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ing a city which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God; this heavenly Jerusalem is God's covenant, typified by Sarah, and God's elect in it, called, "Sought out, a city not forsaken." This city has three gates, and no more; and these three being opened towards all the four points make twelve. There is no gate but the middle person, the Mediator; and in this city there are three things to be coveted and to be enjoyed; First, the tree of life, a life of grace and of glory. Secondly, righteousness; the holy city, the Lamb's wife was clothed in white linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Thirdly, liberty; the heavenly Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all; we are children, not of the bond-woman, but of the free.

Now for the gates: the first gate leads to life, "Strait is the gate that leads to life," saith the Lord; and he is the life. Secondly, "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter;" he is made of God unto us, righteousness. Thirdly, liberty or freedom; "Receive the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "I am the truth." Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in," Isaiah xxvi. 2. "Go through, go through the gates; cast up, cast up the high-way, lift up a standard for the people." "Thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise." The self

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condemned soul that passes by faith through these gates, from death to life, praises God; he enters this gate with thanksgiving, and enters this court with praise; and the soul that knows he is under the sentence of the law, when he passes from the curse to the blessing, from condemnation to justification, he calls an imputed righteousness a garment of praise, when a spirit of heaviness or bondage is put off; and he that receives the truth, in the love of it, feels his fears cast out and glorious liberty brought in; this is the completing and crowning work; "This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise." At all these gates Wisdom cries; at the gate of life, she says, "Strive to enter in at the strait [the most difficult] gate;" at the gate of righteousness, she says, "Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates;" at the gate of truth, she says, "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation may enter in." "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city;" not the commands of the law, for if these workers be heirs, faith is made void, and the promises made of none effect. The first command is faith; this is God's will and command, that we believe on his Son; and he that believes hath Christ the tree of life in him, for he dwells in the heart by faith. Justification is unto life, and there is life at the entrance of this gate. Truth is the word of life, the word

that stands for ever, and that will be settled in heaven; "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life." This is God's mystery among the Gentiles, which is, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Thus we carry the tree of life, the white robes of an imputed righteousness, and the liberty of the gospel, which is charity, out of the world with us.

Farewell.

LETTER XLII.

To Mrs. M.

W. H. S. S.

I

MY DEAR FRIEND,

HAVE lately had a violent cough and cold, and strove hard to break through it for a fortnight, but all in vain, for I was at last obliged to lay by ten days, and I am now purely, blessed be God for it. The outward man decays, as Paul says, but the inward man, the hidden man of the heart decays not; some one feature, trait, or member of him is still left, felt, and perceived; for if faith lay dormant, if patience is tired out, if meekness is dried up, and hardness of heart follows; if love is waxed

cold, and humility is fled, yet hope remains; and if this should appear to give way, and darkness to our view seem to succeed, yet if we get into company with foolish virgins, in their glass we shine bright and glorious. And this heavenly ray is the eye of the new man, for the new man is renewed in knowledge; and this renewing makes the path shine more and more unto perfect day. O! Girl, every member of this new man is worth more than a million worlds. Christ knows his own image, and every appearance of it; "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and every grace is a good thing toward the Lord God of Israel: and though at times all joy is darkened and all peace and comfort fled, so that bitterness and misery, Satan and corruption, come in and rise up like a flood, yet there is something left even then, and that is life; for the appetite is keen, the soul hungers and thirsts after the bread and water of life, and after the enjoyment of the living God; and longs after the word of life, and after the means of grace. And although lusts and corruptions, pleasures and vanities, and the felicity of careless worldlings, are by Satan extolled, magnified, and set before us even in all their glittering and gaudy shew, so as to make us envious at the foolish, and at the prosperity of the wicked, yet even this is not preferred before the bitter cup of affliction; the soul says then with pious Job, "The things that my soul refused to touch, are as my sorrowful meat," Job vi, 7;

for although this was all that was set before him, yet it was not the bread of life which strengthens inan's heart, and feeds the new man; but it was meat of sorrows to Job, or sorrowful meat, though not such to the fool, for he feeds upon foolishness. Two things you see remain even in the worst of times, knowledge of sinful self, and divine life, which makes us long for spiritual provision; and, "This," says David, "is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me." Furthermore, when all evidences seem to be obscured, weak, and ready to die, yet one is sure to escape the common rout when all the seed royal seem to be hid, and that is love to the brethren; and we know that we are passed from death unto life because of this; and although at times the devil lays hard even at this, and fills us with jealousy at them, and sets us to envy them, yet even then this evidence is not destroyed; for as soon as ever we see they are sunk down into the pit, we labour with all our might to pull them out, strengthen them, and set them upon their legs again; so we do not aim at their ruin, only to keep them from running too fast, that they may not get before us, which at most is Jacob-like, holding them by the heel. There is a blessing on them whom the Lord hath made rulers over his household, to give them a portion of meat in due season; and I am fully persuaded that this basket of fragments came from the Lord, and that some of the crumbs will suit Mary, even if

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