TO _______ _______

O FRIEND!

That thou hadst the true sense of the drift of my heart in <430> writing and sending things to thee! -- which is and hath been this -- that thou mightest be acquainted with that of God in the heart, which quickens to him; and in the light of that, mightest try thy heart and ways, and so only justify in thyself what God justifies, and let all else go.

Shall the Lord appear mightily on the earth and Israel not know him? Shall the professors of this age understand no more his appearance in Spirit, than the Jews did his appearance in flesh? Shall they stumble at the very same stumbling stone? Yes, the same stumbling stone is laid, for that wisdom to stumble at, as in all generations; and there is no avoiding stumbling, but by coming out of that wisdom into babe-like simplicity, which gives entrance into pure, heavenly wisdom. And this I dare affirm as in God's presence and in his pure fear, having received the sense thereof from him -- that there is none that opposeth this his present appearance (by the greatest knowledge and wisdom of their comprehensions from the letter), but would also have opposed and denied his appearance in that body of flesh, had they lived in that day. For the wisdom which they gathered from the letter, did not reveal Christ in that day, but the Father; and the same reveals him in this day.

Oh that thou couldst feel the pure revelation from the Father to thy heart! Oh wait for a new heart, a new ear, a new eye! even to feel the pure in thee, and thy mind changed by the pure, that all things may become new to thee; the Scriptures new (they are so indeed when God opens them), duties new, ordinances new, graces new, experiences new; a new church of the Spirit's building, wherein he and thy soul may dwell together; and thou mayest be able to say in the presence of the Lord, this is a city of God's own building, the foundation whereof was laid with sapphires, whose walls are salvation, and its gates praise.

I. P.

12th of Third Month, 1669.