foreskin of their hearts, and be no more ftiff-necked; and that they might be inwardly washed in heart from their wickedness, and their vain thoughts might no longer lodge within them. So that the inward circumcifion and the inward baptifm of the foul and conscience (from whence is the answer of a good confcience), was before either the outward circumcifion or outward baptifm, and is the fubftance, whereof the other were but figures. The Spirit was not only promised in the time of the gofpel, but was alfo promised in the time of the law (though more abundantly promised to be poured forth in the gospel days), Prov. i. 23. Now what doth it do when poured forth? Doth it not enlighten, quicken, lead, touch, wash, or fanctify, purge out the old leaven, and leaven with the new leaven of the kingdom? Here is true understanding and true experience. Oh! that ye might come to witness and partake of it! Do ye defire to obey? Oh! that ye were taught of God to know Chrift, as the Father reveals him inwardly, and to deny and put off all that is contrary unto him, that ye may be baptized into him, and be found in him, filled and cloathed with his righteous Spirit, life, and nature; in which righteous Spirit, life, and nature, the true circumcifion and the true baptism is witnessed.

He faith, The promife of the Spirit, John calls the baptifm of the Spirit, Matt. iii. II.

Reply, Though the Spirit, when poured out according to the promise of the Father, did baptize feveral ways; yet that is not it which John there calls the baptifm of the Spirit; but the baptifm of the Spirit is the inward purging away of fin and filth, by the Spirit and its fire, or by the Spirit of judgment and burning; which thofe that were baptized by John were afterwards to expect and wait for, that with his fan their floor might be purged, their chaff burnt up, and the wheat gathered into the garner,

ver. 12.

He faith again, Take notice, that the being baptized with the Spirit, or having the Spirit, does not excufe us of our being baptized in water, but rather fits us for it.

Reply, If baptifm with water were a command of Chrift, being baptized with the Spirit, or having the Spirit, would not excufe from it. But if baptizing with the Spirit be the gofpel-baptifm, and that which was figured out or reprefented by John's baptifm, then we are not to turn back from the fubftance to the figure, or from Chrift's command to his difciples, to God's command by John to his difciples.

He quotes A&ts viii. 29. compared with ver. 38, 39. Where (faith he) we may fee, that the Spirit was in the work of the adminiftration of waterbaptifm, as it leads men to the truth of the gospel, and therefore it is that the apoftle faith, that by one Spirit we are baptized into one body, 1 Cor.

xii. 13.

Reply, God, from whom the law was, and the prophets, and John's preaching and baptism, did work in them all by his Spirit; and John's miM m m m 2

niftration

nistration being the higheft, God might please to work moft therein. But that this is Chrift's baptifm, commanded by him in the gofpel, or the water thereof the water wherewith Chrift wafheth the foul, or the water of regeneration whereby God regenerates, that we cannot but deny, being taught of God, and having experience of the contrary. Yea it is manifeftly but a fhadow of Chrift's baptifm, and not the baptifm itself; not the baptifm of his Spirit and fire, wherewith alone the foul can be inwardly purged, Matt. iii. 11. compared with Ifa. iv. 4.

But that water-baptifm leads men into the truth of the gofpel, is his great mistake. He had faid but a few lines before, that it is the office and work of the Spirit of God to lead us into all truths of the gofpel; let him stick to that, and wait to experience that, and not attribute that to a dead thing, which belongs to the living Spirit.

And whereas he interpreteth that fcripture, 1 Cor. xii. 13. of outward visible baptifm with outward water, that is a very manifest misapprehenfon. (I wish he did not fo mifunderftand and mifinterpret fcriptures, for want of the right key which opens them). For all that are baptized with outward water (whether Jews or Gentiles, bond or free), are not baptized into one body; but all that are inwardly baptized by the one Spirit, are baptized into the one body, whereof Chrift is head, and they all drink into one Spirit; in which Spirit they all have life to act in the body, and have a living fenfe of their place and fervice in the body, which they who only are baptized with water have not.

Thus far in way of Reply to his Answers to thofe Queries, which did flow from me, as life and the love of God fprang up in me, without any premeditation at all; which retain their truth, evidence and ftrength, notwithstanding all that he hath faid to invalidate or weaken them. Now follow his Queries returned to confideration, which it is on my heart to return an Answer to, in the nakednefs and plainnefs of truth, as the Lord hath pleafed to open and give me the knowledge and experience of the things queried of.

Query 1. Whether the baptifm of the Spirit be not a promife, and the work of God to give it to his creatures, and the baptifm of afflictions an imputation of wicked men; and but one baptifm commanded by Christ as a duty to fubmit unto, if not water-baptifm, what is it then?

Anfw. The baptifm Chrift commands his difciples to fubmit to, is his own baptifm, the baptifm of his Spirit. The true difciples of Chrift are inward Jews and inward Chriftians, and they are to fubmit to the inward circumcifion and baptifm of Chrift their Lord. They are to be washed inwardly with the water of that fountain, which God opens to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerufalem for fin and for uncleanness, Zech. xiii. 1. Doth God fet this open for the inward and spiritual Jews or Christians?

Christians? And is it not their duty to be washed or baptized inwardly with it? They are to be baptized with the Holy Ghoft and with fire, Matt. iii. 11. Every difciple ought to wait for, receive, and experience this baptifm. They are to be washed with the Spirit of judgment and burning, and to have their corrupt blood purged away thereby, Ifa. iv. 4. They are inwardly to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, that they may inwardly rife up in the newness of the life, and of that living name, Matt. xxviii. 19. They are to be baptized into the one body, which is the spiritual body; and by fpiritual baptifm is the foul baptized into it (and not by that which is carnal), and fo to come to Mount Sion, and the heavenly Jerufalem, and enter into it; which the uncircumcifed and unclean cannot enter into, but they alone that know the truth as it is in Jefus, and keep it, Heb. xii. 22. Ifa. lii. 1. and chap. xxvi. 2.

Query 2. If but one baptifm commanded, and men cannot baptize one another with the Spirit, and it is finful to afflict one another, what baptifm is this one baptifm?

Anfw. God made his apostles (and makes those whom he makes minifters in the gospel) able minifters of the New-Teftament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. And if the Lord make them able ministers in his Spirit, what should hinder them from miniftering the fpiritual baptifm? The fame Spirit that teacheth through them, is it not able to baptize thro' them? Who is fufficient for these things, faith the apostle, 2 Cor. ii. 16.? Were they fufficient to teach, but as God taught through them? And are they not fufficient to baptize, as God baptizeth through them? How often have we found our fouls taught and baptized by the water of life flowing from the fpring of life through the holy ministry, which God hath merci fully raised up, and maketh use of, in these our days?

Query 3. Whether it be not the work of God on the inner man, that brings the outward man to be baptized, and obey the commands of God?

Anfw. It was the work of God on the inner man, when John's baptifm was commanded by God, to bring men to John's baptifm; and it is the work of God's Spirit in the heart, which brings men to difcern and fubject to Chrift's baptism; for the baptifm of Chrift is not difcerned by man's wifdom, or by the reasoning mind, but by the sense of life in the heart..

Query 4. Whether men can be truly fanctified by faith and the Spirit, that are difobedient to God, and live fo?

Anfw. No, they cannot. But true obedience requires true light and true underftanding; for all are not obedient who judge themselves fo, but those whom God judgeth fo. The inward Jew is obedient to the inward baptifm, which Chrift hath appointed, and dareth not fet up John's outward in its place.

Query 5. Whether the Spirit of God doth not diftinguish between Sprinkling of the Spirit and baptism.

Anfw.

Anfw. They are both figurative expreffions; but they tend to, and end in, one and the fame thing in substance, which is inward cleaning. Sprinkling clean water upon the foul doth cleanfe it, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. And dipping into, or being overwhelmed with, the water of life, in the pourings out of the Spirit upon the foul, doth cleanse alfo. For there is a river, the ftreams whereof do not only refresh, but also cleanfe and carry away fin and filth from the foul, as with a flood.

I pray confider that place, Ifa. xliv. 3, 4, 5. When God, from the fountain of life, pours out water and floods upon him that is a-thirst, do not these floods and water wash him and nourish him alfo? Do not they wash away that which hinders his fpringing up and growth in the truth? And is not he hereby baptized into the name of the Lord? God is the God of Jacob, the Holy One of Ifrael. And doth not one that is washed, feeling that carried away by the floods and overflowings of the Spirit, inwardly feel, and presently fay in his heart, I am the Lord's? And another furname bimfelf by the name of Ifrael? Now I am one of the feed of Jacob indeed, and of God's Ifrael, and that name belongs to me. I am inwardly washed from my former wicked and deceitful heart; that is gone, and a new heart and spirit of God's creating and forming is witneffed by me, and God's Spirit teftifies in me, and to me, That I am an Ifraelite indeed, in whom is no guile.

Query 6. Whether the circumcifing knife be not the word of God, and the foul obeying of it be not a fign the knife bath entered, and taken place on the foul of man?

Anfw. It is true; the word of God, the quick, powerful, piercing word of life, the word which lives and abides for ever, and is a commandment of life in the heart, (Deut. xxx. 11, to 15. which is the commandment, law, or word of the new covenant, chap. xxix. 1. which is the word of faith, which the apostles preached, Rom. x. 8.) this word of God is the circumcifing knife, and the foul obeying of it cannot but be circumcifed by it.

But I am jealous with a godly jealoufy, left he mistake and call fomewhat else the word, and reckon his obedience to what he apprehends from the letter, to be obedience to the word; and if fo he greatly deceives his own foul. And I have good reason thus to be jealous concerning him, because I find him, in his answer to my first query, terming water-baptism the Law of the Spirit of life in Chrift; which cannot but be strange language to all that know the nature, virtue, life, and power of the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus.

Query 7. Whether baptifm doth not lead men into Chrift, as obedience to the mind of God in Noah's time led him into the ark, that we may be faved by Chrift, as Noah was by the ark?

Anfw. It is the Father, by his drawings, that leads men to Chrift, and Chrift by his Spirit baptiseth them into imfelf. He conforms thofe to

himfelf

himself that come to him, both in his death and refurrection, by the Spirit and power of the Father.

Now it is this baptism, or the inward washing, which removeth that which deftroys; and the foul that is fubject to the ministration of Chrift's Spirit, and gives up to be washed by him, is wafhed and made clean, and comes into the number of the faved; for feeling the power which faves, and experiencing the virtue and operation of it, he muft needs be faved thereby.

Nor was it obedience in Noah's time which led him into the ark, but God's voice or special command to him, which he received in the faith (By faith be prepared the ark, Heb. xi. 7.), which faith produced obedience; fo that it is faith in the mighty power of God which faves; which power works mightily in them that truly believe, mightily circumcifing, mightily baptizing, mightily burying with Chrift, burying the foul into his death, and railing it up again in the newnefs of his life. So that here is a real inward work of faith, a real inward appearing and working of the power, and a real obedience to, and a going along with the power in its work, in the holy fear and trembling; and fo the foul works out its falvation, by the power which works in it both to will and to do according to God's good pleas Jure, Phil. ii. 12, 13. Eph. i. 19, 20.

Query 8. Whether Chrift was not buried in the water-baptifm? We then being baptized, are we not buried with Chrift by baptifm?

Anfw. Chrift was circumcifed with Mofes's circumcifion, and was alfo baptized with John's baptifm, which was a dipping into, or burying in, the water; yet notwithstanding this, he hath his own fpiritual circumcifion and fpiritual baptifm, to be administered in the gospel-difpenfation unto his. And as all Mofes's difciples were to be circumcifed with his circumcifion, and all John's difciples to be baptized with his baptifm unto repentance, fo all Chrift's difciples are to be inwardly circumcifed and baptized with his inward circumcifion and baptism, which is the substance of both the other figures.

Now thofe only that are thus circumcifed, are circumcifed by Chrift, and those only that are thus baptized, are buried with him by baptifm into his death; which must be, before they can truly know a rifing with him in his life. May not a man or woman eafily, from an apprehenfion in their understanding, go into the outward water, and rife up again out of the water,

and

yet not know what it is to die with Chrift, or rife with Chrift? But he that knoweth the inward baptifm, witneffeth and experienceth these things, being made a partaker with Chrift, both in his death and refurrection.

Query 9. Whether obedience to the law of God doth not give a foul a good confcience in the fight of God, and disobedience make the confcience guilty? And whether ever the foul can be clear of fin, while living in disobedience to the law of God?

Anfw.