in the truth, and in the spirit, nor none can walke with God in these things, but the divine spirit, or inward man, which is of God, and one with God; to walke with and in God, is to walke in the truth and ordinances you cannot say are the truth, no more then you can say the scripture is the truth, but if you will make it truth, you must make it God, for there is but one truth, and that is God: One God and Father of all, one Lord, one Faith and one Baptisme, and all but one God and one truth. God as he is in the word Christ Jesus, is the truth, and if we have heard of him, and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus; then shall wee say, that the scripture is not truth, but it tels us what is the truth; it saith, It is life eternall to know God, the true God, then to walke in the truth, is to know the truth, and to know the truth is〈2 pages missing〉〈2 pages missing〉

know God onely, and having knowne God, w•••• know how to walke with God, and no man can know God, but God, no man can know the Fa∣ther, but the Sonne, and hee to whom the Sonne will reveale him. And the Sonne hath not truly revealed the Father to man, till man through Christ is become the Sonne of God, and being the Sonne of God, hee knowes God, and is knowne of God, and so is one with God, whereby he hath acceptance to walk with God. We should take it ill of them that tell us wee know not God, but when we come to know him indeed as God in his owne eternall and essentiall being, wee shall then confesse that we never knew him before, we have had ma∣ny thoughts we have known God, when alas we have known nothing of him, as he ought to be known; to know God in any forme, or ordinance, nay in any created excellency, even the highest manifestation that ever wee had of him among the creatures, is but as an imagined or formall knowledge, which can be no perfect knowledge, it is no true know∣ledge of God, to know him in any thing be∣low himselfe, below the divine and essentiall being of God; all things below himselfe are imperfect and can give no true testimony of him, we receive tokens from men, and letters

from men by which we come to have some kind of knowledge of them, but if we never see the person, wee can have no true know∣ledge of him: the greatest manifestation that ever we have of God, or the greatest know∣ledge we can have of him, though it boby Angels if it be not by himselfe, it is not a true knowledge, and can produce no true happines, for they are all but as messengers sent from him and is not himselfe, and till he comes him∣selfe in his owne substance that wee see him as he is in himselfe, a God above and beyond all gifts and graces which but as messengers were sent from him, wee see him not and then cannot know him as we ought. I am not the Christ, saith John, I am but sent before him, to prepare the way for him, and as be increaseth, I must decrease, I must be nothing, that he may be all. Therefore while wee see ordinances any thing, gifts, graces, manifestations or any thing below God himselfe to be any thing, so long we see not God to be all, and then know him not as God, wee may know him in all things after a manner, but it is an outward externall knowledge, and not a spirituall in∣ward knowledge, and therefore no true knowledge; yet this is the knowledge wee have of him in ordinances, even an eternall

litterall knowledge, and according to this so we walke, and not according to truth and perfection. But you will then say, Is it not the will of God, that we should walke in ordi∣nances. I answer that in way of permission, it may be for a time, yet not for ever; but the will of God goes further▪ for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that all that are his should bee as himselfe, for bee yee perfect, as he is perfect; perfection consists not in ordinances, nor in any created excellence, but in God onely, which is an uncreated glory; therefore be ye perfect, as he is perfect, for that is the will of your God, and ought to be the desire of all his, to be perfect, as he is perfect, to walke as he walks, and to know as he knowes, and in this we shall be like unto God, that wee may have fellowship with him, as the Apostle sayth, walke in the light, as he is in the light; and then you shall have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and the Sonne, and this is a fellowship above all ordinances, and above all revealed things; a man cannot have fellowship with God, and converse with him as God, till hee is seperated from all relation. It is said in Prov. 18. 1. that through desire a man hauing sepe∣rated himselfe, seeketh and entermidleth with

all wisdome. That is with God, a man cannot seek or intermeddle with the Creator till he is seperated from the creature. But you will say, are we not then to make use of the creature, nor any created thing? I answer, in a temporall way you may; but all that while, you will have but a temporall union with them, nor in them; there can be no true union with God in the creature, no not in any created glory whatsoever. For all is as grasse, and as grasse it withereth, because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it; and all the joy and comforts, that I have thought, I have found in them, is but as a blast before the Almighty God, the creature, nay, the excellencyes of creatures, or creature comforts were made only for the bo∣dy, and not for the soule, not as to finde com∣fort in them; no, nothing can be food to a soule, but the eternall invisible being of God; for invisible things must be fed from invi∣sible powers; and the soule is as invisible as God; for it is God: it is and must be that dependence which we have upon God, and this would fall if not fed by God and from God; therefore it is one with God. The Ri∣vers and streams, which is one with the Seas, would soon faile, if not fed from the Sea. So would the soule of man, if it were not conti∣nually▪

fed from its own natural principle from God, who is the sea and fountain of Soules; and now an Ordinance or any other thing but God cannot bring comfort to a soule: a man may take some delight in them, but it is but a fancy or some naturall or outward affection that he hath to them, and not for any spiritu∣all comfort he findeth in them: he may per∣haps count it spirituall, but the spirit cannot count so of it; the spirit cannot delight to be in any thing, but in its own element, which is an element above all created things, flesh and spirit cannot dwel together without interrup∣ting one of another: therefore to tie the spi∣rit to have communion with God in an Ordi∣nance, is to keep him in bondage: the Church which is below, is in bondage with her chil∣dren; but the Church which is above in the spirit is sure, which is the mother of us all; therefore to binde the spirit, to an Ordinance, or to any thing below it self, which is below God, is to keep him in bondage: Men may walk in Ordinances, or in Forms, or in the I∣mage of things. But all this while their com∣munion is but an Image, an outward form or Image to the communion of spirits, it is but a naturall communion which typifies a Church in the spirit. So that it is not our perfection

to walk in Ordinances; because by them God is vailed from us, and we see him not in his o∣pen manifest glory, and so are not changed into the likenesse of him, but remain still as stran∣gers and Pilgrims. Therefore let us with the Apostle, forget that which is behinde, and presse forward to that which is before, which is to see God in his open manifest glory, and not in the glory of an Ordinance, or any crea∣ted thing for they are but vailes which doe e∣clipse and hide the glory of God from us, that we see him not as we ought; whereby we might have communion with him: and there∣fore God doth rend that vaile, and cast that a∣way as moth eaten, as vain helplesse things; and now he shews himself with a new gar∣ment, with the robes of righteousnesse and glo∣ry, with salvation in the middest of them; with a full manifestation of all his attributes in one essentiall, invissible and eternall glory for his Saints: and he that will now see God, to have sweet fellowship and communion with him, must see him in all, in all this glo∣ry, without the help of any Ordinance or crea∣ted thing whatsoever; for that hath been and is still the cause of our ignorance of God, be∣cause we never look for him to come in this open glory. But we lye still expecting of

him to come in old apparell, and not in new; in an ordinance, and not without, and so de∣ceive our selves. That when the Bridegroom comes, like foolish Virgins are found unprepa∣red, with our lamps neither oyled nor lighted, but barren and fruitlesse; and so are left hope∣lesse and comfortlesse: And with this, I shall take my leave at this time, and shall with all commit you and the rest of our fellow mem∣bers in Christ, to the onely fellowship of the Father and the Son together in one eternall and invisible glory, in which fellowship I desire to own you, and to walk with you, and to heare from you, and so fare you well.

R. C.