Epistle 138

Friends,--Ye that are the prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ [Philem 1:9] in outward bonds, who witness him by whom the world was made [John 1:3], who is the King of saints [Rev 15:3], and who are his, and come under his dominion and government, ye are not your own [1 Cor 6:19]; but purchased with his blood Acts 20:28], which washes and makes you clean [1 Jn 1:7, Rev 1:5], and justifies [Rom 5:9], whose bodies are his temple [1 Cor 6:19].

Though he suffers you to be imprisoned, yet in his power your bodies are kept, and your spirits also; ye standing witnesses for your master, for your king, for your prophet, for your covenant of light [Isa 42:6], for your wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:24], (him by whom all things were made,) for the word and power, by which all things were made and upheld [Heb 1:3], against the powers of darkness, who are out of the light, out of the truth, who cannot bind, stop nor limit the unlimited power, which is over it, and comprehends it. They who are born of the word [1 Pet 1:23], and in the power which upholds all things, over that, (and the power of the evil one,) have victory, and sing over the false prophet.

For the devil was the deceiver [Rev 12:9], who abode not in the truth [John 8:44]; and there is the false prophet, who speaks of his own, and not from the Lord [Jer 23:16]; and there is the beast, that makes the war against the lamb and his saints [Rev 13:7, 17:14] who witness the testimony of Jesus, and the word of God. Therefore mind the word of God, ye children of the light, who are in the light, that comes from the word; mind the word of the Lord, which is as a hammer, and as a fire [Jer 23:29], and sharper than a two-edged sword [Heb 4:12].

And ye who are the Lord's, are not your own; but they who are in their own time, see not the time which is in the Father's hand; their time is always, and they do their own works [Psa 106:39], and not the works of God, which the son of God did [John 10:37f].

G. F.