write and speak from? They had no outward Scriptures before their own to be a text to write or speak from-was it not within them?-was it not the Word of God there, within in their hearts ?-from whence all their holy speeches and writings did flow. And were not those called the false prophets, who stealed the true prophets' words, and used their tongues, and said, "He saith," and yet the Lord had not spoken in nor unto them, nor was come in them nor had sent them? Jer. xxiii. and Ezekiel xiii.

And which of these two then is the best? To adhere to the plain text of Scripture, and wait that God may open it, and bring into the good it witnesseth to, and out of the evil it witnesseth against? or to follow those priests and take their uncertain meanings whereby the counsel of God, with words without the true knowledge is darkened, and people in the mean time spending both money, and pains and time, for that which is not bread but as the chaff is blown away with any wind of doctrine; and so the poor people are tossed up and down from one uncertainty to another, and so led away by their teachers, and caused by them to err and go astray from that which is both infallible and certainwhich is the gift of God in every ones heart, the light of Christ that lighteth every man, and grace of God that brings salvation which to all men hath appeared. This is the true text and certain matter from whence all holy conversation and holy words are to spring forth in men and women. To this all come, which shews you the thoughts of your hearts, that you may all walk with this light and grace, and it will make you wiser than your teachers, who have led you astray, and caused you to err from this one true Teacher; and in this holy light you will learn the true living knowledge of the Scriptures of truth.

Now lest some may object, as commonly they do against us, saying, ye deny all human learning, and would cast all loose, and would overthrow the ministers, and lay all waste and open to Satan, to take his

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will of them. To which I answer that such know not, but do belie and misrepresent us. We do not deny any true human natural learning in its place, and for its use and end. We own all true human learning ; but that part of human learning which is most commonly called human learning, is learning to read and write, and learning of tongues and languages; now all these are very good and serviceable in their places, for their uses and ends. But all these are natural and learned with the same natural spirit as a man learns other natural things which are taught and learned by men, as tradesmen of divers occupations; for which one man is more quick and sharp, naturally to take up and learn than many others, and yet but a natural man; so that a man may be a good handicraftsman, and excel in his trade or handycraft, and yet be no Christian at all, but a very loose profane man. So likewise a man may learn many tongues and languages, and may excel in that kind of learning beyond many others, and yet be no Christian at all, but also may excel in all wickedness. So that learning which may subsist in one and the same person with all manner of wickedness, is not that learning which makes a Christian, which is after Christ. For that learning which is after Christ unlearns men of evil, and brings them to cease from evil and to learn to do well; which learning cannot consist (in one and the same person at the same time) with any evil at all, but stands against the evil and cannot bear with it. Now this is that we are for, that human learning should keep its place, and be held to be such, and that no man may think he is any better Christian for it, simply as it is in itself, which he may have and be a Christian, and may want and be a Christian, and which he may have and be no Christian. Now to say that the learning, which a man may have or want, and may be or not be a Christian, can make a sufficient minister of the gospel-this we are against. But we say that learning which a wicked man cannot have, and a good man cannot want, that

is the learning that makes first a man a Christian, and then a minister. For he that is not a good and right Christian is not a good and right minister; though I do not say that all good Christians are also public ministers in that sense that commonly some are called ministers but without the learning of the Spirit a man cannot be a Christian, much less a minister. So we would have the human learning to be owned in its place, and the spiritual in its place; and that all deceivers may be convinced and converted who put away the spiritual, and set up the natural learning in its stead.

ABERDEEN PRISON.

P. L.

TO THE TENDER HEARTED PROFESSING PEOPLE IN THIS NATION WHEREVER IT MAY COME, A MOVING OF LOVE AND GOOD WILL UNTO YOU ALL

THERE is a sense of want upon the spirits of many, and a desire after that which is wanting, and a cry in the heart, 'When will it come? When shall it be possessed and enjoyed?' But how it shall be attained to they truly know not, and where the place is where it is to be found they know not, and in what to seek it and to wait for the obtaining of it they know not, and the sense of want remains, and there is an earnest wrestling, striving and seeking to obtain it. There is a knocking, asking and seeking in many things, but they obtain not what they seek; because they ask amiss they do not receive. And some have laboured so long until now they are sat down at ease, and are out of all hope, and take liberty with the world in all looseness and liberty. Others are not yet grown gross with the world outwardly, but are withered and dried at the root, and have lost the little zeal and tenderness they once had; but others retain some tenderness and some zeal, but are notwithstanding thereof at their wits' end, and weary of their own labouring in some measure, and now are at a stand in their minds and know not what to do, and still there remains a sense of their want, and a willingness in some measure to obtain what they want, but yet they have not found that wherein it is to be sought and found in; and many are very busily seeking, knocking and asking in that wherein they cannot find a supply of their want. For the sense of their want did not come from the hills nor from the mountains; the sense of their want did not come from that ground and nature which their striving, seeking and asking stands in. And if ever any of all these obtain what they have some sense of their want of, and

do desire to obtain, it must be sought and found in that wherein the sense of want stands and springs. Now consider what that is, and where that is from whence this sense of want springs. You may find your want to be within. It is within even in your hearts where your grief is, and your cries rise up to God. And there that is in your hearts that the sense is given by, and that the sense stands in: the faith is to stand in that also. There is in that some faith springing up, even in that wherein you have some sense of the evil of your own evil hearts, and a sense of the need you have of power, and wherein you have a desire after power and freedom from the evil, and an entrance into the good: in that you see a chief good to be pressed unto, and that there is much evil in the way that presseth you down, though your labour and travail hath been great and for some considerable time, and yet you are not able to shake off the evil that presseth you down, nor to enter into the good. Consider the cause, for the cause must be seen and removed. For this I testify, that the sense and sight of the evil that presseth you down, and the sight and sense and desire that is in you after the good, is from the Spirit of Christ in you, that hath been and is stirring in you. And this hath been your great hindrance and loss, man's hand, man's work, will and wisdom hath betrayed your minds, and hath drawn you out after another spirit than that wherein you have been opened in your hearts, to see and discern between good things and evil things. Man hath hurt you, and caused you to err and go astray from the Spirit of the Lord in you, which hath appeared in you, and hath smitten you and wounded you for the evil of your hearts, which it hath opened in you and convinced you of, and hath begotten in you desires after freedom and liberty from the evil. Now if there had not been a sight and sense that there is a chief good to be sought after and to be possessed, there had been no desire after it, neither had there been any sight of evil