Epistle 306

Friends, Do not grow barren [2 Pet 1:8?], but in the root abiding [Rom 11:17], ye will spring upward, and bring forth much fruit in this life, and in the life to come inherit life eternal; and so your lives being hid with Christ in God [Col 3:3], you will be made conformable to his image [Rom 8:29], and know the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship with him in his sufferings [Phil 3:10], and the fellowship <56> with him in his death, that you may have fellowship with him in his resurrection and life; and as you have borne the image of the earthly, so also you may bear the image of the heavenly [1 Cor 15:49].

And as your vessels have been full of wrath and dishonour, so your vessels may be full of his mercies [Rom 9:21-23], and praises to God; and as in your old earth hath dwelt unrighteousness, so you may see and know the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [2 Pet 3:13]. There is a belief that God is not the author of, for such have not the witness in themselves [1 Jn 5:10] of what they do believe; and a belief may be of God and Christ, and of the scriptures, and yet such may be in death, for they are not in Christ the light, and so are not children of the light [John 12:36]; and there is a faith, which Christ is not the author of [Heb 12:2], and that faith giveth not the victory [1 Jn 5:4], nor purifieth the heart [Acts 15:9], neither do they in it please God [Heb 11:6], nor have they access to God [Rom 5:2], and that is the dead faith which hath no works [Jas 2:17].

And there is a hope that doth not purify, and that hope is that which is not of Christ, who saves, and purifieth, as he is pure [1 Jn 3:3]; but that hope is the hope of the hypocrites [Job 8:13, 27:8]. And there is a way that may be defiled, where all the wolves, dogs, and beasts, and the unclean passeth [Isa 35:8], and hath many turning ways in it, and many crooked, and rough, and mountainous ways [Isa 40:4] in it; and there is the broad way that leadeth to destruction; and these are not the way of Christ, that leadeth to life, which is the narrow and strait way [Mat 7:13f].

And there are many names in the world by which there is no salvation; the beast hath many names [Rev 17:3], which all the world wondereth after Rev 13:3], and receive the beast's mark [Rev 14:9, etc], that he marketh them with, his beastly spirit and power which he hath from the dragon [Rev 13:2]; but there is but one name under the whole heaven by which people shall be saved, and that is the name of Jesus [Acts 4:12]; and they gathering in his name [Mat 18:20], by whom the world was made [John 1:3], and receiving their Father, the Lord God Almighty's name and mark in their foreheads [Rev 14:1], Christ is in the midst of them [Mat 18:20], and they will not receive the beast's mark, nor will not be marked by him.

And there are many religions in the world, all which are spotted and defiled with the world's spirit [1 Cor 2:12], with which they do destroy one another; but there is but one pure religion from above, that is undefiled in the sight of God, and that keeps from the spots of the world, and leads to visit the widow and fatherless in their distress [James 1:27]; and they that receive this pure religion from God, (who is above,) it is by God's spirit, the fruits of which is love [Gal 5:22]; and this pure undefiled religion from God hath the glory in all the hearts of them that do receive it, who is the author of it; and it is above all those religions that are below, that are made by men's earthly, sensual, and devilish wisdom [Jas 3:15], who with it compel people to conform to them, and such are not gentle, pure, nor peaceable, as the wisdom which is from above is [Jas 3:17].

And there is but one true worship, which the devil is out of, and his unclean spirit, and he cannot get into <57> it; which worship is in the spirit and in the truth [John 4:24], which Christ the heavenly man [1 Cor 15:47] hath set up above sixteen hundred years since. And every one that cometh into the spirit, and into the truth, are the true worshippers of the God of truth, who is a spirit; and all that are not in the spirit and truth, are in the beast's worship, (out of the spirit of God,) and in his wrath under the dragon's power [Rev 13:4].

And there are many instructers that cause people to err [Prov 19:27]; but there is but one spirit of truth, which leadeth into all truth [John 16:13]; and this is the one spirit that led the prophets and apostles to give forth the scriptures; and all the instructers that are out of it, cause people to err from the spirit [Isa 29:24?] that the prophets and apostles were in, and so are in confusion. And there is one leader, Christ Jesus, that God hath given; and all that are not led by him, are led into the ditch [Mat 15:14], the corrupting place, and they tell them, there is no perfection here.

And all the learned in Babel's confused tongues [Gen 11:7,9; Isa 50:4], who have the letter of the scriptures, yet follow their own spirits, (see not,) and the divination of their own brains [Jer 14:14], and use their tongues [Jer 23:31], such buildeth up Babylon again, who are not in the spirit the prophets and apostles were in, and know not the tongue of the learned, nor the scriptures of Christ, and the prophets, and the apostles; but they are as a sealed up book to them; and therefore they are raging and contending about the meanings of them, teaching their people, by their example, to do the same.

G. F.