was the Godhead life that was poured out unto death; so that the Godhead Spirit was put to death, and did die in the flesh of Christ when he was crucified. But this Godhead life which was put to death in the flesh of Christ, it quickened again where it was put to death, even in the same flesh where it was put to death. And in its quickening again, it raised the same flesh again, and so spiritualized the same flesh that suffered, and made it uncapable to suffer death any more.

For this I say, no Spirit or life that is put to death whatsoever, could possibly quicken again in the same body, but the life of God only, so that Christ must needs be God as well as man; for it was Christ that was put to death in the flesh, and the same life that was put to death, and did die, that which did die did quicken again, and so is called a quickening spirit.

Now observe, it cannot properly be called a quickening Spirit, if it had not been once dead; for if the Spirit and life of Christ did not die, nor was not dead then I say there was no need that this spirit and life should quicken again, for it was always quick and alive.

For the Spirit quickening doth imply, a sensible life is quickened out of an insensible life; as a child in the womb before it is quick it feeleth no pain, neither doth it stir in the womb, and the midwife doth not care to destroy it to save the woman's life, because the child was not quick it was an insensible life, no more capable of pain than there is in death, or a dead lump of earth; but when a child is quick in the womb, it is eapable of pain, though it hath not strength to express it to us that are strong, yet it is capable of pain because it is quickened into a sensible life, that is a living soul, a living spirit, and so may be called a quickened spirit of life out of that which was dead; yet by the appoint

ment of God in his creation, and the warmness of the womb, there is new life or Spirit doth quicken in the womb in its season, according to the appointment of God when he created all things, and placed a law of generation in them.

So likewise the Spirit or life of Christ was put to death in his own body of flesh as aforesaid; and in its season he himself had appointed before, namely, three days and three nights, this Spirit of Christ so put to death it quickened again in the same flesh a new and glorious, life which made that flesh that suffered glo

rious also.

And this is the true interpretation of Peter's words, and the faith of all true believers, that the spirit, life, and soul of Christ did die, and was put to death in the body of his own flesh, that was crucified on the cross by the Jews; and that the same Spirit that was put to death, it did quicken again out of death into a new and glorious life by his own power, therefore called a quickening spirit.

So that here is no ground at all for that vain conceit in people who do believe that spirits may be raised without bodies, or appear without bodies, but altogether to the contrary. And as for that saying to Peter,

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing.'

These words do seem to carry some show, as if the quickening Spirit of Christ, after he was risen from the dead, or in the time he did lie in the grave, as if his Spirit in that interim of time went into some local place where spirits were in prison without bodies, to preach unto them, who had been disobedient in the days of

Noah; this is the vain conceit of most people from those words of Peter, who saith, 'By which he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,' as if the spirits of the disobedient people in the days of Noah had been in prison in some local place in the earth without bodies, who had been departed in the days of Noah, in the destruction of the world by water.

This the imagination of reason in man doth imagine, that spirits may be shut up in prison without bodies, and that the quickening Spirit Christ might preach unto them without a body.

But the true light and revelation of faith doth know to the contrary, that no spirits can have any being at all without bodies, neither of God angels nor man, nor no other living creature who hath the breath of life in it.

But to give the interpretation of this Scripture, that the reader may understand, it is thus: the Spirit of Christ, that quickened from the dead to life again, I say, is the same spirit that preached to the spirits in prison, in the days of Noah, and the spirits of the disobedient world were in prison in their own bodies, in the days of Noah, as they were when Christ came upon earth, for then he opened the prison to them that were bound by preaching glad tidings of freedom to those that were bound, and liberty to those spirits that were in captivity.

Now, as I said before, this captivity is spiritual captivity, and to be bound and in prison, it is meant a spiritual imprisonment in the mind, and not a natural imprisonment of the body. And this I say, the very same Spirit of Christ that preached to the Jews when he was upon earth, did preach to the old world in the days of Noah, though in a twofold manner.

And as the spirits of men were in prison in their own ignorance, blindness and darkness, of understandings, in that they were led captives and prisoners by their wicked and unnatural lusts in the days of Noah; so were both Jews and Gentiles in the days of Christ when on earth, their spirits were led captive, and into the prison of unbelief and persecution of the Lord of life, in that their fathers persecuted the Lord's prophets and messengers he did send: so did these Jews persecute the Lord himself when he preached to their spirits that were in prison, and led captives by their wicked murdering wills into the prison of unbelief; for he did preach when on earth, that whosoever did believe in him should be saved. And as many as did truly believe in him, their spirits were brought out of that captivity of unbelief, and out of the prison of darkness in the mind, into a glorious liberty and light of life eternal And thus did the preaching of Christ Spirit deliver many spirits of men and women out of prison, in the days when he was upon earth.

So likewise this quickening Spirit of Christ, it preached unto the spirits in prison in the days of Noah. And why were their spirits in prison in the days of Noah! Because they were disobedient. And how may they be said to be disobedient? Because they did not believe that good man Noah, who was a preacher, of righteousness. And how did he preach righteousness unto that wicked people? In that he prepared the Ark, and being so many as a hundred years in building, all that while God is said to wait for their repentance, and that they might believe that God would destroy the world by water.

But instead of repentance and believing they, hardened their hearts, and mocked at Noah and the Ark; so that while the Ark was preparing, God waited for

the people's repentance; and all that while that Noah was building he preached to the people that the world would be drowned.

And the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of God which was put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit, by which he went and preached unto the spirits in prison in the days of Noah, it was the same Spirit that instructed Noah to build the Ark: so that the building of the Ark by Noah, he being a preacher of righteousness, in that he believed God, and built it as the Spirit of God had commanded and instructed him, as God did Moses, shewedh im the pattern of the Tabernacle in the Mount.

And inasmuch as Noah did obey the commandment of the Lord, according as the Spirit of the Lord did reveal unto him, Noah may be said to be a preacher of righteousness; and he doing all things by inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, which was not at that time made of flesh, but in the fulness of time became pure human flesh, and suffered the pains of death. And the same Spirit that suffered death, that very same Spirit that quickened, was that Spirit that preached to the spirits in prison in the days of Noah as aforesaid., And the making of the Ark by the inspiration of God's Spirit in the sight of the people, who were in prison in ignorance and darkness of mind, is called by the revelation of faith, A preaching to the spirits in prison:' so that the Spirit of God in Noah may be said to preach unto those spirits in prison, in the days of Noah and that there was but eight persons saved from the flood.

So that this place of scripture doth no way prove, that the Spirit of Christ did ever preach to spirits in prison without bodies; neither did Christ's spirit preach in the days of Noah without a body, for he always preached with a body himself, or else chose men that